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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 1 of
+2), by Frances Milton Trollope
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 1 of 2)
+
+Author: Frances Milton Trollope
+
+Release Date: February 27, 2012 [EBook #38997]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS AND THE PARISIANS IN 1835 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+  Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
+  been preserved.  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
+
+  The errata listed at the end of the "Embellishments" were corrected
+  in this edition.
+
+
+
+
+     PARIS AND THE PARISIANS
+     IN 1835.
+     VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+     Preparing for publication, by the same Author,
+     In 3 vols. post 8vo. with 15 Characteristic Engravings.
+
+     THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES
+     OF
+     JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW
+     OR,
+     SCENES ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
+
+
+
+
+     PARIS AND THE PARISIANS,
+     IN 1835.
+
+     VOL. I.
+
+     [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.]
+
+     LONDON:
+     RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
+     Publisher in Ordinary to His Majesty,
+     1835.
+
+
+
+
+     PARIS
+     AND
+     THE PARISIANS
+     IN 1835.
+
+     BY FRANCES TROLLOPE,
+     AUTHOR OF "DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE AMERICANS,"
+     "TREMORDYN CLIFF," &c.
+
+     "Le pire des états, c'est l'état populaire."--CORNEILLE.
+
+     IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+     VOL. I.
+
+     LONDON:
+     RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
+     Publisher in Ordinary to His Majesty.
+     1836.
+
+
+
+
+     LONDON:
+     PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
+     Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+From the very beginning of reading and writing--nay, doubtless from
+the very beginning of speaking,--TRUTH, immortal TRUTH has been the
+object of ostensible worship to all who read and to all who listen;
+and, in the abstract, it is unquestionably held in sincere veneration
+by all: yet, in the detail of every-day practice, the majority of
+mankind often hate it, and are seen to bear pain, disappointment, and
+sorrow more patiently than its honoured voice when it echoes not their
+own opinion.
+
+Preconceived notions generally take a much firmer hold of the mind
+than can be obtained by any statement, however clear and plain, which
+tends to overthrow them; and if it happen that these are connected
+with an honest intention of being right, they are often mistaken for
+principles;--in which case the attempt to shake them is considered not
+merely as a folly, but a sin.
+
+With this conviction strongly impressed upon my mind, it requires some
+moral courage to publish these volumes; for they are written in
+conformity to the opinions of ... perhaps none,--and, worse still,
+there is that in them which may be considered as contradictory to my
+own. Had I before my late visit to Paris written a book for the
+purpose of advocating the opinions I entertained on the state of the
+country, it certainly would have been composed in a spirit by no means
+according in all points with that manifested in the following pages:
+but while profiting by every occasion which permitted me to mix with
+distinguished people of all parties, I learnt much of which I was--in
+common, I suspect, with many others--very profoundly ignorant. I found
+good where I looked for mischief--strength where I anticipated
+weakness--and the watchful wisdom of cautious legislators, most
+usefully at work for the welfare of their country, instead of the
+crude vagaries of a revolutionary government, active only in leading
+blindfold the deluded populace who trusted to them.
+
+The result of this was, first a wavering, and then a change of
+opinion,--not as to the immutable laws which should regulate
+hereditary succession, or the regret that it should ever have been
+deemed expedient to violate them--but as to the wisest way in which
+the French nation, situated as it actually is, can be governed, so as
+best to repair the grievous injuries left by former convulsions, and
+most effectually to guard against a recurrence of them in future.
+
+That the present policy of France keeps these objects steadily in
+view, and that much wisdom and courage are at work to advance them,
+cannot be doubted; and those most anxious to advocate the sacred cause
+of well-ordered authority amongst all the nations of the earth should
+be the first to bear testimony to this truth.
+
+     London, December 1835.
+
+
+
+
+     CONTENTS
+     TO
+     THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+
+       LETTER I.
+     Difficulty of giving a systematic account of what is doing
+     in France.--Pleasure of revisiting Paris after long
+     absence.--What is changed; what remains the same.          Page 1
+
+       LETTER II.
+     Absence of the English Embassy.--Trial of the Lyons
+     Prisoners.--Church of the Madeleine.--Statue of Napoleon.       7
+
+       LETTER III.
+     Slang.--Les Jeunes Gens de Paris.--La Jeune France.
+     --Rococo.--Décousu.                                            12
+
+       LETTER IV.
+     Théâtre Français.--Mademoiselle Mars.--Elmire.--'Charlotte
+     Brown.'--Extract from a Sermon.                                17
+
+       LETTER V.
+     Exhibition of Living Artists at the Louvre.--The
+     Deluge.--Poussin and Martin.--Portraits.--Appearance of the
+     company.                                                       22
+
+       LETTER VI.
+     Society.--Morality.--False Impressions and False Reports.
+     --Observations from a Frenchman on a recent publication.       32
+
+       LETTER VII.
+     Alarm created by the Trial of the Lyons Prisoners.--Visits
+     from a Republican and from a Doctrinaire: reassured
+     by the promises of safety and protection received from the
+     latter.                                                        41
+
+       LETTER VIII.
+     Eloquence of the Pulpit.--L'Abbé Coeur.--Sermon at
+     St. Roch.--Elegant Congregation.--Costume of the younger
+     Clergy.                                                        50
+
+       LETTER IX.
+     Literature of the Revolutionary School.--Its low estimation
+     in France.                                                     59
+
+       LETTER X.
+     Lonchamps.--The "Three Hours' Agony" at St. Roch.--Sermons
+     on the Gospel of Good-Friday.--Prospects of the Catholics.
+     --O'Connell.                                                   66
+
+      LETTER XI.
+     Trial Chamber at the Luxembourg.--Institute.--M. Mignet.
+     --Concert Musard.                                              76
+
+       LETTER XII.
+     Easter-Sunday at Notre Dame.--Archbishop.--View of
+     Paris.--Victor Hugo.--Hôtel Dieu.--Mr. Jefferson.              83
+
+       LETTER XIII.
+     "Le Monomane".                                                 91
+
+       LETTER XIV.
+     The Gardens of the Tuileries.--Legitimatist.--Republican.
+     --Doctrinaire.--Children.--Dress of the Ladies.--Of the
+     Gentlemen.--Black Hair.--Unrestricted Admission.--Anecdote.   101
+
+       LETTER XV.
+     Street Police.--Cleaning Beds.--Tinning Kettles.--Building
+     Houses.--Loading Carts.--Preparing for the Scavenger.--Want
+     of Drains.--Bad Pavement.--Darkness.                          112
+
+       LETTER XVI.
+     Preparations for the Fête du Roi.--Arrival of Troops.--Champs
+     Elysées.--Concert in the Garden of the Tuileries.--Silence
+     of the People.--Fireworks.                                    120
+
+       LETTER XVII.
+     Political chances.--Visit from a Republican.--His high
+     spirits at the prospects before him.--His advice to me
+     respecting my name.--Removal of the Prisoners from
+     Ste. Pélagie.--Review.--Garde de Paris.--The National
+     Guard.                                                        130
+
+       LETTER XVIII.
+     First Day of the Trials.--Much blustering, but no riot.--All
+     alarm subsided.--Proposal for inviting Lord B----m
+     to plead at the Trial.--Society.--Charm of idle conversation.
+     --The Whisperer of good stories.                              141
+
+       LETTER XIX.
+     Victor Hugo.--Racine.                                         151
+
+       LETTER XX.
+     Versailles.--St. Cloud.                                       170
+
+       LETTER XXI.
+     History of the Vicomte de B----. His opinions.--State
+     of France.--Expediency.                                       180
+
+       LETTER XXII.
+     Père Lachaise.--Mourning in public.--Defacing the Tomb
+     of Abelard and Eloïsa.--Baron Munchausen.--Russian
+     Monument.--Statue of Manuel.                                  189
+
+       LETTER XXIII.
+     Remarkable People.--Distinguished People.--Metaphysical
+     Lady.                                                         196
+
+       LETTER XXIV.
+     Expedition to the Luxembourg.--No admittance for
+     Females.--Portraits of "Henri."--Republican Costume.--Quai
+     Voltaire.--Mural Inscriptions.--Anecdote of Marshal
+     Lobau.--Arrest.                                               206
+
+       LETTER XXV.
+     Chapelle Expiatoire.--Devotees seen there.--Tri-coloured
+     flag out of place there.--Flower Market of the Madeleine.
+     --Petites Maîtresses.                                         220
+
+       LETTER XXVI.
+     Delicacy in France and in England.--Causes of the
+     difference between them.                                      227
+
+       LETTER XXVII.
+     Objections to quoting the names of private individuals.
+     --Impossibility of avoiding Politics.--_Parceque_ and
+     _Quoique_.--Soirée Antithestique.                             237
+
+       LETTER XXVIII.
+     New Publications.--M. de Lamartine's "Souvenirs, Impressions,
+     Pensées, et Paysages."--Tocqueville and Beaumont.--New
+     American regulation.--M. Scribe.--Madame
+     Tastu.--Reception of different Writers in society.            249
+
+       LETTER XXIX.
+     Sunday in Paris.--Family Groups.--Popular Enjoyment.
+     --Polytechnic Students.--Their resemblance to the figure
+     of Napoleon.--Enduring attachment to the Emperor.
+     --Conservative spirit of the English Schools.--Sunday in
+     the Gardens of the Tuileries.--Religion of the Educated.
+     --Popular Opinion.                                            257
+
+       LETTER XXX.
+     Madame Récamier.--Her Morning Parties.--Gérard's
+     Picture of Corinne.--Miniature of Madame de Staël.--M.
+     de Châteaubriand.--Conversation on the degree in which
+     the French Language is understood by Foreigners.--The
+     necessity of speaking French.                                 269
+
+       LETTER XXXI.
+     Exhibition of Sèvres China at the Louvre.--Gobelins and
+     Beauvais Tapestry.--Legitimatist Father and Doctrinaire
+     Son.--Copies from the Medicean Gallery.                       281
+
+       LETTER XXXII.
+     Eglise Apostolique Française.--Its doctrine.--L'Abbé Auzou.
+     --His Sermon on "les Plaisirs Populaires."                    290
+
+       LETTER XXXIII.
+     Establishment for Insane Patients at Vanves.--Description
+     of the arrangements.--Englishman.--His religious madness.     307
+
+       LETTER XXXIV.
+     Riot at the Porte St. Martin.--Prevented by a shower
+     of Rain.--The Mob in fine weather.--How to stop Emeutes.
+     --Army of Italy.--Théâtre Français.--Mademoiselle Mars
+     in Henriette.--Disappearance of Comedy.                       319
+
+       LETTER XXXV.
+     Soirée dansante.--Young Ladies.--Old Ladies.--Anecdote.--The
+     Consolations of Chaperones.--Flirtations.--Discussion upon
+     the variations between young Married Women in France and in
+     England.--Making love by deputy.--Not likely to answer in
+     England.                                                      329
+
+       LETTER XXXVI.
+     Improvements of Paris.--Introduction of Carpets and
+     Trottoirs.--Maisonnettes.--Not likely to answer in Paris.
+     --The necessity of a Porter and Porter's Lodge.--Comparative
+     Expenses of France and England.--Increasing Wealth of the
+     Bourgeoisie.                                                  347
+
+       LETTER XXXVII.
+     Horrible Murder.--La Morgue.--Suicides.--Vanity.
+     --Anecdote.--Influence of Modern Literature.--Different
+     appearance of Poverty in France and England.                  358
+
+       LETTER XXXVIII.
+     Opéra Comique.--"Cheval de Bronze."--"La Marquise."
+     --Impossibility of playing Tragedy.--Mrs. Siddons's
+     Readings.--Mademoiselle Mars has equal power.--_Laisser
+     aller_ of the Female Performers.--Decline of Theatrical
+     Taste among the Fashionable.                                  371
+
+       LETTER XXXIX.
+     The Abbé de Lamennais.--Cobbett.--O'Connell.--Napoleon.
+     --Robespierre.                                                381
+
+       LETTER XL.
+     Which Party is it ranks second in the estimation of
+     all?--No Caricatures against the Exiles.--Horror of a
+     Republic.                                                     389
+
+       LETTER XLI.
+     M. Dupré.--His Drawings in Greece.--L'Eglise des
+     Carmes.--M. Vinchon's Picture of the National Convention.
+     --Léopold Robert's Fishermen.--Reported cause of his
+     Suicide.--Roman Catholic Religion.--Mr. Daniel O'Connell.     400
+
+       LETTER XLII.
+     Old Maids.--Rarely to be found in France.--The reasons
+     for this.                                                     408
+
+
+
+
+     EMBELLISHMENTS
+     TO
+     THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+
+     Louvre                                                    Page 30
+
+     Morning at the Tuileries Gardens                              106
+
+     "Pro Patria"                                                  140
+
+     "Ce soir, à la Porte St. Martin."--"J'y serai."               218
+
+     Tuileries Gardens (on Sunday)                                 264
+
+     Porte St. Martin                                              322
+
+
+P. 155, line 2, _read_ given--P. 224, line 23, _read_ new.
+
+
+
+
+     PARIS
+     AND THE PARISIANS
+     IN 1835.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.
+
+      Difficulty of giving a systematic account of what is doing in
+      France.--Pleasure of revisiting Paris after long absence.--What
+      is changed; what remains the same.
+
+
+     Paris, 11th April 1835.
+
+     MY DEAR FRIEND,
+
+In visiting Paris it certainly was my intention to describe in print
+what I saw and heard there; and to do this as faithfully as possible,
+I proposed to continue my old habit of noting in my journal all
+things, great and small, in which I took an interest. But the task
+frightens me. I have been here but a few days, and I already find
+myself preaching and prosing at much greater length than I approve: I
+already feel that I am involved in such a mizmaze of interesting
+subjects, that to give anything like an orderly and well-arranged
+digest of them, would beguile me into attempting a work greatly
+beyond my power to execute.
+
+The very most I can hope to do will be but to "skim lightly over the
+surface of things;" and in addressing myself to you, I shall feel less
+as if I were about to be guilty of the presumption of writing "a work
+on France," than if I threw my notes into a less familiar form. I will
+then discourse to you, as well as I may, of such things as leave the
+deepest impression among the thousand sights and sounds in the midst
+of which I am now placed. Should it be our will hereafter that these
+letters pass from your hands into those of the public, I trust that
+nobody will be so unmerciful as to expect that they shall make them
+acquainted with everything past, present, and to come, "respecting the
+destinies of this remarkable country."
+
+It must indeed be a bold pen that attempts to write of "Young France,"
+as it is at present the fashion to call it, with anything like a
+reasonable degree of order and precision, while still surrounded by
+all the startling novelties she has to show. To reason of what she has
+done, what she is doing, and--more difficult still--of what she is
+about to do, would require a steadier head than most persons can
+command, while yet turning and twisting in all directions to see what
+this Young France looks like.
+
+In truth, I am disposed to believe that whatever I write about it
+will be much in the style of the old conundrum--
+
+     "I saw a comet rain down hail
+     I saw a cloud" &c.
+
+And here you will remember, that though the things seen are stated in
+the most simple and veracious manner, much of the meaning is occult,
+depending altogether upon the stopping or pointing of the narrative.
+This stopping or pointing I must leave to you, or any other readers I
+may happen to have, and confine myself to the plain statement of "I
+saw;" for though it is sufficiently easy to see and to hear, I feel
+extremely doubtful if I shall always be able to understand.
+
+It is just seven years and seven months since I last visited the
+capital of the "Great Nation." The interval is a long one, as a
+portion of human life; but how short does it appear when the events
+that it has brought forth are contemplated! I left the white banner of
+France floating gaily over her palaces, and I find it torn down and
+trampled in the dust. The renowned lilies, for so many ages the symbol
+of chivalric bravery, are everywhere erased; and it should seem that
+the once proud shield of St. Louis is soiled, broken, and reversed for
+ever.
+
+But all this was old. France is grown young again; and I am assured
+that, according to the present condition of human judgment, everything
+is exactly as it should be. Knighthood, glory, shields, banners,
+faith, loyalty, and the like, are gone out of fashion; and they say it
+is only necessary to look about me a little, to perceive how
+remarkably well the present race of Frenchmen can do without them;--an
+occupation, it is added, which I shall find much more profitable and
+amusing than lamenting over the mouldering records of their ancient
+greatness.
+
+The good sense of this remonstrance is so evident, that I am
+determined henceforth to profit by it; remembering, moreover, that, as
+an Englishwoman, I have certainly no particular call to mourn over the
+fading honours of my country's rival. So in future I shall turn my
+eyes as much as I can from the tri-coloured flag--(those three stripes
+are terribly false heraldry)--and only think of amusing myself; a
+business never performed anywhere with so much ease as at Paris.
+
+Since I last saw it, I have journeyed half round the globe; but
+nothing I have met in all my wanderings has sufficed to damp the
+pleasure with which I enter again this gay, bright, noisy, restless
+city,--this city of the living, as beyond all others it may be justly
+called.
+
+And where, in truth, can anything be found that shall make its air of
+ceaseless jubilee seem tame?--or its thousand depôts of all that is
+prettiest in art, lose by comparison with any other pretty things in
+the wide world? Where do all the externals of happiness meet the eye
+so readily?--or where can the heavy spirit so easily be roused to seek
+and find enjoyment? Cold, worn-out, and dead indeed must the heart be
+that does not awaken to some throb of pleasure when Paris, after long
+absence, comes again in sight! For though a throne has been
+overturned, the Tuileries still remain;--though the main stock of a
+right royal tree has been torn up, and a scion sprung from one of the
+roots, that had run, wildly enough, to a distance, has been barricaded
+in, and watered, and nurtured, and fostered into power and strength of
+growth to supply its place, the Boulevards, with their matchless
+aspect of eternal holiday, are still the same. No commotion, however
+violent, has yet been able to cause this light but precious essence of
+Parisian attractiveness to evaporate; and while the very foundations
+of society have been shaken round them, the old elms go on, throwing
+their flickering shadows upon a crowd that--allowing for some vagaries
+of the milliner and tailor--might be taken for the very same, and no
+other, which has gladdened the eye and enlivened the imagination since
+first their green boughs beckoned all that was fairest and gayest in
+Paris to meet together beneath them.
+
+Whilst this is the case, and while sundry other enchantments that may
+be named in their turn continue to proclaim that Paris is Paris
+still, it would be silly quarrelling with something better than
+bread-and-butter, did we spend the time of our abode here in dreaming
+of what has been, instead of opening our eyes and endeavouring to be
+as much awake as possible to look upon all that is.
+
+     Farewell!
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.
+
+      Absence of the English Embassy.--Trial of the Lyons
+      Prisoners.--Church of the Madeleine.--Statue of Napoleon.
+
+
+It may be doubtful, perhaps, whether the present period[1] be more
+favourable or unfavourable for the arrival of English travellers at
+Paris. The sort of interregnum which has taken place in our embassy
+here deprives us of the centre round which all that is most gay among
+the English residents usually revolves; but, on the other hand, the
+approaching trial of the Lyons prisoners and their Parisian
+accomplices is stirring up from the very bottom all the fermenting
+passions of the nation. Every principle, however quietly and
+unobtrusively treasured,--every feeling, however cautiously
+concealed,--is now afloat; and the most careless observer may expect
+to see, with little trouble, the genuine temper of the people.
+
+The genuine temper of the people?--Nay, but this phrase must be mended
+ere it can convey to you any idea of what is indeed likely to be made
+visible; for, as it stands, it might intimate that the people were of
+one temper; and anything less like the truth than this cannot easily
+be imagined.
+
+The temper of the people of Paris upon the subject of this "atrocious
+trial," as all parties not connected with the government are pleased
+to call it, varies according to their politics,--from rage and
+execration to ecstasy and delight--from indifference to
+enthusiasm--from triumph to despair.
+
+It will be impossible, my friend, to ramble up and down Paris for
+eight or nine weeks, with a note-book in my hand, without recurring
+again and again to a theme that meets us in every _salon_, murmurs
+through the corridors of every theatre, glares from the eyes of the
+republican, sneers from the lip of the doctrinaire, and in some shape
+or other crosses our path, let it lead in what direction it may.
+
+This being inevitable, the monster must be permitted to protrude its
+horns occasionally; nor must I bear the blame should it sometimes
+appear to you a very tedious and tiresome monster indeed. Having
+announced that its appearance may be frequently expected, I will leave
+you for the present in the same state of expectation respecting it
+that we are in ourselves; and, while we are still safe from its
+threatened violence, indulge in a little peaceable examination of the
+still-life part of the picture spread out before me.
+
+The first objects that struck me as new on re-entering Paris, or
+rather as changed since I last saw them, were the Column of the Place
+Vendôme, and the finished Church of the Madeleine. Finished indeed!
+Did Greece ever show any combination of stones and mortar more
+graceful, more majestic than this? If she did, it was in the days of
+her youth; for, poetical association apart, and the unquestionably
+great pleasure of learned investigation set aside, no ruin can
+possibly meet the eye with such perfect symmetry of loveliness, or so
+completely fill and satisfy the mind, as does this modern temple.
+
+Why might not our National Gallery have risen as noble, as simple, as
+beautiful as this?
+
+As for the other novelty--the statue of the sometime Emperor of the
+French, I suspect that I looked up at it with rather more approbation
+than became an Englishwoman. But in truth, though the name of Napoleon
+brings with it reminiscences which call up many hostile feelings, I
+can never find myself in Paris without remembering his good, rather
+than his terrible actions. Perhaps, too, as one gazes on this brazen
+monument of his victories, there may be something soothing in the
+recollection that the bold standard he bore never for an instant
+wantoned on a British breeze.
+
+However, putting sentiment and personal feeling of every kind apart,
+so much that is admirable in Paris owes its origin to him, that his
+ambition and his usurpations are involuntarily forgotten, and the use
+made of his ill-gotten power almost obliterates the lawless tyranny of
+the power itself. The appearance of his statue, therefore, on the top
+of the column formed of the cannon taken by the armies of France when
+fighting under his command, appeared to me to be the result of an
+arrangement founded upon perfect propriety and good taste.
+
+When his effigy was torn down some twenty years ago by the avenging
+hands of the Allies, the act was one both of moral justice and of
+natural feeling; and that the rightful owners of the throne he had
+seized should never have replaced it, can hardly be matter of
+surprise: but that it should now again be permitted to look down upon
+the fitful fortunes of the French people, has something of historic
+propriety in it which pleases the imagination.
+
+This statue of Napoleon offers the only instance I remember in which
+that most grotesque of European habiliments, a cocked-hat, has been
+immortalized in marble or in bronze with good effect. The original
+statue, with its flowing outline of Roman drapery, was erected by a
+feeling of pride; but this portrait of him has the every-day familiar
+look that could best satisfy affection. Instead of causing the eye to
+turn away as it does from some faithful portraitures of modern
+costume with positive disgust, this _chapeau à trois cornes_, and the
+well-known loose _redingote_, have that air of picturesque truth in
+them which is sure to please the taste even where it does not touch
+the heart.
+
+To the French themselves this statue is little short of an idol. Fresh
+votive wreaths are perpetually hung about its pedestal; and little
+draperies of black crape, constantly renewed, show plainly how fondly
+his memory is still cherished.
+
+While Napoleon was still among them, the halo of his military glory,
+bright as it was, could not so dazzle the eyes of the nation but that
+some portentous spots were discerned even in the very nucleus of that
+glory itself; but now that it shines upon them across his tomb, it is
+gazed at with an enthusiasm of devoted affection which mixes no memory
+of error with its regrets.
+
+It would, I think, be very difficult to find a Frenchman, let his
+party be what it might, who would speak of Napoleon with disrespect.
+
+I one day passed the foot of his gorgeous pedestal in company with a
+legitimate _sans reproche_, who, raising his eyes to the statue,
+said--"Notre position, Madame Trollope, est bien dure: nous avons
+perdu le droit d'être fidèles, sans avoir plus celui d'être fiers."
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] April 1835.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.
+
+      Slang.--Les Jeunes Gens de Paris.--La Jeune
+      France.--Rococo.--Décousu.
+
+
+I suppose that, among all people and at all times, a certain portion
+of what we call slang will insinuate itself into familiar colloquial
+intercourse, and sometimes even dare to make its unsanctioned accents
+heard from the tribune and the stage. It appears to me, I confess,
+that France is at present taking considerable liberties with her
+mother-tongue. But this is a subject which requires for its grave
+discussion a native critic, and a learned one too. I therefore can
+only venture distantly and doubtingly to allude to it, as one of the
+points at which it appears to me that innovation is visibly and
+audibly at work.
+
+I know it may be said that every additional word, whether fabricated
+or borrowed, adds something to the riches of the language; and no
+doubt it does so. But there is a polished grace, a finished elegance
+in the language of France, as registered in the writings of her
+Augustan age, which may well atone for the want of greater
+copiousness, with which it has been sometimes reproached. To increase
+its strength, by giving it coarseness, would be like exchanging a
+high-mettled racer for a dray-horse. A brewer would tell you, that you
+gained in power what you lost in grace: it may be so; but there are
+many, I think, even in this age of operatives and utilitarians, who
+would regret the change.
+
+This is a theme, however, as I have said before, on which I should not
+feel myself justified in saying much. None should pretend to examine,
+or at any rate to discuss critically, the niceties of idiom in a
+language that is not native to them. But, distinct from any such
+presumptuous examination, there are words and phrases lawfully within
+the reach of foreign observation, which strike me as remarkable at the
+present day, either from their frequent recurrence, or for something
+of unusual emphasis in the manner in which they are employed.
+
+_Les jeunes gens de Paris_ appears to me to be one of these. Translate
+it, and you find nothing but "the young men of Paris;" which should
+seem to have no more imposing meaning than "the young men of London,"
+or of any other metropolis. But hear it spoken at Paris--Mercy on me!
+it sounds like a thunderbolt. It is not only loud and blustering,
+however; you feel that there is something awful--nay, mystical,
+implied by the phrase. It appears solemnly to typify the power, the
+authority, the learning--ay, and the wisdom too, of the whole nation.
+
+_La Jeune France_ is another of these cabalistic forms of speech, by
+which everybody seems expected to understand something great,
+terrible, volcanic, and sublime. At present, I confess that both of
+these, pronounced as they always are with a sort of mysterious
+emphasis, which seems to say that "more is meant than meets the ear,"
+produce rather a paralysing effect upon me. I am conscious that I do
+not clearly comprehend all the meaning with which they are pregnant,
+and yet I am afraid to ask, lest the explanation should prove either
+more unintelligible or more alarming than even the words themselves. I
+hope, however, that ere long I shall grow more intelligent or less
+timid; and whenever this happens, and I conceive that I fully
+comprehend their occult meaning, I will not fail to transmit it
+faithfully to you.
+
+Besides these phrases, and some others that I may perhaps mention
+hereafter as difficult to understand, I have learned a word quite new
+to me, and which I suspect has but very recently been introduced into
+the French language; at least, it is not to be found in the
+dictionaries, and I therefore presume it to be one of those happy
+inventions which are permitted from time to time to enrich the power
+of expression. How the Academy of former days might have treated it, I
+know not; but it seems to me to express a great deal, and might at
+this time, I think, be introduced very conveniently into our own
+language: at any rate, it may often help me, I think, as a very
+useful adjective. This new-born word is "_rococo_," and appears to me
+to be applied by the young and innovating to everything which bears
+the stamp of the taste, principles, or feelings of time past. That
+part of the French population to whom the epithet of _rococo_ is thus
+applied, may be understood to contain all varieties of old-fashionism,
+from the gentle advocate for laced coats and diamond sword-knots, up
+to the high-minded venerable loyalist, who only loves his rightful
+king the better because he has no means left to requite his love. Such
+is the interpretation of _rococo_ in the mouth of a doctrinaire: but
+if a republican speaks it, he means that it should include also every
+gradation of orderly obedience, even to the powers that be; and, in
+fact, whatever else may be considered as essentially connected either
+with law or gospel.
+
+There is another adjective which appears also to recur so frequently
+as fully to merit, in the same manner, the distinction of being
+considered as fashionable. It is, however, a good old legitimate word,
+admirably expressive too, and at present of more than ordinary
+utility. This is "_décousu_;" and it seems to be the epithet now given
+by the sober-minded to all that smacks of the rambling nonsense of the
+new school of literature, and of all those fragments of opinions which
+hang so loosely about the minds of the young men who discourse
+fashionably of philosophy at Paris.
+
+Were the whole population to be classed under two great divisions, I
+doubt if they could be more expressively designated than by these two
+appellations, the _décousu_ and the _rococo_. I have already stated
+who it is that form the _rococo_ class: the _décousu_ division may be
+considered as embracing the whole of the ultra-romantic school of
+authors, be they novelists, dramatists, or poets; all shades of
+republicans, from the avowed eulogists of the "spirited Robespierre"
+to the gentler disciples of Lamennais; most of the schoolboys, and all
+the _poissardes_ of Paris.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.
+
+      Théâtre Français.--Mademoiselle Mars.--Elmire.--Charlotte
+      Brown.--Extract from a Sermon.
+
+
+It was not without some expectation of having "Guilty of rococoism"
+recorded against me, that I avowed, very soon after my arrival, the
+ardent desire I felt of turning my eyes from all that was new, that I
+might once again see Mars perform the part of Elmire in the
+"Tartuffe."
+
+I was not quite without fear, too, that I was running some risk of
+effacing the delightful recollections of the past, by contemplating
+the change which seven years had made. I almost feared to let my
+children behold a reality that might destroy their _beau idéal_ of the
+only perfect actress still remaining on the stage.
+
+But "Tartuffe" was on the bills: it might not soon appear again; an
+early dinner was hastily dispatched, and once more I found myself
+before the curtain which I had so often seen rise to Talma, Duchenois,
+and Mars.
+
+I perceived with great pleasure on reaching the theatre, that the
+Parisians, though fickle in all else, were still faithful in their
+adoration of Mademoiselle Mars: for now, for perhaps the five
+hundredth representation of her Elmire, the barricades were as
+necessary, the _queue_ as long and as full, as when, fifteen years
+ago, I was first told to remark the wonderful power of attraction
+possessed by an actress already greatly past the first bloom of youth
+and beauty. Were the Parisians as defensible in their ordinary love of
+change as they are in this singular proof of fidelity, it would be
+well. It is, however, strange witchery.
+
+That the ear should be gratified, and the feelings awakened, by the
+skilful intonations of a voice the sweetest perhaps that ever blest a
+mortal, is quite intelligible; but that the eye should follow with
+such unwearied delight every look and movement of a woman, not only
+old--for that does sometimes happen at Paris--but one known to be so
+from one end of Europe to the other, is certainly a singular
+phenomenon. Yet so it is; and could you see her, you would understand
+why, though not how, it is so. There is still a charm, a grace, in
+every movement of Mademoiselle Mars, however trifling and however
+slight, which instantly captivates the eye, and forbids it to wander
+to any other object--even though that object be young and lovely.
+
+Why is it that none of the young heads can learn to turn like hers?
+Why can no arms move with the same beautiful and easy elegance? Her
+very fingers, even when gloved, seem to aid her expression; and the
+quietest and least posture-studying of actresses contrives to make the
+most trifling and ordinary movement assist in giving effect to her
+part.
