They began their advanced march on the 23d, tives, but also from inclination; and viewing the matter in this light, I would be committing an outrage on my own feelings, were I to suppose that this people would give the preference to a man, whose name a great portion of them, perhaps, never heard pronounced, and whom a still greater portion never saw, In the last Register, we left Napoleon at Arcis-sur-Aube, on the morning of the 20th ult. The head-quarters of the Allies were, on the 18th, at Bar-surAube. The Moniteur of the 29th contains the following short bulletin. "On the 26th inst. his Majesty the Emperor beat, at St. Dizier, General Winzingerode; took 2,000 prisoners, cannon, and many baggage waggons. This corps has been pursued far." In dispatches received from Sir Charles Stewart, of the same date, the above affair is noticed in the following manner :-"Winzingerode's rear towards St. Dizier seems to have been assailed on the evening of the 26th and morning of the 27th by a very preponderating force of the enemy, especially as to infantry. The details of the affair are not arrived; but it appears the General was obliged to retreat in the direction of Bar-le-Duc." Since this advantage obtained by Napoleon at St. Dizier, nothing certain has transpired as to his subsequent movements; but all Europe have, by this time, heard of the advance of the combined allied army to the gates of Paris, and the proposed capitulation of that city, though it yet remains to be seen whether actual possession was really given. The fact, according to present appearances, cannot be well disputed: still no official accounts had reached government, when the Register went to press, of the entrance of any of the allied troops into OCCURRENCES OF THE WAR. -The battle Paris. But where, it is naturally asked, was of Belleville, on the heights of Paris, which, it is Bonaparte; what object was he pursuing; what said, led to the surrender of that city, may be important matter engaged his attention, that he regarded as one of the most remarkable occurdid not make the smallest effort to prevent the rences of the war. The Allies, in their progress grand army reaching his capital? These are to the French capital, encountered several small questions to which, it must be confessed, no divisions of Napoleon's army, who, notwithstandpositive answer can be given till later accounts ing the disparity of their numbers, did not shrink reach us. Meanwhile, if we may judge from the from the contest. A remarkable instance of this known and cautious policy of Napoleon, and gallantry is described in our Gazette. A corps, from the frequency with which he has out-ma- consisting of nearly 5,000 conscripts, though nœuvred his opponents, it cannot be supposed," completely surrounded by the cavalry of boili as some pretend, that be allowed himself to be out-generaled, but that the object he proposed, by making so great a sacrifice, was still greater, and would be attended with consequences more decisive than any of those ephemeral advantages which he lately obtained over the Allies. Their great object was to obtain possession of Paris; and they appeared disposed to sacrifice every thing to this but a pitched battle. Tired by the predatory warfare which this occasioned, Napoleon seems to have determined on opening the way for them; and to have calculated on the chances, which this movement would necessarily give him, of bringing on a general engagement. It was, perhaps, a part of his policy to reduce the Allied Army as much as possible, in the first instance, by partial actions, in order that he might have the less to contend with when he had placed them in a situation where they could not decline the contest. Accordingly, we find him not only departing entirely from his former plan of forcing the Allies to retire, when they threatened an approach to the capital, but we see him advancing his whole army to so great a distance towards the Rhine, as utterly to preclude all possible chance of his being able to prevent the Allies reaching Paris. armies, refused to surrender, still kept marching By dispatches from Lord Wellington, dated Owing to yesterday being a holiday, the neces sary arrangements could not be completed at the Stamp Office, for publishing the Register this week at Mr. Morton's, No. 94, Strand, to whom all communications and orders (post paid) are to be forwarded in future, addressed to the Editor. Published by G. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent Garden. COBBETT'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER. VOL. XXV. No. 16.] LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1814. 481] [Price 1s. [482 He DETHRONEMENT OF NAPOLEON. would, as he was able, have destroyed all "It is ended," says the COURIER news- the old dynasties; ALL the sovereigns of paper. "The Drama is closed," says the Europe would have been of his creation; CHRONICLE; "Mine eyes have seen thy their right to reign would, every where, salvation," says the half-canting and half-have rested upon the same basis; and, of blasphemous TIMES.-Indeed, the grand course, whatever wars might have arisen contest is now come to an end, and we amongst them, the dethronement of no one shall have leisure to look back and to con- would have been in contemplation. If he trast our situation at the commencement had, when he had it in his power, furnishof it, with what it is now.- -At present, Ied Austria and Prussia with kings, he would shall confine myself to some few observa- not now have lived to accept of his life at tions (for thousands offer themselves) upon the hands of the sovereigns of those counthe causes and the effects of the dethrone-tries. But, this would not have suited the ment of Napoleon.