Star.
London, England, 1814-04-12 00:00:00

VI

oRBNCII POLITIC4L REVIEW.

" OF BONAPARTE, THE BOURBONS, AND THE Naas=
OF RALLYING ROUND OUR LEGITIMATE PRINCES FOR'
TILE HAPPINESS-OP FRANCE, AND THAT OF AWLQPICia'
EY FR. AUG. DE CHATEAUBRIAND. •
The subject of this work, the name, the character,
the principled' and the talents of its author, all re•
co* mead lig.° the attention of the public. We shall
wake a few extracts from it, which will speak its
merits better than any praise we can bestow.
After retracing the circumstances' which, during
the Revolution, introduced and successively destroyed
in France every form of republican government; after
painting the cunning policy with which Bonaparte,
. 'under the modest title of Consul, At first accustomed
the French to feel unalarmed at his power, the au-
thor arrives at the period when the usurper dared to
take a bolder flight and to seat himself on the throne
of Kings—then describes his internal administration :
Then commenced the grand saturnalia of royalty ;
errmes, oppression, slavery, marched at equal pace
with folly. All liberty expires ; every honourable
sentiment, every generous thought, become conspi.
racies against the State. To speak of virtue renders
one an object of suspicion—to praise a good action,
is to abuse the Prince. Words change their meaning
is people fighting for their legitimate sovereigns are a
rebellious people ; a traitor as a faithful subject ; all
France becomes the empire of falsehood; journals,
pamphlets, discourses, prose and verse, all disguise
the truth. If it rained, we are assured that the sun
. shone : does the tyrant appear abroad amidst a silent
populace, we are told that wherever he moved, he
received the acclamations of the multitude.
" The sole object is the Prince, morality consists in
. devoting one's self to his caprices, duty in praising
him. Above all, it was necessary to bawl oat ad-
miration whenever he committed a.lault or perpe-
tmed a crime. Literary men are forted by menaces
to celebrate the despot. They composed, they bar-
gained, as to the amount of praise ; happy when, at
the expense of some common-places, about the glory
of arms, tl.ey purchased the right of uttering a few
° sighs, of denouncing some crimes, of reminding peo-
ple of some proscribed virtues !
" No book could appear without being marked
with some eulogy of Bonaparte, like the stamp of sla-
very ; in new editions of old authors, the censorship
caused every thing to be retrenched that spoke against
conquerors, tyranny, and slavery—in like manner as
the Directory had entertained the design, of causing
every thing to be struck out of the same authors,
that spoke of monarchy and kings. The very alma-
necks were tocarnioed with care, and the conscription
. formed an article of faith in the catechism. In the
arts, the same servitude: Bonaparte. poisons his sol-
diers infected with the plague at Jaffa a painting is
Made which represents him, by an excess of courage
and hurtraiii•y, touching these same plague infected
patients. It was :let thus that St. Louis cured the
sick, whom a touching and religious confidence pre-
sented to his royal hands. Not a word, moreover,
was to be Said of public opinion—the maxim was that
the Sovereign must mould it every morning.
" To Bonaparte's improved police was attached a
committee, charged with giving a direction to men's
minds, and at the head of this committee was the
director of public opinion. Imposture and silence
were the grand means employed to keep the people
in error. If your suns die in battle, believe you that
sufficient attention would be paid to you, even to tell
you what was become of them ? Events the most im-
portant to the country, to Europe, to the whole world
were concealed trOm you.
ag The enemy is at Meaux—you can only learn it
by the flight of the peaSams ; you are enveloped in
darkness; your alarms are madeohe subject of moc-
kery, your griefs of laughter, whatever you feel or
thitic is despised. For once you raise your voice, a
spy denounces, a gear d'annee arrests, a military com-
mission tries you ; jou are shot and forgotten.
" It was not enough to enslave fathers, children also
must be placed at the entire disposal of the tyrant.
Mothers have been seen hastening from the extremi-
ties of the eirpire, and demanding back with floods
of tears the sons whom the government had torn from
their arms. 'these children were placed in schools,
where they were taught, by beat of drum, irreligion,'
debauchery, contempt of the domestic virtues, and
blind obedience to the Sovereign.
6g The paternal authority, respected by the most
frightful t) rants of antiquity, W:l5 treated by Bona-
parte as an abuse and a prejujice —he wished to eon-
vei t our sons into a via ut Mamelukes, without GOD,
wili•:)ut family, and without country. It appears'
tlntt this en. my of our race was bent on destroying
France to its very foundations—he has more corrupt-
ed men, done more mischief to the human race in the
short space of ten years, than all the tyrants of Rome
pot together, front New down to the last persecutor
of the Christians. The principles which served as the
UASIS of his administration, passed from his govern-'
ment into the different classes of society ; for a wicked
government introduces vice, a a wise government
cherishes virtue among a people. Irreligion, a taste
for every enj. yment and expellee above their means,
Ff....tempt of moral ties, the spirit of adventure, of
vitae ,ce, and of domination, descended from the
Throne into families—a little longer of such a reign,
and France would have been only a den Of robbers.
w The crimes of our republican revolution were the

