SOLEMN POMP

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 119, 22 May 1931, Page 16

SOLEMN POMP

FAMOUS FUNERALS

NAPOLEON AMD HIS FOE

.IMPRESSIVE SCENES

'[ ! The impressive scenes witnessed a! ° the funeral of Dame Nellie Mcll.ni ;m '" a tribute to the place she held in lUc hearts of the people of Australia as ;: gifted woman who had achieved world '" wide, fame (says the Melbourne "Ago"). It has always been the cus torn among nations to pay tribute tc '.; greatness in a similar way. One of the - most imposing funerals on record is ■ that of the Duke of Wellington, whe 1 died in his Sith year at Walmor Castle near Deal, on 14th September, ISSS f thirty-seven years after his great vie * tory at Waterloo. The funeral did nol ■' take place until 18th November—inon: 1 than two months after death. The body lav in ' stato at AVaimer Castle, and ' subsequently at Chelsea Hospital, am: wa3 interred in St. Paul's Cathedra 3 under the dome, beside the body <>i Nelson. "During the funeral procession tin ' streets presented a remarkable sight/- ---' writes Mr. Bertram S. Puckle in _ Ins " book, "funeral Customs." ".Ertorc mous crowds assembled many hours bo--8 fore the ceremony, and every possible 1 point of vnntage had been occupied " where even a distant glimpse of the corJ tegc might be expected. Both rich and 1 poor v,-ero dressed in deep mourning, 1 With great military ceremony, arms -• reversed and drums muffled, the enor- ' mous'structure on which the body was 1 carried rumbled through the streets to '" the sound of the Dead March. _ The funeral car is -interesting, as it reJ semblcd later examples of the hearse ■ I proper. Mounted on a substantial wagon, the enormous superstructure, decorated with banners and weapons, bora- an altar-like erection, covered by a 'magnificent velvet pa-lL On the top rested the coffin, on which the Duke's celebrated-"-cheese, cutter' hat reposed, with 'the other insignia of his rank. "SAVIOUR OF EUEOPIi." "Over the whole car a canopy was erected, supported by four ornamental poles. A large team of horses was required to drag the. heavy structure, all of which wore nodding plumes on their heads, whilst velvet saddle cloths -covered their ilanks in the orthodox manner. Largo bodies of troops, representing- all the picked regiments of the British Army, lined the route or followed the procession. Not only in England, but abroad, on the day of his funeral honour was accorded to the 'Saviour of Europe/ as Wellington was called. In Austria a grand parade of t ho whole army was ordered, at which the Emperor was present in person to direct the- salute of artillery." Charles Greville refers in his famous diary to the funeral of the Duke- of Wellington. "I saw fho Duke's funeral from Devonshire House. Bather a. fine sight, and all well done, except the car,'which was tawdry, cumbrous, and vulgar. It was contrived by a German artist attached to the School of Design, and under Prince Albert's direction—no pi-oof of his good taste. The whole ceremony within St. Paul's went off admirably, and without mistakes, mishaps, or accidents." DISRAELI EXPOSED. A- very bad blunder was made by Benjamin Disraeli in his contribution to tho .tribute paid by the Houso of Commons to the Duke of Wellington. Greville refers to the matter in the following entry in his diary: "An incident occurred the other night in the House of Commons which exposed Disraeli to much ridicule and severe criticism. He pronounced a pompous funeral oration on the Duke- of Wellington, and the next day the 'Globe' showed that half of it was taken word for word from the panegyric of Thiers on Marshal Gouvion do St. Cyr. Disraeli has been unmercifully pelted ever ciuco, and well deserves it, for such a piece of folly and bad taste. His excuso is that he was struck by the passage, wrote it .down, and when lie referred to it recently forgot what it was, and thought it ivas his own composition. But this poor apology does not save him." Mr. Philip M'orell, in his abridged edition of Greville'3 Diary, explains that about a quarter of .Disraeli's panegyric was plagiarised. "The part taken without acknowledgement from Thiers consisted of a line passage of about 000 words, describing tho qualities that, go to make a great,' general. Jt had originally jippe".md in a French review in IS29 —a review which ;>lso contained a notice of Disraeli's iirst, novel, 'Vivian Grey.' Disraeli seems to have- been so much struck by it that he copied it and translated it, and showed it to his-friend Smylhe, who published it. in the 'Morning Chron-j iclo' in 18&8; as a piece of writing by Thiers, which, in fact, it was. it is! probable that Disraeli had forgotteu this—or, perhaps, never knew it—and! therefore thought he could appropriate the Frenchman's eloquence without chance of discovery." NAPOLEON'S TUNERAL. Tho burial.of the remain* of Napolen in Paris on loth December, 1840, nineteen years after his death at St;. Helena, was the occasion of a, great national tribute by the French people. -Before Napoleon's burial on a small plateau near Longwood, thu name of his home 3u fit. Helena, the body was dressed, in tho uniform of tho chasseurs of his guards —white silk stockings, riding boots, vest, and breeches of white kerseymere, hat with tricolom-ed cockade, green coat with red facings, bearing tile insignia of the Legion d'Houneur. The heart and.' stomach had been removed and placed in two silver urns, which wore put in the cofliu. A dozen gold and silver coins belonging to tho currencies of Franco arid Italy, which were stamped with the effigy of the Emperor, wero also placed in the coflin. The body was enclosed in four coffins—the first of tin, the second of mahogany, tho third of lead, and tho fourth of mahogany. The two metal coffins were carefully soldered so as to exclude air. The dimensions .of tho tomb, which was sunk in tho ground, were 11 feet by 10 feet by 8 feet. Tho tomb was of solid masonry, and the heavy stone slabs which covered it were carefully cemented down. The obj'/cl of theso precautions was to preserve the bod}', which, it was confidently believed, would be ultimately rcmovoci to Franco. For nineteen years the, tomb was guarded night, and day by .British sentinels. But after the "downfall of tho Bourbuns and the- 1 ifjc of Louis-Phillipe, the British Government gave its consent to the removal of Napoleon's remains to Prance. "On tho 15th October, 1810, the 'twen-ty-fifth anniversary of Napoleon's arrival at St. Helena, the Bellc-Poulc, in command of Louis-Phillipe 's sailor yon, the Prince do Joinville, dropped anchor in the harbour of Jamestown," writes Mr. Walter Geer in his study, "Napoleon and His Family." "At midnight the party gathered round, the grave of the Emperor, where a British sentinel was still stationed. After ten hours of strenuous labour the solid masonry of the tomb was finally demolished, am] tho four coffins were opened. His old servants, who had thought to find 'im-j perial Caesar dead and turned to' clay,' were astonished to sto tin; l-'in- j peror so lifelike, lying as if in slumber, his body clothed in the familiar