stages. The revolution of 1830 exhibited the populace of Paris in a comparatively favorable light. The taste of the Parisians is singularly displayed in the ornaments with which their principal cemetery, PERE LA CHAISE is decorated. Its approaches are strewed with flowers, which women are constantly employed in gathering, making into chaplets, and selling to the pious, to strew around the graves of their deceased friends. The cem

etery more resembles a flower garden than the grave yards of other countries.

The highest branches of science are cultivated in the city, and in other parts of the kingdom, with great attention. Previous to the first revolution there were twenty-three universities in the nation; that of Paris was the most celebrated. The present number of universities in the kingdom, is forty-one, with twelve thousand students. The system of primary instruction was discouraged by the Bourbons. In 1828, Dupin states that 15.000 communes were without primary schools, and that one half the people were unable to read or write. Since that period, more attention has been paid to the subject of education. There are many public buildings of great architectural beauty in Paris, among which the palace of the Legion of Honor is distinguished for its chaste appearance.

2

HAVRE. Havre is an important port at the mouth of the Seine, with a good harbor, and is the principal place where the trade from the United States to the north of France centres. Its population is 12,000. Ship navigation extends up the river forty five miles to Rouen.

BORDEAUX. Bordeaux, at the mouth of the Garonne, is the most important port on the Atlantic, and the principal place of export for wine and brandy. The average annual export of wine from this port alone is 100,000 hogsheads, and of brandy 20,000. The population of Bordeaux is 100,000.

RELATIONS OF FRANCE WITH THE United States.

MARSEILLES. Marseilles is the principal commercial port on the Mediterranean, and from its mild climate and healthy situation, is a great resort of invalids in pursuit of health. Its population is 115,000. Toulon on the Mediterranean, and Brest on the Atlantic, are the principal stations of the French navy, and are strongly fortified.

RELATIONS OF FRANCE WITH THE UNITED STATES. Our relations with France have recently been disturbed by a singular course pursued by the French government. The history of the subject is briefly this:-The American government has for years past, claimed from France an indemnity for spoliations committed by her upon our commerce. President Jackson in his message of 1829, spoke in serious terms of the necessity of bringing our claims to a settlement: the then French ministry took exception to the message, as containing a threat, under which they were not willing to act; the American minister refuted the construction put upon that document, and at the same time reminded the ministry that the message was not addressed to any foreign power, but to a branch of the American government. This statement proved satisfactory, and a treaty was entered into on the 4th of July, 1831, in which France stipulated to pay our government 25,000,000 of francs, in six annual instalments, and the United States agreed to give France certain commercial advantages. The ratifications of this treaty were exchanged at Washington in 1832, (the French king having previously ratified it,) and five days afterwards Congress passed the acts necessary to secure to France the stipulated advantages.

The government of the United States, having confidence that provision would be made for the payment of the first instalment, which became due in 1833, negotiated a draft for the amount, through the bank of the United States; this draft the government of France allowed to be protested.

Louis Phillippe expressed his regret to our minister at Paris, that the chambers had not made the appropriation for the payment of the sum agreed on in the treaty, and the French minister in this country stated to our government that the subject of the appropriation should be pressed on the chambers as soon as possible. Notwithstanding these assurances, the French chambers met on the 31st of July, 1834, and also on the first of December, without paying the least attention to the subject of appropriation.

In his message of December, 1834, President Jackson, knowing at that time the failure of the chambers to act on the appropriation at the July session, recommended to Congress the expediency of adopting retaliatory measures, unless justice was speedily done us.

France pretended that this recommendation was insulting to

SPAIN; ITS EXTENT.

POPULATION.

GOVERNMENT.

her dignity, recalled her minister, offered passports to our minister, and gave notice to the chambers that diplomatic intercourse with the American government was suspended.

Soon after, the chambers made the appropriation, on condition that the French government should receive satisfactory explanations of the President's message.

