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THE SATURDAY EVENING GAZETTE
AND LADIES’ TOILET
Providence, Rhode Island, Saturday Evening, March 21, 1829
LOUIS BONAPARTE’S DEFENSE OF HIS BROTHER
Louis Bonaparte, Ex-King of Holland, has come before the English public with a portrait of his brother, in answer to Walter Scott’s libels upon his memory. The following extract from this portrait is taken from the columns of the London Atlas, and if it be, as the London editor remarks, "a curiosity of its kind," it expresses the feelings of an injured brother; and this fact should be taken into consideration. Walter Scott commenced a cold-blooded, wanton, uncalled for attack upon the character of one who shook the English throne to its center, while he lived, and who would have overturned it but for the mass of gold which propped the royal house upon its elevation -- what English bayonets could not do, English money effected, and down fell the haughty, the ambitious Emperor of the French; and when once down, they bound him to die; and when dead, Sir Walter stepped forward to mutilate the remains of one upon whom he dared not look when living.
Without a doubt, Napoleon Bonaparte had his faults, and who has not? He was a conqueror, and therefore branded cruel -- he was a monarch, and therefore branded tyrant -- he was ambitious, and being so, he exerted the means within his power to extend his dominions, as all other ambitious monarchs have done before him; and like them, he finally found the end of his career, and now sleeps upon the lap of his mother, as if a crown had never pressed his forehead; and those enemies who persecuted him to his grave, not content with that, now seek to blast his fame, by calumny and falsehood.
But let his faults be what they will, there have been few men on this earth, whose track was like his. Of crowns, and thrones, and sceptres, he made a legacy, and of each member of his family he made a monarch. The whole world was his, and he disposed of it by kingdoms and empires, as if it had been a mere bauble. Yet the day of his glory was brief, and the sun that rose so brightly at Austerlitz, sunk upon the last scene of his life, in gloom and despair.
"It was but yesterday
The name of Caesar might have stood against the world,
Now lies he there, and none so poor to do him reverence."
The character of Napoleon, from earliest infancy, announced what he was to be, and the presentiment was never belied; he was, above every thing, pre-eminently a Frenchman; nay, he perhaps carried that affection to excess. That he loved glory with the most ardent passion, cannot be denied. He may certainly merit those reproaches which Alexander, Charlemagne, and so many heroes, deserved much more than himself. However, upon that head, he has explained himself in the most precise manner, and no other person could have answered and so justified him in that respect; but it will be averred, as well by those who know him, as posterity, that shall judge his memory with impartiality, that no one, among those upon whom the destinies of nations were dependent, proved less vindictive and cruel.
He was sober, and only possessed the most noble passions. In vain would his detractors pause to contemplate the horrors where with it has been sought to tarnish his moral reputation; where those accusations solely depend on the falsehoods and sarcasms of libels, they may well serve to accompany such ephemeral productions, but they constitute no feature of the grand page of history.
What cannot be controverted is, that in the character of husband to his first wife, much older than himself, he lived with her, as a soldier, in the greatest harmony, until the last hour of their union, without giving her one cause for complaint.
Another incontestible fact is, that he cannot be reproached with ever having kept an acknowledged mistress, or been guilty of any flagrant conduct; while, when married a second time, at the age of forty-two years, he conducted himself towards his second wife with uniform courtesy, amiability and grace, and never proved deficient in his attentions to her.
We must here record, in answer to the accusation of Sir Walter Scott respecting Napoleon’s egotism, what transpired on the occasion of the birth of his son, when the celebrated Dubois informed him, that under the momentous circumstances attending the delivery of the Empress, the lives of the mother and infant were endangered, and that, therefore, it became necessary to lose the one or the other -- his answer was, "Save the mother before every thing." Does not that conduct alone give the writer in question the most direct proof?
His hunting excursions were never destructive or burdensome to the public; and the chief end proposed in the magnificence of his court was the prosperity of arts and manufactures, while his personal simplicity was almost unparalleled.
His system of administration was admirable; it bore the stamp of genius, and deserves to be as much studied as his campaigns; and even his enemies ought to allow, that, in spite of themselves, they are compelled to be his pupils.
