A SKETCH MILITARY AND POLITICAL POWER Musi0ia. C. WOOD, Printer, f oppin'c Caurt, Fleet Street. SKETCH of the MILITARY and POLITICAL POM^KK of RUSSIA, in the Yksr 1817 lulon J'titilixhrtl jfi- JRidtfway.Ptecadillv SKETCH or THE Milit^tvi antf ^olitital i&o'mtx OF RUSSIA, IN THE YEAR 181 7- FOURTH EDITION. SEHPEIIS KISI SERPENTEM COMEDERIT -— NON SIT DXACa LONDON: PRINTED FOR JAMES RIDGWAY^ FICCADXLLY. I8I7. PREFACE. THE tranquillity of Europe was the pro- fessed object and promise of the belligerent system pursued for twenty-five years by the British Cabinet : a tranquillity, not snch as Tiberius or Sylla conferred on Rome, when the oppressed and the wretched were de- nied the utterance of their griefs, but one which should be the fruit of a policy con- ciliating the public feeling, and associating to its support the wise and the good of all countries — a tranquillity, which should pos- sess the principles of self preservation, by connecting the powerful and the weak, the conquering and the conquered, in bonds of common interest. It would be a mockery of the public un- derstanding to enter into an elaborate dis- \ 47560'; VI PREFACE. cussion for the purpose of proving, that this pledge has, in no one instance, been redeemed. Where is that peace accompanied with the blessings of peace ? What injuries have been redressed b}'' a disinterested act of justice ? What passions have been appeased by the generosity of power ? The eye of the most resolute is daunted at the flashes of popular indignation — The throes of suffering humanity are accom- panied with an expression of despair so fearful as to make foolish men to think, and thinking men to tremble. " We have suffered affliction without gaining wisdom," and, severe as the late struggles have been, there is too much cause to apprehend " our warfare is not ac- complished" — that there may be other struggles, which, if once begun, can ad- mit of no compromise, since former dis- PREFACE. VH appointment will animate the contending parties with an unrelenting ferocity, sus- ceptible of no mitigation. The author, however, does not pro- pose to notice more of the moral state of Europe tlian is necessary to establish his position, that Russia, profiting by the events, lukich have afflicted Eui'ope, has not only raised her ascendancy on natural S0U7'ceSf sufficient to maintain a preponde^ rating power, but farther, that she has been presented by her rivals with the sceptre of universal dominion. Bold as this position may be thought, the pre- diction of such an event was made when the horoscope of Russia, to common ob- servers, did not appear so fair. The pre- diction, nevertheless, has been so closely verified, that the extract will engage in- terest. " When the Czar and the Consul draw forth their legions in hostile array, media- tion, armed coalitions, neutral conventions. VUl PREFACE. and demarcation lines, will be of little avail. These powers have long been un- used to cabinet Avarfare, and to courtier etiquette in the field. " The intervention of other states may hasten their own subjection, but cannot ward off their fate. The chieftains of Russia and France will meet nearly on the cenirp. of the world : the object of their quarrel will not be a bishopric, a sugar island, nor who shall read their mass in Latin, or say their prayers in Greek — they will fight for the possession of the Hellespont and Bosphorus, two posts on which hangs now suspended the empire of our Eastern Hemisphere. Such contend- ing parties will not come out to skirmish and then mutually retire, nor will they fight for conquests to give away ; the one will keep the field, and with it the Dicta-, tor ship of the World * .' " * " Sketches on the intrinsic Strength, Military and Naval Force, of France and Russia." 1803. PREFACE. IX Some political Hectors have thro^\Ti down the gauntlet, as if they were pre- pared to oppose attitude to attitude, and force to force — As if a power really ex- isted to repress or punish any and every attempt to remove a neighbour's landmark. The hour of illusion is, however, passed, and mankind are no longer the dupes of big or fair words. That belief, that faith, which w^as indulged after reason had ceased, is finally exhausted; and, though Don Sebastian, or Joanna South- cote may still live in the credulity of their followers, although Mahomet might yet attract multitudes to see him put the mountain in march, or bottle conjurors again levy a fine on London^s curiosity. Englishmen will no longer be persuaded by ministers to shut their eyes, as witless children, and catch at fruit, which, when caught, is Like the apple on the Dead Sea's shore, All ashes to the taste. X PREFACE, The vessel of the state was committed to the guidance of fortune; wisdom and experience pointed out the dangers of the course, and foretold, that, if she escaped shipwreck on the voyage, her damage from the conflicting currents would be greater than the profits of the venture could repair. The artist, who in anger dashed his brush against the canvas, might as well have claimed merit for design and execu- tion — the Athenian tanner might, with as much justice, have presumed to hang up his shield in the temple of Minerva, to commemorate the triumph at Pylus, as the British ministers arro2;ate to their councils and deliberations the issue of the contest against France. They reeled to and fro like drunken men, and having ob- tained a fortuitous success — a success which verified the philosophical maxim, that " events often justify foolish conduct'* — they expected the same chance would PREFACE. XI also make them statesm-ru and add *' the governing mind '' to her gifts. Financial difficulty was the inevitable consequence of a war policy ; yet peace might have been established on such foun- dations, that governments and nations would have united in the spirit of peace. England devoted all her resources to remove the danger of one domineering rival, France ; but Russia, profiting by the occasion, mounted to a higher pin- joacle than that rival ever reached ; while America, nourished by the war s^'stem, became a naval power, threatening to take her station on the high seas, and throw a boom composed of her ships of war across the channel of communication with the Indies. In addition to these, what may be called preternatural, creations, impregnated with active life fatal to England's continental ambition, and alarming to her maritime Xll PREFACE. superiority, France herself, shorn but still terrible, has been rendered malevolent to the highest degree, and offers her embraces to whoever will assist her re- venge. . Instead, therefore, of the one original rival, England has to contend against three rivals, aided by the unfriendly spirit per- vading the universe. Notwithstanding all the feu de joies^ she has fired, such is the state of her fo- reign relations ; and the domestic picture is no less alarming ; while her enemies, aware of her condition, do not seem in- clined to neglect the opportunity for the accomplishment of her ruin. IIow just is that observation, Principis est virtus maxima nosse suos; and how greatly does that ruler wrong himself, who, with a natural benignity and a generous education, with endow- PREFACE. Xlll ments and acquirements eminently calcu- lated to obtain public favour and affection, nevertheless lends his ear to evil counsel- lors, and thus impairs his popularity, by permitting measures subversive of that constitution he would defend, and de- structive of that national prosperity it is his interest as well as disposition to pro- mote. There is in this work no pretension tO publish new facts : to relate truth, with regard to those already known, and no- thing but the truth, is the sole object. More information, perhaps, might have been given, to elucidate and confirm se- veral assertions ; but the inviolability of confidence imposes paramount restraints. Kings, ministers, statesmen, and ge- nerals, may be pleased or displeased — the historian, who would instruct, must reject all partiality and animosity : he must say Tros, Tyriusve, Sec. But as it is not XIV PJIEFACE. probable that he should avoid giving offence, when executing the duties of a public writer, and recording transactions, wliich require an impartial sentence of approbation or of animadversion to stamp their character, and affix the judgment of tlie passing age, he must be prepared to encounter the resentment of power, wounded in its pride, and of criminality writhing under rebuke. These are times, when those, who would save their country, must put themselves in the breach, without any regard to personal safety, and be prepared to exclaim, with the Roman orator, Quinetiam corpus Uhenter ohtulerim si reprcesentari morte nted iibertas cimtatis potest^ ut aliquando dolor popuii Romani pariat quod jamdiu parturit. It may be said, that, with such feelings and such a vaunt of them, the name of the •^inthor also should appear inscribed on the PREFACE. XV title-page ; and so it would have appeared (notwithstanding the ignotum pro rnagnifico is frequently favourable), if the etiquette of literary combat with an anonymous cham- pion did not prescribe the use of a closed vizor; but no motives of apprehension have withheld the signature ; and so far from seeking concealment, or proposing to fight under false colours, the author holds him- self always ready lu maintain against ad- verse compeers, in the broad face of day, all those statements, allegations, and opinions, which his pen has traced in these pages. All attempts to influence the judges are illegal,, and indicative of a bad cause or base fear ; but still, the hope may be stated, that critical eyes will be blind to imperfections of stile and diction : the manner sues for lenity — the matter chal- lenges award. S K E T C H, AN Extraordinary Article has appeared, under the head of Frankfort, accompanied with some Observations which authorise attention. The whole Article is here inserted, as the basis of that inquiry and those re- flections which follow : — " It seems to be necessary, that Europe should be ac- quainted with her danger. The danger does not and will not come from England, or from France, or from Austria. It will come from the North — from Russia. Russia is the power which is desirous of assuming the high and dictatorial attitudewhich France assumed under the tyranny of Bonaparte, It 1> on this account she a\d every thing in her power to prevent tl)e intimate alliance between England and the Netherhmd?, by a marriage between the two familie?, and to connect the House of Orange with the imperial family of Russia. It is for this purpose she brouglu about the marriage of the King of VVurtemburg with the Duchess of Oldenburgh, It is for this purpose she is connecting herself also by family ties with the. House of Brandenburgh. It is with this view tliat she docsnot view with much displeasure the charges of foreign libellers against England, because they may tend to weaken the esteem and respect for that great nation ; or those constant attacks upon the government of France, which may tend to keep up alarm and apprehension in the interior of that country. She relies upon alienating Eng- land and France from each other, by encouraging reciprocal jealousies and ill will." — Frankfort . - ^^ We arc disposed to give the Frankfort writer credit for the sincerity of his fears ; but we own we do not share them, nor do we contemplate affairs in the same point of view. In the first j)lare, he relies too mnch npon the operations and effects of family alliances. The experience of all history shows us how feeble they are whenever they at all clash with any favourite plan of policy, of ambition, or aggran- disement. We know not, and care not, what influence Russia had, or whether she had any, in breaking off the intended marriage between 3 the families of Brunswick and of Orange ; be^ cause the union between the families of Bruns- wick and of Saxony has j^iven perfect satisfac- tion to the people of this country ; and surely no prince could have been selected, whose con- duct could have been more highly praiseworthy than the conduct of the Prince of Saxe Cobourg. The opinion we have given, of the effect of marriages in general between sovereign families, will aj>ply to the other marriages the Frankfort Correspondent has alluded to. Wurtemburg indeed ! What effect can she produce, or what weight can she have in the scale of European policy ? With respect to the charges of foreign libellers against England, we are not astonished at them, because they cotue from notorious jacobins ; nay, w^e are willing to go farther, and assert, that we have deserved it at their hands. We put them down, and their libels and calumnies are the natural offspring of re- venge and disappointment. But we have often been surprised at the impunity and asylum that \vere so long afforded them. Surely no power in Europe is under greater obligations to Eng- land than the government of the Netherlands. It was the influence of this country, in a great measure, that, combining the United Provinces B 2 with the Netherlands, estahlished the family of Orange upon a powerful tlirone : — one of the wisest strokes of policy that could have hecn devised. It seems to us to he aljsurd to su))pose, that the kingdom of the Netherlands could give into any views of aggrandisement which Russia might have, or enter into any offensive treat v with her, against France and England : for such a policy would combine both against her. And what efficacious service could Russia, so distantly situate, render her? Besides, it is to he considered, that the develop- ment of such a policy would not he viewed with indifference or inertness by Austria. And in such a state of affairs as that to which the Frankfort Correspondent alludes, it would not be difficult to find employment on the side of Turkey. But we repeat, that we consider the fears of the Frankfort Correspondent as chime- rical. We do not believe Russia to have any such intentions. That, which in all former times was deemed improbable, is now not only probable, but apparent and extant. England and France have discovered it to be their in- terest to be firmly and cordially united ; and we, perhaps, do not hazard much in affirming, that there are no two courts in Europe between whom a better understanding subsists. Austria is united to both with the same cordiality and intimacy. And now ive should he glad to ask, what could any other power, or all of them together, effect against the umon of Great Britain, Austria, and France ? The peace of Europe is not likely to be soon disturbed. No power has any motive in disturbing it : all have powerful motives in preserving it." — London. There is an old French proverb " qui s'eacuse s^ accuse ;" and certainly Russia must regard this gratuitous pvdjlication of opinions hostile to her professions, and of admonitions insulting to her power, as a proceeding indecorously expressive of jea- lousy and apprehensions. To imagine enmity, and then, threaten control or correction, is not merely anti- pacific but offensive. Schoolboys, when a battle is to be got up, are made to say to some pitted champion, " I heard you wanted to bully me : I don't believe it ; but if you did I would give you a good drubl)ing.'' The same spirit of resistance 6 animates them when men, and the threat exasperates more according to the pride of station. Nations as well as individuals are sen- sible to those voluntary taunts. What Englishman has forgotten the sensation which Napoleon's remark, that '' Eng- land could not contend against Fiance single-handed,'' diflused through the people he proposed to humiliate.'* The subject, however, shall be inves- tigated, as the preliminary indiscretion has been committed ; and, by a dispas- sionate, correct review of the state of Europe, it will be demonstrated, that the folly of provocation is augmented by the total want of means to sustain the challenge. For this purpose it will be necessary to enter into some sketch of the Russian Eu- ropean history. Little more than a century since, tlie ground on which Petcrsburgh stands was an uninliabitt^tj morass, and all the sur- rounding couiitry was under the domi- iiioii of Sweden, then in alliance and territorial connection Avith Poland, a king- dom containing above seventeen millions of inhabitants, and Turkey, whose power was so formidable as to make Peter the Great, after his victory at Pultawa, capi- tulate on the Pruth, ransom his liberty with his wife's jewels, and repay tribute to the Tartars. The ambition, the talents, and the fortune of Peter the Great prevailed, and the maritime capital was established on a scale, which formed a monument of his glory, and at the same time afforded the best security for perseverance in his audaciously boasted policy, " Nature has made but one Russia, and she must have no rival*." The succeeding sovereigns, till the reign of Catherine, with the exception of EHza- beth, whose treaties were honourable and * Vide Peter the Great's Speecli, after the defeat of t!ie Swedish fleet near the island of Aland, in the year 1714. 8 war glorious for the character of her armies, although unsuccessful, did not extend his impulsion; but they laboured to consolidate the dominion he had ac- quired, and commerce provided addi- tional means for the accomplishment of their views. Catherine the Second felt all the ardour of a conqueror, and inspired her subjects with the same sentiments. In an empire where solid education had been always neglected, and which Catherine herself sacriliced for more attractive accomplish- ments, the most able ministers, and invin- cible generals, presented themselves as by enchantment. The Caucasus^, the Crimea, the Cossack country, Courland, and a great part of Poland, were added to her possessions ; y(t Suwarrow never could bring into the lield an artmj of forh/ iliousund ef- fective men. The frame of the edifice was immeasur- ably vast ; but the interstices, or chasms, were also of frightful dimensions. The 9 scaffolding continued to stand, according to the design of the original architect, but an uninterrupted series of skilful com- binations was necessary to complete the plan, which his genius had traced. Poland was a central bulwark, Avhich, by connecting Stockholm and Constanti- nople, and indenting itself into the Rus- sian military line of defence, rendered successes obtained still precarious, and a subjugated people restless subjects. Fa- vourable moments were seized. The most important position in Europe for her pre- servation was occupied (two great Eu- ropean powers assisting, whilst the others remained supine spectators), and a w arlike independent nation, which formed the garrison, was partitioned as lawful spoil amongst the pretended guardians " of her safety and tranquillity." The wise and liberal policy of Catherine, wdth regard to religious toleration, and the maintenance of laws, customs, and Liii<>uai>:c, enfeebled the resentment of the CI CI ^ people, who fell to her lot, and founded 10 in all that preference for her government^ which has given to later acts the colour of a voluntary association with her empire. The real ohject of Catherines ambition being Constantinople, she limited her hos- tility agiiinst France to the issue of a few manifestos, some munificent pecuniary presents to the dethroned and expatriated dynasty, and the gift of a sword to Mon- sieur, who, Colonel Vauhan relates, ac- cording to his own and Prince Esterhazy's opinion, " received it as if he was deter- mined never to use it*/* Paul, more ingenuous and less of a po- litician, carried his promises into execu- tion. Thirty-six thousand men, under Su- warrow, marched into Italy, where they sustained the reputation of their chief; whilst eighteen thousand men landing at the Hclder under untoward cirumstances, depreciated the military estimation of * Memolrcs pour ?crvir a I'Histoiie de la Guerre dc la Vendee, par Monsieur le Comte de Vauban, page 21. " II a recu ccttc epee coinnie un homme qui no s'crj <:cvvira pas." 11 Russia below its just standard. Disap- pointed and exasperated, Paul resolved to coalesce with bis former foe, and turn bis arms against former friends. Witii tbis view a maritime confederacy was formed, and a considerable corps of cavalry was collecting for tbe invasion of India, wben a discontented nobility and harassed sol- diery interposed to terminate bis reign. Paul w as violent and capricious ; but his enemies say, that " although be wanted judgment to shield his country from injury, he bad too exalted a mind ever to have subscribed to her diso-race." His reign was too short for tbe develop- ment of tbe even then exuberant resources of his empire ; but it had an important influence on the European branch of Rus- sian policy, by showing, that every part of Europe was accessible to armies brought from the Caucasus and Siberia ; whilst his project of penetrating through Persia to the Indies, rejected as wild and visionary at the time, luis been gradually and seri- ously engaging the attention of the go- 12 vernment, and obtaining the sanction of those destined to be the executors of this enterprise. Alexander came to the throne with strong predilections in his favour — Real personal good qualities had gained the aft'ections of all who approached him; and, as the pupil of La Harpe, expectation was raised high as to his capacity for govern- ment. The " Telemachus of the North'* was not then inebriated with power, but, instructed in his duties by a Mentor eti-r dowed with intelligence and virtue, exer- cised the authority of a despotic sovereign to establish philanthropy as the basis of his throne*. An enemy to the costly vanities of some of his predecessors, he regulated the expenses of iiis palaces with eco- nomy, and applied his treasures to the foundation of useful establishments, the * Vide the Ukases, respecting tlie condition of' the slaves — tlicir non-trausfcr by sale from the land — the abolition of the punishment of deaili — the rare punish- ment of the knoot, &c. &c. 13 promotion of useful public works, the equipment of liis arsenals, and the aug- mentation of his army — Temperate, active, and indefatigable, he transacted the busi- ness of government through direct corre- spondence or personal superintendence ; and, familiar with the statistics, topo- graphy, and interests of the various people inhabiting his extensive empire, he che- rished the general prosperity by a polity adapted to the wants of each and all. Such teas Alexander : the same fidelity of description shall represent him as he is; since the individual character of an auto- crat, whose will is the only professed principle of government, must always have paramount influence on the measures of his cabinet. Alexander had no alternative but to nijike peace with England : it was indeed the im- plied cotidition of liis succession. His feel- ings were in unison with his obligations, and he profited by the improvement of his finances, to brijug into action many sources of wealth and strength, which had been heretofore unemployed. 14 NotwitlistandiiTg a never-ceasing- waste- ful expenditure of men and money on the Persian and Moldavian frontiers, his dock- yards were constantly adding to his navy, and his depots advancing newly-formed battalions. Involved, as an ally of Austria, in the disaster of the battle of Austerlitz (a battle precipitately resolved on, and lost, it may be truly said, before the combat began, by an injudicious flank movement), Alexander himself perhaps was the only man of his army, who did not descend the Carpathian mountains despairing to re- trieve the misfortunes and disgrace of that campaign. Exertions were multiplied, according to the exigency ; and when Napoleon passed the Rhine to attack Prussia, one hundred and twenty thou- sand Russians were advancing to her support. The battle of Jena, which in one day overthrew the Prussian monarchy, and in fourteen days advanced the French stan- dards to the Vistula, disconcerted the in- tended operations, and threw Russia upon 15 the defensive on her own frontier, with only five or six thousand dispirited auxi- liaries, who had escaped the wreck, instead of the two hundred and forty thousand men, who, a few days prcr viously, had heen arrayed to co-operate with her. The battles of Pultusk, of Eylau, of Heilsberg, and Friedland, could not (or rather, in one instance, that of Eylau, did not) prevent the enemy's successive ap- proach to the Niemen ; and Alexander, alarmed at his situation, accepted the conditions of peace that Napoleon offered, conditions which Napoleon not only ren- dered advantageous to Russia, but emhct- lished ivith circuinstaticcs of respect to the sovereign, that soothed the feelings of dis- appointment and defeat. The unsuccessful issue of Sir George Duckworth's expedition, and the result oi the unauthorised movement of tiie British troops from Alexandria on Rosetta (for the enterprise against Alexandria itself was undertaken at the express suggestion IG of the Russian cabinet) had certainly much chagrined Alexandei*, and given such an accession of force to the Turks, as to oblige the march of reinforcements to that frontier,when they could not be spared with- out danger to other points of great interest : but the real motive, which disposed him to peace, was a conviction, from a short resi- dence at the army, that it was too tveak in numhers, and too disorganised , from want of elementary arrangements, to defend from invasion the provinces of Poland incorpo- rated in Russia, where a spirit of insur- rection Avas to be apprehended ; whilst he knew that the succours, announced as on march, were not in existence, and that there were not twenty thousand men in reserve to cover both his Capitals. Peace, which restored a throne to his ally, although some of the richest jewels of the crown remained in possession of the invader, diminished much of the personal regret, which Alexander had felt as a man for the issue of the war — Peace, which gave him a farther portion of Poland, 17 which sanctioned his views in Turkey, a& far as the Danube, and the conquest of the important province of Finland, was fa- vourable to his general policy ; but peace, which gave him time, and by which he was resolved to profit, was, with the ex- perience which he had acquired of the im- perfections of his military system, of still greater, and, as he said himself, ^^ of the greatest valued The attack on Copenhagen, which Alex- ander always declared to be unjustifiable (as the then Crown Prince of Denmark had determined on maintaining" the strict- est neutrality, and resisting any infraction tvhatsoever, whether from the land or the sea), afforded him the pretext for declaring war against England; a policy in which he persevered, notwithstanding circumstances were recalled to his mind, calculated to deter him from carrying into execution so unpopular a measure. The seizure of Finland was most un- justifiable ; but the acquisition was of the same importance to Russia, as Normandy, under English dominion, would be to 18 France. The consequent dethronement of the then reigning dynasty in Sweden was never anticipated by Alexander, and will always be deplored by him, until the injury is compensated either by indemnity or re- storation. Napoleon, having again invaded Austria, to punish equivocal negotiations, when he was embarrassed, after the battle of Ey- lau*, as well as to anticipate hostile ar- rangements in progress, summoned Russia as an auxiliary to invade Austria on the side of Gallicia. Her armies overran that province, and advanced to Olmutz, when the Austrian cabinet resolved on peace, and agreed to give a pledge of permanent friendship — a pledge, which Russia is be- lieved to have declined to give after the peace of Tilsit. Peace again added to the Russian em- pire an extensive and important district of territory ; and, although it has since been * Napoleon said to the Austrian general sent to recon- noitre his force and situation, and who did not arrive until after the danger was passed, " Go back and tell your noaster he is two months too late, I aro now ready." 