five years of sacrifices, a constitution, liberty, and the monarch of our choice.

"Sire! you will triumph. We rejoice by anticipation at a victory so legitimate, and at the glorious and permanent tranquillity which will be the fruits of it. Yes, Sire! we have an assurance that when our enemies shall announce the chimerical hope of prescribing laws to us, you will love peace as you love glory. We shall be indebted to you for liberty and happiness; and all France, now ready to fight if necessary, will love you as a good king, after admiring you as the greatest of warriors."

The emperor listened to them with the greatest courtesy, and thus replied:

"Soldiers and Federates!I returned to France alone because I reckoned on the affection of the peasants through the whole of France, and the artisans of the principal cities. My expectations have not been deceived.

"Confederated Soldiers! I see you around me with pleasure. You have robust arms and brave hearts. I accept your offers. I will give you arms. You shall form the light troops of the Parisian national guard, to which, in conjunction with you, I commit the defence of my capital.

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Tranquil as to the result of the contest, I shall proceed to the frontiers to manœuvre the army, and to defend our territory if the kings shall dare to attack it. The honour of the French, the rights of the people, and my throne, are under your keeping, and under that of the people of the country and the villages. We will cause the national sovereignty and independence to be respected." When he concluded, the air was rent with acclamations, and the federates dispersed, proud of the honour which they had received, and burning to prove their zeal in the emperor's cause.

The electors, who had hastened from the departments of Paris to be present at the solemnities of the Field of May, finding that the ceremony was delayed to June, and that no discussions or changes were admitted, returned indignantly to their homes, without waiting to join in the assembly. Some, less occupied, or more curious, forming about a tentli part of the electors convoked, whiled

away their time at Paris till the day appointed for the spectacle. A spacious temporary amphitheatre had been erected for the Champ de Mars, calculated to contain about 15,000 persons, seated, and covered by an awning. These were the electors and the military deputations. military deputations. The sloping banks which arise round the Champ de Mars were crowded with people, and its immense plain was filled with cavalry. Here an altar was placed opposite the throne, which was erected within the amphitheatre. An assembly, composed of the electors remaining at Paris, was held on the day preceding that of the Champ de Mai, to hear the result of the registers for and against Napoleon's additional act. The votes were already enumerated by the clerks of the minister of the interior, and the preliminary assembly heard them proclaimed without examining their validity. As, therefore, no scrutiny was made, and none of the votes were examined, the voting for the constitution was equally defective with that for his elevation to the throne on his first accession. The number of voters in the whole of France is supposed to amount to four millions, and one million three hundred thousand votes appeared upon the registers. Even those who do not admit the authenticity of the signatures, or the independence of the voters, must confess that a great proportion of the inhabitants of France might retain the most zealous attachment to Buonaparte without disclosing their sentiments in so critical an emergency. The issue of the approaching contest was uncertain, and were the allies successful, the imputation of having voted for the additional act might subject the voters individually to punishment, or oppression. On the following day Napoleon arrived at the Champ de Mai, amidst the enthusiastic acclamations of the people. He was accompanied by his three brothers, Lucien, Joseph, and Jerome. These principal performers in the pageant appeared on the foreground of the scene, and were distinguished from the other figures by their Roman costumes. The electors sat under the rotunda, and the grand national authorities occupied seats of dignity in its front. The

officers of the crown were behind the emperor, his ministers surrounded him, and the

generals stood at his side. Three hundred thousand spectators occupied the remaining part of the field, or surrounded the enclosure. The ceremony began with high mass, and the members of the central deputation of the electoral colleges, amounting to five hundred, were then presented to Napoleon by the arch-chancellor. The following speech was then delivered by the deputy appointed to harangue the emperor, and which he pronounced standing on the steps of the throne: "The French people have decreed you the crown. You resigned it without their consent. Their suffrages have just imposed upon you the duty of resuming it.

"What does the confederacy of the allied kings require? By what act have we afforded a pretext for their aggression?

"They dare to proscribe you personally,you who have so often been master of their capitals, and have generously confirmed them on their tottering thrones. But this hatred on the part of your enemies only adds to our love for you. If they proscribed the least known of our citizens, it would be our duty to defend him with the same energy; he would, like you, be under the ægis of the law, and of the power of France.

"Do they ask guarantees? They are in all our institutions. Do they dread to recal other times? Let them beware how they reproduce them. It would not be the first time that we have conquered all Europe in arms against us.

