A FULL AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE MEMORABLE BATTLE OF WATERLOO, &c. &c. &c. From the Second Usurpation of Napoleon Buonaparte to his Second Abdication. THE HE sovereigns and statesmen assembled at the congress of Vienna had closed their deliberations, and the former had announced their departure for their respective capitals, when they received the unwelcome intelligence that Buonaparte had quitted the isle of Elba, and had landed, with an armed force, at Frejus. The astonishment with which this news was at first received was naturally succeeded by the most serious apprehensions. The force with which the invader had landed was certainly feeble and contemptible; but it was highly probable that the discontented soldiery of France would flock to his standard, and enable him again to disturb the tranquillity of Europe. It was therefore necessary, by some prompt and decisive manifesto, to avow their resolution of opposing him with their united forces. The following declaration was ac cordingly published at Vienna on the 13th of March: DECLARATION. "The powers who have signed the treaty of Paris, assembled in 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 so1emn declaration of the sentiments which this event has excited in them. 66 By thus breaking the convention which established him in the Island of Elba, Buonaparte has destroyed the only legal title 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 law, 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 resolving to maintain entire the treaty of Paris of May 30, 1814, and the dispositions sanctioned by that treaty, and those which they have resolved on, or shall hereafter resolve on, to complete and to 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 provide against every attempt which shall threaten to re-plunge the world into the disorders and miseries of revolutions. "And, although fully 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, *A they will be ready to give to the King of France, and to 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. "The present declaration, inserted in the register of the congress assembled at Vienna on the 13th of March, 1815, shall be made public." having taken into consideration the consequences which the invasion of France by Napoleon Buonaparte, and the actual situation of that kingdom, may produce with respect to the safety of Europe, have resolved, in conjunction with his majesty the, &c. &c. to apply to that important circumstance the principles consecrated by the treaty of Chaumont. 66 "They have consequently resolved to renew, by a solemn treaty, signed separately by each of the four powers with each of the three others, the engagement to preserve, against every attack, the order of things, so happily established in Europe, and to determine upon the most effectual means of fulfilling that engagement, as well as of giving it all the extension which the present circumstances so imperiously call for. Soon after the publication of this document, an event occurred at Vienna which excited a considerable sensation. Several persons arrived in the villages near Schoenbrunn, the residence of the little Napoleon. Among them was Count Montesquieu, a nephew of the child's governess. He contrived to gain admittance" Article 1. The high-contracting parties above meninto the palace, under the pretence of visiting his aunt; and, having corrupted some of the domestics, formed the plan of carrying off the son of Buonaparte. The time was fixed, carriages were appointed to be in waiting, and relays were ordered at every post to the frontiers of France. Fortunately it happened that some suspicious language was overheard by a chamber-maid from one of the women who attended on the young prince. She immediately hastened to convey her suspicions to the emperor; while the police, having gained intelligence of the whole plot, suffered it to proceed to the last moment, that all the accomplices might be secured. Every thing was now fully prepared. A maid-servant had the young Napoleon in her arms, and, attended by one of the principal conspirators, was just stepping into the carriage, when the officers made their appearance, and the whole party was arrested. tioned solemnly engage to unite the resources of their respective states for the purpose of maintaining entire the conditions of the treaty of peace concluded at Paris, on the 30th of May, 1814; as also the stipulations determined upon and signed at the congress of Vienna, with the view to complete the disposition of that treaty, to preserve them against all infringement, and particularly against the designs of Napoleon Buonaparte. For this purpose, they engage, in the spirit of the declaration of the 13th of March last, to direct in common, and with one accord, should the case require it, all their efforts against him, and against all those who should already have joined his faction, or shall hereafter join it, in order to force him to desist from his projects, and to render him unable to disturb in future the tranquillity of Europe, and the general peace under the protection of which the rights, the liberty, and independence, of nations had been recently placed and secured. "Art. 2. Although the means destined for the attainment of so great and salutary an object ought not to be subjected to limitation, and although the high-contracting parties are resolved to devote thereto all those means which, in their respective situations, they are enabled to dispose of, they have nevertheless agreed to keep constantly in the field, each, a force of one hundred and fifty thousand men complete, including cavalry in the proportion