leaft previous notice, and strongly fecured till fhips could be provided to convey them home. The fame measures were as effectually purfued in other parts of the Spanish foreign dominions; and hips have fince continually arrived in the ports of Old Spain, with cargoes of prifoners on board.

It is faid that the confifcated eftates and effects of the Jefuits, in the provinces of Mexico only, were computed to amount to the immenfe value of 77 millions of piafters, or 385 millions of French livres. It is alfo faid that the effects which were found in their warehouses, in the different ports of Old Spain, were valued at a prodigious fum; and that the Jefuits of Peru, and the fouthern provinces of the Spanish Weft-Indies, were richer than thofe of Mexico. If these facts are truly ftated, we may, perhaps, be able from them to form a more juft conclufion of the causes that brought on the deftruction of this fociety, than thofe that have been already affigned. Immenfe property in private hands, whether communities or fingle perfons, has even in free countries been always attended with imminent danger to the poffeffors. In arbritaty governments, the only fecurity that can attend fuch property, depends upon the wants, the difpofition, or the caprice of a king or a minifter; a tenure of all others the moit precarious and dangerous.

Moft of the Catholic powers in Europe had published edicts, du ring thefe tranfactions, to forbid, under fevere penalties, the reception of the expulfed Jefuits in any part of their dominions; fo that

VOL. X.

there is fcarcely an inftance in hiftory of any body of men fo entirely cut off and feparated from the rest of mankind. When affairs were entirely fettled in Spain, and the novelty of the tranfactions began to wear off, the ftorm, which had been for fome time expected, fell at lat upon the Jefuits in Naples. The different houfes belonging to the fociety in that capital were fuddenly invested by the civil and military power, their effects feized, and the members made prifon- Nov. 2oth. ers. The garrifon

in the mean time patrolled the city under arms, and prevented all difturbances.

The fame meafures were taken in every part of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, where the Jefuits had poffeffions; and the prifoners were, without ceremony or leave being asked, all convoyed into the Pope's dominions; the vicinity of whofe territories made. everyfcheme of oppofition fruitlefs. The court of Rome complained loudly at this outrage, and prefented memorials to all the foreign minifters in that city. In thefe memorials the Pope complains, that the King of Naples has violated, in the first place, the divine right, by the manner in which his foldiers entered into holy places, and by the fequeftration of the ecclefiaftical revenues, without confulting the bishops; fecondly, the right of mankind, by forcibly depofiting fome of his fubjects in the dominions of his holinefs, and by marching his troops into a country that was not his own; and laitly, the right of good neigh[C] bourhood,

bourhood, in not communicating his defign to the Pope, both as the head of the church, and as a temporal prince, who has the fupreme fovereignty over Naples.

Thefe memorials produced the fame effect, which the remon ftrances of weak princes to their powerful neighbours generally do; they were carelessly anfwered, and no farther notice taken of them. The cardinal Orfini, the Neapo, litan minifter at Rome, made a verbal declaration to the following purport; "That every fovereign having a right to drive from his dominions perfons convicted of being enemies thereof," no other means could be found of getting rid of thofe fathers, than caufing them to be escorted to the ecclefi

aftical state, fince the kingdom of Naples had no other frontiers ; and that, as to the confifcation and management of the effects of the fociety, it no lefs belonged, by the fame right of fovereignty, to the royal treasury.

It is faid, that the number of Jefuits tranfported from the kingdom of Naples, exclufive of those from Sicily, to the papal dominions, amounted to fifteen hundred. This inundation offtrangers was the more fenfibly felt, as there had been fo great a fcarcity of corn for fome years in the ecclefiaftical ftate, that it was with the greatest care and difficulty that they could guard againft a famine, befides that eight hundred of the Portugal Jefuits were still alive, and unprovided for there.

feem difpofed to establish a regular and permanent form of government; a measure which the Genoefe, without foreign affistance, are in no degree capable of preventing.

