a year, with all the palaces, and royal domains and manufactories, and all this in addition to his private property. This was the signal for a shower of pamphlets and brochures. The republicans as usual howled out denunciations of the fearful expense of monarchy, and joined with the legitimatists in asking scornfully what advantage was there in having a "citizen king," when it cost as much to keep him as a legitimate king of the old dynasty. Many of the journals were seized upon, and the editors committed to prison. In doing this the law was often broken by the subordinate agents of the government, but in the main these harsh and decisive measures were necessary, and in urgent cases Casimir Perier was not the man to stand at trifles. The press of Paris was in many instances in the hands of men, who conceived it their duty to oppose every act of the ministry however plain might be its lawfulness and justifiability, and, like Marat, who mistook slaughter for patriotism, they thought turbulence, audacity and foulmouthed abuse were their legitimate weapons. The strict letter of the law, however, did not allow the arrest of a journalist, unless he had committed some overt act of treason, or as it is called in French jurisprudence, flagrant delit, and it was loudly denied that mere reflections on the government, however hostile or embittered, were such. Armand Carrel, with the lofty and dauntless courage which distinguished him, determined to put the matter to a test in his own person, by resist ing to the death if any attempt were made to arrest him. A usurpa tion so monstrous," said he, in an article published in the National, and signed with his name, "shall not stand. We should be criminal were we to suffer it, and this ministry must be made to know that a single man of stout heart, having the law on his side, may stake his life on equal chances, not only against those of seven or eight ministers, but against all interests, great or small, that may imprudently attach themselves to the destiny of such a ministry. It is a little thing, the life of one man, slain furtively at the corner of a street in the confusion of a riot; but the life of a man of honour, who should be slain in his own house by the myrmidons of M. Perier, whilst resisting in the name of the law,this would not be a little thing. His blood would cry for vengeance. Let the ministry venture this stake, and perhaps it will not win the game. The writ of committal, under the pretext of flagrant délit, cannot be legally decreed against the writers of the periodical press; and every writer possessed of a sense of his dignity as a citizen will oppose law to lawlessness, and force to force. It is a duty, come what may."

The National and some other papers which supported this declaration were prosecuted, but, happily, the government were too wise to put Carrel's resolution to the test. It was fated that he should perish in a more ignoble quarrel. These disputes and conflicts led the way to a royalist conspiracy in Paris, having for its object to enter the Tuileries during a ball, seize the royal family, and proclaim Henry V. By the vigilance of the police, however, it was crushed in the bud."

The situation of Italy at this period was most deplorable. The last attempt at insurrection, under Menotti, had failed, leaving the unhappy people in a worse state than ever, and of all the down-trodden slaves of the peninsula, those of the papal states were the most wretched and degraded. Gregory XVI., Pio Nono's predecessor, at that time wore the

triple crown, and wore it not like a priest of God, but like a selfish and vindictive tyrant. In evil days the papacy had won the hearts of the people by its advocacy of the cause of the poor and oppressed, and the noble stand it had made for freedom and equality against thrones, principalities, and powers. Elevating itself by means of the moral influence it thus acquired over the nations of the earth, it had at last reached such a pinnacle of power, that it forgot its origin, pushed away the ladder by which it rose, leagued itself with tyranny and kingcraft, and dwelt in the habitations of cruelty. When the pope became a temporal prince he was valued as other temporal princes, for the forces he could bring into the field, and the wealth or extent of his territory; and when he became a tyrant like the others, he was a more reckless and insane one than they, because he justified his outrages by professing to commit them in the name, and with the sanction of the Prince of Peace. In the hards of himself and his cardinals the papal states had sunk lower and lower, till in 1831 they were a by-word and a shaking of the head amongst the nations. A theocracy upheld by force, literature and science proscribed, the press gagged, the prisons crammed with political offenders who were never brought to trial, and never knew their crime, spies everywhere, brigands and assassins rampant on the highways and bidding defiance to the law, dirty monks swarming all over the land and battening in idleness upon the hard earnings of the peasantry; cardinals and priests, who had spent their lives in convents, and knew more of their breviary than of legislation, filling all the public offices; shameless and open bribery in the courts of justice, and in every other department of the state; lawlessness, corruption and immorality everywhere,-such was the state of the people over whom the vicars of Jesus Christ and the princes of his church had been ruling for ten centuries. But the noble aspirations, the eager longing after a higher and better state, which had animated the ancient republic had not wholly expired amidst the drivellings of superstition and crushing tyranny of narrow-minded and ignorant churchmen. The Romans felt their degradation keenly, and groaned in bitterness of spirit that the peoples whom they had conquered, christianised and civilised, should point in scorn to their dishonour. The great powers of Europe felt what was due from them to the mother of learning and the arts, and the capital of christendom. England, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, determined to interfere, and endeavour to induce the pope to adopt and carry into execution the measures of reform which they proposed. These were, the popular election of the communal and provincial assemblies; the appointment of a commission to overhaul all branches of the administration; the admission of laymen to all offices in the state; the establishment of a council of state composed of the chief citizens.

