The National Register. — London, England, 1813-01-03 00:00:00

.TA''. P. , 4 , 16 THE NATIANA REGISTER. your plans, but by resorting to the frightful resources of despotic governments s —creating desetts on all his frontiers, carrying conflagra tion into his provihces, and deliVering to the flames his capital,—the centre of his riches, and the groOstli of so many ages. " Those, Sire, who renewed these barbarous tactics of their savage ancestors, were ill acquainted with the heart of your Maj .sty. lt would have voluntarily renounced the trophies which were to be pur chased by so much blood, and so many , woes to humanity. " The ardour with which we see arriving from all the departments of the empire, under the colours of your Maje ty, the numerous soldiers called forth by the Senatus Coneultum of last September, furnishes an example of what your Majesty may expect from the zeal, patriotism, and warlike spirit of the French, to snatch from the in fluence of our enemies, the various portions of the Continent, and to conquer an lienourable and solid peace. " May your Imperial and Royal Majesty accept the tribute of gratitude, love, and inviolable fidelity of the Senate, and the French people." His Majesty replied as follows : " Senators—W hat you have said is very agreeable to me. I have at heart the glory and the power of France ; but my first thoughts are engaged by every thing that may perpetuate internal tranquillity, end place my people for ever in security against the rage of friction, and the horrors of anarchy. It is upon these enemies of the happi ness of nations that, with the consent and love of the French, I have founclei this throne, to which henceforward are attached the destinies of t he country. " A timid and cowardly soldiery ruin the independence of nations ; but pusillanimous magistrates destroy the empire of the laws, the rights of the throne, and social order itself. The noblest of deaths would be that of the soldier who falls in the field of honour, were not the death of a magistrate, perishing in de fence of his Sovereign, the throne, and the laws, more glorious still. " When I undertook the regeneration of France, I intreated of Providence a determinate ntirnher of years. Destruction is the work of a moment, but one cannot build up again without the assistance of time. The greatest want of a State is that of courageous magis trates. " Our fathers had for their rallying cry, " The King is dead— long live the King !" These few words comprehend the principal advantages of the monarchy. I believe I have deeply studied the spirit which my people have shewn in different ages ; I have reflected on what has happened in different epochs of our history ; I will still think of it. 44 The war which I maintain with Russia is a war of policy. I have waged it without animosity t I could have wished to spare her the misfortunes which she has caused herself. I should have been able to arm the greater part of her population against her, by pro claiming liberty to the slaves ; a great number of villages demanded it sat me : but when I perceived the brutality of that numerous class of the Russian people, I refused to accede to a measure which would have devoted many families to death and the most horrible punish ments. My army has sustained losses; but they arose from the pre mature severity of the season. " I accept the sentiments which you express towards me." Atter this audience, the Council of State, conducted and introduced with the same forms, were mesented to his Majesty, by his Serene Highness the Prince Arch-Chancellor of the Empire. His Excellency M. the Count Defermon, Minister of State, Presi dent of the Section of Finances, spoke as follows : " Sire, the first wish which the Members of your Council of State feel, in common with all your faithful subjects, is to lay at the feet of your Majesty's throne, their congratulations on your happy return ; and to express the sentiments of gratitude with which they .are in spired, on learning that your Majes.y is come to crown by your pre sence the hopes and wishes of your people. 4 1 Whilst in the absence of your Majesty, we were employing our selves in those labours with which you deigned to entrust us, and whilst every moment of our time was occupied in the execution of your orders, for the happiness and prosperity of the empire, we were far from conceiving that any Frenchman could fietget those sacred and protecting principles which have extricated us from anarchy, awl which should ever secure us from it. " Sire—lt was with the most profound grief that we witnessed the crime committed by a maniac, who, for a previous offence, had des served a punishment which your Majesty was so generous as to re mit ; but his attempt has only served to convince our old enemies of the fruitlessness of similar plots, and to prove anew the .sincere at tachment of all the functionaries of the empire to the constitution which your Majesty has given to it. Ail parties in the empire exhi bited proofs of their attachment ; and all your subjects have rivalled the public functionaries in respect for principles, and in attachment to your sacred person, and your august Majesty. " God, who protects France, will long preserve her from the greatest of misfortunes. But in such an event, every heart would rally around the Prince who is the object of our hopes and prayers ; and every Frenchman would renew at his feet the oaths of fidelity and of love for the Emperor whom the constitution would call to the soccession. " We have been touched with the recitals