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lized man; but opening the flood-gates of immorality, lieentioufnefs, and vice, to poifon, corrupt, feduce, and enervate the objects of her tyranny and the victims of her power ;—and, laftly, to complete the fum of her turpitude, and to brand her name with infamy indelible, blafphemously renouncing the Creator of the world, exchanging the worship of God for the veneration of a ftrum.pet, and converting his houfe into a temple of prostitution. We have seen this nation, thus violating every law human and divine, and confiftent only in fin, nearly fucceed, against all rational ground of expectation, and all probable chance of fuccefs, in the accomplishment of a scheme not lets wild and vifionary than it was daring and nefarious; a scheme which had for its object, nothing lefs than the subjugation of all the neighbouring states, and the general revolution of Europe!-When we confider the vaft inadequacy of her means to the attainment of her object; and the apparently infurmountable difficulties which she had to fubdue ;when we farther confider that, without the adoption of a line of conduct, on the part of her adverfaries, at direct variance with all the known fprings of human action, in immediate oppofition to every maxim of policy and every principle of intereft;-refulting from abfolute infatuation, and bearing the ftrongest characteristics of that infanity, which in the body politic as in the natural body, leads to the commiffion of fuicide--when we confider that, without this extraordinary combination of circumftances, which it were the height of folly to expect, and a belief in the existence of which nothing fhort of experience could juftify, fuccefs was impracticable; we cannot but defcry in fuch events, the hand of providence uplifted to chastise a finful world, and felecting, as the inftrument of his vengeance, the moft finful nation in that world, in order to increase its humiliation and to aggravate its punishment !-The reflections which this awful confideration muft fuggeft it is not our prefent purpofe to purfue.

The feries of calamities which followed the battle of Marengo have fo far decided the fate of the continent, as to leave it entirely at the mercy of the French Republic, which may now prefcribe the terms of peace to her vanquished enemy.The precife nature of thofe terms will depend, upon her private conventions with her crowned allies, and upon her farther schemes of revolution, aggrandizement, and conqueft, in other quarters. But it requires no ftretch of political fagacity to foretell; that the boundaries of the republic will be extended to the Rhine, to the German Ocean, and to the Mincio, including, of course, the baftard Republics to which the has given birth, and which, for all purposes of Government, will conftitute an integral part of the Republic of France.

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The conftitution of the Germanic Empire will be diffolved; and the keys of Germany, at leaft Mentz and Ehrenbreitstein (if the latter be not demolished) will remain in poffeffion of the French, and give them the means of fomenting, at all times, thofe diffentions and that fpririt of rebellion against the head of the empire, which, originally engendered by a crowned head, and conftantly encouraged by French emiffaries, will not fail to diffuse their fatal influence throughout that devoted country.

But even this immenfe acceffion of ftrength and influence, which will effectually deftroy the balance of power, and render all the potentates of Europe fubfervient to the will of the most arbitrary and gigantic ftate which ever reared its monftrous head among them, fubjecting them to the wretched. degradation of holding their thrones by the frail tenure of Gallic forbearance, will be infufficient to gratify the ambition of the present ufurper of France. And even were his infatiate ambition fully gratified for the moment, the neceffity of war, to the very existence of his republic, which has hitherto led him to reject every overture for a general peace, will ftill continue to promote a prolongation of the conteft. His troops must be supported; the conquered countries, which have long groaned beneath the iron yoke of his authority, will speedily be exhausted; and recourfe muft, confequently, be had to the conqueft and plunder of countries more remote. In all probability then, one part of the Republican army will be immediately employed in overrunning the Papal and Neapolitan dominions; levying upon the Pope a prefent contribution and fubjecting him to a future tribute, while the King of Naples will be expelled from his continental territory, and forced to take refuge in Sicily, under the protection of a Britih fquadron.-The other part of the French army will, we apprehend, be deftined for a more important operation; for the execution of a plan, early conceived by the founders of the republic;-they will be sent through Spain, to conquer and revolutionize Portugal, to plunder her treasures, defolate her towns, and destroy her vineyards, for the double purpose of injuring our revenue and fecuring to France almost the only market for wines in Europe ;-then, returning to Spain, they will dethrone the Monarch whom they have long fince degraded, feize upon his fleets to fupply the deficiencies which British valour has made in their own navy, and republicanize his country. In another quarter, in concert with a power, who, but lately, was their moft bitter and determined enemy, they may perhaps attempt to complete that plan which Buonaparte himself was employed to execute, and which, but for the skill and intrepidity of a British Captain and a few British

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Officers and feamen, who drove the Republican Hero and his invincible bands, with fhame and difgrace, from the shattered walls of Acra, he, unquestionably would have accomplifhed; we mean the reduction of Conftantinople and the utter annihilation of the Ottoman power.

Such are the vaft fchemes of ruin and deftruction which have long been projected by the universal revolutionists of France; of the difpofition of Buonaparte to execute them not a doubt can be entertained; of his determination fo to do, at a fit opportunity, the certainty is equal; but whether he will attempt to carry them into immediate effect will entirely depend, on his own confcioufnefs of the ftability of his power, the fupport of his allies, and the adequacy of his means;the first of these three points appears to us to be the most doubtful; though his power be abfolute; his enemies are numerous; and the fyftem of plots, and the fcience of assassination have been brought to fuch perfection in France, that the life of a foreign ufurper cannot be worth many months' purchafe. If this confideration, or the dread of ultimately rouzing the dormant indignation of Europe, and bringing her Princes to a juft fenfe of their danger, fhould operate on the mind of Buonaparte, he will, for the prefent, limit his efforts to the complete reduction of Italy, and to fome attempts upon the Turkish dominions with a view to ulterior operations in the Eaft; and condefcend to fuffer Portugal to purchase at an exorbitant price a precarious peace. To this laft act of cordefcenfion, indeed, he may be further induced, by the certainty, that the conqueft of Portugal by France would be inftantly followed by the reduction of her valuable colonies by England.

