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record daily the victories of their diplomacy | already fixed his attention. He expressed his and arms, leads their lively and intelligent satisfaction at seeing him, and desired him to ladies to commit to paper all that is particu- place himself so as to write under his dictalarly remarkable in private life, or descriptive of their triumphs in the field of love:

Some interesting details are preserved, as to the reception of Napoleon in Paris by the Directory after the Revolution of the 18th Fructidor. The following quotations exhibit the talent of the author, both for the lighter and more serious subjects of narrative in the best light:

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tion. Hardly was the letter done, when a bomb, projected from the English batteries, fell at the distance of ten yards, and, exploding, covered all present with gravel and dust. Well,' said Junot, laughing, we shall at least not require sand to dry the ink.'

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Bonaparte fixed his eyes on the young sergeant; he was calm, and had not even quivered at the explosion. That event decided his fortune. He remained attached to the commander of artillery, and returned no more to his corps. At a subsequent time, when the town surrendered, and Bonaparte was appointed General, Junot asked no other recompense for his brave conduct during the siege, but to be named his aid-de-camp. He and Muiron were the first who served him in that

"Junot entered at first into the famous battalion of volunteers of the Cotè d'or. After the surrender of Longwy they were moved to Toulon; it was the most terrific period of the Revolution. Junot was then a sergeant of grenadiers, an honour which he received from the voluntary election of his comrades on the field of battle. Often, in recounting to me the first years of his adventurous life, he has de-capacity."-I. 268. clared that nothing ever gave him such a delirium of joy, as when his comrades, all, he said, as brave as himself, named him sergeant on the field of battle, and he was elevated on a seat formed of crossed bayonets, still reeking with the blood of their enemies."

It was at that time that, being one day, during the siege of Toulon, at his post at the battery of St. Culottes, an officer of artillery, who had recently come from Paris to direct the operations of the siege, asked from the officer who commanded the post for a young non-commissioned officer who had at once intelligence and boldness. The officer immediately called for Junot; the officer surveyed him with that eye which already began to take the measure of human capacity.

"You will change your dress,' said the commander, and you will go there to bear this order.' He showed him with his hand a spot at a distance on the same side. The young sergeant blushed up to the eyes; his eyes kindled with fire. I am not a śPY,' said he, 'to execute their orders; seek another to bear them. Do you refuse to obey?' said the superior officer; do you know to what punishment you expose yourself in so doing?' 'I am ready to obey,' said Junot, but I will go in my uniform, or not at all.' The commander smiled, and looked at him attentively. 'But if you do, they will kill you.' What does that signify?' said Junot; you know me little to imagine I would be pained at such an occurrence, and, as for me, it is all onecome, I go as I am; is it not so? And he set off singing.

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"After he was gone, the superior officer asked, What is the name of that young man? 'Junot, replied the other. The commanding officer then wrote his name in his pocket-book. 'He will make his way,' he replied. This judgment was already of decisive importance to Junot, for the reader must readily have divined that the officer of artillery was Napoleon.

"A few days after, being on his rounds at the same battery, Bonaparte asked for some one who could write well. Junot stepped out of the ranks and presented himself. Bonaparte recognised him as the sergeant who had

A singular incident, which is stated as having happened to Junot at the battle of Lonato, in Italy, is recorded in the following curious

manner:

The evening before the battle of Lonato, Junot having been on horseback all the day, and rode above 20 leagues in carrying the orders of the General-in-Chief, lay down overwhelmed with fatigue, without undressing, and ready to start up at the smallest signal. Hardly was he asleep, when he dreamed he was on a field of battle, surrounded by the dead and the dying. Before him was a horseman, clad in armour, with whom he was engaged; that cavalier, instead of a lance, was armed with a scythe, with which he struck Junot several blows, particularly one on the left temple. The combat was long, and at length they seized each other by the middle. In the struggle the vizor, the casque of the horseman, fell off, and Junot perceived that he was fighting with a skeleton; soon the armour fell off, and death stood before him armed with his scythe. I have not been able to take you,' said he, but I will seize one of your best friends.-Beware of me!'

