cerned in supporting this celebrated man; the resistance and address of Mazarin were vain; and the re-establishment of the Prince in all his honors, estates, offices, titles, and govern-ments, was required and obtained. It was also agreed that he should receive a million of crowns from Spain. -The histories of the time record the honors paid to him during his progress to Provence, and the reception which he experienced from the king and from the cardinal.

On the death of Mazarin, Condé was desired by his friends to court the royal favour, with the view of succeeding to the place of that powerful minister: but he disdained the arts by which ascendancy in cabinets is obtained; he knew how to possess himself of power, but was a stranger to the practices which insure the smiles of princes. He is said to have been the first to whom Louis XIV. communicated his design of governing by himself, in which resolution the Prince made every effort to confirm him. The counsels which the Prince imparted and the services which he rendered to his royal master, in the invasion of Holland, and in the wars which were the result of that most wanton and unjust measure, down to the period of his retirement from the army, are among the parts of modern history best known. Never had a king a more zealous, faithful, and able subject; a fact of which Louis appears to have been fully sensible, as appears by the compliments which he paid him amid those marks of reserve which, on account of the defection of his early days, he ever manifested.

In the first encampment in the expedition against Holland, Louis ordered the most splendid pavilion to be fitted up for the Prince. The latter, in astonishment, went and complained of it to the King; who replied that it was done by his orders, that he regarded him as his General, and that it was his will that he should enjoy all the distinction which belonged to the character. Louis XIV., without being a genius, had discernment sufficient to found his glory on rendering effective the talents which his reign had produced.'

During the same war, the great Condé came to Versailles to pay his respects at court: and when Louis advanced to mect him at the top of the great stairs, the Prince, who ascended the steps with difficulty, apologized to his Majesty: the latter made the well-known reply; "Cousin, do not hurry yourself; when a person is so loaded with laurels as you are, it is no wonder that he moves with difficulty." When in 1678 he requested leave to retire, the king answered, "Cousin, I consent: but it will be with regret that I shall see myself deprived of the counsels of the greatest man in my kingdom."

Respecting the retirement of the Prince, various comments were made at the time: alluding to which, the present author adds;

Let us forget for a moment the chimera of grandeur, and let us cast our eyes on the course of human life, in which we shall discover the cause of this resolution. At a certain age, experience removes the bandage which has hitherto prevented us from seeing reality; this is done by degrees; the illusion does not vanish all at once, but grows weaker, and at length wholly disappears. Fatigued by a vain chace after good, through tortuous paths, strewed with both thorns and flowers, along which the impulse of example and the fever of the pas. sions hurry our steps, we pause; and soon we recall to our recollection a strait and even path, not before tried, that of repose: we seek it, find it, follow it, and attain our object. Such is the usual progress of human life; and the habit of atchieving great things does not make us cease to be men. At the age of 58 years, bending under his laurels, satiated with success, and grown old in glory, the Prince saw himself compelled to pay to nature the tribute which she claimed as her right; and which was more a debt on his part than on that of most others, on account of the brilliant use which he had made of her gifts.'

Numerous instances of magnanimity, generosity, disinterestedness, and sensibility, displayed by this illustrious warrior, give interest to the pages before us: but we are not tempted particularly to advert to them, because they occur in the histories and memoirs of the period. His intreaties in favour of the oppressed inhabitants of the conquered provinces of Holland evince not less his wisdom than his compassionate feelings. In favour of his application, he urged the policy of engaging the grod-will of these distressed people: but the answer of Louvois was, "we have more need of their money than of their favourable regards" a sentiment worthy of the brutal persecutor who advised the repeal of the edict of Nantes, and the dragooning of the Reformed out of their religion.

Retired to Chantilly, which nature seems to have destined for the retreat of a great man, he undertook to improve and embellish it. All the changes which he made, and all the works which he formed, bear the stamp of his genius; nothing trivial ever occurred to his mind, and nothing suited it that did not bear a noble and great character. The society which he collected around him proved the elevation of his soul; and Chantilly became the resort of all who were illustrious in every line, generals, magistrates, negociators, men of letters, and artists. The Prince regarded nothing as below him but mediocrity. Eminent himself in more pursus than one, and informed on a variety of subjects, the hero was seen to converse with Créquy, Luxembourg, or Chamilly; the statesman, with d'Estrade, Barillon, or Polignac; the prince, well versed in the laws, with Boucherat or Lamoignon; the connoisseur, with Mansard, Le Nôtre, or

Goisevox;

Coisevon; the eloquent man, with Bossuet and Bourdaloue; the philosopher, with la Bruyere and la Rochefoucauld; the man of letters, with Boileau and Racine, Madame Scudéry, and Madame la Fayette, and many other persons of talents and merit.-Molière, a great favourite of the Prince, was dead.”—

The charm of this society did not cause the Prince to neglect the calls of beneficence. The unfortunate approached him with confidence, and retired content; he did not wait for the entreaties of the indigent, but searched for them in order to relieve them; and the pleasure of rendering others happy was more valued by him than all the brilliancy of his glory.'-

In the society of Chantilly, religion was often the subject of discussion. Condé submitted his faith to the test of reason, and sought the aid of philosophy to dissipate his doubts. Though he had risen superior to superstitious prejudices, in his public character he ever paid them homage. Surrounded by philosophers who were little confirmed in the faith, he commanded public prayers for the success of his arms; and by this appearance of devotion he engaged the good wishes of the catholics of the conquered Dutch provinces.'

