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"We live upon the strangers," continued Giovanni Battista, the boatman, with a simplicity and truthfulness that made us laugh; "and this year nobody comes. The Italians are driven away, and the foreigners are frightened."

He had not been to Como for two months, although his business is plying upon the lake, and his winter depends upon his summer. "The war is bad for all of us," he said, "and after all the Germans are back again."

We passed out of the gate of Como full against the round rising moon and took the broad hard highway for Milan. We passed a few wagons loaded with the furniture of some fugitive and rolling slowly along. As we pushed on, the idea of penetrating by night and on foot into a country at war was stimulating and novel. But what consciousness of war could survive in the deep peace of that night? The fields were covered with high corn, and the hard straight road went before us in dim perspective. ....Farther on, and nearer Como, the shore is There were no other travelers. Two or three empty covered with handsome villas, of which the most vetturas or a wine cart straggled lazily by, the litremarkable for beauty and fame are Madame Pas- tle bells upon the horses tinkling, and the drivers ta's, a magnificent estate, and Taglioni's, which is fast asleep. Nor were the villages many. As we not yet finished, and the stately Odescalchi. As we passed a group of half a dozen houses a fellow was passed Madame Pasta's the old boatman shrugged sleeping soundly upon a bench at a door. When his shoulders and trilled with his voice. "That's we broke in upon the silence of night by asking the the way the money came there," he said, contempt-name of the village, he sprang up nimbly and limped uously. He was clearly of opinion that only the rapidly out of sight as if the question had been a decaying and decayed families whose names he had pistol-shot and had wounded him. Every body was heard all his life, and whose ancestors his fathers nervous "in questo momento." Toward midnight knew, were to be spoken of with praise. we stopped at a house which should have been near "Whose villa is that?" asked I. the point at which we meant to sleep until sunrise,

"Eh! che! nobody's," he replied; "if it were and roused an old lady who shrilly chirped and any body's we should know."

At 5 o'clock we rounded the point over which I had stood the year before on a still September afternoon hearing the girls sing in a boat below, and so came to the shore at Como.

Every where there was an air of consternation. The Austrians had just reoccupied the town, and the streets were full of the "hated barbarians," rattling about with long swords and standing on guard at the doors of public buildings. The walls bristled with military notices. Among others I read one exhorting all well-disposed people to surrender arms of every kind by a certain day at a place named. The people seemed to be stupefied, and gazed in dull wonder upon the soldiers.

Out of the square, ringing with Austrian sabres, we stepped into the Duomo, dim and lofty and hushed, untouched by revolutions or triumphs. A few unodorous sinners were kneeling and praying. They were very poor and ignorant. But this was their palace, and they looked as if they knew that the great Emperor of the barbarians had not one more gorgeous or solemn.

twittered her terror through the slide in the door. But satisfying her that we were neither Croats nor cannibals, she told us that we were yet a mile or two from Balasina.

It was now twelve o'clock, and the land seemed sunk in a sleep of death. There was no sound but our own echoes as we entered the dreary, dismal village, which, like all Italian villages, is merely a dirty street bordered with gloomy houses. They looked so hopeless with their grim stone fronts, high-barred windows out of reach, and huge gates, as if expecting nothing but hostility, that when we stopped before the inn we felt like the wretched wights who beheld the dungeons of an ogre; and when Edmund exclaimed in what seemed a terrible voice, so still was the night, "Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?" we started as if had heard a loud joke in church. Then the vision of a pleasant inr hung for a moment in our minds, and the sense of the preposterous contrast awakened a loud peal of laughter which died away echoing among those houses which were as hospitable as sea-crags. While we stood debating, a group of peasants, with their jackets slung over their shoulders, passed spectrally by, staring steadily at us, as if they would not be unwilling to strike a final blow for the kingdom of Italy.

We tried to secure seats in the post for Milan. There was no place. We applied at the offices of public and private diligences. It was still impossible. The evening was cool and clear, and we considered. The distance to Milan was but eight hours of our walking, and we were making a walking tour. And although we had scarcely bargained for a promenade over the plains of Lombardy in an Au-ily unbarring window-shutters followed by a voice gust sun-yet this perfect moon? Should we turn back without seeing the Goths encamped around the most glorious of Gothic cathedrals?

