out the passage by remarks that clearly evince that he had no just appreciation of what he had witnessed or heard. For instance, on Napoleon's going on board the Northumberland, the guard of marines, at his request, were made to go through their manual exercise; upon their coming to a charge, the Emperor, thrusting a bayonet of one of the front rank men aside, entered the ranks, and taking a musket shewed our officer how differently the operation was performed in the French service. This anecdote finely illustrates the admirable equanimity of temper in Napoleon, preserved even at the very moment of his entering his prison, and it displays the rul ing passion of his soul-his love and attention to all things military; the Count Las Cases, on the contrary, relates the anecdote, as a proof of Napoleon's extraordinary personal courage in trusting himself amongst English bayonets. Again, in the first volume, (Part II.) beginning at page 253, the picture of this once ruler of the world a prisoner on the peak of a barren rock, in a hovel without shutters, curtains, or furniture, and with food scarcely eatable, leaving his miserable one room in order that it may be cleaned, and contrasting this treatment of himself with his own munificent treatment of the sovereigns of Europe when he rode triumphant in their capitals, and when they sued to him for favours and called him their brother, is a picture as sublime as history can produce; but the Count mars the effect by his superabundant epithets, and either obvious or trifling remarks, or he renders it still worse by going into petty details. The Count cannot tell us that this conqueror of the earth" now occupied this hovel," but he must begin; The Emperor Napoleon, who but lately possessed such boundless power, and disposed of so many crowns, now occupies a wretched hovel," &c. and after this great moral picture of human misfortunes, the Count makes his climax by going immediately into details of their want of" butter, oil," &c. In spite of this wretchedly bad taste the picture is impressive, and cannot but recall to the mind of the classic reader the fate of Marius and of Belisarius, and it will remind

And left a name at which the world grew pale,

To point a moral or adorn a tale." With the alteration of a few words the passage, both from the Latin and from the English poet, would appear rather prophecy than poetry. We shall now, however, confine ourselves to Buonaparte, and take leave of Count Las Cases, by observing that in spite of his numerous and unpardonable errors in treating his subject, so great is that subject, that it is impossible to read twenty pages of the Count's Journal without finding something either amusing or important.

These volumes contain indubitable proof, both positive and indirect, of all that has been asserted about

the natural goodness of Napoleon's disposition. His goodness of heart, his mercy and forbearance were evinced by his munificent provision for all the meritorious, but poorer companions of his youth; by his saving the lives of the emigrants at Toulon, and contriving their escape to the English squadron (Vol. I. page 152,) by his resolute disobedience of all the sanguinary orders transmitted to him by the Directory whilst commanding the army of Italy, and by his refusal to execute General Wurmser, as an emigrant, when he was taken at Mantua; by his invariable protection of the emigrants and royalists, and of all objects of political animosity. His letter, as First Consul, to the present King of France, respecting his restoration to the throne, (Vol. I. Part I. page 271,) considering the extraordinary tone of feeling existing on the subject at the moment, exhibits great generosity and goodness. But this point of his character is fully established by the fact, that on his return to Paris from Elba he was put into possession of the correspondence of Mons. Blacas, and which at once laid open to him the treachery of many of his officers, both civil and military, as well as the ingratitude of so many of those who owed their all to his bounty; and yet we do not find that in any one instance did he execute or molest these offenders. So far from his having any rancour of disposition or spirit of revenge, we find him, in page 295, Vol. I., speaking very fairly of Augereau, a man who had betrayed and insulted him during his misfortunes, and speaking equally well of Marmont, whose treason and ingratitude had occasioned his downfall. In all conversations Napoleon appears to be the apologist of the calumniated. His temper seems to have been equally good with his nature and disposition, for his ebullitions of rage, although violent, were neither frequent nor long; and what is of more importance, they never led to immediate cruelty nor left any feelings of malevolence upon his mind. Witness the remarkable scene on his detection of a traitor in his Privy Council, (Vol. I. Part I. page 282,) in which, in the heighth of his rage

at treachery that might have cost him his crown, he only dismisses the culprit, and, in dismissing him, although at the moment infuriated, he exclaims, "I am sincerely grieved at this, sir, for the services of your father are still fresh in my memory." We might refer also to the Emperor's quarrel and reconciliation with Marshal Bertrand, (page 294, Vol. I.) or rather we might refer to the whole of these volumes, for every part of them bear evidence of his goodness of nature as well as of his goodness of temper. If several instances of severity or even of cruelty be attached to his name, such, for instance, as his executions of those who had rebelled against him at Cairo, they appear always to have been the result of absolute necessity, and to relate to him, not individually, but specifically, and in common with all conquerors; such facts therefore amount to a proof how much the happiness of mankind is injured by warriors and conquerors, even when the individuals themselves may be free from cruelty of disposition.

