Dignitaries, Great Officers, Chief Judge, forty-six Senators, and other members, shall take cognizance of offences, committed by members of the Imperial family, by the Grand Dignitaries, Senators, &c. and by all ministers of state under their official responsibility.

Although the above Senatus Consultum has not only been adopted, but acted upon, yet the farce of liberty must still be kept up. Accordingly it was resolved, that the following proposition shall be presented to the French people for their acceptance, viz. 66 The French people will the Imperial dignity to be hereditary in the direct, natural, legal, and adopted descent of Napoleon Bonaparte, in the natural and legal descent of Joseph Bonaparte and Louis Bonaparte, as settled by the organic Sena tus Consultum of Floreal 28, year 12."

On the 30th Floreal (May 20th) Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor at Paris with great pomp.

The French armies seem to have universally concurred in this new revolution; and addresses have also been received upon it from almost every part of France. The trial of the alleged conspirators, including Georges and Moreau, was opened at Paris about the end of the last month, and was not brought to a close until the 10th instant, when Georges and nineteen others were capitally condemned: Moreau and four more were found guilty in a slight degree: and 21 were fully acquitted. These facts, if true, afford presumptive evidence of the fairness of the jury: yet an Englishman, accustomed to the humane and equitable practice of our courts of law, will naturally be shocked by the utter disregard manifested in the course of these trials, of those principles of British jurisprudence which forbid any examination tending to criminate oneself; and which constitute the judges counsel for the pri

soner.

We extract the following paragraph from La Gazette de France:

"Paris, June 6.-The invasion of Eng-, land is to be attempted before the 14th of July: a division of the Imperial guard is already arrived at Havre, on its way to Boulogne, where the Emperor will arrive within a week.-Thirty-six hours calm, and England is ours."

Little as we regard this idle gasconade, we think it right to say, that we entertain as little doubt at this moment as we have done at any period of the war, that Bonaparte seriously purposes to attempt the invasion of this country. In Boulogne, it is said, are collected about two thousand gun boats in which may be embarked two hundred thousand men. If one hundred :thousand of these are destroyed in the attempt to cross the channel, the remainder may land. Of the event, we have, it is true, every hope which ought to be indulged on such an occasion. But still let

us never forget, that under the blessing of Providence the best way of averting danger is to be prepared to meet it.

GERMANY.

The cold manner in which the note of the Emperor of Russia, mentioned in our last, was received by the diet of Ratisbon,, seems calculated rather to repress than to encourage any sanguine expectation, that the late violent aggressions on the part of Bonaparte against the peace and security of Germany will be followed by any measures which are likely to curb the unbridled licence of French domination. Even the Em-, peror of Germany, when pressed by the Russian rescript to consider this topic, proposes only an enquiry into the subject, accompanying, at the same time, that proposal with an opinion that France will probably be able to justify her conduct. The ministers of Prussia and Baden intimate their expectations also that Bonaparte will of his own accord give such explanations as will prove satisfactory to the court of Petersburgh, Under these circumstances, the hope of any spirited interference on the part of the great continental powers, for the purpose of restraining the ambition of the new Emperor within the bounds of his empire, appears very vain.

EGYPT.

Elfi Bey, who lately visited England, has, it is said, attempted, unsuccessfully, to form a party in Egypt who should favour be in that report, it is clear that since his the French. Whatever truth there may return he has been attacked by the party of Osman Bey, and stripped of all his baggage and valuable presents, he himself narrowly escaping with life. He is now said to be a fugitive in Upper Egypt.

EAST INDIES.

Dispatches have arrived from India, announcing the conclusion of peace between the Company and the hostile Marattahs.

Great cessions both of territories and forts have been made by the Rajah of Berar and Scindia, and it is stipulated that they shall not retain in their service the subjects of any power at war with Great Britain, nor even admit into their service any French or other European officers.

WEST INDIES.

The capture of the colony of SURINAM, on the 4th of May, was announced in a letter of the Secretary of State to the Lord Mayor on the 22nd instant.

ST. DOMINGO.

