talent, than the widow of Scarron. Both speak very ill of the princes with whom they were connected, and accuse them of the blackest ingratitude. The indisposition of a princess, the daughter of Louis XV., once agitated all Paris; but things are changed, and now when a king dies people coolly say, Perhaps his successor will be better. The sovereigns of Europe have forfeited public respect through the indifference with which they have viewed the massacres in Greece; and it may be truly said that more changes, moral and political, have taken place between the reign of Louis XV. and the present day, than there were from the time of Charles VII. to that of Louis XV.

The account of the expedition of the English in Egypt, by M. de Noé, has been read, because the author is a peer of France. M. de Noé was, during the expedition, a captain in the English army which opposed Bonaparte. He discloses some curious facts, and his work is rather entertaining. This cannot be said of the Traité de Legislation, or Exposition of the Laws by which mankind prosper, decay, or remain stationary, by M Charles Comte, the author of the Censeur Européen. The title of the work is certainly imposing enough. The author, who is a good meaning sort of man, was long exiled from France, and was persecuted in Switzerland by the Holy Alliance. But these good-meaning authors do not take sufficient pains to render them. selves agreeable to their readers. They think they have discovered the true secret of making laws, by which mankind will be rendered happy. The vanity natural to authors persuades them that nothing is more useful than their books, which unluckily often happen to be quite unintelligible. Montesquieu and his commentator Count de Tracy have spoiled us in this class of composition; we must have talent, or at least perfect intelligibility. M. Comte is more obscure than Jeremy Bentham, and he does not so decidedly adopt the great principle of general utility.

I shall not say much about the Memoires of Prince de Montbarey, Minister of War in the reign of Louis XVI. The book will no doubt appear in an English translation. People read it chiefly with the view of ridiculing the author. The more he tries to justify the measures he records, the more severely he satirizes the old system. All our journals have quoted Montbarey's portrait of M. Necker, who, at the period alluded to by the author, had just been appointed to the office of Director of the Royal Treasury. He had formerly been the partner of the banker Thelusson, by whom he is said to have been pensioned. This word pensioned irritates the pride of poor Montbarey. Unreflecting people, who cannot read Miguet's History of the French Revolu tion, find a hundred proofs of the moral necessity of that revolution in the "memoires" of the distinguished persons who figured about the close of the eighteenth century-works which the booksellers hunt out from the archives of all our great families. The Memoires of M. de Montbarey are very amusing from the excessive vanity and self-sufficiency of the author, who, in spite of himself, possesses the merit of speaking truth-the very first recommendation in a writer of " memoires."

There is a great deal of truth, and consequently a great deal of interest, in the Letters of a Spaniard, a novel recently published by M. Viardot. The Spaniards prefer misery to labour, and M. Viardot exhibits them as carrying this principle to a singular excess. It would require no little exertion on the part of the Spaniards to rid themselves of the disgusting insect the cimex. But instead of endeavouring to relieve themselves from this annoyance, they are content with invoking St. Ponce, who in Heaven fills the post of counsel against bugs. Such is the official title which this saint enjoys in Spain!

There was an amusing sitting of the French Academy on the 5th of June. M. Cuvier, who has always prostrated himself to power, delivered an eloge on M. de Lacépède, the friend of Buffon, and Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, the talisman which has operated so powerfully on French vanity, and for which we are indebted to Lucien and Napoleon Buonaparte. M. de Lacépède was an amiable and exceedingly charitable man; but one of the

most unblushing flatterers of Napoleon. He was a senator, and he proposed that the senate should assent to the conscriptions demanded by the Conqueror of Wagram and Jena. Cuvier, who is himself devoted to power, took care to say nothing in dispraise of a flatterer of it. The address was instructive and amusing, on account of the situation of the speaker.

