BOOKS.

THE MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUSAT.*

MEMOIRS, we should have thought, were the last kind of literature to be worth translating. The taste for this peculiar

sort of scandal is, to a great extent, artificial, and how it can be created and fostered without a long course of French reading, we cannot readily understand. For in French alone are to be found the master-pieces in this branch of composition. We have English writers who record in their private journals much in the way both of fact and opinion, which becomes invaluable to historians, nor do we want some few who have left us charming details of themselves and of the world they lived in. Pepys's Diary is one of the most delightful of books for an idle reader, but his interest centres on the character of the shrewd, good- natured, easy-going man of the world, who is gossiping to him, rather than on what he tells us of others. In fact, the charm of Pepys is just the one charm which we miss in the great French writers,—his perfect frankness and honesty, carried as far as human nature will permit a man to be frank and honest, even with himself. The French memoirs are all apologies and all reprisals, and their number is due to the fact that every gentleman and lady about the Court felt that his or her neighbours and rivals should not have the advantage of a posthumous "last word." And when, at last, among the writers of the Georgian era, we do find English authors whose work has something of the brilliancy and finish of the best models, we find them among the statesmen and courtiers whose tastes and manners were regulated by the standard of the Parisian salons.

So foreign, indeed, to our national genius is this species of composition, that a real translation of some of the best memoirs is about as feasible as an adequate rendering of Plato's Re- pahlie. Nowhere is French prose so wayward and unmanage- able, nowhere are the thousand subtile shades of the most delicate of European tongues employed with such inimitable mastery and grace, as in the hands of writers like Saint-Simon and Madame de Lafayette. If, however, the "general public" is likely to feel interest in any memoirs, they are certainly those of the class which Mrs. Cashel Hoe), and Mr. Lillie have given them in an English dress. The First Napoleon is probably the most striking figure in history since the days of Julius Ca3sar, and whatever may be the final judgment of posterity upon • Memoirs of Madame de Rimosat, 1H02-1808. Published by her grandson, M. Paul de ltdmusat. Translated from the French by Mrs. Cashel Hoey and. Mr. John Lillie. London : Sampson Low, 31arston, Searle, and Rivington. 1880.

him and on his work, the personal character of so great a ruler of men must always possess no common interest, even to those who care little for the petty anecdotes and clever scandal which form the bulk of ordinary memoirs.

Madame de Remusat was in close personal attendance on the Empress Josephine from 1802 till her death in 1814. She was one of the few women of birth who were attached to the new Empire from the beginning, and this fact, added to her tact and ability, raised her at first to high favour with Napoleon. Madame de Remusa.t kept a journal during her twelve years' residence at Court. "She had recorded," her grandson tells us, "nearly everything she saw and heard at Paris, at St. Cloud, and at Malmaison." "Studies of character and dis- position," as well as narratives of events and circumstances, were contained in these dangerous sheets. But when the Hun- dred Days came, and the Imperial police once more resumed their old activity, Madame de Remusat burnt all her manu- scripts, in a panic. It was not till 1818 that the pages before us were composed. They are " now but recollections of former recollections," and they are written under very different pro- spects and conditions from those which were the author's, when she belonged to the household of the Empress. For it must be owned that M. de Remusat and his wife saw the error of their ways when Napoleon fell, and the ex-Chamberlain had the honour of being exiled by his former master during the Hundred Days, and of being created prefect of the Haute Garonne, "by a decree of July 12th, 1815," an appointment, we are told, which "was quite to his taste." We trust that we shall not be thought very cynical, if we suggest that the journal of the dame cia palais of 1804 might occasionally bear a somewhat different complexion from the recollections of that journal entertained by the wife of the prefect of the Restoration. And yet, on the whole, though Madame de Remusat is eager to pro- claim herself disenchanted, and speaks with becoming horror of the crimes of her former patron, the general impression left on the present writer, after reading her volume, is rather favour- able to the great Emperor, than otherwise. The most interesting part of the whole book (which, by the way, steadily deteriorates as it goes on) is the study of Napoleon given in the first few pages, and the conversations which the author had with him at Boulogne in 1803; and to these we shall almost entixely confine our remarks :—

" His forehead, the setting of his eye, the line of his nose, are all beautiful, and remind one of an antique medallion ; his mouth, which is thin-lipped, becomes pleasant when he laughs ; the teeth are regular; his chin is short, and his jaw heavy and square his eyes are dull, giving to his face a melancholy and meditative expression when in repose."

