Napoleon's Correspondence.

It was a labor of love by the late Duke of Wellington to publish his illustrious father's despatches, and he issued almost a score of large volumes, at a heavy loss. One Noble Earl, however, is said to have found in them his sole reading. He was like the classic devotee, who said that if you read Homer once, Homer would be all the books you need.

Napoleon left a prodigious mass of correspondence. Napoleon III. decided on having it published, and Prince Napoleon, Plon Plon, was the head of a commission which waded through it. Twenty volumes were published, embodying 24,000 despatches page 18 and a number of private ones were left out. The Hon. Captain Bingham has lately published an English translation, very much compressed, for the general reader.

In surveying this large field, we select the department most congenial to our taste, and the temper of the time—Napoleon's military correspondence. We would take the opportunity to write of some of the generals who figure in his letters. These are made piquant by his unreasonable, impatient, and exacting disposition.

The most eminent French Revolutionary Generals, Moreau, Pichegru, Hoche, Marceau, Dumouriez, were moved, by Fate, out of Napoleon's road. Bonaparte soon discerned the peculiar qualities of Berthier, who became his Chief of Staff, and is prominent in the correspondence. He was of no use as a commander. In that capacity, Massena is recognised as the best who served under Napoleon, and was styled the Spoiled Child of Fortune. Wellington placed him next to Napoleon. Massena undertook his campaign in Spain with the greatest unwillingness.

Murat bulks considerably in the letters of Napoleon, of whom he was the brother-in-law. Murat and Ney, "the bravest of the brave," a pair of Scobeleffs, bore the highest reputation of any for courage. As leader of the cavalry, Murat was the Sheridan of the armies, Kellermann the younger, Nansouty, and Milhaud were his principal henchmen. Ney is credited with having participated in a hundred engagements, and habitually ran himself into danger. Yet he was never seriously wounded.

In his first great Italian campaign, Napoleon was mainly assisted by Massena and Augereau. The last-named was a Red Republican, like Jourdain and Lannes. They did not refuse the titles which accompanied Marshals' batons. In Napoleon's Egyptian successes, his right hand men were Kléber and Desaix. At Marengo, the battle was said to have been won by Kellermann's cavalry charge.

Soult bore off the honors at Austerlitz, and Davoust at Jena, by the correlative and all important victory of Auerstadt. Marmont, Macdonald, Bessiéres, and Oudinot, came much forward at this period. Ney had the strike at Friedland, and Macdonald at Wagram. Marshal Clarke, like Berthier, obtained the baton for administrative qualities.

Among the first generals employed by Napoleon in Spain was Junot, who had been a sergeant under him at Toulon. English soldiers have been called Lions led by Asses. Wellington had a very low opinion of his officers, as compared with the French, who were brimful of intelligence. His subordinates came from the aristocracy. Hill, Beresford, Lynedoch, Picton, and Craufurd, were fine soldiers, but the Iron Duke would willingly have exchanged his regimental officers for Frenchmen of the stamp of page 19 Victor, Lannes, and the other distinguished French marshals who rose from the ranks. Even in the present day it is assumed that the English private soldier is not possessed of the innate qualities which would enable him to become a Wolseley, Roberts, Stewart, or Graham. Why not? But the English Revolution will place the Marshal's baton in the private's knapsack. It would be strange, indeed, if there is such an essential difference between the French and English temperaments that, while natural military gifts are equally spread over Frenchmen, they are confined, among Englishmen, to a narrow, privileged caste, and the millions below are clods.

The most remarkable career among Napoleon's Marshals was that of Bernadotte, who began as a common soldier, and ingrained Republican. He was brave as a lion, but sulky, and received many lashes from the pen of Napoleon. Yet he finished his life as King of Sweden!

Cæsar knew every one of his common soldiers, and Napoleon had many a time weighed anxiously in the balance every one of his generals. The first blow he received, by the loss of an eminent one, was in the assassination of Kléber, whom he had left in charge of the army in Egypt on his surreptitious departure. Kléber was stabbed by a native, as Lord Mayo was in India. Kléber's fate would be somewhat like that of Gordon.

Next came the loss of Napoleon's favourite, Desaix, who fell at Marengo. Desaix had much of the Gordon about him. He was worshipped by the Egyptian fellahs, for his nobility of character and generosity.

Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, and Friedland, passed over without the loss of an eminent French leader. Lannes then succumbed, with the loss of both legs, just as Moreau was killed afterwards, when directing the allied forces against Napoleon. Napoleon was profoundly grieved by the death, in action, of Duroc, and almost at the same time came that of another favourite, Marshal Bessières.

Berthier mysteriously died through a fall from an upstairs window. Junot went out of his mind. The charmed lives of Ney and Murat ended violently, though not in battle. Ney was coolly shot by a file of French soldiers, for his treachery to Louis XVIII., when he said he would bring Napoleon in an iron cage, like Bajazet before Tamerlane. Murat was shot by Neapolitans,-as he landed to reclaim his kingdom of Naples.

The wrench to the loyalty of the French Marshals was when Napoleon came back from Elba. Masséna was in charge of Marseilles, and candidly told the Emperor afterwards that it would not have done for him to go that way. Macdonald remained firm to the Bourbons, although he had to gallop away alone from his troops, who were in Napoleon's path. Davoust was made page 20 Minister of War, by the restored Emperor. Grouchy, one of the new school, spoilt Waterloo. Soult was the double-distilled tergiversator. Nevertheless, he flourished in prosperity and riches up to the edge of the present generation. Poetic justice is very capricious.