The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-29 00:00:00

LIT

RE.

.71istory of the Consulate and the'Empire of France
under Napoleon. By M. A. Thiers. Vol Xll.
Willis and Sotheran.
It is particularly worthy of notice at once in re-
gard to the continuation of the celobrated.autho-

rised edition of Thiers' Napoleon, published in the
English language, that the entire stock and copy.
right of the work has passed from the executors of
the late Henry Colburn into the hands of the Messrs.
Willis and So theran. The earliest instalment issued
by which last-mentioned publishing firm (136,
Strand), in pursuance of the original, design of the
periodical translation of the history, volume by
volume, as it appears in Paris, across the counters
of the Messrs. Paulin and company—is this twelfth
volume, embracing within its compass (pp. 240,
8vo.) the triple themes (books xxxviii. to xl.
in-
elusively) " Continental Blockade—Torres Vedras

d'Onoro." Volume thirteen is, at
the same time, announced as already
the press"—a volume recounting the events
byimplied the associated " headings" of " The
Camaril—Tarragona—and the Passage of the
Niemen." Subsequent portions of , the narrative
being promised to the English subscribers in duo
succession at as early a time as possible after their
original publication by the Parisian " Edi.
teurs" of the great French annalist. Until
the whole of the fifteen volumes —large oc-
tavo library edition—shall have appeared, that
being the dimension to which the " History of
the Consulate and the Empire under Napoleon,'
by Monsieur Adolphe Thiers, is proposed by its
author to extend. So that we are at length really,
after all, within view of its actual completion.
Already, in token of this, there are twelve of these
fifteen remarkable volumes substantially in our
possession. Another, the thirteenth, as we have
said is at the present moment rapidly preparing for
publication. Two others, the penultimate and the
ultimate, alone remaining to come forth in duo
succession. When the ambitious design of the
greatest of all the historians who have as yet ap-
peared of the French Revolution, and of all
the biographers who have as yet appeared of the
incarnation of that Revolution, Napoleon,Consul and
Emperor, will have been happily realised. Hap-
pily we may now venture to assert seeing that we
are no longer judging of it ex pede Remitter r?
Seeing that its grand proportions are already for
the most part discernable in their amplest develop-
ment. Seeing that the colossus is already
visible far beyond even the gigantic torso. Seeing
that all that remains now to complete it, are in a.
manner, so to speak, the head and the pedestal.
The finest portions of the work will yield these,
and the production may then be judged of in its en-
tirety. At present, holding iu one nand this inter-
mediate fragment of the whole, this twelfth velum _
of a work extending in all to fifteen, we find occasion
only in its regard te specify very briefly the nature of
the materials herein associated togethersystematical-
ly. Extending over the period embraced between the
April of 1810 and the May of 1811, the volume
but just now given to the public by the purchasers
of the stock and copyright of the authorised library
edition of M. Thiers' magnum, opus rendered into,
our English vernacular—comprises within its limits
';he record of events extraordinary in their impor-
tance and no less extraordinary, be it added, in
their very strange diversity. The misunderstand-
iugs between Napoleon and Pope Pius, between.
Napoleon and King Louis, between Napoleon and.
the Duke d'Otrauto—leading; the one to the obli-
teration of the temporal power of the papacy,
the other to the absorption into the vast French
Empire iof the whole state of Holland, and the
third to the disgrace of the Minister of Police, and.
tile final extinction of any hope of a pacific com-
promise with England ! The Pontiff a prisoner—
King Louis discrowned—Fouch6 supplanted by
Savary, Duke of Rovigo : such of course were
conspicuous amen; the results of these remarkable
contentions contentions contemporaneous with
the carrying out of that vast commercial and poli-
tical blunder the Continental Blockade. An act,
on Napoleon's part, as it proved, of actually
suicidal vengeance. Immediately subsequent to
the narrative of the development of the Blockade
of the European Continent, come the annals of two
very memorable phases of the terrible Peninsular
struggle between the Eagle and the Leopard. Phases
marked significantly enough by the designations of
Vie two books devoted to their
,comniemorationby
the pen of M. Thiel s—" Torres Vedras," and
Fuentes d'Onoro." Here is ,the French histo-
rian's picturesque account of those famous lines of
Torres Vedras—the grandest of an the military
achievements of Arthur Wellesley
" At nine or ten leagues in advance of Liebort, between
Alhandra on the Tagus, and Torres-Vehrae towards the
ocean, he had taken care to create a first line of entrench-
ments, which would cut off the promontory #t a dozen
leagues at least from its extremity to tinusea. , This OA
line was composed of the following works. On the bend
of the Tagus, the heights of the Alhandra, on one side,
falling perpendicularly to the river, and on the other
rising even towards Sobral, formed ojer a space' of four
or five leagues escarpments that were alMost inacc'essible,
and washed in all their extent by the little river Arruda.
The road which passes between the foot of these heights
and the Tagus, and which leads to Li-bon bAthe bank cf
the river, was cut off by lines of cannon. Ascending
from this point as far as Sobral, the English had artificially
