remarks, we shall conclude our extracts from this interesting little volume, in full expectation of being enabled hereafter to view the subject with many new lights thrown upon it.

"But although there are no ruins in the immediate vicinity of the river, by far the most stupendous and surprising mass of all the remains of Babylon is situated in this desert about six miles to the S. W. of Hellah. It is called by the Arabs Birs Nemroud, by the Jews Nebuchadnezzar's Prison, and has been described both by Père Emanuel and Niebuhr (who was prevented from inspecting it closely by fear of the Arabs), but I believe it has not been noticed by any other traveller. Rennel, on the authority of D'Anville, admits Père Einanuel's ruin into the limits of Babylon, but excludes Niebuhr's, which he says cannot be supposed to have been less than two or three miles from the S. W. angle of the city. No one who had not actually examined the spot could ever imagine them in fact to be one and the same ruin.,

"I visited the Birs under circumstances peculiarly favorable to the grandeur of its effect. The morning was at first stormy, and threatened a severe fall of rain; but as we approached the object of our journey, the heavy clouds separating discovered the Birs frowning over the plain, and presenting the appearance of a circular hill crowned by atower with a high ridge extending along the foot of it. Its being entirely concealed from our view during the first part of our ride, preverited our acquiring the gradual idea, in general so prejudicial to effect, and so particularly lamented by those who visit the Pyramids. Just as we were within the proper distance, it burst at once upon our sight in the midst of rolling masses of thick black clouds, partially obscured by that kind of haze whose indistinctness is one great cause of sublimity, whilst a few strong catches of stormy light, thrown upon the desert in the back ground, serve to give some idea of the immense extent, and dreary solitude, of the wastes in which this venerable ruin stands.

"The Birs Nemroud is a mound of an oblong figure, the total circumference of which is seven hundred and sixty-two yards. At the eastern side it is cloven by a deep furrow, and is not more than fifty or sixty feet high; but at the western it rises in a conical figure to the elevation of one hundred and ninety-eight feet, and on its summit is a solid pile of brick thirty-seven feet high by twenty-eight in breadth, diminishing in thickness to the top, which is broken and irregular, and rent by a large fissure extending through a third of its height. It is perforated by small square holes disposed in rhomboids. The fine burnt bricks of which it is built have inscriptions on them; and so admirable is the cement, which appears to be lime-mortar, that, though the layers are so close together that it is difficult to discern what substance is between them, it is nearly impossible to extract one of the bricks whole. The other parts of the summit of this hill are occupied by immense fragments of brick-work of no determinate figure, tumbled together and converted into solid vitrified masses, as if they had undergone the action of the fiercest fire, or been blown up with gunpowder, the layers of the bricks being perfectly discernible, a curious fact, and one for which I am utterly incapable of accounting. These, incredible as it may seem, are actually the ruins spoken of by Père Emanuel, who takes no sort of notice of the prodigions mound on which they are elevated.

"It is almost needless to observe that the whole of this mound is itself ›a ruin, channelled by the weather and strewed with the usual fragments

and with pieces of black stone, sand-stone, and marble. In the eastern part layers of unburnt brick are plainly to be seen, but no reeds were discernible in any part: possibly the absence of them here, when they are so generally seen under similar circumstances, may be an argument of the superior antiquity of the ruin. In the north side may be seen traces of building exactly similar to the brick-pile. At the foot of the mound a step may be traced, scarcely elevated above the plain, excceding in extent by several feet each way the true or measured base; and there is a quadrangular inclosure round the whole, as at the Mujelibè, but much more perfect and of greater dimensions. At a trifling distance from the Birs, and parallel with its eastern face, is a mound not inferior to that of the Kasr in elevation, but much longer than it is broad. On the top of it are two Koubbès or oratories, one called Makam Ibrahim Khalil, and said to be the place where Ibrahim was thrown into the fire by order of Nemroud, who surveyed the scene from the Birs; the other, which is in ruins, Makam Saheb Zeman; but to what part of Mehdy's life it relates I am ignorant. In the oratories I searched in vain for the inscriptions mentioned by Niebuhr; near that of Ibrahim Khalil is a small excavation into the mound, which merits no attention; but the mound itself is curious from its position, and correspondence with others, as I shall in the sequel have occasion to remark.