"Junot awoke, bathed with sweat. The morning was beginning to dawn, and he could not sleep from the impression he had received. He felt convinced, that one of his brother aidde-camps, Muiron or Marmont, would be slain in the approaching fight. In effect it was so: Junot received two wounds-one on the left temple, which he bore to his grave, and the other on the breast; but Muiron was shot through the heart."-I. 270.

The two last volumes of this interesting work, published a few weeks ago, are hardly equal in point of importance to those which contained the earlier history of Napoleon, but still they abound with interesting and curious details. The following picture of the religion which grew up in France on the ruins of Christianity, is singularly instructive:

"It is well known, that during the revolutionary troubles of France, not only all the churches were closed, but the Catholic and Protestant worship entirely forbidden; and, after the Constitution of 1795, it was at the hazard of one's life that either the mass was

heard, or any religious duty performed. It is evident that Robespierre, who unquestionably had a design which is now generally understood, was desirous, on the day of the fête of the Supreme Being, to bring back public opinion to the worship of the Deity. Eight months before, we had seen the Bishop of Paris, accompanied by his clergy, appear voluntarily at the bar of the Convention, to abjure the Christian faith and the Catholic religion. But it is not as generally known, that at that period Robespierre was not omnipotent, and could not carry his desires into effect. Numerous factions then disputed with him the supreme authority. It was not till the end of 1793, and the beginning of 1794, that his power was so completely established that he could venture to act up to his intentions.

tablish such a faith as the basis of national religion.

mirable effect on that altar of the finest Grecian form, and mingled in perfect harmony with the figures of angels which adorned the walls. The chief pronounced a discourse, in which he spoke so well, that, in truth, if the Gospel had not said the same things infinitely better, some seventeen hundred and ninety-seven years before, it would have been decidedly preferable either to the Paganism of antiquity, or the mythology of Egypt or India.

"Under the Directory, that brief and deplorable government, a new sect established itself in France. Its system was rather morality than religion; it affected the utmost tolerance, recognised all religions, and had no other faith than a belief in God. Its votaries were termed the Theophilanthropists. It was during the year 1797 that this sect arose. I was once tempted to go to one of their meetings. Lareveilliere Lepaux, chief grand priest and protector of the sect, was to deliver a discourse. The first thing that struck me in the place of assembly, was a basket filled with the most magnificent flowers of July, which was then the season, and another loaded with the most splendid fruits. Every one knows the grand "Robespierre was then desirous to establish altar of the church of St. Nicholas in the the worship of the Supreme Being, and the Fields, with its rich Corinthian freize. I susbelief of the immortality of the soul. He felt pect the Theophilanthropists had chosen that that irreligion is the soul of anarchy, and it church on that account for the theatre of their was not anarchy but despotism which he de-exploits, in a spirit of religious coquetry. In sired; and yet the very day after that magnifi-truth, their basket of flowers produced an adcent fête in honour of the Supreme Being, a man of the highest celebrity in science, and as distinguished for virtue and probity as philosophic genius, Lavoisier, was led out to the scaffold. On the day following that, Madame Elizabeth, that princess whom the executioners could not guillotine, till they had turned aside their eyes from the sight of her angelic visage, stained the same axe with her blood!—And a month after, Robespierre, who wished to restore order for his own purposeswho wished to still the bloody waves which for years had inundated the state, felt that all his efforts would be in vain if the masses who supported his power were not restrained and directed, because without order nothing but ravages and destruction can prevail. To ensure the government of the masses, it was indispensable that morality, religion, and belief should be established-and, to affect the multitude, that religion should be clothed in external forms, 'My friend,' said Voltaire, to the atheist Damilaville, 'after you have supped on well-dressed partridges, drank your sparkling champagne, and slept on cushions of down in the arms of your mistress, I have no fear of you, though you do not believe in God. But if you are perishing of hunger, and I meet you in the corner of a wood, I would rather dispense with your company.' But when Robespierre wished to bring back to something like discipline the crew of the vessel which was fast driving on the breakers, he found the thing was not so easy as he imagined. To destroy is easy-to rebuild is the difficulty. He was omnipotent to do evil; but the day that he gave the first sign of a disposition to return to order, the hands which he himself had stained with blood, marked his forehead with the fatal sign of destruction."VI. 34, 35.

