270 Return of Buonaparte to France. transition from severe restraint to unbounded licentiousness; we could excuse that quiet subservience to the most execrable despotism that ever existed, under the idea that the chains of the tyrant were too hrmly riveted to be burst by any unaided internal effort: but when we behold a nation delivered by its neighbours from the monster who exhausted its resources, who sacrificed the flower of its youth, and rendered its name universally hateful, merely to promote his selfish plans of aggrandizement and inordinate ambition; when we behold that nation loading its fallen op pressor with every species of ridicule, and yet, before the revolution of one little year, in spite of the paternal endeavours of its new government to ameliorate its situation, and with a fickleness of which history affords no parallel, if not welcoming the outcast, at least affording him an unmolested passage to the very seat of the empire-we certainly feel that no language is strong enough to reprobate the baseness, the ingratitude, the inconsistency and the folly of such conduct. We would say--leave them to that scorpion lash which they have so abundantly deserved!-did we not know that the usurper would speedily again make tools of them to spread desolation far and wide, and to wreak his vengeance upon the authors of his humiliation. But the welfare of the great European family is at stake. The calamities of twenty years have taught it that the passions of a nation, or of an individual, must not be suffered to interfere with that system which has been planned for its future repose; and which its mightiest inonarchs are bound by solemn treaties to uphold. If then France must have for her ruler the man whose projects are incompatible with the general welfare; if she will have him in spite of the voice of confederated Europe; Europe has no other alternative than to resort once more to arms; and should she be compelled to pursue this course, we trust that no mistaken notions of clemency, no misplaced indulgence will interfere, to spare either France or her ruler. Let 500,000 of the allied troops be permanently quartered in her provinces, if it be necessary; nay, let them be divided among the conquerors, rather than allow her to possess the power of disturbing at pleasure the general tranquillity! Little did we imagine, when committing to the press the first article in the present number of our work, that the [April 1, subject of it would occupy so prominent a place in this department, or that the space of three weeks would transfer him in triumph from the shores of Elba to the very gates of Paris. Of all the extraordinary events that have happened in our time this certainly is the most extraordinary. The foreign papers not long since informed us, that the sovereign of Elba had prohibited all access to his island, on account of the misrepresentations which travellers have been in the habit of publishing respecting him. At the same time he laid a strict embargo on all vessels in the ports of the island, and, having completed his preparations, he assembled his guards, acquainted them with his intention, and enquired if they would follow him. They all answered in the affirmative, and to the number of 1100 were immediately embarked with five pieces of cannon, on board of five vessels, and sailed on the 26th of February. On the 1st of March these ves sels appeared in the bay of Juan, near Cannes, a town between Frejus and Antibes, where the troops and cannon were landed, without opposition. A small detachment entered Cannes and ordered the mayor to provide rations, while ano ther, proceding to Antibes, and pretending to be deserters from Elba, were ad mitted into the town and disarmed. An officer next arrived and summoned the place to surrender in the name of Buonaparte; but the governor, Baron Cor sin, ordered him to be immediately se cured. The adventurer, on his landing, is said to have issued proclamations, justifying his appeal to arms on the ground that the treaty made with him by the allies had been violated, and pro mising to restore the national bonour which had been tarnished by the con cession of the Bourbons. With the ra pidity by which his motions have always been characterized, Buonaparte put his small army in march on the 2d, passed the town of Grasse without attempting to enter it, and on the 4th bivouacked at Digne. In the course of the two follow ing days he proceeded by Sisteron and Gap across the mountains towards Gre noble, probably relying on the favourable disposition of the garrison there to his cause. The event proved that he was not mistaken, as that important town surrendered on the 8th without resistance. He next bent his course towards Lyons. Hither on the first alarm Monsieur had been sent by the King, in