liberty in that country, and the restoration of the Court of Inquisition, and all the other supports of civil and ecclesiastical despotism. They will also derive no favourable augury from the zeal which the head of the Roman-catholic religion, on his resumption of the seat of authority, has displayed for the re-establishment of every institution tending to enslave the mind, and particularly from the revival of an order rendered odious to all the liberal of their own communion, by their servile devotion to the pontifical court, and their dark and subtle policy.
On the whole, however, the Philanthropist will gratefully record the year 1814, as the era of a respite from those evils, with which so large a portion of the civilized world has so long been afflicted; and if the clouds are not yet dispersed, and a boding mind may alarm itself with presages of new tempests, something is gained to the cause of humanity by a quiet interval. This country has an additional cause of rejoicing, in the restoration of amity with a people destined, it may be hoped, to be durably connected with it by all the ties of origin, kindred, and mutual interest. The peace with the United States of America was peculiarly welcome, as it came, somewhat unexpectedly, at the conclusion of a year of more extended and destructive warfare than had hitherto been witnessed in this unhappy quarrel. It had, indeed, become evident that the continuance of hostilities could have no other consequence than the aggravation of reciprocal loss.
The return of peace has hitherto been more efficacious in reviving the spirits, than in alleviating the burdens, of the inhabitants of these islands. The latter effect was indeed scarcely to be expected whilst the accounts of a war expensive beyond all former precedent remained unliquidated, and the yet unsettled state of affairs rendered the maintenance of a large force on the continent a necessary measure