toil and ignominy-to drag on the sad remnant of his days in hopeless wretchedness. If, too wise to attempt an escape by flight from the all-searching despotism of his government, he submits to his destiny, how dreary to him is the journey of life!"-A slave, for an unlimited time, to military law, through the gloomy vista of futurity he can see no prospect gilded by a ray of hope, no limitation of misery, no term beyond which freedom and happiness will be his."

"What could have been the motives which induced the French government to adopt, what can be the reasons which cause it, without necessity, to persevere in so monstrous a system;-a system discordant with the manners, habits, feelings and prejudices of every civilized people-a system which paralysis industry, arrests the progress of the arts and sciences, diffuses poverty and misery far and wide, and causes the great body of the people to abhor and detest their rulers? Why has it fortified this system, odious and terrible in its best estate,' with so many cruel sanctions? Why does it outrage the feelings of the people, and earn for itself a never-dying infamy, by punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty, by making parents responsible for the actions of their children, whom they have not seen for years, and who are, in many cases, separated from them by a thousand leagues of ocean? Must not the motive which induced it to adopt and persevere in a course so revolting to human nature, have been one of uncommon strength and cogency? Yes: there is such a motive, a motive in which we shall find a ready answer to all these inquiries. France has long aimed at universal conquest. No other adequate one can be assigned for the adoption of the system of conscription. The rulers of France were no doubt aware that it would destroy their popularity, and entail misery on their country; but they also knew that it would enable them to disregard the wishes of the people; and they were willing to sacrifice the prosperity and happiness of France to the attainment of their great object."

Our author goes on to remark, that the belief of the immea surably ambitious aims of France, rests upon other and stronger grounds, than the mere adoption of the system of the conscription. It is, moreover, he adds, established by the uniform tenor of her conduct towards the nations of the earth, from the time of the Jacobin domination until the present day. He might have added, that the scheme of universal conquest is to be directly and unavoidably inferred, from the language of all her official papers; from the salutation, of "master of the world," contained in every address made

to her grim tyrant by his prostitute functionaries, through every gradation of rank and servility;-from the members of the Senate, of the Institute and of the Ecclesiastical Council, down to the Mayors of the petty villages.-The full prelibation of empire which this "scourge of God" and his partners in rapine have already had, and the inebriating potions which they have administered to the vanity of their wretched and thoughtless victims at home, have inflamed both the one and the other, with a raging, unquenchable thirst of domination. In the raptures of triumphant anticipation, and the insolent elation of that confidence, which their prodigious successes and resources have but too justly inspired, they are either unable, or deem it useless to conceal, and therefore do not hesitate to proclaim ostentatiously, the whole extent of their profligate hopes and designs.

Which of the nations of the continent is it, that can mistake the meaning of the following passage, extracted from the report of Count Lacépede made to the French senate in December 1810, in the name of the government, on the subject of the conscription of 120,000 men then proposed to be raised-"The empire now embraces a number of nations who, for a long series of ages, were far from conceiving the thought, that they would one day bear the French name. Their interest and that of France require that all lines of separation should be destroyed between the new portions of the empire, and the ancient limits of its territory. An elevated foresight has created a powerful political means, of cementing the connexion between all the nations that have become French, by regulating the general territory of the empire, upon o uniform and comprehensive a plan, that it is now, in the system of Europe, as it were, a great basis, towards which the neighbouring states gravitate, if I may be allowed the phrase, in order to insure their present repose and their future security.”

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To accumulate proofs, however, with respect to the views of the French government, seems, at this day, to be su fluous. On this subject, there is now but one opinion among all, who prefer any claims to discernment, or profess to follow the course of European affairs. The solemn promulgation the English house of lords, of the doctrine for which our a thor contends, from the mouth of Lord Grey, so long and ardently associated with Mr. Fox, in the maintenance of the opposite creed, and still one of the principal, as he is one of the most eloquent leaders of the anti-ministerial party in Great Britain, has, in that country, divested scepticism, before desti tute of all colour of reason, of every remaining shadow of au

thority, and has almost overcome even the pertinacity of faction and authorship. Here also, the strong lights which have been shed on the character of the French government, and which have disclosed its deformity even to the purblind and the jaundiced eye, the evidence afforded by our own sad experience, the avowed conversion of the most intelligent, and heretofore the most inflexible of the chiefs of the democratic party, to the sentiments on that subject, now become universal abroad,—the audible, unequivocal cries of the whole universe, justly fasten upon the man who may still refuse to recognize in France, a systematic and most formidable enemy to the liberties of the human race, the imputation either of incorrigible dullness, or egregious presumption, or gross affectation, or the want of principle.

The time we think is not far distant, and God grant that it may not be brought near by domestic misfortune, when even the cursory reader of our gazettes, will secretly blush at ever having seriously instituted a comparison, between the morality of the two great belligerents of Europe, and when every American, of whatever political denomination, alive to his individual safety or attached to national independence, will consider French alliance as the heaviest of all public or private calamities.

