resumed the great undertaking with that spirit and decision which distinguished all the measures of his active pontificate. Great princes generally find or create the talents requisite for their purposes, and Julius discovered in Bramante an architect capable of comprehending and executing his grandest conceptions. A plan was presented and approved. The walls of the ancient Basilica were taken down, and on the eighteenth of April 1508, the foundation stone of one of the vast pillars that support the dome was laid by Julius with all the pomp and ceremony that became such an interesting occurrence. From that period the work, though carried on with ardour and perseverance, yet continued during the space of one hundred years to occupy the attention and absorb the income of eighteen pontiffs. I might have augmented this number by the addition of the names of Urban VIII. Alexander VII. and their successors down to Benedict XIII. who all contributed to the erection, embellishment, and completion of the superb colonnade that opens before the church, and adds so much to its majesty. The popes who have since followed have not been entirely inactive, but have endeavoured each according to his ability to acquire a share in the glory and duration of this edifice by some decoration or improvement. In fine, the late Pius VI. built the sacristy, and by this necessary appendage, which had till then been wanting, may be considered as having accomplished the grand undertaking and given the Basilica Vaticana its full perfection.

On the whole it would not be exaggeration to assert, that nearly three hundred years elapsed and five and thirty pontiff's reigned, from the period of the commencement to that of the termination of this stupendous fabric. The most celebrated architects of modern times had an opportunity of displaying their talents and immortalizing their names in the prosecution of the work, and Bramante, Raffaello, San Gallo, Michael Angelo, Vignola, Carlo Maderno, and

Bernini, not to speak of others of less reputation, laboured successively in its promotion or consummation.

To calculate the expense with any great precision would be difficult, but from the best information that has been collected on the subject we may venture to state, that however enormous the sum may appear, the expenditure must have amounted to at least twelve millions sterling; and when we consider that the marbles, bronze, and other valuable materials employed in its decoration are not only uncommon but scarcely known out of Rome, we may add that it would require three times as much to raise a similar edifice in any other capital. From the latter observation we may infer, that if a convulsion of nature, or, what is still more to be dreaded, an explosion of human malignity should shatter or destroy this admirable fabric, many ages must elapse and numberless generations pass away before means could be collected or talents found to restore it, or to erect another of equal magnificence.

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What then will be the astonishment or rather the horror of reader, when I inform him that this unrivalled temple, the triumph and masterpiece of modern skill, the noblest specimen of the genius and the powers of man, was during the late French invasion made an object of rapacious speculation and doomed to ruin. Yet such is the fact. When the exhausted income of the state and the plunder of all the public establishments were found unequal to the avarice of the generals, and to the increasing wants of the soldiers, the French committee turned its attention to St. Peter's, and employed a company of Jews to estimate and purchase the gold, silver, and bronze that adorn the inside of the edifice, as well as the copper that covers the vaults and dome on the outside. The interior ornaments might perhaps have been removed without any essential or irreparable damage to the body of the fabric; but to strip it of its exter

nal covering was to expose it to the injuries of the weather, and to devote it to certain destruction; especially as the papal government when restored had not the means of repairing the mischief. But Providence interposed, and the hand of the Omnipotent was extended to protect his temple. Before the work of sacrilege and barbarism could be commenced, the French army alarmed by the approach of the allies retired with precipitation, and St. Peter's stands!·

From the bridge and Castel de St. Angelo a wide street conducts in a direct line to a square, and that square presents at once the court or portico and part of the Basilica*. When the spectator approaches the entrance of this court, he views four rows of lofty pillars sweeping off to the right and left in a bold semicircle. In the centre of the area formed by this immense colonnade† an Egyptian obelisk of one solid piece of granite ascends to the height of one hundred and thirty feet; two perpetual fountains, one on each side, play in the air and fall in sheets round the basons of porphyry that receive them. Before him, raised on three successive flights of marble steps, extending four hundred feet in length and towering to the elevation of one hundred and eighty, he beholds the majestic front of the Basilica itself. This front is supported by a single row of Corinthian pillars and pilasters, and adorned with

* The late pope had some thoughts of widening this street and giving it throughout an expansion equal to the entrance of the portico, so that the colonnade, fountains, obelisk, and church would thus burst at once upon the eye of the spectator when he turned from the bridge. Though the approach to St. Peter's is already sufficiently noble, yet this alteration would without doubt have added much to its magnificence. The invasion of the French and the consequent distressing events, suspended the execution of this and many similar plans of improvement.

+ This colonnade, with its entablature, balustrade, and statues, is seventy feet in height.