taken undue liberties, and might in a fice country have reasonably incurred penalties from the ordinary tribunals. But by the suppression of this paper by the royal edict, Louis manifested to his people his attachment to that summary process which despotism ever prefers to the tediousness and uncertainty attending public forms, and courts of justice; and in thus confounding the judicial and executive administration of power, too plainly evinced that he had more at heart the extension of his own authority, than the dignity and liberty of the people whom he governed. The constitution itself, however, of this new kingdom is by no means the establishment of an unqualified monarchy, and in better times may lead to a system of polity, which shall unite the due limitation of power with the complete security of order.

The pressure of the armies of France upon the German territories, while Bonaparte was watching the motions of his neighbours, or carrying into effect his projects of spoliation, was great, and contributions were levied by him on the inhabitants not only with out reluctance but without moderation. In these circumstances, complaint was expressed in a tone of firmness and animation. The spirit of resistance was summoned to its noblest exertions, in a variety of publications which soon attract ed the notice of the French government. Orders were given for the apprehension of varicus book sellers in Franconia, Bavaria, and Swabia, who were carried to the fortress of Braunau. Among these the fate of John Palm, a resident of Nuremburg, which was one of the free towns of Germany possess ing laws and tribunals of its own,

attracted particular notice. This person was the publisher of a pamphlet entitled "Germany in the lowest State of Degradation," which had been read with great avidity, He was in consequence arrested by order of the French government and dragged to Braunau, charged with the publication of a work libellous against the French emperor, and tending to mislead the people of the south of Germany. A court martial was held on his case, consisting of general Berthier, seven colonels, and an adjutant with a reporter. After sitting for three days, Palm, who had not been present during the depositions, was brought into court, where the evidence was read to him; after which he was ordered to with, draw, and the court consulted about the extent of his guilt and punishment, and adjudged him to be shot within 24 hours. This proceeding, although affecting im mediately only an obscure indivi. dual, excited considerable attention and indignation throughout Eu. rope, in several countries of which subscriptions were raised for the family of the deceased: and although the chief of the French government did not persónally ap pear upon the bloody stage, he incurred that odium which might naturally attach to him from the consideration, that the performers on the scene must have been at least well aware of his approbation of their conduct, and that he has ever entertained a decided enmity to that freedom of the press which is certainly the most formidable foe to tyranny, and will eventually effect its extermination. The state of the press in France is just such as in these circumstances might be expected. No foreign publications are permitted to be imported with

out

out an express sanction, and the British journals are excluded from circulation with the most anxious solicitude. From the certainty that any work including free strictures on the conduct of public affairs, would expose its circulators to the swift infliction of vengeance proportioned to the energy and the truth with which they were delivered, nothing in the form of censure on these topics is ever exhibited. Every page of politics is a panegyric on the imperial administration; and even science has condescended to adopt the adulation of the public journals, and to extol the liberty as well as glory of the great nation.

The attention of the religious world was particularly drawn by some events occurring this year in France in relation to the Jews. The situation of this people has ever interested those who have adverted to their universal dispersion through barbarous and civilized nations, without melting in either case into the common mass, and sinking their national language, manners, or religion, to which with inviolable fidelity they have adhered, amidst that scorn and persecution which through a long succession of ages have been their only inheritance. Liberal religionists have thought they saw in it some corroboration of their faith, attended with certain inexplicable difficulties: speculative men of the world have found in it a moral problem, for which their utmost ingenuity has been unable to furnish a satisfactory solution; while the humane of all descriptions have viewed with sentiments of the most sincere commiseration, a race of people, who, inheriting a tainted reputation, are precluded, perhaps, from the very strongest motive to

upright and manly character, and, despairing to derive estimation, like other men, from virtue, not unnaturally plunge into all the circumventions of fraud and all the profligacy of dishonour. Complaint had been repeatedly communicated to the emperor from various departments, of the fraudulent and usurious conduct of these people; and deputations from the Jews scattered over the various parts of the empire, were ordered to appear at Paris in an assembly, which might hold conferences with the government for the correction of the evil complained of, and the consideration of other subjects, interesting to their body in particular and also to the nation at large. The assembly soon met in consequence of these instructions, and was opened by a commissioner of the government. Their meeting was stated to be pregnant with very important consequences. They were now for the first time to be judged by a christian prince with fairness and impartiality. It would be their wisdom not to suspect the beneficial intentions of government, and, showing no desire to separate from other classes of society, to co-operate with the kind exertions of the emperor, whose ardent desire it was to see them become genuine Frenchmen, and who demanded their attention and deliberation on various questions, to whoral was expected they would reply with perfect freedom and explicitness.

