dictates of nature. As for the convulsions and revolutions of society, who that has endeavoured to search after truth, in the depth of her recesses, does not know, that the very schemes which are planned for the prevention of those convulsions, invariably concoct and bring them to maturity? For, whenever a pressure becomes too excessive to be endured, the consequences, as we well know from fatal experience, are inevitable. I do not say, as so many others have done, that "the people rebel." On the contrary, I assert, that there is no such thing as the spontaneous setting in motion of a mass so besotted as, time out of mind, “the people" have proved them selves to be. Those books of history, which tell us to the contrary, are the effusions of ignorance or of falsehood. Of course I am speaking of decided and downright revolutions; and which revolutions have invariably had their origin from some other quarter than that of the yawning and ignorant canaglia. An extreme cupidity at the fountain head of the Government-a sucking eagerness at the mouth, to the exhaustion of the other parts of the body— rapine on the part of pro-consuls at their distant seats of government, who, in the space of a few years, return to the mother-country, not merely with their shattered fortunes repaired, but abounding in wealth-these, these are the things which bring ruin to an empire! Remote provinces have ever been the scenes of pillage and of malversation-even in the times of ancient Rome. First came Asia. She was subdued by the force of arms. Her luxuries, together with her wealth, found their way into Italy. Circumstances again changed; and, after the accumulated treasures had, in the lapse of a few centuries, disappeared, the taste for Asiatic aromatics, drapery, and what not, rather increased than declined. So that subsequently, and after the chains of vassalage had been broken in Asia, its inhabitants continued to hold Rome tributary; and more than retrieved-more than avenged-their former misfortunes. "Nunc patimur longæ pacis mala: sævior armis "Now, all the evils of long peace are ours; Luxury, more terrible than hostile powers, "Her baleful influence wide around has hurl'd, "And well aveng'd the subjugated world." * * Gifford's Juvenal. CHAPTER XIII. VENICE. The Subject continued...... The Napoleon Military System of Government further inquired into......Its Effects on the Customs and Habits of the French People......Napoleon's deceitful and crafty Policy exposed......His Surrender to the British......And Death at St. Helena. BUT, to bring my theory down to more modern times, and more recent vicissitudes. Turning the cabinet into the camp, we find Napoleon studying political economy more like a General than a Sovereign. Trade he despised; commerce he crushed: while, on the other hand, he exacted enormous contributions for the support of his armies. If poverty be contemptible, he took the sure and certain way of rendering all those who were concerned in traffic, objects of thorough derision. And so far was his hatred towards England satiated; for he had certainly the satisfaction of seeing his followers regarding "la nation boutiquière" with actual scorn. Now, in the then state of things, such a line of conduct was fraught with intolerable evils. Had the military habits been free from licentiousness, then indeed would the degradation of commerce have been attended with consequences less fatal, than those in which he soon found himself involved. But, Napoleon was partial and unjust-a capricious upstart-in many instances, a tyrant-possessing less of the universal ken of the eagle, than of the limited vision of the hawk; more of the cunning of the lawyer, than of the sterling wisdom of the legislator; thereby proclaiming himself, as it were, the true son of the attorney of Ajaccio. Such was the fatal misprision of his system of civil government, that his whole kingdom, nay, all Europe, became a sort of general barrack, a garrison, a species of tented field, subject to martial regulations. The military mania spread far and wide; and thus were the locusts, the harpies, the sluggards, permitted to nestle and swarm amidst a miserable population, unable to resist their insufferable vexations, and incapable of appeasing their manifold cravings-whether of external vanity and parade, or of vitiated and depraved appetite. Throughout France, every thing appeared to be done for the accommodation of the army. Her theatres, her public walks, her coffee-houses, her restaurateurs, and her gardens, all served as so many focuses of recreation for the officers. Ask for a breakfast at a Paris hotel, and the waiter will fetch it for you from the neighbouring café. Indeed, there is hardly any such thing in France as an English fireside—a home! Strangers of moderate fortune, in passing through Paris, resort to coffee-houses and traiteurs for their meals; as they generally find it more comfortable to do so than to take them at their lodgings. Frenchmen, it is true, are fond of society to an extreme; great babblers; and more occupied with other people's concerns than with their own domestic affairs, which they leave almost entirely to the ladies. This rage for gadding about, and gossipping, and making visits, is more or less prevalent all over the Continent; and by it the mental energies become greatly exhausted. Nor can I exonerate a considerable portion of my fair countrywomen from the like imputation. Nay, the very trees and houses in France partake of the same gregarious character. In Burgundy, for instance, and in several other provinces, many a fertile spot is to be seen, upon which, for seven or eight miles together, not a rustic hut or shed is to be discovered, nor any signs of social life; although the deserted fields are abundant in the productions of Ceres and |