and lucubrations, that had arrived at the simple idea, that NAPOLEON was the sole cause of all their danger; that in him they saw embodied that which, if not destroyed, would take from them the bread of idleness, strip them of their unmerited fine clothes, and compel them to live a life of labour and of frugality. Therefore, when they saw him what they deemed destroyed, their feelings were those of boundless joy and exultation; such as we may suppose would be felt by an assemblage of undetected thieves, burglars, and murderers, upon receiving sure and certain information of the annihilation of the devil.

276. Those of them who lived in the great and all-corrupting metropolis; those immense swarms of Jews and Jew-like professors of Christianity; all the tribes of fundholders and of usurers of every description; all the makers and issuers and negotiators of paper-money; all the tribes of creatures living in, or creeping about, the innumerable public offices; all their immediate dependents, not only servants, but tradesmen : all these, amounting to hundreds of thousands, set up one general unanimous shout of joy. That universal shout over, they then began visiting and revisiting each other; balls, plays, masquerades, illuminations, processions, from the solemn and gaudy buffoonery of the freemasons down to the

little ragged children at the Lancasterian schools. The houses in the streets were decorated with transparencies and paintings, as in the case of a jubilee at Rome.

277. Those living in the country hastened, where they had the means, up to the grand scene of exultation, crowding after the delivering demigods, striving, as it were, for life, to obtain the means of being able to say that they had 66 touched" some part of the garments of the Autocrat of RUSSIA, of the King of PRUSSIA, or of a Prussian general of the name of BLUCHER, who, though old and having his mouth well guarded with whiskers, was said to express his fear lest his lips should be carried away by the kisses of the "ladies of England!" The cities and towns in the country imitated London to the utmost of their power. Oxen were roasted whole; and it was a miserable town that did not roast whole one or more sheep. These animals were led to the slaughter in the true heathen style; decorated with orange ribands in sign of the triumph of the Dutch; white ribands in sign of the triumph of the Bourbons; and the whole always surmounted by the triumphal British flag, while the tri-coloured flag reversed, was placed under it. Upwards of two hundred oxen were roasted whole, and upwards of two thousand sheep. One boundless scene of extrava

gance and waste, and idleness and dissipation pervaded the whole kingdom, the people appeared to be all raving drunk, all raving mad.

278. Lord CASTLEREAGH, who had been the negotiator of the Treaty of PARIS, was received in the House of Commons by the Members all rising up, and by the clapping of hands; and, as to WELLINGTON, the subject of lamentation appeared to be, that there was no earth good enough for him to walk upon, and that the treasures of the nation were all too small, and its honours too diminutive, to leave a hope in the mind of any man that a sufficient reward would be found for him; and, indeed, in his own pedigree in the peerage, it is plainly stated that the nation" had not the power to reward him sufficiently;" though he has the generosity to confess, that it did its best; and what that best was, we shall see further on in this history.

279. Let me do justice to the people of England, however. They were not all either drunk or mad; but those that were not were compelled to be silent for the time. The sober part of the nation, and particularly the parliamentary reformers, and especially those amongst them who were capable of estimating the ultimate effect of the means which had been resorted to, to obtain this triumph, witnessed these scenes of cowardly and insolent exultation with feelings of disgust, contempt, and, sometimes, indignation; but by

They saw

no means with feelings of dismay. that the triumph would be but of short duration; and they thought, and they said, that the means which had been made use of to obtain this triumph, which was, in fact a triumph over parliamentary reform, and not over anything else; they saw that the means which had been made use of to obtain this triumph; they saw, and they said, that the debt which had been contracted for the purpose of purchasing the triumph (for purchased it was with English money), would finally produce that parliamentary reform which the purchase was intended to prevent, and which the insolent rejoicers thought the triumph had prevented for ever.

280. The government was resolved to make the most of the drunkenness and madness excited by this event. Men are always prone to believe that that is which they wish to be; and, therefore, the government, might really believe that all contest with the parliamentary reformers was now at an end; that no man in future would dare to raise his voice in favour of any change in the mode of electing members of parliament; and that seat-selling in the legislature, and pluralities and non-residence in the church, were now in perfect safety, and to be of duration equal to that of the hills. This might be the view which the government took of the matter; and, indeed, the language in the two houses of par

liament seemed to warrant the opinion, that this was the view which it did take of the matter; for, no man dared open his lips in either house upon the subject of reform, while everlasting taunts were poured out upon reformers, who were now spoken of as a race become obsolete.

281. At any rate, the government did its best to make the most of the delusion. It had feast. ings and shows of all sorts to entertain the continental kings and their endless tribes of followers. It had a grand naval show at PORTSMOUTH, drawing together the whole country round about, and covering the sea with shows of the most expensive description, the Prince Regent going in person with all the parade capable of being furnished by his extravagant government. From port to port the roar of cannon was continually telling the world that England was mad. No expense was ever talked of; the people imitated the government, seeming to vie with each other who should waste most and who should give clearest symptoms of madness. The thousands of mail and other stage coaches, their horses covered with ribands and ensigns, communicated the insanity to the utmost corners of the island; and, lest all this should not be enough, the government itself expended three hundred thousand pounds of the public money in fire-works, Chinese temples and bridges, triumphal arches, and all sorts of means to draw idlers to London, and