England, was to put into the hands of the King of Prussia the administration of the kingdom of Saxony; and that he had in consequence received orders to consign the government of that country to persons provided with proper powers by his Prussian majesty," in order thus to operate the union of Saxony with Prussia, which will soon take place in a manner more solemn and formal." The prince concluded with saying, that King Frederick William, in quality of future sovereign of the country, had declared that it was not his intention to incorporate Saxony to his estates as a province, but to unite it to Prussia under the title of the kingdom of Saxony, to give it the advantages which the constitution of Germany should secure to those kingdoms which make a part of the Prussian monarchy, and to change nothing in its present constitution; and, further, that the Emperor Alexander had testified the private satisfaction which that declaration had caused him.

Prince Repnin announced the same determination in the farewell speech which he delivered at Dresden on the 8th of November, when he formally resigned his authority to the Prussian civil and military governors; but that the inhabitants of Saxony were by no means satisfied at this conduct of the allies may be gathered from the speech of Prince Repnin: "I now come, gentlemen," says he "to the subject which has most deeply affected your souls-I mean the uncertainty respecting the fate of your country, and the attachment which you bear to a sovereign who, for half a century, has presided over your destinies. It was worthy of you to forget the calamities of these latter times in the remembrance of a calm and tranquil reign of forty-five years, during which old wounds were healed. The misfortune of an individual interests every tender heart; but that of a sovereign has in it something religious, which irresistibly seizes upon the feelings, and excites enthusiasm. Far be it from me, then, to censure the sentiments which you have displayed; and if you have seen me employ restrictive measures against some proceedings into which you were hurried, attribute them solely to my certain conviction, that nothing but implicit confidence, and unlimitted submission to the designs of the high allied powers, could insure your future happiness, and preserve Saxony from the calamity of being partitioned."

The unfortunate King of Saxony, immediately after he had learned this transfer of the occupa tion of his country, published a declaration, dated Frederickfeld, November 4. In this he says, "Firmly resolved never to separate our fate from that of our people; filled with confidence in the justice and magnanimity of the allied sovereigns, and intending to join their alliance as soon as we

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the battle of Leipsic, there to await the con- BOOK XIII. querors. But the sovereigns refused to hear us, We were compelled to depart from our States, CHAP. VI. and proceed to Berlin. His majesty the Emperor of Russia nevertheless made known to us, that our removal from Saxony was dictated only by military interests, and his majesty at the same time invited us to repose in him entire confidence. We also received from their majesties the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia affecting proofs of interest and sensibility. We were in consequence enabled to cherish the hope, that as soon as these military considerations ceased to operate, we should be reinstated in our rights and restored to our dear subjects. We were the more entitled to expect a speedy and happy change in our situation, inasmuch as we had made known to the coalesced sovereigns our sincere desire to co-operate in the re-establishment of repose and liberty, and had manifested in every way which the power was left us of doing, our real devotedness to their persons, and to the cause which was the object of their efforts. On the conclusion of peace with France, it was infinitely painful to us to learn, that our reiterated instances for our speedy reinstatement had not been attended to; that our just hopes were still deceived; and that the decision of our dearest interests, and those of our people, had been adjourned to the Congress of Vienna. Far, however, from crediting the re ports circulated with regard to the fate of our states since the epoch of the peace of Paris, we placed entire confidence in the justice of the allied monarchs, though it be impossible to penetrate the motives of the proceedings which they have pursued towards us. The conservation and consolidation of legitimate dynasties was the grand object of the war which has been so happily terminated: the coalesced powers accordingly repeatedly proclaimed, in the most solemn manner, that, far removed from every plan of conquest and aggrandisement, they had only in view the restoration of the rights and liberties of Europe. Saxony, in particular, received the most positive assurances, that her integrity would be maintained. That integrity essentially includes the conservation of the dynasty for which the nation has publicly manifested its constant attachment, and the unanimous wish to be re-united to its sovereign."

The declaration concluded as follows:-" We should be wanting to the most sacred duties towards our royal house, and towards our people, were we to remain silent under the new measures projected against our states at a moment when we are entitled to expect their restitu. tion. The intention manifested by the court of Prussia, of provisionally occupying our Saxon states, compels us to forearm our well-founded

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BOOK XIII. test against the consequences which may be drawn from such a measure. It is before the CHAP. VI. Congress of Vienna, and in the face of all Europe, that we discharge this duty, by signing these presents with our hand, and at the same time publicly reiterating the declaration, communicated some time ago to the allied courts, that we will never consent to the cession of the states inherited from our ancestors, and that we will never accept any indemnity or equivalent that may be offered to us."

