The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-18 00:00:00

790 of s direct tax was not palatable. They had understood it from a foreign State, but not from an individual. At a meeting of a council, therefore, the debate ran high, and the best-educated individual amongst them, the archpriest of the parish, one Bartolini, made an oration, in which he said : "We have always been faithful to our prince, and have paid to him his dues to the full, but in the manner that pleased us. Who is this Napoleon, who assumes to gives us laws? Whence does he come ? " His questions were answered by shouts, and the Cspoliveresi held out, until their sovereign, who was not of the kind to be long ignored, forced them to comply with his demands, at the same time that, with his kern appre ciation of human nature, he named the archpriest one of his Councillors of State. On paying hie visit to this por tion of his territory, the Emperor was uncertain as to the symption he should receive, and seeing a crowd at the top o' the hill, he sent forward an officer to discover the inten tions of the population. Not many minutes elapsed before his emissary returned, together with the head man of the village, attired in a red uniform, which in days of yore had been that of Piombino, and with four choristers bearing the baklacchiao, or canopy held in processions over the host. The Emperor, wisely complying with circumstances, walked with a grave face under it into the village, and was seen by our host, the corporal, then a boy, who related the facts. It is amusing to read how easily trouble some Radicals are to be quieted even in pri mitive, honest Elba. The archpriest was as easily manageable as are our Halls and Moles worths. During August, in 1814, Elba was surprised by the sudden visit to the Emperor of a lady and child of high rank. Many believe that it was the Empress Marie Louise and her son, but she was so strictly watched in Italy it was hardly possible that she could have visited Elba. The author here relates the story in full The Emperor ono day received a secret visit from a German officer, and a few days after a Genoese felucca arrived off the coast with a lady and a boy. The Emperor sud denly set out to meet them—tents were pitched at Madonna on the coast, and the Emperor and the fair incognita remained together for some days, after which, with the child, she departed as she came : One day, as the child was playing about under the chestnut. trees, the Emperor came up to Doctor Fourreau, who was in conversation with the captain, and asked him what he thought of the child. The Doctor answered," He appears to be much grown since 1 had the honou; of seeing him at Fontainebleau." The captain is not sure whether he heard the words " Sa Msjeste " applied to the child, which would have placed the matter beyond a doubt ; but his answer was evidently displeasing to the Emperor, who answered abruptly, " Qu'eat que you chantez done ?" and turned away, leaving the poor doctor almost in tears, and in a state only to be understood by those attendants who unfortunately fell under their master's displeasure. Tam ing round to the captain, be said, " How could I be ex pected to know that I was to be secret? A man has not the power of divination of a god." These circumstances naturally provoked speculations, and, in addition to the facts, as the captain asserts, that the pictures he had seen of the Empress and the King of Rome resembled the lady and her son, and that the age of the latter tallied with that of the King, have induced him to form the conclusion, which nothing can now alter. The Emperor, however, on seeing that the captain had observed that the child called him " Papa," asked him what the Elhans thought of his visitors. The captain answered— " They think that Elba is honoured with the presence of the Empress and of your Majesty's son." On which the Emperor rejoined, " He may well be my son, and yet not the King of Rome." How curious it is to read of the conqueror of continental Europe, the master but a few months previously of millions of men, expend ing the energies of his great mind upon the for mation of roads, the arrangement of a house, or the catching of fish. On the 27th of June the records of Elba tell us that its Emperor went to view the process of catching the tunny fish, and insisted upon trying to pull one out of the water himself, but it proved too strong for him, and he was obliged, much against his will, to relinquish the tunny. "To " what base uses may we not come to, Horatio?" In proof of the terror and respect with which his name was regarded, a singular anecdote is related here. Elba was often threatened by the Algerine pirates, and one day— while coasting along the shores of Elba, he found that an Algeriae felucca had been wrecked on the shore near Langone. He landed himself at the scene of the disaster; bet gamely had he been announced to the crew when a ery of admiration burst from them. They were in the presence of Bonaberdi, that Sultan of Fire. General Bet trend interrogated the chiefs of the African band on their intentions in coasting along the shore of Elba, asking if they had intended to make an attazk on the Emperor. "We !