household furniture, &c. of emigrants. Many small huts and sheds have been already built out of the wrecks of the suburbs, and the foundation walls are laid open in order to be built upon.' The French left 5000 sick in the hospitals of the place, and it was a great relief when the major part of them were embarked to be conveyed to their own country by sea, since their wretched condition would probably have given rise to a pestilential disease in the hot months.

The events which took place in Hanover will naturally be regarded with peculiar interest in this country, especially as they have terminated in a new regal title annexed to the British crown. It appears from a note published by the Hanoverian Cabinet on July 13, that the minds of the people had been disturbed by reports propagated of an intended cession or exchange of the States of that Electorate by the house of Guelph; and it is the purpose of this notification to declare, that there is no foundation whatever for such an apprehension. All doubts that might remain on this subject were dispelled by a note presented on October 12, by Count Munster, the Hanoverian minister of state, to the Austrian and other ministers, assembled at Vienna. Its purpose was to convey the declaration of the Prince Regent of Great Britain and Hanover concerning the title which he had thought it necessary to substitute for that of Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. This title, it was observed, had been rendered unsuitable to present circumstances, by the 6th Article of the Peace of Paris, by which it was agreed, "that the States of Germany should

remain independent, and joined in a federal union." In consequence, several of the powers concurring in the treaty had invited the Prince Regent to renounce that title, and in its stead assuine that of King, by which he would facilitate many of the arrangements which the future welfare of Germany seemed to require; and these considerations alone had induced him to consent. The declaration proceeded to observe, that the House of Brunswick Luneburgh being one of the most ancient and illustrious in Europe, and all the ancient Electors, and the House of Wurtemburg, having erected their states into kingdoms, the Prince Regent could not derogate from the rank which Hanover held before the subversion of the German Empire; and that he had, therefore, resolved to erect his provinces, forming the country of Hanover, into a Kingdom, and to assume, for his Sovereign, the title of King of Hanover. It cannot be doubted that before such a declaration was made, the concurrence of the powers, to whose ministers it was addressed, had been fully ascertained; hence we are told in an article from Vienna, that all the plenipotentiaries recognised the new dignity of the British Sovereign. A proclamation was afterwards issued by the Prince Regent, informing all the Hanoverian subjects of this change, and its motives.

A proclamation was published in the same month at Hanover, from the Prince Regent, dated August 12th, in which, after adverting to the difficulties that had occured in forming an uniform plan of taxation and finance, from the separation of the states of the dif

ferent

ferent provinces, it is decreed, that henceforth all the general affairs of the country which may be brought under discussion with the states, conformably with the subsisting constitution, shall be submitted to an assembly of the states of all the provinces, which shall adopt a general resolution on such subjects. To effect this purpose, it is farther decreed, that for the present, the states of all the provinces composing the electorate shall form themselves, by means of representatives,into a general diet, to assemble at Hanover, on December 15, furnished with full powers on the part of their constituents.

On the day appointed, the Diet was opened with a solemnity proper for the occasion. The Duke of Cambridge, provided with full authority from the Prince Regent to represent the regal dignity, repaired in state to the place of assembly, and delivered a speech, in which he gave a summary view of the circumstances which led to the change in the Hanoverian Constitution, and pointed out the duties incumbent on a body which was thenceforth to be the general representative of the new kingdom, The whole assembly then adjourned to the church of the palace, where divine service was perforined, after which, the deputies, repairing to their hall, made choice of Count Schulenburg Wolfsburg for their president. On the following day his Royal Highness attended at the hall, where he was addressed in a speech by the President, to which he made a suitable reply.The Duke concluded as follows: "If the difficult times require great sacrifices in the increase of the revenues, consider that the So

vereign demands nothing for himself; that we ask only what the country requires. If some privileges must be sacrificed to form a better internal order, remember that the Prince Regent gives up rights which others consider as an essential part of the royal dignity, by assembling you here. Be to him here, what the Parliament is in the sister-kingdom, Great Britain, the high council of the nation."

It was not in Hanover only that the example was given of the adoption of a representative government in Germany. In the month of October, Frederic Augustus, Duke of Nassau, and Frederic William, Sovereign Prince of Nassau, issued a constitutional charter founded upon the most liberal principles. It assured the free exercise of religious worship. suppressed corvées, gave admission to the first offices of state without any preference of rank or birth, established an independent magistracy, and renounced the right of arbitrarily discharging the public functionaries, It appointed a States-General of the Duchy, composed of two separate houses, that of Nobles and that of Deputies, the formation of which, and their powers and privileges, with the whole act of legislation, were almost exactly copied from the British Parliament. Although this was an experiment on a small scale, it may be regarded as paving the way to important results.

The leading powers of Germany have been too much engaged with the weighty concerns of the Congress at Vienna, to occupy themselves considerably with arrangements in their own dominions; nor

perhaps

perhaps from them is to be expected any great forwardness to propose alterations which would tend to limit their authority In the present dubious and unsettled state of politics, the maintenance of a powerful military force would naturally appear the most important object to the Sovereigns whose respective influence is to regulate the final decision.Prussia, as the least considerable of these powers, in respect to territory, has thought it necessary to pay particular attention to this point; and in the month of September an ordinance was published at Berlin, by which all the old laws for the completing of the military establishment were abolished, and a number of articles were decreed for the regulation of the armed force of the country, under the three heads of the permanent army, the landwehr of the first and second requisition, and the landsturm.It begins with the declaration, that every individual born a Prussian subject, and having completed his 20th year, is bound to defend his country; an obligation that cannot justly be regarded as a hardship, if the call to arms be for the purpose of real defence, and not of aggrandisement. In order to obviate the complaint made against the French conscription, that it deranged all the plans for the education of youth, it is here provided that the age for entering the military service shall be twenty years complete; though youths of seventeen offering themselves shall be accepted, if qualified by their physical powers.

