CARDINAL ALBERONI, AND THE DUKE OF RIPPERDA, Ministers OF PHILIP V. KING OF SPAIN. BY GEORGE MOORE, Esq. VOL. I. London: PRINTED FOR R. FAULDER, NEW BOND-STREET, BY J. BRETTELL, MARSHALL-STREET, GOLDEN-SQUARE. 776650-190 PREFACE. I HERE present the public with the Lives of two extraordinary men ;--extraordinary they certainly were, though not useful, nor even great. The first particularly, from the most obscure origin, rose to the command of a monarchy, where uncontrolled power and unlimited magnificence reside upon the throne, and where the opinion that favours noble birth, prevails with the greatest rankness. Such indeed is one of the marks of a despotic government. There A 2 There is no security for the fruits of fair, honourable industry; no protection for the rights of any part of the community: but no-where does the ferment of bold intrigue and presumptuous ambition extend wider, or work with more violent agitation. The glare which scorches vegetation, and flings barrenness abroad, exalts mud and ordure into life, expands the reptile into the mounting insect of the day,gives him wings to fly, invests him with a gaudy coat, till, in his turn, he sinks beneath that glory from which he derived his existence. That state, on the contrary, where the progress from obscurity is slow and laborious,-where the imagination is not not amused with the vicissitudes of sudden rises and sudden falls,—where the subordination of ranks is most strictly preserved, is like those regions which, enjoying a mild sky and temperate suns, exhibit the refreshing spectacle of greenness and fertility, but can boast neither of the magnificence of storms nor the splendour of meteors. I shall just notice some of the books from which I collected the history which follows. I received from Spain, a translation of a Life of Ripperda which appeared in Holland, plentifully interspersed with notes, tending to correct the errors of the original. The translator seems to be a man of good judgement and industrious |