towards his family, and affected him a moment. "Oh, my wife, my best beloved," cried he, " I shall see thee then no more!" Suddenly breaking short, however, he exclaimed, "Danton, no weakness!" and immediately ascended the scaffold.' All the actors in the horrors of the Revolution were young men, but St.Just terminated his career of blood at the early age of twenty-six. Appointed to the Convention in 1792, he soon entered on active functions as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and a deputy to the head quarters of the armies. Having been sent in the latter capacity into Alsace, he kept a guillotine standing in the square of Strasburg, while another was sent out to traverse the country. Being subsequently commissioned in the same character to the army of the north, which he found, or pretended to find, in a state of insubordination, he is said to have had fifty officers and soldiers shot in one day : • A cold head, a fiery soul, a hard and inflexible temper, and increble audacity, rendered him capable of every thing. Connected with Robespierre, who was well aware of the value of such an assistant, he was for a long time (especially after the end of 1793) his principal' confident; and assisted him to play a part, which he himself would doubtless have been able to support with much better success, had he possessed any fame or fortune. It was in 1794 that, being in great part master of the mind of Robespierre, he became, with Couthon, the confident, and frequently the regulator of the tyrant's projects.When the faction which overthrew Robespierre began to work, St. Just exerted all his efforts to persuade the tyrant to strike without delay; but he could not this time prevent him from temporizing. On going out of the meeting on the 8th Thermidor, year 2, (26th of July, 1794,) in which Bourdon de l'Oise, Tallien, and some other members had already ventured to set themselves up against Robespierre, he again pressed him not to lose an instant, but to make sure of his enemies that very night; but the fluctuation and terror which are the ordinary forerunners of the fall of factions, again prevailed over his advice; Robespierre delayed for 24 hours the execution of the plan proposed by St. Just, and desired him to sound the minds of the Convention again the next day, and to prepare them by a speech. At the opening of the meeting of the 9th Thermidor, therefore, St. Just boldly presented himself in the tribune, and declared that, "were it to become the Tarpeian rock for him, he would nevertheless speak his opinion;" but in vain did he attempt to denounce the government committees; he was interrupted by reiterated cries. He went to execution with tranquillity and coolness, without the vociferations of the spectators having power to move him.—In 1801 appeared a work containing his labours on institutions: this production, incomplete, but full of profound investigation, is well calculated to give an idea of his genius and character.' The versatility of the French character was strikingly exemplified in the history of André Dumont, one of the deputies Cc 2 from from the department of La Somme. Having been sent on a mission thither in 1793, he displayed the greatest cruelty against the clergy and all who were suspected of royalism. He wrote to Paris" that three things made the department tremble, namely, the revolutionary tribunal, the guillotine, and the partisan of Marat, André Dumont." By the 27th of July 1794 he had changed sides, and declared violently against Robespierre; maintaining afterward that he had stripped and imprisoned so many citizens, only to save them from the rage of the terrorists. A more substantial proof of his antipathy to Jacobins was given by his courageous resistance to the dangerous insurrections of the 1st of April and 20th of May 1795. In the following year, he advocated the cause of the emigrants; and, having been appointed, after Bonaparte's usurpation, sub-prefect at Abbeville, he has endeavoured to efface, by just and conciliatory behaviour, the recollection of his revolutionary opinions and crimes. David, the painter, was a zealous adherent of Robespierre; and he is reported to have said to that demagogue, on the evening before his fall, at the meeting of the Jacobin club, "If you drink hemlock, I will drink it too." His subsequent safety appears to have been owing to the intercession of his pupils; and since 1800 he has been considered as the national artist.' He is unquestionably the first painter of the present French school, and this consideration, which was urged by Boissy d'Anglas, had some weight in obtaining his pardon after July the 27th, 1794. The execution of his pictures is in the purest style, his colours are skilfully disposed, and all the mechanical part of the art is carried to perfection; but the composition is heavy and gigantic, and correctness is displayed at the expence of genius. A swelling which he has in his cheek renders his features hideous, and impedes his utterance to such a degree that he cannot pronounce ten successive words in the same tone. David is a member of the Legion of Honour. His daughter, in 1805, married a colonel of infantry.' Fouche was likewise one of those who sought to redeem early misconduct by a behaviour which would have done credit to the servant of a regular government. He is supposed even to have made a partial atonement by sharing in the danger of the 9th of Thermidor; and all parties are agreed that, in the capacity of minister of police under Bonaparte, he conducted himself with great credit. Of his claim to public approbation, the best proof was given by his removal from office in 1810, when scenes of iniquity were in contemplation which called for the treacherous agency of a wretch like Savary. IV. Military - IV. Military Men. In this department of the work, our attention was particularly attracted to General Joubert, who fell at the battle of Novi, in his thirtieth year. His habits of study afforded a promise of rapid attainments in his profession, and he distinguished himself accordingly in the memorable campaign of the Tyrol, in the spring of 1797. He was married to the step-daughter of the ambassador Sémonville, and tore himself from the arms of his bride a few weeks before his fall. Moreau remained at his request by his side during the battle, and on his death assumed the command to direct the retreat. - Soult, before the Revolution, was a subaltern officer in an infantryregiment, and became, in 1793, adjutant to the staff of the army of the Moselle. Here he laid the basis of those habits of combination of which he made so remarkable a display against the Russians in September 1799, and, in the following spring, in the defence of Genoa against the Austrians. Of Marmont, the notice given in these biographical sketches is comparatively short, and he is mentioned chiefly as a