"His game was empire and his stakes were thrones, His table earth, his dice were human bones."

Thus assuming at a bound the whole question of Bonaparte's character, and stigmatizing him with a criminal ambition for conquest, and cruel disregard of human life and happiness? imputations which he ever, and to the last moment of his life, indignantly repelled. Tout pour la France, was his motto, which he bequeathed to his son. While he did not disclaim ambition, nor cloak his love of power, he stoutly asserted that it was entirely subordinate to the honor and glory of France. What was demanded by these he did. They were at once the incentives and the limits of his ambition and his power. For them he assumed power and waged war--for them he was ready to lay aside the sceptre and hush the roar of his deadly artillery.

sideration of diplomatists. His public works, done | or undertaken in France, Switzerland and Italy, his civil code and his government of France, will extort the admiration of coming ages. In short, viewed in any light, tried by any standard, contrasted with any mortal, he looms up in History 'grand, gloomy and peculiar." Right natural is it, therefore, that intelligent men should seize with avidity anything, everything professing to shed new light upon any phase of that extraordinary man. The last that has appeared, and perhaps the very last professing to contain anything new that will ever appear, is this somewhat voluminous book of General Count Montholon. It contains what must be considered the latest and most authoritative account of Bonaparte. It comes from the friend, companion, and testamentary executor, both pecuniary and historical, of the great Captain. It is not merely an account of what transpired at St. We do not mean herein to express any opinion Helena, but contains dictations made by the Em- on these points; we simply hint at the difficulty-peror himself, in which he expatiates upon, relates, nay, sheer impossibility, under the circumstances, of or discusses the actions, distinguished as well as obeying that revered old maxim, "audi alteram." minute, of his eventful life. It comes to us with It is due to this most renowned of modern times no cloud upon its authenticity, and subject to no that we should do this. Our prejudices will have other doubt or disparagement than the well-known little influence on the great facts, and quite as little fact, that the Count was an extreme Bonapartist on the sweeping current of history. We may deand that old age has not had power to diminish the ceive ourselves, but the impartial pen of future fervor of his zeal for the fame and the family of history will neither be guided by our passions, nor his imperial master. He has nourished it for a be restrained by our folly. Out of the chaos of conquarter of a century. He alleges that Bonaparte tradictory facts and passions, about which we wranhimself as if looking to futurity for a juster judg-gle and dispute, the angel to whom is committed ment upon his career than was then probable,-in- the guardianship of Truth is calmly recording on terdicted its publication until twenty-five years had the everlasting tablets unalterable facts. It is of elapsed. We have not yet learned whether it has little concern whether we believe or forbear. received the approbation of Gourgand or Las Cases, both of whom we believe to be still alive.

There is perhaps no more appropriate place to introduce some extracts from the work, than here. Bonaparte is speaking. He is speaking of the general charges which were current, to which we have so briefly alluded.

"I have always wished sincerely for peace, and always offered it after a victory. I have never

asked it after a reverse because a nation more

Prague, the policy of Metternich will be unmasked eral peace, honorable to all parties, and such as and justice will be done me. I wished for a genwould secure the repose of Europe." p. 85.

The limit of twenty-five years is perhaps not long enough. We apprehend that we are still too near Bonaparte. The generation of his contemporaries has not yet entirely passed away,—we are perhaps still too strongly tinged with hereditary prejudices for or against him. The glare of the meteor still lingers in the heavens and is still re-readily repairs its resources and finds new troops, flected too strongly for us to see with unblemished than recovers its honor. I am wrongfully accused vision. We are unfortunate in being seduced, from of having refused peace at Dresden. When histhe identity of our language with that of his invet-tory shall give publicity to the negotiations of erate foes, the British, into reading their indiscriminate condemnation and wholesale abuse of one to whom they accorded all ill and conceded no good, notwithstanding he declared them to be "the bravest and most magnanimous of his enemies." It He then declares that had Fox lived, "England is difficult to free our minds from this bias. The and France would have been united in the closest veneration which we feel for Walter Scott, betrays alliance since 1806." "Unfortunately for both us into a sympathy with him in his history of Na- nations, Fox died, and the ministry which succeedpoleon a work, to say the least of it, unworthy of ed him, adopted the shade of Pitt for its ægis." so distinguished and just a man. Even the other-"In short, I have always wished for peace with wise lofty and chivalrous Byron, catching the spirit England, by all means reconcilable with the dignity of his nation, with whom he had few feelings in common, carries captive our judgment by the vigor and impressiveness of his lines

