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any intention in my heart but what did aim | my wife husbandless, my dear children faat the joint and individual prosperity of the therless, and my poor servants masterless, king and his people, although it be my ill and separate me from my dear brother and lot to be misconstrued. I am not the first all my friends; but let God be to you and man that hath suffered in this kind; it is a them all in all.'

common portion that befalls men in this life. Righteous judgment shall be hereafter: here we are subject to error and misjudging one another."

And after answering the charges of despotism and popery, he concluded "I desire heartily to be forgiven if any rude or unadvised words or deeds have passed from me, and desire all your prayers; and so, my Lord, farewell, and farewell all things in this world. The Lord strengthen my faith and give me confidence and assurance in the merits of Jesus Christ. I trust in

"After that, going to take off his doublet, and make himself ready, he said, 'I thank God I am no more afraid of death, nor daunted with any discouragements arising from my fears, but do as cheerfully put off my doublet at this time as ever I did when I went to bed.' 'Then he put off his doublet, and wound up his hair with his hands, and put on a white cap.

"Then he called, 'Where is the man that should do this last office?' meaning the executioner: 'call him to me.' When he came, and asked him forgiveness, he told

God we shall all meet to live eternally in him he forgave him and all the world.heaven, and receive the accomplishment of Then kneeling down by the block, he went 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

all happiness; where every tear shall be wiped from our eyes and sad thoughts from our hearts. And so God bless this kingdom, and Jesus have mercy on my soul."

"Then turning himself about, he saluted all the noblemen, and took a solemn leave of all considerable persons on the scaffold, giving them his hand.

"And after that he said-Gentlemen, I would say my prayers, and I entreat you all to pray with me and for me.' Then his chaplain, Dr. Carr, laid the Book of Common Prayer upon the chair before him, as he kneeled down; on which he prayed almost aquarter of an hour, and repeated the twenty-fifth psalm; then he prayed as long or longer without a book, and ended with the Lord's Prayer. Then standing up, he spied his brother, Sir George Wentworth, and cailed him to him, and said, 'Brother, we must part: remember me to my sister and to my wife, and carry my blessing to my eldest son, and charge him from me that he fear God, and continue an obedient son of the Church of England, and that he approve himself a faithful subject to the king; and tell him that he should not have any private grudge or revenge towards any concerning me; and bid him beware not to meddle with Church livings, for that will prove a moth and canker to him in his estate; and wish him to content himself to be a servant to his country, as a justice of peace in his county, not aiming at higher preferments. Convey my blessing also to my daughters Anne and Arabella: charge them to fear and serve God, and He will bless them; not forgetting my little infant that knows neither good nor evil, and cannot speak for it self; God speak for it, and bless it.' Then said he, 'I have done; one stroke will make

to prayer again himself, the Archbishop of Armagh kneeling on one side, the minister on the other. After prayer, he turned himself to the minister, and spoke some few words softly with his hands lifted up. The minister closed his hands in his. Then bowing himself to the earth, to lay down his head on the block, he told the executioner that he should first lay down his head to try the fitness of the block, and take it up again before he laid it down for good and all; and this he did. And before he laid it down again, he told the executioner that he would give him warning when to strike by stretching forth his hands: and then he laid his neck on the block stretching forth his hands. The executioner struck off his head at one blow; then took the head up in his hands and showed it to all the people and said, 'God save the king!"" Thus perished a victim to political and religious violence, the malevolence of an oligarchy, and, we must add, the weakness of a king; -as great a statesman and as noble a man as ever England produced. We have nothing to say more with respect to those who effected his destruction; on: thanks to them for having developed, even by such acts as theirs and formed, though they were but the blind and brute instruments of the work-a character which is an honor to history. Thanks to them, and honor to him. Honor to the lofty, the disinterested, the energetic, the large of mind, and pure of aim, the statesman who had a head and a heart. Honor to him who had the courage in evil days to defend the Church against her titled spoilers, and make a swelling aristocracy feel the arm of justice; who could despise men's affections, good opinions, flatteries, all the ease and

ent ages, in peculiar atmospheres of Church and State, to clothe and embody the one eternal, immutable, essential Good, will nobly, generously recognize that, and trample upon all else, will maintain the inherent royalty, supremacy, greatness, the height ineffable and power divine, the universal empire and the adamantine base of that great scheme for which under varying aspects the Church militates on earth, but which will only be seen in purity and fulness above.

amid the shadowy beginnings of moral life, the rough essences, the aboriginal shapes, the ghostlike forerunnings of the immortal; we see the giant masses that sustain the higher world, but that is all; we witness but the strife of subterranean elements, and hear the hollow gust, and hidden torrents' roar. But patience, and a brighter day will come, which shall mould chaotic humanity into form a day of refining, purifying metamorphose, when virtue shall hardly recog

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.

