very little of a "flight;" but a great deal of deliberate contrivance on his part, and of settled connivance on the part of the allies.

Very

much did it resemble the flight of CHARLES the Tenth, in 1830, when his successor, the "citizen king," allowed him to be pretty nearly a month before he sailed from CHERBOURG, and allowed him to bring away cases of effects of various sorts, sufficient to load two merchant-ships of four hundred tons each. One ship-load of which effects I myself saw, ready packed-up, at HOLYROOD House, at EDINBURGH, a little while after the departure of CHARLES, in 1832. There can be no doubt in the mind of any man, who has not a taste for being duped, that the vain NAPOLEON was suffered to escape by connivance, and by the understood convention with the agents of the allies. It is clear that he had brought his soul down to the base degree of being content with permission to live in England unmolested. The whole of his conduct, after going on board the BELLEROPHON, proves this. He was most likely disposed to go to the United States, and was encouraged to believe that that was possible; but, getting to the sea-shore, and seeing the next to impossibility of effecting this, he then sought the other infamous alternative.

245. Having got him clear out of their way; seeing the French people without a head, and knowing that there was a traitor or a spy at

every hundred yards, the gallant conquerors of France marched forwards to PARIS, suffering old LOUIS to come after them, with his "highminded and loyal noblesse," from GHENt. Before we notice the effects which were produced in England by this event, we must first have before us the memorable treaties which were the result of the bringing back of NAPO-. LEON and of the battle of WATERLOO, referring, at the same time, to the "declaration of the allies," issued at VIENNA, and inserted in paragraph 224 of this History. That "declaration" was signed by the plenipotentiaries of France, as well as those of Austria, England, Prussia, Russia, and the rest. The King of France was one of the "high allies;" and, therefore, as it was an undertaking of the allies, it was the undertaking of the King of France as well as of the rest.. It was a common cause of all the parties against NAPOLEON alone. Yet the moment NAPOLEON was gone, the allies entered France as conquerors: they called themselves conquerors; and there was the curious sight for the world to behold; a king, calling himself "Louis the well-beloved," re-entering his dominions to put down the power of an usurper; re-entering it as a king desired and beloved by his people, and as. one of his country's conquerors at the same time! However, as conquerors, the English, the Austrians, the Russians, and the Prussians,

did enter France; and they soon convinced the world that NAPOLEON had not been brought back from ELBA for nothing.

246. It was very soon perceived, that the "Declaration of VIENNA," just referred to, was a mere invention to deceive the world, and that the allies were, at that very moment, meditating the complete re-subjugation of the French people, and the crippling of the French nation for ages. In their march towards PARIS, they treated the people, everywhere, as a conquered and subjugated people. There was scarcely a soldier of the five hundred thousands that crowded into France, except, perhaps, a part of the English army, that had not run away before the French, or owed his life to their clemency. They now exhibited cowardice in its most distinctive character; namely, in insolence and cruelty towards those whom they hated because they had been defeated by them. They now paid off, upon the feeble and unarmed French, the long score of that disgrace which the brave men of that nation had compelled them to bear. Concur rently, and in character with this their conduct, was the language of all the corrupt and stupid part of the community in England, where the affair was talked of as a conquest, as a matter of course; and where the vile newspapers were taught to cry, more loudly than ever, for, now that we had it in our power, taking vengeance

of

on France; crippling France; compelling the French to submit to what was called the "social system," thereby meaning, generally speaking, despotism; and, as pointed more immediately to England, meaning a government of the few, without any participation of the many, government for the benefit of the few at the expense the many; or, in two words, Boroughmongering government. Not to the vile newspapers, however, must we confine our recollections. In the parliament, the affair was spoken of as a conquest; and the way was paved there for those Treaties, those monstrous demands upon the king of France, which were speedily to follow. We shall by-and-by see, that the conquerors descended, at last, even to the stripping of galleries and museums at PARIS; and it must not be forgotten, that the allies were hardly got to PARIS, before Mr. BANKES, then member for CORFE CASTLE, and more recently member for Dorsetshire, and then principal trustee for the British Museum, expressed his hope, "that the museums would not be suffered to remain with their present contents in the twice-conquered city of Paris."

247. It is right, and it is necessary, in order to do justice to the parties here, now to turn back to paragraph 232, to see what was said in this same House of Commons, and also in the House of Lords, only a very few weeks before, at the

time when the allies were preparing for marching against NAPOLEON ; and I beg the reader to turn to that paragraph, and to look again at the professions of English legislators at that time. Then, all that they wanted was security against the great disturber, NAPOLEON; then not a word was said about conquests, about an intention to enfeeble France, and not a whisper about stripping her museums; then the professed desire was, to restore to France a mild and paternal government, and, to use the words of GRATTAN, "to deliver her from the eternal damnation of a military despotism; " then, so far from professing a desire to impose humiliating conditions on France, the members of both houses expressed a most anxious desire to see her great and to see her happy; then, so far from uttering any expressions of hostility towards the French people, you will find them, if you refer to the paragraph just mentioned, repeatedly saying, that they had one half of the French people decidedly with them against NAPOLEON; then they represented NAPOLEON as the only enemy that they had to combat, as the only source of danger, and the only cause of alarm. This was their language in the month of April; but, in the month of June, NAPOLEON, being in a state of flight; NAPOLEON being, in fact, put down completely; NAPOLEON being a fugitive, and five hundred thousand hostile bayonets having invaded France;