from bringing, under the Editor's notice the opinions of two writers, who by no means are so firmly persuaded as he apparently is, either respecting the purity of the marshal's trial, or the justice of that sentence which emanated from it.

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Ney's trial was not conducted with that liberality and fairness which are characteristic of our English laws and constitution; and it cannot be denied, also, that even the justice of the sentence depends solely on the interpretation of an article in a capitulation which was not permitted to be adduced in evidence by his judges*."

"The punishment of Ney was also an act of an offensive and equivocal nature. He and many more deserved to suffer; but a treaty had been made and acted upon, by which resistance to the restoration of Louis was put an end to. He had entered peaceably in consequence of that; and though it is possible that he never intended to confirm what the military chief promised, or was believed to have promised, it is to be lamented that any thing resembling duplicity, mental reservation, a change of purpose, or a breach of faith, should have taken place. That the transaction had nothing open, clear, or explicit, must be admitted; and it is not sufficient that

* Annual Biography and Obituary, 1817, vol 1, art. Ney, p. 518.

honourable men, when they are in power, should be able to prove that they did not do wrong,their conduct should be such as to prevent even suspicion."

We will here close our observations concerning Marshal Ney. The wind now whistles over his grave; but he who sent him thither, and who, in the many years of his tribulation, nothing learnt nor aught forgot, can find but little solace in the quibbling distinctions that hypocrites may weave, to sooth the mind diseased. The Bourbons of the present day ape the conduct of the good Henry: would that they could as easily imitate his virtues as his foibles. When the King of Navarre conquered Paris, his kindness to the Duke de Mayenne, his deadliest enemy, was such, that it left room to doubt whether he had not always had him at his side as his firmest friend.

Mademoiselle de Guise had pawned her diamonds to set a price on the head of Henry; yet this circumstance was for the monarch but one reason the more to show her the most marked attention. Henry IV. was feared and hated; he became adored and idolized; but he was as

* France as it is, not Lady Morgan's France, Playfair, vol. 1, p. 342. Mr. Playfair is a Tory writer, and was sent, we have been told, to France, purposely to produce a book in reply to Lady Morgan.

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generous as he was brave, and would have scorned to avail himself of arguments at which the rankest controvertist would spurn, to effectuate the downfal of one who, like Ney, had for the quarter of a century fought the battles of his country, and who, when the sun of that country's glory for ever sat on the plains of Waterloo, was the last to bend his steps from the perils of the strife.

CHAP. XII.

THE POISONING OF THE SICK AT JAFFA.

"WE do not agree with the reviewer, (Edinburgh) that Buonaparte entirely denies' the poisoning of his sick soldiers. What he says is a mere evasion as to the fact; and this is coupled with a frank avowal of his sentiments, that such an action would have been justifiable, in mercy to the sufferers, under the circumstances.' It would have been desirable that the reviewer should have made as frank an avowal whether he participated in those sentiments."-New Times, September, 1822.

IT has been with us a determination, in the progress of this work, to notice first whatever arguments, promulgated by the Editor of the New Times, have appeared to our mind least demanding a lengthened reply; and, adhering still to this course, before we pass to the major portion of his accusation, we shall offer only a few remarks upon two minor imputations brought-the one against Napoleon, the other against the Edinburgh reviewers.

We are told that Napoleon did not hesitate to avow the propriety of his sentiments respecting certain measures which he meditated in regard to

a few individuals of the army of Egypt who were dying with the plague. This assertion we pronounce to be incorrect; for Napoleon did own, at one period of his life, that he thought himself in error on the subject of the ideas in question. He made the declaration to Lord Ebrington, at Elba, in December, 1814, and nearly as follows:

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Perhaps my physician was right (in objecting to the measures suggested), though I asked for them (the infected inmates of the hospital) what I should, under similar circumstances, have wished my best friends to have done for me. I have often thought since on this point of morale, and have conversed on it with others; et je crois qu'au fond il vaut toujours mieux souffrir qu' un homme finisse sa destinée quelle qu'elle soit. I judged so afterwards, in the case of my friend, Duroc, who, when his bowels were falling out before my eyes, repeatedly cried to me to have him put out of his misery; Je lui dis je vous plains, mon ami, mais il n'y a pas de remède, il faut souffrir jusqu'à la fin.'

We are not at this moment going to discuss, whether the measures projected by Napoleon, on the head of his sick soldiers, were proper or improper; neither do we at this instant intend to

* Memorandum of two Conversations between the Emperor Napoleon, and Viscount Ebrington, pp. 18 and 19.