Of this island, now called Hayti, General Dessalines has been appointed sole governor for life, with power to nominate

his successor. One of the first acts of his government was to offer a sum of forty dollars for every person of colour formerly deported from the island to America or elsewhere, who should be conveyed back to it again.

The agitation of the slave trade question in parliament has given a new importance to the transactions in St. Domingo: and the slave traders and their adherents have taken great pains to make every report, whether true or false, which may have reached this country, subservient to their design of vilifying the negro character, and of exciting a dread of the consequences of abolition. But even if we were to admit that every idle and contradictory report which has been circulated is literally correct, such an admission instead of weakening would serve to fortify the arguments for putting an end to this trade. As insurrection in our islands is to be dreaded in proportion to the extent in which new Africans have been imported, surely every instance of atrocity, which is alleged against the inhabitants of Hayti, ought to operate as a strong motive with the planters to oppose any increase of African population. But the negroes, it is asserted, will confound abolition with emancipation, and when they hear that the slave trade is abolished, will read in that act their own freedom. But have they done so in Virginia,where farther importations have been prohibited since the commencement of American independence? Have they done so in any of the other United States where the slave trade has been abolished? If there were any truth in this argument would the Congress risk the safety of Louisiana, by making it a part of the constitution of that state that no more slaves shall be imported?

Neither, we apprehend, do the reports of massacres in St. Domingo, supposing them true to their full extent, prove that auy very peculiar degree of moral pravity attaches to the African character. If, after the numberless massacres and murders of the French, the blacks in that island should not have been provoked to retaliate: if, at the very moment when a considerable remnant of the French force which was expelled by them is threatening, a descent from the shores of Cuba, they should not wish to rid themselves of those inmates who would favour the enemy: if when privateers, fitted out from Cuba, are daily committing depredations accompanied with the most savage cruelties, they should feel no temptation to vindictive measures: we should rejoice in the triumph of principle over passion; but we should be almost disposed to adopt a statement of their enemies, though in another sense, and to regard them as a different race of beings from our own.

What degree of truth there may be in he various reports of massacres which CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 30.

have reached us, we will not pretend to say. Unquestionably they cannot all be true, because they are who ly inconsistent with each other. Indeed when we look to the history of St. Domingo, during the last seven years, we see abundant reason for discrediting reports which are transmitted to us, like the present, through the channels either of Jamaica planters or American traders. It will not be denied, that the planters of Jamaica think it their interest to degrade the African character. A similar motive may be supposed to actuate many American traders; who, moreover, as is well known, seldom scruple to spread any false or exaggerated report which may deter other traders from becoming their competitors in the same market. It is a very remarkable fact, that all those reports which we received from Jamaica and America, and even from France, respecting cruelties committed by the blacks on the landing of Leclerc, afterwards proved, according to the official statements of the French themselves, to be utterly false. In short, we can give little credit to facts which come to us through a medium so calculated to distort and exaggerate them. It has been said, that the exorbitancy of the demands of Dessalines has frustrated an attempt of the government of Jamaica to form a treaty of commerce with him. This may be said: but it will not be told us, what share the morbid jealousy and rooted hatred of the African race which prevail in Jamaica, may have had in producing the failure in question.

It has been also alleged that Dessalines had proposed to contract with us for the importation of slaves into Hayti, and the circumstance is triumphantly adduced as an argument against the abolition. But allowing it to be true to the full extent which is alleged, we do not see how it can affect, in the most remote degree, the question at issue. A wish to recruit his army, or to restore his exhausted population, might lead to such an application; without any intention of buying negroes for the purpose of placing them in a state of bondage similar to what prevails in our islands. Indeed the latter plan might be demonstrated to be impossible. The real state of the case, however, seems to be that Dessalines, from a wish to conciliate the people of Jamaica, made no objection to their proposal of being allowed the monopoly of the trade of Hayti, including "la vente des negres." But to infer, from his willingness to gratify them with the exclusive privilege of selling negroes at Hayti, that it was his intention to establish a slave trade, is surely unwarranted.