It is admitted, however, by the author, that the prayers of the heretics at this time prevailed over those of the orthodox. He farther remarks

That there is a period in life, at which reason and more frequently our infirmities apprize us of our approaching end; and the desire of existence, the horror of annihilation, the daring fertility of the imagination, transport our ideas beyond the scene which we feel that we are soon to quit. Religious ideas, strongly impressed in youth on our tender organs, but extinguished by the passions in proportion as they are allowed to gain strength, again revive as the same organs begin to grow feeble. The Prince, who had reached the age of 64, had lived in the neglect of all the duties of religion: but this remissness had no other basis than his doubts. The enemy of open impiety not less than of superstition, he had marched all his life as it were in a middle course between religion and incredulity: but the conversion of the Princess Palatine, the edifying death of the Prince of Conti, and above all that of his sister the Duchesse of Longueville, bad more weight with him than the reflections and discussions of forty years. This conversion of the Prince, however, caused no change in his mode of life.'

On some occasions, the present writer subjects himself to the charge of bigotry: but the following reflections, which close his account of the Prince's conversion, are altogether in another spirit. He asks

Whether the morality of fine minds be not that of the gospel? What interest can we have in finding a great difference between virtuous men? Do not religion and true philosophy equally seek the greatest good of man? Why investigate causes, when the effects are praise-worthy? Patience under evils, resignation under sufferings, have they not the same merit in our eyes? Do not gentle and pure

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manners equally characterize the true philosopher, and the true christian? Condé learned to be both the one and the other; he did not confine his regret for past errors to his cratory; but the alms, which he distributed in the provinces that war had laid waste, distinguished his conversion nearly as much as his exploits had signalized the period of his errors. Such were the fruits of the Great Conde's conversion.'

A very pathetic account of the last scenes of this illustrious man, in which he supported the character of his past life, is followed by an extremely able summary of his military atchievements and public services, and brings us to the close of this work. Latin letters, addressed by the Prince when a school-boy to his father, a paper on the rank of the French Princes of the Blood, and the eloquent funeral oration of Bossuet on the death of the hero, form a kind of supplement to the volume.

We recommend this publication to young men, who are warranted by their merit or their connections in looking up to advancement in the career of arms :-but, by this specification, we do not mean to intimate that it is not well adapted to engage and instruct all classes of readers.

ART. XVIII. Mémoires du Comte JOSEPH DE PUISAYE, &c. i. e. Memoirs of Count JOSEPH DE PUISAYE, Lieutenant-General; which contain a History of the French Royalist Party during the late Revolution. Vols. 3 and 4. 8vo. Boards. Budd, London.

WE have here the third and fourth volumes of the Memoirs

of an individual whose public career was limited to a few years, and yet the writer coolly talks of the future volumes. of the same work! In the name of common sense, what right has M. DE PUISAYE to bespeak so considerable a portion of general attention? Indeed, he has already made a claim to a far larger share of it than was in any way his due. Why is the work thus protracted so much beyond all reasonable. bounds? We complained of this extension in the former parts, and mentioned the suspicions which that mode of proceeding must raise in our minds: yet the episodes in the pages before us are rather more numerous than in those which preceded them, and serve very much to strengthen unfavourable conclusions with respect to the author, who is the advocate of his own cause. Will it not be inferred that the narrative is designedly interrupted, and that the writer is afraid to come to the point?-To a few of the more curious facts which are here presented to us, we shall advert; leaving those who may have a taste for common place reflections, and such incidents as

bear

bear no relation to general history, to consult the production itself. After having toiled through four volumes, we do not find the matter in dispute to be yet sufficiently elucidated to enable us to form any judgment respecting it. If the author has a tale to relate which will bear the light, we can only say that his manner of detailing it is most unfortunate, since it is precisely that which would be adopted by a man who wished to disguise the truth.

It is here contended that France, during the whole course of the revolution, was never for a moment a republican state; that Robespierre was all the while aiming at absolute power; that the monster Marat was constantly demanding a dictator; and that the savage Danton professed to act for Louis XVII.-With all deference to the author, this is, we apprehend, to confound the secret designs of the leaders of a state with its civil constitution. According to such reasoning, a republic never existed, and Athens and Rome were at no period free commonwealths. He who can set up paradoxes so extravagant, and render them plausible, will have the credit of being able to confound facts, and to draw such conclusions from them as best suit his purposes. Is M. DE P. prepared to state that the French arms owed no part of their success to republican enthusiasm, and that the councils and forces of France made no progress in the scheme of republicanizing Europe? If he can persuade readers of this fact, he will find it no difficult matter to cause it to be believed, whatever the reality may have been, that he, M. DE PUISAYE, in all the transactions of Britanny, acted an able, wise, and ingenuous part.

At the time of the arrival of M. DE P. in England, the affairs of the Western insurgents were in a promising state; and it appears that the British ministry was anxious to lend them assistance, and to co-operate with them He was consequently well received by administration, who without loss of time entered into negotiations with him. He says that he came to this country as the constituted representative and chief of a large force united together in the cause of royalty, animated by the utmost zeal and most determined courage; and he observes that he was the only Frenchman who was able to offer to the British government an equivalent for its

succours.

M. DE P. is of opinion that if, at the period when the expedition to Quiberon was preparing, the Regent (Louis XVII. being then alive) and the Comte d'Artois had been resident at the same place, so as to be able to hold their councils in com. mon, the intrigue to defeat the effect of that diversion in their

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favour