Views and Reviews.

THE LAST VOLUME OF THE BREHON LAWS.

It was not till the year 1852, that the proposal made by Edmund Burke for the publication of the Brehon Laws took tangible shape in the establishment of a Commission for the publication of the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland. We may be permitted to doubt if, even then, the circle of Irish scholars included any one person, sufficiently equipped, to undertake the work of editing and translating these very difficult texts. No man could then be found who combined, at once, a knowledge of comparative law and custom, and a knowledge of Irish sufficient to solve the textual difficulties which the Laws presented. Under the circumstances no better selection could have been made than that of O'Curry and O'Donovan as textual editors, and the failure of these two eminent men, in the editing of the first volumes of the Laws, casts no reflection, either upon themselves or those who appointed them. That failure was due in great part to the fact that the condition of contemporary scholarship was not sufficiently advanced to cope with the difficulties of the work, and further to the fact that O'Curry and O'Donovan did not receive that sympathy and encouragement which should have been bestowed on men engaged in such a difficult and trying task. Whatever of worth is to be found in these volumes is theirs. The long drawn-out and tiresome introductions are of little practical value, and certainly deserve the severe strictures passed upon them. The first four volumes appeared in the years 1865, 1869, 1873, and 1879, respectively, and it was not till 1901 that the last two volumes V. and VI. (Glossary), appeared. For these last two volumes Dr. Atkinson is alone responsible.

It is almost needless to point out with Stokes that in the interval between 1879 and 1901 Irish scholarship had made immense strides. Dr. Atkinson, therefore, had an enormous advantage over his predecessors, and we should have expected his work to show a proportionate advance in excellence. Stokes' criticism of the Glossary in the Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie shatters such a hope. The validity of his criticism may be briefly shown by an examination of Atkinson's treatment of such common words as fo-fetar, commán, ala ara. In the case of the first two words he tacitly accepts his predecessors' mistranslation of fo-fetar, as "it is known.' Whilst the common word commán is given as cumán. The forms ala, ara, are given under those of dala, dara, due to the wrong prefixing of the final d of the article ind. Again, in nothing, perhaps, in Irish is scholarly acuteness shown so much as in the disentanglement of the composite verbal forms. One example of Atkinson's treatment of these will suffice. He met the form redruigset in the phrase gé redruigset sidhe laim. Now, apart from Strachan's explanation of the use of the infixed conditional element d, an acquaintance with the Glosses edited by Ascoli should have

suggested at once rog- as the core of the word, and the consequent correct reading as ce ro-d-ruigset laim, "though they stretched out their hand." Yet his inability to solve this rather simple "crux" has led to the introduction into his glossary of the non-existing form druigset.

The Irish linguistic tree has, we hope, a sufficient number of roots to nourish it without the production of any new ones, under the fostering culture of Dr. Atkinson.

One more example culled from Stokes' long list will, perhaps, suffice. Atkinson found the phrase, cloc fo cain cethra translated "bell under the neck of cattle," This was a guess of his predecessor, who here makes a new word "cain" neck out of the verb fo cain, which would give the correct rendering of the phrase, "a bell which cattle (quadrupeds) sound.”

The edition of the Brehon Laws has certainly not been saved from condemnation by Dr. Atkinson's additions to it. His hasty unwarrantable and curt dismissal of Irish literature, as either "silly, indecent, or religious," proved him unable to estimate its literary value; his latest performance goes to show that he can lay small claim to possessing that degree of exact textual scholarship which it was to be supposed his long acquaintance with Irish, and his excellent opportunities would have enabled him to attain.

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF NAPOLEON.

AMONG the many accusations hurled at this much maligned and muchbelauded hero of modern times is that of petty jealousy. Now that the hand of time has softly mitigated the violence of his admirers and defamers alike, we begin to form a truer idea of this master mind, its lights and blemishes. The following traits, gleaned from the original works of Napoleon's contemporaries, Marbot Las Cases and others, but especially from the authenticated facts given by his latest, most painstaking biographer, Henri Houssaye, go far to refute the indictment of narrow envy. We shall see that he does not stint his praise whenever a noble quality, no matter in what groove, presents itself; and we can also rely confidently on his known capacity for forgivenness of personal animosity when we assign to him the attribute of generosity.

Writing to the Directoire in 1797, he alludes to the physician Monge and General Berthier in these terms:-" Impossible to send you two more distinguished men in their different spheres than those who bring you the definite peace treaty (Campo-Formio). Both do credit to the French name. Receive them, I pray, with equal honours. General Berthier, whose talents are on a par with his courage and patriotism, is a pillar of the Republic. There is not a victory of our army in Italy to which he has not contributed."

