His countrymen had refused longer to acquiesce in his views, and the military had now become his chief dependence. Symptoms of discontent also began to appear in Bolivia itself, and an insurrection broke out in the spring of 1828, which resulted in the overthrow of the Bolivian constitution. By the aid of the Peruvian government, General Sucre (who had been left by Bolivar in Upper Peru, and was chosen president for life,) was deposed and taken prisoner. Extraordinary efforts and decisive measures had now become necessary. Whether Bolivar really intended to make himself absolute, or thought an energetic government indispensable to the preservation of social order in the distracted condition of Spanish America; in either case, it was essential to act with decision for the preservation of his personal influence and all the advantages which the exercise of that influence had hitherto imparted to his country. The distractions in Peru and Colombia threatened general confusion, and it is difficult to decide how much of this confusion was owing to Bolivar himself. The conduct of his partizans, in relation to the congress at Ocaña was not calculated to reassure the public mind. He himself, previous to its meeting, under the pretence of intestine commotions, assumed extraordinary powers, and when the convention met it found itself surrounded with troops,-the headquarters of Bolivar being fixed at Bucaramanga, not far distant from Ocaña. In the address of Bolivar to the Convention, the distress and confusion prevailing in Colombia were strongly depicted, and an earnest appeal was made to that body, in amending the constitution, to give more strength to the executive. On this point a contest commenced in the convention between the friends of Bolivar and those who doubted as to the nature of his ulterior views. After some manœuvering in the convention, in which the opponents of Bolivar obtained the advantage, his friends determined on seceding, and leaving the convention without a quorum. This was done on the 2d of June, and on the 11th, the convention was dissolved, from an inability to form a quorum. This assemblage having thus proved abortive, measures were taken by the partizans of Bolivar to procure his nomination to the office of Supreme Chief in the primary assemblies. This was done at the capital, and the nomination being accepted by him, the example of Bogatá was followed by the other departments, and Colombia again passed under the absolute authority of Bolivar. This power, however, he declared he intended to retain only for the moment, and promised to convene the national congress within a year. In the mean time he declared war against Peru for invading Bolivia, and for unfriendly acts towards Colombia. Sucre was intrusted with the conduct of this war, which resulted in the re-establishment in power of Bolivar's partizans. The victory, however, was used with great moderation, and the rights. of Peru, though vanquished, were respected by the Colombian commanders. Bolivar in the mean time was consolidating his authority at home, and on the 27th of August, he promulgated a provisional constitution, in which he defined the powers of the executive. In this branch of the government he vested all the powers of the state, and in accordance with this idea of executive power he increased the standing army, and lent the influence of his station to oppress acts led to a conspiracy against his life; and on the 25th of September, 1828, an attack was made upon his palace at Bogatá, by a brigade of artillery, part of the garrison of the capital who had been seduced by the conspirators. The attack was so sudden that Colonels Bolivar and Ferguson, aids of the president, were shot in their beds, and Bolivar himself barely escaped, by leaping out of a back window, and hiding himself under a bridge, until he was relieved by that part of the garrison which remained faithful, and which, taking the alarm sallied from their barracks, and occupied the principal squares of the city. The rebellion being suppressed, measures were taken to punish the conspirators-several were shot, and General Padilla, Col. Guerra, with some others, were hung. his political opponents. These vinces evinced a similar spirit of discontent. Troops were despatched for the purpose of preventing the progress of insubordination, but it was speedily ascertained that the military were not to be depended upon in this emergency. Bolivar retired to his country-seat, and declined interfering between the contending parties; one of whom, aided by the resident ministers of England, was striving to obtain his recall to the supreme command. It was soon discovered that his successors were still less able to preserve tranquillity than himself, and every effort was made to prevent Bolivar from executing his intention of departing for Europe. Movements were made in Venezuela and at Bogatá, in his favor; and the military intimated their determination to be satisfied with nothing short of his restoration to power. This they declared to be the wish of the people, as well as of the army; and after an interval of six months, during which the government was completely disorganized, Bolivar was earnestly urged to return and take charge of the government, by those to whom he had left its administration. In expectation of this event, Bolivar had delayed his departure for Europe; and upon receiving this call from the principal inhabitants of Bogatá, accompanied with the request of the chief civil and military officers, he again consented