chon, known by the name of Bourdelot, acquired by her countenance and liberality, was also a great scandal to literature. He had no pretenfions to learning; and, though sprightly, was yet indecent. He was brought to court by the learned Saumaife; and, for a time, drove literary merit entirely out of it, making learning the object of his ridicule, and exacting from Chriftina an exorbitant tribute to the weakness and inconftancy of her fex; for even Chriftina, with refpect to this man, proved herself not averse to sexual enjoyment, or the fweets of love; though in her amours the betrayed a wavering and inconftant mind. At laft fhe was compelled, by the public indignation, to banish this unworthy minion : and he was no fooner gone, than her regard for him was at an end. She was afhamed of the favour fhe had fhewn him; and, in a fhort time, thought of him with hatred or contempt. This Bourdelot, during his afcendency over the queen, had fupplanted count Magnus de la Gardie, fon of the constable of Sweden, who was a relation, a favourite, and perhaps the lover, of Chriftina. M. de Motteville, who had feen him ambassador in France, fays, in the memoirs, that he spoke of his queen in terms fo paffionate and respectful, that every one concluded his attachment to her to be more ardent and tender than a mere fenfe of duty can produce. This nobleman fell into difgrace because he fhewed an inclination to govern; while M. Bourdelot feemed to aim at nothing more than to amuse; and concealed, under the unfufpected character of a droll, the real afcendency which he exercised over the queen's mind. thony Steinberg, the queen's firft equerry, inftantly threw himself into the water, laid hold of her robe, and, with such assistance as was given him, got the queen afhore: during this accident, her recollection was fuch, that the moment her lips were above water, fhe cried, out, "Take care of the admiral." When fhe was got out of the water, fhe difcovered no emotion either by her gefture or countenance; and the dined the fame day in public, where fhe gave a humorous account of her adventure. But, though at firft fhe was fond of the power and fplendour of royalty, yet fhe began at length to feel that it embarraffed her; and the fame love of independence and liberty which had determined her against marriage, at last made her weary of her crown. As, after her firft difguft, it grew more and more irkfome to her, the . refolved to abdicate; and, in 1652 communicated her refolution to the fenate. The fenate zealously remonftrated against it; and was joined by the people; and even by Charles Guftavus himself, who was to fucceed her: fhe yielded to their importunities, and continued to facrifice her own pleasure to the will of the public till the year 1654, and then the carried her defign into execution. It appears by one of her letters to M. Canut, in whom the put great confidence, that fhe had meditated this project for more than eight years; and, that she had communicated it to him five years before it took place. The ceremony of her abdication was a mournful folemnity, a mixture of pomp and fadness, in which scarce any eyes but her own were dry. She continued firm and compofed through the whole; and, as foon as it was over, prepared to remove into a country more favourable to fcience than Sweden was. Concerning the merit of this action, the world has always been divided in opinion; it has been condemned alike both by the ignorant and the learned, the trifler and the fage. It was admired, however, by the great Condé: "How great was the magnanimity of this princefs (faid he), who could fo eafily give up that for which the rest of 3 A 2 About this time, an accident happened to Christina which brought her into ftill greater danger than that which has been related already. Having given orders for fome fhips of war to be built at the port of Stockholm, fhe went to see them when they were finished; and, as fhe was going onboard of them, cross a narrow plank, with admiral Fleming, his foot flipping, he fell, and drew the queen with him into the fea, which in that place was near ninety feet deep. An mankind mankind are continually deftroying each other, and which fo many throughout their whole lives purfue without attaining !" It appears, by the works of St. Evremond, that the abdication of Chriftina was at that time the univerfal topic of fpeculation and debate in France, Chriftina, befides abdicating her crown, abjured her religion; but this act was univerfally approved by one party and cenfured by another; the Papifts triumphed, and the Proteftants were of fended. No prince, after a long imprifonment, ever fhewed fo much joy upon being restored to his kingdom, as Chriftina did in quitting hers. When he came to a little brook, which feparates Sweden from Denmark, she got out of her carriage; and, leaping on the other fide, cried out in a tranfport of joy," At last I am free, and out of Sweden, whither, I hope, I fhall never return." She difmiffed her women, and laid by the habit of her fex: "I would become a man (faid fhe); yet I do not love men merely because they are