Star.
London, England, 1815-09-13 00:00:00

LETTER of a FR.E.NCHZMN to the KING.

Stns—'lice eirnts which have occurred during
these last fifteen months are unexampled in the annals
of history. France, twice invaded by the Powers of.
Europe, a-man sprung from the Revolution raised
. to empire' banished and recalled by the nation ; the
successor of the Kings of France restored, after 21)
years exile, to the throne of his forefathers, and soon
sil!tof forfeiting that throne through.the errors of his
fantlly and incapacity of his Ministers ; finally, this
• same successor of Sings, by the aid of 600,000 fo.
teigit troops, invested anew with Royal authority;—l,
all these cirturnetances have completed the calamities
of our molars. •
" For the second time your Majesty is brought
into France, which now fixes upon you her fondest
hopes. Fifteen tuouths since, you stood forward as
the deliverer of yoUr country ; you came attended
with peace, you promised a good Constitution, and
the people loudly testified their gratitude and their
joy. They-were unreserved in their affection, and
thought not of setting bounds to your power. They
adored you as the lather of their country, and wor.
shipped you as an idol. With this imprudent but
sit cere love, tningled itself the incense of servile and
corruptive adulation ; men, who during twenty years
had lived distant from the throne and from the dan-
gers of their country, usurped the place of citizens,
wino, dining that period, had exposed their lives in
its detence, and who alone should have surrounded
your person for the benefit of all.
41 These Nobles of Gothic ancestry enforced on you
the persuasion that you were the providence of that
nation. of which you were but the first Magistrate:
they szt your will ;Utile room of the laws—your inte.
tests in the room of those of the State. All things were
refei red to your person, and the descendant of Henry
the Fourth WAS encircled with those futile and osten-
tatious marks of deference reserved to the Courts of
Asiatic tyrants. Twenty years adversity hid not
warned your Majesty against the dangers of flattery,
and your anti chambers were crowded with these anti-
quated courtiers. instead of advisers, whom you
needed, you were surrounded with slaves. Parasites
that they were ! They taught you to forget that the
State, in whip all are solicitous to serve% is not less
monsoons in political institutions than that in which
all are ainnitistis 10 command. They led you to give
that chatter, which, hardly granted, was violated with
impunity concessions to public opinion were no
mimice mask titan rescue:led. You ought to have beta
the head of the whole French People: they preferred
declaring you the chief of the Coouans and Vendeans..
The liberty of the press was suspended. A Minister
no less insolent than absurd, sporting with reason and
wigs ti‘e representatives of the people, audaciously as.
varied at the tribune of that House, that. the modern
eekst.rsLip of a Chiron and Demi.*** Avimld.,'Jo.
rift reed to ruind the censorship of Cato in. ROAN'
4* the irrevocability of national property was
shaken, the Nasality of rights was nn longer but a
urine ; it was a virtue to have betrayed one's coup.
try. it was a crime to have served it.' Priestly anti,
Ministerial despotism arose ready to crush ti.e most
sacred rights. At home. the executive power, pro.,
catalog in direct: opposition with the legislature and
public opinion. foreboded a long and bloody anarchy ;
abroad. France, wok in humiliation, had lallen from
she Tank to which twenty years of military glory had
raised her ; the King of Fiance acknowledging him-
self the vassal of a British Regent, the country felt
indignant at such an otitroge offered to its indepen-
dence and honour; a revointion was ripening, when
Napoleon appeared. You had neglected the rights
of the nation, and the nation deserted you, leaving
you to tall from a throne to which she had called
you for the good of all, and not for the benefit of a
fov flatterers of despotic authority.. Your Majesty
hay lead lessons for titanicy in the vicissitudes of the
past. lnssoction may be afforded you by the events
of your own life, and even the errors of Napoleon
sna y supply useful admonition. Your return is effected
by the aid of foreign arms ; several of our provinces
are invaded, and' the blood of France has been 'shed.
Atnijsr the iumhltuous train Which attended you to
the capital, your Majesty beheld not the numerous
lands laid waste, nor the orphan claiming a father
slaughtered by the enemy's hand; and yet, withiu
the space cif eight days, sixty thousand citizens had
fallen, and thousands of habitations had been dc-
alf oyes!.

