The Sun. — London, England, 1813-09-24 00:00:00

INVASION OF FRANCE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE SLIC SIR—A hind at controversy has been lately carried on . in the public Journals, on the expe diency of invading France front the South. The taking of St. Sebastian's, and the probable fall of Pamplona, give tlu question more importance than before—writers Of some eminence have adopt- ea the opposite skies---I can take but one. •it is my full Opinion, 'that the attempt ought to be made, but under provisions different froth those which have been usually' contemplated. The ge neral argurnetit is, that the internal strength of France is sufficient to defy attack ; that its whole strength devoted to she cause, or obedient to the . influence of its present Rider, and that by consequence, 'foreign ,success, however brill ait or rapid, or, oversilstslini'ng, must' he arrested . .at the frontier.. If this ,were true, we might throw away our arths and Our hopes together, for Prance,. untouched -within, will be always dangerous and a disturber. Bat I doubt the major, I snore than doubt the minor, and with it the conclusion fails. The people of Prance Cannot be attached to NA yoLLoN. What generates the attachment of a nation ? ' The manlier virtues, generous valour, personal sacrificeg to the tate, liberality, un- Sullied honour', magnanimity, the lu , ive of a tlistiiaguiabed ancestiy. Meaner qualities may attract a Court, but the virtues that impress a great people must be natural, genuine. great. Without those there , may be fear and reluctant obedience ; but no zeal, no reve rence, nothing of. that solid and enlivening at tachment on - which the trial of an internal war must turn, and which,,,_ while the sovereign and the soldier struggle in the more active hostility, brings forward the irresiitible defence of the people- 7 like the mightier Ajax, to hold tke shield while his brother knelt behind and drew the bow. Did who has found those in NAPOLEON? An ob scure parentage and despised, country sent bins out to be the master and the oppressor of men proverbially protul of the distinction of having been born in France, and even, under the disci pline of a levelling revolution, 'not yet weaned of theirnational prejudice for noble birth. If Frenchmen are not incapable of reason, in what other language can they speak of him, than as history will speak,--as of a man unfitted equally by circumstance and nature for his rank,--4f one who, raised to an unparalleled elevaticin, could nk:ver reach the art of dignity : diminishing as lie rose,—less great as the head of a republic than as the head .of army,—less as a despot than as a tribune; almost on the summit of universal do minion, tottering rand vertiginous, till he abandoned his bold, and plunged from it by his osvn Of fortunes too memorable to be forgotten, and of qualities too debasing tObe renowned. Burst lug out from darkness and blood, a fierce and fiery phenomenon, deserving to be marked among the signs of the times, he found the atmosphere of France full of conflicting elements-4e gathered them into his .train, enflamed them, and burned along, drawing the eye from the loftier and calmer lights that were still left to the world—but estrous, lurid, earthly. 'His spirit a compound of warring influences—adarice and ambition, the love of popularity, the rage of unlimited power; ferocious' but dissembling, daring but subtle-- headlong in the plan,cunbing in the execution, violent in the use of force, but instinctively stooping to perfidy Rash, frantic, , ungovern able, and pliantsmooth, artificial, brave, and a soldier often, generous and a Hero, never ! He came into the world in the heaving of a Re volution, too young and too buoyant to struggle or to sink, he suffered himself to be carried on by the mere impulse of the waves—saw his compa•L nions parilli one by one, from the very exhaustion of their matnrer eirtirts left them to perish, and . was thrown upon the shore tatmoA alone. In a COllllllOll we altil of murderers, his morality found no impediment. 