prerogative of a Spanish monarch assumed the florid colouring of eastern adulation. "God," he said, "had placed Philip at the head of a government not only monarchical but more despotic than any other Christian kingdom; even the right of remonstrance not belong ing to his subjects without his permission. The Cardinal-archbishop of Toledo," he added, "had but one guardian angel to direct him, but to every king two tutelary angels were assigned, one for their private conduct, and one more able for the government of their states." By the illumination derived from this guardian spirit, he inferred, "that any King, though of the most moderate capacity, must be more capable of governing than the ablest minister.”

Portocarrero held the same language respecting the royal prerogative. May we not ascribe to these degrading principles, proclaimed by these base men and traitors to their nation, the calamitous fate of Philip's descendants, and the present abject state of the Spanish people!

The account which Mr. Coxe gives of the young monarch at this period is deserving of attention:

In the midst of these embarrassments the temper and constitution of Philip began to change, and he sunk under the weight of diffi culties too great for the strength of an ordinary capacity at so early an age. He, who at his first arrival in Spain had been lauded for his industry, capacity, and intelligence, now fell into the extreme of inattention and indolence. He no longer observed regular and early hours, but indulged himself in midnight suppers, and on the ensuing days kept the members of the council in waiting whole hours for his appearance, at a time when the most urgent business was depending. It was justly said of him, "He goes to council because he must go; and in coming out, forgets what has passed there; he keeps letters of Business whole days unopened, and never speaks of them." The example of the monarch produced a similar effect on his counsellors; and a grandee who had presented a memorial in succession to the King, the leading ministers, and the French embassador, said, with as much wit as justice, "What a government is ours! a King who speaks not; a Cardinal who listens not; a President of Castile who can not; and a French embassador who will not,”

From this habitual indolence, no means could be found of sufficient potency to rouse him. Even the remonstrances of his grandfather availed only while they were yet fresh in his memory.

Although Philip had not long been seated on the throne be fore, he married, yet that event may be considered as forming an epoch in his reign, since it introduced on the scene those personages who had a paramount influence over its subsequent proceedings. The French King had fixed on a Princess of Savoy to be the new Queen, but had at the same time discovered extreme anxiety lest this measure should disturb the ascendancy in the

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Spanish councils which he had taken such pains to establish, and which he was above all things desirous of maintaining. Hence it was that the Princess Orsini, who was devoted to the court of France, was appointed to attend the Queen on her journey; and that the latter had no sooner entered the dominions of her future husband, than her Piedmontese attendants were dismissed without a single exception. Orders were also given that no Piedmontese should on any account approach her person; and that she was only to give audience to ambassadors in the presence of the Princess Orsini. These precautions seem to have been for the most part unnecessary, because she discovered no inclination, until she received grievous provocations, to thwart her grandfather-in-law, but shewed herself on all occasions obsequious to his wishes. Her absolute ascendancy over her husband was soon manifest: but that circumstance caused no interruption to Louis's favourite object of governing his grandson's kingdom. The author thus briefly describes the young Queen at the time of her arrival in Spain.

Maria Louisa had scarcely entered her fourteenth year, and appeared still more youthful from the smallness of her stature; but her spirit and understanding partook of the early maturity of her native climate, and to exquisite beauty of person and countenance she united the most captivating manners and graceful deportment.'

In order to guard against her decided influence over the easy and indolent young King, it became a matter of anxious deliberation to determine who should be her Camerara-mayor, or superintendant of her household; and the Princess Orsini, who had attended her on her journey, was chosen: than whom, for all purposes, no person better adapted could be found. Mr. Coxe thus describes that high office, and the lady who had been appointed to fill it :

The Camerara-mayor enjoyed a constant and intimate access to the royal presence, and was to be a species of guardian to her youthful mistress. From these circumstances the Cameraras-mayores in former times had not unfrequently governed both the court and nation.

To fill this delicate post at the present period, many rare and even contradictory requisites were to unite. It was necessary to chuse a lady of the highest rank, and character, to give dignity to the office; yet it was equally necessary that with a predominant infiuence over the Queen, she should submit to be guided by the French minister. She could not be a Spaniard, because Portocarrero and Arias were jealous lest a native should labour for the advancement of her own family and friends; and because the French monarch was no less apprehensive that a native would not be sufficiently obedient to his controul. She could not, however, be sent directly from the French court; for besides the want of an acquaintance with the lan

guage,

guage, customs, and etiquette, a person so circumstanced would infallibly excite the jealousy of the nation. Still stronger though different objections occurred against making the choice at the court of Turin. By a singular coincidence of circumstances, all these requisites appeared to centre in the Princess Orsini, who from this period became one of the most prominent figures in the history of Spain during the war of the succession.

Anne Marie of the illustrious family of La Tremouille, was daughter of Louis Duke of Noirmoutier, whose military services during the minority of Louis the Fourteenth had been rewarded with the rank of a Duke and Peer. She espoused at an early age, Adrian Blaise de Taleyrand Prince of Chalais. Her husband being engaged in the celebrated duel with the family of La Fret, in which one of the parties was killed, was driven into exile. Having taken refuge in Spain he was followed by his young wife, who had thus an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Spanish language and manners. They afterwards removed into Italy, and while he found an asylum in the Venetian territories, she repaired to Rome to solicit the protection of the French Cardinals Bouillon and D'Estrees. Her charms are said to have made an impression on her two protectors, as well as on Cardinal Portocarrerò, then Spanish minister at Rome; and her husband dying soon afterwards, she remained with no other resource than their bounty. By the recommendation of the two French cardinals and the approbation of the French court, a marriage was negotiated between her and Flavio D'Orsini, Duke of Bracciano and grandce of Spain, who was consequently recompensed with the French order of the Holy Ghost, an honour rarely bestowed on foreigners, however illustrious.

