HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
despotic designs of insatiable and 
encroaching tyranny. 
So early as the month of De- 
cember 1801, when the sailing of 
the armament from Brest, during 
the interval between the prelimi- 
nary articles of peace, and the 
definitive treaty, had, under such 
circumstances, by its novelty and 
the actual aspect of affairs at the 
moment, alarmed every English bo- 
som, save those who had made them- 
selves parties to the transaction ; the 
sentiments and opinions of the pub- 
lic prints of England, freely express- 
ed upon the subject, seems to have 
given great offence to the French 
government. When the personal 
ambition of Bonaparte placed him 
A at the head of the Italian republic; 
his lust of power; the dangers to 
the liberties of Europe, likely to ac- 
crue therefrom; and the intrigues 
become public, by which Parma, 
Louisiana, and the island of Elba, 
___-were annexed to his dominion; 
u when the assumption of Piedmont 
K and the Milanese, and the general 
tenor of his conduct, equally aggres- 
sive and arrogant towardsall Europe, 
became sufficiently matter of notori- 
€ty, the columns of the British jour- 
nals successively detailed the facts, 
_ and elaborated the necessary conse- 
quences: nor were ticy silent, when 
Sy the confiscations of English proper- 
se ty, and other acts of violence and 
: injustice, took place in the ports of 
France, both immediately before 
and after the treaty of Amiens. In- 
dividual instances of the first con- 
_ $ul’s tyranny, by his interference in 
, 
@f the war, 
239 
his courts of justice, to procure ar- 
bitrary sentence against those per- 
sonally obnoxious to him, were ex- 
posed to general animadversion. 
In fine, that public career of con- 
duct, which itwas the ¢heice of Bo- 
naparte to run, and which not only 
aimed at the despotic sway of 
France, but to the enslaving and 
subjugating the rest of Hurcpe, was, 
but with truth, with temper, and 
with impartiality, exposed by the 
English press, to the alarming con- 
sideration and reflectious or a peo- 
ple, to whom freedom was yet 
more than an empty name. 
Successful, to the height of his 
wishes, over the press of every part 
of the continent, cither by public or 
private means, by menaces or by 
bribes*, it may be easily conceived, 
that it was to the last degree gailing 
to the despot, to find there ex- 
isted, in the British capital, a power 
which he could not controul ; which, 
although in the hands of a few ob- 
scure individuals, could yet inter- 
pose the most serious obstraction 
to his views, and thwart, perhaps 
defeat, the best devised and most 
promising of his schemes, Under 
the impulse of feelings, which no 
respect for the government of Eng- 
land could induce him to check, he 
made through his minister VW. Otto, 
those requisitions respecting the 
licence of the British press, in con- 
junction with those on the subject 
of the emigrants, the fate of which 
latter we haye already laid before 
our readers, 
But however willing the English 
__* Nor were the latter means neglected in London, but, to the immortal honor of 
those who were the proprictors of the public prints, but one individual, the obscure 
editor of an obscure weekly Journal, could be found venal or base enough to eugage 
“an the defence of the conduct of Bonaparje, from the treaty of Amiens to the renewal 
government 
