In this address, and indeed in the whole tenour of Lewis's conduct towards Holland, as was acknowledged by the Dutch themselves, we recognize moral sentiments the very reverse of those of his eldest brother: a sympathy with the human race, and a lively regard to their sympathy and approbation. Lewis shewed an excellent understanding too. He appeared in the light of both a good and a sensible man, struggling hard to do the best he could under untoward and adverse circumstances. Yet he cannot on any account be considered as a great man. He had become the instrument of a tyrant in subverting the constitution of the country, and establishing a form of government inconsistent with the habits, and repugnant to the opinions of the inhabitants. He lamented, and endeavoured to relax the restrictions on trade prescribed by Napoleon. He had assisted in wresting from the Dutch a much more valuable possession than ever they obtained, or, could obtain by their commerce; which could neither restore liberty lost, nor, it may be unfortunately added, go hand in hand for any great length of time with its existence. It is melancholy to observe, how feeble the impulse of patriotism has been in every coun

* Cadiz, once an independent republic.

try where the mercantile spirit has predominated, from the times of Tyre, Carthage, and Gadez,* to those of Genoa, Leghorn, and Amsterdam.†

Lewis Buonaparte would have had a far juster claim to approbation and applause if he had refused to accept the crown of Holland. Yet he does not, in his farewell address, express the smallest compunction for that act of his life. On the contrary, in that last official document he seems rather to exhibit himself in the character of an unfortunate and injured monarch; and in this, as in all his preceding state papers, he makes constant use of the possessive pronoun my-my people; which, however allowable in a lawful king, is altogether disgusting in an upstart usurper.-How much more noble, lofty, and truly great was the conduct of Lucien ! who, after repeatedly refusing to accept proffered crowns, withdrew from the tyranny of a despot, though his brother, to breathe the air of liberty, banished from the continent of Europe, to the great isle of Britain, where he was previously assured of the protection of government.

It was not the wish nor the policy of Buonaparte to deprive his brother of the regal state to which he had raised him, if he could have made him subservient to his darling passion for ruining the commerce of England, or have obtained what he called a maritime peace, by the revocation of the English orders in council. Lewis, after many conferences with Napoleon at Paris, during a residence there for six weeks, reported to his ministers, by orders from the Emperor, that there could no longer be any independence or national existence for Holland, if there should be any continuation of a maritime war with Great Britain. But the annexation of Holland, which would be so great an extension of seacoast to France, must naturally be an object of alarm to the British government: it was therefore possible, that the cabinet of London, rather than suffer so fatal a stroke, might be induced to make peace with France, or to change the measures it had adopted respecting commerce and the navigation of neutral states. He therefore directed them to send some discreet person, acquainted with the nature of commerce, to England, to represent to the ministry how advantageous the independence of Holland must be to Great Britain, On this mission Mynheer Peter Cæsar Labouchere was sent, on the 2d of February. Having arrived in London on the 10th, he had several conferences with the Marquis Wellesley. The whole communication was merely verbal. The marquis expressed his sorrow at the aggressions to which Holland was a prey; "but," said the marquis, we must not sacrifice our own

national interests and honour. The commercial war was provoked by the French Emperor himself. The orders in council were not the cause, but the consequence of the decrees of Berlin and Milan. The decrees of France were still in force. It could not be expected that we should relax in our efforts in self-defence."

In another conference with Mynheer Labouchere, Lord Wellesley observed, that it would not be convenient for England to admit in principle that the British measures of reprisals should be discontinued as soon as the cause that provoked them should be removed. "In fact," said Labouchere," this minister thinks very highly of the orders in council, as tending to weaken the means and force of France. No hopes of a change or relaxation in this system, but in a change of ministry. Attempts on the part of hostile nations to bring back the English government to other ideas, would probably have the contrary effect.*"

It is not improbable that Buonaparte, on this last point, was of the same opinion. But it formed a part of his policy to affect an earnest desire of peace. In his message to the Conservative Senate, dated Thuilleries, December 10, 1810, in which he states his reasons for annexing Holland and other countries beyond it to France, he mentions this fruitless mission of the Dutchman to London; and also says, that he had been disappointed in his hope to establish a cartel for the exchange of prisoners between France and England. The

British

British government was extremely desirous of making an exchange of prisoners, on the principle of man for man, and rank for rank. But nothing could induce Buonaparte to consent to this on any reasonable terms. * Buonaparte proposed to exchange French prisoners, English, Spaniards, and Portuguese. Our government was willing to exchange Frenchmen for Englishmen as long as we had a Frenchman to give up; and then, when this account should be balanced, to give up French men, if any remained in our hands, for the liberation of our allies.

an

The Emperor told the Senate, that the English orders in council of 1806 and 1807, had torn in pieces the public law of Europe. A new order of affairs governed the world. New securities had become necessary. The annexation of the mouths of the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Rhine, the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe, to France, and the establishment of internal navigation between France and the Baltic; on which, as was observed on another occasion, to rest the right wing of his immense empire. As to the abdication of Lewis in favour of his children, it was considered as of no validity, not having been previously concerted with the Emperor. A navigation to be established by means of a canal between the Baltic and the Seine, to be completed in the space of five years. These were the first

and most important securities or guarantees to which recourse had been had in consequence of the English orders in council.-The Valais, the passage of the Alps by the mountain of Simplon, a road through which had been carried on for ten years, a measure so useful both to France and Italy, was united to the French empire. His finances, he said, were in the most flourishing state. He was not under any necessity of calling on his people for any new sacrifices for the support of his immense empire.

