588 
pretensions of the enemy, it next 
behoves us to consider, what will be 
the consequence to ourselves, what 
will be our wretched lot, if that ene- 
my should succeed in the inyasion: 
and subjugation of our country.— 
Of what the French would, in such 
a case, do here, we may ferm some 
judgment, from what they have done 
in all those countries, where the re- 
missness of the government,-together 
with the pusillanimity of the people, 
have given them the predominance. 
There is no country, into which 
they have been able to enter, where 
their footsteps have not been marked 
with blood ; where they have spared 
either high or low, rich or poor, sex 
or age; where terror has not been 
their forerunner, and where desola- 
tion and misery have not marched in 
their rear. In the long and black 
catalogue of French cruelties to- 
wards’ the people of other countries, 
those of the first consul, and of the 
generals and soldiers immediately 
under his command, first present 
themselves to our attention. In 
1796, Bonaparte, at the head of a 
numerous French army, invaded 
Italy, declaring to the people, that 
he came as their friend and their bro- 
ther, to deliver them from taxes and 
slavery, and promising them safety 
for their persons, security for their 
property, respect for their laws, and 
reverence for their religions They 
listened, they believed ; they threw 
open their gates, they laid down 
their arms, they received the Gallic 
serpent to their bosom ; ‘and fatal, 
indeed, were the effects of their cre- 
dulity.. His reverence for their re- 
ligion he displayed, by giving up alt 
their places of worship to indiscri- 
minate plunder, and by defiling them 
with every species ef sacrilege ; his 
respect for their laws’ was_ evinced,’ 
eet ionos A 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1863. 
_ hot only by the abrogation of these 
laws, but by the arbitrary enforces 
merit of an unconditional sibniission 
to the mandates’ of himself and his 
generals ; the security which he pro- 
mised to their property was exhi- 
bited in enormous contributions, in 
the seizure of all the public funds, 
as well as those of every charitable 9 
foundation, not excepting schools, 
hospitals, or any other resource for 
the support of the poor, the aged, 
and the helpless ; and, as to the per- 
sons of the unfortunate people, he 
provided for their safety, by laying 
the whole country under the se- 
verest military execution ; by giving 
up the towns and villages to fire and 
sword, and by exposing the imhabi- 
tants to be pillaged and murdered by 
his rapacious and inhuman soldiers, 
whom he authorised and even orders 
ed to shoot every manghat attempt- 
ed to resist them, whatever niight be 
the crimes in which they were en- 
gaged. 
On his return from Italy, which 
he left in a state of beggary and irre- 
trievable ruin, he prepared for the. 
invasion of Egypt, a country which 
was at peace with France, and 
against the people, or the governs 
ment of which, France had no cause 
of complaint; but the conquest of 
this country was necessary, in order 
to open a road to the Indian pos+ 
sessions of Great Britain. In pur- 
suit of this object, Bonaparte invaded 
Egypt, where he repeated his pros 
mises to respect religion, property, 
and persons, and where, the more 
effectually to disguise his purposes, 
he issued a proclamation, declaring 
himself and his army to be true . 
Mahometans ; and boasting of hav-. 
ing made war upon the christians, 
and destroyed their religion. One 
of his first deeds, after this act of 
apostacy, 
