"66. No fortress, nor portion of territory, can be de- | in the face of Europe, a formal declaration of our inclared in a state of siege, but in case of invasion by a tentions. foreign force, or of civil broils. In the former case, "When Heaven and the nation recalled us to the the declaration is made by an act of the government. throne, we solemnly pledged ourselves before God, to In the latter, it can only be done by the law. How-forget past injuries, and to labour without intermission ever, should the two chambers not then be sitting, the for the happiness of our subjects. The descendants of act of the government declaring the state of siege must St. Louis have never betrayed either Heaven or their be converted into a plan of law within a fortnight after country. the meeting of the chambers. "Already had our people recovered, through our care, plenty at home, peace abroad, and the esteem of all nations;—already had the throne, weakened by so many shocks, begun to be firmly established, when treason compelled us to quit our capital, and to seek refuge on the confines of our states. Europe, however, has taken up arms.-Europe, faithful to its treaties, will recognise no other king of France except ourselves.-Twelve hundred thousand men are about to march, to secure the repose of the world, and, a second time, to deliver our fine country. “67. The French nation moreover declares, that, in the delegation which it has made and makes of its powers, it has not meant, and does not mean, to give a right to propose the reinstatement of the Bourbons, or any prince of that family on the throne, even in case of the extinction of the imperial dynasty; nor the right of re-establishing either the ancient feudal nobility, or the feudal or seignorial rights or titles, or any privileged or predominant religion; nor the power to alter the irrevocability of the sale of the national domains; it formally interdicts to the government, the chambers, and the citizens, all propositions on that sub-strength is at present made up of artifice and delusion, ject.-Given at Paris, April 22, 1815. This additional act was offered to the acceptance or rejection of the French people. Every Frenchman, who had attained to years of maturity, was invited to inscribe his vote for or against it, in registers which were opened in every town and district. These votes were to be collected, and the grand result published at the Champ de Mai, which was convened on the 26th of May. The army and navy were also invited to deliberate on the act, and to transmit their votes of approval or dissent. Louis XVIII., with his little circle of faithful adherents, was now at Ghent, whence he issued several proclamations, which were the theme of ridicule among the myrmidons of Buonaparte, or were only deemed important as they were connected with the operations of the allies. The proclamation of the 12th of April is, however, particularly entitled to notice, on account of the moderation which it breathes, and the avowal which it contains respecting the resolution of the allies to re-establish the legitimate sovereign on the throne of France: "Ghent, April 12, 1815. * At the moment when we are about to place our selves amid our people, we consider that we owe them, "In this posture of affairs, a man, whose entire endeavours to lead astray the spirit of the nation by his fallacious promises, to raise it against its sovereign, and to drag it along with him into the abyss, as if to accomplish his frightful prophecy of 1814: If I fall, it shall be known how much the overthrow of a great man costs.' "Amid the alarms which the present perils of France have revived in our hearts, the crown, which we have never looked upon but as the power of doing good, would to our eyes have lost all its charms, and we should have returned with pride to the exile in which twenty years of our life were spent in dreaming of the happiness of the French people, if our country were not menaced for the future with all the calamities which had been terminated by our restoration,-and, if we were not the guarantees for France, to the other sovereigns. The sovereigns who now afford so strong a mark of their affection cannot be abused by the cabinet of Buonaparte, with the Machiavelism of which they are perfectly aware. United by the friendship and interests of their people, they march without hesitation to the glorious end where Heaven has placed the general peace and happiness of nations. "Thoroughly convinced, in spite of all the tricks of a policy now at its last extremity, that the French nation has not made itself an accomplice in the attempts. of the army, and that the small number of Frenchmen who have been led astray must soon be sensible of their error, they regard France as their ally. Wherever they shall find the French people faithful, the fields will be respected, the labourer protected, and the poor succoured. They will reserve the weight of the war to let it fall on those provinces, who, at their approach, | had more than half that number. Three hundred refuse to return to their