The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-06 00:00:00

PRE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 6, 1847.

MAGAZINES-(CONTINUED.)
BENTLEI'S MISCELLANY.
rroseto- number of Bentley opens with a Biogra-
ph etii zseeteti or toe Career (illustrated by a portrait) of
William Hiekling Prescott, the most learned and most
trustworthy of American historians. The career of
Mr. Prescott is one of the most curious and most
interesting illustrations of the pursuit of knowledge
under difficulties that to ordinary men would have
appeared insuperable that has ever been published: Mr.
Prescott had not to overcome the difficulties which beset
the poor scholar. His position in life has always been
that of a man of independence. His father was a judge,
and William Melding Prescott was educated at
Harvard university, and afterwards travelled all
Europe. His aspirations had always been to become a
great historian, and the subject which he selected for his
first performance was the reign of Ferdinand and Isa-
bella, the sovereigns under whose auspices the existence
of the continent of America was first revealed to Europe;
the age of Columbus, and Ferdinand and Isabella, of
Cardinal Ximenes, the prototype of Talley rand, and of a
gran Capitan Gonzalvo de Cordova, the prototype of
Wellington. the soldier-statesman—
" Mr. Alexander H. Everett was the American Minister
at the Court of Spain when Mr. Prescott decided upon the
choice of his subject, and through his aid and that of two
other American gentlemen residing at the time in the Ps
ninsula, he succeeded in obtaining whatever was known to
' exist, that could not be supplied by the public and
private libraries of Boston. Among the works thus pro-
cured were some brought to light by the researches of recent
Spanish scholars, iu the peculiar freedom of inquiry they
have enjoyed, which gave him great advantage over previous
historians. In his preface he refers particularly to Llorente's
History of tt Inquisition, the analysis of the political
institutions of the kingdom by such writers as Marina,
Sempere, and Campmany ; the version of the Spanish-
Arab Chronicles by Conde, the collections of Navarrette, and
the illustrations of the reign of Isabella, by Clemencin, the
secretary of the Royal Academy of History ; besides which
he succeeded in obtaining various contemporary manuscripts,
covering the whole ground of the narrative, none of which
had been printed, and some of which were but little known
to Spanish scholars.• When these literary treasures reached
him, Mr. Prescott was not able to read even the title-pages
of the volumes."
He had lost one eye by accident in his early youth, and
had by study so strained the nerve of the other, that lie
was all but completely blind. He at first despaired, but
" He determined to try whether he could make the ears
do the work of the eyes. He taught his reader, unacquainted
with any language but his own, to pronounce the Spanish,
though not exactly in the accent of the Court of Madrid.
He read at a slow and stumbling pace, while the historian
listened with painful attention. Practice at length made the
work easier for both, though the reader never understood a
word of his author. In this way they ploughed along pa-
tiently through seven Spanish quartos. He found at last
that he could go over about two-thirds as much in an hour
as he could when read to in English. The experiment (was
made, and he became convinced of the practicability of sub-
stituting the ear for the eye. He was overjoyed, for his
library was no longer to consist of sealed volumes. He now
obtained the services of a secretary acquainted with the dif-
ferent ancient and modern languages. Still then were many
impediments to overcome. His eye, however, gradually im-
proved, and he could use it by daylight (never again in the
evening) a few hours; though this was not till after some
years, and then with repeated intervals of weeks and some-
dines months of debility. Many a chapter, and some of the
severest in Ferdinand and Isabella were written almost
wholly with the aid of the eyes of his secretary. His modes
operandi was necessarily :peculiar. He selected first, all the
authorities in the different languages that could bear on the
topic to be discussed. He then listened to the reading of
these one after another, dictating very copious notes on each.
When the survey was completed, a large pile of notes was
amassed, which were read to him over and over again, until
the whole had been embraced by his mind, when they were
fused down into the consecutive contents of a chapter. When
the subject was complex, and not pure narrative, requiring a
great variety of reference, and sifting of contradictory autho-
rities, the work must have been very difficult; but it strength-
ened memorv, kept his faculties wide awake, and taught him
to generalize; for the little details slipped through the holes
in the memory. His labour did not end with this process:
he found it as difficult to write as to read, and procured
in London a large writing case for the blind. This he
