vious measures which the crisis into which the nation is plunged demands; I am assured that all my colleagues will feel their necessity." I am come to propose to you the pre. It is very doubtful whether Bonaparte could have succeeded in his project of becoming Dictator, even if his attempt had not been baffled by the timely propositions of General la Fayette; but the lofty attitude which the Assembly had now taken rendered all hopes of success fruitless. Recourse was therefore had to negociation. The ministers, who had loitered in the council of the Elysée by the Emperor's order, at length appeared, on a second requisition, before the Assembly, accompanied by Lucien Bonaparte, as Imperial Commissary, who required a committee of the whole house to communicate an imperial message. This message, which began by an elaborate recital of the misfortunes that had befallen the army, concluded with the information, that the Emperor had named a commission of three of his ministers to treat for peace with the Allies. The first of these propositions was, to declare that the independence of the country is threatened: the second, that the house shall declare itself permanent; that all attempts to dissolve it are high treason, and that any one who shall be guilty of this crime shall be immediately arraigned as a traitor to his country. The third proposition consisted of thanks to the army, and the national guard: the fourth was, an invitation to the minister of the interior to convoke the staff officers of the national guard, and procure arms for every citizen who should be called to serve in it: the last was, an invitation to the miaisters to repair to the House, and answer all questions that should be made them. No explanation was demanded by any member of the cause of these alarming propositions; it was suffieient that they were made by M. de la Fayette, and that Bonaparte was in Paris. The three first of these motions were immediately converted into laws. The national guard flocked round the Assembly without wait. ing a law; but the ministers obeyed the summons of the chamber with less. alacrity. The discussion respecting the Dic. tatorship was yet carried on at the Elysée palace, when intelligence was brought to Napoleon, that M. de la Fayette was then at the tribune, and baranguing the assembly. Bonaparte was trifling over his cup of coffee; "La Fayette at the tribune!" said he. The spoon dropt from his hand; the plot was discovered, and the discussion was adjourned.* • All intercourse between Bonaparte and M. de la Fayette had ceased for several years. M. de la Fayette was greatly in January 1816. The members, who were led to suppose, from the former part of this message, debted to Bonaparte for his intervention at the time of the treaty of Leoben, which reOn his return to France, at the period of scued him from the dungeons of Olmutz." the 18th Brumaire, La Fayette, who had other ideas of glory than Bonaparte, belie ved that the latter meant to establish the liserious conversations with him, M. de la berties of his country. But, after several Fayette discovered his error, and refused to take any part in public affairs, though pressed by Bonaparte, and his friends, to ac cept the senatorial diguity. His restrictive vote against the consulship for life broke off all further communication between him and Bonaparte, and occasioned that noble letter to the First Consul, which was found in the papers of Mr Fox, and published in London, several years since. On the return of Napoleon from the Isle of Elba, his brother Joseph solicited M. de la Fayette to accept the dignity of the peerage, and assured him that the Emperor had placed him the first on the list. M. de la Fayette answered, that if he again appeared on the public scene, it must be as representative of the people: and, having thus escaped being a peer, was named, in his own department, Member of the House of Representatives. message, that Bonaparte's desire of being released from all further cares of government, would necessarily follow the avowal of his defeat, were astonished, in their turn, at this most lame and impotent conclusion. They expressed themselves in no measured terms upon the project of the Emperor's treating for peace, when he himself was the only obstacle to its accomplishment. "Give us," said they, some idea of your new policy. What are your plans, your combinations? Europe has declared war against Napoleon alone. Let us have no secrets. Shew us the depth of the abyss; we shall find means to fathom it; but how can the Emperor pretend to save the country?" Lucien, who, on the 18th Brumaire, had extricated his brother from a mauvais pas with the Legislative body, was now without success. His invocations to public generosity, to their late oaths of fidelity, his accusations of levity against the French nation, were urged in vain. The indignation of the Assembly ran high."We have followed your brother," said M. de la Fayette, "across the sands of Africa, the deserts of Rus. sia; the bones of our countrymen, that whiten the plains in almost every quarter of Europe, bear witness to our patience and fidelity; it is our perseverance that we have to regret, and the blood of three millions of Frenchmen. Go, tell your brother, that we will trust him no longer; we will ourselves undertake the salvation of our country." Lucien and the ministers had nothing to reply to the gravity of these observations. They had themselves anticipated the sentiments of the Assembly, and returned to conjure the Emperor to send in his resignation. It was resolved, at the same time, to convene this night a great council, at the Thuilleries, of all the ministers, of several counsellors of state, and of five members of each house of legis lature. The president of this council was the Arch-chancelier Cambaceres. The Emperor was not