The fate of Genoa was the first event that was made public this year of the proceedings of the Congress. The occupation of that city by an English army, in the month of April, has been already mentioned in Book XII. At that time Lord W. Bentinck issued a proclamation, importing that, "considering it to be the universal desire of the Genoese nation to return to that ancient government under which it enjoyed liberty, prosperity, and independence; considering also that this desire seems to be conformable to the principles acknowledged by the high allied powers, to restore to all their ancient rights and privileges," he declared the constitution of the Genoese states, which existed in the year 1797, reestablished; and he accordingly appointed a provisional government upon its principles. The city continued in the possession of the British troops, and under the administration of the provisional government, till the month of December, when the Marquis de Carail, aid-de-camp to the King of Sardinia, arrived at Turin from his father, Sardinian minister at the Congress of Vienna, with the information, that by a protocol signed on the 14th, by the plenipotentiaries of the powers composing the Congress, the cession of Genoa and all the country had been decisively fixed, and that it had been agreed that his Sardinian majesty might make the arrangements he should judge advisable for their organization, and consider them as definitively united to his states. At the same time, an order was sent to the English general at Genoa to give up the government to the person commissioned by the King of Sardinia to receive it, and to consider his corps as auxiliary to that sovereign. With respect to this disposition, the following extract from a dispatch of Lord Castlereagh to Colonel Dalrymple, commander of the British troops at Genoa, was afterwards published as by authority:-"I exceedingly regret, as well as do all the ministers, the not being able to preserve to Genoa a separate existence, without the risk of weakening the system adopted for Italy, and consequently exposing its safety; but we are persuaded, that by the mode adopted we have provided much more strongly for the future tranquillity of Genoa, and the prosperity of her commerce. The generous disposition of the King of Sardinia, whose ardent desire it is

to fulfil as much as possible the wishes of the Genoese, will be to them the most certain pledge of their being placed under the protection of a paternal, and liberal government. I have no doubt, that under these circumstances, the Genoese of every class will receive this decisión as a benefit, and will conform with pleasure to arrangements which conciliate their own interests with those of the rest of Europe." Thus was another state transferred to a new master without considering its consent as in the least necessary to the validity of such an act. These examples tended to create a very unfavorable idea of the future decisions of the Congress.

The annexation of all the other districts in the North of Italy to the Austrian dominions, appears to have been a further measure equally deter mined upon in the councils of the allied powers before they assembled in Congress. In an account which was received from Venice it was stated, that the emperor, by a note in his own hand-writing, informed the Grand-chancellor of Bohemia, that the union of all Lombardy, and the Ex-Venetian states, to the Austrian monarchy had been definitively settled; which important news was immediately communicated to the Prince of Reuss-Plauen, civil and military governor for the emperor in Italy. This, however, caused much dissatisfaction among the inhabitants. The Italians, generally speaking, or at least those that inhabit the north and middle part of Italy, had long been anxious to see their country formed into one independent state, and no longer either parcelled out among a number of petty sovereigns, or subject to the dominion of a foreign power. Soon after the abdication of Bonaparte, a deputation from the senate, which was then sitting at Milan, was sent to wait upon the allied monarchs at Paris, in order to know their determination on this point; but they were dismissed without receiving any satisfactory answer. When the Austrians took possession of the country, a number of disorders and tumults took place, which plainly proved the disposition of the people. A decree was published, in consequence of orders from the Austrian court to the provisional regency of Milan, rigorously prohibiting all secret societies, such as lodges of freemasons, and other associations, whose objects were not precisely known, and whose discipline and proceedings were enveloped in mystery. If the allies had been really desirous of contributing to the good of Europe, they ought to have acceded to the wishes of the people of Italy, and formed the northern and central parts of it into one independent kingdom. "The feeling of independence has made so rapid a progress in this country," says M. de Pradt, "that, in the course of time, a general re-union of Italy, in a single and sovereign capacity, must result from the restraint to which she has been compelled to sub

5

mit. The necessity of putting an end to her vexations, of no longer serving as aliment for the avarice of some, and remaining victims to the interested views of others, will lead the Italians to the adoption of a system that the universe will applaud."

