even his parishioners at Brignoles unwilling to go to church, and to
regard him as their pastor, though several of them had been imprisoned,
fined, and even transported as fanatics, or as refractory.

During the negotiation with Cardinal Fesch last year, the Pope had been
promised, among other things, that, for the future, his conscience should
not be wounded by having presented to him for the prelacy any persons but
those of the purest morals of the French Empire; and that all his
objections should be attended to, in case of promotions; his scruples
removed, or his refusal submitted to. When Cardinal Fesch demanded His
Holiness's Bull for the curate Miollis, the Cardinal Secretary of State,
Gonsalvi, showed no less than twenty acts of apostasy and blasphemy,
which made him unworthy of such a dignity. To this was replied that,
having obtained an indulgence in toto for what was past, he was a proper
subject; above all, as he had the protection of the Emperor of the
French. The Pope's Nuncio here then addressed himself to our Minister of
the Ecclesiastical Department, Portalis, who advised him not to speak to
Bonaparte of a matter upon which his mind had been made up; he,
nevertheless, demanded an audience, and it was in consequence of this
request that he, in his turn, became acquainted with the new Imperial
etiquette and new Imperial jargon towards the representatives of
Sovereigns. On the same evening the Nuncio expedited a courier to Rome,
and I have heard to-day that the nomination of Miollis is confirmed by
the Pope.

From this relatively trifling occurrence, His Holiness might judge of the
intention of our Government to adhere to its other engagements; but at
Rome, as well as in most other Continental capitals, the Sovereign is the
dupe of the perversity of his Counsellors and Ministers, who are the
tools, and not seldom the pensioners, of the Cabinet of St. Cloud.