T RANGE. 
894 
dreadfully contentious, that debility could obtain and 
prefetve the rule ; could conquer enemies abroad, fubvert 
rivals in power at home, profit by foreign and intelline 
broils, overawe or reconcile fadtions, change the capri¬ 
cious deftinies of a capricious people to that which defpo- 
tifm calls, order, and eftablifh a new dynafty, which, in 
ages of greater ignorance, would long have continued 
permanent and beyond controul. Truth is always found 
between the extremes. Napoleon is an extraordinary 
man, who has lived in dill more extraordinary times. 
The grand events of thefe times were many of them mili¬ 
tary; fo, as it happened, was his education, and fb were 
his propenfties. Such was the fortuitous favour of cir- 
cumftanees, that they caufed him to appear a prodigy. A 
fivd campaign elevated him to the rank of a hero, the fe- 
cond diovved him a god : he feerned to command events : 
in reality, they commanded him ; they were his creator. 
“ Early habits had powerfully concurred to fit him for 
the future accidents under which he became placed : and 
this pre-difpofition, and thefe accidents, were further 
aided by a mind of fuch ardour, and of fuel) prolific am¬ 
bition, that he has been hurried through the various gra¬ 
dations which fimilar minds have travelled; and does and 
will only differ from them in fimilarity of fate, as far as 
circumftances have varied, and fhall hereafter vary. Sal¬ 
low complexion, length of face, a pointed nofe, a pro- 
jefting chin, and prominent cheek bones, have diftin- 
guifhed the countenahces of fanatics and perfecutors. 
Fanatics and perfecutors were often men of powerful 
minds, but violent pa (lions ; and between fuch men and 
the emperor of France, allowing for times and circum- 
ffances, in phyfiognomy, in talents, and in manner of add¬ 
ing, there is great refemblance.” 
Such are the ftriking features, both of body and mind, 
which contemporary hiftorians have given us of the pre- 
font conqueror of Germany and Italy. The difpaflio.nate 
reader will naturally make allowances for the prejudices 
of men exifting under different forms of government, a<d 
actuated by principles of attachment to particular per- 
fons. He will then be better qualified to impugn the cruel 
and ungenerous traits in this great man’s character, and 
to appreciate with obvious truth, his glorious and heroic 
addions ;—if glory can attach to the mowing down fuch 
multitudes of our fellow men, and in fpreading defolation 
over the mold luxuriant provinces of the civilifed world, 
merely to gratify the ambition, the refehtment, pride, or 
politics, of high and mighty-minded individuals! ! ! 
Had Napoleon claimed legitimately the titles he has 
chofen to afTume—had he been born a prince, and fought 
but half the battles he has done—his achievements would 
have been immortalized, and his fame magnified to the 
conftellations of heaven,.—though his fortitude had been 
lefs, and his cruelties greater. When men advance, by 
whatever gradations, from the humbler walks of life to 
high and important ftations, and put on the habiliments 
of confequence and authority, envy conftantly purfues 
their fteps, no matter how confcientioufly they havfe been 
direffted in their views. On the other hand, princes and 
fovereigns are feen to depart from the paths of virtue and- 
honour, to opprefs their fubje£ts, perfecute the unfortu¬ 
nate, and exercife various a6ts of tyranny,—receiving (fill 
the adulation and revetence of mankind, as if it were im- 
polTible for them to commit fin, or do wrong, while en¬ 
nobled by birth, and claiming to be the foils of kings or 
emperors. This is a falfe bias operating on the minds of 
men, highly derogatory to the human charadter, and 
pregnant with injuftice, fince it leads us to detradt where 
merit is due, and to applaud where punilhment ought to 
be inflidted. 
