him great credit with his political friends in the House, having been extensively republished in democratic journals, was attacked and elaborately reviewed by the peculiar organ of the great manufacturing corporations of New England, published at Lowell.

The growing political difficulties in Rhode Island early attracted the attention of Mr. Burke, who, being emphatically a "progressive democrat," after close investigation into the questions in issue between the self-styled "law and order" party and the supporters of Thomas W. Dorr, became a zealous and efficient advocate of the cause for which the latter contended. The fact, that he was known to have mastered the points of this contest more thoroughly than had any other member of the House of Representatives, superinduced his nomination as chairman of the select committee appointed to examine this particular subject; and in behalf of the majority of this committee he made a voluminous report on the 7th of June, 1844, which brought him even more fame than he had hitherto acquired from his congressional labors. In this report, the questions of individual political rights, of the political rights of communities, and of the rights and duties of state governments, were discussed with a bold and profound, yet clear cogency, which would have done honor to the intellect and patriotism of "John Taylor of Caroline," in his palmiest days. From the times in which the latter wrote, to the appearance of Mr. Burke's report on the Rhode Island difficulties, the political history of the country furnishes, intermediate, no such link in the chain of finished essays on the theory of the American government, in all its parts, which may be said to have been forged by Jefferson, and perfected and brightened by Madison, John Taylor, Luther Martin, and other distinguished republicans of the Jeffersonian age.

The six years of his Congressional life were devoted to intense labor, which, besides producing the fruits to which we have before referred, has left in the public archives honorable and abundant evidence of his indefatigable industry and expanded intellect. His reports, and other efforts in behalf of literature and science, made during the 28th Congress, when chairman of the standing committee on the Public Library, prove that his mind is as polished as enlightened.

Upon the advent of the present administration, without personal solicitation on his part, the President called Mr. Burke to the responsible position of Commissioner of Patents; which trust he now fills, with so much credit to himself, and satisfaction to the scientific and ingenious of the country, with whom his official duties bring him, constantly, in

contact.

After the close of the session of 1844 and 1845, when some of our timid friends began to express doubts as to the propriety of attempting to carry out the pledge of the Baltimore Democratic Convention, upon the question of the tariff, Mr. Burke, appreciating the danger which this hesitation threatened to the supremacy of the policy of the democratic party, boldly stepped forward as its champion, and contributed to the columns of the Union" the well-known series of essays on, or rather against, the Protective System, published over the signature of "Bundlecund." Nothing before, emanating from his fruitful pen and fertile mind, had so served to spread his fame; for they were immediately republished, wholly or in part, in nearly every democratic paper in the Union; and from their appearance, until the final vote on the tariff of 1846, were the object of incessant and virulent attacks from the opposition. The democratic party, with very few exceptions, planted themselves firmly on the principles there laid down by Mr. B.; which, being

adopted by the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and Treasury Department, were made the basis of the revenue law, so triumphantly passed on the 30th of July, 1846. Had the public life of Mr. Burke resulted in nothing else, these essays, pleading the rights of the laboring million with such convincing force and eloquence, would have won for their author an imperishable reputation, with those who have a care for the preservation of the true principles of our institutions. So long as our government shall last, these essays will stand as the basis of the American superstructure of liberal commercial regulations, which, day by day, is coming more into popular favor, as the already wonderful results of our late approximation to free trade are being better understood by the people at large.

We have written above of little else than the labors of Mr. B., and of their results, and will conclude this sketch with a quotation from a short sketch of the subject of this notice, which, in few words, will give our readers an admirable idea of the tone and temper of the man:

"Mr. Burke possesses one of the best informed minds in the country. In the midst of all his political labors and private business, which has never been neglected, he has found time to devote himself to the acquirement of much scientific and literary information, and there are few, very few private libraries in NewEngland, which will compare with his in size or in usefulness.

"Mr. Burke's characteristics are energy of purpose, untiring industry, uncompromising hostility to everything aristocratic, or un-American; devotion to his political principles, equal to that of a Mahometan to his prophet; attachment, which hardly knows a bound, to his friends; frankness, which never permits him to conceal his honest opinions on any subject.

"In his bearing and manners, he is urbane and gentlemanly to all who have occasion to come in contact with him in public or private life.”

FOREIGN POLITICS.

THE late news from Europe is of a most interesting nature, inasmuch as that it marks a new era in politics. Up to 1789, the people of Europe reposed in perfect submission to ancient feudal dynasties. There were but two parties-the governed and the governing. The former had no rights, and the latter seemingly no responsibilities. The bonds of absolutism oppressed every nation of Europe, and the people groaned helplessly beneath them. The American war, however, applied the spark to the materials of combustion that had long been collecting in France, and Europe was shortly in flames. Previously, the notion of the "balance of power" comprehended merely the division of all the land, and people occupying it, among certain reigning families, utterly irrespective of the wants or wishes of the people, who were transferred by private contract from one despot to another, with no other ceremony than the announcement of the fact, when the bargain was completed. France suddenly roused itself in 1789, and with terrible energy not only shook off the authority of a line of sixty kings, but burst over Europe in terrible retribution to those crowned heads who attempted to take part with the unfortunate Louis against the people who had repudiated him.

