The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-03-28
REMusAT, MsTTERNIcH AND prATr

~ 10 Sct c0nupsCensipn rom his uSunl
lofty supertillous tone tcwotd his number brethren
OF the press when COL fiatt, Of the Capital accords
them even semblance Of argument about any Of his
dogmatisms they may have taken issue with. We
feel then, that we can afford to waive some OF his
sarcasm at expense, when he replies
thus to suggestion made three weeks ago to those Of
our readers who relying on THE SUNDAY HERALD
fol homeiy truth, take also the capital the aher
darscrous) Attic salt OF the feast:
wo humbly suggest that saying
Metternich looked at Napoleon with the eyes Of q
lackey was not saying that the famous diplomat
lackcy, and brushed anti backed and prepared waste
paper for the shaving OF his royal master. Yet his
Memoirs show that he had MI the qualities OF ackcy
and none more conclusive than his humble respect for
MS weak klngng because he was born to tho crown,
and his contempt for the great Napoleon because he
AS for Madame Remusat's cast -oH love. we have
her own word for It,, confirmed by her conduct. She
tells how Josephine bccahie Jealous OF mysterious
OF hh who never, she tells us, approached
q woman nut TO crafty his passions-an intimacy
na ", camp ana conr. to talking Then her spbse
faults, is confirmation strong proofe III Holy writ.
To the female mind the defsets oi the loved object 10.
come virtues unti scofhed, and then tho virtues bo-
We fear the N. ofthe S. H. win regard this as one
oil our brilliant paradoxes to attract ny gcbblcrs
What In the Old Scratch Is a ny-gobbler, anyway?
II strikes us that N. Of tho s. y. has little time
TO read and reflect as he has to improve infoima
ton and morals, etc., etc.
tbserNe, however, the measurelcss Conuesccnsion
Implied in seriously informing us that Prince Meter
Mich was not brush-boy OF Napoleon's but only
viewed him as such brash-bev might. To one who
reflects that Mettern,ch eventually held the fate Of
Napoleon In tho hollow OF his hand and wrote him
yeats after he had exposed the essential narrowncss
and cuigdriy Of the Corsican yrant and driven him
into whining exile by mastery combination Of
those same crowned mbccies they both at hcert
despiscd the ono statement is really about as child
all. Hiatt .N.N.
more viewed Napoleon with the eyes Of iackey than
he was lackey OF his bedchamber In fact Col
Plat proves this In the very paragraph by say
Ing incohsistently that NIettcrnch had an humble
respect for hswcak kingllng, '(meaning no doubt,
the Emperor Francis) Now, the very epigram TO
which he is all along refetng the Of which itself
we by no means admit, is that Z" no man Is hero 10
his own Valet" To say therefore, that the ambas-
sNdor made hero of his imperial master shows that
he was valet, but the contrary imputed to
Francis Metternichs qualities Of elevation and
clearness OF mind. To Napoleon he never any
thing but an opponent who asked no odds I'm acutenes
or mental equipment. His ''contempt' was
founded not the fact that the Corscan ''won the
"lmperial diadem. " but that he, who might have
earned Infinitely greater titles to distinction aped the
meaest and pettest vanities and Vices OF those who
were accidentally born to ceremonial dignltes And
surely 1t lisa contempt that all honest men must
share.
