With South America, our relations have been confirmed by the appointment of consuls. They arrived out in March, and were most favourably received. In this quarter we have much to hope, for a great nation is there in its infancy: but already our

exports to South America exceed four millions.

A more detailed account of home finance, as well as of exports generally, will be found among the public documents.

CHAP.

SPAIN, who chased from her soil

the military swarms of Napoleon, has fallen beneath the armies of the holy alliance! Superstition and ignorance have prevailed against her when valour could not: forty thousand of the army occupy the fortress of the Pyrennees, and hold Barcelona, Corunna, Cadiz, St. Sa bastian, and her most important points in their grasp; and this too, partly by the pay of the country they occupy. An invasion attended with evil even to the invaders,―the ultras of France—that is, the opposers of all that is enlightened, liberal and good, have obtained a great accession of power and numbers in the chamber of deputies; and that place, which is at any time but a burlesque imitation of the manly debate of the British parliament, has no way improved by the change.

The chambers opened on the 23rd of March, with a speech (see public papers) pretty descriptive of the politics of the government. A project for the reduction of the national debt, upon a principle similar to the English measure, was carried here, but rejected by the peers. By the budget the expenses of the Spanish campaign amounted to six millions sterling. Votes of supplies were called for the years 1824, 1825;

the first amounted to 37,455,2521. sterling, the latter to 37,455,565l. sterling.

In the law of the conscription a change was carried in the chamber of peers, which by increasing the annual levy, and doubling the time of service, gives France, even in peace, an army of four hundred and eighty thousand men.-The septennial project for the chamber of deputiesthe monopoly of instruction by the government, and the re-establishment of the censorship, are, as well as the military force, new links in the intellectual and moral fetters of the people.

The above were the last acts of Louis XVIII. He had long suffered under a complication of disorders, and he expired on the 16th of September, in the 69th year of his age, and the 10th of his reign. He was succeeded by his brother the Comte d'Artois, under the title of Charles X.

This prince is nearly the age of his brother. His political opinions seem much the same: he has, however, removed the censorship of the press.

In Spain, it may be said of Ferdinand, as Napoleon said of the Bourbons generally, he has learnt nothing, he has forgotten nothing; he appears after all his reverses the same piece

of

of incurable absurdity as he was before them. In January he issued a decree, abolishing republicanism in South America, denouncing constitutionalists throughout the world, and returning thanks for the disgrace of his country. This was followed by military commissions; prosecutions of the relations of the supporters of the constitution; the prohibition of satires, caricatures of himself, and all books opposed to government :-new influence was given to the jesuits. In all this he has been so very ultra, as to receive the admonition even of the holy alliance itself.

On the 3rd of August a party of constitutionalists, under Valdes, surprised the fortress of Tarifa, which was recaptured by count d'Astorga on the 19th, and the party, amounting to one hundred and thirty men, were made prisoners; orders were sent from Madrid for their execution. This is in perfect accordance with the sentiment in the proclamation of the minister of police at Madrid, that

66

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE LIBERALS ALONE CAN SECURE THE

PUBLIC TRANQUILLITY." The liberal spirit is not, however, dead yet.

A new convention was signed for the occupation of Spain by French troops, stipulating for forty-five thousand men, adding the garrisons of Cordova and Saragoza to those formerly occupied, and awarding two millions of francs per month, for the payment of such protection.

In Portugal, a revolution was at tempted by the secret instigation of the queen; her son prince Miguel, was induced to proclaim a regency and depose the king, who was not sufficiently narrow and bigotted to meet her ideas. The proclamation was published in the journals, with nother addressed to the people, and

a

letter to the king. Nearly two thousand troops of the garrison assembled on the morning of the 30th of April at the Roscio; with the infant Don Miguel at their head. The greater part of the ministers, several military chiefs, and others, about two hundred, were arrested by the orders of the infant. In the mean time the queen arrived at Lisbon from Queluz, expecting to hear her son proclaimed regent. The diplomatic corps assembled at the Nuncio's, whence they proceeded in a body to the palace of Bemposta, and insisted on seeing the king. They were at first refused by an order from the prince: the French ambassador declared that Europe acknowledged only the king; his firmness succeeded, and the foreign ministers were admitted into the palace. The king declared that what was going on was unknown to him, and not done by his orders, and that his son was about to arrive. In fact, Don Miguel shortly arrived, knelt down, kissed his father's hand, and declared to the ambassadors and ministers, that a conspiracy against the life of his father and his own had been discovered; that he had been obliged to take the means he had taken to prevent it; and that he now came to receive his majesty's commands. The troops returned to their quarters at the command of his majesty, and order was restored.

During his temporary usurpation, prince Miguel had completely filled the prisons, and had actually, amongst others, incarcerated the chaplain to the French embassy. His party was evidently strong in Lisbon, and as a precaution against re-action, the king retired on board the Windsor Castle, one of our ships of war, which had anchored within cannon-shot of the shore. He was accompanied by all

the

the foreign ambassadors, and immediately followed by his unnatural son, who was inveigled there by a stratagem. The king severely reprimanded him, and forgave him, after having denounced his conduct in a public proclamation, released the multitude he had imprisoned, deprived him of his military command, and finally ordered him out of the kingdom. The king of Portugal, having passed his birth-day on board the Windsor Castle, landed again on the 15th of May, and was received with acclamations by the inhabitants of Lisbon.

