RICHARD BENTLEY & SON'S NEW WORKS.

Now ready, at all Booksellers', price One Shilling, THE TEMPLE BAR MAGAZINE,

For AUGUST, 1874.

SIGNOR CAMPANELLA'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

MY LIFE, and WHAT I LEARNT

IN IT: an Autobiography. By GIUSEPPE MARIA CAMPA-
NELLA. Demy 8vo. with Portrait, 148.

"The autobiography is written in admirable English, and with much vivacity and force. The contrast of the quiet, placid, old-world life, which is described in the first book, with the turbulent and sorrowful scenes through which the story passes to its close, have all the effect of literary art. It is no exaggeration to say that we have found the book most interesting merely as a story, apart from the new glimpses it gives behind the stirring scenes of the Italian Revolution."

Daily News.

Colonel W. K. STUART, C.B. 2 vols. 218.

"There is scarcely a page of these reminiscences but is full of entertaining matter. Colonel Stuart has told the tale of his life in a fashion that cannot fail to be appreciated by every class of reader. The book is one of the best collections of military stories we have ever seen." Athenæum. THROUGH RUSSIA: from St. PetersBURG to ASTRAKHAN and the CRIMEA. By Mrs. GUTHRIE. S vols. with Illustrations, 218. "No book of travel within our knowledge is pleasanter to read than Mrs. Guthrie's. It is fresh, bright, and comprehensive."-Spectator.

ROSE and RUE. By Mrs. Compton

READE. 3 vols. crown 8vo.

"A better written novel we have not read for a long time, or one more enjoyable. The highest tribute of praise, perhaps, that can be easily paid to the book and the writer is to say, that with few characters, and not many incidents, it is, nevertheless, a novel of surpassing interest and unquestionable originality. It is altogether one of exceptional merit."-Scotsman.

The SISTERS LAWLESS.

Author of Rosa Noel.' 3 vols. crown 8vo.

By the

those in SORROW. Dedicated by permission to the QUEEN. SECOND EDITION. 1 vol. 58. bound.

"These letters, the work of a pure and devout spirit, deserve to find many readers"-Athenæum.

THE NEW NOVELS..

EUROPE.

Vol. I. containing the History of that Philosophy in France and Germany. By ROBERT FLINT, Professor of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy, University of St. Andrews. 8vo. 158. The LEGEND of JUBAL, and other Poems. By GEORGE ELIOT. Second Edition, 68.

DOMESTIC FLORICULTURE, WINDOW GARDENING, and FLORAL DECORATIONS.

Being Directions for the Propagation, Culture, and Arrangement of Plants and Flowers as Domestie Ornaments. By W. F. BURBIDGE, Author of 'Cool Orchids, and How to Grow Them.' Crown 8vo. with upwards of 200 Illustrations on Wood, 7s. 6d.

A BOOK ABOUT ROSES: How to Grow and Show Them.

By S. REYNOLDS HOLE. Fifth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. price 78. 6d.

A MANUAL of BOTANY: Anatomical and

Physiological.

For the Use of Students. By ROBERT BROWN, M.A. Ph.D. F.R.G.S., Lecturer on Botany under the Science and Art Depart ment of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education. Crown 8vo. with numerous illustrations, 12s. 6d.

By ROBERT LORD LYTTON, Author of Poems by Owen Meredith.' 2 vols. crown 8vo. 158.

"A decidedly clever and original novel, well and charmingly told, the interest being unflaggingly sustained. It is undoubtedly one of the best novels of the season."-Post.

ROUGH HEWN. By Mrs. Day, Author

of 'From Birth to Bridal,' &c. 3 vols.

"In many respects an excellent novel."-Athenæum.
"An entertaining and well-written novel."-Post.
"A novel good to read, and pleasant to remember."-Spectator.
"A refreshing, healthy, and interesting story."-Examiner.

BOOKS FOR THE SEA-SIDE.

Each Work complete in 1 vol. price 58. (any of which can be had
separately), elegantly printed and bound, and illustrated by
Sir J. GILBERT, MILLAIS, HOLMAN HUNT, LEECH, FOSTER,
TENNIEL, SANDYS, E. HUGHES, SAMBOURNE, &o.

HURST & BLACKETT'S
STANDARD LIBRARY

of CHEAP EDITIONS of POPULAR MODERN WORKS.
Sam Slick's Nature and Human
Nature.

John Halifax, Gentleman.
The Crescent and the Cross. By
Eliot Warburton.

Nathalie. By Miss Kavanagh.
A Woman's Thoughts about
Women. By the Author of
'John Halifax.'

Adam Graeme. By Mrs. Oliphant.
Sam Slick's Wise Saws.
Cardinal Wiseman's Popes.

A Life for a Life. By the Author
of 'John Halifax.'

