fall short of the reality. I have reported the truth-the whole truth. 1 assisted at all the debates-at all the conferences at all the deliberations. I had, of course, no deliberative voice; but I owe it to verity to declare that, had I possessed a right of voting, my vote for death would have been affirmative. The result of the deliberations, and the circumstances of our army, would have constrained me to this opinion. War unfortunately offers instances by no means rare, in which an immutable law of all times, and common to all nations, has decreed that private interests shall be sacrificed to one paramount public good, and humanity itself be for gotten. It is for posterity to judge whether such was the terrible position of Buonaparte. I, on my part, have an intimate conviction of the fact; moreover, it was by the advice of the council of officers, whose opinion finally became unanimous, that the matter was decided. I owe it also to truth to state, that he yielded only at the last extremity, and was, perhaps, one of those who witnessed the massacre with the greatest sorrow. Vol. I. pp. 154-158.

-

On Napoleon declaring he would cause every thing to be destroyed, to the very entrance of the desert, thus rendering the march of an army impossible, for two years to come," Bourrienne remarks, "This avowal, depending not upon contingencies, but upon his own will, filled me with sorrow. I could not dwell upon the thought of the premeditated devas tation, pillage, and burning of fifty leagues of country! Sad consequences of war."-P. 166.

The troops quitted Acre on the 20th of May, when Buonaparte issued a proclamation which insults truth from one end to the other. We took our departure at night, in order to avoid a sortie from the besieged, and to place the army, having three leagues of flat to traverse, beyond range of the English gun-boats and vessels of

or

war, in the bay of Mount Carmel, The removal of the wounded and sick had commenced two days before. Thus terminated this disastrous expedition. But a fearful journey was yet before us. Some of the wounded were carried on litters, and the rest on camels and mules. A devouring thirst, the total want of water, an excessive heat, a fatiguing march among scorching sand-hills, demoralised the men; a most cruel selfishness, the most unfeeling indifference, took place of every generous humane sentiment. I have seen thrown from the litters officers with amputated limbs, whose transport had been ordered, and who had themselves given money as a recompense for the fatigue. I have beheld abandoned, among the wheat fields, soldiers who had lost their limbs, wounded and plague patients, or those supposed to be such. Our march was lit up by torches, kindled for the purpose of setting on fire towns, villages, hamlets, and the rich crops with which the earth was covered. The whole country was in flames. It seemed as if we sought a solace, in this extent of mischief, for our own reverses and sufferings. We were surrounded only by the dying, by plunderers, by incendiaries. Wretched beings, at the point of death, thrown by the way side, continued to call with feeble voice, "I have not the plague; I am but wounded;" and, to convince those that passed, they might be seen tearing up their real wounds, or inflicting new ones. Nobody believed them. It was the interest of all not to believe. Comrades would say, "He is done for now; his march is over:" then pass on, look to themselves, and feel satisfied. The sun in all his splendour, under that beautiful sky, was obscured by the smoke of continual conflagration. We had the sea on our right; on our left, and behind us, lay the desert which we made; before were the sufferings and privations

that awaited us. Such was our real position.-Vol. I. pp. 167, 168.

We returned to Jaffa on the 24th of May, and remained there till the 29th. This city, but lately the scene of a terrible necessity, was once more to behold the same necessity of commanding death. Here have I a rigorous duty to fulfil. I shall fulfil it, and will declare what I know, what I saw. Some tents were erected on a little eminence, near the gardens which surround Jaffa on the east. The order was The order was secretly given to blow up the fortifications; and, on the 27th, upon the signal appointed, we suddenly beheld the town uncovered. An hour afterwards, the General, at tended by Berthier, with several physicians and surgeons, and the ordinary staff, entered his tent. I accompanied him. A long and melancholy deliberation ensued, respecting the probable fate of those incurably sick of the plague, and their term of life. After the most conscientious discussion, it was decided to anticipate, by a potion, an inevitable death, which must take place a few hours later, but under circumstances more grievous and painful.

