the free choice of the people, certainly by their unreluctant assent, the first thing which he learnt was, that the interests of Sweden were in direct opposition to the will of the Corsican who had placed him there :-on the point of duty it is not to be supposed that he would be troubled with scruples, but the path of interest was not plain. From Buonaparte he could have nothing further to hope, but he had to fear a degradation like that which Louis had suffered, or the more wretched puppet at Madrid,—a diminution not merely of power, but of honour and self-respect; and when Bernadotte reflected upon these examples, upon the geographical situation of Sweden, and the perilous insecurity of a tyrant, against whom the hearts of all men were united, he might well hesitate at injuring and offending the Swedes, in obedience to his commands. The Swedish government, at the time of his election, was temporizing with France, and endeavouring to escape the evil toward which France was pressing her, that of declaring war against England. Upon this point Bernadotte found that all persons and all parties in Sweden were unanimous, and he seems not to have made any attempt to oppose the general feeling. The Corsican became impatient, the more so, because the loss of the Isle of Mascarenhas, and the mortification which he experienced in the peninsula, rendered him unusually irritable. He sent for Lagerbjelke, the Swedish minister at Paris, and told him that the election of Bernadotte had alone restrained his resentment against the court of Stockholm for the last three months. "I knew," said he, "how to provide against the hatred of Gustavus; he was my declared enemy; while the present government has only sought

my friendship for the purpose of recovering Finland, an event which will never take place. It has, moreover, continued to trade with Great Britain, in contravention of the treaty of peace with France, and permitted colonial produce to be introduced, for the purpose of being afterwards reexported to the continent. In consequence of all this, my minister at Stockholm has orders to demand that war be declared against England; that English manufactures be burnt; and that colonial produce be subjected to a duty of 50 per cent. ; and in case of refusa!, he must quit Stockholm immediately. It is I who order it; such is my pleasure." The baron observed, that some of these measures could not be taken without convoking the states of the realm; to which the tyrant replied, "Let me hear no more of these silly laws of Sweden !" and whenever the baron attempted to make any further reply, he was told with characteristic insolence to hold his tongue.

The Danish court, which entered into all the Corsican's schemes against Great Britain with kindred rancour, supported his demands at Stockholm, and the government, threatened at once by France, and Russia, and Denmark, yielded to what it could no longer resist: but its declaration of war was a confession of weakness, which discovered no enmity towards Great Britain, and excited no resentment. It declared, that Sweden desired nothing but to be able to preserve peace with every power; that the treaties which she had made with the three allied powers of the continent did not insist upon her abandoning her system of neutrality, nevertheless that system had made her the mark of calumny, envy, and hatred; she was accused of favouring England,

6

and thereby throwing obstacles in the way of a general peace; and she now ordered the sequestration of English property, and declared war against England, in order to do away this accusation. Such a manifesto could only excite the compassion of the power against whom it was directed; and accordingly the declaration of war made no perceptible difference in the relations of this country toward Sweden.

Various rumours prevailed during the year, of changes in those parts of Europe where no change could be for the worse. At one time it was said, that the imperial house of Austria was to receive a new splendour in the persons of some of its princes; at another, that a new and splendid destiny awaited Poland. Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia, were talked of as provinces which might well be formed into a separate kingdom. At one time it was said that Berthier was to be made King of Poland; at another, that the house of Brandenburg would be set aside to make way for him. Projects of this kind served to amuse the tyrant who formed them, to secure the fidelity of his generals by exciting their hopes, and to keep the court of Petersburgh obsequious to his will. The weak and misguided Alexander continued meantime to carry on his destructive war with Turkey, the events of which may well be hurried over, as barbarous in themselves and unimportant in their consequences. A variety of bloody actions, in which the Russians were successful, roused the Turks to unusual exertions; the Grand Seignior declared, that he would take the field in person, and his standard of four tails was hoisted on the gates of the seraglio. This determination was proclaimed in all the mosques; the green

