Page images
PDF
EPUB

who restores in order to consolidate it. To condemn the passions is not to forewarn us of their dangers: it is necessary to temper their ardour by reason, or by whatever will be always true, and not by that which aceidentally and for a certain time may be legitimate.

It is that which the life of the Duke of Otranto evinces. In one of those moments the most terrible which can happen to a great nation, where the ruin of the capital, where civil war, where all the horrors of terrorism and of a military dictatorship were about to arm despair itself, to hinder foreigners from approaching France; at this moment it was he whom the council of the administration of state, established by Bonaparte at the time of his abdication, and to which also Carnot belonged, placed at the head of the provisional government; a mark of confidence which alone would prove the merit of this statesman, even though it were not known,,

C

that during twenty-three years he remained firm amidst all the chances of the revolution, by his innate vigour.

Among the many accounts which have been published of his history, nothing positive will be found respecting his sentiments before he himself has spoken. The hatred of all parties has calumniated him; a circumstance which could not well be otherwise, as the Duke of Otranto, not being himself of any party, has never armed one of them against another, but has rather endeavoured to conciliate their minds.

He has experienced that which every man who, in the midst of the factions, acts with moderation, will experience. Like so many others, who have been at the mercy of a blind public, he may say

In moderation placing all my glory,

While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory. That which has been said respecting him in the Journals, has partly sprung from trou

bled and impure sources. The Moniteur itself, according to the will of different parties, was only their speaking trumpet. Those in power have there made every man of note speak and write in the way which seemed best to serve their interests.

Among the accounts of the Duke of Otranto there has appeared one of Vienna * which is not authentic, nor complete, nor verified: another exists which is not more so. † This exhibits the character of the Duke of Otranto such as it appears in history to the eyes of every impartial observer; but the author has not sufficiently marked the principal trait in the character of that statesman, that unshaken courage with which he has always spoken the truth to men in

* See No. 19, of the Nouvelliste Français, edited by Henry and Richard at Vienna: extract of a work: Souvenirs de ma Vie, par I ***.

See Deutsche Blätter, Neue Folge. Leipsig 1815. Vol III. Nos. 17. 18.

power moreover the author of that memoir has adduced only the testimony of the Moniteur, and every one knows that we ought not indiscriminately to give credit to the articles of that Journal, even to those which concern public acts. It is well known that the report of the chief judge Regnier, made to the government in the trial of Moreau for the pretended conspiracy in 1804 (17th February) is suppositious, as well as the proclamation of Kosciuzko addressed to the Poles in 1807, which was only a trick contrived by the government. Both the documents are in the Moniteur, and both are false.

The

editor who is also the translator of

* The sketch which we at present publish of the public life of the Duke of Otranto, is the first which deserves to obtain credit, for besides being supported by twelve original documents, which assuredly will deeply interest every statesman and friend of humanity, it elucidates everal points of the French revolution, which are not yet well known in Germany.

the justificatory documents has never had any relation with the Duke of Otranto: he does not know that celebrated man but by his high reputation; but he believes he knows the interests of history, which ought to enlighten posterity, the true judge of the present time.

« PreviousContinue »