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    THF/ABUSE OF KEWAItBS. is do not ( loubt b

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    allowed to predominate . As for ourselves ; we only profess here to < nve one main colour ; in detail we really can scarcely get further than " that eccentric member of the Buonaparte family , ' a * he was called before Ms . successes , in the-little School French History book . The naturalist does not draw his bird whilst still on the wing , and no huniati being can say from present appearances whetherburbird : will Tie finally drawn perched on the pillar of despotism or the tree of liberty , on the laurel of conquest or the olive of peace , or whether this phoenix of the ashes of a revolution will expire in some blaze like that which gave him birth . ..: . - '

    Those who knew him even in earlier and less active days , seem only to have drawn him with those neutral tints which often conceal in the young the higher colours of maturity Whether we see him amiably rowing Mr . Jerdan in a wherry at Richmond , or listen to his friend Madame Emile Girardin whilst she describes him as rather an amiable mother-loving boy , like most Trench boys , watering his favourite flowers with warm water , lest he should take cold—his mother ' s care * not his own ; or , in later days , haying really " no ambition further than that of being colonel of sbine French regiment , " not to add other glimpses of equally small significance , given by friends , casual or constant , of former days . ¦ ;_ . ; . _;' . . , ' . . _; , studies of seriousness ?

    But since then has he not had good " ^ a life as private , though scarcely as taintless as Cromwell ' s ; much of that solitary consideration which sent Mahomet and Luther forth at amatiire age to the strife and the mastery ; long , studies , not by any means of engineering only , at the " university of Ham ; " his language to Orloff ; a youth of troubles ; like those which encompassed two of the greatest and most favourite Kings of France , Charles the Seventh and Henry the Fourth , with the latter of whom he has certain points of comparison ; a similarity in brie or two particulars to whicH ' we niay hereafter refer still more like bur Own Henry the Seventh in Hs gravity his taciturnity , his policy , to use the

    words of Bacon , "by no means vulgar ; " or Charles Emmanuel of Savoy , of whom the historian Watson says that ' ? so various-were his stratagems ^ that the most penetrating of his contemporaries professed themselves unable to form any probable cbnjectiire Concerning his designs , " In his anger , too , how serious and quiet ! None of the undignified fretting , fiuning , and quarrellingof the first Napoleon witli Ms generals and his , tools . The Emperbr is said , indeed , to have shown some ^ temper towards the Austrian ambassador ; compare it with the following description of the bearing of his uncle , undersimilar circumstancesx—^

    -" I ^ et me tell you , while I think of it , says Wjlberforce , writingtb a frieiid , that the ^ account you will see in , the newspapers of BiJONAtAR'rE ' s violent language and demeanour to Lord Whjtwqrth , at Marine Buon a party ' s drawing-room , is perfectly true . He spoke : loud enough to be heard by two hundred people , and his countenance was perfectly distorted with passion . " pE-jis nephew ' s seriousness seems to be of an assimilating charapter , ; JDeJ ^ ornays Jqs . ejbheii : violence beneath its influence j and . if . Wa ^ ws ^ is refuse to be assiinilatedj , they are cahnly put on * the shelftill they find it , convenient to submit to the process .

    Very serious , too , is he in'Ms triumphs and successes . On that memorable day When the victorious Army of Italy entered Paris , the faintest ihish of emotion on the cheek , just a sonpgon of pleasure in tjfie eye , were fill we . coiild detect on this the most glorious ^ ay of lus life , : , J ^ a ' Y ^ p ' eec ^/^ ab ,, ^;^ t ^ rs ., oTO very ... serious ; ther < £ is very lit $ e ;; rhetoric , witlx npneof tjie , old rbodpmontade of the first Empire ,, with which fliighly-cploured billet-dom France used once to be delighted and deceived . -., Let Austria , Bussia , the Pope" and Mons . VETTjw&tiT confess ^ in chbtus , that l ? rance has got a very' sieridits sovereign ;' at " any rnte , in two senses but of thre , e which that wc ^ fl sor ^ etim'cs benrs- ^ for the third ' two of tti ' e' pnrties ' nnriied will' ^ cni-cely tri'firit him .

    , Of . Eng land ,, no jn ^ t jter what ] ii » motives , he has shown 1 mAs , ejf thus iar , wi . th , equal , se » ousj > Qss , substantially the friend—if wo except , a few little . > matters , such aa the Charles et Georgea ' case i in its connnencemomfcj , ¦ and the obuUitions of the French colonels , He knbws well that steam nwat have n safety valve , rio inhtter how strong the ipiAch'ineiy , and thnt tho iron of his own firm ' win Jnight hflVo to , Viclclto the dangerous vapour of French vanity , if coinprqsscd too # 6 $% , } nndso l ^ e would richer , pllpw iV . tQ havo . afrep j » ufl : pr , t > YQ , thaH lie blown up him 8 « lf , wd ; liinVo Ui ^ beaii nCTghbpws acalt ] ocl 5 at thp pamo tjmo , he judioiowaly trtlcea ,. the opportunity Avhcn it offiors itaolf , of condensing ; it ] by o slight'tkmohe pf aewp ^» t cold water , which no one knowa bettor how ' nud whe ) ni to'ndininistor than himself . * And so , won , coine tl » o first soft , grave pipings of pence from Monsieur Ohevauek ' 3 recrt , of which it > Vns very enay to aco

