of the first part of the code. By the second part, equal protection was extended to all the modes of religion professed in the state, and the exercise of public religious duties was limited to the respective churches of all the different sects. Every thing relative to the organization, protection and exercise of worship was to be regulated by the king, and the law; and the king was to enjoy, wherever he might fix his residence, the free and public exercise of his religion. By the third part of these dispositions the complete exercise of the executive government, and of all the power necessary for carrying the laws into effect, was possessed by the king. He appointed to all the offices and places, the nomination to which had belonged to the grand pensionary, and possessed all the preeminence and prerogatives attached to that dignity. The coin was to bear his effigy. Justice was to be administered in his name; and the power of pardoning offences and remitting punishments was to be possessed by him, although not to be exercised without an audience of the members of the national court in the privy council. The regent, in case of a minority, should be the queen, otherwise some person appointed by the emperor, who should always have natives for counsellors, and never be personally responsible for the acts of administration. The government and internal administration of the colonies were exclusively vested in the king; and the general government of the kingdom was to be under the immediate inspection of four ministers of state, respectively for the interior, for finance, for naval and military concerns, and for the department of foreign affairs, With respect to the law,

the fourth part declares it to be established by the union of the legislative assembly of their high mightinesses and the king. The legislative body was to consist of thirty-eight members chosen by the different provinces for five years; and on the present occasion, as nineteen members were necessary to complete that number, for every place to be filled, their high mightinesses, and the departmental assemblies of each department, were each to present a nomination of two persons, from whom the king should make his choice. The present grand pensionary was to take the office of president of their high mightinesses, for life, and his succesor was to be appointed agreeably to the dispositions of 1805. The legis lative body should in general assemble twice a-year for the space of about six weeks or two months, and might be summoned by the king on any extraordinary occasion: and on the 15th of November in every year, after the few first instances, which should be regulated by lot, the eldest five of this body should go out, without losing their re-eligibility. With regard to the fifth and last part of this code, and which treats of the judicial power, the power attached to the late pensionary devolved on the king, and the judicial tribunals remained also upon the former establishment, excepting that a particular law was to regulate the administration of criminal justice on military affairs.

What portion of freedom was likely to be allowed by the new government, was soon collected from the circumstance of the suppression of a public paper called the Amsterdam Evening Journal, the editor of which had certainly

taken undue liberties, and might in a free country have reasonably incurred penalties from the ordinary tribunals. But by the suppres sion of this paper by the royal edict, Louis manifested to his people his attachment to that summary process which despotism ever prefers to the tediousness and uncertainty attending public forms, and courts of justice; and in thus confounding the judicial and executive administration of power, too plainly evinced that he had more at heart the extension of his own authority, than the dignity and liberty of the people whom he governed. The constitution itself, however, of this new kingdom is by no means the establishment of an unqualified monarchy, and in better times may lead to a system of polity, which shall unite the due limitation of power with the complete security of order.

The pressure of the armies of France upon the German territories, while Bonaparte was watching the motions of his neighbours, or carrying into effect his projects of spoliation, was great, and contributions were levied by him on the inhabitants not only without reluctance but without moderation. In these circumstances, complaint was expressed in a tone of firmness and animation. The spirit of resistance was summoned to its noblest exertions, in a variety of publications which soon attract ed the notice of the French government. Orders were given for the apprehension of various book sellers in Franconia, Bavaria, and Swabia, who were carried to the fortress of Braunau. Among these the fate of John Palm, a resident of Nuremburg, which was one of the free towns of Germany possess ing laws and tribunals of its own,

attracted particular notice. This person was the publisher of a pam, phlet entitled "Germany in the lowest State of Degradation," which had been read with great avidity, He was in consequence arrested by order of the French government and dragged to Braunau, charged with the publication of a work libellous against the French emperor, and tending to mislead the people of the south of Germany, A court martial was held on his case, consisting of general Berthier, seven colonels, and an adjutant with a reporter. After sitting for three days, Palm, who had been present during the depositions, was brought into court, where the evidence was read to him; after which he was ordered to with, draw, and the court consulted about the extent of his guilt and punishment, and adjudged him to be shot within 24 hours, This proceeding, although affecting ime mediately only an obscure individual, excited considerable attention and indignation throughout Eu rope, in several countries of which subscriptions were raised for the family of the deceased and al. though the chief of the French go. vernment did not personally ap pear upon the bloody stage, hẹ incurred that odium which might naturally attach to him from the consideration, that the performers on the scene must have been at least well aware of his approbation of their conduct, and that he has ever entertained a decided enmity to that freedom of the press which is certainly the most formidable foe to tyranny, and will eventually effect its extermination. The state of the press in France is just such as in these circumstances might be expected. No foreign publications are permitted to be imported with

out

out an express sanetion, and the British journals are excluded from circulation with the most anxious solicitude. From the certainty that any work including free strictures on the conduct of public affairs, would expose its circulators to the swift infliction of vengeance proportioned to the energy and the truth with which they were delivered, nothing in the form of censure on these topics is ever exhibited. Every page of politics is a panegyric on the imperial administration; and even science has condescended to adopt the adulation of the public journals, and to extol the liberty as well as glory of the great nation.

