that the Bourbons should be welcome, previous to the revolution, the property guests in France, because their presence of the Crown, the Noblesse, and the there menaced the whole nation with ruin. Church, the exceptions being so insignifiThe people of England, many of whom cant as to be almost unworthy of notice. are now for rushing headlong into a war We seem to have forgotten, that all the for the purpose of again restoring you by property of the crown: all the property force of arms, know though they appear of the Church, even to the very Churches determined not to know,any thing of this, and Church Yards in many cases; and the greatest of all the obstacles to the a great part of the property of the Nosuccess of such a project. Nor is this so blesse, was confiscated, and was sold to very wonderful, when there have been individuals. We seem to have forgotten, found the means of persuading you, that that the houses and land of the whole it was practible. The truth is, that, country thus came into the hands of new where powerful interests are opposed to owners, and that the land was sold in such reason, though the latter be clear as the small parcels and under such circumstannoon-day Sun, the former generally pre- ces so very advantageous to the purchavail in deciding men's opinions. It is, sers, that a great part of the labouring men therefore, not at all surprising, that the became proprietors of land. We seem to Noblesse of France should still have be- have forgotten, that the titles to these Jeived, that the people of that great coun- innumerable estates rest solely upon the try were to be brought, if not to submit legality of the sales and upon the due to their former vassalage, at least, to yield execution of the laws passed by the Natiup their estates. They will, I dare say, onal Assemblies and by Napoleon and like the STUARTS, live along, generation his Legislative Bodies. We seem to have after generation, in the indulgence of this forgotten, that to call the legality of these ridiculous belief; but, I am persuaded, acts in question is to shake the titles of that it will soon be discovered by the the whole of these proprietors. people of England, and especially by the great holders of our Funded Debt, that their fortunes ought not to be expended in so foolish and so wicked an adventure. When the powerful class, to whom I have last more particularly alluded, shall have brought to their aid in this discussion, not philanthrophy, not humanity, for, though natives of their boscms, they are discarded in a question of war or peace with France; but, when they shall have brought to their aid that common sense, unclouded by passion, which is their guide in their private concerns, they will perceive that another war for the purpose of placing the Bourbons upon the throne of France is an undertaking, which, as long as the possesion of property is desirable amongst men, can never succeed. We have been so long accustomed to talk about Napoleon only as the obstacle to the restoration of your family; we have spent so many years in invective against him and his revolutionary predecessors in power, that, at last, we seem to have wholly overlooked what has been going on in the interior of France. We seem to have forgoten, and we may be well excused for it seeing that you and your advisers appear to have forgotten it also; we seem to have forgotten, that the whole of the houses aud lands of Frauce, were, If we had not compleatly forgotten all these things, we should not have been surprized, that the people were alarmed at seeing you begin dating your official acts in the NINETEENTH year of your reign, thereby clearly declaring by implication, that all the laws passed since the death of your brother were in fact, null and void, whenever you chose to declare them null and void. We should not have been surprized at the suspicions excited by the conduct of the Clergy, some of whom talked of refusing absolution to persons who had purchased Church property. We should not have been surprized at the general indignation arising from the dismissing of men from public employments because they or their relations held property formerly belonging to the Crown, the Church, or the Noblesse, or from the shutting out from the officers of the army all those against whom existed similar objections. We should not have been surprized at the general alarm and out-cry against the act for restoring, directly and as matter of right, to the Noblesse, all that part of this property not yet sold by the nation, and which struck, at once, at the root of all the titles of the property which had bec sold. We should not not have been surprized at short, we should not have been at all sur in prized at the return and at the cordial | precisely the same basis as your right to and joyful reception of Napoleon, whose your crown. You were very careful not very presence put an end to all these to acknowledge, that you owed your alarms and terrors which your restoration crown to the people. Setting aside the and the subsequent measures of your compliment to our Prince Regent, your government had spread through every de-declarations bore, that you derived your partment and parish in France. crown from your ancestors and from Divine Providence; and, accordingly, you dated the commencement of your reign from the day of the death of your