of the French nation. I have desired peace at the cost of all sacrifices consistent with national honor; I had neither prejudice, hatred, nor jealousy of am

bition against England. It was of little consequence to me that England was rich and prosperous, provided that France was so also. I should not have contested with her the dominion of the sea, I repeat, if at sea she had been ready to respect the French flag, as the Emperors of Austria or Russia would have respected our standards on land. Had I been conqueror at Waterloo, I would have made no change in the message sent to London before passing the Sambre." This occurred in conversation with Col. Wilks, Ex-Governor of India, who touched at St. Helena.

"My object was to destroy the whole of the feudal system as organized by Charlemagne. With this view, I created a nobility from among the peodal nobility. The foundations of my ideas of fitness ple in order to swallow up the remains of the feuwere abilities and personal worth; and I selected the son of a farmer, or an artisan, to make a duke or a marshal of France. I sought for true merit among all ranks of the great mass of the French people, and was anxious to organize a true and general system of equality. I was desirous that every Frenchman should be admissible to all the employments and dignities of the state, provided he was possessed of talents and character equal to the performance of the duties, whatever might be "I wished to come here incognito, &c., but the his family. In a word, I was eager to abolish, to proposal was rejected. They persisted in calling the last trace, the privileges of the ancient nobility, me General Bonaparte. I am not ashamed of that and to establish a government, which at the same name, but I do not wish to receive it from the Eng-time that it held the reins of government with a lish Government. Had the French Republic never firm hand, should still be a popular government. had a legal existence for England, they would no The oligarchs of every country in Europe soon more have had the right to call me General than perceived my design, and it was for this reason that first Magistrate; in fact as Emperor I was elected war to the death was carried on against me by by the French people and became their first Magis- England. The noble families of London, as well trate by compact.' He desired to take the name as those of Vienna, think themselves prescriptively of Muiron, or Duroc :-"I went to England with entitled to the occupation of all the important offithe most perfect confidence, either to reside there ces in the state, and the management and handling or in America, in complete retirement and under of the public money. Their birth is regarded by the name of a Colonel killed at my side, resolved them as a substitute for talents and capacities; and entirely to abstain from all connexion with politi- it is enough for a man to be the son of his father, cal affairs of any kind whatsoever." "I do not call myself Napoleon Emperor of France, but the Emperor Napoleon, which is a very different thing because it is in accordance with the usage of sovereigns who have abdicated;" and he cites James II. and Charles of Spain. p. 95.

"My son will reign, if the popular masses are permitted to act without control; the crown will belong to the Duke of Orleans if those who are called liberals gain the victory over the people; but then sooner or later the people will discover that they have been deceived-that the white are always white, the blue always blue--and that there is no guarantee for their true interests, except under the reign of my dynasty, because it is the work of their creation." This language is in part prophetic, though not wholly so. The revolution of 1830 stopped short of its complete verification. "I did not usurp the crown--I picked it up from the gutter; the people placed it on my head. I wished the name of Frenchman to be the most noble and desirable on the earth. I was King of the people, as the Bourbons are King of the nobles, under whatever colors they may disguise the banner of their ancestors. When, full of confidence in the sympathy of the nation, I returned from Elba, my advisers insisted that I ought to take notice of some chiefs of the royal party. I constantly refused, answering to those who gave me this advice-If I have remained in the hearts of the mass of the people, I have nothing to do with the royalists; if not, what will some more or less, avail me, to struggle against what would have become the opinion of the nation." p. 108.

