ART. IX.-The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, with a Preliminary View of the French Revolution. By THE AUTHOR of Waverley.

A PORTION of the printed sheets of this considerable and important work was lately received in this country. They include the Preliminary View, and some of the volumes of the Biography. Having obtained permission to read them, and found the Introduction to constitute a substantive performance, capable of being separately treated-so ample, indeed, as to impose this expedient upon us, who wish to do a certain measure of justice to all the author's labours-we have concluded to exercise the liberty, granted at the same time, of laying at once before our readers a summary account of the preliminary sketch. We can indulge the presumption that all the admirers of the Waverley pen-that is, all our republic of letters-will be glad to taste even a modicum of the fresh and large repast, and learn forthwith what they may expect in the whole. It will be our additional task to designate and exemplify the ingredients and tincture of the Life itself, when that, the main service, shall be within our reach.

When it was announced that the Shakspeare of novelists had undertaken to write the Life of Napoleon, the thunderbolt of war and the Man of Destiny, the world seemed to experience a mixed sensation of surprise, distrust, pleasure, and incredulity. It could hardly be credited that Sir Walter Scott, wonderfully successful and inexhaustible in the production of historical romance, would expatiate in the field of simple and cotemporary history; and a strong doubt arose with respect even to the aptitude of his powers and habits for such an enterprise. Many, who had discerned the political drift of some of his novels, and were acquainted with his general reputation as a high tory and an inveterate Briton, supposed that he must, necessarily, be governed by his own opinions and predilections, in the texture and colouring of his narrative; so far, that the French people, their Revolution, and Buonaparte, would be exhibited under the worst aspects and with the darkest shades, which party spirit and national prejudice could bestow. Others held it impossible to believe that his toil would correspond to the extensive and weighty subject; because, to treat it adequately, or in any suitable manner, required more of research, elaboration, and time, than was compatible with the distinct literary engagements which he was said to have contracted, or with the despatch which his altered fortunes might

exact. We may lament, by the way, that this gifted and truly deserving personage has suffered in his estate; and that Scotland, whose annals and reputation he has so greatly contributed to diffuse, exalt, and adorn, has left him to depend on the continued efforts of his miraculous industry and genius, for the reparation of his affairs: yet, we may not feel this regret so much in reference to the greater or less merit of his works; as, in all probability, he belongs to that class of distinguished writers, who are incapable, from custom or nature, of doing better with extended time; who felicitously strike out their tasks, without the power of improving what they thus produce at a heat.

Notwithstanding the apprehensions and misgivings which we have mentioned, the report of this enterprise kindled, on the whole, a grateful and lively expectation, in both the American and British public. None of his votaries had forgotten how admirably he had managed warriors and battles in his novels and poems: all were sure, that, however swiftly or partially he might write, his talent would communicate a peculiar glow and interest, poignancy and originality, to his pages; and it was known that his connexions and renown afforded him access to the highest and best sources of inedited information. Besides, his subject was acknowledged the most extraordinary and eventful of all the tales of real life: no hero, whom his own teeming muse could have created, would have surpassed Napoleon in curious and prodigious individuality of character; in multiplicity and splendour of adventure and exploit; in contrast of situation and fortune; in portentous rise and fall. Within no bounds of verisimilitude or reason, such as a judicious novelist will not overstep, could ingenuity frame a being more fitted to rivet universal attention on his spirit and career; to excite universal wonder by his aims and achievements; to divide the judgments and affections of men; to engage speculative minds in earnest examination of the effects of his example, power, and institutions; to furnish rich and fond themes for politicians and moralists. Nor could a more extensive theatre of action, with more magnificent and decisive strokes of genius, might, and policy,-more sudden, surprising, and broad changes of scene,-be well contrived in.fiction, than was presented to the biographer,-himself bearing the "pictured urn" of Fancy. It was not France, Italy, Germany, Russia, alone, that were to be brought under his graphic and brilliant pencil; but the oriental regions, in which his imagination chiefly delighted, and on which his descriptive powers had been triumphantly displayed-Egypt and Syria conquered anew, with circum

stances as picturesque, dazzling, poetical, as those of the Crusades.

In undertaking "a Preliminary View of the French Revolution," the author of Waverley, "the mighty magician," unrivalled as he is, among the writers of the day, in devising and delineating scenes and characters of the most pathetic or terrifie cast, exposed himself to perilous comparisons in the breasts of such of his readers as had dwelt on the later effusions of EDMUND BURKE. The various Letters of that transcendant intelligence, concerning the French Revolution, particularly the four on a Regicide Peace, embrace pictures of its horrors, and developments of its principles and tendencies, which, certainly, are not excelled, perhaps not equalled, in the whole body of prose composition. Language had never been employed with more richness and potency; such glances "into the dark, prolific womb of futurity" were never before thrown by an uninspired mind; neither reflection nor anticipation ever went deeper into human affairs; so much profound instruction on our moral nature and social order, so much analytical, prophetic sagacity, are no where else combined, in a like compass, with such intensity of feeling, and force of description.* Sir Walter's "Preliminary View," occupies two volumes, which consist of nearly seven hundred close pages. He adverts, however, to the seer of the revolution, "who stayed the plague," in only two or three instances, the ensuing being the principal.

