pitancy; general Friaut fell by his side, and his own horse was killed. He was opposed by the duke of Wellington in person, with such resolution that the assailing columns turned and fled in disorder. At this time, when the thickening canuonade on the French right, and the appearance of troops emerging from the woods announced that the Prussians were coming up in full force, the British army was ordered to advance, the centre being formed in line, and the battalions on the flanks in squares, for their security. The duke himself led them on, and in every point the success was most decisive. The enemy, exhausted by their own repeated and unsuccessful attacks, scarcely waited the charge; their first line was thrown back upon, and mingled with the second; all order was abandoned; the panic spread rapidly; and the whole army, pressed by the British in front, and by the Prussians on the right and in the rear, fled in irretrievable confusion.

Blucher, on proceeding to join the duke of Wellington, left one division of his army at Wavre, under general Thielman, to oppose marshal Grouchy, before whom he gradually fell back; and, whilst Buonaparte was vainly encouraging his army with the hope of being succoured by the arrival of the marshal, that officer, who appears not to have been aware of the movements on his left, and that the fate of his master would be decided at Waterloo, was advancing on the road to Brussels, exulting in his unprofitable success. It was about half-past seven, at which time it was evident that Buonaparte's attack upon the British had failed, that the duke of Wellington took that great and decisive step which crowned his glory and saved Europe. The Prussians made their attack shortly after, under the most favourable circumstances; and, even if the British army had not repulsed the enemy, Blucher's movement would have been decisive. If the French had succeeded in their efforts against the duke of Wellington, it would have prevented them from profiting by the success; but, being made at the critical moment of their defeat, it rendered the victory complete. A total rout cannot be more fully acknowledged than in Buonaparte's own account." A complete panic," he says, "spread through the whole field of battle; the men threw themselves in the greatest disorder on the line of communication; soldiers, cannoneers, caissons, all pressed to this point; the old guard, which was in reserve, was infected, and was itself hurried along. In an instant the whole army was nothing but a mass of confusion; all the soldiers of small arms were mixed pell mell, and it was utterly impossible to rally a single corps. The enemy, who perceived this astonishing confusion, immediately attacked with their cavalry, and increased the disorder; and such was the confusion, owing to night coming on, that it was impossible to rally the troops and point out to them their error."

Buonaparte's station during the battle had been upon the Charleroi road, at the hamlet of La Belle Alliance; near which post, by a singular coincidence, when night had closed in, and the rout of the enemy was complete, Blucher and Wellington met in the pursuit, and exchanged congratulations. As the British and Prussians were now on the same road, and the former, having been twelve hours in action, were greatly fatigued, the duke readily relinquished the charge of pursuit to his gallant col league, who declared that be would continue it throughout the night, and gave orders to send the last man and the last horse after the enemy. In this pursuit the Prussians took about one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, Buonaparte's travelling equipage, and the whole materiel and baggage of the army. An equal number of artillery had been also taken by the British. Such a battle could not be fought without great loss on both sides; and this victory was indeed achieved by a severe sacri. fice. On the side of the victors the total of killed and wounded, exclusive of the Prussians, exceeded thirteen thousand men; among whom were six hundred officers, including eleven generals. The loss of the French must have been tremendous: it is supposed that they left at least twenty thousand men dead on the field; and, being pursued after the battle by a fresh and inveterate enemy, their numbers were so greatly thinned by slaughter and desertion, that of the hundred and fifty thousand men with whom Buonaparte commenced this campaign of four days, not a third part remained in

arms, though the prisoners did not exceed seven thousand.

The feeling produced in England by this battle, which led to more important consequences than have resulted from any in modern times, will never be forgotten. Though accustomed to victory, upon the land as well as upon the seas, the glory of all seemed eclipsed by that of Waterloo. The first consideration was, how to express a due sense of this great exploit-how to manifest a nation's gra titude to the army and its leaders. There remain ed no fresh distinctions to confer on the duke o Wellington; but two hundred thousand pounds were added to the former grant, that a magnificent palace might commemorate the event.Every regiment which had been present was permitted from thenceforth to bear the word Waterloo upon its colours; all the privates were to be distinguished in the muster rolls and pay-lists of their respective corps as Waterloo men, and every subaltern officer and private allowed to reckon that day's work as two years' service in the account of his time for increase of pay, or for a pension when discharged. A benefit not less important was extended, on this occasion, to the whole army, by a regulation enacting, that henceforward the pen. sions granted for wounds should rise with the rank to which the officer attained-so that he who was maimed when an ensign should, when he became a general, receive a general's pension for the injury which he had endured. BUONAPARTE'S RETURN TO PARIS-HIS ABDICATION.