In the report of the minister of foreign relations, that preceded this imperial message to the senate, it was emphatically observed, that all the territories between the Elbe and the Ems, were already subjected to the domination of his imperial majesty.† And so they were: for French armies, attended by crowds of custom-house officers, spread themselves over the whole maritime coast of Gerinany, and partly of Poland.

The Count of Semonville, who brought up the report of the Senatus Consultum for the annexation of Holland, the Hanse Towns, and the Valais, to France, said, "At length, after a struggle, glorious for France, of ten years, the most extraordinary genius that ever Nature in her munificence produced, had re-united, and held in his triumphant hands, the scattered wrecks of the empire of Charlemagne." For recruiting the French armies, 120,000 of the con

scripts scripts of 1811 were placed at the disposal of the minister of war. For recruiting the naval force, it was decreed that the maritime departments should each year furnish a certain number of young mariners, from the age of twelve to sixteen; at which time of life they could be trained up for sea affairs with greater advantage than at a later period.

The Count de Lacepede, on bringing up the report to the senate of the Senatus Consultum, for the disposal just mentioned of land conscripts, said, that "the new departments had acquired rights to contribute to the military conscription; and that consequently the contingent to be furnished by each department would be considerably less than it had been for some years. The departments or districts that were to furnish their quota of youths for the marine service, were exempted from the Jand conscription."

Amsterdam was to rank as the third city in the French empire. Paris was the first; the second Rome. In the annual statement presented to the Emperor for the year 1811, the whole population of the French empire, before the annexation of Rome, Holland, the Valais, and the Hanse Towns, amounted to 38,080,443 persons, without reckoning the military actually bearing arms. It was, after that annexation, computed at about 43,000,000.

The Electorate of Hanover was annexed to the kingdom of West

phalia. It was divided into three departments, and the name of Hanover abolished. The French conscription laws were also introduced into the kingdom of Naples. The conscription law was also introduced into that of Denmark. A corps of French marched to Lubeck. The peninsula of Jutland was completely isolated, and wholly at the mercy of France. By a royal decree, the Jews were to be included in all military levies in Denmark. A census was taken throughout the Grand Duchy of Warsaw; a prelude to the establishment of the conscription law in that country.

While Buonaparte amused the French with magnificent projects and promises, and a display of the extent and population of the empire, he was employed in rivetting their chains by improving his system of spying and imprisonment. It was that in Paris both men and maid servants should have their names registered in a book to be kept by the prefect of the police, and be ready to produce on demand a certificate of inscription. They were all of them, on their appearance at the office, to be provided with a character from some householder. The whole of the servants of the capital were thus so many tools that might be employed by the secret agents of the Emperor. By compelling the young men too to appear from time to time before the board of police, he might seize as many of them as he might choose for the army, or any other service. No man or woman was to keep a domestic not provided with a certificate of inscription. Strict orders were likewise issued by the prefect of the police to all keepers of inns, hotels, and lodginghouses, to keep registers of the names, qualities, common residence, outgoings and incomings of all persons passing the night in their houses. The names of, with particulars respecting such persons, to be written in close conti nuation to each other, without leaving any blanks, (which might leave room for interpolation) on paper stamped, and otherwise marked, and signed by the commissary of police of the division. The nature of all such houses as entertained or lodged people, was ordered to be inscribed in large characters on boards placed on the head of the door. All this was ordered under the pains and penalties denounced by the 475th article of the penal code - We have not seen this code; but we suppose the 475th article to be a

severe one.

By a decree of the 18th of August, no Englishman was suffered either to go out of France, or come to France, without a pass port signed by his own hand. Ships carrying Englishmen either to or from France, without such licence, to be forfeited; the captain to be hanged. A circular letter was sent to all the maritime prefects, to make a strict search after any persons that might be on board of ships coming in or going out of the ports of France, not mentioned in the ship's invoice. If any such persons should be found, they were im

mediately, whatever might be their native country, to be sent to Paris.

An imperial decree was issued in December for restraining the liberty of the press. In its provisions it was extremely minute; consisting of not fewer than fiftyone articles; among the most essential of which were the following:- Article 1. There shall be a director general, under the orders of the minister of the interior, charged with the superintendence of every thing relating to the printing and publication of books. Art. 2. The director general shall have the assistance of six auditors. From the first of January, 1811, the number of printers in each department shall be fixed, and that of the printers in Paris reduced to sixty. Art. 5. Printers sball receive warrants, and swear attachment to the country and loyalty to the sovereign. Art. 6. There shall be in Paris only four printing presses, and in each of the departments only two, Art. 10. It is prohibited to print, or cause to be printed, eny thing contrary to the duty which the subjects owe to the sovereign, or to the interests of the state. Transgressors of this law shall be brought before the imperial tribunals, and punished according to the penal code: this, however, without prejudice to the right of the minister of the interior, on the report of the director general, to deprive the offending printer of his warrant. Art. 12. The printer shall transmit to the director general of the printing and bookselling business, a copy of the manuscripts in his hands, and also one to the prefect of the department