Leigh Hunt's Old Court Suburb.
Margaret and her Bridesmaids.
Sam Slick's Old Judge.
Darien. By E. Warburton.

Sir B. Burke's Family Romance.
The Laird of Norlaw. By Mrs.
Oliphant.

The Englishwoman in Italy.

No Church.

Mistress and Maid. By the Author of 'John Halifax.' Lost and Saved. By the Hon. Mrs. Norton.

Les Misérables. By Victor Hugo. Barbara's History. By Amelia B. Edwards.

Life of Edward Irving. By Mrs. Oliphant.

St. Olave's.

Sam Slick's American Humour.
Christian's Mistake. By the
Author of John Halifax.'
Alec Forbes. By George Mac-
donald, LL.D.

Agnes. By Mrs. Oliphant.

A Noble Life. By the Author of John Halifax.

Dixon's New America.

Robert Falconer. By George Maodonald, LL.D.

Nothing New. By the Author of The Woman's Kingdom. By the

John Halifax.

Freer's Life of Jeanne d'Albret. The Valley of a Hundred Fires. Burke's Romance of the Forum. Adèle. By Miss Kavanagh. Studies from Life. By the Author of John Halifax.' Grandmother's Money.

Author of John Halifax.

Annals of an Eventful Life. By G. W. Dasent, D.C.L.

David Elginbrod. By George Maodonald, LL.D.

A Brave Lady. By the Author of 'John Halifax."'

Hannah. By the Author of 'John

Jeaffreson's Book about Doctors. Halifax.'

Sam Slick's Americans at Home.

The HISTORY of SCOTLAND.

By JOHN HILL BURTON, Historiographer-Royal for Scotland.
Continued in this Edition down to the Extinction of the last
Jacobite Insurrection. New and Cheaper Edition. In 8 vols.
crown 8vo. with Index Vol. 31. 38.

PARADOXES and PUZZLES: Historical,
Judicial, and Literary.

By JOHN PAGET, Barrister-at-Law. Now for the first time pub lished in Collected Form. In 8vo. 128.

Contents: An Inquiry into the Evidence relating to certain Passages in Lord Macaulay's History. Vindications: Nelson and Carac ciolo-Lady Hamilton-The Wigtown Martyrs-Recollections of Lord Byron-Lord Byron and his Calumniators. Judicial Puzzles: Eliza beth Canning-The Camden Wonder-The Annesley Case-Eliza Fenning-Spencer Cowper's Case.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1874.

LITERATURE

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

Prudence Palfrey. By Thomas Bailey Aldrich. (Routledge & Sons.)

By Still Waters: a Story for Quiet Hours. By Edward Garrett. (H. S. King & Co.) Ruling the Roast. By Lady Wood. 3 vols. (Chapman & Hall.)

MR. ALDRICH is perhaps entitled to stand at the head of American humourists. The little work in this line he has hitherto done is sin gularly fresh, original, and delicate. While in the undercurrent of thoughtfulness it displays, in artistic finish and in poetical grace, it resembles the best work of Mr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, it has a descriptive delicacy which is wholly the author's own. The only fault that can reasonably be urged against it is a certain measure of artifice. It is like a conjuring feat, which loses its interest after it has been often seen, and the mechanical trick on which it depends is discovered. Marjorie Daw and other People' was, in its way, a marvel of ingenuity. Each of the half-dozen or more stories it contained ended in a surprise. Aware of this fact, Mr. Aldrich yet contrived to maintain the effect to the end, so that the last story was as effective as the first. No common skill of treatment is displayed in this. When a man has palmed upon you physic for wine, when he has induced you to crack between your teeth a nut filled with pepper, and when he has made you smoke a cigar which in the middle developes into a miniature Etna, he must be extremely skilful or very plausible to go on winning again and again your confidence. This Mr. Aldrich does in a way wholly unprecedented. In 'Prudence Palfrey' he attempts to employ, in a long story, a device which has told admirably in less important experiments. Once more he succeeds. So long as he can do this, the weapon is obviously serviceable, and it is useless to warn him against its use. we feel accordingly inclined to do is to urge All upon him not to trust it too often, lest it fail him, as apparently it must, at a pinch. This we do the more readily, as Mr. Aldrich has a plentiful armoury from which to select.

broken, to Rivermouth. Meanwhile, this scene of his birth has known no vicissitude more noteworthy than the death of old Parson Wibird Hawkins, and the arrival of his successor. The Rev. James Dillingham, the newlyappointed pastor of Rivermouth, is a delicate, intellectual, and aristocratic Southerner, who carries by storm the hearts of his parishioners, Prudence Palfrey, that that maiden, after news, and succeeds in making love so adroitly to been received, is near becoming his prey. apparently authentic, of her lover's death has Dent's return changes the aspect of matters, more especially as he perceives at once that the aristocratic Southern parson is, in fact, his quondam "mate" of the "Red Rock." During his former confidences with Dent, Dillingham, alias Nevins, alias Cool Dick, had learned all about Rivermouth and Prudence. made accordingly a desperate bid for the girl's fortune, which her lover returns in time to prevent.

