monster-for that he was a monster, there can be but little doubt.*

In the latter part of 1813, Davoust caused a wooden bridge to be built across the Elbe, from Hamburg to Wilhelmsburg. We have already remarked that the Elbe at Hamburg, as well as for a considerable distance above, and throughout its entire course below, is very broad, and its channel almost filled up with low, flat islands, many of which are liable to inundation in the autumnal and vernal seasons, when the waters of the river attain their greatest height. To erect this bridge, he did not hesitate to seize the wood that he needed wherever he could find it. And in a few days a bridge of 14,394 French feet (or nearly three English miles) was erected, over which he withdrew, in the midst of the winter, the chief part of his forces,leaving only enough to garrison the place for the present. And so escaping from the forces which were besieging the city from the northern side of the river, he made his way across Hanover, towards France, whither the waning fortunes of his master earnestly called him. The bridge remained until the year 1818, and was known as the Wilhelmsburger-Brücke.

* It ought to be said of Davoust, that he seems to have been literally nothing but a soldier. A man of noble birth, and of undaunted courage, he rose to the highest rank in his profession, by qualities purely military. He knew no rule but the will of the Emperor, as exhibited in his orders. He seems to have had a sort of idolatrous attachment for Napoleon; and it has been told us at Hamburg that he was heard to say, and more than once, that he knew no law but the command of his sovereign; and that if Bonaparte had commanded him to put his father to death, he should not have hesitated a moment to execute the order. Firmness of character, personal bravery, and a military rigor often approaching to cruelty, were his characteristics. It is due to his memory to say, that he published, in 1814, a vindication of himself from the charge of cruelty towards Hamburg. He died in 1823.

In the spring of 1814, the last of the French forces finally left Hamburg, and the city was taken possession of by the Russian general, Benningsen, who remained until the end of that year. Since that epoch, Hamburg has enjoyed a long period of uninterrupted tranquillity and prosperity. For we do not consider the troubles which occurred here in 1830-31, and as a fruit of the Revolution of July in France, as an exception worthy of notice. The popula tion has steadily and even rapidly increased since the return of peace in 1815. At present, including the suburbs to the distance of some two miles, it cannot be less than 140,000.

We have already spoken of the little territory which Hamburg owns at the mouth of the Elbe, called the bailiwic of Ritzebüttel. It possesses a territory immediately to the north and the east of the city, of irregular shape, and of 116 square miles in extent. Some of the islands in the Elbe belong wholly or in part to Hamburg, together with the village of Moorburg on the left bank. In common also with Lübeck, Hamburg has jurisdiction of the bailiwic of Bergedorf, the capital of which is a village of the same name, and has a population of two thousand souls,—and over the district along the Elbe, some eight or ten miles above the city, called the Vierlands, of which we have spoken elsewhere. The population of the territories belonging to Hamburg may be estimated at about thirty thousand souls. So that the entire number of the inhabitants of this commonwealth may be considered to be about 170,000.

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF HAMBURG.

The Constitution of Hamburg-and the same thing is true of those of the other Free or Hanseatic Cities,—is so very different from what we find in any other state or country, whether ancient or modern, that we propose to

give our readers as full a notice of it as may be necessary to make it clearly understood. It will be seen that the government of this commonwealth is a most remarkable mixture of aristocracy and democracy; and that these very different, and in some sense, antagonistic elements are so balanced, the one against the other, or rather are so blended together, as to produce a government under the shadow of which the people have enjoyed, during a long period, unexampled prosperity and happiness.

The Constitution of Hamburg is commonly represented as having originated at the introduction of the Reformation into the city, about three hundred and fifteen or twenty years ago. This is not strictly true. Many of the chief principles of that organic law or institution were certainly embodied more fully then than they had ever been before. But the present constitution of that city owes its more complete development to acts which took place in 1710 and 1712. Changes have unquestionably taken place since that epoch; but the great features of the constitution remain essentially as those acts left them. We now proceed to delineate them, and shall afterwards specify such modifications as have been since introduced.

The sovereign legislative power resides, jointly and equally, in the Senate and the citizens.

The Senate is composed of four Burgomasters, three of whom must be lawyers and one a merchant, and twentyfour senators, of whom eleven are lawyers, and the other thirteen are taken from among the merchants in general, who are citizens.

One of the three Burgomasters who are lawyers presides over the senate. There are four Syndics, who have a consultative voice in the deliberations of the senate, but no vote. They are charged with the foreign and domestic relations of the state, and with the reduction of the acts of the Senate to proper forms. They take rank after the

Burgomasters. The Senate has also four secretaries, who are charged with making the minutes of the proceedings of the senate, and with the communication and the preservation of the acts of that body. One of them is the prothonotary, or chief secretary, and another is archivist, or keeper of the Records.

The Senate chooses and appoints the Syndics and its secretaries. It chooses and appoints also its own members, or, in other words, fills all vacancies in its own body. To be eligible to the office of senator, it is necessary to be a citizen, to have completed the age of thirty years, to profess the Protestant religion, and formerly it was necessary to be a member of the Lutheran Church (commonly called on the continent the Confession of Augsburg), to be attached to no foreign service; and finally, not to be the kindred by blood, either in the ascending or descending line, nor the son-in-law, nor the fatherin-law, of any other member of the senate. More than two brothers-in-law cannot be members of the senate at one time; nor more than five persons related to each other in the third degree.

Every Senator, upon his election, must take an oath, standing, in relation to his election-that it has been brought about without fraud- and on his knees, he must take the oath peculiar to a Senator. He must hear, in the same posture, the reading of the constitution, which he swears to obey. And when a citizen has been elected a Burgomaster or a Senator, he must accept the office, or quit the city, paying at the same time into the public treasury the tenth part of his estate.

We have now spoken of the aristocratic part of this government-the Senate-and of its attributes. The reader has doubtless remarked its strong features, which consist in the Senate's appointing the Burgomasters, Syndics and secretaries, and filling the vacancies which occur

in its own body, and that all these appointments are for life.—We come now to speak of the Burghers or citizens, or what the French call the Bourgeoisie, and of their rights.

The citizens are divided into five sections, by parishes or quarters; at the head of each of these sections there are elders, next deacons, and finally sub-deacons. (The last-named are ecclesiastical only in name.) The three elders of each parish unite and form a college or committee of fifteen members, called the College of the Elders. Another college, called that of the Sixty, is composed of the forty-five deacons (nine from each parish) united with the fifteen elders. And finally, another college, called that of the Hundred and Eighty, is formed by the union of the hundred and twenty sub-deacons (twenty-four from each parish) with the college of the Sixty.

The elders have their own records, and secretary. They fill up vacancies which occur in their number by choosing from among the deacons; (two members of the Senate must be present at this election.) They choose also the deacons from among the sub-deacons. And the sub-deacons are chosen by the deacons from among the citizens. There are besides, in each parish, six supplies, or supernumeraries, called assistants, who are destined, in an emergency, to take the place of sub-deacons.

Besides these superior colleges (which are required, under pain of a fine, to be present at all the convocations of the citizens,) every citizen who is proprietor of a house which is worth the sum of about one thousand dollars of our money, if the house be in the city, and two thousand, if it be beyond the walls and in the territory of Hamburg, has the right to a seat in the general assembly of the body of citizens, and to vote on all questions which come before the assembly. The captains of the militia or national guards of the city, the Deputies of the Chamber of Commerce, and the presidents of the Trades-Associations, are