The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

X T78 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
of a secret and bloody character,-of the murder of dict him by other testimony. He bequeathed, ill
Pichegru and of Wright,-of the spiriting away of like manner, a legacy to a villain who had attempted
Mr VW indham, who was never afterwards heard the assassination of the Duke of Wellington; the
of;-and of other actions of similar atrocity. We assassin, according to his strange argument, having
pause before charging him with any of those which as good a right to kill his rival and victor, as the
have not been distinctly proved. For, while it is English had to detain him prisonalr;r qt Helena.
certain that he had a love of personal vengeance, This clause in the last will of' a dying tman,;s not
proper, it is said, to his country, it is equally evident, striking from its atrocity merely, bat fro.o the llacthat, vehement by temperament, he was lenient and cnracy of the nioral reasoning which it exhibits.
calm by policy; and that, if lie had indulged the Napoleon has drawn a parallel betwixt two cases,
former disposition, the security with which he might which nllust be therefore both right, or both wrolig.
have done so, together with the ready agency of his If both wvere wrong, why reward the ruffian with
fatal police, wotld have.made his rage resemble a legacy? but if both were right, why complain
that of one of the Roman emperors. FIe was made of the British government for detaining him at St
sensible, too late, of the general odium drawn upon Helena?
him by the murder of the Duke d'Enghien, and does But, indeed, the whole character of Napoleon's
not seem to have been disposed to incur fai-ther austobiography marks his dcsire to divide mankild
risks of popular hatred in prosecution of his indivi- into two classes, —his fiiends and his enemies; the
dual resentment. The records of his police, however, former of whorn are to be praised and vindicated;
and the persecultions experienced by those whoml the latter to be vilified, cenlsured, anld condemned,
Napoleon considered as his personal enemies, show without any regard to truth, justice, or consistency.
that, by starts at least, nature resumed her bent, To take a gross example, he stoutly affirmed, that
and that he, upon whom there was no restraint, save the treasures which were removed from Paris, in
his respect for public opinion, gave way occasionally April, 1814, and carried to Orleans, were seized
to the temptation of avenging his private injuries. and divided by the rrinisters of the allied powers,Ile remarked it as a weakness in the character of Talleyrand, Metternich, Hardenberg, and Castlehis favourite Cesar, that he sultered his enemies to reagh; and that the money thus seized included the
remanin in possession of the power to injure him; and marriage-portion of the Empress Maria Louisa.*
Antommarchi, the reporter of the observation, ad- Had this story been true, it would have presented
mitted, that when he looked on the person before Napoleon with a very simple means of avenging
itim, he could not but acknowledge that he was un- himself upon Lord Castlereagh, by putting the Brilikely to fall into such an error. tish public in possession of the secret.
When Napolec(, laid aside reserve, and spoke It is no less remarkable, that Napoleon, though
what were probably his true sentiments, le endea- himself a soldier and a distinguished one, could
voured to justify those acts of his government which never allow a tribute of candid praise to the troops
transgressed the rulles of justice and morality, by and generals by whom he was successively opposed.
political necessity, and reasons of state; or, in other In mentioning his victories, he frequently bestows
words, by tile pressure of his own interest. This, commendations upon the valour and conduct of the
however, was a plea, the full benefit of which he vanquished. This was an additional and more dereserved, to vindicate his own actions, never per- licate mode of praising himself and his own troops,
mitting it to be Ilsed by any other sovereign. He by -whom these enemies were overthrown. But he
considered himself privileged in transgressing the never allows any merit to those by whom he was
law of nations, when his irnterests require(d it; but defeated in turn. lie professes never to have seen
pleaded as warmlly upon the validity of public law, the Prussian troops behave wvell save at Jena, or
when alleging it had been infringed by other states, the Russians buht at Austerlitz. Those armies of
as if hlie himnself had in all instances respected its tile samle nations, %which he both saw and felt in
doctriiies as inviolable. the campaigns of 1812 and 1813, and before whom
But although Napoleon thus at times referred to lie made such disastrous retreats as those of Moscow
state necessity as the ultimate source of actions and Leilsic, were, according to his expressions,
otherwise unrjustifialble, he mole frequently erndea- mere canaille.
voured to disguise his errors by denial, or excuase In the same manner, when lie details an action
thben by apologies which had no foundation. His in w'hich lie triumplhed, lie is sure to boast, like the
habits of concealing truth, and inventing ftlsehood, old Grecian (very justly perhaps), that in tills Forhad become so strong, that his very last wvill and tune had no share; wvhile his defeats are entirely
testamnent bears the grossest marks of his deceptive and exclusively attributed to the rage of thle elesystemn. He avers, in his will,* tilat, by the con- Inents, tile comlbination ofsorne most extraordinary
fession of the Duke d'Enigliiet, the Count d'Artois and unexpected circumstances, tile failure of somie
maintained sixty assassins against his life; and that of his lieutenants or marshals, or, finally, tile ohfbr this reason the I)uke d'Enghien was tried, con- stinacy of the general opposed, who, by mere dint
victed, and puit to death. The examination of the of stupidity, blundered into success through cirduke bears no such confession, but, on the contrary, cumstances which should have inslred his ruin.
an express denial of the whole of the alleged sys- See Dr OMearas Voice rom St Heena, wlo seens
tem; nor was the slightest attempt made to contra-,i,,,self to have been startled at the enormity of the fiction.
Whlat makes it yet more extravagant is, that Napoleon's
~ See Appendix, No. 13-" Bonaparte's last stNT I n':d tes- will disposes of a part of tlhat very treasure, as if it NA ere
tamieiit.? still iin the hands of Alaria Louisa.
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