BOOK XVI. testants at Nismes were obliged, by the popular violence, to suspend their public worship.

CHAP. VI. 1815.

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The freedom of the press in France, from which a royal ordinance of the 2d of August had removed all restrictions, was soon found by the vernment to be too dangerous an instrument to be committed to the hands of the disaffected in the present conjuncture; and, on the 8th, Fouche made a report to the king on the subject. He observed, that " at all times, perhaps, it is impossible to give the same extent of liberty to the publications of journals and periodical works; and, in the existing state of France, and of Europe, in the midst of so many passions, which the powers wish to tranquillize, the journals which foster and excite those passions ought to be submitted to another legislation." This remark was introductory to a proposed ordinance which was adopted by the king, and the substance of which consisted in a revocation of all the licences given to public journals of every kind, up to the present time, which were not to appear again without fresh authority from the minister of police; and the submitting of all periodical writings to the examination of a commission, to be appointed by the same minister. The declared necessity of such a measure paints more forcibly the political condition of the country at that period, than any partial details could do.

Nothing was of so much importance to the security of the government, as the organization of a new army in the place of that which was to be disbanded. On August 11th, a proclamation was issued relative to this subject, which began with the observation that, "inasmuch as it has been endeavoured to detach the army from the interests of the country, for the purpose of making it a mere instrument of a personal and inordinate ambition, in the same degree it is essential for the public order to maintain that which is about to be formed in the principles of a truly national army," A statement then followed of the number and species of troops of which the active military force of France was to consist; and an ordinance, containing the details of the new army. The great mass of infantry was to be composed of eighty-six legions, of three battalions each, one legion to be raised in every department, and to bear its name. The soldiers to be disbanded were allowed to enter, after examination, into the legion of the department to which they belonged.

While civil war continued to rage in the south of France, numerous bands of armed robbers infested the public roads, and carried terror and death over other parts of the country. In Paris, though full of foreign troops, the rallying cries and the ensign of revolt were still seen and heard, The violet was thrown aside for the red pink, which designated the friends of Napoleon. The presence, however, of the allied armies, prevented

the occurrence of scenes like those at Nismes. The gaiety of the Parisians, nevertheless, continued undiminished. The march and triumphant reviews of the allied armies, which should have recalled to their minds the humiliation and disgrace of their country, were, in general, to all outward appearance, beheld with satisfaction and exultation. The king issued ordinances for the better observation of the sabbath, and the duties of religion. But the capital had not time to attend to such serious matters, The theatres, more crowded on sabbath than on any other day of the week, afforded them greater pleasure. The receipts of these places of amusement, for a month, ending the 11th of September, was 462,312 francs, (about 23,000l.) The following extract of a letter, from a German officer, will shew, in some degree, the temper of the French people at this time :

"We arrived in this good city a few days ago, by the great road through Namur, Beaumont, St. Quentin, Compeigne, &c. The great military events have every where left visible traces bebind. Graves upon graves, dead horses lying along the roads, which infect the air, villages wholly aban doned, their windows and doors broken, and the trampled fields point out the road you have to take, without requiring any other guide. Yet this seems to be only upon the line where the storm of war raged; the country to the right and left seems to have suffered but little. With respect to the behaviour of the military, the French themselves confess that they have suffered infinitely more from their own soldiers than from our Prussians, who, in fact, behaved in an exemplary manner, and that much more from their own inherent good sense, than from any constraint that is imposed on them.

"If I may trust the first impression, I must confess that the people here have made a very unfavorable one on me. They are, it is true, by no means deficient in politeness and friendly grimaces; but all their suppleness cannot conceal their internal malice and rage.

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They are like a restive horse, which, though compelled to obedience by blows and severe treatment, still champs the bit. One should have thought no one could have showed himself before the king; but all that is arranged, and with noble assurance they announced immediately, on his return, the family fête, 'the return to his paternal abode,' and performed it with moderate effect. In the evening they hold assemblies with him, then a crowd of ragamuffins of all classes collects before the Thuilleries, and cry Vive le Roi, till the good old man appears, with a friendly nod of the head, at the window; there they dance till midnight, with great noise, so that he certainly cannot close his eyes; and then the people, as if they had satisfied a natural want, go quietly home, and are abused the next day in some of the news

papers.

