Buonaparte; to listen to innumerable plans for the dethrone ment of the King, and the proclamation either of another dynasty, or of a Provisional Republic; and finally, as the official organ of a military party, to write an offer of the Dictatorship to Eugene Beauharnois. Such having been his summer amusements at Ferrieres, when he returned to the Capital, on the approach of winter, he again changed his tack, and renewed his addresses to the Court. "The king, by his good pleasure, had commissioned M. the Duke d'Havre to supersede M. de Blacas in his confidential communica.tions with me. The true nobility of this nobleman's character, as well as his frank deportment, procured him my entire confidence ; I opened my whole heart to him, and found myself disposed to a freedom of communication which I had never before known. Never -had I, in any moment of my life, felt so little inclination to reserve ; never before did I find myself endowed with an eloquence so true, and a sensibility so intense, as those which accompanied the recital of the circumstances by which I had been fatally induced to vote for the death of Louis XVI. I can say it with truth, that this confession extorted from my feelings, was imbued at once with remorse and inspiration." Vol. II. p. 255. While thus confessing himself, with tears in his eyes, to a Minister of the King, Fouché was in direct communication with the party which was plotting the restoration of Buonaparte. Even this, however, was to be only the prologue of some other intrigue; he assisted the ex-Emperor, reserving in his own mind “ the intention of putting him down afterwards," and considering him as "nothing but a worn-out actor" Having entered into this conspiracy, and having induced -Murat to take up arms, Fouché, as soon as Buonaparte landed, sapprized the King of his danger, and offered to stop the invasion, provided the first Prince of the blood was appointed Lieutenant-general of the Kingdom, and the whole management of affairs was intrusted to his own hands. This modest proposal was declined; nevertheless, in an interview with Monsieur, he afterwards declared his grief that it was now impossible to serve the King's cause, and exclaimed as he took his leave, with "a sudden inspiration of hope”—“ take measures to save the King, and I will take steps to save the .Monarchy:" "Who could have imagined," continued Fouché, with impenetrable gravity," that after communications of so lofty an importance, there should be almost immediately set on foot against me and against my liberty, a kind of plot?" The single heartedness and sincerity of the patriot and sage surely ought to have protected him from a visit from the gendarmes. Having timely intelligence of the intended arrest, he profited by machinery well fitted to a Minister of Police, a secret door and a ladder, which conveyed him to the house of Hortense, and there he found himself secure in the heart of the élite of Bonapartists. Napoleon on re-occupying the Thuilleries again, installed Fouché Minister of Police; not, as he afterwards learned, from his over good will, but induced by the persuasions of Bassano, Caulaincourt, and others. On obtaining this appointment, Fouché " did not hesitate to request the King, by means of an agent on whom he could rely, to permit him to devote himself, when opportunity occurred, to his service." The overture was accepted, and sanctioned by the Duke of Wellington, Prince Metternich, and Prince Talleyrand. His correspondence with Metternich was discovered. Buonaparte convened a Council, stated that Fouché was a traitor, that he had proofs of it, and that he was about to have him shot. Every voice protested against so violent a measure. Carnot observing that he persevered, replied, "It is in your power to have Fouché shot, but to-morrow at the same hour your power will have departed." Buonaparte at last consented to send an emissary to Bale to unravel the plot. Fouché apprized of this proceeding, placed Metternich's letter in his portfeuille, and, after an audience with Buonaparte, pretending to awaken to the sudden recollection of a fact which he had forgotten, from the oppression of too much business, submitted it to his perusal, with a well feigned doubt as to Metternich's wish; at the same time implying, that he believed it to accord with his own, namely, that Buonaparte should avoid a war with all Europe by the only means now in his power, an abdication in favour of his son. The trick succeeded, and Buonaparte was out-witted. Buonaparte set out for the army. "In this decisive condition of affairs, my position became very delicate, as well as very difficult; I wished to have nothing further to do with Napoleon; yet, if he should be victorious, I should be compelled to submit to his yoke, as well as the whole of France, whose calamities he would prolong. On the other hand, I had engagements with Louis XVIII.; not that I was inclined to his resto ration; but prudence required that I should procure for myself before-hand something in the shape of a guarantee. My agents, moreover, to M. de Metternich and Lord Wellington had promised mountains and marvels. The generalissimo, at least, expected that I should provide him with the plan of the campaign. "In the first instance-but the voice of my country, the glory of the French army which appeared to me in any other light than that of the nation, in short, the dictates of honour startled me at the thought, that the word traitor might ever become an appendage to the name of the Duke d'Otranto; and my resolution remained unsullied. Mean time, in such a conjuncture, what part was to be taken by a statesman, to whom it is never permitted to remain without resources? This is the resolution I took. I knew positively that the unexpected onset of Napoleon's force would occur on the 16th or 18th, at latest; Napoleon, indeed, determined to give battle on the 17th to the English army, after detaching them from the Prussians, and marching to the attack sur le ventre of the latter. He was so much the better justified in expecting success from his plan, since Wellington, deceived from false reports, imagined it possible to delay the opening of the campaign till the 1st of July. The success of Napoleon rested, therefore, on the success of a surprise; I took my measures accordingly. On the very day of Napoleon's departure, I provided Madame D with notes, written in cipher, disclosing the plan of the campaign, and sent her off. At the same time I occasioned impediments on that part of the frontier which she was to pass, in such a manner as to prevent her reaching