nnical government, the people never enjoyed the benefits of
distributive justice with greater equality, and were never protected
more completely against the oppressions of public functionaries, and
of the higher ranks. He may, perhaps, be censured for having violated
certain laws, for violations in which the senate and the
representatives of the people were his accomplices. But laws are only
binding upon sovereigns in the ordinary course of things, and the most
rigid writers on the law of nations acknowledge this principle. When
extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances take place, it is the duty
of the sovereign to be above the law. In order to judge fairly of the
actions of a monarch, we must not consider them separately. Many an
action which, if taken singly, appears unjustifiable or hateful, loses
that character when viewed as one of the series of events from which
it arose, as a connecting link in the political chain of which it
forms a part. Neither should the conduct of a sovereign be judged
according to the principles of natural equity. In the estimation of
those, upon whom the task of ruling nations has devolved, necessity
and the public safety ought to know no law. Every apprehension of
injuring private interest vanishes, and must ever vanish, before state
considerations.

"After all," continued they, "the real point at issue is, not whether
the government of Napoleon was more or less despotic; but whether it
was such as was required by the character of his people and of his
times,--such as it needed to be, in order that France might become
tranquil, happy, and powerful." Now it is impossible to deny but that,
during the reign of Napoleon, the interior of France enjoyed an
unruffled calm, and that the ascendancy of his genius bestowed upon
the country a degree of power and prosperity, which it never attained
before, and which probably it will never possess again.

Was the emperor taxed with boundless ambition? Were the calamities of
Spain and Russia laid to his charge?--his indefatigable apologists
found a ready answer.--The Spanish war, instead of being an unjust
aggression, was an enterprise guided by the soundest political talent.
It had been provoked by the wavering treachery of that allied
government, which, in spite of its engagements, was secretly
negociating with the English; and which, yielding to their
instigations, had endeavoured to take advantage of our difficulties
and of the absence of our ar