The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-26 00:00:00

Dec. 26, IS4B.

tatrature.

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VARIETIES.

I observe in England that people talk much less of
liberty than we do on the Continent, but practice it more.
=Merle d'Aubigne.
THE DIFFERENCE.—When a poor loafer is keeled up,
with an empty rum bottle by his side, the papers say,
"Another victim of intemperance." When a respectable
citizen eats a dinner that kills him in a few hours, with
or without the help of a doctor, the same papers head his
obituary notice, Mysterious Providence. —American
paper.
DEAR-BOUGHT WIT.—A gentleman observing, with a
/significant shake of the head, as a compliment to his own
sagacity and experience, that wit was nevergood till it was
dear-bought, another, whose opinion of the speakers wit
was at a very low ebb, made the following galling remark
Then we may presume, sir, you bought your portion
of the commodity under prime cost."
THE " RAW-HEAD AND BLOODY BONES" STYLE.—
" It will be written in history that Ferdinand of Austria,
the most remarkable monster of modern times, after
bombarding the three principal cities of his empire,
Prague, and Vienna, and savagely murdering, in cold
blood as well as hot, thousands of their inhabitants in the
course of a few short months of the year 1848, descended
from the gore-bespattered throne and retired from the
curses of mankind into private life, there to revel in and
gloat over his reminiscences of blood. In announcing
this retreat of the half-witted butcher of his people, the
.Allgemeine Zeitung informs us," &c.—LiverpooLlibion.
THE NEW FRENCH PRESIDENT.—Loafs Napoleon
Bonaparte, the first President of the French Republic,
was born in Paris in the month of Api il, 1808. His tether
was Louis Bonaparte, afterwards King of Holland, who,
on the fall of Napoleon assumed the title of Comte de St.
Len. His mother was the beautiful, the accomplished,
the affectionate, the beloved Queen Hortense—the danzh-
ter of Josephine, the sister of Eugene Beauharnais. The
Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine were his
'godfather and godmother. Louis Napoleon was the se-
-cond son of Louis and Hortense ; their eldest son Napo-
leon, who was a great favourite with the Emperor, was
`killed in an emeute in Rome, in the year 1831, in which
Vrneute Prince Louis Napoleon also took part. The Em-
Peror, before his marriage with Maria Louisa, had de-
lwed that in the event of his dying without issue, it was
J'is desire that he Imperial Crown should descend to the
eldiSt Son of hte brother rntiw; and-it was-upon the quetei-
-bequest of the Emperor that Prince Louis Napoleon
founded his claims to the Imperial Throne of France.
After the events of 1814-15, when the Bonapartes were
expelled from France, the Comte de St. Leu and his eld-
est son took up their residence in Italy, while Queen Hor-
tense and her second son, Louis Napoleon, retired to
Switzerland, where the Prince was educated and brought
tip under the eye of his mother. On the death of his
brother, and of the Duke of Reichstadt, Prince Louis
Napoleon considered himself as the representative of the
Bonaparte family, and a', therefore entitled to the Impe-
rial Crown of France. He at once adopted measures to
make good his claims against those of the House of Or-
leans, which certainly had no more legitimate right to the
French throne than had Prince Lou s Napoleon himself.
In April, 1836, the French Chambers, on the motion of
M. Tillers, then Prime Minister of France. relected a pe-
tition from the members of the Bonaparte family, praying
for a restoration of their civil rights as Frenchmen, and
for permission to return to France, and within a few
months Prince Louis Napoleon made an effort to seize
the fortress of Strasburg by a coup de main. The at-
tempt was unsuccessful, and the nephew of the Emperor
became the prisoner of Louis Philippe, who had the Prince
conveyed on board the frigate Anctromedr, which sailed
with sealed orders. Oa opening his orders the cap-
tain found that he was directed by the King to keep
at sea for five months, and then to land Princes Louis
Napoleon at New York. No sooner had the Andromeda
sailed than Louis Phillippe caused a notification to be in-
serted in the Government journals that Prince Louis had
passed his word of honour never to return to Europe;
and, consequently, when the Prince returned to Europe to
visit his mother, it was universally believed that he had
violated his word. The Procureur-General of Louis Phil-
lip was forced to admit this fact on the trial of Prince.
Louis Napoleon for the Boulogne affair, in 1840. In the
year 1837 Prince Louis Napoleon landed in England from
America, in order to proceed at once to Switzerland to
visit his mother, who was dying. The French King,
however, threw every possible obstacle in his way, and it
was only by the personal intervention of the late Duke of
Sussex that he was enabled to obtain passports for Swit-
zerland. At the death of his mother Prince Louis Napo-
leon took up his residence in England. In August, 1840,
the Prince landed at Boulogne, and was again made pri-
soner by the French government. Among the papers in
his possession when taken at Boulogne were several pro-
clamations, all, however, of a monarchial tendency. " I
command you," he says in his manifesto to the command-
ing officers of regiments, "I command you to place the
eagles on the colours of your regiments, to raise them
with the cries of France for ever, long live the Emperor."
He was tried before the Chamber of Peers on the 6th Oc-
tober, and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in the
Castle of Ham, but from which, however, he escaped in
1847, and came then to reside in England.

