The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-20 00:00:00

Memoirs of Queen Hortense, Mother of IVaPole°7l
111, Compiled by Sir Lasceiles Wraxall, Bart.,
and Robert Wehrhan. New Edition. One yOL,
pp. 436. Hurst and Bieekett.
As another, the twenty-seventh if we rernembsr
rightly, of the Messrs. Hurst and Blacketee
charming series of Popular Modern Works, pub-
lished in compact and cheap one-volume editions,
in the form of a really, and not alone nominally'
Standard Library, we have here a most acceptable,
reissue of a work combining within it all the
fascination of a romance with all the profound and
nthralling interest of actual history. The Memeirs
—emphatically The " Memoirs of Queen Hortense!"
Toe mother of the reigning Emperor of France, the
Emperor Napoleon IN, ! The daughter of the :E0-
press Josephine when the letter was simply the wife
of the Viscount de Beauharnais ! Hortense, the
beauliful and accomplished Hortense—herself the
wife of Louis, King of Holland ! Hortense—wbe
first emerged from comparative obscurity us the
step-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte ! Rising
(together with the other members of tlinee
two favoured races, the Bonapartes and the
Bec,nharnais)—with the rise of that most wonder*
ful adventurer (using the term in no invidious
sense) that the world has ever seen I General at
twenty-Ave, Consul at thirty, Emperor at thirty"
four, Conqueror, King-maker, Lawgiver, Hero end;
Sage, Orator and Historian I " The greatest 01
Poets," according to Eiranger ! "One of the
noblest of rhetoricians," according to Brougham According to William Napier—'. the Soldier 01
Soldiers !" 'According to all subsequent mili-
tary historians, unrivalled among all greet
Captains save by one, and that one linv
nibal I As Lord Byron sang in his Childs
Harold -- "The greatest nor the worst of
men 1" As Charles James Fox averred—" I belie°
him to be one of the best, as I am certain he i 9
the greatest of men I" He who bad entered in
triumph all the great capitals of Europe—Viennal
Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Moscow, as -conqueror'
among other great powers, of Austria, Prussier
Italy, Spain, Russia! He who, from being a younger
son of a Corsican Barrister, had made himself E'°'
peror of France, King of Italy, Mediator of Scs'it'
zerland, Protector of the Confederation of the
Rhine—creating his elder brother Joseph
first of all of Naples, afterwards of Spain--shia
brother Louis, King of Holland—his brother Jerotne'
King of Westphalia—his brother-in-law Jesehilli
Murat, King of Naples—one of his lieutenants'
Junot, Governor of Portugal—besides causing
a variety of others to becomo occupants
of minor thrones in that marvellous arrange'
meat of the European System, the headship
of which constituted him, in a manner, for
series of years Lord Paramount over the length en
breadth of the Continent. At any period in the
history of modern Europe since the close of tll
Great Napoleonic Era, since the death, that
the hero himself on the memorable " Cinq MTh
1821, on the rocky island of St. Helena—an authen.
tic narrative of the Life and Adventures of his °ir
and famous step-daughter and sister-in-law o,lleetit
Hortense née Beauharnais, would have been a suhi'e,
of eager curiosity to all endowed with a liV811e;
appreciation than the generality,lof the Deculia
interest appertaining to the romance of history'
Published, as the joint work of Sir Laseelle:
Wraxall, and Robert Wehrhan has been, since t",;
restoration to supreme power in Franco of the
Napoleon Dynasty, and that moreover in the Pere%
of the third and youngest of the sons of anee;
Hortense herself—the Prince Louis Napoleon, na
for more than a dozen years past Emperor
France under the glorious title of Napoleon lII' a
the work comes before us with a witchery of its °set,
that it would be difficult'to exaggerate: 110Welot
the story of this life might be related, it could 11,11
fail to read otherwise than wondrously, as thonr'oo
it were the record of some extravagant fleti to
rather than the account of a succession of eve
each of which, marvellous though it may age,,ol.
now while reading about it, was nevertheless d,
all that a veritable realty. It is, of its 101%,
a sort of fairy tale in its way. It is as astonishi
in the marvels it recounts as any one of the 01000
and one Arabian figments told to the breatbleS 13
interest of the Sultan-Caliph, by the Vizier
daughter, the Sultana Sheherazade ! Hewerl
recounted, we repeat, the faithfully related Alernc”ra
of Queen Hortense could not but have posgear
this attraction for, could not but kayo wielded
,
this glamour over the general run of readero'i
whether readers of history or readers
e?
romance. Penned, as they have been be
however, in this graceful and courtly nnr,rso
tive, by biographers who seem to sound the pre, eta
of their heroine to the flourish of golden trawl) io
—the incidents hero brought to view by thelnot
seven-and-forty romantic chapters, might al°3oo
be said to pass before us with all ,e•
pomp and panoply of some stately irarost
rial procession. Now and then one i 8 111111 bot
tempted to swallow, not a mere grain or tWe,
rti,
a large handful of salt in order to get down Patina
culars, in themselves apparently too huge to
portentous in their way, for easy passage, °yea
speak, down the gullet of our credulity ! Yet c
there in those exceptional instances where heed
in the events referred to, appears to be 5° A,5
difficult, we are fain to swallow the astonnubeior
statements—cum (ant sine) grano
ing as who can fail to do how often, how
the word " impossible," as the wonder-Wnr
00'9
hero himself said was swept out of Napnle the
vocabulary by Napoleon himself. And 50—'1100
light of Napoleon's own history—We,oets
believingly these enthralling Memoirs of
Hortense—mother of Napoleon's successor, off
the
rehabilitater of Napoleon's throne in Paris) °
and
restorer of Napoleon's empire over France
among the chief Powers of Christendom.

