300 
Europe where there are more ribbands ! 
It-is impflible to crofs the efplanade at 
Turin without joftling againf a crofs of 
St. Maurice. His majefty is alfo paf- 
fionately attached to the military ; and 
three-fourths of his annual income has 
been conftantly abforbed by the army. 
He has generals and colonels enough for 
Manceuvring an army of one hundred 
thoufand men. He alfo maintains fke- 
Jeton regiments—but the fkeletons con- 
fift of othcers alone. ‘The pay, indeed, is 
trifing—but then the uniforms are fo 
very «brilliant, it is impoffible for an 
Ktalian vount to refift the temptation of 
ruining himfelf, under fo. handfome a 
fuit of regimentals. 
His majefty, like his father, has, per- 
haps, exhibited too much partiality to- 
wards Piedmont. Savoy, the original 
appanage of the family, has been always 
treated with jealoufy and difiruft; and as 
for Sardinia, which to the title of king 
adds the very uvroyal revenue of a fum * 
we not unfrequently behold at the bot- 
tom of the rent-roll of an Englifh efquire, 
it is become a place of exile for thefe ba- 
nifhed from the other ftates. The very 
officers and foldiers fent thither, are often 
deftined to that fervice, not as a duty, 
but as a punifhmentt+. Neither Sar- 
dininan nor Savoyard is allowed to ex- 
ercife any employment in the place of 
his nativity. After this, is it furprifing 
that the one province is become a French 
department; that the cther has been in 
open infurrection during the laft twelve 
months and that from neither of them 
does his majefty draw any more revenue 
at this moment, than from his ideal king- 
dom fituated in the Holy land ? 
The king’s paifion for military men 
has been already mentioned. This ex- 
tends to minute objeéts, fuch as the cut 
of a coat, the colour of a facing, the 
form of an epaulet, and the fhape of 
a button. In 1791, Victor Amadeus col- 
le€ted all the drummers in the kingdom, 
in the cafernes, or barracks of Turin ; 
and their branch of military mufic was 
carried, in confequence of this, to a 
higher pitch of perfeétion than it had 
ever attained before. This, however, 
will ceafe to appear wonderful, when it 

* y5,00¢el. a year ! 
+ Ce font le plus fouvent des bannis qui oc- 
eupent les emplois en Sardaigne; & cette ile 
eft en partie gardée par deux régimens dont les 
officiers & foldats ont été condaminés au fervice 
par punition. Ces deux régimens font les dra- 
gos de Sardaigne, & les Compagnics Franches.”’ 
Memsirs of the Houfe of Savoy. 
[May 
is obferved, that his majefty, in perfon, 
fuperintended their progrefs daily ; and 
that Pregzan:, the beft violin player in 
Italy, inftruéted the whole corps. The 
refult was, that the drums of the capital 
of Piedmont excel, even to this very day, 
thofe of Vienna and Berlin; and that 
the leader of the band at the cpera-houfe 
was dubbed a captain. 
Regal fympathy, family conneétions, 
and large fubfidies, have produced won- 
derful changes fince the grand reform 
of the drums; and great part of Pied- 
mont is, at this moment, m the pof- 
feffion of the French, either as a pledge 
or aconguéft! The king of Sardinia, 
imitating the cuftomary policy of his 
anceftors, has already begun to treat with 
the conquercr ; the citadel, the five im- 
pregnable baftions, the memory of the 
ineffectual fiezge of 1706, and itill more 
than any of thefe, the policy of humbling 
a formidable enemy, will all operate in 
his favour; and, after obtaining a por- 
tion of the Milanefe, he may yet bully 
enoa into loans, and Geneva into fub- 
miffion, like his iiluftrious progenitors, 
of bleffed memory. 
Before this article is clofed, I {hall 
leave a memorandum for pofterity. 
There is, at this moment, in the fouth of 
Europe, a Catholic prince, who deems 
himfelf invulnerable when clothed in the 
uniform of his patron-faint ; every joint 
of whofe body is girt round with relics; 
and who, after w/ling his miftrefs, in- 
{tantly confeffes himfelf, and begs pardon 
of heaven at the feet of a frowzy friar, 
left he fhould dic in the commiflion of a 
mortal fin. Will this be believed in 
1850? Ihope not; and in 1796, J con- 
ceal the name and title of his Majefty, 
out of my profound refpeét to Royalty. 
THE PRINCE of PIEDMONT, 
Charles Emanuel Frederic Maria, is 
a moft excellent prince, whofe conduct 
might ferve as a model to all the heirs- 
apparent in Europe. The Cardinal de 
Gerdil, an enlightened clergyman, was 
his tutor; but he has preferred a layman 
for his confident. 
interfered, but always with the utmoft 
deference and fubmifion, in favour of 
the Sardinians and Savoyards. He has 
alfo, with equal uniformity, oppofed the 
prefent war, notwithftanding his mar- 
riage to the fifter of Louis XVI: and it 
was he who, in a familiar converfation 
with his royal father,when {peaking of the 
irrefiftible progrefs of opinions, exclaimed, 
“ Ceux quiont envie de régner, n’ont 
qe 
He has uniformly 
