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

L I T

R E.

Memoirs of Queen Hortense, Mother of NaP°l6°ll
111, Compiled by Sir Lascelles Wraxall, Bart.,'
and Robert Wehrhan. New Edition. 000 "14
pp, 436. Hurst and Blackett.
As another, the twenty-seventh if we remember
rightly, of the Messrs. Hurst and Blacketts
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;
c nthralling interest of actual history. The Memoirs
—emphatically The " Memoirs of Queen Hortense!"
The mother of the reigning Emperor of France, the
Emperor Napoleon 111. ! The daughter of the Ern]
press Josephine when the letter was simply the ;cif'
of the Viscount de Beauharnais ! Hortense, the
beautiful and accomplished Hortense—herself the
wife of Louis, King of Holland ! Hortense--Nrb°
first emerged from comparative obscurity as the
step-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte ! R' °5
(together with the other members of these
two favoured races, the Bonapartes and the
Beanharnais)—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-five, Consul at thirty, Emperor at thirty'
four, Conqueror, King-maker, Lawgiver, Hero and;
Eage, Orator and Historian ! " The greatest °I"
Poets," according to Beranger ! One of the
noblest of rhetoricians," according to Broughton'
According to William Napier—'' the Soldier of
Soldiers I": According to all subsequent
tary historians, unrivalled among all greet
Captains save by one, and that one Ilan:
nibal I As Lord Byron sang in his Childs
t
Harold "The greatest nor the worst 01
men I" As Charles James Fox averred--" I believe
him to be one of the best, as I am certain he 1e
the greatest of men 1" He who bad entered In
triumph all the great capitals of Europe—Vienn°'
Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Moscow, as conquerer'
among other groat powers, of Austria, Prussia,
Italy, Spain, Russia! He who, from being a younger
son of a Corsican Barrister, had made himself Bina
peror of France, King of Italy, Mediator of Swit'.
zerland, Protector of the Confederation Of the
Rhine—creating his elder brother Joseph JCin!
first of all of Naples, afterwards of Spain---°
brother Louis, King of Holland—his brother Jerome'
King of Westphalia—his brother-in-law Joachim
Murat, King of Naples—one of his lieutenants'
Junot, Governor of Portugal—besides eauEleg
a variety of others to become occupants
of minor thrones in that marvellous arrange:
ment of the European System, the headslllP
of which constituted him, in a manner, for
series of years Lord Paramount over the length 81/
breadth of the Continent. At any period in the
history of modern Europe since the close Of
tb
Great Napoleonic Era, since the death, that re; °,,
the hero himself on the memorable " Cinq
1821, on the rocky island of St. Helena—an anther
tic narrative of the Life and Adventures of his felt
and famous step-daughter and sister-in-law Quest
Hortense nee Beauharnais, would have been a subjee,
of eager curiosity to all endowed with a lisel'er
appreciation thin the generality;of the feculie
interest appertaining to the romance of hien/.
Published, as the joint work of Sir LeEnelles
Wraxall, and Robert Wehrhan has been, since tre
restoration to supreme power in France of
Napoleon Dynasty, and that moreover in the pets%
of the third and youngest of the sons of Queeo
Hortense herself—the Prince Louis Napoleon, o°of
for more than a dozen years past Emperer,,
France under the glorious title of Napoleon lII' ti
ller
the work comes before us with a witchery of its °e
that it would be difficult to exaggerate: Nevrelot
the story of this life might be related, it could n
fail to read otherwise than wondrously, as tba.gr
it were the record of some extravagant finti°t;
rather than the account of a succession of even
each of which, marvellous though it may uPPetor
now while reading about it, was nevertheless
all that a veritable realty. It is, of its kin
a sort of fairy tale in its way. It is as astonishl
in the marvels it recounts as any one of the thous° g
and ono Arabian figments told to the breathless
interest of the Sultan• Caliph, by the Viziers
daughter, the Sultana Sheherazade ! linwel;es
recounted, we repeat, the faithfully related Memo- a
of, Queen Hortense could not but have possessed
this attraction for, could not but have wielded
this glamour over the general run of renderos i
whether readers of history or readers
re
romance. Penned, as they have been be a;
however, in this graceful and courtly nnr,seo
five, by biographers who seem to sound the Prnieto
of their heroine to the flourish of golden trump
—the incidents here brought to view by thernot
seven.and-forty romantic chapters, might elnloe
be said to pass before us with un
ns.
pomp and panoply of some stately iniost
rial procession. Now and then one is al bat
tempted to swallow, not a mere grain or tWO,
a large handful of salt in order to get down Perot
culars, in themselves apparently too huge to
portentous in their way, for easy passage, °ale
speak, down the gullet of our credulity ! Yet! jot
there in those exceptional instances where Pe d
in the events referred to, appears to be se 'fog
difficult, we are fain to swallow the astontlioer
statements—cum (acct sine) grano sails —r e cileraftea,
ing as who can fail to do how often, nosy °jog
the word " impossible," as the wonder-Wer
hero himself said was swept out of NeVie the
vocabulary by Napoleon himself. And so—blese
light of Napoleon's own history—Wen%oo
balievingly these enthralling Memoirs of ',lite°
Hortense—mother of Napoleon's successor, eic
tbo
rehabilitater of Napoleon's throne in Paris, el
004
restorer of Napoleon's empire over Franc°
among the chief Powers of Christendom.

