bishop to exercise an authority therein *.""The Emperor is satisfied with the spirit which animates all his clergy." The esta blishment of schools, the re-establishment of churches, the construction of cathedrals, all prove the Emperor's interest " in the splendour of religious worship and the prosperity of religion." Twenty-seven bishopricks are vacant, to which the Pope has refused to institute the persons named by the Emperor. This refusal has nullified the Concordat: it no longer exists. A council of the clergy has been convoked, which " will decide whether France, like Germany, shall be without episcopacy."-After all this, it is added, "there exists no disunion between the Emperor and the Pope, as the head of religion, which can cause the least inquietude to the most timorous souls."The exposee then proceeds to state a variety of improvements, as they are called, in the course of instruction; one of which is the abolition of private seminaries, and the placing of instruction entirely in the hands of the state. The extraction of sugar from beet, &c. and of indigo from woad, is to render colonial products unnecessary. The public works, ports, roads, canals, &c. are enumerated in pompous detail; and the French are consoled for the loss of all their colonies, by the prospect of having shortly 150 sail of the line to cope with England. The war in Spain would have been closed but for England, who, departing from her usual policy, came to place herself in the front line; but the result, it is said, must be disgrace and ruin to England. The ruin of her finanical system is also predicted, while that of France will continue to flourish.After some campaigns, Spain shall be subdued, and the English driven out of it. (This is modest.) What are a few years in order to consolidate the great empire? Peace would now be useful only to England. France will be able to make peace with safety, only when she shall have 150 sail of the line; and in spite of obstacles, she shall have them. "Thus the guarantee of our fleet, and that of an English administration founded on principles different from those of the existing cabinet, can alone give peace to the universe."-The exposée con

* We trust that this exposée will be read with the attention it deserves by the Catholics of Ireland, and by those advocates of theirs, who, without imposing any control on the power of the pope, which pope will, in future, be French, would open all the avenues of power to that body.

cludes thus: "Every thing at present guarantees to us a futurity as happy as full of glory; and that futurity has received an additional pledge in that infant so much desired, who, at last granted to our vows, will perpetuate the most illustrious dynasty; of that infant who, amidst the fetes of which your meeting seems to form a part, receives already, with the great Napoleon, and the august princes whom he has associated to his high destinies, the homage of love and respect from all the nations of the empire."

SPAIN.

After the battle of Albuera the siege of Badajoz was resumed under the immediate direction of Lord Wellington himself. It appears to have been carried on with great vigour; and breaches having been effected, two attempts were made to storm the place, both of which failed. In the mean time, the French determined to make another effort to raise the siege. Soult again advanced in the direction of Badajoz, and was joined, not far from that place, by the force which had been opposed to Lord Wellington, in the north of Portugal. He collected at the same time the whole of the French force from Castile and Madrid, what is called their centre army, and all the troops from Andalusia, excepting what were necessary to maintain their position before Cadiz. In consequence of this effort, he so far outnumbered the army under Lord Wellington, although his lordship had drawn down all his forces from the neighbourhood of Almeida, that it was deemed prudent to raise the siege of Badajoz, and retire behind the Guadiana, where the British army took a very strong position, its right resting on Elvas, and its left on Campo Major. The enemy are stated by Lord Wellington to have risked every thing in all parts of Spain, in order to collect this large army in Estremadura; with which, it may be supposed, they had hoped, at one decisive blow, to have terminated the campaign. The wary conduct of the British commander has completely frustrated this expectation. He has fallen back to a position where he is almost unassailable, where he has the entire command of his resources, and is in the way of receiving the succours which are daily arriving from England without the slightest danger of interruption. The French, on the other hand, are said already to have begun to feel the inconvenience of having collected so large an army in a country where no magazines have been formed, and their chief attention is turned to the procuring of the means of subsistence. They have magazines, indeed, at Seville; but the distance be

to us highly probable that the American was the aggressor. The captain of the American frigate admits that he chaeed the Little Belt for a considerable time, and at last came up with her, but maintains that he knew neither her force, nor her nation, until the engagement was over. This denial, however, is most completely falsified by himself; for in affirming that the first shot proceeded from the British sloop of war, he adds, that he was induced to fire in return, by supposing that the commander of the vessel had in view to obtain promotion from his own government by insulting the American flag. But how could he have formed such a supposition, and acted upon it, without being well aware of the nation at least to which the vessel belonged? He admits, too, that one shot was fired from his ship without orders. The very occurrence of such a circumstance might have led him to suppose that the shot from his antagonist might have been equally unauthorised. But no: that could have proceeded only from a design to insult America. There are several other inconsistencies in the account of the American, which takes away his title to credit, respecting the main point, the point of aggression. Captain Bingham's account, on the contrary, is perfectly simple, and consistent in all its parts; and is a modest, full, and clear statement. It certainly shewed no small degree of firmness in him and his ship's company, to support with sixteen guns, a close action against a frigate of fortyfour guns, for three quarters of an hour, Captain Bingham states, that as he was proceeding along the American coast to execute the orders of his superior, he was chaced by a frigate, which he saw to be an American, and which gained on him so fast, that as night approached, he deemed it

