466 Count de Segur. 



THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PHILIPPE 

 COUNT DE SEGUR. 



THE history of Napoleon's Russian campaign, on which Count Segur's 

 literary reputation is chiefly founded, is rather an historical romance 

 than a history ; and it would be unjust to class it with such works as 

 those of Barante, Thierry, Guizot and Sismondi. So strongly indeed 

 does this work partake of the character of romance, that it needs only 

 the interweaving of a love-story CL la Bulwer or & la Walter Scott to 



five it a claim toa place beside the volumes of the author of Waverley. 

 ti the sequel we shall advance some reasons for the opinion which is 

 here ventured concerning the literary merits of M. de Segur. We 

 shall premise a few brief details respecting his history. 



The Counts de Segur have maintained a certain celebrity in France 

 during the two last centuries ; so that it seems necessary to say some- 

 thing respecting them of the olden time, before we proceed to the 

 subject of this Memoir. The first Segur, whom history mentions 

 with praise, lived in the reigns of Louis XIV. and XV. : he was 

 lieutenant-general in 1742, and distinguished himself in Germany. 

 At the battle of Lawfeld in 1747, in which the French under the 

 command of Marshal Saxe gained a victory over the English, he 

 was also fortunate in winning the eulogies of his comrades. His son, 

 Philippe Henri, Marquis de Segur and Marshal of France, achieved 

 great things at Rocoux, where he was dangerously wounded, whilst 

 leading on his men against the English. Although he was shot in 

 the breast, and long in imminent danger, he recovered soon enough 

 to be present the following year at Lawfeld, where he had his arm 

 shattered in the commencement of the action : notwithstanding his 

 wound he remained in the field and greatly contributed by his gallant 

 conduct to the success of the French in that battle which was so 

 disastrous to the English. The king remarked on this occasion to 

 his father : ' Des hommes tels que lul devroient dtre invulnerables .' 

 Philippe de Segur continued in active and successful service till 1781, 

 when Louis XVI., by way of acknowledgment for the signal benefits 

 that his military talents had conferred on France, appointed him 

 Minister of War, in which situation he was enabled to serve his 

 country by introducing a salutary reform, both as respects discipline 

 and expenditure, into this branch of public administration. One act, 

 however, sullied his glory : he was the author of that fatal ordonnance 

 which appropriated all military commissions to the nobility exclu- 

 sively, of that ordonnance which partly gave rise to the troubles of 

 the revolution and produced the most dire consequences long after 

 the commencement of the struggle. The nobles in command went 

 over to t the enemy and abandoned their troops, which, now without a 

 leader, would have been scattered and annihilated by the enemies of 

 the Republic, if there had not sprung, by magic as it were, from the 

 ranks of the despised people a crowd of generals and officers, who 

 showed the astonished chivalry of Europe, that they who directed a 



