(and that only from the newspapers) that on the 6th of September he was taken to Wesel in Westphalia, a town in the dominions of the King of Prussia, and that there he is to be separated from the three members of the Assembly who had hitherto shared his fate, and is to be taken alone to the citadel of Spandau, between Berlin and Potsdam, The motive and the design of such strange and cruel conduct on the part of the Allies are alike unknown to me. He is not permitted to write a single line. It was by the troops of the Emperor that he was arrested, now it is the King of Prussia who keeps him prisoner in his dominions; and while he is experiencing this inconceivable persecution from our external enemies, the faction which now rules us at home detains me as a hostage here at 120 leagues from the capital. Judge how far removed from him! In this abyss of misfortunes, the idea of owing to the United States and to Washington the life and liberty of M. Lafayette comes to revive hope within my heart. I hope everything from the goodness of the people, from whom he learnt all those virtues and that love of liberty of which he is now a victim; and I venture to say all that I hope, I venture to ask of them, through your mouth, that a vessel may be sent to demand him wherever he may be, in the name of the Republic of the United States; also an envoy who, in the name of the Republic, may take all the engagements that may be thought necessary for detaining him in America, even as a captive. If his wife and children may be included in the terms of this happy mission, it is easy to judge what a blessing it would be for her and them; but if such a stipulation were likely to embarrass or retard its success, we would defer the joy of our reunion, and when we knew him to be safe with you we should support with greater courage the pain of separation. I trust that my request is not too hold. Pray accept the feelings of attachment and deep respect which have dictated this letter, and with which I am, &c., &c., "If the kindness of the United States could be extended to the companions in misfortune of M. Lafayette, it would indeed fill up the measure of their goodness; but as these gentlemen are not persecuted with the same bitterness, I do not think I fail in delicacy towards them if I ask with regard to them, as well as to myself and my children, that care for their interests should not interfere with the speedy help which the position of M. Lafayette demands. M. Maubourg, M. Bureaux de Pusy, and M. La Colombe (who has had the advantage of having served the United States), deserve to be distinguished among the number. MM. Romeuf, Pillet, Masson, Curmeur, the two young brothers Maubourg, are prisoners, and merit from us the most tender interest, from their devoted attachment to M. Lafayette since the beginning of the Revolution.' 'SIR,-The gazettes inform me that you are a second time elected President of the United States, and these happy tidings revive my courage a little, which has been sorely tried by the silence of the United States on the fate of M. Lafayette. During six months that he has been in captivity to our enemies, after the unheardof-proscription by his own country, I have heard but few expressions of interest, and those only from private American citizens. I had the honour of writing to you, Sir, in the beginning of October 1792, when I was kept prisoner by the order of the Committee of Public Safety, which, after ordering me to come to Paris about the time of the massacres, had permitted the Administration of the Department to keep me first under lock and key, and then to send me here under the surveillance of the municipality of my village. It was from this that I had the consolation of writing to you. I did not dare to sign my letter, nor even to send it written by my own hand: a young English agriculturist, Mr. Dyson, who had passed some time in our retreat, and who was returning to England, promised to get a copy conveyed to you. Did such a letter ever reach you? Or was it necessary to awaken your interest? I cannot believe it; but your silence, Sir, I confess, and the neglect you have for six months shown towards M. Lafayette and his family, is, among all our misfortunes, the one that I am least able to explain to myself. I hope it will not always continue, and if I have any earthly hope for him or for our reunion, it is still founded on your kindness and that of the United States. The public papers will have told you that M. Lafayette and his companions in misfortune were transferred from Wesel to Magdebourg towards the end of December, and when the French troops were approaching this citadel I was told that it was intended to remove him to Spandau. I was even for a moment given better hopes; but nothing has confirmed them. As for myself, I am no longer the prisoner of the municipality of the village. At the end of two months the orders of the Committee of Surveillance were revoked: but tyrannical laws which forbid us to quit French territory, and pronounce sentence of confiscation of property against all who do so (or who have done so since the 9th of February), condemn me to remain and to preserve, at least for our creditors, my small personal fortune, on which my children exist now that their father's property has been seized. I am obliged to keep them with me-not for my own consolation, which