New-York tribune., 1900-12-02

exercise
intelligence in a field toward which it has gravi-
tated rresistibly and sympathetically
LORD Rosebery has Imagination and he has
humor Accordingly ne invests with animated
interest the almost squalid climax to the Ma
poieoh epic The sort of material with which
ne mas TO deal is shown by this fragment reIat-
ing TO the amazing Governor Of st. Helena dur
Ihg the time Of the Emperor's captivity. Sir
Hudson Lowe:
Mohtholon offers Montchenu a few beans to
e9 ps' poIh white and green To the ordinary
I-u . 1iiIS seems commonplace and utilitarian
enough. But the Governors was not an ordi-
nary Inlhd. be scents q plot; he suspects in
Ifs innocent vegetables alIusiOn 10 the
s nag OF the BourbOns and the green uni
Iorm @ usually worn by Napoleon He writes
SIaVey TO Bathurst: Whether the haricOts
nLdHCs us ana har1cots verts bear any reference to
ShT urapeau blanc of the BOurbOns and the
tiaoIt vert OF General BOnaparte himself and the
!LNeIy OF MS servants at LOngwood I am unable
/ 10 say; but the Marquis de MOutchenu n an
pears to me, would have acted with more pro-
prlety If he had declined receiving either or
ILlIte0 himself to demand for the white
alone" "Sr II. Lowe" says Fcrsyth Thought
the matter OF some Importance ara again al
Iuoed 10 1t in another letter to Lord Bathurst"
1t was a man capable of pueriIities as as
i founding as this to whom Ministry hardly
less tactless and stupid than himself confded
the care of Napoleon! Lord Rosebery is con-
stantly divided between disgust and mirth He
(
shortcomings, the petulance. the captiousness.
the imperioUs temper which made him M
doubt. very hard to live with in those closing
years He sympathzes frankly with Gourgaud,
with MonthOOn, with Bertrand with all those
who had to put up with the prisoners moods.
But, naturally, he can find no excuse in all this
Tor the conduct of the British authorities and OF
the man they had put in charge. Victory he
observes, had not taught them magnanimity.
/ no ha4 Loo, IL
wish was to get somebody else to shoot him or
hang him. failing which they We're determined
to lock him up like a pickpocket All that they
saw clearly was that he had cost them a great
deal OF trouble and a great deal of money,
that he must cost them little as pos
sble." They were honest men, he grants, but
adds that they We're dull. Dull is a mild word.
They raised dulness to a higher power. they
gave it train of malignant imbecility. Bath
urst, with colossal ineptitude, proposes to erect
a species of AREA railing" around the Emperor.
When Napoleon complained of the rats that in
Tested the island and made life at LongwoOd al
most unendurable this wonderful Minister wrote
to Lowe saying. L believe that the increase is
owing TO the negligence of his servants, in which
he is very willing 10 encourage them" With
such a coadjutor it ought not perhaps be
surprising that Lowe gave a free rein to the
vulsarity and petty suspiciousness of his own
nature.
The third Napoleon called himself a parvenu
Emperor" Lord Rosebery conceGes that the
first of that great name better off. But
he reminds that the Pope aLointed Napoleon
Emperor that he was twice sOlemnIy crowned
once as Emperor ard once as King. Though the
British had never bent the knee to him in his
Imperial splendor, they were not justified, he
argues in refusing to give their prisoner the title
10 which he clung. There is something to be
said, he believes. for the hypothesis that Ma
poleOn had risen to an historical height far
above the region of titles" and he adds that
eagle that tore the very heart out of glory-is to
our mind superior TO the title of First Consul or
of Emperor" But the object of this book is not
only to analyze Napoleon, il is to exhibit the
fatuOus behavior of his jailers. and Lord Rose
berry has no difficulty in showing how the
position Of the Emperor was further and most
unnecessarily em5ttered by insulting attempts
70 force a distast5fUI style upon him Il not
merely a question of the title alone. Lowe not
only refused to address him Emperor. but
one of his earliest attentions" took the shape
of the following invitation Should the ar
rangements of General Bonaparte admit it, Sir
Hudson and Lady Lowe would feel gratiied in
the honor of his company TO meet the Countess
Lady Loudon. wife OF the GOvernOr-GeneraI Of
Indial at dinner on Monday at o'clock" The
jailer had no thought of the fact that the man
he thus addressed had been, only a short time
y -~I,,-, ,f