nourable
and lucrative employments. The principal aim of the Revolution was
to abolish those privileges." He then declared the advantages of the
Revolution. "It had established the right of every citizen,
according to his merit, to attain to every employment; it had broken
down the arbitrary divisions of the provinces, and out of many
little nations formed a great one. It made the civil and criminal
laws the same every where--the regulations and taxes the same every
where. The half of the country changed its proprietors."

This statement is true, and yet the mask is easily taken off the
Revolution. The whole question is, whether the means by which it was
purchased were not wholly unnecessary. It cost seven years of the most
cruel and comprehensive wickedness that the world ever saw; and, when at
last its violence overflowed the frontiers, it cost nearly a quarter of
a century of slaughter, of ruthless plunder and savage devastation,
concluding with the capture of the French capital itself, twice within
two years, and the restoration of the royal family by the bayonets of
the conquerors.

Yet every beneficial change which was produced by the Revolution, at
this enormous waste of national strength and human happiness, had been
offered by the French throne before a drop of blood was shed; and was
disdained by the leaders of the populace, in their palpable preference
for the havoc of their species.

In the beginning of November, 1818, Sir Hudson Lowe communicated to
Count Montholon a despatch from Lord Bathurst announcing the departure
from Italy of two priests, a physician, a _maitre d'hotel_ and cook,
sent by Cardinal Fesch, for the service of Longwood. This news was
received by the household with joy, in consequence of Napoleon's
declining health. Towards the end of November he became worse; and Dr
Stock, the surgeon of one of the ships on the station, was sent for, and
attended him for a while. Liver complaint was Napoleon's disease in the
opinion of the doctor; the true disease having escaped them all. The
paroxysm passed off, and for six weeks his constitution seemed to be
getting the better of his disease.

The complaints of the governor's conduct appear to have been kept up
with the same restless assiduity. If we are to judge from a conversation
with Montholon, those complaints were of the most vexatious order. "It
is very hard," said Sir Hudson, "that I who take so much care to a