After the fall of Robespierre, a feeble attempt was made, under the Directory, to establish a religious system founded on pure Deism. To the faithful believer in Revelation, it is interesting to trace the rise and fall of the first attempt in the history of the world to es

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Napoleon had the strongest prejudice against that sect. They are comedians,' said he; and when some one replied that nothing could be more admirable than the conduct of some of their chiefs, that Lareveilliere Lepaux was one of the most virtuous men in Paris in fine, that their morality consisted in nothing but virtue, good faith, and charity, he replied

To what purpose is all that? Every system of morality is admirable. Apart from certain dogmas, more or less absurd, which were necessary to bring them down to the level of the age in which they were produced, what do you see in the morality of the Widham, the Koran, the Old Testament, or Confucius? Everywhere a pure system of morality, that is to say, you see protection to the weak, respect to the laws, gratitude to God, recommended and enforced. But the evangelists alone exhibit the union of all the principles of morality, detached from every kind of absurdity. There is something admirable, and not your common-place sentiments put into bad verse. Do you wish to see what is sublime, you and your friends the Theophilanthropists? Repeat the Lord's Prayer. Your zealots,' added he, addressing a young enthusiast in that system, 'are desirous of the palm of martyrdom, but I will not give it them; nothing shall fall on them but strokes of ridicule, and I little know the French, if they do not prove mortal.' In truth, the result proved how well he had appreciated the French character. It perished after an ephemeral existence of five years, and left not a trace behind, but a few verses, preserved as a relic of that age of mental aberration."-VI. 40-43.

This passage is very remarkable. Here we have the greatest intellect of the age, Napoleon himself, recurring to the Gospel, and to the Lord's Prayer, as the only pure system of religion, and the sublimest effort of human composition; and Robespierre endeavouring, in the close of his bloody career, to cement anew the fabric of society, which he had had so large a share in destroying, by a recurrence to religious impressions! So indispensable is devotion to the human heart; so necessary is it to the construction of the first elements of society, and so well may you distinguish the spirit of anarchy and revolution, by the irreligious tendency which invariably attends it, and prepares the overthrow of every national institution, by sapping the foundation of every private virtue. The arrest of the British residents over all France, on the rupture of the peace of Amiens, was one of the most cruel and unjustifiable acts of Napoleon's government. The following scene between Junot and the First Consul on this subject, is singularly characteristic of the impetuous fits of passion to which that great man was subject, and which occasionally betrayed him into actions so unworthy of his general character.

"One morning, at five o'clock, when day was just beginning to break, an order arrived from the First Consul to repair instantly to Malmaison. He had been labouring till four in the morning, and had but just fallen asleep. He set off instantly, and did not return till five in the evening. When he entered he was in great agitation; his meeting with him had been stormy, and the conversation long.

"When Junot arrived at the First Consul's, he found his figure in disorder; his features were contracted; and every thing announced one of those terrible agitations which made every one who approached him tremble. "Junot,' said he to his old aid-de-camp, are you still the friend on whom I can rely? Yes or no. No circumlocution.'

now handed to him he perceived a motive to authorize the terrible measure which Napoleon had commanded. He would willingly have given him his life, but now he was required to do a thing to the last degree repugnant to the liberal principles in which he had been trained. "The First Consul waited for some time for an answer; but seeing the attitude of Junot, he proceeded, after a pause of some minutes, as if the answer had already been given.

"That measure must be executed at seven o'clock this evening. I am resolved that, this evening, not the most obscure theatre at Paris, not the most miserable restaurateur, should contain an Englishman within its walls.'

