that of scorn and derision. The people in the provinces suppose, that these official publications are made to amuse the badauds of Paris, whilst the badauds ingeniously retort the witticism by supposing that they are written for the " gens de campagne."

This reminds us of a circumstance which every body who has been in France since the revolution must have perceived. The sapient speeches of all our great men of talents which prognosticate ruin and dismay to poor old England are carefully translated into the Moniteur, and ordered to be inserted in full length in all the papers of the departments. Nothing is forgotten; not even the forebodings of woe and wise conjectures of the newspapers.

Now, what is the effect produced on the people of France by these philippics of the opposition? Precisely the same as those which are produced by the exposés of Bonaparte. The Parisians assert that pour berner les badauds de Paris, il les fait croire que les Anglais sont à deux doigts de leur perte:" whilst the badauds suppose that they are written in Par.s; " pour la consolation des gens de campagne et les faire croire, que ces pauvres Anglais sont ruinés aussi; afin qu'ils puissent payer les contributions, et envoyer leurs enfans à la guerre avec plus de plaisir."

The government however continues to publish exposés, and the people of all ranks still affect to give credit to them. In short, as M. Faber well observes, "the remembrance of the painful privations they have undergone makes them shudder. It is tranquillity they want; and if ever the nations of the world were summoned to make themselves happy by means of revolutions, the French would be the last to rise." (r. 12.)

We shall now proceed to the examination of Mr. Faber's second chapter, on the civil administration of France; which, besides the management of the police, is occupied only in replenishing the coffers of government and recruiting the army.

We must, however, begin by giving our readers an idea of the immense size, as it were, of the instrument by which this department of government is carried on, which we do not recollect that Mr. Faber has attempted. The number of persons employed in the administration exceeds all credibility to an English reader. There are 50,000 employed in the administration in Paris; one minister alone has 1000 clerks; another receives about 2000 letters, memoirs, petitions, and projects a day. There are many of Bonaparte's sea-ports in which there are more commis than sailors; and the administration and public funetionaries, which fill every French town, are in the same extravagant proportion.

VOL. II. NO. III.

M

The principle upon which this plague of locusts acts, is is " to demand but never to grant; to take but never to give. This is the whole account of the administration.” "The results of statements collected in various communes and departments prove, that out of 240 circulars sent annually to the civil authorities, government prescribe exertions or sacrifices in money and interest; twenty contain refusals returned to petitions, and the rest merely relate to administrative regulations. The proportion is nearly the same in all the administrations.” (P. 13.)

These paragraphs are a picture, so exact, of the internal administration of France, that one might suppose they had been written by some ex-minister of the interior. The author adds the substance of the instructions that are circulated in the departments. They are extremely curious from the difference between the real motives given to the confidential servants of government, and the avowed motives set forth in the exposés to the people.

"His majesty, M. le Prefect," thus the circulars conclude, "relies upon the zeal which you will display in this business, in order to prove your devotion to his person, and your attachment to the interests of the throne."

The prefects amplify these models; the sous-prefets am plify the amplification of the prefects; each mayor that of his sous-prefet. A few years ago the formula was, "liberty and equality; the public welfare; and the happiness of the people. That is now replaced by the favour of his imperial and royal Majesty, the interests of his crown, and the splendor of the throne."

Thus the government dictates every thing; the prefect and sous-prefets are but mere copying machines: " a day labourer might execute the offices. It is a machine that moves only by the continual impulse that is given it. If there were no circulars it would stand still; those who order think only of the wants of the moment ; those who execute dare not look further.” (P. 16.)

In short, every officer of the government, from the prefect to the lowest commissary, is a blind instrument in the hands of the usurper, and every possible precaution is taken to make him continue so. It occurred to the mind of Bonaparte, that a prefect, if he remained long enough in a department to become really acquainted with its state, and to form connections among the natives, might have the sternness of his character and the severity of his conduct mitigated by the impulses of feeling or the motives of private interest. The tyrant has therefore secured this avenue of good to his subjects by a double guard. In the first place,

he has annexed a very high salary to the office to make it worth the notice and acceptance of his generals, and peculiar favourites; men totally unacquainted and often exhibiting the most ludicrous instances of their ignorance in civil affairs,

"Some of them, conscious of their incapacity, were disposed to make amends for it by doing every thing. One of their number undertook to pronounce sentence of death on persons against whom he had received complaints, and it was difficult to make him understand the articles of the constitution concerning the division of powers' of which he had never before heard. Another assumed the right of cashiering any public functionary of his department who happened to be obnoxious to him, whether judge, receiver, or other officer. A third, by way of rewarding the valour of a regiment of the line, that was passing through his residence, distributed oaken crowns, and cravats, which were fastened to the colours; not supposing that the regiment, when two hundred paces from the town, would throw away the gift, and laugh at the dispenser of national recompenses. A fourth having published the Concordat, thought himself entitled to make priests and bishops. Others, ignorant of their duties and the limits of their power, endeavoured to interfere with the collectors of the revenue; but the financial department is the bow of Ulysses, which cannot be touched with impunity." (P. 18.)

