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1815.]

Reasons assigned for his Return to France, &c.

master of dissimulation. He, for whose ambition the world was once too small, now publicly declares his determination to abide by the treaty of Paris, "not to interfere with the affairs of foreign nations," and that he has "renounced the idea of the great empire, of which for fifteen years he was but laying the foundations." He, who, trampling on all rights human and divine, acted as though the whole race of man had been expressly created for obsequious instruments of his will and pleasure, now promul gates the doctrine, that princes were made for the people, and not the people for princes, who are but the first citizens of a state. Such, too, is the spirit which the impostor assumes in a letter which he has addressed to each of the sovereigns of Europe, but which, in most cases by the stoppage of the messengers, has not reached its destination.

Among the most prominent of the decrees since passed by him, are those for the suppression of the censorship of the press, and for the abolition of the slave trade in France and her colonies; and a third, granting an amnesty to all those functionaries, civil and military, who assisted in his dethronement, with the exception of Talleyrand and the Abbè de Montesquiou, Marmont, the Counts de Bournonville, Jaucourt, and Lynch, the Duke de Dalberg, Alexis de Noailles, and some other persons of inferior note. A fourth decree, dated March the 25th, and like the preceding, not made public for some time afterwards, enacts, that the laws of the national assemblies against the Bourbons shall be put in force against such members of that unfortunate family as shall be found on the territory of France; and banishes to the distance of 30 leagues from Paris all persons who held ministerial functions, or formed part of the military or civil household of Louis XVIII, or the Princes.

No public notice was taken of the important declaration of the allied powers of the 13th March for a whole month. It was read on the 29th in a council of Buonaparte's ministers, and referred to a committee, who made a report on the subject on the 2d of April. In this document, which may be considered as Buonaparte's manifesto in justification of his return to France, it is contended, that the allies and Louis XVIII. had violated the treaty of Fontainebleau, and eight distinct cases of infraction in regard to himself and family are alleged. The principal of these are, the forcible separation of his wife and

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child from him; the plots against his life, instigated and encouraged, as he asserts, by the French government; the non-fulfilment of the articles stipulating that Parma and Placentia should be given to Maria Louisa, and a suitable establishment to Eugene Beauharnois; the sequestration of the property of his family; the refusal of the late government of France to pay his pension; and the resolution taken by Congress to remove him from Elba to St. Lucia or St. Helena-In regard to France, says this report, she has been treated by the Bourbons as a conquered country in the imposition of a charter by the royal authority alone, in the dismemberinent and degradation of the army, the restoration of feudal distinctions, the spoliation of the possessors of national property, the abolition of the liberties of the Gallican church, and the suppression of the Concordat, the revived intolerance of an exclusive form of worship, and the domination of the noblesse over a people accustomed to equality.

The same number of the Moniteur in which this document was inserted, contained also a report from Caulaincourt, the new minister for foreign affairs, on the armaments of the various European powers, which concluded with calling the attention of Buonaparte and his Council to such measures of defence as may be deemed necessary in France. To this report were attached several important documents, including the letter written on the 4th of April by the usurper to his brother sovereigns, in which he insults them with declaring, that "the re-establishment of the imperial throne was necessary for the happiness of the French;" and with all the sincerity for which he has ever been characterized, assures them, that "the invariable principles of his policy shall be the most absolute respect for the independence of other nations."

Meanwhile no means are left untried by him to inflame the passions, and excite the enthusiasm, of France in his favour; and at the very moment when he is disclaiming all interference with other states, he or his tools are boasting that he has but to show himself, and all the inhabitants of Belgium would join his standard, and that Germany is full of his partizans. As another source of strength, he is labouring to revive the republican spirit of the revolution. Merin of Douay, the old conventionalist, is called from his obscurity, and appointed minister of justice; and Lucien Buo

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Declaration of Congress.

naparte, lately dubbed Prince of Canino, again comes forward in the prominent character of minister of the interior in the room of Carnot, who is to be minis

ter at war.

If the capital, however, was given up without resistance, it was some time before Bourdeaux, Marseilles, and other towns, acknowledged the imperial authority. In the former place the Duchess of Angoulême, seconded by Lainé, president of the Chamber of Deputies, and Lynch, the mayor, exerted herself with a spirit and energy worthy of a granddaughter of Maria Theresa, but the troops were not to be persuaded to oppose their old master. She accordingly embarked with a few faithful adherents on the 1st of April, and the following day General Clausel took possession of the city for Buonaparte. The princess first sailed to Bilboa in Spain, and has Since arrived in England.