He has

merit of the story by this bald plot. Not It would be wholly unfair to judge of the even the surprise of finding Dillingham and Nevins to be the same person, which constitutes but a small measure of the attraction to the reader, can be estimated without a knowledge of the details so cleverly supplied. Nothing can be more real than the scenes depicted, and the mind refuses for awhile to believe in the conclusion set before it. It prefers for a time the alternative, that the accusations of Dent against the clergyman are the result of madness, begotten by his travels and sufferings.

the principal charm. Details in Mr. Aldrich's works constitute Wibird dies at the outset, yet his benevolent Poor old Parson presence overshadows the book. By a thoroughly artistic trait, moreover, his influence brings about, in the end, the union of the lovers. The description of the attempt made by his flock to get rid of him has a most tender grace :

and he would, God willing, continue to labour with them to the end. He would die in the harness. It was his prayer that when the Spirit of the Lord came to take him away, it might find Brick Church." him preaching his word from the pulpit of the Old

The humour in the reference to the grim theology is admirable, and the tenderness further on, we read how the old man, compredevelopes into pathos when, a few pages tions, what is the wish of his flock, bows his hending at length, after many misinterpreta head, "and waving his hands in a sort of benediction over the two deacons," retreats slowly, with his chin on his breast, into his study, which he never quits alive. Fielding and Thackeray have drawn few characters more distinct or more lovable than Wibird Hawkins. personages of the story. The same distinctness belongs to the other her lover, his stern uncle, and all the characPrudence herself, ters, down even to the most subordinate, with Dillingham, are thoroughly life-like and real. the exception, perhaps, of the Rev. James It is difficult, moreover, to know how the likeness is attained. No series of extracts would give the idea how lovable is the heroine, or bring before the reader of a criticism her figure as it stands before us after reading the

book.

he displays in taking in his readers, his literary power is undeniable, and his descriptions of New England life are among the best that have appeared.

His latest work narrates the loves of John Dent and the heroine who gives her name to the story. Rivermouth is a favourite spot with Mr. Aldrich, and it is again selected as the scene of the principal incidents. as heretofore, the path of true love fails to run Once more, smooth; and Dent, a handsome and manly young fellow, sees himself compelled to depart to the gold-diggings to make his "pile" quickly. After a number of years, sufficient to test thoroughly the constancy of both lovers, and after a series of reverses, Dent hits upon the precious metal, and accumulates a respectable store, only to wake one morning and find that his partner has decamped with it. With conceivable bitterness our hero starts on the track of the thief, to quit it after a fruitless chase, and return, wounded, bankrupt, and

having played their parts nearly if not quite to "His trouble was the trouble of all men who, exclusion of more fiery young actors who have the end, persist in remaining on the stage, to the their pieces to speak and their graces to show off. These hapless old men do not perceive that the scene has been changed meanwhile, that twenty, or thirty, or forty years are supposed to have elapsed; it never occurs to them that they are not until the audience rises up and hoots them, gray hairs and all, from the foot-lights. Parson Wibird Hawkins had been prattling innocently to halfaverted ears for many a summer and winter. The parish, as a parish, had become tired of old man Hawkins. After fifty years he had begun to pall and married them, and buried them, and held out on them. For fifty years he had christened them, to them the slightest possible hopes of salvation, in accordance with their own grim theology; and once suspected it never suspected it until that now they wanted to get rid of him, and he never day when the deacons waited upon him in his study in the cobwebbed old parsonage, and suggested the expediency of his retirement from take in the full import of the deacons' communicaactive parochial duties. Even then he did not tion. Retire from the Lord's vineyard just when his experience was ripest and his heart fullest of his Master's work-surely they did not mean that! Here he was in his prime, as it were; only seventy them a young man fresh from the University on nine last Thanksgiving. He had come among the Charles, he had given them the enthusiasm of his youth and the wisdom of his mature manhood,

on others, and she deserves some credit for the good she does to mankind in general, though she may perchance have a grudge for one unpleasant individual. Mr. Garrett is one of those, we fear, who will not allow people to do good in any way but his own.

