a favourable reception. It is true, that Sir Walter rejects the atrocious calumnies propagated, respecting his personal character. But he scarcely gives due credit to the private virtues, or the domestic decorum of his reign. England, under George III. and Austria, may have exhibited equal propriety and decency in their palaces, but where else in Europe was to be seen so much order, so much dignity, so much respect to public morals, as around the throne of Napoleon Bonaparte. We differ so much from Sir Walter, who represents him constantly as severe and vindictive, that we consider his temper as naturally liberal and indulgent, but with this, he possessed an understanding sufficiently clear to perceive the limits to which these feelings ought to extend, and a character sufficiently firm, to prevent them from encroaching on his public duties.

With talents so rare and so transcendent, with a character formed by nature for high and daring exploits, and thrown, by circumstances, into the midst of a revolution, where a career was fairly open for gifted ambition, it is not surprising that his success was rapid, his elevation great, and his power, at one period, almost unexampled. Few men, in the history of our race, have experienced such vicissitudes. In 1795, thrown out of service as a suspected jacobin, he went to Paris to solicit employment, destitute of all resources but his talents, and without one friend to cheer his efforts or support his claims. In 1811, the following picture is given by our author of his power.

"It was especially when a formal annunciation, both in France and Austria, called the good subjects of both realms to rejoice in the prospect that Maria Louisa would soon give an heir to Napoleon, that men who opened the map of Europe, saw with fear and wonder, the tremendous inheritance to which the expected infant was likely to succeed.

"The actual dominions of France, governed by Napoleon, in his own proper right as emperor of France and king of Italy, had gradually attained the following extravagant dimensions. They extended from Travemunde, on the Baltic ocean, to the foot of the Pyrenees, measuring from north-east to south-west; and from Dunkirk to Terracina, on the confines of the Neapolitan territories, measuring from north to south. A population of forty-two millions of people, fitted in various ways to secure the prosperity of a state, and inhabiting, for wealth, richness of soil, and felicity of climate, by far the finest portion of the civilized earth, formed the immediate liege subjects of this magnificent empire.

"Yet, to stop here, were greatly to undervalue the extent of Napoleon's power. We have to add to his personal empire, Lombardy, the Illyrian provinces, Istria, Dalmatia, and Albania. Then in his charac ter of Mediator of the Helvetian Republic, the Emperor exercised an almost absolute authority in Switzerland, which furnished him, though unwillingly, with several fine regiments of auxiliaries. The German Confederation of the Rhine, though numbering kings among their

league, were, at the slightest hint, bound to supply him, each with his prescribed quota of forces, with a readiness and an affectation of zeal, very different from the slack and reluctant manner in which they formerly supplied their paltry contingents to the Emperor of Germany.

Murat, with his kingdom of Naples, was at his brother-in-law's disposal, and if, as Bonaparte's hopes whispered, the Peninsula should ultimately prove unable to resist the war he waged, then Spain and Portugal would be added to his immense empire. Thus, at least threefourths, but rather a considerably larger proportion of the civilized world were either in quiet subjection to Napoleon's sceptre, or on the point, as was supposed, of being so.

"Of all the Continental States, assuming even the semblance of independence, Russia seemed alone to possess it in reality-yet, there were but few who thought that Russia, in opposition to the whole continent of Europe, would dare confront Napoleon; and still fewer, even of the most sanguine politicians, had any deep grounded hope that her opposition would be effectual. Out of such a cimmerian midnight, to all human views, was the day-spring of European liberty destined to arise. Vol. ii. p. 295.

In 1816, a prisoner on a rock, in the midst of a tropical ocean, if not like Prometheus, actually chained, a victim of that destiny he was accustomed so much to invoke, he, at least, bore a consuming vulture in his bosom.

If we were to inquire what human cause had undermined and overturned such power, and swept away such lofty hopes, and to mortal eye, such certain expectations, we must ascribe it all to that sin by which even Angels fell, that restless and insatiable ambition which could find no enjoyment in the present, but looked for gratification always to the future. Actual possession palled on the jaded appetite. In a few days or a few weeks, he seemed to have exhausted all the schemes of improvement which a new conquest could furnish: (for to his praise be it spoken, improvement was always in his mind, we believe also in his wishes and in his heart; he was desirous that the condition of the whole world should be ameliorated; but he chose, at the same time, that he should be the great reformer, and that all beneficial changes should redound to the glory of his name.) Hence, he turned from one object to another, as if driven by an untiring passion for new enterprises or new possessions. In the midst of this almost physical excitement and necessity of action, there hovered around him that mystical opinion of predestined superiority, and supernatural protection, which was so often expressed, and seemed, really at moments, to influence his own conduct. Even in his most desolate hours at St. Helena, he looked forward to a time when the necessities of the world would recal him from exile, and replace him on the great theatre of action,

at the head of human affairs. He seemed to consider himself as alone among men, without an equal or a fellow, and was, therefore, apt to consider all events, all principles, all rights, only as they bore on himself alone.

"He held himself out to others (says Sir Walter) and, no doubt, occasionally considered himself, in his own mind, as an individual destined by heaven to the high station which he held, and one who could not, therefore, be opposed in his career without an express struggle being maintained against destiny, who, leading him by the hand, and, at the same time, protecting him with her shield, had guided him by paths as strange as perilous, to the post of eminence which he now occupied. No one had been his tutor in the lessons which led the way to his preferment. No one had been his guide in the dangerous ascent to power; scarce any one had been of so much consequence to his promotion, as to claim even the merit of an ally, however humble. It seemed as if Napoleon had been wafted on to this stupendous pitch of grandeur, by a power more effectual than that of any human assistance, nay, which surpassed, what could have been expected, from his own great talents, unassisted by the special interposition of destiny in his favour." Vol. ii. p. 145.

