others, the loss of country. With the fortunes of Hannibal, sunk those of his country; on that day Carthage, the great rival of Rome, and which had so long disputed with her the empire of the world, fell from her proud eminence in the rank of nations, never to rise again. In this disastrous day every thing was lost but the reputation of Hannibal, and the glory of his achievements.

The fall of a great man is a sublime spectacle, and excites the respect of generous and noble minded enemies. But it forms a disgraceful page in Roman story, that that powerful nation should have pursued a fallen man in his misfortunes,; and should have manifested such an apprehension of an individual, although deprived of all power and influence, reduced to the condition of a fugitive, as to deprive him of every asylum, and to break through the sanctity of treaties to procure his destruction.

But this stain upon the Roman name is not without examples. In modern times the world has beheld a "holy alliance" of all the great Powers of Europe against one man. The hero of antiquity, to whom we have alluded was only the object of hostility and jealousy of one powerful nation; but the hero of modern Europe occasioned a combination of all the great powers, against him. In what a dignified light, does it exhibit the members of the "holy alliance" to view them formed into a league, and uniting all their resources for the purpose of conquering a single individual. And how does it exalt the character of this man, to consider him as the object of the hostility of all the nations of Europe. Had not these events actually taken place, and were they not too public and notorious to admit of doubt, they would be deemed incredible. In all the manifestos published during this war, it was uniformly declared by the holy league that they did not wage war against France, but against Bonaparte. The war was declared not to be national, but personal, its object was not France, but Bonaparte, who was

denounced, as a usurper, and outlawed, not only from the pale of royalty, but from all the rights of humanity. The success of the contest of all the crowned heads of Europe against a single individual, does not exempt the former from any portion of the contempt which the transaction is calculated to inspire. Was any thing requisite to bring royalty into utter contempt, this Holy League, ostensibly, against the person of Bonaparte, but more against the principles of liberty and the rising spirit of the people, was calculated to produce that effect.

But the hostility and jealousy of the holy league against Bonaparte, did not end with his power; like the ancient hero, his great and magnanimous enemies instead of feeling respect for a great man fallen, a man of whom they had all purchased peace, and many of them their crowns by submission and supplication, they pursued him with a malignity as relentless as death, as insatiable as the grave.

As in his fall, so in his rise and in his career of prosperity and glory, he greatly surpasses either of the heroes of antiquity to whom we have alluded. With both of them, the influence of family and powerful friends aided their advancement to the high stations to which they attained; and if they were equally successful in war with the hero of modern Europe, their victories and conquests were much less glorious, and the consequences of them much less important.

The early advancement of Bonaparte was without any such powerful aids, and at the same time more rapid; his career as a soldier was more splendid and glorious, his triumphs were more distinguished, as the enemies whom he conquered, were more numerous and powerful, and in every respect possessed equal advantages for successful warfare. It was not barbarous nations which he conquered; but the most powerful kingdoms, possessing great resources, and a population, long habituated to war. It was not single states but all Europe combined, with which he had to contend,

and against which his arms were for a long time uniformly successful. He defeated their combined armies, he invaded their territories, he entered their capitals, and to use his own favourite phrase, he frequently "conquered peace" and dictated the law to Europe; and that too from the capitals of his enemies. He not only acquired supreme power, but did much towards "consolidating a great Empire," and nearly established universal dominion in Europe. Although once a humble, private citizen himself, in the height of his power he trampled thrones under his feet; made and unmade Kings, treating them as insignificant beings whom " a breath could ruin as a breath had made" demolished and established Kingdoms, razeeing some and enlarging others.

As a being of superior order, the world witnessed his career of success and glory with astonishment, and the magnitude of his power, the terror of his arms and the splendour of his achievements, for a period petrified his enemies with fear and alarm. His fame and glory, like a meteor shed a portentous blaze through the hemisphere of Europe which threatened universal ruin.

But the most exalted positions are the most unstable and dangerous; and the distance between the highest and the lowest stations is often infinitely small. What an astonishing vicissitude in the fortunes of an individual. The hero, terrible in arms, the emperor of a great nation, the conqueror and the arbiter of Europe, suddenly falls from his awful eminence to the level of a private citizen-yes lower than this, he becomes an exile and a prisoner. The man whose ambition seemed to compass the whole world, and who had conquered one continent, has neither a country nor a home-he, whom thousands once obeyed, and whose name was once a terror to kings, falls so low, that "there is none so poor as to do him reverence." As no other private individual ever had such a successful career of prosperity and glory, or attained such high

dignity and power, so we have no example of any one, when the evil day came, being overwhelmed with such dreadful reverses, or sustaining such an awful and tremendous fall.

The history of Bonaparte from the time he was constituted First Consul, to his abdication, is identified with the history of Europe. It is not proposed therefore to give his history in extenso; but to present some of the most striking and interesting events and incidents of the life of a man, whose extraordinary genius, and whose unequalled achievements, however his character may be appreciated, must ever render him a subject of the highest admiration.