predecessor in the line of kings. Now, if what had passed, during the last twenty five years had, in no degree, impaired your rights, it was impossible that it could have impaired the rights of the Clergy and the Noblesse, which were as ancient and as sacred as yours. Even if one could possibly suppose, that a whole nation would be indifferent to the security of their property, the idea of the return of that property to its ancient owners must have given rise to the horrid apprehension of a return of all the ancient oppressions of the Feudal System, under which the people of that fine country were wretched slaves. If the estates returned, the seigneuries would have returned; for, such things If, in spite of the fair claim that these are never done by halves. Indeed, the two orders had upon you; if you, firmly power which was found sufficient to dis-seated yourself, had disregarded these possess people of their landed property would have been more than sufficient for every other purpose. And, when we know, that the Feudal System sent thou sands of persons annually to the Galley! for offences now unknown to France; when we know that the petit Seigneurs were, in many instances, judges as well as accusers; that the litigations and vex-LOUIS XVI had any RIGHT to accept ations arising from their multifarious jurisdictions were endless; that justice was almost openly bought and sold in their barbarous courts; and that, in many cases, their power extended to the taking away of life itself. When we know all this, can we be surprized, that the people of France trembled at the sound of any name connected with the recollection of the Ancient Regime? It is not my design to insinuate, that any blame rests on you for any of the causes to which I ascribe your expulsion. I really do not blame you for any part of them. If there were some things done contrary to your promise, it was evident to me, that you were unable to fulfil your promise. And, if your Government was taking great strides towards the restoration of the Noblesse and the Clergy in the possession of their property, it is very clear, that you had not the power to prevent it; and, indeed (promises out of the question), that you were bound to effect such restoration, or to risk, at least, your crown in the attempt. The right of the Noblesse and of the Clergy to their estates, to their privileges and to all the feudal powers attached to their titles and domains rested upon companions of your exile, or had pleaded the public good for the abandonment of those who had been proscribed along with yourself, they might, and they, doubtless, would, have reminded you of your protest, dated from Coblentz, in 1791, in which you, and the other Princes of the Blood DENIED that a Constitution which gave up the rights of the Clergy and the Noblesse; that gave up any of their rights, their tythes, their church-lands, or their feudal titles, privileges, or powers. These two Orders, therefore, might with perfect consistency, have charged you with having violated your pledge to them, even as things stood; and, at any rate, they had a right to demand of you to do every thing in your power to smooth the way for their restoration, your own having been effected. To have done less than you did, must have exposed you to the execration of these Orders and to the contempt of mankind; and yet you did a great deal too much to make your reign bearable to the people of France. Thus, Sir, in the best defence of your conduct, is found the proof that it was impossible for you to reign in France, and also the proof, that your family never can, except for a short time, and that, too, by the aid of a foreign force, reign in that country. The present French are not only unlike the French of 1787,but they are precisely the opposite. They are of a new character. Their manners, their habits, their minds, all are changed. They never received you back. You * were put upon the throne while a foreign force was stationed in the capital; and, the moment they, had an opportunity they expelled you. If, however, there could have been any doubts upon this subject before, there can be none now. If there were any persons weak enough. to believe, that it was possible for you to return without the Noblesse and the Clergy, that belief must now be at an end; and, therefore, it appears very clear to me, that any war, which shall have your restoration, or that of any part of your family, in view, can produce nothing but misery, a waste of money and a waste of lives. it was before. The principles they have DIEPPE to MONTPELLIER 66 " From says 66 we saw not one of. those poor famished looking creatures, "who are to be seen in every parish, I "had almost said, on every farm, in 66 To make war upon France for the purpose of compelling her to change her rulers is, however, what, I imagine, no nation in Europe will be weak enough openly to avow. And yet, what other England." All, we are told, bears real object can a war against her the marks of morality, plenty, and haphave,if she forbears from new aggressions? piness; and, when he asked "what had Napoleon to all other traits of greatness" become of the old miscrable peasantry,” in his character has now added that he was told that they disappeared with which rarely falls to the lot of man, the fendal rights and the ancient regime. namely, to acknowledge his