ly, and guard the essential interests of his states; that this great end could only be obtained by arrangements, which should also ensure the tranquillity of the rest of Europe. That, conformably to this sentiment, his majesty could not attend more particularly to the overture which had been made him, until he should have consulted the powers of the continent, with whom he was engaged in confidential connections and relations, more particularly with the court of St. Petersburgh; and concludes with a well-merited ealogiam upon the emperor Alexander.

M.Segur, in presenting the above, introduced them with a speech, which plainly evinced that the French government was by no means pleased with the answer they had received. He denied the existence or the chance of a coalition on the continent of Europe against France; asserted that Russia would not embark in a war merely to gratify England, and that the emperor had received the most unequivocal tes timonies of the amicable dispositions of Austria and Prussia. In a word, that the hopes of England, in a third coalition, were vain and chimerical, and that, "it only remained for French bravery to display its whole energy, and to triumph, at last, over that eternal ene. my to the liberty of the seas and the repose of nations."

The two other great public bodies, the tribunate and the conservative senate, were also at this period separately addressed by the proper functionaries, to the same effect with the oration of M. Segur. Both contain only illustrations, corollaries and amplifications of the same schem

a flattering picture of the Fren h resources and government u on the one hand, and on the other, to fal sify and discolour the truth, in every particular connected with Great Britain and her continental allies. From the speech of M. Talleyrand, however, to the tribunate, it should seem that it was the wish of the French government, that this overture should be considered as yet open, and, that after Russia had been consulted, farther discussions, of an amicable nature, might take place. The passage, to which we' particularly allude, is too remarkable not to give it insertion.

"The character that pervades ́ this answer," says the orator, "is vague and indeterminate. One sin-> g'e idea only presents itself with some precision, that of having recourse to foreign powers, and this idea is by no means pacific; a superfluous interference ought not to be appealed to, if there be not a desire to embarrass the discussions and to render them endless. The ordinary consequence of all complicated negociations is to weary out good intentions and to throw back nations into a war, become more furious from the vexation of an unsuccessful attempt at accommodation. Nevertheless, on a question regarding a multitude of interests, and of passions which have never · been in unison, we should not rest upon a single symptom. Time will soon develope to us the secret resɗIntions of the government of Eng-land. Should they be just and moderate, the calamities of war will· cease-Should, on the contrary, this first appearance of accommoda tion prove but a false light, intended only to answer speculations of cre

dit; to facilitate a loan, the acquisition of money, purchases, or enterprizes, then we shall know how far the dispositions of the enemy are implacable and obstinate; we shall have to banish all hope from a dan. gerous lure, and trust without reserve to the goodness of our cause, to the justice of Providence, and to the genius of the emperor."

Corresponding with the tone and temper of those angry ebullitions, the French official gazette at the same time published the speech of the king of England to his parliament, with a comment upon each paragraph, indicative of the same sentiments as had pervaded the orations, to which we have above adverted. The whole of these manifestos, for they can be considered in no other light than as such, concluded with general denunciations of vengeance against the shores of Britain, which were threatened with immediate and irresistable invasion, and against its government, whose very existence was menaced by the exhaustion which the country must endure from a continuance of the present formidable posture of France, for ten years to come!

But whatever were the views of the French emperor, in having thus extended the olive branch, and his holding out to Europe that it was possible it might yet be accepted, it is certain, that no means were left unattempted by him, which could increase and consolidate his power, or annoy that enemy who could alone check his career, and put bounds to his ambition. His flotilla, destined for the invasion of England, was hourly augmenting, and becoming more concentrated at Boulogne, the common place of rendezvous. However watchful

and intrepid the conduct of the British cruizers, it was found impossible, with every exertion of the most consummate skill and bravery, to prevent small divisions of the French gun boats from stealing along the coasts, protected as well by their small draught of water, as by the powerful batteries, erected whereever an opportune situation presented itself from forming a junction at the above-named port, and their numbers, at the com. mencement of the present year, were truly formidable. The ar my, destined for the same purpose, and encamped on the heights com manding the town and harbour of Boulogne, had now increased to up. wards of one hundred thousand men, perfectly disciplined, under the command of the best officers of France, and constantly exercised in embarking and re-landing in and from the flotilla, with a view of perfecting them in the great object of their destination. And the eyes of all Europe were directed towards the preparations for an achievement, on the event of which the fate not only of the two countries was at issue, but that also of the whole moral and political world.

