the superiority in its turn; chemistry at this day extracting from it a residuum, which gives it over indigo the advantage of price and quality."

An address from the department in which Brest is situated, touched, amid all its flattery, upon the state to which . the maritime power of France was reduced. ،، Deprived of our vessels," said they, "our solitary road waits till you ordain that the Loire shall repair its losses, by conveying there the tribute of your imperial forests: there will be some obstacles to conquer; but who can deny to you the genius to conceive, and the force to execute?" Buonaparte's answer is remarkable,because he spoke of the French provinces by their old names, and because he attributed the destruction of the marine to the war in La Vendee. "The true cause," he said, "of the disasters which the navy has sustained, arises from the loss of those inestimable men, of whom France has been deprived in the civil wars that have principally wasted Britanny and Poitou. But such is the power of my people, that in four years I shall have more than 100 sail of the line, and 200 frigates. The sailors of the Adriatic, as well as those of the Baltic, already contend with my Bretons and Provençals in courage and in zeal to contribute to the freedom of the seas, in which not only the interest of my empire, but that of all the nations of the world is involved." In truth, no efforts were wanting on his part, which policy could devise, or power execute, to prepare means for destroying the maritime supremacy of England, in order that he might become the tyrant of the seas as well as of the continent. Antwerp was the place where the greatest exertions were made. Eight three-deckers were at this time upon the stocks there, and thirteen other ships of the line. Equipments of every kind were brought there in safety down the Rhine and

the Meuse. Six years back, vessels drawing twelve feet water could scarcely enter its neglected port; a basin had now been constructed capable of containing fifty line-of-battle ships. Spanish prisoners were employed in the dock-yards, and upon the works which were constructing to render it one of the strongest fortresses in the Low Countries. Men of all countries were brought together to man this fleet; Italians and Provençals, who were sent from Toulon where they were less needed; Danes, Germans, Russians, and Swedes; Dutch and French; and Americans, seized in the Baltic ports, and forced into the service of France. Here, however, Buonaparte found what, in the pride of his heart, he had not taken into consideration: by an act of sovereign will he could create fleets; but to render a fleet effective, which was thus manned from different nations, was beyond his power, unless he could have remedied its Babylonian confusion by a gift of tongues.

But though the tyrant could not see his heart's desire in the destruction of Great Britain, he was fully gratified in another point; for in the spring of this year Maria Louisa bore him a son. The March 20. forms of religion, and of superstition also, had been observed on this occasion. Not only had the usual prayers been made throughout the churches for her happy delivery, but they were said daily in all the Synagogues by order of the Grand Rabbi, the first Jew who was ever invested with an order, being a Knight of the Iron Crown. The shift of the Virgin, which the church of Notre Dame de Chartres has pretended to shew for nine centuries, was exposed, according to old custom, during the course of the prayers; and as the chapter of this church had been accustomed to send to the Queens of France a model of this relic to be worn at their first delivery,

the mummery was renewed, and the Bishop of Versailles, at the head of a deputation, presented the sacred shift. Whether the birth of this infant may ultimately prove to the parents a cause for joy or for mourning, may well be doubted by those who remember the fate of the last dauphin, the disputable claim of a child certainly not born in marriage according to the catholic church, and the crimes of the father, which, even in the mere political order of things, are in such cases so likely to be visited upon the son. Thus far, however, the wishes of the tyrant were accomplished; and the people of Paris displayed as much joy as they had ever done upon the birth of a lawful heir to their old line of kings. The usual rejoicings, illuminations, and thanksgivings were made; and telegraphs made it known over the whole of France, that the young prince began to take nourishment with avidity from his nurse; that he had suffered during the night the cholic pains incident to his age; and that he was well in the morning. He was immediately designated as the King of Rome; an ominous title, in as ill taste as the other anti-classical denominations which had been invented during the course of the revolution. The city of Paris presented a cradle for the infant of gilt silver and mother of pearl, the inside furnished with orange-coloured velvet, the curtain of lace, embroidered with bees of gold, and lined with white satin. Four cornucopias were placed crossways, and the figures of Justice and Strength supported it. Cameos, on one side, represented the Nymph of the Seine holding up her arms to receive the child of the gods; on the other was Tyber, rejoicing to see the new star arise. Fame, at the head of the cradle, held a crown surmounted by a star, emblematic of the genius and glory of Buonaparte; and at the foot