Republics, though fond of boaft-. ing of the great advantages of freedom, yet feem to think it too great a bleffing to be communicated to others, fo they are looked upon to be the worft mafters in the world. The Italian republics

have not escaped this cenfure; and one of the wifeft of them is faid to have fuffered feverely, and to have loft great power and proverty, by incurring it. Under fuch a mode of government, it is probable that the Corficans had frequent and fufficient causes of complaint.

It was the peculiar unhappiness of the inhabitants of this illand, that they were in all ages a prey to foreigners; doomed to feel the iron hand of oppreffion from every comer, they never feem to have had a fixed or permanent government of their own. This continual ftate of oppreffion depended in a great measure upon their central fituation; in a manner furrounded by great, warlike, and powerful nations.

This island, after a continued feries of revolutions, if paffing from the hands of one tyrant to another may be called fo, was at length granted by one of the popes to the republic of Pisa, which was then a very confiderable maritime ftate. In the long wars which enfued between this republic and that of Genoa, Corfica was a particular object of their contention; and, after a tedious ftruggle, was conquered by the Genoefe about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The conduct of the Genoese in the government of this ifland, feems in general to have been cruel, arbitrary, and impolitic. So large a number of nobles, who looked upon themfelves as joint monarchs of an ifland, which increased their vanity by having the name of a kingdom, wanted each, in his own individual perfon, to fhew fome extraordinary exertion of power,

that might perpetuate his fame as a fovereign.

Senfible alfo of their own weakness, their councils were guided by continual fear and diftruft; fo that their fyftem feemed to be rather to keep the island defolate and barbarous, in hope of fecurity in the poffeffion, than to fuffer any improvement that could make it beneficial either to the natives or themselves.

The Corficans were far from being paffive during this long courfe of oppreffion. In the 16th century they carried on a bloody and defperate war, which continued fe. veral years, and in which they were very near fucceeding against the Genoefe; and when at last they were overcome, they offered to fubmit themselves to the Turks, rather than return under the yoke of their old mafters.

The prefent troubles began about the year 1729: it is true, there have been fome intervals of tranquillity, but they were only of a short continuance, and peace has never fince been thoroughly eftablished in the island. The Genoefe, after feveral encounters, finding their own force infufficient to reduce the malecontents, were obliged to call in an imperial army under General Wachtendonck to their affiftance; but this army being alfo unable to reduce the Corficans, a ftronger was obliged to be brought in under the command of the Prince of Wirtemburgh. The Corficans, unable to refift fo fuperior a force, were obliged to come into a treaty under the emperor's guarrantee. The gaining of this point is faid to have coft the Genoefe thirty millions of French livres: the troubles arose from the cruel treatment of [C] 2

a poor

a poor woman, for a fingle paolo, about five pence English, which was her share of a tax that she was unable to pay.

The peace was but of fhort du. ration: Soon after the departure of the imperial troops, the Geno. ese are faid to have broke through every article of the treaty, 1734. and hoftilities were again renewed with as much rage as ever. The Genoefe, now left to their own ftrength, carried on the war with little fuccefs; there was a great deal of blood fpilt, and much mifchief done, but no effectual service performed; and while the country was continually wafted by both parties, its mountainous nature greatly befriended the natives. At this time Giafferi, who was the chief of the Corficans in both thefe infurrections, chofe for his colleague, Giacinto Paoli, father to the prefent General of that nation,

The Genoese were greatly embarraffed; they hired a body of Swifs and Grifons, who, from the mountainous nature of their country, they thought might have been fitter for the Corfican fervice than their own troops. They alfo publifhed an indemnity to all their affaffins and outlaws of every fort, upon condition that they would fight the battles of the republic in Corfica.

