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CARICATURE AND SATIRE
ON
NAPOLEON I.
VOL. I.
WORKS BY JOHN ASHTON.
A HISTORY OF THE CHAP-BOOKS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. With
nearly 400 Illustrations, engraved in facsimile of the
originals. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._
SOCIAL LIFE IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. From Original Sources.
With nearly 100 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 7_s._
6_d._
HUMOUR, WIT, AND SATIRE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. With nearly
100 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._
London: CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly.
[Illustration: THE EXILE.
A SKETCH FROM LIFE AT LONGWOOD. APRIL 1820.]
ENGLISH
CARICATURE AND SATIRE
ON
NAPOLEON I.
BY
JOHN ASHTON
AUTHOR OF ‘SOCIAL LIFE IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE’ ETC.
[Illustration]
WITH 115 ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR
IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. I.
London
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1884
_All rights reserved_
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
PREFACE.
This book is not intended to be a History of Napoleon the First, but
simply to reproduce the bulk of the Caricatures and Satires published
in England on our great enemy, with as much of history as may help to
elucidate them.
The majority of the caricatures are humorous; others are silly, or
spiteful--as will occasionally happen nowadays; and some are too coarse
for reproduction--so that a careful selection has had to be made.
Gillray and Rowlandson generally signed their names to the work of
their hands; but, wherever a caricature occurs unsigned by the artist,
I have attributed it, on the authority of the late Edward Hawkins,
Esq., some time Keeper of the Prints at the British Museum, to whatever
artist he has assigned it. I have personally inspected every engraving
herein described, and the description is entirely my own.
Should there, by chance, be an occasional discrepancy as to a date, it
has been occasioned by the inconceivable contradictions which occur
in different histories and newspapers. To cite an instance: in three
different books are given three different dates of Napoleon leaving
Elba, and it was only by the knowledge that it occurred on a Sunday,
and by consulting an almanac for the year 1815, that I was able
absolutely to determine it.
The frontispiece is taken from a very rare print, and gives a
novel view of Napoleon to us, who are always accustomed to see him
represented in military uniform.
That my readers may find some instruction, mingled with the amusement I
have provided for them, is the earnest wish of
JOHN ASHTON.
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
BIRTH AND GENEALOGY--HIS OWN ACCOUNT--MAJORCAN OR GREEK
EXTRACTION--ENGLISH BIOGRAPHIES 1
CHAPTER II.
DESCENT FROM THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK--ANAGRAMS, ETC., ON HIS
NAME--THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE--HIS MOTHER’S ACCOUNT OF
HIS BIRTH 7
CHAPTER III.
COUNT MARBŒUF, HIS PUTATIVE FATHER--POVERTY OF THE BONAPARTE
FAMILY--EARLY PERSONAL DESCRIPTION OF NAPOLEON--HIS OWN
ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF--SATIRISTS’ NARRATION OF HIS SCHOOL-DAYS 15
CHAPTER IV.
NAPOLEON AT THE ÉCOLE MILITAIRE--PERSONAL DESCRIPTION--_PUSS
IN BOOTS_--VISIT TO CORSICA--SOLICITS SERVICE IN ENGLAND--
REPORTED VISIT TO LONDON--SIEGE OF TOULON 22
CHAPTER V.
NAPOLEON’S PROMOTION--HIS POVERTY--JUNOT’S KINDNESS--REVOLT
OF THE SECTIONS--NAPOLEON’S SHARE THEREIN--MADE GENERAL OF
THE INTERIOR--INTRODUCTION TO JOSEPHINE--SKETCH OF HER LIFE 29
CHAPTER VI.
JOSEPHINE’S DRESS AND PERSONAL APPEARANCE--HER REPUTED CONNECTION
WITH BARRAS--MARRIAGE WITH NAPOLEON--HER TASTES AND
DISPOSITION 36
CHAPTER VII.
