There seemed to be just then little need of artifices to depreciate the patriots, such was the burst of enthusiasm excited by Ferdinand's return. The general rapture that greeted him encouraged his natural desire to reject a constitution restricting his authority; and of those about him, only Copons, Palafox, and the Duque de Frias, advised his accepting it. But Copons returned to his army, and, as the King approached Valencia, was succeeded by Elio, who, exasperated by some quarrel of etiquette with the Cardinal de Bourbon, President of the Regency, decided the King, if indeed he hesitated, as to his course.

Ferdinand received the Cardinal with a frown, holding out his hand to be kissed. Some say that the Cardinal delayed to comply with the invitation, as contrary to the decree of the Cortes, and that the King expressly commanded him to kiss his hand; others deny this, saying the Cardinal saw nothing in the act beyond a customary tribute of respect.

On the 16th, the King entered Valencia, and the next day visited the cathedral to return thanks to the Almighty for all his mercies. That evening General Elio presented all the officers of his army to His Majesty, and, as they stood before him, put this question to them: "Gentlemen, do you swear to support the King in the plenitude of his rights?" All replied, " We swear it!" From that hour Ferdinand began to act arbitrarily, without regard to the Cortes.

At Madrid, Don Barnardo Mozo Rosales, with some companions, drew up a remonstrance to the King, dated April 12, the principal object of which was to dissuade His Majesty from giving his assent to the new constitution, or to any of the reforms introduced in his absence. The public nicknamed this remonstrance the Address of the Persians, because it began with the words, "The usage of the ancient Persians." . . . . Few deputies signed this remonstrance at first, but, upon the overthrow of the constitution, the number increased to sixty-nine, some signing through ambition, others merely following the stream. .. Don Bernardo disappeared from the Cortes, carrying his remonstrance, with his own name at the head of the signatures, to Valencia in person.

The King quitted Valencia on the 5th of May, accompanied by Don Carlos (whom Suchet had released) and Don Antonio, and escorted by a division of the second army, under General-in-Chief Don Francisco Xavier Elio. . .

At the same time, the Cardinal de Bourbon and his colleague, Don José Luyando, were ordered to return to Madrid, which they did in perfect ignorance of all the schemes in progress around them.

The King was received upon his journey with a joy amounting almost to frenzy, and in which men of all ranks and parties joined. Nevertheless, the universal delight was sometimes disturbed by Elio's soldiers and by scattered parties of the anti-reformers, who broke out into cries and vociferations against the Cortes, and in some places pulled down the stones inscribed with the words, Plaza de la Constitucion, every where set up by order of the Cortes. The Cortes now sent a deputation to meet the King, which he dexterously avoided receiving; and his next step was the arrest of the heads of the liberal party, or rather of all its distinguished members. The execution of these orders was committed to Eguia, and, during the night of the 10th of May, upwards of twenty deputies were thrown into the prisons of Madrid; some into small, fetid dungeons, without light or ventilation, as banditti or atrocious delinquents are treated.

Our author, with one or two others, escaped the fate of his friends and colleagues by flight and expatriation, whilst arrests,

similar to those in the capital, were made throughout the provinces. That same night Eguia conveyed to the President of the Cortes the King's orders to dissolve that assembly; they were promptly obeyed. The Madrid preparations for the King's reception are thus described.

On the morning of the 11th, the dykes restraining the licentiousness of the lowest rabble were broken. The mob brutally tore down the tablet of the constitution, and dragged it through the streets, as they treated many emblematic statues and decorations of the hall of the Cortes. The rioters, at the same time, uttered yells of vengeance and death against the liberals, and especially against the prisoners; the object of the instigators being so to swell the mob-waves that they might pour into the prisons, and there smother the unfortunate captives amidst the confusion and uproar of the moment. But the tempest, raised and guided by the iniquity of a few well known individuals, proved inadequate to their ferocious purpose.

This same day appeared placarded at the corners of the streets a manifesto, signed by the King, and countersigned by Don Pedro Macanaz, which, though dated Valencia, May 4, had been hitherto kept very secret. In this document His Majesty declared that he would not swear to the constitution, and disapproved both the form of the Cortes and their acts, but that he no less abhorred and detested despotism, offering, moreover, to assemble a lawful Cortes, and permanently and firmly to secure real individual liberty, even the liberty of the press, within reasonable limits. But promises of this nature, thus solemnly made in the face of the nation and of the world, at the very moment when the Cortes were surreptitiously dissolved, and so many deputies, so many illustrious men, recklessly trampled under foot, seemed nothing but an aggravation of monstrous injustice by harsh mockery.

