Mr. WINDHAM approved of every thing that had fallen from his Hon. Friend, and expressed his surprise at not having received an answer more congenial to his feelings. He should not now enter at any length into the question before the House, because he saw the House was not prepared for the discassion. He must, however, contend that the country was in an unexampled state of danger, and that in the strict and literal sense of the word. Indeed, that the country was in danger, was assumed and allowed by almost every Geate paring every means of defence and security, fully justified him in making the motion to which the Hon. Gentleman thought proper to object. Besides, if those Gentlemen were so anxious to obtain the information they now call for, was it not rather strange that they should have deferred calling for it till the last day before the recess? The day on which the House was to adjourn was universally known; and when he himself made the motion for postponing the Committees on Undue Returns till the 8th February, he upon that occasion gave notice that it was intended that Parlia-man who had spoken upon that subject; a ment should adjourn till within a few days of that day. Parliament had, however, continued to sit longer than it was originally intended, yet no question was put, or no motion made for producing the information now re-, quired, until the very last day. Yet the greatest surprise is expressed, that the House should adjourn for five weeks without all this inform ation being produced. In the first place, the vigilance and foresight of Parliament had already adopted such measures as fully secured every mean of defence; and in the second place, if any emergency should arise (which he, however, did not foresce) that should call for the advice of Parliament, was not his Majesty empowered, by a late act, to call his Parliament together within fourteen days? But the Hon. Gentleman says, that in a situation of such unexampled peril as the present, there was no instance of an adjournment being proposed. What the Hon. Gentleman strictly meant by unexampled peril, he should not pretend to determine; but in his opinion the close of the year 1799 was a period of greater danger and difficulty, and yet at that time Parliament was adjourned from October to January; and the proposition for the adjournment was made by men who were well known anxiously to weigh the dangers of the country, and to be equally solicitous to provide for its defence. Indeed an adjournment at this season of the year was usually looked for; it suited the avocations and convenience of individuals, and could be of no detriment to the public service. Even this year Parliament had already dispatched more important public business than perhaps had ever yet been gone through before the Christmas holidays. Even should Parliament now continue to sit, what could they have to do that was not already provided for? He was, therefore, at a loss to see what real foundation there was for opposing the motion of adjournment. Mr. ELIOT said a few words to explain what he meant by an unexampled state of danger. the very measures that have been lately adopt The Empire of Germany divided into Departments, under the Prefecture of the Elector of *****. To which is prefixed, a Memoir on the political and military State of the Continent, written by the same Author. Translated from the French, by William Cobbett. Preface of the Translator.—Of the importance of the subject treated of in this work, no one can doubt, when he considers that it contains an account of the transfer of whole states, from the hands of one sovereign to those of another; and of the utility of the work itself to the world, the anger which it has excited at St. Cloud is perhaps the best possible proof. It had been published but a very few days; it was hardly known in London, when its existence was proclaimed to the world, and when a most false and scandalous libel was issued against its supposed author, through the columns of the Moniteur*, the official gazette of France, that infamous gazette, in which the sovereign of Britain has been styled a rewarder of assassins. the head-It is impossible to dissemble the fact, that, unless assistance be afforded the emperor to repel the peace that has been imposed on him, it, will prove as completely binding on the other powers of Europe as if they had consented to it. Let those who doubt this assertion call to their recollection, that Tuscany was lost by the last armistice; and that the disarming of Austria caused, in, the course of one twelvemonth, the overthrow of the states of Venice, Genoa, and Rome, together with the kingdoms of Naples and Piedmont, and the republics of Switzerland, Malta, and Egypt.. Let us leave to cowardice and infamy the absurd and wicked task of applauding the "moderation" of the laws dictated by Buonaparté ; let us examine them with impartiality, and discuss them with moderation, that we may know their immediate tendency, and discover their remote and inevitable consequences, in order to prevent or moderate their fatal effects.