+
+I would willingly consent to be dead for a few hours, if I could
+meanwhile bring Molière to life, and let him see Mars play one of his
+best-loved characters. How delicious would be his pleasure in
+beholding the creature of his own fancy thus exquisitely alive before
+him; and of marking, moreover, the thrill that makes itself heard
+along the closely-packed rows of the parterre, when his wit, conveyed
+by this charming conductor, runs round the house like the touch of
+electricity! Do you think that the best smile of Louis le Grand could
+be worth this?
+
+Few theatrical pieces can, I think, be calculated to give less
+pleasure than that of "Charlotte Brown," which followed the
+"Tartuffe;" but as the part of Charlotte is played by Mademoiselle
+Mars, people will stay to see it. I repented however that I did not
+go, for it made me cross and angry.
+
+Such an actress as Mars should not be asked to try a _tour de force_
+in order to make an abortive production effective. And what else can
+it be called, if her touching pathos and enchanting grace are brought
+before the public, to make them endure a platitude that would have
+been hissed into oblivion ere it had well seen light without her? It
+is hardly fair to expect that a performer should create as well as
+personate the chief character of a piece; but Mademoiselle Mars
+certainly does nothing less, when she contrives to excite sympathy and
+interest for a low-born and low-minded woman, who has managed to make
+a great match by telling a great falsehood. Yet "Charlotte Brown" is
+worth seeing for the sake of a certain tragic look given by this
+wonderful actress at the moment when her falsehood is discovered. It
+is no exaggeration to say, that Mrs. Siddons never produced an
+expression of greater power.
+
+It is long since I have seen any theatre so crowded.
+
+I remember many years ago hearing what I thought an excellent sermon
+from a venerable rector, who happened to have a curate more remarkable
+for the conscientious manner in which he performed his duty to the
+parish, and the judicious selection of his discourses, than for the
+excellence of his original sermons. "It is the duty of a minister,"
+said the old man, "to address the congregation which shall assemble to
+hear him with the most impressive and most able eloquence that it is
+within the compass of his power to use; and far better is it that the
+approved wisdom of those who have passed away be read from the pulpit,
+than that the weak efforts of an ungifted preacher should fall wearily
+and unprofitably on the ears of his congregation. The fact that his
+discourse is manuscript, instead of printed, will hardly console them
+for the difference."
+
+Do you not think--with all reverence be it spoken--that the same
+reasoning might be very usefully addressed to the managers of
+theatres, not in France only, but all the world over? If it cost too
+much to have a good new piece, would it not be better to have a good
+old one?
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.
+
+      Exhibition of Living Artists at the Louvre.--The
+      Deluge.--Poussin and Martin.--Portraits.--Appearance of the
+      company.
+
+
+I have been so little careful about dates and seasons, as totally to
+have forgotten, or rather neglected to learn, that the period of our
+arriving at Paris was that of the Exhibition of Living Artists at the
+Louvre: and it is not easy to describe the feeling produced by
+entering the gallery, with the expectation of seeing what I had been
+used to see there, and finding what was, at least, so very different.
+
+Nevertheless, the exhibition is a very fine one, and so greatly
+superior to any I had heretofore seen of the modern French school,
+that we soon had the consolation of finding ourselves amused, and I
+may say delighted, notwithstanding our disappointment.
+
+But surely there never was a device hit upon so little likely to
+propitiate the feelings which generate applause, as this of covering
+up Poussin, Rubens, Raphael, Titian, and Correggio, by hanging before
+them the fresh results of modern palettes. It is indeed a most
+un-coquettish mode of extorting attention.
+
+There are some pictures of the Louvre Gallery in particular, with
+which my children are well acquainted, either by engravings or
+description, whose eclipse produced a very sad effect. "The Deluge" of
+Poussin is one of these. Perhaps it may have been my brother's
+striking description of this picture which made it pre-eminently an
+object of interest to us. You may remember that Mr. Milton, in his
+elegant and curious little volume on the Fine Arts, written at Paris
+just before the breaking up of Napoleon's collection, says in speaking
+of it--"Colouring was unquestionably Poussin's least excellence; yet
+in this collection there is one of his pictures--the Deluge--in which
+the effect produced by the mere colouring is most singular and
+powerful. The air is burdened and heavy with water; the earth, where
+it is not as yet overwhelmed, seems torn to pieces by its violence:
+the very light of heaven is absorbed and lost." I give you this
+passage, because I remember no picture described with equal brevity,
+yet brought so powerfully before the imagination of the reader.
+
+Can the place where one comes to look for this be favourable for
+hanging our illustrious countryman's representation of the same
+subject? It is doing him a most ungratifying honour; and were I Mr.
+Martin, or any other painter living, I would not consent to be
+exposed to the invidious comparisons which must inevitably ensue from
+such an injudicious arrangement.
+
+How exceedingly disagreeable, for instance, must it be for the
+artists--who, I believe, not unfrequently indulge themselves by
+hovering under the incognito of apparent indifference near their
+favourite works--to overhear such remarks as those to which I listened
+yesterday in that part of the gallery where Le Sueur's St. Brunos
+hang!--"Certainly, the bows on that lady's dress are of a delicate
+blue," said the critic; "and so is the drapery of Le Sueur, which, for
+my sins, I happen to know is hid just under it.... Would one wish a
+better contrast to what it hides, than that unmeaning smile--that
+cold, smooth, varnished skin,--those lifeless limbs, and the whole
+unspeakable tameness of this thing, called _portrait d'une dame_?"
+
+He spoke truly; yet was there but little point in what he said, for it
+might have referred with equal justice to many a pretty lady doomed to
+simper for ever in her gilded frame.
+
+On the whole, however, portraits are much less oppressively
+predominating than with us; and among them are many whose size,
+composition, and exquisite style of finishing redeem them altogether
+from the odium of being _de trop_ in the collection. I cannot but wish
+that this style of portrait-painting may find favour and imitation in
+England.
+
+Lawrence is gone; and though Gérard on this side of the water, and
+indeed too many to rehearse on both, are left, whose portraitures of
+the human face are admirable; true to nature; true to art; true to
+expression,--true, even to the want of it; I am greatly inclined to
+believe that the enormous sums annually expended on these clever
+portraits contribute more to lower than to raise the art in popularity
+and in the genuine estimation of the public. The sums thus lavished
+may be termed patronage, certainly; but it is patronage that bribes
+the artist to the restraint, and often to the destruction, of his
+genius.
+
+Is there, in fact, any one who can honestly deny that a splendid
+exhibition-room, crowded with ladies and gentlemen on canvass, as
+large as life, is a lounge of great tediousness and inanity?
+
+We may feel some satisfaction in recognising at a glance the eyes,
+nose, mouth, and chin of many of our friends and acquaintance,--nay,
+our most critical judgment may often acknowledge that these familiar
+features are registered with equal truth and skill; but this will not
+prevent the exhibition from being very dull. Nor is the thing much
+mended when each portrait, or pair of portraits, has been withdrawn
+from the gaudy throng, and hung up for ever and for ever before the
+eyes of their family and friends. The fair lady, sweetly smiling in
+one division of the apartment, and the well-dressed gentleman looking
+_distingué_ in another, contribute as little at home as they did when
+suspended on the walls of the academy to the real pleasure and
+amusement of the beholder.
+
+At the exhibition this year at the Louvre are many exquisite
+full-length portraits in oil, of which the canvass measures from
+eighteen inches to a foot in height, and from a foot to ten inches in
+width. The composition and style of these beautiful little pictures
+are often such as to detain one long before them, even though one does
+not recognise in them the features of an acquaintance. Their
+unobtrusive size must prevent their ever being disagreeably
+predominant in the decoration of a room; while their delicate and
+elaborate finish, and the richness of their highly-studied
+composition, will well reward attention; and even the closest
+examination, when directed to them, either by politeness, affection,
+or connoisseurship, can never be disappointed.
+
+The Catalogue of the exhibition notices all the pictures which have
+been either ordered or purchased by the king or any of the royal
+family; and the number is so considerable as to show plainly that the
+most liberal and widely-extended patronage of art is a systematic
+object with the government.
+
+The gold medal of the year has been courteously bestowed upon Mr.
+Martin for his picture of the Deluge. Had I been the judge, I should
+have awarded it to Stuben's Battle of Waterloo. That the faculty of
+imagination is one of the highest requisites for a painter is most
+certain; and that Mr. Martin pre-eminently possesses it, not less so.
+But imagination, though it can do much, cannot do all; and common
+sense is at least equally important in the formation of a finished
+artist. The painter of the great day of Waterloo has both. His
+imagination has enabled him to dive into the very hearts and souls of
+the persons he has depicted. Passion speaks in every line; and common
+sense has taught him, that, however powerful--nay, vehement, might be
+the expression he sought to produce, it must be obtained rather by the
+patient and faithful imitation of Nature than by a bold defiance of
+her.
+
+The Assassination of the Duc de Guise, by M. Delaroche, is an
+admirable and highly popular work. It requires some patient
+perseverance to contest inch by inch the slow approach to the place
+where this exquisite piece of finishing is hung--but it well rewards
+the time and labour. One or two lovely little pictures by Franquelin
+made me envy those who have power to purchase, and sigh to think that
+they will probably go into private collections, where I shall never
+see them more. There are, indeed, many pictures so very good, that I
+think it possible the judges may have relieved themselves from the
+embarrassment of declaring which was best, by politely awarding the
+palm to the stranger.
+
+I could indulge myself, did I not fear to weary you, by dwelling much
+longer upon my agreeable recollections of this extensive
+exhibition--containing, by the way, 2,174 pictures,--and might
+particularise many very admirable works. Nevertheless, I must repeat,
+that thus hiding the precious labours of all schools, and of all ages
+of painting, by the promiscuous productions of the living artists of
+France during the last year, is a most injudicious device for winning
+for them the golden opinions of those who throng from all quarters of
+the world to visit the Louvre.
+
+This exhibition reaches to about three-fourths of the gallery; and
+where it ceases, a grim curtain, suspended across it, conceals the
+precious labours of the Spanish and Italian schools, which occupy the
+farther end. Can anything be imagined more tantalising than this? And
+where is the living artist who could stand his ground against such
+cruel odds?
+
+To render the effect more striking still, this dismal curtain is
+permitted so to hang as to leave a few inches between its envious
+amplitude and the rich wall--suffering the mellow browns of a
+well-known Murillo to meet and mock the eye. Certainly not all the
+lecturers of all the academies extant could point out a more effectual
+manner of showing the modern French artist wherein he chiefly fails:
+let us hope he will profit by it.
+
+As I am writing of Paris, it must be almost superfluous to say that
+the admission to this collection is gratis.
+
+I cannot quit the subject without adding a few words respecting the
+company, or at least a part of it, whose appearance, I thought, gave
+very unequivocal marks of the march of mind and of indecorum;--for a
+considerable sprinkling of very particularly greasy citizens and
+citizenesses made itself felt and seen at every point where the
+critical crowd was thickest. But--
+
+     "Sweetest nut hath sourest rind;"
+
+and it were treason here, I suppose, to doubt that such a proportion
+of intellect and refinement lies hid under the soiled _blouse_ and
+time-worn petticoat, as is at least equal to any that we may hope to
+find enveloped in lawn, and lace, and broadcloth.
+
+It is an incontrovertible fact, I think, that when the immortals of
+Paris raised the barricades in the streets, they pulled them down,
+more or less, in society. But this is an evil which those who look
+beyond the present hour for their sources of joy and sorrow need not
+deeply lament. Nature herself--at least such as she shows herself,
+when man, forsaking the forest, agrees with his fellows to congregate
+in cities--Nature herself will take care to set this right again.
+
+     "Strength will be lord of imbecility;"
+
+and were all men equal in the morning, they would not go to rest till
+some amongst them had been thoroughly made to understand that it was
+their lot to strew the couches of the rest. Such is the law of nature;
+and mere brute numerical strength will no more enable a mob to set it
+aside, than it will enable the ox or the elephant to send us to
+plough, or draw out our teeth to make their young one's toys.
+
+For the present moment, however, some of the rubbish that the
+commotion of "the Ordonnances" stirred up may still be seen floating
+about on the surface; and it is difficult to observe without a smile
+in what chiefly consists the liberty which these immortals have so
+valiantly bled to acquire. We may truly say of the philosophical
+population of Paris, that "they are thankful for small matters;" one
+of the most remarkable of their newly-acquired rights being certainly
+the privilege of presenting themselves dirty, instead of clean, before
+the eyes of their magnates.
+
+  [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+   LOUVRE.
+   London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.]
+
+I am sure you must remember in days of yore,--that is to say, before
+the last revolution,--how very agreeable a part of the spectacle at
+the Louvre and in the Tuileries Gardens was constituted by the
+people,--not the ladies and gentlemen--they look pretty much the same
+everywhere; but by the careful coquetry of the pretty costumes, now a
+_cauchoise_, and now a _toque_,--the spruce neatness of the men who
+attended them,--nay, even by the tight and tidy trimness of the "wee
+things" that in long waist, silk apron, snow-white cap, and
+faultless _chaussure_, trotted beside them. All these added greatly to
+the pleasantness and gaiety of the scene. But now, till the fresh dirt
+(not the fresh gloss) of the Three Days' labour be worn off, dingy
+jackets, uncomely _casquettes_, ragged _blouses_, and ill-favoured
+round-eared caps, that look as if they did duty night and day, must
+all be tolerated; and in this toleration appears to consist at present
+the principal external proof of the increased liberty of the Parisian
+mob.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.
+
+      Society.--Morality.--False Impressions and False
+      Reports.--Observations from a Frenchman on a recent
+      publication.
+
+
+Much as I love the sights of Paris,--including as we must under this
+term all that is great and enduring, as well as all that is for ever
+changing and for ever new,--I am more earnestly bent, as you will
+readily believe, upon availing myself of all my opportunities for
+listening to the conversation within the houses, than on contemplating
+all the marvels that may be seen without.
+
+Joyfully, therefore, have I welcomed the attention and kindness that
+have been offered me in various quarters; and I have already the
+satisfaction of finding myself on terms of most pleasant and familiar
+intercourse with a variety of very delightful people, many of them
+highly distinguished, and, happily for me, varying in their opinions
+of all things both in heaven and earth, from the loftiest elevation of
+the _rococo_, to the lowest profundity of the _décousu_ school.
+
+And here let me pause, to assure you, and any other of my countrymen
+and countrywomen whose ears I can reach, that excursions to Paris, be
+they undertaken with what spirit of enterprise they may, and though
+they may be carried through with all the unrestrained expense that
+English wealth can permit, yet without the power by some means or
+other of entering into good French society, they are nothing worth.
+
+It is true, that there is something most exceedingly exhilarating to
+the spirits in the mere external novelty and cheerfulness of the
+objects which surround a stranger on first entering Paris. That
+indescribable air of gaiety which makes every sunshiny day look like a
+fête; the light hilarity of spirit that seems to pervade all ranks;
+the cheerful tone of voice, the sparkling glances of the numberless
+bright eyes; the gardens, the flowers, the statues of Paris,--all
+together produce an effect very like enchantment.
+
+But "use lessens marvel;" and when the first delightful excitement is
+over, and we begin to feel weary from its very intensity, the next
+step is backward into rationality, low spirits, and grumbling.
+
+From that moment the English tourist talks of nothing but wide rivers,
+magnificent bridges, prodigious _trottoirs_, unrivalled drains, and
+genuine port. It is at this stage that the traveller, in order to
+continue his enjoyment and bring it to perfection, should remit his
+examination of the exterior of noble _hôtels_, and endeavour to be
+admitted to the much more enduring enchantment which prevails within
+them.
+
+So much has already been said and written on the grace and charm of
+the French language in conversation, that it is quite needless to
+dwell upon it. That _good things_ can be said in no other idiom with
+equal grace, is a fact that can neither be controverted nor more
+firmly established than it is already. Happily, the art of expressing
+a clever thought in the best possible words did not die with Madame de
+Sévigné; nor has it yet been destroyed by revolution of any kind.
+
+It is not only for the amusement of an hour, however, that I would
+recommend the assiduous cultivation of good French society to the
+English. Great and important improvements in our national manners have
+already arisen from the intercourse which long peace has permitted.
+Our dinner-tables are no longer disgraced by inebriety; nor are our
+men and women, when they form a party expressly for the purpose of
+enjoying each other's society, separated by the law of the land during
+half the period for which the social meeting has been convened.
+
+But we have much to learn still; and the general tone of our daily
+associations might be yet farther improved, did the best specimens of
+Parisian habits and manners furnish the examples.
+
+It is not from the large and brilliant parties which recur in every
+fashionable mansion, perhaps, three or four times in each season,
+that I think we could draw much improvement. A fine party at Lady
+A----'s in Grosvenor Square, is not more like a fine party at Lady
+B----'s in Berkeley Square, than a fine party in Paris is to one in
+London. There are abundance of pretty women, handsome men, satin,
+gauze, velvet, diamonds, chains, stars, moustaches, and imperials at
+both, with perhaps very little deserving the name of rational
+enjoyment in either.
+
+I suspect, indeed, that we have rather the advantage on these crowded
+occasions, for we more frequently change the air by passing from one
+room to another when we eat our ices; and as the tulip-tinctured
+throng enjoy this respite from suffocation by detachments, they have
+often not only opportunity to breathe, but occasionally to converse
+also, for several minutes together, without danger of being dislodged
+from their standing-ground.
+
+It is not, therefore, at the crowded roll-calls of all their
+acquaintance that I would look for anything rational or peculiar in the
+_salons_ of Paris, but in the daily and constant intercourse of familiar
+companionship. This is enjoyed with a degree of pleasant ease--an
+absence of all pomp, pride, and circumstance, of which unhappily we have
+no idea. Alas! we must know by special printed announcement a month
+beforehand that our friend is "at home,"--that liveried servants will
+be in attendance, and her mansion blazing with light,--before we can
+dare venture to pass an evening hour in her drawing-room. How would a
+London lady stare, if some half-dozen--though perhaps among the most
+chosen favourites of her visiting-list--were to walk unbidden into her
+presence, in bonnets and shawls, between the hours of eight and eleven!
+And how strangely new would it seem, were the pleasantest and most
+coveted engagements of the week, formed without ceremony and kept
+without ostentation, to arise from a casual meeting at the beginning
+of it!
+
+It is this ease, this habitual absence of ceremony and parade, this
+national enmity to constraint and tediousness of all kinds, which
+renders the tone of French manners so infinitely more agreeable than
+our own. And the degree in which this is the case can only be guessed
+at by those who, by some happy accident or other, possess a real and
+effective "open sesame!" for the doors of Paris.
+
+With all the superabundance of vanity ascribed to the French, they
+certainly show infinitely less of it in their intercourse with their
+fellow-creatures than we do. I have seen a countess, whose title was
+of a dozen fair descents, open the external door of her apartment, and
+welcome the guests who appeared at it with as much grace and elegance
+as if a triple relay of tall fellows who wore her colours had handed
+their names from hall to drawing-room. Yet in this case there was no
+want of wealth. Coachman, footman, abigail, and doubtless all fitting
+etceteras, owned her as their sovereign lady and mistress. But they
+happened to have been sent hither and thither, and it never entered
+her imagination that her dignity could be compromised by her appearing
+without them. In short, the vanity of the French does not show itself
+in little things; and it is exactly for this reason that their
+enjoyment of society is stripped of so much of the anxious, sensitive,
+ostentatious, self-seeking etiquette which so heavily encumbers our
+own.
+
+There are some among us, my friend, who might say of this testimony to
+the charm of French society, that there was danger in praising, and
+pointing out as an example to be followed, the manners of a people
+whose morality is considered as so much less strict than our own.
+Could I think that, by thus approving what is agreeable, I could
+lessen by a single hair's-breadth the interval which we believe exists
+between us in this respect, I would turn my approval to reproof, and
+my superficial praise to deep-dyed reprobation: but to any who should
+express such a fear, I would reply by assuring them that it would
+require a very different species of intimacy from any to which I had
+the honour of being admitted, in order to authorise, from personal
+observation, any attack upon the morals of Parisian society. More
+scrupulous and delicate refinement in _the tone of manners_ can
+neither be found nor wished for anywhere; and I do very strongly
+suspect, that many of the pictures of French depravity which have been
+brought home to us by our travellers, have been made after sketches
+taken in scenes and circles to which the introductions I so strongly
+recommend to my countrywomen could by no possibility lead them. It is
+not of such that I can be supposed to speak.
+
+Apropos of false impressions and false reports, I may repeat to you an
+anecdote which I heard yesterday evening. The little committee in
+which it was related consisted of at least a dozen persons, and it
+appeared that I was myself the only one to whom it was new.
+
+"It is rather more than two years ago," said the speaker, "that we had
+amongst us an English gentleman, who avowed that it was his purpose to
+write on France, not as other men write--superficially, respecting
+truths that lie obvious to ordinary eyes--but with a research that
+should make him acquainted with all things above, about, and
+underneath. He professed this intention to more than one dear friend;
+and more than one dear friend took the trouble of tracing him in his
+chase after hidden truths. Not long after his arrival among us, this
+gentleman became intimately acquainted with a lady more celebrated for
+the variety of her friendships with men of letters than for the
+endurance of them. This lady received the attentions of the stranger
+with distinguished kindness, and, among other proofs of regard,
+undertook to purvey for him all sorts of private anecdotes, great and
+little, that from the mass he might form an average estimate of the
+people; assuring him at the same time, that no one in Paris was more
+_au fait_ of its secret histories than herself. This," continued my
+informant, "might be, and I believe was, very particularly true; and
+the English traveller might have been justified in giving to his
+countrymen and countrywomen as much insight into such mysteries as he
+thought good for them: but when he published the venomous slanders of
+this female respecting persons not only of the highest honour, but of
+the most unspotted reputation, he did what will blast his name as long
+as his charlatan book is remembered." Such were the indignant words,
+and there was nothing in the tone with which they were uttered to
+weaken their expression.
+
+I tell you the tale as I heard it; but I will not repeat much more
+that was said on the same subject, nor will I give any A..., B..., or
+C... hints as to the names so freely mentioned.
+
+Some degree of respectability ought certainly to attach to those from
+whom important information is sought respecting the morals and manners
+of a country, when it is the intention of the inquirer that his
+observations and statements upon it should become authority to the
+whole civilized world.
+
+The above conversation, however, was brought to a laughing conclusion
+by Madame C----, who, addressing her husband as he was seconding the
+angry eloquence I have repeated, said, "Calmez-vous donc, mon ami:
+après tout, le tableau fait par M. le Voyageur des dames Anglaises n'a
+rien à nous faire mourir de jalousie."
+
+I suspect that neither you nor any other lady of England will feel
+disposed to contradict her.
+
+     Adieu!
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.
+
+      Alarm created by the Trial of the Lyons Prisoners.--Visits
+      from a Republican and from a Doctrinaire: reassured by the
+      promises of safety and protection received from the latter.
+
+
+We have really had something very like a panic amongst us, from the
+rumours in circulation respecting this terrible trial, which is now
+rapidly approaching. Many people think that fearful scenes may be
+expected to take place in Paris when it begins.
+
+The newspapers of all parties are so full of the subject, that there
+is little else to be found in them; and all those, of whatever colour,
+which are opposed to the government, describe the manner in which the
+proceedings are to be managed, as the most tyrannical exercise of
+power ever practised in modern Europe.
+
+The legitimate royalists declare it to be illegal, inasmuch as the
+culprits have a right to be tried by a jury of their peers--the
+citizens of France; whereas it appears that this their chartered right
+is denied them, and that no other judge or jury is to be permitted in
+their case than the peers of France.
+
+Whether this accusation will be satisfactorily answered, I know not;
+but there certainly does appear to be something rather plausible, at
+least, in the objection. Nevertheless, it is not very difficult to see
+that the 28th Article of the Charter may be made to answer it, which
+says,--
+
+      "The Chamber of Peers takes cognizance of high-treason, and
+      of attempts against the safety of the state, _which shall be
+      defined by law_."
+
+Now, though this _defining by law_ appears, by what I can learn, to be
+an operation not yet quite completed, there seems to be something so
+very like high-treason in some of the offences for which these
+prisoners are to be tried, that the first clause of the article may do
+indifferently well to cover it.
+
+The republican journals, pamphlets, and publications of all sorts,
+however, treat the whole business of their detention and trial as the
+most tremendous infringement of the newly-acquired rights of Young
+France; and they say--nay, they do swear, that crowned king, created
+peers, and placed ministers never dared to venture upon anything so
+tyrannical as this.
+
+All that the unfortunate Louis Seize ever did, or suffered to be
+done--all that the banished Charles Dix ever threatened to do--never
+"roared so loud, and thundered in the index," as does this deed
+without a name about to be perpetrated by King Louis-Philippe the
+First.
+
+At last, however, the horrible thing has been christened, and PROCÈS
+MONSTRE is its name. This is a happy device, and will save a world of
+words. Before it received this expressive appellation, every paragraph
+concerning it began by a roundabout specification of the horrific
+business they were about to speak of; but since this lucky name has
+been hit upon, all prefatory eloquence is become unnecessary: _Procès
+Monstre!_ simply _Procès Monstre!_ expresses all it could say in two
+words; and whatever follows may safely become matter of news and
+narrative respecting it.
+
+This news, and these narratives, however, still vary considerably, and
+leave one in a very vacillating state of mind as to what may happen
+next. One account states that Paris is immediately to be put under
+martial law, and all foreigners, except those attached to the
+different embassies, civilly requested to depart. Another declares all
+this to be a weak invention of the enemy; but hints that it is
+probable a pretty strong _cordon_ of troops will surround the city, to
+keep watch day and night, lest _les jeunes gens_ of the metropolis, in
+their mettlesome mood, should seek to wash out in the blood of their
+fellow-citizens the stain which the illegitimate birth of the monster
+has brought upon France. Others announce that a devoted body of
+patriots have sworn to sacrifice a hecatomb of National Guards, to
+atone for an abomination which many believe to originate with them.
+
+Not a few declare that the trial will never take place; that the
+government, audacious as they say it is, dare do no more than hold up
+the effigy of the monster to frighten the people, and that a general
+amnesty will end the business. In truth, it would be a tedious task to
+record one half of the tales that are in circulation on this subject:
+but I do assure you, that listening to the awful note of preparation
+for all that is to be done at the Luxembourg is quite enough to make
+one nervous, and many English families have already thought it prudent
+to leave the city.
+
+At one moment we were really worked into a state very nearly
+approaching terror by the vehement eloquence of a fiery-hot republican
+who paid us a visit. I ventured to lead to the terrible subject by
+asking him if he thought the approaching political trials likely to
+produce any result beyond their disagreeable influence on the
+convenience of the parties concerned; but I really repented my
+temerity when I saw the cloud which gathered on his brow as he
+replied:--
+
+"Result! What do you call result, madam? Is the burning indignation of
+millions of Frenchmen a result? Are the execrations of the noble
+beings enslaved, imprisoned, tortured, trampled on by tyranny, a
+result? Are the groans of their wives and mothers--are the tears of
+their bereaved children--a result?--Yes, yes, there will be results
+enough! They are yet to come, but come they will; and when they do,
+think you that the next revolution will be one of three days? Do your
+countrymen think so? does Europe think so? There has been another
+revolution, to which it will more resemble."
+
+He looked rather ashamed of himself, I thought, when he had concluded
+his tirade,--and well he might: but there was such a hideous tone of
+prophecy in this, that I actually trembled as I listened to him, and,
+all jesting apart, thoughts of passports to be signed and conveyances
+to be hired were arranging themselves very seriously in my brain. But
+before we went out for the evening, all these gloomy meditations were
+most agreeably dispersed by a visit from a staid old doctrinaire, who
+was not only a soberer politician, but one considerably more likely to
+know what he was talking about than the youth who had harangued us in
+the morning.
+
+Anxious to have my fears either confirmed or removed, I hastened to
+tell him, half in jest, half in earnest, that we were beginning to
+think of taking an abrupt leave of Paris. "And why?" said he.
+
+I stated very seriously my newly-awakened fears; at which he laughed
+heartily, and with an air of such unfeigned amusement, that I was
+cured at once.
+
+"Whom can you have been listening to?" said he.
+
+"I will not give up my authority," I replied with proper diplomatic
+discretion; "but I will tell you exactly what a gentleman who has been
+here this morning has been saying to us." And I did so precisely as I
+have repeated it to you; upon which he laughed more heartily than
+before, and rubbing his hands as if perfectly delighted, he exclaimed,
+"Delicious! And you really have been fortunate enough to fall in with
+one of these _enfans perdus_? I really wish you joy. But do not set
+off immediately: listen first to another view of the case." I assured
+him that this was exactly what I wished to do, and very truly declared
+that he could do me no greater favour than to put me _au fait_ of the
+real state of affairs.
+
+"Willingly will I do so," said he; "and be assured I will not deceive
+you." Whereupon I closed the _croisée_, that no rattling wheels might
+disturb us, and prepared to listen.
+
+"My good lady," he began with great kindness, "soyez tranquille. There
+is no more danger of revolution at this time in France than there is
+in Russia. Louis-Philippe is adored; the laws are respected; order is
+universally established; and if there be a sentiment of discontent or
+a feeling approaching to irritation among any deserving the name of
+Frenchmen, it is against these miserable _vauriens_, who still cherish
+the wild hope of disturbing our peace and our prosperity. But fear
+nothing: trust me, the number of these is too small to make it worth
+while to count them."
+
+You will believe I heard this with sincere satisfaction; and I really
+felt very grateful, both for the information, and the friendly manner
+in which it was given.
+
+"I rejoice to hear this," said I: "but may I, as a matter of
+curiosity, ask you what you think about this famous trial? How do you
+think it will end?"
+
+"As all trials ought to end," he replied: "by bringing all such as are
+found guilty to punishment."
+
+"Heaven grant it!" said I; "for the sake of mankind in general, and
+for that portion of it in particular which happen at the present
+moment to inhabit Paris. But do you not think that the irritation
+produced by these preparations at the Luxembourg is of considerable
+extent and violence?"
+
+"To whatever extent this irritation may have gone," he answered
+gravely, "it is an undoubted fact,--undoubted in the quarter where
+most is known about the matter,--that the feeling which approves these
+preparations is not only of greater extent, but of infinitely deeper
+sincerity, than that which is opposed to it. What you have heard
+to-day is mere unmeaning bluster. The trial, I do assure you, is very
+popular. It is for the justification and protection of the National
+Guard;--and are we not all National Guards?"
+
+"But are all the National Guards true?"
+
+"Perhaps not. But be sure of this, that there are enough true to
+_égorger_ without any difficulty those who are not."
+
+"But is it not very probable," said I, "that the republican feeling
+may be quite strong enough to produce another disturbance, though not
+another revolution? And the situation of strangers would probably
+become very embarrassing, should this eventually lead to any renewed
+outbreakings of public enthusiasm."
+
+"Not the least in the world, I do assure you: for, at any rate, all
+the enthusiasm, as you civilly call it, would only elicit additional
+proof of the stability and power of the government which we are now so
+happy as to enjoy. The enthusiasm would be speedily calmed, depend
+upon it."
+
+"A peaceable traveller," said I, "can wish for no better news; and
+henceforward I shall endeavour to read and to listen with a tranquil
+spirit, let the prisoners or their partisans say what they may."
+
+"You will do wisely, believe me. Rest in perfect confidence and
+security, and be assured that Louis-Philippe holds all the English as
+his right good friends. While this is the case, neither Windsor
+Castle nor the Tower of London itself could afford you a safer abode
+than Paris."
