Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

Upon these severe allegations evidently breaking forth from a mind that was vexed and that felt itself surpassed and to be inferior we need not expatiate; but we must blame the French diplomatist for publishing any part of the secret correspondence between him and Canning, unless the whole is laid before the world. On the very face, however, of what does appear, it is evident that we have only a garbled story; and, judging from the well-known conceit of him who has thus violated the sacredness of friendship, the obliga tions imposed by which can surely never be severed by the decease of either, it would be supposing a miracle were egomet unfaithful to his own fame.

But Canning is not the only British Statesman whom the French minister charges with sinister views in diplomatic negotiations. Wellington and others are brought under the lash, and in connection too, with a no less grave subject than that of the suppression of the slave-trade. He says,

"In the importance which is attached to this great question, we cannot but admire the spirit of Christianity and its influence, past and present, in extending civilization; but at the same time, what a singular degree of perseverance has been manifested by the Cabinet of St. James's, to introduce at all Congresses, amidst questions the most pressing and interests the most urgent, this incidental and remote question of the abolition of the slave-trade! England feared that the traffic which she reluctantly renounced should fall into the hands of another nation: she wished to compel France, Spain, Portugal, and Holland, suddenly to change the system of their colonies, without considering whether those states had attained such a degree of moral preparation as would render it safe to grant liberty to the Blacks, by abandoning to the mercy of Providence the property and lives of the Whites. That which England had done, other nations were called upon to do, to the detriment of their navigation and their colonial possessions. Because England, who is mistress of the East and West Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, the Isle of France, Canada, and the islands in the Mediterranean, does not want St. Domingo and the Bermudas for the sake of maintaining her fleets and her seamen, we were required to cast into the sea Pondicherri, the Isle of Bourbon, Cayenne, Martinique, and Guadaloupe-we who possess only those miserable and insulated points on the whole surface of the globe. The Marquis of Londonderry, the Duke of Wellington, the enemies of popular freedom in their own country-Mr. Canning, the disciple of William Pitt, and the opposer of Parliamentary Reform-the Tories, who for the space of thirty years had been adverse to the measure proposed by Wilberforce, now became enthusiastic for the emancipation of the Negroes, whilst exerting all their efforts to shackle the liberty of the Whites. Englishmen were sold for slaves in America as recently as the time of Cromwell. The secret of these inconsistencies is found in the private interests and the mercantile spirit of England. If these considerations be not borne in mind, we may incur the risk of being duped by this ardent, though latecoming philanthropy. Philanthropy is the base coin of charity.

The task being consigned to us by M. De Montmorency, we read attentively the Duke of Wellington's memorial, and we replied to it article by article. This memorial, artfully deploring the misery of the Blacks, concealed, under well-grounded complaints, three unreasonable preten sions, 1st, The right of visiting and inspecting vessels; 2d, The right of assimilating the slave-trade to piracy, in order to attack with impunity all the navies in the world; 3d, The right of interdicting the sale of merchandise produced in the European colonies cultivated by the Negroes; that is to say, the exclusive privilege of substituting for this merchandise the productions of India and Great Britain. Our answer, given in the collective name of our colleagues, was as follows. We trust that we defended the honour and interests of France."

These suggestions and allegations are ingeniously and smartly introduced. But, however callous foreigners may be in regard to slavery and slave-traffic, English people will stare when they hear that their zeal in a great philanthropic cause is designated as pretence, and that it amounts in reality to a cunning method of advancing our commercial and maritime interests. Had M. de C. studied the British character fairly and fully, he would have discovered that the nation, whatever may have been the inconsistencies or diplomatic motives of our ministers, drove and forced these ministers to the course which they took in their foreign negotiations, and that this was done by the people in perfect accordance with the most disinterested motives of benevolence and humanity.

But before proceeding to some of the anecdotical portions of these volumes, we shall produce two striking specimens of the writer's style. The first exhibits him straining after effect by the mere use of bold and out-of-the-way images; it would be well did he never offend higher principles than those of fine taste, in such inflated extravagances. He says, "The Spaniard coveted the denomina. tion of the universe, but of the unpeopled universe. He was content to reign over the desolate world, like his God seated peacefully in the solitude of eternity." Now to say the least of all such flights, they should recognise truth and find in it the comparison, else there cannot be a similitude. We copy another specimen where the mere brilliancy of the antitheses, the novelty of the combinations, and the rhetorical flourishes of the language, have been sought after at the expense of every precise, distinct and informing idea. The Spanish revolution of 1822 is the theme.