rp
work or pnssions which always leave some resumes;
there was then disorder, and not destruction in so-
ciety. Morals were injured, but not annihilated.—
Conscience still had its remorse ; a des:ctive indif-
ference did nut e‘stifound the innocent the guilty
—thus the calamities of thOse times would have been
speedily healed. But how cure the wounds inflicted
by a Government which laid down despotism as a
fixed principle ; which, with morality and religion in
its mouth, incessantly sapped religion arittosurals by
its institutions and its contempt whisfk sought to
found public order, not upon moral duty and law, but
'upon force, and the spies of the police ; which affected
to regard the stupor of slavery as the peace of a well-
- wrginized society, faithful to the habits of their anceS•
cars, and silently marching in the path of ancient virtues?
44 The most terrible revolutions are preferable to
..1111ch a state of things. If civil wars produce public
crimes, they at least call fos th hidden virtues, talent •,
aPct great men. It is under despotism that empii,
_
TsaPPear by 'ear° ing the minds still more than
tlste baski. 4.)t men, •
it sooner or later superinduces
(4144444)41 and col wi
The admini.strataTn3to'f Bonaparte has beep boast-

ed of: If administration enlist in arithntetit--if, in to neighbours. A village became bound for the con-
order to govern well, it be quite enough to know how script who -was born there. Little garrisons were
much a province produces in corn, wine, and oil, to billetted' on the villager, and forced him to sell his
`ascertain the last penny that can :be raised, the last bed to maintain them. till be had found the conscript
nap that can betaken from it--undoubtedly Bona- concealed in the woods. • .
pate was a great e4ministratoe; it would be.impos- 44 Absurdity was even mixed with atrocity ; sons
sible more completely to oSrganise mischief, to intro- were often demanded from those who Were happy
duce mere of order into calamity. But that is the enough to have no posterity ; violence was used to
best administration which leaves a people in peace— discover the bearer of a name which existed only on
' which cherishes in them the sentiments of justice and the lists of the Bens d'armes, or to obtain a conscript
of piety; which is sparing of'human blood, which who had served five or six years before, Women
respects the rights of the citizen, his property, and big with child have been put to the torture, that they
family ; in this view the government of Bonaparte might reveal the place where their first-born was con-
was the worst of governments. called ; fathers have brought forth the dead body of
• 44 Again, bow numerous were the faults and blun- their son, to prove that they could no longer produce
ders even in his own sistem ! An Administration this son alive. There still remained some families
the most expensive engulphed the revenues of the whose children were ransomed by their wealth, and '
State. Whole armies of douaniers and receivers de- who looked forward one day to become magistrates,
voured the taxes they were employed to levy. There administrators, men of science, landholders, so useful
was not even a chef de bureau, however insignificant, to social order in a great country : by the decree for
who hid not five or six clerks. the guards of honour, they were swept away in the
i. Bonaparte appeared to have declared war against general massacre. Such a contempt was entertained
commerce. if arty branch of industry arose in for the life of man, and for France, that it was even
France, he laid hold of it, and took it wholly into customary to call conscripts the raw material, and
his own hands. Tobacco, salt, wool, colonial pro- food for cannon.
duce—all was• with him the object of an odious 46 The following great question was discussed
monopoly; he had becOme the only merchant in his among the purveyors of human flesh, namely, to as.
empire ! • certain the given average time that a conscript might
g‘ This restless and extravagant man was daily last: some alleged that he lasted thirty-three months,
harassing a people who wanted only repose, -with others thirty-six months. Bonaparte was Wont to
contradictory and often impracticable decrees ; he say to himself ' /Nacre three hundred thousand men iis re-
violated at night the law which he had made in the serve.' In the eleven years of his reign, he caused
morning. In ten years, he devoured 15,000 millions more than five millions of Frenchmen to perish,
of imposts, which exceeds the amount of taxes raised which exceeds the number of those which our civil
during the 70 years of the reign of Louis XIV.-- wars swept awny during three centuries, under the
' The spoils of the world, 1,500 millions of revenue, reigns of John, Charles V. Charles VI. Charles VII.
were not enough for him; he was solely occupied with Henry 11. Francis 11. Charles IX. Henry 111 and
swelling his treasury by means the most iniqeitous. Henry IV. In the twelve months which have just
Every prefect, every sub-prefect, every mayor, had elapsed, Bonaparte raised (without reckoning the na-
the right of augmenting the customs of cities, of im- Lionel guard) 1,n30,000, which is more than one
posing additional centimes on the towns, villages, hundred thousand per month ; and yet some men
and hamlets„‘ and of demanding from any landholder had the audacity to tell him he had only expended
an arbitrary sum for any pretended want. All France the super Lions population !
was under pillage. Bodily infirmities, indigence, 44 But the loss of men WAS not the greatest evil at-
dtath, education, the arts, the sciences—all paid tri- tending the conscription : it tended to replunge us
bute to the Prince. You had a son, perhaps, who and all- Europe besides'iuto barbarism. By the con.
was lame, a crple incapable of service—a law of scription, trades, arts, and letters are infallibly de,
the conscription compelled you to pay I,5(0 francs, stroyed. A young man, .who must die at eighteen,
