has been opened, it is necessary, it is urgent upon us to recognise Napoleon II. emperor; but at the same time it is fit that France should know the motives which influenced us in the nomination of the executive commission, and that in composing it of wise and upright men, we intended to form a council of regency."

The promulgation of this act, however just and generous to Napoleon, precluded every hope and possibility of peace with the confederates. They had distinctly and repeatedly declared that they would not treat with Napoleon or his family, and they could not, therefore, enter into arrangements with an executive committee governing in the name of his son. They naturally suspected that the act of abdication was secretly intended to avert the immediate danger, and, by sowing the seeds of dissension among the allies, to prepare the way for the resumption of the throne. Under the pretended government of the son the father would be the sole possessor of the imperial power, and the reasons for war would have continued precisely the same. Conscious of these truths, Fouché was deputed to represent, in the name of the committee, that his continuance in Paris kept alive a dangerous fermentation in the minds of all parties, and that he would best consult his own happiness, and the tranquillity of the city, by removing to some palace at a distance from the metropolis. As Napoleon II. had been now acknowledged, Buonaparte had no longer a pretext of complaint: he consented to retire from the capital, and in compliance with the suggestion of Fouché, issued the following proclamation to the army:

"Soldiers! While obeying the necessity which removes me from the French army, I carry with me the happy certainty that it will justify, by the eminent services which the country expects from it, the praises, which our enemies themselves have not been able to refuse it. "Soldiers! I shall follow your steps though absent. I know all the corps; and not one of them will obtain a single advantage over the enemy, but I shall give it credit for the courage it may have displayed "Both you and I have been calumniated. Men very Men very unfit to appreciate our labours have seen in the marks of attachment

which you have given me, a zeal of which I was the sole object,

"Let your future successes tell them that it was the country, above all things, which you served in obeying me; and that, if I had any share in your affection, I owed it to my ardent love for France, our common mother.

"Soldiers! Some efforts more, and the coalition is dissolved. Napoleon will recognise you by the blows which you are going to strike.

"Save the honour, the independence of the French. Be the same men which I have known you for these last twenty years, and you will be invincible. "NAPOLEON."

(Signed)

After issuing this proclamation, the conduct of Buonaparte became visibly altered. The anxiety of the government, and of the chambers, was singularly contrasted by the extreme indifference of him who had been the origin of all the turmoil and bloodshed, and who continued for some time to travel from the palace of Bourbon Elysée to Malmaison and back again, to give fetes there, and to prepare for a journey, no one could say whither, with as much composure as if the general distraction concerned him as little, or less, than any other temporary sojourner in France. To complete the scene, he sent a message to the chambers, to request copies of two books, which he desired might be placed at his disposal. But the near approach of the allies at length accelerated his departure, and on the 29th of June, when they were within three leagues of the city, he set out for Avesnes.

He

His ministers had secretly provided a swift sailing vessel, in which he might now have fled from Rochefort, and sought refuge on the hospitable shores of America. He displayed the utmost reluctance to depart, but as a pretext for delay, was busily employed in making preparations for his voyage. wrote at the same time to the government, and solicited to be named generalissimo of the army, to defend Paris and save the country. The offer was rejected, and several members of the government were dispatched to urge the necessity of his departure for Rochefort. With all the insolence of vulgar ingratitude, they addressed their former soves

reign in terms of the grossest abuse, and with the most outrageous demeanour. Napoleon replied to their taunts and reproaches with equal vehemence. He accused them of violating their solemn promise to respect his person and interests. "Could this," he exclaimed," be reconciled with their present wish and endeavour to hurry him from the kingdom like a transported felon? Was this the gratitude which they owed, to banish him for ever from his family and friends, and drive him to seek a precarious asylum in a foreign and distant land?" The conference broke up without any amicable result, and the commissioners departed. When the

first emotions of resentment had subsided, and Napoleon had leisure to reflect that his personal safety had been threatened by these unwelcome emissaries, he determined to evade the impending danger, and announced his determination to depart for Rochefort.He then set out with a train of faithful officers and domestics, amounting to forty persons, who had determined to remain the devoted partners of his fortune. Two frigates had by this time been prepared at Rochefort, with which he might be enabled to force his way through the British cruizers, who were already stationed off every port, to watch the motions of the imperial fugitive.