19 relinquished, its reoccupation awaits but the convenience of the Emperor. The defence of Galhcia is as impossible, since Russia has the Duchy of Warsaw, six hundred thousand men to act ivith, and a friendly population to march ow, as the maintenance of the country between the Vistula and the Niemen, now under the Prussian dominion, would prove to be, if Russia should ever resolve on its posses- sion, and Prussia should not be wise enough to negotiate cession and indemnity. A strong English party continued to exist in Russia ; and the commercial in- terest, which embraces the interest of a great part of the Russian nobility, mur- mured loudly at the detriment occasioned to their fortunes, and therefore to the ge- neral prosperity of the empire, by the English maritime blockade. Still Alex- ander persisted ; but, bearing in mind the impressions of the campaign on the Vis- tula, he applied himself unremittingly to improve the administration of the army, as well as to the increase of its numbers. Napoleon, who had expected and hoped c2 20 the Turkish war would have exhausted the treasure and military resources of Russia, or at all events have prevented the growth of her disposable force, saw with astonish- ment and apprehension the result of Alex- ander's administrative measures. In three years Russia had lost, of her Moldavian armies, by climate rather than by the sword, thirty -sLv generals, and an hundred and twenty thousand men. Still an army of 3uvty thousand strong, bet- ter equipped, organized, and disciplined than Russia ever before had, and which equalled, perhaps exceeded in general composition any army in Europe, was stationed on the line of the Oanube, and occasionally blockaded the Turkish army in Schumla (at the foot of the Balkan mountains) the rampart of Constantinople — a rampart, which a general like Napo- leon would long since have prostrated by his genius and kindling spirit of enter- prize. The Persian war had consumed annu- ally from ten to twenty thousand men ; but every year improved the Russian lines n of communication, and gradually weakened tlie Persian frontier. Instead of one feeble army to guard the Niemen, one hundred and eighty thousand men were formed in tlu-ee lines to repel any attack, and another considerable body of troops was stationed in Finland ; all the arsenals were full of stores — fifteen hundred pieces of cannon were in the field — recr^uifs were training in every province — and a imlitia was instituted through the whole empire. Napoleon, who had never forgotten the battle of Eylau, and the martial quaUtiea of a Russian army, saw the tmie was come when Russia was either to assume that attitude, which was the object of his ambition, a settlement in Europe which from the strategical properties of her po- sition and numerous population assured her the command of the continent, or, that she was to be dislodged, broken, repelled, and reduced, until sh€ became again little more than an Asiatic power. He selected that moment to commence his operation, because he feared Russia might prevail on the Turks to make peace. 22 and that England would acquire more in^^ fluence from her sjood offices on that oc- casion ; perhaps, also, he had good rea- son to suspect, that the character of the protracted war in Spain was reviving the hostile feelings of unwilling allies, and connecting them in alliances of reciprocal resistance and support. In opposition to the advice of many of his best officers and statesmen, he refused to send eighti/ thousand more men to com- plete the conquest of the Peninsula, and disgust the English nation with continental wars by a failure of hopes so highly ex- cited, and so expensively supported. He always replied, that it was most judicious to leave the English army engaged in a country remote from one, where, in his view, they might more efficaciously contri- bute to the prejudice of his interests. At the head of a confederate army of above four hundred thousand men. Napo- leon accused Alexander of a violation of treaties, and demanded their renewal. The issue of the campaign is well known; but the real history of all the transactions, although so interesting to the statesman, 23 the soldier, the philosopher, and all others who have the feelings of humanity, is yet withheld from the world. Here may it only be put on record, that, notwithstanding the unexpected conclusion of peace between Turkey and Russia, and the improbable hostility of Sweden, the gigantic jrroject of Napoleon was executed in all those parts ivhich opposed, as had been presumed^ inmrm&imtahle obstacles to his success. By the occupation of the line of the Dwina and the Dniester, he had rendered the re-establishment of Poland an optional measure ; and his advance on Moscow, which vanity dictated, to commemorate the glory of the conquest, w^as an operation, that could have been attended with no dis- aster, or even inconvenience, if political speculations had not induced a continua- tion in that capital beyond twenty days. There can be no desire to exalt the reputation of Napoleon, or disparage, if it were possible for detraction to do so, the valour of the heroic army and brave people opposed to him ; an army, to whose devo- tion Napoleon himself has paid the highest 24 tribute, when he describes the battalions, writhing under his fire, " as unwilling to go, and yet unable to remain:" but the fact is, that from want of energy in the direction of the Russian operations, and a determination not to make a concentrated and general attack on the enemy's line of march, the French army would have re- gained their position on the Dwina and Boristhenes, without any serious injury, had it not been for a sudden intense frost, and a total neglect to provide horseshoes suitable to the climate, excepting for Na- poleon's own horses, which general Cau- lincourt saved by the precaution*. Once again established on this line, the * During the retreat a ducat, then worth one pound sterh'ng, was, with thanks, the price of a single horseshoe, even in the Russian army. But the Russian horses in their own country are always rough shod, that they may be prepared for the frost. The French artillery and cavalry being unserviceable, no disposition could be made for the protection of the troops, either on march or when reposing at night ; and no provisions or forage could be obtained, except in the towns or villages which lay immediately oq the road. The cause may appear minute, but it was strictly the real cause of the disasters which befel the French troops. 25 winter might have been passed in perfect security, since Austria would have been awed into effective co-operation, and all the resources of Poland would have been brought into action for the ensuing cam- paign. Never was there any campaign in mo- dern history, where each adversary had such frequent opportunities to obtain cer- tain victory, and assure total destruction to the attacked, without any risk, and scarcely any loss to the aggressor. Fluctuation of councils, at the instant of operation, caused the evacuation of the expensive entrenched camp of Driessa, &c., and the relinquishment of the ex- tensive country between the Niemen and Dnieper, or Boristhenes, almost without a ponflict. After the battles of Smolensk (in which the Poles greatly distinguished themselves by their daring lodgment in the suburbs), and the voluntary evacuation of that city, on which the enemy had not made the slightest impression to ohlii^e the sur- render, nor any movement which ne- cessitated the retreat of the supporting 26 army, the Russian force, embarrassed in a cross road with sia? kundred pieces of cannon and the passage of a river, had not been able to gain the Moscow high road, and deploy out of a narrow defile, in which it was moving with difficulty, when a part of the French army, having already crossed the river*, approached that point or outlet of the pass which alone permitted the debouchementf of the Rus- sian column : the duke of Abrantes (Junot) paused, when within half a mile, afforded time to the Russians to bring up some scattered detachments to the point of danger +, who maintained the position * The corps of Bagrathion, having escaped by most ex- traordinary exertions, and some fortune, from the army under Davoust detached to intercept him, had been sta- tioned at this passage, and received an order to retire on Dorogobusch, vv^ithout a corps being instructed, as was intended, to replace his corps and cover the operation of the oblique march. t There is no English military term equally expressive; it signifies, " coming out of the mouth." X The Duke of VVurtemburg, uncle to Alexander, by his exertions on this occasion, vi^as thought to have con- tributed very much to the safety of tlie Russian army; whilst the valour of Prince Eugene of Wurtemburg, his 27 in spite of all succeeding eiforts, and thus lost, as Napoleon truly said, '* the most propitious moment of his (the Duke's, and, it may be added, of Napoleon's) life." At Borodino, as at Waterloo, lines were opposed to lines, man to man, and the ap- peal was made to each individual soldier's courage : the issue depended upon the exertion of power rather than the de-» licacy of manoeuvre or the caprices of fortune ; the example of the chiefs, the charge, the storm, the repulse, and the stand, were the only tactics ; the cross fire of cannon the only operations of strategy. But after a retreat, rendered necessary by the loss of the battery which commanded the whole left and part of the centre of the position ; after the capture of Moscow, accompanied Avith transactions and events of the deepest in- terest, of which the world is still ignorant, when for twelve days the Russian army was revolving round the smoking ruins of their capital, to regain the Kaluga road, dis- nephew, who commanded a corps, on all occasions added to its honour. 28 connected in line of march, embarrassed with every possible incumbrance*, and checked by every species of impediment ; in this situation, the columns presented a flank to the concentrated French army, and offered them an infallible victory. After the battle of Mario slawitz, so glorious to Prince Eugene and his Italian army, without being prejudicial to the ho- nour of the Russian troops engaged (for the grand army, although within three miles at ten in the morning, was perti- naciously kept from affording any succour until four in the afternoon), if Napoleon had, on the second day, pushed on his advanced guard, instead of making an oblique movement to regain the Moscow and Smolensk road, the whole Russian army, in obedience to its orders already given y would have retired behind the Oka, * From Smolensk the whole population of the country, about to be abandoned by th^ troops, put tlieir women, children, and principal effects in their carts (of which each peasant has at least one), and joined the columns, adding to the confusion and the wants. The army at last became a wandering nation. 29 and left a rich country, and a secure line? of march in whatsoever direction Napoleon might choose to re-enter Poland. On the other hand, at the battle of Tar- rutina, pnor to that of Marioslavvitz, where Mm'at (as stated in his report), under the presumption of a tacit suspension of hostilities, allowed himself to be surprised, not a man of his army could have escaped, if the operations under General Beningsen, who had pierced Jive points of his line of communicution, had been supported wc- t'weJij by the sixty thousand men, moving in parade order, within cannon shot. At Weismar, where, for a long day, Mileradowitch, with one corps, encoun- tered and finally obtained considerable success over three corps of the French army, whilst the main Russian army was hivouaqued within hearing even of the fire of the small arms, and not distant four hours' march for infantry — the French army might have been mined. At Krasnow, where the Russian army, one hundred and ten thousand strong, was posted, with a powerful cavalry and artillery, drawn up in battle array, and remained quiet 30 spectators of the French army filing along its front for twenty-four hours, until almost the rear of its rear guard was retiiing* — the war might have heen terminated. Beningsen, Strogonoff, and Gallitzin, indeed, when they did commence the at- tack, did so because they would no longer abstain from the assault of a position, which had never been occupied but by an army without cavalry that could leave the road-)- — an army without a gun that could be drawn, except with the aid of men, up the slightest ascent J — and with an infantry^ which from want of ammunition was unable to engage in a protracted combat ; whose limhs were already half frozen, and ^w\iOV(l famine had reduced so as to excite the expressive in- dignation of a Cossack — " Is it not a shame to see these skeletons walking away from their graves ?" * There had been some partial actions of detached corps liefore the French troops filed into their position, but no general operation. t It had indeed ceased to be cavalry — the horses could scarcely crawl. X The road was full of ravines, the sides of which were slippery as glass ; and in these ravines the French guns were abandoned. 31 At tins memorable Krasnow, where, on the thhd day, Ney fought a combat which, from the fury of the attack, and the intrepidity of the defence, might be called " the combat of heroes" — from which field the same marshal withdrew his gallant remnant, traversing an unknown country, passing the Boristhenes, and rejoining Napoleon*, 7iot withstanding the whole Mussian army had been halted \^ and posted to 7'esist his colmnn and inter* cept his retreat — a judicious disposition, without relinquishing the pursuit of Napo- leon\s army, would have rendered the cap- ture of the whole corps inevitable. At the Berezina — where Napoleon, re- inforced by Oudinot, found only a corps of eighteen thousand men under Tchicha- gow to guard a river line of thirty miles, until Wittgenstien arrived to contribute to * Napoleon, hearing of the action before Ney appeared, said, " I would give the ten millions in my treasury for his safety." t An halt, which enabled Napoleon to pass the Boris- thenes or Dnieper and Berezina. The French army passed the former river at Orska, and the latter at Wesselovo, in the direction of Zembin, Vide Map, second edition. 32 the disasters which ensued, and join in an unremitting pursuit ; where Tchichagow presented a force by dlsohei/ing instructions to proceed on Ingumen, under the convic- tion that Napoleon was moving in that direction ; where 7iot one soldier of the grand Russian army arrived until tiuo days after the passage had been effected ; here again, as on former occasions, if proper use had been made of the advantages which su- periority of the total ioTce, positions, nature, the state of the enemv, and the zeal and courage of the Russian officers and soldiers offered, and Avhich in many instances, for- tunately for the honour of their arms, could not be restrained, not a solitary indi- vidual of the whole French army could have escaped. The Russian army under Kutusow, which, in the commencement of the pur- suit, had amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand effective men, could only array thirty -Jive thousand'^ on the frontier of the Duchy of Warsaw, to which shat- * There were many companies without a single tnan, and many battalions with not so many as fifty. 33 tered force were opposed more than as many comparatively fresh troops mider an Aus- trian general, in a friendly country, and where every man was a soldier, exclusive of several thousand Poles, who had escaped from the ruin of the grand French army, and who alone, of all the corps of which that army was composed, conducted back their artillery — a memorial of their dis- cipline as well as courage. Wittgenstein's and Tchichagow's corps did not amount to twenty -Jive thousand men ; but the opportune defection of General Yorke, with vhoMt fourteen thousatid Prus- sians, left them opposed to the remnant only of the French army under Murat, and the garrisons of the Vistula, which had been largely reinforced by the fugitives from Russia — Dantzic alone containing thirty- five thousand men, until fever occasioned the subsequent mortality, which reduced them to little more than ten thousand at the period of the capitulation. Murat had the means, and wished to have assembled forty thousand men, when, had he combined his operations with the Aus- D 34 trians at Warsaw, Russia must have seen her armies, or rather the skeletons of her ar- mies, retrograde to the Niemen. Such had been the destruction, even amongst the Rus- sians, that a reinforcement of ten thousand men, which had marched for Wihia, arrived only wiihjifteen hundred; and of them seven hundred were next day in the hospitals, or rather the charnel-houses of that city*. * In the hospitals of Wilna there were left above seven- teen thousand dead and dying, frozen and freezing. The bodies of the former, hroken up, served to stop the cavities in windows, floors, and walls ; but in one of the corridores of the Great Convent, above fifteen hundred bodies were piled up transversely, as pigs of lead or iron. When these were finally removed on sledges to be burnt, the most extraordinary figures were presented by the variety of their attitudes, for none seemed to have been frozen in a composed state : each was fixed in the last action of his life, in the last direction given to his limVjs : even the eyes retained the last expression, either of anger, pain, or entreaty. In the roads, men were collected round the burning ruins of the cottages, which a mad spirit of destruction had fired, picking and eating the burnt bodies of fellow men ; while thousands of horses were moaning in agony, with their flesh mangled and hacked to satisfy the cravings of a hunger that knew no pity. In many of the sheds, men, scarcely alive, Iwd heaped on their frozen bodies human carcases, Avhich, 35 The opinion of Murat was overruled, while the Austrian general, to the astonish- ment and disappointment of the inha- bitants, by orders from Vienna to sign the proposed convention, abandoned the duchy and city of Warsaw. The Vistula was passed, and the main Russian army, reduced by farther sickness and exertion, mustered only eighteen thou- sand men, when the campaign was closed by the occupation of Kalish. The advantage of this campaign to Rus- sia was proportionably great to the injury designed by her enemy. Her capital had been consumed, with immense wealth : many of her provinces had been laid waste with desolating fury ; and above two hundred thousand of her regular soldiery had pe- rished : but to have developed the re- sources of the empire, to have electrified the spirit of the people, were copious and lasting compensations for evils which time and industry would repair. Napoleon had been inaccurately in- festering by the communication of animal heat, had min- gled the dying aivd the dead in one mass of putrefaction. . d2 36 formed on several points relative to Russia. His three principal errors were, a belief — that there were no good roads but where the hardened snow covered the surface — that cultivation was neglected — and that her population was dispersed. He found, however, as line and indeed broader roads than any in France, for the guns could move three abreast with considerable intervening space — the country fertilized, and redun- dant with food of all descriptions — and a population in the extensive provinces round Moscow condensed, so as at least to equal in amount the number of inhabitants in any part of Europe, on the same given space of ground ! He also saw a peasantry better housed, better supplied with fuel, better clothed, and, according to their habits, better fed than any peasantry on the continent, or any of the peasantry of modern England ! Still there is no doubt of the fact, that a servile war might have been fomented in Russia, if the discipline of Napoleon's heterogeneous army could have been maintained, so as to have avoided outrages and insults which 37 exasperated and shocked religious preju- dices : nor is it less true, that, notwith- standing these alienating causes, Napoleon rejected offers of insurrection, which were made to him when in Moscow. Alexander, during this crisis, had dis- played a degree of firmness, which de- ranged all the calculations of Napoleon and his coadjutors. He pledged himself, us a sovereign and a man, that he would never treat with Napoleon ivhilst there was an armed enemy in his country ; and his inflexible firmness rendered nugatory those attempts at negotiation, which are reported not to have received the same dis- couragement in other quarters. His views even then embraced the fu- ture ; and an anecdote industriously circu- lated at a subsequent period, relative to the transactions at Abo, aftbrds a memora- ble and splendid proof of his prospective policy. England and Russia had determined to adopt the same line of proceeding with regard to Denmark as had occasioned, according to the declaration of Alexander, the war between those two nations. — Such 38 are the unfixed, and it may be said revo- lutionary priiiciples of cabinets ! Alexander insisted, that Sweden should be indemnified by Norway for Finland, in case Denmark refused to join the coali- tion. The English minister, forgetting that Russia, by the possession of Aland, SwEABORG, and the whole Gulphs of Finland and Bothnia, was, in fact, mistress of Stockholm, agreed to an annexation, which surrendered a country, so important for its maritime'^ resources, ports, and position, to the same hifluence and CLuthority. The treaty being signed, Alexander, who, as before said, never forgets the unintentional wrong which he did to his nephew, developed the true object of the arrangement, by saying to Bernadotte, " If Napoleon fails in his attack against my empire, and the French throne becomes vacant by the result of his defeat, I shall think no one so eligible as yourself for that station.'* Important words, which serve as a key to * It is computed, that Norway furnished ten thousand sailors to England. ' 39 explain many of the future mysteries, and which have not yet lost their value, al- though Bernadotte does not enjoy equal consideration in the eyes of Russia, since he did not acquire the expected suffrages of the French people, and aftbrd the de- sired opportunity for the re-establishment of the antient dynasty. Alexander, after joining the army at Wilna, had afforded useful encouragement to personal exertions by his own exem- plary endurance of privations, cold, fa- tigue, &c. ; an example, which, added to great affability, produced, not only very beneficial effects on the soldiery, but which sustained the enthusiasm of the Russian nation. In the head quarters at Kalish, he was equally remarkable for diligence. Couriers, with autograph letters in many instances, were dispatched in all directions to bring up the recovered wounded and sick, to advaiice the new recruits and medical stores, and to infuse the ardour of the sovereign into every department of the government. The efforts obtained full success : vo- luntary contributions in men and money 40 poured in from the no])ility ; and the whole empire resounded with the huzzas of triumph, hymns of thanksgiving, and the Pashol, or march word, '' for Poland, and Paris/' Tlie Cossacks, enriched with the im- mense booty which their vigilance, acti- vity, and valour, had acquired, streamed from the Don ; and the oldest veterans, and youngest boys capable of wielding a lance, were seen daily amongst the rein- forcements arriving to range themselves under the banner of their justly venerated Hetman. The operations of the cabinet were no less vigorously conducted, and no less successfully accomplished. The King of Prussia, who had dis- claimed the conduct of general Yorke, and who had resolved on faithfully ad- hering to his treaties with Napoleon, at last signed the treaty of offensive and de- fensive alliance with Russia ; but he ac- quiesced only an hour before the signa- ture was affixed ; and only then, under the suggestion, that in case of refusal, it w^as possible a "provmonal govern- 41 meiit iniglit be established in his king- dom*. In the month of May, an army of about eighty thousand Russians, and sixty thousand Prussians, passed the Elbe, near Wittenberg and Dresden. Napoleon, who had been no less active and energetic, presented himself at Lutzen ; where, from an injudicious disposition of the cavalry, and the want of simultaneous efforts on the part of the allies, he gained a sanguinary victory, which would have ruined their armies, if he could have brought any cavalry into the field to press the retreat f. Reinforcements replaced the Russian losses ; negotiations ofleied by Napoleon were rejected ; and the battle of Bautzen was hazarded, contrary to all military science and political prudence. The French, by an attack in flank of a * Napoleon, who knew this anecdote, and alluded to it in one of his bulletins, always spoke of the good faith of the King of Prussia with much respect. f Tlie Russian rear guard could not pass the Elbe for ten days ; during which time it was embarrassed with the protection of ten thousand four-wheeled carriages of every description, moving along the same road. 42 salient position, overpowered the Prussians (who fought gallantly), and gained the ground; hut the retreat, ending in the allkir of Reichenbach, where Duroc was killed, added to the honour of the Russians and the confidence of the allies. The armistice ensued ; and, during the negotiations, above sixty thousand good troops from Odessa, and distant provinces, entered the Russian camps. Austria was still unwilling to quit the position of arbitrator, and join the coali- tion, whilst the interests of Napoleon required peace to dissolve a confede- racy, which every day enlarged and con- solidated. Pride or destiny prevailed. He would not write even a concitiatory note to his fattier in taw, which would have sufficed to prolong the period prescribed for the diplomatic answer ; and the Aus- trian s marched ! A detail of the ensuing military events would exceed the limits proposed to this summary sketch : but the great incidents and varieties of fortune present them- selves with too powerful an impression, and must have engaged too much public 43 curiosity to be passed over without some notice. An attempt made by Marshal Ney with seventy thousand men, to take Berlin, covered by the Swedish and Prussian armies, had been defeated with great loss; while the French troops in Silesia, ordered to retrograde on Dresden, had been pressed by the allied forces in that direction, and sustained farther considerable injury by the overflow of a river. The subsequent operations against Dres- den, in which above two hundred thousand of the allied troops were employed, had been baflled by the activity and judicious auda- city of Napoleon with eighty thousand men. The confederates, diiven into the de- files of the mountains of Bohemia and Saxony, lost at least /br^y thousand imn in the campaign of those few days, and would have been annihilated, as the Russian army might have been after the battle of Smolensk, without the foiver of formation or resistance even by hattalions, if Van- damme could have gained the mouth of the defile from which he w^as at one time 44 distant scarcely a league ! but which the heroic devotion of Ostreman, with five thousand Russians, covered. Vandamme's perseverance in a false position in the plain below the mountain, after his original at- tempt had proved abortive, occasioned his ruin*; whilst the allied army not only obtained preservation and victory, but confidence, which obliterated the recollec- tion of former disasters, and in truth re- paired them, by permitting the immediate resumption of the offensive. On the other hand, Napoleon had lost * Even here the vicissitudes of fortune were remark- able. The Prussians having possessed themselv^es of the heights, instead of taking post, descended in column of march, with a great train of artillery. When the allies had broken in on Vandamme's position by various attacks on front and flank, the French cavalry desperately resolved to cut their way through the Prussians up the mountain, which was so steep, that few horses could, under other circumstances, be pressed up in the gentlest trot ; but they ascended with so much force and power as to over- throw completely all the Prussian column, and acquire possession of every gun belonging to it. Of course these remained to the allies finally; but the greatest part of the horses were taken away, and many of the artillery Dien were massacred. " Victoresque cadunt Danai." 