England have taken their general impression of Napoleon's character. Was the spirit of the nation to be roused, or new aid to be sought, against the increasing terror of his crimes? As a matter of course, every ministerial paper became eloquent on one of the subjects above mentioned. In the succession of triumphs which preceded his fall, they were always alluded to, to give the last black dye to the tyrant's character; and when his final overthrow and peace were proclaimed, there was not a transparency so frequent or so devoutly gazed at by the shouting multitude, as that representing some interview of Napoleon with the ghosts of the murdered D'Enghien and Captain Wright. There is, therefore, not a passage in M. Savary's work, which will be more likely to give the translation of it a value in the eyes of the English public, than the portion in question. The author is, throughout, a panegyrist, almost renewing the ancient apotheosis in favour of his master, praising him to extravagance whenever his actions admitted of approbation, and, whenever they were doubtful, labouring, till either by finesse or argument, he convince, or think he has convinced, the reader of their propriety. Such is especially the case in all those miserable affairs which have so strongly associated some of Napoleon's actions with the ideas of murdersecret, private murder, and cold-blooded barbarity. There is no doubt that, in respect of each of the instances most strongly dwelt upon, the arguments of M. Savary have all more or less weight, and that a degree of doubt must always remain, which will leave the question debateable for the unlimited admirers of Napoleon's name and genius. If M. Savary's book had come out a century or two after the period it refers to, it would have been an excellent companion to the celebrated apology for the character of our own Richard the Third, by Horace Walpole.

The account of battles, or of the most brilliant campaign, when it has been once read in a tolerably faithful recital, has little afterinterest. It is like the description of a geographer, the principal merit it can possess is accuracy. The former part of M. Savary's work, therefore, with the exception of the passage we have mentioned, has little real interest. It is the soldier's story of battles ten times fought; and had the author held no other situation than that of a general in Buonaparte's army, his book would have been equally wanting in interest and usefulness. The conflict seen by half a million of men can never fail of historians, and the determinations of a council of war apply very faintly to the real history of nations. But the Duke of Rovigo, in his civil capacity, had an opportunity of making observations on points of the Imperial government which were hidden to other eyes, and any thing like the fair detail of which must be highly curious, and in many respects important. As a great part of the second volume of these Memoirs is occupied with the military part of the narrative, we shall pass very rapidly over it, paying our attention principally to

the more interesting accounts which the author has given, as minister of police.

The second volume commences with an account of the conduct of Napoleon, on the threatening appearance of Austria, notwithstanding the previous success of his arms and her professed neutrality, Taught as much by the naturally suspicious character of his mind, as by the experience he had had of such situations, he increased the number of his forces, disposed them in a manner the most likely to make them effective in case of an irruption, and took such measures with regard to Prussia, as might secure her co-operation in case of necessity. By these vigorous measures, he was prepared for the war being continued, and pushed to extremity. Soon after this, Napoleon hastened to Poland, and attacked the Russian army near Pultusk, and then formed his head quarters at Warsaw, where he sat down Jan. 1st, 1807. The winter passed at Warsaw is celebrated by M. Savary as one of almost Parisian festivity, and is distinguished by one of Napoleon's affairs of the heart, which is singularly contrasted with the severe attention which he at that time paid to business. Not only was the festivity of the winter quarter thus mixed with toil, but it met with a severer attack on the part of the Russians, who made an attempt on the French army about the end of January, on which occasion our author was appointed to the situation of General in chief, and the command of the 5th corps, in place of Marshal Lannes, While the war was being actively carried on, Talleyrand and the other ministers were at Warsaw, zealously labouring in the service of the Emperor, whose loss of the battle of Eylau had occasioned at Paris the greatest agitation. Successes, however, soon followed, which effectually removed these impressions: but we must hasten over these details, stopping for a moment only to allude to the praises which M. Savary has bestowed upon Napoleon's management of his wounded soldiers. So excellent was the system that he introduced into the hospitals, that the author, while governor of Konigsberg, states himself to have received sometimes seven thousand recovered invalids in a day, and in the course of a month no less than fifty thousand. The extract which he has taken from the report addressed by the intendant general to the Emperor, is well worthy of attention, and affords another proof of the abilities of that extraordinary man.