We have already seen that Spain had been compelled, in consequence of her dependant situation on France, to become a party to, the war with Great Britain. In order to render this measure the more available to his purposes of crippling the resources and ruining the finances of England, Bonaparte now determined upon a series of bold manœuvres, by which, in uniting the naval strength of his ally to that of France, he hoped to strike a blow, in various parts of the world, at one and the same moment; and directed not

only

only against her colonies and commerce, but also leave her naval superiority a contested and doubtful point. With this view, the squadrons of the French fleet, which had hitherto, since the commencement of the war, remained inactive in their ports, were, at the beginning of the year, put into a state of the greatest activity, and several armaments were actually put on foot, which, evading the British blockading squadrons, spread, for the moment, terror and dismay throughout both hemispheres. The fate and fortune of the French naval expeditions of this year, it will be a pleasing part of our duty to detail, in a subsequent portion of our work, where the maritime warfare of both countries will be particularly considered and detailed. For the present, the proceedings of the French emperor, on the continent, are too important in themselves, and too vast in their objects, not to engross our primary and whole attention.

It will be recollected, by our readers, that, in the course of the last year, Bonaparte had assumed the imperial purple, and had, in his own person, commenced a new dynasty, destined to usurp the throne of the Bourbons, and reign over the vast dominions of France and her dependencies.

But although this personage, (certainly one of the most fortunate if not the greatest character on which the page of history has ever dwelt,) had taken upon himself the style and title of emperor of the Gauls, respect for the form of government he had so recently estabfished in the northern and middle provinces of Italy, induced him to forego,at the moment of his advancement to the imperial diadem, the

personal sovereignty of that country, and which still therefore retained the name of "republic," of which Bonaparte was the nominal head.

The entire success however of the experiment which the emperor had tried upon the feelings of the French nation, and the acquiescence of the greater part of the European courts to the assumption of his new dignity, emboldened him, in the course of the present year, to extend his views of family aggrandizement, and the iron crown of Charlemagne was destined to circle the brows of Bonaparte. It is also more than probable, that policy and the lust of conquest had an equal share with ambition in inducing him to take the name of king of Italy. The limits and preten sions of the "Italian republic" were necessarily defined by the name and nature of the government it had chosen, and which could only extend to those provinces of which it already consisted. But the kingdom of Italy must necessarily comprise, unless the title were allowed to be a palpable absurdity, the whole of the natural and artificial divisions of that delightful country. When Bonaparte, therefore, desired to be its crowned and acknowledged monarch and was hailed "king of Italy," his views upon the southern provinces, and the rich and fertile island of Sicily, when the character of the man is con sidered, could be no longer problematical. This conjecture too was not diminished in force, when it was remembered, that, under pretences equally insolent and unjust, the French were actually in considerable force in Naples, occupying the strong and important position of Otranto, and that a large body

of troops were always kept in motion, hovering upon the Neapolitan frontier.

Whether all, or some only, of the motives we have detailed, operated upon the mind of the French emperor, upon this occasion, certain it is, that he lost no time in carrying his purposes into effect. In affected compliance with the addresses which were poured in upon him, from the various constituted authorities of the Italian republic, who, like the Cappadocians of old, supplicated the yoke of bondage, and which urged the necessity of his appearance in Italy, to remedy the defects of a constitution they pretended was imperfect, and utterly inadequate to the wants and wishes of the people, Bonaparte, accompanied by his empress, set off for Milan, where he arrived early in the month of May. Not the Consul Flaminius, when, on the part of the Roman senate, he announced the restoration of liberty to the oppressed and dejected states of Greece, was received with so much apparent transport, certainly not with so much adulation, as was now the person, who came expressly for the purpose of giving them a tyrant and a taskmaster, by the Italian states! Meetings were immediately convened, and the whole republic, at the feet of Bonaparte, humbly besought him to relieve them from the burthen of governing themselves, and to take upon himself, and his heirs, the Italian diadem. To this flattering request the French emperor was not found inexorable, and, on the 26th day of May, he added to his other titles, that of "king of Italy"!!! The coronation took place at

