PREFACE. 



HE state of affairs at the close of the year IS 13 

 was such as afforded an almost certain prospect 

 of a speedy termination of the mighty contest 

 which had so long been subsisting between the 

 French empire, and the powers coalesced to limit its 

 exorbitant aggrandisement, and curb the unbridled 

 ambition of its ruler. 1 he presence of four great 

 armies on the proper territory of France, acting in 

 concert, and tending to a common centre, could not 

 fail of producing events which in some mode or other 

 must prove decisive of the objects for which the 

 war was undertaken. Public expectation through- 

 out Europe was raised to the highest pitch, and it 

 was not disappointed. After a short but vigorous 

 struggle, in which France, deprived of the greater 

 part of those veteran troops which bad carried their 

 conquering arms through so many other countries, 

 saw itself at length incompetent to its own defence : 

 a concluding battle placed the capital at the mercy 

 of the confederates, and effected the immediate over- 

 throw of that despotism, under which the French 

 had at the same time been triumphant and enslaved, 

 with the restoration of the ancient monarchy, and a 

 general peace as the result. The treaty of Paris, 

 signed within its walls by sovereigns, whose own 

 capitals had not long before been in the possession of 

 French troops, will ever rank among the most me- 

 morable events in modern history. 



A change so momentous in the European system, 

 necessarily left a vast variety of public interests to 

 be discussed, and of measures to he provided for ; 

 so that, although the grand decision took place early 

 in the year, it cannot be thought extraordinary that 



a 9 



