We talk about a General Election here: the French are in the midst of theirs, and their chambers are about to meet for the purpose of ascertaining its effects. What these may be, whether more or less beneficial to the country than such as were fairly to be expected from the proceedings of the late Parliament, a very little time will demonstrate. Of our House of Commons it is occasionally said, that it contains members who are not sufficiently loyal, i. e., in the present instance, royal. But of the late chamber of deputies it has been announced, in accents full of complaint and lamentation, that it has ever been too loyal; and as a corrective of this intolerable vice, the chamber has been dissolved. But will the members by whom the ultras, as they are styled, are to be replaced, be at the call of the grand monarque, should a period arrive when there may, as on past occasions, be an alarming lack of loyalty at Paris? In France every thing is still in extremes. There are to be seen in it ultras, or sworn Bourbon men; transultras, or devotees to Napoleon's tyranny; and, in no considerable numbers, wretches still desperately bent on jacobinical projects. Now it is to the last two that Louis XVIII. is about to confide the safeguard of his person and his crown! What an unfortunate resolution in a King of France, at a time characterized by a variety of prejudices so inveterate, and of passions so incorrigible, that half a century will not be sufficient to render the state secure against their baneful influence! The heartburnings occasioned by the comparatively insignificant rebellion in Scotland, in the year 1745, were not completely cured till after the lapse of nearly forty years, and the restoration of most of the forfeited estates. -M. Chateaubriand has warned the king against the perils by which he is surrounded. As for the Governments whose peace may be compromised by the folly of that of France, viewing, as they do, from afar its present portentous measures, they can judge more correctly than it can of their results: and we shall be surprised if we do not by and by hear, that they reckon on these three things:-a vigorous struggle between the king's friends, and their coalesced opponents; conspiracies menacing the safety of the throne; and the prolongation of the period named for the continuance of foreign troops in France. The last of these contingencies will not tally with the schemes of retrenchment conceived by the leading parties in this country; and still less will it suit their views, if Government be compelled, through mismanagement at the Tuilleries, not merely to keep up, but to add considerably to the force now stationed in France. Should Louis be driven from the throne by those in

whose hands he hastens to place the energies of the country, ought the allies to place him there a third time?

In some of the United States of America attempts have been made to infringe the treaty of Ghent, by imposing duties on our commerce which are contrary to some of the stipulations of that treaty. Those, however, who know to what immoral and illegal lengths the Americans have often gone, for the purpose of promoting their private interests, are not at all surprised to hear of such attempts; and they will expect to hear of many similar ones, if there be any want either of vigilance in our consuls, or of vigour in our Government.-The British and American commissioners appointed to fix a line of demarcation between New Brunswick and the United States, have at length met: better late than never. Our hopes, however, of gaining any thing important by the discussion, are feeble indeed; so very likely do we think it is, that the artifice of the American negotiators will be an overmatch for the plain dealing of the gentleman sent from hence. It is indeed said, "That it was admitted at Ghent, "that the misinterpretation of the second article of the treaty "of 1789, ought to be corrected; but that there was a tacit agreement, that the discussions should not take place (6 soon, for fear of hurting the feelings of some of the inha "bitants of the United States, whose lands would probably "be cut off by the new boundary line." If this report be. true, matters will eventually be placed on nearly as favourable a footing as we ought to desire. Some little compensation will be had for the expenses of the late war; and the causes of umbrage to the subjects of both Governments will be rendered fewer, by the removal of some of those indentations of the territory of either power, which were consequences of the shameful deficiency of local knowledge in our negotiators of 1783.

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Every thing forebodes the failure of the presumptuous mission of the Americans to Naples. It will reflect but little honour on the Government of Naples, that it did not peremptorily reject the proposals of the United States the moment they were made. But this would have been to act with spirit-a quality that does not abound in the character of the Neapolitans as the States were, no doubt, well enough aware when they resolved to send a squadron to give countenance to their demands. They were not mistaken in supposing, that the Neapolitans might, if left to themselves, be as easily terrified by them into submission as the Algerines had recently been; who, however, observed the treaty entered into with the American commander just till they saw his squadron fairly out of the Gut of Gibraltar. But

they were excessively mistaken if they fancied, and very ill informed if they did not know, that the alliances and friendships contracted by the King of the Two Sicilies were such, as to secure his dominions against any attack which the United States could make upon them; nay, and that the sovereigns of Europe had determined to preserve the peace of Europe, even in the case of the most powerful of themselves having claims unquestionably just to urge; much more so, in the case of the United States of America setting up pretensions to the payment of sums due to them by King Joachim; and to the sovereignty, forsooth, of some fair island in the Mediterranean! Snails will sometimes quit their shells, under every risk of being squeezed into the earth. And the sum of what Commodore Chauncey will have to report to his Government will be, That he tried the sailing of the new 74-exhibited her in the Mediterranean-and then carried her back, in tolerable repair, to the place from whence she came.

