e, as we already hinted; that the
popularity of Napoleon in France, during at least the greater part of
his reign; can be traced to no other source than the national vanity of
the French. As they are more fond of shew than of comfort in private
life, so their public affections are more easily won by gaudy
decorations than by substantial benefits. Napoleon gave them enough of
the former; they had victories abroad and _spectacles_ at home--their
capital was embellished--their country was aggrandised--their glory was
exalted; and if he had continued successful, France would still have
continued to applaud and admire him, while she had sons to swell her
armies, and daughters to drudge in her fields.

As it was not Napoleon who made the French a military and ambitious
people, so it is not his fall alone that can secure the world against
the effects of their military and ambitious spirit. It is not merely the
removal of him who has so long guided it, but the extinction of the
spirit itself that is necessary. The effect of the late events on the
active part of the population of France, cannot be accurately judged of
in the present moment of irritation and disorder; but whatever
government that country may ultimately assume, it may surely be hoped
that their experience of unsuccessful and calamitous war has been
sufficient to incline them to peace; that they will learn to measure
their national glory by a better standard than mere victory or noise;
that they will reflect on the true objects, both of political and
military institutions, and acknowledge the happiness of the people they
govern to be the supreme law of kings, and the blessings of the country
they serve to be the best reward of soldiers.

CHAPTER IX.

JOURNEY TO FLANDERS.

When we left Paris, we took the road to Soissons and Laon, with a view
to see the seat of war during the previous campaign, and examine the
interesting country of Flanders. After passing the village of La
Villette, and the heights of Belleville, the country becomes flat and
uninteresting, and is distinguished by those features which characterise
almost all the level agricultural districts of France. The road, which
is of great breadth, and paved in the centre, runs through a continued
plain, in which, as far as the eye can reach, nothing is to be discerned
but a vast expanse of corn fields, varied at intervals by fallows, and
small tracts of lucerne and sainfoin. No inclosures are to b