ed by the
government of the Netherlands, and 50,000 English, commanded by the Duke
of Wellington;--in all one million eleven thousand soldiers.

His preparations to meet this gigantic confederacy began from the moment
when he re-established himself in the Tuileries. Carnot became once more
minister of war; and what Napoleon and he, when labouring together in
the re-organisation of an army, could effect, had been abundantly
manifested at the commencement of the consulate. The army cantoned in
France, when Buonaparte landed at Cannes, numbered 175,000; the cavalry
had been greatly reduced: and the disasters of 1812, 1813, and 1814,
were visible in the miserable deficiency of military stores and arms,
especially of artillery. By incredible exertions, notwithstanding the
pressure of innumerable cares and anxieties of all kinds, and although
the temper of the nation prevented him from having recourse to the old
method of conscription--the Emperor, ere May was over, had 375,000 men
in arms--including an imperial guard of 40,000 chosen veterans, in the
most splendid state of equipment and discipline, a large and brilliant
force of cavalry, and a train of artillery of proportional extent and
excellence.

Napoleon, however, made sundry attempts to open a negotiation with the
Allies--nor wanted there statesmen, even in England, to lend their best
support to his reclamations. He urged three arguments in defence of his
breach of the convention by which he had become sovereign of Elba: 1st,
the detention of his wife and son by the court of Austria--an affair
with which the king whose dominions he had invaded could have had
nothing to do: 2nd, the nonpayment of his pension--a grievance which
might have furnished a legitimate ground of complaining to the powers
that guaranteed its punctual discharge, and which, if so complained of
at the Congress of Vienna, there is no reason to doubt would have been
redressed: and 3rd, the voice of the French nation, which he, according
to his own statement, had but heard and obeyed. But the state of public
feeling in France could not be effectually misrepresented now: and the
answer that met him from every quarter was one and the same--namely,
that he had ascended the throne of Louis in consequence of the treason
of the army, and the intrigues of a faction, in direct opposition to the
wishes of almost all the upper classes of society throughout France,
and, as regarded the mass of the nation, amids