The Duke 'Angoulême vas meanwhile engaged in an attempt to rouse the flame of loyalty in the southern departments. He collected a small force, composed partly of troops of the line, and partly of national guards and volunteers. Deserted by the former, his royal highness was obliged to capitulate on the 8th of April to General Grouchy, who had been ordered to march against him from Lyons, but upon condition that he should be embarked at Cette. Grouchy, however, artfully avoided signing the capitulation, and thus obtained a pretence for causing the duke to be detained by a party of national guards, By such perfidious means the arch-juggler, his master, was furnished with an opportunity of displaying his magnanimity, by an order for the release of the royal prisoner, but not without directions to extort from him a promise that the crown jewels, removed by the king from France, shall be given up. In consequence of this event Marseilles, the last city that adhered to the cause of the Bourbons, hoisted on the 12th the tricoloured flag, and the submission of the whole of the south to Buonaparte was announced at Paris, on the 16th, by the discharge of 101 guns.

The French papers begin to notice the preparations making by Buonaparte for the defence of his regained authority. They state the force of the army of observation assembled before Lisle, and to be commanded by Ney, at 60,000. Other armies are to assemble in the vicinity of Buningen, Chambery, and Antibes; and the new levy of the national guards for

[May 1,

the defence of the frontiers, including all males between 20 and 60, is calculated to produce 2,255,000 men,

GERMANY.

No sooner was the escape of Buonaparte known at Vienna, than the sovereigns assembled there in congress determined to employ the most energetic means to crush this new attempt of the grand disturber of the world: and they immediately published the following inportant

Declaration.

The Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris, assembled at the Congress at Vienna, being informed of the escape of Napoleon Buonaparte, and of his entrance into France with an armed force, owe it to their own dignity, and the interest of social order, to make a solemn declaration of the sentiments which this event has excited in them

By thus breaking the convention which has established him in the island of Elba, Buonaparte destroys the only legal uile on which his existence depended; by appearing again in France, with projects of confusion and disorder, he has deprived himself of the protection of the laws, and has manifested to the universe that there can be neither peace nor truce with him.

The Powers consequently declare, that Napoleon Buonaparte has placed himself without the pale of civil and social relations, and that, as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world, he has rendered himself liable to public vengeance.

They declare, at the same time, that firmly resolved to maintain entire the Treaty of Paris, of 30th May, 1814, and the dispositions sanctioned by that treaty, and those which they have resolved on, or shall hereafter resolve on, to complete and consolidate it, they will employ all their means, and will unite all their efforts, that the general peace, the object of the wishes of Europe, and the constant purpose of their labours, may not again be troubled, and to guarantee it against every attempt which shall threaten to replunge the world into the disorders and miseries of revolution.

And although entirely persuaded that all France, rallying round its legitimate sovereign, will immediately annihilate this last attempt of a criminal and impotent delirium, all the sovereigns of Europe, animated by the same sentiments, and guided by the same principles, declare, that if, contrary to all calculations, there should result from

this event any real danger, they will be ready to give the King of France and the French nation, or to any other government that shall be attacked, as soon as they shall be called upon, all the assistance requisite to restore public tranquillity, and to make a common cause against all those who should undertake to compromise it.

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Prussia,
Russia,

CLANCARTY.

CATHCART.

STEWART.

Count PALMELA
SALDANHA.
LOBO.

Prince HARDENBERG,
Baron HUMBOLDT.
Count RASUMOWSKY,
Count STACKELBERG,
Count NESSELRODE.
Sweden, LOEWENHIELM.
This declaration was followed up by
a treaty concluded at Vienna on the
25th, to this effect :-

In the name of the Holy and Undivided
Trinity-

Their Majesties the Emperor of All the Russias, the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, considering the consequences which the entrance of Buonaparte into France, and the present situation of that kingdom may have with respect to the security of Europe, have determined, in these weighty circumstances, to carry into effect the principles consecrated in the Treaty of Chaumont. They have therefore agreed, by a solemn treaty, mutually signed by each of the four powers, to renew the engagement that they will defend the order of things so happily restored in Europe against all violation, and to adopt the most effectual measures for carrying the engagement into effect, and also to give it that necessary extension which existing circumstances imperiously demand.

[Here follow the appointments, in the usual form, of the different Plenipotentiaries whose names are undersigned.]

Art. 1. The high contracting Powers solemnly engage to unite the resources of their respective States, for the maintenance of the Treaty of Peace concluded at Paris on the 30th of May, 1814, as well as that of the Congress of Vienna-to carry into full effect the dispositions contained in these treaties inviolably to observe their ratified and subscribed agreements, according to their full

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import-to defend them against every attack, and especially against the projects of Napoleon Buonaparte. Towards this end they bind themselves, should the king of France desire it, and in the spirit of the declaration issued on the 13th of March, with common consent and mutual agreement, to bring to justice all such as may have already joined, or shall hereafter join the party of Napoleon, in order to compel him to relinquish his projects, and to render him incapable in future of disturbing the tranquillity of Europe, and the general peace, under the protection of which the rights, the freedom, and the independence of nations bave been established and secured.

