TWO ANECDOTES ABOUT NAPOLEON.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SER,—The account in Lord Rosebery's book about Napoleon's conversation recalls to my mind an anecdote which was told me some sixty years ago. At that time I was taking Italian lessons from a Venetian gentleman, then aged eighty, who had been exiled from his country for political reasons, and was supporting himself at Boulogne by giving Italian lessons at 3 fr. an hour. He was fond of interspersing his lessons with anecdotes of the great people he had met. He had a great admiration for Napoleon, and on one occasion at a party at which Napoleon and Madame de Stakl were present the con- versation turned upon" la politique." "La politique," said Napoleon, who was leaning over the back of Madame de Steel's chair, " c'est oser." This struck me as very charac- teristic. Another time Costantini was passing along the Rue de Rivoli, in Paris, and met Napoleon, who was standing giving orders to a builder. Costantini paused, not liking to pass the great man, which Napoleon perceiving, exclaimed : passez, Monsieur; fly a assez de place pour nous deux.-
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