That this appreciation remained is proved by the fact that it was Berthier who was sent to demand formally the hand of Marie Louise for Napoleon. It seems strange, indeed, to find him Captain of a Company of Louis Eighteenth's Guard after the abdication. But Napoleon, whose attachments were tenacious, did not even then think otherwise than affectionately of his old-time friend and comrade. After his

triumphant return from Elba, he declared, with amused malice, that he would pardon the defection on condition that his former Marshal should present himself in his new accoutrements as Captain of the Legitimate Guard.

Whether this was conveyed to Berthier, who shrank from the ridicule and jibes of his former companions, or whether he felt too deeply the infamy of his own ingratitude -he seems to have underrated the Emperor's generosity. He retired to Bavaria, where a most tragic death awaited him. Shortly before the Waterloo campaign, hearing one day the sound of drums, he went out on his balcony to see the soldiers pass. They were regiments marching against France. At sight of them he became violently agitated; an apoplectic stroke precipitated him to the pavement below, where he instantly expired. From 1795 to 1814 Berthier had been constantly with the Emperor, either as Minister of War, Chef d'Etat Major, or Plenipotentiary. He had shared both his hardships and glories, and been admitted to his intimate confidence. Another pet of Napoleon's was Murat, "the finest cavalry officer the world ever saw. It was Murat, the brilliant Murat, who, rising from his bed of fever, with his arm splintered, led a successful charge. Wherever he appeared, victory followed. This military dandy, dressed in scarlet and gold, whose dazzling uniform makes him known to the enemy without his challenging them individually, as he does, to come out and fight, after the manner of the knights af old, is constantly patronised by Napoleon. He chooses him to carry twenty-one Austrian banners as trophies to the Directoire. After the campaign of Egypt, he takes him home with him. When Consul, he gives him his sister Caroline in marriage, and later makes him King of Naples. Murat's subsequent adherence to the Allies did not secure him the advantages he had counted upon. Driven from his throne, he still trusted so far to Napoleon's magnanimity as to seek refuge in France during the Hundred Days. But Napoleon did not allow him to accompany him to Waterloo. much as he might have contributed to strengthen the French army. In a wild effort to regain his kingdom, he was seized, tried by martial law, and shot. "Do not bandage my eyes," he said at the fatal moment. “I have looked death too often in the face to fear it now."

We constantly find Napoleon applying epithets to his subordinates that would seem appropriate to himself only "Marshal!" he calls to Soult after Austerlitz, "You are the first manœuvrer in Europe!" Had he been just before being generous, he might well have added " apres moi ;" but the spontaneity of his praise did not admit of any remembrance of self. It was the same Soult who addressed a proclamation tɔ his soldiers on the return from Elba, "to march against an adventurer coming to re-seize the power he had usurped." But Napoleon, overlooking this, appointed him Major-General of his army, and the Marshal fought desperately at his side on the field of Waterloo, watching in anguish the defeat of troops he had never seen other than successful before that day.

Rarely was the Emperor at fault in his judgment of a man's personal courage. The surname, Bravest of the Brave, bestowed upon the fascinating, though fluctuating Ney, was well justified, particularly in the hero's last moments. After the abdication, Ney was loaded with honours by the Government of the Restoration; and, at the news of Napoleon's

return, it is said he promised Louis to bring him the Eagle in an iron cage! No sooner, however, had he caught sight of the Imperial escort, than, drawn by irresistible souvenirs, he raced with his soldiers to range himself behind the Emperor's banner. After the final collapse, he was tried by court-martial, and sentenced to death. Having embraced his confessor, and emptied his purse for the poor, he turned to the soldiers drawn up for his execution, took off his hat, and cried out: "Comrades! Do your duty, and aim here!" pointing to his heart. Almost as he spoke, this leader of the French army to countless victories, fell, riddled with French bullets.

Kellermann was created Duke of Valmy from a victory won before Napoleon became famous, although he might have got a title from many another successful engagement under the Emperor's command.

To Massena, whom he styled "Victory's Darling Child," Napoleon once wrote: "You count for 6,000 men extra in your command, and yourself and your heroes I always reckon at double their real numbers." Marbot tells us that this preference for Massena did not blind the Emperor to the Marshal's vice of avarice. On one occasion, Massena,

too ill to sit on horseback, had himself bore in the midst of the fight on a palanquin carried by four of his servants. While quite alive to this devoted intrepidity the Emperor insisted that the poor fellows, whose lives had been exposed as well as that of their master, should receive a gratuity ten times what the latter had intended.

