as widely as the poles are asunder, but uniting in one loud and importunate cry for employment or relief from the king: one half were Royalists demanding compensation for the losses they had sustained during the Revolution, or a reward for the fidelity with which they had adhered to the cause of the exiled monarch and aided his return; the other, dignitaries and officials of the Imperial régime, who had been deprived of all by the overthrow of Napoleon and the contraction of the dominions of the Empire. The necessities of the troops were still more urgent. Eight months' pay was due to them, and ten months' to the commissaries and civil administrators. To meet these demands, Louis XVIII. had an exhausted treasury, a diminished territory, and a bankrupt people. The taxes and requisitions of the last two years of Napoleon's reign, had been so enormous, that the provinces which bore the brunt of war were unable to endure any imposts whatever; indeed, such was the general impoverishment of the country, the total arrears for the same period amounted to no less than thirteen hundred millions of francs; and while, by the most rigid economy, the government could not reduce its annual expenditures below eight hundred and thirty millions of francs, the income did not exceed five hundred and twenty millions; and even this sum was obtained with the greatest difficulty, and by adding one-third to the direct taxes. The genius of Sully and the firmness of Pitt united, could scarcely have made head with such means against such difficulties; and it may well be imagined that Louis and his ministers were unequal to the task. Striving to please both parties, they gained the confidence of neither. They had not power or vigor enough to take a decided stand, and yet possessed sufficient confidence in their legitimate title to hazard a perilous one. Their system was to retain in their employment all the Imperial functionaries, civil and military, and indeed to make no change in the nation but by the substitution of a king for an Emperor, and the introduction of a few leading royalists into the cabinet. They hoped thus to secure the power of the Revolution, by injuring none of its interests: but they forgot that mankind are governed by desires, passions, and prejudices, as well as by selfish considerations; and that Napoleon had so long succeeded in governing the Empire, only because while, in deeds, he sedulously attended to the interests of the Revolution, he carefully, in words and forms, flattered its principles. The capital error of the Bourbons lay in this: that while they wholly depended on the physical forces of the Revolution, they made no attempt to disguise their aversion to its tenets; and that, without endeavoring to establish any adequate counterpoise to its power, they irrevocably alienated its supporters.

They abolished the national colors, the object of even superstitious veneration to the French soldiery, and replaced them with the white flag of the monarchy; they changed the numbers of the regiments, thus confusing or destroying the recollections connected with many fields of fame, and reducing those which had fought at Rivoli, or Austerlitz, to a level with a newly-raised corps. When the tri-color standards were ordered to be given up, the veterans of many regiments burned them and preserved their ashes: the officers generally secreted the eagles, and the men hid the tri-color cockades in their knapsacks. The designations of the superior officers were changed: generals of brigade were denominated marshals of the camp; and generals of division, lieutenant-generals. Catholic and Protestant soldiers were alike compelled to go to mass, to confess

and to communicate. The Imperial Guard, which in the first instance was intrusted with the service of the Tuileries, was soon removed, and its place was supplied by troops from Switzerland and La Vendée. Six companies of gardes-du-corps and several red companies of guards were organized-in short, the military splendor of Louis XV. was revived at court, and these new troops, in their yet unsullied uniforms, supplanted the veterans of France in the honorary service of attendance on the palace. The civil regulations of the new government, though not so important in themselves as those relating to the military administration, were not less material in their ultimate effects; for they exposed the court to attacks which in Parisian society are more fatal than any other—those of ridicule. An ordinance of the police prohibited labor on the Sabbath; and this regulation, though expressly enjoined by religion and loudly called for by the interests of the working-classes, became the object of unmeasured obloquy, because it circumscribed the pleasures or the gains of an unbelieving and selfish generation. The restoring of the forms and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic service in the chapel of the Tuileries not only excited the ridicule, but also awakened the fears of a revolutionary people, who regarded these rites as the remnants of an exploded superstition. Female animosity, too, added its bitter venom to the many other causes that influenced the general discontent: the ladies of the new noblesse were daily exposed to the cutting sarcasms of those of the ancient régime; and not one of the marshals' wives or the duchesses of the Empire was placed in the Royal household. The revival of the ancient Orders, especially that of St. Louis, gave rise to a rumor that the Legion of Honor was about to be superseded; and the excitement on this subject became so great, that the king found it necessary to issue a public denial of entertaining such a project. In fact, the civil government of the Restoration, while in all essential particulars favorable to the interests of the Revolution, had nevertheless in language, form and ceremony, introduced the most antiquated and offensive features of the monarchy: and the French had discernment enough to see that, in the intoxication of success, words and forms betrayed the secret thoughts, and that acts favorable to revolutionary principles were adopted only from state necessity.