---against the great Sultan of Fire ! " answered the pirate. "We do not make war against Allah! " and he and his men pros themselves at the Emperor's feet. ity ludieind Lw nt of these perms the Etipeeor THE PRESS. gained a double object—security for the island commerce, and a safe means of communication with the Continent. It is very clear, from the numerous conver sations held with emissaries from Paris, which are quoted at length here, that the Emperor's party in France was only revived by the gross misgovernment of the Bourbons : they dis gusted the army, the people, the aristocracy, and clergy alike. Every party was conspiring one against the other, watching one another, and only waiting for a favorable opportunity to bring about a revolution. Meanwhile, the cocked hat and grey coat suddenly appeared : the army was won, and with it France for the time. It is not difficult to say that Napoleon never would have remained quiet at Elba, even if his allowance had been paid by the Bourbons, and no intention had ever been mooted to remove him to St. Helena Europe was too near• and too tempting a prize for such a man to forswear under his peculiar circum stances and position. From the documents and conversations here published, it would appear that he long contemplated some such descent. His views appear first to have turned towards Italy, and a design of seizing Italy and forming an Italian empire is curiously illustrated by the following account of a speech he is reported to have made to two Italians of rank who came to Elba to arrange the gigantic scheme with him: — I was great on the throne of France, principally by the force of my arms and by the extension of my influence over the whole of Europe. 1 gave to the French a code and laws which will survive me ; but the principal characteristic of my first reign was the glory of conquest. At Rome, I shall give a different direction to this same glory. It will be as eminent as the first, but it will not possess the same principle. It will be less dazzling, but perhaps more durable, for it will resemble no other. I shall make of the different races of Italy one nation ; I shall imprint on them the unity of manners, which is wanting ; and it will be the most difficult enterprise I shall have ever attempted. I shall open roads, canals, and multiply the means of communication. Industry will receive an impetus, at the same time that agriculture will come to the aid of the prodigious richness 01 the soil, and will acquire the im• menus developments of which it is susceptible. I shall give to Italy laws appropriate to Italians. I have hitherto only been able to make for them the provi sional—l shall give them the definitive. It will last as long as the empire. Naples, Venice, Spezzia, shall be transformed into im mense workshops; I shall have vessels and a formidable marine ; I shall make Rome a seaport. In twenty years Italy will have thirty millions of inhabi tants ; then she will be at home the most powerful coun try of Europe, as inaccessible to invasions as Russia. We shall abstain from wars of conquest, hut I shall have a brave and strong army. I shall write on my banners my device of the Iron Crown,—" °Alai a chi la tocca ;" and no one will feel inclined to make the attempt. - . . Having been Scipio and Cesar in I:'rance, I shall be Camillus at Rome; the stranger shall cease to crowd the Capitol, and shall appear there no more. Under my reign the ancient majesty of the people•king will ally itself to the modern civilisation of my modern empire, , and Rome will equal Paris, without descending from the elevation of its immense recollections, which she will associate with the force of Lacedemonian institutions and the Atticism of Athens. I was in France the Colos sus of War; I shall become in Italy the Colossus of Peace. How the genius of that comprehensive mind is stamped upon these words ! They are well worth the attention of Italians. Unity and Perseverance—those are the means which will yet liberate Italy. What a magnificent termi nation it would have been to the career of such a man as Napoleon if, after a reign of con quest, he had founded a new empire of peace and selldevelopment. The " Island Empire," it will be seen from our extracts, contains much new and highly interesting matter and anecdote connected with Napoleon when at Elba. Moreover, a full and entertaining account is given of the history and resources of this pleasing island, which Murray has not yet deigned to notice, but which contains