AT the commencement of the year the people of France were informed, that a reduction of 200,000 men would be made in their military establishment; thus limiting it to 700,000, half of which force was to be employ. ed in the defence of the coast, and in what were called maritime expeditions, the other half destined to carry on the operations in Spain :-Spain, where Buonaparte had promised that not a village should be in arms by the Christmas of 1808,-Spain, which, after the retreat of Sir John Moore, Lord Grenville and Lord * Auckland, had declared to be actually subdued, Spain still required, by the confession of the French minister of finance, a French force of 350,000 men, to support the poor puppet who had suffered himself to be made equally infamous and miserable, by being placed upon its throne. The Corsican, by whose folly and frantic wicked. ness this contest had been wholly and solely occasioned, knew how necessary it was to persuade the French people, that a war, which they felt to be so destructive, was not altogether as inglorious as it was unjust; and for the purpose of this deceit, the flags taken from the raw recruits and

volunteers at Espinosa, Burgos, Tudela, and Somosierra, and those which had been betrayed by Morla at Madrid, were pre- Jan. 22. sented to the legislative body; a detachment of the grenadiers of the Imperial Guard were introduced, and seated on both sides of Buonaparte's statue, that the stage might be full; a few rhetorical speeches were let off, and the session then concluded, like a stage-spectacle, with a flourish of trumpets, and shouts of Long live the Emperor!-Buonaparte understands the people whom he verns a few days before the representation of this scene, in replying to a deputation from one of the departments, and professing his anxiety to promote their happiness and their glory,-"I say their glory," said he, "for without it, I conceive there can be no happiness for a Frenchman.” So well was he aware of this, that even just after the conclusion of the most splendid campaign in which he had ever been engaged, he found it necessary to go back fourteen months for such trophies as these.

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The produce of the customs in 1809 fell short of the receipts of the preceding year, by more than a third

part; but the minister of finance, when he announced this in his report, spoke of it as a fact which proved the success of the anti-commercial system; for the English exports, he affirmed, had decreased within the same time to the enormous amount of 19 millions sterling; so that the measure which diminished the proceeds of the French customs in a degree which could not occasion any embarrassment to the revenue, must prove fatal to England. Every artifice was employed to make the people believe that England was on the brink of ruin. The king's speech, as usual, was falsified and sent abroad. There it was said, that whatever temporary and partial inconveniences may have resulted from the measures which were directed by France against our trade and revenue, the great source of our prosperity and strength, those measures had wholly failed of producing any general effect. The official French paper substituted for these words a sentence, in which the king was made to tell his parliament, that they must be aware that the measures adopted by France to dry up the great sources of our prosperity had been to a certain degree efficient. It was said, that we were not merely on the verge of national bankruptcy, but actually suffering under all the horrors of famine; that our crops of every kind had failed; we were obliged to feed our cattle with sugar and molasses, and had nothing but sugar, cocoa, and coffee, and the skin and bones of these cattle for ourselves. To a certain degree, Buonaparte and his journalists may have perhaps believed the falsehoods which they circulated; they read in our own factious newspapers of decaying trade, diminished

resources, and starving manufacturers; and the opposition told them, that France was certain of success in whatever she attempted on the continent; that the cause of Spain was hopeless; that it was impossible for us to carry on the war; that if we did not emancipate the catholics, Ireland would be lost, and the loss of Ireland would draw after it the downfall of the British empire. Speeches of this tenour and tendency were carefully translated for the use of the emperor's subjects, and sent from one end of France to the other: But when the French saw it asserted, upon the authority of English members of parliament, that the Spaniards and Portugueze had nothing worth fighting for; that they were inimical in their hearts to England; that Buonaparte was reforming the abuses of their old government, and redressing their grievances; when they saw it affirmed in the English House of Commons, that the people of Spain must know Marquis Wel. lesley would, if the opportunity should offer, take both Spain and Portugal as Buonaparte had done; when they saw the same persons who represented Sir John Moore as a consummate general, a hero, and a martyr, vilify the talents of Lord Wellington, deny his merits, oppose the rewards which were so justly conferred on him, and maintain, in the face of their insulted country, that the British army had gained no victory at Talavera; it appeared to them impossible that language, at once so false, so absurd, and so cooperative with the designs of France, could have been uttered by an English tongue; Mr Whitbread's speeches were supposed to have been invent ed in France, and they attributed to the artifices of their own government

what was in reality the genuine effusions of weak minds, irritable tempers, and disappointed faction.