One merit for which we are thankful when we meet with it in a modern novel is originality. This merit is to be found in the heroine of Lady Wood's novel, Myra Leith, the daughter of a D.D., who has a country living and takes pupils. The young lady first appears in a very original light. "On her left hand was a grey worsted sock, and in the spot where the venerable great toe of the wearer had pressed was a gaping hole," &c. This nymph and scholar is somewhat vulgar; but she is wooed by two of the pupils, and she marries the one she likes the less, Peath Sandridge, the son of a Peer. Myra, as maiden and wife, uses unladylike phrases: she talks of bacon and eggs as "stunning"; and Sandal Tyne, the other lover, writes verses to and on her, in which he dwells on

Thy dark hair tossed from off thy brow, Thy nightgown with its careless fold. We next have the heroine's hand in "a potatopoultice," Peath having scalded her fingers; and we come upon more of her elegant phrases. "Oh, bosh!" is said to her lover; and when they are married Myra "funks" her father-inlaw, the Peer; surprises him by her professed ability to make "rump steak, pigeon, and partridge pies-stunners. Speaks of him to her husband as an old buffer"; and speaks of her husband to her reverend father as a "sneak"; and of herself, as sorry she had married Peath rather than Sandal. When Peath is a little startled by her ultra-vivacity, she replies "My dear, when you have a young filly, full of spirit and play, and want her to go quietly, just give her a gallop over the turf." And when circumstances bring her to a comparative, enforced quietness, Lady Wood favours us with a conversation between husband and wife, which begins with Myra's remark, "I wonder of what sex my infant will be," &c., the rest of which we shall consider to be strictly private and confidential.

We will not spoil the interest of Lady Wood's story by detailing the plot; we will rather recommend to notice the remarks which the author makes as a philosopher and a student of society. There are scores of them, of which this is a sample :

"Women always fancy that the men they have not taken would have loved them better, not knowing that love is the rainbow-tinted bubble, and possession the touch which destroys it for ever: as soon will the soapy moisture be gathered up again from the earth which has absorbed it, as man's love return in its pristine beauty to the woman who has become his property."

If the reader likes this sort of thing, we can promise him abundance of such precious stuff in 'Ruling the Roast.'

On several occasions Lady Wood gives us quotations without any author's name appended. She quotes Plato, however, in the original Greek, as cleverly as Myra herself could do. Sometimes she perplexes us with curiously turned phrases, which may, perhaps, be owing to proofs having been negligently read; and neither eye nor ear is gratified when we are told, in print, of a couple of ladies, that "neither ladies said anything." We can, we fear, only give Lady Wood credit for good

intentions. In these days, when novels appear daily, when all are read, and only one in a thousand is worth the reading, the author of 'Ruling the Roast' must be satisfied by being one in the remaining nine hundred and ninetynine. There are degrees among them, and "tel brille au second rang qui s'éclipse au premier."

Correspondence of William Ellery Channing, D.D., and Lucy Aikin, from 1826 to 1842. Edited by Anna Letitia Le Breton. (Williams & Norgate.)

known, were Unitarians; both were earnest, high-minded persons, and, as a natural consequence of being in earnest, they were disposed to identify the spread of truth with the spread of the doctrines of their particular school. Very far from either of them is the easy liberalism to which one faith is as good as another. Their logic is inflexible when it confronts the doctrine of the Trinity or the merits of the Established Church, but it bows to faith when the existence or the goodness of God is called in question. There is dogmatic agreement between them, and there is the closer bond of sympathy in aspiration and community of interest, but there likeness ends. They differ fundamentally in character, and the difference reveals itself at about every point of contact. They generally arrive at the same conclusion, but they travel to their common goal along convergent rather than parallel roads. Dr. Channing delights in generalization, he revels in fundamental principles and great ideas; while Miss Aikin is always busy with detail. When there is anything to be done, she sees all the difficulties and obstacles, he all the hopeful possibilities. He is always telling her that she does not look at things broadly enough. When she describes the state of parties and classes in England before the passing of the Reform Bill, and takes much trouble to trace every abuse home to its source, he answers that she ascribes the disturbance of the country too much to tem

MISS AIKIN says of her correspondence with Dr. Channing, "There is always topic enough, since the interests of all mankind are ours." And this is true. From 1826 to 1842, that is to say, for a period of sixteen years, these two friends kept up across the Atlantic a regular interchange of thought and sentiment on the subjects that were occupying the minds of the thinking few and affecting the lives of the unthinking many. They discussed politics, society, literature, they informed one and another of what was passing in their respective countries, and they cast the horoscope of the moral and intellectual progress of Humanity in the future. Their letters are always interesting, but less so as contributing new facts to the story of their time, or as throwing fresh light on facts already known, than as revealing in a simple, unreserved manner the individual characters of the writers. They are also interesting as the record of a warm friend-porary causes :— ship between a man and woman, which was to both a source of pure and elevated pleasure, and to one, at least, a means of spiritual support and comfort. Miss Aikin considered that she owed much that was valuable in her mental development to the influence of Dr. Channing, and in the course of her letters she often thanked him for having opened her heart to more catholic sympathies with her fellow-creatures, and nerved her mind to a more courageous faith in the Invisible. On one occasion she writes :

