met with their illustrious countryman Kosciusko, in the character of a French farmer; and an affecting incident is said to have occurred on this occasion:

A Polish regiment, forming part of the advanced guard of the Russian army, after expelling the French from Troyes, marched upon Fontainebleau. The troops were foraging in a neighbouring village, and were about to commit disorders, which would have caused considerable loss to the proprietors, without benefit to themselves; such as piercing the banks, or forcing the sluices of some fish-ponds. While they were thus employed, and their officers looking on, they were astonished to hear the word of command bidding them to cease, pronounced in their own language, by a person in the dress of the upper class of peasants. They ceased their attempt at further spolia, tion, and drew near the stranger. He represented to the troops the useless mischief they were about to commit, and ordered them to withdraw. The officers coming up were lectured in their turn; and heard with the same astonishment the laws of predatory warfare explained to them."When I had a command in the army, of which your regiment is a part, I punished very severely such acts as you seem to authorize by your presence: and it is not on those soldiers but on you that punishment would have fallen." To be thus tutored by a French farmer, in their own language, in such circumstances, and in such terms, was almost past endurance. They beheld the peasants at the same time taking off their hats, and surrounding the speaker, as if to protect him in case of violence; while the oldest among their own soldiers, anxiously gazing on the features of the stranger, were seized with a kind of involuntary trembling. Conjured more peremptorily, though respectfully, to disclose his quality and his name, the peasant, drawing his hand across his eyes to wipe off a starting tear, exclaimed, with an half stifled voice, "I am Kosciusko !"

The movement was electric. The soldiers threw down their arms, and falling prostrate on the ground, according to the custom of their country, covered their heads with sand. It was the prostration of the heart. On Kosciusko's return to his house in the neighbourhood of this scene, he found a Russian military post established to protect it.aur alkhol duo

The Emperor Alexander, having learnt from M. de la Harpe that Kosciusko resided in the country, ordered for him a guard of honour, and the country around his dwelling escaped all plunder and contribution. of had be

Kosciusko had withdrawn some years since from the guilty world of Bonaparte to cultivate a little farm, rejecting every offer which was made him by Napoleon, who had learnt to appreciate his worth. Kosciusko knew him well. I called on him one day to bid him farewell, having read in the official paper of the morning his address to the Poles on the subject of recovering their freedom, being named to the command of the Polish army by Bonaparte. Kosciusko heard me with a smile at my credulity; but on my shewing him the address with his signature, he exclaimed, "This is all a forgery; Bonaparte

knew

knew me too well to insult me with any offer in this predatory expedition; he has adopted this mode, which I can neither answer nor resent, and which he attempts to colour with the pretext of liberty. His notions and mine respecting Poland are at as great a distance as our sentiments on every other subject."

The late return of Louis XVIII. to his capital is depicted by Miss W. with all the enthusiasm of a Bourbonist; and, admitting her account to be a fair representation, surely the presence of 150,000 foreign troops cannot be necessary to his safety: ***Lewis XVIII. attended by the Comte d'Artois, the Duke of Berry, and a numerous and brilliant escort of regular troops, and of the National Guard, now reached again his capital. I had often witnessed imperial processions, composed of gay regiments of lancers with floating banners, groups of pages, plumed horses, and the imperial figure, often vainly soliciting applause. It is true that the journals the following day spoke of acclamations that had never been heard, and of transports that had never been felt. The public had also been always prepared by programmes for the order of the ceremony. At the entry of Lewis XVIII. there was no programme, for there had been no preparation. The procession was less magnificent, but its accompaniments were far different. No-Bonaparte, in all the pride of his conquests, was never so welcomed! The people, which, as the poet observes, are always the sight on these occasions, -the people are moral machines, and have feelings which power can neither command nor controul.'

