nd
Napoleon was to be the fiery brand that was to imprint the sentence upon
the foreheads of the great criminals. It is in contemplations like these,
that the Spirit of history ministers to the wisdom of mankind. Whatever
may be the retribution for individuals beyond the grave, justice on
nations must be done in this world; and _here_ it will be done.

The partition of Poland was the most comprehensive and audacious crime of
the modern world. It was a deliberate insult, at once to the laws of
nations and to the majesty of the great Disposer of nations. And never
fell vengeance more immediate, more distinct, or more characteristic. The
capital of Austria twice entered over the bodies of its gallant soldiery;
Russia ravaged and Moscow burnt; the Prussian army extinguished by the
massacre of Jena, and Prussia in a day fettered for years--were the
summary and solemn retribution of Heaven. But, when the penalty was paid,
the fate of the executioner instantly followed. Guilt had punished guilt,
and justice was to be alike done upon all. Napoleon and his empire
vanished, as the powder vanishes that explodes the mine. The ground was
broken up; the structures of royalty on its surface were deeply fractured;
the havoc was complete; but the fiery deposit which had effected the havoc
was itself scattered into air.

His re-establishment of Poland would have been an act of grandeur. It
would have established a new character for the whole Revolution. It would
have shown that the new spirit which had gone forth summoning the world to
regeneration, was itself regeneration; that it was not a tempter, but a
restorer; that all conquest was not selfish, and all protestation not
meant to deceive. If Napoleon had given Poland a diadem, and placed it on
the brow of Kosciusko, he would, in that act, have placed on his own brow
a diadem which no chance of the field could have plucked away; an
imperishable and dazzling answer to all the calumnies of his age, and all
the doubts of posterity. He might even have built, in the restoration of
the fallen kingdom, a citadel for his own security in all the casualties
of empire; but, in all events, he would have fixed in the political heaven
a star which, to the last recollection of mankind, would have thrown light
on his sepulchre, and borne his name.

The fall of the Foxite ministry opened the way to a new cabinet, and I
resumed my office. But we marched in over ruins. In the short period of
their pow