• Although Spain and Venice had not been regularly at war, the tyrannical ascendancy exercised by the Spanish court over the affairs of Italy occasioned the Venetians to regard that with particular apprehension and enmity; and the spirit shewn by power the senate in the late contest had filled the Spanish government with implacable hatred towards the republic. By her alliances and her whole procedure Venice had declared against the house of Austria, and betrayed her disposition to curb the alarming and overspreading authority of both its branches in the peninsula. The haughty ministers of Philip III. secretly nourished projects of vengeance against the state, which had dared to manifest a systematic hostility to the Spanish dominions; and they are accused, even in apparent peace, of having regarded the republic as an enemy whom it behoved them to destroy. the conclusion of the war relative to Montferrat and the Uscochi, At the epoch of the Duke d'Ossuna was viceroy of Naples, Don Pedro di Toledo, governor of Milan, and the Marquis of Bedemar, ambassador at Venice from the court of Madrid. To the hostility entertained against the republic by these three ministers, the two former of whom governed the Italian possessions of Spain with almost regal independence, has usually been attributed the formation, with the connivance of the court of Madrid, of one of the most atrocious and deep-laid conspiracies on record. The real character of this mysterious transaction must ever remain among the unsolved problems of history; for even the circumstances which were partially suffered by the council of Ten to transpire were so imperfectly explained, and so liable to suspicion from the habitual iniquity of their policy, as to have given rise to a thousand various and contradictory versions of the same events. I shall attempt to collect only such as are scarcely open to doubt. Of these

The Venetians had no reason to hope, that the exasperation of the Spanish government, at the part which they had taken in the late war in Italy, would die away with the termination of hostilities; and it appeared to the world a consequence of the enmity of the court of Madrid towards the republic, that the Duke d'Ossuna, the viceroy of Naples, continued his warlike equipments in that kingdom with undiminished activity, notwithstanding the signature of peace. The viceroy, indeed, pretended that his naval armaments were designed against the infidels; and when the court of Madrid recalled the royal Spanish fleet from the coasts of Italy, the Duke d'Ossuna sent the Neapolitan squadron to sea under a flag emblazoned with his own family arms. But it was difficult to suppose either that a viceroy dared to hoist his personal standard unsanctioned by his sovereign, and would be suffered to engage in a private war against the Ottoman empire, or that he would require for that purpose the charts of the Venetian lagunes, and the flat-bottomed vessels fitted for their navigation, which he busily collected. The republic accordingly manifested serious alarm, and sedulously prepared for defence.

Affairs were in this state, when one morning several strangers were found suspended from the gibbets of the square of St. Mark,

The

The public consternation increased when, on the following dawn, other bodies were also found hanging on the same fatal spot, also of strangers. It was at the same time whispered, that numerous arrests had filled the dungeons of the Council of Ten with some hundreds of criminals; and there was too certain proof that many persons had been privately drowned in the canals of Venice. To these fearful indications that the state had been alarmed by some extraordinary danger, the terrors of which were magnified by their obscurity, were shortly added further rumours, that several foreigners serving in the fleet had been poignarded, hanged, or cast into the sea. The city was then filled with the most alarming reports: - - that a conspiracy of long duration had been discovered; that its object was to massacre the nobility, to destroy the republic, to deliver the whole capital to flames and pillage; and that the Spanish ambassador was the mover of the horrible plot. Venice was filled with indignation and terror; yet the impenetrable Council of Ten preserved the most profound silence, neither confirming nor contradicting the general belief. The life of the Marquis of Bedemar was violently threatened by the populace; he retired from Venice; the senate received a new ambassador from Spain without any signs of displeasure; and, finally, it was not until five months after the executions, that the government commanded solemn thanksgiving to be offered up to the Almighty for the preservation of the state from the dangers which had threatened its existence.

