Retrospective view of Napoleon's reign.
Men should be judged not by their fortune, but by their deeds. Napoleon held in his grasp the largest share of power ever confided by Providence to a mortal hand for the purpose of creating civilization and nationality. What has he left behind him? Nothing but a conquered country, and an im
He was the sophist of the counter-revolution. The world called for a renovator,-Napoleon Bonaparte became its conqueror. France looked for the spirit of reformation, and he imposed upon her despotism and discipline. To liberty of conscience (the great aspiration of his age), he replied by a papal coronation—a simonial treaty with Romethe Concordat.
Impiety lurked beneath the official pomp of public worship. Instead of seeking to revive true faith by liberty of conscience, Napoleon, at a distance of ten centuries, enacted a parody upon Charlemagne, without having the faith of the neophyte, or the heroic sincerity of this Constantine of Gaul and Germany. To the desire for equality of rights, Napoleon replied by creating a military aristocracy and a feudality of the sword; to the desire for liberty of thought, he replied by the censorship and the monopoly of the public press; to the desire for freedom of discussion, he replied by silent tribunes surrounded by a mute assembly, whose only remaining privilege was to listen to and applaud the official organs of the imperial will.
Thus human intellect languished, literature was degraded, the arts were enslaved, and the public mind withered beneath a despotic rule. Victory alone could retard the explosion of national independence,-of human intelligence. The day she ceased to gild this universal yoke, it would appear in its true light,-glory for one only, humiliation for all, a reproach upon the dignity of the nation, an appeal to continental insurrection. Victory at length forsook him.
The smothered genius of the Revolution burst forth in the spirit of popular independence. The remorseful feelings of insulted nations, the pride of humiliated sovereigns, recoiled against the vanquished conqueror of the world, and tracked his steps through each succeeding defeat far beyond the Rhine,