THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE.*
THIS very pleasant and sympathetic biography is in some ways a curious contrast to M. Joseph Turquan's clever book on Josephine, reviewed in the Spectator a little time ago ; and though it leans very strongly to the side of kindness, it is
much more likely to be regarded as authoritative. While M. Turquan seems to have made the amusement of the public his chief object, M. de Meneval's end has been fairness and
justice to a woman more unjustly attacked and maligned perhaps than any character in modern history:
Not that M. de MiSneval ignores the defects which are so fully and willingly dwelt upon by Josephine's enemies ; but while granting her extravagance and frivolity, even the flirta- tions of her early married life, he insists on her extreme good nature, kindliness, and amiability, her constant gratitude to those friends, such as Mme. Tallien, whom Napoleon would have had her cast off, her real affection for the husband who, having made a step upwards in society by marrying her, was only too ready to sacrifice her to his ambition as ruler of France. The story of the divorce will be read with fresh interest as long as Europe endures, and will be judged differently, perhaps, according to the thoroughness of a reader's admiration for Napoleon. To some of us—to M. de Meneval, we think—the whole transaction seems sordid and cold-hearted, and proves, what is the undoubted truth, that one of the greatest of men was also one of the smallest. Josephine, with all her weak- nesses, was quite as good a wife as Napoleon deserved: as Empress she filled her place with charm and dignity ; she was in every way a far more attractive creature than Marie Louise. She was not ambitious, exoept, perhaps, for her children. When Napoleon became Emperor she said to Hortense, "We are mounting to a height whence the fall will be a terrible one !" She was one of the few, among Napoleon's immediate family, who only cared for this great advancement as an excuse for a more profuse generosity, for a greater power of giving pleasure and doing good. her loyalty to the Emperor was not affected by misfortune. When he was banished to Elba, and when Marie Louise submitted, not unwillingly, to be carried off by her own relations, Napoleon himself knew and said that Josephine would have followed him into exile.
The pages in which M. de Mdneval sums up Josephine's character, made up of the witness of those who knew her well, are fall of interest and value :—
"In spite of all the reproaches [he concludes], whether merited or unmerited, with which she has been assailed, Josephine will remain, in the remembrance of the nation, one of the most dearly loved sovereigns in the history of France. She was Napoleon's good genius, for his strength of character required her sweetness to temper it. In spite of the efforts of the iconoclasts, who have tried to mutilate the features of the gracious Creole, Josephine will over remain the good Empress for those who place above all other qualities those that belong to the heart: gentle- ness, benevolence, and goodness."
In these pages, as well as in the spirited Introduction,
dealing with certain unpublished letters of Queen Hortense, which are a valuable help towards fair treatment of her
• The Empress Josephine. By the Baron de Mneval, Minister Plenipotentiary. Translated from the French by D. D. Fraser. London ; Sampson Low, Idarston and Co. 1105. ed. net.]
mother's biography, M. de Meneval allows himself to speak in strong terms of those writers who have raked among anonymous pamphlets and contemporary libels for most of their accusations against Josephine. That the world will always read these writers and listen to them is probable—such is the world's way—but on the other hand it is certain that the charming Josephine will never lack defenders.
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