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any intention in my heart but what did aim at the joint and individual prosperity of the king and his people, although it be my ill lot to be misconstrued. I am not the first man that hath suffered in this kind; it is a common portion that befalls men in this life. Righteous judgment shall be hereafter: here we are subject to error and misjudging one another."

And after answering the charges of despotism and popery, he concluded-"I desire heartily to be forgiven if any rude or unadvised words or deeds have passed from me, and desire all your prayers; and so, my Lord, farewell, and farewell all things in this world. The Lord strengthen my faith and give me confidence and assurance in the merits of Jesus Christ. I trust in God we shall all meet to live eternally in heaven, and receive the accomplishment of all happiness; where every tear shall be wiped from our eyes and sad thoughts from our hearts. And so God bless this kingdom, and Jesus have mercy on my soul."

"Then turning himself about, he saluted all the noblemen, and took a solemn leave of all considerable persons on the scaffold, giving them his hand.

my wife husbandless, my dear children fatherless, and my poor servants masterless, and separate me from my dear brother and all my friends; but let God be to you and them all in all.'

"After that, going to take off his doublet, and make himself ready, he said, ‘I thank God I am no more afraid of death, nor daunted with any discouragements arising from my fears, but do as cheerfully put off my doublet at this time as ever I did when I went to bed.' Then he put off his doublet, and wound up his hair with his hands, and put on a white cap.

"Then he called, 'Where is the man that should do this last office?' meaning the executioner: 'call him to me.' When he came, and asked him forgiveness, he told him he forgave him and all the world.Then kneeling down by the block, he went to prayer again himself, the Archbishop of Armagh kneeling on one side, the minister on the other. After prayer, he turned himself to the minister, and spoke some few words softly with his hands lifted up. The minister closed his hands in his. Then bowing himself to the earth, to lay down his head on the block, he told the execu tioner that he should first lay down his head to try the fitness of the block, and take it up again before he laid it down for good and all; and this he did. And before he laid it down again, he told the executioner that he would give him warning when to strike by stretching forth his hands: and then he laid his neck on the block stretching forth his hands. The executioner struck off his head at one blow; then took the head up in his hands and showed it to all the people and said, 'God save the king!""

"And after that he said-'Gentlemen, I would say my prayers, and I entreat you all to pray with me and for me.' Then his chaplain, Dr. Carr, laid the Book of Common Prayer upon the chair before him, as he kneeled down; on which he prayed almost aquarter of an hour, and repeated the twenty-fifth psalm; then he prayed as long or longer without a book, and ended with the Lord's Prayer. Then standing up, he spied his brother, Sir George Wentworth, and cailed him to him, and said, 'Brother, we must part remember me to my sister and to my Thus perished a victim to political and wife, and carry my blessing to my eldest religious violence, the malevolence of an son, and charge him from me that he fear oligarchy, and, we must add, the weakness God, and continue an obedient son of the of a king ;-as great a statesman and as noChurch of England, and that he approve ble a man as ever England produced. We himself a faithful subject to the king; and have nothing to say more with respect to tell him that he should not have any private those who effected his destruction; thanks grudge or revenge towards any concerning to them for having developed, even by such me; and bid him beware not to meddle with acts as theirs-and formed, though they Church livings, for that will prove a moth were but the blind and brute instruments and canker to him in his estate; and wish of the work-a character which is an honhim to content himself to be a servant to or to history. Thanks to them, and honor his country, as a justice of peace in his to him. Honor to the lofty, the disintercounty, not aiming at higher preferments. ested, the energetic, the large of mind, and Convey my blessing also to my daughters pure of aim,-the statesman who had a Anne and Arabella: charge them to fear and head and a heart. Honor to him who had serve God, and He will bless them; not the courage in evil days to defend the forgetting my little infant that knows nei- Church against her titled spoilers, and make ther good nor evil, and cannot speak for it a swelling aristocracy feel the arm of jusself; God speak for it, and bless it.' Then tice; who could despise men's affections, said he, 'I have done ; one stroke will make good opinions, flatteries, all the ease and

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vagances, all the generous stirrings of heart and rustling rushing movements upon this earthly stage, are prophecies of a life, and point straight heavenwards. The heroic is but the foundation of the spiritual; and the antagonism and mortal strife over, freed nature shall enjoy her holiday and calm, goodness claim her paradisal being, and the wild scene of greatness and power melt into fragrance, melody and love.

