reason, to the multitude, as a superior being. The excessive autho rity of which he is possessed, banishes all familiarity even from those who are next to him in power. He has few enemies, an immense number of partisans, and hardly a single friend There is no cause at present by which the enthusiasm of the people can possibly be raised. None of the parties can be said to rule; none of them are suppressed: they are mixed one with another in such a manner, that it is difficult to decide which of them enjoys the greatest influence; he therefore does not consider himself dependent on their will. The principal leaders of the jacobin party have received a bribe from government, and have deserted their flock: their generals have changed sides - General Jourdan, in Piedemont, Fouche, the Minister of Police at Paris, and Dubois, are living proofs of this assertion. The whole party is torn asunder, and will scarcely ever be able to re-establish itself. Many of the royalists have degraded themselves by accepting offices under the present government, though in their heart they despise the Corsican.' After the conspiracy of the Infernale, Bonaparte adopted several measures, which betrayed anxious fear for his personal security. His consular guard, which had been established from the beginning of his consulate, and all military guards, under whose protection he used to appear in public, were increased. His causing himself to be surrounded in such a manner, that the most undaunted, who might hazard their own lives to rid the world of this usurper, should find it impossible to approach him, degenerated into a perfect manœuvre, and became a new branch of military art. He has never since appeared abroad without these additional precautions of security. This dreadful catastrophe furnished him with a pretext for changing his mode of living, which had formerly been more liberal. Though disagreeable to him, he chiefly confined himself within the circle of his family, attended by his guards. Malmaison, a small country seat, belonging to his wife, but wholly isolated, and, on that account, the more easily defended, had often been the place of his residence; he also occasionally resided at the palace of the Thuilleries, which he had entered with great solemnity, soon after his being made consul; every corner being filled with his consular guards. For some time past he had lived almost exclusively at Malmaison, where he introduced a strict court etiquette, which rendered him absolutely invisible to all persons whom he did not know to be entirely devoted to him. Very few of those learned men and artists, formerly admitted in great numbers into his presence and family, were now permitted to approach him; the only persons to whom this favour was continued were groveling creatures, on whose slavish submission he could depend; and they were soon thrown back into the proper distance between master and ser vants.' It is the design of this work to impress the reader's mind · with the idea that Bonaparte is engaged in a systematic plan, the object of which is to extinguish in the French every relique of a republican spirit, and to give them habits and feelings directly the reverse of those which were attempted to be inREY. SEPT. 1804. E duced duced by the first leaders of the revolution. These views of the Consul are said to be apparent in the character of the festivals with which he has indulged the people, since his attainment of the supreme power. Alluding to the first 14th of July, which happened under the Consulship, the writer says; This day, which had been hailed for twelve years as a day of liberty, and of the destruction of the Bastile, peace was celebrated; not in the extensive champ de Mars, where all republican feasts had been given sirce the grand anniversary of the confederation, but in the Elysian fields, where the people had been often entertained in the times of royal France. In The whole management of this festival of peace bore a striking resemblance to the feasts given by the old court to the Parisians. the room of the lofty temple of liberty in the field of Mars, where rcligious, judiciary, and military solemnities made an awful impression on the mind, there was to be seen a pretty, glittering, little kind of illuminated rotunda, built of wood, in which a number of fiddlers were scraping away, exactly as in the days of the old court, on the anniversary of St. Louis Instead of prize fighting, grand races, and combats in the Roman style, in which every republican of note or property formerly used to take a share, there were to be seen, as in the good old times, a number of litte scaffolds for tumblers, ropedancers, harlequins, pantaloons, scaramouchers, &c. Franconi, with his troop, had also places assigned, for feats of horsemanship and pantomimes. Garnerin rose with his balloon; and a mat de l'ocagne was erected, greased all over, intended to be climbed on, and hung with hams and sausages for the greedy rabble. Places for dancing were likewise appointed; in short, there was every thing to amuse an idle people, fond of merriment; and yet the people did not dance much. They were neither noisy nor much disposed for mirth: it was, indeed, a very composed and decent rejoicing.' We cannot follow the author into a history of the intrigues and devices by which the re-establishment of the Catholic religion was prepared and accomplished, and of the parts taken by the Abbé Geoffroy, La Harpe, Beurrier, and Chateaubriand, in this change. Bonaparte does not here receive the praises for this measure with which he has been complimented from some other quarters, not accustomed to view his proceedings with approbation: for this writer regards it only as a part of the system above-mentioned, by which the conqueror seeks to debase the public mind, to shut out improvement, and to adapt the nation for the despotic government which he now exercises over it. The account here given of the overtures made to the Noblesse of the old court to join the suite of the First Consul, of their refus, of their secluded mode of living, and of their persecutions, forms a very interesting part of the volume. He who rode triumphant over Mount St. Gothard, and through the sandy deserts of Syria: he who gives law to the greatest part of Europe; and disposes at his will of the finest countries: this mighty chief, at the head of so populous an empire, feels desires that he cannot satisfy. Casting his longing eye around, he fixes it by chance upon the saloon of Madam de Montessan. It happened at that moment to be crowded with persons of the first rank-"Those nobles shall be my attendants," he cries; and immediately dispatches his devoted dæmons with invitations, offers, and promises. But promises, offers, and invitations are ineffectual; the messenger returns disap pointed and chagrined; he tells him that all his efforts have been fruitfess; that their demands were far beyond what he would accede to. The angry fearful man is thus compelled to stand alone on the pinnacle of his newly-acquired dignity; watching night and day these rebels to his will. Their words, their actions, their looks, are equally objects of his suspicion; not even a gesture is suffered to escape him. Alarmed by continual fears, when they assemble in great