claimed a republic, was compelled to yield to General Marmora ; the Tuscan Assembly was dissolved, and the grand duke reinstated. APRIL 14th Hungary declared her independence. Before the end of the month the imperialists were defeated at Gran, and obliged to raise the seige of Comorn and to evacuate Pesth. MAY 3rd Dresden was in insurrection. On the 7th it was bombarded by the Prussian and Saxon troops, and the revolt was trampled down. On the 13th an insurrection broke out in Baden, and the grand duke fled. The German Parliament of Frankfort, playing at constitution-making, hankering after compromise, dreaming of reformed tyrants, and unwilling or afraid to aet decidedly for the Nation, had lost its hold upon Germany. It had elected a Regent, who was powerless; it had remonstrated with the Reaction, of course to no effect; it had been backed, but had no purpose worth backing, and it dared not commit itself. Austria and Prussia recalled their members. Its constitution was rejected by the kings. The republican portion of the Assembly at length retired to Stuttgardt, and chose a regency of five to replace the useless Archduke John. JUNE 18th the king of Wurtemberg put an end to their sittings, preventing their meeting by occupying their Hall with his troops. But the Republic was established at Rome: and toward Rome the combined craft and force of Absolutism were directed. APRIL 26th a French 'republican' army, submitting to be the infamous tool of Jesuitism (the English Government conniving), occupied Civita Vecchia, and by the end of the month invested Rome; the Austrian and Neapolitan armies under their cover advancing into the Roman States. MAY 16th Bologna fell after a sanguinary resistance of eight days. JULY 3rd the Romans abandoned the defence of their city, and yielded to superior force. MAY 13th the best of the French Republicans endeavoured to rouse France to prevent the outrage upon Rome. Their appeal was unanswered. The men who made it swell the number of the Proscribed. JUNE 18th the Russians, called in to the help of Austria, entered Hungary by the Dukla Pass. JULY 11th the Austrians were in Ofen and proceeding to bombard Pesth. In the South the Hungarians defeated Jellachich on the 14th; but were defeated under Görgey, on the 17th by the Rnssians, after a three days' fight, at Waitzen. On the 31st Bem was beaten at Segesvar, and at Temeswar on the 9th of the following month. AUGUST 13th, at Vilagos, the traitor Görgey delivered his army into the hands of Russia: Kossuth escaping into a Turkish prison. JULY 23rd the Baden insurrection terminated by the surrender of Rastadt to the Prussians. AUGUST 22nd Venice was compelled to yield. The first republican campaign was ended: the party struck down. Almost everywhere victorious at first, everywhere fighting singly, without concert or common policy, everywhere crushed by the coalition of the kings. 1850. In FRANCE the Reaction has had its full swing. Laws against the Press,laws of transportation and imprisonment for republicanism-with a ministerial endeavour by M. Baroche to make them retrospective,-four millions and a half of electors disfranchised,-national guards disarmed,-workmen's associations persecuted and prevented,-shabby plots got up by Government after the fashion of the old tyrannies, this is French history during the third year of the Republic. The Reaction has grown ever bolder with success. And the republicans-it must be confessed, are more careful. There is wisdom in their patience, if their party is not strong enough to act, it is a moral course if pacific means of redress are left them but even if politic and morally right, the continual preaching and practice of forbearance accustom men to the yoke of wrong, till their very souls become enslaved and release impossible. The year concludes with the ill-blooded jesuit de Montalembert bringing in a bill for the forced observance of the Sabbath, while in the South of France, where in the print shops Providence watches over Louis Napoleon,' a painted Christ sweats occasional drops of blood,-it might puzzle Ignatius himself to say to what purpose. Barbès is ill in his Belleisle prison. Sobrier, it is said, is driven mad. Through the general murkiness one only clear speck is seen in the horizon: the refusal of the electors to use the Suffrage as a privilege,-large majorities abstaining. The moral protest, against the laws which abolished Universal Suffrage, is not to be undervalued. But protests are not revolutions. That Louis Philippe has gone down into his ignominious grave may be mentioned here, though no part of French history. In ITALY, the Pope has sneaked back to the Vatican, to bless the infidel bombarders, and to slander as prostitutes the noble women who had nursed the wounded defenders of Rome. A Lie reënthroned by Liars.-In Piedmont the clergy have been deprived of some of their privileges, and the Archbishop of Turin has been condemned to a mild imprisonment for resistance to the civil power. But is not this advance toward heresy amply atoned for by the special providence of two or three miraculous Virgins, at Rimini and elsewhere, who wink their eyes to the admiration of the devout, and the immense discomfiture of impious Republicans. GERMANY is now a fief of Russia. On the 20th of March Frederic-William opened at Erfurt his parliament of the smaller states, to play out the last dull act of German Unity under a Hydra-Royalty. May 20th, Austria set up her diet in pretended opposition at Frankfort. Saxony completed her 900 political trials of the insurrectionists of 1849; destroyed (in the beginning of June) her new constitution, and went back to 1831. In Schleswig-Holstein 'success' has varied. The Duchies have been left to combat with the Danes, till it may be convenient for Nicholas, or his lieutenants, to arrange the matter to his liking. Meanwhile the combat fulfils one of the purposes for which it was excited: the getting rid of some troublesome democrats. The other object, of complicating the German Question, was answered long ago.