was a young eagle, with his eyes fixed upon this emblem, and his wings indicating an attempt to soar above thestar. Two days after the baptism of the infant, Count July 10. Montesquieu informed the Legislative Body, as their president, that many of their colleagues having expressed a desire that a deputation should be admitted to the honour of presenting to his Majesty the King of Rome the homage of the respect, the love and fidelity of the Legislative Body, he had taken the orders of the emperor upon this subject, who, with his usual paternal goodness, had deigned to accede to their unanimous wish. It was resolved accordingly that the president, the two vice-presidents, the two quæstors, and twenty legislators, should be commissioned to present their homage to the baby! Buonaparte did not condescend to be present when this act of voluntary baseness was performed; he left the nurse to receive the deputation, as if to mark the contempt with which he regarded these vilest and most abject slaves, some of whom had sanctioned all those measures of brutal barbarity by which the slow murder of the dauphin was accomplished. On their return, the president reported the result of their mission in terms worthy of being preserved, because, as European history contains no example of such an act, so it is to be hoped it will never be disgraced by a repetition of it. "Gentlemen," he said, "the deputation which you commissioned to carry to the King of Rome the homage of the Legisla tive Body, repaired this morning to St Cloud; none of us could behold without a lively interest this august infant, upon whom so many destinies repose, and whose age inspires the most tender sentiments. We have borne to him all your sentiments, gentlemen, mixing with them those wishes which

the love of our own children is calculated to inspire. Madame the gover ness received them, and thanked us in the name of the young prince; doubtless at the same time regretting that he was unable to join his personal sentiments to those which she expressed to the Legislative Body." This speech was received with applause from all parts of the hall. Let the reader imagine what his feelings would be if this were related of the House of Commons and the Speaker, and he will then perceive somewhat of the difference between à Briton and a Frenchman.

The annual exposition of the state of the empire was about this time made public. "Since the last session of the Legislative Body,"it said, "the empire had received an addition of 16 departments, 5,000,000 of people, aterritory yielding a revenue of 100,000,000, 300 leagues of coast, and all their maritime means. The mouths of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, were not then French: the circulation of the interior of the empire was circumscribed: the productions of its central departments could not reach the sea, unless they were submitted to the inspection of foreign custom-houses. These inconveniences have for ever disappeared. The maritime arsenal of the Scheldt, whereon so many hopes are founded, has thereby received all the developement which it needed. The mouths of the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe, place in our hands all the wood which Germany furnishes. The frontiers of the empire are supported on the Baltic; and thus, having a direct communication with the north, it will be easy for us thence to draw masts, hemp, iron, and such other naval stores as we may want. We at this moment unite all that France, Germany, and Italy produce, as materials for the construction of ships. The Simplon, become part of France, secures us a new communi

cation with Italy. The union of Rome has removed that troublesome intermediacy which subsisted between our armies in the north and in the south of Italy, and has given us new coasts on the Mediterranean, as useful and necessary to Toulon, as those of the Adriatic are to Venice."

This language is truly characteristic of the policy of the most audacious tyranny that ever trampled upon the laws of nations. Buonaparte had given the text for it, when he said, in his speech to this assembly, " Holland has been united to the empire:-she is but an emanation of it; without her the empire would not be complete." If then her annexation was a geographical necessity,-what were the constitutions which France had established in Holland, and what the treaties and guarantees to which Buonaparte had so repeatedly pledged himself? Of the Valais, he said that its union had been foreseen ever since the act of mediation, and considered as necessary to conciliate the interests of Switzerland with those of France and Italy. Thus did the tyrant avow, that at the time when he stipulated for the independence of the Valais, he foresaw that he should unite it to France. The usurp ation of this happy territory had not been effected without bloodshed. The inhabitants, who had hitherto enjoyed privileges which their fathers had bled to establish, and who relied upon the faith of the government which had so infamously deceived them, as soon as the decree of annexation reached them, sent a deputation to Paris to petition against it. The deputies were put under arrest. When this was known the people rose; troops were poured in upon them. A body of 1500, which had collected in the course of a few days, and taken a position near the Rhine, was attacked and routed: 300 were put to the sword, twice that num

ber wounded, and the prisons of the neighbouring towns filled with more victims for the living Moloch.

The exposition confessed that Guadaloupe and the Isle of France were lost. The wish to relieve these colonies, it said, would have been no sufficient reason for trying to send out their squadrons in their present state of relative inferiority. But the orator laboured to shew, that by the great exertions of the government, the annexation of Holland, the resources of Italy, and the maritime conscription which had been established, this inferiority would soon be removed. "What,” said he," are a few years, in order to consolidate the great empire, and secure the tranquillity of our children? It is not that the government does not wish for peace; but it cannot take place while the affairs of England are directed by men, who all their lives have professed perpetual war; and without a guarantee, what would that peace be to France? At the close of two years, English fleets would seize our ships, and would ruin our ports of Bourdeaux, Nantes, Amsterdam, Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Venice, Naples, Trieste, and Hamburgh, as they have done heretofore. Such a peace would be only a trap laid for our commerce; it would be useful to England alone, who would regain an opening for her commerce, and would change the continental system. The pledge of peace is in the existence of our fleet and of our maritime power. We shall be able to make peace with safety when we shall have 150 ships of the line; and in spite of the obstacles of war, such is the state of the empire, that we shall have that number of vessels! Thus, the guarantee of our fleet, and that of an English administration founded on principles different from those of the existing cabinet, can alone give peace to the universe. It would be useful to us, no doubt, but it would

