on the contrary, at the mention of his name and his presence, he was received every where with acclamations and cries of Vive L'Empereur.

Marshal Ney and his small corps went over to him; Generals Drouet, Lallemand, and Lefebvre, finding resistance useless, gave him their support. On the 20th of March, at eight o'clock in the evening, he entered the capital. The following day he reviewed the army, thanked them for their zeal and fidelity, and then received the congratulations of his generals, of his ministers, his councillors of state, the magistracy, &c. &c. and announced the approaching return of the Empress.

On the opening of the assembly of representatives, on the 7th of June, he said, he was about to begin in Europe a constitutional monarchy. But the allies were very rapid in their movements; already they menaced the northern frontiers of France, and Bonaparte having collected an immense materiel, quitted Paris on the 12th of June, to meet and oppose their progress: he arrived, on the 13th, at Avesnes, on the 15th he forced the enemies' lines on the Sombre, and on the 16th he repulsed the Prussian army. On the 18th, the decisive battle of Waterloo was fought. He attacked the superior army of the Duke of Wellington on the heights; and it must be confessed that never was a contest conducted with more skill or determined bravery, and which, in its consequences, was of such moment. The issue decided the fate of Europe. The dispositions which he made for the onset were masterly, and a complete victory over Wellington was snatched from his hands by the arrival of two bodies of 60,000 Prussians, and by the treachery of Grouchy, who was connected with the party of his enemies. The struggle was long, obstinate, and bloody, but terminated by moonlight in the total rout of the French.

The bravest men of the French army fell in this action, the remainder were dispersed; so that of 95,000 men, not more than 45,000 afterwards reached Paris. Betrayed during the battle, and fearing domestic treasons, he instantly returned to the capital. The French people, soured by the result of this action, were disposed to withdraw their confidence, for they feared the introduction of the allied troops into the capital. Those who had been opposed to his return, stirred up his friends to urge him to abdicate

the throne. He consented at last, not without some difficulty, to this second abdication, taking care to provide for his interest in the empire, by proposing to abdicate in favour of the young Napoleon, under the title of Napoleon the Second.

He

Relying on the supposed liberal character of the British government, he proposed to deliver himself into their hands, conceiving that in England he should find an asylum worthy of him to receive, and of a liberal nation and powerful enemy to grant. It seems, however, that he was not quite determined afterwards upon the asylum he should seek, for he embarked at Rochefort with a view to emigrate to America; but learning that the English cruizers were on the alert, he hesitated, and, at length, made up his mind to put himself into the hands of the commander of one of the English ships. "I come," said he, on appearing before him," to deliver myself up to the most implacable, but, at the same time, the most generous, of my enemies.” was then conducted on board the Bellerophon man-of-war, where he was received with respect. He was very anxious to be permitted to land in England, and wrote a letter to the Prince Regent on the subject. The English ministers determined not to accede to his desire; and it was settled that he should be sent, for safe custody, to the island of St. Helena (which for a year before had been publicly named as his destination), there to be kept for the remainder of his life. To this arrangement the allied sovereigns consented. England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France, each sent a commissioner, and the governor specially appointed to guard him in that island was Sir Hudson Lowe; an officer who, during the previous campaign, had been employed as a sort of military secretary, following the Prussian army, to report, from time to time, to the British government.

On the generosity of this conduct to the fallen hero, it is not necessary to make any comment. Since his confinement in St. Helena, Napoleon has often remonstrated, but without effect, against the petty vexations, insults, and privations to which he has been exposed. He engaged himself in writing a history of his life, the ninth book of which has already been published, containing his own views of the events of the year 1815, with full details of

the

the battle of Waterloo, which delivered Europe into the hands of the combined legitimates.

Thus fell Napoleon le Grand-a man to whom history presents no resemblance; and who was the object either of the hopes and fears, the love and hatred, the admiration and envy, of all his contemporaries. Many of his friends wished, for the sake of his glory, that he had died on the day he entered Moscow; or, for the sake of his happiness, that he had been killed at Mont St. Jean; but in the inglorious triumph of his enemies he had an opportunity of perfecting the portrait of his character by his resignation in adversity, and by exhibiting the passive virtues just as in his former days he had displayed the heroic ones. He lived, too, in hope; for he well knew the feelings of the people of Europe relative to himself and his enemies, and he never ceased to believe that changes would take place in his favour. The scene is now closed -but we think he would not have been disappointed, had he lived a few years longer. The tears that have been shed by the brave and virtuous, in France, and other countries, on the occasion of his death, have indicated feelings which, in due time, would have been likely to restore him to society.

