THIS power had set up most exorbitant pretensions to the exclusive navigation of that part of the Pacific ocean which is bordered by so much of the north-west coast of America, as Russia, without the slightest title, as far as the greater part of it is concerned, claims an exclusive dominion over; and had issued ukases, denouncing confiscation and other penalties, against all foreign vessels which might be found trading, or fishing, within that part of the Pacific so demarcated. These pretensions of Russia were resisted by Great Britain and the United States of America, neither of which, it might have been supposed, would submit to them. Mr Stratford Canping, Minister at St Petersburgh, entered a strong remonstrance against the exclusive right of navigation claimed by Russia; and, after a long negotiation, a mutual convention was entered into by Great Britain and Russia, regarding the commerce and fisheries of the Pacific, every way satisfactory to the former power.

On 16th April, the Emperor Alexander arrived at Warsaw, to be present at the opening of the Polish Diet, the sittings of which had been suspended nearly four years. He had previously, by an ukase given from Czarskojeselo,

after severely lecturing the members of former Diets, upon their mischievous egotism and factious opposition, which were calculated to sow disunion among his subjects, interdicted the publicity of the Diet's debates.

On 13th May the Diet was opened with a speech by his Imperial Majesty, in which he observed, with reference to his ukase of 13th February, that it had become necessary for him to exercise an influence over the proceedings and deliberations of the Diet. He expressed his satisfaction with the general aspect of the affairs of the kingdom; announced the laws which would be submitted to their consideration, and exhorted them, in a tone truly imperial, to observe calmness in their deliberations.

Among other important laws passed by the Diet, was one for establishing a system of credit to support rural economy; another for modifying the penal laws, and a third for preparing a new civil code for the kingdom. These were adopted by a great majority of the Diet; and, on their being presented to the Emperor and King, he promised to take them into his consideration; and on the 13th June, the Diet was closed by a speech from his Majesty.

He returned to St Petersburgh on 25th June, and without making any stay, he proceeded, with his characteristic activity, to inspect the military colonies which he had caused to be founded; and expressed to General Count Aratscheieff, who was intrust ed with their superintendence, his satisfaction with the success which had hitherto attended them.

After dispatching several affairs of state, his Majesty, dissatisfied with the delay observed by the Turks in performing their often repeated promises of evacuating Moldavia and Wallachia, determined to visit the southern provinces of his empire, and by personal inspection, to convince himself of the spirit which animated the army upon the Pruth. On 6th October, accompanied by a splendid suite, he arrived at Taganrog, a pleasant town, situate at the entrance of the sea of Azoff, near to the embouchure of the Don and Wolga, and which had its origin in a fortress, erected before the conquest of the Crimea, to defend the country against the incursions of the Turks and Tartars. Here he was received by the reigning Empress, who had preceded him, and entered the town amidst the rejoicings of the inhabitants.

Having returned to Novo Tzcherskask, where he lodged, in the country house of the famous Count Platoff, the Emperor, delighted with the climate, was induced to prolong his stay there for a few days, when he again retraced his steps to Taganrog, which he reached on the 27th October. So captivated was he with the appearance of that place, and his reception by the inhabitants, that he issued an ukase, directing a tenth part of all the duties received there, not exceeding one million annually, to be retained for the improvement of the port, and the erection of public buildings. On 5th November he

visited the town of Sympheropol, which was illuminated in honour of his arrival. Next day, leaving his carriage at Sympheropol, he proceeded on horseback to the Tartar village of Aluschta, inspecting on his way every remarkable spot. On the 9th he left the south coast of the Crimea, and passed through the defile called the Ladder, joined his carriages at the village of Boidari, and arrived in the evening at Sebastopol, where he was waited upon by vice-Admiral Greig, Commander-in-Chief of the fleet in the Black Sea.

