ADVERTISEMENT

OF THE EDITORS,

DURING the last seven years much has been written respecting Napoleon; all have wished to say what they knew of him; many have said what they did not know.

Statesmen, soldiers, and authors of all nations have been desirous of passing judgment upon him; every body has spoken, except himself. At length he also breaks silence, and in the most solemn manner.

At the time of his abdication at Fontainebleau, he said to the remains of his old legions,

I will record the deeds we have performed

together;" but the rapid succession of events which led to the revolution of the 20th of March, did not permit him to write his memoirs at the Isle of Elba; nor was he able to fulfil the promise given at Fontainebleau, until he arrived at Saint-Helena.

No sooner was his political career terminated, than his restless mind eagerly reverted to this project; he did not even wait till he arrived at

the rock of exile; on board the vessel which carried him thither he commenced his memoirs.

He employed the six years of his captivity in writing the account of the twenty years of his political life. So constantly was he occupied in this undertaking, that to describe the labour he bestowed upon it, would almost be to write the history of his life at SaintHelena.

He seldom wrote himself; impatient at the pen which refused to follow the rapidity of his thoughts.

When he wished to draw up an account of any event, he caused the generals who surrounded him to investigate the subject; and when all the materials were collected, he dictated to them extempore.

Napoleon revised the manuscript, correcting it with his own hand: he often dictated it anew; and still more frequently recommenced a whole page in the margin. These manuscripts, entirely covered with his writing, have been carefully preserved, because nothing which comes from so celebrated a man will be indifferent in the eyes of terity; and they constitute an unquestionable proof of authenticity.

pos

Napoleon had requested that all new works.

should be sent to him from France; some of them reached him. He read them with eagerness, particularly those which were published against him. Lampoons and libels only excited in him a smile of contempt; but when he met with passages in important works, in which his policy had been mistaken or misinterpreted, he defended himself with his usual vivacity. He would read the passage several times over: then, folding his arms, and walking up and down with more or less rapidity according to the interest he felt in the subject, he would dictate a reply; but in the course of a few sentences, hurried away by the force of his imagination, he almost always forgot both the author and his book, and was entirely absorbed by the fact itself to which the work related.

Napoleon considered these notes as constituting materials for his memoirs; they are the more interesting, because, being the fruits of an unpremeditated dictation, the author's ideas lie on the surface; and because they throw a light on events the particulars of which have hitherto remained unknown. We have therefore made a distinct collection of them.

Like Cæsar and Frederic, Napoleon writes in the third person; he was not very solicitous about his style: the truth of facts, and the de

sire to make known to his contemporaries and to posterity, the motives which governed his actions, such were the objects to which he seems to have directed his attention.

In publishing these memoirs, we are under no apprehension of being confounded with the editors of works intended to awaken hostile feelings and to irritate party spirit. Here, every thing bears the grave character of History; and of all possible publications on our memorable times, the Memoirs of Napoleon will be the most important and remarkable; an honourable monument to the glory of France, and calculated rather to calm than to excite the passions.

This work is written with the impartiality which history requires; but as it may be possible that in the absence of materials the illustrious historian may have sometimes fallen into error, we shall conceive we are fulfilling his intentions, by opening the door to explanation. We shall consider it our duty to collect such elucidations as we may receive; and shall publish them whenever they are of historical importance, and supported by unquestionable documents.