present. Various propositions were made respecting the modes of defence, and of raising supplies. The principal object of the meeting seemed to be evaded, or forgotten, when M. de la Fayette declared, that, in adopting all that had been proposed for the defence of the country, the first object, that of the abdication, had not yet been mentioned; he then moved that, the council, headed by the president, should present itself to the Emperor, and make the demand. This motion did not succeed. The council broke up at three in the morning, and the ministers, with the counsellors of state, and some deputies, repaired to the palace of the Elysée. The ministers were pressing for the abdication, and particularly the Duke d'Otrante, M. Constant, and two of the representatives. Napoleon persisted in his refusal, till he learnt, by one of his counsellors, that if the abdication was not sent to the chamber within an hour, M. de la Fayette was determined to move for his expulsion. The respite of an hour was given for reflection, and the Assembly adjourned for an hour; at the end of that time it resumed its sitting, and received the formal abdication of the imperial throne. It was now that Bonaparte began to feel that the disgrace inflicted on him at Waterloo was about to receive its consummation at Paris, since the only expiation of his unskilfulness as General was the resignation of his crown as Emperor. He was at length convinced that he could only prevent his expulsion by voluntary abdication. This seeming act of virtue was sent to each of the chambers, as a sacrifice he made to the peace of France, and the hatred of Europe, with the condition that the legislative bodies proclaimed his son, Napoleon the Second, Emperor of the French. The Particulars respecting Bonaparte. The Assembly, without attending to the article respecting the young Napoleon, accepted solemnly, in the name of the French people, the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte, and named a deputation, composed of the president, the vice-president, and the secretaries, to offer him the thanks of the chamber. It was an interesting spectacle, said one of the deputation, to me, to behold these nine representatives of the people, invested only with the force of public opinion, and the decree of the Assembly, entering the palace of this man, against whom a million of soldiers were in arms, who had given orders to all the sove reigns of the continent, who still commanded the French armies, the guard which surrounded him, and a numerous party in the Fauxbourgs, to announce to him that he was no longer Emperor, and that the nation resumed the government. He received the deputation, surrounded by all the great officers of his household, and those of his guard, with all the pomp suitable to the imperial dignity of which he was about to be deprived. His figure and deportment were calm; he said, that a great disaster had happened, but that the territory was yet untouched: he spoke of the sacrifice which he made, at the desire of the chamber, to public circumstances, and to his tenderness for his son. The president observed to him, in a respectful tone, that the Assembly, whose decree he had just read, had not deliberated on that part of his message, but that he would render an account of his majesty's observations. "I thought so," said Bonaparte a side, to his brother; "I did not suppose they could do it ;" but resuming, he answered, "Tell the Assembly, that I recommend to it my son." The deputation withdrew, still observing the most respectful ceremonies. Bonaparte, after several disagreeable altercations with some of his late ministers, now become his masters, 27 "The withdrew from Paris to Malmaison. His continuance at Paris had begun to excite considerable alarm. snake was scotched, not killed.” Old Napoleon was yet alive for his son.These apprehensions had been increased by the daily entrance of corps of regular troops into the capital, with the accustomed cries of "Vive l'Empe reur!" and of whose concurrence Bonaparte was assured, whenever he might think it expedient to exert his imperial energies. Rumours of menacing tendency were spread abroad; the means of evil were still in Napoleon's power, and he would not neglect the occasion. The provisioninterested in his movements not to ary government, who were too highly vited him, in terms that could not be watch them with an attentive eye, inmisunderstood, to withdraw from Paris. During a few days previous to and much employed; it was, however, his departure, he appeared meditative, on his own personal affairs. His atwhither he was going. You may pertention was turned to the new world haps suppose, that the examples of outlive their honourable defeat on the those Roman heroes, who could not plain of Philippi, might have occurred to his remembrance; or he of Pontus, who, tho' out of the reach of Pompey, sought no further refuge than the Cimmerian Bosphorus, by the double instrument of poison and the sword. You may imagine that he was reflecting on the friendly offers of his faithful Mapreceding year at Fountainbleau, stood me luke, who, on his abdication the before him with his newly-sharpened scimetar, saying, that he waited his orders to perform the last duty. examples of Cato of Utica, of HanThe nibal, and of so many illustrious perhis mind. No, Bonaparte's thoughts sonages, you may believe glided thro' deeds of greatness; his meditations were remote from these heathenish ture. The preparations with which he were of a more sober and familiar na was was busied at this eventful moment, Relieved from the task of governing the world, Bonaparte cheered the monotony of his retreat by conversations not only with the military, but with some men of letters, and artists, who visited him at Malmaison; and the chief topic of his discourse with those persons was the errors and abuses of his own government; but in discussing the late events, he always spoke in the third person, and as he himself had no immediate concern in those operations. "The Emperor," said he, "appears to have acted in this instance, from such and such motives; and in that, to obtain such results; but he did wrong in both instanThe Emperor trusted to infor ces. mation that was unfounded. He was too precipitate, or too tardy; he made mistakes which he might easily have avoided, and calculated upon mistakes of his adversaries, which they did not commit." Bonaparte was in the vein of being communicative; and happening to overhear a hasty answer given by a professional man to a question of an importunate neighbour, respecting the state of his wife, Bonaparte abandoned his critique on the Emperor's errors, and began an harangue of three quar ters of an hour, and without discontinuing, on the obstetrical art. Then resuming the tone of the Emperor, he declaimed against the present practice; declaring that it was his intention to have proposed various ameli orations in the school, some of which he mentioned. Thus, in imitation of a famous warrior of antiquity *, almost as great a distroyer of the human race as himself, and who had written a treatise on the secret of diseases, or the art of healing, Bonaparte seemed to have had the project of writing on this professional subject. He might, perhaps, have been no less dangerous to mankind in its embryo state, as a surgeon, than he had been to adults, as a general. Mr PHILLIPS's Reply to the EDIN- TO THE EDITOR OF THE EDINBURGH SIR, THE notice which you have been pleased to take of a Speech, purporting to have been delivered by me, in the Court of Common-Pleas, Dublin, will, I hope, shield me from the charge of obtrusion in thus publicly addressing you. To be noticed by a work so valuable in every respect as the Edinburgh Review, is a distinction which I sufficiently appreciatea distinction, however, which I regret was not reserved for the effort of more matured and for an effort auyears, thorised by my sanction. The first essay of a young Barrister in a Court Mithridates. of of Justice, is scarcely a legitimate subject for criticism-when unauthenticated, it is not so at all. Against such an interference I enter my protest; and I do so the more seriously, in the first instance, in consequence of your avowed intention to watch those future professional exertions which my pursuits in life may render necessary, and which the speculations of a foreign Printer may, without my authority, induce him to promulgate. The English Pamphlet, on which you found your criticism, I never saw until it had gone through several editions; and, tho' very kindly, it is, in some respects, very incorrect ly edited. For your indulgence, in many instances, Í have a right to be grateful, and, amongst others, for what you denominate my "independent and honourable conduct in the political contests of my country."This is, indeed, high praise; far above the "undoubted talents, and even genius" you concede to me-it is the praise of principle. Little, however, should I deserve such an encomium, if I did not denounce, with grief and with indignation, the unworthy sneers flung upon that country, in your very commencement—a country but too historically said to be ever hardly used, At random censured and abused." Such prejudices, vulgarized by the bigot's cant, and polluted by the parasite's adoption, should not have disgraced a page rendered valuable alike by its ability, and its patriotism.There is, however, a novelty even in the vices of genius, and you have contrived, I believe, for the first time, to cast upon the proverbially ardent generosity of the Irish character the imputation of "craft!" The impu tation has all the merit of invention, and, were I disposed to imitate this national illiberality, I would say, that the charge of craft, coming from a Scotsman, has an air of innocent simplicity about it, which much more than neutralizes its virulence. After such a theme, your remarks upon my self are scarcely worth considering. I dismiss the preface altogether, of whose author (whose well-meant exaggerations in my favour I willingly admit) I am entirely ignorant; neither is it necessary to go at length into your criticism. The very first page amply elucidates the spirit in which it was commenced, and the talent with which it is conducted.I had said, that my learned colleagues had "conceded" to me the statement. You remark upon this"Concession is here used rather awkwardly for assent." Now, Sir, it was not used merely to imply assentit implied much more-it implied, that they not only had assented to my having the statement, but that they had conceded to me that station to which not only their seniority but their ta lents had entitled them. You next observe the expression to “detail the story of my Client's misfortunes" is not happy-scarcely accurate-and the amendment you propose is "to detail the particulars." Your alteration, in my opinion, is any thing but an amendment. To "detail the particulars," if it be sense at all, you must admit is, to say the best of it, downright tautology. The next expression at which you cavil, is "my friendship for my Client being cemented by our mutual attachments"-(it is, by a manifest error of the Press, printed "attachment.") The meaning of the expression requires no second sight; the idem velle and the idem nolle are classical authority for the growth of friendship,-and, if I have erred at all, which I deny, I have erred with Sallust. Really, Sir, when you failed in proving an accuracy of diction" in me, I must admit the generosity with which you have exemplified it in yourself. Such is the extent, and such the value of the verbal criticism to which you have descended. The quotations which "in you |