+
+With this seasonable and very efficient encouragement, he left me; and
+as I really believe him to know more about the new-born politics of
+"Young France" than most people, I go on very tranquilly making
+engagements, with but few misgivings lest barricades should prevent my
+keeping them.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.
+
+      Eloquence of the Pulpit.--L'Abbé Coeur.--Sermon at St.
+      Roch.--Elegant Congregation.--Costume of the younger Clergy.
+
+
+There is one novelty, and to me a very agreeable one, which I have
+remarked since my return to this volatile France: this is the fashion
+and consideration which now attend the eloquence of her preachers.
+
+Political economists assert that the supply of every article follows
+the demand for it in a degree nicely proportioned to the wants of the
+population; and it is upon this principle, I presume, that we must
+account for the present affluence of a talent which some few years ago
+could hardly be said to exist in France, and might perhaps have been
+altogether denied to it, had not the pages both of Fenelon and his
+eloquent antagonist, Bossuet, rendered such an injustice impossible.
+
+It was, I think, about a dozen years ago that I took some trouble to
+discover if any traces of this glorious eloquence remained at Paris. I
+heard sermons at Notre Dame--at St. Roch--at St. Eustache; but never
+was a search after talent attended with worse success. The preachers
+were nought; they had the air, too, of being vulgar and uneducated
+men,--which I believe was, and indeed still is, very frequently the
+case. The churches were nearly empty; and the few persons scattered up
+and down their splendid aisles appeared, generally speaking, to be of
+the very lowest order of old women.
+
+How great is now the contrast! Nowhere are we so certain of seeing a
+crowd of elegantly-dressed and distinguished persons as in the
+principal churches of Paris. Nor is it a crowd that mocks the eye with
+any tinsel pretensions to a rank they do not possess. Inquire who it
+is that so meekly and devoutly kneels on one side of you--that so
+sedulously turns the pages of her prayer-book on the other, and you
+will be answered by the announcement of the noblest names remaining in
+France.
+
+Though the eloquence of the pulpit has always been an object of
+attention and interest to me in all countries, I hardly ventured on my
+first arrival here to inquire again if anything of the kind existed,
+lest I should once more be sent to listen to an inaudible mumbling
+preacher, and to look at the deaf and dozing old women who formed his
+congregation. But it has needed no inquiry to make us speedily
+acquainted with the fact, that the churches have become the favourite
+resort of the young, the beautiful, the high-born, and the
+instructed. Whence comes this change?
+
+"Have you heard l'Abbé Coeur?" was a question asked me before I had
+been here a week, by one who would not for worlds have been accounted
+_rococo_. When I replied that I had not even heard of him, I saw
+plainly that it was decided I could know very little indeed of what
+was going on in Paris. "That is really extraordinary! but I engage you
+to go without delay. He is, I assure you, quite as much the fashion as
+Taglioni."
+
+As the conversation was continued on the subject of fashionable
+preachers, I soon found that I was indeed altogether benighted. Other
+celebrated names were cited: Lacordaire, Deguerry, and some others
+that I do not remember, were spoken of as if their fame must of
+necessity have reached from pole to pole, but of which, in truth, I
+knew no more than if the gentlemen had been private chaplains to the
+princes of Chili. However, I set down all their names with much
+docility; and the more I listened, the more I rejoiced that the
+Passion-week and Easter, those most Catholic seasons for preaching,
+were before us, being fully determined to profit by this opportunity
+of hearing in perfection what was so perfectly new to me as popular
+preaching in Paris.
+
+I have lost little time in putting this resolution into effect. The
+church of St. Roch is, I believe, the most fashionable in Paris; it
+was there, too, that we were sure of hearing this celebrated Abbé
+Coeur; and both these reasons together decided that it was at St.
+Roch our sermon-seeking should begin: I therefore immediately set
+about discovering the day and hour on which he would make his
+appearance in the pulpit.
+
+When inquiring these particulars in the church, we were informed, that
+if we intended to procure chairs, it would be necessary to come at
+least one good hour before the high mass which preceded the sermon
+should begin. This was rather alarming intelligence to a party of
+heretics who had an immense deal of business on their hands; but I was
+steadfast in my purpose, and, with a small detachment of my family,
+submitted to the preliminary penance of sitting the long silent hour
+in front of the pulpit of St. Roch. The precaution was, however,
+perfectly necessary, for the crowd was really tremendous; but, to
+console us, it was of the most elegant description; and, after all,
+the hour scarcely appeared much too long for the business of reviewing
+the vast multitude of graceful personages, waving plumes, and blooming
+flowers, that ceased not during every moment of the time to collect
+themselves closer and closer still about us.
+
+Nothing certainly could be more beautiful than this collection of
+bonnets, unless it were the collection of eyes under them. The
+proportion of ladies to gentlemen was on the whole, we thought, not
+less than twelve to one.
+
+"Je désirerais savoir," said a young man near me, addressing an
+extremely pretty woman who sat beside him,--"Je désirerais savoir si
+par hasard M. l'Abbé Coeur est jeune."
+
+The lady answered not, but frowned most indignantly.
+
+A few minutes afterwards, his doubts upon this point, if he really had
+any, were removed. A man far from ill-looking, and farther still from
+being old, mounted the tribune, and some thousands of bright eyes were
+riveted upon him. The silent and profound attention which hung on
+every word he uttered, unbroken as it was by a single idle sound, or
+even glance, showed plainly that his influence upon the splendid and
+numerous congregation that surrounded him must be very great, or the
+power of his eloquence very strong: and it was an influence and a
+power that, though "of another parish," I could well conceive must be
+generally felt, _for he was in earnest_. His voice, though weak and
+somewhat wirey, was distinct, and his enunciation clear: I did not
+lose a word.
+
+His manner was simple and affectionate; his language strong, yet not
+intemperate; but he decidedly appealed more to the hearts of his
+hearers than to their understandings; and it was their hearts that
+answered him, for many of them wept plenteously.
+
+A great number of priests were present at this sermon, who were all
+dressed in their full clerical habits, and sat in places reserved for
+them immediately in front of the pulpit: they were consequently very
+near us, and we had abundant opportunity to remark the traces of that
+_march of mind_ which is doing so many wondrous works upon earth.
+
+Instead of the tonsure which we have been used to see, certainly with
+some feeling of reverence--for it was often shorn into the very centre
+of crisped locks, while their raven black or shining chesnut still
+spoke of youth that scrupled not to sacrifice its comeliness to a
+feeling of religious devotion;--instead of this, we now saw unshaven
+crowns, and more than one pair of flourishing _favoris_, nourished,
+trained, and trimmed evidently with the nicest care, though a stiff
+three-cornered cowl in every instance hung behind the rich and waving
+honours of the youthful head.
+
+The effect of this strange mixture is very singular. But
+notwithstanding this bold abandonment of priestly costume among the
+junior clergy, there were in the long double row of anointed heads
+which faced the pulpit some exceedingly fine studies for an artist;
+and wherever the offending Adam was subdued by years, nothing could be
+in better keeping than the countenances, and the sacred garb of those
+to whom they belonged. Similar causes will, I suppose, at all times
+produce similar effects; and it is therefore that among the twenty
+priests at St. Roch in 1835, I seemed to recognise the originals of
+many a holy head with which the painters of Italy, Spain, and Flanders
+have made me familiar.
+
+The contrast furnished by the deep-set eyes, and the fine severe
+expression of some of these consecrated brows, to the light, airy
+elegance of the pretty women around them, was sufficiently striking;
+and, together with the mellow light of the shaded windows, and the
+lofty spaciousness of the noble church, formed a spectacle highly
+picturesque and impressive.
+
+After the sermon was over, and while the gaily-habited congregation
+fluttered away through the different doors like so many butterflies
+hastening to meet returning sunshine, we amused ourselves by wandering
+round the church. It is magnificently large for a parish church; but,
+excepting in some of the little chapels, we found not much to admire.
+
+That very unrighteous old churchman, the Abbé Dubois, has a fine
+monument there, restored from Les Petits Augustins; and a sort of
+marble medallion, bearing the head of the immortal Corneille--immortal
+despite M. Victor Hugo--is also restored, and placed against one of
+the heavy columns of, I think, the centre aisle. But we paused longest
+in a little chapel behind the altar--not the middle one, with its
+well-managed glory of crimson light, though that is very beautiful;
+but in the one to the right of it, which contains a sculptured
+Calvary. It is, I believe, only one of _les stations_, of which twelve
+are to be found in different parts of the church; but it has a
+charm--seen as we saw it, with a strong effect of accidental light,
+bringing forward the delicate figure of the adoring Magdalene, and
+leaving the Saviour in the dark shadow and repose of death--that sets
+at defiance all the connoisseurship of art, and taking from you all
+faculty to judge, leaves only the power to feel. Under these
+circumstances, whether quite delusive or not I hardly know, this group
+appeared to us one of exceeding beauty.
+
+The high altar of St. Roch, and the extremity of the carpeted space
+enclosed round it, is most lavishly, beautifully, and fragrantly
+adorned with flowers of the choicest kind, all flourishing in the
+fullest bloom in boxes and vases. It is the only instance I remember
+in which the perfume of this most fair and holy decoration actually
+pervaded the church. They certainly offer the sweetest incense that
+can be found to breathe its grateful life and spirit out on any altar;
+and were it not for the graceful swinging of the censers, which very
+particularly pleases my eye, I would recommend to the Roman Catholic
+church henceforth an economy of their precious gums, and advise them
+to offer the incense of flowers in their stead.
+
+Before we left the church, about a hundred and fifty boys and girls,
+from ten to fourteen years of age, assembled to be catechised by a
+young priest, who received them behind the Lady Chapel. His manner was
+familiar, caressing and kind, and his waving hair fell about his ears
+like the picture of a young St. John.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.
+
+      Literature of the Revolutionary School.--Its low estimation
+      in France.
+
+
+Among many proofs of attentive kindness which I have received from my
+Paris friends, their care to furnish me with a variety of modern
+publications is not the least agreeable.
+
+One fancies everywhere, that it is easy, by the help of a circulating
+library, to know tolerably well what is going on at Paris: but this is
+a mighty fond delusion; though sometimes, perhaps, our state may be
+the more gracious from our ignorance.
+
+One gentleman, to whom I owe much gratitude for the active good-nature
+with which he seems willing to assist me in all my researches, has
+given me much curious information respecting the present state of
+literature and literary men in France.
+
+In this department of human greatness, at least, those of the party
+which has lost power and place have a most decided pre-eminence. Would
+it be a pun to say that there is poetical justice in this?
+
+The active, busy, bustling politicians of the hour have succeeded in
+thrusting everything else out of place, and themselves into it. One
+dynasty has been overthrown, and another established; old laws have
+been abrogated, and hundreds of new ones framed; hereditary nobles
+have been disinherited, and little men made great;--but amidst this
+plenitude of destructiveness, they have not yet contrived to make any
+one of the puny literary reputations of the day weigh down the renown
+of those who have never lent their voices to the cause of treason,
+regicide, rebellion, or obscenity. The literary reputations both of
+Châteaubriand and Lamartine stand higher, beyond all comparison, than
+those of any other living French authors: yet the first, with all his
+genius, has often suffered his imagination to run riot, and the last
+has only given to the public the leisure of his literary life. But
+both of them are men of honour and principle, as well as men of
+genius; and it comforts one's human nature to see that these qualities
+will keep themselves aloft, despite whatever squally winds may blow,
+or blustering floods assail them. That both Châteaubriand and
+Lamartine belong rather to the imaginative than to the _positif_
+class, cannot be denied; but they are renowned throughout the world,
+and France is proud of them.
+
+The most curious literary speculations, however, suggested by the
+present state of letters in this country, are not respecting authors
+such as these: they speak for themselves, and all the world knows
+them and their position. The circumstance decidedly the most worthy of
+remark in the literature of France at the present time, is the effect
+which the last revolution appears to have produced. With the exception
+of history, to which both Thiers and Mignet have added something that
+may live, notwithstanding their very defective philosophy, no single
+work has appeared since the revolution of 1830 which has obtained a
+substantial, elevated, and generally acknowledged reputation for any
+author unknown before that period: not even among all the unbridled
+ebullitions of imagination, though restrained neither by decorum,
+principle, nor taste,--not even here (excepting from one female[2]
+pen, which might become, were it the pleasure of the hand that wields
+it, the first now extant in the world of fiction,) has anything
+appeared likely to survive its author; nor is there any writer who
+during the same period has raised himself to that station in society,
+by means of his literary productions, which is so universally accorded
+to all who have acquired high literary celebrity in any country.
+
+The name of M. Guizot was too well known before the revolution for
+these observations to have any reference to him; and however much he
+may have distinguished himself since July 1830, his reputation was
+made before. There are, however, little writers in prodigious
+abundance; and though as perfectly sure of the truth of what I have
+here stated as that I am alive to write it, I should expect a terrible
+riot about my ears, could such words be heard by the swarm of tiny
+geniuses that settle in clusters, some on the newspapers, some on the
+theatres, and some on the busy little printing-press of the
+tale-tellers--could they catch me, I am sure I should be stung to
+death.
+
+How well I can fancy the clamour!... "Infamous libeller!" cries one;
+"have not I achieved a reputation? Do I not receive yearly some
+hundreds of francs for my sublime familiarity with sin and misery? and
+are not my works read by 'Young France' with ecstasy? Is not this
+fame?" "And I," says another,--"is it of such as I and my cotemporary
+fellow-labourers in the vast field of new-ploughed speculation that
+you speak?" "What call you reputation, woman?" says a third: "do not
+the theatres overflow when I send murder, lust, and incest on the
+stage, to witch the world with wondrous wickedness?" "And, I too,"
+groans another,--"am I not famous? Are not my delicious tales of
+unschooled nature in the hands of every free-born youth and tender
+maid in this our regenerated Athens? Is not this fame, infamous
+slanderer?"
+
+Were I obliged to answer all this, I could only say, "_Arrangez-vous,
+canaille!_ If you call this fame, take it, try it, make the most of
+it, and see where you will be some dozen years hence."
+
+Notwithstanding this extraordinary lack of great ability, however,
+there never, I believe, was any period in which the printing-presses
+of France worked so hard as at present. The revolution of 1830 seems
+to have set all the minor spirits in motion. There is scarcely a boy
+so insignificant, or a workman so unlearned, as to doubt his having
+the power and the right to instruct the world. "Every breathing soul
+in Paris took a part in this glorious struggle," says the recording
+newspaper;--"Yes, all!" echoes the smutched mechanic, snorting and
+snuffing the air with the intoxicating consciousness of imputed
+power;--"Yes!" answer the _galopins_ one and all, "it is we, it is
+we!" And then, like the restless witches on the barren heath that
+their breath has blasted, the great reformers rouse themselves again,
+and looking from the mischief they have done to the still worse that
+remains behind, they mutter prophetically, "We'll do--we'll do--we'll
+do!"
+
+To me, I confess, it is perfectly astonishing that any one can be
+found to class the writers of this restless _clique_ as "the literary
+men of France." Yet it has been done; and it is not till the effects
+of the popular commotion which brought them into existence has fully
+subsided, that the actual state of French literature can be fairly
+ascertained.
+
+Béranger was not the production of that whirlwind: but, in truth, let
+him sing what or when he will, the fire of genuine poetic inspiration
+must perforce flash across the thickest mist that false principles can
+raise around him. He is but a meteor perhaps, but a very bright one,
+and must shine, though his path lie amongst unwholesome exhalations
+and most dangerous pitfalls. But he cannot in any way be quoted as one
+of the new-born race whose claim to genuine fame I have presumed to
+doubt.
+
+That flashes of talent, sparkles of wit, and bursts of florid
+eloquence are occasionally heard, seen, and felt even from these, is,
+however, certain: it could hardly be otherwise. But they blaze, and go
+out. The oil which feeds the lamp of revolutionary genius is foul, and
+such noxious vapours rise with the flame as must needs check its
+brightness.
+
+Do not, however, believe me guilty of such presumption as to give you
+my own unsupported judgment as to the position which this "new school"
+(as the _décousu_ folks always call themselves) hold in the public
+esteem. Such a judgment could be little worth if unsupported; but my
+opinion on this subject is, on the contrary, the result of careful
+inquiry among those who are most competent to give information
+respecting it.
+
+When the names of such as are best known among this class of authors
+are mentioned in society, let the politics of the circle be what they
+may, they are constantly spoken of as a Paria caste that must be kept
+apart.
+
+"Do you know ---- ----?" has been a question I have repeatedly asked
+respecting a person whose name is cited in England as the most
+esteemed French writer of the age,--and so cited, moreover, to prove
+the low standard of French taste and principle.
+
+"No, madam," has been invariably the cold reply.
+
+"Or ----?"
+
+"No. He is not in society."
+
+"Or ----?"
+
+"Oh no! His works live an hour (too long!) and are forgotten."
+
+Should I therefore, my friend, return from France with an higher idea
+of its good taste and morality than I had when I entered it, think not
+that my own standard of what is right has been lowered, but only that
+I have had the pleasure of finding it differed much less than I
+expected from that of our agreeable and hardly-judged neighbours on
+this side the water. But I shall probably recur to this subject again;
+and so, for the present, farewell!
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] G. Sand.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.
+
+      Lonchamps.--The "Three Hours' Agony" at St. Roch.--Sermons on
+      the Gospel of Good-Friday.--Prospects of the
+      Catholics.--O'Connell.
+
+
+I dare say you may know, my friend, though I did not, that the
+Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Passion-week are yearly set apart
+by the Parisians for a splendid promenade in carriages, on horseback,
+and on foot, to a part of the Bois de Boulogne called Lonchamps. What
+the origin could be of so gay and brilliant an assemblage of people
+and equipages, evidently coming together to be stared at and to stare,
+on days so generally devoted to religious exercises, rather puzzled
+me; but I have obtained a most satisfactory explanation, which, in the
+hope of your ignorance, I will communicate. The custom itself, it
+seems, is a sort of religious exercise; or, at any rate, it was so at
+the time of its institution.
+
+When the _beau monde_ of Paris first adopted the practice of repairing
+to Lonchamps during these days of penitence and prayer, a convent
+stood there, whose nuns were celebrated for performing the solemn
+services appointed for the season with peculiar piety and effect. They
+sustained this reputation for many years; and for many years all who
+could find admittance within their church thronged to hear their sweet
+voices.
+
+This convent was destroyed at _the_ revolution (_par excellence_), but
+the horses and carriages of Paris still continue to move for evermore
+in the same direction when the last three days of Lent arrive.
+
+The cavalcade assembled on this occasion forms an extremely pretty
+spectacle, rivalling a spring Sunday in Hyde Park as to the number and
+elegance of the equipages, and greatly exceeding it in the beauty and
+extent of the magnificent road on which they show themselves. Though
+the attending this congregation of wealth, rank, and fashion is still
+called "going to Lonchamps," the evolutions of the company, whether in
+carriages, on horseback, or on foot, are at present almost wholly
+confined to the noble avenue which leads from the entrance to the
+Champs Elysées up to the Barrière de l'Etoile.
+
+From about three till six, the whole of this ample space is crowded;
+and I really had no idea that so many handsome, well-appointed
+equipages could be found collected together anywhere out of London.
+The royal family had several handsome carriages on the ground: that of
+the Duke of Orleans was particularly remarkable for the beauty of the
+horses, and the general elegance of the "turn-out."
+
+The ministers of state, and all the foreign legations, did honour to
+the occasion; most of them having very complete equipages, chasseurs
+of various plumage, and many with a set of four beautiful horses
+really well harnessed. Many private individuals, also, had carriages
+which were handsome enough, together with their elegant lading,
+greatly to increase the general brilliancy of the scene.
+
+The only individual, however, except the Duke of Orleans, who had two
+carriages on the ground, two feathered chasseurs, and twice two pair
+of richly-harnessed steeds, was a certain Mr. T----, an American
+merchant, whose vast wealth, and still more vast expenditure, is
+creating considerable consternation among his sober-minded countrymen
+in Paris. We were told that the exuberance of this gentleman's
+transatlantic taste was such, and such the vivacity of his inventive
+fancy, that during the three days of the Lonchamps promenade he
+appeared on the ground each day with different liveries; having, as it
+should seem, no particular family reasons for preferring any one set
+of colours to another.
+
+The ground was sprinkled, and certainly greatly adorned, by many very
+elegant-looking Englishmen on horseback; the pretty caprioles, sleek
+skins, and well-managed capers of that prettiest of creatures, a
+high-bred English saddle-horse, being as usual among the most
+attractive parts of the show. Nor was there any deficiency of
+Frenchmen, with very handsome _montures_, to complete the spectacle;
+while the ample space under the trees on either side was crowded with
+thousands of smart pedestrians; the whole scene being one vast moving
+mass of pomp and pleasure.
+
+Nevertheless, the weather on the first of the three days was very far
+from favourable: the wind was so bitterly cold that I countermanded
+the carriage I had ordered, and instead of going to Lonchamps, we
+actually sat shivering over the fire at home; indeed, before three
+o'clock, the ground was perfectly covered with snow. The next day
+promised something better, and we ventured to emerge: but the
+spectacle was really vexatious; many of the carriages being open, and
+the shivering ladies attired in all the light and floating drapery of
+spring costume. For it is at Lonchamps that all the fashions of the
+coming season are exhibited; and no one can tell, however fashion-wise
+they be, what bonnet, scarf or shawl, or even what prevailing colour,
+is to be worn in Paris throughout the year, till this decisive promenade
+be over. Accordingly the milliners had done their duty, and, in fact,
+had far outstripped the spring. But it was sad to see the beautiful
+bunches of lilac, and the graceful, flexible laburnums--each a wonder
+of art--twisted and tortured, bending and breaking, before the wind.
+It really seemed as if the lazy Spring, vexed at the pretty mimicry of
+blossoms she had herself failed to bring, sent this inclement blast on
+purpose to blight them. Everything went wrong. The tender tinted
+ribbons were soon dabbled in a driving sleet; while feathers, instead
+of wantoning, as it was intended they should do, on the breeze, had to
+fight a furious battle with the gale.
+
+It was not therefore till the following day--the last of the three
+appointed--that Lonchamps really showed the brilliant assemblage of
+carriages, horsemen, and pedestrians that I have described to you.
+Upon this last day, however, though it was still cold for the
+season--(England would have been ashamed of such a 17th of April)--the
+sun did come forth, and smiled in such a sort as greatly to comfort
+the pious pilgrims.
+
+We remained, like all the rest of Paris, driving up and down in the
+midst of the pretty crowd till six, when they gradually began to draw
+off, and all the world went home to dinner.
+
+The early part of this day, which was Good-Friday, had been very
+differently passed. The same beautiful and solemn music which formerly
+drew all Paris to the Convent in the Bois de Boulogne is now performed
+in several of the churches. We were recommended to hear the choir of
+St. Roch; and it was certainly the most impressive service at which I
+was ever present.
+
+There is much wisdom in thus giving to music an important part in the
+public ceremonies of religion. Nothing commands and enchains the
+attention with equal power: the ear may be deaf to eloquence, and the
+thoughts may often grovel earthward, despite all the efforts of the
+preacher to lead them up to heaven; but few will find it possible to
+escape from the effect of music; and when it is of such a character as
+that performed in the Roman Catholic church on Good-Friday, it can
+hardly be that the most volatile and indifferent listener should
+depart unmoved.
+
+This service was advertised as "The Three Hours' Agony." The crowd
+assembled to listen to it was immense. It is impossible to speak too
+highly of the composition of the music; it is conceived in the very
+highest tone of sublimity; and the deeply effective manner of its
+performance recalled to me an anecdote I have heard of some young
+organist, who, having accompanied an anthem in a manner which appeared
+greatly superior to that of the usual performer, was asked if he had
+not made some alteration in the composition. "No," he replied, "I have
+not; but I always read the words when I play."
+
+So, I should think, did those who performed the services at St. Roch
+on Good-Friday; and nothing can be imagined more touching and
+effective than the manner in which the whole of these striking
+ceremonies were performed and arranged there.
+
+The awful gospel of the day furnished a theme for the impassioned
+eloquence of several successive preachers; one or two of whom were
+wonderfully powerful in their manner of recounting the dreadful
+narrative. They were all quite young men; but they went through the
+whole of the appalling history with such deep solemnity, such strength
+of imagery and vehemence of eloquence, as to produce prodigious
+effect.
+
+At intervals, while the exhausted preachers reposed, the organ, with
+many stringed instruments, and a choir of exquisite voices, performed
+the same gospel, in a manner that made one's whole soul thrill and
+quiver within one. The suffering--the submission--the plaintive yet
+sublime "It is finished!" and the convulsive burst of indignant nature
+that followed, showing itself in thunder, hail, and earthquake, were
+all brought before the mind with most miraculous power. I have been
+told since, that the services at Notre Dame on that day were finer
+still; but I really find some difficulty in believing that this is
+possible.
+
+During these last and most solemn days of Lent, I have been
+endeavouring by every means in my power to discover how much fasting,
+of any kind, was going on. If they fast at all, it is certainly
+performed in most strict obedience to the very letter of the gospel:
+for, assuredly, they "appear not unto men to fast." Everything goes on
+as gaily as if it were the season of the carnival. The _restaurans_
+reek with the savoury vapour of a hundred dishes; the theatres are
+opened, and as full as the churches; invitations cease not; and I can
+in no direction perceive the slightest symptom of being among a Roman
+Catholic population during a season of penitence.
+
+And yet, contradictory as the statement must appear, I am deeply
+convinced that the clergy of the church of Rome feel more hope of
+recovered power fluttering at their hearts now, than they have done at
+any time during the last half-century. Nor can I think they are far
+wrong in this. The share which the Roman Catholic priests of this our
+day are said to have had in the Belgian revolution, and the part, more
+remarkable still, which the same race are now performing in the
+opening scenes of the fearful struggle which threatens England, has
+given a new impulse to the ambition of Rome and of her children. One
+may read it in the portly bearing of her youthful priests,--one may
+read it in the deep-set meditative eye of those who are older. It is
+legible in their brand-new vestments of gold and silver tissue; it is
+legible in the costly decorations of their renovated altars; and deep,
+deep, deep is the policy which teaches them to recover with a gentle
+hand that which they have lost by a grasping one. How well can I
+fancy that, in their secret synods, the favourite text is, "No man
+putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment; for that which is
+put in to fill it up, taketh from the garment, and the rent is made
+worse." Were they a whit less cautious, they must fail at once; but
+they tickle their converts before they think of convincing them. It is
+for this that the pulpits are given to young and eloquent men, who win
+the eye and ear of their congregations long before they find out to
+what point they wish to lead them. But while the young men preach, the
+old men are not idle: there are rumours of new convents, new
+monasteries, new orders, new miracles, and of new converts, in all
+directions. This wily, worldly, tranquil-seeming, but most ambitious
+sect, having in many quarters joined themselves to the cause of
+democracy, sit quietly by, looking for the result of their work, and
+watching, like a tiger that seems to dose, for the moment when they
+may avenge themselves for the long fast from power, during which they
+have been gnawing their heart-strings.
+
+But they now hail the morning of another day. I would that all English
+ears could hear, as mine have done, the prattle that prophesies the
+downfall of our national church as a thing certain as rain after long
+drought! I would that English ears could hear, as mine have done, the
+name of O'Connell uttered as that of a new apostle, and his bold
+bearding of those who yet raise their voices in defence of the faith
+their fathers gave them, triumphantly quoted in proof of the growing
+influence both of himself and his popish creed,--which are in truth
+one and inseparable! But forgive me!--all this has little to do with
+my subject, and it is moreover a theme I had much better not meddle
+with. I cannot touch it lightly, for my heart is heavy when I turn to
+it; I cannot treat it powerfully, for, alas! I have no strength but to
+lament.
+
+     "Hé! que puis-je au milieu de ce peuple abattu?
+     Benjamin est sans force, et Juda sans vertu."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XI.
+
+      Trial Chamber at the Luxembourg.--Institute.--M.
+      Mignet.--Concert Musard.
+
+
+As a great and especial favour, we have been taken to see the new
+chamber that has been erected at the Luxembourg for the trial of the
+political prisoners. The appearance of the exterior is very handsome,
+and though built wholly of wood, it corresponds perfectly, to all
+outward seeming, with the old palace. The rich and massive style of
+architecture is imitated to perfection: the heavy balustrades, the
+gigantic bas-reliefs, are all vast, solid, and magnificent; and when
+it is stated that the whole thing has been completed in the space of
+two months, one is tempted to believe that Alladdin has turned
+doctrinaire, and rubbed his lamp most diligently in the service of the
+state.
+
+The trial-chamber is a noble room; but from the great number of
+prisoners, and greater still of witnesses expected to be examined, the
+space left for the public is but small. Prudence, perhaps, may have
+had as much to do with this as necessity: nor can we much wonder if
+the peers of France should desire to have as little to do with the
+Paris mob upon this occasion as possible.
+
+I remarked that considerable space was left for passages, ante-rooms,
+surroundings, and outposts of all sorts;--an excellent arrangement,
+the wisdom of which cannot be questioned, as the attendance of a large
+armed force must be indispensable. In fact, I believe it ever has been
+and ever will be found, that troops furnish the only means of keeping
+a remarkably free people in order.
+
+It was, however, very comforting and satisfactory to hear the manner
+in which the distinguished and agreeable individual who had procured
+us the pleasure of seeing this building discoursed of the business
+which was to be carried on there.
+
+There is a quiet steadiness and confidence in their own strength among
+these doctrinaries, that seems to promise well for the lasting
+tranquillity of the country; nor does it impeach either their wisdom
+or sincerity, if many among them adhere heart and hand to the
+government, though they might have better liked a white than a
+tri-coloured banner to wave over the palace of its head. Whatever the
+standers-by may wish or feel about future struggles and future
+changes, I think it is certain that no Frenchman who desires the
+prosperity of his country can at the present moment wish for anything
+but a continuance of the tranquillity she actually enjoys.
+
+If, indeed, democracy were gaining ground,--if the frightful political
+fallacies, among which the very young and the very ignorant are so apt
+to bewilder themselves, were in any degree to be traced in the policy
+pursued by the existing government,--then would the question be wholly
+changed, and every honest man in full possession of his senses would
+feel himself called upon to stay the plague with all his power and
+might. But the very reverse of all this is evidently the case; and it
+may be doubted if any sovereign in Europe has less taste for license
+and misrule than King Louis-Philippe. Be very sure that it is not to
+him that the radicals of any land must look for patronage,
+encouragement, or support: they will not find it.
+
+After quitting the Luxembourg, we went to the _bureau_ of the
+secretary at the Institute, to request tickets for an annual sitting
+of the five Academies, which took place yesterday. They were very
+obligingly accorded--(O that our institutions, our academies, our
+lectures, were thus liberally arranged!)--and yesterday we passed two
+very agreeable hours in the place to which they admitted us.
+
+I wish that the Polytechnic School, when they took a fancy for
+changing the ancient _régimes_ of France, had included the uniform of
+the Institute in their proscriptions. The improvement would have been
+less doubtful than it is respecting some other of their innovations:
+for what can be said in defence of a set of learned academicians,
+varying in age from light and slender thirty to massive and
+protuberant fourscore, wearing one and all a fancy blue dress-coat
+"embroidered o'er with leaves of myrtle"? It is really a proof that
+very good things were said and done at this sitting, when I declare
+that my astonishment at the Corydon-like costume was forgotten within
+the first half-hour.