could use in the dark as well as in the light. The charac-
ters, indeed, might pass for hieroglyphics, but they were de-
cyphered by his secretary, and transferred by him to a le-
gible form in a fair copy. Yet I have heard him say his hair
sometimes stood on end at the woful blunders and miscon-
ceptions of the original, which every now and then escaping
detection, found their way into the first proof of the,printer.
Amid such difficulties was the composition of the history of
Ferdinand and Isabella heroically completed at the end of
something less than ten years from its commencement. He •
remembered that Johnson says that Milton gave up his His-
tory of England because it was scarcely possible to write
history with the eyes of others; and was stimulated in the
midst of his embarrassments to overcome them. Well might
he feel a proud satisfaction in conquering the obstacles of
nature. Mr. Prestcott had four copies of the History first
printed for himself, and had so little confidence in its imme
diate success, that he had thought of postponing the publi-
cation till after his death, but his father told him, " the man
who writes a book which lie is afraid to publish is a coward."
This decided him. The work was published in the begin-
ning of 1838. Its reception in his own country, and in all
parts of Europe, was such as to repay him, if anything
could, for the long nights of toil by which it had been pro-
duced. On its publication in London, it was praised in the
Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews, and in the leading jour-
nals, and has since gone through four editions and twelve
in the United States ! It was translated into Spanish, Ger-
man, and Italian; it was everywhere recognised at once as
a great history. The voice of posterity was anticipated ;by
the unanimous judgment of the learned it was admitted
without probation into the circle of immortal works."
This history of the composition of this immortal work
is to the full as marvellous as the deeds which are
therein recorded. Columbus and his patrons overcame
what were to all appearance superhuman obstacles—
their historian has done the same. His " History of the
Conquest of Mexico" followed, and was equally well re-
ceived, v, eoldrn
admired
ydn md bis, m.hreeprd.eisrurrilnridoitswtwe engaged in the composition of the
History of Philip If. "In Private Life" concludes his
biography,e
i se
a to
belovedl do—ad
thand t o thissr
Prescott.account,
is
notman
more remarkable for his abilities and acquirements than for
his amiability, simplicity, and high-bred courtesy. He is
one of those men who area blessing as well as an honour to
the communityin this
in which
number, theya
live."
We have,
additional chapter of
"o`fCathpteainDSrypikTe,o"rtthugeassc,enwe
hoefrweh
ich opens in
and
inth Island
Rose,
and Mrs. Budd and Biddy have been left by Swash,
when she escaped from Uncle Sam's cruiser. Our
reader's will recollect the mysterious disappearance of
Mulford from on board the Swash during the chace.
The handsome mate had taken advantage of the explo-
sion of a shell to escape, under cos, r of the smoke, from
the Swash into the Mexican schooner's boat,
while towing astern, to cut the painter, and to
paddle her to the island. There, with the assist-
ance of Jack Tier, he gets the Mexican schooner fit
for sea, and with Jack Tier, Mrs. Budd, Rose, and Biddy,
embarks for King West. On their voyage thither they
encounter a gale which nearly throws the schooner on
her beam-ends, and in that position we leave her and her
crew. Albert Smith contributes a facetious account of a
go-a-head day with Barnum " the Governor" of General
Tom Thumb; and W. B. Taylor makes an ingenious, but
an unsuccessful attempt at an apology for the Massacre of
St. Bartholomew. The gist of his paper is to procure an
acquittal for Charles IX., on the ground of insanity,
and then to inuendo, that Catherine de Medicis was a
retail instead of a wholesale murderess, seeing that her
object was only to assassinate C( ligni, and that the
tiger spirit of the Parisian mob is alone answerable for
the wholesale massacre which followed. But the learned
Doctor forgets to mention that orders were given to
perpetuate a similar massacre on the same day in every
town in France—he forgets that glorious answer of the
Mayor of Bordeaux, " Your Majesty has in this city
many a loyal subject, but no assassin,' and while for, ed
to confess that the Pope expressed his approval of the
massacre, and ordered rejoicings, therefore he says, that
the massacre could not be considered as the act of the
Roman Catholics, because the Pope was a fool. That
approval by the then Pope stands upon record ; it was
great encouragement to all who felt inclined to perpetrate
1 similar massacres, and before we can agree with
Dr. Taylor, that the Roman Catholic religion is not an-
swerable for this massacre, we demand the production of
a distinct and positive repudiation by a wise Pope of the
distinct approval promulgated by the (as he terms him)
oolish Pope. Surely there is nothing unfair or bigotted
is this. The other articles of Bentley are excellent.