We have faid that the power of Buonaparte is abfolute; let those who doubt the affertion, advert to his recent conduct, in banishing without even the form of a trial, a hundred of his fellow-citizens. This, too, was a wanton act of defpotifm, committed in the very caprice of power, for fo unlimited is the fway of this deteftable ufurper that it is notorious, the ve ry knowledge of his will fuffices to produce a violation of all principles of juftice and all rules of law, and renders the decifions of the courts the mere mandates of his pleasure!-The internal ftate France is moft wretched; it exhibits a fingular mixture of the most diffipated luxury with the moft abject mifery. All fenfe of religion, all moral feeling, feems to be annihilated; an eagernels for prefent gratification fuperfedes all folicitude for future happiness; and a general depravity of manners and profligacy of conduct proclaim the triumph of the NEW MORALITY.-Great numbers of emigrants, have, as we predicted, been recalled; but the hopes holden out to

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them of a partial restoration of their property, have proved delufive, and they remain, (with few exceptions) in poverty and difgrace, the conftant objects of fufpicion and mistrust, THE NORTHERN POWERS.

Foremost among the powers which come under this defcription, and pre-eminent in his claims to attention, ftands the Imperial Paul;-the hereditary Emperor of all the Ruffias, -the felf-created Grand Mafter of the Knights of Malta !— There is not any task impofed upon the writer, who undertakes to record the current events of the times, more painful, and more difguftful, than the neceffity to which he is frequently reduced of speaking, in different terms, of the fame characters; but fo long as man fhall continue such as he ever has been, and, in this life, ever will be, an unstable, indecifive, weak, mutable béing, the flave of paffion, the fport of caprice, the victim of vice, his moft important actions often decided by the most trivial circumstances, the writer whofe province it is to defcribe his conduct, to investigate his motives, and to draw juft conclufions from both, can scarcely fail, unless he deviate from the truth, to fpeak differently of the fame individual at different times.-The existence of fuch neceffity has been already demonstrated in our past observations on the conduct of the President of the United States; and will be farther proved by the remarks which our duty calls upon us to make, on the Emperor Paul.

We have waited month after month, ftudioufly forbearing all comments on the conduct of the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh, in the vain hope that reflection would lead it to return to thofe paths of juftice as well as to that fyftem of policy, which it had fo unexpectedly forfaken, without any folid, just, or even fpecious reason, and in direct violation of the principles which it had fo folemnly and fo recently proclaimed to the world. Any farther forbearance would be treachery to our country. Our readers will recollect, that, in the Autumn of 1799, the Emperor of Ruffia iffued a declaration to the members of the German Empire, expreffive of his views and defigns in engaging in the war, calling upon them to join him in the common caufe of all Sovereigns, and in a manner pledging himself not " to recall his forces to his ftates" unless “he fhould be left to himself."-He has not been left to himself, and yet he has recalled his forces. But had he gone no farther, the loofe morality of the times, and the political fophiftry fo much in vogue, to the difgrace of Europe, might poffibly have fupplied him with a plaufible pretext for his conduct.-Paul, however, with all his defects, is no advocate for half measures; with him, it feems, there is no medium between friendship and enmity; regardless of confiftency, and fuperior

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fuperior to character, having boldly thrown off the fhackles of an alliance formed, chiefly, on principle, he magnanimoufly refolved to affume the burden of a conteft, embarked in, folely, from intereft. But, notwithstanding his natural impetuofity, and conftitutional intemperance, he fubmitted, for once, both his temper and his conduct, to the curb of prudence, and the reftrictions of judgment. Following, at firit, the impulse of the moment, which is generally the director of his confcience and the guide of his mind, he flued an order for an embargo on all British veffels; but it being fuggefted to him, that, at this period, many of his own hips were in the British ports or in the British feas, be judiciou fly refcinded that order, imputed the caufe of it to mifconception and miftake, and held out the delufive appearance of continued amity with this counary.

No fconer, however, had his object been attained, and his fhips were fafe in his own ports, than this Imperial Judas threw off the mafk, and carried his magnanimous refolution into effect. The violation of the law of nations, the breach of public faith and private honefty, the grofs injuftice, tyranny, and oppreflion, which marked the tranfaction that enfued, in the feizure of British veffels and British property, the imprisonment of British officers and British feamen, were not lefs atrocious than the pretext for them was flimfy, hypocritical, and falfe. It was alledged, that, during the continuance of the offenfive treaty with Great Britain, it had been ftipulated that the fortrefs of Mantua, if reduced (by the joint operation, of course, of the allied arms) fhould be refigned to Paul;—but, even admitting the truth of this statement, did not every convention of the kind naturally and neceffarily ceafe, the moment the Emperor had abandoned his alliance with this country, against which he had not the fmalleft complaint to prefer? Can any man in his fenfes, contend, for one moment, that a Prince who has voluntarily withdrawn himself from the contest, shall continue to reap the advantages of war without bearing any part of its burden? The fuppofition is too ridiculous to justify a waste of argument upon it, and it is only a matter of furprize, that any potentate fhould fo far lofe fight not merely of prudence but of common fenfe, as to supply a document which will leave no other alternative to the future hif torian, than to give his name the foremost place on the lifts of folly or of fraud !

Nor is the inconfiftency of this Monarch yet fufficiently flagrant; his folly fufficiently notorious;-after having pub licly ftigmatized the French as "the enemies of thrones, religion, and focial order;" he has affociated himself with their allies, encouraged their friends, and attacked their foes ;---after having declared to the world, only fixteen months ago, his wish “ to

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