It was perhaps less to have been expected that at the present juncture religion should have been another matter for the regulation of the Prussian Government. The

minister for the home department published at Berlin a notification relative to the state of public wor ship, which began by regretting the want of sufficient awfulness and solemnity in the ceremonial of Protestant worship, in which the sermon is the chief object of re gard, the liturgic part being defective, and in great measure left to the discretion of the minister.It was then said that many of the clergy of Berlin and Brandenburg had applied to the King on the subject, whose views coinciding with their's, it was his Majesty's will that a select committee of the clergy should examine the liturgies and religious ceremonies of the foreign Protestant Churches, in order to draw up from them the best form for divine service. Several clergymen were then nominated to compose this committee, which was to receive contributions and proposals from Divines of both the Protestant persuasions (Lutheran and Calvinist), and pay them proper attention. It remains to be seen whether this attempt to produce uniformity in the ritual of religion will be attended with better success than so many others which have been made in different ages and countries.

The intelligence from the Austrian Court during the latter half of the year has chiefly consisted in relations of the festivities and splendors attending the presence of so many Sovereigns assembled at the Con gress, the magnificence displayed at which rather corresponds with the idea of a state of long peace and prosperity, than of the close of a most ruinous war, and dilapidated finances. The Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia made their

solemn

solemn entry into Vienna on the 25th of September, having been met at some distance by the Emperor of Austria, accompanied by all the Archdukes, and followed by his Generals and Courtiers in all the pomp of military and courtly parade. The preparations made for the accommodation and entertainment of the Sovereigns, were in the highest style of costly grandeur. When business came to be discussed among the ministers of the several powers, it was found that so much previous labour was requisite to bring the questions for determination to a due state of maturity, that a declaration was issued for adjourning the formal opening of the Congress to November 1st. After this period had arrived, every political pen in Germany seems to have been employed in conjectures and pretended discoveries relative to the great affairs under consideration, and the intentions of the leading potentates, and nothing could be more fluctuating and contradictory than the intelligence communicated under the article Vienna, in the public papers. The particulars under discussion by the Congress were of course kept secret; but it was well known that the future condition of Saxony and Poland occupied a large share of its attention. The fate of Saxony, indeed, appears to have been fully settled by two of the powers, Russia and Prussia, before the Congress commenced its sittings. Prince Repnin, the Russian Governor of Dresden, sent, on November 3, a notification to the Saxon authorities, acquainting them, that by a letter from the minister of state, Baron de Stein, he had been informed of a convention concluded

at Vienna, on Sept. 28, in virtue of which, the Emperor of Russia, in concert with Austria and England, was to put into the hands of the King of Prussia the administration of the kingdom of Saxony; and that he had in consequence received orders to consign the government of that country to per.. sons provided with proper powers by his Prussian Majesty, "in order thus to operate the union of Saxony with Prussia, which will soon take place in a manner more solemn and formal." The Prince proceeds to say, that King Frede ric William, in quality of future Sovereign of the country, has declared that it is not his intention to incorporate Saxony to his estates as a province, but to unite it to Prussia under the title of the Kingdom of Saxony, to give it the advantages which the constitution of Germany shall secure to those kingdoms which make a part of the Prussian monarchy, and to change nothing in its present constitution; and further, that the Emperor Alexander has testified the private satisfaction which that declaration has caused him. Prince Repnin announced the same determination in the farewell speech which he delivered at Dresden on Nov. 8, when he formally resigned his authority to the Prussian- civil and military governors, at which time the Russian troops had orders to evacuate Saxony, and give place to the Prussian. We since know, however, that although the Courts of Austria and Great Britain agreed to the provisional occupation of that country by Prussia, they considered its final possession as still a subject of discussion in the Congress, and that the question re

"

mained for a long time undecided. The unfortunate King of Saxony, immediately after he had learned this transfer of the occupation of his country, published a declaration expressing his lively feelings of grief" at the event, asserting his inviolable right to be reinstated in his royal authority, and positively affirming that he would never consent to the cession of the states inherited from his ancestors, or accept any indemnity or equivalent that might be offered to him.

Of the other public events in Europe during this year, we find pone that is of importance to record, unless an occurrence on the barbarous confines of Turkey be of that description. It was mentioned, in the history of 1812, that in the treaty of Peace between the Russian and Ottoman Courts, it was agreed on the part of the latter, that the revolted Servians should receive a full amnesty, and that the Turkish fortresses erected in their country should be demolished, and

the garrisons withdrawn. These conditions, it is said, were violated. The most arbitrary and oppressive extortions were practised on the Servians, whose patience being exhausted, they resisted some of these exactions by force of arms. A rigorous order for disarming all the Christians was then issued, which was eluded by the concealment of arms; and the Turkish spahis and beys being let loose upon the people, such severities ensued, that a partial rebellion was the result. The ringleaders were seized, many of them were put to death, and with true Turkish cruelty, forty-two Servians were exhibited impaled at Belgrade on October 29 and 30. The Servians retaliated early in November by massacring all the Turks who fell in their way, and plundering their property. The pashaw then obtained a reinforcement of 5000. men from Bosnia, and a sanguinary war was raging in that quarter at the close of the year,

CHAP