many elements of interest and fascination. Paper and Paper-Making, Ancient and Modern. By Richard Herring. With an Introduction by the Rev. George Croly, LL.D. London: Longmans. THE history of the art of manufacturing modern paper is extremely obscure, and all efforts to discover the precise period when its use was first adopted have hitherto proved fruitless. One thing is certain, that the Chinese, as usual, were before the rest of the world in the invention, or at load id the art of reducing re• SATURDAY, getable fibre to pulp, and from thence manufac turing to a high degree of perfection, and with great art and ingenuity, various kinds of paper. Bamboo, the bark of mulberry, elm, or cotton trees, hemp, wheat and rice-straw, all afforded them ample materials for the manufacture of paper for hundreds of years before the eleventh century, when the art was first Vractised in Europe. But if it is difficult to hx the pre cise time at which this art was introduced in Europe, and hazardous to decide between the claims of Sir John Spiebnau and John Tate to the honour of erecting the first paper-mills in England, and for adopting the use of rags in their manufacture, it is highly curious to trace the various means by which mankind endeavourea to perpetuate their thoughts for the benefit of their posterity from the earliest ages downwards. The power of writing Mr. Herring believes to have been, equally with speech, a gift of the Deity to mankind, and there is no reason to doubt it; for the faculty of imitation, by which Aristotle accounted for the art, implies in itself the existence of something to imitate ; and from whence could that " something " have been obtained except from the Divine power? But although the power of writing must be alluded to, it is the material upon which the writing was traced that engrosses our subject at present ; and it becomes curiously instruc tive to note the various substances which were used and thrown aside by the ancient nations in their gradual advance in science, and their search after the most facile means and durable material, until we arrive at the modern triumphs in printing and paper. In the earliest ages of mankind, the rememembrance of important events was sustained by very simple means ; festivals and games were insti tuted, and altars or pillars raised in honour of great or sacred events in the history of the nation ; while the deeds of heroes and kings were engraven upon tiles and stones and trans mitted to posterity, as the late discoveries in the East have curiously brought to light. But such unwieldy substances as bricks and stones soon gave way to the use of tablets made of lead, but that metal being found too pliable, the use of wood gradually superseded it, and boards and tables were made upon which the writing was engraved with an iron pen. Even so late as the time of the Greeks and Romans in the earliest period of their history it was customary to use plain wooden boards, upon which the public affairs of the year were engraved and exposed in the market place or temples for the information of the people. At first the tables were used in their plain state, but then it was found easier for erasure and alteration to cover the tables with a layer of wax ; and from wax one would think the notion of pliability struck some ingenious mind, and the skins of wild animals and the leaves of trees rapidly superseded the use of wooden boards. According to Pliny, the Egyptians were the first to use the palm-leaf, and to this day in India and other eastern countries the use of the leaf is still retained, and even preferred to paper or parchment, for correspondence and other documents. From this use of the leaves of trees, which was adopted some 3,500 years ago, soon came the employment of the inner bark, and from that arose the discovery and adoption of the famous papyrus of Egypt for ma nuscript records. From this celebrated plant the first attempt at manufacturing a species of paper was certainly made, but upon the mode employed there appears to be two opinions held by writers upon the subject: one, that the inside spongy substance was ex tracted, cut into thin slices, steeped in water or gum, dried, smoothed, and polished by being rubbed with ivory, and thus prepared for use ; the other, that the outer coat, pre pared in much the same manner, was alone used. Mr. Herring inclines to this opinion from the short length of the slips of papyri hitherto discovered, rarely exceeding twelve or fifteen inches, just the length of the coats or pellicles of the plant; while had the pithy part been used, there would have been no diffi culty of manufacturing paper the entire length of the stem, which was from eight to ten feet and upwards in height. It is curious to reflect that at this moment in some of the Polynesian islands, and oven in Java, a pregioely similes Fai