The National Register. — London, England, 1815-08-20 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Tux lung, Constitution, ants Laths. PUBLISHED AT NO. 11 NEWCASTLE-STREET; STRAND. N o . 399. SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, ISM PRICE 94 POLITICAL DISQUISITION. FRANCE AS IT WAS, AS IT IS, AND AS IT WILL BE. This is an age in which we may exclaim, " how are the mighty fallen !" how great is the fragility of human power ! An awful lesson, which they ought the more deeply to remember, as they were made its agents, has been given to the monarchs of the earth. The have learnt that nei ther conquest, nor extended territory, the utmost capa cities of genius, nor the fame of invincibility, the force of millions, nor the servitude of half a world, can support a throne whose foundation is injustice, whose sway despot ism. They have been taught in what true greatness con sists, and what forms its security. They see that the persons of kings themselves are no longer placed beyond the reach of events, and feel that it behoves them, in the height of 'prosperity, to sow such seeds, as in the dark hour of misfortune will produce a full harvest of public respect and affection. If they forget the terrible example of chastised ambition which France and her Ruler present, let them beware, they are not invulnerable. Because one scourge is destroyed, - let them not fancy that Heavenly wrath can find no other minister. We lately took a view of the tremendous change which a few weeks produced in the situation of Napoleon. Let us now consider that of France. It has long been a prevalent error to sink the glories and crimes of that country into those of its ruler; as though Buonaparte could have even threatened the tranquillity of Europe, or gathered a single triumphal wreath without the full consent and active co-operation of the French ! What then have been the vicissitudes of fortune which in her wild and unprincipled chase after unbounded dominion, that nation has encountered ? Behold her in 1812. The continent was at her feet. Reduced into departments, a hundred states had disappeared to swell her population and feed her strength.. Th e Baltic dashed against her northern frontiers, whilst the German Ocean , the Atlantic the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic, bathed her shores. A line of vassal king s covered her inl an d b arr i er , w hil st b eyon d, t r ib u t ary mo. estrehies and empires, formed, as it were, the external Ir3ttresses of her power. She marshalled her hosts, aud Vo . l, vir No. CCC X(' I_V . . ,\, • ti• "1. beside her own, found twenty nations, ten sovereign Princes, six Kings, and one Emperor ranged under her banners, and glorying to march in her train. She con►- passed the earth with her armies. With one hand she shock the towers of Cadiz and the pillais of Hercules. With the other lighted the blaze of Moscow. Mankind saw the resistless strides of the Giant, and sunk appalled. Her enemies fled before her as chaff before the wind. She seemed to make the destinies of the world.—Where now stands the towering Colossus ? It has vanished, and 4Snly a few ruins lie scattered on the ground. The eye, so long arrested by its bulk, as by a mountain that covered - and crushed the face of Europe, now wonders at its absence as it glances over the wrecks. The conqueror of nations is conquered : the enslaver of monarchs is chained. France has been. The Kings who gave her their kingdom, and agreed to falll her will, now " make. her desolate and naked." They reward her, as she rewarded them, and double unto her according to her works. She said in her heart, I sit a Queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow ; but the plagues are come upon her and all her vein glo ries are passed away. Dis►nembered of all her conquests, a captive in her own capital, spoiled of her trophies and monuments, spurned at, and bruised under foot, she no•.o supplicates for mercy in the dust. Her misery and degrik dation are as deep as her height of power was unexam pled. It is probable, however, that the generosity of her conquerors will spare her national existence. They have replaced her legitimate sovereign on the throne ; and ty disarming her of all power to injure . the world, will en deavour to raise her anew to respec!ability. But the attempt we arc convinced, will ultimately . fail Tl , e spirit of France is her greatest enemy. It is so hcs.• tile to peace, so maddened with resentment and io hot for revenge, that whenever the Allies shell have retired, and a short breathing pause shall have re vived the blind confidence of humiliated" pride, the French will either- force Louis XVIII to rush into a new continental war ; er, if he resist the torrent, he will be overthrown and a more subservient chief elected to guide their hostility, and avenge what they call their honour, by the devastation of Europe. Such an effort however, made with reduced forces, and without ai etu- ;~ ~\ .~