Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-01-11
NAPOLEON /. AND RUSSIA.

an extract from the closing chapter of a
g History of the Campaign in Russia, in
1872" by NJ. Emile Marco de St. Hill
aire, published in Paris in 1916. The
author, well known for his thorough ac-
quaintance with the history of the period
about which he writes, surveys his theme
from high standpoint, and appears to
have formed an impartial and accurate
estimate of the consequences both to
France and to Russia, of that campaign,
which wrought an entire change in the
politics of Europe, made the Muscovite
Empire the first continental power, and
placed the Gar, up to that time an ally |
of France, at the head of that league of
kings and petty princes which ended in
the destruction of the Empire and the
dismemberment of France. How far
the predictions of the writer are to be
verified, is problem which seems likely
to be solved by passing events in East
ern Europe
"They have read history to little pur-
pose who compare the defeat of the little
Swedish army under Charles XII. at
Pultowa, with our retreat from Russia.
To find anything analogous to the ruin
and disaster attending the formidable in
vasion of 1912, ii is necessary to go back
to:: remote antiquity-to the time of Xerx-
es, whose almost numberless fleets and
armies were scattered and annihilated by
the patriotic valor of the Greeks, and by
the storms of the Egean Sea. The ex-
pedition to Russia affords a grand and
sublime lesson both for peoples and for
kings. The peoples will learn that a
brave nation need never abandon itself
to despair, and that it ever contains with
in itself the means of protecting its own
honor, and of successfully resisting all
attempts to reduce it to state of vassal-
age. Kings, in refecting upon it, viii be
driven to the conviction, that neither the
number of their chariots, nor the multi
tude of their battalions, nor that assu-
rance, which an uninterrupted succession
of victories gives the conquerors, can
shield them from those mischances, those
caprices of fate, which change in mo-
ment the condition of empires and trans
; form the palms and laurels of victory in.
to the funereal cypress.
"'Man proposes, but God disposes,'
says Bossuet, and the truth and business
of this eloquent description of the course
of events in this world, have been conse.
Grated anew by our fatal Russian cam.
paign. Indeed. it seems as if the most
magnificent, most numerous, and best ar.
pointed army which France ever set OF
: foot, was destined to perish amidst tho
frozen steppes of Muscovy, in order tina
the Russian power. unknown in Europ'
: before the sixteenth century, should taxi
< its place, at one step, in the front ranl
4 among the nations of the world. Nay
$ more, the inheritance of Peter the Grea
r has already exceeded the limits of polit
n ical grandeur which its ilIustrious founde
!, had assigned to it.
. "Two great powers, this day, divid
I between them the empire of the world
e England is the queen and tyrant of tn
d seas; Russia is the sovereign of the Eu
/ ropean and Asiatic continent. With on
: hand she reaches the ramparts of Con
e stantinople with the other, she lean
y upon the provinces of the Celestial En-
= pire. Both Turkey and China will on
% day become her prey; and, far richer an
s of wider extent than the old Roman En-
4 pire, Russia will spread over the tw
1t hemispheres; from the Caucasus to III
to Rhine, from the Black Sea to Kanischa
in ka, from Finland to India, she win plaI
Us her standards, and end by demolishin
tn piece-meal, the colossal mercantile pow,
a Of naughty and arrogant England.
lie The expedition to Russia accelerate
h by three centuries, the future destinies
O. Muscovy. The frightful and lingerir
ly agonics Of that calamitous battle Of thr'
r. months duration, dissipated forever Il
al prestige which surrounded our coloi
er and revealed to the Russians the vast e
h tent of their own power and resources
tai Napoleon did for them more than Pet
the Great; by that series of great b,
ties which decided the destinies of 4
II. world, he civilized, 50 TO speak. tho
D. wild hordes, which had been collect
he from the remotest parts Of the UlSrai
to and from Tartary, from the banks Of {
cd Wolga and the Borysthenes, trembli
er, with fear TO meet Us in mortal comb
,Yn These same barbariaDs saw us hy befo
ng them; and not us alone, for the troops
as all Europe: for Swiss, Spaniards, II
ler tuguese, Italians, Bayarians, Austria
a prusgians. Gc.. all contributed Ia etg