for the throne which his wretched profli- | naked, surrounded by the profligate of gate father had vainly desired to occupy, and has evidently been an important instrument for good in our own day. Bailly, and many other leaders who had figured in the early days of the revolution, were now also put to death-their cup of retribution was full. Petion and others died by their own hands, or of hardships in their attempts at concealment. France was now one great slaughterhouse; few in it could feel secure of their lives for a single day. When the shades of night had closed, families started at the passing sounds, which betokened domiciliary visits, or the arrest of neighbours; they trembled, in apprehension that themselves might be the next. The prisons of Paris were in a state filthy and horrid beyond description. At one time, nearly eight thousand persons were in confinement. In former ages, the like atrocities had been acted, though not on so general or so extended a scale; those had been perpetrated under the name of religion-but the emissaries of Satan now threw off that disguise. Superstition had long since destroyed true religion in France; but now, that destroyer sunk before the great development of atheism, or infidelity. A new era was begun, dating from "the first year of the republic." A new calendar was sent forth, dividing the year into twelve months, of thirty days each, setting apart the remaining five as festivals to Genius, Industry, Fine Actions, Rewards, and Opinion. The extra day of the fourth year was to be the feast of Revolution. These days were to occupy the five at the close of the year, which were always to begin on September 21st. The seventh day, that Divine and merciful institution for the sabbath rest, which is to be traced in every nation, even among the heathens, was now renounced, and the tenth days, or decades, were to be considered as holidays. Thus one marked result of pretended popular improvement was to deprive the poor man of a fourth part of his rest from labour. Let him ever be on his guard against such attempts, from whatever quarter they rise. This calendar was observed for nearly twelve years. All religious worship was abolished. The French endeavoured to persuade themselves that death was an eternal sleep. A sort of worship was to be offered to Reason, who was personified in processions by women more than half both sexes; but it is unnecessary to describe these filthy mummeries, or the havoc made with the churches, and the articles used in public worship. The remains of the noble and mighty dead were cast from their graves, and the monuments to their memory were destroyed. Some were preserved, being kept to form a museum of monuments. The embalmed body of Condé, the famous general, was preserved, as an article of great curiosity; for many years, it rested between the skeletons of a monkey and a camel, until, at the command of Bonaparte, it was again committed to the tomb. The bones of the earliest monarchs of France, together with the putrifying remains of the wretched kings Louis XIV. and xv., who had done so much to hasten this day of retribution, were all covered from sight in one undistinguished mass. Early in the year, the French made an attempt on Sardinia, which failed; it is only noticed, to mention that Napoleon Bonaparte first bore arms therein. The principal English fleet, called the Channel fleet, was unable to bring the French to action. In the Mediterranean, a squadron under lord Hood occupied Toulon, with the concurrence of the royalists, and took possession of the French fleet, to hold it for their king. When the efforts of the constitutionalists at Lyons, and in other parts of the south, failed, the republican army invested Toulon. Bonaparte, then only a young officer of artillery, obtained a command, and advised proceedings which enabled the assailants to cannonade the harbour. The defenders were not numerous enough, and they were too heterogeneous a body to act with efficiency. By the middle of December, it was plain that Toulon must be abandoned. This was carried into effect, though with much confusion. Sir Sydney Smith exerted himself; many of the French ships were destroyed, and others brought away; but through the inefficient proceedings of the Spaniards, nineteen ships of the line and frigates were left, with little or no injury. The republicans massacred all suspected royalists that did not escape, and committed their usual atrocities. Thus closed the year 1793 in France; but the leading events in that country, in the following year, must be noticed, being immediately connected with those of the preceding. The French jacobin party having tri umphed at home, directed attention to their armies, which were strengthened, urged forward, and encouraged to proceed, although divisions and strife continued to distract the land. Suspicion and death were still the order of the day. It was evident that the leaders were bent on mutual destruction. Hebert and others were sent to the guillotine by Robespierre, on March 21st, 1794. Danton, with more, followed a few days later. A third party, including several others who had been active in the reign of terror, were executed on April 13th. Many others shared the same fate in that and on the following month; among them the amiable princess