Russian armies, burn, pillage, and destroy the ancient Russian capital*.

He would then have seen this same being, against whom personally earthly power appeared as if it could oppose no obstacle, sink, like snow before the sun ; and his conquering thousandshis invincible troops, of whom he had so loudly boasted-driven before the snow and Cossacks, the instruments of Heaven, like chaff before the wind: the finest, best disciplined, and highest appointed army that ever the world afforded, beat, dispersed, nay annihilated, by raw, undisciplined, and almost savage troops; and that in less than two short months †.-Sic transit gloria mundi.

He would have seen this mighty man, who had

*September 14th, 1812.

Extract from the 29th bulletin of the Russian campaign. "Our cavalry was dismounted to such a degree, that it was necessary to collect the officers who had still a horse remaining, in order to form four companies of 150 men each.

"The generals there performed the functions of captains, and the colonels those of subalterns. This sacred squadron, commanded by General Grouchy, and under the orders of the King of Naples, did not lose sight of the Emperor in all these movements. The health of his Majesty was never better."

Moniteur, December 17th, 1812.

been sixteen years extending his gigantic power, who had taken possession of most of the capitals of the continent of Europe as a conqueror, and had pillaged them of the choicest of the works of art and genius, to enrich Paris, which he declared should be thenceforth the emporium of the arts, the city of opulence and philosophy, and where the world should hereafter study them, instead of Florence or Rome: He would have seen this man in little more than sixteen months, driven nearly from one extremity of Europe to the other, chiefly by Cossacks and militia, or new raised troops; beat successively in as many battles as he before had gained, obliged to abdicate his throne, and yield up Paris to the conquerors *.

He would have seen two of his brothers, that he had made kings, dethroned and exiled; his brother-in-law dethroned and shot; his sisters, whom he had made queens and princesses, exiled and despised; his Empress and son sepa. rated from him; and the Empress deprived of her dignity, to which her own father was a party; a king, humbled to the dust, and who had long been obliged to subsist on the bounty of a nation ever looked upon as inimical to his family and nation, raised again to the throne, after an

* April 6th, 1814.

exile of 22 years; and that same king, before he was well invested with the royal sceptre, driven again into exile, deserted by his army, his court, and subjects.

He would have seen the same Corsican gentleman, who had before so often astonished the world, with a few followers, from a single vessel, which had escaped the vigilance of his keepers, land on the extremity of a large empire, * in the face of the army, the constituted authorities, and the guarantee of the principal powers of Europe; quietly proceed, without a shot being fired, and take possession of the capital and throne, re-assuming the reins of government, and directing all the energies of the empire as quietly, and with as much facility, as if he had never quitted them.

He would further have seen this same man, who for so long a time had been in the habit of deciding the fate of the greatest empire in a single campaign, once more have the tide of victory turn against him; and in three days fighting, and one grand pitched battle, lose, not only a fine, a gallant, and highly appointed army, but his capital and crown; the conquerors marching in sixteen days from Brussels to Paris†.

* Napoleon landed at Frejus, March 3rd, 1815. + Battle of Waterloo, 18th June, 1815, and capitulation of Paris July 3rd, following.

He would thus have seen the idea of Lord Hawkesbury and the threat of the Duke of Brunswick, which had been so much laughed at by the world, twice realised in the short space of 16 months and the King, who had fled in March, deserted by his subjects, reinstated on his throne in July, after an absence of 16 weeks, by a combination of sovereigns.

He would have seen Paris, Vienna, Moscow, Warsaw, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, Copenhagen, Naples, Dresden, Amsterdam, Brussels, nay the capitals of every Christian country throughout the world, excepting those of Great Britain and Sweden, taken possession of by their enemies, or laid under contributions.

He would have seen the British empire, after quietly submitting for 22 years to unexampled contributions, stigmatized as disloyal and disaffected, and on that score the grand bulwark of its liberties suspended; and he would have seen that measure scarcely effected, when, on the death of the amiable Princess Charlotte of Wales, such general, unaffected, unprecedented grief was evinced, as completely falsified the infamous assertion of the disloyalty of the people.

He would have seen three kingdoms, Spain, Naples, and Portugal, in the space of six months emancipated from the galling chains of despotism. and bigotry, by means of their respective armies,

and enjoying limited monarchies and representative governments.

And had the reverend gentleman sought for that grand cause which effected (if not all) the greater part of the most wonderful of these mighty events, he might have traced it to that inherent love of liberty, that national anxiety for the rational enjoyment of life, which appertains to all human beings, according to their various religious tenets, climates, soils, and political associations. The love of glory, and a high sense of military honour, may effect wonders, under such leaders as an Alexander, or a Cæsar, or a Frederick, a Charles of Sweden, or a Napoleon: under them, men, as machines, are brought to the highest perfection to which human military mechanism can arrive: but when every individual is to act a hero's part; when the broken ranks display enraged warriors, instead of disheartened fugitives; then must the cause of the state be the cause of the individual; not as a hireling, but as a principal.

It was this stimulus which caused the French armies, at the commencement of the Revolution, to defy the united efforts of the veteran armies of Europe; and, added to this stimulus, the promises they held out to other nations to emancipate them from slavery, afterwards, under Buonaparte, facilitated their road to conquest: