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THIS MONTH'S BOOK
The Saint-Napoleon: Celebrations of Sovereignty in Nineteenth-Century France, by Sudhir Hazareesingh
The first in English on a remarkable subject, this fascinating book takes as its theme the celebration of the Second Empire's 'Fête Nationale', the 15 of August, previously the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary but which had become associated with Saint Napoleon (not to mention Napoleon Bonaparte's birthday).
200 YEARS AGO
Storm in the bay at Brest : one victim, admiral Truguet!
11 Prairial, An XII (31 May, 1804), Napoleon sent a furious letters to his Navy minister, Vice-admiral Decrès:
"Monsieur Decrès, I have been most unhappy to note that despite my extremely firm intention that the ships in the bay at Brest should lift anchor every day in order to make the crews do exercises, to harras the enemy l'ennemi [...], not one boat in the course of the year has set sail [...]. Since in the report which you sent me Admiral Truguet has not provided any sufficiantly forceful justification for the non-execution of my orders, it is my intention that he should be recalled and immediately replaced by an officer who is active, who is in the habit of performing manouevres [...] and who knows that the damage caused by several months of inaction is irreparable." Correspondance, Letter n° 7800
Appointed commander of the Brest squadron in the September of 1803 as a result of his significant naval experience both during the Ancien Régime and the Revolution, Admiral Laurent-Jean-François Truguet (1752-1839) had expressed significant reservations as to the success of the landing in England, since he was aware of the enormous differences between the French and British navies(number of vessels and armaments, the quality of the crews, etc.). Furthermore, he had declared himself to the creation of the Empire. He remained in disgrace until July 1809 when he was appointed commander of the Rochefort squadron. He became Préfet maritime de Hollande in March 1811 and received the Grand cordon of the Legion d'honneur on 2 September, 1814. He was made Comte d'Empire on 24 September of the same year. He was not however recalled by Napoleon during the Hundred Days. He was to become a Maréchal de France during the July Monarchy on 30 October, 1832. His name is inscribed on the north side of the Arc de Triomphe.
15 Prairial, An XII (3 June, 1804), each French Département was provided with a society for the fight against measles. The mission of these societies was to popularise vaccination, the principle of which was discovered and first applied in 1796 by the doctor and naturalist Edward Jenner (1749-1823).
Son of a Anglican clergyman, Edward Jenner was first apprenticed to a surgeon in the town of Sodbury and later studied medicine under John Hunter. He began practising in 1773 and became a member of the Royal Society in 1788. Although is best known for his pionneering work on innoculation he was also deeply interested in botany, zoology and geology. Whilst he did not invent the process of innoculation (it had been practised, though not without danger, early in the 18th century by Lady Mary Wortley Montague and was not uncommon), Jenner however made a systematic study of the disease of cow-pox and the apparent immunity to smallpox of dairy-maids and those working with cattle. His complete statement of the case for vaccination (i.e., innoculation with cow-pox, from the Latin, vacca=cow) was published in 1800, and in 1802 and 1806 he secured government grants (worth £30,000) to help spread the practice of vaccination. His work was so valued that the Tsar and King of Prussia demanded interviews with him in 1814 and his publications provided the inspiration for the immunological work of Louis Pasteur and others.
150 YEARS AGO
30 May, 1854, a law was passed confirming the creation of the penal colony in Cayenne, "open" since 1852: indeed a presidential decree of 8 December, 1851, ordered that 329 opponents of the regime involved in the insurrection and disturbances of 4 December, 1851, were deported. Whilst deportation of political opponents had begun during the Revolution, prisoners being sent to Cayenne and Algeria, it was further reinforced by a law of 1854 whereby all those condemned to deportation and forced labour were technically banished and were not allowed to return to the mother country when their sentence was served. However, once freed each released prisoner was given a patch of land.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
What's on
- 'The instant recaptured': Luigi Primoli's photographs of India
- Commemoration: Ligny 2004
- Anniversary: Crimean War, in Santena (Italy)
- Exhibition: Napoleon. The Sacre, at the Musée Fesch, Ajaccio
- Exhibition: Jean-Baptiste Wicar: portraits of the Bonaparte family
- Exhibition: Napoleon and the sea, a dream of Empire, Paris
- Exhibition: Napoleon and the Jouy Cloth
The monthly titles
- This month's book: The Saint-Napoleon: Celebrations of Sovereignty in Nineteenth-Century France, by Sudhir Hazareesingh
- This month's painting: The execution of the Duc d'Enghien, Jean-Paul Laurens
- This month's article: The proclamation of Empire by the Sénat Conservateur, by Thierry Lentz
- In the Collectors Corner, Clock: "Diogenes looking for a man", de Claude Galle (1759-1815)
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