a valuable officer; MASSENA, Prince of Essling, lately retired from service owing to the loss of his sight and other infirmities, but immensely rich; MORTIER, Duke of Treviso, and MARMONT, Duke of Ragusa, owe their promotions chiefly to their personal attachment to Napoleon. JOURDAN has always been deemed an unfortunate commander, and was induced to accompany Joseph into Spain, from a long subsisting friendship between them.

"The famous BARRERE is attached to the police, with a pension of 12,000 livres, and writes the political articles and strictures which appear in the Moniteur. BARRAS, the ex-director, lives on his estate in Burgundy; CARNOT lives privately in Paris; SIEYES, created a count and a senator, lives in much splendour in Paris.

"Political parties in France consist chiefly of the adherents of government, of a small party of republicans, and a still smaller party of ancient royalists. The marriage of Napoleon with the Austrian princess, attached the whole Bourbon party to the present dynasty.

"The Ex-King and Queen of Spain, with her Prince of Peace, and two of the junior children, reside at Rome. FERDINAND reposes himself at Valency, near Blois, a chateau belonging to the Prince of Beneventé; he hunts in the forest, and is constantly attended by a gens d'arme; but is supposed to have no inclination to escape, or take on himself the cares of government, owing to the foiblesse de son esprit.

"No paper money is in circulation in France. Gold and silver coin exists in great abundance in Napoleons, and double Napoleons of gold; and in the cent sols, two francs, one franc, and half and quarter franc of silver.

"Butcher's meat in Paris is from 4d. 1-2. to 5d. per pound of 20 ounces, at the public markets; bread 2d.; cheese 7d.; butter 1s. 3d. (in April;) potatoes, the English bushel, 4d.; ordinary wine 6d. per bottle; good burgundy 8d.; ordinary claret 10d.; and good claret 1s. 9d. In the provinces, the whole are 30 per cent. cheaper. Colonial produce is very dear. Loaf sugar 6s. per pound; moist sugar 4s. 6d. Coffee 4d. per ounce. The beetroot sugar is at present as dear as West India, and is much mixed with the latter by the venders.

"The direct taxes are but trifling, amounting altogether, to householders, to not more than 5 or 6 per cent. on the rental of their houses. The revenue is chiefly raised by duties on imports and exports, and imposts on staple manufactures, and a land tax of about 5d. in the pound.

"The roads are in fine condition. Of private buildings there are few new ones. Trade in general is dead, and agriculture is not flourishing. Travelling is secure, and robbers little heard of.

There are no public executions, except for murder and coining. The legal prisons are almost empty; but the state prisons are 'generally full.

"The CODE NAPOLEON is acted upon in all the courts of law in France and its dependencies; and it is generally adopted in the principalities of the Confederation of the Rhine. It is much approved of by the people of France.

"The rage for dress, and luxury in general, is at the highest pitch in Paris. The Napoleon nobility, now become very numerous, keep splendid equipages and great retinues of servants, exceeding any thing known in England, with very sumptuous tables. The Prince of Beneventé; Clarke, Duke of Feltre; Maret, Duke of Bassano; Cambaceres, Prince of Parma; Savary, Duke of Rovigo; the Prince of Eckmuhl; Fouchet, Duke of Otranto; and Augereau, Duke of Castiliogne, are supposed to enjoy from 50 to 100,000 sterling per annum; and keep splendid palaces, showy carriages drawn by four and six horses, and retinues of twenty or thirty livery servants, there being in France neither assessed taxes nor property tax.

"The theatres are as much attended as ever; but the churches are neglected, though service is regularly performed in them, and their ministers well paid by the government. All sects are tolerated and protected; the protestant and sectarian ministers having pensions from the government like those of the catholics.

"Napoleon appears in public unprotected; he often walks and rides in and about Paris with only one or two attendants; and indicates no personal fear in his constant visits at the theatres and other public places. He sleeps but six hours; eats freely, and sits at dinner only half an hour, drinking but half a bottle of wine. Notwithstanding his incessant avocations of business, from five in the morning till ten at night, he is described as a man of great gallantry, and is reported to have a numerous progeny by various favourites. All petitioners have easy access to him at the reviews, and at the hunts, and regularly receive his answers to their petitions, through the ministers. The reserve and gravity of his character render him no particular favourite of the French people; yet his merit in restoring order out of the chaos of the revolution, his methods of conciliating all parties, and the splendour of his character and achievements, attach and reconcile all the considerate, ambitious, and military part of the people to his government. No man speaks of the revolution, and of the actors in it, without horror; and no one thinks of the Bourbon family. Bonaparte may not be generally beloved, yet he cannot be said to be hated, and he is never despised. The reigning empress is little esteemed,, and in matters of religion is supposed to be very bigoted. She is much attached to her husband, whom she always calls “mon

amour." The King of Rome is a healthy child, and very like his father. In the event of the death of Napoleon, it is generally supposed in France that the regency will be readily and quietly established.

"The people always speak with deep concern of the protracted duration of the English war, which they consider as an effect of those malignant coalitions that for twenty-four years have been raised against their revolution and government; and they pant for the return of peace, it may perhaps be said, as anxiously as do many sensible people in England.

