The Press. — London, England, 1856-01-12 00:00:00

JANUARY 12, 1850. f,, iteraturt. The Confidential Correspondence (f Napoleon Bonaparte with his Brother Jomph. Two Vols. London: Murray. THIS correspondence is selected from the voluminous memoirs of King Joseph lately published. The selection has been judiciously made. All the letters of Napoleon aro given ; they are divided into epochs ; and prefatory remarks are placed at the head of each divi sion to explain the course of Napoleon's for tunes. Such documents and letters by King Joseph and other persons nearly connected with Napoleon are introduced as are necessary to the complete comprehension of his corre spondence—and by this plan we have, in moderate space, the great Conqueror's own views on the most important transactions of his life. In no previous! publication have his inmost character and secret motives been so completely laid bare. We see him as he was, in all his greatnessand his meanness, with his colossal intellect and treacherous disposition —a being whom it was impossible to with stand in the height of his power, but whom it was equally impossible to trust,—the mightiest of conquerors, the most unscrupu lous of monarchs, and the falsest of nego tiators. To really know him it is only necessary to study these volumes. The translator has per formed a most useful and welcome service in presenting them in their present shape. An ordinary acquaintance with the French lan guage would be quite insufficient to render the letters of Napoleon intelligible.. They are full of technical phrases, and eccentric ex pressions, due to the rapidity with which they were often penned. The translator speaks of the difficulty he experienced in finding the true sense of the writer; generally he has been very successful, and he has done wisely in adhering closely to the literal sense of his original. Whatever proceeded from so marked a mind as Napoleon's was sure to bear some impress of his character; and for this reason expressions apparently trivial are really im portant. We cannot afford to lose a single line that he wrote. The correspondence commences in May, 1795. Napoleon was then in his twenty-sixth year. He had acquired distinction at Toulon, and had gained the rank of general of brigade, but he was living in Paris unemployed. Joseph was residing in Marseilles, where he had married the daughter of M. Clary, a rich merchant of the city Napoleon) amused some of his leisure hours by looking out for a profitable investment in land for the money his brother had to spare. "If you were the " man to make a good hit," he writes to Joseph in the first of these letters, "you might " buy the estate of M de Martigny, for eight 4 ` millions in assignats ;" and he explains that that sum would be about equal to 80,000 francs in specie, and that the estate before the Revo lution would have been worth 230,000 francs — an evidence of the tremendous depreciation in the worth of the assignats and of all real property. Nevertheless, France was recover. ing from the shock of revolution, and Paris was all gaiety. Napoleon wrote to Joseph, July 18, 1795 : Luxury, pleasure, and the arts, are reviving here in a wonderful manner. Yesterday they acted Phedre at the Opera-house, for the benefit of a former actress ; the crowd was immense from two o'clock in the afternoon, although the prices w , re trebled. Equipages and dandies are re appearing, or rather they remember their period of eclipse on!y as a long dream. Libraries are formed, and we have lectures on history, chemistry, botany. astronomy, &c. We have heaped together all that can make life amusing and agreeable; reflection is banished. How is it possible to see the dark side of things when the mind is constantly whirled about in this giddy vortex? Women go every where—to the theatres, to the public walks, to the public libraries. You find beauties in the philosopher's study. Again : This great nation gives itself up to pleasure : balls, theatres, women (and ours are the finest in the world), are the great business of life. Ease, luxury, fashion, have all reappeared; the reign of terror is remembered only as a dream. At this time Napoleon was engaged to Eugenie Desiree, the sister of Joseph's wife. He sends her frequent remembrances, but appears to THE PRESS. have been alternating between moods of en joyment and gloom. The fatalism of his character peeps out continually. He writes : Life is a flimsy dream, soon to be over. If you are going away, and you think it may be for some time, send me your portrait; we have lived together for so many years, so closely united that our hearts have become one, and you know best how entirely mine belongs to you. While I write these lines I feel an emotion which I have seldom experienced. A. little later : As forme. little attached to life, contempl at i iv; it without much solicitude, constantly in the state of mind in which one is on the day before a battle, feeling that, while death is amongst us to put an end to all, anxiety is folly—every thing joins to make me defy fortune and fate ; in time I shall not get out of the way when a carriage comes. I sometimes wonder at my own state of mind. It is the result of what I have seen and what I have risked. Yet all the time he was making way. He speaks frequently of the opportunities open ing to him. The Committee of Public Safety appointed him " director of the armies." Their resolutions were so " flattering " to him that he feared he should not be able to go to Turkey, as he wished, to organise the Sultan's artillery, with " a good salary and a flattering " diplomatic title." His belief iu his good fortune became stronger with each event : Whatever happens, you need fear nothing fur me : all honest people are my friends, to whatever party they may belong. .. . You know well, that I live only to give pleasure to my friends. If my wishes are seconded by the good•fortune which, as yet, has never failed me, I shall be able to make you happy, and to fulfil all your wishes. Soon came the 13th Vendemiaire (sth of October), the day of sections, which confirmed the reputation of Bonaparte. In the flush of success he wrote to Joseph : As usual, I was not wounded. Fortune favours me. His appointment to be Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Interior immediately fol lowed, and from this time he devoted all his energies to business It is characteristic of his nature, that he found happiness in inces sant occupation ; but he did not forget his family : The multiplicy and importance of my business prevent my writing to you frequently. lam happy and contended. I have sent to our family from 50,010 to 60,000 francs in money, assignats, and things. Then followed rapidly his appointment