[96] AGRICULTURAL REPORT. The continuance of the dry weather through the early part of the last month has brought the Wheat crop to an early maturity, the Harvest in the southern counties being generally begun. The Wheat collects heavy in hand, of the finest quality and will average a good crop. Barley, in some situations, will scarcely produce the seed again, but in others a full crop.-Oats very short in the straw, but of great yield, and very fine quality. Beans, Peas, and all the Leguminous class corned well, but have no burthen of straw. The Turnips are a fine crop upon all soils that are called Turnip lands, but the other species of Brassica look sickly for the want of rain. Summer Fallows were never in a finer or more husbandlike state. Apples a very great crop, and the Hop has blossomed well. CORN EXCHANGE, July 27.-Foreign Wheat, 44s. to 90s.-English Wheat, 50s. to 90s. -Rye, 40s. to 50s.-Barley, 30s. to 50s.-Malt, 68s. to 84s.-Oats, 20s..to 41s.—Fine Flower, 70s. 758. SMITHFIELD MARKET, July 27.-Beef, 4s. 4d. to 5s. 4d.-Mutton, 4s. 4d. to 6s. 4d.— Lamb, 5s. to 7s.-Veal, 4s. to 6s -Pork, 4s. to 6s. Hay, 31. 10s. to 61.-Straw, 11. 16s. to 31. 3s.-Clover, 41. to 71. Prices of Hops, New Pockets, Kent, 241. to 261.-Sussex, 231. to 24). 10s.-Essex, 241. to 251. Average Prices of Corn, By the Quarter of Eight Winchester Bushels, from Returns in the Week ending July 16. THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 56.] SEPTEMBER 1, 1818. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. PORTRAITURE OF NAPOLEON. BY THE Vereor ne qui sit, qui istius insignem nequitiam, frontis involutam in integumentis, -nondum cernat : dicam tamen; ipse certe agnoscet, et cum aliquo dolore flagi tiorum suorum recordabitur.-CICERO. MR. EDITOR, AS the Devil has his worshippers who impetrate his favour by sacrifices, lest they should fall into his clutches on a future day, so the exile of St. Helena still continues to be eulogised in this country by men whose ardent imaginations cherish the idea or rather hope, that he will be let loose again for the amusement or the torment of mankind. But not having the smallest inclination my; self to witness any more revolutions and sanguinary contests for dominion, I would fain correct that mischievous disposition in others, for which purpose I transmit to you the following valuable picture of Napoleon, as drawn by the hand of Sir Richard Phillips, when that man of unbounded ambition was in the career of his greatness. "If Buonaparte," said Sir Richard in the time of the consular regime of France," had terminated his mortal career at the battle of Marengo, his name would have been consecrated to all posterity, as the saviour of his country, as a hero who devoted the most brilliant military talents to the noblest ends, the independence of nations, and the liberty of the human race. He would then have shone upon a theatre on which he was calculated to act a most distinguished part. His ignorance of civil affairs, his crude notions of jurisprudence, and his inadequate information on the principles of commerce, would not have been manifested to the world. His mean and selfish ambition, his disregard to justice and to liberty, to every thing that constitutes the great in human character; his petty views, his restless and meddling policy, which would embroil Europe on the most trivial occasions; his folly in aiming at extended territory, rather than the happiness and prosperity of his country, would not have been developed. With NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 56. [VOL. X. some it has been a problem, whether a MERE SOLDIER is a fit person to exercise the first authority in a great empire. question decided on the most satisfacThe problem is now solved, and the tory proof-that of experience." state of political affairs, not only in EuAfter taking a rapid glance at the rope but the East, and having noticed the probability of a quarrel between influence of the French at ConstantiFrance and Great Britain, through the nople, Sir Richard goes on to say, "Thus the two nations, by the pernicious ambition of ONE MAN (Napoleon Buonaparte) may be involved in a new train of horrors and calamities."