French, cannot be put into a fit condition for a very active Peninsular campaign. The line of policy which he has adopted at this critical juncture, has given great eclat to the entrance of Mr. Canning upon his office; and it is a singular, but most gratifying occurrence, that his friend Mr. Robinson was greeted in the most enthusiastic manner by all sides of the House, on commencing the duties of his chancellorship of the Exchequer, with the very gratifying measure of a reduction of nearly two millions and a half of taxes.

IRELAND is still a scene of outrage, disgraceful to a civilized state. In consequence of the prompt measures stated in our last to have been resorted to for the prevention of the Orange triumph, in decorating the statue of King William, the Lord Lieutenant has rendered himself so unpopular with a faction which has long been the curse of Ireland, that on his appearance at the theatre on the 14th of December, he was received with hisses and the display of the most offensive placards, and at length a bottle, and a fragment of a watchman's rattle, were flung from one of the galleries towards the viceregal box; but happily they missed their aim. The persons immediately engaged in this disgraceful proceeding were taken into custody, rather, we are sorry to say, through the prompt interference of the by-standers than of the police, whose scandalous inactivity has procured the dismissal of several of its officers. A variety of addresses were presented to his Excellency from all parts of the country, congratulating him upon his escape, though in several, we are concerned to add, the influence of the Orange faction prevailed to prevent meetings for the purpose being called, although the requisitions were most numerously and respectably signed. A bill was preferred against the rioters, but rendered unavailing by the grand jury (fourteen of whom were upon the Dublin corporation, which has but too long been the strong hold of this mischievous association,) ignoring it, against evidence, and the declared opinions of the court, as to all the defendants save two, the law requiring, as they well knew, three to constitute a riot. The Attorney-General, however, with that vigour which we expected from him, determined that the ends of justice should not be defeated, proceeded against the same parties by ex-officio information; and after a trial, than which nothing seems to have excited so great an interest since the days of Sacheverel, the prosecution fell to the ground, because there were no hopes of the Jury agreeing in their verdict. To what a height must party feeling run in that devoted country, when it blinds men to the solemn obligation of an oath; yet in such a country, and at such a crisis, we regret to find that Dr. Magee, the new archbishop of Dublin, of whom our announcement of his appointment evinces that we had expected better things, has rendered his first charge, instead of a specimen of Christian moderation and forbearance, a bitter, not to say unchristian invective, alike against Protestant and Roman Catholic dissenters from the established church. The former care not what he says:-—at this period of irritation the latter evidently feel, and we fear will not soon forget it.

In FRANCE, the elections have been carried in favour of the government candidates, by means which, in England, would vacate many of their seats. The faculty of medicine at Paris has been suppressed, and twenty-five physicians, and four thousand students, have been thus deprived, the first of their places, the others of the means of professional instruction, because, when the rector of the academy

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was about to address them, a cry was raised of “ A bas les Jesuites,” an instance of insubordination, not certainly to be passed over without notice, but which, in our Universities, the expulsion of the ringleaders of the tumult, and rustication of their more prominent partizans, would sufficiently and more efficaciously have punished: Mes on faites ces choses autrement en France. After considerable hesitation and vacillation in the members of the French ministry, the speech of the king, at the opening of the chambers, in as far as words can do it, puts an end to all hopes of avoiding a war between France and Spain; a hundred thousand Frenchmen, commanded by a prince of his family, (the Duke d'Angouleme) being therein declared to be "ready to march, invoking the God of St. Louis, for the sake of "preserving the throne of Spain to a descendant of Henry the "Fourth, of saving that fine kingdom from its ruin,—and of reconciling it with Europe." The sole object of these vast preparations, is there stated to be, to set Ferdinand VII. "free, to give to his "people institutions, which they cannot hold but from him, i. e. in plain English, for in common sense, the words admit not of any other construction, to establish, contrary to the declared wishes of the people, and the constitution to which that very Ferdinand the Beloved has sworn, an absolute and unlimited monarchy in Spain. Against this unjustifiable aggression, this uncalled for inteference with the internal affairs of another state, Talleyrand has delivered a remonstrance, in the chamber of Peers, to which, from one who has had such bitter experience of the hazards of a Peninsular war, the French ministry must be besotted indeed, if they will not attend. In the chamber of deputies, also, Geneas! Foy characterized the measure as “a war against morality and probity-a war of impiety "and sacrilege, disavowed and rejected by the whole nation, and "therefore the greatest calamity which could befall the throne." For similar sentiments, though somewhat more boldly expressed, Manuel, a patriotic deputy of La Vendeé, has been excluded from the present sessions, though armed force was obliged to be resorted to, to get him out, and the National Guard refused to act against him. A strong protest was also signed by several deputies, but the printers dare not insert it in their journals, or give it circulation. Such is the liberty of the press in Franc!