NAPOLEON MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY OF ITALY--HIS SHORT
HONEYMOON--HIS FIRST VICTORY--STATE OF THE FRENCH ARMY--THE
ITALIAN CAMPAIGN--FRENCH DESCENT ON IRELAND--ITS RESULT--
STATE OF ENGLAND 43
CHAPTER VIII.
NAPOLEON DESPOILS ITALY OF HER WORKS OF ART--THE SIEGE OF MANTUA
--WÜRMSER’S SURRENDER--EARLIEST ENGLISH CARICATURE OF NAPOLEON
--INVASION OF ENGLAND--LANDING IN PEMBROKESHIRE--NELSON’S
RECEIPT TO MAKE AN OLLA PODRIDA--‘THE ARMY OF ENGLAND’ 48
CHAPTER IX.
CARICATURES ABOUT THE FRENCH INVASION--FOX’S FRENCH PROCLIVITIES
--PATRIOTISM IN THE COUNTRY--EXPEDITION TO EGYPT--NELSON’S
BLUNDERS--LANDING IN EGYPT--NAPOLEON AS A MAHOMETAN--HIS
PROCLAMATIONS 54
CHAPTER X.
CONDUCT OF FRENCH SOLDIERY--NAPOLEON’S HATRED OF ENGLAND--THE
EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN--DESTRUCTION OF THE MAMELUKES--BATTLE OF
THE NILE--TARDY NEWS THEREOF 64
CHAPTER XI.
RECEPTION OF THE NEWS OF THE BATTLE OF THE NILE--NELSON SENDS
FRENCH ADMIRAL’S SWORD TO THE CITY OF LONDON--VARIOUS
CARICATURES ON THE BATTLE--TYPICAL JOHN BULL 69
CHAPTER XII.
REVOLT AND MASSACRE AT CAIRO--CARICATURES OF THE CAPTURE OF
FRENCH SHIPS--FIGHTING FOR THE DUNGHILL, ETC.--PRICE OF BREAD
AND CONSOLS IN 1798 77
CHAPTER XIII.
REPORTED ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE NAPOLEON--HIS AMOUR WITH MADAME
FOURÉS--THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN--THE ‘SAVANTS’--CARICATURES
ON THEM 82
CHAPTER XIV.
TAKING OF JAFFA, AND MASSACRE OF SOLDIERS--DE BOURRIENNE’S
ACCOUNT--NAPOLEON’S OWN VERSION 88
CHAPTER XV.
THE MASSACRE AT JAFFA, _continued_--ENGLISH EVIDENCE THEREON--
SIEGE OF ST. JEAN D’ACRE--CAPTURE OF NAPOLEON’S BATTERING TRAIN
--FAILURE OF THE SIEGE, AND RETREAT TO JAFFA 95
CHAPTER XVI.
RETREAT FROM JAFFA--POISONING OF FIVE HUNDRED SOLDIERS--
DIFFERENT ENGLISH AUTHORITIES THEREON--NAPOLEON’S OWN STORY,
ALSO THOSE OF LAS CASES AND O’MEARA--RETREAT TO CAIRO 100
CHAPTER XVII.
THE OLD RÉGIME AND THE REPUBLICANS--THE ‘INCROYABLES’--NAPOLEON
LEAVES EGYPT--HIS REASONS FOR SO DOING--FEELING OF THE ARMY
--ACCUSED OF TAKING WITH HIM THE MILITARY CHEST 109
CHAPTER XVIII.
NAPOLEON’S ARRIVAL IN PARIS--HIS POPULARITY--DISSOLUTION OF THE
COUNCIL OF FIVE HUNDRED--GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE--
NAPOLEON, SIÈYES, AND DUCOS NAMED CONSULS 117
CHAPTER XIX.
NAPOLEON TAKES THE LEAD--SIÈYES AND DUCOS ARE DEPOSED--
CAMBACÉRÈS AND LEBRUN NAMED SECOND AND THIRD CONSULS--
NAPOLEON’S LETTER TO GEORGE THE THIRD--REPLY TO SAME 123
CHAPTER XX.
