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generally the prevailing trait. She draws too, upon | Aprés avoir fatigué les cents bouches de la renomthe hoarded treasures of her personal experience; mée, cette femme, dont l'élève est anjourd'hui sur she looks backward on the starry happiness of her le trône de France, et qui joua un rôle si brilliant own youth; and, in gazing on vanished blessings, dans les plus grandes affaires de ce monde, nous the glass of memory always magnifies. Who can l'avons vue mourir sans que personne s'informât recollect and describe, without imparting to them comment ell était morte. Au contraire, ceux qui something of undue importance, those trivial details apprirent cette mort, s'étounérent de ce que Madame of hope and feeling, graven on the warm young de Genlis eût vécu si long-temps-85 ans !" heart, for weal or woe, in characters no after dis- And if no romantic, or excessive admiration be appointment can wholly efface? Ah! it is a holy left by perusing her writings, they bring us calmer gift, the mental power, to paint in another's exis- and more serious considerations of the aims and tence, the loveliest reality of our own, to revive employments of daily existence, and that actual, flowers that had "bloomed away," to recall stars reasonable view of all things in life, which time that had fallen, and to renew, in all their spiritual and the world are ever combining to teach us. beauty, the "dreams of youth, which had been She has given us precepts of purest principle, and dreamed out!" counsels which we can scarcely do better than to

“Klein erscheinet es nun, doch ach! nicht kleinlich dem follow; and if sometimes the truth be told rather Herzen ;

Macht die Liebe, jegliches Kleine doch gross!"

The least agreeable of Madame de Genlis' works, to a casual reader, are the volumes containing her essays on the employment of time. They are ably written, and interspersed with many passages betraying deep reflection and sound conclusions: but their style is a harsh one, and not calculated to convey a prepossessing idea of the author's disposition. A strangely misplaced vein of religious intolerance and prejudice runs through their pages, marring the effect of much that is otherwise admirable and highly conducive to improvement. She frequently wanders from her original subject to quote opinions or accusations, too insignificant to deserve the serious notice she bestows on them. and too easily refuted to merit so many words of warm discussion. She takes advantage of every opportunity to contrast the benefits of her own theories, with the defects of other systems; she scatters forth stern rebukes of wordly fashions, under the semblance of pious zeal,-probably upon the same principle which formerly prompted the Spaniards to name their most destructive cannon, after their favorite saints.

It has been asserted that Madame de Genlis was not destitute of the literary envy too common among those, who consider intellectual competition the chief aim of existence. It was said of her: "Ce fut la femme la plus tourmentée, et la plus malheureuse; jalouse de Voltaire, de J. J. Rousseau, de Mirabeau, de Madame de Sévigné, de Madame de Staël, de tout le monde." What an epitaph-And yet, we can forgive even this weak unhappiness, for her career, though long and restless, though full of much to excite and to satisfy, ended at last, in the most mournful of human destinies she lived to be forgotten. What volumes of sorrow are not contained in those few brief words!

too harshly, if we acknowledge that gentler advice and kinder correction would have been more welcome, still, her loftiness of intention amply compensate for any defect in manner and, while we censure, we turn self-condemned, from the idle severity of our own criticism. Her station must long be a conspicuous one among the most conscientious and prominent moralists of France, and the number of her works bear witness, that she accurately fulfilled, in her conduct, the strict maxims she has written, and completely attained the priceless knowledge she described, when she said, "connoître le prix du temps, c'est savoir vivre!"

NAPOLEON, WELLINGTON, &c. [This translation is from what is called the Feuille'on— literally, a little leaf of the Journal Des Débats. The Feuilliterature, to arts, and the sciences; and thus the everleton is a portion of the daily paper, that is devoted to lasting monotony of politics is relieved by these articles, generally instructive and amusing, and often, written by the ablest authors. There is a class of literary men attached to the daily press in Paris, who devote themselves to writing these articles; it is the business of their lives, and they are tolerably well paid for their labors. Their productions are read with great interest by every body; and they have great effect in favoring a taste for literature, and in spreading valuable information.

