freedom of religious worship was established in its fullest extent; and an ordinance was issued for commencing a general system of education.

Napoleon and his Ministers were at the same time not inattentive to the singular situation in which the country stood with respect to the other powers of Europe; and however slight their hopes of success must have been, they resolved to make such efforts to disarm the hostility of those powers, as would at least justify them in the eyes of the French people. On the 4th of April, Napoleon addressed a letter in his own hand-writing, to the various sovereigns of Europe, announcing his restoration to the throne of France, and expressing his anxious wish that the peace of Europe might be fixed on a permanent basis.* About

* The following is a translation of this celebrated letter.

"You will have learnt, during the last month, my return to the Court of France, my entrance into Paris, and the departure of the family of the Bourbons. The true nature of these events must now be made known to your Majesty. They are the work of an irresistible power, the work of the unanimous will of a great nation, who knows her duties and her rights. The dynasty which force had given to the French people, was no longer suited to them. The Bourbons would neither associate themselves to their sentiments, or their manners. It became the duty of France to separate herself from them. Her voice called for a deliverer. The expectations which had determined me to make the greatest sacrifices had been deceived. I am come, and from the point where I touched the shore, the love of my people conveyed me to the bosom of my capital.

the same time Napoleon published a justificatory manifesto, in which he endeavoured not only to repel the accusation which had been made against him in the Declaration of the Allies, of having violated the treaty of Fontainbleau, but to charge the infraction of it upon themselves and the Bourbons. After commenting with severity on the style of the manifesto, which he said countenanced the crime of assassination, he asserted that the

The first wish of my heart is to repay such affection, by the maintenance of an honourable tranquillity. The restoration of the Imperial throne was necessary to the happiness of the French. My sweetest thought is, to render it at the same time subservient to the maintenance of the repose of Europe. Enough of glory has shone by turns on the colours of various nations. The vicissitudes of fortune have often enough occasioned great reverses, followed by great successes.

"A more brilliant arena is now open to Sovereigns, and I am the first to descend into it. After having presented to the world the spectacle of great battles, it will now be more delightful to know no other rivalship in future, but that resulting from the advantages of peace, and no other struggle but the sacred one of felicity for our people.

"France has been pleased to proclaim with candour, this noble object of her unanimous wish. Jealous of her independence, the invariable principle of her policy will be the most rigid respect for the independence of other nations. If such then, as I trust they are, be the personal sentiments of your Majesty, general tranquillity is secured for a long time to come; and justice, seated on the confines of the various states, will be alone sufficient to guard their frontiers.

Allies had infringed the treaty, in the following particulars :-Ist, By not permitting the Empress Maria Louisa and her son to repair to the Emperor at Elba.—2d, Although the security of Napoleon, his family and suite were guaranteed by all the powers, yet bands of assassins were organized in France, whose designs were directed against the Emperor and his brothers; not only was an insurrection prepared at Orgon on his route to Elba, to attempt Napoleon's life, but the Sieur Brulart, an associate of Georges, had been sent as governor to Corsica to make sure of the crime.*

*The case of Brulart, according to Mr Boyce, was as follows: Napoleon, soon after his first assumption of the French Government, having pacified La Vendée, granted pensions to the chiefs of the royalists, on certain conditions— Some were to exile themselves from France for ever; some not to quit La Vendée, and others to reside constantly in Paris amongst the latter was the Sieur Brulart. Some time after the pacification, Brulart solicited permission for a friend who had stipulated not to leave La Vendée, to visit Paris. The request was granted by Buonaparte with apparent kindness; but the unfortunate man had no sooner arrived in the French capital, than he was seized and shot by the express command of Napoleon. Brulart fled, horror-struck, to England, from whence he wrote to Buonaparte, that as he had made him the innocent cause of the death of his friend, he would devote his life to avenge his blood on his murderer. The letter came into the hands of Buonaparte, who laughed at the menaces of the chivalrous enthusiast : but after the restoration, Brulart was appointed governor of Corsica, with directions to watch the island of Elba. For this purpose he fixed his residence at Bastia, from whence the passage to

3d, The spoliation, by the intrigues of Talleyrand, of the Duchies of Parma and Placentia, which had been given in full property to Maria Louisa, her son, and their descendants.-4th, The non-fulfilment of the stipulation to provide Eugene, the adopted son of Napoleon, with a suitable establishment out of France.-5th, Napoleon had been deprived of every means of rewarding his faithful followers.--6th, The plunder of his property in France by commissioned brigands, and in Italy by military chiefs.-7th, The non-payment by the French Government, of the two millions of francs per annum, assigned to himself; and of two millions five hundred thousand, assigned to his family, in consequence of which he would have been obliged to disband his faithful guards, had not some bankers and merchants of Genoa and Italy, generously advanced him twelve millions.-8th, In fine (said the Manifesto,) it was not without a cause that it was desirable by every means to remove from Napoleon the companions of his glory, the unshaken sureties of his safety, and of his existence.-The island of Elba was assigned to him in perpetuity; but the resolution of robbing him of it was at the instigation of the Bourbons, fixed upon by the

Elba might be made in a few hours. When Napoleon became acquainted with this circumstance, he recollected the letter, and from that moment secluded himself with the greatest caution from promiscuous society.

Congress. Had not Providence prevented it, Europe would have seen an attempt made on the person and liberty of Napoleon, left hereafter at the mercy of his enemies, and transported far from his friends and followers, either to St. Lucie or St. Helena, which had been pointed out as his prison. He then asserted that these infractions of the Treaty justified the step he had taken independent of other causes, arising from the internal state of France, and the errors of the Bourbons declared his renunciation of his former plans of aggrandisement, and his solemn determination to abide by the conditions of the Treaty of Paris, and deprecated the interference of foreign Sovereigns in the choice of the French people. The Manifesto concluded by asserting that nothing had been changed in France, if when the nation only demands to remain at peace with all Europe, an unjust coalition does not force it to defend, as it did in 1792, its will, and its rights, and its independence, and the Sovereign of its choice.

The Allied Sovereigns did not deign to reply to either of those documents. By some they were returned unopened, nor could they act otherwise consistently with their Declaration of the 13th of March, which declared that "Napoleon Buonaparte had placed himself without the pale of civil or social relations." The letter addressed to the Prince Regent of England was referred to the Congress at Vienna, and the Emperor of Austria