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

LITERATURE.

Memoirs of Queen liortense, .Mott er of Napoleon
Compiled by Sir Laseelles Wraxall, Bart. ,
and Robert Wehrhan. New Edition. One vol.,

pp. 436. Hurst and Blackett.
As another, the twenty-seventh if we reraemb°'r
rightly, of the Messrs. Hurst and Blackett's
charming series of Popular Modern Works, pub"
lished in compact and cheap one-volume editions,
in the form of a really, and not alone aominallY,
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 Meraoirc
—emphatically The " Memoirs of Queen Horteneeli
The mother of the reigning Emperor of France, the
Emperor Napoleon 111, ! The daughter of the Bra'
press Josephine when the latter wee simply the Wife
of the Viscount de Beauharnais ! Hortense, the
beautiful and accomplished Hortense—herself the
wife of Louis, King of Holland ! Hortense--vcb°
first emerged from comparative obscurity as the
step-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte ! Rising
(together with the other members of those
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
Sage, Orator and Historian I " The greatest Of
Poets," according to Beranger ! " One of the
noblest of rhetoricians," according to Brougharn,
According to William Napier—' the Soldier of
Soldiers I": According to all subsequent Ini.ll.
tary historians, unrivalled among all great
Captains save 'by one, and that one 11014
niball As Lord Byron sang in his Child')
Harold --'The greatest nor the worst of
men I" As Charles James Fox averred—" I believe
him to be one of the best, as I am certain he 1°
the greatest or men I" He who had entered i°
triumph all the great capitals of Europe—Vienocl
Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Moscow, as conqueror,
among other great powers, of Austria, Prussic'
Italy, Spain, Russia! He who, from being a younger
son of a Corsican Barrister, had made himself Eui"
peror of France, King of Italy, Mediator of Sviit"
zarland, Protector of the Confederation of the
Rhine—creating his elder brother Joseph 10°5
first of all of Naples, afterwards of Spain--bi°
brother Louis, King of Holland—his brother Serape'
King of Westphalia—his brother-in-law Joachim
Murat, King of Naples—one of his lieutenants'
Junot, Governor of Portugal—besides causleg
a variety of others to become occupant°
of minor thrones in that marvellous arrange'
went of the European System, the headsb'P
of which constituted him, in a manner, for
series of years Lord Paramount over the lengthen
breadth of the Continent. At any period in the
history of modern Europe since the close of tile,
Great Napoleonic Era, since the death, that is;
.°:,
the hero himself on the memorable " Cinq Al5l,
1821, on the rocky island of St. Helena—an authe°4
tic narrative of the Life and Adventures of his felt
and famous step-daughter and sister-in-law
Hortense nee Beanharnais, would have been a subje°'
of eager curiosity to all endowed with a livelier
appreciation than the generality,"of the peculiar_,
interest appertaining to the romance of history'
Published, as the joint work of Sir Lascelle°
Wraxall, and Robert Wehrhan has been, since the
restoration to supreme power in France of the
Napoleon Dynasty, and that moreover in the Pert°
of the third and youngest of the sons of Queen
Hortense herself—the Prince Louis Napoleon, n°
for more than a dozen years past Emperor
France under the glorious title of Napoleon 111.
the work comes before us with a witchery of its O
that it would be difficult to exaggerate: iloviever
the story of this life might be related, it could not
fail to read otherwise than wondrously, as thoor;
it were the record of some extravagant fiotl°
rather than the account of a succession of eve°o
each of which, marvellous though it may appear
~,st
now while reading about it, was neverthelees
all that a veritable realty. It is, of its ki.°
a sort of fairy tale in its way. It is us astooishil
in the marvels it recounts as any one of the thousand
and one Arabian figments told to the brestbles:
r
interest of the Sultan-Caliph, by the Vizier s
daughter, the Sultana Sheherazade ! 11°Nceve0
recounted, we repeat, the faithfully related Memoirl
of, Queen Hortense could not but have possessed
this attraction for, could not but leave wields
this glamour over the general run of readeroi
whether readers of history or readers e,
romance. Penned, as they have been beta,
however, in this graceful and courtly nerreo
five, by biographers who seem to sound the Preis
40
of their heroine to the flourish of golden true3Pctt
—the incidents here brought to view by tber°oo
seven-and-forty romantic chapters, might 11111100
be said to pass before ns with all i
pomp and panoply of some stately nirofjc
rial procession. Now and then one is 01°1
tempted to swallow, not a mere grain or two, to
a large handful of salt in order to get down Pero
culars, in themselves apparently too huge eto
portentous in their way; for easy passage, c° op.
speak, down the gullet of our credulity ! Yet eli.of
there in those exceptional instances where bell
in the events referred to, appears to be so 't!tf
oi
difficult, we are fain to swallow the aatoalad/e,
statements—cum (out sine) grano salis—rem
ec,
ing as who can fail to do bow often, how oftpg
the word " impossible," as the wouder-werljo
hero himself said was swept out of Napole°oo
vocabulary by Napoleon himself. And so--b
read
light of Napoleon's own history—we fees
balievingly these enthralling Memoirs of alio
Hortense—mother of Napoleon's successor, of tba,
rehabilitater of Napoleon's throne in Paris, of oa
restorer of Napoleon's empire over France
among the chief Powers of Christendom.