THE allied armies moved upon Paris, where the proceedings of the government evinced how little ability there was to resist their progress. Buonaparte, who had twice returned to the capital alone after leading armies to destruction, again hastened thither, and informed his chamber of peers that he had come to Paris to consult on the means of restoring the materiel of the army, and on the legis lative measures which circumstances required.The two chambers hastily assembled, and, after some discussion, declared their sittings permanent, and that any attempt to dissolve them was high treason. The ensuing debates were full of tumult: one speaker ventured to call for the abdication of the emperor; several voices seconded the motion; and in this critical juncture his adherents suggested various projects, even proposing that he should dissolve the mutinous assembly with an armed force, and assume the dictatorship. On the morning of the twenty-second the chamber of representatives assembled to receive his act of abdication, a measure considered indispensably necessary for the salvation of the country. A long interval of feverish impatience elapsed. At length the minister of police appeared with a declaration, in which Buonaparte announced that his political life was terminated, and proclaimed his son emperor of the French, by the title of Napoleon the second. An address of thanks for the sacrifice he had made was presented by the president, Lanjuinais, at the head of a deputation; and the two chambers, eluding any express recognition of the young Napoleon, proceeded to nominate a provisional government, of which the members were Carnot, Fouché, Caul incourt, Grenier, and Quinette.

ADVANCE OF ALLIES-CAPITULATION OF

PARIS.

THE duke of Wellington remained at Waterloo on the nineteenth of June; and on the twentieth he marched to Malplaquet, and crossed the French boundary, having issued a general order, apprising the soldiers that, in marching through the dominions of an ally, they were to observe the strictest discipline. This order was so well obeyed, that the inhabitants acknowledged that the British paid more respect to public and private property than had even marked the conduct of their own troops. Cambray surrendered on the twenty-fourth; the strong fortress of Peronne was reduced on the twenty-sixth; on the twenty-eighth the duke was at St. Just; and on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth he passed the Oise. Blucher, after carrying Avesnes by escalade, marched upon Laon, under the walls of which Soult, with about four thousand stragglers, was joined by twenty thousand men, under Grouchy and Vandamme, who had with

difficulty and loss effected their retreat from Wavre. At Villars Coteret a contest between these forces took place, which terminated favourably to the Prussiaus, who immediately advanced to the neighbourhood of Paris; and, having passed the Seine, by a combined movement, the two generals completely invested the city on its defenceless side. In the mean time commissioners appointed by the provisional government had repaired to the camp of prince Blucher, and requested a suspension of arms while they proceeded to the head-quarters of the allies with overtures for peace; but he would only listen to unconditional submission, and the possession of Paris; he, however, granted them passports to proceed to Haguenau, where the allied sovereigns, who were advancing with a large army, held their head-quarters. After a long, but unsatisfactory conference, they returned to Paris, and found the duke of Wellington and prince Blucher ready to enter the capital, in pursuance of a convention concluded in their absence. The provisional government had invited the marshals and generals to a council of war, at which it was decided that all resistance must be fruitless; and Fouché and Caulincourt proposed that the city should be surrendered to Louis the eighteenth, arguing that it would conciliate a family under whose power it was evident they must return. It was, however, finally determined to offer a capitulation as a mere military transaction, without reference to any political question. The convention was concluded on the third of July, and its principal terms were, that the French army should, on the following day, commence its march to take up a position behind the Loire, and completely evacuate Paris in three days; that all the fortified posts and the barriers should be given up; that public property, with the exception of that relating to war, should be respected; that private persons and property should be equally respected; and that all individuals in the capital should continue to enjoy their rights and liberties, without being disturbed or called to account, either as to situations held by them, or as to their conduct or political opinions. BUONAPARTE SURRENDERS TO THE ENG

LISH-IS SENT TO ST. HELENA. BUONAPARTE's abdication was accompanied by a kind of farewell proclamation to the army, after which he occupied himself in preparing for a voyage to America; and on the third of July he arrived at Rochefort, escorted by general Beker, whose orders were to see him speedily embarked on board a small squadron which the provisional government had assigned for his conveyance. On the eighth he went on board a small French frigate; but the port was so closely blockaded by English vessels that escape was impossible, and he sent a flag of truce to the commodore of the British squadron, requesting permission to pass, which was refused. At length, on the fifteenth, after endeavouring to make terms with captain Mait. land of the Bellerophon, who could only reply that he had no authority to enter into any kind of treaty, he surrendered at discretion, and was conveyed to England in that vessel, which arrived in Torbay on the twenty-fourth, when he transmitted a letter to the prince-regent, signed "Napoleon," in these terms:-" Exposed to the factions which divide my country, and to the enmity of the great powers of Europe, I have terminated my political career; and I come, like Themistocles, to throw myself upon the hospitality of the British nation. I place myself under the safeguard of their laws, and claim the protection of your royal highness, the most powerful, the most constant, the most generous, of my enemies."