The throne of the Cæsars was twice in the possession of republican armies, from which the House of Hapsburgh as often received back its inheritance. The throne of Prussia was subverted by the "child of the peo

ple," and the heir of Brandenburgh became a fugitive in foreign courtsthe Germanic Empire crumbled into ruins-the States of Italy, released from Austrian oppression, rose into republics on the south, and Holland was annexed to France on the north. The skill and genius of the English ministry, with its lavish expenditures, unscrupulous frauds, and remorseless crimes, could not combine the shattered remnants of ancient despotism in Europe, in effectual opposition to the power of republican France, wielded by the quondam, "Lieut. of the Regiment La Fere," until that power broke before the snows of Russia, when, as it were, a counterrevolution was effected in 1815, and Republican France being driven back within her borders, despotism assembled at Vienna to force upon France, as well as upon the people of all nations, a new set of chains, in the shape of a treaty. In that "settlement of Europe," each imperial robber affected to be governed by the most moderate views, and to be imbued with the profoundest respect for the territory of others. The active genius of Bonaparte had given them such an example of the aggrandisement system, that their small souls shrunk into their "boot tops," at the mention of his name. It was well said that there needed but to " erect the small three-cornered hat and grey coat upon a stick in any part of France, to make all Europe run to arms." The congress of tyrants, acting under these wholesome fears, and the temporary virtue they elicited, constructed a treaty which they forced upon France, pretending to settle the boundaries of each state forever. This was the first re-action from the movement of the people; but the eruption of France, and the example of the United States, have given an impulse to popular progression throughout the world, that is constantly producing its fruits.

By the treaty of Vienna, the limits and rights of each power in Europe was defined, and the German princes mediatised. That is to say, before the war Germany was divided into some 300 absolute sovereignties, governed by fellows who sold their subjects at so much per head. Most of these were mediatised, or merged into greater states, to preserve the "balance of power," said to be an admirable system to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak. Belgium was united to Holland, France restricted to the Rhine, &c. &c., and what remained of poor Poland, viz. Cracow, was declared free and independent forever. The treaty runs as follows:

CRACOW DECLARED A FREE CITY.

"ART. 6. The city of Cracow, with its territory, will be considered in perpetuity'a free city, independent and strictly neutral, under the protection of Russia, Austria and Prussia."

The 7th article defines the limits of Cracow, and the 9th specifies the neutrality of Cracow, as follows:

"The courts of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, engage themselves to respect, and to cause to be respected, in all time, the neutrality of the city of Cracow and its territories; no armed force shall ever be introduced into, on any pretext.

"In return, it is intended, and expressly stipulated, that no aid or protection shall be given in Cracow or its territories, to any refugees, deserters, or violators of the laws of either one or the other of the high contracting parties, and that, on demand of competent authority, such individuals shall be arrested and delivered without delay, under good escort, to the guard which shall be charged to receive them on the frontiers."

This treaty was signed by all the powers of Europe-England, Russia, Prussia, France, &c. This highly respectable Holy Alliance, having so successfully produced a counter-revolution, and restored the Bour

bons to France, in the person of Louis XVIII., concluded to continue their assumed powers, to protect the Princes of all countries against the people of all countries, in terms as follows:

"The undersigned, specially authorized to make some additions to the Treaty of the Holy Alliance, after having exchanged their respective credentials, have agreed as follows:

ART. 1. The high contracting powers, being convinced that the system of representative government is equally as incompatible with the monarchical principles as the maxim of the sovereignty of the people with the divine right, engage mutually, in the most solemn manner, to use all their efforts to put an end to the system of representative governments, in whatever country it may exist in Europe, and to prevent its being introduced in those countries where it is not yet known.

“ART. 2. As it cannot be doubted that the liberty of the press is the most powerful means used by the pretended supporters of the rights of nations, to the detriment of those of princes, the high contracting parties promise reciprocally to adopt all proper means to suppress it, not only in their own states, but also in the rest of Europe."

