the French position: the right wing was stationed at Dienville, and the left at Chaumenil and Giberie. The prince of Wirtemberg, on this occasion, strenuously contended with marshal Victor; drove him from the left, was dislodged in his turn, but recovered and maintained the post. Count Guilay attacked the right, but could not force it before midnight. Sacken's movements were directed against the centre, and with great difficulty and loss he expelled the enemy from La Rothière, which he defended against a personal attempt of the French emperor for its recovery. The French, after a considerable loss, made a retrograde movement towards Troyes and Arcis.

The Austrian and Prussian armies now continued their advance towards Paris, prince Schwartzenberg proceeding along the banks of the Seine,while Blucher chiefly guided his course by the Marne. General D'Yorck overtook the rear-guard of Macdonald's army, and gained such an advantage as led to the capture of Chalons. Napoleon having retreated to Nogent, the prince of Wirtemberg took possession of Troyes and Sens.

Alarmed at the progress of Blucher, whose troops were within three marches of the capital, Napoleon resolved to make a bold attempt to save it. He attacked and defeated at ChampAubert the division of general Alsufieff, too distantly situate to be assisted. General Sacken now advanced; and his division, aided by that of Yorck, fought with obstinacy at Montmirail, but with doubtful success.

Blucher, when apprised of the advance of Marmont, determined on attacking that general at Etoges; recalled by this movement, Napoleon encouraged Marmont to face his adversary at Vauchamp. The battle which ensued on the 14th of February was almost entirely a contest between the French cavalry and the allied infantry, and Blucher found a retreat expedient.

Napoleon, elated with his success, now turned his arms with redoubled confidence against the prince of Schwartzenberg, who had sent detachments within forty miles of Paris. Count Wit genstein was also attacked at Nangis, by a force which he was too weak to withstand. Three attacks were made on the army which occupied Montereau and its vicinity, and all were repelled by the prince of Wirtemberg; but a fourth assault compelled him to retreat.

Blucher, now sensible of the danger of a march not sufficiently connected with the Anstrian army, moved from Chalôns with 55,000 men, with a view to a more effectual co-operation with it.

At this juncture (1st of March) a new treaty of alliance and subsidy was signed at Chaumont, by lord viscount Castlereagh, the representative of England, with prince Metternich, count Nesselrode, and baron Hardenberg, the ministers of Austria, Russia, and Prussia. Negociations with Napoleon were opened at Chatillon, but his ultimatum was peremptorily rejected.

Napoleon now crossed the Aisne, and attacked the left wing of the allies with such vigor as to make a considerable impression; the con

sequence was a retreat to Laon. In the front of that town Blucher concentrated his army, which considerably exceeded that of the French, Bulow occupied the town and an adjacent conical hill. The corps of Winzengerode, Sacken, and Langeron, formed the right; and the left positions were defended by Yorck and Kleist. Napoleon, having failed in an attack on this position, now retired to Soissons.

In the south-west of France lord Wellington resumed offensive operations by the seizure of Orthes, and the whole British army passed the Adour, when the citadel of Bayonne was closely invested.

On the 12th of March the important city of Bourdeaux was occupied by a detachment under the command of marshal Beresford. This event was the result of a counter-revolutionary movement, favored by the mayor and principa! inhabitants, who, mounting the white cockade, declared for the Bourbons. The duke d'Angouleme, nephew to Louis XVI., entered Bourdeaux with the British troops. Lord Wellington then marching against Soult, the latter proceeded to Tarbes, from which place he was driven with considerable loss.

We left Napoleon making his second advance against Blucher, whose army (3rd of March) effected a junction with Winzengerode and Bulow at Soissons. On the 9th he repulsed Napoleon, who, after a severe action on that and the following day, retreated at all points, with the loss of forty-eight pieces of cannon, and between 5000 and 6000 prisoners. This success induced Schwartzenberg again to advance, and the Austrian and French armies now made a desperate struggle for the possession of Vitry. Napoleon, however, took the road to St. Dizier with his whole army, his plan being, as discovered by an intercepted letter, to push between the two allied armies. The discovery of his intentions produced an immediate determination of the allied generals to unite their forces, and march to Paris.