satisfactions of a few short days, and pass tal principle has burst forth in zeal for some through this world like a field of battle.- heroic sacred cause, and manifested to men Honor to him, and honor to all who, in what- and angels what they are, they die, and lofty ever garb, in whatever shape it may please virtue calls aloud to heaven for its spiritual the inscrutable providence of God, in differ- and native development. We wander here ent ages, in peculiar atmospheres of Church amid the shadowy beginnings of moral life, and State, to clothe and embody the one the rough essences, the aboriginal shapes, eternal, immutable, essential Good, will no- the ghostlike forerunnings of the immortal; bly, generously recognize that, and trample we see the giant masses that sustain the upon all else, will maintain the inherent higher world, but that is all; we witness royalty, supremacy, greatness, the height in- but the strife of subterranean elements, and effable and power divine, the universal em- hear the hollow gust, and hidden torrents' pire and the adamantine base of that great roar. But patience, and a brighter day will scheme for which under varying aspects the come, which shall mould chaotic humanity Church militates on earth, but which will into form-a day of refining, purifying metonly be seen in purity and fulness above. amorphose, when virtue shall hardly recogHonor to all such, if they effect their high nize her former self. The statesman's, warobjects; and honor also, if through human rior's, poet's, student's ardent course, his wilfulness they fail. Their fall is their longings, impulses, emotions, flights, extravictory, and their death triumph. Their memory supports the cause which their lives failed to do, and survives-as may Strafford's still-to inspire some statesman of a future age, who, with a country like his to save from moral barrenness and declension, will know how to accommodate an example to an altered state of things, and embody its glorious spirit in a living form. Strafford is a true Shaksperian character, containing all the elements of high perfec tion, only colored by a secular and political atmosphere: belonging to the world alTHE WATERLOO BANQUET.-On Monday last, the though above it. The human mind ap- "hero of a hundred fights" was once more surround. pears but in its commencement here, ed by his companions in arms, to celebrate the angives large promise and shows mighty pow-niversary of the glorious victory gained on the plains of Waterloo. Eighty-one noble and gallant veterans ers, spreads its roots, and lays its foundasat at the board of their illustrious leader, where they tions; but looking up for the rich foliage were received with a soldier's welcome and the and minareted tower, a cloud intercepts hospitality of a prince. A vast number of persons, our view, and throws us back musing and among whom we observed several peers and memmelancholy upon an imperfect unfinished Apsley House, and saluted the several veteran offibers of Parliament, congregated at the entrance of state of being. And yet why may not the cers on their arrival with every manifestation of hopeful and loving eye surmount in some respect. Shortly before eight o'clock Prince Albert sort the mist, and anticipate the finish and arrived, and his presence, it is needless to observe, completion. The dark elemental gas, the His Royal Highness, on alighting from his carriage, was the signal for the most enthusiastic cheering. occult fire, the fluid trickling from its was received by the Duke of Wellington; and the mournful cell, blue clayey lair, and sooty moment the crowd caught sight of the venerable mineral, and cold granite bed, produce this Duke, the cheering burst out with renewed might. The Prince was conducted by his grace to the world in which we live and breathe. Earth's grand saloon, and at eight o'clock the Duke and lower empire issues in her upper, and as the his guests entered the gallery and took their seats unsightly riches of her labyrinthal womb en at the table. The Duke of Wellington, of course, counter the magic touch of day, they spring presided, supported on the right by Prince Albert into new being, a living glorious scene on the left by General Washington. The banquet-next to whom sat the Marquess of Anglesey, and tree, herb and flower, and balmy breeze and ing table was adorned with the various costly summer skies, the painter's landscape and testimonials presented to the illustrious hero by the the poet's dream; Sabæan odors, and Hes- City of London, the Emperor of Russia, &c. The service of plate used was alternately gold and silperian fruits, blest Araby and all fairy-land ver, and the dessert service was that given to the appear. Even so in the progress of moral gallant Duke by the King of Prussia. The Duke life, of human character. Mighty spirits of Wellington wore his uniform as Colonel of the appear and rush across the field; they fol- Grenadier-Guards; and Prince Albert, although a field-marshal in the army, adopted his uniform low their mysterious and providential call, as Colonel of the Scots Fusilier Guards.-Court they take their side; and when the immor- Journal.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF NAPOLEON.