Since our last reference to the affairs of SPAIN, the Cortes appear to have been manfully preparing themselves for the maintenance of the liberty of the nation at the point of the sword. Fresh corps have been incorporating with great activity, and every effort has been made to prepare them for the field as soon as possible. The public functionaries are every where rendered responsible for the strict and immediate execution of the orders respecting the new levies. Mina has been appointed general in chief of the three armies of Catalonia, Navarre, and Arragon; but we regret to find that his troops have wreaked the popular indignation on the monks and priests, by the assassination of at least fifty of them, in various parts of Catalonia. The bodies of two are said to have been found on the coast, who had been bound back to back, and thrown into the sea. This is a horrible, but we hope it may prove a useful lesson to ecclesiastics, to teach them not to interfere with matters in which, as ecclesiastics, they have nothing to do. The regency has been compelled to fly, often, indeed generally by night, from place to place, bearing upon the backs of mules, (no inappropriate carriers of such a burden,)

the archives of their self-constituted government: Their troops were encountered by those of the Constitutionalists before Puyurda, and, after the combat, a great many of their superior officers retreated into the interior. Their army was pursued to the very extremity of the frontier. They appear, however, to have derived fresh spirits from the decided tone in which the high and mighty Allies assembled at the congress of Verona (England alone honourably excepted) have reprobated the proceedings of the Constitutionalists in Spain, though it is difficult, even from their own laboured manifesto, to discover what they had to do with the business. The ambassadors of France, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, were withdrawn from Madrid the moment that the Spanish ministry, cordially supported in their decision by the Cortes, had refused to accede to the ultimatum of the Alliance, insisting, in effect, on their right to control the will and wishes of the Spanish nation. Their passports were readily granted the moment they were asked for, and we doubt not that our readers must with us have remarked the laconic dignity, truth, and simplicity, characterizing the official notes by which they were accompanied. Would that truth as generally superseded unmeaning compliments and falsehoods, too palpable to be concealed by art, in the correspondence of our modern diplomatists. Those notes are also the more valuable, as proving the true state of things in Spain, in that they were framed by a committee, in which Arguelles, the leader of the moderate party, after declaring himself ready to go all lengths in vindicating the independence of his country, was placed, upon the nomination of Galiano the democratic leader, and that they afterwards obtained the unanimous sanction of the Cortes. After this, it is really laughable to find some of the French journals complaining of the popular associations of Madrid, for “indulging in insolent and scandalous declamations against the congress of the Holy Alliance, and ridiculing the sovereigns who compose it, in a caricature of the most outrageous description, publicly exhibited in all the shops of Madrid." It was said that Ferdinand had expressed a wish to imitate, in the only way he can, the most distinguished of his predecessors, by exchanging his diadem for a cowl; a measure, which, if whilst on the throne, he resolves to persist in his present ruinous policy, may perhaps prove to be the only one that can save his head. Should he lose that, the madness of his brother Bourbons will be principally, if not alone, to blame. Himself, his family, and his court, have, however, removed from Madrid to Seville; and though we put very little faith in his honesty, from his having changed his men and measures as often as he thought an opportunity presented itself of gaining an advantage over the constitution to which he had sworn, we are not without hopes that his fears may force him to the adoption of a surer and a safer policy.

The new constitutional government of PORTUGAL appears to be gaining solidity and strength. In a sitting of the Cortes on the 31st of December, the reply of the British government to a demand made by the Portuguese ministry for an explanation of the views which it entertained with respect to the present state of Europe, was read by the minister for foreign affairs. In it the British ministry, briefly but frankly profess, that, not assuming the right to interfere in the internal concerns of an independent nation, nor feeling that any change of constitution in a friendly state could affect the relations previously existing with it, Great Britain "will feel herself obliged

"to lend to Portugal all the succour of which she may stand in need, "as often as her independence may be menaced by any other power, "in any manner whatever." This declaration, so worthy of our free and happy constitution, was made and received with great exultation, and must have an effect upon other states. Would that it may be to the prevention of a war, in which we fear that, sooner or later, England must be plunged! Whilst troops are likely to be wanted so much nearer home, we cannot, however, but be surprised at the folly of the Portuguese government, in sending out an expedition of 3000 men to Bahia, in the delusive hope of restoring the Brazils to her allegiance to the mother country; for she has shaken it off for ever. The Queen has refused to swear obedience to the constitution, and, on being menaced with expulsion from the kingdom, replied, that she would consent to it, provided that the dower she brought the king was returned to her. Her banishment has, however, been decreed by the Cortes, without, as it would seem, a compliance with her demand; and the King her husband has confirmed the sentence, though its execution is delayed by the state of her health, until the recovery of which, sufficiently to enable her to travel, she has been ordered to seclude herself in the Quinta del Ramalhao, where ten physicians are in attendance upon her. Since that period, very recently indeed, a counter revolutionary movement has been attempted, having for its object a similar attack upon the constitution of Portugal, to that made by the regency in Spain, but it does not appear at all likely to succeed.