On the 27th of March the grand allied army had its head-quarters at Coulomier. On the following day Blucher passed the Marne at Meaux. On the 29th the corps of Marmont and Mortier entered Paris, in which there had been previously assembled a body of regular troops, with 30,000 national guards.

The allies were posted with their right towards Montmartre, and their left towards the wood of Vincennes, when prince Schwartzenberg addressed a proclamation to the people of Paris, in which, acquainting them with the presence of the army of the allies before their city, whose object was a sincere and lasting reconciliation with France, he said, 'The attempts hitherto made to put an end to so many calamities have been fruitless, because there exists in the very power of the government which oppresses you an insurmountable obstacle to peace.'

But the fate of the French emperor was not to be decided without another struggle. On the 30th of March, the French army, under the command of Joseph Buonaparte, assisted by marshals Marmont and Mortier, took a position on the heights near Paris, in a long line, the

centre of which was protected by several redoubts, and more than 150 pieces of cannon. An attack was immediately determined on by the allies, and it was commenced by the two princes of Wirtemberg. After an obstinate resistance the heights were carried the success of the day, however, was for some time retarded by an accident which delayed the advance of Blucher; but at length the positions gained by the allies, and the losses of the French, induced the latter to send a flag of truce proposing a cessation of hostilities. By the capitulation that followed, Paris was evacuated on the morning of the 31st of March by the troops of Marmont and Mortier, carrying with them all their military appurtenances. On the same day the allied sovereigns entered Paris, attended by their guards. The emperor of Russia then issued a declaration, expressing the intentions of himself and his colleagues. It affirmed, that they would no more treat with Napoleon Buonaparte, nor with any of his family; that they respected the integrity of France as it existed under its legitimate kings; and that they would recognise and guarantee the constitution which France should adopt. The senate assembled on the 1st of April, Talleyrand, prince of Benevento, being appointed president. Their first act was to pass a decree for a provisional government, consisting of five persons, the president himself being at their head. By a second decree it was asserted, that in a constitutional monarchy the monarch exists only in virtue of the constitution or social compact. It then proceeds to prove the violation of that compact by Napoleon Buonaparte in various specified articles; and pronounced, 'that he had forfeited the throne, and that the hereditary right established in his family was abolished.'

Napoleon, thus out-manœuvred both in his military and political capacity, moved his army from Troyes by the way of Sens; and, arriving at Fromont on the 30tli, retired in confusion to Fontainbleau, whence, on the 4th of April, he sent a deputation to the senate, offering to submit to its decision. The emperor of Russia afterwards proposed to him to name a place which he should choose as a residence for himself and his family, when he nominated Elba, an island lying on the coast of Tuscany. On the 11th of April a treaty was signed between him and the allied powers, by the articles of which he and his spouse Maria Louisa were to retain the imperial title, with the isle of Elba in full sovereignty; the empress likewise was to be put in possession of the duchies of Parma and Placentia, with succession to her son and descendants. A pension of 2,000,000 of francs was assigned to Napoleon from the revenues of France, with the reversion of 1,000,000 to the empress, and 2,500,000 in various proportions to his relatives. To this treaty, however, the British ministry refused its concurrence, farther than respected the assignment of Elba to Napoleon, and of the Italian duchies to Maria Louisa. The war, however, did not immediately cease. In a contest for the possession of Toulouse much blood was shed: the allies, however, obtained it. In a sortie from Bayonne some loss

was also sustained; but these hostilities at length yielded to an armistice. In Italy, an expedition was undertaken by lord William Bentinck early in the spring, whose object was to annihilate the French influence over the Genoese. With the aid of commodore Rowley he reduced the city of Genoa, and left it at the disposal of those powers which were proceeding to a settlement of the affairs of Europe.

