The remainder of the note, which is full of invectives against the constitution, was received with indignation, not unfrequently interrupted by strong expressions of contempt.

"But all the rage of the Cortes, or rather I might say of the general assembly, (for the spectators in the gallery seemed to form an integral part of the meeting,) all the rage of this anxious assembly appeared to be reserved for the Russian communication. The sentence commencing the second paragraph, When in the month of March, 1820, some perjured soldiers turned their arms against their sovereign and their country,' &c. was frequently interrupted by murmurs from the galleries and the deputies; and, amidst these, the former exclaimed more than once, Abaxo el Tirano! (Down with the Tyrant!) uttered with a fierceness of tone peculiarly Spa

nish.

"During the time the minister was reading this paper, the agitation among the deputies was extreme, some turning from one side to the other, as in a state of painful suffering-some raising their hands in astonishment some looking intently on the minister, their faces fired with vengeance, &c.

"It was observable that frequently the deputies fixed their eyes attentively upon the ambassador's tribune, in which Sir William A'Court and several English gentlemen were seated. When, in the notes, a sentence of peculiar despotisin was read, many an eye was raised to that box, to read the impression which it made there. Sir William A'Court's countenance gave them neither hope nor despair, but several of his countrymen took no pains to restrain the abhorrence, which these documents must ever excite in the breasts of men who know what freedom is. These expressions of sympathy were anxiously looked for by the deputies, and afforded them evidently great satisfaction. They remarked upon them, one to the other, and occasionally smiled.

"San Miguel concluded with reading the copy of a circular note, which was to be sent to the Spanish ministers at each of the three northern courts; and in which it was stated, that the dispatches transmitted by those courts were so full of distorted facts, injurious suppositions, unjust and calumnious criminations, and vague demands, that they required no formal answer; but that the government would take a more convenient opportunity for publishing to the nation its sentiments, principles, and resolutions.

"As soon as the reading of these documents was over, the President of Cortes said, The Cortes have heard the communication which the government of his Majesty has just made. Faithful to their oath, and worthy of the people whom they repre

sent, they will not permit that any alterations or modifications shall be made in the constitution by which they exist, except by the will of the nation, and in the manner which the laws prescribe. The Cortes will give to the government of his Majesty every means for repelling the aggression of thos 3 powers who may dare to attack the liberty, the independence, and the glory of the heroic Spanish nation, and the dignity and splendour of the King's constitutional throne.'

"This well-timed reply was received with a peal of vivas that lasted for several minutes. The deputies all rose in a confused manner, and shouted Viva la Constitution! Viva la soberania national!' in which they were enthusiastically joined by the people in the galleries."

The effect of these discussions upon the populace is characteristically told.

"The following day, a detailed account of the debates, and copies of the notes and answers, were published in the principal journals. From an early hour of the morning, the offices of the Universal and Espectador, and the streets leading to them, were crowded with applicants for papers. During the whole day the demand was so great, that it was impossible to satisfy it ; but a plan was adopted which in some measure compensated for this defect. When a lucky patriot succeeded in getting a paper, he posted to the Puerta del Sol, or the arcades of the post-office, and here, as soon as he produced his prize, a crowd collected round him, and he read aloud the whole of the journal, from the beginning to the end. The remarks which the listeners occasionally made were short and pithy. Hear,' said one, hear the Prussian King, who once promised a constitution to his own subjects.' And who never gave it,' added another. Only observe how tender he is of the Catholic Church, himself a heretic. This caused a laugh. Now for the Russian bear,' remarked another.-' Down with the parricidal race! Down with the tyrant!' they said, as the reader proceeded."

