his aide-de-camp, Captain Gor, had omitted | tivity of one of the besieging party, who to point out the fact of there being some at managed to climb the rock, reach the optable, and it was only when about being posite side of the mountain, and clamberremoved that the marquis espied the re- ing up, gain a situation above the cave, the treating dish. His rage was most amus-mouth of which became thus exposed to ing, and with much gesticulation he exclaimed, "Bête! pourquoi ne m'a tu pas dis qu'ils y avaient des choux-fleurs ?" During one of our riding excursions, we encountered Napoleon, who was returning from Sandy Bay, where he had been to visit Mr. D- who resided there. He expressed himself delighted with the place, and spoke in high terms of the urbanity of the venerable host of "Fairy Land." the same mode of attack which had effected its defence: so that when one of the unfortunate freebooters approached the edge of the precipice to roll down stones, he was crushed to death, and his companion, who was following him, severely wounded. Many of the islanders believe to this day that the ghost of the murdered slave is seen to make the circuit of the wild spot wherein he carried on his nightly orgies: This gentleman had passed all his life at a superstition easily accounted for from St. Helena, and at this time had arrived at the circumstance of the summits of the the advanced age of seventy, without ever mountains being generally encircled by having left the island. His appearance was light mists, which wreath themselves into most prepossessing, and to those who lov-all kinds of fantastical shapes; thus to the ed to revel in the ideal and imaginative, he eye of superstition giving to an airy nomight have been likened to a good genius thing a local habitation and a name." In presiding over the fairy valley in which he St. Helena, every cavern has its spirit, and dwelt.* every rock its legend. I asked Napoleon if he had remarked, when at Sandy Bay, three singularly formed rocks, shaped like sugar-loaves, and called Lot's wife and daughter? He replied that he had. I then related to him an anecdote connected with the largest of the three. 66 Napoleon having listened to my legend of the Sugar-loaf Mountain, said he should regard it with greater interest the next time he rode in that direction. One of the many instances of Napoleon's great good-nature, and his kindness in promoting my amusement, was on the occasion More than half a century had elapsed of the annual races at Deadwood, which at since two slaves, who preferred a freeboot-that time were anticipated by the inhabiting life to that of labor and subjection, se- ants of the island as a kind of jubilee. From creted themselves in a cave half way up having been, as was often the case, in arrears the acclivity which terminates the spiral with my lessons, my father, by way of punrock, called "Lot's wife." From this ishing me, declared that I should not go to stronghold, their nocturnal sallies and de- the races; and fearing that he might be inpredations were carried on with great suc-duced to break his determination, he lent cess, and their retreat remaining undiscov.my pony to a friend for that day. My ered for a long time, they became the ter- vexation was very great at not knowing ror of the island. They were at length, where to get a horse, and I happened to'menhowever, tracked to their rocky hold, where |tion my difficulty to Dr. O'Meara, who they stood a long siege, repelling all at- told Napoleon, and my delight may be tacks, by rolling stones on their assailants. conceived when a short time after all our It was at last deemed necessary to send a party had left the Briars for Deadwood, I party of soldiers to fire on them, if they re-perceived the doctor winding down the fused to surrender; but this measure was rendered unnecessary by the superior ac A few years after the emperor's visit, Mr. D was induced to come to England: and thinking that he might never return to his lovely and beloved valley, he had a tree felled from his own "fairy land," from under the shade of which he had often viewed the enchanting scene around, and had his cothin made from the wood. His ar rival in England, and his interesting character, being made known to the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., his R. H desired that Mr. D might be presented to him; and his Royal Highness was so gratified with the interview, that he afterwards knighted Mr. D, who subsequently returned to his loved Island. mountain-path which led to our house, followed by a slave leading a superb gray horse, called Mameluke, with a lady's sidesaddle and housings of crimson velvet embroidered with gold. Dr. O'Meara said that on telling the emperor of my distress, he desired that the quietest horse in his stable be immediately prepared for my use. This simply good-natured act of the emperor occasioned no small disturbance