-ion.

He

lect had overcome the grief of the feelings. Inwas going to foil her by the long and sinuous way stead of attacking England by the direct road, he of the continent, one on which he was to find an incomparable grandeur before encountering his ruin. Would he, asks M. Thiers, have attained his object by the direct course?

-"all is ready-England is ours-show your- longer a trace of irritation either in his voice or in selves but 24 hours and all is won." Décrès, his features. The great conceptions of the intelhowever, his minister of marine, an able officer, though he durst not encounter the imperial anger by openly opposing such an operation, had no hope, now that the English fleet was alive to the intended combinations, of any successful issue from the union of the two divisions of the French fleet, amounting to 50 sail of the line, in the narrows of the Channel. Nearly one half had been Granted that he got safe over to Dover, it is no so closely blockaded for many months as to have offence to the British nation to suppose that it lost practice and seamanship; the force would be might have been conquered by the captain who, in unfit to manœuvre in the limited space assigned, eighteen months, overcame and subdued Austria, and their inability to work their ships with all the Germany, Prussia, and Russia. For there was dexterity circumstances would require, would ren- not, in point of fact, a man added to that army of der such a practice dangerous if not fatal. the ocean which at Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland, beat the 800,000 soldiers of the continent. Nay, was incessantly worried by his patron for his opin-it must be said, too, that the territorial inviolability "Whether Villeneuve was steering for enjoyed by England has not fashioned her heart to Brest?-or for Cadiz?-If for Cadiz, what am I the danger of invasion * * * this does not in the to do with my marine ?"-For some days, Napo- least detract from the glory of her naval and milileon, with a presentiment that the latter course tary services. It is not, therefore, probable that had been taken, hesitated between two alternatives she could have dared resist the soldiers of Napo—that of embarking at all hazards, or of throw-leon, as yet unexhausted and undecimated by war. ing himself upon Austria, whose increasing assemblages of troops behind the Adige augmented his ill-humor and suspicion. The historian quotes a letter written by him to Talleyrand, in the midst of these dilemmas, (23d of August,) discussing the probabilities of the naval force failing him. “In such a case I break up my camp on the shores of the ocean, enter Germany with 200,000 men, and not stop till I have touched bars at Vienna *** after pacifying the Continent, I shall return to the ocean to work afresh at the maritime peace."(!!)

During this interval he was sombre, absent, harsh towards Admiral Décrès, in whose countenance he read all the reasons that had actuated Villeneuve, He was constantly on the sea-shore-his eyes fixed on the horizon. Naval officers, with telescopes, on different points of the coast, were unceasingly on the look out, and charged to report to him.

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An heroic resolution of her government by taking refuge in Scotland, and abandoning England to the ravages of the victor, until the return of Nelson with the whole naval force of England, by cutting off the return of Napoleon, though victorious, and thus enforcing him to become a prisoner in his own conquest; all this might have brought about some strange combinations: but it was out of all likelihad reached London, England would have treated. We are firmly persuaded that, if Napoleon

hood.

We certainly think that England "would have dared to resist," and that her resistance would have been eventually (as it was in Spain) successful; otherwise, in these ingenious speculations of M. Thiers in the optative and subjunctive mood, there is assuredly little of which we can complain. Our jealousy of standing armies, so favorable to our civil liberty; the intolerance and ignorance of war common to our whole population; the want of enterprise and professional skill which characterized our military officers until formed by the schooling of our great captain in the Peninsula; would have placed us at great disadvantage in a contest with the soldiers of the camp of Boulogne. True it is that the south-eastern counties are in

After three days' gestation of impatience and anxiety intolerable to a temperament so ardent, Décrès being interrogated, confessed that, considering the time since Villeneuve had sailed from Ferrol, the fair winds that had prevailed, vu aussi les dispositions morales de Villeneuve," (for closed, intricate, timbered, and so far unfavorable so his friend and shipmate obligingly phrased it,) to the rapid progress of an invader. Hedge-rows, he was of opinion that the fleet had retired to Ca- trees, ditches, scattered homesteads and orchards, Mons. Thiers describes, on the authority of if defended would reduce the advance to a constant a manuscript memorandum left by Daru, who wit- series of petty skirmishings, in which an enemy nessed it, a violent explosion on the part of the ignorant of the country, and deriving no assistance disappointed contriver of the expedition. He from the peasantry, could frame no operations on a abused Villeneuve in particular as a traitor-in-scale corresponding with his numbers. Icluded in the censure of his wrath all around- this hypothesis imagines an army, smaller indeed than his, but able to meet and fight some portion

diz.