Then we hear of the "fascination of his smile," and of the "well-formed hands and feet," of which "he thought a good deal" :—

" Gravity was at the bottom of his character; not the gravity of a dignified and noble manner" (even a genius, it would seem, must have the bet air, to please a lady of the old regime), "but that which arises from profound thought When I first began to know him well, he was exceedingly fond of all that leads to reverie, of Ossian, of the twilight, of melancholy music. I have seen him enraptured by the murmur of the wind ; I have heard him talk with enthusiasm of the moaning of the sea; and he was tempted sometimes to believe that nocturnal apparitions were not beyond the

bounds of possibility The geometrical turn of his mind dis- posed him to analyse even his emotions He used to say that in his youth he had liked reading romances as well as studying the exact sciences ; and probably be was influenced by so incongruous a mixture."

All this is natural, and consistent with the details scattered through the Memoirs. We cannot say that we are equally satisfied with all the rest ot the portrait. No one addicted to historical study ever feels much surprise at the extravagance of the charges brought against great men ; but, to the uninitiated, it may be a little startling to hear that the General who surpassed even the previous achievements of his own transcendent genius in the glorious retreat from Leipsic, "was timid and troubled when threatened with reverses." Nor is this all, for later in the book, Madame de Remusat has the audacity to hint something very like a doubt as to the personal courage of Napoleon ! But this is not the only point on which our author's views of character are peculiar. "1 knew Madame Louis Bonaparte very intimately," she says," and was acquainted with all the secrets of her domestic life. I have always believed her to be the purest, as she was the most un- fortunate of women." When we add that Madame de Remusat admits having lied (though the word is an ugly one to use of a

lady) to the Empress, we think our readers will agree with us that her testimony is to be received with caution. Some of the most telling tattle against the Emperor comes from M. de Talleyrand, of whose society Madame de Remusat would appear to have been particularly fond ; and this gentleman and grand seigneur entirely merited the commendation which the Emperor, we are informed, bestowed on Prince Metternich,—" he ap- proaches to being a statesman : he lies very well." There are an immense number of points in this most interesting book which we could wish to discuss, but as our space is necessarily limited, we shall confine ourselves to stating in the barest out- line the impression of Napoleon's character left in our own mind by the perusal of these pages, and we shall then quote such passages as seem to justify our views.

The dominant characteristics in Napoleon's intellect were an imagination of rare ardour and brilliancy, and a power of reasoning singularly remorseless in its logic. When he took a new mistress, he used to "demonstrate, so to speak, mathe- matically," the propriety of the step to his much-enduring wife.. And, in like manner, he had succeeded in demonstrating, to his own satisfaction, that he and his power were necessary to the welfare of mankind. His imagination, and his marvellous for- tune, served to give this conviction the force of a religious belief. The conclusion was irresistible,—all must bow before him; and he led army after army to victory and to death, that he might carry out a policy which he held to be inspired. He was not cruel or vengeful, but he was selfish, and selfish by conviction, and he had plenty of that amiable sensitiveness which is often found in selfish people. All ideas of right and wrong had been turned upside down in the awful storm of the Revolution, and Napoleon held—as lesser men have done, in more quiet times— that "the laws of morals and of custom were never made for him." It was a sad creed, after all, and made him a melancholy man, with the mournful knowledge in his heart that when he died "the world would utter a great' Of!'"