City Sewers Commission,
of
4 -
Yesterday the Commissioners of Sewers of the
London met as usual at the Guildhall, for the despet,cc:
public business. The Chairman, Henry De Jersey, Hoed
presided, and among the Commissioners present we Ile%cf
Alderman J. C. Lawrence, Daputy Farrar, Deputy 11%t;
Deputy Elliott, Deputy Lorkin, Deputy Bower, liel),-ne
Lloyd, Deputy Burnell, Deputy Perkins, MeSetS• 61"3:71
Walter, Fox, T. Symonds, Chaplin, Young, D4(18-
Cole, Botterill, Green, Farlow, Burrowes, &c. avfiet
The Solicitor, to the, Commission, Alexander 3.
Esq., reported that on the sth inst., he caused to 17°
demned, before Alexander J. C. Lawrence, at the Sel's,.:l2/
house, four quarters of an ox which had been eoe't, of
Inspector Wylde, in Leadenhall-market, and formed. oOr
an animal that had died of diesease, The meat Nve°,,,lel)o
bad, and quite unfit for human food. It was orderod `gr,
destroyed, and Alderman Lawrence directed biU'
tlist
Baylis) to bring the matter before the Court, in order ODo
further proceedings might be taken against the person
had sent the meat to London. „e
It was decided to instruct the solicitor to make the '
t
' sary preliminary inquiries with a view to further pro ells
tags being taken . against the offender. Dr. Lethebl'oe
medical officer of health; reported on the state of 2591
tea
that
had bean inspected during the week, and he 011,113113-pe
a list of 114 places for sanatory improvement. Pj3 °ad'
submitted a list orplaco which required farther Pr eon
ings on account of orders already issued, but not Yet
plied with. duly • • ens
e.'
The markets and slaughter-houses had been
spected, and the officers had condemned 3,4031bs a sot ,
unfit for human food. Nearly the whole of it 1,46
diseased condition. that
The returns of.last week (says Dr Letheb ) She
births and 57 deaths were registered in the City.3r. %D':
of deaths is just the average for the correspond ieg °w,
of the last eight years 26, or just half of the dc3t:,:el
among children of less than five years of age, "-afro'
among old persons of 60 and upwards. The chief 0'1,3% itie
death were as follows :—Phthisis 4, pneumonia 1, br°3l,-"fla sif
2, mesenteric disease 4, hydrocephalus 1, whooping °,2- vatiu'
infantile diarrhoaa 3, continued fever 4, scarlet fe'verA;-: 050
o measles 4, making together 9 den' hs from tubercular '6efroel
from inflammatory affections of the lungs, and Cher rep
of a zyrnotic character. Dr, LethebY far-det
diseases
gto the
ported that the illuminating power of the as suPPlin-enta
city during the week had been above the require —l-01,0r
the act of Parliament; but the average amount of 51.11,,ave
of the Chartered and Great Central Gas had been
th fl
e quantity anctioned by Parliament. 1014'
The Commissions s, after transacting some other
ness, adjourned.

•-•6
CHARLES DICKENS'S NEW SERIAL SsC''' •
Messrs. Chapman and Hall, according °,attol
Reader, have bought the copyright of " Our
000
Friend." ' The fortunate author receives, they WO
Ili-
ietp
—.C6,000 on the issue of the first, and the rewanaing
on the completion of the tale.