temporary possession of it. These proceedings occasioned two proclamations to be issued in December 12th, addressed to the Tyrol ese, one from marshal count Bellegarde, commander of the Austrian army destined against Italy, who was taking his way through that country; the other, from the Bavarian general-commissary, baron von Lerchenfeld, in which the insurgents were reminded of their duty, and threatened with force of arms should they delay to return to their allegiance. Later advices stated, that these addresses had produced the desired effect, and that the insurgents were quietly going back to their houses. The passage of the Rhine into the French territory was the object which principally occupied the allied armies on its bank during the last month of the year. It was effected with little or no opposition at various points,not a single French army appearing in the field to defend the frontier. The strong fort of Huningen in Alsace was invested, and the allied troops spread over that province, and Franche Comté. In these alarming circumstances, Napoleon issued a decree, dated December 26th, the tenor of which strongly marked his sense of the impending dangers. He -announced by it the mission of senators or counsellors of state into the military divisions, in quality of his commissioners extraordinary, armed with powers relative to providing and organizing the means of defence, which in effect suspended all the magistracies and other authorities in the country, and extended the immediate agency of military despotism to every part. The commissioners nominated were 30 in number, to be accompanied by as many law officers. By a subsequent decree an adjournment of the legislative body was declared. The last important event of the year was the entrance into Geneva of an advanced guard of the allies, the French garrison of which had retired upon its appearance. At this momentous period, when France, which had for so many years, with her insatiable avidity for conquest, been extending her victorious arms through every neighbouring state, beheld herself in turn invaded from her barrier of the Pyrenees, and the river which she had once fixed as her eastern boundary, we close our account of the German and Spanish campaigns. Few incidents worthy of record have occurred during the present year in the parts of Europe not directly engaged in that war which has been the common concern of so large a portion of it. The island of Sicily, though its future destiny is probably deeply involved in the final event of the war, is one of those parts: its singular and equivocal situation rendering it rather a passive spectator, than an agent, in the scenes transacting on the great theatre. In the history of the last year, the formation of a Sicilian constitution analogous to the English, and supported by British influence, the attempts of the queen to raise an opposition to it, her removal from court, and the temporary renunciation of the regal authority by the king in favour of his son, were briefly recorded. The notorious incapacity of the king was supposed to preclude any idea of his return to power; but on the 9th of March a royal despatch was issued at Palermo, in which the king of the two Sicilies is made to inform his people, that his health, the ill state of which had induced him to disburden himself of the cares of government, being now re-established, he had resolved to resume the functions of royalty. It was very improbable that this should be a spontaneous movement; and accordingly we are in formed in the following month, that it was the result of a counterrevolutionary project planned by the queen and count Palermo, the defeat of which terminated in the king's total abdication, and the queen's retiring to Sardinia, from whence she proceeded to Zante in June, where she tock up her residence. The state of the island now appeared sufficiently tranquil to permit lord William Bentinck to part with a large detachment of the English troops for the Spanish service in Valencia, and to follow it in person; but the flame of party was only smothered, not extinguished. In the month of July it is stated that a commotion took place at Palermo, which was the first explosion of a conspiracy having for its object the subversion of the government, and the overthrow of the English interest. The conspirators had laid a plan of setting free a gang of desperate criminals confined in the principal gaol, previously to which, they attempted to seduce the Sicilian and Italian soldiery in the barracks from their allegiance, by sending a rabble to infuse discontent among them, and gain them over by presents of money, provisions, and clothes, of which articles they had been left scantily furnished. The exertions, however, of general Macfarlane, rendered this part of the scheme abortive. But the machinations of faction were not confined to enterprizes of this kind. In the parliament which opened in July, a number of disaffected persons had procured themselves to be returned as representatives to the House of Commons, where, as well as in the Upper House, an opposition to the measures of administration had been organized, which obliged the Sicilian ministers to tender their resignation the hereditary prince. The offer had been accepted, and a new ministry had been appointed; but the same spirit of opposition was said still to be prevalent in both houses about the commencement of August. This situation of affairs perhaps hastened the return of lord W. Bentinck from Spain in the following month. From that time we have no particular accounts of the state of Sicily, which may therefore be presumed to be externally tranquil. A visitation of that terrible disease, the Plague, in the island of Malta, spread alarm through all the neighbouring ports and islands in the Mediterranean, and was regarded with particular interest in England on account of the British troops stationed in it, and its commercial connexions with this country. From a relation communicated by Mr. Green, the head of the military medical establishment in Malta, who had acquired previous experience of the plague from his service in Egypt, it appears that having, in company with Mr. Iliff, apothecary to the forces, visited, on April 6th, the two persons who first died under suspicious circumstances, the captain and a seaman of a vessel coming from Alexandria, they were so well convinced of the pestilential nature of the symptoms, that they recommended burning the ship and cargo, and putting in practice the preventive