Gregory replied by decreeing exactly the opposite of each of these recommendations. He went further; he increased the taxation, and pretended to reform the criminal administration of the country, by ordering that ecclesiastics convicted of any offence should be liable to a less severe penalty than would be inflicted upon laymen in like case; and the inquisition was retained in full vigour. The rage and astonishment of the people on hearing this news knew no bounds, and in many places they rose in arms. The bandits, who had been robbers, were now hired

by the government to put them down; and the despotic powers of the continent, who approved of reforms when granted of the sovereign's free will and pleasure, but were horrified at hearing of their being demanded as a right, declared their intention to support the pope, although he had not followed their advice. England alone, to her honour be it spoken, stood aloof, and denounced his proceedings, in terms worthy of her ancient fame as the chosen guardian of the oppressed. The brigands, who were sent into Bologna to the number of five thousand, to quell the insurrection, committed the most frightful atrocities, and roused the unfortunate people to such a pitch of fury that the aid of Austria had to be invoked. It was readily granted, and six thousand men were sent to assist in subduing the rebels. France took the alarm at Austrian intervention, and Casimir Perier determined that he would interfere too. A ship of the line, two frigates, and eleven hundred men were accordingly sent to Ancona, with instructions to occupy the town; while an envoy was sent on before to apprise the pope of their coming, and make him acquainted with the views and intentions of the French government. But unfortunately the envoy was delayed on the way, and when he reached Rome he found the papal court filled with wrath and consternation, for the news had just arrived that the French troops had already entered Ancona, and taken possession of it, having driven out the papal troops. There was great difficulty in soothing the pope and cardinals, and obtaining his reluctant consent to allow the French to remain, but their presence was not without effect in restraining the violence of the ecclesiastics.

In March, 1832, the cholera morbus commenced its ravages in Paris. It had been brought by the Russians from the plains of the east, and communicated to the Poles in the frightful battles of the insurrection in which the combatants mingled and fought hand to hand with indescribable fury. By the latter it was spread over Europe, when they fled from the vengeance of their oppressors. It seized its victims in Paris by hundreds, commencing, as usual, amongst the poor, who dwelt in the narrow and filthy streets of the faubourgs, but gradually extended itself to the quarters of the rich, until there was hardly a house in the city in which the voice of wailing was not heard. The hospitals were crowded, and the wearied surgeons, in many instances, escaped the epidemic only to fall victims to fatigue and exhaustion. On all sides were terror, confusion, and dismay. More than 12,700 persons died in the month of April alone, and during the one hundred and eightynine days that the epidemic lasted, it was calculated that it cut off no less than 18,402 victims. Many fled away to the country, hoping to baffle the destroyer by a change of place; but it must, at the same time be confessed, that in this awful crisis, that lofty and chivalrous courage for which the French are distinguished, and which atones for so many of their faults and follies, shone conspicuous as ever. They faced this unseen foe with as much courage and coolness, as they had ever displayed in a thousand brilliant battles. Women of all classes watched by the couches of the friendless patients in the hospitals, consoling, cheering, and animating them; and the rich sent in profusion whatever was needed to alleviate the torments of the poorer victims in their squalid abodes. Humanity, kindness, and charity, and heroism in the discharge of duty are of no race and of no clime. They are found every→

where, amongst high and low, Celts and Saxons; and if this truth were remembered better, the peace societies might rest from their labours, for we should learn war no more. Depreciation of our neighbours is the chief cause of international dissension.

Foremost amongst those who were distinguished for their devotion, were the royal family. Though living in the midst of the pestilence, they stirred not. The queen and Madame Adelaide, the king's sister, filled with ardent piety, that obliterated the paltry distinctions of rank, became ministering angels to the poor and wretched, who would otherwise have been left to die without an eye to pity or hand to help. The duke of Orleans, the heir apparent to the throne, went through the hospitals, everywhere animating the attendants by his presence and example, and with him went Casimir Perier, the high-souled, haughty, determined, fierce, and energetic Casimir Perier. But the fire of his eagle eye had now waxed dim, and his strength was sadly abated, for he carried the seeds of death within him. Worn by disease and the cares and vexations of political life, he had become nervous and delicate, and the frightful scenes which he witnessed in the hospitals made an impression on him from which he never recovered. He returned home, lingered on without hope, and on the 16th of May he was no more. He was to Louis Philippe what Mirabeau was to Louis XVI., and had he lived, might have saved France from many of the evils which have since befallen her. A magnificent funeral was decreed him, and subscriptions were collected to raise a monument to his memory. The people forgot their own griefs in sorrow for his loss, and over his tomb Royer Collard delivered one of those magnificent funeral orations for which the French are so famous, and which half atone for the fickle ingratitude which so many of their great men have experienced while living.

