mind, always increased, whenever he met with any of those anti-national doctrines so vehemently advocated by Kotzebue in his weekly journal then publishing at Weimar.

The above multifarious writer after experiencing those vicissitudes of fortune and situation, which a character of such habitual levity and extreme presumption could hardly hope to have escaped, upon attaining, in a certain degree, the means of independence, resigned his appointment of consul general in Russia, and removed from St. Petersburgh to Weimar, where he made his appearance without any official or ostensible employment. He lost no time, however, in declaring war against the discipline of the universities, and conduct of the professors in most of them; men, who in these days of political apostacy and courtly servility, have never ceased to advance the cause of true learning, or forgotten those principles of eternal justice and freedom, upon which the stability of governments and happiness of civilized society so mainly depend. Having announced the intention of retiring to his native place simply as a votary of the muses, his reception was such as a private individual and well known literary character might have naturally` expected; but what was the surprise of the public on his displaying an imperial Russian patent, constituting him the accredited diplomatic agent of

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that court. By subsequent information it was, indeed, discovered that he received a yearly stipend of fifteen thousand roubles for transmitting extracts from the newspapers and other publications connected with passing events in Germany, and particularly of those writers whose views did not coincide with those of the Russian cabinet.He was also entrusted with the duty of making reports directly to the Emperor Alexander on the state of literature and public opinion generally.

The more effectually to fulfil the objects of his mission, and perhaps anxious to leave nothing untried that was calculated to meet the wishes of the Emperor, M. Kotzebue established a weekly literary journal, in which he not only became the judge and censor of all the works he thought worthy of notice, but expressed his opinions on politics, public men, and the predominant spirit of the age, in a manner, that the public in general considered as extremely partial and illiberal.— Amongst other charges, the imperial counsellor was openly accused of carrying on a marked hostility to freedom of discussion by the press, liberal ideas in politics, and especially to the wishes of the people, so often and unequivocally expressed for the adoption of a representative system.

Although his doctrines might have met the approbation of a few, for there are panders to power, and traitors to their fellow citizens in every coun

try, this conduct of M. Von Kotzebue did not fail to draw down the indignation of a much greater number, more particularly the German youth, who have so long sighed for the political emancipation of their country. It is doubtless in the above very pernicious application of his literary powers, that we are to look for the cause of that catastrophe which terminated his existence. M. Kotzebue's conduct excited the more surprise, from the well known fact of his having formerly often stood forth as the enemy of oppression. Not satisfied with opposing the political enfranchisement of Germany, he took the utmost pains to represent the enlightened friends of liberty and the greatest ornaments of the universities, as revolutionary demagogues. Full of that overweening confidence, which is but too often the attendant on popularity among authors as well as statesmen, he came forward armed with sword and buckler, vainly imagining that his former fame and present protection, insured a certain victory over his opponents. Elated with this flattering prospect, it also occurred to M. Kotzebue, that the contest would not only afford him an opportunity of getting into favour with other sovereigns, but that still greater honours and additional rewards might follow.

The first glaring exposure of his system, was occasioned either by the awkwardness or treachery of a transcriber, who consigned a written paper,

intended as one of the reports to his imperial master, and in the hand-writing of Kotzebue, to an opponent of the latter, in which the Court Counsellor Luden, of Jena, and his journal, the Nemesis, were represented as "two of the most detestable instruments of hell!" Upon the appearance of a literal copy of this tirade, in Luden's paper, the dramatist boldly acknowledged it for his own; but he at the same time availed himself of his Russian patent, for the purpose of laying an injunction on the further publication of the Nemesis, and followed up this measure by charging the editor with theft, and a breach of the laws of diplomacy, for publishing a communication in his hand-writing, addressed to the Emperor of Russia. The interdiction was, however, totally ineffectual, as this disgraceful bulletin was already copied into Wieland's PATRIOT, and also into the Iris, another literary paper, from a proof sheet of the Nemesis, by which it soon found a place in many others, and was thus in a few days disseminated throughout Germany.

When a legal inquiry was instituted shortly after, the faculty of Weizberg amended the verdict of the Leipsic court of judicature, against the obnoxious parties, Luden, Wieland, and Oken, as to the verdict of public opinion, that had already been unequivocally pronounced against M. Kotzebue. No wonder, therefore, if these trans

gressions recalled the memory of his former errors, particularly the scandalous libel of" Doctor Bahrt with the iron forehead," which he published in 1790. This outrage on public decorum was greatly aggravated by the author's affixing the estimable name of Knigge to it, with a view of screening himself from that indignation which he knew must overtake the original compiler, if discovered. This unwarrantable precaution did not, however, answer the desired purpose, and when the work was on the point of being brought home to the real author, the second subterfuge of Kotzebue was still less to be applauded than the first, for he prevailed on a friend, the chancery counsellor Kerkenberg of Hanover, an otherwise respectable character, to acknowledge it. This gave rise to a persecution and suffering on the part of the victim, which ended in the loss of his reason, and the total ruin of his family, hitherto independent and prosperous!

His recent conduct having engendered a host of enemies on every side, he was attacked by nearly all the newspapers of Germany, and became an object at which the finger of scorn was pointed from a thousand different directions, until he at length determined to change his position; for this purpose, it was given out that M. Kotzebue intended to try the waters of Pyrmont: accordingly, in the summer of 1818 he left Weimar,