But then

Declared himself betrayed by the pusillanimity of his force with confidence. It would have been of men-deplored the ruin of the finest, rarest plan idle, without a large regular force, whether of the he had ever concerted in his life-and showed in line or of a well-trained militia, to have trusted to all its bitterness the grief of genius abandoned by the loquacious enthusiasm of the towns or the fortune. All of a sudden, calming himself * *

Without

he dictated, for several hours, with extraordinary sharp-shooting of the rural inhabitants. presence of mind and precision of detail, the plan organization such tumultuous assemblages are sure of the immortal campaign of 1805. There was no to fail. The very first check engenders panic and

ons.

flight; and the disorder that is thus communicated | of his own dominions from other attacks-fortuis worse almost than non-resistance. There have nately no doubt for this country, since our own exbeen instances of irregular troops embarrassing dis-istence had in many respects become so artificial, ciplined armies: the mountaineers of the Tyrol, the relations of the various classes to each other the guerillas in Spain, nay, even our own High-so complicated, that the mere process of even suclanders in the rebellion of 1745. But all these cessful defence would have been accompanied by bodies were more or less organized; accustomed to circumstances of the greatest hazard. Whence, act in concert under chiefs whom they knew before-indeed, with war a few miles off, are to come the hand, whom they trusted and obeyed, and were be- resources that supply the pay-table of the manusides proverbially expert in the use of their weap- facturer and the farmer on the Saturday night? Our social and political economy have en- Whence, in the absence of these, is the working gendered other habits, and would hardly admit of population, whom the involuntary policy of our a levy en masse. Whatever might be done by the poor-laws, with all their merits, have deprived of lord and his tenants, the squire and his game-keep-forethought and self-reliance, whence are they to ers, we could not expect the farmer to persuade be supplied with food? Above all, when resisthis weekly laborers, the hireling who stays not for ance is talked of, let us distinguish. We have the wolf, still less the lords of industry to rally their never yet heard or read of any country in which a factory operatives to advance with them into the compulsory charity, however blessed in the giver, thick of the fight. The general surface of Eng- had produced patriotism in the recipient, nor have land, though lending itself favorably to the efforts we any opinion that the pauper element, so large of an inferior though disciplined force to resist one a one unfortunately in the population of Great Britsuperior only in numbers but not in skill and dar- ain, would contribute anything but embarrassment ing, has for the greater part no remarkable strong- to our efforts at defence. The dole-basket at holds, no mountains or defiles, save in the north Rome prepared her for her successive subjugations and west. No fortresses, not even a castle, a by the barbarians. post, a gentleman's mansion, scarcely a tithe-barn After he had definitively renounced the English, that can be rendered susceptible of defence against and resolved upon the German invasion, Napoleon anything stronger than musketry. Once inland, remained another week at Boulogne, so that his having masked or passed the martellos and the na-presence there while he superintended the comval arsenals, there is hardly anything that a pow-mencement of the march towards the Rhine and der-bag would not find means to open or throw the Danube, might still mystify the other powers. down.