M. Fourrier, who is celebrated in the scientific world as the author of the work on Heat, delivered a dull eulogium on Ferdinand Breguet, the famous watch-maker. But the most amusing part of the sitting was a speech by M. Dupin, the well-known author of the Voyage en Angleterre, which he has ingeniously contrived to get puffed every month in all the journals of Paris and the departments. Unfortunately for M. Dupin, he attempted to appear very clever in treating of the sense of hearing in its relations with the arts of literature. M. Dupin repeated in a sentimental style all the nonsense respecting the delightful influence of music, which our petty journals have daily dealt out in their accounts of Weber's death, and the pretended poisoning of Mozart by Salieri. Two or three times the andience were ready to burst into a fit of laughter; and whenever M. Dupin observed this, he hastily turned over eight or ten leaves of his manuscript. Never was there a more complete and ridiculous failure. Never did a man, wishing to appear clever, exhibit a more melancholy want of talent. But, in spite of all this, the journals were next morning full of the great effect whcih had been produced by Baron Dupin's address. Paris is a droll city. These little tricks and quackeries render it the most amusing place in the world; but people must be very sharp-sighted to discover all that is going on.

In the higher ranks of society here, English books are much read; and they are the more prized, because they are sold at an exorbitant price in Paris. To speak about Woodstock during the first week of its appearance in London, was at once a mark of fashion and literary taste. But the work has been thought dull, and has not been liked here. On the other hand, Denham's Travels in Africa have been read with the liveliest interest, and there has been a great demand for copies. Galignani has just published one of the prettiest volumes that Didot's press has this year produced. It contains the complete collection of Lord Byron's works. The French say of your dis tinguished countryman, that he was by turns a coxcomb, a madman, and a great poet, and that one of the motives of his journey to Greece was to rid himself of the society of his last mistress.

The conversation of Marshal d'Hoquincourt, and the Jesuit Father Conaye, the best of Saint Evremont's works, has just been reprinted.

A new edition of Samuel, Inventeur du Sacre des Rois, by Count Volney, has also appeared. This is a most learned and entertaining little work. It prevented Louis XVIII. from getting himself anointed; for that Prince had not courage to brave ridicule.

I need not say any thing about the Memoires of the Duke de Gaète. Minister of Finance under Napoleon, and who has contrived to obtain under the Bourbons a place worth one hundred thousand francs. He is still living, and therefore his book is full of misrepresentations. "Memoires," particularly in France, are never worth any thing, except when the author writes with the certainty of their not being published until after his death. The Memoires of the Duke de Gaète (his name was Gaudin before he was raised to the Dukedom) are full of blanks. This book throws some useful light on the history of finance during the reign of Napoleon; but there are two men infinitely better qualified to write such a history than M. Gaudin, and these are MM. Ouvrard and Seguin.

A new novel called Cinq Mars has just made its appearance here. It is the production of Count Alfred de Vigny, and is full of affectation. Sir Walter Scott's novels have been more successful here than any that have been published since 1814. He has had a host of imitators in France, and MM. Sismondi, Keratry, Salvandi, &c. have by turns presented us with historical novels. M. Vigny has undertaken to pourtray Cardinal Richelieu, one

of the greatest characters inodern history presents. The Cardinal in his dying moments still overpowers the feebleness of Louis XIII. the unworthy son of Henry IV. Louis XIII. induces Cinq Mars to conspire against the Prime Minister, who gets him beheaded. This subject might have been rendered admirable, had the author adopted a natural and simple style, and availed himself of a greater degree of historical research. M. de Vigny is already advantageously known to the public as a poet. Cinq Mars has reached a second edition, and a third is preparing. De Vigny makes Richelieu and Louis XIII. express themselves in epigrams. When will this writer venture to be simple?

All our hired journals have received orders to get up jokes upon your elections. The Drapeau Blanc belongs to Baron de Damas, a short-robed Jesuit, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Etoile is in the pay of M. de Peyronnet, the Keeper of the Seals; the Journal de Paris is M. de Villele's ; and the Gazette de France, the dullest journal in the world, is supported by Corbière. I mention these particulars, that you may not be imposed on by the falsehoods which these paltry journals set forth against Sir Robert Wilson and other Englishmen who are respected in France. Never was there a more despicable and stupid assembly than our present Chamber of Deputies. It is not even good enough to satisfy the ministers. They dread a comparison between it and the House of Commons which you are now electing. Thus it is easy to account for the triumphant manner in which our hired journals have quoted and commented on the letter addressed to Mr. Wells, offering freemen at five guineas each. But in spite of such abuses, if our Chamber possessed one half the virtue and talent of your English House of Commons, France would enjoy a degree of happiness which she will not probably attain for twenty years to come. An immense majority of the Members of our Chambers are maintained by the taxes, and must be the slaves of the minister under pain of losing half their incomes.

