in the valley of the Furnas, and the spot is now a nearly circular plain surrounding a somewhat high hill with a crater at top. At this time the cinders were carried nearly ninety leagues, as far as Terceira.

Since then other eruptions of minor importance have taken place from the same spot. On the 10th of October, 1652, the elevated Pico do Fogo was raised, and on the 19th of the same month, the hill called Pico de Ja› Ramos, northeast of Lugar de Rosto de Cão in St. Michael's. July 3d, 1638, was an eruption from the sea off Pico das Camarhinas, at the distance of one league from 1-nd, and where there were forty fathoms of water. In 1691, there was an eruption off St. Michael's, and another in 1720, producing an island six miles in circumference. Many earthquakes occurred in the autumn of 1810. On the 1st of February, 1811, was an eruption off Genetes; and on June 13th occurred another, about a mile from the island of St. Michael's, which elevated the islan I called Sabrina, described and depicted in Dr. Webster's work. The same phenomena have since occasionally recurred, but there has been no actual volcanic eruption in St. Michael's. In the island of St. George a destructive eruption happened in 1808, which is also described by Dr. Webster.

In the Count's meagre notices of the other islands, there is nothing which demands notice. We should perhaps make an exception in regard to Flores, where he professes to have discovered a vein of zinc !-more primitive rocks, the "schisto argilloso primitivo" again; and " and "grandes depositos de barro proprio para cachimbos," which may be translated pipe clay, enough for all the smokers, of whom there is no deficiency, in the islands; - a discovery (this last) so far exceeding in importance any other recorded in the "Resumo," that its author deserves from the grateful Azoreans a perennial monument of pipe-stems.

In a word, all the geological phenomena, which have been remarked, lead to one and the same inference in regard to the volcanic origin and causes of the present aspect of the remaining members of this archipelago, and lend no support to the theory of subsidence. We do not hesitate to express our opinion, that not only Madeira and the Azores, but also the Cape de Verds and Canaries have had a similar origin, and are to be viewed as belonging to the third class in Mr. Scrope's arrangement of volcanoes; in which are also comprised many

of the volcanoes in the Cordilleras of South America, those of Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas, and nearly all in the islands of the Pacific, in all of which we hear of terrific eruptions occasionally breaking out from mountains which were not. previously suspected to be of volcanic nature, or from the adjacent waters.

ART. IV. Histoire de Napoléon, par M. DE NORVINS. Deuxième Édition en quatre Tomes, à Paris et à New York. 1829.

History of Napoleon, by M. DE NORVINS.

THOUGH Scarcely known in this country, the History of M. de Norvins is generally esteemed in Europe the most valuable work hitherto published on Napoleon and his age. It has been rendered into several of the continental languages, and should before now have been placed, in a good translation, in the hands of English and American readers.

We

We refer to it, however, at the present time, for a differ-. ent purpose from that either of analysis or criticism. propose to throw together some notices of a personage, who, for a brief space, occupied a prominent position in that eventful history; one of those many actors on a busy scene, whom time silently sweeps away, and whom the world so easily forgets, as soon as they have ceased to be the immediate objects of hope or fear, of admiration or animosity.

In a newspaper of last autumn, among the scraps of foreign intelligence, our eye fell upon a hasty announcement of the death of Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Parma, widow of Napoleon Bonaparte; one, who, had she been so happy as to have died twenty-seven years ago, in giving birth to the heir of that splendid royalty which then she shared, would have had her praises proclaimed from the pulpits of all Christendom, and her last words registered in the annals of nations. But she outlived her fair destinies. Clouds settled round the sunset of her day; and she went down in silence and loneliness, unheeded and unlamented, lost in the crowd. of monarchs, an outcast from renown.

In giving a short biographical sketch of this princess, it

would be unreasonable, as well as fruitless, to aim to rero'e the sentence which condemns her name, if not to oblivion, to obscurity. The writer of this notice (born her subje t, though not interested in her memory by any benefit or injury) might be pardoned a momentary feeling for the indifference with which she is dismissed; but no one certainly has a right to wonder, that other interests should so absorb the attention of our sober and peaceful contemporaries, as to leave them no leisure to look at the exit of such personages as played the tragedy on the same stage where we are now acting the comedy; whose errors and follies, whose stormy vicissitudes, prepared this blessed period of tranquillity in which we are privileged to live. Still it may be thought worth while to place on record some notices of such a life, that, if curiosity should at any time be rekindled concerning it, an humble monument may remain to guide others in their researches.