right to heave to, and shew his colours, that no mistake might arise. Captain Bingham hailed, but was answered only by another hail. Captain Bingham again hailed, and was answered by a broad-side. The action then commenced, and continued for three quarters of an hour, when the American ceased firing, appearing to be on fire about the main hatchway. The British ship also ceased. In the morning, Commodore Rogers sent an officer on board, to express his regret at what had happened, and that had he known the force was so inferior, he should not have fired at us. He said that the British had fired the first shot, which Captain Bingham positively denied. "Nor is it probable," he observes, "that a sloop of war, within pistol shot of a large forty-four gun frigate, should commence hostilities." The orders which Captain Bingham had received from Admiral Sawyer, were to proceed with dispatches to a ship of war off Charlestown, and then to return to Halifax; and in the course of his voyage to be particularly careful to give no just cause of offence to the government or subjects of the United States. -A war with America is unquestionably to be avoided and deprecated on every principle of sound policy, no less than on every moral and humane ground; and on that account we very anxiously hope that such explanations may be afforded respecting this untoward affair, as may prevent all future collisions.

In the East Indies our squadron has been, successful in the capture, not only of ships but of colonies from the enemy. The island of Banda, the principal of the Spice islands in the Molucca Seas; the Dutch possessions on the island of Celebes; and the island of Ternate, have all been captured, and it was expected that Batavia would soon fall.

by the cheerfulness and galety of her manners and disposition. Her mind, naturally active and energetic, was cultivated by considerable reading; and she was from her youth habituated to regard with the greatest reverence and attention, the duties and ordinances of religion, so far as she had gained an insight into them. She was not, however, free from the misconceptions which then generally prevailed respecting the real nature and extent of religious duty; and she continued, during the first years of her married state, to be conversant principally

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tirement. The holy flame, which her soul in secret caught from converse with God and celestial objects, shone forth with a mild and heavenly lustre in the narrow circle within which her duties were confined. It was her habitual aim to bring the minds of her children and servants under the practie cal influence of religion, by serious admonition, by seasonable reproof, and by the improvement of ordinary occurrences to the purposes of edification. In the society of her friends, she displayed the same earnest desire to do good, and the same prevailing sense of the pre-eminent importance of eternal things. She delighted in praising God and speaking good of his name, and in inviting attention to the characters of mercy and wisdom which she saw distinctly impressed on the dispensations of his providence towards herself and others. To the poor she was a constant friend and a liberal benefac tress; administering, to the utmost of her ability, to the relief of their bodily necessities, and promoting their spiritual interest by providing for their religious instruction and encouraging their attendance on the public ordinances and means of grace. Her own example most powerfully co-operated with these endeavours. Notwithstanding the infirmity under which she laboured, she was, for the last sixteen years of her life, a regular attendant on divine worship, being carried in a sedan chair, in which she sat during the service-and her children will never forget the effusions of pious gratitude in which she taught their minds to participate on the first occasion of her revisiting the house of God, after the lengthened absence to which she had been obliged to submit during the earlier part of her confinement. The language of the Psalmist was then peculiarly her own. "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul Jongeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord-my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God!" Ps. lxxxiv. 1, 2, But the part of Mrs. Hodson's character which was most distinguishing, and which, in the short enumeration of her Christian graces above given, was omitted as requiring to be distinctly exhibited, was her resignar tion to the Divine will. An unreserved submission to the will of God has justly been considered as the consummation of the Christian character. It is represented as characterizing the angels in heaven, and shines forth with peculiar brightness in the re corded actions and sufferings of Jesus Christ, Mrs H. had attained an eminent degree of it. She had learnt to adore and bless the designs of Providence, even in his severest

chastisements, and to receive, not only with patient submission, but with cheerful acquiescence, the bitter cup of affliction, which she was not unfrequently called upon to taste. She would even rejoice in her trials as necessary to maintain in exercise the spirit of watchfulness and prayer-and as most effectually calculated to confirm her faith and elevate her delight in the word and promises of God. A striking instance of her advancement in the spirit of resignation was afforded a short time before her death. Her only daughter, and the sole habitual companion of her retirement, was visited with a very severe illness, from which she herself did not expect her to recover. In the midst of the solicitude and suspense which attended this event, she one day told an intimate friend who visited her, that she had been much employed in meditation upon that petition in the Lord's Prayer (which had been the subject of a sermon she had recently heard), Thy will be done,' &c. and that she had been carefully endea vouring to ascertain the state of her mind, in reference to it, by an examination of the feelings with which she regarded her daughter's present alarming situation; adding, as the result of her deliberate investigation, that she could say, she was prepared wil lingly to surrender her.

It will reasonably be expected that some account should now be given of the parti cular circumstances which marked the closing scene of Mrs. H's. earthly existence; but this expectation cannot be satisfied-it pleased God in infinite wisdom to withold from her the opportunity, sometimes afforded to others, of glorifying in her death the religion which her life had so eminently adorned. Her constitution, enfeebled by so long a confinement, had not strength sufficient to struggle, even for a short time, with the ill. ness which proved fatal to her and though she lived nearly two days after its first appearance, she was throughout that time too weak to hold any conversation. From the few words which she uttered, it was evident that she was fully aware of the approach of death-and during the intervals of her pain (which appeared not to be of long com tinuance nor great intensity), and after it subsided, she shewed the clearest marks of being wholly occupied in prayer, and in contemplation of the unspeakably blessed change which awaited her. Nor will it be deemed presumptuous to entertain the firm conviction that she was permitted to experience the full measure of that divine support, for which, in the habitual anticipation of her departure hence, she was known fer