men, but because they are not women." She made her abjuration at Bruffels; where the faw the great Condé, who, after his defection, made that city his afylum, "Coufin (faid fhe), who would have thought, ten years ago, that we fhould have met at this diftance from our countries?" It must be acknowledged, that her journeys to Sweden had a motive of neceffity; for her appointments were very ill paid, though the ftates often confirmed them after her abdication: but to other places the was led merely by a roving difpofition; and, what is more to her difcredit, fhe always disturbed the quiet of every place the came into, by exacting greater deference to her rank as queen than the had a right to expect, by her total non-conformity to the customs of the place, and by continually exciting and fomenting intrigues of ftate. She was indeed always too bufy, even when the was upon the throne; for there was no event in Europe in which the was not ambitious of acting a principal part. During the troubles in France by the faction called the Fronde, fhe wrote with great eagerness to all the interested parties, officiously offering her mediation to reconcile their interefts, and calm their passions, the fecret fprings of which it was impoffible the fhould know. This was first thought a dangerous, and afterwards a ridiculous, behaviour. During her refidence in France she gave univerfal disgust, not only by violating all the customs of the country, but by practifing others directly oppofite. She treated the ladies of the court with the greatest rudeness and contempt: when they came to embrace her, fhe, being in man's apparel, cried out, "What a ftrange eagernefs have thefe women to kifs me! is it because I look like a man ?” The inconftancy of Chriftina's temper appeared in her going continual ly from place to place from Bruffels fhe went to Rome; from Rome to France, and from France fhe returned to Rome again; after, this fhe went to Sweden, where the was not very well received; from Sweden fhe went to Hamburgh, where she continued a year, and then went again to Rome; from Rome the returned to Hamburgh; and again to Sweden, where fhe was ftill worfe received than before; upon which she went back to Hamburgh, and from Hamburgh again to Rome. She intended another journey to Sweden; but it did not take place, any more than an expedition to England, where Cromwell did not feem well difpofed to receive her; and after many wanderings, and many purposes of wandering ftill more, the at last died at Rome in 1689. But though fhe ridiculed the manners of the French court, she was very folicitous to enter into its intrigues. Louis XIV. then very young, was enamoured of Mademoiselle de Mancini, niece to cardinal Mazarine; Chriftina flattered their paffion, and offered her service. "I would fain be your confidante (faid fhe); if you love, you must marry." The murder of Monaldefchi is, to this hour, an infcrutable mystery. It is, however, of a piece with the expreffions conftantly used byChristina in her letters, with refpect to those with whom fhe was offended; for fhe scarce ever fignified her difpleasure without threatening the life of the offender. "If you fail in your duty, (said she to her fecretary, whom she sent to Stockholm after her abdication,) not all the power of the king of Sweden fhall fave your life, though you should take shelter in his arms." A musician having quitted her service for that of the duke of Savoy, she was so tranfported with rage as to difgrace herfelf by these words, in a letter written with her own hand : "He lives only for me; and, if he does not fing for me, he shall not fing long for any body." Bayle was alfo threatened for having faid that the letter which Chriftina wrote, upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes, was "a remain of Proteftantifm;" but he made his peace by apologies and submission. Upon the whole, fhe appears to have been an uncommon mixture of faults and great qualities; which, however it might excite fear and respect, was TH ANTIDOTE AGAINST HE perfidious and bloody-minded difpofition of the French nation, in its political capacity, has, in a thoufand inftances, been manifefted to the world; but the most atrocious example of this kind upon record is that called the Parifian Maffacre of St. Bartholomew's day, which was carried on with fuch deteftable ferocity, and fuch a bloody cruelty, as would furpafs all belief, were it not attested by the moft undeniable evidence. In the year 1572, in the reign of Charles IX. many of the principal proteftants were invited to Paris, under a folemn oath of fafety, upon occafion of the marriage of the king of Navarre with the French king's fifter, viz. the king of Navarre's mother, Coligni admiral of France, with other nobles. The queen-dowager of Navarre, a zealous proteftant, was poifoned by a pair of gloves before the marriage was folemnized; and, on the 24th of Auguft 1572, being St. Bartholomew's day, about day-break, upon the toll of the bell of the church of St. Germain, the butchery began. The admiral was bafely murdered in his own houfe; and then thrown out of