+
+We first witnessed the distribution of the prizes, and then heard one
+or two members speak, or rather read their compositions. But the great
+fête of the occasion was hearing a discourse pronounced by M. Mignet.
+This gentleman is too celebrated not to have excited in us a very
+earnest wish to hear him; and never was expectation more agreeably
+gratified. Combined with the advantages of a remarkably fine face and
+person, M. Mignet has a tone of voice and play of countenance
+sufficient of themselves to secure the success of an orator. But on
+this occasion he did not trust to these: his discourse was every way
+admirable; subject, sentiment, composition, and delivery, all
+excellent.
+
+He had chosen for his theme the history of Martin Luther's appearance
+before the Diet at Worms; and the manner in which he treated it
+surprised as much as it delighted me. Not a single trait of that
+powerful, steadfast, unbending character, which restored light to our
+religion and freedom to the mind of man, escaped him: it was a mental
+portrait, painted with the boldness of outline, breadth of light, and
+vigour of colouring, which mark the hand of a consummate master.
+
+But was it a Roman Catholic who pronounced this discourse?--Were they
+Roman Catholics who filled every corner of the theatre, and listened
+to him with attention so unbroken, and admiration so undisguised? I
+know not. But for myself, I can truly declare, that my Protestant and
+reformed feelings were never more gratified than by listening to this
+eloquent history of the proudest moment of our great apostle's life,
+pronounced in the centre of Cardinal Mazarin's palace. The concluding
+words of the discourse were as follows:
+
+"Sommé pendant quatre ans de se soumettre, Luther, pendant quatre ans,
+dit non. Il avait dit non au légat; il avait dit non au pape; il dit
+non à l'empereur. Dans ce non héroïque et fécond se trouvait la
+liberté du monde."
+
+Another discourse was announced to conclude the sitting of the day.
+But when M. Mignet retired, no one appeared to take his place; and after
+waiting for a few minutes, the numerous and very fashionable-looking
+crowd dispersed themselves.
+
+I recollected the anecdote told of the first representation of the
+"Partie de Chasse de Henri Quatre," when the overture of Mehul
+produced such an effect, that the audience would not permit anything
+else to be performed after it. The piece, therefore, was
+_remise_,--and so was the harangue of the academician who was to have
+followed M. Mignet.
+
+You will confess, I think, that we are not idle, when I tell you that,
+after all this, we went in the evening to _Le Concert Musard_. This is
+one of the pastimes to which we have hitherto had no parallel in
+London. At half-past seven o'clock, you lounge into a fine, large,
+well-lighted room, which is rapidly filled with company: a full and
+good orchestra give you during a couple of hours some of the best and
+most popular music of the season; and then you lounge out again, in
+time to dress for a party, or eat ices at Tortoni's, or soberly to go
+home for a domestic tea-drinking and early rest. For this concert you
+pay a franc; and the humble price, together with the style of toilet
+(every lady wearing a bonnet and shawl), might lead the uninitiated to
+suppose that it was a recreation prepared for the _beau monde_ of the
+Faubourg; but the long line of private carriages that occupies the
+street at the conclusion of it, shows that, simple and unpretending as
+is its style, this concert has attractions for the best company in
+Paris.
+
+The easy _entrée_ to it reminded me of the theatres of Germany. I
+remarked many ladies coming in, two or three together, unattended by
+any gentleman. Between the acts, the company promenaded round the
+room, parties met and joined, and altogether it appeared to us a very
+agreeable mode of gratifying that French necessity of amusing one's
+self out of one's own house, which seems contagious in the very air of
+Paris.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XII.
+
+      Easter-Sunday at Notre Dame.--Archbishop.--View of
+      Paris.--Victor Hugo.--Hôtel Dieu.--Mr. Jefferson.
+
+
+It was long ago decided in a committee of the whole house, that on
+Easter-Sunday we should attend high mass at Notre Dame. I shall not
+soon forget the spectacle that greeted us on entering. Ten thousand
+persons, it was said, were on that day assembled in the church; and
+its dimensions are so vast, that I have no doubt the statement was
+correct, for it was crowded from floor to roof. The effect of the
+circular gallery, that at mid-height encompasses the centre aisle,
+following as it does the graceful sweep of the chapel behind the
+altar, and filled row after row with gaily-dressed company up, as it
+seemed, almost to the groining of the roof, was beautiful. The chairs
+on this occasion were paid for in proportion to the advantageousness
+of the position in which they stood, and by disbursing an extra franc
+or two we obtained very good places. The mass was performed with great
+splendour. The dresses of the archbishop and his train were
+magnificent; and when this splendid, princely-looking personage,
+together with his court of dignitaries and priests, paraded the Host
+round the church and up the crowded aisle spite of the close-wedged
+throng, they looked like a stream of liquid gold, that by its own
+weight made way through every obstacle. The archbishop is a mild and
+amiable-looking man, and ceased not to scatter blessings from his lips
+and sprinkle safety from his fingers'-ends upon the admiring people,
+as slowly and gracefully he passed among them.
+
+The latter years of this prelate's life have been signalized by some
+remarkable changes. He has seen the glories and the penitences of his
+church alike the favourite occupation of his king;--he has seen that
+king and his highest nobles walking in holy procession through the
+streets of Paris;--he has seen that same king banished from his throne
+and his country, a proscribed and melancholy exile, while the pomp and
+parade of his cherished faith were forbidden to offend the people's
+eyes by any longer pouring forth its gorgeous superstitions into the
+streets;--he has seen his own consecrated palace razed to its
+foundation, and its very elements scattered to the winds:--and now,
+this self-same prelate sees himself again well received at the court
+whence Charles Dix was banished; and, stranger still, perhaps, he sees
+his startled flock once more assembling round him, quietly and
+silently, but steadily and in earnest; while he who, within five
+short years, was trembling for his life, now lifts his head again, and
+not only in safety, but, with all his former power and pride of place,
+is permitted to
+
+     "Chanter les _oremus_, faire des processions,
+     Et répandre à grands flots les bénédictions."
+
+It is true, indeed, that there are no longer any Roman Catholic
+processions to be seen in the streets of Paris; but if we look within
+the churches, we find that the splendour concentrated there, has lost
+nothing of its impressive sumptuousness by thus changing the scene of
+its display.
+
+The service of this day, as far as the music was concerned, was in my
+opinion infinitely less impressive than that of Good-Friday at St.
+Roch. This doubtless arose in a great degree from the style of
+composition; but I suspect, moreover, that my imagination was put out
+of humour by seeing about fifty fiddlers, with every appearance of
+being (what they actually were) the orchestra of the opera, performing
+from a space enclosed for them at the entrance of the choir. The
+singing men and boys were also stationed in the same unwonted and
+unecclesiastical place; and though some of those hired for the
+occasion had very fine Italian voices, they had all the air of singing
+without "reading the words;" and, on the whole, my ear and my fancy
+were disappointed.
+
+Victor Hugo's description of old Paris as seen from the towers of
+Notre Dame sent us labouring to their summit. The state of the
+atmosphere was very favourable, and I was delighted to find that the
+introduction of coal, rapid as its progress has lately been, has not
+yet tinged the bright clear air sufficiently to prevent this splendid
+panorama from being distinctly seen to its remotest edge. That
+impenetrable mass of dun, dull smoke, that we look down upon whenever
+a mischievous imp of curiosity lures us to the top of any dome, tower,
+or obelisk in London, can hardly fail of making one remember every
+weary step which led to the profitless elevation; but one must be
+tired indeed to remember fatigue while looking down upon the bright,
+warm, moving miniature spread out below the towers of Notre Dame.
+
+What an intricate world of roofs it is!--and how mystically
+incomprehensible are the ins and outs, the bridges and the islands, of
+the idle Seine! A raft, caught sight of at intervals, bearing wood or
+wine; a floating wash-house, with its line of bending naïads, looking
+like a child's toy with figures all of a row; and here and there a
+floating-bath,--are all this river shows of its power to aid and
+assist the magnificent capital which has so strangely chosen to
+stretch herself along its banks. When one thinks of the forest of
+masts which we see covering whole miles of extent in London, it seems
+utterly unintelligible how that which is found needful for the
+necessities of one great city should appear so perfectly unnecessary
+for another.
+
+Victor Hugo's picture of the scene he has fancied beneath the towers
+of Notre Dame in the days of his Esmeralda is sketched with amazing
+spirit; though probably Paris was no more like the pretty panorama he
+makes of it than Timbuctoo. I heartily wish, however, that he would
+confine himself to the representation of still-life, and let his
+characters be all of innocent bricks and mortar: for even though they
+do look shadowy and somewhat doubtful in the distance, they have
+infinitely more nature and truth than can be found among all his
+horrible imaginings concerning his fellow-creatures.
+
+His description of the old church itself, too, is delicious: for
+though it has little of architectural reality or strict graphic
+fidelity about it, there is such a powerful air of truth in every word
+he says respecting it, that one looks out and about upon the rugged
+stones, and studies every angle, buttress, and parapet, with the
+lively interest of old acquaintance.
+
+I should like to have a legend, as fond and lingering in its
+descriptions, attached to some of our glorious and mysterious old
+Gothic cathedrals at home. This sort of reading gives a pleasure in
+which imagination and reality are very happily blended; and I can
+fancy nothing more agreeable than following an able romancer up and
+down, through and amongst, in and out, the gloomy, shadowy, fanciful,
+unintelligible intricacies of such a structure. How well might
+Winchester, for instance, with its solemn crypts, its sturdy Saxon
+strength, its quaintly-coffined relics of royal bones, its Gothic
+shrines, its monumental splendour, and its stately magnitude, furnish
+forth the material for some such spirit-stirring record!
+
+Having spent an hour of first-rate interest and gratification in
+wandering inside and outside of this very magnificent church, we
+crossed the Place, or _Parvis_, of Notre Dame, to see the celebrated
+hospital of the Hôtel Dieu. It is very particularly large, clean,
+airy, and well-ordered in every way; and I never saw sick people look
+less miserable than some scores of men and women did, tucked snugly up
+in their neat little beds, and most of them with a friend or relative
+at their side to console or amuse them.
+
+The access to the wards of this building is as free as that into a
+public bazaar; but there is one caution used in the admission of
+company which, before I understood it, puzzled me greatly. There are
+three doors at the top of the fine flight of steps which leads to the
+building. The centre one is used only as an exit; at the other two are
+placed guards, one a male, the other a female. Through these
+side-doors all who enter must pass--the men on one side, the women on
+the other; and all must submit to be pretty strictly examined, to see
+that they are conveying nothing either to eat or drink that might be
+injurious to the invalids.
+
+The covered bridge which opens from the back part of the Hôtel Dieu,
+connecting _l'Isle de la Cité_ with the left bank of the Seine, with
+its light glass roof, and safe shelter from wind, dust, or annoyance
+of any kind, forms a delightful promenade for the convalescent.
+
+The evening of this day we spent at a _soirée_, where we met, among
+many other pleasant persons, a very sensible and gentlemanlike
+American. I had the pleasure of a long conversation with him, during
+which he said many things extremely worth listening to. This gentleman
+has held many distinguished diplomatic situations, appears to have
+acquired a great deal of general information, and moreover to have
+given much attention to the institutions and character of his own
+country.
+
+He told me that Jefferson had been the friend of his early life; that
+he knew his sentiments and opinions on all subjects intimately well,
+and much better than those who were acquainted with them no otherwise
+than by his published writings. He assured me most positively that
+Jefferson was NOT a democrat in principle, but believed it expedient
+to promulgate the doctrine, as the only one which could excite the
+general feeling of the people, and make them hang together till they
+should have acquired strength sufficient to be reckoned as one among
+the nations. He said, that Jefferson's ulterior hope for America was,
+that she should, after having acquired this strength, give birth to
+men distinguished both by talent and fortune; that when this happened,
+an enlightened and powerful aristocracy might be hoped for, without
+which HE KNEW that no country could be really great or powerful.
+
+As I am assured that the word of this gentleman may be depended on,
+these observations--or rather, I should say, statements--respecting
+Jefferson appear to me worth noting.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII.
+
+      "Le Monomane."
+
+
+As a distinguished specimen of fashionable horror, I went last night
+to the Porte St. Martin to see "The Monomane," a drama in five acts,
+from the pen of a M. Duveyrier. I hardly know whether to give you a
+sketch of this monstrous outrage against common sense or not; but I
+think I will do so, because I flatter myself that no one will be silly
+enough to translate it into English, or import it in any shape into
+England; and, therefore, if I do not tell you something about it, you
+may chance to die without knowing to what prodigious lengths a search
+after absurdity may carry men.
+
+But first let me mention, as not the least extraordinary part of the
+phenomenon, that the theatre was crowded from floor to roof, and that
+Shakspeare was never listened to with attention more profound.
+However, it does not follow that approval or admiration of any kind
+was either the cause or the effect of this silent contemplation of the
+scene: no one could be more devoted to the business of the hour than
+myself, but most surely this was not the result of approbation.
+
+If I am not very clear respecting the plot, you must excuse me, from
+my want of habitual expertness in such an analysis; but the main
+features and characters cannot escape me.
+
+An exceedingly amiable and highly intellectual gentleman is the hero
+of this piece; a part personated by a M. Lockroi with a degree of
+ability deserving a worthier employment. This amiable man holds at
+Colmar the office of _procureur du roi_; and, from the habit of
+witnessing trials, acquires so vehement a passion for the shedding of
+blood on the scaffold, that it amounts to a mania. To illustrate this
+singular trait of character, M. Balthazar developes his secret
+feelings in an opening speech to an intimate friend. In this speech,
+which really contains some very good lines, he dilates with much
+enthusiasm on the immense importance which he conceives to attach to
+the strict and impartial administration of criminal justice. No man
+could deliver himself more judge-like and wisely; but how or why such
+very rational and sober opinions should lead to an unbounded passion
+for blood, is very difficult to understand.
+
+The next scene, however, shows the _procureur du roi_ hugging himself
+with a kind of mysterious rapture at the idea of an approaching
+execution, and receiving with a very wild and mad-like sort of agony
+some attempts to prove the culprit innocent. The execution takes
+place; and after it is over, the innocence of the unfortunate victim
+is fully proved.
+
+The amiable and excellent _procureur du roi_ is greatly moved at this;
+but his repentant agony is soon walked off by a few well-trod
+melodramatic turns up and down the stage; and he goes on again,
+seizing with ecstasy upon every opportunity of bringing the guilty to
+justice.
+
+What the object of the author can possibly be in making out that a man
+is mad solely because he wishes to do his duty, I cannot even guess.
+It is difficult to imagine an honest-minded magistrate uttering more
+common-place, uncontrovertible truths upon the painful duties of his
+station, than does this unfortunate gentleman.
+
+M. Victor Hugo, speaking of himself in one of his prefaces, says, "Il
+(Victor Hugo) continuera donc fermement; et chaque fois qu'il croira
+nécessaire de faire bien voir à tous, dans ses moindres détails, une
+idée utile, une idée sociale, une idée humaine, il posera le théâtre
+déssus comme un verre grossissant."[3]
+
+It strikes me that M. Duveyrier, the ingenious author of the Monomane,
+must work upon the same principle, and that in this piece he thinks
+he has put a magnifying-glass upon "une idée sociale."
+
+But I must return to my analysis of this drama of five mortal
+acts.--After the execution, the real perpetrator of the murder for
+which the unfortunate victim of legal enthusiasm has innocently
+suffered appears on the scene. He is brought sick or wounded into the
+house of a physician, with whom the _procureur du roi_ and his wife
+are on a visit. Balthazar sees the murderer conveyed to bed in a
+chamber that opens from that of his friend the doctor. He then goes to
+bed himself with his wife, and appears to have fallen asleep without
+delay, for we presently see him in this state come forth from his
+chamber upon a gallery, from whence a flight of stairs descends upon
+the stage. We see him walk down these stairs,--take some instrument
+out of a case belonging to the doctor,--enter the apartment where the
+murderer has been lodged,--return,--replace the instrument,--wash his
+bloody hands and wipe them upon a hand-towel,--then reascend the
+staircase and enter his lady's room at the top of it; all of which is
+performed in the silence of profound sleep.
+
+The attention which hung upon the whole of this long silent scene was
+such, that one might have supposed the lives of the audience depended
+upon their not waking this murderous sleeper by any sound; and the
+applause which followed the mute performance, when once the awful
+_procureur du roi_ was again safely lodged in his chamber, was
+deafening.
+
+The following morning it is discovered that the sick stranger has been
+murdered; and instantly the _procureur du roi_, with his usual ardour
+in discovering the guilty, sets most ably to work upon the
+investigation of every circumstance which may throw light upon this
+horrible transaction. Everything, particularly the case of
+instruments, of which one is bloody, and the hand-towel found in his
+room, stained with the same accusing dye--all tends to prove that the
+poor innocent physician is the murderer: he is accordingly taken up,
+tried, and condemned.
+
+This unfortunate young doctor has an uncle, of the same learned
+profession, who is addicted to the science of animal magnetism. This
+gentleman having some suspicion that Balthazar is himself the guilty
+person, imagines a very cunning device by which he may be made to
+betray himself if guilty. He determines to practise his magnetism upon
+him in full court while he is engaged in the duties of his high
+office, and flatters himself that he shall be able to throw him into a
+sleep or trance, in which state he may _par hasard_ let out something
+of the truth.
+
+This admirable contrivance answers perfectly. The attorney-general
+does fall into a most profound sleep the moment the old doctor begins
+his magnetising manoeuvres, and in this state not only relates aloud
+every circumstance of the murder, but, to give this confession more
+sure effect, he writes it out fairly, and sets his name to it, being
+profoundly asleep the whole time.
+
+And here it is impossible to avoid remarking on the extreme ill
+fortune which attends the sleeping hours of this amiable
+attorney-general. At one time he takes a nap, and kills a man without
+knowing anything of the matter; and then, in a subsequent state of
+oblivion, he confesses it, still without knowing anything of the
+matter.
+
+As soon as the unfortunate gentleman has finished the business for
+which he was put to sleep, he is awakened, and the paper is shown to
+him. He scruples not immediately to own his handwriting, which,
+sleeping or waking, it seems, was the same; but testifies the greatest
+horror and astonishment at the information the document contains,
+which was quite as unexpected to himself as to the rest of the
+company.
+
+His high office, however, we must presume, exempts him from all
+responsibility; for the only result of the discovery is an earnest
+recommendation from his friends, particularly the old and young
+doctors, that he should travel for the purpose of recovering his
+spirits.
+
+There is a little episode, by the way, from which we learn, that once,
+in one of his alarming slumbers, this amiable but unfortunate man
+gave symptoms of wishing to murder his wife and child; in consequence
+of which, it is proposed by the doctors that this tour for the
+restoration of his spirits should be made without them. To this
+separation Balthazar strongly objects, and tells his beautiful wife,
+with much tenderness, that he shall find it very dull without her.
+
+To this the lady, though naturally rather afraid of him, answers with
+great sweetness, that in that case she shall be extremely happy to go
+with him; adding tenderly, that she would willingly die to prove her
+devotion.
+
+Nothing could be so unfortunate as this expression. At the bare
+mention of his hobby-horse, _death_, his malady revives, and he
+instantly manifests a strong inclination to murder her,--and this time
+without even the ceremony of going to sleep.
+
+Big with the darling thought, his eyes rolling, his cheek pale, his
+bristling hair on end, and the awful genius of Melodrame swelling in
+every vein, Balthazar seats himself on the sofa beside his trembling
+wife, and taking the comb out of her (Mademoiselle Noblet's) beautiful
+hair, appears about to strangle her in the rope of jet that he pulls
+out to its utmost length, and twists, and twists, and twists, till one
+really feels a cold shiver from head to foot. But at length, at the
+very moment when matters seem drawing to a close, the lady throws
+herself lovingly on his bosom, and his purpose changes, or at least
+for a moment seems to change, and he relaxes his hold.
+
+At this critical juncture the two doctors enter. Balthazar looks at
+them wildly, then at his wife, then at the doctors again, and finally
+tells them all that he must beg leave to retire for a few moments. He
+passes through the group, who look at him in mournful silence; but as
+he approaches the door, he utters the word 'poison,' then enters, and
+locks and bolts it after him.
+
+Upon this the lady screams, and the two doctors fly for a crow-bar.
+The door is burst open, and the _procureur du roi_ comes forward, wide
+awake, but having swallowed the poison he had mentioned.
+
+This being "the last scene of all that ends this strange eventful
+history," the curtain falls upon the enthusiastic attorney-general as
+he expires in the arms of his wife and friends.
+
+We are always so apt, when we see anything remarkably absurd abroad,
+to flatter ourselves with the belief that nothing like it exists at
+home, that I am almost afraid to draw a parallel between this
+inconceivable trash, and the very worst and vilest piece that ever was
+permitted to keep possession of the stage in England, lest some one
+better informed on the subject than myself should quote some British
+enormity unknown to me, and so prove my patriotic theory false.
+
+Nevertheless, I cannot quit the subject without saying, that as far as
+my knowledge and belief go, English people never did sit by hundreds
+and listen patiently to such stuff as this. There is no very atrocious
+vice, no terrific wickedness in the piece, as far as I could
+understand its recondite philosophy; but its silliness surely
+possesses the silliness of a little child. The grimaces, the dumb
+show, the newly-invented passions, and the series of impossible
+events, which drag through these five longsome acts, seem to show a
+species of anomaly in the human mind that composed the piece, to which
+I imagine no parallel can be found on record.
+
+Is this the result of the march of mind?--is it the fruit of that
+universal diffusion of knowledge which we are told is at work
+throughout the world, but most busily in France?... I shall never
+understand the mystery, let me meditate upon it as long as I will. No!
+never shall I understand how a French audience, lively, witty, acute,
+and prone to seize upon whatever is ridiculous, can thus sit night
+after night with profound gravity, and the highest apparent
+satisfaction, to witness the incredible absurdity of such a piece as
+"Le Monomane."
+
+There is one way, and one way only, in which the success of this drama
+can be accounted for intelligibly. May it not be, that "LES JEUNES
+GENS," wanton in their power, have determined in merry mood to mystify
+their fellow-citizens by passing a favourable judgment upon this
+tedious performance? And may they not now be enjoying the success of
+their plot in ecstasies of private laughter, at seeing how meekly the
+dutiful Parisians go nightly to the Porte St. Martin, and sit in
+obedient admiration of what it has pleased their youthful tyrants to
+denominate "a fine drama"?
+
+But I must leave off guessing; for, as the wise man saith, "the
+finding out of parables is a wearisome labour of the mind."
+
+Some critic, speaking of the new school of French dramatists, says
+that "they have heaved the ground under the feet of Racine and
+Corneille." If this indeed be so, the best thing that the lovers of
+tragedy can do is to sit at home and wait patiently till the earth
+settles itself again from the shock of so deplorable an earthquake.
+That it will settle itself again, I have neither doubt nor fear.
+Nonsense has nothing of immortality in its nature; and when the storm
+which has scattered all this frothy scum upon us shall have fairly
+blown over and passed away, then I suspect that Corneille and Racine
+will still find solid standing-ground on the soil of France;--nay,
+should they by chance find also that their old niches in the temple of
+her great men remain vacant, it is likely enough that they may be
+again invited to take possession of them; and they may keep it too
+perhaps for a few more hundred years, with very little danger that any
+greater than they should arrive to take their places.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[3] _Translation._--He will continue then firmly; and every time that
+he shall think it necessary to make visible to all, in its least
+details, a useful idea, a social idea, a humane idea, he will place
+upon it the theatre, as a magnifying-glass.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIV.
+
+      The Gardens of the Tuileries.--Legitimatist.--Republican.--
+      Doctrinaire.--Children.--Dress of the Ladies.--Of the
+      Gentlemen.--Black Hair.--Unrestricted Admission.--Anecdote.
+
+
+Is there anything in the world that can be fairly said to resemble the
+Gardens of the Tuileries? I should think not. It is a whole made up of
+so many strongly-marked and peculiar features, that it is not probable
+any other place should be found like it. To my fancy, it seems one of
+the most delightful scenes in the world; and I never enter there,
+though it is long since the enchantment of novelty made any part of
+the charm, without a fresh feeling of enjoyment.
+
+The _locale_ itself, independent of the moving throng which for ever
+seems to dwell within it, is greatly to my taste: I love all the
+detail of its embellishment, and I dearly love the bright and happy
+aspect of the whole. But on this subject I know there are various
+opinions: many talk with distaste of the straight lines, the clipped
+trees, the formal flower-beds, the ugly roofs,--nay, some will even
+abuse the venerable orange-trees themselves, because they grow in
+square boxes, and do not wave their boughs in the breeze like so many
+ragged willow-trees.
+
+But I agree not with any one of these objections; and should think it
+as reasonable, and in as good taste, to quarrel with Westminster Abbey
+because it did not look like a Grecian temple, as to find fault with
+the Gardens of the Tuileries because they are arranged like French
+pleasure-grounds, and not like an English park. For my own part, I
+profess that I would not, if I had the power, change even in the least
+degree a single feature in this pleasant spot: enter it at what hour
+or at what point I will, it ever seems to receive me with smiles and
+gladness.
+
+We seldom suffer a day to pass without refreshing our spirits by
+sitting for a while amidst its shade and its flowers. From the part of
+the town where we are now dwelling, the gate opposite the Place
+Vendôme is our nearest entrance; and perhaps from no point does the
+lively beauty of the whole scene show itself better than from beneath
+the green roof of the terrace-walk, to which this gate admits us.
+
+To the right, the dark mass of unshorn trees, now rich with the flowers
+of the horse-chesnut, and growing as boldly and as loftily as the most
+English-hearted gardener could desire, leads the eye through a very
+delicious "continuity of shade" to the magnificent gate that opens
+upon the Place Louis-Quinze. To the left is the widely-spreading
+façade of the Tuileries Palace, the ungraceful elevation of the
+pavilion roofs, well nigh forgotten, and quite atoned for by the
+beauty of the gardens at their feet. Then, just where the shade of the
+high trees ceases, and the bright blaze of sunshine begins, what
+multitudes of sweet flowers are seen blushing in its beams! An
+universal lilac bloom seems at this season to spread itself over the
+whole space; and every breeze that passes by, comes to us laden with
+perfume. My daily walk is almost always the same,--I love it so well
+that I do not like to change it. Following the shady terrace by which
+we enter to the point where it sinks down to the level of the
+magnificent esplanade in front of the palace, we turn to the right,
+and endure the splendid brightness till we reach the noble walk
+leading from the gateway of the centre pavilion, through flowers,
+statues, orange-trees, and chesnut-groves, as far as the eye can
+reach, till it reposes at last upon the lofty arch of the Barrière de
+l'Etoile.
+
+This _coup-d'oeil_ is so beautiful, that I constantly feel renewed
+pleasure when I look upon it. I do indeed confess myself to be one of
+those "who in trim gardens take their pleasure." I love the studied
+elegance, the carefully-selected grace of every object permitted to
+meet the pampered eye in such a spot as this. I love these
+fondly-nurtured princely exotics, the old orange-trees, ranged in
+their long stately rows; and better still do I love the marble groups,
+that stand so nobly, sometimes against the bright blue sky, and
+sometimes half concealed in the dark setting of the trees. Everything
+seems to speak of taste, luxury, and elegance.
+
+Having indulged in a lingering walk from the palace to the point at
+which the sunshine ceases and the shade begins, a new species of
+interest and amusement awaits us. Thousands of chairs scattered just
+within the shelter of this inviting covert are occupied by an
+interminable variety of pretty groups.
+
+I wonder how many months of constant attendance there, it would take
+before I should grow weary of studying the whole and every separate
+part of this bright picture? It is really matchless in beauty as a
+spectacle, and unequalled in interest as a national study. All Paris
+may in turn be seen and examined there; and nowhere is it so easy to
+distinguish specimens of the various and strongly-marked divisions of
+the people.
+
+This morning we took possession of half a dozen chairs under the trees
+which front the beautiful group of Pelus and Aria. It was the hour
+when all the newspapers are in the greatest requisition; and we had
+the satisfaction of watching the studies of three individuals, each of
+whom might have sat as a model for an artist who wished to give an
+idea of their several peculiarities. We saw, in short, beyond the
+possibility of doubt, a royalist, a doctrinaire, and a republican,
+during the half-hour we remained there, all soothing their feelings by
+indulging in two sous' worth of politics, each in his own line.
+
+A stiff but gentleman-like old man first came, and having taken a
+journal from the little octagon stand--which journal we felt quite
+sure was either "La France" or "La Quotidienne"--he established
+himself at no great distance from us. Why it was that we all felt so
+certain of his being a legitimatist I can hardly tell you, but not one
+of the party had the least doubt about it. There was a quiet,
+half-proud, half-melancholy air of keeping himself apart; an
+aristocratical cast of features; a pale care-worn complexion; and a
+style of dress which no vulgar man ever wore, but which no rich one
+would be likely to wear to-day. This is all I can record of him: but
+there was something pervading his whole person too essentially loyal
+to be misunderstood, yet too delicate in its tone to be coarsely
+painted. Such as it was, however, we felt it quite enough to make the
+matter sure; and if I could find out that old gentleman to be either
+doctrinaire or republican, I never would look on a human countenance
+again in order to discover what was passing within.
+
+The next who approached us we were equally sure was a republican: but
+here the discovery did little honour to our discernment; for these
+gentry choose to leave no doubt upon the subject of their _clique_,
+but contrive that every article contributing to the appearance of the
+outward man shall become a symbol and a sign, a token and a stigma, of
+the madness that possesses them. He too held a paper in his hand, and
+without venturing to approach too nearly to so alarming a personage,
+we scrupled not to assure each other that the journal he was so
+assiduously perusing was "Le Réformateur."
+
+Just as we had decided what manner of man it was who was stalking so
+majestically past us, a comfortable-looking citizen approached in the
+uniform of the National Guard, who sat himself down to his daily
+allowance of politics with the air of a person expecting to be well
+pleased with what he finds, but nevertheless too well contented with
+himself and all things about him to care over-much about it. Every
+line of this man's jocund face, every curve of his portly figure,
+spoke contentment and well-being. He was probably one of that very new
+race in France, a tradesman making a rapid fortune. Was it possible to
+doubt that the paper in his hand was "Le Journal des Débats?" was it
+possible to believe that this man was other than a prosperous
+doctrinaire?
+
+  [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+   MORNING AT THE TUILERIES.
+   London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.]
+
+Thus, on the neutral ground furnished by these delightful gardens,
+hostile spirits meet with impunity, and, though they mingle not,
+enjoy in common the delicious privileges of cool shade, fresh air,
+and the idle luxury of an _al fresco_ newspaper, in the midst of a
+crowded and party-split city, with as much certainty of being
+unchallenged and uninterrupted as if each were wandering alone in a
+princely domain of his own.
+
+Such, too, as are not over splenetic may find a very lively variety of
+study in watching the ways of the little dandies and dandiesses who,
+at some hours of the day, swarm like so many hummingbirds amidst the
+shade and sunshine of the Tuileries. Either these little French
+personages are marvellously well-behaved, or there is some
+superintending care which prevents screaming; for I certainly never
+saw so many young things assembled together who indulged so rarely in
+that salutary exercise of the lungs which makes one so often tremble
+at the approach of
+
+     "Soft infancy, that nothing can, but cry."
