in the heart of a hostile country, cut off by a long tract of deserts (for such they had been rendered) from all military communication with the source of his supplies.

The retreat of the French was at length fully decided, and Russia was left at liberty to adopt a system of action not imposed by the present necessity of making defence against superior power. At this period, in October, the Emperor Alexander issued a proclamation which gave a spirited, but unexaggerated, view of the relative situation of the two antagonists." Russians! (said he) at length the enemy of our country, the foe of its independence and freedom, has experienced a portion of that terrible vengeance which his ambitious and unprincipled aggression had aroused. From the period of his march from Wilna, his army, great in numbers, assured in valour and discipline, and elated at the remembrance of victories gained in other regions, threatened no less than the subjugation of the Russias. The system which we had thought fit to adopt strengthened that confidence. The sanguinary battles fought on his route, and which gave him temporary possession of Smolensk, flattered him with all the illusions of victory. He reached Moscow, and he believed himself invincible and invulnerable. He now exulted in the idea of reaping the fruit of his toils; of obtaining for his soldiers comfortable winter-quarters; and of sending out from thence, next spring, fresh forces to ravage and burn our cities, make captives of our countrymen, overthrow our laws and holy religion, and subject every thing to his lawless will.

Vain presumptuous hope! insolent degrading menace! A population of forty millions, attached to their sovereign and country, and devoted to their religion and laws, the least brave man of whom is superior to his confederates and victims, cannot be conquered by any heterogeneous force which he could muster." After recounting what has been done, the emperor goes on to observe, "Much however remains to be done, and that is in your power. Let the line of his retreat be rendered memorable by your honest indignation: destroy every thing which can be of service to him, and our commanders have orders to remunerate you. Render your bridges, your roads, impassable. In fine, adopt and execute the suggestions of a brave, wise, and patriotic heart, and show yourselves deserving of the thanks of your country and your sovereign." With what effect these injunctions were put in practice may be inferred from the narrative already given of the disastrous retarn of the surviving French from the country they had so cruelly desolated. It only remains to be observed, that the Russians, not contented with the complete expulsion of their invaders, followed up their success without taking the repose usually allotted to the winter, and exerted themselves for the recovery of the districts annexed to their empire, and the renewal of their former influence in that part of Europe. But the particulars of these vigorous efforts will form materials for the public history of another year.

SWEDEN Continued during this year to fix the attention of politicians, by a system of conduct

that

that gave scope to a variety of conjectures, but which was probably a necessary consequence of her peculiar situation. The statement of her affairs made by the crown-prince to the king, on the resumption of the royal a thority by the latter, on January 7th, was noticed in our last volume. It evidently pointed at a system of independent neutrality as that which ought to be adopted by the kingdom, and which it possessed the means of maintaining In the same month, some representations were made by the Swedish minister at Paris on behalf of merchants whose ships had been taken by French privateers during the war; to which the answer given was, that the war had liquilated all these claims. Shortly after, the French chargé d'affaires at Stockholm made a requisition in behalf of certain French, Dutch, and Genoese creditors of the state, demanding that the commissioners for the national debt should pay them, if not their capitals, at least the interest which had accrued. To this, the Swedish minister for foreign affairs was directed to return the same answer that was given in the former case, "That the war between the two powers had liquidated all debts whatever. These replies and retorts indicated little wish in the two courts to live in harmony with each other.

The occupation of Swedish Pomerania by the French has been mentioned as one of the earliest military events of the year. It seems at first to have produced the intended effect of influencing the Swedish government; for in an official publication by that government on the subject of the en

trance of the French into Stralsund, it is said that this proceeding was not to be regarded as a hostile act. An application, also, made by the merchants to the crownprince for permission to import goods from Great Britain, met with a decided negative; and it was followed by strict orders to the governor of Gottenburgh not to admit British merchandize into the ports of Sweden without inmediately sequestrating the same. As the prospect of hostilities between France and Russia, however, became more certain, the conduct of Sweden a-sumed a more determinate aspect; and when the Russian general Von Suchtelen was on his mission at Stockholm, he was joined in the beginning of April by Mr. Thornton, the English minister, though as yet under no public character. On April 20th the diet of the kingdom as. sembled at Orebio. It was opened by a speech from the king, in which, atter alleding to the happy effect of various acts passed at the former diet, he says, "I have called you together at a moment when great and important occurrences, out of our native country, seem to threaten Europe with new misfortunes. Guarded by her situation from the forced obligation of paying obedience to foreign sway, which possibly might not accord with her own interests, Sweden has every thing to hope from unity, valour, and conduct; every thing to lose, if she gives herself up to intestine divisions, and unwise fear." His Majesty proceeds to set forth the advantage of union, and hints at the reasons which induced him to convoke the diet at Orebro rather than at Stockholm;

and

the restoration of the relations of peace and commerce between the two nations on the footing whereon they stood on the 1st of January 1791, and an engagement on the part of the king of Great Britain to concert measures with the Swedish government for the security and independence of Sweden, in case she should undergo any attack in resentment of the treaty now entered into.

