1. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGA- Reports, Literary, Medical, Chemical, Agricultural, and ZINE. No. XVII. for August 1818.

AND

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No. 86.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1818.

-this stupendous Being, what is he now
in the canvass of the Count las Casas?
a wretch below the range of pity-be-
neath the very stoopings of contempt.
Was it necessary to set this memorable
example before the instructed world?
Oh yes! the decrees of the Almighty
are often inscrutable to mortal appre-
hensions, but they are sometimes (as in
this instance) direct, evident, not to be
misunderstood. Could one awake from
the dead after the sleep of only a few
short years, and be told that the terrible
scourge of his race, the desolating Buo-
naparte, round whose footstool monarchs
waited trembling for the behest which
was to make or unmake them—the de-
spiser and vanquisher of the strongest
coalitions-was not only a solitary pri
soner on a solitary rock, but with the
whole energies of his mind wound up to
wrangle with his keepers, to sulk like a
spoilt girl, to lament over his achs and
ailments, and bend his soul to the im-

REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. Memoirs of Emanuel Augustus Dieudonné Count de las Casas. Communicated by Himself, &c. &c. London 1818. 8vo. pp. 228. THE regards of Europe have scarcely been suffered to repose for a single moment from the contemplation of St. Helena and its remarkable Inhabitant. The man whose destinies have been so interwoven with the mightiest events of history, at whose fiat kingdoms have lost their independence, nations their liberty, and millions have poured forth their life-blood-this man cannot sink into obscurity. And though it is to his agents and parasites, to the remnant few who never looked upon him in any other light than as a liberal benefactor, who, from the prodigal disbursement of thrones and principalities, lavished upon them what they never could have obtained in times of law and order, that we are indebted for these numerous pub-mortal feat of retaining or discharging his lications; and though their object be widely different from that which wise and virtuous men can approve, yet are their efforts something so salutary, so proper for us to know and reflect upon, so full of providence (if we may use the expression,) bringing good out of evil, that we may say the very finger of an overruling power is visible in these means, and on our parts we shall endeavour to make a beneficial use of the lesson thus pressed upon our senses.

To us it appears that every new disclosure sinks Napoleon Buonaparte deeper and deeper in the hopelessness of human degradation. Like Milton's Lucifer he falls, to find in every remove

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common with such persons. We have no sympathy for Napoleon Buonaparte. We are utterly ignorant of that single incident in his life by which he has linked himself to the tears of humanity. An exalted and selfish ruffian; is there one instance recorded, even by his most zealous dependents, of his giving way to social affection? The largesses of profusion attached some to his cause, a participation in his system of plunder and false glory many more of kindred genius, and some were dazzled by the immensity of his powers, and others by various hopes and interests and passions; but who has loved him for himself? not even his Brothers! For none could love, nor trust the dark, malignant, insensate fiend, who, had the population of France but one life, would have sacrificed it without a pang to one day of triumph, or one year of a hateful life at the loathed St. Helena. If any man can say wherefore Buonaparte should be beloved, we will retract our opinion, and adopt apothecary! "Mercy upon us (he would the new creed; but to our eyes, neither say) had this miserable creature no op- his public nor his private history suggests portunity of dying like a soldier; or of one point of alliance for human kindplaying the lion in his toils; or was he nesses. If ever there existed a man after all but a charlatan and a coward, self-insulated from his species, he is the whom circumstances robed in power, man; no consideration of the miseries but who was intrinsically vile and worth- of war ever impeded his movements; no less?" Adversity has confirmed the worst thoughts of the widows and orphans characteristics of Buonaparte, and de- whom battle made, ever checked his monstrated beyond a question, that hecatomb offerings on the shrine of perthough he once appeared grand and sonal ambition; no compunction ever dreadful, he owed this semblance to his stood in his path when single and coldstation-the master of the universe-blooded murders were deemed expedient and not to innate superiority of soul. " From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step" indeed with such beings; but the real hero, the man of truly great mind, is never ridiculous. It is not in fortune, in victory, nor in defeat, to alter him, so as to invite the scorn or loathing of mankind: a glorious orb of light, he rolls on his course through azure and through cloud unchanged, till the last convulsion of nature extinguishes his radiance; not like one of baser nature,

An abyss lower still. His fate is a wonderful dream; but it is a dream pregnant with matter for mankind to ponder on. The desperate man of blood and massacre-the umpire of the universal world-the dethroner and setter up of kings-the potentate at whose nod forty millions of subjects bowed, at whose command a million" raised the meteor of the world and a half of his fellow creatures marched Hung in the sky, and blazing as he travelled," out to destroy each other-the insatiable to be thrown down to the native mire conqueror, whose ambition, unsatisfied where it was engendered, and trod out with the largest portion of the civilized by the meanest foot of indignity. earth, grasped to add the mountains of Spain, and the wilds of Tartary, and the populous plains of Asia, to an empire already unparalleled in extent and power VOL. II.

We know there are those who will accuse us of harshness and want of feeling, for speaking thus of a fallen enemy. Our judgment acknowledges nothing in

to satiate revenge, or remove an adversary; no tie of kindred ever tugged at his heart to prevent the execution of a favourite project;-in fine, if we can conceive an abstract principle of selfishness clothed in the human form, apathetical, sanguinary, remorseless, it is to be found in the shape of this detestable being.

But it is time to leave him for his parasite Las Casas. Las Casas is one of those unpurposed, unprincipled individuals, who have not that guide within which causes us to pursue a direct and consistent course. The present moment is his eternity; and whatever may be the object of the hour, it has the benefit of his entire French enthusiasm. A Bourbon or a Buonaparte -he is equally ready to die, or say he will die, for either, just as either happens

no

to be the idol at the time. To-day he | He is descended as nobly as the Herald's wholly new, spread themselves over the will endure heaven and earth knows College could devise a pedigree, from soil of France. The emigrants were sowhat for such a Prince as the Duc some Counts about the years 1000 and lemnly recalled. "There are now d'Enghien; to-morrow he will suffer 1100 in his youth he had four narrow parties, and no privileged orders, but Frenchmen only;' more on behalf of his murderer. In and wonderful was the language of escapes from being the new government. Las Casas availing short, Monsieur Las Casas is one of the drowned (twice in the Scheldt and twice himself of this arrangement, terminated completest weathercocks of the revolu- at sea;) a remarkable instance, we doubt his exile and hurried to Paris: the emigration, and, like all fickle gentlemen, most not, of the truth of the old saying: if he tion had cost him his estate; he now reperemptory and zealous in support of had gone in the carriage with Gustavus nounced on oath all farther claims to it, his existing mood. Having pressed him-III., as he might have done, the chance for this was the condition of his return; self into the service of St. Helena, he is that he would have saved that mobut he saw himself again on his native soil, accompanied Buonaparte thither, and narch from assassination. when the and breathed again his country's air; and remained with him till the Governor French princes were defeated early in to noble minds this will always appear a most distinguished treasure. was obliged to send so troublesome an the revolutionary war, he, their faithful intriguer off the Island. Of course he follower, emigrated to England, and lived reclaims, and makes a furious noise in a coal cellar about St. Giles's; being about the matter; and if the whole nevertheless received into the highest affair was not a manoeuvre to get back circles, and a welcome visitor to the to Europe, the publication before us is most splendid banquets: he was always the fruit of his hot resentment. We of a romantic (quære, has not the trans-first at a distance from all public offices rather suspect that the thing is alto-lator altered this from romancing?) disgether a trick, and that M. Las Casas position, and possessed, he modestly wrongs are only secondary to the plan tells us "courage, a refined education, of keeping the name and condition of amiable manners, and distinguished his master alive on the scene of his talents:" such a prodigy was he indeed former influence. If so, the stratagem altogether, that besides his has been a good deal spoilt by the detention of the agent for several months at the Cape of Good Hope, and other obstacles to his coming out with eclat when public attention was unoccupied with graver matters.

to

Double situation of a polished man of the world appearing in gilded saloons, and a man from among the dregs of the people, not unfrequently consuming his mid-day meal by the side of a day-labourer in the Lowest public house, and in cellars of the utmost wretchedness

all these, and fine appointments to India, he rejected, because he loved to be near France!!

It may be reckoned a little contraHe was so competent a teacher, that dictory, after what we have written, to declare that we attach much importance ing the day before what he was to teach on He was usually under the necessity of learnthe present work, and precisely to the following day and frequently those parts of it which relate to Buona- even highly brilliant and unexpected prosparte. But one who has filled so extra-pects opened to him-for instance, he was ordinary a space, and run so marvellous one day offered a commission to take the a career as he has done, must always management of immense estates in Jamaica, command attention to the last act and where he would have made a fortune in dropping of the curtain, should it even four or five years, &c. &c. be in obscurity, when, penitence, confes-But sions, and deeper humiliations (for such is the close we anticipate from evenhanded justice) have rendered the lesson at once more finished and instructive. Meanwhile we like to read it as it runs. M. Las Casas' production consists of a preface; a Letter addressed to Lucien Buonaparte from St. Helena, giving an account of his Brother's voyage, residence, and mode of living; a Letter addressed to Earl Bathurst, complaining of his own ill-treatment; and, not the least momentous in the opinion of the writer, a biography of the redoubted. Count Las Casas, who therein proves himself, if not the greatest liar, at least the most egotistical coxcomb that ever proclaimed himself to the wondering world. As our readers probably care as little about the memoir of this miraculous hero of his own tale as we did, we shall not dwell long on that portion of his writings.

About this period he published his “ Historical Atlas," which, though little known, is, according to his testimony, one of the ablest works ever compiled. The only further discoveries worth notice in the memoir is, that the art of war was utterly unknown so late as 1792; and that the French revolution was thus ended.

From eight to ten years were in this manner passed by the Count in a foreign country; when in the bosom of France a meteor arose, that covered it with his fame and his genius. His powerful arm at once changed the former order of things, the French revolution ceased to be the terror of civilized Europe; its beautiful and grand truths came forth resplendent and purified from the chaos of anarchy; it forced respect from kings, and corresponded to the wishes of the people. A life and an organization

After a ten years' absence, he returned wholly a new man; he brought with him his own peculiar ideas and views, his knowledge and industry. The particular situa tion in which he found himself and his principles at the same time, kept him at

and employments, for he wished to owe every thing to himself alone.

To make short work of it, he soon wriggled into some office, and became so zealous a friend to the new order of things, that, with the exception of a little ratting in 1814-15, he adhered to his Emperor and King, and when that personage left Paris for the last time, his dutiful and moral subject "tore himself from the cries of his wife, embraced his little children, brought his eldest son from school," and devoted himself to the fortunes of the exile "for ever"that is, for nearly two years.

So early as on board the Northumberland, our honourable began his useful functions by pretending to be ignorant of English, in order to catch the eavesdroppings in that language, his knowledge of which alone seems to have recommended him to Buonaparte as a his passport to a closer intercourse than companion. The same qualification was he would otherwise have been allowed, and to it we may account ourselves inIdebted for all the curious information which this volume contains.

During the outward passage, Napoleon began to dictate to him, from memory, the history of his Italian campaigns; a division of his life on which, we imagine, he would delight to dwell. And during this voyage those hardships began, respecting which there has been no end of querulous complaining.

The style of Las Casas' composition is worthy of his self-sufficiency; ex. gr.

The magnanimous devotion to Napoleon, however, throws all the other noble actions of the Count into the shade, and will without doubt transmit his memory to future ages. The opinion of all parties coincides in declaring his conduct on this occasion to be heroic, wonderful and sublime, and in bestowing on him the name of the martyr

Digne héritier des vertus de ton nom,
De Las Casas imitateur fidèle,
Lui d'un peuple opprimé fut l'ardent champion,

of devotion, the hero of fidelity. During | of his voluntary surrender to the Pritish. | test, asserting that he was" the guest of his imprisonment in the enemy's country As for continuing the contest, Buona- England, and came voluntarily on board at the Cape of Good Hope, he found one parte knew too well its hopelessness and the Bellerophon," the truth of which may day on his writing-desk an anonymous letter in verse, of which the rhyme betrayed peril he was not mad enough to sup-be ascertained from our extracts from perhaps something of a foreign origin, but pose he could do better after the battle the narrative of his companion, who in to the sentiments of which every one will of Waterloo, with the Austrian and Rus- this matter is worthy of full credit, since certainly most readily subscribe. The fol- sian forces added to his foes, than before his statement is utterly opposite to the lowing were the verses: it. And as for his voluntary surrender, representation he wished to make. But the Count himself is disposed to settle when M. le Compte discovers the tone that point, by telling us (page 102,) taken by his master, it is quite fudicrous "On the other hand, the English to observe how he turns about and concruisers were in view, and hovered day tradicts all he had said before about the and night about the port of Rochefort. impossibility of escape, &c. His lament Every pass seemed guarded and closed. is so primitive and laughable, that we Besides, the winds were uniformly contrary. must transcribe it. Since the murder of While in this manner, every account which the Innocents, there has never been any we received from the interior imperiously thing so cruel and doleful: commanded us to hasten our departure, every thing at sea concurred to render it impossible."

Toi d'un nouveau Richard te montres le Blondele. Besides the qualities above mentioned, Las Casas is also distinguished by a high degree of disinterestedness and self-denial, and by an almost blind confidence in the rectitude and the sincerity of other men; this drew down on him at Longwood the reproach, that he was not unfrequently as unsuspecting and as credulous as a child.

We omit the further puffing and boastings which follow, to notice one of his rarities, which will be curious enough when it sees the light, viz.

The Journal, regularly kept, of all that was said by Napoleon every day at St. Helena during eighteen months; his public and private conversations, &c. This journal is still in the hands of the English authorities. The value of such a document depends on its contents and its genuineness. History demands it back, and it is hoped the demand will not be made in vain.

With respect to us, full of bitterness of heart and disgust at such transactions, we exclaimed, What a deceitful and maBuonaparte therefore put the best face licious trick! Are we no longer among cihe could on the matter, and gave him-vilized nations? Where are the rights of self up to the British flotilla; and if, as God to punish such faithlessness; he is nations and public morality? We call on his friends declare, and the above ac-witness to the sincerity with which we count of the circumstance by his own acted, and to the treachery practised toagent, Las Casas, be correct, his surren-wards us.' It would be difficult to paint der was voluntary, we can only say, that to you the rage which this contemptuous not even the exception of Hobson's abuse of power, this employment of falsechoice, this or none,' we never in our hood, to take advantage of our innocent lives met with any action which seemed credulity, excited in us. Even now, on so entirely of necessity, and divested of the bare mention of it to your highness, free will. Even after entering into the the blood rushes more rapidly through my negotiations with Captain Maitland,

The grandiloquence of the Count is so widely removed from the sober phrase of truth, that we are generally, even in every thing (says Las Casas) on our trifles, at a loss to know whether he is part which the imagination can suggest or is not worthy of credit. For instance, was exhausted, for the purpose of discopage 82, his short residence in St. He-vering means of escaping from this port, lena is " days, weeks, months, years,

passed on in uninterrupted solitude;" and, 113, the island itself is "at the extremity of the globe." These rhodomontade expressions would be only foolish, did they not display an habitual disregard of veracity in a performance, the adherence of which to facts must be

its grand test of interest. From the person too who calls on the public to believe him in opposition to Lord Bathurst, Lord Castlereagh, and Mr. Goulburn, we have a right to expect a little less notorious license.

and gaining the open sea." These fail-
ing, the voluntary surrender took place,
and we are reminded of the Lieutenant
who brought 85 volunteers for the navy
on board the tender, all of whom he
had pressed from Wapping the night

before!!

At Plymouth the prisoners appear wofully disappointed with the line of Casas laments in the third person plural, conduct adopted towards them, and Las as if he had as much cause of grief as his

dear Master..

veins.

We read in the public journals, that they had made prisoners of us; of us who gave ourselves up to them so freely, with such magnanimous confidence! It was said, we were under the necessity of surrendering ourselves at discretion; we, who with greatland of the chances of war in our favour, ness of soul refused to avail ourselves by and who had it in our power to make the attempt to escape by sea! Could our treatment have been worse, had we been reduced to the necessity of yielding to force or superior power? Who can entertain a doubt that we would not have exposed ourselves to every danger, have tried least suspicion of the fate that was desevery chance of fortune, and even have rushed on certain death, had we had the

tined us?

