The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-08-29 00:00:00

POPE PIUS VII.

Shorn as the Pnpedorn now is of its beams, the decease
of the late Pontiff is an event not without interest. The
greater part of his Pontificate was marked by important
oecurrences and extraordinary vicissitntles. After con-
elnding, soon after its commencement, a Concordat with
Fraknee, by which the liberties of the Gallican church were
greatly ins• (1, he crossed the Alps in 1804 to crown
Napnlcon •, thus giving an example of linmility little con-
sistent,with the pride and pretensions of his predecessors,
who, ift,ead of bending before the *mutat power, made
-.Kings and Emperors crouch at tlociCThit. At a later period
the compliancy of his disposition was out to a more severe
test. Itgra was annexed to France, the Papal sovereignty
was aboillied. and the Supreme Head of the Catholic world,
reduced to the condition of the first Bishop of the Catholic
Chttrch, was rt.ninved from his temporal kingdom to inhabit
a palace at Paris, if he yielded, or a prison at Fontainebleau,
if he maintained his claims to the Sovereign power. Pius
VII. preferred captivity to abdication. and remained coo.
tined in the castle of Fontainebleau till the Allies overture.
ed his persecutor, and re-invested popery, that lay prostrate
on the earth, with all the rights and attributes of temporal
sovereignty. Since that time his days flowed in peace, for
he toek no share in the proceedings against Naples and
Piedmont, till the nnfortunatd accident which in the course
• of a few weeks has led him to the grave. It is easy to
anticipate that the vacancy in the Papal chair will be the
d.:;11%.• of h intrigue, if not of serious indifferences.—
A n%tria has long had as eve on the Pontificate, (a bother
at the Emperor having bein for some years a Cardinal)—
end France is deeply interested in preventing a nomination
which would virtually place the whole of Italy in the
ion nds of the Austrian Gocerninent. The late Pope died at
the advanced age of SI. His family ram was Chiaramonte
(ttregory Barnabas) but he assumed that of Pius VII. on
leis ai enticement to the Papal Chair. Ile was born on the
14th of August 1712; was created Cardinal on the 24th of
February, 1785, and elected Pope March 14th, 1800.

FRENCH ACADEMY.
..-...ei1w..

PARIS. AUGUST 26.—Yesterday the anniversary sitting
of the French Academy was held for the distribution of the
annual prizes given for political composition. The subject
announced last year for the French muse was the " Aboli-
tion of the Slave Trade." M. Raynourd, the author of
the "Temples," and the learned work on the poetry and
literature of the Troubadours, who is Perpetual Secretary
of the Academy, delivered an appropriate preliminary dis-
course, in which lie sketched the history of personal slavery
--described its state among the ancients—quoted the
opinions of ancient historians and philosophers on the
subject—and traced the influence of Christianity in effect-
ing its abolition in modern Europe. From this he passed
to the history of the negro slave trade, and produced the
opinion of Montesquieu. and some other French authors,
on its cruelty and injustice. It might naturally have been
supposed that the Perpetual Secretary of the Academy
world have proceeded in his historical narrative and liberal
praises, and would have placed some of our abolitionists
among the worthies whose exertions had contributed to
produce the result at which 3lottesquieu and other relight-
ed French had aimed. But no—his audience was not told
that there was such a body in existence as the British Par-
liament—that such men ever lived as Wilberforce and
larkson. Raynourd's liberality, justice, and huma-
nity must he very domestiivirtnes ; for, according to the
words of the play. " they not only begin at home, hut end
a• home ;" they at least do not venture to cross the British
Channel, though they may travel to Africa.
The first prize was adjudged to M. Chauret, whose poem,
containing some elegant verses, was read entire by M. Pi-
card, the celebrated comic writer. After this part of the
business of the day bad been conclnded, M. Fraysenouss,
the Bishop of Hermopolis, who presided at the sitting,
proceeded to a novel kind of business for a literary society,
namely, the distribution of prizes for %lemons actions—
prizes lately founded by Baron Montyou. They were five,
ore of 1.500 francs, and four medals of 1,000 franca value
each, adjudged to persons in humble life, who. during the
last year, had performed some strikingly virtuous action, or
series of acts. The Bishop, in performing this part of his
duty, commenced it by a discourse at which the Academy
must have been ashamed, containing not a single striking
thought, phrase, or expression, but filled with the dullest
common place and the most vulgar prejudices. The drift
of his speculation was, that no virtue existed in the c to-
ranks of society till it was created by the example,
an•d fostered by the encouragement, of the most virtuous,
most educated, most religious. and most excellent nobility
and gentry. Hence the necessity of premiums like the
present for virtuous actions among the canaille of society.
Covier, AI. Jony, and others, were obliged to exercise
some self control to maintain the academic gravity.

FESTIVAL OF ST. LOUIS.

PARIS. AVG. had been announced by the Ultras
that this year thefete of the King was to be celebrated with
peculiar splendour, and more than ordinary enthusiasm
The success of his Majesty's arms in Spain in restoring to
another descendant of St. Louis the brilliancy of an ahso-
Me throne, and the power of making as many Saints as he
chose, was supposed sufficient to occasion this new explo
sion of loyalty and devotion. The event has not answered
the expectation. With the exception of the court, the
Ministers, and the immediate agents of Government, civil
and military, there was yesterday no class of applauders.—
The illuminations of the evening were confined to the Tuil-
levies, the royal palaces, the public offices, and the houses
of the employe: of the Government. Nor was this indif
ference the result of ignorance or inattention. In England,
where the Roman Catholic Saints, as well as the Roman
Catholic worship, have gone out of fashion, the King's
birth-day cannot properly be regarded as a holyday. No
man is required to desist from his usual labours—no inter-
ruption, save of a voluntary nature, occurs to his usual oc-
cupations. But in Prance, as the/etc of St. Louis is at
once a festival of the Church and the anniversary of the
Sovereizn, labour is prohibited and business interrupted
ar religiously as on occasion of the greater solemnities
of the Christian faith. There is another distinc-
tinction. no less remarkable, between the manner of oh-
serving the King's anniversary in the two countries. In
England, Government contributes nothing to the public re-
joking, and the firing of a certain number of cannon, or the
parade of the mail coaches, is the only indication that it
gives of participating in the celebration of the day. in the
capital of France, on the contrary, the Government supplies
amusements for the public at the public charge. Louis
XVIII., who, probably resembles very little either the beat
or the worst of the Roman Emperors, imitates their custom
of affording to his good people of Paris, on occasion of his
fete, pawns et eirceases. On the eve of the festival, all
the theatres of the capital were opened to the public gratis.
and the waterworks of the Royal Gardens were ordered to
play for the amusement of those who preferred promenade
to bustle or bad panegyric; and, yesterday, beside the dis-
tribution of bread. fowls, and wine to the lower orders, who
chose to scramble for them on the public road, exhibitions
to suit all tastes were lavishly provided, from the most bril-
liant display of fire-works,down to the mountebank's stage,
or the climbing pole. The people of Paris, ever fond of
shows, flocked in crowds to enjoy the Government illumina-
tions in the evening, but not one in a thousand thought of
lighting a candle-end in the windows of bis own house ;
and, bating the exertion of the authorities, and the expendi-
ture of the public money. the fete of St. Crispin, or the
fete of St. Flair. (the saint of hacknercoachmen) would
have been as well celebrated as that of St. Louis.
It would be needless to describe illuminations which had
nothing in them either new or ingenious ; or scenes of as