Lucien Bonaparte

‘…The debate of the day, remarkable as the last in which the republican party enjoyed the full freedom of speech in France, was opened on 19th Brumaire, at two o'clock, Lucien Bonaparte being president Gaudin, a member of the moderate party, began by moving, that a committee of seven members should be formed, to report upon the state of the Republic; and that measures should be taken for opening a correspondence with the Council of Ancients. He was interrupted by exclamations and clamour on the part of the majority.

"The constitution!" "The constitution or death!" was echoed and re-echoed on every side. "Bayonets frighten us not," said Delbrel; "we are free men." "Down with the dictatorship—no dictators!" cried other members. Lucien in vain endeavoured to restore order. Gaudin was dragged from the tribune; the voice of other moderates was overpowered by clamour— never had the party of democracy shown itself fiercer or more tenacious than when about to receive the death-blow.

"Let us swear to preserve the constitution of the year Three!" exclaimed Delbrel; and the applause which followed the proposition was so general, that it silenced all resistance. Even the members of the moderate party—nay, even Lucien Bonaparte himself—were compelled to take the oath of fidelity to the constitution, which he and they were leagued to destroy."The oath you have just taken," said Bigonnet, "will occupy a place in the annals of history, beside the celebrated vow taken in the tennis-court. The one was the foundation of liberty, the other shall consolidate the structure." ...’

Lucien Bonaparte was often at odds with his older brother, Napoleon.  The political environment in which he endeavored was difficult as well, as the passage above from Sir Walter Scott’s “The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte” indicates.  Lucien Bonaparte died on June 29, 1840, outliving Napoleon by 19 years.

Feast of Saint Peter

June 29^th is the Feast of Saint Peter the Apostle.  And in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican, lie the remains of the Stuart kings James III, James VIII, Henry’s IX and I, and Charles III.  Poet Richard Monckton Milnes, who was born about 38 years after Walter Scott, wrote  a poem bringing Scott, the Stuarts, and St. Peter’s together:

Sir Walter Scott At The Tomb Of The Stuarts In St. Peter’s

Eve's tinted shadows slowly fill the fane

Where Art has taken almost Nature's room,

While still two objects clear in light remain,

An alien pilgrim at an alien tomb.--

--A sculptured tomb of regal heads discrown'd,

Of one heart--worshipped, fancy--haunted, name,

Once loud on earth, but now scarce else renown'd

Than as the offspring of that stranger's fame.

There lie the Stuarts!--There lingers Walter Scott!

Strange congress of illustrious thoughts and things!

A plain old moral, still too oft forgot,--

The power of Genius and the fall of Kings.

The curse on lawless Will high--planted there,

A beacon to the world, shines not for him;

He is with those who felt their life was sere,

When the full light of loyalty grew dim.

He rests his chin upon a sturdy staff,

Historic as that sceptre, theirs no more;

His gaze is fixed; his thirsty heart can quaff,

For a short hour, the spirit--draughts of yore.

Each figure in its pictured place is seen,

Each fancied shape his actual vision fills,

From the long--pining, death--delivered, Queen,

To the worn Outlaw of the heathery hills.

O grace of life, which shame could never mar!

O dignity, that circumstance defied!

Pure is the neck that wears the deathly scar,

And sorrow has baptised the front of pride.

But purpled mantle, and blood--crimson'd shroud,

Exiles to suffer and returns to woo,

Are gone, like dreams by daylight disallow'd;

And their historian,--he is sinking too!

A few more moments and that labouring brow

Cold as those royal busts and calm will lie;

And, as on them his thoughts are resting now,

His marbled form will meet the attentive eye.

Thus, face to face, the dying and the dead,

Bound in one solemn ever--living bond,

Communed; and I was sad that ancient head

Ever should pass those holy walls beyond.

John Leyden

June 29 (1826).—I walked out for an hour last night, and made one or two calls—the evening was delightful—



"Day its sultry fires had wasted,
Calm and cool the moonbeam rose;
Even a captive's bosom tasted
Half oblivion of his woes."


I wonder often how Tom Campbell, with so much real genius, has not maintained a greater figure in the public eye than he has done of late. The Magazine seems to have paralysed him. The author, not only of the Pleasures of Hope, but of Hohenlinden, Lochiel, etc., should have been at the very top of the tree. Somehow he wants audacity, fears the public, and, what is worse, fears the shadow of his own reputation. He is a great corrector too, which succeeds as ill in composition as in education. Many a clever boy is flogged into a dunce, and many an original composition corrected into mediocrity. Yet Tom Campbell ought to have done a great deal more. His youthful promise was great. John Leyden introduced me to him. They afterwards quarrelled. When I repeated Hohenlinden to Leyden, he said, "Dash it, man, tell the fellow that I hate him, but, dash him, he has written the finest verses that have been published these fifty years." I did mine errand as faithfully as one of Homer's messengers, and had for answer, "Tell Leyden that I detest him, but I know the value of his critical approbation." This feud was therefore in the way of being taken up. "When Leyden comes back from India," said Tom Campbell, "what cannibals he will have eaten and what tigers he will have torn to pieces!"...
 
The selection above from Scott's Journal shows Scott musing about Thomas Campbell, whose death was covered earlier.  John Leyden, who introduced Scott and Campbell, was known as an orientalist.  He was born in 1775, and died of fever on an expedition to Java in 1811. 
 
Leyden worked with Scott collecting ballads for Scott's "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border", so the two became well known to each other.  Among Leyden's own works was "Discoveries and Settlements of Europeans in Northern and Western Africa", which was inspired by the adventures of Mungo Park.