measures which were afterwards resorted to. Either, however, from neglect of this advice, or from the introduction of new infection, the disease gained a footing in the island, and other deaths occurred about the beginning of May attended with circumstances still more decisive. The Maltese physicians, with that reluctance to pronounce a dreaded name which has often been prejudicial in the beginning of a pestilential contagion, chose to employ the term of malignant contagious fever in reporting the existence of an infectious disease; which produced a solemn protest from Mr. Green, dated May 13th, against the use of an indefinite appellation which might delude the public with respect to the real nature of a distemper that ought to be called by its proper and common name of the Plague. Previously to this, however, on May 5th, the government had issued a proclamation announcing the disease, and recommending precautionary measures, which were observed only by the English, as the small number of deaths rendered the natives incredulous as to its true designation. From this time it spread over the whole -island, but its ravages appear to have been most considerable in the crowded streets of the city, where many whole families were swept away. A letter, dated June 17th, says, that a habitation in the Strada Pozza had originally 52 inhabitants, all of whom were dead except a little girl, and she was infected on that morning. Fort Manuel was allotted for the reception of persons not yet infected, who had been in infected houses; but it became necessary at length to send infected persons thither, whence numbers died in it. Great difficulty was experienced in putting into execution the orders for preventing communication between families and individuals of the different districts, the lower classes being less afraid of the disease, than averse to strict rules of confinement; the mortality, however, was not great in proportion to the vast populousness of the island, in which respect it is equalled by few places in the globe. Up to the 18th of June it is stated at 518. At the end of July the deaths had amounted to 2,400. Those in August were returned at 1,042. They began to diminish in September, and towards the end of October were reduced to two or three daily. On November 3rd, sir T. Maitland, the governor, issued a proclamation, stating that no new case of the plague had occurred in Valetta (the capital) or Floriana for more than a fortnight, and that there was every reason to hope that the inhabitants of the island would shortly be relieved from the restraints which had been necessary for their security. It does not appear that during the whole time of its prevalence it got into the quarters or barracks of the British troops, though a few of the foreign soldiers were infected. Gibraltar was this year again visited by a contagious and fatal disease which, though at first reported to have been the plague, was recognised as a fever similar to that, of 1804. It first appeared on the 5th of September in the persons of two porters, who were taken ill and died within a few hours of each other. New cases soon occurring, it was declared contagious by proclamation, and proper means were adopted to prevent the infection from spreading, All strangers were removed from the garrison, and many of the resident families quitted it. A lazaretto was formed on the neutral ground, quarantines were established in the houses where it had appeared, and the town was divided into districts under proper inspectors. The contagion was not confined to the town's-people, but reached the military, and several officers fell victims to it. The mortality of the disease was considerable in proportion to the number affected, but happily its ravages were not of long duration. On December 23, the port was opened, and the communication by land was restored, and clean bills of health were issued. At the time of the prevalence of this epidemic, the fever at Cadiz which has been already mentioned, and which was apparently of the same nature, was in a progressive state, and caused all vessels arriving from that port to be placed under quarantine. CHAPTER CHAPTER XVI. American War.-Re-election of Mr. Madison.-Repulse of the American General Smyth.-Retreat of Dearborn from Champlain. Report of Committee of Foreign Relations.-Additional Blockade of the Coast.-President's Message and Close of Congress.-General Winchester's Defeat and Capture.-American Post at Ogdenburgh forced-York taken by the Americans.- Capture of Mobile.-Congress re-assembled, and President's Message.Affair on the Miami. -Fort George taken.-Attack on Sackett's Harbour.-Action on the Ontario, and at Burlington Heights.Capture of the Corps under Boestler-Landings in the Chesapeake.-Torpedoes and exploding Machines employed.-Conclusion of the Session of Congress, and new Taxes. Occurrences on Lakes Ontario and Champlain.-Failure of Attack on Sanduski.—Reconnoissance on Fort George.-British Force on Lake-Erie captured. General Proctor's Defeat.-Actions on Lake Ontario-Invasion of Lower Canada by Hampton repulsed.-Wilkinson's Advance by the River St. Lawrence frustrated, and a Corps of his Army defeated.-Conclusion of the Campaign.-American System of Retaliation. E must now turn our eyes W upon a theatre of war, the scenes of which afford none of that imposing grandeur which in some measure compensates to the mind the contemplation of human misery. It is however too much our own concern to be regarded with the indifference of mere spectators; and the novelty of some of its principles, with the political considerations it involves, render it perhaps more interesting to a philosophical observer than the perpetual recurrence of resembling events in the conflicts of long-established pow ers. Before the expiration of the last year, an election for President and Vice-president of the United States VOL. LV. occasioned a new trial of strength between the war and peace parties, which was decided by the re-election of Mr. Madison as President, on December 2nd; the votes in his favour being 128, against 89 for his competitor Mr. Clinton. The élection of Mr. Gerry for Vicepresident was carried by nearly the same majority. In this election, as in the war question, the voters on the successful side were generally of the states from Pennsylvania southwards, and on the other, of those from New York northwards. Some changes in the American ministry succeeded, which, however, made no change in the state of parties. A partial action, in which the [N] |