"My General,' replied Junot, who had now recovered his composure, you know not only my attachment to your person, but my devotion in every thing which regards yourself. Believe me, then, it is nothing but that devotion which makes me hesitate in obeying you, before entreating you to take a few hours to reflect on the measure which you have commanded me to adopt.'

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Napoleon contracted his eye-brows.

Again!' said he. What! is the scene of the other day so soon to be renewed? Lannes and you truly give yourselves extraordinary license. Duroc alone, with his tranquil air, does not think himself entitled to preach sermons to me. You shall find, gentlemen, by God, that I can square my hat as well as any man; Lannes has already experienced it; and I do not think he will enjoy much his eating of oranges at Lisbon. As for you, Junot, do not rely too much on my friendship. The day on which I doubt of yours, mine is destroyed.' My General,' replied Junot, profoundly afflicted at being so much misunderstood, "it is not at the moment that I am giving you the strongest proof of my devotion, that you should thus address me. Ask my blood; ask my life; they belong to you, and shall be freely rendered; but to order me to do a thing which will cover us all with

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"Go on,' he interrupted, go on, by all means. What will happen to me because I retaliate on a perfidious government the injuries which it has heaped upon me?'

"Yes, my General.' "Well then, before an hour is over, you must take measures instantly, so that all the English, without one single exception, shall be instantly arrested. Room enough for them will be found in the Temple, the Force, the Abbaye, "It does not belong to me,' replied Junot, and the other prisons of Paris; it is indispen-'to decide upon what line of conduct is suitsable that they should all be arrested. We able to you. Of this, however, I am well asmust teach their government, that entrenched sured, that if any thing unworthy of your glory though they are in their isle, they can be reach- is attempted, it will be from your eyes being ed by an enemy who is under no obligation | fascinated by the men, who only disquiet you to treat their subjects with any delicacy. The wretches,' said he, striking his fist violently on the table, they refuse Malta, and assign as a reason'- -Here his anger choked his voice, and he was some time in recovering himself. They assign as a reason, that Lucien has influenced, by my desire, the determinations of the Court of Spain, in regard to a reform of the Clergy; and they refuse to execute the Treaty of Amiens, on pretence that, since it was signed, the situation of the contracting parties had changed.'

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"Junot was overwhelmed; but the cause of his consternation was not the rupture with England. It had been foreseen, and known for several days. But in the letters which were

by their advice, and incessantly urge you to measures of severity. Believe me, my General, these men do you infinite mischief.'

"Who do you mean?' said Napoleon. "Junot mentioned the names of several, and stated what he knew of them.

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'Nevertheless, these men are devoted to me,' replied he. One of them said the other day, "If the First Consul were to desire me to kill my father, I would kill him."'

"I know not, my General,' replied Junot, 'what degree of attachment to you it is, to suppose you capable of giving an order to a son to put to death his own father. But it matters not; when one is so unfortunate as to think in that manner, they seldom make it public.'

"Two years afterwards, the First Consul, who was then Emperor, spoke to me of that scene, after my return from Portugal, and told me that he was on the point of embracing Junot at these words: so much was he struck with these noble expressions addressed to him, his general, his chief, the man on whom alone his destiny depended. For in fine,' said the Emperor, smiling, 'I must own I am rather unreasonable when I am angry, and that you know, Madame Junot.'

how deep must have been the wounds which have changed this lightsome character! For the joyous Frenchman laughs no more; and if he still has some happy days, the sun of gaiety has set for ever. This change has taken place during the fifteen years which have followed the Restoration; while the horrors of the wars of religion, the tyrannical reigns of Louis XI. and XIV., and even the bloody days of the Convention, produced no such effect.”— V. 142.

