sacred struggle for the happiness of our people.
France is glad to proclaim with frankness this noble
end of all its wishes. Jealons of its independence,
the invariable principle of its policy will be the
most absolute respect for the independence of
other nations: if such, as I have a happy confi-
dence, shall be the personal sentiments of your
Majesty, the general tranquillity is secured for a
long time; and justice, seated on the confines of
different states, will alone suffice to guard their
frontiers. I seize with eagerness, &c. &c."
"Paris, April 4.” (Signed) "NAPOLEON."

THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

his Inperial Majesty. The most profound tran quillity reigns throughout the whole extent of the empire. Every where the same cry is heard; never did a nation present the spectacle of more com plete unanimity in the expression of its happiness and joy. This great change has been only the work of a few days. It is the finest triumph of the confidence of a monarch in the love of his people; it is at the same time the most extraordinary act of the will of a nation which knows its fights and its true duties. The functions entrusted to you by the royal goverment have terminated; and I am about to take, without delay, the orders of his Majesty the Emperor, in order to accredit a new legation. You must immediately, Sir, assume the tri-coloured cockzde and cause it to be taken by the Frenchmen who are about you. If, at the moment of quit-ever gave rise to so much speculation, or ting the Court where you reside, you have oc. casion to see the Minister for Foreign Affairs, you will inform him that the Emperor has no thing more at heart than the maintenance of peace: that his Majesty has renounced the plans of greatness which he might have anteriorly formed; and that the system of his Cabinet, as well as the whole of the direction of affairs in France, is upon a totally different principle. I cannot doubi, Sir, that you will consider it as a duty to make known to the Frenchmen about yon, the new situation of France, and that in which, according to our laws, they find themselves placed. (Signed)

CAULAINCOURT, Duke of

Vicenza.

LETTER, (THE ORIGINAL IN THE HAND-
WRITING OF NAPOLEON), ADDRESSED TO

ALL THE SOVEREIGNS OF EUROPE.

Sir, my Brother! You will have learned in the course of the last month my return on the shores of France, my entrance into Paris, and the departure of the family of the Bourbons. The 45ue nature of these events must now be known to your Majesty.They are the work of an irresistable power, the work of the unanimous will of a great nation, which knows its duties and its rights. The dynasty, which force had imposed on the French people, was no longer made for it; the Bour bons would not accord with its sentiments or its manners: France has separated itself from The ex pectation which decided me to make the greatest of sacrifices was disappointed. I came, and from the point where I touched the shore the love of my people carried me even to the bosom of my capital. The first duty of my heart is to repay so much affection by the maintenance of ahonourable tranquillity. The re-establishment of the Imperial Throne was necessary for the happiness of Frenchmen. My dearest thought, is, at the same time, to make it useful to the securing of the repose of Europe. Suf ficient glory has adorned by turns the flags of different nations. The vicissitudes of fortune have caused sufficient great reverses to succeed to great successes. A finer field is now open for sovereigns, and I am the first to enter it. After having presented to the world the spectacle of great combats, it will be more delightful in future, to know no other rivalry except that of the advantages of peace, no other struggle except the

them. Its voice called for a deliverer. The ex

No event, in the history of the world,

so great a diversity of opinion as the event of Napoleon's abdication of the thrones of France and Italy. Those who had all along been hostile towards him; those who abused him when he was fighting under the banners of republicanism; those who called him all sorts of names when, as First Consul, he led the French armies to victory; those who calumniated him because he defeated the enemies of France even after he assumed the title and dignity of an Emperor; those, in short, who, from first to last, have hated and detested this extraordinary man, and who took every Opportunity to shew their rancour and malice against him. All this tribe of vipers, who have always been, and still are, very numerous, were forward in maintaining that Napoleon resigned his crown and consented to retire to Elba, because he had been defeated by the Allies; because his marshals and his had deserted army him; and because he had for ever lost the affections of the people of France, in consequence of his alledged tyranny and oppression.-Nothing appeared so clear to these sagacious politicians, nothing so certain, at the time, as that Napoleon owed his misfortunes to these causes, and that it was impossible he could ever recover his fallen fortunes. Had the statements' which these men set forth been true, it is unquestionable that their conclusions Would have been just; but as these state, ments were altogether the result of malice, as they were from the beginning, and all through, dictated by a hatred of liberty, and of every man who gave it support, their conclusions have proved as fallacious as the premises upon which they were founded.-It was with a partial and prejudiced eye they viewed the conduct of Napoleon, in whatever situation he was,

whelming torrent of malignity, of prejudice, of malice, and of misrepresentation. I denied that Napoleon had ever been defeated in the field. He, no doubt, found it necessary to retreat after the battle of Leipsic. But this, confessedly, was occasioned by the defection of his Allies, who went over to the Confederates in the heat of the engagement. Even the treason which led to this disaster did not prevent Napoleon carrying off the greater part of his faithful troops, a circumstance which could not have happened had he suffered a defeat. During the six weeks he resisted, with a handful of men, the whole combined forces of Europe, in their attempts to reach Paris, he was on all occasions successful when he could bring his opponents to face him in battle. The astonishing skill, and undaunted bravery.

