OF

NAPOLEON:

EDITED BY R. H. HORNE.

ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD,

FROM DESIGNS BY

RAFFET AND HORACE VERNET.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

ROBERT TYAS, 8 PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCXLI.

PREFACE.

IN historical compositions, the chief characters and events of which have produced a powerful influence on men and things, the difficulties attending the task are not so much occasioned by the complexities of the facts, as by the conflict of feelings amongst various classes of readers. Whenever a truth is discovered, nothing can be easier than to state it; but to state it in the way best adapted to gain due credence among the majority of all parties, yet without compromising its integrity, requires the most entire equanimity of thought and feeling. The attainment of this rare condition of mind can seldom be accomplished by any means so efficient as a full perception of the fact that, in most cases, "men's judgments are a parcel of their fortunes;" for circumstances, rather than the will, determine opinion.

These difficulties, however, are enhanced to the extreme, when, as in the history of Napoleon, the chief agents and sufferers are of recent date, and when the events were of a nature to call into play the strongest passions, interests, and opinions-political, social, commercial, philosophical, and religious; the consequences of which are still fresh in the memory of the world, and still felt strongly by extensive populations. It will be sufficient to instance the great alterations in the system of war; the final extinction of faith in the old principle of "divine right;" the establishment of great public works in the countries over which Napoleon's power extended; the

enormous increase of our own taxation, originating in twenty years of war; the great amelioration in the jurisprudence of France,its system of national education, communal regulations, and civil and criminal laws; and the conflict and progression of public opinion throughout Europe.

or

Under such circumstances, to satisfy everybody, is, of course, impossible. To attempt doing this would be short-sighted weakness. Those individuals, however highly-educated and well-intentioned, who take up a work of history, biography, or science, with a desire to find nothing but harmonious replications of what they knew imagined before, and to derive fresh confirmation of old beliefs; those who are anxious to receive only the information that amalgamates with, and enhances, those opinions which they think it most advantageous and correct to adopt; all such individuals necessarily constitute the minority of readers to whom a work like the present is chiefly addressed. Constructed on any pre-determined views, suited to particular parties and classes of opinions, a work of history would be rendered angular, distorted, and temporary,instead of circular, symmetrical, and permanent. The former method addresses itself expressly to a class; the latter, to the majority of classes in its day; and, in the present instance, with a deep and hopeful consciousness of the progress of the human intellect, and a correspondingly reverential submission to its final judgment,—to all future classes.

The history which is now offered to the public is built up and composed from the same original authorities as those consulted by previous historians and biographers; with the assistance also of the substantive works of the latter, and of all important works since published, or now in course of publication. From careful abstracts and references; from a dispassionate balancing of the single and collective facts, statements, opinions, and conjectural probabilities— occasionally found in direct opposition among authorities of equal influence and validity-I have sought to attain a fixed equilibrium of general truth. In particular instances, which have been the subject of much contest among opponent partisans, the most authentic accounts are given on both sides, with their most obvious conclusions, the writer usually stepping in as moderator, though sometimes leav