From The Spectator. GIUSTINIAN'S FOUR YEARS AT THE tired of uselessly parting with his money. Inend to turn the solicitations of the King and deed, the Venetian was often put to his witsthe Cardinal. to break with France; in the course of which the Monarch and the Minister THESE selections from the correspondence did not always stick to the truth in their as of Sebastian Giustinian, Venetian Ambassador sertions. The Ambassador, however, managto Henry the Eighth from 1516 to 1519, will ed to keep his temper, under occasionally have more interest for the historical inquirer great provocations, and to preserve the favor than for the general reader. If, as Reynolds of the King and Cardinal, except once when affirms, there must be a good deal of common- the Doge undesignedly lent himself to oppose place in every great work even of genius, the Wolsey in a personal object. Giustinian's common must very greatly predominate in personal acceptance carried on the routine letters of business, written indeed by a well-business and mercantile affairs of the state as trained diplomatist of ability, but a man of successfully as any one probably could have, learning rather than of literary skill; espe done; but it did not sway events. cially when the business itself was not of The topics of the letters less relate to bu-· much historical importance. Sebastian Gius-siness actually done than to conversations in tinian, of the noble Venetian family which which each party sought to make some dis traces its origin to the Emperor Justinian,covery or gain some advantage by directly was a practised penetrating man of the world, persuading or indirectly influencing the other. to whom much public business and nearly And the same end was sought in the visits of sixty years had given patience, when spirit or temper would have availed him nothing or court," which the Ambassador omitted no ceremony or entertainment" the paying of have wrought mischief. At the time when he opportunity of doing. The main substance came to England, the results of the league of of his communications has reference to the Cambray had sadly reduced the Venetian rearguments or other reasons advanced by public, not only by loss of territory but of either party in conference; but it is varied soldiers and treasure. The future was threat- by indications of character and descriptions ening further evils from the ill-will and in- of behavior. The masks, the jousts, and stability of the Emperor Maximilian, the un- other courtly amusements of the day, are recertain result of the contemplated French in-counted whith some fulness, and there are ocvasion of Italy by Francis the First, and the casional allusions to current events, though enormous expense entailed on the Signory scarcely so much as might be expected. Upon from this condition of affairs. It would not the whole, the volumes do not throw so much appear that much direct aid was expected new light upon the four years of Henry's from the King of England. The object of court and reign as might have been expected. Venice was to induce him to keep the peace; They exhibit what was known already from to observe a neutrality during the expedition another point of view, and correct points of of Francis into Italy for the recovery of detail, rather than make what may be called Milan, which the Signory encouraged in the discoveries. Other selections from the deshopes of getting back Brescia and Verona, and as much as possible to prevent assistance from being rendered to Maximilian. The two cities were finally recovered; a general peace was patched up; and Charles the Fifth was elected Emperor of Germany before Giustinian took his departure. It can hardly be said The letters do something towards dissipatthat his residence did much to effect these ing the romance and mystery attached to the objects. Events were too powerful for mere Venetian Government. Giustinian writes diplomacy; and neither Henry nor Wolsey without any fear and with perfect freedom; was the kind of man to be led from the road, in fact, there is much less ceremony and comhowever clever the leader might be. In spite pliment than prevailed in this country at a of all the Ambassador could say or do, ducats later day, or than prevails even now. Neither were sent to Maximilian enabling him to keep is there any appearance of trick or perfidy; up the struggle against France and Venice though of course the Ambassador puts the best till funds began to run low, and Henry to get face upon things. Either men employed at the head of affairs are apt to neglect the de patches and reports of Venetian envoys contain more personal portraiture and more historical interest than this correspondence of Giustinian; but they have been made upon a smaller scale, from a greater number of writers-the cream only was taken. Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII. Se-tails of the branches, or the Government of lection of Despatches written by the Venetian Am-Venice was not so attentive to business as is bassador Sebastian Giustinian, and addressed to the Signory of Venice; January 12th, 1515, to July generally supposed. A modern envoy left 18th, 1619. Translated by Rawdon Brown. In without instructions from our Foreign Office two volumes. Published by Smith and Elder. could not have fretted more in private than did Giustinian openly for want of information matters; so the Cardinal sent to his house to or even news. This is one of many instances: seize all his papers and ciphers, but found nothing objectionable; wherefore, at the intercession "On my presenting myself to his Majesty to of the Reverend Bishop of Winchester, he was pay him my respects, he asked me if I had any released, permission being given him to quit the letter from your Sublimity. I told him I had not kingdom; and this he will do, his departure now received letters, though I wished to speak with being merely delayed by the expectation of pehis Majesty about matters of moment; but as I cuniary supply. The