This connection produced the usual effects of interested and illassorted matches; but the Duchess shone in all the pride of rank and affluence, and supplied the want of matrimonial felicity, by uniting in her society the most distinguished characters at Rome; and by frequent visits to her native country. With such opportunities for improvement, her talents, manners, and understanding acquired the highest polish, and she soon figured as one of the brightest ornaments at Rome and Versailles.

In one of her visits to Versailles, which was lengthened to the space of five years, she improved a former acquaintance which she had formed with Madame de Maintenon, into the strictest intimacy; and became the admiration of the King and court. Her husband dying in 1698, she assumed his family name of Orsini, to gratify the nephew of Pope Innocent the Twelfth, who having purchased the duchy of

*The exact age of this extraordinary woman is not known. But from the period of her father's marriage, and a comparison of the births of her two brothers in 1642 and 1652, and her own marriage in 1659, we are inclined to think she was about the age of 53 when she was appointed camerara-mayor. Duclos is evidently mistaken in making her above 80 at the time of her death. Duclos, Memoires Secrets, t. i. p. 83.-P. Anselme, Histoire Genealogique de France, &c. t. 4. p. 178.-Moreri.'

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Bracciano, was desirous to appropriate the title. Ambitious to figure in a still higher sphere than in the court of Rome, the faintest gleam of advancement could not escape her vigilant attention; and the expected marriage between Philip and a Piedmontese princess, presented an opportunity of which she adroitly availed herself.'

This extraordinary female had excited attention in other situations: but the reign of Philip is the scene in which she appears with all her lustre. In the assemblage of august and elevated characters, consisting of monarchs and princes, statesmen and warriors, ministers and negotiators, grandees and courtiers, which these volumes present to our view, even in this imposing group, the Princess appears a prominent figure, and attracts no small share of our notice by her singular adventures, her capacity for business, the part which she acts, the storms which she weathers, and her interesting and winning qualities, as well as by her ultimate reverse of fate. She is the heroine of this portion of Spanish history; and the highly-coloured portrait given of her by St. Simon is by no means over-charged. Our readers perhaps have not yet recognized in her the celebrated Madame des Ursins, a name which occurs so frequently in the French histories and memoirs of this æra. For the lively and humorous accounts which she gives of some preposterous instances of Spanish etiquette, we must refer our readers to the pages of Mr. Coxe, and to the French Memoirs of Noailles. During a short period, few females, who have not swayed sceptres, have acted a more important political part than this Camerara-mayor: to whose farther fortunes we must attend in a subsequent article.

[To be continued.]

ART. VII. On National Education, by George Ensor, Esq. Author of National Government, Independent Man, and Prin ciples of Morality. 8vo, PP. 338. 98. Boards. Longman and Co. 1811.

E are sometimes inclined to hope, as we grow older, that our disposition to extract only the good from each of the contending parties around us, whether in art or science, rather increases than diminishes: but, if in this fancy "we lay a flattering unction to our souls," and if we are still blinded, an too many occasions, to the partial merits of those whom we generally disapprove, we feel well assured that such is not the case in the present instance. To deny that Mr. Ensor possesses very considerable learning; - ample acquaintance, we mean, with the thoughts of antient authors, if not a critical knowlege of their languages; or to deny that he often thinks powerfully and practically himself; would

be an indication of prejudice which we should be very sorry to exhibit: but at the same time to contend that Mr. Ensor's learning is in many parts of this volume needlessly introduced, and to maintain that his freedom of inquiry often degenerates into querulous scepticism, and into unqualified abuse of his adversaries, these attempts, we conceive, are demanded from us by truth and justice. We shall calmly and briefly report on the various contents of his present work.

May we not, ere we begin, lay it down as a rule, by which we ought to judge of the wisdom and good intentions of reformers, that they should proceed as gently as the case can admit; that they should make allowance for existing prejudices; and that they should endeavour, at first, rather to lop and prune the unhealthy branches, than to tear up the whole tree by the roots? If this rule be admitted, and we apply it to Mr. Ensor's mode of reforming, we fear that he will not be acquitted of precipitancy and want of judgment, even though no heavier charge should be brought against him*. We may mention, for instance, (and it is an instance most favourable to the author,) p. 76., the manner in which he speaks of the violation of the statute of celibacy by the Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin. The whole attack, for fifty pages, on the studies pursued at that place, and at Oxford and Cambridge, is equally violent and injudicious. Surely Mr. E. cannot be well acquainted with the literary discipline of those Universities, or he would not represent it as wholly unwise and mischievous. Some faults, nay many, are confessedly observable in our academical systems of education: but to condemn the entire institutions, indiscriminately, is to talk at random; and if the talker has had an opportunity of knowing better, it is to be worse than inconsiderate. Besides, for the sake of argument, let us suppose that the management of these endowed establishments of learning is completely erroneous,-what chance is there of practical good being done, of salutary change being accelerated, by a condemnation, certainly as warm as it may be just, of all the regulations, and of all who maintain them, or whom they maintain ? It is woeful ignorance or perverse defiance of the general disposition of mankind, to attempt the correction of their folly by its grossest exposure; or to imagine that they may be made good by telling them that they are good for nothing. At all events, such wholesale censurers should be most scrupulously accurate in detailing the grounds of their advice; or all that is truly correct in that advice will be rejected,

See also the account, in our last Number, of Mr. Ensor's National Government, of which the present work is a continuation.

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