us. Several of the intermediate volumes have escaped us but the chasm has been so abundantly filled up. by similar fa bours, that we have not wanted ample opportunities of delivering our judgment on every part of the series of the dreadful events that formed the tremendous revolution which this bulky work commemorates. The nineteenth volume opens with Bonaparte's letter to the British King, and the subsequent correspondence to which it gave rise between the ministers of the respective countries. It is. not a little curious that, in the account which the authors give of the debate in Parliament which followed this transaction, Mr. Fox is the only speaker whom they treat with severity. Some may think that an ample tribute of abuse from this quarter was all that was wanting to consummate the fame of our great senator; and that this testimonial, from the minions of a hostile despot, raises the credit of this enlightened friend of his country scarcely less than the invariable enmity of the adversaries of his sound constitutional principles at home, and far more than the panegyrics of his zealous admirers. When the views of our illustrious statesman led him to support the advances in favour of peace which were made by the Chief Consul, to seize this as an occasion for venting scurrility against him bespeaks a dislike to this eminent character, of no ordinary degree. The writers introduce the Honourable Gentleman as a man of the greatest talents, and of the most enlightened mind, but as one whose ambition it is to aim less at the esteem of the wise, than to secure a tumultuous popularity; whose public efforts are directed less to insure the triumph of truth, than to flatter his party; and who, in order to defend or combat opinions, does not ask himself whether they are just and useful, or erroneous and hurtful, but whence do they originate? Such, it seems, is the light in which our great constitutional orator is regarded by the courtiers of St. Cloud. It were strange indeed if so zealous and formidable a friend and protector of liberty did not incur their aversion, and draw down on himself their reprobation.-All the leading speakers, who took a part in the debate, are noticed: but the honour of. being severely censured is conferred exclusively on Mr. Fox. The authors assert that it was the intention of the English government, at this time, to transport into the insurgent provinces all the French emigrants, with the Comte d'Artois at their head, thirty thousand English, and the Russian legions then remaining in the British territories; and that it reckoned on the concurrence of forty thousand royalists. They impute the dispersion of the latter body, either to the insincerity or the tardiness of the British Ministry. To To Bonaparte, these writers ascribe an intention, from his first accession to power, to re-establish the social hierarchy, to collect together the dissolved elements of voluntary obedience, to carry to the highest pitch disciplined and regulated heroism, to unite together all parties by reducing their differ ences to mere phrases and idle disputes, and to bind the people to the government, by inspiring and setting the example of a regard for religious opinions and dignities. Thus vanished, by degrees, the doctrine of levellers; who rendered the people intoxicated with envy, and who made them a perpetual jury over all the authorities. Customs, gradually revived, effaced one after another the fatal maxims of the preachers of abstraction; who taught the multitude not to regard the dead, but to violate their recesses; and who represented all distinctions of rank as absurd, and the priesthood as a body of hypocrites. The Consul seemed sensible that, if courage and force should oblige the enemy to demand peace, esteem and confidence alone could guarantee its duration; and endeavours were daily made to remove every pretext for enmities, and to introduce mutual esteem among all classes. The institution of juries in France is here regarded as an imitation of a foreign usage too hastily introduced, and which does not harmonize with the French character, with the manners of the age, and with other laws; as an establishment which will be difficult ever to render useful, or to prevent from proving pernicious among a people who have more feeling than reflection, more enthusiasm than judgment, and whose opinions and affections pass, within the twinkling of an eye, from one extreme to another:-who decide before they examine, who begin by being convinced, in order to end by doubting, and whose sudden and decisive resolves are often at variance with their natural probity, which occasions them bitterly to lament irreparable evils when it is too late. It has been rumoured, and very generally credited, that General Dessaix, to whose gallant interference in the memorable battle of Marengo, Europe owes its present aspect and Bonaparte his throne, was in principle a royalist. Universal testimony speaks highly in his favour, and the sketch here given of him exhibits him as a model for those who would distinguish themselves in the career of arms. He was one of that class of the nobles whose destiny it was to suffer more oppression under the revolutionary regime, than had been inflicted on aspirants of the plebeian order under the monarchy. He was born in 1768, was educated at the military school, and became a sub-lieutenant in the Breton regiment of infantry. emigration grew to be as it were epidemic, he was proof against against the effect of exhortation, and the influence of example. He was a stranger to the excesses of the factious, and was even ignorant of the names by which they were designated; and wholly absorbed in his profession, his thoughts were occupied solely by military manoeuvres, traits of heroism, and fields of battle. He first entered on service in 1792, at the age of twenty-four; and so intelligent and active did he shew himself, that he was successively aid-de-camp to Generals de Broglio and Custine. The services which were derived from his presence of mind and his counsels, on occasion of the reverses experienced at the lines of Weissenbourg, induced the national Commissaries to raise him to the rank of General of Brigade. In spite of his merit, however, the Committee of Public Safety twice made an order for him to be deprived of his command, with which the General in chief constantly refused to comply. He was wholly ignorant of this fact till a third order arrived to the same effect, at the moment when he had gained the admiration of his comrades at the blockade of Landau; and the whole army opposed the unjust decree, which induced the commissary to disregard the command of the dread committee. A tender son, he begged with ardour the liberty of his mother; and a good citizen, he loved and respected his country even in the persons of those who overwhelmed it with their acts of injustice. Dessaix commanded the left wing of the army in the memorable retreat of General Moreau, and had his full share