• MR. ROSE'S LIFE OF NAPOLEON,
[To TIM EDITOR OF THE "SPECTiTOR.1 hile thanking your reviewer for his cordial apprecia- tion of :my book in the Spectator of March 1st, I beg your permission to reply to him on two questions that are of some importance and of general interest. (1) He states that I have "stumbled" over Austerlitz, because I have accepted the usual version as to a part of the Allied left wing having been engulfed in the upper lake (Lake Satschan) ; and he
cites tli e evidence to the contrary supplied by "a veteran of 1805," -who informed Lanfrey that no such incident took place.
If, as your reviewer states, Lanfrey was convinced of the truth Of the veteran's assertion, it is somewhat strange that no nobs was added by him, or rather by his literary executor, so as to correct the ordinary version which he had printed in his text. There is no such correction,—not even in the second edition of the English translation, which was published as late as 1836. Again, since Lanfrey's lamented death, three memars have appeared of French officers who took prominent parts in the battle,—namely, those of Marbot, Thiebault, and Lejeune. They all describe the ice incident. Marbot says : "We. saw thousands of Russians, with their horses, guns, and wagcons, slowly settle down into the depths." Lejeune says mores convincingly :—
"AL few men, indeed, might have got over safely ; but when a number had reached the middle of the water the ice began to crack beneath their weight. They paused, and, the troops behind pushing them on, there were soon some 6,000 men collected in a dense crowd on the swaying slippery ice. There was a pause, and then in the brief space of a couple of minutes the whole mass with arms and baggage disappeared beneath the broken-up ice, not one man escaping or even appearing again at the top of the water" Thilbault was wounded before the close of the battle, and did not, witness this catastrophe, but he says incidentally that Kane 1,500 Russians long refused to surrender, though they had the lake at their back, and "had just seen 3,000 or 4,000 of their own people perish beneath the ice on the lake." Now, here we have the independent evidence of three well- known officers that the incident did happen. Thi4ault and Marbot are not very trustworthy, but Lejeune's evidence is important: he also tells us how the incident came about,— ma unely, that the narrow space between the two lakes was commanded by the artillery of the French Guard. In fact, it is, clear that Napoleon had ma,nceuvrecl so as to force the Russian left wing an to those lakes. Unless, therefore, it can be proved that "the veteran of 1805" has is Ater claim to be believed than the many officers who have a sserted the con- trary, I shall continue to credit the ice catasta ephe. (2) Your reviewer states that I ought to have attributz zd the discovery of the beetroot sugar process to Markgraf. Now it is quite true, as is admitted by Chaptal (" Souvenirs; ," p. 117), that Markgraf and Achard had made the first discoveries; but their sugar was both poor and dear, and I le honour of making the process a practical success beton gs to Cbaptal and Delessert in 1811-12. To the workaday world these last will always appear as the inventors, ja ist as Watt, rather than Newcomen, is regarded as the its venter of the modern steam-engine. I would gladly have .discussed the medical evidence as to the state of Napoleon's health in the Waterloo Campaign; but I have already tresps esed too far on your space. May I add that I did not" bora At " a biblio. graph), or the other desirabl adjuncts ? I stated in the preface that I had no space to discuss the value .of the many authorities ; but I have given references in foci notes to all important statements in the text. Thiers' work is in twenty volumes ; mine is in two.—I am, Sir, &c.,
J. HOLLIZID ROSE.
P.S.—As to the negative evidence supplied by t e dredging of Lake Satsclaan, one would like to know when a nd how the dredging was done. In the natural course of :hings, the bodies would rise to the surface, be recovered at ad buried. Unless, then, the dredging was done soon, no bod ies would be found. Of course I do not believe in Marbot's 4` guns and waggons."
[The writer of the review in question informs us as follows: --(1) Austerlitz.-011 the ice catastrophe, the rev iewer re- ported the substance of a conversation which he had with the historian Lanfrey in 1873 at Berne. His own negative view was based on a paper on the said battle in an old number. (perhaps of the " thirties " P) of the Austrian military Zeitschr01, a peri- odical quoted by Mr. Rose iii other connections. (2) Viugar.— The discovery of the beetroot article has always been., ascribed to Markgraf, though the new sugar may not have be en very good; it was made in a manufactory at Breslat L about A.D. 1800. (3) As regards bibliography, pedigrees, Mr. Rose was no doubt short of room,—for the fash ionable habit in this respect publishers are often more resp onsible than authors. The reviewer thinks, however, that writers like Medi, Charras, Miffing, should not be quoted la.y their mere naked names; and he holds that "not very trastve arthy " is a strong euphemism which burkes the slippery nal:are of Marbot's fascinating records.—En. Spectator.]
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