About the close of the year, a measure was 'adopted by the Austrian government in Italy which clearly proved the jealousy it entertained of the attachment of the natives. An account which was received from Milau contained the following: "The decision which has been long expected, and which endeavours were made to avert by very humble representations, has at length appeared. The Italian regiments, in consequence of an order from the Emperor of Austria, must quit their country, and march to do duty in the Austrian provinces. This news was no sooner known to be authentic, than it struck families with alarm, and increased desertion still more." In consequence of these desertions, Baron Suden, the military Governor of Brescia, published a proclamation, informing all the corps of his brigade of the emperor's determination to quarter them in Germany, and calling upon the men to observe strict discipline, and to detest that shameful desertion of which too many of their comrades have been guilty." The places of the Italian regiments sent beyond the Alps were supplied by Austrian troops.

Before the close of the year, it was understood that the case of Murat, as King of Naples, gave rise to much discussion at the Congress; and that the Bourbon government was using every effort to get the old family restored. Murat was certainly placed in a critical and uneasy situation. A mere soldier of fortune, with no other title than his sword, he could not but be regarded by the regular and hereditary sovereigns of Europe as an intruder into their dignity, and a remaining exception to that principle of return to the ancient order of things which governed the political movements of the time. Closely bordered on one side by a perpetual competitor for his dominions in the king of the Two Sicilies, and on the other by the head of the catholic religion, from whom he withheld part of the patrimony of the church, and both of whom had powerful supporters, he was-obliged to exercise constant vigilance against the attempts of force or policy. In this situation, his sole reliance must have been on the attachment of bis subjects; and he appears not to have been inattentive to the means of acquiring this advantage afforded him by the notorious defects of the former Neapolitan government. The council of state and the court of cassation having waited on him upon the 8th of May, he made an address to the former, in which he said, "The independence of our country is ensured: I propose to ensure its prosperity also, by a constitu

CHAP. VI.

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tion which shall be at the same time a safeguard BOOK XIII. to the throne and to the subject. The bases of it shall be fixed agreeably to the opinions of the most enlightened statesmen of the kingdom." He repeated the same sentiments to the court of cassation; adding, doubtless to inspire confidence, "There are no sacrifices, no efforts, which I have not made to not made to ensure the independence of the Neapolitans; it is henceforth guaranteed by the peace of Europe, and by my relations with the sovereigns with whom I am in alliance." At the same time there was published at Ancona an order of the day constituting, for the present, the banks of the Metauro the separation of the countries occupied by the Neapolitan army, from the dominions of the pope.

In August it was announced from Rome, that the Neapolitans still kept possession of the marquisate of Ancona, Macerata, and Ferrara; and that the benefits of the revolution in the affairs of Europe were not felt there, the priests being imprisoned, respectable persons ill-treated, and their property confiscated. Joachim, indeed, was not one of the sovereigns from whom a restoration of the church to its former splendour was to be expected. In order, probably, to free himself from objects of suspicion, the king issued a decree relative to strangers, in consequence of which more than a thousand foreigners in employment quitted the country, and 500 petitions for naturalization were presented to the government, which was directed to examine them with the most scrupulous attention. The Neapolitans are said to have been much gratified with this measure. Some partisans of the old government were arrested, who were, doubtless, the persons alluded to in the article from Rome. The official journal of Naples at this time mentioned the arrival of a Prince Moliterno at Rome, who, not being able to obtain a passport for Naples, had established himself at that capital, in order to foment intrigues in the Neapolitan kingdom. For this purpose had associated to himself a few restless spirits, whom he had made the agents of a conspiracy directed against the Marche of Ancona and the Abruzzos. The journal treated these machinatious with great contempt; but it soon afterwards appeared, that the army of Naples had been raised to its full complement of 50,000 men, corps of which were daily reviewed by Murat. The military division of Naples, on September 1st, presented a very loyal address to King Joachim, in which they affirmed the sentiments of the army to be "eternal attachment to his majesty and his dynasty, entire obedience to his orders, and inviolable fidelity to his throne;" and they pledged their lives to his service, after the example of all their brothers in arms who had had the honor of serving under him. That he might not appear indifferent to those devotional feelings which, in

he

CHAP. VI.

