Mr Holcroft next calls in queftion that gayety of heart on which the French are fo apt to value themselves. His first reafons for doubting its reality, did not indeed appear to us to be very fubftantial the height of their houses, for inftance, and the darkness of their court-yards and portes cocheres, or the heavy form and dusky colour of their furniture. The frequency of fuicide, however, is an argument rather more convincing. In the Morgue, a place in Paris where dead bodies are depofited till they be reclaimed, upwards of 130 are fuppofed to be annually expofed; but as the fashionable inode of death is by drowning, the victims must be much more numerous. Mr Holcroft was informed from a very refpectable quarter, that there had been 193 fuicides in the metropolis within the laft ten months, and about as many in the departments. Beggars are more numerous in Paris than in London, but, in general, not fo importunate. Credulity and fuperftition ftill retain a good deal of influence over the lower orders, though Mr Holcroft thinks that the hierarchy will never be able to renew either its tyranny or its impoftures.

The affociation of ideas by which Mr Holcroft is guided in the diftribution of his fubjects, is rather more capricious than moft authors would choofe to follow in a ferious compofition. In Ipeaking of credulity, he happens to glance incidentally at the general behaviour of the Parifians in places of worship; and this leads him to give fome account of the festival obferved on the birth-day of Bonaparte, because the greater part of it was folemnifed in churches: and then the mention of this festival naturally leads him to fay fomething of the character of the Firft Conful himself. This, however, is a fubject which cannot fail to attract curiofity in whatever way it may be introduced; and Mr Holcroft has contributed his quota of anecdotes and reflections with great good will and liberality. The great interest of thefe fpeculations, however, is now over: among those who live beyond the fphere of his power, there is no longer any difpute about the character of this fortunate ufurper. Mr Holcroft, with all his admiration for energies and fublime capabilities, is obliged to admit the selfish littleness and violence of his temper, and to allow that he is merely acting over the vulgar part of an ambitious tyrant, with all its common accompaniments of rant and atrocity. There is fomething of a poetical rapture in the ftyle which he affumes upon this occafion; but it is the best written part, we think, of his performance.

Of republicans he was the firft, the moft magnanimous, and the leaft to be fufpected: the love of freedom, the emancipation of flaves, and the utter expulfion of bigotry, were the pictures he delighted to exhibit to the admiring world. Cæfar, nay, Alexander himself, who

profeffed

profeffed to conquer only to civilife, appeared to be outdone by a ftripling; a fcholar from the military school; concerning whom his playmates began now to ranfack memory, that they might discover in what he had differed from themfelves.' Vol. II. p. 272.

The world, in general, only changed their opinion by degrees; but Mr Holcroft detected the hypocrite in one decifive act.

The unhappy period at length approached, that was to fhow him a character of vice and virtue fo dangerously combined, as to alarm penetration, and warn the world to beware. He landed in Egypt; and, by a ftroke of his pen, he and his whole army became Muffulmen.

Every doubt was then removed: he was a man to whom, could he but gain the end in view, all means were good.' Vol. II. p. 273. The fame propensity to account for every thing by the fuppofition of fome fingle and palpable caufe, induces Mr Holcroft to affure us, that the tyranny of Bonaparte arifes almost exclusively from his having been accustomed to command armies before he afcended the feat of civil dominion. The following obfervations, however, are entitled to attention.

Accuftomed to gain the grandeft advantages by fecrecy of plan, celerity of action, and thofe ftratagems that beft can mask and mislead, the fame habits remain, and the fame means are adopted, when the conqueror feizes on the rule of ftates as when he fends forth his cohorts to the plunder of cities, and the capture of provinces. He alone muft project; he alone muft command; reward and punishment muft be at his fole difpofal: no community, no fingle creature must act but as he wills. That to make his will known is impoffible; that it varies in himself from day to day; that men cannot refign their intellect, cannot refift the impulfes of habits and the decifions of the judgement; and that the task of regulating the actions of millions by the will of an individual is the moft extravagant and abfurd of attempts are truths of which he has no knowledge, or has loft all recollection.' Vol. II. P. 277.

The barefaced violence by which all the journals were filenced, but thofe which became the organs of the government, has been long known over all Europe. Mr Holcroft adds a number of well authenticated facts of the fame nature, and mentions the names of feveral unfortunate authors who were fentenced to ba nishment or imprisonment for having written what did not meet with the approbation of the Firit Conful. Even his philofophical affociates are now excluded from his prefence; and, on fome occafions, the contempt with which he treats the adulation which his tyranny has extorted, reminds us of the capricious infults of Tiberius to his degraded fenate.

In the true fpirit of French declamation, fome one affirmed, speak ing to Bonaparte, that England was far behind France in truly under Aanding the principles of liberty: To which he replied, "It wouldTM

be

be well for the latter, if it did but enjoy one tenth part of English freedom."

He will feldom condefcend to argue; and, when he does, he confiders it as infolence, in any one, who dares to be of a different opinion. Vol. II. p. 288. 289.

In every fociety, Mr Holcroft affures us, Moreau, is praised, and advantageously contrafted with Bonaparte. • Their busts, he adds, are expofed to fale on every ftall; and before I left. Paris, that of Moreau was faid to fell much the beft.'

According to good information, the ungovernable anger of Bona parte is become fo exceffive, that, when a meffenger brings unpleasant news of any kind, but efpecially if it relate to foreign affairs, the perfons in waiting are each afraid of being the reporter. His fits of paffion are fo violent, that it is faid he is now frequently provoked to Atrike; and that it is very common for his footmen to receive blows. ' Vol. II. p. 301:

Mr Holcroft fays, that he has every reafon to believe that the angry and intemperate attacks upon the English nation, which appeared in the Moniteurs during the peace, were written by the First Conful himself.

