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Quelques Details sur le Général Moreau et ses derniers Moments, suivis d'une courte Notice Biographique. Par Paul de Suinine, chargé de l'accompagner sur le Continent. Pp. 144.

[From the Edinburgh Review.]

THIS is indeed a meager production upon such a subject. But, unsatisfactory as it is, the interest of that subject carries us through, and prevents us from being quite overcome by Mr. Suinine's total incompetency to do it justice. Although, however, we cannot pass this publication entirely over, yet it will not detain us long.

Who, or what Mr. Suinine may be, he has left us to guess. That he is a Russian, we indeed find in every page; that he was appointed to accompany Moreau, he tells us himself; but in what capacity, whether as a companion, an attendant, or a superintendant, he has omitted to mention. He was with him during the voyage from America; and exclaims "Je n'oublierai jamais cette heureuse époque de ma vie! J'étais tout entier au plaisir de l'entendre disserter sur toutes sortes de sujets." But it really appears that he has forgotten all that passed; for of "all sorts of subjects," he gives us none, except a few sentences of his own dull description of the general's manner of conversing.

"Sa manière de s'exprimer, quoique pure et souvent élégante, n'appartenait qu'à lui; elle tenait de la franchise militaire et de la politesse de l'homme du monde. Il exposait ses pensées avec clarté, avec aisance, et il avait tant lu et tant observé qu'il répandait la plus grande variété et le plus constant intérêt dans la conversation. Les seuls objets sur lesquels il était difficile de le faire parler, étaient les faits qui constituaient sa gloire militaire, et les persécutions qu'il avait essuyées de la part de ses ennemis. Il ne pouvait pardonner à Napoléon les maux que celui-ci faisait éprouver à la France, mais il lui pardonnait tous ceux dont il l'avait affligé. Son âme angélique ne connaissait pas la haine, et son cœur repoussait toute idée de vengeance particulière. Les seuls traits que j'ai pu recueillir de lui relativement à son emprisonnement, et à son exil, se rapportent aux refus et à la fierté qu'il opposa sans cesse aux insinuations des agents de Napoléon, qui cherchaient à lui faire faire quelques démarches envers ce dernier pour opérer un rapprochement." P. 21-23.

Then come one or two of the traits with which the volume abounds, that lead us to doubt the correctness of the narrative. It is all written to be read at court, and is crammed with fulsome compliments to the allies, especially Russia-compliments not VOL. IV. New Series.

only excusable, but laudable in the mouth of the author himself -but wholly intolerable when put by him into Moreau's. For example, we more than doubt every one of the three following anecdotes, which occur within the space of two pages. When Bonaparte found that he durst not sacrifice Moreau, says our author, he sent F..... (which, we presume, means Fouché, though surely a more foolish piece of coyness cannot be imagined than this blank) to offer him terms of liberty and reconciliation; but these "were dryly rejected by the general, who said he preferred his own lot to that of his persecutor." Now, as far as our observation of human affairs goes, such epigrams belong only to heroes of the stage, or of German novels, and never come from great men of real life. At all events, if the story have any foundation, we are confident it is built of Mr. Suinine's own materials, and that if Moreau said any thing of the kind, it was only"Tell him I would not change places with him," or some such phrase; and nothing about "mon sort," and "mon persecuteur." The next fuct is, that when he arrived at the Spanish frontiers, the officer who had accompanied him, (and apparently travelled those 400 miles in silence,) "said mysteriously to him, that if he wished to write to the emperor, he might do so, and await, on the frontier, the answer, which must be speedy and favourable;" and this, be it observed, after Moreau had sa, while in prison, that he would not change lots with Bonaparte. "The general answered, that he would not write to what the officer called his emperor, nor have any communication whatever with him." Perhaps Mr. Suinine has forgotten that his own sovereign has very lately set his hand to a declaration, in which Bonaparte is called "his majesty the Emperor of the French;" not to mention the scene of the raft at Tilsit. He has, also, it should seem, forgotten the letter written by Moreau to Bonaparte, the price of his liberation. The next anecdote is no doubt genuine. "Il aimait aussi à s'entretenir du genie et des talens militaires de notre immortel Souvaroff, qu'il jugeait cependant avec une impartiale séverité." It is very odd that he should never have conversed on the greater talents of a military genius whom he knew much more of-the Archduke Charles.