allegiance. "This restriction, directed by prudence, would sensibly afflict us, if our people were less known to us; but, whatever the fears may be with which it is endeavoured to inspire them with respect to our designs, since our allies make war only against rebels, our people have nothing to dread; and we rejoice to think that their affection for us shall not have been altered by a short absence, nor by the calumnies of libellers, nor by the promises of the chief of a faction, too well convinced of his weakness not to caress those who ardently wish his destruction. thousand Austrians were ready to penetrate into France; two hundred and twenty-five thousand Russians had almost advanced to the frontiers, and six corps of Prussians, comprising in the whole two hundred and thirty-six thousand men, were ready to enter France in various directions. If to these we add the contingents from the different states of Germany, amounting to one hundred and fifty thousand men, it will appear that a million of soldiers were under arms, for the express purpose of terminating the usurpation of Buonaparte. Nor were these armies merely formidable on account of their immense numbers: they were also commanded by the most renowned generals of the age; some of whom had already fought successfully against the Cor "On our return to our capital, a return which we consider to be near at hand, our first care shall be to recompense virtuous citizens, who have devoted them-sican, and others had acquired equal reputation by selves to the good cause, and to labour to banish even the very appearance of those disasters which may have withdrawn from us some of the French people. About this time à circumstance occurred, which, though productive of no political consequences, must have been peculiarly grateful to the feelings of Louis. In commemoration of his public entry into his capital, on May 3, 1814, and the loyal attachment which the national guard had expressed towards him, the king had declared that on the anniversary of that day, he would commit himself to their protection, and they alone should perform the duty of the Thuilleries. When the 3d of May approached, thirty young men of respectable families, and belonging to the national guard, secretly left Paris, and effected their escape to Ghent; where they concealed themselves till the morning of the 3d, when they unexpectedly appeared before their colonel, the Count D'Artois, and demanded the fulfilment of the king's promise. The prince immediately conducted them to his august brother, who was moved even to tears, at this proof of their affection. He most cheerfully acceded to their request, and, having dismissed his household troops for the day, the venerable monarch, though in exile, had the pleasure to see himself surrounded and protected by the guards of his capital. The warlike preparations of the allies were continued without intermission. When Louis first took up his abode at Ghent, the British troops in Belgium did not consist of more than fifteen thousand men, the Belgian force did not equal that number, and the Prussians in Luxemburgh, and the vicinity of Cleves and Juliers, scarcely exceeded forty thousand. Before the middle of June, however, the British force was augmented to sixty thousand men, and the king of the Netherlands vanquishing every marshal who had been opposed to them. Prince Schwartzenberg was appointed to the chief command of the Austrians, having under his orders Field-marshal Bellegarde, and Generals Frimont, Vincent, and Bianchi. The Russians were headed by the grand Duke Constantine, seconded by Generals Barclay de Tolly, Langeron, and Sacken. The heroic Blucher headed the Prussians with Generals Kleist, Yorck, and Bulow; and the British and Belgians were commanded by the Duke of Wellington, assisted by the Prince of Orange, the Duke of Brunswick, Generals Picton, Beresford, Clinton, and many other officers of established celebrity. The continental sovereigns also resolved once more to take the field in person, that their presence might excite the enthusiasm of their respective troops. Buonaparte had but three hundred thousand men on the frontiers to oppose against this overwhelming force. The national guards, indeed, were in reserve, amounting to two millions of men, but he was well aware that there was little probability of inspiring them with zeal in his cause. The additional act had weakened his popularity, and destroyed his influence. It was too late, however, to retract. The contest must be attempted, and his only hope rested on the possibility of some brilliant enterprise which might cut off the advanced columns of the allies, and by carrying the war into the enemy's country, encourage the disaffected to declare on his side. His emissaries were now actively employed in all parts of Europe, transmitting intelligence of the state of public opinion, and the preparations of the allied sovereigns, or executing his secret orders. At Brussels, two of his agents were detected under circuinstances truly ludicrous. At the hotel Bellevue, a French family was