if not so devout as former ages, it however paid the greatest attention to the outward forms and decorums of religion; and perhaps it was for this very reason that parodies, which appeared so innocent to our forefathers, were so shocking and offensive in our eyes. (Hear, hear.) But a jury to whom it was put as Mr. Hone put it, whether they could think he had a design of reviling or degrading the Christian religion, by doing that which bishops and ministers of state had done before him, or whether they thought that his object was purely political, could not in their conscience convict him of the former offence; and as to the latter, the Attorney-General, though certainly not deficient in courage, had not ventured to appeal to the jury for a political verdict. (Hear.)

Mr. R. MARTIN supported the bill, on the ground that it was necessary, by more severe enactments, to check the streams of sedition and blasphemy which had inundated the land.

Mr. BANKES believed that abuses of the press existed to such a degree as required the interference of Parliament. It had been urged by one honourable gentleman (Mr. Bennet) that he (Mr. Bankes), in expressing a doubt regarding the policy of extending education on the plan at present pursued, had opposed the spread of morality and religion. No man, he was convinced, could suspect him of such a design, and he thought it beneath him to answer such an insinuation. A man must in the House stand on his general character and habitual conduct, and if that did not protect him from such a charge, it would be vain to disclaim it in words. He had never declared education an evil. He had merely expressed a doubt on the policy and expediency, in the present condition of society, of carrying the system of educating the poor to the extent recommended by some of his friends, and with the rapidity with which the well-meant zeal of those who encouraged it, pressed it forward. His reasoning was the following:-We put the people in a new situation by this general diffusion of education, and we are not perhaps aware of the effects to which this change may lead. This new condition which is created may lead to evils which additional restrictions on the press may be required to correct, as with the capacity of reading, facilities are afforded for spreading mischievous as well as moral and religious principles. If he was asked generally, whether education was a good, he should be a savage to deny it; but if interrogated further, whether he thought it should be spread so extensively and so rapidly as was the

wish of many benevolent persons whom he highly valued, he would beg leave to express a doubt; but because he did so, he ought not to be pointed out as a marked man, and accused of opposing the diffusion of morality and religion. During the progress of teaching, we could see what books were put into the hands of the young, but we could not regulate. their subsequent studies, or determine the kind of food which their minds should receive.

MONDAY, DEC. 27.

Newspaper Stamp Duties Bill.

LORD SIDMOUTH.-The bills which had already become laws had, as he had already observed, produced the best effects. With regard to the measure under consideration, whatever tended to affect the press, even in the way of regulation, was a subject which called for great attention and caution. This their lordships would find had been observed in proposing this measure. What the danger to be guarded against was, their lordships would see from the preamble of the bill, which stated, that pamphlets and printed papers containing observations on public events and occurrences, tending to excite hatred and contempt of the government and constitution of these realms as by law established, and also vilifying our holy religion, had lately been published in great numbers, and at very small prices; and that it was expedient that the same should be restrained. The means by which it was proposed to effect this object he should now shortly explain. The first provision made all pamphlets and other publications not exceeding two sheets, published within intervals of twenty-six days, and at a price not exceeding sixpence, exclusive of the duty, liable to the same duty as newspapers. Religious tracts and books of instruction were, along with some other publications, excepted from the operation of the bill. The circulation of blasphemous and seditious libels, which had, during the last few years, the last few months, and even the last few weeks, been pushed into every hamlet and cottage in the kingdom, rendered some measure of this kind indispensable. The next provision to which he wished to call their lordships' attention was that by which any person printing a newspaper, or other political publication, is required to give a bond to the extent of 3007. in the capital, and 2007. in the country, with sureties to the same amount. This clause was introduced for the purpose of securing the payment of any fine which might, on conviction, be

imposed by the sentence of a court. Another provision which he should notice was one which extended to pamphlets and other publications held to be newspapers, the enactment originally introduced by his noble and learned friend, by which printers are obliged to send to the Stamp-Office a copy of each paper they published. The necessity of this regulation was obvious. It had been made a reproach to his Majesty's ministers that they had not prosecuted the libels which were in circulation; but their lordships were now aware that the prosecution of the author was hopeless, and the discovery of the printer, and sometimes the prosecution of the first publisher, were things extremely difficult, from their obscurity, and because they were not venders. For instance, CARLILE had four or five prosecutions instituted against him because he was the vender of libels; whereas SHERWIN, the original publisher, taking care to avoid selling except to persons who, he knew, would not enforce the law against him, escaped. The effect of this provision would, therefore, be, to identify the printer and original publisher; and, if a blasphemous libel appeared, to facilitate the prosecution of those who put it forth. The printer or publisher was, therefore, required to subscribe his name to the copy delivered to the StampOffice. He knew that measures of this kind would be objected to by those who had all along contended that no regulation was necessary. He was aware that some persons were of opinion that the danger against which it had been the study of his Majesty's ministers to provide, was greatly overrated, and that the constitution of this country stood on a basis so firm, that it was impossible to shake the allegiance of the people. But it had been well observed by Lord BACON, that a man should not try how much poison his constitution would bear. The Earl of HARROW BY perfectly agreed with the noble Duke, that the majorities by which the measures had been supported were not confined to the two Houses of Parliament, but that they comprehended all the sound, which he believed to be the major, part of the community. Where were the public meetings which had been held to petition or to remonstrate against them? There had been one in London, one in Westminster; but where was the rest of the country? The general silence was expressive, and offered a satisfactory proof that the people at large felt as he had stated. Dum tacent, clamant. Attempts had been made to procure general meetings for the purpose of petitioning, but the attempts had failed. The call made

in various places had been followed by no response. If this was owing to an acquiescence in the late proceedings of Parliament, he augured well for the future tranquillity of the country. If, on the other hand, those proceedings were regarded as actually subversive of their rights, and the people, notwithstanding this opinion, continued silent, it afforded, indeed, an awful warning: it shewed that the abuse of the press and of public meetings had inspired so general a disgust, that the country was willing to sacrifice their advantages rather than tolerate their mischievous effects.

HOUSE OF LORDS, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 29. Newspaper Stamp Duties Bill.

LORD ELLENBOROUGH Supported the bill, which imposed no restraint on fair discussion, but was directed against a pauper press, from which the greatest mischief was to be apprehended. That press did not dare to tell the truth, because those who managed it wrote solely for profit. It therefore did not attempt to direct, but constantly followed the varying opinion of the everchanging mob, studying to flatter their prejudices and minister to their passions. The cheapness of these publications rendered it impossible to undersell them; and as they had already produced so much mischief, the evil must necessarily be greatly increased before they could be written down. From the period of HONE's acquittal to the conviction of CARLILE, the press, from which these mischievous publications issued, had gone on without any controul, or any apprehension of punishment. He was aware that an important question here arose, namely, whether the lower orders ought to be deprived of a political press; but into that he did not further enter than to express his opinion against their political reading, which he thought could be of no use to them. The country could derive no benefit from philosophers from the loom, or statesmen from spinningjennies. Besides, the kind of reading which publications, such as had lately been so widely circulated, afforded, tended to destroy the hopes of that moral improvement which it was of the greatest importance to promote among the lower orders of the people.

LITERARY.

A manuscript of undoubted authenticity has just reached this country, which is calculated to excite an extraordinary degree of interest. It is already in the hands of a translator, and will be published both in English and in the original

French, in the course of the ensuing month. It is entitled "Documents Historiques et Reflexions sur le Gouvernement de la Hollande. Par Louis Bonaparte, Ex-Roi de Hollande."

This work contains every event relating to the political or financial situation of Holland, from the commencement of the reign of Louis until the close of his government; sketches of the invasion of Italy and expedition in Egypt, in both of which the author was present; relations of most of the important events in Spain, and his refusal of the crown of that kingdom on the renunciation of Charles IV. to Ferdinand his son, and the formal cession of the latter to Napoleon; copies of the letters of Charles and Ferdinand, relating to the conspiracy of the latter against his father; the hitherto secret motives of the marriage of the author with the daughter of the Empress Josephine, and their subsequent mutual agreement to a separation; the events which occurred on the separation of the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine; the various princesses afterwards proposed to Napoleon, and the reason of his selecting the daughter of the Emperor of Austria; numerous characteristic and highly interesting letters from Napoleon to the author, exposing his views, situation and purposes; an indisputable genealogical history of the family of Buonaparte, extracted from various histories of Italy and other public documents, all of which prove, beyond doubt, the illustrious rank they held in Italy, even in the 12th century, and it is somewhat singular, that 600 years ago Androlius Buonaparte was Grand Podesta, or Governor of Parma, where is now the wife of Napoleon as Grand Duchess! An important letter from the Duc de Cadore, explaining the intentions of the Emperor relating to Holland, the various united propositions of France and Russia to accommodate with England, and a variety of Anecdotes of the Author, of Napoleon, and of his family.

