The National Register.
London, England, 1813-06-27 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL

,~

No. 287.

POLITICAL DIS2UISMON.

ON THE PRACTICABILITY. OF PEACE.

It now remains to consider the reasons on which the pos-
sibility of. NAPOLEON'S being sincere in his wish for peace,

is founded.
When the events of the French revolution, controuled by
the ascendancy of his influence, raised him to the head of
the Government, a total change had taken place in the views
and inclinations of the people. Taught by fatal experience ,
the inanity of all those plans of universal freedom devised by
modern philosophers, and executed by the mini atrocious vil-
lains and despotic oppressors, they had rushed from one ex-
treme into the other. Their mental enthusiasm bad mounted
too high immediately to subside, and being disappointed of
its first object, as it generally happens in the blind efferves-
cence of popular passion., adopted one of an entirely opposite
nature. The spirit of mistaken freedom was turned into
the spirit of conquest. Those who armed themselves to
abolish pretended slavery, now fought to make it real. The
asserters of the natural rights and equality of mankind, were
become the champions of national tyranny over the nations
Of the world, and the universal Republic was lost in the wish
of raising an universal empire. This disposition of the po-
pular mind in France, was too consonant with the inclinations I
of her new ruler, to be checked by his prudence or his mo
deration. The child of fortune, bound by no tie of love or
sympathy to mankind, whom be despised, with no posterity
to inherit his power, personal aggrandisement became his sole
object. To consolidate was only a secondary consideration
with one who seemed destined, whatever he his eNds lions
and successes, to wear a barren sceptre, and to labour ulti-

rnately for others. Hence he gave himself up entirely to
the fortune of the moment, and, reckless of consequences,
attempted things which were only in the power of a man
who, like him, placed on a single cast the extreme of suc-
cess and that of ruin.
Wish the result of his audacious &rings, the world is but
too well acquainted. How effectually he was assisted in
them by the equally ambitious spirit of his people, is written
in characters of blood on every part of the Continent. The
golden dream of universal dominion, which, since the days
of Lewis the Fourteenth, bad played before the imagination
of every Frenchman, seemed, at last, almost realised; and
Napoleon, like Alexander, was on the eve of shedding tears
at the limited field world afforded for conquest. Having
therefore nearly reached the utmost possible height of
ea thly prosperity, he began to perceive that the means
which .had procured him his elevation, bore in themselve,
the principle of its dissolution, lie had yielded to the tor-
rent as long ac its course favoured his designs, and when he
No. CCI,XXX VII.

Vat Sing, Constitution, ant Labs.

PUBLISHED AT NO. 11,- NEWCASTLE-STREET, STRAND.

SUNDAY, JUNE 27, 1811

fancied his power was sufficient to stein its force, and
trout its current, whenever he should think it adviseab!e.
He now feared lest he had gone too far. He bail found
France full of Military ardour, which only wanted a leader
to break forth into any kind of wild enteiptise. lle had
availed himself of that warlike spirit, and employed it to
erect the lofty structures of his ambition. He had thus fos-
tered, gnd by success encreased it, and as long as he gave it .
food, it would spend its activity, consistently' with his will,
on foreign Powers. But if these external supplies were once
exhausted, it would grow dangerous to himself. Under his
guidance, France-had become a nation of soldie.s To attain
his ends, he had made the military line the quickest and the
surest road to wealth and to honours, and war i being thus :Al-
vantageous and creditable to a large portion of his suljects,
they considered it, in the same light we do trade. as nece•sary
to their welfare. His armies, more particularly, and the im-
mense numbers connected with their organisation and
ment, regarded every ttefity of peace as a sicrifice of their
dearest interests, which they might be expected to resent,
and would, if possible, severely punish. Composed of liken
Led to the field by the wild doctrines of the pirachers of
equality: or torn from their fatuities by the consclipton, at
an age when they had not yet had it in tt,eir vowel to lea n
either a profession or a trade to earn a quiet living, war was
the cnly art they knew, the only resource they had, and
peace would throw them back helpless upon society. that
would then have to support them in indolence, or to suffer
by their irregularities. The munificence of former kings,
had, it is true, provided comfortable retreats for the dis-
-abled ; but the number of men in the streogli of life, "aud
instructed only in the. rapine and devlistations of-war, that
would lie loosed at once upon the 'world, would he too con-
siderable to be maintained out of national or individual con-
tributions. To escape the pangs of- want and hunger they
would exert themselves.; but their exertions would bear the
character of their former pursuits. hence they would, as
during the short existence of the gentia! peace concluded in
1801, either divide themselves into bands of freebooteis and
assassins, or they would plot and effect the ruin of the Go-
vernment that had impolitically restored them to tie bosom
of that society which they had been accumstomed to ut-
rage and devastate. These were the feelings of apprehension
with which BuoPar.tr E viewed h s own armies, as soon as
the subjection of a new Power left them unemployed. Con-
scious that his elevation was of too late a dire to wlthstai
the hostility of restless multitudes, whose sill port caii only
be secured by making it appear their clear interest to giant
it, he only relied for safety op the constant orcupation
which his wars with the European Powers • gave them. By
this policy he attained two great ,ends: he overthrew the