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

rP A NC F.

We have inserted a Fiend) Senous Cons,dium,
as it is called, which, like all the mea,nres of
roLEDN's government, isto entail fresh miseries on
,the unfortunate population of France. It is a new
conscription to recruit tilt. French navy, or rather
to create it. It is intended to supply the want 4:f
fisheries, commerce, and colonies, which the tyrant,
notwithstanding all his boasts, has now lost all
hopes of attaining ; and the new mariners are to he
taught in port, and under their batteries, to affront
the rage of the ocean, and the no less tremendous
encounter of British men of :var. This idea is eel%
tainly richly ridiculous ; it is a mere imitation, very
111-suited to the occasionitoßEsmwiE,s mea•
sures, which hate laiai the basis of his present
p&Wev, and can only preserve it. But it is never-
theless•presented, as usual, to th. -French nation,
a.s an emanation of that zenias which rresides

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over. their --new destinies. = This bombast would
be perfectly useless, if addressed to the French
people only. The French have long known
how to appreciate the genius of their oppres-
sor and the blessings of his government ; but
it is meant to be reechoed by the admirers of
modern genius and greatness in countries not yet
subdued by the heir of Jacobinism, and there is no
doubt but, these gentlemen, for weighty reasons, will
perforrn-the task to the best of their abilities. We
most, however, point. out to them a contradiction,
which, in their unqualified admiration, they would
probably overlook, or which they might represent
as one of those aberrations which form the true cha-
racteristics of genius. In the report of M. CRAM-
PAGNY, on the necessity of annexing to France the
countries as far as the Elbe, he states, as one of the
most cogent reasons, that his. MAJESTY'S arsenals,
owing to the British Orders in Council, could not
be supplied with the necessary materials for ship.
building ; whilst here Count CAFARELLI roundly
asserts, that the " arsenals are provided with all
necessary materials." But inconsistencies like this
will apear strange only to those who are unacquaint-
ed with the nature of the French Government,
raised and supported by terror and delusion.
Thus, for instance, in the late negociation for the
exchange of prisoners, and even in the report to
which we have before alluded, the organ of the
French Government ; and, indeed, all their hired
writers inveighed bitterly against our admini.
stration for having commenced hostilities with-
out a formal declaration of war, and imme-
diately after the recall of Lord WIITTWORTH.--,
Now that practice is sanctioned by the Treaty of
Versailles, which terminated the 'American war, and
which states, that the recal rf Ambassadors shall be
considered as a declaration gfwar. Nay, more than
that ; the very same Mr. CHAMPAGNY, when his
master wanted a pretence to despoil the POPE, of his
dominions, objected to the Sovereign Pori,.'.l the
recal of Cardinal CAPRARA, his Legate, from
Paris, which recal," he said, " was, by the cus-
tom of civilised nations, considered as a declaration
of war." The documents are extant and public,
and a reference to them may satisfy the most scep-
tic. This total disregard for truth, or indeed for
any established principles, pervades the whole of
the French Government, or rather firms its princi-
pal basis ; and so careless are they of the effect those
palpable falsehoods may produce on the people, that
they frequently carry their inconsistencies to a height
perfectly ridiculous, or to what the French would
call a barefaced mystification. Thus the Paris Papers
of last month, fterextolling the patronage which his
Imperial and Royal Mitieqy wished to extend, and
extended, to liberal sutidies, reported anew Decrce,by
which he had chosen 150 young men from the Ly-
cetim of Besancon to be—serjeants and corporals ill
the army ! To return to the Senatus Consultum,
which gave rise to these loose observations, it must
not be concluded, from the ambiguous wording- of
the articles, that the maritime departments in which
this new conscription is to take place, will be ex-
empted, for the present, from contributing their
quota to the land service. The conscripticin of the
present, and of the next year, rerrkains :untouched
by the new law, and it is only the youths who Wokild

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have been liable to it in 181, 1814, 1815, 1816,
that are now taken from the paternal roof by anti-

cipation !
We have seen a Gentleman, lately arrived from
Paris, who states, that notwithstanding the flourish-
ing accounts given in the Expose, the whole empire
is a scene of ruin and almost, of despair. In the
metropolis the failures of the richest houses, and
the exactions of Government, have almost destroyed
public credit. Every family is saddened by the
loss of some of its members slain in the Peninsula,
and the large levies ordered by Russia open an
equally threatening prospectin a fresh quarter, which
will call for new sacrifices of money and of blood.
Meanwhile NAPOLEON, insensible or blind to the
distresses of his subjects, dedicates the time which
be reluctantly steals from the hours of connubial
dalliance, not to the relief of their miseries, but
to the execution of his gigantic plans of extended
empire. Yet glory and ambition seem to have
lost a portion of the influence which they once pos.
sesspd over his soul. His heart, which neither the
ravages of war, nor the wounds of bleeding Ire-
inanity, could soften ; which appeared even cold,
though cruel in its hatred, seems at last to have felt
the power of love. Hercules has resumed the distaff.
The lofty conqueror, who after bending the Conti-
'nental nations under his yoke, so often boasted he
would cross the sea and sweep our independence and
our wealth away : who was never seen but armed for
war, or heading his legions to the field, is now
basking all day in a lady's smile, and wasting his
hours within the precincts of a boudoir. Whether
through excess of love or jealousy, NAPOLEON
never leaves the Empress. He attends all her steps,
and his passion seems to encrease as she advances in
her pregnancy. Not satisfied with being her keeper,
he has also become her Physician, and has taken
upon himself to regulate her exercise. A short time
ago she had ordered her high mettled courser
to be brought, for she is extremely fond of riding,
and is a great adept in the equestrian art.
NAPOLEON was just hastening away from a State
Council to her apartments, when he met her dressed
for riding. " 6 An Empress of France must not
expose the hopes of the whole nation, and of Eu-
rope, to the eaprice of a horse," he said, and dis-
missiag the grooms, led hack his disappointed con-
sort by the hand to her apartments. According to
the report of our informant, the light hearted, as
well as light headed inhabitants of Paris sometimes
amuse themselves into forgetfulness of their mise-
its, by relating innumerable anecdotes of their
Emperor's uxoriousness.
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