Hochberg, not a member of any Sovereign family, and never acknowledged as grand duchess. The children of such unequal marriages are, by the public law of Germany, excluded from the succession to sovereign power. If the validity of this law were acknowledged, the king of Bavaria was entitled to the stipulated reversion of the palatinate, and the accession of the new grand duke would have to be treated as an usurpation. The latter, however, prepared to defend himself; and Bavaria, finding Austria and Prussia little inclined, in the present state of Europe, to risk the consequences of an unpopular measure, contented itself by simply asserting, under the form of a protest, its pretended rights to the palatinate of the Rhine.

Even SWITZERLAND, the proverbial abode of liberty and peace, did not escape the infection of democratic turbulence, which was spreading itself through Europe. Seditious hand-bills having been posted up at Berne, in the course of September, a journal of Zürich attributed them to the government itself, as an invention to furnish an excuse for retaining in the pay of the canton the Swiss regiments that had returned from France. The government of Berne prohibited the admission of this journal into the canton. The ordinance prohibiting it was every where posted up; but the first day all the copies were covered with mud or torn down others were posted, but with the same result; and, on the night of the 27th, the explosionso far as was known, the accidental explosion of a petard, near the library, convinced the magistrates that they were at the commencement of a revolution. The drums

were beat; the garrison was put under arms; ball cartridges were distributed among the soldiers; officers were placed at the gates of the city, and numerous patrols paraded the streets. The avoyer was awakened, and hastened to the spot; so that in the morning it was reported in the country that a revolution had broken out at Berne, and that the people were firing on each other. All these measures were repeated the following nights; all the officers of militia in the city were sent for by the commanders; places of rendezvous were assigned them, in case of alarm; and, as they could not fight with their swords, muskets and ball cartridges were given to them. These precautions prevented the breaking out of any actual violence; but the government at length found it necessary to lend an open ear to the public clamour for changes in their institutions. They agreed to suppress, from the 1st of January fol lowing, the duties on consumable articles, and an additional stamp duty, which had been imposed for payment of the public debt; finding, as they said, that the state of the public revenue allowed them to dispense with these taxes. They likewise appointed a commission, consisting of eleven members, to which were to be addressed all demands and proposals for changes in the constitution. This commission was to arrange and examine them, and make a detailed report upon them to the Great Council before the termination of the winter session.

In the canton of Fribourg, the demand of the people for a more democratic form of government was accompanied by acts of violence, which the Sovereign Coun

cil was too weak to restrain other wise than by concession. It found itself at last compelled to pronounce its own dissolution, and resign its powers into the hands of a constituent commission, charged with the task of framing a new constitution for the canton. The rural communes of the canton of Basle likewise rose, demanding a larger share in the government. Force was at first employed against them, and blood was shed; but the government ultimately found it necessary or prudent to acquiesce in the modification of the existing institutions. The commune of Porentruy, which had been separated in 1815 from a French department, was not satisfied with these concessions. It demanded to be either re-united to France, or to be formed into an independent canton; and it was only by superior force of arms that Basle retained it in subjection. In many of the other cantons was expressed the same determination of the mass of the people to remove what they considered grievances, and place power more directly in their own hands. Obstinate resistance on the part of the rulers would probably have terminated in civil convulsions. The governments felt this, and by mild and judicious measures, they kept the public excitement within the bounds of good order. In Zürich, Lucerne, Argau, Thurgau, and Soleure, ameliorations were promised, guarantees were given, and governments yielded to the general feeling.

Still spreading eastward, the fire of popular insurrection next seized upon POLAND; but there its flame was not the conflagration of civil discord; it was a light to guide

and warm a people to attempt their national redemption from the power of a foreign master. The insurrection, however, did not appear to arise immediately from any political machinations, but to have been the instantaneous result of harsh and insulting proceedings on the part of the viceroy, the grand duke Constantine, whose rude, if not savage, character, had excluded him from popularity wherever his power had been felt. He had taken offence at the young men attending the military school at Warsaw, because, at a social banquet, they had toasted the memory of Kosciusko, and other popular names in Polish story. The commissioners, whom he appointed to inquire into the particulars of this offence, finding no criminal intention on the part of the young men, made a report which dissatisfied the grand duke, because it did not justify the infliction of punishment. A second inquiry which was ordered produced the same result, and the exasperated prince determined to punish, although he could not convict. He ordered some of the young men to be flogged, and others of them he sent to prison. To resist this arbitrary proceeding, and exact vengeance for the disgrace of the punishment, their companions of the military school rose in arms on the 29th of November. The Russian guards were called out to suppress them, and immediately the Polish regiments, which formed part of the garrison, joined the students. As the contest became hotter, national antipathy roused the towns-people. Assisted by the troops, they forced their way into the arsenal, and supplied themselves abundantly with arms. This great accession of strength decided

the day; the Russian troops, after a very bloody contest in the streets of Warsaw, were driven out of the city, and compelled to retire to the other side of the Vistula. The grand duke himself was at a palace in the neighbourhood; there, at the commencement of the fray, a party of the insurgents sought him out; and, on their way, slew the vice-president of the police; but the grand duke received notice of their approach to the apartments he occupied, in time to effect his escape. The troops suffered severely in the contest, and lost, besides many other officers, three or four generals.