* this; and the First Consul, by his prepaThe war commenced shortly after rations for the invasion of this country, hoped to intimidate our government, and to excite insurrections among the people; but, as Sir Richard said,The nation never was at any period of its history so united as at this crisis. The friends of liberty, those who were stigmatised as Jacobins, are now the most forward to resent and to resist the ODIOUS TYRANNY of Buonaparte t." At this time Napoleon having the impePerial dignity in view, and being desirous of obtaining something like a transfer of the regal title from the legitimate owner, entered into a negociation with the exiled monarch for that purpose; on which Sir Richard made the follow ing observations: It is long since we stated our opinion that Buonaparte would not be satisthority. He has totally destroyed the fied with any thing short of kingly aurepublican regime, and can expect no support on that principle. A report was prevalent some months ago, that XVIII. at Warsaw, to renounce to the a proposal had been made to Louis USURPER, for himself and his posterity, all right and claim to the succession to the throne of France. The report was treated as an idle fabrication, intended merely to throw a degree of ridicule on the Chief Consul. But by a publication lately issued by theCount d'Artois, or from * Monthly Mag. Feb. 1, 1803. 98 Portraiture of Napoleon, by the Editor of Monsieur, as he styles himself, it appears that such a proposal was actually made, and with the meanness of a threat of inflicting still further hardships on the exiled family, should it be refused. The proposal however was answered and rejected with great moderation, firmness, and dignity and the several branches of the family have bound themselves by a solemn act to adhere to the answer of their sovereign, and never to relinquish their right to the throne." : No less energetic is the following reflection of Sir Richard on the general designs of this restless being at the same period::-"Such is the character of the First Consul as to render him a cause of terror to all other powers. Active, penetrating, and reserved, the extent of his views is not to be estimated, and his designs are probably u own to those in whom he seems to place the most confidence. As a man who is desirous of ascending a lofty mountain makes one ridge only a step to another, so does the WILY CORSICAN trample under foot one nation, in order to step more conveniently on that which adjoins it +." In proof of the justness of these remarks, Sir Richard said: " Portugal seems unfortunately to be at the mercy of France, and the consequence will probably be, that Buonaparte will pick the Spaniards and Portuguese separately, rather than sell Portugal to Spain, which might eventually render the latter less manageable. At present it seems likely, that he will turn to good account the national hatred subsisting between these unfortunate countries, which, while he can maintain division, he can scarcely fail to rule 1." Of the people of Holland and their magnanimous protector at this time, Sir Richard observed: "The Dutch still continue to receive the embraces of French fraternity; and so closely are they hugged, and so cordially shaken by the hand, that their blood, or that which they value as much, flows copiously out at their fingers' ends." Still more pathetically did the same pen depict the sufferings of these people a few weeks afterwards. "The people of the Dutch States," said Sir Richard, "suffer from their French allies almost all the ills that can be inflicted on a conquered nation. They have been forced to take part in a war in which they wished to look on as neutrals. They are compelled to furnish * Monthly Mag. for Aug. 1803. [Sept. 1, and to maintain a great body of native Dutch troops, whom they would much rather employ in their husbandry, manufactures, and fisheries. They have been made to receive French garrisons in all their strong towns, to put their seaports into the hands of the French, and to expose their whole country, in some manner, as a scene of passage and encampment to the armies of France. Their trade is at the same time ruined, and their ports are, on account of their alliance with France, blocked up by the English at sea. The inhabitants of the Belgic provinces of France suffer much by the levies of conscripts, by the interruption which the war gives to their manufactures and trade, and by the greater rigour with which they are governed, as being departments but newly added to the republic." What the state of France herself was at this period, when the powers around were enjoying the blessings of consular protection, we learn from the same undoubted authority; for as Sir Richard said, 66 The difficulty in finding supplies for the public expenditure, are now exceedingly great; the ruin which the war has brought upon the trade and manufactures, is deep and extensively felt, except by the old soldiers and officers, those who, as contractors and tradesmen, derive large emoluments from the supply of the necessaries for the war to the army, and the mere rabble who echo the voice of the government, and are the miserable followers of the camp." With regard to the personage who was the cause of all this, Sir Richard, says, "Much of that ascendancy which the First Consul is still enabled to maintain over public opinion in France, is owing to the degree in which his power has hitherto gratified French vanity and ambition, by extending the military glory and political power of the nation." Again, as Sir Richard says, "In France the consular government rules the people, by the awe of military power, treats its foreign allies with contempt or insolent oppression, and menaces conquest and utter ruin to all who may dare to meet its hostility ||." Under such circumstances, therefore, when all Europe was falling, as it were, prostrate before the colossal Dagon of France, it was impossible, as Sir Richard said, for the Emperor Alexander to "view with indifference that arbitrary Monthly Mag. for Nov. 1803. the Old Monthly Magazine. 