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 vagances, all the generous stirrings of heart memory supports the cause which their and rustling rushing movements upon this 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 although above it. The human mind appears but in its commencement here, gives large promise and shows mighty ers, spreads its roots, and lays its foundations; but looking up for the rich foliage and minareted tower, a cloud intercepts our view, and throws us back musing and melancholy upon an imperfect unfinished state of being. And yet why may not the hopeful and loving eye surmount in some sort the mist, and anticipate the finish and completion. The dark elemental gas, the occult fire, the fluid trickling from its mournful cell, blue clayey lair, and sooty mineral, and cold granite bed, produce this world in which we live and breathe. Earth's lower empire issues in her upper, and as the unsightly riches of her labyrinthal womb encounter the magic touch of day, they spring into new being, a living glorious scene; tree, herb and flower, and balmy breeze and summer skies, the painter's landscape and the poet's dream; Sabæan odors, and Hesperian fruits, blest Araby and all fairy-land appear. Even so in the progress of moral life, of human character. Mighty spirits appear and rush across the field; they follow their mysterious and providential call, they take their side; and when the immor

THE WATERLOO BANQUET.-On Monday last, the "hero of a hundred fights" was once more surrounded by his companions in arms, to celebrate the anpow-niversary of the glorious victory gained on the plains sat at the board of their illustrious leader, where they of Waterloo. Eighty-one noble and gallant veterans were received with a soldier's welcome and the hospitality of a prince. A vast number of persons, among whom we observed several peers and memers of Parliament, congregated at the entrance of Apsley House, and saluted the several veteran officers on their arrival with every manifestation of respect. Shortly before eight o'clock Prince Albert arrived, and his presence, it is needless to observe, His Royal Highness, on alighting from his carriage, was the signal for the most enthusiastic cheering. was received by the Duke of Wellington; and the moment the crowd caught sight of the venerable Duke, the cheering burst out with renewed might. grand saloon, and at eight o'clock the Duke and The Prince was conducted by his grace to the his guests entered the gallery and took their seats at the table. The Duke of Wellington, of course, presided, supported on the right by Prince Albert -next to whom sat the Marquess of Anglesey, and on the left by General Washington. The banqueting table was adorned with the various costly testimonials presented to the illustrious hero by the City of London, the Emperor of Russia, &c. The service of plate used was alternately gold and silver, and the dessert service was that given to the gallant Duke by the King of Prussia. The Duke of Wellington wore his uniform as Colonel of the Grenadier-Guards; and Prince Albert, although a field-marshal in the army, adopted his uniform as Colonel of the Scots Fusilier Guards.-Court 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 The author tells us that he wrote these biographer describes him oppressed and memoirs in compliance with the wish of overwhelmed; and the result was a pro- the emperor himself. Napoleon, he says, duction of the most unequal kind, in which in his last moments at St. Helena, among we find clear and animated narrative, other recommendations in the instructions graphic description, depth of thought, and left to his executors, expressed his desire eloquence of language, blended with loose that certain persons, of whom M. Meneval and prolix composition, trivial details treat- was one, should undertake to give his son ed at disproportioned length, and apoc- just ideas on facts and circumstances of ryphal stories told as if they were ascer- great interest to him. M. Meneval adds, tained facts. It may be remarked that that so long as the emperor's son lived, reamong all the memoirs and other books, serve was imposed on him; but that, since towards a life of Napoleon, which have ap- the young prince's death it was no longer peared in France, that country has not yet necessary to remain silent. There is someproduced the life itself, while England has thing here which we do not understand; an produced several. Apparently the French inconsistency arising probably from want are better aware than the English, of the of clearness in the author's language. The difficulties of the task. 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.

