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    no great distance from Paris . Buonaparte is retreating upon his own resources , and the allied armies will proceed with due caution against him . Having been foiled in his attempt on the low countries , he must now defend

    his own territories , and if he could not gain his point against a third , we may say only of the allied powers , what is he to do when the Russians and Austrians enter France with their great masses * and Spain and Italy send in their detachments to ravage the southern

    departmeuts ? To add to the desperate state of affairs , it appears certain that a very large bodyof discontents is accumulated within his kingdom . It is not merely in the Vendee of the adjacent departments , but it extends throughout the

    south of France ; and Bordeaux and Marseilles are combined together by a strong intervening body , which will be ready to rise as soon as sufficient force appears to second their efforts . On the army itself complete reliance cannot be placed , for Buonaparte

    confesses himself that a general and several officers left him to go to Ghent , the residence of the exiled sovereign . Such is his wretched condition , that it ap ~ pears almost morally impossible , that he should extricate himself and Paris will be again at the mercy of foreign

    powers . The French nation torn to pieces by foreign war and domestic confusion , presents an awful picture to the world . On Buonaparte resuming his abdicated power , he found that his throne was fixed upon a very different basis from that on which he had left . It

    required not only the army to defend it , but the co-operation of the people to support it . Absolute power was for the present not to be thought of , and he must submit to the restraints of a representative government . Preparatory to the meeting of his parliament he had , in imitation of those

    assemblies of the people which were holden by oar remote ancestors at Easter , & grand convention termed the Champ du Mai , Hither were convoked the representatives of departmen ts and communes in vast numbers , and they were addressed by the Emperor with all that stage effect , for which the French nation is so

    distinguished . In this assembly it wan declared , that the French ijtad agreed to the

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    constitution proposed to them by Buonaparte , had re-elected him Emperor , and abjured for ever the house of Bourbon , The chief points in the constitution were the appointment of two chambers to unite with the

    Emperor in the framing of laws—th e liberty of debate—the liberty of the press—the freedom of religious worship—and security of person and property . All these things have heen so often repeated , that they cease to have an interest or to create a great

    impression on the public . It has been seen how ready to promise all parties are before power is exposed in their hands , how ready to break their promises when that power is consolidated . Buonaparte addressed the meeting from two thrones , the one where he stood

    as the civil sovereign and as the head of the people , at the other he was the general and took the oaths of fealty of his surrounding army . The acclamations of that day might give him strong confidence in his party , but many districts were not represented , and the voice of the nation could riot be

    collected from votes , delivered in such a state of confusion . However , there cannot be a doubt , that what with the army and the great body of people interested in the exclusion of the Bourbons , his party must be very strong ,

    and capable of making desperate efforts in its defence . They have thrown down the gauntlets , and if the exiled sovereign should be brought back again to Paris , his opponents cannot expect so much mildness as they experienced in hi * previous

    reign . It is supposed , that that party whtfn went under the name of the Jacobin ^ has at present the ascendancy , and they are determined to make France alhnited monarchy . They have given up the idea of a republic as

    impracticable , and Buonaparte it is suppose entered into a compromise with them to govern according to law , in whico the consent of the representatives was indispensable . The experiment is o » its trial , but is not likely to be of any duration . The chambers have met , have been addressed by the sovereign . and returned spirited replies . Ancy have had jjome debates also , in wiuc » a freedom of opinion has been display ^ , unknown under the former regi * Buonaparte : but it is of little <^ quehce now to . attend to their uscu

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    398 State of Public Affairs .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 398, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/70/