Expect from us, Sire! all that an heroic leader has a right to expect from a nation faithful, energetic, generous, unshaken in its principles, invariable in the objects of its efforts independence of foreign powers, and liberty at home.

"Sire! nothing is impossible for us-nothing shall be omitted to secure our honour and independence, treasures dearer to us than life. We say to the nations-may their chiefs attend to us!-If they accept your offers of peace, the French people will expect from your strong, liberal, and paternal administration, the means of consolation for the sacrifices that peace has cost; but if they leave us only the choice between war and disgrace, the entire nation will rise up for war. It is ready to disengage you from the offers, per

haps too moderate, which you have made to spare Europe a new convulsion? Every Frenchman is a soldier. Victory will follow our eagles, and our enemies, who reckoned on divisions among us, will soon regret having provoked us."

The energy of the speaker communicated itself to the whole assembly, and the field resounded with the shouts of "The Nation for ever! The Emperor for ever!"

The arch-chancellor now pronounced the result of the votes, by which it appeared that the additional act was almost unanimously accepted.

The herald-at-arms then proclaimed, "In the name of the emperor, I declare that the additional act to the constitutions of the empire has been accepted by the French people!" Fresh acclamations were heard on every side.

A table was then brought in front of the throne, on which was placed the additional act, and the emperor sanctioned it with his signature.

The table being withdrawn, Napoleon again seated himself on the throne, and uncovering himself for a moment spoke as follows:

"Gentlemen, electors of colleges, of departments, and arrondissements!— "Gentlemen, deputies from the army and navy to the Champ de Mai!

"Emperor, consul, soldier! I hold every thing from the people. In prosperity, in adversity, in the field of battle, in council, on the throne, in exile, France has been the rule and constant object of my thoughts and actions.

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Like the king of Athens I sacrificed myself for my people, in the hope of witnessing the realization of the promise given to guarantee to France her national integrity, her honours, and her rights.

"Indignation on beholding those sacred rights, acquired by twenty-five years of victory, slighted and lost for ever; the cry of insulted French honour, and the wishes of the nation, have brought me back to that throne which is dear to me, because it is the palladium of the independence, of the honour, and the rights of the people.

"Frenchmen! in my progress amidst the

public joy, through the different provinces of the empire to my capital, I had every reason to reckon upon a long peace. Nations are bound by the treaties concluded by their governments, whatever they may be.

"My thoughts were then wholly engaged with the means of founding our liberty on a constitution conformable to the wishes and the interests of the people. I convoked the Champ de Mai.

"I was soon apprized that the princes who have violated all principles, who have shocked the public opinion, and the dearest interests of so many nations, design to make war upon us. They meditate the increase of the kingdom of the Netherlands; they would give it for barriers all our northern frontier fortresses, and would make up the quarrels which still divide them, by sharing among themselves Lorraine and Alsace.

"It was necessary to prepare for war.

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However, before personally exposing myself to the risks of battles, my first care was to give without delay a constitution to the nation. The people has accepted the act which I presented to it.

"Frenchmen! when we shall have repelled these unjust aggressions, and Europe shall be convinced of what is due to the rights and independence of twenty-eight millions of Frenchmen, a solemn law, enacted according to the forms prescribed by the constitutional act, shall combine the different provisions of our constitutions that are now scattered.

"Frenchmen! you are about to return into your departments. Tell the citizens that circumstances are momentous !!!-that with union, energy, and perseverance, we shall come off victorious from this struggle of a great people against its oppressors; that future generations will severely scrutinize our conduct; and that a nation has lost all when it has lost its independence. Tell them, that the foreign kings whom I either raised to the throne, or who are indebted to me for the preservation of their crowns, who all, in the time of my prosperity, courted my alliance and the protection of the French people, are now aiming their blows at my person. If I did not see that it is against the country that they are really directed, I

would place at their mercy this life, against which they manifest so much animosity.But tell the citizens also, that while the French shall retain for me the sentiments of attachment of which they have given so many proofs, the rage of our enemies will be impotent. Frenchmen! my will is that of the people: my rights are their rights: my honour, my glory, my happiness, can never be distinct from the honour, the glory, and the happiness of France!"

