AT WASHINGTON.

IN our last we briefly noticed the coup d'état of Louis Napoleon, on the 2nd December, 1851. Since then, the position and power assumed by him have been confirmed, and, as far as could be, consolidated, by seven-and-ahalf million of affirmative votes, given by appeal to universal suffrage. France, by this act, transferred the rights and liberties of her people into the hands of Louis Napoleon. He, according to the terms of the proclamation of the 2nd of December, if supported by the nation, became President or Chief for a period of ten years, with power to draw up and promulgate a Constitution. With no ordinary excitement, parties of every political complexion have waited to know the powers and provisions of that Constitution. On the 15th inst., the Moniteur, the organ of the French Government, removed uncertainty and satisfied curiosity on the subject, by an official detail of its parts. Our limits prohibit lengthened remark. Suffice it to say,

the President's Constitution is another proof of the President's apehood. It is the reproduction and repetition of the Emperor's plan, with slight alteration or modification. The President of the Republic, according to sec. iii., art. 6, "is the Chief of the State; he commands the land and sea forces, declares war, concludes treaties of peace, political and commercial alliances, and makes the rules and declarations for the execution of the laws." He, however, governs by means of Ministers, a Senate, a Council of State, and a Legislative Body. The Senate is not to exceed at any time 150 in number; for the first year, it is fixed at 80. It is composed of ex-officio members, viz., Cardinals, Marshals, Admirals, and of others raised to its dignity by the friendliness and favour of the President. The Senate is our Upper House, and it is pretended to be the safeguard of constitutional rights and liberties: "no law can be promulgated without being submitted to it." The Legislative Body is to be elected by universal suffrage, one deputy. being returned for every

35,000 electors. Its members are to be unpaid, excepting its president, who is to be selected by the President. Its sittings are to be public, but, on the demand of five of its members, it may become a secret committee. The report of its proceedings, in journals and periodicals, is alone to come from its president. The Council of State will consist of from 40 to 50 members. These are to be named and may be dismissed by the President. It will be theirs generally to assist the Government, draw up bills, and advocate them in the Legislative Body and Senate. Each of its members to receive 25,000 francs per annum. In brief, this is the Constitution given to the French people by their pet President. It will be seen how thoroughly and effectually Louis Napoleon has paved

the way for his will to become the law of France. The Council are his own creatures, paid for their services, and dismissed if those services are disapproved. The Senate will contain but few independent members, viz., those who are in it by right of office. These, at present, are but 11, viz., 3 Cardinals, 6 Marshals, and 2 Admirals. And then as to the Legislative Body. Should it in committee propose any amendment to a bill before it, that amendment is to be submitted to the Council; and if its approval be not obtained, it cannot be again discussed. [Article 40.] Truthfully does a contemporary remark-" The people of France have intrusted Louis Napoleon with the division of power, and he has kept the lion's share for himself. They have allowed him to fix the precise amount of liberty that ought to be administered to them, and he has determined that it shall be given in homoeopathic doses. They have abdicated all their acquired rightsthe social conquests for which they have undergone sixty years of revolution-in his favour, and left him as completely and absolutely master of France as ever the Emperor was when at the highest pinnacle of his glory. The victory gained by Louis Napoleon over the law.

ful Assembly of France and his elevation to all but irresponsible power, were celebrated on the 1st of January in the ancient and but recently renovated and beautified Cathedral of Notre Dame. The cathedral was variously and gorgeously decorated, and the service performed with studied theatrical dis play. Pity that God's house and God's worship should be available to sanction, and if possible, in popular estimate, to sanctify a broken oath, blood-stained violence and arrogated despotic power! All the movements of Louis Napoleon, since his newly-authenticated power, are indicative of monarchial intentions. 'Liberté, Egalité, et Fraternité,' placed on public edifices during the early sittings of the Provisional Government of 1848, were ordered to be erased, and by this time are erased. The Palais National is henceforth to be called the Palais Royal, the Rue de la Concorde Rue Royale, and official documents are given from the Tuileries, the ancient and magnificent residence of the kings of France, rather than from the less ostentatious residence of the Elysée; indeed, the former is undergoing extensive repairs, and in spring is expected to be occupied by the President. How long the newly-elected President and the newly- promulgated Constitution of France will stand, is a question to be answered by our old school-master, Time. He is not to be hurried or anticipated in his replies. For his reply France and Europe wait on tiptoe."

CAPE NEWS is yet pensive and painful. War rages, not only with wonted but waxing boldness and blood-shed. Latterly the loss of Captain Oldham, with a great part of his detachment, was announced; and by the last mail we are informed of the loss of one lieutenantcolonel, two captains, two lieutenants and an ensign. Surely it is time rigid inquiry and earnest protest were made on this topic by this great nation. Already ten thousand of our best soldiers, "the flower of our army," have been sent to conquer and guard a territory comparatively worthless when conquered and guarded. In these times of warlike appearances and preparations national prudence and state policy would say, Guard your own coasts rather than African frontiers; look a few miles over the English Channel rather than 500 miles the other side of the Tropic of Capricorn.