"Round the Birs are traces of ruins to a considerable extent. To the north is the canal which supplies Mesjid Ali with water, which was dug at the expense of the Nuwaub Shujahed doulah, and called after his Country Hindia. We were informed that from the summit of the Birs, in a clear morning, the gilt dome of Mesjid Ali might be seen." pp. 34

38.

The result of the preceding extensive survey of the proudest remaining monuments of Asiatic antiquity, seems to be, that although we have doubtless ascertained the site, and from evidence both external and internal, many of the public edifices of Babylon; yet the actual extent of the circumference of the great city remains unknown; and must ever do so, unless the vestiges of its vast wal's shall hereafter be accurately traced by still more assiduous research. If the Birs and Della Valle's ruin so very distant, were ever included within its walls, the mensurations assigned by the Father of History must be resorted to, however apparently incredible, to solve the difficulty; and Herodotus will thereby obtain a new and unfading laurel. In our present state of doubt and uncertainty, it will be safest for us to coincide in the rational conjecture of some able geogra phers, that those enormous lines of demarcation were intended rather to designate the bounds of the District, than of the City of Babylon.

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ART. V.-Des Révolutionnaires et du Ministère Actuel. Par M***. Précédé d'un Mémoire Historique sur Fouché de Nantes, maintenant Duc d'Otrante, par l'Editeur Anglois, Murray, 1815.

THIS ably written pamphlet retraces the political events of the two last years, and discloses the present state of parties in France. It is given to the world with a view to enforce that conduct which the future welfare of France exacts from her present monarch; to develope the policy of the Revolutionists; and to recommend that the doctrine of legitimacy be vigorously upheld by the Allied Sovereigns.

"Il semble," says Duclos, "qu'un peuple entier ne puisse tirer aucun fruit de l'expérience." Hist. de Louis XI. Liv. I.

If the aphorism was ever true as applied to a nation, it was pre-eminently so in regard to the French people at that period of their history, when they bowed themselves down to the powe ers of evil, "obsequiously wrought their bidding," as if they had been the benefactors of their country; and saw with brutal apathy the bloody career of a series of inhuman beings, whose crimes were consummated in the power they bestowed on Napoleon Buonaparte.

Our own Country, at least, will not come within the scope of the maxim we have cited, since it is notorious that the most valuable blessings of our constitution have grown by degrees out of the operation of circumstances, and of a spirit and capacity to direct them for the common benefit.

Attempts are made to represent the doctrine of legitimacy as detrimental to the interests of the community; but in fact, the supremacy of the people, and that of a royal dynasty, seek but the same object under different denominations. It is agreed that power is held for the good of the people; and that their form of government should be that which is best suited to their manners and disposition. If this government receive its head from a particular family by the laws of succession-if the power of that head be sanctioned by the consent and allegiance of the people through several centuries, if, under its administration, though liable to the errors of human nature, the people have become great, powerful, and happy-it is evident that the right of legitimacy is most injuriously characterized as a hostile and imperious domination that fiercely separates its own welfare from the happiness of those for whose advantage its claims have been asserted. While it is exercised for their benefit, there can be no

reasonable cause why they should desire to dissolve the existing connexion; or to resume the power acquired whether by prescription, or by what they call an original compact.

But we shall be told they may do this, if they see occasion or merely fancy so; you cannot, to use the words of a celebrated orator, draw up a bill of indictment against a whole nation—a whole nation cannot be in the wrong; or, if they be, there is no remedy; the legitimates must bear their martyrdom patiently. Quidquid multis peccatur, inultum est.

