been the same, and there were times, when, not thinking himself secure even in Russia, he seriously thought of seeking an asylum in Britain. He was extremely liberal and beneficent; he gained by his writings large sums, but his expenses were certainly great, considering his very numerous family, and his love of a cheerful, convivial life.

Sand, the murderer of Kotzebue, first studied at Erlangen, but went, with special permission of the government, to Jena. In both universities his application and conduct are praised. Professor Mehmel, who is now deputy to the assembly of the states in Münich, confirms this praise. But this Charles Sand harangued his comrades, in the meeting of the German students on the Wartburg, and his speech is printed in the authentic account of the festival on the Wartburg, by Kiesar (a professor of medicine at Jena.) Entirely conformable to the enthusiastic ideas with which he spoke on the Wartburgh, is a paper found in the pocket of the assassin, a true copy of which has been communicated by the Baden minister, Von Bergstadt, to the governments of Germany. The infatuated youth had long devoted himself in secret to this deed, and has fatally executed it. Kotzebue, attacked by the assassin in the room where he received company, after he had received the mortal stab, pulled the murderer, in the struggle with him, to the ground; and it was then that Sand gave him the stab in the face, and a second in the lungs. Whether he had accomplices in Jena is not proved. The caricature which some students at Jena made upon Kotzebue, exactly on the day when he was murdered, is indeed suspicious; however, it is said to have been accidental. Almost all the inhabitants of Jena participate in the hatred of Kotzebue; and professor Oken, in the second number of his monthly journal, the Isis, for 1819, had, again, a wood-cut in ridicule of Kotzebue, and said plainly that such a worthless being ought to be scourged out of Germany. Certain as it is that neither Oken nor any other professor knew of Sand's plan, yet this shows how much Kotzebue was hated. He had some foreboding of his fate, and in one of the last numbers of his weekly Literary Journal, of which some thousand copies are read in Germany, said that his end was near. He was resolved after using the baths in Bohemia, to return to Russia. The emperor had promised to continue to him there his salary of 6000 silver roubles, but had by no means recalled him, as has been asserted.

It is remarkable, that the students of theology are every where the most licentious and the most unpolished. The students of theology are indeed, often, of poor families, and are therefore without the advantages of a polished education; but their study itself ought to supply the deficiency, if the professors understood how to impress

*It was Kotzebue's portrait, with a bat instead of a beard, and was nailed to the black board on which the names of persons declared infamous, such as fraudulent bankrupts, &c.are exposed. An inquiry having been instituted, a student voluntarily confessed the fact, and the chance which had induced him to it.

upon their hearts a true sense of religion; but many teachers of theology are rationalists.

Every where, even where Kotzebue was most disliked and ridi culed, as at Berlin, where even Iffland once called him a perfumed polecat, hatred has been appeased by his tragical death. The very day when the news of his murder came to Berlin, and was immediately announced in an interesting notice by the Prussian State Gazette, a new play by Kotzebue was represented for the first time, with all possible splendour, in the great opera house, where plays are now performed, till the theatre (which was burnt) can be rebuilt. It is called Hermann and Thusnelda, in three acts, with choruses and songs, and is composed in a grand style by Webber of Berlin. The house was crowded to excess. The piece, which has very fine scenery, and represents the victory of the Germans under Hermann (Arminius) over Varus and the Romans, and is therefore a national drama, made a double impression, because it was known that the poet had been for ever removed from the scene by a horrible crime. His Literary Journal, of which the third part (from January to June 1819) will certainly be completed, because the publisher, Hofman the bookseller, has MS. of Kotzebue's for a good while in advance:-circulated in many thousand copies all over Germany, and lashed without mercy every presumption and folly, in every class, and under every shape. It is to be wished that the proper publisher of all his plays and best produtions, the bookseller Kummer in Leipsig, may resolve to publish a selection from his 200 plays, and other interesting writings, made by a judicious critic. The selection might easily make 30 volumes.

ART. VI.-Memoir of Madame de Stael.

[From the European Magazine.]

ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE NECKER was the daughter

of James Necker, a Swiss, whose financial career contributed probably more than any other individual cause to accomplish the overthrow of the French monarch, and of Susan Curchod, the daughter of a Protestant clergyman in Switzerland, admired by Gibbon during his residence in that country, and at one time a governess in the family of the celebrated De Vermenoux.

Anne Louise was born at Paris in the year 1766, and, displayed what her parents might well consider to be precocity of talent, was educated entirely under their immediate inspection. The incipient fame of her father seems to have grown with her growth; and she could have been only about twelve years of age, when, in consequence of his eulogy on Colbert, for which he was crowned by the academy, and other publications, he was raised to the office of Div rector of the Finances.

Necker, though of humble birth, being only the son of a tutor in the college of Geneva, had previously realized a large fortune as a partner in the great Parisian banking-house of Thellusson and

Co. which he originally entered as a clerk; and his success as a private individual, was taken as an augury of success as a public minister, which was miserably disappointed by the result. It is unnecessary, however, to follow the fortune of the father through the fluctuations of his ministerial life; now dismissed, and now recalled; now the stanch advocate for royalty, and now the friend of the people; now "the adored minister," and now the abhorred peculator; now borne in triumph from Basle to Paris on the shoulders of an enthusiastic nation, and now flying from Paris to Geneva amid the curses of an enraged populace. These things were then common in France! Neither does it enter into our design to dwell upon the literary attainments of the mother, her charities and her philanthropy. Suffice it to record, that while Necker published political pamphlets, views of finance, and statements of administration, his spouse was no less devoted to works of benevolence; as is honourably testified by her Essay on precipitate Burials, her Observations on the Founding of Hospitals,' and • Thoughts on Divorce.'

Our only reason for noticing the parents of Mademoiselle Necker, is to account for her carly predilection for literary pursuits. She was educated for an author, and her first perceptions were directed to science and literature. Her infant ideas were associated with the intelligence of Marmontel, Diderot, Buffon, St. Lambert, Thomas, and all the learned of Paris who formed the circles of her mother. Her talents were cultivated, her taste was modelled, the bent of her mind was given, her opinions were confirmed, in short, her intellect was formed in this school; and the philosophy then prevalent in France, too often concealing dark principles under brilliant wit, and lapsing from the light of reason into the perplexities of abstract metaphysics, became the dominating principle in her nature, and imparted the tone to all her writings and life. As love of change and ambition were the ruling passions of her father, so were sentimental refinement and metaphysical confusion the besetting sins of her more amiable parent; and a disorganizing experimental philosophy, was the object of inquiry with nearly all those associated with her young ideas' and 'tender thoughts.'

To these sources may be traced almost every feature which marked the faculties, or distinguishes the writings of Madame de Stael. The events of the revolution only drew them forth; for they were implanted long ere it commenced.

Mademoiselle Necker was little more than fourteen years of age, when, in pursuit of his ambitious projects, her father published the memorable Account rendered to the King of his Administration,' which created so strong a sensation throughout France, and led to the resignation of the author's official situation in 1781. He then retired to Copet, a barony in Switzerland, which he had purchased; and six years elapsed before he re-appeared, permanently, on the public stage at Paris. In 1787, we find him in that capital attacking Calonne, and the years 1788 and 9 constitute the æra which so

intimately connected his history with the destinies of France, and the annals of Europe.

