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battle, and to have maintained it till night in the greatest order. It lost on that bloody day more than 5,000, and half its Generals and Officers. Under these circumstances he insists that the division of Reille cannot be said to be demoralised, and he calls for a retractation of that assertion. Dated La Chapelle, July 1. M. LE GUETTE-MORNAY, who, it appears, had been the cause of the report thus alluded to, immediately rose and acknowledged the justice of the appeal in the letter, and at his motion thanks were voted to the division of Reille.

must renounce peace. In the meantime resistance is as necessary as legitimate; and humanity, in requiring an account of the blood uselessly shed, will not accusethose brave men who only combat to repel from their homes the scourges of war, murder, and pillage-to defend with their lives the cause of liberty, and of that independence, the imperscriptible right of which has been guaranteed to them even by the manifestoes of their enemies.--Amidst these grave circumstances, your Representatives cannot forget that they were not chosen to stipulate for the interests of any party whatever, but for the whole nation. Every act of weakness, while

The only business in the Chamber of Peers was the adoption of two resolutions sent from the Representatives; one de-dishonouring them, would only serve to claring that the officers and soldiers of the army and the national guards, who had contributed to the pacification, have deserved well of their country; the other authorising the commission of government to put at the disposal of Napoleon Buonaparte the library of the Trianon Palace, a copy of the grand description of Egypt, and of the Greek Iconography of M.ment, destined to secure to all citizens Visconti.

ADDRESS OF THE CHAMBERS OF REPRE
SENTATIVES AND PEERS TO THE PEOPLE
OF FRANCE.

compromise, during a long period, the future tranquillity of France. In the mean time, then, that the Goverment is employing all the means for obtaining a solid peace, what more advantages to the nation can be done, than to collect and establish the fundamental rules of a monarchical and representative govern

the free enjoyment of those sacred rights, which sacrifices so numerous and SO great have purchased-and to rally for ever under the national colours, that great body of Frenchmen, who have no FRENCHMEN, -The Foreign Powers other interest, and no other wish than to proclaimed in the face of Europe that they enjoy an honourable repose and a just inwere only armed against Napoleon; that dependence. Meanwhile, the Chambers they wished to respect our independence, conceive, that their duty and their digand the right which belongs to every nation nity require them to declare, that they to choose the Government suitable to its will never acknowledge as legitimate Chief manners and its interests. Napoleon is of the State, he who, on ascending the no longer the Chief of the State; he has Throne, shall refuse to acknowledge the renounced the throne, and his abdication rights of the nation, and to consecrate has been accepted by your Representa them by a solemn compact. The Constitives. He is removed from us. His Son tutional Chart is drawn up, and if the is called to the Empire by the Constitu- force of arms should succeed in tempotions of the State. The coalesced Søve- rarily imposing upon us a master-if the reigns know that. The war ought then destinies of a great nation are again to be to be terminated, if the promises of Kings delivered up to the caprice and the arbi be not vain. However, while Plenipo- trary will of a small number of privileged tentiaries have been sent to the Allied persons, then, in yielding to force, the Powers to treat for Peace in the name of National Representation will protest in France, the Generals of two of those the face of the whole world, in support of Powers have refused any suspension of the oppressed French people. Your Rearms. Their troops have hastened their presentatives will appeal to the energy of march, under the favour of a moment of the present and future generations to retrouble and hesitation. They are at the new their claim both to national indegates of the capital without any commu-pendence and the rights of civil liberty. nication having informed us for what ob- For these rights they now appeal to the ject the war is continued. Our Plenipo justice and the reason of all civilized na

tentiaries will soon declare whether we

tions."

Printed and Published by G. HOUSTON, No. 192, Strand; where all Communications addressed to the Editor, are requested to be forwarded.

VOL. XXVIII. No. 2.] LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1815.

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LETTER VI.

To LORD CASTLEREAGH. On the contrast between the Return of Napoleon and that of Louis; and on the Question of what is now to be done with France.

MY LORD, There you are, then, once more at Paris. And what will you now do? But, before I come to the discussion of this important question, let me beg your observance of the contrast, the great and striking contrast, exhibited in the return of Louis and that of Napoleon.