on the island, and sufficiently punished me for acting contrary to my father's wishes, by the pain it gave me at hearing that he was considered to have committed a breach of with the fallen chief and his adherents, had dicipline in permitting one of his family to ride a horse belonging to the Longwood establishment, and for which he was reprimanded by the governor. We were told by Napoleon the next day, that he had witnessed the races from the upper windows of General Bertrand's cottage, and expressed himself much amused by them. He said he supposed I was too much diverted by the gay scene to feel my usual timidity. or Bonaparte frequently urged my father to correct me whilst young, and said I ought never to be encouraged in my foolish fears, ever permitted to indulge therein. He said the empress Josephine suffered the greatest terror in a carriage, and he mentioned several instances of her extreme fright, when he was obliged to reprimand her severely. If I remember rightly, the Duchess D'Abrantes mentions in her memoirs of the emperor, one of the anecdotes on this subject which he recounted to us. There was so little to vary the monotony of Napoleon's life, that he took an interest in the most trifling attempts at gayety in the island, and he generally consented to our entreaties to be present at some of the many entertainments my father delighted in promoting. On one occasion my father gave a fête to celebrate the anniversary of my birthday, at a pretty little place he possessed within the boundary of the emperor's rides, called Ross Cottage: so named as being the abode for a short time of a much esteemed friend, the flag-captain of the Northumberland, whom Bonaparte always designated as "un bravissimo uomo." When the festivities were at their height we descried the emperor riding along the hill-side towards the house; but on seeing such an assembly he sent to say that he would content himself with looking at us from the heights above. I did not consider this was fulfilling his promise of coming to the party, and not liking to be so disappointed, I scampered off to where he had taken up his position, and begged he would be present at our festivity-telling him he must not refuse, itbeing my birthday. But all my entreaties were unavailing ;-he said he could not make up his mind to descend the hill, to be exposed to the gaze of the multitude, who wished to gratify their curiosity with the sight of him. I insisted, however, on his tasting a piece of birthday cake, which had been sent for that occasion by a friend in England, and who, little knowing the strict surveillance exercised over all those in any way connected the cake ornamented with a large eagle, and which, unluckily for us, was the subject of much animadversion. This I named to Napoleon as an inducement for him to eat of the cake, saying, "It is the least you can do for getting us into such disgrace." Having thus induced him to eat a thick slice, he pinched my ear, calling me a "saucy little simpleton," and galloped off humming, or rather attempting to sing with his most unmusical voice, "Vive Henri Quatre." One morning we went to call on Madame Bertrand, and found Napoleon seated by her bedside. We were about retreating, thinking we had been shown into the wrong room, when he called out, in his imperfect English, desiring us to enter, and asked what we were afraid of, saying, "I am visiting my dear loaf, my mistress." My mother observed that the latter term had a strange signification, and that it was never used in our language to express friendship. He laughed heartily at the awkward error he had made, and promised not to forget the interpretation of the word for the future, repeating that he only meant to express that Madame Bertrand was his dear friend. It was by Napoleon's especial desire that we ventured now and then to correct his English; and being very anxious to improve himself, he never let an opportunity pass when in our society, without trying to converse in English, though, from his exceedingly bad pronunciation, and literal translations, it required the most exclusive attention to understand him. For my part I seldom had patience to render him much assistance, my sister being generally obliged to finish what I had begun; for in the middle of his lesson I would rush away, attracted by some more frivolous amusement. On returning I was always saluted with a tap on the cheek, or a pinch of the ear, with the exclamation of, "Ah, Mademoiselle Betsee, petite étourdie que vous êtes, vous nedeviendriez ja. mais sage." Bonaparte, on one occasion, asked us if we had seen little Arthur, who was about a month old; and he repeated Madame Bertrand's speech on introducing the child to him. "Allow me to present to your majesty a subject who has dared to enter the gates of Longwood without a pass from Sir Hudson Lowe." He sat chatting a long time, and quizzing 1843.] AN EPITAPH.