I rejoice in being the organ of the sentiments of the senate towards your imperial highness, and in expressing to you their wishes for your prosperity."

The orators of the council of state, counts Regnault (de St. Jean d'Angely), and Defermont, ministers of state, members of the council of state, being introduced, the prince arch-chancellor, president, spoke as follows:

“Gentlemen;―The projet, which will, in this sitting, be submitted to the deliberation of the senate, contains an arrangement which embraces our dearest interests. It is dictated by that imperious voice, which apprises sovereigns and nations, that, to secure the safety of states, we must listen to the counsels of a wise foresight, incessantly recall to mind the past, examine the present, and extend our views to the future. It is under such high considerations, that in these ever memorable circumstances, his majesty the emperor has caused all personal considerations to disappear, and silenced all his private affections. The noble and affecting conduct of her majesty the empress is a glorious testimony of her disinterested affection for the emperor, and secures to her an eternal right to the gratitude of the nation."

Count Regnault St. Jean d'Angely submitted a projet of a senatus consultum, dissolving the marriage between the emperor Napoleon and the empress Josephine. The orator explained the motives of this projet as follows:

"My Lords, Senators ;-The solemn act fully set forth in the senatus consultum now read, contains all its motives. What words could

we address to the senate of France, but would be far below the affecting sounds received from the mouth of these two august consorts, of whom your deliberations will consecrate the generous resolutions ? Their hearts have coincided in making the noblest sacrifices to the greatest of interests. They have coincided to make policy and sentiment speak language the most true, the most persuasive, the most adapted to move and to convince. As sovereigns and as consorts, the emperor and empress have done all, have said all. There only remains for us to love, to bless, and to admire them.

“ 'Tis henceforth for the French nation to make themselves heard. Their memory is faithful as their heart. They will unite in their grateful thoughts the hope of the future with the remembrance of the past; and never will monarch have received more respect, admiration, gratitude, and love, than Napoleon, immolating the most sacred of, his affections to the wants of his subjects; than Josephine immolating her tenderness for the best of husbands, through devotion for the best of kings, through attachment to the best of nations. Accept, gentlemen, in the name of all France, in the sight of astonished Europe, this sacrifice, the greatest ever made on earth, and, full of the profound emotion which you feel, hasten to carry to the foot of the throne, in the tribute of your sentiments, of the sentiments of all Frenchmen, the only price that can be worthy of the fortitude of our sovereigns, the only consolation that can be worthy of their hearts."

The prince viceroy (the son of Josephine) spoke as follows:

"Prince,

"Prince Senators ;-You have heard the projet of the senatus consultum submitted to your deliberation. I feel it my duty, under these circumstances, to manifest the sentiments by which my family are animated.

"My mother, my sister, and myself, owe all to the emperor. He has truly been to us a father. He will find in us at all times devoted children and obedient subjects.

"It is important to the happiness of France, that the founder of the fourth dynasty should, in his old age, be surrounded by direct descendants who may prove a security to all and a pledge of the glory of our country.

"When my mother was crowned, before the whole nation, by the hands of her august consort, she contracted

Memoirs of the late General
Melville.

GENERAL Melville was de

scended from the Melvilles of Carnbee, in Fife, a branch of the ancient and noble family of his name, of which the chief is the present earl of Leven and Melville. The original stock of this family was a Norman warrior, one of the followers of William the Conqueror, who, on some disgust he conceived at his treatment in England, withdrew into Scotland in the reign of Malcolm Canmore, from whom he received lands in Lothian, about 1066; and branches of his family were afterwards established on lands in Angus and Fife.

General Melville's parents dying when he was very young, his guardians placed him at the grammar-school of Leven, where he soon distinguished himself by a quick and lively apprehension, united to a singularly-capacious and retentive memory. From this seminary, his rapid progress in his studies enabled him to be early removed to the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, where he continued to apply with the happiest success. His fortune being

but moderate, he, in compliance with the counsels of his friends to select one of the learned profes

sions, turned his views to the study

of medicine; but his genius strongly prompting him to follow a military life, and the war then carrying on in Flanders presenting a favourable opportunity for gratifying his natural tendencies, young Melville could not resist the temptation. Without, therefore, the knowledge of his friends, he privately withdrew to London, where, upon a statement of his motives and determination, he was furnished with the necessary means of carrying his projects into effect. He accordingly repaired to the Netherlands; and, early in 1744, he was appointed an ensign in the 25th regiment of foot, then forming a part of the allied army. That campaign he served under fieldmarshal Wade, and all the following, up to the peace of Aix-laChapelle, in 1748, under H. R. H. the duke of Cumberland, partly in the Netherlands, and partly in Britain, whither the regiment had been drawn in 1745, on account of the political troubles in the kingdom. In the end of 1746, the regiment returning to the continent, ensign Melville, at the battle of 3 C 2

Lafeldt,

Lafeldt, conducted himself in such a way, as to merit being selected by his colonel (the earl of Rothes), to deliver to the commander-in-chief the colours of a French regiment, taken by the 25th, on which occasion he was promoted to a lieutenancy.

His regiment, after the battle of Fontenoy, was besieged in Ath, where lieutenant Melville narrowly escaped destruction; for the enemy directing their fire at the fortifications alone, in order to spare the town, a shell from an overcharged mortar passing over the ramparts, fell in the middle of the night, when he was absent on duty in one of the out-works, on the house where he was quartered, and, piercing the roof, actually made its way through the bed he usually occupied.

On the termination of the war, lieutenant M. proceeded with his regiment for the south of Ireland; and on the passage was shipwrecked on the coast of Normandy.

In 1751, being promoted to the command of a company in the same regiment, and employed in recruiting in Scotland, his unexampled success drew the notice of the commander of the forces, and he became aid-de-camp to the earl of Panmure. In 1756, he was made major of the 38th regiment, then in Antigua, where it had been stationed for half a century, since its removal from Gibraltar.

That island had often been made a receptacle for offenders from regiments at home; and thus its military force had long been composed of the most disorderly troops. By the indefatigable zeal of the new major, and from the perfect

conviction, he was able to inspire into the men that he had their welfare, and that alone at heart, he at length, with the assistance of most of the other officers, succeeded in rendering the 38th regiment one of the most orderly in the service; and detachments from it accompanied him in the attack on Martinique, as also on the invasion of Guadaloupe, where major M. commanded the light infantry, at the advanced posts. In one of the skirmishes, which were constantly successful, during an attack after a night's march, and the surprise of a post very close to the French camp, the major was entering a house just abandoned by the enemy, when it exploded, and he was blown to a considerable distance, and taken up for dead.

From the immediate effects of this accident he soon recovered; but to the same cause must be attributed the decay of sight, with which, in his latter years, he was afflicted, and which at last ended in total irremediable blindness. In recompense for his services in Guadaloupe, major M. was directed by the commander of the forces, general Barrington, to succeed lieutenant-colonel Debrisey, in the defence of Fort Royal, which he held until the reduction of the island, when, in addition to the government of that fort, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the island of Guadaloupe and its dependencies, with the lieutenantcolonelcy of the 63rd regiment.

Brigadier-general Crump, who was made governor of the new colony, dying in 1760, lieutenantcolonel M. succeeded to the government, with the command of the troops. In this situation he

exerted