he seems to reckon this
dirty wickedness among his hero's titles to public esteem.

Barere was, at the same time, an indefatigable journalist and
pamphleteer. He set up a paper directed against England, and called the
"Memorial Antibritannique". He planned a work entitled, "France made
great and illustrious by Napoleon." When the Imperial government was
established, the old regicide made himself conspicuous even among the
crowd of flatterers by the peculiar fulsomeness of his adulation.
He translated into French a contemptible volume of Italian verses,
entitled, "The Poetic Crown, composed on the glorious accession of
Napoleon the First, by the Shepherds of Arcadia." He commenced a new
series of Carmagnoles very different from those which had charmed
the Mountain. The title of Emperor of the French, he said, was mean;
Napoleon ought to be Emperor of Europe. King of Italy was too humble an
appellation; Napoleon's style ought to be King of Kings.

But Barere laboured to small purpose in both his vocations. Neither as
a writer nor as a spy was he of much use. He complains bitterly that
his paper did not sell. While the "Journal des Debats", then flourishing
under the able management of Geoffroy, had a circulation of at least
twenty thousand copies, the "Memorial Antibritannique" never, in its
most prosperous times, had more than fifteen hundred subscribers; and
these subscribers were, with scarcely an exception, persons residing far
from Paris, probably Gascons, among whom the name of Barere had not yet
lost its influence.

A writer who cannot find readers generally attributes the public neglect
to any cause rather than to the true one; and Barere was no exception to
the general rule. His old hatred to Paris revived in all its fury.
That city, he says, has no sympathy with France. No Parisian cares to
subscribe to a journal which dwells on the real wants and interests of
the country. To a Parisian nothing is so ridiculous as patriotism. The
higher classes of the capital have always been devoted to England.
A corporal from London is better received among them than a French
general. A journal, therefore, which attacks England has no chance of
their support.

A much better explanation of the failure of the "Memorial" was given
by Bonaparte at St Helena. "Barere," said he to Barry O'Meara, "had
the reputation of being a man of talent: but I did not find him so.
I employed him to write; but he did not display ability. He us