"Messieurs," said Buonaparte to one of the deputations which congratulated him upon his victories, "myself and the Emperor of Russia, my ally, have made every effort to give peace to the world, but without success. The King of England, grown old in his hatred against France, wish es for war. His situation prevents him from feeling the calamities which it brings upon the world at large, or from calculating its results with regard to his own family. Nevertheless the war must come to an end, and we shall then be greater and more powerful than we have ever been. The French empire is in the vigour of youth; it cannot but grow and consolidate itself: that of my enemies is in the last stage of life; every thing presages its decay. Every year that they retard the peace of the world, will only augment my power." That power appeared to superficial politicians to be established and secured by his alliance with the house of Austria. The negociations for this marriage were carried on with the utmost secrecy, though his divorce made it certain that he was about to take another wife. Vienna was almost the only court in Europe in which it was not conjectured that he would seek one. At length the Vienna journals officially announced "the high destiny to which the Archduchess Maria Louisa had been called by Providence," and the continental journalists, who were debarred from other topics, continued for many weeks to fill their pages with accounts of the ceremonials, anecdotes of the imperial courtship, and descriptions of the beauty of the bride; her graceful form, the delicate whiteness

of her complexion, the brilliancy of her blue eyes, the profusion of her bright flaxen hair, the fine shape of her hands and feet, and the beauty of her teeth, when the Austrian lips were opened by a smile, and discovered their perfect symmetry and exquisite colour. Nothing it seemed could equal her beauty, except it was her affection for the hero who had chosen her, or rather whom she had chosen ; for the world was widely mistaken in supposing that the young archduchess was about to be led like a lamb to the altar; she was herself the prime mover of Napoleon's marvellous attachment: the whole ambition of her soul had been directed to enslave by her charms the conqueror of the universe. And this passion was not more ardent in itself, than it was extraordinary in its effects. To the astonishment of every one, she read the rapid and difficult writing of Buonaparte with a readiness which seemed like inspiration; and one day when she hastened eagerly to her father, and he asked the cause of the joy which was apparent in her countenance, she replied, "It is because we have obtained great advantages in Spain." The house of Austria is base enough for this part of the story to be true; for at the very time while preparations were making for the marriage festivals at Vienna, and for illuminating the city, at that very time Hofer was put to death by Buonaparte, and not one effort was made to save him by the unfeeling and worthless family which he had served so well!

Berthier was sent to Vienna as embassador on this occasion. At the first public entertainment given in honour of him, a transparency was exhibited, representing Fame supporting two imperial crowns, on which were the initial letters of Napoleon

and Louisa; under this was a winged genius uniting the arms of France and Austria, and decorating them with a crown of myrtle and laurel. The ceremony of formally demanding the archduchess took place on the eighth of March; and when Berthier addressed the future empress, telling her that her august parent had gratified the wishes of the emperor his master, he added, that political considerations might have influenced the determination of the two sovereigns, but the first consideration was that of her happiness. "It is above all, madam, your heart," said he, "that the emperor my master wishes to obtain of you. It will be delightful to behold the Genius of Power united on a great throne with those attractions and graces which render it beloved." This flower of eloquence was too late for the transparency, and as we were at war with France, it could not even serve as the subject for an embellishment in the Ladies Magazine, to which it would have been so well adapted. The portrait of Buonaparte was then presented upon a velvet eushion, and appended to the bosom of the archduchess by the grand mistress. Buonaparte requested Prince Charles to officiate as proxy, telling him, that he knew not a worthier prince, nor a greater general; and that the two battles in which they were opposed to each other in the last war had so covered him with glory, that he was anxious this solemn proof should be given of his sense of the prince's merits. "Be pleased then," said he, "to perform for me this interesting act, which tends to secure the tranquillity of Europe, and, by giving my hand to the Princess Louisa, efface every thing that is not inseparably connected with a perpetual friendship between

France and Austria." Prince Charles felt no humiliation at being thus reminded of Aspern and of Wagram; of a victory which he had shown himself incapable of pursuing, and a defeat which had made him consent to purchase peace by the abandonment of principle and of honour. He replied to Berthier, that he was equally flattered by the emperor's choice, and penetrated by the delightful sentiment, that this alliance would efface all traces of political dissention, and that the moment in which he should present the hand of the archduchess in token of a reconciliation, as frank as it was faithful, would be the most interesting of his life.

