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and incapable of elevating either their thoughts or language, they dragged the loftier principles down to a level with themselves, and created as great an equality in the ideal world, as they had already in the personal. Marat was called a deity, so was the prostitute, whom they placed upon a cart and worshipped,-Roberspierre was the true model of Spartan virtue, any thing in the shape of an epithet, of a virtue, vice, title, praise, reproach -all these became so confounded and so habitually used in their new sense, that the language had actually, and without exaggeration, turned topsyturvy. A history of the Revolution is an enigma, without a glossary of its cant. Fools as they were, the heroes of the Assembly knew the value of the gibberish they were uttering, and looked upon a society instituted to watch over language, such as the Academy, to be their personal enemy. And although more than one-half of the society were staunch republicans, the officers that dissolved it declared, that the Assembly considered the whole body of the academicians as hostile to them.

The first attempt to re-establish the Academy, was made in 1800, by Lucien Buonaparte, then Minister of the Interior. The First Consul was in Italy, and Lucien seized the opportunity to collect the old academicians, to set them to draw up their regulations, and choose members in the place of those deceased,-Lucien himself was of course to be one of these. There was much disagreement among the old members as to the new fellows they were to appoint: the list first prepared, contained the names of Colin; Lucien B.; Fontanes; Talleyrand; Dureau; Ségur; Buonaparte, First Consul; La Place; Lebrun, Third Consul; Dacier; Ræderer; Fortalis; Devaines; Lefevre, and Volney. Ducis and Target wished to introduce Garat and Bernardin St Pierre; we ourselves wonder how they could well omit the author of the Studies of Nature and of Paul and Virginia, now better

known and more esteemed than any of them, but the objection was, that he always inveighed bitterly against the Academy. Buonaparte's return, however, after the battle of Marengo, put an end at once to their hopes and their dissensions; 'tis well known that he hated and dreaded men of lettersthe Institute and its men of science were his favourites-and he quashed immediately the attempt to revive the Academy.

"In 1803," says Morellet, "a plan for the re-establishment of our Society was presented to Buonaparte by many estimable members of the Institute: the project was enforced by public opinion, long dissatisfied with the organization of the Institute, and which appeared decidedly convinced of the necessity of forming a body of men of letters to counteract the corruption of language and taste."

Buonaparte, at last persuaded, allowed five members of the Institute, La Place, Ræderer, Dacier, and two others, to form the plan of a new organization. This, as it exists the same, with little modification, at present, and as England has a similar establishment in view, we shall give at large.*

The entire literary establishment was to bear the name of the National Institute. It was to be divided into four academies, viz. one of sciences, an Academie Française, like the old; one of inscriptions and belles lettres, and one of the fine arts. There was no law against being a member of more academies than one. Each was to have a salary of 1200 francs, and the secretary 6000. The Consuls and Ministers became members of the new academies. All that Buonaparte altered of this plan was, First, he abolished the particular denominations of each academy, designating them merely by the names, of 1st class, 2d class, &c. Secondly, he preserved in the second class, or Academie Française, many members unfit, and who had never exercised the arts of writing or composition. Thirdly, no one class had a par

Our embryo Society is said to have adjudged its first prize to Mrs Hemans. Now, much and sincerely both as we admire Mrs Hemans, and a Literary Society established on constitutional and religious principles, we cannot help saying, that this looks very like smuggling. Except a few, and apparently unauthenticated, statements in the Literary Gazette, how has the Society presented itself to the public? How have its prizes been published to all competitors? For our part, we have seen no statement possessing more than hearsay importance. It is to be hoped that these reports will prove groundless.

ticular existence independent of the whole body. Fourthly, some of the by-laws of the old Academy were altered.

"This plan had a great many defects," says Morellet; "it did not regenerate the French Academy, nor restore to it the consideration or authority, which the ancient had enjoyed. It did not re-establish that happy mixture of men of letters and men of rank, which order of society the Revolution destroyed," &c.

The decree for the establishment of the Institute bears date, January, 1803. In the enumeration of the subjects granted to the discussion of the bodies, all sciences, political and moral, are excluded; which exclusion Buonaparte carried farther in his decree from Aix-la-Chapelle in the next year; which assigns prizes of from 10 to 5000 francs for different compositions, to be distributed every ten years on the anniversary of the 18th Brumaire. In this there is no prize allowed to any philosophical work. "Montesquieu's Esprit des Lois, or Smith's Wealth of Nations," says he, "would have had no chance of obtaining a prize from Buonaparte. It is clear enough, that he was nowise favourable to those kind of studies, which he comprized under the title of sciences morales et politiques. Without doubt, one cannot number among the kinds of knowledge he despised, mathematics, physics, or the arts, whether liberal or mechanical; but he manifested extreme aversion for all the discussions of that speculative and rational philosophy, whose object it is to discover the principles on which must be founded the constitution and government of political societies. It was on those who employed themselves in such reflections, that he bestowed the sarcastic names of ideologists and economists."

