that, independent of any view to an immediate or practical result in other regions, it is of some consequence to keep the observation of England alive, and its feeling awake, upon a subject of this importance; but we must beg leave to observe, that such dissertations are humbly conceived to be among the legitimate means by which the English public both instructs and expresses itself; and that the opinion of the English public is still allowed to have weight with its government, which again cannot well be supposed to be altogether without influence in the councils of its allies. Whatever becomes of Poland, it is most material, we think, that the people of this country should judge soundly, and feel rightly, on a matter that touches on principles of such general application. But every thing that has passed since the publication of our former remarks, combines to justify what we then stated; and to encourage us to make louder and more energetic appeals to the justice and prudence and magnanimity of the parties concerned in this transaction. The words and the deeds of Alexander that have, since that period, passed into the page of history-the principles he has solemnly professed, and the acts by which he has sealed that profession entitle us to expect from him a strain of justice and generosity, which vulgar politicians may call romantic if they please, but which all men of high principles and enlarged understandings will feel to be not more heroic than judicious. While Poland remains oppressed and discontented, the peace of Europe will always be at the mercy of any ambitious or intriguing power that may think fit to rouse its vast and warlike population with the vain promise of independence; while it is perfectly manifest that those, by whom alone that promise could be effectually kept, would gain prodigiously, both in security and in substanțial influence, by its faithful performance. It is not, however, for the mere name of independence, nor for the lost glories of an ancient and honourable existence, that the people of Poland are thus eager to array themselves in any desperate strife of which this may be proclaimed as the prize. We have shown, in our last Number, the substantial and intolerable evils which this extinction of their national dignity-this sore and unmerited wound to their national pride, has necessarily occasioned: and thinking, as we do, that a people, without the feelings of national pride and public duty, must be a people without energy and without enjoyments, we apprehend it to be at any rate indisputable, in the present instance, that the circumstances which have dissolved their political being have struck also at the root of their individual happiness and prosperity; and that it is not merely the unjust destruction of an ancient kingdom that we lament, but the condemnation of fifteen millions of human beings to unprofitable and unparalleled misery. But though these are the considerations by which the feelings of private individuals are most naturally affected, it should never be forgotten, that all the principles on which the great fabric of national independence confessedly rests in Europe, are involved in the decision of this question; and that no one nation can be secure in its separate existence, if all the rest do not concur in disavowing the maxims which were acted upon in the partition of Poland. It is not only mournful to see the scattered and bleeding members of that unhappy state still palpitating and agonising on the spot where it lately stood erect in youthful vigour and beauty; but it is unsafe to breathe the noxious vapours which this melancholy spectacle exhales. The wholesome neighbourhood is poisoned by their diffusion; and every independence within their range sickens, and is endangered by the contagion.

THE RESTORATION OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE TO THE THRONE OF FRANCE.-STATE OF PARTIES.

Napoleon Bonaparte is once more at Paris.

It is not yet twelve months since the surrender of that capital to an army commanded by the greatest sovereigns of Europe, and composed of dwellers in every country, from the Rhine to the Wall of China. The same Prussians, Bavarians, Wirtembergers, etc. who had marched under Napoleon to the attack of Moscow, shared under Alexander the honours of a triumphal entry into Paris. That prediction of Rousseau, that Tartars should be encamped in that city, which was thought, and probably was in him a misanthropical rant, was literally verified. Bashkirs showed the hideous features of the Mongol race in the west, for the first time since the irruption of Attila and his Huns. Bands of Cossacks protected the property, and restored the liberty of the commercial cities of Hamburgh and Amsterdam; and thousands of them were hutted in the most brilliant promenades of the capital of France.

Under these auspices, the Millennium seemed to dawn upon Europe. “The Lion and the Lamb lay down together.' The Emperor of Russia, aided by the counsels of M. Talleyrand, was to restore those hopes of liberty with which the French Revolution had opened, but which had seemed to be for ever blasted by the rage of anarchy, and the oppressions of military despotism. His Imperial Majesty was afflicted, and almost shocked, that the descendant of Hugh Capet should claim the crown of France by heredilary right, or by any title but that which he derived from a constitution framed by Bonaparte's senate, when they were surrounded by Russian bayonets! The most extravagant speculators of Paris employed their authority to repress the enthusiasm of the Imperial Demagogue. The same great monarch became the patron of liberty throughout the world. Indignant at the lukewarmness of Lord Castlereagh in the great cause of the abolition of the slave trade, he made the most strenuous exertions immediately to abolish all traffic in slaves-within the torrid zone. As a Roman emperor had presented a philosopher with a city of Campania, as the subject of an experiment whether Plato's Republic could be realised, so Alexander presented the Pays de Vaud to his deserving and enlightened preceptor, Colonel La Harpe. He could not endure the idea that any district in Switzerland should again fall under the authority of the Republics under which it had flourished for centuries. The Czar of Muscovy exerted all his authority to check the despotism, and to resist the ambition, of the Senate of Bern.