Concerning the other paradox. that Madame de Re-
musat, n woman surely held in the highest honor
by the Jealous EMPRESS Josephine, by her own hus-
band, her son, and all her descendants, is dscov
cred by Col. Piatt of the Capital to have been
cast-of love of Napoleon can only say that 1t is
one of those imputaticns on woman which are Inca
pable of either proof or disproof and therefore with
out the slightest historical value The reasoning
Col. Piatt applies to Napoleon and her would also
apply to her and that other libertinc Talleyrand, who
was hourly near her, and 1t Is shown had sincere adj
mration for her. Wchave ITO sympathy with mind
that can invent scandals even in dead and gone his
tory when none need be supposed for an Instant The
Memoirs were rewritten years after the events de-
scribed, tthe FIRST draft having been, perhaps fortu
nately, destroyed by woman already feeling the
hand OF death upon her, and under the eyes Of loved
and loving husband and son. To suppose that old
sptes and jealouslcs survived and appear plainly In
suc, pages, to suppose, In short that there Is any
thing visible but what many others felt honest
liking for of powers of fascination and dis
stimulation, turning to horror he rcckiessly and
coarsely threw aside the mask, is preposteros and
absurd Her grandson records In his preface that
SHE recalled the young Bonaparte he first appeared
to her. anxious to conclliate and with everything TO
gain, her old admiration came back in full force, and
she could scarcely bring herself to pen the Indictment
against him, or believe that postcrty would credit
such change 1t remained for the chaste imagina-
tion of the Capital ONCE to suggest explanation
that would probably have led Madame de R6musat to
burn her Memoirs again rather than submit them to
such exegesis.
fy-gobbler is-"what in the Old Scratch is a fly
'gobber?'' iy-gobber, in the Old Scratch or else
where, SO far we Informed, Col. Piatt should
have learned during his long and noted diplomatic
career in Paris "a which should moreover have
given him user notions Of the position of Metternich
with regard to Napoeon) is the same 0oJe mouce,
otherwise called In a different vernacular quid-
nuac--one ever agape for ''some new thing, - who
gulps down what is crammed Into his Jaws, whether
in the shape of fiction, ruinor, brillIant paradox,
apparent nonsense. Hell described In the dlction
aries as ga gull, ~ triiier, ~ End other opprobri-
GUS epithets indicating craving vacuity of thought
and readiness to he stuffed with intellectual trash Of
any sort that comes with semblance of authority and
kind of buzzlng dash to 1t.
II dealt In the same sort OF singing made easy
as the Capital we might add that Col. Piatt misun
derstands our anxiety In this matter We have In
deed too little time to devote improving tho vast
stores OF msinformatlon OF neghbor, and the I'm
pr0vement OF his morals we fear is not matter Of
time at all, but question of eternity But some OF
our subscribers daily with the Capital, IL he pre-
fers 1t that way, some Of his subscribers read THE
HERALD. 1t is for them We are sollcitous. Nay
Will go far to show that this Is controversy
widely experienced and intelligent to be infected
with any such visionary, self contradictory Outgiv-
ngs As we said before, 1t Is the penalty of always
hankerng to be "smart, ~ to DO novel and striking
In matters OF opinion, that one cannot always 10
simply truthful, sincere, and coherent.
Historical fallacy, economic paradox, riddle philo
sophical-it is all the long 1t the turn
OF those who think Journalism has higher aim than
to tickle, to anuse, to Kill n moments time, and DO
most salutariy forgotten the next.
II Col. Piatt has any object 1t must be to defend
Bonaparte. Having case, he abuses the plaintiffs
with the ingenuity and good deal of tho tone OF
Old Bailey lawyer. The best to his structures
on the Metternich and Remusat portraitures is to
compare them with judgments entirely disner-
ested, foreign, and adverse TO theirs. Our own
william Ellery Charming, whose worth and Impair
TALLY the CAPITAL Will scarcely decry wrote of
''The Life and Character Of Napoleon Bonaparte ~
In 1877 precisely II he had both the lately
published Memoirs before him. Ills was the eye OF
philosophic Insight and ntuition; theirs of actual
observations. These three uncousve witnesses agree
What more need be said.
On reelection, we acquit the readers OF the capital
OF any charge of being ny-gobblcrs. That journal
seems to most people gad-hy, of the kind described
by Shelley In his burlesque, " Swe-foot the Ty-
Grant, ~ and which would think of gobbling;
The CAD fly was the same which Juno sent
To agitate 10, and which Egechie mentions
That the Lord whistled for out OF the mountains
OF utmost Ethiopia, to torment
Mesopotamlan Babylon. The beast
Has q loud trumpet like the Scarabee,
His crooked tail Is barbed with many sings
Each able TO make thousand wounds, and each
Immedcabc; from his convex eyes
He sees fair things In many hideOus shapes
And trumpets all his falsehood to the world.
A Buffalo Story.