errors. He, This state of things, therefore; renders after being long borne on the wings of the example of France infinitely more military glory; after seeing every conti- formidable than ever to those, if there be nental sovereign at his feet, has returned any such, who are, for whatever reasons,to the dictates of moderation and to the afraid of the effects of that example. principles of freedom. The men, whom I am quite ready to acknowledge this; he has now called to his councils are the but, who will attempt to justify a war very men, or the survivors of them, at against France, lest the contagion of her least, who founded the Republic; who principles; lest the contagion of her freebuilt all government upon the sovereignty dom and her happiness should extend~ of the people; who declared that rulers itself beyond her geographical limits? were made for nations, and not nations for years past we are told, by those who for rulers; who insisted, that all taxes had contended for war against her prinwere robberies, unless proceeding from ciples, that now her principles were no the people's consent, and who rejected longer to Le dreaded, sceing that the with indignation the doctrine, that birth | result of them was carnage and misery. without merit constituted a claine to But, no sooner do events crable us to superiority, except for the sake of these for ourselves than we find, that, public good hereditary succession was thought necessary to the chief of the state. These were the principles of the . constitution which your unfortunate brother accepted. And these are the principles upon which Napóleom now reigns. As in 1792,he disavows,in the most explicit manner, all views of foreign conquest, unless first attacked. I would hope, for the sake of my country, that another erusade against Jacobinism is not now about to begin and yet, I must say, that I fear. If it is to be begut, however, the cause of the crusaders is far more hopeless than while she was carrying her victorious arms to every capital on the continent, she was flourishing at home amidst the the improving arts of peace. facts, which will daily become more In these and more notorious, wider and wider spread, there is, must confess, canse, and very ample cause; for fyrants to late France, and to wish to urge war against her to avoid a communication with her people. But, for that very reason it is the duty of every friends of freedom to endeavour to prevent such war. April, 4tu, 1815. I am, &c. &c. W. COBBETT. 86 of our not going to war with France, or in that country, if we should be so unwise as to renew the contest, and as it may be necessary to refer to it in future discussions, I have annex. ed a copy of it to this article. To me it appears to favour the doctrine of assassi nation; but I may be wrong in this opinion. Ministers have disclaimed this construction of it, and I am willing to give them credit for the disclaimation. In the Times and Courier, however, the writers of these detestable papers have the audacity to tell their readers, in direct opposition to the disavowal of ministers, that it was the intention of the Allies to give Napoleon up to the dagger of the assassin.Even so late as the 6th inst. the Courier speaks of the Declaration as a measure by which the sovereigns of Europe have Contrary to general expectation; contrary at least to the war-breathing and sanguinary wishes of the conductors of ourCossack newspapers; contrary to the views of the numerous herd of public contractors; contrary to the anxious desires of naval and military promotion hunters; but extremely consolatory to my mind, and, I trust, to the minds of all those who sincerely love their country, and wish the happiness of the human race; the Prince Regent's Message to Parliament is not a Declaration of War against France, either for the overthrow of Napoleon, or restoration of the Bourbons.-The following is a copy:-George P. R. The "Prince Regent, acting in the name and "on the behalf of his Majesty, thinks "it right to inform the House of Com put him (Napoleon) out of the pale of mons, that the events which have re- "the law, and SET A CAIN MARK UPON "cently occurred in France, in direct "HIM." No language can be plainer "contravention of the engagements con- than this. The denunciation upon Cain, "cluded with the Allied Powers, at Paris, the murderer of his brother, as recorded "in the month of April last, and which in the Bible, was, a fugitive and a va"threaten consequences highly dange- gabond shalt thou be on the earth;" rous to the tranquillity and independ- which Cain immediately interpreted thus, ence of Europe, have induced his "And it shall come to pass, that every Royal Highness to give directions for one that findeth me shall slay me.”"the augmentation of his Majesty's land It would seem, notwithstanding the atro"and sea forces.-The Prince Regent city which this man had been guilty of, "has likewise deemed it incumbent upon that it was not intended he should be put "him, to lose no time in entering into to death, without some form of law; "communications with his Majesty's Al- therefore a mark was put upon his forelies, for the purpose of forming such head, "lest any finding him should kill concert as may most effectually pro- "him." But the Courier tell us that the "Vide FOR THE GENERAL AND PER. allies have put Napoleon "out of the pale 66 MANENT SECURITY OF EUROPE." of the law"; which can have no other "And his Royal Highness confidently meaning than that he should be put to "relies on the support of the House of death without trial by any one who chooses "Commons, in all measures which may to become his assassin; and that there are "be necessary for the accomplishment of people ready to perform this very honora"this important object."