'A fow scattered chapters from the forthcoming volumes of Madame de Rémusat's Mémoires open the current number of the Revue des deux Mendes, We have already summarised and commented on the specimens from the first volume (now in the Press) which appeared three months ago, Napoleon continues to appear under an unamiable light, attempting to coerce the judges, pursuing ephemeral amours, gratifying a calculated vengeance which he was ready to intermit at the suggestion of interest, though not at the suggestion of merey, tricking out an imitation court, and finally bullying the unfortunate Pius VI, Whom delusive visions of the re-establishment of ancient pontifical glories tempted to the extraordinary step of-visiting Paris for the purpose of crowning the parvenu Emperor. The glories of the coronation scene (2rd December, 1804), even the Aresses of the lords and ladies present, are described with some minuteness. More interesting are the glimpses we get behind the scones, the rehearsals of the performance, the jangling of the Emperor's sisters over his order that they should bear his wife's train, the attempts of these loveable ladies to bring the Empress to grief during the procession, by allowing her monstrously heavy train to drag, all these vanities and jealousies, all the littlenesses that human beings, from crowned heads to domestic servants, can display in private are spread out with malicious faithfulness for the delight of anti-Bonapartist readers. There was not in truth much to choose between the great people in power and the great people who had but recently been kicked out of power. Mme. de Remusat, with engaging frankness, tells of her discomfiture at a reception by the Duke of Orleans after the restoration, when she was cut dead by the Duchess of Polignac, whose husband she had been largely instrumental in saving from the treatment of a common criminal when condemned for the "Moreau affair." But ingratitude must needs be the note of every nobility that believes itself God-appointed to subdue the earth without replenishing it. The curious thing about the old French nobility of that period was that in spite of its hatred and contempt for the new order of things i's members, prompted either by avarice or ambition, were eager to obtain Court appointments. The Emperor, therefore, found no difficulty in surrounding himself with an Imperial establishment illustrious in part through merit and in part through great historical associations. In one element of popularity Napoleon was notably deficient. He could never recollect a name, No matter how often anybody not immed-lately connected with him fell under his notice, his first enquiry was always "What's your name?" Disgusted by this contemptuous forgetfulness, "there was not a lady who did not feel relieved when she saw the Emperor withdrawing from her neighbourhood." Yet, after all, Napoleon would have been more than human had he not been spoiled by the worship lavished on him in civil life. "Much has been said of the flattery wherewith Louis XIV was smothered throughout his long reign. I am confident that if all of it were piled together it would not amount to the tenth of what Bonaparte received. At a fete given by the city of Paris, as every reasonable inscription for the canopy of the throne had already been used, the words I am that I am were posted up on it in letters of gold, and nobody seemed at all M. Cucheval-Clarigny carries his account of Lord Beaconsfield's political life from 1839, when, during the debate on the Chartist petition, public attention was first concentrated on the rising statesman, to 1846, when Lord George Bentinck's death left him the acknowledged head of the Tory party. The memorable incident in Mr. Gladstone's career is casually mentioned, when Apropos of Lord John Russell's education bill he delivered his philippic against an equal treatment of Catholics and Protestants. Throughout the period referred to, Mr. Disraeli continued to consolidate his popularity with the working classes by the warm sympathy he expressed for their wrongs and sufferings. His leading principle, sufficiently expounded, by the way, in his novels, was that if the crown and the aristocracy fulfilled their duties towards the people, popular sentiment would always be favourable to both. The recognition of the order of the peasantry as more important and more ancient than the order of the aristocracy, was the watchword of the young England party, the new generation" of which Disraeli was himself a representa tive. We will not follow the writer's account of the Corn Law agitation, or of the rupture between Mr. Disraeli and Sir Robert Peel. The stories are fairly and succinctly told, and are of that permanent interest which elevates them both alike to the rank of history.
Diderot is, we imagine, almost as well known and as much read in England as in France. A new edition of his complete works (in 20 volumes, alas!) having recently been published, containing works hitherto unknown in their completeness, M. Caro of the Academy takes the opportunity of presenting in a condensed form the salient points of the philosopher's discursive teaching, The paper before us deals with his views on the genesis of species, a brief summary of which has already appeared in these columns. An account of his literary labours with the curious and not over creditable motives which influenced him in undertake ing them, fitly introduces the reader to the rutings of a man marked with the ori-finality of creative genius, Under the title of La Marine de Syracuse, Admiral Jurien de In Gravitre traces the history of the world-renowned Dionysius of Syracuse (B.C. 405-443.) His naval achievements are the theme of the paper, which, however, possesses far more than a special or technical interest. The Admiral is a lively writer and contrives to throw a halo of romance round the dryest historic cal details. Particularly entertaining are his parallels between the difficulties and achievements of ancient navies and those of navies of modern times. We leave the reader to discover for himself the writer's ingenious explanation of the great puzzle attaching to the many-banked war galleys of the world.—To readers themselves, too, we leave M, Radau's popular exposition of current views on the condition of the earth's interior. Being itself a summary it defies condensation. Pretty nearly all that is valuable in it may be found in Professor Tait's Recent Advances in Physical Science. One little bit of information that was new to us may also be new to the public, It is this—that Laplace's nebular theory which is now universally accepted, and with which his name is indissolubly associated, was anticipated by Swedenborg (Principia rerum naturatium, 1734) who, before he became the prophet of a sect of mystics, was adistingnished mathematician and engineer, and officially connected with the Stockholm School of Mines.—And, finally, we must draw attention to a paper by M. Barine on the original legend of Faust, which in spite of being adopted, transformed and glorified by Goethe, still in its first crude form remains enshrined in the memories and imaginations of the German people, @utports,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.