SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BIOGRAPET,

Life aud Times of Louis Philippe, King of the French. By the Rev. G. N. Wright, MA., Author of the 'Life and Reign of William the Fourth." &c. Sec. TRAVELS, Fisher and Co. Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks ; being a Geographical and De- scriptive Account of the Expedition of Cyrus, and of the Retreat of the Ten Thou- sand Greeks, as related by Xenophon. By William F. Aiusworth, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.. Surgeon to the late Euphrates Expedition, Author of " Travels in Asia Minor." &c. &c., Parker.

FICTION,

The Dark Falcon; a Tale of the Attruck. By J. B. Fraser, Esq., Author of "The

Ruzzilbash," &c. In four volumes Bentley.

WRIGHT'S LIFE AND TIMES OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.

Tms volume appears to have been got up with reference to the at- tention which various circumstances have contributed to direct towards the King of the French, and to have been published in consequence of his Majesty's visit to England : for the life seems yet unfinished, only coming down to his permanent establishment on the throne of France after the Revolution of the Barricades, which scarcely leaves matter enough for another volume. The execution corresponds to this idea of the plan. It is a crude book- making compilation, put together not only without any great lite- rary skill, or any original thought, but without even the pains to digest the materials derived from very common sources. The au- tobiography of Madame DE GENLIS, the autobiography of the King's brother, the Duke DE MONTPENSIER, and the "Journal" or Travels of Lours PHILIPPE himself, are the best authorities. The rest is made up from questionable accounts by the Parisian or American press, and the gossip of newspapers and travellers. Any thing like a philosophical or even a sensible survey of the "Life and Times" of Lours PHILIPPE is not to be obtained from Mr. WRIGHT'S book : but it is readable, and furnishes a sort of view of the Monarch's career, though employing upwards of six hundred pages to accomplish it.

Louts PHILIPPE, Duke of CHARTRES, was born in 1773, the eldest son of the Duke of ORLEANS, better known by his Revolutionary name of EGALITE. Dissatisfied with the manners of his son's tutor, and not being able to please himself with another, ORLEANS con- sented to allow his mistress, Madame DE GENLIS, to educate the young Duke of CHARTRES and his two brothers. This lady brought them up upon the perhaps extreme utilitarian or natural principles of education then in vogue among many,—LoexE repre- senting the rational, and ROUSSEAU the wild end of the system; but a once popular book called Sanford and Merton being pro- bably the nearest Anglican interpretation of the plan of Madame DE GENLIS. One of their personal attendants could only speak English, another only Italian, another only German ; by which means the boys learned three living languages as well as their own, without the formality of set lessons. Besides the usual course of a gentleman's education and something more, they were trained to disregard weather and fatigue, to learn to help themselves under all circumstances, to acquire arts that might be useful to others as well as themselves; and, if the King of the French has not posi- tively saved life as a medecin, he has more than once practised phlebotomy. Such a course of education is obviously unattainable without large means, and it requires to be applied with some re- gard to constitution ; but, regarding the times that were coming, it was of more than yeoman's service to Louts PHILIPPE, and in a moral sense to his younger brothers, DE MONTPENSIER and BEAU• JOLAIS. Whether the seeds of that disorder which hurried them both to an early tomb were sown by a system of hardening to which they were unequal, or by the sufferings they underwent du- ring their imprisonment by the Revolutionary Governments, may not perhaps be easily answered. The fashion of all ages as respects princes secured the Duke of CHARTRES an early military advancement, notwithstanding the hatred with which the Duke of ORLEANS was regarded by the Court. But, though a boy Colonel, his first entrance into what may be called public life was his admission to the Jacobin Club ; into which he was introduced by his father, against the advice of Madame DE GENLIS. He did not, however, take a conspicuous part in politics ; the rnusterings of the Allied Sovereigns to put down the Revolution having quickly carried him to his regiment. His conduct during his military career is pretty well known,—how he rallied a division in his first field at Quievrain ; how he distin- guished himself at the battles of Valmy and Jemappes, and several lesser affairs ; besides the unsuccessful action at Nerwinde. This misfortune, the violence of the Revolutionary Government, and a very suspicious "order" to return to Paris, if not more questionable motives, determined the Commander-in-chief, DUMOURIER, to re- volt, and that failing, to withdraw. Partaking of his General's views, subjected to the same "order," and obnoxious to the suspicions entertained against himself and his family as Bourbons, the Duke of CHARTRES accompanied his superior officer, and with difficulty succeeded in effecting his escape to Mons, in 1793. The next six or seven years of his life was a period of great hardship and obscurity. Hated by the Royalists for refusing to serve with the Austrians, and for his father's conduct during the Revolution, he was relentlessly pursued by the Republican Govern- ment; in addition to which, he was suffering from narrow means. Travelling incognito through the Low Countries, he joined his sister in Switzerland, and proceeded to Zurich. Having been re- cognized, the party were obliged to quit the city, on account of the fears of the Magistrates and the excitement of the emigrants. The exiles nest, took, up their abode in a small house near Zug ; but the Duke was once more identified.by some emigrants passing through the town, and the authorities of Berne compelled his re- moval. His sister procured admission into a convent : the Duke took leave of the few friends who had hitherto accompanied his fortunes, sold his horses to raise money, and, attended only by a faithful servant who refused to leave him, traversed Switzerland on foot, with knapsack on back. During this journey, he received, through his friend M. Mormssoinotr, the offer of a Professorship at the College of Reicheueau.