་

The debate on the message is then detailed with passing indications of the character and manner of the chief speakers. Saavedra, young, poetical, fluent, and enthusiastic-Canga, old, eloquent, learned, and wise-Galiano, metaphorical, spirited, and full of picturesque gesture-Arguelles, par excellence the Orator, argumentative, vivid, bold, and rapid in his transitions from reasoning to irresistible appeals to the heart. While he spoke, every one of the deputies appeared to be entranced by his eloquence; and when

he concluded, there was a general look up to the ambassador's tribune, to see what effect it produced there. He spoke for an hour and ten minutes; and when he first rose, often during his speech, and when he sat down, he was cheered by the populace, and even by the deputies, in the most lively and affectionate manner.

After all, these men deserve a better fate than to be the slaves of the Bourbons and the Inquisition. Their first experiment has been crude, and it deserved to fail. But honest lovers of monarchy may join in the wish that the Spaniard shall be a man yet."

The volume closes with some general views of the arts, amusements, habits, and costume of the people. These

notices are drawn up with grace and intelligence. The writer followed the King to Seville, and a curious account of the royal progress and reception is given. The course of the magnificent Guadalquivir, and Cadiz, are touched upon, which, with the writer's return through the French army, then marching on Madrid, make up a narrative of peculiar interest at the present time; and for its general manliness and simplicity, its truth-telling spirit, and its clearness of political view, it is unquestionably a safer guide to the feelings of the Spanish people, as well as a more honourable testimony to individual authorship, than any work that has hitherto appeared on the Peninsular Revolution.

LAS CASES is a well-meaning, easy, silly, old gentleman, whom we really like, in spite of all the lies with which his volumes are crammed. Indeed he seems himself de bonne foi, literally believes all the nonsense dictated to him, and has just the credulous and obsequious swallow necessary for a follower of Napoleon. There could be no work which we would have been more glad to possess, than the one which this pretends to be-a Journal of Napoleon's free and unmade-up conversations. But, first of all, when the Ex-Emperor knew that M. Las Cases was taking down every word that dropt from his mouth, that the Docteur O'Meara was doing the same, and every one else that came near him, we may conceive how naturally, how much without a motive he spoke, and how much the detail of these theatrical conversations unmasks him. In fact, the great man seems to have been kept at St Helena in a continual state of pleading-no matter what he was doing, what time of the day, dined or undined, in bed or in bath, there were ever his eternal companions, the Grand Marechal, or Count this, or Count that, with pencil and ass-skin, ready to note down his crudities. And had they kept him at it, (for at times we have whole continued pages of his pleading,) how faithfully reported by Las Cases, who never, perhaps, belonged to the "glorious company," we leave that learned body to determine. Nay, so impartial an account is this of

*

Napoleon's private life and conversations, that it was afterwards overlooked and revised by the Emperor's self, lest anything unfavourable but true should have escaped the pen of the officious, but not over-prudent, jackall.

In the minor details, we dare say the volumes are correct. We have no doubt that the Emperor tore his stocking, put on clean ones, coughed so many times a-day, and burnt his coxendix with his bath-spout. Nay, we will go farther, and believe, with the Count de Las Cases, that he was a good-natured, amiable man in his interior, and, like Sir Anthony, "the easiest man led in the world, when he had his own way." His pulling the ears of all his household, as was his custom, we believe a joke; nay, more, or, as Las Cases calls it, a tendresse, though, for ourselves, we should have dispensed with it. That he pulled the Pope by his grey locks (if old Chiaramonte had a single lock about his tonsure,) around the Corridores of Fontainbleau, is another story not to be swallowed. And, by the by, it is to be remarked, that all these calumnies were not propagated by the English ministry, as Buonaparte himself always said; but, from Las Cases' own admission, they were fabricated by those around his person; so that even his counsellor of state, poor Las Cases himself, had acquired a false and horrible idea of the Emperor. Whatever Napoleon's own counsellor of state may have credited, we certainly do not

believe that he lived in incest with his own sister:-the murder of D'Enghien, the massacre of prisoners, and poisoning of the sick at Jaffa, with respect to which he sought to brave public opinion, much more than to plead excuses before it, are sufficient, and strongly enough attested, to blast his moral character in public acts.

on.