Of the extent of these dangers, nothing was ever certainly known; but amongst the persons executed the most conspicuous was ascertained to be a French naval captain of high reputation for ability and courage in his vocation, Jacques Pierre; who, after a life passed in enterprises of doubtful or piratical character, had apparently deserted the service of the viceroy of Naples to embrace that of the republic. This man, and a brother-adventurer, one Langlade, who had been employed in the arsenal in the construction of petards and other fire-works, were absent from Venice with the fleet when the other executions took place; and they were suddenly put to death while on this service. Two other French captains, named Regnault and Bouslard, with numerous foreigners, principally of the same nation, who had lately been taken into the republican service, were privately tortured and executed in various ways in the capital; and altogether two hundred and sixty officers and other military adventurers are stated to have perished by the hands of the executioner for their alleged share in the conspiracy. The vengeance or shocking policy of the Council of Ten proceeded yet farther; and so careful were that body to bury every trace of this inexplicable affair in the deepest oblivion, that Antoine Jaffier, also a French captain, and other informers, who had revealed the existence of a plot, though at first rewarded, were all in the sequel either known to have met a violent death, or mysteriously disappeared altogether. Of the three Spanish ministers to whom it has been customary to assign the origin of the conspiracy, the two principal were distinguished

by

by opposite fates. The Marquis of Bedemar, after the termination of his embassy, found signal political advancement, and finished by obtaining a Cardinal's hat, by the interest of his court with the Holy See. But the Duke d'Ossuna, after being removed from his viceroyalty, was disgraced on suspicion of having designed to renounce his allegiance and to place the crown of Naples on his own head; and he died in prison.'

The real character of this mysterious transaction is ably discussed in a note appended to the foregoing passage.

In no part of M. Daru's work has he used the advantages, which he has enjoyed in consulting an immense variety of unpub. lished manuscripts, with more industrious ability, than in his researches into the real character of the conspiracy of 1618. His enquiries have brought to light all the particulars of this mysterious transaction which can probably ever be known; and if he has failed in arriving at positive conclusions, future writers may assuredly despair of better success. Sufficient proof seems to be adduced that the Duke d'Ossuna had seriously embarked in the project of raising himself to the Neapolitan crown; and that the Venetian and several other governments were acquainted with his designs and secretly favored them. But this scheme of the viceroy, M. Daru justly argues, was incompatible with the part attributed to him in the conspiracy against the Venetian oligarchy. He therefore supposes the hostile countenance of the Duke towards the republic to have been only pretended and collusive to veil the real purpose of his armaments from the Spanish court; and hence his apparent formation of the Venetian plot. In the issue, however, the apathy of the French court in withholding support from the Duke, alarmed the Council of Ten for the consequences of their junction with him; and to avoid committing the republic with Spain, they resolved to extinguish every memorial of their connivance with his meditated rebellion, by treating the collusive conspiracy against themselves as real. If this explanation be admitted, the Council of Ten were guilty of a horrible sacrifice of some hundred lives to reasons of state; but this is consistent enough with their detestable policy. M. Daru's solution is at least ingenious, if it falls short of conviction; and, with out pronouncing upon so perplexed a question, I may observe, that it is supported by very strong evidence, and offers the only plausible explanation of facts otherwise altogether contradictory and inexplicable. It does not of course exculpate the Marquis of Bedemar; who, if not the contriver of the plot, certainly was led by the Duke d'Ossuna to believe its existence; and who, believing it, shewed no displeasure at its dreadful purpose. Neither can I conclude with M. Daru, that Philip III. and the Spanish court stood necessarily acquitted of participation in the plot, of which it was the Duke d'Ossuna's interest to make them credit the formation; and which, if they were acquainted with, they sanctioned. One point M. Daru incontestibly proves:that the Council of Ten had intelligence of the conspiracy nearly a full

year

year before they treated it seriously, and that their first informant was Jacques Pierre himself, a double traitor, who fancied he was betraying to them the Duke his employer, and whom they subsequently hurried to death as a principal in the plot!