The general exasperation rose at length to such a pitch, that the Imperialists on the one hand, and the disappointed adherents of the monarchy on the other, buried their mutual animosities and antipathies, in order to decry every measure of the government. The celebration of a solemn and touching funeral service to the memory of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, and the Princess Elizabeth, was denounced as the commencement of hostilities against the Revolutionists: the exhumation of the remains of several Vendéan and Chouan leaders, and their interment in consecrated ground, was considered a proof of deplorable superstition: the reduction in the numbers and emoluments of persons employed in the public departments-rendered unavoidable by the insolvency of the nation—was styled a wanton attack on the glory of the Empire: even the restitution to their rightful owners of the confiscated national domains, so far as they had not been disposed of, combined with a proposal to indemnify the surviving victims of the Revolution, and the disabled soldiers of the Empire, was pronounced by all the disaffected to be partial and oppressive.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

CONGRESS OF VIENNA.

NAPOLEON'S FINAL STRUGGLE.

WHILE the French government was vainly striving to close the wounds, and mitigate the sufferings induced by the Revolution, negotiations for the adjustment of the affairs of Europe had commenced, and were yet in progress at Vienna.

It was originally intended, that the congress of Vienna should begin its deliberations on the 27th of July; but the visit of the allied sovereigns to England, and their subsequent return to their own capitals, caused a postponement until the 25th of September. Among the members of this assemblage were, the Emperor of Russia, the Kings of Prussia, Bavaria, Denmark and Wirtemberg, Lord Castlereagh, the Duke of Wellington, Talleyrand, Metternich, and many other persons of distinction from the lesser European states. These personages maintained in appearance the most amicable and confidential relations; yet it was easy to perceive that their views were widely dissimilar, and that the removal of common danger, and the division of common spoil had produced their usual effect, dissension among the victors.

The first difficulty arose from a dispute as to the right of precedence among the several states represented; but this was readily settled by a happy expedient of Alexander, who recommended an alphabetical arrangement, in conformity to which the members should subscribe their names. A more serious difficulty next occurred; a question, namely, which of the states should in their own right, as principals, take part in the deliberations. The representatives of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Great Britain, wished to dispose of the territories wrested from Napoleon and his allies, before entering into conferences with France and Spain. Talleyrand and the Spanish plenipotentiary resisted this desire, and strove to show that the treaty of Chaumont had, in effect, ceased with the accomplishment of its objects; and that France, at least, should be admitted to a full participation in the proceedings. Lord Castlereagh and Metternich, who early perceived the necessity of a counterpoise to the preponderating influence of Russia, supported Talleyrand's request; and it was eventually agreed, that all questions before the congress should be submitted to a committee of ministers from the four allied powers just mentioned, together with those from France, Spain, Portugal and Sweden: the Cardinal Gonzalvi, from the court of Rome, was afterward added to the number.

Under this arrangement, several important measures were concluded by unanimous approval. Belgium and Holland were joined together, under the title of the Netherlands; Sweden and Norway were also united; Hanover, with a considerable accession of territory taken from Westphalia, was restored to the King of England; Lombardy was again placed under the rule of Austria; and Savoy, under that of Piedmont. But the affairs of Poland, Saxony, and Genoa, led to serious dissensions. Alexander insisted, that the Grand-duchy of Warsaw should be ceded to Russia, as an indemnity for her losses and sacrifices during the war; and Prussia, being as well from gratitude as position under the influence of

her powerful neighbor, seconded the views of the Czar; and proposed, on condition of obtaining Saxony and an indemnity on the Rhine for herself, to cede the southern provinces of Poland to Russia. France, Austria and England, however, opposed these sweeping annexations of territory to the northern powers. Independent of the obvious peril to the other European states which would be incurred, by adding the greater part of Poland to Russia, and extending Prussia to the Elbe and the Rhine, Lord Castlereagh objected to these proposals, as contrary to the great principles of justice on which the war against Napoleon had been maintained. Metternich and Talleyrand adopted the same views; and here Alexander lost patience. He anticipated opposition from England and Austria, but he was unprepared for such a line of policy on the part of France. He openly charged Louis XVIII. with ingratitude, and manifested his displeasure to Talleyrand without reserve: he also entered into communication with Eugene Beauharnois, espoused the cause of Murat against France as touching, the crown of Naples, and spoke of the unfitness of the elder branch of the House of Bourbon for the throne; and averred, that a revolu tion might yet put the sceptre into the hands of the House of Orleans.

