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We

fects and palpable tendency to the renewal of war. have given, in the Parliamentary Debates, the reasonings at considerable length, of our most enlightened statesmen on those momentous subjects. We have traced with an impartial, and, we hope, unerring hand, the shades of difference which have arisen, between those great leading characters who have, since the commencement of their public career, acted together; but who have, under those extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances which form the subject matter of the history of the present year, taken up widely differing lines of conduct; and who have given new appellations and energies to political combination. Above all, we have endeavoured to point out the danger which must arise to the interests, nay, the very existence of the British empire, from the unchecked and uncontrouled spirit of aggrandisement and. ambition in the present ruler of France; and the utter impossibility there exists of our maintaining the usual relations of peace and amity, with his overweening and restless insolence.

On the subject of the French expedition to St. Domingo; on the affairs of Switzerland; and on that of the complicated system of the German indemnities, we trust we shall have been found to have manifested no inconsiderable research and labour.

To Ireland our attention has been particularly directed. That country rising every day in political importance, the

settle

settlement of whose domestic affairs was the ostensible cause, of the loss to the British empire of the union of the greatest and most brilliant assemblage of talents, she had ever witnessed, united in one administration; required more than ordinary attention. To attempt to trace the causes of her present discontents to their true source, and point out the most probable means to remedy them, we hope we have exhibited in our chapter on that subject; which at least will have the merit (if no other can be found) of novelty to recommend it.

Our colonial establishments, both in the East and West Indies, claimed a particular share of our attention, and which, to the utmost of our ability and extent of our information, we have bestowed upon those important subjects; nor will there, generally speaking, be found any matter which our “ History of Europe" usually embraces, which we have not brought before our readers in their progressive and natural order, and with as much minuteness as consisted with the nature of the work.

In our selections, we have been unusually attentive to what we conceived would be the taste and wish of our readers. Our "Chronicle" we have endeavoured to make more than usually interesting by the extent and variety of matter. In our extracts from the best works of the year, we have been particularly anxious to dwell on those which relate to Egypt, that very extraordinary country, which has been, from the remotest antiquity, the subject

of

of research and inquiry, and which on a late memorable occasion, was the theatre of the gallant exploits of our brave countrymen, and that of the humiliation and total discomfiture of our implacable enemy.

In our Miscellaneous and Poetical Articles, some original unpublished pieces, of no ordinary share of merit, are inserted.

We now dismiss our volume to the perusal and judgment of our kind, we hope partial, friends, the public. That public whom we have faithfully served for four and forty years; whose interests we have carefully guarded, and whose approbation and patronage has been the constant object of our unceasing and unwearied solicitude.

THE

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Meeting of the Imperial Parliament-meets at an earlier Period than usual. His Majesty's Speech from the Throne, announcing the Adjustment, by Convention, of the Differences with the Northern Powers of Europe-and of the Preliminaries of Peace being signed with France, Ec-Addresses of Thanks moved in the Lords and Commons.-Debates. -Address carried in both Houses.

THE
THE signature of the prelimi-
nary articles of peace, which
took place on the 1st day of October,
at London, was an event of such
importance, that his majesty con-
vened the parliament at an earlier
period than the session has been
for many years accustomed to com-
mence. Although the British con-
stitution had been preserved, and
this country (alone), of all the
powers engaged with France, had
VOL. XLIV.

maintained its integrity and its honour, yet it had been deemed so impossible to rescue the other states of Europe from the grasp of France, that peace was the universal wish of the nation. The insolence of several of the successive governments of France, their poverty even, which from not possessing any thing to lose, naturally excited them to try desperate measures for bettering their situation,

B

all

all inclined the people of this country to believe that peace was still distant, when suddenly and unexpectedly, the signature of the preliminaries was announced, and very shortly after his majesty's proclamation appeared, appointing the parliament to assemble on the 29th of October, for the dispatch of weighty and important business. This weighty and important business was immediately known to be, the official communication to the great council of the nation, of the signature of the preliminaries of the peace. The mass of the nation, at first, expressed the most enthusiastic joy at hearing of the reestablishment of peace, without canvassing the terms of it, or considering whether it was such a peace as this country had a right to expect; but when the parliament was about to assemble, the attention of every one was turned to the opinions which should be delivered there, by those men, whose superior abilities and opportunities of forming a correct judgment enabled them to throw the greatest possible light upon the subject.

On the 29th of October, his majesty opened the sessions, by a speech from the throne: he announced to his parliament that the differences with the Northern Pow ers had been adjusted by a convention with the emperor of Russia, to which the kings of Denmark and Sweden had expressed their readiness to accede. He stated, that, in this convention, the essential rights for which this country contended, were secured, and provision made that the exercise of them should be attended with as little molestation as possible, to the subjects of the contracting parties.

He next informed them that prefiminaries of peace had been signed between him and the French republic, in which he trusted that this important arrangement would be found to be conducive to the substantial interests of this country, and honourable to the British character. He also expressed his gratitude to Divine Providence for the bounty afforded to his people in the abundant produce of the last harvest, and his acknowledgments to: the distinguished valour and eminent services of his forces both by sea and land, the unprecedented exertions of the militia and fencibles, and the zeal and perseverance of the yeomanry and volunteer corps; and was persuaded that parliament would join with him in reflecting with peculiar satisfaction on the naval and military operations of the last campaign, and on the successful and glorious issue of the expedition to Egypt, which had been marked throughout by achievements, tending in their consequences and by their example to produce lasting advantages and honour to this country. He concluded by expressing his most fervent prayer, "that his people might experience the reward they had so much merited, in a full enjoyment of the blessings of peace, in a progressive increase of their commerce, credit and resources, and above all, in the undisturbed possession of their religion, laws and liberties, and in the safeguard and protection of that constitution, which it had been the great object of all their efforts to preserve, and which it was their most sacred duty to transmit unimpaired to their descendants." An address of thanks to his majesty, for his most gracious speech, was

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