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Leader (1850-1860), 12th January 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 42, Untitled Article

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      Bahlen ' s conclusions , is , placed , in aa excellent position c £ or / pursuing the investigatittiii > yiaeloaeristudy « f ? the ? Scriptoreathemselves . - / Mr . Heysvood hasaiadded in san ^ appendix to -this volume , the . valuable xemavks of Von fioMaxon ^ eW ^ ek jextTactediponxhis Ancient India . The setMind -volume contains a cornanentary on . the opening portion of Genesis , ^< m . ; fiobleii wrotea commentary on tbe whole hook , but the traaslatienvis limited ; toi the first ten chapters which comprise the important ^ arratives of the Creation , the Fall , the -Flood , mad the Dispersion of mankind . Mr ^ Heywoodnhss enriched this volume by notes and < by additional Kemartks onithefioodj tbe Jias ^ lso inserted some interesting extracts on this subject « nd ontheEamdisaic myth from Professor Tuck ' s Commentary on Genesis . instead of quoting-from the more argumentative and critical portion of the volmnes 3 which would not be effective in the cursory reading usually given to newspapers , we will borroyr from them an admirable Hebrew myth which has arisen since the Christian era . We cannot agree with Yon Bohlen that it is " true to the spirit of antiquity . " The tolerance it breathes is unknown to the Books of the Law : —

      : 3 ? ococlse i& said to lave actually found this chapter in a manuscript at vairo . The Tali&ud too is supposed to have been acquainted with it . Saadi alludes to it in his ^ Bustan " ( see Asiat . Journ . iii . 315 ) . Taylor cites it in the middle of the seventeenth century , and it has now become generally known through the means of XranMin [ by whom it was communicated to Lord Kames ] , wio quotes it in hiB "JSketahea " aft a parable against intolerance . It runs as follows : — ' 1 . ! No > w it came to pass that Abraham sat at the door of bis tent in the heat of the day . 2 . And behold a man drew nigh , from the wilderness ^ and he-was bowed down with , age , and bis white beard-lumg down even to bis girdle , and he leant tiponlus staff . 3 . And when . Abraham saw him he stood Tip , and ran to meet him from the door of hoB -tent , and said , 4 . Friend , cotae in ; water shall be brought thee . to -wash , thy feet , and tb . au shalt eat and tarry the night , and on ; the , morrow TtJiotujaaayesti-gQ ^ tti tb . y way . -5 . But the wayfaring ; man answered and said , Let m . er I > &E ^ . tbee , re = inain ; Aunder , the tree . 6 . And Abraham pressed him sore ; then he turned and wen 4 iato the tent . 7 . And Abraham set before him cream and miltaad cake , aud . they eat and were satisfied . 8 . And when Abraham , saw that

      theman blessed not Grod , lie said to him , Wherefore dost thou not honour tbe AlTTMgh . for , the . Creator of the heavens and the earth , ? 9 . And the man answered , I Worship , not thy God , neither do I call upon bis name ; for I have made gods for myself that dwell in my bouse , and hear me when I call upon them . 10 ; Then tbe wrath ofAbraham was kindled against tbe man , and bestood up and . fell upon him , arid drove bim forth into the wilderness . 11 . And God cried , Abraham Abraham ! and Abraham answered , Here am I . 12 . And God said , where is the stranger that was with , thee t 13 . Then answered Abraham and said * Lord , he would not reverence thee nor call upon thy-name , and therefore have I driven him from before nay face into the wilderness . 14 . And the Lord said unto Abraham , Have I- borne with the man these hundred and ninety-eight years , and given him . food and raiment although he lias rebelled against me , and canst thou not bear with him . one night ? 15 . And Abraham said , Let not the wrath of my Lord be kindled against Ms servant , behold I have sinned ! forgive me . 16 . And Abraham stood up and went forth into the wilderness , and cried and sought the man , ' andfoundMm and led bim back into his tent , and dealt kindly by him , and the next morning lie let him go in peace . ' *

      Untitled Article

      "NAPOLEON EN DESHABILLE . The Confidential Corresvondence of / V / mW < v »» . "Rn-nnnnrte with his brother . Tntmh sometime ' : Xt 72 £ fof Spain ! selected and translated , wkk explanatory notes , from the " Mfinoires du ' Roi Joseph . " In two volumes . John MurrayJ Doubt and dismay may , have well filled the breasts of all thorough going Bonapartists , when first this correspondence was made public . Only " stump of Dagon" is now left to their idol , his image ia broken in pieces . Nothing is so perilous to the reputation of a hero as the publication of his private memoirs and familiarcorrespondence . It i& impossible , indeed , to deny that Napoleon ' s letters , whether addressed to his brother or to liis other generals , tend greatly to confirm his military reputation , which few persons were disposed to , gainsay . But to . his , character as a man they are most damaging ; of his pretensions as a genuine hero th e 3 ' are , utterly subversive . Only on one occasion does he . manifest any real tenderness of feeling , and even that may be partly attributable to wounded vanity . Owing to certain information received from Junot he bad conceived suspicions of . Josephine ' s constancy , during his campaign in Egypt ,. and in bitterness of spirit . he thus wrote , to Joseph from Cairo : —

      It ia also ^ worthy of remark that on the very day on which Napoleon an-^ ounCed his . divorce to the imperial . family , he wrote a long , cool , business letter to Berthier respecting the movements of the different corps d ' armee at that time in Spain . His personal feelings , indeed , seldom interfered with either- ^ jileasure *> r business . On one occasion after complaining that no courier had arrived for two days , he goes on to say : — Letters from Home mention that Salicetti ' s house has been undermined , that Ms children are killed , and he himself slightly hurt . How horrible ! lam impatiently waiting for details . I shot to-day at Mortefontaine from one o ' clock till four ; I killed twenty hares . The house looked to me even more frightful and uninhabited than it did four years ago .

      Charming juxtaposition . It is p leasant to know that anxiety for the life of a devoted partisan did not aflect the accuracy of his aim . If so unconcerned when the welfare of his friends was at stake , it can be little matter for wonder that he spoke with self-complacency , if not exultation , of the terrible seventy he exercised against the former members of the Convention , when the excitement produced by the infernal machine had placed them at his absolute disposal . It is known that he then transported to Cayenne , without any sort of trial , above a hundred leading men of the republican party , although he well knew that it was a royalist conspiracy which had so nearly proved fatal to him . In . a similar spirit he writes to Joseph from Valladolidi

      —You must hang at Madrid a score of the worst characters . To-morrow I intend to have hanged here seven notorious for their excesses . They have bee n secretly denounced ta me b y respectable people whom their existence disturbed , and who will recover their spirits when they are got rid of . If Madrid is aot delivered fro-xa at least one hundred of these firebrands , you will be able to do nothing . Out of this one hundred , hang or shoot twelve or fifteen , and send the rest to France to the galleys . I had no peace in France , I could not restore confidence to the respectable portion of the community , until I had arrested two hundred firebrand assassins of September , and sent them to the colonies . From that time the spirit of the capital changed as if by the waving of a wand .

      Whatever the Septembrisers -might have been , the Spanish " firebrands " were guilty of no worse offence than a futile attempt to shake off the Gallic yoke . We need not pause to consider vliat manner of men were the " rer spectable people" whose spirits were disturbed by the existence of their patriotic fellow-countrymeii . It was not Napoleon ' s custom , however , to call a spade , a spade . His duplicity amounted to effrontery , and he uublushingly urges his more conscientious brother , again and again , to disguise facts and give a distorted version of events . Of this innumerable instances might be adduced— a few will suffice : — As soon as reports of armaments reach . Naples , announce that all will be settled ; and when you hear of the commencement of hostilities , say that I am acting in concert with England to compel Prussia to restore Hanover ; as Lord Lauderdale is still in Paris , this will not appear improbable . Pay attention to your newspapers , and have articles wi-itten from \ rliich it may be . inferred that the Spanish people is subdued and submits itself

      . L . ° eral Clarke , —I wish you to write to the King of Spain to . impress upon him that nothing can be more contrary to tho rules of war than to publish the strength of his army , either in orders of the day , in proclamations , or in the newspapers ; that when he has occasion to speak of his strength , he cu ^ ht to ivmrW ,+ fn * miA ~\ , l ~ V _ -, _„ -,--. ^;_ . ! .... ! , !; ., „ _ f ,.. ^ 1 ; , * , ^ ^^ . ^ that , on the other hand , when he mentions the strength of the enemy , lie should liminian it by one-half or one-third . when

      The corollary of this proposition poor Joseph learned to illustrate extenuating his defeat at Vittoria , he stated the enemy ' s forces to be as two to one The Premch were certainly out-numbered , but their artillery was greatly superior—Marshal Marmont ' s army consisted of at least 65 , 000 fighting men , supported by 150 guns ; while Wellington had only 60 , 000 English and Portuguese , with no more than 90 guns ; but there Avere also 18 , 000 Spaniards under liis command—efficient auxiliaries , however despicable by themselves . Tbe present Emperor of the French has declared that las Uncle was in favour of the liberty of the Press , and generally well disposed towards an enlightened liberalism . Perchance he measured liis predecessor by his own standard ; and the two following extracts will show that the liberal viewsol the great Napoleon were the prototype of his own . The Emperor expresses himself with much bitterness , regarding a newspaper called the Cimrrier Espagnol , written in French , the object of Which lie cannot understand : —