It must be admitted that the flattery of this author towards all princes de facto, provided they are on the side of Russia, is pretty indiscriminate. He never stops to consider the origin of theirdignities-else why should Bonaparte be alluded to as "what you call your emperor," while the Crown Prince of Sweden is treated as a sovereign, and cited as "S. A. R.?" Their titles to sovereignty, however, are the very same; for who can be so foolish as to fancy that the voice of the people had more to do in the Swedish than in the French revolution? This inconsistency

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signifies very little in Mr. Paul Suinine; and we should not have noticed it, but for the prevalence of the same folly among persons of greater importance; certainly not among the allied sovereigns, whose conduct in this, as in most other respects, has hitherto been marked with sound sense and consistency.

The general landed at Gottenburgh; and then begins the flattery of Bernadotte, but in so clumsy a way, as to be often incompatible with the admiration of Moreau. Marshal d'Essen, an old Swedish officer, bursts forth in expressions of joy at seeing Moreau. His emotions, however, are truly courtly; they are the reflection of the prince's; or rather he only feels happy at the event, because he knows how it will delight his master. One should think a little genuine admiration might have been expressed for the illustrious stranger on this occasion-but we only find a string of praises, not very lofty, put into Bernadotte's mouth"How delighted our crown prince will be, who never ceases to speak of his friend General Moreau! How often has he told us that Moreau was born a general, that he had the conception, the coup-d'œil, the decision, of a great captain!" So that an inferior commander becomes all of a sudden Moreau's superior, and entitled to assume the most intolerable tone of preeminence, that of praising, as soon as he is made a prince. This blundering man (whether the marshal or the writer we know not) cannot find any thing to say of Moreau's genius, better than that Bernadotte has a high opinion of him. The same unfortunate disposition leads to the telling of an anecdote, which, if true, is not creditable to Bernadotte's discretion-that above a year before, he had freely talked of Moreau's coming to Sweden. If he really did so, it was many chances to one that the plan was frustrated.

After telling how little baggage the general travelled with, and how he packed it, distributing it equally among his bags or boxes, so that each might contain a little of every thing, and the chances of having some supply of every article be increased, the author hastily mentions the anxiety of all ranks to see and entertain, and show every civility to the traveller on his route to Ystadt, where he took shipping for Stralsund, where the crown prince and he met. The interview of these distinguished warriors, under circumstances so extraordinary, is certainly a striking event; and even Mr. Suinine cannot tell it feebly-though he gives us far less of it than might be wished. Bernadotte's first question to every one after this was, "Have you seen Moreau?" Mr. Suinine adds a fact, considerably more in the spirit of candour than could have been expected that during the three days these great men were together, they arranged the whole plan of the subsequent campaign.

The journey towards headquarters is rendered very interesting, by the enthusiasm for Moreau, shown in the people of all

