department to which he belongs. Art. 15. When the director general inhibits the printing of any work, he shall send a copy of it to a censor, chosen from a number of persons to be named for that office by the Emperor. Art. 16. On the report of the censor, the director general may point out to the author such alterations or erasures as may be thought proper. If he should refuse to agree to these, the sale of the work to be inhibited, the forms to be broken, and possession taken of the sheets or copies printed. Art. 30. Warrants to be delivered to booksellers on or after the first of January, 1811, on their taking the prescribed oath, by the director general of the press, submitted to the approbation of the minister of the interior. They shall be registered at the civil tribunal of the bookseller's place of residence. Art. 33. Warrants not to be granted to any other persons wishing to set up the business of a bookseller, than such as should have recommended themselves by good lives and good morals, and also by an attachment to their country and to their sovereign. Art. 38. When books are allowed to be published, a copy of each, or the first volume, shall be marked with a stamp at the provisory depôt, and the books shall be returned from thence to the proprietor. - Never, perhaps, was the importance of the printing press so emphatically illustrated as by this decree of the tyrant of France. An imperial decree was also published respecting state prisons: their number, which was only eight; the means by which they were to be watched and guarded; the checks or securities for the fidelity of those to whom the custody of the prisoners was committed; the internal regulations or economy of the prisons, &c. The preamble to this decree stated, that there were many persons charged with crimes against the state whom it was not safe either to liberate or bring to trial.Who, in all these jealous and and anxious decrees, does not see the naked sword suspended by a slender thread over the head of Damocles? Next to the desire of maintaining internal tranquillity, and preventing all attempts against either his government or life, that of ruining the English commerce appears to have been in the mind of Buonaparte the strongest. The war in Spain was not pushed with so much vigour as was at first expected; but in the war against commerce, certes there was no remissness. Not only were military governors appointed at the ports of the maritime coasts of Germany annexed to France, but at Dantzic, Colberg, and some other places, we believe, in Prussia, for preventing the introduction of English goods and colonial produce. A very great number of French troops, at the head of which was General Rappe, was stationed in Dantzic. This was the bead-quarters of the army at war with commerce. * The English goods seized in the Hanse Towns and the ports of Prussia brought eight or nine millions sterling into the French exchequer. In Westphalia, a line of French custom-houses extended from Rees to Bremen. The hatred of English merchandize became at length stronger than the desire of improving the French finances. All English merchandize, whether taken at sea or land, was ordered to be burnt. The decrees, first, for seizing, and, lastly, for burning English merchandize, were carried into execution with great rigour, in the Hanse Towns, in France, Italy, Germany, Prussia, Switzerland, and Denmark. The zeal of his Danish majesty, in this business, was signalized by a severity that seemed to outrun even that of Buonaparte. To hold any intercourse with England was made felony in the captain of a ship, who was accordingly liable to be punished with death, and the owner of the ship was to be branded. By an imperial decree, punishments of different kindsanddogrees were denounced against all who should be concerned in English merchandize, from captains of ships to common porters. We have a picture of the rigour with which the anti-commercial decrees of Buonaparte were enforced, in a letter, dated at Frankfort, November 1, and received in London November 16. The gates of the town have been shut, and domiciliary visits made to most of the mercantile houses in the city, in order to seize every kind of English and colonial goods." The Emperor, as some relief to his own subjects, granted licences to VOL. LII. * It will readily be noticed, that it was on the pretence of enforcing the continental system, and ruining the commerce of Britain, that French troops were first introduced, in 1808, into Spain. certain individuals, both for exportation and importation of certain articles, on certain conditions. But such licences were not to be signed by any of his ministers : they must be signed by himself. His autograph consisted in the three first letters of his name, [Nap.] fantastically written. He repealed, nominally, the decrees of Berlin and Milan, as far as related to America: but he imposed such a duty on the importation of colonial produce as amounted nearly to a prohibition; while, at the same time, he continued to seize occasionally, and sequestrate American vessels as usual. On the side of Italy, Buonaparte had nothing to excite his jealousies or fears, but the influence of the ecclesiastics, who still maintained the supremacy of the Pope. A greater concourse than ordinary of that order, from all parts of Italy, and even some from other countries, was remarked at Rome. The ecclesiastical states, of which his holiness had been deprived, manifested strong symptoms of dissatisfaction. Such of the priests, both regular and secular, as were strangers, or only visitors at Rome, were ordered to repair to the usual places of their respective residences. A French corps, 20,000 strong, was collected in the vicinity of Rome. A great part of these troops were at first quartered on the inhabitants: but in consequence of the numerous assassinations of the soldiers, which this dispersion occasioned, and which became every day more frequent, it was abandoned. Some of the churches and other public buildings were converted R : verted