Last year, it was asserted that all France was for the Bourbons. We were told, that the people were so happy, so sincere in their joy, so unanimous, that they sighed so deeply for the return of their paternal governors, and that they so lamented their absence, that the fact was, at last, proved beyond all contradiction, that the principles of the Revolution, that is to say, the principles of liberty were held in execration, and that the cause of kings and priests was, for ever, assured of triumph. The death-blow was, by the partizans of the borough-mongers, said to be given to those opinions and doctrines, which had caused the French people to rise against feudal and ecclesiastical tyranny. That populous, ingenious, industrious, and gallant people, who inhabited the fairest part of the whole world, and who, under the banners of the rights of man, had first repelled the aggression, and then overrun the countries, and brought to their feet all the old families of the continent of Europe; we were told that that people, after having given a trial to political, civil, and religious liberty, had, at last, come to their senses; had acknowledged that their old despotism was the best of the two; that they had called back the Bourbons with unanimous acclaim; and that all that appertained to the revolution was now held in abhorrence. The conclusion drawn from these premises by the base and infamous traffickers in boroughs, and by their no less

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base and infamous literary partizans, was this that political, civil, and religious were a mere dream; and that all endealiberty were worth nothing; that they vours to preserve or to recover them, by any sort of reform, were not only useless, but tended to mischief, and proceeded from factious, if not seditious and treasonable motives.

Secing the wicked ends to which this conclusion so directly pointed, the friends of freedom deeply lamented, that the question in France was involved in a good deal of confusion; and that though all the world saw, that the Bourbons were carried back, surrounded by forests of foreign bayonets; though all the world saw, that the king was put upon the throne while immense foreign armies garrisoned the capital of France; though all the world saw, that those immense armies remained in France till the restored family had had time to put itself in possession of all the powers and all the treasures of the nation; though these facts were notorious, still it was not proved, that the people of France would not have received the Bourbons back without the presence of those foreign armies. There could, indeed, be no doubt that the people of France, if left to them-> selves, would not have received them back; there could have been no such doubt in the minds of any sensible man. But still the fact was not proved; the people of France had not had the power to choose between the old and new order of things. It was manifest to the whole world, that compulsion was ready at hand; but still there was no positive proof, that the Bourbons would not have been received back without resort to that compulsion. And, thus, this great and most interesting of all questions was left undecided: the friends of freedom contending, that the Bourbons were forced back upon the French, and the friends of bribery and corruption contending, that they were received back by a people, tired of revolutionary principles, and sighing for the return of that family and that order of things, which had bee proscribed by the revolution. B

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Louis was called, by the parasites of despotism and of priestcraft, the desired.

Thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte! this question has now been decided. Thanks to his bravery; thanks to his fortitude; thanks to his unsubdued soul and his resources of mind, this great question has now been decided in favour of those principles, without the operation of which, man is the most despicable of all the animals of the creation, none of whom besides himself, with a knowledge of their strength and of their means, voluntarily submit to the trammel or the lash.

mortifying was it, indeed, for the enemies of bribery and corruption; for the enemies of religious fraud and persecution, to hear this language; to hear these impudent assertions, which, though they knew them to be false, they had not the means positively to disprove; when, all of a sudden, Napoleon Bonaparte, sincere thanks and the gratitude of ages be yielded to him for it, furnished, by his bravery and his intelligent mind, those invaluable means. He lands, almost alone, at the distance of nearly five hundred miles from the capital of France, where the BourThe Bourbons were seated on the throne bons, surrounded by guards, in number of France; they had taken possession, in amounting to a large army, and partly virtue of what they called divine right, of composed of hired foreigners, were seated the throne, the country, the resources, the on their throne, whence they had distripowers of France. The foreign armies, buted their trusty servants, military and seeing them, as they thought, thus safely civil, throughout the whole of the counin possession, withdrew leisurely and cau- try. He proceeds on to that capital, not tiously from the scene; the paternal only unopposed by any part of the people, government of the Bourbons goes into but amidst unanimous acclamations. One execution; the ancient despotism is not, garrison alone marches forth to oppose however, restored; feudal and ecclesias- him. He leaves his followers behind him tical tyranny are not re-established; the at a distance; walks up to them alone; most essential changes worked by the bares his breast at the point of their musrevolution, are confirmed, by promises, at kets; says, " if there be a Frenchman, least; the mass of laws enacted ehiefly by "if there be a single Frenchman, to whom the republicans and embodied into a code my return is not welcome, here is my by Napoleon, remain, and the upholding" heart, let him pierce it, and spare the of them is solemnly promised; the bles-"effusion of French blood." The solsings which the French are enjoying under diers throw away their arms and embrace the Bourbon family, compared with the the handful of their comrades who are miseries they suffered under the new order found in his suite. of things, are chaunted from the lips of every slave from one end of Europe to the other. Here," said they to the friends of freedom," look here, and behold a great nation, full of wise and brave 66 men, who have discovered, after twenty "five years trial of what they called "freedom of one sort or another, down, at "last, upon their bare knees, ASKING "PARDON OF GOD AND MAN, for "their past follies and crimes, and putting up most fervent thanksgiving, that Pro"vidence had vouchsafed to restore unto "them their ancient masters and their "ancient teachers, and praying that, in "future, they may never be deprived of "the blessings flowing from the Bourbons "and the priests."

