CHAP. VI.

- 1814.

BOOK XIII. merce, the object of all civilized nations. It will be in vain to attempt again, by means of force or seduction, to reduce us under a foreign dominion. The absurd maxim of deceiving men, in order to govern them, is no longer dangerous to us. Taught by experience, we have acquired the aid of truth, of reason, and of force. We shall no longer be the victims of credulity; we cannot forget that attempts have already been made to take away our liberty. The painful recollection of the horrible punishments which precipitated into the grave our fathers, our mothers, and children, will never be effaced from our minds. We can never again be deceived: we know the perverseness of our enemies: we have before our eyes the projects of those men named Malouet, Barri de St. Venant, Pages, Bruiley, and other colonists. The political religion of those traffickers in human flesh-of those counsellors of misfortunes-is well known to us:-it is slavery and destruction. We are not ignorant of the criminal plots, the shameful measures of those apostles of criminality and falsehood; they are even more distinguished by their writings, than by the tortures they inflicted

on us,

"We call upon all the sovereigns of the world, we call upon the brave and loyal British nation, which was the first in its august senate to proclaim the abolition of the infamous trade in blacks; and which, making a noble use of the ascendency of victory, notified its resolution to the other states with which it concluded treaties: we call upon all philanthropists, upon all men, and upon the whole world, and ask what people, after twenty-five years of conflicts, and after having conquered their liberty and their independence, would consent to lay down their arms for the purpose of again becoming the sport and the victims of their cruel oppressors? The last of the Haytians will yield up his last sigh sooner than renounce his independence. We will not do any power the injustice of supposing that it entertains the chimerical project of establishing its sway in Hayti by force of arms. The power that would undertake such an enterprise, would have to march for a long time over ruins and dead bodies; and after having wasted all its means, if it could attain its object, what advantage would it derive from the loss of so much blood and treasure? It is not presumptuous to suppose that his majesty Louis XVIII. following the impulse of that philanthropic spirit that reigns in his family, after the example of his unfortunate brother Louis XVI. in his political conduct towards the United States of America, will imitate that monarch in acknowledging the independence of Hayti. This would not only be an act of justice, but a reparation of the evils which we have suffered from the French government. It is in vain that our calumniators shall dare again to allege that we should

not be considered as a people aspiring to independence, and collectively employed in the means of attaining it. This absurd assertion, invented by perfidy, wickedness, and the sordid interests of slave-traders, deserves the profoundest contempt and indignation of men of property in all countries. This assertion has been sufficiently falsified during eleven years of independence, and its happy results. Free, in point of right, and independent, in fact, we will never renounce these blessings; we will never consent to behold the destruction of that edifice which we have cemented with our blood, until we are buried under its ruins. We offer to commercial powers, who shall enter into relations with us, our friendship security to their property, and our royal protection to their peaceable subjects, who shall come to our country with the intention of carrying on their commercial affairs, and who shall conform to our laws and usages. The king of a free peo`ple, a soldier by habit, we fear no war or enemy. We have already signified our determination not to interfere in any way in the internal government of our neighbours. We wish to enjoy peace and tranquillity among ourselves, and to exert the same prerogatives which other people have, of making laws for themselves. If, after the free exposition of our sentiments, and the justice of our cause, any power should, contrary to the laws of nations, place a hostile fort in our territory, then our first duty will be to repel such an act of aggression by every means in our power. We solemnly declare that we will never consent to any treaty, or any condition, that shall compromise the honor, the liberty, and independence of the Haytian people. Faithful to our oath, we will rather bury ourselves under the ruins of our country, than suffer any political rights to sustain the slightest injury."

