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scruples suggested by reasoning on a novel and dubious case; and the allied powers thought they had sufficiently tempered justice by mercy, in adjudging him to a perpetual confinement where he might enjoy many of the comforts of life, without danger of again returning to involve Europe in bloodshed. It was determined in the councils of the confederate sovereigns, that the island of St. Helena, a speck in the Southern Atlantic, under the dominion of Great Britain, should be his place of exile, where he was to reside under their joint inspection. On August 7th he was transferred, in Torbay, from the Bellerophon to the Northumberland, Captain Sir G. Cockburn, accompanied by Generals Bertrand and Moutholon, with their ladies and families, Count Las Casas, General Gorgauld, and twelve servants. The ship on the next day proceeded on her destined voyage. This determination of the allied powers was notified on August 26th, in the London Gazette, with the resolution that all foreign vessels were to be excluded from communication with, or approach to, St. Helena, as long as it should be the residence of Napoleon Buonaparte. Although he quietly submitted to his fate, yet previously to his going on board the Northumberland he presented to Lord Keith a memorial, in which, in the face of heaven and of men, he solemnly protested against what he termed the violation of his most sacred rights, by the forcible disposal of his person and his liberty; adding, that he came freely on board the Bellerophon, and that he was not the prisoner,

but the guest, of England. This, however, was a mis-statement of the case; for the fact was, that not being able in any other manner to escape what he justly regarded as a more urgent danger, he surrendered himself to the arms of that power from whom he was assured of present protection, but who had given him no expectation of being regarded otherwise than as a public enemy. It is unnecessary to detail the progress of the allied armies in obtaining possession of the places in France which still held out. Their immense superiority in number assured them final success); though the pertinacity of the defenders, fostered by that point of honour which acts so forcibly on the French military, long protracted this event, and was the occasion in some instances of a considerable loss of lives. In most cases the inhabitants were disposed to submit before the troops would listen to such a proposal, and civil conflicts were often added to the other calamities which were now pressing upon the country. Some commanders, who were ready to reeognize the authority of Louis, thought it their duty to resist the invasion of foreigners; for the most part, however, the army and its leaders retained their old attachments. The Duke of Albufera (Suchet) who was General of the army of the Alps, signed on July 12th a capitulation with the Austrians, for the city of Lyons, similar in its tenor with that concluded at Paris. His troops joined the French army of the Loire under Davoust, whose disposition, with that of his soldiers, long

continued

continued equivocal.

On July 16th however, he issued an order of the day, by which he communicated to his army the submission of the generals and officers to the government of Louis XVIII. and called upon the soldiers to hoist the white cockade and colours, acknowledging at the same time that he demanded from them "a great sacrifice." This example was followed by Gen.Clausel, who had held out Bourdeaux against the desires of the people, and on the 22d the white flag was hoisted in that city. The remaining suspicions of the affections of the army were manifested by an order issued at Paris, July 22d, from the governor of the first military division, enjoining all officers who had not followed and remained with the King, or were not born or domiciliated at Paris, to quit the capital between that time and the 1st of August, and also acquainting all non-commissioned officers and soldiers, under the same circumstances, that they should be sent back to their families free of expense: further directing that every military man in future arriving in Paris should make his appearance at the general staff of his division, and state his motives for coming.

Two royal ordinances were published on July 24th which denoted an increase of vigour and confidence in the restored government. By the first, a number of members of the former chamber of peers who had accepted seats in that summoned by Buonaparte, were declared to have abdicated their rank, and no longer to form part of that chamber. By the secend, a list was given of generals

and officers who betrayed the King before the 23d of March, or who attacked France and the government by force of arms, all of whom were ordered to be arrested and brought before courtsmartial; and another list, more numerous, of persons who were ordered to quit Paris within three days, and retire into the interior of France, to places to be indicated to them, where they were to remain under inspection, until the chambers should decide as to which of them ought either to depart the kingdom, or be delivered up to prosecution. In both these lists were many names frequently occurring in the accounts of past transactions. About the same time the minister for the department of justice, who was also provisional secretary for the interior, addressed a circular to the prefects, which implied much disorder and faction still subsisting in the provinces. It authorized the prefects to suspend from their functions such of the subprefects, mayors, secretaries-general, and counsellors of prefecture, whose retirement they might deem necessary for the public tranquillity, and to appoint others provisionally to fill their places; this power, however, only to continue for a month.

The freedom of the press, from which a royal ordinance of August 2d had removed all restrictions, was soon found by the government to be too dangerous an instrument to be committed to the hands of the disaffected in the present conjuncture; and on the 8th the Duke of Otranto made a report to the King on the subject. He observed, that "at all times,

perhaps,

perhaps, it is impossible to give the same extent of liberty to the publication of journals and periodical works; and in the existing state of France, and of Europe, in the midst of so many passions which the powers wish to tranquillize, the journals which foster and excite those passions ought to be submitted to another legislation." This remark was introductory to a proposed ordinance which was adopted by the King, and the substance of which consisted in a revocation of all the licences given to public journals of every kind, up to the present time, which were not to appear again without fresh authority from the minister of police; and the submitting of all periodical writings to the examination of a commission to be appointed by the same minister. The declared necessity of such a measure paints more forcibly the political condition of the country at that period, than any partial details could do. Nothing was of so much importance to the security of the government as the organization of a new army in the place of that which was to be disbanded. On August 11th a proclamation was issued relative to this subject, which began with the observation that, "inasmuch as it has been endeavoured to detach the army from the interests of the country for the purpose of making it a mere instrument of a personal and inordinate ambition, in the same degree it is essential for the public order to maintain that which is about to be formed in the principles of a truly national army." A statement then followed of the number and species

of troops of which the active military force of France was to consist; and an ordinance, containing the details of the new army. The great mass of infantry was to be composed of 86 legions of three battalions each, one legion to be raised in every departinent, and to bear its name. The soldiers to be disbanded were allowed to enter, after examination, into the legion of the department to which they belonged. Marshal Macdonald had at this time been appointed to the command of the army on the Loire in the room of Davoust. Measures were taken for bringing to justice those officers who were denounced as traitors: Labedoyere was under trial, and was soon after condemned and executed; Ney had been apprehended; and Brune, in order to avoid the like fate, shot himself. By a royal ordinance of August 19th the constitution received the improvement of making the peerage hereditary.

