it to be "repugnant to the principles of civilisation and
of universal morality". The moderation of the British demands, as
embodied in these treaties, excited not only the amazement but the
contempt of Napoleon, who discussed the subject at St. Helena with great
freedom. Well knowing that his paramount object throughout all his wars
and negotiations had been to crush Great Britain, and that Great Britain
had been the mainstay of all the combinations against him, he could find
no explanation of our self-denial except our insular simplicity. Perhaps
it might be attributed with greater reason to politic magnanimity; nor,
indeed, could Great Britain, as a member of the European council,
dictate such terms as Napoleon suggested. Still, the gains of Great
Britain were substantial. She retained Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope,
the Isle of France (Mauritius), Trinidad, St. Lucia, Tobago, and, above
all, Malta. She also obtained possession of Heligoland and the
protectorate of the Ionian Islands, both of which she has since resigned
of her own accord. If she afterwards lost the commanding position which
she had attained among the allied powers, it was chiefly because the
colossal empire which she had defied was effectually shattered, because
neither her armies nor her subsidies were any longer needed on the
continent of Europe, and perhaps because the energies of her statesmen
were no longer braced up by the stress of a struggle for national life.

Even before the allied armies entered Paris Wellington considered it
necessary to induce Louis XVIII. to make advances to certain politicians
of the revolution so as to inspire national confidence in him, and to
anticipate the risk of a "White Terror," or a continuance of the war.
Fouche was accordingly summoned to power, and he had sufficient
influence to prevent any national opposition to the Bourbon restoration.
Napoleon remained at large for three weeks after his abdication, that
is, for eight days after the allied troops had entered Paris, and the
fear of a future Bonapartist revolution inclined the British government
under Liverpool to entertain favourably the demand of Prussia for the
cession of Alsace, Lorraine, and the northern fortresses. When, however,
Napoleon had placed himself on board the _Bellerophon_, the situation
changed. A contented France seemed preferable to an impotent France, and
Wellington argued that the Bourbon restoration could not last, if French
opinion co