Elizabeth; and not only men of rank or note, but some of the lower classes, who had hitherto escaped from the proscription. of his associates, now saw that they must fall, unless they could destroy him-and the mad tyrant found himself openly opposed. Tallien, with his supporters, prevailed, and denounced Robespierre in the convention. He could not obtain a hearing, was impeached, and carried to prison, with some of his adherents; but they were soon liberated by a mob, and assembled a force at the Hôtel de Ville. The convention declared Robespierre out of the protection of the law; those assembled to support him then hesitated. Many of them joined the assailants, who forced an entrance into the council-chamber, where he sat. Finding resistance vain, he tried to shoot himself with a pistol, but the wound was not mortal. The morning of July 28th dawned, the fiendlike leader was carried to the convention, and from thence to prison, a wounded outlaw; and in the afternoon he was executed, with twenty of his associates. The mob followed him with execrations, a band of women danced round the carts, and when his head fell under the guillotine, the last executed of the band, shouts of applause rent the air, and the crowd departed singing. Simon, the wretch who had caused the death of the little dauphin, was put to death at this time. The Robespierre and his immediate supporters were now proceeding to the most desperate measures. In the end of May, a decree was passed, that no quarter should be given to any British or Hanoverian soldier. The duke of York, in a public order, remarked very properly on the atrocity of such a decree; but, with a Christian spirit, he called upon his soldiers not to retaliate. Having denounced and put to death the most determined of the atheists, Robespierre caused Tallien, Sieyes, Cambacéres, and those the convention to decree that there was a who were now leaders, closed the reign supreme Being, and to order a festival, of terror. Some of the most atrociously in honour of "L'Etre Suprême." Robes- active therein were, in their turn, guillopierre acted as high-priest; he set fire to tined, and the Jacobin club was dispasteboard images of anarchy and athe- persed; but the horrible state of Paris ism, which disappeared, and disclosed a cannot be adequately described. figure of wisdom, though somewhat deepest profligacy had accompanied the smoked by the burning of its covering. late atrocities. The leaders, as they Some of his associates laughed at these arose in succession, plundered what they absurdities, whilst others shuddered to could seize, and revelled in all the luxuhear him declare that more blood must ries they could command, while the great flow. For some time, from thirty to fifty mass of the people were literally dependvictims had perished by the guillotine ent upon a wretched allowance of coarse every day. The public accuser was now bread, at the rate of a pound a day for ordered to prepare for the daily murder each member of a family. This was of one hundred and fifty, and a drain delivered at the bakers' shops to the was constructed to carry off underground bearers of orders issued daily; but the the blood from the place of execution to applicants were obliged to wait for hours the Seine. Robespierre accordingly pro- for their turns, each holding on a rope posed and carried a law still more violent stretched from the shop, that the reguin the proceedings it directed, and by larity of application might be preserved which most of the members of the con--but the scenes of disorder often were vention would have perished. disgusting. He was in fact insane, but there was a sanguinary method in his madness, and he fancied himself promoting a moral regeneration of the human race, while pushing on his atrocities in the manner above described. Tallien, Barrère, and others | This memorable year in France, exhibited the climax of horrors-originating long before in the prevalence of bigotry, superstition, oppression of the lower orders, and the utter rejection of the word of God; proceeding onward for many years through luxury, want of public faith, and infidelity, to the overturn of all social order; rapine and destruction of property, with disregard of every duty and restraint, until no man was sure of his life for a single day. Each order and class of society had become sufferers in its turn. All possessed of anything to lose, were losers, while those who originally had nothing, seized all that was within their reach. The course adopted by Fox and the opposition in England, when the session of parliament opened, at the beginning of 1794, was still to praise and palliate the proceedings of the French, and to dwell upon the failure of the efforts of the coalition. Their anger was especially directed against Pitt, who firmly withstood them, supported by an overwhelming majority, avowing that indemnity for the past must be sought, as well as security for the future, and urging that France had been converted into an armed nation. The military force was increased, but not on a scale adequate to the state of affairs, while the plan of raising money by loan was pursued. The feelings of the nation in general were manifestly against France, yet the number of the disaffected was still considerable. They were connected by secret and