taken in some of his views, and was at times misled, Alexander assuredly was the friend of the human race. But he was mortal, and had his public as well as his private failings.

Alexander,' says Lloyd, governed with moderation, activity, and indefatigable perseverance; and by his unaffected and amiable manners, he gained the affection and confidence of his people. His activity embraced with judgment and zeal every thing that concerned the welfare of the empire; he was capable of enlarged views, and the idea of a Christian alliance of sovereigns proceeded from his bosom, which was deeply imbued with religious feelings, and from a mind open to every great idea.'

That Alexander was the original author of the Holy Alliance, there can be no doubt; and there seems to be as little doubt, that when he projected it, he comprehended at least some of the consequences to which it was calculated to lead. As we have seen it in its practical effects upon Naples and Spain, we cannot conceive any alliance more unholy in itself, for it has waged, and, until it be dissolved, it will continue to wage, an unrelenting warfare against the freedom of the continent. In all his political schemes, Alexander showed great duplicity and ambition under the garb of mildness, contentment, and humility: he conquered provinces and kingdoms chiefly by artful policy, and he slowly but steadily continued a system of aggrandisement at the expense of his neighbours, on all sides. Under his reign, the following immense acquisitions of territory were made by the Russian empire, either through treaty or by conquest. 1. The province of Bielostock. 2. The Grand Duchy of Finland. 3. Bessarabia. 4. The Persian provinces, to the Araxes and the Koor. 5. The kingdom of Poland.

Alexander persuaded his people, and wished to make the world also believe for a time that Moscow was burned by the French, and afterwards allowed his own aid-de-camp, Boutourlin, to publish that the Russians themselves were the incendiaries of their ancient capital. He, with the aid of his clever and cunning mother, Maria, cut off Constantine from the succession to the throne, and then composed documents, in which he alludes to the Grand Duke's sublime sentiments, voluntary act, and renunciation of the Imperial purple.

We were much surprised to find that Mr. Lloyd has not noticed the astonishing change of Alexander's conduct shortly before his death. Ever since his ascent to the throne, but more especially for some years after the last peace, that monarch had been a most zealous propagator of knowledge of every kind throughout his vast empire, and was the patron of Bible Societies and the protector of liberal sentiments. Through the influence of secret reports, of the wily Metternich's alarming letters, and of Count Nesselrode's respondent tone of opinion, in the twinkling of an eye, the Bible societies were neglected, nay, discouraged; freedom of

opinion became dangerous; foreigners were looked upon with suspicion; government regarded the travelled Russians with doubts; all plans for the general advancement, in which there was a spark of freedom, were suspended, and the Emperor no longer appeared to be the Alexander of by-gone days. It is a remarkable fact, that one of the first effects of the illumination of a part of the Russian population was an attempt to bring about the extinction of the dynasty of Romanof, and the overthrow of the Russian empire. Death seized his Majesty Alexander in time to prevent his becoming a witness, if not a sufferer, by the conspiracy of his officers and his nobles.

Nicholas the First should look well to himself, ponder well on his plans, and weigh maturely the motives of his advisers, before he adopts important new measures. He should never forget, that two great parties now exist in Russia -- the travelled and polished nobles, and the untravelled and rude nobles; who again may be divided into the civil nobles and the military nobles; the liberals, and the anti-liberals; the advocates, and the non-advocates of slavery; the abettors and the opposers of the system of military colonisation; the illuminators and the non-illuminators of the peasantry; the propagators and the non-propagators of religion.

It has been remarked by all travellers that the Russian empire, in toto, presents a curious and heterogeneous appearance. It consists of innumerable tribes and nations, who speak a great variety of languages. The two-headed eagle of Russia Proper has stretched forth her talons to the north and south, to the east and west, has pounced upon her prey, and has held it fast in the grasp of despotism. For some hundred years, Russia has never been at rest, except for a period suitable to prepare her future means of attack, and await her projected aggrandisement. She has added province to province, principality to principality, and kingdom to kingdom; while she has, by artful policy and overawing armies, more and more consolidated her political power and the influence of her despotic sway.

