a shroud, and stifling even the supreme legislative body in its folds. The accounts received from Paris as we write these lines announce three important steps in this march of tyranny: first, that the Assembly has voted (529 to 140) that it will proceed to discuss and pass the Republican Constitution under the state of siege-a resolution perhaps defensible on the ground that if not voted under violence, a republican constitution would never be voted at all; secondly, they have voted (543 to 180) that they will not submit the new constitution to the ratification of the people-a sanction, or at least a form, from which Buonaparte did not venture to absolve any of his Constitutions; and thirdly, they have resolved (586 to 156) that they will not limit, as their original convocation supposed, their own existence to the voting the Constitution, but will continue in power till they shall have perfected what they call the Organic Laws supplementary to the Constitution. What they may choose to call Organic Laws, and consequently what duration they may thus attempt to give to their own authority, we cannot venture to guess; but Malvina, on whose sagacity we have much reliance, leads us to suppose that the 25 francs a-day may have had a considerable influence on that vote, and will ensure to the organic laws a very deliberate discussion. However that may be, it is evident that this proceeding is in principle the same illegal and unconstitutional usurpation by which the Convention twice over suspended the Constitution which it had made, and protracted by its own ipse dixit its infamous existence. But whatever the Dictator and his half-trembling half-mutinous Assembly at 25 francs a-head may for the moment enforce, we have no doubt that if ever they vote a Civil Constitution- -no matter what-and can subtract themselves from the impending Sword of DamoclesCavaignac, there will be new disorders, with-perhaps the same results that we have already seen-an alternation of anarchy and despotism; till at last-de guerre lasse-the Nation shall resume the good sense, courage, and self-respect which it seems to have lost in February, and which, whenever they shall return, will lead them to seek in the only permanent principle which we can imagine-a legitimate and hereditary monarchy-a refuge from a state so abject, so disgraceful to a great people, as to be obliged to invite the despotism of a Cavaignac to save them from the anarchy of a Louis Blanc. Such, we are satisfied, must be-after more or less intermediate delay, more or less national degradation, more or less material and personal suffering-the ultimate result. The fate of this ridiculous Republic, which even the Jérome Paturots laugh at, and in which nobody-no, not one rational man in France seriously believes-its fate, we say, is certain, though

its agony may be protracted. Sooner or later a great nation. must throw off the vile trammels which a couple of dozen of low agitators were allowed by a strange concurrence of circumstances to impose upon her.

The Report of the Enquête, or inquiry into the attentat of the 15th of May, cannot fail, we think, to have a great, lasting, and beneficial effect on the public mind. It lets us incidentally into a portion-a small indeed but an important one-of the secret history of the February Revolution, and of the character and motives of some of the principal actors in that conspiracy. Not only does it confirm in a remarkable degree all the facts, and even the conjectures, of the articles in our two last numbers on the Revolution-but it reveals a degree of folly, cowardice, treachery, and in short of every species of political absurdity and turpitude which has surprised even us-put the Revolutionists to what looks like shame and made the rest of France still more disgusted with a Republic nursed in so filthy a cradle by such despicable fosterers. It was already certain that the Revolution was anything but popular in the country, or even in Paris; but it is every day becoming more apparent that a vast majority of all interests regret the calamitous experiment-that there is a strong and increasing inclination to retrace-if they only knew how-all the steps of the Revolution, and after six months' experience of almost every form of despotism

To fly from petty tyrants to the throne.

By what combination of circumstances this result is to be brought about after two such convulsions as those of 1830 and 1848, it would be idle at present to speculate. We can only repeat our confirmed opinion that nothing else can give stability to Government in France, and that it is therefore inevitable.

As we are writing these lines we have received a letter, of which the following is an extract, from an intelligent English gentleman in Paris. It gives the latest account we have seen of the real state of that city:

'I dare say my impressions of Paris, which I left this morning after a stay there of nearly three weeks, may be not unacceptable. Paris, though more interesting than ever, and deriving a certain charm from a slight sense of insecurity, is very triste; the hotels, cafés, and pensions are absolutely deserted; though the streets are as crowded as ever, the smart equipages have disappeared, and all the forms of female beauty that used to display so many nuances of taste and elegance are replaced by a tribe of unwashed idlers en blouse. We now see, and the Parisians are beginning to feel, for how much of her gay appearance Paris was indebted to the English. As regards the personal

safety

safety of foreigners, the place is really as safe as ever; indeed, as long as there is a Government, and the état de siége is maintained, there is no great likelihood of any disturbance.

The state of politics is very remarkable, chiefly so from the general absence of sincerity in public men; there are, in truth, only two opinions now in France, one of which is never even mentioned in public, and the other is represented in the National Assembly by only a feeble minority of avowed supporters. The people that one meets with, down to the cab-drivers, are, without a single exception, monarchical, and take no pains to conceal their opinions, which I should say are four-fifths for Henry V., the remaining one-fifth being about equally divided between Louis-Napoleon and the Prince de Joinville; but there is a surging tide of Red Republicans whom the traveller never sees, though he sometimes hears the noise of the breakers.

'The latter certainly took the proper course for the success of their candidates at the late election for the Seine, by concentrating all their votes on three names, whilst the other party divided themselves amongst some twenty-seven. The tactic is to distribute far and wide, sometimes literally rapidis ludibria ventis, polling-papers, with the name of the particular candidate to be supported, coupled in every variety of combinations with the names of the other candidates; e. g. Louis Napoleon's friends circulated papers in which his name was joined with every possible combination of two names of substantial candidates; and so on as regards the other candidates. Emile de Girardin and young Delessert in their own persons, and the Constitutionnel and Journal des Débats by their incomprehensible support of one Adam, a Government candidate, spoiled the game of two of the Conservative candidates, Roger du Nord and Maréchal Bugeaud.

