of mathematicians who are probably superior to any in Europe. Their writers have rendered their language familiar to the lovers of literature throughout Europe; and in the value of their productions they have no equals among the moderns, with the sole exception of the English. Their taste in letters is, upon the whole, purer than in the fine arts, in which they are generally marked by superabundance of ornament and an affected

manner.

The French, naturally inquisitive and prone to discussion, had proceeded far in emancipating their minds from the shackles of an arbitrary system of government and religion, before any correspondent change had taken place in their public institutions at the same time, refined luxury and general dissipation had relaxed the bands of morality, and accumulated abuse and disorder in every department. Financial difficulties brought on a necessity for reform; and when the idea of change was once admitted, it was not in the national character to proceed in it with caution and moderation. Violent struggles between old and new principles terminated in a revolution, in which monarchy, established religion, and every institution sanctioned by age and veneration, went to wreck. The events of this dreadful period displayed prodigious energy in the nation, but accompanied with a ferocity and disregard of justice and humanity which involved the cause of reform and its supporters in indelible disgrace. A host of foreign foes united to suppress the dangerous flame, or to make advantage of the confusion; but the vigour of the new republic not only resisted all assaults, but carried its conquering arms into the surrounding countries, and finally extended the limits of France further than her most ambitious monarchs had ever attempted. This success, however, was produced by exertions of authority which subverted every thing free or republican in the constitution, and prepared the way for a military despotism. The most successful of the generals, a man of a daring genius and capacious views, seized the reins; and first under the title of chief consul, exercised, without control, the authority of the nominal republic. Europe has since witnessed the astonishing spectacle of the same man, an obscure Corsican by birth, causing

himself to be declared emperor, with hereditary succession in his own family, crowned by the pope, recognized by all orders of the state, and thus founding a new dynasty, while the relics of the Bourbons are wandering from country to country as exiles. The Roman catholic religion has been re-established (with a full toleration, however, to the two principal protestant sects); a kind of new nobility has been instituted; arbitrary government, and all the pageantry of a court, have been restored; and it seems at present to be an allowed political maxim, that the French are incapable of the blessings of a free constitution.

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The number of people now united under the dominion of France probably exceeds thirty millions; a population under one head which no power in Europe nearly equals, Russia excepted. The military force is fully adequate to this number the public revenues must be very considerable e; and if the natural advantages of the country be considered, in connection with the spirit of the nation, France must undoubtedly be regarded as the head of the continental powers, and a just object of terror to those which are within the reach of her arms. Her influence extends beyond her actual dominion; and Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, move in subservience to her designs. The naval supremacy of Great Britain is the only check to her sway over all the southern part of Europe.

France has at different periods made a figure as a commercial and maritime power; but wars with England, and the military disposition of the people, have repeatedly brought her trade and navy to a very low condition. Her principal branch of colonial commerce has been that of the West Indies, where she possessed the most valuable part of the great and rich island of St. Domingo, with some other islands, and a settlement on the South-American continent. St. Domingo is at present in the hands of the revolted negroes, who, taking advantage of the war with England, rose in arms, and expelled or exterminated their masters. What will be the state of the other colonies can only be known at a peace. In the East Indies she holds the isles of France and Bourbon, but has lost her settlements on the coast of Coromandel.

The French empire possesses great advantages for manufac tures; materials, population, industry, skill, and ready communication with the neighbouring countries; and a pacific system of policy directed to that object would certainly be attended with great accessions of wealth and internal improvement. There is scarcely a branch of manufacture which has not been pursued in some parts of the country, and many of them have at different periods been in a flourishing state. At present French goods are not frequently seen in foreign markets. The wines and brandies of Bourdeaux, the silks of Lyons, the lace and linens of Flanders, the woollens of Normandy and Picardy, the plate-glass, porcelain, and other articles of elegant luxury of the metropolis and its vicinity, are best known in commerce. The internal communication is aided by the navigable rivers, and by several canals, of which that of Languedoc, connecting the bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean, was one of the wonders of the age of Lewis XIV.

Paris, the capital of this extensive empire, ranks next to London among the European cities in point of population, but falls considerably short of it, the last enumeration giving somewhat fewer than 548000 inhabitants. As the seat of refined luxury, cultivated society, elegant amusements, and splendour combined with taste, it claims the first place. By the pillage of conquest it has become the receptacle of the noblest productions of art in all ages and countries, which are liberally offered to the public view in its unrivalled gallery of the Louvre. It abounds in grand public institutions and in sumptuous edifices; but in convenience, cleanliness, and the diffusion of opulence and comfort, it cannot vie with the rival metropolis. It is merely the political head of the empire, and possesses no commerce but what depends upon the demands of a great city, the resort of the rich and curious from all quarters.

Lyons, accounted the second city in France, owed its great wealth, splendour and population, to its rich manufactures of gold and silver stuffs and silk. It suffered greatly in the revolution, and is said still to remain much below its former prosperity; yet it now reckons above 100000 inhabitants. Marseilles and Bourdeaux each equal Lyons in population.

The

former is the chief Mediterranean port, and the centre of the Levant trade, which has always been a principal branch of French commerce; the latter has a great share in the West India trade, and is the chief place of exportation for wine. Both these are towns of great architectural magnificence. Rouen, the capital of Normandy, maintains a great population by its various manufactures. Abbeville, in Picardy, is the centre of the woollen manufacture. Nantes is the principal commercial port in Britany; but Brest, in the same province, is of greater consequence, on account of its vast naval arsenals, and its fine and impregnable harbour, the usual station of the French channel fleet. Toulon, on the opposite side of France, bears the same relation to the naval force in the Mediterranean. Lille, the capital of French Flanders, and Valenciennes, in the same province, are noted for their fortifications; and the latter for its fine laces and cambrics.

Many other towns and cities in France are of ancient fame for their universities, provincial judicatories, or other circumstances; but the changes of the times have reduced most of these to a state of decline. In general, the expectations of augmented prosperity seem to be placed chiefly upon the newly acquired dominions in the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, which, indeed, exhibit a much more flourishing appearance than France itself. But the revolutionary period can scarcely be considered as yet terminated; and years of peace and settled government must elapse before this empire can display what in future it is destined to become.

SPAIN.

THE great peninsula which distinguishes the southwestern part of Europe is strongly marked by nature for one of its distinct portions, being surrounded by the Atlantic ocean and Mediterranean sea on all sides, except where the lofty chain of the Pyrenees, running from sea to sea, separates it from France.

It does not appear, however, that at any period the whole of this region was possessed by a single nation. The Romans and Carthaginians, in their various expeditions, either conquered or made alliance with them; and after the extinction of these two nations it was divided between several christian and mahometan princes. When the whole of present Spain was united into one monarchy under Ferdinand and Isabella, and their successors, a considerable portion of the western side of the peninsula existed as a separate kingdom by the name of Portugal. This portion was annexed to Spain by conquest during sixty years of the 16th and 17th centuries, but was afterwards recovered by the natives, and has ever since formed a distinct sovereignty. This separation is the more extraordinary, as the boundary between the two countries is almost entirely artificial, and Portugal bears a small proportion to Spain in extent and population. Its existence attests the weakness and impolicy of the latter government.

Spain extends from the 36th to beyond the 43d degree of N. latitude. Its extent from east to west on the northern side, where it quite crosses the peninsula, is somewhat greater; but this is abridged on proceeding southward, both by the narrowing of the whole peninsula, and by the subtraction of that slip of land which constitutes Portugal.

The country wears a different aspect in different parts, but upon the whole may be regarded as mountainous. Long chains