But these divisions were not long confined to mere expressions of ill. humor; acts of great moment followed angry words, and all parties prepared for war. Alexander sent orders to halt his armies in Poland on their return to Russia; Hardenberg declared that Prussia would not relinquish Saxony, and the cabinet of Berlin at once put their troops on a war footing; while the Grand-Duke Constantine, at that time in command of Alexander's forces, prepared the soldiers by proclamations on the one hand, and strict discipline on the other, to take the field and renew the contest without loss of time. Nor were the other powers idle: they, too, hastened their preparations for resuming hostilities; and while a congress assembled for the pacification of the world was professedly deliberating on the means of accomplishing that object, the various sovereigns therein represented, were maintaining a million of men in arms for the purpose of mutual destruction.

The differences were at length brought to a crisis, by the conclusion of a secret treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, between Austria, France, and England, on the 3rd of February, 1815. By this compact it was stipulated, that the contracting parties should act disinterestedly and in concert to carry into effect the treaty of Paris: that each, to support the others and the common cause, should maintain in the field a hundred and fifty thousand men. The Kings of Hanover, Bavaria, and Piedmont, were invited to join the coalition, which they immediately did; so that, in effect, the forces of Western and Southern Europe were arrayed against Russia and Prussia. The parties to this treaty took great pains to keep its existence secret; nevertheless, it soon transpired to a certain extent, and had an immediate effect in modifying the views of the refractory powers. Metternich now took a bolder tone, and his intervention was decisive. Russia agreed to relinquish several districts of Poland, and Prussia avowed her determination to be satisfied with a portion of Saxony on the right bank of the Elbe.

The adjustment of this difficulty enabled the congress to dispatch in detail, matters of secondary consequence. The Germanic States were united in one confederacy, bound to afford mutual support in case of external attack, and to be directed by a Diet, in which Austria and Prussia

were each to have two votes, and Bavaria, Wirtemberg, and Hanover, each one vote; but with the reserved right on the part of the great powers, to make separate war and peace for themselves. It has already been mentioned, that Holland and Belgium were joined together under the title of the Netherlands; this measure was now perfected by the reunion of the seventeen old provinces into a monarchy, under a prince of the House of Nassau; the great fortress of Luxemburg, with its adjacent territory, being alone excluded and added to the German Confederation; and by patent, dated March 16th, 1815, the King of Holland took the title of King of the Netherlands and Grand-Duke of Luxemburg, and as such was immediately recognized by the courts of Europe. By this arrangement, Holland ceded to Great Britain the Cape of Good Hope, Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice; and in return, Great Britain restored to the King of the Netherlands the noble island of Java. The affairs of Switzerland were readily disposed of. That Confederacy was declared to embrace the nineteen Cantons on an equal footing, and they all formally acceded to their Constitution on the 27th of May. Italy presented, in some respects, a more complicated field for diplomacy. The cession of Lombardy to Austria, and of the Genoese republic to the kingdom of Piedmont, was indeed readily settled; but the conflicting claims of Murat and the old Bourbon family to the throne of Naples, excited a warm debate, which, ere it terminated, led to another of still higher interest.

Toward the end of February, rumors had reached Vienna of a constant correspondence between the island of Elba and the adjoining shores of Italy, and also of an intended descent by Napoleon on the coast of France. These rumors soon acquired such consistency that the propriety of removing the ex-Emperor from Elba, was more than once discussed in the congress. Alexander opposed any such measure, on the ground that he had pledged his honor to secure that asylum to his great antagonist, and he would not forfeit it. Metternich, however, was so strongly impressed with a sense of the impending danger, that he secretly sent a letter to Fouché, at Paris, inquiring, "What would happen if Napoleon should return? What, if the King of Rome with a squadron of horse were to appear on the frontier? and what will France now do, if left to her spontaneous action?" Fouché replied, that should a single regiment of an army sent against Napoleon declare for him, the others would follow the example: if the King of Rome were escorted to the frontier by an Austrian troop, the nation would instantly hoist his colors: and that, in case nothing of this sort took place, France, of her own volition, would soon seek refuge in the Orleans dynasty. The extent of present danger was, nevertheless, unappreciated by the majority, and all were involved in a whirl of gayety, splendor and dissipation at Vienna, when intelligence was brought to Metternich at a great ball in the capital, that NAPOLEON HAD SECRETLY LEFT ELBA. All minor differences now disappeared from the congress; the grasping desires of Russia and Prussia were forgotten; and the most vigorous measures adopted to meet the astounding emergency.

The cabinet of Vienna took the lead in these proceedings, inasmuch as Napoleon, relying on his connexion with the House of Hapsburg, had declared by proclamation that he returned to France with the concurrence of Austria, and was to be supported by the troops of that Empire. Metternich, therefore, to set at rest all question on that subject, averred that