the window, to gratify the malice of the duke of Guife: his head was afterwards cut off, and fent to the king and queen by no means amiable. She had wit, taste, parts, and learning; the was indefatigable upon the throne; great in private life; firm in misfortunes; impatient of contradiction; and, except in her love of letters, inconftant in her inclinations. The moft remarkable inftance of this ficklenefs is, That, after she had abdicated the crown of Sweden, fhe intrigued for that of Poland. She was, in every action and purfuit, violent and ardent in the highest degree; impetuous in her defires, dreadful in her refentment, and fickle in her conduct She fays of herself, that "fhe was mistrustful, ambitious, passionate, haughty, impatient, contemptuous, fatyrical, incredulous, undevout, of an ardent and violent temper, and extremely amorous. In general, her failings were thofe of her fex, and her virtues the virtues of ours. FRENCH POLITICS. mother; and his body, after a thou fand indignities offered to it, hung up. by the feet on a gibbet. After this, the murderers ravaged the whole city of Paris, and butchered in three days above ten thousand lords, gentlemen, prefidents, and people of all ranks. An horrible fcene of things, fays Thuanus, when the very streets and paffages refounded with the noise of thofe that met together for murder and plunder; the groans of those who were dying, and the fhrieks of fuch as were just going to be butchered, were every where heard; the bodies of the flain thrown out of the windows; the courts and chambers of the houses filled with them; the dead bodies of others dragged through the streets, their blood running down the channels in fuch plenty, that torrents feemed to empty themselves in the neighbouring river; and, in a word, an innumerable multitude of men, women with child, maidens, and children, were all involved in one common deftruction; and the gates and entrances of the king's palace all befmeared with their blood. From the city of Paris the massacre fpread almost throughout the whole kingdom. In the city of Meaux they threw above two hundred into gaol and and after they had ravished and killed a great number of women, and plundered the houses of the proteftants, they executed their fury on those they had imprisoned, and, calling them out one by one, they were killed, as Thuanus expreffes it, like sheep in a market; the bodies of fome were flung into ditches, and of others into the river Maine. In Orleans they múr. dered above five hundred men, women, and children, and enriched themselves with their spoil. The same cruelties were practised at Angers, Troyes, Bourges, La Charité, and especially at Lyons, where they inhumanly destroyed above eight hundred proteftants; children hanging on their mothers necks; parents embracing their children; putting ropes about the necks of fome, dragging them through the streets, and throwing them, mangled, torn, and half dead, into the river. It would be endless to mention the butcheries committed at Valence, Romaine, Rouen, &c. We fhall, therefore, only add, that, according to Thuanus, above thirty thousand proteftants were deftroyed in this maffacre, or, as others with greater probability affirm, above one hundred thousand. Thuanus himself calls this a moft deteftable villainy; and, in abhorrence of St. Bartholomew's day, ufed to repeat these words of P. Statius, Silv. v. iii. ver. 88, &c. Excidat ilia dies avo, ne poftera credant Secula. Nos certe taceamus, et obruta multa Nodle tegi propria patiamus crimina gentis In the words of Job, chap. iii. ver. 3. &c. "Let that day perifh: and let it not be joined unto the days of the year. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it," &c. And yet, as though this had been the most heroic tranfaction, and could have procured immortal glory to the authors of it, medals were struck at Paris in honour of it. But how was the news of this butchery received at Rome, that faithful city, that holy mother of churches! How did the vicar of Chrift, the fucceffor of Peter, and the father of the Chriftian world, relish it? Let Thuanus tell the horrid truth. When the news, fays he, came to Rome, it was wonderful to fee how they exulted for joy. On the 6th of September, when the letters of the pope's legate were read in the affembly of the cardinals, by which he affured the pope that all was tranfacted by the exprefs will and command of the king, it was immediately decreed that the pope fhould march with his cardinals to the church of St. Mark, and in the most folemn manner give thanks to God for fo great a bleffing conferred on the fee of Rome and the Chriftian world; and that, on the Monday after, folemn mass should be celebrated in the church of Minerva; at which the pope, Gregory XIII. and cardinals, were prefent; and that a jubilee fhould be published throughout the whole Chriftian world, and the cause of it declared to be, to return thanks to God for the extirpation of the enemies of the truth and church in France. In the evening the cannon of St. Angelo were fired, to testify the public joy; the whole city illuminated