affiliated societies, organized to overturn the existing constitution, and sought to cause a revolution, if possible, in Britain, though not designing the desperate atrocities of France. suc ficient weight to justify an act for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act; so that those charged with political crimes might be detained in prison upon suspicion, and without trial. In the close of the year, some important government prosecutions came to an issue, against Hardy, Tooke, Holcroft, Thelwall, and others, for high treason. The whole force and energy of the legal advisers connected with the government, was directed against the accused, but they were defended with still greater ability by Erskine and Gibbs; and after three trials, extending through nearly a month, the prisoners were found not guilty. It is to be regretted that Pitt and his fellowministers had not prosecuted for the lesser crime of sedition, which could have been proved; but the grave and heavy allegation of high treason could not be borne out. The accused might have contemplated overt acts, but had not yet proceeded to that extent; and juries were not disposed to consider that plans for altering the constitution were necessarily treasonable. This failure much weakened the government. At the time, it was not easy to avoid being carried away by excitement; and, without doubting of Pitt's veracity, we may consider that he took exaggerated views of the proceedings of these "friends of reform." They were able to show that the most serious acts, or speeches, alleged against them, were many of them inferences that rested on the evidence of men of no character, who had joined the political associations purposely to find out ground for accusation; and that all which could really be proved against them, as members of the Corresponding Society, went little farther than the views maintained by Pitt himself, with others, a few years before, on the subject of parliamentary reform. Pitt and the duke of Richmond were summoned by Horne Tooke, that evidence to this effect might be given by the supporters of govern The English government was alarmed by the proceedings of the Jacobins, as they were called, from their fellow-feeling for those of France, and commenced a series of prosecutions for sedition and treason. These had begun in Scotland in the preceding year, and were cessful in convicting all the accused, who were imprisoned or transportedsome of them on evidence not very full or satisfactory-and the sentences appeared heavy, when contrasted with the charges proved. In England, the government. ment succeeded, during 1793, in convicting some publishers and others for selling seditious books; but many of the prosecutions failed, usually from the having attempted too much, and from the repugnance of juries to convict mainly on the evidence of false associates, employed as spies, to discover the plans of the secret societies. The allegations brought forward by Pitt were, however, considered of suf But those men had probably deeper designs; and they would have found it impossible to stop, had they been able to commence their open and active measures for parliamentary reform by popular efforts. The prosecutions, therefore, may be considered as having stopped progress in evil, while the acquittals satisfied many that their liberties were yet protected by law. Other and minor prosecutions failed in the provincial courts; but in Scotland, king. "Mont Blanc, the Monarch of Mountains, On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, Watt and Downie were tried for treason, | clines on his ample couch. He also is a and found guilty. The former was executed. He had, for some time, acted as a government spy, but latterly he had become active in the plots of the day. He seems to have planned insurrectionary movements beyond what had been organized in England, but his coadjutors and their means were utterly contemptible, and far too much stress was laid upon them. On the whole, there was, as an historian of the times remarks, a beneficial result, from the failure of these prosecutions. "After so singular a triumph of popular principle, the most factious lost the power of alleging that the liberties of England were on the decline; the people relapsed into their ancient habits of loyalty; and the spirit of innovation, deprived of foreign support, and steadily resisted by the government, rapidly wi He says, thered in the British soil." Thus has the Supreme Disposer of all things often overruled the sinful passions of men, in mercy to Britain. RITZER; OR, SCENES IN THE MOUNTAINS. How mighty are the mountains! The Andes, the Himalayas, the Atlases, and the Alps. Chamoulari, in Asia, is more than five miles high; Sarata, in South America, four miles and a half; Geesh, in Africa, and Mont Blanc, in Europe, are each about three miles. Mont Blanc has often been ascended, but when shall human foot be placed on the icy forehead of Giant Chamoulari? The everlasting snows of a thousand winters, proclaim, as with a voice, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further?" and man-enterprising, proud, and vain-glorious man— has not yet dared to break the command ment. He cannot quell the freezing wind that blows, Chamoulari reigns in dread magnificence; he stretches his icy sceptre