Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

From the Baltimore Federal Republican.

SKETCH OF THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF FRANCE, &c. COMPRISING An ENQUIRY INTO THE PROBABLE DURATION OF THE FRENCH POWER.

The eloquent and accomplished Author of the American Review, has favored the public with a criticism in his last number, on a pamphlet lately published in this city, with the above title. In expressing the pleasure we have experienced from the fine flow of language and animated style of this composition, we submit implicitly to the dictates of our first impressions on its perusal; but in the few remarks we propose to offer as opposed to the dogma of the Reviewer, that the power of Bonaparte is indestructible, we shall give the result of a deliberately formed opinion.

We hold it for a certain truth, that the power of Bonaparte is unequal to his undertakings, and that in a short time it may be rendered extinct. We readily admit, that the most elaborate political and moral disquisitions on this point, cannot reach a degree of mathematical demonstration, (and therefore shall not follow the example of attempting to demonstrate what is conceded to be indemonstrable) that there is an interesting influence in the affairs of this world, which operating unseen, produces the most unexpected results, still however the opinion of one writer, though less eloquently maintained, may approach nearer the truth, than that of another, without either of them justly incurring the unkind imputation of rashness or credulity.

If in the outset of his career, fortune availed him not, and fortune and wisdom forsook his standard;--and in like manner it has changed with Bonaparte. Vimiera, Talavera, Bussaco, Albuhera, Barrosa, Corunna, Tarifa, Roderigo, and a crowd of other places, rendered celebrated by British skill and valor, shew that he can be conquered.

If Bonaparte is a furious tempest that levels every thing before it; Wellington is a consuming fire, which acquires as it advances increased ardor and force!

The reviewer supposes, that Bonaparte can bring into the field from 6 to 800,000 troops. This we must be permitted not merely to doubt, but to deny. Here are our reasons.--

When his fate depended on a battle in the late Austrian war on the Danube, if the word of a military man, Mr. Pasley, is to be taken, his utmost exertions did not carry to the scene of action, above 80,000 men*--Again. It is now three years since he commenced the war against Spain and Portugal. The acknowledged master of the population and resources of France, why has he permitted this war to languish?--If he estimated too low the resistance he had to encounter before entering those countries, ample time has been since allowed him to correct his estimate. and yet, though his throne is contiguous to the seat of war, he still declines augmenting his army to a size commensurate to their conquest. Is it reasonable to assign any other cause for this conduct than pure inability? can there be a stronger proof required, that the tempest which threatened the civilized world is nearly spent.

But his increased debility to overturn governments by his arms is further manifested by his acquiescence in the policy of Alexander of Russia, who departing from his engagements has dared to admit the entry of the productions of his enemy into his states. War would have followed close on the heels of this audacious offence, had he been in a condition to have made it. Can any thing but sheer inability have delayed it so long? and even now he is obliged to call out the conscription for another year, to serve as a guard, we suppose, for his own dominions, lest when he is engaged with Russia the Guerilla parties penetrate into France, and the armies of Wellington lay her frontier towns under contribution, and the "crest of rebellion" be erected throughout Germany. When in the plenitude of his strength, the blow succeeded the word, as quick as the sound of thunder the flash which announced it. These facts speak more decisively than all the rhetoric of the schools.-- They fall like a beam of light on the beleaguered and benighted traveller. They arrest the attention like the eloquence of Ames. They convey a purer delight to the patriot mind than ever did persuasive accents of a Curran to a delighted and sympathizing jury. They inspire the sure hope that the world is not to be desolated by a long series of emperors, or rescued, after ages of slavery, by hordes of barbarians.

We shall notice as a last proof, but not the least, the rapidity with which the extinction of commerce in his dominions is undermining his throne, a weapon aimed at Great Britain, but which he wields against himself. We consider it a settled fact, that the circulating gold and silver money of a country must gradually disappear unless nourished by fresh supplies through the channels of commerce. By commerce only can a country devoid of mines of the precious metals obtain gold and silver. * What of these now circulating in France, has chiefly been drawn from these states or kingdoms she has successively plundered and subjected to her arms. This source being nearly dried up, or if flowing in a stream, scarcely perceptible, can no longer administer to his wants. Hence the deficits in his annual taxes and the difficulties of maintaining his armies, must constantly increase.

It depends therefore, on Great Britain alone, to finish what he himself has begun. By simply enforcing his own system, his treasury will soon, if it be not now,† as empty as that of the U. States. Will G. Britain neglect the occasion, having under her control the green ocean, and the commerce of all the rest of the world?

To conclude an article, which we could not make shorter, if Great Britain is true to herself and the glorious cause in which she is engaged, so interesting to the whole human race, we augur his downfall within the period allotted for it by the writer of the military sketch, who is a man after our own hearts.

Should leisure and inclination concur, we may prepare a seasonable review of the review of the sketch, exercising the same right as any self created college of critics. But we shall studiously avoid wrapping up our imputations so carefully as to conceal their application.

† General Armstrong has said there was a deficit in the Treasury of twenty millions of dollars at the time of the seizures under the Rambouillet decree--how has it been replenished?

Extracts from the American Review.

" We are persuaded also that this revenue, aided by what he must be always able to collect, from his nominal allies, and from the enemies whom it may suit the views of rapine to make, will invariably yield wherewithal to maintain a force of 6 or 800,000 men ; a force, which commanded by the generals whom he has now in his service, or by those whom he is forming about him, must be sufficient, if any force can be, to uphold his present power, and even to accomplish his ulterior projects of aggrandizement on the Continent!"

[To subjugate all the Continent.]

" If these should not be adequate for his purpose, the Austrian monarchy, the Turkish empire, and even the Russian, yet remain to be plundered, and would while they replenished his treasury, afford himself and his troops that occupation which is natural and essential to both."

" We have, ourselves, we must confess, but little confidence in Spanish and Portuguese heroism, and are daily from the information we collect, confirmed in our apprehensions for the fate of the Peninsula. Should the present desultory war in that quarter be even protracted for some years more, France will find resources to maintain the contest there; to beat down the crest of rebellion in any of the tributary provinces and to cripple forever the Austrian and Russian * monarchies, should it accord with her plans to goad them on to a last effort of despair. That they will continue to "faint, and creep and prostrate themselves at the footstool of ambition and crime," unless they are driven by the scowls and buffetings of their relentless Belial to acknowledge the utter futility of every expedient for the prolongation, even of their nominal sovereignty, but a recourse to arms, we have little or no doubt judging from what we now see, and from their recognition of Joseph as King of Spain.