The Duke of Rovigo's account of his master's return to Paris, after the peace of Tilsit, is given with great liveliness. Napoleon reached St. Cloud two days before he was expected. Every thing, says the author, was prosperous; every thing improving. The feeling of the public was in harmony with the happy condition of the state. More than a fortnight was taken up with the receiving of congratulatory addresses, and the theatres were employed to repeat the flatteries which had been more formally heaped upon the conqueror. This is an amusing part of M. Savary's narrative,

as he introduces in it a mention of Fouché, the then minister of police, whose errors he seems to have much pleasure in describing. During the Emperor's absence with the family, Fouché had shown himself, in two or three instances, negligent of the duties of his office. On his master's return, he dreaded the effects of his conduct, and, how wisely we cannot say, thought of saving himself from disgrace by the vulgar expedient of dramatic flattery. He accordingly had an opera got up in a most magnificent style, in which Napoleon was compared to Trajan, but the adulation was too gross for the good sense of the Emperor to sustain it, and it produced no effect but disgust.

About this time, M. Savary was sent to mediate a peace with Russia. His situation on his arrival was curious enough. The most violent hatred of the French every where prevailed; prayers were offered against them in the churches, and Savary himself attended service, in which he heard his countrymen denounced as the most detestable of enemies. It may easily be supposed that the press was not suffered to rest during such a season, and what the literary spirit of Russia could not supply in sufficient abundance, was plentifully furnished by that of England. Our author speaks very amusingly of these things; and whether it be from the true independence of a philosophic mind, from conscious integrity, or from indifference, it is well worth while hearing what any man will say under the circumstances in which he was placed. The following passage will also give some idea of the author's

mental calibre:

As a relief from the dullness with which, during my stay at St. Petersburgh, I was frequently oppressed, I one day visited à bookseller's shop. While I was searching for something which I did not find, I happened to cast my eye on several pamphlets, printed in England, against the French, and particularly against the Emperor. I purchased the whole collection, and returned home with my carriage completely filled. I read them all from beginning to end. They presented a tissue of falsehoods, the meaning and application of which I often could with difficulty guess, though I knew all the individuals alluded to. The task of perusing this trash, therefore, did not call for any great exercise of philosophy.

Yet, from these contemptible productions, public opinion, on the subject of the French revolution, had been formed both in England and Russia, and our police minister had done nothing to refute falsehoods so extensively circulated. In one of these publications, I found a biographical sketch of myself, accompanied by my portrait, physical and moral. Neither the one nor the other was a flattering likeness. It was stated that I was the son of a porter to a hotel; that, having committed some crime, I enlisted to escape the punishment of the law; and that I had a certain shrewdness, which I turned to some account during the disorders and sanguinary scenes of the revolution. A certificate of my birth would have been a sufficient refutation of these assertions, which, however false as they were, obtained general credit.

'My moral portrait was still worse; and, according to these luminous guides of public opinion, no hangman better deserved than I the epithets which they lavished on me.

Though in reality I felt annoyed at being exhibited in these colours to the eyes of foreigners, whose opinion might possibly in some degree re-act on that of my own countrymen, I adopted the only course which became me; I searched my conscience, which is always the best judge to which an honest man can appeal, and on this occasion it taught me to despise the unmerited accusations of which I was the object. It counselled well, for my heart has retained no resentment; and I never sought revenge, though I have had more than one opportunity of taking it.

