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of the judges had more than one reas son for feeling in common with the prisoner. To the surprise of all, Mar. shal Ney declined the authority of the court-martial, and requested to be judged in conformity to the ordinance of the king of 24th July. The court

martial, by a majority of five Nov. 9. to two, declared themselves incompetent to the task im posed on them, glad, perhaps, to have gotten rid so easily of an office, in discharging which it would have been difficult for them, placed as they were, to have reconciled their feelings to their duty. It is not so easy to judge what could be the motives of the accused, in declining a court where he might assuredly have expected consi derable favour.

Two royal ordinances appeared immediately, one of which appointed the Chamber of Peers to proceed to the trial of Marshal Ney, as a peer of France, accused of high treason; and the second provided the rules and forms to be used on the occasion. All previous obstacles being thus removed, this celebrated soldier was at length brought to trial before the Nov. 21. Chamber of Peers. Accused of the same crime with Labedoyere, his conduct shewed the difference betwixt the feelings of a man who has committed such an act from enthusiasm, and one who had, against his own conviction of his duty, fatally yielded to the temptation of the moment. Ney confessed his error with a humility that approached to meanness: He had been misled, he said, but he was incapable of voluntary and premeditated treachery. Since he had yielded to the culpable weak ness of the time, he had not enjoyed a moment's peace of mind. He had of ten meditated blowing out his own brains, and almost regretted he had not adopted that desperate remedy. This contrition availing nothing, he

VOL. VIII. PART I.

endeavoured to shelter himself under that article of the capitulation of Pa ris, which promised, that no one should be molested on account of political opinions. It was replied, that these conditions were granted by the allies in their own name, and were only in. tended to regulate their own actions, but that the Duke of Wellington and Prince Marshal Blucher pretended to no right of pardoning the state crimes committed against the King of France, nor did they mean to extend their protection to such criminals as were within the walls of Paris, beyond what was necessary to protect them from military violence. This plea being therefore repelled, the unfortunate Marshal was directed to hold himself ready to expiate his guilt by a violent death.

Efforts were made to save Ney's life, by an attempt upon the prison of the Conciergerie, where he was confined; and by invoking the interference of the Duke of Wellington, in favour of a man forsaken, as it were, by the whole world. The British general did not think himself entitled to act as mediator between so great an offender and the prince whom he had betrayed. Every door of hope was now closed. The sentence of death being read to the criminal, he interrupted the speaker as he detailed his rank and titles Michael Ney," said he," and presently a heap of dust-that sums it all." A Vendean grenadier of La Roche Ja quelein's army reminded him of religious duties: « I have been in many battles," said the veteran," and always fought the better of having made my peace with God." The Field Marshal yielded to the suggestion, and sent for a confessor. When the fatal moment arrived, he was transported in a coach to the gardens of the Luxem bourg palace. When he perceived the detachment drawn up for his execu

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tion, he resumed the dauntless demea nour of the "bravest of the brave," committed his case to posterity, or dered the soldiers to aim straight at his heart, received the fire, and expired. Alas! what can posterity learn from the history of Ney, excepting that great personal courage and consummate military skill may unite in the same character with much political versatility, and a total want of fixed and steady principle.

Lavalette, director of the posts under Buonaparte, was next brought to trial for assuming the exercise of his ancient office the morning after the king left Paris. But his condemna tion and escape from punishment, which are connected with the assist ance he received on that occasion from three English gentlemen, fall properly under the annals of 1816.

While the King of France adopted these political and judicial measures for the regulation of his government and the intimidation of future offenders, his situation, in relation to the allies, had become painful and embarrassing in the extreme. Nothing could be so strongly contrasted as the manner and conduct of the allied monarchs- towards the French at the first and second occupation of Paris. In 1814, the incident resembled the first weeks, or honey-moon, as it is termed, of an union, from which the parties have formed the most extravagant hopes of future happiness. In 1815, the scene was rather like the forced accommodation, by which a couple, who have separated from incompatibility of temper, are compelled once more to take up their residence together. There was doubt, fear, shame, jealousy, and vindictive resentment, to darken, with all their various hues of shade, the political atmosphere of Paris. The allies, on their first entrance, had subjected the metropolis to a heavy contribution. This was followed by others;