-The immediate causes purposes of his vanity; his contemptible of this event were, evidently, the loss of vanity, which urged him on to seek family his army in Russia, the subsequent aban-alliances with the old Royal race. donment of him, in the midst of battle, by spared the father in order to obtain the his German Allies, and the overwhelming daughter: He supported the old Royal force of the combined armies. But, the race, because he wanted to secure a dynasmore distant cause, and the only cause, was ty of his own: He made common cause, his vanity; that vanity, which led him to in fact, with the old Royal race, as towards seek family alliances with the ancient so- the people, hoping thereby to have their vereigns of Europe. He lost the hearts of aid and countenance in support of his 'title all the best men of France; that is to say, and that of his descendants: He joined the of the enlightened friends of freedom, by old Royal race, in the hope of their being abolishing the Republic, by assuming the reconciled to his power; he discouraged title of Emperor, and by acting the despot; and forbade every act in France tending to but, he lost his crown by his vanity; and, expose to hatred, or contempt, any of the by a species of vanity, too, the most con- old Royal race in any country of Europe; temptible of all: -He must needs be, not and, as in the instance of FONTANES'S only a Royal personage, but he must be speech, he sought to curry favour with related to the old Royal race; he must sovereigns in general, by speaking conmarry amongst them; and, which was temptuously of the people. For these things most abominable, after all that the people he deserves his fate, and a fate a great deal of France had done to get rid of the family worse than that which appears to have beinfluence of the House of Austria, he must fallen him. These are his sins in my eyes. needs bring a daughter of that house and He had the power of doing great good; he place over that same French people: He had the power to give freedom to all Eumust bring the niece of that same Marie rope; he did much good to France; he Antoinette, whom the French people, in the established, or rather, he did not destroy, excess of their resentment against her, had the good laws which the Republicans had dragged to the scaffold.--This was an made; he did not bring back and replant unpardonable offence in the eyes of the the curses, which the Republicans had friends of freedom; and would have been rooted out: France, under him, was much atoned for by nothing short of his employ-happier than France was before the revoing his power to the general benefit of man-lution. But, the lovers of freedom put kind. But, to himself, the consequence of great means into his hands; he had a mind this vanity of his has been ruin. For, if he calculated to give effect to those means; had been possessed with no such vanity; if he did, for a while, employ them well; he had even been resolved to be an Empe-but, being seized with the vanity of being ror, or a King, without this alliance, he a king, and with that most abominable Q exercise of his power, may be disposed to consent to a divorce of this daughter of Austria from a man, who was married at the time of his second nuptials. It is said, that the "Empress, Queen and Regent," has retired with him; but, I much question whether her father will suffer her to remain in that retirement. If he had been disposed to consider Napoleon and his child as part of his family, he would not have consented to his dethronement; and, therefore, as I observed, some time ago, this consent seems to forebode a divorce. itch of being a papa and leaving a son, de- | head the French people severed from her scended from a mother of the old Royal body. But, he may be deprived even of race, he, from that moment, wholly aban-this; for, the Pope, being restored to a free doned the good cause, and laid the foundation of what has now come to pass.When he received the notice from the Emperors of Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia to quit France, I dare say it occurred to him, that it would not have happened thus, if he had done what he might so easily have done after the battles of Austerlitz, Eylau, and Jena. If he had done then what he might have done; what he had the power to do; what the French nation wished him to do; what his principles at the out-set would have dictated to him; he would never have seen these so- Now, as to the probable effects of this vereigns at Paris at the head of victorious great event, as far as relates to France, in armies. His vanity; his paltry vanity; all likelihood, the ancient regime, with his most nauseous vanity; his desire to con- some exceptions, will be re-established. nect himself by marriage with the old To believe that a free government will be Royal race, and, in order to secure a suc-established in France, under such auspices, cession to his throne, to make common cause with that race as towards the people; this it was that prevented him from using his power in that way, which alone could give security to his own authority. He might have been even an Emperor, if his vanity, the nonsensical vanity, of allying himself with the old Royal race had not seized him. But, it seems, that, having risen to an imperial crown himself, he did not think proper to raise others, his former equals, to royal dignities, except his own brothers and relations. He wanted a part, at least, and the main part, of the old Royal race to remain in power, that he might have the glory of being allied to it by the "tender ties," as the Moniteur used to call it; and this stopped him in the execution of those acts, which alone could, for any length of time, secure him upon his throne. would be foolish; but, it will be impossible to make the government what it was before. The nobility, the clergy, all that is left alive of the old school, will go back; but, the seigneurial and provincal courts and parliaments; the game laws of Capitainines, the gabelles, the gabellas, the corvées, and the hellish lettres de cachet, cannot be revived without a long and bloody