"A life for the most part of domestic seclusion, studious pursuits, and something of the pride and fastidiousness they are apt to bring, and, more than all, the atmosphere of a sect and a party which it was my fate to breathe from childhood, narrowed my affections within very strict limits. Under the notion of a generous zeal for freedom, truth, and virtue, I cherished a set of prejudices and antipathies which placed beyond the pale of my charity not the few but the many, the mass of my compatriots. I shudder now to think how good a hater I was in the days of my youth.... I really knew not what it was to open my heart to the human race until I had drunk deeply into the spirit of your writings. . . . You have wished to interest in religion minds by which it was apt to be coldly regarded. With respect to mine, you have all that you desire; for the present I am little interested in any other subject, or, at least, I view all others as connected with this and subordinate to it."

Her fastidiousness remained a stumblingblock to her always. We see her constantly struggling with an over-sensitiveness-moral, intellectual, and aesthetic; and it is not difficult to understand the invigorating effect upon a mind critical and over-scrupulous like hers of contact with Dr. Channing's buoyant nature, in which philanthropy was a passion, and hope an irrepressible instinct. Their correspondence is marked throughout by a decided religious tone. Both, as is well

"No doubt your superabundant population, Poor-laws, &c., &c., have their influence. But the great cause seems to me deeper. You are suffering from the hostility which subsists between your present state of society and the intelligence, the moral sentiments and general improvement of among you, which find little congenial with themthe people. New and great ideas are stirring selves in your institutions. That the general weal is the end of social institutions, is an old doctrine; but that the general weal is one and the same thing with the improvement and happiness of the mass of the people, has been very imperfectly understood."

It is the same with regard to religious questions. Miss Aikin deplores the little progress made by enlightened Dissent, and the discouragement to the Unitarian party arising out of some partial church reforms, which have produced a re-action in favour of the Establishment. He replies, "You have not the spirit of religious form, of better religious institutions among you. Here is the root of the evil. Your people have no passion for Truth, no enthusiasm about high principles." He is never tired of insisting on the necessity of a moral revolution going deeper and aiming higher than any measure of merely political or ecclesiastical reform-a revolution having its roots in a quickened sense of human brotherhood. On all questions involving the wellbeing of the labouring classes, his utterances come with a rush of sympathy and enthusiasm, which is in characteristic contrast with Miss Aikin's conscientious adoption of Radical principles. It is a hard matter with her to get over the repulsion which "the rude manners, trenchant tone and barbarous slang of the ordinary Radicals" have for her; while she finds strong bribes on the side of ancient privilege in the captivating manners of the aristocracy, the splendour that surrounds them, and (for she is very candid) the flatter

an

ing attention which her writings have sometimes procured her from them. But she overcomes her prejudices, and boasts of being "ardent reformer" in spite of herself. Nevertheless, she remains to the end of this correspondence a stanch champion of the aristocracy, and she is ever eager to defend the English nobility against the sweeping attacks of Dr. Channing. She insists on the refining influence upon society of their traditions of grace and courtesy with a warmth and frequency which make us a little uneasy for her republican zeal. She will not hear of class exclusiveness, there is no such thing in England-at least, not more than consists with the fitness of things, and prevents one from asking one's tailor to dinner, or one's washer woman to tea; class melts into class so gradually that there is nothing to prevent one from passing up or down according to one's merits, and she assures her correspondent over and over again that it is merit, and not rank, that gets to the top. She even hints occasionally that Transatlantic manners would be none the worse for a little discipline in one of the aristocratic schools of the old world. But Dr. Channing is not to be corrupted; he evidently is a little afraid of the best society; he has a fancy for free spontaneous intercourse with his fellows, and, somehow, he has got a notion that in aristocratic circles, too much self-restraint would be expected of him. He is much in earnest, and wants to carry his earnestness with him wherever he goes; and, unfortunately, Miss Aikin let out long ago that too much seriousness in select circles was apt to procure a man the reputation of a bore. But he is large-minded enough to think he might enjoy making a study of this superlatively well-bred society as "one of the phases of Humanity."

Towards the end of the correspondence we come upon a lively discussion of the relative merits of English and American women, and it is somewhat amusing to find Dr. Channing complaining that English women are too masculine, and Miss Aikin trying to persuade him that his own countrywomen would be the better for a freer and more independent life. We regret that Mrs. Le Breton has not put a little more biographical detail into her Preface. As the interest of the letters is mainly personal, it would have been heightened by a slight picture of the outward lives of the correspondents. We are tempted to quote from a letter of Dr. Channing a passage which may serve as a companion picture to the bit of mental autobiography already given of Miss

Aikin.