and the quartering of two large armies, supplied with every necessary at the charge of the country, was a heavy burthen to Paris and its environs, even had the Prussians used the rights of war less severely. As their disposition did not lead them to spare the French, their presence would have been intolerable, but for the strong compulsion of necessity. And although the English did not assume the same licentious exertion of authority, yet their army being supplied by requisitions, the exactions necessary for this purpose were grievously felt by the country. To render the French more impatient, and their king more embarrassed, the allied armies continued to advance into France, to possess themselves by force of some barrier fortresses, and to besiege others, although the gar risons had made a submission (in ap. pearance at least) to Louis XVIII, their ally. The ministers of the French king remonstrated against these encroachments. "The allied sovereigns,” they said, "declare that they only made war against Napoleon, and yet all their measures belie their words, since at the present moment, when the war ought to be finished, it is only about to commence. The present position of France is so much the more afflicting, as were war openly declared (which it is not), it is utterly impossible that she could suffer in a greater degree all its evils, and all its horrors Every where, wherever the armies are (always excepting the English), pillage, fire, rape, and murder, have been carried to their fullest extent; avarice and vengeance have left nothing for the officers or soldiers to desire. To speak with freedom, they exceed even the atrocities of which the French armies have been too often justly accused. These measures can have no other results than to extend the limits of this devastation. The armies spread themselves in our provinces,

and all the horrors which we have depicted follow in their train "

ters, retreated across the frontier, with assurances on either side of the highest consideration.

The Prussians had, from the commencement, shewn the greatest severity against the French. The magnificent bridge of Jena was undermined by the order of Blucher the day after the allies had obtained possession of Paris, and would have been blown up but for the earnest interference of the Duke of Wellington. They were also rigorous in exacting requisitions, and were maintained so much to their satisfaction, that they declined to receive the pay due to them by their own state until they should return to their native country;--a patriotic resolution, which prevented France from being benefited by the spending of that money, and at the same time prevented the soldiers from acquiring those bad habits incident to the possession of more than is necessary for their maintenance.

But the allies replied, that, without doubting the inclinations of Louis XVIII., for whom they professed much regard and attachment, they were determined, on this second occasion, to exact such indemnities and guarantees as should effectually secure both Louis and themselves against the risk of future loss, risk, and disturbance, from the mutability and enterprizing ambition of the French people. The discussing the basis and conditions on which the peace was to rest, added new difficulties to the thorny crown worn by Louis XVIII. As a grateful ally, who had been just restored to the crown by the auxiliary forces of the confederated sovereigns, it seemed ungracious and unbecoming in Louis to cavil at the stipulations which they deemed it necessary to adject to the peace, for his sake as well as their own, while, as an independent monarch, he was bound to resist arti- In the excesses imputed to the allies cles which went to place the country the English had no share. They were which he was called to rule, entirely exculpated, as we have seen, from the at the mercy of foreign powers. slightest accession to them, even by Talleyrand and Fouché, in the report which accuses the troops of the other powers. They chanced, however, to be called upon to assist in a great act of national justice, more humiliating and more offensive to the pride of the French nation than any injury that could have been offered to them.

The allied sovereigns, however, had the power, and seemed determined effectually to use it. The French not only groaned under the burthen of free-quarters for eight hundred thou sand men, but heavy requisitions, imposed from time to time, were applied to the clothing and subsistence of the troops. Nay, an army of eighty thousand Spaniards, after all opposition on the part of France had long ceased, penetrated beyond the Pyrenees, for the purpose, it may be presumed, of sharing the spoils of the once Great Nation, since no other object can be assigned for their march. The Duke of Angouleme, after much correspondence, convinced these forward assist ants that the house of Bourbon had no occasion for their aid, and they, af. ter living for some time at free quar

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The splendid collection of pictures and statues deposited in the great Mu seum in the Louvre, had been assembled, as the spoils of war, from Italy, Flanders, and Germany, and the proprietors now demanded back those specimens of art, of which they had been unjustly deprived. The French provisional government so greatly apprehended the dispersion of this collection, that they endeavoured to make its integrity one of the conditions of the surrender of Paris. Blu

cher replied, that there were in the Louvre pictures belonging to Prussia, which Louis XVIII. had promised, during the preceding year, to restore, and he sternly refused to cede the right of his monarch to the recovery of his property. The French commissioners offered to make the Prussian pictures an exception; upon which the Duke of Wellington replied, that he was there as representative for the other powers of Europe, and could not agree to give up the rights which they also claimed in these fruits of spoliation. He recommended the omission of the article demanded, and the reserving the affair for the discussion of the sovereigns. Early in August, the Prince-Marshal removed, without ceremony, the pictures which he claim ed on the part of Prussia and her dependencies; and as they were not of the very first order, little notice was taken of the measure. But Sept. 11. in the course of the next month, Lord Castlereagh, in the name of the Prince Regent, de manded the restoration of the various master-pieces of art to the countries from which they had been transported. He required, in name of the allies of Britain, more especially the weak and helpless, a restoration of the ornamental spoils which had been rended from them by violence.

