and pulling it in joke, said,) Suppose that all you have stated were so; still, Abbé, I would say, bad recover herself from her terror, "Emperor.-Under whatever colour the insurrection of Aranjuez and its consequences may be presented, you must acknowledge, Mons. l'Abbé, that appearances are against it. These are strongly supported by the protest of the king, made the very same day, and but a few hours after he signed the abdication." "Escoiquiz.-I confess, sir, that to those who know not the incredible weakness of the king's character, the sudden change which his protest evinces (though I verily think it was made two days after the supposed date) will be a matter of astonishment. But their surprise would cease if they knew how much the king was the slave of his wife, in whom he had put the most unbounded confidence; and how she might get him, without the least difficulty, to sign the most opposite things in the same breath. It was the queen, sir, who out of hatred to the prince her son, and for fear that the Prince of the Peace should be tried with all the rigour of the law, induced her husband to make the protest." "Emperor.-In spite of all that, Abbé, I will always adhere to my principle. An abdication which was made in a tumult, and recalled the very same day, can never be deemed valid. But now, setting all this aside, how can I forget that both the interests of my family and empire, loudly demand the expulsion of the Bourbons from the throne of Spain? (Here his imperial majesty with the best possible humour, caught me by the ear, "Escoiquiz.-I perceive, sir, the whole meaning of that word; but still, I imagine I could prove that good policy, and the interests of your empire, are quite against the plans which your majesty has in contemplation.-I know how vast and deep are the plans which your imperial majesty is apt to conceive; but still, sir, my perfect acquaintance with the character and dispositions of the Spanish nation, might enable me to make some observations, and state some facts, which may be of the greatest importance in your decision. Who knows but that I may succeed in bringing your majesty to my side of the question? "Emperor.-(Smiling, in the same good humour, and giving me rather a hard pull by the ear,) I have heard a good deal of you, Abbé, and I really see that you are a deep fellow. "Escoiquiz-(Smiling also.) Sir, allow me to say, that I am but a shallow creature, comparatively. I appeal to what the world has seen. No, sir, no: the advantage is not on my side. "Emperor-It is impossible that while the Bourbons are on the throne of Spain, I should expect a sincere alliance from that country. They will, certainly, pretend it, while they may be weak and helpless: but they will fall upon me the moment a war shall be kindled in the North; a thing to which I am exposed every moment. Can there be a stronger proof of this, than the perfidious conduct of Charles IV.; who, as soon as he thought me quite embarrassed with the Prussian war, a few days be fore the battle of Jena, issued that famous proclamation, which you must well remember, calling all his subjects to arms against me? As long as the Bourbons shall sit upon that throne, I shall never be safe on that side. The forces of Spain, which are never to be overlooked, might dreadfully annoy me, one day or other, especially if there were a man of talents at their head.". "Escoiquiz.-With regard to the proclamation issued soon before the battle of Jena, which seems to be, with your majesty, the strong ground of suspicion against the disposition of the Bourbons towards your person and family, though it was a most unprovoked offence, yet it never originated in a Bourbon. It was, as your majesty well knows, an act of the Prince of the Peace, who had to conquer the most steady opposition of which the infinite weakness of the king was capable. And what shall I say of the friendly dispositions shown by his son Ferdinand, towards your majesty: of that love, esteem, and veneration, of which you, sir, have received the clearest proofs? There can be no reason, sir, to suspect the least aversion to your family, in a prince, who besides giving these proofs of affection, knows very well that your majesty's friendship is of the first political interest to his country.""Emperor.-Come, come, Abbé, have done with your castles in the air, and answer me, if it be possible that Spain should be as faithful to me under a Bourbon, as under a prince of my own family." "Escoiquiz.-The best pledge of the alliance of Spain during your majesty's life, is your transcendant genius,and the consequent strength which it gives to your empire. It matters not whether a Bourbon or a prince of your family be upon the Spanish throne during your majesty's life.-If your majesty should insist upon the change of dynasty, I most humbly beg leave to say, that it will excite the hatred and jealousy of the most passive and neutral to an incredible degree. England, sir, will have a powerful argument in your conduct towards your most faithful ally, with which to rouse their fears, and feed with them new wars and coalitions. As for the Spaniards, sir, I cannot dissemble my persuasion, that they will swear eternal hatred against you. France and your family will be the objects of their execration for centuries. There is but one opinion, one universal wish in favour of a king, whom they adore. Nothing, sir, short of exterminating the Spaniards, can settle another king on their throne. "Emperor.