The Statesman.
London, England, 1814-04-19 00:00:00

raEDi

glit,--My it
written under
present. At
knew that the
that the Semite,
der their intlte
BONAPARTE, for
I tried and maim
!evident that they were usurping rights which pro=
j perly belonged to the whole nation t this act of
jposition, therefore, appeared 'to me quite extra-offs:
cial and illegal: it seetned to me as, monstrous,
as it would have been to have deposed BONAPARTt
j by a Court-Martial of Russians or Prussians assents
j bled at the drum-head. I regarded it as peculiarly
offensive, that a ConservaticeSeuate should arrow*
to themseless the right of overthrowing a Govern:
mut ; their office being to maintain and preserve it.
All power become. unlawful when it is used to or:
poses contrary to those for which it is confided: If a
• man is entrusted with the care of a ward, a house, of
of land, and should abuse the person of the ward, in-
stead of protecting her, or pull dowd the house, or
alienate the land, he would act as contrary to his
duty, as a Senate appointed to be the Csesserwdoes
of a Constitution, can do by pulling to pieces that
very Constitution of which they are the guardians.
Another circumstance. deserves attention : the Con.
servative Senate ground their act of deposition on
Icertain violations of the Constitution committed by
BONAPARTE, contrary to his oath. These, no
doubt, were great crimes, supposing them to be
proved ; but no man ought to be condemned unheard.
It was a principle with our ancestors, at all times,
that a Prince who violates his Coronation Oath, for-
; feits or abdicates (for the words mean the same thing)
by that very act, his right of office ; and I do not
know any point in politics, which would .more tend
to the welfare and happiness of mankind to adhere
to, than this. Indeed, without it, every effort that
can be made by any nation to preserve its freedom
will be rain. It is as essential to confer the quality
of a free citizen, as Lord CIII:iTERFIELD'S grace; to
constitute a fine gentleman ; all the labours of the
dancing.master will he useless with rot the one; and
all the projects of Constitltion-ni.,kers without the
other : it is that esseutill article, that sine qua non,
without which, ns his Lordship expresses it, o;ni
futicae vane. If, therefore, liaror.ses violated 1103
Constitution, and consequently his oath, he ought
to have been deposed by the nation at large, but not
by the very men. who were his accomplices in the
crime. For it was the duty of the Conservative
Senate to prevent this very violation ; but instead of
: opposing it, they seem (u far as! can judge) to have
, allowed, or permitted ,it; and consequently, if 130.
trarAwrs deserted deposition; they clawed it like.
wise.

These points bore very strongly upon my mind when
I wrote the letter above-mentioned ; but the grand
difficulty is now entirely removed by the voluntary
renunciation of Boompaant :,--that has opened
way for the Bovaaosts to the Throne, which no
Decrees of the Conservative. Senate, in violation of
their oaths, their conservative office, and the aggree
gate rights of the whole French Nation, could have
done: but I apprehend that this voluntary rettuit.
ciation is more than was expected. BovArAato's
leading passion has always been supposed (hy the
people of this country at least) to be the lose of
dominion ; not the ambition of doing great things
for the people over whom he reigned ; and, there.
fore, it was never imagined that he possessed great.
ness of soul sufficient voluntarily to descend into
private life, in order (as he observes) to give peace
to France ; and, indeed, it is impossible to impute
to him any other motive for so doing. Suppo-
sing that NsroLcoN was conscious to himself
that he had not violated the Constitution, and,
consequently, that his right to the Throne of
France was as good Hyatt CAPET's ever was (the •
founder of the present race); then, I must say, that
he made one of the greatest sacrifices that ever was
made by man : but supposing (which, perhaps, is
nearer the mark), that he was conscious that both ,
the Senate and himself, impelled by the urgency of
circumstances, had transgressed the bounds of the
Constitution ; and• that he saw the very men who
were accessary to this wrong were disposed to throw
on him the whole punishment and disgrace attached
to it, in that case, we may well believe that a certain
disgust at the treachery of mankind would operate in
diminishing in his mind the value of the sacrifice he
made. Be this as it may, I heartily rejoice that he
took the resolution he did. All men in office ought
to act from the same principle.; and however un-
doubted the right of any Prince may be, he ought to
consider that there is a vast difference between rights
that are petional, and such as are only official. A
man may do as he will with his own private rights,
but a Chief Magistrate ougbt not even to elect his
due, if the consequences would be injurious to the
community at large ; for it is for the benefit of that
community only that he has any right; at all.—
,When I consider that it Is necessary .te get quit
!of an old right before a new one eim be created,
when I reflect upon the power-possessed by, SA ea.
Lue, and the attachment of the whole nation to him,
61 am overwhelmed with astonishment at the contem-
plation of the late events in France. Of all the
transactions recorded in' history, nothing can, as
far as I am able to judge, be placed In cUmpetition
with it. It is not by force of emit ;it is not by •
another kind of force more potent than that of arms
—a force which warns all mankind from the straight
line of duty, and triumphs over the honesty, the
patriotism, and valour of one sex, as well as over
the modesty of the other ; no, it is not by these
means that this wonderful event has been brought
about, they would have beast incompetent to such a
mighty purpose, had they not been assisted by arts
the most subtle, the most specious, anu the most;
fatal that human ingenuity ever practised upon the
credulity of mankind. By arts like these the sweet-
ness of affiance must be totally destroyed ; no se-

• •

Ns
' • / 4' '
'DITOR or ran STATBSMAN.
1
last letter; dated 16 11th List. wad!
circumstances very different from thd . .l
the time I writ that letter; I only •
Allies had got possession of Paris, and ...
P y acting as any one must suppose ens
lenge, had launched a decree against
or the purpose of depnsing him; nn=
lard ; and in doing this I considered it