lit t le solicitous as to whether they observed fastsand
" Civil and Religious Liberty," written in the same
spirit. is a snoer tigairst those who are independent
enough to thin k for thernsk iv to that evur) Inan
may be at liberty to worship his Creator in the manner
he deems most fitting, and who refuse to submit to the
ipse dixit of any man or body of men. Thank God,
religious liberty has progressed, is progressing, and will
progress, despite such puny attacks. The nation in ge-
neral has discovered that it means something more than
the sagacious writer understands, when he states that it
is " the liberty to be of no religion at all, and to abuse
as bigots and illiberal those who do not think like our-
selves." The remainder of the number consists of short
reviews and the usual university intelligence, which con-
tains, inter alia, the second report of proceedings in the
Observatory relating to the new planet Neptune.

State of the Odds," and the Conning Calendar, close
an excellent number. There are two good engravings
1.1.;0,—" All on the Downs," and portraits of the F,rey-
h 2,1.),es

X VIL

THE KNIGHT OF Cff YNIVE. No.
By Chades Lever.
The brilliant, sketchy pen of Mr. Lever revels in these
chapters over the expedition of Abercrombie to Egypt.
That expedition was undoubtedly conducted with a
valour and alacrity most creditable to the British army,
and it was particularly creditable at a moment when the
various powers of the known world were being con-
quered by the indomitable prowess of the French
soldiers and the wonder Sul military genius of the Frei eh
commanders. With Kleber in Africa, and Desaix as his
assistant, and Moreau in Germany, and Hocke in La
Vend 4, and Bernadotte in the interior, and Bonaparte
now in Italy, now upon the eastern shores of the British
Channel, and now again in the deserts of Syria, France
offered defiance to all the hosts of Europe and Africa.
and marched through a succession of victories and
through leagues of vanquished territories. The tri
umphant expedition undertaken by the veteran Aber-
crombie, and opened by his heroic dissolution, was the
first discomfiture of the French battalions since the
Revolution had merged into the Republic One and In-
divisible. Harry Lorrequer is so elated by the recollec-
tion of these successes that he degenerates into the
flatterer of our insular vanity and the traducer of the
valorous children of liberated France. To him the
English military service is of course the very beim idea
of chivalric perfection: its leaders are to him, of course,
sans peur et sans rapproche: the regiments are to him, of
course, congregations of heroes. To him, moreover, the
French military service is, of course, the most damnable
of modern institutions: its generals are to him, of course,
ignorant parvenus and rascally marauders : its privates
are to him, of course, mere assemblies of convicted
felons and profligate ruffians—ragged, insubordinate,
sometimes even mean and pusillanimous. We protest
against these egregious John. Bullisms, they are un-
becoming a generous and fine-spirited race. Apart from
these little contemptible nationalities, we are gratified
with progress made in the fiction, although we are sorely
distressed at the protracted absence of our old favourite
Bagenal Daly. In this seventeenth number, Dr. Hick-
man is discomfited in his treacherous designs
upon Lady Eleanor, the Knight himself is cap-
tured by the French troops on their flight
from Aboukir to Alexandria, and Forester, who
had enlisted in " Darcy's Volunteers," and been
seriously wounded in endeavouring to rescue the gallant
old Colonel, is exchanged among
the ordinary pri-
soners, and discovered to have succeeded to an earldom,
in consequence of the death of his elder brother. We
may consequently anticipate the speedy celebration of
his marriage with Helen Darcy, and the close of the
narrative. The incidental portraiture of Menou---the
most incompetent of all the French Generals—is clever
and faithful.