An English performer named Cooke has lately appeared with extraordinary success at the Theatre de la Porte Saint Martin. The piece in which he has performed is a melo-drama, entitled "Le Monstre," taken from Mrs. Shelley's romance of Frankenstein. National vanity has at length permitted an English actor to appear on a Parisian stage; but I shall return to this subject in my next letter.

DE SISMONDI ON THE EXTERMINATION OF THE GREEKS.

THE fermentation produced in Great Britain by a general election is now appeased the distress among the manufacturing classes has been relieved; the laws relating to corn, Catholic Emancipation, and the amelioration of the condition of the Negroes, are adjourned, at all events, until a new Parliament assembles ; and the moment is now doubtless arrived when England is to give her attention to the fearful crisis of the affairs of Greece, the misfortunes of which will cast a stain on the present century, as deep as the massacre of St. Bartholomew, or the extermination of the Albigenses, have thrown upon ages more barbarous, though less culpable, than our own. It is time for England to inquire what she ought to do what humanity, honour, religion, and policy demand of her.

Throughout the rest of Europe attention is sufficiently called to the condition of Greece: no other event has ever excited such a powerful sensation. The very peasants throughout Switzerland and Germany inquire with anxiety, when their affairs call them to market, what are the last news from Athens or Napoli di Romania; and they never return to their villages without having contributed from their pittance something which may aid in procuring assistance for their brethren in Greece. In France, subscriptions have been opened, and money solicited throughout every town, in behalf of a Christian nation

doomed to perish by the sword or by famine. The Duchesses of Alberg, Broglio, and De Caze; every Frenchwoman, distinguished by rank, riches, talent, or virtue, have divided the different quarters of Paris among them, and traverse on foot every street, and enter into every house, demanding the charity of their inhabitants for a nation of martyrs. From Denmark to Italy one great event enchains the attention of Europe; the rich and the poor, as they bring their offerings to the victims of oppression, pronounce the same imprecations upon the allies of their exterminators. Posterity will scarcely believe that England alone should have remained unmoved by the general feeling of commiseration; that she should neither have felt pity for so much suffering, nor admiration of so much heroism; and that she has contented herself with expressing her disapprobation of those among the Greeks whose excess of grief has converted itself into fury, and who have revenged by atrocities the murder of their sons, and the dishonour of their daughters.

But England is yet subject to a deeper reproach: she has not remained a silent spectator of this struggle even to death: she has lent her aid to the strong, and has withdrawn defenders from the weak. At the moment when ministers announced the success of their negociations, so fatal to Greece, I endeavoured, in a letter addressed to two daily newspapers, to prove that they ought not to leave their labours incomplete. I showed that by the conduct of the Russians, the Greeks have been so thoroughly compromised for the last half-century, that there has only remained to the Turks the choice of massacreing them, or acknowledging their independence; that after the massacre of one million three hundred thousand Greeks, the Turks will be driven upon the destruction of four or five millions of Christians, established in other provinces of their empire; and that this massacre will continue for years, until England shall arrest it; that she alone has the power of doing so; that she can stop it in twenty-four hours, without incurring the slightest chance of thereby engaging herself in a new war.

Lastly, I showed that England has contracted an obligation to arrest the progress of these massacres, because it was she who removed from them the protection of Russia, at the moment when the latter stepped forward to save them.

Let us figure to ourselves a vessel loaded with men, women, and children, carried along by a rapid torrent, and on the point of being swallowed up by the waves: if it sinks, though in the sight of spectators, not one of whom will expose himself to destruction in order to save it, the witnesses of the shipwreck may be accused of a want of heroism, without any charge of being culpable; but, if the same boat were attached to the bank by a cable, which served as her mooring, and if one of the bye-standers cut this cable, then it is he who is the real murderer of all those whom the torrent swallowed. His crime is in proportion to the number of victims of whose death he has been the cause, and to the extent of their sufferings. Greece was this vessel ready to perish-loaded with 1,300,000 souls: her safety-cable was the war with Russia; the British ministers in Russia and Turkey were the men ordered to cut it; and it is they who are henceforth responsible for the murder of a whole nation, and for the sufferings of its expiring moments.

