IN THE DAYS OF NAPOLEON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2674, 14 June 1905, Page 71

IN THE DAYS OF NAPOLEON.

In "Boney's" day, though most of his Continental neighbours had, unfortunately for themselves, a chance of beholding the self-made Emperor, and seeing Avhat manner of man he really was, the people of England remained in densest ignorance as to his personal appearance, and mainly relied on caricatures for an idea of Napoleon in the flesh. The Empress Josephine was also a stranger to them ; and pieposterous portraits, executed in England during the first years of the nine* ttenth century, may sometimes be met with, in prints or on pottery, showing how little could have been known of the Emperor and his first wife by their contemporaries in this country.

Their Coronation was a favourite subject with' caricaturists, Napoleon being represented as an awkward mannikiri staggering under the weight of his robes ; while Josephine — in reality one of the most elegant and graceful of women — looked like some bulky fishwife. Little did the English people of that day think that the time was to come when descendants of their own "great George*'- would he marrying descendants of "Boney's" stepson, with everybody's approval and congratulations.

Of the children of Eugene Beauharnais and his wife, Princess Augusta Amelia of Bavaria, Josephine, who became Queen of Sweden, did the best dynastically, as from her descend the Swedish Royalties of oiir own time, also the children and grandchildren of the Crown PrinceS of Denmark— present and future Scandinavian Kings and their families.

Augustus, who married Queen Maria II of Portugal, died two months after his wedding ; but Maximilian was more fortunate, as he lived 13 years after his marriage with a daughter of the Czar Nicholas I, and had several children, who were all given the title of "Imperial Highness" by their Russian grandparent. Prince Max of Baden, who may be a reigning Grand Duke some day, is a son of a Princess from this cluster. So is Prince Peter of Oldenburg, who married the present Czar's sister Olga. A Beauharnais Family Order would include some really important personages. It was one of the first Napoleon's failings that he never could let well alone — that he remained dissatisfied with a large 6hare of good fortune, and strove constantly for more. He had planted his"" brother Joseph at Naples as King, with very fair results, for Joseph was a man 6f some ability, and a humane and industrious ruler. It is quite possible he might have held his own against a Bourbon restoration had he been left to govern the Two Sicilies in his own. way.

When transferred to Spain, in accordance with Napoleon's imperious policy, Joseph's tolerant and practical method of government failed to win his new subjects, because he seemed to them but a vassal of the French Emperor. The Bonaparte dynasty in, Spain, as in Holland, therefore began and ended with one man. In. his endeavours to control the Peninsula Napoleon might have done better had he considered the offer once made him by the Prince of the Asturias — afterwards* Ferdinand VII, father of Isabella EC. The Bourbon heir to the Spanish throne who had quarrelled with his imbecile father and vicious mother, made a bid for Napoleon's favour by asking the Emperor to provide him with a bride ; and Josephine would willingly have bestowed a niece on Ferdinand. With all her shortcomings Josephine certainly represented the luck of the first French Empire, and in rejecting her counsels and repudiating her for a younger woman of Imperial blood, Napoleon -Was to lose all he had gained. He could not foresee that his line direct was to fau •with his only son, while the descendants of his discarded wife were to include Sovereigns and makers of history, allies and connections of old Royal Houses,