remorseless, where his own
objects were concerned, and whether he cheated his party in the state,
or rode over a field covered with his dying troops, he regarded the
treachery as legitimate, and the slaughter as meritorious, if they
raised him a step nearer to the aim of his ambition.

With the most splendid chances for establishing a name of perpetual
honour, this selfishness defeated them all. On his accession to the
throne, he might have secured Peace, as the principle of all European
government. He might have developed all the natural powers of his
empire, covered its rivers with commerce, filled its cities with
opulence, restored the neglected fertility of its plains, and rendered
its capital the centre of the most brilliant civilisation which the
world had ever seen. But War was for the _fame_ of Napoleon, and he
chose the havoc of war.

In 1812 he might have restored the kingdom of Poland, and stamped
perpetual renown on his diadem, by an act of imperial justice. But he
preferred sacrificing it to the alliance of Austria--for the purpose of
devastating Russia. He might have exercised his boundless influence over
Spain, to bring the faculties of that noble country to the light, and
add the contributions of twelve millions of a half-forgotten race of
mankind, to the general happiness of the world. But he preferred being
called its conqueror, shedding its blood in torrents. To France herself
he might have given a rational liberty, have animated her literature,
taught common sense to her vanity, thrown the field open to her genius,
and guided her natural ardour, flexibility, and spirit of enterprise, to
achievements for the good of man, to which all the trophies of the sword
are pale. But he cast away all those illustrious opportunities, and
thought only of the shout of the rabble.

Napoleon's career was _providential_; there is no name in history, whose
whole course bears so palpable a proof of his having been created for a
_historic_ purpose. Europe, in the partition of Poland, had committed a
great crime,--France, in the murder of her king, had committed a great
crime. The three criminal thrones, and the regicidal republic, were
alike to be punished. Napoleon was the appointed instrument for both
purposes. He first crushed the democracy, and then he broke the strength
of the three powers in the field--he thrice conquered the Austrian
capital--he turned Prussia into a province,--and his march to Russia
desolated