the head-quarters of Wellington, till after the result. This is a true explanation of the inconceivable supineness of the generalissimo, which occasioned so universal an astonishment, and conjectures of so opposite a description." Vol. II. p. 290. On Buonaparte's abdication, Fouché became President of an Executive Provisional Committee which proposed peace to the allies, and signified assent to any Government but that of the Bourbons. These offers having been rejected, Fouché despatched "a friend, a man of property, to the Duke of Wellington's head quarters, with two letters sowed in the collar of his coat; one to the King, the other to the Duke of Orleans; a second agent brought a reply from the Duke of Wellington, that he had orders not to treat on any basis but the re-establishment of Louis XVIII. This reply Fouché carefully concealed from his colleagues. "I hoped, moreover, that by aiding Louis XVIII. to remount the throne, I should induce that prince to detach some dangerous individuals from his presence, and to make new concessions to France, reserving to myself if I could obtain nothing, the privilege of subsequently recurring to other combinations." Vol. II. p. 307. "Such was my position, that I was obliged to have negotiations with all parties, and compromise with all the shades of opinion either attached to my interest or to that of the state." Vol. II. p. 308. The King made his public entry into Paris, and no one who has paid attention to the foregoing narrative can be surprized at its conclusion. Fouché had talents for mankind, There was an universal exclamation from all parts of the country to the effect, that without me there was neither security for the King, nor safety for France, and that all parties had come to an understanding on the necessity of continuing me in office." One who had corresponded so largely and so indiscriminately was quite certain to strike into some old track. Whatever occurred he pursued, and therefore we were prepared for the denouement, that "in so deplorable a conjuncture, I did not withhold from my country the benefit of my labour and exertion." It is at this point that the Memoirs before us terminate. We are promised a continuation; and unless the prosecution to which we have already alluded prevents the fulfilment of this promise, we shall probably learn the particulars of the last five years of Fouché's eventful life, and we may then be able to pronounce with entire certainty upon the authenticity of any part or the whole of this publication. ART. X. Odes and Addresses to Great People Ir we were inclined to string a rosary of common-places, and to apothegmatize in good set terms of morality, what food does the title of this little volume present to our crav'ing! Alexander and Jonathan Wild, the Czar Peter and Thomas Thumb, Herod and the Irish Giant have all in their turns been enlarged by the same appendage of honor, and like a comet or a Highland laird have carried their brightest glories in their tails,-But alas, "how little are the great!" in days of yore no one was deemed to possess the necessary passport to this distinguished title, unless he had despatched some thousands of his fellow creatures on the battle-field or some hundreds at the new drop; unless he had worked his way out of a ship-yard or a cow's belly; unless he had really massacred babes, or at least looked big enough to eat them— but now-out on such degenerate times!-We meet here with no less than thirteen greatnesses in a bunch-aye and two of them corporate bodies-and they have a poet to boot, who magnifies them all in due proportion to their respective bulks, and adjusts his measures to the comparative size of his subject. That future ages may have no doubts as to the worthies of the present, and that our illustrious contemporaries may of the nation, in short, the dictates of honour startled me at the thought, that the word traitor might ever become an appendage to the name of the Duke d'Otranto; and my resolution remained unsullied. Mean time, in such a conjuncture, what part was to be taken by a statesman, to whom it is never permitted to remain without resources? This is the resolution I took. I knew positively that the unexpected onset of Napoleon's force would occur on the 16th or 18th, at latest; Napoleon, indeed, determined to give battle on the 17th to the English army, after detaching them from the Prussians, and marching to the attack sur le ventre of the latter. He was so much the better justified in expecting success from his plan, since Wellington, deceived from false reports, imagined it possible to delay the opening of the campaign till the 1st of July. The success of Napoleon rested, therefore, on the success of a surprise; I took my measures accordingly. On the very day of Napoleon's departure, I provided Madame D with notes, written in cipher, disclosing the plan of the campaign, and sent her off. At the same time I occasioned impediments on that part of the frontier which she was to pass, in such a manner as to prevent her reaching the head-quarters of Wellington, till after the result. This is a true explanation of the inconceivable supineness of the generalissimo, which occasioned so universal an astonishment, and conjectures of so opposite a description." Vol. II. p. 290. On Buonaparte's abdication, Fouché became President of an Executive Provisional Committee which proposed peace to the allies, and signified assent to any Government but that of the Bourbons. These offers having been rejected, Fouché despatched "a friend, a man of property, to the Duke of Wellington's head quarters, with two letters sowed in the collar of his coat; one to the King, the other to the Duke of Orleans; a second agent brought a reply from the Duke of Wellington, that he had orders not to treat on any basis but the re-establishment of Louis XVIII. This reply Fouché carefully concealed from his colleagues. "I hoped, moreover, that by aiding Louis XVIII. to remount the throne, I should induce that prince to detach some dangerous individuals from his presence, and to make new concessions to France, reserving to myself if I could obtain nothing, the privilege of subsequently recurring to other combinations." Vol. II. p. 307. "Such was my position, that I was obliged to have negotiations with all parties, and compromise with all the shades of opinion either attached to my interest or to that of the state." Vol. II. p. 308. The King made his public entry into Paris, and no one who has paid attention to the foregoing narrative can be surprized at its conclusion. Fouché had talents for mankind, |