-Their immediate consequences I had seen the work before it was noticed in the are these: the French government remains absoMoniteur, and I was not a little pleased to find in it lute master of the whole of ancient France, of the that information which I had elsewhere sought for Pays-Bas, Holland, Germany on this side the in vain. All is now changed upon the continent of Rhine, of Switzerland, Piedmont, Genoa, the Europe; so that the statistical works and maps, Dutchies of Milan and Modena, the best part of the published only a few years ago, are of very little States of the Church, and of Egypt (the English use. Besides, those works are too bulky, and deal have lately torn Malta from them, and when peace too much in minute detail, for the purposes of a is restored, I imagine they will give up their infapolitician, who is desirous of forming a correct, mous conquest of Tuscany+). The name of recomprehensive view of the present state of the public, which is still kept up in Switzerland, Holcontinent, and of the probable consequences of the land, and some parts of Italy, cannot, I conceive, alarming changes which have taken place. To impose on any one, as to the pretended indepenfurnish a guide in this pursuit, required not only a dence of those countries.-Spain, at a distance cons.derable store of knowledge in general poli- from all foreign supplies, without internal strength, tics, political economy, geography, and military af- isolated and cut off from the whole world by the fairs, but also an intimate acquaintance with all very enemy that is gnawing he, vtals, and waiting those branches of science, as applicable to each in- for the moment when she may devour her at her dividual s'ate of Europe, and as applicable to the leisure, is under the absolute control of France'; I whole of them, considered in relation to each and no sooner will peace be signed, than the other. A mass of information, made up of mate. French government will have it in its power to rials so various, and absolutely demanding many conquer and revolutionize both Spain and Portuyears of personal experience and local observation, gal whenever it pleases. The news of this conis rarely to be met with in the mind of one man, quest will reach Vienna and Berlin before the arbut which seems to have been possessed by the au- mies of these two powers can have marched for thor of this excellent work.-A work which gives the purpose of making a diversion; and were they us pleasure we naturally wish to communicate even to set their armies in motion, by what means to others; and this desire becomes a sort of duty, could they succeed in snatching them from the when, as in the present instance, such a commu- hands of the conqueror? Even supposing a cordial nication appears conducive to the maintenance of co-operation between Austria and Prussia possible, the cause of justice and honour.-To the transia- what motive could sufficiently interest in the pretion of L'Empire Germanique, &c. I have thought servation of a monarchy so distant, two sovereigns, it useful to prefix a Memoir on the Political and one of whom has been a tranquil spectator of the Military State of Europe, which I have translated overthrow of the king of Naples, and the other of from a work of the same author, published some the stadtholder? The south of Italy entirely laid time ago. The two tracts serve to elucidate each open, bereft of the support of the emperor, driven other; and are, indeed, in some sort necessary for beyond the Adige, torn to pieces by internal disthat purpose. sentions which surpass the horrors of the Guelphs and Gibelins, waits only for the presence of a French army to submit to the yoke without a struggle. The loss of these two rich and extensive countries, at a period more or less distant, is then a necessary consequence of the proposed peace; unless, indeed, we look for salvation from the "moderation" of the conqueror.-This immense power, which at no former period has had its equal, contains a concentrated population of more London, 18th Jan. 1803. WM. COBBETT. A Memoir on the Political and Military State in which Europe will be placed, relative to France, by the continental Peace. Written in January 1801, and translated from the French, out of the Journal de M. Peltier. The governments of Europe are at length acquainted with the terms on which Buonaparté is willing to grant them a prolongation of existence, or rather a suspension of the sentence of destruction, so often and so solemnly pronounced against them by the revolutionary faction, of which he is * A translation of this article will be found in "COBBETT'S WEEKLY REGISTER," vol. iii. p. 6. VOL. II. + The fact has proved, that the author relied too much on the "moderation" of Buonaparté for this restitution. + S than forty millions of souls*, of fifty-tro millions, if | with the fortresses of Juliers and Luxembourg, the we include Spain, and of sirty, if we reckon the course of the Moselle and Mentz, form before the south of Italy. It is entirely in the hands of a go- ancient frontier of France a barrier so tormidable, vernment vigorous, united, and (by the single that the coalition, at the period of its greatest clause which makes the suspension of established strength, and of the relative weakness of France, laws to depend on the will of one man) invested and after its most brilliant successes, was scarcely with more authority than any human government able to carry, and that but for an instant.