that excites suspicion; it seems difficult to understand how it was possible for him to know all that he says he knows, so accurately and so certainly, even to the most private conversations of the potentates of Europe and their ministers of state, unless, indeed, we take M. Capefigue to be a kind of political Asmodeus, from whose scrutinizing glance no palace, no cabinet, no boudoir in Europe is secure. We honestly confess that, as we read through his volumes, we could not suppress an ugly suspicion of this nature, in spite of all our efforts to resist the temptation to such manifest uncharitableness; and we were not greatly surprised when we met, in M. de Polignac's "Réponse à mes Adversaires," with the following observation:

"One word more respecting the author in question and his book (L'Europe depuis l'Avènement du roi Louis-Philippe). In his historical account of the days of July, he gives the contents of letters to the king which he attributes to me, and which I declare I never wrote; he often makes me speak a language which I never held; he puts into the mouths of some members of the diplomatic corps words addressed to me which I never heard; in short, faithful to the system which he has adopted in his first historical libel on the restoration, he does more than write history, he invents it."-Polignac, Réponse à mes Adversaires, p. 57.

This is a sad blow indeed to the authenticity of M. Capefigue's statements; but it is by no means the rudest shock which the credibility of his historical anecdotes has to sustain. He inflicts occasionally upon himself far harder blows, by contradicting in one place distinctly what he has as distinctly asserted in another. One example, rather a curious one, may suffice. In the Histoire de la Restauration we have the following graphic account of the forebodings which filled the minds of the ministers in preparing their coup d'état.

"Men of sense and men of business do not play at coups d'élat without having their minds greatly engrossed by the future; M. de Polignac, with his inconceivable levity, might deceive himself; but the sad and solemn tone which reigned during these discussions, clearly showed that several of the ministers felt the greatness of the dangers to which they were exposing the throne. Every moment some word or other escaped; some contemplated the portrait of Strafford, others dwelt complacently on the idea of a great act of self-devotion; all were aware of the responsibility which weighed upon them. This responsibility they were all willing to undergo, for they all affixed their signatures to the ordinances, as if they had felt it an honour to share the common danger."—Capefigue, Histoire de la Restauration, vol. iv. p. 251,

But what is the version which the same historian gives of the

very same matter in another place, without assigning any reason for the change in his statement, and without any apparent cause, but his own "inconceivable levity" as a compiler of political chit-chat? In his history of Europe, since the accession of Louis Philippe, he argues that the Polignac ministry were acting under a firm conviction of the perfect legality of the course pursued by them, and then continues:

"So reasoned all the ministers, especially M. de Polignac; there was, therefore, no room for any one to heave sighs, to look at the portrait of Strafford (which was not in the Council Chamber), or to offer his head to the king in signing the government measures; if the ordinances were not considered absolutely legal, they were at least supposed to be strictly in accordance with the provisions of the constitutional charter."-Capefigue, l'Europe depuis l'Avènement du roi LouisPhilippe, vol. i. 321.

Such palpable contradictions necessarily destroy all confidence, if not in the author's veracity, at least in the accuracy of his information, and in the care which he has taken to select and arrange his materials; the more so as in other respects too traces of the greatest negligence and ignorance are apparent in his performances. Considering that M. Capefigue is polyhistor1, in the least creditable sense of the word, one of those whose pen, as M. de Polignac appropriately quotes,

"peut tous les mois, au moins, enfanter en volume,"

it is not to be expected that his writings should exhibit that careful digestion of materials, and that elaborate accuracy of diction, which are the result of adherence to the canon nonum prematur in annum. Still we might expect, that one who makes such high pretensions to an intimate knowledge of all the intricacies of European diplomacy, should not fall into ludicrous mistakes; as, for instance, when he gravely informs us that Lord Castlereagh calling Lord Stanhope "his honourable friend," in a debate on the occupation of France, was a clear proof that he was but too much disposed to adopt Lord Stanhope's policy; we

