of M. M, under pretence of running once again over dispatches which he had read but the moment before. These things would be trifles if they concerned a person less celebrated; but the facts are precious, are even useful, when one reflects that such a man contrived to have his brows surrounded with a royal diadem,-that he overcame all the States on the Continent. Among the people of Asia who are yet immersed in the profoundest ignorance, there would be nothing astonishing in such events; but they are extraordinary in the most civilized nation of the universe, in a nation whose princes have always been cited as models of learning and urbanity. pp. 87, 88. Some indications of personal character are imparted in the following extracts: Buonaparte was, by character, always either more or less occupied internally. The moment that he was no longer surrounded by others, he fell into soliloquy, often accompanying his words with appropriate gestures, the same gestures being almost always used under the same circumstances. The application which I made continually of his pan tomime to the affairs by which he was then occupied, combined with the mute examinations of which he was constantly the object, have often given me the solution of matters which would otherwise still have remained problems to me. So perfectly assured was I of the truth of my analysis of these gestures and soliloquies, that I would have wagered my whole fortune upon never being ten times out of a hundred mistaken in it. Had he just quitted you, were you the object by whom he was occupied internally and externally-if he had deceived you by false promises, or if he believed you his dupe in any way whatever, I instantly guessed it. His step was then irregular, hurried, and eager; be walked about the room with his head cast down and looking at his hands, which he rubbed at intervals; his smile was gloomy and fixed, his eyelids winked, the left eye was almost totally closed; he was satisfied with himself, and some unconnected phrases mingled with this pantomime, put me in full possession of the matter. Had any one been giving him an opinion upon a subject on which he had desired it, if that opinion was in conformity with his interests, or if it accorded only with his passions, which was much better for those by whom the opinion was given, his countenance exhibited a kind of gay care, it lightened up, he repeated: "Nothing can be more true -he is perfectly in the right-he has the proper feeling-no objection can be made." Had he been listening to wise representations, although given with all the delicacy possible, but in opposition to his wishes, and combating his gigantic projects;-or had he learned that such representations had been confidentially made to any of his ministers, then it was that he was really in a state of epilepsy from anger; all was disorder about him, physically as well as morally. The shock of the different passions which tortured him at such moments was so terrible that if the thunder had fallen at his feet it would scarcely have roused him from his convulsions. This was the only fixed state in VOL. I. Aug. Rev. NO. I. D which he ever remained long, yet the machine being at length unable to sustain such shocks, he became more calm; then was it truly painful to observe him. A concentrated gloom, wild and funereal, reigned over his whole countenance, he was evidently in a state of great suffering. I am sure that if this man had been penetrable to the precious gift of tears, they would then have flowed as a cordial to him; but this sweet satisfaction was denied him by heaven. I cannot help believing, however people may be disposed to doubt the credibility of the thing, that this torrent once let loose it was impossible for him to control it. I say this the rather, because he was perfectly well aware that these fits of passion had cost him the friendship and advice of many persons of great merit, of two, among others, who resembled him perfectly in the despotism of their ideas. He regretted the loss of their friendship sincerely, but he was born too much of a despot himself to think of making any apology for his faults. He said one day to his uncle, speaking of them: "I know that they are in a state of suf fering when with me, and were they not retained by their employ. ments and by their ambition, they would go and live at the farther end of the world to avoid the sight of me."-In effect it was a very curious spectacle to see them together. It is impossible to cenceive two persons more dry, more cold in their manner, more laconic in their words, more embarrassed in their whole deportment. I owe it in justice to them to add that two years ago, before the fall of the imperial throne, whether it was the effect of anger, or whether it arose from a point of honor, they had never deviated a single instant from the line of conduct they had marked out to themselves. Thus their indifference in all political matters is still a problem to great numbers of persons. pp. 50 ---53. The moderation of the Allied Powers at the capital of France, is rendered more striking by the fierce desperation of Buonaparte, who had given orders for an explosion, which would have laid it jn ruins. The Allied Army entered Meaux on the 28th. Napoleon learnt the news at a village three leagues from Doulevant, the same day, as he breakfasted. He quitted Doulevant the next day, the 29th, and removed his head quarters to Troyes, where he waited twelve hours for his guard, which could no longer follow him. He set out from Troyes on the 30th at nine in the morning, arrived at Fontainebleau the same hour in the evening, and continued his route to Essonne. This was the day on which Paris capitulated. Napoleon received the news of the capitulation at eleven in the evening, by a general who came at full speed to meet him; he was then at the Cour-de-France, a little post station between Essonne and Villejuif. The Emperor on receiving the news was like a man thunderstruck; when he came to himself, he said that he had rather have been pierced to the heart by a dagger. He enquired whether the National Guard had fought well? and upon the officer's answering that they had not even fired a musquet, which was an unworthy falsehood: "The cowards," exclaimed Buonaparte, "they shall pay for it." He added, that he had to reproach himself with two great faults, the one that he had not burned Vienna, the other that he had not burned Berlin. Did he think that the burning of these two capitals would have led to the burning of Paris?