1818.] presumption and violence with which France gave the law to Germany, and even threatened the freedom of the Baltic. Nor, on the other hand, could it be more possible for Russia to view with unconcern the ambition with which France aspired to sway the Turkish councils, to dismember the Turkish empire, and to possess herself of its fairest provinces." With such just conceptions of the overbearing arrogance of Napoleon when First Consul, it must have given pleasure to every man of spirit to see the great states rouse themselves into action; and accordingly, when Alexander began to put forth his strength, Sir Richard thus exulted, The GALLANT and MAGNANIMOUS Emperor of Russia maintains an imposing attitude, and is preparing to resist the pretensions and aggressions of France with the whole force of his empire*." The assumption of a new title, so far from having any charms in the eyes of this profound politician, only excited his indignation, and therefore he rejoiced with exceeding great and patriotic joy at the confederacy of the great continental powers to defend themselves against the imperial Mammoth. "The potentates of the north," said Sir Richard, "are at length beginning to be animated by one sentiment, and are preparing to resist the aggressions and the overbearing insolence of the French government with their united forces. The troops of the King of Prussia are every where in motion; those of the Emperor of Russia are assembled in formidable numbers on the Prussian and German frontiers, and the heroic King of Sweden (Gustavus Adolphus) is preparing with all his forces to revenge the manifold indignities with which he has been treated by the soi-disant FRENCH EMPEROR !" "If this alliance," said Sir Richard, "is carried on with good faith, and the armies of the Confederates are directed with a moderate degree of intelligence, there can be no doubt but the hardy sons of the North, who have always beaten those of the South, will drive within their own boundaries that insolent, gasconading people, who by the popular writers of their own nation have been so aptly described as a mixture of the tiger and the monkey."t Upon the strange farce which was then played in the congregating of a • Monthly Mag. for May, 1806. Ibid. 99 Sanhedrim at Paris, Sir Richard says, Among the other absurdities of that GRAND STATE QUACK BUONAPARTE, may be noticed a pretended assemblage of deputies of the Jewish religion, which he has lately convened at Paris. It is understood that the poor Jews are to be forced to pay a large sum, that they may continue to enjoy the advantages of French citizenship 1." 66 a The continental war, which soon after this occurred, made no alteration in the sentiments of Sir Richard; who, whenthe French armies were compelled to retreat from Poland, hailed the event as gleam of sunshine breaking through the clouds which darkened the political horizon;" and he pronounced" the bloody battle of Eylau to have been a victory to the allies," because it destroyed the best of the French generals and the flower of its army, taught the Russians not to fear its assaults, and set bounds to its progress."-" Famine and the climate," Sir Richard said, " have effected as much as the sword of the allies, and the head-quarters of the French army are now removed to Thorn, after having buried half its numbers in the swamps of Poland, and destroyed and depopulated a country which it found in the enjoyment of peace and plenty! The absurd and insatiable ambition of the MODERN ATTILA, aided by his ferocious banditti, is estimated to have occasioned the death of a million of human beings, besides entailing unspeakable miseries on millions more, since his wanton march against his ally the king of Prussia!"§ On the dissolution of that confederacy, and the war which followed between Sweden and Russia, it would be needless to make any comment; but at the termination of the latter, Sir Richard said, "These powers having worried each other, by order of the sanguinary monster BUONAPARTE, for the purpose of weakening and employing them, he has allowed Russia to make peace, as soon as he found Sweden moulded to his purposes ||." But it was the invasion of Spain and Portugal that inspired Sir Richard with unusual fire, and worked up his indignant spirit to such a degree, that he ventured, with enthusiastic zeal, to preach up a new crusade for the pur pose of extirpating a tyrant whose enormities exceeded all that had ever been recorded in history. § Monthly Mag. for April, 1807. 