The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-23 00:00:00

MINIATURE MEMOIRS.

'Whether the Count Rostopschin was, or was not, that
Mr. Swing on an extensive scale, the Incendiary of
Moscow, is nothing to our present purpose. We
have here to do with him only as the author of
an autobiography which is unexampled for brevity.
It is written in French, of which language the Count
was perfect master ; and including the table of con-
tents, occupies no more than five—" volumes
No ; (tell it not in the Row) not even the compulsory
three; it occupies no more than five loosely-printed
pages, in small octavo. Of the voluminous biographies
and autobiographies of persons of vast importance to
themselves or their surviving relatives, by which our
shelves are encumbered, were many of them abridged,
compressed, divested of all that is uninteresting and
valueless, to how much lqs than five pages would they
not be reduced !

Rostopschin, an able statesman and a good soldier,
was also a wit ; and when this dreaded personage first
arrived in Paris, "we were not a little astonished," says
the Biographie Universelle et portative des Contemporains,
" to find a man of wit and amiability in him whom, till
then, we had been accustomed to consider as a ferocious
Tartar." An abundance of his sayings are still pa-
membered ; as an example—" You did not, then, come
to Paris, Monsieur Le Comte, to set fire to it ?" said a
lady. " Madame," replied he, " I came to be enabled to
judge for myself of the real merits of three men of whom
I had heard so much—Fouch6, Talleyrand, and Potier.
(the actor) ; and it seems to me that Potier is the only
one of them who has not been vastly over-rated."
The origin of the memoirs may be related with a
brevity proportioned to the work. A lady told Ro-
stopschin that he ought to write his memoirs. The next
morning he waited upon her, and, putting a sheet of
paper into her hand, said, " I have complied with your
orders ; there, Madam, are my memoirs." It was not

till some years afterwards (1839) that the work was
given to the press, and only three hundred copies (of
which one is before us) were printed ; but it was almost
immediately copied into the leading French journals.
The version which we give of this charming jeu d' esprit
is, in some parts, necessarily paraphrastic : there are
points in it strongly resembling the light and playful
satire of Voltaire, the intention of which could not be
rendered by a close and literal translation.

MEMOIRS OF THE COUNT ROSTOPSCHIN, IN FOURTEEN
CHAPTERS, WRITTEN' DY HIMSELF IN TEN MINUTES.
CHAP I.—MY BIRTH.—On the 12th of March, 1765,
I burst from darkness into the light of day. I was
measured, and I was weighed, and I was baptised. I
was born without knowing why; and my simple parents
(like most othess) thanked Heaven for the event, with-
out knowing wherefore.

CHAP. lI.—MY EDUCATION.—I was taught all manner
of things and all sorts of languages. By dint of im-
pudence and quackery, I sometimes contrived to pass
myself oil for a very learned person. My head became,
as it were, a library of nothing but odd volumes, of
which I kept the key.

CHAP. lII.—MY SUFFERINGS.—I was tormented by
my tutors, by my tailors—they would make my clothes
so tight !—by women, and by vanity, and by ambition
and by idle regrets. Sometimes I was tormented by
sovereigns, sometimes by souvenirs.
CHAP. IV.—MY PRIVATIONS.—I was deprived of the
capacity for enjoying the three great pleasure of th•
human race : thieving, gluttony, and pride. •