As a sample of them, we give the translation below, which is remarkable, not only for its tone and temper, as a French production, but for its profound, and frequently new views, and for its philosophical appreciation of the great events to which it relates, and of the men who led, or were led on by them.]-Ed. Sou. Lit. Mess.

FROM THE FRENCH.

History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of
France, from the year 1807 to the year 1814, by Lieut.
Col. Napier, translated into French by Lieut. General
Count Mathieu Dumas.

We have no complete and serious work upon that "Madame de Genlis ;" writes Jules Janin, "que long series of disasters, that wonderful combinade souvenirs évoque ce nom! Quel silence après tion of faults of every kind, which have acquired tant de bruit; quel oubli profond, immense éternel!'a celebrity so sad, and which are known by the

We are in possession, indeed of some hundred or, perhaps, thousand volumes upon the wars of Italy and Germany; why then, are we so poor in

title of the Peninsular War. That fatal war began months of 1814, when Napoleon renounced all preat the most splendid period of the government of tensions to Spain and set King Ferdinand at liberty, Napoleon, and, for a space of six years, held out while the Anglo-Portuguese army was marching to conquered Europe an encouragement and irre- upon Bordeaux and Toulon, we maintained still the sistible incitement to renew the combat; it deprived sad honor of occupying the strong places of Catathe French armies of their reputation of being in- lonia. vincible, which had not been contested-that war, which wore out, or brought into discredit, so many historical names; which reëstablished the influence of England upon the continent; which presented what concerns the wars of the Peninsula The to her officers and soldiers the most favorable field story of the victories of the Empire is read with of battle; which, in a word, saw arise from a des- enthusiasm. It would be unreasonable to demand perate struggle, what the enemies of France had the same enthusiasm for the history of its defeats. looked for for fifteen years, a fortunate and skilful There are lessons which can never become popugeneral; that war, which we may be permitted to lar, even among the greatest nations of the world; say, is not understood in France, since among so lessons which, besides, could not become popular many excellent military writers, no one has yet without wounding that patriotism of instinct and devoted to it his labors. Whoever wishes to study of sentiment, which is the patriotism of the mass. it, can look to but two sources of information; on It is necessary perhaps—and it is for those who one side the English and Spanish historians,-on understand and have practised the art of war to the other, the falsehoods, and often the silence of decide this question-that the simple soldier, to the imperial Moniteur.

