was hastened by the battle of Marengo; patient mind into a harsh or hasty conthe treaty of Tilsit was felt as an object of demnation of individuals. His censure of interest in the deserts of Central Asia; the Napoleon's ambition is, as we have seen, battle of Leipsic roused or paralyzed every lenient almost to excess. Of his other European from Cadiz to the North Cape. misdeeds, real and imputed, he speaks with The French empire, in a word, resembled equal, though we trust better merited, forthe talismanic globe of the sorcerers in bearance. He is willing to acquit the First Thalaba, the slightest touch upon which Consul of the mysterious deaths of Wright caused the whole universe to tremble. and Pichegru, which he ascribes to the apThere are few subjects upon which public prehensive cruelty of the French policeopinion has differed more widely than upon men too well known to have been familiar the moral character of Napoleon. Thirty with every form of violence and treachery. years ago, most Englishmen believed him His narrative of the lamented fate of the to be one of those wretched monomaniacs Duc d'Enghien does the highest credit both who have seemed to feel a pleasurable ex- to his humanity and his self-command. citement in tormenting their fellow-crea- Nothing can be more feelingly expressed tores. Even now, he is generally con- than his commiseration of the brave and sidered as a man naturally cold and un- innocent sufferer; but he has not permitted feeling, and hardened by habit into a total it to hurry him into rash or unthinking deindifference to human suffering. But we nunciations against the guilty party. He do not think that either opinion will satisfy represents the crime of Napoleon in its any person who impartially examines the true light-not as an act of wanton murder, present account of his actions and policy. but as the blind vengeance of a violent Mr. Alison has supplied us with a new man, justly alarmed and enraged by the and very plausible palliation of Napoleon's atrocious attempts of the French Royalists ambition. He repeatedly and very reason- against his life. But there is one scene in ably insists on the precarious foundation of Napoleon's career which no sophistry can the French empire, and on the irresistible palliate-which no imagination can elevate necessity which compelled its chief at once-which his most devoted partisans can but to dazzle and unite his subjects, by engaging them in successful war. If, indeed, this excuse stood alone, we should think comparatively little of its force. Necessity is the tyrant's plea. No spectacle can be more painfully interesting than that of a character naturally great and noble, whose moral sense has been blunted by the influence of early habit, and the encouragement of vulgar applause. But we feel no such sympathy for the man who knowingly and wilfully prefers his interest to his duty. Many a mind, which would have defied both intimidation and seduction, has been warped and weakened by the imperceptible force of custom; but when the strong temptation is combined with the enervating influence, we may well cease to wonder at its victory. Napoleon, bred, and almost born, a soldier and a revolutionist, preferred unjust war to political extinction. How many legitimate sovereigns have preferred it to undisturbed security! We have been much gratified by the calm and impartial spirit in which Mr. Alison discusses the general character of this extraordinary man. Indeed, we feel bound to remark, that throughout the whole of the present work, we do not recollect a single case in which the political prejudices of the author, uncharitable as they sometimes appear, have been able to hurry his calm and endeavor to forget. We allude to the treacherous detention of the English families travelling in France in 1801. We do not say that none of Napoleon's acts were more criminal; but we think that none were so inconsistent with the character of a great man. His other crimes, heavy as they may be, were at least the crimes of a conqueror and a statesman. They were crimes such as Attila or Machiavel might have committed or approved-crimes of passion, or of deep and subtle policy. The massacre of Jaffa, and the invasion of Spain might have been forgotten by a generation which had witnessed the atrocities of Ismail and Warsaw-which had pardoned FrederickWilliam for his sordid occupation of Hanover-and Alexander for the vile treachery which wrested Finland from his own brave and faithful ally. The ambition which provokes unjust war-the passions which prompt a violent and bloody revenge-even the craft which suggests deep-laid schemes of political treachery-have but too often been found consistent with many brilliant and useful virtues. But the measure of which we speak displayed the spirit of a Francis or a Ferdinand-the spirit which has peopled Siberia with Polish nobles, and crowded the dungeons of Austria with Italian