THE work of M. Thiers, so long and so impatiently waited for, has at length commenced to appear. Few literary productions of any kind or any country have ever, before publication, awakened so general an interest. This feeling is not local or national. It pervades Europe. It is not more intense in Paris than in London, Vienna, Berlin, or St. Petersburgh. The wide expanse of the Atlantic has not confined it, and the people of the new are as sensibly alive to it as those of the old world. The unerring instinct of commercial enterprise has prompted our publishers to extraordinary exertions to secure the possession of early copies of the sheets of the first volume, and it seems probable, strange as it may sound, that a translation into English will have been in the hands of the American public, before the original has been issued at Paris. The universal and intense interest felt in France towards this work, is proved by the unprecedented amount of the price which its distinguished author has obtained for it. Report says that an association of Parisian publishers have bought the copyright at the enormous cost of five hundred and twenty thousand francs-a sum equal to one hundred thousand dollars! The work will extend to ten large octavo volumes, which will be published in succession, and will embrace the period of history extending from the fall of the Directory to the fall of Napoleon. Messrs. Carey and Hart, of Philadelphia, have published an English translation of the first volume, made from sheets despatched from Paris before the publication of the original in that city, and a portion of the volume has been published, in the original French, by the editors of the "Semaine Litteraire," a French weekly periodical issued in New York.

The translation having reached our hands before the original, we have given it a perusal, which we could scarcely have been induced to do under other circumstances. In cases like this, where probably the translators have been unduly hurried in the performance of their

task by the ill-judged but pardonable eagerness of publishers, much elegance of diction or nice selections of lingual equivalents cannot, perhaps, be reasonably looked for. If they are sought, they certainly will not be found in the present volume. But independently of this, the translation is disfigured by errors, oversights, and neglects, which it may be hoped will be guarded against in the succeeding volumes. This truly great work deserves an English version of some degree of corresponding excellence.

It is not our present purpose to examine the merits of this translation, and therefore we shall not pursue the subject; but that we may not be exposed to the charge of expressing a vague censure, unsupported by any instances of the species of faults complained of, we may mention, among other exceptionable matters, the frequent mis-translations of proper names. Thus the town of Valenza, in Piedmont, is translated by Valencia, the name of a province of Spain. The river Ticino, a chief tributary of the Po, and the theatre of important military operations, is called the Tessino.

An error of a more ludicrous kind occurs in the version of officiers de génie (officers of engineers), which is oddly enough translated officers of genius!!

We are told (p. 133) that Bonaparte had to solve a three-fold problem, one alternative of which was, "to retain the power of descending in time upon the lower Po, should the Austrians, seeking to fly by the reverse of the mountain, endeavor to pass the river above Placentia, towards Cremona or Parma." Napoleon need not have troubled himself, inasmuch as Cremona and Parma are both below Placentia,

We learn (p. 109) that the ground around Biberach "had once already been the theatre of a battle, won by Moreau, thanks principally to St. Cyr." These must have been precocious officers, for Moreau was born in 1763, and St. Cyr in 1764; so that one must have been a boy of thirteen, and the other of twelve, at the time of this victory.

During the blockade of Genoa, the

inhabitants and troops shut up there were reduced to great extremities by the want of provisions. At length they were limited to rations of an odious black bread made of rye and cocoa, obtained from the shops through the city. The translator, apparently ignorant of the substance indicated by the French word cacao, gives that term itself, as one untranslatable, and tells us that "Massena, collecting the starch, linseed, and cacao, found in the magazines of Genoa, had it made into bread," &c. &c.; and so the eating of this cacao is repeated again and again, as one of the great hardships. The translator should remember that the French word "magazins” does not correspond with our military term, "magazines," as he makes it do, but signifies shops.

The present volume comprises a narrative of French history from the appointment of the provisional government after the 9th Nov., 1799, called the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, to the victory of Marengo in the following July. Let us take a rapid glance at the great events which signalized this memorable epoch.

The individuals selected to form a constitution and administration, which should secure to France that peace and order at home, and that respect and authority abroad, the value of which she had learned to feel by the terrible results of the succession of revolutionary convulsions which she had experienced for the last ten years, were Bonaparte, Sièyes, and Roger Ducos. The last two had been members of the Directory, and mainly instrumental in its overthrow; the first had recently and unexpectedly arrived from Egypt, with a name already rendered illustrious by a series of military successes having no parallel in modern times. The influence and authority of that name were not weakened by the reflection that the conquests which, before his departure, he had achieved beyond the Alps, and the humiliating concessions he had extorted from the cabinet of Vienna, had, in his absence, been lost and compromised by the feebleness of the Directory which had just fallen. The public eye was directed to him, as the representative of the principle of action in the provisional government. His colleague, Sièyes, seemed as if placed beside him to represent the principle of thought. Without the power of eloquence, this singular

man was the rival of Mirabeau, when oratory was all in all for the acquisition of power. Without a sword, he was now all but equal to Bonaparte, when universal war assigned the first place to military genius. Such is the ascendency of intellect, independently even of the talents to render it directly applicable to affairs. Roger Ducos, the third member of the government, a man of limited capacity, respectable character, and facile habit of mind, without crossing the views of his two illustrious colleagues, supplied the place of a mediator and moderator. The part which each should take in the great business committed to them, seemed, therefore, to be indicated obviously by their respective characters and histories. It seemed to be tacitly admitted that Sièyes should prepare the constitution, and that Bonaparte should govern by it. That some one should govern, and that strongly and immediately, was urgent, for the state of the country was deplorable; disorder, both moral and material, being at its height.

The contemplation of affairs at home aud abroad presented difficulties and embarrassments sufficient to try the energies of a mind as great as those of Bonaparte's. The flames of civil war raged in the Western Provinces, to which fuel was lavishly supplied by British influ ence and the restless spirit of the emigrants. It was, moreover, stimulated by the atrocious laws enacted by the Directory, partaking of the character of the Reign of Terror. Such was the law of hostages, by which the families and connections of those who revolted against the government were rendered responsible for acts not their own, and thrown into the prisons of Paris.

The disorders which had grown up and spread in the administration of the finances and the currency, had left the treasury empty, and the armies, for many months unpaid, suffered indescribable privations. The armies of the Rhine and Helvetia were distributed along the left bank of that river, a part occupying French and a part Swiss territory. Without pay or clothing, they subsisted by a system of requisitions, levied without mercy, on the people among whom they were quartered. Contributions badly levied, worse employed, and such as they were, insufficient for the purpose, were imposed upon Basle, Zurich, and Berne, and disgusted the

spirit of independence and economy, which characterizes the Swiss. Yet this army, so destitute and so unpaid, had to protect their country from forces accumulating on the other side of the river to the number of an hundred and fifty thousand men.

Nor were matters less embarrassing beyond the Alps. The army of Italy, the vestige of those soldiers by whose heroic valor the fields of Rivoli, Castiglione, Lodi, and Arcola had been won, were now collected to the number of thirty-six thousand, on the sterile acclivities and in the barren passes of the Appenines and Maritime Alps. Those soldiers, who had endured the greatest reverses with unshaken constancy, and had shown heroic fortitude in adverse fortune, were now covered with rags, consumed by fever and famine, and actually in the condition of mendicants on the public roads through the Appenines. No words can describe the suffering they underwent at this afflicting period. A few regiments lost two thousand men in the hospitals of Genoa in four months. The wants of the troops, without shoes, blankets, or winter clothing, produced universal insubordination, and the authority of the officers being lost by the common calamities, vast numbers openly abandoned their colors and returned to France. The sea, scoured by the English, exhibited nothing but a hostile flag. No succor came, or could come from thence. The horses of the cavalry and artillery were almost all swept off by disease and famine. Such were the results of a weak and bad government, but they were produced still more directly by extreme financial embarrassments. The armies of the Republic, had, says M. Thiers, for several years, lived upon assignats and victory. The assignats no longer existed, and victory, after suddenly forsaking them, had scarcely begun to reappear, and had not yet reopened to them the rich plains of Germany and Italy. Thus embarrassed at home, a prospect not less formidable presented itself abroad. England, the Germanic States, and Russia, in short, the leading powers of Europe, were banded together in a coalition, pledged to crush the liberty of France, and to reestablish the detested dynasty of the Bourbons on its throne. A few of the secondary powers, the principal of which was Prussia, maintained a cold neutrality, only waiting the moment when military

success should determine them to join those who had already coalesced.

Great as were these difficulties and embarrassments, they were little more than enough to awaken the energies and develop the vast powers of that mind which was destined hereafter to sway the sceptre of France. The provisional government resigning itself, from the political necessity of the case, to the dictation of Bonaparte, immediately proceeded to the appointment of an efficient ministry. Cambacères became Minister of Justice, Laplace, the illustrious mathematician, was Minister of the Interior, Fouché was appointed to the Police, Talleyrand to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, Berthier was Minister of War, Forfait of Marine, and Gaudin of Finance. While the formation of the new Constitution was left to the exclusive charge of Sièyes, Bonaparte applied himself, with the several ministers respectively, to redress the most pressing evils under which the country and the state suffered. The disorders of the army first commanded attention. The forces collected on the left bank of the Rhine, spread over the French frontier from Mayence to Basle, and continued through Switzerland from Basle to Schauffhausen, were formed into one army, the command of which was given to Moreau, who having thoroughly studied Germany as a theatre of war, was eminently qualified to direct the operations for which this army was destined. Masséna received the charge of the army of Italy, with the soldiers of which, and the country destined to be the scene of their operations, he was intimately familiar.

The finances next received the attention of the Consuls, and the minister Gaudin labored incessantly with Bonaparte until a system of measures was projected, and a new organization completed, by which the revenues were put in a condition such as to inspire confidence among the capitalists, on the strength of which a loan was obtained of sufficient amount to give present relief to the government, and time to bring to maturity their improved measures. This maturity was soon attained; and, to crown all, the Bank of France was formed, to replace by its functions, the old establishments of discount which had fallen amid the disorders of the revolution. It was not possible, says Thiers, that Paris could dispense with a bank. In every centre of commerce wherein there is a certain de

gree of activity, there must be a monetary accommodation for payments, that is to say, a paper money and an establishment which discounts commercial bills on a large scale. These two services reciprocally aid each other, since the deposits made in payment of bills are the same which are applied to commercial loans by way of discount. Wherever in fact, there is commercial activity, there a bank must succeed if it discounts only good paper, and does not issue an excess of notes; in short, if it limits its operations to the true wants of the community in which it is established.

Simultaneously with these financial reforms, Bonaparte took wise and effectual measures for the suppression of the civil war in the western provinces. The grievances which were alleged among its causes were first redressed the law of hostages was repealed-the clergy were released from prison, and allowed all reasonable freedom in the public exercise of their functions-the churches were restored to their proper use. All vindictive policy was disavowed, and those who returned to their allegiance to the State were rendered secure from molestation. At the same time, a formidable power was displayed amid the theatre of civil war. The army under General Brune, recalled from Holland, was sent to La Vendée, where an effective force of sixty thousand men united with the strong moral effect of the name of Bonaparte at the head of the government, and the increasing reputation of its strength and stability, soon extinguished all hope of success against it. The emissaries from London were discouraged, and the leaders of the revolt were gradually induced, with their followers, to lay down their arms. Some faint hopes were even awakened that the head of the government might be induced to lend an ear to overtures for the restoration of the exiled family-hopes, however, which were speedily dispelled by the frank declarations made by Bonaparte in the interviews which he granted to them. It is unnecessary, says Thiers, to demonstrate how erroneous the judgment was which these Royalists had formed of General Bonaparte. This extraordinary man, now sensible of his strength and his greatness, would not be the servant of any party. If he was not fond of disorder, he was fond of the revolution. If he did not believe in the full extent of liberty, he wished, at least,

to carry out to its fullest extent, that social reformation. He wished, therefore, to identify himself with the triumph of this revolution. He aspired to the glory of bringing it to a close, of causing it to terminate in peace and order. He desired to continue to be the leader of it, under no matter what title, and, with no matter what form of government; but he had already acquired too much glory, and had learned too well his own superiority to submit to be an instrument in any other hands than those of Providence. No expedient, however, was left untried, desperate as the project must even then have seemed, to win over Bonaparte to the Royalist party. The exiled monarch Louis XVIII., addressed a letter to him conceived in the most flattering terms, inviting him to name the office he would desire to hold under the restored monarchy. Bonaparte answered this in a respectful but firm manner. A second attempt was made through the Duchess de Guiche, a lady of great personal charms, who managed to communicate with Josephine, offering her husband the post of Constable of France and the title of Prince of Corsica; and proposing that a splendid pillar should be erected in the Place Carousal, surmounted by a statue of Napoleon crowning the Bourbons. The only reply to this, was an order that the Duchess should quit Paris in twentyfour hours a step by no means unacceptable to Josephine, who had become a little uneasy at the too great proximity of this charming person.

While Bonaparte was thus employed in reorganizing the administration, in pacifying the revolted provinces, in relieving the distresses of the army and repairing the treasury, his colleague, Sièyes, was engaged with the details of the new Constitution. This philosoph ical statesman, directed all the energies of his powerful mind to reconcile the republican and monarchical principles, and to combine the best of each in his new Constitution. He had taken infinite precautions against the ascendency on the one hand, of demagogues, and on the other, of monarchists. Without stripping the nation of its influence in the government, he desired to leave it such powers as it could not abuse; the term Representative Government, conveys an exact idea of the notions then prevalent.

According to the project of Sièyes, every male person being a French subject, and having attained the age of

twenty-one years, had a title to be inscribed on a roll to be called the civic register. This list would then contain about six millions of names. The country was to be divided, first, into Departments. Each Department was resolved into subdivisions called arrondissements, and each arrondissement into smaller subdivisions, still called communes. The communes might be considered as corresponding in some measure, to the English parishes, the arrondissements to baronies, and the Departments to Counties. The six millions of electors inscribed upon the register, were intended to assemble in the respective arrondissements, and there to elect delegations composed of a tenth part of their number -a secondary list would thus be obtained, consisting of about six hundred thousand persons. These delegations, were again to assemble in their respective Departments, and to appoint delegations of a higher order, consisting of onetenth of their number. This last list, would then consist of sixty thousand citizens. These again assembling, after the same manner would make a last selection, and appoint the highest delegation consisting of a tenth of their number, which would thus reduce this highest class to the number of about six thousand. The first delegation, consisting of six hundred thousand persons, was to be called the Notables of the communes ; from these were to be elected the municipal bodies of the communes, the councils of the arrondissements, the mayors, sub-prefects, inferior judges, &c. The second list consisting of sixty thousand names, was called the Notables of the Departments; and from this list were to be selected departmental councils, prefects, judges of the courts of appeal, &c. The third and highest list consisting of six thousand names, constituted the Notables of the Nation, from which were to be selected the members of the Legislature, officers of state, ministers, superior judges, &c. Sièyes, borrowing a figure from mathematics, called this system the political pyramid; having for its wide base the six million of primary electors, and narrowing gradually, as it ascended, through the Notables of the communes, the Departments, and the Nation, and terminating Iwith the chief of the executive at its apex.

By this ingenious piece of social and political mechanism, Sièyes, proposed to

realize a favorite dogma of his, that con. fidence should ascend, originating below, and that power should descend, originating above. In conformity with this maxim, all elections originated, as we have seen, from the people; delegation being chosen above delegation, but all deriving originally, though remotely, their authority from the first election of the Notables of the communes, by the entire nation inscribed upon the civic register.

The deliberative powers of the State, consisted principally of four bodies to be called the Legislative Body, the Tribunate, the Council of State, and the Conservative Senate. The Tribunate, consisting of a hundred members, was the incorporation and representative of the popular or liberal principles in the government; it was to discuss publicly all projects of law, and to possess the right of voting whether their adoption or rejection should be recommended to the Legislative Body. In accordance with its decision, it was to appoint three of its own members to support or oppose such projects before the Legislative, as the case might be.

The Legislative Body, consisting of three hundred members, was to hear the laws discussed by the deputation from the Tribunate, but was excluded from debating them and passed or rejected them by a silent vote.

In

The Council of State was to present the projects of law to the Legislative Body, by a deputation of three of its members, who were to debate these propositions with the deputation from the Tribunate, before the Legislative. The vote of the latter body was that alone which conferred the character and authority of law upon the propositions thus brought before it, and discussed at its bar by the deputations from the Tribunate and the Council of State. this curious design, it is evidently contemplated that the seat of opposition should be in the Tribunate; but the violence of party collision is ingeniously guarded against, by limiting the debate between the government and the opposition to three members, deputed from each, and by fixing the place of that debate to the Legislative chamber, the character of which would operate as a guarantee for the observance of moderation and decorum.

Above these three bodies was placed the Conservative Senate, which was to consist of a hundred members. This