time; his motion, after a long debate, being negatived by 248 to 174. This was his last attempt to obtain a reform in parliament. Having, upon this occasion, made every effort, and exerted all the influence in his power, both publicly and privately, and failed by so considerable a majority, he was convinced that any farther trial in the present House of Commons, must be ineffectual, and therefore he desisted; and we shall see, that soon after the next general election, he thought it his duty, on account of a most material change in the situation of the country, to oppose a motion upon the subject, brought forward by another person.

Dismissal of the Lord Chancellor Thurlow. The extraordinary manner in which, as has been related, the lord chancellor opposed the loan bill, rendered it necessary for Mr. Pitt to take a step, which the common friends of those two distinguished persons had for some time seen to be inevitable. From the commencement of Mr. Pitt's administration, to the period of the king's illness, the lord chancellor had acted with the utmost zeal and cordiality as a member of the cabinet; but during the proceed ings in parliament, to which that unhappy event gave rise, a great alteration took place in his conduct; to such a degree, indeed, that upon several occasions Mr. Pitt felt by no means confident what part he would take in the debates in the House of Lords. In all the discussions, however, relative to the regency, he invariably, and with apparent sincerity, sup

ported the principles and measures of Mr. Pitt, but not entirely without suspicion, at a moment of the greatest difficulty, of a disposition to pursue an opposite line, in consequence of his being admitted to frequent interviews with the prince of Wales. Whether the amendment, which took place in the king's health, had any influence in this respect, it is impossible to know. After his majesty's recovery, the same coolness and reserve towards Mr. Pitt, continued and gradually increased, although there was no difference of opinion upon any political question, nor did there appear any other cause for dissatisfaction.

This was a matter of so great importance that it was thought right to make the king acquainted with it; and his majesty wrote to the lord chancellor upon the subject, towards the end of November, 1789, and received such an answer as led him confidently to hope that Mr. Pitt would, in future, have no reason to complain of the lord chancellor. This, however, proved by no means the case; and Mr. Pitt at length, convinced that he could not rely upon lord Thurlow's co-operation, submitted to the king, at the beginning of the following November, the expediency of advancing Mr. William Grenville, who was then secretary of state, to the peerage, for the purpose of conducting the public business in the House of Lords, and of remedying those inconveniences which had frequently arisen from the waywardness of the lord chancellor. To this proposal his majesty immediately

assented;

assented; but though Mr. Pitt had now the satisfaction of feeling entirely at ease, as far as the support of the measures of government was concerned in the House of Lords, yet he still had the mortification of observing a continuance of the same unfriendly disposition in the lord chancellor.

One of the members of the cabinet, who had been intimately acquainted, as well as politically connected, with the lord chancellor for many years, repeatedly remonstrated with him, upon his present conduct towards Mr. Pitt, which he represented to be the subject of serious concern to all their colleagues, and earnestly pressed him both for private and public reasons, to state openly and candidly his ground of complaint, assuring him that no offence or neglect had been intended, and that Mr. Pitt was ready to enter into an explanation upon any point he might wish. This friendly interposition entirely failed: no explicit answer could be obtained; nor did the chancellor mention a single objection to Mr. Pitt's public measures, or specify one instance of inattention to himself. He persevered in taking every opportunity of marking his personal dislike of Mr. Pitt, though constantly warned of the unreasonableness and unavoidable

* The Marquis of Stafford.

consequence of such behaviour; and at last his spleen broke forth in a violent censure of a bill, to which he knew Mr. Pitt annexed the greatest importance;+ and he actually voted against it without having given any previous notice of his intention. Mr. Pitt, who had shewn more forbearance than any other man would have done under similar circumstances, had now no alternative. Neither the good of the public service, nor a regard of his own feelings and character, would allow him to submit to such an indignity; and on the following morning, he respectfully submitted to the king, the impossibility of his remaining in office with the lord chancellor, and the consequent necessity of his majesty's making his choice between them.‡

The king was in some degree prepared for this communication, and the lord chancellor was immediately acquainted, by his majesty's command, that he must resign the seals.§ But as a change

was not desirable so near the end of the session, and some time was requisite to bring business depending in the court of chancery to a conclusion, he did not actually give up the seals till the day of the prorogation, when they were placed in the hands of three commissioners.||

This dismissal of the lord chan cellor was not followed by a single resignation or change in any political or legal department: nor was it expected to effect the vote of one member in either house of parliament a clear proof of the opinion which was entertained of Mr. Pitt's conduct upon this oc

casion.

Mr. Pitt's appointment to the wardenship of the Cinque ports.-By the death of lord Guildford, on the 5th of August in this year, the wardenship of the Cinque ports, worth 30001. a-year, became vacant; and the king immediately offered it to Mr. Pitt, in the following most gracious and pressing

terms:

"Windsor, August 6, 1792. "Having this morning received the account of the death of the earl of Guildford, I take the first opportunity of acquainting Mr. Pitt, that the wardenship of the Cinque ports is an office, for which I will not receive any recommendation; having positively resolved to confer it on him, as a mark of that regard, which his eminent services have deserved from me. I am so bent on this that I shall be seriously offended at any attempt to decline. I have intimated these my intentions to the earl of Chatham, lord Grenville, and Mr. Dundas."