THE WATERLOO BANQUET.- On Monday last, the "hero of a hundred fights" was once more surround. ed by his companions in arms, to celebrate the anniversary of the glorious victory gained on the plains of Waterloo. Eighty-one noble and gallant veterans sat at the board of their illustrious leader, where they were received with a soldier's welcome and the

Honor 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 earthly stage, are prophecies of a life, and Strafford's still-to inspire some statesman point straight heavenwards. The heroic is 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 perfection, 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 powers, 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 wombencounter 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 fol. low their mysterious and providential call, they take their side; and when the immor

hospitality of a prince. A vast number of persons, among whom we observed several peers and members 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, was the signal for the most enthusiastic cheering. His Royal Highness, on alighting from his carriage, 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. The Prince was conducted by his grace to the grand saloon, and at eight o'clock the Duke and 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 sil. ver, 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.

Napoléon et Marie Louise, Souvenirs His-
toriques de M. le Baron Meneval, ancien
Secrétaire du portefeuille de Napoléon, &c.
(Historical Recollections of Napoleon
and Maria Louisa). 2 vols. Paris. 1843.
THIS is an addition to the number of me-
moirs of the Emperor of France, by indi-
viduals 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,

kept him aloof from the crowd around him, elbowing, pushing, and scrambling for profit and place; and which offered a passive resistance to the contagion of fashionable manners; detracted from his qualities as a chronicler. His observation does not appear to have been keen, nor his memory retentive. Of the thousand noticeable traits of character in Napoleon, and remarkable 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,

admirable in parts, is, as a whole, a crude and destitute of that vivacity, lightness, compilation, swelled hastily to its enormous and happy art of story telling, for which bulk to meet financial difficulties. He gave French memoir-writers have ever been prehimself no time to weigh conflicting au- eminent.

thorities, 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 among all the memoirs and other books, towards a life of Napoleon, which have appeared in France, that country has not yet produced the life itself, while England has produced several. Apparently the French are better aware than the English, of the difficulties of the task.

that so long as the emperor's son lived, reserve was imposed on him; but that, since the young prince's death it was no longer necessary to remain silent. There is something here which we do not understand; an inconsistency arising probably from want of clearness in the author's language. The circumstances most interesting to the young prince must naturally have been the union between his parentsand their ultimate separation; and these (as is shown by its title) properly form the subject of M. Meneval's book.

"To conform as much as possible to the emperor's desire, which I look upon as a command, I have thought it proper to choose the times which followed his second marriage. The narrative which I publish is intended to recall some scattered traits of his private history during that period; not to paint the conqueror and the legislator, but Napoleon in his privacy, as a hus

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 confidence he enjoyed without interruption: a circumstance which says much for the usefulness no less than the fidelity of his services. His name is never mentioned by his contemporaries as involved in the tracasseries and intrigues of the imperial court; he seems to have conducted himself with straightforwardness and singleness of purpose. His book also gives that idea of An interesting subject: which in M. Mehis character. It is written with simpli-neval's hands might have been more intercity, and is as free from the tinsel of French esting than he has made it, had be better fine writing as from the easy style of known how to gather and to use the mateFrench fine morals. There is nothing of rials within his reach. "Napoleon et Ma"la jeune France" in the pages of M. Me- rie-Louise" is prefaced by an "introducneval; a rare merit in a French literary tion" containing some of the least known production of the present day. But the circumstances, anterior to the year 1810, quietness of temper, which made him a of which M. Meneval was himself an eyecorrect and plodding functionary; which | witness. This part of the work is exceed

band and a father."

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 heightened 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

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 lan

this mode of education is worth noticing:

could by possibility make Englishmen ap- guage in Hungary. She was an excellent pear odious or ridiculous. One of his im- musician, and was accomplished in drawportant 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.

"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 adopted of cutting out with scissors, not only pages of these books, but lines, and even single words, the sense of which was deemed improper or equivocal. Such a blundering censorship was calculated to produce the opposite effect to what was intended: the expunged passages, which might have remained unnoticed had they been let alone, were interpreted in a thousand ways by young imaginations, the more active that they were stimulated by curiosity. The evil meant to be prevented was thus incame, to the royal pupils, objects of indifference

"The following trait of loyauté was a worthy termination to the mission of this respectable minister. The protocol of the last diplomatic meeting had been settled, the definitive treaty agreed on, and an appointment made for its signature next day at the Hôtel de Ville On the night before the day of signature, a courier from London brought Lord Cornwallis an order to creased. On the other hand, their books he

modify some articles of the treaty, relative to

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 article of the protocol on this subject had been settled between the two ministers. Lord Cornwallis 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 not retract; and the treaty was signed with solemnity, 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,

after the mutilations they had undergone. The Archduchess Maria Louisa, after she became empress, confessed that her curiosity had been 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."

When the youthful Archduchess first heard of her projected marriage with the 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 ugliest 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 Aus. trian 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 complete a fac-simile of that which she had quitted at Schænbrunn, 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.

"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 gravity by a hearty embrace; but in public he treated her with great respect, and a dignity not inconsistent with polished familiarity.

"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

side holding her by the hand, while the groom held the bridle of her horse; he thus calmed her fears and encouraged her. When her skill

did honor to her teacher, the lessons were con tinued in a private alley of the park. The emperor, when he had a moment's leisure after breakfast, bre 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 her lessons in music and drawing, she went to see him in his apartment and sat by him at her 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 Maria 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 administration, 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, playing 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 manœuvre 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 breakfasted alone. Madame de Montesquiou every morning took the boy to his father's breakfast-table. He took him on his 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.

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