fiuht > He conquered them ns well in valour as in faga- 
city. Could they ntiflead, and wear the malic of hypo- 
crify ? Even in this they were not his equals Still his 
mighty mind gave public proofs of the warnings and the 
impulfes it received from truth ; to the man oi difcrimi- 
nation, there are paffiiges in his (late papers that (how 
with what force it (truck him ; and prove his momentary 
grandeur of thought. To this hour, changed as he gra. 
dually has been," and loaded as his horizon is with the 
clouds of fplenetic ambition, it neverthelefs occa (tonally 
emits a luminous beam. But the mod fatal of all the cir- 
cumffances which have unfitted him for the talk lie has 
afl'umed to himfelf, which is no lefs than that cf govern¬ 
ing Europe, is, that he has been habituated to the com¬ 
mand of armies. 
“ To move a multitude, fo that fome great end may 
be achieved, it is neceffary that not a man among them, 
the commander excepted, (hould have any will, any power 
of confideration, any impulfe or motion, but that which 
he receives. Experience having proved, to the chief, that 
he is capable of fo effectually directing fuch a mafs, as 
that mankind have repeatedly regarded with adonifliment 
the combinations of the individual which have produced 
thefe wonders, he entertains in himfelf no doubt of his 
decided fuperiority to all other men : he conceives him¬ 
felf to be little lefs than infallible, holds his own views and 
opinions in veneration, and cheridies the rapturous vifion 
of giving the word of command to dates, and of exciting 
amazement dill much greater throughout the world. 
While thus he dreams, nothing is more eafy than the 
imaginary reforms he is to effeCt; nothing more (imple 
than the means; nothing more wonderful than that they 
have not been effeCted long before. 
“ Accudomed to gain the granded advantages by fe- 
crecy of plan, celerity of aCticn, and thofe dratagems 
that bed can made and midead, the fame habits remain, 
and the fame means are adopted, when the conqueror 
feizes on the rule of dates, as when he fends forth his co¬ 
horts to the plunder of cities, and the capture of pro¬ 
vinces. He alone mud projeCt; he alone mud command ; 
reward and p.unifliment mud be at his foie difpofal : no 
community, no (ingle creature, mud aCt but as he wdlls. 
That to make his will known isimpodible, that it varies 
in himfelf from day to day, that men cannot refign their 
intellect:, cannot refid the impulfes of habits and the de- 
cidons of the judgment, and that the talk of regulating 
the actions of millions by the will of an individual, is the 
mod extravagant and abfurd of attempts, are truths of 
which he has no knowledge, or has lod all recollection of 
them. Memory cannot conjure up, nor can fagacity divine, 
all the difadvantageous propendties, which the chief con- 
ful brought with him into office : thefe have been fo ag¬ 
gravated, by circumdances which he did not forefee, 
by difficulties abroad, and the mafs of refidance which he 
had a (lured himfelf he (hould find fo feeble, that they 
fixed in his mind evil habits of fuch force and peculiarity, 
that they are beyond the hope of cure. 
“ To the injudice and cruelty of his conduCt at Jaffa, 
(fee the article Egypt, vol. vi. p. 33:,) we will add 
only one example more. When Bonaparte fird came to 
Milan, profeffing himfelf the deliverer of a once great 
people, but now and long fince miferably enchained by 
priedcraft and petty defpotifm, thofe who earnedly de- 
dred the emancipation and the happinefs of their country, 
received him with open arms. One of them, a Milanele 
nobleman of great influence, devoted his whole means 
and power to the caufe which he fuppofed the French 
fince'rely intended to promote; and for that purpofe gave 
his utmofl aid to Bonaparte, by whom he was then treated 
with the mod flattering attention. This nobleman had none 
but virtuous motives for his conduct; and he was too foon 
convinced that it was not for the caufe of freedom, which 
Bonaparte and the armies of France fought : the avarice 
of individuals, the plunder of rich and poor, and the 
word of motives, which lelfifhnefs, egotifm, and national 
Vol. VII. No. 477- 
vanity, could infpire, were daily more and more apparent. 
