Star.
London, England, 1821-07-05 00:00:00

PROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

" The eventful period during which he wielded at will the
destinies of the Continent, when the most powerful Sovereigns
of Europe vied with each other in the abjectness of their sub-
mission to him, and when even ire, protected as we are by our
Navy, and our situation, saw so much cause for apprehension
from his power, is yet too fresh in our recollection, to allow us
to receive the account of his death as we would that of one of
the mob of Monarchs. Fallen from his power, the miserable
victim of a cheerless and rigorous captivity, the people remem-
bered that he was a Sovereign by nature; and willingly paid to
hint the homage to which his extraordinary genius and energy
entitled him. The reproof which an individual received from
the Meeting of East India Proprietors for alluding to NA rocroN
in a harsh and unbecoming manner, may be considered a fair
test of the general feeling.
" The history of the close of his life is everything but honour-
able to those who are at the helm of affairs in this country, and
even to the nation itself. If his detention was necessary to the
repose of Europe—if it was impossible that the Sovereign of
Ea lass could receive him as another Tucstts•roct.es—it was
not surely necessary that his captivity should have been embit-
tered by such an incessant display of petty tyranny as made his
life a burden to him, and could not fail to bring it to a rapid
close. But we will not dwell on this painful subject.
" He belongs now to History ; and while envy itself will be
forced to allow him the possession of the highest talents, his in-
difference to everything but his own personal exaltation must
also be admitted. Wielding, as he did, the power of the new
order of things, he might have conferred the greatest and most
lasting benefits on mankind. If he had bad the good of the hu-
man race at heart, he would never have sought to ally himself
with those Dynasties which the Resiolution and himself had
nude so ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of the world
nor have attempted with's() much eagerness to foster and revive
the aristocratical prejudices to which the Revolution had given
such a shock, in order to surround himself with a pageantry
which he of all rulers least required.
" He might easily have extended to other countries the bene-
fits which France had by her struggle succeeded in obtaining, and
destroyed the reign of feudalism and privilege in Europe. But
the benefits which foreign nations received from France, as a
compensation for the loss of their independence, were received
by them before his accession to power. At a very early period
of his career, he distinguished himself brills hatred of free insti-
tutions, and he carefully preserved the vicious governments, and
most of the vicious institutions of the countries which he whits-
gated. The free institutions of France which he inherited from
the Republic he either destroyed or greatly corrupted, and the
most important of all, namely, Jury Trials, was converted into
a complete State engine. The noble plan of instruction which
the great men of the Revolution formed, but were unable to
carry into complete execution, and which would soon have freed
France from the reproach which still attaches to her, of a great
want of kaowledge in the mass of the population, soon dwindled
down to a petty object in his bands. One can understand why
the Ultras should openly avow their hostility to the instruction

of the people in rea ling, writing, and accounts, :s a nation•
evil; but that selfishness should so warp and blind a mind
of such singular power as that of 141.trosaox is, indeed, a sin-
gular phenomenon.

" But his selfishness proved the cause of his downfal. The
people of the Continent feared liim, but bated him as their op-
pressor, and they seized the very first favourable moment to
join those whom they hated only less than himself, in order to
put an end to his power. Gratitude for benefits would have
rendered the population either friendly to him or neutral, and
the snows of Russia, which annihilated his army, would still
have left his power almost intact. The confidence of the world,
when once hist, cannot easily be regained. Hence the incre-
dulity with which the pledges of BONATAILIT, on his return from
Elba, were generally received. This we can understand. But
the fear of the friends of liberty continued to invest him with all
his former power, when circumstances bad rendered it almost
impossible for him ever to regain it ; and the population of Ger-
many, once more mused by the strains of liberty, poured itself
out ea France, and aided our gallant countrymen at Waterloo
to destroy the independence of the fairest part of Europe, and
to rivet the chains of the nations."