45 his opportunity to profit by the retreat of the grand allied army, in consequence of an error in the order sent Ney, who, instead of repairing solely in his own person to Dresden, brought back his corps several days' march. The subsequent battles, comprised under the name of the battle of Leipzig, were the most memorable in the history of the war, from the number of the troops engaged, the efforts made by the whole, and the magnitude of the prize in contest. On the 12th the Russians had received a severe check from the French cavalry, gallantly headed by Murat, who repeat- edly charged sword in hand — the first in the advance, and the last in the return. The combined operations, however, did not begin until the 16th. On that day the allies were com- pletely repulsed, with the loss of above thirty thousand men, and obliged to defer for one day the renewal of the battle, that they might receive a reinforcement 46 ^^ fifty thousand men from the neighbour- hood of Dresden. Napoleon, in the interval, by the cap- tm:'e of General Merveldt, had become ac- quainted with the long negotiated defec- tion of Bavaria, the union of an Austrian corps with a Bavarian army, and their in- tended descent upon his line of commu- nication near Hanau. He instantly ordered a retreat, and sent back General Merveldt, with offers of peace, which general Merveldt brought (as the allied troops were marching to attack on the morning of the 18th), with the farther informationy that the retro- grade movement was already in execution^ and that the French army had withdrawn from the ground of former contest to concentrate and cover Leipzig, whilst the reserve artillery and stores were filing on the Saal and Erfurt. The intelli- gence was confirmed by successive reports from various commanders, and the check of a body of Austrians posted on that line of communication. The result, there- fore, of the proposed movements, and the 47 object of the campaign, was thus already secured: but the allies sought to profit bjr the necessity of the enemy ; and the enemy had no other alternative than to fight, not for the usual rewards of victory, but for self-preservation. One hundred and eighty thousand mfen, with more than one thousand pieces of cannon, assailed the position defended by one hundred and twenty thousand adver- saries ; but notwithstanding the defection of the Saxon army during the battle, and the most ardent and persevering courage of the allied troops, not a village could he wrested from the enemy, which he had pro* posed to maintain as an essential point of his position. The fall of night closed tlie action, leaving the defenders of Probstheyde the glory of having inspired their enemies with a generous envy. But whilst the presence of Napoleon had obtained so much honour and safety for the main French army, the united Swedish and Prussian armies, who had defeated three corps under Marmont at 48 Radefeld on the 14tli, had obtained farther success, and opened a direct communica- tion with the grand alHed army ; so that the position of Leipzig momentarily be- came more critical. The allies, who in the several actions had altogether lost not less than sixty thousand men, did not propose to renew the combat on the ensuingmoYumg, but to make a move- ment across the Elster, so as to intercept the retreat of those corps which might re- main in positions on the right bank, whilst another corps pursued the columns which had passed, and thus assisted the operation of the Bavarians. It was found, however, that the French troops had been retreating the whole night, and that the rear guard was withdrawn into Leipzig — a place capable of resist- ing a couj) de main. Napoleon, with his thoughts constantly fixed on the Bavarian movement, which fatal operative power he knew well how to appreciate, had urged the unremitting re- treat of his troops, superintending him- self its execution, until nearly twelve 49 o* clock in the day, when he left the city, and only a few minutes before the Cos- sacks had rounded the walls, and appeared on the plain between them and the river Pleisse. Napoleon had directed three bridges to be thro\\ii over this river, which was nar- row but deep, with banks difficult to ascend ; but this instruction had not been obeyed, and the troops were obliged to file across 07ie — the only one existing; which caused great delay and confusion, as the press increased by the approaching fire. Some Cossacks had first approached the suburbs, which had also been fortified : then some light infantryl^rawled on with- out positive instructions : others followed, as there was scarcely any resistance ; and at last columns advanced with cannon to force an entrance. When Napoleon quitted the town, the King of Saxony, who had been left, at his own request, sent to the allied sove- reigns an offer to deliver up the city ; such of his troops as had not deserted, and those of Weimar and Baden, remainhig 50 in the square with reversed arms, to await the entrance of the aUies. In the city the French had abandoned all their wounded and sick ; but the whole army had safely passed the Elster, except the rear guard of aljout eight thousand men, when the before mentioned party of Cos- sacks, having swept round the town, ap- peared in the plain on the other side : the officer, charged with the destruction of the bridge to prevent pursuit after the passage of the French army, alarmed, and panic struck, fired the combustibles, and thus those, who had not gained the left bank of the stream were cut off from communication with their columns — Part perished in an attempt to swim across ; and amongst these the generous, brave, and patriotic Ponia- towski. Others were shot, but the greater portion were made prisoners. The allied sovereigns soon afterwards entered the grand square of Leipzig. The King of Saxony, being constituted a priso- ner in a house, at the windows of which he had for a moment appeared to witness the triumphant entry and assemblage of 51 his royal brothers, and experience the mortification of indifference to his pre- sence. The Crown Prince of Sweden and Alexander here, for the first time, met, since the conferences at Abo. Alexander still felt the same political dispositions in his favour ; but many cir- cumstances had occurred to dimmish his popularity with the coalition. A treaty, which gave Sweden twelve hundred thousand pounds per annum of British money, and the assurance of Nor- way, was a great temptation for the go- vernment of that country to abandon her connexion with France ; but it also established a right to great exertion and liberal services. It was thought the Crown Prince had, since the opera- tions commenced, economised his troops too much ; and, when he justified his cau- tious employment of Swedes by the obser- vation ** if he lost his army, which could not be recruited, he lost his throne/' that he reasoned as Bernadotte, and not as the leader of a subsidized force. e2 The fact is, that Bernadotte had placed; himself in a false position, when fighting- to destroy those troops, hy whose services he had acquired his honours and fortune 5 and that every dead, wounded, or captive Frenchman, on whom he cast his eyes, was an image of reproach, to which he could not avoid being sensible. The sovereigns, probably with pleasure, saw him remove to act against the north of Germany ; and his departure might have been accelerated by the impression, that monarchs in prosperity do not view with an eye of favour, in the royal circle, elected heirs to hereditary thrones. Napoleon, with great rapidity, proceeded to gain the Rhine, that he might antici- pate the lodgment of the Bavarian general Wrede on the route, of whose move- ments he received continued advice. Wrede, however, had reached Hanau with about thirty thousand men, including Frimont's corps. False information, as to the state of the French retreating army, and the belief that It was closely pressed by the grand allied 53 iarmy*, added to ardent feelings, induced a rash advance, which ended in a retrograde movement for concentration in a too con- densed and not sufficiently examined po- sition. Napoleon knew the value of time, and the power of daring enterprize. His ca- valry and artillery executed his orders with the requisite promptitude and courage. The confederate army was routed, fifteen thousand were killed or w^ounded ; and, with some analogy to the battle of Culm, the fugitives marched in the step of vic- tory. Napoleon, ho^vever, could not resume * Every exertion had been made by Schwartzenberg, but it was not possible to pursue with more rapidity, from the want of provisions. Schwartzenberg, the commander in chief, directed himself all the movements, and there is no officer in Europe better qualified for the conduct of d^ great army. To great activity and courage he joins supe- rior knowledge of those duties of a leader, which assure order in combinations, and accuracy in dispositions. To this capacity he added a mildness and patience of temper, which made him greatly beloved in the army, and which preserved union amongst the allies. Without him there joiight have been, more than once, serious dissensions. 54 the oiFensive. He was obliged, after leaving a rear guard at Hockheim, from Avhich it was soon afterwards driven, to throw his troops into the fortresses of France ; where, from youth and overstrained ex- ertion, fevers were introduced, and mul- titudes perished. Napoleon, when ignorant of the Bava- rian defection and operation, had pro- posed to maintain his positions on the Elbe, and had left St. Cyr in Dresden with nearly thii'ty thousand men to fall on the flank and rear of the confederate army advancing to Leipzig. On quitting Leip- zig, Napoleon entertained the hope, that St. Cyr would gain early intelligence of his retreat, evacuate Dresden, and, by passing down the right bank of the Elbe, and uniting the garrisons of Torgau, Witten- berg, &c.*, with the troops under Da- voust, would have formed an army of nearly one hundred thousand men, partly * Perhaps releasing the garrisons on the Oder, which might have been done, and from which he would have withdrawn about twelve thousand men, even Berlin was open to a coup de main. 55 covered by Magdeburgh, sustained by Denmark, and generally masters of po- sitions, which would have been not only impregnable, but must have so com- pletely awed Prussia and Saxony as to have paralyzed all the projected operations of the allies, and afforded him time for the renovation of his army. The opportunity was presented, but, perhaps from inaccurate or too tardy information, lost ; and, at last, St. Cyr, considering the composition of his garri- son, in which there was an extraordinary number of officers, conceived, that he should best advance the interests of his sovereign and country by agreeing to a capitulation, on the condition *' of a free passage to France for the whole." The motives, which influenced General St. Cyr, were, however, exactly those, which rendered the terms inadmissible for the interests of the allied sovereigns, al- though the general in command of the blockading army, Kleinau, had agreed to them, and the evacuation of the city had 56 commenced on the faith of his alleged full powers and signature. St. Cyr was offered to be replaced with his garrison in Dres- den ; but it Avas as impossible to restore him to all the advantages of his former position, as it would be to indemnify a person accused, by a new trial, after the nature of his defence had been exposed. St. Cyr, therefore, having protested '' against this violation of faith and mili- tary honour," was marched with his gar- rison as prisoners of war into Austria ; whilst Kleinau was sent to be tried by the council of war at Vienna, by whom he was most hoTWurahly acquitted. Nearly a similar proceeding occurred at Dantzic about the same time, where, after a siege creditable to the respective forces, a capitulation between General Rapp* and the Duke of Wurtemburg — officers who would rather have hewn off their own * General Rapp has, on all occasionsj acquired great distinction; and he is one of those commanders, who al-r ways knew how to conciliate public esteem in the dis-s charge of his military duty. 57 hands than affixed a signature to deceive, and who could not suspect the measure adopted — was annulled. Alexander, although not the nominal commander in chief of the allies, exercised great influence, and received the principal homage of the Germans ; to which the po- pularity of his manners very materially contributed. During the march, he was constantly at the head of his troops, and forgot no occasion for their instruction. But his attention was not limited to military dis- cipline. Objects beneficial to Russia were his constant research. Every artist, every manufacturer, every mechanic, who pre- sented himself, with powers of utility, was immediately engaged ; and persons were constantly employed to discover men and things worthy his notice. Negotiations were proposed at Frank- fort. The interference of England, as- sisted with some advices from Paris as to the state of that capital, rendered them (gold on the part of the allies ; and, perhaps, 58 (liey were never sincere on that of Na- poleon. The invasion of France was proposed. Austria agreed, if Murat joined the co- alition and thus removed uneasiness for Vienna from the side of Italy. Alexander assented, if Switzerland sanctioned the operation by granting the passage of the Rhine throus^h her territorv. Confidential officers were sent to recon- noitre, and according to their report the suitable preparations were made. Some thousand infantry having passed in silence, and the dead of night, were re- ceived with open arms ; notwithstanding the Diet had, only a few days before, de- termined to defend the neutrality of their country against all parties. Compulsive alliances must always be subject to the vicissitudes of war. The cold support of Austria when Napoleon was entangled in the difficulties of his Russian campaign, the defection of Ge- neral Yorke, the desertion of the Saxons, even the conduct of Bavaria, were all pro^ 59 bable events from adequate causes, or not without precedent in history ; but that a free people (the descendants of WiHiani Tell), enjoying their independent neu- trality, allowed to preserve it, and in a po- sition to maintain it, should abandon, yield, or negotiate away a right so important for their country, and so solemnly declared to he inviolable, was only to be conceived by those who hold, that public virtue is but an Utopian theory*. France, confiding in the ramparts of Swiss neutrality, had always neglected to fortify the opposing frontier : she was, therefore, quite uncovered on that side. Austria, having received assurances of Murat's co-operation, and farther encou- ragement from the capital of France, pushed forwards towards Paris ; whilst the * Switzerland has introduced the torture into some of her cantons, and appears to be in the aristocratic govern- ment exactly what Gibbon described in his day, when using the language of the ambassador of Porsenna: — Qu'il vant mieux qu'un roi sur le trone affirme Commande a ses sujets rnalheureux, mais soutnis Que d'avoir a dompter au sien de I'abondance P'un people trop heureux I'indocile arrogance. 60 Prussians, &c., forced the passage of the llhine, near Manheini, and advanced on Nancy. The transactions of those days are familiar to the pubUc recollection ; and the more they are examined, after all party feeling has subsided, when no prejudices, or no partialities mislead the judgment or control the inquiry, the more will they add to the reputation of Napoleon as a Great Captain. With sixty thousand brave and indefa- tigable men, he baffled the operations of tivo hundred thousand for more than six weeks ; obtained victories, which obliged Alexander to seek the Austrian commander in his bed, at four o'clock in the morning, " to desire he would instantly expedite a courier to Chatillon luith orders for the signature of the treaty of peace, as agreed to hy the I^rench negotiator" until he heard, unfortunately for his master Napo- leon, of those very successes, which made the Emperor of Austria, with one nobleman and one servant, fly, in a German droska, for safety to Dijon, apd remain there 61 thirty hours virtually a prisoner y and strictly one, if any Frenchman had done his duty* — victories, which threw the al- lied army, then only one hundred and twenty thousand strong, with the sovereigns, he- tween the citi/ of Paris and his cannon, without any line of communication witii tJie Mhine, or any intermediuie magazines, Sec, without any anunu?iition, and without any storesy except such as were in movement with tlie army itself — victories, which screwed them, as it were, in a vice, from which, if defection had not extricated them, they were unahle to secure their escape, and yet obliged to make the at- tempt. The measures, which it was believed had been long in preparation, were con- summated at the very instant Napoleon's success seemed beyond the power of mis- fortune ! and the movement on St. Dizier, which merited empire, lost him his crown. Ten thousand men of the allies had been killed or wounded in the attack on Mont" * Metternich joined him with some flying secretaries next day. 62 martre, chiefly from the artillery served by the boys of the polytechnic school. The acquisition of this post assured only the destruction of buildings, if the experi- ment of bombardment had been made. The army was too weak and too ill pro- vided, to attempt a forcible occupation of the city*, which must liave expended so many men and so much ammunition^ as to have rendered the possession untenable, when Napoleon approached with his army to its relief; and the sallying* force too weak to hazard battle in the open lield. Such was the conviction on the minds of those charged with the conduct of the allied army, that a retreat was already re- solved on, in case the promised co-operation in the city had not been accomplished. The deimrture of the Empress, in con- * There were no less than ^fifty thousand regular sol- diers and national guards in organized battalions, exclu- sive of many thousand dispersed soldiers, and inhabitants who had served, and all of whom would have assisted the defence. The national guards would, indeed, have fought with Marmont's corps; in which case Montmartre would not have been lost : but their zeal was controlled ; and Paris became the grave of French honour. 63 sequence of peremptory orders from Napo- leon, shown her by Joseph Buonaparte, was fatal to his dynasty. Talleyrand, on being asked to name the governrnent and governor most agreeable to the French senate and people, answered, " A constitutional monarchy, and Louis." Alexander had for some time been ob- liged to relinquish the proposed arrange- ments in favour of Bernadotte, who had loitered at Liege, and who, in fact, had done too much for his character in France, and too little for his interests with the allies *. * Nevertheless, England was true to her engagement, nay, to the constructive spirit of it ; for she employed her fleet, the fleet of a free people, in hlockading the Nor- wegian ports, to compel a reluctant nation, hyftnnine, to receive the yoke ; although that nation only required neu- trality from England, that she might negotiate or fight for her independence. The Swedish government seems to have acted towards the Norwegians, when obliged to capitulate, with great liberality and good sense : but this conduct does not affect the question of the right of England to make over a nation to another power, because its own go- vernment refused to break its neutrahty ; nt)r does it miti- gate the reproach due to England, for employing her arras in such a service. 64 Alexander, personally, as it was be- lieved, ill-disposed to the Bourbon family, reluctantly acquiesced in the proposition. The King of Prussia did not object ; but Schvvartzenberg, for a few instants was silent, and Talleyrand was uneasy if not alarmed. Schwartzenberg, however, pro- bably unwilling to charge himself with the responsibility of a refusal (his sovereign and Metternich being absent), did not finally withhold his assent : and thus, by two fo- reign sovereigns, a foreign marshal, and an ^<2?-minister, was Louis chosen — King of France! — legitimate pretensions, and the subsequently alleged right and title to the throne, not in the remotest degree influencing that choice. The defection of Marmont, accompanied with the contingent events, terminated the war ; and Napoleon, still an emperor, proceeded to his asylum, overthrown but not overcome. ^ Alexander, who had been ambitious at Chatilloii to stipulate for the entrance of some battalions of his guards into Paris, that he might in some degree balance 6.^ parades at the Thuilleries against those of the Kremhn, and whose anxiety on this point had* been one of the real obstacles to the conclusion of peace, now saw himself in possession of the French capital, the creator of its new monarchy, and the arbiter of its destinies ! Gratified in his vanities, but not in- toxicated by his successes, he sought after and acquired by his policy and mildness the affections of all parties. To the Royalists he was the guardian of the royal dynasty — to the Najyoleonists he was the preserver of the integrity of France, and to the Constitutionalists he was the cha7njnon of a liberal government. But in this moment of triumph he never forgot Russia, and added largely to former im- portations for the advancement of the arts, science, and industry in that country*. The negotiations of Paris regulated the * The enemies of Alexander seek to involve him in the mysterious transactions of Maubreuil, which occurred at this time. Pozzo di Borgo ought to insist on having a copy of the depositions, and on the proceedings being made public. Calumny and malevolence are busy, and should be exposed. r 66 points at issue with France, and left the fate of Naples, Saxony, and Poland to be settled at Congress ; whilst the allotment of Belgium, and the destiny of the kingdom of Italy, were definitively arranged, al- though not officially pix)mu]gated. The Emperor of Austria had always declared, that he would never reoccupy the Milanese states, in any event of the war ; but Alexander, resolved on the ac- quisition of the Duchy of Warsaw, insisted on Austria's taking to herself those pro- vinces, as compensating aggrandizements ; thus the k'mgdom of Italy, whose in- dependence had so often been guaranteed by these very powers, in their treaties with Napoleon, and whose moral regeneration had been commensurate with its political growth, was again reduced to a lyrovincial dependence*. * Alexander had at that time determined to make him- self King of Poland, and recommended the Emperor of Austria to preserve the Italian tnonarchy^ and wear the iron crown ; but the Emperor refused, as lie was afraid to keep alive the recollections of independence. The debark- ation of Napoleon in 1815, forced acquiescence in a mea- sure, which the Italians had much at heart. 67 It may be said, that the kingdom of Italy was a fief to Napoleon — it was so, but not to France. The two crowns, after his decease, were never to be placed on the same head. Who does not mourn over the fortunes of this country, so favoured by nature — so desolated by man ? Who sees the wreck of her institutions and national establish- ments, without giving honour to their founder, and without lamenting her dis- memberment ? Napoleon took away some statues and pictures, the greater part of which were obscured (if it were possible in that fine cUmate to obscure any thing), in gloomy abodes of superstition ; but these, at all events, were the superfluous ornaments of a country, for which he substituted wise laws, national feelings, state views, high military character, stupendous and useful works, industrious habits, as well as a munifi- cent encouragement of the arts and sciences. Whatever may be said of his govern- ment in France, of his usurpations in Eu- f2 68 rope, and of many other transactions in his hfe*, he must and always will be remem- bered by Italy with affection. Had he, as he might have done, not- withstanding France was unwilling, but formed one great independent Italy \, or a federative system of states, his work * Tlie proposition to administer opium to men in- fected with plague, he has defended on a plea of huma- nity — death heing inevitable, and previous outrage from the Turks no less certain. The execution of the garrison of Jaffa he justifies by the laws of war — and says, that those he doomed to suffer had violated their engagement at El Arish, not to bear arms again, until exchanged. The death of the Duke d'Enghien he laments, but asserts that he was directing the conspiracy of Pichegru and Georges; and that the letter which this unfortunate prince wrote was not delivered until several days after the tragical event, or he would have spared his life. Motives, no doubt, may determine the character of such acts — our Fifth Henry preserves his reputation unsullied. These transactions, however, have nothing to do with the merits or demerits of his general po- litical administration, nor can they be cited to justify wrong on the part of those who professed to correct wrong. " Perfidia perfidiam ultus, contra Romanam dignitatem, Barbaros imitabatur." t By establishing the seat of government at Rome, and placing the Pope at Venice ;. or by uniting the spiritual and I 69 would have been immortal, and his fame imperishable in the gratitude of mankind. The Italian army had in no way contri- buted to the disasters of their country. Successive advantages had enabled them to advance beyond Villack, on the Drave, distant about one hundred and fifty miles from Vienna; which capital was covered by a force so insignificant, that even, on the 27th of August, the main body could only muster nine battalions and eight squadrons for the protection of all Lower Austria ! The disasters of Napoleon having un- covered Switzerland, and the defection of Bavaria having opened the passage of the Tyrol, a retreat on the Adige became necessary. The intervening conflicts had been nu- merous and bloody, but the movements had never been precipitated into disorder by any defeat. temporal authority, making priests citizens, and allowing them to marry, with some other suitable regulations, which Napoleon might have accomplished with as much ease as he removed the Pope from the Vatican, on which service a corporal's guard was the whole force employed. 70 On the Adige, Prince Eugene refused the offers of the alHes, and replied, " the more Napoleon is unfortunate, the more devoted shall be my zeal in his service." The movements of Murat, who felt himself in a different situation from the Viceroy, and whose throne had been me- naced by Napoleon, obliged Eugene to fall back on the Mincio, where he occu- pied the strongest military line of frontier in Europe — a line running along the river Mincio, which, taking its source from the lake Di-Guarda, falls into the Po, after a course of twenty -eight English miles, at Go- vernolo ; but the country between Mantua and that point being impracticable for the movements of troops, on account of its deep land, the line is in fao reduced to the distance between Mantua and Peschiera, a space of only siocteen miles, with the farther advantage, for the power of manoeuvre, of its left being distant from Verona only ten miles, and its right; seventeen. The fortresses of Mantua, and the fortified tetes da ponts of Peschiera, Moui 71 zanibano, Goito, and Governolo, aftbrded secure passage at Jive points ; whilst the heights of Volta, nearly in the centre, added a base for defence, and enabled movements to be made without observa- tion. The rear of the right flank was covered by the Po, on which a fortified tete du pont had been established ; and Placentia had been converted into a strong place d^armes. The Italian army, and the French corps under Grenier, amounted to about forty- Jive thousand men, applicable to operations on the Mincio ; but the real disposable force, without the aid of the garrisons on that line, did not exceed thirty-six thousand. On the other hand, the Austrian army, weakened by being obliged to mask Venice, Legnago, and other fortresses to the rear, and to post corps of observation against Mantua, Peschiera, &c., as well as in the mountains of the lake Di-Guarda*, was still farther enfeebled by thirty Jive thousand sick, so that it could not bring into the * The Austrian-Italian army had also to supply the troops acting in Dalnaatia. field more than thirty-six thousand meiip unless Murat effectually co-operated; and this, Murat felt it would be imprudent to do, until he had received the long pro- mised autograph letter of tlie Emperor of JLustria^ guaranteeing Jiis treaty, ivhen the regular ojfficial instrument could he pi'epared. Bellegarde, uiged by repeated repre- sentations from sovereigns, ministers, and generals, to advance, and gain possession of the Alps, where there was a reserve of eight iliousand French, in Turin, Fenes- trelles, &c., exclusive of the gcirrison of Genoa, and a force at Alexandria*, made his dispositions for the passage of the IVlincio at Valleggio. It had been presumed, that the Italian army, leaving garrisons in Mantua and Peschiera, would retreat; but although the passage of the river was not seriously defended, it was soon perceived, that the resistance at the village of Mon San Bano was more determined than that of a 7'ear guard; and some anxiety was therefore directed towards Mantua. * The troops retreating from the Roman and Tuscan states assembled at these points. 