Milan, with the utmost splendour, solemnity, pomp, and the most imposing magnificence. The emperor, seated on a superb throne, having on his right the honours of the empire, on the left the honours of Italy, and before him the honours of Charlemagne, was invested with the usual insignia of royalty, by the cardinal archbishop, and finally ascending the altar, seized upon the celebrated iron crown, there deposited, and placed it upon his head, saying, at the same time, with a loud voice, and in a tone of defiance, (it being a part of the ancient ceremonial on the enthroning of the Lombard kings) the remarkable words: Dieu me la donne; gare à qui la touche*!

After the ceremony, thaa which nothing could be more magnificent, a constitutional code, being the third which this country had received from France, was communicated to the states, and eagerly accepted by them. The most remarkable of its provisions were, the placing the regal authority solely in the person of Bonaparte, with the privilege of naming his successor; after which, however, the crown, with certain limitations, was to be hereditary. It was, decreed that, hereafter, the monarch must constantly reside within the Italian States, but that, while the present king retained the crown of Italy, he might cause himself to be represented by a viceroy, who must, however, reside within the boundaries of the kingdom.

After the death of Bonaparte, the kingdom of Italy must never again be vested in the same person with that of the French empire,

but

but be entirely disparted and separated from it--and ample means were allowed and provided for the maintenance of the regal dignitythe endowment of the queen-and ry other expence incident to the station the country had placed in the hands of Napoleon, the first of that name, king of Italy. Imdiately after the promulgation of s body of laws, Prince Eugene, Beauharnois) son in law to the new monarch, was appointed viceDy--a new order of knighthood as instituted, that of the iron crown," with considerable revenues attached to it;—and the organization of the new kingdom was enfirels arranged and completed.

It may easily be believed, that Le powers of Europe, who were dd to maintain their independence, considered this step of Bonaparte as an additional proof of his list of acquisition, and his determination, upon every occasion, to concentrate in himself so large a share of the dominion and power of the continent, as would render it difficalt for their whole united strength, at a period not very remote, to re1st any further encroachment he night meditate upon what yet reLained unsubdued by his arms in Larope. But before it was possible for the courts of Vienna, or St. Petersburgh, to concert upon any measure, whether of remonstrance or resistance, to this late act of aggression of Bonaparte against the tranquillity of Europe, for such it could not but be considered, a fresh instance of his insatiable policy strue' too forcibly and immediatey at the interests and freedom of the powers of the continent, to admit of extenuation, or of any palliative measure, and which forced

those powers to take steps, which ended in a renewal of continental war, and gave rise to circumstances the most calamitous, and the most unfortunate to the interests of mankind.

It was observable that, at the ceremonial of the crowning Bonaparte, the doge of the Ligurian republic was present at Milan, doubtless in order the better to prepare himself for the part which, in a few days, he was called upon to play. Hitherto, Bonaparte had preserved to Genoa, the once proud rival of Venice for the empire of the seas, and always the firm and attached, indeed the natural ally of France, an appearance of independence, and, under the new constitutions of the Ligurian republic, had condescended to consider and treat with her as an independent state. It is true, the new republic had not much to boast of, either in the terms or the result of the treaty, which was concluded between her and France, in the course of the last year. For the liberty of sailing under French colours, and a few other as equivocal advantages, Genoa had bound herself to furnish France with 6000 sailors, during the continuance of the present war: she likewise ceded her harbour, dock-yards, arsenals, &c. to the disposal of the French government; and further engaged to construct a bason, large enough to build and equip ten sail of the line, at her own expence ; the ships to be built from her stores, solely for the use of France!--For these con cessions, her independence was to be acknowledged and secured.

But the tender mercies of the French ruler were not to be of long endurance. An extension of the