100 Portraiture of Napoleon, by the Editor of "The cruel war," said Sir Richard, "excited by the insatiable ambition of the monster BUONAPARTE, continues to devastate these fine countries. The vengeance of heaven sleeps, or it would blast the wretch, who, after he had by singular fortune attained the summit of power, and the means of doing so much good, treacherously seized the royal family of Spain, and wantonly invaded that country, for the sole purpose of his personal aggrandizement, thereby involving fifteen millions of people in unspeakable calamities. The MONSTER has therefore to atone to the world for the horrors of which he is the sole author; and in this war of PURE DEFENCE against the most unprovoked aggression, all generous, all humane, all free people, must wish success to the cause of the Spaniards!”—“ If the author of such multiplied miseries," continued Sir Richard, have any remains of conscience, may we not hope that his severest punishment is the continuing TO LIVE, else one's nature revolts at the consideration that he has already survived, at least, TWO MILLIONS of his victims, whom in Spain and Portugal only he has been the means of consigning to an untimely grave. "The circumstances attending the capture of Tarragona have produced a climax in the history of his crimes. We hate war-we hate the trade of bloodyet this MONSTER ought not by the common consent of all mankind, to be permitted to continue his enormities!!! "It is a perversion of reason," exclaims Sir Richard," to palliate or give any countenance to such a MONSTERthan whom ROBESPIERRE was a lamb! Robespierre was one of a committee which sacrificed human life to a calculation that appeared to them to secure the lives of sixteen millions, at the possible expense of eight; but this LIVING MONSTER places his mere personal aggrandizement as a counterbalance to the lives of fifteen millions!-Robespierre had the cause of liberty committed to his care, and he deemed great sacrifices due to the conservation of so precious a charge; but this ROBESPIERRE of ROBESPIERRES, having overturned all liberty, destroys in no cause-and has no assignable object-besides the gratification of destroying!! What had the people of Tarragona done to him, that such unspeakable calamities should be made to fall on their devoted heads? Nothing, but defend their country against his invasion, and [Sept 1, their firesides against HIS BLOODHOUNDS!-Did they attack him, or his subjects?—No!-Had they been guilty of any great crimes to deserve to be destroyed in detail, their houses burnt, and their city razed to the ground?-No! "Unhappy Tarragonians!-Your cries have been heard by all nations.-They have created in every breast the sensation excited by cries of" murder," in the high way!-They have extinguished all differences of parties and opinions, and kindled a universal glow of resentment! Your BLOOD DEMANDS VENGEANCE ON HIM WHO SHED IT MAY YOUR MANES NEVER BE APPEASED, TILL HE HAS BEEN MADE AN EXAMPLE TO FUTURE TYRANTS, OF THE CONSEQUENCE OF SUCH ENORMOUS CRIMES!!-MAY THE SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE, SEIZING ALL NATIONS, EXCITE MYRIADS OF HEROES TO UNITE AGAINST SUCH A MONSTER AND HIS WILLING SATELLITES!! Let "TARRAGONA" be their watchword, when those brave men meet the assassins of the unhappy Tarragonians, and victory must always attend their steps!" Such, according to the strong painting of Sir Richard Phillips, was Napoleon Buonaparte, when blazing in the meridian of his consular and imperial dignities; his pestilential course appalled and afflicted the nations with the direst calamities. While thus the meteor glared along the political horizon, spreading death and desolation before him, like the pestilential blast, which the inhabitants of the East have clothed with the attributes of the demon of destruction, he was uniformly denounced in the Old Monthly Magazine as the "violator of oaths;" the " enemy of liberty;" a second" Attila," equally devoid of justice and feeling; "a public robber, whom it was the duty of all nations to hunt down and bring to condign punishment;" "a faithless ally, whom no obligations could bind to the performance of his engagements;" "the oppressor of the weak and defenceless;"" an unprincipled usurper and tyrant;" and to sum up all, monster of perfidy and cruelty, the climax of whose atrocities consisted in the wanton immolation of millions of the human race, for no other end than to gratify his lawless ambition and insatiate thirst for blood!!" a It is an old saying that the devil is not as bad as he is painted; but it requires the art of Belial, or the front of Moloch, to paint a being as blackened with the Monthly Mag. for Sept. 1811. |