From the Foreign Quarterly Review.

traits of character in Napoleon, and remark ble occurrences of his private life, which Meneval must have had peculiar opportunities of witnessing, his book contains but few; and they are for the most part trivial in themselves, and poorly told. The style of the whole book indeed is meager, and destitute of that vivacity, lightness, and happy art of story telling, for which French memoir-writers have ever been preeminent.

kept him aloof from the crowd around him, elbowing, pushing, and scrambling for profit and place; and which offered a passive reNapoléon et Marie Louise, Souvenirs His- sistance to the contagion of fashionable toriques de M. le Baron Meneval, ancien manners; detracted from his qualities as a Secrétaire du portefeuille de Napoléon, &c. chronicler. His observation does not ap(Historical Recollections of Napoleon pear to have been keen, nor his memory and Maria Louisa). 2 vols. Paris. 1843. retentive. Of the thousand noticeable THIS is an addition to the number of memoirs of the Emperor of France, by individuals in his service and attached to his person, from which the future biographer and historian will draw materials: for the life of that extraordinary man is yet to be written. The work of Sir Walter Scott, admirable in parts, is, as a whole, a crude compilation, swelled hastily to its enormous bulk to meet financial difficulties. He gave himself no time to weigh conflicting authorities, with the load of which his own biographer describes him oppressed and overwhelmed; and the result was a production of the most unequal kind, in which we find clear and animated narrative, graphic description, depth of thought, and eloquence of language, blended with loose and prolix composition, trivial details treated at disproportioned length, and apocryphal stories told as if they were ascertained facts. It may be remarked that among all the memoirs and other books, towards a life of Napoleon, which have appeared in France, that country has not yet produced the life itself, while England has produced several. Apparently the French are better aware than the English, of the difficulties of the task.

The author tells us that he wrote these memoirs in compliance with the wish of the emperor himself. Napoleon, he says, in his last moments at St. Helena, among other recommendations in the instructions left to his executors, expressed his desire that certain persons, of whom M. Meneval was one, should undertake to give his son just ideas on facts and circumstances of great interest to him. M. Meneval adds, that so long as the emperor's son lived, reserve was imposed on him; but that, since the young prince's death it was no longer necessary to remain silent. There is something here which we do not understand; an inconsistency arising probably from want of clearness in the author's language. The circumstances most interesting to the young prince must naturally have been the union between his parents and their ultimate separation; and these (as is shown by its title) properly form the subject of M. Meneval's book.

"To conform as much as possible to the em

peror's desire, which I look upon as a command, I have thought it proper to choose the times which followed his second marriage. The narrative which I publish is intended to recall some scattered traits of his private history during that period; not to paint the conqueror and the legislator, but Napoleon in his privacy, as a hus

From the Baron Meneval's opportunities his memoirs ought to have been more instructive as well as more interesting than they are. From the year 1802 to the catastrophe of Waterloo, he was attached to the person of Napoleon, whose favor and confidence he enjoyed without interruption: a circumstance which says much for the usefulness no less than the fidelity of his services. His name is never mentioned by his contemporaries as involved in the tracasseries and intrigues of the imperial court; he seems to have conducted himself with straightforwardness and singleness of purpose. His book also gives that idea of An interesting subject: which in M. Mehis character. It is written with simpli-neval's hands might have been more intercity, and is as free from the tinsel of French esting than he has made it, had be better fine writing as from the easy style of known how to gather and to use the mateFrench fine morals. There is nothing of rials within his reach. "Napoleon et Ma"la jeune France" in the pages of M. Me- rie-Louise" is prefaced by an "introducneval; a rare merit in a French literary tion" containing some of the least known production of the present day. But the circumstances, anterior to the year 1810, quietness of temper, which made him a of which M. Meneval was himself an eyecorrect and plodding functionary; which witness. This part of the work is exceed

band and a father."

sight of by the world, except as the occasional subject of vague rumors and calumnies, from which M. Meneval vindicates her.