Afrer fome reverfes which the French army fudained in 
Italy, Bonaparte came again to Milan ; and the indignant 
patriot, indead of promoting the views of the conqueror 
as before, openly upbraided him with his want of good 
faith, his total dereliction from the caufe of freedom, and 
with the atrocities committed or countenanced by him. 
The affront was unpardonable : to reprove a man w ho had 
armies at his command, though it (howed a noble and a 
virtuous fortitude, the loyal Mihmefe foon found was a 
fatal dep : Bonaparte can fed him to be feized, put him 
under a guard, and fent accufations of him to the direc¬ 
tory, accompanied by pretended proofs that he was a 
traitor to freedom and to France. The end of this tra¬ 
gedy was the death of the Italian: he was (hot; and the 
padions of his enemy were fhewn to be dangerous to the 
prefent, and ominous to the future. This account I had 
from a man of rank and honour, an Italian, who allured 
me he abfolutely knew all that he had related to be true. 
“ I have feveral times,” fays Mr. Ilolcroft, “ been 
clofe to Napoleon ; his dature is diminutive, his com¬ 
plexion fallow, and his phyfiognomy bears thofe marks 
that denote the labours of his mind : it is care-worn; but 
it is alfo fufceptible of great variety. From his atrabila- 
rioits complexion, choler might be certainly predicted ; 
but, from the fedatenefs of his eye, not of that hidden 
and impetuous kind to which he is fo very fubjeCt. There 
are various traits, public and private, that difeover this 
mighty chief to have attempted to copy Alexander while 
he was in Egypt, Csefar during his Italian campaigns, 
and Charlemagne fince he has allumed the imperial purple. 
When traverfing the fands of Egypt and Syria, he did 
not forget the Libyan deferts: Alexander was then his 
model. He placed a large (fatue of Caefar, allowed to be 
of excellent workmanfhip, fronting his apartments in the 
Thuilleries ; that he might have it in daily contempla¬ 
tion. Since the addition of Helvetia and Italy to his do¬ 
main, he has imitated the power of Charlemagne. To 
tom up with accuracy the various character of this extra¬ 
ordinary perfonage, is a tafk to which few men will find 
themfelves adequate. There are two parties, indirect 
contradiction to ea.ch other : and both of them equally 
violent in alfcrtion. One fet of them attribute to him 
every human excellence : in their eye he is not a man, 
but a deity : another will not allow he ever poffelTed emi¬ 
nence of talent, difeovered a (ingle virtue, or performed, 
one aCtion that can be called great. 
“ Let thofe, who affirm that the fagacious Napoleon 
forefaw all that has been and might be accotnplifbed, 
planned all that he lias achieved, and with power little 
lefs than omnipotent infured military conquc(t and com¬ 
manded civil triumph, let thofe partifans inquire whether 
a mind fo capacious could have been betrayed into acts, 
fo many of which are puerile, fo many more are abfurd, 
and a ftill greater number are malevolent and deflruCIi ve f 
The nature of true greatnefs has ever been and ever will 
be beneficent. If his plans were’ fo truly profound, would 
not his means be more certain, his courfe morefeven, and 
his end more fecure ? His taciturnity in private appears 
to be pride; but, in his public aCts, his felfiflinefs is too 
great to command refpeCt. Power, fuch as his partifans 
would have the world believe he poffefles, would better 
underftand itfelf; would aCt in lilence, and ftrike in the 
dark: it would purfue the even tenor of its way, and dif- 
dain to vapour or to tooth. The exceffes of the paffions 
uniformly rob men of their (bund judgment, and render 
them malignant and bale. 
“ To thofe who will not allow the emperor of France 
any one great quality, what (hall be anfvvered ? Let them 
look into hiftory, and find under vvhofe real or apparent 
command actions fo numerous, and fo great, have been 
performed by a man of feeble mind, irrelolute in conduCt, 
and in.confiftent in his plans. Let them ferutinize the 
powers of the mind, and prove, if it be poflible, from faCt 
or from deduction, how it (hould happen in times fo 
jo S dread- 
