1824.] 
tary as the gross results, and bear un- 
questionable testimony to the increasing 
comfort of the British people, as well 
as to the augmenting prosperity of Bri- 
tish commerce. We are quite sure 
that the more the items of this financial 
statement are examined, the more satis« 
factory they will appear to every candid 
inquirer, and the more ground for 
honest rejoicing they will supply to 
every man who takes a just pride in the 
glory, and feels a-patriotic interest in 
the prosperity of his native country. 
Great as are the realized advantages 
which .it discloses, the most obvious, 
and perhaps the most encouraging fea~ 
ture of this document is the proof it 
brings that the germ of British energy 
and industry, notwithstanding its past 
trials, is more vigorous and vivacious 
than ever; and that the commercial 
resources of our country, as far as such 
terms can apply to any human things 
whatever, are inexhaustible and illimit- 
able. 
FRANCE. 
In the royal procession which took 
place at Paris at the accession of 
Charles the Tenth, much stress is laid 
on the king being a: horseman. The 
procession passed before the statue of 
Henry the Fourth; and the “ king,’ it 
is emphatically said in the French 
papers, was like the representation of 
Henry the Fourth on horseback, . The 
writer, we presume, had in view the 
well-known aphorism of Burke, that a 
king of France should be constantly on 
horseback. The toile, in referring to 
a passage in the English Courier, re- 
lative to the dangers which threatened 
the Bourbon throne some years back, 
records a rather unintelligible story of 
a conspiracy then formed to exclude 
the present king from the throne, by 
adopting the model'of the proceedings 
in the English parliament against James, 
Duke of York, in the reign .of his 
brother Charles the Second. It is sur- 
prising that political system-builders, 
when generalizing habits always lead 
them on the wrong scent, do not per- 
ceive that the primdé facie analogy be- 
tween the two brothers of the race of 
Stuart, restored after the English rebel- 
lion, which produced a Cromwell, and thé 
‘two brothers of the race of Bourbon, 
restored after the French revolution, 
which produced a Napoleon, fails in 
this most essential point, that James 
the Second was a papist in the midst of 
a fervently protestant nation ; and that 
Charles the Tenth is a papist, in the 
Political Affairs in October. 
371 
midst of a nation of papists, too luke- 
warm in religious matters to contend 
about any point of faith. It appears 
that the abolished cénsorship was of a 
rigorous and vexatious character, am- 
ply warranting the joy expressed by 
the royalist, as well as liberal journals 
on the event of their recovered liberty. 
Some light has, during the last month, 
been thrown on the preceding darkness: 
All praise of the king or the Duc d’An- 
gouleme was forbidden to the opposi- 
tion journals, The simple announce- 
ment of a book, not proceeding from a 
ministerial quarter, was also forbidden : 
and when the editors of the various 
journals requested explanations respect- 
ing the suppression of articles, which 
to them appeared politically innocent, 
they were pleasantly told that it was 
an enigma, and recommended to solve 
it in the best manner they could. A 
political Gidipus is not required for 
that purpose. The enigma probably 
was to increase the favour of the 
abolition, by rendering the evil to be 
abolished as intolerable as possible, 
while it lasted. King Charles” has 
hitherto persevered in the prudent sys- 
tem of conciliation with which he com- 
menced his reign, To Excelmans, a 
general of the hundred days, he said, 
on his being presented at court, that 
he remembered nothing of the past, 
except that when Buonaparte ordered 
him to pursue his present royal master, 
he took the wrong road. ‘This discreet 
tone of policy leaves little to hope to 
the rash violence, and personal ambi- 
tion of ultra-royalist partizans on one 
side, or ultra-liberal on the other. M. 
de Chateaubriand’s party and sparkling 
pamphlet on the new reign has been 
praised in the royal circle; but M. 
Benjamin Constant; who is, say the 
salons, becoming religious, has been 
received at court. The consequence of 
this moderation is, that the funds im- 
prove, and a growing confidence is every 
day observed in French commercial 
transactions, and the employment of 
capital. 
: SPAIN. 
The intelligence from Spain exhibits 
a more than usually revoiting aspect of 
political deformity. The principal cities 
are become the seat of military com- 
missions, to which individuals of all 
ranks and professions, civil and military, 
are subjected. The persecuting spirit 
of monkery is triumphant, terror is gene- 
rally-prevalent, and partial measures are 
constantly taking place in Andalusia, 
3 BQ Arragon, 