It

placed. It was impossible, therefore, they could be correct either as to his motives of action or the consequences likely to result from the step which he took. It is pretty certain also that the abdication of Napoleon was an event which his enemies little expected. They could not conceive how a man that had been so long accustomed to dispose of crowns at pleasure, could so far become the master of himself; could so readily subdue, what they called, his inordinate ambition, could bring his mind so easily to abandon the splendour, the dignity, the glory that is supposed, by its votaries, to accompany royalty. They had no conception, no idea that Napoleon, the haughty, the despotic Napoleon, the slave of every vile and despicable passion, was capable of conquering himself, and of voluntarily relinquishing empire over a nation so pow-which he displayed in that campaign, with erful and so celebrated as that of France. so fearful an odds against him, would have Therefore these vile detractors of his been sufficient to immortalize his name as fame, confounded at the unexpected event, a warrior, had he done nothing else to inhad determined never to give him credit sure the suffrages of posterity. It was in for any one act of his life; those hired ca- this light I viewed him at the time. lumniators resolved, the moment they had was in language similar to this that I conin some measure recovered from their stu veyed my ideas of his astonishing exploits; por, to give Napoleon no quarter. He and when at last he was forced to give up was a coward, a paltroon, a contemptible the contest, I hesitated not to attribute fellow. A thousand anecdotes were in- this to treason, to foul and premeditated vented, to shew that he had resigned his treason, on the part of those in whom he crown merely to insure his personal safety; had placed implicit confidence. Still it that he had preferred a secure retreat to was in his power, I remarked, to prolong the welfare of his old and faithful ad- hostilities, even after the Allies got posherents; and that, when the means of session of the capital. He had, I stated, a wiping off the disgrace, which this shame- considerable force under his immediate ful conduct entailed upon him; when he command, which, with the troops occupywas urged by his nearest and dearest ing the garrisons, and acting in other parts friends to imitate the example of the an- of France, would have formed an army, cient Roman heroes, and to close his ca- wholly attached to his person, sufficiently reer by what they ironically denominated, formidable to make head against the ina deed worthy of his great name, he cow- vaders. With this force, I observed, it ardly rejected the proposal, shrunk from was in his power to render a contest for the appearance of death, which he had so the government of the country a matter at often braved in a thousand forms, and least of considerable doubt, had he not sought a hiding place, from the scrutiny preferred the tranquillity and the prosand contempt of honourable minds, on a perity of France to his own individual barren and inaccessible rock in the Ocean. rights. The Allied Powers had declared -Thus it was that the haters of Napo- that they would not enter upon terms with leon explained his motives of action; thus Napoleon, or any of his family. This it was that they scrutinized his conduct.was making it a personal quarrel, which The reader who was accustomed at that would have led immediately to a civil war period to attend to the remarks which I in France. To avoid this, I said, Napooffered on this subject, will not fail to re- leon readily abandoned all his pretentions collect that I ventured, notwithstanding to the crown, agreed to accept a pension the almost universally prevailing clamour for himself and house, and to become an against Napoleon, to oppose this over-exile, in order to give the nation an oppor

