104 POLITICS. [1814. 



TO EAEL GEEY. 



" TEMPLE, January 15, 1814. 



" DEAR LORD GREY, I happened yesterday to see 

 several foreigners, among others General Lowenhielen, 

 just come on a mission from Bernadotte. He told me 

 that the Emperor Alexander calculates at 80,000 the 

 army which Bonaparte crossed the Ehine with, but 

 Lowenhielen says that he (Alexander) always estimates 

 the enemy largely, for fear of mistakes. He adds that 

 he is sure nothing but the guillotine will ever make the 

 French rally round Bonaparte as they did, in the times 

 of terror, round the Revolution; and he says the Allies 

 have probably 300,000 now in France. But with all 

 this he does not seem to think the thing by any means 

 clear. I well remember mon homme at Stockholm in 

 1799, just come from Paris through Holland, and full 

 of nothing but the Duke of York's being always drunk 

 and in bed, and the other French topics. 



" Dawson (lately attached to Walmoden) is just 

 come, and reports Bernadotte's views to be all for 

 succeeding Bonaparte, and that a t last he will go to- 

 wards France ; that he begins to find the Allies are 

 suspecting him, and must do something ; that he is the 

 greatest rogue, &c., in the world ; that he never has 

 fought but when obliged, and always in terror of risk- 

 ing his military character. I must say I rather believe 

 this account. It is exactly what Bulow says of him 

 in Holland. I find M. de Stael is quite furious at the 

 invasion of France, and the idea of Cossacks a Paris. 

 This is as it should be ; indeed, the notion of saving 

 Europe by such means is a very neat kind of bull. 



" By letters from Holland yesterday, Van Hogen- 