In private life, we think him to have been amiable. Passion of any kind he had none all his scoldings and talking big to his Marshals and lacqueys, were, by his own confession, put An hundred times in Las Cases, we hear him confess that all his bursts of passion were pretended, and calculated for a purpose. No doubt those towards Sir Hudson Lowe were as real, and with as much calculation called forth. Passion, indeed!-What business had he ever to be in one?-the luckiest dog in Christendom, and out of it-that ran the most glorious career that ever modern ran, and was set down with nothing to trouble him, in good dry lodgings for the rest of his days, to write his Memoirs, and pinch the lugs of Counts and Marshals. Besides, physically, how could he be passionate a fellow without an ounce of bile in his composition, so snugly larded upon the ribs, that he never once felt his heart beat, as he confessed to Las Cases, nor ever experienced pain either in head or stomach? No-he had not even the excuse of hasty temper for one of his crimes, to save his morality, nor yet the same excuse for one of his blunders, to save his character for talent.

The most, indeed the only interesting parts of these volumes, are those dictated by Napoleon himself, giving an account of the battles of Ariole, Rivoli, and that period of his Italian campaigns; as also the anecdotes and remarks on the leading characters of the revolution and consulate. The character of Sieyes is finely developed; and mostly all his Marshals are portrayed in lively traits; his hatred of Moreau and Bernadotte is undisguised; he cannot allow them even talent. Nothing surprises one so much in Napoleon, as the total want of liberality towards his enemies. We look for something above envy and petty passions in a being whom his own genius certainly had placed on such an unparalleled eminence. Even of his own generals, those who had acquired fame as tacticians, he never would allow their

merit-Massena, his fils cheri de la vic toire, he speaks slightingly of in these volumes-Soult, he says, would make merely a good ordonnateur, a proper minister at war-Moreau and Bernadotte we have already mentioned. But with respect to his enemies, to those who foiled and conquered him, nothing can equal his spite and malice. His pleading against the Duke of Wellington for winning the battle of Waterloo, is very serious, and most ridiculous; and his exposure of the faults of the English general, shews only with what odds of fortune against Wellington he yet contrived to beat the Emperor. The first gravamen of Napoleon is, that the Duke was surprised in his intrenchments the more wonderful and praiseworthy, then, the talent that could change a surprise into a victory. But whose fault was it, that Wellington was surprised? Buonaparte can answer, that it was that of the Prince of Saxe-Weimar," who, if he had sent an aid-de-camp direct to Brussels, he would have arrived there, with news of Napoleon's approach, at six in the evening, whereas it was not till eleven that his approach was known to Wellington." His next complaint against the Duke is, the arrangement of forces, and the want of artillery or cavalry among the English at Quatre Bras. To this we may oppose Napoleon's own words:-" Ney received orders on the 16th to advance with the 43,000 men which he commanded, forming the left wing of the army, before Quatre Bras, and there take up his position, &c. The Prince of Orange, with only 9000 men, preserved this important position against Ney till three in the afternoon." This, from Buonaparte's own mouth, shews that the Duke knew his men, and what they could effect; 9000 of them, headed by the young Prince of Orange, against 43,000, led by the veteran Ney. The next accusation of Napoleon against the Duke of Wellington commences thus :-" The English general gave us battle at Waterloo on the 18th. This act was contrary to the interests of his nation," &c. &c. We believe that this article of impeachment needs no very elaborate answer. But what ought the English general to have done, in the opinion of the Emperor Napoleon ?-Hear it, good Momus, if thou knowest the French dialect, for we should be ashamed to put such stuff into English.

