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      808 The Leader, [No. 438, Auaust 14 Isw

      808 THE LEADER , [ No . 438 , AuausT 14 isW

      Y 3l Iterrttttr^*

      33 ttrataw .

      —?—Critics Are Not The Legislators, But ...

      —?—Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not mate laws—they interpret and try to enforce them .- —Edinburgh Review .

      ¦ -? -¦ ¦ Napoleonic Books. Lettres De N...

      ¦ - ? - ¦ ¦ NAPOLEONIC BOOKS . Lettres de Napoleon T . Paris . L'Antickita dei Bonapartt . Di F . Stefaro . Venice . Eistoire de L'ltnperatrice Josephine . Par M . Joseph Aubenas . Paiis . Towards the end of February was published the first volume of the Correspondence of Napoleon I . It is a goodly volume , large quarto , issued from the imperial printing-press with unequalled typographical magnificence , " regardless of cost ; " and , so far as printing , paper , and binding are concerned , the work will take Jigh rank , among rare editions , in the libraries of bibliomaniacs , for it is a remarkable specimen of typography as a fine art . The Roxburgh Club will doubtless give it the place of honour in their collection . The very magnificence of the work , however , renders it a sealed book to the million . Accordingly , the present month is to witness its publication in a cheaper and more homely form for general circulation , in . order that the earliest Napoleonic ideas may permeate the masses and take root in the popular mind . Whether such a result will be ultimately achieved is a question which time alone Can decide . Meanwhile , one thing is certain ; the

      publication of the Correspondence and its quotation piecemeal in the Moniteur have ruffled the national spirit in Austria , and irritated the Austrian army , from the Emperor downwards , to a degree quite unexpected and altogether unprecedented . If we are to credit the rumours in circulation , the revival * with so much pomp and in so significant a manner , of the opinions entertained by the victor ofMarengo of the Austrian Empire and its most illustrious servants , has been the cause of that coolness evinced by . Francis-Joseph towards his imperial brother , which the learned Thebans of the Cotistitutionnel

      have endeavoured to resent in language as violent and discourteous as mav be found ' in the Italia del Popolo , and which would fill Barclay ' s draymen with delight . ^ The Correspondence has been edited by a commission appointed by the Emperor , and composed of Marshal Vaillant , Minister of War , president ; that versatile prohibitionist and modern Admirable Crichton , the Baron Dupin ; General Aupick ( since dead ); Count Boulay < de la Meurthe ); De Chahuer , Director-General of the Archives ; Count de Champagny ; M . Chasserieu , Council of State ; Cucheval-Clarigny , Conservator of the Sainte - Gene-vieve Library ; General Count Plahaut : M . Armand

      Lefebvre , Councillor of State and Director at the Foreign Office ; M . P . Me ' rime ' e ; General Baron Pelet ; and M . Perron , chef de division in the Ministry of State . It is not likely that the result of this joint-stock editorship will falsify the old adage about" too many cooks , " us we shall presently see . The volume opens with a report from the Minister of Slate upon tlic " lofty importance of tins publication , " wli ich is followed by a copy of the decree instituting the commission , and by the report of the latter to the Emperor . This report is intended , apparently , to serve as a nreface .

      and it is to he regretted , perhaps , that the claims upon the space in the columns of the Times will not admit of its translation in extenso , for it must henceforth be regarded as a model of dedicatory literature which leaves Grub-street far behind . "Whether it be mere fancy or not , one sees in the report , or dedication , traces of that fine romanhand which noted down the military , naval , and commercial forces of Great Britain years ago , and which has praised and abused every system of government in turn . " The ruling passion conquers reason still . " mverthcleaa a few quotations may be acceptable . Ihe report commences in . the following independent and grandiloquent strain : —

