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the promised glories of the next; which seems to demand a grasp of mind sufficient to embrace at once the most varied, the most momentous, and the most complicated interests of earth and heaven, of time and eternity; which was so high that the strongest human minds, acting in combination, stimulated to unwearied exertion, and extolled by the universal voice of mankind as pre-eminent and unequalled, were not able to attain to any thing more than a feeble and remote approximation or faint resemblance to it; this doctrine is found to be in the possession of a despised and ignorant community unknown in the annals of science, and pointed at in mockery as the most stupid of mankind.

The ancients had some faint notion about a universal and eternal law, superior to the positive institutions and moral rules which were proposed for the government of communities on earth; they sent their thoughts abroad occasionally into other possible worlds, and other higher states of being; and they attained to some conjecture or apprehension of a perfect and sublime principle or code which united the great Author of all things, and his whole dominion of intelligent creatures, in one general bond of government, like that of a vast and well-ordered commonwealth. Now, this obscurely conceived notion with which their minds ineffectually laboured, and which they could not bring from its recesses into light; this basis of the constitution of the universe on which they ventured crude conjectures, and broached unsatisfactory hints; in a word, this unknown principle which they ignorantly venerated without comprehending its nature or describing its form, is found clearly known and publicly proclaimed in a neglected corner of the earth; it is discovered shedding its Divine light on the understanding, and elevating and purifying the heart of the Jewish people, the most despised portion of mankind. "Where is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"

Art. II. 1. Mémorial de Sainte Hélène. Journal of the Private Life and Conversations of the Emperor Napoleon at St. Helena. By the Count de Las Cases. Vol. I. Parts 1 and 2. 8vo. pp. 769. Price 17. 18. London. 1823.

2. Memoirs of the History of France, during the Reign of Napoleon, dictated by the Emperor at St. Helena to the Generals who shared his Captivity; and published from the original Manuscripts corrected by Himself. Vol. I. In 2 Parts. 8vo. pp. 781. Price 17. 8s. London. 1823.

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N reviewing these publications, two questions present themselves for discussion. The first relates to the genuineness of these records; the second to their value as historical documents. As to the primary consideration, with which the latter is so closely connected, it must, to a certain extent, be referred

to the respectability of the publishers, a point on which there can be no reason for entertaining the slightest doubt. We con fess, however, that we should have preferred a somewhat larger portion of explanation, and a more specific pledge on the part of the editors or possessors of the MSS. To the Journal of Count Las Cases, indeed, this does not apply. He gives on his own authority, the contents of his adversaria, minutely recording the expressions and habits of Napoleon during a period of intimate and unreserved intercourse, and he has thus collected the materials of an extremely interesting publication. The "Memoirs" are given to the world as the express dictation of Napoleon. We learn from the preface, that

He employed the six years of his captivity in writing the account of the twenty years of his political life. So constantly was he occupied in this undertaking, that to describe the labour he bestowed upon it, would almost be to write the history of his life at St. Helena. He seldom wrote himself; impatient at the pen which refused to follow the rapidity of his thoughts. When he wished to write an account of any event, he caused the generals who surrounded him to investigate the subject; and when all the materials were collected, he dictated to them extempore. Napoleon revised the manuscript, correcting it with his own hand; he often dictated it anew, and still more frequently recommenced a whole page in the margin. These manuscripts, entirely covered with his writing, have been carefully preserved, because nothing which comes from so celebrated a man will be indifferent in the eyes of posterity, and they constitute an unquestionable proof of authenticity.

• Napoleon had requested that all new works should be sent to him from France; some of them reached him. He read them with eagerness, particularly those which were published against him. Lampoons and libels only excited in him a smile of contempt; but when he met with passages in important works, in which his policy had been mistaken or misinterpreted, he defended himself with his usual vivacity. He would read the passage several times over; then, folding his arms, and walking up and down with more or less rapidity, according to the degree in which he felt excited, he would dictate a reply; but in the course of a few sentences, hurried away by the force of his imagination, he almost always forgot both the Author and his book, and was entirely absorbed by the fact itself to which the work related. Napoleon considered these notes as constituting materials for his memoirs ; they are the more interesting, because, being the fruits of an unpremeditated dictation, the author's ideas lie on the surface; and because they throw a light on events, the particulars of which have hitherto remained unknown. We have therefore made a separate collection of them. Preface to Memoirs. iv, v.

All this is clear and explicit as far it goes; but we should have felt it more satisfactory if the editors' had been substantial personages, putting forth their names as the sanction of VOL. XIX. N.S.

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their affirmations, or if all the officers who accompanied Napoleon to St. Helena, had permitted their signatures to follow the preface in attestation of the circumstances stated. We have, however, little inclination in the present case to be hypercritical; and we shall, without further hesitation, receive these works as official and unquestionable documents.

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Count Las Cases is apparently an honest chronicler.' He sometimes indulges himself in a little prosing, which we have felt ourselves quite at liberty to run through very cursorily; but, on the whole, he has made up an attractive book; from which we have obtained not a few valuable illustrations of the character and actions of the most conspicuous individual of our own times. The Count occupies a few paragraphs with a sketch of his own life; the principal events of which consist in his noble birth, his service in the navy, where he reached the rank of a Lieutenant de Vaisseau, his presentation at court, the annihilation of his prospects by the Revolution, and his consequent emigration. He was at Quiberon, though not among those who had been landed; and, on his return to England, supported himself by teaching. When the Consular amnesty had invited the exiles to return to France, he published, under the borrowed name of le Sage, a work, the Historical Atlas, which re-established his fortune.' He ultimately obtained a seat in the Council of State; and when Napoleon was finally crushed, offered himself as the companion of his uncertain destinies. We shall anticipate the orderly insertion of the following paragraph, as it illustrates at once the character of Las Cases himself, and the confidential terms on which he conversed with his master, besides communicating some very curious information respecting the secret history of the latter.

