intercourse with this country-partly by the ordinary operations of a war vigorously pursued, and partly by the instrumentality of Bonaparte's own insane "Continental system, by which he committed the most complete act of political suicide ever monarch was guilty of. The consequence was, that it became next to impossible to obtain correct information at the time, even on affairs of the highest importance and with respect to the less ob vious, though perhaps not less important springs of action, they were totally hid from our view. Many of these things are now oozing out, drop by drop, from authentic sources; and we consider this book as one of the most valuable contributions in this way, which the overboiling of the revolutionary pot has tossed out to us.

Even, however, supposing that many of the historical and other circumstances here related may have been already more or less known to us, it is not a little instructive, and often very interesting, to learn what are the opinions of an intelligent native, living on the very spot, as to the actual workings of many circumstances, the operation of which we have been in the habit of taking it for granted we were well acquainted with.

tain Lemuel Gulliver records of Lilliput! Chapter X., which gives the discussions respecting the coronation,. is of this character, and it is quite clear that Bonaparte himself is at times abundantly sensible of the ridicule of the whole transaction. Oneof the questions, for example, which were sharply discussed in the Council' of State, was the choice of a spot in which the coronation should take place. As some of the members were for Notre Dame, some for the Church of the Invalids, and some for the Champ de Mars, it is exceedingly droll to observe the Lilliputian sort of style in which these different localities were recommended; nor is it less so to see how Napoleon overturns, like so many nine-pins, the trashy arguments of his straw-stuffed counsellors..

"The Champ de Mars,' said he, has. been thought of from an association with. the confederation, * but the times are greatly changed since then. The people werethe sovereigns in those times, and every thing was required to be done before themlet us take care not to put it in their heads that it is always to be so. The people nowadays are represented by the lawful authorities. Besides which, I cannot admit that the people of Paris, still less the people of France, are made up of the twenty or thirty thousand ragamuffins, who would take pos session of the Champ de Mars on such an occasion. In such a mass I recognise nothing but the stupid and vicious popu lation of a great city. The true people of France are the presidents of the cantons, and the presidents of the electoral colleges; not forgetting the army, in the ranks of which will be found soldiers from every canton of the empire.'

In viewing, as we happily do in this country, the regulated movements of a long-established government, we are apt to forget how much of the form is merely conventional, and the artificial work of man. We insensibly let ourselves suppose that the machinery we see in action is regulated by the immutable laws of nature-whereas, after all, we know but little of the secret springs and the original adaptations of one part to another which enable the machine of civil society to go on. The satire of Swift had for its object to show the real state of the case, by dissecting the various parts of the body sians, who delight in turning every thing politic, and exposing their mutual connexion. But perhaps the same purpose is fully as well answered by the exposure here given of the real workings of the machinery by which a new system of government was actually got up-some parts being fully as ludicrous as any thing which Cap

"Only fancy,' he continued, the ef fect which would be produced by exposing the Emperor and his family, in their imperial robes, to the incleniency of the weather, and covered with mud, dust, or rain! What fine fun would not all this be for the Pari

into ridicule, and who are accustomed to see Chéron at the Opera, and Talma at the Théâtre Français, play the Emperor a vast deal better than ever I can do!

"It has been proposed to have the ceremony in the Church of the Invalids, on account of the warlike associations connected with that institution, but the cathedral of

On the 14th July, 1790, when Louis XVI., the National Assembly, and the Deputies from all the Departments of France, were assembled to swear to the Constitution.

Trans.

"One of the members of the Council of the etiquettes of the new court were State still insisted that the Invalids' was the best place.

and duies, and the share which Bonaparte took in its deliberations.

The next portion of the work, which occupies fifteen very short chapters, consists of a number of lively pictures of some of the most important historical results of the day in which Bonaparte took a prominent part, from the expedition to Egypt to the invasion of France by the Allies. These notices bear strong internal evidence of that fidelity which belongs to sketches done on the spot, under the eye of a person well informed upon all the topics, and personally familiar with some of the most interesting of the series. To these we shall presently advert, in order to show how frequently Napoleon appears in them in his proper person.

The remaining portion of the work is occupied with discussions in the Council of State, and here we have the actual words spoken by Napoleon himself. This part consists of seventeen chapters, also most agreeably short, in which an immense variety of topics are touched upon, not in a hasty or careless manner, but in that sketchy "touch and go style which, on subjects so hackneyed, is almost the only one to be tolerated nowadays. We shall take a hint from our author, and without exhausting any thing, endeavour to give such an account of his book as may leave a just impression of its contents on the minds of our readers.

or

M. Pelet, in his preface, alludes to the multitude of writings, of all sorts and sizes, with which we have been inundated about Napoleon, and he remarks with truth, that by far the greater part of these make us acquainted with him merely in his capacity of a general. We have, it is true, a most interesting account of the share taken by Bonaparte in the formation of those celebrated codes, which are still in use in France. But the learned person to whom we are indebted for this report, laid down his pen whenever the discussion wandered from the topic in hand, and he resumed it only when Napoleon returned to the consideration of the code.

report his conversations on all sorts of subjects; but it must be recollected, that, though still alive, he had virtually become a member of posterity. He exhibited himself, therefore, as it were historically, in the manner he wished to appear in future times; and as it was clearly under this impression that he dictated his memoirs, it is impossible not to distrust the sincerity of his opinions.

"There is, I believe, only one writer, a distinguished member of the Council of Napoleon as he actually gave them utterance State, who has published the opinions of

in the Council, at the very moment of action, and while the business to which they related was going on. But that author ceased to be a member of the Council of State in 1803, and could not therefore continue his notes.

66

My purpose is to continue the work just alluded to, first, by help of memorandums, made up to 1806 by a hand in which I have perfect confidence, and afterwards by means of those taken by myself.