City Sewers Commission,
Yesterday the Commissioners of Sewers of the CPI,' o(
London met as usual at the Guildhall, for the despetv°-4.
public business. The Chairman, Henry De Jersey' lice;
presided, and among the Commissioners present we n° Bede
Alderman J. C. Lawrence, Deputy Farrar, Deputy ate
Deputy Elliott, Deputy Larkin, Deputy Bower, PJ
,°P
Lloyd, Deputy Burnell, Deputy Perkins, Messrs. ue,oil
Walter, Fox, T. Symonds, Chaplin, Young, Dg'tis'
Cole, Botterill, Green, Farlow, Burrower, &c. lily
BAY
The Solicitor, to the Comecission, Alexander I. of).
Esq., reported that on the sth inst., he caused to b°
,t3too'
damned, before Alexander J. C....i..awrence, at the 0113..
by
house, four quarters of an ox which had been sroe,toL
/asp actor Wylde, in Leadenhall-market, and formed 01-01).
an animal that had died of diesease. The meat v01e,,, bB
bad, and quite unfit for human food. It was ordered to
destroyed, and Alderman Lawrence directed hire I‘olol
Baylis) to bring the matter before the Court, in °reit° fil;0
further proceedings might be taken against the per°
had sent the meat to London. neer
It was decided to instruct the solicitor to make the 0„
sary preliminary inquiries with a view to further Pr°G
r 0
ings being taken against the offender. Dr. Letheliblo%34
medical officer of health, reported on the state of 259' it to'
that had been inspected during the week, and he ealgia 00°
a list of 114 places for sanatory improvement.
submitted a list of places which required further Pr° cote
ings on account of orders already issued, but not Yet
plied with. If ill;
-11
The markets and slaughter.houses had boll 0t
epected, and the officers had condemned 3,4031bs *
unfit for human food. Nearly the whole of it Ws."
diseased conditio'n. t
tha",,ot
The returns of last week (says Dr Letheby) el° now
births and 57 deaths were registered in the City. 1 11f3 - :
of deaths is just the average for the correspoudiv vPef °,`"3
of the last eight years '26, or just half of tho d°'9 and t
I among children of less than five years of eg°, loco .4
among old persons of 60 and upwards. The chief c01;iL;
death were as follows :—Phthisis 4, pneumonia 1, tc° ti,511 1
a
2, mesenteric disease 4, hydrocephalus 1, whoopi 0/1,
infantile diarrhoea 3, continued fever 4, scarlet feve.dio'srit"
measles 4, making together 9 deaths from tuberetiOr id fro'
2 from inflammatory affections of the lungs, fold Leer ~;
diseases of a zymotic character. Dr, Letheby fur,,a 10 tP
ported that the illuminating power of the gas suPP/Itoehts
nr
city during the week had been above the requir,°
the act of Parliament; but the average amount 01 0011"
of the Chartered and Great Central Gas had be°l3 •
the quantity sanctioned by Parliament. other
Dti".
The Commissioners, after transacting setae
ness, adjourned.

_
CIIARLE S DICKENS'S NEW SERIAL
Messrs. Chapman and Hall, according iffotnol
Reader: have bought the copyright of " °tit' /,°°°d
Friend." The fortunate author receives, they BY.
—X6,000 on the issue of the first, and the remaining'-
on the completion of the tale,