-The ever possessed. It reposes on a soil endowed with same river, from Coblentz up to Germershem, all the gifts of nature, made fruitful by industry and where it enters Alsace, forms, during the murse commerce; and, beyond all comparison, rcher, of thirty-six or forty leagues, the fourth dream of both in natural and acquired productions, than any the frontier. Nearly in the centre stands the vast other spot of the globe of equal extent. I imagine fortress of Mentz: Coblentz and Germershein dethe strongest national prejudice will not deny these fend the extremities of the line. The fort of Cas. advantages to the vast extent of country bounded sel and the citadel of Coblentz (Ehrenbreitsten) from Embden to the mouths of the Po, by the open two entrances into the interior of Germany; ocean, the Mediterranean, and Adriatic, and from the first, by Frankfort and the course of the Meine, the mouths of the Po to the Dollart, separated from into Franconia, Saxony, and even towards kyra, the rest of Europe by the Lower Po, the Mincio, in Bohemia; and the second into Hesse, with the the Rhine, and the Ems. The French empire (for advantage of surprising the troops coming from the the future I shall make use of this expression, to north to the relief of the south of Germany. At avoid the terms monarchy, republic, league, &c. the back of this line of defence, is the ancent terms which are equally inapplicable to France, frontier of France, supported by the citadel of Laxand to the various nations she has subjugated) the embourg, which all engineers a ree in consider. French empire, including the kingdom of Portugal, ing as the strongest fortress in Europe.-The p which cannot long survive the continental peace, division of the line is the ancient ironiser of Frasse, is surrounded by the ocean from the Dollart to the in Alsace, extending from Germersheim to Basle, Straits of Gibraltar; from Gibraltar, by the Medi- its strength is well known. It is now cons¡GETterranean Sea, to the Gulf of Spezzia, supposing for ably augmented by the possession of Switzerland, a moment the independence of southern Italy; which affords the advantage of taking in the flack and by this sea and the Adriatic, as far as the and rear the troops threatening Alsace from the mouths of the Po, on a contrary supposition, which Brisgau.-The Rhine, from Basle to the lower ex appears far more probable. This vast extent of tremity of the Lake of Constance, covers the mai Coast brings France nearer to the three other parts division of the frontier of France. This river, ta of the globe than any nation of Europe. The fron-true, is much narrower in this part than it is lower tier of the French empire may be divided into several lines, each of which we will separately exa-medy this deficiency, Switzerland presents a suc minc. Generally speaking, the Zuyder Zee and cession of excellent positions; and, without enthe Rhine, as far as the upper extremity of the tering into details that would render this Meme Lake of Constance; the Alps of Appenzel, Gla- purely military, in order to shew the strength of ris, the Grisons, the Valteline, and Upper Bressan; this position, it will be sufficient to call to our retogether with the Lake of Guarda, the Mincio, collection how slowly, and through what torrents and the Lower Po, as far as the sea, may be said to of blood, the Austrian army, every where ve separate France from the rest of Europe.--To enter rious, super or in numbers, and under the com into a more minute detail: the first decision of this mand of a prince adored by his soldiers, pee frontier is the Zuyder Zee; the second, the Rhine, trated, in the campaign of 1794, not into Fra in all its ramifications, as far as the fortress of through Switzerland, but merely as far 26 Schenck; all the strong places of the Lower Lake of Zurch, which includes, at most, 2 Meuse, and of Holland. The portion of the United fourth or fifth part of this country.-The Provinces beyond the Zuyder Zee is relatively of and last division of the frontier of the Rhine, iste little importance; confined by the Dollart, the Lake of Constance, which may he looked up ↑ Northern and the Zuyder Zee, it is only accessible as impenetrable.-Above the Lake of Constance, to the enemy by a marshy frontier, which adds to to the country of the Grisons, the Rhine forms, a its defence. To use a military expression, it is an deed, the limits, but not the barrier of the Freet exterior work, difficult to take, difficult to keep, empire, though it tends to increase its stren and useless for penetrating still farther.-The third the real barrier is the Alps of Appenzel, Gadivision is the course of the Rhine, from the fortress ris, the Grisons, &c. This conducts us to of Schenck to Coblentz, where it receives the second of the three grand divisions of the m Moselle. During a course of fifty leagues this tier of the French empire, viz. the emerness river has, it is true, no fortresses; but it is every Alps, which, for a space of more than fifty lea where very deep, and from three to four hundred (twenty-five to a degree) measured in a dre toises in width. Behind, the Meuse, with its for-line, extend from the head of the Lake of G tresses of Grave, Mæstricht, and Namur, together * Ancient France Pays-Bas, Holland, Germany, and ..... down, and is defended by no fortress. But tert above Salo, across Upper Bressan, the Va line, the Grisons, the countries of Sargans and Appenzel, as far as the head of the Lake 25,000,000 Constance, near the mouth of the Rhineextremely difficult, but at the same time h 7,500,000 important, to form a correct idea of the nature 3,000,000 this frontier. None of the political divisions 12 4,000,000 merly existing can furnish us with a compris We can easily conceive, for example, that **** Total 40,000,000 Alps, from the environs of Nice to Mount C separated Provence and Dauph ny from Pu [.course of the Po, such as I have described it, and the other ten, of the course of the Mincio, covered by two powerful fortresses*.