trate nations and trembling millions, they soon became tired of the comparative state of obscurity and insignificance to which peace, and the return of France to a state of social order, had reduced them. From a mistaken lenity and gross impolicy, almost every one of these men were retained in power; and had, thereby, complete opportunity afforded them to sap the foundations of that government, whose cause they had previously embraced, apparently with such ardour, and which they had openly and readily sworn to support. This latter circumstance, however, with them had no weight. They were bred in the Revolutionary, and had been too long trained in the still more unprincipled Napoleonic school, from whence nothing, either good or honourable, ever came. Thus educated, no reflecting mind ever could expect that they would pay any regard to the government of the king; or, indeed, to any other that did not give full scope to their restless spirits, and their insatiable love of personal aggrandisement, honour and wealth; at least what they conceived were honours, by whatever means these could be attained. Foremost in the list of those were, Massena, Ney, Davoust, Suchet, Jourdan, Vandamme, with the infamous Excellmans, Lallemands, and Lefebres, to whom honour and probity were altogether unknown. In the civil departments of government, were to be found, if possible, a still more profligate and mischievous crew; children of Crime, whose wealth and whose honours had been gained by the application of the guillotine, and a total perversion of the reason and judgment of man. Foremost in the ranks of this diabolical band was, Carnot, Fouche, Cambaceres, Merlin, Thibadeau, Savary, and a long list of names which recal to the mind of the observer, the bloodiest period of republican frenzy and criminal equality. Peace, to such men, was a state of the most dreadful punishment. Their minds, unoccupied by the only pursuits they had ever followed, in their moments of retirement from the world returned within themselves, and stung them with the bitterest stings of guilt, and filled them with anguish and dismay. War and confusion were the only elements in which such restless spirits could find comfort, or in which they could endure to live. Whoever, therefore, was most likely to restore them to their former employments, hi they were ready and willing to obey. The arrogant and impetuous temper of the French nation never allowed them to reflect, how easy they had escaped the consequences of a contest, provoked by their wild deeds and insatiable ambition; and which, during a quarter of a century, had been earried on for no object but their aggrandizement--and proceeding from no cause whatever that had justice for its guide. She, whose atrocions conduct had provoked the indignation of millions-she, who in the days of prosperity had trampled upon them without mercy, now escaped without punishment. She came out of the contest equally strong, in point of territory, as when she entered it; for the addition of countries, containing a population of 700,000 souls to her European dominions, may be fairly estimated as equal to the Colonial possessions and advantages which she had lost by the arms of Europe; and which previously, indeed, her mad military system had, by neglecting, almost totally destroyed. France, besides, in the eyes of the present generation, had suffered nothing from war. The horrors of the Revolutionary internal wars were, in a great measure, forgotten by a people whose memories, with regard to such events, are not of the most retentive kind. The desolation which these had occasioned were in a great measure removed; because the wealth of bleeding Europe had enabled them to replace the loss sustained by France, during these tremendous periods of desolation and blood. For nearly 20 years, her immense military establishment, generally speaking, cost France nothing. Her armies, according to the fundamental law of the state, subsisted upon those countries for whose population they were forging chains. During the campaign of 1814, though their capital was occupied by an hostile force, and half their territories by the armies of their foes, still they felt little or none of the miseries of war; at least, none that, by their consequences, were equal to form any lasting impression upon their volatile minds. The strict discipline observed by the invading armies of the allies, enabled France to escape all those terrific scenes of "lamentation, mourning, and woe," inflicted on Eur ope by her army. The principal loss which France at this time. suffered from the progress of the war, was occasioned by the lawless disposition of those who called themselves their defenders; for any loss that they otherwise sustained was more than made up, by the immense sums of money brought into France by the allied armies, where it was all expended; thereby, enriching those who had covered every country in Europe with poverty and mourning. The vast influx of foreigners, particularly British, all eager to see a people who had so long been the terror of the world, as also to view the vast assemblage of the monuments of art, which their unprincipled rapacity had taken away from every country in continental Europe, brought vast wealth to Paris, that grand centre of iniquity, where they trafficked not only in gold and silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, silk, and scarlet, with every other luxury and riches, but in the bodies and the souls of men."