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THIS WEEK IN THE BULLETIN
We bring you a double–essay discussing two St Helena mysteries, then there's a note on rockfall protection at Jamestown over the next six months. And after that, in ‘200 years ago', there are French attempts at finding a substitute for cane sugar, and in ‘150 years ago' a terrorist law was passed enabling French police to seize and lock up any previously convicted political criminals….
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THIS MONTH'S ARTICLE
A Saint Helena Miscellany: Has Cipriani's tomb really disappeared?, by Thierry Lentz
Who wrote 'Letters from the Cape'?, by Peter Hicks
There is a great deal of deliberate mystification regarding certain events on St Helena. However, since most people were writing most of the time, there is usually a written account somewhere which provides light in the darkness. Thierry Lentz's note discusses the supposed disappearance of Cipriani's tomb and Peter Hicks's discusses the real imperial authorship of the ‘Letter from the Cape' and the Letter from a Storeship Captain.
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NEWS FROM ST HELENA: FRENCH COMPANY TO PREVENT ROCKFALL ON JAMESTOWN
Erosion of the cliffs above Jamestown has led to danger of rockfalls. The French company CAN, specialists in work involving difficult access and protection against natural risks, won the international tender to organise the Jamestown rockfall protection scheme. Work began in January and is to continue until the end of October 2008.
Protection scheme © CAN
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200 YEARS AGO
Science: a new kind of sugar
Up until 1806, France received its sugar (produced from sugar cane) from the Antilles. After that time, the Berlin decree defining the Continental system prevented the entry into France of British goods and the British blockade of the French coast prevented French ships reaching the French coast. The result was a severe shortage of sugar in France.
On 18 February, 1808, Napoleon wrote to the member of the Institut, Berthollet, asking about the production of a cane sugar substitute: «Is it true that a certain Achard in Berlin has made decent sugar from corn syrup,” her wrote, “and is it also true that excellent sugar can be made from sugar beets? Please do some research on this matter» (Correspondence N°13580).
In fact, Frederick Achard was a German chemist and a pupil of Margraff, and he had built an experimental sugar factory in Kunern in Lower Silesia in 1802.
With the sugar shortage continuing, Parmentier turned to the sugar problem in 1808. His attempts to make sugar from grape juice failed because the resulting syrup was too thick and did not easily crystallise. Extraction of sugar from grapes was therefore deemed too expensive.
It was not until 1811 that Benjamin Delessert managed to develop a chemical process in order to get large quantities of sugar from sugar beet. He received the Légion d'Honneur from the emperor for his work. Sugar from beet did not in the end rival sugar from cane because farmers were unwilling to replace wheat fields (needed for bread) with beet fields for sugar.
150 YEARS AGO
Terrorist Legislation
In the aftermath of the Orsini assassination attempt of 14 January, 1858, a general security law was promulgated on 19 February, 1858, and ratified by the Assemblée by 227 votes to 24. The law meant that all those previously convicted for political crimes would be liable to internment or expulsion. On 24 February, "terror suspects" were arrested throughout France. More than one hundred of those arrested were deported to Algeria.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 445, 15-21 February, 2008
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Got a problem with a link in the Bulletin? Go to the homepage: http://www.napoleon.org
STOP PRESS: CLOSURE OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
The library will be exceptionally closed on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 February, 2008.
REMINDER
The new Bibliothèque Fondation Napoléon library times are: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 1 to 6pm, Thursday from 10am to 3pm.
During the French school holidays the library openings times are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 1-30 to 6pm.
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
What's on
Lecture:
- The St-Helena Napoleon never knew, Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
Re-enactments:
- Napoleon's arrival at Vallauris - Golfe Juan, France
Exhibitions:
- König Lustik!? Jérôme Bonaparte and the Model State: the Kingdom of Westphalia, Kassel, Germany
- Napoleon on the Nile, Staten Island, New York, USA
- The Eye of Josephine, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Goya: the Disasters of War, Berkley Art Museum, University of California, USA
- Marquis de Lafayette, The New York Historical Society, NY, USA
- Chronicles of Riches: Treasures from the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Canada
- La Rose Impériale: The Development of Modern Roses, Boone Gallery, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, USA
- "The trace of the eagle", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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