Appendix.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "JOURNAL DE PARIS."

SIR, Many persons have expressed surprise, that, while treating, in my last work, of those generous allies who have come to our deliverance, I have not taken notice of England. I allow it, Sir; and I am indeed concerned at this involuntary omission; but I rely for excuse on the powerful attraction of the majestic spectacle that was passing before our eyes, and on the haste incident to a work completed in the midst of a revolution no less sudden than incredible.

It was but natural that, during the first transport of our emancipation, our gratitude should be solely directed to those august Princes whom we first beheld within our walls. We were, not unreasonably, struck with the magnanimity of Alexander, and of the successor of Frederic the Great, and we shall always hold them in grateful remembrance. Nor was it without a feeling of sympathy, mingled with admiration, that we surveyed the Austrian Generalissimo, who reminds us of the great sacrifices of his worthy and virtuous master. The other sovereign members of this pious confederacy will be always dear to France, for the love that they bear to our monarch, and the hatred that they have vowed towards our tyrant. But, Sir, there is not a single Frenchman who can forget our obligations to the Prince Regent of England, and to the generous people that has so powerfully contributed to our deliverance. The banners of Elizabeth waved in the cause of Henry IV., they appear once more in the squadrons that restore Louis XVIII. to his country.

We are too susceptible of real glory not to admire that illustrious Wellington, whose virtues and talents so powerfully emulate 'those of our own Turenne. Can we restrain our tears, when we see this truly great man, during our retreat from Portugal, offer his soldiers a reward of two guineas for the life of every French prisoner? By the moral influence of his character, even more than VOL. III.

Pam.

No. VI.

2 H

by the strictness of military discipline, he most wonderfully repressed, on his entrance into our provinces, both the resentment of the Portuguese and the vindictive hatred of the Spaniards; and still more, the first cry of Long live the King, which roused our unhappy country from her supineness, was countenanced by his protection. Instead of a captive King of France, the modern Black Prince escorted to Bourdeaux a French King delivered from persecution. When King John was conducted to London, he was so touched at the generosity of Edward, that he conceived a regard for his conquerors, and returned to die in the land of his captivity, as if he had foreseen that England would be hereafter the last asylum of his remotest offspring, and that the descendants of Talbot and Chandos would, in the course of time, protect the outlawed posterity of La Hire and of De Guesclin.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your very humble, and very obedient servant,

DE CHATEAUBRIAND.

AN

APPEAL,

&c. &c. &c.

T

It is not the least engaging feature of the present times that they afford us a noble opportunity of rational improvement. After the first clamorous expressions of unruly joy are over, and we have become fully convinced that the marvellous events of the present year are not a vision too bright to be substantial, we shall begin in judicious and temperate reformation to feel the charming consciousness that the world is again at peace. Numerous and ennobling will be the objects to which the ruling spirits of our country will direct their attention. The claims of the catholicsthe education of the poor-the regulations of the police— the constitution of parliament-and the severer enactments of our criminal code-all the rights and the interests of the popular part of the state, will receive the patient investigation of lofty minds, no longer distracted with the details of slaughter, nor harassed by preparations for conflict. Among these subjects of legislative attention, there is one, whose claims, immediately and nearly as they affect, the

welfare of the people, are yet more closely connected with the happiness of royalty. There is a class of nobility, and those of the first order, who come with the most powerful demands upon British justice, and whose cause is left to make its own appeal to the generosity, the chivalry and the domestic feeling of our national character. It surely cannot, at such a time, be made in vain.

The reader will probably have anticipated that I allude to the act whereby the royal family are excluded from marriage with any individuals of a rank inferior to their own; and that it is to the situation of the princes and princesses of the blood royal that I wish to awaken their attention. This singular restriction is favored by none of those kindly prejudices which would preserve the mouldering relics of antiquity, when reason calls for their destruction. It is the strange anomaly of a late and of an enlightened age. It is therefore most fairly open to an investigation, which cannot fail to be deeply interesting; from the high situation of the suffering parties; from the disinterestedness with which we espouse their cause, and from its near connexion with the tenderest and most amiable feelings of our nature.

At the first view of the subject, there is much to excite a species of wonder, bordering on astonishment. A large body of our fellow subjects are excluded from the offices of the state, because their religious principles are supposed to render them involuntarily hostile to its welfare: and their case becomes the object of universal interest, and of very general commiseration. The nation is agitated and divided by the mighty subject; orators, the most distinguished that Britain ever knew, seize with avidity upon the theme, and rouse every human emotion by their indignant and their melting eloquence; it becomes the leading object of contending parties; and it is carried into all the walks, and mingles with all the sympathies of domestic life. Yet here