0 He was aware that M. Chaband-Latour had quitted France, for the pur- pose of entering this establishment with the rank of Professor ; but not arriving at the appointed time, M. De Montesquiou solicited the appointment from M. Aloyse Jost, President of the College, for his young friend the Duke of Chartres.

" The Prince had attained his twenty-second year when he was admitted at Reichenau, in the month of October 1793: he had previously submitted to the most rigid examination, presenting himself under the name of Chabaud, with- out being recognized by any save M. Moyer Jost himself, or exciting the least suspicion as to his real character ; and he continued to teach geography, his- tory, the French and English languages, together with mathematics, for the space of eight months. He not only succeeded in the discharge of his academia duties, but had the good fortune to inspire the inhabitants of Reichenau with such a high esteem for his virtues and abilities, that they appointed him their Deputy to the Assembly of Coire.

"It was at this moment that the chilling intelligence reached him of hit father's tragic fate. Overwhelmed with affliction, he sought relief in change of scene ; and, carrying with him the esteem and even affectionate regards of his associate' at Reichenau, he became once more a wanderer, his knapsack hang- ing from his shoulder, and a staff giving additional firmness to his steps."

There seems something dubious in this ascription of motives for the resignation ; as the young Duke of ORLEANS is next traced to M. MONTESQUIOU'S at Baugmerten ; where he lived as an Aide-de-camp, under the name of CORBY. Curiosity, how- ever, detected him and the penny-a-lining reports of the day con- tributed to hunt hint from his asylum. He then determined to travel in the North of Europe as a tour at once interesting and cheap. He accordingly visited Denmark, Norway, and Lapland, penetrating as far as North Cape : but, taking Sweden on his re- turn, he was detected by the French Ambassador, at Stockholm ; where he arrived in October 1795. ROBESPIERRE, it should be ob- served, had fallen some time before.

"For several days he preserved his incognito as strictly as he could have wished ; when, from curiosity to witness a grand ball at the court, given in ce-

lebration of the birth of the King, Gustavus the Second, he availed himself of

a ticket of admission to the highest gallery in the ball-room, which a banker had procured for him. Having enjoyed the gay picture for an hour or more, he was surprised by the entrance of a Master of the Ceremonies into the box. where he was seated. The courtier approached him with all the graces and re- spectful manifestations that belonged to his office, and begged the honour of

being permitted to conduct the Prince to his proper place in that assembly— the royal circle. After this public discovery, it yak* in VRtill any longer to conceal his real character. He owed this unexpected and iinwelcome attention

to the officiousness of the French Envoy at Stockholm, M. De Rivals; who,

having perceived the Prince in the gallery, went instantly over to the Chan- cellor, Count De Sparre, and said, ' You keep some of your secrets from me;

you never told me that you had the Duke of Orleans concealed here.' The Chan-

cellor, as much astonished as the Envoy could have been, declared it was im- possible it could be the fact : but the Envoy replied, He is so assuredly in

Stockholm that he now sits up there ' ; at the same time pointing to the placa where the Prince sat. The veil of mystery being removed, the Count Be Spares informed the Prince that his Majesty, as well as the Duke of Sudermanie, then Regent, would be happy to see him.