"Life has been an improving gift from my youth; and one reason I believe to be that my youth was not a happy one. I look back to no bright dawn of life which gradually faded into common day.' The light which I now live in rose at a later period. A rigid domestic discipline, sanctioned by the times, gloomy views of religion, -the selfish passions,-collisions with companions perhaps worse than myself, these and other things darkened my boyhood. Then came altered circumstances-dependence, unwise and excessive labour for independence, and the symptoms of the

-

weakness and disease which have followed me through life. Amidst this darkness it pleased God that the light should rise. The work of spiritual regeneration, the discovery of the supreme good, of the great and glorious end of life, aspirations after truth and virtue, which are pledges and beginnings of immortality, the consciousness

of something divine within me-these began, faintly indeed, and through many struggles and sufferings have gone on.”

In the same letter he dwells on his delight in the beauties of nature, and speaks of his joy in life as undiminished by weakness and disease, and the curtailment of his active usefulness. The pleasures of contemplation The pleasures of contemplation remain to him, and to be " a spiritual being, to have the power of thought, of virtue, of disinterestedness, progress without end," this has long seemed to him an infinite good.

His last letter to Miss Aikin is dated June 12, 1842. In August she wrote to him, but there is (at any rate in this volume) no answer to her letter, and he died in the following October.

MARSHAL GROUCHY.

Mémoires du Maréchal de Grouchy. Par Le Marquis de Grouchy. Tome Troisième. (Paris, Dentu.)

THE second volume brings us down to the autumn of 1808, when General Grouchy quitted the army of Spain, in order to try and reestablish his health by drinking the waters of Barèges. He was by no means anxious to return to the Peninsula, and succeeded in getting himself struck off the strength of the forces employed in that country: but he was destined to enjoy only a short period of repose, for on the 17th of November the Minister of War wrote to inform him that he had been appointed to the army of Italy. On his arrival, he received command of a division of dragoons, which, as was often the case in the army of Napoleon, consisted of but a single brigade. In the first operations of the campaign of 1809 Grouchy took no part, and we only refer to them to show how constantly inaccurate M. Thiers is in treating of military affairs. Without examining the false gloss which that eloquent military novelist puts on the battle of Sacile, it will be sufficient if we remark that M. Thiers casts some of the blame for the loss of that battle on the shoulders of Vignolle, who, according to him, was Eugène's chief of the staff on the occasion. Now, as a matter of fact, Vignolle was in Germany at the time, and did not join the staff of Eugène till forty days after the battle. The most discreditable circumstance connected with this affair is that M. Thiers, who had the error pointed out to him, never corrected it in subsequent editions. Indeed, it is well understood that he never corrects his errors, however thoroughly they may be exposed.

To return to the history of the campaign. After the victory of Sacile the Archduke John committed the great fault of not following up his advantage, and, after remaining eight days on the Livenza, placed his troops in cantonments, as if the war were already at an end. This inconceivable inactivity on the part of his adversary gave Eugène time to mature his arrangements for assuming the offensive. As a preparation, he reconstituted his army into right, and left, wings, centre, and reserve. In this new organization the command of all the cavalry was conferred upon Grouchy, and on the 7th of May he received orders to place himself on the track of the enemy, and ascertain if the retreat-to which the latter had been forced by Eugène's vigorous offensive was by the county of Goritz or by the road of

Villach. The reports sent in by him afford interesting reading, especially as they furnish a proof of how greatly modified the action of cavalry has been by the improvements in fire-arms. We learn that near the Piave two squadrons attacked some Austrian infantry in "the different clearings of a wood," and, as the result of repeated charges, captured about 150 prisoners. In the present day the cavalry would, under such circumstances, have been simply annihilated. After the battle of Raab, on the 14th of June, the 8th regiment of Chasseurs à Cheval came up with the enemy's rear-guard, and—

"Having at its head General Saline, precipitated itself on the squares of infantry which were formed in front of the village, broke them, and made nearly 4,000 men lay down their arms. Unfortunately, the 8th not being supported sufficiently closely by the other corps of this division, the Austrians resumed their muskets and fired upon the 8th, which was only able to carry off what it had taken at first, but, nevertheless, preserved several hundreds of prisoners, among whom was a Major-General, and collected more than 1,500 muskets, twelve drums, and other military trophies."

