deviating too widely from the straight path of historical narrative into the wide field of political speculation. The general election was scarcely sufficient to ruffle the calm into which, after the union, the commotions of Ireland had subsided: but here some circumstances are worth observing; not a single member of the Irish parliament who supported the union was displaced in consequence of the displeasure of his constituents; in no instance was this support upbraided to any candidate; some of the most extensive and independent counties returned gentlemen who had shown great zeal one in accomplishing this momentous arrangement, and only in instance (the county of Dublin) did any candidate deem his opposition to the union a sufficient claim for popular favour, to allude to it in addressing the constituent body. At the preceding general election, the discontented testified their aversion from the constitution, by declining to exercise or claim the franchise to which they were entitled; on this occasion it was considered a very strong evidence of the decline of disaffection, that the elections were much more contested than before, and nearly every person came forward the people; their pastimes are martial and adventurous, and their occupations inure to hardship; marriages are early, frequent, and productive. From the revolution to the American war there was no recruiting in these districts for the British service, and since the battle of Fontenoy there has been none for the French; the loss in the Irish regiments, on that occasion, never was repaired. The omission of government to Occupy this military spirit and exuberant population seems to have been a national cause of the late insurrection. "There are in the country a number of young men, the children of persons of small property, very often with family pretensions, which among the peasantry are recognized and respected; they live with the common people, drink with them, mix with them in their places of public resort and amusement, they have unbounded inAuence, they frequently take a lead in parties for running away with young women, and when they please instigate to acts of disturbance. I see nothing so material to the tranquillity of the state as to provide an outlet for this class of persons; they never have been invited into the British service, because those who could recommend to government for commissions were in opposite interests, and thought more of accommodating the sons of freeholders. Of late, the resource failed them, of seeking employment from the different foreign powers who entertained Irish regiments, and at the same time property has been diffused so much more widely than heretofore, as to increase the number of idle hands considerably. Twenty-five years ago, a marriage portion of 50l. was not so common as a portion of 500l. is at present; and it is more usual to bestow upon a young couple from 50t. to 100l. this day, than it was some years back to furnish them with a few farming utensils. There is a vast disposition in Ireland to inactivity, and when there is any pretence of property or family, those who can allege the excuse very seldom omit to do so, and our rustics cherish a pride of birth and distinction of families unheeded and unobserved by their superiors. "If recruiting parties are sent into the country, as has been the case during two former wars, a number of men may certainly be raised; but I conceive this measure will as heretofore be ineffectual, because it does not embrace or provide occupation for those leaders who are above entering as privates: men of this description were the instruments by means of whom the late lord Edward Fitzgerald communicated with the populace; and if an enemy tries the experiment again, he may find in the same class of people a like facility of seduction; he will find necessity, pride, and perhaps disappointment. The formation of the regiments of Irish brigade some years since, seems to have been ward to exercise the privilege of voting. This first parliament chosen after the union was also, in a great measure, the first in which the Roman catholics availed themselves of their recently acquired right of voting; for, as we have already observed, between the consternation of some, and the hostility of others, the parliament of 1797 was in most places chosen with little more than the formality of election. Towards the close of the year some appearance of uneasiness among the common people of some of the great and populous counties of the south, first suggested an opinion that the old enemy of the British government was not indifferent to the causes of discontent in Ireland; an attack on the city of Limerick was believed to have been intended, and numerous assemblies were held by night in that county. These proceedings did not resemble the accustomed tumult of the country, which although frequent, always were the result of local exasperations, always had local objects in view, and usually terminated in some sudden sally of passion, or some sacrifice to village resentment. The assemblage of men from remote parts, been somewhat in coincidence with the principle I mention; but that expedient failed, as it well might, for it did not go half way to the object. The brigades held out their religion to the people, to which they were not insensible, but which they do not value near so much as they do their leaders. The officers of the brigades were mostly Frenchmen by birth; they