" Being accordingly presented to these illustrious persons, they received hint with as much kindness as distinction, lavished on him the most generous offers,

and gave all necessary orders to facilitate his examination of everything which he considered instructing, interesting, or deserving of his notice in that king- dom: but of all these generous favours the Duke accepted the last only.'

He returned to Germany in the early part of 1796; when Ws affairs began to brighten a little. The French Directory, ashamed of keeping the Dutchess of ORLEANS and her two sons in confine- ment, or probably compassionating their useless misery, agreed to free them from prison, and make the Dutchess an allowance, (from her husband's property,) if the Duke of ORLEANS and her two youngest sons would undertake to reside in America. The agents of the Directory with difficulty discovered the Duke in his con- cealment: he gladly agreed to the terms, and, in September 1796, embarked at Hamburg for the United States ; where he was joined by his two younger brothers.

The three brothers remained in America till March 1798 • and received much attention in that tufthunting land Among the few civilized sights in the young republic, Lours PHILIPPE witnessed the final retirement of WASHINGTON and the inauguration of his successor ADAMS. The party also made a tour of visits through

the principal cities to the principal people, and accomplished some

long and arduous journies in the far West, from Niagara to New Or- leans,—a very different task then, be it observed, from what it is now. In the course of this journey, the Duke encountered various adventures among the rough settlers ; visited several tribes of Red Indians ; and having cured a chief by bleeding, or at least the chief getting better after the operation, Louis PHILIPPE enjoyed the high honour of "sleeping between the chieftain's grandmother and grand-aunt."

The wars then raging among the different European belligerent. sent the Duke and his brothers to New Orleans, with the view of reaching Cuba, and thence proceeding to Spain, in order to join their mother, who had taken refuge in that country. In conse-

quence of difficulties interposing, he thought of settling in the island; but the son of EGALITE and the hero of Valtny and Je. mappes was regarded with little love by the Spanish Bourbons, and

an order arrived from Madrid directing the deportation of the party from Cuba. With this inhospitable command the exiles re. fused at first to comply ; but it induced them to turn their thoughts to England as a refuge ; and, after a circuitous passage, incidental to a wide-spread naval war, they arrived at Falmouth,.in Februaci 1800, and received permission to take up their abode in the country. Their worldly circumstances now began to improve. A sort of reconciliation took place between the Orleans and the elder branch of the Bourbons, then represented in England by Monsieur, afterwards CHARLES the Tenth. Their means would appear to have increased, either by NAPOLEON'S liberality to the Dutchess, or by the greater value of the currency in which the allowance was paid; for they were able to take a house at Twickenham. Coun- tenanced by the Royal Family and the Minister, they became a sort of lions, and were feted by the fashionable fools of town. The innate emptiness of which sort of thing is well enough indicated in Mr. Witieter's account.

" On the 20th of February, a few days after the return of the younger Princes from Clifton, the three brothers had the honour of dining with Mon- sieur at his town mansion; where they met Mr. Pitt for the first time.

" The acquaintance of the Princes with the celebrated statesman William Pitt was soon followed by additional friendships among the aristocracy of Eng- land. Lord Grenville took notice of the Royal exiles at an early period of their sojourn here, and entertained the Count D'Artois, the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, with the Counts Descars, Yaudreuil, and other distinguished emi- grants, at his mansion in Cleveland Row, on the 1st day of March 1800; when Mr. Pitt and Mr. Wyndham also formed part of the company. It would ap- pear that the conduct and courtly manners of the French Princes completely conciliated the regard of the chief public characters in this country, men who shed a lustre on the age they lived in ; for, on the Sunday following, Lord Gren- ville, by the King's permission, introduced the Royal exiles to his Majesty at a levee held for the purpose, at the Queen's House. Their reception was in the bighest degree gratifying to their feelings; and the King held a conference of more than two hours length with the Count D'Artois and the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon.