Amidst all these stage-tricks, it is evi dent that the Bourbons are not loved, and have absolutely no party, except the few persons whose fortunes depend on them. They are become quite strangers to the nation, both historically, and in respect to their sentiments of each other; nay, one may even say that they stand in a hostile contrast with the nation. Both will never thoroughly amalgamate together.

"With respect to our present position towards the French, it cannot afford any very flattering hopes. We come as the avengers of twenty years ill-treatment, as instruments in the hand of eternal justice to inflict punishment for innumerable crimes, and for fresh proofs of untameable perse verance in sin. Field-marshal Blucher, with his just and penetrating mind, perfectly appreciated this respective situation, and treated the people with the cold austerity of the inflexible but just judge. All the measures which he adopted testified a clear understanding, and uniform consist ency. Meantime, much foreign influence and interference has since operated, so that we see every where signs of lame and half measures. It is difficult to see the drift of all this. Who is there in the world that can now cling to the allusion of gaining the French by these means, and rendering them less inimical to us? They hate us, once for all, with all their might and all their souls, and every alleviation which we may give them, they attribute to weakness and cowardice, and to their undiminished hate add a proportionate dose of contempt. What the valor of the army has nobly performed must be completed by a wise policy and administration. Like the warrior who strips his fallen enemy of his armour, we must take what is our right, and not like vulgar thieves, who, amidst night and darkness tear off, in haste, a few rags. A regular and firm admi. nistration of the conquered provinces, and a just and rigid police, can alone secure our hard-earned advantages. A great statesman is said to be named by Prussia. But the artful jugglers every where put their Louis in our way, and thus coninue to wrest from our hands one arm after another; while those who have been so tricked look at each other with surprise, and wonder what has happened to them. A contribution of 100 milions was at first laid on the Parisians, a sum which is not equal to the yearly house-rent; but heir papers now relate, with much complacency, how it is reduced to eight millions; and Ribbenrop's first well-written letter of the 10th, is in direct contradiction with that of the 16th, at least s they have been published. As to the laudable recaution of planting cannon in the streets and n the bridges, it would be a shame, with such a ass of troops as we have here, to feel or to exress any apprehension, and still more wrong to

Guap. VI.

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remain as they are, and chances, which no one BOOK XVI. can foresee, may very easily set the immense population of the capital in a commotion which, though upon the whole unattended with any success, may he fatal to those persons who are inmediately exposed to it. In the present state of things the French want a rallying-point for their efforts and opinions. If they had found one, the whole country might be in flames in one night for the national-guards, far from being disembodied, are, by a royal ordinance, to be everywhere completely organised. Even the gens d'armes, who are wholly imbued with Bonaparte's spirit, are left in full activity.

"Germany must, therefore, by no means fancy that all is now quite settled, and that every one may safely indulge in indolent repose. It must accustom itself to the heavy iron armour, till it becomes as easy to wear as an every-day dress, for hard trials may yet remain behind, since the devil well understands how to destroy by night what a good spirit has built by day. If the French succeed in breaking once more the chains by which they are now bound, the storm will break out with greater fury than ever, for there is no inclination to peace in these savage men, and we know not either how to chastise or terrify them."...

Although accounts had been received of the safe arrival of Napoleon at St. Helena, the allied powers evinced no disposition to withdraw their troops from France. On the contrary, their soldiers were dispersed all over the country, and quartered upon the inhabitants, and the fortresses on the frontiers continued to be attacked; some of which, rather than surrender to a foreign force, underwent all the horrors of a regular siege, in which many thousands were killed and wounded on both sides. France was in a most deplorable state. The French ministry remonstrated with the allied sovereigns on the impropriety of conti nuing hostilities without any ostensible cause, and keeping military possession of the provinces; but these having proved unavailing, they at length made a report to the king on the real situation of the country. This report was signed by Fouche, and is as follows:

