But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only.  In civil life, a cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue; no statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil government, and supplying ignorance by bold presumption.  I had supposed him a great man until his entrance into the Assembly des Cinq Cens, eighteenth Brumaire (an 8.) From that date, however, I set him down as a great scoundrel only.  To the wonders of his rise and fall, we may add that of a Czar of Muscovy, dictating, in Paris, laws and limits to all the successors of the Caesars, and holding even the balance in which the fortunes of this new world are suspended.  I own, that while I rejoice, for the good of mankind, in the deliverance of Europe from the havoc which would have never ceased while Bonaparte should have lived in power, I see with anxiety the tyrant of the ocean remaining in vigor, and even participating in the merit of crushing his brother tyrant.  While the world is thus turned upside down, on which side of it are we?  All the strong reasons, indeed, place us on the side of peace; the interests of the continent, their friendly dispositions, and even the interests of England.  Her passions alone are opposed to it.  Peace would seem now to be an easy work, the causes of the war being removed.  Her orders of council will no doubt be taken care of by the allied powers, and, war ceasing, her impressment of our seamen ceases of course.  But I fear there is foundation for the design intimated in the public papers, of demanding a cession of our right in the fisheries.  What will Massachusetts say to this?  I mean her majority, which must be considered as speaking through the organs it has appointed itself, as the index of its will.  She chose to sacrifice the liberty of our sea-faring citizens, in which we were all interested, and with them her obligations to the co-States, rather than war with England.  Will she now sacrifice the fisheries to the same partialities?  This question is interesting to her alone; for to the middle, the southern, and western States, they are of no direct concern; of no more than the culture of tobacco, rice, and cotton to Massachusetts.  I am really at a loss to conjecture what our refractory sister will say on this occasion.  I know what, as a citizen of the Union, I would say to her.  ’Take this question ad referendum.  It concerns you alone.  If you would rather, give up the fisheries than war with England, we give them up.  If you had rather fight for them, we will defend your interests to the last drop of our blood, choosing rather to set a good example than follow a bad one.’  And I hope she will determine to fight for them.  With this, however, you and I shall have nothing to do; ours being truly the case wherein ’Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis, tempus eget.’  Quitting this subject, therefore, I will turn over another leaf.