t the period of its composition, the imperial power was at its
height.

I have not selected one moment in preference to another for the
publication of Ten Years' Exile; the chronological order has been
followed in this edition, and the posthumous works are naturally
placed at the end of the collection. In other respects, I am not
afraid of the charge of exhibiting a want of generosity, in
publishing, after the fall of Napoleon, attacks directed against his
power. She, whose talents were always devoted to the defence of the
noblest of causes, she, whose house was successively the asylum of
the oppressed of all parties, would have been too far above such a
reproach. It could only be addressed, at all events, to the editor
of the Ten Years' Exile; but I confess it would but very little
affect me. It would certainly be assigning too fine a part to
despotism, if, after having imposed the silence of terror during its
triumph, it could call upon history to spare it after its
destruction.

The recollections of the last government have no doubt afforded a
pretence for a great deal of persecution; no doubt men of integrity
have revolted at the cowardly invectives which are still permitted
against those, who having enjoyed the favors of that government,
have had sufficient dignity not to disavow their past conduct;

Finally, there is no doubt but fallen grandeur captivates the
imagination. But it is not merely the personal character of
Napoleon that is here in question; it is not he who can now be an
object of animadversion to generous minds; no more can it be those
who, under his reign, have usefully served their country in the
different branches of the public administration; but that which we
can never brand with too severe a stigma, is the system of
selfishness and oppression of which Bonaparte is the author. But
is not this deplorable system still in full sway in Europe? and have
not the powerful of the earth carefully gathered up the shameful
inheritance of him whom they have overthrown? And if we turn our
eyes towards our own country, how many of these instruments of
Napoleon do we not see, who, after having fatigued him with their
servile complaisance, have come to offer to a new power the tribute
of their petty machiavelism? Now, as then, is it not upon the basis
of vanity and corruption that the whole edifice of their paltry
science rests, and is it not from the traditions of the imperial
government that the counsels