How short his career! It is but as yesterday since he first was heard of as the hopes of the republican cause in Italy-then in a sort of Egyptian and Syrian romance-afterwards as First Consul and Peace Maker-then as Emepror and King, resister of unjust aggressions, and master of Europe from Cadiz to Moscow, and from Hamburgh to Otranto-the episode of Elba followed, the glorious return to Paris, and its unfortunate issue! Yet, short as was the period in the eyes of contemporaries, he governed France 16 years, or four years longer than the reign of Alexander, and nine years longer than the dictatorship of Cæsar, periods which, though so short, make so conspicuous a figure in the history of the world.

The low insults and privations to which this illustrious man was subjected under the magnanimous regimen prescribed or permitted at St. Helena, are subjects on which, with all our liberty of the press, we forbear, from motives of prudence or delicacy, to enlarge. Attempts may be made to justify them, and it would be unfair to anticipate the defence. We do not hesitate to state,

for the honour of the age, however, that mankind in general have sympathized with the sufferer, and that the people of England have, at least, been greatly divided in their opinions. It is difficult, in thinking on this subject, not to recur to sop's admirable Fable of the Sick Lion kicked by the Assand this, we have little doubt, will be the mental association of all posterity.

The security of the peace of Europe is cantingly adduced in justification of these violations of hospitality-but, we ask, whose passions endangered that peace?-and we re-affirm, for the hundredth time, that if the treaty of Amiens had been respected, and if confederacy after confederacy had not been formed against him, Napoleon would have stedfastly employed himself through life in cultivating the arts of peace, and in rendering France the happiest country on earth. Such is the opinion of those who knew him best, confirmed by facts connected with the origin and termination of the wars in which he was engaged. To the bad faith, jealousy, prejudices, and odious passions of those who originated the wars against the French revolution, and every thing which sprung from it, are, in truth, to be ascribed all the horrors of the late wars; and against their errors, and not those of Napoleon, was security requisite.

At the same time we admit that Napoleon was dazzled by success and flattery, and in yielding to their seductions, he furnished another proof that unlimited power ought not to be trusted to fallible man, however good or wise. If a genuine representative system had existed in France, or if he could have suffered his government to be physicked even by over doses, of the liberty of the press, he would have been checked in his career of power, and would have been warned and instructed by the ob servations of bye-standers. The circumstances of the moment, perhaps, rendered a truly popular government dangerous, and the unceasing conspiracies of the continental' despots, rendered the press an available instrument of treason: besides, Napoleon was a man-a military man-habituated to undivided authority, and obliged during every hour of his reign to act on the defensive. Yet, under these circumstances, he formed and promulgated the FIVE CODES, which still continue the equitable and intelligible laws of France, and will in all ages serve as a monument

monument of his industry and wisdom. He likewise abolished, in all its ramifications, the feudal system-he established trial by jury-he abolished the slave trade-he created public works, which will perish only with the globe itself-he promoted manufactures, agriculture, and every species of useful industry-he cultivated the arts and sciences, and ennobled and dignified their professors-he patronised the fine arts with such unbounded liberality, as to render Paris the museum of the world-and, in fine, he restored religion, without its monkish austerities, and without debasing the people by gloomy superstitions, incompatible with personal happiness.

We have already stated more, perhaps, than the prejudices of the age in which we write may tolerate, particularly in a country which is suffering all the miseries of the damned, and writhing under a too-late repentance, as consequences of the wars so long waged against his success. But as we are speaking historically, and with some regard to our own fame, we are unwilling to succumb to prejudices, and compromise the truth. Against Napoleon's personal character we never heard any credible objection. The devotion, even to death, of all those who ever lived in contact with him, proves the unexceptionableness of his manners, the sincerity of his friendship, and the liberality of his heart. Not a week before the intelligence of his death reached Europe, the writer of this article, in a conversation with M. Talma, who possesses a mind which places him at the head of an intellectual profession, was assured by him that Napoleon exceeded most beings, as much_in_the good qualities of his heart as in his understanding, while he was the kindest and gentlest of men; “and," "added M. Talma," though in England he is considered as a hater of the English, yet I know the contrary, for I have often heard him speak in terms of the highest eulogy of the English people and character, and lament the public circumstances which placed him in a state of unceasing hostility with such a nation."

