BOOKS.

IAMIRTINE'S HISTORY OF THE RESTORATTON FRANCE..

Tre marvellous rapidity and success of the evasion from Elba and the march upon Paris, with the subsequent battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo, have somewhat too exclusively directed attention to the military portion of the Hundred Days. The feel- ings of France, the state of parties, and the "false position" of Napo- leon, are as remarkable and instructive as the more demonstrative and brilliant military events. The political portion of Napoleon's final struggle has moreover a contemporary interest, from its bear- ing upon passing events. The powerlessness of a people against an army, and the insensibility of the soldiery, or even of the officers, to any other than military motives, have a striking re- semblance to what has lately taken place in France. The features of the eventful time between Napoleon's landing at Cannes and his abdication after the battle of Waterloo are well dis- criminated and effectively brought out by Lamartine. It is possi- ble that his old loyalty to the Bourbons, and his more than dislike to the uncle through the conduct of the nephew, may bias his sketches and exaggerate his colouring ; he probably exalts the constitutional government and regulated liberty of France under the Bourbons, as well as the attachment of the people to these blessings compared with the military, tyranny of the " adventurer " ; but his opinions are founded in truth and justice, if heightened by personal leanings and for literary effect. The present volume is a very remarkable piece of composition. From the nature of the subject it has more unity and compactness than the first volume. Besides the episode of Murat and his de- thronement, the subject contains these divisions,—Napoleon's march upon Paris, with its accompaniments of military sedition and trea- son; the provincial efforts of the Royalists, especially of the Duchess d'Angoul6me at Bordeaux ; the feelings of Paris, the dignified con- duct and retreat of the Ring to Lille, and his final withdrawal to Ghent; the reception of the news by the Congress of Vienna, and its decision, prompted by Talleyrand ; the political difficulties of Napoleon, which began with his entrance into Paris and dogged him to the end ; the campaign and its battles ; the return of Napoleon; the fiery outbreak of the Liberals in the Chambers, led by Lafayette and prompted by Fouche' with the unwilling, fitful, and spiritless submission of Bonaparte to his destiny. These chapters are all presented with a broad distinctness, which leaves as broad an im- pression on the mind of the reader. The filling-up is equally, ef- fective : the persons are drawn to a scale proportioned to their his- torical importance and their intrinsic qualities ; the details are se- lected with dramatic judgment and presented with poetical spirit. The style is less affected than that of many French writings, but very vivid and impressive, from the author's clearness of per- ception and his choice of epithets. The whole narrative is ani- mated by that genius which excites the interest and sustains the attention of the reader. The contemporary relation which the author himself bore to the events gives a living air to the nar- rative.

A rather heavy drawback attaches to these merits. The author seldom quotes any authorities ; and we do not know how ranch of the anecdotes he is relating, the scenes he is painting, the dis- course or the dialogue he is reporting, may be true. That there is a natural, probable, or dramatic truth, is generally felt ; that Lamartine may have heard in society or even from the actors the particulars he narrates, is likely ; and that his pic- turesque details correspond with the broad truth, may be admitted. Still, the historian who tells things which are not patent to the world is bound to offer vouchers for his accuracy ; and we are more inclined to ask for authority from M. de Lamartine, because in some things with which the world is well acquainted he certainly deviates from the actual facts. He kills seven horses under Wellington at Waterloo, and wounds the eighth : now the Duke and his charger Copenhagen passed unscathed through the ordeal of that terrible day. He pictures on one occasion the British com- mander "mounting his eighth horse and charging sword in hand in the midst" of the Life Guards ; executing another charge at the head of Light Infantry and Rifles, and making two regiments of Dragoons take off the curb-chains of their bridles while he fur- ther distributes brandy to the men to keep up their courage to charging-point. He makes Wellington's force at Quatre Bras amount to fifty and then sixty thousand combatants : Pringle gives only thirty thousand. Lamartine rates the British allied force on the opening of the campai: at 100,000 men, the Prussians at 130,000, the French at 120,11 ; and he quotes Napoleon as saying before the battle, that Wellington's force then in presence was superior by one-third : Pringle gives the total force under Wellington at the opening of the campaign at 75,000 men and "actually engaged" at Waterloo about 54,500; while he estimates the French at about 71,000: but Siborne, a later authority, fixes the Anglo-Allied army at 67,655, which is doubtless nearer the truth. Scott, not an original, or perhaps a very reliable authority, estimates the armies as about equal at the commencement of the battle. Blucher's army seems never to have reached 80,000 men. These statistics are perhaps given in this way to account for the defeat of the French ; which is made not to depend upon the French array, but upon two faults committed by Napoleon and two by his