to resume the chief command, declaring, however, that he would hold it only until the new elections could take place, when he should retire for ever to private life. This intention he was not permitted to carry into effect. Enfeebled by his constant exertion of body and mind, his constitution sunk under the influence of the climate, and on the 17th of December, 1830, he expired at Carthagena, waiting the Santander, too, was accused of having been at the head of the conspiracy, and being brought to trial was condemned, not for having instigated the conspiracy, but for having approved of it, and wishing it to succeed after he should have departed from the country. He was consequently banished from Colombia, and Bolivar now came into full possession of the civil and military power of the country, with out a rival. In this station he continued until May 4th, 1830, when, dissatisfied with the internal aspect of Colombia, and impatient at the steady opposition of his political enemies, he renounced the presidency for the eighth and last time, and refused any longer to hold the office. This renunciation was destined again to kindle the fire of discord. The province of Venezuela, with Paez at her head, declared herself independent of the central government; and other pro approach of death in a calm and collected manner, and expressing in his last hours his ardent wishes for the welfare of his country. As a general, Bolivar was distinguished, accomplishing great ends with inadequate means, and confounding his opponents by the rapidity of his movements and the vehemence of his attacks. Repeatedly defeated, his forces scat tered, he himself escaping in a remarkable manner; when others despaired he continued to act, and with energies, irrepressible by adversity, he fought on in the great cause he had espoused, until he had expelled the Spanish armies from the American continent, and liberated the new world from the dominion of Spain. As a statesman, he was not so eminent. His views were liberal, but they were often too enlarged for the sphere in which he moved. The celebrated congress of Panama, which originated in his mind, was well calculated to perpetuate his name in future ages. It aimed to sul stitute the sway of reason and law to that of force among nations, to reform the code of national law as established in rude and barbarous ages, by introducing the maxims of a more enlightened period, and to protect the independence of the new republics by a combination of their forces. He did not, however, duly estimate the incongruous and discordant materials which were to be assembled in that body, or the difficulties to be overcome before the governments and communities there represented could be brought to lay aside their mutual jealousies, and to come to a cordial agreement on disputed principles of public law. The domestic dissensions which commenced in the republics, under his sway, shortly after this congress was proposed, prevented him from prose cuting the design, and he did not thus fully realize the difficulties of the task he had undertaken. The congress was never formed, and cares nearer home prevented the project from being resumed. So, too, in his views, respecting the constitution of his own country,seeing it distracted by domestic dissensions, he deemed it necessary to repress them by a strong executive; and he did not properly rate the danger of subjecting the other branches of the government to the will of an individual. The government thus became arbitrary, and freedom was destroyed in the attempt to repress anarchy. In his desire to render Spanish America independent of Spain, he ran too near consolidating the republics of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, under one head, and subjecting himself to the charge of being governed in his career by an immoderate personal ambition. He was, however, the true friend of the independence of his country, and her liberator from foreign domination. With a noble disregard of money, he expended a large for tune in the public service; and.if his ambitious designs have caused many to accuse him of being the Cæsar of his country, we may with perhaps better reason conclude that he was only prevented from imitating our own Washington, because his countrymen could not be so solely trusted with the government of themselves, as the countrymen of Washington. His disapprobation of slavery was evinced in the emancipation of nearly 1000 slaves, belonging to his patrimonial estate; and his refusal of a crown when tendered by General Paez, demonstrated that in his aspirations after power, he did not seek to gratify his ambition through a monarchical form of government. THE COUNTEss de Genlis. 