His position was critical enough. An Austrian army, numerically superior to the French, was ready to assume the offensive in Lombardy; another under Mack in Bavaria; Russia advancing in the rear; and besides these two grand attacks, the subordinate hostilities to be expected on remoter points from Swedes, Neapolitans, and English. But with that rare exactness which seldom left him, calculating to a day the rate at which he should be able to move, ensuring the concentration of a sufficient or a superior force on points where it was essential to master resistance, the historian shows that from his camp at Boulogne he had prearranged the whole course of his operations and their consequences upon the enemy, and apportioned to each month its appointed share of marching, fighting, success, and occupation. Yet to accomplish this he had, besides his own forces, no allies except the chance of a small Bavarian corps and the little army of the Elector of Wurtzburg, with the purchased neutrality of Prussia by the temporary deposit of Hanover. All then depended upon his celerity of arrival at certain points in such force as to prevail over whatever he found

Our first line of defence, then, which consisted in our force afloat in the channel, being passed or evaded, (a large supposition,) we dare say M. Thiers is right when he vindicates the project as one by no means chimerical; it could not be branded as absolutely hopeless, however imprudent. Let us recollect, too, that there were other causes, besides the non-arrival of Villeneuve, which led to the abandonment of the project, almost at the moment of its threatened execution. The menacing posture of affairs on the continent, the arming of powers whom we were then rich and unwise enough to subsidize, had a large share in diverting the attention and absorbing the energies of France and her ruler, which they never can have again. No power on the continent will ever again arm at so critical a juncture, or, unless paid afresh by us, cause such a diversion in favor of this country, should a revival of the project of invasion ever suggest itself seriously to a French government vigorous enough to entertain it, rich enough to provide the means, and firm enough in its tenure of office to prepare for some time before the resources and materials needed for so momentous a strug-there-to throw himself behind the Austrian army gle.

The abandonment of an enterprise conceived, projected, and for years cherished with all the ardor which a thirst for power, hatred of a rival, and a desire of commercial advantages, could inspire in a disposition like his, by the greatest captain of modern times, is then, in part, owing to the sea front presented, but greatly more to the insecurity

at Ulm-reduce it-and then advance into the heart of their empire, before their reserves, aided by the advancing Prussians, could again gather head to resist him.

Never had any captain, in ancient or modern times, conceived or executed anything on so gigantic a scale. That is, never had such a master mind,

more free to follow its own will, or with a greater | select individual chiefs for extravagant praise, and force at its disposal, operated on so great an extent to deny to the subordinate officers their fair share of country. What in fact does one mostly see? of merit, whether in relating the actions of our Irresolute governments, who hold cabinet councils own or of the combined fleet; not to mention an when they ought to be acting; improvident governments, who think of organizing their forces unmeasured, and we believe unmerited, contempt when they ought to be on the field of battle; and and abuse of the Spaniards. Many of the French under their orders subordinate generals who can ships were fought with desperate bravery. Of scarcely move on the limited theatre assigned to the state of the Bucentaure (the French comtheir operations. Here, on the contrary, genius, mander-in-chief's ship) a touching picture is will, forethought, absolute liberty of action-all given; when, dismasted and unmanageable, Vilunited in the same man and for the same end. It is rare to find an union of all these circumstances, leneuve wished to repair on board some other but when it occurs the world has a master. ship, no boat was left on board that could swim; the Santissima Trinidad was hailed to send one, to no purpose; the repeating frigate, the Hortense, remained motionless at a distance.

66

The French admiral saw himself bound to the corpse of his ship, ready to founder, no longer able to give an order or to save the fleet entrusted to him. He surrendered, and was carried on board the Mars, where he was received with the honors due to his rank, his misfortunes, and his couragehad met then at last that sinister disaster-which feeble indemnification for such a calamity! He he had so dreaded to encounter, at one time in the West Indies-later in the Channel; he had met it there, where he had expressly hoped to avoid it; and he fell without the consolation of perishing for the accomplishment of a great design.

