AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SAVARY, DUC DE ROVIGO.

LITERARY SPECTATOR.

THE Memoirs of the Due de Rovigo''' are a revelation of sin- gular curiosity. We do not believe all he says ; much of it we do not even understand ; still he affords us most copious, most curious indications of the state of France during a most interesting period : nay, more than this, his anecdotes disclose the universal nature of tyranny, and teach many highly important political truths which materially concern the happiness of mankind. The Minister of the Police under Napoleon was in fact the minister of public opinion : he was the regulator of it, as far as power can regulate Opinion, and we may learn from his efforts that it is beyond the control of authority. The hollow state of society in Paris under the Emperor was known : here we have all the underground work which made it so. The system of espionage is unfolded : the me- thod of forcing demonstrations of popular feeling, the machinery

for suppressing all freedom of expression either by speech or by writing, and the art of deluding the national credulity by fictitious assertions, or of perverting the national judgment by the exertions of men of wit and talent engaged for the purpose, are all displayed in these dark volumes. .,Candour was not to be expected from a minister of police, and strong reasons may be alleged for believing that the Due de Rovigo is not always communicating all the truth ; but on the whole, we incline to think he speaks it as far as he knows, and that he is warped more frequently by his wish to represent the Emperor in the fairest possible light, than by any other motive. To the fortunes of the Emperor he was committed; he had a great and unfeigned admiration of his talents ; and since both had fallen, it is natural that he should desire to identify himself Nvith his master's fame as much . as possible. To all who are fortified with a tolerable knowledge of the events of the late history of Europe, we may recommend the work as a fruitful source of amusement and instruction. The number of incidents is however great ; and since only certain parts of them— viz. those in respect of which the ex-minister of police can con- tribute new lights—are touched upon, the Memoirs must be neces- sarily obscure. We ourselves have laboured under the additional difficulty of reading the work in the English translation, if it can be called such, for it is neither English nor translation.

The third part of the Memoirs, which has but lately appeared, extends from the period of Napoleon's marriage with Maria Louisa to the Regency of Blois, and consequently embraces the two points of his greatest elevation and his lowest state of depression—unless the banishment to St. Helena be a still lower one. Abundant, therefore, are its topics ; for all this time the Due de Rovigo was in the situation which made it culpable in hini not to know what was passing in every house in Paris. One cannot see into a single head, he remarks; but lie seems to insinuate that a minister of police is negligent if he does not know everything that passes when two heads are laid together. Out of so much matter of curious fact, we may mention, as worthy of more particular attention, the methods taken to guide opinion in Paris ; the details of the secret correspondence with England during the war ; and the history of the very extraordi- nary affair of General Mallet, in which the very Minister of Police himself was arrested in his bed, aml taken to prison, by a self-con- stituted authority who had the command of Paris for half an hour, and if fortune had favoured him, half an hour longer might have anticipated the downfid of Napoleon by a couple of years. The testimony in favour of the Emperor's disposition and good sense is uniformly strong. His later misfortunes the Due seems to attribute almost wholly to his not being well served : his adherents grown rich and powerful, only sought to secure themselves ; while the multiplicity of affairs which demanded his attention, and thie. easy access to his person which tended to draw his mind to unimportant communications, prevented him from detecting the faults of his ministers. Each complained of the other, and this jealousy had the effect of shutting the Emperor's ears even to the truth. Of the Empress, too, the Due de Rovigo's testimony is decidedly favour- able : he repeatedly congratulates himself that he was saved the trouble of procuring good opinions of her ; her amiability served her better than an army of spies. One little fact might have taught both minister and master that it is far easier to lead than drive a people : the Due says of the Empress, that " she. had the practice,. on her appearance in public, to make three such grace- ful curtsies, that the last was invariably preceded by long and loud applause : she took care to save me any trouble on the subject." Had the Emperor really acted for the best interests of his subjects, and had he had the magnanimity to trust to the natural effects of his conduct, he too might have saved M. Savary a deal of trouble. It would not then have been necessary to set one half the capital to watch the other, to pry into letters, to corrupt servants, to insi- nuate police-officers into families as masters of language, and to dog every stranger that put his head into Paris. The Due evidently prides himself much on his dexterity, and be- longs clearly to that order of tools which glories in doing dirty work in a cleanly manner. With all his vigilance, he was, however, some- times deceived: not to mention the occasion on which he is taken out of his bed and locked up in his own prison, there is a memorable story of a certain Russian Aid-de-camp who haunted the Minister of Police, and who appears to have had high protection. This man succeeded in setting off to St. Petersburgh with the official

* Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo Savary) written by himself, illustrative of

