National Gazette

Copy of a letter from Rome, Sept. 24.

The holy father has of late been very ill. Bleeding, purging, and abstinence from the duties of his high office have at length, however, set him upon his legs again. His physicians attribute his complaint to the vexations he has recently experienced on account of the interests of religion in France. He is, no doubt, chagrined that his menaces cannot be executed, as he expected.

Early in September his spiritual thunderbolts were to have been discharged upon the reformed clergy of France and upon the constitution; the National Assembly were to be by that time excommunicated and the whole Kingdom declared schismatic.—These days of wrath are, however, postponed; and no longer ago than yesterday his holiness declared in full council, that "he meant to pursue a system of moderation, in regard to the affairs of France, as well as patience and christian charity;" and that he "would not proceed to the most rigorous methods of executing his vengeance till all the milder means of persuasion had failed."—This was as much as to say that his anti-revolutional projects respecting France are deferred to a future day. It has been remarked, that the thunders of the Vatican never roar, unless there is a certainty of their being re-echoed and supported by the canons of the secular powers.