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 observed in the ballot and other details of this most oppressive measure, yet it has been calculated that, on an average, nearly one-half of the male population of the age of twenty years was annually taken off.  The conscripts were told that their service was not to extend beyond the term of five years; but as few instances occurred of a French soldier being discharged without his being declared unfit for service, it was always considered in Holland that the service of a conscript was tantamount to an obligation during life.  Besides, the regulations respecting the conscription were annually changed, by which means the code became each year more intricate and confused; and as the explanation of any doubt rested with the functionaries, to whom the execution of the law was confided, there was little chance of their constructions mitigating its severity.

But the conscription, however galling, was general in its operation.  Not so the formation of the emperor’s guard of honor.  The members of this patrician troop were chosen from the most noble and opulent families, particularly those who were deemed inimical to the French connection.  The selection depended altogether on the prefect, who was sure to name those most obnoxious to his political