Ettore Paratore selected episodes from Virgil's in a striking holder formed by two cast bronze Aeneid for this striking contemporary edition panels which were also designed and cast by which was specially commissioned to com- Pericle Fazzini. The two bronze panels, which memorate the bimillennium of Virgil's death. are in bas relief, depict Aeneas's flight from The episodes which contain the original Latin Troy and Dido and Aeneas. The spine of the text facing the Italian translation by Francesco holder contains an attractive dolphin to il- Vivona, are illustrated by 13 high-quality silk- lustrate the device of the printers, Edizioni screen prints by the contemporary Italian Delfino. The cast bronze holder is embedded artist, Pericle Fazzini. This book, printed in a in a heavy base of Roman Travertine. limited edition of 350 copies intended for export (of which this is copy no. 341), is housed C. i8o.k. 12.

A MEMENTO OF NAPOLEON

Morna Daniels

ON 5 May 1821 Napoleon died in exile on his had culminated in the 'Battle of the Nations' island prison of St Helena. Amongst those near Leipzig. However, when in 1814 the Englishmen particularly affected by the news victorious allies entered Paris, Hobhouse's was John Cam Hobhouse, the eldest son of Sir patriotism - his brother was in the triumphant Benjamin Hobhouse. His mother was a dis- British army - warred with his sorrow at the senter, and Hobhouse himself had attended a fall of a great man and sympathy for Napoleon's school run by a Unitarian before going on to revolutionary ideals. Lord Sidmouth, the Westminster. It was not surprising, therefore, Home Secretary, and a friend of Hobhouse's that his anti-Establishment sympathies inclined father, had provided Hobhouse with a pass to him to radicalism. While an undergraduate at visit Paris and see the entry of the Bourbons. Cambridge he became a close friend of Byron, On the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba in with whom he travelled to Spain, Albania, 1815, Hobhouse hurried back to the Continent. Greece and Constantinople. In 1819, supported On 16 April he saw the Emperor review his by Sir Francis Burdett and the radical tailor army and admired his rapport with the troops, Francis Place, he unsuccessfully contested and the way he left the saluting base to march Westminster as a radical against George Lamb, for a while beside each column. 'I cannot help the official Whig candidate. In December that wishing that the French may meet with as year the House of Commons committed him to much success as will not compromise the prison until the end of the session for breach of military character of my own countrymen,' he privilege by his assertion in a pamphlet that wrote. 'As an Englishman, I will not be witness only troops prevented Parliament being dis- to their triumphs; as a lover of liberty, I would solved by popular protest. Despite this, in the not be spectator of their reverses.'^ In the General Election of 1820 he defeated Lamb subsequent fighting which led to Waterloo, and was returned for Westminster. Hobhouse's brother was killed, shot in the neck at Quatre Bras. Hobhouse had first-hand experience of the consequences of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1813 In 1816 Hobhouse published his own he toured Germany and saw the terrible account of'The Hundred Days', The Substance devastation wrought by the campaign which of some letters written by an Englishman resident

