soon quite insupportable to him; so
much so, that it is believed that had the ill-fated English
expedition to Walcheren in 1809 succeeded, and the army advanced
into the country, he would have declared war against France.
After an ineffectual struggle of more than three years, he chose
rather to abdicate his throne than retain it under the degrading
conditions of proconsulate subserviency. This measure excited
considerable regret, and much esteem for the man who preferred
the retirement of private life to the meanness of regal slavery.
But Louis left a galling memento of misplaced magnificence, in
an increase of ninety millions of florins (about nine millions
sterling) to the already oppressive amount of the national debt
of the country.

The annexation of Holland to the French empire was immediately
pronounced by Napoleon. Two-thirds of the national debt were
abolished, the conscription law was introduced, and the Berlin
and Milan decrees against the introduction of British manufactures
were rigidly enforced. The nature of the evils inflicted on the
Dutch people by this annexation and its consequences demand a
somewhat minute examination. Previous to it all that part of
the territory of the former United Provinces had been ceded to
France. The kingdom of Holland consisted of the departments of
the Zuyder Zee, the mouths of the Maese, the Upper Yssel, the
mouths of the Yssel, Friesland, and the Western and Eastern Ems;
and the population of the whole did not exceed one million eight
hundred thousand souls. When Louis abdicated his throne, he left
a military and naval force of eighteen thousand men, who were
immediately taken into the service of France; and in three years
and a half after that event this number was increased to fifty
thousand, by the operation of the French naval and military code:
thus about a thirty-sixth part of the whole population was employed
in arms. The forces included in the maritime conscription were
wholly employed in the navy. The national guards were on constant
duty in the garrisons or naval establishments. The cohorts were
by law only liable to serve in the _interior_ of the French
empire--that is to say, from Hamburg to Rome; but after the Russian
campaign, this limitation was disregarded, and they formed a
part of Napoleon's army at the battle of Bautzen.

The conscription laws now began to be executed with the greatest
rigor; and though the strictest justice and impartiality were
o