"The article of the Convention which it is supposed has been broken, is the 11th, which relates to public property. I positively deny that this article refers at all to the Museum, or Gallery of Pictures.

"The French Commissioners, in the original projet, proposed an article to provide for the security of this description of property: Prince Blucher would not consent; as he said there were pictures in the gallery, which had been taken from Prussia, which bis Majesty Louis the 18th had promised to restore, but which had never been restored. I stated this circumstance to the French Commissioners; and they then offered to adopt the article, with an exception of the Prussian pictures. To this offer I answered, that I stood there as the Ally of all the nations in Europe; and any thing that was granted to Prussia, I must claim for other nations. I added, that I had no instructions regarding the Museum, or any grounds on which to form a judgment how the Sovereigns would act; that they certainly would insist upon the King's performing his engagement, and that I recommended that the article should be omitted altogether, and the question should be reserved for the decision of the Sovereigns, when they should arrive.

"Thus, the question regarding the Museum stands, and the Treaty or Convention of Paris is silent upon it: but there was a communication upon the subject, which reserved it for the decision of the Sovereigns.

"Supposing the silence of the treaty of Paris of May 1814, regarding the Museum, gave the French Government an undisputed claim to its contents upon all future occasions; it will not be found that this claim was broken by this transaction. Thus I acted for the French Government at the time I considered that the successful army had a right, and would touch the contents of the Museum; and they made an attempt to save them by an article in the Military Convention. This article was rejected, and the claim of the Allies to their pictures was broadly advanced by the negotiators on their part, and this was stated as the ground for rejecting the article. Not only then the Military Convention did not itself guarantee the possession; but the transaction above recited, tended to weaken the claim of possession by the French Government, which is founded upon the silence of the Treaty of Paris of May 1814.

"The Allies, having the contents of the Museum justly in their power, cannot do otherwise than restore them to the countries from which, contrary to the practice of civilized warfare, they had been torn during the disastrous periods of the French Revolution, and the tyranny of Buonaparté.

"The conduct of the Allies regarding the Museum, at the period of the treaty of Paris, might be fairly attributed to their desire to conciliate the French army, and to consolidate the reconciliation with Europe, which the army at that period manifested a disposition to effect.

"But the circumstances are now entirely different: the army disappointed the reasonable expectations of the world, and seized the earliest opportunity of rebelling against their Sovereign; and of giving their services to the common Enemy of mankind, with a view to the revival of the disastrous period which had passed, and of the scenes of plunder which the world had made such gigantic efforts to get rid of.

"The army having been defeated by the armies of Europe; they have been disbanded by the united councils of the Sovereigns, and no reasons can exist why the Powers of Europe should not do justice to their own subjects, from any view to conciliate that army again; neither has it once appeared to me to be necessary that the Allied Sovereigns should omit this opportunity to do justice, and to gratify their own subjects, in order to gratify the people of France.

"The feeling of the people of France upon this subject, must be founded on national vanity only. It must be a desire to retain these specimens of the arts, not because Paris is the fittest depository for them, (as on that subject, artists, connoisseurs, and all who have written upon it, admit that the whole ought to be removed to their ancient seats,) and because they were obtained by military success, of which they are the trophies.

"The same feeling which induces the people of France to wish to retain the pictures and statues of other nations, would naturally induce other nations to wish, now that success is on their side, that the property should be returned to its rightful owners, and the Allied Sovereigns must feel a desire to gratify

them.

"It is besides on many accounts desirable, as well for their own happiness as that of the world, that the people of France,

if they do not already see that Europe is too strong for them, should be made sensible of it; and that, whatever may be the extent, at any time, of their momentary and partial success against. any one, or any number of the individual Powers in Europe, that the day of retribution must come. Not only then would it, in my opinion, be unjust in the Sovereigns to gratify the people of France on the subject, at the expense of their own people; but the sacrifice they would make, would be impolitic, as it would deprive them of the opportunity of giving the people of France a great moral lesson.

Paris, Sept. 23, 1815.

"Sir,

"I am, &c.

"WELLINGTON."

Paris, Oct. 19, 1815.

"As my conduct has been publicly animadverted upon, for not having allowed the property plundered from Prussia by a banditti to remain in the Museum of the Louvre; I have only to remark, that ably supported by the Illustrious Wellington, I pursued the thieves, who had despoiled many of the Nations of Europe of their inestimable Monuments of the Fine Arts; I attacked and dispersed them, and restored to my country the plunder they had unjustly taken, spurning the idea of negotiating with the French Commissioners on the subject: and they may now thank Providence, for our not following their base example." "BLUCHER."