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 "To conform as much as possible to the emconfidence he enjoyed without interrup-peror's desire, which I look upon as a command, tion: a circumstance which says much for have thought it proper to choose the times the usefulness no less than the fidelity of which followed his second marriage. The narhis services. His name is never mentioned rative which I publish is intended to recall some by his contemporaries as involved in the scattered traits of his private history during that tracasseries and intrigues of the imperial period; not to paint the conqueror and the legcourt; he seems to have conducted himself islator, but Napoleon in his privacy, as a huswith straightforwardness and singleness of purpose. His book also gives that idea of his character. It is written with simplicity, and is as free from the tinsel of French fine writing as from the easy style of French fine morals. There is nothing of "la jeune France" in the pages of M. Meneval; a rare merit in a French literary production of the present day. But the quietness of temper, which made him a correct and plodding functionary; which

band and a father."

An interesting subject: which in M. Meneval's hands might have been more interesting than he has made it, had be better known how to gather and to use the materials within his reach. "Napoleon et Marie-Louise" is prefaced by an "introduction" containing some of the least known circumstances, anterior to the year 1810, of which M. Meneval was himself an eyewitness. This part of the work is exceed

from Napoleon, has been almost wholly lost sight of by the world, except as the occasional subject of vague rumors and calumnies, from which M. Meneval vindicates her.

The Archduchess Maria Louisa was the eldest daughter of the late Emperor Francis the Second, and Maria Theresa of Naples. She was educated in the usual manner of the royal family of Austria. Brought up under the eye of their parents till their marriage, the Archduchesses live in complete retirement, at a distance from court, and with no society but that of their ladies and attendants, whom they are accustomed to treat with great kindness and familiarity. Maria Louisa's education was carefully attended to. She spoke several languages, and had even learned Latin, a living language in Hungary. She was an excellent musician, and was accomplished in draw

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 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 in the heart of an old and faithful servant, towards the memory of a master who had loved and trusted him, and in whose fall the sunshine of his own life had passed away for ever. The same amiable feeling height. ened the author's prejudice, no doubt, against his master's great and fatal enemy, England; but it is not the less absurd and tiresome to have him to talk continually, after the ordinary French fashion, of our perfidy, ambitious rapacity, and so forth; and to observe the gravity with which he seems to have swallowed any absurd story that could by possibility make Englishmen ap. pear odious or ridiculous. One of his important 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 after the mutilations they had undergone. The article of the protocol on this subject had been Archduchess Maria Louisa, after she became settled between the two ministers. Lord Corn-empress, confessed that her curiosity had been wallis 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 When the youthful Archduchess first not retract; and the treaty was signed with so-heard of her projected marriage with the lemnity, 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,

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."

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

sisters, to draw up in line a troop of little 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 to resign herself to her destiny. She endeavored to learn the character of her future husband, and was entirely occupied by the wish to please before she had ever seen him.

M. Meneval gives full details of the marriage, and all its ceremonies and festivities, dull as such things always are. He describes, after the following fashion, the person of the bride :

"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 com

plete 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.

side holding her by the hand, while the groom
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,
by having servants stationed all along the path,
ready to stop the horse and prevent a fall.
"Meanwhile the king of Rome grew in
strength and beauty under the watchful eye of
Madame de Montesquiou, who loved him as her
own child. He was carried every morning to
his mother, who kept him till it was time to
dress. During the day, in the intervals between
see him in his apartment and sat by him at her
her lessons in music and drawing, she went to
needlework. Sometimes, followed by the nurse
who carried the child, she took him to his father
while he was busy. The entry to his cabinet
was interdicted to every body, and the nurse
could not go in. The emperor used to ask Ma-
ria 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 admin-
istration, 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, play-
ing with him like another child, attentive to
every thing that could please or amuse him.

"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 manoeuvre 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 most critical moment. But the emperor would recommence arranging his men with the utmost good humor.

"The emperor appeared happy. He was affable in his family, and affectionate to the empress. If he found her looking serious he amused her with lively talk, and disconcerted her grav- "The emperor breakfasted alone. Madame ity by a hearty embrace; but in public he treat-de Montesquiou every morning took the boy to ed her with great respect, and a dignity not his father's breakfast-table. He took him on his inconsistent with polished familiarity. 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

"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