[Footnote 30:  Colonel Napier, in his “Peninsular War,” very justly observes, “The real principle of Napoleon’s government, and secret of his popularity, made him the people’s monarch, not the sovereign of the aristocracy.  Hence Mr. Pitt called him ’the child and the champion of democracy,’ a truth as evident as that Mr. Pitt and his successors ‘were the children and the champions of aristocracy.’  Hence also the privileged classes of Europe consistently turned their natural and implacable hatred of the French Revolution to his person; for they saw that in him innovation had found a protector; that he alone, having given preeminence to a system so hateful to them, was really what he called himself, The State.  The treaty of Tilsit, therefore, although it placed Napoleon in a commanding situation with regard to the potentates of Europe, unmasked the real nature of the war, and brought him and England, the respective champions of Equality and Privilege, into more direct contact.  Peace could not be between them while they were both strong, and all that the French emperor had hitherto gained only enabled him to choose his field of battle.”]

These measures increased the alienation between France and Austria.  In the mean time Alexander was waging war with Turkey, and was pushing his conquests rapidly on towards the city of Constantine.  These encroachments France contemplated with alarm.  By the peace of Bucharest, signed May 28th, 1812, the whole of Bessarabia was annexed to Russia, and the limits of the empire were extended from the Dnieper to the Pruth.  The Russian nobles were all eager to join the European aristocracy in a war against democratic France, and it was now evident that soon a collision must take place between the cabinet of the Tuileries and that of St. Petersburg.  It was almost impossible for Alexander to resist the pressure which urged him to open his ports to the English.  The closing of those ports was Napoleon’s only hope of compelling England to sheathe the sword.  Hence war became a fatality.

Russia, in anticipation of a rupture, began to arm, and ordered a levy of four men out of every hundred.  In preparation for war she made peace with Persia and Turkey, and entered into an alliance with Sweden.  England was highly gratified by this change, and was soon on most friendly terms with the Russian cabinet.  A treaty was speedily formed by England, with both Russia and Sweden, by which these latter powers agreed to open their ports for free commercial relations with England, and they entered into an alliance offensive and defensive with that power.  As England was still in arms against France, this was virtually a declaration of war.  This violation also of the treaty of Tilsit was the utter ruin of Napoleon’s plans.  To compel Russia to return to the continental system, Napoleon prepared for that Russian campaign which is one of the most awful tragedies of history.  The world is so full of the narratives of that sublime drama, that the story need not be repeated here.  It is just to say that Napoleon exhausted all the arts of diplomacy to accomplish his purpose before he put his armies in motion.