order to as 1815.] Return of Buonaparte to France. semble troops, and, assisted by Marshal Macdonald, to make a stand against the invader. On examination, however, they found the place so deficient in military stores that it was deemed advisable to fall back with the troops, and the second city of France was abandoned without a struggle. Buonaparte entered Lyons in the evening of the 10th. Here he remained two or three days, with a force estimated at between 5 and 6000 men, harassed with fatigue. During this interval his emissaries were busily employed in preparing a favourable reception for him in his farther progress, At Macon, Tournus, and Chalons, they succeeded in exciting the dregs of the populace to insurrection, and the constituted authorities were obliged to seek their safety in flight. Of the subsequent motions of the invader all we know is, that on the 16th he arrived at Autun, on the 17th at Auxerre, and was expected the same night at Joigny, not more that 80 miles from the capital. The accounts published by the French government still continue to represent the force with which he has performed this astonishing march as perfectly contemptible, while private information makes it amount to about 15,000 men. We have thus, for the sake of connection, traced the route of the invader up to the latest period of which we have received any intelligence; let us now see what has been done to oppose his progress. On the first news of his landing, which was not received at Paris till the 5th, the king issued a proclamation announcing the event, declaring Napoleon Buonaparte a rebel and a traitor, and ordering him to be apprehended, that he might be punished according to the law. Another ordinance directed the immediate assembly of the two Chambers of the legislature; the national guards were called out, and such other measures as the public safety seemed to require were adopted. If treachery facilitated the advance of the enemy in the south, it endeavoured also to assist his cause in the north. In the night of the 8th, General Lefebvre, who, when a prisoner of war in England, disgracefully broke his parole, in concert with two other generals, brothers, named Lallemand, marched from Cambray with 7 or 800 men belonging to that garrison, and next day made an attempt to surprise La Fere, which is a great depot of artillery, with the intention of afterwards advancing upon Paris. The firmness of General d'Aboville frustrated this trea 271 sonable design; and the troops, upon discovering the real nature of the expedition, forsook their leaders, who are reported to have been since secured by the gendarmerie. Another traitor of rank, Gen. Hameil, who accompanied Monsieur to Lyons, where he remained after the departure of the royal forces, and joined Buonaparte, has also been apprehended, going to Auxerre for the purpose of forwarding the views of his master. General Drouet also is said to have been arrested at Lisle, by the order of Marshal Mortier, tried, condemned, and suffered the punishment of death. It may fairly be asked, how has the immense military force possessed by France been employed during the time of this surprising invasion? We are told, that in less than two days from the landing of Buonaparte, Massena, who commands at Toulon, detached a corps, under Gencral Miollis, to cut off his retreat, and a frigate was sent from the same port to take possession of the vessels which had brought him over. Massena has himself since marched, and effected a junction with General Marchand, who has retaken Grenoble. Ney, at the head of about 10,000 men, set out from Besancon on the 11th for Chalons sur Seine, where he was expected on the 13th, and where his corps was to form a junction with the troops under General Bourmont. Oudinot is proceeding by forced marches from Metz to Langres and General Dupont, who commanded at Tours, is advancing on the opposite side, to check the progress of the invader. Meanwhile, the army destined to cover Paris is assembling at Melun, about 25 miles south-east of that city, under the command of the Duke of Berri, assisted by Marshal Macdonald. Berthier, the chief of Buonaparte's staff in all his campaigns, fills the same place under Monsieur; and Marmont commands the king's household troops. Besides these, the Duke of Orleans and Mortier are to command an army of 20,000 men assembling at Peronne, about eighty miles northward of Paris, in the department of the Somme. : In the midst of all this bustle, the office of minister at war has been transferred from the hands of Soult to those of Gen.Clarke,duke of Feltre. Not the slightest intimation is given respecting the cause of this change. As Soult has not been appointed to any other situation, the circumstance has been regarded as an inpeachment of his loyalty; but the