LE CONSULAT ET L'EMPIRE, 1799-1809 Par Louis Madelin M. Madelin,
after a long interval, has followed up his : brilliant account of the French Revolution. with a volume on Napoleon's first ten years of power, Le Consitlat el l'Empire '(Paris,- Hachette,' 25 francs), • in M: Furick-Brentano's well- known series. It shows a distinct reaction in Napoleon's favour despite the hostile criticism of M. Bainville and Other
specialists:. M. Madelin thiphasizes the First consul as a statesman, his insistence on Conciliating the Church. aUd recalling the emigres so. as to reunite France, and his deter- mination to base his system on the support of the masSes rather than of any political party or of the army. Napoleoh's difficulties with his family, to whom, as *a Corsican; he'felt bound to defer though he knew their folly, arc well described. It is made dear, too, that he was Seldom free from political opposition, and that his greatest victories, Marengo i*d 'Austerlitz, were necessary to solve awkward crises at hoffie. M. Maddin throughout concerns himself with the Napoleonic regime as a whole, and keeps military affairs subordinate to the main theme. lie-regards the seizure of Spain as a fatal blunder, the consequences of which remain to be develPped in his coming volume on the later Empire and its fall.; It must be said that, in dealing with the resumption of war with England in 1808, M. Madelin betrays an imperfect appreciation of England's motives ; suspicion of the Eitst Consul's good faith, not only in the matter of Malta, 'bad more to do with the breach than M. Madelin would adMit, for Addington's Ministry. wanted peace.
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