Buoyed up by the expectation of obtaining an asylum in England, he was cheerful and affable, and soon ingratiated himself with every person on board; but in England Buonaparte could not be. permitted to reside with comfort to himself, or security to Europe; nor could he have been suffered to emigrate to any neutral country, however dis tant, where intercourse with his adherents would be practicable. It was therefore determined that the island of St. Helena should be the place of his residence. Distant twelve hundred miles from the nearest continent, containing but one harbour within its circumference, strong by nature, impregnable by art, commanding from its declivities a view of the ocean on every side for more than sixty

miles, this island, from its solitude and security, seemed created for the reception of some illustrious exile. When informed that he would be conveyed to St. Helena, with four of his friends, to be chosen by himself, and twelve domestics, he received the intimation without surprise, but protested against the measure with the utmost energy, alleging, that he had been forced to quit the isle of Elba by the breach of the treaty made with him by the sovereigns of Europe; that he had endeavoured to avoid hostilities, but had been forced to commence them by the allies themselves; and that it was not consistent with the principles of the British consti tution to doom him to perpetual banishment with out accusation and without trial. He was removed on board the Northumberland, and the officers who surrounded him were instructed to address him by no higher title than that of General. Count Bertrand, the countess, and their children, count and countess Montholon, count Las Cases, and general Gourgaud, with nine men and three women servants, remained with Buonaparte, and the rest were sent on board the Eurotas frigate. Buonaparte's surgeon alone, of all his attendants, refused to accompany him, and his place was supplied by the surgeon of the Bellerophon. The Northum berland sailed on the seventh of August, and arrived at St. Helena in the middle of October. Thus terminated the career of this spoiled child of fortune, who, had he known any bounds to his inordinate ambition, might have been seated in security on the throne of France, with far great er power than any of her monarchs had ever enjoyed.

MURAT ATTEMPTS NAPLES-KILLED. CONNECTED, in some measure, with the morements of Buonaparte, appears to have been the advance of Murat against Austria. Murat, how ever, was still more unfortunate than his master. He was defeated in his object of revolutionizing Italy; he failed in his attempt to cut his way through the Austrians, at Tolentino, on the third of May; and he arrived at his capital just in time to escape from it in disguise. His army capitulated on the twenty-first of May, when the Austrians entered the city, and Ferdinand the fourth of Sicily was restored to the throne. Murat effected his escape to Toulou, where he remained some time in disguise; thence he proceeded to Corsica, and assembled about four hundred followers, at the head of which, mimicking, as it were, his master, he embarked for the Neapolitan coast; but his vessels were dispersed in a storm, and, landing with only thirty followers on the eighth of October, he failed in exciting an insurrection in his favour, and was arrested, tried, and condemned to be shot. The sentence was put in execution on the fifteenth; and his behaviour, on this occasion, was worthy of a man who had been elevated to an exalted station, for which, however, he possessed few qualities except personal bravery.

PARLIAMENT RE-ASSEMBLED CORN
LAWS.

THE British parliament re-assembled on the ninth of February, when the state of the corn-laws again occupied the attention of the house of commons. On the seventeenth nine resolutions were moved in a committee, which, after allowing the free warehousing of grain for re-exportation, or to be taken for home consumption when the price should permit, fixed the average at eighty shillings per quarter for wheat, and proportionally for corn; that is to say, when British corn should not be below that price, foreign might be admitted duty free. A bill framed on the resolutions was introduced on the first of March, and, after encountering a strong opposition in both houses from the manufacturing and commercial interest, was passed on the twentieth by the lords. The apprehension of dearth, as the immediate consequence of this law, occasioned riots, which were not quelled without military aid. Experience, however, has shown that the alarm was groundless, the price having fallen so far below the standard as to leave the agricultural part of the community an inadequate remuneration, after paying that increase of rents and taxes which had taken place during the war.

An important act was passed for extending the trial by jury in civil causes to Scotland. Its provisions differed in several particulars from those of

PARLIAMENT CALLED-HOLY ALLIANCE.