To General Count Mufflin, Governor of Paris.

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange,* hurried by ardour into the midst of the battle, was surrounded and taken by the French. The seventh battalion perceived the Prince's danger, hastened to his assistance, and succeeded in delivering bim; his Royal Highness took off the insignia of his order, and threw it into the midst of the battalion, exclaiming: "Children, you have all deserved it!"-It was fastened to their colours on

* An eye-witness, who was travelling on the French frontiers, January 16th, personally witnessed the activeexertions of the Prince of Orange, in collecting the forces, and giving notice to the distant corps of the commencement of hostilities, and from H. R. H. in person, at Brussels, the Duke of Wellington first learned that hostilities had commenced. Editor.

the field of battle, amid cries of "Long live the Hereditary Prince!" All the Belgians swore to defend, even to death, this mark of honour: and at this sublime moment, many of these brave men fell, whilst pronouncing this patriotic oath.

"Towards the close of the day, when he saw the lines were bending, he was at the head of his people, cheering and exciting them, amidst the hottest fire, when his Royal Highness received a musket-ball in his left arm, which lodged in his shoulder. (Vide Dutch Account.)

"BRUSSELS, July 26.-The French cannon brought from La Belle Alliance, are placed here upon the Esplanade, without the gate Du Rivage, till they shall be embarked for England. They are 87 in number, as well cannon as howitzers. Some have the cyphers of " Louis XIV." others have the words "Liberty, Equality," and the greater number the cypher of Napoleon; fifty others are expected in a short time. We have received from the head-quarters of Prince Augustus of Prussia, an account of the surrender of Landrecies, to the arms of his august Sovereign. The capitulation in nine articles was annexed to the dispatch. The place is given up to the Prussian troops; the garrison to march out with the honours of war, and repair either to the French army, or disperse and go home. They kept two cannon, drawn by four horses. The French troops lay down their arms on the glacis, except fifty men per battalion, and the company of Veterans, whom his Royal Highness permits to retain their arms, on account of the honourable, brave, and distinguished conduct of the garrison. The officers keep their swords; the subalterns and members of the Legion of Honour, their side-arms, and all their private property. The property of the inhabitants to be respected, and no one to be molested for his political opinions, or for his conduct previous to the capitulation."

A foreign regiment (Cumberland Hussars), extremely well horsed and appointed, and soldier-like in appearance, were ordered by the Commander-in-Chief of the cavalry, to place themselves under line, on the brow of a hill; and, from being raw soldiers, he would not put them to any difficult service, but gave the conditional orders, that if the charge he was about to make with an English brigade succeeded, they were then to ride in and cut away:-for the performance of this, the most earnest entreaty was

made, and the strongest promise given, that every attention should be paid to the direction--the charge was made, and completely succeeded, and the Enemy in the greatest confusion. The noble Earl then looked round for his gallant supporters-but they had turned their horses' heads, and were trotting away towards Brussels; an Aide-de-Camp was immediately dispatched, and, notwithstanding every possible remonstrance, and even contemptuous language, addressed to the Colonel, to stop them was impossible; and it was then begged as a favour, and entreated of them, not to go further than Waterloo-it was all useless, to Brussels he would go, and to Brussels he went.* This, although a great disappointment, was attended with such outré (and it may be said comic) effect, that every one who noticed it, notwithstanding their serious occupation, were convulsed with excessive laughter, and among them the noble Duke himself. The men, however, to do them credit, it is understood, have brought their Colonel to an account.

The gallant Duke of Brunswick met his fate in a farm-yard, which he had just entered, when the Enemy's light troops, who were stationed about the out-houses, fired, and brought down this hero with ten others.

A letter from a Life-guardsman, speaking of the havock made among the Cuirassiers of the Imperial Guard at the Battle of Waterloo, contains the following homely, but emphatical description: Until we came up with our heavy horses, and our superior weight of metal, nothing was done with the Cuirassiers; unless one got now and then a cut at their faces, not one of them gave way; we therefore galloped at them, and fairly rode them down; when they were unhorsed, we cracked them like lobsters in their shells, and by the coming up of the cannon afterwards, thousands of them were squeezed as flat as pancakes."

A Life-guardsman, who, from being bald, was known among his comrades by the appellation of the Marquis of Granby, had his horse shot under him; in the charge his helmet fell off, and on foot be attacked, and had a contest with a Cuirassier, whom he killed, mounted his horse, his comrades in the meanwhile cheering him with-" Well done, Marquis of Granby."

One man of the Scots Greys, from Ayrshire, has eighteen

*This event contributed much to the panic at this place. Vide Circumstantial Details, Page 9.