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    T H E himand the bride from whom lie ^ N...

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    A Priend In Need. A Fritnd In Need. A Ro...

    tion for him ; and joined the bride from whom lie had teen parted . In time a male child was born , parental instincts drove the couple to a violation of the unholy bond they had entered into . They fled , tracked by the minions of the marquis . Too late the unhappy Jules sought the grace of his ferocious parent . He was repulsed with insult , and charged with breach of faith . Foreseeing some attempt on his father's part to enforce the covenant , the young mother attached to the person of her infant a packet containing proofs of his identity and legitimacy . It was well and timely done . The next day he was it «* ' _ 5 * ^ J ^ ^ * ^ ' rf * ^ 1 ¦

    torn from her under circumstances of powerful interest . Tlie reader will hardly believe that the cruel marquis had no hand in this ; bat tlie child had been , in fact , seized by the emissaries of the Irish Earl of Glenarm , who , finding himself in precisely the same family difficulty as old De Harleville , and being much such another ruthless character , took the same kind of measures to enforce filial obedience . Maurice Hartigan , his gamekeeper , had been sent to France to possess himself of the heir of the Lisclillons , and had stolen the young Perignon by mistake . Hartigan ' s wife possessed herself of the identifying packet ^ and kept it secret from even her

    husband . ' The child was brought under their roof , and the wicked earl from time to time gloated over him as the symbol of revenge . In course of time , the youth became possessed of the certificates of his birth , bat although he liad been instructed in the French language by a priestly confederate of his grandfather , he remained a believer that he was the rightful heir to the Glenarm title , and that the said documents contained the proofs . It was by no means agreeable to the earl that the country should ring with the vainglorious claims of a scapegrace , and accordingly , when the supposed George Hartigan was on the confines of manhood , his lordship . renewed the atrocious persecution with which he had dogged his infancy .

    The details of a prolonged strife between these supposed near relatives , with memoirs of various subordinate actors , fill a whole volume , and lead up to , or rather back to , the garden rencontre of the ftrstchapter . We liave told how Miss Vandelenr assisted the fugitive . She little thought of the wretchedness she had accepted with his trust . She retired to rest but knew no sleep . Housed by the barking of her dog , she , like a true heroine , descended the staircase , hurried from room to room in search of

    some intruder , and at last finds herself , of all places iin the world , in the pantry , and face to face with the handsome stranger . In one hand he held a glittering steel—it was a carving-knife ; in the other lie brandished a shapeless mass—it was a . fragment of a loaf . The maiden ' s courage returned , while George Hartigan supped well , and poured into her romantic ear a fallacious theory of his own rights and wrongs based upon the contents of the packet- Unsophisticated Miss , "Vandeleur fell in love .

    They are soon affianced , but as the persecution of his lordship abates not , the course of their affections is by no means smooth . Priests , peasants and Laura Vandeleur's dog ' Bully , " all play parts in the interminable tangle of the plot winch the reader must unravel for himself if lie once opens the book , for although , as we observed in our opening remarks , A Friend in Need is neither the work of a practised writer nor of a very thoughtful observer , drags heavily in parts , and contains

    notable incongruities ; it is still the work , we imagine , of a fresh and prolific fancy , which alter a good deal more practice will produce better things . The Btory concludes with a refreshing surprise . Instead of the hero taking Laura to wife , she becomes Madame Reginald Devines , and he , as Count Gustave de Pdngnon , marries Miss ltosaliuda . Vining . We have traced the principal characters to the altar ' s foot , but as to the Vinings and the Devines , the Earl of Gleuurm , and Captain Vandelcur , \ vq must refer the curious to the book itself . Their

    appearance and functions on the stage of the novel are steeped hi the seething broth of the author's romantic fancy , and figure in some scenes of considerablo power . The struggle for life between Maurice Hartigan and his supposed son in tlie black basaltic caves of Larnc , when a certain Puther O'Muhony , after long aiding in the cruelties inflicted upon tlie hero by Lord Oleuarm , appears as his deliverer from imminent death , is ns powerfully written as any passage in the book . On the -whole , A Friend in Need fully justifies tlie title of "Romance" which the author has , perhaps from a due sense of modesty , applied to it .

    T H E Himand The Bride From Whom Lie ^ N...