The picture given by our author of the consequences of a reliance upon French friendship, and the observations to which it leads him, are rigorously accurate, and will afford a good specimen of his manner.

"The most earnest professions of friendship, the most solemn treaties of peace and amity, afford no security against a sudden invasion by the military force of France. Professions of friendship, of regard, and even of love-treaties solemnly ratified, in the face of heaven-these are only the opiates which that perfidious government administers, to lull its victims into a fatal sleep. They greedily swallow the gilded pill, they repose on the lap of false security-they dream that 'the rights of a just nation are ever respected' that they will long enjoy the blessings of tranquillity,-that their wealth and prosperity will continue to increase, that it is a waste of the public treasure to prepare for wars which may never happen;' -such, and still more fantastic and absurd are their dreams, until they are suddenly awakened by

The neighing stead, the shrill trump,'

and the loud-thundering cannon of an invading enemy. Anon, they behold the pavements of their cities stained with the best

blood of their country-they see the standard of France waving over the parapets of their fortresses-they see the smoke ascending from the ruins of the cities whose inhabitants had attempted a fruitless resistance. Their constitution and their laws are abolished: the code of Napoleon, whose fundamental principle is blind obedience to the commands of a military despot, is every where proclaimed; enormous contributions are imposed; in default of payment, the cottage, the palace and the consecrated temple are subjected to indiscriminating pillage, the grave itself is forced to open its 'ponderous and marble all devouring jaws,' and disgorge its wealth. Ere long, vast tracts of country are seen, in which the profound and deathlike stillness of desolation, is interrupted only by the triumphant shouts of a brutal soldiery, or by the groans of their victims. This is not declamation, this is not hyperbole, alas! it is history—and every Spaniard can tell how true.

Quis talia fando,

Myrmidonum, Dolopumve, aut duri miles Ulyssei,
Temperet a lachrymis?

"It is from the fatal sleep which may expose them to all these accumulated horrors that I would arouse my countrymen. But, alas! my efforts will be fruitless. A warning voice has already cried aloud from the tombs of the departed European republics, telling them to beware of the arts of France-to distrust her professions-to avoid all connexion with her-to prepare, in time, for the defence of their liberty against her insidious attacks. They have not heard it-they still slumber. Would they but arise in their strength, and, armed at all points, watch with a jealous eye all the movements of this foe to the human race, the danger which now menaces them, might be averted. The black and lowering cloud which now threatens to pour its vengeance on them, would ere long be dissipated." We have now to investigate the theory of our author concerning the probable duration of the power of France. We could heartily wish that this theory were as sound, as its purport is consolatory.-It rests however, as we have before stated, upon arguments in our opinion far from being conclusive. We must object in the first place, to the proposition with which the second division of the pamphlet commences.—It is as follows;

"Assuming it then as a fact, that France is actuated by this lawless spirit, it behoves those nations which still retain their independence, to inquire most diligently into the nature and extent of her power, and whether the enormous and blood-ce

mented fabric which she has reared on the ruins of European liberty and independence, is of a durable and permanent, or of a perishable and transitory nature. Without an accurate knowledge, as far as in the nature of things it is attainable, of these particulars, it is impossible for a government, at the present day, to form a wise and comprehensive system of national policy. So great is the power of France, so decided is her infuence in the great family of nations, that any system of national policy, not predicated on a knowledge at once profound and comprehensive, of the nature, extent and probable duration of that power and influence, must be a wretched system of expedients, liable to continual change, from the operation of unknown causes-ever varying with the varying events of the hour."

Now the question of the duration of the French power, does not appear to us to be of the importance here attached to it. The point must always be attended with uncertainty; as on the one hand, chance must be allowed to have much to do with the fate of empires, and on the other, no man however sanguine in respect to the overthrow of French despotism, can contend that this event will infallibly happen, within any given time, or that it is susceptible of demonstration, so far as to warrant absolúte confidence. The whole resolves itself into a comparison of doubtful probabilities; nor is there, we think, a degree of verisimilitude for either alternative, sufficient to form the sole basis of a system of national policy.-Although the government of our own country, for instance, should not implicitly adopt in speculation, either one or the other hypothesis, there might yet be no lack of steadiness and provident wisdom in their management of the national concerns.

In a case like this, where the sequel is inscrutable to the human eye, and serious doubt must be allowed to hang over every calculation, the wisest policy indeed, would unquestionably be, to look to, and be prepared for the worst; that is, the subjection of the whole continent of Europe to the French arms, for an indefinite period.

This perspective is not of a nature to create or to justify despondency, as it must be apparent to all reflecting minds, that both England and the United States would, notwithstanding, continue to flourish, by the adoption of wise and mutual plans of defence. This anticipation, if their measures were shaped accordingly, could not but be salutary in any event.-Our author himself allows, that it is not probable that the power of France will be reduced within its ancient limits, even in twenty years. If so, it is certainly not material for the government VOL. III.

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