• The History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France. By Alphonse de La- martine, Author of The History of the Girondists." Vol. ii, Published by Vise- and Co.

generals. The account, however, renders full justice to the British,

perhaps a shade more than justice.

"The moon, fatal to the fugitives, arose to illumine the pursuit ; the two armies, English and Prussian, mingled together at the point where Cam- bronne alone had retarded their junction, at the foot of the heights of La Belle Alliance. Wellington and Blucher, the one a victor exhausted by thirteen hours of blood and fire, the other burning to complete the victory, towards which he had only lent a distant aid, met together on the very spot where Napoleon had slept the night before, and pitched his tent on the pla- teau of Rossomme. The two Generals dismounted and embraced, each mo- destly awarding the other the glory of the day. It belongs, however, to Wellington, who had dared all, sustained all, and accomplished all, in this terrible battle. Blucher had done nothing but make his appearance, and even that late in the day. But his presence rendered all hope of retreat for Napoleon impossible. Wellington had the victory, and Blucher the pursuit."

Blucher, however, had exhibited unshaken firmness under pre- viousdefeat, and infused the same spirit into his army. Repulsed at Ligny on the 16th, he was ready to renew battle on the 18th; and he pressed on to Waterloo regardless of natural obstacles, or Grouchy's force, or everything but the main object.

A remarkable feature of this book is the introduction of cha- racters, painted with force, grandeur, and a lofty moral sense, which does not sink the villain in the hero. Fraiche is exhibited in this way : amen of crime andintrigue, but whose boldness and fertility of resource in the path he had chosen enabled him to compete with Bonaparte himself.

"His [Napoleon's] dictatorship was nothing but a name ; his government since his return, was in reality only a triumvirate, in which the party of the Empire was already subordinate to the two others; the-party of the na- tion being personified in Carnet, that of intrigue represented by Fouclui. Reduced to the necessity of temporizing with the one and of menacing the other, without daring to strike, he hastened to call, for the second time, to his assistance, the military party, and to regain in the plains of Belgium that throne of glory from which three years of defeat had thrown him lower' than his accomplices of 1815. He was still Emperor in name, but less mas- ter than Fouche.

" Fouche knew the intentions of the Emperor, and the fats that awaited him if Napoleon as conqueror should regain the ascendant which he now disputed with him. He displayed, it must be acknowledged, a rare atidacity and an energetic intrepidity in the part he was playing. His head was en- dangered every day by his intrigues. It might have fallen at the first move- ment of shame or rage on the part of Napoleon. He seemed to have steeped his character in the tragedies of the Convention, and to be playing with death suspended at the word of the master, as he played with execution suspended at a gesture from Robespierre. Of all the survivors of that epoch he alone showed that he was not exhausted or weary of temerity. Thrown by his bold manoeuvre on the one side between tyranny seeking to reistablish itself, and liberty striving to revive—and on the other, between Napoleon ready to sacrifice the country to his interest, and France, which was not willing to sa- crifice itself totally for one man—Fouche intimidated the Emperor, flattered the Republicans, reassured France' held out a signal to Europe, encouraged Louis XVIII., negotiated with the foreign courts, corresponded by signs and hints with M. de Talleyrand, and by his attitude kept all in suspense. A difficult and gigantic part, at once elevated and low, but tremendous—and one to which history has not hitherto paid sufficient attention ; a part devoid of nobleness, but not of patriotism or moral courage, in which a subject placed himself on a level with his master, a minister above his sovereign, an old proconsul of the Reign of Terror above the kings whom he had punished, and whom he was going to recall while claiming their gratitude ; the arbiter of the Empire, of the Restoration, or of Liberty, but arbiter through duplicity. Such a part is not to be found in history, except amongst the eunuchs, mas- ters of their masters under the lower empire of Byzantium, or amongst the v of the palace of the kings of the early French monarchy. The Car- dinal de Betz, in modern times, had something of this genius of intrigue ap- plied to affairs of state. But Fouche was a Cardinal de Rats of a more tingle cast, struggling with men and events more imposing than those of the Fronde, and moving thrones, congresses, and empires, with the same threads with which his prototype only moved factions. History, whilst condemning Fouche, cannot refuse to him during this period of the Hundred Days a boldness of attitude, a superiority in the management of parties' and a great- ness in intrigue, which would place him in the rank of the first statesmen of his age, if modern history recognized real statesmen without dignity of cha- racter and without virtue."