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I am sure, that your Lordship will not deny, that this was the language in the month of February last. I am sure that you will not deny, that I have by no means over-charged that language. Very

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Is it thus, my Lord, that Louis has made his entry into France? Is it thus that he has put the love of the French people to the test? Is it thus, that he has made his appeal to them? Is it thus, that he has given them their choice? No. He has not entered France alone; he has not bared his breast to the first Frenchman that rejected him; he has not even ventured to go in the company; he and his followers have not even ventured to form themselves into a battalion of the victorious and over-whelming foreign invaders, No! He comes in the rear of those over-whelming foreign armies, who have first cut a road for him through the bodies of those whom our infamous writers have the audacity to call his faithful and loving subjects. Louis and the Bourbons, seated at Paris in the plenitude of power, with two hundred thousand men in arms, and with all the treasures of the countryat their command, are unable to

prevail upon one single man to oppose the | lages were burnt. No towns-people or progress of Napoleon, who is hailed as country-people were put to death. No the deliverer of his country, and who murder, no plunder, no brutal violence enters Paris after a journey across three were his harbingers. He re-entered Paris fourths of France, without having caused amidst the joyous shouts of a people, who, one drop of French blood to be shed. I do notwithstanding his faults, felt grateful not say, my Lord, that Louis has now to him for his services; felt that he was actually caused French blood to be shed entitled to their love on many accounts; by the hands of the foreign invaders of but, above all, for having delivered them, France; but this I know that our news- as they thought and hoped, for ever, from papers tell us that rivers of French blood the sway of that family, under which their have flowed on account of the opposition forefathers had groaned for so many to the Bourbous. These papers tell us, ages, and who, as the people reasonably that numbers of French people, in towns feared, had brought in their train that as well as villages, have been put to death, system of feudal and priestly tyranny, by the Austrians, the Prussians, the Ba- those grinding oppressions, that degrading varians. That towns and villages have superstition, those hellish persecutions, been burnt, and that the punishment in under which the French nation had so the way of plunder has been enormous; long lived, covered with misery and disand for what? because the people thus honour. punished, endeavoured to defend their country against its enemies, whose object was the restoration of the Bourbons.

But

Such is the contrast which the return of Napoleon and that of the Bourbons exhibit. And, notwithstanding all the sanAt last, Louis arrives at Paris. guine hopes now entertained, and expressunder what circumstances? Paris had pre-ed by the sons and daughters of corruppared for a siege against the armies under tion, the friends of freedom, who have a whose protection he came. Paris is sur- right to triumph in this contrast, feel no rendered to those armies by a convention. hesitation in predicting, as I now predict, The French army retires to take up a that the Bourbons will never be able to position behind the Loire, protesting restore all, nor even any considerable part against the restoration of the Bourbons. of the feudal and priestly tyrannies, forThe assembly, chosen by the French merly existing in France; and that all the people, continue to protest against that armies of Europe will not be able to keep restoration till foreign soldiers surround them another eleven months upon the the very hall in whch they are assembled. throne, if they dare essentially to violate The Tricolor flag and cockade are hoisted that code of laws and those principles of by the national guard themselves till the government, which the revolutionary aslast moment. Those colours are still flying semblies enacted, which Napoleon couevery where, where force has not pulled firmed and established, and which he imthem down. In the midst of innumerable mortalized by his name. hosts of enemies, patroling the country, and pouring into it, in every direction, those colours, the symbols of liberty, the symbols of unquenchable hatred to feudal and ecclesiastical tyranny, are hoisted, and exciting the spirit of the people even after the Bourbons and the invading armies are well known to be in possession of Paris itself; and the Bourbons remount the Throne of their ancestors, as they vainly call it, while the protests against them, by the assembly, by the army, and by the people, are ringing in their ears.