'lts Corsica, Obscure and cited, lie would have been the most unthinking of aSsailins, and his light would have been 'ex tinguished in a dungeen=in France, elevated and, inflamed, he found a huger field for MUrder, and I may have found the throne only a wore circuitous route to the same cud. His original passion, a thirst of power,--his original vire, a thirst of hlood,--compelled the confidence of a Regicide Government.. They called hint to the support of their Throne ; he louud it falling asunder ; he shook them from it, fir rung into their sluatered seat, find girt it with a band of steel. dograded i people looked with fu ll i GrenCe on tbe CiVit wnr of treason and tvraily ; perjure(l Pontiff stood ready to confirm the eon- . queror ; the treachery was haliowed into a title France, that had eihited the indolent }lamallity of a Monarch, loved and legi intte, with a scai?cal 1, by a inonStrotts eontradicti9.l, VeWilVded tlie Man of Massacre w ith a Crown. On that throne be still sits, but he sits insecure : bis sceptre a truncheon---war his policy..--terror leis ITICan!. As he found his supremacy without a basis is the aTections of his people, so he has kft it—insulated and unstayed, the first inclina. tion must draw it headlong ; its momentary soli dity must make its fall more fatal, and be-must be 1 ,crushed ,in its ruin. , There - is no resource ; he I cannot retreat into his original liberty ; the heart of the world is against him ; there is no place for 1011 among men, The tiger, t! ached by his own blood, cannot escape into the. forest ; evety spring attracts a new wound : the circle - of the hunters •is pressing him to one point ; he can onlyretreat into the den that he has dug.* himselGiand die op his spoils. i .. ~.... The rank of a ; Sovereignoiithout:the temper . of a Governor, gave him only ii:dre phtent means , • • of evil ; stricter slavery at ho t. ine'llercer ambition abroad. .The blaze of a crown deepened the shade of his vices. With great talents for the creation, ivith none for the„establishmenc of dominion, he mistook an empire for a camp, soldiers for sub. : , jeCts, Submissinn for allegiance:" By his condition he was prohibited from ministering to thehappities4 of his people. A Despot, he could not be a:Legis lator,' His system could provide no latent heat, . ~: no gentle and invisible influence to. cherish, to . ~.. soften, to vivify. All must be •upon the surface ;. all flaming and dazzling, anti reducing its sub stance to ashes. The consummation must soon come.--Where there is no honour but that of the sword, there is no other virtue.. But military des; •potism, dense as its - own steel, can only sparkle and mutilate; its keenness makes it only the more fragile. This , was his policy at home : chains for the body, darkness for the mind. His policy abroad, perpetual war, persecuting, ,inshlting, ruining, till be saw, the tribute and the,crowns of Europe at his feet; what. he began as a conquest he continued as a game. Another NERO, with the luxuries of empire exhaustetl; despairing -of-a-new pleasure, and finding his last delight in the amphi theatre, reduced to the bloody diversions of; un bounded power acting • .upon a- tyrant's mind, wrapped in his imperial purple, with his circle Of Senators and Prefects round him, only'to be sfl - by the sight of thousands of unhappy men, dragged from distant lands to exert a Mur derous courage for his sport,• to fight without hostility and perish without honour : yet Nano, all powerful upon the Rhine and the shores of the ocean, was feeble in hiS palace, and a !jingle manly blow revenged the. world. This is NApoceon to the Politician; to the Philosopher he .exhibits the darker aspect of a being inexorably cut off from the sympathies of life, moving upon the earth more like a fallen ' spirit than a living -man ; powerfol, stein; en:. grossed by one fearful purpose ; and subtle, swift, impassive, as if condemned by a- superior will- to his joyless and perpetual course; restlesS, and gnawed by the " worm that never d;es,", going from evil to evil, for .the,barren delight of. malig. nity ; weary of ,conquest, hut unsated-with crime, in the moMent7af triumph feeling " the hell within him," and exiled froM forgiveness, tempt . - lit,- betraying,' ruining, as if only to drag clown mankind to a companionship in woe, . The only hope of a secure peace is in the de struction of BuoNtaroTE. But he is not to be destroyed by a distant war. His mortal place is at home. Wander round the Magician's circle, and he will still raise' demons : rush upon him, break in upon his boundary, and his s:lence is • gone. But it, is said, that a successful invasion of Fr'3lice is impossible. A writer whose general eloquence and vigour will not permit hint to be overheated 4m this subject, asks,, with a lofty dig.