-In Hesse-Cassel, in the beginning of September, the Elector, enraged at his supplies being stopped, attempted to place the Country under martial law. The Burgomasters refused to publish his ordinance; his Ministers were impeached; his General-in-Chief was indicted for a breach of the Constitution; the Supreme Court of Appeal declared his ordinance illegal. National guards, gendarmerie, and troops, all nobly refused to support him. So the baffled tyrant fled, and appealed to Austria. But magnanimous Prussia interfered for the Hessians, called out the Landwehr, would fight to the death for constitutional freedom. It was the last exploit of Prussian humbug. Straight a Conference at Warsaw. The Czar's orders must of course be obeyed, but still Frederic-William is very sorry. The Elector returns to his capital supported by Austrian and Prussian bayonets. The moral resistance is overborne. So the King of Wurtemberg asks the same good offices for the ruin of his Constitution. For such purposes, under pretence of quarrels between Austria and Prussia, a million of men are in arms: a million of men, at the bidding of the Czar and his tools, to keep watch before the tomb of European Freedom, to prevent the Resurrection. On the 27th of December the HolyAlliance met in council at Dresden, to seal the Sepulchre and make it sure. Other events need not many words. Bosnia, infected by Russia, has long been in a state of intermittent insurrection.-July 18th, commenced a three days' fire at Cracow, the Austrians hoping to destroy the monuments of the Polish capital, and partially succeeding. 1848-1849-18 5 0. During the three years, SPAIN and PORTUGAL, HOLLAND and BELGIUM have been free from insurrection: Spain apparently too demoralized to make any effort at regeneration; Portuguese liberals perhaps dreading the recurrence of British sympathy; Holland and Belgium too busied in their counting-houses to care for Freedom. Happy Belgium, however, possesses a Coburg, and is Catholic. An influx of Californian gold, a petty buccaneering attempt to wrest Cuba from Spain, and a new law (whose villainy dims every Star in the Union) for the surrender of fugitive slaves to their owners: these are the only prominent events in the great 'Republic' of America. And the History of the BRITISH EMPIRE for these three stormful years has been-what? cowardice, impotence, and shame, both at home and abroad. Let us pass as quickly as possible over the sad and uneventful time. Abroad:-intrigues with Austria for the betrayal of Italy; similar intrigues, and desertion of the Right, elsewhere; reseating the Pope; abandoning Hungary; bullying Greece; truckling to Russia; playing the false friend and sham humanitarian at Constantinople, pushing Kossuth into his dungeon; while one British representative (like a true whig-radical) acts as hangman in the Greek Ionian Islands, and another expels the Italian exiles from Italian Malta. We turn loathingly from the task of filling up the details of British' (if it could but be only Palmerstonian) worthlessness and perfidy. At home-what might be looked for from a people without aim, or union, or even partial organization, or courage-whether of hope or of despair. The Government ferocious from its very weakness; and the People (of all classes) submitting to a state of siege and horrible starvation in Ireland, and in England to a revival of the edicts of the most disgraceful period of our annals. The handworkers, who did petition by the million for their rights, unable to muster 5000 men-nay, not 300 in any way organized, to defend a pass against Tyranny; and the middle-class traders and gentlemen-heartless, dastardly, and self-seeking, arraying themselves against the people, to make better terms for themselves,— the net amount of their contributions to the cause of Freedom being an agitation for the sake of their own pockets, a recommendation to their workmen to buy up all the land of England, as a step toward the franchise, and a plan for 'garrisoning' property (see Mr. Cobden) to insure the continuance of a class of helots. In Ireland, as in England, no lack of words, with this difference, that in Ireland there was an abortive attempt at action. Starved slaves, alas! may not be heroes. The only sign of English courage and care for freedom was given at the Cape, where a handful of determined colonists defeated the Imperial Government,-the only actual evidence of sympathy with the oppressed was the rude impulsive justice of a few hearty London brewers against the Austrian Haynau. Áll else may be summed up briefly: many stormy words, a few foolish riots, then general apathy and silent stooping to dishonour. On the very day of the fall of heroic Venice, our English Statesmen' (the bidders for the future rule of Britain) are frothing at the mouth in a 'Peace '-Congress, hoping' to tame the crowned were-wolves with a profusion of cowardly talk. Is it worth chronicling that we have added to the number of our slaves in India? 1850 passes away like an idiot, raving to no purpose at the increase of Papal power in England. Some little leaven of good. Socialist experiments are helping some few associators. Popular education is beginning to be thought of:-if it may but be begged from unjust Power. In Ireland the Tenant-League drives in the end of the wedge that shall rive the social system of Britain. 