It was nine o'clock when we shouldered our knapsacks and set forth. The dwellers in romantic Como, standing at their doors, looked wonderingly upon the four pedestrians marching in regular resolute tramp along the streets, evidently moving upon Milan. The small children plainly thought us a part of the imperial and royal army. "Here come the Austrians," whispered one boy to another, as he gazed at the gray wide-awakes and knapsacks.

The mild Francis looked at him with the air of an army which would respect persons and property so long as it was unmolested, and wished the boy so soft a buona notte that he smiled gently, and I am sure his dreams were not disturbed.

They disappeared, and we struck a resounding blow upon the door of the Albergo, and another and another. After a while there was a sound of stealth

demanding the reason of the tumult. We explained that we were friends who wanted beds for the night. No, that was impossible, "the voice replied far up the height;" there were no beds, and we had better push on to the next tavern. We expostulated in many tongues with the dimly-visioned head that now appeared, pleading that we were strangers from a far country who were very tired and sleepy. The head disappeared for a few moments and we heard a low colloquy. Then the great gate of the Albergo swung sullenly open, and we stepped into a dim court, and the dimly-visioned face became a face like a dull razor, it was so thin-featured and stupid. The man asked us to stop, and, stepping aside, he called a woman's name, then stood waiting, his wretched dozing face illuminated by the weak lustre of a long-wicked tallow-candle which he held. Pres

ently he moved on along the windows of the court conversing with an invisible within the house. When those murmuring arrangements were made, he led us up a dirty, stone staircase, trying to open various doors with keys that did not fit the locks; and finally, after a desperate wrestle with one, he swore fiercely in a thin, wiry voice that made the blood run cold, and then smashed the door of the chamber, carrying away wood-work and lock together. It was a vast room of immense discomfort, and after barricading the disabled door with tables and chairs, we lay down and fell asleep upon beds

which could furnish no dreams.

In the morning we ate grapes and peaches, and finding a wagon which we could hire, we bribed our pedestrian consciences and bowled over the beautiful road to Milan, reluctantly confessing that the imperial and royal post-roads were the best in

the world.

"Yes-but not for the public benefit," said the mild Francis; "they are for the quicker transport of troops and artillery to oppress the people."

Sad, silent, broken-hearted Milan! No, not yet visibly broken-hearted, for the Cathedral sparkled pure and lofty in the rare, blue summer air. It was the morning of the Feast of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary, to whom the Cathedral is dedicated, and was therefore high festival. But the people had little aspect of joy. We stopped at the gate, and sat in the steady glare of the sun while our passports were closely inspected. Outside the city wall lay a wilderness of tree trunks, which had been leveled in expectation of a siege by the Austrians. They were useless now; and groups of soldiers in gray slouched hats and black plumes-a kind of Robin Hood uniform-were clustered idly and curiously about the gate. They looked worn and red and wasted, and I fancied had taken part in the fight of the burning day which had made almost as many idiots as corpses in the Austrian army.

"A CONFIRMED BACHELOR" submits to the Easy Chair the confession of a married friend, upon which he asks advice. There is such pungency in the statement that it shall be also submitted to the great congregation of Easy Chairs in the country. And of all wives and mothers we ask whether such things can be? If not, why has this complaint such a pathetic air of probability?

"Don marry," says our woeful wight, "unless you can afford to hire an accomplished housekeeper and cook. As for me-let me undeceive you! I have no comfort or peace. If I want a decent meal I have to get it at an eating-house. My own house is mismanaged, misgoverned, and disorderly from one year's end to the other. My wife sits up till nearly midnight reading foolish novels. If the children trouble her she whips and sends them off to the servants. When morning comes she is so tired she can not get up until after the breakfast is on the table; and it is a regular Biddyfied breakfast, worse than ever I tasted in a four dollar a week boarding-house. Half the time I dress both the children in the morning and get them their breakfast. They live mostly on crackers, cheese, and milk, for there is nothing else in the house fit for them to eat. My wife comes down when we are half through, and gets the morning paper, and looks over it to see what matinées are to take place, and makes her arrangements to leave the children to the care of the servants; and then (while she well knows it takes all that I can do, by the hardest work, to support the family in such a disorderly and mismanaged way) she hounds me to death to run in debt and buy a piano and several expensive dresses for herself. Her mind and thought seem wholly directed to self-gratification.

ular articles of diet. The only way I can get them in my

"My health is feeble, and my doctor insists on partic

own house is by appealing to my wife's selfishness. No considerations of my health move her; but if I say, 'Give me such and such so many times and you shall have a new dress, then I may get it, but even then not always, for if it interferes with the matinées or reading of the last novel I can not have it. All appeals to sense of duty, to the principles of right, all expositions of the duty of unselfishness of purpose, are met with ridicule and laughter, with senseless quibbles, or with smart, impertinent speeches. When I talk of order and system, and lay before her plans of management, I am told that I don't know any thing about housekeeping, which is something different from every thing else. When sickness overtakes

voked with the bother of it. But if I am violently ill, and the grave opens at my feet, as it has often done, she consoles me by saying, 'Dear me what will become of me and the children if he dies and leaves me poor?'