But a few centuries ago, the Russian territory formed a fourth part of the present European Russia, and about a seventeenth part of the present Russian empire. In the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch III. this territory was augmented 10,000 square miles, and in the reign of Vassilii Ivanovitch 14,000 square miles. Ivan Vassilievitch IV. tripled the extent of his dominions, and Phedor I, greatly augmented them. In the reign of Alixei Michailovitch, all the provinces that were taken by the Poles were reconquered, and besides, he added 257,000 square miles to the Russian states. Under the sway of Phedor III., the dreary region of Nova Zembla was acquired. Peter the Great extended his dominions 280,000 square miles. The Empress Ann, treading in the same path of augmentation, left behind her a realm of above 324,000 square miles in extent; and while Catherine the Second held the sceptre of the north, this ter

ritory was increased to 335,600 square miles. In the reign of Paul, and since the late sovereign, Alexander, ascended the throne, the empire has been enlarged to no less than 345,000 geographic square miles, of which 85,000 belong to Europe, and 260,000 to Asia.*

The rapidly progressive augmentation of Russian territory, by seizure and conquest, -the incredible increase of her native population, the introduction of foreign colonies, the astonishing advance of her people in the arts and sciences, in philosophy and literature, general knowledge, and civilisation, the deeds of her arms, and her present enormous army, of nearly a million of men, onethird of whom, at least, are chosen troops, in a high state of discipline, the extraordinary, and we should say, unnatural and preponderating political influence she has acquired in the courts of Europe, - her rapid march in the improvement of her arm manufactories, cannon-founderies, arsenals, and other appendages of warfare, the institution of various kinds of schools, civil and military, for the instruction of the rising generation, the self-conceit, and haughty spirit of the higher classes of society, the excessive desire of aggrandisement, characteristic of her sovereigns and her generals, her nobles and clergy, her merchants, and even her slaves, - her intriguing and perfidious policy in every court in which she has a representative or employé, - her obdurate perseverance in the overthrow of the liberty and the rights of man in some once powerful nations, while she solemnly professes the wish to emancipate her own serfs, all these, together with the corruption of her morals, are so many topics for the meditations of politicians, and more especially of the sovereigns of Europe.

Lloyd's Alexander, upon the whole, though evidently a hurried production, contains some valuable materials, and we recommend a perusal of it to our readers. The work is ornamented with a portrait of the Emperor, but the likeness is by no means striking; with an excellent plan of Taganrog, copied from Castelnau's "Nouvelle Russie;" and with a fac-simile of Alexander's handwriting.

We recommend the author to correct the following errata, which we have remarked in his book, should a second edition be demanded ;— Laharpe, for La Harpe; Pawlowitsch, for Pávlovitch; Subow, for Zubof; Araktchen, for Araktcheef; Kutujsow, for Kuteusof; Presbaschewskoi, for Preobrajerskoi; Romanzoff, for Rumantsof; Czartorinski, for Tchartorinski; Cossacks, for Kozák's ; Woronzoff, for Vorontsof; Woronesk, for Voroneje.

* Vide Lyall's Account of the Military Colonies.

348

ART. II. Six Months in the West Indies, in 1825. Svo.

9s. 6d. Boards. London. Murray. 1826.

pp. 332.

Few of our colonies are so much spoken of in and out of Parliament as the West Indian Islands, and yet there are none with whose actual social condition Englishmen in general are more imperfectly acquainted. We have been so long accustomed to look upon those dependencies merely as the principal scenes of negro slavery, that, in our horror for that odious system, we have overlooked the local circumstances with which it is connected, and have scarcely paid any attention to the condition of the planters, to the character of the institutions by which they are governed, or to the natural peculiarities of the regions which they inhabit.