patriots. It displayed the cold unrelenting spite of a legitimate despot, inured from childhood to the heartless policy of below that of Cope or Mack. But we prowhat is called a paternal government. We test against the advocate's usurping the are not partial to a practice in which Mr. functions of the judge. We protest against Alison frequently indulges-that of at- his assuming that he has triumphed-against tempting to trace the immediate interfer- his referring to the question as one irrevoence of Providence in every remarkable cably settled in his favor-against his pourcoincidence of human affairs; but we can- ing upon the accused the contempt and rinot avoid being struck by a melancholy re- dicule to which posterity alone can fitly semblance between the captivity in which sentence him. This is worse than mere Napoleon ended his life, and the lingering disrespect to the memory of a celebrated torments which he had wantonly inflicted man; it is arrogant and ridiculous_selfon ten thousand of his harmless fellow-flattery. A century and a half ago Louis XIV. acquired a high reputation as a gene creatures. critics of whom we speak write of Napoleon. We should have said that he might be a clever, clear-headed man; but that, if he chose to deliver a paradox in the tone of an oracle, it was his own fault that nobody listened to him. But this is the most favorable point of view. What do we say of the detractors whom posterity has pro We are pleased to find in Mr. Alison a ral. Posterity has weighed and found him zealous, though discriminating admirer of wanting. But suppose that a young officer the military genius of Napoleon. The con- of that day had written of Louis as the trary judgment has lately been proclaimed by a few military critics, and supported with a vehement and disdainful asperity, which strikes us, to say the least, as singularly ungraceful. This is perhaps most unsparingly and offensively exemplified in a series of essays which appeared some years since in a professional Journal, and which, if we are rightly informed, excited consider-nounced in the wrong? What do we say able notice among military men. They are of the slanderers of Marlborough and of understood to be the production of an offi- Moore ? The destruction of a brilliant but cer in the British army, well known for his unmerited reputation is the most useful, the speculations in the theory of war, and pos- most difficult, the most invidious, and theresessing, we believe, much experience in fore, perhaps, the noblest task of an honest actual service. They are full of ingenious investigator of historic truth. But it rereasoning, of contemptuous invective, and quires candor and delicacy no less than of ironical derision. Now we have not the boldness and acumen. When it is attemptslightest wish to set up authority against ed from an obvious sense of duty, we adargument. We shall not turn upon this mire the unflinching sincerity of the assailcritic and say, 'The oldest and bravest ant, even though we condemn his severity. generals in Europe still tremble at the me- But when he undertakes it in the exultation mory of the man whom you; undertake to of superior discernment-when he performs prove a mere fortunate fool:-is it likely it with the insolence of personal antipathy that your judgment should be more correct--his victory will be unhonored and unsymthan theirs?' But we think that the oppo-pathized with, and his defeat will be emsition of authority is a good reason, not for bittered by universal scorn and indignation. suppressing a theory, but for delivering it. in modest and tolerant language. We know that argument is a weapon which the weakest may successfully wield, and which the strongest cannot resist. As the Chevalier Bayard complained of the arquebuse, in the hands of a child it may strike down the most valiant knight on earth. We therefore think it no presumption in the youngest ensign in the army to plead against Napoleon's claims to military glory. Let him fairly state his opinion, and fairly endeavor to establish it. The greater the impostor, the more dazzling the illusion-the higher will be our obligation to the bold and keensighted advocate who brings him to justice. We do not, therefore, complain of the military critics in question for attempting to place Napoleon's military reputation a step We do not possess the technical knowledge necessary to dissect the criticisms to which we have alluded. We can only judge as unlearned mortals, let scientific tacticians say what they will, always must judge-by general results. We can only consider what Napoleon did, and whether, according to the ordinary doctrine of chances, it is conceivable that he could have done so much had he been a man of no extraordinary powers. Napoleon, then, commanded in person at fourteen of the greatest pitched battles which history has recorded. Five times-at Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, and