which the king of Prussia avowed in the speech of scarcely feel as a matter of fact, how little way Sept. 1842, for his ardor in this great work. His influence of talent makes with us against the dead majesty's words about all differences of creed being weight of three overriding influences, birth, wealth, buried in it, savored too much of the modern Pro- and party connexions. Even if they had such testantism of his country. But the work is a great knowledge, it is probable that party influence would one, and a national one, and therefore king and have debarred them from obtaining any other patron cottager do well to befriend it. And indeed, in as good. Nor is it to be denied that, for all his case of any unfortunate falling off in the general eccentricity and discursiveness, Lord Brougham has subscriptions, we think the king would stand in in an extraordinary degree the faculty of stating a need of no apology should he undertake to com-case in the most lucid and emphatic manner. If he plete the work himself; for his majesty is in pos- has undertaken the mission, we believe that he session of the magnificent revenues of the Cologne will discharge it more effectively than any other see, and the appointments of the modern archbishop orator. make but a small deduction from them.

It is rumored that Lord Brougham has under- LORD PALMERSTON is determined to punish the taken to appear as counsel for the French govern- French court and ministry for their perfidy. If he ment in the British parliament-that is, to state the cannot show his resentment in one way he will in case of that government. Our whig papers have another. Debarred the employment of cannon, he raised a shout of ridicule against Lord Brougham, throws all his anger into protocols. They are forin order by anticipation to diminish the effect of his midable instruments when forged by his lordship's agency. It is very likely that the French govern- hands. Everything now is on the monster scalement may have overrated Lord Brougham's per-monster mortars, monster concerts, monster meetsonal influence as a public man. Seeing the prom-ings, monster trains, monster statues. His lordship inent part he has played in national measures swims with the stream, and has manufactured a actually adopted, the part he still takes in council, monster "note." He has sent to M. Guizot a his untiring activity, his personal intimacy with diplomatic letter extending to one hundred and nine distinguished statesmen, and even with several pages of closely-written foolscap. We can imagroyal acquaintances, they may naturally suppose ine the French premier's dismay when Lord Northat he possesses a coëxtensive influence. They manby requested an audience for the purpose of may know as a matter of information, but can presenting this formidable document; but how must

his terror have been increased when the ambassador | ered herself free from the compact of Eu, and the informed him he conceived it necessary to read over Montpensier marriage was not postponed. The to him the whole of this extraordinary specimen of Journal des Débats is careful to remark, that no verbosity, in order to insure due attention to the attempt was made against the independence of prolix eloquence of the English Foreign Secretary? Queen Isabella's choice; England and France Most persons will think, we imagine, that M. Guizot only agreed as to the advice which they would join has now been sufficiently punished for his share of in giving. the transaction.

The Palmerston case stands thus. England did The "note" finished, we are told, with the con- not espouse the cause of Prince Leopold, but he clusion that the Duke and Duchess de Montpensier was first suggested by Queen Christina. No doubt must, for themselves and their children, renounce but she meant the proposal as a trap for England, all claim to the Spanish succession. The de- and would after all have left the prince in the lurch; mand is as stupid as it is arrogant. If persisted but Lord Palmerston saw the trap, and declined to in, it will cost his lordship his station in the For- interfere. This trick, planned by M. Bresson, was eign-office. The mind of every rational man who defeated solely by the indifference of the British has paid the slightest attention to the question is government to Prince Leopold's success. Lord made up that the treaty of Utrecht gives us no title Palmerston merely insisted that Prince Leopold had for interference with this marriage. Since that nothing in common with the royal family of Engtreaty was concluded there have been no less than land, and that Queen Isabella should he left to a free three alliances between members of the house of choice. The accident that Lord Palmerston first Orleans in France and of the house of Bourbon in named the Coburg prince, and the pretence that Spain, without one word of objection being uttered the British government gave a preference to him, against the principle of them. The Duke de Mont- is the sole defence of Louis Philippe's conduct. pensier cannot deprive the children of the Infanta The Presse, which is by turns described as repof a right he does not confer on them. In a consti- resenting the conservative opposition, the court, tutional view, as regards their right to the Spanish and Queen Christina-and indeed appears to do a succession, they are the children of the Infanta little by turns for all those parties-avoids the exalone. There is not the slightest pretence, in acter diplomatic controversies, but continues its sound reason, for the absurd demand Lord Palmer-general railing at England; harping on an alliance ston has made. Among the ministers of Europe he betwen France, Russia, and the United States, to stands alone in urging it, and to the experienced reduce our maritime power. The liberal Siècle statesmen of the continent he must be an object of laughs at this extravagant dream; calling to mind wonder and ridicule. His conduct is hardly consis-one serious obstacle to an alliance with Russia-the tent with the supposition of vanity; and it is made annual protest of the French chambers in favor of the more conspicuously foolish by the remoteness Polish nationality. The exciting cause of the fierce of the contingency he raises as a ground of dis-anger is Lord Palmerston's exasperating demeanor; pute. He persists in fighting with a man of straw, our foreign secretary, says the Presse,"by his and on levelling, all the force of his diplomatic conduct, and by the language of his journals, is battery against what is merely the shadow of a real evidently seeking to create a quarrel between the two nations out of a struggle for influence between A few weeks, or perhaps days, must rouse his the two governments.' This is a heavy charge; lordship from the fool's paradise in which he is lap-pity that the Presse, so clearsighted on the point, ping himself. The English people are generally should work so hard to help what it denounces.indifferent to the conduct of their foreign affairs. Spectator, 7 Nov. But there is a limit to their patience, and we are persuaded they will not much longer suffer their influence on the continent to be sensibly weakened, and their diplomacy made ridiculous, for the sake of retaining a minister at the head of the Foreignoffice to write voluminous pamphlets under the title of "Diplomatic Notes."-Britannia, 14 Nov.