-Hitherto I have only considered this frontier as defensive; if we exa the advantage remains on the side of France. For, beyond the Mincio, there is not, if we except the Adige, any military position as far as the frontiers of Carinthia and Carniole: the small rivers in the state of Venice, viz. the Brenta, the Piave, the Tagliamento, and the Izonzo, are not even powerful enough to arrest an army unsupplied with pontoons. The Oglio, the Adda, the Tesin, the Sessia, and the Doria Baltea, on the contrary, are wide and deep rivers, difficult at all times to pass over, but more especially so for several days after the great falls of water. Such is the insurmount leagues, from the Zuyder Zee to the mouths of the Po, and consequently in a much less compass than the frontiers of any of the great states of Europe, defends France and the countries she has conquered from the combined forces of the continent! their frontier towns against all foreign invasion, have contrived, by the destruction or conquest of all the fortresses before their country, to increase the facility of penetrating, without molestation, into the ne ghbouring countries. Not to include the strong places of Holland, they possess Juliers, Luxembourg, Ehrenbreitstein, and Mentz:-Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingolstadt, might, indeed, have arrested their progress-but they are destroyed! They have secured Mantua and Peschiera; and it may reasonably be presumed, that he possession of these places was the cause of the failure of the ne covering by their flanks a considerable portion of the surface of these two countries to the right and left: the vallies to the cast and west of the central chain were respectively occupied by the two states, which generally extended as far as the sum-mine it with a view to its means of aggression, all mit of the upper chain. All the difficulty of penetrating from one of the two countries into the other, consisted in forcing one of the numerous but difficult passages leading to the summit of the upper central chain of mountains, in order to descend again afterwards. All the roads communicating to the two countries were generally in this direction; and the two powers stretching to the common summit had only the first difficulty to overcome before they opened, after two or three days mareh, on the flat country.—But here the Alps are not interposed between Austria and the French empire, as they were between ancient France and Pied-able barrier which, for an extent of three hundred mont; but run, as it were, from one country into the other: they no longer resemble the Rhine dividing Gaul from Germany, but the Danube entering Germany by Hungary. The chain of the Alps may be considered as a vast current, a river of mountains and of vallies, whose central chain indi--The French, not content with having secured cates the course of the water, whilst its flanks and collateral chains, with their vallies to the right and to the left, represent the two moieties of the river. The breadth of this current of mountains varies from thirty to forty-five leagues, and in length it runs an uninterrupted course from Nice and the Var, with a variety of inflexions similar to the windings of a river, between Provence, Dauphiny, Savoy, Switzerland, the Grisons, the German Tyrol, Carinthia, Carniole, &c. on one side, as far as Turkey and the mountains of Thrace, formerly called Rhodope and Hæmus, &c. and on the other side, between Piedmont, the Milanese or Lom-gotiations between France and the Emperor. All bardy, the Trentin or Italian Tyrol, the provinces of Venice to the north of the Gulf, &c. This river, the head of winch may be considered as rising from the extremity of European Turkey, enters into the states of Austria, through which it travels as far as the angular line I have just mentioned, by which it passes entirely into the territory of the French empire. This angular line extends from the Lake of Guarda, between Bresciano and Trentin, to the springs of the Oglio, for the space of forty-five miles; from the springs of the Oglio, through those of the Adda and Adige, it enters the Valteline and the Tyrol, crosses afterwards the river of the Inn below the Engadine, and continues by the chain of Mount Rhætico, and the Alps of Sarganz and Appenzel, as far as the Lake of Constance.-The third grand division of the frontier of France still remains to be examined. It extends from the head of the Lake of Guarda to the mouths of the Po; and may be divided into three parts: the first is the Lake of Guarda, which no army can cross over; the second is the course of the Mincio, supported in an extent of twelve leagues by the two fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera; the third is the Lower Po, from Borgoforte to the sea. The Po, in this part of its course, is deep and rapid, varying in width from four to six hundred toises; and in its approach to the sea divides itself into several arms, enclosing between them a vast extent of territory, intersected by canals, covered with marshes, and consequently impassable. This river is, therefore, the most powerful barrier that France could possibly desire for covering Italy, whose only defence against all the powers of Europe is reduced to a line of fifty leagues; forty of which consist of the the fortresses that protected Piedmont against the preponderancy of France have been demolished; and although a barrier against the attacks that France might have to fear on the side of southern Italy is superfluous, they nevertheless possess that barrier in the Po, from Borgoforte to Voghera; whilst from Voghera to the Gulf of Genoa, the excellent fortresses of Tortona and Alexandria, with the castle of Gavi, and the heights of the Appenines, from Gavi to the Gulf of Spezzia, form a frontier which could easily be defended, supposing (what is almost chimerical) the forces of the east coming down to the support of a direct attack made by the forces of the north.