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Monsieur-bon voyage!' to which I replied by a bow and retired, after having been about twenty-five minutes in his presence.

Buonaparte struck me as being different in appearance from any of the representations of him which I had at that time seen." His face was larger, and more square than is given in the pictures and busts; and the breadth of his body, particularly across the shoulders, is considerably greater than I expected. From the accounts which we had received of his corpulency we had been prepared to meet a very fat man; but, although he is certainly large in the body, it would not have occurred to me to describe him as being corpulent. His flesh looked firm, and he is what is termed well-set; his legs in particular were well made and small, and his face was quite pale, approaching to white. There was not the least appearance of a wrinkle, either on his brow or at the corners of his eye. Were it not for an occasional lighting-up of the eyes, and a sort of determined, commanding glance-which pierced as it were into one's most hidden thoughts -I should have been disposed to describe his look as being placid or gentle, and at all times lively, but never stern. Nor was there the slightest trace of care visible in his face or in his manner. On the contrary, his whole deportment, conversation, and expression of countenance indicated a mind perfectly at ease.

I was particularly struck with the extraordinary play of his upper lip; but it is very difficult to describe, the more so to me as I did not see him under the influence of any strong emotion. And what I did observe, therefore, served not so much to show the expression itself as to suggest to the imagination what possibly might be the powerful effect of his eye and lip in giving character to his expression when he is strongly moved.

His air was that of a character quite unsubdued, and far above being affected by the ordinary accidents of life. This tranquility was probably assumed; but if so he certainly played his part most skilfully, for I could discover nothing during the interview which betrayed the least ill-humour or impatience at his situation; indeed, he made no allusion to it whatever, directly or indirectly.

His manners were so good that from the first moment of the interview to the last I felt myself not only at ease in his company,

Since writing the above I have seen an excellent picture of Buonaparte in the possession of Mr. Richard Power, of Dublin. It was painted by Girard in 1805, and given to the City of Rome in 1810. Mr. Power bought it at Rome in 1817. This picture has much more of Buonaparte's expression of countenance than any I have seen. It represents him, of course, much smaller than he is now, but the face is extremely like and is remarkable for conveying the placidity and sweetness of expression which is at times so very striking in his countenance. The Princess Borghese sent to Mr. Power to say that she considered this picture as being the best of any that was ever painted of her brother.

but every now and then I thought I was speaking to him in too familiar a tone. I wished, of course, to show him all sort of respect and attention, but his cheerful and encouraging manner threw me repeatedly off my guard.

I was fortunate in being able to furnish him with two new topics-the circumstance of his recollecting my father and our voyage of discovery.

When speaking upon the first of these topics he was particularly animated, and seemed unaffectedly delighted by having accounts of an old schoolfellow. All this is so natural that there does not seem much difficulty in believing him sincere. As most people remember their boyish days, if not with pleasure, at least with interest, there is no reason why Buonaparte should not look back across the turbulent field of his past life, and view with complacency from his present retired station the gay and innocent scenes of his youth.

Amidst the stormy emotions of his ambitious career, one would naturally have supposed that such calm recollections as these would have been swept away, and that they now returned upon him with greater force from having been so long unheeded. But the fact is otherwise, for in the very midst of his most arduous military operations, when pressed on all hands by the Allies, at a moment when of all others he might have been supposed most occupied with present objects, he had leisure to inquire in the most cool and deliberate way about his old schoolfellows and friends whom he had not seen for upwards of thirty years. This occurred when he was engaged with Blücher, near Brienne, in 1814. He had never visited the spot since he first left the college in 1782 or 1783, and upon returning under circumstances as different as could well be imagined he caused inquiries to be made for people who had been at the college during the time of his residence there. The old priest who had been actually over Buonaparte was still alive, and was brought to him. detained him a long time, asked him about all the schollars by name, and making the old man tell him the history of the different priests, servants, and everybody connected with the institution. He even asked what had become of certain houses which he missed, and, in short, seemed as well informed upon everything relating to the spot as the old man who had never quitted it.

He

I have the above anecdote from an extremely intelligent officer, who was at that time one of Buonaparte's suite (Flahault). This same gentleman tells me that Buonaparte was at all times interested in everything relating to Brienne, and that, whenever he heard of any officer who had been educated there at the same

time as himself he sent for him, and if he was deserving of promotion immediately advanced him.