also be desirable in every point of view: we shall say more, the continent-the whole world demands it: but we have one consolation, which is, that it is still more desirable for our enemies than for ourselves; and whatever efforts the English ministry may make to stupify the nation, by a multitude of pam phlets, and by every thing that can keep in action a population greedy of news, they cannot conceal from the world how much peace becomes every day more indispensable to England."

The improvements in docks, roads, and canals, were blazoned in an inflated style, which proved how little improvement was going on in a country where the government could make such works its boast. There is scarcely a shire in England, in which greater works have not been effected by the enterprize of individuals. A more im'portant part related to the disorganized state of the Gallican church, in consequence of the dispute between Buonaparte and the Pope. Upon this point Buonaparte touched in his speech.

The affairs of religion," he said, have been too often mixed in, and sacrificed to, the interests of a state of the third order. If half Europe have separated from the church of Rome, we may attribute it specially to the contradiction which has never ceased to exist between the truths and the principles of religion which belong to the whole universe, and the pretensions and interests which regarded only a very small corner of Italy. I have put an end to this scandal for ever. I have united Rome to the empire. I have given palaces to the popes at Rome and at Paris; if they have at heart the interest of religion, they will often sojourn in the centre of the af fairs of Christianity. It was thus that St Peter preferred Rome to an abode even in the Holy Land."

In the exposition it was remarked, as some of the advantages to be deri

ved from the union of Rome with the French empire, that the popes were no longer sovereign princes, and no longer in the relation of strangers to France. The observations which follow are worthy of consideration in our own country. "If it be advantageous to the state and to religion that the pope should not continue to be a sovereign prince, it is equally desirable that the Bishop of Rome, the head of our church, should not be a stranger to us; but that he should unite in his heart, with the love of religion, that love for this country which characterizes elevated minds. Besides, it is the only means whereby that proper influence which the pope ought to possess over spiritual concerns, can be rendered compatible with the principles of the empire, which cannot suffer any foreign bishop to exercise an authority therein."

The exposition proceeded to explain, as far as was convenient, the state of affairs with the pope, who, though he had been stript of all temporal power, though he was in prison, and though the press, not only of France, but of the whole continent, dared not give publicity to his edicts, nor send forth one writing in his defence, was still for midable to Buonaparte. "The emperor," said this report, "is satisfied with the spirit which animates all his clergy. The establishment of secondary ecclesiastical schools, commonly called small schools; the founding of many large seminaries for higher studies; the re-establishment of churches wherever they had been destroyed; and the purchase of several grand cathedrals, of which the revolution had intercepted the construction, are manifest proofs of the interest which the government takes in the splendour of religious worship, and the prosperity of religion. Religious dissentions, the effect of our political troubles, have entirely disappeared; there are no

longer in France any priests but those in communion with their bishops, and as united in their religious princi ples as in their attachment to government.-Twenty-seven bishopricks ha ving been for a long time vacant, and the pope having refused at two different periods, from 1805 to 1807, and from 1808 up to the present moment, to execute the clauses of the Concordat, which bind him to institute the bishops nominated by the emperor; this refusal has nullified the Concordat-it no longer exists. The empe ror has been therefore obliged to convoke all the bishops of the empire, in order that they may deliberate about the means of supplying the vacant sees, and of nominating to those that may become vacant in future, conformably to what was done under Charlemagne, under St Louis, and in all the ages which preceded the Concordat of Francis I. and Leo X. : for it is of the essence of the catholic religion not to be able to dispense with the ministry and the mission of bishops.-Thus has ceased to exist that famous transaction between Francis I. and Leo X., against which the church, the university, and the supreme courts, so long protested, and which made the publicists and magistrates of that period say, that the king and the pope had mutually ceded that which belonged neither to the one nor the other. Henceforward it is to the deliberations of the Council of Paris that the fate of episcopacy is attached, which will have so much influence upon that of religion itself. The council will decide, whether France, like Germany, shall be without episcopacy. As for the rest, if there have existed other causes of disunion between the emperor and the temporal sovereign of Rome, there exists none between the emperor and the pope, as the head of religion; and there is none which can cause the least inquietude to the most timorous souls.”