by their troops, who crossed the mountain frontier without CHAP. resistance, as there was no French force in that quarter XII. capable of keeping the field. An animated proclamation 1813. was published by Schwartzenberg on entering the French Thiers, territory, and this was soon after followed by Marshal xvii. 141Blucher, at midnight on 31st December, commencing the Koch, i. passage of the Rhine, by means of three bridges thrown Dan. 20, 21. across at Coblentz, Manheim, and Mayence.1* 143; 74, 82; 30. subsidies Lord Castle Great Brit Allied To meet the expenses of the gigantic war along the whole course of the Rhine, in Italy, and on the Pyrenees, Immense which was approaching to its final struggle, large external granted by assistance was absolutely required by all the Allied powers; reagh on for the resources of their own dominions were altogether behalf of incapable of furnishing the requisite supplies for the car-ain to the rying on of a contest on so vast a scale and so far from powers. home. Fortunately, here the credit and pecuniary resources of Great Britain were interposed with great and, as it turned out, decisive effect. The monetary system so wisely established by Mr Pitt in 1797, which had rendered the industry and credit of the nation independent of the retention of gold, and caused its resources to multiply almost in a miraculous manner in the latter years of the war, now sustained the whole energy and strength of the empire. Lord Castlereagh, who had now acquired the entire direction of the British Government, proposed in the Cabinet, who unanimously adopted the * "Français ! La victoire a conduit les armées alliées sur votre frontière ; elles vont la franchir. Nous ne faisons pas la guerre à la France; mais nous repoussons loin de nous le joug que votre Gouvernement voulait imposer à nos pays, qui ont les mêmes droits à l'indépendance et au bonheur que le vôtre. Magistrats, propriétaires, cultivateurs, restez chez vous: le maintien de l'ordre public, le respect pour les propriétés particulières, la discipline la plus sévère, marqueront le passage des armées alliées. Elles ne sont animées de nul esprit de vengeance; elles ne veulent point rendre les maux sans nombre dont la France depuis vingt ans a accablé ses voisins et les contrées les plus éloignées. D'autres principes et d'autres vues que celles qui ont conduit vos armées chez nous, président aux conseils des monarques alliés. Leur gloire sera d'avoir amené la fin la plus prompte des malheurs de l'Europe. La seule conquête qu'ils envient est celle de la paix pour la France, et pour l'Europe entière un véritable état de repos. Nous espérions le trouver avant de toucher au territoire Français ; nous allons l'y chercher."-THIERS, xvii. 142. VOL. II. Р XII. 1813. CHAP. proposal, subsidies on the most liberal scale to the foreign powers. It was no exaggeration, but a literal fact, that all the armies of the Continent were now arrayed in British pay against France. The subsidies to foreign powers in this year amounted to £10,000,000 sterling, besides £8,000,000 advanced to Ireland; "an astonishing effort," as Lord Castlereagh justly observed, "for a nation which had at the same time 153,000 men in arms in its own dominions, and was sustaining an expenditure which this year reached £117,000,000. The cost of the army in this year is £33,000,000, besides £4,500,000 for the ordnance; of the navy £22,000,000; and the interest of the National Debt, with the sinking 1 Lord Cas- fund, is £43,000,000."1 By such stupendous and almost incredible efforts was the war sustained by Great Britain. 1813, in its later stages; and in the ability to make them in Parl. Deb the twentieth year of its endurance, is to be found the direct consequence of Mr Pitt's admirable system of paper currency established in 1797, and of the vigorous stand made by Lord Castlereagh against the fatal deviation from it, so nearly forced upon the nation by the Bullion Committee in 1810. tlereagh's speech, Nov. 11, xxvii.86,87. 31. measures to army, and before the invaders. When the invasion was once fairly commenced, the Napoleon's energy and vigour of Napoleon appeared in the most recruit his striking colours; and on no previous occasion had his his retreat military genius shone forth with such lustre. Orders were despatched to the marshals in command on the frontier, Marshal Marmont at Mayence, Marshal Victor at Strasbourg, and Marshal Macdonald at Coblentz, to evacuate the fortresses they occupied on the Rhine; and leaving only the smallest garrisons capable of guarding the walls, to take the field with every disposable sabre and bayonet. To reinforce their feeble corps, the most active and energetic means were taken to push forward every conscript who could bear arms to the marshals' headquarters, and punishments the most rigorous inflicted on all such as were refractory, or endeavoured to CHAP. evade the service. After every exertion had been made, however, and means of coercion exhausted to force on the conscripts, the numbers mustered fell miserably short of 1813. what had been anticipated; and they, such as they were, underwent a serious diminution during the march from their respective depôts to the scene of action. Instead of 480,000 who were reckoned on, not more than 110,000 joined the depôts, and they were wasted away to 100,000 before they reached the frontier. Fifteen thousand conscripts, in addition, were by the utmost efforts poured into the battalions of the Guard, and 25,000 into the depôts concentrated in Paris; but these reinforcements were far from