Continuing their plagiarisms from the French empires, the Spaniards borrowed the name of Sacred Batallion from the retreat of Moscow. In like manner they copied the buffooneries of the Marsellaise, the Sans Culottes, the sayings of Marat, and the diatribes of the Vieux Cordelier; but always rendering actions more vile, and language more low. They -created nothing, because they did not act on the impulse of the national genius. They merely translated and acted our Revolution on the Spanish stage. Our heads without bodies, and bodies without heads, viewed from vol. 11. (1838.) no, iv.

જે ૨

a distance, whence their horror could not be discerned, at least presented by the symmetrical arrangement of the vast ossuary an aspect of terrific grandeur. But in the Peninsula the picture was divested of that character. The Spaniards passed over two centuries at one leap, in order to overtake our history; and they took their stand with Voltaire on the one hand, and the Convention on the other. But the repressed ages returned, resumed their influence, and disturbed the order of things which violence had established. The Spanish nation was truly great in those times, when the people were independent, and the kings absolute. When the nation said, If not, not, and the monarch signed, I, the King, the two complete liberties of the democracy of all, and the democracy of one, met without jostling, and addressed each other in their own proud language; this state of things never existed in any country except Spain."

A great command of language, a prodigious storehouse of images, the results of much miscellaneous reading, and of favourable opportunities for observation in the high walks of life, and a never-ceasing vivacity and earnestness are assuredly the inalienable property of the man who writes in the above manner. Pity it is that judgment, simplicity, and profundity have to give way to a riotous fancy, to glitter, and bombast. But we must proceed to the work of quotation, without saying much more either of the manner or the matter of the book.

Among the remarkable passages in Chateaubriand's Memoirs which his position has enabled him to record, his account of the widow of Napoleon, Maria Louisa, with whom he had an opportunity of conversing at Verona, must be cited. In as far as he is concerned, our respect for him is increased by this account, in as far as the female, disgust at filth, immorality, heartlessness, and selfdegradation, is engendered. We can very readily believe the report that she bore no natural affection even for Napoleon's son ; and as if eager to show her despite, she scrupled not to court the embraces of worthless men, (worthier surely than she,) and to add to the number of her offspring, as if for the purpose of reducing her firstborn in the world's estimation. M. de C. says,

"We at first declined an invitation given us by the Duchess of Parma; but her highness pressed it, and we accepted it; we found her in excellent spirits. The world had taken upon itself the task of remembering Napoleon, therefore Maria Louisa thought she need not trouble herself to think of him. We informed her that we had met her troops at Placentia, and remarked that she once possessed a much more numerous army. She replied. 'I never think of that.' She made some observations, which savoured of indifference, in reference to the king of Rome: she was then enceinte. Her court exhibited rather an antiquated aspect, with the exception of M. Neiperg, who was a man of elegant manners. My visit presented only two singularities-namely, that I was dining with Maria Louisa, and that the widow of Napoleon wore a pair of bracelets made of the stone of Juliet's sarcophagus. When crossing the Po, at Placentia, a single bark, newly

painted, and bearing a sort of imperial flag, arrested my attention. Two or three dragoons in jackets and caps, such as are worn by the police, were on the bank of the river, watering their horses. We were entering the states of Maria Louisa. This was all that remained of the glory of the man who had melted the rocks of the Simplon, planted his standard in the capitals of Europe, and who raised up Italy after centuries of prostration. Napoleon revolutionised the world; filled with his name the four quarters of the globe; sailed beyond the seas of Europe; soared to the skies, and fell and perished at the extremity of the waves of the Atlantic."

Of Napoleon, of course, Chateaubriand's recollections and fancy furnish several striking notices. Here is a rhetorical dash, similar to that which closes our last extracts; but the Corsican stands not alone. 66 How many millions of men won with their lives the victories of Arbela, Pharsalia, and Austerlitz? Of those millions of dead, how many survive in memory? Three: Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon.'