My father does not remember Buonaparte. That he was there at the same time with him is certain, but most unfortunately his journal, which had been kept day by day for some years before, stops a few weeks before he went to Brienne. My father was not actually a student at the Military College; he was on a visit to the late Mr. Wm. Hamilton, who lived at the Château de Brienne.

My father has an obscure recollection of some boy at the Military College having blown up one of the garden walls with gunpowder, but he does not recollect his name. The circumstance was brought to his memory, and connected itself with Buonaparte, at the time of his first rising into notice, as a great military character.

Whether or not he was the mischievous youth who demolished the wall is uncertain, but it would be an amusing question to put to Buonaparte himself.

My two companions were received together after I left the room. He put a few commonplace questions and dismissed them.. He was no less polite, however, to them than he had been to me.

Observing crêpe on Captain Harvey's arm, he begged to know for whom he was in mourning, and on hearing it was for his father he appeared sorry, or at all events testified by his manner that degree of respect for the feelings of his guest which a wellbred person is at all times disposed to pay, particularly to a person in distress.

BASIL HALL,

Captain R.N.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: THE CASE FOR

ABOLITION

BEFORE entering upon a discussion of the merits or demerits of capital punishment, it may perhaps be well to show briefly in what manner the opinion of modern civilisation is divided upon this question.

England, France, and Germany still hold fast to capital punishment. In England in 1864 a Royal Commission sat on the subject. Although the question as to the abolition of the death penalty was not directly before it, a full half of its members expressed an opinion in favour thereof, and five actually signed a report recommending abolition.

On the 12th of June 1877 a debate on capital punishment took place in the House of Commons, which was notable not only for a fine speech in favour of abolition by John Bright, but also for an extremely able exposition of the whole case by Mr. Pease. The amendment in favour of abolition was, however, thrown out by 155 votes to 50; and since then, in spite of the efforts of the Howard and Romilly Societies, the question has been almost entirely in abeyance.

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In France during recent years the death penalty has been very sparingly applied, but owing to the increase of crimes of the Apache' type it was decided a short time ago to enforce it more rigorously for the future. It remains to be seen whether this course of action will have the desired effect.

In Germany, before the introduction of a universal Criminal Code for the whole of the Empire, capital punishment had been abolished in Saxony, Bremen, Oldenburg, and Anhalt. A proposal for striking it out of the new Criminal Code was passed by the North German Reichstag by 118 votes to 81. This proposal was, however, thrown out by the federated Governments by 127 votes to 119. Up to the end of last year the trend of public opinion in Germany would appear to have been all in favour of the retention of the death penalty, but a reaction seems to have then set in, and an agitation in favour of its abolition was started in the newspapers.

It has been abolished in Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, most of the Swiss Cantons, Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine of the U.S.A., Portugal, Roumania, Venezuela, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Lastly, do not let us forget San Marino.

No one has been executed in Belgium since 1863, or in Finland since 1826. In Russia for nearly two centuries the death penalty has not been applied, except in cases of political crimes.

Arguments in opposition to a particular view which are based on the fact that a different one is held by an overwhelming majority are never of much value; for nearly all opinions tending towards reform are, to start with, supported by a very insignificant minority.

But, in any case, the facts I have given clearly show that no argument based on the authority of numbers is applicable in this instance, and no one can refuse to listen to the case for the abolition of capital punishment upon the ground that it is merely supported by a minority which is numerically insignificant, even if he believes that all such minorities are necessarily composed entirely of cranks.

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There are not, I think, at the present day many persons who would advocate capital punishment except as a weapon for the defence of society. It is possible that it may still be looked apon with approval for its own sake by a few adherents of the retributive theory of punishment, a school which delights in the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' which seems to regard a sort of symmetry as the most important characteristic of a penal code, and which with Gilbert's Mikado looks upon making the punishment fit the crime' in the light of an object all sublime.' But the number of these must be comparatively insignificant, at any rate in this country. For the greater part of thinking men the rope must be a thing highly objectionable in itself, the justification of which is based upon the interests of society alone. In attempting, therefore, to make out a case for its abolition, the main line of attack must be directed to demonstrating the non-existence or relative unimportance of the advantages claimed for it by its advocates.

I propose, however, to begin by pointing out its disadvantages, obvious though they may be; for it will, I think, be found that in the course of doing this we shall to a certain extent be answering some of the main arguments used in its favour.

The first great objection to the death penalty is its irremedia

1 It was also abolished in Rhode Island, but has since been reintroduced. In Germany the retributive theory of punishment, though discredited for

a long time, has by a process of reaction once more gained favour amongst a certain school of jurists and political philosophers.

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