foreseen as well as me, has actually happened. Napoleon has forced the combined army to fall back to Troyes, 111 miles from Paris, and 75 miles frem the point which they had previously reached. This fact was first ascertained by the receipt of dis-. patches from our military agents who ac company the allied army, the last of which is dated Troys the 17th ult. These dis

join with those who flatter themselves ercised his reasoning powers, might have. that a peace with France, in the present stale of things, will prove a blessing to this country. Much, very much indeed, must be done in the way of reform, before any of the comforts which many look for, in a suspension of hostilities, can be realized. Meanwhile, it does appear to me, that a general peace is neither so near nor so easily to be obtained as most people are inclined to believe. The multi-patches fully confirm the leading facts tude of interests involved; the extent of stated in the previous French bulletins, territory to be adjusted; the continental and clearly show, that the object of the and maritime rights of the belligerents, Allies, the capture of Paris, had completely which have been rendered complex by the failed. Since then French official papers long endurance of the contest, and the dif have been received to the 25th, in which ferent pretences, and arrogant assumptions it is stated, that Buonaparte's head-quarof ambitious individuals; are points not to ters were at Nogent on the 20th, and that be settled in a day, or a month, perhaps his advanced guard was "half way between not in a year. As a preliminary point, I" Nogent and Troyes;" that is, within 25 think Napoleon may insist upon the evacu miles of the latter place; so that it is more ation of the soil of France by the Allies. than probable, as Napoleon was bringing It was while they were on the other side of forward his troops on all sides, and the Rhine, that he agreed to the terms actively preparing for new and offensive which they proposed as a basis of a peace. operations, that another battle may have They refused to give his ambassador a pass- been fought, unless hostilities have been port, though fully empowered to enter upon suspended by an armistice. The latest an immediate negociation; and followed up official intelligence which, by the last acthat refusal by an invasion of the territory counts, was received at Paris from the of France. Napoleon even suspended all army, was dated the 20th.- -If a battle military operations, till they had penetrated had been fought on the 24th, or even the into the heart of his kingdom. Confer- 26th, sufficient time has elapsed for the parences were no doubt held at Chatillon, said ticulars to have reached this country. to be of a pacific nature; but it was a That no advices have been received, can strange way of settling the terms of peace only be accounted for upon the supposition by cutting each other's throats. It was im- that some pacific measure has been adopted, possible both parties could be sincere. or that the French papers, containing the Now that the Emperor of France has low-details of another engagement have been ered the presumption of those who would kept back here, as I believe they have often listen to no terms until they were in pos- been, to serve stock-jobbing purposes. Be session of his capital, I am inclined to this as it may, I think it cannot be long think he will not treat with the enemies of ere intelligence be received of a decisive France till they re-assume the position nature from one quarter or another. which they occupied when he signified his acquiescence in their original proposals. He may meet the views of the Allies so far as to consent to a suspension of hostilities; but I am persuaded he will not go into discussions respecting a definitive treaty, until the whole of the invading army has re-crossed the Rhine. If this should be his plan, and the Allies refuse to accede to it, we may then, instead of an immediate peace, have war in perpetuity.

THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON › AND HIS ARMY.What I foresaw in my last, without pretending to the spirit of prophecy, and which any other man, who ex

-

-I have

OCCURRENCES OF THE WAR.
little to add, under this head, to what I
stated in my last. The storming of Sois-
sons by the Russians, who, it was said,
took 3,000 prisoners, 13 pieces of cannon,
and killed and wounded between 6 and
7,000 of the enemy, is represented in the
French bulletin to have been a very paltry
affair. The garrison, it is there stated,
consisted only of 1,000 men of the national
guards. The redoubtable Winzingerode
Considered it the safest way, after the
mighty achievement of surprising this for-
midable garrison, to decamp from Soissons,
and follow the fortunes of Blucher.