1850 has not passed away without giving us one gleam of hope from its sad and hollow eyes. HISTORY OF THE MONTH. 1851 begins with the putting down of HESSE-CASSEL: the moral resistance of a noble People overborne by brute force. How could it be otherwise? SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN has yielded to the menaces of the Combined Powersincluding England. So the last spark of European freedom is trampled—not out. In FRANCE there has been a 'change' of Ministry; and a widening of the breach between the Legislative and the Executive, which may bring forth more serious results than the mere depriving of Changarnier (the General Monk of the Assembly) of his command of the army.-In SPAIN Narvaez has at last retired from power. In IRELAND the Tenant-League meets in Conference, to provide for the coming war, and to raise a force in England. In SCOTLAND the beginning (not too soon, when Landlordism is depopulating the Hebrides) is announced in the formation of a 'Tenant Protection Society' in Elgin. In ENGLAND the ground lies fallow. The agitation against the Taxes on Knowledge is, however, making way. Meetings have been held, at the London Tavern on the 2nd instant, of the Birmingham Town Council on the 7th, and elsewhere. The Clergy are joining the education movement; had a meeting to propose plans of their own, at Manchester, on the 6th. Is it a good omen ?-The Leeds Redemption Society' reported favourably at their annual Soirée on the 13th.— The Parliamentary and Financial Reformers' have issued their second yearly report. Their appeal for £10,000 has only procured £3060. 223 meetings have been held and 150,000 tracts and addresses issued, without persuading the better half of the people to stir themselves for an increase of the garrison of privilege. Mr. Hume, Mr. W. J. Fox, Mr. George Thompson, Mr. Henry Vincent, and other such like men of principle, are to be the persuaders for 1851, at monthly soirées at the London Tavern.-The new Chartist Executive held their first public meeting, at the John St. Institution, London, on the 14th. Agrarian murders in Ireland, incendiary fires in England, frequent robberies, and shocking cases of brutality towards the poor, continue to testify to the worth of the 'government' at home; and from Australia come tidings of a great League forming there, to carry out the example of the sturdy settlers at the Cape, in repudiation of our intolerable convict system. The colonists shame their fellow subjects at home. We are glad to see announced a plan (proposed by Thomas Cooper, the Chartist) for obtaining a People's Hall in London, to hold 3000 persons. How soon shall we be able to fill it with the associated Republicans? January 27th. THE POPE OR THE REPUBLIC: RUSSIAN OR DEMOCRATIC.' TOWARDS make compromises. Cowards and liars: or say Whigs,-a generic term for the two. The Whig may be characterized as a deliberate untruth: his untruth being the only thing in which he is consistent. He is a political jesuit, without even the poor excuse of fanaticism; a degenerate Tory, base-born and more basely living. Your Tory proper-a race fast dying outhas a leaven of sincerity in him. Although whenever he may look into the slow stream of Time, he may find himself somewhat more monstrous than any ‘strange fowl' in the Heralds' Office, he yet believes his monstrosity to be of divine origin, prides himself upon his ugliness, esteems it as a privilege, and calls God and man to witness his peculiar gifts. But the poor Whig is ashamed of himself at the best of times: well he may be, you'll say. But it is not ingenuously; not because he has a conscience which doubts the divinity of pettiness; but because he has not capacity to believe even in the meanest of things. He has only a belly and a villainous brain. The best of the kind (if such a term of comparison may be used) are well described by Carlyle, who speaks of them as being without 'even a conviction,' having nothing in the place of conscience but 'a conjecture and dim puzzle.' 'How many poor Girondins' (anglice Whigs), says he, are sure of but one thing: That a man and Girondin ought to have footing somewhere, and to stand firmly '-or, we will say, wriggle-' on it; keeping well with the Respectable Classes. This is what conviction and assurance of faith they have. They must wriggle painfully between their dilemma-horns.' The Girondins, however, had many noble qualities. Our English mongrel is a far inferior animal. The real difference between the Tory and the Tory-Whig is this:The Tory simple, through some mental obliquity, is a bigot in evil, and works accordingly; the other knows what is good, but will not do it,-and at the same time desires evil and dares not be a bold wrong-doer. The height of his ambition is to establish a convention, a mutual agreement between God and the Devil, providing that the Devil shall be constitutional king of the world, and the Whig his prime-minister; and that God, in return for some small liberal allowance, shall be well-behaved and no more troublesome. Not but what he is always on the side of Freedom; and, if he sees it triumphing, will contrive to trip it up while caring for fair play, for fear it should go too far; or if on the other hand Freedom falls among thieves, he will-when men begin to cry shame on him for standing idly by-pick up the falling, secretly stabbing it in the back, that it may not recover. All this he renders yet more rascally by pretending that his real principle is non-intervention. Nothing but a Whig Government could have played the foul part which has so disgraced England in all honest eyes, for the last three years. Aberdeen with all his divine lions and unicorns could not have dragged us through so much E |