+
+The costumes of these pretty creatures contribute not a little to the
+amusement; it is often so whimsical as to give them the appearance of
+miniature maskers. I have seen little fellows beating a hoop in the
+full uniform of a National Guard; others waddling under the mimicry of
+kilted Highlanders; and small ladies without number in every possible
+variety of un-babylike apparel.
+
+The entertainment to be derived from sitting in the Tuileries Gardens
+and studying costume is, however, by no means confined to the junior
+part of the company. In no country have I ever seen anything
+approaching in grotesque habiliments to some of the figures daily and
+hourly met lounging about these walks. But such vagaries are confined
+wholly to the male part of the population; it is very rare to see a
+woman outrageously dressed in any way; and if you do, the chances are
+five hundred to one that she is not a Frenchwoman. An air of quiet
+elegant neatness is, I think, the most striking characteristic of the
+walking costume of the French ladies. All the little minor finishings
+of the female toilet appear to be more sedulously cared for than the
+weightier matters of the pelisse and gown. Every lady you meet is
+_bien chaussée_, _bien gantée_. Her ribbons, if they do not match her
+dress, are sure to accord with it; and for all the delicate garniture
+that comes under the care of the laundress, it should seem that Paris
+alone, of all the earth, knows how to iron.
+
+The whimsical caprices of male attire, on the contrary, defy anything
+like general remark; unless, indeed, it be that the air of Paris
+appears to have the quality of turning all the _imperials_, _favoris_,
+and _moustaches_ which dwell within its walls to jetty blackness. At a
+little distance, the young men have really the air of having their
+faces tied up with black ribbon as a cure for the mumps; and, handsome
+as this dark _chevelure_ is generally allowed to be, the heavy
+uniformity of it at present very considerably lessens its striking
+effect. When every man has his face half covered with black hair, it
+ceases to be a very valuable distinction. Perhaps, too, the frequent
+advertisements of compositions infallible in their power of turning
+the hair to any colour except "what pleases God," may tend to make one
+look with suspicious eyes at these once fascinating southern
+decorations; but, at present, I take it to be an undoubted fact, that
+a clean, close-shaven, northern-looking gentleman is valued at a high
+premium in every _salon_ in Paris.
+
+It is not to be denied that the "glorious and immortal days" have done
+some injury to the general appearance of the Tuileries Gardens. Before
+this period, no one was permitted to enter them dressed in a _blouse_,
+or jacket, or _casquette_; and no one, either male or female, might
+carry bundles or baskets through these pretty regions, sacred to
+relaxation and holiday enjoyment. But liberty and unseemly sordidness
+of attire being somehow or other jumbled together in the minds of the
+sovereign mob,--not sovereign either--the mob is only vice-regal in
+Paris as yet;--but the mob, however, such as it is, has obtained, as a
+mark of peculiar respect and favour to themselves, a new law or
+regulation, by which it is enacted that these royal precincts may
+become like unto Noah's ark, and that both clean and unclean beasts
+may enter here.
+
+Could one wish for a better specimen of the sort of advantage to be
+gained by removing the restraint of authority in order to pamper the
+popular taste for what they are pleased to call freedom? Not one of
+the persons who enter the gardens now, were restricted from entering
+them before; only it was required that they should be decently
+clad;--that is to say, in such garments as they were accustomed to
+wear on Sunday or any other holiday; the only occasions, one should
+imagine, on which the working classes could wish to profit by
+permission to promenade in a public garden: but the obligation to
+appear clean in the garden of the king's palace was an infringement on
+their liberty, so that formality is dispensed with; and they have now
+obtained the distinguished and ennobling privilege of being as dirty
+and ill-dressed as they like.
+
+The power formerly intrusted to the sentinel, wherever there was one
+stationed, of refusing the _entrée_ to all persons not properly
+dressed, gave occasion once to a saucy outbreaking of French wit in
+one of the National Guard, which was amusing enough. This civic
+guardian was stationed at the gates of a certain _Mairie_ on some
+public occasion, with the usual injunction not to permit any person
+"_mal-mise_" to enter. An _incroyable_ presented himself, not dressed
+in the fashion, but immoderately beyond it. The sentinel looked at
+him, and lowered his piece across the entrance, pronouncing in a
+voice of authority--
+
+"You cannot enter."
+
+"Not enter?" exclaimed the astonished beau, looking down at the
+exquisite result of his laborious toilet; "not enter?--forbid me to
+enter, sir?--impossible! What is it you mean? Let me pass, I say!"
+
+The imperturbable sentinel stood like a rock before the entrance: "My
+orders are precise," he said, "and I may not infringe them."
+
+"Precise? Your orders precise to refuse me?"
+
+"Oui, monsieur, précis, de refuser qui que ce soit que je trouve
+mal-mis."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XV.
+
+      Street Police.--Cleaning Beds.--Tinning Kettles.--Building
+      Houses.--Loading Carts.--Preparing for the Scavenger.--Want
+      of Drains.--Bad Pavement.--Darkness.
+
+
+My last letter was of the Tuileries Gardens; a theme which furnished
+me so many subjects of admiration, that I think, if only for the sake
+of variety, I will let the smelfungus vein prevail to-day. Such, then,
+being my humour,--or my ill-humour, if you will,--I shall indulge it
+by telling you what I think of the street-police of Paris.
+
+I will not tell you that it is bad, for that, I doubt not, many others
+may have done before me; but I will tell you that I consider it as
+something wonderful, mysterious, incomprehensible, and perfectly
+astonishing.
+
+In a city where everything intended to meet the eye is converted into
+graceful ornament; where the shops and coffee-houses have the air of
+fairy palaces, and the markets show fountains wherein the daintiest
+naïads might delight to bathe;--in such a city as this, where the
+women look too delicate to belong wholly to earth, and the men too
+watchful and observant to suffer the winds of heaven to visit them
+too roughly;--in such a city as this, you are shocked and disgusted at
+every step you take, or at every gyration that the wheels of your
+chariot can make, by sights and smells that may not be described.
+
+Every day brings my astonishment on this subject to a higher pitch
+than the one which preceded it; for every day brings with it fresh
+conviction that a very considerable portion of the enjoyment of life
+is altogether destroyed in Paris by the neglect or omission of such a
+degree of municipal interference as might secure the most elegant
+people in the world from the loathsome disgust occasioned by the
+perpetual outrage of common decency in their streets.
+
+On this branch of the subject it is impossible to say more; but there
+are other points on which the neglect of street-police is as plainly,
+though less disgustingly, apparent; and some of these I will enumerate
+for your information, as they may be described without impropriety;
+but when they are looked at in conjunction with the passion for
+graceful decoration, so decidedly a characteristic of the French
+people, they offer to our observation an incongruity so violent, as to
+puzzle in no ordinary degree whoever may wish to explain it.
+
+You cannot at this season pass through any street in Paris, however
+pre-eminently fashionable from its situation, or however distinguished
+by the elegance of those who frequent it, without being frequently
+obliged to turn aside, that you may not run against two or more women
+covered with dust, and probably with vermin, who are busily employed
+in pulling their flock mattresses to pieces in the street. There they
+stand or sit, caring for nobody, but combing, turning, and shaking the
+wool upon all comers and goers; and, finally, occupying the space
+round which many thousand passengers are obliged to make what is
+always an inconvenient, and sometimes a very dirty _détour_, by poking
+the material, cleared from the filth, which has passed into the
+throats of the gentlemen and ladies of Paris, back again into its
+checked repository.
+
+I have within this half-hour passed from the Italian Boulevard by the
+Opera-house, in the front of which this obscene and loathsome
+operation was being performed by a solitary old crone, who will
+doubtless occupy the place she has chosen during the whole day, and
+carry away her bed just in time to permit the Duke of Orleans to step
+from his carriage into the Opera without tumbling over it, but
+certainly not in time to prevent his having a great chance of
+receiving as he passes some portion of the various animate and
+inanimate superfluities which for so many hours she has been
+scattering to the air.
+
+A few days ago I saw a well-dressed gentleman receive a severe
+contusion on the head, and the most overwhelming destruction to the
+neatness of his attire, in consequence of a fall occasioned by his
+foot getting entangled in the apparatus of a street-working tinker,
+who had his charcoal fire, bellows, melting-pot, and all other things
+necessary for carrying on the tinning trade in a small way, spread
+forth on the pavement of the Rue de Provence.
+
+When the accident happened, many persons were passing, all of whom
+seemed to take a very obliging degree of interest in the misfortune of
+the fallen gentleman; but not a syllable either of remonstrance or
+remark was uttered concerning the invasion of the highway by the
+tinker; nor did that wandering individual himself appear to think any
+apology called for, or any change in the arrangement of his various
+chattels necessary.
+
+Whenever a house is to be built or repaired in London, the first thing
+done is to surround the premises with a high paling, that shall
+prevent any of the operations that are going on within it from
+annoying in any way the public in the street. The next thing is to
+arrange a footpath round this paling, carefully protected by posts and
+rails, so that this unavoidable invasion of the ordinary foot-path may
+be productive of as little inconvenience as possible.
+
+Were you to pass a spot in Paris under similar circumstances, you
+would fancy that some tremendous accident--a fire, perhaps, or the
+falling in of a roof--had occasioned a degree of difficulty and
+confusion to the passengers which it was impossible to suppose could
+be suffered to remain an hour unremedied: but it is, on the contrary,
+permitted to continue, to the torment and danger of daily thousands,
+for months together, without the slightest notice or objection on the
+part of the municipal authorities. If a cart be loading or unloading
+in the street, it is permitted to take and keep a position the most
+inconvenient, in utter disregard of any danger or delay which it may
+and must occasion to the carriages and foot-passengers who have to
+travel round it.
+
+Nuisances and abominations of all sorts are without scruple committed
+to the street at any hour of the day or night, to await the morning
+visit of the scavenger to remove them: and happy indeed is it for the
+humble pedestrian if his eye and nose alone suffer from these
+ejectments; happy, indeed, if he comes not in contact with them, as
+they make their unceremonious exit from window or door. "_Quel
+bonheur!_" is the exclamation if he escapes; but a look, wholly in
+sorrow and nowise in anger, is the only helpless resource should he be
+splashed from head to foot.
+
+On the subject of that monstrous barbarism, a gutter in the middle of
+the streets expressly formed for the reception of filth, which is
+still permitted to deform the greater portion of this beautiful city,
+I can only say, that the patient endurance of it by men and women of
+the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five is a mystery
+difficult to understand.
+
+It really appears to me, that almost the only thing in the world which
+other men do, but which Frenchmen cannot, is the making of sewers and
+drains. After an hour or two of very violent rain last week, that part
+of the Place Louis-Quinze which is near the entrance to the Champs
+Elysées remained covered with water. The Board of Works having waited
+for a day or two to see what would happen, and finding that the muddy
+lake did not disappear, commanded the assistance of twenty-six
+able-bodied labourers, who set about digging just such a channel as
+little boys amuse themselves by making beside a pond. By this
+well-imagined engineering exploit, the stagnant water was at length
+conducted to the nearest gutter; the pickaxes were shouldered, and an
+open muddy channel left to adorn this magnificent area, which, were a
+little finishing bestowed upon it, would probably be the finest point
+that any city in the world could boast.
+
+Perhaps it will hardly be fair to set it amongst my complaints against
+the streets of Paris, that they have not yet adopted our last and most
+luxurious improvement. I cannot but observe, however, that having
+passed some weeks here, I feel that the Macadamised streets of London
+ought to become the subject of a metropolitan jubilee among us. The
+exceeding noise of Paris, proceeding either from the uneven structure
+of the pavement, or from the defective construction of wheels and
+springs, is so violent and incessant as to appear like the effect of
+one great continuous cause,--a sort of demon torment, which it must
+require great length of use to enable one to endure without suffering.
+Were a cure for this sought in the Macadamising of the streets, an
+additional advantage, by the bye, would be obtained, from the
+difficulties it would throw in the way of the future heroes of a
+barricade.
+
+There is another defect, however, and one much more easily remedied,
+which may fairly, I think, come under the head of defective
+street-police. This is the profound darkness of every part of the city
+in which there are not shops illuminated by the owners of them with
+gas. This is done so brilliantly on the Boulevards by the _cafés_ and
+_restaurans_, that the dim old-fashioned lamp suspended at long
+intervals across the _pavé_ is forgotten. But no sooner is this region
+of light and gaiety left, than you seem to plunge into outer darkness;
+and there is not a little country town in England which is not
+incomparably better lighted than any street in Paris which depends for
+its illumination upon the public regulations of the city.
+
+As it is evident that gas-pipes must be actually laid in all
+directions in order to supply the individuals who employ it in their
+houses, I could in no way understand why these most dismal
+_réverbères_, with their dingy oil, were to be made use of in
+preference to the beautiful light which almost outblazes that of the
+sun; but I am told that some unexpired contract between Paris and her
+lamplighters is the cause of this. Were the convenience of the public
+as sedulously studied in France as in England, not all the claims of
+all the lamplighters in the world, let it cost what it might to
+content them, would keep her citizens groping in darkness when it was
+so very easy to give them light.
+
+But not to dwell ungratefully upon the grievances which certainly
+disfigure this city of delight, I will not multiply instances; yet I
+am sure I may assert, without fear of contradiction or reproach, that
+such a street-police as that of London would be one of the greatest
+civic blessings that King Philippe could possibly bestow upon his
+"_belle ville de Paris_."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI.
+
+      Preparations for the Fête du Roi.--Arrival of Troops.--Champs
+      Elysées.--Concert in the Garden of the Tuileries.--Silence of
+      the People.--Fireworks.
+
+
+     May 2, 1835.
+
+For several days past we have been watching the preparations for the
+King's fête, which though not quite equal to those in the days of the
+Emperor, when all the fountains in Paris ran wine, were on a large and
+splendid scale, and if more sober, were perhaps not less princely.
+Temporary theatres, ball-rooms, and orchestras in the Champs
+Elysées--magnificent fireworks on the Pont Louis-Seize--preparations
+for a full concert immediately in front of the Tuileries Palace, and
+arrangement of lamps for general illuminations, but especially in the
+Gardens, were the chief of these; but none of them struck us so much
+as the daily-increasing number of troops. National Guards and soldiers
+of the line divided the streets between them; and as a grand review
+was naturally to make a part of the day's pageantry, there would have
+been nothing to remark in this, were it not that the various parties
+into which the country is divided perpetually leads people to suppose
+that King Philippe finds it necessary to act on the defensive.
+
+Numberless are the hints, as you may imagine, on this theme that have
+been thrown out on the present occasion; and it is confidently
+asserted in some quarters, that the reviewing of large bodies of
+troops is likely to become a very fashionable and frequent, if not a
+very popular, amusement here. If, indeed, a show of force be necessary
+to ensure the tranquillity of this strife-worn land, the government
+certainly do right in displaying it; but if this be not the case,
+there is some imprudence in it, for the effect much resembles that of
+
+     "A rich armour, worn in heat of day,
+     That scalds with safety."
+
+Yesterday, then, being marked in the calendar as sacred to St. Jacques
+and St. Philippe, was kept as the fête of the present King of the
+French. The weather was brilliant, and everything looked gay,
+particularly around the courtly region of the Tuileries, Champs
+Elysées, and all parts near or between them.
+
+Being assured by a philosophical looker-on upon all such assemblings
+of the people as are likely to show forth indications of their temper,
+that the humours of the Champs Elysées would display more of this than
+I could hope to find elsewhere, I was about to order a carriage to
+convey us there; but my friend stopped me.
+
+"You may as well remain at home," said he; "from a carriage you will
+see nothing but a mob: but if you will walk amongst them, you may
+perhaps find out whether they are thinking of anything or nothing."
+
+"Anything?--or nothing?" I repeated. "Does the _anything_ mean a
+revolution? Tell me truly, is there any chance of a riot?"
+
+Instead of answering, he turned to a gentleman of our party who was
+just returned from the review of the troops by the king.
+
+"Did you not say you had seen the review?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes; I am just come from it."
+
+"And what do you think of the troops?"
+
+"They are very fine troops,--remarkably fine men, both the National
+Guards and the troops of the line."
+
+"And in sufficient force, are they not, to keep Paris quiet if she
+should feel disposed to be frolicsome?"
+
+"Certainly--I should think so."
+
+It was therefore determined, leaving the younger part of the females
+behind us however in case of the worst, that we should repair to the
+Champs Elysées.
+
+No one who has not seen a public fête celebrated at Paris can form an
+idea of the scene which the whole of this extensive area presents: it
+makes me giddy even to remember it. Imagine a hundred swings throwing
+their laughing cargoes high into the air; a hundred winged ships
+flying in endless whirl, and bearing for their crews a _tête-à-tête_
+pair of holiday sweethearts: imagine a hundred horses, each with two
+prancing hoofs high poised in air, coursing each other in a circle,
+with nostrils of flame; a hundred mountebanks, chattering and
+gibbering their inconceivable jargon, some habited as generals, some
+as Turks,--some offering their nostrums in the impressive habit of an
+Armenian Jew, and others rolling head-over-heels upon a stage, and
+presenting a dose with the grin of Grimaldi. We stopped more than once
+in our progress to watch the ways of one of these animals when it had
+succeeded in fascinating its prey: the poor victim was cajoled and
+coaxed into believing that none of woman born could ever taste of evil
+more, if he would but trust to the one only true, sure, and certain
+specific.
+
+At all sides of us, as we advanced, we were skirted by long lines of
+booths, decked with gaudy merchandise, rings, clasps, brooches,
+buckles, most tempting to behold, and all to be had for five sous
+each. It is pretty enough to watch the eager glances and the smirking
+smiles of the damsels, with the yielding, tender looks of the fond
+boys who hover round these magazines of female trumpery. Alas! it is
+perhaps but the beginning of sorrow!
+
+In the largest open space afforded by these Elysian fields were
+erected two theatres, the interval between them holding, it was said,
+twenty thousand spectators. While one of these performed a piece,
+pantomimic I believe, the other enjoyed a _relâche_ and reposed
+itself: but the instant the curtain of one fell, that of the other
+rose, and the ocean of heads which filled the space between them
+turned, and undulated like the waves of the sea, ebbing and flowing,
+backwards and forwards, as the moon-struck folly attracted them.
+
+Four ample _al fresco_ enclosures prepared for dancing, each furnished
+with a very respectable orchestra, occupied the extreme corners of
+this space; and notwithstanding the crowd, the heat, the sunshine, and
+the din, this exercise, which was carried on immediately under them,
+did not, I was told, cease for a single instant during the whole of
+that long summer-day. When one set of fiddlers were tired out, another
+succeeded. The activity, gaiety, and universal good-humour of this
+enormous mob were uniform and uninterrupted from morning to night.
+
+These people really deserve fêtes; they enjoy them so heartily, yet so
+peaceably.
+
+Such were the great and most striking features of the jubilee; but we
+hardly advanced a single step through the throng which did not exhibit
+to us some minor trait of national and characteristic revelry. I was
+delighted to observe, however, throughout the whole of my expedition,
+that, according to our friend's definition, "_nobody was thinking of
+anything_."
+
+But what pleased me incomparably more than all the rest was the
+temperate style of the popular refreshments. The young men and the
+old, the time-worn matron and the dainty damsel, all alike slaked
+their thirst with iced lemonade, which was furnished in incredible
+quantities by numberless ambulant cisterns, at the price of one sou
+the glass. Happily this light-hearted, fête-loving population have no
+gin-palaces to revel in.
+
+But hunger was to be satisfied as well as thirst; and here the
+_friand_ taste of the people displayed itself by dozens of little
+chafing-dishes lodged at intervals under the trees, each with its
+presiding old woman, who, holding a frying-pan, for ever redolent of
+onions, over the coals, screamed in shrill accents the praises of her
+_saucisses_ and her _foie_. This was the only part of the business
+that was really disagreeable: the odour from these _al fresco_
+kitchens was not, I confess, very pleasant; but everything else
+pleased me exceedingly. It was the first time I ever saw a real mob in
+full jubilee; and I did not believe it possible I could have been so
+much amused, and so not at all frightened. Even before one of these
+terribly odoriferant kitchens, I could not help pausing for a moment
+as I passed, to admire the polite style in which an old woman who had
+taken early possession of the shade of a tree for her _restaurant_
+defended the station from the wheelbarrow of a merchant of gingerbread
+who approached it.
+
+"Pardon, monsieur!... Ne venez pas, je vous prie, déranger mon
+établissement."
+
+The two grotesque old figures, together with their fittings up, made
+this dignified address delightful; and as it was answered by a bow,
+and the respectful drawing back of the wheelbarrow, I cannot but give
+it the preference over the more energetic language which a similar
+circumstance would be likely to produce at Bartholomew Fair.
+
+Altogether we were infinitely amused by this excursion; but I think I
+never was more completely fatigued in my life. Nevertheless, I
+contrived to repose myself sufficiently to join a large party to the
+Tuileries Gardens in the evening, where we were assured that _two
+hundred thousand persons_ were collected. The crowd was indeed very
+great, and the party soon found it impossible to keep together; but
+about three hours afterwards we had the satisfaction of assembling in
+safety at the same pleasant mansion from which we set out.
+
+The attraction which during the early part of the evening chiefly drew
+together the crowd was the orchestra in front of the palace. A large
+military band were stationed there, and continued playing, while the
+thousands and tens of thousands of lamps were being lighted all over
+the gardens.
+
+During this time, the king, queen, and royal family appeared on the
+balcony. And here the only fault which I had perceived in this pretty
+fête throughout the day showed itself so strongly as to produce a very
+disagreeable effect. From first to last, it seemed that the cause of
+the jubilee was forgotten; not a sound of any kind greeted the
+appearance of the royal party. That so gay and demonstrative a people,
+assembled in such numbers, and on such an occasion, should remain with
+uplifted heads, gazing on the sovereign, without a sound being uttered
+by any single voice, appeared perfectly astonishing. However, if there
+were no bravoes, there was decidedly no hissing.
+
+The scene itself was one of enchanting gaiety. Before us rose the
+illuminated pavilions of the Tuileries: the bright lights darting
+through the oleanders and myrtles on the balcony, showed to advantage
+the royal party stationed there. On every side were trees, statues,
+flowers, brought out to view by unnumbered lamps rising in brilliant
+pyramids among them, while the inspiring sounds of martial music
+resounded in the midst. The _jets d'eau_, catching the artificial
+light, sprang high into the air like arrows of fire, then turned into
+spray, and descended again in light showers, seeming to shed delicious
+coolness on the crowd; and behind them, far as the eye could reach,
+stretched the suburban forest, sparkling with festoons of lamps, that
+seemed drawn out, "fine by degrees and beautifully less," up to the
+Barrière de l'Etoile. The scene itself was indeed lovely; and if,
+instead of the heavy silence with which it was regarded, a loud
+heartfelt cheering had greeted the _jour de fête_ of a long-loved
+king, it would have been perfect.
+
+The fireworks, too, were superb; and though all the theatres in Paris
+were opened gratis to the public, and, as we afterwards heard,
+completely filled, the multitudes that thronged to look at them seemed
+enough to people a dozen cities. But it is so much the habit of this
+people, old and young, rich and poor, to live out of doors, that a
+slight temptation "bye common" is sufficient to draw forth every human
+being who is able to stand alone: and indeed, of those who are not,
+thousands are deposited in chairs, and other thousands in the arms of
+mothers and nurses.
+
+The Pont Louis-Seize was the point from which all the fireworks were
+let off. No spot could have been better chosen: the terraces of the
+Tuileries looked down upon it; and the whole length of the quays, on
+both sides of the river, as far as the _Cité_, looked up to it, and
+the persons stationed on them must have seen clearly the many-coloured
+fires that blazed there.
+
+One of the prettiest popular contrivances for creating a shout when
+fireworks are exhibited here, is to have rockets, sending up
+tri-coloured balls, blue, white, and red, in rapid succession,
+looking, as I heard a young republican say, "like winged messengers,
+from their loved banner up to heaven." I could not help remarking,
+that if the messengers repeated faithfully all that the tri-coloured
+banner had done, they would have strange tales to tell.
+
+The _bouquet_, or last grand display that finished the exhibition, was
+very fanciful and very splendid: but what struck me as the prettiest
+part of the whole show, was the Chamber of Deputies, the architecture
+of which was marked by lines of light; and the magnificent flight of
+steps leading to it having each one its unbroken fencing of fire, was
+perhaps intended as a mystical type of the ordeal to be passed in a
+popular election before this temple of wisdom could be entered.
+
+How very delightful was the abounding tea of that hot lamp-lit
+night!... And how very thankful was I this morning, at one o'clock, to
+feel that the _fête du roi_ was peaceably over, and I ready to fall
+soundly to sleep in my bed!
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII.
+
+      Political chances.--Visit from a Republican.--His high
+      spirits at the prospects before him.--His advice to me
+      respecting my name.--Removal of the Prisoners from Ste.
+      Pélagie.--Review.--Garde de Paris.--The National Guard.
+
+
+We are so accustomed, in these our luckless days, to hear of _émuetes_
+and rumours of _émuetes_, here, there, and everywhere, that we
+certainly grow nerve-hardened, and if not quite callous, at least we
+are almost reckless of the threat. But in this city the business of
+getting up riots on the one hand, and putting them down on the other,
+is carried on in so easy and familiar a manner, that we daily look for
+an account of something of the kind as regularly as for our breakfast
+bread; and I begin already to lose in a great degree my fear of
+disagreeable results, in the interest with which I watch what is going
+on.
+
+The living in the midst of all these different parties, and listening
+first to one and then to another of them, is to a foreigner much like
+the amusement derived by an idle spectator from walking round a
+card-table, looking into all the hands, and then watching the manner
+in which each one plays his game.
+
+It has so often happened here, as we all know, that when the game has
+appeared over, and the winner in possession of the stake he played
+for, they have on a sudden shuffled the cards and begun again, that
+people seem always looking out for new chances, new bets, new losses,
+and new confusion. I can assure you, that it is a game of considerable
+movement and animation which is going on at Paris just now. The
+political trials are to commence on Tuesday next, and the republicans
+are as busy as a nest of wasps when conscious that their stronghold is
+attacked. They have not only been upon the alert, but hitherto in
+great spirits at the prospect before them.
+
+The same individual whose alarming communications on this subject I
+mentioned to you soon after we came here, called on me again a few
+days ago. I never saw a man more altered in the interval of a few
+weeks: when I first saw him here, he was sullen, gloomy, and
+miserable-looking in the extreme; but at his last visit he appeared
+gay, frolicsome, and happy. He was not disposed, however, to talk much
+on politics; and I am persuaded he came with a fixed determination not
+to indulge our curiosity by saying a word on the subject. But "out of
+the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh;" and this gentleman did
+not depart without giving us some little intimation of what was
+passing in his.
+
+Observe, that I do no treason in repeating to you whatever this young
+man said in my hearing; for he assured me the first time I ever saw
+him, that he knew me to be "_une absolutiste enragée_;" but that, so
+far from fearing to speak freely before me, there was nothing that
+would give him so much pleasure as believing that I should publish
+every word he uttered on the subject of politics. I told him in
+return, that if I did so, it should be without mentioning his name;
+for that I should be truly sorry to hear that he had been consigned to
+Ste. Pélagie as a rebel on my evidence. So we understand each other
+perfectly.
+
+On the morning in question, he began talking gaily and gallantly
+concerning the pleasures of Paris, and expressed his hope that we were
+taking care to profit by the present interval of public tranquillity.
+
+"Is this interval of calm likely to be followed by a storm?" said one
+of the party.
+
+"Mais ... que sais-je?... The weather is so fine now, you know.... And
+the opera? en vérité, c'est superbe!... Have you seen it yet?"
+
+"Seen what?"
+
+"Eh! mais, 'La Juive'! ... à présent il n'y a que cela au monde....
+You read the journals?"
+
+"Yes; Galignani's at least."
+
+"Ah! ah!" said he, laughing; "c'est assez pour vous autres."
+
+"Is there any interesting news to-day in any of the papers?"
+
+"Intéressante? ... mais, oui ... assez.... Cependant...." And then
+again he rattled on about plays, balls, concerts, and I know not what.
+
+"I wish you would tell me," said I, interrupting him, "whether you
+think, that in case any popular movement should occur, the English
+would be molested, or in any way annoyed."
+
+"Non, madame--je ne le crois pas--surtout les femmes. Cependant, si
+j'étais vous, Madame Trollope, je me donnerai pour le moment le nom
+d'O'Connell."
+
+"And that, you think, would be accepted as a passport through any
+scene of treason and rebellion?" said I.
+
+He laughed again, and said that was not exactly what he meant; but
+that O'Connell was a name revered in France as well as at Rome, and
+might very likely belong one day or other to a pope, if his generous
+wishes for an Irish republic were too dear to his heart to permit him
+ever to accept the title of king.
+
+"An Irish republic? ... perhaps that is just what is wanted," said I.
+But not wishing to enter into any discussion on the niceties of
+speech, I waived the compliments he began to pay me on this liberal
+sentiment, and again asked him if he thought anything was going on
+amongst the friends of the prisoners that might impede the course of
+justice.
+
+Though not aware of the quibble with which I had replied to him, he
+answered me by another, saying with energy--
+
+"No! ... never!... They will never do anything to impede the course of
+justice."
+
+"Will they do anything to assist it?" said I.
+
+He sprang from his chair, gave a bound across the room, as if to hide
+his glee by looking out of the window, and when he showed his face
+again, said with much solemnity--"They will do their duty."
+
+The conversation continued for some time longer, wavering between
+politics and dissipation; and though we could not obtain from him
+anything approaching to information respecting what might be going on
+among his hot-headed party, yet it seemed clear that he at least hoped
+for something that would lead to important results.
+
+The riddle was explained a very few hours after he left us. The
+political prisoners, most of whom were lodged in the prison of Ste.
+Pélagie, have been removed to the Luxembourg; and it was confidently
+hoped and expected by the republicans that enough malcontents would be
+found among the citizens of Paris to get up a very satisfactory
+_émeute_ on the occasion. But never was hope more abortive: not the
+slightest public sensation appears to have been excited by this
+removal; and I am assured that the whole republican party are so
+bitterly disappointed at this, that the most sanguine among them have
+ceased for the present to anticipate the triumph of their cause. I
+suspect, therefore, that it will be some time before we shall receive
+another visit from our riot-loving friend.
+
+Meanwhile preparations are going on in a very orderly and judicious
+style at the Luxembourg. The trial-chamber and all things connected
+with it are completed; tents have been pitched in the gardens for the
+accommodation of the soldiers, and guards stationed in such a manner
+in all directions as to ensure a reasonable chance of tranquillity to
+the peaceable.
+
+We have attended a review of very fine troops in the Place du
+Carrousel, composed of National Guards, troops of the line, and that
+most superb-looking body of municipal troops called _La Garde de
+Paris_. These latter, it seems, have performed in Paris since the
+revolution of 1830 the duties of that portion of the police formerly
+called _gendarmerie_; but the name having fallen into disrepute in the
+capital--(_les jeunes gens_, _par exemple_, could not bear it)--the
+title of _Garde de Paris_ has been accorded to them instead, and it is
+now only in the provinces that _gendarmes_ are to be found. But let
+them be called by what name they may, I never saw any corps of more
+superb appearance. Men and horses, accoutrements and discipline, all
+seem perfect. It is amusing to observe how slight a thread will
+sometimes suffice to lead captive the most unruly spirits.
+
+     "What is there in a name?"