-a catastrophe which he regarded as his only resource, the sole chance of safety which remained to him, and one for which he had made ample provision. We may hence judge with what feelings he saw the capital escape the destruction which he had predicted for two months as the fruit of its being conquered; which he prepared at the same time as the inevitable consequence of the resistance he had himself ordered. Not confining himself to the sterile character of a prophet, but assuring by his own efforts the accomplishment of his fatal predictions. Furious at the magnanimous conduct of the Allied Monarchs, how much more incensed must he have been at the non-execution of the orders he had given for blowing up the powder magazine of Grenelle. This magazine contained two hundred and forty millions of powder in grains, five millions of cartouches for the infantry, twenty-five millions of ball cartridges, three thousand obuses charged, and a great number of other articles. Those who remember the effect produced in 1794, by the explosion of the magazine on the plain of Grenelle, when it contained only eight millions of powder, may easily form to themselves an idea of the horrible effect that must have been produced by the explosion of a magazine a hundred times more considerable. The greatest part of the city must have been laid completely in ruins. This was the last catastrophe with which Buonaparte sought to terrify the world. All Paris shuddered with horror at hearing of the design; it was related after different fashions, so that M. Lescourt, director of the magazine, was required to give an account of it as far as came within his knowledge. Here follows his letter addressed to the Editor of the Journal des Débats, dated the 5th of April, and inserted in that paper on the 7th. ... I was occupied on the evening of the day that the attack was made on Paris, in collecting at the Field of Mars the horses requisite for carrying away the artillery; this care I shared with the officers of the general direction. About nine o'clock in the evening, a colonel arrived on horseback near the gate of St. Dominique, where I was, and desired to speak to the director of the artillery. I presented myself as the man: Is the powder magazine at Grenelle evacuated, Sir said he. No;' I answered, it is not possible that it should have been, we have neither had time or horses sufficient for it.’— 'Well, then,' said he, it must be blown up immediately.' At these words I turned pale, I trembled, nor reflected at the moment, that I had no occasion to make myself uneasy about an order not given in writing, and transmitted to me by an officer whom I did not know. 'Do you hesitate, Sir,' said he. After a few moments, I recollected myself, and fearing lest he should transmit the same order to another, I answered him with a calm air, that I would occupy myself with it: he then disappeared. Master of this dreadful secret, I did not confide it to any one; I did not close the gates of the magazine, as has been said; I had the evacuation, which had been begun in the day, continued. "I must add, that this order could not have come from the artilleryoffice, since all the officers there are known to me; that I knew that the Minister at War, and the General in Chief of the Artillery, had quitted Paris some hours before; and that all the officers of the general direction were assembled at the Field of Mars, where they were occupied with the evacuation which had been ordered. (Signed) “MAILLARD DE LESCOURT, Major of Artillery." Thus did Paris escape, as by a miracle, the ruin prepared by such horrible means. It is well known with what acclamations the Allied Monarchs were received, and what a contrast their entrance, no less brilliant than pacific, formed with the projects of destruction and conflagration ascribed to them by the only real enemy of Paris. pp. 340343. Notwithstanding these terrible indications of a merciless character, there are some instances of kindly feeling to be traced in these pages, with which we are pleased in proportion to their fewness. Napoleon appears to have entertained a becoming affection for Josephine, who is represented as a very amiable woman, who had exerted her whole influence to soften the temper of her husband. She pleaded with energy in behalf of several of his victims, and notwithstanding her opposition to his tyranny, he did not part with her without a severe struggle. In general, however, we are appalled by his deadness to the admonitions of remorse, which sometimes alarm the most obdurate. He seems to have been carried along by the tide of success with a rapidity which allowed little or no pause; and to have pursued his high career, supported all the way by the ceremonies of religion, and the surpassing magnificence which encircled him. The excessive "love of life" of which he is so repeatedly accused in these memoirs, and which is said to have induced him to survive his glory, is sufficiently explained by his recent appearance in the Thuilleries. At the very time he abdicated the throne, when he was cajoling some by talking of his indifference about supreme power, and others by affecting an ardent love of science, he was contemplating the issue of his enterprise, and secretly triumphing in his own powers of deceit. No one, we think, can peruse this book without feeling, in the midst of his disgust, a degree of regret, not for the downfall of Napoleon, but for that perversion of taste and that gross misapplication of talents, which have rendered his exercise of power the source of so much disquiet to mankind. As to the work itself, we must own that with all the interest of its anecdotes we have found it very tiresome. The style is perpe tually interrupted by interjections and broken by unnecessary apos trophes. It is to be wished that the writer had better known his proper office; and that when engaged to exhibit the imperial eagle, he had contented himself with making the animal go through his tricks, without displaying so much of his own adroitness. ART. X. The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esq. with Memoirs of his Life and Writings, composed by himself: illustrated from his Letters with Occasional Notes and Narrative by the Right Honorable John, Lord Sheffield. A new Edition, with considerable Additions, in 5 Vols. 8vo. £3. 5s. Boards. Murray, 1814. SINCE the publication of the first Edition of the Miscellaneous Works of the Historian of the Roman Empire, a period has elapsed of eighteen years, and it is observed by the noble Editor that his apprehension of indulging too far his partiality for the compositions of his friend has necessarily been much diminished, by the success of those included in the former collection. The respect due to an admired name has not, we think, been violated by this increase of confidence: and if there be a strong desire in Lord Sheffield to impart to the world the posthumous treasures of his friend, there will also be found in the public an equal readiness to receive them. Though not famed for ductility of mind, or remarkable for countenancing the erroneousness of preconceived opinions, he has shown a disposition to yield to the prejudices of former readers; and we cannot but remark an instance of it exhibited at the very threshold of the work: the much reprobated shade of Gibbon is removed, and a portly representation of him, painted by Warton in 1774, substituted in its stead. As further decorations to this edition are added, an engraving of the Pavilion and Terrace at Lausanne, a view of Sheffield Place (which, in enumerating his own possessions, Mr. Gibbon has pleasantly denominated his Palace in Sussex), a representation of Fletching Church, and an outline of a Mausoleum of the Sheffield Family, in which the mortal remains of the Historian are deposited. An Epitaph by Dr. Parr is also given. Edvardus Gibbon Criticus acri ingenio et multiplici doctrina ornatus Vel labentis et inclinati vel eversi et funditus deleti |