The National Register. — London, England, 1815-10-08 00:00:00

' 4 , iiimmolimmewil_!.,!!!!!.lllll THE NATIONAL REGISTER. No. 406. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ...".....- VIEWS Or THE EUROPEAN POWERS IN TREATING WITH FRANCE. According to the repeated asseverations of the French Papers. a rist•enty of Peace has at last been concluded, the terms of which remain involved in considerable obscurity. As far as we are concerned, however, all is light. Imme diately after the return of Louis XVIII. to his capital, and the submission of the army and the country, the Ga zette Ojficirlle nnblished several notes from our Ministers, announrinqs, that as the war had been waged against Boo naparte, and its objects had been attained by his abdica tion and surrender, they considered the Treaty of Paris to have resumed its force, and consequently should act by its Qtlnelations. England and France, therefore, stand with regard to each other, in nearly the same situation as at this period last year. Our troops, it is true, occupy Montmartre, and in a few hours might reduce Paris to a Leap of ashes, but we are the guardians, not the destroyers, of French integrity and independence. The British co: - . 1 "Mrs do not wave in triumph over the fallen metropolis, but protect its helplessness. If there is any change, there fore, in our relations with France, she is the gainer ; for our friend hip at this moment and the presence of our troops, increase her importance in the eyes of the Allied Powers, and cause her to be treated with greater forbear ance and respect. Russia, who has only felt the aggres sion of the French as a spur to noble efforts, and who, whatever she may have suffered in the invasion of 1812, considers her losses trifling, when compared with th e immense increase of glory and power which that very campaign has been the cause of her obtaining, enter t tins no resentment against France, but rather dis plays a contrary feeling. She, therefore, is also dis posed to maintain the conditions of the Treaty of Paris, in all their force ; and, if she deviates a little from them, which is not 'yet certainly known, it is to pre vent a decided rupture with States whose sentiments are far more hostile. In adopting this course, she not Holy follows her own inclinations, but her favourite system of policy. Her willingness to leave France great and formidable, is not entirely disinterested. With that country she has no point of couto**o , VII. No, GCCCVL - • r'r , Q , Cur Sing, Constitution, anD tabs. PUBLISHED AT NO. 11, NEWCASTLE-STREET, STRAND. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1815. Pnrci 91d. therefore of contention. The curtailment, or the par tition of France, would yield her no advantage, nay, would materially injure her interests, as it would au,- ment the power of those nations which she regards as bar riers to her ambition. It would be idle, if not dan gerous, to attempt to disguise the fact. Russia does not act through motives of magnanitnity alone. Iles object for many years has been to extend her sway over the South of Europe, and the method which she has taken is the most likely to accomplish her purpose. She has seen the instability of possessions acquired by con quest. They are lost as they were gained, with violence and rapidity. Their magnitude excites alarm in some, their splendour jealousy in others, and all finish by join ing together against the State whose encroachments are at once too large and too barefaced. Craft had revealed this secret to her government, even before the downfall of Im perial France had blazoned it forth to the whole world. Acting on the principle, her march is slow, but secure. She exposes but little to chance, and obtains more through negociations than by force of arms. It is thus that by de grees she has extended her empire beyond the Vistula and nearly to the banks of the Oder. She is, in fact, silently reconstructing in the East of Europe, the gigantic domination which has been overthrown in the West. The Emperor of France and King of Italy has ceased, politically, to exist : but we now hp.‘ the Emperor of Russia and King of Poland, more mode rate in his tone, it is true, and clothing all his measures in a garb of disinterestedness and public spirit, but exer cising all the influence of his now fallen predecessor on the Continent. It is the wish of still augmenting this i: , - luences, and paving the way for fresh advances towards the west, that contributes to render the Emperor Alexander a supporter, not to say, a restorer, of France. If she fail from her eminence, and be no longer formidable amongst nations, Germany must prove impenetrable, and the Qder cannot be passed. Austria, Prussia, and the other German States, awake to their real interests, bound by a common tie, and diverted by no apprehension for the safety of their western frontiers, could pour a flood of strength against an Eastern invasion, that could not fail to repel its fury and to roll it back. to its source. But Austria, Prussia, and all Germany, kept in check hi their rear by a Posi ec `, G. A+~,~- --