Wagram-he crushed the opposing army at a blow; finished the war, in his own emphatic phrase, by a coupde-foudre; and laid the vanquished power humbled and hopeless at his feet. Five countable infatuation. No number of failures can destroy the conclusion arising from such repeated and complete victories. The instances in which fools have blundered into brilliant success are rare; but the instances in which men of genius have been betrayed into gross errors are innumerable. And, therefore, where the same man has brilliantly succeeded and lamentably failed, it is but fair to conclude, that the success is the rule, and the failure the exception. Every man constantly forms his opinions. respecting the affairs of real life upon this theory. In literature, in science, in the fine arts, no man's miscarriages are allowed to diminish the credit of his successes. Nobody denies that Dryden was a true poet because he wrote Maximin; for it was more likely that a true poet should write Maximin than that a dunce should write Absalom and Achitophel. Nobody denies that Bacon was a true philosopher because he believed in alchemy; for it was more likely that a true philosopher should believe in alchemy, than that an empiric should compose the Novum Organum. No classical scholar denies the merit of Bentley's edition of Horace, because he failed in his edition of Milton. No man of taste refuses to enjoy the wit and humor of Falstaff, because the same author imagined the pedantic quibbles of Biron. times at Borodino, Lutzen, Bautzen, Dres- Napoleon's superiority, by balancing them den, and Ligny-he was also decidedly with occasional examples of rash presumpvictorious, though with less overwhelming tion; or, even did such exist, of unaceffect. At Eylau the victory was left undecided. At Leipsic, the French were defeated, as is well known, by a force which outnumbered their own as five to three. At Waterloo, it is generally acknowledged that the overthrow of Napoleon was owing, not to any deficiency in skill on his part, but to the invincible obstinacy of the British infantry, who are admitted, even by the French accounts, to have displayed a passive courage, of which the most experienced warrior might be excused for thinking human nature incapable. At Aspern alone, to judge from the able account of Mr. Alison, does the partial defeat of the French emperor appear to have been owing to any faulty arrangement of his own. Five of his ten actions were gained over equal or superior forces; and among the generals defeated by him, we find the distinguished names of Wurmser, Melas, Benningsen, Blucher, and above all, the Archduke Charles. We might produce still stronger testimonies. We might relate the glorious successes of his first Italian campaign, in which four powerful armies were successively overthrown by a force comprising, from first to last, but 60,000 men. We might notice his romantic achievements in Egypt and Syria, against a new and harassing system of hostility. We might enlarge on the most wonderful of all his exploits the protracted struggle which he We shall not attempt to sketch the permaintained in the heart of France, with a sonal character of Napoleon. Yet it is a remnant of only 50,000 men, against the subject upon which, could we hope to do it quadruply superior numbers of the Allies. justice, the ample materials supplied by the But all this is unnecessary. If the success- present history might well tempt us to lines to which we have alluded are insuffi- ger. No labored eulogium could impress cient to prove that Napoleon was a gen- us with so much admiration for his surpasseral of the first order, the reputation of no ing genius, as the simple details collected soldier who ever existed can be considered by Mr. Alison. We never before so clearas established. If such numerous and ex-ly appreciated the mighty powers of Napotraordinary examples are insufficient to es-leon-his boundless fertility of resourcetablish a rule, then there is no such thing his calm serenity in the most desperate as reasoning by induction. It is in vain to emergencies-his utter ignorance of perendeavor to explain away such a succes-sonal fear-his piercing political foresightsion of proofs. Technical cavils can no the vast fund of miscellaneous knowledge more prove that Napoleon was a conqueror collected by the almost involuntary operaby chance, than the two sage Sergeants mentioned by Pope could persuade the public that Lord Mansfield was a mere wit. The common sense of mankind cannot be permanently silenced by scientific jargon. Plain men, though neither lawyers nor mathematicians, see no presumption in pronouncing Alfred a great legislator, or Newton a great astronomer. It is equally in vain to attempt to neutralize the proofs of tion of his perspicacious and tenacious intellect-the rapid and vigorous reasoning faculties, which applied themselves, with the ease and precision of some exquisite