Great complaints were made throughout the country, of the stagnation of those manufactures, for which the Flemings had long been famous. The administration seem to have thought of no remedy beside the vulgar and inefficient one of excluding foreign products, and calling upon all functionaries and patriotic persons to wear only the manufactures of their country. A more really useful measure consisted in an exhibition of the products of national industry, which took place at Ghent, and was continued through the whole month of August. Denmark this year shewed symptoms of being roused by the innovating spirit of the age out of that tranquil apathy, with which she slumbered in the arms of a mild despotism. The lead, as everywhere on the continent, was taken by the students, at the head of whom was a young protestant minister, called Dampe. Having been excluded from the pulpit by the Bishop of Zealand, on account of some doctrines deemed heretical, he applied himself to operate a political and religious reform. He gave lectures, attended by crowds of students and artizans, in which he commented on the events taking place in Europe, and the political aspect of its different states. The government, alarmed by the boldness of his ideas, and the vast multitudes by which he was attended, caused him to be arrested, with several of his most zealous adherents. Among his papers were found plans for operating a revolution similar to that which had taken place in Spain, and forcing the King to sign a constitution. He and one of his followers, a smith by trade, were condemned to death; but the punishment was commuted to imprisonment for life in the fortress of Christiansoe.

Russia also presented a singular phenomenon-a mutiny, which the

alarm of the moment magnified into a popular insurrection. It broke out among a regiment of the guards, to which the emperor was much attached, and one distinguished, both for its valour and high discipline. It originated entirely in the conduct of Schwartz, its colonel, who, by a long train of unnecessary rigour, and severe punishments for trifling offences, had generated violent discontents. These came to a crisis, when he ordered them out for a grand parade on a Sunday morning. Upon this mandate, which at once shocked their religious feelings, and took away all hope of repose, the soldiers met, and sent a deputation to the colonel, declaring their resolution not to obey. Not finding him at home, they broke his windows. The whole regiment was now in open insurrection, and the consequences might have been serious, but for the courage and presence of mind of General Miloradovitch, governor of Petersburgh. He presented himself to the troops, and asked if they would obey him. They replied that they would, but not their colonel. He then ordered them to ground their arms, and proceed to the fortress. They obeyed, were declared prisoners, and part of them marched into Finland. The Emperor, then absent at Troppau, on being acquainted with the circumstance, ordered the regiment to be broken up, the troops distributed through other corps, and the ringleaders to be punished, at the same time directing Schwartz to be tried for the conduct which had led to the mutiny.

An imperial ukase was published this year, by which all jesuits were expelled from the empire. The principal charge on which this measure was founded, was the extraordinary zeal shown by them in making converts from the established religion, especially of the young persons placed

under their care. They were also charged with making an ill use of the funds entrusted to them. Every indulgence was shewn, consistent with the strict execution of the decree, and the government even provided for the expense of their removal. The number which left the empire was about 750. Government had certainly a full right to withdraw its countenance and favour from the body; but the banishment of a mass of men, upon a mere general opinion, without any charges brought home against individuals, seems scarcely compatible with the spirit of modern legislation.

The Russian government completed this year the salutary measure of the enfranchisement of the Livonian serfs.

The most remarkable event in the Russian empire was the sitting of the Polish Diet, which was opened on the 13th September by Alexander in person. He had been received by the people of Warsaw with enthusiastic rejoicings; but his opening address evidently shewed that he apprehended in the Diet a somewhat different temper. He reprobated, in the strongest terms, the spirit of innovation which had gone abroad, and particularly the mode of forming new constitutions, which had been adopted by the states in the south of Europe. He represented the benefits which Poland derived from her union with Russia, and declared that he could admit no compromise with his principles, by which it evidently appeared was meant his determination to retain Poland as a part of his dominions. The minister of the interior gave a flattering picture of the state of the kingdom, the population of which now amounted to near three millions and a half. There had been a visible improvement in its agriculture and other branches of industry; and it now produced cloths, with which the whole

