of NICHOLAS
JEAN-DE-DIEU SOULT, the last of the great Marshals created by the Emperor
Napoleon. He was unquestionably possessed of extraordinary abilities,
fitting him for eminence in many and diverse capacities, but it cannot be
said that he was of the first rank of illustrious generals, as the world
has been led to suppose, chiefly by the masterly but partial delineations
of his career in the Peninsula by General Napier. He had a genius for war
which qualified him for every position in connection with it but that of
leader in the field. The subtle and irreversible decisions of Napoleon
followed his astonishingly quick apprehensions of facts, as suddenly as
the thunderbolt follows lightning; but Soult, profoundly familiar with all
the arts of war, and surpassing any of the great commanders with whom he
was associated except only his chief, in the wisdom of his judgments, was
yet so slow in his intellectual operations, so destitute of the
enthusiasm, passion, and fire, which in high circumstance give an almost
miraculous activity to the minds of the first order of men, that he could
never have entitled himself to all the precedences he has received in
history. Napoleon understood him, and in a few pregnant words addressed to
O'Meara, gave that measure of his character which will be adopted as the
final opinion of the world. "He is," said Napoleon, "an excellent minister
at war, or major-general of an army, one who knows much better how to
manage an army than to command in chief."

The course of Soult as a citizen, a legislator, and a minister, was not
one upon which his best biographers will linger with much satisfaction.
The glory he had achieved as one of the lieutenants of Napoleon, in that
turbulent and grand career which has no parallel for interest or
importance in human history, was his only claim to distinction in
politics. His master had an ambition as fair in its proportions as it was
vast in its extent, and brought to every purpose the same forces of
character and preternatural energy of intelligence; but Soult had no love
for civil duties, but little capacity for them, and he accepted place as a
gratification of vanity or a means of success in mercenary aims. We see in
all his private and political life "the soilure of his revolutionary
origin,"--proofs that he loved money and power far more than he loved
honor, and himself far more than his country or mankind.

The last of the imperial marshals, the last o