Within the city the streets were broken up, and the paving-stones designed for barricades were merely roughly laid back again in their places. In the long vista of the streets there was no shop open. The only signs of traffic were the stands of the fruit-me, if it is slight I am ridiculed. My wife is greatly promerchants shaded by gayly-striped awnings, and covered with piles of glowing fruit. Multitudes of brightly-dressed people strolled idly and curiously up and down, and a company of sappers and miners marched by without music, but carrying their implements and their soiled accoutrements. They were dirty and draggled, like a corps marching across a battle-field to dig a hopeless ditch. There were no carriages moving; there was no noise, no hurry, no excitement, only that scuffling murmur which makes the silence of a great city so spectral. The stately Milanese women walked finely by. Their long black hair was drawn away from the forehead and folded in massive plaits; and the black veil that hung from the back of the head was partly gathered over the arm. Queen-like they walked, carrying the bright-colored fan which was raised to shield their eyes from the sun, or languidly waved against their bosoms. Forms of the Orient or of Spain the imagination touched them with pathetic dignity-matrons of a lost country.

-The yellow Diary does not stop here, but we must. The traveler to-day, descending the Alps to Como, will find the same Italy arousing to a greater struggle than that from the blow of whose defeat it was quivering when Radetzky sat down in Milan eighteen years ago.

"I can't earn any thing ahead. She wants me to get my life insured, but fortunately for me the Companies will not take it. If they would I am afraid that I would get but little attention even in the most dangerous illness. My wife considers children a great nuisance, and if they else. She can not understand why they cling to their fabother her she whips them, but whips them for nothing ther so. I proposed to join the army, and her objection was only this, that my pay would not be sufficient to support her; but as my services were refused because of my ill health I unfortunately (as Webster said) still live. She makes it a constant practice to oppose me in every thing. If she proposes something and I agree to it, then she changes her mind. I have reasoned with her of duty, of religion, and of justice, and the answer is that domestic duties are a drudgery, and she will make a drudge of herself for no man. She despises household matters as beneath her notice, and looks upon the care of her children as a degrading occupation fit only for servants.

"I have but one hope, and that is to get money enough to hire some thoroughly competent person under the name of a servant to care for my children, and a skilled cook to give them wholesome food. Yet I do not hate my wife. I can not forget that she is all that is left to me of the idol of my youthful heart. God in His all-wise providence has sent this affliction upon me, and I will bear the burden patiently, hoping not only that I may be purified

thereby, but also that the time and years may change her thoughts and feelings.

"I have told you these things that you may rid your self of the idea that all is bliss in the married state."

The Bachelor says that he is of opinion that his friend John was suffering from an unusually severe indigestion. He declares that the wife in question is one of the most "pleasant, agreeable, and chatty ladies in the whole circle of my acquaintance," and that he never dreamed but that she and her husband lived in the utmost happiness. "For aught I see," says this sententious philosopher, "John must grin and bear it." The Easy Chair, M.D., is, however, of a different opinion. There is a specific for such

OUR

cases-he will not say a panacea-which is very simple, and which he herewith prescribes for the present patient:

Take equal parts of reason, resolution, and patience; combine them, and take unintermittingly until a cure is effected. In a chronic case, like the one now presented, miraculous results must not be immediately expected. Moreover all the ingredients, and especially, perhaps, the patience, must be of the very finest quality, and perfectly able to bear the utmost exposure. Keep up a good heart, never say die, and ply the remedy unweariedly, and it can hardly fail to cure. It may not produce love, | but it will restore it.

Monthly Record of Current Events.

UNITED STATES.

UR Record closes on the 2d of July. Of events at home there is little of special interest to record, beyond the passage in both Houses of Congress of a joint resolution recommending to the States the adoption of certain important Amendments to the Constitution, and the President's Message expressing his dissent from the measure.-In Europe the long-impending war has fairly broken

out.