We shall conclude our notice of this entertaining work, with the account which our author gives of his interview with Buonaparte. It forms a curious sample of the ignorance and impudence of the man on his first accession to power. The objection which he raises to Morellet, about the consecration at Rheims, would have disgraced the intellect of a child.

"I must not omit in the Memoirs of my Life," says the Abbé," the conversation which I had with Buonaparte at the Thuilleries, towards the end of

1803. I was invited with Sicard, by Madame Buonaparte, to pass the evening with her; one of those evenings on which there was not much company, that is to say, not more than twenty ladies, and a little ball. We

went.

Madame Buonaparte received us kindly; talked with us for about a quarter of an hour; told us, that the First Consul would see us with pleasure, but that it would be late ere he arrived. The ball commenced, and we took part in it for half an hour, Madame Buonaparte proposed to me a game at whist; my ignorance of the game did not permit me to accept the honour, but Sicard played. I continued to be a spectator of the dancing, and to talk with some persons of my acquaintance. At midnight, Buonaparte not having arrived, Madame de Vaines, who had brought us in her carriage, proposed to reconduct us home; and we took our leave without having seen the First Consul, who did not make his appearance, as we learned the next day, till one o'clock.

"About three weeks after, we received, Sicard and I, an invitation similar to the last; and Madame Buonaparte acquainted us, through Madame Remusat, that the Consul regretted extremely not having talked with us,-me in particular,—but that we should certainly see him this time.

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"We arrived at the palace about ten, and found the Consul playing at whist. He saluted us as we entered. His play finished, he conversed for half an hour with General Mortier, and then with some other General. I was at the end of the little saloon, near to where they were dancing, and I was conversing at the time with the Minister of the Interior. Buonaparte walked straight over, and addressed me tartly, (brusquement,) You are the secretary of the Academy ?'-No,' said I, Citizen Consul;' for that was the title he then used to be addressed by. But yes,' replied he. 'You are the Abbé Morellet, and an economist, are you not?' I told him, that there were many kinds of economists; that I was not one of those called pure economists, but upheld the doctrine with some modifications.-- Was it not Quesnay who was your master?'-'No, I never knew Quesnay. I am indebted for my early knowledge of this science to an intendant of commerce, M. de Gournay, and to the society of Messrs

Trudaine, both the grandfather and his son, intendants of finance.'-'You wish for the impot unique, do you not?' 'Tis true, that I believe that taxes might be gathered from proprietors alone, if these taxes were moderate; but, when they are excessive, the government is compelled to dissemble, and take them under all sorts of forms, and any way it can.' The assistants smiled at my answer. You wish, also,' continued he, the liberty of the commerce of grain?'-' Yes, Citizen Consul; I believe, that, under an established government, the entire and unlimited liberty of this commerce is the best and the only means to prevent and moderate the variation of prices, and to establish that mean price which is most favourable to all the inhabitants of a country,-the only end an enlightened government ought to

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propose to itself.'-' Nevertheless,' replied he, if Turgot had adhered to this plan of his concerning the liberty of commerce, instead of providing for the town of Rheims during the coronation, he would have been much embarrassed,' &c. Citizen Consul, the exception does not contradict the principle; a town of from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants, when there is suddenly and extraordinarily collected from sixty to ninety thousand persons, has need that the government, who operates the change, should also take the precautions,""&c.

The Memoirs of the Abbé Morellet here close. He afterwards became a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and often gave his political and commercial opinions from the tribune. He died in 1819, aged 92.

SKETCHES OF SCOTTISH CHARACTER. No. IX.

CLERICAL PECULIARITIES."