Published by G. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent-Garden.
LONDON: Printed by J. M'Creery, Black Horse-Court, Fleet-street.

COBBETT'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER.

VOL. XXV. No. 11.] LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 12. 1814.

only one to which it has been thought prudent to give an English dress; and which, though limited in the information it contains, I have given here, because I consider it calculated to lay a foundation for the exercise of that benevolence, of that general philanthropy, which is so much in vogue in this country.

Report to his Excellency the Minister of the Interior, by M. Desprez Crassier, Auditor to the Council of State, dated March 2, 1814.

seen with my own eyes. -That part of the enemy's army which caused all these evils was chiefly composed of Russian troops, a small number of Bavarians and Wurtembergers, and some Hungarian hussars. -At Nangis the inhabitants generally had to complain of pillage; their personal outrages leave frightful recollections; pillage itself was always accompanied with menaces, very often with ill-treatment; and it was with pistols at their breasts, and the sabre over their heads, that these brigands compelled the unfortunate inhabitants to declare where their money and valuable effects were concealed.- -The 1st and 2d depositions state, that a female received from these miscreants a blow on the loins, with the flat side of their sabre, which deprived her of sense; that they held a

ings arisen, that they have attracted the particular notice of the Municipality of Paris, who have held several public meetings for the purpose of receiving the reports of the Deputies employed to collect information as to the extent of the evil. These reports, says the Courier, "which are given at length with the signatures of all the Deputies, in the Moniteur and other papers, are too long, and too revolting to be given entire. They present a series of pictures, which may serve as companions to those of the atrocities of the French themselves in those unhappy countries "I now lay before you the heart-rending which have witnessed the retreat of their picture of the calamities and outrages which discomfited armies." It is not my intenthe inhabitants of the communes I have vition to make any remarks upon the impor-sited have experienced from the enemy. It tant fact here admitted by the Courier, that will be an abstract of the subscribed depoif the French armies committed atrocities sitions taken by verbal examination, and an in the countries which they lately overrun, abridged detail of the havoc which I have these have been since equalled, have since found companions in the interior of France. The fact, indeed, was sufficiently known before, by the proclamation of Marshal Blucher, who found it necessary to threaten his soldiers with military execution on the spot, if they persisted in their depredations upon the inhabitants. What I wish principally to remark upon the above passage is, that the sufferings of the French people are admilled to be at least as great as those of the Germans. The details of them are represented to be extremely "revolting," and the miseries of both nations are aptly described to be fit " companions." But why the extent of these sufferings, and the enormity of the "atrocities" committed, should have been considered a reason for suppressing these details, I cannot discover; unless, indeed, those who have the manage-knife to the throat of another, to compel her inent of these matters were afraid that a perusal of these revolting accounts, might excite a kindred feeling to that which exists on behalf of the Germans. Every circumstance connected with the sufferings of the latter has been ransacked from all quarters; and, as appears to me, without proper attention to the sources whence the greater part of the information has been drawn, obtruded upon public notice with an unjustifiable degree of anxiety; whereas the details which have been furnished of the great extent of French suffering, and of French misery, on the authority of men of ficially employed for the purpose of drawing them up, and whose reports have been authenticated by their appearance in the Moniteur, are considered too long for publication! Of all these numerous and highly important documents, the following is the

to disclose where her money was; that the two husbands of these women were cruelly struck, and that one of them, after being beaten in his own house, was driven to the enemy's camp, with blows of the fist, and the butt ends of muskets: there the brigands compelled him to strip, and were about to shoot him, when an officer fortunately came up, and delivered him out of the hands of these barbarians.—At the house of the man of landed property, who makes the sixth deposition, they perpetrated the most horrible excesses. With blows of the fist and the butt end of their muskets, they demanded his brandy and money. I myself saw the bloody marks of the blows which he received; but their fury did not stop there; four females from the commune of Bailly, and canton of Mormant, had taken refuge with this proprietor; two of