proceeding is summary, perceived the Imperial and Spanish Ambassadors especially against a Papal Nuncio, and has apand other persons, at hand, I said I had deter-peared to me worthy the knowledge of your Exmined to delay until another day: whereupon he cellency." rejoined, You shall have audience when you please; but we greatly marvel at your not re Of the power of Wolsey, and the necessity ceiving letters from the Signory, so many events of paying court to him, the Venetian Ambashaving chanced and chancing daily. I apolo-sador almost goes beyond the usual opinion. gized for your Excellency as I best might, though Here is a passage. I fancy that they credit what they please; and we two Ambassadors then took leave. "With regard to this matter, I will not omit Having read these despatches with my wontgiving my opinion; and your Sublimity must ed respect, I shall abide most religiously by their know that, at this present, it is more necessary contents; but must remark that I perceive your than ever to cultivate the friendship of King Serenity leaves it optional with me, as if it were Henry, who is so well able to supply your a doubtful matter, whether I ought to make the enemies with money, and thus support the war communication to Cardinal Wolsey or not. against you, without openly declaring himself. Now the fact is, as I have informed the Signory You also perceive that here in London there are at least a hundred times, that it is necessary to embassies from all the greatest princes in Christ- address oneself to him about everything; and endom, and all hammer at this anvil-some for were it a question of neglecting his Majesty or money and some for favor; nor does a week ever his Right Reverend Lordship, the least injurious clapse without all these Ambassadors receiving course would be to pass over the former. I shall missives addressed to his Majesty, indicative of therefore impart it to both, but first of all to the great mutual confidence and good-will, whereas Cardinal, lest he resent the precedence conceded your Signory, which has, perhaps, greater need to his Majesty." of his Majesty than any of the others, does not ever write; and I am thus deficient in the means of negotiating and exerting myself so fitly as I could wish, and as current events so imperiously demand." It will be seen by the opening paragraph of this more complete portrait of the Cardinal, extracted from a digest of the Ambassador's "report" to the Senate on his return to Venice, that Wolsey went further than "ego et rex meus"-sinking the "rex" altogether. "This Cardinal is the person who rules both the King and the entire kingdom. On the Ambassador's first arrival in England, he used to say to him,' His Majesty will do so and so;' subsequently, by degrees, he went forgetting himself, and commenced saying,' We shall do so and so at this present he has reached such a pitch that he says, 'I shall do so and so!' "He is about forty-six years old, very handsome, learned, extremely eloquent, of vast ability, and indefatigable. He alone transacts the same business as that which occupies all the magistracies, offices, and councils of Venice both civil and criminal; and all state affairs likewise are managed by him, let their nature be what it may. "London, December 7, 1516. "Your Highness will now learn, that a few days ago, the Nuncio (Chicregato) was sent for by the Right Reverend Cardinal; who, when he reached his presence, took him into a private chamber, where he laid hands on him, telling him in fierce and rude language, that he chose to know what he had written to the King of France, and what intercourse he held with me, as either he was frequently here, (at the Venetian Embassy) or my son, or the secretary, at his residence, and that he should not quit the spot until he had confessed everything; and unless he told by fair means, that he would put him to the rack. On this, high words were exchanged by either party; the Nuncio denying the charges brought against "He is in very great repute-seven times more him, but admitting our intimacy, as induced by so than if he were Pope. He has a very fine friendship and a community of literary pursuits. palace, where one traverses eight rooms before Concerning the King of France, he mentioned reaching his audience-chamber, and they are all what he had written to him, and the reply re-hung with tapestry, which is changed once a ceived, which did not bear upon the present week. He always has a sideboard of plate worth "He is pensive, and has the reputation of being extremely just: he favors the people exceedingly, and especially the poor; hearing their suits, and seeking to despatch them instantly; he also makes the lawyers plead gratis for all paupers. 25,000 ducats, wherever he may be; and his sil-jouster; speaks good French, Latin, and Spanver is estimated at 150,000 ducats. In his own ish; is very religious; hears three masses daily chamber there is always a cupboard with vessels when he hunts, and sometimes five on other days; to the amount of 30,000 ducats, this being cus- he hears the office every day in the Queen's chamtomary with the English nobility. * * * ber, that is to say, vespers and compline. He is "Cardinal Wolsey is very anxious for the very fond indeed of hunting, and never takes Signory to send him one hundred Damascene this diversion without tiring eight or ten horses, carpets; for which he has asked several times, which he causes to be stationed beforehand along and expected to receive them by the last galleys. the line of country he may mean to take, and The Ambassador urged the Senate to make this when one is tired he mounts another, and before present, as even should the Signory itself not he gets home they are all exhausted. He is exchoose to incur the expense, the slightest hint to tremely fond of tennis, at which game it is the the London factory would induce that body to prettiest thing in the world to see him play, his take it on themselves; and this gift might easily fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest settle the affair of the wines of Candia-that is texture. to say, induce the repeal of the duties on sack imported by Venetian subjects. The Ambassador, on his departure, left the business in a fair way, and consigned all the documents concerning it to his successor; but to discuss the matter further, until the Cardinal receives his hundred carpets, would be idle. This present might make him pass a decree in our favor, and, at any rate, it would render the Cardinal friendly to our nation in other matters; for no one obtains audience from him unless at the third or fourth attempt. As he adopts this fashion with all the lords and barons of England, the Ambassador made light of it, and at length had recourse to the expedient of making an appointment through his secretary, who sometimes went six or seven times to York House before he could speak to the Cardinal. "It is the custom for the Ambassadors, when they go to the Court, to dine there; and on his first arrival in England they ate at the Cardinal's table but now no one is served with the viands of the sort presented to the Cardinal, until after their removal from before him." Whether the Venetian Ambassadors were, like other mortals, accessible to flattery from crowned heads, or whether the Senate and Council of Ten understood that the great were to be complimented as a matter of course, and made their deductions accordingly, we do not know. Certainly Henry, Francis, and some other very great people, appear more gracious and excellent in the eyes of Giustinian and his colleagues than they do to posterity. The "report on Henry the Eighth might have been transmitted to the King himself. The Ambassador, however, wrote some ten years ere Gospel light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes," and Wolsey fell. "He gambled with the French hostages to the amount, occasionally, it is said, of from six to eight thousand ducats in a day. "He is affable, gracious, harms no one; does not covet his neighbor's goods, and is satisfied with his own dominions, having often said to the ambassador, Domine Orator, we want all potentates to content themselves with their own territories; we are satisfied with this island of ours." "He seems extremely desirous of peace." The "Memo in the following notice of Bloody Mary" as a baby was a musician, who ostensibly came on a sort of musical adventure, and was introduced by the Ambassador to the Cardinal, and then to the King. The last was greatly pleased with Memo's skill, and permanently retained him. Perhaps the object alluded to in the last sentence was that originally aimed at. After this conversation, his Majesty caused the Princess, his daughter, who is two years old, to be brought into the apartment where we were; whereupon the Right Reverend Cardinal and I, and all the other lords, kissed her hand, pro more; the greatest marks of honor being paid her universally, more than to the Queen herself. The moment she cast her eyes on the Reverend D. Dionisius Memo, who was there, at a little distance, she commenced calling out in English, Priest,' and he was obliged to go and play for her after which, the King, with the Princess in est honestissimus vir et unus carissimus, nullus unhis arms, came to me and said, 'Per Deum, iste quam servivit mihi fidelius et melius illo, scribaris Domino vestro quod habeat ipsum commendatum.' I thanked the King, and told him he would be recommended to your Signory in proportion to the satisfaction which you might know his Majesty received from him, and that I, therefore, on my part, recommended him to his Majesty. This say I, most serence Prince, that I perceive him to be in such favor with the King that for the future he will prove an excellent instrument in matters appertaining to your Highness. "His Majesty is twenty-nine years old, and extremely handsome; nature could not have done more for him; he is much handsomer than any other sovereign in Christendom; a great deal handsomer than the King of France; very fair, and his whole frame admirably proportioned. On hearing that Francis I. wore a beard, he alThese extracts might be extended, but there lowed his own to grow; and as it is reddish, he is enough to indicate the nature of the better has now got a beard which looks like gold. He parts of the book. It is very ably edited, by is very accomplished; a good musician; com- a man who has devoted his time to this species poses well; is a most capital horseman; a fine of antiquarian study. An introduction gives an informing account of the national archives Paris. Copious footnotes accompany the let- 1 KING OF PRUSSIA. THE speech with which King Frederick William opened the sitting of his Chambers tells us little that we knew not before, but hetrays how completely that anomalous monarch is still under the peculiar influence of his own constitution. He would still "mediate," if he could; and Prime Minister, who can read, hut who cannot command the respect of the King's subjects. Spectator, 9 Dec. TO MY AGED FATHER. From the Youth's Companion. [On hearing of his recent calamity, in haring his office destroyed by the late fire in School Street.] BY N P. WILLIS. Cares thicken round thee as thy steps grow slow, prayest― if in action he has become annexed to Austria- It is a fact of some significance, as showing how far, even under paternal administration, the Prussian public is ahead of its Government and independent of control, that a striking paper of Anti-Russian tendency, written many years ago for another occasion, is reproduced and freely circulated in Berlin. In a recent Life of Stein is published a memoir by Field-Marshal Knesebeck, speculatively sketching such a position of affairs on the continent with reference to Russia, Turkey, Austria, Germany, and the other powers, as constitutes in fact a tolerably correct description of the present state of affairs. In that memoir. the writer points out the policy of Austria to prevent an alliance between France and Russia, and the expediency of reinstating Poland as an independent state, and as a hostile guard upon the Russian frontier. The policy is entertained by many keen politicians, but the remarkable fact is that such a pamphlet is circulated and eagerly scanned under the very nose of King Frederick William, and, what is more, of his Prays for a moment's lulling of the blast- Spotless and blameless as it comes from thee- Cheer thee, then!