The National Register.
London, England, 1813-11-28 00:00:00

No. 309.

EMANCIPATION OF HOLLAND--SURRENDER OF
DRESDEN, WITH 16,000 PRISONERS--DEFEAT OF
BUONAPARTE. WITH THE LOSS OF 30,000 MEN--
STORMING AND CAPTURE OF THE FRENCH LINES
BEFORE BAYONNE, WITH 5► PIECES OF CANNON
—HANOVER LIBER \TED, &c. &c.
How quickly do the edifices erected by ambition, and ce-
mented with the blood of mankind, totter on their basis and
sink prostrate to the ground ! Their fall is even more rapid
than their elevation. In their momentary grandeur they
overtop the world : they blast whole regions with their shade :
they crush whole nations with their weight. Admired by some,
feared by ail, they resemble those sepulchral monuments of
Egypt, whiCh are viewed with awe and superstitious horror as
the graves of succeeding but forgotten generations. These are,
in fact, the tombs of the millions that have been sacrificed to
raise their structure, and though the outside may be splen-
did and glittering, yet the inside is full of dead men's
bones." Founded on corruption, it is not astonishing
their very mass should bear them down, and when the im-
pulse to destruction is once given, it would he easier to
erect a new fabric than to check the fall of the crumbling
ruin.

Such are the feelings which a glance at the momentous
events compressed within the short period of the last week
nee likely to produce. Who fourteen months ago beheld
NAPOLEON'S despotism rooted on .the European Continent,
and extending its baleful influence to almost every quarter
of the globe, without deeming it as lasting, if not as the
earth which it threatened to cover, at least, as the generation
which it oppressed ? A year, nay, a week, bas passed, and it
Is scarcely to be found, where but a few days since it towered
in undiminished grandeur. The hand of patriotism has
smitten the mighty fabric, and it now melts into decay.
Almost every day of this eventful week has revealed the
rapid progress of its downfall. Oa Monday we learnt
that a whole limb had been torn from this enormous mo-
narchy, and that Holland had regained her freedom and her
name. -On Tuesday we knew the tremendous extent of •his
losses at Leipsic and in his retreat, and saw the flame of pa-
triotism blaze' along the lstrian and Dalmatian coasts. On
Wednesday we saw a new State wrenched from the oppres-
sor's grasp, and Hanover once more hailing the sway of our
. Monarch, whilst the pretended victories of the enemy at
Hanau proved to have been most sanguinary defeats. Thurs-
day was ushered in by the roar of cannon for Lord WELLING-
TON'S new triumph over the only remaining veterans pf
France—it was closed by the same thunder of exultation for
the surrender of the Saxon capital, with a Trench Marshal
and 16,000 men, and the accession of the whole Confodera-
tion of the Rhine to the cause of European Liberty. Such
events belong to extraordinary times. They betray the
agency of a Eland, more powerful than that of man,
and which seems once more to have_ resumed the visible
government of mankind. Let us not be blinded by success
and attribute it solely to ourselves. It is not when the
judgments of God are abroad, that man ought to exchange
humility for confidence, or think himself faultless, pecause
he is spared in mercy.

Vet. VI. Ng. CCCIL