event.

THE newspaper war about the Montpensier marriage, between the Paris and London journals, waxes fiercer, and it professes to reflect the diplomatic relations of the two governments; the Times treating the Journal des Débats as if it were M. Guizot, the Journal des Débats treating the Times as if it were Lord Palmerston. In the midst of the mutual attacks some further explanations are let fall. The French case finally takes this shape. When Queen Victoria was at Eu, the marriages of Queen Isabella and the Infanta Louisa were discussed. Lord Aberdeen consented that the husband of the queen should be taken from some branch of the Bourbon family; and he did not resist the marriage of the Infanta with the Duc de Montpensier, but stipulated that it should take place after the queen's-or, as our journals allege, after she should have children. When Lord Palmerston came into office, he did not respect the arrangement; he added Prince Leopold of Coburg to the list of candidates for the queen's hand, and thus broke down the limitation to the Bourbon family. France therefore consid

CON AMORE.

BY BARRY CORNWALL.
LOVE was ever yet a martyr ;

Bred in sorrow, born in pain;
Tossed about on troubled waters;
By a scornful arrow slain.
Wherefore, then, O fairest lady,

Bid me sing of Love again?

I was young, and I was dreaming,
When a burning Vision came,
Lighted up mine eyes with passion,
Touched my cheeks with crimson shame;
Smote my heart, that shrank and trembled,
Till it burst abroad in flame.

Long the Vision seemed to linger:

Then without a smile or sound,
Passed beyond my humble region,
Like the sun when seaward bound,
Glorious, but content with having
Cast a glory on the ground.

Now I dwell within the shadows,

And the Dream that shone of yore
Lighteth up another passion,

Lingereth on another shore;
Leaving Love, that was the martyr,
Master still, for evermore!

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 137.-26 DECEMBER, 1846.

From the Britannia.

within itself something to determine its authorship, The Bonaparte Letters and Despatches; from the and to establish it as part of the mind from which Originals in his Private Cabinet. 2 vols. Saun-it proceeded. ders & Otley.

The two volumes before us contain the correspondence and despatches of Napoleon from his takTHE Conviction is now general that a man may ing the command of the army of Italy to the treaty be most truly judged by his own revelations. If of Campo Formio. The collection was known he has acted an important part in life, his cor- before, and has been largely quoted from, but it has respondence has been active and extensive, treating not, to our knowledge, been previously published of many subjects, addressed to many parties, and in this country. The first document is dated March often written on sudden emergencies, without time 6, 1796; the last November 7, 1797. In those for reflection, it will certainly exhibit the move- | twenty months he accomplished his most brilliant ments of his mind, and reflect his character, what-operations; and by a succession of victories, co ever that character may be. Furnished with his rapid, glorious, and decisive as to be without parletters, we are enabled to enter with him into his allel in all the annals of warfare, he laid deep and secret cabinet, to view his dealings with the differ- sure the foundations of his throne of empire. ent parties he had to conciliate or oppose, and to witness the changes made by circumstances in his sentiments. The evidence on which we try him is furnished by neither friend nor foe, but by himself. It is of all testimony the most unexceptionable, for no man can be constantly false to himself. Hence the value of those collections which have been lately formed of the letters and despatches of illustrious characters. Cromwell, Marlborough, Wellington, and Nelson are made to tell the story of their own lives without premediation or art. To those names we have now to add that of Napoleon Bonaparte.

