guage so utterly inappropriate. This reflection, which suggested itself to every mind, destroyed the effect of General Foy's speech.

If, in this open struggle for pre-eminence between three men of the greatest talents, M. Benjamin Constant carried off the palm, it may be wholly attributed to his having assumed the tone suited to his audience. Addressing himself both to them and to the whole nation, by which his speech would be read on the following day, he found the secret of making them swallow contempt under all its forms. [You must know we have a proverb which says, Contempt may be swallowed, but cannot be chewed] M. Benjamin Constant had the art of overwhelming with ridicule the three hundred and seventy wigged heads which decide the destiny of France; and, to complete the triumph of the most subtle wit and the most consummate address which have for a long time been exhibited to the world, he never once allowed them time to interrupt him. These unfortunate men did not begin to comprehend the bitter sarcasm of one sentence until the orator had reached the middle of the succeeding one. The Constitutionel was obliged on that day to print a second edition, (a thing which does not occur three times in the year,) and it was eagerly sought for by all Paris, as containing a faithful report of that tremendous passage in which M. B. Constant replied to the hacknied declamations about their heroic fidelity, so constantly paraded by the emigrants. He proved in the clearest manner that, after having returned under Buonaparte in 1801-after having vied with each other in crowding to his anti-chamber-after having sworn allegiance to him, they cannot boast of their fidelity, and still less of their heroism; but simply of their prudence. This passage, which it is impossible to read without laughing, and which I do not quote because it is too long, and too closely con. nected with what precedes it, is unquestionably equal to the finest parts of the Provincial Letters of Pascal. Happy would it be for the public, and for M. B. Constant himself, if his works on religion were written with the same fervour and the same talent!

The striking merit of these three speakers has set the public on examining the merits of this individual Chamber of Deputies. The result of this investigation is, that it is, without any exception, the most stupid Chamber that has any where existed for the last thirty-five years. They are the strongest; they plunder the nation of four or five millions, and they actually do not know how to divide the spoil. For full three weeks they have not known what they are about. Three or four times in the course of a debate M. de Villele or his aid-de-camp, M. de Martignac, are obliged to mount the tribune, to prevent their deciding the same question in two opposite ways. In one of their late debates they persisted, for three whole hours, that it was expedient to decree a consequence of an article of a law, BEFORE the article itself was adopted. M. Ravez, their president, Messrs. de Villele and de Martignac, could not by any means make them hear reason. At last these gentlemen, fairly worn out in the conflict, were obliged to break up the sitting, and to adjourn the discussion till the following day. M. de Talleyrand, whose old age was enlivened and rejoiced by this farcical exhibition, said in his drawing-room, in the evening, "they are savages who have killed a hare, but can neither skin it nor cook it. Every savage, in his turn, approaches the defunct hare, turns it over from head to tail, looks at it for some time, and at last goes away, not knowing what to do with it." All the deplorable absurdities of the Chamber, said M. Seguier, (a peer of France, and first President of the Cour Royale of Paris, and what is more, a man of talent,) are calculated to produce a second edition of the list of emigrants. If you, in England, are curious to know the extent of the absurdity of the Chamber, you may read the History of the Emigration, one vol. octavo, by M. de Montrol. It is correct, impartial, and perfectly devoid of

talent.

I shall conclude this long political gossip, by a reflection of a literary cast. If Voltaire could return to life, he would not write tragedies, he would try to get chosen a deputy, for there is not a village in France in which General Foy and Benjamin Constant have not admirers.

INDEX TO VOLUME VI.

Apthorp's Discourses on Prophecy, 405. Fauriel's Songs of Greece, 465.

Charles's, Prince, Journey into Spain, Italian Novelists, 425.

Campbell on a London University, 499.|| Irving's, W., Tales of a Traveller, 83.

Sonnet, 460.

V.

Neither do I condemn Thee, 461. || Venice under Austria, 177.

The Matrimonial Squabble, 461.

Passion Flower, 462.

When the Glen all is Still, 462.

Sonnets by the Author of Rodolfo,
463.

Country Comforts, 463.
Morning, 464.

Night, 464.

The World, 464.
Human Life, 465.

Songs of Greece, 465.

Vocal Science, 249.

W.

Walpole's Life and Character, 289.
Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, 395.
Waterland's Scripture Vindicated, 408.
Watson's Theological Tracts, 408.
Waddington's Visit to Greece, 421.
Wires, Vibrating, 477.

-Drawing Plates, 479.
Weddel's Voyage, 275.