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enemy, whether by real compulsion, or a convention that should leave only the shadow of independence on the same principles his Majesty would think it his duty to afford every kind of assistance to the provinces of America that should render them independent of French Spain, open an asylum to such of the Spaniards as should disdain to submit to their oppressors, regard America as their natural refuge, and preserve the remains of the monarchy to their lawful sovereign, if ever he should recover his liberty. It was a satisfaction to his Majesty to learn, by papers he had received, that what had passed in

Ca

raccas, was in a great measure owing to the erroneous impressions they had received of the desperate state of Spain. These being removed, the inhabitants of Caraccas* would be disposed to renew their connections with Spain, as integral parts of the empire, on their being admitted to take their

place in the Cortes of the kingdom."

Nothing could be more prudent than this conduct of the British government in a situation so new, delicate, and difficult.

A copy of Lord Liverpool's letter was communicated to the Council of Regency at Cadiz, and published in all the Spanish newspapers..

A strong suspicion was entertained by the Independents, as a Portuguese army, 10,000 strong, had been sent in March to the frontiers of the Spanish colonies, that there might be a secret negociation for enforcing the pretensions of the Princess of Brazil to the whole country between the Porana and La Plata, in exchange for the islands of Madeira and St. Catharine. But this apprehension was quieted by a letter from Lord Strangford, British minister at the court of Brazil, to the Junta of Buenos Ayres.

* The noble Secretary should have said not Caraccas, but Venezuela, of which the city of Caraccas is the capital. The province of Caraccas was only one member of the confederation of Venezuela, as above noticed (p. 225). In our common books of geography, and particularly in the last edition of Pinkerton's Geography, the names of provinces are generally confounded with those of the department, or political division to which they belong, and vice versa; which cannot fail to occasion much equivocation and much embarrassment to English readers of newspapers and other periodical publications, who are guided by common compilations about geography. The grand political divisions of Spanish America are, four viceroyalties, and five general capitanias, or principalities, independent of the viceroys. The four viceroyalties are, Mexico or New Spain, New Grenada, Peru, and Buenos Ayres. The five states, independent of these, are Cuba, Porto Rico, Guatemala, Venezuela, and Chili.

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CHAP. XV.

Marriage of Buonaparte with the Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria. -Addresses from all Qurters, and Festivities on this occasion.-Character of the new Empress.-French Troops pour into Holland.-Treaty between Napoleon and Lewis Buonaparte.—Infringed by the former.Lewis abdi ates the Throne of Holland in favour of his eldest SonFarewell Address of Lewis to the Dutch.-The Character and Conduct of Lewis contrasted with that of his Brother Lucien.- Conference between a Commissioner from Holland and the Marquis Wellesley, British Secretary of State, on the Subject of a Maritime Peace.-Annexation of Holland, and all the Territories between the Elbe and the Ems to the French Empire-Ard of the Valais.-New Measure for recruiting the Naval Force of France.-Population of the French Empire.-Annexation of Hanover to Westphalia —Extension of the French "Conscription Laws.-Various Modes in which Bumaparte rivetted the Chains in which he had bound the French—And Means by which he provides for his personal safety.-His Rage against English Commerce. -Curbs the Priesthood at Rome.

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HE divorce of Josephina from the Emperor Napoleon, which was conducted with great dignity and decorum,* was a preJude, as might well be imagined, to a second marriage. Buonaparte, on the 27th of February, announced, by a message to the senate, that he had dispatched on the 25th his cousin, the Prince of Neufchatel, to Vienna, to demand for him the hand of the Archduchess Louisa Maria, daughter of the Emperor Francis II, according to a contract that had been made, and of which the conditions were to be laid before them. The ceremony of marriage, in which the Archduke Charles received the hand of his niece, as the representative of

Buonaparte, was performed on the 11th of March. This was a grand source of amusement in a great variety of ways, both to the volatile French, and the stiff and formal German nations: the feasts, the balls, the shews, the poetry, and the addresses and other pieces in prose, to which it gave birth, were endless. From Vienna to Compiegne, the road by which the princess passed, seemed to be strewed with flowers. Paris leaped for joy. It was at first generally, indeed almost universally imagined, that she was an unwilling, though resigned victim to the preservation of her family from farther humiliation, if not total ruin. Another virgin of Gilead, † obedient to the call of filial reverence and

See Vol. LI. (1809) pp 805-911.
† Daughter of Jephtha. Judges, chap. xi.

duty!

duty! No such thing. It soon appeared how much of the blood of Lorraine flowed in her veins. She was gay, lively, and almost playful, and delighted with her conquest over a man who had conquered the world.