CHAP. V.—MEMORABLE EPOCHS Or BIT LIFE.--.-At
thirty, I gave up dancing ; at forty, I renounced the de-
sire to make myself agreeable to the fair sex ; at fifty, I
ceased to care for public opinion ; at sixty, I gave up
the trouble of thinking, and became a true philosopher
—or thoroughly selfish man : the terms are synonymous.
CHAP. Vl.—My CHARACTER.--4 was as obstinate as
a mule, capricious as a pretty woman, gay as a child,
lazy as a dormouse, active as a Buonaparte—and all this
just as it suited me.
CHAP. VII.—A MOMENTOUS RESOLUTION.—Never
having been able to command my countenance, I resolved
to give full liberty to my tongue, till at length it became
a habit with me to think aloud. To this I was indebted
for considerable pleasure, and a great many enemies.
CHAP. I WAS, AND WHAT I MIGHT
HAVE BEEN.—I was frank, confiding, and exceedingly
susceptible of friendship ; so that, had I lived in the
golden age, I might probably have been a downright
simpleton.
CHAP. IX.—SINS I HAVE NOT COMMITTED.—I WE/
never implicated in bringing about a marriage; to ne
one did I ever recommend a cook or physician ; conse-
quently, I never attempted any person's life.
CHAP. X.—My TASTES.—I was fond of pleasant little
parties, and a ramble in the woods. I entertained an in-
voluntary veneration for the sun, and his setting often
saddened me. My favourite colour was blue; in eating,
I liked beef and horse-radish; in drinking, cool spring
water; comedy and farce when I went to the play; in
both man and woman I liked an open, expressive coun-
tenance. Hunchbanks—hunchbacks of either sex—for
me possessed an indefinable charm, a charm which I
never could account for.
CHAP. XI.—MY AVERSIONS.—I always entertained
an antipathy to fools and to rogues, and to certain
women who simulate virtue; disgust for affectation;
pity for dandyfied men and made-up women; aversion
for rats, liqucrs, metaphysics, and rhubarb; dread of
justice, and wild beasts.
CHAP. XII.—MY GREATEST BLESSING..—My chief
happiness now consists in that I am independent of tills
three great rulers of the destinies of Europe. As lam
as rich as I care to be, I have turned my back on public
affairs, and am pretty indifferent about music; 1 have,
consequently, no accounts to settle with Messrs. Roths-
child, Metternich, and Rossini.
CHAP. XIII.—ANALYSIS OF MY LIFE.—I await death
without fear, as without impatience. My life has been a
bad, but showy, melo-drama, in which I have alternately
played the hero, the tyrant, the lover, the dignified
father—but never the valet.
CHAP. XIV.—EPISTLE-DEDICATORY TO THE PUBLIC.
—Dog of a Public ! Harsh an untunable mouthpiece of
every bad passion ! Thou that elevatest to the skies and
plungest into the mire ; thou that, ignorant and chance-
led, now flatterest, now calumniatest ! Senseless tyrant!
Bedlamite broke loose ! Thrice-drawn essence of roses
—and of rats-bane ! The Devil's representative at the
Court of Humankind ! Fury—disguised beneath the
mask of Christian charity ! Public ! that in my
younger days I feared ; in riper years, respected ; in
age confirmed, despised—'tis to the I dedicate my Me-
moirs. Gentle public ! I am now beyond thy reach—
only for lam dead—deaf, dumb, and blind. For thine
own repose, and the repose of mankind, I heartily wish
thee the same.

THE FIRST ENGLISH RAILWAY.—TO the success of
the " Stockton and Darlington Railway," may be traced the
rise of all the others. To the originator of this line is due the
honour of being the founder of the railway system. His
fame was hardly earned and will last long. When success
was proved, when the opening was made, and by the
light of this experience a vista was illumined, whose
long perspective pointed distinctly to wealth and
eminence, crowds of speculators were ready to tread
the path. But great as their merit was he was the
leader ; and we hope the time may never come
when the millions at home and abroad, who enjoy
the advantages of railways shall have forgotten that
they owe them all to Mr. Edward Pease, of Darlington. It
would be idle to relate the opposition he received, the hosti-
lity of antagonists, the cold support of friends, the vexatious
obstacles, the absurd objections, the doubt of some, the pre-
judice of others, the ignorance of all. These matters
are now being forgotten. Confident in judgment, ready
in resource, undismayed by difficulty, with indomitable
energy and perseverance he gradually surmounted every-
thing; and it remains a striking instance of foresight that,
without any experience,, and with." all the world before him
where to choose," he selected what to the ordinary observer
is an unpromising district, and made the first and the
most successful railway. Perhaps even more remarkable
was the singular sagacity shown in his choice of an
engineer. At this day the names George Stephenson, and
of his no less eminent son Robert, are known far and wide.
But Mr. George Stephenson is a man of humble origin, and
at the time when • the Stockton and Darlington railway
was projected, unknown, untried, and inexperienced. It
was Mr. Pease's eye which detected the sterling
metal beneath the rough exterior, the genius which only
wanted a fair opportunity and fitting occasion to reveal its
gigantic power. He was drawn by Mr. Pease literally
from the mine to construct the first railway, and well has he
justified the choice. One success followed another in
triumphant succession until he can boast that he is the con-
sulting engineer of or has actually laid down every railway
between London and Edinburgh.—Fraser's Magazine.

EXECUTIONS FOR MUIDER.-011 Friday John.
Hickey was executed at Nenagh, for conspiring to-murder.
Thomas Hanaley ; and at the same time and place John
Cooke paid the forfeit of his life for the murder of a man named
Nolan.—bials.Paper. - • - - -- -