whatever part of the world he be led, should be In 1826, was published a history of the war in convinced of his superiority, and accept, in advance, Spain by General Foy. There is in this book a Victory as an article of faith; but good sense celebrated and justly admired portion upon the teaches that the men to whom a country confides military organization of France and Great Britain; her purest blood, and who assume the responsibility but as a historical narration, the work has no value. to direct an army, cannot, but under penalty of the Did General Foy leave only some scattered notes greatest disasters, share this blind confidence. upon the events of the war, or did he in fact write Though our officers may have meditated twenty every thing published under his name? It matters years upon the battles of Austerlitz and Jena, will little. Should an affirmative reply to the second that instruct them how and why we were vanquished question be called forth, studious officers, historians at Salamanca and at Vittoria ? worthy of the name, would gain absolutely nothing. We might maintain, nevertheless, this stoical The narrative of General Foy comprises but the indifference, if the empire had conducted all its first three or four months of the war. This can- undertakings to a fortunate end. A complete sucnot be called a historical document. Two illus-cess on all important points, a perspective of such trious marshals have left behind them more impor- dazzling conquests, might excuse the omission of tant works. Unfortunately, these memoirs relate details. But when we reflect that the empire lost only to the operations of which the Eastern Pro- not only what it had conquered, but much more vinces of Spain were the theatre. Marshal St. than it had conquered; when we reflect that NaCyr and Marshal Suchet, have described their poleon, after having dissipated all the fruits of his campaigns in Catalonia, in Arragon, and in the victories, dissipated the inheritance transmitted to kingdom of Valencia. They have transmitted to him by the Republic as well as a portion of that us the fortunate events, the brilliant portion, of bequeathed by Louis XIV. ; that he exposed France this war. More unfortunate still, all this glory so twice to invasion; when we believe that great justly acquired, remained sterile. The great inte- effects are not without great causes; when we do rests engaged in the question had chosen another not make a god of chance, we are invincibly led to theatre. It is not then in the works of these two search in the disasters of the Empire for some pricelebrated men, that French officers will find useful mary cause of essential evil; for some absurd and lessons, and we should not fear to add, the most detestable principle which rendered its victories useful of all lessons to intelligent minds, that which useless, and its defeats irreparable. There, where is to be found in the history of the reverses and the first symptoms of decay manifest themselves; disasters of our country. there, where we discover the first obstacle, where The destinies of the Peninsula were not decided the superiority of fifteen years is first brought to in Catalonia, in Arragon, or in Valencia. It was an equipoise, there is the key of the problem. The in the three invasions of Portugal, in Andalusia, in day on which invasion is arrested; the day when Estremadura, in Castile; it was in Biscay and victory is disputed by an enemy, whoever he may Navarre, that the decisive blows were struck. If be, upon the field of battle, and upon which sucit were possible to question this truth for a moment, cess fails in the comprehensive plan of operations, it would be sufficient to observe, that in the fisrt that day signalizes an absolutely new period, and

the Empire is about to fall as rapidly as it rose. | then rose en masse, obeyed the inspirations of paThis first obstacle is the intervention of England triotism the most noble. As to their governments, in Spain, and in Portugal: the first day when suc- besides that they were, in some sort, borne along cess becomes dubious, and the forces are balanced, by the insurrectionary flood, and that they cared is the day upon which a pitched battle is fought little, at bottom, about theories concerning the just with the English army in line. That day, of and the unjust; in quitting the side of Napoleon, which little was said in the midst of the intoxica- they were convinced that they abandoned the tion of the Empire, was the more remarkable, weaker cause. Who will venture to say, that the since, during the Republican period, the English battle of Vittoria, which caused the irrevocable armies had always been unfortunate. At Tou- loss of Spain to Napoleon, which was fought on lon, the English were repulsed; in 1793-'94, at the 21st June 1813, a month after the victories of Hondschoote and at Turcoing, they were beaten; Lutzen and Bautzen, and at the moment when then came the disastrous retreat from Holland; peace was negotiating at the Congress of Prague, finally, in 1799, the invasion of the Helder by the who will venture to say, that this battle did not Duke of York, at the head of a formidable army, exert a disastrous influence upon the negotiations? was terminated, after two battles lost, by a capitu- The enemies and the doubtful allies of Napoleon lation in no small degree humiliating. Such was (in examining without prejudice the Imperial policy, the state of things, that the honorable and eloquent it will be seen that it could not have sincere allies writer under consideration, Lieutenant Colonel Na- and that it did not count upon them) had seen, for pier, declares in the first chapter of his book, that the space of five years, the gigantic power of Na"the idea, that, even during a single campaign, an poleon succumb before a national insurrection; they English army could contend with a French army, had seen the science of his marshals succumb was considered chimerical!" Nevertheless, com- before the sanguinary tactics and the imperturbable mencing with the battle of Vimiero, offered by the plans of an English general. On the one side conDuke of Abrantes to Sir Arthur Wellesley, fortune fidence was gone; the moral courage of the other changes, and the French armies experience re- was doubled. Every thing was changed, not only verses, only varied by rare and insignificant suc- in general ideas, but in their application, which is cess. The English historians present the follow-the most difficult of problems. The laws of ethics ing comparative observations, which are unfortu- determine promptly, whether a cause be good or nately just. After 1808, the Continental powers bad; but nevertheless the best and the worst causes are less disposed to be silent before the genius of are constrained to settle their differences upon a Napoleon. In the midst of their greatest disasters, they see a point d'appui; thenceforward, a menacing shadow projects itself over the triumphs of the French armies. While Napoleon enters Vienna in 1809, he loses, for the second time, Portugal; and King Joseph is reduced to the necessity of giving desperate battles at the gates of Madrid. The defeat of Talavera dimmed the brightness of the victory of Wagram. In 1811, Europe saw The reader will understand, that we do not prean entirely new spectacle-a French army com- tend, in this article, to convey to him any thing manded by one of the most celebrated of the Im-new. Several French writers-General Rogniat perial generals, obliged to retreat. In 1812, while among them,-struck with admiration of the high Napoleon is marching upon Smolensk, his lieu- talent displayed by Lord Wellington in the Penintenants lose the battle of Salamanca; and a few days sula, recommend military men to study most attenafter, Madrid. In 1813, in the midst of the vic- tively the campaign in Portugal,-but a few pages tories of Lutzen and of Bautzen, the battle of here, and a few lines there, comprise all that has Vittoria is lost, and some days after, Spain. The been said on this subject. A full work has not yet secret of many hesitations and many defections in appeared. It is very clear that the war in Russia the North, is doubtless to be found in the charita-in 1812 was, although on a different scale, a fac ble intention of some to enlarge and others to pre- simile of that in Portugal in 1810-'11. The means serve, by the support of the coalition, the advan- employed to defeat the French invasion of Portutages which they owed to Napoleon. But human gal were briefly these: to arm the entire people, actions are always strangely mixed with good and to avoid the chance of battle, save when occupyevil; and, after all, policy often obeys the calcula- ing positions of great strength, selected with the tions of the dryest and harshest good sense. The utmost care; to break up and make impracticable defection of the Prussian troops at the close of the public highways; to destroy the mills, lay 1812 is a dishonorable action; that of the Saxons waste the fields, and burn the villages. And, it upon the battle-field of Leipsick, is an infamous may be well imagined that neither the Regency at action. Nevertheless, the German people, who' Lisbon, nor the English minister, adopted these

