When Henry VII was looking out in his old age for a rich wife, he despatched Wolsey, to whom the vista of future eminence was just opening, to Flanders, to treat for the hand of a Princess of the Empire. Wolsey, conscious that in such affairs old age brooks no delay, started on his journey and had returned before the King knew that he was gone. By similar energy and shrewd scheming in pursuit of his own aggrandizement, very analogous to that by which Constantine secured the purple, Wolsey elevated himself to the highest subordinate station in his country, and then directed his mind rather to the extension of learning, the encouragement of art, the erection of splendid buildings, and the increase of domestic magnificence, than to an imitation of the warlike pursuits of the ancestors of his monarch; although the disposition of the latter strongly tended in that more physically energetic direction. The noble hall and chapel at Hampton Court and the remains of the colleges which Wolsey founded, still attest his magnificence, his taste, his liberality, and his respect for learning. RICHELIEU was another Wolsey. It is a remarkable fact that the point of identity in actively seeking their own aggrandizement, which has been noticed between Wolsey and Constantine, occurs also in the early life of Richelieu. Having, from interested motives, abandoned the army (for which he was originally destined) for the Church, and the Pope having refused, on account of his extreme youth, to sanction his elevation to the Bishopric for the sake of which he had taken orders, he resolved to overcome this difficulty in person; and setting off for Rome, gave the Pontiff such convincing proofs of his talents, that he was consecrated Bishop forthwith, at twenty-two years of age, and thus laid the foundation of his future eminence. He conducted in person the siege of Rochelle, and baffled the finest military geniuses of Europe; he out-intrigued the ablest diplomatists; he nourished arts and commerce, and for the better promotion of learning he founded the French Academy. In the union of energy of character and refinement of tastes the three celebrated Cardinal-ministers of England, France, and Spain, strongly assimilated. The anecdotes which have been related of the energetic carving-out of their own fortunes by Constantine, Wolsey, and Richelieu, find also their parallel in the early career of XIMENES. The son of noble parents, but without wealth or patronage, he had nothing but his talents and the energy of his character to carry him successfully through life. He began as a student at Salamanca; but finding that sphere too limited for his ambition, he undertook a journey to Rome, where he soon distinguished himself as an advocate, but preferring the church, took holy orders.