Richmond Enquirer

[From Bell's London Messenger, of March 23.]

MANUSCRIPT FROM ST. HELENA.

As so much of the attention of the public during the last week has been directed towards this singular production and its reputed author, and as the manuscript appears to justify the importance assigned to it, we have deemed it our duty to give it a perusal. According to Mr. Warden (a self-sufficient writer, and a foolish one but an authentic one, as far as he himself appears to be the writer) Bonaparte was much occupied in writing, and the natural purpose of writing is to publish to be read. If Bonaparte, therefore, had thus written his memoir, either in part or in whole, it is no matter of just surprise that it has found its way to the British press. Of his several visitors at St. Helena, there are many who might have brought away with them a letter or packet; and Bonaparte would find no difficulty in procuring persons in England who would undertake and execute the charge of having it published. We do not intend to infer, from what we have said, that there is anything improper in this act of publishing, or bringing away for the sake of publishing. If there had been anything libellous, the English law would have had a responsible subject in the bookseller. Let Bonaparte, therefore, be permitted to publish as much as he pleases. It will be in aid of the history of the times, and will bring us better acquainted with a character who has occupied so large a space upon so wide a theatre.

The first singularity in the work (which is only published in French) is the abrupt, and, as it were, fastidious style of the writer; a style, which has so notoriously the characteristic manner of Bonaparte, as to be an argument whether on the one side or the other, for the authenticity of the work. In a very foolish book, but a very interesting one, of that French archbishop and intriguer, De Pradt, the reader may remember several long conversations of Bonaparte related verbatim and in which may be seen some very striking specimens of this style of the French commander—a style equally characteristic of his taste as of the quality of his mind. Full of indeed magnificent images—swelling with his conceptions; forgetting the present in imaginary future: then suddenly awakening to the present difficulty and state of things, expressing himself with passionate rhetoric with respect to all the causes, and in a moment resolving upon some daring remedy. Such is the manifest character of the mind of Napoleon; and such, as it appears to us, is the style which is employed in the work before us.

The narrative (for such it is) is throughout in the first person. The book is an octavo volume of 150 pages, and the subject is a running commentary upon the principal events of the military and civil life of Napoleon. Our limits will not admit a lengthened criticism; but we must notice, in passing, one or more of its most striking passages. We begin with the preface; which is bold enough, and short enough.

"I shall write no commentary," says the writer (Napoleon or some one speaking his name.) "The world has seen my reign, yet I feel no disposition to calumniate a hostile neglect. But I shall briefly run over the main events of my life, for two reasons; I care nothing for the present times, but let me stand as I am before my son and posterity. This is my motive for writing; I am compelled to resort to an indirect means of rendering this narrative public. Should I send it to the English Ministry, it would remain forever in the office which it should first reach."

This is the whole of the preface. The work then commences with a narrative of his early life, his education, &c. but which are all dispatched, each in its turn, with a sentence. Some of these condensed members are very striking; some even acute, and all are characteristic. We shall subjoin a few of them.

"I succeeded in every thing, because I resolved to succeed. My will was strong. I looked at the point, and precipitated myself towards it. I carried all difficulties by assault, and as few difficulties are made of brass, they fell before me. The secret of my success has been that I never hesitated."

"The best part of courage, or rather courage itself, is the will—in a vigorous but decided resolution. But this will, the faculty of thus willing, is not a matter of choice; it is the gift of nature; it is natural firmness." But the French is here so much more expressive than any translation, that we are induced to add it—”La Volonté depend, au reste, de la trempe de l'individu; il n'appartient pas à chacun d'être maâtre chez lui."

"I derived no advantage from any study but the mathematics. I read indeed all, because I would not be ignorant of what was known to those around me. But long and methodical arguments of these writers on morals, law, and history, seemed so much beating about the bush; I saw their objects at once; in history I wanted only the fact, and in morals I saw the reasons. In the book of the world before me. I very early accustomed myself to impress a distinct idea, a picture in full of every subject on my own mind; I then closed my eyes and ears, and examined it as it were in the silence and darkness of self-reflection. This is the secret of my strong conceptions, which were in fact only clear conceptions."

"I was first under fire (when a Lieutenant) in a small action with the Genevese. My natural coolness and habit of attentively looking at the affair before me, made me at once a soldier and I date my military ability from this moment. I saw that both parties merely occupied themselves in firing straight forward at each other; and that this mode promised nothing decisive on either side; both parties fighting merely to discharge their duty. I saw a hill at a short distance; saw that it commanded their rear, and I concluded that if I fell on them from that post I should divide the battle. I took a small body of men; I made the movement, & gained the victory. I was made a Captain in consequence; but my reason for mentioning it is, that it brought me the art of gaining a victory; this art consists in being in earnest; in looking attentively upon the point, whilst all others are employed in the noise and bustle of the common detail, and in making some decisive movement which fortune may admit. I require of my soldiers only steadiness in front, till fortune shall throw the cast, which affords the opportunity for my play."

"This was my first notion, and always has been, and is still, of what belongs to a good General. I now became attached to my profession of arms; and sought all books within my reach, and applied them to the system in my own mind and in what was going on around me. I thus formed my own theory of war, and Europe has seen what it is."

He then proceeds to relate his part in the siege of Toulon; it introduced him to the notice and patronage of Barras. Barras was in power, and Bonaparte needed a patron. Each suited the other, and Bonaparte was made a General. In the affair of sections he regards himself as having merely done his duty. He was called out to disperse the insurgents against the actual Government. He obeyed, & cleared the streets. The service was regarded to be of great importance, and he was made General of Division.

The narrative then proceeds to the several other eras of the life of Bonaparte; his appointment to be General in chief of the Army in Egypt, his Egyptian campaign, &c. in all of which it contains most important matter for future history and reflection. We strongly recommend the work to serious attention, and regret that our limits will not admit of a longer account of what so well merits it.