He elsewhere says, "my throne rested on the mass of the people," and that this was the secret cause of the hatred and opposition of "the oligarchs of Europe."

VOL. XIV-6

to be fit to fulfil the duties of the most important employments and highest dignities of the state. They are somewhat like kings by divine right; the people are in their eyes merely milch cows, about whose real interests they feel no concern, provided the treasury is always full, and the crown resplendent with jewels.

"In short, in establishing a hereditary nobility, I had three objects in view:

"First. To reconcile France with the rest of Europe.

"Secondly. To reconcile Old with New France. "Thirdly. To put an end to all feudal institutions in Europe by re-connecting the idea of nobility with that of public services, and detaching it from all prescriptive or feudal notions." Vol. I, p. 121.

The

"A King does not belong to nature, but only to civilization, and he must march at its head. ancient crown of the Bourbons was broken and Louis XVI. brought to the scaffold because royalty had not kept pace with the progress of civilization. The French people said of Napoleon, He is our King-the others are the Kings of the nobles." [p. 184.

These few and meagre extracts will suffice to show the point of view from which Napoleon beheld the French people, France, the world, and his throne. Passing them by for what they are worth, with the remark that some of them are not new, nor unfamiliar to the reading world long since, we simply take occasion to notice that the remark, that the French people put the crown on his head," might furnish, and has always furnished, argument for at least two sides. It has been charged that the election was contrived and controlled. That after the crown was placed upon his head, the

66

French people not only quietly acquiesced, but de- | public. If any one object that the form of the sired it to remain there, and that the great mass of government was altered, and that in becoming Emthe people looked with a feeling allied to horror peror he freed himself from the check imposed by upon the return of the Bourbons is matter of his- the two adjunct Consuls, it is sufficient to reply, tory. The return from Elba verified this. Nor that forms are powerless, for as first Consul, Camis it any more doubtful that even after the allied baceres and Le Brun were but the buttons on his armies had entered France the mass of the French right and left breast-mere matters of adornmentpeople preferred Bonaparte as their ruler. Hence utterly impotent.