into barracks for the use of the troops. A great blow was struck against the churchmen in the month of September. By a decree of his majesty the Emperor and King, marriages contracted without the sanction of the civil magistrate, were to be deemed null and invalid; and ecclesiastics who presumed to pronounce the nuptial benediction, without such authority, to be punishedafter repeated offences, even with death. CHAP. CHAP. XVI. Election of a Successor to Charles XIII. King of Sweden. - Death of the Croron Prince, Charles Augustus of Augustenburg. -Murder of Count Fersen, High Marshal of Sweden. - Competitors for the Succession of the Crown of Sweden. -The successful Candidate, Marshal Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte Corvo. - Suspicions of French Intrigue, and Instigation in the Murder of Count Fersen, and even the Death of the Prince of Augustenburg-Grounds of these. --Character and Anecdotes of Count Fersen.-Bernadotte strives by all Means to gain the Affections and the Confidence of the Swedes. War declared by Sweden against England. - Arrival of the Ex-King of Sweden in England. Character of that Prince. The Danes return to their old Business of Piracy.-Preparations and Attempts of King Murat to invade Sicily frustrated by the Vigilance and Vigour of the English General, Sir John Stuart.-War between the Turks and Russians. T HE advanced streets of Stockholm, to see age of the Duke of Sudermania, who had ascended the Swedish Throne under the title of Charles XIII. and who had not any children, admonished this prince, as well as the states of Sweden, of the necessity there was of electing a successor. The choice of the states fell on the person proposed by the new king, Charles Augustus, Prince of Augustenburg, a subject of the King of Denmark. This prince on the 24th of January, 1810, repaired to Stockholm, where he took the oaths of fidelity, and received the homage of the states. But he did not live long to enjoy his new dignity. On the 29th of May, while he was reviewing some regiments of cavalry, he was suddenly seized with a fit of sickness, and having fallen from his horse, soon expired. On the twentieth of June, great crowds were assembled in the the funeral procession conducting the corpse of the late Crown Prince to the palace previous to its interment. Count Fersen, who, in virtue of his office of high marshal, led the procession, in a coach drawn by six horses, was assailed with hissing and hooting, and a volley of stones thrown at the carriage, one of which struck him in the face as he looked out at the window. The count immediately ordered the postillions to stop, and took refuge, with difficulty, in the nearest house. At that moment Baron Silversparre, the adjutantgeneral, arrived, and demanded to know the cause of the riot. The cry was, "Count Fersen has murdered the Crown Prince." The baron then said, that the king bad ordered him to declare that the count should be arrested and tried. The mob then huzzaed, and, apparently satisfied, began R { 1 began to disperse. But in a very little time a large party returned. When Count Fersen went to the house just mentioned, he was accompanied, or straightway followed, by Silversparre, and some others, who wished to save him from the fury of the mob. Silversparre, seeking to pacify them, harangued thein from the window, but in such a mean and fawning style, as encouraged them with increased fury and imprecations to demand their victim. They rushed into the house and the chamber where he was; and while they poured the most horrid imprecations and abusive language, stripped him of his sword, the insignia of the orders he wore, his watch, his money, and a medal hung round his neck, and of his coat, which they tore in pieces. These spoils they threw to the rabble out at the window. In the mean time, Baron Silversparre continued to harangue the mob, whom he at length prevailed on to agree to what he prayed for; which was, that the count should be suffered to go to prison without being insulted, to be tried, and condemned, if he should be found guilty. The leaders of the mob promised to let him go quietly to the Town-house, on condition that the life-guards, which by this time had come up, should be sent back. Silversparre had the unheard of stupidity to trust to their word. The count, in his waistcoat, left the house where he had remained for a quarter of an hour, and proceed ed to the place of confinement through a crowd of people, agi tated by passion, over which there was not any curb: yet they made way for the unhappy count to pass through them, as he advanced to the Town-house, near which there was drawn up for his protection a regiment of guards. When the rabble, pressing hard on the footsteps of the grand marshal, came up to the guards, the soldiers, of their own accord, with fixed bayonets, overawed and kept them in check, and gave the marshal a momentary respite. But in a little time they shouldered arms,. (some say by order of their commanding officer) which emboldened the mob to advance through two ranks of soldiers, in order to shut up the high marshal in a cellar, under the flight of stairs leading up to the Town-hall. The count, however, with the assistance of some faithful and intrepid friends, made his way into the guard-room. The mob, for about ten minutes, paused; but at length, perceiving that they had not any resistance to encounter, they burst into the guard-room, seized Count Fersen by the legs, threw him on the ground, took the rings out of his ears, and cut off his hair: * they then dragged him out, and, in the presence of the regiment of guards, drawn up in parade, but with their arms laid on the ground, murdered him, by the mere dint of repeated strokes with staves and umbrellas. His body was stripped naked, and left all day to the outrages of the rascally populace. It was not till the evening, when the insurgents were dispersed by the fire of the troops, that any one • A usual preliminary to execution among the French, in the days of the Revolution. durst |