Paris papers significantly state, that the king has addressed a letter to the Marshal, 272 Return of Buonaparte to France. expressing his esteem for him, his satisfaction with his services, and his wish to have the further benefit of them. From the accounts hitherto received, it would appear that all the persons of influence and distinction, both military and civil, remain firmly attached to the king, as well as the better classes of the people, who are represented as enrolling themselves in great numbers for the defence of the established government. It cannot, however, be dissembled, that the regular troops, accustomed to the licentiousness and excesses of war, are in general disaffected to the Bourbons, who are more solicitous to cultivate the arts of peace, than to gratify the lust of rapine, which has, from long habit, become the predominant principle of these ferocious hordes. From the unmolested progress of Buonaparte, during a march of 400 miles, it can scarcely be doubted that the troops have been studiously prevented from coming in contact with their former leader. The prospect held out by this state of things is certainly gloomy in the extreme; but even in the worst possible case, supposing the invader to be joined by the whole army of France, the whole army of France will no more be able to maintain him upon his twice usurped throne, than when his perfidy and obstinacy laid that country prostrate at the feet of the allies. The eventual success of Buonaparte must infallibly draw down upon France the horrors of a second invasion. Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, are bound by solemn treaties, as well as by every motive of honour and interest, to crush this desperate attempt; and their will is fully equal to their means. This is proved by the accounts from Vienna, which state, that on the arrival of the unexpected news in that capital, the allied sovereigus unanimously declared, that the treaties concluded with Buonaparte were null and void, and proclaimed him a robber and an outlaw. The Prussian army on the Rhine has approached the French frontier, towards Thionville; the Austrians have assumed a similar attitude on the side of Geneva; the troops of Bavaria and Wirtemberg are about to be put in motion; and the Emperor Alexander is said to have declared his deternination to march 600,000 men to maintain the treaty of Paris. It is most melancholy, that when the world was just [April 1, beginning to taste the sweets of a peace that seemed both durable and secure, the unprincipled ambition of one man should rekindle those flames by which it was so long ravaged. Now, however, the nations will need no farther demonstration, that so long as that man is suffered to exist, so long their repose will be, at best, but feverish and precarious. Since the preceding article was pre pared for the press, all doubts respecting the issue of affairs in France have been removed by the arrival of Buonaparte at Paris, which he reached on the 20th without the slightest resistance or molestation. By the defection of Ney's corps, and the army posted at Melun, his force is said to have been swelled to 75,000 men when he entered his good city of Paris, where, as we are told, he was received by a vast concourse of spectators with the loudest acclamations: O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemp tion! Dogs easily won to fawn on any man! all offences. The unfortunate Louis, who may justly exclaim with our own Richard A king of beasts, indeed! if aught but beasts, I had been still a happy king of men!and who, through the whole of this trying scene has manifested unshaken forticapital on the night of the 19th, and tude and serenity, withdrew from his proceeded by way of Abbeville towards Lisle; which, in a note addressed to the foreign ambassadors, is appointed the place of meeting with the king. Of the other branches of the royal family, and of the French marshals, nothing is known with certainty, as an embargo has been laid on the ports in the Channel; but the Duke de Feltre, the new minister at interviews with II. R. H. the Prince war, has visited London, and had several Regent and his Majesty's ministers. Our extensive preparations, both naval and military, sufficiently demonstrate the sentiments of the British government in this crisis, and now it only remains for the rest of the allies to DO THEIR DUTY, London, March 25. INCIDENTS, PROMOTIONS, BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, DEATHS, &c. IN LONDON AND MIDDLESEX; With Biographical Accounts of Distinguished Characters. Bulletin of the King's Health.