    ^ No . 439 , Atoust 21 / 1858 . ] T H E LEADER . 841 ¦ ¦ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ' ^^^ S ^ M ^^ MBBfcBBBM ^ BBi ^^ BBBB ^^ MBBMII ^^^^ H ^ ZS

    " ¦ * ^ A L ^^ ^M ^ ^^M ^^ ^»— ^— ^^^^^^...

    " ¦ * ^ a l ^^ ^ m ^ ^^ m ^^ ^»— ^— ^^^^^^^^^^^ NAPOLEONIC BOOKS . Ijettra de Napoleon I . Paris . JL'Antickita dei Bonaparti . Di P . Stefano . Venice . JSistoire de VIvtperatrice Josephine . Par M . Joseph Aubenas . Paris . [ Second Notice . ] The Napoleon correspondence , which we noticed last week , is , in the course of the present month , to be published in , a popular form , with the avowed intention of propagating more extensively than has hitherto been done , and among all classes of society , the hero-worship of the founder of the present

    imperial dynasty . The costly edition has already been circulated among the members of the Imperial family and the wealthy courtiers of the Empire ; and portions have been allowed to transpire from time to time through the columns of the Monitenr , as foretaste of the literary or historical feast which is being prepared for the public and as whets to their appetite . But if we may judge from the tone of general opinion , the significant silence of the independent portion of the French press , and tlie indifference of the public , the hopes raised upon the publication of this correspondence are likely to be signally disappointed . It would , indeed , be a curious illustration of retributive justice—a

    striking example of the sure though slow vengeance of that terrible , and inexorable Nemesis which we are taught unremittingly pursues human errors and strikes down the loftiest reputations when built up upon wrong- ^ -if the correspondence of Napoleon I ., given to the world by the inheritor of his name and empire , for the purpose of increasing the influence of his fame and consolidating the throne of his dynasty * should produce entirely opposite results . Such , however , it is feared , will bethe case by many who are the warmest , if not the most demonstrative , supporters of Napoleon III . During the Restoration and subsequ . ently , the genius and marvellous deeds of the hero of Marengo , the victor of Austerlitz , and the martyr of St . Helena were made the themes of national

    lowers , to be of the earth less earthy , and seemed , gradually to throw off the frailties of mankind , until at last it was not deemed irreverent to represent his apotheosis on the dome of the new christianised church of St . Genevieve . Havingunconscientiously and unwillingly paved the way for . the government so much detested by the Orleanists and Republicans , these parties are now , perhaps , fated to behold tha work of their hands undone , the prestige and influence of Napoleon I . weakened , if not destroyed , by the Second Empire . The great magic of his name was chiefly due to the apparent superhuman qualities with which the arflatRmnprnr nrna VioUaity */! fn V » t »

    , endowed . His wul was law , aud his slightest wishes still hold binding , because he was fancied to be superior to all other men . Bat now , when the Government of the successor to his name and throne publish to the world the history of his frailties and errors , showing him stripped of imperial glitter , and brought out of the uncertain ana half-mystic liglit of far off battle-fields , the heroic figure becomes reduced to human proportions , and the idol of half a century sinks down into a mere beacou-mark of history . The accuracy of the correspondence , and the friendly or adulatory purpose of its publication

    cannot be doubted . Consequently , the work which is about to be issued by M . Henri P / lon ( his present Majesty ' s printersVfor the correct information of the people will be the standard by which Napoleon I . will henceforward be judged . That the result will be the dispersion of many illusions —> the sweeping of many cobwebs from the national mind—cannot be doubted . The military genius of Napoleon I . may , perhaps , shine forth more brightly ^ bat he will cease to bethe idol ofcivil and educatedFrance , for his character , in no other respects , will be brought down to its true level , while the reputation of his opponents will be proportionately enhanced .