ingly barren almost every thing worth tell- | who, even in her imperial days, came little ing which it contains having been told over before the public, and, since her separation and over again. Throughout the whole from Napoleon, has been almost wholly lost book, Napoleon is painted en beau; there is not a shade in the picture; a fault which is not less wearisome because there is no wilful dishonesty in it, but simply the natural feeling of affection which lingers The Archduchess Maria Louisa was the in the heart of an old and faithful servant, eldest daughter of the late Emperor Frantowards the memory of a master who had cis the Second, and Maria Theresa of Naloved and trusted him, and in whose fall the ples. She was educated in the usual mansunshine of his own life had passed away ner of the royal family of Austria. Brought for ever. The same amiable feeling height up under the eye of their parents till their ened the author's prejudice, no doubt, marriage, the Archduchesses live in comagainst his master's great and fatal enemy, plete retirement, at a distance from court, England; but it is not the less absurd and and with no society but that of their ladies tiresome to have him to talk continually, af- and attendants, whom they are accustomed ter the ordinary French fashion, of our perfi- to treat with great kindness and familiarity. dy, ambitious rapacity, and so forth; and to Maria Louisa's education was carefully atobserve the gravity with which he seems tended to. She spoke several languages, to have swallowed any absurd story that and had even learned Latin, a living lancould by possibility make Englishmen ap. guage in Hungary. She was an excellent pear odious or ridiculous. One of his im- musician, and was accomplished in drawportant anecdotes is, that during the nego-ing and painting. One circumstance in tiation of the treaty of Amiens, our plenipotentiary Lord Cornwallis every day after dinner retired to his room, along with his natural son Captain Nightingale, and passed the evening over the bottle till both were regularly carried dead-drunk to bed. He tells, however, another story, more to the honor of that excellent nobleman; though to us it possesses as much novelty, and may possibly have as much authority, as the

other.

this mode of education is worth noticing:

"The most minute precautions were taken to preserve the young Archduchesses from impressions which might affect their purity of mind. The intention, doubtless, was laudable; but the means employed were not very judicious. Instead of keeping improper books altogether out of the way of the princesses, the plan had been pages of these books, but lines, and even single adopted of cutting out with scissors, not only words, the sense of which was deemed improper or equivocal. Such a blundering censor"The following trait of loyauté was a worthy ship was calculated to produce the opposite termination to the mission of this respectable effect to what was intended: the expunged pasminister. The protocol of the last diplomatic sages, which might have remained unnoticed meeting had been settled, the definitive treaty had they been let alone, were interpreted in a agreed on, and an appointment made for its sig- thousand ways by young imaginations, the more nature next day at the Hôtel de Ville On the active that they were stimulated by curiosity. night before the day of signature, a courier from The evil meant to be prevented was thus inLondon brought Lord Cornwallis an order to creased. On the other hand, their books bemodify some articles of the treaty, relative to came, to the royal pupils, objects of indifference the balance in favor of England of the sum due-bodies without souls, deprived of all interest for the subsistence of the prisoners of war. The article of the protocol on this subject had been settled between the two ministers. Lord Cornwallis had declared to Joseph Bonaparte, that, happen what might, it should not prevent the signature of the treaty: at the moment when it was about to be signed, he received from his government this order to insist on an additional payment to England. Holding however that his word was pledged, he declared that he could not retract; and the treaty was signed with solemnity, while the hall resounded with the acclamations of the spectators."

Passing the introductory chapters, we proceed to the book itself, in which, as its title indicates, Maria Louisa holds a principal place. It contains a good deal of new information respecting this princess,

after the mutilations they had undergone. The Archduchess Maria Louisa, after she became empress, confessed that her curiosity had been excited by the absence of these passages, and that, when she had obtained the control of her own reading, her first idea was to seek, in complete copies of the works, the expunged passages, in order to discover what it was that had been concealed from her."