- play of historical knowledge, " How often were her Southern provinces made the theatre of hos tility under CZIARLES V. ? now many Spanish and Oerman corpses fattened the plains of rms... venee ? Brave moo, who perished by suecessive multitpdes !. i' yet Cum:Las had England for a close ally ; he had Italy and &ain within till em pire—joint possessions which would enable . him to direct his force against the South-eastern or South-western frontiers Nothing in history 'more abounds with proofs of the repulsive faculties of the French people than the series of disasters in-. flicted on the first potentate in the world, in his vain though violent attacks on the weake , ,t points within their line." From those threatening inter rogatories we are naturally to urderstane, that the Imperial attacks on France were numerous, determined, and persevering, concentrating the force of the g reatest dominion In the world„ and driven back with exhausting and ekemplary ruin. The Writer has consulted his invention, not Ins history, How often were the Southern Provinces First, by PCSCARA, ? Twice, and no more. in 152-Ir, and his whole multitude amonuted to 18,000 men. FRANcts not relying un his beaten troops or tis tumultuary tevies, laid waste Pro vence. PESC ARA laid siege to Marseilles, garrison pcl by a foree of nearly the number of his own, wad unable to take it or to subsist himself, and retired, after ravages of forty days, which spread terror through • France. 'The close alliance with 1.1 E Nl2 Y the most capricious of Men, is in this unbending detai; diminished' into - a compact, by which for 100,000 ducats a month he was to send ^.tt force to invade PiCardv, while CUARLE3 at.;; lacked Gimienuc. Ilksnv broke the compact, and an attempt was 'dropped, which, in the opinion of the intelligent historian ; would, if activelypursued, have put France in imminent danger. -The Second Invasion was in 1536, when CHARLES collected 40,000 infantry and 10,000 horse, which was to, be assisted by the troops of the Governess of the Low Countries, and the King of the Romans, on .the side of Picardy and Champagne.. This colla teral aid wAs slow, and came too late.. The Etn perorcrOsse'd the frontier in May, and Fumic;s, a man of. indisputable 'courage, found, no re source but the dreadful one of making a desert of the country. By an infliction scarcely less than the worst sidering from an enemy, be wasted the land from the Alps to Marseilles, and from the sea 'to the confines of Dauphin& In this wilderness the Imperialists might wander and: starve—they could not draw out the king to battle; theyeould not force his entrenched camp or that of Moxr sdonEstcy, end, sifter losing half the army by a pestilential, disease, they withdrew from a contest where they had to fight against .nothing but bar renness and solitude. And yet those petty equip ments• and petty failures, contrasted with their injury and disgrace to France, are coloured into the most monorable proofs in this way of the repul sive faculties. of th 3 French people, the van and violent . efforts of time first power of the world, and the series of disasters which were to be held up for the wisdom of all invasion to come. 'lbis is the effect of writing for a purpose—the truth sacri ficed to theparty—sthe philosopher shamed by the advocate. But has not France been actually penetrated as deeply as any great nation, until the 19th cen tury ? Did nut Louis XIV. see his capital in clan ger ? Was not the fall of Landrecy to be the si4- nal for his putting himself at the bead of his no bility, that lie might, atleast, die like a king ? Did not the Allies ravage Champagne and Lor raine with feeble bodies of horse, and insult up to the gates of Versailles ?, But where MARLBO... ROUGH triumphed and bowed the Throne of France, with all its pride, the Duke of BRUNa.. wicx. failed. This throws its hue over all the past and all the future ; and no invasion is to be within human hopes, because an invasion failed, conducted by an Officer of,doubtful fame; with a thousand conflicting objects ; with inexperience of the people ; with a public denunciation of vengeance against twenty-five million of mien. Tills .is the logic of the imagination, and yet, with all those impediments to- sucecis,,..