    Inorder to rightly understand and fully appreciate the great and silent revolution which is taking place with respect to the popular idol in the public mind , it is necessary to include in this notice , besides the Correspondence of Napoleon I ., two other works which have recentl y been published at the instigation , or at least with the sanction , of the present Government . They are UAntichita dei Bonaparti , by Frederico Stefani , with an introduction , by Luciano Beretta , published in "Venice , and the Histoire de Vlmpe ' ratrica Josephine , by M . Joseph Aubenas , published in Paris . All three works have

    praise in order to be used as weapons of offence against the existing Government . The Orleanist conspirators against the elder fits de St . Louis , and the republicaus united to spread abroad the admiration and worship of oixe whom in secret they both hated and feared , hoping , under the shadow of his great name , to creep into power . After the wrong-headedness of Charles X . had made way for the advent to the throne of his " faithful cousin " •—la nteilleure des republigides—the republican party still pursued their old tactics against their former allies and present foes ; in the hopes of achieving success in tbeir turn . But they had'to contend with one whom thev had initiated into the secrets

    been extensively reviewed in the . Moniteur , in- the ordinary laudatory style , by M . Rapetti , who appears to hold the office of fiterary eulogist of the Empire , and have thereby received the greatest publicity that it was possible to give them . The first to be noticed is the " Historical Study on the Antiquity of the Bonapartes . " The fact that it should have been written by Italians , and published in an Austrian possession , is held to be of significant import .. But it may be doubted , if the attempt to prove the ancient lineage and noble descent of the husband of a daughter of the imperial

    of then * policy and provided with the plans of their campaign . The " citizen king , " however , took the wind out of their sails by becoming the loudest in praise of the heroic actions of Napoleon the Great , and the most prominent among the idolaters of the glory of the Empire . Louis Philippe replaced the statue of the Emperor , in historic costume , upon tlie Colonnc Vendome ; lie finished the arch of Imperial triumphs at the Barrierede VMtoile , and inscribed thereon the list of victories and names

    of generals that had illustrated the Empire ; he filled the galleries of Versailles with gorgeous paintings , more orless apocryphal , of Imperial battles ; he sent his son to bring back from St . Helena the mortal remains of the enemy of liis race amidst unheard-of pomp and magnificence ; and he spared no labour , no sacrifice of self-respect , to establish le culte des souvenirs de VEmpire . The object of this policy was threefold—to create popular force that mi g ht be wielded , when required , against the Legitimists , to deprive the republicans of the main element of their strength among the uneducated classes , aud to rally to himself that party which sighed for "the return of the Eagle , " by placing himself before the public as the restorer of Imperial traditions and the realiser

    Louse of Hapsburg will revise such recollections as will tend to cement the Austro-Frenck . alliance . For the descendants of the Casars and their people have always lookedupouthemarriage of Marie Louise with the first emperor of the French as a sacrifice to the necessities of the state , and as a monument of their national humiliation . On the other hand , the numerous classes of French society—from the new iioblc or suddenly enriched bourgeois , to the humble tiller of the soil—who without being revolutionists , are welded to the great principles of the revolution , look upon this elaborate endeavour to invest tlie

    Emperor with the prestige of ancient nobility as an attempt to separate him from the revolution of which ho professed to be the result , and which he was accustomed to state it was his manifest destiny to root in French soil and consolidate . To make the Emperor a nobleman by birth , is to place him in the ranks of those who are the least liked by the nation , and against whom , the efforts of the revolution were mainly directed . It is to make him yokefellow with the Mar aim de Carabas in bearing the

    of Napoleonic ideas . At no period was the heroworship of Napoleon I . carried to such an extent as during the period which elapsed from 1830 to 1848 . The conqueror of half Europe loomed all the more grandly in the public eye ns his epoch became all the more remote , and as liis history yore more the appearance of tradition . His individuality was swallowed up iu the representative of tlio glories and reverses of France , and was lost in tlie type of her popular force . To worship liis memory was an act of patriotism , a protest against foreign influence , and an assertion of national independence . As the histories that treated of his errors were held to be falso and mere inventions of his enemies , the Emperor grew by degrees iu the imagination of his

    folweight of popular hatred and ridicule , for it is to revive and give consistency to the doctrine that the arts of war and government are the inheritance of the nobility . How obnoxious to the French nation are these pretensions to exclusive privileges will be readily understood when it is remembered that every soldier believes he carries the bdton de mare " - chal in his knapsack , and that every spicier fancies himself competent to govern the state . According to the Antichita dei Bonaparti of Signori Stofani aud Bcrctta ( who are not the first and original discoverers of the nobility of the Boua-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1858, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21081858/page/17/