In our last Number we said more of the Committee which had been inquiring into the state of the police of the metropolis; more, too, of the police magistrates, and police officers, as well as of parish officers, than we need to say now. Since that time, Mr. Wood has been chosen to fill the civic chair for another year; a choice which we suspect entitles the majority of his electors to no genuine praise, there being reason to believe that it is owing chiefly to party motives. Yet the effects of it may be, and are likely to be, highly beneficial to the public, the conduct of the Lord Mayor for the last eleven months having proved, that the inhabitants of the metropolis will be safe in reckoning upon every good effect that can reason. ably be expected from an upright, vigilant, judicious adminis tration of their affairs-an administration awing inferiors into a faithful discharge of their duty, and setting up an example to future chief magistrates, which, if properly followed, must always render the path to popularity very smooth.

The Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on the state of the police, which is a bulky performance, we formerly mentioned as a publication of vast importance to the nation. Of the small productions of the day on kindred subjects, we have seen none of more value than The Charge lately delivered by Mr. Watson, Chairman of the General Sessions for the County of Middlesex, which affords ample proof of the manly good sense and sound legal knowledge by which that gentleman is distinguished.

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ART. II. Annals of the REIGN of KING GEORGE THE THIRD, from its Commencement, in the Year 1760, to the General Peace in 1815. By JOHN AIKIN, M. D. 2 vols. 8vo. Longman and Co. 1816.

In the XVIth Number of our Journal we bestowed on these volumes a good deal of that praise which their merits seemed to challenge; and we again announce them, as containing a very judicious, candid compendium of a portion of the English history, above all others prolific of grand events; and also as a book of reference, valuable to all who, from any motive whatever, wish to be truly informed of the principal occurrences in the present reign.

It was impossible for an annalist of the reign of George III. to examine the materials for his work, without having his attention arrested by the charge often too unceremoniously brought against His Majesty, on the ground of his partiality to the Earl of Bute. Statesmen who happened to be unemployed, as a matter of course, and some popular writers whom a wish to embarrass Government actuated, took up the charge often without inquiry, and always carried it as far as their talent for misrepresentation and invective would permit. The King had called to office persons who had been his earliest companions and most approved friends, his instructors in letters and morals, his exemplars in dutiful submission to the will of the sovereign, which was in itself very amiable. The Prince Regent excluded from office those who had been his earliest acquaintances and friends, his social companions at the table and on the turf, his zealous ministers in the various active duties of opposition to his father's Government, which, as an insulated deed, was unamiable. Both have been blamed with equal severity by all those whom their choice disappointed; though there is reason to conclude that both acted from a conviction of what was best for the country, and therefore merited nothing but praise. The foibles and the virtues of princes, and of princesses too, are always owing less to the dictates of their own minds, than to the suggestions and example of those who are placed around them. The Regent's determination, as to the persons who should compose his cabinet council, greatly disappointed both the expectant parties; but the feelings which the disappointment occasioned in the one were, of course, of a very opposite nature from those felt and manifested by the other. Mr. Perceval and his friends enjoyed the preference given to them in prudent silence; while the opposition employed a vast variety of expedients to get rid of their spleen; some of

which were not quite respectful to a prince whom they had so often eulogized, and therefore not very creditable to themselves. We shall particularize none of them, as they must still be in most people's recollection; but proceed to copy a few sentences from Dr. Aikin, on the subject of the partiality imputed to the King.

"It is certain, that early in the present year (1762) the cabinet began to manifest symptoms of disunion; and that a commencement was made of those party animosities and dissentions which have so much agitated the reign of George III. The preponderating influence of the Earl of Bute over the royal mind, which was branded with the invidious appellation of favouritism, was sensibly felt by his colleagues in office; and it was particularly galling to that ancient servant of the crown, the Duke of Newcas tle, who now possessed the post of First Commissioner of the Treasury. His situation was rendered so uneasy, that on May 26th, in consequence, it is said, of a direct intimation that the step was expected, he sent in his resignation. An ample pension was offered him, in consideration of his past services, which he declined, with the reply, that if he could no longer be permitted to serve his country, he was at least determined not to be a burden to it. The resignation of the office of Lord Chamberlain, by the Duke of Devonshire, soon followed. The Earl of Hardwicke also retired in disgust; and several noblemen of distinction ranged themselves on the side of opposition. The vacant place at the head of the treasury, usually considered as that of first minister, was occupied by Lord Bute, who was succeeded in the secretaryship by Mr. George Grenville: but this gentle man soon after exchanged his post with the Earl of Halifax, who had succeeded Lord Anson, as First Lord of the Admiralty. These changes and defections were productive of discontents that probably gave some alarm to the administration; of which it may be regarded as some indication, that the King's speech on the prorogation of Parliament, on June 2d, expressed a hope that the members of both Houses would continue to diffuse, in their several counties, that spirit of concord which they themselves had so steadily exerted in Parliament."

The most distressing event in the present reign was the separation of most of the American provinces from the crown of Great Britain; an event owing infinitely more to the outrageous party-spirit of Lord Chatham and other distinguished leaders of opposition, than to any want of prudence on the part of Lord North and the English Government. The most alarming period which we have witnessed, since those provinces became independent, has obviously been that of the tremendous war with France; the issue of which has been rendered not merely successful, but glorious, through the vigorous measures adopted and persevered in by Government, directly contrary to the system of those by whom it has constantly been thwarted and assaulted. There was but one party in the state who reprobated the American war the Parlia mentary minority of course: and this same minority has.