His Majesty, knowing that Mr. Pitt was at Burton Pynsent on a visit to his mother, sent the above

letter to Mr. Dundas, in London, adding, "Mr. Dundas is to forward it with a few lines from himself, expressing, that I will not admit of this favour being declined. I desire that lord Chatham may also write, and that Mr. Dundas will take the first opportunity of acquainting lord Grenville with the step I have taken."*

We have seen that Mr. Pitt declined an office of the same value soon after he became first lord of the treasury, and at a moment, when his continuance in that situation was extremely uncertain. Having then been only a short time in his majesty's ser vice, he felt that he had no claim upon the public, and the very peculiar circumstances in which he stood, instead of operating as an inducement to seize that oppor tunity of securing to himself a provision, determined him to dis pose of the clerkship of the pells, without benefit to himself, or to any relative or friend. But he had now been prime minister nearly nine years; and conscious that he had employed all his time and thoughts in endeavouring to promote the interests of his country and knowing that, besides giving up a lucrative profession, he had expended the whole of his private fortune, in addition to his official income, he gratefully accepted this mark of his majesty's condescending kindness and approbation; and the propriety of the appointment

was

-3--Memoirs of the Secret Societies of the South of Italy; particularly the Carbonari. Translated from the Original M.S. 8vo. The carbonari may be viewed as a sect of free-masons, which have recently attracted the attention and excited the curiosity of Europe. They profess that good cousinship (whence their members derive the name of good cousins,) which, as they say, is founded on religion and virtue, or purity of morals. Whoever attains the rank of master, is bound to practice benevolence to succour the unfortunate-to shew docility of mind--and to bear no malice against Carbonari. The place of their meeting is called the Baracca; the space surrounding it, the forest or wood; the interior of the lodge, the vendita. The work before us contains many details of this singular institution; its principles, and the mode of admission to it. We give the following piece of biography.

Ciro Annichiarico.-Ciro Annichiarico, born of parents in easy circumstances, in the little town of Grottaglie, was destined to the ecclesiastical profession, and entertained it very young. His brothers are respectable farmers; his uncle, the Canonico Patitaro,

tion, and never took any part in the crimes of his nephew. The latter began his infamous career by killing a young man of the Motolesi family, in a fit of jealousy. His insatiable hatred pursued every member of the family, and exterminated them one after the other, with the exception of a single individual, who succeeded in evading his search, and who lived shut up in his house for several years, without ever daring to go out. This unfortunate being thought that a snare was laid for him when people came to tell him of the imprisonment, and shortly after of the death of his enemy; and it was with difficulty that he was induced to quit his retreat.

Ciro, condemned for the murder of the Motolesi, to fifteen years of chains, or exile, by the tribunal of Lecce, remained there in prison four years, at the end of which time he succeeded in escaping. It was then that he began, and afterwards continued for several years, to lead a vagabond life, which was stained with the most atrocious crimes. At Martano, he penetrated with his satellites into one of the first houses of the place, and, after having offered violence to its mistress, he massacred her with all her people, and carried off ninetysix thousand ducats.

He was in correspondence with all the hired brigands; and whoever wished to get rid of an

enemy,

enemy, had only to address himself to Ciro. On being asked by captain Montorj, reporter of the military commission which condemned him, how many persons he had killed with his own hand, he carelessly answered, "E chi lo sa? saranno tra sessanta e settanta." Who can remember? they will be between sixty and seventy. One of his companions, Occhiolupo, confessed to seventeen; the two brothers, Francesco and Vito Serio, to twenty-three; so that these four ruffians alone had assassinated upwards of a hundred!

The activity of Ciro was as astonishing as his artifice and intrepidity. He handled the musket and managed the horse to perfection; and as he was always extremely well mounted, found concealment and support, either through fear or inclination, every where. He succeeded in escaping from the hands of the soldiers, by forced marches of thirty and forty miles, even when confidential spies had discovered his place of concealment but a few hours before. The singular good fortune of being able to extricate himself from the most imminent dangers, acquired for him the reputation of a necromancer, upon whom ordinary means of attack had no power, among the people, and he neglected nothing which could confirm this idea, and increase the sort of spell it produced upon the peasants. They dared not execrate, or even blame him in his absence, so firmly were they persuaded that his demons would immediately inform him of

was arrested. Although a priest himself, and exercising the functions of one when he thought it expedient, he often declared his colleagues to be impostors without any faith. He published a paper against the missionaries, who, according to him, disseminated illiberal opinions among the people, and forbade them on pain of death to preach in the villages, "because, instead of the true principles of the gospel, they taught nothing but fables and impostures." This paper is headed, "In nome della Grande Assemblea Nazionale dell' Ex-Regno di Napoli, o piuttosto dell' Europa intera, pace e salute."-"In the name of the geat national assembly of the ex-kingdom of Naples, or rather of all Europe, peace and health."

He amused himself sometimes with whims, to which he tried to give an air of generosity. General d'Octavio, a Corsican in the service of Murat, pursued him for a long time with a thousand men. One day, Ciro, armed at all points, surprised him walking in a garden. He discovered himself, remarking that the life of the general was in his hands; "but," said he, "I will pardon you this time, although I shall no longer be so indulgent, if you continue to hunt me about with such fury." So saying, he leaped over the garden wall and disappeared.

Having hidden himself, with several of his people, behind a ruined wall at the entrance gate of Grottaglie, the day when general Church and the duke of San Cesario, accompanied by some horsemen, reconnoitred the place, he did not fire upon them; he wished to make a merit of