settlement, who contend, that by their charter they are not subject to the laws, orders, statutes, or constitutions of any other part of Australia.

It is not without interest, that we learn, that a newspaper has been actually established in the Sandwich Islands. The first number of this print contains the following letter from the king to the editor, in a translation which professes to be literal:-"I assent to the letter which you sent me. It affords me pleasure to see the works of other lands and things that are new; if I was there, I should very much desire to see. I have said to Kinau, make printing presses. My thought is ended. Love to you and Reynolds. By King Kauikeauli." The same journal furnishes some curious particulars of the state and progress of these islands. Honolulu, the capital of Otaheite, contains about 6,000 souls. From the 1st of July to the 14th of December, 1836, there were 154 arrivals at the port, of which eighty were brigs and schooners belonging to the country, fifty-six from the United States, and seventeen from England. An idea may be formed from the advertisements in the "Gazette" of the Sandwich Islands of the state of civilization to which the natives have arrived. Madeira, sherry, Bourdeaux, and Champagne wines, Jamaica rum, ladies' shoes from Paris, ices, eau de Cologne, pianos, sofas, silks,

ribands, playing cards, muskets, and saddlery, are among the articles announced for sale.

A school was building on a large scale for instructing and supporting the children of the poor. A benevolent society, for the succour of poor and sick seamen, was in existence. New brick houses were in formation; and such are the altered habits of the inhabitants, that only one instance of theft had been known to occur in the town during six months. Moreover, a treaty of commerce was concluded in November, 1837, between the king and Lord F. Russell of H. M. S. Acteon, which secures to British subjects the right to establish themselves in the Sandwich Islands, to build houses, and import all sorts of merchandize, and to quit the island at pleasure; and it is provided that, in case of death, their effects shall be delivered up to their executors or heirs, or in default of such, to the consul. A singular document appeared in the Times newspaper of the 25th of September, purporting to be an ordinance of the king of the Sandwich Islands, for rejecting the Catholic religion." It forbids any one to teach "the peculiarities of the pope's religion," or "its ceremonies to be exhibited" in the kingdom, "for that it is not proper that two religions should be found in this small kingdom." All vessels are, moreover, prohibited from bringing any teacher of that religion into his Majesty's dominions.

liarity will be found exemplified in the Session, whose proceedings we are about to record. But, in truth, it would be no less a mistake to infer from this, that the mind of the French people is absorbed by political trifling, than to confound the counters on a gamingtable with the stakes themselves. Nearly all the questions, which come under discussion, are to be looked upon as to a great extent symbolical of something, not the less understood that it is withheld from exhibition to the public gaze; and it may happen, that an affair, in appearance puerile and almost absurd, involves indirectly some point of the greatest constitutional moment. Thus, while the entire Chamber, is refining about the exact meaning of a phrase, or adjusting the pretensions of two rival synonyms, it is perhaps determining the fate of a ministry; and a debate about a suit of uniform, may, in like manner, involve a covert attack on the influence of the Crown.

It becomes daily more and more doubtful, how far a parliamentry government, after the English fashion, is adapted to the genius of the French people; and in the event, it will probably be found necessary to abandon it for a simpler form. Our constitution has flowed insensibly from the national character, of which it may be said to be the express image. It could never have arrived at its present maturity and vigour, among a people less patient of anomaly, less indifferent to systems, and less concerned about the question of causes, where the results are practically convenient. And, perhaps, even we ourselves are getting more logical than is consistent with its permanency. But the

French are our opposite in all the respects just mentioned. Their logic is too acute and sensitive to endure the slightest irregularity in a system, or to concede to a theory any thing short of its legitimate, its scientific developement. Every cause with them must have its due effect; every principle must admit of being pushed to its extreme limit. Hence the problem, on the solution of which, seems to depend the government of July," The king reigns, but does not govern." A constitu tional fiction, which may serve to give a general idea of the limited action of the Crown in the English system, which is only held together by the avoidance of extremes, and where the various powers of the State run one into the other, and form eccentric and often contradictory relations, which can afford no safe analogy to other communities, and which are denoted by a set of conventional maxims, only applicable to themselves. The adage in question is one of them. Apply it in its full and literal acceptation to any given state of things, and it amounts to little short of an absurdity, reducing the monarch to the condition of a mere pageant, or of a machine for signing ordinances. In time, no doubt it may acquire a definite meaning, that is, whenever long practice shall have determined the point beyond which, generally speaking, it has not been found convenient to extend the active interference of the Crown. But it cannot assist in that determination. As a rule it is of no value. It is a result, not a principle.

Louis Philippe, however, whose talents for government are certainly not inferior to those of any of the

numerous ministers who have been called to his council, resolutely claims that predominance in his own cabinet, which he is so well qualified to exercise, but which the constitution, as understood in France, has denied. If the Parliamentary leaders concede too little, it is probable that he demands too much, relinquishing little to his council, but the legal responsibility of his acts, and obtaining in each cabinet, either by treaty or by address, a personal ascendancy which the principal men in France seem resolved to brook no longer. This amongst other inconveniences has brought the monarch into personal competition with his subjects. The two political rivals in France at the present moment, are said to be the king and M. Thiers.

In our last volume, we have recorded the dissolution of the Chamber which had sat since 1834. That assembly left behind it a character for instability and caprice. Subservient, without fidelity; independent but not

Number of Deputies.

disinterested; it had furnished majorities to a series of administrations; but it afforded a steady support to none. Broken, as it was, into petty factions and pervaded by egotism, which is the bane of the country, it could never be known beforehand what turn an important debate might take; what under-current of personal interest might determine the votes of the majority, or even what effect might not be produced by a pointed phrase, or by a specious and subtle logic. The successive ministerial revolutions, which it witnessed, themselves the result of personal intrigue, rather than of public causes, had still further shaken its always imperfect organization; and it was dissolved by M. Molé, because he found it impossible to carry on the government with such a crazy machine.

Its successor contained 150 new members. The subjoined analysis which appeared in the Temps newspaper as soon as the returns were ascertained, may give an idea of the distribution of parties that filled its benches.

Deputies.

The Courier Français gave a somewhat different classification, according to which, the Opposition numbered 103; the left centre 102; Ministerial centre 160; Doctrinaires 46; Legitimatists 22; unknown 13; elections undecided 3; double elections 10; total 459.

During and preparatory to the elections, the Republican party, of all the others, is said to have displayed the greatest activity and address. They succeeded, in the absence of M. Odilon Barrot, who was travelling, to effect a negotiation with the "Constitutional opposition," who had originally determined to keep aloof from them; and who, with that view, had framed an election committee, from which had emanated, by way of test, a declaration in favour of monarchy. However, through the management, as it is said, of M. Laffitte, this last party was induced to ally itself, for the occasion, with the Republicans; and a joint committee was accordingly formed. M. Odilon Barrot, on his return, refused to become a party to their proceedings. The section, however, which gained most by the elections was the Tiers parti or left centre. The candidates of this party seemed to have been generally successful, although they are said to have exerted themselves less than any of the

others.

The left extremity of the amphitheatre, in which the deputies of France hold their sittings, is occupied by the party which, under the name of the puritan or radical opposition, represents the democratic interest of the country. This section, which, at the beginning of the new parliament, was composed of about nineteen mem

bers, is headed by M. Garnier Pagés, a young and austere republican. The constitutional or dynastic opposition, in number fifty-six, fill the next compartment of the semi-circle. Their leader is M. Odilon Barrot, and their most accomplished orator, M. Mauguin. Next in order is the left centre, or Tiers parti, the most popular, perhaps, in France, who, in their attachment to the monarchy of July, profess not to lose sight of its origin; and while they repudiate, as anarchical, the doctrines of the left, resist as unconstitutional the personal activity which the reigning monarch is accustomed to carry into the administration of affairs. M. Dupin, M. Thiers, and M. Passy, are the organs and the chiefs of this body, whose maxims are so congenial to the bourgeoisie of the country, that France herself has been described by an eminent speaker as "left centre." The centre of the Chamber contains the ministerial phalanx. On the benches of the right centre may be seen the small, but select, band of doctrinaires, disciples, as well as partisans of their accomplished leader, M. Guizot. The right extremity is appropriated to the scanty ranks of the legitimatists, few in number, but by no means contemptible; for, apparently, their counsels are sage and moderate; and M. Berryer, perhaps the most eloquent man in France, is their parliamentary leader.

On the 18th of December, 1837, the King, accompanied by his family, proceeded to meet his new parliament. As usual, no precaution was omitted to insure his personal safety; and it was rumoured that the Government had received intelligence of a strange and extra