Amidst the interminable schemes, and sleepless and unappeasable ambition of Napoleon, one peculiarity tended beyond all other circumstances, to alienate governments and people from him, and secretly to kindle and to nurse that indignant hostility under which he finally fell. He was, generally, a profound and skilful calculator, fond too of dazzling and captivating the imagination; yet, in this instance, he departed from any apparent principle. We allude to the insults he was accustomed to offer so unceremoniously to nations and to their rulers, and the moments which he usually selected for his sarcasms or his unexpected usurpations; recreating often in the very hour of returning peace, the causes, and rekindling the emotions of bitter animosity. We know not whether to consider his conduct as arising from a determination to perpetuate hostility with surrounding nations—and this, as a calculation, was, if he supposed human enmity a weak and inactive principle, unworthy of himor merely as an outpouring of unrestrained pride, that regarded the feelings of other men as beneath his consideration. Thus, at the close of one of his brilliant campaigns, he often granted to a vanquished enemy better terms than might have been enforced, and at the very moment when such acts opened a door to returning harmony and good will, he would commit some aggression which would inevitably efface every friendly sentiment, and renew the impressions of deep, even if disguised mortification and resentment. Immediately after the treaty of Amiens,

while he was taking praise to himself for having given peace to the world, he began to announce in the Moniteur, that GreatBritain was excluded from the affairs of the Continent, that she could have, or claim nothing, but what was specially permitted by that treaty; and in order to shew, that in his views, no limits were placed by that treaty to his own encroachments, he assumed the office of President of the now stiled Italian Republic; acquired by treaty with Spain, the reversion of Parma and Elba, and the cession of Louisiana; obtained from Portugal the cession of Portuguese Guiana; and to settle some petty feuds in Switzerland, which he, himself, may have created, marched an army into, the country, and accepted the supreme power, under the title of Mediator of the Helvetian Republic; offending by these usurpations of dominion, Austria and Prussia, as well as GreatBritain. Again, as soon as he assumed the imperial crown, an act, in some points of view, gratifying to the other sovereigns of Europe, as it arrayed Napoleon himself on the side of authority, and took from his grasp that revolutionary weapon which had created so much terror, and, in truth, endangered, so much, the feudal aristocracy of that Continent; as if this peace-offering might too far conciliate his brother monarchs, he assumed also the title and authority of king of Italy, and to shew that this was not to be an empty pageant, he annexed Genoa to his empire, as if Italy could already be apportioned according to his sovereign will. After the peace of Presburgh, he gave the thrones of Holland and Naples to his brothers Louis and Joseph, and formed the Confederation of the Rhine, creating by this means dependent States, even in the heart of Germany. In forming these States, however, it was found convenient to obtain some districts belonging to Prussia, and Napoleon immediately offered in exchange Hanover, the hereditary dominions of the king of Great-Britain. This kind offer was readily accepted by Prussia, then at peace and in alliance with England; but two or three months afterwards, when Napoleon commenced a new negociation with this latter power, he offered, at once, to restore Hanover, appearing to think provinces or kingdoms as mere gew-gaws, which he could give and resume at pleasure. At Schoenbrunn, in the interval between the battles of Essling and Wagram, he issued the decree which deprived the Pope of his temporal dominions and power, and between the battle of Wagram and the peace of Schoenbrunn, while negociating a family alliance with Austria, the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, to whom the Court of Austria was peculiarly and zealously attached, was carried a prisoner to France, and treated with much personal disrespect, if not indignity. In the same manner,

while at peace with Russia, he seized the Duchy of Oldenburg, belonging to the brother-in-law of Alexander, with as little hesitation as if it had been the territory of the most dependent of his vassals. He never permitted the fears of the crowned heads of Europe to slumber, hence coalition after coalition was formed against him, and frequently in wars, which were provoked by his own unrestrained ambition, he would, apparently, be acting altogether on the defensive.

In France, itself, he was continually trespassing on all the principles of freedom; nominally remodelling, but virtually destroying every liberal institution which the Revolution had created, until, at length, not only the genuine Republicans, but even the advocates of a constitutional monarchy became secretly hostile to his government.

By these means, even amidst his great exploits, he was insensibly alienating the affections of multitudes; and when his fortunes changed, he found, that even in France, even in that country he so dearly prized, he had wearied, by his perpetual wars and encroachments, and by the sacrifices his systems required, the efforts and even the admiration of its citizens. He was abandoned, though with regret; he was lamented as soon as lost; and in the countries that he governed, the monuments of his glory, and the public benefactions and improvements with which his name must be inseparably united, will perpetuate his memory, even though history should be silent in his praise

Our observations on the character and policy of this extraordinary man, have been extended beyond our expectations, and the subject is by no means exhausted. The remarks which we intended to make on the narrative, and on some of the opinions of Sir Walter Scott, must be reserved for a future occasion.

By

ART. VII.-Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy. THOMAS COOPER, M. D. President of the South-Carolina College, and Professor of Chemistry and Political Economy. Svo. Columbia, S. C. Sweeny. 1826.

WHILE Political Economy has been thoroughly investigated in many of its parts and divisions, its fundamental principles are still far from being satisfactorily elucidated. Whether the