Notes and Anecdotes, Political and Miscellaneous [pp. 718-720]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
out a few evasive replies, betrayed himself, and finally
confessed the facts.
The garden was examined anew. The farrier
wounded by many blows from a knife, was found interred in the spot in which he had concealed his money.
AN OFFICIAL JOURNAL.
I know nothing in the world better calculated to give
an idea of the character of an official journal, than the
number of the MIoniteure Universel of the 21 st of March,
1815.
You read at the head of the first column of this number: "The king and the royal family departed at one
o'clock last night."
Immediately after, and without any other separation
than a simple dash.
"H. M. the Emperor, arrived at the chateaux of the
Tuileries, last evening, at half after eight."
Afterwards follow the nominations of ministers, of the
prefect of the Seine, and of the prefect of police.
THE EMvIOTION OF M OF THE FRENCH
ACADEMY.
I never knew any orator who had more tears at his
service than M, of the French Academy. On the
day that Picard was buried, the disappearance of M.
Auger, the perpetual secretary of the Academy, was
announced. M, as a member of the deputation of
the French Academy, had accompanied the remains of
M. Picard to the cemetery de l'Est. He pronounced,
in the name of the Academy, the funeral eulogium of
the deceased; and with an emotion that drew tears
from the whole audience. One hardly weeps for his
father as M did for Picard. I was standing behind
him at the moment that he turned away, after concluding his discourse; he took my arm, and said, shrugging his shoulders: "See what we shall~perhaps have
to repeat to-morrow for Auger."
INOCULATION FOR THE PLAGUE.
There are certain falsehoods, which, merely from frequent repetition, have come to be retarded as admitted
truths. Thus it is universally acknowledged at the
present time, that at the battle of Fontenoy, the English and French, with singular politeness, absolutely
saluted and offered each other the first blow.
Under the restoration, a minister who availed himself of every possible means to procure some hours of
sleep, was accused of sleeping incessantly. A little
journal (which I could name,) invented this pleasantry;
repeated by others, it was finally received as a serious
and well-establishled truth; it was even used as an argument in the tribune.
"The minister of the Interior sleeps," said M. Labbey de Pompidres; "the monkey also sleeps; but
when it sleeps it consumes nothing."
The reader can easily comprehend the economical
conclusion which the venerable deputy, de l'Aisne, drew
from this argument.
It has been so frequently asserted and even printed,
that Doctor Desgenettes inoculated himself with the
plague, during the campaign of Egypt; that at the
present day no one is permitted to question the fact.
In vain did M. Desgenettes a thousand times deny what
was regarded as an act of courage, but which he would
have considered one of mere folly; he even found persons who asserted that they had seen it-to these he
could make no reply. I should not be astonished if, at
last wearied with resistance, he should resign himself
to believe it like the rest of the world.
The place of an Academacian was vacant in the Academy of Sciences; the Baron Dcsgenettes was among
the candidates to fill it. During the sitting, in which
the claims of those who aspired to this honor were discussed, Baron C- rose to support the claims of Baron
Desgenettes:
"Gentlemen," said he, "there is one incident in the
life of Baron Desgenettes, which should not be passed
over in silence. The French army in Egypt was decimated by the plague; it was important to reanimniate
the expiring courage of the soldiers. M. Desgenettes,
my learned colleague, Baron Larrey, and myself, are
the only remaining witnesses of the fact I am about to
report."
Here M. Larrey instantly rose:
"Should my colleague, Baron C-, be disposed to
communicate any circumstance to the Academy, I beg
he will not introduce my name."
Baron C- resumed his seat, without adding a word.
THE LAW OF SACRILEGE.
The law of sacrilege was the introduction of the inquisition into France, but without its masked judges
and its tortures; the guillotine was substituted for the
auto-da-fi, and the inquisitorial officers by the clergy,
to whom the law gave the right of surveillance and of
denunciation. M. de Bonnald, one of the most zealous
defenders of this law in the Chamber of Peers, justly
characterized it by a celebrated observation: " To kill
a man accused of sacrilege," said he, "is to send him before his natural judge."
I have occasionally met with individuals who discovered some profound meaning in these words; they
always appeared to me but an atrocious jen-de-mot,
which would have frightened, without surprizing me,
coming from the mouth of Marat. The expression of
Barrere: "The dead alone never return," would have
paled before it.
I read, long since, an opinion of the Emperor's of
the character of M. Bonnald; it is to be found in his
correspondence with Carnot, while minister of the Interior in 1815. This opinion, which I should not know
where to find at this time, commenced with these
words:
"More extravagant than profound, resounding because of his emptiness," &c.
MOSES' TEN TABLES.
Peter Harrison, an annotator on the Pentateuch, remarks that
Moses' ten tables of stone were macde of Shittim-wood.
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