of at least one-tenth, and a just proportion of artillery, not reckoning garrisons; and to employ the same actively and conjointly against the common enemy. The declaration of the allied powers was, for a considerable time after its promulgation, kept back from the French papers; and, when it was published in them, it was accompanied by a commentary, the object of which was to prove that Talleyrand alone had infused into it that spirit of personal invective against Buonaparte, by which it was distinguished: and it was added, that the allies, having put forth this declaration before they knew how he was received in France, would recall, or at least not repeat it, when they learnt that he had entered the metropolis in triumph. Many persons in England were of the same opinion: but the following treaty of the allied powers, signed at Vienna on the 25th of March, as soon as they received the intelligence "Art. 3. The high-contracting parties reciprocally of the entry of Buonaparte into Paris, plainly demon-engage not to lay down their arms but by common constrated their resolution to drive him out of France. "His majesty the king of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and his majesty the, &c. &c., sent, nor before the object of the war, designated in the first article of the present treaty, shall have been attained; nor until Buonaparte shall have been rendered absolutely unable to create disturbance, and to re new his attempts for possessing himself of the supreme | most Christian majesty is invited to accede under cerpower in France. "Art. 4. The present treaty being principally applicable to the present circumstances, the stipulations of the treaty of Chaumont, and particularly those contained in the sixteenth article of the same, shall be again in force, as soon as the object actually in view shall have been attained. "Art. 5. Whatever relates to the command of the combined armies, to supplies, &c. shall be regulated by a particular convention. tain stipulations, is to be understood as binding the contracting parties upon principles of mutual security, to a common effort against the power of Napoleon Buonaparte, in pursuance of the third article of the said treaty; but is not to be understood as binding his Britannic majesty to prosecute the war, with a view of imposing upon France any particular government. "However solicitous the Prince Regent must be to see his most Christian majesty restored to the throne, and however anxious he is to contribute, in conjunction "Art. 6. The high-contracting parties shall be al- with his allies, to so auspicious an event, he neverlowed respectively to accredit to the generals command-theless deems himself called upon to make this declaing their armies, officers who shall have the liberty of corresponding with their governments, for the purpose of giving information of military events, and of every thing relating to the operations of the armies. "Art. 7. The engagements entered into by the present treaty having for their object the maintenance of the general peace, the high-contracting parties agree to invite all the powers of Europe to accede to the same. "Art. 8. The present treaty having no other end in view but to support France, or any other country which may be invaded, against the enterprises of Buonaparte and his adherents, his most Christian majesty shall be specially invited to accede hereunto; and, in the event of his majesty's requiring the forces stipulated in the second article, to make known what assistance circumstances will allow him to bring forward in furtherance of the object of the present treaty." SEPARATE ARTICLE. "As circumstances night prevent his majesty the king of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from keeping constantly in the field the number of troops specified in the second article, it is agreed that his Britannic majesty shall have the option, either of furnishing his contingent in men, or of paying at the rate of thirty pounds sterling per annum for each eavalry-soldier, and twenty pounds per annum for each infantry-soldier, that may be wanting to complete the number stipulated in the second article." This treaty was sent over to Great Britain to be ratified; and at the same time that it was ratified, the folowing explanatory declaration was annexed to it on the part of the Prince Regent: DECLARATION. "The undersigned, on the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty of the 25th of March last, on the part of his court, is hereby commanded to declare, that the eighth article of the said treaty, wherein his ration on the exchange of the ratifications, as well in consideration of what is due to his most Christian majesty's interests in France, as in conformity to the principles upon which the British government has invariably regulated its conduct." The treaty thus ratified, and with this declaration annexed, was sent back to Vienna; and it appears from an official letter from the Earl of Clancarty, the British ambassador there, that the views and intentions of the other allied powers were the same as those of Great Britain; for he expressly states, that "the allies are at war for the purpose of obtaining some security for their own independence, and for the re-conquest of tha peace and permanent tranquillity for which the world has so long panted. They are not even at war for the greater or less proportion of security which France can afford them of future tranquillity, but because France, under its present chief, is unable to afford them any security whatever. "In this war they do not desire to interfere with any legitimate right of the French people: they have no design