The life of Maria Louisa, during the period of early womanhood, is already in the charge of history. As long as she was sailing on board the lofty ship, that seemed for a time to have chained the winds at its stern, the eyes of all Europe were fixed upon her. When that proud vessel went down,

and she was cast ashore amidst the wreck of that sudden disaster, the world lost sight of her; and the last page of her biography is blank, like that of the seaman thrown by the waves on the coast of a desert island, and effaced from the roll of the living. But, before we come to our subject, before we endeavour to fill up that blank page, we must recall to the memory of our readers what most of them well know, and what in consequence we shall give in few words, the life of our heroine from her birth to the fall of Napoleon.

Maria Louisa Leopoldine Caroline, Archduchess of Austria, eldest daughter of the Emperor Francis the First, and of the second of his four wives, Maria Theresa of Naples, was born at Schönbrunn, in 1791. She was bred like other daughters of monarchs. She was taught to speak French and Italian, and to play on the piano, with all the other appendages of drawing, dancing, and riding.

Born at the very dawn of those tempestuous events, in which Austria was so long and so disastrously engaged, and in which, by a succession of disgraceful campaigns, her father lost, one after another, the best provinces that a succession of

marriages had added one after another to the possession of his ancestors, Maria Louisa had learnt from her nurse never to think of the French without shuddering with horror, never to finish her prayers till she had added a curse upon the name of Napoleon.

But fortune favored the brave. The ruffians, who had shed torrents of blood, who had overturned altar and throne, who had led her aunt Maria Antoinette to the scaffold, and, by long outrages and famine, coldly murdered her child, -now they had come. The blond youth of Austria had perished on the fields of fair Italy, on the Raab, at Essling, at Wagram, in a vain attempt to oppose their progress. The squares of Vienna were still silent and desolate, where the French had pitched their tents. Schönbrunn was still polluted, where the insolent Corsican had established his head-quarters. The crowd of archdukes were just returning from Buda, where, fugitive and exiled, they had received laws, such as it had pleased the proud conqueror to dictate.

Yet that conqueror was not inexorable. Her imperial family, in their haste to escape froin imminent danger, had abandoned her, sick, alone, in distress, in the palace of the capital, in a besieged city, almost at the mercy of the enemy; and the generous enemy, in a moment of chivalrous gallantry, had ordered the palace to be respected, and his bombs to be directed elsewhere. The conqueror was not inexorable. Twice had Austria lain prostrate at his feet, and twice had she been spared; and now, when, availing herself of favorable circumstances, she had broken all faith and truce, and provoked the vengeance of her enemy, when revenge would have seemed as just as it was profitable and easy, the magnanimous enemy still listened to proposals of peace, and granted it on such moderate terms as Austria had not dared to expect. Austria had lost all. She had no longer any provinces to give up. She could not pretend to bestow on the invader what was already indisputably his. There was only one gift by which the vanity of the Corsican parvenu could still be won upon. Austria, now struggling for her very existence, did not hesitate. She stained by a mésalliance the arms of the proud house of Hapsburg. She gave up her blood and

"Bella gerant alii; tu, felix Austria, nube;

Nam, quod Mars aliis, dat tibi pulchra Venus."

flesh. She gave up Maria Louisa; the peace of Vienna was sealed; Cesar was restored to his throne. And now the enemy of her father, of her country, and of her God, must acquire over her the most sacred rights. She must look upon him with fondness and deference; she was the fairest of his conquests, the wife of his choice; she must be the mother of his children.

The language of the court was changed. The brigand chief had become a leader of heroes. His pedigree was found to ascend to a prodigious antiquity. The jacobin general was now the anointed of the Lord. He had restored order to France, and peace to Europe. The Aulic Council called him their friend. Francis the First called him his brother. He was as generous as fortunate. He was the Alexander of our days; and, like Alexander, he was to choose among his enemies a bride, who should endear to him the shade of his laurels, who should make him love the security of peace, and the comforts of home.

On

Maria Louisa listened, and prepared for the sacrifice. The mild creature never knew how to show any repugnance to other people's desires. She had been taught to hate, and she hated; she was now hidden to love, and she married. the 11th of March, 1810, the nuptials were celebrated at Vienna, Berthier prince of Neufchatel representing the person of Napoleon. Two days afterward the bride proceeded towards France.

In a little village near Soissons, a single horseman, in plain dress, rode by her carriage, and approached as if to reconnoitre more closely. The carriage stopped, the door was opened, the cavalier entered, and they proceeded together. Thus did Napoleon, by an unceremonious surprise, introduce himself to his bride; thus was her love romance commenced and finished. During the three following days, she was led through all the ceremonies of the French court, and, March 31st, she received the nuptial benediction from Cardinal Fesch, uncle of Napoleon.

Her

Maria Louisa was then in the flower of her age. stature was above the middle size; her complexion fresh and blooming; she had auburn hair, Austrian eyes and lips; her hand and foot served as a model for the Concord, a statue of Canova. Her temper was sweet and gentle. An obedient and dutiful wife, she won the affection of her warrior, by all VOL. XLVI.- No. 99.

50