LITERATURE.

HISTORY OF THE CAPTIVITY OF NAPO-
LEON, Vole. 111. and IV. By General Count
Montholon.
Exactly twenty-six years ago, dating from this sth of
May, 1847, namely, on the sth of May, 1821, the Emperor
Napoleon died in the arms of Montholon on the miser-
able island of St Helena. It cannot be without peculiar
emotion that those who sympathize with genius and mis-
fortune, open a narrative penned by so faithful and affec-
tionate an adherent. The aspiration of Lord Palmerston,
that all our old animosities should be buried in the tomb
of Napoleon, has been long since fulfilled, and it is new
the particular privilege of Englishmen to atone for the
unmerited aspersions of a preceding generation, and the
malignant cruelties of a former Government by the
candid and honourable reception of such histories as the
one just completed by General Count Montholon. The
work is unquestionably among the most remarkable of
the present century ; and it is remarkable not so much
for the additional light it throws upcn the domestic
virtues of Napoleon, as for the new illustration it aff eels
of his legislative policy, and his incomprehensible intel-
lect. In these respects the " History of the Captivity" by
Montholon possesses a twofold interest. It completes the
picture of the exile at Longwoud, which had been already
coe.menced by Las Casas, by Gourgaud, by Miss Bal
eombe (now Mrs. Abell), by O'Meara, by Captain Basil
Hall, and by Autommarchi. It does more, it furnishes
conclusive testimony as to the principles by which the
imperial Government was actuated, and the plans it wes
intended to accomplish. This testimony, be it observe d,
is contained in very lengthened dictations from the lips
of Napoleon himself. Thanks to the eternal vitality of
truth, the facts of history will " out," as assuredly as the
commission of murder. In spite of the most specious
and elaborated'calumnies, in spite of lying biographers,
and unprincipled historians, and infamous commentators,
no personage really great and good can long be held up
to the detestation of mankind. How sublimely has not
this been very recently instanced in the case of the Lord
Protector, Oliver Cromwell ; the character of the Em-
peror Napoleon is in like manner becoming gradually
revealed to us English in its true brightness ; the fogs of
vituperation
annadmse wlandheirnharethrey ollihvenagawhaitynefrrotumthenoble
and majestic darkened.
No man has ever been so monstrously and pertinaciously
traduced ; no man has ever been the object of such gra-
tuitous and flagrant obloquy. That libels should have
na paptueraarle eared 0
ni nsetqhuen
nhnena tuof
thef i n tbeirtntearti osennatil
mc oennfltsicetni b
engenderethed
by warfare. That an ungrateful hypocrite like Bouri-
enne should malign his benefactor is a very comprehen-
sible act of atrocity, for, as William Hazlitt has said,
" there is no hatred equal to that we feel towards those
we have injured." That a brother like Louis Bonaparte
should publish two volumes of false accusation against
the very man who had crowned him with the diadem of
Holland, is one of those deplorable ebullitions of spleen
which can be readily understood, and it is a fault which
has been generously forgiven and nobly expiated. We
can conceive, too, how a regicide like Fouch‘ could de-
scend to the ignoble and damning infamy of traduce-
ment ; but that Chateaubriand—the pure and lofty-
minded Chateaubriand, the panegyrist and the philoso-
pher of Christianity—should become the lying pam-
phleteer of legitimacy; that Sir Walter Scott—the high-
priest of imaginative literature, the avatar of romance,
and the glory of his age—should dwindle down
into the sycophant of a king-adoring rabble ; that
Colonel Mitchell—a member of that profession
which, before
for its love of honesty, and valour, and truthfulness,
beyend comprehension,
—should degenerate into the falsifier of history and the
sacred depositary of many
slanderer of a deceased hero ; that these and a host of
less important writers should deliberately, with malice
his appearance, had been remarkable
prepense, endeavour to garble a story which was the
inevitably render
them the perpetual derision of mankind. Their venom
and ability have been equally employed in vain. Their
aspersions have fallen as ludicrously short of the mark
as the javelins ofthe Lilliputiansdid of the head
andillumstursiotus lives, is utterly
of the upstanding Gulliver. Napoleon himself was