France was still far from being in a state of internal tranquillity. Party feuds raged in many places, and were attended with the outrages commonly incident to such quarrels, aggravated by the impetuous passions of the nation, and the long habits of military violence. Several relations had been published of the ferocious and cruel acts perpetrated at Nismes and in its vicinity, a part of the kingdom in which the protestants bear the greatest proportion to the catholics; when, on Sept. 2d, the King issued a proclamation with the following preamble. "We have learned with pain that in the department of the South, several of our subjects have recently

recently committed the most criminal excesses-that under the pretext of acting as ministers of public justice, Frenchmen gratifying their hatred and private revenge, have shed the blood of Frenchmen, even since our authority has been universally established and acknowledged throughout the whole extent of our kingdom. It is true that great crimes, infamous treasons, have been committed, and plunged France into an abyss of calamities: atrocious persecutions have been exercised against such of our faithful subjects as, following the banners of our dearly beloved nephew (the Duke of Angouleme), have courageously endeavoured with him to save France: but the punishment of these crimes ought to be national, solemn, and regular." The proclamation proceeded in this strain, hoping that this odious attempt to anticipate the action of the laws had already ceased, and expressing a conviction that his Majesty's voice would not be heard in vain in a country where he had "received so many proofs of loyalty and affection." Such a reprimand was more a proof of favour than of displeasure, and threw the wrong rather upon the sufferers of present injury, than upon the party inflicting it. The fact appears to have been, that the protestants in France were in general inclined to the cause of Buonaparte, who had not only been always a friend to reiigious toleration, but in his new ecclesiastical establishment had made a legal provision for the protestant clergy. As, where opposite sects are nearest to a parity, their mutual animosity is most rancorous,

it is probable that in this quarter party differences, religious and political, subsisted with uncommon violence, and each in its turn may have taken occasion from the circumstances of the time to wreak its vengeance upon the other. The King's proclamation alludes to persecutions exercised upon the royalists during the sway of the usurper. Whatever they might have been, they were returned with usury as soon as the Bourbons were restored to power; and falling chiefly or solely upon the protestants, they took the character of a religious persecution, and were marked with its peculiar severity. If the relations are to be depended upon, the barbarities practised against the protestant inhabitants of Nismes and its vicinity would have disgraced a nation of savages. The oppressed party took up arms, apparently in self defence, and disorders prevailed in the department which the authority of the government was unable to repress. On August 30th, Count Neipperg, commander of a division of the Austrian army, published a proclamation at Nismes, informing the inhabitants of the departments in which his troops were quartered, that he had received orders to concur with the civil and miltary authorities appointed by the King, in maintaining the public tranquillity, and that he should particularly assist in the measure of disarming.Disturbances, however, still continued to prevail in that part of France, and at a late period of the year, the protestants at Nismes were obliged by the popular violence to suspend their public wor

ship. They transmitted to other countries, especially to England, memorials of the sufferings to which they had been, and still were, exposed, and which seemed to imply neglect or prepossesion against them in their own go

vernment.

The crown, in the meantime, was gradually establishing its authority in the midst of contending parties, and obtaining that ascendency which hereditary monarchy can scarcely fail to acquire, if administered with prudence and moderation. In September a considerable change was made in the French ministry, the Duke of Otranto (Fouche) whose service under the late usurpation had rendered him obnoxious to the royliststs, having resigned, and the Duke of Richelieu, a nobleman who had passed many years as a loyal emigrant, being placed in the important post of secretary for foreign affairs. On October 6th the King published an ordinance nominating a privy council, among the members of which were many persons of the highest rank. On the 7th the opening of the Chambers took place at a royal sitting, where the King delivered a speech relative to the present state of affairs. He said that he had concluded with the powers which, "after having destroyed the usurper, still occupy a great part of our territory," a convention which would, without reserve, be laid before the assembly as soon as it had received its final ratification. He mentioned having ordered a considerable part of his civil list for the year to be paid into the treasury of the state, and having made similar

diminutions in the salaries of his servants, and in all other expenses; he expressed and inculcated great respect for the constitutional charter, and touched upon the important objects requiring their attention in order to heal the wounds of the state, and restore internal tranquillity. The oaths were then taken by the peers and deputies, of fidelity to the King, and obedience to the constitu→ tional charter.

The situation of Louis XVIII. although thus surrounded with the legal authority of the nation, was at this time peculiarly hard and difficult. His obligations on one hand to the allied powers, who had placed him, and still maintained him, on the throne; and on the other, to his own people, now galled and bowed down under the yoke of those allies; produced a conflict of feelings and duties which must have proved extremely harassing. A circumstance which exposed him to particular mortification was passing directly in his view. The museum of the Louvre, rendered by a long series of French conquests the richest receptacle of the arts in Europe, had, notwithstanding some reclamations, been left untouched at the capitulation of Paris in the former year. In the convention of the present year, the provisional government made a demand that it should be equally respected; but the allied generals are said to have written in pencil opposite to the article, not granted; and the general article respecting public property was afterwards interpreted as not applying to the fruits of violence. At least it may be said,

that

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