by way of consolation for this misfortune. Some- can never apply himself to any study. Neighbour-
times a sick conscript died before having undergone ing nations, compelled in self-defence to resort to the
the examination of the recruiting captain ; one might same means with us, were abandoning in their turn
suppose that in such case the father would be exempt the advantages of civilization ; and all nations preci.
from paying the 1,500 francs for a subttitute—hy no pitated one upon another, as in the age of the Goths
means. It the declaration of sickness was made be- and Vandals, would have seen the calamities of those
tore the event of death, the conscript being alive at aces revive. By breaking to pieces the ties of gene-
the moment of the declaratioh, the father was coin- rel society, the conscription also annihilated those of
pelled to pay down the sum on the grave of his son. domestic life. Accustomed from their cradles to re-
. ~ Was the poor man desirous of giving some cdu- gard themselves as victims devoted to death, ehil
caiicer to one of his sons, he must pay 800 francs dren no longer obeyed their parents; they became
to the university, without reckoning the expense of idle vagabonds and debauchees, in expectation of the
board, &c.. given to the master. day when they were to march and pillage the world.
" Did a modern 'author quote an ancient author, What principle of religion or morals had time to take
as the works of the latter had fallen into what was root in their hearts ? Fathers and mothers, on the
called .46 public domain," he was obliged to pay to other hand, among the lower orders, no longer at-
the censorship five sous per line of quotatioM. It tacked their affections, no longer bestowed their cares
while you quoted you also translated, you. only paid on children whom they must prepare to lose, who no
li sous per line, because the quotation then consti- longer formed their wealth and their staff of support,
ruled a' sort of 4, mixed domain," one half belong- and who had become for them only a grief and a
ing t ) the labour of the living translator, and the burthen. Hence that hardness of heart, that oblivion
other half to the dead author. of every sentiment of nature, which lead to selfish-
, 4, When Bonaparte caused food to be distributed ness, to recklessness of good or evil, to indifference
! among the poor in the winter of 1811, it was believed for country ; which obliterate conscience and remorse,
' that he would employ his savings in this charity : and devote a people to servitude, by equally strip.
but on that occasion, be levied additional centimes, ping it of the horror of vice and the admiration of
and gained four millions on the soup of paupers. virtue.
4. In short, we saw him turn undertaker, and mo- 41 Such was the administration of Bonaparte in re.
nopolise the administration of funerals: it was worthy gard to the interior of France."
of the destroyer of the French to raise a tax upon
dead bodies; and how could any apex ii to the pro-
tection of the laws, when it was he who made them?
The Legislative Budy dared once to speak, and 'it
was diss,.lved.
" A single article in the new codes destroyed pro-
perty by its very roots. An administrator of do-
mains could say to you—" Your property is domai-
nial or national. I place it provisionally under se-.
questration : you may go and try your rights ; if the
administration is wrong, your property will be re-
stored to you." And to whom then must you resort
in this cause ? To the ordinary tribunals ? No:
such causes were reserved for the examination of the
Council of State, and tried before the Emperor, who
was both judge and party. .
" If property was uncertain, civil liberty was still
less secure. Was there ever any thing more mon-
strous than that commission appointed to inspect the
prisons, and under the report of which, a man might
be detained his whole life in a dungeon, without in-
dictment, without trial, without judgment, put to
the.torture, shot by night, or strangled between two
shutters? Amidst all this, Bonaparte was nominating
every year commissions for the liberty of the press,
and tor personal liberty. Tiberius himself never made
Such a mockery of the human species.
" But the Conscription was, as it were, the cope-
stone of these works of despotism. Scandinavia
itself, styled by an historian, the workshop of the
human race, would have been unable to furnish men
for this homicidal law. -The code of the conscription'
will remain an eternal monument of the reign of Bo-
naparte ; there may be found collected all that the
most subtle and ingenious tyranny can devise to
torment and devour the people : —ic is truly the code
of hell. ,
g, The generations of France were placed in regular
rows for the axe, like the trees of a forest; every year
80,000 young men were cut down. But this was only
the regular average of deaths; the conscription was
often doubled, or reinforced by extraordinary levies ;
often it devoured beforehand its destined victims, like
a dissipated heir who borrows on his future income.
At last they were taken even without estimate ; the
legal age, the qualities requisite for dying on a field
of battle, were no longer regarded, and the law dis-
played, in this respect, a marvellous facility, it de-
wended to infancy, it ascended to sild age; the dis-
char ed soldier, the man who had a substitute, were
e, xt y taken ; the son of a poor artisan, perhaps ran.
s., d thrice, even at the expense of his father's little
property, was compelled to march ; maladies, infir-
mities, bodily, defects, were no longer a protection.
Moveable columns traversed our provinces like an
enemy's country, to tear from the people their last
children. 'ln default ei a brother absent, the brother
,'resent was taken. The father was made to answer
for the son, the wife fpr the husband : responsibility
was extended to the ;tog distant relative:: and even