numbers, he immediately disperses them. If they flee back to the coast, they are driven to the mountains; if they take refuge among the rocks, they åre hunted to the sea.' At the present court, we are told, There is nothing of that politeness, ease, vivacity, and grace, which signalized the societies at the royal court. Every body stares with a slavish gaze at the First Consul, who treats them indiscriminately in a dry, cold, and harsh manner. He sometimes attempts to be polite or witty, but his politness is a proud condescension, and his wit is satire. There is always something rough or low in his way of expressing himself. He frequently makes use of terms, only to be found in the mouth of the upstart soldier, and proscribed by all good company. He is capable of using the most abusive language with the greatest indifference. The tone of his voice is deep and hoarse, and what he says is often accompanied with such a disagreeable laugh, that nobody can feel easy with him, even when he attempts to say the most agreeable things. The highest officers of state must sometimes hear themselves addressed by epithets, which, certainly never escaped the lips of a sovereign. If he think he has caught one of his ministers or privy counsellors in something contradictory, he frequently says, "vous etes un homme de mauvaise foi ;" or "vous me trompez."-(You are a man not to be trusted-you cheat me.') Yet the etiquette of no court is more strict than that of the Thuilleries: From the Second Consul down to the lowest private of the guards at the gate, every one has his fixed place assigned him, which he dares not leave for a single moment, and where he remains immovable, staring at his neighbour, who is also fastened to the ground, without speaking a single word. Bonaparte alone goes the rounds in the circle formed only by the ambassadors and foreigners of distinction. The minister of foreign affairs, now M. Talleyrand, can only enter this circle, when a new ambassador is to be presented.' E 2 A full. A full-sized portrait of Talleyrand follows. Whether it be overcharged, or not, we shall not presume to determine: but, if pique has had any share in it, (as the style, unlike that of the author on other occasions, might lead us to suspect,) still it exhibits many characteristic features, and is executed with much. ability. It is of too great a magnitude for us to copy. There can be no doubt that the re-establishment of the Catholic worship greatly increased the number of the partisans of Bonaparte but we are told that the measure was far from being universally acceptable; that vast numbers of Catholics, dreading the tyranny of their old clergy, have turned Protestants; and that this disposition increases, and considerably. alarms the government, which has it in contemplation to apply to the Pope for a brevet, by which no one shall be permitted to change his religion without first obtaining its consent! The government has a great aversion to the Protestants, and its partisans represent them as on a level with illuminati, Jacobins, terrorists, &c. &c. The despotic turn of Bonaparte, and the arbitrary nature of . his government, were doubted by none: but of the pains which he is said to have taken, and the schemes which he has devised to render slavery permanent, few perhaps are apprized. It is a material object of these pages, to make us believe in a systematic design, invariably pursued on his part, to banish knowlege and liberal ideas from his dominions, and to convert his subjects into a rude, ignorant, abject, superstitious, military horde. The curious information here given of the changes which he has made, in the plans of education projected in the course of the revolution, place this matter in a strong point of view, if credence may be allotted to the relations. It is stated that the central schools, designed for the provinces, are superseded by Lyceums; and that these are to be conducted on the plan of the old French schools, in which nothing was taught except Latin and Mathematics. In the regulations for these schools, published by the First Consul, the principal stress is laid on the instruction of the children in the military exercise; a military cast is given to every thing that relates to them; and the schools for the sons of French citizens will be in future nothing else but martial establishments. Where the seminaries have been instituted, the school-rooms are intolerably filthy, and the boys are dreadfully flogged and beaten. It is easy to see how well this plan is adapted to make them hate learning. Every school is to be divided into six forms, each of which is to be occupied during a year. All that is to be read in a year is to be compressed into one volume, and the master is on no account to use any other book. Each school is to have a library of 1500 vo lumes, lumes, which are to consist of the historical and mathematical works of the Jesuits. It was the dread of the prevalence of a liberal spirit, which made the Consul set aside the Institute, revive the four antient Academies, and abolish the class for moral philosophy, ethics, politics, and legislation. Thus all the splendid projects of the several leaders of the Revolution, for the improvement of the human mind, terminate in a wretched system which is to train up men for slavery at home, and to qualify them to be the instruments of carrying calamity and destruction among other nations. Jo. ART. VI History of the Insurrection of the County of Wexford, A.D. 1798; including an Account of Transactions preceding that Event, with an Appendix. Embellished with an elegant Map of the County of Wexford. By Edward Hay, Esq., Member of the Royal Irish Academy. 8vo. pp. 04. 10s. 6d. Boards. Stockdale, Dublin: Cuthell, London. 1803. ΤΗ 'HE sad tale of the late Irish rebellion has already been more than once told; and the author of this volume has been anticipated by a violent party-spirited baronet*, and by a very respectable protestant clergyman +, the one priding himself on his virulence and bigotry, the other not only doing honour to his own character, but reflecting lustre on his sacred profession, by the candor and fairness of his narrative. In the present instance, the pen is assumed by a liberal and accomplished catholic; who, though of decided attachments in politics and religion, displays a large share of impartiality, and whom ill usage, scarcely credible, cannot induce to falsify history. If the result of his researches does not relieve the philanthropist; if his account, instead of diminishing, rather increases the sum total of those horrors, which not only disgrace Ireland, but the empire of which it forms a part, and the very age that witnessed the perpetration of them; it more fully consults distributive justice, and it more accurately assigns to the several authors their respective shares in those acts. Hay more amply sets forth the causes which led to the rebellion, and less cloaks the enormities on the part of the late governmentfaction which provoked it, as well as those that were practised subsequently to it, than had been done by his predecessors. Far be it from us to attempt to vindicate the deluded insurgents, who were rendered frantic by a treatment unknown Sir R. Musgrave. See Rev. Vol. 37. N. S. 274. 玉る Mr. under |