doubt whether the fatal inaction on 28th August 1813 was really due to sudden illness. They say that Fain is the only witness, and Fain notoriously cannot be trusted. The fact is known on the better testimony of Maret, Caulaincourt, St. Cyr, and Senfft ; to say nothing of Ségur, Fézensac, and Pelet. Ségur's narrative of the attempted suicide was confirmed to many people still living, by Count Flahaut, who was at Fontainebleau at the time. Our witness for the date of the momentous conference at Sommepuis is Lord Westmorland, the officer accredited at headquarters, who was present, and whose statement in his book, and in his letter published in Toll's memoirs, can scarcely be disputed. The assertion that, in Napoleon's boyhood, "his abilities do not seem to have excited wonder," is an instance of excessive caution. His mother said to Prokesch : "Au debut de ses etudes, Napoleon fut celui de mes enfans qui me donna le moins d'espérances ; il resta longtemps avant d'avoir quelque succes." And it is rather a balk to be told that the creation of the university "gave Napoleon the occasion for some striking and original remarks." He remarked that it was to be "un moyen de diriger [otherwise, surveiller] les opinions politiques et morales," and that there is no safety for the state "tant qu'on n'apprendra pas, dès l'enfance, s'il faut être républicain ou monarchique, catholique ou irreligieux." The studied vagueness of the author's style is inadequate at times to the intense definiteness of Napoleon's thought and speech. Oncken, who has been of some service to Mr. Seeley, might have satisfied him that the memorable interview with Metternich took place on 26th June, not 28th June, and lasted eight hours and a half, not ten. As to the dramatic passage, the best reason for thinking that Metternich reports it faithfully is that the emperor said the same thing both to Caulaincourt and to Narbonne.
The scheme of interpretation which contemplates the wars of the empire from the point of view of the continental blockade and the British shopkeeper falls short in Spain. When Mr. Seeley says that the invasion was an