The little work before us supplies a good deal of information on all these topics, and conveys it in a clear and animated style. The author is said to be the brother of the Bishop of the Leeward Islands. From the mode in which he handles his subject, as well as from the general tenor of his remarks, it is evident that he has been educated for the very respectable profession of the bar. He states, in a humorous preliminary chapter, that he was induced to visit the warm climate of the West Indies for the purpose of getting rid of a rheumatism by "fusion.' We must say, that his malady seems not to have been accompanied by any symptoms of the spleen, for we have met with few travellers at once so intelligent, so ready to amuse, and to be amused. His observations are often acute, candid, and sensible. He denies that he is the advocate either of the planters or of the African Institution, though we suspect that from his zeal in attacking what he calls the exaggerations of the latter, he has acquired, perhaps unconsciously, a greater taste for the doctrines of the former than he would wish to acknowledge. The question of slavery, however, occupies, after all, but a small portion of his work. The greater part of it is taken up with an account of the present state of the different islands which he visited; and we must do him the justice to premise, that he has treated the different objects which they presented to his notice with very considerable ability.

Perhaps he shows, or rather displays, the "Etonian" with a little too much eagerness, approaching sometimes even to pedantry. Every public school has idiomatic expressions of its own, to give them no harsher name-expressions unsanctioned by general acceptation, and which, therefore, ought always to be left off with the scholastic gown. It seems to us, also, that the author, in order to give a fashionable air to his book, has frequently feigned a frivolity and a recklessness which he did not feel, and that he set out with a determination of imitating, as far as possible, the "Sentimental Journey" of Sterne.

The author appears to have left England in the latter part of 1824, and to have had some three or four days' experience of the happiness which is to be found during a heavy gale in the Bay of

Biscay. Quitting the bay, he proceeded, according to the usual route, to Madeira, where he lingered for some days, which, he says, were to him ' days of enchantment, intercalated in the common year of reality.' The island, however, is too well known to require the long chapter which he has devoted to it; and we shall, therefore, be excused for at once crossing the tropic with the usual ceremonies, in order to reach Barbados, where our voyager landed on the 29th of January 1825.

Barbados, which is said to be the most ancient colony in the British empire, is something less than the Isle of Wight. It has never changed masters; and many of the families who at present have possessions in it, are lineally descended from the original planters. Considering the natural barrenness of the island, it is astonishing to find it rendered so fertile by the hand of industry, that it exports, at an average, 314,000 cwts. of sugar annually, and sustains a population of 110,000 souls, with the assistance of a small proportion of flour and salt fish, which are imported from North America. The capital, Bridge Town, lies round Carlisle Bay, and contains upwards of 20,000 inhabitants. It has two literary societies and an agricultural society; and we are pleased also to find, that through the exertions of Lord Combermere, a large school has been established there upon the plan of our national schools, in which 160 white children are educated and boarded, and the major part of them lodged. This institution will have a very salutary effect on the slave system of the island, as it is from the class of boys whom it educates that the master-tradesmen, mechanics, overseers, and managers are most likely hereafter to be supplied. We understand that a similar institution is about to be established for white girls. It is very much to the credit of the island, that it has for some time supported also a large school for free children of colour. Since the appointment of the bishop, four more schools have been opened for boys and girls respectively, to which any colour is admissible, upon the simple condition of cleanliness and regular attendance. These schools are intended for children of the lowest order of the free coloured; and it is a striking, need we say a most disgraceful, instance of the extent to which prejudice still prevails at Barbados, that, in the four schools just mentioned, the children are not at present taught to write!

While upon this subject of schools a subject, by the way, of the utmost importance to the future welfare of the West Indies, we cannot forbear from making a remark or two on Codrington College. From the terms of the founder's will, and from the funds which he bequeathed to the institution, it was manifestly his object that it should be a university to which the youths of Barbados and the neighbouring islands might resort for the completion of their education. The funds are, at present, in a most prosperous condition; they are administered by trustees in England, who have devoted the most exemplary care to the cultivation of the estates,