to the command of the army for Italy, and his marriage with Josephine, the engagement with Eugenie having for some reason not ex plained been broken off. " The merchant's " daughter," says the editor, " missed be " coining Empress of the French to become " Queen of Sweden." With the successes in Italy, Bonaparte's fortunes naturally rose. The wonderful years in his history were '95 and '96. It was in those two years that the foundations of his grandeur were laid. He assumed, with the command of the Italian army the guardianship of his family. On January Ilth, 1796, he wrote: — I see no objection to Paulette's marriage if he is rich. Four months later he had higher views for her:— Pray arrange Paulette's affair. I do not intend Freron to marry her. Tell her so, and let him know it too. The explanation of this decision is to be found in his next sentence :—" We are masters "of all Lombardy " Soon he was master of all Italy. Joseph was appointed French Am bassador to Rome, and to him Napoleon addressed some letters during that "happiest " period of his life," when, occupying with Josephine the beautiful villa near Udine, he negotiated the treaty of Campo Formic), and first enjoyed the full fruits of success and exercise of power. His expedition to Egypt rapidly followed, and his misanthropical feel ing returned on him, with tidings of Jose phine's light conduct at Paris. It is some excuse for his subsequent conduct tem arils her that he meditated divorce immediately on his return from Egypt. From Cairo he wrote to Joseph (July 25th, 1798) : I have much domestic distress. Your friendship is very dear to me. To become a misanthropist, I have only to lose it and find that you betray me. That every different feeling towards 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 shut 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 twentynine glory is become flat. I have exhausted everything. I have no refuge but pure selfishness. ---------- - He was detained in Egypt longer than he expected. On his return to Paris, in October. 39 1709, he became reconciled to Josephine, attained the Consulate, and thenceforward was undisputed master of France. The letters to Joseph are few until he decided on the seizure of Naples. His announcement of his intention to his brother was characteristically laconic (Paris, Dec. 31st, 1805) : I intend to take possession of the kingdom of Naples. Marshal Massena and Geneial St. Cyr are marching on that kingdom with two corps d'arrnee. I have named you my lieutenant commanding-in-chief the army of Naples. Set off for Rome forty hours after the receipt of this letter, and let your first despatch inform me that you have en tered Naples, driven out the treacherous Court, and sub jected that part of Italy to our authority. A few days later : You will make no truce, you will hear of no capitulation: my will is, that the Bourbons shall have ceased to reign at. Naples. I intend to seat on that throne a prince of my own house. In the first place you, if it suits you. If not, another. He entertained magnificent views for his family at this date : I have demanded in marriage for Prince Eugene, Princess Augusta, daughter of the Elector of Bavaria, and a very pretty person. This marriage has been agreed on. 1 have demanded another princess for Jerome. As yon have seen him last, tell me if I can reckon on the young mail's consent. I have also arranged a marriage for your eldest daughter with a small prince who in time will become a great prince. From the time that Joseph undertook the government of Naples hica misfortunes com menced. Nothing he could do would satisfy his imperious brother. Their notions o government were essentially opposite. Napo-f Leon was all for severity ; Joseph was all for mildness. No sooner had Joseph entered Naples than Napoleon wrote to him : Lay a contribution of 30,000,000 on the whole kingdom. Your conduct wants decision ; your soldiers and your generals ought to live in plenty. The kingdom of Naples is not exhausted ; you can always get. money, since there are royal fieN and taxes which have been granted away. He was all for shooting and hanging the disaffected. " Honest people," in his phrase, means always those who were. prepared to submit to him. Brigands and assassins, those who were prepared to resist him to extremity. When Joseph had been a few weeks in Naples Napoleon wrote to him : I think your operations too slow. The first things to do are, to get money and to make severe examples of the assassins. In a conquered country kindness is nut humane. Joseph pleaded for kindness, and was bom bastic on the attachment of the Neapolitans to his person. Napoleon reproved him sharply for his vanity : I see some passages in your speech which you most allow me to think ill judged. You compare the attach ment of the French to my person to that of the Neapoli• tans for you ; that looks like a satire. What love for you can a people have for whom you have done nithing? whom you govern by right of conquest with 40,000 or 150,000 foreigners ? He called loudly for vigorous measures : Vigorous measures will reassure your capital more than assembling within its walls a quantity of troops. What were the " vigorous measures " he de manded appears from other passages : Bear in mind what I tell you: the fate of your reign depends on your conduct when you return from Calabria. Grant no pardons ; do military execution on at least 600 rebels ; they have murdered a great number of my soldiers. Let the houses of thirty of the principal heads of villages be burnt, and distribute their property among the troops. Disarm all the inhabitants, and pillage five or six of the large villages which have behaved worst. He points attention to what he had done in Corsica : When Niolo was taken, forty rebels were hung upon the trees . I sent thither Junot. who sent me reports full of French cleverness, and declared that no rebellion had taken place. I ordered him to burn two villages, and to shoot the ringleaders, among whom were six priests. This was done, the country was subdued, and will remain so for a long time. - - - This burning and shooting was part of his " system." Ho expounds it with great energy : I am waiting to hear how many estates you have con fiscated in Calabria, and how many rebels you have executed. You should shout in every village three of the ringleaders. Do not spare the priests more than the others. Joseph was anxious to engage Neapolitans in his service. Napoleon shrewdly admonishes Lim :- If you really must have 4,000 'Neapolitans at Naples, so be it; but then have no more, and select for this service fathers of families, very cowardly, very old, who are just fit to protect the house when there is a cry of thieves.