tion of standing armies became so oppressive as to be a main cause of revolutionary action in France and other countries. When Louis XIV increased his forces, so as to exhibit to Europe the new spectacle of a standing army, at all times adequate to all contingencies, his neighbours began to muster armies which might keep his in check; and thus the practice of expanding the military element went on through Europe, till Prussia, under the Great Frederick, had a peace-establishment of 200,000 men, and France, under the last Bourbons, of 500,000 men. The resident inhabitants felt this force to be at once a severe burden in point of cost, and an irksome restraint: and they revolted against this, among other grievances. Thus the machinery which was considered a means and proof of strength, and which was said to be provided for the maintenance of the Balancing System-for the repression of overgrown power in one direction, and the support of oppressed weakness in another-proved so heavy as to become in itself destructive of that which it assumed to preserve. While France was confident at home, and dreaded abroad, on account of her military preponderance, she was on the point of being put to her last shifts to preserve her place in Europe at all.

It may be noted, in contemplating the position of the two great rival States, that England was more likely to find favour in the eyes of other continental powers than France, since her kind of supremacy involved little danger to her neighbours. France, with her vast military resources, was a dangerous neighbour. The naval power of England might vex and harass the States, and cripple their commercial resources; but it could not keep them always in peril of their lives. In the midst, therefore, of a general dislike of her "arrogance," England was more trusted and less feared than France, among the company of European States.

As for the smaller powers-Holland was gained over from the French to the English alliance, by the honest and skilful management of Lord Malmesbury, just before the breaking out of the French Revolution. It was of little consequence what Spain did. Spain was too essentially feeble to affect much the destinies of other States:

but her natural and political tendencies were to alliance with France. Portugal was feeble too: and she and Spain were always prone to quarrel; and Portugal was our ally.-Turkey was rescued from absorption by Russia just before the death of Catherine; and it could hardly now be called a power at all.-Italy, also, was soon proved to be at the disposal of the greater potentates, having small inherent force.-Sweden and Norway were not likely to give any trouble spontaneously; nor did they seem in the way to require any especial protection.

The Balancing System was not founded on treaties, or any sort of express compact. It was a product of Timea necessary stage of civilization, as we have said; and the natural force by which States united to keep the strongest in check, and uphold the weakest, appears indeed to have manifested istelf, in its own season, as the counteracting and compensating forces of nature_do, whether men call for them or not. In such cases, there is usually something involved which men overlook; and in this case of the Balancing System, there were elements of which kings and statesmen were wholly unaware. They were counting and placing their units, supposing all safe: not seeing that these units were aggregates, with a self-moving power.

Kings were no longer what they had been. They must have Ministers who were not their own tools, but who bore some relation to the people at large. In England, this had so long been a settled matter that nobody thought of questioning it. In France, the Bourbons never could clearly see it. They never saw that if it once became a matter of contest whether a European monarch and his tools should rule with or without a regard to the interests and needs of the people, the matter could end no otherwise than in the defeat of the despot. So the Bourbons were driven forth from France, as the Stuarts had been from England: and all the world waited with intense anxiety to see what would become of France in regard to the Balancing System.

The matter was made clear, after some years of struggle, by a Corsican youth, who was an engineer, without prospect and without fortune, when the French revolu

tion broke out. By his military talents, and his genius. for command, he had risen, before the opening of our century, to such a point of eminence, that on his life seemed to hang the destinies of the world. In 1796 he crossed the Alps, leading the armies of France to the conquest of Italy, whence he compelled the Pope and the other Italian sovereigns to send the treasures of art to Paris. He there defeated five Austrian armies; and showed his quality at home by wresting from the French Directory, and concentrating in himself, the entire control of the army. In 1798 he conquered Egypt, threatened India, and, in 1799, overran Syria, where, however, he was repulsed at Acre by the British under Sir Sidney Smith, and driven back upon Egypt. Returning to Paris, he carried all before him; and the year closed on his appointment as First Consul for life. He was invested with supreme executive authority. The first mention of his name in the published journal of the great British diplomatist, Lord Malmesbury, occurs in November, 1796. "Well brought up at L'Ecole Militaire-clever, desperate Jacobin, even Terrorist-his wife, Madam Beauharnois, whose husband was beheaded-she now called Notre Dame des Victoires." On the 23rd of August, 1799, he told his army in Egypt by a short letter, "In consequence of news from Europe, I have determined immediately to return to France." Early in October," says our matter-offact Annual Register, "Bonaparte landed suddenly at Fréjus, in Provence, like a spirit from another world." Before the last sun of the century had set, he was the greatest potentate of the world. The wearied and worn people of France rested on him as the power which was to give them repose: and the magnificent succession of his first acts seemed to justify their confidence. Social, order was restored and maintained; the public exercise of religion was re-established; and, by treaty with the Pope, France was released from the control of the Holy See in spiritual matters. Parties were repressed, and their leaders were made subservient to the new ruler. Office and influence were freely thrown open to merit; and the institution of the Legion of Honour invited civic desert from every rank and condition of life. The people