It was not, however, by arms, that the first attempt was made to restore Hayti to the dominion of France. A French general, named D'Auxion Lavaysse, and bearing the character of an envoy from Louis XVIII. addressed from Kingston, in Jamaica, on October 1st, a letter "to Gen. Henry Christophe, supreme head of the government of the North of Hayti," in which, at considerable length, he placed before him every argument to induce him to proclaim the King of France. He endeavoured to shew him, that it was his personal interest rather to become illustrious servant of the great sovereign of the French, than a chief of revolted slaves." Like the generality of his countrymen in their diplomatic functions, he did not scruple to employ falsehood to gain his point; and the following passage of his letter is worthy of notice. "Do not deceive yourself, General the sovereigns of Europe, although they have made peace, have not returned the sword into the scabbard. Doubt

an

less, you are not ignorant of what every body in Europe knows, although a thing not yet diplomatically published that the principal articles of the compact which all the European sovereigns have just signed, on their royal honor, is to unite their armies, if need be, and to lend each other all necessary aid, in order to destroy all the governments which have been the offspring of the French revolution, whether in Europe or in the New World. Know, also, that it is Great Britain who is the centre of, and principal party to, this convention, to which, a few months sooner or later, every government will find it necessary to submit every government, and every potentate that shall refuse so to submit, must expect to be treated as traitors and brigands." That this assertion, as it respects England, is a gross falsehood, we presume, is undeniable; and it may be hoped, that it is not less so with respect to the other powers.

:

It was with true magnanimity that King Henry,

CHAP. VI.

1814.

convoking an extraordinary council of the nation, BOOK XIII. laid before them this document, together with the pamphlet of one H. Henry, printed at Jamaica, desiring them calmly to deliberate on their contents, and form such resolutions as they should deem necessary for the welfare of the country. This confidence was repaid by an address to the king, in the warmest language of patriotic devotion. It adds, "No, never shall this execrable enterprise (against Hayti) take place. There is honor, there is a sense of glory, among the sovereigns and people of Europe; and Great Britain, that Liberator of the World, will prevent such an abomination."

Lavaysse made an application of a similar purpose, though in ambiguous language, to Petion, and on October 21st, he was suffered to land at Port-au-Prince, that he might explain in person the proposals of which he was the bearer. On his arrival he fell dangerously ill, in which state be continued at the close of the year.

In the affairs of Great Britain this year, the case of the Princess of Wales excited considerable interest. A short time previous to the arrival of the Emperor of Russia and King of Prus sia in this country, it was announced that the queen intended to do honor to the illustrious visitors by holding two splendid drawing-rooms. Soon afterwards an intimation was given, that the Princess of Wales would make her appearance at one of them. In consequence, the queen wrote a letter to the princess, in which she represented it as her duty to acquaint her with a communication she had received from her son, the princeregent, stating the necessity of his presence at her court, and that he desired it might be understood, for reasons of which he alone could be the judge, to be his fixed and unalterable determination not to meet the Princess of Wales upon any occasion, either in public or private. Her majesty was therefore under the painful necessity of intimating to the princess the impossibility of receiving her royal-highness at her drawing-rooms.

To this letter the Princess of Wales replied, by recalling to the recollection of her majesty the affectionate regard with which the king had honored her; at the same time bestowing upon her the most gratifying and unequivocal proofs of his attachment and approbation, by his public reception of her at his court, at a season of severe and unmerited affliction, when his protection was most necessary to her. She was now without appeal or protection; but she could not so far forget her duty to the king and to herself, as to surrender her right to appear at any public drawing-room to be held by her majesty: yet, that she might not add to the difficulty and uneasiness of her majesty's situation, she yielded, in the present instance, to the will of his royal highness the prince-regent. "It would appear presumptuous in me (she added) to inquire of your majesty the reasons of his royal highness the prince-regent for this harsh proceeding, of which his royal highness can alone be the judge. I am unconscious of offence; and in that reflection I must endeavour to find conso

CHAP. VII. 1814.

BOOK XIII. lation for all the mortifications I experience ;even for this, the last, the most unexpected and severe: the prohibition given to me alone to appear before your majesty, to offer my congratulations upon the happy termination of those calamities with which Europe has been so long afflicted, in the presence of the illustrious personages who will in all probability be assembled at your majesty's court, with which I am so closely connected by birth and marriage."

Her royal highness concluded her letter by beseeching her majesty to acquaint the illustrious strangers with the reasons which alone induced her to abstain from the exercise of her right to appear before her majesty ;-and by an intimation that she herself would make public the cause of

her absence from court.