-THE GRAND DUKE MICHEL, ETC. me about the short waist and petticoats of my frock. He took great pleasure in teasing me apout my trousers, as he knew I disliked being called a little boy, and which he always made a point of doing when he espied the trousers. He thought the fashion of wearing short waists very frightful, and said, if he were governor, he should issue an order that no ladies were to appear dressed in that style. Before leaving Madame Bertrand's cottage, he joined the children in a game of puss in the corner, to which I acted as Maitress de Ballet. Napoleon used to evince great curiosity tabout the subject of our conversations when we called on Lady Lowe, at Plan tation House, and asked whether they discussed our visits to Longwood. AN EPITAPH. STAY, stranger, stay, and rest awhile, Which true Religion cannot heal; The Son of God in human frame For all that come to Him in prayer. 535 Then mourn not on thy journey home, I told him that the same sort of interroTHE GRAND DUKE MICHEL. - An important gation went on there, and that I was sure name has been added, during the past week, to the to be sharply (though goodnaturedly)cross-list of illustrious personages who, during the curquestioned, about what we did, and what we heard, when in his presence. One evening, whilst on a visit to Madame Bertrand, we strolled up to see Dr. O'Meara, who happened to be engaged with the emperor. Cipriani, however, sent in to say that some ladies were waiting to see him, and on Napoleon hearing our names, he requested us to come in. We found him in the billiard-room employed looking over some very large maps, and moving about a number of pins, some with red heads, others with black. I asked him what he was doing. He replied that he was fighting over again some of his battles, and that the red-headed pins were meant to represent the English, and the black the French. One of his chief amusements was, going through the evolutions of a lost battle, to see if it were possible by any better maneuvering to have won it. rent year, have visited our metropolis.. The Grand Duke Michel, brother to the Emperor Nicholas and husband of the Grand Duchess Helena, one of the most attractive and accomplished Princesses in Europe, arrived on Sunday last at Mivart's Hotel; and has since been a guest of her Majesty and Prince Albert at Windsor Castle. Five-and-twenty years ago, the Grand Duke (at that time a youth travelling with his governor) visited this country; and after spending some time in London, became the guest of several of our most distinguished noblemen at their country seats. Some ten years since, the Grand Duchess his consort, with her youthful daughters, also visited London, and won golden opinions by the grace of her manners, and the intelligence of her mind. The Grand Duke, whose tastes are of a military tendency, has visited, since his arrival in town, several of our public institutions, exhibiting the strongest interest in those connected with the profession in which he delights. Yesterday his Imperial Highness was present at a grand military review of the troops stationed at Windsor, consisting of the third battalion of the Grenadier Guards, the first regiment of the Life Guards, and the 13th regiment of Light Dragoons; after which he took leave of her Majesty, and, in company with Prince Albert, proceeded to visit the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, returning thence to Mivart's Hotel.-Court Journal. ARREST OF J. C. CLINTON, AN AMERICAN.-J. C. Clinton, an American, arrested at the Guildhall, under a warrant from the Home Secretary, was examined at Bow street yesterday, on the charge of forA NEW PAVEMENT -A newly invented wood gery of American Treasury bills. The "original pavement has been laid down opposite the resi- depositions" from America were produced by the dence of the mayor, in the Rue de l'Ecu. It is a solicitor for the prosecution, but the magistrate recombination of wood and asphalte, possessing seem-fused to receive them, as the new Act for giving up ingly the advantages of both, without the inconveniences of either, being impervious to water, free from danger to horses, and costing 25 per cent. less for carriage roads, and as much as 50 less for foot Should it answer, we hear it is talked pavements of laying it down hence to Amiens, and running locomotive carriages upon it. It is the invention of Colonel Sir J. Lilly: the cost is said to be about 5s a yard-Boulogne Gazette. offenders only mentions "certified copies" of such depositions as receivable. The Act is in other respects so clumsily and obscurely worded, as to be difficult, and in some places impossible, to understand. The prisoner was therefore discharged, by the flaw in the Act of Parliament under which he was arrested. This is another specimen of our legal absurdities, and in the far-famed Washington treaty too.