412 

 MURAT ON AMERICA. * 



THE volume before us affords some evidence of that variety of 

 fortune which, since the fall of their chief, has befallen the Buonaparte 

 family. While the ex-king of Spain has been living in one part of 

 America, in the midst of wealth and profusion, the Prince- Royal of the 

 Two Sicilies, after an unsuccessful attempt to establish himself as 

 a farmer in Florida, and after measuring his strength at the bar with 

 " brother Jonathan," has been compelled to seek his living as a soldier 

 of fortune, first in the service of King Leopold, of Belgium, and since 

 in that of the young Queen of Portugal. 



The letters, of which the volume consists, are addressed to the 

 author's friend, Count Thibeaudan, and are dated some of them from 

 his farm in Florida, some from his subsequent place of residence at 

 Lipona, one or two from London, and the rest from Brussels. In 

 returning to Europe, soon after the French revolution, he tells us that 

 he expected to find the frontier open to him, and that having been dis- 

 appointed in that expectation, he was compelled to seek employment in 

 a neighbouring state. His previous changes are thus alluded to in his 

 first letter from Brussels : 



" My life has been greatly agitated. Chance has placed me in 

 many singular positions, many of them contradictory to each other. I 

 have always obeyed her dictates, curious to see where the stream would 

 lead me on which I had embarked ; and, in faith, I have never found 

 myself far astray. I have gathered flowers on the banks to which I 

 have been carried, without knowing well how, and the shore which I 

 expected to find the most barren, has often proved the most fruitful in 

 agreeable sensations. Established in a new country, like that I have 

 described, a reverse of fortune placed my finances in a situation of em- 

 barrassment. At the age of six and twenty I resolved on becoming an 

 advocate. I purchased from one of my neighbours, who was leaving 

 off practice, his professional library, for which I gave him a pair 

 of oxen, and a bill of exchange payable at a distant date. During the 

 following winter I applied myself to the study of law, without, however, 

 abandoning my plantation till the spring, when I finally withdrew from 

 the business of farming." 



The change here spoken of is trifling to that which he elsewhere 

 describes of a New England carpenter, who, like the Americans 

 in general, had been well educated, but who, had he remained at home, 

 would probably have been a carpenter for life. This person left his 

 native town, and went to one of the new countries of the West, 

 to establish himself on the banks of one of their great rivers as a 

 builder. Although without capital, he found no difficulty in contracting 

 for the erection first of private houses, and afterwards of public edifices, 

 on credit. His workmen were paid on credit, and he himself lived on 

 credit at his inn or boarding-house. In spite of these disadvantages the 



* Esquisse Morale et Politique des Etats-Unis de TAmerique du Nord, par 

 Achille Murat, Citoyen des Etats-Unis, Colonel Honoraire dans 1'Annee 

 Beige ; ci-devant Prince Royal des Deux Sicilies. Paris, Crochard, 1832. 



