Leaving a council to direct affairs in Paris, Napoleon left that city to commence his last campaign, which ended in his final overthrow at Waterloo on the 18th of June, 1815. [Sidenote: Reflections.] Every impartial reader of history can hardly fail to see that though the maritime decrees of Napoleon on the one hand, and the English Orders in Council on the other, had nothing to do with the origin of the lamentable wars which so long shook Europe to its base, they were the means, in a great measure, of their prolongation, and were the origin, in an essential manner, of the war between England and the United States of America. Attempts on the part of governments to deprive nations of what is necessary for their existence must ever produce the most serious consequences. Besides, it is alike vain and presumptuous for weak man to interpose obstacles in the way of securing to large masses of the people articles absolutely requisite for them, and which, so far as we can divine the inscrutable ways of Providence, are produced for the general use and welfare of mankind. Indeed, the mind is impressed with a singular sensation on beholding a great conqueror, just reposing after one of his most signal victories, issuing decrees that would render almost every sea desolate, and prevent an interchange of commodities as necessary for the daily wants of his own people as for those of other nations. In gaining his great victories, in adding state after state to his dominions, and in placing brother after brother on the throne of ancient kingdoms whose dynasties he had overthrown, Napoleon may for some mysterious purpose have been performing the part assigned to him by a Higher Power, and accomplishing the destinies of which, under Heaven, he was to be the instrument. But when he extended his ambition to the ocean, when he undertook to overwhelm the innocent peoples of many nations by his maritime decrees, he left the orbit in which evidently it had been his destiny to move for one on which his fleets had been invariably defeated, and where he himself was never seen except as a fugitive, and at last as a prisoner of war in the hands of the ancient rival of his country. FOOTNOTES: [289] This Act, in its fullest stringency, meant no commercial intercourse with any European state (see ‘Key to Orders in Council,’ No. 10). [290] This Act passed Congress on the 1st of March, 1809; generally it provided that the “commerce of America was opened to all the world except France and England.” The ships of war of both countries were excluded from American ports (‘Key to Orders in Council,’ No. 11). [291] ‘Report of the Chamber of Deputies,’ 1835. [292] Holmes’ ‘American Annals,’ vol. ii. pp. 441, 442. [293] The case of the English will be found treated at great length in Mr. Stephen’s speech, March 1809, a full verbatim report of which will be found at the end of vol. xiii. ‘Parl. Debates’ for that year. [294] See _ante_ for notice of the celebrated pamphlet.