I shall only remark farther that, whatever may become of M. Daru's hypothesis, he has completely destroyed the authority of the Abbé de St. Real, on whose beautiful romance it has been the fashion to rely for the particulars of this celebrated conspiracy. He proves fictitious embellishment and falsification in every page of it, and henceforth its claims to belief must be classed with those of a superior monument of human genius for which it furnished the theme, the tragedy in which Otway shewed himself inferior only to Shakspeare, for bold sketching of character, poignant felicity of dialogue, and striking dramatic situations."

Here, then, we take our leave of Mr. Perceval. His principal points of failure we have already noticed; and our general opinion of his merits may be gathered from the preceding remarks. For the elegance of its style; the generous tone of its sentiments; and above all, for its faithful reference to original authorities, this work is certainly a valuable acquisition to our historical literature.

ART. II. Narrative of a Journey across the Cordillera of the Andes, and of a Residence in Lima, and other Parts of Peru, in the Years 1823 and 1824. By Robert Proctor, Esq. 8vo. pp. 374. Constable, Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co. London. 1825.

THE

'HE spirit of enterprize seems of late to have been more than ever active; and one consequence of its various effects has been that of leading travellers through different tracts of the earth but little traversed: hence, as each has returned with his gleanings, a continual accumulation of new treasures has been contributed to the fund of history. The two Americas have come in for a due share of attention; and though much has been communicated, much must still remain to be collected from the vast range of territory which they present. It is not, however, to be expected that every fresh journal is filled with quite new observations; and we perceive, among the many valuable and acceptable particulars in the volume before us, things here and there of which we had previous possession through other channels.

Mr. Proctor went out in the early part of 1823 as the agent of those who contracted to supply the Peruvian loan. His chief business was to obtain the ratification of that transaction by the Peruvian government and congress, and to draw on the London contractors for the instalments. He proceeded

from

from England to Buenos Ayres, whence he took his course westward over the Peninsula, and crossed the Cordillera of the Andes to Valparaiso, in Chili, where he embarked on board an East Indiaman, and thence sailed to Lima. This mode of effecting the journey to Peru saves the long though more comparatively safe and pleasant voyage round Cape Horn: but it is by no means free from inconvenience and even danger to the traveller, for which he scarcely finds a compensation in the scenery, however novel and majestic it may be, through which he has to pass. Of those inconveniences and dangers Mr. Proctor gives a very full, and, as we have reason to believe, a faithful description. Of the scenery, also, he furnishes minute and interesting sketches, without affecting to color them by any beauty of language. Indeed, the peculiar character of his narrative is, that it aims at a clear exposition of each circumstance, and at nothing further. The impres sions made by new objects and striking events upon a mind of considerable intelligence, though one obviously more accustomed to the daily business of life than to the pursuits of literature, are thus familiarly represented. His diction though not particularly graceful, and his composition though not marked by that measured elegance which sometimes preserves even books of travels from premature oblivion, has in it that which, in narrative-writings, is more to be desired, clearness, simplicity, and animation, with an instinctive attention to every thing the reader can have any interest in knowing.

Having been, in this expedition, accompanied by his family, by which the difficulties of travelling through so wild a country must have been greatly increased, Mr. Proctor engaged a carriage at Buenos Ayres to convey the females, and a cart covered with hide to carry their baggage as far on the road as such vehicles could be taken: thus with a guide who hired the necessary number of peons or postillions, and regulated the journey, and having laid in such a stock of provisions and other necessaries as seemed sufficient, he and his party left Buenos Ayres on the 20th of March, 1823. They found the country through which they passed, at some distance from the town, covered with rich clover, affording nourishment to im mense quantities of cattle, which roamed over the land as far as the eye could reach. The first post-house at which the party took up their quarters for the night was, according to Mr. Proctor, very respectable.' It consisted of one large room, and a sleeping chamber, furnished with wooden benches, on which the travellers spread their beds. The supper scene is worth transcribing..

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REV. JUNE, 1825.

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'On