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    [February 28,1857. j TH J^, jjjgA^ 3 LJk...

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    THE LIFE OF LOUIS NAPOLEON. Louis Napole...

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    The New Edition Of Bacon. The Works Of F...

    siderable extent and accuracy of erudition ; but he is at all times ready with stores of learning culled from the schoolmen , the Italians of the Renaissance ( Telesio , Campanella , Bruno , & c ) , and the writers of our own day , none of these being dragged in ostentatiously , but always justifying their appearance ; and over and above these stores , he has a remarkable familiarity with the scientific writers , so that Bacon ' s errors can be corrected and his anticipations confirmed by reference to writers on science from Galileo and Gilbert down to Faraday and Owen . We will cite a specimen or two merely to indicate the quality of these notes . Bacon , inquiring into the nature of whiteness , says : — "Yet it is no slight advance" ( we translate )

    " towards the discovery of the 1 ' orm of Whiteness , that two bodies an themselves more or less diaphanous ( i . e . air and water , or air and glass ) when brought into contact , in minute portions , exhibit whiteness from the unequal refraction of the rays of light . " Upon this , Mr . Ellis remarks : — "Bacon would perhaps have given , as another illustration of what he has h « re stud , the beautiful whiteness of frosted silver , if he had been aware that it is in reality silver foam . It appears that when silver is in a state of fusion , a very large quantity of oxygen is condensed on and within its surface , the whole of which escapes at the moment of solidification . This explanation of the appearance of granulated silver is due , I believe , to Gay Lussac . "

    Here is another note : "An excellent instance of the ' dcductio nonsensibilis ad sensibile , ' occurs in the experiments recently made by Messrs . Hopkins and Soule for determining the melting-point of substances subjected to great pressure . The substance acted on is enclosed in a tube out of reach and sight . But a bit of magnetized steel has previousl y "been introduced into it , and is supported by it as long as it remains solid .- A magnetic needle is placed beside the apparatus , a certain amount of deviation being , of course , produced by the steel within the tube . The moment the temperature reaches the melting-point the steel sinks ; and its doing so is indicated by the motion of the needle . "

    Is not this the kind of annotation which Bacon needs , even more than the citation of parallel passages which have only a literary merit ? We turn the page and read this note , which may be cited as a specimen of the more erudite annotations ;—" The epithet ' perfecta' is generally given to those- animals which cannot result from putrefaction . Coesalpinus in the Quosstioues Penpal ., v . 1 , maintains that all animals may result from putrefaction , and that this -was the doctrine of Aristotle . The same opinion had , I believe ., been advanced by Averroes . That mice maybe produced by equivocal generation is asserted as a matter not admitting of dispute by Cardan , J ) e Menem Varietate ; Ccesalpinus refers to the same instance , but less confidently than Cardan . It is worth , remarking that Aristotle , though he speaks of the great fecundity of mice , and even of their being impregnated by licking salt , does not mention the possibility of their being produced by putrefaction . ( J ) e Hist . Animal ., vi . 37 ; Problem x . 64 . )

    Paracelsus , De Iterum Generatione , affirms that all animals produced from putrefaction are more or less venomous . Telesius ' s opinion is that the more perfect animals cannot result from putrefaction because the conditions of temperature necessary to their production cannot be fulfilled except by means of animal heat . " It might have been ivell to have extended this curious note by a reference to Redi ' s Experimenta circa generationem insectorum , 1671 , which opened the series of experiments subsequently pursued "b y Wrisberg , Spallanzani , and others , and utterly routed , the partisans of equivocal generation . These three specimens will convey an idea of the quality of the annotations , but only actual reading can convey an adequate senses of their extensive erudition . We have left ourselves no room to speak of Mr . Ellis ' s views of Bacon ' s Method ; their importance demands a separate article , which we shall devote to them on a future occasion .

    [February 28,1857. J Th J^, Jjjga^ 3 Ljk...

    [ February 28 , 1857 . j TH J ^ , jjjgA ^ LJk _ . _ —~ __ 2 Q 9 _

    The Life Of Louis Napoleon. Louis Napole...