These collections are too voluminous to become popular, though they may be applied to popular uses. They require some skill and much time to extract their essence. What is material is often mixed with what is purely local and transient. A trait of character, or a principle of policy, may be overlaid with details for the march of a battalion or for victualling a corps. There is a large proportion of chaff to the grain. Nor can these documents be studied in detached portions. The evidence of one part is required to moderate, correct, or explain the evidence of another. A superficial glance will observe in them much that is inconsistent, but deeper attention will show that the inconsistency, if it exists at all, is a part of the mind of the author, and therefore to be taken into account, as well as other peculiarities, in estimating his character. As materials for history these collections are invaluable, and, if judiciously employed, they may be made the means of conveying just ideas to those who have had not leisure or opportunity for a careful perusal of works so voluminous.

The earlier documents are curious for the evidence they furnish of the deplorable destitution of the army of Italy when Napoleon assumed the command of it. A large proportion of the soldiers, without arms, clothing, shoes, ammunition, or food, seem to have more resembled troops of ragged banditti than battalions advancing to invasion and conquest. Bonaparte saw all the difficulties of his situation, but he saw that conquest would overcome them. His first care was to impress on the mind of the Directory his ability to cope with the dangers and perplexities of his command. Another man would have shrunk from encountering them. He grappled with them boldly. In his first despatch to the Directory he writes:-

"The administrative situation of the army is deplorable, but not desperate. The army will henceforth eat good bread, and will have butcher's meat, and it has already received some advances on its arrears of pay."

A week later he remarks in the same strain :"The army is in a state of frightful destitution. I have still great obstacles to surmount, but they are surmountable. Want has authorized indiscipline, and without discipline there is no victory. I hope that this will speedily be set to rights; the aspect of things is already changing; in a few days we shall be engaged with the enemy."

This language was calculated, while it revealed the distresses of the army, to reïnspire the Directory with confidence as to its fate. By their choice of a general they had removed all responsibility from their own shoulders. Another commander would have teased them for arms, for food, for clothing, just as the generals of Napoleon implored him for It is an evil inseparable from all publications of succors of all kinds. He trusted to his own efforts the kind, that they must contain a mass of matter alone, and took the care of providing for the wants of very subordinate interest. But, in general, of his soldiers entirely on himself. It was not, till whatever is written by a person of distinguished he felt his position secure by repeated victories that capacity will bear, in some way or other, the stamp he demanded from the Directory supplies and reinof a superior mind. In each fragment of his corre-forcements. He made himself indispensable to spondence there will be some originality of thought, them as a servant before he assumed the authority some decision of touch, or some involuntary impress of a master. Their feelings for some months must of his genius to give it value and mark its identity. have been that of profound thankfulness at having Naturalists can, from the single bone of an animal, found a commander who suited them so well. draw out the whole skeleton, and assign the species to which it belongs. Critics have less certain ground to go upon. Yet a letter of Cromwell, Wellington, or Napoleon will ordinarily contain VOL. XI. 37

CXXXVII. LIVING AGE.

The destitution of the army was indeed greater than Napoleon had represented it. From the first he made up his mind that nothing was to be got from the home government, and that to victory he

must look for relief from want. The Directory sent | would save the army, if you would not have us be forth their troops without the slightest thought of considered in Piedmont as men worse than the furnishing them with supplies. The exchequer Goths and Vandals. was empty, all resources were exhausted, and the armies were told to supply their wants from the countries they invaded. This new principle in warfare was attended with frightful privation; and not all the genius, victories, and resources of Napoleon could prevent his soldiers from suffering the horrors of aggravated famine. On the 15th of April, three days after the victory of Montenotte, La Harpe writes to Bonaparte :

"Notwithstanding your promises, general, the troops are without bread; they are sinking under fatigue and inanimation. Send us something, at least some bread and a little brandy, for I am fearful of being a prophet of disaster; but if we are attacked to-morrow the troops will fight ill, for want of physical strength."

Either La Harpe's division was one of the worst in the army, or he wanted firmness to view its sufferings unmoved. On the 17th of April he writes to Napoleon, tendering his resignation :

"Since the 23d of last month the 6th has received but two rations and a half; and the others have suffered in like manner. It is not possible to repress the men in this miserable state; your army is about to be worn down by disease; and, whenever we march, by the Barbets; for it cannot be doubted that the inhabitants, driven to despair, will arm and slaughter every French straggler.

