Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-21
B00KSAND AUTHORS
The New Letters of Napoleon I
By M. Leon Lecestre.
Memoirs and Letters of Chancellor Kent
Travels in FinIand-"The Disaster"
by the MarguerItes-Napoleon
III land His Court-Stores
by Bret Harte.

famous edition Of the letters written on
public affairs by the great Napoleon, he
took good care that all those which did
SPECIAL injury to the character and
memory of Bonaparte were not included.
Also, in accordance with his directions,
many Of the published letters were clip
ped and corrected" The result was
that these letters did not furnish a COM
plete epistolary guide to the many-sided
nature Of the conqueror and statesman
! in his public capacity
Hence M. Leon Lecestre did great
stroke for the cause Of truth but a bad
one for Napoleon rs fanatical admirers
when he edited and published not so
very long ago no less than 1856 fine let
ters by Napoleons which were hitherto
unknown; or rather buried away in the
Irrational archives and war and foreign
offices at Paris In addition, NJ. Lecestre
re-established the true text of over 800
pieces heretofore mutilated.
Yet the world of letters will never
possess the text of the 1912 letters which
! disappeared during the retreat from
| Moscow, nor those wilfully made away
with i'm 1874, those that were destroyed
! by Napoleon III, or those burned with
1 the Tuileries by the communists in 1871,
! Still it is source for historical and lit
/ erary pleasure that the majority Of
\ Napoleon's public letters are now intact
The same can not be said about the
similar correspondence of many other
remarkable characters of the past two
centuries.
| In these New Letters of Napoleon r
appear, as has been stated, all his worst
phases of character as a soldier and
statesman; but it is readily apparent to
! the most casual reader of them that lack
of intelligence or insight or firmness Of
| purpose were not among these defects.
| Despite their bullying, menacing or
| cajoling character, there is purpose
behind them all and a wonderful sense
/ of power wholly devoid Of theatrical
posing. They are blunt, plain, to the
point; and they will arouse anew in
every reader an establishment at the un-
eXampled genius, versatility, cyniclsm
and insight of the man who for years
| kept Europe in subsection to his arms
and methods. At the same time they Will
| tend decidedly to freeze up the springs
of admiration. They should be read In
connection with Napoleon's other pub
lished correspondence, private as we'll
as public, to form a final estimate OF
| the man, aside from the estimates OF his
| contemporaries and the critical histor-
| ians.
The volume contains frontispiece
portrait of Bonaparte as first consul
Published by D. Appleton & Co., New
York
| CHANCELLOR KENTS MEMOIRS.
The Memoirs and Letters OF James
Kent LII. d. has been written by Will
liam Kent, Esq, greatgrardson of the
author of the famous commentaries on
.1,o nf "a
state of New York. Chancellor Kent
was the great reconstruction of American
q, Jurisprudence founded upon those prin-
| ciples of law and equity which he enun-
| ciated"
! AS one Of the leading figures Of
American intellectual and professional
life the career of Chancellor Kent de-
serves careful attention; and that an ex-
cellent, idea of the man and his work
may be obtained from his greatgrand-
sons book becomes early evident to the
reader. The memoir is a model of bio
graphical excellence, and deals with the
subject in the natural chronological or
der. Quite rightly the author, or more
strictly, perhaps. the editor, confines
his general remarks to a somewhat linn
tied space outside the narrative pure
and simple, and allows his famous an
cestor's correspondence, memoranda and
extracts from occasional addresses to
take precedence of all other material
used.
These letters and extracts are ex-
tremely interesting, and show us the
great legal light as he really was as to
his public and private ideas and tastes.
Also interesting are letters and descrip-
tions by the chancellops friends and
contemporaries
Of course the most valuable portions
Of the book from the practical stand
point are those which deal with the
status of legal procedure in the United
States during the career Of Chancellor
Kent and his fruitful labors in that i'm
portant field
Chancellor Kent was born Of good
New England stock in 1863 His ances-
try, boyhood, college life at New Haven
and admission to the bar, are dealt with
in the opening chapter. His - y pro-
fessional life was passed in ! York,
where he became intimate wit lexan-
der Hamilton, the great financier, and
served for time as a professor in CO.
lumbia College. In regard to the future
chancellor's first law lecture there are
some interesting letters from John Ad-
ans.
Succeeding chapters deal with his life
as state legislator and recorder, as
judge and chief justice of the supreme
court of New York, and as chancellor of
New York from 1914 to 1923. At the age
of 6S Chancellor Kent began the prepa-
ration of his commentaries, which was
his last and greatest work and his last
ing monument He retired from public
life in 1889, and died in IS47. A few
years before he retired he gave a nota-
BILE address at the dinner in New York
to Washington Irving, on the latter's
return from his memorable residence
abroad
Chancellor Kent was a man Of broad
literary and scholastic tastes, and what
he read and what he studied, his travels
and his correspondence with men like
Everett and Webster as given in this
volume, are of peculiar value. A copi-
Gus appendix comprises the chancellor S
own memories of Alexander Hamilton.
The author has been somewhat assist
ed in the preparation of his work by Ed
mund j. Carpenter of Boston. The
splendid frontispiece portrait is from the
painting by Rembrandt Peale of 1S43
now in possession of the Kent family at
Tuxedo Park, N. Y.
Published by Little, Brown & Co., Bos-
ton.
A BOOK ON FINLAND.
Finland, like the rest of Russia out
side Of the great cities of st. Peters
burg, Moscow and Warsaw, is almost
terra ineQgnita to most travellers and
many readers. Books of travel about
that cold northern land which separates
Sweden from Russia proper, have been
few, far between and generally unsat-
isfactory. Therefore Mrs. Alec Twee-
dies new book, Through Finland in
Carts" win be appreciated as an inter
estirlg account of recent personal trav-
els in a somewhat peculiar country of
forests and lakes and fish, in some re-
spects very backward, in others very