New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-05-01

actually al cor Nth England when Bonsperte
commenced the series Of reacherous vilanies which
transformed Ferdinand and bis parents from allies
and guests into prisoners Of Napoleon and filed her
whole area with dreadful carnage. The Spanish
Royal Family were the devoted admirers and will
ing tools of the French deEpot, and had steadily
been 50 for years In his cause they had sacrificed
their vast feet at Trafalgar and been shut out from
their American possessions, the e1hausless source
Of the wealth and splendor. Il was to de,hrone
such plant, patient instruments that he hesitated
not to violate his pghted faith and the requirements
Of hospitality, and commence utterly unprovsked
struggle in which Six Hundred Thousand Men were
sacrificed, and Millions suffered the agonies of or
phsnage, famine and wasting pestilence. All this
is softly termed an error OF its contriver and per.
petrator and the world, 30 eager TO tear out the
eyes and roas, alive the body of some wretched, be-
nighted, phrenzied murderer Of one man. grows SEN
tmental over the hard fate which consigned this
wholesale butcher to end his days on lone island,
surrounded by attendants, worshpers and the means
Of gratifying every appetite Such is human JUS
,ce, melted out respectively to great villains and
those who, with far less light and more excuse walk
humbly in their footsteps
The invasion Of Russia might have terminated
differently says Mr.. H. We greatly doub, it. If
Moscow had not been burned, The invaders would
have found great difficulty in wintering there, and
still more in taking the field in the Spring with any
chance of coping with the hundreds of thousands
now rallied from all Northern Europe and Asia 10
overwhelm them. The truth is that this great crime
was destined to signal punishment from the hour
that the French passed Smolensk. The subjugation
of Russia was impossible in view of the spirit which
animated her Fifty Millions of People; the NUM-
lions and provisions OF the immense invading host
for year could neither be procured in nor trans
ported to Russia; and the moment it began to re-
treat from position so advanced as Moscow, its
destruction was certain. Yet even bad it 'termi-
mated differently. it would still have been a most
abhorrent, God defying enterprise productive Of
years of agony, 10 no good end whatever. How
could France be benefited by the subjugation Of
Russia
Mr. Headley considers the admiration of Napoleon
by the French q refutation of the charges brought
against him. We think the opinion at least of the
Germans and Spaniards ought also to be taken into
the account. They too had opportunities of know
ing him, and under circumstances less favorable to
their deusicn. A great warrior is almost always
popular with The mass Of those whose National re-
nown has been exalted by his victories.
When our author cannot deny the charges against
Bonapartes character, he admits them, but asserts
that England or some Of his enemies has done the
like-a defence which, if admitted, would serve the
end of any malefacor that ever lived. Hisinvasion
T. bos ,rit bont 4 a laaat opolnu1
but then England has made all her acquisitions in
India by invasions equally without excused This
of set is al once irrelevant and unsustained. Ii
should not have been put forth without some show
of evidence to support it. The British Government
is bad enough, but do not remember am instance
in which it made war 30 wantonly as in this case OF
Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt. SO We are for the
hundredth time treated with the assertion that
Wellington was entrapped" al Waterloo. and that,
/" Had Butcher stayed away Grouchy did, or had
Grouchy come up as did Butcher victory would
once more have perched the French eagles"
Surely there is nothing in the relative positions of
the contending armies in their relative loss up
to the time Blacher appeared, to justify this asser
ton, nor to prove that Wellington was any more
entrapped here than al Salamanca or Vittoria
II never was hard matter to entrap' the Duke
into fight with an equal force when at the head OF
seventy thousand British aoldiers.
Mr. Hcadley's talk of the nonsense and cant of
Alison is hardly in good taste while his indignation
at the basest treatment of Napoleon, by the British
on his final overthrow does not tally well with his
palliaton of the murder of the Due Enghein We
have us little reverence for Royalty as Mr.. H. can
have, and blame Napoleon no more for killing
Royal Duke seized on neutral territory than if the
victim had been the humbest citizen. Il is murder
we object to. whether of Royalty or Democracy and
we think this not too severely punished by such a
confinement for life that of Napoleon at ST. Hell
ena If others deserved ii as much as he, we see
no, how that affects his case.
Mr. Headley is hardy enough to talk even of de-
yotion 10 Freedom and Equs! Rights when no man
ever more wantonly or thoroughly crushed the lib
critics of great nation. Even the Liberty OF the
Press utterly subverted by him, and no Oriental
despotism was more thorough than that OF the En-
pire from the victory of Austertz to the flight from
Warsaw The born autocrat may plead the excuses
of education and routine 10 palaton of ho despot-
ISM bu, the plebeian elevated TO supreme power by
the admiring confidence OF free people can never
eNtenuate Inc crime Oh hnSAi iiNS'sHSo'
No man who has the heart of a Republican can fall
10 mark his crime with adherence.
Mr.. Headley closes his essay with the following
flourish
see the great public works he esablished--the in
situations he founded-the laws he proclaimed and the
civil liberty he restored-and then. remem osrns thai
the bloody thar Offset all these were wsged by aim
In selfdefencc and equal rights struggling against
exclusive despotsm he will regret that he hssadopt
ed the SANDERS OF his foernen, and the slsehoods oil
naorarchsts.'
We submit that our authors reluctant admissions
suffice wihou, the aid of any ISLANDERS or false
hoods, 10 establish for Bonapartc character which
ought not 10 be held up before our aspiring, hot
blooded youth as worthy to be admired or initiated
Unless he dispute this, there is no controversy ii
he does, he should speak the question and not seek
TO ens, our feelings on the side OF one bad man by
infianing our prejudices against others whether
raonarchs or ministers Let Britain and Pit answer
for their own SINS but these cannot paase the per-
sdy Ferdinand, the unprovoked inyasons OF Spsln
e,J Rnssis nor the murder OF Enchein.