-The effect ble deed, is pretty evident from the manwhich this moderate language has al- ner in which the doctrine of assassination ready had, upon our infamous newspaper is discussed in, what is called, the free press, forms, indeed, a striking contrast press of this virtuous, this moral, this to the outrageous abuse, with which it religious country.-Amongst the innumerhas teemed, ever since the return of Na-able falsehoods that have lately been propoleon, particularly since the famous declaration of the Allies of the 13th ult. which, from its extraordinary complexion, I was, at first, inclined to consider a forgery; but which, I am not sorry to find, was really put forth by the ministers of the crowned heads, assembled at Vienna. As the publication of this declaration is likely to produce some important changes at home, in the event 66 a pagated by the men of blood, to excite a new war against France, I am glad to find one of these pointedly contradicted by Ministers which encouraged the belief that "there was a secret article in the treaty of Paris, by which this country "became bound to support Louis XVIII, " in case of insurrection in France." This has been formally and officially con tradicted in both Houses of Parliament, They declare at the same time, that firmly resolved to maintain entire the Treaty of Paris of 30th May, 1814, and the dispositions sanctioned by that Treaty, and those which they have resolved on, or shall hereafter resolve on, to complete and to consolidate it, they will employ all their means, and will unite all their efforts; that the general peace, the object of the wishes of Europe, and the constant purpose of their labours, may not again be troubled; and to guarantee against every attempt which shall threaten to replunge the world into the disorders and miseries of revolutions. And although entirely persuaded that all France, rallying round its legitimate Sovereign, will immediately annihilate this last at tempt of a criminal and impotent delirium; all the Sovereigns of Europe animated by the same sentiments, and guid What then can those advocates for perpetual war now say, when they find their favourite project a civil war," an insurrection against Napoleon's Government, so soon blown into air? One would have thought that the misérable termination of the La Vendee war in 1792 would have taught these men the folly of relying on so rotten a foundation. We are every day told that Napoleon is a monster and a despot, and that he cares no more for the people of France than to make them the tools to serve his private ends, and promote his ambitious projects. But let those who hold him up in this light, recollect the magnanimity of his conduct, when he abdicated the throne of France, and consented to be an exile, rather than allow one drop of French blood to be shed for his personal rights. -Let them remember this itnparalleled instance of magnanimity, and let themed by the same principles, declare that if, compare it with their own endeavours to create a civil war in France, in support of an unnatural claim to the crown against the unanimous suffrage of the whole people. If they are capable at all of feeling repugnance, for error, this comparison would make them blush for their infamous conduct, and hide their heads in silence for ever." DECLARATION. The Powers who have signed the Treaty of Paris, assembled at the Congress at Vienna, being informed of the escape of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, and of his entrance into France with an arined force, owe it to their own dignity and the interest of social order, to make a solemn declaration of ther sentiments which this event has excited in them: By thus breaking the convention which has established him in the island of Elba; Bonaparte destroys the only legal title on which his existence dependedby appearing again in France with projects of confusion and disorder, he has deprived himself of the protection of the lay, and bas manifested to the universe, that there can be neither peace nor truce with him. The Powers consequently declare, that Napoleon Bonaparte has placed himself without the pale of civil and social relations; and that as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world he has rendered bimself liable to public vengeance. contrary to all calculations, there should result from this event any real danger, they will be ready to give to the King of France, and to the French nation, or to any other Government that shall be at tacked, as soon as they shall be called upon, all the assistance requisite to restore public tranquillity, and to make a common cause against all those who should undertake to compromise it. The present Declaration inserted in the Register of the Congress assembled at Vienna, on the 13th March, 1815, shall be made public. Done and attested by the Plenipotentiaries of the High Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris, Vienna, 13th March, 1815. |