meeting the imminence and magnitude of the danger. To supply the deficiencies, the Emperor made the greatest exertions to augment the cavalry, by offering the highest ready-money prices for horses at the depôt at Versailles, and organised a really formidable corps of artillery at Vincennes. As a last resource, he at length, with infinite reluctance, sent orders to Soult and Suchet instantly to forward 25,000 of their best troops to Paris and Lyons, and to be prepared, at the shortest notice, to follow with their whole forces for the defence of the capital. Yet, with all these efforts, the whole which the mighty conqueror, who had led 650,000 men into Russia, 500,000 into Spain, and 400,000 into Germany, could collect for the defence of France, was 60,000 men between Epinal and Langres, 15,000 between Cologne and Namur, 25,000 in the depôts at Paris, and as many coming up from the Spanish frontier. If to these are added 15,000, with difficulty assembled by Augereau at Lyons, 50,000 remaining to Soult and Suchet in the south, and 40,000 under Eugene in Italy, the whole force is enumerated on which the Emperor could rely to defend his dominions, against at least 300,000 effective men, threatening to invade them from the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. The Emperor's orders to the commanders of these scanty corps CHAP. XII. 1813. 1 Thiers, xvii. 144155; Koch, i. 47-49. 32. the Legislat Paris, and were, to retire slowly by converging lines towards Paris, and to dispute every defensible position without hazarding a general affair, so as to retard the advance of the enemy as much as possible. His hope, as it had been at Dresden, was, that by the direction to one point thus given to the retreating columns, they would at length, when concentrated, or in communication near Paris, place at his disposal such a mass of combatants in a central position, as would enable him to take advantage of any fault committed by his adversaries, and strike decisive blows against their detached columns, drawing together from opposite quarters, and a much wider circumference.1 But while the Emperor was making these vast efforts Meeting of for the defence of his dominions, and adopting, with so ive Body at much wisdom and sagacity, the only plans which promised its disaffect him a chance of success against the immense superiority ed feelings. of forces by which he was assailed, a formidable conspiracy was forming in his rear, and the angry feelings of the people, excited to the highest degree by the public calamities, were breaking down all the barriers of despotism by which they had hitherto been restrained, and like a mighty torrent threatened to sweep away the whole fabric of the Imperial Government. The Legislative Body, the meeting of which had been adjourned as long as possible by Napoleon, at length stood summoned for the 28th December, and its meeting could not by possibility be longer delayed, as many of the acts of Government, during the two months that he had conducted it entirely of his own authority, in particular all the heavy taxes imposed and in course of collection, absolutely required legislative sanction. It met, accordingly, on the 28th, but the Emperor was far from anticipating the almost unanimous burst of patriotic feeling and indignation which exploded as soon as it assembled. The feelings of the people, which were worked up almost to frenzy by the public and private calamities in which they had been involved, burst forth with inextinguishable fury, now that XII. 1813. they had got a legitimate channel for their expression. CHAP. The deputies arrived in Paris from all parts of France, animated with the strongest feelings against the Government, to which their misfortunes had been owing, and entertaining even exaggerated ideas of the extent to which they had gone, and the inevitable ruin which awaited the country if they were not speedily arrested. The vexatious conduct of the prefects, in carrying into execution the peremptory orders of the Emperor for levying the additional taxes, and the cruel manner in which the conscripts had been torn from their homes to supply the frightful chasms of pestilence and war, had excited universal indignation. There was not a family in France that had not suffered, in the bitterest manner, from these evils; and their magnitude was, if possible, exaggerated by the pains which had been taken to insure the suppression of any mention of them. Suppressed rumour, as usual, outstripped the truth, and was made up of mingled truth and falsehood. "Nec minus falsi tenax quam nuntia veri." The Duc de Massa, once an upright and honourable magistrate, but grown old and infirm, was the president of this highly excited and refractory body, and little calculated either to calm its transports or moderate its excesses; and the ministerial majority which hitherto had Thiers, ruled the chamber, was dissolved and overwhelmed by the 161. surges of indignation from every part of the assembly.1 Napoleon opened the meeting in person, in one of those eloquent and sonorous discourses, which, in the days of his prosperity, had so often thrilled the hearts of the world with admiration.* He promised to lay before them the documents relative to the Frankfort negotia "Sénateurs, conseillers d'Etat, députés des départements au corps légis latif, vous êtes les organes naturels de ce trône: c'est à vous de donner l'exemple d'une énergie qui recommande notre génération aux générations futures. Qu'elles ne disent pas de nous: Ils ont sacrifié les premiers intérêts du pays! xvii. 155 |