All the operations of that celebrated campaign, the arrival on the Rhine, its passage, the turning Mack's position at Ulm, his surrender, the advance along the Danube, the boldness of the design, the imprudence almost of the lieutenants who executed, turning their very recklessness to account, and thereby foiling and checking the paralyzed enemy, are detailed with masterly spirit and force. The Austrian general's infatuation was no doubt unprecedented; he could not believe that the French army was in a mass in his rear in the north-west, while all his attention was directed westward to the Black Forest. "La police militaire," is M. Thiers' caustic remark, "comme la police civile, ment, exagére, se contredit." The master mind Décrès transmitted the news to Napoleon, discerns the drift and sifts all the intelligence already rapidly marching on Vienna; but in the picked up by the staff corps and brought from the midst of his triumphant successes experiencing the outposts-the weaker understanding is bewildered, mortification of defeat at sea. From that time more especially if there has been a favorite forward he ceased to expect much from the French notion that the enemy is to be expected in one par-marine. Mons. Thiers speaks of the "silence ticular quarter; every information is then inter- ordonné" throughout France on this distasteful preted in that sense, and thus are produced those subject, this untoward event—a magnificent proof capital errors which sometimes ruin armies and of the absolutism of his power over the characterempires." An evasion towards the Tyrol, leaving istic loquacity of Gaul; but there were reasons of course the capital of the monarchy to its fate, for this taciturnity. might have been attempted by Mack, though hazardous when followed by such an army as would Europe readily lent itself to the silence he have pressed upon his rear; or a desperate rush desired to preserve; the tramp of his march on the to break out of the circle that hemmed him, and continent prevented the hearing of the echo of the to regain Bohemia; but Mack could embrace nei- their breasts the sword of Napoleon were not cannon of Trafalgar. Those powers who felt at ther alternative. He had weakened his force by reassured by a naval victory, profitable to England detaching part of it uselessly towards Memmingen alone, producing only a new extension of her com-the Archduke Ferdinand broke away from him mercial domination, which they little liked, and with 6,000 or 7,000 more, leaving the general-in-only tolerated from jealousy of France. Trafalgar thief to shift for his 30,000 remaining men as he then blotted out none of the splendors of Ulm, and, could. "L'expérience enseigne que dans ces sit- as will be seen, lessened none of its consequences. uations l'âme humaine abattue, quand elle a commencé à descendre, descend si bas, qu'entre tous les partis elle prend le plus mauvais"-a feeling observation which all who remember the story of our own disasters at Cabul will readily assent to.

Ulm, therefore, with its 30,000 men, surrendered on Sunday, the very eve of Trafalgar. It is of course natural that a Frenchman should make the most of the exploits of his countrymen in the account of the latter tremendous defeat; and we are not disposed to find fault with him for painting in colors more lively perhaps than is quite correct, the performances of the vanquished. To one objection he is certainly open, in this as well as other parts of his history; he is too apt to

His energy was carrying all before it in his German campaign. The Austrian capital occupied; Prussia,,always slippery, disliking him much, fearing him more, was only waiting to see which was the strongest, had sent her minister Haugwitz to watch the dénouement evidently pending. He was well received by the French emperor, who, declining the presence of an inconvenient witness, invited him to set off that night for Vienna, adding, with studied carelessness, that he was going to give battle directly, after which, if he was not carried off by a cannon ball, he should be glad to see him again. The great master of the dramatic art fully understood how to impress every one in the fittest way;—thus inti

Within a few weeks of his crossing the Rhine, the allies were overthrown at Austerlitz; the successor of the Cæsars came personally to sue for peace at the bivouac of the offspring of the revolution;—the Russian autocrat too happy to be permitted to escape to his northern wastes on any terms, with the remains of his army. No wonder that the realization of such successes should have awakened other and wilder dreams of ambition. Besides awarding the regal title to his allies, the electors of Bavaria and Wurtemburg, he fulminated a sentence of dethronement against the Neapolitan Bourbons, who had unfortunately declared at the wrong moment, in the hour of his apparent embarrassment. He provides thrones for his brothers-Naples for Joseph, Holland for Louis, a grand duchy of Berg for Murat, other territorial duchies and revenues for his faithful adherents, Venetian states and confederation of the Rhine for himself. No wonder, either, that others should have partaken of the intoxication