Like all the other writers on the modern state of France, of whatever school or party

deterioration of manners, and increased vulgarity, which has arisen from the democratic invasions of later times. Listen to this ardent supporter of the revolutionary order of things, on this subject:

"As for my husband, the conversation which he had with the First Consul was of the warmest description. He went the length of remind-in politics, Madame Junot is horrified with the ing him, that at the departure of the ambassador, Lord Whitworth, the most solemn assurances had been given him of the safety of all the English at Paris. 'There are,' said he, ' amongst them, women, children, and old men; there are numbers, my General, who-night and morning pray to God to prolong your days. They are for the most part persons engaged in trade, for almost all the higher classes of that nation have left Paris. The damage they would sustain from being all imprisoned, is immense. Oh, my General! it is not for you whose noble and generous mind so well comprehends whatever is grand in the creation, to confound a generous nation with a perfidious cabinet.'"_ VI. 406-410.

"At that time, (1801,) the habits of good company were not yet extinct in Paris; of the old company of France, and not of what is now termed good company, and which prevailed thirty years ago only among postilions and stable-boys. At that period, men of good birth did not smoke in the apartments of their wives, because they felt it to be a dirty and disgusting practice; they generally washed their hands; when they went out to dine, or to pass the evening in a house of their acquaintance, they bowed to the lady at its head in entering and retiring, and did not appear so abstracted in their thoughts as to behave as they would have

With the utmost difficulty, Junot prevailed on Napoleon to commute the original order, which had been for immediate imprisonment, into one for the confinement of the unfortu-done in an hotel. They were then careful not nate British subjects in particular towns, where it is well known most of them lingered till delivered by the Allies in 1814. But Napoleon never forgave this interference with his wrath; and shortly after, Junot was removed from the government of Paris, and sent into honourable exile to superintend the formation of a corps of grenadiers at Arras.

The great change which has taken place in the national character of France since the Restoration, has been noticed by all writers on the subject. The Duchess of Abrantes' observations on the subject are highly curious.

to turn their back on those with whom they conversed, so as to show only an ear or the point of a nose to those whom they addressed. They spoke of something else, besides those eternal politics on which no two can ever agree, and which give occasion only to the interchange of bitter expressions. There has sprung from these endless disputes, disunion in families, the dissolution of the oldest friendships, and the growth of hatred which will continue till the grave., Experience proves that in these contests no one is ever convinced, and that each goes away more than ever persuaded of the truth of his own opinions.

"Down to the year 1800, the national character had undergone no material alteration. "The customs of the world now give me That character overcame all perils, disregard- nothing but pain. From the bosom of the reed all dangers, and even laughed at death it-tirement where I have been secluded for these self. It was this calm in the victims of the fifteen years, I can judge, without prepossesRevolution which gave the executioners their sion, of the extraordinary revolution in manprincipal advantage. A friend of my acquaint-ners which has lately taken place. Old imance, who accidentally found himself surrounded by the crowd who were returning from witnessing the execution of Madame du Barri, heard two of the women in the street speaking to each other on the subject, and one said to the other, 'How that one cried out! If they all cry out in that manner, I will not return again to the executions.' What a volume of reflections arise from these few words spoken, with all the unconcern of those barbarous days!

pressions are replaced, it is said, by new ones; that is all. Are, then, the new ones superior? I cannot believe it. Morality itself is rapidly undergoing dissolution; every character is contaminated, and no one knows from whence the poison is inhaled. Young men now lounge away their evenings in the box of a theatre, or the Boulevards, or carry on elegant conversation with a fair seller of gloves and perfumery, make compliments on her lily and vermilion cheeks, and present her with a cheap ring, ac

"The three years of the Revolution follow-companied with a gross and indelicate compliing 1793, taught us to weep, but did not teach us to cease to laugh. They laughed under the axe yet stained with blood;-they laughed as the victim slept at Venice under the burning irons which were to waken his dreams. Alas!

ment. Society is so disunited, that it is daily becoming more vulgar, in the literal sense of the word. Whence any improvement is to arise, God only knows."-V. 156, 157. |