- And pitilessly far thy cares pursue! From these thy trying hours-the hours when Most sorely press'd has won its victories- From the Times, 12 Dec. CANADA AND GREAT BRITAIN. up to which we have any intelligence. The bills for secularizing the Clergy Reserves and for abolishing the seignorial tenures had passed a third reading in the House of AsIr is now fourteen years since this country sembly. At the same time both Houses of entered on a new course of policy with regard the Canadian Parliament had agreed to a vote to the Canadas, and the experiment may now of 20,000l. in aid of the Patriotic Fund, be said to be fully and completely worked out. affording thus the most decisive proof of the The change was a bold and striking one, con- sympathy which the inhabitants of the colony ceived in a spirit of almost epigrammatical feel in our present struggle, and of their disantithesis to our former policy. The old position, were their aid needed, to give it system was, in few words, to monopolize the freely in support of a country in which they trade, to interfere with the local concerns of recognize no longer a harsh and domineering the colony, and to absorb its patronage, and, mistress, but a kind and respectful friend. In in exchange for all this, to keep up, at a great this very Canada-where, not twenty years expense, a military establishment. The new ago, the people rose in armed rebellion against system has consisted in precisely the contrary what they believed the, intolerable yoke of of all this in throwing open the trade of the Great Britain, where the supplies used to be whole world to our dependencies, in leaving stopped every year, and a Governor was forevery office of trust and emolument-except tunate who escaped both mobbing and imthat of the Governor-General, which serves peachment, this is the language of an inas the connecting link between the mother fluential member of the press with regard to country and the dependency-entirely open this noble donation:-"A weekly contemto colonial talent and enterprise, in religiously porary proposes a contribution towards the abstaining from all interference whatever in expenses of the war itself. We see no reason local concerns, and in relieving the parent for that as yet, but, should the struggle be State from the expense of maintaining, at unhappily prolonged, as there is great reason any rate in time of peace, a military force for to fear it will, the time may come when it the protection of its hardy and independent may be our duty to contribute, not money subjects. Dire were the prognostications of only, but men also-not to give of our subevil with which the advent of this policy was stance alone, but to shed our blood as well; hailed. It was said to be the first step towards and this we believe, should urgent necessity the dissolution of the connection between the arise, will be cheerfully done." Such a macolony and the mother country, and all the nifesto, expressing, as we have every reason terrors which agitated men's minds so vainly to believe it does, the public opinion of the at the close of the first American war were country, is more gratifying to England, and called up anew to terrify us from our generous conveys more positive assurance of strength, policy towards Canada. Our concessions were than the costliest fleets and the most numerous at first imperfect and inadequate, and a period armies. We have men and money amply of turbulence and discontent followed, which sufficient, we believe-especially when forwas only put an end to when the results of tified by such allies as we possess,-to bring the principles established in 1840 were fully the present war to a successful and glorious worked out and conceded. The right of termination. But if our hopes should be dedealing with the Clergy Reserves was only ceived in this particular, and we are just conceded in the session of 1853, after a stout suffering in the protracted anxiety of the opposition from Lord DERBY; and this year siege of Sebastopol a severe lesson on the we have seen, also in contravention of the vanity of apparently the best-founded expecprinciples of Lord DERBY, the trade of Ca- tations, it is cheering to know that there are nada thrown open to the United States, and beyond the Atlantic hearts that would feel for the freest intercourse invited and encouraged. and hands that would aid us. The United In this year also we have withdrawn from States of America, now long emancipated Canada the bulk of our forces, leaving only, from our Government, give but a dubious we are bound to say, just as many troops in response in favor of the liberties of Europe Quebec as are sufficient to keep up the me- and of the cause of that country to which mory and appearance of military occupation, they owe their existence. In this, as in so when the reality has passed away for ever. many instances, the advocates of free instituAt this period, then, the dismemberment of tions all over the world are grieved to find the empire ought to be complete, and Canada, how strong a sympathy may exist between freed from all shackles and bound by no certain of the democrats of one hemisphere material ties, mig't be supposed about to drift and the tyrants and oppressors of another. away from us foer. Let those who take But in Canada the public voice is not divided, this view of the subject consider what has and, recognizing the blessings of their alliance taken place in Canada during the last week with Great Britain, her people heartily idenDLVIII. LIVING AGE. VOL. VIII. 20 |