Poor fellows, or rather, worthless We were surrounded by armed vessels, miscreants! ought not the bare name Following the narrative of M. Las which, by discharges of musketry, kept of the young D'Enghien, butchered at Casas, we are informed, that the whole back the curious who ventured to ap-midnight, to have sunk your clamours proach us. Soon after, the dreadful senBuonaparte family intended to have tence, so unique in its kind, was announced emigrated to America, on the second to us in the harshest expressions and most renunciation of the throne. New York bitter form [a gross and notorious falsewas to have been the general rendez-hood.] They took possession of our swords, vous. They would have made a charm- rummaged our baggage, in order, as they ing addition to the independent colony said, to take our money, our bills, diawhich has recently established itself in monds, and valuable effects, under their that country. Prevented in this scheme, we have a long and, as usual, contradictory account of Napoleon's conduct after quitting Paris, of his refusal to take the command of the army of the Loire, and

care.

Buonaparte had, however, not been able to carry off more than 4000 napo leons, some plate, linen, books, &c. Then came the Corsican's famous pro

against retributive justice into everlasting silence? Ought you not, after all your villanies and crimes, to have thanked that Providence which, instead of sending you to your account by a public expiation, permitted you, in mercy, time for repentance, and solitude through which to reach a grave uncursed by millions, at the moment of your descent into it.

At St. Helena the complaints, with which the public have been so long and pertinaciously disgusted, continue, and

the value of this volume is, that it puts must, curious and entertaining as it
them into their most authentic and tan- is, refer our readers for it to the pub-
gible shape. The habitation of the per-lication, which will also amuse and
son second in command upon the Island, gratify them in many other particulars.
and allotted to Buonaparte, was the We only venture one observation, that as
most detestable spot in it;-this, it may it is stated that the new Governor's
be believed, did not arise from the ex- measures were not all at first, but be-
treme folly of the Sub-Governor in came progressively rigorous, it is a strong
chusing such a hell, but simply because presumption that he made * discoveries
Buonaparte could not get Plantation from time to time which rendered
House, the residence of the Governor closer precautions necessary. One of the
himself! Chagrined, and we fear ill at accusations is as strong as it is strange,
ease within, the following is Las Casas' viz. having got by fraud this great man
details to Lucien, of his brother's mode into their power, his enemies forcibly
of life.
took possession of his property and his
income, and then wished him to provide
for his own maintenance :-this is made
by the person who a few pages before told
us that his master had only 4000 napo-
leons, &c. all of which were restored to
him!!

:

The Emperor sleeps very little he goes early to bed, and as he knows that I am also a bad sleeper, he frequently sends for me to bear him company till he falls asleep; he wakes pretty regularly about three o'clock, when a light is brought him, and he works till six or seven; he then lays himself down again to endeavour to sleep a second time; about nine o'clock breakfast is served to him on a small round table, a sort of gueridon beside his couch; here he frequently sends for one of us; he then reads, works, or slumbers during the oppressive heat of the day; he afterwards dictates to us. For a long time he used, about four o'clock in the afternoon, to take us all out with him in the caleche, but at

last he got tired of this, as he before did of riding; he now continues to walk till the humidity of the air compels him to return to the house. If he remains out after four o'clock in the open air, he is certain of being seized in the evening with rheumatic pains in the head, a pretty severe cough, and violent tooth-ache. On his return, he

mation than he gets through the British officers employed. In short, M. Las Casas is as impudent a dog, and as contradictory a writer, as we ever chanced to light upon. Yet his book is one which deserves what it has obtained-universal circulation: it furnishes much amusement, and much for all parties to reflect upon. He modestly expects ministers to answer his assertions, and promises, if they do not satisfy him, to bring his case into our courts of law. There it will shine in a novel form-but in the interim, he has drawn it out in a way sufficiently attractive to obtain extraordinary attention.

Morier's Second Journey through Persia, &c.
London 1818. 4to.