104 at Paris., during the last reign of the emperor to his lot they should be transmitted to you', Napoleon. Checked in proof by Benjamin this promise was never fulfilled. Constant and Charles de Flahaut, who had In July 1823 Hobhouse visited the field of been the lover of Josephine's daughter, Waterloo, nearly missing the chance to acquire Hortense de Beauharnais, it showed Hob- a souvenir of Napoleon. On 22 July Sotheby's house's dislike of the Bourbons and passionate auctioned the remaining part of the Emperor's hatred of the British Foreign Secretary, library, which had been brought from St Castlereagh. It was translated into French and Helena in an attempt by the government to published in Paris, where both its translator recoup some of the cost of Napoleon's im- and publisher were imprisoned. Hobhouse sent prisonment. Lot 18 was the Emperor's own a copy to St Helena inscribed 'Imperatori copy of Correspondance ine'dite officielle et Napoleon'. Sir Hudson Lowe, the Governor, confidentielle de Napole'on Buonaparte . . . refused to pass it on to his prisoner because of (Paris, i8o9[i8i9]-2o). A footnote in the its sentiments and because Hobhouse had used catalogue states: 'the volume containing the the forbidden title of'Emperor'. However, one Itahan campaign has corrections and references of Napoleon's staff saw the book while visiting to the mss of his memoirs. Some of the latter Lowe and, after a protest, it was delivered. have been marked out by Napoleon as not Napoleon was delighted and dictated notes on authentic - at p. 141 are three lines written by it, though these were never forwarded to him.' On hearing this, Hobhouse at once wrote Hobhouse. Las Cases, Napoleon's secretary on to the younger Francis Place, the eldest son ot St Helena, later congratulated him on writing the radical tailor who had taken over his 'the first good book' on Napoleon.^ father's shop. Place's reply is among Hob- After Napoleon's death, Henri-Gratien de house's Papers.** Bertrand and Charles de Montholon, the 16 Charing Cross London Emperor's companions in exile, visited Lon- Sir, don, where Hobhouse was introduced to them Your letter of yesterday came to hand only at 12 on 15 September 1821. He described Bertrand to day owing to my absence in the city - I went as 'a small, plain-looking man, with lively eyes immediately to Sothebys and got there just in time but a mild expression and mild manner, not so to bid for lot 18. the books you mentioned entitled French as most Frenchmen'.^ Hobhouse ob- - Correspondence inedite &&. de Nap" Bonaparte and for which I gave £c) - I know not whether you viously envied Lady Holland her bequest of a are quite aware of the state and quality of the books, snuffbox by the late Emperor, which they had being unbound and four of them duplicates, in fact delivered, and was anxious to acquire some had 1 had the time to review them before bidding I memento for himself. In 1822 he was to note in should have felt some doubt about the propriety of his Diary, 'this afternoon heard . . . that my giving so much - will you say where I shall send Montholon was making a book of his Emperor them to you. ... so that I have little chance of getting any The annotated second volume on the Italian notes or any letters from Paris'.^ On 8 March campaign from this imperfect set of the 1823 David Baillie wrote to him from Paris, 'I Correspondance ine'dite which Place bought for had an interview with M. de Montholon the Hobhouse at the Sotheby's sale has recently day before yesterday & as you predicted it been incorporated into the British Library's was an unsuccessful one.''' The mass of collections with the pressmark C.i9o.e.io. Napoleon's papers had not yet been divided The description in the 1823 Sale Catalogue between Bertrand and Montholon, and al- shows that Sotheby probably thought that the though Montholon promised that 'if they fell writing in ink in the Italian volume was by

105 Napoleon. In fact, it is Montholon's hand for each chapter.'^ He also says he has crossed copying out Napoleon's faint pencil markings. out the letters not used (not, as surmised by Hobhouse has noted in the front of the book Sotheby, letters which were not authentic). that the annotations are by Napoleon, so it may Napoleon, who was never entirely well, may well be that he admired Montholon's hand- have used pencil for convenience when in bed writing as that of his hero and ignored the or resting on a couch. On the eighth page pencil markings altogether. However, Napo- Montholon was to note the page numbers leon's annotations in this volume of the relating to the twelfth chapter of volume ill of Correspondance ine'dite help date the writing of the Me'moires, which describes the Battle of his memoirs of his first Italian campaign and Arcola, and against the relevant letters in shed light on his working methods. volume II of the Correspondance inedite we see In 1815 Napoleon had dictated an account of the inscription 'ch. 12'. In his final version this Italian campaign to Las Cases, revising it Montholon divided up his material on Arcola, the following year. Parts were published in chapter 12 dealing with military affairs and Napoleon's dictated memoirs, the Recueil de chapter 13 with diplomacy. pieces autheniiijues sur le captifde Sainte-He'lene On p. 246 of the Correspondance the note (Paris, 1821-5) and in Las Cases's Memorial de 'ch. 12' marks a letter from Napoleon to the Sainte-He'lene (London, 1823). Napoleon dic- Directory dated 14 November 1795, reporting tated a second and fuller account of the that the French were on the point of losing campaign to Montholon. Montholon's Re'cits de Italy. His men are retreating exhausted and la captivite' de PEmpereur Napole'on a Sainte- panic-stricken and he has no reinforcements. He'lene were not published until 1847 and are At this stage of the war, French forces were not reliable. Philippe Gonnard hazards that besieging Mantua and Napoleon was trying to this second, more formal version was written prevent Austrian armies from raising the siege. between 1818 and 1819,' but the evidence of Montholon, in retelling the story to tnaximize Hobhouse's book suggests a later date. Napoleon's glory, emphasizes the bad weather Napoleon only received the first five volumes of and minimizes the failures of the French army. the Correspondance ine'dite in January 1820, so He reports the large number of wounded and he must have worked on his second account Napoleon's rousing speech to his men. This between January and the autumn of that year, 'darkness before dawn' serves to highlight when he became too ill to continue. Napoleon's victory at Arcola on 15—17 His usual method when dictating memoirs November 1795, which was eventually to lead was to give numbers to particular events and to the surrender of Mantua on 2 February use these numbers to identify relevant passages 1796. in the books and periodicals he was using to A diplomatic letter marked 'ch. 12' by refresh his memory. In volume iii of Napo- Napoleon is that of 21 October 1796 to Cardinal leon's Me'moires pour servir a Phtstotre de FranceMattei, the Pope's representative. Napoleon sous Napole'on, e'crites a Sainte-Helene par les wrote that if the Pope wanted war, he should generaux qui ont partage' sa captivite' (Paris, have it: ' Vous connaissez les forces et la 1822-5), Montholon transcribes Napoleon's puissance de l'armee que je commande. Pour instructions. 'I ask you to ink in everything detruire la puissance temporelle du Pape, il ne I've pencilled in; either notes or the number of me faudrait que le vouloir.' ('You know the the chapter into which each letter should go. strength of my army. If I wish it I can destroy Make a booklet of 18 pages in which to note the the temporal power of the Pope.') Since page numbers in the correspondence to be used Napoleon later obtained a reconciliation with

