3 8 1 <?.] On Uniformity of Representative Consiitulion. 



false, which will not be easily caught, tically piihlishcfl by Miroeu.«, 



and instantly swallowed by a credulous 

 and umcflccting vulgar. Among other 

 fnstances wliich I eould eminierate, I 

 will beg leave to nolice that stale thread- 

 bare story ol" Pope Joan, which I lind re- 

 corded in youi" Magazine for last March. 

 It is said to be extracted from the work 

 of a nameless clergyman of the churt U 

 of England, who took it, '''verbatim, 

 with Ms ojvn hand, from that scarce and 

 furious old hook, entitled, the Nurem- 

 bnrgh Chronicle." How captivating is 

 such precision ! — a work " piintcd more- 

 over in a Popish cily, by a Popish prin- 

 ter, and compiled by Popish hands." Oh, 

 what a string of incontrovertible reasons 

 to excite the credulity of the throng ! 

 Yet tliis story is as flagrant a ])iece of 

 calumny and falsehood as ever came 

 from the pen of malice. 1 cony the refu- 

 tation from a Catholic work, entitled, 

 " Lives of tlie Fathers, Martyrs, &:c. bv 

 the Rev. Alban Butler," 7 vols. p. 224. 

 " That a pretended woman called Joan 

 interrupted the series of the succession 

 between Leo IV. and Bennet III. is a 

 most notorious forgery. I^upus Fena- 

 riensis, ep. 103, to Bennett III. Ado in 

 liis Chronicle, Rhegino in his Chronicle, 

 the Annals of St. Bertin, Hincraar, 

 ep. 26, Pope Nicholas I. the sncccssor 

 of Bennet III. ep. 46, even the calum- 

 niators of the holy see, Photius ]. de 

 Process. Spir. Sti. and Metrophanes of 

 Smyrna, 1. de Divinitate Spiritus Sancti, 

 Avho all lived at that very tirr>e, express- 

 ly testify that Bennet III. succeeded 

 immediately Leo IV. Whence Blon- 

 del, a violent Calvinist, has, by an ex- 

 press dissertation, demonstrated the fal- 

 sity of this fable. Marianns Scotus, at 

 Mentz, wrote, two hundred years after 

 (in 1083), a chronicle, in which mention 

 is first made of this fiction ; from whence 

 it was inserted in the Chronicle of Mar- 

 tinus Polonus, a Dominican, in 1277, 

 though it is wanting in the true manu- 

 script copy kept in the Vatican library, 

 as Leo Allatius assures us, and in other 

 old manuscript copies, as Burnet (Nou- 

 vellesdc la Rep. de Lcttres, Mai-S 1687), 

 CaslenCCatal.Bibl. rcg. Londin. p. 102), 

 Sec. testify. liambecins, the most learn- 

 ed keeper of the imperial library at 

 Vienna, in his excellent Catalogue of 

 that library, vol. 2, p. 860, has demon- 

 strated this of the oldest and best manu- 

 script copies of this chronicle ; also of 

 Marianns Scotus. Her name was foist- 

 ed into Sigcbcrt's Chronicle, written 

 1 1 12, for it is not found in the original 

 manuscript copy at Gi-mbl«urs, autLcu- 



11 



Platina, 

 and the other late copies of Martirms 

 Polonus and Sigobert, borrow it from 

 the first forger in the copy of Marianus 

 Scotus. probably falsified; certainly of 

 no authnrity an<l inconsistent ; for there 

 it is said she sat two years iive months, 

 and (hat she had studied at Athens, 

 whcie no schools remained long before 

 this time. 



As to (lie porphyi'y stool, shewn in a 

 repository belonging to the Lateran 

 church, which is said to have been made 

 use of on account of this fable, it is an 

 idle dream. There were two such stools, 

 one is now shewn to travellers. It is 

 certainly of old Roman aiitiquily, finely 

 poii.shed, and might perhaps be used at 

 the baths, or at .'jinie superstitions cere- 

 monies. The art of cutting or working; 

 in porphyry marble was certainly los't 

 long before the ninth, and not restored 

 before the time of Cosmus the Great, of 

 Aledicis; this work is still exceeding 

 slow and expensive. On this idle iixble, 

 see Lambecius, Blondei, Leo Allatius, 

 Nat. Alexander, Boerhaavc, Sec. 



R. C. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Mcgazine. 



SIR, 



ANY homogeneous system of repre- 

 sentation has this inconvenience, 

 that, in consequence of its very constrn<:- 

 tion, some one sect or interest usually 

 predominates among the members 

 chosen, and then attempts to subject 

 the other sects and interests to its own 

 peculiar will. There is no tolerance 

 where a majority has counted noses. 

 The puritans of Lngland, the libertine* 

 of France, overwhelmed their o])poncnts 

 as with the tide, so soon as they had sub- 

 stituted conventions uniformly chosen, 

 to the heterogeneous parliaments and 

 states-general which preceded. 'I'lie 

 tyranny of the ])revailing interest or 

 ])arty overcame the speciiic and propor- 

 tionate ponderancc of each. 



Our county-elections arc so constiT 

 tuted, that they almost necessarily throw 

 the representation into the hands of tha 

 land-owners, 'i'his influence already 

 predominates in parliament mischievons- 

 ly ; witness the snccessive Ciirii-bill.<, 

 which le\ V a heavy tax on all consumers 

 of bread, for tlu; exclusive benefit of 

 persons engaged in agriculture, who 

 iorm but a tenth part of the connnunity. 

 If a further addition were made to tha 

 county representation, all Iheopiiressions 

 of the feudal ages would step by step 

 igturn; arjssts for debt would be ab(>- 

 t: 3 ^i.ih(j<l 