arrested, in consequence of the discovery that a letter was en closed in the collar of their dog, containing some inte- | yielded to one of his paroxysms of passion, and acresting facts relative to the state. This animal was to cused the minister of holding a traitorous communica have been despatched with a servant on the following tion with Louis XVIII. Cambaceres took no notice of day as courier extraordinaire. this accusation, but persisted in his opposition to the decree; and the usurper, after his rage had subsided, consented to a proposition of the minister, which commanded all emigrants to return within one month, and present themselves before some civil authority, in which case a free pardon was granted; but all who neglected or refused to avail themselves of the amnesty were punishable with death. A short time afterwards, a young lady of condition arrived at the same hotel with a suite of domestics. As one of her household passed along the saloon of the hotel, he was recognised by an officer as an emissary of Buonaparte. Information was immediately given to the police, and proper persons were despatched to investigate the affair. As the officers entered the lady's apartment, they observed a man in a peasant's dress, coming out of her chamber with a brown loaf under his arm. On perceiving the unwelcome visitors, he hastily descended the staircase, singing "Vive Henry Quatre !" and, keeping his right eye in an enquiring direction over his shoulder. On the officers entering the lady's room, she instantly tore in pieces a letter, which proved, on uniting the fragments, to be a despatch from an agent of the French government. It is hardly necessary to add that the lady and her attendants were properly disposed of. The seeming peasant, on being secured, attempted to give his loaf to a woman who was begging in the street; but the officers, suspecting from his solicitude to get rid of his bread, that there was something more than usual in the affair, seized the loaf, and, on breaking it, discovered several letters for Paris, one of which was directed to Buonaparte himself. France, in the mean time, was agitated by increasing discontents, and many of the departments broke out into open insurrection. In Languedoc, Bretagne, and Anjou, numerous armed bands appeared, and contended with various success against the forces of the usurper. Alarmed by these occurrences, and discovering that, even in Paris, an extensive correspondence was carried on with the Bourbons, Napoleon one day proposed at the council, a domiciliary visit through the capital, to search for papers and suspected persons. This despotic measure, which would have reminded the people of the worst periods of the revolution, was strongly opposed by the Duke of Otranto. Buonaparte, incensed at his opposition, demanded his portfolio. "There it is," replied the duke, "but I will not answer for your life to-morrow." This menace startled the Corsican, who, after a moment's consideration, returned the portfolio with an apology for his hastiness. In several parts of Bretagne, confederacies had been formed, the members of which professed "to consecrate all their means to the propagation of liberal prin ciples;-to support the public spirit during the present crisis, and to oppose all disorders;-to maintain public security in the interior, and to march to all places in the province which might be threatened by foreign or domestic foes. To employ all their influence and credit to keep each other in the line of his duty to his prince and his country;-to bear succour effectually and promptly at the first requisition of the public authority;-to defeat all plots against the constitution and the emperor;-and to lend each other mutual assistance and protection." Buonaparte thought that something of this kind might be brought forward in Paris ; and accordingly despatched secret emissaries into the suburbs of St. Antoine and St. Marceau, the inhabitants of which had acted so promment a part in all the most sanguinary and disgraceful scenes of the revolution, to induce them to enter into similiar confederations. This scheme proved successful. Fifteen thousand men enrolled themselves, and demanded arms; and, to render the affair as public as possible, a day was appointed in which they were to be reviewed in the court of the Thuilleries. Accordingly, on the 14th of May, these dregs of the people, in a thousand different and disgusting habits, marched into the courts of the palace; and, on Napoleon appearing in front of the line, an orator deputed from their body addressed him to the following effect: "Sire! "We received the Bourbons with indifference and apathy, because we love not kings imposed upon us by the enemy. We received you with enthusiasm, because you are the object of the national choice, the defender of the country, and because we expect from you a glorious independence and judicious freedom, We have come, on the present occasion, to make a tender of our arms, our courage, and our blood, for the safety of He then proposed that the punishment of death should be