It is allowed that the Prussians were guilty of great excesses: but, in order to leave rather a favourable impression of them, an anecdote is related which seems to soften the ferocious character of their retaliation:

The Parisians themselves received occasional lessons from these invaders. An old Countess, in the Fauxbourg St. Germain, welcomed with politeness a Prussian officer who was quartered on her house. Invited to dinner at the usual time, he ordered that it might be ready at an earlier hour, having asked some brother-officers to dine with him; and throwing himself at the same time with his dirty boots on one of the blue silk canopies. He went out, and returned alone. The dinner was served. He found the first course detestable, and threw the successive plates to which he was helped on the floor. Shewn to his apartments on the second story, he refused to occupy them, and ordered those of the first floor to be prepared for him, though told that they were inhabited by the mistress of the house. After committing a mumber of other extravagancies, such as smoking in the lady's boudoir, he took possession of her chamber. servants, and dogs, having retired to the apartments prepared for their master, the lady of the house was obliged to accommodate herself with a room in the attic story. The next morning she was summoned to attend the officer, which she did with trembling, expecting to receive some new insult or humiliation. The Countess was astoished at her reception. The Prussian led her gallantly to a seat, and

X 2

His

placed

You no

placed himself beside her. "You have no doubt, madam," he said, her." been shocked at my behaviour in your house. I marked your astonishment at my insolence in spoiling your silk furniture, scattering fragments of your viands on the floor, smoking in your boudoir, turning you out of your apartments, and other extravagancies. doubt thought me barbarian." ." The Countess did not seem disposed to deny the allegation. "Madam, you have a son in Prussia?" She started, and her eyes filled with tears."I had a son, Sir, but I fear he has perished." "Do you recognize this writing?" said the officer, shewing her the cover of a letter. "Yes, Sir, it is the last wrote to my son, I have received no answer. "Madam, I am no last letter I barbarian; I have acted a part, and fulfilled a duty enforced on me by filial tenderness. I almost hate myself for having acted it so well. What I have made you suffer for these last few hours, your son inflicted on my palsied mother for several months. I will distress you no longer your son is alive. In one of the last skirmishes he was wounded dangerously I saved him from the fury of our soldiers→→ My mother provided for his safety You will soon receive him to your arms. Adieu, madam, I quit your house; I have preserved your son, and I have avenged my mother."

Apparently, Miss W. is a little embarrassed with the last act of the piece, which may be called "The Allies again at Paris,” and she seems to feel for the Parisians on the dismemberment of their Grand Central Museum: but she does not enter on the question of the impolicy of this measure, considering the Museum as a great school of the arts formed for the benefit of all Europe; nor does she try to penetrate the real views of those who have contributed to its demolition. Regarded merely as stolen goods, these monuments of the arts certainly ought to be restored to the places whence they had been taken: but, if they could be contemplated as public property belonging to all Europe, more than to any particular country or individual, their location at Paris, in a central museum forming a grand and perfect whole, might be regarded as more desirable for the promotion of the arts, than the distribution of the several objects composing it in a separated state. The people of the capital were overwhelmed with grief at seeing the Corinthian horses, once destined to be harnessed to the chariot of the sun, and united by Bonaparte to the car of Victory, dislodged from their station at the entrance of the Tuileries; and at learning the determination of the allies to deprive Paris of all the splendid monuments of art which Napoleon, in the days of his triumph, had collected. Their feeling on this occasion extorts a compliment from Miss W.

2

It may be observed by the way, that this violence of resentment, this desperate fury at the removal of those master-pieces of art, denote the feelings of a people arrived at a very high degree of civilization. The Parisians, while they had supported with equanimity the most sigual calamities, and endured with cheerfulness the most cruel priva

tions, deplored with sensibility, and goaded almost to madness, the loss of objects v which, far from being necessary to the wants of ordinary life, are only fitted to charm and embellish its highest state of refinement.'

We are informed that not a twentieth part of the pictures remains in the Gallery of the Louvre; that the fine statues are all removed; and that the most valuable contents of the library are returned to that grave of MSS., the Vatican: yet Miss W endeavours to console the Parisians with the assurance that enough is left behind to form a very repectable Museum.