But let punifhment be tempered with mercy. Though 
the fovereigns of France, fo lately as the eighteenth 
century, have merited confiderable obloquy—have been 
charged with many crimes—with numerous oppreflions, 
and abundant follies,—the common lot of humanity ; yet 
have they all in turn faltered for their mifconduct. “ The 
fins of the fathers have been viffted upon the children 
even to the third and fourth generation.” Let not im¬ 
placable resentment for ever abound. It is godlike to 
forgive ; and the mod exalted adt of heroifm is that of 
defending the oppreffed, of reftoring the injured to their 
juft prerogatives, of extirpating perfecution, and fuffering 
not the iron arm of tyranny to defpoil the faireft inherit 
tances of mankind. This ftate of things cannot always 
endure. Would, therefore, the emperor of France afpire 
indeed to be “ Napoleon the Great,”—would he caft afide 
the embezzled crown, and exert his unbounded influence 
to reltore the rightful heir to the throne and royal de- 
mefnes of France—his juft and legitimate inheritance,_ 
he would obtain the molt glorious of all victories, by 
gaining the victory over himfelf. Neither the fame of 
Caefar—nor of Alexander—nor their conquefts—nor their 
beneficence—could for a moment bear a comparifon with 
his—who had won a diadem for no other purnofe than to 
reftore it to the rightful owner; and thus, by one great 
and noble adt of benevolence, merit an unfading crown 
in thofe realms where the juft and generous will be fure 
of their reward. 
Yet are there writers even in thefe enlightened days, 
who endeavour to juftify Napoleon in a (Turning the regal 
authority by the power of the fword, on the ground that 
the anceftors of the Bourbon family feized upon the throne 
bv-ihe felf-fame inftrument, upwards of eight hundred 
years ago, when Hugh Capet, the firft king of their dy¬ 
nafty, on the death of Louis V. alfumed the fovereignty 
in prejudice to the rightful heir Charles duke of Lorraine, 
the only furviving defeendant of the emperor Charle¬ 
magne. See p. 664 of this volume. 
However plaufible fuch an argument might appear to 
fuperficial minds, we are confident it can never Hand the 
teft of juridical inveftigation, nor be confidered as a mea- 
fure on which the ends of public juftice, or the Rights of 
Man, in any point of view, can be defended or maintained. 
The only bottom on which it (lands, if it can be faid to 
(land at all, is, that the commiflion of a nefarious a£l by 
one man, will juftify another in; committing the fame. 
How far fuch a plea might have been countenanced eight 
centuries ago, is hardly worth our enquiry; it is fuffi- 
cient to know that the jurifprudence which governs the 
nineteenth century, revolts at the idea. The length of 
time in which the defeendants of Hugh Capet have inhe¬ 
rited the crown and eftates of their forefathers, furnifhes 
an unequivocal criterion of the legitimacy of their claim,' 
as well as of the injuftice of thofe who would defraud them 
of their birthright. Let thofe who maintain a contrary 
bpinion for once put the queftion to themfelves, and con¬ 
fcientioufly anfwer, were the cafe their own, whether 
they would admit fuch a law to be juft > For our part, 
we think that no nation, whether favage or civilized, 
would difgrace itfelf by cherifhing a doctrine fo repugnant 
to every fentiment of juftice and equity that has hitherto 
governed the affairs of the world. — But we have done.— 
Let the evidence of philofophy, of reafon, and of reli¬ 
gion, either reconcile thefe relentlefs meafures of perfe¬ 
cution and hoftility, or direft men’s minds and difpofitions 
to moral reiStitude, humanity, and the bleffings of peace. 
ANTIQUITIES, CURIOSITIES, and HISTORICAL 
EPOCHS. 
There are feveral ancient monuments ftill exifting in 
France, which are aferibed to the Greek colony which 
fettled at Marfeilles, and firft imparted the feeds of civi¬ 
lization to the country of Gaul. The ancient Gallic coins 
are evidently an imitation of the Grecian model, copies, 
as we now find, from the ftill more remote era of the 
Egyptian race of kings. Many of them occur in the metal 
called deElvum, procured mofi probably from the ancient 
mines in the fputh of France. In Picardy, and other parts 
poffelTed by the ancient Belgae, there are circles, and other 
monuments, of that lingular kind which are called druidic. 
Near the town of Canute, on the coaft of Vannes, in 
' Bretagne, 
