From part of my conquests I have erected thrones for kings who have abandoned me. I had conceived and executed great designs for the prosperity and happiness of the world. A monarch and a father, I know what peace adds to the security of thrones and of families. Negotiations have been set on foot. I hoped that the congress would by this time have met; but delays, which are not attributable to France, have deferred the moment which is called for by the wishes of the world.” When Buonaparte said this, he had no hope of peace, no desire for it, no intention of making any such concessions as would render it possible. ♦BRITISH REGULATIONS FOR TRADING WITH THE CAPTURED FRENCH PORTS.♦ As yet none of the other allied armies had passed the frontier; but Lord Wellington was established in France, where, taking into consideration the necessity of fixing the bases upon which the trade with the ports of French Navarre to the south of the Adour should be regulated, he published a proclamation, declaring that those ports were ♦DEC. 18.♦ open to all nations who were not at war with any of the allied powers, and fixing a duty of five per ♦DEC. 31.♦ cent. _ad valorem_ upon all articles, except grain and salt, and stores for the use of the army. An order of council was also published in England, permitting British ♦JAN. 14.♦ vessels to trade with these and such other French ports as might be under the protection, or in the military occupation of his Majesty’s arms. To this then were the decrees of Berlin and Milan come at last! The tyrant who had endeavoured to shut the ports of all Europe against British ships and British merchandise, and at one time had well nigh accomplished his barbarous and barbarizing purpose, saw England now regulating the commerce of his own ports, and levying duties in France, ... not after his example, with blind and merciless rapacity, but upon those principles of moderation and equity, on which her power has been raised, and by which her prosperity is supported. Three years had not elapsed since the official journal of Buonaparte’s government had said, that instead of defending Portugal and Cadiz, Great Britain’s efforts would soon be required for the defence of Gibraltar; that Spain having been conquered foot by foot was on the point of being entirely subjected; that Wellington’s mode of defending Portugal had been by abandoning the fortresses and laying waste the country, and God grant, said the Moniteur, that he may one day defend England in the same manner! “Our continental system,” said the official journalist, “is completed; it diminishes your receipts by crippling your commerce, and increases your expenses by obliging you to keep armies in Lisbon and Sicily. In the meantime the French army, according to our fundamental law, lives on the country in which it is making war, and only costs us the pay which it would do at home.”