While we are concluding these observations,

total extinction of their liberties on the last occasion, were owing to their vacillation in the first revolt. They have now fought with the utmost fury against the people, as they did at Lyons, and French blood has amply stained their bayonets; but it has come too late to wash out the stain of their former treason, or revive the liberties which it lost for their country.

another bloody revolt has occurred at Paris; 'sequent sufferings of their country, and the the three glorious days of June have come to crown the work, and develope the consequences of the three glorious days of July. After a desperate struggle, maintained with much greater resolution and vigour on the part of the insurgents than the insurrection which proved fatal to Charles X.; after Paris having been the theatre, for three days, of bloodshed and devastation; after 75,000 men had been engaged against the Revolutionists; after the thunder of artillery had broken down the Republican barricades, and showers of grapeshot had thinned the ranks of the citizen-soldiers, the military force triumphed, and peace was restored to the trembling city. What has been the consequence ? All the forms of law have been suspended; military commissions established; domiciliary visits become universal; several thousand persons thrown into prison; and, before this, the fusillades of the new heroes of the Barricades have announced to a suffering country that the punishment of their sins has commenced. The liberty of the press is destroyed, the editors delivered over to military commissions, the printing presses of the opposition journals thrown into the Seine, and all attempts at insurrection, or words tending to excite it, and all offences of the press tending to excite dissatisfaction or revolt, handed over to military commissions, composed exclusively of officers! This is the freedom which the three glorious days have procured for France!

The soldiers were desperately chagrined and mortified at the result of the three days of July; and well they might be so, as all the sub

Polignae is now completely justified for all but the incapacity of commencing a change of the constitution with 5000 men, four pieces of cannon, and eight rounds of grape-shot to support it. The ordinances of Charles X., now adopted with increased severity by Louis Philippe, were destined to accomplish, without bloodshed, that change which the fury of democracy rendered necessary, and without which it has been found the Throne of the Barricades cannot exist. It is evident that the French do not know what freedom is. They had it under the Bourbons, as our people had it under the old constitution; but it would not content them, because it was not liberty, but power, not freedom, but democracy, not exemption from tyranny, but the power of tyrannizing over others, that they desired. They gained their point, they accomplished their wishes,-and the consequence has been, two years of suffering, followed by military despotism. We always predicted the three glorious days would lead to this result; but the termination of the drama has come more rapidly than the history of the first Revolution led us to anticipate.

BOSSUET.

To those who study only the writers of a particular period, or have been deeply immersed in the literature of a certain age, it is almost incredible how great a change is to be found in the human mind as it there appears, as compared with distant times, and how much even the greatest intellects are governed by the circumstances in which they arise, and the prevailing tone of the public mind with which they are surrounded. How much soever we may ascribe, and sometimes with justice ascribe, to the force and ascendant of individual genius, nothing is more certain than that, in the general case, it is external events and circumstances which give a certain bent to human speculation, and that the most original thought is rarely able to do much more than anticipate by a few years, the simultaneous efforts of inferior intellects. Generally, it will be found that particular seasons or periods in the great year of nations or of the world, bring forth their own appropriate

Written on the day when the accounts of the defeat of the great Revolt at the Cloister of Silleri by Louis Philippe and Marshal Soult were received.

fruits: it is rarely that in June can be matured those of September. The changes which have made the greatest and most lasting alteration on the progress of science or the march of human affairs-printing, gunpowder, steam navigation—were brought to light, it is hardly known how, and by several different persons, so nearly at the same time, that it is difficult to say to whom the palm of original invention is to be awarded. The discovery of fluxions, awarded by common consent to the unapproachable intellect of Newton, was made about the same time by his contemporaries, Leibnitz and Gregory; the honours of original thought in political economy are divided be tween Adam Smith and the French economists; the improvements on the steam-engine were made in the same age by Watt and Arkwright; and the science of strategy was developed with equal clearness in the German treatise of the Archduke Charles, as the contemporary treatises of Jomini and Napoleon. The greatest intellect perceives only the coming light; the rays of the rising sun strike first upon the summits of the mountains, but his ascending

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