73 All the troops destined to pass at Val- leggio had crossed, except a hrigade ; and the grenadiers, who had been ordered to ohserve Mantua, were about to effect their passage also, at a point where the bridge had been already constructed, when the enemy, sallying from Mantua with eighteen thousand men, attacked with great fury the Austrian troops stationed on all the points of observation, and drove them back several miles. ^ The guns had no sooner been heard at Valleggio, than the battalions awaiting pas- sage were sent to reinforce those attacked; but they did not arrive to their support until the enemy's columns had advanced within a mile and a half of Valleggio, and the bridge on which the safety of the whole army depended ; nor could troops be withdrawn from the right bank until near four o'clock in the evening, when the enemy, in their turn, began to retire, and were finally repulsed. If Eugene, who had ably concealed his design, had but delayed his operation one more hour, he would have been inevitably in possession of the line of the Mincio, and the Austrian army would have been thrown, without any ammunition, except such as was already with the troops across the river, and without any base or communi- cation, into a hostile country, encircled by rivers, fortresses, and Alps, and exposed to the attacks of a greatly supericfr force. If, indeed, the Austrian troops, and espe- cially the grenadiers, had not shown the most devoted zeal and courage, the opera- tion of Eugene would have succeeded ; for no troops ever fought with more ardour than the united Italians and French did on that occasion. The Austrians, maimed by a loss of Jive thousand men, and a daily encreasing sick list, were obliged to remain on the defensive*, until Murat and Lord William Bentinck (just landed in Tuscany) had settled their misunderstandings, and the autograph letter had been at last delivered, when a new plan of offensive operations was concerted. General Nugent, with a detached corps, * There was an affair on the Mincio the succeeding day, but it was one of no importance on the campaii^n, although many lives were lost. 75 Lad previously received a severe check at Parma. The suj)i)ort of the Neapolitans had however obliged the enemy to fall back again on the Po, with loss. Lord William Bentinck, having con- ducted his operations against Genoa with skill and gallantry, favoured by the friendly service of the inhabitants, in a country where their hostility would have been ruinous, occupied that city, and, remem- bering what Xenophon says, " that it is a great and excellent thing for every man, but especially generals, to be just, and to be so accounted in their faith and pro^ mises," he proclaimed the independence of this republic, which lived a day but to feel the pain of death more bitterly. The account being received of the cap- ture of Paris, and the abdication of Napo- leon, Bellegarde suspended his movement, and sent to demand the submission of the Viceroy. Eugene, finding farther opposition vain, agreed to a convention, which allowed the Austrians to pass to the Alps, but did not permit them to enter any fortress, or the capital of the kingdom^ 76 An insurrection, however, having broken out in Milan, which was attended with the massacre of the French minister of finance, and assurances being given, that the Austrian commander would take no poli- tical measure, until the allied sovereigns at Paris had decided the fate of Italy, Eugene agreed to an additional article, which sur- rendered the whole country into the hands of the Austrians, as trustees for the allies —an act of deviation from Eugene's original policy, which perhaps he has since repented ; for it certainly facilitated the partition of the kingdom. Eugene had at one moment resolved to throw himself, with the archives, the officers of state, and twenty-five thousand men (which force still remained disposable after the recal of the French troops by the "provisional government of France) into Mantua. In this position, which would have required the establishment of fifty thousand Austrians in a marshy, un- healthy country, whilst the Italian flag still flying at Venice, &c., would have added to tlie embarrassment of the allies, Eugene conceived, that he might negotiate 77 with success, or add dignity to his fall ; hut reflecting, that Napoleon had abdicated the crown of Italy as well as that of France, and that the sovereigns of Europe were assembled with power to regulate Europe according to the professed principles, which had engaged the popular feeling of all countries in a common cause, he was fear- ful to compromise the interests of the nation he governed in trust, by a measure indicative of suspicion, and therefore calcu- lated to exasperate the alHes ; while male- volence would have charged him with mo- tives of personal ambition. The purest integrity, and a high sense of honour, seem to have characterized all the transactions of this brave man's life. He was placed in difficult situations, but he never sought to preserve popularity at the expense of his benefactor. His fidelity was 2^^'oved to be incorruptible, and his courage on all occasions has been so ex- emplary, that envy herself has never dis- puted his title to the honours of the Che- valier, ^' sans i^^ur et sans reproche,]^ Alexander, having completed his objects. 78 passed over to England, tliat lie might see a country so worthy to engage all his at- tention. It is said, that some untoward circumstances, some inconsiderate expres- sions repeated and probably exaggerated, some usages of society, did not conciliate his good will. That a proceeding at Guild- hall, where he was obliged to stand up in homage to '^ Rule Britannia," and which certainly was not very good taste in the presence of a sovereign guest, who had eighty sail of the line, and great maritime ambition, had occasioned some disgust ; but it is most certain, that he left England with feelings of acknowledgment for the hospitality of his reception — with admira- tion of the beauty, the accomplishments, and manners of her women — with vene- ration for some of her principal men — with great respect for her people — and in wonder at her institutions, and those generally diffused comforts, which ivere the great characteristics of this country; but which, alas ! are now hourly disap- ing. Alexander, on his return to the Conti- peai...j. 79 iient, redoubled his exertions for the re- equipment and encrease of his army ; ex- ertions which, in the succeeding- year, arrayed three hundred thousand men in co- lumn of march, with two thousand pieces of cannon, their tumbrils, &c., all new from his arsenals. His senate had decreed him the title of '* the Blessed/' and would probably have paid him divine honours, if he had shown any disposition to receive them ; but his education and observation had taught him that these titular distinctions could add no consequence to real power : even the En- glish garter had been accepted only under a sense of due courtesy, and on the con- dition of one of his own orders being re- ceived in exchange. There had been some discontent at his long absence from Russia : but this was soothed ; and he appeared at the Congress of Vienna rather as the Autocrat of Europe than co-sovereign of its independent states. The discussions respecting Saxony were animated and intricate. Prussia required the ivhole : Russia was willing to assist that pretension, as it enabled her to ob- 80 tain farther aggrandizements. England at first was of the same vote ; hut not for the same object. She hoped the alliance be- tween Russia and Prussia was one only of sovereigns, therefore dissoluble; and she proposed to make Prussia the tete du pont, or advanced work of her continental po- licy. A discussion in the British parliament, where the rights of an independent king- dom were powerfully advocated, caused a change of instruction to the British minis- ter* ; and, notwithstanding the reproach of Prussia, England joined with France and Austria to preserve the monarchy of Sax- ony, but did not oppose a partial dismem- berment of this unfortunate country, which has always been the victim of the strongest power. An arrangement was consequently made, which dissatisfied all parties, and which, by consent of most parties, cannot endure. Poland engaged the most serious nego- tiations. England is reproached, amongst * Whitbread ! Horner ! Names inscribed on that sacred tai^let, which even another Sylla would reverence, and spare the living for the sake of the dead ! 81 various projects, for having proposed a more equal partition, that the very hope of reunion as a monarchy might be extin- guished ! Alexander, urged by the Poles themselves as well as by his general views, inflexibly demanded the crown, and pro- mised a constitutio7icd government ! Naples urged the ratification of her treaties under Joachim — France and Sicily resisted — Russia was willing to sacrifice Murat, for the acquiescence of France with her Polish arrangements — Prussia was friendly to the person of Murat, from recollections at Tilsit, but under circum- stances was obliged to remain neuter — Austria, forgetting the obligations of her engagements, and of services received, wavered, in the hopes of ultimately ac- quiring Naples for herself; one of the prin- cipal and indeed essential objects of her policy for the preservation of her Italian dominions — England, from hatred of all the branches of Napoleon's family, and in opposition to her real interests, established a secret tribunal for the trial and con- demnation of a sovereign, who had reposed 6 82 implicit confidence in her good faith ; and whose vacillations, which now formed the matter of the charges against him, had originated, not with himself hut in the equivocal character of proceedings, which created because they manifested suspicion. The whole story is, however, so well and accurately told, in the history of that monarch's fall, by Count Macironi, that any abridgment would weaken the interest ; hut it is impossible for any mind, not de- praved by political animosity, to read the narrative without the conviction being im- pressed, that Murat's treatment, by all parties, had been most unjustifiable; and, that the catastrophe, which consummated his misfortunes, was an act of — coward cruelty. The attempts to violate the treaty be- tween Commodore Campbell and the Queen of Naples have not yet been exposed to the world ; but, although that brave and loyal officer is not alive to vindicate his honour and that of his country, the documents are in existence, and will one day assure justice to his memory. 83 Whilst the congress was reconstructing Europe — not according to rights, natural affiances, language, habits, or laws; but by ta- bles of finance, which divided and subdivided her population into souls, demi-souls*, and even fi'act ions, according to a scale of the direct duties or taxes, which could be le- vied by the acquiring state — the festivities of victory were not suspended ; but, if Alexander whirled, after the fashion of his country, in the circling dance, his head never lost its equipoise, his revelry never encroached on his hours of busi- ness, nor did his amusements divert his mind from more grave occupations. Napoleon was, however, destined to sur- prise more than one merry making, in peace and in war ! The news of his debarkation terminated all intrigues, and all points in dispute. The infraction of an extorted treaty, which the allies themselves had vitiated by breaking many of its stipulations, and me- nacing the violation of its principal con- * The words on the protocol are ames, demi-ames, &c, g2 Si ditions (although that intention is now denied), was declared in the instant of pa- nic to he a delinquency, which superseded all divine and human laws ; ejecting the malefactor out of the pale of social pro- tection, and subjecting him to the pains and penalties of the Roman proscription. What sovereign is there, who may not be accused by some other sovereign as an unjustifiable disturber of the public peace ? What sovereign has not rendered himself amenable to the action of this out- lawry, if Napoleon be criminal in the eye of the law of nations ? To proclaim impunity for the destruction of any man is to urge the use of the dag- ger ; much less indeed, the " mere winking of authority," is sufficient to instigate the crime. " It is the curse of kings to be attended By slaves that take their humour for a warrant, And break into the bloody house of life." Alexander hastened his armies forward. They arrived too late to engage in the mi- litary operations of a few days' campaign ; but one hundred and twenty thousand men, 85 subsequently reviewed at the camp of Virtu, astonished the assembled staff of the other armies of Europe by an uniformity of ex- cellence, never before Avitnessed in such a large body of troops. Each battalion seemed a chosen one, and yet there was no preference. All were jmres et similes. Napoleon, after a triumphant march, had arrived-at Paris. The most expressive ac- count, and true history of that enterprise, is to be found in General Cambronne's re- plies, when put on his trial, on the 26th of April, 1816. '^ These are the orders which were given me by the Emperor: * Cambronne*! I give you the command of my advanced guard, in my finest campaign ! You will not fire a single musket ! Everywhere you will only find friends ! Remember, that I go to resume my crown without shedding a single drop of blood !' " * Cambronne ! Je vous confie I'avant garde de ma plus belle campagne, Vous ne tirerez pas un seul coup de fusil. Partout vous ne trouverez que des amis. Songez que je veux reprendre ma couronne sans repandre une seule goutte de sang. 86 On being asked for his farther orders, the General proceeded: " All my orders were reduced to this; Go, sleep there — break- fast there — dine there — and there's all*!" Louis was driven from the throne, which, in truth, without the return of Na- poleon had been drawn from under him by himself \; — for the charter, through which he had held it, had been broken in every article by outrages alarming the interests of many and the feelings of all. As a place of refuge, England was the first object ; but a courier from thence di- rected his course through Lisle; and at length he found shelter for himself and the crown jewels in Ghent, until the Duke d'Angouleme engaged by capitulation to procure the surrender of that state pro«» perty. Napoleon wished to advance into the Netherlands without delay ; but, persuaded * Allez, couchez la — clejeunez la — dinez la— et voilgi tout. t If Naj)oleon had not returned, there would have been a revolution ! The fact is indisputable. 87 to remain in Paris and neg^otiate, he lost the occasion to profit by the diversion of Murat, and the inadequate force of the alHes then in the Low Countries. Betrayed to his enemies from the hour of his arrival by clandestine communica- tions ; opposed in all his measures for electrifying public spirit, and organizing the defence of the country; he also alie- nated from his interests, by the acte addi- tionel, the constitutional party, whose influence was most extensive and predo- minant. The pride of the allied sovereigns refused to acknowledge him, after the proceedings at Vienna ; but, if he had then abdicated in favour of his son, or established a re- public, in either case the coalition would have separarted*. With a too hastily composed force of one hundred and forty thousand disposa- ble men, he preferred to conquer his re- cognition. His arrangements were so well made, * The royalbts will exclaim no ; but it is, nevertliele? s^ 88 that he obtained all the advantages of a surprise. Victorious over the Prussians, he would, on the same day, have gained a success decisive of the fate of Belgium, if the corps destined to support Ney had not been withdrawn to join the grand army, without 07'ders, from a mistaken zeal of the commander, who conceived, by the weight and continuation of the cannonade, that Napoleon stood in need of succour. The battle of Waterloo, fought with only eighty tiiousand men, and the loss of which may be attributed to the non-arrival of Grouchy with tMi^ty-six thousand — to the revivifying powers of the Prussians . — and the obstinate valour of the English army, annihilated all his military projects and political negotiations. The Sovereign returned to his capital to direct measures, which might repair the disaster ; but instead of alighting at the senate house, and communicating in person the fatal intelligence, of which he was himself the herald — instead of addressing the feelings of men animated by a sense of national honour and pa- 89 triotism — in an evil moment for bis for- tunes, he repaired to Jiis palace, retired to a bath, and then sent for Davoust, to whom, on presenting* himself, he said, *' J have lost a battle, and must have three hundred thousand men and more money to preserve France from invasion/' Davoust replied, he could have neither, and com- municated to him the temper of the cham- bers, which rumours of his misfortune had rendered more hostile and unmanagahle. He received the intelligence without any expression of violence. Shortly afterwards, it was communicated to him, that he must abdicate in favour of his son; and a corre- sjtondence ivas sJiown him, \vhich induced him to believe, that some of the allied powers would be content with that act, and respect the order of succession, which, in case of death or abdication, guaranteed the tlii'one to Iiis offspring. Dissatisfied with the opposition which had been made to his measures since his arrival at Paris — conscious that he was be- trayed by those, whom he was obliged to employ, and to whom he had said, *^ You 90 think to get rid of me and survive ; but remember, if I peiish, you are the next victims, and then JP/'«wce" — and anxious to secure the throne to his dynasty, he acqui- esced, and retired to Mahnaison, where he spent his time with the members of his fa- mily and in the circle of a few friends. He was not however indifferent to the military or political crisis, which every hour became more imminent ; and, when he found the remnant of the allied armies, which had fought at Waterloo, advancing on the capital, without awaiting any co- operation or reinforcements, he sent to the provisional government, offering " to put himself at the head of the considerable force then collected for the defence of Paris ; and profiting by the false movement of his enemy, obtain a victory (of which he felt certain) and time for the issue of the negotiations with the allied sove- reigns." He added, ^* that he would act only as a general, and engage to retire from the command at the orders of the provi- sional government." The fear however of his reassuming the 91 imperial authority, if success again re- stored to him the attachment of the jjuhhc (for the troops never for a moment felt any relaxation of their devotion), but ill dis- posed some to his proposition ; whilst the engagements already entered into by others with a part of the allies, induced a total and immediate rejection of his ser- vices —a rejection, which, he persists in saying to this day, " entailed on France all her subsequent misfortunes; whilst this movement on Paris, which from its rash- ness should have ruined the allies, con- summated their triumph, and gave them for a second time possession of the ca- pital*/' The Greek theologians opened the gates of Byzantium to the professors of the Koran, by discussing controversial points of the Christian religion, instead of array- ing and arming the population against the invader. The constitutionalists were no * Napoleon perhaps was not aware, that the movement of ^hjt allies was regulated by political arrangements in Paris. 92 less acceasanj to the subjugation of their countty. The King had scarcely any friends — not one who would encounter any diinger for him, as experience had proved ; Napoleon had a considerable proportion of the people, and all the army in his favour; but the constitutionalists had acquired the ascendency in the cham- bers, and had great support through- out the whole of France. Their intentions were honest ; but confidence in the pro- mises of an invader is folly tmpardonable in any guardians of public safety : and their conduct in checking the national enthusiasm, and finally suffering their only shield to be removed, when France so un- covered could present but a naked body at the breach, was insanity inflicted by destiny for the accomplishment of her course. Napoleon, finding the armies of the allies approach, and the wish being fre- quently repeated, that he should withdraw, determined at last on his journey ; but not until the Prussians had approached so near, 93 that it had been found necessary to burn the bridge of Mahnaison*. Napoleon, with Count Bertrand, de- parted at three o'clock in the afternoon on the 29th of June. He appeared to quit Mahnaison with great regret. The image of the Empress Josephine had never been weakened in his recollections. The suite followed by different routes, and the rendezvous was at Niort. Such was the secrecy observed, that the post- masters, and even the postillions who had driven Napoleon, refused to tell the road he had taken ; and one of his officers could not rejoin him until two days after his arrival at Rochfort. Still, as the imperial arms had only been slightly painted over, the sun and dust reproduced them ; so that he was recognized along the whole road, when all the national guards and consti- tuted authorities crowded to offer their ho- mage, as if he had not abdicated. At Poictiers, the son of Madame Ber- * For farther interesting and accurate information ou the subject of Napoleon's abdication, see Hobhouse's Letters from Paris. 94 trand being taken for the young Emperor j his name being Napoleon, the crowd collected in such numbers from all quar- ters, and the cries of devotion to his cause were so strong, that Madame Bertrand, then travelling under the name of Dillon, could with difficulty withdraw her child before break of day. Guards of hussars and chasseurs a che- val accompanied the carriages from Niort, and additional precautions were taken, in consequence of the neighbourhood of the road to La Vendee ; but these apprehen- sions were not warranted, for the same enthusiasm existed here as everywhere else on his journey, and many of the towns and hamlets on the road as far as Rochfort were even illuminated. Here Napoleon deliberated, whether he should allow his frigates to force a passage for him through the British blockading squa- dron, as their captains had gallantly volun- teered to attempt — whether he should em- bark clandestinely for America — a vessel being ready to receive him (and which in fact sailed ivithout ohservatioii) — or whether he 95 should surrender himself into the power of a nation, whose generosity he hoped to find equal to her greatness. He did not anticipate, or seek, as the Indian monarch, to be treated " like a king ; " but he did not expect the refuge of a prison in a country, which he had been taught to regard as the sanctuary of liberty. Negotiations commenced, and ended as is known ; but to the last moment he was on the shore he continued to experience the consolation, which the expression of attachment offers to misfortune. In Captain Maitland, Napoleon had the good fortune to find an officer, who knew how to combine his duty with good feeling and good taste* — an officer, whose high sense of honour and generosity was sub- sequently afforded an occasion for its exer- cise, in a correspondence which will here- after redound to the credit of himself and his country, without, it is to be hoped (and subsequent circumstances authorise the * The same eulogiums were passed by Napoleon on Admiral Hotham, on arriving at Portsmouth. 96 presumption), affixing any imputation on its government. On a rock in the centre of the ocean Napoleon is now, according to unpreju- diced reports, contemplating adversity with the equanimity of a philosopher, and encountering his mortifications with a dig- nity of mind, which even his most bitter enemies must admire. His abdication having been only given on conditions which have not been fulfilled, he cannot, as an emperor, feel the tranquil- lity which attended Charles in the cloister, nor that attachment to retirement, which enabled Dioclesian to reply to the solicita- tions of Maximilian for the resumption of the purple, *' If I could but show him the cabbages, which my own hands planted at Salona, he would no longer urge me to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power :" but although he may be ambitious of the redemption of his glory, and the transmission of the sceptre into the hands of his son, he appears not to regret the lost ostentations of royalty, or to be insensible to the comforts of a 97 private condition, if he could enjoy its independence and security. The alHed sovereigns certainly possessed the respect and confidence of the French nation, even at that time. This confi- dence had paralysed the national exertion, and now left France to the mercy of the invaders. Still the spirit was high in Paris, and the means of defence sufficient against that part of the allied army which was then approaching ; but the public ardour was suppressed, and the arms with- held from the Federes, whose increasing impatience to obtain them rendered the situation of persons suspected to be in the interest of the Bourbons very pe- rilous. Couriers were dispatched to urge the advance of the allied generals, that a popular insurrection might be prevented. Davoust unwillingly agreed to the sub- sequent convention, in virtue of which the French army evacuated the city. The arrival of Alexander was hourly ex- pected. It was known that he would not H 98 force Louis on tlie French people, but take the sense of the chambers on the govern- ment to be estabhshed. Not a moment was to be lost. Forms were no longer main- tainable, without risk to the interests of the nevj object, and new term, legitimacy ! Guards were mounted at the Thuilleries, and senate houses ; whilst the doors were closed, and hayonets presented to the hreast of deputies, who insisted on entrance*. When Alexander arrived, he found Louis in possession, and submitted to necessity, with the expression of those courtesies, which veiled from public ob- servation his feeling of disappointment. Alexander, however, was not the Alex- ander of the year 1814. The French ac- knowledged, that he resisted the dismem- herment of France : that he did not directly sanction the plunder of the I^ouvre, and the removal of the horses helongiiig to the uo longer ewisfhig republic of Venice! that he remonstrated against the excesses of the Prussians, and interposed his good offices * Oiie'huhdred and forty deputies, whose names are in the author's possession, protested against this violence. 99 . for the people : but although his policy sought their favour, he no longer appeared to countenance or cherish those liberal principles, that zeal for popular or consti- tutional rights, of which a short time past he had been the advocate and the cham- pion ! He saw the French nation, bound hand and foot, delivered over to the prisons and scaftblds of a vindictive government. Notwithstanding his manifestoes, his proclamations, and his pledges, he per- mitted the convention of Paris to be vio- lated : and to that violation was not he a party, who had made himself one of the guarantees of the treaty, by not protesting against any, and profiting by many of its enactments ? So much has been said and written about this convention, that the case is familiar to the public ; but it is a transac- tion which deeply affects the character of the alUes and the interests of posterity ; and it is much to be feared may one day entail a terrible retaliation ! Much sophistry and subtlety of argu- H 2 100 nieiit lias been used to evade the precise stipulations of the twelfth and fifteenth articles*. * " Art. XII. Seront pareillenient respectdes ks pei- sonnes et les proprietes particulieres ; les habitans, et en generaly fous les individus qui se trouvent dans la capiiale, continueront a jouir de leurs droits et libertes, sfins pouvoir ^tre inquietes ni recherches en rien, relative- ment aux fonctions qu'ils occupent ou auraient occupees, a leur conduite, et a leurs opitiioiis jwlitiques." " Art. XV. S'il survient des difficult^s sur I'execution de quelqu'un des articles de la presente Convention, I'in- terpretation en sera faite en favewr de Vurmee Francaise et de la ville de Paris." Official Translation. Art. XII. Private persons arfd property shall be equally respected. The inhabitants, and, in general, alt indivi- duals, who shall be in the capital, shall continue to enjoy their rights and liberties, without being disturbed or called to account, either as to the situations which they hold or may have held, or as to their conduct or jjolitical opinions. Art. XV. If difficulties arise in the execution of any one of the articles of the present Convention, the inter- pretation of it shall be made in favour of the French army and of the city of Paris. Labedoyere, Ney, Lavalette, Mouton Duvernet, and others, were not only inhabitants, but peers or deputies ex- 101 The Royalists of France say, the king was no party ; and that a king cannot be bound by the arrangements or promises of foreign generals, that he should not ad- minister his oivn laws : but a convention, according to all the writers on the laws of nations and the usages of war, is binding on those who sign and on those who henejit by the instrument ; for no party in law can select the advantage, and then re- ject the inconvenience by denial of parti- cipation in the contract. Count Macironi however says, and his assertion has never been contradicted, that Talleyrand, the crcising their functions. The two former withdrew some days after the entrance of the king, at the intreaty of per- sons, who knew the royal intention not to respect the convention, Lavalette, confiding in liis innocence, walked to tlie prison gates and surrendered himself, when the lists of proscription were published. The French commissioners and Davoust swore at Ney's trial they intended to cover, by the twelfth article, all persons whatsoever, remaining in Paris, from the persecu- tion of any government, which might be restored or established ; and scouted the notion of their having pro- posed to secure them from the allies, who had no right, and could have no inclination, to punish political opi- nions or conduct. 