But while the face of France and its dependencies seemed to be brightened up with joy, the friends of humanity and wellwishers to established monarchies and the old order of things, deplored the humiliation of Austria, and execrated the servility of the fallen Archduke Charles! The sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis, scarcely cost more tears to assembled Greece, than that of Louisa Maria to the usurper of the throne of France-France, of which so near a relation perished, at so late a period, was the murdered queen!

Intimation had been made by Buonaparte in the beginning of December, 1809, of an intended change in Holland, by which it would become a part of the French empire, to which indeed it naturally belonged, as it was nothing else but an alluvion of the Rhine, Meuse, and the Scheldt, the great arteries of the empire. By this time numbers of French troops had begun to glide imperceptibly into Holland, till at last it was occupied by a French army of 40,000 men. The Exchange of Rotterdam was converted into a stable for French cavalry. This was a virtual or real annexation of that country to the French empire. Yet Buonaparte appears at first to have been willing that it should possess a nominal indepen

dence, and his brother wear a nominal crown. A treaty was made with Lewis, whereby Holland, on the left bank of the Waal, was to be annexed to France. An army of 18,000 men, including 3000 cavalry, partly French and partly Dutch, was to be distributed at all the mouths of the rivers, along with officers of the French customs, for the prohibition of all trade between Holland and England: the whole to be paid, provisioned, and clothed by the Dutch government. Though the treaty did not authorize the presence of French custom-house officers, but upon the banks of the sea and at the mouths of rivers, or their interference in any other measures than those relating to the blockade, and declared that the French troops should remain only on the coast, detachments of French soldiers accompanied by custom-house officers, spread themselves over various parts of the interior. About the middle of June, 20,000 French troops were assembled in the environs of Utrecht. On the 29th of that month, the King of Holland received official information, that his majesty the Emperor insisted on the occupation of Amsterdam, and the establishment of the French head-quarters in that capital.

Under these circumstances, Lewis, July 1, resigned his rank and royal dignity in favour of his eldest son, Napoleon Lewis, and of his brother, Prince Charles Lewis Napoleon. It was stated in the deed of abdication, that her majesty the Queen, being of right, and according to the constitution,

See Vol. LI. (1809) HIST. EUR. p. 240.

regent

regent of the kingdom, should, till her arrival, be vested in the council of ministers.*

Lewis, on the same day on which he abdicated his throne, wrote a farewell address to the legislative body. He stated the circumstances under which he was compelled to sign a treaty dictated by France."1 have the cruelly grievous satisfaction, yet now the only one I can have, that I bave fulfilled my obligations to the end. That I have (if I am permitted to speak) sacrificed to the existence and welfare of the country all that was possible: but, after the resignation and submission of the first of April, (the date of the treaty) 1810, I should be much to blame if I consented to retain the title of king, being no longer any other than an instrument-no longer commanding in my own capital, and, perhaps, soon not even in my palace. I should nevertheless be a witness of every thing that might be going on, without being able to do any thing for my people; responsible for all occurrences, without the power to prevent them, or their influence. I should have exposed myself to the complaints of both sides, and perhaps have occasioned great misfortunes; by doing which I should have betrayed my conscience, my people, and my duty. My brother, so violently irritated against me, is not so against my children. Perhaps I am the only obstacle to the reconciliation of this country with France. And should that be so, I might find

State Papers, p. 512.

some consolation in dragging out the remainder of a wandering and languishing life at a distance from the first objects of my whole affection, this good people, and my son. These are my principal motives. There are others equally powerful, with respect to which I must be silent, but they will easily be divined. The Emperor, my brother, though strongly prejudiced against me, must feel that I could not act otherwise. He is great, and he ought to be just, As to you, gentlemen, I should be much more unhappy even than I am, if possible, could I imagine that you would not do justice to my intentions. May the end of my career prove to the nation and to you that I have never deceived you; that I have had but one aim, the true interest of the country; that the faults I may have committed are to be ascribed solely to my zeal, which induced me to employ, not always the best, but the most practicable means of overcoming the difficulty of circumstances. I cannot, gentlemen, conclude, without recommending to you, in the name of the interest, and the existence of so many families, whose property and lives would be infallibly compromised, to receive the French with the attention, cordiality, and kindness due to the brave people of the first nation in the universe. In whatever place I may terminate my days, the name of Holland, and the most lively prayers for its happiness, will be my last words and my last thoughts."

†There were not a few critics who combined these words with those marked by italics two lines before.

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.t

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

Commerce, by bringing mankind together, is to a certain extent, favourable to liberty: not when it is the predominating and only pursuit. In extensive countries, as in the British empire, the mercantile spirit is counteracted by landed property, agriculture, and industry of other kinds, and even by a spirit of war and conquest.

Lucien Buonaparte, with his lady, children, and the whole of his suite, which was very numerous, including a number of artists and men of letters, arrived at Plymouth from Malta, on the 13th of December, in an English frigate, after a quick passage-See CHRON. p. 294.

have

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