him in command of the French armies, he had always stood upon the vantage ground. When he first poured down from the Alps, like one of their own avalanches, upon the Austrians in Italy, he had for his support the whole resistless and frenzied strength of the French Revolution; to resist him he had but the harassed and scattered armies of a foreign power in the midst of a discontented and revolutionary people. Under the foot of the Austrian soldier the ground was a morass, every step was insecurity, until at last the whole successive armaments of Austria gradually sank and were absorbed. When he assailed Germany, he plunged with fierce and characteristic confidence into the midst of powers long incapable of sincere combination. He found jealousy, where nothing but mutual and generous reliance could have saved the Continent, coldness for zeal, and secret, dishonourable cupidity, in place of manly self-denial, and royal sacrifice. He was at the head of a force against which the armies of any single power must be dissolved, like clouds against a mountain range, and he found them all single, or united but by a nominal bond. He penetrated between those unwieldy and ill-connected bodies with fearless facility. He overwhelmed them with a tide of military power that cut off all refuge. He tore his way through those ancient and crumbling governments, like a cannon ball. But in all this, he had behind him France, full of fiery enthusiasm, elated with secure triumph, revelling in sudden plunder, and mad with ambition of universal conquest. The whole country one immense magazine of the materials of hostility: Every man a soldier, and every foot of the soil teeming with combustion. At the head of such a nation, he went forward to battle as to victory, the presiding ge nius of war. But all was now changed. France was exhausted. Her renowned legions had perished in the desert; and what was more ominous, her fiery spirit was laid. The enthusiasm of the Revolution had hitherto borne up even her despot, like Milton's Satan, on its sulphurous and burning blast, but it had sunk, and he sank with it. His whole art, and the fearful exigency of this empire, could raise but 225,000 men, of whom one-fourth were the dubious contingent of the vassal States, and the remainder chiefly recruits drained from the workshop and the cottage. The French finances, long sustained by foreign spoliation, were now forced to contribute out of their decaying funds the expenses of this final preparation; and Napoleon was at length to hazard his crown and his glory with a bankrupt treasury, and an army that had never seen a shot fired. All was now to be dependant on the man himself; and he showed powers equal to this terrible yet magnificent responsibility. His activity, the great talent of all who are to shape the fates of nations, was in this crisis put forth with preeminent vigour. He had left his defeated army at Smorgonie on the 5th of December 1812. On the 5th of April 1813, he was on his road to Saxony, where he had already mustered the last army of France. Before the Allies could have known this, he was in the field-he was in order of battle. On the 2d of May, he attacked them at Lutzen, and forced them to retire after a long and dubious struggle, in which the Prussians fought with the desperation of national vengeance. He gave no time to pause; and on the 21st of the same month, he renewed his attack at Bautzen, and, though with immense waste of life, pushed the allies into Silesia. Germany was now open once more, and he grasped the whole, he seized at once Hamburg, Breslau, and Dresden. Then, according to his custom, in the height of victory, he proposed an armistice in Silesia, preparatory to a congress at Prague, by which, as of old, he was to secure less what he had won, than a dominant point from which more extended conquest was to lie before his eye. But here his fortunes turned. Austria was the grand point of negotiation. Her armies being withdrawn from the war, had resumed their ancient strength, and on whichever side they fought, they must turn the scale. Large concessions were offered to Napoleon as the son-in-law of the Empe ror. But his eyes were dazzled by recent victory, and he was to be undone. He rejected them with disdain. On the 10th of July, Austria signed the treaty with the Allies. The news was received by the Austrian armies with a general acclamation. The time was come to wipe off the disgrace of Ulm and Austerlitz. The war now assumed a shape of vastness and grandeur unexampled in the annals of hostility. It was no longer army against army, but a great conflux of nations, roused by the loftiest and the most universal impulses of our nature against the power of tyranny. The philosopher came from his study, the student from his college, the peasant followed his lord, and all poured into the field to fight the great battle of civilization. The splendour of this illustrious armament of Europe was as unrivalled as its spirit. Its Kings came at the head of their people. Every sovereign of the Continent was in the field. Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, the princes of all the minor States, led on their troops, sword in hand. At the head of all was Alexander. Napoleon was now on the eve of ruin. He was suddenly encircled with a circle of fire, that hourly drew closer round him. Defeat came first rolling back on him from Silesia, where Mac donald had been crushed by Blucher and his Prussians. A brilliant march of the allies on Dresden forced him to its defence, and the manoeuvre, though repelled, and costing the life of Moreau, wounded in the battle of the 27th of August by Alexander's side, broke upall Napoleon's plan of the campaign. To take advantage of the positions of the north of Germany was now hopeless. He must retreat, and retreat by the route all but dictated by the enemy. He retreated on Leipzig, and in its front fought a battle worthy, from its obstinacy, its magnitude, and its slaughter, to be the final battle of French supremacy. It lasted three days. Napoleon was driven into Leipzig, and even condescended to negotiate for his retreat. This was haughtily refused. The city was taken by storm, the French rear-guard cut off, and Napoleon driven with the remnants of his broken power headlong over the Rhine. The 19th of October, the final day of this deliverance, is kept, and will long be kept, as a day of religious festival in Germany. On the 30th of October, the last Frenchman had cleared the land; and France, already thunderstruck with remote de feat, was henceforth to feel the storm ravaging her bosom. During this extended trial of men kingdoms, the Russian Emperor laid the first foundations of that ho nour which belongs to the memory of great public services. He was unwea ried in the general cause. He exposed himself to the common casualties of soldiership with manly gallantry. He even submitted to the severer trial of humbling his pride as a monarch, and at the head of a conquering army, to the capricious punctilios of the allied sovereigns. He suffered his troops to be commanded by the Prussian, Swedish, and Austrian generals, He put the command in chief of the whole allied force into the hands of Schwartzenberg, the Austrian Field-Marshal, and deigned to follow him as scarcely more than a spectator. But even in this temporary submission, his presence was of the most indispensable importance. His high authority, which relieved the generals of all indecision; his presence with the troops, cheered by his sharing their chances, and by the consciousness that their gallantry would be seen by the great distributor of praise and honours; his readiness of application as a settler of accidental discontents, and his generous and un questionable zeal acting with a noble contagion on the multitude of sove reigns and chieftains of whom he was the mightiest, made Alexander the true leader of this most superb and colossal of all wars. He is now where no flattery can reach him; and tributes like this are but justice. Let it be inscribed on his tomb, THAT HE WAS A KING WHO HAD A GRAND DUTY TO DO, AND BY WHOM IT WAS GRANDLY DONE! This is but truth; yet what can panegyric say more? The war now hurried to a close. In January 1814, Schwartzenberg, with 120,000 men, crossed the Rhine be tween Bale and Schoffhausen. Blucher led over the Silesian army between Manheim and Coblentz. They found the country desolate. Their troops spread loosely over Champagne, and captured city after city with easy success. A treaty between England, Russia, and Prussia, by which they agreed to keep up a combined army until a peace, was signed at Chaumont on the 14th of February. Terms were once more offered to Napoleon at Chatillon. A fortunate repulse of an al lied detachment elated Napoleon into the frenzy of rejecting his last chance of sovereignty. The allies suddenly turned from him, and marched upon Paris. On the memorable 30th of March, 150,000 men attacked the suburbs, and in the evening the capitulation was signed by Marmont. Napoleon, recovered from his delirium of success, was at that moment upon their heels. At seven o'clock he had reached the heights of Villejuif; but the can nonade had ceased. An officer reached him with the appalling intelligence that Paris had surrendered but an hour and a half before! After a moment of astonishment and inward struggle, he gave the word "for Fontainbleau." On the 31st of March, Alexander, at the head of the allied armies, made his triumphal entry into Paris. On the 3d of May, Louis was restored; and the seal was set upon the hopes of Napoleon, ་ All that follows is still before the public eye. The return of Napoleon from Elba-the war with the Allies-and that most glorious and decisive battle in which England snatched the unshared laurel from the brow of France, and at a single blow cleft the crown of the revolutionary empire finally and for ever. The Congress of Vienna had been opened on the 3d of the preceding November; and by it Alexander was recognized King of Poland. But the most remarkable transaction of this period, was the formation of the Holy Alliance. The document on which this extraordinary league was founded is but little known; and as it has been the subject of much dispute, and may long influence the polity of the greater States, it is here given entire:➡ "In the name of the most holy and indivisible Trinity.-Their Majesties the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Russia, having, in consequence of the great events which have marked the course of the last three years in Europe, and especially of the blessings it hath pleased Divine Providence to shower down upon those states, which place their confidence and their hope on it alone, solemnly declare that the present act has no other object than to publish in the face of the whole world their fixed resolution, both in the administration of their respec tive states, and in their political relations with every other government, to take for their sole guide the precepts of that holy religion, namely, the precepts of justice, Christian charity, and peace, which, far from being applicable only to private concerns, must have an immediate influence on the councils of princes, and guide all their steps, as being the only means of consolidating human institutions, and remedying their imperfections. In consequence, their Majesties have agreed to the following articles: "ARTICLE I.