* All these things tended to keep alive that national vanity which had so long annoyed Europe, and made them wholly forget that they were a conquered people, and that the armies which beat them to the ground were still ready, equally able and as, willing, to perform that service again. France, though conquered, was still a powerful and even a wealthy country; but then, her wealth was so situated, that whatever part of it was expended in wars, could no longer be replaced. The mad ambition of her former government had wholly destroyed all internal industry, or foreign commerce; from which sources alone, a nation can derive the wealth necessary to replace the waste of external war; unless they are inclined, and are able to adopt the same plan which France had long done; namely, to take it by force from their industrious neighbours. For this, France still held the same will; but, fortunately, she no longer possessed the same power. Strong as she was, the strength of Europe was still proportionally stronger; and left them no room to hope for a repetition of their robbery on the continent, and of pinioning the nations thereof in their chains. In an evil hour, however, • Revelations. for herself, France thought otherwise. She believed that' treason had occasioned her fall; and that "destiny," which she once had under the controul of her Emperor, had only been let loose from her chains by the former means. She conceived, that by the return of her myriads of prisoners from the different corners of Europe, she would be able, effectually, to put down what she was pleased to call treason; and to bind destiny, or fate, to her chariot wheels again. She calculated, as did all her friends, among whom were the discontented in every country, upon the disunion of that formidable confederacy which had overthrown her military despotism. Her arts were busily employed to sow distrust among them. But though each had, no doubt, his individual interests. to attend to in the Congress at Vienna, and which might not altogether square with his neighbour's ideas, still but one sentiment animated the whole, when French audacity and ambition endeavoured, in any shape, to thrust forward their ferocious countenances. Nevertheless, the whole efforts of the French press, that polluted fountain of perjury, irreligion, and treason, was directed with unceasing and insidious aim to accomplish their nefarious designs. By dint of desperate assertions, deep insinuations, and odious falsehoods, which had long been their avocations, and at which the conductors of the Parisian press aro certainly great adepts, they endeavoured to re-establish themselves in the good opinion of mankind, which, as a nation, they had so justly lost. By appearing to defend the cause of the weak against the strong, they endeavoured to regain that empire over the public mind in Europe, which their arms could no longer control. But these interests, for which they affected so readily and disinterestedly to stand forward the champions and defenders, it was obvious to the careful observer, were defended no further than it suited the dark designs and ambitious views of French politics. Yet, strange to say, they succeeded in their object to a great degree. By many it was believed, that national morality and justice was to be learned in Paris, and no where else in continental Europe-nay, that honour and truth was more attended to, in all her public conduct, by France, than by Great Britain. So echoed the supporters of French princi ples on both sides of the channel; but, fortunately, the body of the European commonwealth remained uncontaminated by such deceitful principles, and refused to be imposed upon by such specious pretences, and miserable shifts. French finesse, and war of words, could no longer succeed in deceiving, in order to enslave Europe. The king, in an unguarded moment, and long before that revolution took place, which seated him on his throne, had, in a proclamation which he had addressed to the French nation, promised them the redress of several grievances, and the removal of the most oppressive taxes, particularly that tax named the droits reuines. But, he was no sooner come to his throne, than he found the wants of the State so pressing, from the profligate expenditure of the former Government, that he perceived it would be impossible to gratify the wishes of the people, in this respect, for some time. This circumstance was eagerly laid hold of by his enemies, in order to irritate the public mind against him; while they must have been conscious, that it was their blame, not his, that he was unable at this time to perform his promise. The greatest retrenchments, were made in the public expenditure, and economy observed in the application of the remainder. Yet here again, the king made numerous and dangerous enemies. The disbanded troops, who neither had employment, nor if they had, would they have condescended to work, murmured against him. The whole host of Douaniers, army contractors, and other beings of that tribe, thrown out of employment by these retrenchments, and the return of peace, eagerly sighed for the return of the golden days of Napoleon, under whom their avarice had full scope. All these men and their numerous dependants, were the mortal enemies of the Bourbons. The king was accused of having violated his promises to the nation, but that was only said by his enemies; and even then, it was mere assertion, without any facts being brought forward to support them. Whatever errors he was guilty of, and it would have been strange if he had committed none, it is certain, that none of them proceeded from an evil intention, or had a dangerous aim in view. The greatest error which he committed, seems to have been in the |