mating that if Prussia resolved on war, her sover- | feel for a man whose power, established over a free eign must play for the same stakes which he him- nation, lasted twenty years! Courts are capricious self risked (viz., his life as well as power.) enough, doubtless, but they are not more so than M. Haugwitz was carefully conducted across the large deliberating assemblies. All the caprices of opinion excited by the thousand stimulants of the field of battle of Hollabrun, fought a fortnight daily press, and reflected in a parliament where before, and still dotted with the unburied corpses they assume the authority of the national soverof his countrymen. Napoleon significantly adver- eignty, compose that fluctuating will, by turns sertising Talleyrand that "il est bon que ce Prussien vile and despotic, which the minister must captiapprenne par ses yeux de quelle manière nous vate, in order to reign himself over that crowd of faisons la guerre." heads who fancy that they ought to govern. He flattery which ensures success at courts, that other must possess, in order to sway, besides the art of art so different from it, of eloquence-sometimes homely, sometimes lofty-which is indispensable in order to obtain a hearing in an assembly of men. He must have what is not an art, but a giftstrength of character, by which one succeeds in braving or controlling excited passions. Mr. Pitt possessed in a high degree all these qualities, both natural and acquired. Exposed for a quarter of a century to the impressive eloquence of Mr. Fox, to the poignant sarcasms of Sheridan, he stood erect and maintained an imperturbable coolness; spoke constantly with judgment, effect, and moderation; and when the sonorous voice of his adversaries was aided by the yet more powerful echo of events; when the French revolution, repeatedly defeating the most experienced statesmen and generals of Europe, exploded across his path "Fleurus," "Zurich," or "Marengo," he always succeeded in restraining, by the firmness and fitness of his answers, the too active spirits of the British parliament. With the exception of some financial institutions of doubtful advantage, he created nothing in England; he was often in error respecting the relative strength of European countries, and on the issue of events; but he added to the talents of a great political orator an ardent love of his own country, and an impassioned hatred of the French revolution. Representing in England not the aristocracy of blood, but of commerce, which latter liberally poured her treasures into his lap in the way of loans, he resisted the greatness of France and the contagion of democratic disorders with intrepid perseverance, and maintained order in his country without diminishing its liberty. He left it overloaded with debt, but in peaceable possession of the ocean and the Indies. He used and abused the force of Great Britain; BUT IT WAS THE SECOND NATION OF THE EARTH WHEN HE DIED IT WAS THE FIRST IN * Mr.

too.

For men of calm and deliberate temper (if there remained any after witnessing such events) there was but one subject of apprehension-the known inconstancy of fortune, and, what is still more formidable, the weakness of the human understanding, which sometimes supports misfortune without quailing, rarely prosperity without committing great errors.

To add to his good fortune, Mr. Fox, from whose policy he expected such a tone as would, at least, have afforded him an honorable excuse for peace, had just succeeded his great rival in the government. The following character of Mr. Pitt's administration, which even to this day so much divides opinion in this country, as to make it difficult to obtain an impartial verdict from any one in a position entitled to pronounce a judgment at all, or impose it on others, will be valued as coming from one conversant with politics, sufficiently versed in our parliamentary history to appreciate its lessons, yet not blinded by his adherence to either Mr. Pitt's partisans or opponents, or the heirs of their passions, to prevent him from discerning the truth. The reader will probably assent to the whole of the reflections, not on the character merely, but on the circumstances in which Pitt lived, and the tenure of his power. If one respects those ministers, who, in absolute monarchies, are able to rule, for a long period, both the weakness of their sovereign and the instability of courts, and to rule in their master's name over a servile people, what admiration ought one not to

EIGHT YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH.

*

Pitt, so successful during eighteen years, was unFrenchmen were avenged on this cruel enemy, for happy during the last few days of his life. We he might then have believed that our victories would last forever, he might have doubted the soundness of his policy, and have trembled for the future of his country. It was one of his most common-place successors, Lord Castlereagh, who was to reap the

fruits of our disasters.

as a posthumous palladium by the Eldon school of | the council of state, of the university, of the bank, politicians.