machine, to every subject alike which for an instant attracted his attention. In his seventy-second chapter, Mr. Alison has collected a variety of highly interesting details, respecting the private manners and habits of Napoleon. It is scarce ly possible to describe the impression which | This sudden check so damped their ardor, that its perusal leaves on the mind. The strange their only object appeared to be to get out of the city contrast of warm affection and vindictive as fast as they could; in doing which they were crowded in dense masses in the narrow street. hatred, of fiery impetuosity and methodi- The Artillery now coming up, unlimbered within cal precision, of royal luxury and indefati- one hundred yards of the crowded fugitives, and gable self-denial, of fascinating courtesy poured in a destructive fire of grape and canister. and despotic harshness-the indomitable So awful was the destruction of human life, that pride, the vehement eloquence, the mag- the bodies were obliged to be removed to the sides of nanimous power of self-command, the fear- the streets to allow the guns to advance; and the ful bursts of passion-all combine to pro-and the Forty-ninth Regiment for several miles." pursuit was followed up by them [the Artillery duce an effect by which the dullest imagination must be enchanted, but which the most versatile genius might fail of depicting. The interest of the portrait is augmented by those minute personal peculiarities on which the romantic devotion of Napoleon's followers has so often dwelt-by the classical features, the piercing glance, the manners, now stern, abrupt, and imperious, now full of princely grace-even by the small plain hat, and the redingote grise, which have supplanted the white plume of Henri Quatre in French song and romance. We almost sympathize with the attachment of his soldiers, wild and idolatrous as it was, when we remember Mr. Alison's simple but imposing narrative of the events of the empire-of the congress of Tilsit, the farewell of Fontainbleau, and the unparalleled the marvellous march to Paris. It is impossible, in reading the striking details which record the personal demeanor of Napoleon during such scenes as these, not to recall the noble lines in which Southey has described Kehama: "Pride could not quit his eye, Nor that remorseless nature from his front That sure he seem'd to be the king of men ; Who carried in his port such might and majesty." PROGRESS OF THE OPIUM-WAR. From the Spectator. It is impossible to read the accounts of the military operations in China without shame and disgust. It is not war, but sheer butchery a battu in a well-stocked preserve of human beings. Captain BINGHAM, of the Royal Navy, in a book which we have not seen, but which the Standard has quoted with a justly indignant commentary, thus describes the capture of Ningpo: "About 12,000 [Chinese] advanced upon the southern and western gates, the guards retiring before them. On the Chinese penetrating to the market-place in the centre of the city, they were received by a heavy fire from our troops drawn up. Such scenes, it appears, are continually recurring in Captain BINGHAM's narrative. For instance, we read of the British placing a large body of Chinese between two fires, and killing six hundred with the loss of only one man: "the Chinese could do nothing against the terrific broadsides of the ships, the shells, and the rockets." Again, we are told of a Chinese army thrown into confusion by the unexpected appearance of two bodies of troops, which had advanced under cover while they were engaged with a third, and of fifteen hundred of them being killed with the loss of sixteen British killed and a few wounded. Nor are the armed soldiery the only sufferers: "With such a tremendous bombardment as had been going on for two hours in this densely-populated neighborhood, it must be expected that pitiable sights were to be witnessed. At one spot were four children struck down, while the frantic father was occasionally embracing their bodies, or making attempts to drown himself in a neighboring tank. Numerous similar scenes were wil nessed." There can be no mistake as to these facts. The Chinese are a muscular race: that they do not effeminately shrink from pain-that they can brave death-has been shown repeatedly in the course of these massacres. But they have no practical experience of war; they are ill-armed; and the tremendous effects of British artillery, bombs, and rockets, are to them at once fearful and inconceivable. The contest between them and the British forces is more unequal than that between the surprised bewildered mob of Manchester and the armed soldiery of Peterloo. They are hacked, shot, and drowned, without resistance, overcome by their own sense of helplessness and their excited imaginations; and the details of the butchery are such that we should feel sickened to see it exercised on cattle or game. densely-peopled