To this harangue succeeded the declaration of the arch-chancellor, that the new charter was accepted by a vast majority of votes, and this was followed by a second appeal of the emperor to the electors, after which he signed the additional act, to which he swore, on the holy evangelists, to adhere. He then laid aside the imperial mantle, and rising from the throne, addressed the soldiers, confiding to their care the imperial and national eagles, as a proof of unlimited confidence in their fidelity. This oration was received with the most enthusiastic plaudits, the sound of the drum was drowned in the delirious shouts of the multitude, and crowds of soldiers and citizens pressed on to surround his person. Having extricated himself from the pressure of the electors, the troops were ordered to defile before him, and during two hours, which were occupied in the long procession of the battalions, the acclamations were incessant.

Thus ended the assembly of the Field of May, which contributed but little to the establishment of Napoleon's authority. His most upright advisers had whispered in his ear that he might convert the pageantry of the Field of May into a scene of real glory; that he had a noble act of magnanimity to perform, and might secure a permanent influence on the minds of the people, by voluntarily declaring, in the presence of the assembled empire,. his own abdication. He was reminded that all Europe was assembling on his frontiers, that its tremendous coalition might be at first resisted, but must eventually subdue; and that his crown and person would be the price of peace. He was called upon by every motive that could be urged, to do what, in truth, was only an act of prudent foresight, but which all future times

would applaud, as the generous resolve of a great and lofty spirit. He had but to declare that, seeing he was made the pretext of the cruel invasion with which France was me naced, he relinquished the empire he had regained, and withdrew in the hope of meriting the national gratitude. But a sacrifice of ambition to the cause of liberty, and the happiness of mankind, would be a phenomenon in the history of ancient or modern warriors.

On the Sunday which followed the céremony of the Field of May, the emperor went in his state carriage, attended by his female relatives, and preceded and followed by his numerous guards, in high military pomp, to instal the legislature. The chamber of representatives was composed of men who have been unjustly calumniated as the refuse of the revolution, and the friends of Buonaparte. Among the deputies were the names of Rochefoucault, Liancourt, D'Argenson, and De La Tour Mauburg, the opulent bankers Lafitte and Lafecte, many peers and members of the late house of representatives; Constant and La Fayette. The latter individual had resisted, in the course of his political career, every temptation that might have been expected to seduce a political character from the path of virtue, patriotism, and integrity. Among the many extraordinary patriots of the time in which we live, no man has undergone greater vicissitudes of fortune than La Fayette. At one time we behold him tearing himself from the fascinations of the most licentious court in Europe, and combating for the cause of liberty under the banners of Washington: at another, sowing the seeds of strife and dissaffection in his native country; then proscribed and hunted by his associates; afterwards a fugitive in a foreign and hostile land; and lastly, seized as a traitor and delivered up to the emperor of Germany, who immediately consigned him as a prisoner to the castle of Olmutz.

On his final liberation, and after his return to France, La Fayette was earnestly solicited to accept the dignity of a peerage; but he would receive nothing from the hands of Buonaparte that could be construed into a pledge of political subservience, and

his time was passed in the solitude of literary retirement till he was elected a member of the house of representatives for his own department. The first act of the chamber of representatives was the nomination of M. Lanjuinais as president. He was well known for his unshaken attachment to rational and constitutional liberty, and for his uniform opposition to every despotic act of Buona parte. An expression of his, uttered many years before, had shewn the sentiments which he entertained of Napoleon, and exposed him to the unrelenting fury of the tyrant;"What!" said he, in the debate on the proposition of conferring on Buonaparte the title of emperor, "are you so degraded as to give your country a master taken from a race of men so ignominious that the Romans disdained to use them even as slaves?"

Lanjuinais was before the revolution an advocate and professor of canon-law. He was a deputy of the tiers-etât to the statesgeneral, and one of the founders of the jacobin club, though never disgraced by the atrocities of that execrable society. In August 1789, he shewed that though he was an ardent friend to liberty, he was not disposed to league himself with the disciples of anarchy, for he warmly opposed the sequestration of the property of the clergy, yet he was the person who proposed the abolition of all titles, and objected to that of prince being still conferred on the members of the reigning family. When the reign of terror commenced, he closely allied himself with the moderate party. On the 15th of December, 1792, he spoke in favour of Louis XVI. and demanded that counsel and the means of defence should be granted to him. On the 26th of the same month he again appeared as the advocate of that unfortunate monarch. He exposed the injustice and atrocity of a trial in which the enemies of Louis were at once accusers, witnesses, jurymen, and judges; nor would he move from the tribune, although he was assailed with the most furious, outcries, and his voice repeatedly drowned by the most diabolical outcries and threats of revenge. On the nominal appeal, he declared that Louis XVI. was guilty, and voted that he should be imprisoned until a peace, and then banished.