field of battle and upon a given day; upon that day, it is simply the most skilful which triumphs. The wars of the Peninsula had given to the enemies of France not the desire to conquer Napoleon, about which he cared little, but the means of destroying his power; and it is one of the problems which history will have to examine, if it gave him sufficient anxiety.

measures very cheerfully. Colonel Napier gives | continent, people and kings, be prostrated! To some curious details in this respect. The Portu- yield thus blindly without having inflicted on guese government manifested the strongest opposi- your direst foe, even one of those wounds which tion to the plans of the English general, and up to the very last moment the English minister hesitated. At this period, Lord Wellington alone had confidence in his system; and he persisted in it.

continue for a long time to bleed, and which sometimes compensate for the miseries of defeat! To manifest to the government of the Republic only injury and contempt, and to lose the conquests As there is nothing new under the sun, it may which that government had bequeathed-to receive be that this mode of defence was well known to the from the Republic an army which had supported learned; unquestionably in the revolutionary wars, good and evil fortune, a double test which the Imit was adopted for the first time in 1810. After perial system could not undergo-to scatter the twenty other systems had utterly failed, this suc- remnants of twenty generations throughout every ceeded most completely, and the Russian govern- corner of the world, and without the apology which ment availed themselves of it in the campaign of the Republic had,-the preservation of the soil,1812. And it is likewise true, that it was the Em- to restore the monarchy of Louis XIV., and of peror alone, who treated that event as of little im- Charlemagne-and to lose Paris twice!-These portance. He neither changed his policy, nor his strategy; and while his enemies were studious to direct, upon entirely new principles, the moral and physical energies of the country, his object was to reach Moscow, to seek, at two hundred leagues from the base of his operations, a decisive victory, which should place the country at his command; which victory he did not find, any more than Marshal Massena found it in Portugal.