Two days after this letter was sent to the queen, the Princess of Wales wrote to the prince-regent: after stating that she inclosed copies of the note from the queen, and her own answer, she added, "That it would be in vain further to inquire into the reasons of the alarming declaration made by his royal highness, that he had taken the fixed

and unalterable determination never to meet her upon any occasion, either in public or private, since of these bis royal highness was pleased to state himself to be the only judge.

"But, sir, lest it should be by possibility supposed, that the words of your royal highness can convey any insinuation from which I shrink, I am bound to demand of your royal highness what circumstances can justify the proceeding you have thus thought fit to adopt?.

66

I owe it to myself, to my daughter, and to the nation, to which I am deeply indebted for the vindication of my honor, to remind your royal highness of what you know; that after open persecution, and mysterious inquiries, upon undefined charges, the malice of my enemies fell entirely upon themselves; and that I was restored by the king, with the advice of his ministers, to the full enjoyment of my rank in his court, upon my complete acquittal. Since his majesty's lamented illness, I have demanded, in the face of parliament and the country, to be proved guilty, or to be treated as innocent. I have been declared innocent-I will not submit to be treated as guilty.

"Sir, your royal highness may possibly refuse to read this letter. But the world must know that I have written it; and they will see my real motives for foregoing, in this instance, the rights of my rank. Occasions, however, may arise (one I trust is far distant) when I must appear in public, and your royal highness must be present also. Can your royal highness have contemplated the full extent of your declaration? Has your royal highness forgotten the approaching marriage of our daughter, and the possibility of our coronation?

“ I waive my rights, in a case where I am not

absolutely bound to assert them, in order to relieve the queen, as far as I can, from the painful situa tion in which she is placed by your royal highness; not from any consciousness of blame, not from any doubt of the existence of those rights, or of my own worthiness to enjoy them.

"Sir, the time you have selected for this ceeding is calculated to make it peculiarly galling.. Many illustrious strangers are already arrived in England; amongst others, as I am informed, the illustrions heir of the house of Orange, who hat announced himself to me as my future son-in-law. From their society I am unjustly excluded. Others are expected, of rank equal to your own, to rejoice with your royal highness in the peace of Europe. My daughter will, for the first time, appear in the splendour and publicity becoming the approaching nuptials of the presumptive heiress of this empire. This season your royal highness has chosen for treating me with fresh and unprovoked indignity: and of all his majesty's subjects, I alone am prevented, by your royal high ness, from appearing in my place to partake of the general joy, and am deprived of the indulgence in those feelings of pride and affection permitted to every mother but me.. I am, sir, "Your royal highness's faithful wife, ❝ CAROLINE, P. Connaught House, May 26, 1814.”

66

No notice being taken of this letter, the Princess of Wales, about a week afterwards, addressed a letter to the speaker of the house of commons, to the following purport: That his royal highness the prince-regent had been advised to take steps for preventing her appearance at court; and to state his unalterable determination never to meet the princess, either in public or private. The proceeding of 1807, and of last year, her royal highness considered to be in the perfect recollection of the house, as well as the ample vindication of her conduct, to which those proceedings led. It was impossible for her royal highness to conceal from herself what was the intention of the advice given to the prince-regent, or the probability of other objects pregnant with danger to the future succession of the throne, and to the domestic: peace and tranquillity of the realm. Whatever might be her own feelings, a sense of what was due to her daughter, and to the interests of the country, induced her to communicate what had passed to the house of commons. Her royal highness therefore inclosed copies of the communication between her majesty and herself.

In the discussions which took place in parlia ment on this occasion, a motion was made to address the prince-regent, praying that he would be graciously pleased to acquaint the house, by whose advice he had been induced to form the unalterable resolution of never meeting her royal highness the Princess of Wales, either in public

or in private. This motion was, however, withdrawn; but it was intimated, that it would be again brought forward, in case her royal highness was still excluded from the drawing-room. When the subject was again brought before the house, it seemed to be the unanimous opinion that their interference would do no good; but to mark their respect for her royal highness, they voted her a separate establishment of 50,0001. a year. This sum was afterwards reduced, upon the suggestion of the princess, to 35,0001.

Soon afterwards, her royal highness, finding her situation in this country uncomfortable, asked and obtained permission to make a tour to the continent. She first visited her brother at the court of Brunswick, and then proceeded to Italy, every where receiving the honors due to her rank.. At Naples, where she fixed herself for the winter, she was treated with the greatest distinction by Murat. In proceeding through Switzerland, she met the Empress Maria Louisa at Geneva, with whom she continued about two days. The follow ing account of some particulars that attended this meeting was communicated by the princess's physician to a correspondent in Scotland.-The doc tor says, "The princess, having invited the exempress to dinner, Mr. C-C- and he were appointed to act as gentlemen ushers on the occasion.. In the evening he took his seat on a sofa, between the illustrious personages, by their special command. The conversation was carried on with much spirit on the part of the ex-empress; and, among other subjects, she most feelingly made remarks on the great and sudden changes that had lately taken place, from which her health suffered much. She concluded by giving the doctor a long and particular list of her complaints, requesting his opinion, as a medical man, on the subject. In the course of the evening, the ex-empress did the company the honor of singing two Itajan airs, remarking, that she had no natural taste for music, but her dear husband being passionately fond of it, she had, since her marriage, cultivated the science with much assiduity. She then proposed to the Princess of Wales to join her in singing a favorite duet, which was performed by these illustrious personages with considerable feeling and effect." The doctor observed, that the ex-empress cannot by any means be called hand, some, but she had an interesting look..

The Princess Charlotte of Wales became in this year a subject of that interest to the public which must necessarily attend any extraordinary occurrence relative to the presumptive heiress to the crown. This young princess, it was generally understood, had taken the part of her mother in the dispute between the regent and her; and in consequence of this, as well as of the political bias of the Princess Char

means

1814.

approved, she had been kept much more re- BOOK XIII. tired and private than her rank and age gave her a right to expect she should be. CHAP. VII. Those who were appointed to superintend and direct her education were very often changed; and it was understood that, from these and other causes, her situation was by no agreeable to herself. Although the Princess Charlotte had been hitherto educated in this retired manner, which, however it might have been favorable to her acquisition of knowledge, and to her freedom from the fashionable follies of high life, could by no means be calculated to render her fit to reign, by giving her a knowledge of mankind; yet it was determined that she should marry. The choice of a proper husband for her was necessarily confined to a few, as it was necessary he should be a protestant, and many of the protestant princes of Germany had been completely stripped of their territories and rank by Bonaparte.. The rank by Bonaparte.. The person fixed upon was the young Prince of Orange: he was recommended by having been long in England, and consequently acquainted with the government and with the habits and manners of the people; by having received his education at an English university, and by the connection between his family and that of the reigning family of GreatBritain. Besides, he was favorably known to the British public, by the courage which he had! displayed in the campaign of the Peninsula, under Lord Wellington. It never appeared, however,. that he was very acceptable to the Princess Charlotte of Wales: but as mutual attachment is seldom deemed a requisite in royal marriages, it was imagined the match would go on, notwithstanding any repugnance or indifference on her side.. The real objections of the princess to her intended husband have never been satisfactorily given to the public: she certainly expressed a strong unwillingness to leave the country, especially at. a time when her mother required her countenance and consolation.. This objection it was endeavoured to get over, by promising that her absence. should be by no means permanent, but only for, a very short time, and that she should never be asked to go to Holland again. In this the princess appeared at first to acquiesce, and the marriage-settlements were nearly drawn. Suddenly, however, the princess is said to have expressed doubts as to the security tendered to her, that she should not be obliged to reside longer than she wished in Holland, and to have demanded that a clause should be inserted in the marriage-contract, prohibiting her ever quitting the kingdom on any account, or for any time, however short. To this the Prince of Orange could not consent, as he was already engaged to the Dutch to take the princess among them for a short time. The

CHAP. VII.

1814.