"Nothwithstanding the extreme delicacy of describing the feelings of the people of hostile nations to each other, it may perhaps be usefully stated, that as the intelligent portion of the French people draw their inferences from the extraordinary message of March, 1803, from the documents connected with Lord Whitworth's negotiations about Malta, and from the failure of the numerous overtures for peace made by Napoleon, they consider the war as wholly UNAVOIDABLE, and as purely DEFEN SIVE on the part of France. Besides, they generally speak of all the recent wars merely as continuations of the revolutionary war, and as excited and persevered in by the same jealous and acrimonious spirit against the prosperity and internal government of France, which animated the combined despots from 1790 to 1800; and they number all the new leagues and coalitions against France in a series beginning from that of 1790 till that of 1812. They reckon that they are now contending against the sixth of these coalitions; every former one of which has terminated by discomfiture, and by the ruin of some of the parties; and as every coalition ends in the further aggrandizement of France, and in diminished means of the coalesced powers, little anxiety is felt in France about the issue of any of them. Indeed, many French preachers maintain in the pulpits of Paris, that the Almighty, for purposes measured by his inscrutable wisdom, has hardened the hearts of the rulers of nations, as he hardened that of Pharaoh, and that France is but an instrument of Providence in the modern devastations of Europe.

"There are eight newspapers in Paris; the Moniteur, the Journal de l'Empire, the Journal de France, the Publiciste, the Gazette de France, the Journal de Santé, the Journal de Paris, and the Gazette du Soir. The two first have the greatest circu lation; and the whole are the avowed, not as in some countries the covert, property of the government.

"English newspapers are not read or seen except by the government, so that their extravagant contents and opinions are wholly unknown to the people of Paris and France. Till our informant landed in England he had no idea, except from the occasional re

plies to them in the Moniteur, of the tone and language of the English newspapers relative to the French government. The Medical and Physical Journal, Nicholson's Philosophical Journal, the Monthly Magazine, Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, and the Repertory of Arts and Sciences, may be occasionally seen on the tables of the Imperial Institute.

"The English prisoners residing at large in Paris do not exceed fifty; but the numerous resident English housekeepers still reside there undisturbed. MISS WILLIAMS has left Paris for the south of France. Lady Y. lives in retirement, engaged in the education of her children, and suffering much from ill health. Dr. WATSON, the author of the Life of Fletcher, is dead. JOHN PARRY, formerly of the Courier, lives in much domestic comfort near the Palais Royale. COUNT RUMFORD enjoys the favour and confidence of the French government.

"The grounds of military promotion in the French army are, previous education in the military school, and actual service; the gradations rising regularly from the common soldier to the marshal, according to bravery and merit. A lieutenant's pay is 40l., a captain's 801., lieutenant-colonel's 1251., colonel's 2501., and a marshal's 3,000l.; dukes have 8,000l. per annum annexed to the dukedom, counts 1,250l., barons 5001., and a chevalier 1251.per annum. In France 100l. goes in living generally as far as about 4001. in England.

"The Imperial Institute is greatly respected, and all the literary establishments are much attended; science in general being much honoured by the people and government. The French painters, sculptors and engravers have arrived at the highest perfection. The chief painters are DAVID, GROS, and GARAT. CANOVA. resides at Rome, but the public buildings at Paris abound in his works. BOILDEAU and DEYLERAC are the favourite composers for the theatres.

"The ornaments added to the old façade of the Louvre, have been finished in the first style of elegance; and the new wing, completing the quadrangle, is in great forwardness. The size of the whole building may be conceived, when it is stated that a hundred thousand men may be reviewed in the square!

"Versailles is undergoing a general repair, and is intended for the future country residence of the imperial court. The present country palaces are St. Cloud, Fontainbleau and Compeigne; the town palaces are the Thuilleries and the Elisées Bourbon."

410

ON THE EXISTENCE OF A WELCH COLONY IN AMERICA.

Mr. Editor,

[From the Universal Magazine.]

I RECOLLECT seeing, some years ago, in one of the Magazines, a pretty long account of a nation of White Indians found in the interior of America, there called the Padoucki nation, and who were supposed to have migrated from Wales during the Saxon wars, under a prince of the name of Madoc, some centuries prior to the discovery of that continent by Columbus. The story was said to have been published in Germany, and several particulars with regard to it were detailed, which I do not now fully recollect. The travels of the American Captains, Lewis and Clarke, from Louisiana, lately published, seem very much to corroborate this account, who designate them by the name of the Pouka nation, and they expressly mention the WHITE Hunters: and Mr. Mackenzie calls them the Paducas, or rather the Paduca nation, the final s being intended only as the plural. What seems to me to confirm the probability of their being the descendants of a colony who migrated there under Prince Madoc, is the very name they bear-Padoucki, i. e. Madoucke, or rather Madouckwir, that is, Madock men, which, I am persuaded, is the name by which they designate themselves, the substitution of the P instead of M being nothing more than the corrupt pronunciation of their neighbours, as is the name Pouka and Padouca under which Lewis and Mackenzie mention them. I believe there is still an account in the Welsh Chronology of the time of this migration under Prince Madoc, and of the place from whence they sailed. That they landed on the shore of the Mississippi is very probable. Dampier makes mention of a regular fort, built in the European style, which he observed on that coast; and, as it is said that Madoc made two voyages, is it not probable that this fort was built by him to defend this small colony from the fury of the natives, while he returned to Wales for more of his countrymen, and that when they had strengthened themselves by numbers, they proceeded forward, taking the Missouri branch of that great river, to the very spot where they now inhabit. It is astonishing to me that no steps have yet been taken to ascertain this fact. If there were a society formed on the plan of the African Society, I make no doubt but that there might be enterprising young men found in the principality, well versed in the Welsh language, and suffi