-Abbé, you exaggerate the difficulty. There is only one power which might give me some uneasiness, and I have already made sure of it. I communicated my plans concerning Spain to the Emperor of Russia, when I met him at Tilsit, (you see they are as old as that,) and he promised me not to oppose them. As for the other powers, they will not dare to stir, I am sure; and with regard to your Spaniards, they will make little or no resistance. The grandees, of course, and all the people of property, will be kept quiet by the fear of losing it, and will most likely employ their credit with the lower classes to preserve tranquillity. I will make the clergy and the monks responsible for every sort of disturbance that may happen, and so they will be obliged to exert their great in pretty sure there." fluence to preserve subordination. | for that purpose. No, no, I am The populace may here and there break out into some commotion, but a few exemplary punishments shall bring them back to their duty. Believe me, that countries where the monks are numerous may easily be brought to subjection; I know it by my own expe rience. "Escoiquiz. Those grandees, sir, those men of fortune, those priests and monks, on whom you trust, will be the first to set the example of loyalty to Ferdinand, even at the expense of all they possess; and the whole nation, in a mass, will rise up to oppose the establishment of any other person on their throne. "Emperor.-Well, let it be so; I will do it, if I were to sacrifice two hundred thousand men, though I am far from thinking that the subjugation of Spain will require that number. "Escoiquiz.-So strong is my persuasion that the colonies will withdraw their allegiance, in case of a change of dynasty, that I should not hesitate a moment to stake upon the event whatever is most dear to me in the world.-England, sir, will greet the day in which the change of dynasty shall take place in Spain, and reckon it as the happiest that has ever beamed on her." "Emperor. Besides, Abbé, that you are too much beforehand in your calculations, as we do not agree on the principles, I can say no more, at present, but that I will give this subject some further con. sideration, and let you know my irrevocable decision to-morrow." "Such was, with very little dif ference, in the order of the words, the dialogue which took place in our first conference. The next day "Escoiquiz.-I will allow, against I was called again by the emperor, my own persuasion, that Spain who began the conversation by may submit, and even become re-telling me, that he had taken the conciled to her yoke. But of what invariable determination of carry. use, let me ask, will she then being his plan, concerning Spain, to France? When she shall be ruined, unpeopled, impoverished by the loss of her colonies, and thereby deprived of the means of having a navy, what can she be but a burden to France, an opening through which her enemies will be enabled to attack her? "Emperor.But here again, Abbé, your argument runs away with you; you take it for certain that Spain will lose her colonies, when I have very good reasons to hope that it will not be so. I have not gone hand over head about this business. I am in communication with the Spanish colonies, and several frigates have been sent there into execution; and desired me, at the same time, to break the matter to Ferdinand. "That and the following days, the emperor spoke upon the same subjects with the Dukes of Infantado and San Carlos, and with Don Pedro Ceballos the minister of the young king, severally, as well as in common, including me; but he always spoke in the same tone. They all urged similar arguments to those I had employed, every one taking a different view of the subject, and all using the same manly frankness; but it was all in vain: he had taken his resolution, and it was irrevocable, as he had told us." La Langue Hébraique restituée | stated, as nearly as posssible in his et le veritable sens des mots Hébreux rétabli et prouvé par leur analyse radicale, par Fabre d'Olivet, 2 vols. large quarto.-The Hebrew language restored, and the true sense of the Hebrew words re-established, and proved by analysis-by Fabre d'Olivet, &c. own language. All the learned who have applied themselves to the Hebrew and investigated the genius of this ancient and celebrated language, have concurred in this, that it had been for a long time lost, that is to say, from a very early period the true sense of its words was no longer known, that the grammars and dictionaries made from the only authentic version of the only book which contained it, were founded on erroneous principles. The judicious Richard Simon, to whom the world is indebted for an excellent critical history of the bible, has brought together on this subject all the researches that have been made, and the opinions promulgated; and has proved that the loss of the Hebrew language is from the testimony of the bible itself, to be traced as high as the captivity of Babylon: so that, even six