NAPOLEON'S MARSHALS.
Napoleon's Marshals. By R. P. Dunn-Pattison, M.A. (Methuen and Co. 12s. 6d. net.)—The story of how and why Napoleon made his Marshals is a curious one. He published his first list on May lath, 1804. Some had fought in the armies of the Republic, and owed the distinction to this cause. Mase6na and Jourdan were great. soldiers. So, though on a lower level, wore Berthier, Murat, and Lannes. Some, as Soult, were selected its coming men. There were nine subsequent appointments, the last of them being Grouchy, who was appointed after the return from Elba. They constituted a military aristocracy which supported, and in a way cloaked, the central despotism which Napoleon had sot up. They wore accomplices after the fact, bribed by gold and rank, in the groat crime against France, though it would be harsh to suppose that they were fully conscious of it, Mr. Pattison's narratives of these men are highly interesting. His
favourite among them seems to be Devout, who had the merit of being conspicuously honest with the demerit of being not a little brutal. The most successful of the company, if we are to take his career as a whole, was certainly not the one who most deserved success,—Jean Nicolas Soult. It is curious to note how they died. One (Bewares) was killed at Lateen, Lannes died of wounds received in the Austrian Campaign of 1809, and Poniatowski was drowned in the Elston Two were executed (Ney and Murat), Brune was murdered at Avignon (1815), and Mortier was killed in one of the attempts on the life of Louis Philippe. Six lived to be octogenarians ; four more passed the age of seventy. The volume is a useful contribution to political and military history.
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