FOREIGN CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 216 



Parallele des principaks Residences des Souverains d' Europe, by Percier 

 and Fontaine, is a work highly important and interesting^to architects. 

 We extract from it the following story of Napoleon relating to the 

 statue and inscription of the triumphal arch on the Place de Carousel. 

 This monument of the Emperor's victories was nearly completed in the 

 month of August, 1808, on his first return from Spain ; some scaflTold- 

 ing and pieces of canvass concealed part of the edifice from the in- 

 quisitive eye. Observing this unsightly appearance from one of the 

 windows of the Palace, Napoleon inquired when it would be removed ? 

 in a short time, replied Fleurier, Intendant General of the Imperial 

 Household, as the statue of your Majesty, which the Director of the 

 Museum has ordered, is nearly finished. What do you mean, said 

 the Emperor ; I have never desired or ordered that a statue of me 

 should become a principal object of the monument which I have erected 

 at my private expense to the fame of an army which I have had the 

 honor of commanding. My person may appear in the representation 

 of a deed of arms in which I have shared — this is reasonable — but it 

 would be highly unseemly to arrogate to myself the honor of an apothe- 

 osis, or allow it to be conferred on occasion of a public monument. If 

 the statue be already erected, T desire that it be taken down, and if 

 nothing better can be found to fill up its place, let it remain empty. The 

 will of the Emperor was obeyed, and the statue deposed. The inscrip- 

 tions which it was proposed to affix to this monument afforded Napoleon 

 another opportunity of developing his views in a manner still more de- 

 cidedly. Two Latin and two French inscriptions had been prepared by 

 the Institute during the Emperor's absence in his German campaign of 

 18)9, and sent to him for his approbation. 



A Napoleon, Empereur et Roi, toujours victorieux, et k la grande arm^e, qui 

 sous ses ordres, dans la campagne de 1805, vainquit k Ulm, prit Vienne, et d^truisit 

 k Austerlitz les forces combin^es de I'ennemi. 



Napol^o. Aug. Germ, exercitibus hostium deletis, Vindobona in deditionem 

 accepta, terris a Rheno ad Marum trimestri spatio subactis, victorise monumentura 

 dicavit anno. 1809. 



Dans I'espace de cent jours, 26 villes, 203 drapeaux, 2319 canons, 49 g^n^raux, 

 88,000 soldats ont ^td pris k I'ennemi ; par la paix dict^e k Presbourg 6 provinces 

 ont agrandi le royaume d' Italic et les ^tats allies de la France. 



Captis urbibus atque oppidis 26, vixillis 203, tormentis exsere ferroque 2319, 

 hostium ducibus captivis 49, hominum millibus 88, bello intra dies centum confecto 

 pacis leges Posonii dictae, 27 December, 1805, Veneti, Dalmatse, Rhoeti, Germani, 

 cis Aenum ab imperio Austriaco abscedunt, sociis adtribuntur. 



Napoleon dictated to Marshal Duroc the following answer : — '* The 

 French language is the most cultivated of modern languages, and more 

 settled and better known than the dead languages ; none other need, 

 therefore, be employed in the inscription for the triumphal arch. To 

 what purpose is the title of Augustus and Germanicus given to the 

 Emperor Napoleon. Augustus never gained but the single battle of 

 Actium, and his misfortunes only obtained for Germanicus the sympathy 

 of Rome. There is nothing enviable in the destiny of the Roman 

 Emperors. What dreadful recollections are connected with the names 

 of Tiberius, Nero, Caligula, Domitian, and all those chiefs who, having 

 obtained their sway without inheritance and legitimate rights, and com- 

 mitted so many deeds of horror, plunged Jlome in inextricable calamities. 

 The only man who shone conspicuously by his own character and great 

 achievements, was not an Emperor — it was Cjesar. If the Emperor's 

 name is to be inscribed on the monument, neither that of Augustus 

 nor of Germanicus must be placed by its side. We can allow of no com- 



