HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



195 



peace for himself; it concluded, 

 by declaring, that France consider- 

 ed both him and all his movements 

 as unworthy of her attention. A 

 personal attack of this nature, in- 

 serted in a journal of authority, 

 could not fail of irritating the Swe- 

 dish monarch to the greatest de. 

 gree : he immediately ordered a note 

 to be presented to the French 

 chars:e d'affaires, at-. Stockholm, 

 announcing, that, after an insult of 

 that nature, all intercourse must 

 cease between the French legation 

 and the Swedish government ; and 

 declaring the otfensive expressions in 

 " the Moniieur" to be " the impro- 

 per, insolent, and ridiculous obser- 

 vations which Monsieur Napoleon 

 Bonaparte allowed to be inserted in 

 his journal." After a transaction of 

 such a nature, it was evident that 

 Sweden, as avcH as Russia, m as pre- 

 pared, the first opportunity which 

 presented any prospect of success, 

 to commence hostilities with Bona- 

 parte. 



We have already, in our account 

 of the progress of the war, during 

 the present year, detailed the me- 

 lancholy aflair with which hostile 

 measures commenced between Great 

 Britain and Spain ; nor does the lat- 

 ter country, nor any of the remain- 

 ing powers of Europe, (save those 

 w horn %ve have particularly noticed in 

 the preceding pages) present a single 

 other event worth recording in the 

 same period. In the western he- 

 misphere, history has almost as little 

 on which to dwell. Some uneasi- 

 ifcpss appeared between the United 

 States and the Spanish government, 

 upon the subjeft of Louisiana, 

 which, at one moment, threatened 

 disagreeable consequences. This cx- 

 teivsivc traCt of country was, as our 

 ((^ders have seen in uur last vuiume, 



sold by France to the American 

 union. The Spanish minister^ how- 

 ever, in the name of his court, pro- 

 tested against this transfer, on the 

 ground that France had not yet ful- 

 filled those articles of the private 

 treaty, in consequence of which 

 Spain had consented to cede Louisi- 

 ana to that power. Nor did the 

 Spanish government confine itself 

 merely to remonstrances, but pre- 

 pared to resist, by force of arms, the 

 occupation of that country, by the 

 United States. Spain, hovvever, in 

 the course of the year, reluctantly 

 acceded to an arrangement agroecl 

 upon by France and America, and 

 to which, didated by such a combi.. 

 nation, she could not refuse her ac- 

 quiescence. 



In the once flourishing and happy 

 island of Hispaniola, the French, 

 settlement of St. Domingo was en- 

 tirely in the power of the black in-* 

 habitants, who consummated the 

 victory they had gained over the co-. 

 lonists, by the slauglitor of every 

 white person in that part of the 

 island, almost immediately after the 

 English squadron had carried oifthe 

 French government, and such ot 

 the inhabitants as could and would 

 withdraw from that dreadful scene. 

 Too many, however, remained (con-i 

 sisting of those who, either from a 

 wish to protect the wreck of their 

 property, or »hose who could not 

 be accommodated in the debarka- 

 tion) to glut the revengeful spirit of 

 their unmercilul conquerors. They 

 were all butchered, with circiun* 

 stances of unheard-of crucHy. The 

 negro, Dcssalines, who had suc- 

 ceeded Toussaint L'Oiiverture in the 

 supreme command of the black po- 

 pulation, on the first interval of 

 leisure, had himself ele61ed and ])ro- 

 claimcd emperor of " Ilayti," (thafe 



O % bfiug. 



