There will be no computations and caftings of the allowances to widows; poundage and hofpital to form, enter, examine, and compare. The amount of the fund for the allowance to widows, in this year 1767, was 15,6041. 175. 2d.; the number of articles that compofed it was fixty-four: the poundage was 52,3041.; and the number of articles 492: : the hofpital was 2,6371. 5s. 7d. and the number of articles 359; and in time of war the number of articles is very much increafed. The account of every distinct fervice, or clafs of fervices, will be reduced to a fimple debtor and creditor account; and the public will every year be made acquainted with the amount of their expence for each fervice, and be the better able to judge where to retrench.

Another effect which thefe regulations tend to produce, ought particularly to be mentioned; if the eftimates for these fervices be confined to the probable demands of the year, and the fums granted for them are applied, as they ought to be, as foon as the fervices are incurred, the fund of voted fervices remaining unapplied, out of which the extra ordinaries have hitherto been paid, will be greatly diminished, if not

totally exhaufted, and eftimates for the extraordinaries will then become indifpenfable.

We were purfuing our enquiry, and proceeding in our obfervations upon various branches that grow out of the fubject matter before us, the refult of which we intended fhould have formed a part of this Report; when, finding from the votes of the house of commons, that the pay-office of the army was one of the fubjects of prefent deliberation, we thought it our duty to complete our enquiry into that office, and to fubmit our proceedings, with fuch obfervations as had occurred to us, upon the manner of conducting the pay of the army, that the legiflature might be poffeffed of fuch information as has been disclosed to us relative to the office of the paymafter-general of his majefty's forces.

Rome. His uncommon merit, how ever, and his great influence, did not prevent his ruin; they were probably the caufes of it. King Theodorick was an Arian; and Boethius, who was a Catholic, unluckily published about this time a book upon the Unity of the Irinity, in oppofition to the three famous fects of Arians, Neftorians, and Eutychians. This treauife was univerfally read, and created our author a great many enemies at court; who infinuated to the prince, that Boethius wanted not only to deftroy Arianifm, but to effectuate a change of government, and deliver Italy from the dominion of the Goths; and that, from his great credit and influence, he was the moft likely perfon to bring about fuch a revolution.-Whilft his enemies were thus bufied at Ravenna, they employed emiffaries to fow the feeds of difcontent at Rome, and to excite factious people openly to oppofe him in the exercife of his office as conful. Boethius, in the mean while, wanting no other reward than a fenfe of his integrity, Taboured both by his eloquence and his authority to defeat their wicked attempts; and perfifted refolutely in his endeavours to promote the public welfare, by fupporting the opprefled, and bringing offenders to juice. But his integrity and fleadinefs tended only to haften his fall. King Theodorick, corrupted probably by a long feries of good fortune, Legan now to take off the mafk. This prince, though an Arian, had hitherto preferved fentiments of moderation and equity with regard to the Catholics; but fearing, perhaps, that they had a view of overturning his government, he began now to treat them with feverity.

"Boethius was one of the first

that fell a victim to his rigour. He had continued long in favour with his prince, and was more beloved by him than any other perfon: but neither the remembrance of former affection, nor the abfolute certainty the king had of his innocence, prevented him from profecuting our philofopher, upon the evidence of three abandoned profligates, infamous for all manner of crimes. The offences laid to his charge, as we are informed in the first book of the Confolation of Philofophy, were, "That he wished to preferve the fenate and its authority: that he hindered an informer from producing proofs, which would have convicted that affembly of treafon : and that he formed a scheme for the restoration of the Roman liberty." In proof of the last article, the above mentioned profligates produced letters forged by themfelves, which they falfely averred were written by Boethius. For there fuppofed crimes, as we learn from the fame authority, he was, unheard and undefended, at the diftance of five hundred miles, proferibed and condemned to death.Theodorick, confcious that his feverity would be univerfally blamed, did not at this time carry his fentence fully into execution; but contented himfelf with confifcating Boethius's effects, with banishing him to Pavia, and confining him to prifon.

"Soon after this, Jufiin, the eatholic emperor of the Eaft, finding himfelf thoroughly established upon the throne, publifhed an edict a gainst the Arians, depriving them of all their churches. Theodorick was highly offended at this edit. He obliged pope John I. together with four of the principal fenators of Rome (one of whom was Symmachus, father-in-law to Boethius)

to

to go on an embaffy to Conftantinople; and commanded them to threaten that he would abolish the Catholic religion throughout Italy, if the emperor did not immediately revoke his edict against the Arians. John was received at Conftantinople with extraordinary pomp, and treated with profound refpect. He tried to compromife matters betwixt the two princes: but fo far was he from inducing the emperor to revoke his edict, that, in compliance with the tenor of it, he reconciled many of the Arian churches to the Catholic faith. Theodorick was fo incensed at his conduct, and of his affociates in this affair, that upon their return he threw them all into prifon at Ravenna. Boethius, though entirely innocent of what was done at Conftantinople, was at the fame: time ordered into stricter confinement at Pavia; the king having probably come to the refolution of proceeding to extremities against him.