"Above all, general, it is urgent that you should put a stop to that host of illegal requisitions; or, if they must continue, it would be better to assemble the inhabitants, shoot them, and then finish plundering, for it comes to the same point; they must be starved to death.

"Bread! bread! and again bread!

"LAHARPE."

"Camp of Dego, April 20, 1796. "Indiscipline has reached the highest pitch. I am using all possible means to maintain order, but "The boundless licentiousness to which the they are of no avail. There is no kind of excess troops give themselves up, and which cannot be which the soldiers do not indulge in, and all that I remedied, because we have not a right to order can do is useless. I therefore request you, gena scoundrel to be shot, is hurrying us into ruin, dis-eral, to be pleased to accept my resignation; for I honoring us, and preparing us for the most cruel cannot serve with soldiers who know neither subordination, nor obedience, nor law, and who are In consequence, I beg you to accept, general, my resignation; and to send an every moment threatening their officers and their commanders. "CHAMBARLHAC, officer to take the command entrusted to me, for I "Chief of the 70th demi-brigade." would rather dig the ground for a livelihood than be at the head of men who are worse than were the Vandals of old."

reverses.

* *

Napoleon sent supplies when he could, and hopes and cheering promises when he could despatch nothing better. He constantly held out the prospect of conquest to the troops as the only means of bettering their condition. He taught them to expect no relief but from their own valor. But after an action the men committed the most frightful excesses, and were often disappointed in their expectation that victory would give them plenty. A few extracts from the despatches of Bonaparte's generals will prove instructive, as showing the condition of his army after its earliest successes:

"Heights of St. Michael, April 20, 1796. "Several corps have been without bread for these three days: the soldiers abused this pretext to abandon themselves to the most horrible pillage. The corps have somewhat rallied, but there are still wanting a considerable number of men, who have gone off to get provisions in all possible ways. I am ill seconded by the officers, who pillage too: they were drunk yesterday, like the others.

If bread does not reach us, the soldiers will not march. We are still in want of a great many muskets; there were nearly 2,000 deficient before

the affair.

"SERRURIER."

"Cairo, April 20, 1796. "Unless we receive bread to-night, we shall be without an ounce to-morrow, and, should it even arrive, there would not be sufficient to give a quarter of a ration to the three brigades and to the cavalry.

"All the agents, storekeepers, and others, in all the administrations, are making requisitions at random; the peasants of these parts are absolutely ruined; the soldiers are destitute, and their leaders disconsolate; rogues only are enriching themselves; there is not a moment to be lost, general, if you

"Dego, April 20, 1796. "Indiscipline and insubordination are at their height; the excesses perpetrated by the soldiers cannot be checked. For several days past, I have been employing all the means in my power to bring them back to obedience and subordination; all my efforts having proved unavailing, and finding my. self wholly unable to reduce them to order, I request you, general, to accept my resignation.

"MAUGRAS."

"Monte Barcaro, April 22, 1796. "It is two o'clock and nothing has arrived; the soldiers are more busily engaged than ever in theft and plunder; peasants have been murdered by our men, and soldiers have been killed by the peasants. Words cannot adequately describe the horrors that are committed. The camps are almost deserted, the soldiers roaming over the country more like ferocious beasts than men; those who do not join in the atrocities patrolling the while, with superior officers at their head; it is to no purpose to drive them from one place; they only run to murder at another. The officers are in despair. The soldiers are culpable, but those who reduce them to the alternative of plundering or starving are much more guilty. In the name of humanity, in the name of liberty, which wretches are assassinating, rescue us from this situation! Send us wherewithal to prolong our miserable existence without commit. ting crimes.

Can there then exist a Providence, since its avenging bolts do not crush all the villains who are at the head of the administration? "LAHARPE."

Napoleon's firm nerves were not shaken by these complaints. Action was his remedy for mutiny, for famine, for sickness, for every ill that could afflict the troops. His answer to their complaints was to precipitate them against the foe; and it heightens the merits of his combinations that, fighting under

every disadvantage, with men worn out by hun- In another place Louis Bonapart notices the deger, and frequently without arms or shoes, he was sertion of some soldiers who had left their corps constantly victorious against the superior forces" in a rage on account of their bare and bleeding of the foe, though well disciplined and well pro- feet." Yet these troops, destitute as they were, vided. beat five of the finest armies Austria could bring into the field, and made the world resound with the successes of France.