-Examiner. MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF FRANCIS HORNER. From the Edinburgh Review. Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis acter has been more correctly portrayed, or transferred with more truth to the heart as well as to the understanding. The noble affection of his friends raised to Horner in statue by Sir Francis Chantrey, which the Westminster Abbey, is not a more perfect image of his person, than are his journals and confidential letters of his mind and feelings. But how superior in interest are the works of the pen to those of the chisel or the pencil! Therefore it is that we have to thank the Editor, not merely for the pleasure he has communicated to us, but for the good which his publication is so strongly calculated to produce. It may perhaps appear somewhat ungenerous and ungrateful, after acknowledg ments so well deserved, if we venture to express some doubt whether this publication might not have been advantageously delayed for some years to come. Had such a postponement taken place, it is true that we and our immediate contemporaries would have lost much delight and instruction; but we cannot help thinking, that a more full and unreserved publication might then have taken place. Though Francis Horner was one of the gentlest and most tolerant of human beings, though the modesty of his nature seems to preclude the possibility of harsh censures, yet there are evidences in these journals and letters that his discriminating judgment had been freely exercised. His power of detecting what was selfish, insincere, and unworthy in character, could not have been given him in vain. We feel convinced that portions of correspondence important to the history and to the biography of his times must have been kept back, in consideration of feelings which a contemporary biographer is bound to respect. There are many fragments of observation in these volumes which we should have wished to see completed; many outlines which it would have been most desirable to have seen filled up. In some cases a sketch of character is given, and the acts to which that character or THE world owes much to Mr. Leonard Horner for the publication of this work. We have read it more than once, and on each successive occasion we have found new reasons to be grateful to him for having had the resolution to undertake a task so useful, and which he has so judiciously performed. That task was not without its difficulties. It was impossible to do justice to the character of Francis Horner without describing those intellectual acquirements, that high moral principle, and, above all, those warm, generous, and gentle feelings by which he was so greatly distinguished. And yet, in doing justice to these characteristics, it was difficult for one whose childhood and youth had been guided and instructed by his brother's advice and example, who had watched over that brother in his last illness, and had attended his deathbed, to avoid those effects of partiality and emotion which a connexion so near and associations so tender could not fail to produce. This danger the Editor has carefully avoided. Though these volumes would lose much of their charm if they did not contain evidence of the affection felt for the subject of them, we do not think that we could, in a single instance, point out any exaggerated appreciation of his brother's merits or public services. On the contrary, justice, and no more than justice, is done to his memory: we are inclined to think that the language of panegyric might have been carried further, with the approval not only of friends, but of rivals and competitors-enemies he had none. It is true that the Editor has confined his functions within very moderate temperament has led are scarcely alluded limits. In this he has imposed on himself to; in other instances, the acts are slightly a severe, though perhaps a fitting restraint. described, but there is no analysis of the The narrative is as short and simple as was feelings or motives from which they have possible. To use his own words, his whole originated. If our surmises be correct, we endeavor was, by a careful selection of trust that at some future day, when repapers and correspondence, by the addition straints of delicacy no longer exists a more of a few pages at the commencement, and full publication may take place. The hisby filling up occasional blauks in the narratory of our times cannot but profit by the tive, to make his brother himself narrate unreserved disclosure of all judgments, the history of his life.' This task has been whether negative or affirmative, passed by executed with equal modesty and judgment. Francis Horner upon men and things. We doubt whether the image of any char-I We have said that we thank the Editor, not only for the pleasure he has given us by this publication, but for the good which it must produce. It is more especially in reference to this latter consideration