With respect to ITALY, it would seem that the influence of England at the congress of Verona has been beneficial to her, as well as to Spain. Sardinia is to be evacuated by the Austrian troops, by three equal portions, in January, May, and September; whilst half of the same force, in Naples, is to be immediately withdrawn, and a more moderate contribution for the support of the remainder is at the same time to be accepted. The final evacuation of that kingdom is, however, we regret to add, deferred "until a more con"venient season;" yet if the attack upon Spain is madly persisted in by the Holy Alliance, these troops will, we doubt not, be wanted nearer home.

In GERMANY, the Emperors of Austria and Russia have been acting the Two Gentlemen of Verona on a very imperial scale, for they have taken upon themselves, in their new characters (in conjunction with the Kings of France and Prussia) of dictators of Europe, to remonstrate with the Kings of Bavaria and of Wurtemburg, on their permitting the publication of the debates of their deliberative bodies, and request them to put a stop to so democratical a practice. This the monarchs have refused to do, as the former also has done with respect to their demands for restricting the sittings of the states-general, and submitting the press to a severe censorship; but, in their turn, have remonstrated against the holding of general congresses for settling the affairs of Europe, from which kings and states of their rank and dimensions are excluded. In the same proper spirit, the king of Saxony, on certain changes being proposed to him by the Holy Alliance, replied, "For many years I have been very well "satisfied with my people-and my people are satisfied with me— "what more is wanted? My subjects have never done me any “harm-I see nothing to change."

Of the movements of PRUSSIA, separate from those of Holy Alli

ance, of which she forms a part, nothing very particular has transpired; but we cannot argue much for the progress of liberal opinions in that kingdom, from the fact of the edict issued in 1815, for rendering Jews admissable to offices in schools and academies, if possessed of the necessary qualifications, having lately been repealed.

The government of the NETHERLANDS has issued an ordonnance, highly satisfactory to the great mass of the population, directing, as it does, that as Flemish is the language of the arrondissements of Brussels and Louvain, all public functionaries, who are not masters of it, are to be displaced; whilst all public pleadings, proclamations, arrets of government, civil contracts, and acts, are henceforth to be drawn up in that language. In proportion, however, to the popularity of the measure with the people, is its unpopularity with the great mass of the functionaries, for as it is fatal to the immense number of French employed in the courts, bureaus, and offices of Brussels, it is very naturally opposed by them and their adherents with great clamour; but we do not fear any success to their views, from the hot paper-war which they have commenced upon the subject.

For the ultimate triumph of the GREEKS Over their ruthless and barbarous oppressors there is still much ground to hope, notwithstanding the official denunciation of their conduct by the self-appointed arbiters of the world, "as rash, culpable, and rebellious." Napoli and Corinth are closely pressed by their patriotic troops, and the condition of the besieged is said to be so desperate, that they might be expected soon to surrender. The latter place contained 5000 Turkish troops, the remains of 25,000 which entered the Peloponnesus to ravage and re-enslave it, and forming the whole army of the Turks in the Morea, where their cause seems to be at the lowest ebb, their besieged troops being in the greatest distress for provisions, whilst the Greeks had an abundant supply. We regret, however, to add, that during the siege, the horrid acts of cruelty which have distinguished this protracted warfare from all others, save those of cannibals and savages, are constantly practised. Not long since, four Greeks had each a stake driven through his body, in which condition they lingered for four days, when their death was avenged by a like cruel martyrdom of as many Turks. Amidst these horrible scenes of brutal outrage and equally brutal retaliation, superadded to the ordinary horrors of a siege, (in themselves, one would imagine, terrible and disgusting enough,) Corinth, one of the most polished cities of ancient Greece, the seat of one of the first apostolic churches, presents the appearance of a charnel-house of death-surrounded as it is by bodies in every state of putrefaction, from the one that fell yesterday, to the first victim of this cruel and protracted siege. Nor is this a solitary spectacle: for the ruthless Turks, as yet unsatiated by the sufferings of the hapless Sciots, have destroyed, in cool blood, the few fugitives from their first massacre, who, trusting to the faithless promise of protection, and impelled, no doubt, by their necessities, returned to their homes but to find a grave. The cause, however, in which they died is triumphing, and we hope will triumph; for, on the lower part of the town of Napoli, the Greek flag was some months since flying triumphant, whilst of 5000 Turks of both sexes, shut up in the upper fortress, only 1500 were capable of bearing arms. The last attempt of the great Turkish fleet, commanded by the new Captain Pacha, to