loud acclamations called me into the street, and saved me all further labour in vain, by presenting to me another revolution of handkerchiefs, and that triumph, which is so much the more easily and suddenly displayed, as every one carries an emblem of the party in his pocket. In short, a battalion of the national guards were passing with white flags, to the shouts of Vive le Roi. The streets were lined with the same troops, in white cockades; not a national colour was to be seen; the white flag was floating on the column of the grand army, and the windows glittered with women and white linen. My eyes were scarcely disenchanted, until I saw the Moniteur, with its former designation-again the only official journal; and read in that paper two ordonnances of Louis, by the grace of God, king of France and Navarre; dated the 21st year of his reign. The same king, I saw, was to enter Paris about three o'clock in the afternoon.

Napoleon is overthrown at the battle of Waterloo; he is compelled to abdicate by the representatives of the people. The conquerors arrive at the capital, to which they grant honourable terms of surrender, and respect the independence of an unfortunate nation. The Duke of Wellington, and the whole English army, behave with a moderation more noble than their VOL. II.

victory. The sovereigns promise solemnly to adhere to their declarations. The friends of freedom cherish every hope. Lord Castlereagh arrives; the curtain rises at once, and displays the triumphant personages of the drama, unmasked, and in the attitude of revenge revenge and rage; whilst France appears, a conquered culprit, in chains, bound to the altar, and waiting for the blow. Her government is dissolved by force; her representatives are driven from their seats; the glittering ensigns of her former glory are torn down, and displaced by the banner of treason and disgrace, the pale memorial of defeat and slavery. The monarch who, if private vir tues do not interfere with a policy too likely to be pursued, may exercise the despotism of a domestic master, and the severity of a foreign conqueror, may treat her children as slavishly as if they were his own, and as unsparingly as if they did not belong to him,-is re-armed with authority, and intrusted with the infliction of every punishment, which is rendered more intolerable as it follows upon the hope of pardon, and the mockery of reprieve. It was reserved for the return of the father of his people, to inform the inhabitants of Paris that they are put into the hands of a Prussian governor, a general Muffling, who tells them so in a proclamation, which is couched in terms of menace; and which appears by the side of the

two ordonnances of the restored monarch, denouncing vengeance on the culpable, and restoring all the corrupt authorities of his former reign. It was reserved for the day of his entry that the palaces of his ancestors should be defiled by the barbarians of the north-that the streets, the bridges, the avenues, of his capital should groan under the weight of foreign cannon. And under whose influence, at whose bidding, does this fatal change in the conduct of the conquerors appear to have been commanded? Is it only from a coincidence, that it has taken place at the arrival of the minister of that government, which made an exception to an article of the treaty of Vienna, because that article appeared to imply an interference with, and an aggression upon, the national independence of France? Is it from a coincidence only, that on the appearance of the apostle of good faith and sincerity, of the master of the only moral cabinet of Europe, the ferocity of a Blucher is at once let loose in violation of all honour and honesty, of former promises and recent stipulations?

They will endeavour to make you think in England, that in compliance with the wishes of the nation, and in concert with the inclinations of those provisionally intrusted with power, Louis has been handed peaceably to a vacant throne,

as at the call of the senate of the former year. They will, to this effect, quote to you the Moniteur, which is this day put into the hands of the royalist Vitrolles, and consequently opens with a direct falsehood, in these words "The "commission of government has acquainted the "king, by the organ of its president, that it has "just dissolved itself."

You may feel assured that this is not true; no communication of that kind took place between the king and the government, whatever the Duke of Otranto may have notified unofficially. If I may depend upon the assertion of one of the commission, what did actually happen was as follows: Lord Castlereagh, on his arrival at head-quarters, imparted to the commission his surprise, indeed his indignation, that Louis was not yet in Paris, and added that he must come in to-morrow, or the next day at furthest. The president of the government replied that he understood from the allied sovereigns, that there was no intention, on their part, to interfere with the inclinations of the French nation, in the election of its monarch; for answer to which remonstrance, his lordship only introduced Mr. Pozzo di Borgho, and the ministers of the other two principal powers, each of whom drew a note from his pocket, stating their respective so

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vereigns' agreement with the English minister, and their resolution to replace Louis on the throne of France. This was decisive, but the government was still sitting in the Tuileries, when a squadron of cavalry, and two battalions of Westphalian infantry, and several pieces of cannon, marched into the Place du Carousel, and occupied the inner court of the palace; and an officer entering the council chamber, told the commissioners that he was ordered to evacuate the apartments, and at the same time presented a paper, which contained a demand of a contribution of a hundred millions, signed by Marshal Blucher. The government remonstrated; they contrasted this demand and conduct with the articles of the convention, which secured the public and private property; and which left the service of the interior of the capital to the national guard; but in vain. The officer did not understand the nicety of the distinction, and the government had no other resource than to resolve upon communicating their forced dissolution to the chambers, and upon retiring each to his own home. As to the contribution, they deposited the paper upon the council table, where, said the Duke of Otranto, "we will leave it as a legacy for the king." The government did not dissolve itself. It was dissolved by Lord Castlereagh.

You will now see the last act of what the base