The month has added to the book of misfortune a chapter of dreary melancholy. On Friday, the 2nd inst., the Royal Mail steam-ship Amazon, Cap

tain Symonds, left Southampton for the West Indies. She was expected to reach St. Thomas's, a distance of 3,622 miles, in less than fourteen days. Ere the excitement of a large, well-built, powerful steamer leaving port on her first outward voyage had abated, rumours were afloat of the entire loss of the boat and the partial loss of the crew. These rumours were too true. The Marsden put in at Plymouth, bringing twenty-one of the Amazon's crew and passengers. They reported that, on Saturday night, the 3rd instant, at forty minutes past twelve o'clock, as the boat entered, or had entered, the Bay of Biscay, fire was discovered. The alarm-bell was rung, and every exertion made to overcome and extinguish it, but without success. "It is all up with her!" were the last words the agitated and despairing captain was heard to say. The boats, nine in number, were resorted to; but in the hurry and anxiety of that dark and dread hour-the ocean heaving and foaming under a terrible gale, the vessel driving on at eight knots an hour, and death standing in awful form at a step's remove -no wonder they were mismanaged. Three were instantly swamped; three sailed off with passengers; three more are unaccounted for. Since the arrival of the Marsden, a Dutch vessel has put in at Brest, on the north-west coast of France, bringing six passengers and nineteen of the crew; and tidings just reach us of the safety of thirteen more, who, after drifting about in an open boat for fifteen hours, were picked up by a Dutch vessel. The numbers are now as follows:

Whether those boats unaccounted for contained passengers, and whether they have been providentially taken up and saved, are questions left to conjecture and hope. The Lords of the Admiralty, on the 16th ult., directed two steamers, the Confiance and the Sprightly, to go in search of survivors. Meanwhile, how great is this catastrophe! The vessel itself, launched so recently as last July, is described as "one of the largest timber-built steams-ship ever constructed in England." She was of 800-horse power, and 2,250 tons burden. Her length was 310 feet, and her breadth from beam to beam forty

larly in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, &c., where the Severn and Wye overflowed their banks and did vast destruction. But Yorkshire takes mournful precedence of other places. There, by the bursting of a reservoir situated three miles southwest of Holmfirth, a town six miles south of Huddersfield, the loss of property, cattle and human life is truly appalling and heart-rending. It was called the Bilberry Reservoir, and stretched over a surface of eleven acres, and penetrated a depth of sixty feet (according to the Times, eighty-five or ninety feet). For some time fears have been entertained and expressed respecting the safety of the embankment; and on the night before it gave way, some who lived in the neighbourhood, prompted by their apprehensions, removed their families, and by removing saved them. Others, on the fatal night of Wednesday, kept watch of the suspected reservoir. At one o'clock, or a little past it, the worst fears were confirmed. The fastnesses gave way, and that tremendous body of confined water, whose maddened fury and giant strength when once liberated defied control, rolled and raged onward and onward, carrying down the quiet valley of the Holme houses and factories, cows and horses, pigs and poultry, and, alas! more than a hundred fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, who, but a few hours before, in happy fellowship and perfect health, had committed themselves to repose! It would be useless to attempt a narration of this fatal catastrophe. Such a scene of desolation and distress has seldom, if ever, been presented in any district of England. Trees were torn up by their roots, large boilers carried away from their fixtures; and at Holmfirth Churchyard the coffins of the dead were raised with their sleeping contents. The loss or damage sustained is variously estimated at from £500,000 to £600,000. Families which were one day in easy, if not independent, circumstances, the next were helpless and penniless. One family was relieved, from subscriptions liberally raised to mitigate the general distress, who before the calamity was worth £10,000. This is but one of many similar incidents narrated in connexion with this sad event. May the living lay it to heart!

Nor is England alone in its losses and calamities. The newspapers just bring us tidings of the explosion of a large gunpowder-magazine, half a league from

Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. The shock was like that of an earthquake. Pedestrians and horses were thrown down; trees of centuries growth and large size were torn up and hurled considerable distances; and other massive articles fell on the lake of Liddoc, and actually broke by their fall the ice. Fortunately, the explosion took place when many of the workmen were at dinner; still more than sixty have met their end by it. It is believed that criminals located in the district committed the foul deed. 28,500lbs of gunpowder were blasted, and 638,000f. is the estimated loss.

We close our "Record" by a brief notice of the expulsion of missionaries from Hungary and Galicia, in the Austrian dominions. At Pesth, the capital of the former country, Messrs. Wingate and Smith, Free Church of Scotland missionaries, located in 1841. Their mission was particularly intended to benefit the Jews. With the sanction of his Imperial Highness the Viceroy of Hungary, they began the work. Now they have or had a school of 350 children, 300 Jews, fifty Protestants, not Catholics. The school is under the superintendance of a Jewish convert. But from Pesth and the Austrian dominious they were ordered, on the 15th of January, to remove in six days, or they would be forcibly removed. This order was severe in itself, and all the more severe from the delicate and dangerous state of the health of their families. Protestations were made without avail. On the 8th inst. a deputation consisting of noblemen, clergymen and gentlemen, accompanied by others from the Protestant Alliance, the Scottish Reformation Society, and the returned missionaries, waited upon the newly appointed Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Earl Granville, and detailed to him the facts of the case, with a strong request to see justice done it. The noble lord had addressed the Earl of Westmoreland, our ambassador at Vienna, on the subject, and postponed his reply. The Rev. Mr. Edwards, who has laboured three years in Galicia, has not yet arrived to tell his own tale. Meanwhile, we see the feeling of Austria towards Protestant preachers, as recent events have shown it towards political reformers. Jesuitism is there in league with Absolutism, and they twain produced intolerance the most cruel, and deference, political and religious, the most servile.

February 19, 1852.