the secret steps, partly coercive, partly persuasive, The influence which he claims to have exerciwhich were taken to drive him out of the country,|sed—the undermining of Feudalisms on the throne and which eventually drove him, in a fit of despera- and in the Barony—it seems to us is to be accordtion, to throw himself into the hands of the Eng-ed to him. Who that is at all aware of the feudal lish. That chalice of bitterness was to him the oppressions of the French people prior to the revmore bitter, that he was forced to drink it from the olution can fail to congratulate humanity upon their hands of princes and nobles into whom he had extinction? If it be replied that the revolution and breathed the breath of life. In justice to these not Bonaparte put them down, then the answer is men, it may be said that it was quite evident to equally at hand that Bonaparte kept them down them that the allied powers had determined upon and deliberately refused to restore them. His pothe forced or voluntary abdication of the Emperor, sition as monarch-a plebeian Emperor--compelland that no efforts or sacrifices of theirs would ed him by all possible means to wage war upon the avail to prevent that catastrophe. It is matter of doctrine of the Divine Right, and his own pracdebate, however, whether they ought not to have tice in regard to the orders of nobility lifted up considered themselves in foro conscientiæ bound the heads and swelled with nobler aspirations the to follow the fortunes of that master who had found hearts of the peasantry of the world. He not only them obscure and made them rich and distinguish-recognized, but acted on the words we so often aded. There can be no debate about their taking mire in the mouth of Burns, "a man's a man for active part against him. It was rank ingratitude. a' that and a' that," and the magic words tore the To revert to the question of the "will of the scales from the eyes and the social chains from the French people," it may be well to remember that hands of millions of Frenchmen. Like a pebble after the abdication and while on his way to the thrown in the water, the pulsation of its waves coast to take ship for America, strong demonstrations was too extended and minute to be detected by of the common people were made in his behalf, sug- the eye, but now all Europe has felt the sublime gestions were made to him, which intimated that he touch, and it is no longer a mere figure of speech ought, and which fully persuaded him that he could, to declare that the ancient and crumbling tower of reinstate himself by the aid of the army and the Feudal Monarchy and Nobility topples to its fall. common people, but he exclaimed, “I do not wish Who maintains the doctrine of the Divine Right of to be King of the Jacquerie," and went on in si- Kings to rule with a grave countenance? What lent, stern gloom to meet that uncertain and unfor- noble any longer looks upon the collar of his serf tunate future. and finds figuratively, or verily inscribed the words, Whether Bonaparte was crowned by the will of" Gurth the born thrall of Cedric the Saxon?" the French people or not, it is certain that France Esterhazy still scatters diamonds from his jewelled the Empire was little less republican than France robe, where he treads the festal hall, or jostles in the Republic. Externals had changed-forms the crowd of suppliant courtiers, but as they fall were varied-titles were altered," citizen Consul" they only symbolize the truth, that the feudal power became 66 your Majesty" and "Sire." General which glistens on his very coat is fast yielding to Davonst was metamorphosed into Prince of Eck-the pressure of time, nay more, each diamond as mul, but the democratic principle was every-it falls, reflects a richer light where it lies, than where present as before. The living informing when it adorned his Serene Highness-a trophy for potential spirit of the government was identical. freedom against feudalism-never to be replaced In both cases it was Bonaparte. If he is con- to him. demned for advancing the government from a Re- It strikes us that those who contemplate Bonapublic to a Monarchy, he is also to be applauded for parte as a warrior and shudder at the blood which restraining the Empire to the same republican lim- he caused to be shed, are prone to overlook the its in all essential points that hitherto existed. The great social and moral influence, which his battles will and the interests of the masses were as much brought about, and which Providence intended he studied and cared for afterwards as before. The should set in motion. They forget that at least in paths to distinction, place, power and wealth were latter days the roar of cannon, like the peal of as wide open to men of low degree when the Em-Heaven's artillery, clears the social and political peror Napoleon wore the purple, as when Consul atmosphere, opens avenues for the extension of Bonaparte was the impersonated head of the Re- trade, the interchange of commercial products,

civilization and Christianity. Arms have often, if chapter in his august history full of reflection and not always, led the way to exchange of arts. Our replete with solemn interest. consolation for these horrors is to be found in the Those who maintain that he did wrong in this reflective good they secure. The hoof of the war-particular, are bound in justice to show that he horse, though it has trampled on the dead and the could have introduced any other religion. dying, has also stricken from the flinty earth sparks of consoling light. In this view, it may be said the battles of Bonaparte neither began nor ended with him. Their causes arose before him their influences will long outlive him.

The death of the Duc D'Enghien is several times alluded to in this history. Even Count Montholon does not seem fully to justify the proceedings with regard to that unfortunate young prince. He nevertheless palliates them as far as possible.

