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P.143. The pretender to the crown of France,' as Louis XVIIIth is styled by the Republican French, before he quitted Verona, (whence the senate of Venice had ordered him to depart,) preserving his dignity in adversity, informed the podesta, who brought him the intimation, that, as a Venetian nobleman, he had an incontestable right to reside at Verona: but that he would leave the town, as soon as the sword should be restored to him which Henry IV. had presented to the republic, and the golden book brought to him that he might erase his name from the list of citizens. The podestá replied that the senate, at his request, would without hesitation erase him from the list but that, twelve millions being due to the republic from Henry IV., his sword would be kept in pledge until the restitution.

From Verona, Buonaparte thus wrote to the Directory.

"I am just arrived at Verona, but intend to depart to-morrow. It is a large and fine town I leave a garrison in it, to remain master of the three bridges which it has over the Adige.

"I have not concealed from the inhabitants that, had the king of France not evacuated the town before my passage of the Po, I should have set fire to a city so audacious as to think itself the capital of the French Empire.

"I have just seen the amphitheatre: this remain of the Roman people is worthy of them. I could not but feel humbled at the comparative paltriness of our Champ de Mars. Here, a hundred thousand spectators sat conveniently, and could easily hear an orator addressing them.

"The emigrants are flying from Italy. More than fifteen hundred withdrew five days before our arrival. They are hurrying into Germany with remorse and misery."

P.295. Four distinct parties divide France since the establishment of the present constitution, 1. The republicans attached to the constitution of 1795, or the strictly constitutional party. 2. The republicans attached to the constitution of 1793. Of this latter form of government, it is the distinguishing feature that the laws were merely to be discussed by the representatives of the people; to be submitted for sanction to the primary assemblies; and to obtain an active force only after they had been approved by a majority of the nation in their individual and constituent capacity. It was the constitution of Poland, (in which the deliberations of the Diet were to be approved by the Dietines,) accommodated to a system of universal suffrage; and it was the only French constitution strictly democratic, in which the sovereignty of the people was really made an efficient part of legislature. The others were elective aristocracies. 3. The mixt-monarchy-men, originally attached to

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the constitution of 1791; many of whom were become willing to admit two branches of legislature, as in England and America, and tended chiefly to substitute a monarch for the pentarchs of the present constitution, without much solicitude whether this monarch were of the Bourbon family or not. To these, many of the non-emigrant royalists have acceded, either from conviction, or from the hope of obtaining by their means a restoration of the abolished order of things. 4. The royalists, who aspire to restore, in all its simplicity, the pristine despotism. The constitutional republicans (p. 308) are infinitely the stronger of these divisions; being, as a party of opinion, very powerful; and enjoying the additional support of all those who are attached to the new order of things by their fortunes, their places, their habits, their acquisitions under the new laws, their fears of anarchy, of revolution, of confiscation, and of massacre. Throughout France, the dread of a counter-revoIution, natural to the purchasers of national domains, is participated by all the industrious and all the humane. The power of the Directory is willingly exerted against the third and fourth of these parties,-but, if abandoned by the constituted autho rities, would probably be thrown into the scale of the second, which includes the less provident mass of revolutionary agents.

The conspiracy of Babeuf is here better detailed than we have seen it elsewhere: it probably originated with the remnant of Robespierre's adherents: yet its manifestoes read well, and seem to have derived hints from Diderot's Code de la Nature. Considering the talents of Babeuf, it is wonderful that he did not rise into notoriety, until the revolutionary tide began to ebb. He plunged into the water when he had to swim against the stream. ·

The Second Volume is much occupied with the conquests of Buonaparte in Italy, of which we have spoken already, Rev. vols. xxiii. p. 378. and xxiv. p. 578 They were facilitated by magnificent promises of liberty, which have been very imperfectly kept. The defence of Lille does honor to the courage of the French: but their offensive military operations have mostly been begun unjustly, conducted cruelly, and terminated oppressively.

The author observes that he has seen the rise of Martinism and of Theophilanthropy: that the first of these religions is extinct, and that the second seems likely to decline without making numerous proselytes. He concludes by expressing a wish that Christianity were again encouraged in France. We entirely accede to this opinion, supposing somewhat like our protestant system to be here meant ;-and we endeavoured to shew (Rev. vol. xxiv. p. 551) that the religion of the Theophilanthropes was imperfectly adapted for the

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moral amelioration of the people; that the precepts of the gospel are more efficaciously worded; and that its promises are more authentically proclaimed. It is well, however, that Philosophy should once for all have endeavoured to realize her idea of a perfect religion. The world is now aware how little it would gain on the score of taste or reason by substituting for the Hebrew anthologies, French odes; and for the morality of Jesus, that of Socrates and Epictetus.

The character of the historian before us will probably not eventually stand very high ;-a spirit of independence does not animate his remarks;-his events are not neatly arranged, nor well deduced: yet, as he preserves many documents and reflections which have not attracted the attention of other annal-. ists, he may often be consulted with instruction.

ART. V. Biografishe Skizze der Madame Ritz, &c. i. è. A Biographical Sketch of Madame Rirz, now Countess of LICHTENAU. 12mo. pp. 168. Paris. 1798.