      This paper , he says , indulges in literary discxissions on Paris , and ih the Don Quixote of Spain against Franco . If it were written in Sjtaniuli , nu < l for tho Spaniards , this would be only absurd ; but in French it ia al *<> improper . France , engaged as she is iu so cruel a war in . Spain , ought nt leant ta hope to regenerate and liberalise (!) that country . Tliey must bo ill tliwpoHecl who , at such a time as this , publish in French that Spain waw well governed , under CharleB III ., and give a pompous eulogy of n man liko JovellanoH , who is Unknown in Europe , and who- is our bitter , unrelenting enemy . Tliis newspaper must be suppressed , or published in Spanish , I have ordered nil oopiow of it to be Htopped .-The next extract is unique as the profession of faith of a ' * liberal " monarch : —• ' Now the enemies of tho monacal profession are literary men niul philosophers . You kno \ v that I ajn myself not fond of them , sinco I have destroyed them wherever I could .

      And wtmt will he thought of the honour of a great ruler who can talk thus coolly of repudiating , thougli only for one year , a national debt ? On looking at M .. Roederoi . '*» report , I « . m convinced that you have hnmonflo rosourcoB . Whoa you havo to pay tvyority-uix millions on account of a national debt , there are at once twenty-six millions to bo got by merely stopping payment for one year . Wo know not -which most to admire , the unscrupulous dishonesty of such advice , or the shortsightedness which could suggest it . The nonpnyment of a national debt must inevitably entail ruin upon thousands of families whose sole income was thence derived , upon the tradespeople who supplied these families , upon the manufacturers who supplied the tradespeople , and finally upon the artisans who worked for the manufacturers . There is one very significant letter which must not bo passed over in silence . Napoleon affected to be idolised by hi a subjects in general , and not

      ... I have much , domestic distress . Your friendship i 8 very dear to me . To become a misanthropist I have oaly to lose it , and fmd that you . betray mo . That pvery different'feeling to-warda the same person , should be united in one heart is-very painful . Let me have on my arrival a villa near Paris or in Burgundy . I intend to ' slurt myself up there for' the winter . I am tired of human nature . I want solitude and'isolation . Greatness fatigues me : feeling is dried up . At twenty-orine glooy has become flat . I have exhausted everything . I have no refugu but pure selfishness . I shall retain my house , and let no oue else occupy it . '' Iliave not more'than enough to live on . Adieu , my ; only friend . X have itevter'tbeen unjust toyoti , aa you must admit , though I may have wished to be ho ; ¥ ou ; iunderatand me . Love to your wife and Jer&rae .

      It is npt very clear how he could -imve wished to be -unjust without being so ; and if he failed contrary to his own desire , lie hod little right to make a Hfcerit of that failure , ^ nd vvhen it is remembered that he was scarcely ^ off withthe old love , before he was on with the new / ' - —that within the space of three months lie bad broken off a long engagement with Mdlle , Clary and wedded the * buxom vridoTiir of Count Alexandra Beaufaarnais , —it may be fairly doubted if "blighted affection" was the sole , or even p rincipal cause , of hxs poignant distress . The workings 6 > f unsatisfied ambition had long since created a xnorjbid and dreamy abate of mind , which lent' a jaundiced hue to etery object of life , lie had thns expressed himself in a letter dated Pam ;^ tbe 12 th of August , 1795 : —

      Tlue town , ia always tlie same , always in tho pursuit of pleasure , devoted to women , to the theatres , balls , the public walk * , and tho artieta' Bhuttos ; Aa for me . httlo attached to life , contemplating it without much solicitude , con-8 t « n « y inthoatato of nilnd in whioh one in in on the day before » battle , feel-Ingthat ^ wh ^ e death ia always amongst us to put an end to all , anxiety is follye £ erytfimg . f , oin » to make , mo-defy fortune awl fn . to ; in time I ehall not get out of ttw .-way -whea a ottrriago coroeBi I Bometimefl wonder at my own state of mind It w the rotmlkfof whatlbave aeon a » d vrhaX I have riekeci .

      Untitled Article

      42 THE XiEiABEB . [ No . 303 , Saturday

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 12, 1856, page 42, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2123/page/18/