It has been matter of imputation with some, that Bonaparte reestablished the Roman Catholic reli- Duke D'Enghien lost his life because he was one We give here the Count's own words :-" The gion in France. In this book may be found the of the principal actors in the conspiracy, formed by reasons clearly stated by him. They may be em-Georges, Pichegru, and Moreau. Pichegru was braced in few words. He maintains the absolute arrested on the 28th Febuary, Georges on the 9th necessity arising from man's moral organization and the Duke D'Enghien on the 18th March, 1804. for a religion of some sort. The duke took an active part in all the intrigues The anomalous conwhich had been carried on from 1796 by the agents dition of France in this respect at the time-the of England; this is proved by the papers seized in unsettled state and wrangles of the clergy-the the cartridge box of Klinglin, and the letters of the prejudices and predilections of the French people, 19th Fructidor, 1797, written by Moreau to the and above all, political reasons pointed him to that Directory." * Marshal Moncey, inspecform of Religion, and were the efficient motives for tor-general of the Gendarmerie and Count Schee, making the concordat with the pope. Indepen- opinion that the Duke was the soul of the conspiprefect of Strasburg, confirmed by their reports the dently of these considerations, the establishment of racy, and had been invested with extraordinary any form of faith which settled the French mind, powers to enter France in the character of Lieuvacillating as it was, between the doctrine of tenant-General of the Kingdom, in the name of "reason" and the “Etre supreme," as voted by the the Pretender, as soon as the conspirators had sucassembly, was merciful as to the subjects of it, and ceeded in assassinating the First Consul. On receiving this intelligence, an extraordinary council as to him who established it, a pious labor. It re- was convoked at the Tuilleries. The ministers established the altars of God which had been over- and the chief dignataries of the Senate and of the thrown, though perhaps under a less pure worship Legislative body, were present, and all were of than was desirable; but considered with reference opinion that the safety of the republic demanded to the anarchy of Faith then prevalent, it was a The forthe adoption of extraordinary measures. cible capture of the Duke D'Enghien was decreed." sublime work. To say the least, it was all that The death of the Duke D'Enghien ought could be expected of Bonaparte. He had himself to be attributed to those who in London directed been reared in that faith, and it was the faith of and commanded the assassination of the first conFrance so far as she had any, and it was not to be sul, who destined the Duke De Berry to enter expected that he should turn propagandist. France through the District of Beville and the Duke

Court-Martial."

Instead of condemning him for not going fur-D'Enghien by Strasburg. It ought to be attributed also to those who, by their reports and conjecther, we should rather wonder that he went tures, forced the council to regard him as the chief so far. For it was a step not without hazard. He of the conspiracy; and it ought to be made a subhad to steer between the party for religion and the ject of eternal reproach to those who, urged on by party against religion-between Charybdis and a criminal zeal, did not await the orders of their Scylla. He deliberately and in spite of protesta- sovereign before executing the sentence of the tions and murmurings, in high places, staked his power and his influence upon the restoration of the Thiers, in his history of the Consulate and the Christian altars. He made a treaty with the Pope Empire, presents pretty much the same view. confirming the creed of Rome as the acknowledged The best that can be said for Napoleon in this religion of France, and yet leaving Frenchmen in-matter is, that he acted under misapprehension, dividually free to select for their private devotions and his orders were too hastily and summarily that, or any other, or no other form of worship. We obeyed. He nevertheless assumed at a later time, can perceive here no sinister motive; we do not deny the whole responsibility and justified the act. Havthat it is easy to suggest such. This is always ing seen in an English Journal some harsh striceasy. But taken in connection with the fact that tures upon Caulaincourt and Savary with regard whenever he seriously professed any religion, he to this unfortunate affair,-" He exclaimed this is declared himself a Catholic and that when in later shameful!" and ordered his will to be brought, openand more unfortunate moments-nay, when about ed it and interlined the following words: "I causto quit the scene of his earthly triumphs and toils, ed the Duc D'Enghien to be arrested and tried, he solemnly declared his belief in and received the because that step was essential to the safety, inconsolations of that venerable faith, it forms a terest and honor of the French people, when

From that hour Bonaparte lost all hold on those great moral sympathies of his fellow men which alone can cheer the darkness of adverse fortune. But we let him speak for himself.

tory; for it did not destroy the ties which united "My divorce," said he, "has no parallel in hisour families, and our mutual tenderness remained unchanged; our separation was a sacrifice demanded of us by reason, for the interest of my crown and of my dynasty. Josephine was devoted preference over me in her heart. I occupied the to me, she loved me tenderly, no one ever had a first place in it; her children the next; and she was right in thus loving me, for she is the being whom I have most loved, and the remembrance of her is still all-powerful in my mind.