denounced against every emigrant. Here, however, Cambaceres interfered, and asserted that a decree so unnecessarily cruel and unjust, would excite the indignation of France and of Europe. Buonaparte again | the capital. "The greater part of us have combatted under your | her cause was committed to such defenders. And even orders. We are almost all old defenders of our coun- the soldiers did not hesitate to express their astonishtry. Our country may, therefore, confidently place ment and indignation. "Behold," said some of them, arms in the hands of those who have shed their blood" the masters of our master! Where is the great Nain her cause. Give to us, sire! arms in her name. We poleon? We no longer recognise the conqueror of swear, in your presence, to fight only in our country's Europe the emperor whose court was composed of cause and in yours. We are not the tools of any the kings of Spain and Naples, of Saxony and Bavaparty, nor the agents of any faction. We only wish ria, of Wurtemberg and Westphalia. We see only the to preserve the national honour, and to render the en- emperor of a mob !" trance of the enemy into this capital impracticable, in the event of its being menaced with a new insult. Conquerors, by our own courage and your genius, we shall resume our toils with pleasure and alacrity; and we shall be better able to appreciate the blessings of peace, when we shall obtain, as the price of twentyfive years of sacrifices, a liberal constitution and the monarch of our choice. "Sire! you will triumph. We rejoice by anticipation at a victory so legitimate, and at the glorious and permanent tranquillity which will result from it. Yes, sire, we have an assurance that when our enemies shall renounce the chimerical hope of prescribing laws to us, you will love peace as you love glory. We shall be indebted to you for liberty and happiness; and all France, now ready to fight, if necessary, will love you as a good king, after admiring you as the greatest of 66 Tranquil as to the result of the contest, I shall proceed to the frontiers to manœuvre the army, and to defend our territory, if the allied sovereigns shall dare to attack it. The honour of the French, the rights of the people, and my throne, are under your protection, and under that of the people of the country and the villages. We will cause the national sovereignty and independence to be respected." This reply was received with loud and repeated acclamations, and the federates dispersed, proud of the honour which had been conferred upon them. The rational friends of liberty, however, augured ill, when The deputations from the electoral colleges, in the mean time, arrived but slowly, and the lists of votes from several of the departments had not yet been received: but as the impatience of the public began to be loudly expressed, and as Buonaparte himself was anxious to join the army on the frontiers, the assembly of the Champ de Mai was appointed to be held on the ninth of June. The Champ de Mai, or Champ de Mars, is a large plot of ground in front of the military school, bordered on each side with avenues of trees, which extend from the school almost to the banks of the Seine. In the early p riods of the French monarchy, the general assemblies of the nation were held in this place. The objects of those meetings were to frame new laws, to lay the complaints of the people before the king, to adjust differences among the barons, and to review the national forces. It was called the Champ de Mars, because the assembly took place in the month of March. In the middle of the eighth century, Pepin transferred it to the month of May, as a milder and more convenient season. After this, it was ealled either the Champ de Mars or the Champ de Mai. "Never did a festival more national," says one of the Paris journals, "or a spectacle at once so solemn and touching, attract the attention of the French people— every thing that could interest and elevate the soulthe prayers of religion-the compact of a great people with their sovereign-France, represented by the select of her citizens, agriculturists, merchants, magistrates, and warriors, collected around the throne-all excited the most ardent enthusiasm of which the most memorable epochs have left us the recollection." Yet this was the tenth constitution which had been presented and accepted in a similar manner.