"It followed as a matter of course, that the whigs of Britain looked with complacence, the tories with jealousy, upon the progress of the new principles in France; but the latter had an unexpected and powerful auxiliary in the person of Edmund Burke, whose celebrated Reflections on the French Revolution had the most striking effect on the public mind, of any work in our time. There was something exaggerated at all times in the character as well as the eloquence of that great man; and upon reading at this distance of time his celebrated composition, it must be confessed that the colours he has used in painting the extravagancies of the revolution, ought to have been softened, by considering the peculiar state of a country, which, long labouring under despotism, is suddenly restored to the possession of unembarrassed license. On the other hand, no political prophet ever viewed futurity with a surer ken. He knew how to detect the secret purpose of the various successive tribes of revolutionists, and saw in the constitution the future republic; in the republic the reign of anarchy; from anarchy he predicted military despotism, and from military

See the "Pursuits of Literature" (p. 59. 114. 145. 351,) for a fervid, yet not exaggerated estimate of Burke's powers, aims, and efficiency, as a writer.

despotism, last to be fulfilled, and hardest to be believed, he prophesied the late but secure resurrection of the legitimate monarchy."

We suggest, with all deference, that a much shorter view of the Revolution would have been sufficient, and generally preferable, with regard to our author's main design. It was the Life of Napoleon which he professed to trace, and about which, from his pen and resources, the world was most curious and impatient; the more minute and special, yet the less voluminous the work, the better; and it demanded not a copious historical introduction to be competently understood and appreciated. We should have advised separate Annals of the Revolution, to precede the publication of the grand Biography; unity in each design would have conduced to the superior execution and utility of both. However this may be, we ought, perhaps, as general readers, to be well pleased with this part of his labours, whether he really deemed it essential, or adopted it in compliance with the professional notion of his bookseller; since, though he is far from having eclipsed the one "who saw the Apocalypse," and was the Michael Angelo of writers, he has made a vigorous and racy, if not "eternal," draught of men and events; ably explored causes and signalized effects; and blended with his historic tissue, which is, here and there, finely and compactly wrought, didactic remarks appertaining to a liberal and practical system of philosophy. He says, himself, in his first chapter

"It is necessary for the execution of our plan, that we should review the period of the French Revolution, the most important, perhaps, during its currency, and in its consequences, which the annals of mankind afford; and although the very title is sufficient to awaken in most bosoms either horror or admiration, yet, neither insensible of the blessings of national liberty, nor of those which flow from the protection of just laws, and a moderate but firm executive government, we may perhaps be enabled to trace its events with the candour of one, who, looking back on past scenes, feels divested of the keen and angry spirit with which, in common with his contemporaries, he may have judged them while they were yet in progress."

This and the foregoing quotation, indicate the temper and tone with which he resolved to proceed, and apprize those who apprehended defamation prepense of the French character and all political liberalism, that he meant at least, to be dispassionate and equitable. We shall now go on to illustrate the opinions and qualities of his introduction, as far as our limits will admit; conscious that both his performance and the subject

merit a more deliberate and searching commentary, than it is, at present, in our power to attempt.

Our author, before he enters upon the French Revolution, briefly and acutely considers the situation of Europe between the peace of Versailles (1783,) and that pregnant era. Advanc ing to the revolution, he asserts "its first and effective cause" to have been "the change which had taken place in the feelings of the French towards their government and monarch." In noticing their antecedent devotion to their sovereign, he observes:

"Into whatever political errors the French people were led by the excess of their loyalty, it would be unjust to brand them as a nation of a mean and slavish spirit. Servitude infers dishonour, and dishonour to a Frenchman is the last of evils. Burke more justly regarded them as a people misled to their disadvantage, by high and romantic ideas of honour and fidelity, and who, actuated by a principle of public spirit in their submission to their monarch, worshipped, in his person, the fortune of France, their common country."

To explain how the lapse of half a century, could have produced an alienation such as he assumes, he recounts the various changes which the course of years had operated in the various orders of the state; and enumerates the almost total ruin, by the wasting effects of luxury and vanity, of a great part of the noblesse, and the decay of their dignity and consequence, from this and other circumstances. The church, "the second pillar of the throne," had dwindled in authority and consideration, through the misconduct of the hierarchy, the perseverance of the Catholic councils in "extravagant pretensions and absurd doctrines;" the long and violent dispute between the Jesuits and the Jansenists, and the poverty and neglect in which the large body of the curates were suffered to remain. While the noblesse and the clergy had lost much of their influence, or actually fallen into discredit and odium, and were severally divided among themselves, the middle classes, the third estate, tiers etat, were greatly advanced in wealth, numbers, intrinsic strength, intelligence, esprit de corps, and jealousy of the privileged orders. The men of letters, multiplied beyond calculation, and exalted in rank and influence, undermined the aristocratic classes who cherished them, and who embraced from levity and fashion their dangerous maxims both in politics and religion. French literature, more than any

*

* See Burke, 4 vol. p. 423, second Letter on Regicide Peace. YOL. I.NO. 1.

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