had lost their connection with the country; and any other foreigners might just with equal effect have been sent to recruit here. It was supposed that the Irish were so much devoted to the catholic religion, that they would be induced to adhere, from this motive alone, to the officers presented to them; much as has been said to give currency to this opinion, it is unquestionably founded on an erroneous presumption. "Another opinion equally erroneous, but inculcated by some persons, is, that this people cherishes any political design, or has been worked up to any permanent principle of disaffection. They know little either of their own or of foreign governments; their politics ascend no higher than to hate an orange man; I speak of the multitude who inhabit the open country; they are fond of conflicts and of arduous enterprises: our own government may have them if it chooses and will take the trouble; should our government omit this precaution, they are at the disposal of the enemy; and he will have the full use of them, either to keep the country in alarm, whilst he prepares for an attack, or to combine with him in case of invasion. "The project I would suggest is, to form regiments on the principle of the brigades, but officered, for the most part, by persons who have an ascertained influence with the common people. There is a great disposition to clanship among the common people, but from circumstances, which would be tedious to enumerate, this attachment has not generally ran in the line of property. "The Roman catholic religion was the establishment of the brigades. I do not know whether this would in the present instance be necessary; but it would be well to secure the persons engaging against the possibility of any interference with the impressions they are attached to, or against any factious partialities: this might be effected by placing officers of known moderation at the head of the several :egiments. Parents, relatives, and clergymen, would cooperate more readily, or at least not discountenance those who were disposed to engage, if they observed a provision made for respecting their prepossessions. "Animosity and revenge drew the Irish into the field in the late rebellion, but surely it was the mere spirit of adventure which led them to engage in the previous conspiracy." the adoption of leaders, and the projected attack upon a regular garrison, all combined to suggest to reflecting men, that the people were, on this occasion, excited by somewhat more than their ordinary and transitory tumultuousness. In fact, several persons, who had fled to France on the insurrection of 1798, returned to Ireland after the peace of Amiens. Various Frenchmen, under the pretence of private business, spread themselves over the country, and a mysterious commercial agent took his post in the metropolis. It was singular enough, that at the time M. Fauvelet corresponded with his government, as its agent in an accredited situation, no person in Dublin was aware that their city was honoured by the residence of such an officer; and so obscurely did this gentleman keep himself secluded, that, it having become necessary for the affairs of a French family to ascertain the death of a gentleman, who died in Ireland during the war, the proper documents were forwarded from France, with directions to have them authenticated before citizen Fauvelet, the commercial agent of France in Dublin. The party concerned was obliged to return for answer, that after diligent search he could not discover the residence of any such person, or the existence of any such officer. In fact, there were in Ireland materials too abundant for such intriguers to work upon; the many political discussions which had agitated that country, from the year 1778, had turned every mind from sober pursuits to political speculation. The lower people had been for a long time turbulent: they 3 are a race of men of acute feelings and fierce passions; they were, in many instances, abandoned to petty tyranny, to the hard hands and insolent manners of mean exactors; at length, the contagion of political interference extended itself to them; it ran with the rapidity of flame acting upon well-prepared combustibles; the opportunity was observed by some men who had talents sufficient to improve it, but who wanted sense or honesty to discern or to avoid the disasters which their insidious efforts must accumulate upon their unhappy fellow citizens. A young nobleman, of daring mind, of popular manners, and great family pretensions, was led by spleen, or by infatuation, to lend his cooperating aid. The propertied part of the country, acting with the grossest indiscretion, as the danger approached, ran for shelter into a petty religious combination, from which they occasionally issued to alienate their countrymen still more by indiscriminating intemperance. If the protestants of rank and property in Ireland, instead of forming a league of exclusion, of suspicion, and of severity against their catholic countrymen, had, on the first appearance of alarm, called for the aid of those of their own, or nearly their own rank, among them; if they had even accepted that aid where it was proffered, if the associated property of the land had called forth the middle orders, if all united had approached the common people with gentleness, with expostulation, with a cordial offer of pardon and protection, they would most probably have entirely subdued the disposition