It was during these transactions, that the famous Theodore Baron

Newhoff arrived in the 1736. ifland, and was declared king of it. The hiftory of this adventurer is well known. After about eight months enjoyment of his royalty, being feized with a confcioufnefs of the fatal dangers which would probably at

tend the detection of his falfehoods, and the impofition he had put upon the people, he prudently withdrew from his kingdom, under pretence of going to haften the fuccours which he had fo long promifed.

The republic of Genoa was at length obliged to enter into a treaty with France, to reduce the Corficans to obedience. It was in vain that the malecontents remonftrated to his most Christian majefty, against the cruelty and injuftice of this procedure; a detachment of French troops were fent to Cor- March, fica, under the command 1738. of the Count de Boiffeaux. Though thefe troops did a great deal of mifchief in the ifland, yet they were infufficient to fubdue the invincible fpirit of the islanders. Upon this the French court fent, the following year, the Marquis de Mallebois at the head of a confiderable army to reduce them entirely to obedience.

This general executed the defigns of his court effectually; the Corficans were every where overpowered, and flaughter, ruin, and deftruction were fpread through every part of the island. He cut down the ftanding corn, the vines, and the olives, fet fire to the villages, hanged numbers of monks and others who were moft forward in the revolt, and spread fuch terror and defolation in every quarter, that the natives were once more obliged to fubmit to their ancient bondage. The unprecedented and terrible flaughter which had been committed, with the dread of ftill greater vengeance from fo formidable a nation as France, effaced every idea but that of immediate fafety. The

two

two generals, Giafferi and Paoli, were obliged to quit the island, to which they never returned; they retired to Naples, where they got regiments, and fpent the remainder of their lives.

Among many other propofals which the republic of Genoa made at this time to France, one was, to affign over a great number of the inhabitants of Corfica, who were to be fent to people the diftant French colonies: upon which a French writer remarks, "that the Genoefe would have been fatisfied to be fovereigns of the bare rocks of Corfica, without fubjects." The French troops be1741. ing at length withdrawn from Corfica, the fpirit of the inhabitants began again to appear in its full vigour. They had been obliged to deliver up their arms by the laft capitulation; their exiled countrymen, in the different towns of Italy, fupplied them with fome; they ftript the Genoefe fol, diers of others, which they were not very willing to ufe, but which were afterwards effectually employed against themselves.

No fpirit was ever more general than that which appeared in this infurrection; men, women, and young boys, and even the clergy, bore arms. They elected two new chiefs, under the title of protectors; and having foon overrun the open country, they then befieged and took the capital city of Corte, together with its ftrong A defultory kind of war has been carried on, with fome intermiffions, ever fince.

castle.

In the year 1745, the English, as allies to the King of Sardinia, fent fome men of war, who bombarded and took the cities of Baf

tia and San Fiorenza, which they delivered up to the Corficans. They however loft thefe cities foon after, in confequence of the dif fentions produced by the ambition and difagreement of their leaders and principal men. In the year 1746, they fent porpofals to the British embaffador, at Turin, to put themfelves under the protection of the crown of Great Britain; which propofals it appears were not accepted. In 1753, their leader Gaffori was affaffinated by fome ruffians, who were fuppofed to be fet on by the republic, as they had penfions allowed them in its territories.

During thefe tranfactions, Giacinto Paoli led a retired life in Naples; his whole time was devoted to the education of his fon Pafcal, whofe genius and difpofition were fo happy that no part of it was mifpent. The father feemed to have a pre-fentiment of what his fon would arrive at; the courfe of education he prefcribed was calculated to form a prince and a legiflator; and the young

man made fo excellent an ufe of

the inftructions which he receiv ed, that he became the admiration of ftrangers, as well as of his countrymen.

The Corficans, tired of the continual diffenfions among their principal men, and of the confequent evils that attended them; charmed befides with the character and manners of young Paoli, fent a deputation to invite him to Corfica, and to offer him the fupreme government of the island. This offer was gladly ac-, 1755. cepted.

There was much to be reformed in Corfica: all forms of legal juftice [C] 3 had