Amidst the infinite variety of these collections, there is one feature common to all, and which struck me forcibly: I mean the busts and engravings of Napoleon,* and of all his dynasty;—not hidden in the old closets, or concealed behind less mysterious objects, and only offered to the notice of the initiated,-but openly exposed in the windows, and at the doors, to be haggled for, like a second-hand clock, or any other meuble d'occasion.

This bespeaks a vast change in public opinion, and in the whole order of things in France. Ten or twelve years back, the very name of Bonaparte had treason in its echo; and the "celui," substituted for imperial titles, and for a name now immortal, was more emphatic and perilous, a thousand times, than the present open allusions made to the government of the Emperor, whose reign, character, and

By the obliging attention of Dr. Antommarchi, I was permitted to see the caste which he took of Napoleon, after death. It was an infinitely finer face than most of the portraits of the great original painted in his latter days.

acts, are as freely canvassed as those of Charles the Bold, Charles the Simple, or even Charles the Tenth, himself. Every one, in 1829, speaks out upon all subjects; nothing is sacred from public discussion, except la Charte; and that, too, must eventually submit to popular invasion, when a happier day shall come, as come it must, in which new combinations, more suited to the happiness of society, shall be irresistibly demanded.

Never before was Napoleon Bonaparte fairly estimated, either in good or evil report. Never were his great powers, the applicability of his genius, and volition to the times in which they operated, so freely spoken of, and so rigorously examined. Never was the fact so universally allowed, that he was a necessity,—in the epoch of his influence, an agent who could not be dispensed with. Even the vices of his legislation, and the meanness of his ambition, in bringing back the old forms, (the signs of abuses, which cost the nation the blood of millions to overturn,) were not without their useful results.

His restoration of a paid hierarchy, without influence, and his re-creation of an hereditary nobility without legislative power, (the empty simulacres of the privileged orders of the old regime, the pages and parasites of the antechamber-but no longer the tyrants over all besides,) were not without their use. He brought back the Jesuits, to make a last appearance on the stage of their former triumphs—to revive the memory of intrigues and atrocities, so prematurely forgotten-and to exhibit, by a final and conclusive example, a warning of the dangers which an ecclesiastical corporation, exempt from popular control, will not fail to bring down both on prince and people. He paved the way for the temporary opposition of ultra-aristocracy, which will render equality before the law, and exemption from feudality and from the law of primogeniture, dearer than ever to a nation, which had hitherto, perhaps, felt, rather than understood, the blessings it enjoyed. The reaction thus fomented, will just last long enough

to serve the purposes of the people. The royal patrons of Loyola have already received an intelligible hint that "Paris vaut bien une messe;"* and the haute noblesse, of the Eil de Bouf, have already satisfied Europe that their political existence is incompatible with modern politics and modern institutions.

The public exposure of the portraits of the Emperor in the present day, is a sure evidence of the decline of the imperial system, and its party. There is no danger, where there is no opposition. Napoleon, on his prison rock of St. Helena, was more formidable to the Bourbons, than he would now be in the Louvre; as they themselves were more influential when the centre of a reaction at Hartwell, than they now are in the Tuileries. The Dukes of Reichstadt and Bourdeaux might now walk arm-in-arm along the Boulevards, without the slightest chance of exciting a civil war for

* "Paris is well worth a mass :" the expression attributed to Henry the Fourth.

their respective interests. Dauphins and kings of Rome, as the agents of unlimited sway, and the types of despotism, are regarded with equal indifference, and equal contempt; and Austria might have spared herself the mysterious policy with which she guards the "fils de l'homme" from becoming a subject of European discord. Those wise men of Gotham, the Aulic Council, may release the young unfortunate "Iron Mask" of modern Machiavelism when they please. They may with impunity admit the Siamese boys of poetry, Messrs. Mery and Barthélemy,* into his presence; they may allow them to offer their joint production to its triste subject, with perfect security; and they may permit his father's valet to present him with the old Redingot gris, or any other fragment of the toi

The authors of the "Fils de l'homme," whose work was seized, and themselves prosecuted for libel. The most remarkable feature in this case was, that Mons. Barthélemy conducted his defence in verse, and that the court listened to him.