1 The list of his larger historical writings, which amount to upwards of fifty volumes, comprises works on Charlemagne, Hugues Capet et la Troisième Race, Philippe-Auguste, l'Histoire du Moyen Age, François I. et la Renaissance, la Réforme et la Ligue, Louis XIV., Louis XV., Louis XVI., l'Europe pendant la Révolution Française, l'Europe pendant le Consulat et l'Empire de Napoléon, les Cent-Jours, Histoire de la Restauration, les Diplomates Européens, l'Europe depuis l'Avènement du Roi LouisPhilippe. The fact is, it is as much as M. Capefigue can do to remember what he himself has written, and to quote himself, which, by the way, he often does. The "Voyez du reste mon travail sur les Cent-Jours, la Restauration," &c. &c., is of fre. quent occurrence.

might expect that he should not be guilty of mutilations of proper names, as when he speaks of the house of "Hoppe and Baring," of "Lord Witworth," the English envoy at Paris; of "Lord Fitz Sommerset," sent on a special mission to Madrid; and last, not least, of the conspiracy of "Thwiswold." We say nothing of Lord Vellington and the Wighs, because these, being properly spelled elsewhere, may be set down to the account of the printer; but we fear the same allowance cannot be made when he calls the king at arms héros d'armes, instead of héraut d'armes, as he ought to have written.

In spite of all these blemishes, great and small, however, the volumes of M. Capefigue will still be found, in the hands of those who know how to discriminate, valuable contributions to the history of our own times, especially as far as France is concerned; as they contain a vast quantity of the crude material, which minds better qualified for the task may hereafter work up in a manner more worthy to be dignified with the name of history.

Very different in character from M. Capefigue's demi-historical, demi-aprocryphal compilations, is the work of Prince Polignac. However erroneous in some respects we may think the principle of which it is the expression, it has the merit of unfolding and upholding that principle with a consistency and loftiness of thought which reflects the highest credit upon the character of the author. It is just such a book as a man might be expected to write, who has staked his all and his very life itself on the maintenance of a principle which is with him an article of faith; and what is more, infinitely more, to the credit of the noble writer, there is not in it any of that bitterness and that violence which are so often allied with uncompromising adherence to certain principles. There are in his Réponse à mes Adversaires, passages which sufficiently show the prince's ability to handle the gall-dipped iron-pen of personal controversy, but they are few, and written upon great provocation. Among those who have laid themselves open to his castigation, M. Genoude, editor of the Gazette de France, and M. Capefigue, are the most conspicuous. The former touched at once his literary and his personal vanity to the quick, by applying the epithet insensé to his book, and taxing him with having "neither learned nor forgotten any thing;" whereupon M. de Polignac smartly retorts by telling M. Genoude, who, it seems, gloried in calling himself his "aide de camp" in the days of his power, that he at least cannot be charged with not having forgotten any thing, and goes on to put him in mind of a variety of circumstances, the recollection of which ought to have prevented the versatile editor from attacking his exiled patron in a style which says as little for his political consistency as it does for his

personal gratitude. Of M. Capefigue, and the strictures on his productions, contained in the work of M. de Polignac, we have already spoken; he provoked the wrath of the ex-minister by his often-repeated allusions to his being an obstinate man, a téte foible, and above all, to his cold impassibility during the fearful conflict in which he involved the monarchy. Apropos of this last reproach, the prince mentions two interesting anecdotes which show, that however fatal his "impassibility" may have proved to the royal cause, it stood him in good stead for his personal preservation. As they are characteristic, both of M. de Polignac's temper of mind, and of the savage and sanguinary spirit which is still brooding in the hearts of the French patriots, we shall transcribe them in his own words:

"That author," he says, in allusion to M. Capefigue, the 'téte forte' who always sided with the stronger party, "might naturally be ignorant that in the presence of danger the features ought never to betray the anguish of the heart; the terrible events through which I have passed in my lifetime, have more than once confirmed this truth in my eyes. It is to this apparent impassibility that I stood again indebted for the preservation of my life, shortly after the revolution of July, when I was arrested alone in a secluded house a quarter of a league from Granville, by a score and a half of young patriots in a state of great exaltation armed with pistols and daggers. For the space of two hours I was detained by them, and while some of them plied me with the most insidious questions, I heard others near me say to each other in an under-tone,' If we could get out of him but half a proof that he is the person whom we imagine we have caught, we would stick the knife into his heart.' My coolness, however, disappointed their expectation. Another and a still stronger instance of the same kind happened on the following day, when being conducted as a prisoner to Saint-Lô, I had arrived, accompanied by two members of the municipality of Granville, at Coutances, a town in Normandy, for the purpose of changing horses, and the population, which two days before had driven out all the authorities, sub-prefects, mayors, and gendarmes, on being maliciously informed of my arrival, all on a sudden surrounded my carriage with shouts for blood. From the midst of that mob, which in its ferment presented a lively image of the principle of popular sovereignty in all its purity, a man then stepped forward and cried, 'Be easy, he shan't escape us, I'll do for him.' The dress of the fellow was that of a journeyman butcher; he jumped on the step of the carriage, the door of which he opened, and presented himself before us with a large knife in his hand, looking with a ferocious eye for his victim. I was sitting on the front seat of the carriage, the knife of the assassin grazed my breast, and the least movement indicative of fear would have provoked murder. But, thanks to God, no movement was made; my companions imitated my impassibility, and the man withdrew in a state of uncertainty, saying, 'I don't know which

to strike.' Meanwhile the horses had been put to, the postilion started them at a gallop, and got the carriage clear at the moment when a voice was heard advising the people to overturn the carriage in order to insure their vengeance. This shows how useful it is to be able sometimes to conceal under a calm exterior the tumultuous thoughts which are excited by the presence of a great danger."-Polignac, Réponse à mes Adversaires, pp. 56, 57.

Such scenes as these were certainly not calculated to inspire M. de Polignac with any very great admiration for the principle of the sovereignty of the people; but his opposition to that principle does not rest on antipathies engendered by personal causes; it is founded upon deep thought, and upon profound religious convictions-convictions which, as expressed by him, have far more in them of Catholic truth than of Romish error.

"There are," he says in the introduction of his work, "those who refuse to recognize, in the concatenation of the events which fill up the ages of the world, an action superior to that of man: perhaps it is their interest to deceive themselves; as for me, I here frankly declare that I am not one of those who reject the idea of a divine intervention in the affairs of this world. The hard of God rolls the ages before Him, but his wisdom controls the impulse which He gives to them; He is longsuffering because He is the Eternal; and if in his providence He permits crime here below, it is for the purpose of bringing out virtue in greater brightness; if He tolerates the extravagances of pride, it is for the purpose of demonstrating its impotence more clearly. In the midst, however, of the impassioned struggles which time brings with it, allays, and raises again, his fatherly eye marks and guides more especially that innermost feeling which warms the heart of his true children, which is purified through suffering, and forms in this place of exile the first bond of that love which afterwards is crowned with a blessed immortality. All the facts which in the course of ages group themselves apart from this divine feeling, belong to the earth, and partake of the frailty of their origin; the other facts only hang together, succeed without destroying each other, and present, so to speak, only the progressive development of one and the same action, which derives the principle of its strength and of its life from above.

The

"In truth, thrones and empires crumble; nations overwhelm each other; they change their habitation, their names, their laws, their language; but they advance, in a manner, only over heaps of ruins, the very remembrance of which history sometimes forgets to record. religion of Christ alone outlives those ruins: this is the chain which connects one age with another, an indestructible chain, of which his enemies are unable to change either the strength or the durability; the daughter of heaven, but militant upon this earth, that religion takes a share in all our troubles and our sufferings; she offers her tears and the blood of her martyrs as a holocaust for us; but God upholds her in the conflict, inspires her with his breath, illumines her with his light; He