"On demandera que devait donc faire

le general Anglais après la bataille de Ligny, et le combat de Quatre Bras? La posterité n'aura pas deux opinions: il devait traverser, dans la nuit du 17 au 18, la forêt de Soignes, sur la chaussée de Charleroi; l'armée Prussienne la devait également traverser sur la chausée de Wavres ; les deux armées se reunir a la pointe du jour, sur Bruxelles; laisser des arrièregardes pour défendre la forêt; gagner quelques jours pour donner le temps aux Prussiens, dispersés par la bataille de Ligny, de rejoindre leur armée, se renforcer de quatorze régimens Anglais, qui étaient en garnison dans les places fortes de la Belgique, on venaient de debarquer á Osténde, de retour d'Amerique, et laisser mancuvrer l'Empereur des Français comme il aurait voulu."

The plain English of which is, that the Duke of Wellington was, in duty and propriety, bound to run away through Brussels on the night of the 17th, and "leave the Emperor of the French to manoeuvre as he pleased." We think this is quite sample enough of his pleading and liberality.

Esteeming Napoleon, as we do, one of the first characters of modern times, one is indignant at meeting these pages of spite, ignorance, and absurdity, as coming from his pen, or even as slipping from him in intemperate moments. The only refuge for the great man's character is, in doubting the veracity of M.de Las Cases; and there are proofs scattered through the volumes to shew that that egregious blockhead has palmed no small portion of his own precious compositions on us for the genuine produce of the imperial head. One thing, at any rate, is pretty evident, that all those profound disquisitions on geography and topography, put by Las Cases into the mouth of Napoleon, came from the same source as Mon Atlas Historique-some Turner's Geography of an affair, by which, it seems, the noble Count de Las Cases made his fortune. How can any one for a moment suppose that Napoleon, in St Helena, would seriously sit down to dictate to any one a geographical account of such a well-known country as Italy?-what Las Cases calls un très-bien morceau de geographie politique:" and that this beautiful morceau should be nothing more than what is to be found in every child's "Geography, made Easy for the use of Schools. -e. g.

"Italy is one of the finest parts of the globe. It is a peninsula, surrounded on the

east, south, and west, by the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. On the side of the Continent, it is bounded by the chains of the Alps," &c. &c.

Pretty information this of the Emperor Napoleon's, for us to be paying our half-guinea a volume for. But the fact is, Napoleon never wrote or dictated one line of such nonsense. And, in proof, just read the following sentence:

"De l'autre côté, le Saint-Gothard est plus haut que le Simplon ; le Simplon plus haut que le Saint Bernard; le Saint Bernard plus haut que le Mont-Cenis; le Mont Cenis que le Col de Tende.”—Las Cases. Journal, Tom. 3. Sixieme Partie.

Why, the blockhead! we did not think there was a man in Europe, who did not know, that the St Bernard, instead of being, as here represented, lower than the Simplon, was nearly double its height. Napoleon, who had crossed both, and had run his road over the Simplon as the lowest and most feasible of the two, could never have uttered such ignorance. And the Count de Las Cases to write this!—a counsellor of state! one that went on missions to Illyria! a geographer-go to! and the immortal author of the never-to-be-enough-lauded, but never-once-heard-of Atlas Historique!· "If you find as much brains in his head as would clog the foot of a flea, we'll eat the rest of the anatomy.”

There is another sentence of Bonaparte's pleadings, which we will quote, and leave to our readers to judge, whe ther it was written before or after the death of the unfortunate Lord Londonderry, and the accession to the ministry of Mr Canning, which will decide whether it be Napoleon's, as asserted, or Las Cases's.

"Le ministre Castlereagh passera, et celui qui lui succédera, heritier de tant de fautes, deviendra grand, s'il veut seulement ne pas les continuer. Tout son genie peut se borner uniquement à laisser faire, à obéir Castlereagh, il n'a qu'à se mettre à la tête aux vents qui soufflent; au rebours de des idées libérales, au lieu de se liguer avec le pouvoir absolu, et il recueillera les bénédictions universelles, et tous lest torts de l'Angleterre seront oubliés."