FRENCH PAPERS.

RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS.
PARIS, APRIL 7, 1814.
The Constitution has been presented to the Senate.
It was read twice, and a Commission appointed to
consider it.

The Commission having made its report on the
sth of April, at eight o'clock in the evening, the
Constitution as adopted unanimously.
Louis StAnislaus Xavier is restored to the wishes
of the French by a Constitutional Charter, equally
advantageous to the people and the Royal Family
destined to govern them.
Before such great news all other intelligence fades
away. But it is our duty to give an account of the
events that preceded it.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH MARSHAL MARMON 1,

Here follows a letter, dated April 3d, from the
Prince of Schwartzenberg to Marshal Marmont,
Duke of Ragusa, inviting him to accede to the De-
CM:" by which Napoleon Bonaparte is declared to
have fin feited the Throne, and to pass with his troops
under the new Government.

Marshal Marmont, in his reply to the Prince, ex-
presses his willingness to contribute to the interests.
of France, which have ever been his first wish ; I;itt
requires as a guarantee--
That all troops quitting the standard of N.tdc,-
leon Bonaparte shall have leave to pasS frt.•. , !nto
Normandy :
And that if the events of the war shall place
Bonaparte a prisoner in the hands of the Allies, the
Prince shall guarantee his life and safety, and that
he shall be sent to a country chosen by the Allied
Powers and the French Government."