In the mean time, a sort of treaty was huddled up at Paris. It was signed within a month after the occupation of that capital. As might be ex-pected, it stipulated nothing distinctly but the continental frontier of France, and the colonial cessions of England. All that could provoke the public temper in France, or disarm the Government of England, was to be immediately performed. Having thus exasperated one of these countries, and duped the other-while both were substantially laid aside,-the military

Tracts; on the Spirit of Conquest, the Liberty of the Press, Constitutions, and Ministeriał Responsibility. By Benjamin de Constant. A Visit to Paris in 1814. By John Scott.

Notes on a Journey through France. By Moses Birkbeck.-Vol. xxiv. page 505. February,

1815.

Sovereigns adjourned to a more convenient season the partition of that immense booty which they held in their hands. They took care that the Jubilee should not be disturbed by the unavoidable squabbles about the division of the spoil. They appointed a Congress to be held at Vienna, composed nominally of all the parties to the treaties at Paris, of France and England, and even of Spain and Portugal;-but, as all men of common sense originally saw, influenced only by those Powers whose vast armies occupied the territories which were to be the subject of arrangement, and equivalent, and compensation, and indemnity, and of all the other operations designated by the various terms which the ingenious politeness of modern times has substituted instead of robbery. There, when the fit of enthusiasm had subsided, or the mask of magnanimity was thrown off, -when Statesmen were to act, who had hitherto allowed Emperors to talk, the conquerors of Poland and of Finland would revert to the maxims of solid and practical policy. There, it would not be difficult to re-establish the very ancient good understanding between liberal professions and selfish conduct. In theory it would be allowed-in public with a grave face, in private with a compassionate smile-that all nations, great and small, had equal rights. Justice would be owned to be the most excellent of all things. But-those admirable principles,-sublime and sacred as they are,—enforced by law,-consecrated by religion, are unfortunately not applicable to the present corrupt condition of human affairs! They are eternally true and eternally inapplicable. It would indeed be childishness and imbecility, in any single state, to beggar and exhaust herself by their adoption, while all others were growing rich and powerful by their violation. This last argument, the refuge of every practical politician in every desperate case, with which every state is sure to supply every other in abundance, had indeed often been urged by Lord Castlereagh in defence of our late valuable commerce on the coast of Africa; though in his last great stand on that subject, against a visionary administration, it had only influenced the seventeen members of the House of Commons, who formed his glorious minority.

It would have been singular, even if it had remained a mere matter of speculation, that during the feasts of the summer, or the cabals of the winter, none of the rulers of the world appear to have thrown away a thought upon that Terrible Personage who had so lately ceased to be the imperious master of most of them, and the most dreaded enemy of the few who escaped his yoke. It cannot be necessary to remind any of our readers, that, in virtue of a convention executed at Paris on the 10th of April, by the plenipotentiaries of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, on the one part, and Marshal Ney and Caulaincourt on the part of Napoleon, it was stipulated that he should retain the imperial title with the sovereignty of the Island of Elba : -That Maria Louisa should retain the same title, with the Duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, to be inherited by her son:-That all his family should retain the title of Prince :-That about 80,0007. per annum should be settled on him, payable by the French treasury, of which one-half was to be settled on his wife in case of her survival;-and that, in consideration of these conditions, "his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon renounced, for himself, his successors and descendants, as well as for all the members of his family, all right of sovereignty and dominion, as well to the French empire and the kingdom of Italy as over every other country.” These Articles the Allied Powers guaranteed, and engaged that they should

be guaranteed by France. On the part of Great Britain, Lord Castlereagh acceded to this convention, as far as it conferred the sovereignty of Elba and Parma on Napoleon and Maria. But, probably, because Great Britain had never acknowledged either the imperial dignity of Napoleon, or his sovereignty over France, Lord Castlereagh declined to become a party to the treaty, and seems to have sacrificed to that diplomatic punctilio, the advantage of being one of the parties to whom Napoleon renounced the crown of France and Italy, and consequently the direct right of enforcing that fundamental condition, as far as such right arises out of the convention.