BOOK XIII. the midst of the grossest licentiousness, the Neapolitans are so fond of indulging, Joachim and his queen, with all the royal family, paid a visit in great ceremony to the sanctuary of the Virgin, called the Foot of the Grotto, and displayed all the usual marks of piety on the occasion.

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About the close of September, Neapolitan troops were continually arriving at Ancona by sea and land. Nothing could now be of greater importance to Joachim than to secure the friendship of the Emperor of Austria, with whom their co-operation before the termination of the war had connected him more intimately than with any other power. The Duke of Rocca-Romana, bis master of the horse, having been sent on a mission to that emperor, arrived at Portici on October 29, on his return, bringing with him a ratification of the treaty of alliance between the two powers, together with the assurances of the emperor's constant friendship, and his unalterable disposition to support, by all the means in his power, the interests of his ally, and the tranquillity of Italy. Notwithstanding, various suspicious movements took place in the Neapolitan army, about the close of the year. The corps of reserve organized at Naples and Benevento, and 20,000 strong, was put in motion towards the territories of the church; and two divisions under Gen. Macdonald, which had returned to the Abruzzos, were ordered to advance; three divisions which occupied the Marche of Ancona were also directed to hold themselves in readiness. The subsequent affairs of this country will be related in their proper order, in our next book.

The island of Sicily, which the circumstances of the war had so long almost converted into an English garrison, naturally returned to its pristine condition after the peace; and, in the beginning of July, it was announced from Palermo, that his majesty Ferdinand III. had resumed the reins of government, and that every thing was changed in the ministry and administration. The sentiments of the Sicilian court, with respect to the possessor of its former continental dominions, were explicitly expressed, by an order communicated in October from the commandant of the district of Messina to the commander of the Neapolitan troops in Calabria, importing, that under no pretext whatever should any vessel, bearing the flag of King Joachim, be admitted into the ports and on the coasts of Italy.

The fate of Poland, and the proceedings of the Congress, will be fully detailed hereafter. The Polish troops, which had been so long in the French service, were conducted to their native country under the celebrated General Kosciusko. The manner in which this eminent character was restored to his rank and country is thus related by Miss Maria Williams: A Polish regiment, forming part of the advanced-guard of

the Russian army, after expelling the French from Troyes, marched upon Fontainebleau. The troops were foraging in a neighbouring village, and were about to commit disorders, which would have caused considerable loss to the proprietors, without benefit to themselves; such as piercing the banks, or forcing the sluices of some fishponds. While they were thus employed, and their officers looking on, they were astonished to hear the word of command bidding them to cease, pronounced in their own language, by a person in the dress of the upper class of peasants. They ceased their attempt at further spoliation, and drew near the stranger. He represented to the troops the useless mischief they were about to commit, and ordered them to withdraw. The officers coming up were lectured in their turn; and heard with the same astonishment the laws of predatory warfare explained to them. When I had a command in the army, of which your regiment is a part, I punished very severely such acts as you seem to authorize by your presence; and it is not on those soldiers but on you that punishment would have fallen.' To be thus tutored by a French farmer, in their own language, in such circumstances, and in such terms, was almost past endurance. They beheld the peasants at the same time taking off their hats, and surrounding the speaker, as if to protect him in case of violence; while the oldest among their own soldiers, anxiously gazing on the features of the stranger, were seized with a kind of involuntary trembling. Conjured more peremptorily, though respectfully, to disclose his quality and his name, the peasant, drawing his hand across his eyes to wipe off a starting tear, exclaimed, with an half stifled voice, I am Kosciusko!' The move ment was electric. The soldiers threw down their arms, and falling prostrate on the ground, ac cording to the custom of their country, covered their heads with sand. It was the prostration of the heart. On Kosciusko's return to his house in the neighbourhood of this scene, he found a Russian military post established to protect it. The Emperor Alexander, having learnt from M. de la Harpe that Kosciusko resided in the country, ordered for him a guard of honor, and the country around his dwelling escaped all plunder and contribution. Kosciusko bad withdrawn some years since from the guilty world of Bonaparte, to cultivate a little farm, rejecting every offer which was made him by Napoleon, who had learnt to appreciate his worth. Kosciusko knew him well. I called on him one day to bid him farewell, having read in the official paper of the morning his address to the Poles on the subject of recovering their freedom, being named to the command of the Polish army by Bonaparte. Kosciusko heard me with a smile at my credulity; but on my shewing him the address, with

his signature, he exclaimed,This is all a forgery; Bonaparte knew me too well to insult me with any offer in this predatory expedition; he has adopted this mode, which I can neither answer nor resent, and which he attempts to colour with the pretext of liberty. His notions and mine respecting Poland are at as great a distance as our sentiments on every other subject."

