English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I. Volume 2 (of 2)Ashton, John
History
English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I. Volume 2 (of 2)
Ashton, John
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Caricatures and cartoons
Of the deceased Emperor’s intellectual, and characteristic, ascendency
over men, all the French, and some of the other nations besides the
French, who had an opportunity of approaching him, can bear witness. He
seems to have possessed the talent, not merely of command, but, when he
pleased, of conciliation and persuasion. With regard to his religious
sentiments, they were, perhaps, of the same standard as those of other
Frenchmen starting into manhood at a time when Infidel writings had so
domineered over the popular mind, that revealed religion was become
a public laughing stock, and in a country where the pure Christian
faith was perplexed with subtilties, overloaded with mummeries, and
scandalized and discountenanced by a general looseness of morals. Upon
the whole, Buonaparte will go down to posterity as a man, who, having
more good at his disposal than any other potentate of any former age,
had actually applied his immense means to the production of a greater
share of mischief and misery to his fellow creatures--one who, on the
basis of French liberty, might have founded that of every other State
in Europe--but who carried on a series of aggressions against foreign
States to divert the minds of his own subjects from the sense of
their domestic slavery; thus imposing on foreign nations a necessity
for arming to shake off his yoke, and affording to foreign despots a
pretext for following his example.
‘The sensation produced by the death of Buonaparte will be a good deal
confined, in this country, to its effects as a partial relief to our
finances, the expense of his custody at St. Helena being little short
of 400,000_l._ per annum. In France, the sentiment will be more deep
and complex, and, perhaps, not altogether easy to define. The practical
consequence of such an event may be remotely guessed at by those who
have had occasion to watch, in other Governments, the difference
between a living and an extinct Pretender. A pretext for suspicion
and severity in the administration of affairs may be taken away by a
Pretender’s death; but then, a motive to moderation--a terror, now and
then salutary, of popular feelings being excited in the Pretender’s
favour by misgovernment--is, at the same time, removed from the minds
of reigning Princes. Buonaparte’s son still lives, it is true; but how
far he may ever become an object of interest with any great party of
the French nation, is a point on which we will not speculate.’
The last individual memorial I can find of Napoleon, in a popular form,
was published by Hone in May 1821. It is a black-edged sheet, having,
as heading, profile portraits of Napoleon, Maria Louisa, and the King
of Rome, and down the sides four full-length portraits of Napoleon. It
is called:--
MEMORIAL
OF
NAPOLÉON
BORN 15 AUG. 1769. DIED 5 MAY 1821.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account