At the battle of Wagram Grouchy played an important part with his cavalry, as also during the subsequent pursuit, which, as usual, he conducted with an admirable mixture of audacity and prudence. On the conclusion of peace, Grouchy obtained leave of absence, and was not again employed till February, 1812, when the Emperor appointed him to the command of the 3rd corps of cavalry, which consisted of three divisions. Of these one had three and the other two brigades of two regiments each, the whole constituting a force of 10,000 men, 11,000 horses, and thirty light guns. Grouchy's papers having been captured during the retreat from Moscow, his biographer has at his disposal but little original material for an account of this portion of the General's career. We know, however, that he was actively employed throughout the campaign, and that at Borodino he made several charges, and received a bad contusion in the chest from the fragment of a shell. He recovered in time to accompany the army on its march to Kaluga, and during the retreat he, with his cavalry alone, fought the Russian forces at Malojiarolslavetz. The day after the action he was transferred to the command of the 1st corps of cavalry. Towards the end of November, the cavalry being almost annihilated, all the officers who were still mounted were united in a corps of four companies of 150 men each. This body, designated the sacred squadron, and destined to form the Emperor's escort, was placed under the direct orders of Grouchy, "and under the superior orders of Murat." It soon, however, disappeared, owing to the deaths of the horses; and the Emperor having proceeded to Paris, Grouchy, who was left without functions, returned to his home, reaching his family in December.

He remained for some time very ill from the fatigues of the campaign and his wounds, and when in February, 1813, he was nominated to the command of the 3rd corps of cavalry, he was still unable to mount a horse. Under these circumstances, he begged that he might be appointed to an infantry instead of a cavalry corps. For sole answer, he received intimation that he had been placed on the non-active, or half-pay list.

Harsh as this decision was, Grouchy knew his master too well to protest. Eugène, however, hearing that he was unemployed, wrote from Milan to ask that Grouchy might be appointed to the command of a corps in the army of Italy. To this application no reply was Vouchsafed. Eugène again addressed the Emperor, and again without result. In October, Grouchy, hearing of the disaster of Leipzig, and foreseeing an invasion of France, asked to be employed in any manner the Emperor might think best. Napoleon, then recollecting the Viceroy's letters, ordered Grouchy to join the army of Italy; but not long after, the Emperor, feeling that he would have need of his best officers on the frontier of France, named the General Commander-inChief of the Cavalry of the "Grande Armée." His command comprised five cavalry corps d'armée, but was more imposing in name than reality. Many of the regiments were provisional, and the total effective was not more than between seven and eight thousand men. He hastened to his post on the banks of the Rhine, which river, in the beginning of January, was crossed by the Allies. From that time till the battle of Craone, at which he was severely wounded, Grouchy was employed in delicate and difficult operations under most discouraging circumstances. He displayed untiring energy, much skill, extreme vigilance, and a mingled audacity and prudence which must win him the admiration of all soldiers. We question, indeed, whether any officer has ever shown himself superior to Grouchy as commander of the cavalry of a retreating and partially-demoralized army. His fidelity to his harsh and ungrateful master, moreover, was above all praise, and stood in favourable contrast with the conduct of many other officers of rank in the French army during 1814, and with his own conduct to Louis the Sixteenth. In fact, we consider this the brightest and most creditable portion of Grouchy's life. We should much like to follow him through the spring of 1814, for his reports throw light on the operations of the campaign, but we cannot spare space

for an essay on this subject. We, however, strongly recommend every student of military history, particularly if he be an officer of cavalry, to read this portion of Grouchy's memoirs. Having, as we have mentioned, received at Craone a wound, his fourteenth,—the General proceeded to Paris to be cured. The Restoration soon followed, and one of the first acts of the infatuated Bourbons was, in defiance of the promise that all rights and positions should. be recognized, to deprive Grouchy of his post of Colonel General of Chasseurs. He remonstrated in respectful terms against this treatment, but the only answer he received was an order to withdraw to his estates. He protested that he was, in fact, the victim of a lettre de cachet, and, from fear of public opinion, the order for his banishment to the provinces was revoked ten days after its issue. Nay, more, Grouchy was, by successive decrees, nominated Member of the Council General of the Department of Calvados and First Inspector General of Chasseurs and Lancers. Grouchy, however, declined to fulfil the functions allotted to him.

When the news of Napoleon's landing arrived, Grouchy, notwithstanding his bad treatment, remembered that, as member of the order of St. Louis, he had taken the oath

of fidelity to Louis the Eighteenth, and hastened to Paris in order to offer his services. He was badly received by the Duke of Berri, who had assumed the direction of military affairs, and informed in terms little courteous that he had been tardy in presenting himself, and that the king had no occasion for his services. He, nevertheless, did not attend at the Tuileries when Napoleon re-entered that palace on the 20th of March. The Emperor remarked his absence, summoned him to his side, and, having obtained his adhesion, appointed him a few days later to the command of the 7th and 19th military divisions, where the Duke of Angoulême, at the head of some regiments who remained faithful to the white flag and a body of volunteers, threatened to give some trouble. We care not to linger over this episode of the hundred days, though at one time the royalist movement appeared likely to hamper the hands of Napoleon. It is sufficient to say that Grouchy arrived at Lyons on the 2nd of April, and, though he found himself almost without troops, so well did he manage, that on the 9th of the same month the Duke of Angoulême was a prisoner in his hands. For reward, Grouchy obtained the baton of Marshal. Here it is worth while pausing for a moment, to show what light the book before us throws on a piece of history which has hitherto been somewhat obscure. We refer to the intentions of Napoleon towards the Duke of Angoulême. When Grouchy was first ordered to proceed to the South for the purpose of operating against that Prince, Davoust, then Minister of War, gave the General "letters of service and other secret instructions to the effect that he was to bring before military commissions, and cause to be pitilessly shot, all the partisans of the Duke of Angoulême who could be seized." Grouchy, disgusted at these instructions, hurried to the Emperor, and declared that the instructions were so repugnant to him that he could not undertake to carry them out.

