MEMOIRS OF LUCIEN BONAPARTE.

EXCEPT in a few occasional passages, this volume is not so much a biography, as an historical commentary upon the events in

which the author was engaged. The value of the anecdotes—for

the biographical portion is nothing more—arises from the glimpses they give of the early situation of the BONAPARTE family, the picture they furnish of the mind of Revolutionary France, and

the consequent assistance they will yield to the future biographer or historian ofNApoLEoN. In the commentary, we may now and then, perhaps, get a little closer view than heretofore of the various

factions under the Directory, and of the motives which actuated LUCIEN in the not greatly conspicuous part he was then enacting

in the Council of Five Hundred ; but save this, the commentary has no value whatever. It is tediously minute, written in the spirit of a bygone age ; and is eked out with long reports of ora- tions delivered from the tribune, for the most part by the hero of the tale.

The volume nominally commences with the year 1789; when JOSEPH was twenty-two years old, NAPOLEON twenty, and LUCIEN fifteen ; and closes in 1799, shortly before NAPOLEON'S return from Egypt. At the first period, Corsica had just -been declared an integral part of France, and the three brothers were assem- bled on the island.—NAPOLEON a sub-lieutenant of artillery, oc- cupied imstudy ; JOSEPH engaging in what our author calls the "administration of the departments ;" whilst LUCIEN enrolled himself a member of the popular societies, and appears to have attained such success by his enthusiasm and a claptrap kind of eloquence, as within two years (dismissed by him in one sentence) to have become a kind of Corsican mob-leader. On the return of PAOLI, LUCIEN entertained him with a schoolboy oration ; and the veteran overwhelmed the oratorical member of the Popu- lar Society with applauses,—less, it would seem, on account of the merit of the speech, than with the view of gaining over the BONAPARTE family to the counter-revolution be meditated. Either the enthusiasm (XL MIEN, or more probably- the greater firmness of Madame BONAPARTE, rendered the attempts of the patriot use- less ; and PAOLI having brought over to his side the greater part of Corsica, and menacing his opponents with proscription, our hero was selected the chief of a deputation sent by the Popular Society to demand succours from the Jacobins of Marseilles and Paris. Scarcely had LUCIEN departed, when his mother with bet children was compelled to escape from the violence of the Corsicans ; and the whole family united at Marseilles, in no very exalted plight as regards finances. JOSEPH, however, had got the situation of Commissary at War ; LUCIEN, who was quite a lion at Marseilles, had a berth under him ; NAPOLEON devoted the chief part of his pay to the support of his family ; and under the title of refugee patriots, the rest got rations of bread ; so that, with the " good management and economy " of Madame BONA- PA, RTE, they contrived to subsist. The next step in LUCIEN'S life, was hisrproceeding to St. Maxi-

min, a small town a few leagues from Marseilles, as a keeper of

military stores; where his speeches carried him "rapidly from the

rn-chair of the Society to the. Presidency of the Revolutionary Committee." He took the name of Brutus, and shortly became a kind of dictator at St. Maximin; but used his pwer for the protec-

tion of the denounced, in a manner which exposed him to risk, and might have ended in his destruction, had not the overthrow of ROBESPIERRE opportunely happened. At first, however, this counter-revolution involved him in trouble ; and lie was com- mitted to the prison at Aix as a Jacobin, with the daily expecta- Sinn of being massacred. But the capture of Toulon had oc- curred; NAPOLEON was a general officer; and although he had not power enough to get himself employed, he had influence M0110 with BARRAS to procure an order for the liberation of LUCIEN.

Up to this time there is a good deal of character in the volume ; but after this its interest may be said to ci ase. Pre- vices to his election to the Council of Five Hundred, LUCIEN bad indeed been appointed, through NAPOLEON'S influence, a commissary of war to MOREAU'S army ; but the twelvemonth he was engaged in this occupation is a blank in the volume, and does not appear to have been much else in reality. According to his own account, he neglected his duties to make speeches in fa- vour of the Directorial Government, which then seemed to him the best of all possible republics; and to discuss unpalatable theories with Royalists and Jacobins, by which he offended them both.