"The condescention and kindness of George the Third to the banished Bourbons was the signal for their general welcome throughout the land. The Russian Ambassador, Count Woronzow, was among the first to extend to them the rights of hospitality, by inviting them to a banquet at his house in Ilarley Street ; and on the 13th of March, the French Princes were honoured by an in- vitation to Carlton House, by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, (after- wards George the Fourth,) at which Lord Grenville and the Foreign Ambas- sadors were present.

"The Duke of Orleans was now initiated in fashionable life in London; and no grand soirée or sumptuous banquet was complete if it wanted the presence of the three Princes. Reminiscences of the Orleans family were eagerly sought after, and recollections revived of a somewhat painful nature to the young men Themselves. Among these was an exhibition, advertised in the public journals, of a beautiful portrait of Madame Buffon, which had been painted for the gallery of the late Duke of Orleans, the luckless Egalite. This untimely exhibition was got up at the European Museum in St. James's Square ; and, although suffi- ciently distressing to the Princes, who were devotedly fond of their wretched father, such an Orleans mania pervaded society at the West-end, that the an- nouncement proved attractive and lucrative to the proprietor of the portrait. " The leader of the fashionable circle at that period was the Marchioness of Salisbury ; a lady eminently qualified to be the arbitress of elegance, by her beauty, wit, and varied accomplishments. Perceiving that the Orleans family were eminently entitled to the kind attentions of the beau monde, she gene- rously invited upwards of four hundred persons of rank, title, and distinction, to her mansion, and gave the Princess very ample opportunity nf estimating the hospitality and refinement of the highest classes in this kingdom. The Marchioness, a member of an Irish family, selected the festival of St. Patrick for the day of her grand entertainment ; and the Prince of Wales, who had always evinced a marked attachment to the Irish character and people, noured the assemblage with his presence. "The influence of example continued to extend : the Lady Mayoress (Lady Harvey Combe) decided upon throwing open the Egyptian Hall to the gay, glittering world, and having the Royal Family of France among her guests; and scarcely had the Princes rested from the agreeable fatigue of the splendid civic entertainment, when they received an invitation to dine with the Duke of Clarence, (afterwards William the Fourth,) at his residence in the Stable Yard. This was perhaps the most sumptuous of all the state-dinners to which the Bourbons had been invited ; and Monsieur had the misfortune not to be able to attend, being prevented by an accident—a blow from a ball which struck him on the head while playing at the Tennis Court in the Haymarket. The table was decorated with princely magnificence, and in a style peculiarly elegant ; baying large vases of confectionery and China figures, the frame thrown en parterre ; it displayed the Royal arms of England and Hanover, besides, at the lower end, the arms of France, the Order of St. Louis, and the Order of the Holy Ghost, all admirably executed."

The Duke of ORLEANS resided in England till 1808; when he embarked for Malta, to carry thither his surviving brother, the Count of BEAUJOLAIS, to try the effect of its climate. This was found to be unsuitable ; or rather, the patient was dying. Sicily having been recommended as more favourable, a request was de- spatched to the Court of Naples, then exiled at Palermo whilst MURAT occupied the Italian throne, for permission to reside in the island. This was graciously vouchsafed ; but BEAUJOLAIS was dead before it arrived. Louis PHILIPPE, however, proceeded to Palermo, to return his thanks in person : he was graciously received by their Majesties of the Two Sicilies, and met in their second daughter the present Queen of the French. (It is curious that be- fore the downfall of the French monarchy, an alliance had been contempjated between the young Duke of CHARTERS and the

consent was obtained, and on the 25th of November 1809 the Duke of ORLEANS and the Princess MARIE AMELIE were married, in the old Norman chapel of the Palazzo Reale. Before the marriage was permitted, however, the Queen of Naples had employed Louis PHILIPPE on one of her political schemes. When the popular insurrection against NAPOLEON took place in Spain, she thought of getting her second son appointed Regent of the kingdom! Apparently proceeding upon " the one down and t'other come up " principle, she despatched her son Prince LEOPOLD and Louis PHILIPPE to Gibraltar, that the Spaniards might take one if they rejected the other. The Princes were per- mitted to land ; but Sir HEW DALRYMPLE refused to forward the project, and Lord COLLINGWOOD, who commanded the fleet, pointed out to the Duke of ORLEANS the insuperable public difficulties in the way of the scheme, and the personal impolicy of a French Prince in his position appearing in arms against France. Looking rather to his future mother-in-law than to the reason of the thing, the Duke departed for London to complain : but he was informed that the British Government perfectly approved of Sir HEW DA1., RYMPLE'S conduct, and could only reimpress Lord COLLINGWOOD'S advice.