But the most notable humbug of all, is the pretence of the Ex-Emperor and his suite to literary taste. They talk of reading Homer to amuse themselves of evenings; to be sure, they read the "Charlemagne" of Lucien Bonaparte with it, comparing the two epic

writers-which is like them, and argues something of truth. But what Homer, we marvel much, did these gentlemen read? Not the Greek, we may be sworn; a language, of which the most learned of their nation are in general ignorant. French translation there is none at all tolerable at least none, calculated to call forth the eneomiums of these gentlemen-they patronize Homer, as some one said Lord Bolingbroke patronized Providence. Perhaps they read him in the version of Cesarotti, in whose Ossian Napoleon had been once so wrapt; but Cesarotti's Homer is as bad as his Ossian is good; he translated the former to depreciate him, so that, even in this best of accessible Homers, they could have but a poor taste of the great original. Mind Las Cases, however he never once mentions a translation-he would have us suppose that he and the Emperor amused themselves in the evenings reading Greek. What a quiz! We verily believe, even the translation, prose for verse, was brought forward but to look learned in a paragraph of Las Cases' Journal, and to astonish the old grognards with the deep learning they little suspected in their old general. His studies on board the frigate which conveyed him clandestine ly from Egypt, were more characteris

tic.

"He spent the greater part of the day," says Ganthaume, "shut up in his chamber, reading one time the Bible, at another the Alcoran." The Emperor's dictatorial criticisms on Corneille, Racine, and the poets of his own country, are in the true commonplace style of the French, and worthy of that most common-place of our critics, whom the French admire so much, Dr Blair. Of his general taste, too, there are samples in this work. Hear him, after declaring that his soul was oriental, that he loved the desert, and gloried that his name signified the Lion of the Desert-listen to this hero of the oriental soul describing the impression made upon him by those grandest objects in the range of antiquity and man's creation;

"At dinner, the Emperor said many curious things respecting Egypt. He found, he said, that all which he had seen in Egypt, especially those so celebrated and so vaunted ruins, could never stand in comparison with Paris and the Thuilleries, or give an idea of them." Journal, Tome 3. Sixieme

Partie. P. 235.

So much for his taste.

A vast deal of noise has been made respecting the mal-treatment of Napoleon. The Quarterly has given its opinion on the subject; now it is ours, that a great deal of needless annoyance was heaped upon Napoleon. The order from the Home Department to take away his sword, was ungenerous; and it would, no doubt, have been put into strict execution had Sir Hudson Lowe then been in command. 'Twas doubly wrong to place the Emperor first in the hands of so amiable and deferent a gentleman as the Admiral, and then transfer him into the hands of Sir Hudson: it was the change, the continual changes and increase of petty vexations, that embittered his existence. If the utmost severity had been adopted at first, and adhered to, it would have been something. No affair could have been worse managed, with due deference to Lord Bathurst; the instructions were mean and uncertain, changing by every dispatch-all those employed were unfit, from the fine, blunt seaman, first employed, to the sensitive, nervous, irresolute, and ill-looking gentleman last in command. Every military man in the island murmured at the treatment of Napoleon; and the Quarterly Review knows well they did. As to O'Meara, the unprincipled blockhead is not worth attending to-read but his letter to Lord Keith, refusing to serve as surgeon to Napoleon, unless as a British officer, under British control, and to be considered in nowise belonging to Napoleon; and then read his answer to Napoleon, on being asked whose servant he thought himself. The man who could publish such a book must have deemed the people of England strangely inapprehensive of truth and falsehood. But put O'Meara out of the question; the undenied facts are enough

it was beneath the dignity of the British nation to tell Napoleon she limited him to a bottle of wine per day, thus denying him in exile even the solace of intoxication. His extravagant wearing of one shirt a-day was also a Joseph Hume, than by a general offisubject more worthy to be handled by cer of his Majesty's forces. And we must say, that Sir Hudson's late step of transmitting to Las Cases extracts from O'Meara's letters, in which he happened to speak ill of Las Cases, for the mere and mean end of creating a