The Statesman.
London, England, 1813-08-19 00:00:00

•
STATE OF MAMA
•111)
CHARACTER, OF BO4APARTg,
go ?Lk coscramczna compact of tag misonmi
w R.

cater.re vtor btleoeinstini
We calculate on the discontents Slid divisions f
Varian cceo,u
natnedr.sreeerkoi
tionto
beu. bestow uoptsn her h
whose favour ? In favour of the House of Bourbon.t
And where is now the interest of the House of Bor.
bon ? What hold have that fatuity over the genera.
tion which comprises at the present moment
all the
energy, ability, and practical influence. of F •
Mee?
The man of five-and,thirty in the present year, was
in 1793* a boy of 15. What, then, were the pas.
sions universally prevalent amongst the French Jong
of that memorable era ?-Were they ant
revolutionary
passions? But were they transient ? Did any general
movement of the national mind ever at any period
since the year 1793, bespeak a crisis favotrrable to
the restoration of the old Dynasty ? If so, with
what spirit has it operated, and in what form has it
appeared ? Amidst all the changes, caprices, and
revulsions of public feeling,—froin the Girondist to
the Jacobin—from the Directory to the Como.
latel—from democracy wild and savage, to the
glittering and cutting despotism of the sword
the single eccentricity from which the mass of the
French people seem to have been obstinately and
even curiously exempt, was a taste for their foruer
mastersr-Bourbossism only, has never been in
Ifadosikr About the date of the first coalition, it
have been possible, it alright have bees* easy,
fOr Pricings who acted liked men of honour, to re.
vie* the fortunes of the exiled Sovereign. That
gleam of sun-shine passed away, and witk it perished
every seed of future expectation. The base cupidity,
the shallow perfidy, of each, without exception, of
the Allied Powers, unveiled the true character of
their Imperial and Royal interference,—leaving a
deep impression on the hearts of all who could feet
or fight for the integrity of France,—and sealiug
finally the condition of the House of Bourbon.
But let us, if not from sentiment, at least from
prudence, speak candidly of him with whom we con-
tend—since it is even more a dangerous, than a pi.
tiful indulgence, to exaggerate the perils which en-
compass him.
We are invariably prone to fancy that others feel
as we do. It is not peculiar to the people of Eng-
land : Every nation of Europe which has suffered
from the craft or violence of Bonaparte, has soothed
itself by supposing that he was equally detested by
the French—and tat any effort for the subversion of
his Government would be seconded by the prayers of
his subjects. Now fact and reason conspire to banish
these dreams—and clear away this vapour of the
imagination. Benaparte, the most ambitious, but
the ablest of men, has been the most flagrant of
usurpers. Ile extinguished every spark of liberty in
France—but he quenched the flames of civil war
whith had devoured her: So stands his title in the
archives of French misfortune—Tyranny raised on
the ruins of Anarchy :—Strange that the legitimacy
of such a title should be most condemned—and the
fragility of sech a power most asserted—by those
those' fabric of policy rests on the single principle—
that freedom is in all cases overpaid by revolution.
Bonaparte is indeed a tyrant—but he is a tyrant
who tolerates no tyranny except his own; no least
monarchs in the distant provinces of his empire. The
higher ranks who once exercised and abused the he•
reditary rights (as they were called) of feudal exac-
tion, jurisdiction, and petty despotism, exist no
longer in substance or its form. • The persons most
exalted by this arbitrary legislator, have no shadow-
of personal jurisdiction or nathority, above auy
other class of subjects ;—the laws are alike inex-
orable—bat open alike to all. Invested with well
defined military power, the gaudiest Marshal is•com.
pelted to practice the most entire military submission.
Thepath of military eminence is the only one non-left
for an aspiring Frenchman. Hence unquestionably
the whole of that portion of society whose pursuits
and attainments might, under a free Constitution,
dispese or qualify them for political life, may be
presumed to murmur against a specie* of govern-
ment which levels their pretensions with the dust.—
Of that class, however, which under the gtereanto-
cracy of a soldier, could in point of moral influence
be next to nothing, and in physical efficacy less than
nothing, the Romberg. are dwindling, and. the spi-
rit is gone. the out-port merchants are equklly
humbled,—the manufacturing' body in most of
its members has rather gained by the Continental
System, since it relieves them from the competi.
tion of foreign manufactureiv. The loWer *wi-
zens, but, above all, the peasantry, have not only
been made sensible of a comparative amendment its
condition, by the fall of those privileged orders be.
fore whom they once hardly dared to stand,—but
they enjoy an actual release from many grievous anti
detailed oppressions, annexed to the existeoce of the
old nobility. The law of the Conscription is said to
be a sword suspended over the head of Bonapartc.—
But the Conscription, intolerable tos the oliluent soil
well-educated, diminishes in weight as it descer.:ls
in fortune. The multitude do not feel it much. It
unfolds to the youngest son of the poorest labourers
the chance of plunderl—the prospect of promotion- •
the most dazzling honours known to Imperial
France, a Marshal's Staff and a military Dukedom.
We greatly misconceive the present French chat: .c.
ter, if we pronounce it insensible to warlike renowo•
Never in the brightest ages of the ancient 11l ()-
starchy, was the service carried on with a bctt:,r
spirit—its fatigues endured with more exemplary pi-
tience—its dangers faced with loftier heroismOr its
rewards more ardently anticipated. The army its
France is decidedly popular. It is the study of the
Government to make the French soldiery respected
and esteemed by their countrymen. The private
grenadiers of the line will enter into and converse
in the first coffee-houses of Paris. They are not
without money. Courted and elevated beyond every
other class of inhabitants, they ire nevertheless con-
trouled by the most peremptory discipline. In fo-
reign countries the French-soldier is a merciless and
remorseless barbarian,—a robber and a ravisher,
without scruple, or punithment, or reproach. No
contrast can be more extraordinary than between his
demeanour at home, and when he passes the &each
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