We give a brief resumé of the leading points of the facts and authenticated reports, coming down to the 18th of June, when war was formally declared by Prussia and Italy against Austria.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

The joint resolution of the Reconstruction Committee, proposing Amendments to the Constitution, after considerable modifications, passed the Senate, on the 8th of June, by a vote of 33 to 11, and was returned to the House, where it passed, on the 13th, by a strict party vote of 120 to 32. Certified copies of the resolution were, as the law prescribes, sent by the Secretary of State to the Governors of each of the States. The resolution as proposed and originally passed in the House on the 10th of May was given in our Record for June. The following is the form in which it finally passed both Houses:

Sec. 3. That no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-Presi ed States, or under any State, who, having previously dent, or hold any office, civil or military, under the Unittaken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legisla ture, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disabilities.

Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppress ing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts,

obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Sec. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article.

that to Section 1 a provision is added declaring all The principal changes from the original form are persons born or naturalized in the United States to be citizens thereof; Section 2 is altered only verbal ly; Section 3 is entirely different; and to Section 4 is added a provision declaring the inviolability of the public debt of the United States.-On the 24th the President sent a Message to Congress setting forth his objections to this proposed Amendment, Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives although his sanction is not required to give it of the United States of America, in Congress assembled validity. The President says: "The steps taken by (two-thirds of both Houses concurring), That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several the Secretary of State [in transmitting the resolu States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United tion to the Governors] are to be considered as pureStates, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Leg-ly ministerial, and in no sense whatever committing islatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:

ARTICLE

Sec. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the States wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or happiness, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection

of the laws.

the Executive to an approval or recommendation of the Amendment to the State Legislatures or to the people." He thinks, on the contrary, that no Amendment should be proposed by Congress until after the admission of loyal Senators and Representatives from the States which are now unrepresented.

THE FENIANS IN CANADA.

Toward the end of May considerable numbers of Fenians made their way in small parties toward the Canadian frontiers. Buffalo and Malone in New

Sec. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever the right to vote at any elec-York, and St. Albans in Vermont, were the main tion for the choice of electors for President and Vice-Presi- points of rendezvous. On the 1st of June a considdent, representatives in Congress, executive and judicial erable body crossed the border at Buffalo, and bad officers, or members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being 21 years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such State.

one or two slight skirmishes with the Canadian troops and volunteers. They were driven back, and many of them, on recrossing the lines, were made prisoners by the United States authorities. Meanwhile the President issued, on the 6th, a proclamation denouncing the hostile enterprise as a high

misdemeanor, directing the authorities to arrest all engaged in it, and instructing General Meade to employ the land and naval forces of the United States and the militia to prevent the execution of the invasion. No supplies or arms were allowed to pass to those in Canada, and most of those who had crossed made their way back. Another crossing was made, a few days later, near St. Albans, but it shared the same fate as the former one. The officers of the Fenian army were mainly arrested and held to bail; the privates were released and sent to their homes at the cost of the United States.

SOUTHERN AMERICA.

Under date of June 4, Mr. Bigelow, our Minister to France, relates an interview between himself and M. Drouyn de Lhuys. The purport is that the French Minister of Foreign Affairs said that it was the purpose of the French Government, "for its own convenience, and for no other reason," to withdraw its troops from Mexico within the time specified (from November, 1866, to November, 1867) "at the very latest, sooner if climate and other controlling considerations permitted; and it was not its intention to replace them by troops from any other quarter." As to the reported shipment of troops from Austria to Mexico, that was a subject with which France had nothing to do.-Mr. Motley, our Minister to Austria, furnishes the correspondence relating to the reported shipment of Austrian troops to Mexico, the upshot of which is contained in a note from the Austrian Minister, dated May 30, declaring that "necessary measures have been taken to suspend the departure of the newly enlisted volunteers for Mexico." So that it seems clear that Maximilian will have to depend upon his own resources to maintain his position in Mexico. The desultory conflicts in Mexico tend rather against the Imperialists. The most notable incident is the capture, on the 16th of June, by the Liberals, of a large merchandise train, guarded by some 2500 men, proceeding from Matamoras to the interior.

causes: the geographical position of Prussia, imperfectly bounded; the wish of Germany, demanding a political reconstitution more conformable to its general wants; and the necessity of Italy to secure her national independence." He would have proposed that Austria should, for an equitable consideration, cede Venetia to Italy; Prussia should have more "homogeneousness in the north," which must be understood to mean the Duchies which she claims; and that Austria, having given up Venetia, should still "maintain her great position in Germany." In the case of war, which he judges imminent, he thinks that France will not be obliged to take up arms; but ever be the results of the war, none of the questions he adds significantly that he is assured that, "whatwhich touch us shall be resolved without the assent

of France."

