Napoleon’s History of France. 
sented arms to the host. The ceremony 
was long and uninteresting, and desti- 
tate of every thing which conld properly 
impress the mind on so solemn an occa- 
MEMOIRS 
z : OF THE 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 
© DURING THE REIGN OF 
» NAPOLEON, 
Dictated by the Emperor at St. Helena, to the 
GENERALS WHO SHARED HIs CAPTIVITY ; 
mu And Pablished 
_ FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS 
Corrected by himself. 
DICTATED TO GENERAL GOURGAUD, 
His Aid-de-Camp. 
[Onur attention bas been ealled to two series 
of works, illnstrating the extraordinary 
eharacter and great deeds of Napoleon. 
By a false association, we, as well as 
_ others, Jong considered these books as 
\stratagems of the enemy, because they 
proceeded from a quarter which prac- 
ised but the other day on public gulli- 
bility in organizing an opposition to this 
miscellany, on the sole ground of its 
honest and accurate discrimination be- 
tween Napoleon and his rancorous ene- 
mies, Good, however, may come out 
of Nazareth, and in the present case it 
lias been well contrived, that more should 
be published from the quarters of the 
enemy than the friends of trath and 
justice dared to have promulgated with- 
out being brought before the tribunal 
of a special jury. ‘The volumes in question 
RBA at two series, the one published 
by Count Montholon, containing me- 
‘tmoirs of his public life, dictated at St. 
Hefena, by Napoleon himself,—a work, 
which will last as long as civilization ; 
and the otlier, of the curious journals of 
the private life and conversations of the 
illustrions victim of legitimacy, written 
by his secretary Count Las Cases. Both 
works great separate interest, 
aud’will break in upon the rest of most 
of their readers. They vindicate in the 
completest manner the policy and cha- 
racter of their hero, and prove the insi- 
ous power possessed by governments 
of making dupes of mankind. They 
jake us proud of many of our pages; 
while Napoleon himself admits that the 
affair of Spain was of so equivocal a 
character as to justify our feelings on 
that subject, and the clamours which it 
generally excited. ‘The issne proves, 
however, that it was no crime to rescue 
a nation from such a governor as Verdi- 
naud, The events of the next twenty 
years will be a farther commentary! Of 
Moatucy Mac. No. 391. 
609 
the illegal deportation and outrageous 
treatment of this truly great man, we 
have often expressed our abhorrence, 
and it is a stain on onr national character 
which all the waters of the ocean will 
not remove, and his death a legacy to 
its author and authors for which a 
hundred pen-knives such as that used at 
Foots’ Cray, will never atone. We hope 
the work is simultaneously published in 
various languages ; for the living genera- 
tions of Europe ought not to die in the 
delusions of which they have been made 
the victims, The only crime of Napo- 
leon which we can trace in these volumes 
was his extraordinary talents and industry, 
and the conscious ascendancy which he 
exerted over all his cotemporaries. This 
offence excited their envy and hatred, 
and hence the conspiracies organized 
against him, aud the implacable rancour 
of the feeble creatures whom he con- 
stantly eclipsed. The fall of Napoleon 
arose from tle error of all fortanate men, 
—too great confidence. Hence he drew 
off his forces from Spain to make a si- 
multaneous war for the restoration of 
Poland, by which he conferred a plansible 
repntation on the British commander in 
Spain ; and under the same feeling he di- 
vided his army in Flanders, and confided 
in traitors, through which, after a des- 
perate conflict with his left division, he 
was easily routed by Blucher. Again, 
whatever may have been his own liberal 
views, his government bore too military 
and arbitrary a character to be sup- 
ported or loved by the more enlightened 
population of France ; and these either 
opened their arms to the enemy, or were 
indifferent to their intrusion. Perfection, 
however, is not the lot of man. Napo- 
leon could have been, under all the cir- 
cumstances, no other than he was. Had 
the ferment of the revolution been 
tolerated, he would in three years have 
been its victim ; and on the other hand 
he was ultimately overthrown by dema- 
gognes whose ambition he had thwarted 
and overwhelmed ; for, without the acts 
of the Senate in 1814, and those of the 
Legislative Body in 1815, the invasions of 
foreigners, and the treacheries of Water- 
loo, neyer could have succeeded. J 
RETURN FROM EGYPT. 
On the 9th of October 1799, (16th of 
Vindemiaire, year VIIJ.), the frigates La 
Muiron and La Carrére, and the zebecks 
La Revanche and La Vortune, cast 
anchor, at the break of day, in the gulf 
of Frejus. 
No sooner were the French frigates 
recognised, than it was conjectured they 
came fiom Egypt. The people ran in 
41 crowds 