While recognising his military talents, Napoleon had never liked Bernadotte; and it was a well-known fact in the army that this personal antipathy was mutual. Family reasons have been assigned for it. But when Bernadotte applied for permission to accept the offered throne of Sweden, Napoleon replied that having been himself elected by the people, he "would not in any way oppose his Marshal's good fortune."

His protégés were not all ungrateful. In that strange and fateful epoch when the old and the new met and fermented, Napoleon's instinct for singling out worth as well as capacity was unique. Looking over the list of his Marshals we can find some great or redeeming trait in them all.

Lefébre, a common soldier risen from the ranks, simple and straightforward, was ever highly esteemed by the Emperor, who created him Duke of Dantzig. It was he who replied to the Czar's question: "No, sire, I was not under the walls of Paris when you arrived. We were unlucky enough not to arrive in time!" On this same level of fidelity and single-heartedness, we find an aristocrat, Davout, scion of a noble house, of which it was said: "When a young Davout comes into life, it is a sword that has left its scabbard." Davout, at Hamburg, in 1814, refused to credit the news of Napoleon's abdication, and replied to General Bennigsen that his Emperor would not surely send him orders by a Russian officer. At last he yielded the place to the envoys of the new King of France. During the Hundred Days he was War Minister, and when all was over he only begged one favour to be proscribed instead of his beloved companions-in-arms.

Marshal Moncey, likewise, remained a faithful worshipper of his Emperor to the last. Under Louis-Philip he became Governor of the "Hotel des Invalides," and, as such, received the remains of the

great Captain when transferred from Saint Helena.

He loved to con

sider himself as still " on guard," and after his death, according to his last wish, was interred near the Emperor's tomb. To those who insist on the arrogance and high-handed conduct of Napoleon towards his generals we would submit this letter to Jourdan, superseded in Italy by Massena:

"My Cousin (the title he applied to all his Marshals), I have received your letter. It gives me great pain, and I share your feelings. It is impossible to be more pleased with your conduct than I have been, or to have a higher opinion of your talents. If I send Massena to Italy, it is because his health is more robust, and that he knows every locality perfectly. Events crowd on us so rapidly that we must silence private considerations. I was forced to send to Italy the man best acquainted with Italy. From Genoa to the Adige there is not a position with which he is not familiar. My dear Marshal, I understand your wounded feelings; I know I have done you a wrong; but remain persuaded that it is in spite of myself. If things were less urgent, as I had flattered myself, you would have finished studying the localities this winter, and my confidence in your capacities and your long experience of warfare would have re-assured me. But it is the Rhine, where you had your successes, that you know best. In fifteen or twenty days I can place you on a field where you can display all your good-will. I hope to learn by your reply that you are satisfied with this explanation, and above all that you do not doubt my sentiments towards you.'

It was on the field of battle that the great Captain gave unstinted praise. How precious to its recipients was this appreciation of the greatest military genius the world ever saw, may be easily supposed.

"You surpassed yourselves to-day!" he cries, meeting Oudinot who had held the whole Russian Army in check at Friedland during twelve hours. "Wherever you are there is nothing to fear except for yourself. Now leave it to me to finish the day."

Of the manifold instances of his generosity to enemies we shall quote but one :—

He left the environs of Mantua after the capitulation of that city in 1797, in order to spare Wurmser the humiliation of handing his sword to his young conqueror, mentioning in his despatches that the venerable campaigner of seventy years "had shown a courage and constancy worthy of emulation." He refused to add to his glory by making the old Marshal a prisoner; and Wurmser, touched by this delicacy towards a fallen enemy, was happy to be able to requite it shortly after by revealing to Napoleon a plot against his life.

The great Captain appears strangely exempt from rancour even towards his betrayers in the most momentous crisis. Witness his comment on Marmont's desertion in the critical campaign of 1814. Marmont had been to him an adopted son, the nephew of a dear old school-mate of Brienne, recommended to him long before his future glory could be suspected. He kept him near his person as aide-decamp, and according as his fortunes rose distributed emoluments and honours on his protégé. He forgave him much, notably the disasters in Spain brought about by the Marshal's foolish ambition. No wonder he was struck dumb at the news of treason "Is it Marmont?