(Continued.)

:

The manners of Persia are as singuThere is an obvious aim throughout larly exhibited in popular movements, all the statements to excite a belief that and in the lesser circumstances of life, Buonaparte is more severely treated than as in their government, religion, and the repose of Europe requires, and to superstitions. In the former case, instir up on his behalf as much general deed, as is not unfrequent in more encommiseration as may, and as much lightened countries, the innocent often particular cant of jacobinism as his ad- suffer for the guilty, as the following vocates can muster for the suffering mar-story witnesseth :With regard to the first we betyr. lieve his situation must be irksome, and, if he has human perceptions and memory, dreadful enough; but to all the charges of vexation and barbarity, there is the almost invincible prima facie evidence of cui bono. There is not a reason in exist ence to induce either the British Minis

About this time (of the Embassy,) great discontent was manifest at Shiraz, owing to an increase in the price of bread, and there were symptoms of insurrection among the people. This grievance was chiefly attributed to Mirza Ahady, (fellow-sufferer with Mahomed Nebee Khan;-see last released from prison at Teheran, was perweek's Literary Gazette,) who, having been

I dictates till about eight o'clock; he then ters, or the Governor they employ, so to mitted to return to Fars, to raise such sums

act, and many powerful reasons, for their
own sakes even personally, as well as in
their capacities of public functionaries,
why they should not. But on the other
side there is every possible inducement
so to paint matters as to give them this
semblance, and not one ground for rest-
ing either satisfied or seemingly satisfied

with their condition.

repairs to the dining-room, and plays a
game at chess before dinner.. During the
dessert, when the servants have withdrawn,
he usually reads to us some passages from
our best poets, or from some other books
of importance. These are the most minute
details of the manner in which the Empe-
ror at present lives; he would esteem him-
self happy in his distance from the rest of
the world, were it permitted him, amidst
our pious and careful attentions, forgotten
by men, to live for a few hours only free
from suffering; but since the arrival of the
new Governor, neither a day, nor an hour,
nor a moment passes in which he does not
receive fresh wounds; a sting may be said
to be in constant operation to tear open
the wounds, the pain of which a short slum-dour, to give Lord Bathurst truer infor-
ber might have somewhat deadened.

Sir Hudson Lowe has, it appears, done his duty so faithfully towards his country, his fellow-creatures generally, and his Maker, to all of whom he is responsible for the important trust reposed in him, as to merit the utmost hatred and vituperation of Buonaparte and his followers; but as this portion of the work is too long for extract, we

As for Las Casas' removal, it is the most whimsical burlesque on the Buonaparte School that we ever read. He wants a frigate to send him home, but finally makes choice of the only vessel allowed him. He comes to our shores like Themistocles, most willing in his can

* This is more than warranted by Las Casas (page 151,) telling Lucien Buonaparte that he is "compelled to wait for some secret mode of convey ance" for his letter; and "sooner or later such secret means will occur; some traveller, possessed of magnanimity, and a love of truth, will undertake the charge," &c. This after he had promised the Governor not to write: and with what intention? That when the truth found its way to the English people, they might succeed in putting an end to these excesses!—

on the people as would satisfy the demands of the King.

Mirza Ahady, in conjunction with the Prince's mother, was believed to have monopolized all the corn of the country, and he had no sooner reached Shiraz, than he raised its price, which of course produced Ventre affamé n'a point d'oreilles-the peoa correspondent advance in that of breadple became outrageous in their misery. As is usual, in all public calamities in the East, they commenced by shutting their shops in the Bazar. They then resorted to the house of Sheikh-el-Islam, the head of which might make it lawful to kill Mirza the law, requiring him to issue a Fetwah, Ahady, and one or two more, whom they knew to be his coadjutors in oppressing them. They then appeared in a body before the Prince's palace, where they expressed their grievances in a tumultuous way, and demanded that Mirza Ahady should be delivered up to them. Mahomed Zeky Khan was sent out by the Prince to appease them, accompanied by Mirza Bauker, the chief baker of the city, who was one of those whose life had been denounced. As soon as the latter appeared, he was overwhelmed with insults and reproaches, but he managed to pacify them,