From an engineer, who was with him in Egypt, I learned that it was his cuftom, when he had fummoned a council of war, to listen to the opinions of others, to give no opinion himself, to act in a manner that could be leaft expected, and to do this with fuch determination and celerity, that, faid the narrator, it was like a torrent. So great was his afcendancy, that, when he was prefent, the generals acting under him appeared like fo many schoolboys: Vol. II. p. 303.

In executing thefe plans, it is notorious that he is utterly indifferent to the wafte of life that may be occafioned: he has no fympathy with the fufferings of his followers.

During the extreme fummer heats in Italy, it happened that the enemy was certain on fuch a day that his army was at fuch a diftance. It was well known that forced marches were with him common accurrences but the season would not adinit of them, without an absolute and certain lofs of men; which must be exceffive in proportion as their fpeed fhould be great.

• Bonaparte was not to be retarded by fuch motives. On this very occafion, he issued his orders as he lay in the warm bath, of which he makes frequent use, and the men were driven forward, the foot by the horfe, with fuch violence that thousands perifhed on the march. Some remonftrances were attempted by the officers, but they were repulfed with contempt and threats. The horse and advanced troops fecured various paffes, the fuppofed impoffibility was overcome, the enemy attacked, and the end of the conqueror, obtained. A whole district fell the common prey; and the living, in the triumph of victory and the evel of plunder, thought no more of the dead.

The contributions he laid were without mercy; and his treatment VOL. IV. NO. 7.

of

of the magiftrates of the conquered, when they ventured to make any Arong appeal against cruelty or injuftice, was fuch as man would fcarcely beflow on a dog. Vol. II. p. 307. 308.

We fhall conclude thefe extracts with the following phyfiognomical sketch.

Sallow complexion, length of face, a pointed nofe, a projecting chin, and prominent cheek-bones, have diftinguished the countenances of fanatics and perfecutors. Fanatics and perfecutors were often men of powerful minds, but violent paffions; and between fuch men and Bonaparte, allowing for times and circumftances, in phyfiognomy, in Salents, and in manner of acting, there is great refemblance. Vol. II. P. 320.

We cannot go through the remainder of this work. It confifts principally of a catalogue raifonnée of all the public performers of any eminence, and of the men of letters and authors whofe names are in circulation in Paris. It also comprehends a rapturous account of the national mufeum, of which the following fentence may ferve as a fpecimen.

The harmonious Guido; Barbieri, Corregio, Titian, Da Vinci, and Raphael! Giants, that exterminate their imitators: each a Saturn, devouring his children.

Why do I indulge in a ftyle that refembles rhapfody? It is, that I am vainly ftruggling to perform a talk to which I am unequal. It is, that multitude and volume palfy all effort to individualize, and give me the right to fay, go, and behold, that thy eyes may bear teftimony to the truth. Vol. II. p. 439

After a fhort refumé of his obfervations on coffee-houses, gaming-houfes, and prifons, Mr Holcroft leaves Paris, and returns to England by the way of Calais, without meeting with any

adventure.

Upon the whole, we think that this book is a great deal too long, and that it has attained this magnitude by the most intrepid and extensive application of the approved recipes for bookmaking that has yet come under our confideration. If every thing were deducted that has no relation to the present state of the countries which the author propofes to defcribe, and every thing which is tranfcribed from books that might as well have been confulted at home, the publication, we are perfuaded, would be reduced to one third of its prefent bulk. The lofty pretenfions, too, with which the author fets out, and the folemnity with which he continually fpeaks of his labours, form a ridiculous contraft with the infignificance of the matters upon which he has refted his attention. Inftead of dwelling only upon thofe things which poffeffed in themfelves fome degree of intereft or attraction, he has attempted to transport his readers into Paris, by fetting before their eyes every thing which his own could dif

cover in that fituation; and has thought there was no way fo fure of omitting nothing characteristic or important, as by fetting down every thing that occurred, and thinking nothing too trifling to be omitted. In this way, he has undoubtedly brought forward fome groupes in a lively and animated manner; but he has taken all dignity, unity and distinctness from his performance, confidered as a whole; and has crowded and confused its inferior compartments in fuch a manner as fcarcely to leave any other impreffion on the eye of the obferver, but that of diforder and fatigue.

Of the ftyle and language of this book, a tolerable judgement may be formed from the extracts we have already given. Its ruling vice is affectation, which is frequently combined with a greater degree of grammatical inaccuracy than is ufual, even in works of this defcription. In the preface, the author informs us, that his principal fubject is the city of Paris, its inhabitants, and the marks by which they are diftinguished from other cities and other nations.' A few pages afterwards, he chooses to say, In their common difcourfe much, and in their daily actions more, the opinions of a people are broadly written.' He talks alfo of murders and atrocities, fuch as the very image of makes the foul revolt; and of four children, none of whom not having a parent's care,' &c. He informs us, moreover, that cars drawn by dogs is a practice,' &c.; and that a man with a dirty filk coat was furveyed with continued repetition by his companions."

This book is very handfomely printed, and the plates have the dimenfions at least of magnificence: the greater part of them, however, are very indifferently executed; and the two general views of Paris are in every respect abominable. The vignettes are by far the beft, and many of them are both designed and finifhed with great taste and elegance.

ART. VII. Memoires du Compte Jofeph de Puiffaye, Lieutenant General, &c. &c. qui pourront fervir à l'Hiftoire du Parti Royalifle Franis, durant la derniere Revolution. 2 vol. London, E. Harding & Dulaw. 1803.

M. Puiffaye has devoted his retirement in Canada to the vindication of his character from charges which have obtained a very extenfive circulation. He informs the public, that he has compofed thefe volumes under the preffure of an almoft uninterrupted ftate of, bad health, and that, from that caufe,