102 mmister of Louisa was present on the morning of the 4th of July, when the Duke of Wellington, Sir Charles Stuart, and Pozzo di Boigo were assemhled m coun- cil ; and that Talleyrand, turning to the Duke, requested him to read to the Count the capitulation they had Just con- cluded. It was, however, of no consequence to the people of Paris^ whether the king- agreed or not. The allied commanders had guaranteed their safety against all 'persecutions for political opinions and con^ duct; and, if remonstrance failed, they were hound to protect them by force of arms ! Europe was also obliged to support these measures, and maintain the plighted faith, as much and even more than she was to avenge political injuries. An English nobleman, whose acquaint- ance with the public laws of nations and the duties of honour is commensurate with his natural benevolence, when writing on that subject, to produce a decision in unison with his sense of justice, observed : — '' What is passing at Paris distresses me more than I can describe — for La- 103 valette, on the score of private acquaint- ance, though sliglit, I am much con- cerned ; hut from regard to the character of our country, I have conceived more horror at the trials and executions going on in the teeth of our capitulation than mere humanity could create. How can it be asserted, that the impunity for political conduct extends only to impunity from the allies for offences committed against them ? Where ships strike — where gar- risons surrender — do the captains or com- manders stipulate, that the foreign con- queror shall not molest their former poli- tical exertions ? With or without such stipulations, what shadow of right has a foreign enemy to punish individuals for opinions held or conduct pursued in their own country ? " It is clear, the impunity promised was impunity for crimes, real or supposed, against a French government. If the French government was a party to that promise, by that promise it must abide. If not, the other allies are bound in honour not to deliver over a town taken in virtue of it, without exacting the 104 same terms from those to whom they deliver it. *' Had we taken Martinique in 1^93 or 1794, on a promise of not molesting indi- viduals for political operations or conduct, should we have heen at liberty to cede it, had Louis XVIII heen then restored, without insisting on the impunity of all political oft'ences ; or, at the very least, on the right of leaving the country for such as might have so offended ? '' In Egypt, the French stipulated, that 110 persons should be molested for their conduct or opinions during the war. We took military possession of the country on those terms, and delivered it over to the political authority of the Ottoman Porte. When, ho>vever, the Captain Pacha acting under that authority began murdering the Beys, and proceeding against the adherents of the French, we not only remonstrated and threatened, but we actually protected the persecuted men within our lines" (and* Lord Hutchinson marched the British army in line of battle, with loaded guns, on the Pacha's camp, giving to the Captain Pacha * Observation of thp Author. 105 hut five minutes to surrender the living and the dead in his jmssessiony^. " What would have been done by the English commander in Spain, if the troops had surrendered any town to the French with a similar stipula- tion ; and if, on the flimsy and hypocritical subterfuge of a distinction between king Joseph's Spanish government and the French military authorities, all the Spa- niards, who had assisted us during the siege, had been prosecuted for treason against Joseph ?" Again, in another letter, an illus- trious advocate of justice remarks, on the subject of the fifteenth article. *' Observe Lord Bathurst's Letter, and couple it with the article, which stipulates, that any doubt shall be construed, \n favour of the army and the inhabitants of Paris. Now there was a doubt, not only in the minds of both interested and impartial men, but in the minds of the Prince Regent and Lord Bathurst ; a doubt so strong as to make the former hesitate in ratifying or approving the capitulation. * Sir Sidney Smith had aheady consecrated in Egypt ^nd Arabia the good faith of England. 106 *' It is true, that one of the contracting parties solved that doubt, and the capitu- lation was ratified ; but how was it solved ? Not by saying the words were clear, but that the intention was imquestionahle ; and, by saying that, not to the j)uhlic, not to Paris, not to the French, but to Lord Hathurst and the Prince. But what sig- nifies intentions when there is an express article saying, that if doubts arise on the text they shall be construed in favour of the people of Paris. Doubts arising, or expressions liable to doubt being used, are in these cases the same thing. Such words were used in this Coiivenlion, by the recorded admission, nay by the suggestion of the British Government ; and yet, when an officer of the army, and an inhabitant of Paris, says, * the article is doubtful, give me the advantages of the favourable interpreta- tion;' you, who have ^/o^fne//* expressed the doubt, answer, ' there was none in my inten- tion,' which is nothing to the point, and there could not be in your expectation, which is still less to the point. The question is. Is the article susceptible of the 7nost favour- able interpretation ? If so, Ney and the French have a right to the benefit of it, and Lord Bathurst has recorded the Prince Regent's apprehension, that is, his douht, that it may admit of such a construction." Another nobleman, whose virtues adorn his country, and whose eloquence appals its domestic enemies, wrote at the same time, and urged similar arguments, but the ex- tracts cited, technically and siih slant lally , embrace all the subject ; and whilst the sentiments do honour to the individuals, and in some measure redeem the character of England, they augment regret, that men, who could so feel, had not the power to decide a question affecting the security of the whole civilized world. When might did not make right — when fundamental laws were not suspended, be- cause the accused had committed no of- fence amenable to law — the arguments of the publicist ^vould engage much atten- tion ; but now they are put on record only as a protest against the imitation of a per- nicious precedent. Louis had declared in the senate, that he was resolved to renwin and die on his 108 tlirone ; but a precipitate change of in^ tention, as the danger approached, had determined him to fly; and such was the hurry of his departure, that every paper was left in the Thuilleries. Napoleon instantly ordered the private correspondence to be burnt, that all fear of punishment or persecution might be removed ! But amongst the public docu- ments, he found the inemoi^andum of a treaty projected between France and Aus- tria adverse to Russia ; which he commu- nicated to Alexander, Alexander was satisfied with making some slight reproaches for this ingratitude, but insisted on an unequivocal pledge of better faith, Richlieu, who had been for many years a Russian governor at Odessa, of which city he may indeed be called the creator, and where his name is held in esteem, was nominated prime minister ; and thus Russia not only balanced the influence of England, but obtained an ascendimcy in the French cabinet. The use, however, that Richlieu made 109 of the name and authority of the allied powers in his discourse to the chamber of peers, when he ventured to declare '* that, in the name of all Europe (the sovereigns and armies of Europe then being in posses-' sion of Paris), he came there to conjure and require them to judge Marshal Ney,'* for an instant hazarded the displeasure of Alexander, who found, that although he could confide in the friendly dispositions, he could not trust the discretion or mode- ration of his former servant*. Alexander, profiting by the intemperate and injudicious conduct of his allies, en- deavoured again to ingratiate himself with the French people. His armies main- tained a strict discipline. His proclama- tions, abandoning contributions, and dis- tributing largesses to the inhabitants, who had suffered by the passage of the allied troops, were circulated with industry ; and his avowed opposition to the designs of Austria, Prussia, and Holland, for * The allied ministers, to their credit, gave in notes of strong remonstrance against this indecorous attempt to influence judicial proceedings. 110 the dismemberment of France, obtained him many partizans : but the French na- tion, the sport and the victim of so many vicissitudes of fortune, and so manv des- potisms, required constitutional security, and a system of government, which would restore and preserve the action of laws consonant with public liberty. The l)reach of solemn promises, not- withstanding the wreck occasioned by their violation, might have been pardoned, if the violence had not continued to the extinc- tion of independence, and the infraction of all representative rights*. It was in vain for Alexander to multiply his boons, and profess his sympathy for the sufferings of the French people. They were no longer the dupes of words. They saw him sanctioning the executions and the proscriptions, which a weak and cruel government was unable to perpetrate, without tlte presence of the allied armies. They saw France subjugated, as Spain had * Acknowledged the succeeding year by the king him- self, in a royal ordinance. Ill already been, to the yoke of despotism and superstition, without any remonstrance from the deliverers of Europe ; and they viewed Alexander but as a member of that confederacy, which has at length converted this quarter of the globe into one common prison, where innocence can command no safety, and misfortune find no inviolable asylum — a confederacy, which seems to propose by inquisitions, standing armies, censors, prevotal courts, police ministers, spies, informers, proscriptions, alien bills, laws of suspicion and suspension, to extin- guish the spirit of liberty in each hemi- sphere, and brutalize mankind. A detail of the intrigues, diplomatic jea- lousies, and collisions, which characterized the under plot of the conspiracy, would be interesting, but disgusting — the develop- ment must be left for other times. Alexander, having accomplished all his designs, and maintained a supremacy which the rival powers did not dare to dispute, quitted France to review his armies, visit Prussia, receive the homage of Poland, and return to his capital, there to con- 112 ciliate a jjrowinic discontent at his ab- sence, and repair tlie mischiefs, which it had occasioned to private interests and to various branches of the piibUc service. The Nobles thought he was becoming a foreigner, and they required a Russian monarch; but these were only the ill- humours of a day; the glory acquired to the Hussian name, and the vast increase of power added to her sceptre, ensured him the applause and allegiance of a class enamoured of autocracy, elated with glory, and ambitious of national aggran- disement. Alexander, however, did not trust to force alone for the prosecution of his fu- ture designs, or the maintenance of his as- cendancy. He knew, that family alliances, at variance with national policy, would never preserve permanent influence ; but he also was sensible that, when they were made in unison with it, they were addi- tional securities, monitors, and guards. The marriage, which would have united England and Holland, was always con- ceived, by the continental statesmen, cal- 113 culated to involve Europe in wars against natural interests, and the negotiations from the commencement were viewed with great and unconcealed jealousy. The presumed alliance was no sooner broken off, than Russia directed her atten- tion to the advantages which she might derive from a family interest being esta- blished on the throne of Holland. Her fleets, shut up in the Baltic half the year by the seasons, were (espe- cially since the destruction of the Swedish and Danish navies) costly superfluities rather than an useful establishment add- ing to her importance or assisting her in- terests. The waters of the Texel and the Scheldt would afford powers of navigation, administering to all immediate objects, and contributive to more remote designs. Holland, as a maritime state, could not be injured by a maritime auxiliary, over whose fleets she was the guardian ; and the alliance with Russia assured that mi^ litary support, which she required for the preservation of her continental pos- sessions. 114 To Russia, Holland was a tete du pojit, or advanced work, which awed France, and which aided the control over Prussia. To Holland, Russia was a protecting ally against both those powers, with a spear and a shield to defend her from England. Reciprocal benefits, so unequivocal and so considerable, w^ere apparent to both parties ; and the Grand Duchess A nne, w^ho might, it is believed, have mounted the throne of France, having accepted the proposals of the Prince of Orange, is destined to succeed to another throne, which she is equally qualified to grace. The position of Wurtemburg was not of equal importance; but still the extension of Russian influence in Germany, where already Weimar, Baden, and Oldenburgh were under its sway, was desirable. A young and gallant prince, whose military services were then considered to be the least of his claims to public esteem, was married to a princess of Bavaria. Separation took place instan- taneously after the ceremony, as the marriage had been compulsive. Di- I 115 vorce was obtained*, and the Grand Duchess Catharine, whose name, activity, talents, and attachment to her native country, rendered her the general object of its affection, was established in succes- sion to a kingdom, of whose reigning monarch Napoleon said, " If that man had but fifty thousand soldiers, he would weave me a more difficult web than any I have ever had to disentano^le." Personal feelings, as well as policy, suggested the connection just solemnized at St. Petersburg with a princess of Prussia — a connection full of recollections to bind, if any hmnan arrangement can permanently bind, the friendship between crowns. Having thus traced a summary narra- tive of the principal points and facts, which characterized the policy of Russia, and have tended to her aggrandizement — a sum- mary which Avill acquire interest the inore it is examined and the more it is developed, the question may be investigated which * The virtues of this princess have since placed her on the tlirone of Austria. I 2 116 has been proposed, viz., hoiv far any com- hination of France, England, and Austria^ can control the jmlicj/ Hussia may he disposed to pursue ? In order, however, to fix the dates, so various, in remembrance, it may be useful to recapitulate them in chronological order. In the years between I7OI and 171Ij the Czar Peter was contending, with vai'ious success, against the Swedes, Turks, and Poles, for an advance of his European frontier. In the year 1713, having conquered Riga and Livonia, he built the city of Petersburgh, transporting thirty thousand persons from Archangel to be the inhabi- tants, and inviting foreigners, particularly the English, to settle there. In the'ye^r 1714, he developed his naval projects, which have l)een sus- pended, but never abandoned by his successors. | In the year 1721, he declared himself Emperor of all the Russias, and on his J death, in 17^9, the world added, and 117 preserved to his memory, the posthumous title of '^The Great/' From the year 1729 to 1762, aUhough Russia, under six sovereigns, some of whose reigns were short and tragical, proceeded in the attainment of internal strength, solidity, and trade — although, in the reign of Elizabeth, she had con- nected herself with England, and acquired military character, still she had not taken her station as a great European power. When Catharine the Second mounted the throne, only twenty-two miUions of people paid her homage. During her reign of thirty -three years, according to the best authorities of the time, the number was augmented to nearly thirty -six millions, by acquisition and na- tural increase of population*. The computation may be made aj6 follows : — Seven millions of Poles (including Cour- landers) acquired in the partitions,commenc- * It is generally admitted, that there is an annual increase of three hundred thousand souls in the whole population : but vide Geographical Memorandum af- fixed to the Map, 118 inff with the confederation of Bar, and con- eluding' with the capture of Prague in 1/95. Two millions and an half of inhabitants of the New Servia on the north of the Cri- mea, between the Boristhenes and the Don, chiefly the descendants of sixty thousand families of Servia, who emigrated in the reign of Maria Theresa ftom Hmigary, the Bannat, and Croatia, in consequence of religious intolerance*, to whom Catharine, profiting by the occasion, ofl'ered an asylum and money. Her hospitality was rewarded by the cultivation of neglected lands, until they have become some of the most flourishing- coiuitries of Em^opean Russia, under the name of the government of Catherinenslaw and Wosnesenski ; a colony, which has preserved with the parent provinces a connection always injurious to Turkey, and becoming hourly more alarming to Austria. Half a million of Germans, and other * At the head of the list stands Miloradovich, the pupil of Suwarrow, and the competitor for fame with Bagrathion. Amongst the other distinguished families are — Scherich, Teckely, Horwath, Zonch, Dubasarskii Sterich, Narancich_, Iveiiclc, Mirascevicli. 119 settlers, of which there are not less than forty thousand m the city of Petei sburgh. Two millions in the government of Cau- casns, Siberia*, Little Tartary, the Tartary of the Nog-ais, the Crimea, &c. &c. &c., exclusive of various Nomade people, who now supply irregular cavalry to the armies of Russia, and which contribute importantly to their efficiency. The above twelve millions of people Catha- rine subjected to the military conscription, and Europe has seen soldiers from all of them twice enter the capital of France ! In this reign of naval and military exertion, territorial aggrandizement and political consequence made advances equally rapid on every side. The storm of Ismail had given her soldiers a reputation for active courage as well deserved as that, which they had ob- tained for patient fortitude at the battle of Cunnensdorff; whilst the naval victory of Tchecme enabled her to erect a proud rostral column in view of Constantinople ! * Siberia was first invaded by Ivan II ; Peter the Great extended the conquest ; but Catharine II connpletcd the acquisition, 120 Her will was the fiat of fate to sur- rounding nations, who, although fighting under the banners of liherty, contended in vain. To the day of her death kings and philosophers conspired to feed her ambition and gratify her pride. Paul extended the military force, and the battle of Novi and the Trebia added to the laurels of Russia*. She did not, indeed, acquire any in Holland, but none faded in Switzerland, notwithstanding se- vere reverses. Alexander commenced his reign in the year 1800, over thirty -six millions of people ; but his armies were not mmierous enough for his extensive possessions, and the increasing military force of the several great states of Europe. His military system wanted that orga- nization, which was but imperfect in any one branch of government. The acquisitions of his predecessors had been enormous ; but they had not * Paul, as has been said, had faults ; but he also had virtues : amongst these was generosity ; and he gave an Interesting proof of it when he released the gallant Kosciusko. 121 yet' completed the line of frontier, which the acquisitions themselves required for their preservation. The guns of the Swedes could he heard in Petershurgh : tlie Poles of Warsaw were suspicious neighhours, and the Poles of Russia doubtful friends : the Turks in Asia were still inclined to struggle for the recovery of the Crimea, from which they were not a stone's throw : the Turks in Europe still occupied Besserabia, and held the Russians in check on the Dniester. Georgia, in which ])ut partial lodgments iiad been made, was always disturbed. The mountains of the Caucasus were full of hos- tile tribes, and Persia, by the possession of the province of Shirvan, presented a salient and offensive frontier, from which it fed a. war, that cost the Russians annually great sums of money and caused much waste of life. Denmarkand Sweden had considerable navies. Aland covered the Swedish coast from insult or sudden invasion, when the Gulph of Bothnia might be frozen : and Sweaborg commanded the navigation of the mouth of the Gulph of Finland. The finances were deranged ; and the 122 administration of government in the dif- ferent provinces was expensive, without being productive. To what extent Alexander has accom- plished all his undertakings, without forgetting the interests he was bound to protect, may be difficult to prove, since there is no direct mode to ascertain the opinion of his subjects by the discussions of a free press ; but as far as the preva- lence of tranquillity in every province under his sway — as far as ostensible im- provements in all military oeconomy, and general order in all branches of the administration can authorize the pre- sumption, an extraordinary amelioration must have taken place. Bodies of recniits, of which three-fifths used to perish in the journey, now anive with no more than common casualties ; and so far from the spirit of the people being worn down by demands for military service and augmentation of taxc*, patiiotism has acquired devotional ardour, and the state has not found it necessary to impose any additional burthens upon its inhabitants. The ground on which the town, of 123 Odessa now stands did not contain, in tlie year 1794, one house or inhabitant : now there are one thousand houses in stone, and above forty thousand residents : eight hundred ships annually sail from the poit ; and such quantities of corn are exported, that this part of the world, as in the time of the Greeks and Romans, promises to be the chief granary of the Mediteiranean. Tcherkaz, near the mouth of the Don, in the sea of the A^of, is no less pros- perous. Astrakan, at the mouth of the Volga, by the last treaty with Persia (which gives the exclusive navigation of the Caspian Sea to the Russian flag) has obtained equal advantages. The internal navigation from the White and Baltic to the Caspian and Black Seas has been improved by various great works, and others are in progress. The city of Petersburgh has been em- bellished at the expense of five millions of 7'ouhles annually ; so that three-fourths of the houses are now jmlaces of stone, and the city itself has become the most magni- ficent in the world, for its buildin;g;s, its 124 quays, its canals, and "the pellucid waters" of the majestic Neva. The impulse has not been confined to the European provinces ; but Siberia, to which such terrible images have been attached, from the supposed intolerable rigour of its climate, and its associating ideas of misery and unjust suffering, is become ii fertilized and productive country, inhabited by vo- luntary settlers — amongst them many fo- reigners ; and not only the city of Tobolsk, enriched by every species of European and Asiatic luxury, is growing into a very con- siderable capital distributing civilization around, but Irkoutska also, at the dis- tance of three thousand seven hundred and seventy-four miles from Moscow, and not four hundred from the frontier of China, has become the seat of a considerable and flourishing government. Communications are open in all direc^ tions, even to Kamtschadska and the fort of St. Peter and St. Paul, at the distance (by Okotsk, in the Pacific) of eight thou- sand seven hundred and thirty miles frqm Moscow *. * It must not be forgotten, that the coaimunicatlons 125 Reports are regularly received from every government, and arrive generally at the prescribed day, and from most of them at the same hour. In no country in the world is travelling so cheap, or so secure against robbers; and, within the last half dozen years, large inns have been erecting, under the order of the Emperor, at all the principal Eu- ropean post stations. Manufactories of all descriptions have been established, and particularly in irony which is worked with a delicacy that rivals the artists of any country. Carriages, which heretofore were im- ported from England, are now made under the original instruction of German and English builders, with such good and cheap materials, as to render the prohi- bition of importation a matter of no re- gret. Cloth manufactories are receiving great are greatly facilitated by the sledge conveyance. Mer- chandize can be transported on sledges in one winter, which would require two summers water carriage. The journey from Okotsk is performed in less than three months. 126 encouragement from the government, and the late events on the continent have added largely to the manufacturing and mechanic population. The ports of Cronstadt, of Riga, and Revel, have not only been opened again to the trade with all Europe, but America is becoming a competitor of such import- ance as to render Russia no longer depend- ent on the English market : and thus the preference promised the English merchants hv Peter the Great, when he addressed William the Third in Holland, in the year 169/, and the privileges subsequently granted, have been cancelled, or rather not renewed, on an alleged principle of general justice. At the same time, the doctrines incul- cated by La Harpe have not been neglected in jRussia. Slavery has not only been divested of many of its most disgusting features ; but great progress has been made towards its abolition by the regula- tions as well as the example of theEmperor. The nobles of Esthonia have lately de- clared, that, at the expiration of a few years, necessary for intermediate arrange- 127 ments, useful to the peasant as well as to the proprietor, slavery shall no longer exist in their province ; and there is every reason to expect a more general extension of this policy will not he long protracted. A disposition, manifested hy the Em- peror, to introduce preliminary measures for the estahlishment of a constitutional government, was rejected hy the senate, who declared for the maintenance of an autocracy. But if the senate at that time had been as liberally disposed as the sove- reign, the frame of a representative go- vernment might have been formed, to keep pace with the progress of education. While such are the characteristics of internal improvement, the indications of external greatness, in her foreign relations, are no less unequivocal. It has been said already, when Alex- ander came to the throne tkirfy-six millions of people acknowledged his authority ; but at this day, by encrease and acquisition, there cannot be less than forty-two mil- lions at the LOWEST calculation ; and not of Asiatic houseless hordes wandering in de- sarts, but chiefly of Europeans, situated 128 in territories, whose military and political value to Russia does not merely consist in an augmentation of her revenue and her number of souls, but, as will be shown hereafter, in contracting her line of defence, and at the same time affording her powers of advance to positions, that must, if properly occupied, secure the command of Europe and of Asia ! So many milUons of people, of different religions, language, and climate, subjected to one crown, might induce some states- men, who reason from analogies without the opportunity of practical observation, to calculate on a separation of the empire ; to suppose, that its extension will be its destruction ; that it is like a circle in the water. Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought. These speculations would be applicable if there were progressive eocpansion of frontier — uncovered, or disconnected lines of communication — colonial restraints on incorporated countries — religious intole- rance, even of the slightest kind — political proscriptions from prejudice or jealousy of J 29 the stranger : but Russia having conquered, is content to enjoy her conquests with mo- deration ; in all countries she respects the creed, indulges the manners, and main- tains the laws she finds, if they are not adverse to those of humanity : her motto is. Me RehuSy rather than Mihi Res : she does not seek proselytes, she only desires subjects ; to whom all the civil and military offices of the state are open, according to their talents and services * ; to whom she grants indiscrimi- nately not only *' jtis cimfatis, not only jus cornmerciiy jus comiubii, jus hcereditatis, but also jus suffragii and jus honorum.