"Sire, The devastation of France is at its height. Every thing is ruined, wasted, and destroyed, as if we had neither to hope for peace nor composition. The inhabitants fly before undisciplined soldiers the forests are filled with unhappy beings, who seek in them a last asylum

the crops are perishing on the ground; in a short time despair will no longer listen to the voice of any authority; and this war, undertaken for the triumph of moderation and justice, will equal in barbarity those deplorable and too celebrated invasions, the memory of which is handed down in history with horror. The allied powers

ger in dispersing the troops? All arms will not be taken away, and arms of all sorts are murderous in the hands of despair. With respect to warlike contributions, what new sacrifice can be demanded where every thing has already been destroyed by the soldier? With respect to armed force, when once discipline is relaxed, it is not easily re-established. Germany is far from expecting, after a glorious campaign, to receive back her soldiers, corrupted by a spirit of licentiousness, rapine, and pillage. This war ought to have been in every respect distinguished from others, instead of imitating and surpassing in France the excesses against which the sovereigns took up arms-Will their glory ever be satisfied? On our part we have done whatever they desired; and on their part every thing which had been announced to the world is fulfilled, one point excepted. What a contrast between what is actually passing and their solemn promises! This is the age of reason and justice, and the public opinion never had more power. Who can explain such excessive evils after such promises of moderation? The present war was undertaken to serve the cause of legitimacy. Is this manner of carry ing on war calculated to render the authority of your majesty more sacred? They were desirous of punishing the individual who sported with the calamities of nations, and they inflict on France the same violence, the same inhumanity. It was thought by all Europe that the entry of the sovereigns into Paris would put an end to the war. What will be thought on learning that it was then only that the excesses of oppression commenced, without combats and without resistance? The evils which we are reproached with having inflicted upon others, were never so great; they never took place when the use of arms had no object; and though it were true that we had given the first examples of such an abuse of force, ought they to imitate what they impute to us as a rime? It is known in the north, it is known in Prussia, that our want of moderation gave birth o energy, and public spirit in our enemies. There will no longer be any end to the evils of rumanity, if mutual vengeances are to become he rule of war, for nations never die. Your maesty will deign to permit me to insist on one final onsideration. So long as France has any thing o preserve, by the hope of maintaining its interity as a nation, no sacrifice will be impossible, nd all the plans of an equitable policy may be exeuted; but the day in which the inhabitants shall ave lost every thing, in which their ruin shall be onsummated, a new order of things, a new series f events, will be seen to arise, because there will o longer be either government or obedience. A lind fury will take the place of resignation. They ill only seek counsel in despair; on both sides ere will be ravage-pillage will make war on pil

1815.

lage. Every step of the foreign soldiers will be BOOK XVI. marked with blood. France will be less ashamed of destroying herself than in allowing herself to be CHAP. VII. destroyed by others;-the moment approaches;already the national spirit takes this frightful direction;-the most opposite parties are blending into one-La Vendée itself unites its colours with those of the army. In this excess of evils what line of conduct remains to your majesty but that of removal? The public functionaries, in the same manner, will quit their places, and the armies of the sovereigns will then be at issue with individuals freed from all social ties. A nation of thirty millions of inhabitants may undoubtedly disappear from the face of the earth, but in this war of man to man, the oppressed and their vanquishers will lie together in more than one grave. "FOUCHE."