Louis XVIII. now repaired to London, and, having received from the good citizens the most gratifying marks of respect, proceeded to Dover, and on the 24th of April embarked in a royal yacht, convoyed by the duke of Clarence. For his reception in France, see FRANCE.

A definitive treaty of peace between France and the allied powers was signed at Paris on the 30th of May 1814. This famous treaty, in conformity to the liberal professions of those powers, was, in respect to France, equitable and honorable; guaranteeing to her the boundaries existing on the 1st of January 1792, with some slight additions of territory on the side of Belgium and Germany, and a considerable portion of Savoy, including Chambery and Annecy. The navigation of the Rhine was declared free; the house of Orange was recognised in its newly assumed sovereign capacity; and the German states were united in a federal league. Switzerland was destined to remain independent; but Italy was once more doomed to receive the yoke of despotism. Great Britain restored her conquests to France, with the exception of Tobago, St. Lucia, and the Mauritius. Malta was confirmed to England; and France engaged to erect no fortifications in India: she also engaged to co-operate with Great Britain in the abolition of the slave trade.

Before the allies reached Paris, the impossibility of preserving Spain had prompted Napoleon to release Ferdinand from captivity; and, trusting to his authority and influence, that prince quietly entered Spain by a different route from that which the regency had recommended, and proceeded to Valencia. Here he issued two decrees stigmatising the existing cortes as illegally framed and composed; and, having condemned the new constitution, dissolved the assembly.

The parliament of Great Britain, which, pursuant to their adjournment, assembled on the 1st of March 1814, again adjourned to the 21st of that month; but the business of the session possessed comparatively little interest.

The war between Great Britain and the United States of America was in this year carried on with an increase of vigor and force, which indicated a serious intention of bringing it to a speedy termination; in fact, that intention was first displayed by measures towards a pacific negociation. On the 7th of January the president communicated to congress copies of letters which had passed between lord Castlereagh and Mr. Munroe, in which the former proposed the appointment of plenipotentiaries to treat on terms of peace, either at London or Gottenburg; which proposal was accepted by the president, who made choice of Gottenburg. Such a step was rendered the more expedient to the American government, by the open opposition to the war manifested in the northern states.

The military operations on the coasts of the southern American states had hitherto been rather of a harassing and predatory kind, than directed to any important purpose; but it was now resolved to strike a blow in this quarter, which might exert an influence on the fate of the war. A large naval force under the command of viceadmiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, having on board a strong body of troops commanded by majorgeneral Robert Ross, was in the Chesapeake the beginning of August, waiting for the arrival of the rear-admiral Malcolm with an expedition from Bermuda. On their junction the admiral was informed, by rear-admiral Cockburn, that the American commodore Barney, with the Baltimore flotilla, had taken shelter at the head of the Patuxent. Of this circumstance they determined to take advantage for ascending the river, with the declared purpose of an attack upon Barney, while their real object was the city of Washington, the American capital.

On the 19th and 20th of August, the army being landed at that place, general Ross began his march to Washington; the force of the Americans for its protection having been ascertained to be such as would justify an attempt to take it by a coup de main. Arriving on the 24th within five miles of the capital, he found the Americans, to the number of 8000 or 9000, strongly posted to dispute his advance. An attack on them was immediately directed; and it was made with so much impetuosity, that they were in a short time wholly dispersed, and the British army reached Washington in the evening of the same day. No time was lost in commencing the work of destruction, which was the main purpose of the expedition. The public buildings, &c. committed to the flames were, the capitol, including the senate-house and house of representatives, the president's palace, the arsenal, the dock-yard, treasury, war office, rope-walk, the great bridge across the Potomac, a frigate ready to be launched, and a sloop of war, in the dockyard. On the following night a retreat was commenced, and the army, having met with no molestation on its return, was on the 30th reimbarked.