Dec. 15, 1815....Immediately after dinner, the Emperor walked in his favourite path. He had his coffee carried down to him in the garden, and he drank it as he walked about. The conversation

turned on love. I must have made some very fine and sentimental remarks on this important subject; for the Emperor laughed at what he styled my prattle, and said that he understood none of my romantic verbiage. Then speaking with an air of levity, he wished to make me believe that he was better acquainted with sensations than sentiments. I made free to remark, that he was trying to be thought worse than he was described to be in the authentic but very secret accounts that were circulated about the palace. "And what was said of me?" resumed he, with an air of gayety. "Sire," I replied, "it is understood that when in the summit of your power, you suffered yourself to be enslaved by the chains of love; that you became a hero of romance; in short, that you conceived an attachment for a lady in humble circumstances; that you wrote her above a dozen love letters; and that her power over you prevailed so far as to compel you

to disguise yourself, and to visit her secretly and alone, at her own residence in the heart of Paris."" And how came this to be known?” said he, smiling; which of course amounted to an admission of the fact. "And it was doubtless added," continued he, "that that was the most imprudent act of my whole life; for had my mistress proved treacherous, what might not have been my fate-alone and disguised in the circumstances in which I was placed, amidst the snares with which I was surrounded? But what more is said of me?"-" Sire, it is affirmed that your Majesty's posterity is not confined to the King of Rome. The secret chronicle states that he has two elder brothers, one, the offspring of a fair foreigner, whom you loved in a distant country; the other, the fruit of a connection nearer at hand, in the bosom of your own capital. It was asserted, that both had been conveyed to Malmaison, before our departure; the one brought by his mother, and the other introduced by his tutor; and they were described to be the living portraits of their father.”*

The Emperor laughed much at the extent of my information, as he termed it; and being now in a merry vein, he began to take a frank retrospect of his early years, relating many of the love affairs and humorous adventures in which he had been engaged. He mentioned a supper that took place in the neighbourhood of the Saone at the commencement of the Revolution, and at which he had been present in company with Demazis. He described the whole with the utmost pleasantry. Demazis, he observed, was a good-natured fellow, or his patriotic eloquence might have proved fatal when opposed to the contrary doctrines of the other guests, and might even have brought him into some serious scrape. "You and I," he continued, “were at that time very far from each other."-" Not so very far in point of distance, Sire," I replied, "though certainly very remote with respect to doctrines. At that time I was also in the neighbourhood of the Saone, on one of the quays of Lyons, where crowds of patriots were declaiming against the cannon which they had just discovered in some boats, and which they termed a counterrevolution. I very unopportunely proposed that they should make sure of the cannon, by administering to them the civic oath. However I narrowly escaped being hanged for my folly. You see, Sire, that I might at that time have balanced your account, had any disaster befallen you among the Aristocrats." This was not the only curious approximation that was mentioned in the course of the evening. The Emperor having related to me an interesting circumstance that took place in 1788, said, "Where were you at that time?""Sire," replied I, after a few moments recollection, "I was then at Martinique, supping every evening with the future Empress Jose. phine." Las Cases. Part I. pp. 329-332.

The general details of that portion of the life of Napoleon

*It is said, that a codicil in the Emperor's will, which, however, must remain secret, completely confirms the above conjectures.

which commenced with his embarkation on board the Bellerophon, are too well known to require recapitulation in this place. We shall confine ourselves to those parts of the Journal which present substantial novelty, or tend to place his character in a different light from that in which it has been commonly taken. We have always thought the conduct of the Emperor after the battle of Waterloo, perfectly inexplicable; nor is it at all cleared up in these volumes. Instead of adhering to his army while a wreck of it remained, he completely insulated himself, and by that measure threw himself into the power of his secret enemies. There can be no question of the double dealing of Fouché; but it appears from the statements of Las Cases, that General Becker, who was attached to Napoleon by the Duke of Otranto, for the purpose of watching and controlling his movements, and who was known to have a private pique against' him, was so far from exercising his commission in a vindictive spirit, that he expressed the highest indignation at his orders, and executed them with the most respectful attention to the person and feelings of the Emperor. From all this surveillance, however, the latter would have been effectually protected, had he identified his fortunes with those of his companions in arms. Victory could scarcely have crowned his struggle against the overwhelming armies which were poured into France; but an honourable and advantageous capitulation, with a safe and free asylum in the United States, might have been secured by armed negotiation. These favourable probabilities were sacrificed by his impolitic decision; his troops and generals were left to make their own terms, and he deliberately surrendered himself into the hands of his

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Among the details of the earlier portion of the voyage to St. Helena, a number of particulars are inserted, many of them previously known, respecting the youthful career of Napoleon. It is affirmed, in opposition to the current anecdotes of his violent behaviour when at the military school, that he was mild, quiet, and susceptible.' On the other hand, it is given as his own description of himself, that he was morose and reserved; his passion for reading was carried to excess; • and he eagerly devoured the contents of every book that fell in his way.' The celebrated Pichegru, at that time destined to the ecclesiastical profession, was his master of arithmetic. Father Patrault, the professor of mathematics, was extremely partial to young Bonaparte, who made rapid progress in that department of science. This man afterwards became the grand vicar of M. de Brienne, the celebrated Archbishop of Sens, who figured as minister of state at an early period of the Re

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