    THE LIFE OF LOUIS NAPOLEON . Louis Napoleon , Emjperor cf the French : a Biography . By James Augustus St . John . Chapmau and Hall . Several passages in tbe career of Louis Napoleon have been overlooked by the writers who have professed to compile his biography . Such passages are : —his flight with Queen Hor tense after the Restoration , his resideneo ^ tt St . Leu during the Hundred Days , his adventures for fifteen years after the battle of Waterloo , above all , his Italian enterprise , so courageous , so full of romance , yet so utterly neglected by the writers Avho have preceded Mr . St . John . The truth is , that the Cochelet Memoirs , and others of equivalent interest , arc little known in this country . Wo arc i ^ lad , therefore , to receive a biography of the French Emperor , constructed of the right materials and reviewing in detail every important event connected with his progress from the cradle to the throne .

    Louis Napoleon was bom on the 8 th of October , 1808 , not at the Tuileries , as the compilers say , but at the private palace of llortcnsc . When two years and a half old , he was baptized by Cardinal Fesch at Fontainebleau , . Napoleon and Marie Louise being the sponsors . His mother was at this time a favourite with the Emperor , dined with him almost daily , "worshipped Ins genius , trained up her children in imitation of his character , laboured , m point of fact , to reproduce him . Her beauty was extreme ; she had long fair hair reaching to her feet , and her manners were tender and graceful ! Louis Napoleon , always devoted to his mother , seemed sit an . early ii ^ is to profit by her teachings . When first confronted , suddenly , with u sweep , ho was seized with fits of terror , llorten . se reasoned his trepidation away : —

    Being ualce [ i one morning with his brother , the nurse left tlic room for ji moment . During her absence , a young Savoyard , na black aa Erebus , descended the chimney , and coming out into the nursery , shook himself , and filled the whole chamber wiOh a dark cloud . . Louis Napoleon , a light blceper , awoke , and was . seized with terror on beholding a sweep . Jlut soon calling to mind what Madame do Uoulicrs bad told him about tho poverty and misery of the little Savoyard * , he climbed over the railings of his cot , and running aeroHH the room in his night-shirt , and mounting on a chair , took forth from a . drawer hi . s pockul money , and gave it , purse and all , to the little Hweep . lie then tried to climb back into hia bed , but found it impracticable , upon which bin brother called the nur . se Hud this happened to any common boy , it would hardly have interested any one

    beyond his mother , or at most the family circle ; but the court adulators , converting the incident into an historical event , had the scene painted on a porcelain vase , which they presented to Hortense on her birthday . Having more money than she knowhow to spend judiciously , Josephine thought this an excellent opportunity for indulging in a little domestic extravagance , and formed the design of reproducing the sketch on the vase in a grand oil-painting . Possibly , however , the public disasters of France , which came soon after to occupy the minds of the Bonaparte family , prevented the execution of this project . At any rate , I have never seen such a picture referred to in the history of French art . Mr . St . John brings together a great number of anecdotes , some of historical , others of purely personal interest—but most of them new to English readers—to illustrate this period of Louis Napoleon ' s life . We select one . The boy prince had "been listening to a eulogy on Alexander , Emperor of Russia : —

    The next time Alexander came , he took a little signet ring which his uncle Eugene had given him , and approaching the emperor on . tiptoe , that he might attract no attention to his movements , he gently slipped the ring into the emperor ' s hand , and then ran hastily away . His mother called him to her , and inquired what he had been doing . " I had nothing but that ring , " he replied , blushing and hanging down his head ; " my uncle Eugene gave it to me , and I wished to give it to the emperor , because he is good to mamma . " The emperor Alexander embraced tbe boy , and putting it on the ring which held the bunch of seals suspended to his watch , said , with emotion , that he would wear it for ever . Mr . St . John adds : — In persons who possess a commanding position in the world , there is no more certain means of success than the habit of giving . Louis Napoleon seems always to have acted upon this conviction .

