The National Register.
London, England, 1811-01-13 00:00:00

19

countries : antl for what? to nbtain the batcren harmer ofd Go-
vernment pretendedly natioxal, :Is if a nation could exist whei e
there was neither uidependence, nor army, nor territory suscep-
tible of defence.
" Those times are passed, when the conceptions of sumo.
Statesmen gave authority, in the public opinion, to the system
of balances, of guarantees, of counterpoise. of political equili-
brium. Pompous illusions of Cabinets of the second order !
visions of imbecility ! which all disappear before necessity, that
power which regulates the duration and the mutual relations of,
empires. Would not the successive Governments of Holland,
in a thousand instances, have been subservient to interne] agitae
dons, to the efforts of England, had not the force of the French
empire been constantly acting upon them to maintain and. to
defend them !
" And when England affronted France by supposing that this
force was absent, because the Emperor was meditating victory
on the banks of the Danube, was it Holland that could have
repelled the fleet, and the British legions assembled to ream...
mence the oppression and disgrace of the Helder ? Certainly
not: truths so manifest require neither proof nor example.
Holland, like the Hance Towns; would remain the prey of
uncertainty, of dangers, of revolutions, of oppressions of every
kind, if the genius who decides the destinies of Europe, did n t
cover her with his invincible zgis. The Emperor has resolved in
his wisdom to incorporate them with the immense family of
which he is the head.
" In adopting this grand resolution, perhaps he himself obeys,
more than he is aware of, the law of necessity. If he cor.unaqd4
the glory of times present, the events which preceded his com-
ing command those of his reign—that uninterruped succession
of causes and effects which form the history of nations and the
destiny of their chiefs. That of the Napoleons was to reign end
to conquer ; victory belongs to him, war to his age. Among
the wars recorded h 1 our history, there is not one dining which
the jealous rivalry of England has not b en the direct cause of
our troubles, our misfertunes, our dangers—of our energy, our
combats, our-conquests.
" In the feudal times, England divided our nieces, kept oer
vassals in pay, ravaged our fields ; she foresaw that the throne Of
their Sovereigns would one day be the fu st in thennivereese
s driven back to her islands,' she every where sought for avengers
' of her quarrel; Germany, Italy, the Spains, number but fed;
cities, where combats have not been mainteincel during three
hundred years for the- cause of England. To heft her, of r
Kings made pretensions to universal Monarchy after the
siege of Rochelle, the works of Toulon, and the surren-
der of Courtray. The most pusillanimous. reigns -could not
I impose silence on her accusations, nor luil asleep her hares!.
In her eyes the French people were always the san ; they only
wanted circumstances and a chief, to resume the name of G. eat.
A total subversion was necessary to the project of England ; she
11 wished far a bloody revolution ; because her own had been
I cruel, and because, amidst our discords, it strum at, with the
same sword, both our industry and our institutions : both the
conquerors and the conquered; both the people and the dynasty.
All Europe was summoned to this work of destruction : every
where repulsed—every where threatened—trembling for heiself
—she stopped short in presence of the conflagratien ite,.lsted. up
by the firebrands of the British Cabinet. At lasnaftee ten years
of a struggle glorious for France, the most extraerednary eenius
ever formed by nature in her magniticflicc, ccl;cctF in his tri-
' .umphatit hands the scattered fragments cat the sceptre of Char.
lelnagne.
" The injuries of France are avenged ; frenth rs, c mpacted
by moderation and traced out by nature, are ties trophies raised
to the happiness of her people, to the trenciaillity of Europe.
The Emperor proposes peace. Vain hope of a greet soul!
Thrice the c•-y of alarm was raised on all iities—thrice one
victory led only to others; and peace, elweysollered, always de-
manded, and as it were pursued, retired before our cegles to
the extremities of Europe.
" In those shocks of which human prudence cannot moderate
the effects, Empires of the first rank are overthrown from their
foundations; small States disappear; we have seen the Gothic
supports of the European editise tumble down cl themselves,
without the possibility of their being rebuilt on the same p tan ; and
heel no the genius pi order advanced with a step equal to that
of ariniva, it would no loereer have been war, hut anarchy and
which the 18th century had bequeathed to its succcesors.
I Dees the conqueror perceive from the height of his car,
nations united by ancient habits ; he seeks out taitbful princes,
he creates for them common interests. he entrests to them
.fhe
I destinies of regenerated h:tetes, of which he has declared himself

the Pr,,tector.
" But where all forms of goverrment have been tried in vair ;
where the aggregations are too small, or destitute of suffid sit
principles of adhesion to form masses; where localities would
infallibly ribject men and things to the t!irect action of avarice,
of the attults or intrigues of t.te eternal enemies of France;