+
+Yet I have heard it asserted with triumphant crowings by some of the
+revolutionary set, that, thanks to their valour! the odious system was
+completely changed--that _gendarmes_ and _mouchards_ no longer existed
+in Paris--that citizens would never again be tormented by their
+hateful _surveillance_--and, in short, that Frenchmen were redeemed
+from thraldom now and for evermore; so now they have _La Garde de
+Paris_, just to take care of them: and if ever a set of men were
+capable of performing effectually the duties committed to their
+charge, I think it must be this well-drilled stalworth corps.
+
+The appearance of a large body of the National Guard too, when brought
+together, as at a review, in full military style, is very imposing.
+The eye at once sees that they are not ordinary troops. All the
+appointments are in excellent order; and the very material of which
+their uniform is made, being so much less common than usual, helps to
+produce this effect. Not to mention that the uniform itself, of dark
+blue, with the delicately white pantaloons, is peculiarly handsome on
+parade; much more so, I think, though perhaps less calculated for a
+battle-field, than the red lower garments by which the troops of the
+French line are at present distinguished.
+
+The king looks well on horseback--so do his sons. The whole staff,
+indeed, was gay and gallant-looking, and in style as decidedly
+aristocratic as any prince need desire. Shouts of "_Vive le Roi!_"
+ran cheerily and lustily along the lines; and if these may be trusted
+as indications of the feelings of the soldiery towards King Philippe,
+he may, I think, feel quite indifferent as to whatever other vows may
+be uttered concerning him in the distance.
+
+But in this city of contradictions one can never sit down safely to
+ruminate upon any one inference or conclusion whatever; for five
+minutes afterwards you are assured by somebody or other that you are
+quite wrong, utterly mistaken, and that the exact contrary of what you
+suppose is the real fact. Thus, on mentioning in the evening the
+cordial reception given by the soldiers to the king in the morning, I
+received for answer--"Je le crois bien, madame; les officiers leur
+commandent de le faire."
+
+We remained a good while on the ground, and saw as much as the
+confinement of a carriage would permit. Like all reviews of
+well-dressed, well-appointed troops, it was a gay and pretty
+spectacle; and notwithstanding the caustic reprimand for my faith in
+empty sounds which I have just repeated to you, I am still of opinion
+that King Philippe had every reason to be contented with his troops,
+and with the manner in which he was received by them.
+
+Every hour that one remains at Paris increases, I think, one's
+conviction of the enormous power and importance of the National Guard.
+Our volunteer corps, in the season of threatenings and danger, gave
+us unquestionably an immense accession of strength; and had the
+threatener dared to come, neither his legions nor his eagles, his
+veterans nor his victories, would have saved him from utter
+destruction. He knew this, and he came not: he knew that the little
+island was bristling from her centre to her shore with arms raised to
+strike, by the impulse of the heart and soul, and not by conscription;
+he knew this, and wisely came not.
+
+Our volunteers were armed men--armed in a cause that warmed their
+blood; and it is sufficient to establish their importance, that
+History must record the simple fact, that Napoleon looked at them and
+turned away. But, great as was the power of this critical show of
+volunteer strength among us, as a permanent force it was trifling when
+compared to the present National Guard of France. Not only are their
+numbers greater--Paris alone has eighty thousand of them,--but their
+discipline is perfect, and their practical habits of being on duty
+keep them in such daily activity, that a tocsin sounded within their
+hearing would suffice to turn out within an hour nearly the whole of
+this force, not only completely armed, equipped, and in all respects
+fit for service--not only each one with his quarters and rations
+provided, but each one knowing and feeling the importance of the duty
+he is upon as intimately as the general himself; and each one, in
+addition to all other feelings and motives which make armed men
+strong, warmed with the consciousness that it is his own stronghold,
+his own property, his own castle, as well as his own life, that he is
+defending.
+
+This force will save France from devouring her own vitals, if anything
+can do it.
+
+Among all the novelties produced by the ever-growing experience of
+men, and of which so many have ripened in these latter days, I doubt
+if any can be named more rationally calculated to fulfil the purpose
+for which it is intended than this organization of a force formed of
+the industrious and the orderly part of a community to keep in check
+the idle and disorderly,--and that, without taxing the state,
+compromising their professional usefulness, or sacrificing their
+personal independence, more than every man in his senses would be
+willing to do for the purpose of keeping watch and ward over all that
+he loves and values on earth.
+
+The more the power of such a force as this increases, the farther must
+the country where it exists be from all danger of revolution. Such men
+are, and must be, conservatives in the strongest sense of the word;
+and though it may certainly be possible for some who may be rebel to
+the cause of order to get enrolled among them, the danger of the
+enterprise will unquestionably prevent its frequent recurrence. The
+wolf might as safely mount guard in the midst of armed shepherds and
+their dogs, as demagogues and agitators place themselves in the ranks
+of the National Guard of Paris.
+
+  [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+   "PRO PATRIA!"
+   London, Published by Richard Bentley. 1835.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII.
+
+      First Day of the Trials.--Much blustering, but no riot.--All
+      alarm subsided.--Proposal for inviting Lord B----m to plead
+      at the Trial.--Society.--Charm of idle conversation.--The
+      Whisperer of good stories.
+
+
+     6th May 1835.
+
+The monster is hatched at last! The trials began yesterday, and we are
+all rejoicing exceedingly at having found ourselves alive in our beds
+this morning. What will betide us and it, as its scales or its plumes
+push forth and gather strength from day to day, I know not; but
+"sufficient for the day is the evil thereof;" and I do assure you in
+very sober earnest, that when Galignani's paper arrived this morning,
+the party round the breakfast-table was greatly comforted by finding
+that nothing more alarming than a few republican demands on the part
+of the prisoners, and a few monarchical refusals on the part of the
+court, took place.
+
+This interchange of hostilities commenced by some of the accused
+refusing to answer when their names were called;--then followed a
+demand for free admission to the chamber, during the trials, for the
+mothers, wives, and all other females belonging to the respective
+families of the prisoners;--and next, a somewhat blustering demand for
+counsel of their own choosing; the body of legal advocates, who, by
+general rule and common usage, are always charged with the defence of
+prisoners, not containing, as it should seem, orators sufficiently of
+their own _clique_ to content them.
+
+This was of course stoutly refused by the court, after retiring,
+however, for a couple of hours to deliberate upon it--a ceremony I
+should hardly have supposed necessary. The company of the ladies, too,
+was declined; and as, upon a moderate computation, their numerical
+force could not have amounted to less than five hundred, this want of
+gallantry in the Peers of France must be forgiven in favour of their
+discretion.
+
+The gentleman, however, who was appointed, as he said, by the rest, to
+request the pleasure of their society, declared loudly that the demand
+for it should be daily renewed. This reminds one of the story of the
+man who punished his wife for infidelity by making her sit to hear the
+story of her misdeeds rehearsed every day of her life, and pretty
+plainly indicates that it is the plan of the accused to torment their
+judges as much as they conveniently can.
+
+One of the prisoners named the celebrated Abbé de Lamennais, author of
+"Les Paroles d'un Croyant," as his advocate. The _procureur-général_
+remarked, that it was for the interest of the defence that the rule
+for permitting lawyers only to plead should be adhered to.
+
+Next came a demand from one of the accused, in the name of all the
+rest, that permission for free and unrestrained intercourse between
+the prisoners of Lyons, Paris, and Marseilles should be allowed. This
+was answered only by the announcement that "the court was adjourned;"
+an intimation which produced an awful clamour; and as the peers
+quitted the court, they were assailed with vehement cries of "We
+protest! ... we protest!... We will make no defence!... We protest!
+... we protest!" And so ended the business of the day.
+
+I believe that the government, and all those who are sufficiently
+connected with it to know anything of the real state of the case, were
+perfectly aware that no public movement was likely to take place at
+this stage of the business. Every one seems to know that the restless
+spirits, the desperate adventurers engaged in the extensive plot now
+under investigation, consider their trial as the best occasion
+possible for a political _coup de théâtre_, and that nothing would
+have disturbed their performance more than a riot before the curtain
+rose.
+
+Everything like panic seems now to have subsided, even among those who
+are farthest from the centre of action; and all the effects of this
+mighty affair apparently visible at present are to be seen on the
+faces of the republicans, who, according to their wont, strut about
+wherever they are most likely to be looked at, and take care that each
+one of their countenances shall be
+
+     "Like to a book where men may read strange matters."
+
+I thank Heaven, nevertheless, that this first day is so well over. I
+had heard so over-much about it, that it became a sort of nightmare to
+me, from which I now feel happily relieved. It is quite clear, that if
+the out-of-door agitators should think proper to make any attempts to
+produce disturbance, the government feels quite equal to the task of
+making them quiet again, and of insuring that peaceable security to
+the country for which she has so long languished in vain.
+
+The military force employed at the Luxembourg is, however, by no means
+large. One battalion of the first legion of National Guards was in the
+court of the palace, and about four hundred troops of the line
+occupied the garden. But though no show of force is unnecessarily
+displayed, every one has the comfort of knowing that there is enough
+within reach should any necessity arise for employing it.
+
+I was told the other day, that when Lord B----m was in Paris, he was
+so kind as to visit M. Armand Carrel in prison; and that, on the
+strength of this proof of sympathy and affection, it has been
+suggested to the prisoners at the Luxembourg, that they should
+despatch a deputation of their friends to wait upon his lordship,
+requesting the aid of his eloquence in pleading their cause against
+the tyrants who so unjustifiably hold them in durance.
+
+The proposal, it seems, was very generally approved; but nevertheless,
+it was at last negatived on the representation of a person who had
+once heard his lordship argue in the French language. This is the more
+to be regretted by the friends of these suffering victims, since their
+choice of defenders is to be restricted to members of the bar: and
+this restriction, narrow-minded and severe as it is, would not exclude
+his lordship; a legal advocate being beyond all question a legal
+advocate all the world over.
+
+It was not till we had sent out in one or two directions to ascertain
+if all things were quiet, that we ventured to keep an engagement which
+we had made for last night to pass the _soirée_ at Madame de L*****'s.
+I should have been sorry to have lost it; for the business of the
+morning appeared to have awakened the spirits and set everybody
+talking. There are few things I like better than listening to a full,
+free flow of Paris talk; particularly when, as in this instance, the
+party is small and in a lively mood.
+
+It appears as if there were nothing like caution or reserve here in
+any direction. Among those whom I have had the satisfaction of
+occasionally meeting are some who figure amongst the most important
+personages of the day; but their conversation is as gaily unrestrained
+as if they had nothing to do but to amuse themselves. These, indeed,
+are not likely to commit themselves; but I have known others less
+secure, who have appeared to permit every thought that occurred to
+them to meet the ear of whoever chose to listen. In short, whatever
+restraint the police, which by its nature is very phoenix-like, may
+endeavour to put upon the periodical press, its influence certainly
+does not as yet reach the lips, which open with equal freedom for the
+expression of faith, scepticism, loyalty, treason, philosophy, and
+wit.
+
+In an intercourse so transient as mine is likely to be with most of
+the acquaintance I have formed here,--an intercourse consisting
+chiefly, as to the manner of it, of evening visits through a series of
+_salons_,--amusement is naturally more sought than information: and
+were it otherwise, I should, with some few exceptions, have reaped
+disappointment instead of pleasure; for it is evident that the same
+feeling which leads the majority of persons you meet in society here,
+to speak freely, prevents them from saying anything seriously. So
+that, after talking for an hour or two upon subjects which one should
+think very gravely important, a light word, a light laugh, ends the
+colloquy, and very often leaves me in doubt as to the real sentiments
+of those to whom I have been listening.
+
+But if not always successful in obtaining information, I never fail in
+finding amusement. Rarely, even for a moment, does conversation
+languish; and a string of lively nothings, or a startling succession
+of seemingly bold, but really unmeaning speculations, often make me
+imagine that a vast deal of talent has been displayed; yet, when
+memory sets to work upon it, little remains worth recording.
+Nevertheless, there is talent, and of a very charming kind too, in
+this manner of uttering trifles so that they may be mistaken for wit.
+
+I know some few in our own dear land who have also this happy gift;
+and, as a matter of grace and mere exterior endowment, I question if
+it be not fairly worth all the rest. But I believe we have it in about
+the same proportion that we have good actors of genteel comedy,
+compared to the number which they can boast of the same class here.
+With us this easy, natural style of mimicking real life is a rare
+talent, though sometimes possessed in great perfection; but with them
+it seems more or less the birthright of all.
+
+So is it with the gift of that bright colloquial faculty which bestows
+such indescribable grace upon the airy nothings uttered in French
+drawing-rooms. To listen to it, is very like quaffing the sparkling,
+frothy beverage native to their sunny hills;--French talk is very like
+champagne. The exhilaration it produces is instantaneous: the spirits
+mount, and something like wit is often struck out even from dull
+natures by merely coming in contact with what is so brilliant.
+
+I could almost venture to assert that the effect of this delightful
+inspiration might be perceived by any one who had gained admission to
+French society even if they did not understand the language. Let an
+observing eye, well accustomed to read the expression so legibly,
+though so transiently written in the countenances of persons in
+conversation,--let such a one only see, if he cannot hear, the effect
+produced by the hits and flashes of French eloquence. Allow me another
+simile, and I will tell you that it is like applying electricity to a
+bunch of feathers tied together and attached to the conductor by a
+thread: first one, then another starts, flies off, mounts, and drops
+again, as the bright spark passes lightly, gracefully, capriciously,
+yet still all making part of one circle.
+
+Of course, I am not speaking now of large parties; these, as I think I
+have said before, are wonderfully alike in all lands, and nothing
+approaching to conversation can possibly take place at any of them. It
+is only where the circle is restricted to a few that this sort of
+effect can be produced; and then, the impulse once given by a piquant
+word, seemingly uttered at random, every one present receives a share
+of it, and contributes in return all the lively thoughts to which it
+has given birth.
+
+But there was one gentleman of our party yesterday evening who had a
+most provoking trick of attracting one's attention as if on purpose to
+disappoint it. He was not quite like Molière's Timante, of whom
+Célimène says,
+
+     "Et, jusques au bonjour, il dit tout à l'oreille;"
+
+but in the midst of pleasant talk, in which all were interested, he
+said aloud--
+
+"_Par exemple!_ I heard the very best thing possible to-day about the
+King. Will you hear it, Madame B...?"
+
+This question being addressed to a decided doctrinaire, the answer was
+of course a reproachful shake of the head; but as it was accompanied
+by half a smile, and as the lady bent her fair neck towards the
+speaker, she, and she only, was made acquainted with "the best of all
+possible things," conveyed in a whisper.
+
+At another time he addressed himself to the lady of the house; but as
+he spoke across the circle, he not only fixed her attention, but that
+of every one else.
+
+"Madame!" said he coaxingly, "will you let me tell you a little word
+of treason?"
+
+"Comment?--de la trahison?... Apropos de quoi, s'il vous plaît?...
+Mais c'est égal--contez toujours."
+
+On receiving this answer, the whisperer of good stories got up from
+the depth of his arm-chair--an enterprise of some difficulty, for he
+was neither rapid nor light in his movements,--and deliberately
+walking round the chairs of all the party, he placed himself behind
+Madame de L*****, and whispered in her ear what made her colour and
+shake her head again; but she laughed too, telling him that she hated
+timid politics, and had no taste for any _trahisons_ which were not
+"_hautement prononcées_."
+
+This hint sent him back to his place; but it was taken very
+good-humouredly, for, instead of whispering any more, he uttered aloud
+sundry odds and ends of gossip, but all so well dressed up in lively
+wording, that they sounded very like good stories.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX.
+
+      Victor Hugo.--Racine.
+
+
+I have again been listening to some curious details respecting the
+present state of literature in France. I think I have before stated to
+you, that I have uniformly heard the whole of the _décousu_ school of
+authors spoken of with unmitigated contempt,--and that not only by the
+venerable advocates for the _bon vieux temps_, but also, and equally,
+by the distinguished men of the present day--distinguished both by
+position and ability.
+
+Respecting Victor Hugo, the only one of the tribe to which I allude
+who has been sufficiently read in England to justify his being classed
+by us as a person of general celebrity, the feeling is more remarkable
+still. I have never mentioned him or his works to any person of good
+moral feeling and cultivated mind, who did not appear to shrink from
+according him even the degree of reputation that those who are
+received as authority among our own critics have been disposed to
+allow him. I might say, that of him France seems to be ashamed.
+
+Again and again it has happened to me, when I have asked the opinions
+of individuals as to the merit of his different plays, that I have
+been answered thus:--
+
+"I assure you I know nothing about it: I never saw it played."
+
+"Have you read it?"
+
+"No; I have not. I cannot read the works of Victor Hugo."
+
+One gentleman, who has heard me more than once persist in my inquiries
+respecting the reputation enjoyed by Victor Hugo at Paris as a man of
+genius and a successful dramatic writer, told me, that he saw that, in
+common with the generality of foreigners, particularly the English, I
+looked upon Victor Hugo and his productions as a sort of type or
+specimen of the literature of France at the present hour. "But permit
+me to assure you," he added gravely and earnestly, "that no idea was
+ever more entirely and altogether erroneous. He is the head of a
+sect--the high-priest of a congregation who have abolished every law,
+moral and intellectual, by which the efforts of the human mind have
+hitherto been regulated. He has attained this pre-eminence, and I
+trust that no other will arise to dispute it with him. But Victor Hugo
+is NOT a popular French writer."
+
+Such a judgment as this, or the like of it, I have heard passed upon
+him and his works nine times out of ten that I have mentioned him;
+and I consider this as a proof of right feeling and sound taste, which
+is extremely honourable, and certainly more than we have lately given
+our neighbours credit for. It pleased me the more perhaps because I
+did not expect it. There is so much meretricious glitter in the works
+of Victor Hugo,--nay, so much real brightness now and then,--that I
+expected to find at least the younger and less reflective part of the
+population warm in their admiration of him.
+
+His clinging fondness for scenes of vice and horror, and his utter
+contempt for all that time has stamped as good in taste or feeling,
+might, I thought, arise from the unsettled spirit of the times; and if
+so, he could not fail of receiving the meed of sympathy and praise
+from those who had themselves set that spirit at work.
+
+But it is not so. The wild vigour of some of his descriptions is
+acknowledged; but that is all of praise that I ever heard bestowed
+upon Victor Hugo's theatrical productions in his native land.
+
+The startling, bold, and stirring incidents of his disgusting dramas
+must and will excite a certain degree of attention when seen for the
+first time, and it is evidently the interest of managers to bring
+forward whatever is most likely to produce this effect; but the doing
+so cannot be quoted as a proof of the systematic degradation of the
+theatre. It is moreover a fact, which the play-bills themselves are
+alone sufficient to attest, that after Victor Hugo's plays have had
+their first run, they are never brought forward again: not one of them
+has yet become what we call a stock-play.
+
+This fact, which was first stated to me by a person perfectly _au
+fait_ of the subject, has been subsequently confirmed by many others;
+and it speaks more plainly than any recorded criticism could do, what
+the public judgment of these pieces really is.
+
+The romance of "Notre Dame de Paris" is ever cited as Victor Hugo's
+best work, excepting some early lyrical pieces of which we know
+nothing. But even this, though there are passages of extraordinary
+descriptive power in it, is always alluded to with much more of
+contempt than admiration; and I have heard it ridiculed in circles,
+whose praise was fame, with a light pleasantry more likely to prove an
+antidote to its mischief than all the reprobation that sober criticism
+could pour out upon it.
+
+But may not this champion of vice--this chronicler of sin, shame, and
+misery--quote Scripture and say, "A prophet is not without honour,
+save in his own country"? For I have seen a criticism in an English
+paper (The Examiner) which says, "_The_ Notre Dame _of Victor Hugo
+must take rank with the best romances by the author of_ Waverley....
+_It transcends them in vigour, animation, and familiarity with the
+age._"
+
+In reply to the last point here mentioned, in which our countryman has
+given the superiority to Victor Hugo over Sir Walter Scott, a very
+strong testimony against its correctness has reached me since I have
+been in Paris. An able lawyer, and most accomplished gentleman and
+scholar, who holds a distinguished station in the Cour Royale, took us
+to see the Palais de Justice. Having shown us the chamber where
+criminal trials are carried on, he observed, that this was the room
+described by Victor Hugo in his romance; adding,--"He was, however,
+mistaken here, as in most places _where he affects a knowledge of the
+times of which he writes_. In the reign of Louis the Eleventh, no
+criminal trials ever took place within the walls of this building; and
+all the ceremonies as described by him resemble much more a trial of
+yesterday than of the age at which he dates his tale."
+
+The vulgar old adage, that "there is no accounting for taste," must, I
+suppose, teach us to submit patiently to the hearing of any judgments
+and opinions which it is the will and pleasure of man to pronounce;
+but it does seem strange that any can be found who, after bringing Sir
+Walter Scott and Victor Hugo into comparison, should give the palm of
+superiority to the author of "Notre Dame de Paris."
+
+Were the faults of this school of authors only of a literary kind, few
+persons, I believe, would take the trouble to criticise them, and
+their nonsense would die a natural death as soon as it was made to
+encounter the light of day: but such productions as Victor Hugo's are
+calculated to do great injury to human nature. They would teach us to
+believe that all our gentlest and best affections can only lead to
+crime and infamy. There is not, I truly believe, a single pure,
+innocent, and holy thought to be found throughout his writings: Sin is
+the muse he invokes--he would
+
+                             "Take off the rose
+     From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
+     And set a blister there;"
+
+Horror is his handmaid; and "thousands of liveried _monsters_ lackey
+him," to furnish the portraits with which it is the occupation of his
+life to disgust the world.
+
+Can there, think you, be a stronger proof of a diseased intellect
+among the _décousu_ part of the world, than that they not only admire
+this man's hideous extravagances, but that they actually believe him
+to be ... at least they say so ... a second Shakspeare!... A
+Shakspeare!
+
+To chastise as he deserves an author who may be said to defy mankind
+by the libels he has put forth on the whole race, requires a stouter
+and a keener weapon than any a woman can wield; but when they prate of
+Shakspeare, I feel that it is our turn to speak. How much of
+gratitude and love does every woman owe to him! He, who has entered
+deeper into her heart than ever mortal did before or since his day,
+how has he painted her?--As Portia, Juliet, Constance, Hermione;--as
+Cordelia, Volumnia, Isabella, Desdemona, Imogene!
+
+Then turn and see for what we have to thank our modern painter. Who
+are his heroines?--Lucrèce Borgia, Marion de Lorme, Blanche,
+Maguelonne, with I know not how many more of the same stamp; besides
+his novel heroine, whom Mr. Henry Lytton Bulwer calls "the most
+delicate female ever drawn by the pen of romance"--The Esmeralda! ...
+whose sole accomplishments are dancing and singing in the streets, and
+who ... delicate creature! ... being caught up by a horseman in a
+midnight brawl, throws her arms round his neck, swears he is very
+handsome, and thenceforward shows the delicate tenderness of her
+nature, by pertinaciously doting upon him, without any other return or
+encouragement whatever than an insulting caress bestowed upon her one
+night when he was drunk ... "delicate female!"
+
+But this is all too bad to dwell upon. It is, however, in my
+estimation a positive duty, when mentioning the works of Victor Hugo,
+to record a protest against their tone and tendency; and it is also a
+duty to correct, as far as one can, the erroneous impression existing
+in England respecting his reputation in France.
+
+Whenever his name is mentioned in England, his success is cited as a
+proof of the depraved state, moral and intellectual, of the French
+people. And such it would be, were his success and reputation such as
+his partisans represent them to be. But, in point of fact, the manner
+in which he is judged by his own countrymen is the strongest possible
+evidence that neither a powerful fancy, a commanding diction, nor an
+imagination teeming with images of intense passion, can suffice to
+ensure an author any exalted reputation in France at the present day
+if he outrages good feeling and good taste.
+
+Should any doubt the correctness of this statement, I can only refer
+them to the source from whence I derived the information on which it
+is founded,--I can only refer them to France herself. There is one
+fact, however, which may be ascertained without crossing the
+Channel;--namely, that when one of their reviews found occasion to
+introduce an article upon the modern drama, the editors acquitted
+themselves of the task by translating the whole of the able article
+upon that subject which appeared about a year and a half ago in the
+Quarterly, acknowledging to what source they were indebted for it.
+
+Were the name and the labours of Victor Hugo confined to his own
+country, it would now be high time that I should release you from him;
+but it is an English critic who has said, that he has heaved the
+ground from under the feet of Racine; and you must indulge me for a
+few minutes, while I endeavour to bring the two parties together
+before you. In doing this, I will be generous; for I will introduce M.
+Hugo in "Le Roi s'amuse," which, from the circumstance (the happiest,
+I was assured, that ever befel the author) of its being withdrawn by
+authority from the Théâtre Français, has become infinitely more
+celebrated than any other he has written.
+
+It may be remarked by the way, that a few more such acts of decent
+watchfulness over the morals and manners of the people may redeem the
+country from the stigma it now bears of being the most licentious in
+its theatre and its press in the world.
+
+The first glorious moment of being forbidden at the Français appears
+almost to have turned the lucky author's brain. His preface to "Le Roi
+s'amuse," among many other symptoms of insanity has the following:--
+
+"Le premier mouvement de l'auteur fut de douter.... L'acte était
+arbitraire au point d'être incroyable.... L'auteur ne pouvait croire à
+tant d'insolence et de folie.... Le ministre avait en effet, de son
+droit divin de ministre, intimé l'ordre.... Le ministre lui avait pris
+sa pièce, lui avait pris son droit, lui avait pris sa chose. Il ne
+restait plus qu'à le mettre, lui poëte, à la Bastille.... Est-ce qu'il
+y a eu en effet quelque chose qu'on a appelé la révolution de
+Juillet?... Que peut être le motif d'une pareille mesure?... Il parait
+que nos faiseurs de censure se prétendent scandalisés dans leur morale
+par 'Le Roi s'amuse;' le nom seul du poëte inculpé aurait dû être une
+suffisante réfutation (!!!)... Cette pièce a révolté la pudeur des
+gendarmes; la brigade Léotaud y était, et l'a trouvé obscène; le
+bureau des moeurs s'est voilé la face; M. Vidocq a rougi.... Holà,
+mes maîtres! Silence sur ce point!... Depuis quand n'est-il plus
+permis à un roi de courtiser sur la scène une servante d'auberge?...
+Mener un roi dans un mauvais lieu, cela ne serait pas même nouveau non
+plus.... L'auteur veut l'art chaste, et non l'art prude.... Il est
+profondement triste de voir comment se termine la révolution de
+Juillet...."
+
+Then follows a _précis_ of the extravagant and hateful plot, in which
+the heroine is, as usual, "une fille séduite et perdue;" and he sums
+it up thus pompously:--"Au fond d'un des ouvrages de l'auteur il y a
+la fatalité--au fond de celui-ci il y a la providence."
+
+I wish much that some one would collect and publish in a separate
+volume all M. Victor Hugo's prefaces; I would purchase it instantly,
+and it would be a fund of almost inexhaustible amusement. He assumes a
+tone in them which, all things considered, is perhaps unequalled in
+the history of literature. In another part of the one from which I
+have given the above extracts, he says--
+
+"Vraiment, le pouvoir qui s'attaque à nous n'aura pas gagné grand'
+chose à ce que nous, hommes d'art, nous quittions notre tâche
+consciencieuse, tranquille, sincère, profonde; notre tâche sainte...."
+What on earth, if it be not insanity, could have put it into Mr.
+Hugo's head that the manufacturing of his obscene dramas was "une
+tâche sainte"?
+
+The principal characters in "Le Roi s'amuse" are François Premier;
+Triboulet, his pander and buffoon; Blanche, the daughter of Triboulet,
+"la fille séduite," and heroine of the piece; and Maguelonne, another
+Esmeralda.
+
+The interest lies in the contrast between Triboulet pander and
+Triboulet père. He is himself the most corrupt and infamous of men;
+and because he is humpbacked, makes it both his pastime and his
+business to lead the king his master into every species of debauchery:
+but he shuts up his daughter to preserve her purity; and the poet has
+put forth all his strength in describing the worship which Triboulet
+père pays to the virtue which he passes his life as Triboulet pander
+in destroying.
+
+Of course, the king falls in love with Blanche, and she with him; and
+Triboulet pander is made to assist in carrying her off in the dark,
+under the belief that she was the wife of a nobleman to whom also his
+majesty the king was making love.
+
+When Triboulet père and pander finds out what he has done, he falls
+into a terrible agony: and here again is a _tour de force_, to show
+how pathetically such a father can address such a daughter.
+
+He resolves to murder the king, and informs his daughter, who is
+passionately attached to her royal seducer, of his intention. She
+objects, but is at length brought to consent by being made to peep
+through a hole in the wall, and seeing his majesty King Francis
+engaged in making love to Maguelonne.
+
+This part of the plot is brought out shortly and pithily.
+
+       BLANCHE (_peeping through the hole in the wall_).
+     Et cette femme! ... est-elle affrontée! ... oh!...
+
+       TRIBOULET.
+                 Tais-toi;
+     Pas de pleurs. Laisse-moi te venger!
+
+       BLANCHE.
+                 Hélas!--Faites--
+     Tout ce que vous voudrez.
+
+       TRIBOULET.
+         Merci!
+
+This _merci_, observe, is not said ironically, but gravely and
+gratefully. Having arranged this part of the business, he gives his
+daughter instructions as to what she is to do with herself, in the
+following sublime verses:--
+
+       TRIBOULET.
+     Écoute. Va chez moi, prends-y des habits d'homme,
+     Un cheval, de l'argent, n'importe quelle somme;
+     Et pars, sans t'arrêter un instant en chemin,
+     Pour Evreux, où j'irai te joindre après-demain.
+     --Tu sais ce coffre auprès du portrait de ta mère;
+     L'habit est là,--je l'ai d'avance exprès fait faire.
+
+Having dismissed his daughter, he settles with a gipsy-man named
+Saltabadil, who is the brother of Maguelonne, all the details of the
+murder, which is to be performed in their house, a small cabaret at
+which the foul weather and the fair Maguelonne induce the royal rake
+to pass the night. Triboulet leaves them an old sack in which they are
+to pack up the body, and promises to return at midnight, that he may
+himself see it thrown into the Seine.
+
+Blanche meanwhile departs; but feeling some compunctious visitings
+about the proposed murder of her lover, returns, and again applying
+her ear to the hole in the wall, finds that his majesty is gone to bed
+in the garret, and that the brother and sister are consulting about
+his death. Maguelonne, a very "delicate female," objects too; she
+admires his beauty, and proposes that his life shall be spared if any
+stranger happens to arrive whose body may serve to fill the sack.
+Blanche, in a fit of heroic tenderness, determines to be that
+stranger; exclaiming,
+
+     "Eh bien! ... mourons pour lui!"
+
+But before she knocks at the door, she kneels down to say her prayers,
+particularly for forgiveness to all her enemies. Here are the verses,
+making part of those which have overthrown Racine:--
+
+       BLANCHE.
+                 Oh! Dieu, vers qui je vais,
+     Je pardonne à tous ceux qui m'ont été mauvais:
+     Mon père et vous, mon Dieu! pardonnez-leurs de même
+     Au roi François Premier, que je plains et que j'aime.
+
+She knocks, the door opens, she is stabbed and consigned to the sack.
+Her father arrives immediately after as by appointment, receives the
+sack, and prepares to drag it towards the river, handling it with
+revengeful ecstasy, and exclaiming--
+
+                 Maintenant, monde, regarde-moi:
+     Ceci, c'est un bouffon; et ceci, c'est un roi.