^* In Asia she is Asiatic — in Europe, European — in America (according to Vancouver and all subsequent navigators) she is American. If pre-eminent, she does not display an insult- ing pre-eminence ; she can follow as well as * Alexander has given another example of his judg- ment in the selection of officers, by appointing Woronzow to the command of the army in France ; vhich appoint- ment, like all his former preferment, is not the reward of adulation, but an acknowledgment of services and merits which justly entitle him to !he full confidence of his so- vereign. K \ 130 lead, and amalgamate with customs and habits, however heterogeneous. It was this system of legislation and con- nexion which preserved the Fins, the Lithu- anians, the Courlanders, the Podolians, the Wolhynians, the Sarm.ates, and the Tartars in general, in their allegiance, and animated the Cossacks of the Don and the Wolga, with enthusiastic zeal in the service of a power against whose dominion they had so long contended. There is no doubt that insurrection might have been produced in the Polish pro- vinces, by a declaration of the independence of Poland ; but the temptations of all the combined circumstances under which thut invasion took place, could alone have produced the voluntary dismemberment of the empire. These circumstances can never present themselves again : there is no other Napoleon : there is no France connected by a federative system with the Vistula, and moving all Europe in support of Poland's re- establishment : there was not at that time, a Polish monarchy under the Russian crown ; a Russia, with nearly six hundred ]31 thousand men, exclusive of the Polish army : Austria had not then abandoned Warsaw, to extinguish the chance of being called upon by France to surrender Gallicia : and, above ally there had not been a Congress at Vienna. Poland has now her vanity gratified, al- though all her objects are not obtained ; she has her national existence re-organized ; she has her own laws, her own language, her own army, and her territory free from the charge of other troops : she has obtained great diminution of imposts, and her revenue is applied to the improvement of her own soil, and the reparation of her sufferings. The Prussian government laid out large sums of money in building towns and pro- moting industry ; but it wished to extir- pate Polish remembrances by Prussian laws, German language, and annihilation of all national military establishments : it had therefore generated antipathies unconquer- able. Austria, always a hundred years be- hind the passing age, introduced all the odious exactions and restrictions which cha- K 2 132 racterize her system of political econom}^ ; and which not only check the general prosperity, but expose to great peril the sta- bility of her dominions. Poland knows, that both Prussia and Aus- tria opposed her re-establishment as a mo- narchy: she can, therefore, have no faith in any future professions, if they should encou- rage efforts for total independence ; and as little confidence would be placed in their military powers to accomplish the object, if sincerely proposed. Poland also knows, that in case she draws the sword against Russia, her own country, along an open and extensive frontier, must be the theatre of war. In forming the van of Russia, she either enjoys tranquillity, or, if she marches, is certain, from the weight of supporting force, and the offensive advantages of her salient position, to carry the ravages into a foreign territory. Now let the reader consider the station taken by Russia, her immense acquisitions, the bold line of her frontiers, and her domi- neering influence over the whole world. 133 The importance, however, of these acqui- sitions cannot be here fully manifested : the map and the intelligence of the observer must supply many inevitable omissions. The ob- ject is to show, not what may be, but ivhat is ; and with that design, to exhibit the pro- files, the points, the pinnacles of the van- tage-ground on which Russia now proudly reclines ; for who can talk of the repose of ambition ? In the year 1 800, Russia rested her right flank on the North Sea ; her frontier line tra- versing Russian Lapland, ran Jifti/ miles in advance of the White Sea: then covering the province of Olonetz, approached the Lake Ladoga within twenty miles, and fell upon the Gulf of Finland, at the distance of only one hundred andjifteen miles in a direct line from Petersburgh ; so that Sweden not only commanded near two thirds of the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland, but ranged herself in vieiv of, and at the distance of not more than thirty miles from the port of Revel, situated in the province of Livonia, wrested from her by Peter the Great, and which she i34 might always hope to re-occupy, so long as she preserved such contiguity. The frontier of Russia opposed to the frontier line of Prussia, commenced near Memel; and reaching the Niemen, between Tilsitz and Kovno, continued along that river as far as Grodno, when it ran in a southern direction upon the Bug river between Dro- gutchin and Brestlitov ; then descending to Wlodowa, on the frontier of Austrian Gal- licia, continued along that province until it reached the Dniester, near Chotin, when it followed the course of that river into the Black Sea. On the side of Asia, the frontier was sepa- rated from the Turkish possessions by the Cuban, a small river, which flows at a little distance from the very narrow strait which divides the Crimea from the continent of jisia, and connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea. It then continued along that river to its source, and passing in front of GeorgiesJi, and behind or to the north- ward of the mountains of Caucasus, joined the river Terek, and followed its course into the Caspian. 135 In the year 18 17, the right of the fron- tier still rests on the Northerm Ocean, but, advancing a hundred and sixty miles, touches the frontier of Norway, and bends round it for a hundred and ninety miles, until it reaches a line drawn due north from the Torneo, when it descends on that river, and continues running parallel until it falls into the Gulf of Bothnia, intersecting a country through which the Swedish troops always passed into Finland, but where, from the severity of the climate and the poverty of the soil, none can move without previous arrangements. The difficulty, indeed, of the communica- tion contributed to the loss of the Swedish provinces ; since Sweden could not sustain with a population of little more than two millions of people, and a revenue of not much more than one million, the heavy ex- penditure of men and money *. These diffi- culties, hovs^ever, will be less felt by Russia, * Before the separation of Finland, the revenue did not exceed one million and a half, and the debt was consi- derable. The whole military force amounted to about fifty thousand men. 136 since the command of the Gulfs of Fin- land and of Bothnia would facilitate the operations. A line is then drawn through the Gulf of Bothnia, which sweeping round Aland, regains the continent in the province of Livonia, thus giving to Russia the ports of Abo and of Sweahorg, which was the great naval establishment of the Swedes on the coast of Finland, and all the numerous islands which cluster between Aland and the main land, and which are inhabited bv a rich and happy population. But the island of Aland is distant from the shore of Sweden only twenty -four miles, from the Archipelago of islands in advance of Stockholm not above thirty, and not above seventy from Stockholm itself; while the intervening sea is frequently frozen, so that carriages may pass. Thus Russia has completely changed her relative position with Sweden. In- stead of her former vulnerable and humiliat- ing defensive attitude, she not only menaces but awes; and not only awes, but, from a 137 variety of contingent circumstances, all fli- vourable to her authority, she commands. On the Niemen, the frontier remains in statu quo for about one hundred miles; when it traverses the Memel or Niemen river, and running along East Prussia, strikes the yistula near Thorn, from whence Dantzic is distant about seventy miles, and Berlin only one hundred and seventy. The line then crosses the Fistula, and advances to Kalish, a point nearly equidis- tant from Dresden and Berlin ; thence taking a southern direction and passing within thirty miles of the Oder, it bends in an eastern course along the district of Cra- cow, which it respects ; but at this point its distance from a third capital, Vienna, is again only one hundred and seventy miles ; the Gallician frontier is then rounded, when the line traverses the Dniester, allongates the Buhovine frontier *, until it reaches the river Pruth ; thus circumventing all that part * Tlae Bukovine is a small district lying between Transylvania and Moldavia, and which has belonged to both these provinces : it contains about one hundred and t flirty thousand uihabitauts, now under the Austrian govern-, ment. 3 138 jf Polandy except the Duchy of Pose?i, which belonged to Prussia by the partition- treaties. In this position, which may by called the very heart of Europe, she rides alongside the Bra ndenhu7'gh possessions with the lofty and fearful superiority of one of her hun- dred and twenty gun ships over a Prussia.n galliot, when there is no escape from pres- sure, and when the weaker must be crushed or overwhelmed. Notwithstanding the possession of the fortresses of Dantzic, Graudents, and Col- berg, Prussia can never attempt to defend any territory 7}orth of the Oder, and her line of fortresses on that river is now the only rampart of Germany ; a rampart too of no value, if there are not supporting ar- mies in the field equal or nearly so to the attacking force, and especially in the arm of cavalry ; which is almost impossible ; since Russia, without any extraordinary exertion, could bring one hundred and twenty thou- sand (regular and irregular) cavalry into ac- tion on the Prussian frontier. It is no wonder, then, that Prussia inter- 13Q weaves the mp^tle with the olive, that she may preserve the ground for the laurels she has won ! Had she a hundred daughters, and Russia as many sons, she would willingly unite them all. On the side of the frontier, from Cracow to the Pruth, the kingdom of Poland re- poses on a friendly population, and not merely friendly, but one in which the ivhite eagle is building, as it were, a native aerie : a territory which, in time of peace, occasions jealousy to the present posses- sor, and which, if the disaffection of the people were less unequivocal, could not be defended in time of war; notwithstanding political considerations render Sclavonian contact with the Carpathian mountains pe- rilous to the Austrian monarchy. The Russian frontier having reached the Pruth, continues along that river (so disas- trous in her history) to its confluence with the Danube ; when this great artery of Austria, and main support to the Turkish frontier, rolls its streams, now also tributary to the flag of Russia, into the waters of the Black Sea. 140 In this position Russia is distant only ofie hundred miles from Transylvania, about two hundred and fifty from Constantinople by water, and three hwidred by land, in a direct line ; whilst the two interjacent pro- vinces of Moldavia and Wallachia are in fact regulated by her policy, though the Otto- man Porte retains the nominal sovereignty. Russia had endeavoured to obtain the line of the Sereth, w hen she found that Austria was not willing that she should occupy the whole of the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, and throw her frontier upon Illi/ria^nd the higher Da??ube; a boundary- line which, in fact, would have uncovered not only lllyria, but the Banat, Transylva- nia, and Hungary ; and brought her within a little more than tzvo hundred miles of Con- stantinople. The preparations of Napoleon had induced Russia to accelerate the signature of peace ; Andreossy's arrival to counteract the negoti- ations had been fortunately protracted, and the Turkish ministers signed the conditions of a treaty^ for which they afterwards lost 141 their heads, on the charge of having receiv- ed the bribes of Russia. It is probable that Russia, under the cir- cumstances of the subsequent invasion, might have been persuaded to return to the Dniester. The recovery of Besserabia, &c. was a great object to the Porte, on account of the Da- nube hne, and it w^as also desirable for hu- manity ; since Moldavia, like Saxony, cut in twain, sees her population divided ; and under governments with adverse interests, feels all the sufferings which such policy is calculated to inflict ; and which the King of Saxony so well described in his protest, when he observed, " that it had no principle for basis but the convenience of the parti- tioning powers, and no regard for the wel- fare and internal relations of the people." These considerations, added to the import- ance of pacific relations with Turkey, in virtue of which the Moldavian army was rendered disposable for the very service which it afterwards executed, might per- haps have obtained a voluntary restitution of the Moldavian acquisition, if the future 142 safety of Turkey had then engaged suffici- ently the attention of her alUes, or if they had exercised the forethought of Alexander at Aho; but the occasion was lost, and for- tune, hke other females, generally resents the slight of proffered favours. Here then Russia stands : no longer me- naced in flank or on her communications by the Uhlans of Poland^ but supporting her attitude with the soldiers, the population, and resources of that rich and warlike coun- try, — no longer fearful of a diversion from a Swedish army, where kindred ties might still have favoured the operations of the in- vader. While Turhey, deprived of these auxiliaries, abandoned to her daily impove- rishing means of defence, sees a danger still more formidable approach on a frontier which heretofore had been inaccessible to any Giaour * enemy. After the acquisition of the Crimea in 1791, the Cuban river, as before observed, separated the Turkish and Russian frontier. The river itself is of no importance ; but * Turkish word of contempt for infidels. 143 fram thence a very narrow isthmus formed by a small gulf (through which the waters of the Cuban flow) and the Black Sea, runs for about twenty miles to the point of Anapa, where the mountains of Caucasus approach close to the shore, and contract the line of defence to a point. Now, instead of the Crescetit waving on the batteries of the Cuban, the Mahometan banner, replaced by the Russian eagles, has been driven across and beyond the navigable Phasis, and is not to be found until the river Bathus in Armenia presents a feeble barrier, while the Russian advanced frontier, sup- ported by the mountain line, which connects Georgia with her new position, secures an indisputable sovereignty over the acquired country, and bids defiance to attack. Thus here, as on the Swedishy Polish, and Moldavian frontier, invulnerable herself, she stands ready to strike and to wound ; to hurl her thunder over Asia whenever her po- licy deems the moment expedient: for her routes of march to all the points which at- tract her, are now but marches of a few days. The distance is to Trebisond, but eighty 144 miles ; to the western bank of the Euphrates, not above innctij ; to Arzroum, one hundred; to Sinope, two hundred and seventy ; to Scu- tari, opposite Constantinople, a little more than jive hundred ; across the Isthmus of Asia Minor to Alexandretta * (a seaport town opposite Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and only sixty miles from Aleppo) , little more thvLufoar hundred ; and to the Red Sea from thence noi Jive hundred. Here then she is moreover posted with j^er- fect communications, with ^sea road for the transport of her stores and magazines, await- ing but a signal to advance, and make her- self mistress of those communicafions along 7uhich the TurJts in Europe must receive their Asiatic reinforcements. Here she is posted to lance the GreeJc fire from the shore of the Bosphorus on the towers of the Seraglio, if the Sultan does not obey the Russian Ukase ! The guns of Napoleon at Acre shook the Ottoman empire to its foundations. If the French armies had been lodged as the * Near this town Alexander conquered Darius at th^ battle of Issus. 145 Russians now are, on the Danube, and in Ar- menia, with the Black Sea under their domi^ nion ; or if but one army could have reached Asia Minor, isolated as that army would have been, and deprived of the advantages which Russia possesses by her religious con- nexion with the Gi^eeks, there is little doubt but that Armenia a second time would have seen a handful of soldiers regarded ** as too many for an embassy, and too few for a fight," make before the setting sun her multitudes the chase of their discipline ; and that the tricoloured flag would have waved on the walls of Byzantium. It may be said, however, that Persia would march to the aid of the MussulmanSf although the religious quarrel between these nations renders them deadly enemies, when Christians do not menace the overthrow of both ; but Persia by the late treaty, made under the auspices of England, is herself prostrate at the feet of Russia *. * The British ambassador obtained the best terms he could ; but his inability to procure better, corroborates ihe assertion of the text, with respect to the present helpless situation of Persia. L 140 Russia has descended from the moun- tains ! She is no longer struggling against the hostility of nature and barbarians in the regions of the Caucasus ; she has advanced into the plain, and sweeping with her frontier round Georgia, absorbing the Per- sian provinces of Daughistan and Shirvan, so as to consolidate and cement all her pos- sessions, she has raised a pillar of her empire at the mouth of the river Kur ; and to complete her triumph, to remove all rivals, and monopolize commerce, she has stipulated that her flag, and her flag alone, shall sweep the Caspian, Thus Persia is humbled to the dust, and her court to eastern dependence and bondage. It is true, that Persia, unfettered by Turkish prejudices, has long solicited, and has at length obtained, the instruction o^ Europeans, of French officers, officers of the army of Napoleon proscribed by Louis ; and it is not probable, that they have carried with them feelings of ill will to Russia so strong as those towards England ; that they would rather storm the frozen Caucasus than join in an expedition to share the spoil of Asia, 4 147 Slhd avenge in the East, their humiliations in Europe. To reach TchiraUf the capital of the Shah, the columns have to march only three hun- dred miles ; and by the navigation of the Caspian they can be disembarked within one hundred ! Thus an army might sail from the Baltic through an internal navigation from Petersburgh to Astracan, and landing on the southern shore of the Caspian, pitch their tents within four hundred miles of the Persian Gulf; from whence the voyage to Bombay is only from twenty-four to thirty days, in both Monsoons; and to Madras, but eight or ten days longer in the S. W. Monsoon *. This, then, is the territorial attitude of Russia. But can any power sustain a force sufficient to garrison a frontier, whose poi?its dappui are the Northern Ocean and the Caspian, as well as the frontiers of China and Armenia ; on whose line Swedes, Aus- * Nearchus, the captain of Alexander the Great's fleet, from ignorance of the conipass, being obliged to hug the coast, was still only sixty-one days actually in his voyage from the Indus. L 2 ?48 frhmSy Tarlis, and Persia?is, are arrayed with feelings and interests at war wdth the power that would enslave them ? Can Russia, who in the year 1799 had a disposahle army o{ onXyJifty thousand men; in the year 1807, not more than eighty thousand to defend both capitals; and in the year 1813, only three hundred thousand* on her tvhole territory, after several years preparation ; can she, notwithstanding a destructive invasion and wars of such great waste and expenditure, have collected and re-equipped armies sufficient to defend her acquisitions and improve her advan- tages ? The answer is. She can ; and Europe and Asia must acknowledge the truth of that assertion : for, both quarters of the globe are overshadowed by the mass of six hun- dred and forty thousand men, which an establishment of one million two hundred * Peter the Great is said to have had one hundred thousand men at Narva; but they were troops of that description which present themselves under the image of sheep, whose numbers never concern the \\'olves, and M'liich eight thousand 6'aecZcs, being disciplined, conquered. thousand ranges in order of battle, exclusive of militia, Tartar cavalry, &c. The fact is, that Russia, after posting thirty thousand men of appropriate force, v^ith artillery, &c. in Finland, eighty thou- sand on the frontier of Gallicia, sixty thousand in Moldavia, thirty thousand on the frontier of Armenia, as many in Persia, and leaving a reserve of one hundred thou- sand men to sustain these armies, possesses still a disposable force of above two hundred thousand infantry, eighty thousand cavalry and one thousand tivo hundred guns better horsed for service than ^ny artillery or cava;lry in the world * ; — an army, than which, there is none more brave, and with which no other can march, starve, or suf- fer physical privations and natural incle- mencies. She has moreover a population equal to the needed supply, and to a great portion of whom the habits and sufferings of war are familiar; while no power in * The militia would perform the garrison duties, if all the regular troops were required on emergency iu the field,. Her defemive means, indeed, are so great and various, as t(? be incalculable. 150 Europe can raise, equip, or maintain their forces, with such disdain of the price of blood *. Such is Russia — such has been her gigantic growth within a short century ! The elements of her greatness, no doubt, previously existed, but, like the treasures in the bowels of the earth, they were undis- covered, and, when produced, were still top full of dross for use, without skilful sepa-* ration. Ability and audacity have guided the engine : fortune, and the errors of enemies, have contributed to its action ; at the same time, political morality has been no chccl^ on the councils of Russia, and in good truth has seldom been any to the operation of power since the world began. Asia, Eii^ rope, and America, have scarcely seen the day when this morality has been a shield to the rights, liberties, or independence of the feeble, destitute of all other protection. If, indeed, nature and barbarism did not oppose too formidable obstacles, an army of ** dcli^ * T he actual pay of a Russian soldier is not much al^oyft half a crowu a mouth. 151 verers and champions of social order" would soon traverse Africa, and, at the walls of TombiictoOy from the mouths of cannon, on some plea or other, demand submission and tribute ; perhaps, indemnification for the contributions levied by Han7iibal*. Alexander now wields the huge sceptre of Russia, and displays an ability equal to the task. His philosophical views have in- deed been enfeebled by pernicious advisers ; but those who have known him in other days, still cling to the hope that he will not substitute an unfeeling policy, of which the pillars are tyranny^ ignorance, and fana- ticism, for the sentiments of that genuine philanthropy, which must still have posses- sion of his heart, though they do not animate his foreign councils. If, indeed, Alexander had resisted the ene- mies of liberty and human happiness — if he had persevered in the wish he once professed, to see governments and nations so constitut- ed, that sovereigns should be only the execu' * It is said, that the Prussians and others now require four hundred millions of dollars from France, as an indeni- d^catioii for expenses during the revolutionary war. 152 tive representatives of represented states, whose action depended not on the character of the individual chief, but on general, fixedy and self -operating principles ; he v^ould have added to his glory, the more illustrious and imperishable title of the " Benefactor to Mankind." Now he appears only in the character (and his enemies triumph in the result) of a conqueror, who engages the consideration of the universe by the immensity of his power to do real mischief and problematical good. How he will employ the vast force at his disposition, is certainly a most interesting question. Whether he will take the line of the Vistula or even Oder for himself; push Prussia into Holland ; instigate France to imitate England, and complete and termi- nate her revolution by the election of a sove- reign from the family of Nassau ; or whe- ther he will enter into negotiations with Austria for a new arrangement of Europe, which may restore the balance; are specu- lations, which have excited the hopes and fears of many. Whether he will profit by tbe 153 positions and present superiority of Russia, to accomplish other projects long assigned to her system of policy, must interest all go- vernments, not excepting the governmeyit of the East Indies ; whose attention may also be more excited by the information, that General Yermoloff, the governor of the Cau- casus line, who probably at this very moment has reached the capital of Persia on an embassv, is an officer of the high- est merit and capacity as an administrator as well as a soldier; and that he has gone assisted not only by the French officers employed by Napoleon, under Gardanne, in Persia, and whom Alexander, with the ex- ception of three, engaged in the Russian service, but with the Reports and maps sent by that mission to Napoleon, and which being carried into Russia at the time of the invasion, were found during the retreat, in two abandoned tumbrils. These Reports and plans had convinced Napoleon, that the expedition to India was practicable ; and it is a positive fact, that he had resolved on sending an united Russian ^nd French force on that expedition, in case 154 Russia had been compelled to make peace on his terms *. There are two additional circumstances most important to influence opinion, if they cannot fix the judgment, as to the further proposed extension of the Russian power. Alexander has already a much larger army than his defensive line requires, or his finances can justify ; and yet he continues to increase his force. * The names of the officers are : Gardanne. Koussian, Secretary. Lajard, Under Secretary, Jonainni, Interpreter. Salvatori, Physician. fLami. Bontems, Verdier. Fabrices. Biaiichi d^Adad. Robert. Marion. ' Guidard. These are all very distinguished officers of engineers and artillery. It is reported that some of them are to proceed on a mission to one of the Indian powers, after a short repose at Tchiran. \55 Russia, with a line of coast upon two seas, on which there is not navigati9n above half the year, and in one of them, the Baltic, no competitor, not content with an esta- blishment of above eightij sail of the line in the ports of Archangel, Cronstadf, Revel, Sevastopol, Cher son ; notwithstanding the pressure of the French war, has been incessantly building, and is building with increasing activity, the hea- viest line of battle ships. Alexander knows as well as any British admiral, that ships of any force or of any amount are of no value without seamen to navigate them ; and that seamen cannot be formed on inland seas alone. He also knows and feels as well as any economist in Europe, that ships are costly vanities, if built only for ostentation. There is no sovereign who w^ould have been less inclined to divert his treasure from state necessities, for the 15(5 indulgence of this unprofitable pursuit, than Alexander. There is, therefore, evidence amounting to conviction, that he has always proposed to accomplish the instructions of Peter the Great, and extend his empire until he can establish that real maritime povrer which himself and people have coveted more since they have seen so much commercial wealth, or, as they term it, colonial gold, flow into their country. Putant enimy qui mari po- titur, eum rerum potiri. It is not likely that he will be satisfied with a Dutch permit ; but whether he will seek to establish himself in the ports of [Norway, in Zealand, in the Archipelago, in the Mediterranean ; or whether, like the son of Jupiter Ammon on the banks of the Hi/phasisj he will say, " Our empire shall have no other bounds than those which God has set to the earth" — time will show. Are then Europe, and Asia, and America* * It may, however, interest the reader to know that the establishments of the Russians commence at Okotsh, on the Siberian coast, in a bay of the Pacific Ocean, that they extend from thence by Kamschadka to the north-west coasf 157 (of which hemisphere nothing has been said, for the hour is not yet ripe, though it teems with matter of the highest moment to the world), to make no effort for the preser- vation of their independence ? Must the fiat of Alexander be the law of the universe ? Is Russia, like Rome under the image of Milo the wrestler, to be looking round in vain for an antagonist ? Painful as it is to reflect, that a war for the restoration of the balance of poiver of America, where the principal establishments have been long fixed in the populous island of Kodia (inhabited by hunters, and situated in bl\ degrees north, and 152^ west longitude from Greenwich), and in Norfolk Sound, .57 de- grees north, and Vio west longitude ; where the fort is so considerable as to be armed with 100 pieces of cannon. Since the year 1813, however, the Russians have descended the American coast, passed the Columbia river jive hun- dred miles, and settled in Badoga, at 38| north, and only thirty miles from the Spanish establishments in California ; where they not only are trading with great advantage, but are profiting by a fine climate and fruitful soil, to feed their more northern possessions. The passage from the north- west coast of America to the Persian Gulf may be ave- raged between three and four months ; but a ship leaving Bussorah in April to profit by the S. W. Monsoon, would easily gain the N.W. coast of America in three months. should have ended in the overthrow of all balance ; in the substitution of solid do^ minion, for a momentary authority ; in a national supremacy , instead of the supre- macy of one extraordinary man^ subject to all the vicissitudes of fortune and the infirmities of humanity: it is neverthe- less true ; and so long as France is not reunited to Europe, so long as she cannot be rendered contributive to the general sys- tem