Not content with this intrigue, the Duke on his return engaged

in another. The object was to put him at the head of a Cata- lan army, that, among other exploits, was to invade the South of France ; a project that was no sooner detected, than NAPOLEON, by invading Catalonia, gave the Catalan force enough to do at home. Still unconvinced, the Duke of ORLEANS, in tile summer of 1810, again fished in Spanish waters. The Regency invited him to a command; which, notwithstanding the opinion of WELLINGTON, he persisted in accepting : but the plan was baffled by the veto of the Cones. As Mr. WRIGHT truly remarks, when the partisans of the Duke of ORLEANS, after the success of the Three Days, announced that he was the only Bourbon who had never borne arms against France, Louis PHILIPPE might remember the prudence of the British commanders' advice.

With this affair the wanderings of him who has been called the

modern Ulysses may be said to have terminated. He spent the next few years in the bosom of his family ; and returned to France on the downfall of NaroLEoN—soniewhat, it is said, against the wishes of the reigning family, whose jealousy was sharpened by TALLEYRAND. However, return he did ; and he was occupied with the care of his encumbered but luckily undismembered estates, the education of his children, and perhaps the cultivation of a public interest, till the Revolution of the Barricades raised the once homeless and needy wanderer to a throne. From this time his career is rather historical than biographical: but, before leaving his life, we will glean a few anecdotes from Mr. WRIGHT'S book. The first three relate to the times when he was a proscribed wanderer, the last to the earlier part of the Restoration.

A YID IN TIIE PUBLIC LINE.

At the hotel where the Duke of Chartres lodged, he was surprised to see his

portrait and those of all his family. Curious to learn the motive that had inspired his host with the idea of such an ovation at a moment when so many dangers me- naced every member of the Orleans family, he asked him what it meant. "it is a reminiscence of their having stopped here," replied the innkeeper ; "I have received them all." " All 2" said the Duke. " Yes, all without exception." And he persevered so far in the falsehood as to show the illustrious traveller the apartments which each of these noble personages occupied during their sojourn there. The poor man little thought that the stranger whom he was thus conducting through his house was one of those very princes whose portraits he had so carefully collected.

THE PEDLAR.

Upon the banks of Lake Lucerne he fell in with a French priest and a pedlar, earnestly disputing with a boatman about the charge of their passage across. The Duke, discovering that the reverend voyager had no funds whatever, not- withstanding his own pinching poverty undertook to pay for him. During the passage across the lake they engaged in conversation. The pedlar informed his companions that his name was alauseda, his trade that of an optician, and. his late residence the Palais-Roy al : he spoke for some time of the Duke of Orleans, to whom he pretended to have sold spectacles and other articles of his manufacture; and at length, to the great embarrassment of the Duke, as- sured them that he knew personally every member of the Orleans family. A close examination, however, proved this itinerant merchant to be merely a si- milar character to the Duke's host at Cohlentz.

A SURPRISING JOEL

The Duke remained for some time at Christiania; living quietly and unre- cognized, happy at escaping those suspicions and that surveillance which had pursued him so incessantly in his journeyings. On one occasion, he was fully convinced he bad been discovered. It is an established custom in that country at the proper season, after having breakfasted in town, to go into the country to pass the remainder of the day. At the conclusion of one of these excursions, and when the guests were about to return to Christiania, he heard the son of the banker, whose guest he VMS, exclaim, in a loud and somewhat playful tone, " The Duke of Orleans's carriage !" The well-known sounds startled him not a little : such an occurrence could not be accidental; he was, he must be, known to some one present. Perceiving that the young Norwegian did not notice the embarrassment into which he had been thrown, he soon recovered his self-pos- session, and only thought of investigating the extraordinary circumstance. With a playful smile upon his countenance, he asked his young friend, "Pray, why do you call for the Duke of Orleans's carriage ? what have you to do with him ? " " Nothing at all ; only that whilst our family resided in Paris, every evening, as we were coming out of the opera, we heard the people vociferating on all sides, and with the most extravagant eagerness, 'La voiture de Mon- seigneur le Due HOrleans ! lea gent de son Altesse Royale ! ' I have been almost stunned with the noise ; I shall never forget the transaction : the whole thing just occurred to me now ; and, instead of simply calling for our carriage, I gave a humble imitation of the way they do things in Paris."