The American president on this issued a proclamation, in which he spoke of the devastation at Washington as a measure of extreme and barbarous severity; and mentioned that the British naval commander on the station had avowed his purpose of destroying and laying waste such towns and districts on the coast as should be found assailable, under the pretext of retaliation for the ravages committed in Upper Canada, though none such occurred but what had been shown to be unauthorised. He then called upon all officers to be alert and vigilant in providing the means of defence.

The negociations for peace, which had been removed from Gottenburg to Ghent, commenced in August 1814; and on the 24th of December a treaty of peace and amity between Great Britain and the United States was signed, which afterwards received a ratification from both governments. The articles of this treaty chiefly related to the disputes respecting boundaries, for the determination of which it was agreed that

commissioners should reciprocally be appointed. Both parties covenanted to continue their efforts for the abolition of the slave trade. No notice whatever was taken of the circumstances which had occasioned the war.

This year was rendered memorable by a concourse of visitors to the English capital, surpassing in number and rank any modern example. In the beginning of June arrived the emperor of Russia, with his sister the duchess of Oldenburg, and the king of Prussia and his two sons, attended by various persons of high distinction. Prince Metternich, prince Czernicheff, and generals Blucher, Barclay de Tolly, Platoff the hetman of the cossacks, &c., were among the number. The king of Prussia appeared to labor under deep dejection. After a residence of some weeks, in the course of which the sovereigns were magnificently entertained by the city of London, these illustrious guests returned to the continent, much gratified. For the circumstances in France leading to the return of Napoleon, see FRANCE.

6

When the allied powers had received certain information of Napoleon's descent, they issued a manifesto, dated the 13th of March, in which they declared, that Napoleon Buonaparte, by violating the convention which had established him at Elba, had placed himself out of the pale of civil and social relations; and, as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world, had rendered himself liable to public vengeance.' They therefore announced, without reserve, their determination of uniting their efforts to secure Europe against any attempt which might threaten to replunge it into revolutionary disorders.

Nor was this a mere menace. The declaration was confirmed by a treaty, dated March 25th, which bound each of the four powers to bring 150,000 men into the field, and not desist from their exertions until they should have rendered Napoleon wholly incapable of disturbing the tranquillity of Europe. England was permitted to substitute pecuniary payment for a part of the stipulated force.

The whole of France now seemed to unite in favor of the emperor, who, having mustered his resources (see FRANCE), quitted Paris to meet his enemies for the last time early in June.

The close of the last year had left the whole fortified frontier of the Belgic provinces, on the side of France, occupied by strong garrisons, chiefly of British troops, or of such as were in British pay. From the commencement of the alarm excited by Napoleon's attempt, reinforcements had been unremittingly sent from England, and the duke of Wellington had arrived to take the supreme command of the British and foreign troops. In the latter part of May the Prussian army, commanded by prince Blucher, arrived in the neighbourhood, and frequent conferences relative to co-operation were held by the two generals. The principal French army was at this period posted near Avesnes in Flanders, and preparations for defence against invasion had been made at Laon and the castle of Guise.

On the 12th of June Napoleon proceeded to Laon. In strict conformity with his usual plan

700,000,000 of francs, to be divided among the allies, and defrayed by modes and at periods specified in a separate convention. Conditions so degrading Marlborough and Eugene had never offered to impose after ten victorious campaigns. Such, however, was the mode adopted by the allies to maintain the imbecile monarch on his inglorious and improvident throne;-such the bitter cup of humiliation to be drained by that country, after so many triumphs over her neighbours, enjoyed with so little moderation.

Since the assumption of the regal title by the house of Orange its prudence and moderation had been conspicuous. Subsequent to the battle of Waterloo, in which the prince had displayed all the heroism of his ancient house, a committee had been appointed to draw up a constitution for the Seventeen Provinces. This was afterwards laid before an extraordinary assembly of the States of the United Netherlands, by whom it was unanimously accepted. In September the ceremonial of the king's inauguration took place at Brussels, with every mark of general satisfac

tion.