The French ministers, Talleyrand and Fouche, in answer to an official note from the ministers of the allied sovereigns, on the military occupation of the provinces, observed, that the allied powers" wish to persuade the king's ministers, that the measures which they have commanded to the government of Paris, are such as may contribute to diminish the exactions of the war, and to re-establish the royal authority. The king's ministers, however, unfortunately, cannot regard these measures in that point of view. They owe it to the sovereigns, to France, and to themselves, to explain themselves on this subject. The sovereigns, doubtless, are the masters, and can do whatever they desire, but at any rate let them not say, that in taking every step calculated to ruin the cause of his majesty, that they wish to confer any favor on him. There is already in France too much odium and ill-will against the Bourbons, to render it necessary still more to revolt every heart by making the nation experience the greatest losses and the deepest humiliation. What humiliation can be more afflicting than to see, in a time of peace, all the departments subjected to your military governors-what misfortune more to be deprecated than the dispersion of your troops over the whole face of the country? The sovereigns declared that they only made war against Napoleon, and yet all their measures belie their words, since, at the present moment, when the war ought to be finished, it is only about to commence. The present position of France is so much the more afflicting, as were war openly declared (which it is not), it is utterly impossible that she can suffer in a greater degree all its evils, and all its horrors. Every where, wherever the armies are (always excepting the English), pillage, fire, rape, and murder, have been carried to their fullest extent; avarice and vengeance have left nothing for the officers or soldiers to desire. To speak with freedom, they exceed even the

BOOK XVI. atrocities of which the French armies have been too often justly accused. The measures, however, alluded to in your note, can have no other results than to extend the limits of this devastation. The armies spread themselves in our pro

CHAP. VI. 1815.

vinces, and all the horrors which we have depicted follow in their train. Such are the senti ments of the king's ministers on the new decree, and their answer to the appeal which has been made to them."

WHILE France was bleeding at every pore from the effects of foreign invasion and internal commotion, the spirit of revolt had spread to her colonies in the Caribbean ocean. The promptitude and decision, however, of the British officers commanding on that station, with the loyalty and firmness of Count Vaugirand, Governor of Martinique, saved that fine colony from any convulsion. The inhabitants of Martinique, from being so long in the possession of the British, were, in general, well-affected to Louis XVIII.; but the garrison, who were newly arrived from France, were not. To a man, they were for their former master; on which account they were, no doubt, selected for that employment. No sooner was the arrival of Bonaparte in France known, than the governor, arming the militia, on whom he knew he could depend, placed them in the forts; and assembling the troops, he informed them of what had taken place in the mother country, and declared his intention to remain faithful to Louis XVIII. He called upon the garrison to do so also, which they refused; and, to a man, shouted out for their beloved Napoleon. Count Vaugiraud then informed them, that, so situated, they had but one course left to choose, which was to return to France in vessels which he had provided for that purpose; as he was determined, with the aid of the inhabitants, to preserve the colony to the king, till the assistance which he was certain he would receive from the British, put it in his power to do so with safety. This expected assistance soon appeared, under Sir James Leith and Admiral Durham. The British general landed on the island, with a body of troops, on the 5th of June, and occupying all the strong positions, kept the refractory soldiery in awe. The whole of the French troops, with the exception of part of a regiment, were afterwards permitted to depart from the island unarmed, in order to return to France. Previous to the landing of the British troops, the

governor issued the following proclamation to the inhabitants.

"From the first moment of the crisis which again agitates Europe, the king has constantly fixed his attention on the fate of his children, however great may be the space which separates them from him, and is united with his allies to preserve you from every disaster. The effects of his powerful intervention in your favor bave quickly been manifested. Faithful to treaties, the British government does not separate her cause from that of the most Christian king. Their excellescies Sir James Leith and Sir Charles Durham have been ordered to join us in this archipelago, for the purpose of preserving the sovereignty of Martinique to the crown of France, under the immortal banner of its legitimate sovereign They come in the name of their own sovereig and of yours, to assure to this island, favoured by providence, the repose which these princes and their allies have given to the world, but which the world has not been able to preserve: they come to aid us in guaranteeing from the Scourge of war your agriculture, your commerce, and all the kinds of prosperity of which you country is susceptible;-they come, in fine, t support with you, on the same soil, the glory of the French name, which is now irrevocably a tached to the destiny of Louis the Desired, an his august house. You will read the noble com ditions under which those generous auxiliaries proach your shores. They wish no other reward for their important services than the happiness having rendered them. Receive them with gre titude, and remember, that if on the one hand the factious of our days resemble those of the league on the other the sovereigns of France and En land, in uniting their colours, present to our vie the consoling aspect of the worthy successors Henry and Elizabeth. "Count DEVAUGIRATE

The terms on which this succour was afforde