It was during one of the occasional visits of the Necker family to Paris, prior to 1787, that Eric Magnus, baron de Stael, by birth a Swede, was introduced to their acquaintance by count de Creutz, the Swedish ambassador. He was young and handsome, and succeeded in pleasing Mademoiselle Necker, who consented to become his wife. Count de Creutz was shortly after recalled to Stockholm to be placed at the head of the foreign department, and baron de Stael was appointed his successor. Thus dignified, and with the further recommendation of being a protestant, his marriage was not delayed; and the rich heiress, to the chagrin of many French suitors, became baroness de Stael Holstien. We believe, however, that this union did not prove to be one of the most felicitous. The lady was wealthy, young, and, though not handsome, agreeable and attractive; she was rather under the middle size, yet graceful in her deportment and manners; her eyes were brilliant and expressive, and the whole character of her countenance betokened acuteness of intellect, and talent beyond the common order. But she inherited to the utmost particle, from her father, his restless passion for distinction, and derived from the society in which she had lived not a little of that pedantry and philosophical jargon which was their foible and bane. Aiming more at literary fame than at domestic happiness, she was negligent in dress, and laboured in conversation; more greedy of applause from a coterie, than solicitous about a husband's regard; more anxious to acquire renown in public, than to fulfil the sweet duties of woman in private; the wife was cold, and the blue stocking ardent; she spoke in apopthegms to admiring fashion, but delighted no husband with the charms of affectionate conversation: to be brilliant was preferred to being beloved; and to producing an effect upon the many, was sacrificed the higher enjoyment of being adored by the few. The baron de Stael was a man, on the contrary, of remarkable simplicity of habit and singleness of heart. The opposite nature of their dispositions could not fail soon to affect connubial harmony; and though four children were the issue of this marriage, and what are called public appearances were maintained till the death of the baron, it is generally understood that there was but little communication between him and his lady beyond the legal ties of their estate.

In August 1787, madame de Stael was delivered of her first daughter, and immediately after accompanied her father in his exile, which was of short duration. Her other children were two sons and a daughter, but two only survive her, and one of her sons lost his life in a duel.

The year 1789 is designated as the epoch at which Madame de Stael embarked on the stormy sea of literature, by the publication of her' Letters on the Writings and Character of Jean Jacques Rousseau.' But previous to this period she was well known to the Parisian world by the composition of several slight dramatic pieces,

which were performed by private amateurs; by three short novels published afterwards, in 1795, at Lausanne; and by a tragedy founded on the story of lady Jane Grey, which obtained considerable circulation among her friends and admirers. Her reputation was therefore no secret when her first public appeal was made. The letters on Rousseau met with great success; and the budding fame of the writer was attended with all the eclat usual among our continental neighbours. This triumph was, however, abridged and embittered by the critical and rapid advance of the revolution; on the 11th of July M. Necker was involved more desperately in its vortex. While seated at dinner with a party of friends, the secre tary of state for the naval department waited upon him to intimate his banishment from the territory of France. Madame de Stael, whose whole life has been erratic, accompanied her parents in their hurried exile. A new political turn recalled them by the time they reached Frankfort, and Necker was once more reinstated in the administration, in which he remained fifteen months, and was then driven from office for ever to the retirement of Copet, where he died on the 9th of April, 1804.

Madame de Stael, who had gone to Copet in 1790, returned in the following year to Paris, and took an active part in the intrigues of that eventful period. At this time she formed or matured intimacies with Talleyrand, Sieyes, La Fayette, Narbonne, the ungrateful Lameths, Barnave, Vergniaud, and other characters dis tinguished for the parts they played in the constituent, legislative, and other bodies, whose operations introduced the germ of discontent into the tree of liberty. As the wife of an ambassador she was protected from the first violent shocks of the revolution; but the bloody ascendancy of Robespierre rendered all protection vain, and in 1793 the baron and baroness de Stael found it expedient to fly together to Copet. The duke of Sudermania, regent of Sweden, having acknowledged the republic, Mons. de Stael was appointed ambassador, and in 1795 returned with his lady to Paris. About this date she published her Thoughts on Peace, addressed to Mr. Pitt;' and is believed to have exercised a powerful influence over the manœuvres which distracted the governments of several ensuing years, especially as connected with the directory. Legendre, the butcher, who, on the 22d of June 1795, began to declaim against the spirit of moderation,' which he said was gaining ground, more than once denounced Madame de Stael and her party, as di recting the political intrigues of that time.

A domestic calamity varied the public tenor of her existence. She was summoned to attend the death bed of her mother, to soothe whose affliction, it is stated, she was playing on a musical instrument a few moments only before she expired. On this melancholy occasion Madame de Stael flew to her pen for consolation; a resource to which she appears always to have applied when pressed by care or grief, or smarting under the charges which party did not fail to heap upon her, or soured by the animadversions of cri