to oppose the claim of that nation to choose their own form of government, or intention to trench in any respect upon their independence as a great and free people; but they do think they have a right, and that of the highest nature, to contend against the re-establishment of an individual as the head of the French government, whose past conduct has invariably demonstrated that, in such a situation, he will not suffer other nations to be at peace; whose restless ambition, whose thirst for foreign conquest, and whose disregard for the rights and independence of other states, must expose the whole of Europe to renewed scenes of plunder and devastation. "However general the feelings of the sovereigns may be in favour of the restoration of the king, they no otherwise seek to influence the proceedings of the French in the choice of this, or any other dynasty or form of government, than may be essential to the safety and by the intrigues of the Prince of Benevento, that Maria Louisa and her son were thus despoiled. "4. Eugene, the adopted son of Napoleon, was to have obtained a suitable establishment out of France; but he has received nothing. and permanent tranquillity of the rest of Europe: such reasonable security being afforded by France in this espect, as other states have a legitimate right to claim in their own defence, their object will be satisfied; and they shall joyfully return to that state of peace which will then, and then only, be open to them; and lay down those arms, which they have only taken up for the pur-preservation of their rewards given them on Monte pose of acquiring that tranquillity so eagerly desired by them, on the part of their respective empires." On the 2d of April, the Corsican published a manifesto in justification of his conduct. After adverting to the style of the manifesto of the allies, of which it asserts, that "it provokes the crime of assassination, and is almost unparalleled in the history of the world," it proceeds to state the instances in which the treaty of Fontainebleau was violated by the allies and the Bourbons, and by which Napoleon considered himself released from all obligations to observe it. "The treaty of Fontainebleau has been violated by the allied powers, and by the house of Bourbon, in what respects the Emperor Napoleon and his family, and in what regards the interests and rights of the French nation. "I. The Empress Maria Louisa and her son were to obtain passports, and an escort, to repair to the emperor; but, in direct violation of this promise, the husband and wife, father and son, were separated under painful circumstances, when the firmest mind has occasion to seek consolation and support in family and domestic affections. "2. The security of Napoleon, and of his imperial family and their suite, were guaranteed by all the powers; yet bands of assassins were organized in France under the eyes of the French government, and even by its orders, for attacking the emperor, his brothers, and their wives, in default of the success anticipated from this first branch of the plot. An insurrection was prepared at Orgon, on the emperor's route, in order that an attempt might be made on his life by some brigands. The Sieur Brulart, an associate of Georges, had been sent as governor to Corsica, in order to make sure of the crime; and, in fact, several detached assassins have attempted, in the Isle of Elba, to gain, by the murder of the emperor, the base reward which was promised them. “3. The duchies of Parma and Placentia were given in full property to Maria Louisa, for herself, her son, and their descendants. After a long refusal to put her in possession, the injustice was completed by an absolute spoliation, under the illusory pretext of an exchange, without valuation, or sovereignty, and without her consent. And the documents in the office of foreign affairs prove that it was on the solicitations "5. The emperor had stipulated for the army the Napoleon. He had reserved to himself, the power to recompense his faithful followers. But every thing has been taken away, and abused by the ministers of the Bourbons. M. Bresson, an agent from the army, was despatched from Vienna to assert their claims; but his representations were ineffectual. "6. The preservation of the property, moveable and immoveable, belonging to the emperor's family, was provided for; but all was robbed,-in France by commissioned brigands,—in Italy by the violence of the military chiefs. "7. Napoleon was to have received two millions, and his family two millions five hundred thousand francs per annum. The French government, however, constantly refused to discharge its engagements, and Napoleon would soon have been obliged to disband his faithful guards, for want of the means of paying them, had he not found an honourable resource in the conduct of some bankers and merchants of Genoa and Italy, who advanced twelve millions, which they had offered to him. "8. In short, it was not without a cause that it was desirable by every means to remove from Napoleon the companions of his glory, the unshaken sureties of his safety and of his existence. The Island of Elba was assigned to him in perpetuity; but the resolution of robbing him of it was, at the instigation of the Bourbons, fixed upon by the congress. Had not Providence prevented it, Europe would have seen an attempt made on the person and liberty of Napoleon, left hereafter at the mercy of his enemies, and transported, far from his friends and followers, either to St. Lucie or St. Helena, which had been named as his prison. "And when the allied powers, yielding to the wishes and the instigations of the house of Bourbon, condescended