2. Although so great and salutary an object does not permit that the means destined to its attainment should be limited, and although the high contracting powers have resolved to devote to this object all such resources as they can in their respective situations dispose of; yet they have nevertheless agreed, that every one of them shall constantly have in the field 150,000 men complete, of whom at least one-tenth shall be cavalry, with a proportionate artillery (not reckoning garrisons), and to employ them in active and united service against the common enemy.

3. The High Contracting Parties solemnly engage not to lay down their arms but in agreement with each other, nor until the object of the war, assigned in the 1st article of the present treaty, shall have been attained; nor until Buonaparte shall be wholly and completely deprived of the power of exciting disturbances, and of being able to renew his attempts to obtain the chief power in France.

4. As the present Treaty principally relates to the present circumstances, the engagements in the Treaty of Chaumont, and particularly that contained in the 16th article, shall again recover their full force, as soon as the present object shall be attained.

5. Every thing relating to the command of the Allied Armies, the maintenance of the same, &c. shall be regulated by a special convention.

6. The High Contracting Parties shall have the right reciprocally, to accredit with the generals, commanders of their armies, officers, who shall be allowed the liberty of corresponding with their governments, in order to inform them of the military events, and of all that relates to the operations of the armies.

7. As the engagements entered into by the present Treaty have for object to maintain the general peace, the High Contracting Powers agree to invite all the powers of Europe to accede to them.

8. As the present Treaty' is simply and solely entered into with a view to support France, and every other threatened country, against the attempts of Buonaparte and his

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(L.S.)

Count RASUMOWSKY. Count NESSELRODE. Prince METTERNICH. Baron WEISEMBERG. Prince HARDENBERG. Baron HUMBOLDT. WELLINGTON.

At Vienna, the 25th of March, 1815. The preparations of the different powers are upon a scale commensurate with the determination expressed in these important documents. According to the accounts circulated at Vienna; upwards of 800,000 men will advance simultaneously to chastise the disturber of the world. The Duke of Wellington, who left the Austrian capital on the 29th of March, arrived at Brussels on the 5th of April, and has assumed the chief command of the English, Hanoverian, and Dutch troops in Belgium; the gallant veteran Blücher arrived at Cofogne on the 17th to take the command of the Prussians, and on the same day the Archduke Charles was to reach Frankfort, whither the Allied Sovereigns were expected to follow. Bennigsen, Schwarzenberg, and Wrede, will again appear at the head of the armies of their respective countries.

The confidence with which the return of Maria Louisa and her son to France was publicly announced by Buonaparte, was founded on a plot for their removal from the Austrian dominions, which was however frustrated by the detection of the agents, to whom the execution of it was committed, and proper precautions have been taken to prevent any similar attempt.

Buonaparte's mother, with his sisters Pauline, Elise and Bacciochi; the husband of the latter have been conveyed from Elba and sent to the Spielberg, a strong castle in Moravia; but it is stated that Jerome, though closely watched at Trieste, made his escape from that place and has joined Murat.

ITALY.

The circumstances of this country render it at the present moment an ob

[May 1,

ject of peculiar interest. We have on former occasions stated the strong objections of the sovereigns of the house of Bourbon to allow, Murat to retain the crown bestowed on him by his brother-inlaw, Buonaparte. Justice certainly tizan of the cause of the allied sove seemed to demand that so faithful a parreigns as Ferdinand IV. should not be sacrificed to the interests of one who had no other title than that conferred by the common enemy. At the same time we contended, that if engagements had been contracted with Murat by the Allies, to induce his accession to the former league against France, every prin ciple of honour and good faith required that these engagements should be held sacred. It would appear, however, that a contrary opinion had been suffered to gain the ascendancy at the Congress of Vienna, and that his removal from the throne of Naples had been resolved upon. A more unfortunate juncture for announcing this determination than the return of Buonaparte to France could not have been found. Murat had previously left Naples, and on the 21st of March arrived at Ancona, to place himself at the bead of his army, which is estimated at 50,000 men. He demanded a passage though the papal ter ritories, and on the refusal of his holiness, sent a detachment to occupy Rome. The pope once more became an exile from his capital, and proceeded to Genoa, whither most of the cardinals, the king and queen of Spain, and many other persons of distinction have also repaired. The grand-duke of Tuscany, alarmned at the entrance of Neapolitan troops into bis dominions, left Florence on the 4th of April, and, on the 1st of that month, Murat is said to have had his head-quarters at Faenza. It seems certain that hostilities have taken place between his troops and the Austrians, but the accounts hitherto circulated on this subject are so vague and contradictory, that we shall not venture to repeat them. It is also reported, that King Joachim has issued proclamations, inviting all Italy to arm and assert its independence.