BOOK XIII. consequence was, that the princess and her royal father were not disposed to look on one another so favorably or affectionately as they did before. As it was also rumoured, that some condition respecting her being allowed to visit her mother had been submitted and refused, and as the Princess Charlotte, under the circumstances in which she was placed, naturally looked to her mother for protection and advice, this too rendered the breach between the father and daughter still wider. We have already mentioned that those who had the superintendance of the young princess's education were very often changed. On this occasion it was deemed proper to remove the principal persons about her, either because they were suspected of forwarding her views, or because they were not disposed or qualified to exercise that influence over her which was deemed necessary, in order to render her more obedient to the will of her father. On the 12th of July, the prince-regent, accompanied by the Bishop of Salisbury, repaired to Warwick-house, his daughter's residence, and announced the dismission of all her attendants, and his intention of taking her with him to Carlton-house. This declaration, probably joined with paternal reproof, had such an effect on the young lady's feelings, that requesting leave to retire, she took the opportunity of escaping by the back stair-case, and rushing into the street, where she got into a backney-coach, and drove to Connaught-house, her mother's residence. The Princess of Wales, much embarrassed by this unexpected visit, immediately drove to the parliament-house to consult her friends what was proper to be done on the occasion. The result was, that the Princess Charlotte was persuaded to accompany her uncle, the Duke of York, to Carlton-house. After remaining there some time, she was removed to Cranbourn-lodge, in Windsor-forest, where she was placed under the care of her new attendants. A complaint in one of her knees having produced from the faculty a declaration of the expediency of a course of sea-bathing, her royal highness, in autumn, went to Weymouth for that purpose, whence she returned, at the latter end of the year, to her residence near Windsor.

The trial and conviction of Lord Cochrane and others for a conspiracy to defraud the Stock-Exchange, by circulating false news of Bonaparte's defeat, death, &c. caused much noise throughout the country. The circumstances which gave rise to this trial were as follows. While every one was in the greatest anxiety and doubt as to the issue of the campaign in France, at the beginning of the year, a report was confidently put forth in the city on Monday the 21st of February, that an officer had arrived from France, bringing an official account of the death of the French emperor; and that the said officer was on the road with

1

the glorious news!-Strange as it may seem, this often-told tale was very generally believed; the Stock-Exchange people were of course all in a bustle; omnium, which opened at twenty-seven and a half, ran up to thirty-three: immense sums were sold, to the amount of about half a million, during the morning; but as the officer, with his offi cial dispatches, could nowhere be heard of, a fraud was at length suspected, and omnium fell back to twenty-eight and a half. While those who had planned the knavery were reaping the golden. harvest on the Stock-Exchange, their agents or their dupes were spreading the tidings in all directions, and with all sorts of additions and embellishments. Bonaparte had not only been killed, but had been carved into many pieces by the Cossacks, who had marched into Paris with his heart upon a pike: this was one story. Another related that the French emperor had not fallen by the hands of the enemy, but by those of his own guards, who, like their prætorian brethren of ancient history, had murdered their emperor, and proclaimed another (Louis XVIII.) in his stead. Each narrator, in short, had his own particulars of the event, but the main point, the death of Bonaparte, was affirmed by all. One person had seen the officer; another had heard the contents of his dispatches; a third had just had the news confirmed to him by a person in the confidence of government; and one man, dressed too like a gentleman, went into a bookseller's shop at the west end of the town, and declared that he had seen a letter from the lord-chancellor, Eldon, which fully confirmed all the news. The trick, it must be owned, though bungling enough in some of its parts, was supported with considerable industry. It appeared, that in the middle of Sunday night, a person, dressed as an officer, walked with all due gravity from the beach of Dover towards the town, and meeting with a watchman, inquired of him the way to the Ship Inn, to procure a post-chaise and horses for town. The officer was a tall dark man, dressed in scarlet and gold, with a prodigious star on his breast; the coat turned up with green, and he wore a swinging sword by his side. The gentleman was very much fatigued; and his beard, by its length, proved that the wearer had not had time to shave himself. Before the gentleman proceeded on his journey, he addressed a letter to Admiral Foley, to the purport, that he had ordered back his boat's crew to France, and requested the politeness of the admiral, in case they should be intercepted by any of the British cruizers, that the men might be properly treated, and sent to France without loss of time. To this epistle he subscribed "Colonel de Burgh." No boat, however, was seen, though it was quite clear that he had just landed from one, as his clothes were wet from the spray of the sea! Every thing he paid for, and even