'hem were girls from 12 to 13; the others | ing to the system of warfare now introduced

into civilized Europe, is a point entirely foreign to my present purpose, and which can in no shape affect the question, whether the French people, who are confessedly as great sufferers by the war as the Germans, have not the same claims as the latter upon our Christian charity. All that is generally required to induce an exercise of this benevolence, is the making out of a

were women from 28 to 35. These unfortunate creatures were the victims of the brutality of these ferocious men; and an eyewitness, who wished to prevent their outrages, was himself severely beaten. -[The report, after describing a variety of similar outrages on the persons of individuals, proceeds as follows:]· There is not a farmer, an innkeeper, or an inhabitant, who has not seen his cattle, his imple-case; is a statement of facts sufficient to ments of agriculture, his property, his remove all doubts as to the persons being furniture, carried off, wasted, or burnt, proper objects of our compassion. Here The churches and ministers of religion then, ye professors of a religion, charachave not been spared more than others. terized by the purest system of morality The strongest language would fail established amongst men, is a case made in describing the mournful aspect which out to your satisfaction, which even the these ravaged habitations present. The most inveterate political enemies of France Secretary of the Mayor of Rampillon, who have not dared to question. Here are obhas been a soldier, declared to me, that he jects upon which to exercise that charity never saw troops deliver themselves up to which you so much extoi, because its opepillage with such horrible rage, even when ration is not confined to any particular time, licensed so to do.——At Nangis I visited people, place, or circumstances; because it a number of farm-houses, which had been embraces the whole human race in its bepreviously well furnished; but now in all nign circle; and because it is only necessary the apartments nothing was to be seen but to give a nation or individuals a claim upon fragments of broken and half-burnt furni- your bounty, that they are suffering disture, feather-beds and mattresses torn to tress. Here you have a picture of the pieces, and the feathers and wool scattered "heart-rending calamities" of a people about. It was with the wood-work of this who have been deprived of every thing furniture, of waggons and ploughs, and they possessed on earth, even of their hawith the fruil-trees of orchards and gar- bitations during a long and dreary winter, dens, that they lighted their fires at their by the rude hand of ferocious war. bivouacs, and roasted the cattle which they you have the young and the old, the infirm had carried off and killed. In all the as well as the healthy, the matron and the places I have passed through, the inhabi- virgin, imploring relief from the hands of tunts have declared that these banditti spoke those who are far removed from this dreadonly of pillaging and burning Paris. Iful scourge, and who have it in their powhave been assured that each of them had er to give them that relief. Where then, a torch slung at his back; and when asked ye philanthropic Dissenters; where, ye what use they meant to make of it, they pious and charitable Churchmen, are your universally answered, that it was to set fire bowels of compassion for suffering huto Paris, where they calculated on arriving manity? If you do not step forward imby the 18th of February. This fact was mediately and afford relief as liberally to confirmed to me by M. Grabwisky, Mayor the French sufferers, whose case is so powerof Mormant, a Pole by birth, who under- fully recommended to your notice, as what stood their language.- -The picture of the you have done to their neighbours the Gercalamities which these unfortunate people mans, you will belie all your professions have suffered, and which are reserved for of universal benevolence; you will fully all those of the other departments into justify the suspicion, that you are actuated which the enemy may penetrate, must by motives very different indeed from those rouse the indignation of all Frenchmen, which your religion inculcates. In short, and give them the courage and energy ne- if, after the appeal which is now made to cessary to repel those hordes of barbarians your humanity in behalf of the French beyond the frontiers, and force them, by a people, you should nevertheless turn a deaf peace glorious for France, at last to give ear to that call, it will no longer remain a repose to all Europe." doubt, that the part which you have taken as to the German sufferers, is altogether political; that you have been impelled to this from the mere selfish consideration of

Whether the calamities, the misery, the wretchedness, which is depicted in the preceding narrative, are justifiable or not accord

