Sept. 18. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



267 



On the first meeting of Parliament after the in- 

 corporation of Corsica with France, Burke in an 

 animated speech forebode much resulting evil from 

 the fact : and most assuredly it did thence ensue to 

 us, not, indeed, as he contemplated the conse- 

 quences, but from the birth, on the island's soil, 

 of the most fearful adversary that Great Britain has 

 ever had to encounter, thus enabled to wield, as a 

 Frenchman, the mighty power of France against 

 us, against Europe's freedom, and not less against 

 France herself, the enslaved instrument of his 

 ambition, though to her with some redeeming 

 benefits. 



N.B. — The preceding was written, and would 

 have been forwarded on the 3rd, but, being a 

 Friday, no post-day for London, I withheld it, 

 and the following day read in The Times of Thurs- 

 day the 2nd a letter supporting the previous one 

 of the 28th, by a reference to Chateaubriand's 

 Memoires cC Outre Tombe, where the earlier date of 

 Bonaparte's birth is attempted to be proved not only 

 by the IMarriage Registry, but by a proclamation 

 of the Senat Conservateur, and by M. Eckard's 

 pamphlet. My answer briefly is, that the pro- 

 clamation, dated the 3rd of April, 1814, was after 

 iN^apoloon's surrender of the crown, to which, as a 

 foreigner, as it was the purpose to exhibit him, he 

 could have no legitimate pretension ; insomuch 

 that even his reign, the most splendid of the 

 monarchy's annals, was obliterated from the roll 

 of the kingdom's sovereigns : the whole, therefore, 

 of the utmost absurdity. And the authority of 

 M. Eckard rests only on his first view of the sub- 

 ject, which it would seem to " Veritas," the sub- 

 scriber of the second letter, has not been retracted 

 on ulterior inquiry, as he may see, by the article of 

 " Napoleon " in the Biogruphie Universelle, that 

 M. Eckard did, and as above stated. Chateau- 

 briand, though accepting high employment under 

 Napoleon at first, nobly disdained all favour from 

 him after the Duke d'Enghien's assassination, and 

 pursued him with bitter hatred, as his powerful 

 pamphlet (De Buonaparte et des Bou7-bons) in 

 1814, which so greatly facilitated the Restoratioi), 

 and painted in such criminating colours the acts 

 and character of the emperor, proved. Every 

 effort, according to this brilliant writer, had been 

 made to pervert the popular mind, conscience, and 

 feelings. "Les enfans etaient places dans des 

 ecoles, ou on leur apprenait, au son du tambour, 



double evidence I have stated, that the 15th of August 

 is the real date. 



"Why he chose to suppress it on his marriage, I 

 repeat, I cannot guess. It could not have been igno- 

 rance, because the information in the volume of Services 

 des Offieiers must have been supplied him. 



'• I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



"A QlTARTERLY ReVIEWER." 



Sept. 3. 



I'irreligion, la debauche, et le mepris des vertus 

 domestiques." Reproving, as I decidedly do, 

 many elements of the national education under the 

 Empire, this description of it I hesitate not to pro- 

 nounce, in a great measure, a misrepresentation. 

 The main purpose was to make Napoleon an object 

 almost of idolatry. 



A genuine and ingenious mystification practised; 

 on France's admirable dramatist, Moliere, by the 

 President Rose, Master of the Mint, may not be 

 unworthy of notice here. In the Medecia malgre 

 hi (Scene 6. Act I.), Ignorelli is produced 

 hugging his bottle, and addressing to it a song, 

 which, on the first representation of the play, the 

 President de la Monnale translated into I^atin. 

 In a few days after, at the famous Hotel de Rara- 

 bouillet, he showed this version as from the Antho- 

 logy, pretending that it was the original whence, 

 though concealed, Moliere had derived his song. 

 The great comic author then present was astounded 

 at the impeachment, which he indignantly contra- 

 dicted, until a general smile disclosed the truth. 

 The French and Latin lines shall here be placed 

 in juxtaposition, for the sake of comparison : 

 " Qu'ils sont doux, 



Bouteille jolie, 



Qu'ils sont doux, 



Vos jolis glougloux ! 



Mais mon sort ferait bien de jaloux, 



Si vous etiez toujours reinplie ; 



Ah ! bouteille ma mie, 



Pourquoi vous videz-vous ? " 



" Quam dulccs, 

 Amphora amcena, 

 Quam dukes 

 Sunt tuae voces ! 

 Dum fundis mcram in calices, 

 Utinam semper esses plena ! \ 



Ah ! cara mea lagena, 

 Vacua cur jaces ! " 



Similar hoaxes have frequently been practised, 

 and I could refer to some more ; but this one will 

 be considered quite sufficient. Moliere died in 

 1673, after acting the part of Argan in his Malade 

 Iinaginaire, and in it turning the medical art into 

 ridicule, when an apoplectic fit carried him off: 

 which suggested to his friend Dr. Bichat the fol- 

 lowing epigram : 



" Roscius hic situs est tristi Molierus in urna, 

 Cui genus humanum ludere, ludus erat. 

 Dum ludit mortem, mors indigtiata jocantem 

 Corripit, et mimum fingere sa;va negat." 



J. R. 



Cork. 



iJffinor ^atti. 



Belon du Mans' Observations — I have a book, 

 24mo., well preserved, entitled Les Observaiions d& 

 plusieurs Singidaritez et chases admirahles, trouvees 