"Though confined in a doleful prison, and deferted by all the world: though deprived of his library, and itript of all his poffeffions our illuftrious philofopher preferved fo much vigour and compofure of mind, that he wrote, in five books, his excellent treatife of the Confolation of Philofophy. To this treatife our author is more indebted for his fame, than to all his other learned performances. Few books have been more popular: it has gone through a multitude of editions; has been commented upon by many eminent men; has been tranflated into a great variety of languages; and has been univerfally acknowledged a work replete with erudition and inftruction, and executed with much delicacy and good tafte. When we confider the diftreffed fi

tuation of our author when he wrote it, we are filled with wonder that he was capable of compofing a performance of fo much real genius and merit.

"But the fatal moment was now faft approaching, which put a pe riod to the miferies of Boethius. As a prelude to this, pope John was famifhed to death in prifon; and foon afterwards Theodorick ordered Symmachus, and the three other fenators that were fent to Conftan tinople on the embaffy before men tioned, to be beheaded. To complete his cruelty, he commanded the fame punishment to be inflicted on Boethius, in his prison at Pavia, on the 23d of October 526, in the 71ft year of his age. His body was interred by the inhabitants of Pavia, in the church of St. Augufline, near to the steps of the chancel; where his monument is ftill to be feen.**

"King Theodorick, as we are informed by Procopius, regretted thefe acts of violence, and did not long furvive them. Some months afterwards, when the head of a great fish was ferved up to him at fupper, he imagined he beheld the head of Symmachus fiercely threatening him. Terrified with this ap parition, he rose from table, and went to bed in an agony; and after bitterly deploring to his phyfician his cruelty in refpect to Symmachus and Boethius, he became delirious, and in a few days expired. Amalafuntha, the daughter of Theo dorick, who upon the decease of her father governed Italy with fingular prudence and juftice, as tutrefs to her fon Athalarick, lamented the fate of this eminent man, and expreffed the utmost respect for his memory. To make all the atone. ment in her power for the injuries

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tween the philofophy of Newton and the Cartefian fyftem, which was received with the greatest applaufe. He afterwards, at his father's defire, applied himfelf to the ftudy of theology, and the Oriental languages. Though thefe ftudies. were foreign to his predominant propenfity, his fuccefs was confiderable even in this line; how ever, with his father's confent, he returned to geometry, as his principal object. He continued to avail himself of the counfels and inftructions of M. Bernoulli; he contracted an intimate friendship with his two fons, Nicholas and Daniel, and it was in confequence of thefe connections, that he became after wards t principal ornament of the Academy of Petersburgh.

"The project of erecting this academy had been formed by Peter the Great. It was executed by Catherine 1.; and the two young Bernoullis, being invited to Peterfburgh in 1725, promifed Euler, who was defirous of following them, that they would use their utmost endeavours to procure for him an advantageous fettlement in that city. In the mean time, by their advice, he applied himself, with ardour, to the study of phyfiology, to which he made a happy application of his mathematical knowledge; and he attended carefully, for this purpose, the medical lectures of the most eminent profeffors of Bafil.

This study, however, did not wholly engrofs his time: it did not even relax the activity of his vaft and comprehenfive mind in the cultivation of other branches of natural science. For while he was keenly engaged in phyfiological refearches, he compofed a Differtation on the Nature and Propagation of Sound, and an answer to a prize

queftion concerning the mafting of hips, to which the Academy of Sciences adjudged the acceffit, or fecond rank, in the year 1727. From this latter difcourfe, and other circumstances, it appears, that Euler had early embarked in the curious and important ftudy of navi. gation, which he afterwards enriched with fo many valuable difcoveries.

"M. Euler's merit would have given him an eafy admiffion to honourable preferment, either in the magiftracy or univerfity of his na tive city, if both civil and academical honours had not been there: diftributed by lot. The lot being against him in a certain promotion, he left his ceuntry, fet out for Petersburgh, and was made joint pro feffor with his countrymen, Meirs. Hermann and Daniel Bernoulli, in the univerfity of that city.

"At his first fetting out in this new career, he enriched the acade mical collection with many me-moirs, which excited a noble emulation between him and M. D. Bernoulli; and this emulation always continued without either degenerat ing into a felfifh jealousy, or producing the leaft alteration in their friendthip. It was at this time that he carried to new degrees of perfection the integral calculus, invented the calculation of finuffes, reduced analytical operations to a greater fimplicity, and thus was enabled to throw new light on all the parts of mathematical science,

"In 1730, he was promoted to the profefforfhip of natural philofophy; and in 1733 he fucceded his friend. D. Bernoulli in the mathematical chair. In 1735, a problem was propofed by the Academy, which required expedition, and for the folution of which feveral eminent mathematicians had demanded the

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