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ranks. Every one expressed his feelings in his own way: the innkeepers refused his money, and the postmasters furnished him with their best horses. No sooner did he stop in any place than he was surrounded with crowds eager to see and applaud him. With his accustomed modesty, he ascribed all these marks of esteem, not to himself, but to the detestation of Bonaparte. A great deal of conversation is said to have passed between the travellers, but scarcely any part of it is preserved. That which is, rather surprises us. It seems, one of Moreau's two favourite heroes was Charles XII.; a choice not easily to be anticipated or explained. The other was Frederick II. The injudicious narrator takes this occasion of recording a violent invective against Bonaparte, pronounced by Moreau, as a contrast with the two heroes just mentioned. We say record; but it is very difficult to believe that the following matter came really from that great man. He is speaking of Frederick II. "Celui-la," disait-il, "n'a jamais abandonné son armée au milieu des combats. Ses victoires étaient le fruit des plus hautes combinaisons, secondées du coup-d'œil le plus juste, de plus rare sang froid, et d'un courage tel qu'il convient aux souverains d'en montrer. La tactique furibonde de Bonaparte a entièrement bouleversé l'art de la guerre ; les batailles ne sont plus que des boucheries; ce n'est pas comme autrefois en épargnant le sang des soldats qu'on détermine le succés d'une campagne, mais bien en le faisant couler à grands flots. Napoléon n'a gagné ses victoires qu'à coups d'hommes."—(P. 36, 37.) Surely he could not have chosen so unfortunate a topic as the first which is here introduced, when he must have known that Frederick actually run away from the first battle he was ever in; nor the last, when he makes Charles XII. one of his chosen heroes. It is impossible to detest Bonaparte more than we do, as a tyrant and a man utterly regardless of the blood he sheds; but in this respect, he resembles other heroes; and certainly Charles XII. was not sparing of his people.

At Berlin the same joy is shown as everywhere else; and, after a few hours' stay, the general proceeds on his journey. He meets many deserters from the French army-but only one who had served under him; and the author makes him say that the greater part of the veterans who had served under Moreau in the campaigns on the Rhine, had perished in the retreat from Russia, and the rest diminished in numbers daily, from the necessity of exposing them to support the raw troops. Is it, then, intended that we should believe that the veterans of 1795, or even 1800, (the last campaign of Moreau,) were left in any considerable numbers as late as 1812, nay, some as late as the present campaign? Who, then, fought all the battles in Spain, and the campaigns of 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1809, in Germany and Poland? The mere

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lapse of time would have accounted for most of them; but when the events too are considered, we can surely only ascribe it to the author's determination to destroy them in Russia, not that any of them should be imagined to have survived in a state fit for service. The same deserter being asked why he deserted, made answer, that there was no longer any pleasure in serving with the French armies, because they were full of children who would not fight except when their ears were deafened with artillery.

Moreau meets on the road a detachment of Russian artillery, which he admires exceedingly; and of this we can have no doubt;-but we greatly doubt if he expressed his admiration in such terms as he is here made to do. "It is thus that the thunders of war should be borne; the appearance of your artillery explains to me its superiority in the last campaigns:" An observation, by the way, somewhat unlucky, and leading one to suspect that it is not Moreau's;-for though Mr. Suinine is too good a Russian to know that the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen were gained by the French, and chiefly by artillery, we guess General Moreau could not have been ignorant of the fact. Flattery is not quite so easy a trade as is sometimes supposed; they who practise it ought, according to the tenor of an ancient adage, to have good memories.

At length the general arrives at Prague, then the headquarters of the allies; and his reception by their majesties is kind and friendly in the highest degree. The Emperor Alexander appears to have demeaned himself with the plain and simple frankness which so eminently distinguishes him; he came to his lodgings between eight and nine in the morning, before Moreau could get out to call upon his majesty, and remained two hours in conversation with him. The effects of imperial condescension are certainly very considerable, and often work strange emotions in the greatest minds. It would argue, therefore, too much presump tion, wholly to disbelieve that even Moreau should have been so much affected as our author describes him. But we venture to doubt his having given vent to his feelings in the terms lent him by this loyal Russian. "He came to me," says M. Suinine, "with tears in his eyes, and with a faltering voice exclaimed, Ah! mon cher S.... quel homme que l'empereur! dès ce moment j'ai contracté l'obligation de sacrifier ma vie pour lui. Il n'est personne qui ne se fasse tuer pour le servir. Que tous les rapports flatteurs que j'avais entendus sur son compte, que toutes les idées avantageuses que je m'étais faites de lui, sont au-dessous de cet ange de bonté!"

From the emperor we are taken to "their imperial highnesses the Grand Duchesses of Weimar and Oldenburgh, whose talents, information and manners enchanted the general." He then saw