A general portrait of Bonaparte is drawn by Miss Williams: but we observe in it no striking novelty of delineation or perception of character, that can require us to make room for it in our pages. The volume also contains a number of subordinate incidents and anecdotes, which may amuse the reader, but for which in some cases no authority is given, and we therefore do not quote them. We have preferred, indeed, to consider the work in its more important points; and we must not conceal our opinion that its author has not exhibited such a history of the present state of France as will pass current fifty years hence. It may gratify many readers of the present day, but sana posteritas will not compliment her penetration. Adverting at pp.304, 305. to the experience acquired by the French people, she observes that they have learnt what is not freedom; and we join with her in hoping, not for their sake only, but for the sake of Europe and the world, that they may yet obtain and deserve the enjoyment of what is freedom. akada

ART. XI. An Essay on the Life of Michel de l'Hôpital, Chancellor of France. By Charles Butler, Esq. Crown 8vo. pp. 80. 48. Boards. Longman and Co. 1814.

FTEN have we had the pleasure of introducing to our

OFTEN

readers the author of this Essay, and well has he been made known to the public in various pursuits. He has fre quently appeared before them in the progress of the long dis cussions on the Catholic-question, and in tracts which it has successively called forth; and, in spite of the avocations of very extensive business as a conveyancer, his active mind has enabled him to compose several works connected with topics of Biblical and legal research, as well as short notices on a more inviting topic, the biography of eminent Catholics, particu larly Fenelon and Bossuet. The present little narrative seems to have been framed in order to set in a striking light the r deration and wisdom of the course pursued by one of the chancellors of France, in the sixteenth century; a time of all others

X 3

mo

the

the most delicate, because the rancour of controversy was fresh, and mankind were still strangers to the policy of toleration.

Michel de l'Hôpital was born in 1505, and educated to the bar after which, his family-connections placed him in the way of court-employment. The nature of the occupations of a servant of the crown was, in those days, not very strictly limited to a particular department: De l'Hôpital having been at first counsellor of the parliament of Paris, afterward ambassador to the council of Trent, next a superintendent of the finances, and finally chancellor of France. da bi dyadic With regard to the state and constitution of the Parliament of France, and the habits of its members at this time, Mr. Butler observes:

The reader must be cautioned against confounding the constitution of the Parliament of France with that of the Parliament of England. The origin of each is traced to the great national assemblies of the tribes who conquered the Roman empire. In almost every country where the feudal institutions have been established, a national council, under the name of States-general, Cortez, Plaids, Great Assizes, or Parliament, or under some other name, was introduced, and gradually became composed of three states, the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons. Their functions were not only judicial, but, as their consent was necessary to give to the ordinances of the king the effect of law, they were also legislative. In the course of time, the parliament of England became divided into its two houses, the Lords and Commons, and, together with the King, constituted the Legislature of the nation: but its judicial power generally fell into disuse, except in causes which are brought before the House of Lords by appeal. The reverse happened in almost every country on the Continent; in them, the parliament gradually lost its legislative authority, and subsided into a High Court of Justice for the last resort, and a Court of Royal Revenue. It generally consisted of a fixed number of ecclesiastical peers, a fixed number of lay peers, and a fixed number of counsellors. All were equally judges, and had an equal right of giving their opinions, and an equal voice in the decree.

Such was the constitution of the French Parliament when L'Hôpital was received into it. But at that time it had somewhat degenerated from its ancient splendour. The close of the preceding century is described by French writers as the golden era of the French magistracy. It is every where said, that the knowledge which the members of it possessed of the law was at at once extensive and profound; that they were equally conversant in its theory and its practice; that they respected their profession; were aware of the importance of a proper discharge of their duty; and that, while their undeviating attention and gravity assured the lowest class of subjects that justice would be fully and impartially administered to them, it intimated to persons in the highest order of life, that, in the scales of justice, rank was of no account. At six o'clock in the morning, both in winter and in

summer,

1