to violate the solemn contract, on the faith of which Napoleon liberated the French nation from its oaths; when he himself, and all the members of his family, saw themselves menaced, attacked in their persons, in their properties, in their affections, in all the rights stipulated in their favour as princes, in those even secured by the laws to private citizens,-what conduct was Napoleon to adopt? "Was he, after enduring so many injuries, and supporting so many acts of injustice, to consent to the complete violation of the engagements entered into with him, and, resigning himse f personally to the fate | she dislikes, to the feudal chains which she has thrown prepared for him, to abandon also his wife, his son, his family, and his faithful servants, to their frightful destiny? "Such a resolution seems beyond the endurance of human nature; and yet Napoleon would have embraced it, if the peace and happiness of France had been the price of this new sacrifice. He would have devoted himself for the French people, from whom, as he will declare in the face of Europe, it is his glory to hold every thing; whose good shall be the object of all his endeavours, and to whom alone he will be answerable for his actions, and devote his life." The manifesto then proceeds to state the causes, arising from the internal state of France, and the errors of the Bourbons, which occasioned the return of Napoleon; the renunciation by the emperor of all his former plans of aggrandizement, and his resolution to abide by the conditions of the treaty of Paris. It also deprecates the interference of foreign powers in the choice of the French people, and concludes as follows: "And now, replaced at the head of the nation which had thrice already made choice of him, and which has a fourth time designated him by the reception which it has given him in his rapid and triumphant march and arrival, what does Napoleon wish from this nationby which, and for the interest of which, he wishes to reign? "What the French people wish-the independence of France, internal peace, peace with all nations, and the execution of the treaty of Paris, of the 30th of May, 1814. "What is the change, then, which has taken place in the state of Europe, and in the hope of that repose which was promised to it? What voice is raised to demand assistance, which, according to the declaration, ought only to be given when called for? "Nothing has been changed: if the allied powers return, as it is expected they will do, to just and moderate sentiments; if they acknowledge that the existence of France, in a respectable and independent state, as far from conquering as from being conquered, from dominating as from being subjugated, is necessary to the balance of great kingdoms, and to the guarantee of inferior states. "Nothing has been changed: if, respecting the rights of a great nation which desires to respect the rights of all others, which, high-minded and generous, has been lowered, but never degraded, they allow it to retake a sovereign, and give itself a constitution and laws suitable to its manners, its interests, and its wants. "Nothing has been changed: if they do not attempt to constrain France to submit again to a dynasty which off, and to the seignorial or ecclesiastical prostrations from which she has emancipated herself; if they do not wish to impose laws on her, to interfere with her internal concerns, to assign a form of government to her, and to give masters to her to satisfy the pleasure or the passions of her neighbours. "Nothing has been changed: if, when France is occupied with preparing the new social compact which shall guarantee the liberty of her citizens, and the triumph of the generous ideas which prevail in Europe, they do not force her to withdraw herself from those pacific thoughts and means of internal prosperity, to which the people and their chief wish to consecrate themselves in a happy accordance, and again direct their energies to war. "Nothing has been changed: if, when the French nation only demands to remain at peace with all Europe, an unjust coalition does not compel it to defend, as it did in 1792, its will and its rights, its independence, and the sovereign of its choice." Two days afterwards, the following circular letter, written by Napoleon himself, was despatched to the courts of all the allies: "SIR, MY BROTHER, "Paris, April 4, 1815. "You have no doubt learned in the course of the last month my return to France, my entrance into Paris, and the departure of the family of the Bourbons. The true nature of these events must now be made known to your majesty. They are the results of an irresistible power; the results of the unanimous wish of a great nation which knows its duties and its rights. The dynasty which force had given to the French people was not fitted for it. The Bourbons neither associated with the national sentiments or manners; France has therefore separated herself from them. Her voice called for a liberator. The hopes which induced me to make the greatest sacrifices for her have not been deceived. I came; and, from the spot where I first set my foot, the love of my people has borne me into the heart of my capital. "The first wish of my heart is to repay so much affection by the maintenance of an honourable peace. The restoration of the imperial throne was necessary for the happiness of the French people. It is my sincerest desire to render it at the same time subservient to the maintenance of the repose of Europe. Enough of glory has shone by turns on the colours of the various nations. The vicissitudes of fortune have often enough occasioned great reverses, followed by great successes. |