the year of his return the twentieth of his reign.-This family had learnt little from adversity, and were unable to support their prosperity. Instead of endeavouring to reconcile the conflicting interests, which the sudden and unlooked for change in France must unavoidably have occasioned, of striving to allay the feelings of wounded pride so apparent in the army, and using their efforts to remove the irritations and calm the fears of the people; instead of this, the officers of the army were neglected or insulted; the claims of the old and titled nobility were recognised and preferred; the bigoted prejudices of the church began to appear and to be tolerated; while the fears of the landholders were continually excited, by the reports, so industriously circulated, that the estates which had been confiscated during the revolution, would be restored to their original proprietors. Affairs, however, did not long remain in this situation. A year having hardly elapsed, from the time of the abdication of 'Napoleon, before he had escaped from his prison at Elba, and, in concert with the leaders of the plot at Paris, again appeared on the territory of France; the fortresses opening their gates to him as he advanced; the troops joining the standard of their former commander; and in twenty days he found himself once more in possession of the throne, which Louis abandoned as he approached. Where was now that loyalty of the people, where that attachment to their legitimate sovereign, on which such reliance was placed, and which had been so confidently announced? Where was that spirit which should have actuated the troops at Melun, where their king had assembled whatever of efficiency and patriotism he could embody, to repel the invader and deliver up the outlaw and the rebel? The spirit that was seen animating the soldiers, at the approach of Napoleon, was heard in the loud and reiterated shouts, which pervaded all ranks, of" the emperor for ever." True it is that Napoleon was accompanied to the throne by the army, but, be it remembered, not a single arm was raised against his life, not a single attempt was made by the people to arrest him on his march, or even to impede his progress. His system of conscription was still fresh in the remembrance of Frenchmen, they recollected his tyranny, and dreaded the effects of his ambition, but they felt, more deeply felt, their own degraded state, and were but too sensible of their fallen condition. The great body therefore of the people of France, looking on the arrival of Napoleon with folded arms, were silent though not unconcerned spectators, for they considered him a necessary evil : and although they had not placed the army at his disposal, still their best wishes and their fervent prayers accompanied it to the plains of Waterloo, on whose bloody field the murmurings of discontent and ambition were hushed to silence, and the hopes of Napoleon extinguished for ever.

Let us now inquire whether the continent owed her deliverance from thraldom to the efforts of her sovereigns; or whether she was not indebted, under Providence, to the exertions of her people. When Napoleon advanced in his career of conquest, he often owed as much to his arts as to his arms; his first aim was levelled at the court, endeavouring to corrupt before he attempted to conquer; and a treaty with the ruler of a nation was but the prelude to its degradation. When he defeated the armies of Russia, and led his victorious forces to the centre of her empire, relying on the well known character and disposition of Alexander, Napoleon remained at Moscow under the confident expectation of bringing him to terms; nor would he have calculated in vain-for such would assuredly have been the result, had it not been for the nobles of Russia. This powerful and numerous body urged their emperor to continue his defence, threatening, in case of refusal, to withdraw their support and assistance, and promising, if he held out against Napoleon, all their means and resources in money and in men; it was this imposing aristocracy, which is, amid the barbarism of Russia, the opposing check to arbitrary authority, and, in times of peril and alarm, supplies the place of the voice of the people among nations more civilized and refined,—this nobility did for Alexander what he never would have effected 'for himself or country. They animated the hopes and fixed the courage of the soldiers; they compelled their emperor to give the command of the army to a native Russian, the gallant Kutusoff ;— they resolved to fire the palaces of their ancient capital, and reduce Moscow to ashes, rather than yield up its resources to succour, and its roofs to shelter the invading foe; and then, detaining Napoleon and his army amid its ruins, with the false hopes of negociation, accelerated the cause of those disasters which Heaven already had prepared. In the eventful campaign which followed, and during the armistice that succeeded the victories of Lutzen and Boutzen, the sovereigns of Europe were once more willing to grant Napoleon terms of peace; by which they would again have surrendered the independence of their states, and acknowledged the authority, and submitted to the yoke, of the conqueror. To them, therefore, no thanks are to be awarded-to them no praise is due. Napoleon, still trusting to fortune and counting on victory,-fortunately for Europe and the worldrefused their proffered terms. The period however had arrived when he had no longer to contend with venal courts and unskilful-generals; he had now arrayed against him the power of a people conscious of their rights and beginning to feel their strength, and who, since the opportunity had been afforded them to resist, were resolved to free their country from the chains of bondage and oppression. One sentiment pervading all classes—one

spirit animating all ranks, gave an impetus to every effort in the great cause of emancipation from military despotism. The population of Prussia, rose almost to a man, and that of all the states of Germany, wherever they had power to act, were equally alive to the dictates of patriotism. The people, with one consent, flocked to the standard of their country, demanding of their leaders to arm them for the fight, and lead them to battle, invoking the manes of their bleeding countrymen; and, with united voices and uplifted hands, imploring offended heaven to witness and avenge their wrongs. It was thus the people rose in the majesty of their strength;-the imperial eagles cowered at their approach, and the power of Napoleon withered at their presence!

And what, alas, is now the fruit of their victories, what the reward of their valour? The petty potentates of Germany, with some few exceptions, still lord it over their subjects with despotic rule, stifling every rising emotion of liberty, or freedom of opinion, and prohibiting the people from exercising the privilege of judging of the acts, or questioning the conduct of their rulers.