-Conformably to the words of the Holy Scriptures, which command all men to consider each other as brethren, the three contracting monarchs will remain united by the bonds of a true and indissoluble fraternity; and considering each other as fellow-countrymen, they will on all occasions, and in all places, lend each other aid and assistance; and regarding themselves towards their subjects and armies as fathers of families, they will lead them in the same spirit of fraternity with which they are animated, to protect religion, peace, and justice. "ART. II.-In consequence, the sole principle in force, whether between the said Governments or between their subjects, shall be that of doing each other reciprocal service, and of testifying by unalterable good-will, the mutual affection with which they ought to be animated; to consider themselves as members of one and the same Christian nation. The three allied Princes, looking on themselves as merely delegated by Providence to govern three branches of one family, namely, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, thus confessing that the Christian nation, of which they and their people form a part, has in reality no other sovereign than Him, to whom alone all power really belongs, because in Him alone are found all the treasures of love, knowledge, and infinite wisdom,—that is to say God, our Divine Saviour, the Word of the Most High,-the Word of Life! "Their Majesties consequently recommend to their people, with the most tender solicitude, as the sole means of enjoying that peace which arises from a good conscience, and which alone is durable, to strengthen themselves every day more and more in the principles and exercises of the duties which our Divine Saviour has taught to mankind. "ART. IIL-All the princes, who shall choose solemnly to avow the sacred principles which have dictated the present act, and shall acknowledge how important it is for the happiness of nations, that those truths should henceforth exercise over the destinies of mankind all the influence which belongs to them, will be received with equal ardour and affection into this HOLY ALLIANCE. "Done in triplicate, and signed at Paris, the year of Grace, 1815. Sept. 14th. "(L. S.) FRANCIS. The recent death of this distinguished sovereign is at length, after a crowd of conjectures of poison and conspiracy, attributed to its right cause. He had spent the autumn in travelling about the sea-shore of the Crimea, a region of romantic beauty, and then in its loveliest season. In November, riding with General Woronzoff, the Governor of the Crimea, in the neighbourhood of his country-seat, the Emperor, always a lover of nature, was so much struck with the landscape, as to utter these words: "If I should one day retire from the cares of government, I should wish to pass my old age in this spot." Filled with feelings to which this thought probably gave rise, he rode up to a monastery within view, and alone entered the church to pray. He remained upwards of an hour in this sacred offering. This hour was the signal of his death. The chill of the damp church had struck into him. On his return, he complained of cold and exhaus tion; but, in his habitual dependence on the strength of his constitution, he refused medical assistance. A low fever hung upon him for a fortnight. It now became hazardous. Medicine was administered; but, after five days of struggle, this mild, generous, and high-minded man was no more! He died on the morning of the first of December. His last words were characteristic at once of the quiet of his mind and his susceptibility to nature. He had ordered the curtains to be drawn aside that he might have a last look of the sun. It was a fine morning. He threw up his eyes, and exclaiming," Ah, le beau jour !" dropped back on his pillow, and expired! Whatever may be the destinies of Russia, whether she is to be torn by intestine feuds, or to retain her rank at the head of the Continent, it will not be denied that it was Alexander who placed her in that supremacy. The policy of her former sovereigns, the casualties of the neighbour states, the natural progress of a young nation suddenly come to its inheritance of civilization, might have prepared Russia for the eminence to which she has risen. But to the fortune or the merit of the late Emperor was consigned the honour of fixing her in her European throne. Whoever had put the sword into the hands of Russia, she owes her sceptre to Alexander. TO A WOOD-PIGEON. HAVE I scared thee from thy bough, Ring-dove beauteous! is the face O'er their human victims gory; And time hath been, when veiled Religion Truly 'twas an erring choice- In sequester'd haunts like thine, And ardent Genius structured high And sharing not in Time's declension Time was once, when Man, like thee Near the river's yellow foam, Beneath the spreading tree. Cities then were not ;-he dwelt In the cavern's twilight chamber; And in adoration knelt, When the morn with clouds of amber, Or the wild birds singing round him, Then, with quiver'd shafts he bound him Rapidly thou wing'st away- Again-and now I see thee not- Of the world's tempestuous sway, Where Life's stream, beneath Care's willows, Δ. |