"At the enthusiastic age at which I be came a member of the Council of State (the author was then only nineteen years old!) I watched with avidity every word Napoleon let fall, and, as I recorded them at the moment, in the expectation of their proving of interest to posterity, I often thought how much we should now give to have such notices af Alexander the Great or of Julius Caesar! Posterity, indeed, in the case of Bonaparte, has come much sooner than I had expected; and I venture to present it with a document which will aid essentially in estimating the character of one of the most extraordinary men who has ever appeared on earth, and whose catastrophe and melancholy end have placed their seal on what was wonderful in his history.

"The observations of Napoleon, contained in the first part of this work, are reported in connexion with the narrative of the events to which they refer; but those in the second part consist exclusively of discussions which took place in the Council of State, all which will be found classed under the respective heads descriptive of the matters discussed." P. 2.

Napoleon, it appears, took the greatest pains in the formation of his Council, as it afforded him the only check on the errors or incapacity of his ministers. The despot, no doubt, pulled the strings by which the personages forming what was facetiously called the Government, were put in "The St Helena memorials, it is true, motion; and it is pleasant to have

Pelet says,

M.

Mons. Thibaudeau, author of a work called "Mémoires sur le Consulat," published in Paris in 1827, in 1 vol. 8vo. P.

such a peep as this book affords of the manner in which the director of the show fixed his pullies and arranged his wires, so as to be as little apparent to the spectators as might be. But it was still a point of the greatest consequence to Bonaparte to have the cleverest assistants, stage-managers, actors, orchestra, and so forth, in order to his being able to carry off the piece with any eclat.

"He called to his assistance, accordingly, all the best qualified persons he could find in every department of government, and whereever he could lay his hands upon them. In this manner, Merlin and Portalis were selected to assist in the business of legislation -Foureroy and Chaptal in science-Fleurieu in naval affairs, and Gouvion SaintCyr in those relating to military matters. Besides these, there were many others whose names are well known to the world. Having formed his Council, he divided it into sections, to each of which he referred the various projects proposed to him by his ministers to be separately considered. The same matters were afterwards discussed by the assembled Council, and generally in his

presence.

"The moment a new province was added to the empire, he sought out the cleverest

men with whom to enrich his Council. For

example, Genoa supplied him with Corvetto,

who became afterwards one of the ministers of Louis XVIII. Corsini came from Flo

rence, Saint-Marsan from Turin, and Appé

lius from Holland. All these were men so remarkable for talents, that, after the downfall of the empire, and their return home, they were appointed to high stations by their own sovereigns, in spite of any prejudices which their having served in France might have created against them."-P. 5.

We have then an account of the manner in which the Council did business, and of the prominent share Bonaparte took in the discussions. Business, however, appears to have proceeded but slowly when he presided, in consequence of the long digressions into which it was his imperial will and pleasure to wander. But he appears to have encouraged his counsellors to speak out; and he utterly banished all the eloquence and flourish of the tribune, and would permit nothing but facts and sense, delivered in the simplest style. "There was no method," says M. Pelet, "in that place, of concealing the want of ideas under the profusion of words; what was required was substantial matter, and a mind stored with facts." He adds

"It is needless to give in detail the functions of the Council of State, as the enume. ration would be tedious. It may suffice to mention, that they embraced every thing relating to the interior legislation of the coun. try. And here it is only fair to the Council to remark, that if Napoleon's faults referred chiefly to his foreign politics, and that his internal administration, generally speaking, was not only judicious, but, taken along with his codes, formed the most creditable and the most lasting portion of his reign, it must be admitted that a considerable portion of this merit belongs to the Council of State; and, accordingly, that body, which formed the only remaining guarantee in the country against an unlimited despotism, has deserved well of France."-P. 15.

M. Pelet has generally observed a very gentlemanlike discretion in speaking of his former master, and, without compromising his own principles, generally avoids giving his own opinion either upon the actions or the sentiments expressed by Napoleon. Heis aware, however, that, under all the circumstances, he will be expected to give the result of his observations on the extraordinary person whose character it is the purpose of his book to elucidate. The following passage, we are sure, will be read with interest, not only from the calmness and absence of party asperity with which it is written, but from the intrinsic value

which belongs to the testimony of an eyewitness of unimpeachable probity, who has enjoyed the highest advantages which station, talents, and habits of business can confer :

"It may be asked,' says M. Pelet, 'What impression will be produced on the reader's mind by the documents I here lay before him? What opinion will be formed of Napoleon and his system of administration by the observations made by him in the Council of State?' The reply is, that unquestionably the same opinion which the public have already formThey will reed will be thereby confirmed. cognise in Napoleon's character a mixture of impetuosity and trickery, half French half Italian, but in which impetuosity predominated; while it was modified by such a deit could not fail, on the one hand, to deaden cided bearing towards absolute power, that all the internal energies of his country, and, on the other, eventually to rouse foreign nations into resistance.-P. 17.

"Fortune, however, did not choose that the system should exist so long as himself, for, unlike Alexander and Cæsar, he outlived his power and his conquests. He lived to see France torn by internal dissensions

rical parts of this work, and select, without much regard to dates, or even to the order of importance, such passages as contribute to elucidate Bonaparte's character. It will be observed, that while in some of his remarks he shows great shrewdness, in others, he displays an extraordinary degree of flatness and poverty of conception. But it may be remarked, generally, that egotism and selfishness invariably predominate, and that we search in vain for a single generous sentiment, or even a strong expression, which has not for its object the advancement of his own personal ambition. He thinks, speaks, and acts solely for himself; and though he works with the most indefatigable industry in the public service, his exertions have all a direct and avowed, eventual, bearing on himself, and his own interests, or what he miscalled his glory.