standard of Mahommed was brought forth; and it was proclaimed, that every Mussulman capable of bearing arms, who did not come forward in defence of his country and his religion, should be dealt with as an unbeliever. Three millions of piastres were levied upon the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews; the mufti and the Grand Seignior set the example of sending their plate to be minted down; and, according to the usual resource of an ignorant government, the money was debased. These measures contributed to allay the agitation which had been produced by the janizaries. The disorder of this corps had become so great, that some of the respectable part of the community, encouraged by some resolute spirits among them who had formerly been janizaries themselves, and could not brook the insolence and excesses to which they were subject, presented themselves unarmed to the sultan, and, in a peaceable but firm manner, required either that the government would effectually protect them, or authorize them to protect themselves, and do justice upon the ruffians who were unworthy of the name they bore. The government, which not improbably had instigated this application, approved the wish of the people, and, confirming by circular orders the rights and privileges of the janizaries, declared that those rights should be forfeited by every janizary who proved himself by his conduct unworthy to enjoy them; and, under the malediction of the caliphat, enjoined all persons to seize any of this body if they disturbed the public tranquillity, and deliver them to justice; or if they resisted, and collected in bodies, to attack them as mutineers. A contest soon took place, in which the people were victorious, and many

assuredly return; then with one hundred men who put their trust in him, you will vanquish two hundred enemies.'-In another part, God says to the prophet, 'Assemble the true believers for battle; if there be twenty firm and brave men, they shall conquer two hundred; and if there be an hundred, they shall vanquish a thousand of their foes.'-I entreat the assistance of the Most High; I pray for the spiritual influence of the prophet. Full of hope, I hasten to share the labours and dangers of my brave troops, to put myself at their head; to rouse the valour of some, to confirm that of others, and to direct that of all: in short, to lead them to battle-to victory!-It is not my design to attribute the fruits of our victories to myself. No; the only aim of my ambition is to make the faith of Mahommed triumph; to frustrate the devices of our enemies, and, if possible, to contribute to the fulfilling of his holy will."

The sultan then gave orders that his intention of putting himself at the head of the army should again be published throughout his dominions, decreeing that in every town or village where the inhabitants did not forthwith join the army, the naibs and imams should lose their places.

Good men," said he, "ought not

to be more slow in frustrating evil deeds, than bad men are quick in executing them. May the prophet intercede for us! May the Almighty grant us the victory, and cover our enemies with shame!" Yet, notwithstanding this language, and the promise thus twice repeated of taking the field in person, the sultan remained in Constantinople. Giurgewo and Rudschuck fell, and the Russians were now masters of all the strong places on the right bank of the Danube, from its mouth for more than a hundred leagues upward. The Servians also gained several victories; the most important was upon the Drina, where they took 6000 prisoners. These successes were not purchased without a great loss of men; both parties were weary of h stilities, and negociations for peace were opened. But Russia demanded cessions which the Porte was neither so weak nor so weakhearted as to grant; and both parties, while the discussions were carrying on, renewed their exertions for continuing the war. During this campaign the Americans, whose spirit of enterprise leads them wherever profit is to be obtained, found their way to the scene of action, and the flag of the United States was seen for the first time in the Black Sea.

THOSE persons who, during the struggle of the Spaniards against Buonaparte, have looked on with unshaken confidence to their final success, found their opinion upon the extent and nature of the country, and the character of the people. The continent, notwithstanding its extent, fell under the yoke of France, because the spirit of the people was not such as to supply the want of sense and of honour in their rulers; and the Tyrolese were subdued notwithstanding their heroism, because, in so small a territory as the Tyrol, an immense superiority of numbers, remorselessly employed, must necessarily overcome all resistance. But no force can be large enough to conquer and keep in subjection a peninsula, containing above 175,000 square miles, and twelve millions of inhabitants, if the people have the virtue to carry resistance to the uttermost. Their armies will be defeated, their towns may be occupied, their fortresses taken, their villages burnt,-but the country remains; the mountains form a chain of fastnesses running through the whole peninsula, and connecting all its provinces with each other; and when the war ceases to be carried on by army against army, and becomes the struggle of a nation against its oppressors, pursued incessantly by

VOL. III. PART I.

night and by day, the soldier, no longer acting in large bodies, loses that confidence which discipline gives him; while the peasant, on the other hand, feels the whole advantage which the love of his country, and the desire of vengeance, and the sense of duty, and the approbation of his own heart, give to the individual in a contest between man and man. The character of the Spaniards might have been learnt from their history; it has been abundantly proved in the dreadful trials which they have undergone, The extent of the country is known, and its local circumstances remain the same as when Henri IV. said of it, that it was a land where a weak army must be beaten, and a strong one starved. They who were neither igno rant of history nor of human nature considered these things; and therefore, from the first dawn of the revolution, regarded it with unabated hope.

But to expect that a wise government could be as it were created, and that the people were at once to become free while they were asserting their independence, was an error into which none but the ignorant and the unthinking could fall; such an expectation, however, was entertained, because, of those who are called the public, the unthinking and the igno

Z