Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-12-09

! x +
Big books, says the Greek proverb, are big evils;
but the bulky volumes before us, comprising more
than thousand pages, would have baen vastly po
Ru1s gsssss, ss sa's ass "a soilsai g
and tell some new thing Whoeve4 has read the
plays Of Arstophanes can easily imagine that there
were abundant sources Of Scandal and gossip in the
lively metropolis Of Attica, insomuch that tattlng
quidnuncs colloquial philosophers and fair-spoken
hetcre could never have been greatly at loss in the
city Of Percles and Aspasia. The merry wives !"
of the Ecclesiazusse (those Boomers Of an
earlier age must at least have been very chatty if
not very modest ladies; the loungers around the
agora by day and the theatre-goers by night must
have been a gay and conyivial if not very " cor
rect " kind of people.
The modern French (and by the French we mean
Parisians only Of course) have been often keuad to
the sprightly and mercuria Athenians and that the
comparison is just will be admitted by all, well
by those who laud as by those WHO Gi-p,1age the
traits common to both. The Frenchman, says a
celebrated feuiNetonit of Paris, is excessive in all
things When thing pleases him he is ready to adore
It, except be government over year old; he passes
from state Of ennu to of rebellion in less time than
1t takes him to eat his breakfast Of omeette and frogs
leg from the registering chorus of patriotic song to an
s and the barricades there is as Louis Philippe found
there be any thing which the Partisan likes better than
soxpe maigr clare dancing, the theatres and revou-
TONS it is talking indeed the cafehouse is not much
made to and drink in to chat in and incline to
believe that the French keep up the theatre and overset
their Governments every and then not SO much for
the love Of the thing for the sake of talking about it
and being themselves talked about; supposon which
becomes the probable when remember that sun
dry dull and phlegma,ic Epgshmen said to have
taken highway robbery and horse stealing lin the good
old times when they used to hang, draw and quarter for
such feones not much from any love of filthy ucre
or horse flesh from noble ambition to live merry
life if short one, or, some have confessed for the
sake of dying in their beds like lubbardy poushmen
but Of being escorted Tyburn the Old Bailey with
nosegay their hands, and with company Of halber
diers to do them the honor of attendance, and with
crowd huzza around their gbbets Of Bratostratus,
too is recorded by Plutarch that he burnt the great
temple of the Ephesian Diana, not like somc thrifty
dern to get the insurance it, but 10 eternize his
and enough the scamp has succeeded in his aspira
on for every schooboy knows it by heart. The French
then we persuaded, keep their political institutions
going like whirgig Though they seem to have ratchet
in them now in order to keep themselves from falling
into the ennu of people whose annals are tedious for
though such people pronounced happy by familiar
aphorism it is not kind Of happiness to which French
Madame Junot the agreeable writer Of the Memoirs
which this new edition brings before us, is genuine
Trenchwoman she takes tell again and again.
though she need not have taken the trouble Her books
voumnous, but they never dull she tells good
many long stories and very crcumstanta ones, but
she never weares by her garrulity That she was
Of good heart may be inferred from the fact that
she waited until most of the actors in her Memoirs
dead before she exposed them and that her memory
1--WE did say her nventon) remarkableis evnced
by the accuracy with which she reports conversation
quarter of century after held in her hearing But
she took notes." she tells u.s. the time and this per-
haps solves the mystery. There is, we must admit
Madame Junots narratives which
propiaes the ncrcduous reader and if she does
not always tell the truth, according to Las Casas and
Marshal Soult, at least have disposition to ques
ton her yeracity for believe those who ventured to
impugn the faithfuness Of her recolecons under
took the task Of contng and dsprovng her statements
These Memoirs" doubt not, are reliable as Bou-
enne and more interesting to the general reader
because she tells many things which only
would Observe and which only woman would think |
worth telling
Madame Junot is the most agreeable of gossips and |
must have been We should think very poor hand at
keeping secret At any rate she has determined in
Memoirs to make confdant Of the public, and there
disclosures which enhance their value and quancy She
keeps nothing back from the reader but admits him
once to her confidence takes him into her boudor
holds her morning audience with him in her bed-chamber
She tells US all about her family her mother proud
Grecan blood in her VEINS her father bold, chivalic
and naughty, though commoner She describes to us
her birth at Montpelier which took place in the year
l784 she narrates the story Of her early fe with it's
Of horror and its daily surprises during the Reign
Of Terror she dwes with long and lingering discourse
on her courtshp by the mpetuous Junot he the bosom
friend OF the young Napoleon and she yet gddy girl
Of sixteen she informs their quarrels which ended
only in renewal of love- describes with the great
est particularly her and eor6e her wedding
Dress and her marriage by the mayor she cnertains us
with account Of the earliest ntmatons which gave
her the promise Of maternity and describes us the
which befel her household and her adorng
husband when those ntmaons rst crowned by the
birth Of daughter But anticipate the march
md turn TO " commence at the commencement" |,
Madame Junot enjoyed great advantages for the pre-
paraon Of work like that she has bequeathed Be-
tween her mother and the Bonsparte family the closest
friendship subsised "He who Afterwards became the
master of the world lived long, she remarks, foot
ing Of intimacy with He used to frequent my fathers
house when yet child and he scarcely young
nan. may almost say that have witnessed every