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

LITERATURE,

Menzoirs of Queen Hortense, Mother of
Napoleon
111. Compiled by Sir Lascelles Wrestsll, Bart',
and Robert Wehrhan. New Edition. One 'el.'
pp. 436. Hurst and Blackett.
As another, the twenty-seventh if we rrememberrightly, of the Messrs. Hurst and Blackett
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 th?
fascination of a romance with all the profound 01.31
enthralling interest of actual history. The Mei:l3°l7i,
—emphatically Pie "Memoirs of Queen Hortense.
The mother of the reigning Emperor of France, the
Emperor Napoleon 111, ! The daughter of the '6r4:o
press Josephine when the latter was simply the NO'
of the Viscount de Beauharnais ! Hortense, the
beautiful and accomplished Hortense—herself the
wife of Louis, King of Holland ! Hortense"'
thehe
first emerged from comparative obscurity as
step-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte ! The Leg
(together with the other members of egose hee
two favoured races, the Bcnapartes and ro
Beanharnais)—with the rise of that most weeue-
a! ful adventurer (using the term in no ineid
sense) that the world has ever seen I Generalo a!,
twenty-five, Consul at thirty, Emperor at thirtla
four, Conqueror, King-maker, Lawgiver, Hero an f
Sage, Orator and Historian "The greatest of
Poets," according to Eerangee ! '6 One of th
noblest of rhetoricians," according to Brought°,
According to William Napier—' the
•
Soldiers I" According: to all subsequent tallit
tury historians, unrivalled among all greil„
Captains save by one, and that one 11.eicifie
nibal! As Lord Byron sang in his Obis f
Harold -- " The greatest nor the worst es
men I" As Charles James Fos averred—" I beuli.e%
him to be one of the best, as I am certain ""1„
the greatest of men I" Ho who had entered 1"
triumph all the great capitals of Europe--Vieells;
Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Moscow, as eoneelern :
among other great powers, of Austria, r11156,1,-;
Italy, Spain, Russia! He who, from being a Yett.
son of a Corsican Barrister, had made himself
peror of France, King of Italy, Mediator of "tie
zerland, Protector of the Confederation of;.eg
Rhine—creating his elder brother Joseph 'ihio
first of all of Naples, afterwards of Spain e,
brother Louis, King of Holland—his brother leres'ei
King of Westphalia—his brother-in-law Ineebit,
Murat, King of Naples—one of his lieutenee.e
Janet, Governor of Portugal—besides eellEls ts
a variety of others to become occaPeo..
of minor thrones in that marvellous arranghip
ment of the European System, the heed,6,
of which constituted him, in a manner, .wila
series of years Lord Paramount over the length etbe
breadth of the Continent. At any period le, the
history of modern Europe since the close et
Great Napoleonic Era, since the death, that lei' i 0
the hero himself on the memorable
1821, on the rocky island of St. Helena—an auto it
tic narrative of the Life and Adventures of his ea
and famous step-daughter and sisterein-law 1211.eset
Hortense nee Beauharnais, would have been a ellbi-er
of eager curiosity to all endowed with a livfieilist
appreciation than the generality, of the Pee.
interest appertaining to the romance of hle+-4'v-10
Published, as the joint work of Sir Leeceitha
Wraxall, and Robert Wehrhan has been, eine: the
restoration to supreme power in France c 4
sea
Napoleon Dynasty, and that moreover in the Per ea
of the third and youngest of the sons of Gucci
Hortense herself—the Prince Louis Napoleon' ef
for more than a dozen years past EmPer.reiri
France under the glorious title of Napoleon.' .14,0
of lteW ever
the work comes before us with a witchery
that it would be difficult to exaggerates ileieeet
the story of this life might be related, it COuldch
fail to read otherwise than wondrously, as tb:ttitoo
it were the record of some extravagant i4ets
rather than the account of a succession of ece"t
each of which, marvellous though it may ePPecer
now while reading about it, was neverthelegl.
all that a veritable realty. It is, of its k 113;
a sort of fairy tale in its way. It is as astonishing
in the marvels it recounts as any one of the tholli° g
and one Arabian figments told to the breathies,
interest of the Sultan-Caliph, by the "iero
daughter, the Sultana Sheherazade ! However,i
recounted, we repeat, the faithfully related Alem%a
a
Queen Hortense could not but have Pesse;3l,-a
this attraction for, could not but have wield
this glamour over the general run of reeue-ai ,
whether readers of history or readers re,
romance. Penned, as they have been bere
however, in this graceful and courtly ner,soe
five, by biographers who seem to sound the Preleto
of their heroine to the flourish of golden trump ja
—the incidents here brought to view byebetaat
seven-and forty romantic chapters, might the
be said to pass before us with ail, pe.
pomp and panoply of some stately lietiaot
rial procession. Now and then one ie al'
tempted to swallow, not a mere grain or We' rte•
a large handful of salt in order to get down Piloa
enters, in themselves apparently too huge
°0 to
portentous in their way, for easy passage' eon
speak, down the gullet of our credulity ! Yetb-eiief
there in those exceptional instances where -
eery
in the events referred to, appears to be ee aieg
difficult, we are fain to swallow the seta° ber
statements—CUM (acct sine)grano salt's—Vale° teV
ing as who can fail to do how often, how. eitieg
the word " impossible," as the wonde e-weri epa
hero himself said was swept out of igaPe the
vocabulary by Napoleon himself. And t
light of Napoleon's own history—"Wenuaell
believingly tees° enthralling Memoirs io f '` the
Hortense—mother of Napoleon's succesece ec the
rehabilitater of Napoleon's throne in Plait e es' ad
restorer of Napoleon's empire over Fra nee
among the chief Powers of Christendom.

