own ruin, at a time when all other means appeared inadequate to those most momentous and desirable ends. These passions were, his insatiable ambition, his unbending and furious obstinacy, and his hatred to England. The first impediment to his ambitious desires on the continent of Europe arose in Spain; in a country from which he could have anticipated no resistance; and which, had he not been utterly ignorant of the minds, and feelings, and prejudices of mankind, he might easily and most completely have rendered the abject instrument of his designs against England. But he aimed at accomplishing his object by those means which infused a spirit of determined resistance into the hitherto listless or yielding inhabitants of the peninsula: he goaded them on, by his unprincipled and outrageous conduct, to efforts of which they were before deemed incapable. Being thus opposed by the people at large, he soon discovered that his talents were not adapted to this species of warfare; for, in all the campaigns which the French have fought in the peninsula, there has been a total want of that combination, compression of force, unity of action, and rapid activity of movement, to which they were in such a great measure indebted for their victories in other parts of the continent of Europe. The resistance of the Spaniards, however, would probably have been ineffectual towards their deliverance, had they not been assisted by the British; and the vic tories of the British in the peninsula first broke the spell of French invincibility. The degraded and enslaved countries of Europe contemplated the events that were passing there with most deep and awful interest; and when they saw their oppressors defeated and thwarted in their plans, their own hopes of deliverance began to revive.

Had Bonaparte possessed that penetration for which at one time he had ample and general credit,

he would not, if he could have possibly prevented it, have suffered the character of his armies for invincibility to have been destroyed in Spain. If he could have defeated the English there, he would have done more for the permanent establishment of his power on the continent, and the furtherance of his schemes against this country, than by the extension of his conquests in the other parts of Europe. Fortunately however, for mankind, he was either indisposed, or unable successfully to encounter the English armies in the peninsula; and every victory which they achieved there, may justly be considered as tending towards the liberation, not only of Spain and Portugal, but of the rest of the continent. While also the dread of his power was thus undergoing a gradual but silent diminution, the hatred of his tyranny was becoming more deeply rooted, more extensive, and more influential: one feeling and sentiment animated the countries which he had subdued and oppressed; they took shame to themselves for sub mitting to a tyranny, which even Spain and Por tugal, the least warlike nations of Europe, had dared successfully to resist: but the presence of an immense French army, the extreme difficulty of bringing into one mass, and making to bear on one point, the scattered power of the oppressed nations, and the complete disorganization of their governments which Bonaparte had effected, prevented them from rising against him. This feeling of hatred and disaffection towards him he must have known: but he was not of a disposition either to wish to convert it into attachment, or to dread its effects; and at the very moment when it was prevented from bursting forth against him, solely by the dread of his immense armies, he began a war which annihilated those ar mies. In the commencement of that war, we may behold his ambition, and his hatred towards England operating in the conduct yet, we may trace

clearly the most blind and mad obstinacy:-thus, as we have had occasion more than once to remark, his own passions have worked out the overthrow of his tyranny, and, in the dispensations of Providence, have been made the means of his own chas tisement. Who that witnessed the power of Bonaparte before he began the war with Russia; the immensity of his army, not more formidable for its numbers than for the quality of the troops of which it was composed; the skill and experience of its commanders; the completeness of its equipment in every respect; and the proud confidence with which its former victories inspired it; could have anticipa ted that it would, in the space of a very few months, be annihilated, not so much by the prowess and numbers of its opponents, as by the rashness and folly of its commander? and that his rashness and folly should have been so extreme, as to have urged him to conduct his army into the very heart of the Russian empire at the commencement of winter? We are naturally astonished at a cause so simple, yet so unthought of, producing the destruction of such a mighty force; and had we been foretold that it was to have been annihilated, this cause of its annihilation, in all probability, would have been the last that would have suggested itself to our imagination.

How completely now have Bonaparte and his opponents changed their situations and prospects! They have well disciplined and veteran troops, no longer doubtful respecting their success; but equally confident, from what they know of themselves and of their leaders, and from what they have done, that they are superior to the troops of the enemy. Bonaparte, on the other hand, has lost that army by which he was raised to his high elevation; and, what is more, the opinion of his great talents and his invincibility is broken. The whole plan of the Russian campaign betrayed a want of combination

and foresight, which, in a military point of view, brought him down at least to the level of a common general; while the rashness and obstinacy of his conduct throughout the whole of it, proved that these possessed such a mastery over him, as, whenever they operated, must render his military talents of no service. As this moral change in the opinions and character of the people and sovereigns of the continent has undoubtedly taken place; and as, while yet it is in its freshness and vigour, they are superior in the number and equipment of their troops, it is certainly not too much to hope, that, with this feeling and this superiority, they will place their independence out of the reach of any future invader. We have incidentally noticed one mode in which Britain has contributed towards this grand and glorious consummation, by her persevering and victorious career in the peninsula: but in several other points of view this country deserves praise for her resistance to Bonaparte; and when her inhabitants feel the sacrifices which they made, the privations which they endured, and the burdens which they have entailed on themselves and their posterity in this contest, let them recollect what has been the equivalent, the freedom of Europe, and the gratitude of her inhabitants towards Britain.

Before we proceed in the detail of the events of the approaching campaign, it becomes necessary to give some valuable documents, which will not only throw much light on the past events, but will most clearly account for the coalition which was now forming, and which, happily for the world, eventually liberated the neighbouring states, so long chained down by the iron hand of the tyrant of mankind.

T

CHAP. X.

Petersburg Gazette, Nov. 29.-Lord Cathcart's Dispatches, Dec. 22.-Ditto, Jan. 8.-Ditto, Jan. 16.Ditto Jan. 29.-Bonaparte's Speech to the Legislative Body.-Reports from Count Wittgenstein.-The Emperor Alexander's Proclamation.-Speech of Bonaparte at the Close of the Sessions.-Proclamation to his Army.

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Petersburg Gazette, Nov. 29, (Dec. 11.) THE of the Russian army in the purprogress suit of the enemy becomes every hour more rapid and remarkable; every step it advances is a victory, and destructive to the enemy of our native country, to the enemies of Europe. Russia now exhibits an exalted aspect to the whole world, and we can boldly assert, that all nations, not even excepting those unhappy slaves of despotism, who through pusillanimity and weakness have been armed against her, await her victories, in hopes through them of obtaining peace and happiness. On the one side we see a vali ant army, whose regiments are not broken, and whose warriors are animated with an elevated feeling of vengeance for their homes, for the plundering of their towns and villages, vengeance for inhumanity. Glory inspires them: they know no weakness, feel no sufferings; and even, if in their rapid pursuit of the enemy, they may at times be exposed to some unavoidable wants, they bear them with courage, because they see victory before them. On the other side appear the ruins of an immense army, in which numerous foreign nations were united together to destroy a powerful nation in the bosom of its native country. They were encouraged by a view of the result, but this result was deceptive. One single heavy blow threw this immense host into confusion. They fly, pursued by fear and terror: