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English press are written in a style far superior to that of a hundred years ago, because they are written by men of a much higher degree of cultivation-often by the most cultivated men who are to be found amongst us. But they are in a minority, and it would be deplorable if the popular current, backed by the authority of this great Dictionary, should tend to lower the tone and remove the landmarks which protect and preserve the purity and correctness of English composition. This certainly was not the intention of the editors of this great work, whose knowledge of the principles of the language, and whose affection for it, are unquestionable.

We have made these remarks from the interest we take in the subject, and from a sincere desire to promote the success of this colossal publication, which is still in its infancy. The literary undertakings (for so we must call them) of the three great works placed at the head of this article are honourably characteristic of the present age. They are the results of prodigious industry, of wide scientific and historical research, and of a demand for the fullest record of existing knowledge, which is a striking proof of the advancement of civilisation. But they produce on the mind an effect somewhat similar to that of the vast industrial exhibitions of the last half-century. One knows that everything is to be found there, but one feels that human faculties are inadequate to embrace and penetrate the details of so vast a collection. That is the inevitable character of encyclopædic literature. Each of these works is an encyclopædia. they err at all, it is by their extreme magnitude, variety, and prolixity; and in mercy to the future generations who will have to exhaust these reservoirs, we would entreat those who are engaged in the works still in progress to aim at compression rather than expansion, and to remember that the faculties of the human mind are more limited than the combined workmanship of a multitude of zealous contributors.

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ART. III.—Le Duc d'Enghien, 1772-1804. Par HENRI
WELSCHINGER. Paris: 1888.

THIS HIS volume is an elaborate essay on a tragic episode of the Revolution in France, and on one of the worst crimes of the First Napoleon. It was the evil fate of the unhappy Prince, especially remembered as the Duc d'Enghien, that he drew the sword of the Condés against his countrymen; but enough is known of his brief career to show that in valour, if not in genius, he was not unworthy of his most heroic ancestor. The events, however, that led to his terrible end give his figure its main historical interest; and the catastrophe of Vincennes is one of the most mournful scenes of an age of passion, disorder, and military tyranny. The chief author, no doubt, of this deed of blood was not the Borgia of M. Lanfrey's satire; and in pronouncing on Napoleon's conduct, and on that of his subordinate agents, an impartial judge must take into account many considerations that will affect his sentence. Though certainly innocent of the worst charges accumulated against him by vindictive fear, the Duc d'Enghien, beyond question, had committed an offence against the law of the State, not to be overlooked at a grave crisis; and it is impossible, we think, to study the evidence which probably reached the First Consul's hands, and not to perceive that there were real grounds to suspect the Prince of a great deal more than complicity with merely constructive treason. Indisputably, too, at the very moment when the illfated victim was seized and slain, a formidable conspiracy to overturn the government of the French Republic and to murder its chief existed and had been brought to light. Two members of the exiled House of Bourbon had been privy at least to the plot; and though the Duc d'Enghien was wholly guiltless, some circumstances seemed to connect him with it. Nor can we

forget-though we are not satisfied that Napoleon's purpose was swayed by it-that the dread of assassination has often disturbed the balance of even the most powerful intellects, and has led to deeds of cruelty and wrong; and it must be borne in mind that the age was the one in which Caraccioli was done to death, in which the deputies of France were killed at Rastadt, in which Murat and Ney perished. Still, when every allowance has been made which the equity of history can fairly suggest, the proceedings that led to the death of the Prince can be only described as a series of crimes

of a singularly dark and atrocious character. It is tolerably certain that the victim's fate was premeditated and arranged before his arrest. If his correspondence gave room for suspicion, proof was wholly wanting that he had art or part in a conspiracy against the First Consul's life, and he was doomed to death on charges which were merely afterthoughts, the original charges having signally failed. Without assenting, too, to all that the malice and ingenuity of some writers have urged with respect to this part of the subject, there is reason to suspect that, to save appearances, pretences were made that this tragic event was due to precipitation that could not be foreseen, to a mistake, and even to a sad fatality; and if this be in any degree true, hypocrisy must be added to the tale of guilt to be laid to the account of the perpetrators of the crime. As for the incidents of the capture and the trial of the Prince, no second opinion can exist on this; the one was a flagrant violation of the law of nations, and the other was an atrocious mockery, ending in a deed of shame which it is too favourable to characterise as a judicial murder. The whole case, in fact, is a frightful instance of the lawlessness and violence which are the distinctive marks of the French Revolution in its many aspects, and it has not found apologists even among those who excuse the September massacres and the 10th of August. As for the agents in the crime, they have, as a rule, either shunned the subject or simply lied; and the utterances of Napoleon, usually so distinct, are self-contradictory in this matter. On more than one occasion he threw the blame on subordinates whom he has severely condemned; on others he has almost gloried in the deed, and justified it as a necessity of state.

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Before the publication of the present volume comparatively little was known respecting the life and the career of the Duc d'Enghien, though M. Crétineau Joly, some twenty years ago, gave many interesting details on the subject in his History of the last Three Princes of the House of Bourbon.' The materials, however, abound from which we can form a judgement on the crime of Vincennes, even if important parts of the evidence have probably been destroyed or suppressed. We pass by the mendacious apologies of Hulin, Savary, Réal, and other accomplices in the First Consul's guilt; but Savary, it should be observed, like Napoleon himself, has thrown much of the blame on Talleyrand-an accusation, we believe, well founded-and Talleyrand's memoirs have not yet been published. A great deal can, we think, be learned by studying Napoleon's

correspondence at the time, even if we suspect that many letters have not been allowed to see the light; and the memoirs of Eugène Beauharnais and even of Bourrienne may still be consulted with real profit. As was to have been expected, the Napoleonic legend has induced more than one eminent Frenchman to attempt to defend, in this grave matter, the conduct of the Imperial criminal; but the brilliant sophistry of M. Thiers cannot stand the test of candid inquiry; the works of MM. Nougarède de Fayet and Boulay de la Meurthe are palpably onesided, and abound in errors; and M. Lanfrey's account, from the opposite point of view, approaches far more nearly the truth, though this passionate accuser wants the calmness and impartiality of a true historian.

The volume before us is the latest addition in French literature to the tragic subject; and though not exactly all that we could have wished, it forms a learned, a conscientious, and a complete narrative. Founded mainly on M. Crétineau Joly's work, it is drawn largely from the original sources from which that compilation was supplied; but the author has collected fresh materials from the archives of the public departments of France, and from papers of dependants of the House of Rohan; and he has made good use of the copious diary kept by the Duc d'Enghien from earliest youth, No other book gives nearly so full an account of the life of the Prince and of his military career; and M. Welschinger has devoted special care to elucidating the relations between the Duc and his ill-fated love, the Princesse de Rohan, and in removing from them all taint of scandal. As for the events that ended in the catastrophe of Vincennes, the special characteristic of the work is that it inculpates Talleyrand to an extent transcending the charges of previous writers; and though the indictment perhaps in part breaks down, and in part rests on unproved conjectures, it is, we fear, in the main, well founded. As regards the details of the terrible drama, M. Welschinger has discovered a few new facts; he has arranged those which were already known in an elaborate if rather a prolix narrative; and his general conclusions are, for the most part, accurate. But he is not skilful in judging evidence, and understanding its full significance; too ingenious and oversubtle by turns, he draws inferences that cannot be sustained; he wants the insight that reaches the truth across masses of obscure details, and in his eagerness to vindicate the Duc d'Enghien he cannot perceive the Prince's conduct roused suspicion and was open to

tion. On the other hand he is, in our opinion, rather too lenient to the First Consul; he does not bring out in sufficient relief the atrocity, the wickedness, and perhaps the hypocrisy, which mark this episode in Napoleon's

career.

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Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien, was born in 1772. His immediate ancestors could lay some claim to the renown in arms of their illustrious House, his grandfather, the Prince de Condé of Coblentz, having distinguished himself at Hastenbeck and Minden; his father, the Duc de Bourbon, whose melancholy death was a tragedy of a much later period, having fought bravely in the American war. The child, the offspring of parents in their teens, was puny and sickly in his first infancy; and he was deprived at an early age of a mother's care; the Duchesse, a Princess of the House of Orléans, having separated from a lord whose vagrant amours were a scandal even of the society of Versailles. The education of the young Duc, however, though very different from the severe austerity of that of the Grand Condé at Montroux, and though ladies at Chantilly,' it is hinted, 'spoiled it,' was, nevertheless, by no means neglected; the Prince, trained to arms and in the art of horsemanship, grew up to be a vigorous and handsome lad; and under the direction of the Abbé Millot, a wellknown man of letters of the day, an intelligence that was almost flighty--tête de salpêtre, the Abbé called it—became gradually steady and mature. The diary of the Duc, in which we see a complete record of his daily life, does not lead us to think that his parts were brilliant; his mind, though vivid and keen, shows no trace of genius, or even of profound reflection and thought; and he seems to have been devoid of the statesmanlike instincts, of the accurate judgement on public affairs, and of the supreme power of controlling men which, the Duc d'Aumale has conclusively shown, were distinctive qualities of his most glorious ancestor. His character, however, as it became developed, presents an extremely attractive aspect; it exhibited the pride of the Condés, indeed, but had the winning graces of the old régime; it was strongly marked by filial devotion, by tender and deep feeling, by genuine sympathy with all that is noble, heroic, and good; and the dignity and courage of the great noblesse of France were combined in it with the lightness of heart, the charm of manner, and the social gifts which especially belonged to that grand order of men. The peculiar characteristic of the young Prince, however, was the love of arms

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