confidential agent of Bonaparte at the critical epoch of the Revolution of St. Cloud. He differed from Soult in having been constantly a follower of Bonaparte, and in having gone to and returned from Egypt with his chief. His tried attachment (which has since, however, proved false) may account for his obtaining a new command, notwithstanding his defeat at Salamanca; the disgust caused to so many officers, and even to Murat, by the disastrous events of the last campaign, having greatly limited Bonaparte in the choice of commanders. Serrurier is or rather was an officer of a more rigid cast as to discipline than most of the French Generals. It was of him that Bonaparte said in 1797, "He is always severe on himself, and sometimes severe on other persons." Though he did not accompany his Corsican leader on the Egyptian expedition, he co-operated with him in the Revolution of St. Cloud, and was subsequently promoted to the high rank of Marshal. Lefebvre, like Serrurier, is older than most of the Revolutionary commanders, being born in 1755. His connection with Bonaparte arose not from serving under him, the Low Countries and Germany having been the scene of his exploits: but from the zeal with which he bore a part in the 18th of Brumaire. He was made Marshal in 1804, and the siege of Dantzic in 1807 was considered as putting a finish to his military services. It is now time to bring our extracts to a close, and to communicate our remarks on the execution of the work. We cannot, we are sorry to say, contemplate the translation with the same satisfaction as the original. In the preface to the former, an allusion is made to the haste in which it was neces sary to prepare it, but no apology can be accounted satisfactory for the errors which unfortunately pervade it. These errors are of various kinds; Gallicisms, trespasses against grammar, and misrepresentations of dates. We have, for example, the words 'monarchial' and anarchial' repeatedly used for monarchical and anarchical; and the French term tueur' is translated, Vol. ii. p. 171., and in other places, by the aukward word slayer. In another passage, Vol. ii. p. 265., emerging' is used for immersing; in Vol. i. 'p. 136. we are told of the assembly of the chief men;' by which, after some difficulty, the reader discovers that he is to understand the Notables. Again, we read, Vol. i. p. 351., of slaughterous plans,' and Vol. iii. p. 180., that it is very much in vain to bring forward certain accusations;' and in p. 308. the French fleet is called the French army. In quoting dates, the errors are much more numerous, and more serious, in consequence of the difficulty, particularly to an English reader, of applying the requisite corrections. In the account of Camille Desmoulins, (Vol. i. p.368.) the arrest is stated to have taken place on the 31st of May 1794, and the execution on the 5th of April. Lacretelle le Jeune is said, Vol. ii. p. 195., to have been a member of the pressoffice in 1809; a circumstance not unlikely in itself, but which, in the writers of this work, must have been matter of prophecy, since their MS. was composed in 1806; a year which, in course, forms the limit of the narrative in all the other sketches. -Florian is said to have been born in 1775; an assertion which rather surprized us, because he is declared to have been introduced into patronage by Voltaire, who died a few years after that date. The poet Delille descended, we are aware, into the "vale of years:" but is it a fact that this indefatigable votary of the muses, who married in 1802, and continued his versifying labours almost to the present day, could have been born so long ago as 1725?-In Vol. ii. p. 74., Tallien is said to have denounced the news-paper of Baboeuf in 1785, which was several years prior to its existence; and, as a climax of absurdity, Brissot is stated to have been occupied about a publication five years after he had been guillotined. Such inaccuracies as these form very essential deductions from the value of the book; and they are the more to be regretted as affecting the utility of a publication which, in other respects, is possessed of strong claims to a place in the library of the student of politics and history. ART. ART. VI. Charlemagne ; ou l'Église Délivrée, &c.; i.e. Charlemagne; or, The Church Delivered; an Epic Poem, in Twentyfour Cantos. By Lucien Bonaparte, Member of the Institute of France, &c. &c. 2 Vols. 4to. 41. 4s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1814. THE writings of eminent men have sometimes been rendered remarkable by the adverse circumstances under which they have been composed, as well as by their intrinsic merit or the previous fame of their authors. Among others, it is to be remembered that Cervantes produced his Don Quixote while condemned by poverty to languish in a gaol, and that Ralegh wrote his History of the World while he was a state-prisoner in the Tower; and we have now to record that Lucien Bonaparte has formed (or at least completed) the noble Epic before us during what he himself terms his captivity' in this country. The public has long been apprized of its preparation, and has waited for it with an interest which its appearance is well calculated to reward: but, perhaps, had the cessation of continental war liberated the author at a somewhat earlier period, the British press would not at last have been the medium of conveying this poem to the world, since his departure from our shores and the printing of the work have been nearly simultaneous,— and the dedication is even now dated from Rome. This dedication is addressed to the Pope, and is observable for the extreme attachment to the Holy Father which it expresses. It states that the remembrance and the correspondence of his Holiness were the support of the writer, his wife, and his children, when they dared no longer to cherish the hope of ever again beholding him; and it concludes with renewing the asseveration of a fidelity and a devotion which can terminate only with life. That a brother of the extraordinary man who lately ruled France, and had at one time almost subjugated Europe, should during that period be a resident in England, become as a suitor to the muses a member of the Republic of Letters, and publish in London the fruits of his literary labour, are incidents of a nature sufficiently uncommon to excite in our readers an impatience for a report of a work bearing the features of so peculiar an origin. We hasten, therefore, to gratify their curiosity but,, in thus speedily commencing our duty, we must at present confine ourselves principally to an analysis of the contents of the poem; and to such quotations as, when combined with that analysis, will convey a just idea of its design and conduct, of its incidents and characters, and of its style and execution, Any detailed remarks, which we may deem it CC 4 necessary |