THIS pamphlet, notwithstanding the assertion in its title

page, was no doubt composed and printed at Berlin. The lasting attachment of a powerful sovereign would have been sufficient to confer an equally lasting celebrity on the subject of these memoirs, even if the character of her political wishes had not influenced during a whole reign the cabinet of her country; and the spirited attractions of her person and her mind would have had some claim to notoriety, had they never been led to the foot-stool of a throne. The splendid profusion and luxurious depravity, which distinguished the residence of this real Mamilia Quintilla, would also have merited the notice of the painter of manners, had the reverse of fortune which now dooms her to penitential imprisonment in Glogau, never occurred to render her life a romance and her example a warn-. ing. We are glad, therefore, to meet with a biographical sketch, which has much the appearance of having been written. by a contiguous and penetrating observer.

Wilhelmina Enke was born in 1759 at Dessau. Her father was a trumpeter, and ultimately got employment in the band at the royal chapel in Berlin. He died when this child was about thirteen or fourteen years old, leaving his widow with a large family. Their conduct was disreputable; and Wilhelmina was sent by her mother to live as maid-servant with an elder sister, who, in the Sybarite dialect of our author, was already "a regular but superior priestess of the Venus pandêmos" To the house of this sister, a young man of the highest rank was often conducted by his young companions. One winter's night,

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having expressed a wish for punch, no lemons were to be found in the house, and Wilhelmina was ordered to fetch some. She refused, and cried at the idea of going out in the cold, and of attempting to call up a shopkeeper at that time of night. The indignant elder sister then gave her a violent box on the ear, which struck her to the floor and made her nose bleed. The prince humanely sprang to her assistance, helped her up, pacified her outcries, took her in a carriage, to her mother's, and promised to pay for her board, on condition that she should be withdrawn from so rough a mistress. His protection extended to providing her with masters; and at length he undertook to teach her French himself, and removed her to Potsdam. She was boisterous, and would quarrel with her benefactor, especially when jealous of him: but she loved him with sincere affection, and bore him several children. The reciprocal attachment was so very conjugal as to alarm the old king; and it was hinted to her to travel. Qn her way to Paris, at — in Champagne, an aukward carman drove against her carriage, broke it, and endangered her life. So long afterward as in 1792, her royal lover wrote to her that he had taken possession of the scene of her misfortune.

Some time was spent in Paris, where she took lessons of Vestris, and other teachers of accomplishments.-She returned however to Potsdam, where the old king met her one morning in the garden, and very authoritatively advised her to marry: " a dower he would provide." M. RITZ, a chamberlain of the prince, was the husband who was recommended to her; and with him she travelled, and to him she bore children. This real or imaginary profanation of her person gradually estranged the prince from her couch, but not from her drawing-room. Of her society, even after he became king, he continued very fond. Both seemed agreed to pursue separate amours, but to cultivate with ardor a Platonic friendship. The divorce of her husband RITZ, and her elevation to the rank of Countess of Lichtenau, were probably intended as a prelude to much higher honors. She visited Italy during the interval of this change, and returned with a notorious inclination for variety. Her attachment to the young Count Louis Bouillé is thought to have inspired the court of Prussia with much of its zeal for the invasion of France. Pains were taken, after his dismissal, to attach her to the Irish Lord Templeton. She was much flattered by the grimace of gallantry; and she professed a Swedenborgian religion. The decease of her protector put an end to her consequence, her revenues, her flatterers, and her liberty, and in a moment annihilated the Juno of Anti-jacobi nism.

ART.

ART. VI. Historisch-statistisches gemelde des Russischen reichs, &c. i. e. An Historico-Statistical Picture of the Russian Empire at the Close of the Eighteenth Century. By HENRY STORCH. 2Vols. 8vo. To be continued.

WE understand that the author of this work had at first sketched his plan on a large scale, but that, on taking farther time to consider quid valeant humeri, he felt the necessity of greatly contracting it, and of bringing it into as narrow a compass as possible. To this end, he absolutely rejected all objects of geography and natural history, and came to the fixed resolution of admitting nothing into his plan but what concerned the inhabitants of the country, in their various relations as men and citizens. Fortunately it happened that another li terary gentleman, of known merit in respect to his knowlege of the Russian empire, was employing himself in the execution of a similar idea,-that of a general topographical description of that country, and who discovered his design to this writer. A's M. STORCH had confined his plan to statistical objects, it was the purpose of the academician GEORGI to limit his to matters appertaining to physics, geography, and natural history*! Thus, each saw his project completed by the labours of the other.

M. STORCH professes not to deliver any thing new to the German reader, but to have merely abridged the accounts already published by Hermann and Hupel; the printed papers of the academy; the Petersburg Journal; the description of all the Nations of the Russian Empire, which appeared in English, in four volumes, about twenty years ago; Schlotzer's Northern History; Dissertation sur les anciens Russes; Schlitzer's Dissertations on the Russian Annals, printed in English in the "Selections from Foreign Literary Journals;" [see our Review, last volume;] Muller's Collections of Russian History; and many others.

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As a specimen of the manner in which the author sometimes enlivens his narrative, we select the following short passage:

This remarkable variety of climate also occasions as great a diversity in the weather, in the vicissitudes of the seasons, in the phænomena of the atmosphere, and in the domestic ha bits of the natives. While in one region of this enormous empire, the spring is diffusing warmth and genial breezes, in an other the rigours of winter still prevail. Here the thirsty camel

* The work of Professor GEORGI bears the title of J. G. GEORGI'S geographical, physical, and natural-historical Description of the Russian Empire, in a general View of the knowlege hitherto obtained of it. Part the First. Konigsberg, 1797. 8vo. The remaining parts to follow as soon as convenient.

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