The condition of the army was improved as it advanced into the heart of Italy. But the errors and corruption of the administrative officers were 100 deeply seated to admit of instant cure. In August, 1796, Despinois complains of the cowardice of his troops, and accounts for it by their destitution :

"Brescia, August 4, 1796. "I should betray my duty were I not to tell you the whole truth: there is no good, no resource to be hoped from the eighth brigade; it is so infected with cowardice that, on the firing of a single musket by one of our sentinels, this morning, at an Austrian prisoner who had appeared on the road, half the corps was already in flight. We, General Bertin and I, and all the brave, join to beseech you to put this corps in its place, or at least to spare us the evident risk of being dishonored with it, and of being prevented from justifying your confidence. At any rate the division of which you have given me the command cannot exist in the state of disorganization in which it is at present. It is in want of everything, and not a creature to furnish it with supplies, no commissary of war, no agent, not even a medical officer and an hospital for the wounded. It is always the case that, when a prey to distresses, and suffering all sorts of privations, the soldier is disheartened; and it is this mischievous impression too that we ought to hasten to destroy.

"DESPINOIS."

Almost at the same time Augereau complains of the deplorable state of a corps who had joined his division:

"Head-quarters, Verona, August 23, 1796. "The 29th demi-brigade has joined my division, which I reviewed on the 3d and 4th inst. Indeed, the condition of that 29th is pitiable: it has at most a hundred bayonets; it has no clothes, no shoes ; I found in it volunteers under arms without any covering but a shirt and linen trousers. These troops must necessarily be armed, equipped, and clothed, or left in the rear, for they cannot be brought before the enemy in this state, occasioned by the carelessness of the chief. They are, nevertheless, soldiers who, on some occasions, have exhibited proofs of bravery, and on whom one might rely; which ought to stimulate our anxiety to put them in order, and render them fit to do good service. Make, I beg of you, all the efforts you can to this end."

Three months later yet, and after Napoleon had gained some of his most splendid successes, his brother, Louis Bonaparte, represents his troops as literally naked::

Napoleon was not indifferent to the peculations of the army agents and contractors. There are in these volumes a thousand proofs of the vigilance with which he watched them, and of his care for the soldiers' interests. The republican administration was corrupt in all its branches; and Bonahis time, to collect proofs of the villany of the parte found it impossible, with the urgent calls on agents, who, in all their schemes, hung together. and denounced others to the Directory, charging On his own responsibility he arrested several; them as guilty, on his honor, though not supplied with proofs. They found him inaccessible to bribes. Of one superior agent he writes to the Di

rectory :

"Thevenin is a robber; he affects an insulting profusion; he has made me a present of several very fine horses, for which I had occasion, but for which I have not been able to make him accept payment. Let him be arrested and kept six months in prison; he can pay a war-tax of 500,000 francs in money; this man does not perform his duty."

At another time he calls for severe measures against the universal corruption that prevailed. Writing to the Directory in January, 1797, he calls for a despotic magistracy to examine into the army accounts and keep the agents in check :

Everything is sold. The army consumes five times as much as it needs, because the storekeepers forge orders and go halves with the commissaries of war. The principal actresses of Italy are kept by the employés of the French army; luxury, licentiousness, and peculation are at their height."

When he felt his power he spoke to the Directory in a more decisive tone, and accused them of protecting extortioners :

indecent conduct with Flachat and Co.
"I have written to the treasury relative to its
Those
fellows have done us infinite injury in carrying off
millions, and thereby placed us in the most critical
situation. For my part, if they come into the ar-
rondissement of the army, I will have them put in
prison till they have restored to the army the five
millions of which they have robbed it. Not only
does the treasury care nothing about furnishing the
army with its pay and supplying its wants, but it
even protects the rogues who come to the army to
feather their nests.'

a

With vast exertions he succeeded in introducing system of greater order and regularity into the financial and commissariat departments of the army. He personally inspected the stores furnished. When he ordered shoes for the men, he was not satisfied without inspecting specimens himself. When from the shortness of provisions their rations were reduced, he directed that the difference should be made up to them in money.

66 'Lavis, Nov. 3, 1796. "The troops are without shoes, without coatsin short, they are naked, and are beginning to be daunted; they looked yesterday with respect at the fine appearance of the Austrians in order of battle; It is not often in these papers that we find they are in the snow; their state ought to be taken Napoleon speaking of himself. We discover his into most serious consideration. With what conse-activity by incidental notices here and there. "Inquences would not our defeat be attended! The fuse greater activity into your correspondence," he officers in general are worn out; there were some writes to the French minister at Venice. who, amidst the fire, talked only of retiring to their daily accounts rendered to you," he writes to Vauhomes." bois when governor of Leghorn, "and inform me:

"Have