We must, however, maintain, though we admit the lamenta ble fact of impunity, that it is quite as practicable for a nation to act with injustice towards their rulers, as for the latter to oppress the people; and that neither the people of France, nor those atrocious knaves, and "fools aspiring to be knaves" who acted in the people's name, could allege aught in the conduct of Louis XVI. to palliate the foulness of his murder, or to vindicate the horrors of their Revolution. Let us concede, that the policy of the government may not have kept pace with the general spread of intelligence; and that both the wishes and the understanding of the great political family required a larger measure both of freedom and of indulgence. But Louis was always indulgent and willing to grant fully as much freedom as his subjects were qualified to enjoy; and from a view of those blood-stained orgies of drunken liberty, and those ruthless violations of overweening despotism, which have since been witnessed, unbiassed observers are at no loss to conclude, whether, if unchecked from without, the domestic convulsions of France would ever have proceeded with wisdom or terminated in happiness.

Our Author states and inculcates, that the Revolutionists and their proceedings are knit together by a principle as secret and as certain, as that which unites the societies of Illuminati or the Brethren of Free-masonry. He attributes their excesses and the insane enterprises of Buonaparte their supplanter to their inveterate hatred of legitimate princes and the dread of retribution for their past enormities. He animadverts on the political error which caused the allies to identify the affections of the French nation with the cause of Buonaparte. It was imagined that the people who had overrun Europe under his direction, must have embarked their dearest hopes with his desperate yentures; and that moderate proceedings were necessary to soothe their wounded pride. But in Europe, as in Asia, bravery is to be found without honor; and a high degree of submission to the actual government, unconnected with public virtue. An inde

finite number of human lives were allowed to the demands of the tyrant; and the youth of the recruits who supplied his army, facilitated their moral corruption and their ready co-operation in his outrages upon the nations he invaded. With such resources, there was little occasion for political genius in the governor of France; nor were his armies replenished from the zeal of the people. When the Allies first entered Paris, the principle of legitimacy might have been acted upon with a vigour exempt from the necessity of mortifying sacrifices. But the Revolutionists perceived the indecision of their conquerors: they spoke as the organs of the national will; and the ministers of the overthrown government were retained. From this moment, we are to date the origin of the conspiracy, the agents of which afterwards surrounded the House of Bourbon. The consequence was foreseen by the Royalists; but their surmises were treated with indifference or derision.

On the first occupation of Paris, the people had been won over chiefly to the cause of the Royalists; and the republicans, as being inimical to the latter, were unanimous with the agents of Buonaparte. The classes by which the public mind was represented, were therefore simplified into two. The ardour of the people and their respect for the Sovereign, were impaired by the retention of the ministers of the overthrown adventurer; and the disaffection of the army, which was left constituted of the old materials, depressed to a still lower standard the expectations of those who looked to the king for the redress of their Country's misfortunes. The Royalists were not wanting in their duty; but they were treated there, and here too-as mere alarmists.

"Dans les villes, les partisans de la cause royale, abreuvés d'affronts et de dégoûts, éloignés de toutes les places, souvent même chassés de celles qu'ils avoient occupées, voyoient avec des alarmes sans cesse croissantes, les fauteurs de la Révolution renouveller leurs anciens conciliabules, établir dans ces reunions des signes mystérieux, laisser échapper souvent des menaces indiscrètes et des cris de révolte, s'emporter même quelquefois jusqu'à des voies de fait, sûrs de l'impunité, parce que les magistrats étoient décidés à ne rien voir, à ne rien entendre, et que ces misérables trouvoient pour les absoudre assez de complices dans tous les Tribunaux. Cependant ces mêmes royalistes n'abandonnoient point la juste cause, quoique tout semblât les abandonner. De toutes les provinces du royaume, ils ne cessoient d'envoyer des rapports sur tant d'indignités dont ils étoient les témoins, rapports que leur conformité singulière dans les circonstances principales, rendoit encore plus alarmans, parce qu'elle étoit un témoignage irrécusable de leur véracité. On ignoroit quels étoient les projets et le but des conspirateurs, mais il étoit démontré qu'on conspi