THERE are few things, Mr Editor, of the kind, which give me more uneasiness than the passing and constantly shifting nature of the world we live in. The men and manners of the year eighteen hundred and twenty-two are very different from those of the year eighteen hundred; and by doubling the distance of time, you place yourself amongst a race of men who had very little in common with those of the present day. At this period to which I refer, civilization, or gentility, or politeness, or I know not by what designation the Demon "Equalization" may be known, -had not passed over society, smoothing inequalities, and giving one uniform and unvaried aspect to the whole Then, there existed a reasonable proportion of individuals, in all ranks and conditions, who were really and truly "Characters," who dared to live" secundum naturam," that is to say, with a reference to their own conscience, and comfort, and convenience alone. It was from this rich and inexhaustible quarry that our great Dramatists and Novelists drew, and that they still continue to draw, the strong and striking expressions of human life, which are at once recognized by all as genuine copies. In vain should a moral painter fill his canvas, in these later times,

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with modern peculiarities and eccentricities,-the" mantle of fashion is so largely and cozily spread over the shoulders of society, as to prevent all recognizance of the natural figure and shape. Men are now dressed in uniform, and turn out to the intercourse and duties of life like the King of Prussia's soldiers upon parade; and if any one possessed of more courage, or less reverence for the tyranny of opinion than his neighbour, dares to desert the ranks, and place his proper character in the strong light and relief which a deviation from the general "uniform" implies, he is sure to be branded as a fool, or subjected to the allegation of conceit and affectation. Nature now is out of date; and the worst of it is, that the standard which art and fashion have established, is one and the same for all shapes and sizes,-it resembles the bed of Procrustes-redundancies are reduced, and deficiencies racked out, to suit its dimensions and measurement. One may now pass from the street to the parlour, and thence again into the dining and drawing-rooms in succession; and this he may do for the whole hospitable period of the " daft days," without being fortunate enough to light upon

a single "Character." Sensible, wellinformed men he will indeed meet with, and men of wit, and men of literature, and men of talents, and men of great common sense, and men, it may be, of all the cardinal virtues and sciences,together with a handsome allowance, at the same time, of human ignorance, folly, and presumption. But as to encountering any one individual without his gown and wig-the usual paraphernalia of "fashion"-it is quite, or nearly so, out of the question. It is verily practicable to travel over Scotland with a creel on one's back, and a fishing-rod in one's hand, and to take up a temporary residence by the snug ben fire of the Farmer, or by the roaring beacon of the Chieftain's hall; to plant one's cold and dripping shins against the dying embers on the Cottager's hearth, or to obtain a warm and a comfortable corner by the patent grate and burnished brass of the Manufacturer's chimney; to trace the Tay to its source, and the Nith to its mouth, the Tweed, with a small exception, through all its windings, and the Clyde from Queensberry Fell to the Broomielaw, -to accomplish all this, I say, in the only way in which travel is worth a farthing, or character can at all be seen, without lighting upon any thing above a crazed Laird or a talkative Bedal. No, sir; "fuit Ilium," and "fuimus Troes." The age of fairy knowes, and old weather-beaten cairns, and banks of natural brushwood, and heath-covered fells, and green sequestered spots, with a long et-cetera of Nature's most bewitching and pleasing aspects, is vanished, is passed away. "Cultivation" has run her ploughshare through, or driven her Steers to pasturage over the whole; and we have nothing now but specimens of grain in the husbandman's pocket, a bustling competition with foreign markets; shambles, bankruptcy, and the corn laws. The precious fruits of "civilization," the harrow and the roller of moral cultivation, are equally perceptible in the absence and almost total extinction of those varieties and resting points in the moral landscape, which used to render it at once so interesting and pleasing. It is seriously apprehended, as I am told, that in the course of a few years, in spite of lime and manure, of all that art can add of strength or stimulus, by which the exhausted powers of vegetation may be recruited,

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nothing but a caput mortuum" will at last remain to exercise the patience and disappoint the hope of the husbandman; and there are similar apprehensions entertained by the "Wise ones" on the score of moral cultivation, of that universal civilization, which must, in time, reduce the mental energies of man to a mere "Vis consilii expers," very much, it is probable, to the quality and consistency of ashes chopped out from an extinguished "pipe."

