nothing." Bonaparte had passed through all the degrees of military service; but, also, was citizen before he was emperor, and so had the key to citizenship. His remarks and estimates discovered the information and justness of measurement of the middle class.

His

Those who had to deal with him found that he was not to be imposed upon, but could cipher as well as another man. When the expenses of the empress, of his household, of his palaces, had accumulated great debts, Napoleon examined the bills of the creditors himself, detected overcharges, errors, and reduced the claims by considerable sums. grand weapon, namely, the millions whom he directed, he owed to the representative character which clothed him. He interests us as he stands for France and for Europe; and he exists as captain and king only as far as the Revolution, or the interest of the industrious masses, found an organ and a leader in him.

In the social interests he knew the meaning and value of labor, and threw himself naturally on that side. The principal works that have survived him are his magnificent roads. He filled the troops with his spirit, and a sort of freedom and companionship grew up between him and them which the forms of his court never permitted between the officers and himself. They performed under his eye that which no others could do. The best document of his relation to his troops is the order of the day on the morning of the battle of Austerlitz, in which Napoleon promises the troops that he will keep his person out of reach of fire. This declaration, which is the reverse of that ordinarily made by generals and sovereigns on the eve of a battle, sufficiently explains the devotion of the army to their leader.

Emerson.

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

(OCT. 25, 1854).*

Ir the exhibition of the most brilliant valor, of the excess of courage, and of a daring which would have reflected

* "France had (1853) obtained from the Porte concessions in favor of the Latin Church at Jerusalem; and Russia sought similar indulgences in favor of the Greek Church at the same place. In the settlement of the conflicting claims of the two churches the Sultan appears to have been, in the estimate of the Czar, not so liberal or complaisant in his dealings with him as with the Emperor Napoleon. The Porte tendered amends for this apparent slight, and which seem to have been accepted, but not forgotten. Prince Menzikoff was despatched to Constantinople, and the object of his mission only partly disclosed; it was said to refer exclusively to the Jerusalem churches, but was found to involve questions far more important, and which the prince studiously concealed. The demands that Russia now made extended to all the Greek churches of Turkey, to which belonged several millions of its population, and the substitution of her own authority in place of that of the Porte in matters pertaining to ecclesiastical government. These demands were enforced with a threat of Russian coercion if not implicitly, and without the alteration of a word, complied with within the space of a week.

"To such insulting dictation submission, with national honor, was impossible. Compliance with Prince Menzikoff's peremptory note would have manifestly been subversive of the independence of Turkey, and made the Sultan only a vassal-partner with the Czar in the government of his dominions. Certain privileges had been conceded by the Porte to its Christian subjects, and were guaranteed by treaty with Russia; but what the Emperor now aspired to was to be Pope in Turkey as well as in his own territory, and to exercise the same indisputable authority in the East that the see of Rome in the Dark Ages exercised in western Europe. The Porte offered fresh securities for the religious privileges and immunities of Christians; but, this tender being made in concert with the great powers of Europe, not directly and specially with Russia, it was rejected. Following up the menace of self-redress, the Russian army crossed the boundary line of the Pruth, July 2nd, and in the same month took military possession of the Moldo-Wallachian provinces as a

lustre on the best days of chivalry, can afford full consolation for the disaster of this day, we can have no reason to regret the melancholy loss which we sustained in a contest with a savage and barbarian enemy.

Several battalions of Russian infantry crossed the Tcher

nay,

and they threatened the rear of our position and our communication with Balaklava. Their bands could be heard playing at night by the travellers along the Balaklava road to the camp, but they "showed but little during the day, and kept up among the gorges and mountain passes, through which the roads to Inkerman, Simpheropol, and the south-east of the Crimea wind towards the interior. The position we occupied in reference to Balaklava was supposed by most people to be very strongeven impregnable. Our lines were formed by natural mountain slopes in the rear, along which the French had made very formidable entrenchments. Below those entrenchments, and very nearly in a right line across the valley beneath, are four conical hillocks, one rising above the other as they recede from our lines; the furthest, which joins the chain of mountains opposite to our ridges, being named Canrobert's Hill, from the meeting there of that general with Lord Raglan after the march to Balaklava. On the top of each of these hills the Turks had thrown up earthen redoubts, defended by 250 men each, and armed with two or three guns, some heavy ship guns, lent by us to them, with one artilleryman in each redoubt to look after them. These hills cross the valley of Balaklava at the distance of about two and a half miles from the town. Supposing the spectator, then, to take his stand on