On the circumstances of his death we have not room to enlarge. It took place on the 5th of May last, after a severe illness of a few weeks. That he could not live in the climate of St. Helena, with certain tendencies to a

disease of the liver, has long been pro mulgated, and since reiterated by his generous and intelligent surgeon, Mr. O'MEARA, and had been announced in various ways to the world. His premature death in the prime of life is, therefore, (if those opinions were correct) a result which creates no surprise. His disease is reported to have been a cancer in the stomach, against which his habitual temperance might have been a security; but this affection is often a consequence of diseases in the adjoining viscera, and of such profound affliction of mind, as must have attended his years of rigorous captivity. In describing the causes of his death, an attempt has been made to prove too much, by stating that the disease was hereditary-but science has exposed this vulgar error, of which its propagators seem not to have been aware; and at present, doubts are raised by the unexplained circumstance, that his own physician did not sign the report of the military surgeons called in by the keeper. His last words were—" Mon fils," (my son), and he afterwards articulated, "Tete d'Armees" — and "France." His death-bed was cheered by the faithful solicitude of MARSHAL BERTRAND and his Lady, and by that of GENERAL MONTHOLON, and others, who were permitted to attend him in the Ostracism to which he had been subjected by the magnanimous powers of Europe.

In the career of his life, his actions were not less resplendent than those of Alexander or Cæsar-but in raising the military above the civil power, and himself over the state, he more nearly resembled the latter. He was, besides, a great statesman, and, as a conqueror, far more magnanimous than either of them-for he conquered many Dariuses only to restore their crowns, on the simple condition of keeping peaceand he never indulged in triumphs in which vanquished Kings were chained to his chariot wheels. In his death, his fate more nearly resembled that of Regulus than that of any great name on the historic page. Distracted by treasons and factions, and unwilling to involve his country in civil war, or to have blood shed on his personal account, he sought a peaceable exile in America-but this being denied him, he threw himself, like Regulus, or, as he then said, like Themistocles, on the magnanimity of his deadliest foes. The

sequel

sequel we leave to be applied by the reader, or by writers more remote from the errors and passions of the day.

No man ever lived whose story is in every way so well calculated" to adorn a moral and to point a tale." It will become a fruitful theme, not only for history and biography, as involving the revolutions and wars of every country in Europe, but as connected with the foundation of the kingships of Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, and Wirtemberg. It will also afford themes for the epic and the tragic muse; and interesting episodes

PROCEEDINGS OF

REPORT of the SELECT COMMITTEE of the HOUSE of COMMONS upon the Petition complaining of the distressed state of the Agriculture.

I

T is with deep regret that the Committee have to commence their report by stating that, in their judgment, the complaints of the petitioners are founded in fact, so far as they represent that at the present price of corn the returns to the occupier of an arable farm, after allowing for the interest of his investment, are by no means adequate to the charges and outgoings, of which a considerable proportion can be paid only out of the capitals, and not from the profits of the tenantry. This pressure upon the farmer is stated by some of the witnesses to have materially affected the retail business of shopkeepers in country towns connected with the agricultural districts. But notwithstanding this diminution of demand in particular parts of the country, it appears, by official returns, that the total consumption of the principal articles subject to duties of excise and customs have increased in the last year, compared with the average of the three preceding years; and also, that the quantity of cotton wool used for home consumption, and of cloth manufactured in Yorkshire, was greater last year than in the year preceding, although the exports of woollens in 1820 appears to have diminished. Your Committee have not the same authentic means of ascertaining the consumption of iron, but there appears every reason to believe that has also increased.

This revulsion is of the same nature as many which have occurred in different periods of our history, and the pressure has in many instances led to a diminution of rents. The Committee then offer some observations on the

for every species of literary composition. We hope, however, that the poet's license will not abuse the truth, and will not play the pander to successful and abused power; but will, by accurate discriminations, render genius subservient to the heroic virtues, and to the eternal sympathies of mankind in their

cause.

[It is so utterly impossible to do justice to this subject in a single article, that we propose to give place to a variety of detached anecdotes, facts, letters, &c. in an early Number.]