"The allied sovereigns," said this spirited representation," have perhaps something to atone for to Europe, in consequence of the course pursued by them, when at Paris, during the last year. It is true, they never did so far make themselves parties in the criminality of this mass of plunder, as to sanction it by any stipulation in their treaties; such a recognition has been, on their part, uniformly refused; but they certainly did use their influence to repress, at that moment, any agita tion of their claims, in the hope that France, not less subdued by their ge.

nerosity than by their arms, might be disposed to preserve inviolate a peace, which had been studiously framed to serve as a bond of reconciliation between the nation and the king. They had also reason to expect that his majesty would be advised voluntarily to restore a considerable proportion, at least, of these spoils to their lawful

owners.

"But the question is a very different one now, and to pursue the same course, under circumstances so essentially altered, would be, in the judgment of the Prince Regent, equally unwise towards France, and unjust towards our allies, who have a direct interest in this question.

"His Royal Highness, in stating this opinion, feels it necessary to guard against the possibility of misrepresen tation.

"Whilst he deems it to be the duty of the allied sovereigns, not only not to obstruct, but to facilitate, upon the present occasion, the return of these objects to the places from whence they were torn, it seems not less con. sistent with their delicacy, not to suffer the position of their armies in France, or the removal of these works from the Louvre, to become the means, either directly or indirectly, of bringing within their own dominions a single article which did not of right, at the period of their conquest, belong either to their respective family-collections, or to the countries over which they now actually reign.

"Whatever value the Prince Regent might attach to such exquisite specimens of the fine arts, if otherwise acquired, he has no wish to become possessed of them at the expense of France, or rather of the countries to which they of right belong, more especially by following up a principle in war, which he considers as a reproach to the nation by which it has been adopted; and so far from wish:

ing to take advantage of the occasion to purchase from the rightful owners, any articles they might, from pecuniary considerations, be disposed to part with, his Royal Highness would, on the contrary, be disposed rather to afford the means of replacing them in those very temples and galleries, of which they were so long the ornaments."

Whatever might be the internal conviction of Louis XVIII. concerning the justice of what was required of him, the dishonour of yielding up spoils in which the nation gloried so much, and the sense of the unpopula. rity it would bring on his reign, induced his ministry to evade, as long as possible, compliance with the demand. In the meanwhile, the commissioner of the King of the Netherlands, receiving no answer concerning the paintings of the Flemish school which belonged to his master, required of the Duke of Wellington, as commander in chief of his master's troops, the means of enforcing restoration of his master's property. The duke laid the question before the ministers of the allied monarchs, who judged the request reasonable; and, as all milder applications failed, the pictures were removed under the escort of an armed force. The Italian States, and others, who had been plundered of those treasures of art, now put in their claim for restitution, and the halls of the Louvre were stripped of its most valuable or

naments.

-The French might have forgiven the British general the battle of Waterloo and the taking of Paris, but the removal of these pictures, to which they attached so much consequence, as marking at once their long train of conquests, and ascertaining the right of Paris to be termed the first city for the arts, they never can, and they never will, pardon. Every French man, of what political sentiments so

ever, royalist, imperialist, or constitu tionalist, considered the removal of the first paintings and first statues, from the first city in the world, as an act of sacrilege, too horrible to be thought of, or looked upon. The princes of the house of Bourbon shut themselves up in their palace; the connoisseurs shed tears of anguish and resentment; Denon, the celebrated guardian of these ravished treasures, was literally seized with a fit of the jaundice; and the very porters and crocheteurs of Paris refused to lend their assistance to remove the subjects of art, though high pay was offered them.

The late ministers of Louis failed not, in a Memorial, which we have already quoted, to hold up this among other aggressions of the allies, as one of the grounds on which, in despair of the safety of the commonwealth, they tendered their resignation. "Foreigners," said they, "possess France as a conquered country; to civil discords they add the ravage of provinces; they dissipate the funds which ought to find their way into the treasury; they devour the provisions of the people, who are threatened with an approach. ing famine; they carry off the magazines of arms, the ammunition of war, and the cannons from the ramparts of our cities. The white flag floats only over ruins! They despoil us of our public monuments, the tokens of our former glory; they seize the monuments of art, which alone remain to us after twenty years of conquest. It is dishonour, sire, which the people are most reluctant to pardon, and your majesty has remained silent in the midst of all these attacks on the national honour!"

It was easy to reply to this tirade, that three years of defeat had cancelled the claim founded on twenty years of victory; and that their own national vanity, which had ascribed the forbearance of the foregoing year to fear on

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