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THOMAS AND WILLIAM BOONE, NEW BOND STREET,

Paris :

A. AND W. GALIGNANI AND Co., RUE VIVIENNE.

1837.

OF

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE,

DOWN TO

THE PEACE OF TOLENTINO AND THE CLOSE OF HIS FIRST
CAMPAIGN IN ITALY.

BY HENRY LEE, OF VIRGINIA.

Vir neque silendns, neque dicendus sine cura, ——

semper animo maximus.

aliquando fortuna,

VELL. PATERCULUS, l. 2, c. 18. Quelques parcelles de tant de gloire parviendront-elles aux siècles à venir, ou le wensonge, la calomnie, le crime prévaudront-ils? NAPOLÉON A ST-HÉLÈNE.

London :

THOMAS AND WILLIAM BOONE, NEW BOND STREET,

Paris:

A. AND W. GALIGNANI AND Co., RUE VIVIENNE,

1837.

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F21417.29

1866, Mar 5. Gift of

2

of chew York
(H. C. 1839)

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

THE general impression, that an impartial and accurate biography of the Emperor Napoleon does not exist, and that Sir Walter Scott, in his "Life of Napoleon Bonaparte," did injustice to his subject, authorises an endeavour to supply that defect and repair that injustice. In the body and appendix of the work, the first volume of which is now submitted to the public, this double object is attempted.

The fame and amiableness of the author of Waverley, since they give importance to his errors and effect to his detraction, are far from alleviating his faults as an historian. His name is less glorious than that of Napoleon; his memory less sacred than truth.

It may be that the causes of his failure in one walk of literature, were the sources of his success in another. But a bigoted and fantastic zeal for the hereditary privileges of rank and royalty, when displayed ostentatiously in the light of reason, and mischievously obtruded on the business of nations, is not the less absurd and offensive, that, transmitted through the twilight of romance, it has conduced to the creation or embellishment of unreal characters and fictitious scenes. Their music and innocence, although they qualify the choristers of Rome to fill with harmony the domes of temples, and to touch with ecstacy the forms of devotion, would not exempt them from pity and aversion, should they go forth into the world and meddle with the affairs of bearded men.

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