The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1827-09-26

prisoner at st. Helena. This clause III .he
last will of dying man, is not striking rom
it's atrocity merely, but from the inaccutacy
of the moral reasoning. Napoleon has drawn
a parallel betwixt two cases. which must ne
therefore both right or both wrong. II ooln
were wrong, why reward the ruffian Wild
legacy but if both were right, why complain
of the British government for OBTAINING nm
at St. Helena.
But, indeed, the whole character OF Napoie-
on's autobiography marks his desire to divide
mankind into two classes,-his friends ana ms
enemies the former of whom are to be prais-
ed and indicated the latter to be villhed: cen
sured and condemned, without any relation TO
truth, lnsticc or consistency. 10. take gross
example, he stoutly affirmed that the treasures
which were removed from Paris IN April; loi4;
and carried to Orleans, were seized and qlylaeo
rand Metternich, Hardenburg, and Castle-
reagh and that the money thus seIzed lnciuu-
cd The mariage-portion of the Empress Maria
Louisa Had this story been true, 1t wouIo
have presented Napoleon with very simple
means of avenging himself upon Lord caste
reagh, by putting the British pubic IN possess
sion of the secret.
It is no less remarkable, that Napoleon
though himself a soldier and a distinguished
one, can never allow one line OF candid praise
TO the soldiers and generals by whom he was
successfully employed. In mentioning his VIC
tories, he frequently bestows praise upon Ine
valour and conduct of the vanquished. inns
was an additional and more delicate mode OF
Es samg y Sdf5 and 6 2%n tFo8 Ry y
allows any merit to those by whom he was de-
feated in turn. He processes never to have
seen the Prussan troops behave WELL save at
Jena, or the Russians but at Austerlitz. These
armies of the same nations, which he both saw
and felt in the campaigns of 1912 and 1913,
and before whom he made such disastrous re-
retreats as that of Moscow and Leipsic, were
according TO his expressions, mere canaile.
In the same manner, when he details an ac
ton in which he triumphed, he is sure to boast
like the old Grecian, very Justly perhaps, that
IN this Fortune had no share while his de-
teats are entirely and exclusively attributed to
the rage of the elements, the combination of
sims I'M, mast extraordInary and unexpected cir
ants or Mareschals !; or, finally, the obstmacy
of the general opposed, who, by mere dlnt OF
stupidity, Numbered into success through CIR
cumstances which should have insured his ruin.
From one end of Napoeon's works to the
other, he has scarcely allowed himself to be
guilty of single fault single folly ex-
copting, of that kind, which arising from an !
over confidence and generosity, men secretly
claim as merits, while they affect to give them /
up as matters of censure. If we credit his own .
word we must believe him to have been
flultless and impeccable being, or else che that
truth and canG0ur, where his own reputation
was concerned
Perhaps il was a consequence of - SUM
indifference TO truth. H'i''sh ihuuceu 1>dpcieoh
10 receive INTO his favor those French officers
who broke their parole by escape from England
This. he alleged, ne did by way of retaliation. !
the British government having, as he pretend {
ed, followed similar line of conduct. The de- +
fence is false, in point of fact, but if it were :
true forms no apology for sovereign and a :
general countenancing breach of honor in :
gentleman and soldier. The French officers ;
who liberated themselves by such means, were \
not the less dishonored men, and unfit to bear I
command in the army of France, though they l
could have pointed to singular examples OF IN '
Inv in Enqland.
traordinary instances of Ma
So SYSTEM, and of his determin-
roI9dmd eql q5s. 10 Mace himself under the
MOST favorablc light to the beholders, is his at
tefnpt TO represent himself as the friend and
protector of liberal and free principles. He
had DESTROYED every vestige of liberty In
France he had prosecuted as biologists all
who cherished its memory be had boosted Il
hiLnselfthe restorer of monarchial government
the war between the Constituencies and
him. covered, after the return from Elba, by a
hollow truce, had been renewed, and the Liber
alists expelled from the capital; he left in his
Testament the appellation Of traitor with La
fayette, one of their earliest, most devoted, and
most sincere, chiefs. Yet notwithstanding all
this constant opposition to the parity which pro-
fesses Most to be guided by them, he has ven
tur,sl to represent himself as friend of liberal
ideas He had done SO and he has been be-
lieved.
There is but one explanation of this The
friends of revolution are upon principle the en-
emies of ancient and established governments.
Napoleon became the opponent of the es tab
lished powers from circumstances, not because
he disputed the character oftheir government,
but because they would not admit him in their
circle though there was not and could not be
any real connexion betwixt his system and that
of the Liberalists-yet each loved in the other
the enemy of their enemies. It was the bust
ness Of Napoleon in his latter days, to procure,
if professions could gain it, the sympathy and
good opinion ofany or every class politicians;
while, on the contrary, it could not be indiffer
ent to that to which he made advances to
number among their dicipes, even in the
twelfth hour, the name of Napoleon. II was, Il
as sometimes happens in the Catholic Church,
when a wealthy and powerful sinner on his
death bed receives the absolution of the church
on easy terms, and dies after life spent in Ii
centious courses, wrapt up in the mantle, and
girded with the cord or some order of univer-
sal strictness. Napoleon thus living a despot
and conqueror, has had his memory oonse-
Grated and held up to admiration by men who
term themselves emphatically the friends of i.
freedom.
The faults of Buonaparte, we conclude as :
we commenced, we're rather those of the sove- +.
reign and politician, than of the individual I
Wisely is it written, that if we say we have no Q
sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not '
IN us. Ii was the inordnate force of ambition :
which made him the scourge of Europe il !
his efforts to disguise that selfish principle,
that made him combine fraud with force. and
establish regular system for deceiving those ,
whom he could not subdue. Had his natural
disposition been coldly cruel, like that of Octa-
yius, or had he given way to the warmth of {
his temper, like other despots, his private his /
tory, as well as that of his campaigns, must
have been written in letters Of blood If in
stead of asserting that he never committed a
crime, he had limited his selfeulogy to assert
ing, that in attaining and welding supreme