I would far rather sacrifice for him, but Providence meanwhile offers me this, of hoping that they will grow up worthy of him. But I am powerless to do anything for him; I cannot receive one line from him, or contrive to let him receive one by any means whatever. Certainly I will never take any step unworthy of him whom I love, nor of the cause to which he has ness" to the Union, for were not some of never ceased to be faithful, and which his fellow-the best Marylanders still more hostile? citizens have shown themselves unworthy to defend unworthy also for a long time hence of being served by virtuous men. Believe, Sir, that in the present state of Europe we have everything to fear for Lafayette while he remains in the power of the enemy. I do not know how to urge you, I will only repeat that my confidence in General Washington, though rudely tried, still exists, and that I still venture to offer him the homage due to his character and virtue. (Signed) NOAILLES LAFAYETTE.' It does not appear that any answer was made by Washington to this affecting appeal or, at least, no answer ever reached Madame de Lafayette, though at a later period the good offices of the American Government were employed to a certain extent to obtain the release of her husband. From The Spectator, 10 April. 66 On the whole, he preferred the Union; but he could not hate Mr. Laird or Mr. Roebuck for taking the other side, any more than he could hate Virginia or New Orleans, could no more see why the North should nurse its wrath against England than why it should object to see State Sovereignty revived and the slaves placed under the Georgian new code. What he wanted was to forgive and forget all round, to let the South do as it liked with its own, and the Union resume its old position towards the external world, to readmit the States to power without guarantees, and the nations to amity without inquiry as to their past conduct. Just as the President called the Rebels mistaken brethren, so his Envoy called us erring cousins; and as the Democrats desired that the war record " should be wiped out, so he was anxious to extinguish history. At the same time, he was most desirous to gain all he could for the Government he served. An old man, bred in a world as extinct as the glacial period, with the tradiTHERE is an end of Mr. Reverdy John- tions of the old diplomacy upon him, he set son at last, and we cannot affect to be sorry. to work as his predecessors of thirty years He has been recalled, or has been requested ago might have done, as Mr. Buchanan, for to resign, or has been suspended, or has example, would have done had he been suffered some other equivalent for official Minister at the time. He put forward enorexecution, and has announced that he only mous demands, but professed enormous awaits the arrival of his successor. He says friendship. Never was such love as he exthat he leaves us in sadness, regretting the pressed for all mankind, and specially Engthousands of friends whom he has made, lish mankind, and never were such proofs and we, whom he would probably count of that love asked from those he loved so among his political enemies, will do him at fondly. We were the greatest, the noblest, least this justice,- half his blunders have the bravest race under the sun; his own been due to the people to whom he was ac- cousins; people of whom he was proud; a credited. Never was a man in such a posi- race whose literature was the common hertion so bespattered with senseless praise. itage of two worlds; men without compare Born and bred a slaveholder, a Democrat, save in America, and of necessity and naa "wirepuller," and a member of the would-ture America's eternal and most sure allies. be aristocratic caste which the war has struck Being all that, what more natural than that down and which would gladly forget the war, a nominee of Mr. Andrew Johnson, and at heart a sympathizer with Maryland rather than with either North or South, it was certain from the first that Mr. Johnson would fail in his primary duty of representing before the people of Great Britain the feeling of the United States. How could he do it without gross intellectual dishonesty? He was not misled by irritation at the European recognition of belligerency, for to him the two parties were merely litigants fighting out a doubtful quarrel in the Supreme Court, with the bayonet instead of the ballot. He was not disgusted with our treachery to freedom, for he was doubt- not being a Fenian ful himself if slavery was not a good; nor doned off hand, could not find anything to was he exasperated by our "unfriendli-object to in Mr. Andrew Johnson's policy, we should prove it all by acknowledging that we were always in the wrong, by conceding every demand, by offering any amount of dollars, by signing any sort of agreement made to seem fair by the introduction of the phrase, "international arbitration." We are bound to say the English bourgeoisie fully justified by their conduct the low estimate Mr. Johnson had formed of their intellectual capacity. They rose at the bait like gudgeons at gentles. In their hearts they entirely agreed with Mr. Johnson's view of American politics, thought Southern gentlemen had better be replaced in power, did not see why Mr. Davis - he should not be par except that he had once been a tailor; and and American papers only the