The latest accounts state, that previously to these demonstrations Murat announced to the Austrian ambassador, that if the Congress would definitively recognize his right to the kingdom of Naples, he would place 30,000 men at the disposal of the allies. In conse quence, as it would appear, of this pro position, we are told that a new treaty was, early in April, concluded with the

1815.]

The Prince Regent's Message.

Neapolitan ministers at Vienna, to which, not only Austria, but almost all the other European powers, had acceded. If this information be correct, it remains to be seen what effect it will produce on the line of conduct pursued by Murat.

NETHERLANDS.

An act recognizing the Prince Sovereign as King of the Netherland and Grand Duke of Luxemburg was signed on the 23rd of March at Vienna by the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France.

GREAT BRITAIN.

On the 7th of April, the following message from his Royal Highness the Prince Regent was transmitted to both houses of parliament:

"The Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, thinks it right to inform the House of Commons, that the events which have recently occurred in France, in direct contravention of the engagements concluded with the allied pow rs, at Paris, in the month of April last, and which threaten consequences highly dangerous to the tranquillity and independence of Europe, have induced his Royal Highness to give directions for the augmentation of lis Majesty's land and sea forces.

"The Prince Regent has likewise deemed it incumbent upon him, to lose no time in entering into communications with his Majesty's allies, for the purpose of forming such a concert as may most effectually provide for the general and permanent security of Europe,

And his Royal Highness confidently relies on the support of the House of Commons, in all measures which may be necessary for the accomplishment of this important ob ject."

On the following evening this message was taken into consideration, and addresses, declaratory of the willingness of both houses to concur in such measures as his majesty's government should deem necessary were voted.

On the 10th, the chancellor of the exchequer moved, 'in a committee of supply, for the sum of 3,983,4351., forming, with the sum of nine millions, voted in the last, and of seven voted in the present session, a total of 20,988,4551., being the amount of the army extraordinaries for 1814; which, after some discussion, was agreed to. In the vote for the army extraordmaries for the current year, Mr. Vausittart, on the suggestion of MP. Tierney, reduced the proposed sum' from six to three millions; the other three to remain over until the pro-. duction of some official returns.

On the 19th, on the motion of the chancellor of the exchequer, the house NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 16.

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of commons resolved itself into a committee of ways and means, in which the minister proposed a resolution for the continuance of the property tax for another year, which was agreed to, and the report ordered to be received the following day. The report was accordingly brought up, and the resolutions passed, on a division, by a majority of 99 to 30. It is proposed to renew the tax without any modification.

On the 21st, a long conversation took place in the house of commons on the subject of the treaty recently signed at Vienna, of which the opposition members affected to doubt the authenticity. Lord Castlereagh avowed its correctness, and stated, that though it had not then received the ratification of government, yet it was the intention of the Prince Regent to ratify and send it back to Vienna, with a declaration explanatory of one of the articles.

Qur military preparations are meanwhile prosecuted with vigour; reinforce ments are constantly proceeding to the army in Belgium, and Lord Exmouth has sailed to take the command of a strong squadron in the Mediterranean.

Our warfare with the United States of America has finally terminated in the taking of Fort Mobile in West Florida by the troops under Major-general Lambert, on the 11th of February. The garrison, amounting to 366 men, were,made prisoners of war. Our loss was about 30.

Soon after the reduction of this place, intelligence of the treaty of peace was received; the forces were accordingly withdrawn, and sailed for the Ha vannah, preparatory to their return to Europe.

The intelligence contained in the fo reign papers received on the 25th, has put an end to all speculation on the subject of Italy. Murat has decided upon an appeal to the sword; and by a proclamation, dated Rimini March 31, this foreign upstart, and genuine pupil of the Buonaparte school, called upon the Italians to assert their independence, and drive their foreign masters out of their country. He has accordingly advanced for the purpose of attacking the Austrians, and on the 9th of April, the date of the latest advices, had his head quarters at Modena. These proceedings have probably accelerated the resolution of the Cabinet of Vienna to incorporate the whole north of Italy with the Austrian empire, by the title of the kingdom of Lombardy and Venice. The proclamation announcing this measure is dated the 7th of April.

VOL. III.

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