The court then proceeded, without a vestige of evidence against the prince, to pronounce him guilty of all the charges in the accusation, and, under the peremptory directions of Napoleon, previously delivered to them, they ordered him to immediate execution. While descending the broken staircase that led to the fosse, he pressed the arm of his conductor and asked, "Are they going to leave me to perish in a dungeon, or throw me into an oubliette ?" When he arrived at the foot of the stairs, he saw, through the gray mist of the morning, a file of musketeers drawn up, and he uttered ah expression of joy, at being permitted to die the death of a soldier. He requested that a confessor might be sent for, but this was denied; and then, seeing all wishes unavailing and all hope extinguished, he turned to the soldiers, calmly gave the word of command himself, and fell pierced by seven balls. His remains, without any alteration of dress, were thrown into the grave previously prepared at the foot of the rampart.

When this deplorable event was known in Paris, on the morning of the 21st of March, a universal consternation prevailed; distrust, terror and anxiety were depicted in every countenance. The deed was loudly stigmatized by a great portion of the people, as a bloody and needless murder. Crowds issued through the barrier Du Trône, to visit the spot where the noble victim had suffered; and a favorite spaniel, that had followed the prince to the place of execution, was seen lying on the grave. The excitement occasioned by this scene was so great, that, by an order of the police, the dog was removed, and visits to the castle were prohibited. Other tragical events soon followed. Early on the morning of April 6th, General Pichegru was found strangled in his prison. Since his arrest, he had undergone many examinations, during which he manifested the most unconquerable firmness, and declared his intention of revealing on his trial, the arts of the police, by whom he had been entrapped into the conspiracy, and through whose secret agency constant facilities for pursuing the plot, together with misrepresentations of its popularity, were daily spread before him. His death was accomplished by means of a black silk handkerchief, twisted around his neck with a small stick about five inches in length. As there was no reason to suspect Pichegru of having committed suicide, and as the certainty of his conviction rendered it unnecessary for the government to destroy him privately, in anticipation of his escape from the law, he was undoubtedly murdered to prevent his threatened disclosures of the practices of the police, and Napoleon has not escaped the suspicion of being implicated in the deed.

When Georges was brought to trial, Captain Wright, commander of a British vessel in which Pichegru came from England, and who was afterward wrecked on the coast of France and brought to Paris under arrest with all his crew, was called to testify against the prisoner. This intrepid sailor, who served as a lieutenant on board Sir Sidney Smith's ship when he checked Napoleon's career at Acre, refused to give any evidence, saying, with proper spirit, “Gentlemen, I am an officer in the British service; I am not bound to account to you for the discharge of my duty, and I deny your authority to require answers from me to these questions:" and when his deposition, previously taken in prison, was read, he added, "you have omitted my declaration, that I was threatened with being shot if I did not reveal to my inquisitors the secrets of my country.' He was remanded to prison, though the government could show no legal or plausible ground

for his detention, and some time afterward was found dead in his cell, with his throat cut from ear to ear. It is yet unknown who perpetrated this murder, and will probably ever remain so: but it is certain that Captain Wright did not commit suicide, and that the officials of his prison-house, without whose knowledge he could not have been assassinated, had no interest whatever in causing his death.

On the trial of the conspirators, it soon became manifest that Moreau had no concern in thè plot, and the interest excited by his situation was so intense, that when Lecourbe entered the court with Moreau's infant child, all the soldiers in attendance spontaneously rose and presented arms; and if Moreau had at that moment given the word, the court would have been overturned and the prisoners liberated. Whenever he rose to address the judges, the gendarmes rose also, and remained uncovered till he sat down. In fact, the public mind was so agitated, that the influence of Moreau in fetters almost equalled that of the First Consul on the throne. The trial resulted in the sentencing of Georges and fifteen others to death, and of Moreau and four others to two years' imprisonment. Eight of those condemned to death were executed; the others were pardoned; and Napoleon, anxious to be quit of Moreau's presence, purchased from him his estate of Gros Bois, and gave him every facility for retiring to the United States of America, in conformity to his own request.

