ject of Count Boissy d'Anglas, announced the day before; in which, as Count Thibaudeau observed, either by a great oversight, or a great foresight, the word kingdom was inserted.

The communication made yesterday by the government to the chambers might indeed give rise to a suspicion, that the prophetic spirit of M. Boissy d'Anglas had been in activity, rather than that he had been guilty of any neglect. The bulletin of the army stated the French head-quarters, at five in the evening of the 26th, to be at Soissons; and that the enemy occupied St. Quentin, Guise, Avesnes, and Noyon. Four or five hundred cavalry had appeared between that latter place and Compiegne. An accompanying message announced, that the French plenipotentiaries had received their passports at Laon, and left that town, for the head-quarters of the allied sovereigns, on the evening of the 26th. The government has taken care to have this intelligence placarded in the streets. The Counts Andreossy, Boissy d'Anglas, and Valence, with Messieurs Flaugergues and de la Bernardière, left Paris this morning, to attempt to negotiate an armistice with the Duke of Wellington.

No communication has yet been made to the chambers respecting Napoleon. One of

VOL. II.

F

the first steps taken by the government was to order him from the Elysée to Malmaison; a measure which was found necessary to prevent any commotions on the part of the lower classes of the metropolis, having for object the reinstatement of their favourite, as well as to convince the allied sovereigns that the capital, and the deliberations of the chambers, are free from the influence of the fallen monarch.

Notwithstanding the speeches of his friends, and even of the patriots in the chambers, who think that decency, and the public service, require such an eulogy, the abdication of Napoleon is said to have been any thing rather than a voluntary sacrifice. I believe you may depend upon the following account of that transaction. Napoleon, seeing the battle was lost, and being borne away by the part of his body guard immediately about his person, retired from the field with a few cavalry, and rode for some time in the darkness, ignorant of the direction he was taking. The Duke of Bassano, who was with him, was asked by the Emperor if he knew where he was, and replied in the negative. The staff officers, with only one exception, advised the return to Paris; and my informant, the general who deprecated that fatal measure, assures me Napoleon was overpersuaded against his

better judgment to hazard the experiment. In this case, consent is not to be distinguished from conviction-the fault and the consequence are

the same.

They reached Philipville at five in the morning. Arriving at Paris, Napoleon repaired to the Elysée: he sent for the minister of war. The marshal attended the summons, and found him in his bath: he was eating a bouillon, and saluted the minister with the information that he wanted 300,000 men, and more money. He had taken 12,000,000 of francs, partly his own treasure, in specie, into Belgium; intending to open the war magnificently, and to pay for every thing on demand: nearly the whole was seized, with the imperial equipages, by the Prussians. The marshal's answer was not satisfactory, and the Emperor ordered a council of ministers to be called. It is said, that in the meanwhile, Prince Lucien recommended him instantly to return to the army, and in case of any refractory conduct on the part of the chambers to leave them to the disposal of a battalion. When the council assembled, the Emperor was plainly told by some of them that he must abdicate. Two of the members of the chamber of representatives, one of them being his own minister, Regnault de St. Jean d'Angely, and the other the General Solignac,

urged the same measure.

Napoleon started at the word, and turned pale, and at first gave them positively to understand that he would never comply. His words were to this purport,

"I do not think that things are come to that extremity." But he soon recovered himself, and entered calmly into the discussion; which ended in a determination to feel the pulse of the two chambers, by a communication through the ministers and Prince Lucien.

That transaction you are already acquainted with, and have seen that neither from the representatives nor the peers could Napoleon promise himself any hopes even of a respectable minority to enable him to repair his fault. The conduct of the chambers convinced the majority of his ministers, who assembled in full council during the night, that the abdication was inevitable; and however inclined some of them might have been to adjourn the chambers, rather than dethrone their prince, they did not proceed to a division. There was a momentary hope entertained that a dictatorship might be adopted, as a middle term; but the Emperor did not encourage that expedient, which was dropped almost as soon as proposed. The declaration that the chamber of representatives was indissoluble; the obtruded visit of Mr. Regnault de St. Jean

d'Angely and General Solignac, with the painful advice of an immediate retreat from the throne; the speech of Mr. Jai in the secret committee, directly proposing that measure; every consideration and appearance seemed to show, that without bloodshed the sceptre was not to be retained. Napoleon could not have dissolved the chamber except by employing an armed force, which would have met with opposition from the national guards. He confessed this to his personal friends; and although persuaded that the infraction of the constitution on their parts, by the declaration of their permanence, had given him the right to resort to violence, he did not for a moment contemplate the renewal of such revolutionary horrors as must have thence ensued. The measures taken by the chambers, in putting a committee of safety into activity during the night, convinced him that he must be prompt in his resolves; but when the great council broke up, at three in the morning, he had not declared his decision, although the nature of it was not dif ficult to be divined. Napoleon hesitated to execute that act on which he was resolved, until a repeated notification of the impatience of the chamber, in the morning sitting, convinced him that he might compromise his dignity by a longer delay. I received positive information, and