' material guarantee' of Ottoman humiliation. This open violation of treaties, and defiance of the usages of civilised states, was met by the counter-approach of the combined fleets of England and France towards the Dardanelles. As the only alternative against unprovoked aggression, the Porte, September 27th, 1854, declared war against Russia, and the allied fleets advanced to their aid."

Wade.

one of the heights forming the rear of our camp before Sebastopol, he would see the town of Balaklava with its scanty shipping, its narrow strip of water, and its old forts on his right hand; immediately below he would behold the valley and plain of coarse meadow land, occupied by our cavalry tents, and stretching from the base of the ridge on which he stood to the foot of the formidable heights at the other side, he would see the French trenches lined with Zouaves a few feet beneath, and distant from him, on the slope of the hill, a Turkish redoubt lower down, then another in the valley, then, in a line with it, some angular earthworks, then, in succession, the other two redoubts up to Canrobert's Hill. At the distance of two or two and a half miles across the valley there is an abrupt rocky mountain range of most irregular and picturesque formation, covered with scanty brushwood here and there, or rising into barren pinnacles and plateaux of rock. In outline and appearance this portion of the landscape is wonderfully like the Trosachs. A patch of blue sea is caught in between the overhanging cliffs of Balaklava as they close in the entrance to the harbor on the right. The camp of the marines, pitched on the hill sides, more than 1000 feet above the level of the sea, is opposite to you as your back is turned to Sebastopol and your right side towards Balaklava. On the road leading up the valley, close to the entrance of the town, and beneath these hills, is the encampment of the 93rd Highlanders.

At half-past seven o'clock this morning, an orderly came galloping in to the head-quarters' camp from Balaklava, with the news that at dawn a strong corps of Russian horse, supported by guns and battalions of infantry, had marched into the valley.

As the Russian cavalry on the left crown the hill across the valley, they perceive the Highlanders drawn up at the distance of about half a mile, calmly waiting their approach. They halt, and squadron after squadron flies up from the

rear, till they have a body of some 1500 men along the ridge— lancers, and dragoons, and hussars. Then they move forwards in two bodies, with another in reserve. The cavalry who have been pursuing the Turks on the right are coming up to the ridge beneath us, which conceals our cavalry from view. The heavy brigade in advance is drawn up in two lines. The first line consists of the Scots Greys, and of their old companions in glory, the Enniskillens, the second, of the 4th Royal Irish, of the 5th Dragoon Guards, and of the 1st Royal Dragoons. The Light Cavalry Brigade is on their left, in two lines also. The silence is oppressive; between the cannon bursts one can hear the champing of bits and the clink of sabres in the valley below. The Russians on their left drew breath for a moment, and then in one grand line dashed at the Highlanders. The ground flies beneath their horses' feet; gathering speed at every stride, they dash on towards that thin red streak topped with a line of steel. The Turks fire a volley at eight hundred yards, and run. As the Russians come within six hundred yards, down goes that line of steel in front, and out rings a rolling volley of Minié musketry. The distance is too great, the Russians are not checked, but still sweep onwards through the smoke, with the whole force of horse and man, here and there knocked over by the shot of our batteries above. With breathless suspense every one awaits the bursting of the wave upon the line of Gaelic rock; but ere they come within a hundred and fifty yards, another deadly volley flashes from the levelled rifle, and carries death and terror into the Russians. They wheel about, open files right and left, and fly back faster than they came. "Bravo, Highlanders! well done!" shout the excited spectators; but events thicken. The Highlanders and their splendid front are soon forgotten; men scarcely have a moment to think of this fact, that the 93rd never altered their formation to receive that tide of horsemen. "No," said Sir Colin Campbell, "I did not think