feeling at It is strange that such a recurrence to the ancient ideas of diplomacy should be need-tempt, and to see whether by any act on ful, but as between the United States and Britain it is certainly needed. If they are ever to be friends, they must understand one another, and they will never do it unless they are represented with precision by their diplomatic agents. The ordinary means of estimating each other's opinions fail in this instance, English newspapers, and more especially the Times, representing only the bourgeois ignorance of all American affairs, our part, or that of those whom he represents, that impression of British unfriendli ness can be at once strongly manifested and finally removed. It will be a most difficult task, for while this country can acknowledge an error of feeling into which it undoubtedly fell, it cannot acknowledge an error of action from which it carefully abstained; but if the task can be performed, it will be by a man whom the Union knows to be heartily in sym pathy, not only with its policy, but with its sentiment. And that reconciliation, if it is achieved, will be, and will be seen in Amererica to be, an honest and a lasting one. NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU AND ELBA.* [Saturdag Review.] criticism of his Imperial master and the King of Prussia. Bautzen again disclosed the want of a single head, and that a competent one; and the difference between the broad view of the campaign grasped by the supreme mind of Napoleon, and the indecisive muddling of the allied councils, was illustrated in the fact that before Lutzen they never dreamed of fortifying Dresden, and after Lutzen left Dresden at once for him to seize and fortify. The evidence of an offi conclusively impartial in estimating the comparative personal powers of Napoleon and Wellington, which appear to have been largely discussed in the allied headquarters after the news of Vittoria. Colonel Campbell was honestly convinced that the actual work done by the English general in Spain, with little aid beyond that of his quarter GENERAL curiosity will be more easily in-cer of Wellington's can hardly be taken as terested in gathering the touches of Napoleon given by Sir Neil Campbell than in retracing the lineaments of Sir Neil Campbell himself from his journals and letters; and the main title of the volume is discreetly associated with Fontainebleau and Elba.. But the hors d'œuvres, so to speak, or miscellaneous observations made by the intelligent Scotch officer in the course of his varied master-general Sir George Murray, indimilitary career, apart from those which cated even more surprising bodily and mencluster round the central figure of the State tal activity than was measured by the laprisoner on parole, are suggestive and acute bours of Napoleon, aided by Berthier, Muenough to deserve appreciation by all who rat, Caulaincourt, Duroc, and his other percare to study the history of those times. His sonal staff of general officers. It is interforcible description of the battle of Sala- esting to read Napoleon's own appreciation manca and its results contains a pertinent of the qualities of his great rival, in his first note on one of the causes of the comparative conversation with Colonel Campbell at Fonslowness in pursuit, after a victory, which tainebleau: "C'est un homme de vigueur is frequently charged to the nature of the dans la guerre. Pour bien faire la guerre, il British soldier. A pursuing party which faut en avoir comme cela." A similar comadheres to the system of commissariat-sup- plimentary tribute to the bull-dog tenacity of ply and fair payment can rarely move as Blücher is worth noting: "Ce vieux diquickly as a flying army which marauds and able m'a attaqué toujours avec la meme lays waste on principle; yet Wellington's vigueur. S'il était battu, l'instant après il se policy of rigid honesty proved the strongest montrait encore pret pour le combat." in the end, considered as a piece of military There are strong and picturesque touches tactics alone. A comparison of the Rus- in Colonel Campbell's description of this sian and Prussian forces in 1813 is curious, first close interview with the fallen lion and historically valuable. "The physical whom he had once before seen at a distance material of the army under Wittgenstein through a telescope on the morning of struck the eyes which were fresh from Wel- Bautzen: lington's camp of veterans as the finest in but the officers were often in- when the aide-de-camp, after announcing my "It was a strange feeling that came over me the world; competent, and the discipline loose and oriname, retired shutting the door, and I found entally barbaric." The Prussians, who had myself suddenly closeted with that extraordinary just shaken off the French yoke by the man whose name had been for so many years grandest of national efforts, after learning the touchstone of my professional and national in secret to be a disciplined arm-bearing feelings, and whose appearance had been prepeople under the strict conditions by which sented to my imagination in every form that Napoleon had endeavoured to secure their exaggeration and caricature could render immilitary insignificance, are described after pressive. I saw before me a short, active-lookBautzen as perfect in everything." Witt- ing man, who was rapidly pacing the length of genstein appeared to his English attaché to the apartment like some wild animal in his cell. fight the battle of Lutzen on no particular He was dressed in an old green uniform with plan, to be generally conscious of his own gold epaulets, blue pantaloons, and red-top unfitness to command in chief, and to be boots, unshaven, uncombed, with the fallen particles of snuff scattered profusely upon his bothered with the constant interference or upper lip and breast. Upon his becoming aware and saluted me with a courteous smile, evidently of my presence he turned quickly towards me endeavouring to conceal his anxiety and agita 66 • Napoleon at Fontainebleau and Elba, By the late Major-General Sir Neil Campbell, C.B. London: John Murray. 