centuries before our era, the Jews themselves did not understand the language of their ancestors, and spoke a sort of mixed jargon of Chaldaic, Persian and Syriac. In this jargon so impro perly called Hebrew, and afterwards enriched with a few Latin and Greek words, the book of the law was but paraphrased for the Jews in the synagogues. Both Thalmuds are written in it, as well as most of the books which The author of this work is a scholar of great research, and has here accomplished an undertaking of immense labour. The extent and importance of it may be understood from a summary of the contents of his volumes. They embrace an introductory dissertation on the origin of speech and on the study of the languages which may serve to unfold it;-a Hebrew grammar founded on new principles, and calculated to be useful in the study of languages in general; a series of Hebrew roots considered under new points of view and destined to facilitate the comprehension of languages and that of etymological science;-a preliminary discourse;-a translation in French of the first ten chapters of Sepher, or Genesis, containing the cosmology of Moses. This translation, intended to illustrate and confirm the principles adduced in the grammar and dictionary, is preceded by a literal version in French and English, done upon the original Hebrew text also given, with a transcription or modern characters, and accompanied by grammatical and criti-the modern Jews deem ancient, cal notes in which the interpretation given to each word is regulated by radical analysis, and a collation with the analogous Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic, or Greek word. The principal motives which prompted M. Fabre d'Olivet to this enterprise deserve to be VOL. I. such as the Zohar and some cabalistical works known only to the Rabbins. Eminent men of all nations and sects have turned their attention laboriously to the loss of a language so intimately connected with the history of the earth, and events of unequalled importance. They have exerted them2 X selves to ascertain its constituent principles, and thus to restore it and re-invest its words with their true meaning. Several of them have fruitlessly consumed their lives in this task; the theories which they built with immense pains have all fallen to the ground. The author of the present work has been long since aware of the rocks on which they split; and has been insensibly drawn into the enterprise by particular circumstances. He had at first directed his studies towards another object and occupied himself with an archailogical work on the history of the earth. In the prosecution of this enterprise, he bestowed much of his attention upon the principal languages of Asia and Africa, such as the Chinese, the Sanscrit, the Arabic, the Coptic, &c. &c.-The Hebrew, which he had known in his youth, as it is usually known, that is, very imperfectly, fell within his researches. This language, so precious on many accounts, engaged him the more powerfully Inasmuch as he did not reach it in the usual way, through the Greek or Latin, but by languages more analogous and nearer to its cradle. He was thus led to view it under new aspects, and to accomplish what had been so often vainly attempted. He flatters himself that he has seized the true principles of the Hebrew tongue, and succeeded in determining the true sense of its words, not by the knowledge of the Greek and Latin interpretations for the most part false, but by means of an intimate acquaintance with its genius. Fixing his attention upon the inestimable monument which the Hebrews have transmitted to us, the portion of the Sepher of Moses vulgarly called Genesis, he discovered there many things which, even in a moral and philosophical point of view, might be of much in terest for mankind. He concluded that in this book, sprung altogether from the sanctuaries of Memphis and Thebes, we possessed, without suspecting it, all the sciences of the ancient Egyptians. This discovery was a strong incitement for the author to endeavour to resuscitate the Hebrew tongue which would serve as the key to this treasure: But this motive was not the only one; for, admitting with most of those who have studied the matter, that the Hebrew, as to the radical form, did not differ from the ancient Phoenician, how much light might not the possession of this language shed upon the History of Europe, and upon that of the idioms which have successively risen there. No one is ignorant that the Phoni. cians did for this part of the earth, what we have done for America, colonised the whole extent of its coasts, built cities, established regular commonwealths, and thus provided those harvests of glory which the Greeks and Romans afterwards reaped. It is upon the languages of these two illustrious people that those which we speak are modelled, and it is upon their literature that ours is built. We shall proceed no further with M. d'Olivet, but conclude with observing that what has been said can furnish only a very inadequate notion of the variety and interest of the materials of his work. England at the beginning of the nineteenth century—by the duke de Levis. 2 vols, 8vo. Paris, 1815. The author of this work re sided in England for many years |