Here

wishing not to be behind in demonstrating | blame the inhabitants of that country, for your loyalty at a moment when so much stress is laid upon this mode of showing one's patriotism. You may by such conduct escape the charge of jacobinism, if this be your object; but it never can procure you the respect of the virtuous, nor satisfy your own minds, that you are acting a consistent part; whereas, by extending your benevolence to all; by relieving the distresses even of your enemies, (supposing you consider the people of France in that light) you insure the applause of all good men, and the approbation of your own consciences. Those who object to giving money for the relief of the sufferers in France, for no other reason than that we are at war with that country, are to be looked upon as mere politicians, who have no pretensions to Christian benevolence, and who, of course, cannot be moved by any of the foregoing remarks. These coldblooded, these flinty, these steel-hearted mortals, would do well to recollect, that though we are at war with the French government, that it is not in behalf of any of its members, nor even of its wounded soldiers, that we are called upon to interest ourselves. It is in behalf of the suffering inhabitants, who, it is clear, take no part in the war; it is in behalf of the aged and the infirm; it is in behalf of the youth of both sexes; it is in behalf of the farmer and the artisan, who were pursuing their lawful occupations in the bosom of peace, and who, till lately, were remote from the din and horrors of war, that the appeal is made. Like the inhabitants of Germany, who were following similar pursuits, they have been suddenly and unexpectedly deprived of comfort and ease, and thrown upon the wide world to seek even the bare means of subsistence. Like the Germaus, therefore, they have an undoubted claim upon our humanity. Besides, if it be true, as these natural enemies of France tell us, that the people there are groaning under a disgraceful and despotic tyranny that they are the unwilling instruments in the hands of an arbitary government, of perpetuating the scourges of war; that they are at all times liable to be dragged from their homes, to fill up the ranks of the armies of the man, who thus lords it over them, and who can check and restrain every disposition towards emancipation, by the powerful military force which he always has at his command. If, I say, this is a true picture of the situation of the people of France, how can those men, who give us these representations, and who vouch for their accuracy,

being at war with us? or why ought they to be punished, by being left to starve, on account of the misdeeds of their government? To me, it appears, quite clear that, instead of this deplorable and helpless condition, affording a reason for visiting them with additional calamities, they are entitled on that account alone, to more commiseration than the Germans, who, we are positively assured, have enjoyed the most perfect liberty ever since the French were driven out of their country. It is entirely fallacious then to refuse pecuniary aid to the peaceable inhabitants of France, who are suffering the horrors of war in an equal degree with, if not in a greater, than their neighbours, merely because the French government chooses to continue hostilities. Indeed, if there is any thing at all in the argument, it applies with equal force to the Germans as to the French; for are not both their governments prosecuting the war with the same resolute determination? and are not the miseries which at present overwhelm so large a portion of continental Europe, the result, (as stated by the Courier) of the ravages of the soldiers of both the opposing armies? Away then with those hypocritical pretensions, with those senseless clamours about benevolence, philanthropy, and Christian charity, which are founded on so unhallowed a base. He only is the true philanthropist, who extends his arm to succour distress wherever it appears,' whether the object of it be a Turk or a Pagan, a Jew or a Christian, a worshipper of Bramah, or an adorer of the terrible Odin. He only can be called benevolent, who seeks out the victim of misfortune, regardless of peace or war, and raises him from the dust, whatever may be his place of residence.

WAR OF EXTERMINATION. MR. COBBETT.-The strength, clearness, and accuracy of your reasoning, whether your discussions relate to political or religious topics, cannot but procure you many admirers among your numerous readers. But much as I am disposed to concur in this general sentiment, and much as I am inclined to subscribe to the greater part of your opinions, there are some particulars in which I find I cannot bring myself exactly to your way of thinking; some points as to which you appear to me to have reasoned wrong, and to which, I am rather afraid, you have not given that attention which their great importance demands. One of