Buonaparte rapidly traversed the fallen ramparts of the little city, and entered the hospital. There were here some with amputations, some wounded, many soldiers afflicted with ophthalmia, uttering lamentable cries, and the plague patients..

There were barely sixty plague patients. Whatever has been said of numbers above this is exaggeration. Their total silence, their complete exhaustion, or universal languor, announced their approaching end. To carry them out in that state was evidently to inoculate the army with the pestilence. All the various theories and accounts of this event, of which I am by no means ignorant, are fabrications or falsehoods. The fact ought to be frankly avowed, proving at the same time, its indis

pensable, though painful necessity. For my part, I declare what I believed then to be true-what I believe now to be true. I cannot say that I saw the potion administered,I should tell an untruth. I am unable, therefore, to name any person without hazarding something incorrect. But I know quite positively that such determination was taken, and ought to have been taken after deliberating. That the order, in consequence of this determination, was given, and that the plague patients died, are facts which I guarantee for the discovery of the truth.-Pp. 169-171.

Battle of MONTEBELLO, May 13, 1800.-In concentrating towards the Scrivia, we passed through Montebello, and beheld the scene of conflict between Lannes and the Austrians on the 9th. The churches were still full of wounded, and the traces of death, which every where presented themselves, testified but too clearly how well this bloody victory had been disputed. The combat had been terrible. In conversing some days after with Callot and Lannes uttered these remarkable words, which I might well remember," Bones crashed in my division like hail-stones against_windows."Vol. II. p. 18.

me,

Bourienne thus characterises wars of invasion:

Wars of horror, in which, spite of all discipline, the people are trodden to the dust, and which hoard up hate, the effects of which become terrible on the first change of fortune.Vol. III. p. 88.

During the early months of 1807, my occupations in Hamburg, as respected the affairs of my diplomatic circle, gave me more trouble than ever. The genius which can wield the whole energies of warfare; may have charms upon the field of battle: a rapid movement, im pressed by a single will upon vast masses of living men, may dazzle the

fortifications. At the same time, General Bertrand was employed in constructing a bridge, uniting Hamburg and Haarburg, by joining the islands of the Elbe to the Continent, a distance of six miles. This bridge was constructed of wood, taken by force from all the timber yards, and bestrided a water-way of 5,058 yards, exclusive of the lines of communication across the two islands. Many millions would not replace the houses thrown down to complete the fortifications, and to uncover the approaches of the enemy. All this was effected at incalculable loss to the inhabitants. From the immense stores heaped up in the place, the garrison was plentifully supplied, while provisions in the town were to be obtained with much difficulty, in very small quantities, and for exorbitant prices. All horses, without exception, were seized for the artillery; the best were selected, the others were slaughtered in the streets, and the flesh distributed to the soldiers. The inhabitants, pressed by famine, bought the hides at a dear rate. The garrison was composed of French, Italians, and Dutch. And when the place was evacuated, in May, 1814, these were found reduced to a moiety. The process of demolition in levelling the outer defences, was so complete, that even the tombs and vaults were thrown down. Nei ther the living nor the dead were spared; for, in executing their work of destruction, the soldiers might be seen wrenching off the silver plates from the coffins, and even breaking them up, in order to get at the rich stuffs in which it is there customary to wrap the deceased. In this rage for plunder, the exhalations of putridity were braved, which doubtless exasperated, perhaps had occasioned, the pestilence that afterwards broke

out.

To these acts of barbarity succeeded a most strict blockade, formed by the troops of Russia and Sweden, and all external communi