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were rid of the race of despotic and incapable Bourbon sovereigns; and in their joy at having secured a ruler who was capable, and who professed popular objects, they were not too careful to inquire whether he might not prove a despot in another way.

On the 25th of December, 1799, Napoleon addressed the following letter to the King of Great Britain. "Called by the wishes of the French nation to occupy the first magistracy of the Republic, I think it proper, on entering into office, to make a direct communication of it to your Majesty. The war which, for eight years, has ravaged the four quarters of the world-must it be eternal? Are there no means of coming to an understanding? How can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, powerful and strong beyond what their independence requires, sacrifice to ideas of vain greatness the benefits of commerce, internal prosperity, and the happiness of families? How is it that they do not feel that peace is of the first necessity, as well as the truest glory? These sentiments cannot be foreign to the heart of your Majesty, who reigns over a free nation, and with the sole view of making it happy.-Your Majesty will see in this overture only my sincere desire to contribute efficaciously, for the second time, to a general pacification by a step, speedy, entirely of confidence, and disengaged from those forms which, however necessary to disguise the dependence of weak states, prove, in the case of strong ones, only a mutual desire to deceive. France and England, by the abuse of their strength, may still, to the injury of all nations, long retard the period of their own exhaustion: but I will venture to say that the fate of all civilized nations depends on the termination of a war which involves the whole world."

Such was the invitation to England to be at peace. But one of the conditions under which the European powers had entered into an alliance, and carried on war against France since the deposition of her princes, was that no one of them should make a separate peace. The answer from England was not, therefore, a matter of choice: and this Napoleon could not but have known. The greater his victories, and the more eminent his civic authority, the

more necessary was it to the balance of power, and the security of the European nations, that all other countries should band themselves together against France, till unquestionable guarantees should be obtained that France would be quiet, and keep at home. The King of England, therefore, declined negotiation. In his reply, he said more than any statesman would now approve to enforce the restoration of the Bourbons: but he declared distinctly that this should not be made an essential condition, as no foreign power could claim to dictate to any nation its mode of government. The essential condition would be (whenever the time should arrive,) that France should give such evidences of stability at home and harmlessness abroad as might justify her neighbours in laying down their arms. The sovereign of Great Britain had the highest right to use a lofty tone with the new ruler of France, as the naval power of England had proved the only counterpoise to the military pre-eminence of France. While Napoleon had become lord of the Continent, England remained mistress of the seas. By various successes in the earlier years of the war, by the victory off Cape St. Vincent in February 1797, and especially by the battle of the Nile, France had been kept in check, and more had been done for the maintenance of the common cause against her than by the action of all other European powers together. The battle of the Nile, fought on the 1st of August, 1798, yielded the greatest victory then known in naval warfare. To destroy the French fleet in the Mediterranean had long been the first wish of Nelson's heart. He did it now. Only a single frigate of the whole armament returned to France; and Napoleon was left in Egypt, shut out from all communication with home. It was while the remembrance of this great defeat, in the midst of so many successes, was fresh in his mind, that Napoleon addressed to George III. his invitation to peace: and it was while England was yet cheered with her victory, and making much of her great hero that George III. sent his haughty reply.

The war, as has been said, had lasted eight years. In 1792, the French Assembly had declared war against Austria, on the ground of her harbouring French rebels,