and. Accordingly, besides
raising an army of 60,000 men for the invasion of England, he applied
himself to the destruction of her commerce, the foundation of her naval
power. In pursuit of this object and on his plan of a Western empire, he
conceived and in part executed the design of consigning to plunder and
destruction the vast regions of Russia. He quits the genial clime of the
temperate zone; he bursts through the narrow limits of an immense
empire; he abandons comfort and security, and he hurries to the Pole to
hazard them all, and with them the companions of his victories and the
fame and fruits of his crimes and his talents, on speculation of leaving
in Europe, throughout the whole of its extent, no one free or
independent nation. To oppose this huge conception of mischief and
despotism, the great potentate of the north from his gloomy recesses
advances to defend himself against the voracity of ambition, amid the
sterility of his empire. Ambition is omnivorous; it feasts on famine and
sheds tons of blood, that it may starve in ice in order to commit a
robbery on desolation. The power of the north, I say, joins another
prince, whom Bonaparte had deprived of almost the whole of his
authority,--the King of Prussia; and then another potentate, whom
Bonaparte had deprived of the principal part of his dominions,--the
Emperor of Austria. These three powers, physical causes, final justice,
the influence of your victories in Spain and Portugal, and the spirit
given to Europe by the achievements and renown of your great commander
[the Duke of Wellington], together with the precipitation of his own
ambition, combine to accomplish his destruction; Bonaparte is conquered.
He who said, "I will be like the Most High," he who smote the nations
with a continual stroke,--this short-lived son of the morning,
Lucifer,--falls, and the earth is at rest; the phantom of royalty
passes on to nothing, and the three kings to the gates of Paris: there
they stand, the late victims of his ambition, and now the disposers of
his destiny and the masters of his empire. Without provocation he had
gone to their countries with fire and sword; with the greatest
provocation they came to his country with life and liberty: they do an
act unparalleled in the annals of history, such as nor envy, nor time,
nor malice, nor prejudice, nor ingratitude can efface; they give to his
subjects liberty, and to himself life and royalty. This is greater than
conquest