cation was cut off. In one of the first sorties, General Vandamme, and a considerable number of men, were uselessly sacrificed. In the month of December, provisions began to fail in the place, and all useless mouths were turned out, under every aggravation of cruelty. On the 18th, one of those proclamations of expulsion was issued, for departure in forty-eight hours, under pain of destruction of the houses; the commandant of the gendarmerie having it in charge, to inflict on the recusants, fifty strokes of the bastinado before expelling them. But there are ways of dealing with the gendarmerie, the bastinado was remitted for a sum of money,—and in the case of females, scourging was substituted! But such is the tie that binds us to our natal soil, that still the wretched inhabitants clung to their hearths; and a new order of the 25th became necessary, which declared that, out of compassion, twenty-four hours longer were granted, after which, all found within the city, who could not contribute to the defence, should be considered as in league with the enemy, and consequently liable to be delivered to the Prevotal court and shot. This was not enough: lingerers were still found; and, in one of the last nights of December, all who fell under the proscription, without distinction of age or sex, sickness or health, were torn from their beds, and, during an intense frost, carried beyond the walls. By a refinement of eruelty, the escort was composed of citizens. In the course of the night, many aged persons perished. To misery, the most deadly insults were added. All these evils were increased to an incredible degree of desperation, by the avarice and barbarism of Davoust's favourite agents. Meanwhile, filth and putrescence accumulated every where:-the streets were encumbered with the carcasses of slaughtered horses :-the Alster,

and its lake, poisoned by every species of uncleanness which there was no longer means of transporting beyond the city, sent forth deadly exhalations. As the season advanced, epidemic and febrile complaints were converted into pestilence. From sixty to eighty died daily in the hospitals, of which no care was taken. And on the bastions, on the ramparts, and in the highways, the dead were flung into the trenches, rather than buried, so that the living could not make a step without treading on the remains of their relations or friends. All pecuniary resources being at length exhausted, the poor remains of the bank were seized, amounting to about eight millions of marks, (600,000%.) and thus, while Hamburg, so lately rich and hospitable, was completely ruined, the shock was extended to distant places. Through all these persecutions, that city had been an unresisting sacrifice. Like Jerusalem, whence it is said, during the siege by Titus, the sound of lamentation was heard in the night, Hamburg could only bewail in secret. -P. 277.

*

The

1814. April 2. Paris. wrecks of the army assembled at Fontainbleau, the remains of a million of men, levied within fifteen months, comprising the corps of the Duke of Reggio, (Oudinot,) Ney, Macdonald, and General Gerard, did not exceed twenty-five thousand men. To these were to be added seven thousand yet surviving of the guard.-P. 325.

* It is dreadful to think of such enormities and sufferings during the space of their continuance; but it is, perhaps, even more fearful to think of their future consequences. While walking on one of the magnificent promenades which have replaced the astonishing mounds of Davoust, a magistrate of Hamburg informed me, it was the general opinion, that the crimes and calamities of the siege had wrought an

injurious effect on the morals of the place,

from which they had not yet, nor would they soon, recover a healthy tone.-TRANSLATOR.

On the National Crime of Pri-
vateering.

[From the Christian Observer.] THERE are some sins which have the character of causing guilt, even though they should never happen to be committed. A man may never fight a duel, and yet, if he cherish a purpose of fighting one should the provocation to the crime arise, in the sight of God he lives under the habitual guilt of being a duellist. A man who sets out in the morning to rob his neighbour, is a thief throughout the day, though he should have no opportunity of committing the intended offence. It is not necessary to adjust the comparative moral turpitude of a cherished mental crime not completed, with that of a crime completed but not premeditated. In the eye of the law, a man who slays his neighbour at the moment of provocation is punished (though less heavily than if he had done so of malice aforethought); whereas the deliberate murderer in heart cannot be punished at all till he attempts to commit the crime, or at least by some overt act exhibits what he is planning in his bosom. But in the eye of God, who is omniscient, the mental offence indulged, but not perpetrated, may be a much heavier sin than the sudden transgression perpetrated but not premeditated. Indeed, as just observed, even human laws make this distinction, so far as their power of inquisition extends, as in the case of murder and manslaughter; but, for want of being able to scrutinize the heart, their decision is of necessity very imperfect.

This reasoning applies from individuals to nations. There may be an habitual national sin, where there is no actual transgression. It is some years since the unjust and cruel system of impressment was put in force has been no temptation to it; but it in Great Britain, simply because there is not legally renounced, and a tacit