BATTLE OF MARENGO--DEATH OF DESAIX--SAID TO HAVE BEEN
ASSASSINATED--NAPOLEON’S LOVE FOR HIM--SOUP KITCHENS AT PARIS
--LAVISH EXPENDITURE OF NAPOLEON’S GENERALS 129
CHAPTER XXI.
PLOTS AGAINST NAPOLEON’S LIFE--THAT OF OCTOBER 10, 1800--THAT
OF DECEMBER 24, 1800--NUMBER OF PEOPLE KILLED AND INJURED--
NAPOLEON’S PORTRAIT 136
CHAPTER XXII.
GENERAL FAST--ADULTERATION, AND COMPULSORY SALE OF STALE BREAD
--WAR IN EGYPT--THE BOULOGNE FLOTILLA--NEGOTIATIONS FOR
PEACE--RATIFICATION OF PRELIMINARIES--RECEPTION IN ENGLAND--
GENERAL REJOICINGS 141
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE PEACE OF AMIENS--CESSION OF TRINIDAD AND CEYLON--
INTERNATIONAL VISITS--FOX’S TRIP TO FRANCE, AND RECEPTION BY
NAPOLEON 150
CHAPTER XXIV.
LORD WHITWORTH AS PLENIPOTENTIARY--HIS EQUIPAGE--ENGLISH VISIT
PARIS--UNSETTLED FEELING--NAPOLEON BEHAVES RUDELY TO LORD
WHITWORTH 160
CHAPTER XXV.
GENERAL UNEASINESS--CARICATURES THEREON--ADDINGTON’S NEPOTISM
--NAPOLEON’S DISCOURTESY TO LORD WHITWORTH--TRIAL OF JEAN
PELTIER 168
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE _ULTIMATUM_--LORD WHITWORTH LEAVES PARIS--DECLARATION OF
WAR--CARICATURES PREVIOUS THERETO--SURRENDER OF HANOVER 175
CHAPTER XXVII.
PATRIOTIC HANDBILLS 183
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ATTEMPT AT MEDIATION BY RUSSIA--MARTIAL ENTHUSIASM IN ENGLAND--
ENROLMENT OF VOLUNTEERS--PATRIOTIC HANDBILLS AND SONGS 192
CHAPTER XXIX.
PATRIOTIC HANDBILLS, ETC. 199
CHAPTER XXX.
INVASION SQUIBS, _continued_--BONAPARTE’S TEN COMMANDMENTS, ETC. 205
CHAPTER XXXI.
INVASION, _continued_--‘BRITONS, STRIKE HOME’--BONAPARTE’S WILL 213
CHAPTER XXXII.
INVASION SQUIBS, _continued_--‘BRITONS TO ARMS’--BRAGGADOCIO--
NAPOLEON’S EPITAPH 222
CHAPTER XXXIII.
INVASION SQUIBS, _continued_--‘HARLEQUIN INVASION’--‘BOB
ROUSEM’S EPISTLE’--NAPOLEON’S TOUR TO BELGIUM 232
CHAPTER XXXIV.
INVASION SQUIBS, _continued_--THE BOTTLE CONJUROR--PIDCOCK’S
MENAGERIE 244
CHAPTER XXXV.
INVASION SQUIBS AND CARICATURES, _continued_ 254
CHAPTER XXXVI.
INVASION SQUIBS, _continued_--TALLEYRAND’S DISINCLINATION TO
INVADE ENGLAND 266
CHAPTER XXXVII.
INVASION SQUIBS--VOLUNTEERS 279
THE EXILE _Frontispiece_
[Illustration]
ENGLISH CARICATURE AND SATIRE
ON
NAPOLEON THE FIRST.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH AND GENEALOGY--HIS OWN ACCOUNT--MAJORCAN OR GREEK
EXTRACTION--ENGLISH BIOGRAPHIES.
Curiously enough, it has never been practically settled whence the
ancestors of Napoleon Bonaparte came. He, himself, cared little for the
pride of birth, and when, during his Consulate, they manufactured for
him a genealogy descending from a line of kings, he laughed at it, and
said that his patent of nobility dated from the battle of Montenotte.
But, still, one would think he ought to know, for family tradition
is strong; and if it can be trusted, this is his own account. ‘One
day Napoleon questioned Canova about Alfieri, and Canova found an
opportunity to render an important service to Florence, &c. “Sire,”
said he, “authorise the President of the Academy of Florence to take
care of the frescoes and pictures. I heartily wish it. That will
reflect great honour on your Majesty, who, I am assured, is of a noble
Florentine family.” At these words the Empress (Maria Louisa) turned
towards her husband and said:--“What! are you not Corsican?” “Yes,”
replied Napoleon, “but of Florentine origin.” Canova then said:--“The
President of the Academy of Florence, the Senator Allessandria, is of
one of the most illustrious houses in the country, which has had one of
its ladies married to a Bonaparte, thus you are Italian, and we boast
of it.” “I am, certainly,” added Napoleon.’[1]
Prince Napoleon Louis Bonaparte (brother to the Emperor) published in
1830, at Florence, a French translation of an old book[2] about the
sack of Rome, 1527, which gives an account of the family of the writer.
But Majorca also puts in a claim to the older Bonapartes; and in 1852,
Don Antonio Furio, a learned man, Member of the Royal Academies of
Belles Lettres of Barcelona and Majorca, &c., made a declaration as to
‘the rank, dignity, and extinction of the noble family of Bonapart in
the island of Majorca;’ and quotes from a book kept in the archives of
Palma, in which are preserved the armorial escutcheons of the noble
families of the Island, the arms of Bonapart--which were Dexter,
on a field Azure, six stars, Or, placed two by two, Sinister, on a
field gules, a lion rampant, Or; and the Chief Or, bears a scared
eagle, sable. He says the family came from Genoa to Majorca, in which
island its members were considered noblemen, and they filled several
distinguished offices. In a register of burials relating to knights and
gentlemen, written in 1559, the antiquity and nobility of the Bonaparts
are clearly authenticated; and it would seem from Don Furio’s account
(for all of which he gives chapter and verse) that the learned
jurisconsult Don Hugo Bonapart left Majorca and went to Corsica, where,
in 1411, he was made Regent of the Chancery of that place; and, as he
settled there, his name was inscribed in the Golden Book of France.
This seems pretty circumstantial, until another theory appears--namely,
his Greek extraction. Sir J. Emerson Tennent says:[3] ‘There is a story
relative to the family name of the Bonapartes, that somewhat excites
curiosity as to the amount of truth which it may contain. In 1798, when
Napoleon was secretly preparing for his descent upon Egypt, among other
expedients for distracting and weakening the Porte, French emissaries
were clandestinely employed in exciting the Greeks in Epirus, and the
Morea, to revolt. In Maina especially (the ancient Sparta), these
agents were received with marked enthusiasm, on the ground that
Bonaparte was born in Corsica, where numbers of Greeks from that part
of the Morea had found an asylum after the conquest of Candia, in 1669,
but they were eventually expelled by the Genoese.
‘One of the persons so employed by Napoleon to rouse the Greeks in 1798
was named Stephanopoli; and one of the arguments which he used was,
that Napoleon himself was a Greek in blood, and a Mainote by birth,
being descended from one of the exiles who took refuge at Ajaccio in
1673. The name of this family, he said, was Calomeri, Καλόμερις,[4]
which the Corsicans accommodated to their own dialect by translating it
into _Buonaparte_.’