to insur rection, rection, they would not have left a partizan of France in the three provinces of Leinster, Munster, and Connaught; and the same steady aspect, the same sentiment of content, which intimidated our enemies when they made the attempt at Bantry bay, would have still continued to protect that island: Diis aliter visum. The gentry of Ireland are probably by this time aware of their error, for it has cost them dearly. These circumstances of seduction on the part of the revolutionists, and of overbearing harshness on the part of the leading men of the country, produced in the middle classes an indifference to the interests of their government, and in the populace an active disposition to destroy it. The spirit of the latter was crushed, but not subdued nor reclaimed; it was, indeed, rather the more exasperated by the monstrous severities which ensued either in repressing or avenging the rebellion of 1798. Whatever might be the wishes of government, its efforts to conciliate were not able to produce as yet an effect in any degree proportionate to the spirit of innovation. Of course, the emissaries of France had little more to do, in order to draw this people into action, than to collect them together, and give them a promise of assistance; and the ordinary bonds of union between the several classes were so effectually loosened, that these combinations, and all preparatory steps for commotion, might calmly be arranged with little or no danger of detection, and without the slightest probability of information being conveyed to the civil magistrate. In this rapid sketch of the affairs of Ireland it will have been observed, that at the close of 1802 they presented a far more gloomy aspect than at that of the preceding year; nor did they promise much amelioration; for it was now rumoured, and gained universal credit, that the tenure by which Mr. Addington held his high situation of first minister was, the exclusion of the Irish catholics from any further admission into the advantages of the constitution; a fact which, if believed, naturally alienated a considerable portion of the population of the country from the general interests of the empire, and gave but too good an opportunity to the malignant and implacable republicans to agitate and corrupt. Some reasoning principle it might have been necessary to apply to show the dangerous consequences which would probably result from the Russian convention and the treaty of Amiens; but to state at length the impolicy of proscribing a whole people, and that people too one of the main stays and supports of the grandeur, opulence, and security of the British empire, would be a waste of our readers' attention, and an insult to their understandings. Such were the sullen and unpromising aspect of affairs at the termination of the year. С НА Р. XVI. State of Europe at the Conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens-of Russia of the Emperor Alexander-Austria-Prussia-smaller Powers of Europe.-Affairs of France.-Separate Convention between that Power and Batavia, in Violation of the Spirit of the Treaty of Amiens.Tunis submits to France.-Dissatisfactions in Switzerland—and in the Republic of the Seven Isles.-Publication of the Concordat, and new Arrangements respecting Religion.-Catholic Religion restored in France -Ceremonies thereat.-Act of Amnesty in Favour of the Emigrants. -Reelection of the First Consul for Ten Years--and for Life-Success at St. Domingo.-Great Power and Dominion of Bonaparté. TH HE northern confederacy, being, by the formal renunciation of its principles, dissolved, and the definitive treaty signed at Amiens, it was supposed that every contentious question had been settled among the nations of Europe; that every interest had been balanced, as well as circumstances would admit, and that all the elements of war had been at rest, and were not likely soon to be again thrown into commotion. Great Britain had shown her sincere wish of peace by the vast sacrifices she had made to obtain it. Bonaparté, in the name of the French nation, also professed the most earnest desire for the preservation of the general tranquillity of Europe, and no other power seemed to have any wish or motive to disturb it. The politics of Russia, ever since the accession of the emperor Alexander to the throne, were completely pacific. The conduct and the character of this monarch appeared in every thing to differ from that of his father, the emperor Paul, whose natural under standing and judgment were weak, and who was at the same time tyrannical, capricious, and romantic; his reign was a series of contradictions, and all his public actions were marked with violence, absurdity, and injustice. When the immense force of the Russian empire was in his hands, the continent of Europe could never be secure from war; but his successor, the present emperor, seemed to carry every amiable and princely virtue to the throne: mild, generous, and pacific in his nature, he turned his mind principally to that wide field of improvement which his vast dominions and half civilized subjects opened to his view; his second care seemed to be the peace, tranquillity, and happiness of Europe. With respect to the Russian empire, all his acts bore the stamp of his character, and were solely directed to the liberty and happiness of his people, and the improvement of his dominions. With respect to the politics of Europe, his principles were those of a peace maker, |