In the midst of these bloody events, Napoleon assumed the Imperial crown; and the shadow of the expiring Republic was transformed into the reality of Byzantine servitude. The project was first broached to the Senate, and its public announcement emanated from the Tribunate, as being the only branch of the legislature in which even the form of popular representation prevailed. Notwithstanding the headlong course of public opinion in favor of despotic power, there were some determined men who stood forward to resist the current. Carnot in the Tribunate, and Berlier in the Council of State, were the foremost of this dauntless band. But they accomplished nothing beyond the personal reputation incident to such an evidence of devoted patriotism; as, in both branches of the legislature, the decree was carried by overwhelming majorities. On the 18th of May, the Senate declared Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of the French, and referred the measure to the people for their ratification. The people responded with enthusiasm. Three millions five hundred and seventy-two thousand three hundred and twenty-nine votes were given; and of these, only two thousand five hundred and sixty-nine were in the negative. History contains no other example of so unanimous an approval of the foundation of a dynasty, nor any other instance where a nation so joyfully took refuge in the stillness of despotism.

Napoleon's first step on coming to the imperial throne, was to create Berthier, Murat, Moncey, Jourdan, Massena, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Davoust, Bessieres, Kellerman, Lefebvre, Perignon, and Serrurier, Marshals of the Empire. On the same day, he arranged the titles and precedence of the members of his family. He direted that his brothers and sisters should receive the title of Imperial highness; that the great dignitaries of the Empire should adopt that of most serene highness; and that the address of " my lord" should be revived in favor of these elevated personages. "Whoever," says Madame de Staël, in speaking of these days and events, "could suggest an additional piece of etiquette from the olden time, propose a new reverence, a

novel mode of knocking at the door of an antechamber, a more ceremonious manner of presenting a petition or folding a letter, was regarded as a benefactor of the human race. The code of imperial etiquette is the most remarkable authentic record of human baseness that the history of the world contains."

CHAPTER XXII.

FROM THE RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES TO THE DECLARATION OF WAR BY SPAIN.

THE recommencement of the war was followed by hostile preparations of great extent on both sides of the Channel. Never did the ancient rivalry of France and England break forth with more vehemence, and never was the animosity of their respective governments more warmly supported by the patriotism and passions of the people. The first military operation of the French ruler was attended with rapid and easy success. He directed Mortier with twenty thousand troops to reduce the Electorate of Hanover; and as the entire force of this province did not exceed sixteen thousand men under Count Walmoden, resistance was hopeless: a convention was therefore entered into at Suhlingen, by which it was stipulated that the Hanoverian army should retire with the honors of war behind the Elbe, taking with them their field-artillery, and agreeing afterward to disband for one year. During this incursion, the French armies set at nought the neutrality not only of Hanover, but of the lesser States in its vicinity. Mortier occupied without hesitation Hamburg and Bremen, and closed the Elbe and Weser against British merchandise. This uncalled for aggression was of importance, not only as demonstrating Napoleon's determination to admit of no neutrality in the approaching contest, but as unfolding the first germ of the Continental System, to which he afterward mainly trusted in his hostilities against Great Britain.

At the same time, St. Cyr was dispatched into Italy with an army of fourteen thousand men. He occupied the port of Tarentum, invaded Naples and Tuscany, declared Leghorn in a state of siege, and confiscated the British merchandise in that seaport. The islands of Elba and Corsica were also put in the best state of defence, and ten thousand men were employed in perfecting the fortifications of Alexandria, which for tress Napoleon considered as the key to the whole of the Italian peninsula. In addition to these measures of conquest and defence, he soon issued a decree against English commerce, declaring that no colonial produce, and no merchandise coming directly from England, should be received into the ports of France; and that all such merchandise and produce should be confiscated. Neutral vessels, arriving in France, were subjected to new and vexatious regulations, and all that had touched at a harbor of Great Britain were made liable to seizure.

But these proceedings sunk into insignificance, when compared with the gigantic preparations made for the invasion of England, which Napoleon now seriously undertook. His object was to assemble, at a single point, a flotilla capable of transporting an army of one hundred and fifty

thousand men, with its field and siege equipage, ammunition, stores and horses; and at the same time, to provide so formidable a covering naval force as might secure its safe disembarkation, despite any resistance that the English might make. The harbor of Boulogne was chosen as the place of general rendezvous; every port, from Brest to the Texel, was filled with gun-boats of all dimensions; the dock-yards and shipwrights were put into requisition; and the different vessels, as soon as finished, were sent around, under the protection of the different batteries along the coast, to Cherbourg, Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk. In the course of the year, no less than thirteen hundred sail, of various descriptions, were assembled at Boulogne and the adjoining harbors, for the transportation of the troops, together with an immense number of other vessels, destined to convey the stores and ammunition of the army: and the combined navies of France, Spain and Holland, were engaged for the protection of this innumerable fleet. The secret design of Napoleon was to assemble the ships of the covering naval force at Martinique, bring them rapidly back while the British, in detached squadrons, were traversing the Atlantic in search of them, raise the blockade of Rochefort and Brest, and enter the Channel with the entire armament, amounting to seventy sail of the line. He intended then to cross over to England with the whole army, reach London in five days, and complete the subjugation of Britain at a blow.