'I resolved then to smile at all these matters, and to take my share in the pleasantry which others wished to turn against me. A man who is conscious of his own integrity, has always an advantage over impostors, and I came off successfully in all explanations. I recollect that dining one day with the Emperor of Russia, whose dinner-party was never less than twelve or fifteen, that the reigning Empress did me the honour to address herself to me, saying, "General, pray what country are you a native of?" "Madam, I am from Champagne." "But is your family French ?" "Yes, madam, it also belongs to Champagne, to Sedan, the district in which the fine cloth is made." "I thought you were a foreigner I was told that you were a Swiss." : "Madam, I understand what your Majesty alludes to. I know that such a story has been published, for I have read it; but I beg of your Majesty not to form your opinion by publications of that description." The Empress saw that I bad discovered what was passing in her mind. By mere accident I had that very day read every thing relating to myself in the pamphlets of which I have spoken. The Empress of Russia probably wanted to ascertain how far their statements might be depended upon; and she had too sound an understanding not to perceive to which side justice was due.

'Various trifling circumstances of this kind contributed to render the society of St. Petersburgh less unfavourable to me; and I gradually succeeded, though not without difficulty, in getting thrown open to me the doors of houses, before which it had seemed, on my first arrival, necessary that I should open trenches; but as people are every where apt to run into extremes, and particularly in Russia, I had, in the sequel, as much trouble in avoiding the officious attentions of the higher circles, as in the first instance I had need of patience, to enable me to endure their incivility.'-vol. ii. pp. 106-108.

We, after this account, again meet with M. Fouché, who, it is said, took upon himself, and without any instruction from Napoleon, the delicate task of sounding Josephine's mind upon the subject of a divorce. Whether or not Fouché had the little ground to go upon, which M. Savary seems to think, we cannot tell; but, certainly, an affair of the kind could not have been managed worse by the most illiterate rustic. Having mentioned to the Empress the gratitude which the nation would feel by her voluntarily sacrificing her private good to that of the nation, he was altogether disconcerted by receiving at once a plain reply, that she was ready immediately to assent to the Emperor's wishes.

Had the minister of police been authorized with a commission, such an answer would have been every thing desirable, but acting by his own suggestion, it was altogether the contrary. In the course of the day, Napoleon found the Empress in tears, and the answer to his query, respecting the cause, being, “Can you ask, after what you have made me say?" the whole affair came out, and the disconcerted minister was called into the presence of his master, to hear the severest rebukes for his misapplied sagacity. If, however, we take all M. Savary says for granted, the most benighted sovereign never employed a minister guilty of more open knavery and foolery at the same time, than M. Fouché. We are not at all disposed to play the part of his advocates; but the pettishness, and almost childish passion, with which M. Savary speaks of his predecessor in office, makes him look almost as ridiculous as his unmeasured adulations of Napoleon. This great enmity may obviously be traced, we think, to the circumstance of Fouché's having put some slight upon the gendarmerie, which had been instituted by Savary, and had for eight years been under his command.

M. Savary had much to do in the affairs of the Spanish war, but every detail of interest has been already too often before the public, to leave any thing in his book worth the trouble of gleaning. The same may be said with respect to the interview of Napoleon and the Emperor Alexander at Erfurt; which, however, gives occasion to the author to moralize on the bad faith of rulers, and to express his conviction, that if England had sent a representative to the meeting, Europe would have been spared all the miseries which followed. The conversation between Napoleon and Prince Metternich, which took place previous to the renewal of hostilities on the part of Austria, is interesting, for the display it affords of the Emperor's manner with foreign ambassadors. Nothing could have been more prompt or more severe than his rebuke of the minister.

Napoleon's return, after the cessation of hostilities, is related by our author with not less delight than his return from the former campaign. He arrived at Fontainebleau, October 29, 1809, and was almost instantly surrounded by a most brilliant court. He soon after went to Paris; and it is now that we approach the most interesting portion both of Napoleon's history, and of M. Savary's work. The latter is, throughout, the panegyrist of his master, and it was not without curiosity we commenced the perusal of the pages which he devotes to the subject of Josephine's divorce. There is little doubt that Napoleon was influenced in the measures he took, entirely by his ambition; that the generality of explanations which have been given of his conduct in this affair, have been void of probability; and that he suffered all the pain which an unaffected attachment to his first wife could occasion, when a separation, as a matter of policy, became necessary.