" Deceive not yoarself, Sire: the majority and
Most worthy part of the whose only wish is
the welfire of the country, without having assisted
id your return, will still sustain you. You may be
beloved. but our country claims our first love.
Amidst the shouts of Vive le Roi," are• always
'lewd the shouts of " Vive la Nation ! Vive la Li.
Lrrte I", Those who wish to unite around your
person are not subjects eager to behold a King, but
men who could teach the stranger that. bound by one
common sentimult, they will never cease to form a
nation, and in their acclamations, they hail him who
is to command respect to their rights. The French
peuple whom you once again meet, are filled with
*arm ani generous feelings, but they are not ineon-
Sider:ably enthusiastic. !rise intoxication of glory.
-bas vanished; treed from the illusion-of that extrava-
gant dominion of which they have felt the injustice
and the' danger, they will die in defence of Lhoir
!wintry, of their liberty, Ad of the power wlich
14)ey confide to you, and which 'YOu administer for the
public. weal. They''rcquire a' chiet, but they will
sever acknowledge a emote. a •
“ Plate. Confidence, Sire. in • those soldiers
whom you should bare. siiiroundett'a thronelwhich
tf‘ey had so long awl so well defended., What cals.,
isities Weald you *et have spire& yOst•conntry, b).
attaching to your Fenian thus,' Veteran, of honour
•and•of victofy f Sink antiquated initiintions is
Your predecessors govt.:reed slaVes..yoit goyim
ejLixeni. • Let this great 'revolt ion in social relations
date (Tom Our reign. 'Can you brindifferent ttiSuch
eery? .P.ould jou prefer abaolute rale to' a pOsiier
• 0 The words Waist; de air sue AO, tarnished to b;boltlaKkg.
'bls Is as ailasioa to Henry IV.' •
. .

.... ..

gentle and firm, sanctioned and ‘beTed by all. which-.'
.uniting in one common bond the Prince and the Ci.
tile!), would diffuse prosperity throughout an seen.
sivi country, and daitY receive the benedictions of the
people. In a moment of holy enthusiasm for all that
is grcid and good, the French nation arose en seam
in 89 for the overthrow of feudal tyranny, and in
your capacity as a French Nine, you supported
their rights—you gave a splendid example, by ire.
haring the rights of the people to usurped privi-
leges of the Nobility.
" The principles which since put arms in our hands,
have survived the Revolutionary storm—the sausenalia
of 93 have been unable to disgrace the hallowed name
of liberty t that dynasty by which it is respected. will
alone remain unshaken. Those sacred rights pur-
chased at the expense of so much blood, are—the so-
vereignty of the tmettle--eational relsraentatiox by Aep ia?.
election—tie holland= of taxis by thou retsrerentatroes—
the independence of judges, and trial of eitmens by their
teen—the (reality of all is the eye of the law—the re-
sponribility of ministers—the fiber& of she individual—rof
the rut—and of religions worship—llse abolishanst of
eon cations—oblivion of the past.—arevaalility of the
alr eof national ftroptrty, igle. •
" Those are the sacred rights against which all
human power will be unavailing. Phe Prince who
would violate them, would draw down upon himself
the hatred of the people and would perish. No power
can withstand the force of public °Onion ; if this
truth hasbeen hitherto unfelt, it must cease is be so.
" Let not Sovereigns, ever jealous of the liberty
of their subjects, make vain promises, which they
would hope to violate with impunity. The reign of
deception and despotism is gone by, it is no longer
possible to fascinate the public eye with the shadow
of liberty, and to lead us finally into the abyss of
slavery-.the principles of the nation are unshaken,
and you will not disregard them. Your glory. Sire,
nay, even your safety, are coexistent with their inte-
grity, and remember that that Constitution which
declares your person sacred, offers an asyltsm only
to the just administrator of the laws, and not to their
violator, and that if the Prince abandons the Consti-
tution to attack the people, the people in despair
may also depart from it, and resort elsewhere for
arms of defence. The internal relations of the coun-
try once settled by you on a firm and liberal basis,
its external relations will assume a more candid and
liberal character.

" Let the shameless wiles of diplomacy, so long
mistaken for 4 science, be exploded from the Cabinet
of Princes; in times when nations were made for
thrones, and thrones not fur nations—when ambition,
caprice, and force decided the fate of the world--de•
ception may have beeh taken for an art, duplicity for
a virtue, violence for a right; but in these days, pub-
lic opinion proclaims other principles—thrones are
raised for the people, and by the people.
•• The present age has no resemblance wi.h those
which have preceded it. Never did reason obtain a
nobler triumph over prejudice. Fanaticism of every
kind lies fully exposed to the hatred of mankind, and
there is no Frenchman who has not a just sense of his
rights, of his dignity, and of the duty of Kings.
'4 Become a man of the present age, Site, and of,en
recal to your mind the fit.e admonition of Atitigonus
to his son—that Kings should devote themselves to
the good of their people; that they are instituted to
govern, and not to dominate; and that, finally, the
kingly power is only 4 splendid sertritside."