1801. | 
of fome fubterraneous mines to deftroy, 
or at leaft to overthrow, the French 
camp. The cannoneer Micco was 
charged with thefe preparations. He had 
already completed the works, and was 
actually applying the matches for the 
purpofe of lighting them, when he fhould 
get out of the mines. Whilft he was 
preparing to go out, he was warned by 
his comrades that the French, having 
received fome hints of the intended ex- 
plofion, were rapidly digging the ground 
for the purpofe of averting it, and he 
perceived himfelf, by the noife over his 
‘head, and the falling of fome pieces of 
earth and ftones, that if the matches 
were not foon lighted, the enemy might 
deftroy the mines. ‘ Well, my friends, 
(exclaimed the hero,) run away, re- 
commend to the King my poor wife and 
children, and let me remain.’ ‘This faid, 
he inftantly lighted the ‘matches, and, 
burying himfelf under the mines, he 
overthrew the French camp and pre- 
ferved Turin. Victor Amadeus was 
likewife a&tive, vigilant, and prudent, in 
his internal adminiftration. To him 
the Piedmontefe dominions ftand indebt- 
ed for many eftablifhments which were 
utterly unprecedented in hiftory, and 
which, in fome inttances, are quite fin- 
gular even to this day. He humbled 
the pride of the Jefuits, by taking off 
from their colleges the public fchools. 
for the education of youth; he efta- 
blithed the famous Royal Academy for 
the foreign nobility and princes, he ordered 
an accurate agrarian map to be made 
of all the land-proprietors and produc- 
tions of his dominions; and he built 
the famous warehoufes for the azzona 
of his eftates, of which the celebrated 
French economift Melon fpoke as of 
a fingular economical] eftablifhment. ‘The 
only blemifh which an attentive critic 
may find in the adminiftration of this 
monarch is, perhaps, the innovation 
which, whilft he poffeffed Sicily, he at- 
tempted to make upon the famous  le- 
gation a Jatere in that monarchy.— 
‘This inconfiderate ftep expofed him to 
the mortification of beholding his king- 
dom obnoxious to an ecclefiaftical in- 
terdict from Pope Clement XI. 
Charles Emmanuel may not impro- 
perly be denominated the Trajan and 
the Marcus Aurelius of Piedmont. He 
furpafied his father in all the vir- 
tues fo congenial to him and to their 
anceftors. He was great in war, and 
even in his frequent defeats his ene- 
Memoirs of the King of Sardinia: 
53 
mies were compelled to acknowledge in 
his condu& the exertions and the re- 
fources of a great general. After the 
peace of 1747, which confirmed to him 
his important conquefts in the Mi- 
lanefe, he applied himfelf entirely to 
promote the public profperity of his 
fabjects. One of his chief cares was 
to difcharge his debts, in order to re- 
lieve his people ‘from the burthen of the 
contributions raifed during the wars. 
Pofterity will never forget what he faid 
in 1763, to one of his favourites. 
‘ This isthe happieft day of my life: I have 
Jupprefed the laff extraordinary tax!” 
His economy in finances, his contempt 
for luxury and pleafures, and his care 
not to deliver the helm of Government 
to the inferior minilters, enabled him to 
reform many abules, and replace them 
by the moft beneficial eftablifhments. 
He profcribed debauchery and gam- 
bling ; he reformed the jurifprudence and 
legiflation; and he enacted a New Code 
of Laws, already publifhed in 2 vols. in 
twelves; he protected religion; he en- 
couraged clergymen of talents ; and 
ordered that every ecclefaftical dignity, 
even bifhoprics, fhould be granted only 
upon a competition. It is to be lamented 
that he brought a blemifh upon his 
charaéter, by the dreadful perfecution 
he raifed againit the celebrated Neapoli- 
tan hiftorian, Peter Giannone, who had 
taken refuge in his dominions under the 
fafecuard of hofpitality and of the law 
of nations. . | 
If the writer is rightly informed, his pre- 
fent Sardinian Majefty difcovered from his 
very infaney that difpofition for prudence 
and piety which had been the unalterable 
characteriftic of his anceftcrs. His tutor 
was the Prince of Sofpelio, a nobleman of 
the firft rank, and advantageoufly known 
in Italy for his liberal principles and 
polite manners ; his chief preceptor was 
a venerable and learned Savoyard clergy- 
man, promoted afterwards to the Roman 
purple, and known in the literary and 
ecclefiaftical hierarchy under the name 
ef Cardinal Gerdil;°and one of his in- 
firuétors was a Pietilt, of the, name of 
Pifcheria, reckoned one of the beft claf- 
fical fcholars then in Turin. Sometimes 
the young Prince would attend in the 
royal academy, and take his feat among 
foreign princes ; and when the celebrated 
naturaliit Beccaria was appointed in~ 
ftitutor to the Duke of Chablais, his 
brother, he would alfo affift at a courfe of 
lectures on mathematics and experimental 
Tits ; philo- 
