The National Register. — London, England, 1808-09-19 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 598 MESSAGE OF TILE EMPEROR AND KING NAPOLEON TO TIIE SENATE. 44 SENATORS—My Minister for Foreign Affairs will lay before you the different treaties relative to Spain, and the constitutions agreed to by the Spanish Junta. Aly War Minister will ac quaint you with the wants and the situation of my armies in the different parts of the world. " I am determined to carry on the war with Spain with the utmost activity, and destroy the armies which England has dis embarked in that country. The future security of my subjects, the prosperity of commerce, and a maritime peace must alike depend on these important operations. " My alliance with the Emperor of Russia extinguishes every hope which England can entertain from her projects. I have no doubts respecting the peace of the Continent, but 1 neither will nor ought to rely upon the false calculations and the errors of other Courts, and since my neighbours in crease their armies, it is a duty incumbent on me to increase wine. " The Empire of Constantinople is struggling with the most violent convulsions ; Sultan Stint', the best Emperor the Otto mans have had for a length of time, has just fallen by the hands of his own nephews. This catastrophe has deeply affected me. I impose fresh sacrifices on my people, confident of their sup port ; they arc necessary, in order to secure them from heavier sacrifices, and to lead them to the grand result of a geneval peace, which ought also to he considered as the moment of repose. " Frenchmen, my projects have but one object in view.— your happiness and the permanent well-being of your children; and if I know you right, you will hasten to comply with this new call, rendered necessary by the interests of the country.. You have so often assured me of your affection, I will behold the sincerity of your sentiments in the alacrity with which you a ill second projeets that are so intimately connected with your dearest interest,, with the honour of the Empire, and with my glory. Given at the Imperial Palace of St. Cloud, this 4th Sept. 1808. he authorized to call to your standatri, ilk. whole of the cnu_ Seri pt ion, not only of the last four years, hut even of the ante cedent years; and even were there question of a real sacrifiv., what sacrifice is it that your Majesty has not a right to expect from the love of your subjects ? Who among us is 4;ilnrant that your Majesty wholly sacrifices yourself for the happiness of France, and that upon the speedy accomplishment of his high designs, the repose of the world, the future safety, and the re-establishment of a maritime peace, without which France can never enjoy calm and tranquillity. " In proposing to your Majesty to declare, that henceforth no retrospective call shall take place on an antecedent corstrip lion, I only participate, Sire, your paternal wishes. " I think it expedient, at the same time, to propose to ‘ O , l . Majesty to order out the conscription of the year lt4lo, ao:d to determine the amount of it, from the present instant, at KM) inert, to furnish the means, as occasion rett:, require, of I. , rniii-44- camps of re,erve, and of protecting the coast in the sprilig This conscription would be raised only under the apiorenen slim of a war with other powers, nor would it be called bof.ne the month of January next._ _ _ _ " Sire, it is a misfortune inseparable from the present knife of Europe, that when one power exceeds the amount of the fogies proportioned to its population, the other pot% ers cannot dispewe with encrea,ing theirs in the same proportion. " England, independent of the immense number of her Qea_ men, has on foot an army of more than Voo,olio men ; nor is she occupied in every session of her Parliament a ith an. thing ,0 much as with the increase of her land forces. The armies of Austria hate been considerably encreased. France, althilign she has armies more numerous than all the other Powers, tar:, notwithstanding, fewer men under arms than ant of them, im p:ll.ml with her population. . _ . " Your Minister for Foreign Affairs assures me that a strict alliance subsisted between your Majesty and nu , sia. The ar maments of Austria have often excited my solicitude. The smile Minister assured me, that the best understanding was kept up ith Austria, and that her levies should only he oh.mered either as precautions, or as the effect of apprehce,ions, hich are forcibly impressed on every Court, b. the numerous /I,..its which England continues in pay on the Continent. " But if it does not belong to the business of in deratmert to dive into the views and interests of states, and t!ie fortuitous labyrinth of politics, it is at least my duty to neglect nothig to make your Majesty's an:jos maintain, at all pnint , , that just superiority which they ought to posses , . The Atini,s of Albania and Dalmatia, of Demtmrk, and of the Elbe, not allow of any diminution, under ;he circumstances of the moment. 