conscious of that sublime moral integrity which can
alone render an historical character invulnerable to
malignity,
g u iltBYls
of the
reoeshaGde 1 Government
attack. He smiled with equal contempt at the libels of
his many assailants and at those fulsome panegyrics
whichwhieh Ntvheereausothooftreonfuitewreadveartithe foot of his throne in the
days of his supreme greatness. e I appeal to history 1"
as "in some degree, the etal-
was his frequent exclamation ; as in his celebrated pro-
test of the 4th of August, 1815. He was consoled by
an implicit confidence in that love of distant posterity
affec-
tion." And his reliance ism already being verified. Not
merely is his last wish complied with, not only do his
august remains repose "in the midst of that French
people whom he loved so well," not merely is a monu-
ment being erected to his memory "under the dome in
11;hsiaess hoarnialytusrpaol spoken
neco-f
the midst of the temple consecrated by religion to the
God of armies," but it was solemnly asseverated in the
118n4d0—codillisreignugeinhtely Feignot
Chamber of Deputies, by the French Government of
a younger Bourbon—it was
'solemnly asseverated before Europe, " Napoleon was an
cif the Orleans Louis Philippe,
Emperor and a King ; he was the legitimate
sovereign of our country 1" Paltry then was the
revenge, which deided to him in his captivity that iw
pedal title which had been conferred upon him by the
1 voice of an unanimous people, and the chrism of the Pon-
t ['mate! What does history declare of the unanimity of
the French people in his election to the throne? Thus
speaks Beurienne—even Bourienne—(vol. iii., p. 163 )
" France at that time (1804) contained 108 departments,
avoutdedthaegracinwsetre3,
hereditarys ,898. .
cveoetsesriso.n.,o, fmthuessespoetailkys 25,.5.6,9,
(vol. v. p. 160), .. Upwards 0f3,500,000 citizens had given
their votes on this occasion; of whom only about 3,500 had
declared against the proposition." Thus, again, speaks
the Duchess d'Abrantes (vol. iv. p. 69), " It is worthy
of remark, that for the empire there were only 2,579
negative votes." And thus speaks Hazlitt (vol. iii. p.
:sitshown,
,nomw blunderingsee
subjected
117), " The First Consul became Emperor, by a majo-
rity of two millions some hundred thousand votes to a
few hundreds." Was William of Orange, think you,
rightful Sovereign, as we all acknowledge him to be,
tfoorfe St. James'.:,
welcomed with a similar accordance by our Eng
bjected Napoleon
fish forefathers ? To gratify,
therefore, au
ignoblerangiranging
ver"diinsisoipnastiesd
to this frivolous insult ; anti but one man, Vassal Hol-
land, had the courage or the magnanimity to raise his
voice in the House of Lords against this wretched system
—namely, the belief that Napoleon was an usurper; and
England, by signing the Treaty of Paris with him in
1814, and by combining with the other powers of
Europe to restrict his Sovereignty within the
circumference of Elba, there and then virtually
(th therefore, persecution.a s we hOanvee
proclaimed before the world that he was:
no usurper. The arch-sin that remains levelled
against him is consequently the sin of ambition ; and to
di,cern how far he is culpable or not in this respect it is
necessary to discover the principles and the purposes of
that ambition. Mankind cannot rest satisfied, however,
in observing with the Encyclopadia Brztannica, that
o in extenuation of the ' glorious fault,' he might say,
like Mahommed,
"Je fns arnbitieux . .
...
mais jewels rth, pontife, ou chef; ou citoyen,
Ne concus in preset aussi grand qui le mien."
Mankind, we repeat it, cannot rest satisfied with such
an extenuation. We are not all of us capacitated, like
Thomas Carlyle, to become mere hero worshippers.
The tangible glory must rest upon the durable basis of
moral greatness tows n universal admiration, and a last-
ing popularity. A choolboy may have his mind in-
flamed with wonder._ and enthusiasm by the idea of
Napoleon on the bridge of Lodi, among the quagmires
l of
of Arcola, under the_ shae •oi e the Pyramids, among
the olives of Meunt Thabor, among the corn-fields of
Marengo, or among the crags and glaciers of the Great
St. Bernard. But the full-grown man, the ripe thinker,
the lover of judicious discrimination, will look rather to
the causes and effects than to the actual achievments ;
he will inquire rather into the origin of a battle than
into the trophies of a victory ; he will consider the con-
sequences effected by a campaign rather than the var