      Sire , Augustus placed Crosar in the number of the gods , and dodicatccl a temple to Mm , tho temple lias disappeared , tha Commentaries liavo remained . Tour Mnjesty , wishing to raise to the chief of his dynasty nn imperishable monument , has ordnined us to collect and publish tlio political , military , and / ulininis . trative correspondence of the Emperor Napoleon I . Your Majesty lias comprehended that the most brilliant homage to render to this incomparable genius was to make it altogether known . No one is ignorant of liis victories , tho Taws with which lie qndoweU our country , tho institutions that ho established and which have remained immovable after bo many rovolutiona ; his

      victories and reverses are in all mouths ; History has related -what he has done , but she has not always known his designs ; she had not the secret of the many admirable combinations which fortune baffled , of the many grand projects for the execution of which time alone-was wanting . The traces of the thoughts of Napoleon were dispersed , it was necessary to unite and bring them to light . After dwelling with complacency upon the fact of having read over some thousands of letters , and expressing regret for the few breaks that occur in

      the continuity of Napoleonic thought , the editorial commission pitches its notes in a loftier key : — But that "which the reading of a correspondence so varied offers of the most surprising ( character ) , perhaps , is the power of that universal intelligence Avhich nothing escaped , -which in tarn rose , -without effort , to the most sublime conceptions , and descended with the same facility to the lowest details . Anon , soaring above the world , Napoleon traces thereon the limits of new states , sometimes his care is directed to the humblest hamlet of his

      empire ; his glance embraces questions in their entirety , plunges there in all directions , and penetrates their smallest parts . Nothing seems unworthy his attention when it "becomes a question of carrying out his designs , and it is not enough for him to give orders the most precise , lie superintends the execution himself with indefatigable perseverance . The letters of Napoleon cannot add to his glory ; but they make his prodigious destiny the better understood , the prestige he exercised over his contemporaries , the worship of which his memory is the object , in fine , the irresistible impulse by which France has replaced his dynasty upon the summit of the edifice he had constructed . . Of course the publication has not beeii undertaken from personal motives , nor yet to glorify the recorder of the reigning dynasty : —

      These letters afford , moreover , the most fruitful instruction . Thus is it in a vein of general utility thac 3 'our Majesty has conceived the idea of a publication which , always serious and practical , is addressed to peoples as well as to governments , to military men and statesmen no less than to historians . From the work , those letters which relate to private life have been omitted . It is not probable the omission will be felt to be a serious evil so much regretted , seeing the curious and copious information supplied in the History of Josephine on this point . But the editorial commission , if it has exercised the right of rejection , has abstained from any alteration of the original text of the letters

      beyond correcting tlie orthography . The crude and harsh criticisms of Napoleon on his contemporaries are maintained , and it may be easily imagined how harassed and annoyed many must feel to find their fathers spoken of in such terms . Grammatical errors have been carefully preserved Under the disguise of "slight incorrections of language , " for a reason which seems strange to come from Members of the Institut . These blunders " denote the impetuosity of the composition , and in many instances cannot be corrected without weakening the originality cf an energetic style , going straight to the object , brief and precise , like the word of command . "

      Ihe commission boasts of having examined upwards of ten thousand works published on Napoleon or his reign , and of having revised numerous documents from all parts of the world , among which are signalised letters to the sovereigns of liussia , Austria , Bavaria , Sardinia , Sweden , Wurtcmberg , and Hesse ; the collection , in forty-seven volumes of documents , relative to the campaigns of Italy and Egypt : the correspondence with the Prince Eugene , and with the dignitaries of the Empire . The commission also examined 40 , 000 documents in the archives of the Empire , 20 , 000 in the War Office , 2000 in the Foreign Office , 1500 in the Admiralty , and 1100 in the other offices of state and libraries , besides tho columns of the Moniteur .

      The first volume of the actual Correspondence of Napoleon I . opens with the siege of Toulon , m the year II ., and comprises a portion of the Italian campaigns , terminating -with tho defeat of AVurmser in tho year IV . It contains 1018 documents of varying interest , tho major part of which have not been published before . Tho IVench people who liavo been accustomed to look upon the republican nrinics as composed of unselfisli patriots , will doubtless be surprised to leurn that Napoleon did not at all view them in that light . In tho very first letter signed , by-thc-l > y , "Buonaparte , " the young Commander of Artillery of tlic Armv of the South , wrote to the Committee of Public

      Safety : " I have had to contend with ignorance ami tho husc passions it engenders , " and he asked that a general might be sent " who might , by liis rank even , contribute to the consideration and impose upon a