With Casimir Perier died George Cuvier, the naturalist, and once it had taken them, the cholera, as if satisfied with its prey, abated its fury.

M. Montalivet had, during Casimir Perier's illness, been appointed to fill his post, pro tempore, and he continued to occupy it after his death. In the mean time, the duchesse de Berri was maturing her plans at Massa, and preparing to make a descent on France, and, if possible, to create a rising in the south, and in La Vendée. On the 24th of April she secretly quitted Massa in the night, and embarked with her followers on board a steamer which had been purchased for the purpose, and immediately steered for the coast of France. On the 28th, at midnight, they reached the point which had been agreed upon with their adherents on shore as the place of rendezvous. Upon hoisting the signals, two lanterns, one at the fore and the other at the mizen masthead, they were promptly answered from the shore, and a boat immediately put off. The night was dark and stormy. The wind was rising gradually, and the sea was already running high, so that it was with the utmost difficulty that the boat could approach the ship's side; and it was with no small fear that her friends saw her leave them, and trusting herself to the boisterous waves in a frail skiff. But she had made up her mind to risks of this sort, and being of a gay and sanguine temperament, there was a touch of romance about the affair which pleased her girlish fancy, for she was still very young. The landing was effected in safety in the

vicinity of Marseilles, but the crisis was not yet over. The authorities got scent of the plot, through the medium of some of the boat's crew, who brought the duchess ashore; and on the night of the 29th of April, which had been fixed for the rising, all the posts about Marseilles were doubled. On the morning of the 30th, the conspirators broke ground, and put their fortune on the cast, by issuing forth, and appealing to a crowd of five hundred fishermen assembled on the shore. But they met with no response. It was in vain that they flourished their swords, and cried, "Vive Henri Cinq!" the crowd looked on with a sort of quiet curiosity, as if the whole affair were a piece of acting. The dénouement was brought about by some shouting out that it was a plot of the police, and bidding the people be on their guard. This was enough. The conspirators saw that their enterprise was, so far, a failure, and that it was high time to provide for their personal safety by an inglorious flight. A troop of lancers coming up, dispersed the crowd, and succeeded in arresting some of their number. The duchess escaped out of the town, but was obliged to wander about in the woods for a whole night, without being able to find shelter. At last she reached the chateau of one of her most zealous adherents, and here it was now resolved that she should try her fortune in La Vendée. On the 4th of May she started with two of her adherents, in a calash_drawn by post horses, having obtained a passport under an assumed name. She bid her friends farewell with great cheerfulness, crying out as she drove away, "Messieurs, en Vendeé!" The steamer, in which many of the party had remained, was captured by a government cruiser before she left Marseilles.

The duchess succeeded in reaching La Vendée in safety, and took up her abode in a farmhouse, where she assumed the dress of the peasant lads of the district, and called herself Petit Pierre. She gathered the chiefs of her party around her here, and fixed the 24th of May as the day for taking up arms. But in the interval her followers began to lose heart. They noticed the apathy and indifference of the people, and assured the duchess that it was useless to attempt a rising there, since the attempt in the south had failed. M. Berryer even went so far as to come down from Paris, and seek her out in her retreat, and implore her with all the force of his eloquence to relinquish the enterprise. He found her in a cottage, in a miserable room, sitting before a table covered with papers, and on it two brace of pistols. Such was the situation of the mother of the heir of the Grand Monarque in the France of Henri Quatre! But his efforts were vain. She was determined to carry things to their limits, and without spending a thought on the bloodshed and misery and heartburnings that her obstinacy might cause, she declared that nothing could induce her to believe that the descendants of the followers of Cathelineau would prove untrue to the cause for which their fathers had fought so gallantly. "But the times and the men are changed!" was M. Berryer's reply. The order fixing the rising for the 24th of May was soon after revoked, and the 3rd of June appointed instead, but this only caused confusion and misgiving, as the counter order had not time to become generally known. In addition to this the whole plan of the conspiracy was discovered written out in full, by one of the gensd'armes, in searching the cellars of a suspected