Poy eb ACE. 
HE prospects with which the year 1814 terminated 
were those of durable peace to this country, and 
of a general settlement of the affairs of the Continent, 
which, if not altogether framed upon those principles 
of consent and independence. which alone can satisfy 
the feelings of a friend to national rights, seemed upon 
the whole to promise much practical improvement in 
the system of Europe. There were, indeed, appear= 
ances which a boding mind might regard as presaging 
an interruption of the calm succeeding a tempest so 
dreadfully and widely extended; but that a single 
event should produce an immediate change in the state 
_ of things which would again set in motion all the armed 
force of Europe, and re-commit its destinies to the 
chance of war, was scarcely within the compass of the 
imagination. Such an apprehension could only be 
suggested by an intimate knowledge of the character 
and disposition of the French nation, and especially of 
that army, which, though no longer in activity, still 
held the fate of France in its hands; and the result has 
afforded an awful example of the danger attending the 
Mee 
