HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
army, was the expression of his desire 
to make peace with England, which 
led in the manner we have already 
related, to the first negotiation be- 
tween Mr. Fox and_M. Talleyrand. 
The speech of the emperor was fol- 
lowed, at a subsequent meeting,*by 
a report of the state of the empire 
by M. Champagny, minister of the 
interior, containing a repetition and 
amplification of the topics, touched 
upon more slightly by his master, 
and an ostentatious account of the 
labours in which the government 
was engaged for the improvement 
and prosperity of France. We had 
designed to have extracted from this 
report whatever tended to illustrate 
or make known the present state of 
the French empire, but we have 
found in it little accurate or precise 
information, and some assertions 
and statements of the correctness of 
which we are in doubt. Much is 
said of the public spirit of the 
country, and great praise bestowed 
on the ardor and alacrity with which 
the young conscripts obey the sum- 
mons to arms, <A minute account is 
given of the exertions of the govern- 
‘ment in repairing and constructing 
‘ports and naval-arsenals, bridges, 
and canals. ‘Two new cities are an- 
‘nounced by the name of Napoleon. 
ville, which are to be reared, the 
‘one in Morbihan, the other in La 
Vendée; and the port Bonaparte, 
worthy of his name, will soon, it is 
‘said, be an object of terror to Eng- 
Jand in the channel. 
Ever anxious to connect his fa- 
mily with the other princes of 
Europe, Bonaparte announced, 
about the same time, + to the senate, 
his intention of marrying the princess 
Stephanic Beauharnois, niece of the 
* March 5th, 
217 
‘empress Josephine, to the heredi- 
tary prince of Baden. 
His next communication was of 
more importance. On the 3ist of 
March he snbmitted to: the senate 
a variety of decrees for its appro 
bation; by the first of which he 
established various regulations for 
the education of the princes of his 
imperial house; by the second he 
annexed the Venetian territories to 
the kingdom of Italy ; by the third 
he conferred the kingdom of Naples 
on his brother Joseph; by the 
fourth he bestowed the dutchies of 
Berg and Cleves, in full sovereignty, 
on his brother-in-law Murat; and 
the principality of Guastalla on his 
sister Paulina, and her husband, 
prince Borghese; by the fifth he 
gave to Berthier the principality of 
Neufchatel; by the sixth he united 
to Lucca, the countries of Massa, 
Carrara, and Garragnana; and by 
the seventh he created a number of 
dutchies, with suitable revenues, in 
Italy, to be distributed among the 
civil and military officers, who had 
distinguished themselves in his ser~ 
vice, and to be held by them in 
property, transmissible by inherit. 
ance to their direct descendants in 
the male line. The last of these 
decrees presents the curious spec. 
tacle of the revival of benefices by 
Bonaparte, within less than twenty 
years after the extinction of the 
feudal institutions, derived from the 
victories and destructive conquests 
of Charlemagne. It should seem, 
from many recent occurrences in 
the history of Europe, that in the 
moral and political, as in the natural 
and physical world, there are certain 
limits not to be transgressed, within 
which, amidst all the apparent exu- 
+ March ¢th, 
herance 