tunity of choosing another ruler. I also | Napoleon in the light of a defeated or a remarked, that the conditions of the treaty degraded Monarch, with whom no chances of Fontainbleau was such, as clearly of recovery remained. On the contrary, shewed that the Allies still considered it is plainly admitted, that the advantagehim a formidable personage, whom it was ous terms which he obtained, were the desirable to get rid of almost upon any consequence of his being then too formida, terms; that, instead of having been dictated ble to temporize with, and too much the to, Napoleon had proposed the articles idol of the army to think of prescribing of the treaty, which the Allies considered any other conditions to him than what, in it prudent to accept, rather than risk a re- the circumstances, were honourable and newal of the contest with a man who had just. The particular acts of treason, so often made them feel the fatal effects of which paralized the efforts of Napoleon, opposing his measures. In fact, had not have also been distinctly admitted by those Napoleon obtained a victory over himself; who formerly denied them. All this, I had he not preferred the happiness of am aware, has not resulted from a desire France to his own immediate interest, a to do justice to that great character. He struggle for authority might have com- never would, I am satisfied, have been able menced, more fatal to the country than all to draw from his enemies an acknowledgshe had endured in the course of the revo- ment of the truth, had they not found this lution. With these views it might have acknowledgment necessary to their own been easy for me to have predicted the re-justification. But in whatever way the turn of Napoleon, had it been safe in the then state of Europe to hint at such an event. But whatever danger there might have been in avowing this opinion, I knew that there was none in being persuaded in my own mind that he would be recalled by the people of France. I never once doubted this, though, I confess, it happened at a period when I least looked for it, and has been attended with consequences more favorable to liberty than my most sanguine expectations had led me to expect. But while the fact of Napoleon's restoration, proves the correctness of my former views as to that particular, it has also brought to light a mass of evidence as to the real causes of his abdication, and the highly favorable terms he obtained from the Allies, which completely lays open the falsehoods of his traducers, and gives to my original speculations on these topics an importance which I scarcely calculated they ever would receive. I had no means of discovering the motives which influenced the Allies, or any part of their deliberations; but, from what has been repeatedly stated by Ministers, in both houses of Parliament,-from official papers laid on the table of the House of Commons-and from the important French documents inserted above, it is perfectly obvious that my remarks at the time of Napoleon's abdication, were as correct as if I had been fully acquainted with the discussions which led to the treaty of Fontainbleau. In fact, it now appears that the Allied Sovereigns neither considered

truth has come out, it is now before the public, and ought to have the effect, at least, of undeceiving them, of opening their eyes to the villainous efforts which are every day making, by a base and corrupted press, to involve us in a new war with France. All that these hirelings said as to the causes of Napoleon's abdication; all the lies they invented to make it be believed, that he was deserted by his army,, and hated by the people; all and every one of these falsehoods and calumnies have now been exposed and refuted, and that by the publication of documents which cannot be controverted, and which always command the highest assent. But sincerely as I wish these facts to produce a corresponding effect, I am much afraid that the attempts again making to mislead the public mind, will counteract every endeavour of mine to dispose them to peaceable pursuits. How, indeed, can it be otherwise, when the mass of the people are so fickle and inconsistent. They cry for war; nothing will satisfy them but interminable war; yet, with the same breath, they grumble and fret against the taxes, without which it is impossible for any set of men to carry on war. They would have Napoleon destroyed; they would have France degraded and partitioned; but although they know that these things cannot even be attempted without money, that new and large loans must be resorted to, that the assessed taxes must be greatly increased to pay the interest of these, and that the Income Tax, that tax which

While hope remains, put forth your manly strength; unite firmness with moderation; convincing argument with eloquence; and continue to demonstrate to the divided world, that Peace is better than War.No period, in the annals of history, affords to the contemplative mind a collection of events so great in magnitude, so extensive in their interests, or so awful in their consequences, as those which at this moment agitate Europe. It is not the concern of a single nation, or the interest of this generation only, but the prosperity and happiness of nations unborn, of ages yet to come, that are involved in the doubtful determination of a few individuals.—What heart, possessed of a single spark of humanity, does not sicken when he views the sanguinary Proclamation issued at VienAre our principles and dispositions to be guided by the hostile spirit it breathes?-Are we to draw our rules of morality and justice from thence?-Does the happiness of society and the world depend on doing evil that good may come?

na?

has already been denominated a "highwayman's tax" by the supporters of the "Social System," is to be renewed with all its terrors. Although they have already felt, and must again feel the pernicious effects of these measures, even should the country continue in a state of peace, they still bawl out for war, for the punishment of the "rebels" in France, for the overthrow of those institutions which have exalted France to so lofty a pinnacle, and for the destruction of that man who has endeared himself to the whole nation, by uniformly protecting these institutions. All this the enemies of France, and of liberty, demand at the hands of ministers, and yet they are so unreasonable as to complain because they are called upon to contribute the means by which alone their wishes are to be accomplished. If we are to have war with France, I am satisfied that neither ten nor fifteen per cent. on income will be sufficient to support it for any length of time. According to present appearances, France will not be very speedily reduced. It will-If ever a public declaration merited take twenty per cent. at least to accomplish this, if ever it is accomplished. Let those then, who cry for war, who cant incessantly about the establishment of the "Social System," and the preservation of our holy religion," look to this.---They are, at this moment, more likely than ever to see the flames of war rekindled in Europe; but while they feel so much gratification in this, let them at least be thankful to those who have been the cause of it. Let those who are active in endeavouring to bring on a war, have all the money they desire. It is by money only that the means of prosecuting the war can be procured. How senseless, how stupid, how inconsistent it is in us to expect war, and not expect that we will be called on to pay for it.

PEACE OR WAR.