Although this work may contain many events already known to the public in a general way, yet coming from the hand of one who was on a throne, and who had an immediate share in all that occurred, joined to his universally acknowleged probity and good faith, form together an unanswerable motive for giving it the preference over any other modern publication; and it is assuredly next in point of interest to a work from the pen of Napoleon himself. It is already inquired after with eagerness upon the Continent; in Holland there is not a gentleman who will not be desirous of possessing it, as it contains an accurate statement of the political and financial

"IN the Chamber of Deputies the Abbé GREGOIRE has been excluded by a large majority, as is alleged, on account of his share in the fate of Louis XVI. The ostensible reason was of a technical kind, relating to some irregularity in his election; but the real feelings of the Deputies, and their personal dislike of the individual, were avowed with no little vehemence and tumult on the occasion. And yet M. Gregoire had no part whatever in the death of that monarch. He proposed, it is true, the abolition of royalty; and, on various occasions, used very unmeasured and unwarrantable language, because he used the language of the day. But he was not present in the

Assembly when the king was tried and comdemned. He was then on a mission at a considerable distance. He wrote a letter, indeed, to the President, expressing his clear opinion of the king's guilt, but yet condemning him not to die, but to live. He was decidedly adverse to inflicting upon him the punishment of death. It is worth inquiring how it has happened that, under these circumstances, and with so many around him, stained by still deeper shades of criminality, M. Gregoire should have become so generally obnoxious as to be rejected with indignation, and almost with abhorrence, from the Chamber of Deputies. To us the fact appears not difficult of explanation, In the first place, Gregoire stood forward singly in defence of Christianity, when proscribed by the almost unanimous voice of his revolutionary associates. His zeal in this hated cause roused the contempt and hatred of many even of his own political party.-In the next place, he had been an active, and we may say leading, member of the Society of Les Amis des Noirs; and, even during the iron reign of Buonaparte, he ceased not to lift his voice with courage and energy against the Slave Trade, and against that frightful system of colonial bondage which Buonaparte sought to restore in St. Domingo. He stood long single in this cause also. He became, therefore, the mark for all the arrows of detraction and calumny which the ex-colons, (a most powerful and numerous body,) the slave traders of Havre, Bourdeaux and Nantz, and all their adherents could direct against him.-But more than all this, since the restoration of Louis XVIII. he has exerted himself with extraordinary ability, perseverance and effect, in opening the eyes of his countrymen to the dangers likely to arise from the re-establishment of the Jesuits, and from the insidious pretensions of the Court of Rome to interfere in the affairs of the Gallican Church. He has become, therefore, on this account, particularly obnoxious to the bigoted adherents of the Papacy, and, above all, to that active, insinuating, restless and unprincipled body the Jesuits, who have spared no pains to blacken his character, and to confirm and increase the prejudices that had been excited against him on other grounds. Had he left the slave traders and Jesuits in peace, we believe that M. Gregoire might have very quietly taken his seat as a legislator. But the friends of the Pope's power and pretensions, and the friends also of Slavery and the Slave Trade, dreaded the presence of so powerful and so fearless an antagonist in the Chamber

of Deputies. The periodical work which expresses his sentiments on religious and ecclesiastical subjects had already done so much to defeat the machinations of the Court of Rome and its satellites the Jesuits, and to prevent the revival in France of the more gross corruptions of Popery, and had so boldly asserted the right of all the members of the Catholic Church to the use of the Holy Scriptures, that the utmost alarm and consternation were naturally enough created by his election, and the utmost efforts were therefore made to nullify it. Those efforts, as might be expected, have proved successful. Whether the decision to which they have led be right, we will not presume to determine. Thus much, however, we feel ourselves bound in common justice and charity to say, in behalf of one who, whatever may have been his errors, has, on many grounds, deserved well of his fellow-men, but who seems at present to be abandoned by all the world."*— -(Christian Observer, December, 1819.)

ITALY.-ROME.

M. l'Abbé CANCELLIERI, known throughout Europe as one of the most learned men living, author of Memoirs of St. Medicus, Description of the Papal Chapels, &c., published in 1817, a Catalogue of Works from the Propaganda Press at Rome, which is under his direction, and he has promised the public a History of the celebrated Propaganda Congregation. His advanced age and his great weakness, it is said, increase the impatience of the literati of Italy, for its appearance.

M. ALEXANDER MANZONI, grandson of the celebrated Beccaria, has lately published in Italian, Observations upon Catholic Morality, (8vo. 297 pp.) in which he combats various assertions scattered in "The History of the Italian Republics of the middle age."

"The periodical work to which we have alluded above, is entitled 'La Chronique Religieuse,' and may be had of Trenttel and Wurtz, 30, Soho Square. It deserves the particular attention of the Christian world at the present moment, being, perhaps, the first public attempt, since the days of Erasmus, by members of the Roman Catholic Church, to expose the errors and corruptions of their own body. The conductors of this work appear to be themselves Jansenists in principle."