dered, too, that a very great proportion of them were incapable of extending their sympathies across the great gulf which separated modern times from the times of the ancient regime; and, of course, the antiquated observances, renewed on this occasion, which might have devoutly and patriotically affected their forefathers, must have been to them unimpressive and lifeless.

However, the King, on his return to Paris, experienced a rather enthusiastic reception from the people of that capital, which, perhaps, may be construed into a grateful anticipation of the fêtes and other amusements at the expense of the state which awaited them.

His Majesty returned to Paris on the 7th of June; and the same day, the King and Queen of Wirtemburgh, who had just arrived incognito, under the names of the Count and Countess de Teck, were presented to him and the other members of his family. That day, also, the King was solemnly invested with the English order of the Garter, by the Duke of Northumberland, Viscount Granville, and Sir George Nayler, king-at-arms, acting upon a special commission from their sovereign, who had been specially represented at the ceremo nial of the coronation by the firstnamed nobleman, with unrivalled magnificence.

The greatest political event of the year was the recognition by France of the independence of her former colony of Hayti, the particulars of which will be found detailed under the head of Hayti.

Perhaps nothing had occurred in the course of the year which so much fixed public attention as certain judicial proceedings adopted against a part of the press, in defence of the Jesuits and the fanatical portion of the regular clergy, whom public opi

nion had long denounced for their intolerance of Protestantism, and their entertaining ultramontane designs against the liberties of the Gallican Church. Circumstances were almost daily occurring, both to confirm and exasperate that opinion; but none produced a more deep impression than the general character of the coronation ceremony, in which the monarch was seen prostrated at the feet of a priest, and receiving the crown from him, and the re-establishment about the same time, by a royal ordinance, of the notorious College of the Sorbonne. The organs of public opinion, the Constitutionnel and Courrier Francais newspapers were not inactive in exposing the intolerant spirit and dangerous designs of the Jesuits and fanatics; and, accordingly, they were selected for prosecution by the advocate-general, under the new law of the press. By that law it is not necessary for the prosecutor to found upon any specific article containing libellous matter; it is enough that he shows that the general discussions or remarks of the journal which he prosecutes are of an anti-religious, antimoral, or seditious tendency. The question, too, is tried and determined, without the intervention of a jury, by the Cour Royale, which, if it sustains the charge, may decree either the suspension or suppression of the obnoxious journal.

The cases of the two prosecuted journals in question were, strangely enough, both included in one réquisitoire, or information, which was a declamatory production, breathing the very spirit of the Jesuits. It laid great stress, in particular, upon the bias towards Protestantism, (a religion, be it observed, not only tolerated, but supported by the state,) evinced by the editors. To prove the malus animus of these gentlemen,

such passages as the following in the two journals were actually founded upon:-"The petition of the Protestants of Nerac, expelled from their church, was laid upon the table of the Chamber of Deputies the day before yesterday by General Foy."Courrier Francais, "But while the schools of the Freres Ignorantins are established and supported by means of taxes, pray allow Lancasterian schools to subsist by voluntary contributions."-Constitutionnel. But the most monstrous feature in the proceeding of the attorney-general was, that he did not rely upon proving the imputed tendency of the discussions in either of the prosecuted journals by their own internal evidence, but, though the two were rather distinct in their politics, and altogether unconnected, he collected and then confounded the discussions of both journals, and from the aggregate drew his own hostile inferences. This was a truly jesuitical perversion of a law in itself sufficiently arbitrary, severe, and unjust. The public prosecutor concluded his elaborate sophistry by demanding the suspension of the two journals for three months. This prosecution became a matter of the greatest public concern, since, by the new law of the press, no new journal could be established in France without the King's special authority; and the suspension (which, considering the nature of the property, was tantamount to suppression,) would have been, speaking in a political sense, to put out the eyes of the liberal party-a party the existence of which, notwithstanding the injuries it had done to the cause of rational freedom, had become necessary to counterpoise the influence of the fanatical party, which now exercised a power in the state at once mysterious and formidable.

The case was pleaded three days

before the Cour Royale, which was presided over by Baron Seguier. Such was the intense anxiety excited by the trial, that the hall was crowded with Peers of France, national deputies, and foreigners of distinction. The advocate-general, M. de Bröe, exerted the whole of his eloquence in support of his charges. On the other side, M. Dupin, for the Constitutionnel, and M. Merilhou for the Courrier Francais, contended, that the articles of accusation were vague and inapplicable, and explained and justified the selected and denounced passages in the journals under prosecution. They asserted the truth of the facts embodied in these passages; and in arguing that religion was not attacked by exposing the abuses which dishonoured it, they inveighed against the flagrant introduction into the kingdom of a religious order (meaning the Jesuits) in opposition to the law, and to the imminent danger of the independence of the throne and the liberties of the people.