-Windsor Castle. March 4. "The King continues in good health, and any deviation from a state of perfect composure which had been observed in his Majesty during the month of January, has entirely subsided for more than a fortnight past." The discussion on the subject of the Corn Bill in the House of Commons has, during the past month, produced an agitation throughout the whole country, which has been expressed in a most unequivocal, and at the same time most disgraceful manner, in the metropolis. Ever since this measure was submitted to the attention of the legislature, the walls in all parts of the town had been industriously covered with the most violent inscriptions, calculated to inflame the public mind, and urging the people to riot and disturbance. The chairing of Mr. Barclay, who had been elected a representative for Southwark, in opposition to Mr. Jones Burdett, v. as the first occasion on which a spirit of violence was manifested by the populace. The ceremony took place on the 28th of February. An erroneous idea having been circulated that Mr. Barclay was favourable to the Corn Bill, he and his friends were attacked by the rabble, who pelted them with mud and stones, broke the windows of his supporters, and assaulted the Horns Tavern, at Kennington, (where the gentlemen composing the procession had assembled to dinner,) with such fury, that it became necessary to call in the aid of the military, by whom farther mischief was prevented. This was only the prelude to still greater outrages. On the 6th of March, the very same evening that a petition against the obnoxious bill from the city of London was presented to the House of Coinmons, a great concourse of people assembled in Palace Yard, and in the streets leading to the House, and commenced their operations by stopping, insulting, and maltreating the members as they passed to attend their duty. The peace-officers were found inadequate to their protection, and to the maintenance of order; so that there was no other resource than the interference of the military, who compelled the mob to disperse. Driven from this position, they formed themselves into various bodies, and proceeded to different parts of the west end of the town, to attack the houses of such members of the legislature as they conceived most friendly to the Corn Bill. The residences of Lords Eldon, Ellenborough, Bathurst, and Darnley, those of Messrs. Pole, Meux, and others, were Leset the windows and doors dashed in pieces, the iron railings torn up, and other excesses committed. Against that of the Right Hon. Mr. Robinson, as the mover of the obnoxious measure, their fury was particularly directed. They forced their way into the house, destroyed pictures, books, and papers, threw the moveable part of the furniture into the street, and were preparing to set fire to the rest, when the arrival of the military put them to the rout before they could accomplish their diabolical purpose. The following day (Tuesday, 7th) had been fixed for the meeting of the inhabitants of Westminster in Palace-yard, to consider of a petition against the bill, which was very numerously attended. This circumstance favoured a renewal of the outrages of the preceding night. As soon as it was dark a great concourse collected about the House of Commons, the members of which had adjourned at an early hour. Disappointed in their object here, and again dispersed by the military, they re-commenced the work of destruction; but, owing to the precautions taken by government, which had drawn a considerable reinforcement of troops, horse, foot, and artillery, from the environs to the metropolis, their violence did not in general proceed beyond the breaking of windows. The houses of Lords Darnley and King were, however, much damaged, and those of Messrs. Yorke and Bathurst also suffered considerably. A small party again assembled before the house of Mr. Robinson, in Burlington-street, and some stones were thrown at the windows, upon which the persons stationed in the house for its protection fired. A young midshipman, son of Mr. Vize, printer, of Denmark-street, who had merely stopped for a moment from curiosity to look at the house, was unfortunately killed on the spot; and a woman named Watson, drawn to the place by the same motive, and equally innocent, was so severely wounded in the head that she expired in a few days in St. George's Hospital. Verdicts of Wilful Murder have been returned by the coroner's inquest in both cases. On the night of Wednesday, the 8th, the house of Mr. Ponsonby, in Curzon-street, was furiously attacked, and it was not till the military stationed within it were permitted in the last extremity to fire, that the mob desisted from their determination to destroy it. They next proceeded to Soho-square, and assaulted the house of Sir Joseph Banks, the venerable president of the Royal Society; and, under the idea that it was the residence of Mr. Bankes, they forced an entrance, and were preparing to set it on 274 