Another writer, signing himself _Rhodocanakis_, in the same
periodical,[5] says: ‘I am happy to be able to assert with
confidence, and on the authority of General Kallergis, the intimate
friend of the present Emperor, of Prince Pitzipios, and others, that
the story devised by Nicholas Stepanapoulos, and mentioned by his
niece, the Duchesse d’Abrantes, in her _Memoirs_, that Napoleon was
a Greek in blood, and a Mainote by birth, being descended from the
family of Calomeri, who took refuge at Ajaccio, Corsica, was never
authoritatively denied. On the contrary, both the first and third
Napoleon appeared pleased at the story, whenever it was alluded to
in their presence; probably because they thought it good policy not
to deny what they might in future wish to turn to their advantage.
As regards the name of Καλομέρης or Καλόμερος, there are still many
families of that name in Greece.’
Now let us hear what Madame Junot, the aforesaid Duchesse d’Abrantes,
the intimate friend of Napoleon, whose families were the closest of
neighbours at Ajaccio, says on this subject.[6] ‘When Constantine
Comnenus landed at Corsica in 1676, at the head of a Greek colony,
he had with him several sons, one of whom was named Calomeros. This
son he sent to Florence, on a mission to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Constantine dying before the return of his son, the Grand Duke
prevailed on the young Greek to renounce Corsica, and fix his abode
in Tuscany. After some interval of time, an individual came from
Italy--indeed from Tuscany--and fixed his abode in Corsica, where his
descendants formed the family of Buonaparte; for the name _Calomeros_,
literally Italianised, signified _buona parte_ or _bella parte_.[7]
‘The only question is, whether the Calomeros who left Corsica, and
the Calomeros who came there, have a direct filiation. Two facts,
however, are certain--namely, the departure of the one, and the
arrival of the other. It is a singular thing that the Comneni,[8] in
speaking of the Bonaparte family, always designate them by the names
_Calomeros_, _Calomeri_, or _Calomeriani_, according as they allude to
one individual, or several collectively. Both families were united by
the most intimate friendship.
‘When the Greeks were obliged to abandon Paomia to escape the
persecutions of the insurgent Corsicans, they established themselves
temporarily in towns which remained faithful to the Republic of Genoa.
When, at a subsequent period, Cargesa was granted to the Greeks for the
purpose of forming a new establishment, a few Greek families continued
to reside at Ajaccio.’
I have been thus diffuse on his ancestry, because English satirists
could not tell the truth on the subject--they were too swayed by the
passion of the moment, and had to pander to the cravings of the mob.
Take an example, from a broad sheet published in 1803, when our island
was in deadly fear of invasion, a ‘History of Buonaparte.’ ‘Napoleon
Buonaparte is the son of a poor lawyer of Ajaccio, in Corsica, in which
city he was born on the 15th of August, 1769. His grandfather, Joseph,
originally a butcher of the same place, was ennobled by Count Nieuhoff,
some time King of Corsica. He was the son of Carlos Buona, who once
kept a liquor shop, or tavern, but who, being convicted of robbery
and murder, was condemned to the Gallies, where he died in 1724. His
wife, La Birba, the mother of Joseph, died in the House of Correction
at Geneva (? Genoa). On the 3rd May, 1736, when Porto Vecchio was
attacked, Joseph Buona brought to the assistance of King Theodore a
band of vagabonds which, during the civil war, had chosen him for
its leader. In return, Theodore, on the following day, created him a
noble, and added to his name _Buona_ the termination _Parté_. Joseph
Buonaparte’s wife _Histria_, was the daughter of a journeyman tanner of
Bastia, also in Corsica.’
And yet one more, from another equally veracious ‘life.’ ‘Buonaparte’s
great-grandfather kept a wine-house for factors (like our gin shops),
and, being convicted of murder and robbery, he died a galley slave
at Genoa, in 1724: his wife was likewise an accomplice, and she died
in the House of Correction at Genoa in 1734. His grandfather was a
butcher of Ajaccio, and his grandmother daughter of a journeyman tanner
at Bastia. His father was a low petty-fogging lawyer, who served and
betrayed his country by turns, during the Civil Wars. After France
conquered Corsica, he was a spy to the French Government, and his
mother their trull. What is bred in the bone will not come out of the
flesh.’