in the dangers and laurels of that campaign. He returned to defend Keill for four months against the whole force of the Archduke; and under him the army effected the passage of the Rhine, in circumstances which rendered it as daring an achievement as was ever attempted. After the treaty of Campo Formio, he followed Bonaparte into Egypt, and was by him presented with a short sword, superbly. wrought, on which were inscribed the words, "The taking of Malta, the battle of Chebrekeis, the battle of the Pyramids." He was charged to reduce Upper Egypt, whither the Mamelukes had retired; here he gained several victories; and he acquired a distinction more honourable than the triumph of arms, for the inhabitants gave him the title of the Just Sultan. Returning from Egypt, in consequence of the treaty of El Arisch, he was detained by Lord Keith, but was at length set at liberty. He then repaired to his native country; from which he again flew, with the utmost expedition, to join Bonaparte: accomplishing his object just in time to be present at the battle, the fate of which he turned, and in which he fell, esteemed by the French soldiers, honoured by the Austrians, and loved by all who knew him. In the affair of the heights of Neubourg, fell another hero who engaged attention, not less by his noble qualities than by the singularity which blended itself with them; we mean la Tour-d'Auvergne-Corret, great grandson (it has been said) of Marshal Turenne; who was born at Pontivy, and was author of the Origines Gauloises, besides many other works. Poor, but high spirited, and having declined a donation of land from the head of his family, he entered the army; in which he marched constantly on foot with a havresack on his back, having taken the place of a conscript, an only son, whom he caused to be sent home from the army of the Rhine as being necessary to the existence of a poor and aged father; and he served as a model of obedience and courage to the soldiers. Bonaparte sent him a brevet, appointing him first grenadier of the army; and Moreau duly honoured him in his military orders. Among other things, that General directed that a monument should be erected to him on the place on which he was slain, that it should be consecrated to courage and to the virtues, and be placed under the safeguard of the brave of all countries. In commenting on the glowing representations made by some publicists in France, respecting the advantages gained by the treaty of Amiens, these authors throw out reflections which are replete with candor and good sense. The charge here made against the publicists comes home to the government; since the Consul himself, his ministers, and his journalists,. were not less implicated than any of the pamphleteers in the senseless and impolitic conduct which is here so ably exposed. These boasts are represented as proceeding from indiscreet vanity, and from jealous and ambitious feelings, which can lead to no benefit, but which may occasion much mischief. Was it wise, (they ask,) to rouse hostile emulation in the English at the moment when conciliation was commencing? All the advantages of a peace consist in its duration. If the conditions are favourable to us, we should endeavour, by every means, to prevent their appearing onerous to the other party. We gain nothing, but we put every thing to risk, if we shew that our opponent has been> duped. The first cannon ball brings to a fresh trial all the advantages secured by diplomacy and victory. To vaunt your advantages is to remind your rival of his losses, to mortify his pride, to rouse his spirit, and to make him jealous of those who have taken the advantage of him. But was not all this as unfounded as it was ill judged, while it remained an impossibility that a marine to be created in future could be a match for a most formidable navy already in existence? While the most glorious war is a horrible evil to all the world, would not true patriotism on the one side and the other have led to attempts to persuade the governments and the people, who had just entered into relations of amity, that the advantages of the peace of Amiens were so fairly balanced, as to leave to neither party a hurt ful ns ful preponderance; and have induced them both to avoid giving um- Instead of enjoying the good which we acquired, we boasted of it, and magnified it; we violated the rules of sound policy, in order to confound bad reasoners or bad spirits who called in question the benefits of the peace. Instead of proving that it was good in itself, we strove to shew that it was good only in regard to us, and that it abounded with advantages by which we could make a bad use of it, These misplaced polemics are leading traits of the revolution. This is to study the interests of the English, and as it were to take up their cause. Statesmen of vigour and talents do not thus refute their detractors, but leave it to the growing prosperity of the state to justify their measures ;-they are not eager to proclaim in the jour nals the regeneration of maritime rights, at the risk of compromising these rights in their very origin.' We must farther remark that these authors, indulging a liberal strain lately become very rare among their countrymen, are willing that Britain should still remain the classical land of liberty, the metropolis of the commercial world, a model for grand combinations and immense energies growing out of an energetic public spirit: but France is to be the centre of taste, and Paris the capital of the polished world, the seat in which science is extended, and in which useful and agreeable arts, with the charms of society, regulated intercourse, and amiable manners, are eminently cultivated. We trust, however, that no such opprobrium will be chargeable on a country which was the cradle of science, and which has more than any other extended its boundaries, as it would deserve if it suffered itself to be excelled in the services which remain to be rendered to such a cause. The authors consider the revolution as terminated by the Senatus-consultum, decreeing to Bonaparte the consulship for life. The twentieth and concluding volume consists of an abridgement of the preceding nineteen, executed in a superior style. It an admirable sketch of the Revolution. ART. XIII. Lettre sur l'Inscription Egyptienne, &c.; i. e. A Letter on the Egyptian Inscription of Rosetta, addressed to M. Silvestre de Sacy, Professor of the Arabic Language in the School of the Living Languages of the East. By J. D. AKERBLAD. 8vo? pp. 70. Paris. Imported by De Boffe. HE principle on which M. AKERBLAD proceeds, in attempting to recover the antient Egyptian alphabet, and to interpret the inscription on the stone of Rosetta, is that the Coptic lan guage includes the remains of that of antient Egypt; and that, by an attentive study of the former, considerable light will be thrown on the latter. In analysing the characters on this stone, now in the British Museum, (and of which an exact copy has been Fo. |