able disposition of the belligerent armies ; and, above
all, lie will regard the intentiors and the spirit of the in-
ternal and external government of a v-onderful mortal Ile
ist Empco N't fv ,na Igo &wn to po4terity, 'no
sail, " with the Code in my hand." That, for example,
is one of his chiefest glories—the Code IVapulenn which
has been justly declared to have proved not only" a boon
of inestimable value to France, but to be even at this
day received as authoritative in a great portion of Eu-
rope." Those who have not already formed a decisive
opinion as to the character of this extraordinary man—
who have not investigated the writings, for and against,
b 7 Botta, Capefique,Caulaineourt, Bourienne, Boutourlin,
Norvins, Pacia, Pelet, O'Meara, Larrey,- Lecretelle,
A utommarchi, Las Cases, Beauchamp, Scott, Artaud,
Hazlitt, Berthier, De Bausset, Ireland, Thiers, Mignet,
Michelet, Vandoncourt, Thibaudeau, D'Abrantes, St.
Segur, Rovigo, Gourgaud, Montgaillard, Men-
neval, lomini, Labautne, Chaboulon, Dumas, Benjamin
Constant, and a multitude of other authorities the very
enumeration of whom is bewildering—will find mate-
rial assistance in these volumes by Generai Count
Montholon. As an example of how far the " History
of the captivity," tends to the elucidation of Napoleon's
policy, and the explanation of his ambition, we give this
one significant paragraph:—

" Peace once signed in Moscow, the war in Russia would
be the last continental war of the reign of Napoleon ; as re-
garded the great cause of the people, it would be the ter-
mination of danger and the beginning of security. A new
era would open, and new works be commenced for the well-
being and prosperity of all. The European system being
founded, there would only be to consider of its organization.
The cause of the age would be gained, and the revolution ac-
complished. Napoleon would be the arch of the ancient and
new alliance, the natural mediator between the old and new
order of things. Not having identified himself with either,
he would belong to both, and would conscientiously support
the cause of each in a general congress, where everything
would be organized for the European continent, in the
wisely-combined interest of the people and their govern-
ments. His glory would consist in his equity. Europe would,
in future, be really only one combination of all the people

who inhabit it.
" When this great work was finished, hi would associate
his son with him in the empire; his reign as Dictator would
terminate, and a freely constitutional reign would commence.
He meant to found a royal institution at Meudan for the
education of the King of ilome, and his project was to edu-
cate there together all the ponces of his family, particularly
of those branches of it which he bad placed on foreign
thrones, in order to join the advantages of private and public
education. Destined to reign over different nations, these
children would have acquired, during the course of their
education in common, similar manners, principles, and ideas;
and in order the better to facilitate the fusion of the federa-
tive pactions of the empire, each of these princes should have
taken with him, on his leaving the institution, ten or twelve
young persons of his own age, and of the first families of his
adopted country ; and the effect of this, would have been
immense."

To those individuals who view Napoleon as goaded on
by an insatiable lust for war, we commend the following
brief sentences:—