escarped all the hills which were not naturally inacces-
sible. In the hollows formed by the bed of the ravines
and presenting little accessible hills, they established such
redmbts and abattis as entirely closed the passages. Fi-
nally, they had raised on the principal summits, forts
armed with heavy artillery, crossing fire with each other,
and commanding from afar all the avenues by which an
enemy could approach. At Sobral itself, a platform which
had little natural strength, was covered with a multitude
of works of the greatest strength, and on an eminence
called Monte-Agrac t, had been constructed a veritable
citadel, which could only be taken by means of a regular
siege. Beyond these extended a new chain of heights,
which stretched as far as the sea, and were washed by the
Zizambro. This little river passed Torres-Vedras in its
windings. whence the immortal lines of Torres-Vedras
have received their name. There, as on the aide of Alhan-
dra, the heights had been escarped, the gorges closed by
abattis and redoubts, the summits crowned by forts, and the
course of the Zizambro was, moreover, rendered almost
impracticable by the construction in its bed of barricades
which retained the water, and would preserve the marshes
along its banks through every change of season..
" The well-stored arsenal of Lisbon had been emptied,
to supply these various works with artillery, and all the
oxen of the country employed in carrying the guns to their
appointed positions. The garrisons were permanent, and
those of some of the works amounted to a thousand men.
Large and easy roads had been provided between the vari-
ous positions that reinforcements might be conducted' to
any of them with extreme rapidity. A system of signals,
borrowed from the navy, rendered easy the transmission
to the centre of the line, of precise information of all that
might be taking place at its extremities. At its very
entrance, that is to say, vis-a-vis with Sobral, was a sort
of battle field, which had been prepared that the English
army might be able to advance in its entirety upon the
weakest point, and add its defence to the thousandfold
fire of the surrounding works. The fortifications were, of
course, garrisoned by Portuguese, there being amongst
them three thousand Portuguese artillerymen, who had
had considerable training and were well skilled. The
English army, with the better part of the Portuguese
troops, was destined to occupy the principal encampments
which had been skilfully disposed near the most probable
points of attack."
" Such," adds M. Thiers, "was the unexpected obstacle
by which Massena found the progress of his army checked,
and which, as soon as he had made the proper •arrange-
ments for the encampment of his army, he reconnoitred
during several days with his own eyes. All the information
that he could obtain was imedmonaly to the effect, that
after this first line of entrenchments there were a second
and a third, the three being armed with7oo pieces of cannon
and defended by 70,000 regular troops at the least, without
taking into account the militia and fugitive Peasants.
It was not, therefore, a simple entrenched camp, to be
tarried by a bold assault, but a series of natural obstacles,
the difficulties of which had been extraordinarily increased
by art ; and whilst the English, moreover, by means of
the roads which they had constructed and the system of
signals they had established, were enabled to throw the
entire mass of their forces on any one point, the French
met, on their side, with an accidental formation of the
ground which would preclude them from any mancenvre
of this kind."
It must be remembered, moreover, in explanation
of the enormous and complicated difficulties placed.
in the way of the " spoilt child of victory"—Mas-
sena—that against the. 70,000 regular troops op-
posed to him, the French Marshal had but
45,000 men to bring into the field-45,000
men where 90,000 or 100,000 would have
been inadequate. So formidable, so wonderful
were the defences raised in front of the Portuguese
capital by the genius and daring of Lord- Welling-
ton. No marvel that in " making note of Torre
Vedras, even M. Thiers is lost in mingled emotions
forty years
oeifioaud
gmhiratnioonw astonishment.antdhatupwardsof fty
It is amusing
have intervened between '6 then" and ~now
odfeNcaadeoslootno
is amusing across this
mark the scale upon which
merely the seizure of the
gal) °Efinpfog
of the kingdom of
grew
Pontifical anci Eactevs—,
Holland, but by such minor additions to the realms
of the modern Cesar as the Hans Towns, as a part
and theni seizure
of Hanover, as the Grand Dechy of Oldenburg
Napoleon the Great was just then capping the
tisiirizeanxitohf ath the is conquests. His power had risen to
iNiemen. It was to descend to its
nadir at St. Helena.

THE GREAT NORTHERN INFIRMARY. —An institution
.of the above name has been lately opened at King's-
cross, a neighbourhood where it was especially 'needed.
1,915 cut-patients and 9 in-patients have received relief
t ince the day of opening, June 30; t) the 28th instant.
The daily attendance averages 200. Attendance is giveno
every day in the week at sta'ed hours, besides
.vv.131 Ait
urgent cases are attended to at any hour day or night• -8-
maternity charity is attached to the institution...:
great a'lvantages of this institution aretioa: follow
Patients and seen iinmedlately on apploicjarom
tines given directly. No letters of r
requ:red. The infirmary is also open
medical staff of the infirmary cons
physician, physician-acc€,ucbeur,
apothecary,
dent house-surgeon, and an
\
i supported entirely by voluntary The
and media
endation are
on Sundays. Tip•
consists of a surgeon
surgeon dentist, reel
contribution,Tkeinstitutio