* swept the 'French before him, advanced to' within ninety miles of Paris, and retreated, not ,through the' force of France, but the intrigues of 'Pre.ssia. Where are the disciplined troops now to oppose] the advance of an army ? The new levies are hard pressed in Germany ; the veterans are bleaching in Russia and in Spain. But the nation will rise. FABER, the most intel ligent writer in France, furnished with the largest opportunities of knowledge, and strongly preju diced in favour of the republican spirit, distinctly states, that in all the changes of government, from 1793, the spirit of freedom had not power to produce.a single national movement ; that it act ed but 'once, and ceased to act almost immedi ately. The general arming of 17,93 has been inag nified into a miracle; capable of being ter:iught only by the, omnipotence of French nationality ; hut with a cause that interests the popular Mind, the effect is not singular. Man is fond of arms.: They are the delight of a time when all his Tech inns are most prompt and vivid ; our youth loves the " pride, pomp, and preparation, that makes ambition virtue,- Once :prepared, a spark sets the land, in is blaze. Ireland armed in 1782. Eng land, in 1804; both almost to the last men. At' this hour, every peamint in Prussia is a soldier, Glorious and atiarii.able change ! The weapons of the oppressor's victory have passed froni- her. bends ; Germany is fighting against France at the head of volunteers,; France is fighting at the head of reluctant 'slaves ; site has taught Kings to use the terrible strength of 'tyranny without its will, The conseriPtion is as rigorous in Russia,. Prussia, _and. Austria, as within the Rhine ; but, in the.one case, thepeople embrace as deliverance what in the other they execrate as oppression: They both pas through the flame ; nature may shrink in both ; but, hi the one case, it is-,tor tare, and the teal of their slavery ; in the Other, an ordeal, and the purification of their. dinnottr. They arm for the hearth and the altar, tlietr utile. their lkiforarelt, their national rights. U"• der what omen nitist the Frenchman mimeo his standards % He dares not even pronounce tl.e words that were once blazoned on them, and far which he swore to shed his last blood. lie fin' for.perpetual war—for the world's hatred --for ftc conscription --for Buonaparte. Is-there no con , . ne t c ra xioi:;, : ili t ,b:t i fliyt t t i s, t so l t i nur i s i ne : nbtle a ll,ir i iie l li t isi. l .il:i c t s t ri i i n lrrils, :ii . : t e )siiituei e lt i v i - ost e ncl r l:itt f r ye t t g i pi li i n s s ieosirfoe ex pect rile thargy, her reason still in repose, her nuaeinstiort b br o o r a n d h a r : p vt e ik2: n , li a n l g l i t i l i i i a g t ever floated across b a r ite",in of ambitioli.or revenge, or national pride, w burning dream, following the .phantoms of crow": and sceptres, univeraal,freetioin, and nuircrul 0,11: sleep,. rushing s il t .lit i : l si l ibe u isn t s i g d under tete:: fever, % t s . :: . i , r e i t t l : eloir(fi in one 1 : kr ' e' i , r ) 3 ( i gs i ( i ) tll : tr i l i .s i n l',' e ti gl i. . t : }ll'' ' 'l t ' . '. ' no calmer foot could t ' bleiase-edg:tt:)ofd,Psetrillii r''''*:ll',Tl but still secure, and in. her dark nod. "'''' it energy surmounting obsta cles that :caned have been fixed as a barrier against the most' pre: pared and consummate vigour of our nature:' 1 ):' : she i has been awakened at last, she has felt 14 exhaustion bee n her struggles, she dreads tilel ri ' turn. Fiance, asft nation"will never rise •30) 11 .; But are we to be told, that if the entire usw„ will not array itself, the peasantry will the irk', a service which offers to every niau the dowel; a Alarshal's staff ? But when and where trit! l operate upon a peasantry?. If it tloes in CO''';', why the cruelty of the conscription, needle"' lii pugnant, .dangerous ? Proinotion .in Englot w "! ts now as rapid as in France. The peasairt,,l, Tits the bounty here from idleness or from i't2i, tunes ; in France he submits to force, and pge'r meats, whose artful cruelty betray the in vril oi, blacker than DRACO, are the alternatives. .0 one man in a million can enter for the h ) ," l ,, f i glory which he sees Only discoloured an" ''*l of its beams through a n almost ci olcss sistg . "' mis4les and dangers, wounds and inflictioot;lA, The - glory which may dazzle and lighrearo the more towering ranks of society a'"",, c , stoop to the cottage while it fi nds the tree stoo4 lion above. Penetrating w ith ease the elast'Acil nervous spirit of the educated man, it is rt l P ti l ilt ii by the slow frigid substance of then eas ili I il'' mind ; and where coarse enjoyments ` o diet bread are the beatitudes, an abstract inglo r r ig • will scarcely be sought at the hazard of i e i f ,j,e for it into the grave. But France,.prol4l Is i t . biter renown, feels of necessity attached to . i to , strinnent ;—improbable in theory, What has site not suffered for those succesarlo, what room has herheart, swelled with misfoii;io ~ for those thoughts of leisure and vanity ? nnwie rce taxation of 75 per cent. which she has m? f—reetifsr, to iepair—with extortions arbitrary,, r , st al with the tater!