BOURBON REVENGE.

Louis the Eighteenth, remembering the ancient feuds of the family, seemed resolved to revive them also, and employed various contemptible modes of estranging the Duke of Orleans more completely from the Legitimate party. Whenever it became the duty of Louis Philippe and his suite to appear at court, the King took care to point out to him the distance at which he still was placed in the succession, and to resuscitate those embers of acerbity which it had been wiser on his part to have left sleeping for ever. The Dutchess of Orleans, being a Princess Royal, was directed by the Chamberlain to enter the palaee by the grand door-way, which stood wide open to admit her, while orders were issued that one valve only should be opened to receive her husband, whose title of " Most Serene " was still inferior to hers.

" The child is father to the man"; and perhaps if we had the means of full investigation, we should find that in all cases the essential trait of character—that which separates the individual from all others of his kind, and conduces to his eminence, whatever it may be—is developed at a very early period, and acts in a mea- sure irrespective of education—though this must form the colla- teral qualities, and of circumstances—though these must give it a field of action. Natural constitution and the training of Madame DE GENUS enabled Lours PHILIPPE to bear the hardships of his European and American peregrinations without physical injury ; the useful knowledge he had been taught gave him resources which most other princes would be without ; and his birth was his means of attaining eminence : hut his essential property is irrespective of all these things, and appears to us to consist in the power of seeing and say ing what the occasion requires. We do not mean that LOUIS PHILIPPE cannot act : on the contrary, he is a man of acts, and, when the time requires it, perhaps of prompt action. But, as with his prototype Ulysses, wisdom is his means and words are his medium. Not that his speeches are mere repartees or pointed sayings, silencing or surprising. They often indicate an action or a principle, and just such a one as the time seems to want and the auditors to wish. When a mere youth, on hear- ing of the abolition of the rights of primogeniture by a decree of the Assembly, he turned, and embracing his brother, the Duke DE MONTPENSIER, exclaimed, " Ah ! now we are brothers in every respect." The services of the Duke of CHARTRES were very soon rewarded with a generalship. KELLERMAN having superseded LUCKNER, the Duke went to head-quarters to pay his respects; when the veteran exclaimed, " Ah, Monsieur, I have never before had the pleasure of seeing so young a general officer—how have you contrived to be made a General so soon ?" "By being the son of him," replied LOUIS PHILIPPE, "who made a Colonel of you." KELLERMAN laughed, shook hands, and they became friends at once. This faculty served him well on later and larger occasions. When the enthusiastic Parisians crowded round him at the Revo- lution of July, he tickled their ears with the mot, "What occasion for all this ? it is only a National Guard going to visit his old General" (LAFAYETTE). The old General, who was ever the dupe of a phrase, was beguiled at the same time by the notion of "a Throne surrounded by Republican institutions." The same power for the occasion was exhibited in his reply to the Corporation of Portsmouth last week, when a copy of his speech was requested- " I have no copy : my words are from my heart." When this essential quality is considered in conjunction with his conduct, it may be concluded that LOUIS PHILIPPE is more quali- fied to take advantage of circumstances than to produce them. Unless we grant a good deal more to "influence" in respect to his Spanish business than ought to be allowed, it may be doubted whether he is gifted with much power of long foresight, and whether he does not make temporary convenience rather than permanent principle his rule of conduct. Wise in the fashion of this world he undoubtedly is; but it is that wisdom which, dealing rather with men than events, postpones difficulties instead of preventing them ; and though his occupation of the throne of France is a blessing for us contemporaries, it may be questioned whether some compound interest is not accruing to posterity's legacy.