the Count D'Artois was maintaining, by his own ment, nor crime imputed on either side. It is a confession, sixty assassins at Paris. Under sim- single instance of self-sacrifice to the ambition of ilar circumstances, I would act in the same way." a royal husband. It was a crime. The world has generally and indignantly condemned the divorce of Josephine. We look therefore with some interest to see what Bonaparte himself says about that subject. All the rest of his acts were acts either of war or diplomacy, they had to do with the head-here is a matter touching him in the tenderest recess of the heart. Barring such occasional differences as may occur between any wedded pair, the world saw only devotion and tenderness between Napoleon and Josephine. The widow of a nobleman, she had married the young a Corsican before the sun of his glory had risen above the horizon, and while the haze of morning yet hung around his pathway. She had ascended step by step with him from obscurity to greatness, until they both sat down together loving and lovingly “Doubtless, two objections might be made to the upon an imperial throne. She gloried in his fame necessity of a divorce. My brother Louis had and rejoiced in his prosperity. He had adopted children whose education I could direct. The orsons, and the Empress had a son. The first were her children for his own and with the instructive ganic senatus-consultum of the empire summoned ambition of maternal love, she beheld her offspring them to the throne, and my age justified a hope the inheritors of his power and the perpetuators that at my death they would already be known to of his dynasty. The visions of her childhood, the French people, and esteemed by them worthy created by the prediction of a West Indian negress and Lucien. of succeeding me in default of my brothers, Joseph and sustained by a lively fancy and a life of adven- "Then again, Eugene Beauharnais had made ture, had been realized. She was the wife of a mon- trial of his talents as a general and an administraarch, the monarch of his age, before whom schol-tor. My Italian subjects rendered him full justice; ars and princes, men of all ranks, and ages bowed--the French loved him and were vexed to see him in whose audience-chamber kings jostled each other to be seated; wealth surrounded her on every hand, the creations of nature and of art were congregated about her, palaces rose at her bidding. The volitions of her heart seemed spontaneously to real-cessary to change the organic senatus-consultum ize themselves, and the lamp of Aladdin had no power, which the gorgeous fancy of Eastern fable has ascribed to it, which fortune had not poured with a liberal hand into her lap. She was, as most persons of her temperament are not, content; nay she was exuberantly happy. Joy kindled in all on whom she smiled.

But the bronzed face of that mysterious husband is thoughtful. She sees it-she divines it-there is one other point to be attained before he too can look around him and enjoy the magnificent sources of power and wealth with which he is invested-he must have children, heirs of his own body. The steel has gone into her soul, her hopes are crushed, the dream of glory is ended, the pageant of power fades away, tearful with sorrow and yet subdued by the faithfulness of her conjugal affection, she assents, signs the paper and is divorced.

The world has never before witnessed such a spectacle. Henry VIII. made and unmade wives with a facility which disgusted all the better feelings of our nature, but these were rather mistresses, than wives. Other monarchs had divorced their reluctant partners, but we remember no instance of a royal divorce where there was neither disagree

excluded from inheritance to the throne of France. "His mother had often urged me to adopt him as my successor; this was an idea constantly in her mind; the common law from that moment rendered him my heir apparent without its being ne

in any way; but should Eugene succeed me, I should not have formed a dynasty; for paternity by adoption is but a fusion of the law; the good sense of my subjects would reject; the blood of the fourth dynasty would be that of a Beauharnais, and not of a Napoleon.

"To this poor Josephine had nothing to reply; and the moment she could no longer entertain hopes began to show itself as a necessity for the sacrifor her son, her resentment against my brothers fice of her position.

"To bring about my divorce, the double intervention of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities was necessary; the former was bestowed on the had been restored to the episcopal court of Paris senate by the constitution of the Empire, the latter by the concordat of 1801. A previous form was required by the civil law--the mutual consent of the parties: for between Josephine and me the question of divorce could not rest on infidelity or bad treatment; I had, it is true, at one time thought vorce, the declaration made by Henry IV. when he of taking, as an example for the motive of my diseparated from Margaret of Valois, and I sent for the registers of the episcopal court in which it was registered; but the indecency of the motive alleged by this king disgusted me, and I kept to the happiness to you.' truth, telling my people, I sacrifice my domestic

The High Chancellor received in the family