A similar prominence, with the advantage of more action, is given to Lafayette, without in any way overrating that active, enter- prising, honest, influential, and perpetual Failure. This is his appearance when the Assembly met on the morning after Napo- leon's return, and when the fatal news was whispered about. " Lafayette ascended the tribune. The whole Revolution seemed to ascend it with him, for the first time since 1789. His name was resonant, his ap- pearance imposing; imagination anticipated, and all eyes followed him. Tall in stature, noble, pale, cold in aspect, with a reserved look, which appeared to veil mysterious thoughts ; with few gestures, restrained and caressing ; a weak voice without accent, more accustomed to confidential whisperings than oratorical explosions ; with a sober, studied, and elegant elocution, wherein memory was more conspicuous than inspiration • he was neither a statesman nor a soldier, nor an orator, but an historical figure, without warmth, without colour, without life, but not without prestige ; detached from the midst of a picture of another age, and reappearing on the scene in a new one. No-one knew what he was going to say. He mightequally by a word attach to Napoleon the still undecided revolutionists, or snatch them from him to his ruin.

"'When for the first time,' said he 'for so many years, I raise a voice which the old friends of liberty will still recognize, I feel myself called upon to speak to you of the dangers of the country, which you alone have now the power of saving.

"'The sinister rumours which were spread about are now unhappily con- firmed. This is the moment we should rally round the ancient tricoloured standard of liberty, equality, and public order. It is that alone which we have to defend against foreign pretensions and internal treason. Permit a veteran of this sacred cause, who was always exempt from the spirit of fac- tion, to submit to you some preliminary resolutions, of which you will, I hope, perceive the necessity.' " A silence of deep thought and reaction followed these words through all the Assembly. Though temperate in accent, they were deadly in intention towards Napoleon. They had been framed upon inuendo, that perfidy of elo- quence, to carry to the ears of the auditors and to the very soul of France what it would be as yet improper to express in words. This veteran of liberty,' who thus reappeared upon the scene, held out in the tribune the revolution with hiniself against a vanquished despotism. This old tricoloured flag, distinguished by a single epithet from the Imperial tricoloured flag,

prostituted to the glory of one man alone, sufficiently designated the colours of the Revolution ; while the internal treasons,' necessary to prevent the dictatorship of Napoleon, sufficiently indicated, without naming it. The blow was given, the man was struck ; the Emperor and the Empire were covertly held up as public enemies to the National Representation, to Europe, to the Nation, to the Republicans, to the Patriots, and even to the Royalists. The whole patriotism of the country separated, with Lafayette its symbol, from the cause of Napoleon. What remained to him ? Implacable Royalists, an unpopular family, and a personal party weak and vanquished.

Lafayette, triumphant and applauded far more by hearts than hands, seemed to have been nurturing within his soul during fifteen years this single moment. Was it, however, his part to be the first to strike this wreck of glory—he who had been delivered from the dungeons of Olmutz, and re- stored to liberty, to his country, and to his family, by the intervention of Napoleon ? It must have cost him greater pangs than those who owed Bo- naparte nothing except hatred. But ideas have no gratitude, patriotism has no weakness of the heart. Lafayette owed much to Louis XVI., and yet he did not object to being his keeper at the Tuileries and at Varennes. He owed something also to Napoleon, but did not hesitate to become his execu- tioner. Are there different laws, then, for nature and for policy ? The hearts of men must answer the question."