" Napoleon regarded a general peace as the first step
towards the regeneration of Europe; and when he was at
the very height of his power, he renewed his offer of peace
with England, in concert with the Emperor of Austria and
the King of Prussia, who had gone to Dresden for the ex-
press purpose of paying him a visit, and openly testifying
the sincerity of their alliance. The English Ministry and
the libels of all the oligarchs in the world may say what
they please; it is nevertheless true, that the Emperor Na-
poleon always desired peace with England.
" So also, when surrounded by a royal cortege, and when
400,000 soldiers, under the French eagle, were encamped on
the banks of the Niemen, he again held out a friendly hand
to the Emperor Alexander, and sent to him his aide-de-camp, '
Count Narbonne, to make a last effort for the re-establish-
ment of harmony between two sovereigns, who, not long be-
fore, had mutually engaged to act as brothers."
These statements reminds us of some observations
contained in the Memoirs of Rovigo, the recollFction of
which can never fade from our memory. " The Em-
peror," says Savory (Vol 3, p. 81), " far from taking
an undue advantage of any his victories, had always re-
frained from oppressing the vanquished. He constantly
checked himself in his triumphs, being reluctant, as he
used to say, to reduce a nation to despair. In Italy he
made the first step towards reconciling the French revo-
lution with Europe ; and he laid the basis of a peace
which was signed at Campo Formio. After
the battles of Marengo and Hohenlinden, he stopped
when it was in his power to have marched
to Vienna. After the battle of Austerlitz, he stopt short,

_ .
when it was in his power to have confounded the most
shameful of aggressions. And at Tilsit, after the battle
,f Friedland, he renounced all the advantages of a war
still more fortunate than the first ; and did not follow
up his successes against a power whose forces were ex
hausted, because he wished to facilitate peace, and
to secure the tranquillity of Europe on a
steady foundat'on. Such examples of magna-
nimity," concludes the Duke of Rovigo, " deserve
to be remembered." As a species of corollary to this,
we extract the entire of a very long document, too im-
portant, for a thousand reasons, to curtail ; it contains
"Napoleon's Advice to his Son, the King of Rome, dic-
tated to Count Montholon, by the Emperor, shortly be-
fore the death of the later." Let those who consider

Napoleon only as a despot, as a successful soldier, as a
monster of cruelty, as an enemy to liberty, and especially
to the liberty of the press—weigh every phrase and
syllable of this glorious and beautiful document.
" My son should not think of avenging my death ; he
should profit by it. Let the remembrance of what I have
done never leave his mind; let him always be, like me,

every inch a Frenchman. The aim of all his efforts should
be, to reign by peace: if he should recomtpence my wars out
of pure love of imitation, and without any absolute neces-
sity, he would be a mere ape. To do my work over again
would be to suppose that I had done nothing; to complete
it, on the contrary, would be to show the solidity of the
basis, and explain the whole plan of an edifice which I had
only roughly sketched ; the same thing is not done twice in
a century: I was obliged to daunt Europe by my arms; in
the present day, the way is to convince her. I saved the
revolution which was about to perish ; I raised it from its
ruins, and showed it to the world beaming with glory. I
have implanted new ideas in France and in Europe; they
cannot retrograde: let my son bring into blossom all that I
have sown ; let him develop all the elements of prosperity
enclosed in the soil of France, and by these means he may
yet be a great sovereign.
" The Bourbons will not maintain their position after my
death ; a reaction in my favour will take place everywhere,
even in England ; this will be a fine inheritance for my son.
It is possible that the English, in order to efface the remem-
brance of their persecutions, will favour my son's return to
France; but in order to live in a good understanding with
England, it is necessary, at any cost, to favour her com-
mercial interests: this necessity leads to one of these two
consequences—war with England, or a sharing of the com-
merce of the world with her. This second condition is the
only one possible in the present day; the exterior question
will long take precedence in France of the interior. I be-
queath to my son sufficient strength and sympathy to enable
him to continue my work with the single aid of an elevated
and conciliatory diplomacy. His position at Vienna is de-
plorable. Will Austria set him at liberty unconditionally?
But after all, Francis I. was once in a more critical position,
and yet his French nationality was nothing impaired by it.
Let not my son ever mount the throne by the aid of foreign
influence; his aim should not be to fulfil a desire to reign,
but to deserve the approbation of posterity. Let him cherish
an intimacy with my family, whenever it shall be in his
power. My mother is a woman of the old school; Joseph
and Eugene are able to give him good counsel ; Hortense
and Catherine are superior women. If he remains in exile,
let him marry one of my nieces. If France recals him, let
him seek the hand of a Princess of Russia : this Court is the
only one where family ties rule policy. The alliance which
he may contract should tend to increase the exterior in-
fluence of France, and not to introduce a foreign influence
into its counsels. The French nation, when it is not taken
the wrong way, is more easily governed than any other: its
prompt and easy comprehension is unequalled; it immedi-
ately discerns who labours for, and who against it; but then
it is necessary always to speak to its sense, otherwise its un-
easy spirit gnaws, it ferments and explodes.
" My son will arrive after a time of civil troubles ; he has