On the 13th of May, the King entered Madrid, and if the division of the second army, that had escorted him from Valencia, was left at Aranjuez, Don Santiago Whittingham brought up his, consisting of 6,000 foot, 2,500 horse, and six pieces of artillery, not so much in order to add to the pomp with which the day was celebrated, as to prevent the disturbance of the public tranquillity. Thus the same Ferdinand, who, on the 24th of March, 1808, traversed these same streets without an escort, protected only by the breasts of the faithful inhabitants, although amidst foreign hosts little to be relied upon, was obliged, now that those hosts were expelled, and so many other obstacles conquered, to guard his person as though he had been surrounded by declared enemies. To such straits was he reduced by men who preferred the gratification of their personal revenge for injuries they had brought upon themselves to all else in the world...

On the 24th, Lord Wellington, Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo, made his public entry into Madrid by the gate of Alcalà, receiving, as he passed along, the honours due to his triumphs and his exalted rank. It was now supposed that, even should the absolute authority re-established by the King remain undisturbed, at least the cruel usage and persecution of so many estimable men must cease, were it but in consideration of the good correspondence that some of them had maintained with Lord Wellington. These hopes were disappointed; no change or alleviation of the previous course occurred. It is certain that, on the eve of his departure, the British commander drew up a very remarkable paper, addressed to his Majesty, full, as we have been assured, of prudent counsels, recommending toleration and good government. This paper was delivered by Don Miguel de Alava to the Duque de San Carlos. But those who would not attend to such advice when Wellington was present, were not likely to do so when he was absent and far away. This document was mislaid in the secretary of state's office, or designedly lost by certain individuals, as a thing of no value.

A few paragraphs, touching the treaty of peace between Spain and France, and Ferdinand's policy, close the work; and we shall lay down the pen with a single remark, confirmed by our historian himself. Conde Toreno, in his censure of Ferdinand's despotic and tyrannic measures, detested by none more cordially than by ourselves, appears to forget that there might be faults on both sides; and never yet did quarrel, political or domestic, fall under our notice, in which this was not the case: although he had just before, in a passage relative to the King's return, frankly condemned as unwise the conduct of the Cortes; and in politics we beg to observe, folly is guilt-good reason why none but the wise should meddle with them. With this passage from Toreno's pages, we conclude:

Certainly it had been better, instead of thus trammelling the King's return, thus delaying the restoration of his authority, to have adopted precautions less petty and irritating, and of a more surely prosperous result; above all, to have surrounded Ferdinand, on his entrance into Spain, with discreet men of good counsel, who might cut off at its origin any deviation that threatened to produce an extravagant or dangerous diversion of the stream of public business.

We regret concluding with an awkward metaphor, impressive, however, in Spain, where agriculture exists by irrigation.

TRAVELS TO THE CASPIAN SEA AND IN THE CAUCASUS.

Reise auf dem Caspischen Meere und in dem Caucasus. ternommen in den Jahren 1825-1826. (Travels to the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus, in the Years 1825 and 1826.) By Dr. Edward Eichwald. Stuttgart, 2 vols. 8vo. 1834, 1837. Though it is twelve years since Dr. Eichwald returned from the interesting journey described in these two volumes (forming together 1400 closely printed pages), the far greater portion may be considered as new; and with respect to the manners and customs of the inhabitants, we may be certain that those of the barbarous mountain-tribes are the same now as they have been from time immemorial. Various circumstances delayed the publication of the work, among which may be reckoned the author's conscientious endeavour to make it something better than a slight sketch written during the journey, and ready to be printed (as some books of travels have been) a few days after the writer's return home.

The countries here described being at this time considered as highly important, on account of the state of affairs in the East, the work has all the merit of apropos. It is not, however, merely with a view to the present moment, but in the general and permanent interest of science, that every authentic work must be

welcome which treats of the remarkable countries on the frontiers of Asia and Europe, relative to which Dr. Eichwald has now published the entire narrative of his journey.