These are the secret articles appended to the treaty of Verona, and signed in 1822 by all the parties except England, which, under Mr. Canning, ceased to take an active part in the proceedings of the Holy Alliance until 1830, when it resumed its connection, and united to put down the popular movement in Belgium, perpetrating upon the people of that country one of the grossest outrages ever inflicted upon any people. The Holy Alliance, from London, declared Belgium "neutral," which means that she is to do as she is bid, and no more. The above secret treaty has lately been denied in Europe-but it cannot be blotted out; nor can the outrages committed in accordance with its terms, such as the invasion of Spain by France, under joint pay of the powers, in 1823, be undone. This precious conclave were somewhat astonished in 1830 at a new movement of the French people. France again cast off the Bourbon race, and determined upon a constitutional government; a thing at variance with the treaty signed by her former rulers. Unfortunately, however, France was again to be the dupe of a Bourbon, and that one of the worst of that iniquitous race. When the French Revolution of 1789 began to gather strength, the Duke d'Orleans, one of the greatest monsters, if we except the English Prince Ernest, King of Hanover, that ever disgraced the human race, in the hope of displacing the king, Louis XVI., and of becoming regent during the minority of the young king, joined the popular side; and, as Philip "Egalité," or equality, was made a member of the National Assembly, voting as such for the death of his brother, the king, with the view to get his place, while the galleries were filled with his prostitutes eating ices, and openly applauding the fratricide vote. At the same time, his hopeful son, young Egalité, was door-keeper to the Jacobir.s' club. When Egalité, the elder, a few years after, having filled the measure of his crimes, bowed his own head upon the scaffold, the guillotine shearing away that bloated excrescence of humanity, never did a holier service to the world. The young Egalité, in the exercise of his proverbial prudence, fled into exile; re-appearing in 1830, when again the French people cast off these Bourbons. It was then that this young Egalité, more successful than his worthy father, obtained the crown as a constitutional king, through the exercise of more cunning, and quite as much falsehood and insincerity as the less fortunate, but equally worthy, Egalité senior. The Allied Powers hesitated about permitting this sprig of Egalité to possess the throne of France. A very short time, however, convinced them, that in that position he was not so much a king of France as their

agent in restraining the progress of the French people; that he was but the willing instrument to re-inslave France, as far as in him lay. A glance at the constitution he put forth, and the first steps he took under it, were enough to satisfy the most skeptical upon that point. Every measure of state since adopted, has had, obviously, but one tendency, viz. to strengthen his dynasty and to weaken France. The fortifications of Paris are a most notable example. In 1833, the people of France decided against these works; not so much on account of their expense, as the fact that their construction forever again prevents any successful movement of the people of Paris against their master. In 1840, Thiers lent himself to the design of the king, who, in the midst of the war excitement, created by that minister, in relation to the quintuple treaty, procured the law for the completion of the fortifications. He then dismissed the minister, threw upon him the odium of the excitement, made France pocket the insult offered her, and drew closer than ever the bonds of friendship between himself and the English government. Suddenly it is discovered that the affection for England, his visiting and be-sistering Victoria, was to procure her countenance to the marriage of a little Egalité to the heir of the Spanish crown, whereby little Egalité makes a good deal of ready money, and obtains a chance for a future claim to the Spanish crown. This is the first great renewal of personal aggrandizement by despots since 1815; and it opens the way to endless squabbles. Every crowned robber in Europe has his eye upon some territory, which he means some day to seize by force, irrespective of the will of that people, whose strength is silently augmenting like the fires of a long repressed volcano. Russia has had its eyes, for centuries, fixed upon Constantinople. Austria coveted what remained of Poland as well as the Italian Ports, being jealous of the increased influence of Prussia, which, through the Customs Union, has contrived to unite under its influence the States of Northern Germany, in a manner reconstructing the ancient Empire. In the meantime the Pope died, and a new Pope of liberal principles and views began so to gain on the affections of the people, that Austria became alarmed at the popular progress. It was ascertained, however, that the French minister was encouraging the course of the new Pope. No sooner, however, had Egalité determined upon the marriage, than, not depending altogether upon the friendship of England, so far as to give its assent to this measure, he caused to be intimated to the allies that he was willing to do anything to be agreeable to them. This was kindly received, and on the 10th October the youngest son of the reigning king of the French was married to Donna Louisa, the sister of the reigning Queen of Spain, and heiress presumptive to the Spanish crown. Egalité then caused all the poor Poles and their papers in Paris to be seized, and the French Minister at the Court of Rome had orders to change his policy. Suddenly an Austrian Proclamation announces the annexation of the republic of Cracow to the Austrian Empire.

The amusing part, however, is the farce of the protests. England protested against the marriage, and Egalité laughed. Egalité then protested against the annexation of Cracow; but his protest contained simply the announcement, that the act of annexation violated and made null the treaty of Vienna, with all its pledges and responsibilities, and that hereafter everybody is to do what he pleases. That the matter was arranged before the marriage, is apparent on its face. The farce of the protests is accompanied by attacks on the Austrian government by the Journal des Debats, the government organ. Nobody is deceived by such duplicity,