On 3d December, after the King's advocate had replied to M. Dupin, the court retired for about three quarters of an hour to deliberate, and then re-entered the hall, which was crowded to excess:

The decision of the Court was as follows:-" The Court, having considered the thirty-four culpatory articles extracted from the paper called the Constitutionnel, resolve, that though many of the articles contain expressions and improper phrases on serious subjects, yet the spirit resulting from those articles is not of a nature to cast a slur on the respect due to the religion of the state; and likewise resolving, that it is neither casting such slur, nor abusing the liberty of the press, to discuss and oppose the introduction into th kingdom of all establishments no

authorized by law,-and that every paper has a right to point out such facts as are notoriously established as offensive to religion or morality, or such dangers and excesses as are likely to arise from a doctrine which would threaten the independence of the monarchy, the sovereignty of the King, and the public liberty, guaranteed by the constitutional charter, and by the declaration of the clergy of France in 1682-a declaration that has always been recognised and proclaimed the law of the country,-decree that there is no cause for pronouncing the required suspension, though we at the same time enjoin the editors of the Constitutionnel to be more circumspect. The cause is therefore dismissed, free of expense to the defendants." As soon as this judgment was pronounced, the Justice Hall was filled with shouts of "Live the King !" "The Charter for ever!" "The Liberty of the Press for ever!" "The Cour Royale and Dupin for ever!"

In the case of the Courrier Francais, which had been suspended, M. de Bröe, the attorney-general, having addressed the court against that journal, and M. Merilhou, for the defence, having resumed his arguments, the President at length interrupted the latter by saying," Your cause is heard." The Court retired

at two o'clock into the council chamber, and at three o'clock resumed its sitting. The first President then pronounced a similar judgment in the case of the Courrier, acquitting the editors without costs.

duced to a state of perfect barbarism; at least that much may be predicated of its government. By accident the Spanish government may occasionally employ men of talents; but so organised is it, so controlled and dictated to by factious interests, that such men, in accepting office, must be aware that patriotism is a virtue at once unsafe and impracticable; consequently,they must make up their minds to act upon the selfish principle, which, in that country, requires a prostitution of all talent whatsoever. Hence ignorance and bigotry reign triumphant.

The acknowledgment by Great Britain of the independence of various of the South American states was communicated to the Cabinet of Madrid in January, and gave mighty offence. The communications between the two courts, in consequence, were not a little animated; that of Madrid insisting that the act of the British Government did not agree with the fact, since, according to the views of Ferdinand's ministers, South America was in a most disorganised state, and the majority of its population were anxious to return to their ancient allegiance; and that the act in question was a direct attack upon the principles of legitimacy. An argument, founded on the principles of legitimacy, as these had lately been practically interpreted, could find little favour in the eyes of a British minister such as Mr Canning, who, resting his chief argument upon the fact of the new states being, and having long been actually independent, maintained that there was nothing inimical towards Spain in Britain's acknowledging that fact, which was notorious and incontrovertible. The argument of the British minister appears quite resistless. Unless the pretensions of despotism are held to be unlimited, it must be allowed that, according to the law both of nature

and of nations, as well as the dictates of common sense, there may be circumstances to justify a colony in throwing off its subjection to the mother country; but, since third parties have no title to adjudicate, one way or another, with regard to the extent of the justification, and cannot, indeed, pretend to do so without embroiling itself with one of the parties, it obviously follows that, without interfering with the de jure question, it has a right to form relations with the revolting party when once its independence is de facto established. The converse of this proposition would involve not a few political monstrosities which, without their being stated, must suggest themselves to the mind of the reader. It was sufficient to escape the imputation of being unfriendly, that Britain had offered herself to Spain as a mediator between her and her former colonies; and when that mediation was contemptuously rejected, surely she was well entitled to consult her own interests, by forming commercial relations with the new States, when, in doing so, she left Spain as much at liberty as ever to reduce them to their former subjection.

The Spanish government continued harassed as usual by its pecuniary wants, its absolutely necessary expenses having come to exceed its revenue by two hundred millions reals. The idea of taxing the Church again occurred to it; but though the dignitaries of the Church assented to the scheme, the body of the clergy refused their concurrence, alleging that their tithes had been reduced one half since the period of the usurpation by Joseph Buonaparte, not to speak of the despoilment of many of the religious houses.