Was it thus that Napoleon re-entered . Paris amidst the acclamation of all ranks of people. No convention preceded his re-entry. No battles were necessary to clear the way for him. No towns and vil

It is very difficult for any one, not present upon the spot, to judge of the conduct of the actors at Paris, in this great scene. There may have been some faults committed by the assemblies, by the commission of government, by the generals, or by others. Where such immense means of purchasing treason exist, and such powerful motives also for procuring that treason, it would be too much to suppose that all had remained faithful. But the declarations and the protests of the commission of government, of the assemblies of the generals, of the municipal bodies; the bold language of the different persons in power, the hardihood with which they have braved not only the proclamations of Louis but the bayonets of foreign armies. All these

tend to produce the belief, that they apprehend very little danger from the vengeance either of Louis or the Allies; and that though the soil of France has heen extensively invaded, though her capital is in the possession of the combined kings of Europe, whose armies are subsidized by England, the spirit of the people of France, so far from being subdued, has risen under the bayonets of their foes.

What, then, is now to be done, my good Lord? The Times newspaper, who calls you an able and faithful negociator, recommends to you, first, to cause the leading rebels, as this bloody writer has the folly to call them, to be hanged up. Second, to cause the French army to be disbanded. Third, to take away all the statues, pictures, and trophies, won by the glorious military achievements of the French nation. Fourth, to take away part of the French territory. Fifth, to compel the King of France to take such ministers as you may point out to him. Sixth, to take care to see, before you come away, that all places of trust, civil and military, are filled by such persons as England can confide in. Seventh, that you will be sure to put all the venerable, ancient, paternal Noblesse into their family chateaus. Eighth, though he does not insist upon the absolute restoration of all the monks and friars to their convents, and to their means of debauchery and persecution, the vile hypocrite does seem to insinuate, that you ought to do something considerable in behalf of the venerable teachers, as he calls them, of religion and morality. Ninth, he is prepared, it seems, to exccrate you, even you, unless you cause to be " "bled to dust," the statue, or statues, "of VOLTAIRE ;" while he would consent to your "paying respect to the me"morials of the pious and venerable FE"NELON." In imposing this last task upon your Lordship, the silly babbler gives us a pretty true picture of his own mind and wishes. He would preserve and perpetuate the praise, which ignorance and superstition have bestowed upon, probably, a fraudulent, and, at least, a pretty stupid, priest; and he would have you eradicate from the mind of man the recollection of the fact, that the brightest genius that ever the sun shone on, was also the most zealous, the most inexorade, and most successful enemy of all

sorts of tyranny, political, civil and religious. This vile hypocrite knows well what powerful effect the writings of VOLTAIRE have had in destroying superstition and priestcraft. These invaluable writings have taken the people of France, and of a great part of the rest of the world, out of the hands of fraudulent priests. He observed in his history of the horrid murder of CALAS by the friars of Thoulouse, that truth had begun to attack superstition, and that the latter was making prodigiously violent struggles in its defence. The monster, after these struggles, received its mortal wound in that famous decree of the National Assembly of France, which drove the idle and profligate monks and nuns from their convents, which relieved the fathers of families from the intermeddling of officious and greedy priests, which proclaimed the perfect liberty to all men to worship, or not to worship, just as they pleased, to write or to say what they pleased, upon the subject of religion, and which thus left religion, like astronomy, or another science, wholly to the test of reason. This decree, as confirmed by all subsequent acts, is still in force; if your Lordship procures its repeal, I will acknowledge you to be the real eighth wonder of the world; and if you do not, we shall be, as to the reat object of the war, just where we started in the year 1793, before a shilling of the eight hundred millions of debt, besides the annual war taxes, was contracted or imposed.

A great deal is said, my Lord, about conquering France; and, the parliamentcrum-ary reporter made Mr. Banks say, the other day, amidst loud cheers of the Honourable House, that he hoped, that the great Wellington monument about to be erected, would be "ornamented with some of the things found in the twice conquered city of Paris." These are oldfashioned ideas, my Lord. They belong to half a century ago, when men were led to have their brains knocked out for the glory of a grand monarque. The French are not conquered, though Mr. PERRY, to make his peace with the party to which he wishes to return, says they are, and "fuirly" too. They have been fighting for freedom. Their struggle has been, and is, against feudal, ecclesiastical, and monarchical tyranny; against seigneurial

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