of defencCy every monarch and nation on the continent must owe their existence to tho^ forbearance of Alexander, To verify this assertion, so revolting to pride, and so opposite to expectation, it will be necessary to take a concise but ac- curate review of the situation in which the several powers cited as the guardians of Europe against the encroachments of Rus- sia have been placed by the policy pursued at Vienna and at Paris. FRANCE. When alliances are formed, it is presumed that governments represent the people go- 159 vernedf and that the ybrce of the nation is at their disposal. When a combination with France is pro- posed, France ought to suggest the image of a sovereign power capable to bring into ac- tion the resources and exertions of twenty- six millions of people. Is that, however, the state of France ? Will anv man who has been in that coun- try affirm, as the honest belief of his mind, that such an union exists between the Crown and the subjects as would permit the expe- riment of armies being formed, under the banners of the lilies, to march and act in concert with its allies? Will not all men who have judgments to exercise, and minds independent enough to speak truth, without regard to inte- rest, admit as their sincere conviction that the Bourbons cannot remain without military protection ; and yet that the crea- tion of a native force would endanger their overthrow ? How can it be otherwise? The Bourbons appearing as the proconsuls of the foreigner, were identified with all l6o the humiliations, all the exactions, all the? violences, all the broken promises of which the French iiation complained. To sooth irritation — to conciliate out- raged feelings — to erase the impression of their having acted in concert w^ith the foreigner in those grievous measures, was the policy which interest and duty dictated. A general amnesty — an inviolable charter — the nationalization '* of a family which (Napoleon so often said) had for twenty ^ jive vears been only known to France from their alliance with her enemies," was requisite, and would have succeeded to eradicate all animosities, to have esta- blished unanimity amongst all classes, all professions, all parties ! The monarch might have obtained allegiance — the people tranquillity — and the state that power which it is the interest of all other powers she should possess. If Louis had but heard the language of wisdom, and nature's best feelings, he would have adopted a policy of oblivion and humanity : he would have acknowledged former reciprocal errors be- tween the governors and governed, and 161 sheathed the sword of Justice, if power Can be called justice, when staining her ermine by an illegal exercise of the judicial functions *. * The generous defender of right, from whose Letter ex- tracts have already been made, thus at the same time urged \\\e policy which was unhappily rejected. " The want of principle and consistency, and the disgust- ing changes of the Marshals, have, I know, steeled men's minds to their sufferings. This is natural enough : but when the violence of the times is gone by, and, above all, when the ton)b has closed on their offences, the transaction w ill be judged with reference to the character of the contending party, and to the nature of the promise ; not to the conduct or misconduct of the sufferers. Non te digniim, Cherea, fecisti ; nam si ego digna hac contumelia sum maxime, at tu indignUs qui faceres, tamen. " Nor is this all : if we judge by former instances, even the crime itself will be regarded with more iriclulgence by posterity than any irregular mode of punishing it. Allow- ance for individuals is made in all great changes. It is dif- ficult, in sudden emergencies and great convulsions of state, especially for professional men, whose lives have been passed in camps, to weigh maturely all the consider- ations by which their conduct should, in the strict line of duty, be regulated : unforeseen cases arise ; and men even of good principles and understanding, are hurried into acts of inconsistency and political immorality. History is full of such instances ; and in our own, the name of one with whom no commander can dislike to be associated, brings M 162 Instead of that system, the most sacred treaties were violated : retrospective pro- them to our recollection. ^Marlborough abandoned in his khig, his benefactor and protector; betrayed the person who placed great confidence in him, and did so when the opinions of his friends and party were, to say the least, di- vided, and not unanimously in favour of the steps he took. ** These men (the French) deserted a standard to which they were recentli/, reluctant/ j/, and barely reconciled ; under which they were regarded with suspicion by their go- vernment, with hatred and reproach by their fellow-sol- diers ; and they went over to their ancient companion in arms and victory ; to one, from w hom they had derived rank, jyroperti/, character, and importance. They did so too, when all the military feeling of their country was deci- dedly in union with the cause they espoused. A stoic, a phi- losopher, a man whose public principles are stronger than his private affections, gratitude, or vanity, might, perhaps, have acted otherwise ; and, from strict regard to his honour once given, have sacrificed his fortunes, his favour, and po- pularity, with those to whom he was obliged, to support a cause in which he found himself engaged against his in- terests and his inclinations. I own, however, that any mi- litary man, who was to lay his hand on his heart, and say that he would have done so, would give me a much higher opinion of his present prudence than of his self-knowledge ■or candour. "■ In the latter view of the subject, 1 knowl am somewhat singular ; few at present make much allowances for the po- litical tergiversations of the jNIarshals ; and many, moie in- 163 ^criptions, in defiance of the charter y were lawlessly proposed, and the Deity outraged by an impious association of his name with the infraction *. Executions multiplied ; and, as if the axe was too prompt a relief for the sufferer, and the public eye, hands ivere previously struck off, ivhilst the ivretched sufferers, zvith their bleeding stumps, tvere ranged on the scaffold diligent than I am in their judgment oi political apostanj in Ettgland, are quite outrageous with Frenchmen for not act- ing with inflexible principle in the most trying and difficult circumstances. Some, however, among the most indignant at their crimes, yet doubt the justice, policy, and safety of punishing them ; and more, especially among the moderate of all parties, think the claim of the capitulation conclusive, or if not quite so, of a nature questionable enough to in- duce the contending parties,yb;' the preservation of their ozen and the imtional character, to give it the construction most favourable to the w eaker party. " I have not spoken of Lavalette; all my arguments apply in his favour as strongly as in Ney's ; and surely he is not, as others may be, the object of any bystander's indignation. He is an honourable man throughout." * Vide liichelieus speech in the Chamber of Peers, when he said that the will of God was visible in the deter- mination to violate the charter; and, therefore, the King consented. M 2 161 h await the fXjrtiier operation of the exe- cutioner ! The punishment of parricide was appliexl to these unfortunate men, condemned on the charge of treason, but it was the first time tihat it had ever been inflicted, and the atrocity was aggravated by the accused tiot having been permitted to confront thti accuser, a creature of the police, whose written deposition ivas received in evidence *. Such was the justice, tempered with mercy, that characterized the triumphs of legitimacy ! Since, however, the people of France could not, any more than the people of Rome, be-all decollated, laws authorizing arbitrary arrests were passed, and the prisons were choked with victims, many of whom are now, probably, rotting in solitary dungeons. It would exceed the proposed limits of this work, to detail all the rueful absurdities, all the unconstitutional acts f , all the severities * Vide Trials^ and reflect on the progressive abuses of the blood system. i" Vide Royal Ordonnance, when the illegality of the elections ordered by the King the preceding year, was ac- knowledj^ed. 165 which distinguished this epoch, and conti- nued until the reviving strength of the op- pressed compelled more circumspection, and some approach to those forms which are designed to guarantee the Uves and fortunes of men from violence and injustice. The result, however, of the system, which commenced by octroying the charter, which re-established sovereignty on the ruins of good faith, and cemented it with the blood of her generals, has been, that a line of reparation is drawn between the Bourbons and the French people, so that mutual confidence on a community of inte- rest will perhaps never be established. " The nature of man must," as an emi- nent writer has said, " change before volini- tary obedience can be obtained from hatred, or homage from contempt^ The Bourbons and France being at vari- ance, all political connexion between the government SLnd foreign powers, which erects a system on the presumed co-operation of the nation, is and must be delusive to the ally. France, unless she arrays an hundred 165 and fifty thousand men, can be of no use to her allies ; and if she does array them, then one hundred and fifty thousand men will too probably end, if they do not begin, by- redressing their oivn wrongs^ What can be done with a government whose existence depends on the coalition of Europe for its support; and, if de- prived of that general aid, and obliged to connect itself with some friendly powers, can offer no security, that the soldiers, when armed, will, nnth arms in their hands, obey the royal authority P France, armed, would strike more terror into Austria, England, and Switzerland, than into Russia. One would fear for Italy ; the other for the Scheldt ; and the third, retalia- tion for injuries : Russia alone, from causes already assigned, has Httle to dread. Would it however not be hazardous to place a French soldier in the presence of Maria Louisa and the young Napoleon ; or in any country which might recall former glory to recollection ? The impetuous feelings of a nation goad- ed to madness by humiliations and all sorts 16; of sufFerings, and roused to action by the hope of successful revenge, are not to be re- sisted by any government ; but yet it must be doubtful whether the Bourbons could buy a few months' precarious possession of the throne by compliance with the national im- pulse. At all events, there is no view of the sub- ject, where the danger is not more positive and greater than the projected good : and although volumes might be written, the same conclusion must be draw^n, that until France is restored to peace ivith herself- — un- til her government can say " Toto certandiun est cor pore regni ;' as an ally she is disqua- lified ; and the emasculation of this country deprives the continent of Europe of the power to form a federative system of de- fence: until a sovereign, as Diogenes said to the Macedonian, " can resemble the queen- bee, who rules without a sting; until good faith is the religion of his government, and justice and clemency are the guards of the throne, he may reign under the name of king, but his fears will make him a slave!" —^Nonne mdlies perire est melius quam in sua 108 cwifate sine armatorum prcesidio non posse vivere f Scd nullum est istuc mihi crede, prcesidium: suavitate et benevolentid civium septum oportct esse, non armis. AUSTRIA. After a pertinacious struggle of tiventy years, Austria^ overwhelmed by military losses and financial distress, seemed to have reached the climax of her ruin ; w^hen a family alliance with her conqueror re-esta- blished her in the attitude of a great Euro- pean power. The connexion with France was a mea- sure of national policy ; and the re-esta- blishment of the House of Lorraine on the throne of France, at which throne all con- tinental Europe bowed in homage, mitigated some of the bitterness of that feeling which preceding humiliations had engendered in the general mind of the nation. The nobihty, however, whose fortunes had been wrecked by the contest and the exactions of Napoleon, regarded this mar- riage as an additional mortification ^ an(| . 169 under that impression, the wounds that closed, were " festering all within." Napoleon was not ignorant of this latent animosity; and, when he invaded Russia, resolved to make a temporary sacrifice of the independence of Poland, to purchase the co-operation of Jlust?ia, The issue of the Russian campaign, to which Austria so much contributed, that Napoleon might not accomplish his design to re-establish a Polish throne at Warsaw, elevated her into the position of arbitrator of the destinies of Europe. Abandoning how- ever her position, she flung her sword into the scale of Russia, and Germany, following her example, was relieved from French do- minion. Resigning her policy to the course of events, and never attempting to build a sys- tem of her own, she saw the crown of France plucked from the brows of her daughter and grandson, without any etTort to prevent its seizure. Europe, or the cabinets of Europe, ap- plauded the magnanimity of the sacrifice; and if Austria tor an instant felt it as such. 170 she quickly found consolation in the spoil of the French empire. No national rights y no solemn engage- mentSy proved any obstacle to her claims of indemnity — restitution was not only made of all the provinces and countries v^rested from her in the course of her w^ars, but Ragusa, Venice, and all the Venetian pos- sessions, were surrendered to her by alhes who had confederated to punish ambition and restore the independence and liberties of subjugated states. The division of Switzerland, and the an- nexation of Alsace and Lorraine to the Aus- trian monarchy, would have been super- added ; but Alexander interposed ; and the memoirs to prove the Austrian titles to these further acquisitions, were returned to the archives of Vienna. In pursuing this system of aggrandize- ment, Francis certainly did not consider that he was acting in the spirit of that usurpa- tion which Europe had risen against and overthrown. Personally beloved by his own subjects, for the benignity of his character and the 171 mildness of his reign, he forgot that he was not irimiortal, and that nations preferred the security of self-government to the precarious exercise of despotic authority. He also did not bear in mind that example was conta- gious and fatal, when supplying precedents for the abuse of power. It is true he now extends his rule over ftventy-eight milUons of people ; that the Austrian navy now rides in the Adriatic ; but is not this the plumage of a day, adorn- ing the imperial bird, but not supporting him in his flight ? Are those ttvenfy-eight millions united by interest and voluntary allegiance, or rather are not above eight mil- lions of Gallicians, JNIontenegrins, Ragusans, and Italians, retained in subjection by force ? and are not as many more exposed to se- duction by the sacrifice of their prosperity under a partial and false system of political economy * ? Is Russia, Sclavonian Russia, Greek Rus- sia, Cosmopolite Russia, with her six hun- dred and forty thousand men on the Da- ^ Hungary contains near seven millions of inhabitants. 172 nube, the Pruth, the Bug, and the Warta, with Poland as her advanced guard, and Prussia as her partizan, not more formi- dable to Austria in perpetuity, than Napoleon ever was — and this too without removing the just cause of her former alarm ? for France, though now muzzled, is " as the lion's whelp, refusing to exemplify the patience of the ass couching between burdens *." In case of war with Russia, can three hundred and Jiffy thousand men, the most Austria could ever array, form a sufficient rampart for the pro- tection of her frontier against the invader, and guard over her southern subjects ? Unmoored from France by the deposition of the I^rraine dynasty, and the state of that country already developed, can she ride with confidence at a single anchor ? Bankrupt in credit, as indigent of wealth, where can she obtain any pecuniary aid in her necessity ? The Bourbons could borrow, Russia can procure money, but where can Austria negotiate another Imperial loan P * Vide the blessing of Judah and Issachar, book of Genesis. 173 Without England as her treasury^ with- out France as her reserve> with a volcano under her feet, and a belt of Russian bayo- nets indenting her frontier, is her situation improved by the new political system of Europe, to the degree that it might have been, if she had preferred solidity to ag- grandizement? When she agreed to break the ties which connected the government and people of France with her interests, was she wise to establish the right of the strongest as the public law of Europe ? As the protectress of minor states, she would have been invigorated by their corre- sponding efforts ; participating in the act of their extinction, she has divided with Eng- land all the odium, and has been a party to her own degradation. The Austrians are a kind and excellent people, but they were never on good terms with dependent states *, because the poverty, or, in some cases, the simulated poverty of * Except in the Tyrol, where the people would submit to no taxation ; and therefore Austria was very indifferent about the recovery of that province. 174 their government requiring heavy exactions, gave them the character of extortioners in countries where they governed. They made themselves no friends in the more civihzed parts of Europe, for they never conformed themselves to the spirit of the age*; but now they have excited an ill will from a combination of errors and disappointed hopes, which facilitates the ope- rations of hostile cabinets, and which, if not soothed and quickly soothed, will prepare the way for greater misfortunes. Austria is naturally the promontory, which forms the advanced bulwark of Eu- rope against the North; but until France can again be connected ivith the line of de^ * A\\ ihese observations apply to the system, not to, the individuals acting under it. In the late war Schvvar* zemberg and Bellegarde did every thing that could be done to conciliate public feeling, and did it with natural benignity as well as good policy. The officers of their armies adopted the same line of conduct, but the necessities of the state counteracted all their partial efforts. They mitigated the evil ; but as they could not supply the trea- sury, Burke's observation, that " it is no more given to man to tax and to please, than to love and be wise," was here verified. 175 fence, until the Carpathian mountains arc linked to the Alps, by friendly coun- tries as well as governments, she cannot provide for her own security, much less charge herself with the maintenance of the European balance of power. The minister of Austria, a man of eminent ability, and who has indisputably rendered various great services to his country, is said to boast '* that his cabinet never indulges imagination in politics ;" but it would be well if it also had remembered Fortune has wings as well as hands ; that when she stretches forth one, she spreads the other ; and if her caress is slighted, she flits away, nor can prayers nor art prevail on her to return. TURKEY. This is a state, against whose existence civilization en masse would long since have marched, had not the safety of neighbouring states been compromised by its dissolution. When Turkey ceased to be a conquering power — when there was no longer any apprehension of her substituting through 170 Europe, the Koran for the Gospel ; Sweden^ Poland, Austria, France, and England, at various epochs courted her alliance, and ren- dered her contributive to the balance of power. The partition of Poland broke the chain which grappled her to European policy ; and since that etent, she has been gradually isolating, and obliged to buy her repose with sacrifices that rendered its duration less probable. Turkey had an opportunity in the yea:r 1813, to recover a line of defence, which might have afforded some protection : she signed, nevertheless, a treaty, which placed her still more at the mercy of Russia ; and although she was aware of her error be- fore the wax was cold, no temptation could induce her to violate her good faith. The Divan was not insensible to the danger of Turkey, under any result of the Russian invasion; in their opinion the suc- cess of either power was equally fatal to the Ottoman interests. They did not, however, foresee that Russia would not in the first itistance fulfil the conditions of a treaty, which had been ^77 so advantageous to her : ihey had even flat- tered themselves, that Russia would have generously restored all the cessions they had so gratuitously and improvidently made. But although the infraction of this treaty gives to Turkey the right of w^ar, or rather of the renewal of hostiUties (for between Turkey and Russia it may be said " belliim semper mauet , pugna cessaf'J: still the very violations, while they provoke resistance, command submission. Such is the offensive power they supply to Russia. Turkey has altogether twenty -tivo millions of nominal subjects * — ttvelve in Europe, and ten in Asia : of these, however, two millions and a half are Egyptians, a people who never serve in the armies ; and above four millions are Greeks, who are only em- ployed on board the ships of war, where they must fight, or lose their heads by the scymitars of the petty officers. It is true, every Turk is a soldier, and a brave one; but he is ungovernable, and therefore an easy conquest. * Le Sage gives trcentrf-eight mil/ions; but this calcu lation is as much above the calculation of other geogra phers, as his Russian census is below theirs. N I78r The Turks have not only to resist the Russians on the Danube, and in Armenia ; but they have to keep in subjection the Greek population, and suppress rebellion amongst themselves ; v^^hich, like the flame on the mountain of Deliktash *, is never extinguished, although it never expands so as to threaten general destruction. It is true, that Sultan Mahmoud is a man of ability and instruction, having, whilst in his prison awaiting the succession to the throne f, been educated by the unfortunate SeUm in the duties of government J. * Captain Beaufort, whose Travels in Caramania afford a trait of British humanity most honourable to himself and country, when he suffered not the unfeeling calcula- tions of prudence to permit sixty unfortunate Turks to be massacred in cold blood in sight of a British flag, notices this mountain, of which Pliny made mention, and from collateral circumstances suggests, that the stories now in circulation about Moosa Dagli (the Mountain of Moses), which is immediately contiguous to Deliktash, may have some fanciful connexion with the story in Exodus, of the burning bush on Mount Horeb ! •f- The lot of all the heirs apparent in that country. X tile fate of Selim is universally regretted in Turkey ; and the Janissaries, even in the Seraglio, now sing con- etantly the song which he made the day before his death, 170 Mahmoud has also shown great courage and presence of mind ; qualities highly essential, when Janissaries with swords in hand sometimes appear unsummoned in his councils. But what can be done with a tumultuous people, whose obstinacy is equal to their ignorance, and whose energies will submit to no regulation and discipline ? To urge Turkey into war, is to counsel her to destruction. There are certainly some means of resistance left, which rash- ness would render unavailable. Time is now her only salvation : if she profits by that time, to organize inoffensively a system of defence suitable to the exigency of her position, it may yet be some years before a Te Deum is sung in Saint Sophia. But " if she does not well choose the be- ginning and onset of things, if she is de- ceived with long shadows, so as to shoot off before the enemy is tangible, she may teach and in which he pathetically- describes his misfortunes ; de- clares, that the good of his country influenced all his actions ; and makes an appeal to the people, deprecating their cruelty, inasmuch as he was the agent of a destiny directing their welfare. 31 2 180 dangers to come on by over-early bucldhig towards them." Mahmoud must cover the turban with the hehnet of Pluto, " making the politic man go invisible," until he can carry his councils into execution ; or, if previously attacked^ trust to despair, which, by giving strength to fanaticism, may afford means to preserve the throne of barbarism. ENGLAND. Two parties divide England. One is of opinion that continental con- nexion is injurious to her interests, and fatal to her liberties ; the other proclaims, that not a cannon should be fired in Europe without the reply of one charged by British subsidies, and that military glory is of more value than constitutional freedom. It would not be difficult to prove the po- sition of the one party. Eight hundred millions of funded, and sixty-four millions of unfunded debt, eight millions of annual poor rates*, and the * With contributions, loans, &.c. perhaps this year fiearer twelve millions. 181 suspension of the Habeas Corpus in time of peace, are axioms which no logic can overthrow. The other party, if they could find gui- neas, would doubtless proceed in their rage for laurels as the Dutchmen did for tulips, until the native soil threatened to yield nothing but noxious plants manured with blood, and moistened by the tears of a famishing people; but the ability to pursue their ventures is regulated by the supply of money, which can be procured for exporta- tion to foreign cabinets. There is no want of political hypothesis to form plans of action. Sir Home Pop- ham's telegraph cannot make more changes than Europe can offer convolutions to the speculative eye of a state geometrician, who, unrestrained by the ancient doctrines of in- dependence, rights of nations, and treaties, forms his political system on the basis of square miles and capitation taxes. It is, however, fortunate for humanity that subsidies are at last preventive checks : England can engage in no fancy wars ; the first gun, by obliging the mmister of finance to borrow, whilst he at the same time would 182 be compelled to fund sixty-four millions of Exchequer bills, at a loss of between tiventy and thirty per cent, would blow up the whole system of public credit; and as no go- vernment can pretend to confine the concus- sion to that catastrophe, as no man can fore- see the effect such an event might have on all the establishments, and all the property of the country ; the temple of Janus must be kept shut, notwithstanding the disap- pointment of contractors and glory-hunters. Defensive war for the rights of England is quite another consideration ; the tender of lives and fortunes would be no " mouth pro- fession" against any attempt made, insidi- ously, or sword in hand, on her independ- ence, or what remains of her liberties, if the nation ivere allowed to protect them. Every Englishman would, like Rostopchin, when he placed the torch to the curtains of his marriage-bed to fire a splendid palace, solicit the sacrifice of all he could offer on the altar of his country, even if, like Rostop- chin, he thought it might be beneficial only by example. Thef e is no doubt, that it was the interest 18^ of England to have conciliated France, and to have ingratiated herself in the esteem of her people. When Russia became a great and com- manding European power, jealousy of the ascendancy of France ought to have existed no longer ; for France alone could offer an cfiicient equipoise : but to ally England to a government, and declare tvar against the Elation, w^as justifiable by no policy, on no principle^ and by no precedent. In the reign of Louis XIY. when ideas of prerogative, of legitimacy, and divine right, were at their climax of folly, there was no attempt to control the will of the people in this country. Cardinal Mazarin, the prime minister, not only acknowledged the govern- ment, but even courted the alliance of Crom- well ! Whatever might have been his mo- tive, t^e principle of national right in the choice of the form of government, and of the chief of that government, was sanctioned by his conduct. When Cromwell died, his successor was acknowledged ; when the Stuarts returned, they were also recognised as sovereigns by 184 all foreign states. When James and his dynasty were declared to have forfeited the crown by withdrawing from England, and for being umvorthy of it in Scotland, Wil- liam the Third was involved in no dispute with France about the legitimacy of his rights. It is true, that these pretenders, James and his son, received assistance from France : but the object of that assistance was not to strengthen the claims of James, but to weaken the power of England. Thus a government, w^hich permitted no right of its own subjects, whose power was not founded on any prescribed fixed contract between the governor and govern- ed, but where even the will of the King was considered to be law^ nevertheless respect- ed the rights of a rival nation ; whilst the go- vernment of a nation which cannot dispute the right of election of a first magistrate to be vested in the people, without giving the throne back to the Stuart dynasty, first de- clares to the French people, through her General, " that it can treat with no govern- ment, but that of Louis XVIII. ;" and then in a public treaty proclaims that it appVQ^- 185 priates a British army to the service of the King of France^ for operations against his people at his oum request. At Vienna, on the 12th of May 1815, the ministers of the allied powers drew up a de- claration, which they published to Europe, stating, ** that the governments they repre- sented, knew too well the principles which should guide them in their relations with an independent country, to attempt (as they had been accused) any imposition of la/vs upon it, to meddle ivith its internal affairs, to assign it any form of government, or to give rulers in compliance with the interests or pas- sions of its neighbours.