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    A DJV 1 IBAL HOPE , we , a very omcer ; _ £ 3 L but his friends in the House of Commons , including Sir G . Napier , who sets up for a reformer , must have comical notions as to the grounds on . which a Government is justified in granting conspicuous and honorary rewards , when they claimed a Victoria . Cross for the defeat on the Peiho . A mere display of personal courage on the part of a commander , so fa from he ^ ng meritorious , is sometimes a proof of incapacity , and demands piihishrnent instead of reward . ' . ' The Government have done right in promoting half-a-dozen officers , who did their best with the silly orders they received from tlieir unthinking admiral ; tlieir courage was meritorious , because it was calculated to make the best of their position , and not stained by the folly of a design over / which they had-no control . , After the Crimean war our military authorities disgraced themselves anil the country by rewarding eveiy conspicuous oflfender , who had brought discredit ixpon oxir arms or caused the death of our troops j but although we would not do Admiral Hope the injustice of comparing him with those melancholy monuments of official corruption , it is clear that an equally

    viciovis principle would have been established if the ( . Tovernment load beefiv foolish enough to give way to the ili-ju 4 ged clamour rff Achnirals Napjew and Waixjot ; and we cpngi-atulnte Lord Charges PXoe * upon his judicioua decision , not to decorate ¦ ' ¦ ' imprudent , oflicera , who miglit be led to undertake expeditiona at a great losa pf Wfo in the hope of receiving reworda . " , Our wholo system of rewarda ia greatly in want of reviaion , and the value of such distinctions aa tho Crimean medal is much reduced by the indiscriminate way in which they are bestowed . They do not , as they ought to do , mark out the men who actually fought in believe in Street

    the wnr—in some cases , we , lounging Regent was equally oflicncioua with fighting in the field . The Victoria Crosa hns , on . the whole , been better boatpwctl ; but wo knew an instance in w ^ iph a diatinguiahed pflicer v / os recommended for tho-Legion of Honour on account of coiiapicuoua bravery -in the , tteld , and then omitted from the Victoria Croas list because he wrts too independent to aubrait quietly to the inaufteroble ehiennery which chorncteriaes tho Horse Guards' administration , and which the well-meaning Puke of Cawjhipok hns not the moral courage to break through .

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    from the first who held the stops with the fight hand , whilst he was modulating Monsieur About ' s with the left- ^ a pipe since destined to give a short Huguonot air by way of an interlude . Bfay it be a prophetic one ! May he , though a professed Catholic , favour , like H : ej * ry Quartre , the weaker creed ! May he resemble that ever dearest monarch of France also in his permanent and faithful friendship to England , as he has exceeded us , like Henry Quartre , in his aid rendered to an oppressed nationality , desiring freedom , and deserving to be free ; for , to bur shame be it said , that the relief which England and Elizabeth rendered to the struggling Netherlands in those days was beggarly and temporising compared with the thorough and hearty friendliness of the French Henry . At all events , may he be spared the fate of his great predecessor , and experience only

    which not only leave a monarch in life , but make him stronger than ever in power and in favour ; and once more may he see that there is one point in which he may excel the first and greatest of the Bourbons , who gave to his beloved France a rich legacy of glory , but left her without the one thing needful—a good and free " constitution ; - —and may he do this , as he does everything , seriously and in earnest . People are fond of finding and making mysteries , and exceedingly fond of talking mysteriously of the inscrutableness and depth of the French Emperor . They are fond , in the words of the blcl dramatist Daniel , Of " joining to a pTesient fact , More of time past than it has ever had ] To do withal ;"

    but no politician can call up events as a prestidigitator does cards , ox make them to his mind . ISTapoiep ^' s mystery lies a great cteal in his gravity , in his utter freedom from French levity and chatter : in keeping : his counsels when made ' quite as much as

    in maKing tnein ; m incning -ncx > c—m . Opinion his greatest attribute ^ a steadiness which "Nor shrinks , nor steps aside for Death > But with unaltered pace keeps on . Providing for events to come . " He rarely makes the events , but , like other great men , he knows how to mould the clay wet from-the wheel ; lie has the iastinct to see which " seeds will grow and . which will not , " and out of the mass of time to pick out the " moments pregnant with the future . "

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    jgg The Leader and Saturday Anal y st . [ Feb . 18 ; 1860 ,

    Thf/Abuse Of Kewaitbs. Is Do Not ( Loubt B

    is do not ( loubt bniye THE ABUSE OF REWAllBS .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 158, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2334/page/10/