There is another circumstance, in addition to those which we have already mentioned, which renders the truth of the late reports, respecting St. Domingo, very doubtful., In the Jamaica newspapers, which have lately arrived in this country,

3 D

not a syllable is said of those occurrences which have been so triumphantly proclaimed in this country.

It appears to be an undoubted fact, that Dessalines had sent an officer to the governor of Cuba to say, "that he wished to live at peace with his neighbours; but un

less the French privateers were totally expelled from the ports of Cuba, he would immediately invade the island with a force sufficient to subdue it." Little doubt can be entertained of his being fully competent to execute his threat.

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. Ir was our intention to have inserted a copious account of some of the proceedings in parliament during the last month, particularly those which related to the Slave Trade, and to Mr. Pitt's Defence Bill; but our limits will not admit of our giving more than a mere outline of what has passed. We may, perhaps, on a future occasion, recur to the arguments which have been employed on the slave trade question.

On the 31st of May, Mr. Wilberforce moved for leave to bring in a bill for abolishing the slave trade. He prefaced his motion with a most cloquent and argumentative speech, which seemed to carry conviction to the mind of almost every member of the house who was not interested in the question. One hundred and twenty-four voted in favour of the measure and fortynine against it. The Irish members almost to a man took the part which justice and humanity no less than policy required them to take. The second reading of the bill took place on the 7th instant, after an animated debate, in the course of which every objection to the principle of the bill was solidly answered. The division was one hundred to forty-two. Another debate took place on the 12th instant, on the motion for going into a committee, when the numbers in favour of the motion were seventy-nine to twenty. In the committee the time at which importations into the islands were made to cease was the first of January 1805, The report of the committee was received after counsel had been heard against the Bill on the 25th; and on the 27th it was read a third time, and passed by a majority of 69 to 33. We congratulate the friends of religion, of justice, of humanity, and of the true interests of their country on this auspicious event.

Mr. Pitt's bill for increasing our means of defence met with such violent and powerful opposition as seemed to endanger the continuance of his administration. The united parties of Lord Grenville, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Addington, mustered all their strength; and in houses, containing upwards of four hundred members, the majority fluctuated from thirty-nine to fifty. The bill has passed through the House of Commons. It is not likely to encounter an equally formidable resistance in the House of Lords. We are truly sorry to perceive the height to which party spirit has risen

on this occasion. The firmness, however, with which Mr. Pitt has met the discouragements of his situation, has tended greatly to raise him in the eyes of many; and it seems for the present to have destroyed every hope of a change in the go

vernment.

DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES.

Lord HARDWICKE Continues in the government of Ireland.

The Duke of MONTROSE is appointed President of the board of trade and plantations, and the Right Hon. GEORGE ROSE his deputy.

Viscount CASTLEREAGH, the Duke of PORTLAND, Lord HAWKESBURY, Earl CAMDEN, Lord_HARROWBY, the Right Hon. WILLIAM PITT, Lord GLENBERVIE, the Right Hon. THOMAS WALLACE, and Viscount DUNLO are appointed commissioners for the management of the affairs of India.

The King has been pleased to appoint C. Arbuthnot, Esq. to be his Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Sublime Ottoman Porte; Benj. Garlike, Esq. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Copenhagen; C. Stuart, Esq. Secretary of Embassy to the Court of St. Petersburgh; E. Thornton, Esq. Secretary of Legation to the Court of Berlin; Aug. Foster, Esq. Secretary of Legation to the United States of America; and Fred. Lindeman, Esq. Consul at Embden. Charles Bishop, Esq. is appointed to be his Majesty's Procurator-General, in the place of James Heseltine, Esq. deceased.