Since the reign of Napoleon, governments have manifested more activity and vigilance; from the period in question, utility and ameliorations are become the leading objects of foreign cabinets; and it would be futile for his opponents to deny that they have been necessitated to follow even those errors which he has left behind him.
It cannot be denied that he was the grand promoter of the general and uniform codes whereby France is at present legislated. How many difficulties had he not to subdue; and how imminently was the self-love and interests of individuals wounded! What perseverance was displayed in obtaining this noble and generous end! His genius was blazoned in all his actions, but principally in those immortal assemblies, where the association of all the most distinguished geniuses of France argued upon and framed the grand code of French legislation. Upon those occasions he was present, and reasoned as if he had been the most consummate of legislators. On quitting the study where he had been combining the plans of a campaign, or discussing the most intricate points of policy or administration, he would enter the Council of State, and display talents equal to those of Portalis and Tronchet. Let whatsoever may be the changes affected in that immortal code, it can never be wholly divested of his name, nor will it be forgotten that he was its author; for, even supposing this title justly belonged to those princes who originally conceived the idea of a collection and classification of laws, how much more is due to him who took the most active part in bringing them to perfection?
The Divinity is alone without fault; and every mortal man who approximates to that happy state must be endowed with wisdom; but he who pretends to have obtained supreme excellence, applies to himself the diploma of a madman. Where shall we find a hero or a conqueror divested of all reproach? Titus, universally regarded as the best of princes, has he not to reproach himself, as before remarked, with the slaughter of more than a million of Jews? Did he not cause wretched captives of that persecuted nation to be crucified in the presence of the whole population of Jerusalem and plunged in the abyss of deepest despair?
War, and the cares attendant on Government, not only require a resolute mind, but a heart little gifted with sensibility, and such is the attribute of all great men. As for myself, I do not envy those who are crowned with splendor and glory; yet it can only be acquired at the price of deeds afflicting to the soul and even incompatible with the sentiments of a feeling heart.
Let those who reproach Napoleon with having held the reins of power with too nervous a grasp, and paid little attention to secondary interest in pursuing and advancing the general interests of France; let them call to recollection the difficulties of the times and his position, and more particularly, what was next to an impossibility, his escaping the toils of flattery, and the two systems of foul intrigue formed against him from the very commencement of his greatness, nay, perhaps, even from the period of his Italian campaigns, which gave him a presentiment of what would ensue, and he will then, without doubt, stand exculpated.
He was ultimately overcome by treason long prepared, and the vicissitudes of fortune, at a period when a series of bold and scientific manoeuvres might have produced the most brilliant and decisive victory ever accomplished, had Paris only held out a few days longer.
He was defeated, but completely armed, carrying with him the esteem, nay, even the respect of his enemies, the tears of his soldiers and the liveliest regrets of a great majority of the nation. A few months after, those vows and regrets recalled him, when, almost alone, he reappeared upon the soil of his former empire against a powerful monarch, supported by the rights of his birth and the armies of all Europe. He returned, and, in twenty days, was re-established on his throne, conveyed as one may say, in triumph, without a drop of blood being shed in the accomplishment of his restoration.
The coalition was re-formed; he returned to the field of battle, where victory welcomed him but for a moment, as if to utter her last farewell.
He was at length subdued at Waterloo, and betrayed at Paris also; but more than ever at Rochfort, where he adopted the fatal resolution of placing his destiny at the discretion of his most powerful, ancient, and inveterate enemy.
He perished after enduring six long years of agony, imprisoned at two thousand leagues from Europe; he, whom so many battles had respected! He perished; but even hatred, while assailing him with her last blows, contributed only to accomplish his triumph.
What could prove a greater confession of the influence of his genius and the love of France, that the precaution of placing between the latter and Napoleon the vast expanse of ocean?
What more conclusive avowal of the value and merit of such a captive, than the precautions adopted to secure a single man? The two thousand leagues of the vast ocean were not sufficient; a military force and a naval squadron were required to guard a lone individual. Nay, even that was not deemed competent, for the belligerent powers sent each a minister to reside there, whose duties consisted in taking car that he should not escape!
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-Napoleon Bonaparte
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