35% 
lak refpeét, 1 was particularly reported 
that, when Pius the Vith. himfelf was in 
the treafury, and prefented his accounts 
in 1756, the debt amounted to fixty mil- 
lions of crowns; that, in 1789, the. fixth 
vear of the Cardinai’s adminiftration, it 
had increaied to eighty-feven millions ; 
and that, upon'the very appointment of © 
M. Laporta, it already exceeded one hun- 
Gred millions. 
His Holinefs, however, the Members 
of Government, and the beit-informed 
perfons at Court were far from coinciding 
with the generality of the people, in their 
vociferations againft the Cardinal; and it 
rather appears that they actually fought 
to give him fome proofs of efteem and re- 
{fpect. It was plainly feen that the finan- 
cial tranfaétions, labouring under unpre- 
cedented and perhaps fingular difficulties, 
could not be earried on in the ufual way: 
it was thought proper to fuperfede, for a 
certain time, the authority-of the ordi-, 
nary fifcal officers; and an extraordi- 
nary commiffion was appointed to re- 
pair, if poilible, the totrering machine., 
This commiffion was invefted in a nu- 
nerous congregation of prelates and car- 
dinals, and M. Ruffo was one of its mof 
confpicuous and important members. 
Many fittings were held, and many means 
deviled, to no purpofe: the evil admitted 
of no remedy; and the Cardinal, already, 
defpairing to recover the geod will of the 
people, left Rome, in a fit of difguft, and 
repaired to Naples again, to throw him- 
felf into the armsof his natural fovereign, 
whom he feemed to have fyfiematically 
confideved as the fecundam poft naufragium 
tabulam. 
We cannot defcribe the following part 
of the Cardinal’s life with a complete de- 
gree of accuracy: we mutt depend on 
tome confufed and infufficient hints thrown 
out by the newfpapei's, and on fome mu- 
tilated verbal reports, for the truth ard 
correcinefs of which we cannot pledge 
ourfelves. From thefe fources we. know 
that M, Rufo being arriyved.at Naples, 
towards the beginning of the year 1796, 
and having no profpect of preferment in 
the ecclefiaftical line, obtained from his 
Majetiy the place of fuperintendant of the 
royal town of Caferta, a poft of diftinc- 
tion, generally occupied by veteran offi- 
cers of the fiaff, or by ex-minifters' of 
ftate.. It was likewife reported, that,. as 
foon as, he took pofivilion of the place, he 
- received the warmefi admonitions. from 
Pius theVith. todeiift from an employment. 
fe notorioufly improper for a prince of 
| Biographical Memoirs of Cardinal Ruff. 
[May 1, 
the church. We are apt to believe the 
fact; as it was, indeed, an extraordinary 
occurrence that a Roman cardinal fhould 
fill, under a fecular government, a fecond- 
rate employment, however great and re- 
{petable. M. Ruffo himfelf was cer- 
tainly too well informed not to know that 
his colleagues, in the latter centuries, had 
never condefcended to receive, out of the 
clerical line, any dignity fhort of that of 
viceroys and firft miniftersof flate; and 
much lefs could hel be unacquainted with 
the technical expreflion of the Roman Ri- 
tual, compiled in the times of the proudeft, 
domination of Papacy, that the cardinals 
aquiparantur regibus. 
Woether,the Cardinal, yielding to the 
admonitions of the pontiff, had left, his 
place at Caferta, or whether he had con- 
tinued in it, we are not informed. This is 
certain, that, in December 1798, the epoch 
of the French aggrefiion, he was in Na-_ 
2 - 
pies, and that he joined the individuals of 
the faithful nobility who accompanied 
their amiable monarch to the antient and 
venerable feat of his royal predeceffors. 
How, being in Sicily, he was appointed 
by his Majetty Vicar General for his conti- 
nental dominions, foon after the coward- 
ly ignominious defeétion of Prince Pig- 
natelli—how he had the uncommon pre- 
fence, of mind to land on the fhores o 
Calabria, attended only by a few of his 
fervants-—how he fucceeded in procuring, 
in the firf inftance, a handfal of men, and 
multiplying it gradually into a powerful 
army——how he marched victorioufly to- 
wards the metropolis—and how this place 
furrendered to him, on, the memorable 
day, June 13th, 1799, are circumftances 
im every one’s recolleétion, and too much 
dependent on the’ general hiftory of the 
times to, be detailed in this Memoir. © 
It fhould feem, however, that the Car 
dinal, in thefe awfu! tranfactions, did né 
a&t to the complete fatisfation of his Mz 
jetty. For, although, foon after the r- 
conqueft of Naples, he was declard 
Viceroy and Generaliffimo of the anny, 
decorated with the newly-inftituted oer 
of St. Ferdinand, rewarded by the rch 
and noble abbey of St. Sopbia of Bne- 
vento, and gratified.svith penfions and lig- 
nities even for his brothers ; we fay him 
almoft as foon fubjeGted to a junto of nine ~ 
counfellors, who were to controul hm in 
the future operations of his goverment. 
It likewife feemed as if he was. ne him~ 
felf contented with his actual fitation 5 
as, in the very next October, talng the 
opportunity of the death of Pius ¢¢ Wa 
§ 
BS 
A 
2 mer ree" = + 
aa e.g ee ee ee 
. 
‘ 
; a 
=o rn re 
