The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1827-09-26
From SCOTS Lsfe Of Napoleon.
CHARACTER OF BONAPARTE
lcoEcLUDEp.-


whilst Napoleon DESTROYED success;veIr or-
cry barrier Of public liberty while be bn;It oo',,
state prisons, and established hirb police
Mhieh hled France with s1,ias I'D Ill,
mHhst ne TOOK the charge of the press SO ex-
eiusiyeiy into his own hand, his policy at once
anu MS egotlsm, led him to undertake these
! Il'imenSe public works of greater or less utiIitv
OF ornament, as the chance might be. hut sura
10 pc set down as monuments of the Emper
ofs splendor. The name given him nv tho
WORKING classes, of the General Undertaken
was by no means i'll bestowed, but in what an
| Ihcalculably greater degree do such works sue
ceed' when raised by the skill and industry of
I Ilose VINO propose to improve their capital by
the adventure, than when double the EXPENSE
Is employed at the arbitrary will Of "a despotic
sovereign Yet 1t had been well if bridoes
roads, harbours, and public works, had been The
only compensation which Napoleon offered tn
the people Of France for the liberties he took
from them But he poured out to them, and
| shared with them, to drown all painful aud de-
grading recollections, the fatal and Intoxicating
nation
To lay The whole universe PROSTATE at the
foot of France, while France, the Nation of
Camps, herself had no higher title than to be
first of her own Emperor's slaves, was the gi-
gantic project at which he labored with such
tenacious assiduty. 1t was the Sisphian stone
''NitNA-
length he was crushed under its precipitate re-
coil The main branches of that gigantic en-
terprise, We're such as had been undertaken
while has spirit of ambition was at its height,
and no one dared, even in his cnnnri1s,f sea.
At this time NapOleOn's constant and unin-
terrupted success under the most disadyanta-
geous circumstances, together with his implied
belief IN his Destiny, all conspired, with the
extravagant sense of his own importance,
seemed to have impressed him with an idea
| that he was not g IN the roll of common men, !"
and induced him to venture on the most des-
perate enterprises, as if animated less by the
: result of reason than by an internal assurance
f OF success After great miscarriages, he is
: said sometimes to have shown q corresponding
! depression, and thence resigned four times the
2 charge ct bis army when he found his situation
2 embarrassing, as if no longer feeling that Uun-
fidence in his own mind, or conceving that he
n was deserted for the moment by his guardian
genius. Thore were similar alterations, too,
= iaccording to General Gourgaud's account, in
1 his conversation. At times, he would speak
: ordinary person o'''9ts - '''' 9''- y : ''-S
+ 10 the egotism Of Napoleon, we NAV also
g trace the general train of deception which
q I inallNoo ms public policy, and when speaking
IT upon subjects in which his own character was
implicated his private conversation.
In his public capacity, he had so completely
i prostituted the liberty of the press that France
). could know nothing whatever but through Ma
: poeon's own bulletins. The battle of rrafal
. gar was not limited at till several months after
and then it was totally nlisrepresented and 8
deep and dark was the mantle which covere
is the events in which the people were most in
h terested, that on the very evening when tn
battle Of Nlontmartre fought, the Moni
!, teur, the chief organ of public intelligence
q was occupied with a commentary on n0s0
2 grdphie, and criticism on a drama on the sub
! INT 3 h. H., l. u
truth is only one step to the invention of false
;, hood, and, periodical publisher of news
: Napoleon became so eminent for both, that, tc
>, lie like bulletin became an adopted ex-
r preston, not likely to lose ground soon in the
!. French language, and the more disgraceful to
:, Napoleon, that he is well known to have writ
= ten these official documents in most instances
: himself
= Even this deceptive SYSTEM this plan of al
y ternately keeping the nation in ignorance, or
> abusing them by falsehood, intimated a sense OF
II respect for public opinion. Men love darkness
= because their deeds arc evil Napoleon dared
: not have submitted to the public the fair state
of his per6dious and treacherous attacks upon
;. Spain, than which more gross breach of gem
. eral good faith and existing treaties could
= scarce have boen conceived Nor would he
;. have chosento plead at the public bar, tho pol
icy of his continental system, adopted III total
4 ignorance of the maxims of political economy,
. and the consequences of which were first to
cause general distress, and then to encourage
:, universal resistance against the French yoke
: through the whole continent of Europe. MOI
> is r moro likely, that, could the public have
had the power OF forming previous Judgment
upon the probable event of the Russian cam
q paign, the rash enterprise would ever lad al
A existence. In sllencing the voice of the wist
Il and good, the able and patriotic, and communi
n eating only with such counsellors Us were thS
!, echoes of his own inclinations, Napoleon, lill,
s Lear,
8 q Child his physician,
= Aud Rugged the foul disease
/ This was rather the case, as Napoleon'
e knowledge of the politics, interests, and char
Y acter of foreign courts was, excepting in th'
n case of Italy, exceedingly imperfect The
| peace of Amiens might have remained uninter
d rupted, and the essential good understanding
e betwixt France and Sweden need never have
r. been broken, if Napoleon could, or would
}, have understood the free constitution of Eng
9 land, which permits every man to print O.
l. publish what he may choose or if he coult
Y have been convinced that the institutions o
h Sweden did not permit their government Il
/ place their fleets and armies at the disposal o
l. u foreign power, or to sink the ancient king
e dom of the Cloths into secondary and vassa
# government.
# Self-love, so sensitive as that of Napoleon
: Stunned especially the touch of ridcule. The
Q 9ibes of tho English papers tho earrioaturel
# of the London print-shops, were the petty
stings which irstigated, in great measure
It the breach of tho peace of Amions. The
!. laughter-loving Frenchmen were interdicted
e the use of satire, which, all licensed during
a the times of the republic, had, even under the
n monarchy, been only punished with short
d and easy confinement IN the Bastile. During
e the time of the consulate, Napoleon was in
d formed that comic opera, something on The
!, plan of the English farce of High Life bctou
i, Stairs, had been composed by Monsieur Dupaty
n aud brought forward on the stage, and that, ii
:, this audacious performance, three Wallets MIN
d licked the manners, and even the dress of thu
o three Consuls, and especially his own. He OF
o dered that the actors should be exposed at thu
d Greve, in the dresses they had dared to assume
|. which should BIO there stripped from then