THE WILL OF THE EX-EMPEROR NAPOLEON III.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 173, 19 July 1873, Page 4

THE WILL OF THE EX-EMPEROR NAPOLEON 111.

Messrs Markby, Tarry, and Stewart, solicitors for the administratrix, have been authorised to send to the papers the following notarial translation of the will of the late Emperor Napoleon, " in order to avoid the possibility of further misrepresentations." They add that the estate had been sworn uuder £120,000, but this sum is subject to claims which will reduce the amount actually received by the administratrix to about one-half: — " This is my will. "I commend my son and wife to the high constituted authorities of the State (aux grand corps de VEtat), to the people, and the army. The Empress Eugenic poesesses all the qualities requisite for conducting the Regency well, and my son displays a disposition and judgment which, will render him worthy of his high destinies. Let him never forget the motto of the head of our family — 'Everything for the French people. . Let him fix in his mind the writings of the prisoner of St Helena; let him study the Emperor's deeds and correspondence; finally, let him remember, when circumstauceß so permit, that the cause of the people is the cause of France. Power is* a heavy burdeD, because one cannot always do all the good one could wish, and because your contemporaries seldom render you justice, so that in order to fulfil one's mission, one must have faith in and consciousness of one's duty. It is necessary to consider that from Heaven on high those whom you have loved regard and protect you; it is the soul of my illustrious uncle that has always inspired and sustained mc. The like will apply to my sod, for he will always be worthy of his name. I leave the Empress Eugenic all my private property. It is my desire that on the majority of my son she shall inhabit the El) see and Biarritz. I trust that my memory will be dear to her, and that after my death she will iorget the griefs I may have caused her. With reganl to my sou, let him keep as a talisman the seal I used to wear attached to my watch, and which comes from my mother; let h ; m carefully preserve everything that comes to mc from the Emperor, my uncle, and let him be couvinced that my heart and my soul remain with him. I make no mention of mv faithful servants. I am convinced that the Empress and my Bon will never abandon them. I shall die in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion, which my son will always honor by his piety. (Signed) Napoleon. Done, wvitteo, and signed with ray hand at the Palace of the Tuileries, the 24th April, 1865. (Signed) Napoleon." The Saturday Heview has the following on the above will:—" The Emperor enriched his friends, but did notenrich himself. He let his friends make use oi (heir positioD, and they often made use of it in a very unscrupulous way; but he bad as much money as he could want, and he did not save. The extravagance of the Imperial Court was very great, and it was part of his political system to dazzle Paris with constant shows, to have the Imperial magnificence constantly talked about, and to keep traders satisfied and busybodies employed. The older sovereigns of Europe found nothing to despise in the mode in which the French Court was maintained, and while everything went smoothly, the great majority of French people were much gratified to think that their Emperor spent so much, and their Empress dressed so splendidly. Still, if the Emperor hod wished to save money, no doubt he could have done so. He might have had all his magnificence and the pleasure of economising at the same time; but he did not think it necessary to save. He did not tbiuk of reverses and exile as matters of serious anxiety to himself or his family. He took it for granted that Providence would be on the side of the Buonapartes. A king like Louis Phillippe properly and prudently looks upon his chance of wanting the means of keeping up his private station handsomely as one of those chances against which he ought reasonably to provide. He has been made a sovereign to his own surprise, and he knows, that an accident may unmake him as an accident has made him. The Emperor looked on himself in a very different light. His uncle's memory invested him with a sort of Divine right, and his uncle's protecting influence kept him safe. These happy privileges would descend to his son in due course of time, and there was therefore no need to contemplate the possibility of the family living in poverty and exile. The Emperor has, as all the world knows, been grievously mistaken. He did die in exile, and comparatively in poverty; but even his not putting by money shows how fer-

vently he believed in the epecial character of the destiny of himself and his family. As it happens, the very best thing he could have done, if the political interests of his party are to be considerep, was to die poor. At a time when France is groaning under a new taxation caused by a war associated with the Emperor's name, iis keenest indignation would have been roused against hira and bis family if it, had become known that the Emperor had used his position when Emperor to accumulate in safety a large private fortune. As it is, no one cau fast this reproach on the Emperor's memory, and hia 6on, if he ever appeals to France, will be able to do so without having to overcome the obstacle created by wealth hoarded up at the cost of a suffering country."