In reply to this letter the Prince of Schwartzenberg
accedes to the demand of a guarantee, promises lite
and safety to Napoleon Bonaparte, and compliments
the Marshal upon the generosity of his cirtracter.
Marshal Marmont then passed with his corps of
12,000 men within the lines of the Allies.
Next follows a letter from General Liic.tte to h;s
corps, dated Corbeil, sth April, in which lie says—
" the Emperor Napoleon has announced to the a: my
that, being considered as the only obstacle to peair,
he is ready to renounce his crown in favour of his sin
and the Empress Regent : he therefore requires his
troops to preserve order and wait the event."

LETTER OF MARSHAL NEY TO TALLEYRAND.
This is succeeded by the following letter from Mar-
shal Ney, Prince of Moskwa, to the Prince of Bene-
vento, Chief of the Provisional Government ;
" My Lor4,—l proceeded to Paris yesterday with
Marshal the Duke of Taunt= and the Duke of Vi-
.en;a, with full powers to the Emperor of Russia to
defend the interests, of the dynasty of the Emperor Nd•
An unfpresetn even; broke or the peecia-

tions, which seemed at first to promise a favowab'n
termination. From that time I saw that to SAVE out
dear country from the frightful evils of civil war, it
remained only for the French to embrace the cause of
our ancient Kings, and I repaired to.night to the Em-
peror Napoleon to manifest this wish.
The Emperor, convinced of the critical situation in
which he had placed France, and the impossibility of
saving her himself, has appeared disposed to resign,
and to give in his full and entire abdication. To.
morrow I hope to have from him the formal and au-
thentic act, and shall soon afterwards have the honour
of waiting upon your Lordship. I am, 3cc.
(Signed) Prince of &lemma.
Fontainebleau, April 5, half past eleven at night.
To the above letter succeeds the act of adherence of
the Metropolitan Chapter to the decree of forfeitUt
The first signature is that of Cardinal Maury I Arch.
bishop of Paris.

PARIS, APRIL 6.

ADDRESS OF THE.PROVISIONAL GOVERNNIENT TO TIIF

PEOPLE.

People of France—When you came nut of a state
of civil discord, you chose for your chief a man who
appeared upon the stage of the universe with the
character of grandeur : you placed in him all your
hopes. Those hopes were v iin. Upon the ruins of
anarchy he Wit only despotismt.
He ought at least hom.gratitudeto have become
French with you. He never was. He never ceased
to undertake, without motive and object, unjust wars,
"like an adventurer who would become famous. In
a few years he has devoured your 'wealth and your
population.
Every family is in mourning ; all.Franee in tears'
he is deaf to our miseries. gven yet perhaps .ho
dreams of gigantic designs, though unheard of reverses
punish so signally the. pride and abuse uf victory.
He never knew how to reign either in the national
Interest nor even in the interest of his own despotism s
he has destroyed all that he ought to create, and le-
created all that he tinight to destroy : he relied only
upon force : force now overwhelms him just reward
of senseless ambition.
At length this unexampled tyranny has ceaseds the
Allied Powers have entered the capital of France.
Napoleon governed us like a King of barbarians:
A.exander, and his magnaniznous Allies, speak only
the language of honour, justice, and humanity ; they
have just reconciled Lurope tu a brave and unhappy
people, _ _ _

People of France ! the senate has declared, th4t
Napoleon has forfeited as Throne. The country is so
longer with him. Another order of things can aloe*
save it. We have known the excesses of popular
licentiousness and absolute power ; lot us restore the
real Monarchy in limiting„hrwlse laws, the di/relent
powers that compose it.
Let exhausted agriculture're-flourish under a pater.
nal Throne ; let commerce, bound in fetters, resume
her treedom ; let out youth be no looser cut off by
arm: before they have the strength es bear them ps•do
let the order of nature be,no longer interrupted ; end
let the old men hope to die before their chiliren
Men of France, let us rally ; past calamities are
finished, and peace will put an end to the subversion
of Europe. The August Allies have given weir
word—France will rest from her long agitation, and
better enlightened by the double proof of anarchy and
despotism, will find happiness in the return ut a tu-
telary Go mrhment.