The reputation of' the Hero of Italy, however, shielded him from the effects of his indolence in action and his industry in talking.

Of whatever use this work may be to the world. its publication is unquestionably ill-advised as regards the author; for it tends completely to dissipate the halo which surrounded the name of LUCIEN BONAPARTE. Instead of the lofty Republican, setting at equal defiance the threats and blandishments of his Imperial. brother, we see an amiable and enthusiastic person of impulse, very much tickled with abstract and impracticable republics in theory, very partial to the juste milieu in practice; shrinking of himself from the removal of any difficulty by a bold but ne- cessary line of action, yet so incapable of foreseeing difficulties, that he devotes the interval between the virtual death of the Di- rectory and its forcible dissolution by his brother, to an elaborate exposition and defence of an ingenious paper constitution, which SIEVES, with the assistance of LUCIEN, had prepared, and which, with all the experience of the Empire, the Bourbon, and the Or- leans dynasties, besides the failure of Heaven knows how many revolutions elsewhere, he still considers would have consolidated another " best of all possible republics" in France, if NAPOLEON had not altered the scheme. It was, however, so utterly imprac- ticable, in the state of anarchy, dissension, and rivalry which then prevailed in France, that it may be questioned if it ever could have been set up, much less have lived. The reader who wishes its details, will find them in the last chapter of the volume. In its principle it resembled our own theoretical constitution, so as to have a number of " checks and balances ;" but it differed from ours in this essential particular, that its forms were all ab- stractions, raised up for the nonce, instead of being the natural production of time and circumstances, whilst there were three kings instead of one.

We alluded on the arrival of the volume to its sophistical de- fence of NAPOLEON'S ambition; and we see no reason to alter our judgment. The unproked and unjustifiable invasion of Egypt does not receive a word of censure for its public immorality; the overthrow of the Directorial Government is defended, on the ground of its having before been changed in form without taking the votes of the people in its favour, so that our author holds " it was no government at all '' (although the real defence was the necessity of the act) ; and the weak assumption of the purple seems to be approved of. These remarks, however, only apply to the arguments in favour of his brother. In matters of fact, and in things relating to himself, the personal truth of LUCIEN seems unimpeachable. The incomplete and partial manner in which the volume was first introduced to the pubic, has left few if any passages of in- terest to be culled from its pages. The following is one of the most curious in the book, for the amiable point of view in which it shows the Corsican people, and the light it throws upon the early Revolutionists. Such a mixture of ardent enthusiasm and gross ignorance was well fitted to triumph over the old, formal, and cor- rupt Governments they chiefly had to contend with, not only by the courage, but by the blind determination toattempt almost im- possibilities, which these qualities inspired. It was a spirit, how- ever, only fitted for destruction, not for organization and esta- blishment ; and when NAPOLEON, its absolute concentration, tried to create an empire, his star began to wane.