but one party to fear—that cf the Duke of Orleans: this

party has been germinating for a long time. On this point,
repeat to him what Bertrand said to me: let him despise all
parties, and only see the mass of the people; exceptin.4
those who have betrayed their country, he ought to for,,t-et
the previous conduct of all men, and reward talent, merit,
and services, wherever he finds them. Chateaubriand, not-
withstanding his libel, is a good Frenchman.
" France is the country where the chiefs cf parties have
the least influence; to rest for support on them is to build on
sand. Great things can only be done in France by having
the support of the mass of the people; and, besides, a Go-
vernment should always seek for support where it. is really to
be found. There are moral laws as inflexible and imperious as
made to adopt; the water will descend
tion which they are
otethpellynsoicbalelsoanneds.
thle'hperiels3otsu,rwhobonsti
• has raised it
for a moment. I, on the contrary, relied on the whole mass
again to its level, in spite of the machine which
may
only
bree ltyh feo rc
tour.t
Bourbons
ecvaeirl
of the people without exception. I set the example of a go-
vernment, which favoured the interests of all. I did not go-
vern by the help of, or solely for, either the nobles, the
the
Itheete
whole family
I goottvheernte,rdenfeoiri
~.7hieoltes,cotthnemcuintiizteyt7,foorr
na-
tion. To divide the interests of a nation is to injure them
all, and engender civil war. A thing indivisible by nature
cannot be divided ; it can only be mutilated. 1 attach no
importance to the constitution, of the principal bases of
which I have made a draft. Good to-day, it may be bad
to-morrow ; and, besides, nothing should be definitively
settled on this point without the formal consent of the nation;
but its fundamental principle should be the universality of
votes.

"My nobility will afford no support to my son; I re-
quired more than one generation to succeed in making them
iTutne,my colour, and preserve by re tradition the f d depo-
sit of my moral conquests. From the year 1815,ac all the
grandees openly espoused the opposite party. I felt no re-
liance either on my marshals or my nobility, not even on
my colonels; but the whole mass of the people and the
whole army, up to the grade of captain, were on my side. I
was not deceived in feeling this confidence; they owe much
to me ; I was their true representative. My dictator-
ship was indispensable; and the proof of this is, that
they always offered me more power than I desired.
In the present day, there is nothing possible in France but.
what is necessary. It will not be the same with my son :
his power will be disputed; he must anticipate every desire
for liberty. It is, besides, easier in ordinary times, to reign
with the help of the Chambers than alone: the assemblies
take a great part of your responsibility, and nothing is more
easy than always to have the majority on your side; but
care must be taken not to demoralize the country The in-
fluence of the Government in France is in,mense ; and if it
understands the way, it has no need of employing corruption
in order to find support on all sides. The aim of a sovereign
is not only to reign, but to diffuse instruction, morality, and
well-being; and any thing false is but a bad aid.
~ in my youth, I, too, entertained some illusions; but I
soon recovered from them. The great orators who rule the
assemblies by the brilliancy of their eloquence are in general
men of the most mediocre political talents : they should not
be opposed in their own way ; for they have always more
noisy words at command than you. Their eloquence should
be opposed by a serious and logical argument; their strength
lies in vagueness ; they should be brought back to the reality
of facts; practical arguments destroy them. In the council,
there were men possessed of much more eloquence than I
was; I always defeated them by this simple argument—two
and two make four. France possesses very clever practical
men; the only thing necessary is to find them, and to give
them the means of reaching the proper station : such a one
r is'itt the plough, who ought to be in the council ; and such
another is Minister, who ought to be at the plough. Let not
my son be astonished to hear men, the most reasonable to all
appearance, propose to him the most absurd plans. From
f the Grand Turk, every
law to the despotism c
the agrarian