Treasury several months were occupied in endeavoring to discover the error. It was at length found in an account of the contractor Seguin, who immediately acknowledged it on being shown the accounts, and restored the money, saying that it was a mistake. On another occasion, while examining the accounts of the pay of the garrison of Paris, I observed a charge of some twelve thousand dollars set down to a detachment which had never been in the capital. The minister made a note of the error merely from complaisance, but was convinced, in his own mind, that the Emperor was mistaken. I, however, proved to be right, and the sum was restored. At the dinner-table it was remarked that one in thirty of the ships engaged in the China trade were lost at sea. The dangers of battle," said the Emperor, "are less than that. At Wagram we were one hundred and sixty thousand. I do not think that the killed were more than three thousand. That is only a fiftieth. At Essling, where we were forty thousand, about four thousand were killed. This was a tenth; but it was one of the most severe battles. were incomparably below." The others Mademoiselle Raucourt, a celebrated actress, described Talleyrand with great truth. "If you ask him a question," said she, "he is an iron chest, whence you cannot extract a syllable; but if you ask him nothing, you will soon be unable to stop his mouth; he will become a regular gossip." This was a foible which, at the outset, destroyed my confidence in Talleyrand. I had intrusted him with a very important affair, and, a few hours after, Josephine related it to me word for word. I instantly sent for the minister to inform him that I had just learned from the Empress a circumstance which I had told in confidence to himself alone. The story had already passed through four or five intermediate channels. The countenance of Talleyrand is so immovable that nothing can ever be read in it. Lannes and Murat used jocularly to say of him, that if, while he was speaking to you, some one should come behind and give him a kick, his countenance would betray nothing. M. de Talleyrand is mild and even endearing in his domestic habits. His servants, and the individuals in his employment, are attached and devoted to him. With his intimates he speaks willingly and good-humoredly of his ecclesiastic profession, which he embraced by compulsion, constrained by his parents, though he was the eldest of many brothers. He one day expressed dislike of a tune which was played in his hearing. He said he had a great horror of it; it recalled to his recollection the time when he was obliged to practice church music and to sing at the desk. On another occasion, one of his intimate friends was telling a story during supper, while M. de Talleyrand was engaged in thought, and seemed inattentive to the conversation. In the course of the story, the speaker happened to say, in a lively manner, of some one whom he had named, "That fellow is a comical rogue; he is a married priest." Talleyrand, roused by these words, seized a spoon, plunged it hastily into the dish before him, and, with a threatening aspect, called out to him, "Mr. will you have some spinach ?" The person who was telling the story was confounded, and all the party burst into a fit of laughter, M. de Talleyrand as well as the rest. It was a dark and gloomy day, and the rain fell in torrents. "After dinner, the Emperor," says Las Casas, "described to us the contents of some French papers which he had by him, and which, he said, gave an account of the shipwreck of La Perouse, his different adventures, his death, and which also contained his journal. The narrative consisted of the most curious, striking, and romantic details, and interested us exceedingly. The Emperor observed how highly our curiosity was excited, and then burst into a fit of laughter. This story was nothing but an impromptu of his own, which he said he had invented merely to show us the progress he had made in English." "I greatly admire the Iliad," said he: "it is like the books of Moses, the token and the pledge of the age in which it was produced. Homer, in his epic poem, has proved himself a poet, an orator, an historian, a legislator, a geographer, and a theologian. He may justly be called the encyclopedist of the period in which he flourished. I have never been so struck with the beauties of the Iliad as at this moment. The sensations with which it now inspires me fully convince me of the justice of the universal approbation bestowed upon it. One thing which particularly strikes me is the combination of rudeness of manners with refinement of ideas. Heroes are described killing animals for their food, cooking their meat with their own hands, and yet delivering speeches distinguished for singular eloquence, and denoting a high degree of civilization." What a number of great generals rose suddenly during the Revolution! Pichegru, Kleber, Massena, Marceau, Desaix, Hoche, and almost all, were originally private soldiers. But here the efforts of Nature seem to have been exhausted, for she has produced nothing since, or, at least, nothing so great. At that period, everything was submitted to competition among thirty millions of men, and Nature necessarily asserted her rights; subsequently, we were again confined within the narrower limits of order and the forms of society. I was even accused of having surrounded myself in civil and military posts with men of inferior ability, the better to display my own superiority; but now, when the competition will not certainly be renewed, it remains for those who are in power to make a better selection. We shall see what they will do. Another circumstance no less remarkable was the extreme youth of some of those generals, who seem to have started ready-made from the hands of Nature. Their characters were perfectly suited to the circumstances in which they were placed, with the exception of Hoche, whose morals were by no means pure. The others had no object in view save glory and patriotism, which formed their whole circle of rotation; they were men after the antique model. Desaix was surnamed by the Arabs Sultan the Just. At the funeral of Marceau, the Austrians observed an armistice on account of the respect which they entertained for him; and young Duphot was the emblem of perfect virtue. But the same commendations cannot be bestowed on those who were further advanced in life, for they belonged in some measure to the era that had just passed away. Massena, Augereau, Brune, and many others, were merely intrepid depredators. Massena was, moreover, distinguished for the most sordid avarice. The impression of the whole work is to increase our respect for the intellectual character of Napoleon, especially for the versatility of his mind, and the egotism aside there is much that will be read with eagerness. The General Title Page for the fourth Volume ought to have been furnished with the last Number. It is placed at the beginning of the present one. III. DO DEPARTED SAINTS BECOME MINISTERING SPIRITS? 37 IV. MACAULAY'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 48 The History of England from the Accession of James II. By Thomas Babington Macaulay. V. THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 73 VII. FRENCH COMMERCE FROM 1620 TO 1720 IN THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. No. II. VIII. NOTICES OF NEW Books. I. Ambrose's Looking unto Jesus. II. Dr. Allen's India, Ancient and Modern. III. Dr. Adamson's Manuals for the South African Col 126 ib. ib. IV. The Heathen Religion in its popular and symbolical Development, by Rev. J. B. Gross. 131 V. An earnest Plea for Cooperation in Home Missions. 132 VI. Prof. Shedd's Lectures on the Philosophy of History. 134 VII. Archbishop Whately's Thoughts and Apophthegms. 136 VIII. Literary Criticisms by the late Horace Binney Wal 138 lace, Esq. IX. Recollections of the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers. 139 145 XII. Ewbank's Life in Brazil. 150 XIII. Dr. Arnold. The Christian Life; its Hopes, its Fears and its Close. 155 XIV. Memoirs of Bishop Heber. Abridged by a Clergy 3. The Inquirer directed to the Work of the Spirit. XVIII. Abbott's Napoleon at St. Helena. 170 THE PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW. SEPTEMBER, 1856. No. XVIII. ARTICLE I. THE HUGUENOTS. IN the French character there seems to be much that is anomalous and difficult to be understood. In our ordinary conceptions of the French people, we think of them as gay, volatile, frivolous; as the leaders of fashion, and as living for amusement; as aiming to make the most of the present life, regardless of the life to come; as cultivating the elegant arts only to contribute to the promotion of sensual pleasure; as seemingly endowed with an intellect only to devise the means of enhancing and prolonging the gratifications of sense; as striving to lay aside anxiety respecting this life and the next, in whatever will give entertainment to the passing moment. We think of the Frenchman in the ball-room, in parks, by fountains, and in galleries of pictures and of statuary; in places where the last restraints of morality are withdrawn; or as wandering for pleasure through cemeteries, over the gates of which it is written, VOL. V.-12 |