1828.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



637 



duct of tho troops is " brilliant 1 ' and the 

 word is indeed used and used, till at last, in 

 the reader's mind, it comes to mean nothing 

 at all. 



Of incidental matters, indicating the 

 writer's feelings, it is scarcely worth while 

 to take notice yet some things are perhaps 

 sufficiently remarkable, particularly when 

 he designates the military expeditions of 

 this country, before that to the Peninsula, 

 as being "unprofitable in their objects, and 

 insignificant in the means." Again, in 

 respect to promotion in the army, under the 

 Duke of York's regulations which he de- 

 scribes as " rendered by him as equitable 

 as it can be, under a system which admits 

 of advancement by purchase." Considering 

 the quarter from which these remarks come, 

 they are worth remembering. Observe a 

 few sentences of a different cast. Speaking 

 of the French Revolution, he says, " The 

 sovereigns of Europe found it expedient to 

 oppose the progress of the French Revolu- 

 tion." " The Portuguese are high-spirited, 

 brave, and obedient." Of Saragoza "not 

 less gratifying to the lovers of freedom was 

 the defence," &c. Let not the reader mis- 

 take this phrase is used only with refer- 

 ence to independence of foreign control 

 to national freedom not constitutional 

 not political freedom. 



The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, by 



Wm. Hazlitt, 4 vols. 8vo.; 1828 For 



the aristocrat, and the would-be aristocrat 

 for the defender of ancient abuses, who will 

 yield to nothing but petty correctives for 

 the scoffer at political amendment, and the 

 palliator of public profligacy, Sir Walter 

 Scott's Life of Napoleon is upon the whole 

 so cleverly adapted, that none of them can 

 hope for another more suited to their wishes 

 it is so tender of sensitive kibes, that, 

 even when treading, as he often does, appa- 

 rently with great boldness, on forbidden 

 ground, you must feel the most perfect se- 

 curity there will be no real offence to the 

 powers that be. All his reprobation is re- 

 served for what is damned by all parties and 

 all classes, and utterly without redeeming 

 qualities ; and the whole is couched in a 

 style bespeaking so much good taste and 

 good society so flowing, and so agreeable 

 bedecked too, with a thousand similes, for 

 which even Moore might envy him, that 

 you naturally read it, as you read one of his 

 own historical novels, or any thing else of 

 unreal interest. 



Mr. Hazlitt, on the contrary, with the 

 most uncompromising contempt of all con- 

 ventional fastidiousness, and a perfect loath- 

 ing for the exclusions of the higher castes of 

 society thoroughly radical in sensation and 

 sentiment daunted at nothing thinks as 

 little of a king as of a beggar, and would 

 scarcely hesitate, perhaps, to affirm plebeian 

 blood to be of as bright a hue as the proud- 

 est patrician's. A government, with him, in 

 die most unsparing sense of the terms, exists 



solely for the benefit, not of a few domineer- 

 ing families and their adherents, but for the 

 protection of the whole community, great 

 ami small ; and, utterly without considera- 

 tion, as he is, for family dignities, he is as 

 likely to respect one who has them not, as 

 one who has ; and, with no toleration at all 

 for absurd privileges, as ready to laugh in 

 the face of hereditary wisdom as of hereditary 

 virtues. No, Mr. H. is all for the aris- 

 tocracy of virtue and talent ; and though the 

 whole world were convinced that not only 

 the political, but the moral worth of a king 

 and his nobles, immeasurably surpass that 

 of the whole mass of the millions below 

 them, he, without mincing the matter, 

 without the least effort to soften the un- 

 welcome truth to the great or the greatest, 

 would not hesitate one moment to express 

 his conviction, that all the virtues the heart 

 of man can conceive are with and almost 

 exclusively with the inferior classes. 



Filled with these singular sentiments, and 

 prompted to the most unflinching expres- 

 sion of them, he takes up the Life of Na- 

 poleon, which involves the History of the 

 French Revolution the crushingof the migh- 

 ty, and the lifting up of the humble and, 

 without ceremony, assigns the causes of that 

 explosion to the insolence and oppressions 

 of the great, and its atrocities to the un- 

 principled combination of foreign states ; 

 giving stubborn evidence as he goes along. 

 He hesitates not at stating what would 

 have shocked Sir Walter to credit for a 

 moment that England itself, though she 

 did not openly join the coalition of Pilnitz, 

 yet gave it her secret encouragement. By 

 the declaration of Mantua, which preceded 

 the wild and atrocious one of Pilnitz by 

 about a couple of months, and was signed 

 by the Count d'Artois, in conjunction with 

 the emperor of Germany, and king of Sar- 

 dinia, the king of England was to take an 

 active part, as elector of Hanover. Mr. H. 

 again hesitates as little, indirectly, to charge 

 the government of England with being 

 privy to attempts of assassination. Sir 

 Sydney Smith the hero of Acre was 

 spoken of by Bonaparte as crazy, and Mr. 

 H., apparently thinks the same ; and Count 

 Ferzen is unceremoniously described as the 

 " favoured lover of the queen of France." 

 Generally, perhaps, he is too peremptory in 

 assigning motives, and deciding question- 

 able points. 



Mr. H. proposes to comprise his Life of 

 Napoleon in four volumes, of which the two 

 now published bring the history down to 

 the Peace of Amiens. Events, as may be 

 supposed, are given accurately enough 

 Mr. H. is not likely to spare labour ; but we 

 have no space at present to go through them, 

 as we should like to do, with the view of 

 marking more specifically his sentiments as 

 they occur. As a narrative, it will not be 

 found, we imagine, so easy and graceful as Sir 

 Walter's nor so entertaining. Mr. II. lookj( 



