In 1792 the young man entered as a volunteer into a regiment raised by his native city. At Toulon he first exhibited the talent which was afterwards to render his name so eminent. At the head of a battalion he made General O'Hara prisoner. In the succeeding campaigns of Italy, under Massena, Buonaparte, Brune, Scherer, Joubert, and again Massena, he proved himself a very good, though not a venturesome soldier. He was incessantly in action: battle after battle, and combat after combat followed each other with a rapidity seldom equalled even in the revolutionary armies. His promotion was rapid, though not so rapid as that of some who were more enterprising. In 1798 he obtained the rank of general of brigade, and the following year he was placed over a division. In ordinary times such advancement could not be expected, but when men rose from the ranks to the chief command of armies in four or five years, it created no sensation. Throughout these campaigns, and one in which he served with the army of the Danube, he was remarkable for the discipline of his troops. In this respect he was exceeded by none of the republican or imperial generals. Besides, he was active, firm, confident both in himself and his followers, yet never betrayed into any step where success seemed doubtful. Sometimes his corps formed a portion of the grand army, sometimes he manœuvred at a distance from it; and on two occasions he was entrusted with a separate command; but whether acting in obedience to precise orders, or left to his own judgment, he gave full satisfaction to the general-in-chief.

1804.] Into the Legion of Honour he was admitted as a matter of course, but there was no marshal's truncheon for him, though he deserved such distinction much better than one half of those who obtained it. But he was not discouraged: he felt confident in himself and he looked forward to higher honours as certain to be attained whenever a new war should break out. His expectations were soon realized -- at least partially. He had not long taken possession of the Palace of Lacken, of which he had been appointed governor, when he was summoned to the German campaign of 1805. So well did he conduct himself throughout this and the following war, that, besides the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour, he received an annual pension of 20,000 francs, and the title of count of the empire.

The services of this general in Spain, where he remained from the first aggression of the French to their final expulsion, would require a volume. We can but enumerate the more striking in the order of their occurrence. In 1809 he covered the siege of Saragossa, obtained some success by manœuvring on the right bank of the Ebro, and twice defeated the Spanish general, Blake. The year following he took Lerida, defeated O'Donnell, and reduced Mequinenza and Tortosa. The year 1811 was still more eventful. He first reduced San Felipe, and, after two months of a vigorous siege, Tarragona. This last success brought him the long-expected and deserved dignity of marshal. Montserrat, Oropeza, Sagunto, followed the fate of Tarragona, and Blake was a third time defeated more disastrously than before. But the most important of his conquests was the city of Valencia, which surrendered January 9th, 1812. He ended this brilliant campaign by the reduction of two fortresses, which completed the subjugation of the ancient kingdom of that name; and the title of Duke of Albufera, with the investiture of that rich domain, at length placed him at the summit of his hopes.

His successes, however, were now over. The decisive battle of Vittoria forced a great proportion of the French troops to flee beyond the Pyrenees; it compelled him to evacuate Valencia, but he contrived to maintain himself for some time in Catalonia. One of his last acts was to receive Ferdinand, who had been released from Valençay, and conduct him to the Spanish army. At that time he was made acquainted with the momentous events which had just transpired in France. He sent in his adhesion to the king, and soon followed himself, to take, like others, the oaths of fidelity to that Prince, and, like others, to break them. To do him justice, he does not seem to have been conspicuously or eagerly a traitor. When Buonaparte returned, he was at Strasburg, commanding the fifth military division; and he maintained fidelity among his troops until the king had left France; when the current of opinion and events was too strong to be longer resisted. Still in some uncertainty as to his future course, Suchet hastened to Paris, but there he was soon persuaded to join his old master. He was sent to Lyons, to defend, not only that city, but the eastern departments, against the assaults of the Piedmontese and Austrians, and he had obtained some advantage over both; -- when the arrival of one hundred thousand Austrians at length compelled him to fall back on his native city. As he was still at the head of a considerable force, he was enabled to make better terms with the re-restored Louis than many other marshals. He lost for a time some of his civil, but none of his military honours; and in 1819 was re-admitted to his place in the Chamber of Peers.

Suchet is one of the very few French generals who have not stained themselves by rapine and inhumanity. He was, indeed, obliged to maintain his troops, by contributions on the vanquished inhabitants, but he never tolerated such excesses as disgraced the Victors, the Soults, and the Massenas. His severe discipline, his love of justice, his moderation, his humanity, have rendered his name respectable even in Spain.

He has lately Published an historical account of the operations of the French in that country, but we are sorry to say that his pages exhibit any thing except candour. No writer on the Peninsular war has paid less regard to truth.