The attention of the religious world was particularly drawn by some events occurring this year in France in relation to the Jews. The situation of this people has ever interested those who have adverted to their universal dispersion through barbarous and civilized nations, without melting in either case into the common mass, and sinking their national language, manners, or religion, to which with inviolable fidelity they have adhered, amidst that scorn and persecution which through a long succession of ages have been their only inheritance. Liberal religionists have thought they saw in it some corroboration of their faith, attended with certain inexplicable difficulties: speculative men of the world have found in it a moral problem, for which their utmost ingenuity has been unable to furnish a satisfactory solution; while the humane of all descriptions have viewed with sentiments of the most sincere commiseration, a race of people, who, inheriting a tainted reputation, are precluded, perhaps, from the very strongest motive to

upright and manly character, and, despairing to derive estimation, like other men, from virtue, not unnaturally plunge into all the circumventions of fraud and all the profligacy of dishonour. Com-plaint had been repeatedly communicated to the emperor from various departments, of the fraudulent and usurious conduct of these people; and deputations from the Jews scattered over the vari ous parts of the empire, were ordered to appear at Paris in an assembly, which might hold con ferences with the government for the correction of the evil complain ed of, and the consideration of other subjects, interesting to their body in particular and also to the nation at large. The assembly soon met in consequence of these instructions, and was opened by a commissioner of the government. Their meeting was stated to be pregnant with very important consequences. They were now for the first time to be judged by a christian prince with fairness and impartiality. It would be their wisdom not to suspect the beneficial intentions of government, and, showing no desire to separate from other classes of society, to co-operate with the kind exertions of the emperor, whose ardent desire it was to see them become genuine Frenchmen, and who demanded. their attention and deliberation on various questions, to which it was expected they would reply with perfect freedom and explicitness.

In answer to several of the questions presented to them, they, after several discussions, at length stat ed, that their law permitted polygamy, divorce, and mixed mar riages, which were, however, modified by usage. In reply to the questions relative to the duties of

Erench citizens, their answers were in a high degree satisfactory. The imperial commissioner attended at the assembly of the Jewish deputies some time after the delivery of these answers, and expressed his majesty's approbation of them. In return for the free exercise of their religion, and the full enjoyment of their political rights, the emperor observed, through his deputy, that he exacted a religious guarantee for the observance of the principles announced in their answers. For this purpose, it was requisite that these answers should be converted into decisions by an assembly of a more impressive and religious form, that they might be placed by the side of the Talmud, and acquire the greatest possible authority. It was therefore proposed to convoke the grand Sanhedrim; which, having fallen with the Temple, would now re-appear to enlighten the people in the law, and to animate them to the love and defence of that country which was the only one wherein they had been permitted to attain any respectable notice since the ruin of their ancient polity. The Sanhedrim should consist of sixty-six members, and a committee of the present assembly should be appointed to arrange the subjects of discussion for that grand council, whose convocation they were to announce to all the synagogues of Europe.

The anticipated consequences of these events, respecting a nation which from its first bondage in Egypt has been exposed to the perpetual abhorrence of the world, from the social spirit and ferocious fanaticism of its manners and institutions, varied in different minds according to their respective habits of speculation or prejudice. Judicious observers, however, were

pleased with beholding evidences of that progressive reason, which, by slow indeed, but certain influences, ameliorates the affairs of the world: and the removal or mitigation of sectarian hatred, the abandonment of inhuman ceremonies, and the elevation of a degraded race of men to usefulness, to estimation, and dignity, were conceived to be the tendency and object of these extraordinary measures of the French government, which were, however, speedily suspended by the more urgent events which pressed upon its attention.

The range and multiplicity of subjects which occupied the atten tion of the chief of this government, are not undeserving of no tice. It might seem as if nothing was too vast for his comprehension, or too minute for his observation; and it appears impossible not to admire the facility with which he personally directs the details of affairs, civil as well as military, the most complicated and the most various, Not merely to the transcendence of his genius, but also to his inde. fatigable and incessant application of it, he is indebted for his almost uninterrupted success. He in spects every thing with his own eye. He labours with more in dustry than any secretary or clerk in otlice. His principal relaxation is in the variety of business. He considers the refreshments of na ture "not as the premium and privilege," but as the task of life. He appoints to stations of distinction, those only who by experience or talents are qualified to discharge the duties of them, and superin tends that discharge with a vigi lance which will not permit the approach of delinquency or remiss ness. These are qualities which nerit imitation, and enough will