We may be allowed to remark that the reader will frequently experience great inconvenience in the perusal of these volumes by the want of dates and notes explanatory of the events of the revolution. A fault which has been often found with every French work relating to that event, or to the consequences that have arisen from it. When the Count, for instance, traces events to the 10th of August, or talks of Vendemiaire, or the revolution of Brumaire, he forgets that neither the words, nor their association with the scenes to which he alludes, are sufficiently familiar to the generality of English, or of any but French readers, to render his meaning intelligible. It is this inconvenience attending the perusal of foreign political works that induced us, in our number of last September, to publish a vocabulary of all the terms relating to the revolution, and which vocabulary will be extremely useful in going through the volumes now before us, as well as in perusing the other works which have proceeded from those who accompanied the Emperor to St. Helena. The Count's private

anecdotes of Napoleon's boying disposition, and juvenile habits, have, in point of substance, appeared in our three articles upon the life of Napoleon; and numerous pages in these volumes are confirmatory of the most material as well as of the minor parts of our memoirs in our Magazine for February, March and April.

The Count's volumes contain many interesting anecdotes of the principal characters, which the revolution threw forward into the political arena.

We have anecdotes

of Pichegru in Vol. I. Part I. pages 116, 117, and 119; and in Vol. II. Part III. page 358. There are various interesting anecdotes and admirable sketches of characters, made by the Emperor upon those two perverse, intriguing, and able individuals Talleyrand and Fouché, of whom the Emperor observes that Talleyrand was the Fouché of the drawing-rooms, whilst Fouché was the Talleyrand of the clubs. They appear to have been always actuated solely by a lust of pelf, and of personal advantages, without the slightest principle of honour or integrity; and, as a climax of their baseness, when the Emperor landed from Elba, they took separate sides; Fouché guaranteeing the safety of Talleyrand with Napoleon should the Emperor succeed, whilst Talleyrand was to secure the favour of the Bourbons for Fouché in the event of the success of the allies. The ingratitude and perfidy of this latter character towards Napoleon exceeds any thing in history; but it appears a very erroneous idea that Napoleon was ever blind to the vices of this execrable wretch; that he was his dupe, or that he trusted him beyond the absolute necessity of circumstances. The Emperor, speaking of his employing him at the critical juncture of his affairs after his return from Elba, observes that he knew his fidelity or infidelity would depend on circumstances more than on the individual. "If I had been victorious," said the Emperor, "Fouché would have been faithful-I ought to have conquered." But, alas! to how many thousands will this observation apply; for what is fidelity, generally speaking, but the effect of the pros

perity and affluence of those whom we serve. Napoleon's great principle, at this juncture, appears to have been, if I am victorious all will be faithful to me, if I am not victorious, few will be faithful, nor can infidelity be of much consequence, the game will be up. Whilst we are on this part of our article we may observe that the Emperor's observations and anecdotes afford lamentable but unquestionable evidence of the great inconsistency and depravity of human nature. In the course of his reign, as well as in that of the revolution, we find Sans-culotte leaders merged in pomp and luxury; hereditary noblemen free from pride and assumption; republican generals full of arrogance and personal tyranny; persons in the depth of misery and distress devoted to principles disinterested, and resisting the temptations of wealth; others of princely fortunes submitting to every thing degrading, and committing every crime for the sake of money; men heroically brave in fight, eventually dying like cowards; bold under some circumstances, poltroons under others; Lannes, who amidst the most frightful carnage could electrify battalions by his valour, at last died weeping like a nervous girl; Murat, the rival of Lannes in valour, was at last intimidated and yielded to a cowardly rabble. We have not only the "Fears of the brave and follies of the wise," but we have occasional wisdom from fools and valour from poltroons. How admirably are these inconsistencies and baseness of mankind displayed by Napoleon in his peculiarly profound, but sketchy manner of the different persons and classes who had betrayed him :-he says, speaking to Count Las Cases, "Fouché was not a noble, Talleyrand was not an emigrant, Augereau and Marmont were neither. Reckon. yourselves here-among four, you find two nobles, one of whom was even an emigrant. The excellent M. de Segur, in spite of his age, at my departure, offered to follow me. I have been betrayed by Marmont whom I might call my son, my offspring, my own work, he to whom I had committed my destinies by