New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-03-10

the Directory-which had swept away
that of the old regime. root and branch.
This new society was just as corrupt as
the one it had replaced. fully as i'm
moral in every sense Of the word, but II
| lacked polish. 1t was frank, coarse.
barefaced. NJ. de Loliee draws pict-
ure Of this society and it's stars and
satellites. as earlier in his book he
draws one Of that Of the days OF Louis
XVI. Barras. Tallien. Mile. LANCE, Jo-
sephine, Napoleon and his family
Mines. de Stael and Rkcamier-they all
pass in review, chief among them this
time. however, Nine. Grand. the widow
from India, as Josephine de Beauharnais
was the widow from the West Indies.
When he became First Consul. Napoleon
made it his business to save social ap-
pearances. at least to some extent He
forbade Josephine to receive Nine Tai
/ lien, and busily arranged marriages,
among them that Of Talleyrand with his
| mistress. Nine Grand, woman with n ,
reputation left. beautiful. and, one would
infer from the authors pages. less
| stupid than she has been represented TO
| be. In later life she grew obese and
assumed prepCsterous airs, in keeping,
so she thought, with her dignity as
Princess Of Benevento. She was not the
only woman Of her day and society to be-
thus affected.
The pages devoted TO the personal re-
lations between Napoleon and his Min
lister Of Foreign Affairs are excellent.
The Emperor distrusted Talleyrand, ac-
cused him of treachery and corruption,
yet felt that he could not do without
! him. Talleyrand, tenacious Of purpose,
bore with the Corsican's insults, and. no
doubt, despised and hated him in his
heart Impassive mostly. he only occa-
sionally allowed his bitter wit to break
| through his reserve in answer to Ma
poleon's coarse attacks. The best known
Of his sayings, What a pity that so
| great a man should be so i'll hammered"
uttered after the Emperor had left the
room. is not quoted here. but VI. Loliee
gives an example Of Talleyrands power
| Of repartee Napoleon-the husband Of
]
the Princess Of Benevento had seriously
compromised herself. told Talleyrand
openly, within the hearing Of others,
that he would do we'll to keep an eye
upon his wife:
| Talleyrand preserved his freezing and I'm
perturbable air. and said.
| Sire, I did not think that such a meagre
detail could have any important bearing
upon your majestys glory or mine.
An interesting study, this. of the snig-
matte historic figure Of whom Nine de
Stael said. when she recommended him
TO Barras as particularly we'll fitted for
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. that he
had all the defects and vices of the an
cient and new regimes. He has and
will always keep footing in all parties
Gouverneur Morris. who is referred to
| incidentally here and there in the early
pages Of the book has been transformed
let us hope by the English printer, and
| not by the author or his translator
into an obscure Governor.
Buecher is the Prussian who did. or
did not. save Wellington from defeat at
Waterloo, and who considered London
an ideal city to sack. This is perhaps
a not unfair statement Of the measure of
knowledge Of his career possessed by the
Anglo-Saxon world at large. Yet in his
own country he is a national hero who
ranks almost with Arminius and the
great Frederick in whose armies hs
fought, one Of the most picturesque hg-
ures of the German renascence that led
to Bautzen and Lutzen, to Leipsic,
Paris and, ultimately. TO Waterloo. He
was also character" the incarnation
of the Prussian Junker.
Gebhard Leberecht Won Bluecher was
born at Rostock, Mecklenburg, on De-
cember IS, 1742, of an old and noble but
poor family, whose chief occupation
through many centuries had been the