It will be remembered that Paul's career was an unfortunate one, and the vicissitudes of his youth may have disordered his faculties. On his birth his father, Peter the Third, issued a ukase denying the legitimacy of his son's paternity: on the publication of this statement the Empress put her husband to death. Paul's earlier years were harassed by trouble, and the last act of his mother was a fruitless effort to exclude him from the succession. His reign commenced auspiciously; acts of clemency and munificence distinguished his government; as the head of the alliance against France he was looked upon as the legitimate champion of monarchy. After sharing the defeats sustained by the allied armies his views underwent a remarkable change. Buonaparte, with his matchless discrimination, contrived to flatter the Emperor's vanity, and, among other strokes of policy, returned all the Russian prisoners, well-armed and newly-clad. Paul now entered into a defensive alliance with France to drive the English out of India; and, to destroy our maritime supremacy, he established the Northern Confederation for the suppression of British commerce. The caricature _Single Combat in Moorfields_ is founded on an extraordinary proceeding, which filled Europe with astonishment at its unequalled eccentricity. The Emperor published an advertisement in the _Court Gazette_ of St. Petersburg, stating, to the amazement of the world, that, as 'the Powers could not agree among themselves, he intended to point out a spot, to which all the other sovereigns were invited to repair, TO FIGHT IN SINGLE COMBAT, bringing with them, as seconds and esquires, their most enlightened ministers and ablest generals.' His subjects were continually annoyed by acts of minor and fantastic oppression--such as an edict against 'round hats and pantaloons,' which he forbade any person to wear in his empire. He enforced the revival of hair-powder and pigtails, and issued a proclamation to compel all persons whom he encountered in the street to leave their carriages and prostrate themselves before him. No one was safe from his paroxysms. The carriage of the British Ambassador passed the Imperial Palace at a pace which the Emperor chose to consider disrespectful; he immediately ordered the coachman to be beaten, the horses to be beaten, and the carriage to be beaten. The Ambassador in return resented these indignities by discharging his servants, ordering his horses to be shot, and his carriage to be thrown into the Neva. An insane autocrat was found to be a formidable calamity.