PUBLIC SOCIETIES.

effect of the derangement of the currency in deranging the markets, and express an opinion, that whatever may be the ultimate operation of the restor ation of the currency upon the nominal rental of the kingdom, there is no rea son to apprehend that the diminution can ultimately exceed that proportion of the increase which, during the war, grew out of the depreciated value of the currency. The Committee are also satisfied by the result of their inquiries, that, in the present year, the price of corn has been further depressed by the general abundance and good quality of the last harvest, in all articles of grain and pulse; more particularly in Ireland, in which part of the United Kingdom the preceding harvest of 1819, was also uncommonly productive. Several of the witnesses examined have stated their belief that the prices of grain have further been depressed, in the present year, by the very large importations of foreign corn which took place before the ports were closed in the month of February, 1819; but looking to the very high prices, and to the constant and brisk demand which prevailed in our markets so long as the ports continued open in 1817 and 1818, it may be inferred that the greatest part of those importations were necessary, and were disposed of during those years, to supply the daily wants of our consumption, and that it is therefore only in a remote degree that the present prices can be influenced by the occurrences of that period.

It can scarcely be necessary to remark, that the growth of wheat has been greatly extended and improved of late years, in the United Kingdom, but principally in Ireland, since 1807.

The Committee then proceed to state, that it is their opinion, the annual Luce

duce of corn, the growth of the United Kingdom, is, upon an average crop, equal to our present annual consumption, and that with such an average érop the present import prices, below which foreign corn is by law altogether excluded, are fully sufficient, more especially since the change in the value of our money, to secure to the British grower the complete monopoly of the home market. Protection cannot be carried further than monopoly, and this the British grower has enjoyed for the produce of the two last harvests. They suggest to Parliament, as a matter highly deserving of their future consideration, whether a trade in corn, constantly open to all nations of the world, and subject only to such a fixed duty as might compensate to the grower the loss of that encouragement which he received during the late war from the obstacles thrown in the way of free importation, and thereby protect the capitals now vested in agriculture from an unequal competition in the home market-is not, as a permanent system, preferable to that state of law by which the corn trade is now regulated; but in suggesting this change of system for further consideration as a possible improvement of the Corn Laws at some future time, the Committee are fully aware of the unfitness of the present moment for attempting such a change, when a great accumulation has taken place in the shipping ports on the Continent, and in the warehouses of foreign corn in this country. But though Parliament would not now deem it expedient to abandon entirely the principle of the existing law, the Committee conceive that they might modify its operation, by imposing a fixed duty upon corn, whenever, upon the opening of the ports, it should become admissible for home consumption, in which case, however, if adopted, it would be necessary that the present import price should be fixed at a lower rate, because it is obvious, that the duty would otherwise not only check the sudden and overwhelming amount of import, but also enhance the price beyond what it might reach under the present law; an effect which the Committee are so far from desirous of producing, that they think it would be probably expedient to guard additionally against it, by providing, that after the corn should have reached a certain high price, the duty should cease altogether.

In some of the petitions, the agricul

tural depression and distress are mainly ascribed to the extent of our public burdens, coupled with the diminished means of bearing them; but the Committee discountenance that idea, not thinking that farming profits can be more affected than those of any other branch of industry.

The manner and extent in which other classes of the community, and other sources of income, may be affected by taxation, do not come directly within the scope of the present inquiry; but your Committee think it necessary to notice a doctrine which has prevailed in some quarters-that the price of corn in this country, in order to remunerate the grower, must increase in the same ratio as the amount of our public revenue, so that, if the latter be doubled, the price of corn must be doubled also. If this assumption were well founded, it would follow, that, exclusively of any change in the value of money, the remunerating price in 1821 would be nearly one-third lower than it was in 1814, taxes not much short of that proportion to the whole of our revenue having been taken off in Great Britain since that year. But without denying that the price of corn may be in some degree affected by adding to our general taxation; and that any charges particularly paid by the farmer, such as tithes and poor rates, must tend more directly to raise that price, it is obvious, from what has been already stated, that the cost of growing corn in any country is regulated by the amount of capital recessary to produce it upon lands paying no rent, and that it is the price of the portion of corn which is so raised that determines the price of all other corn; and that an increase of general taxes, affecting alike the profits of capital in all the different branches of industry, would not necessarily raise the price of the particular produce of any one.

In fact, no rise in the price of corn appears to have taken place during three of the wars in which this country was engaged during the last century, compared with the prices of the years preceding and succeeding those wars; and during the last of them, the American war, prices were lower than during the peace. This circumstance is the more to be remarked, as there never was, perhaps, a period at which the burden of taxation appeared to press more heavily upon the resources of the country.