On accepting in 1823 the professorship of zoology in the university of Kasan, Dr. Eichwald stipulated that he should be allowed to undertake, in the following year, an expedition to the Caspian Sea, to which he had been advised by many eminent naturalists, who conceived that that sea and its vicinity must be much richer in animals than Gmelin and others had represented. The desire was acceded to. He accordingly drew up a detailed plan of his purposed journey and the objects of it, which was fully approved by the university; but it was not till February, 1825, that it obtained the sanction of the minister of public instruction, and on the 8th of March he left Kasan, provided with special orders from the Emperor Alexander to the governor-general of Astrachan and the Caucasus. Various untoward circumstances, some of which would be laughable if they were not highly vexatious, hindered him from prosecuting his researches with all the advantages that he had expected, in exploring the greatest lake of the old world, and the adjacent alpine region of the CauEver since the time of Herodotus, both have claimed the attention of the learned world; and, if our knowledge of them is very scanty, notwithstanding their importance to history and science, it is evident that much is left for the researches of future times, as many causes prevent even the most zealous efforts to enlarge our knowledge of them from making any great advances: for almost the whole of the countries on the coasts of the Caspian are inhabited by fanatic and rapacious Nomade tribes, and the interior of the Caucasus by warlike mountaineers, and both are on that account almost inaccessible to the European traveller. It was not till the reign of Peter the Great, and under his successors, that, in consequence of his Persian campaign in the Caucasus and near the Caspian Sea, and the various expeditions undertaken by his order, that those countries were a little opened to the learned of Europe, and the dominion of them made an object of Russian policy. But, long before this, and in the reign of Elizabeth of England, the Caspian Sea was the great route by water, by which the English carried on their commerce with India, through Russia; and, as they thus shewed to Russia the way by which, following their steps through central Asia, she might one day become formidable to the vast Anglo-Indian empire, as British policy now fears, the subject cannot fail to attract general

attention.

We now proceed to a general analysis of the two volumes, and shall then give some extracts from those parts which appear most interesting at the present moment.

The first volume, containing the Periplus of the Caspian, is divided into fourteen chapters. From Astrachan and the mouths

of the Wolga, which, like many great rivers on the coast, is obstructed by sand-banks and shoals, we are taken, in the fourth chapter, to the opposite eastern coast of the Caspian, where the high land of Tuk-Karagan forms the western promontory of the mountainous tract between the Caspian and lake Ural; for otherwise all the countries on the north and east coasts of this sea consist of the low plains, which, in ancient times, were covered by the Caspian, which was then of much greater extent than at present. The author then went back to the west coast, the three principal points of which are described in the three following chapters. He landed first at the celebrated Tarki, the mountaincity, formerly the capital of the Prince or Schamchal, whose dignity may be traced back to the time of the Arabs. Tarki, (or Tarku) is still the key to the northern outlet of the eastern passage of the Caucasus, which extends above 200 miles between the mountains and the sea to the Delta of the Kur, and is therefore of the utmost importance to the Russians, for maintaining their dominion in the eastern Caucasus. The second point is the city of Derbend, with its iron gates, which has been celebrated in history in all ages as the real door in the middle of this passage; and the author here gives many particulars of the great Caucasian wall in Daghestan, and of the numerous inscriptions, chiefly on tombstones, which are noticed by many preceding travellers -Burrough, Olearius, Bruce, Hanway, Grüber, Gmelin, Reineggs, &c. The third point on this side is Baku, on the peninsula of Abscheron, with its celebrated naphtha wells and eternal fire, which has been the constant theme of admiration of travellers in the eastern Caucasus. This remarkable district, which was held in high honour by the ancient Parsees, and still shows many traces of the activity of the younger Parsees under the Sassanides, is greatly venerated by the Hindoos; and on this west side, as well as on the north side, of Baku and Astrachan, we find the extreme settlements of the Hindoos on the west, towards Europe. Mr. Eichwald visited their residence, which they call Ateshgah (i. e. Place of Fire) eight miles from Baku. There were about twelve of them, all monks, with a high-priest; and as many more lived in Baku itself, whither they had been removed by the governor in consequence of dissensions that had broken out among them, caused by some having taken to playing at cards, which the others considered as sinful. Many Hindoos come as pilgrims for a certain number of years, and then return home. The geological features of the peninsula of Baku, and the naphtha wells, are treated of at great length, and with historical illustrations.

The three following chapters, to the 10th, take us back to the east coast of the sea, and to the Balchan Gulf, which, according to the most recent local investigations, and in conformity with the statements of old oriental writers, should contain the mouths of