MRS. HEatANS.—Felicia Dorothea Browne—such was
the maiden name of Mrs. Hemans—was born in Liver-
pool, 25th September, 1793. She is described as distin-
guishrd " almost from her cradle by extreme beauty end
precocious talents." When of the age of seven years, her
father, who had been a merchant of considerable opulence,
mu wan a reverse-or-rornme-,—sint—rt.,---famiiT
Wales, "where for the next nine years they resided at
Gwrych, near Abergele, in Denbighshire,—a large old
mansion, close to the sea, and shut in Ly a picturesque
range of mountains,"—a change of residence which was,
at all events, highly propitious for the development of the
poetic character. "In the calm seclusion of, this roman-
tic region, with ample range through the treasures of an
-extensive library, the young poetess passed a happy child-
hood, to which she would often fondly revert amidst the
vicissitudes of her after-life.- Here she imbibed that in-
tense love of nature which ever afterwards haunted her
like a passion,' and that warm attachment for the green
land of Wales'—its affectionate, true-hearted people—
their traditions, their music, and all their interesting cha:
xacteristics, which she cherished to the last hours of her
existence." A pleasant picture this—the large old house
near the sea, and amongst mountains, with Welsh harpers
and Welsh traditions, and great store of books, and the
little girl ranging at will through all. This, and the pic
ture we have of the young student conning her Shalispeare,
her choicest recreation, " in a secret haunt of her own—a

seat amongst the branches of an old apple-tree—where she
'revelled in the treasures of the cherished volume"—are
all we learn of her childhood, and all perhaps that re-
mained to tell. Our poetess was very soon in
print. Few have commenced their life of authorship
30 early. In the year 1808 some friends, " perhaps more
Partial than judicious," published a collection of her
poems, written at and before the age of fourteen, in a
quarto volume. Not long after this first publication of
her poems, the next great event of her life took place—
her introduction to Captain Hemans. " The young poe-
tess was then only fifteen, in the full glow of that radiant
beauty which was destined to fade so early. The man-
tling bloom of her cheeks was shaded by a profusion of
natural ringlets, of a rich golden brown ; and the ever-
varying expression of her brilliant eyes gave a changeful
play to her countenance, which would have made it im-
possible for any painter to do justice to it." No wonder
that so fair a being should excite the admiration of a gal-
lant captain. And the love on both sides was ardent and
sincere: it supported the absence of three years; for
Capt. Hemans, soon after their introduction, was called
upon to embark with his regiment for Spain. On his
return, in 1812, they were married. Of their domestic
happiness. or unhappiness, nothing is said ; but, six years
-after, in 1818, we are simply told that the Captain went to
Rome, and never returned. The separatPd pair never met
again. "To dwell on this subject," says her biographer,
would be unnecessarily painful; yet it must be stated,
that nothing like a permanent separation was contem-
plated at the time, nor did it ever amount to more than a
tacit conventional arrangement, which offered no obstacle
to the frequent interchange of correspondence, nor to a
constant reference to their father in all things relating to
the disposal of her boys. But years rolled on—seventeen
years of absence, and consequently alienation ; and from
'this time to the hour of her death, Mrs. Hemans and her
husband never met again." We are not in general anxious
to pry into the domestic afflictions of-any pair whom wed-
lock has mismatched. If we fee! a little curiosity to know
more than the sister has told us in this instance, it is
merely from a wish to learn how far the poetic tempera-
ment of Mrs. Hemans could be assigned as the real
cause of her matrimonial unhappiness. Did the Captain
-grow weary of the society of one whose feelings were
pitched in too high a key for him to sympathise with ?
was there too much of poetry mingled with the daily food
of life ?
" Men, by St. Thomas! cannot live like bees."

Did he yearn for something more homely, as she, on her
side, yearned for something more elevated ? Had he been
made to feel that he did not approach the ideal of her
imagination, and that the admiration she once had given
was withdrawn ? Or should we say of her, in lines of her
.own

" There are hearts
So perilously fashioned, that for them
God's touch alone bath gentleness enough
To waken, and not break, their thrilling strings."
Of this perhaps some future biographer may tell us.—
Blackwood's Magazine.

EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT.—Ten years ago, in the
midst of a storm which had raised drifts of snow thirteen
feet deep across different spots of the road, a traveller set
out in a heavily-laden cart, from Kinguisse, in Badenoch,
to cross Drumwachter ; a friend and a Newfoundland
dog were with him in the cart. Near to Dalwhinnie Inn,
the storm turned horse and cart upside down, threw the
traveller and his friend into the road, and carried the dog
some way over the drift. The traveller's hat, which con-
tained an important letter, was blown away out of sight,
and, when the dog got back, he was sent in pursuit of it.
He disappeared in chase, and only returned just as the
horse and cart had been set upright, nearly an hour after
the overturn. The journey was completed by aid of a
band of twenty Highlanders. On examining his hat the
traveller found that the letter had fallen out of it and
*seeped the notice of his brave and sagacious dog, and be
was put to serious loss by the misfortune. A singular
incident remains to be told. The lost letter arrived to
its address a few days ago, by post, but the gentleman to
whom it was written was no more. He died about eight
years ago, and it was given to the writer. It was found
on the banks of Loch Ericht, a desolate region, about
eight miles from Dalwhinnie, by a shepherd, who simply
says on the envelope, " Found at Loch Ericht side, by a
shepherd." It is in surprising preservation, considering
the number of years it has lain among the mountains.—
Perthshire Courier.