66 "Advice. — After the formation of the Provisional Government, a person was asked by Napoleon what he thought of his situation, and whether he considered there were any additional measures to be taken. When he replied in the negative, Napoleon inquired what he would do in a similar situation. Blow my brains out,' was the reply. Napoleon reflected for a moment, Yes, I can do that; but those who wish me well would not be benefited, and it would give pleasure to those who wish me ill.' tion by an assumed placidity of manner. He character. You have acted your part well first asked me several questions about my there.' (Vous avez bien tire votre parti là.) wounds - which were plainly observable from the bandages upon my head and my arm being carried in a sling-the circumstances under which they were received, the period and occasions of my service in the army, the particulars of my Russian orders and British military decorations, upon what claims and to what rank they had been accorded, what part of Great Britain I was from. On my replying from Scotland, he inquired whether I, like himself, was an admirer of Ossian's poems, adding here, Je les aime beaucoup, car il y a quelque chose très-guerrière.' 'Oui, sire,' I answered, on a dit en Angleterre que Votre Majesté les aimait beaucoup.' His conversation turned almost entirely upon military subjects and events connected with the British army, on which he seemed to reflect with the deepest interest; but he did not once touch upon the operations of the other allied armies. He paid many compliments to the British nation for their union and national feelings, in which he considered they much excelled the French. Votre nation,' he said, 'est la plus grande de toutes. Elle est plus estimée par moi que toutes les autres. J'ai été votre plus grand ennemi, franchement tel, mais je ne le suis plus. J'ai voulu aussi élever la nation française, mais mes plans n'ont pas réussi. C'est le destin.' Here he stopped short, seeming greatly affected, and the tears were in his eyes." [The Leader.] A BOOK of this kind is only to be fairly criticiised by extracts. What history it relates is known to every schoolboy. We will therefore conclude this notice by transcribing a few of what seem to us the most characteristic anecdotes and remarks: “Ossian. — He inquired whether I, like himself, was an admirer of Ossian's poems, adding here, I like them much, for there is something very martial about them.' Yes, sire, it has been said in England that your Majesty admired them greatly." " "The Scotch. They are a people of strong -- "Habit. During this conversation a knock was heard at the door. Nap.: Who is there? A, D. C.: Aide-de-camp in waiting. Nap.: Come in; what do you want? A. D. C.: Sire, the Grand Marshal has desired me to announce to your Majesty that it is already eleven o'clock. Nap.: Bah! This is something new! Since when have I become subordinate to the watch of the Grand Marshal? May be I shall not leave at all. "Personal. I have never seen a man in any situation of life with so much personal activity and restless perseverance. He appears to take so much pleasure in perpetual movement, and in seeing those who accompany him sink under fatigue, as has been the case on several occasions when I have accompanied him. I do not think it possible for him to sit down to study, on any pursuits of retirement, as proclaimed by him to be his intention, so long as his state of health permits corporeal exercise. Napoleon appears to become more unpopular on the island every day, for every act seems guided by avarice and a feeling of personal interest, with a total disregard to that of others." These extracts will doubtless whet the rea der's appetite sufficiently to induce him to know more by procuring the book. Of this journal the language is agreeable, and a lively power of observation obviously enabled the author to seize upon those subtler characteristics of Napoleon's nature which a careless companion would have missed. WILL STEAM IGNITE COMBUSTIBLE SUB-| pipe has been passed, it is remarked that every STANCES?—This curious question is discussed in a recent number of the Scientific American. It is urged that as the heat generated by a hydrocarbon in combination with a combustible fibre will produce combustion, and as a fibrous material saturated with oil will, if exposed to the sun's rays, burst into flame, it follows that a greater degree of heat, whether produced by steam or any other agency, may produce like results. After mentioning the inflammable condition acquired by wood through which a steam engineer of lengthy experience and close observa- |