Nevertheless, "for in the very tempest and whirlwind" of our declamation, it becomes us to acquire temperance, and observe justice, these observations are liable to a certain degree of limitation. There are exceptions from this sweeping allegation, but these, when stated, serve, among other useful and appropriate purposes, with a sort of paternal affection, to strengthen the rule from which they have dissented; just as I have known of a political "Renegado," whose accession to the ranks of respectable opposition has caused many who were formerly hearty in the cause, refuse their alliance, and pass over to the deserted party. There are still a few physicians, lawyers, and judges; a few Dandy Dinmonts, a few Jock Jaboses, and Cuddie Headriggs, in remote and landward districts; with a small proportion of Bailie Jarvies and Jeanie Deanses, in towns and royalties, who preserve somewhat of the freshness and consistency of individual existence. But it is amongst the Presbyterian Clergy of Scotland, all inferior in this view, as they are to their Sires of yore, that more of this desirable and rare quality exists in the shape of exception, than any where else. To be convinced of this, you have only to do something-any thing you find necessary, or convenient, or agreeable-till next May, when you can take a walk up the High Street of Edinburgh, immediately before or after the meeting of the General Assembly-or, now that I think better of the matter-you may, by bribing the door-keeper, or passing a member's ticket as your own, get a peep into that venerable court, and be enabled to judge of that variety of wig, face, and form, which is there exhibited. There you will mark the lank hair, or uncombed wig of the Transalpine; the smart air, sweet smile, and silver-headed cane of the Metropolitan ;

the full round paunch, rosy cheeks, and broad-contented face of the westcountry parson, with every external seeming which gives clothing, and expression, and bump, as it were, to the corresponding peculiarities with in. Or, if you cannot afford to take this method of obtaining information and conviction, you may make a les ser survey in the district where you reside. Creep slyly, at the time when the last bell is ringing in, into a westdoor corner of our country churches, as if you were employed in ferreting out supply for the metropolitan market, and observe that variety and eccentricity in point of voice, gesture, and manner, which many of our pulpits still exhibit. Take your chair by the Parson's fire-side, and mix with an easy Monday evening jocularity, in the stream and current of his fainily conversation, or hobbyhorsical inquiries, and you will find that your own nose does not differ more from his, nor both from a third, than do the manners (in many cases at least) and characters of the different men you have visited. Nor is it at all wonderful that this should be the case, when one considers the various avenues by which "a Presbyterian pulpit" is ap proached, taken in connexion with the difference of circumstances which afterwards exists. One Incumbent has been born in a " Bothie" or Cottage; and under the fostering advantage of a free school, and of a piously-disposed maiden lady, has fought his way through school-mastering, tutoring, and prudent economy, to that honourable office, the duties of which he now so zealously discharges. Another has, in early life, handled the chisel, the saw, or the shuttle, but feeling his soul expand and extend in reach and aspiration beyond his avocation and circumstances, has deserted the "square," the "pit," and the "loom," to subjugate "Penna," and assassinate "Doceo;" to expose himself to the ridicule of more advanced but younger school and class-mates; to work double tides at night, and construe double portions through the day; to encounter obstacle after obstacle, and discouragement after discouragement; to suffer not less from ignorance than from awkwardness, and shame, and sensibility; to swing, and roll, and elbow, and push, and pursue his determined course upwards, till the hand of patronage has VOL. XI.

relieved him at last from all his difficulties, and has set his venerable head "a-wagging in a pulpit." A third, apparently more favoured in original circumstances, has coached it-in the midst of hampers and baskets, and a vast allotment of butter, and cheese, and kipper, and jam, and jelly-up to college; the unshaven down, yet bristling upon his chin, and the inexhaus◄ tible bunch of "Notes" peeping out every now and then, as if anxious to escape from his side-coat-pocket, and has enjoyed a vast deal of fun, and formed an immense number of very witty and very agreeable ac quaintances; and has been at Society suppers, and dived into Pye-shops, and has contracted a pretty stretchy account with his Tailor-and has lost a hat on a new-year's morning-and has found means at last, after several summers and winters of idle and indolent lounging at home, to apply

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Philip's Lever" to the elevation of himself, and the accomplishment of his father's wishes. Not a few have "Halled" themselves into preferment, by a decent, sober, religious, and de vout deportment; by being early at the doctor's class, and by preserving, during the whole session, a place immediately under his eye,-by reading,

(at least by carrying frequently under their arm, and whilst at lecture, by glancing over,) a large musty folio volume,-by writing for prizes, and composing discourses with exceeding care,

by attending all Professorial invitations to supper, and by getting seasonably into the acquaintance of certain well-meaning and well-disposed ladies. By such steps as these have many useful ministers ascended. Others, again, have pursued a different method, and, as if determined to contrast themselves as "Divines" with the former, have rendered the Hall a theatre more of observation than of study,-of obtaining a knowledge of character, rather than of "Calvin" or of "Pictet." These have mixed much in society, and preserved, amidst every temptation to pedantry, a relish for classical and general literature, toge ther with somewhat above the ave rage share of the demeanour and feelings of gentlemen, and having in general been doomed to drift long and far from the harbour of promotion, have entered at last into the vine yard with the sentiments and resolu

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