The king, acting upon the advice of Bermudez Zea, his minister for foreign affairs, presented to the Coun

cil of Castile, for its approbation, a decree of extraordinary liberality, which granted an amnesty for all political offences committed between 7th March, 1820, and 1st October, 1823, and directed that all included within the amnesty who were in custody should instantly be liberated. This decree, twice presented to the Council of Castile, was twice remonstrated against by that body; and, in the meantime, reports having been received of new conspiracies, and of the appearance of a guerilla party in the mountains of Cuenca, and about the same time the volunteers of Madrid having been industrious in shouting "Live the absolute King," "Death to the Cortes," the measure was ultimately withdrawn.

If the perplexities of Ferdinand urged him at times into a course of humane and liberal policy, his dread of the monkish party, which, while it affected to uphold his absolute authority, in fact domineered over him, soon recalled him to the path which his own cruel and selfish nature pointed out to him. About this time, though the King had dismissed Ugarte from the office of secretary of the Council, and made other changes in his ministry which appeared auspicious to the moderate party, he still retained in his confidence M.Calomarde, whose ideas were directly opposed to those of the prime minister, Bermudez Zea; and, under his influence, and that of the Duke del Infantado, the King issued a declaration from Aranjuez, dated 19th April, in which he solemnly pledged himself to preserve intact and in all their plenitude his rights of absolute sovereignty, and to permit no change whatever in the form of his government. This declaration was intended to calm the apprehensions of the monkish faction, that Ferdinand was really meditating some essential changes; but, in that

view, it was wholly ineffective. The vengeance of the faction had not been sufficiently glutted with blood; and, because Ferdinand had been pleased to set limits to their vengeance, they, very fancifully, adopted the belief that he was becoming a Liberal.

A considerable number of changes were afterwards made in various of fices of the state, by which certain Ultras were displaced by persons of the moderate party. Among the former were General Aymerich, who had held together the three important posts of minister of war, inspectorgeneral of the infantry, and commander of the royalist volunteers of Madrid; and General Carvajal, captain-general of the province of Madrid. These changes threw the royalist volunteers into the greatest fermentation; and, affecting to believe that there was a plot laid by the Liberals to poison the whole of them, because some drummers of their corps had taken sick after eating of lambs' head, they appeared on the streets with arms in their hands, shouting -" Live the absolute King! Death to the Negroes! Live Aymerich and Carvajal!" and committed some dread ful excesses. Troops of the line were introduced into the city from the neighbouring towns; but it was not until after several days, and some bloodshed, that they succeeded in re storing tranquillity. A committee of physicians declared the lambs' head plot to be a mere fable; and a placard which had been affixed to the walls, bearing" Live the Constitution! death to the King and religion!" was ascertained by the police to be the production of the Ultra-Royalist party.

Notwithstanding the rebellious spirit evinced by the Royalist Volunteers, the government had not the courage to suppress them; and, in the meantime, addresses poured in

from the provinces, demanding the recall of General Aymerich, and the dismissal of Recacho, the minister of police. At Segovia, Cordova, and Seville, there had been popular commotions; and, to make "confusion worse confounded," there was discovered the existence of a white lodge, organized upon the Carbonari plan, having for its object the establishment of absolutism in its utmost perfection. The prelates were enjoined by government to inculcate the duty of obedience in their flocks; but many of them refused to obey the mandate. The Bishop of Orihuela re-established the Inquisition within his diocese, by which he only imitated the example which had been set by the Bishop of Tarragona; and when the proceeding was denounced to the Council of Castile, that body had the daring cowardice (if such a compound expression may be allowed), not merely to extenuate, but to justify it. The various measures of the government at this juncture were so extremely inconsistent and contradictory, as to make it evident that there were two hostile parties in the cabinet, who alternately swayed the mind, such as it was, of the monarch.

At length, a discovery was made of a correspondence, by which it appeared that a formidable plot had been formed by the apostolical party, for dethroning Ferdinand, and substituting for him his brother Don Carlos; by which substitution, the party expected to gain the evacuation of Spain by the French troops, the re-establishment of the Inquisition, the confiscation, in favour of the royalists, of the estates of all who had participated in the revolution, and similar important advantages. In this conspiracy, a number of noblemen and prelates, members of the council of Castile, and persons attached to the court, were seriously implicated. It was