The National Register.
London, England, 1816-12-02 00:00:00

S4A

BtIONAPA'RTE.
A very curious and elite. wining book has fallen int!,
our hands, treating of this extraordinary man. It -is the
Epistolary Journal of a Surgeon on board the North-
a:lobed:lnd. The &tails are interesting, and place Butt-
emparte in a tolerably favourable light, and they have
every :tope:trance of authenticity ; indeed; if otherwise,
there. are. hundreds of persons implicated in them who
cefuld contradict them. Fouche is detested by Buona.:'
•parte's adherents, who describe the abdication in favour.
of Nappleon the Second to have been brought about
by Fouthe's forging &letter from the Austrian-Minister
to himself, expressing the resolution of the Emperor of
• Austria, to get rid' of •the Traitor (Buonaparte), and
'to leave France to choose between Napoleon the Second
. and a Republic. Napoleon swallowed the bait, and ab-
dicated ;,it then turned out, that the Emperor of Aus;
tria had.not power, if he had will to establish his little
Grandson and thy* Fouche hoped, bongre malgre, to
X 4 up 'a %Iwo. Mk. Talleyrand's talents-arc fully admit=
ted by Bertrand, Las Cams, and Madame Bertrand
if. he had been• with the 'emperor, they had all
teen then at 'Buis instead of on hoard the Northutnber-
• j„,
at?ti*„antlFrlince had never changedlter Master. Tolley-
iand was distuissed front the Emperer'S confidence at
the time of the Invasion of Spain, not beCtinse he dis-
eppnwel of thomeasure,, on the contrary, he strenuously
;advised it, boldly assigning as. a reason, that he did not
think his own life 'safe while a Bourbon reigned in
Europe. • tralleYrand and Fouche are described by Ber-
trend as endeayouritq; to hang each other, and the Ge-
neral seemed to wish they might both succeed. There
were three. little Bertrands all inoculated (boys and girl)
with a military spirit, and constantly galloping anti
chatiln,g on the deck, ala Hussar. Bertrand, Lax Cans,
, &e, talked very freely about the Generals, and Marshals
of France. Maseena had amassed the most money by
the Revolution.—Macdonald the least ; the former was
t. fencing burster. Bertrand spoke Well of Davoust, and
evattjystified his conduct at HamburPh ; but strongly
reprobated Ney's behaviour at •Waterloo ; and in coin-
. paring . Napoleon and Ney, he looked .up to Heaven
and down on. the earth, and said the. difference was
equal. Soult was, an eXeellent• offitmr.—Ney brave to
• a fault-but Suchet possessed more information, ad-
d• ress, and politiptl sagacity than any Marshal in France.
Buonaparte was generally quiet rather reserved, asking
questions 'but never inviting any. He asked the chap-
tain of the ship if be wax J: Puritan and -a Midahip-
plan how Brace he had served : to which he replied
wipe years,, but that ha had pissed
_three of them
.-ca, a prison at Verdun. where he.,avis when the •Em-
: peror went to. Ramie. Buonaparte shrugged his should-
' era and said nothing. He breakihsted on meat, Claret
and coffee, took much snuff, but never offered any.—
General arul Madame Montholon were companions
of Buonaparte, the General was his Aide-de-Camp,
and it is singular that Buonaparte served in the
same capacity under the General's father during the
• Revolutionary War.—Madanie Bertrand described the
little Napoleon as very .beautiful—but Buonaparte
scribed him in English as resembling himself only in
the tipper part of his form, saying, a-He has one grand
big head." Las Camas altered to qualify his Master to
read an English Newspaper in a. month, but the Em-
. parer replied, that though they thought him very clever
he could not do every thing. When be learned from Cap-
tain Beatty, of the Marines, that he was at the Siege of
Acre lie pulled him by the ear, saying, "Aht Yon rogue,
you rogue, were yon there
He then enquired after Sir Sidney Smith, and repro-.
hinted Barbary Ping' hs fully avowed his intention
of invading'En;land en person' in 1805. Aware of the
weakness of has flotilla, he sent Admiral Villeneuve
with the Spanish and French fleet to sail apparently
• for Martinique, by way of diversion.. Ho was then to
swede Nelson, and return to the English channel, and
. the flotilla *Wilt to put forth from Ostend, Boulogne,
Dunkirk, &c.: the intention was to dash at,the capi•
tal. by way of Chatham ; but Villeneuve, after being
defeated by Sir Robert Calder, sailed contrary to or-
ders fir Cadiz ;—and, exclaimed Napoleon, " He might
as well have gcne to the East Indies." Buonaparte
was a great ohner on board the Northumberland, often
reclining on a sufa, quitting the card table early, and
not appearing till eleven an the morning; frequently
breakfasting in bed, and amusing himself with a novel.
The conjectures in England as to his probably termi-
nating his own existence, reached him, and he replied,
" No, no, I have not enough of the Roman in me to
destroy myself."—He apolte of Mr.Whitbreud's death, ,
and was inclined to attribute it to our foggy climate
and gave this decided opinion on suicide:—" Suicid;
ir a crane the most revolting to my feelings;—nor does
any reason prevent itself to my tmdervtandiug, by which
it can be justified. It certainly originates in that spe-
cies of fear, which .we determine pultrourrie; for what
claim can that man have to courage, who trembles at
the frowns of fortune. True heroism consists in be-
coming superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape
they may challenge him to the combat."—Madame Mon-
thutun was an invalid; and Buonaparte enquiring of
her medical attendant concerning her health, quoted
Macbeth in the fidlowing way :
•• Cam a physician minister to a Wad disesstd,
Or pluck from nietnory a rooted rya t '
( 4 • 1;•:, • -s• ,vatinve *sax of ghle Moth