Buonaparte met the princess at Compiegne. The first part of the marriage ceremony, which, according to the new laws of France, was the civil marriage, was performed in the palace of St Cloud, on the first of April. The parties declared, that they took each other in marriage; and then the prince archchancellor, in the name of the emperor and the law, declared that they were urited. The religious ceremony took place on the following day in the chapel of the Louvre ; an estrade, with a canopy over it, was erected in front of the altar, upon which two chairs of state were placed, with a praying desk, for Buonaparte and his bride. Close to the altar stood two large wax-tapers, in each of which twenty pieces of gold were incrusted, and a bason, containing thirty pieces of gold and the marriage ring, was laid upon the altar. At the bottom of the steps were two cushions for their majesties, and at the top, three chairs for the grand almoner and the two assistant bishops. To the right of the altar the cardinals were seated, and the bishops on the left. The whole of the procession

having taken their appointed places the Veni Creator was chaunted, and the grand almoner pronounced a benediction on the thirty pieces of gold and the ring. This being done, Buonaparte and the princess, taking off their gloves, advanced to the foot of the altar, and there took each other by the right hand, while the grand almoner said, "Sire, you declare that you acknowledge, and you swear before God, and in the face of his holy church, that you now take as your wife and lawful spouse her Imperial and Royal Highness Madame Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Austria, here present?" "Yes," having been replied, he continued, "You promise and swear to be faithful to her in all things, as a faithful husband ought to be toward his spouse, according to the commandinent of God?" The same form was repeated to the princess, with this distinction only, that the word acknowledge was omitted, that word implying the validity of the previous civil marriage; but if Maria Louisa did not consider the civil marriage as valid, with what conscience did she regard the civil divorce from Josephine, by virtue of which she was now becoming the wife of a man actually under excommunication?

The grand almoner then delivered the pieces of gold one by one to Buonaparte, who presented them in like manner to his new empress, and she transferred them to one of her maids of honour. Buonaparte next, receiving the ring from the minister, placed it upon her finger, saying, "I give you this ring in token of the marriage which we contract ;" and the grand almoner, making the sign of the cross upon her hand, pronounced them man and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Kneeling then, and holding

VOL. III. PART I.

each other by the right hand, they received the nuptial benediction; they then resumed their seats and went through the ceremony of kissing the gospels, after which they advanced to the altar, each bearing one of the tapers with the twenty pieces of gold incased in it, which they delivered as their offering to the grand almoner. High mass was now performed, during which they were repeatedly perfumed with incense and sprinkled with holy water. During the propitiare they kneeled on the cushions placed for them, under a canopy of silver brocade, which was held over them by an archbishop and a bishop. They received the sacrament, and the ceremony was concluded by a Te Deum.

To mark the epoch of his marriage, as he said, by acts of indulgence and benevolence, Buonaparte proclaimed a free pardon to all deserters who had deserted before the year 1806, and to all whose desertion was of later date, on condition that they returned to the army; all unpaid fines imposed by judgement of the police were remit ted, and a pardon granted for all for mer offences; and 6000 girls were to be married to so many retired soldiers of their communes; those who belonged to Paris with a dowry given them of 1200 francs, and those from the rest of the empire with half the sum : 12,000 dishes of meat, 12,000 loaves, and 144 pipes of wine, were distributed by lottery among the poor. When Buonaparte received the congratulation of the senate on his intended marriage, he replied to the president, "that he was happy in having been called by Providence to reign over a people of so much feeling and so affectionate, and that the Empress Maria Louisa would be a tender mother to the French." This was a happy

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