+
+At this triumphant moment he hears the voice of the king, singing as
+he walks away from the dwelling of Maguelonne.
+
+       TRIBOULET.
+     Mais qui donc m'a-t-il mis à sa place, le traître!
+
+He cuts open the sack; and a flash of lightning very melodramatically
+enables him to recognise his daughter, who revives, to die in his
+arms.
+
+This is beyond doubt what may be called "a tragic situation;" and I
+confess it does seem very hard-hearted to laugh at it: but the _pas_
+that divides the sublime from the ridiculous is not distinctly seen,
+and there is something vulgar and ludicrous, both in the position and
+language of the parties, which quite destroys the pathetic effect.
+
+It must be remembered that she is dressed in the "habit d'homme" of
+which her father says so poetically--
+
+     Je l'ai d'avance exprès fait faire.
+
+Observe, too, that she is still in the sack; the stage directions
+being, "Le bas du corps, qui est resté vêtu, est caché dans le sac."
+
+       BLANCHE.
+                 Où suis-je?
+
+       TRIBOULET.
+     Blanche! que t'a-t-on fait? Quel mystère infernal!
+     Je crains en te touchant de te faire du mal....
+     Ah! la cloche du bac est là sur la muraille:
+     Ma pauvre enfant, peux-tu m'attendre un peu, que j'aille
+     Chercher de l'eau....
+
+A surgeon arrives, and having examined her wound, says,
+
+                 Elle est morte.
+     Elle a dans le flanc gauche une plaie assez forte:
+     Le sang a dû causer la mort en l'étouffant.
+
+       TRIBOULET.
+     J'ai tué mon enfant! J'ai tué mon enfant!
+     (_Il tombe sur le pavé._)
+
+       FIN.
+
+All this is very shocking; but it is not tragedy,--and it is not
+poetry. Yet it is what we are told has heaved the earth from under
+Racine!
+
+After such a sentence as this, it must be, I know, _rococo_ to name
+him; but yet I would say, in his own words,
+
+     D'adorateurs zélés à peine un petit nombre
+     Ose des premiers temps nous retracer quelque ombre;
+     Le reste....
+     Se fait initier à ces honteux mystères,
+     Et blasphème le nom qu'ont invoqué leurs pères.
+
+As I profess myself of the _petit nombre_, you must let me recall to
+your memory some of the fragments of that noble edifice which Racine
+raised over him, and which, as they say, has now perished under the
+mighty power of Victor Hugo. It will not be lost time to do this; for
+look where you will among the splendid material of this uprooted
+temple, and you will find no morsel that is not precious; nothing that
+is not designed, chiseled, and finished by the hand of a master.
+
+Racine has not produced dramas from ordinary life; it was not his
+object to do so, nor is it the end he has attained. It is the tragedy
+of heroes and demi-gods that he has given us, and not of cut-purses,
+buffoons, and street-walkers.
+
+If the language of Racine be poetry, that of M. Hugo is not; and
+wherever the one is admired, the other must of necessity be valueless.
+It would be endless to attempt giving citations to prove the grace,
+the dignity, the majestic flow of Racine's verse; but let your eye run
+over "Iphigénie," for instance,--there also the loss of a daughter
+forms the tragic interest,--and compare such verses as those I have
+quoted above with any that you can find in Racine.
+
+Hear the royal mother, for example, describe the scene that awaits
+her:
+
+     Un prêtre environné d'une foule cruelle
+     Portera sur ma fille une main criminelle,
+     Déchirera son sein, et d'un oeil curieux
+     Dans son coeur palpitant consultera les dieux;
+     --Et moi--qui l'amenai triomphante, adorée,
+     Je m'en retournerai, seule, et désespérée.
+
+Surely this is of a better fabric than--
+
+     Tu sais ce coffre auprès du portrait de ta mère;
+     L'habit est là,--je l'ai d'avance exprès fait faire.
+
+I have little doubt but that the inspired author, when this noble
+phrase, "exprès fait faire," suggested itself, felt ready to exclaim,
+in the words of Philaminte and Bélise--
+
+     Ah! que cet "exprès fait" est d'un goût admirable!
+     C'est à mon sentiment un endroit impayable;
+     J'entends là-dessous un million de mots.--
+     --Il est vrai qu'il dit plus de choses qu'il n'est gros.
+
+But to take the matter seriously, let us examine a little the ground
+upon which this school of dramatic writers found their claim to
+superiority over their classic predecessors. Is it not that they
+declare themselves to be more true to nature? And how do they support
+this claim? Were you to read through every play that M. Hugo has
+written--(and may you long be preserved from so great annoyance!)--I
+doubt if you would find a single personage with whom you could
+sympathise, or a single sentiment or opinion that you would feel true
+to the nature within you.
+
+It would be much less difficult, I conceive, so strongly to excite the
+imagination by the majestic eloquence of Racine's verses as to make
+you conscious of fellow-feeling with his sublime personages, than to
+debase your very heart and soul so thoroughly as to enable you to
+fancy that you have anything in common with the corrupt creations of
+Victor Hugo.
+
+But even were it otherwise--were the scenes imagined by this new
+Shakspeare more like the real villany of human nature than those of
+the noble writer he is said to have set aside, I should still deny
+that this furnished any good reason for bringing such scenes upon the
+stage. Why should we make a pastime of looking upon vulgar vice? Why
+should the lowest passions of our nature be for ever brought out in
+parade before us?
+
+     "It is not and it cannot be for good."
+
+The same reasoning might lead us to turn from the cultured garden, its
+marble terraces, its velvet lawns, its flowers and fruits of every
+clime, that we might take our pleasure in a bog--and for all
+consolation be told, when we slip and flounder about in its loathsome
+slime, that it is more natural.
+
+I have written you a most unmerciful letter, and it is quite time
+that I should quit the theme, for I get angry--angry that I have no
+power to express in words all I feel on this subject. Would that for
+one short hour or so I had the pen which wrote the "Dunciad!"--I would
+use it--heartily--and then take my leave by saying,
+
+     "Rentre dans le néant, dont je t'ai fait sortir."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX.
+
+      Versailles.--St. Cloud.
+
+
+The Château de Versailles, that marvellous _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the
+splendid taste and unbounded extravagance of Louis le Grand, is shut
+up, and has been so for the last eighteen months. This is a great
+disappointment to such of our party as have never seen its
+interminable chambers and their gorgeous decorations. The reason
+assigned for this unwonted exclusion of the public is, that the whole
+of this enormous pile is filled with workmen; not, however, for the
+purpose of restoring it as a palace for the king, but of preparing it
+as a sort of universal museum for the nation. The buildings are in
+fact too extensive for a palace; and splendid as it is, I can easily
+believe no king of modern days would wish to inhabit it. I have
+sometimes wondered that Napoleon did not take a fancy to its vastness;
+but, I believe, he had no great taste in the upholstering line, and
+preferred converting his millions into the sinews of war, to the
+possession of all the carving and gilding in the world.
+
+If this projected museum, however, should be _monté_ with science,
+judgment and taste, and on the usual scale of French magnificence, it
+will be turning the costly whim of _le Grand Monarque_ to excellent
+account.
+
+The works which are going on there, were mentioned at a party the
+other evening, when some one stated that it was the intention of the
+King to convert one portion of the building into a gallery of national
+history, that should contain pictures of all the victories which
+France had ever won.
+
+The remark made in reply amused me much, it was so very French.--"Ma
+foi!... Mais cette galerie-là doit être bien longue--et assez
+ennuyeuse pour les étrangers."
+
+Though the château was closed to us, we did not therefore give up our
+purposed expedition to Versailles: every object there is interesting,
+not only from its splendour, but from the recollections it revives of
+scenes with whose history we are all familiar. Not only the horrors of
+the last century, but all the regal glories of the preceding one, are
+so well known to everybody, that there must have been a prodigious
+deal of gossip handed down to us from France, or we never could feel
+so much better acquainted with events which have passed at Versailles
+than with any scenes that have occurred at an equal distance of time
+at Windsor.
+
+But so it is; and the English go there not merely as strangers
+visiting a palace in a foreign land, but as pilgrims to the shrine of
+the princes and poets who have left their memory there, and with whose
+names and histories they are as familiar as if they belonged to us.
+
+The day we passed among the royal spectres that never fail to haunt
+one at this palace of recollections, was a mixture of sunshine and
+showers, and our meditations seemed to partake of the vicissitude.
+
+It is said that the great Louis reared this stupendous dwelling in
+which to pass the gilded hours of his idleness, because from St.
+Germain's he could see the plain of St. Denis, over which his funeral
+array was to pass, and the spire that marked the spot where his too
+precious dust was to be laid. Happy was it for him that the
+scutcheoned sepulchre of St. Denis was the most distant and most
+gloomy point to which his prophetic glance could reach! Could the
+great king have looked a little farther, and dreamed of the scenes
+which were destined to follow this dreaded passage to his royal tomb,
+how would he have blessed the fate which permitted him to pass into it
+so peacefully!
+
+It is quite wonderful to see how much of the elaborate decoration and
+fine finishing of this sumptuous place remains uninjured after being
+visited by the most ferocious mob that ever collected together. Had
+they been less intent on the savage object of their mission, it is
+probable that they would have sated their insane rage in destroying
+the palace itself, and the costly decorations of its singular gardens.
+Though far inferior in all ways either to the gardens of the Elector
+of Hesse Cassel at Wilhelmshöhe, or to those of the Grand Duke of
+Baden at Schwetzingen, those of Versailles are still highly
+interesting from many causes, and have so much of majesty and pomp
+about them, that one cannot look upon them without feeling that only
+the kings of the earth could ever have had a master's right to take
+their pleasure therein.
+
+Before we entered upon the orderly confusion of groves, statues,
+temples, and water-works through which it is necessary to be led, we
+made our grey-headed guide lead us round and about every part of the
+building while we listened to his string of interesting old stories
+about Louis Seize, and Marie Antoinette, and Monsieur, and le Comte
+d'Artois, (for he seemed to have forgotten that they had borne any
+other titles than those he remembered in his youth,) all of whom
+seemed to retain exactly the same place in his imagination that they
+had occupied some fifty years ago, when he was assistant to the keeper
+of the _orangerie_. He boasted, with a vanity as fresh as if it had
+been newly born, of the honours of that near approach to royalty which
+he had formerly enjoyed; recounted how the Queen called one of the
+orange-trees her own, because she fancied its blossoms sweeter than
+all the rest; and how from such a broad-leafed double-blossoming
+myrtle he had daily gathered a _bouquet_ for her majesty, which was
+laid upon her toilet exactly at two o'clock. This old man knew every
+orange-tree, its birth and history, as well as a shepherd knows his
+flock. The venerable father of the band dates his existence from the
+reign of François Premier, and truly he enjoys a green old age. The
+one surnamed Louis le Grand, who was twin brother, as he said, to that
+mighty monarch, looks like a youth beside it--and you are told that it
+has not yet attained its full growth.
+
+Oh! could those orange-trees but speak! could they recount to us the
+scenes they have witnessed; could they describe to us all the beauties
+over whom they have shed their fragrant flowers--all the heroes,
+statesmen, poets, and princes who have stepped in courtly paces
+beneath their shade; what a world of witty wickedness, of solemn
+warning, and of sad reflection, we should have!
+
+But though the orange-trees were mute, our old man talked enough for
+them all. He was a faithful servant to the old _régime_: and indeed it
+should seem that there is something in the air of Versailles
+favourable alike to orange-trees and loyalty; for never did I hear,
+while wandering amidst their aristocratic perfume, one word that was
+not of sound orthodox legitimate loyalty to the race for whose
+service they have for so many hundred years lived and bloomed. And
+still they blossom on, unscathed by revolution, unblighted though an
+usurper called them his;--happier in this than many of those who were
+once privileged to parade their dignity beneath their royal shade. The
+old servitors still move among these venerable vegetable grandees with
+the ceremonious air of courtiers, offering obsequious service, if not
+to the king himself, at least to his cousin-germans; and I am
+persuaded there is not one of these old serving-men, who wander about
+Versailles like ghosts revisiting the scenes of former happiness, who
+would not more humbly pull off his hat to François Premier or Louis le
+Grand in the greenhouse, than to any monarch of a younger race.
+
+Napoleon has left less trace of himself and his giant power at
+Versailles than anywhere else; and the naïads and hamadryads still
+lift their sculptured heads with such an eternity of stately grace, as
+makes one feel the evanescent nature of the interlude that was played
+among them during the empire. It is of the old race of Bourbon that
+the whole region is redolent. "There," said our old guide, "is the
+range of chambers that was occupied by the Queen ... those were the
+King's apartments ... there were the royal children ... there Monsieur
+... and there the Comte d'Artois."
+
+Then we were led round to the fatal balcony which overhangs the
+entrance. It was there that the fallen Marie Antoinette stood, her
+young son in her arms, and the doomed King her husband beside her,
+when she looked down upon the demons drunk with blood, who sought her
+life. I had heard all this hateful, but o'er-true history, more than
+once before on the same spot, and shortening the frightful detail, I
+hastened to leave it, though I believe the good old man would
+willingly have spent hours in dwelling upon it.
+
+The day had been named as one on which the great waters were to play.
+But, little as Nature has to do with this pretty exhibition, she
+interfered on this occasion to prevent it. There was no water. The dry
+winter would, they told us, probably render it impossible to play them
+during the whole summer.
+
+Here was another disappointment; but we bore it heroically, and after
+examining and much admiring the numberless allegories which people the
+grounds, and to the creation of which, a poet must have been as
+necessary as a sculptor, we adjourned to the Trianons, there to
+meditate on all the ceaseless vicissitudes of female influence from
+Maintenon to Josephine. It is but a sad review, but it may serve well
+to reconcile the majority of womankind to the tranquil dreaminess of
+obscurity.
+
+The next thing to be done was dining--and most wretchedly done it was:
+but we found something to laugh at, nevertheless; for when the wine
+brought to us was found too bad to drink, and we ordered better, no
+less than four bottles were presented to us in succession, each one
+increasing in price, but being precisely of the same quality. When we
+charged the black-eyed daughter of the house with the fact, she said
+with perfect good-humour, but nowise denying it, that she was very
+sorry they had no better. When the bill was brought, the same damsel
+civilly hoped that we should not think ten sous (half-a-franc) too
+much to pay for having opened so many bottles. Now, as three of them
+were firmly corked, and carefully sealed besides, we paid our ten sous
+without any complaining.
+
+The looking at a fête at St. Cloud made part of the business of the
+day; but in order to get there, we were obliged to mount into one of
+those indescribable vehicles by which the gay _bourgeoisie_ of Paris
+are conveyed from palace to palace, and from _guinguette_ to
+_guinguette_. We had dismissed our comfortable _citadine_, being
+assured that we should have no difficulty in finding another. In this,
+however, we were disappointed, the proportion of company appearing
+greatly to exceed that of the carriages which were to convey them, and
+we considered ourselves fortunate in securing places in an equipage
+which we should have scorned indignantly when we quitted Paris in the
+morning.
+
+The whimsical gaiety of the crowd, all hurrying one way, was very
+amusing; all anxious to reach St. Cloud before the promised
+half-hour's display of water-works were over; all testifying, by look,
+gesture, voice, and words, that light effervescence of animal spirits
+so essentially characteristic of the country, and all forming a moving
+panorama so gay and so bright as almost to make one giddy by looking
+at it.
+
+Some among the capricious variety of vehicles were drawn by five or
+six horses. These were in truth nothing but gaily-painted waggons,
+hung on rude springs, with a flat awning over them. In several I
+counted twenty persons; but there were some few among them in which
+one or perhaps two seats were still vacant--and then the rapturous
+glee of the party was excited to the utmost by the efforts of the
+driver, as gay as themselves, to obtain customers to fill the
+vacancies.
+
+Every individual overtaken on the road was invited by the most
+clamorous outcries to occupy the vacant seats. "St. Cloud! St. Cloud!
+St. Cloud!" shouted by the driver and re-echoed by all his company,
+rang in the startled ears of all they passed; and if a traveller
+soberly journeying in the contrary direction was met, the invitation
+was uttered with tenfold vehemence, accompanied by shouts of laughter;
+which, far from offending the party who provoked it, was invariably
+answered with equal frolic and fun. But when upon one occasion a
+carriage posting almost at full gallop towards Versailles was
+encountered, the ecstasy of mirth with which it was greeted exceeds
+description. "St. Cloud! St. Cloud! St. Cloud!--Tournez donc,
+messieurs--tournez à St. Cloud!" The shouts and vociferations were
+enough to frighten all the horses in the world excepting French ones;
+and they must be so thoroughly broken to the endurance of din, that
+there is little danger of their starting at it. I could have almost
+fancied that upon this occasion they took part in it; for they shook
+their ropes and their tassels, snorted and tossed, very much as if
+they enjoyed the fun.
+
+After all, we, and many hundred others, arrived too late for the show,
+the supply of water failing even before the promised half-hour had
+elapsed. The gardens, however, were extremely full, and all the world
+looked as gay and as well-pleased as if nothing had gone wrong.
+
+I wonder if these people ever grow old,--that is, old as we do,
+sitting in the chimney-corner, and dreaming no more of fêtes than of
+playing at blind-man's-buff. I have certainly seen here, as elsewhere,
+men, and women too, grey-headed, and wrinkled enough to be as solemn
+as the most venerable judge upon the bench; but I never saw any that
+did not seem ready to hop, skip, jump, waltz, and make love.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI.
+
+      History of the Vicomte de B----. His opinions.--State of
+      France.--Expediency.
+
+
+I have had a curious conversation this morning with an old gentleman
+whom I believed to be a thorough legitimate, but who turns out, as you
+will see, something else--I hardly know what to call it--_doctrinaire_
+I suppose it must be, yet it is not quite that either.
+
+But before I give you his opinions, let me present himself. M. le
+Vicomte de B---- is a person that I am very sure you would be happy to
+know anywhere. His residence is not in Paris, but at a château that he
+describes as the most profound retirement imaginable; yet it is not
+more than thirty leagues from Paris. He is a widower, and his only
+child is a daughter, who has been some years married.
+
+The history of this gentleman, given as he gave it himself, was deeply
+interesting. It was told with much feeling, some wit, and no
+prolixity. Were I, however, to attempt to repeat it to you in the same
+manner, it would become long and tedious, and in every way as unlike
+as possible to what it was as it came fresh from the living fountain.
+
+In brief, then, I will tell you that he was the younger son of an old
+and noble house, and, for seven years, page to Louis Seize. He must
+have been strikingly handsome; and young as he was at the time of the
+first revolution, he seems already to have found the court a very
+agreeable residence. He had held a commission in the army about two
+years, when his father, and his only brother, his elder by ten years,
+were obliged to leave the country, to save their lives.
+
+The family was not a wealthy one, and great sacrifices were necessary
+to enable them to live in England. What remained became eventually the
+property of our friend, both father and brother having died in exile.
+With this remnant of fortune he married, not very prudently; and
+having lost his wife and disposed of his daughter in marriage, he is
+now living in his large dilapidated château, with one female servant,
+and an old man as major-domo, valet, and cook, who served with him in
+La Vendée, and who, by his description, must be a perfect Corporal
+Trim.
+
+I would give a good deal to be able to accept the invitation I have
+received to pay him a visit at his castle. I think I should find just
+such a _ménage_ as that which Scott so beautifully describes in one of
+his prefaces. But the wish is vain, such an excursion being quite
+impossible; so I must do without the castle, and content myself with
+the long morning visits that its agreeable owner is so kind as to make
+us.
+
+I have seen him frequently, and listened with great interest to his
+little history; but it was only this morning that the conversation
+took a speculative turn. I was quite persuaded, but certainly from my
+own preconceived notions only, and not from anything I have heard him
+say, that M. de B---- was a devoted legitimate. An old noble--page to
+Louis Seize--a royalist soldier in La Vendée,--how could I think
+otherwise? Yet he talked to me as ... you shall hear.
+
+Our conversation began by his asking me if I was conscious of much
+material change in Paris since I last visited it.
+
+I replied, that I certainly saw some, but perhaps suspected more.
+
+"I dare say you do," said he; "it is what your nation is very apt to
+do: but take my advice,--believe what you see, and nothing else."
+
+"But what one can see in the course of a month or two is so little,
+and I hear so much."
+
+"That is true; but do you not find that what you hear from one person
+is often contradicted by another?"
+
+"Constantly," I replied.
+
+"Then what can you do at last but judge by what you see?"
+
+"Why, it appears to me that the better plan would be to listen to all
+parties, and let my balancing belief incline to the testimony that has
+most weight."
+
+"Then be careful that this weight be not false. There are some who
+will tell you that the national feeling which for so many centuries
+has kept France together as a powerful and predominating people is
+loosened, melted, and gone;--that though there are Frenchmen left,
+there is no longer a French people."
+
+"To any who told me so," I replied, "I would say, that the division
+they complained of, arose not so much from any change in the French
+character, as from the false position in which many were unhappily
+placed at the present moment. Men's hearts are divided because they
+are diversely drawn aside from a common centre."
+
+"And you would say truly," said he; "but others will tell you, that
+regenerated France will soon dictate laws to the whole earth; that her
+flag will become the flag of all people--her government their
+government; and that their tottering monarchies will soon crumble into
+dust, to become part and parcel of her glorious republic."
+
+"And to these I should say, that they appeared to be in a very heavy
+slumber, and that the sooner they could wake out of it and shake off
+their feverish dreams, the better it would be for them."
+
+"But what would your inference be as to the state of the country from
+such reports as these?"
+
+"I should think that, as usual, truth lay between. I should neither
+believe that France was so united as to constitute a single-minded
+giant, nor so divided as to have become a mass of unconnected atoms,
+or a race of pigmies."
+
+"You know," he continued, "that the fashionable phrase for describing
+our condition at present is, that we are in _a state of
+transition_,--from butterflies to grubs, or from grubs to butterflies,
+I know not which; but to me it seems that the transition is over,--and
+it is high time that it should be so. The country has known neither
+rest nor peace for nearly half a century; and powerful as she has been
+and still is, she must at last fall a prey to whoever may think it
+worth their while to despoil her, unless she stops short while it is
+yet time, and strengthens herself by a little seasonable repose."
+
+"But how is this repose to be obtained?" said I. "Some of you wish to
+have one king, some another, and some to have no king at all. This is
+not a condition in which a country is very likely to find repose."
+
+"Not if each faction be of equal power, or sufficiently so to
+persevere in struggling for the mastery. Our only hope lies in the
+belief that there is no such equality. Let him who has seized the helm
+keep it: if he be an able helmsman, he will keep us in smooth
+water;--and it is no longer time for us to ask how he got his
+commission; let us be thankful that he happens to be of the same
+lineage as those to whose charge we have for so many ages committed
+the safety of our bark."
+
+I believe my countenance expressed my astonishment; for the old
+gentleman smiled and said,
+
+"Do I frighten you with my revolutionary principles?"
+
+"Indeed, you surprise me a little," I replied: "I should have thought
+that the rights of a legitimate monarch would have been in your
+opinion indefeasible."
+
+"Where is the law, my good lady, that may control necessity?... I
+speak not of my own feelings, or of those of the few who were born
+like myself in another era. Very terrible convulsions have passed over
+France, and perhaps threaten the rest of Europe. I have for many years
+stood apart and watched the storm; and I am quite sure, and find much
+comfort in the assurance, that the crimes and passions of men cannot
+change the nature of things. They may produce much misery, they may
+disturb and confuse the peaceful current of events; but man still
+remains as he was, and will seek his safety and his good, where he has
+ever found them--under the shelter of power."
+
+"There, indeed, I quite agree with you. But surely the more lawful
+and right the power is, the more likely it must be to remain tranquil
+and undisputed in its influence."
+
+"France has no longer the choice," said he, interrupting me abruptly.
+"I speak but as a looker-on; my political race is ended; I have more
+than once sworn allegiance to the elder branch of the house of
+Bourbon, and certainly nothing would tempt me to hold office or take
+oath under any other. But do you think it would be the duty of a
+Frenchman who has three grandsons native to the soil of France,--do
+you really think it the duty of such a one to invoke civil war upon
+the land of his fathers, and remembering only his king, to forget his
+country? I will not tell you, that if I could wake to-morrow morning
+and find a fifth Henry peacefully seated on the throne of his fathers,
+I might not rejoice; particularly if I were sure that he would be as
+likely to keep the naughty boys of Paris in order as I think his
+cousin Philippe is. Were there profit in wishing, I would wish for
+France a government so strong as should effectually prevent her from
+destroying herself; and that government should have at its head a king
+whose right to reign had come to him, not by force of arms, but by the
+will of God in lawful succession. But when we mortals have a wish, we
+may be thankful if the half of it be granted;--and, in truth, I think
+that I have the first and better half of mine to rejoice in. There is
+a stout and sturdy strength in the government of King Philippe, which
+gives good hope that France may recover under its protection from her
+sins and her sorrows, and again become the glory of her children."
+
+So saying, M. de B---- rose to leave me, and putting out his hand in
+the English fashion, added, "I am afraid you do not like me so well as
+you did.... I am no longer a true and loyal knight in your estimation
+... but something, perhaps, very like a rebel and a traitor?... Is it
+not so?"
+
+I hardly knew how to answer him. He certainly had lost a good deal of
+that poetical elevation of character with which I had invested him;
+yet there was a mixture of honesty and honour in his frankness that I
+could not help esteeming. I thanked him very sincerely for the
+openness with which he had spoken, but confessed that I had not quite
+made up my mind to think that expediency was the right rule for human
+actions. It certainly was not the noblest, and therefore I was willing
+to believe that it was not the best.
+
+"I must go," said he, looking at his watch, "for it is my hour of
+dining, or I think I could dispute with you a little upon your word
+_expediency_. Whatever is really expedient for us to do--that is,
+whatever is best for us in the situation in which we are actually
+placed, is really right. Adieu!--I shall present myself again ere
+long; and if you admit me, I shall be thankful."
+
+So saying, he departed,--leaving us all, I believe, a little less in
+alt about him than before, but certainly with no inclination to shut
+our doors against him.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII.
+
+      Père Lachaise.--Mourning in public.--Defacing the Tomb of
+      Abelard and Eloïsa.--Baron Munchausen.--Russian
+      Monument.--Statue of Manuel.
+
+
+Often as I have visited the enclosure of Père Lachaise, it was with
+feelings of renewed curiosity and interest that I yesterday
+accompanied thither those of my party who had not yet seen it. I was
+well pleased to wander once more through the cypress alleys, now grown
+into fine gloomy funereal shades, and once more to feel that wavering
+sort of emotion which I always experience there;--one moment being
+tempted to smile at the fantastic manner in which affection has been
+manifested,--and the next, moved to tears by some touch of tenderness,
+that makes itself felt even amidst the vast collection of childish
+superstitions with which the place abounds.
+
+This mournful garden is altogether a very solemn and impressive
+spectacle. What a world of mortality does one take in at one glance!
+It will set one thinking a little, however fresh from the busy
+idleness of Paris,--of Paris, that antidote to all serious thought,
+that especial paradise for the worshippers of SANS SOUCI.
+
+A profusion of spring flowers are at this season hourly shedding their
+blossoms over every little cherished enclosure. There is beauty,
+freshness, fragrance on the surface.... It is a fearful contrast!
+
+I do not remember any spot, either in church or churchyard, where the
+unequal dignity of the memorials raised above the dust which lies so
+very equally beneath them all is shown in a manner to strike the heart
+so forcibly as it does at Père Lachaise. Here, a shovelful of weeds
+have hardly room to grow; and there rises a costly pile, shadowing its
+lowly neighbour. On this side the narrow path, sorrow is wrapped round
+and hid from notice by the very poverty that renders it more bitter;
+while, on the other, wealth, rank, and pride heap decorations over the
+worthless clay, striving vainly to conceal its nothingness. It is an
+epitome of the world they have left: remove the marble and disturb the
+turf, human nature will be found to wear the same aspect under both.
+
+Many groups in deep mourning were wandering among the tombs; so many
+indeed, that when we turned aside from one, with the reverence one
+always feels disposed to pay to sorrow, we were sure to encounter
+another. This manner of lamenting in public seems so strange to us!
+How would it be for a shy English mother, who sobs inwardly and hides
+the aching sorrow in her heart's core,--how would she bear to bargain
+at the public gate for a pretty garland, then enter amidst an idle
+throng, with the toy hanging on her finger, and, before the eyes of
+all who choose to look, suspend it over the grave of her lost child?
+An Englishwoman surely must lose her reason either before or after
+such an act;--if it were not the effect of madness, it would be the
+cause of it. Yet such is the effect of habit, or rather of the
+different tone of manners and of mind here, that one may daily and
+hourly see parents, most devoted to their children during their lives,
+and most heart-broken when divided from them by death, perform with
+streaming eyes these public lamentations.
+
+It is nevertheless impossible, let the manner of it differ from our
+own as much as it may, to look at the freshly-trimmed flowers, the
+garlands, and all the pretty tokens of tender care which meet the eye
+in every part of this wide-spread mass of mortal nothingness, without
+feeling that real love and real sorrow have been at work.
+
+One small enclosure attracted my attention as at once the most
+_bizarre_ and the most touching of all. It held the little grassy tomb
+of a young child, planted round with choice flowers; and at its head
+rose a semicircular recess, containing, together with a crucifix and
+other religious emblems, several common playthings, which had
+doubtless been the latest joy of the lost darling. His age was stated
+to have been three years, and he was mourned as the first and only
+child after twelve years of marriage.
+
+Below this melancholy statement was inscribed--
+
+      "Passans! priez pour sa malheureuse mère!"
+
+Might we not say, that
+
+      Thought and affliction, passion, death itself,
+      They turn to favour and to prettiness?
+
+It would, I believe, be more just, as well as more generous, instead
+of accusing the whole nation of being the victims of affectation
+instead of sorrow under every affliction that death can cause, to
+believe that they feel quite as sincerely as ourselves; though they
+have certainly a very different way of showing it.
+
+I wish they, whoever they are, who had the command of such matters,
+would have let the curious tomb of Abelard and Eloïsa remain in decent
+tranquillity in its original position. Nothing can assimilate worse
+than do its Gothic form and decorations with every object around it.
+The paltry plaster tablet too, that has been stuck upon it for the
+purpose of recording the history of the tomb rather than of those who
+lie buried in it, is in villanously bad taste; and we can only hope
+that the elements will complete the work they have begun, and then
+this barbarous defacing will crumble away before our grandchildren
+shall know anything about it.
+
+The thickly-planted trees and shrubs have grown so rapidly, as in many
+places to make it difficult to pass through them; and the ground
+appears to be extremely crowded nearly over its whole extent. A few
+neighbouring acres have been lately added to it; but their bleak,
+naked, and unornamented surface forbids the eye as yet to recognise
+this space as part of the enclosure. One pale solitary tomb is placed
+within it, at the very verge of the dark cypress line that marks the
+original boundary; and it looks like a sheeted ghost hovering about
+between night and morning.
+
+One very noble monument has been added since I last visited the
+garden: it is dedicated to the memory of a noble Russian lady, whose
+long unspellable name I forget. It is of white or greyish marble, and
+of magnificent proportions,--lofty and elegant, yet massive and
+entirely simple. Altogether, it appeared to me to be as perfect in
+taste as any specimen of monumental architecture that I have ever
+seen, though it had not the last best grace of sculpture to adorn it.