106 Home et toutes ses provinces , Trieste et le Frioul meme line panic du royaume de Naples deviendroiit no tre proiej mais, pour se souteuir, il faut des

C.i9o.e.io, p. 141 (detail) the Papacy, Montholon rendered this in chap- November from the Vendee, where it had been ter 13 as 'il le fit partir pour Rome, porter fighting a royalist revolt. Montholon in the directement au pape des paroles de paix'. ('He Me'moires repeats this information in spite of sent him [Cardinal Mattei] to Rome to take a Napoleon's note. Possibly the brigade was message of peace to the Pope.') The Pope was split, part arriving before and part after the sufficiently intimidated to send Napoleon battle. Or perhaps Montholon's revision was chests of money, sculptures and pictures, and cut short by Napoleon's final illness. to cede Bologna, Ferrara and Ancona to the Montholon had obtained a post during the Cisalpine Republic. Napoleon in his letters to first restoration of Louis XVIII before Water- the Directory constantly boasts of the loot he is loo, and his contemporaries suspected that his sending back to France. The Directors, in turn, real reason for going to St Helena was to act as ask him to send an Italian art expert to evaluate a royalist spy. Some historians have even the treasures. accused him of poisoning Napoleon." Never- The only extensive manuscript note by theless, Montholon received a considerable Napoleon in the volume of Correspondance is bequest from Napoleon and helped his nephew, under a letter of 17 October 1796 in which Louis Napoleon, seize power as President and Napoleon asks the Directory for reinforce- later Emperor of France. Perhaps his motive ments. He comments that neither the 57th was Napoleon Ill's promise to pay in full his (formerly 83rd) brigade nor the 40th arrived in uncle's bequest, of which Monthoion had only time for the Battle of Arcola. This contradicts received a part, since Napoleon had over- a published letter from VignoUes confirming estimated his remaining assets. that a battalion of the 40th arrived on 6 The annotated volume of the Correspondance 107 ine'dite reached the British Library by an of the stock. Fortunately, the Foreign Office indirect route. Hobhouse led a successful Librarian retained the 10,000 surplus volumes political career and was twice appointed Presi- until they were returned to the Board of Trade dent of the Board of Control for India. He was Library in 1908. When this moved to smaller created Baron Broughton de Gyfford in 1851, premises in 1938-9, it disposed of much of the and died at his house in Berkeley Square on 3 antiquarian material to the British Museum, June 1869 aged eighty-three. Two daughters which consigned it to outhousing. It is among survived him. He bequeathed his correspon- this deposit that the present volume has now dence and memoranda to the British Museum, come to light. with instructions that they were not to be opened till 1900. (The major part of his Diary 1 Michael Joyce, My Friend H.John Cam Hob- has been acquired subsequently.) The an- house (London, 1948), p. 86. notated second volume of Napoleon's Cor- 2 In a letter fron:i Liege, 20 Apr. 1820; Add. MS. 36458, f 254. respondance ine'dite, however, passed to the 3 John Cam Hobhouse, Recollections of a Long Life Board of Trade Library. The Board was (London, 1909-11), vol. ii, p. 159. interested in the economic life of the colonies 4 28 Dec. 1822; Add. MS. 56547, f 18. and it seems likely that Hobhouse's daughters 5 Add. MS. 36460, f. 15. presented a large number of his books on the 6 Ibid., f 67; letter of 23 July 1823. trade of India to it. The Napoleonic volume 7 Les Origines de la le'gende napole'onienne (Paris, was probably overlooked, sandwiched perhaps [I9O71X P- 55- between these books on India. In 1873 the post 8 Pp. 391-3; author's translation. of Librarian to the Board of Trade was 9 For example, Ben Weider and David Hapgood, abolished and it was planned to discard much The Murder of Napoleon (London, 1982).

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