After having shown with what a load of guilt England would charge herself if she suffered the Greeks to perish, I should have thought it an insult to her to inquire whether the crime would prove advantageous to her. I was recalled to the political question; I was called on to show how England could save the Greeks from massacre, without augmenting, in the same proportion, the influence of Russia. I was told that such a thing might be offered to the consideration of some new Don Quixote, but not to a statesman. Let us reflect a moment, however, on this reasoning. Because the Greeks may one

* See the Representative of June 1. The Times, which had my letter first, announced it two days successively, but did not publish it.

+ See the King's speech on the dissolution of Parliament.

day become the allies or the subjects of Russia, are they therefore to be mercilessly slain? I should blush to ascribe such reasoning to any government: but I am called upon to reply to it, and my task will not be difficult.

The Greeks, who have solemnly proposed to place themselves under the protection of England, and who have been repulsed by her with contempt, are only the allies of Russia because they are reduced to despair. Let their condition become supportable, let it be happy, and the Russians will be the last among all the nations in the world with whom the Greeks will dream of forming an alliance. The Russians have betrayed the Greeks in all their preceding wars: they betray them now; and they will still continue to betray whatever people may replace the Greeks in Greece. Yet as long as the subjects of Turkey are subject to all the spoliations, the ignominy, and the sufferings which overwhelm the Rayas, they will take arms for all the enemies of the Porte, because war leaves some chances, and slavery none; because a war at least satisfies a natural passion-vengeance for the most mortal of offences; and passion does not calculate well. But as soon as the Greeks have succeeded in shaking off a yoke so odious, they will see too clearly the danger of an alliance with Russia, to allow it for a moment to seduce them. Greece forms the meridional point of Turkey in Europe, which Russia is attacking from the north. The Russians then, cannot enter Greece till they have traversed as conquerors Moldavia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, Romelia, Macedonia, and Thessaly; and even then they would be perpetually exposed to be attacked in flank by the Turks of Asia. Moreover, the country which separates the banks of the Dniester from Greece, is intersected by chains of transverse mountains, into which an army could never hope to enter without abandoning its cannon, and endangering the failure of provisions. The more a country is poor, barbarous, wild, and unprovided with broad and open roads, the more necessary it is, in attacking it, to choose some line of military operations which shall not remove the army either from the principal rivers, nor from its baggage, to follow the natural basins formed by the mountains, instead of attempting to cross their chains the one after the other. Turkey in Europe is so difficult to cross, that, in attacking the Porte, the Russians have never made, and never will accomplish, their junction with the Greeks; but they have always required the latter to keep up a diversion on the frontier the farthest removed from themselves, and to expose themselves (for the Russians) to the utmost danger without having the least chance of being directly assisted. Inasmuch as the perils which the Greeks were required to brave for the sake of the Russians were terrible, and sufficient to rebut any people whose situation was not altogether desperate, insomuch the recompense which is promised them as the fruit of their labours is ill calculated to tempt a free and industrious nation. The Russians are the slaves of a Christian prince; the Greeks, of a Mussulman; and such is the horrible situation of the latter, that they would even be contented to change their servitude. But certainly the government of independent Greece must be truly execrable, if the Greeks did not prefer it to the Russian yoke. They must know quite well, that if their freedom is once recognised, the destruction of the Ottoman empire must expose them to fall under the dominion of Muscovite tyrants. At present they have no other desire than the annihilation of the Porte: but if Europe rendered to Greece her independence, she would have nothing more at heart than the prolongation of the existence of the Turkish empire, which would separate her from the Russians.

That existence, it is true, cannot last very long. We must be blind not to perceive that the Turkish empire has received its death-blow; and that, whatever may be the issue of the present struggle, all these beautiful provinces are destined one day to become the spoil of the Russians, unless we can render to the Greeks a government which shall create new strength and new resources, and which shall enable them to defend themselves. All the Turkish cities are falling into ruin, the commerce of the whole empire is fast decaying, its population is decreasing, its finances are exhausted, its armies are destitute of valour,