• _I and searching her to the core , I drain 0 on ly the On he t j,,o money at 24 - - ' victories, that are' re. cent. wit a, t . b perpetua . i. r her fra tf' Mara / 11 , 1 !.., hei blood, what feeling can be i e '" t `?,, ri al of 01 news o f blood and new extortions Ther i . 11111/ can PO who have cause to rejoice, bu t .`" nce 6 tares fiir no cause. The crowned and jewelletla h tei d, 0 4 0 whom all this ,pomp is s pread, ii P' ti l li e ,i tiPo ter miseries of ambition. The slave s , I,o\l 1; may be glad and clamorous, but tir the t o te choice, a ot t li t le t ee tit ti: an t t( l i t l e l i ot r i:l l ag l t e s i t i on ' .seeneextseclit,.ilsai eitilgbp:t i yg e e e ri i a( f iteetir b fri et`! e i ' ci h tu l t f r: ritY• And what nation ever the luxuries of a temporary awl satiot'bi4o I. From the accession of litroNsrsaTe ', I P n ote ' lt mit l ess. than 760,000. youths , .in I ,''' . ', - „ascrir hope and usefulness, were taken by to, - I , sioce tinn and lost. An app,iiii,g caliihttiwscriptio'' Spanish paid SOCI). roof . that time - Franke has had an annual en:• 01 . ao of 40,000 children. of fourteen for til : i i m i :or' Austrtan war, bloodily contested ; a Pilo' , o , r ; 1 1 fbe, brick rtri ii: harm sit tier r God and ' inextinguishable irc lu illi ttn (alrnet: still,'. t i . i I t a l i P ti l c e i l ` f il . l( l ) o f the. tite P l):: e t , P . ‘ ::11 1.14 i' ' ,w a v r,sit t , iislivrlie!ceinchncsoiblimirsocekrdeipittliie)oe:sisi 1,1 i i it ti i ib i l I :et : e . lo6,,iict ) ol.sret , , , ,: t ttb t lel3 l : o:l : t t4struP4e f ' e il i g l i e i n t n i i v ie, e w :: ; l l :) , :r i e lt , ll Mightier 4°ll' °ll'l of_ inexorable j us tice, s t r ong to conthlii"I'00,100 tt;lice)reg.ul At a l n l i s 4 i i : s t e if l ee : t l i v l s e h i en t i l ' s li t n e : l t v i ( s t il s t isl e ‘ t v o i r l i a t a . n t h r a t r i e ' n e ( 1) 14s 1 l'itlfl),:iig,teita.l,leli.rcilei:c(ll'tiis'cilll)(lert)(liet. o ; i t'' opi l li , :‘ y : r ii ' l , ; ll , f i : I. so madly ? Is site never to awake to the Jo . iV ) . 4 ,. nations that she first seduced into s'allies'o I s crushed into slaves, never to be satlere d },ol l i O 4 fear and a wiser .repentance, to g° " . 11 ? ',1., whatT I s ' s ji -r g a ): t p i i tll , 7a s : i 's' i P c el l e i 'le.: C r l i i e l i t i l lo i tc i l i t :C l ile'la:ltilesii:otits°snells7l,llis°lectiftircths"'bijist°tC°(!:gdibins':::;°:terer;;li;li:rif l''' degraded religion, her fettered 10 1 ,ge tit j:t. I .I.ci‘l'intisec(rtillftrieuel)l,"her the butatrtetritTelttlilligntoscso4-etif., 1 rivers into blood, and that last ita% v oto_,!' r c ir i tagnaa l that.. has co me as ;v ial thc i' vit a.. -- ,,i b t : h i e i l i ns e t ts d ie- b n i Y l. Li o in i t i g l t ie a a s 'b b ' t ge o il t i l e i'n i darker t a v n a i t .c i slo r , s i e 7 i ) : rt e i l i t : . ln i v i re t e e i t O i ht i n e : o r t Y l . r fi f : I I: , t r 1 : 1 : e il e : ' ,.: rr e , te e : l l:l: i. l :. and providentiat vengeance i If Fre;';`l l l c l4 ,l men, they must rejoice at the hour wn' e oi,. in upon. their Tyrant. Their n ature i 5 OP their fidelity. Bat the subject gr° l " 'll : me. I have but touched its co nfiac 6 l .l .,,c o ' . thing exists in the state .of France to n i . ;t i s el l , fearful for the conscqueuces of altattaclt s,: t 1 11 10 ; force which the I3ritish General may colic - vi lto. the liberation of :'(,:tin, But we ba",, (Pit'. means, and why should theybe neglecteo' re f . policy:MOST he the re-establishment of the ' ..4'. bons. We have yet scarcely ventured 1 4 ) c°l l ' :;if i 'll the only means of restoriug France to her ' - N. -mate place in the European catiOpoolVed/firlioril, We'havt: not the; poWer•tO occi•thloW tile c P e , 01 .-: pits and the dv , lasty that now n un? na14,4,4i have no choice but between eternal tk% ll ' ''', ~,I.vv .' • rate slavery, Chains Or the sword is rile 11 4 , ', ,0 o. le' Pot-EN, and ,will he that of the traitor o t ) 0 coed him. I see in France the water .° i c oo': mighty change . ; but it i s onl y by gr ,,, '- i ' ot ill!' bpined.timeemenc - of woo 3 " (1 r lic) lie Ve r(irlti '. 'change can he effecttuil for the pt;Atce oft I oral ' t.' eft tt tbe sni h'ect aga CC E in. : • 0,1.5 , , ARKI t' , llll M 0 . 1 1.1.1. ---__ .~,;.;: ~~, iflos tnei 41as us( fof Ere; trh the eirc Stve 110N1 ttli) and Ca ri or i p , tem bin is wisl oto ?Pit tho trio Jul), the ma ble CA