It is now time that we glance at the domestic concerns of Great Britain during 1815. In the parliamentary discussions which arose on the royal message of the 22nd of May, and its concomitant documents, lord Castlereagh stated, that Austria, Russia, and Prussia had engaged to furnish contingents in the following proportion :-Austria 300,000, Russia 225,000, Prussia 236,000 men; and the other states of Germany 150,000. Great Britain and Holland 50,000 each ; and Britain to advance the sum of £5,000,000 in subsidies.' The measures of the ministry were supported by vast majorities in both houses, and the almost unanimous voice of the nation. Yet there were a few individuals in each house, distinguished for talent and integrity, who deprecated this warlike policy.

The estimate of expenditure for the present year was of a magnitude exceeding all precedent; the amount being £80,000,000 for Great Britain, and £10,000,000 more for Ireland. To meet this astonishing demand, the war taxes were continued to the height. Two successive loans were negociated for £45,500,000, and a vote of credit passed for £6,000,000. Subsequent to the victory of Waterloo the additional sum of £200,000 was voted to the duke of Wellington; and, in addition to the parliamentary and royal honors and rewards conferred on the conquerors of Waterloo, a national and truly noble subscription of nearly £500,000 was raised for the relief of the soldiers disabled by wounds, and the widows of the slain. On presenting the money bills for the royal assent, the speaker of the house of commons addressed the prince regent in terms of the highest exultation. Parliament was prorogued 11th July.

After a long recess, the parliament re-assembled on the 1st of February, 1816. The return of peace, though it brought security in its train, did not diminish the burdens of the nation in that degree which was expected. A large standing army was maintained; and it was the intention of the ministry to continue the odious tax on property, not altogether at its full amount,

but with a reduction of five per cent. This excited a general alarm. Notwithstanding the presentation of numerous petitions against the impost, the chancellor of the exchequer ventured to propose its continuance; but the spirit of the house revolted from it: and when it was exploded, by a majority of thirty-seven votes, the shouts which arose from the unexpected popular triumph resounded over the whole neighbourhood.

The debates respecting the new settlement of the civil list were warm and acrimonious.

Soon after the opening of the session Mr. Brougham moved for the production of a copy of a treaty entered into at Paris, on the 26th of September, 1815, between the sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, and which had received the sign-manual of those potentates. By the tenor of this singular document, which received the name of 'The Holy Alliance,' being couched in the most devout and solemn language, the high contracting parties declared their resolution to take for their sole guide, both in their domestic administration and foreign relations, the precepts of the holy religion of Christ their Saviour. Politicians were much perplexed to comprehend the meaning of an engagement at once so vague and so serious, and the production of it was resisted by lord Castlereagh, though he admitted that the prince regent had been urged by a joint letter of the three sovereigns to accede to it, and had in reply expressed his satisfaction with the nature of the treaty, and given an assurance, that the British government would not be one of the least disposed to act up to its principles. Subsequent events seem to indicate, that a resolution to support the authority of each other against any revolutionary movement among their own subjects, was the true object of this mystical combination.

During the session a message from the prince regent announced the approaching marriage, with his consent, of his daughter the princess Charlotte Augusta, with his serene highness Leopold George Frederick, prince of Saxe Coburg-Saalfeld, who had visited England in the train of the confederate sovereigns. His royal highness expressed his persuasion of the concurrence of the house in enabling him to make such provision on the occasion, as might correspond with the dignity and honor of the country. It was consequently proposed by the chancellor of the exchequer, and unanimously agreed to by the house, that an income of £60,000 should be settled on the illustrious pair; of which £10,000 were to form a sort of privy purse for her royal highness, and the remainder was to defray the domestic expenses of the prince of Coburg; this sum to be settled on them for their joint lives. Should the prince of Coburg die first, the whole was to be continued to her royal highness; if he should be the survivor, the sum of £50,000 was to be continued to him. The allowance to the princess from the civil list of £30,000 a-year was to cease.

From the period of the restoration of king Ferdinand VII. to the Spanish throne, his reign had been characterised by a series of uncontrolled bigotry, cruelty, and despotism.