-The throne appears to have been erected in the centre of a semicircular inclosure, two-thirds of which formed, on the right and left, grand amphitheatres, in which fifteen thousand persons were seated. Buonaparte having taken his seat, mass was celebrated by the Archbishop of Tours, Cardinal Bayanne, and four other bishops. A deputation of five hundred members of the electoral colleges then advanced to the foot of the throne, and were presented by the arch-chancellor. M. Duboys D'Angers (one of the members, and representative of the department of the Maine and Loire) then pronounced the following address in the name of the French people: their promises. Tithes, feudal rights, privileges, every thing that was odious to us, were too evidently the fond objects of their thoughts, when one of them, to console the impatience of the present, assured his confidants, that he would answer to them for the future.' Every thing shall be attempted, every thing executed, to repel so ignominious a yoke. We declare it to nations: may their chiefs hear us! If they accept your offers of peace, the French people will look to your vigorous, liberal, and paternal administration for grounds of consolation for the sacrifices made to obtain peace; but, if we are left no choice between war and disgrace, the whole country will rise for war. The nation is prepared to relieve you from the too moderate offers you have perhaps made in order to save Europe from a new convulsion. Every Frenchman is a soldier: victory will follow your eagles; and our enemies, who rely on our divisions, will soon regret having provoked us." "Sire! the French people had decreed the crown to you; you deposed it without their consent; its suffrages have just imposed upon you the duty of resuming it. A new contract is formed between the nation and your majesty. Collected from all points of the empire around the tables of the law on which we are about to inscribe the wish of the people-in this wish, which is the only legitimate source of power, it is impossible for us not to utter the voice of France, of which we are the immediate organs,-not to say, in the presence of Europe, to the august chief of the nation, what it expects from him, and what he is to expect from it. "What is the object of the league of the allied kings, with that warlike preparation by which they alarm Europe, and afflict humanity? By what act, what violation, have we provoked their vengeance, or given cause for their aggression? Have we, since peace was concluded, endeavoured to give them laws? We merely wish to make and to follow those which are adapted to our manners. We will not have the chief whom our enemies would give us; and we will have him whom they wish us not to have. They dare to proscribe you personally; you, sire, who, so often master of their ca-clared, in the name of the emperor, that the act was pitals, generously consolidated their tottering thrones. This hatred of our enemies adds to our love for you. Were they to proscribe the most obscure of our citizens, it would be our duty to defend him with the same energy. He would be, like you, under the aegis of French law and French power. They menace us with invasion! And yet contracted within frontiers which nature has not imposed upon us, and which, long before your reign, victory and even peace had extended, we have not, from respect to treaties which you had not signed, but which you had offered to observe, sought to pass that narrow boundary. "Do they ask for guarantees? They have them all, in our institutions, and in the will of the French people henceforth united to yours. Do they not dread to remind us of a state of things lately so different, but which may still be re-produced? It would not be the first time that we have conquered all Europe armed against us. Because France wishes to be France, must she be degraded, torn, dismembered; and must the fate of Poland be reserved for us? It is vain to conceal insidious designs under the sole pretence of separating you from us, in order to give us masters with whom we have nothing in common. Their presence destroyed all the illusions attached to their name. They could not believe our oaths, neither could we rely on At the conclusion of this address, the whole Champ de Mars resounded with cries of "Vive la Nation! Vive L'Empereur !" At this moment the arch-chancellor proclaimed, that the additional act to the constitution of the empire had been accepted almost unanimously, the number of negative votes being only four thousand two hundred and six. The herald then de accepted by the French people. Buonaparte, then seating himself on another throne, which was in the centre, and overlooked the assembly, spoke in the following terms :— "Gentlemen, electors of the colleges of the departments and districts;-gentlemen, deputies of the army and navy, to the Champ de Mai: "Emperor, consul, or soldier, I derive all from the people. In prosperity, in adversity, on the field of battle, in council, on the throne, and in exile, France has been the sole and constant object of my thoughts and actions. Like the king of Athens, I sacrificed myself for my people, in the hope of realizing the promise given to preserve to France her natural integrity, her honours, and her rights. Indignation at seeing those sacred rights, acquired by twenty years of victory, disavowed and lost for ever; the cry of French honour tarnished, and the wishes of the nation, have replaced me upon that throne which is dear to me, because it is the palladium of the independence, the honour, and the rights of the people. "Frenchmen, in traversing, amidst the public joy, the different provinces of the empire to reach my capital, I had reason to rely on a lasting peace. Nations are bound by treaties concluded by their governments, |