In Prussia the press is completely under the control of a rigorous censorship; the constitutional charter, so faithfully promised by the king, and so fondly and ardently expected by a deserving people, is still withheld; while, on the least expression of liberal opinions, or even suspicion of their existence, arrests and imprisonments are immediately resorted to; and confinements in the dungeons of her fortresses have become as frequent, as during any reign in the darkest periods of her history. The emperor Alexander, on whose liberal character and enlightened views, on whose benevolence and philanthropy, so much confidence was reposed, he too acts in full and harmonious concert. We find him publishing a manifesto to the world, declaring that a solemn example is necessary, and an expiatory sacrifice due from Spain; because the voice of her people, aided by the military, has imposed a constitution on the king, whereby the horrors of the inquisition are abolished, and their country freed from the sway of an overbearing priesthood. Austria has assembled her battalions on the frontiers of Italy, threatening to visit Naples with the horrors of war, because her people have framed a constitution in accordance with their wishes-a constitution recognising the principles and establishing the doctrines of rational freedom, adopted without bloodshed or confusion, and received by the king without repugnance or opposition. To suppress these revolutionary symptoms, the high and mighty sovereigns are again assembled, to adopt new measures to secure the repose of Europe, by riveting still closer the fetters of slavery, and uniting their armies to enforce, at the point of the bayonet, the legitimacy of their edicts and their divine right as kings. Already has the king.

of Naples, at an advanced period of his age, been summoned to appear before the Congress at Leybach, with an intimation that his refusal to obey the mandate would be considered as just cause of war: he has indeed accepted the invitation, but first proclaimed to the world the only basis on which he would consent to treat with his brother kings; he will support the letter and spirit of that constitutional charter which he has so solemnly sworn to protect. Ferdinand too has received an invitation to repair to the congress; whereby it is plainly perceived that the blow which is directly aimed at Naples is also indirectly levelled at the cortes of Spain. And is it thus the energies of a people are to be suppressed, and their fond hopes blasted, after all they have suffered, and all they have achieved? And shall they be told by the monarchs of the day, that the liberty they are in search of and the privileges they demand, are inconsistent with the security of empires, and opposed to the preservation of the public good; that they are terms whose import they cannot understand, and whose reality they have not capacity to enjoy-mere phantoms of the imagination, which faction would embody to suit its own worst purposes and to restore the reign of revolution and terror? Is Europe yet to learn the advantage resulting to a nation, from the operation of a press, which, guarded by the wholesome restraints of law against licentiousness and abuse, shall be free for the interchange of opinions, and the dissemination of truths, as important to the duty of kings as essential to the interests of states? Are they yet to learn the value of that system of representation which shall confer on the people the privilege of a voice in the councils of the nation; and which, guarding against an undue encroachment on their part, shall preserve within its proper sphere that prerogative and influence which they may still think necessary to the crown? Is there nothing real in the possession of a constitutional charter, where the rights of the people shall be recognised and defined, and their privileges recorded beyond the power of a monarch's will to alter, or his mandate to annul? We have a well grounded hope that the people of Europe, at the present day, are sufficiently enlightened to know their own interests, and persevering enough to pursue and maintain them. They probably wish not to war with the name of royalty, nor excite unnecessary prejudices against the established institutions of society; but they are equally sensible of the difference between that tame submission and passive obedience, which may be exacted from debased and degraded subjects, and that respectful deference for the laws and the constituted authorities, which is paid in willing obedience, by the honest feeling of an intelligent people. They must know that wealth and talent will form an aristocracy in every community, and that its existence, to a certain extent, can

never be prejudicial to society; for that a perfect equality in this respect is what nature never intended. They must hold in equal dread the terrors of that revolution which levels all distinctions, destroys the connexion between right and wrong, and uproots the foundations of civil society; which takes authority from the hands of those who abuse, to place it in the hands of those who destroy it; and which sets in active operation the worst and basest passions of mankind, to triumph over the ruin of virtue and social order. Such was the effect of that revolution which France presented in all its dreadful reality; where the people, unenlightened by the experience and information that have since been diffused throughout the world, were driven to desperation by a continued and persevering system of cruelty and oppression. Such is not the change that would meet the views or satisfy the hopes and expectations of an enlightened age. It is that moral revolution which has already taken place in the minds of men; that change in sentiment and opinion, resulting from the experience of the last five-and-twenty years; a revolution which will be strengthened by the talents and aided by the influence of the most conspicuous and zealous defenders of their country's rights, which will have for its support the liberal and the enlightened, the wise and the good. Arbitrary power may still succeed in suppressing a little longer the rising emotions of liberty, and checking, for a moment, the progress of a flame that cannot be extinguished: But it will proceed with a step "sure as the approach of fate, and steady as the march of time," and the people will eventually obtain by force of arms that freedom, which they would now receive at the hands of their rulers with gratitude and joy. The elements of the gathering tempest will increase, with time, in strength and activity. Already the clouds are seen lowering in the distant horizon, threatening, with portentous aspect, the peace of empires and the existence of thrones. Should

the allied sovereigns, however, be influenced by juster sentiments and guided by nobler aims; if they are aware of their own true interests and those of their subjects, which should ever be identified, they may yet avert the impending storm. Without wishing to submit to their guardianship or intrust to their special protection the "repose of the world," which they assure us shall be their constant "aim and motive," we would commit to their guidance, and commend to their unceasing care and attention, the best interests and welfare of the people of their respective states. Let them strictly adhere to their own solemn declaration, wherein "they formally acknowledge, that their duty towards God, and towards the people they govern, prescribe to them to give the world, as much as in them is, the example of justice, concord, and moderation; happy in being able henceforth to consecrate all their efforts to the protection of the arts of peace;