" It was, I believe, in 1792 that a numerous fleet, commanded by the brave Admiral Trnguet, sailed from Toulon, laden with troops directed against Sar- dinia. This fleet came to an anchorage in our beautiful bay. As soon as it became known, the whole population of Ajaccio scattered themselves on the sea-shore. The sails dotted the horizon, and shone in the splendours of a cloudless sky. I set out immediately, and collected some members of the Club, who, in the absence of my two seniors, were delighted to follow me. I placed myself at their head, exclaiming, Behold our brothers ! Behold the tricolour flag ! ' We ran like tnadmen the length of the shore, as if we could the sooner join the fleet by removing ourselves from the port. The music, the flags, the discharges of musketry in token of joy, formed part. Whilst we ran until out of breath, the vessels, driven by a favourable wind, entered the bay. We perceived too late that they had outstripped us ; and we hastened to return back. Through too great eagerness, we were the last who arrived before the fleet ; but at the name of the Popular Society, then a new and magic power, all ranks opened before us; and, followed by a &potation, of which they pro- claimed me the chief, I repaired on hoard the Admiral's vessel. " The troops were composed of young Marseilloise, still ill-disciplined, and bringing into the service the agitation of the clubs. These young men had communicated to the ships' crews a taste for political discussions. On board each vessel they had established a Popular Society ; so that, notwithstanding their courage, these troops tried the patience of the Admiral tolerably well ; and their insubordination caused the failure of the expedition to Sardinia. We were hardly announced, before the Popular Society of the Admiral's vessel assembled in a public sitting in the great hall of the council. I made a dis- course. The President gave us the fraternal embrace, and invited us to the honours of the sitting. The President was a clerk for the distribution of the rations: he harangued us for more than half an hour, in such a strain that we could hardly retain our gravity. I remember that be commenced with a voice, by turns gruff and shrill, with the gesticulations of a demoniac The further I go, the more I see that patriotism gains everywhere; the further I go, the more I see that the brave sans culottes are irresistihle ; the further I go, the more I see,' &c. &c. Ile continued thus to repeat his the further I go, the more I see, at least twenty times, to the great admiration of his comrades and of the sailors. As to us, he completely called to mind the comedy of Les Plaideurs—‘ When I see the sun and when I see the moon.' The officers of the ships, who assisted at our reception, had the merit, like us, of being silent. We announced in our turn fur the next day a public sitting, in order tofra- ternize with the club of the vessel. We departed in the midst of patriotic acclamations. This solemnity did not edify our islanders: accustomed to leave public speaking to our chiefs, and to those who distinguished themselves their talent, we noticed the silence of the officers and the confusion of this crowd, and we asked among ourse:ves whether all the popular societies on the continent were thus composed. We prepared, without delay, the next day to show our superiority; and certainly it would not have been difficult to have

attained this end, had not the Marseilloise, before our sitting, been desirous to show tlik that their actions carried them even further than their eloquence.

" I was occupied at my desk in preparing the speech I was going in a few hours to deliver, when I heard a tumult still afar off; soon it became more dis- tinct. The noise of the shutting of doors by turns was drowned with the ac- customed cry of our commotions, ' Serra, serra !'—' Shut, shut !' The tocsin -sounded to arms. A troop of friends ran to the house as I came out of it. We marched towards the great square, from whence the noise came. The streets were filled with armed men. Near the gate of the city, a woman with her hair dishevelled cried out, The Jacobins are assassinating my husband !' She was a Corsican, married to a Frenchman, who formerly having held a part in the administration, was known for his aristocratical opinions. He was unfortu- nately on the pier when the Marseilloise disembarked : he was pointed out as an aristocrat ; and immediately the cry, Les aristocrates a la lanterne resounded amongst the multitude of the disembarked. But this ciy, to which the Mar- seilloise were accustomed, intoxicated with the demagogical fanaticism, far from finding an echo amongst the good inhabitants of Ajaccio, excited their horror and their indignation. They armed themselves in a body to deford the victim. When I arrived in the square, it was filled with the entire population, deter- mined not to permit our walls to be dishonoured with so cowardly an outrage. The officers of the squadron recalled all the Marseilloise. Seconded by our ef- forts, they succeeded in hurrying them away and consigning them to their ves- sels: they appeared no more on shore ; and certainly, we had lost all desire to fraternize with them. The fleet set sail a few days afterwards.

" This attempt at political assassination made a deep impression upon my countrymen. In our Popular Society we had often denounced the proposals of the agents of the ancient government ; they regretted, no doubt, their lost places ; their yoke had oppressed us; they were looked upon with an evil eye ; and their long habit of command had not taught them to be prudent : but it had never entered the head of any inhabitant that a man might be killed without any ns• tive of personal vengeance. and only because he had been powerful. or that he thought differently from us ! In order to terminate at once the embarrassment which these men of the continent gave us, who had so oppressed us, and who knew not how to be silent, we resolved to send them away from the island. A vessel was prepared, and they were embarked together. ' You were not born amongst us,' we said to them, 'and although become Frenchmen, eve cannot see fellow citizens in the agents of the tyranny which has so long borna us down. We have saved the life of one of your number ; we have spared you from every violence; but your presence and your evil proposals trouble us : we desire no more of them. Go home, and leave us tranquil.'

Upon the manner in which the volume is translated it is un- necessary to waste a word. It is sometimes so bad as not to be intelligible.