*' Lord Clancarty, when communicating this act, observed, in his official dispatch — '* In this war, the sovereigns do not propose to interfere luith any lawful rights of the French people. They have no intention to oppose the right which this nation has to choose the form of government it thinks suitable, nor to trespass in any manner on its independence as a great and free people'' To make assurance doubly sure, or to accomplish the machinations then planned. 185 the English minister, in a dispatch, dated " Foreign Office, London, April 25, 1815,'* writes, " But this treaty must not be consi- dered as binding on his Britannic Majesty to continue the war with the object of im- posing on France any particular form of government, whatever may be the anxiety of the Prince Regent to see His Most Chris- tian Majesty restored to the throne." Austria echoed the British sentiment, and in a note, dated Vienna, May 4, 1815, proclaimed, that " the Emperor, although irrevocably resolved to direct all his efforts against the usurpation of Napoleon Buona- parte (as this object had been expressed in the third article of the treaty of the 25 th of March), is nevertheless convinced, that the duty imposed on him by the interests of his subjects and his own principles, will not permit his continuation of the war, to ij7i- pose on France any government whatsoever,** After these solemn professions, conveyed in such unequivocal language, and sustained not only by a variety of manifestoes and pro- clamations, but by the most formal pledges in the British Parliament, who does not feel 187 an honest confusion and blush at the prosti- tution of his country's faith, when he reads in Maceroni'b work, pages 43, 44, and 50, that " the restoration of Louis was a ' sine qua non ivith the British ministers P For no commander would have dared, on his own authority, to have charged himself with such a criminal responsibility ; but to pre- vent the possibility of such a suspicion, these mmisters did not only sanction the act, but th^y further negotiated and signed a convention, which in the following words engaged to maintain by the bayonets of Englishmen in opposition to the French senate and. people, Louis and the form of government so forcibly established* : " * The allied sovereigns have, nevertheless, in consideration of the high interest which induces them to strengthen the authority of the legitimate sovereign, promised to His Most Christian Majesty, to support him with * To prove that the government of Louis was forcibly established, the Declaration of the Representatives solemnly assembled on the 5th of July, is added : vide document at tlie end of the work. — Exclusive of this document there was the Protest already alluded to, against the closing of tlic Chanjbers, and which may be produced hereafter. 188 their arms against all revolutionary convul- sion tending to overturn by force the state of things actually established, and which would thus threaten anew the tranquillity of Eu- rope. " * But not forgetting, that, under the variety of shapes in which the revolutionary spirit may still show itself in France, there might be doubts as to what cases might re- quire the interference of a foreign force ; and being well aware of the difficulty of giving precise instructions applicable to each parti- cular case, the allied sovereigns have thought it most advisable to confide in the known prudence and discretion of the Duke of Wellington, the determination of the time and mode in tvhich it ivoidd be proper to employ the troops under his orders^ in a full confidence that he will in no case act with- out having previously concerted his mea* sures with His Majesty the King of France, and that he will acquaint, as soon as possible, the allied sovereigns with the motives which have engaged him to take his determina- tions.' " If this had been the act of Ministers 4 180 alone, then, indeed, there would be ground for reproach, but not for surprise. Ministers who could break faith with Genoa, Italy, and Naples, who could per- mit, if not directly assist, the overthrow of the Cortes, destroy the independent republic of Ragusa, which even the Turks had re- spected from the foundation of their Euro- pean power * ; who could propose a repar- tition of Poland, sanction the dismember- ment of Saxony, under the plea of inflicting chastisement on a king, for doing that which had been done by all the partitioning sove- reigns themselves; who could starve Nor- way, and be guilty of other manifold outrages against good faith, good sense, and the free- dom of their own, as well as every other country ; such ministers might indeed be supposed capable of such a proceeding. But that a British Parliament, however sub- ject that Parliament may have been for * Vide an animated appeal from Count de Bettera Wodopich, a noble Ragusan, accompanied with a protest of the senate, against the act by which the independence of this republic ^^as annihilated. And for a faithful and most eloquent exposition of the state of Europe, vide Henry Brougham's memorable speech in Parliament on the 13th March 1817. 100 many years to ministerial influence, should have sanctioned the measure, is a frightful symptom of decaying patriotism, and ex- tinguished constitutional principles *. * A foreign minister said, the measure itself never met with any objection from the British negotiators ; but as the British Parliament wz^h fastidious about words, the di- plomatic grammarians had been obliged to give more than ordinary attention to the language of this treaty of co-ope- ration. The Protest of Lord Holland will rescue himself and friends, for they all concurred in his sentiments, from the opprobrium as legislators ; but it does not, and nothing can, redeem the national character. It is, however, too important a document not to be cited whenever this subject is discussed. Protest of Lord Holland in the House of Peers, against the Address in approbation of Treaties, on the I9th of February. ** Because the treaties and encasements contain a direct guarantee of the present government of France against the people of that country ; and, in my judgment, imply a general and perpetual guarantee of all European govern- ments against the governed. I hold such a design to be vnlazcful, I believe it to be impracticable ; and recollecting the principles on which the Revolution in 1688, and the suc- cession of the House of Hanover were founded, I cannot give the sanction of my vote to a system, which if it had prevailed in those times, might have deprived this kingdom It is not meant that England should have made a crusade against Louis. If the people had chosen him and his family, he would have been entitled to his throne ; and resist- ance to that choice v^ould then have been as criminal in opposing Louis, as it now is in supporting him with a Janissary force. If the people of France were still to choose him, or confirm him by voluntary allegiance, from that moment he would be- come the legitimate King of France, because he would hold his crown from and for the people. England could prescribe or pro- scribe no foreign dynasty without establish- ing a principle adverse to her own constitu- tional rights, and without an abuse of power, which may one day prove fatal to her own liberties *. of all the benefits that have resulted from a national govern- ment and a free constitution. — Vassall Holland." * No words can better prove the cruelty of the system, as it affects individuals, in which this false step has involved the Allies, than those which were used by the writer of the following letter. Circumstances rendered this letter an official document ; its publication may trespass on femi- nine delicacy ; but such an example of conjugal affection and fidelity is too honourable to woman, and beneficial in its effects on society, to be withheld from farther publicity. 192 England already has lost the world's ho- mage ; no longer is she esteemed " the friend jAteral Tiaiisfation of a Jjetter, written after the Battle of Waterloo, hi/ the Queen of Westphalia, to her Fa- ther, the King of Wirteniberg. " Sire and Father, " Your Majesty requested me to descend tliis morn- ing into your apartment. For the first time in my life I declined the happiness of being in your presence : I knew the subject of the interview ; and fearing that my mind might not be sufficiently collected, I have dared to take the liberty of developing the motives of my conduct, and making an appeal to your paternal affection. " Your Majesty knows the whole truth. Yes, Sire, the Prince Jerome, your son-in-law, my husband and the father of my child, is with me ! Yes, Sire ! I have with- drawn an instant from the palace of my King, to succour the husband to whom my life is attached. My thoughts have accompanied him to the war — njy care has preserved him in a long and painful journey, where his existence was often menaced. My arms have embraced him in his mis- fortune with more tenderness than even in the time of our prosperity ! " The Prince Jerome is not the husband of my own choice. I received him from your hand, \\ hen his house reigned over great kingdoms — when his head wore a crown. Soon the sentiments of my heart cherished and confirmed the bonds which your policy had commanded. " Marriage and nature impose duties which are not sub- ject to the vicissitudes of fortune : 1 know their ext(-nsive obligations, and 1 know also how to fulfil them : I was ^ of the oppressed ;" her promises have become a scofFand a by- word : she has aUenated the queen — 1 am still a wife and a mother ! The change of policy among princes, in overthrowing the I'lench empire has also destroyed the throne, on which your goodness, and the Prince my husband, had seated me. We were obliged td submit to the force of circumstances ! The august Maria Louisa afforded me a great example of resignation ; but our situation is dissimilar. Public hiterests may command sacrifices of permanent duration, or which may cease wher. the interests of a new policy render other changes inevitable " Although chance has elevated us above die generality o mankind, we are nmch more to be pitied. A variable wil controls our destiny ; but there its power ceases — iti impotent against the obligations Providence imposes on us , " The husband which God and you yourself gave me — the child whom 1 have borne in my bosom — comprise my existence. 1 have shared a throne with this husband, I will partake with him exile and misfortune : violence alone shall separate me from him. But, O my King ! O my father ! I know your heart, your justice, and the excel- lence of your principles : I know what these principles have been at all times on the subject of those domestic duties which should be respected by the Princes of your House. " I do not ask your Majesty, from affection for me, to make any change in that system of conduct which has been adopted in conformity with the determinations of the most powerful Princes of Europe ; but I throw myself at your feet to implore permission that my husband and myself may remain near your person : but, O my father ! if that must not be, let us at least be restored to your favour before we O 10 i good-will even of those she assisted in their usurpations ; and where her cause once en^ gaged thousands of voluntary champions, not one apologist is now to be found. There is not an Englishman on the Con- tinent, who has not been the object of some slight, and frequently of insult, if not of execration. England, by her money, enabled Europe to combine and march against France ; her assistance is acknowledged, but not with gratitude : such a sentiment would not have been excited, if her assistance had been con- sidered as disinterested; for, as Tacitus justly says, Beneficia eo usque Iceia sunt dum vi- remove to a foreign soil. It is only after having received some proof of your paternal love, that I can feel strength sufficient to appear before you. If we must go this very evening, let us depart with the assurance of your affection and protection in a happier time. Our misfortunes must liave a period : policy v\ ill not always command in respect to us that which is humiliating, nor delight in the ruin and degradation of so many Princes, acknowledged in former treaties, and who have been allied to the most ancient and illustrious houses of Europe. Is not their blood mingled with ours ? Pardon me, my father and my Sovereign ! for having thus expressed myself; but condescend, by a single word, to let me know that it has not been received vith displeasure." 195 dentur exsolvi posse, at uhi multum ante^ venere, pro gratia odium redditur ; but, on the contrary, her benefits are supposed to have originated from motives of mere self-interest, and, as such, to be desti- tute of all claim on European gratitude. Various powers feel that England also at- taches herself to rival governments, not to preserve what she calls the balance of power, but to control the continental policy, and continue an exclusion from what they claim as a due share of maritime advantages. Hence that jealousy of any returning pro- sperity to England, since that prosperity would afford stronger means to enforce these obnoxious checks : hence, the desire to de- prive England of the presumed sources of her wealth : hence, the pleasure felt at the augmentation of the naval power of America (for, although America might not be able for years to do what one of her Pre- sidents once said she would do, " draw a line of demarcation with her fleets, beyond which no European flag should be seen without a passport ;" still it is well known, that every single ship of the line built by o 2 ig0 America, requires, in case of war, a counter- acting expenditure on the part of England, equal to the maintenance of three sail : that as the American marine increases, the English West India islands will require more gar- risons, and the communications with India become more precarious) ; and hence, per- haps, those negotiations which have been carrying on from the quarter-deck of the Washington in the Mediterranean, as well as the preference lately shown to the Ame- rican flag in the Baltic. Envy is not blind, and revenge never sleeps. The utterance of these truths may offend, but silence would injure: the hearing of them is painful, but will be of use ; there- fore, as the philosopher said to his angry master, " Strike, but hear." If England is true to herself, she may yet avoid shipwreck ; but if she looks to pre- servation by connexion with France in her present state, and continental operations, involving her in war with Russia, which prudence might avoid without diminution of her power or prejudice to her interests ; T97 her guns of distress will soon be heard along her possessions in every quarter of the globe. England is an island, and she must return to the remembrance that she is one ; she perishes if she does not adopt an insular policy, and a truly British system ; she must withdraw her troops from the con- tinent, attend to her naval power, and nego- tiate with the trident in her hand. She must moreover economize her expenses until she can appropriate, not an imaginary but a real sinking fund to the payment of her debts; and above all she must re-establish her people in the enjoyment of that free- dom which has been the source of her former happiness, and th^ soul of her energies and greatness. No hostile policy could then endanger her safety, whilst general respect would replace her in peace with mankind. Her Secre- taries of State would be no longer the arbi- trary gaolers of her citizens; nor the sea be covered with an emigrant population, flying from persecution and famine. Let her government be vigilant guardians of the laws, but let them not encourage that 198 pernicious crew, the scourge and bane of society, who are now let loose with the wages of iniquity in view, to harass and destroy their fellow- citizens. It behoves those who guide the councils of the state, for their own sake, to gain the affections and confidence of the people by a relinquishment of that system which has estranged their attachment, and deprived authority of respect. Mankind is no longer in slavish ignorance ; and the governments which have encouraged education, must ac^ company the boon with a liberal attention to the rights of the community. After so many sacrifices in ivaVy the people may fairly claim the enjoyment of their privileges in peace; and the greatest of all their privi- leges is liberty- — it is peace itself. Pax est tranquilla libertas^^-Servitus mahruni om- nium postremmriy non modo hello $ed mortet etiam repellendum. im Document adverted to in p. 187. CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES, President — Count Lanjuinais, Jidi/ 5, 1817. Deciaratiou des Droits des Fran^ais et des Principes foudamentaux de tear Constitutiou. Art. 1*'. Tous les ponvoirs emanent du peuple ; h son- verainete du peuple se compose de la reunion des droits de tous les citoyem. 2. La division des poMvoirs est le principe le plus ne- cessaire a I'etablissement de la libei te et a sa conservation. 3. La puissance legislative en France, se compose de trois pouvoirs toujours distiucts dans leurs ^l^mens et dans leur action ; une chambre des representans, une chambre haute et un nionarque, 4. J3ans la confection des lois, la proposition, la sanc- tion et I'opposition apparti^nnent egalenient aiix trois branches de la puissance legislative. La loi n'existe que par kur accord. A la chambre des representans, exclu- sivement, appartient I'inltiative en trois matieres ; les con-^ tributions publiques, les levees d'hommes et I'election d'uiie nouvelle dynastie a I'extinction de la dynastie regiiante- 5. L'action du pouvoir executif ne s'exerce que par des jtninistres; tous respousables solidairement pour les delerniir 200 nations prises en commun ; chacun en particulier, pour les actes particuliers de son departement. 6. Le monarque est inviolable, sa personne est sacree. En cas de violation des lois et d'attentat contre la liberie et la surete individuelle ou pubiique, ies miimties sont mis en accusation par la chambre des reprisentaus ; ils sont juges par la chambre-haute. 7. La libertt de chaque individu consiste k pouvoir falre ce qui ne nnit pas a autrui. Aucune atteinte ue pent y ttre et portee quau nom des lo:s, par leurs organes et sous des formes assez precipes pour ue pas ttre eludes ou tie- g/igees. 8. La liberie de la presse est iuviolable. Jucun ecrit ne peuC etie soumis a uue censure prealable. Les lois dtter- minent quels sont les alms de la presse assez graves pour ttre qualifies crimes ou dtlits. lis sont reprimes suivant les diflftrtns degres de gra\ite, par des peines, dout la severite sera aussi graduee, et par jugement de jurts. 9. Chacun a liberte de professer ses opinions religieuses, et obtient la meme protection pour son cuite. 10. L'independance des tribunaux est gurantie. Les juges des cours de justice et des tribunaux civils sont inamovibles et a vie. En matiere criminelle, les debuts sont pi.biics, le fait est juge par des jures, et la loi ap" pliquee par des juges. Jl. line instruction priniaire, indispensable pour la con- naiss'ance des droits et dts devoirs de rhoninie en sociele, est mise gratuitcment a. poriee des toutes les classes du peuple. Lts elemtns des sciences, des belles-lettres et des beaux- ?irl.s, sout enseig! es v ns de hautts ecoles. 1$, La CO. siitutiou ^arautit legalite des dioits civils et 201 politiques, rabolition de la noblesse, des privileges, dcs qualifications feodales, des diiues, des droits feodaux et de la contiscation des biens. Elle garantit le droit de petition, les secours publics, I'inviolabilite des proprietes et de la dette publique, I'irrevorabilile de I'alienation des domaines nationaux de tou'e ori^iue, et I'egalite proportiouelle dans la repartition des contributions ; eik garaitfit eiijiii le mnintien de la /fgioji-d'/ioii/uur, des couleurs uationahs et des recompenses pour les services civi/s et militaires. Elle lie recouiait point les ordres monastiyties et les vaeux perpititeh. 13. Le prince soit hereditaire, soil appelc par election, ne rnontera snr le trvne de France tiuaprh avoir prete et signe le serment d' observer et de faire observer la piesente dtclarafion. La presente declaration sera communiquee par un mes- sage a la chanibre des pairs et a la commission de gou- vernement. La declaration est unanimement adoptee. A\x meme instant les cris de I'ive la ISation se font en- tendre de toutes parts, au milieu des applaudissemens de I'assemblee et des tribunes, M. Dupin *. Je demande que la resolution soit sur-le- cbainp euvo\ej a la chambre des pairs. II Jaut qu'on sache que la repiesentation nationale toute entiere partage les nobles seiitimens exprirr.es dans la declaration ; il faut que tout ce qu'il y a d'honnetes g»^ns, dhonunes raisonnables, d'amis d'une liberie sage, sachent que leurs voeux ont trowe ici des interpietes, et que la fohce elle-meme NE POUHRAIT NOUS EMPECIIEU DE LES EMETTKE. * '1 he generous and eloquent defender of Messrs. Wilson, Bruce, and iiulchinson. 202 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDUM. Previous to the treaty of Vienna, Bucha- rest, and Teflis, Russia was composed of fifty-seven governments, extending over a space of nine hundred and tiventy thousand square leagues, being the ninth part of the Terra Firma, and the twenty -eighth of the whole globe *. The Roman empire in the time of its greatest dominion, never equalled European Russia in extent, and European Russia is but a third of the whole Russian empire. The population, however, is concen- trated in European Russia, since, of the com- puted forty-two millions of Russian inha- bitants, not dihoYQfive are Asiatic, and in the seven governments surrounding the govern- ment of Moscow, which government itself contains one million one hundred and thirty- nine thousand, there are, according to the statement of Le Sage -f , whose calculations * The American settlements are not included. f Governments round Moscow, from Le Sage's Table. Twer, 904,000 I. Vladimir, 871,000 I. Smolensk, 892,000 I. Kiasan, 869,000 I. Kaluga, 771,000 I. Tula, ^76,000 I. Varoslaw, 760,000 I. 203 are far below the real amount, above six mil- lions of inhabitants. It naust also be re- marked, that the extreme distance of any part of these seven governments is not more than three hundred miles from the city of Moscow, and the average distance of their frontiers is about two hundred and fifty. In the year 1 799, Tooke calculated, after the Greek tables, that Russia contained ybr/^ millions of inhabitants : Storck, at the end of the eighteenth century, computed the popu- lation at thirty-six millions: Sablowski, in his Geography of Russia, rates it at forty- one millions ; and in his Statistics, at forty- four ; and the St. Petersburgh Almanack for 1808, makes the number forty -two millions. Since that period Alexander has added one hundred and ninety-three thousand eight hundred geographical square miles to the empire, including the Duchy of Warsaw, Finland, Georgia, &c. ; and therefore the estimate of forty-two millions of present po- pulation is probably several millions too low. Malthus admits the tendency to in- crease to be very great, especially in Siberia ; and the increased price of corn, &c. proves ^is supposition to be founded on truth. 204 In a work by C. T. Herman, from the Memoirs of the Petersburgh Academy, pub- lished in 1811, there is much minute detail relative to the population of Russia. The author had access to all the official reports, and the Government had long been employ- ed in obtaining accurate revisions, or census tables. He states that there were of peasants in the several tax lists, and therefore probably less than the real amount : In 1796 - - 15,718,088 males. 1800 - - 15,707,781 1801 - - 15,747,379 1802 - - 15,895,608 1803 - - 15,824,287 1804 - - 15,80G,778 While the sum total of the enumerations of 1804 amounted to 41,253,488 inhabitants, which included a progress of population du- ring ten years of 1,250,000 individuals, at the calculation of only one fourth of the surplus of births above deaths (amounting annually to jive hundred thousand J, reaching the age of eighteen or twenty. Again he states : ** According to these data the progress of 205 population in Russia, produced partly by the improvement in the interior, partly by new acquisitions, has been as follows : In 1772 . 14 millions. 1742 . ]0 . . . after 20 years. 17O2 . ig . . . after 20 1782 . 28 . . . after 20 1796 . 30 . . . after 14 1800 . 41 . . . after 10 Of which forty-one millions^ thirteen mil- lions have been acquired in Little Russia, the Swedish, Polish, and Turkish provinces. " The indigenous population of Russia has thus more than doubled during the last cen- tury ; whilst Smith supposes that the popu- lation in civilized countries only doubles once in five hu7idred years, *' It has doubled in consequence of a better regulated administration ; of the saving which the government has procured to the nation — of the capitals of foreigners placed in the country, and which for a long time constituted the soul of the commerce in the interior ; in consequence of the progress of national industry, which was the result of the increase of knowledge ; by new commercial connexions with the other countries of Eu- 4 ^0(3 1*0 pe ; and by the means of instruction fur- nished by the government to the inhabitants of Russia; and, finally, in consequence of the removal of several obstacles which oppo- sed the progress of industry, as the abolition of the douanes of the interior, under the reigns of Elizabeth and Catherine, the im- provement of roads, and the multiplication of canals." He then presumes that the population of Russia will remain a long time between forty-one and forty-three millions ; but he adds : " Unforeseen circumstances (exclu- sive of conquest) may give a considerable population to the south of Russia: for ex- ample, the astonishing commerce of grain at Odessa, between l8oo and 1805 (much aug- mented latterl}^), increased the value of all the lands as far as Kiow, and even the fertile Steppes were cultivated. Workmen were wanting, and half the produce was offered to those who would gather in the other half. The commerce of Taganrock likewise fur- nishes ground for hope; and agriculture appears to be making progress amongst the Nomades." 207 He concludes by observing that " A country is not sufficiently peopled when the demand for workmen, and the means of maintaining them, are excessive, as in some of the southern parts of Russia. A country suffers from its population, ivhen the thousands of rich are obliged to maintain the millions of poor. Such an abusive popu- lation must either perish^ or leave the country, or produce revolutions,'^ REVENUE. The revenue of Russia is difficult to ascer- tain, but her exports some years since in corn, masts, flax, tallow and hides, furs, skins, iron, copper, and salt, &c. &c. &c. amounted to between five and six millions sterling ; and it was supposed that the re- venue averaged about tiuelve millions sterling annually ; which, considering the difference in the value of money between England and Russia, is more than equal to all the necessi- ties of the state, when the debt is discharged, and which is now in a course of liquidation. This revenue is the more solid, because it 208 IS not, as In England, and in other countries, the produce of an excessive taxation *. The paper rouble is always at a discount ; but such was the confidence of the Russians at Moscow, when the enemy had taken the capital, that it was at no greater discount there than at Petersburgh, nor did the sight of gold make the least impression on the seller, so as to reduce the price demanded. Copper is the chief coin ; but the copper pieces called copecks are of great size and weight, though they are ybr/7/ to a shilling. Vast quantities of ducats are also in circula- tion, and may be had to any amount in exchange against paper. * In the Ukase, dated St. P.-t< rsburgli, April 10, 1817> Alexander, when promulg^ng the new regulations for the discharge of the public debt, uses these remarkable words^ vhich must excite the envy and wonder of every other European state : " After a war as fatal in its origin as glorious in its result, by the aid of the Almighty (and British subsidies) this war has been concluded zcithout anif augmentation of the taxes, and \\ithout having injured public cj'edit." THE END. Piiiiud by S. Cos NELL, Little Queen Stieet, Lunvlun. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY T r