WHILE the capital was disturbed by the tumult and anxiety attending the late convulsions, the scattered fragments of the French army rallied in the environs of Laon and of Rheims, but, weak and discouraged, were incapable of opposing the immediate entrance of the allies into the capital. Grouchy had scarcely begun his retrograde march, after learning the result of the battle of Waterloo, when the Prussians, whom that intelligence had inspired with fresh confidence, turned on their pursuers, and commenced an incessant series of impetuous attacks. The French were thrown into confusion, a dreadful slaughter ensued, the fugitives abandoned some of their artillery, and retired upon Namur. Vandamme remained at that place, while Grouchy continued his retreat. The Prussians pressed closely on their rear, and attempted to enter the gates at the same moment with the enemy. The French,

however, succeeded in barricading the city, and the efforts of the pursuers against it were unavailing till the arrival of Thielman, who had himself been reinforced by numerous detachments from the troops who had been employed in the pursuit of the grand French army. After many impetuous but unsuccessful assaults, they carried the gates, decided the conflict in the streets, and drove the enemy from the place. In the defile between Namur and Dinant, on which the French were retiring, the contest was renewed with aggravated fury; the retreat of the enemy was delayed by the narrowness of the defile, and rendered the fire of the pursuers terribly destructive. Generals Grouchy and Vandamme again united, and entered Rocroi with no more than 25,000 men, haying lost 14,000 in the affair of the 18th, and the subsequent retreat. It was in vain that Soult, who was stationed at Mesieres, endea

voured to rally the fugitives who had been dispersed, till he had formed a junction with Grouchy, at Laon, when he found that the united army amounted to 40,000 men, with a scanty allowance of ammunition and artillery.

On the day after the battle of Waterloo, Blucher circulated the following address to his army :

"Brave officers and soldiers of the army of the Lower Rhine!-You have done great things. Brave companions in arms! You have fought two battles in three days. The first was unfortunate, and yet your courage was not broken.

"You have had to struggle with privations, but you have borne them with fortitude.Immoveable in adverse fortune, after the loss of a bloody battle, you marched with firmness to fight another, relying on the God of battles, and full of confidence in your commanders, as well as of perseverance in your efforts against presumptuous and perjured enemies, intoxicated with their victory.

"It was with these sentiments you advanced to support the brave English, who were maintaining the most arduous contest with unparalleled firmness. But the hour which was to decide this great struggle has struck, and has shewn who was to conquer and to reign in Europe, whether an adventurer, or governments who are the friends of order. The fate of the day was still undecided, when you appeared issuing from the forest which concealed you from the enemy, to attack his rear with that coolness, that firmness, that confidence, which characterises experienced soldiers, resolved to avenge the reverses they had experienced two days before. There, rapid as lightning, you penetrated his already wavering columns. Nothing could stop you in the career of victory. The enemy in his despair turned his artillery upon you; but you poured death into his ranks, and, rushing upon him with resistless fury, you threw his battalions into confusion, scattered them in every direction, and put them to complete rout.

"The enemy found himself obliged to abandon to you several hundreds of cannon; and his army is dissolved. A few days will suffice to annihilate these perjured legions,

who were coming to consummate the slavery and the spoliation of the universe.

"All great commanders have regarded it as impossible immediately to renew the combat with a beaten army: you have proved that this opinion is ill founded; you have proved that resolute warriors may be vanquished, but that their valour is not shaken.

"Receive, then, my thanks, incomparable soldiers !-objects of all my esteem! You have acquired a great reputation. The annals of Europe will eternize your triumphs. It is on you, immoveable columns of the Prussian monarchy! that the destinies of the king, and his august house, will for ever repose. Never will Prussia cease to exist, while your sons and your grandsons resemble you. (Signed)

"BLUCHER."