were the two modes of patriotism between which France had to choose when Europe shook off the torpor to which twenty-eight years of the wars of the Empire and the Republic had consigned her. The first is easy and convenient enough. It requires no great effort of the mind, no great lights; nothing can be simpler. Your victories are always the result of skill, your defeats of chance. It is the chapter of accidents. Thus, in Russia, the rigor of the climate was felt in November and December. Sometimes a river unluckily overflows, a

The history of the Empire is divided into two epochs, so perfectly distinct, (the one during which Napoleon conquered continental Europe, the other bridge is destroyed, or a General mistakes bis during which he lost it at the sword's point,) that orders. In this concatenation of ideas, they never there will exist for a long time in France, two opi- seem to suspect that chances are equally distributed nions diametrically opposed on the subject of these between two armies; that with the victorious, as ten years. The one confining its view entirely to well as the defeated army, some one has assuredly the beginning and the middle of this epoch, the failed in his duty; that orders have been bunglingly other looking exclusively to the close. The advo- executed, unforeseen obstacles have occurred; and cates of the one will console themselves for all yet, of the two armies, one will win and the other misfortunes, by the recollection of the victories lose the battle. No, they never think of this. which carried the French armies to Cadiz and to They go right on. There is nothing to be learned Moscow. But there they shut their eyes, there from success or defeat. Their's is the universal they finish their drama. They suppress the end. science. They can never err. Let what will beThe most yielding bow with an oriental respect to tide, begin again upon the simple calculation, that, chance. The others cannot pardon the heir of this time, chance will not interfere! The other the revolution, for the expense of such power, such species of patriotism holds France to be too great genius and such glory, only to raise a pedestal for a nation, too rich in every kind of glory to seek to Russia and England. They cannot pause before console herself in her reverses, by false excuses; the magical picture of the first years of the Empire, that she ought not to despise the policy of the without a deep sense of pain. What! invade wisest, most powerful and most skilful of the naRussia at the head of five hundred thousand war- tions of antiquity-that of never undertaking two riors, take Moscow, and eighteen months after, be important wars at one and the same time, and that unable to defend Paris! Eighteen months! Retro- the men who may be called on at this day to direct grade seven hundred leagues in eighteen months! her destinies should make their first study, the Advance in triumph to the gates of Cadiz and Lis- history of her misfortunes. bon, and all this, but to afford to the most ancient One thing which seems to keep up the fatal prefoe of France, the proud satisfaction of planting judice of which we have been speaking, is the great her flag at Bordeaux and Toulouse! Declare, in enthusiasm which foreigners have manifested for the name of the people of France, a war of exter-Napoleon since his fall, and especially since his mination with England, and fail in the struggle! death. Now, in this, there is without doubt a Pursue this war blindly without looking to a single true sense of admiration for genius, to whatever means that could insure success;-without attempt-country it belongs; but there is likewise the secret ing to acquire knowledge of the strength and enjoyment of the Conqueror, who is conscious of a weakness of the enemy, even should the whole zest in the generosity he displays. The English,