We note the principal in chronological order. In the mean while events have been marching. Prussia, Austria, and Italy have kept increasing and concentrating their armies and armaments; Russia has moved large forces toward her frontiers, as was supposed in consequence of some understanding with Austria; the Prussians advanced into the Duchies, displacing the Austrian troops there; whereupon the Prussian Minister at Vienna received his passports, and the Austrian Minister was recalled from Berlin. Then a dispute arose in the Federal Diet between Austria and Prussia. The former demanded that the Federal army should be "mobilized" and a Commander-in-Chief nominated by the Diet. Prussia protested against this mobilization of the Federal army as a violation of the Federal compact; but the Diet, on the 14th of June, voted for the mobilization. There were, including Austria, 9 votes cast in favor, and 6 against it. The 8 votes cast with Austria represent a population of 14,000,000, and include the second-class States, Bavaria, Saxony, and Hanover; the 5 votes cast with Prussia are all from minor States and represent a population of 3,000,000. The representative from Baden, having received no instructions, did not From the River Plata our tidings come down to vote. The Prussian representative thereupon anthe middle of May. On the 2d, a sharp action took nounced that his Government considered the Fedplace at Estara Bellaco between the van-guard of eral Diet dissolved, that Prussia seceded from the the Allies and a Paraguayan division. The Paraguayans attacked by surprise, captured a battery of present Confederation, and submitted proposals for four guns, which they retained; but the Allies be- a new league. The Austrian Minister insisted upon ing reinforced, the Paraguayans were in the end that no member had a right to secede. The Diet the indissolubility of the Confederation, declaring forced from the field. It is said that the losses on passed a resolution sanctioning this view. Prusboth sides amounted to 5000 men, killed and wound-sia had before announced that any State voting ed. The Allies, at the latest dates, were advancing by land and river to attack Humaita, the first of the Paraguayan fortresses on the river.

EUROPE.

The proposition for a general European Congress has proved unavailing, Austria refusing to join it except on the condition that none of the Powers should be allowed any accession of territory. The Emperor Napoleon, in a letter to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, June 11, states explicitly the views with which he should have sent a representative to the Congress. "You would," he says, "have declared in my name that I repudiated all idea of territorial aggrandizement so long as the equilibrium of Europe was not disturbed. In effect we could not think of an extension of our frontiers except in case of the map of Europe being remodeled for the exclusive benefit of a great Power, and of the conterminous provinces demanding, by votes freely expressed, their annexation to France." The Emperor says: "The conflict which has arisen has three

for the mobilization of the Federal army would be considered to have committed an act of hostility against Prussia, and that, if war ensued, she would be guided solely by her own interests and those of her friends. Among the States which thus voted were the kingdoms of Saxony and Hanover. On the 16th, two days after the vote, Prussian troops entered both these kingdoms, occupying the capitals on the 17th and 18th.

At the hour when our Record closes the steamer brings intelligence up to the 20th of June, of which we condense the principal points. An engagement took place near Frankfort on the Oder between the Prussians and a detachment of the Federal army, in which the latter were defeated. Simultaneously on the 18th Prussia and Italy declared war against Austria, of course by previous concert. The Prussian Government sent to the various foreign courts a dispatch justifying its course. states that the action of the Diet on the 14th broke up the Confederation, and the law of self-preserva

It

tion compelled Prussia to secure herself against the action of neighboring States. A conditional alliance was proposed to Saxony, Hanover, and others, on the basis that they should reduce their war establishments, agree to appoint delegates to a German Parliament; and on those conditions they should be guaranteed all their rights and territories. These propositions were declined; and "as Prussia's geographical position does not allow her to tolerate in those States open or concealed hostilities while she is engaged in war in another direction, the Prussian forces have crossed the frontiers of those countries in order to prevent our being cut off in the rear while defending ourselves against Austria." A royal proclamation was spread among the people of the invaded States, declaring that, in seeking to make Germany a party in her war against a member of the Confederation, the Diet had violated the Federal Constitution, and that this being in effect abrogated, it was the duty of the German nation to form a new Constitution. And the measures which Prussia had taken were necessary for the defense of her independence, which had been threatened by the recent action of the Diet;" and "Prussia could not now tolerate either enemies or doubtful friends on her borders." Meanwhile the troops which had entered Hanover, Saxony, and Hesse-Cassel, had received strict orders to observe the most friendly attitude toward the people of those States, and in the event of coming into contact with their troops to avoid bloodshed as much as possible by endeavoring to induce them to lay down their arms.