    The earlier years of his life are shown to have been full of strange adventure and romance . We have been chiefly interested ., however , by the story of the Italian campaign . Louis Napoleon was , in 1830 , a proiessed Republican avowing more concern for the affairs of others than for his own . He had been in the habit of paying an annual visit to Italy with his mother . Nearly all the members of lis family were there , in Tuscany or the Roman States ; they possessed palaces at Ancona , at Florence , and in the Eternal City . His brother inhabited one of the old Florentine palaces . The young King of Rome . -was at Vienna . Louis was impatient to act , and proposed a Greek crusade , but bis mother begged him to accompany her to Rome , where , in November , 1830 , tbey took up their residence-. — What the designs of the family really were at this time , it is now impossible to determine ; but from many circumstances which they themselves had suffered to transpire , it seems perfectly clear that they were all , male and female , deeply engaged in fomenting the troubles of Italv .

    The whole country , from the Alps to the Faro of Messina , was in a state of revolutionary excitement ; but the effervescence was greatest in R , omagna . Travellers were stopped in the streets by eager citizens , inquiring about the dynastic change at Paris . Unfortunately for the Italians , however , the Duke of JSlodena had been admitted into the secret of their designs , which he hoped to . . work , in favour of his own ridiculous pretensions to the crown of Italy . The younger Buonapartes , also—perhaps the elder—were among the initiated . Excluded from France by the strategy of Louis Philippe , they trusted that events might prosper their ambition in the Italian peninsula , "degraded" as- Louis Napoleon wrote , "by the most brutal system of despotism . " Mr . St . John says : — .

    I do not lay much stress on . the republican professions of Louis Napoleon and hia brother . If they were sincere , which is of course possible , they would in all likelihood have taken advantage of circumstances to raise themselves on the ruins of the ltepublic ; the younger certainly would . However , the point on which I desire to insist at present is , that Louis Napoleon , in 1830 and 1831 , - wa 3 a conspirator , and attempted to subvert the established governments of Italy foT the professed purpose of founding a Republic . The disorders in Rome increased . Louis Napoleon appeared in the streets on horseback , and waved a tricolor ; the Pope sent a troop ot horse to seize and conduct him to the frontier . Speedily , however , he was in Rome again , a leader of the insurrection , and wrote thus to calm ' the fears of his mother -. — Your affection will enable you to understand us . We have entered into engagements and must keep them ; and the name we bear compels us to aid those unhappy populations which invite us to assist them .

    Louis Napoleon and his brother were raised to hi gh distinction in the insurgent army , but they soon proved that they possessed none of the military genius of their uncle . They were accordingly deprived of their commands , which were conferred on Generals Sercognuni and Armandi : — L > ouia Napoleon and his brother were in the meantime beset with still greater inquietudes . Nothing succeeded according to their expectations . The greatest consternation prevailed at Romo . People exclaimed on all sides that their name wus the signal lor invasion , and diplomacy in fact made iu the pretext of that intervention which had previously been decided upon . The letter of an ambassador , which fell into their mother's hands , spoke of her sons in the following terms : — - " These young men , who still fancy themselves imperial princes , if taken prisoners , will soon find what they really are , by the manner in which we shall treat them . "

    Of course , the elder members of the family professed to deplore the conduct of these rash young- men ; hut , hud they succeeded , Louis , Jl . ortense , and the rest of that avaricious connexion would doubtless have been glad to circle once more about a throne . Soon , however , disastrous portents gathered over the Italian revolution ; its leaders were disunited ; on all sides tins liuonupartcs were suspected ( an Itulian naturally suspects a Buonaparte ) ; Louis -Nsipoleon ' a brother died ; the reaction was making way ; and Loui . s himself , assailed by measles during his . flight , was for several days in mortal danger . Dressud in menial livery he at length escaped from Ancona ; at Camoscia he alept all uight in a court-yard on a heap of stones . Tho incidents of this journey resemble thoHC of the moat romantic episodes in the early life of Charles 11 . lie is next met with in England , and then in Switzerland , composing theories and rhapsodies : — hi a littlo piece entitled " The Exile , " there ia a passage which should bo whispered

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28021857/page/17/