"Here terminates," writes M. du Casse, "our task relative to the short reign of Joseph in Naples. That prince had rendered to that beautiful country services which, long after his departure, conferred blessings upon the realm, which had been surrendered until then to the sad regime of a feudalism crushing to the people. His successor found the ground clear, war extinct almost everywhere, the conquest assured, tranquillity established, abuses reformed, civil administration organized, the monks suppressed, the finances restored, credit consolidated, public instruction and legislation founded upon liberal bases, and wisely adapted to the manners of the inhabitants. "The army was formed under the shade of the flag of France; the marine commenced to be regenerated. The sciences and the arts, encouraged, were beginning to diffuse themselves; brigandage was breathing its last sigh. There remained for Murat only to reap the fruits of the wise and paternal conduct of the older brother of the Emperor. He inherited a country of rich and fertile soil, with a delightful climate, inhabited by a population blessing the guardian hand which had delivered them from the ignorance into which the ancient Government seemed to have plunged them by design. The task of the new sovereign seemed to be only to complete the work of the philosophic King." It was the implacable hostility of the British Government, ever ready to avail itself of the treachery of Spain, which in the view of Napoleon rendered it necessary for him, as an act of self-preservation, to place the government of the Spanish Peninsula in friendly hands. On the 18th of April, 1808, Napoleon had written to Joseph, "England begins to suffer. Peace with that power alone will enable me to sheathe the sword and restore tranquillity to Europe." Before we accompany Joseph to Spain, let us briefly review the condition of Europe at this time. By the peace of Tilsit, the Emperor Alexander had recognized all the changes which the sword of Napoleon had effected upon the Continent of Europe. The Czar was on terms of personal friendship with Napoleon, and it was understood that he had given his consent to Napoleon's design to dethrone the Bourbons of Spain. The infamous British expedition to Copenhagen, with the bombardment of the city and the destruction of the Danish fleet, had created general indignation throughout the European world. England had but one single ally left, the half-mad King of Sweden. The ships of England, excluded from every port upon the Continent, wandered idly over the seas.