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naged to awaken a sentiment of pity for his ins ability to protect his capital from despoliation. But his cabinet either cannot, or will not, identify his sufferings with those of the people, who reckon the commencement of their calamities from the date of his triumphant return.

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Voltaire, in his essay on the manners and spirit of nations, says, "that only three ways of subjugating a people have been ever, as yet, "discovered; the first method, of civilizing by legislation, he reckons at least suspicious-the second, of religious conversion, has only been "the lot of a very few;" the third, which employs one portion of a nation to cut the throats of the other, he attributes to the rightful pretenders to this merit, to Charlemagne, Clovis, Alboin, and other respectable monsters. No one will deny that Louis has still to conquer France, which is scarcely more his own, at this time, than it was at the battle of Waterloo. The allies have conquered the French, and have so used their triumph, as a gentleman in France said to a friend of mine in October last, as to have left them nothing but their eyes to weep with. Now, His Majesty, of these three methods, seems resolved to adopt either the second or the third; but whether he can pretend to the vir tues of the above heroes, or whether his party

will be strong enough to slaughter the remainder of the nation, will admit only of one answer. In the efforts he has made towards the propagation of a new religion, for such the Christianity of the court may be said absolutely to be in the eyes of the French of this day, his failure has been most complete-I judge him out of the mouths of the very chambermaids of Paris, one of whom said to the same person just mentioned, "On est trop eclairé pour tout ça." The religion of Louis and his family will hardly have many charms for the French, nor reconcile them to the God whom the Duchess of Angouleme, and other enthusiasts more savage, in return, perhaps, for being made after his image, have made after their own-vengeful-passionate-unjust. It is the laughter of Paris, as it is the horror of the Cevennes. The times do not allow Louis to endeavour to be the Charondas of France, but if he cannot invent himself, he may adopt the inventions of others; and, of the three schemes, the attempt at the establishment of a liberal constitution seems the only one that gives him the least chance of accomplishing the requisite conquest over the prejudices of his countrymen. It is the only one he has neglected, or, at least, abandoned. The allies have allowed him five years to prepare his means of

VOL. II.

defence, at the end of which period his ministers may, perhaps, wish to continue their protection, and to try a fourth method of subjugation, which Voltaire was unable to discover, namely, the perpetual employment of a foreign force, and of extending the old resource of tyranny, a foreign body guard, to the preservation, not only of his person, but of his prerogatives, not only of his palace, but of his provinces.

In the mean time it is not impossible, that some of our refractory spirits at home will begin to compute the gains of the war, and to inquire into the real advantage and honour obtained by England, and her victorious allies, with the kings against the peoples of the continent. There is not an unprejudiced man in the country who does not perceive that the ministers deceived, either wittingly or not, the parliament and the nation, in assuring them that Napoleon being only seconded by the army, and a few seditious traitors, the overthrow of that army would be followed by the peaceable restoration of Louis, and the consequent tranquillity of France and all Europe. We went to war, we were told, to prevent the continuation of an armed peace, and because we knew that war must be the final consequence of any peace with Napoleon, as if it was not the con

sequence of a peace with any sovereign. Every one enquires, what is our peace at this moment, and what is it certain to be for five years, according to our own treaty? Is it any thing but an armed peace? and as for the end to be obtained by tranquillizing the state of feeling in France, and reducing it to the temperament which will associate the French to the great European union, and identify their interests and characters with those of their contiguous nations, do not the transactions of every moment make it more apparent, that this people is alienated by every measure so kindly and judiciously undertaken to ensure their happiness? What, is it supposed, will follow, when the military occupation of France has ceased, and the foreign garrisons are withdrawn? The question has in some measure received an answer, as far as respects the internal feeling of the country. If it shall be found, that five years of bondage have not been sufficient to change the character of the French nation, will the English cabinet consent to prolong the experiment? will Lord Clancarty's reasonable guarantees be judged unattainable, except by the continued or perhaps perpetual retention of the rights of conquest? A combination of all the powers of civilised Europe against one nation, unprecedented as it was, (for the union against

the republic of Venice is hardly a parallel), can be accounted for by the strange concurrence of circumstances from which it arose; but the continuation of that combination is so far inconsistent with all former experience and record of those follies, jealousies, envies, and other momentary whims of courts and kings,-in which, as Sully says, the greatest, the most important and serious state affairs have their origin, rather than in any well digested counsels, or any consideration of honour, glory, and good faith,-that it would be an eccentricity too ridiculous, even in our ephemeral statesmen, who see no farther forward than backward, to expect such an improbable concurrence. They cannot seriously promise themselves the permanence of the alliance, and the continued consent of all the courts of congress to perpetuate the present subjection of France, and to retain the destinies of her millions for ever in the hands of a board of political projectors of all nations and tongues, who may shift their sittings with the season to this or that capital, now try the waters of Pyrmont, now take the baths of Vienna, and, séance tenante, tighten or relax the cords of their captive hydra, just as their couriers may report that the many-headed monster has given symptoms of patience or dis

content.

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