eontained in the last lin letin of the Gland Army. Whit admiration must not he excited by the d velopement of the most august character during that month of peril- and of glory, when the sufferings of the heart could take away nohe of its vigour from the intellect 1 " What sentiineat must not be inspired in a nation truly generous, by the faithful picture of its unforeseen losses, on perceiving that tha tutelary genius of France has known how to prevent their effects, and to make them the occasion of new glory ! Your Majesty never ap peared more fully at the summit of your destinies, than in those mo inents,. when fortune, by arming the elements, see:nel to endeavour to remind us that she could be ii constant. " Let our enemies exult, if they please, in the material losses, which the rigour of the season, and the severity of the climate occa sioned; but let than calculate our forces ; let them learn that there are no efforts or sacrifkes, of will, h, after the example of your Ma jesty, the French nation is not capable, in order to realize your glo , rious plans. " In return, Sire, for your labours and your paternal cares, we can only offer to your Majesty, in common with your whole empire, the expression of our sentiments of respect, admiration, and love. We venture to hope, that your Majesty will deign to accept this tribute with the same goodness with which von have invariably honoured the fifelity and devotion of your Council of State !" His Majesty replied as follows : e‘ Counsellors of State, every time that 1 re-enter France, my heart experiences the most Lvely satisfaction. It the people testify so much love for my son, it is because they arc impressed with the conviction of the advantages of monarchy. " It is to that ideal system, to those dark metaphysics, which, in pursuing with subtlety the search after first causes, seek to found opon their basis the legislation of nations, instead of accommodating laws to the knowledge of the human heart, and to the lessons of history, that we must attribute all the misfortunes which our favoured France has experienced. These errors necessarily, and in reality, did lead to the regime of men of blood. Who proclaimed the principle of insurrection to be a duty ? Who flattered the people by proclaiming a sovereignty which it was incapable of exercising ? Who destroyed the sanctity of and respect for the laws, by making them depend, not upon the sacred prim iples ofjostice, the nature of things, and of civil justice, but solely Oa the will of an assembly composed of men, strangers to the knowledge cf civil, criminal, administrative, and military laws ? When a man is called to regenerate a State, he must follow principles directly opposite. History paints the human heart ; it ism history that he must search for the advantages and in conveniencies of dillerent modes of legislation. Such arc the principles which the State Council of a great empire should never lose sigl,t of ; it must unite to them a courage superior to every trial ; and, after the examples of the Presidents Harlay and Mole, be ready to perish in defence of the Sovereign, the Throne, and the Laws. 44 I appreciate the proofs of attachevent which the Cotmcil of State has given in every circumstance. I accept its sentiments." BUONAPARTE's OVERTURES TO THE RUSSIANS. LAURISTON was received by Prince K UTUSOfF, in the midst of all his Generals. lie opened the conference by saying, he had been sent to demand an armistice, and to beg the Prince to transmit to his Ma jesty a letter from Buonaparte, which would centain proposals for peace, in order to cause the cessation of that horrible effusion of blood which had been shed with so much desperation and barbarity. The PRINCE replied, that he was not authorised to receive any pro posal either for peace or armistice; and that unquestionab . y he would not receive any letter addressed to his Majesty ; that, betties, it was his duty to declare, that the Russian army was in possession of too many advantages, to throw them away by an armistice, of which it had no need. _ I. AUR ISTON observed, that the war must one day come to a termi nation, for it could not last for ever—especially in the barbarous man ner in whiLh it was conducted._ Prince Ku-row?? replica, that barbarism had be n introduced into hostilities by the French revolutionists, and followed up to the greatest extent by Buonaparte himself. It was true, that the war could - not be eternal • but peace could never he talked of till the French were beyond the, Vistula. That Russia had not provoked the war ; for the Emperor, by falling with all his forces t o the ma,,,azines and troops in Poland, might have annihilated all the preparations of Buonaparte oil the other side nt the Vistula, bcf rc he was in readiness to commence it ; but his Majesty wished neither to disturb the exist ing tranquility, nor to be- the aggressor, and to the last hoped to pre serve peace : that Buonaparte had entered Russia even without a de clarati-n of war, and devastated a great part of the empire : that he had nothing to do but to get out of Mbscow how lie could, since he came thither without being invited; . while, on our it became our duty to do him as much mischie f a 4 possitite': that when lie pro clamed the campaign terminated it Moscow, the H ucsians viewed it :es only commencing; if he did noilenovv thikilready, he should soon he taught it by exi;erience. LAURISTON—'• Since, then, there is no hope of peace, it will rlotibt less be nee:es:ray to march ; but in departing, it will again be nem-