part of China alone (the districts on the sea-coast, the great canal, AMERICAN CRIMINAL TRIALS. CHANDLER. Volume I. and the two great rivers) is more than twice American Criminal Trials. By PELEG W. the size of the British Islands. This large space is dotted at brief intervals with towns as large and crowded as our first-rate and second-rate manufacturing towns. The inhabitants are prejudiced against foreigners: they are identified with the civil government of the country; for the career of office is open to every one who chooses to study, and schools and colleges and foundations for poor scholars are numerous. Such a population can only be kept in subjection by a present force. It will effect nothing WHEN we received this volume, in the height of the London season, we could do little more than chronicle its arrival and commend its scope and purpose. The autumnal leisure having enabled us to peruse it with attention, we propose to notice it more fully, as well for the merits of its execution as for the curious picture of old colonial manners it presents, and the suggestions it offers to the students of history and human nature. to take one town and move on to another: The plan and execution of the American every town that is taken must be garri- Criminal Trials are rather peculiar. They soned, or after the capture of every second are not a mere servile copy or dry abridgtown the British army must move back to ment of existing reports, where the only retake that which surrendered to them be- merit of the compiler consists in calling fore it. The occupation of China by the public attention to certain proceedings, and British must be a constant succession of facilitating their perusal by collecting the popular insurrections and military execu- scattered records into a series; nor are they tions. And in the perpetration of these merely a skilful and elaborate description continuous outrages on humanity, one of singular trials, suppressing what is forBritish army after another will be absorbed, mal or subordinate and bringing out the as a tall frigate is sucked down into a quick-more striking points. Although skilful in sand, producing no effects, leaving no trace his treatment and often graphic in his efof its having been there. The troops ne- fects, Mr. Chandler, by accident or design, cessary for the defence of the rest of the has generally chosen such American crimiempire will be drafted off for the still be-nal trials as throw a light upon American ginning never ending conquest of China, colonial history, or exhibit the phases of leaving us naked to the aggression of any public opinion-it may be, of public madenemy. The Chinese Government is awareness. Hence there is frequently an interest of this source of strength arising out of its over and above that of the facts of the trials very weakness. It is strong in the power themselves, from the public events with of countless numbers infinitely dispersed. which they were connected, or the singular It feels confident, that though the foreign and criminal public delusion which they reinvaders were to kill year by year ten times cord; whilst Mr. Chandler, by introductory as many as they have killed since the war notices, or observations intermixed with began, the natural increase of the popula-the text, makes the reader sufficiently action would more than fill up the vacuum. Army after army is sent into the field, where certain defeat awaits it; town after town is defended with a foreknowledge that it must fall. The Chinese Government looks forward, and not without reason, to the time when their fierce and irresistible assailants will be stretched in sheer exhaustion on the top of the hecatombs they are slaughtering-passing away like pestilence, famine, and other mysterious visitations. And as the rulers think, so think and feel the people. Is it a sign of wisdom in the British nation to persist in a struggle which can only weaken it? Is it a sign of humanity to sanction such wholesale butchery of human beings? Is it a sign of morality to do all this in order that a poisonous drug may be smuggled into the markets of China? quainted with the period to follow the trials with advantage, as by judicious observations at their close he often points the moral which they illustrate. The volume commences in 1637, with the case of Anne Hutchinson for "sedition and heresy," and closes in 1770, with the trial of Captain Preston and some soldiers for murder, in consequence of firing on the people in the riot, called at the time the Boston Massacre. The principal other cases are those connected with the New England persecution of the Quakers, 16561661; the bloody and fanatical proceedings against witchcraft in 1692; the trial of John Peter Zenger for libel on the Government of New York, in 1735; the Negro Plot trials at New York, in 1741, for a conspiracy to burn the city, murder the inhabitants, erect a White pot-house-keeper as |