over a realm of silence and desolation, and his snow-crowned head is unwinnowed by the wings of the eagle and the condor. Not yet has morning dawned upon the Alps, but a gray mist lies, as a mantle, on the mountains. Viso, Genevre, Cenis, and Iseran are but dimly descried, and farther north, Mont Blanc, wrapt in his shadowy robes of cloud and twilight, re Not yet is the chamois abroad, cropping the scanty herbage of his elevated pasture. The sterile wild, the dreary and unsocial waste, shrouded in forbidding gloom, with its freezing air and overawing stillness, and loneliness, is unlovely to the eye, and oppressive to the heart. Oh, how different this to the welcome home, the cheerful hearth, the flaring fire, and the sunny smiles, and pleasant voices of friendship and affection! Man is made for mankind, and a visit to the unsocial majesty of the mountain should quicken the throbbing of his pulse and heart, for deeds of brotherhood and kindness. The dawn of day is spreading around, and already is Ritzer high among the mountains. Leaving his hut in the gloom of night, he has laboured up the rugged heights with his fellow-hunter, to be above the chamois when he comes forth to feed. Shod with spiked shoes, like his associate, supplied with a wallet, a flask, a cord, and a telescope, and armed with his knife, an axe, and double-barrelled gun, he grasps his iron-shod pole. Quick is his eye, firm his foot, agile his limbs, fearless his heart, and all but unerring the aim of his deadly tube. Well to him are known the steep ridge, the rugged rock, the gloomy ravine, and the fearful slope. Danger and he have long been companions. There is a wildness in his look, a reckless daring in his undaunted mien, as though enterprise, and difficulty, and peril, were his delight. Sheltered by a projecting crag, he is waiting for the chamois. Ritzer, the reckless, nature's fearless child, ing chamois, levelling his deadly weapon, rested on a projecting point, at his hapless prey. The crack of the rifle is heard, and the chamois is hurrying across the slippery glacier and the frozen snow. Unnumbered clamorous echoes round him rise, But is he unwounded? Unwounded! harmless? The chamois is smitten, and carries with him his destruction! * A party, with their guides, are ascending Mont Blanc. Appalling height! stupendous eminence. "Monarch of the scene, mightiest where all are mighty." At the base of the mountain, vegetation abounds, and gardens and orchards are here and there intruded on by the slippery glacier. Higher up are glacier, and rock, and pine, and larch trees, and above them crags more rude, rocks more abrupt, with clefts, and chasms, adorned with rhododendron, gentian, and Alpine plants; while lastly comes the sterile region of silence, frost, and snow— How vast the scene! and how oppressive the dreary wild! The loneliness and the silence hang as a weight on the heart. Hark! It was nothing but the whistling wind, and the shrill cry of the marmot, and now all is still. Again! That was a more fearful sound! It was the rush of the falling avalanche that overhung the pass. Where are the travellers who were toiling up the steep? Surely they are not entombed beneath that mountainous mass of snow! How dreadfully still it now lies in the valley! This is a fearful region in which to travel, for it is said that, sometimes, the beetling avalanches are so slightly poised, that the sound of a rifle, the bark of a dog, nay, almost the voice of a traveller, or muleteer will bring them toppling down from The monks of Great St. Bernard! The monks of Great St. Bernard! There they go with their poles on their errands of mercy. On, on, ye band of brothers! On, on, ye Alpine philanthropists! Though cold the region you inhabit, the love of humanity is warm in your beating hearts. Though ye are not angels, yet are your impulses from heaven. The dogs of St. Bernard are on before; they have outstripped their masters in running to the rescue. Each dog carries a flask, to revive the spirit, and a blanket to defend from the cold, the hapless beings they may find entombed in the snows. See! See! already have the sagacious brutes discovered a buried group; they have scented the breath-holes made in the snow, by those who were not too deeply covered. The hapless travellers gaze with strange surprise, As feebly from their gloomy graves they rise. A fainting boy is fastened on the back of one of the dogs, and two exhausted men are being borne by the monks to the monastery. May the white-winged of the skies, commissioned messengers by the High and Holy One, guard that asylum of charity from coming danger, and love, and peace, and joy take up their abode there for ever! Ritzer is still among the mountains. * And this is the Glacier des Bois-of all Alpine glaciers the greatest. How striking its appearance! "A savage sea, The glassy ocean of the mountain ice. Its rugged breakers, which put on The aspect of a tumbling tempest's foam, Frozen in a moment, a dead whirlpool's image." The Glacier de Blaitière has harder ice, the Glacier des Buissons is purer and less sullied with earth and stones, the Glacier de Tacconay is more singular, forming a bright and eccentric arch, and the Glacier d'Argentière is more elegant and beautiful; but in dimensions the Glacier des Bois is unrivalled. The part |