civil war. The restoration of the property of the landed church may, in part, take place; but I question whether the restoration of tithes will be attempted, So that, even without any constitution; even without the positive and direct.recognition of any one principle of liberty, the people of France will have been great gainers by their revolution; and those, who are now alive, will owe great gratitude to those who have shed their blood in the -This is the cause of his fall. His fall obtaining and securing of this better state is the fruit of his vanity; and, to indulge of things. We shall see, by and by, what that vanity, he was led to betray the cause will be dope; but, without waiting to of freedom; to misuse the power which know any t thing about the designs of the the friends of freedom had put into his King France, we may venture to prehands; to put off, perhaps, for the life of diet, and almost to assert, that what will man, the benefits which might have pro- have been gained by the people, will be ceeded from his acting upon the principles found to be worth more than all the sacriof those from whom he derived his power. fices that they have made, great as those -He may now, in the Island of Elba, sacrifices have undoubtedly been. There or in whatever other hidden corner of the may be men to counsel vindictive measures; earth he may be suffered to exist, enjoy but they cannot punish a whole nation. the thought of being allied by the "tender The new government will not want a civil ties" to his august father-in-law, the Em-war to begin with. It will want, for a peror of Germany; the thought of having mixed his blood with that of Maria Theresa; the thought of having in his arms a niece of the Royal Marie Antoinette, whose time at least, peace and the good will of the great mass of the people. It will have a fighting people to deal with. It cannot get rid of them. It cannot keep them in subjection against their will; and, there- | but, though in a state of internal distracfore, it must conciliate: it must not suffer tion; though the people hardly knew who the people to regret the fall of Napoleon. were their rulers, or from whom they reThis is a great point to keep in view.ceived their orders; France then did not, For, let the reader observe, that every pro- like Napoleon, fill proclamations with pro. position for the destruction of bribery and fessions of a desire for peace; but, on the corruption will be now met with a remark, contrary, proclaimed death to the first man that we ought to look at the example of who should be base enough to propose to France. So that, it will be of the first, of treat with any power, so long as that power the very first importance, for us to mark dared to keep a single soldier on the soil of with great care what that example really France. This was the language of the Redoes tell us. The Revolution is now end-publicans of France, who rushed forth ed: the "drama is closed:" and, though against their invaders, who drove them it has not closed in the way that the Repub- from their soil, or buried them beneath it; licans in France must have wished, we who pursued them; who punished them, must take care to note, very carefully, and who made some of them, on their own what difference there is between the state soil, sue for peace at the hands of those of things about to take place, and the state whose liberties they had attacked, and of things before the revolution; and, if we whose principles and persons they had find, that the people of France have been treated with disdain. This ending of the bettered upon the whole; if we find them drama, therefore, only tends to confirm better at the end than they were at the be- the doctrine, that liberty, besides being ginning, their example, at any rate, will the greatest of civil blessings, is the only be no very sound argument, why we should infallible defence of nations. The triumph not, especially when all danger from with-is the triumph of republicans, indeed; for, out is removed, coolly, peaceably, and con- it was not, 'till the banners of republicanism stitutionally demand our rights.- -Before ceased to be displayed, that defeat attended I proceed to remark upon the effects which the Arms of France, It is not the "child the fall of Napoleon will be likely to pro-and champion" of Jacobinism who has duce in this country, I must stop, a mo- fallen; it is an Emperor and King; it is a ment, to observe, that this close of the son-in-law of the ancient House of Austria; drama leaves the friends of freedom nothing it is a man, who, after having betrayed the to be ashamed of. Napoleon was an Em- cause of liberty, treated the people with peror and King; the son-in-law of an Em- contempt. I do not say, that this is the peror; allied by marriage to several royal best termination that could have happened families; the founder, not of free consti- to the contest; but certainly it is the setutions, but of despotic governments. He cond best; for, to have left Napoleon with destroyed the Inquisition; he destroyed the a moderate degree of power, would have temporal powers of the Pope; he did much been a million times worse than the restogood, but he was first a traitor to, and then ration of the Bourbons, even with the old the foe of, freedom. It is not a First Consul, regime along with them.--But, what it is not a republican chief, but it is an Em- is much more interesting to us than every peror and King who has fallen. While the thing else is, the effect that this great event banners of freedom waved over his head, will have upon ourselves. It has been renothing could resist him and his armies. marked, that this event, which, for so many France was invaded before, and by the years, has been wished for with as much very same enemies who have invaded her impatience as the bridegroom wishes for now. She now has had all Europe to con- the wedding day, has not produced so tend against, and so she had before; but, much exultation as a little victory in Spain, in 1792, she was urged on by the genius and not a tenth part so much as Napoof freedom, and now she was led forth by leon's retreat from Moscow.