"The Emperor took the secret instructions of the Prince of Eckmuhl, ran through them impatiently, threw them on the ground with indignation, and said to the General, What I wish is to preserve the south of France from the horrors of a civil war, and not to kindle the torches of it by covering it with scaffolds.... I have driven the king out of France; I wished to do the same with the Duke of Angoulême; but no, do what you can to make him prisoner, and retain him until I give fresh orders with respect to him. I will endeavour to exchange him for Marie Louise. However, treat him with all the consideration which great misfortunes command, and which is due to his rank. Let no insult be offered him; let him be respected by all, and, above all, let not a hair of his head be touched. Grouchy, your head shall answer for it.'"

When, however, the Duke was about to fall into his hands, Grouchy began to distrust the Emperor, chiefly from the fact that the latter had sent one of his aides-de-camp to the scene of operations. Consequently, Grouchy, by delaying the march of one of his columns, and by taking himself the longest road to the place where the capitulation was to occur, gave the Duke the chance of escaping. Duke the chance of escaping. The latter, however, failed to profit by the opportunity. Subsequently, dreading lest the Emperor should make the Duke of Angoulême undergo the fate of the Duc d' Enghien, Grouchy told the Duke of Angoulême's aide-de-camp that if

the Duke's life were in danger he would himself promote his escape.

The most interesting portion of the book before us is that which relates to Grouchy's share in the Waterloo campaign, and all the details of his conduct on this occasion are given with minute detail by the Marshal's grandson. Grouchy was appointed by the Emperor Commander-in-Chief of the cavalry, and on the 5th of June he quitted Paris to establish his head-quarters at Laon, his corps being scattered about in different cantonments. When Napoleon arrived on the 12th, the first question he asked was, whether the cavalry was, in accordance with orders issued by him several days previously, already on the Sambre. Grouchy replied that he had been left entirely without directions by the Major-General, Soult. The Emperor ordered that the cavalry should be at once brought up to the frontier. The result of the delay was, however, that the cavalry had to make forced marches, and reached the rendezvous on the 15th, in an exhausted state. Col. Chesney combats the idea, entertained by many, that, as a major-general, Soult was very inferior to Berthier, and that owing to this inferiority many matters went wrong in the French army. It is certain, however, that in this instance Soult was guilty of either gross carelessness or treachery, for the orders above alluded to are to be found in the MajorGeneral's letter-book, yet they never reached their destination.

On the 16th of June, Grouchy was placed in command of the right wing of the army, Ney being entrusted with that of the left wing, the Emperor keeping only the Guard under his immediate directions. The battle of Ligny having been won, the Marshal, towards 9 o'clock of the evening, seeing the Prussians in retreat, caused them to be charged by his cavalry, holding himself ready to push on, persuaded that Napoleon was going to launch him in pursuit of the enemy. The Emperor, however, had quitted the field without sending orders to his right wing. The Marshal followed him to Fleurus, more than a league in rear of Ligny; but, to his great astonishment, instead of receiving orders, he was

It seems that Napoleon was ill and asleep, and his staff dared not awaken him. Had he been still the general of Arcola, Marengo, and Austerlitz, such courtierlike obsequiousness would not have been exhibited. But if the Emperor was ill, his Major-General was in good health; but not an order, not even a word of counsel, did Soult at this critical moment give Grouchy, who, nevertheless, though left entirely without directions, and unable to induce by the most earnest solicitations the staff to awaken the Emperor, on his own responsibility despatched officers to the commanders of the light cavalry to order them to send reconnoissances in different directions. Consequently, Exelmans proceeded to the north, in the direction of Gembloux; and Pajol to the east, on the Namur road, with Teste's division attached. At daybreak, Grouchy mounted his horse, and repaired to the Imperial headquarters. Soult still refused to awaken Napoleon, though Grouchy strongly urged him to do so. Neither would Soult take it upon himself to issue any orders. Till 8 A.M., Grouchy, fretting at precious moments

desired to wait till the morrow for instructions.