The Poles being thus in possession of the city, the unpopular members of the Council of Administration were dismissed, and six of the most popular and influential of the nobility were assumed in their place Adam Czartorinski, Michael Radzivil, Michael Radzivil, Michael Rochonowski, count Louis Pabz, Julian Niemcewicz, secretary of the Senate, and general Joseph Klopicki. These alterations, how ever, were effected "in the name of the emperor, king of Poland," whose authority was thus nominally recognized, while his troops were thrust forth from the city, and his ministers turned out of their offices. A deputation of the leading men repaired to the head quarters of the grand duke, to state to him the present wishes of the nation; and none of their demands pointed, directly at least, at the dethronement of the emperor. They represented to him, that it was the universal wish of the nation that the constitution should be completely carried into execution; that his majesty would fulfil the promise made by his predecessor to incorporate with the kingdom of

Poland the Polish provinces formerly united with Russia; that the Lithuanian corps under the command of the grand duke should not enter the kingdom of Poland ; and, lastly, that it was the most ardent wish of the nation that all the ancient parts of Poland now under the dominion of Russia should be re-united with the kingdom of Poland, to enjoy with it the benefits of the constitution. The situation of his imperial highness compelled him to receive these representations with temper. His small body of men not only put the present use of force out of the question, but rendered their continuance so near the capital irritating and unsafe. On the 2nd of December, he permitted the Polish regiment of chasseurs of the guard, and some detachments of Polish infantry, which had remained faithful to him, to return to Warsaw; and, on the following day, he and the rest of his troops took their departure for the frontiers, "recommending all establishments, property, and persons, to the protection of the Polish nation."

The Polish nation, in the mean time, as it was very doubtful in what light Nicholas I. emperor of Russia, would regard the proceedings which had been adopted in the name of Nicholas I. king of Poland, occupied themselves busily in preparing for resistance, if he should determine to treat them as rebels. General Klopicki was named commander in chief of the army, and soon found himself at the head of a regular and respectable force. All the Polish regiments joined the cause of the provisional government-for such it was in reality. Divided and mutilated as Poland now was, it seemed a hopeless prospect for a portion of it

to look forward to an unassisted struggle against the gigantic might of Russia, which, in the eyes of Europe, had only to move, in order to crush. To this was to be added the apprehension, that Austria and Prussia, naturally fearing lest their portions of Poland would be endangered if that of Russia was redeemed, would unite with the latter in putting down at once the first efforts of resistance. But Poland prepared for the contest, if it should come, with a stout heart: it was a country that had always been military, and the military organization, which the Russians had kept up, now told in its favour. To secure energy and promptitude in directing the measures which might be necessary, after the example of old Rome, in times of great public danger, they invested Klopicki with the powers, and honoured him with the title, of "Dictator." Even in assuming this office, which was to endure till the Chambers of the Diet, which were convoked for the 18th of December, could be assembled, the dictator disclaimed any design on the part of Poland, of throwing off its king, or of demanding any thing more than to enjoy, under that king, an independent national existence,

with the free constitution which had once been promised. "The Poles," said he, in the proclamation in which he announced his acceptance of the office, "The Poles know how to be faithful; and when all Europe abandoned him before whose victorious eagles the nations had prostrated themselves, the Polish battalions, firm in the hour of reverses, never ceased till the last moment to range themselves around the fallen conqueror. But in the present instance the power of evil had overstepped all bounds; it was impossible to convey the language of truth to the head of the state; flatterers, greedy of rewards, and prodigal of calumnies, gave us every day new chains instead of liberty.-Never was insurrection more legitimate! No; the king himself will be forced to admit the justice of our cause, when he comes to know the extent to which he was abused!"

Two commissioners were sent to St. Petersburg, in order to attempt to arrange some terms of compromise. But the emperor refused to listen to their representations, and issued proclamations, in which he threatened to inflict on the Poles the most severe punishment for what he described "their horrid treason."

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