324 
philofophy under that refpectableplrofeffor. 
In 1773s upen the acceffion of his fa- 
ther to the throne ef Sardinia, he took 
the title of Prince: of Piedwoxt ; and in 
the year 1775, upon the marriages 
of his two fifters, Madame d’ Artois, 
and Madame de Provence (the prefent 
Queen of France), he married, the 
Princefs. Mary Adelaide Clotilde of 
rance. Nothing remarkable is to be 
found in the hifery of his Majefty, from 
that time tothe ever-memorable period 
of the French difsfters. ‘The breaking 
out of the war with Fiance brought upen 
him the difagreeable confequences which 
we are going to relate. . 
According to a ccnftitutional law of 
the Sardinian dominions, no public debt 
ean be contraéted by’ the reigning mon- 
arch without the centfent and the fig- 
mature of the prefumptive heir of the 
crown. His late Sardinian Majefty,-al- 
though full as prudent and jaft as any of 
his predeceflors, and altogether as be- 
Joved by -his people, had been charged 
with fome neglefts of the financial ad 
miniftration. It was thought that the 
bank notes, or rather the paper-money, 
ifued under bis reign, in the name of 
the crown, had given iome effeciual blows 
to public credit, as they already lof 
upwards of zo percent. in the circula- 
tion. For the a€tual preparations for a 
war thought fo juit. and neceffary, more 
money was teguilite, and more affignats 
were confequently to be iffued, upon the 
mortgage of the crown eftates. ThePrince, 
heing icquired to put his fgnature to the 
Rew debts, had fome cebjettions to the 
propofal, and took the lberty to make 
fome obfervations on the neceility of the 
war. Moft probably he ftated his opinion 
fairly, and that he did not mean to throw 
2ny ccnfure upon his father’s condudt 
or government; but, as his difficulties 
were related to the King in ftrong co- 
jours, and mifconfrued for a felfithnefs 
tending not to take upon his future reign 
the burden of diicharging the public 
debts aétually under difcuffien,. he had 
the mortification.of being confined in 
his ownapartments by his Majefty’s order. 
We have occafionally lamented in the 
courfe of this werk, that fo many emi- 
nent characters of the prefent age fhould 
be vonne&ted with the overgrowing tor- 
rent of the French war, which, by the 
multiplicity and rapidity of its events, 
throws them unavoidably into the back 
ground, and impairs of courfe every 
fentiment of efieem and refpeé& that is 
naturally due to them; morcover, in a 
Ademoirs of the King of Sardizia. 
[May 1 
work Ike this, conffting of biographical 
notices and anecdotes, public events 
are littie fought for, owing to their 
connection with general hiftory, and to 
their being of courie the province of 
every other hiftorian or journalift. We 
entertain, therefore, no wifh to trouble 
our Readers with an‘ account of the 
treacherous praétices of the French rulers 
and the Piedmentefe jacobins, before the 
year 1796; of the difgraceful peace which 
was the refult of them ; of the delivering 
of all the firong holds to the Corfican 
chief ;- and of the outrages, contume- 
lies, and humiliations, by which the 
unhappy monarch was compelled to de- 
liver the citadel of Turin, the laft bul- 
wark of Bis crown. We fhall only 
relate fome interefting particulars about 
the expulfion of his Majefty from Pied- 
mont, and his retreat 
which are neither known to the public, 
nor- likely to be noticed by other wri- 
ters. 
Notwithfianding the French occupied 
all the frong places in the country and 
the very citadel of Turin, ftill it would 
have been in the power of his Majeity 
to get them flaughtered in one hour, by 
a fingle hint to his fubjeéts to- the pur- 
pofe. He was, however, too religious 
and too mild for fuch bloody aétions, 
When the Diregtory thought of expel- 
ling him from Pie@ment, they were aware 
that, notwithftanding their forces and ad- 
vantages, the projeét could not be ex- 
ecuted in a regular way. They were 
obliged to adopt fome treacherous and 
diferaceful meafures, worthy, as Mallet 
du Pan juitly fays, of Caffructi Cofira- 
cant; and upon fendmy fome more troops 
into the places, in a friendly manner, 
they unexpectedly imprifoned the royal 
garrifons and proclaimed their Republic. 
AL ai-devant nvbleman of the. name of 
de Grouchy, brother-in-law to Condor- 
et, who commanded in the citadel, ob- 
liged tae King, with threats of burning 
Turin, to fign an abdication, or rather a 
cequeathment of his continenral eftates in 
favour of France, on condition that he 
fhould be allowed to retire to -his king- 
dom of Sardinia, efcorted by a French 
commifiary. The prudent monarch, 
always intent to avert the calamities of 
his fubjects, confented. The departure 
of his Majefty from Turin, attended. by 
his royal tamily, and his faithful fervants 
and minifters, in twenty-four carriages, 
with I'ghted torches, in’ the night-time, 
amidft the tears and diftrefs of all his 
faithful fubjeéts, was like a funeral pro- 
; : Fhe : ceffion, 
4 
into Sardinia, © 
\ 