that we esteem this work. It is in its practical usefulness that we are inclined to consider it as eminently recommendable. Within He re brilliant triumphs of society, and the occasional success of oratorical display, might more justly have been claimed by Dudley. But for the perfect character of a British member of parliament, for the fulfilment of its innumerable functions; where the most minute of those duties are elevated by an a few years, some delightful works of the ever-present sense of right-all are insame character have been published: the fluenced by patriotic motive, and restrained Memoirs of Mackintosh and of Romilly, for and limited in their application by calm and instance, and the Letters of the late Earl of practical wisdom-we doubt whether the Dudley-three very distinguished friends history of the House of Commons has ever of Francis Horner. But, interesting as exhibited a rarer combination of qualities these works are, they do not lead to the than those which were displayed by Horner, same practical consequences as the work and recorded in these volumes. Idoneus before us. They are also far from leaving patrie was a motto which might well have on the mind of the reader the same genial been conferred upon him. The light of his and happy impression. Shades of melan- mind was not the flash of a meteor, to dazcholy, of disappointment, of a sensibility zle rather than to irradiate; it was the almost morbid, and an aimless and indeter- clear, calm day, beneath whose influence minate activity, are to be found in different man goeth forth to his work and to his ladegrees in the works we have named. But bor. Simple, truthful, and unostentatious, in the picture of Horner there is a distinct- he sought and found no short cut, or royal ness, a sunshine, and warmth, which we road to eminence and distinction. can trace to his steady convictions, and to cognized the condition assigned to man by the happiness derived from his energetic his Creator. That decree which fixes labor fulfilment of practical duties. He was es- as the price of all success, so far from dissentially as happy as he was a distinguish-couraging only excited his indefatigable ed man. The profound, enlarged, and fer- industry; and though fame and success tile mind of Mackintosh, expanded itself might justly be contemplated by him as into wide philosophical systems, metaphy- probable and legitimate rewards, they were sical abstractions, and variegated literary never allowed to become primary objects, inquiries. Though stored with general and but were mainly viewed as collateral incielegant knowledge, and elevated by feel- dents. ings of a devoted, but uncompromising and somewhat austere patriotism, in Romilly professional duty still asserted a just preeminence, not overpowering, however, his too acute sensibilities. Literary and speculative endowments, a rare wit, eloquence, highly but painfully elaborated, distinguish- To us they possess a deep and a peculiar ed Lord Dudley; but these qualities were interest. We are disposed to trace Hornsingularly neutralized by a pitiful fear of er's character to the peculiar institutions the world, which shrank from the risk of of our native land. The High School and failure, by a want of vigor and self-reliance, the University of Edinburgh were the and by the absence of that steady and me- seats of his education. Dugald Stewart, thodical industry, which gives strength as Playfair, Black, Robertson-names dear us as household well as acuteness to the understanding. to gods were the There was also a lamentable deficiency in teachers under whom his intellect was the principles of political duty. Lord formed and matured. His education was Dudley seems to have considered public essentially Scotch; and its entire success life rather as a pageant or tournament is one, out of many refutations, of those atwhere crowns are to be won, than as a field tacks which depreciate our national system which is to be cultivated by hard toil, and of instruction. That in the case of Horner where the harvest reaped is not exclusively its success was complete will hardly be defor our own consumption, but for the sus-nied; for it should be remembered that it tentation of our fellow-men. The Chair of was not only with contemporaries and prothe professor of moral and political philoso- fessional rivals in North Britain that he had phy would have been better filled by Mack-to contend; nor were his trials confined to intosh; the ermine of a great magistrate the dry pursuits of the bar. He had to would better have become Romilly; the struggle for equality, and at length he gain We doubt whether a much more useful gift could be made to a young man destined for civil duties than these volumes; nor can we conceive any example which an affectionate parent could hold out, with more advantage to his child, than the useful and honorable life which they record. |