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MERCURY rises, on the 1st, a few minutes before five o'clock, As he is now approachA.M.; namely, 1h. 22m. before the Sun. ing superior conjunction with the Sun, there will be no possibility of detecting him with the naked eye, during the month, except perhaps at the beginning. A good telescope will show him gibbous. On the 18th, at 8h. 38m., A.M., he will be close to the Sun, only 21° north. His distance from us will then be equal to the sum of the distances of the planet and our Earth from the Sun.

She rises on the 1st at ten VENUS is now a morning star. minutes before two, on the 15th at ten minutes past two, and on the 30th at twenty minutes before three, A.M. On the 9th, at nine, P.M., she will be close to the Moon, 5° south. In the morning of the 7th, still closer to Regulus. The nearest approach to that star will be at twenty minutes past two, A.M.; both objects being a little above the horizon. The distance at that time will be 1° 14', the planet southwards. On the 31st she will have entered Virgo, and will be very close to ẞ in that constellation,-42′ north. MARS and JUPITER set very soon after the Sun. at three, P.M., these two planets will make a near approach, the former being only 1° south of the latter.

SATURN can now be seen to great advantage.

On the 27th,

He rises on the

On

1st at seven, on the 15th at six, and on the 30th at five, P.M. the last day of this month he will be due south eleven minutes past midnight, at an altitude of 65°. On the night of the 28th, at eight o'clock, he will be very near the Moon, a little more than 1o north. He is in Aries, not far from d, and south-west of the Pleiades. The southern side of the ring is turned toward us. It appears as an ellipse: length, 45"; breadth, 161′′.

URANUS is in the same constellation, has very nearly the same declination, and is only about 8° westward of Saturn. NEPTUNE is in Aquarius, very close to X.

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H. T. & J. Roche, Printers, 25, Hoxton-square, London.

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THE

YOUTH'S INSTRUCTER

AND

GUARDIAN.

NOVEMBER, 1852.

CARDINAL GIULIO MAZARINI.

(With an Engraving.)

A CARDINAL, be it noted well, is not a Prelate. He must, indeed, be a Priest, or, as we say, "in orders," that he may be qualified to receive ecclesiastical benefices. As Cardinal, he is not a spiritual person, but an Assessor of the Pope in the government of the city of Rome, and church of that city. The Cardinal has no jurisdiction over Priests, for that belongs to their Bishop; nor over Bishops, for they are subject to their Metropolitan; nor over the Clergy in general, for their chief is the Pope. So in England, "Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman" would have no authority over the Romish Clergy in this country, unless he were their Archbishop, or unless he were empowered to act as Legate, and so exercise the power of the Pope himself. A Nuncio, we must also note, is a political or diplomatic agent of the Pope and Court of Rome. His office, as Nuncio, is very similar to that of Ambassador at a Court. Cardinals or Prelates are invested with the dignity of Nuncio, as was Mazarini at the Court of Paris. And this personage is an eminent and very fair example of what Cardinals are, when they move in the high region of diplomatic politics.

He was born in the town of Piscina, in Abruzzo, on the 14th of July, 1602. His parents, Pietro Mazarini and Hortensia Buffalini, sent him, when a boy, to the house of the Abbot Girolamo Colonna, whom he followed to the VOL. XVI. Second Series. X

University of Alcalá, in Spain, there studied civil and canon law, and then, returning to Rome, graduated as Doctor. In the train of Sacchetti, afterwards Cardinal, whom the Pope sent as Nuncio into Lombardy, he entered on the political education which eventually made him the cleverest statesman of his day, and began to carry his knowledge into practice soon afterwards, when attached to the legation of Cardinal Barberini in Milan. The first incident that brought him into general notice seems to have been a successful effort to terminate hostilities between the French and Spaniards at Casale, just after the ratification of the peace of Ratisbon, in the year 1630. The Spanish Imperialists kept possession of that place, notwithstanding the treaty, and the French besieged them; but Mazarini, anxious to signalise himself, galloped up to the trenches, waving his hat, and shouting, "Pace, pace." As he was already a man of consequence in the negotiations between the belligerents, both parties could yield with grace to the combined influences of prudence and enthusiasm; and from that moment he became not only a confidential servant of Rome, but a diplomatist of high rank in the eyes of Europe.

To maintain his dignity in the services he was judged competent to render, he was made Bishop, and rejoiced in the revenues of the diocese of Metz, with those of ten abbacies, besides many other benefices. These sinecures were, of course, gradually accumulated, improving with the advance of his career in France, which country he governed, during the minority of Louis XIV., in the interest of Rome. As for seeing his bishopric or his abbeys, that was not considered necessary. Nor does it appear that he ever assumed an ecclesiastical character, notwithstanding his ordination as Priest, and consecration as Bishop.

When appointed Nuncio in France, he spared no pains to gain the favour of the Cardinal Richelieu, Prime Minister, and of the King, Louis XIII.; and his diligence was completely successful. When the King died, leaving his successor an infant, and a hard struggle followed for power during the minority, Mazarini used the ascendancy he had acquired over the Queen-Mother, to get the administration of affairs, and

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