e height to which Napoleon had raised the throne of the
south and west of Europe, he perceived the northern throne of Alexander
ever ready to overshadow him by its eternally menacing position. On
those icy summits of Europe, whence, in former times, so many floods of
barbarians had rushed forth, he perceived all the elements of a new
inundation collecting and maturing. Till then, Austria and Prussia had
opposed sufficient barriers; but these he himself had humbled and
overthrown: he stood, therefore, single, front to front with what he
feared; he alone remained the champion of the civilization, the riches,
and the enjoyments of the nations of the south, against the rude
ignorance, and the fierce cupidity, of the poorer people of the north,
and against the ambition of their emperor and his nobility.

It was obvious, that war alone could decide this great
arbitrament,--this great and eternal struggle between the poor and the
rich; and, nevertheless, this war, with reference to us, was neither
European, nor even national. Europe entered into it against her
inclination, because the object of the expedition was to add to the
strength of her conqueror. France was exhausted, and anxious for repose;
her grandees, who formed the court of Napoleon, were alarmed at the
double-headed character of the war, at the dispersion of our armies from
Cadiz to Moscow; and even when admitting the _eventual_ necessity of the
struggle, its _immediate_ urgency did not appear to them so
legitimately proved.

They knew that it was more especially by an appeal to his political
interest that they had any chance of shaking the resolution of a prince,
whose principle was, "that there exist individuals whose conduct can but
rarely be regulated by their private sentiments, but always by
surrounding circumstances." In this persuasion, one of his ministers[6]
said to him, "that his finances required tranquillity;" but he replied,
"On the contrary, they are embarrassed, and require war." Another[7]
added, "that the state of his revenues never, in fact, had been more
flourishing; that, independent of a furnished account of from three to
four millions, it was really wonderful to find France unencumbered with
any urgent debts; but that this prosperous condition was approaching its
termination, since it appeared that with the year 1812 a ruinous
campaign was to commence; that hitherto, war had been made to support
the expense of war; that we had every where f