The National Register.
London, England, 1813-07-25 00:00:00

TIIF, NATIONAI REGISTER.

JULY 25.

laud, that she is sovereign of the continent, and, therefore, may
quietly wait the termination of the ltritiOi n'aratime power ;---now,
%viten the nullity of a ?eparatc peace is apparent, and the obstinacy
Nvilit winch one war after anothei has been Waged is exhausted; the
voice of Peace heard, and the French Emperor, proposing a gene
ral Congress for Peak., concludes an A.roistice, to pot au end to
the effasion of human blood ; and while he speak 3 of sensibility,
seems dvAroas to have it believed, that he has had no part in pro-
ducing the misery, which, during the lust ten year A, has afflicted
Europe.
" Few believe in the sincerity of stich a proposal ; they cannot
stippue tnat any else iy intended bat to gain time. For over
CWII !Eat, ',co inliq rouross that we differ from this opinion. France
is now oblirred to carry en the war from. her own resources alone,
pea loti no huger Ole power to continue it rod NAVPIeOII, 170 :::e
I.ofllider of a dynasty must heap facial:ors Cu sacrifices. '.V.t
theatre of war extents trom the Ta,,as to the Neva, and trot, the
Danube to the Froton Ocean Spain has for fire years past heco
changed i•ito a desert, and has been only an open grave for the
Freti-h ariates. The piles are yet snicking on which, the plains of
Russia, the bodies of ni,lre than three huhilied thoonsnd Fr( nr
warriors, the tiower of Wostetii Esivape, were comamel, to pi
veot pestileoee. All the colonies of France are in the hands of
England, and no means remain of reeni,ering them by toter. Spa-
nish Anita-lea has detached herself' from the mother coint.ry. an.l
reverve her resenrees Cnr her own regardless of the wag n.
of the FiTiWil Mill•!!•1*.—to be.vare how she yields herself CX-
cl!;qi%dy ttl EitofitA. Euro:o.an world is io conimotio7:,
and -refuses to leod ti sit hdlo(nee which has eattsed all its
misery. Unner seA eicritrostleres., the wish for peace is natural,
eves) ill those who I;A% e toai,i. tsar for every thing.
" Gut how s1:311 this wisn oe gratifie:l?
A Congress for a gent ral peare, we are told, shall he assembled
at Prague, at olueli apin on tin one part, the Plenipoten-
ltarleA of France, those of toe L lilted States of America, Denmaik,
the King of Sp oin, and all the Allied Princes Ounptcstionably of
Itak' mid Gorinan : on the °titer part, the Plenipotentiaries of
England, Russia, Pi ussia, the Spani-li losurgeots, and the other
' of these Builigerent Powers, (among which, douhtless,
Sweden is to be reckoned). It is added, that these principles
-arc.:rd with the vieWSiif Austria. _ _ .

" It consists with the nature of things, that, if Europe shout
enjoy apc :ter ume length in its (titration, it ran oaly he the
work of a Congress, and cannot he produced by ...itch negoei.itions
at those of ltreshur, Tilsit, and Vienna. This, however, most 1w
the first question, 1V:io sktil he admitted to this Ctingress?
" the French Eraporor eau procure an admission to it for the
Plenipotentiaries of the United States of America, it is difficult to
say •s fly the Tut kish Emperor, the King of Persia, and the Republic
of Spanish Atnernta, should not be admitted. The policy of the
United States is essentially diflerent from that of the European
States, though they are for the moment involved in the war, which
France carries on against England. Their interest, therefore, can
be only the general interest of trade ; and they can have nothing to
do with a Congress for Peace, held at Prtigue, but merely to per-
}dux and protract the negoetations.
It is still more remarkable that the Plenipotentiaries of the
Spanish Insurgents shall 1w admitted together with those of KM.:
Joseph. How! Have the two, then, any thing in common? Is
th-re any capitulation between the Ihnirgents and the King id
Mn;t not the forintr insist that Joseph Napoleon shall
evacuate Spain; and the latter that there shad be nu insurgents in
Spain?
And what should the Allies of France do at a Congress for
peace, if among theta we are to reckon the Princes of Germany
and Italy ? How long have they had interests to espouse or defend ?
Hitherto their greJtett sirtue has consisted in slavidi obedience.
They were the vassals of Frame, in the worst sense of the ....ord ;
and as such, in negociations for a general peace, they can only be
the of je:Js of them, not partictpators in them.
64 The only real Plempotentiaric4, therefore, that wilt remain,
are those of Englattd, France, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and
Denmark. The o':ijects they have to discuss arc of sufficient inag-
nitule, and sufficiently pet piexed to engage them fer a long time,
;toil to set in snotion every passion.
" The Erciich Emperor, before his departure from Paris in April
last, said to the Deputies of the Lci!,isiative Body, that the inte-
grity of the French Empire had never nt.-en enslangered, nor ever
should be. If he continue to adhere to this declaration, the Con.
gresg for peace at Prague is sinsettlutios. on.y must there ne a
question of what France has nsurped from Germany (the ithine
b•Ang consrdered as the boaudaty between Frit=9: and Out Coon-

467

try ; but of the aboiition of the Confederation of the Rhine, and
even the kingdom of ;taly itself; as also of what has been annexed
to France in" the South of Germany ;
.or the independence, of Ger-
many can never be re established. .
" France must return to original principle., and open the Can.
g,reFa with declaring, that she i; willing to retire %%it'll:: her 'natural
noundaries. This declaration, alone worthy of a gre,-.-.t Power, will
rechneile all the Powers of the Continent ; and tilting!' it contains
thc oonl'ession of past faults, it is th..! only initative of a future ptare
with England. France untst now feel, that she has only wookt
herself by i:.l acquisitions : she his WOW Orpertilnity to rear
thit error.
" In short either France understands the art, at tha aPpro-ehing
Congress for Peace, wherever it may take place, to tt.rjili ilk' to
:tersclf thc Powers of Enrope,----and thou will site obtain more than
sin. could have expectc:l : or she does not mulastand that at t, and ,
then is the Revolution of the I e,tli of litumuire not the last that She
may eXpect. Able physiciats, in desperate. eases, have often re•
rout-e to opposite remedies. 'lnure Li now only one tIICHIIS to re-
4aiti the comidence of Eto opt.), winch nt,t he, before the Cong:TS‘
commences, to recall the French arini,'s l'rom Germany and S.,Pti!;
fur a net...ciat ion for peace in tie neig%it,,inhood Pr*, nett
troops, will not be carried on in the best spit it. If Nl:oreon eau-
not prev,,tl oil himself to remove their,, i,c ',tot in v....in of com-
miseration for the shedding of Guinan : the war must still
continue; and as he has Arcady found a INlAr;bnivitgii is Spain, he
may find a Pt ince Eugene in elet many."