Polish army was clothed. The main object of the session, however, was to receive the project of the criminal code, by which the kingdom was henceforth to be governed. The appearance of this code confirmed all the prepossessions which had already been cherished against it. We have not been able to obtain so precise a statement of its tenor as we could have wished; but it appears to have rejected the principle of trial by jury, and made no sufficient provision against arbitrary imprisonment, while the absence of any penal laws against the abuses of the press, only reminded the assembly of the strict censorship, which rendered it impossible that any such should be committed. The voice of the Diet, on the whole, was strongly against the project. The committee to which it was referred, reported their opinion, that it ought to be rejected; the debates were warm, and sometimes even tumultuous. On one occasion, the clamour rose to such a height, that the marshal, lowering his baton, abruptly dissolved the meeting. After a week of this stormy discussion, the proposed law was rejected by the almost unanimous vote of 120 against 3.

This remarkable vote may be considered honourable both to the Diet and to Alexander. On one side, it shewed no small degree of courage, to hold so independent a course in the face of the most powerful and absolute monarch in Europe. On Alexander's part, it also proved that the freedom which he had bestowed was not illusory; that no control had been exercised over the elections; and that no vindictive measures were apprehended from the displeasure which he could not but feel at so unceremonious a rejection of his favourite proposal. If, however, the decision conduced to the honour of the Emperor, it does not appear to have

contributed to his satisfaction. In his closing address, displeasure was intimated in no equivocal or very gentle terms. "Ask your conscience," said he, “and it will tell you, if, in your discussions, you have rendered to Poland all the services which she expected from your wisdom; or if, led away by seductions too common in our days, and sacrificing hopes which would have been realized by judicious confidence, you have not retarded in its progress the work of your country's restoration." He farther reminded them," You have received good for evil; and Poland has resumed its place among states." He added, however," I shall persevere in my designs with regard to your country, whatever my opinion may be of the manner in which you have exercised your prerogatives."

The affairs of the Ottoman empire were not, during this year, devoid of interest. That power, by a long unwonted good fortune, found itself, at the commencement of the era, freed at once from foreign war and domestic rebellion. This opportunity it was determined to employ against one who had long been considered rather as an enemy than a subject. Ali Pacha, a native of Albania, born in a humble or rather miserable condition, had, by a rude vigour of character, suited to the natives of that wild and ill-subdued province, obtained such an ascendancy over them as induced the Porte, in a moment of weakness, to invest him with the Pachalic of Yanina. From that moment, his conduct varied little from that of an independent sovereign, paying, indeed, a small tribute to the Porte, and assisting her with his brave infantry in her wars on the Danube, but admitting no interference in the interior of his government. Not content with this, he employed every means of open war,

treachery, cruelty, and assassination, to extend his sway over the neighbouring Pachalics. He thus became master, not only of the whole of Albania, but of Suli, the ancient Epirus, and of Livadia or Thessaly. His dominion reached from the Adriatic to the frontier of Macedonia, and comprised a population of nearly two millions of souls. Considerable, however, as this was, it could ill enable him to contend with the whole force of the Turkish empire, now united against him. Esseid-Ali, newly raised to the rank of Vizier, sought to distinguish the opening of his administration by this successful expedition. The first step was to bestow the Pachalics of Tricala, Durazzo, and Lepanto, on officers independent of, and hostile to, Ali, one of them being son to the Captain Pacha, who had been assassinated by his orders. It was very clearly foreseen, that Ali would not tamely suffer himself to be thus hemmed in by his mortal enemies; and the new Pachas took their appointments on the full understanding that they were to make them good by force of arms. An army of 20,000 men was placed under the command of Pehlivan Pacha, appointed to Thessaly; while the Captain Pacha was sent round with a strong squadron to attack the ports on the Ionian sea.

Notwithstanding the magnitude of the force now moving against him, Ali, possessed of a strong country, and of the only good infantry in the empire, might have made a most vigorous defence, had he been master of the hearts of his subjects. But to the Greeks he had rendered himself utterly odious by atrocity and oppression; and though there were some rude ties between him and the predatory hordes of Albania, they were the last men to be trusted in the hour of adversity. On the for

mer, Ali lavished promises and courtesy; but these, wrung from him in such desperate need, could not outweigh the contrary experience of his whole life. His invitations to a general rising in support of Grecian independence, though they were not long of germinating, produced no immediate effect. Thus Ali, when the sun of his fortune began to set, looked round in vain for any quarter in which he could find friendship or support.

