It is well known that Bonaparte, during his whole career, was in the habit of personal intercourse with the _savans_ of Paris, and that he not unfrequently attended the sittings of the Institute. Upon being informed of the decomposition of the alkalies, he asked, with some impetuosity, how it happened that the discovery had not been made in France?--"We have never constructed a Voltaic battery of sufficient power," was the answer. "Then," exclaimed Bonaparte, "let one be instantly formed, without any regard to cost or labour." The command of the Emperor was of course obeyed; and, on being informed that it was in full action, he repaired to the laboratory to witness its powers; on his alluding to the taste produced by the contact of two metals, with that rapidity which characterised all his motions, and before the attendants could interpose any precaution, he thrust the extreme wires of the battery under his tongue, and received a shock which nearly deprived him of sensation. After recovering from its effects, he quitted the laboratory without making any remark, and was never afterwards heard to refer to the subject. It is only an act of justice to state that Davy, during his residence in the French capital, so far from truckling to French politics, never lost an opportunity of vindicating with temper the cause of his own country. At the Théâtre de la Porte Saint Martin, a melodrame was got up, with the avowed intention of exposing the English character to the execration of the audience. Lord Cornwallis was represented as the merciless assassin of the children of Tippoo Saib. Davy was highly incensed at the injustice of the representation, and abruptly quitted the theatre in a state of great indignation. Whatever objections might have existed in his mind, as to his attending a levee of the Emperor, they did not operate in preventing his being presented to the Empress at Malmaison; but he could not be prevailed upon to appear upon that occasion, in any other than a morning dress; and it was not until after repeated entreaty, and the assurance that he would not be admitted into the _Salle de reception_, that he consented to exchange a pair of half-boots that laced in front, and came over the lower part of his pantaloons, for black silk stockings and shoes. His constant answer to the remonstrances of his friends was, "I shall go in the same dress to Malmaison as that in which I called upon the Prince Regent at Carlton House."