She History of the Emperor Napoleon. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 182S, Colburn. details of the position and strength of all the French troops des- tined for the invasion of Russia. He had bribed some clerks of the War department. This Russian officer and the Minister had had a long contest of spy against spy ; for it is but justice to say, that Savory suspected him, and watched Min even after he was forbid to do so. On one occasion, the Due palmed an agent upon him as a tutor of mathematics. The officer employed this person to pro- cure him from some of his alleged friends answers to a series of questions respecting the state of the army : the list was of course immediately carried to the Minister of Police : the officer was sent back to St. Petersburgh, and returned immediately after with an autograph letter from the Emperor Alexander to Napoleon, as- suring him of the innocence of the bearer, and recommending him to his favour : it was ordered that the Russian should not be mo- lested: .nevertheless, a person was placed about him, but nothing could be extracted : at length, " by means which it is unnecessary to divulge," the Minister succeeded in obtaining possession of the whole contents of the Russian officer's despatch dated 21st Fe- bruary 1812. " I drew out of his portfolio," says our author, " the report he addressed to the Emperor of Russia, with its ac- companying- letter ; the copy of the instructions given by the Emperor two days before to the director in chief of the war de- partment, on the subject of forwarding the military equipages to the army ; and lastly, a summary of the organization of the grand army in different corps, according to the orders given to the Duke of Feltre, Minister of War." Soon after this the Aid-de-camp left Paris : the Minister of Police knew that he was about to de- part, and that every one was getting despatches in readiness. " Men of all characters and descriptions," he observes " are to be met with in Paris. I had of late found out one who knew the secret by which certain locks called A la Reynier could be opened. had not the Aid-de-camp left Paris, I should probably have be- come acquainted with whatever was contained in the press in the wall cbme by the chimney of his apartment."

M. Savary thinks, with some reason, that Alexander's conduct in this matter was " foul." To set a spy to watch, he deems not by any means unfair: but to send him with a letter of stroug re- commendation personally from his own court to that of another sovereign, may be considered as overstepping the conventional rules of honour.

Corruption M. Savary reduces to an art : it is with some indig- nation that we read rules for depravity such as these which follow, and Ivith much humiliation do we find they are successful in practice. " Ambassadors," says the Minister of Police, " seldom transact their business in person : this duty generally devolves upon the individuals attached to their respective missions. The whole secret (of corruption) consists in ascertaining who is most likely to be well acquainted with the facts which it is desirable to discover ; and as this particular inquiry does not appear to conceal any latent object, no one ever shows ally reluctance to state the truth ; which is no sooner known, than it naturally becomes an easy task to find out the private habits of the individuals holding these subaltern employments, who are generally found to frequent the middling classes, rather than the more elevated ranks of society. The particular tastes and habits of a man are no sooner known, than he becomes the tool of whosoever can pander to them. I have known agents who were so dexterous in this system of corruption, that they would make a gambler of any man who resisted their attacks - would win all their money, involve hint

besides in debt, and, after placing hint in this position, enter into composition with him ; anti, be it said to the disgrace of human

nature, seldom failed of complete success. Those men for whom gambling had no attraction were mostly found to be accessible through the artifices of women ; in many of whom so much 8ki1l and experience were combined, that they very seldom encountered any difficulties which they had it not in their power to overcome." Vol. III. pp. l-32.

On another occasion, the Minister records, that from examin- ing the clandestine correspondence of individuals, which he con- trived should pass through his hands, he ascertained the names of parties who had agreed to meet at the waters of Bohemia, Italy, Baden, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Being desirous of gratifying his curiosity with a knowledge of their designs, he selected some of the would-be-genteel people of Paris, to act as spies ; who asked no better than to repair to these scenes of enjoyment, which always possess sufficient attractions for the amateurs of gambling and idle pleasures.

"Some," he adds, "I have found to be so expert as in have their expenses defrayed by the dupe of their impositions, and of

whose carriage and servants they made a very unceremonious service. They afterwards would succeed in being conveyed back by some female ; and actually return to Paris without having drawn their purse-strings, with money won at gambling, and even with the alfc.‘ctions of those whose ruin they had accomplished."

This exquisite villany is described with an air of self-congra- tulation. "Two or three such excursions," he goes on to say," were sufficient to give a thorough insight into the habits of a whole country. There were no better sources of information than what were aflorded by tile societies at bathing-places : where all restraint is laid aside, the hours hang heavily on hand, and a freedom of com- munication is an indispensable enjoyment." • In the same spirit he recuids, taut out of the secret correspond- ence between England and France by way of holland, he accu- mulated a "treasure of addresses." A person was maintained in London for the sole purpose of visiting tile emigres; which he

did rego1arly once a 'fortnight, and when any one was missing, a report was immediately made ; he was then expected on the French coast. M. Martin, the head of the police at Boulogne, the Due says, would have had the King of England's pocket picked if it had been necessary. There are many other interesting points which we should be glad to dwell upon ; but we must be content with merely stating the fact. The occupations of Pope Pius while detained at Fon- tainbleau, are however too ludicrous to omit.

"The holy father was very penurious : notwithstanding that all his wants were amply provided for, he used to count over with great care some dozen pieces of gold which he had in his desk. He kept a strict account of his wardrobe, from his pontifical robes to his shirts, stockings, and the most trifling articles of his dress. He never looked into a book during the whole day ; but employed himself in a way which would not be credited had it not been no- torious : he patched and stitched up any accidental rent in his gowns, sewed .buttons on his smallelothes, and washed the front of his robes to clean them of the stains of snuff, which he took to excess." Vol. II. p. 50. One would suppose that this was a kind of allegorical description of the employment of the chief of a falling church; and that it was meant that he was patching up schism, strengthening the supports of faith, and cleansing the practice of religion from the impurities of corrupt professors. The employment of Ferdinand, who is said to have amused himself with making a petticoat for the Virgin, is princely compared with the botching and scrubbing of his Holiness.