At this stage Great Britain offered her mediation, which was accepted by both. The question to be submitted to the mediator was, in substance, whether the United States should accept of the remonstrances of France for an imaginary insult, in satisfaction for an acknowledged debt of five millions of dollars. The French government, aware of what the decision must be on such a question, accepted of what they called an apology in the President's message of 1835, and paid the instalments which had fallen due. The apology which they found, was a simple declaration, that no insult or threat was expressed, implied, or intended, in the message complained of.

SPAIN; ITS EXTENT. The Spanish peninsula, comprehending the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, and the republic of Andorra, is separated from France by the Pyrenees, a chain of mountains extending 400 miles, from the bay of Biscay on the Atlantic, to the gulf of Lyons on the Mediterranean, and surrounded on all other sides by the waters of the two seas. The peninsula contains 225,600 square miles; Spain, 157,110; Portugal, 38,380, and Andorra, 110.

POPULATION. Spain contains 14,000,000 inhabitants, and its present colonies, 4,000,000. It maintains an army in time of peace, of 50,000 effective men, and including invalids, pensioners, and those on the sick list, its military establishment amounts to 120,000, with an enrolled militia of 40,000. The Spanish navy consists of ten ships of the line, sixteen frigates, and thirty small vessels, manned with 14,000 men.

GOVERNMENT. The government of Spain is an absolute monarchy, with no constitution, and with few restrictions to regulate its exercise. At an early period, Spain had a political body called a cortes, consisting of the nobility and clergy of the first rank, of several orders of knights, and representatives of the principal cities. Neither their numbers nor their powers were defined. When assembled they assumed important functions, and were found to be a troublesome restraint on monarchy; they were abolished by Charles the first, in 1538. In the different periods of the French revolution, Spain was first at war with that nation, and then subjected to its control. Within the last thirty years it has undergone several revolutions, the final result of which has been the re-establishment of its ancient despotism.

ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT.

INTERFERENCE OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE. In 1820, the holy alliance, desirous to prevent any revolution favorable to the liberties of the people, took the affairs of Spain into their keeping. They demanded of Spain the abolition of the cortes, and of the constitution of 1812, and the restoration of Ferdinand to absolute power. To enforce these claims, France, under their direction, in 1823, marched an army of 100,000 men into Spain, and being joined by a considerable party of absolutists, under the influence of the clergy, reinstated Ferdinand in absolute power. Clothed once more with despotic authority, he sought to re-establish the inquisition; but by the advice of the holy alliance he was induced to abandon this object, and to make some concessions to the people.

In

From 1823, Ferdinand continued to govern Spain in the character of a weak, bigoted despot, under the influence of ecclesiastics, until his death in 1833. He died at the age of forty-nine, and left a female child two years old, whom he declared by a royal decree a short time before his death, to be his successor, and her mother, the queen, to be regent of the kingdom, during the minority. He left also a brother, Don Carlos, who, until the birth of this child, was heir presumptive to the crown. that character he had attached to him a large corps of expectants. By promises of adherence to the ancient regimen, he had secured the favor of all the ecclesiastics and absolutists. To the party of the queen regent, was attached the last ministry of Ferdinand and the liberals, or those in favor of a constitutional government. The hereditary right was in the infant queen. Thus arranged, and nearly equally balanced, the inhabitants of Spain have engaged in a furious civil war, butchering each other by hundreds, to determine whether they shall be governed by a bigoted zealot, or an infant female.

ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT. The ecclesiastical establishment of Spain, previous to the French revolution, numbered 256,000 incumbents; one to fifty-three souls. In 1826, they amounted to 146,696 persons; one to ninety-two souls. Of these, sixty-one were archbishops and bishops; 55,608 officiating clergymen under the various names of canons, prebends, vicars, and curates; 13,000 hermits and pilgrims; 61,327 monks belonging to convents, and 31,400 nuns. The church income derived from its real estate, is estimated at $51,000,000. That derived from tithes, confessions, &c. at twice that sum. It would be a matter of much consolation to the philanthropists, when viewing the present condition of Spain, if this corps of ecclesiastics supported at the public expense, were employed in diffusing useful knowledge and correct morals among the people. But the reverse is the case.

The clergy have the direction of the education and literature of the nation, and one of their principles is, that the bible is not