[ocr errors]

Alexander of Russia is sketched effectively, and the anecdotes fold of him are interesting in no ordinary degree. Altogether the portrait is full of points that catch the eye. It is said,

Though sincere, as a man, in matters which directly concerned mankind. Alexander was artful as a demi-Greek in what related to politics. At the very time when he was flattering Napoleon, declaring war against the English, and pronouncing the attack on the fleet at Copenhagen-a signal act of brigandage, one of his officers proceeded to London to convey to the Cabinet of St. James's assurances of the Czar's admiration and approval. Accordingly, when the two Russian ships of war engaged in the blockade of Lisbon were captured by the English, they were speedily restored to the Czar. Bonaparte imagined that he had deceived Alexander at Erfurth, and that he had intoxicated him with praise. One of the Generals of the Empire wrote the following: We have just now made the Emperor Alexander swallow a dose of opium; and, whilst he is sleeping, we intend to employ ourselves elsewhere.'

"At Erfurth, a coach-house was transformed into a theatre. In front of the orchestra, two armed-chairs were placed for the two Potentates; on the right and left were chairs for the other monarchs; and behind were benches for the princes. Talma, the king of the stage, performed before this audience of kings. When he delivered the words

'L'amitié d'un grand homme est un bienfait des dieux,' Alexander rose, pressed the hand of his grand ami, and said, 'I never felt so forcibly the truth of these words.'

"In the eyes of Bonaparte, Alexander was then a mere fool; and he joined his Chamberlains and Generals in laughing at him. He despised him because he supposed him to be sincere; he admired him when he discovered his duplicity. He is a Greek of the lower empire,' said Napoleon, and we must be distrustful of him.' At Erfurth, Napoleon acted with the bold hypocrisy of a victorious soldier; Alexander dissembled like a conquered prince. Cunning was endeavouring to dupe falsehood; the policy of the West and the policy of the East were true to their characters."

[ocr errors]

After mentioning the prodigious extent of territory over which the son of Paul ruled, the magnificence and the magnitude of his armies, the following account and anecdotes are given.

"The czar considered himself merely as an instrument in the hands of Providence, and he arrogated no merit to himself. Madame de Stäel complimented him on the happiness which his subjects enjoyed in being governed by him, though deprived of a constitution. Alexander replied :

I am merely a fortunate accident.' A young man, in the streets of Paris, expressed his admiration of the emperor's demeanour even to the humblest persons. Is it not the duty of sovereigns to behave so?" was Alexander's answer. He declined residing in the Tuileries, recollecting that Bonaparte had been pleased to fix his quarters in the palaces of Vienna, Berlin, and Moscow. Looking up at the statue of Bonaparte on the columu of the Place Vendome, he said: 'If I were elevated so high, I fear my head would be turned.' When he visited the Tuileries, he was shewn the Salon de la Paix. What use,' said he smiling, had Bonaparte for such an apartment?' On the day of Louis XVIII.'s entrance into Paris, Alexander stood quietly at his window, without any mark of distinction, and looked through the panes of glass to see the procession. There was sometimes à graceful gallantry in his manner, which ingratiated him in the favour of the fair sex. When visiting a lunatic hospital, he asked one of the female patients, whether there were many women in the establishment who had gone mad for love. We have very few yet,' replied the lunatic, but it is to be feared that their numbers will be greatly augmented by your majesty's visit to Paris.""

These anecdotes command our admiration, presuming them to have been the offspring of sound and serious reflection, and of a true dignity of soul. The self-possession and majesty of the man have their evidences in what we next quote, supposing the passage to have received no exaggeration from the poetic temperament of the

narrator.

"There was a proposition for changing the name of the bridge of Austerlitz: No,' said Alexander, it is enough that I have passed over the bridge with my army.' It was Alexander who originated the idea of the sacrifice on the Place Louis XV. An altar was raised on the spot where once a scaffold stood, Seven Muscovite priests performed the service for the dead, and the foreign troops, on their return from a review, defiled before the altar. Te Deum' was chanted to one of the beautiful melodies of the old Greek church. Soldiers and sovereigns knelt down to receive benediction. The memory of the French spectator involun, tarily wandered back to 1793 and 1794, when even cattle refused to pass over the polluted pavement, which emitted the odour of blood. What hand had conducted to the expiatory ceremony those Tartars, many of whom inhabitated sheep-skin tents at the foot of the great wall of China ? Such spectacles will never be witnessed by the feeble generations succeed ing the present age.

Alexander, Chateaubriand tells us, was not without his foibles;

« ForrigeFortsett »