64 What I have to propose to your Majesty will give ?Le army of Spain 200,000 men, without weakening the other armies ; so that, notwithstanding the angmentati.•n of our nirce beyond the Pyrenees, when the conscription of 1.5 1 0 shall he called out, sour Majesty will have increased vour armies of Germany, of the North, and of Italy, by more than eo,ooti men. " And when, in order to escape the crisis into which she has been drawn by a false as w ell as an angry policy, the English Goverment, exerting every . where its activity, does not hesitate to comhine with the resources it draws from its inexhau4ible finances and its formidable fleets, the arts of intrigue, of corn; p. t ion and imposture, ould it be at all extraordinary that the immence population of France should hold out the spectacle of a million of armed Men ready to punish Loglaud and all tho , a whom she may seduce; and present every where the same huge mass of force, to protect with the same shield the honour aud security of France. " NN hat other result, Sire, is there to he expected from ar mies so numerous, and a position so formidable, but the speedy re-establishment of the tranquillity of Spain, that of a maritime peace, and of that general tranquillity, the object of your Ma jesty's incessant wishes? Much blood will has e been spared, be cause a great number of men will have been ready to shed it. A tlarable happiness prepared hv the combinations of your power ful genius, will he the effect, Sire, of the new proofs ofallection and attachment which sour people will afford you, and of the noble aspect of that nation, w Melt your Majesty has pointed to posterity under the name of the Great Nation. " War Minister, and, under this denomination, the organ of the French soldiers, allow me, Sire, to be the interpreter of their sentiments for you. Your Majesty shall always see us ready to sacrifice our lives for your glory, which is iaseparaide from the national glory, to which you have so powerfully addetl, mid for the important interests of the country. " I am, w ith respect, Sic." (Signed) REPORT OF Tur. WAR MINISTER TO HIS MAJESTY, LMPEROR AND KING. " NAPOLEON." SIRE—I have the honour of laying before your Majesty the state and situation of your Majesty's armies in Poland, in Prus sia, and in Silesin, in Denmark, in Dalmatia, in Albania, in Italy, Naples, and in Spain. I annex to it that of your Ma jestv 's armies of reserve, at Boulogne, on the coasts of the Rhine, and in the interior. Your Majesty will perceive that France never befnre possessed more numerous or better appoint ed armies, and that they were never better kept up or better provisioned, " Is; ot ithstanding, however, the different events which have taken place in Spain, have occasioneda pretty considerable loss, in comequence of an operation as inconceivable as it is painful, of the division under Ceneral Dupont, your Majesty has notified the resolution you have taken t.f asseinhlinz more than t on hundred thousand men, beyond the Ps retires, without, however, weakening either the armies in Gernelny, or that of Dalmatia. For the attainment of this end, a levy of eighty ththisand men appears to be indlspensible. Your 'Alajesty can only take these eighty thousand from the four-rl: , s , ,es of the conscription of the years 18(16, 1807. 1508, and 1509. " It is ascertained by the reAisters kept in my office, that in dependently of the men who have mat ried within these four years, the conscription far these years might furnish six hun dred thousand. In taking from that number a levy of eighty thousand men, your Majesty will have called out only one con script out of seen. and the vacancies in 11w armies will be filled up with soldiers of 21, 22, and 23 years of age ; that is, with men fit and prepared to undergo the fatigues of war. " Nor as it escaped your 1 1 .l.i.jesWs foresight, that such an augmentation of force would neces-arily involve an increase of expellee of several millions in the War Departelent. It is not your Majesty's wish that I shoald detain your attention whit that object in this report : your Finance Minister has taken upon him to make good that charge, without in anywise In creasing the taws cstabli4ted by the last Inw. " It — is true, Sire, that the custom ntPerved of late years, might, to a certain degree, indure a part of 'our subjects to consider themselves as released from the duty of the conscription Prom the moment, that upon the total mass, they had furnished time contingent required for the year; and under this point of view, shat I propose to your ,11:ijesty, might appear to re quire from your subjects a sacrifice; hut, Sire, there is no one but knows, that by the words of the law, your Majesty would t~ . SEPTEMBER 19. .. . I • •