with bonfires; and no one fign of rejoicing omitted that was ufually made for the greatest victories obtained in favour of the Roman church. After fuch examples of favage barbarity, of treachery, and unchriftian perfecution, can the fons and daughters of Englifhmen, with their eyes open, and their fenfes wide awake, encourage for a moment the perfidious fyftem of French politics, or the perfecuting fpirit of the church of Rome! REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF CAPTAIN COOK FROM SHIPWRECK. URING Captain Cook's voyage of which are full of dangerous rocks and fhoals, his fhip was brought into fuch a perilous fituation, and from which the efcape was fo extraordina ry, that it deferves a particular rela June 1770, as they purfued their courfe from Trinity Bay, and nearly in the latitude affigned to the islands discovered by Quiros. At that time they they had the advantage of a fine breeze and a clear moonlight; and, in ftanding off from fix till near nine o'clock, the ship had deepened her water from fourteen to twenty-one fathoms; but, while the navigators were at fupper, it fuddenly fhoaled to twelve, ten, and eight, fathoms in the space of a few minutes. Every thing was then ready for putting the thip about, when they fuddenly got into deep water again, and continued in twenty and twenty-one fathoms for some time, so that the gentlemen went to bed in perfect fecurity. A little before eleven, however, the water fhoaled at once from twenty to seventeen fathoms; and before the lead could be heaved, again, the ship struck, and remained immoveable, excepting as far as the was heaved up and down, and dafhed against the rocks by the furge. The alarm was now univerfal, and not indeed without the greatest reafon. It appeared that the vellel had been lifted over the ledge of a rock, and lay in a hollow within it, where there were in fome places from three to four fathoms water, and in others scarcely as many feet: the sheathing boards were disjointed, and floating round the fhip in great numbers; and at laft the falfe keel alfo was destroyed, while the rock kept grating her bottom with such force as to be heard in the fore ftoreroom. It was now neceffary to lighten the ship as much as poffible; and this was done with all expedition to the amount of more than fifty tons. In the morning of the 11th of June they difcovered the land at about eight leagues diftance, without any island between, on which they could have been fent afhore in the event of the fhip going to pieces, that fo they might have been carried to the main land by turns. To add to their diftrefs, the fhip drew fo much water, that it could fcarcely be kept under by three pumps. Laftly, it appeared, that even the rifing of the tide, on which they had ultimately depended for relief, was infufficient to anfwer the purpofe, as the day-tide fell confiderably fhort of that in the night-time. Having therefore lightened the ship still farther, by throwing out every thing that could poffibly be fpared, they waited with patience for the next tide; when, after incredible exertion, the ship righted, and they got her over the ledge of the rock into deep water. By continual labour, however, the men were at laft fo much exhausted, that they could not stand to the pumps more than five or fix minutes at a time; after which they threw themfelves flat on the deck, tho' a stream of water between three and four inches deep ran over it; and in this fituation they lay till others, exhausted as well as themselves, took their places, on which they started up again, and renewed their exertions. In this dreadful extremity, Mr. Monkhouse, a midshipman, propofed the expedient of fothering the fhip, as it is called, by which means he said that he had feen a merchant-fhip brought from Virginia to London after the had fprung a leak that admitted more than four feet water in an hour. The ex-. pedient being approved of, it was put in execution in the following manner: He took a lower ftudding-fail, and, having mixed a large quantity of oakum and wool together, ftitched them down by handfuls as lightly as poffible; the whole being afterwards fpread over with the dung of the sheep and other filth. The fail was then hauled under the fhip's bottom by means of ropes which kept it extended. When it came under the leak, the wool and oakum, with part of the fail, were forced inwards by the pref fure of the water, which thus prevented its own ingrefs in fuch an effectual manner, that one pump, instead of three, was now fufficient to keep it under. Thus they got the fhip into a convenient port on the coast of New Holland, where there was an opportunity of fully repairing her defects. Here they difcovered that their prefervation had not been owing entirely to the expedient above-mentioned; for one of the holes was in a great meafure filled up by a piece of rock which had broken off and stuck in it; and this hole was fo large, that, had it not been filled up in the manner juft mentioned, they must undoubtedly have perished, notwithftanding all the affiftance that could have been derived from the pumps. From |