The National Register.
London, England, 1814-04-17 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL TI

t 42

opened the door to a secret influence which is entirely in-
con-istent with the nature of a limited monarchy,
If we read attentively this constitutional charter, we shall
see that all its imperfections proceed.from the'error which
has produced all the calamities of France ; where they seem
not yet to have discovered, notwithstanding the fatal expe-
rience they have had, that the encroachments of the legisla,
tive power are more to be dreaded than those of the execu-
tive.

Another article which requires explanation in this con-
stitution is that which enacts, that the ancient nobility shall
• resume their titles, to which shall lie attached no privileges
or personal prerogatives, like baubles given to please children,
whilst the new nobles shall preserve both their titles and
privileges. For an hereditary house of nobility is created
which will enjoy personal prerogatives, especially that of
freedom from arrest, unless previously allowed by a decree
of the senate, which in fact places them above the law.
In a limited monarchy, nobility is a political magistracy.
It ought to have as- its exclusive attribute personal privi-
leges and prerogatives. These should be the same for all
the members of the aristocracy; wl:ilst the uniformity of
their titles•is more consistent with the spirit of democracy
than that of aristocracy.
Notwithstanding its imperfections, it is, however, highly
gratify ing to witness the establishment of a Constitution pos.
se.sing so many of the excellencies, and founded on the
principles, that distinguish ours, amongst a people so long a
prey to I evolutions, to anarchy, and to despotism. The
blood of nations shall not have flowed in vain, since it
has introduced the forms that tend to insure the in-
tegrity of the respective rights of subjects and of Kings
on the whole European Continent. Under the mild sway
of the restored Bourbons and the exercise of their paternal
• wisdom, the defects of this Constitution will by degrees be
removed, and we trust, that in a few years, France, like Eng-
land, shall have to boast of a political palladium which shal
enable her to withstand at once the wild doctrines of revolu •
tlonary zealots, and the artful attempts of incipient des-
potism.

All the French Marshals (Fonit, Davot►st, and Mortier
excepted, the sentiments of the two former not being yet
uown), have sent in their adhesion—Berthier, and even
:ehaOiani the Corsican. None of Buonaparte's Civil Minis-
ters INA sent in tl►cir adhesion.

A General Lucotte had received Buonaparte's orders to
1;1:Ay np all the magazines of powder, shells, Ere. in case the
Allies entered Paris, and the explosion was to be simultaneous
with their entry. The General tore the order, horror-struck
with its atrocity. The knowledge of this came to the ears
of the Emperor Alexander. He, sent the Order of Wladi-
sner set in diamonds, to the General, accompanying it with
.
a letter, in which his Imperial Majesty requested him to wear
and consider it as a token of his having saved the capital of
his country.
The peoplc of Fontainbleau, we understand, were so in-
censed against Buonaparte, that it was difficult to prevent
him from falling a sacrifice to popular indignation. Ber-
titier. however, addressed them, representing the state of
safaits at Parif, and vhserving, that as all was not quiet in
that Capital, any commotions on -their part might only tend
to excite new disturbx;ces, and therefore solemnly exhorted
them to depart in peace. address prevented farther
Juovements on their pat t, and they dispersed, hut not with-
out very evident signs of disalipointment and Sulleu reluct-
:thee.

I.q


'ER

STATE" PAPER.

APRIL 17.

DECLARATION OF TIIE ALLIED• POWERS ON THE BREkRING

OFF OF TLIE NEGOCIATIONS AT CIIATILLON.

The Allied Powers owe it to themselves, tc their piople, and to
France, as soon as the negociations nt en:titbit% are broken otf, Pub-
licly to declare the reasons %%Inch induced them to enter iton negacia-
tions with the F-cuch Government, as well as the causes of the break-
ing otlocthe nogociation..
Military e vit.; to ohich history can produce no parallel, overthrew,
in the 'monk of October last, the ill-constructed edifice known under
the name of the French Empire; an edifice erected Gn the ruii;:, of
States lately indepetident and happy, antsenteil by conquests tro,,
ancient monarchic:, acid held together at the expellee of the blood, of
the fortune, of the welf•ire, of a whole generation.
The Allied Sovereigns, led by conquest to the Rhine, thought it
their ditty to proclaim to Europe anew, their principles, their wished,
and their object. Far from every wish of domination or couquest, Ili.
mater) solely b the desire to see Europe restored to a just balance of
the different rowers, resolved nut to lay down their arms till they bad
obtained the w.ble object of their efrorls, they made known the irre-
vocableness of their resolutions by a public net, and they did not hesi-
tate to declare themselves to the en' my's. Government in a mmitur
cfmforinahle to their unalterable determination.

• TI e French Government made use of the frank ecilmatiuni of the
Allied Powers to express inclinutions to peace. It certainly had need
of the appearance of this inclintvion, in (rest r to justify in the eyes of
its people the new exertions which it not .cease to require. But
every tang, however, convinced the Allied Cbinets that. it merely
endeavoured to take advantage of the opproranee of a negoilation, iu
order to prijudice public ()Onion in favour, but thdt the peace of Europe
was very far from its thoughts.
The Powers, penetrating its secret views, resolved to go and conquer.
in France ittelf, the long desired peace. Numerous armies crossed the
Rhine; scarcely %vete they past the first frontier when the French Minis-
ter for Foreign AtFaits appeared at our posts.
All the proceedings of the French Government had henceforth no
ether object, than to mislead opinion, to blind the French people, and
to throw on the Allies the odium of all the miseries attendant on an in-
vasion.

The course of events bad given the Allies tt proof of the full power
of the European league. The principles which, since their first nuion
for the common good. had animated the counsels of the Allied Sove-
reigns, were fully developed ; nothing more hindered them from un-
folding the conditions of the re construction of the common edifice ;
these conditions must be such as were no hindrance to peace after so
many conquegs.
The only power calculated to throw into the scale indemnifications
fur France, England could speak openly respecting the sacrifices which
it was ready to make for a general peace. Tlie Allied Sovereigns
were permitted to hope that •the experience of late events wenhi have
had some influence on a conqueror exposed to the observations of a
great nation, which was for the first time witness in the capital itself
to the miseries he hod brought on France.
This experience might have convinced that the support of thrones i 3
principally dependent on aioderatif:n and probity. The Allied Powers,
however, convinced that the trial which they made must not endanger
the military operations, saw that these operations must he coritimeA
during time negoeiations. The experience of the past, Lila afirictieg
recollections, shewed them the necessity of this step. Their Plenipo-
tentiaries met those of the French Government. _

_ _ ._.._.. .....
Meantime the victorious armies approached the gates of the ca-
pital. The Government took every measure to prevent its t;►llia
into our hands. The plenipotentiary of France received orders to
propose an armistice, upon couditions which were similar to anise
which the Allies them elves judged neces:iary for. the restoration of ;a
general peace- He °fn.' ed the immediate surrender of the fortretses
in the countries which France was to give up, on condition of a SUS-
pension of military operations.
'the Allied Courts, convinced by twenty years experience, Holt in
negokiations withithe Freech Cabinet it was necessary carefully to
distinguish the apparent from the real intention, • proposed insteid
of this immediately to sign preliminaries of peace. This meaune
would have had for France all the-advantages of an armistice, with•
out exposing the Allies to the danger of a susrmion °farms. Soule
partial advantages' hoWever; • acetanpanicd the first motions of al,
army collected under the walls of Paris, composed of the flower of
the present generation, the last hOpe of the nation, and the remain-
der of a million of warriors, who either fallen on the field of battle,
or left on the way from Lisbon to Moscow, have been sacrificed for