Incidents, Preferments, Promotions, Births, &c. [April 1, fire, when discovering their mistake, they quietly departed. The attack on the night of Thursday, the 9th, upon the house of Mr.Giddy,in Holles street, Cavendish-square, closed these misguided ebullitions of the popular resentment against the supporters of this loudly and generally reprobated measure. Lord Cochrane contrived to make his escape from the King's Bench Prison; how and when remains to be ascertained. He was seen. there on Sunday, March 5, and was not missed by the officers of the prison till some days afterwards. Mr. Jones, the marshal, offered a reward of 300l. for his apprehension. Nothing, however, was heard respecting him for about a fortnight, when he addressed a letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, announcing his intention of taking his seat as a member of that house. Accordingly, on the 21st, he presented himself for the purpose of going through the usual formalities; a messenger was dispatched to the marshal of the prison to acquaint him with the circumstance; and his lordship, after some resistance, was secured and conveyed to his former place of confinement. Early in the morning of March 2d, the printing-office of Mr. Clowes, in Northumberland-court, Strand, was discovered to be on fire, and burned with such rapidity, that nothing but the account-books could be saved. The property consumed was very considerable. That noble mansion, Burlington-house, late the property of the Duke of Devonshire, has been sold by public auction for 75,2001. The purchaser is Lord G. H. Cavendish, who intends to make it his residence without alteration. Not fewer than 4,500 insolvent debtors have been liberated under the late huinane but impolitic act, which will, no doubt, be repealed this session, to prevent the facility with which so many swindlers have been enabled, by defrauding their creditors, to dash immediately again into all the dissipations of a luxurious life. Ecclesiastical Preferments.] Rev. S. F. Statham, to the vicarage of Powerscourt, Dorset. Rev. T. Blackhall, B. D. fellow of Exeter Coll. Oxford, to the rectory of Tordibeg, Worcester. Rev. Mileson G. Edgar, M. A. to the rectory of Trimley St. Mary, Suffolk. Rev. Edw. Barlee, fellow of St. John's Coll. Oxford, to the rectory of Worlingworth, Suffolk. Rev. Edw. Rob. Raynes, to the archdeaconry of Lewes, Sussex. Rev. Charlesworth, curate of Happisburgh, Norfolk, to the rectory of Flowton, Suffolk. Rev. Matthew Lunn, minor canon of Worcester Cathedral, to the vicarage of St. Peter's, Worcester, with the chapel of Whittington annexed. Rev. Thos. Price to the rectory of St. Clement, Worcester. Rev. Wm. Jas. Porter, M. A. head master of the College School, Worcester, to the vicarage of Himbleton, Worcester. Rev. Wm. Compton, M. A. to the rectory of St. Olave, Exeter. Rev. Rob. Bartholomew, M. A. to the rectory of St. Mary Arches, Exeter. Rev. Dav. Evans, B. A. of Landilo, to the rectory of Simonburn, Northumberland. Rev. T. Roberts, master of Uppingham School, to the rectory of Barholm, Rutland. Rev. E. Morris to the perpetual curacy of Llanon, Carmarthen. Rev. B. Lewis, M. A. late of Jesus Coll. Oxford, to the rectory of Llanfihangel Penbedw, Pembroke. Rev. Dav. Williams, second master of Winchester College, to a prebend in the collegiate church of Brecon, Rev. Luke Booker, LL D. vicar of Dudley, Worcester, to be a chaplain in ordinary to H. R. H. the Prince Regent, Rev. Jas. Metcalf, of Appleby, to be mas ter of the Free Grammar School of Kirkby Stephen, Westmoreland. Promotions.] Robert Booth, of Alconbury, esq. to be sheriff for Cambridge and Huntingdon, in the room of K. C. G. Mitchell, esq. deceased. Lord Erskine to be a Knight Companion of the Order of the Thistle. Lieut.-col. Henry Pynn,' Dr. A. B. Faulkner, >knighted." Births.] In Sackville-street, at the Duchess dowager of Rutland's, Lady Catherine Weld Forester, of a son. ter. In Park-lane, Lady Grimston, of a daugh In Seymour-place, the lady of Jas. Alexander, esq. M. P. of a son. In Portland-place, the lady of Wm. Blake, esq. of a son. In Gloucester - place, the Hon. Mrs. Brooks, of her seventh daughter. Married.] Jas. R. Corbett, esq. of Fridaystreet, to Miss Eliz. Fletcher, of Tottenham. The Rev. John Mansfield, rector of Rowner, Herts, to Winifred, eldest daughter of the late R. P. Blachford, esq. of Osborne, I. of Wight. E. H. Locker, esq. of Davies-street, Berke ley-square, to Ellen, daughter of the late Rev. Jonathan Boucher, vicar of Epsom. John Corfield, esq. of Chatham-place, to Mary Ann, eldest daughter of Thos. Marsham, esq. of Baker-strect. The Hon. John Somers Cocks, eldest son of Lord Somers, to Lady Caroline Harriet Yorke, youngest daughter of the Earl of Hardwicke. Lord Saltoun to Catherine, daughter of the late Lord Thurlow. |