Their innocent inhabitants have in one short year been reduced, by the
infatuation of their sovereign, and by that greatest of all curses, the
friendship of France, from a state of comfort to absolute beggary; and
thousands of them, stripped of their all, are at this moment houseless
and unprotected wanderers, exposed to the horrors of famine, cold, and
disease.

That Leipzig, undoubtedly the first commercial city of Germany, and the
great Exchange of the Continent, must, in common with every other town
which derives its support from trade and commerce, have severely felt
the effects of what Napoleon chose to nickname _the Continental System_,
is too evident to need demonstration. The sentiments of its inhabitants
towards the author of that system could not of course be very
favourable; neither were they backward in shewing the spirit by which
they were animated, as the following facts will serve to evince:--When
the French, on their return from their disastrous Russian expedition,
had occupied Leipzig, and were beginning, as usual, to levy requisitions
of every kind, an express was sent to the Russian colonel Orloff, who
had pushed forward with his Cossacks to the distance of about 20 miles,
entreating him to release the place from its troublesome guests. He
complied with the invitation; and every Frenchman who had not been able
to escape, and fancied himself secure in the houses, was driven from his
hiding-place, and delivered up to the Cossacks, who were received with
unbounded demonstrations of joy.

About this time a Prussian corps began to be formed in Silesia, under
the denomination of the Corps of Revenge. It was composed of volunteers,
who bound themselves by an oath not to lay down their arms till Germany
had recovered her independence. On the occupation of Leipzig by the
allies, this corps received a great accession of strength from that