AUSTRIAN PROCLAMATION.

Frenchmen!-Twenty years of trouble and misfortunes had oppressed Europe.One man's insatiable thirst of dominion and conquest, while depopulating and ruining France, had desolated the remotest countries; and the world saw, with astonishment, the disasters of the middle ages, reproduced in an enlightened age.

All Europe rose. One cry of indignation served to rally all nations.

It depended on the allied powers, in 1814, to exercise upon France a just vengeance, which she had but too much provoked; but great monarchs, united for an only and sacred cause the re-establishment of peace in Europe-knew how to distinguish between the promoter of so many evils and the people whom he had made use of to oppress the world.

The allied sovereigns declared, under the walls of Paris, that they could never make either peace or truce with Napoleon Buonaparte. The capital rose against the oppressor of Europe. France, by a spontaneous movement, rallied itself to the principles which were to restore and to guarantee her liberty and peace.

The allied armies entered Paris as friends. So many years of misfortunes, the spoliation of so many countries, the death of millions of brave men, who fell on the field of battle,

or victims of the scourges inseparable from war, all was buried in oblivion.

Buonaparte solemnly abdicated a power which he had exercised but for the misfortunes of the world. Europe had from that time no enemy more to combat.

Napoleon Buonaparte has re-appeared in France; he has found all Europe in arms against him.

Frenchmen!-It is for you to decide on peace or war. Europe desires peace with France it makes war only upon the usurper of the French throne. France, by admitting Napoleon Buonaparte, has overthrown the first basis on which its relations with other powers were built.

Europe does not wish to encroach on the rights of any nation, but she will never allow France, under a chief but lately proscribed by herself, again to threaten the repose of its neighbours.

Europe desires to enjoy the first benefit of peace; it desires to disarm, and it cannot do this as long as Napoleon Buonaparte is on the throne of France. Europe, in short, desires peace, and because it desires it, will never negociate with him whom it regards as a perpetual obstacle to peace.

Already, in the plains of Brabant, Heaven has confounded this criminal enterprise.-The allied armies are going to pass the frontiers of France; they will protect the peaceable citizens-they will combat the soldiers of Buonaparte-they will treat as friends the provinces which shall declare against himand they will know no other enemies than those who shall support his cause. .Field-marshal Prince SCHWARTZENBERG. Head-quarters at Heidelberg,

June 23, 1815.

AUSTRIAN ORDER OF THE DAY.

Carlsrhue, head-quarters, June 24. Soldiers of the Austrian army of the Rhine! -Napoleon, whose ambitious plans, and lust of conquest, armed all Europe against him, was conquered by you and your allies. Returning from the exile into which the generosity of the victors had sent him, he again attacks the repose, the welfare, the peace, the security of all states; provokes, by his guilty arrogance, the armies of united Eu

rope to combat for the inviolability of their frontiers, the honour of their country, the happiness of their fellow-citizens-these most sacred of all possessions, which this man, to whom nothing is sacred, and who has become the scourge of humanity, has been attacking and endeavouring to destroy for so many years. Thus, brave soldiers of the Austrian army, a new and vast career of glory is opened to you. I know that you will distinguish it by new victories, and that your new deeds in arms will render still more dear to me the

proud satisfaction of calling myself your general. It is as honourable to you as agreeable to me, that I have only to recal the remembrance of your ancient exploits to animate you to new ones. The victories of Culm, Leipsic, Brienne, and Paris, are so many illustrious garlands that crown your standards: continue worthy of your glory by combating, as you did formerly, and by adding fresh laurels to those you have already gained.

Great things have been already performed: your brethren in Italy have, with their arms, opened themselves a way into the heart of the enemy's country, and their victorious banners wave in the capital of the kingdom of Naples. Those in Flanders gained, on the 18th instant, one of the most memorable victories recorded in history. Those victorious armies have their eyes fixed upon you, and summon you to similar exploits. Let the recollection of what you have been on so many a hard-fought day-let the feeling of what you owe to yourselves animate you to become constantly more worthy of your ancient glory, by embarking for your emperor, your honour, and your country.