On the 18th instant, J. Stephens and J. Agnew, Esqrs. were brought up to the Court of King's Bench to receive sentence for extorting the sum £.10,625. in their official capacities, of the Samoa Rajah, on the Malabar coast. After a long and impressive speech from Mr. Justice Grose, he pronounced the following sentence:That J Stephens pay a fine to the King of £.5000. and be committed to the King's Bench prison for two years. That J. Ag. new be confined in the same place for the same terin, and that they both do forfeit the sum of £.10,625. being the amount of the sum found by the jury to have been extorted from the Rajah. Lord Ellenbo rough mentioned that both the fine and the forfeiture will be received by the East India Company, under an order of court.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THOSE of your readers, who have perused with due attention the account, which I was permitted to send you lately, of the pious conduct of Miss Margaret Yduring her last illness, will be gratified by the following, no less edifying, account of her younger sister Miss Catherine. It was written by the same lady who wrote the former, and is chiefly taken from a series of letters sent to her sister, another aunt of the young ladies. The short preface, which relates to this young lady's conduct upon her arrival in England, was written by the same person to a friend of mine, to whom copies of the letters had been sent.

W. H.

"WHEN my niece Catherine came from India, she was little more than six years old. I soon discovered marks of grace and thoughtfulness in her, along with great sweetness and cheerfulness of disposition.

"The first request which she made to me was on the day after she landed, when in broken English she asked me- You teach me to pray? One little girl on board our ship could say prayers, but I could not. I only try, and say at night, O Lord! carry me safe to Europe country, and make me good woman-then I fall asleep.'

"She then said—' Why my sister A———— not here?' I answered, that she was dead -that God had taken her com this world. The recollection of the dear child I had so lately lost made me shed tears She directly said- Why you cry? You say God did take her; God can give good place for her.'

"During her education, I found that such books or conversation as made her most acquainted with God, were most acceptable to her. I saw with thankfulness the pleasure she had in her private duties, and in reading her Bible, especially aftershe had the advantage of hearing the Rev. Mr. JF, which was during the last three years and half of her life. During that time she regretted much when any thing prevented her being at Church; and used to beg that I would bring her home as much of the sermou as I could. These, and other circumstances, gave me a hope that a work of grace was not only begun in her, but was gradually advancing.

"She was mercifully supported during the sickness, and at the death of her sister Margaret, which was a very great trial to her. By every means in her power she shewed her beloved sister that she was

willing to resign her to God. And she was enabled to do this, because she sought for help and strength where she could not seek them in vain. When I thanked her for her behaviour during so trying a scene, she said Not me, aunt, not me: that God who supported Margaret, supported me?'

"On my saying one day that I regretted to pass the chamber where the body of my dear niece was lying, without having time to go in, and asking her if she did not feel the same regret, she said, 'No, my aunt, I do not mind her poor dust. I love to think of her as an angel in heaven.'

"About four months after the death of her sister Margaret she was taken ill; and as soon as I was sure of the nature of her disorder, 1 acquainted her with it. She had seen her sister carried on in one continued and unvarying sunshine of hope, peace, and cheerful resignation, to her last moments, when she left the world rejoicing in the prospect of heaven. Catherine felt not the same assurance. Her hope for a time seemed taken away; and her mind was filled with doubts and terrors. ',' said she, if I should be deceived in every thing at last! If when I die I lift up my eyes in hell, when it is too late for repentance! The promises which she used to delight in, for a time lost their sweetness, and she could not appropriate them to herself.

O,

"Thus in tender mercy did God convince her, that she had yet deeper work to learn. In much love and pity He shewed her, that she had relied too much on those duties which she had performed, and too little on him to whom they were paid. how bright does that grace and mercy shine, which drew aside the cloud that hung over her, and enabled her at length to say 'I have carried all my fears and cares to God, and he has turned them all into peace and joy.'

Extracts of letters from Mrs. M→→ Y to her sister, concerning their niece, Miss Catherine Y, during her last illness. Nov. 28th, 1802. "If ever mind was in heaven, while the body was on earth, it is my Catherine's, The most edifying sight you can imagine is our dear nicce, in this her hour of trial! It is delightful to me to be beside her. No murmur-no complaint escapes her hips. If I pity her, and say- My love, your cough is very bad to day;' she will answer, with a sweet smile-Fie, aunt, let us be thankful I have so little pain.' She is, indeed, in the hands of mercy, and strongly she expresses her sense of it. Desirous of a full submission to the will of