He

The beauties of the vicinity of Sebastopol made such a lively impression upon him, that to his attendants he said, "Should I one day retire from the cares of government, I should wish to pass my old age on this spot." His pleasing anticipations of an old age, at the moment he spoke, were about to be converted into the dismal assurance of a speedy death. With the serene and devout feelings of old age, which his anticipations had inspired, he repaired to a monastery, where, in private contemplation, he remained above an hour. On his return, he complained of indisposition and chilliness-the incipient symptoms of an intermittent fever. was removed to Taganrog, where his Empress awaited him. No solicitations could induce him to take medicine for a fortnight. At the end of that period he was made sensible of his danger; and by the persuasions of his family, and the Archimandrite, he consented to submit to the prescriptions of his physician, Sir James Wylie; but to such a height had the fever reached, that human skill, with all its means and appliances, were ineffectual in subduing it. The last words he uttered were," Ah, le beau jour!" as he observed the glancing of the sun's rays in his chamber. This was about eleven o'clock in the fore

noon of the 12th December; and saying so, he expired in the arms of his Empress, who, with that resolution which Nature has endowed females with, as with an instinct, on such appalling emergencies, closed her husband's eyes and mouth, and crossed his arms over his breast; after performing which pious duty, she yielded to the violence of her grief, which she could no longer restrain, and suddenly fainted!

The profound grief on the occasion of her Imperial Majesty-a grief which wasted her form, and consigned her to the tomb within six months afterwards-is affectingly revealed in the following letter by her to the Empress-mother, the very imaginativeness of which, considering the height, and depth, and fervour, of woman's affections, gives it claims even to critical admiration :

"Our angel is gone to Heaven, and I-Ilinger still on earth. Who would have thought, that I, in my weak state of health, could ever have survived him! Do not you abandon me, dear mother, for I am desolately alone in the world.

"Our dear deceased has resumed his looks of benevolence; his smile proves to me that he is happy, and that he gazes on brighter objects than exist here below. My only consola tion under this irreparable loss is, that I shall not survive him.--I hope soon to be reunited to him."

Thus died Alexander, in the 44th year of his age, to the regret of his family and his subjects. The latter events of his reign, which, speaking humanly, we would call fortunate, so far as he was concerned, rather than his own personal character, have in vested his memory with a temporary grandeur. He had properties, both negative and positive, which could not fail to win the affections of his subjects; but it occurs to us, that the key

stone of his character was egotism-a love, nay, an avariciousness of the esteem of others, which, when it is not the accompaniment of virtue, (as it certainly is not always) is often at least the prolific parent of good ac tions. This egotism of his led to many foolish theatrical displays of philan thropy, consisting of professions; but, having other wants than that of the world's admiration to satisfy, it was constantly dragging him into measures which belied his professions. We may take for example, the sentiments he expressed upon the first capture of the city of Paris: They breathed a liberalism equally injudicious and extravagant, (considering the times,) and most preposterous, as proceeding from the mouth of an Autocrat. He then was almost a second Anacharsis Clootz, impelled, we believe, to be so by his love of vulgar admiration. But what ensued? The moment he found or rather suspected (for selfishness is ever wakefully and unreasonably sus picious) that the progress of liberal opinions might endanger his own absolutism, he became all at once their most systematic and determined ene my-the grand architect of the Holy Alliance; but, most characteristically, with a regard to his own reputation, did he try to conceal his enmity to freedom under the cloak of religion. No. thing more disgusted us, when he was in England, than his condescending to court even the sect of Quakersrespectable sect, certainly; but not of such consequence as to command the notice of a great monarch, who had not been imbued with their doc trines. Egotism, when it has a large stage, must, of necessity, display many contradictions; but to detail those of Alexander, after having noticed that he was one year the grand patron of liberal principles, another the founder of the Holy. Alliance, may be very superfluous. Yet, it may not be amiss

to observe, that having, when" in the vein," given a free constitution to 1 his kingdom of Poland, he autocratically punished those members of the Polish Diet who opposed his views, thereby annihilating the freedom of debate; and that he, after all his evangelical professions, and his patronage bestowed upon Bible Socie, ties, of a sudden expelled every missionary from his dominions.

The art and duplicity of Alexander must have been great, indeed, since they effectually concealed his intense egotism from the eyes of Europe. In the midst, and at the end of victories, he ever contrived to appear moderate; and it was fortunate for the transient reputation he enjoyed, that the conservative nature of the last war he was engaged in, put to rest, for the time, all suspicion of his real character;-equally fortunate for that reputation was it, that his other wars were noiseless, and their results overlooked. But there is not a passage of his life can be pointed to, where he ever made a concession which political necessity did not extort from him, or abandoned a conquest which he could retain. So deluded at one time was the public mind of Europe with regard to him, that it was not till after his death it came to be considered, that he had made more additions to his empire by conquest and treaty, than any the most ambitious of his predecessors, having incorporated with it, Finland, Bessarabia, the Persian provinces as far as the Araxes, Bialystock, and the kingdom of Poland.

