LON 
Thus it is evident that Bonaparte had need of all his 
generalship, and all his activity, to repel alternately the 
different armies that were advancing againlt him in dif¬ 
ferent directions. His old comrade Bernadotte, however, 
who might have turned the fcale fuddenly againft him, 
remained quiet at Liege, difpleafed, as it is faid, that he 
was not permitted to fend a plenipotentiary to Chatillon, 
where the congrefs for negotiating peace had been fitting 
ever (ince the 5th of February. 
On the 18th of March the conferences were broken off, 
as we were informed by a letter from lord Caftlereagh, 
dated Bar-fur-Aube, on the a2d ; and a few days after, 
the allies publifhed the following Declaration : 
“ The allied powers owe it to themfelves, to their peo¬ 
ple, and to France, as foon as the negotiations at Chatil¬ 
lon are broken off, publicly to declare the reafon which 
induced them to enter into negotiations with the French 
government, as well as the caufes of the breaking off of 
the negotiations. 
“ Military events, to which hiftory can produce no pa¬ 
rallel, overthrew in the month of Oftober laft the ill- 
conftrufted edifice, known under the name of the French 
Empire—an edifice erefted on the ruins of ftates lately 
independent and happy; augmented by conquefls from 
ancient monarchies, and held together at the expenfe of 
the blood, of the fortune, of the welfare, of a whole ge¬ 
neration. The allied fovereigns, led by conquelt to the 
Rhine, thought it their duty to proclaim to Europe anew, 
their principles, their wifhes, and their objeft. Far from 
every with of domination or conquelt—animated folely 
by the defire to fee Europe reftored to a juft balance of 
the different powers—refolved not to lay down their arms 
till they had obtained the noble objeft of their efforts—■ 
they made known the irrevocablenefs of their refolution 
by a public aft, and they did not hefitate to declare them¬ 
felves to the enemy’s government in a manner conforma¬ 
ble to their unalterable determination. The French go¬ 
vernment made ufe of the frank declarations of the al¬ 
lied powers to exprefs inclinations to peace. It certainly 
bad need of the appearance of this inclination, in order 
to juftify, in the eyes of its people, the new exertions which 
it did not ceafe to require. Every thing, however, con¬ 
vinced the allied cabinets that it merely endeavoured to 
take advantage of the appearance of a negotiation, in 
order to prejudice public opinion in its favour ; but that 
the peace of Europe was very far from its thoughts. 
The powers, penetrating its fecret views, refolved to go 
and conquer, in France itfelf, the long-delired peace. 
Numerous armies crolfed the Rhine; fcarcely were they 
paft the frontiers, when the French minifter for foreign 
affairs appeared at the outpofts. All the proceedings of 
the French government had henceforth no other objeft 
than to miflead opinion, to blind the French people, and 
to throw' on the allies the odium of all the miferies atten¬ 
dant on an invafion. 
“The courfe of events had given the allies a proof of 
the full power of the European league ; the principles 
which, fince their firft union for the common good, had 
animated the councils of the allied fovereigns, were fully 
developed ; nothing more hindered them from unfolding 
the conditions of the re-conftruftion of the common edi¬ 
fice ; thefe conditions mull be fuch as were no hin¬ 
drance to peace after fo many conquefts. The only power 
calculated to throw into the fcale indemnifications for 
France, England, fpoke frankly refpecting the facri- 
fices which it was ready to make for a general peace. 
The allied fovereigns were permitted to hope that the ex¬ 
perience of late events would have had fome influence on 
a conqueror expofed to the obfervation of a great nation, 
which was for the firft time witnefs in the capital itfelf to 
the miferies he had brought on France. This experience 
might have demonftrated that the fupport of thrones is prin¬ 
cipally dependent on moderation and probity. The al¬ 
lied powers, however, convinced that the trial which they 
tnade ought not to endanger the military operations, faw 
DON. 379 
that thefe operations mull be continued during the nego¬ 
tiations. The experience of the paft and afflicting revo¬ 
lutions fhowed them the neceflity of this ftep. Their 
plenipotentiaries met thofe of the French government. 