ARLIAMENT assembled on the first of 1816. P February, 1810. Brougham moved for a copy of a treaty concluded at Paris, on the twenty. sixth of September, between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and which had received the name of the Holy Alliance. By this singular document, which was couched in the most devout and solemn language, and consisted of three articles, the three potentates, members of different Christian churches, declared their resolution, both in their domestic administration and foreign relations, to take for their guide the precepts of the holy religion taught by our Saviour. They bound themselves in a fraternity of mutual assistance, regarding themselves as delegated by Providence to govern three branches of one and the same Christian nation, of which the Divine Being was the sole real Sovereign; and they declared that all such powers as should solemnly avow the sacred principles which had actuated them would be received .with ardour into this "holy alliance." Brougham observed, that there was something so singular in the language of the treaty, as to warrant no little jealousy. He could not think that it referred to objects merely spirit. ual: the partition of Poland had been prefaced by language very similar to that now used; and the proclamation of the empress Catherine, which wound up that fatal tragedy, was couched in almost the same words. Lord Castlereagh vindicated the motives of the emperor of Russia, and stated that the prince regent, whose accession to this alliance had been solicited, had expressed his satisfaction in its tendency. He opposed the production of the document itself, on the ground that it was contrary to the practice of parliament to call for copies of treaties to which this country was no party.

FINANCE.

FROM an abstract of the net produce of the revenue in the years ending the fifth of January 1815, and the fifth of January 1816, it appeared that, in the former it amounted to sixty-five million four hundred and twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and eighty-one pounds; and, in the latter, to sixty. six million four hundred and forty-three thousand eight hundred and two pounds. Notwithstanding this enormous produce, the chancellor of the exchequer acknowledged, on the very first day of the session, that it was his intention to propose a reduced income tax of five pounds per cent. This intention was, however, frustrated by the perse. vering opposition of the people. On the fifth of March Vansittart, with the view of gaining over the poorer classes, announced, amongst his proposed modifications, that incomes of less than one hundred and fifty pounds, and farms of less rent than one hundred and fifty pounds, were to be exempt from the operation of the tax; and that, upon farms of higher rent, the assessment was to be upon onethird instead of three-fourths of the rent. On that reduced scale, he estimated the tax to produce six

million pounds annually; it had been proved, however, that, according to the original plan, more than half of the tax had been paid by incomes of one hundred and fifty pounds a year and under. E-timating the net produce of the tax at ten per cent. to be twelve million pounds at five per cent. it would indeed be six million pounds; but, by taking away, at one stroke, half of the sources of produc tion-incomes of one hundred and fifty pounds a year and under-the produce of the remaining half could not exceed three million pounds. On the final discussion of the subject, on the eighteenth of March, the motion for a continuance of the income tax was negatived by two hundred and thirty-eight against two hundred and one. This important defeat having exempted the opulent from a heavy assessment, a boon was granted to the mass of the people, by the repeal of the war tax on malt, which had been estimated to produce two million pounds per annum. In bringing for ward the budget, on the twenty-seventh of May, the chancellor of the exchequer announced the highly gratifying fact, that the surplus of the preceding year's grants in hand amounted to five million six hundred and sixty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty-five pounds. In their favourite object of maintaining a large standing army ministers were successful-the situation of the continent rendering it in some measure necessary.

Among the additional ways and means the sum of three million pounds was advanced by the bank, at three per cent. interest, on condition of being permitted to increase their capital by oue-fourth.The restriction ou cash payments was subsequently extended until July, 1818; the English and Irish exchequers were consolidated; and a bill was passed for a new silver coinage, in which the denomination of the coin was raised by a small seignorage, sixty-six instead of sixty-two shillings being allowed to the pound Troy.

MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTEPARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.

A MESSAGE from the prince regent to both houses of parliament, on the fourteenth of March, announ ced the marriage contract of his daughter, the prin cess Charlotte Augusta, with his serene highness the prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg; and, on the motion of the chancellor of the exchequer, an annual sum of sixty thousand pounds was voted to the illustrious pair during their joint lives; of which ten thousand pounds was to form a sort of privy. purse for her royal highness. If the prince should die first, the whole sum was to be continued to her royal highness; if he should be the survivor, the sum of fifty thousand pounds was to be continued to him: the sum of sixty thousand pounds was also granted by way of outfit. The marriage ceremony was performed on the second of May, at the queen's palace, and the event called forth the sincere congratulations of the nation. In July another royal marriage took place between the