In the West India islands, the principal object of interest during this year was the island of St. Domingo, or the modern Hayti. It is well known, that the French colony of St. Domingo, previously to the revolution, was the most valuable commercial possession of France, and that its loss was the cause of very great public and private distress. Its recovery was entirely hopeless, while the seas were closed by the predominance of the British naval power; but as soon as the return of peace had removed this obstacle, it appears that the French nation and government began to entertain serious thoughts of attempting to regain so valuable a possession. This, however, was become an undertaking of great difficulty.

The two black chiefs of the island, Christophe and Petion, though they had been engaged in almost constant hostilities with each other, seem to have been animated with an equal zeal for maintaining the independence of the negro state; and although M. Desfourneaux, in reporting the sentiments of a committee appointed by the body of French representatives, to consider the dictates of policy on this subject, confidently expressed an opinion, that these chiefs would with eagerness recognize the sovereignty of Louis XVIII. and submit to his will, events have hitherto entirely contradicted this expectation. An extract of a dispatch from the minister secretary of state for foreign affairs to Christophe, now entitling himself Henry King of Hayti, addressed to M. Peltier, London, and dated June 10th, the 11th year of independence, was published in September, giving an account of the feelings of his sovereign on being informed of the fall of Bonaparte, and of the preparations he had been making for the defence of his kingdom. In this paper a declaration is made of the King of Hayti's readiness to receive French merchant ships in his ports, upon the same footing as those of other nations; but it was clearly specified, that he meant to treat with France only as one independent power with another. A private letter from Port-au-Prince, the seat of Petion's power, dated August 1st, mentioned the determination of that leader also to submit to every extremity, rather than yield to an invader.

It might have been previously mentioned, that the King of Hayti commenced the year with a fête of independence, in which all the pomp and

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brated by the greatest monarch in the world was BOOK XIN closely imitated, and a royal speech was pronounced, in a style exhibiting a curious mixture CHAP. VI. of oriental inflation and French gasconade. The titles of his nobility and officers of state, and the etiquette of his court, were all copied from European examples; and the whole afforded a kind of burlesque of royalty, which might induce a suspicion, that the business would terminate rather in farce than tragedy, were not desperate resolution compatible with ostentatious levity in halfsavage characters.

On August 15th, there was published in the royal gazette of Hayti, an address to the people, stating the circumstances in which the country was placed by the deposition of Bonaparte. It professed a willingness to negociate a treaty of commerce with the King of France; but, in the most energetic terms, called upon the Haytians to make every exertion in defence of their liberty and independence, were arms employed against them. One of its paragraphs was as follows: "Should certain colonists, our implacable enemies, still persist in their chimerical projects, and succeed in prevailing upon the actual government of France to carry on war against us, let them place themselves at the head of the invaders: they shall be the first victims of our vengeance! We shall give no quarter-we shall take no prisoners: we desire to be treated in the same way ourselves, and the war must become a war of extirmination." On October 2d, was published a manifesto of King Henry, giving a detailed narrative of the events which had produced and accompanied the independence of Hayti, and expressing a firm resolu tion to maintain it. This piece was evidently the composition of a practised pen, and in strength and clearness might vie with any manifesto of an European sovereign.

The conclusion was as follows: "Solicitous to adopt every means for reviving our internal prosperity, at all times attentively observing the events that passed in Europe during the bloody struggle supported there, we never for a single instant lost sight of our military system of defence. In that attitude we expected that Bonaparte, the enemy of the world, would attack us, either by force of arms, or by perfidy, his accustomed means. We have not forgot that, after the peace of Amiens, his first object was to enter on that famous expedition for our extirmination. But the God of armies, who raises and overturns thrones according to his will, did not, in his justice, consent that this oppressor of nations should accomplish his horrible design. We hope that his fall will give repose to the world,-we hope that the return of those liberal and reanimating sentiments which influence the European powers, will induce them to acknowledge the independence of a people who