SCHWARTZENBERG, Field-marshal.

BAVARIAN ORDER OF THE DAY.

Soldiers! In three days you have marched from the Rhine, in hopes of contributing to the operations of the allied armies in the Netherlands. These victorious armies have anticipated you. A great and decisive victory crowned their efforts in the battle of the 18th. It is now for us, and the allied armies on the Upper Rhine, to annihilate the enemy's corps which oppose us. Soldiers! tomorrow we attack the enemy; march against U u

him with courage and perseverance. His royal highness our Crown Prince is among us; his royal highness, his younger brother, is with the van-guard. The Crown Prince will be witness to your actions. Honour and protect the property of the peaceable French inhabitants; it is not upon them that we make war: it is against Napoleon and his adherents that our swords are drawn.

Come on, then, against him and them! Come on, then, for king and country, for our allies, and for Germany!

Given at our head-quarters, at Hoinburg, June 22, 1815. (Signed) Prince WREDE, Field-marshal..

BAVARIAN PROCLAMATION.

Frenchmen! The manner in which we yesterday entered your country, may prove to you that we are not the enemies of the peaceable inhabitants. I have pardoned even such of your fellow-countrymen as have been taken with arms in their hands, and also might have been deservedly shot as banditti. But, considering that these armed ruffians, who scour the country, under the name of free corps, to plunder their fellowcitizens, are a scourge which Buonaparte has brought upon France, which has been already made sufficiently unhappy by the unbounded ambition of this enemy of the repose and happiness of the world,-I command,

I. That every one who belongs to these free corps, or is taken with arms in his hands, without belonging to the troops of the line, and wearing their uniform, shall be brought before a court-martial, and shot in twenty-four hours.

II. That every town or commune, in which any of the allies shall be murdered, shall be punished; for the first offence, the town with a contribution of 200,000 francs, and the village one of 50,000. On a repetition of the offence, the town, or village, shall be plundered and burnt.

III. Within twenty-four hours after the entrance of the allied armies, every town, or commune, shall deliver up its arms and military effects at the chief place of the prefecture, or subprefecture.

allied troops, arms or military effects shall be found, shall pay a contribution, the town of 200,000, the village of 50,000 francs. The house of the owner of these arms shall be plundered and pulled down, and the owner brought before a court-martial, and shot in: twenty-four hours. If the owner of the arms should have absconded, his family, or the mayor, or the principal inhabitants, shall, be punished in a military manner, as protectors of highwaymen.

Frenchmen! make yourselves easy. Our victorious armies will not disturb the repose of the peaceable citizen. Europe has taken up arms again only to conquer, for itself and for you, the peace and the happiness of which a single usurper threatens to rob it for the second time.

Given at my head-quarters, at Sargemines, 24th June, 1815.

Field-marshal Prince WRede.

From Beaumont the Prussians advanced to Avesnes, occupied the town by escalade, and captured 45 pieces of cannon. The event was announced by Blucher, in a letter which accompanied the escort of the prisoners of war, and which sufficiently indicates the principle of revengeful retaliation on which hostilities were now conducted. "As for the prisoners," says he, "the officers are to be marched to Wesep, and strictly guarded in the citadel. The soldiers are destined for Cologne, that they may be employed in working on the fortifications. All are to be treated with the necessary severity." From Avesnes Blucher proceeded towards La Fere and Laon, on the direct road to Paris, and, detaching a corps to his right, took possession of St. Quintin, which had been evacuated by the enemy. During the 19th the army of the duke of Wellington reposed at Waterloo, from the fatigues of their victorious struggle, and on the next day were moved forward to Binche, a distance of 30 miles. From this place he issued the following proclamations, of which the assurances were as punctually observed as they were honourable to his humanity :

ORDER OF THE DAY.

June 20, 1815.