-But what, above all, affords to the French empire the means of aggression, is the political and military situations of the neighbouring countries. From the German Sea to the Gulf of Venice, it is only contiguous to one great state, viz. Austria, from the Lake of Constance to the mouths of the Po. The other territories bordering on the new frontier of the French empire, from the head of the Lake of Constance to Embden; that is to say, the extensive and fertile country hemmed in by the course of the *The importance of this frontier was so sensibly felt by the Roman emperors, that it was the principal cause of their changing the seat of government from Rome to Ravenna, in order that they might at all times be ready to defend the only frontier through which the barbarians (that is to say, the nations of Europe) could penetrate into Italy. The same motive engaged them to dwell sometimes at Milan, Rhine, from the Grisons to the sea, and afterwards by the Inn, by Austria to the north of the Danube, and by Bohemia, Electoral Saxony, the Weser, and the ocean; this territory, I say, including the circles of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia, the greater part of the circles of Westphalia and the Upper Rhine, with a portion of the circle of the Lower Rhine, is divided into more than two hundred states; without arsenals, without fortresses, and almost without troops. The different sovereigns, divided among themselves by reciprocal jealousies, and distrusting the fidelity of their subjects, whose allegiance has long been shaken by the principles of philosophism and jacobinism, tremble at the bare idea of a French army, and at the remembrance of the calamities of the war, which for nine years has pressed so heavily upon them. This vast territory, which, united under one sovereign, would form a most powerful kingdom, will henceforth oppose to the arms of France, I will not say a vigorous resistance, nor even an easy conquest, but a complete, unqualified submission to its will. In fact, during this whole extent of country, and even as far as Magdeburgh and the Elbe, there is not a single place capable of arresting the progress of an army of thirty thousand men, even for three days! From the above sketch of the actual state of the continent, it evidently follows, that a peace with France, in her present situation, must inevitably tend to confirm her conquests, to consolidate her government, to reanimate, in some degree, her drooping commerce, to moderate the intolerable exactions that weigh down her subjects, to extinguish internal dissentions, not only in France, but (by destroying he hope of regaining what has been wrested from them) in the conquered countries also; and, lastly, to unite in one body, by the force of custom, education, and necessity, so many nations, differing so widely in their manners, politics, and relig on.-Europe (I confine myself to the continent) has only three powers which can be opposed to France: these three powers are Austria, Prussia, and Russia.-Austria contains, at the highest calculation, nineteen millions of inhabitants, viz. Souls. 1,800,000 7,000,000 19,000,000 conia, amounting to one million, will instantly fall into the hands of the French. We will, however, say 7,000,000 As to the population of Russia, the vast distance at which they are placed from the scene of our present inquiry, prevents us from including the numerous hordes inhabiting the immense deserts which extend beyond the Don, Moscow, the Lake of Ozero, the Ilmen, and the Neva: the provinces on this side of those boundares contain from twelve to fourteen millions of inhabitants. We will say from 14 to..... .... 15,000,000 Total from 41 to 42,000,000 The actual population of these three states The electorate of Saxony, Mecklen 2,000,000 2,500, 2,000,000 Total 6,500,0 The soil of Austria is, generally speaking, good of Prussia, indifferent; and of Russia, bad. The personal and pecuniary riches of the three stats, taken together, are not considerable; but England, by a union with them, would compensate for fa disadvantage.-Austria and Prussia are situated be tween France and Russia; and the distance of the 3,600,000 two last-mentioned powers from each mber 10 2,800,000 great, that it is scarcely possible for them to be 3,600,000 variance, without the mediation of both the mer: Russia, therefore, can never have so hire v an interest in a war of this nature as the other powers. Besides this, her great distance (rom the scene of action will ever prevent her from netfering, but as an auxiliary, and with a relativel inconsiderable portion of her disposable foers Her revenues will not permit her to maintain be armies out of her own territories; and the mense trains by which those armies are followed, added to a defective discipline, and a total want t military administration, would speedily exhaus the countries through which they would have to pass. Now, from the distance and the defensive power of France, the consumption would necess rily fall on the subjects of the two other alled powers, and the most brilliant viciories of the ar mies of the league would not procure them entrance into the German territories, condemned to a passive neutrality, till after the French to either exhausted or secured their resources. Carried over 19,000,000 * The great Frederick asserts positively, that, in ascending the throne, he found only three millions of subjects. The acquisition of Silesia gave him an addition of 1,400,000, and the reunion of the margravate of Franconia 300,000: total 4,700,000. When we consider the state of population of that part of Poland united to Prussia, it is impossible to reckon it at more than 2,300,000; making a total of 7,000,000. The Prussian army is, indeed, numerous mat well disciplined; but in spite of the arost g |