on which were wrought devices infinuating that his design was to re-establish liberty, juftice, and peace.

In this manner he proceeded directly to the Capitol, where, he mounted the roftrum, and, with more boldness and energy than ever, expatiated on the miferies the Romans were reduced to; at the fame time telling them, without hesitation, that ⚫ the happy hour of their deliverance was at length come, and that he was come to be their deliverer, regardless of the dangers he was expofed to for the fervice of the holy father and the people's fafety.' After which, he ordered the laws of what he called, the good establishment, to be read; affured ⚫ that the Romans would resolve to observe these laws, he en⚫gaged in a fhort time to re-establish them in their ancient grandeur.

We must refer fuch of our readers, as are defirous of knowing what the laws of the good establishment were, to the work itself; and content ourselves with obferving, only, that they promised plenty and fecurity, which were greatly wanted, and the humiliation of the nobility, who were deemed common oppreffors. Such laws could not fail of being agreeable to a people, who found in them these double advantages; wherefore, enraptured with the pleafing ideas of a liberty they were at prefent ftrangers to, and the hope of gain, they came moft zealously into the fanaticifm of Rienzi. < They refumed the pretended authority of the Romans; they declared him fovereign of Rome, and granted him the power of life and death, of rewards and punishments, of • enacting and repealing the laws, of treating with foreign, powers; in a word, they gave him the full and fupreme au'thority over all the extenfive territories of the Romans. • Rienzi arrived at the fummit of his wifhes, kept at a great • diftance his artifice; he pretended to be very unwilling to accept of their offers but upon two conditions; the firft, that they fhould nominate the pope's vicar [the bishop of Orvieto his co-partner; the fecond, that the pope's confent fhould be granted him, which (he told them) he flatter⚫ed himself he should obtain.'Hereby, on the one hand, ⚫he hazarded nothing in thus making his court to the holy 'father, and on the other, he well knew, that the bishop of • Orvieto would carry a title only, and no authority. The 'people granted his requeft, but paid all the honours to him; he poffeffed the authority without reftriction; the good bi'fhop appeared a mere fhadow and veil to his enterprizes. Rienzi was feated in his triumphal chariot, like an idol, to triumph with the greater fplendor. He difmiffed the people

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replete with joy and hope. He feized upon the palace, where he continued after he had been turned out the fenate, and the fame day he began to dictate his laws in the Capitol.' This election, tho' not very pleafing to the pope, was ratified by him; nevertheless Rienzi meditated the obtaining a title, exclufive of the papal prerogative. Well versed in the Roman history, he was no ftranger to the extent of the tribunitial authority; and as he owed his elevation to the people, he chose to have the title of their magiftrate. He afked it, and it was conferred on him and his co-partner, with the addition of deliverers of their Country.

Our adventurer's behaviour in his 'elevation, was at first such as commanded efteem and refpect, not only from the Romans, but from all the neighbouring ftates. His co-temporary, the celebrated Petrarch, in a letter to Charles, K. of the Romans, gives the following account of him :-" Not long fince a most remarkable man of the plebeian race, a perfon whom neither titles nor virtues had diftinguifhed, until he prefumed to fet himself up for reftorer of the Roman liberty, has obtained the highest authority at Rome. So fudden, fo "great is his fuccefs, that this man has already won Tuscany "and all Italy. Already Europe and the whole world are in "motion; to fpeak the whole in one word, I proteft to you, "not as a reader, but as an eye-witness, that he has restored <to us the juftice, peace, integrity, and every other token of the golden age."

But, as our author juftly remarks, it is difficult for a per• fon of mean birth, elevated at once, by the caprice of fortune, to the most exalted station, to move rightly in a fphere wherein he must breathe an air he has been unaccuftomed to. Rienzi afcended by degrees the fummit of his fortune. Riches foftened, power dazzled, the pomp of his cavalcades animated, and formed in his mind ideas adequate to thofe of princes born to empire.' Hence luxury invaded his table, and tyranny took poffeffion of his heart. The pope conceived his defigns contrary to the interests of what is called the holy fee; and the nobles, whofe power it had been his conftant endeavour to deprefs, confpired against him; they fucceeded, and Rienzi was forced to quit an authority he had poffeffed little more than fix months.

It was to a precipitate flight that Rienzi was indebted, at this juncture, for his life; and to different disguises for his subfequent prefervation. Having made an ineffectual effort at Rome, and not knowing where to find a new resource to car-⚫ry on his defigns, he took a moft bold ftep, conformable to

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that rafhness, which had fo often affifted him in his former exploits. He determined to go to Prague to Charles, K. of the Romans, whom the year before he had fummoned to his 'tribunal,' and who he forefaw would deliver him up to a pope, highly incenfed against him. He was accordingly foon after fet to Avignon, and there thrown into a prifon, where he continued three years.

The divifions and difturbances in Italy, occafioned by the number of petty tyrants that had established themfelves in the ecclefiaftical territories, and even at Rome, occafioned his enlargement. Innocent the fixth, who fucceeded Clement in the papacy, fenfible that the Romans ftill entertained an affection for our hero, and believing that his chaftifement would teach. him to act with more moderation than he had formerly done, as well as that gratitude would oblige him, the remainder of his life, to preferve an inviolable attachment to the holy fee, (by whofe favour he fhould be re-eftablished' thought him a proper inftrument to affift his defign of reducing those other tyrants; and therefore not only gave him his liberty, but also appointed him governor and fenator of Rome. He met with many obftacles to the affumption of this newly granted authority, all which, by cunning and refolution, he at length overcame. But giving way to his paffions which were immoderately warm, and inclined him to cruelty, he excited fo general a refentment againf: him, that he was murdered, on the 8th of October, 1354.