In answer to several of the questions presented to them, they, after several discussions, at length stated, that their law permitted polygamy, divorce, and mixed mar riages, which were, however, modified by usage. In reply to the questions relative to the duties of T4 French

French citizens, their answers were in a high degree satisfactory. The imperial commissioner attended at the assembly of the Jewish deputies some time after the delivery of these answers, and expressed his majesty's approbation of them. In return for the free exercise of their religion, and the full enjoyment of their political rights, the emperor observed, through his deputy, that he exacteda religious guarantee for the observance of the principles announced in their answers. For

this purpose, it was requisite that these answers should be converted into decisions by an assembly of a more impressive and religious form, that they might be placed by the side of the Talmud, and acquire the greatest possible authority. It was therefore proposed to convoke the grand Sanhedrim; which, having fallen with the Temple, would now re-appear to enlighten the people in the law, and to animate them to the love and defence of that country which was the only one wherein they had been permitted to attain any respectable notice since the ruin of their ancient polity. The Sanhedrim should consist of sixty-six members, and a committee of the present assembly should be appointed to arrange the subjects of discussion for that grand council, whose convocation they were to announce to all the synagogues of Europe.

The anticipated consequences of these events, respecting a nation which from its first bondage in Egypt has been exposed to the perpetual abhorrence of the world, from the unsocial spirit and ferocious fanaticism of its manners and institutions, varied in different minds according to their respective habits of speculation or prejudice. Judicious observers, however, were

The range and multiplicity of subjects which occupied the attention of the chief of this government, are not undeserving of notice. It might seem as if nothing was too vast for his comprehension, or too minute for his observation; and it appears impossible not to admire the facility with which he personally directs the details of affairs, civil as well as military, the most complicated and the most various, Not merely to the transcendence of his genius, but also to his indefatigable and incessant application of it, he is indebted for his almost uninterrupted success. He inspects every thing with his own eye. He labours with more industry than any secretary or clerk in office. His principal relaxation is in the variety of business. He considers the refreshments of nature "not as the premium and privilege," but as the task of life. He appoints to stations of distinction, those only who by experience or talents are qualified to discharge the duties of them, and superintends that discharge with a vigilance which will not permit the approach of delinquency or remissness. These are qualities which merit imitation, and enough will

allowed for precaution against his attempts, and then to some part of the continent as remote as possible from France. In a respectful reply to this letter by M. Talleyrand, is introduced, unofficially, an extract from the emperor's speech to the legislative body, expressive of his wish for peace with England, and his readiness to negotiate for it without a moment's delay, agreeably to the treaty of Amiens. Mr. Fox on the 26th of February, in a letter to M. Talleyrand, states, that he had laid before the king that part of his private letter relating to the pacific wishes of the French government, and he ex presses the ardent disposition of the British cabinet to smooth the obstacles in the way to peace, a basis for which would be best formed by the reciprocal acknowledgment of the two nations, that the peace should be honourable both for them and their allies, and calculated to secure the future repose of Europe. Such, however, were the ties existing between England and Russia, as made it necessary to observe, that the latter could not treat, and much less conclude any thing, but in concert with the emperor Alexander, who, with fewer interests to discuss with France, was warmly concerned in the greater or less degree of independence enjoyed by the different states of Europe. His majesty's name being thus introduced into the discussion by Mr. Fox, the intercourse began to assume an official aspect. M. Talleyrand was authorized by his master to declare, that France wished for nothing that England was in possession of, and was only desirous of repose, and the unobstructed exercise of her industry; that the emperor adopted the general principle laid

down by Mr. Fox, that the peace should be honourable for the two courts and their respective allies; that, while he was ready to make every concession which the naval preponderance of England could justly claim, he reasonably expected in return proposals conformable to the honour of his crown and the commercial rights of his dominions. But he conceived, that two enlightened and neighbouring nations would not do justice to their own dignity and wisdom, in calling for the intervention of a foreign and distant power in the discussion of the great interests by which they were divided. To obviate some of the inconveniences attending the existing mode of communication between the two governments, lord Yarmouth, one of the persons who had been detained by Bonaparte at the commencement of the war, was induced, at the request of the French government, to go from Verdun to Paris, and was invested with powers as a diplomatic agent. In his first conversation with M. Talleyrand, the latter specifically detailed to him the reasons which had been urged against admitting Russia to a concert in the treaty with Great Britain; soon after which his lordship suggested that a medium might perhaps be discovered, by which the object desired by the French government, and that of Great Britain of not treating in a manner unconnected with Russia, might be obtained: to which the French minister replied, that they were ready to give every facility to the arrangement of the respective interests of the two powers, or that the British minister might be authorized by the emperor Alexander to stipulate also for him. From the expression of M.

Talleyrand,