secting the Sardinian and Austrian armies, because from that position Lombardy and Piedmont were both menaced. It was as practicable to march on Milan as on Turin. The Piedmontese were interested in covering Turin, and the Austrians in defending Milan. The French army of Italy was about 30,000 strong, whilst more than 90,000 men were opposed to them. The character of the French troops was excellent; but their cavalry was wretchedly mounted, and they were equally inferior in artillery. There were no means of transporting stores of any kind from the arsenals: all the draught-horses had perished for want. The penury of the French finances was so great, that all the efforts of Government could only furnish 2000 louis in specie to the military chest. An order was issued for all the general officers to receive four louis a-piece. The supply of bread was uncertain; that of meat had long ceased. For means of conveyance, there remained only two hundred mules. It was impossible to think of transporting above twelve pieces of cannon. Bonaparte put the army in motion with the following address to them: "Soldiers! you are naked, ill-fed-much is due to us: there is nothing to pay us with. The patience and courage you have shewn in the midst of these rocks are admirable-but they win you no glory. I come to lead you into the most fertile plains in the world: rich provinces, great cities, will be in your power. There you will have wealth, honour, and glory. Soldiers of Italy, can your courage fail?" These words were addressed to his troops on the 29th of March. On the 28th of April he was within a day's march of Turin; had subdued the Sardinian government, and could thus address his troops." You have in fifteen days gained six victories, taken twenty-one stand of colours, fifty-five pieces of cannon, and conquered the richest parts of Piedmont. Your services are equal to those of the Army of Holland and the Rhine. You were in want of every thing, but you have provided every thing. You have gained battles without cannon-passed rivers without bridges-made forced marches without shoes-bivouacked without brandy, and often without bread. None but Republican phalanxes could have done so. For this you have the thanks of your country." On the immediately succeeding operations of the French under Bonaparte in Italy, Las Cases is only able to give us the fragments of a chapter. For immediate information on the subject of the Italian campaign of 1797, we refer the reader to that part of the Memoirs which is entitled Vol. I. of the Historical Miscellanies dictated to Count Montholon.. Napoleon, according to Las Cases, declared, that he had returned from the campaigns of Italy with but 300,000 francs in his possession. "I might have easily," he said, "carried off ten or twelve millions. I expected on my return to receive some great national reward. Chambord was to have been given me, but the Directory set aside the idea. I had, however, transmitted to France at least fifty millions of francs for the service of the State."

The Expedition to Egypt is fully treated of in the first volume of Napoleon's Historical Miscellanies. Las Cases also enters upon the subject, and, we think, completely sets at rest the question about Napoleon's having either poisoned, or proposed to poison, the sick at Jaffa.

"The most absurd details, the most improbable circumstances, the most ridiculous episodes were invented, to give a colouring to this first falsehood. The story was circulated through Europe; malevolence seized it, and exaggerated its enormity; it was published in every newspaper; recorded in every book; and thenceforward was looked upon as an established fact:indignation was at its height, and clamour universal. It would have been vain to reason, or to attempt to stem the torrent, or to shew that no proofs of the fact had been adduced, and that the story contradicted itself. It would have been vain to bring forward opposite and incontrovertible evidence-the evidence of those very medical men who were said to have administered, or to have refused to administer, the poison. It would have been vain to expose the unreasonableness of accusing of inhumanity the man, who, but a short time before, had immortalized the hospitals of Jaffa by an act of the sublimest heroism; risking his own safety by solemnly touching the troops infected with the plague, to deceive and soothe the imaginations of the sick men. In vain might it have been urged that the idea of such a crime could not be affixed on him, who, when consulted by the medical officers as to the expediency of burning or merely washing the clothes worn by the invalids, and being reminded of the enormous loss attendant on the former measure, replied :—' Gentlemen, I came here to fix the attention and to recall the interests of Europe to the centre of the ancient world, and not with the view of amassing wealth.' In vain would it have been shewn that there conld be no object, no motive whatever for this supposed crime. Had the French General any reason to suspect a design for corrupting his invalids and converting them into reinforcements against himself? Did he hope that this barbarous act would completely rid him of the infection? He might have effected that object equally well by leaving his invalids to be overtaken by the enemy's troops, which would moreover have been the means of spreading the contagion among the latter. It would have been vain to shew that an unfeeling and selfish chief might have freed himself from all embarrassment by merely leaving the unfortunate men behind him: they would have been massacred, it is true; but no one would ever have thought of addressing a reproach to

him.

"These and every other argument would have been vain and useless, so powerful and infallible are the effects of falsehood and declamation when the passions of mankind are interested in their propagation. The imaginary crime was repeated by every mouth, was engraven on every heart, and to the common mass of mankind it will, perhaps, for ever continue a positive and incontrovertible fact.

"A circumstance, which will not a little surprise those who have yet to learn how little credit is due to public report, and which will also serve to shew the errors that may creep into history, is that Marshal Bertrand, who was himself with the army in Egypt, (though certainly in a rank which did not enable him to come into immediate contact with the General-in-chief) firmly believed, up to the period of his residence at St. Helena, the story of poison having been administered to sixty invalids. The report was circulated and believed even in our army; therefore, what answer could be given to those who triumphantly asserted, 'It is a fact, I assure you, I have it from officers who served in the French army at the time'? Nevertheless, the whole story is false. I have collected the following facts from the highest source, from the mouth of Napoleon himself.

"1st. That the invalids in question who were infected with the plague, amounted, according to the report made to the General-in-chief, only to seven in number.

"2d. That it was not the General-in-chief, but a professional man, who, at the moment of the crisis, proposed the administering of opium.

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3d. That opium was not administered to a single individual.

4th. That the retreat having been effected slowly, a rear-guard was left behind in Jaffa for three days.

"5th. That on the departure of the rear-guard, the invalids were all dead, except one or two, who must have fallen into the hands of the English.

N. B. Since my return to Paris, having had opportunities of conversing with those whose situation and profession naturally rendered them the first actors in the scene-those whose testimony must be considered as official and authentic, I have had the curiosity to enquire into the most minute details, and the following is the result of my enquiries:

"The invalids under the care of the Surgeon-in-chief, that is to say, the wounded, were all, without exception, removed, with the help of the horses belonging to the staff, not excepting even those of the General-in-chief, who proceeded for a considerable distance on foot, like the rest of the army. These, therefore, are quite out of the question.

"With regard to the rest of the invalids, about twenty in number, who were under the care of the Physician-in chief, and who were in an absolutely desperate condition, totally unfit to be removed, while the enemy was advancing, it is very true that Napoleon asked the Physician-in-chief whether it would not be an act of humanity to administer opium to them. It is also true that the physician replied, his business was to cure, and not to kill; an answer which, as it seems to have reference to an order rather than to a subject of discussion, has, perhaps, furnished a basis on which slander and falsehood might invent and propagate the fabrication which has since been circulated on this subject.

"Finally, the details which I have been able to collect, afford me the following incontestable results :

"Ist. That no order was given for the administering of opium to the sick.

"2d. That there was not at the period in question, in the medicine chest of the army, a single grain of opium for the use of the sick.

"3d. That even had the order been given, and had there been a supply of opium, temporary and local circumstances, which it would be tedious to enumerate here, would have rendered its execution impossible.

"The following circumstances have probably helped to occasion, and may, perhaps, in some degree excuse, the mistake of those who have obstinately maintained the truth of the contrary facts. Some of our wounded men, who had been put on board ship, fell into the hands of the English. We had been short of medicines of all kinds in the camp, and we had supplied the deficiency by compositions formed from indigenous trees and plants. The ptisans and other medicines had a horrible taste and appearance. The prisoners, either for the purpose of exciting pity, or from having heard of the opium story, which the nature of the medicines might incline them to believe, told the English that they had miraculously escaped death, having had poison administered to them by their medical officers.' So much for the invalids under the care of the Surgeon-in-chief.

"Now for the others. The army unfortunately had, as Apothecary-inchief, a wretch who had been allowed the use of five camels to convey from Cairo the quantity of medicines necessary for the expedition. This man was base enough to supply himself on his own account, instead of medicines, with sugar, coffee, wine, and other provisions, which he afterwards sold at an enormous profit. On the discovery of the fraud, the indignation of the General-inchief was without bounds, and the offender was condemned to be shot; but all the medical officers, who were so distinguished for their courage, and whose attentive care had rendered them so dear to the army, implored his pardon, alleging that the honour of the whole body would be compromised by his punishment; and thus the culprit escaped. Some time after, when the English took possession of Cairo, this man joined them, and made common cause with them; but, having attempted to renew some of his old offences, he was condemned to be hanged, and again escaped by slandering the General-in-chief Bonaparte, of whom he invented a multitude of horrible stories, and by representing himself as the identical person who had, by the General's orders, ad

ministered opium to the soldiers infected with the plague. His pardon was the condition and the reward of his calumnies. This was doubtless the first souice whence the story was derived, by those who were not induced to propagate it from malevolent motives.

Time has, however, fully exposed this absurd calumny, as well as many others which have been applied in the same direction, and that with so great a rapidity, that, on revising my manuscript, I have been surprised at the importance I have attached to the refutation of a charge which no one would now dare to maintain. Still, I thought it best to preserve what I had written, as a testimony of the impression of the moment; and if I have now added some farther details, it is because they happened to lie within my reach, and I thought it important to record them as historical facts.'"