Pehlivan Pacha, in marching through Rumelia and Thessaly, gained continually fresh accessions to his force. The defiles of Larissa were maintained for some time by Omeo, the lieutenant of Ali; but at length these were forced, and Pehlivan marched first upon Tricala, and then upon Lepanto, both which surrendered without resistance. He then directed his march towards Suli and Yanina. Meantime, the Captain Pacha, with the naval expedition, had invested Prevesa, which was defended by Veli, one of the sons of Ali. Veli, terrified by a mutiny of the garrison, threw himself and his treasures into the hands of the Ottoman captain; and being conveyed to Constantinople, was merely sentenced to banishment into Asia-Minor. A nephew of Ali, who commanded at Suli, surrendered after two days' resistance; while Mouktar, his eldest son, who held Berat, attacked by the inhabitants as well as the enemy, took refuge, with a small force, in the citadel. Thus Ali's dominion was reduced to Yanina and its vicinity, upon which the Turkish general was rapidly advancing. Six

leagues from the town, he tried the fortune of battle; but being defeated, he was obliged to abandon the town, and take refuge in the castle, with his treasures, his cannon, and about eight hundred followers, who still adhered to him in this last extremity.

Nothing, it appeared, could now be more desperate than the situation of the late ruler of Albania. The daring energy of his character alone supported him. He strengthened himself diligently in this last hold. By large gifts and promises, he kept his remaining troops together; and the Turks, who expected to have been masters of the citadel in eight days, found the siege dragging on to an indefinite period. In the course of it, Pehlivan Pacha died, of poison it was suspected, administered by a rival; and though he was succeeded by Chourschid Pacha, who afterwards proved himself to be an able general, the circumstance spread a general discouragement through the army. A Turkish force, composed chiefly of tumultuary militia, soon melts away, when it is not fed by success and plunder. In the beginning of December, Chourschid found his army so reduced by desertion, and so destitute of supplies and provisions, that he was obliged to retreat to Arta. Ali again came forth; and having drawn to his standard 6000 or 7000 Albanians, ever ready to join the prosperous party, he could again cherish the hope of retrieving his fortunes. How far this was realized, must appear in the course of our succeeding volume.

THE contest in South America was now fast drawing to that close which might have been from the first anticipated, by those who considered the circumstances under which it was carried on. Regions of such vast extent, and so difficult to traverse, could never be held under the dominion of a power so distant as Spain, when that dominion had once been thorough ly shaken. The state of distraction and debility in which Spain had been so long involved, rendered her happily unable to send large armaments, which might have covered America with blood, though they could not have accomplished her subjugation. The establishment of a free government in Spain, which she was ready in a certain shape to communicate to the colonies, was expected to open a wide door of conciliation. But matters had now gone too far; enmities had become too rooted; the desire of thorough independence was too deeply seated, and too openly decla. red. Besides, reluctant experience compels us to own that free governments are of all others the most domineering and tyrannical towards

states subjected to their sway. The Americans conceived that the equality held out by the Cortes of Ĉadiz had been in a great degree vain and illusory, and had presented nothing to make them relinquish that more perfect freedom, which they already held in their grasp.

Bolivar, master of New Granada, and having seen the organization of the Columbian republic, conceived that he had only to reduce the cities on the coast, Caraccas, St Martha, and Carthagena, to complete its liberation. He determined to begin with the first city. Having concentrated all his forces, he set out from St Fernando, on the Apure, and had reached Calabozo, when intelligence arrived which obliged him to suspend this enterprize. The royalist generals, Calzada and La Torre, finding New Granada left bare of troops, had over.run a great part of the country, and even retaken Santa Fé. On the western side, Colonel Arana was overrunning Cumana He had taken St Barbara, putting to the sword the garrison, which consisted in a great measure of English troops; and he