City Sewers Commission,
Yesterday the Commissioners of Sewers of the C' ;o
London met as usual at the Guildhall, for the desplitc",4,,
public business. The Chairman, Henry De Jersey, Eta
presided, and among the Commissioners present we need,
Alderman J. C. Lawrence, Deputy Farrar, Deputy
Deputy Elliott, Deputy Lorkin, Deputy Bower, P,t3P„fre
Lloyd, Deputy Burnell, Deputy Perkins, Messrs. ije-fllt
Walter, Fox, T. Symonds, Chaplin, Young, 1)44°11e

Cole, Botterill, Green, Farlow, Burro wes &c
The Solicitor, to the Commission, Alexander
Esq., reported that on the sth inst., he caused to 1)0
demned, before Alexander JJ. C. Lawrence, at the MallVi,
house, four quarters of an ox which had been keise-rt
Inspector Wylde, in Leadenhall-market, and forniedgl eff
an animal that had died of dieseasc. The meat N`l°,o Do
bad, and quite unfit for human food. It was order° (Jr'
destroyed, and Alderman Lawrence directed 11°,2
Baylis) to bring the matter before the Court, in °rite'
further proceedings might be taken against the per° I(
had sent the meat to London. 60'
It was decided to instruct the solicitor to make the ":
inns
being
preliminary inquiries with a view to further Pr°"eerD°
gs taken against the offender. Dr. LethellPtioes
hmedical officer of health, reported on the state of 2-591i,:tte`i
that at had been inspected during the week, and he 0°,1;1 10
list of 114 places for sanatory improvement. P.,- tea'
submitted a list of places which required further Prt° eol3'#
inns on account of orders already issued, but not Ye"
in°
'
plied with.
The markets and slaughterhouses had been du'vi
Ato
spected, and the officers had condemned 3,4031b5 °I
ip
unfit for human food. Nearly the whole of it -
fit 5v
diseased condition.
ct
The returns of last week (says Dr Letheby) shesc:ll
births and 57 deaths were registered in the Crt 1'13'31.1;1' ill
of deaths is just the average for the corresP
of the last eight years 26, cr just half of the d
sad
among children of less than five years of age '° (3:1
among old persons of 60 and upwards. The chief 'o"'llitl°
death were as follows :—Phtl'isis 4, pneumonia 1, hr"c.,D
'2, mesenteric disease 4, hydrocephalus whooping
infantile diarrl.cea 3, continuedfever4;seqrlett'vect°
measlesfro 4, making together 9 ducks from tubercular “t'i.'fron`
m inflammatory affections of the lungs, 912C1 r fen
diseases of a zymotic character. Dr Letheby fur tide° 0;
ported that the illuminating power of gas t
city during the week had been above the rcquire-,,,Tplfir
the act of Parliament; but the average amount of A
boas
of the Chartered and Great Central Gas had be°
the quantitysanctioned by Parliament. h 1)1151'
The Commisssioners, after trans cc n some er
"less, adjourned. g 6°

Y./
CHARLES DICKENS'S NEW SERIAL Sl°ll 0°
Messrs. Chapman and Hall, according t
lottott
Reader, have bought the copyright of "our 12,000
Friend." The fortunate author receives, they Say'
—D3,000 on the issue of the first, and tho reutaitiiPs
on tlto completion of the tale,