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    Untitled Article

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    MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World.

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    Untitled Article

    If thirty years ago a . conversation had been overheard , between two inconsiderable person ; , u man and his "wife , in a miserable town of Corsica , fixing the destinies of their children ; - and giving an empire to one , and kingdoms to others , and representing the grandeur of their future meetings , with what contempt

    would it not have been received ! especially ^ when they at last spoke in humbler strains , and one child was sent apprentice to a lawyer , another to a butcher , and , so on , boys and girls were dismissed to honest occupations . Yet what would have excited laughter a few years back , has within the month excited the

    attention and astonishment of all Europe , A meeting was held of the family of the honest couple , to discuss a question , or rather to hear the settlement of a question , in which its august interests were concerned . It was a meeting of sovereigns , ar emperor , an empress , kings , princes , princesses . They , who by tie common events of life would have filled

    only inferior situations , now held the state and titles of those , who thought themselves entitled to them by a long train of ancestry . Such was the decree of Providence , and such is the lesson , properly taught to vain man , who is too apt to forget his origin in the dust of the ground , and the mutual relation of all

    men to each other through a common ancestor . The pride of the Bourbon family has been overthrown by a Corsican , and the ceremonies of a palace are just as well performed by the new dynasty as by the old . The common theatre

    indeed shows us , how easy it is to act thepageantry of royality ; but these events calf on us to reflect , wkh what ease God raiseth up one family , and setteth down another , that all flesh may fear before him * What the ancestors

    Untitled Article

    more distant period ; for the king-, who now sitfeth on the throne , and the beggar who lies prostrate on the dunghill , trace equally among their common ancestors both kings and beggars . The pride of wealth and power cannot bear this reflection ; yet it belongs to all , and

    should teach us all to look upon , every man a * a brother ; and of ail xn $ n , the Christian is least entitled to indulge infamily pride , since he confesses obedience to a master , born in the humblest walks of life , and who had not where to lay his head .

    The Napoleon family met upon a very important question , the dissolution of the marriage of its he * d lio offspring had resulted from the union , and the emperor declared it to be necessary for

    the welfare of his empire that he should leave an he : t to the imperial throne . T < fc this proposal , the empress gave her full assent , in expressions of the greatest gratitude to her husband , who had so highly exalted her , and to whose welfare she

    was willing to sacrifice every comfort of life . The declarations rjbus ma 4 e of the married couple were noted dawn , and carried on the following Jay to > the senate , where a decree was passed , that the marriage should be dissolved , and a liberal allowance , together with the title

    of empress queen , should be conferred on the lady . Thus the senate has performed the office of dissolving the bands of majrriage , has taken upon itself the task , which forrneriy was thought to belong only to the court of Rome ; and ihm France has given another proof of ifc * freedom from Popery . In this point of

    view , the event becomes of importance , and will be followed by material consequences . Every thing that weakens the prejudices in favour of Popery , tends to the destruction of that system , and the world has too often seen , fcfcat moral tiea bend before ( he political interests of princes . Our parliament was just as

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    ( 39 >

    Monthly Retrospect Of Public Affairs; Or, The Christian's Survey Of The Political World.

    MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS ; OR , The Christian ' s Survey of the Political World .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1810, page 39, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2400/page/39/