EUROPE ON THE FALL OF NAPOLEON.

It would be interesting to trace the Complexity of Modern History. history of the civilized world since the fall of Napoleon; but any attempt to bring within the limits of a history like this a notice of the great events which have happened for thirty-five years, would be impossible. And even a notice as extended as that which has been presented of the events of three hundred years would be unsatisfactory to all minds. The common reader is familiar with the transactions of the present generation, and reflections on them would be sure to excite the prejudices of various parties and sects. A chronological table of the events which have transpired since the downfall of Napoleon is all that can be attempted. The author contemplates a continuation of this History, which will present more details, collected from original authorities. The history of the different American States, since the Revolution; the administration of the various presidents; the late war with Great Britain; the Seminole and Mexican wars; the important questions discussed by Congress; the contemporary history of Great Britain under George IV., William IV., and Victoria; the conquests in India and China; the agitations of Ireland; the great questions of Reform, Catholic Emancipation, Education, and Free Trade; the French wars in Africa; the Turkish war; the independence of the Viceroy of Egypt; the progress of Russian territorial aggrandizement; the fall of Poland; the Spanish rebellion; the independence of the South American states; the Dutch and Belgic war; the two last French revolutions; the great progress made in arts and sciences, and the various attempts in different nations to secure liberty;—these, and other great subjects, can only be properly discussed in a separate work, and even then cannot be handled by any one, however extraordinary his talents or attainments, without incurring the imputation of great audacity, which only the wants of the public can excuse.

In concluding the present History, a very brief notice of the state of the civilized world at the fall of Napoleon may be, perhaps, required.

England suffered less than any other of the great powers from the French Revolution. A great burden was, indeed, entailed on future generations; but the increase of the national debt was not felt so long as English manufactures were purchased, to a great extent, by the Continental States. Six hundred million pounds were added to the national debt; but England, internally, was never more flourishing than during this long war of a quarter of a century. And not only was glory shed around the British throne by the victories of Nelson and Wellington, and the effectual assistance which England rendered to the continental powers, and without which the liberties of Europe would have been subverted, but, during the reign of George III., a splendid constellation of Remarkable Men of Genius. men of genius, in literature and science, illuminated the world. Dr. Johnson made moral reflections on human life which will ever instruct mankind; Burke uttered prophetic oracles which even his age was not prepared to appreciate; and his rivals thundered in the senate with an eloquence and power not surpassed by the orators of antiquity; Gibbon wrote a history which such men as Guizot and Milman pronounced wonderful both for art and learning; Hume, Reid, and Stewart, carried metaphysical inquiry to its utmost depth; Gray, Burns, Goldsmith, Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth, were not unworthy successors of Dryden and Pope; Adam Smith called into existence the science of political economy, and nearly brought it to perfection in a single lifetime; Reynolds and West adorned the galleries with pictures which would not have disgraced the land of artists; while scholars, too numerous to mention, astonished the world by the extent of their erudition; and divines, in language which rivalled the eloquence of Chrysostom or Bossuet, declared to an awakened generation the duties and destinies of man.

France, the rival of England, was not probably permanently injured by the Revolution; for, if millions of lives were sacrificed, and millions of property were swept away, still important civil and social privileges were given to the great mass of the people, and odious feudal laws and customs were broken forever. All the glory which war can give, was obtained; and France, for twenty years, was feared and respected. Popular liberty was not secured; but advances were made towards it, and great moral truths were impressed upon the nation,—to be again disregarded, but not to be forgotten. The territorial limits of France were not permanently enlarged, and the conquests of Napoleon were restored to the original rulers. The restoration of the former political system was insisted upon by the Holy Alliance, and the Bourbon kings, in regaining their throne, again possessed all that their ancestors had enjoyed but the possession of the hearts of the people. The allied powers may have restored despotism and legitimacy for a while; they could not eradicate the great ideas of the Revolution, and these were destined once more to overturn their thrones. The reigns of Louis XVIII., Charles X., and Louis Philippe were but different acts of the long tragedy which was opened by the convocation of the States General, and which is not probably closed by the election of Prince Louis Napoleon to the presidency of the French republic. The ideas which animated La Fayette and Moreau, and which Robespierre and Napoleon at one time professed, still live, in spite of all the horrors of the Reign of Terror, and all the streams of blood which flowed at Leipsic and Waterloo. Notwithstanding the suicidal doctrines of Socialists and of the various schools of infidel philosophers, and in view of all the evils which papal despotism, and democratic license, and military passions have inflicted, and will continue to inflict, still the immortal principles of liberty are safe under the protection of that Providence which has hitherto advanced the nations of Europe from the barbarism and paganism of ancient Teutonic tribes.

Germany Condition of Germany. suffered the most, and apparently reaped the least, from the storms which revolutionary discussion had raised. Austria and Prussia were invaded, pillaged, and humiliated. Their cities were sacked, their fields were devastat............