--Some an Emperor and King, the son-in-law of have supposed, that the joy of the nation the Royal House of Austria.--Those, is too great for utterance; but, the fact is, therefore, who contend, that it is freedom that those, who have been accustomed to which alone is capable of securing the in-be the loudest in their rejoicings at victodependence of nations, will find in the his-ries as being the food or fuel of war, have tory of the French revolution the proof of the truth of their doctrine. France was invaded before; she was actually invaded by Austria, Prussia, England, and Holland; very different feelings at an event, which must of necessity produce a cessation of war and of their gains. This is the true cause of their arently unaccountable chagrin; and, let who will remark well the ptrive to make us believe, that it was ne operations upon this occasion, he will find,cessary for us to pay them, in order to be that the demonstrations of joy will be protected against him, it was all they mixed with a gloom, which no such de- wanted. Their wishes did not extend to monstrations ever were before.To the rooting up of the tree: they only those, who live by the arts of peace; to wanted to continue to gather and eat the those who place their dependence upon the fruit.They console themselves now fruits of their talents and industry; to with the hope, that still a large naval and those who have derived, neither directly military force will be kept up. For nor indirectly, any benefit from the war, WHAT? Who are we afraid of now? this event, as far as relates to their private What pretext is there now, or can there interests, at least, must be greatly benefi-be invented, for keeping up such a force ? cial. But, to those, who, whether as offi- And, this is one of the great advantages of cers of the army or navy; as contractors, the dethronement of Napoleon. For, if commissaries, pursers, paymasters, store- he had been left in power, however closeship and transport owners, biscuit bakers, ly his nails might have been pared, there great-coatmen, army taylors, district and would never, with all these great interests staff commanders, inspecting field officers, at work, have been wanting a pretext for surgeons of the army and navy, doctors a vast military and naval expenditure, and and proctors, dock-yard people, commis- for barracks, depots, and military colleges sioners, or as any out of all the endless re-all over the country; aye, and for district tinue of war; to all these and their rela- and staff commands, and inspectorships, tions, on whom they depend; to all these and local militia, and the like. But now', classes, forming no inconsiderable part of there can be no pretext. We have got 'the whole nation, this event has been a rid of the scare-crow; the hob-gobling is. stroke of thunder-The fact is, that the go-gone; the political and military Devil is vernment has now the distributing of about annihilated; and, what is more, we have 60 or 70 millions a-year on account of the restored in France precisely that order of war, or money to 700,000 persons at an things, which we always professed to seek average of 100l. a-year! Let any one ima- for, as the sure and certain means of lasting gine, then, with what feelings these, the peace.---So that from their carriages these most loyal part of the nation, will contem- gentry must descend. We, who sought for plate the change about to take place. They peace, shall have our wish. We thought rejoiced very sincerely at victories over that peace might be safely made with NapoNapoleon; but, it was because those vic-leon. We were called Jacobins for that opi tories kept up the spirit of the people, and nion; but, at any rate, we shall now have countenanced the continuation of the war. peace. This peace, and especially in the way He was their political Satan, but they did that it will come, will produce a change in not wish to see him destroyed. His de- England almost worthy of the name of a restruction is to them similar to what the volution. The 50,000 poor souls, who have ministers of the Gospel would experience, so long been cooped up in our prisons, will if my worthy, though unbelieving friend, again see their fine country, and will leave Mr. FORDHAM, were to succeed in making all their keepers, their commissaries, their us participate in his disbelief of the exist-clerks, their beef and bread (I have a bit ence of the Devil. The fishermen of of the latter that I shall keep) contractors; Newfoundland, when I have partaken in all their turnip and potatoe contractors; all their convivial meetings, always, as the the swarm that lived in guarding and supfirst toast, gave the PorE;" and, upon plying them; all these worthy gentlemen the same principle, I have no doubt, that they will leave to cultivate the arts of peace, Napoleon has been frequently toasted by to sell beef and bread to their neighbours, army and navy contractors. The race, of and to be employed by those who may which I am speaking, cried out most bit-stand in need of the services of such perterly against Napoleon. They called him sons. That immense town of Portsmouth, all manner of vile names. He was a murderer, a monster, a very devil incarnate; but, this was to prevent us from making peace with him. That was all. They did not want him destroyed. As long as they could keep the people in alarm at him; as long as they could, by any means, con and that other immense town of Plymouth, together with Chatham and others, will now be relieved from the press that annoy them. The loyal people of those places, who have built such fine streets for the reception of new comers, will now be able to give proofs of their public spirit and gra |