City Sewers Commission,
Of
Yesterday the Commissioners of Sewers of t he Clil of
London met as usual at the Guildhall, for the d espatc;a,,
public business. The Chairman, Henry De Jer a 1.1 red
presided, and among the Commissioners present s r 4 11,°;c1r
Alderman J. C. Lawrence, Deputy Farrar, Depu.t Y
e
Deputy Elliott, Deputy Lorkin, Deputy Bower, 32:re
Lloyd, Deputy Burnell, Deputy Perkins, Messrs- `-ro,°el/,
Walter, Fox, I'. Symonds, Chaplin, Young, Wl's
Cole, Botterill, Green, Farlow, Burro,29yllOt
The Solicitor, to the CommiGsion, Alexander F. coir
Esq., reported that on the sth inst,, he caused to
(bitzt%icai'
dunned, before Alexander J. C. Lawrence, at the „d
of
which had been (at

house, our quarters of an ox whim, .a,..
Inspector Wylde, in Leadenhall-market, and forme' I ineti
an animal that had died of diesease, Tho meat al:,,Tl)o
destroyed,
, and quite unfit for human food. It was order 5d to
Ba. and Alderman Lawrence directed b irn .tiet' t
further
r) to bring the matter before the Court, in ° rjet fil°
proceedings might be taken against the Pe c73°11
.
had sent the meat to London.
It was decided to instruct the solicitor to make 03° sere,
saryiags I:erieno.mt.nary inquiries with a view to further Tr°c are
against the offender. Dr. Lett 10D1',0a0
mtheadtioal o'fficaekreonf health, reported on the state of 2 591: 03
a list had been inspected during the week, and he 6 11.,11);1 ls°
114 places for sanatory improvement. .1",,,- I'd'
isaubamitotfed a list of places which to wired further PrseloW.
plied with.
account of orders already issued, but not you
fill'i is, 0'
The markets and slaughterhouses had been. 00
spectecl, and the officers had condemned 3,4031 b! °f
moat IA II
unfit for human food. Nearly the whole of ft "
diseased condition. tia t 55
b The returns of last week (says Dr Letb.eby) 011°'ic -„,loDer
a it the and 57 deaths were registered in the City. Tlfe l'-- rid-
f deaths is just the average for the correspondia.„:oo6
of the last eight years 26, or just half of the de3';'-ci 13,,
among child) on of less than five ears of age' ti.,- se`
among old persons of 60 and upwards y 'r ha chief c6t sse Pi°
death were as follows :—Phthisis 4, pneumonia 1, broo-:313, 3,
2, mesenteric disease 4, hydroce hal 1, whoopifigc°:%o
infantile diarrh ma 3, continuedPfeverls4scarlet fever [af,asett
measlesfro 4, making together 9 deaths from tubercular (1615000
m inflammatory affections of tho lungs, alld ,lt,,i. to'
diseases of a zymotio character. Dr. L thebY fur OE'
ported that the illuminating power orithe:gesrsetrl3Plieci t°
f
uirefileisi° °I.
city during the week had
aabove uhreaaungt
of stoleva
the act of Parliament ; but the average
of the Chartered and Great CenvtrearlagGesas had been
9D°
the quantity sanc by at liaraen
he Commissiontieoned rs, at ter P
transactine'
t.
some Other bffsi-
ness, adjourned. b

CHARLES---------.... cri,raa•
Messrs. ''' DICKENS'S NEW SERIAL PA eye
Chapman and Hall, according t° * t
~c,ittis
Reader, have bought the copyright of " Oar '''',-; 000
Friend." The fortunate author receives, they says foie4ltY
—6,000 on the issue of the first, and tho remajui".
04 the completion of the tale,