Such was the end of Nicholas Rienzi, one of the most re⚫nowned men of his age: who, after forming a confpiracy 'full of extravagance, and executing it in the fight of almost the whole world, with fuch fuccefs that he became fovereign of Rome; after caufing plenty, juftice, and liberty to flou'rifh among the Romans; after protecting potentates, and terrifying fovereign princes; after being arbiter of crowned. heads; after re-establishing the antient majefty and power of the Roman republic, and filling all Europe with his fame, during the feven months of his firft reign; after having compelled his mafters themselves to confirm him in the authority he had ufurped against their interefts; fell at length, at the end of his fecond, which lafted not four months, a facrifice to the nobility, who'e ruin he had vowed, and to thofe vaft projects, which his death prevented him from putting into execution.'

The hiftory, of which we have here endeavoured to give our readers a small epitome, abounds in a number of remarkable circumftances, (which we have been obliged to omit) not in general ill told, tho' in many places the diction of the tranflator is far JANUARY 1755.

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from being correct. The author has many ftriking obfervations; with one of which we fhall conclude this article, as a caution against ambitious temerity, That, thefe phantoms of fovereignty are no more than the play-things of a day.'

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ART. V. Differtations on the Prophecies, which have remarkably been fulfilled, and at this time are fulfilling in the World. By Thomas Newton, D. D. Chaplain to her Royal Highnefs the Princess Dowager of Wales. Volume the first, 8vo. 6 s. bound. Tonfon.

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HE defign of thefe differtations is not to treat of the prophecies in general, nor even of those prophecies in particular, which were fulfilled in the perfon and actions of our faviour, but only of fuch as relate more immediately to thefe latter ages, and are in fome measure receiving their accomplishment at this time. In treating of them the doctor has fhewn extenfive reading, great learning and judgment; has thrown light upon many obfcure paffages of fcripture; and discovered no fmall knowledge both of antient and modern .hiftory. His fubject is equally curious and important, and his work, we cannot but think, will be generally acceptable, as it does not confift merely of dry, fpeculative divinity, but is enlivened with a proper intermixture of hiftory, and includes several of the most material transactions from the beginning of the world to this day.

In his firft differtation he confiders Noah's prophecy, and obferves that the curfe is to be understood not fo properly of Canaan, as of his defcendants to the latest generations; that it is thinking meanly of the antient prophecies of fcripture, and having very imperfect, very unworthy conceptions of them, to limit their intention to particular perfons; that in this view the antient prophets would be really what the Deifts think them, little better than common fortune-tellers; and that their prophecies would hardly be worth remembering or recording, efpecially in fo concife and compendious a hiftory as that of Mejes.

We mult, fays he, affix a larger meaning to them, and underftand them not of fingle perfons, but of whole nations; and thereby a nobler fcene of things, and a more extensive profpect, will be opened to us of the divine difpenfations. The curfe of fervitude pronounced upon Canaan, and fo likewife the promite of bleffing and enlargement made to Shem

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• and Japheth, are by no means to be confined to their own perfons, but extend to their whole race; as afterwards the prophecies concerning Ishmael, and those concerning Efau and Jacob, and thofe relating to the twelve Patriarchs, were not so properly verified in themselves as in their posterity, and thither we must look for their full and perfect completion. The curfe therefore upon Canaan was properly a curfe upon the Canaanites. God foreseeing the wickedness of this people (which began in their father Ham, and greatly increased in this branch of his family) commiffioned Noah to pronounce a curfe upon them, and to devote them to the fervitude and mifery which their more than common vices and iniquities would deferve. And this account was plainly written by Mofes, for the encouragement of the Ifraelites, to fupport and animate them in their expedition against a people, who by their fins had forfeited the divine protection, and were deftined to flavery from the days of Noah.

After explaining the prophecy according to the prefent copies of our bible, the doctor goes on to obferve, that if we were to correct the text, as we should any ancient claffic author in a like cafe, the whole might perhaps be made easier and plainer. The whole paffage he fuppofes was originally thus And Ham the father of Canaan faw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.-And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger fon had done unto him: And he faid, Curfed be Ham the father of Canaan; a fervant of fervants fhall he be unto his brethren. And he faid, Bleed be the Lord God of Shem; and Ham the father of Canaan fhall be fervant to them. God fhall enlarge Japheth; and he fall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Ham the father of Canaan fhall be fervant to them.

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By this reading, fays he, all the three fons of Noah are included in the prophecy, whereas otherwife Ham, who was the offender, is excluded, or is only punished in one of his children. Ham is characterized as the father of Canaan particularly, for the greater encouragement of the Ifraelites, who were going to invade the land of Canaan: and when it is faid, Curfed be Ham the father of Canaan; a fervant of fervants fhall he be unto his brethren; it is implied that his whole race was devoted to fervitude, but particularthe Canaanites. Not that this was to take effect immediately, but was to be fulfilled in procefs of time, when they 'fhould forfeit their liberties by their wickedness. Ham at firft fubdued fome of the pofterity of Shem, as Canaan fometimes conquered Japheth; the Carthaginians, who were

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