Mr. COBBETT,-If ever there was a time when the interests of mankind imperiously called on the advocates of peace to exert their influence, the present is that time. You, Sir, have raised your powerful voice in her defence, in a manner truly honourable to your character, and worthy the approbation of every friend to humanity. Be not weary in well doing.

universal censure, surely this of all others demands it. Are these the specimens of moderation proceeding from the "Deliverers of Europe ?"-What awful consequences may we not expect, if the same spirit is to pervade our councils, and govern our national divisions?-It appears to me, Sir, that this is the momentous period, when the inhabitants of the country should step forward to implore and petition Parliament, to avert the melancholy calamities a new war would inevitably pro duce.-I admit that recent circumstances do not give us much encouragement to believe the voice of the people would be effectually regarded; yet the late unsuccessful attempt is not without important advantages, in as much as it has, in my opinion, done more to convince the bulk of mankind of the absolute necessity of Parliamentary Reform than any single event during a long period of time.—A few more such refusals against the public will, might excite a spirit and an energy in the nation which would command attention.-If the. public feeling is not moved, on the present occasion, to express its disapprobation at threatened hostilities, the administration of the country will be more excusable by resolving on prosecuting a war. Of what real advantage will it be to this nation that the Bourbon family should again re

ascend the throne of France? Has the is disputed, or an opposite principle reformer sway of that House proved so bene- cognised, the nation admit it is already ficial to England? Are we compensated enslaved, and has nothing to expect but for the immense expenditure of treasure, oppression, taxation, and cruelty. Let and the waste of lives it has cost Great the question be dispassionately asked :Britain, in fruitless attempts to re-establish Shall we gain by recommencing hostilithe Bourbons? Is the interest of a single ties against France? Shall we look back foreign family to rise paramount to the in- to the last twenty-five years, and, by this terest of a whole Empire? What can so retrospect, fortify our minds and stimufar infatuate the minds of the enemies of late our desires to a fresh combat? Will peace? Is it the genuine love they bear the millions of money expended, the into Louis, or the real hatred they feel to calculable number of lives lost, the inNapoleon ? Are these causes sufficient creased paupers throughout every city, why the blood of England should again town, village, or hamlet; will these excite flow in torrents? Is the war faction so with ardour the mind to renewed acts of Will the moral sure of success as to leave no fearful doubts desolating slaughter? of accomplishing their wishes? Is Bona- sense be improved, and the best feelings of parte a novice in the art of war, or so humanity advanced? Will our character feeble a politician as to be unable to guide as a nation professing christianity exemthe immense power which 25 millions of plify the charities of that religion we boast? people have placed in his hands? Because Judging from past conduct, we seem to of his former momentary humiliation, a imagine war a necessary good, rather than humiliation ascribed to one rash enter- the greatest evil that can afflict a nation. prise, are we to calculate on a repetition Are we desirous for the revisitation of the of such fortuitous events? Experience, Income Tax, the loss of commerce, and the the best instructor, will correct his impe- depression of public spirit? Such consetuous judgment, and influence him to more quences are inseparable with a state of caution. His situation at this moment, is warfare.-If the contest once begins, who may flatfar different to that in which he stood can say where it will end? We after his return from Russia. Not less ter ourselves it will be of short duration. than 200,000 soldiers, prisoners from va--This delusive hope existed in the comrious nations, have returned to France. mencement of the former war; yet it conNearly the whole, it may fairly be pre- tinued for a quarter of a century. sumed, will gladly rejoin their old idolized England now in equal condition to supCaptain. He has also possession of all the ply the Allies with money. The wealth well fortified places throughout the Empire. of England must flow, otherwise the comThe wonderful enterprize, from Elba to bat will be of short continuance. But why Paris, without the slightest opposition, should England provide for the expences Has she a deeper inmust inspire a military ardour through of other nations? every rank in the army, and diffuse a mar-terest at stake then they have? Or does tial glory over the whole nation.-If any she entertain a greater hate to the power Is not our former useless act can give a just title to a crown, it must of France? be the voice of the people. This voice has prodigality, by which our national debt is been plainly manifested throughout all so so enormously increased, sufficient to Are our public France. Never was there a more unequi- check further subsidies? vocal proof exhibited to the world. The expences never to be economized? Or unanimity of the French people, is the must we run the desperate hazard of unibest pledge of Buonaparte's strength, and versal ruin, which, in my humble opinion, ultimate success. The same principle may be awfully demonstrated in the prethat gave to the House of Brunswick the secution of another war with France ? throne of England, justifies Napoleon's I am, &c. claim to the throne of France. The Sovereign will of the people is the only fountain of legitimate authority. If this right Birmingham, 12th April.

MERCATOR.

Is

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