1830. Dec. 31. At Paris, aged 84, the Countess de Genlis. The paternal name of this extraordinary woman was St. Aubin, and she was born near Autim. She inherited no fortune, but being of noble family, was received at the age of four years as Canoness of the noble Chapter of Aix; and after that time, was called La Comtesse de Lancy. As she grew up she was distinguished for her general talents and accomplishments, and a handsome person. These quali fications soon obtained her admission into the best society. Chance appeared to decide her lot in marriage. A letter which she had written to one of her acquaintances, fell into the hands of the Count de Genlis, who was so charmed with the style, that he aspired to acquaintance with, and afterwards became the husband of, the fair writer, when she was only in the seventeenth year of her age. By means of this union, Madame de Genlis had access to the family of the Duke of Orleans, whose son, then Duke de Chartres, had a rising family, which he determined to place under her care for their instruction this scheme was put in practice in 1782. see a religious work proceed from the Palais Royal, the object of which was to prove that religion is the basis of all happiness and all philosophy. This work was, however, properly speaking, only edited by the accomplished Countess, and the Abbés Lamourette and Gouchat contributed largely to the materials. When the Austrians reconquered Flanders, Madame de Genlis withdrew with her pupil to Switzerland, and wished to settle at Lug, where they were joined by the Duke de Chartres, who always retained an affection, amounting to veneration, for his governess; but the magistrates of the town would not permit their stay; and General Montesquieu, who had emigrated to Bremgarten, provided for these exiled and wandering females an asylum in the convent of St. Clair. The Princess of Orleans shortly after quitted Madame de Genlis, and went to reside under the care of her aunt, the Princess of Conti, who at that period resided at Friburgh. She Madame de Genlis herself quitted the Convent of St. Clair in May, 1794, and went to Altona, whence she removed to Hamburgh. next retired to a farm-house at Silk, in Holstein, where she wrote her works entitled The Knight of the Swan,' 'Rash Vows,'' The Rival Mothers,' and 'The Little Emigrants.' She also published a refutation' of the calumnies which had been heaped upon her for her conduct during the revolation. It was during her engagement as preceptress in this family, that Madame de Genlis began her career as a writer, by works of education, which were soon found in the hands of all fashionable mothers of families. The Theatre of Education,' 'Adela and Theodore,' 'The tales of the Castle,' and the Annals of Virtue,' In the year 1800, Madame de were among the most popular and Genlis obtained leave to return to most excellent works ever produc- France, and Napoleon gave her ed, of their kind. But Madame apartments in the Arsenal, and a de Genlis' ambition was not to pension. Since that period her be satisfied by the production of pen has been constantly active; works on education merely; and her works are as numerous as those the Parisians were astonished to of Voltaire. The Theatre of Education' is considered much the best of them; all, however, are written in a very graceful style, with much ingenuity, and display an active mind and an elegant fancy. Ever since the return of Louis Philippe of Orleans (the present King) to France, after the restoration of the Bourbons, great kindness was shown to this accomplished writer, by his family, up to the last moment of her life. For two days previous to her death she had, as usual, been occupied with her literary and other labors until a late hour. Up to twelve at night, she was dictating to her attendant; after which she commenced arranging a letter to the King. Scarcely a day passed in which some of the royal family did not give her some token of kind remembrance. To a letter offering for her acceptance splendid apartments in the palace of the Tuileries, the Countess was engaged in writing a grateful denial, and her reasons for it, to his majesty, until nearly three o'clock in the morning of her decease. At that hour she was put to bed, and at ten 'clock she was found a corpse. FEV. ROBERT HALL. 1831. Feb. 21. At Bristol, aged 68, the Rev. Robert Hall, M. A., Pastor of the Baptist Church, Broadmead, in that city, one of the most eminent ministers of the gospel in the present age. He was son of the Rev. Robert Hall, a minister of the Baptist persuasion. For his education, he was first placed under the care of the Rev. Dr. Ryland, at Northampton, and then sent to the Baptist Academy at Bristol, whence he proceeded, in 1781, to the King's college at Aberdeen. After four years residence there, he returned to the Academy at Bristol, to become assistant to Dr. Caleb Evans, in which situation he continued until 1791, when he succeeded the Rev. Robert Robertson, as minister at Cambridge. While there resident, he became known to, and admired by, some of the most distinguished scholars of the age. It is said that he was offered ordination by Bishop Barrington. From Cambridge, about 1804, he removed to Leicester, where he was pastor of the meeting in Harvey-lane, until invited to succeed Dr. Ryland, at Bristol, in 1826. The name of Mr. Hall stood prominent, as one of the first pulpit orators of the day. From bad health, he hardly ever, of late years at least, studied any of the orations that he delivered, or even thought of them until he had entered the pulpit. His addresses were in consequence unequal; but when his health was firm, his spirits good, and his theme congenial, no man ever rose to higher and happier flights than he did in these purely extemporaneous compositions. The remains of this talented and virtuous man were interred on the 2d of March, in the burying-place adjoining his chapel, in Broadmead, Bristol. He has left a widow, one son, and three daughters. KING OF SARDINIA. 1831. April. At Genoa, aged 66, Charles Felix Joseph, King of Sardinia. He was born April 6th, 1765, the fifth of the six sons of. King Victor Amedeus, and the Archduchess Maria Antonetta Frederica, daughter of the Emperor Joseph the second. Before his accession to the throne, he bore the title of Duke of Genoa. On the abdication of his brother, King |