Then, to prevent any chance of these excellent deputies becoming better acquainted with the interests of their departments, it is become a favourite principle with Bonaparte to expatriate them, les depayser, as the phrase is,-never to place them over the departments in which they were born or are connected; or to permit them to remain long in the same department: the prefect, therefore, never attempts to acquire local knowledge; he considers his residence as a transient visit; leaves all his business to his secretaries; or at least only attends to the circulars; that is, he does every thing for the government and nothing for the country.

A stronger proof than this can hardly be adduced of the dark and atrabilious nature of the tyrant's mind, and of the deeprooted habits of suspicion with which he is accustomed to contemplate all mankind. In illustration of this fixed principle of his soul, we will lay before our readers an anecdote well known at Paris.

Laclos, the author of a well known novel, worthy of the rank it holds in a land of the grossest epicurean debasement, pos sessed a very high reputation in Paris for general talents and the powers of conversation. About a year after the 18th Brumaire, Bonaparte sent for him to the Thuilleries. The conversation ran

on a great variety of subjects, and as Laclos related it, was extremely curious. After they had gone through the sciences, moral and physical, Laclos insisted, for he played the part of an ardent republican, on the moral advantages that liberty procured to man in ameliorating his nature, in answer to Bonaparte, who maintained, that liberty was incompatible with the French character. Laclos replied, "that his countrymen, even were they more frivolous and immoral than they are, would be changed by education and good institutions.", "Try the experiment, you have the power, and you will find the French people as ductile in your hands as clay in those of the potter." "Croyez-moi, citoyen Consul, les hommes, et les Français surtout sont des hommes avec des excellentes qualités; qu'ils seront faconnés au bien aussi facilement q'au mal." The Consul rose up in his usual hurried manner, replying in these words: “ Ah bah! Les hommes! Ne me parlez pas des hommes; c'est un méchant espece que l'homme; les Français surtout; vous le savez mieux qu'un autre. Jamais un Français ne m'a abordé sans me demander quelque chose. L'intéret, le plus vil intéret est la mobile de toutes leurs actions." He sat down and changed the subject: they talked on the administration, but Laclos found him at that time a mere novice in that science.

The "depaysement" of the prefects is nothing more than the natural consequence of this disposition, not uncommon with the cynic. But to what shall we ascribe another regulation respecting them, which adds insult to injury, and holds out to the people the parade of inquiry and relief, terminating only in additional oppression? To what but to that peculiarly diabolical feature in the tyrant's character, confirmed by every day's experience, which delights in extorting from his victims hypocritical expressions of zeal and gratitude, refining thus upon the cruelty exercised upon their persons by extending it to the degradation of their minds? Conscious himself that he has forfeited all pretension to moral principle, or even to worldly honour, his reprobate mind can never rest till it has brought all mankind to the level of its own turpitude. To some such sentiments can we alone ascribe the obvious absurdity of obliging these puppets annually to make the tour of their department under pretence of making themselves acquainted with its condition. The actual result of these visits is of course just what might be expected. The prefect not being permitted to relieve the distress he might observe even were he so inclined, passes rapidly from town to town, where the mayor, at the expense of the commune, entertains him in his

house; and the journey completed, the official newspaper of the department is authorized to vary its dull pages with an account of the guards of honour, speeches, dinners, and even illuminations with which the people have been obliged to greet the satellite of their tyrant. No lounger travels with more velocity. to Brighton or Bath, than Bonaparte's functionaries gallop from post to post; they never stop but to sumptuous dinners, fireworks, balls, and fêtes. The prefect and his wife, for madame is always of the party, return from their tour just as ignorant as they sat out. The journey costs nothing, for all their expenses are defrayed by the communes through which they pass. makes his reports to the minister of the interior, that the roads want mending, and that cominerce is rather dull; to the "ministre des cultes," that so many churches want priests; to the minister of police, that every thing is very quiet; to the minister of war, that he can let him have so many conscripts the ensuing year-and to Bonaparte, "des phrases."

He

He finds every thing in good order at the "chef lieu," for the French towns are very orderly; so are church-yards, and nearly for the same reason.

The indirect profits of the prefects are paltry, unless they will run greater risks than prudent men would be disposed to do; for "the system of self, established by the government, is so exclusive, that it does not suffer in others what it allows itself;" they are therefore reduced to the following expedients.

"They contrive to economise in the offices; for instance, a prefect who is allowed by government 10,000 franks, for clerks and stationary, spends but 3000, and puts the remainder into his own pocket; he makes two clerks do the business of five; he employs his sons, cousins, and relations. He likewise saves upon his circuits by the gratuitous lodging and entertainment provided for him. So that instead of the 3000 francs charged to the state, he spends but one third of that sum. Instances have been seen of prefects, who have carried their speculations to such a length as to make a profit even upon their furniture provided for the purpose of receiving Bonaparte; to take pay from the proprietors of gaming-houses, or even to be partners in such establishments. Others have been known to influence the sales of national domains over which they officially preside, and thus to acquire fortunes in a very short time. These instances have indeed been rare, and are exceptions to the general rule." (P. 23-4.)

The sub-prefects, mayors, and other subordinate instruments, are mere clerks; the former receive the circulars from the prefects, and forward them to the mayors of each canton. Their