In the Federal Diet a motion presented by Saxony, requesting assistance against the Prussian invasion, was passed by a vote of 10 to 5; Prussia not being present, and the representative of Baden voting with the majority.

The Emperor of Austria issued a long manifesto to his people. "On the northern and southern frontiers of the Empire," says the manifesto, "are arrayed the armies of two allied enemies of Austria, with the intention of shaking the foundations of her position as a European Power. To neither of them has Austria given any cause of offense. But one of the hostile Powers [Italy] deems no protest necessary to justify its lust for the plunder of a portion of the Austrian monarchy. In the eyes of that Power a favorable opportunity is a sufficient cause for war." In respect to the difficulties with Prussia the manifesto says: "Austria sought no conquests, and bears no part of the blame for the sad list of unhappy complications which, had Prussia's intentions been equally disinterested, would never have arisen, and which have been brought about for the accomplishment of selfish objects, and are not therefore susceptible of a peaceful solution by my Government." The Emperor assures his people that "in this conflict we shall not be alone. The princes and people of Germany are aware of the danger which threatens their liberty and independence, and not only ourselves, but also our German brethren of the Confederation, are in arms for the security of those objects which we are bound to defend."

Literary Notices.

The History of Julius Cæsar, Vol. II. By the pursued his conquests, without making them suborEmperor NAPOLEON. The greater part of this vol-dinate to his own personal interests. If he had ume is devoted to the history of the wars in Gaul. sought only his own elevation, in his military sucTaking Cæsar's Commentaries as the ground-work, cesses he would have followed an entirely opposite but abridging portions where there is a prodigality course. We should not have seen him sustain, of details, and amplifying where Cæsar more slight- during eight years, a desperate struggle, and incur ly develops his proceedings, the authors of this the risks of enterprises such as those of Great Britwork have produced a thorough history of those ain and Germany. After his first campaigns he great campaigns which have gained for Cæsar a need only have returned to Rome to profit by the place as one of the four great captains of the world. advantages he had acquired." All this, changing We say the "authors;" for every page bears proofs only the names of persons and places, is the Napothat many persons have labored long and diligently leonic representation of the first Empire. Toward upon this History. Every passage in contemporary the close of the volume occurs a passage which writers which can throw any light upon the subject reads like a vindication of Napoleon's own coup has been examined; surveys, explorations, and ex-d'état: "Cæsar was reduced to the alternative of cavations have been made; profound mathematical and astronomical calculations, often to establish a single point, have been performed; every mile of territory traversed by the Roman legions has been gone over in order to fix the localities and elucidate the operations carried on. The lifetime of no one man, to say nothing of one whose occupations are so numerous as that of the Emperor, would suffice to perform this preliminary work. But the whole of this mass of materials has been moulded and compacted into what we must regard as the most perfect military history extant. The volume details the events of ten years, closing with the passage of the Rubicon by Cæsar, and the inauguration of the civil war. The key-note to the whole history is struck near the beginning: "The sequel of this history will prove that all the responsibility of the civil war belongs not to Cæsar but to Pompey; and although the former had his eyes incessantly fixed on his enemies at Rome, none the less for that he

maintaining himself at the head of his army, in spite of the Senate, or of surrendering himself to his enemies." Ought not, asks Napoleon, Cæsar to have renounced his command? "Yes," he replies, answering his own question, "if by his abnegation he could save Rome from anarchy, corruption, and tyranny. No, if this abnegation would endanger what he had most at heart, the regeneration of the Republic. As chief of the popu lar party he felt a great cause rise behind him; it urged him forward, and obliged him to conquer, in despite of legality, the imprecations of his adversaries, and the uncertain judgment of posterity. Roman society, in a state of dissolution, asked for a master; oppressed Italy, for a representative; the world, bowed under the yoke, for a saviour. Ought he, by deserting his mission, disappoint so many legitimate hopes, so many noble aspirations?.... There are imperious circumstances which condemn public men either to abnegation or to perseverance.

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