It is well known that Alexander was compelled into that war which ended so fatally to Buonaparte; and hat he would have avoided it by any oncession short of those which were lemanded of him-to have made which, in the then temper of the nation, would, in all probability, have cost him his life. He seemed to la

bour under an extraordinary prestige regarding the talents of the despot whom he had to oppose, which certainly were of such a transcendant grade as to extort the homage of the most masculine minds;-but Alexander's estimation of them amounted to a veneration, or rather dread, which was almost childish. Too much praise cannot be awarded to the Russians for the obstinate courage with which, and the cost of the sacrifices at which, they defended their country; but it may fairly be questioned, whether, had he not been sustained by that species of desperation which fear begets, as much as by the enthusiasm of his people-and had there been no personal danger to himself in an inglorious compromise, the mind of Alexander would not have quailed under the disasters which marked the commencement of the campaign. However, it must be allowed that he followed up his successes with great activity and spirit; and the persevering exertions he afterwards made beyond his own territory, to pull down the despotism which had so long overshadowed Europe, entitles him to the gratitude of its nations.

Alexander was not without many amiable qualities, such especially as are chiefly estimable in a prince. He was courteous and affable in his deportment; in his temper mild and placable; and in his habits, active and temperate. His education had raised his mind above the baneful prejudices which haunt the courts of absolute sovereigns; and gave to him sympa thies in the welfare of the humblest of his subjects. He laboured with as much zeal as was consistent with his own safety, to put an end to the con dition of villainage throughout his do minions; and by emancipating the crown serfs, set a generous example to his nobility. He was a warm friend to every improvement, especially in the

department of agriculture; and exert ed himself with more anxiety than judgment, to extend manufactures within his dominions. With all his terrors of jacobinism, he continued to the last a great promoter of general education; but subjected it, as well as the press and foreign journals, to a rigid censorship.

Petersburgh had been agitated with conflicting accounts, which arrived daily, of the Emperor's convalescence, and of his disorder having become more decidedly dangerous. On the 9th December, the melancholy intelligence was received of his death, while the Empress-mother was attending Te Deum, which was celebrated in consequence of favourable accounts of his Majesty's health, which had been received the previous evening. The Archduke Nicholas, who first received the news, caused divine service to be stopped, and commissioned the Archimandrite to announce to her Majesty, with the crucifix in his hand, the loss with which Heaven had afflicted her. Before describing the events immediately consequent upon Alexander's death,-events which perplexed and astounded all Europe, it is necessary, to a proper understanding of them, first to notice the extraordinary position which Russia then stood in, both with regard to the succession to the vacant throne, and to the dispositions of the soldiery.

It was scarcely to have been imagined, that the troops, which had followed Napoleon's bloody footsteps through Germany, and in France had formed part of the Army of Occupation, would return to Russia with precisely the same sentiments with which they had left it. The stirring events of the times must necessarily have led them to reflect deeply upon the principles of government, and upon the institutions which impede the prosperity, and those which conduce to the

greatness and stability of states. In Germany, they observed in full action, not that instinctive patriotism, (such as they had been accustomed to) which consists in a mere attachment to soil, but that exalted, generous, and comprehensive love of country, which desires for it the happiness and honourable eminence to be derived only from national independence and political freedom; and they beheld the mighty wonders which that spirit accomplished. There was something extremely equalizing in the condition of Germany at that period. The usual relations between the governors and governed had been violently disturbed, the latter having been virtually released from the ties which bound them to the state, and left to act from the impulses of their own feelings. The person of the sovereign was of little more value than that of the meanest of his subjects who could wield a weapon; had he been lost to his people, the objects for which they fought still survived; and there remained the same principles and spirit to animate them. It was impossible that the Russian officers could fail to catch a portion of the spirit which everywhere around them displayed itself so imposingly; and, in the congenial clime of France, they had leisure to reduce the sentiments they had imbibed into theory and system.

It appears that so early as 1817, there had been organized, chiefly in the army, secret associations, modelled upon the plan of the German Tugenbund, having in view the regeneration of the empire by conferring upon it free institutions-a most absurd and chimerical object, seeing that in Russia there were not the materials of which a free government must be formed. The conspirators, among whom were officers who belonged to the first families of the empire, did not divulge to their inferior associates the full ex