the Russians, the Germans and the Spaniards, ad- and the French colonies to boot. Sometimes he mire nothing so much in the career of Bonaparte permitted his temper to carry him so far as to inas his last campaigns. It is no very difficult task sult the man whom, in the last day of his power, to please these people. It suits them admirably to it was his fate to meet on the battle plain. It is say that Napoleon never exhibited more genius and well known that the editorials of the "Moniteur" invention, than in the battles which he lost, more were dictated or written under the superintendence science and precaution than in the expeditions of its master. On one occasion, the Moniteur, wherein he failed. Napoleon was himself some- descanting on the operations of the army of Spain, times generous, when he was a conqueror. If he pronounces the following: "It should be our wish gained a great battle, he would break out into mag- that Lord Wellington should command the Engnificent phrases. He bowed before his prisoners, lish army. Such a general must needs encounter and cried "honor to the unfortunate brave." The defeat." On another occasion we find this, “If bulletin of Austerlitz contains a complete eulogium ever there were an improvident general, it is surely of the Russian army. The reason is plain the Lord Wellington. If he be much longer in the army was beaten. But when Napoleon returned command of the English army, we may well hope alone from Moscow, see how he disposes of the to obtain the greatest advantages from the brilliant Russian generals and soldiers. Kutusoff is a Scy-combinations of a general so inexperienced in the thian-a barbarian. Admiral Tchitchikoff, who art of war." Those who believe in predestination, conducted the army from Moldavia even to Minsk, might write a fine treatise on these few words of and captured the French magazines, is neither the Moniteur; but on the whole, they had as well more nor less than a fool. This is the plain term decline doing so. Such passages require no comused, "This fool of an admiral." As to the soldiers-ment. “They are no longer the soldiers of Austerlitz." Thus, when they are beaten, they are admirable soldiers; when they are not beaten they are but so, so! Behold in this the manifestation of the great-tories and defeats, but they seem to us to have grossly ness and littleness of man; how the sublimest genius may sink itself beneath the intelligence of a child.

The apologists of the Imperial government have undertaken a noble task. They have desired to inspire France with a legitimate pride both in her vic

erred in the execution of it. The eternal honor of the French armies consists on the one hand, in this: that the absolute master of France imposed a labor There is one charge against the Imperial system, beyond man's power to accomplish; and on the which its admirers cannot repel. It is this that other, that to encounter a power guided by so false Napoleon imposed it upon himself as a law, to a principle, Europe was compelled to have recourse destroy the power of England, and yet it was ever to efforts heretofore unheard of,—we may say fabuthe least of his cares to study her character, go- lous: the word is strictly correct. The Empire vernment, aristocracy, system of war, tactics, and undertook, in ten years, to accomplish what the the organization of her armies. He had an Eng- Republic of Rome could not compass in three cenland of his own creation; and, without doubt, the turies, not to take into the calculation that the treviolence of his hatred perverted the correctness of mendous aristocracy of Rome possessed a political bis judgment. Declamations on " English perfidy" organization, an administrative science, and tactics have for a length of time been consigned to con- of war of which her enemies were utterly ignotempt; but this was the phrase for pompous ha- rant. That there were to be found in the ninerangues only—“Nation of Shopkeepers," was the teenth century, marked distinctions between the common-sense, every-day epithet. Yes, England nations of Europe, is certainly true; but if we exis a nation of shopkeepers; but she is also a nation amine closely, we shall find still stronger points of of agriculturists, soldiers and artizans. The com- resemblance. Human knowledge is spread every plaints of the opposition, the groans over the hor- where in very nearly equal proportions. There is rors of war, the petitions for peace; in one word, the no invention, which does not become at once pubimmense hurly-burly of extravagant opinions, which, lic property. There is no new idea, that, in the in England, are uttered with the utmost freedom, course of six months, may not belong to every were all received by Napoleon as sterling coin. government. The principles of strategy and tacIf a public meeting resolved on electoral reform; ties are universally the same. if a mob broke a minister's windows, the Emperor Let us be just to the government of the Repubwas fully persuaded that England was within an lic. In the midst of their greatest excesses, both ace of ruin. He regarded, with the utmost serious- the Convention and the Directory pursued a rational ness, the great farce which both parties enact in and a skilful policy abroad. The instant the occaopen parliament in every really free country. He sion offered, they lifted the burthen of the coalition was constantly looking for a whig ministry, and which weighed so heavily on France. They hasnever doubted that a new administration would, of tened to make peace with Spain and with Prussia. all things, be most eager to cede to him, by a single They sent forth the democratic propaganda wheredash of the pen, Holland, Germany, Spain, Italy, ever it was possible, and wherever it had a chance

VOL. VIII-76

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