Litchfield enquirer., 1880-04-08
Madame Remusat's Napoleon.

1 The new volume of Madame Remusat's
 Memoirs continue to develope evidence oi the intense egotism and selhshness of Napole. on,s character Of his jealousy of anything like first rate ability in his suDordinates she 1 says:
 Singular iD every respect he believed him. self to be vastly superior to the rest of the l world, and nevertheless he was afraid of su periority in others. Is there one among those who knew him we'll who has not heard hnl say that he preferred men of second-rate abilities? Is there one wlo has not remark ed that when he made use of man of talent, l of whatever kind, he would, before he felt he could trust him, find out his weak point, and in most cases hasten to divulge it? Did he not always depreciate and often falsely, those 1 whose services he employed ? The truth is,
 Bonaparte's gifts whethertto the world, to na- tions, or to individuals, were all bargains. These bargains, which were enforced rather 1 than offered, fattered the vanity of human nature, and thus for a long time beguiled mems ninds, so that it is now hard to reduce them to bounds of possibility and reason. Such policy as this may certainty avail to purchase service of every kind, but it follows that it must be based on unvarying success. No better proof of the last fact can be found than in the facility with winch his supporters deserted him at the last
 That Napoleon's position was that of sharp reaction against the democratic. principles of the Revolution he clearly recognized: That which makes Bonaparte one of the most remarkable of human beings, which places him apart and at the head of all those powerful men who have been called to rule over their fellows, is that he perfectly knew and always contended with his epoch. Of his own free will he chose a course which was at once difficult and contrary to the spirit of his time. He did not disguise this from himself :; be frequently said that he alone had checked the revolution, and that after him it would re- sume it's course. He allied himself with the revolution to oppress it: but he presumed too far upon his own strength, and in the end the revolution recovered it's advantage, conquered and repulsed hlm."
 He came finally to recognize, also, the mis- take he had made in trying to reconcile the older dynasties to his own:
 Subsequently to the Prussian campaign and tue treaty of Tilsit, the Emperor often re- gretted that he had not pushed his innovations in Eerope to the extent of changing every ex- isting dynasty. There is nothing to be gain l the hands of people whom we have made dis conented There is no use in half measures {: ole works will not drive new machines. ought to have made all other kings accessory to my own greatness, and, 80 that they should owe everything to me, they ought not to have had any greatness in the past to point to- Not that in my eyes this was of much value-cer- talnly not of value equal to that of founding a new race-but nevertheless it has a certain in- huenoe over mankind. Ny sympathy with certain soverelgns, my Compassion toward suffering nations, my fear, l now not why, of causing an utter overthrow of all things, with held me. l have been greatly in the wrong, and perhaps l may have to pay for 1t dear ly'"
 He had none of the suavity of manner. the dignity of department or the consideration for the comfort of. others, by which kings like Louis XIV. had made their courts attractive i;
 ''He worked very hard at Fontainebleau, as, indeed, he did everywhere. He rose at seven, held his leoer, breakfasted alone, and, on the days when there was no hunt, remained i1 his cabinet or held councils until five or six o'clock The Ministers and Councillors of State came from Paris as if we had been at Saint Cloud He never considered distances, and carried this to such an extent that having expressed an ln- tentiOn to receive on Sunday after mass, as he did at Saint Cloud, people had to leave Paris in the night in order to reach Fontaine- bleau at the prescribed hour. The person who had made this journey would be placed. in one of the galleries of the chateau, through which he would walk, sometimes without taking the trouble of rewarding them by 8 word or look for the fatigue and inconvenience they had undergone"