'The latter was very warmly supported for the very reason that I should have supposed the least likely to have produced such an effectI mean the urgency with which he pressed Louis-Philippe to let him put down the insurrection of February, which he undertook to do in four hours at the cost of 10,000 lives of the émeutiers. The shopkeepers accuse the King as having been "a bête, never sufficiently to be blamed and even despised for his ill-timed clemency towards a canaille that the interests of Europe required to be swept away." Non meus hic sermo, but that of respectable tradesmen in different parts. They always add that next to the King they have nobody to blame but themselves, i. e. the National Guard. One of my friends had his house converted en ambulance for the wounded of both parties, so that neither party fired upon it-rather a pleasing trait;-but he says that there is no conceivable crime of which his own eyes did not witness the perpetration. Talk of political hatred! there is nothing that the Bourgeoisie would hail with so much delight as the instantaneous annihilation of the Red Republicans, who, doubtless, waste no unrequited love on the Bourgeoisie. The conversation at table having turned one day on the disturbed state of other nations, the lady of the house suddenly exclaimed with undissembled

bitterness,

bitterness, "And it is these accursed French that have caused all this -these accursed French!" There is a sortie for a Frenchwoman! To be sure, the reliquiæ Danaüm, the scanty wrecks of a fortune saved out of the first Revolution, have been entirely swept away by the second. And so it is with all of them.

'Personal adventures an unobtrusive foreigner does not fall in with: to be sure, I have shaken hands with a chimpanzee, and heard both Lamartine and Ledru-Rollin in the National Assembly; the latter is at present in better odour than the former, chiefly on account of his greater energy. They are both of them much disliked by the respectable party. Lamartine is not an agreeable speaker to listen to: he runs on in a monotonous chant, broken by long theatrical ahs! The speech which I heard, though of considerable length, raised only three cheers even from the gauche, and sent the President, Thiers, and Napoleon Fitz-Jérome to sleep.

'I have seen Cavaignac only at too great a distance to distinguish him from Lamoricière, both being mounted on white horses, at a grand review of 80,000 men. When I first arrived he was in high favour, but he is now sneered at by the Bourgeoisie as a "républicain forcené." In fact, we were very near a counter-revolution on Saturday [16th Sept.], and still nearer an émeute on Sunday, the moderate temper displayed by the Assembly on Saturday having caused Cavaignac to be on the very point of resigning: this would have been an appeal on his part to the Red Republicans; but, instead of that, he was prevailed upon to retain his post, and the incipient masses were dispersed without much noise.

'The moderate Republicans, even if the present Government is to be classed with them, are insignificant in point of numbers; they are, however, powerful in respect of their position. One of the most characteristic features of the times is the manner in which everybody courts the ouvriers; the mode in which candidates are nominated is by the posting of bills commencing "Nommons"-with the name of the candidate and a statement of his pretensions; then the signatures of the parties making the nominations: at the elections which have just taken place, these were almost universally ouvriers. It is generally expected that there will be another crisis before December is passed; my impression is, that the Henriquinquistes will not succeed, that the constitution will be as moderately republican as one which rests on universal suffrage and vote by ballot can be, but that the Red Republicans will have it all their own way at the second election, if not at the first.'

We have heard a curious and we believe authentic anecdote connected with the grand review mentioned in this letter. It was obvious to all the world that General Cavaignac had been very coldly received-particularly by the National Guard, of which four or five legions were especially sullen. After the review was over, Cavaignac complained sharply to General Changarnier

(commander

(commander in chief of the National Guard) of the apathy of those legions which he enumerated, and added, that he would have them to know, that if they continued to show such disaffection he would mitrailler them without hesitation. Changarnier, piqued at this, replied, that, if he believed that Cavaignac was serious, he would that instant resign his command, and state publicly why he did so. Both the Generals were warm, when Lamoricière, the Minister of War, interposed, and said 'It was idle to quarrel about such a phrase; for I tell you,' said he, turning to Cavaignac, 'there is not a regiment in the army that would obey your order to fire on the National Guard.' We cannot think that Cavaignac-of such a temper, and happy and proud of such a father' as it is his misfortune to have had, and his folly to boast of-is likely to have a long reign.

As for Henry V., we quite agree with our friend that the time for him is not yet come, though his cause seems to advance more rapidly than we expected. We venture to conclude this topic with a bon mot of no trivial import attributed to Alexander Dumas. Some one was discussing-as everybody seems to be doing-the prospects of Henry V. Ah!' he said, it is not Henri Cinque we want, but Henri-Quatre-the Second.'

ART. IX.-Italy in the Nineteenth Century, contrasted with its past Condition. By James Whiteside, Esq., Q.C. London. 3 vols. 8vo. 1848.

FEW countries are so often visited as Italy-none so frequently described. All who can command a short period of leisure have spent part of a winter at Rome and of a spring at Naples ;— a large proportion of this host of visitors keep note-books and journals and not a few have afterwards yielded to the persuasion of friends and have published them. German and French tourists have contributed their share to the general information. We have some learned and some lively descriptions; we have also many flippant and many insipid volumes on the same attractive subject; we have the valuable compilations of Mr. Murray, and the brilliant remarks' of the fastidious Forsyth. Yet no country so much visited is so little known. There is scarcely a town through which the traveller hurries in his eagerness to reach the principal points of attraction, that does not boast objects of interest and beauty which would form the chief ornaments of an ultra-montane capital; and there are various districts possessing equal claims to notice which lie out of the ordinary road and

are