When the youthful Archduchess first heard of her projected marriage with the French Emperor, she looked upon herself (says M. Meneval) as a victim devoted to the Minotaur. She had grown up with feelings of dread and aversion towards the man who had been so terrible an enemy to her family and country. It was an ordinary. amusement with her and her brother and

held the bridle of her horse; he thus calmed
did honor to her teacher, the lessons were con-
her fears and encouraged her. When her skill
tinued in a private alley of the park. The em-
peror, when he had a moment's leisure after
breakfast, ordered the horses, mounted himself,
in his silk stockings and shoes, and cantered by
the empress's side. He urged her horse and
made him gallop, laughing heartily at her cries,
but taking care that there should be no danger,
ready to stop the horse and prevent a fall.
by having servants stationed all along the path,

sisters, to draw up in line a troop of little | side holding her by the hand, while the groom wooden or waxen figures to represent the French army, placing at their head the ug liest and most forbidding figure they could find; and then to make an attack on this formidable enemy, running him through with pins, and beating and abusing him till they had taken full vengeance for the injuries he had done their house. As soon, however, as she found the matter determined on, her quiet disposition and Austrian habits of obedience, made her willing "Meanwhile the king of Rome grew in to resign herself to her destiny. She en- strength and beauty under the watchful eye of deavored to learn the character of her fu- Madame de Montesquiou, who loved him as her ture husband, and was entirely occupied own child. He was carried every morning to by the wish to please before she had ever his mother, who kept him till it was time to seen him. dress. During the day, in the intervals between M. Meneval gives full details of the mar-see him in his apartment and sat by him at her her lessons in music and drawing, she went to riage, and all its ceremonies and festivities, needlework. Sometimes, followed by the nurse dull as such things always are. He des- who carried the child, she took him to his father cribes, after the following fashion, the per- while he was busy. The entry to his cabinet son of the bride : was interdicted to every body, and the nurse could not go in. The emperor used to ask Maria Louisa to bring in the child herself, but she seemed so much afraid of her own awkwardness in taking him from the nurse, that the emperor hastened to take him from her, and carried him off covering him with kisses. That cabinet, which saw the origin of so many mighty plans, so many vast and generous schemes of administration, was also witness to the effusions of a father's tenderness. How often have I seen the emperor keeping his son by him, as if he were impatient to teach him the art of governing! Whether, seated by the chimney on his favorite sofa, he was engaged in reading an important document, or whether he went to his bureau to sign a despatch, every word of which required to be weighed, his son, seated on his knees, or pressed to his breast, was never a moment away from him. Sometimes, throwing aside the thoughts which occupied his mind, he would lie down on the floor beside this beloved son, playing with him like another child, attentive to every thing that could please or amuse him.

"Maria Louisa was in all the brilliancy of youth; her figure was of perfect symmetry; her complexion was heightened by the exercise of her journey and by timidity; a profusion of beautiful chestnut hair surrounded a round, fresh countenance, over which her mild eyes diffused a charming expression; her lips, somewhat thick, belonged to the features of the Austrian royal family, as a slight convexity of nose distinguishes the Bourbons; her whole person had an air of ingenuousness and innocence, and a plumpness, which she did not preserve after her accouchment, indicated the goodness of her

health."

Among the emperor's rich presents, and attentions to his young consort, nothing is said about the oft-repeated circumstance of his having, in anticipation of her arrival, had her chamber at St. Cloud made so complete a fac-simile of that which she had quitted at Schonbrunn, that she started on entering it, thinking she had been transported by magic back to her paternal home. At all events the story, if not true, was ben

trovato.

The description given by M. Meneval of the domestic life of the imperial pair, after the birth of their ill-fated son, is so pleasing a family picture that we shall extract a few of its features.

"The emperor had a sort of apparatus for trying military manœuvres it consisted of pieces of wood fashioned to represent battalions, regiments, and divisions. When he wanted to try some new combinations of troops, or some new evolution, he used to arrange these pieces on the carpet. While he was seriously occupied with the disposition of these pieces, working out some skilful manœuvre which might ensure the success of a battle, the child, lying at his side, would often overthrow his troops, and put into confusion his order of battle, perhaps at the "The emperor appeared happy. He was most critical moment. But the emperor would affable in his family, and affectionate to the em-recommence arranging his men with the utmost press. If he found her looking serious he amused good humor. her with lively talk, and disconcerted her gravity by a hearty embrace; but in public he treated her with great respect, and a dignity not inconsistent with polished familiarity.

"The emperor wished her to learn to ride on horseback. Her first lessons were taken in the riding-school at St. Cloud. He walked by her

"The emperor breakfasted alone. Madame de Montesquiou every morning took the boy to his father's breakfast-table. He took him on his knee, and amused himself with giving him morsels to eat, and putting the glass to his lips. One day he offered him a bit of something he had on his plate, and, when the child put for

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