Prince Miguel is represented as an illiterate simpleton, and the mere tool of his mother in her iniquitous designs. They had succeeded in seducing from their duty a few regiments, which enabled them to hold the king, Don John, a prisoner. The prince retired to Paris, accompanied by his favourite bull-fighter, his petdog, and other appropriate associates: he was introduced at court, and from his ignorance of the French tongue, was obliged to be invited to the royal Sunday dinner through the medium of an interpreter.

Germany is the metropolis of the holy alliance; Austria sits contented in her own political darkness, and the mildness with which she exercices absolute power, is less likely to create discontent, than the cruelty and weakness of the Spanish Ferdinand.

She has shut out from her territory all who may be likely to infect her subjects with the liberal fever, and not only has lord Holland been excluded as a radical, but several ladies-lady Oxford, lady Morgan, countess Bourke, and Mrs. Hutchinson, have been considered formidable enemies,-too formidable to be permitted to enter the territory, sa

cred to despotism. Wit is a weapon more terrible to such potentates than the well appointed artillery! Not only has Austria secured the enjoyment of political darkness for herself, but by a formal complaint to the Germanic diet, of the too great freedom of the press and of political discussion in the smaller states, she has kindly bestowed the boon upon them also.

Prussia in the past year has followed a line of political retrenchment and economy. Governments are removed from the cities of Minden, Dantzig, Cologne, Erfurt, and Stralsund, Great reductions have taken place in the war-office and the ministry of commerce. The whole reduction amounts to four million of crowns.

The session of the states-general of the Netherlands was opened by the king on the 18th of October. Commerce and manufactures were flourishing, and the higher branches of instruction, as well as primary education, were every where diffusing their salutary effects. Improvements are making in the civil and criminal code, so as to establish a more perfect system of national jurisprudence. A new Dutch East India company has been projected, under the sanction of the king, to consist of five directors and twenty commissioners; to hold their sittings at the Hague, and the shares to amount to two hundred millions. The company, besides labouring among other things, to put the Dutch trade with China on the ancient footing, will employ itself in improving naval architecture, the marine, and navigation.

The emperor of Russia has been conspicuous by his commercial regulations, and an unseasonable attempt to force manufacturing industry. Se

veral points of dispute have arisen between the king of Sweden and the storthing or parliament of Norway. The king has repeatedly urged upon the storthing the necessity of granting, what the constitution of Norway has refused, an absolute veto to the sovereign to acts of legislation; and also the institution of orders of nobility. With neither of these propositions have the states shewn any disposition to comply. The disagreement, however, did not prevent mutual expressions of goodwill; and at the close of the session in August, the king expressed his satisfaction that many useful laws had been passed, and the storthing, in return, congratulated his majesty on the increasing prosperity and general happiness of the Norwegian people.

The war between Greece and the Ottoman Porte exhibits an alternation of victory and defeat. The taking of Ipsara by the Turks under the command of the captain pacha, was a severe disaster to the Greeks, but this was compensated by the naval victory at Samos.

On the 2nd of July the captain pacha sailed from Mitylene with his squadron, consisting of eighty sail, great and small, and towards night arrived before Ipsara. Before the attack commenced, the pacha sent two flags of truce, promising an amnesty, on condition that the Ipsariots would deliver up the chief of the insurrection but the Greeks remembered the fate of Scio, and that amnesty and massacre, in the language of the Turks, are synonimous. The first was sent back with a message, that sooner than submit, they were determined to die. The second returned with his beard half shaven off, and a message that they were waiting the attack with impatience.

Next morning, about four o'clock,

the captain pacha landed fourteen thousand men on the northern coast, opposite Mitylene, and, after a sharp resistance, took possession of the fort on that point. The Turks advanced to the summit of the mountain, which commands the town of Ipsara, where they hoisted the Ottoman flag, at seven in the morning. Meanwhile the squadron surrounded the island, and stood in upon the town, which was carried by assault, and the sea bestrewed with the dead bodies of the people, who had endeavoured to escape on board of small vessels, which were so overloaded, they sank. The Albanians made some resistance, but they were driven back, after killing five hundred Turks, and were obliged to take refuge in the fort of St. Nicolo, on the west of the island. Here the surviving Ipsariots assembled with their wives and children, and resolving not to fall into the hands of the mussulmen, they blew themselves up, involving multitudes of the conquerors in their destruction. Upwards of ten thousand islanders perished, either by the sword of the infidels, or their own act.

The primate and the members of the senate escaped at the commencement of the attack, with the public treasure, on board some vessels provided for the purpose: they withdrew without fighting at all, telling their betrayed countrymen that they were going to attack the Turks in another quarter of the island to cause a diversion! The captain pacha despatched some vessels after the fugitives, but they could not come up with them. The captain pacha evinced a humanity unusual in Turkish warfare. He sent out boats to bring in such Greeks as would make their submission, and instituted a sella in the island, so that