were, "I will be the institutor of a legien of honour, and I will distribute its honours as I please." His military ardour was, "the military fanaticism is usetul to me, as it makes men indifferent to death," p. 203. The same spirit may be seen running through every sentiment of his mind. With him Napoleon was the genius of the nation, the constitution, the monarchy, the democracy, the aristocracy, the state. Per

notony of their lives.

"It is of use that other public functionaries, besides those who may be reckoned upon for actual business, should be members of the legislative body. As far as the good of the nation is concerned, the legislative body cannot be rendered too tractable; (On ne saurait, pour le bien d'une nation, rendre le corps législatif trop maniable,) because, if it should be strong enough to inspire any wish to govern, it would in the end either destroy the government, or be itself destroyed.'

To our mind, no chapter in the whole volume is more interesting than the seventeenth, which is headed, "UPON PUBLIC INSTRUCTION AND THE UNIVERSITY." Napoleon's general views of education were philosophical enough. His great principle appears to have been, to educate the people to attachment to the constitution under which they were to live.

"There never will be a fixed political state of things in this country,' said he, 'till we have a corps of teachers instructed on established principles. So long as the people are not taught, from their earliest years, whether they ought to be Republicans or Royalists, Christians or Infidels, the state cannot be properly called a nation, for it must rest on a foundation which is vague and uncertain, and it will be for ever exposed to disorders and fluctua

tions.'"

We have already observed, that all the judgments of Napoleon's mind appear to be the dictates of profound political thought, biassed and warped by the overweening selfishness of his character, and his love of despotism. Self with him was the centre round which all politics should revolve, and he calculated every thing in relation to that centre, while the national advantage and the happiness of the people appear to be subordinate elements, but still elements, in his computations. democracy was, "the people have given it to me, and I may do what I please with it." His aristocratic predilectious

His

genius that paid this universal homage to its own greatness. But if we make allowance for this latent, and it might even be, unconscious tendency to regard all as if absorbed in his own person, from which those who have that form of we shall find many lessons of wisdom, government in which the constitution should be to them, what Napoleon was to his own political speculations, may learn much.

Well would it have been for England if her rulers had long ago perceived and acted on the truths contained in the last extract we have quoted. The people must be trained to be citizens; hallowed associations of their country ; they must be brought up in all the of the constitution; pains should be they must be educated in the precepts taken to adapt and mould them for the place they are to fill in the structure of the social fabric. There should be some one common principle of action to pervade the nation; there should be some one common sentiment on which the minds of fellow-citizens can agree.This it is that gives their value to the recollections of national glory; this it is that gives importance as well as interest to the memorials of national pride. And that a state should be great or prosperous there must, we say, be diffused throughout her people some one sentiment of national politics which may make attachment to their constitution a law of the national heart. And this may be under any form of government. In Athens it was the love of democracy, and the noble feeling that their republic was the champion of the liberties of Greece. In America it is or was a pride in their federal union. In England it was attachment to Protestantism and the glorious revolution. But be it what it may, some national sentiment is needed to influence the people-some feeling that may be, so to speak, the religion of politics, and which may be sacredly enshrined in the recesses of the national heart.

Personal admiration of Napoleon supplied, for a time, the place of such a feeling in France. It became the chivalry of the people; and it was, perhaps, the consciousness that this was all that took the place of attachment to the constitution, that made him exclaim«• All this will last as long as I hold out, but when I am gone, my son may call himself a lucky fellow if he has a couple of thousands a year!'"

And it was just the desire to supply the place of a personal attachment with a veneration for the dynasty which he hoped to establish, that governed him in his schemes for the university. He wished to create in the minds of the people an attachment, not to Napoleon the general, but to the emperor an attachment which he might bequeath with the imperial dignity to his descendants. But he saw the one great truth, that it is essential that a love and veneration for the con

stitution should be the leading impulse

of the national mind.

We are not about to entangle our readers in a long political disquisition. The principle to which we have adverted is one upon which, in some degree, all governments have been compelled to act; and when we find that the spirit of attachment to the constitution is passing from the nation, and no other national sentiment taking its place, we may augur ill for the permanence of any institution in such a country. We do not, of course, pretend to say, that any change in the constitution, even when it is extensive enough to be entitled a revolution, involves the forfeiture of such a national sentiment: far from it. The national

allegiance may be transferred from one form of government to another, the same chivalrous loyalty which caused the national heart to beat with ardour in defence of a monarch, may in time animate them to die in the cause of the stern simplicity of a republic; nay, the very revolution may become the object of the national enthusiasm and devotion

the reformation-the revolution of 1688 or the reform bill, might all be the object of the sentiment of which we speak; but this we do say, that no matter what be its object, the sentiment must exist, or there is no hope of permanence in any institution of the country in which there is nothing like a national allegiance.

"It is my wish,' said Napoleon, 'to create in France a civil order in society.

Heretofore there have existed in the world only two orders-the Military and Ecclesiastical. The barbarians who overwhelmed the Roman empire, had it not in their power to form solid establishments, because they had neither an order of priests, nor an order of civilians. The stantine I. indeed, established, through the Romans had only the military order. Conmedium of the priests, a kind of civil order; and Clovis founded the French monarchy by the same means, without which he could not have sustained himself against the Goths. The Prussian monarchy is the most military in Europe, because the Roman Catholic priests have been excluded from it. The monks are the natural enemies of the soldiers, and they

have more than once served as a barrier

against them. Julian became an apostate, because at the time he was governor of who was afraid of him, invariably placed Gaul, the Emperor of Constantinople, the civil order, of which the priests were the chiefs, in opposition to him. The people have believed them to be in our monks, I suspect, are not so useless as days. The civil order will be strengthened by the creation of a body of teachers, and still more would it be fortified by a large body of magistrates. The presidents of

the higher tribunals ought to be eminent persons. The charms which belong to great authority and high consideration in society, will counteract that philosophical repugnance which, in some countries, men of easy fortunes feel for office; and where, in consequence, the government falls into the hands of blockheads and intriguers. This is not yet the case in France, it is true, where all the world is eager for place, especially since the senate was established—but it is the case in Austria.' ”

Napoleon, with just discrimination, rejected the idea of female boarding schools. We wish his sentiments upon this point were universal.

"I do not think we need trouble ourselves with any plan of instruction for young females; they cannot be better brought up than by their mothers. Public education is not suitable for them, because they are never called upon to act in public. Manners are all in all to them, and marriage is all they look to. times past the monastic life was open to the women; they espoused God, and though society gained little by that alliance, the parents gained by pocketing the dower. changed!''

In

All that, however is how

Napoleon had entrusted to Fourcroy, the celebrated chemist, the task of preparing the draught of a body of statutes

for the new university. Fourcroy, however, was but little adapted to realize the political views of the Emperor: after the plan had gone through several editions in the council, it was still further changed by the Emperor himself. Baron Pelet has preserved a record of some of the changes which he thus finally made: those relating to religion are especially deserving of attention:

"The discussions, which had been in terrupted by the campaigns of 1806, were resumed in February 1808, after Napo leon's return from Jena and Tilsit. Four

croy had employed the interval in arranging and methodising the points agreed upon in 1806. But when the decree of the 17th March, 1808, came out, it was easy to discover that the Emperor had made many alterations on the edition which had been adopted in council, and as some of these changes are curious, especially those which show what his system was in relation to the clergy, one or two of them may prove interesting.

"The 3d article enacted, that no establishment for instruction was to be formed beyond the walls of the university, and without the sanction of its head or principal. Napoleon added a sentence which exempted the seminaries and left them under the sole direction of the bishops.*

"The 7th article vested, for the first time, the nomination of the deans, and of the professors of theology, in the grand master, who was to choose them according to their merit. The Emperor's decree, however, required the grand master to make his selection from amongst the candidates presented by the bishops.

"The 38th article enumerates the bases of the instruction to be given in the university, and in the first paragraph, the precepts of the Christian religion are spoken of. Napoleon took his pen and substituted in the decree the word Catholic religion.

"In the 2d paragraph he erased the sentence which specified as one of the bases of instruction the maxims and rights (libertés) of the Gallican church: and also the paragraph which spoke of the maxims upon which the organic laws of worship are founded. And in place of these two expunged sentences he wrote as follows:

"Every professor of theology shall be

required to adhere to the terms of the edict of 1682, relating to the four propositions contained in the declaration of the clergy of France at the above period.' "†

It may, perhaps, be necessary to apprise our readers, that the liberties of the Gallican Church was a term denoting the maintenance of the four propositions of 1682; the change which Napoleon made in the second paragraph of the 38th article was more in its form than its spirit.

It is a curious fact, that the Gallican the See of Rome, yet differing mateChurch continued for ages attached to rially from the Catholic Church on so important an article as the authority of the Pope. The Council of Constance, which met without the authority of the Pope, and declared its independence of the Bishop of Rome, continued for its earlier sessions to act without his authority; after this it sat with the authority of the Pope, and the Gallican Church alone recognised the first sessions as having the authority of a general council, while all the rest of the Catholic world only regarded it as a general council for that period when its proceedings obtained the sanction of the Pope. The influence of these Gallican liberties upon the genius of the French Church will be readily traced by the student of history who bears their existence in mind; and it is curious to observe how cantiously they are guarded in the constitution of Napoleon's university.

While there is thus manifested an anxiety to preserve these liberties which had left the French clergy comparatively free from the baleful influence of foreign domination, there is also singularly displayed on the part of Napoleon, a wish to leave them all their just privileges. The exemption of the theological seminaries from the interference of the University, might almost seem to spring from a sincere desire to keep religion free from the latitudinarian influence which might pervade the educational body. And the provision that the selection of professors of divinity should be made from candidates presented by the bishop, is one which recent events has taught us,

might be applied with advantage much nearer home.

But, perhaps, the most remarkable alteration is that in the 38th article. It surprises us to find Napoleon's council recognising the necessity of basing all education on religion; "It is worthy of remark," said Napoleon himself, "that education at its commencement has always been connected with religious notions." It is still more curious to find Napoleon himself substituting for the vague and indefinite expression "Christian religion," the unequivocal term "Catholic." He had sagacity enough to feel that the latitudinarian indifference which would regard all forms of Christianity alike, could have but one intelligible resultthe impartial, because undiscriminating disregard of all.

There is much that is instructive in the anxiety of Napoleon to diffuse through the people some settled principles which might become the maxims of the national creed in politics. It is a part of government too much neglected in all old and established institutions, for the very reason, that such institutions appear to have a prescriptive claim to the confidence and affections of the people, which it needs no pains or trouble to enforce. How unsafe it is to trust to this, let the experience of England tell. When that party, which perhaps, deserve the name of Tories were in power, they neglected the people; they took no pains to inform or to instruct them, and the consequence has been just what might " have been anticipated, that with the very first popular commotion, the alienation of the people from the constitution was made too fatally evident; those watchwords which had been foolishly relied on as possessing some magic power of appeal to Britons, were unheeded as the wind, and all the feelings and prejudices which we had fondly hoped were permanent, without culture or care, were found to have been supplanted by idle delusions which had been circulated by the emissaries of evil, while the friends of the constitution were inactive.

The plain and simple truth is this, that the mass of mankind cannot be safely left to form their own opinions without any interference on the part of the wise and the good. It is the solemn duty of every person who loves true principles, to use his best endea vours to place those principles before the minds of the multitude. Experi

ence testifies abundantly, that never has there been a mischievous error or a false conceit, without its missionaries, with all the zeal of propagandaism to disseminate its pernicious influence. The fact may be unaccountable, but history and our own experience, prove that it is a fact. The influence of this must be counteracted; truth must be disseminated with as much activity, if not with as much zeal as error, or, if left to its unaided power, it will be overwhelmed in the unequal contest. These are truths which should now be taken to heart; the cry of "instruct the people," should now be the watchword of patriotism. Napoleon felt that, even under a despotic government, it was essential to national stability, that pains should be taken to educate the people in the principles of the national polity. How incalculably is the necessity increased in a constitution in which the people themselves direct the movements of the state, in which they must not only have the dispositions that make men fit to be governed, but much of the knowledge and the temper that qualify them to govern. We repeat, that the watchword of patriotism in Britain should now be " INSTRUCT THE people."

This, however, is a subject too important to be incidentally discussed; we return to Napoleon and his University. The emperor's views as to the education of physicians are thus expressed:

"With respect to the degrees given by the university, that of doctor ought not to be too readily bestowed. The candidate ought to be examined on the most difficult subjects,-for example, on the comparison of languages,—and it would not be amiss were they required to converse in Latin for an hour and a half. It is by no means necessary that all the world should be rendered eligible for a doctor's degree. Nor do I approve of the condition which requires that a bachelor of medicine should first take a scientific degree; for medicine is not a positive and exact science, but one of observation and conjectures. For my part, I should have more confidence in

a doctor who had not studied the exact

sciences, than in him who was acquainted with them. I preferred M. Corvisart to M. Hallé, because M. Hallé belongs to the Institute, whereas M. Corvisart does not know what is meant by two triangles being equal to one another! The student of medicine ought not to be disturbed in his visits to the hospital or dissecting-room, or in his medical studies. Anatomy,though

it be the least uncertain branch of the art, is still enveloped in darkness. We know neither why we live nor how we live, nor what the living principle is. To require, therefore, that a young man shall be versed in knowledge of such different kinds, before he can enter upon his profession, is to risk losing the public services of the great men whom such a profession might turn out. For, by a strange caprice in the structure of the human mind, it may well happen that a man may be a great physician or a great jurist, who could never work a sum in compound division!'"

The suggestion that the higher degrees should be bestowed with great discrimination, and not as a mere matter of form, to those who had already attained the lower ones, we would respectfully submit to the attention of our British Universities. With the exception of the medical degrees, the degree of A. B. is the only one with which the attainments of the candidate have any necessary connection. This once obtained, the others follow as a matter of course; and by waiting a few years, and paying a certain sum of money, a man becomes Master of Arts, or even a Doctor learned in both laws.

From this curious chapter we select at random a few more detached passages illustrative of Napoleon's views. We take them without any reference to subject or connection.

"At the meeting of the 29th May, 1804, Napoleon said, 'The minister of public worship must determine what classical works shall be placed in the hands of the young men; and I desire that he will print a small volume for each class, containing passages selected from ancient as well as modern writers, and which shall have a tendency to inspire the rising generation with opinions in conformity with the principles of the new empire.

"I am aware that the suppression of the Jesuits has left a great void in these matters of education; but it is not my intention to re-establish them, nor to raise up any other corporation which may be influenced by external authority; but I feel called upon to organise a system of education for the new generation, such, that both political and moral opinions may be duly regulated thereby.

"There ought to be two distinct classes of masters, one who should teach the pupils, another who should govern them; for these matters require very different

talents.

"The monks were the Pope's militia, who owned no other sovereign, and con

sequently they were more to be dreaded than the secular clergy, who, but for the monks, would never have caused any embarrassment.

"Every one knows the scandalous excesses which were carried on by the monks; and I can myself form a good estimate upon that subject, as I was for some time brought up by them. I respect all which religion respects; but as a statesman, I cannot esteem the fanaticism of celibacy, which was a mere device adopted by the court of Rome for rivetting the chains of Europe, by preventing the religious orders from becoming citizens. The military fanaticism is the only one which is of any use to me, as it makes men

indifferent to death.''

In another chapter we would recom mend the following passage to the serious attention of the statesmen who uphold the endowment of Maynooth.

"I am well satisfied with the Protestants, they ask for nothing, and they recognise me as their religious head, and, in consequence, I am exempted from the necessity of superintending the doctrines taught in their schools. Moreover their numbers are only three millions. The Catholics, on the contrary, require to be watched by the government, because their head is a foreign prince. At all events, we must take care not to let the education of our young priests fall into the hands of fanatics, or of ignorant persons; for it may be truly said of the priesthood, as it has been said of the tongue, it is either the worst of things or the best.""

We have been able to make but a few selections from this interesting and extraordinary book,-embracing dis cussions upon almost all possible topics of government and legislation, and reporting the opinions of a man whose career has influenced for centuries the course of events in Europe, it has been multifarious subjects which it brings impossible for us even to glance at the under review. It is long since we have met with any work, containing at once so much that is interesting and instructive.

But what will the reader think of Napoleon with the help to his judgment which these revelations of his council afford him? The perusal of this volume makes us more intimately acquainted with the child and champion of democracy-will the old proverb be verified in spirit-"no man was ever a hero to his valet." We will follow the example both of the author and the translator, and let these documents