On the other hand, the people and government of England were active in preparing to repel the threatened invasion. In addition to the militia, eighty thousand strong, which were called out on the 25th of March, and the regular army of a hundred and thirty thousand, the House of Commons passed a bill on the 18th of July, authorizing the king to call a levy of all the male population between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five, who were to be divided into regiments according to their years and professions; and, such was the general zeal and enthusiasm, three hundred thousand men were within a few weeks enrolled, armed and disciplined, in the different parts of the country. Great activity was also evinced in promoting the efficiency of the navy: the harbors of France and Holland were closely blockaded; Lord Nelson rode triumphant over the Mediterranean; and, excepting when their small craft were stealing along the coast to the rendezvous at Boulogne, the flag of France almost disappeared from the ocean.

While these extensive preparations were progressing, the government was called to suppress another of those unhappy attempts at rebellion, which have so frequently disgraced the history and blasted the prospects of Ireland. A conspiracy was set on foot to force the castle and harborstores of Dublin, dissolve the connexion with England, and establish a Republic in close alliance with France; but the means at the disposal of the conspirators were as insignificant as the objects they had in view were visionary. Eighty or a hundred persons, under the guidance of Emmet, a brother of the chief who was engaged in the previous insurrection, assembled on the eve of the festival of St. James, accompanied by the peasantry from the adjoining counties, and set forth with the intention of attacking the castle. But they abandoned this project during their march, and began to commit various outrages on individual citizens; and among others, they murdered Lord Kilwarden, the venerable lord-chiefjustice of Ireland, under circumstances of great aggravation and atrocity.

The insurrection was quelled by the regular troops, and the two principal leaders, Emmet and Russell, were executed.

Notwithstanding the powerful condition of the British navy, no event of importance, excepting the capture of Surinam in the West Indies, resulted from the expeditions of the fleets; and the people of the kingdom, while considering the enormous burdens imposed on them for the support of the naval armaments, soon perceived a want of energy__in the ministers whose duty it was to direct them to good account. The commerce of Britain began to suffer for want of the active protection of former days, and the general dissatisfaction was much increased by the alarming state of the king's health. His majesty gradually recovered, however; but during the interval of his illness, a great majority of the men of the nation became convinced of the necessity of placing the helm of state under firmer guidance; and all eyes were naturally turned toward that illustrious statesman who had retired to make way for a pacific administration, but could now, in strict accordance with his principles, resume the direction of the second war with revolutionary France. As is usual in such cases, the gradual approximation of parties in the House of Commons indicated the conversion of the public mind, and it soon became evident that the administration was approaching its end. On the 15th of March, 1804, Mr. Pitt made a long and elaborate speech, in which he commented with great severity on the misdirection of the powers of the navy, and concluded with moving for returns of all the ships in commission in the years 1793, 1801, and 1803. He was cordially supported by Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan, and a coalition ensued between the Whig and Tory branches of the opposition. The motion was at first lost by a vote of one hundred and thirty to two hundred; but from the character and influence of the men who were in favor of the resolution, it was manifest that this majority would soon decrease: on the 25th of April it was reduced to thirty-seven, and the ministers stated that they held their offices only until successors could be appointed, which latter event took place on the 12th of May. Mr. Pitt became Prime Minister, in place of Mr. Addington; Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, in place of Earl St. Vincent; and Lord Harrowby, Foreign Secretary, in place of Lord Hawkesbury.

Before the commencement of the revolutionary war, the revenue of Austria amounted to a hundred and six millions of florins, or about fortysix and a half millions of dollars. During the war, the revenue was increased by the imposition of new taxes, and it sustained no diminution by the peace of Campo Formio, as the Venetian states proved more than an equivalent for the loss of the Low Countries. At the peace of Luneville, the income of the government was a hundred and fifteen millions of florins, with which sum they were enabled to maintain an army of three hundred thousand men, including fifty thousand cavalry. Like most of the other European states, Austria, during the difficulties of former years, had been compelled to resort to a paper currency, and the Bank of Vienna, established by Maria Theresa, in 1762, was the agent by which this was effected. It was not, however, a paper circulation, convertible at pleasure into gold, but a system of assignats, possessing a forced legal currency; and the government, in 1797, passed a decree prohibiting any person from demanding exchange in coin, for more than twenty-five florins. While the war was in progress, silver and gold almost disappeared, and