During Bonaparte's absence in Egypt, it is well known how much France missed his military genius, and with what rapturous acclamations he was hailed on his return. No one who recollected the sensation produced by his sudden appearance at Frejus, like a spirit welcomed from another world, could be surprised at the celerity and triumph of his subsequent career on his return from Elba. His resumption of power at the former period, was altogether the more wonderful event of the two. He was at the former period still a young man. France, no doubt, required a stronger and regenerated government; but still it required unparalleled boldness, and a popularity among a nation of thirty millions, which not more than one or two individuals have ever obtained in the whole history of the world, to seize on the helm of authority. Though France was divided by factions, yet she still had men of pre-eminent talents either at the head of powerful parties, or singly sufficient to have trampled down any ordinary usurper who should have dared to attempt suppressing party spirit. There was Roederer, eloquent and trusted for patriotism. There were Barras and Fouché, who had each great influence. There were, besides, a host of formidable politicians—— Talleyrand, who alone had sagacity to have guided a kingdom in ordinary circumstances. There were Moreau, Bernadotte, Augereau, and others of high military name; and there was Sieyes, the cunning and reserved, whose talents were so esteemed by Mirabeau, that in a debate on a great subject, he once declared the silence of Sieyes to be a national calamity. It is quite obvious, however, that all these men, who in other circumstances would have been primary combatants for supreme power, dimmed their ineffectual ray, and bowed their heads, to the influence of Bonaparte, from the moment it was supposed that a change in the government was to be expected. He met with them separately; he heard their proposals; he committed himself to none of them. If he could be said to join any thing like a party, it was that of Sieyes; but until the moment that he was ready to strike the blow of usurpation, he kept them all in suspense, till he called them together on the 18th Brumaire, and produced one of the most important revolutions recorded in history. His influence over those around him seemed equally electric and irresistible, whether it put in motion the metaphysics of Sieyes, or the drumsticks that beat the charge on the Council of Five Hundred.

Thus far our limits have permitted only to glance in a desultory manner at the events and characters which are illustrated in these Memoirs. For want of room we must defer our farther consideration of them to a subsequent Number.

BRITISH GALLERIES OF ᎪᎡᎢ .

NO. II.

The Marquis of Stafford's at Cleveland House.

- THE present paper will be devoted to the above inestimable collection, which forms, upon the whole, perhaps the richest private Gallery in Europe. On entering the handsome hall of Cleveland House, and mounting a short flight of stairs, we find ourselves in the midst of a noble suite of apartments, partly lighted from above, supported by columns, and in every respect admirably adapted for the purpose to which they are chiefly applied.

Before proceeding to notice the principal objects in detail, it may be not amiss to take a general glance at the different departments of this distinguished collection. The grand centre apartment (which is the first you enter) is entirely filled with works of the Italian school-chiefly by the Carracci and Raffaelle. At one end of this apartment, to the left of the entrance, is another large room containing four exquisite Claudes, a few portraits by Titian, and a rich treasury of smaller gems of the cabinet size, and chiefly of the Italian school. To the right of this room is a small ante-room, leading to another large apartment containing two splendid Titians, and a few other large Italian pictures. The small ante-room also contains a few which are among the most exquisite in the collection; particularly a Venus rising from the sea, by Titian. Passing to the opposite end of the centre gallery, we enter a small apartment containing a series of seven grand pictures by Nicolo Poussin, on scripture subjects; and then reach the Flemish department of this collection. There we find a grand Rubens, two almost unrivalled Teniers, Ostades in a rich abundance, some admirable sea-pieces by Vandervelde and Backhuysen, numerous exquisite landscapes by Cuyp, Both, Berghem, Wynants, Wouvermans, &c. some portraits by Rembrandt, and one of his inimitable cabinet works; in short, a choice and finished selection from the most admired masters of the Flemish and Dutch schools.

Let us now return to the Italian department; beginning our observations in the grand centre gallery-to me the chief point of attraction, if it were only in virtue of three pictures which it contains-I had almost said, one alone: I mean the Raffaelles. Numbers 9, 10, and 46, are, taken as a whole, and with reference to the manner in which they bear upon and illustrate each other, the most valuable and interesting specimens I have ever seen of the easel pictures of this master. The largest of them (No. 9) is a Holy Family, painted in his first manner, the outlines being somewhat dry and hard; but expression (which was the intuitive attribute of this divine painter, and the characteristic of all his works from the first moment that he became one) breathes from every part of this picture, and seems to emanate and stand out from it, like a halo. The mother, without being what is called beautiful, is a model of eloquent sweetness, and quiet majesty. Her profile is turned to the spectator, and she is holding (in her hand, not her arms) the infant Saviour, who is springing forward to take some flowers from the hand of Joseph. The child seems, as it were, to float on the air-being sup

* The numbers refer to corresponding ones attached to the pictures.