The interview between the crown-prince and the emperor of Russia at Abo has already been noticed. This circumstance, with the assembling of a fleet at Gottenburgh apparently for the embarka tion of a body of troops, excited great expectations in the north of some immediate co-operation on the part of Sweden with the armies of Russia; although the cautious language of the king and prince to the states seemed clearly to limit the intentions of the Swedish government to merely defensive measures. It is true, the opportunity might have been taken, of an attempt to recover Pomerania, while the French armies were otherwise employed; but the final success of the campaign was yet dubious; and Sweden, by keeping up a respectable neutrality, might hope to obtain on easy terms by negociation, what could only be gained at great cost and hazard by war. marching of troops towards the sea-ports was, however, continued till the month of October, when the lateness of the season began to render faint the expectation of the sailing of an expedition during the current year. In fact, whatever might have been the motive for keeping up appearances of this kind, the Swedish government

The

steadily adhered to a plan which can scarcely be doubted to have been dictated by the soundest policy relative to the circumstances of the country. Exhausted as it was by a former war, and by no means free from party dissension at home (of which sufficient intimations are given in the king's speech to the diet), it would have been the height of imprudence to have plunged into a dangerous quarrel; and the firm assertion of the national independence was glory enough for one of the secondary states of Europe, at a time when so many of the first class were reduced to a condition which rendered them the mere satellites of overgrown power. With respect to Sweden we have only further to mention, that its government concluded a treaty of peace with the regency of Spain acting in the name of Ferdinand VII., thus binding itself still more firmly to the cause opposed to that of France.

DENMARK, overawed, robbed, impoverished, could scarcely do more in this revolutionary state of the north than give some tokens of her existence as an independent country. Her continental possessions entirely at the mercy of France, it could not be expected. that, even if willing, she should desert the anticommercial system imposed by its ruler, how grievous soever to her own mercantile interest; and it was enough not to be compelled to follow in the train of dependents which Napoleon led to the subjugation of her former great ally. She still carried on a petty maritime war with England, of which some of the events appear in our account of naval transactions; and her flotillas possessed enterprize

and

and animosity enougn to become troublesome, if not formidable, adversaries. In the meantime, in all personal occurrences between the Danes and English, there appears to have subsisted a feeling of ancient kindred and alliance which has alleviated the rancour of political resentment; and the arrogant dictatorial conduct of the French minister, Alquier, at the court of Copenhagen, has probably inspired the nation at large with an earnest wish to be delivered from servitude. Its internal sufferings from scarcity of provisions have been very distressing; and few countries in Europe seem at present more entitled to commiseration. Domestic dissensions aggravate the calamities under which it labours. In the latter part of the year we are told that the reigning prince had dismissed all bis ministers, and had assumed the sole conduct of affairs, with the assistance only of his aides-de-camp. The French troops in Holstein and Sleswick having been withdrawn to accompany their countrymen to Russia, the Danish militia had been embodied to a number beyond all precedent, apparently from jealousy of the warlike preparations of Sweden; and their augmentation had proved an additional cause of discontent. The government being absolute, there exists little community of interest between prince and peo ple; and if the former, as is as serted, adheres firmly to the French alliance, it may be because he finds a powerful protector necessary for the support of his authority at home.

. THE COURT OF VIENNA was principally occupied, about the beginning of the year, in the great

work of restoring the finances. A circular published at Vienna on December the 28th, 1811, has the following preamble: By a decree of the 18th of this month, his Imperial Majesty having judged it indispensably necessary for the relief of the finances, and providing for the necessities of the State, to raise the contribution, called the Contribution of the Classes, with the addition of 50 per cent. and the personal contribution, during the course of the military year 1812, has ordered that these taxes shall be raised within the said year." That the burdens of a state should be continued, and even increased, for a period subsequent to the restoration of peace, is a necessary consequence of the long and dread ful wars in which Europe has been engaged, and must be expected by all the powers who have had the misfortune to share in them. Although rigorous measures of taxation could be carried with little opposition in the hereditary domi nions of Austria, the same facility did not exist in the kingdom of Hungary. The winter session of the Hungarian diet was a scene of longer and more violent discussions than had been witnessed for many years. The magnates and representatives of the people concurred in opposing financial measures introduced as absolutely necessary for the salvation of the state. They urged that the constitution of the country did not permit them to acquiesce in the imposition of such heavy burdens: that the brave and loyal Hungarians were always rea dy to make sacrifices in support of the rights of their sovereigns; but that if they were to adopt the financial plan proposed by the ministers,

an