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and the CommooB ; and let the Bourbons if thej can , produce as good a title . They have been placed on their throne by the bayonets of foreigners 5 and it is by no means clear that they will be able , without this aid , to maintain themselves upon it ^ Where is their legitimate right ? On what is it founded ? If they appeal to birth , then we come to a time when this
p lea will not avail them : for there was a reigning- family before theirs which they superseded . If the grace of God means the actual possession of the crow a , then the rig ht of Buonaparte was as good as theirs , for it had the consent of the people , # nd the acknowledgment of the sovereigns of Europe , wl , io afterwards leagued against lira . But the French use a word as a
party cry , which they do not understand , nor are they aware , perhaps , of the occasion on which the term was first introduced . We find the expression , in Livy , who makes this remark on the death of Servius , Tullius : — " Caiterum id ouoque
ad gloriam accessit , quod cum illo simul justa ac legitima regna oecideruut . ' His glory was increased by this circumstance , that with him perished just and legitimate g-overnment . On the accession of Tarquin to the throne , the same author observes : — w * |\ J Ann A iln 1 rvt *~ i r \ -1 » i r * **/*** v * » -k * *¦* +- * * ^ - * . * - <¦* ' •* - * vw * » - * «^ v- ^ * enim ad jus regni
. . Neque quicquam p raster vim habebat : ut qui neque populi jussu neque auctoribus Patribus regnarit . " He could claim no- other right to the throne than that of force , for he was not called to it either by the order of the people or by the votes of the Senate . The advocates of the Bourbons tread 011 tender
ground , when they talk of legitimate right : and it becomes Englishmen to understand their own constitution better than to permit a doctrine to pass unnoticed , which is a direct attack on the right which pur sovereign has to his crown .
Treason is another subject that occupies the attention of the French , not considering that , by their own confession , they are a nation of traitors . Parties have succeeded each other so rapidly , that the bulk of the nation is in the list of traitors , according to the decision of their legitimate governments , Louis the Eighteenth
* as ior a long time a proscribed person s were the greater part of the people now around him ; and the government which proscribed him was acknowledged ty be legitimate by the powers around him . But this wretched nation is doomed to atone for its former vain boastings ; to
be degraded beyond measure 5 to drink Jo the rery dregs of the cup of infamy . Infatuated men , instead of thanking God ¦ or a restoration to their country , are filled Y ? rtU ideas of vengeance 5 and they , whose ^ government was the chief cause of the return of Buonaparte ^ insult reason and Jmmanit y b y their opposition to tfre return P « huj * aad social order . One of these
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misguided men proponed the plem o £ an amnesty with certain exceptions ; and these exceptions included about fifteen hundreU thousand persons ! All the despotism of Robespierre is restored , and at this moment , there are , probably , more person * under arrest and in prison , than were
under confinement during' the whole reign of Buonaparte . In what manner the prisoners are to be disposed oi ^ time will shew : but every tiling- tends to the wretched prospect of Europe being a witness to more horrors in that country . Let us hope that the experience of the past will leave the tigers to worry and devour each other .
1 he trial of one of the marshals excite * a great sensation . He was sent before ' * military tribunal , which after various examinations declared themselves to be incompetent to judge the cause . It remained for the peers to do this business for their
brother peer , and they were addressed by one of the ministers upon this occasion in a speech , which would in our House of Lords , have been considered as an insult to every member . But these people do not seem to have the least idea of what
belono-s either to the deliberative or the judicial power . In their deba / o ^; o ifosion reigns , they cannot enter i .-r ; '* e views of a dignified opposition , they L ^ ve . no respect for each other . The trial of Ney will try their House of Peers . They
are to sit in judgment on life and death , and we very much fear , that they have * like one of our newspapers , prejudged the case , and are incapable of listening * to those arguments which in this country would be attended to fioin the meanest
individual . The articles of peace between France and this country arc arrived , but not promulgated . The terms are generally surmised to be , the payment of a considerable sum to the allied powers , the surrender of a line of fortresses to be held by them till it is paid , and the payment o £
debts due to this country . But France is permitted to hold all the acquisitions made by the tyrant Louis the Fourteenth . The allied troops that remain ^ will , it is supposed , be tinder the command of the Duk $ of Wellington , but they who return to their own country will carry back with them new principles , that may render indispensable better conduct on the part of the governors . In America the French ac- ^
quired those first ideas of liberty which they have so much abused . We shall see , whether the cabinets of Europe have been made wiser by the calamities of this last revolution : whether they have learned ^ that when supreme power is confided to any one , the abuse of it inevitably J > ringr « upon the tyrant or bis descendants merited punishment . The dispute between the king of WU * - temberg and his states is not settled . Tk «
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tSUte of Public Affairs * f ® f
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1815, page 727, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1766/page/63/
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