“ Meantime the victorious armies approached the gates 
of the capital. The government took every meafure to 
prevent its falling into an enemy’s hands. The plenipo¬ 
tentiary of France received orders to propofe an armiftice, 
upon conditions which were conformable to thofe which 
the allies themfelves judged neceflary for the reftoration 
of general peace. He offered, the immediate Jurrender of the 
fortrejfes in the countries which France was to give up —all on 
condition of a fufpenfion of military operations. 
“The allied courts, convinced by twenty years experi¬ 
ence that in negotiations with the French cabinet it was 
neceflary carefully to diftinguifh the apparent from the 
real intention, propofed, inltead of this, immediately toJign 
preliminaries of peace. This meafure would have had tor 
France all the advantages of an armiftice, without ex- 
pofing the allies to the danger of a fufpenfion of arms. 
Some partial advantages, however, accompanied the firft 
motions of an army collected under the walls of Paris, 
compofed of the flower of the prefent generation, the laft 
hope of the nation, and the remainder of a million of 
warriors, who, either fallen on the field of battle or left 
on the way from Litbon to Mofcow, have been facrificed, 
for interefts with which France had no concern. Imme¬ 
diately the negotiations at Chatillon afliimed another ap¬ 
pearance ; the French plenipotentiary remained without 
inftruftions, and was away inltead of anfwering the repre- 
fentations of the allied courts. They commiffloned their 
plenipotentiaries to give in the projet of a preliminary treaty, 
containingall the grounds which they deemed neceflary for 
the reftoration of a balance of power, and which a few days 
before had been prefented by the French government itfelf, 
at a moment, doubtlefs, when it conceived its exiftence in 
danger. It contained the groundwork for the re-eftablifh- 
ment of Europe. France, reftored to the frontiers, which 
under the government of its kings had enfured to it ages of 
glory and profperity, was to have, with the reft of Europe, 
the bleflings of liberty, national independence, and peace. 
It depended abfolutely on,its government, to end by a An¬ 
gle word the fufferings of the nation—to reftore to it, with 
peace, its colonies, its trade, and the renewal of its in- 
duftry. What did it want more ? The allies had offered, 
with a fpirit of pacification, to difeufs its wifhes upon the 
fubjeft of mutual convenience, which fflould extend the 
frontiers of France beyond what they were before the 
wars of the revolution. 
“Fourteen days elapfed without any anfwer’s being re¬ 
turned by the French government. The plenipotentiaries 
of the allies infifted on the fixing of a day for the accept¬ 
ance or rejeftion of the conditions of peace. They left 
the French plenipotentiary the liberty to prefent a contre- 
projet, on condition that this contre-prejet fhould agree in 
fpirit and in its general contents with the conditions pro¬ 
pofed by the allied courts. The 10th of March was fixed 
by the mutual confent of both parties. This term being 
arrived, the French plenipotentiary produced nothing but 
pieces, the difeuflion of which, far from advancing the 
propoled objeft, could only have caufed fruitlefs negoti¬ 
ation. A delay of a few days was granted at the defire of 
the French plenipotentiary. On the 15th of March heat 
laft delivered a contre-projet, which left no doubt that the 
fufferings of France had not changed the views of its go¬ 
vernment. The French government, receding from what 
it had itfelf propofed, demanded, in a new projet, that 
nations which were quite foreign to France, which by a 
domination of many ages could not be amalgamated with 
the French nation, fflould now remain a part of it; that 
Fiance fhould retain frontiers inconfifient with the fun¬ 
damental principles of equilibrium, and out of all pro¬ 
portion with the other great powers of Europe ; that it 
fhould remain mailer of the fame positions and points of 
aggreliion, by means of which its goverement, to the mif- 
fortune 