      ° ° V ! l 0 Rum i ses ofti je . staff with whom he 7 obliged always to capitulate and dogmatise / 0 de stroy their prejudice—4 th Brumaire , year IT VnT 25 , 1793 ) , Of the engineers and'Si y oP & Army of Italy General Bonaparte does not annei to have formed a more favourable opinion f £ i wrote to Carnot , 27 th Germinal , year IV ? Anril l ? 1796 ) , "The corps of engineers andartiE £ given up to most ridiculous gossiping . \ vT never thiuk of the good of the service , but alS the convenience of individuals . " And tli # » il * that by mistake fired orrand killed General ' La & he quaUfies . as "cowards . "—General Orders o ffi Floreal , year IT . ( May 9 , 1796 . ) The nilEJ °

      Densities and peculiar characteristics of the Arm *< £ Italy are the subject of constant comment ; In J » port addressed to the Directory , 19 th Germinal ™* 1 ? v vVW' % Gen - BoSSSSffi that he Jiad found '_ ' this army not only acstitute of everything , but without discipline , and in a ner petual insubordination , " and he moreover stated what is not so generally known , that a Daut > hh . N

      company Had . been iormed m which royalist or counter-revolutionary songs were sunsr , and that lie had sent before a council of war two officers accused of having cried Five le Roi . The 3 rd Flore ' al of the same year ( April 22 , 179 G ) , the General issued an order of the day , m which , after expressing satisfaction at the bravery of the troops , he said , "But he ( the General Bonaparte ) sees with horror -the .

      frightful pillage to which perverse men give themselves up who rejoin their corps after battle to indulge in excesses the most dishonourable to the army and to the French name . " Instructions were issued to arrest officers who , by their example , liad authorised the pillage that had then existed for two days , and moreover to shoot , according to the nature of circumstances , officers and soldiers who , by tUeir example , may have excited others to pillage . In a letter to the Directory , 5 th Flore ' al of the same year ( April 24 , 17 % ) , describing the battle ofMcmdovi , it is stated : "The soldier without bread is

      guilty of excesses of furor which makes one bluslito he a man . Tile capture of ^ Cera and Hondovi may give the means , and I ain going to make some terrible examples . I will restore order or I will cease tc command these brigands . " The republicans still affect to consider it . an insult that tins epithet should have been applied to their fathers by the royalists ; it is scarcely probable they will change opinion because the term was freely used by General Bonaparte . The generals commanding the Austrian Army are certainly not flattered .- Argcnteauwas beaten a plate couture , and Bcauleiu is represented

      as disconcerted , calculating badly , and constantly fallingj into tlie traps laid for him , possessing the audacity of fury but not of genius , while the Austrian Army is characterised by anecdotes which it may be presumed were intended for Buncomb , and which represent twelve soldiers going down on their knees before one French carabineer who fett upon them sword in hand , and , like Marlborough ' s Irish soldier , surrounded them . —Letter to the Executive Directory , 18 th Messidor , year IV ( July 0 , 17 SC ) . Of course the English fare no

      better . They arc represented , in a letter to Citizen Dupin , 4 th ISivosc , year II . ( Dec . 21 , 1703 ) , as having retreated at Toulon with such " unheard-of precipitation" as . to liavc left a great part of their tents and baggage in the hands of tlic republican army . And in a letter to Major Bonelh , dated " Head-quarters , Custiglionc , 2 nd Thcrmidor , year IV . " ( July 20 , 1790 ) , praising the endeavours to promote the union of Corsica to Franco , they arc held forth as " cea orgutillettx Anglais . " ( To he ootttinued . )

      English Surnames. English Surnames , And...

      ENGLISH SURNAMES . English Surnames , and their place in the Teutonic Family . By Robert Ferguson . Koutlcdge n »< l Co . Some apologue similar to the familiar story o ^ Eyns and no Mi / ex may probably be found in the literature of every nation . To the botanist the b arren granite bears an interest in its scattered lichens : to the naturalist the meanest insect lws its liislory and associations . Everything , we suppose , lias Uh special-power to interest and instruct , could wo but find the- key to it . Mr . I ' erguson has opened this last issue of the I > ost Office London . Directory , ami has found it—if not such a companion us an ordinary man would care to sit under a tree will * "I " sunny afternoon—at all events not a dry hook . Jkj endless lists of streets , squares , and alloys , am trades , and professions—its double , closc-i > nnlcu

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14081858/page/16/