" Ah," he cries in one place, "one cannot avoid one's destiny ; he

who is called cannot resist He who believes that a hundred years hence, a fine poem, or even a line in one, will recall a great action of his own' or that a painting will commemorate it, has his imagination fired by that idea. The battle-field has no dangers, the cannon roars in vain ; to him, it is only a sound which a thousand years hence will carry a brave man's name to the ears of our distant descendants."

He loved to talk of his campaign in Egypt, "that land of poetry, which was trodden by Cwsar and Pompey," as he called it :—

" He would speak with enthusiasm of the time when he appeared before the amazed Orientals like a new Prophet, for he prized the sway he exercised over imagination more highly than any other, for it was the most complete of all. 'In France,' he said, one must conquer everything at the point of demonstration. In Egypt, we did not require our mathematics."

In another confidential conversation with Madame de Remusat (of whose company Napoleon grew so fond, that the Empress displayed some very natural jealousy), he gave her an account of his boyhood and early life :—

" I was educated," he said, "at a military school Every

one said of me, 'That child will never be good for anything but

geometry.' I had chosen a little corner of the school-grounds where I would sit and dream at my ease, for I have always liked reverie. When my companions tried to usurp possession of this corner, I defended it with all my might. I already knew by instinct that my will was to over-ride that of others, and that what pleased me was to belong to me. I was not liked at school. It takes time to make's oneself liked ; and even when I had nothing to do, I always felt vaguely that I had no time to lose. I entered the Service, and soon grew tired of garrison work. I began to read novels, and they interested me deeply. I even tried to write some I often. let myself dream, in order that I might afterwards measure my dreams by the compass of my reason. I threw myself into an idear world, and I endeavoured to find out in what precise points it differed from the actual world in which I lived. I have always liked analysis, and if I were to be seriously in love, I should analyse my loll bit by bit I conquered rather than studied history I did not care to retain, and did not retain, anything that could net give me a new idea ; I disdained all that was useless, but took pos- session of certain results which pleased me."

Then he tells her of the splendid visions which animated him in his Egyptian campaign :— "I dreamed all sorts of things, and I saw how all that I dreamed might be realised. I created a religion; I pictured myself on the road to Asia, mounted on an elephant, with a turban on my head, and in my hand a new Koran, which I should compose according to my own ideas. I would have the combined experience of two worlds with which to set about my enterprise ; I was to have ransacked for- my own advantage the whole domain of history ; I was to have at- tacked the English power in India, and renewed my relations with old Europe by my conquest. The time I passed in Egypt was the most delightful part of my life, for it was the most ideal. Fate decided against my dreams. I received letters from France ; I saw that there was not a moment to lose. I reverted to the realities of life, and I returned to Paris,—to Paris, where the gravest interests of the country are discussed in the entr'acte of the opera."

Another day they talked of literature. Napoleon declared that he was indifferent to style, and " cared. only for the force of the thought." Of the French poets, he liked Corneille alone. "That man understood politics," he declared, "and if he had been trained to public affairs, he would have been a statesman."

There axe, as might be expected, a number of shrewd political ob- servations in the book. We shall quote a few of the most striking, before bringing our notice to a close. Talking of the French of his own day, Napoleon said. "To be equals with everybody upper- most is the secret of the vanity of all of you ; every man amongst you must therefore be given the hope of rising." This is the imperial paraphrase of "La carriere libre ouverte aux talents." He clearly foresaw that his rule would not destroy, but merely suspend, the Revolution. "My successor," said he, "whoever he may be, will be forced to march with his own times, and to find his support in liberal opinions. I will bequeath them to him, but without their primitive crudeness." But perhaps the most striking phrase of all is that which he used of the Bour- bons, when he said that "in politics there is no resurrection." One other great achievement Napoleon effected, which Riche- lieu, Mazarin, and the great King himself had tried in vain. He kept Frenchwomen from meddling in politics; and perhaps that was the reason why they so cordially detested him. We have not compared. the translation of this work with the original. But so far as we can judge without doing so, the translation appears to be good. It is, at all events, in pure and idiomatic English, with very few Gallicanisms.