When the secret history of the negociations which passed from the 20th of March to the 10th of April is disclosed to our posterity, the motives, if not the reasons, of this singular convention may be understood. At the moment of its publication, all its conditions, but especially the place of his residence, excited universal astonishment. This sentiment was expressed by men of all parties and conditions, from the most celebrated statesmen of England to the porters of Vienna; and the former might have expressed them as openly as the latter did, if they had not been silenced by the most obvious considerations of prudence. The island of Elba appears to have been first (at least publicly) suggested by Marshal Ney. It is said that Bonaparte originally demanded Corfu, which was refused as too valuable a possession, under the Judicrous pretext that his residence there might disturb the tranquillity of Turkey! The island to which he was sent united every property which Bonaparte could have desired for new plans of ambition. Its small size and population disarmed jealousy, and gave it the appearance of a mere retreat. It contained an impregnable fortress, capable of being defended by a handful of faithful soldiers. It was within a few hours' sail of the coast of Italy, even then dreading the yoke of her old masters. Through Italy and Switzerland, communications with the French army might be opened through unsuspected channels; and in the long line of the Alps and the Jura, it was scarcely possible to intercept them. The distance from the coast of France somewhat diminished the facility of watching the port; and he was near enough to Provence for such a sudden enterprise as his situation allowed. If the globe had been searched for that residence in which Napoleon was most dangerous to France, all sagacious searchers must have pointed to Elba. The decision of the majority who took a part in that deliberation, will not astonish those who know them but it is not easy to comprehend the acquiescence of such men as M. Talleyrand and M. Pozzo di Borgo; men certainly of distinguished talents, and familiarly acquainted with the character of Napoleon. Perhaps indeed it may one day appear, that they were both over-ruled. Perhaps in the noise of triumph, and in the eagerness to carry the main point, every contingent danger was overlooked; and in the insolence of victory, a prostrate enemy might be despised. The parade of cheap magnanimity which distinguishes some sovereigns,-the family connexion of others with the deposed Emperor,-the remains of habitual deference from them all to their late master, probably contributed to their acquiescence in the plan which he had suggested, or which he had approved. The anxiety of all to prevent the bloodshed which the prolongation of uncertainty might still produce, was a commendable, and, within certain limits, a reasonable ground of action. It was thought proper, perhaps, to give a decent disguise to the conduct of the Marshal or Marshals who had betrayed him, and a reasonable satisfaction to the scruples of the Marshals, who, though without personal attachment or political connexion, were influenced

by the military virtue of fidelity to him from whom they had accepted command. Forty thousand soldiers, in the neighbourhood of Fontainebleau, and probably thirty more in the provinces on the Loire, still showed symptoms of attachment to their chief; irregular, indeed, and fluctuating, sometimes appearing to be suspended, but at other times seeming to be capable of being kindled into a terrible flame. The dispositions of Soult were more than suspected; and it is now known that he fought the battle of Toulouse with a full knowledge of the changes at Paris. These military fears might, indeed, justify the purchase of Napoleon's abdication at a liberal price. But they do not account for the choice of his residence.

The sudden and apparently complete change in the opinion of the army as well as of the people, which followed the abdication, is a symptom of the character of Frenchmen and of armies, which deserves much more reflection than we can bestow on it, though we shall presently say a few words on the subject. He who, ten months before, had seemed the undisputed sovereign of France, who a week before seemed to retain the enthusiastic affection of the flower of the army, was now conducted by four foreign officers to the place of embarkation-unnoticed during the first part of his journey-and, during the latter part of it, protected by a foreign escort from destruction by the populace of Provence. Every opponent yielded to the Bourbons. Carnot, with the garrison of Antwerp, proclaimed their submission, and exemplified it by the surrender of that fortress,-above all other conquests the object of national pride and policy. Davoust acknowledged the authority of a prince, before whom he was sure to be accused by the people of Hamburgh. Soult, who had rendered himself so odious to the Royal Family, by his insulting proclamations against the Duc d'Angoulême, evinced, by his tardy adhesion, that the torrent was too strong even for him to resist. The restoration of the House of Bourbon had very character of an unanimous national act. Louis XVIII. might also wonder where his enemies had fled, and where his friends had been so long hidden. All seemed to be allegiance, and jubilee, and triumph.

Zealous royalists considered the example of a restoration, and its tendency to strengthen the inviolable Rights of Kings, as more than sufficient to compensate for the concessions to liberty which circumstances had extorted, and from many of which more fortunate circumstances might gradually release the sovereign. The friends of liberty, full of apprehensions and scruples (as they must ever be till they cease to deserve the name), were still delighted with the hope, that some institutions favourable to freedom were to compensate for the evils of the Revolution. All parties vied with each other in demonstrations of joy at this union of legitimacy and liberty, which promised to perpetuate the benefits of that long struggle, and to close its sufferings.

Napoleon appeared to be universally forgotten-except by some English travellers, whose restless and rambling curiosity led them to his retreat. Some idle societies still discussed the question, whether he ought to have fallen by his own hands? as questions of tyrannicide were formerly agitated in the Schools of Declamation at Rome. That numerous class of persons, who are full of candour to the powerful, and of severe justice to the fallen, boasted of their previous insight into his character, and declared that they had always despised him as a mean-spirited coward. Others listened with interest to the account of his own summing up of the arguments for and against suicide a few days before he left Fontainebleau, which he concluded with a de