+There is no effigy--no statue--scarcely an ornament of any kind, but
+it seems constructed with a view to unite equally the appearance of
+imposing majesty and enduring strength. This splendid mausoleum
+stands towards the top of the garden, and forms a predominating and
+very beautiful object from various parts of it.
+
+Among the hundreds of names which one reads in passing,--I hardly know
+why, for they certainly convey but small interest to the mind,--we met
+with that of the _Baron Munchausen_. It was a small and
+unpretending-looking stone, but bore a host of blazing titles, by
+which it appears that this Baron, whom I, and all my generation, I
+believe, have ever looked upon as an imaginary personage, was in fact
+something or other very important to somebody or other who was very
+powerful. Why his noble name has been made such use of among us, I
+cannot imagine.
+
+In the course of our wanderings we came upon this singular
+inscription:--
+
+"Ci-gît Caroline,"--(I think the name is Caroline,)--"fille de
+Mademoiselle Mars."
+
+Is it not wonderful what a difference twenty-one miles of salt-water
+can make in the ways and manners of people?
+
+There are not many statues in the cemetery, and none of sufficient
+merit to add much to its embellishment; but there is one recently
+placed there, and standing loftily predominant above every surrounding
+object, which is strongly indicative of the period of its erection,
+and of the temper of the people to whom it seems to address itself.
+This is a colossal figure of Manuel. The countenance is vulgar, and
+the expression of the features violent and exaggerated: it might stand
+as the portrait of a bold factious rebel for ever.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII.
+
+      Remarkable People.--Distinguished People.--Metaphysical Lady.
+
+
+Last night we passed our _soirée_ at the house of a lady who had been
+introduced to me with this recommendation:--"You will be certain of
+meeting at Madame de V----'s many REMARKABLE PEOPLE."
+
+This is, I think, exactly the sort of introduction which would in any
+city give the most piquant interest to a new acquaintance; but it does
+so particularly at Paris; for this attractive capital draws its
+collection of remarkable people from a greater variety of nations,
+classes, and creeds, than any other.
+
+Nevertheless, this term "remarkable people" must not be taken too
+confidently to mean individuals so distinguished that all men would
+desire to gaze upon them; the phrase varying in its value and its
+meaning according to the feelings, faculties, and station of the
+speaker.
+
+Everybody has got his or her own "remarkable people" to introduce to
+you; and I have begun to find out, among the houses that are open to
+me, what species of "remarkable people" I am likely to meet at each.
+
+When Madame A---- whispers to me as I enter her drawing-room--"Ah!
+vous voilà! c'est bon; j'aurais été bien fâchée si vous m'aviez
+manquée; il y a ici, ce soir, une personne bien remarquable, qu'il
+faut absolument vous présenter,"--I am quite sure that I shall see
+some one who has been a marshal, or a duke, or a general, or a
+physician, or an actor, or an artist, to Napoleon.
+
+But if it were Madame B---- who said the same thing, I should be
+equally certain that it must be a comfortable-looking doctrinaire, who
+was, had been, or was about to be in place, and who had made his voice
+heard on the winning side.
+
+Madame C----, on the contrary, would not deign to bestow such an
+epithet on any one whose views and occupations were so earthward. It
+could only be some philosopher, pale with the labour of reconciling
+paradoxes or discovering a new element.
+
+My charming, quiet, graceful, gentle Madame D---- could use it only
+when speaking of an ex-chancellor, or chamberlain, or friend, or
+faithful servant of the exiled dynasty.
+
+As for the tall dark-browed Madame E----, with her thin lips and
+sinister smile, though she professes to hold a _salon_ where talent of
+every party is welcome, she never cares much, I am very sure, for any
+remarkableness that is not connected with the great and immortal
+mischief of some revolution. She is not quite old enough to have had
+anything to do with the first; but I have no doubt that she was very
+busy during the last, and I am positive that she will never know peace
+by night or day till another can be got up. If her hopes fail on this
+point, she will die of atrophy; for nothing affords her nourishment
+but what is mixed up with rebellion against constituted authority.
+
+I know that she dislikes me; and I suspect I owe the honour of being
+admitted to appear in her presence solely to her determination that I
+should hear everything that she thinks it would be disagreeable for me
+to listen to. I believe she fancies that I do not like to meet
+Americans; but she is as much mistaken in this as in most other of her
+speculations.
+
+I really never saw or heard of any fanaticism equal to that, with
+which this lady worships destruction. That whatever is, is wrong, is
+the rule by which her judgment is guided in all things. It is enough
+for her that a law on any point is established, to render the thing
+legalised detestable; and were the republic about which she raves, and
+of which she knows as much as her lap-dog, to be established
+throughout France to-morrow, I am quite persuaded that we should have
+her embroidering a regal robe for the most legitimate king she could
+find, before next Monday.
+
+Madame F----'s _remarkables_ are almost all of them foreigners of the
+philosophic revolutionary class; any gentry that are not particularly
+well off at home, and who would rather prefer being remarkable and
+remarked a few hundred miles from their own country than in it.
+
+Madame G----'s are chiefly musical personages. "Croyez-moi, madame,"
+she says, "il n'y a que lui pour toucher le piano.... Vous n'avez pas
+encore entendu Mademoiselle Z----.... Quelle voix superbe!... Elle
+fera, j'en suis sûre, une fortune immense à Londres."
+
+Madame H----'s acquaintance are not so "remarkable" for anything
+peculiar in each or any of them, as for being in all things exactly
+opposed to each other. She likes to have her parties described as "Les
+soirées antithestiques de Madame H----," and has a peculiar sort of
+pleasure in seeing people sitting side by side on her hearth-rug, who
+would be very likely to salute each other with a pistol-shot were they
+to meet elsewhere. It is rather a singular device for arranging a
+sociable party; but her _soirées_ are very delightful _soirées_, for
+all that.
+
+Madame J----'s friends are not "remarkable;" they are "distinguished."
+It is quite extraordinary what a number of distinguished individuals I
+have met at her house.
+
+But I must not go through the whole alphabet, lest I should tire you.
+So let me return to the point from whence I set out, and take you
+with me to Madame de V----'s _soirée_. A large party is almost always
+a sort of lottery, and your good or bad fortune depends on the
+accidental vicinity of pleasant or unpleasant neighbours.
+
+I cannot consider myself to have gained a prize last night; and
+Fortune, if she means to make things even, must place me to-night next
+the most agreeable person in Paris. I really think that should the
+same evil chance that beset me yesterday pursue me for a week, I
+should leave the country to escape from it. I will describe to you the
+manner of my torment as well as I can, but must fail, I think, to give
+you an adequate idea of it.
+
+A lady I had never seen before walked across the room to me last night
+soon after I entered it, and making prisoner of Madame de V---- in the
+way, was presented to me in due form. I was placed on a sofa by an old
+gentleman with whom we have formed a great friendship, and for whose
+conversation I have a particular liking: he had just seated himself
+beside me, when my new acquaintance dislodged him by saying, as she
+attempted to squeeze herself in between us, "Pardon, monsieur; ne vous
+dérangez pas! ... mais si madame voulait bien me permettre" ... and
+before she could finish her speech, my old acquaintance was far away
+and my new one close beside me.
+
+She began the conversation by some very obliging assurances of her
+wish to make my acquaintance. "I want to discuss with you," said she.
+I bowed, but trembled inwardly, for I do not like discussions,
+especially with "remarkable" ladies. "Yes," she continued, "I want to
+discuss with you many topics of vital interest to us all--topics on
+which I believe we now think differently, but on which I feel quite
+sure that we should agree, would you but listen to me."
+
+I smiled and bowed, and muttered something civil, and looked as much
+pleased as I possibly could,--and recollected, too, how large Paris
+was, and how easy it would be to turn my back upon conviction, if I
+found that I could not face it agreeably. But, to say truth, there was
+something in the eye and manner of my new friend that rather alarmed
+me. She is rather pretty, nevertheless; but her bright eyes are never
+still for an instant, and she is one of those who aid the power of
+speech by that of touch, to which she has incessant recourse. Had she
+been a man, she would have seized all her friends by the button: but
+as it is, she can only lay her fingers with emphasis upon your arm, or
+grasp a handful of your sleeve, when she sees reason to fear that your
+attention wanders.
+
+"You are a legitimatist! ... quel dommage! Ah! you smile. But did you
+know the incalculable injury done to the intellect by putting chains
+upon it!... My studies, observe, are confined almost wholly to one
+subject,--the philosophy of the human mind. Metaphysics have been the
+great object of my life from a very early age." (I should think she
+was now about seven or eight-and-twenty.) "Yet sometimes I have the
+weakness to turn aside from this noble pursuit to look upon the
+troubled current of human affairs that is rolling past me. I do not
+pretend to enter deeply into politics--I have no time for it; but I
+see enough to make me shrink from despotism and legitimacy. Believe
+me, it cramps the mind; and be assured that a constant succession of
+political changes keeps the faculties of a nation on the _qui vive_,
+and, abstractedly considered as a mental operation, must be
+incalculably more beneficial than the half-dormant state which takes
+place after any long continuance in one position, let it be what it
+may."
+
+She uttered all this with such wonderful rapidity, that it would have
+been quite impossible for me to have made any observation upon it as
+she went along, if I had been ever so much inclined to do so. But I
+soon found that this was not expected of me.
+
+      "'Twas hers to speak, and mine to hear;"
+
+and I made up my mind to listen as patiently as I could till I should
+find a convenient opportunity for changing my place.
+
+At different times, and in different climes, I have heretofore
+listened to a good deal of nonsense, certainly; but I assure you I
+never did nor ever can expect again to hear such a profusion of wild
+absurdity as this lady uttered. Yet I am told that she has in many
+circles the reputation of being a woman of genius. It would be but a
+vain attempt did I endeavour to go on remembering and translating all
+she said; but some of her speeches really deserve recording.
+
+After she had run her tilt against authority, she broke off,
+exclaiming--
+
+"Mais, après tout,--what does it signify?... When you have once
+devoted yourself to the study of the soul, all these little
+distinctions do appear so trifling!... I have given myself wholly to
+the study of the soul; and my life passes in a series of experiments,
+which, if I do not wear myself out here," putting her hand to her
+forehead, "will, I think, eventually lead me to something important."
+
+As she paused for a moment, I thought I ought to say something, and
+therefore asked her of what nature were the experiments of which she
+spoke. To which she replied--
+
+"Principally in comparative anatomy. None but an experimentalist could
+ever imagine what extraordinary results arise from this best and
+surest mode of investigation. A mouse, for instance.... Ah, madame!
+would you believe it possible that the formation of a mouse could
+throw light upon the theory of the noblest feeling that warms the
+heart of man--even upon valour? It is true, I assure you: such are the
+triumphs of science. By watching the pulsations of that _chétif_
+animal," she continued, eagerly laying hold of my wrist, "we have
+obtained an immense insight into the most interesting phenomena of the
+passion of fear."
+
+At this moment my old gentleman came back to me, but evidently without
+any expectation of being able to resume his seat. It was only, I
+believe, to see how I got on with my metaphysical neighbour. There was
+an infinite deal of humour in the glance he gave me as he said, "Eh
+bien, Madame Trollope, est-ce que Madame ---- vous a donné l'ambition
+de la suivre dans ses sublimes études?"
+
+"I fear it would prove beyond my strength," I replied. Upon which
+Madame ---- started off anew in praise of _her_ science--"the only
+science worthy the name; the science...."
+
+Here my old friend stole off again, covered by an approaching tray of
+ices; and I soon after did the same; for I had been busily engaged all
+day, and I was weary,--so weary that I dreaded dropping to sleep at
+the very instant that Madame ---- was exerting herself to awaken me to
+a higher state of intelligence.
+
+I have not, however, told you one tenth part of the marvellous
+absurdities she poured forth; yet I suspect I have told you enough. I
+have never before met anything so pre-eminently ridiculous as this:
+but upon my saying so to my old friend as I passed him near the door,
+he assured me that he knew another lady, whose mania was education,
+and whose doctrines and manner of explaining them were decidedly more
+absurd than Madame ----'s philosophy of the soul.
+
+"Be not alarmed, however; I shall not bestow her upon you, for I
+intend most carefully to keep out of her way. Do you know of any
+English ladies thus devoted to the study of the soul?"... I am
+sincerely happy to say that I do not.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV.
+
+      Expedition to the Luxembourg.--No admittance for
+      Females.--Portraits of "Henri."--Republican Costume.--Quai
+      Voltaire.--Mural Inscriptions.--Anecdote of Marshal
+      Lobau.--Arrest.
+
+
+Ever since the trials at the Luxembourg commenced, we have intended to
+make an excursion thither, in order to look at the encampment in the
+garden, at the military array around the palace, and, in short, to see
+all that is visible for female eyes in the general aspect of the
+place, so interesting at the present moment from the important
+business going on there.
+
+I have done all that could be done to obtain admission to the Chamber
+during their sittings, and have not been without friends who very
+kindly interested themselves to render my efforts successful--but in
+vain; no ladies have been permitted to enter. Whether the feminine
+regrets have been lessened or increased by the daily accounts that are
+published of the outrageous conduct of the prisoners, I will not
+venture to say. _C'est égal_; get in we cannot, whether we wish it or
+not. It is said, indeed, that in one of the tribunes set apart for
+the public, a small white hand has been seen to caress some jet-black
+curls upon the head of a boy; and it was said, too, that the boy
+called himself George S----d: but I have heard of no other instance of
+any one not furnished with that important symbol of prerogative, _une
+barbe au menton_, who has ventured within the proscribed limits.
+
+Our humble-minded project of looking at the walls which enclose the
+blustering rebels and their patient judges has been at length happily
+accomplished, and not without affording us considerable amusement.
+
+In addition to our usual party, we had the pleasure of being
+accompanied by two agreeable Frenchmen, who promised to explain
+whatever signs and symbols might meet our eyes but mock our
+comprehension. As the morning was delightful, we agreed to walk to the
+place of our destination, and repose ourselves as much as the tossings
+of a _fiacre_ would permit on the way home.
+
+That our route lay through the Tuileries Gardens was one reason for
+this arrangement; and, as usual, we indulged ourselves for a
+delightful half-hour by sitting under the trees.
+
+Whenever six or eight persons wish to converse together--not in
+_tête-à-tête_, but in a general confabulation, I would recommend
+exactly the place we occupied for the purpose, with the chairs of the
+party drawn together, not spread into a circle, but collected in a
+group, so that every one can hear, and every one can be heard.
+
+Our conversation was upon the subject of various prints which we had
+seen exposed upon the Boulevards as we passed; and though our two
+Frenchmen were excellent friends, it was very evident that they did
+not hold the same opinions in politics;--so we had some very pleasant
+sparring.
+
+We have been constantly in the habit of remarking a variety of
+portraits of a pretty, elegant-looking youth, sometimes totally
+without letters--and yet they were not proofs, excepting of an antique
+loyalty,--sometimes with the single word "Henri!"--sometimes with a
+sprig of the pretty weed we call "Forget-me-not,"--and sometimes with
+the name of "Le Duc de Bordeaux." As we passed one of the cases this
+morning which stand out before a large shop on the Boulevards, I
+remarked a new one: it was a pretty lithographic print, and being very
+like an original miniature which had been kindly shown me during a
+visit I paid in the Faubourg St. Germain, I stopped to buy it, and
+writing my name on the envelope, ordered it to be sent home.
+
+M. P----, the gentleman who was walking beside me when I stopped,
+confirmed my opinion that it was a likeness, by his personal knowledge
+of the original; and it was not difficult to perceive, though he spoke
+but little on the subject, that an affectionate feeling for "THE
+CAUSE" and its young hero was at his heart.
+
+M. de L----, the other gentleman who had joined our party, was walking
+behind us, and came up as I was making my purchase. He smiled. "I see
+what you are about," said he: "if you and P---- continue to walk
+together, I am sure you will plot some terrible treason before you get
+to the Luxembourg."
+
+When we were seated in the Tuileries Gardens, M. de L---- renewed his
+attack upon me for what he called my seditious conduct in having
+encouraged the vender of a prohibited article, and declared that he
+thought he should but do his duty if he left M. P---- and myself in
+safe custody among the other rebellious characters at the Luxembourg.
+
+"My sedition," replied M. P----, "is but speculative. The best among
+us now can only sigh that things are not quite as they should be, and
+be thankful that they are not quite as bad as they might be."
+
+"I rejoice to find that you allow so much, mon cher," replied his
+friend. "Yes, I think it might be worse; par exemple, if such gentry
+as those yonder were to have their way with us."
+
+He looked towards three youths who were stalking up the walk before us
+with the air of being deeply intent on some business of dire import.
+They looked like walking caricatures--and in truth they were nothing
+else.
+
+They were republicans. Similar figures are constantly seen strutting
+upon the Boulevards, or sauntering, like those before us, in the
+Tuileries, or hovering in sinister groups about the Bois de Boulogne,
+each one believing himself to bear the brow of a Brutus and the heart
+of a Cato. But see them where or when you will, they take good care to
+be unmistakable; there is not a child of ten years old in Paris who
+cannot tell a republican when he sees him. In several print-shops I
+have seen a key to their mystical toilet which may enable the ignorant
+to read them right. A hat, whose crown if raised for a few inches more
+would be conical, is highest in importance, as in place; and the shade
+of Cromwell may perhaps glory in seeing how many desperate wrongheads
+still mimic his beaver. Then come the long and matted locks, that hang
+in heavy ominous dirtiness beneath it. The throat is bare, at least
+from linen; but a plentiful and very disgusting profusion of hair
+supplies its place. The waistcoat, like the hat, bears an immortal
+name--"GILET À LA ROBESPIERRE" being its awful designation; and the
+extent of its wide-spreading lapels is held to be a criterion of the
+expansive principles of the wearer. _Au reste_, a general air of grim
+and savage blackguardism is all that is necessary to make up the
+outward man of a republican of Paris in 1835.
+
+But, oh! the grimaces by which I have seen human face distorted by
+persons wearing this masquerading attire! Some roll their eyes and
+knit their brows as if they would bully the whole universe; others fix
+their dark glances on the ground in fearful meditation; while other
+some there be who, while gloomily leaning against a statue or a tree,
+throw such terrific meaning into their looks as might naturally be
+interpreted into the language of the witches in Macbeth--
+
+     "We must, we will--we must, we will
+     Have much more blood,--and become worse,
+     And become worse" ... &c. &c.
+
+The three young men who had just passed us were exactly of this stamp.
+Our legitimate friend looked after them and laughed heartily.
+
+"C'est à nous autres, mon cher," said de L----, "to enjoy that sight.
+You and yours would have but small reason to laugh at such as these,
+if it were not the business of us and ours to take care that they
+should do you no harm. You may thank the eighty thousand National
+Guards of Paris for the pleasure of quizzing with such a complacent
+feeling of security these very ferocious-looking persons."
+
+"For that I thank them heartily," replied M. P----; "only I think the
+business would have been quite as well done if those who performed it
+had the right to do so."
+
+"Bah! Have you not tried, and found you could make nothing of it?"
+
+"I think not, my friend," replied the legitimatist: "we were doing
+very well, and exerting ourselves to keep the unruly spirits in order,
+when you stepped in, and promised all the naughty boys in Paris a
+holiday if they would but make you master. They did make you
+master--they have had their holiday, and now...."
+
+"And now ..." said I, "what will come next?"
+
+Both the gentlemen answered me at once.
+
+"Riots," said the legitimatist.
+
+"Good order," said the doctrinaire.
+
+We proceeded in our walk, and having crossed the Pont Royal, kept
+along the Quai Voltaire, to avoid the Rue du Bac; as we all agreed
+that, notwithstanding Madame de Staël spoke so lovingly of it at a
+distance, it was far from agreeable when near.
+
+Were it not for a sort of English horror of standing before
+shop-windows, the walking along that Quai Voltaire might occupy an
+entire morning. From the first wide-spread display of "remarkable
+people" for five sous apiece--and there are heads among them which
+even in their rude lithography would repay some study--from this
+five-sous gallery of fame to the entrance of the Rue de Seine, it is
+an almost uninterrupted show;--books, old and new--rich, rare, and
+worthless; engravings that may be classed likewise,--_articles
+d'occasion_ of all sorts,--but, far above all the rest, the most
+glorious museums of old carving and gilding, of monstrous chairs,
+stupendous candlesticks, grotesque timepieces, and ornaments without a
+name, that can be found in the world. It is here that the wealthy
+fancier of the massive splendour of Louis Quinze comes with a full
+purse, and it is hence that beyond all hope he departs with a light
+one. The present royal family of France, it is said, profess a taste
+for this princely but ponderous style of decoration; and royal
+carriages are often seen to stop at the door of _magasins_ so
+heterogeneous in their contents as to admit all titles excepting only
+that of "_magasin de nouveautés_," but having at the first glance very
+greatly the air of a pawnbroker's shop.
+
+During this lounge along the Quai Voltaire, I saw for the first time
+some marvellously uncomely portraits, with the names of each inscribed
+below, and a running title for all, classing them _en masse_ as "_Les
+Prévenus d'Avril_." If these be faithful portraits, the originals are
+to be greatly pitied; for they seem by nature predestined to the evil
+work they have been about. Every one of them looks
+
+       "Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
+     The multiplying villanies of nature
+     Do swarm upon him."
+
+It should seem that the materials for rebellion were in Shakspeare's
+days much of the same kind as they are in ours. If these be portraits,
+the originals need have no fear of the caricaturist before their
+eyes--their "villanies of nature" could hardly be exaggerated; and I
+should think that H. B. himself would try his pencil upon them in
+vain.
+
+On the subject which the examination of these _prévenus d'Avril_
+naturally led to, our two French friends seemed to be almost entirely
+of the same opinion; the legitimatist confessing that "any king was
+better than none," and the doctrinaire declaring that he would rather
+the country should have gone without the last revolution, glorious and
+immortal as it was, than that it should be exposed to another,
+especially such a one as MM. les Prévenus were about to prepare for
+them.
+
+Being arrived at _le quartier Latin_, we amused ourselves by
+speculating upon the propensity manifested by very young men, who were
+still subjected to restraint, for the overthrow and destruction of
+everything that denotes authority or threatens discipline. Thus the
+walls in this neighbourhood abounded with inscriptions to that effect;
+"_A bas Philippe!_"--"_Les Pairs sont des assassins!_"--"_Vive la
+République!_" and the like. Pears of every size and form, with
+scratches signifying eyes, nose, and mouth, were to be seen in all
+directions: which being interpreted, denotes the contempt of the
+juvenile students for the reigning monarch. A more troublesome
+evidence of this distaste for authority was displayed a few days ago
+by four or five hundred of these disorderly young men, who assembling
+themselves together, followed with hootings and shoutings M. Royer
+Collard, a professor lately appointed by the government to the medical
+school, from the college to his home in the Rue de Provence.
+
+Upon all such occasions, this government, or any other, would do well
+to follow the hint given them by an admirable manoeuvre of General
+Lobau's, the commander-in-chief of the National Guard. I believe the
+anecdote is very generally known; but, in the hope that you may not
+have heard it, I will indulge myself by telling you the story, which
+amused me infinitely; and it is better that I should run the risk of
+your hearing it twice, than of your not hearing it at all.
+
+A party of _les jeunes gens de Paris_, who were exerting themselves to
+get up a little republican _émeute_, had assembled in considerable
+numbers in the Place Vendôme. The drums beat--the commandant was
+summoned and appeared. The young malcontents closed their ranks,
+handled their pocket-knives and walking-sticks, and prepared to stand
+firm. The general was seen to dismiss an aide-de-camp, and a few
+anxious moments followed, when something looking fearfully like a
+military engine appeared advancing from the Rue de la Paix. Was it
+cannon?... A crowd of high-capped engineers surrounded it, as with
+military order and address it wheeled about and approached the spot
+where the rioters had formed their thickest phalanx. The word of
+command was given, and in an instant the whole host were drenched to
+their skins with water.
+
+Many who saw this memorable rout, in which the laughing _pompiers_
+followed with their leather pipes the scampering heroes, declare that
+no military manoeuvre ever produced so rapid an evacuation of
+troops. There is something in the tone and temper of this proceeding
+of the National Guard which appears to me strikingly indicative of the
+easy, quiet, contemptuous spirit in which these powerful guardians of
+the existing government contemplate its republican enemies.
+
+Having reached the Luxembourg and obtained admission to the gardens,
+we again rested ourselves, that we might look about at our ease upon a
+scene that was not only quite novel, but certainly very singular to
+those who were accustomed to the ordinary aspect of the place.
+
+In the midst of lilacs and roses an encampment of small white tents
+showed their warlike fronts. Arms, drums, and all sorts of military
+accoutrements were visible among them; while loitering troops, some
+smoking, some reading, some sleeping, completed the unwonted
+appearance of the scene.
+
+It would have been impossible, I believe, in all France to have fixed
+ourselves on a spot where our two French friends would have found so
+many incitements to unity of opinion and feeling as this. Our
+conversation, therefore, was not only very amicable, but ran some risk
+of being dull from the mere want of contradiction; for to a hearty
+conscientious condemnation of the proceedings which led to this trial
+of the _prévenus d'Avril_ there was an unanimous sentence passed _nem.
+con._ throughout the whole party.
+
+M. de L---- gave us some anecdotes of one or two of the persons best
+known among the prisoners; but upon being questioned respecting the
+others, he burst out indignantly in the words of Corneille--
+
+     ----"Le reste ne vaut pas l'honneur d'être nommé:
+     Un tas d'hommes perdus de dettes et de crimes,
+     Que pressent de nos loix les ordres légitimes,
+     Et qui désespérant de les plus éviter,
+     Si tout n'est renversé, ne sauraient subsister."
+
+"Ben trovato!" exclaimed P----; "you could not have described them
+better--but...."
+
+This "but" would very probably have led to observations that might
+have put our _belle harmonie_ out of tune, or at least have produced
+the renewal of our peaceable sparring, had not a little bustle among
+the trees at a short distance behind us cut short our session.
+
+It seems that ever since the trials began, the chief duty of the
+gendarmes--(I beg pardon, I should say, of _la Garde de Paris_)--has
+been to prevent any assembling together of the people in knots for
+conversation and gossipings in the courts and gardens of the
+Luxembourg. No sooner are two or three persons observed standing
+together, than a policeman approaches, and with a tone of command
+pronounces, "Circulez, messieurs!--circulez, s'il vous plaît." The
+reason for this precaution is, that nightly at the Porte St. Martin a
+few score of _jeunes gens_ assemble to make a very idle and unmeaning
+noise, the echo of which regularly runs from street to street till the
+reiterated report amounts to the announcement of an _émeute_. We are
+all now so used to these harmless little _émeutes_ at the Porte St.
+Martin, that we mind them no more than General Lobau himself:
+nevertheless, it is deemed proper, trumpery as the cause may be, to
+prevent anything like a gathering together of the mob in the vicinity
+of the Luxembourg, lest the same hundred-tongued lady who constantly
+magnifies the hootings of a few idle mechanics into an _émeute_ should
+spread a report throughout France that the Luxembourg was besieged by
+the people. The noise which had disturbed us was occasioned by the
+gathering together of about a dozen persons; but a policeman was in
+the midst of the group, and we heard rumours of an _arrestation_. In
+less than five minutes, however, everything was quiet again: but we
+marked two figures so picturesque in their republicanism, that we
+resumed our seats while a sketch was made from them, and amused
+ourselves the while in fancying what the ominous words could be that
+were so cautiously exchanged between them. M. de L---- said that there
+could be no doubt that they ran thus:
+
+"Ce soir, à la Porte St. Martin!"
+
+_Answer._--"J'y serai."
+
+  [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+   "CE SOIR À LA PORTE ST. MARTIN!"
+   "J'Y SERAI."
+   London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1836.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV.
+
+      Chapelle Expiatoire.--Devotees seen there.--Tri-coloured flag
+      out of place there.--Flower Market of the Madeleine.--Petites
+      Maîtresses.
+
+
+Of all the edifices finished in Paris since my last visit, there is
+not one which altogether pleases me better than the little "Chapelle
+Expiatoire" erected in memory of Louis the Sixteenth, and his
+beautiful but ill-starred queen.
+
+This monument was planned and in part executed by Louis the
+Eighteenth, and finished by Charles the Tenth. It stands upon the spot
+where many butchered victims of the tyrant mob were thrown in 1793.
+The story of the royal bodies having been destroyed by quicklime is
+said to have been fabricated and circulated for the purpose of
+preventing any search after them, which might, it was thought, have
+produced a dangerous reaction of feeling among the whim-governed
+populace.
+
+These bodies, and several others, which were placed in coffins, and
+inscribed with the names of the murdered occupants, lay buried
+together for many years after the revolution in a large _chantier_,
+or wood-yard, at no great distance from the place of execution.
+
+That this spot had been excavated for the purpose of receiving these
+sad relics, is a fact well known, and it was never lost sight of from
+the terrible period at which the ground was so employed; but the
+unseemly vault continued undisturbed till after the restoration, when
+the bodies of the royal victims were sought and found. Their bones
+were then conveyed to the long-hallowed shrine of St. Denis; but the
+spot where the mangled remains were first thrown was consecrated, and
+is now become the site of this beautiful little Chapelle Expiatoire.
+
+The enclosure in which this building stands is of considerable extent,
+reaching from the Rue de l'Arcade to the Rue d'Anjou. This space is
+lined with closely-planted rows of cypress-trees on every side, which
+are protected by a massive railing, neatly painted. The building
+itself and all its accompaniments are in excellent taste; simple,
+graceful, and solemn.
+
+The interior is a small Greek cross, each extremity of which is
+finished by a semicircle surmounted by a semi-dome. The space beneath
+the central dome is occupied by chairs and benches covered with
+crimson velvet, for the use of the faithful--in every sense--who come
+to attend the mass which is daily performed there.
+
+As long as the daughter of the murdered monarch continued to reside in
+Paris, no morning ever passed without her coming to offer up her
+prayers at this expiatory shrine.
+
+One of the four curved extremities is occupied by the altar; that
+opposite to it, by the entrance; and those on either side, by two
+well-composed and impressive groups in white marble--that to the right
+of the altar representing Marie Antoinette bending beside a cross
+supported by an angel,--and that to the left, the felon-murdered
+monarch whose wretched and most unmerited destiny she shared. On the
+pedestal of the king's statue is inscribed his will; on that of the
+queen, her farewell letter to the Princess Elizabeth.
+
+Nothing can exceed the chaste delicacy of the few ornaments admitted
+into the chapel. They consist only, I think, of golden candlesticks,
+placed in niches in the white marble walls. The effect of the whole is
+beautiful and impressive.
+
+I often go there; yet I can hardly understand what the charm can be in
+the little building itself, or in the quiet mass performed there
+without music, which can so attract me. It is at no great distance
+from our apartments in the Rue de Provence, and a walk thither just
+occupies the time before breakfast. I once went there on a Sunday
+morning with some of my family; but then it was full--indeed so
+crowded, that it was impossible to see across the building, or feel
+the beauty of its elegant simplicity. The pale figures of the royal
+dead, the foully murdered, were no longer the principal objects; and
+though I have no doubt that all present were right loyal spirits, with
+whose feelings I am well enough disposed to sympathise, yet I could
+not read each saddened brow, and attach a romance to it, as I never
+fail to do during my week-day visits.
+
+There are two ladies, for example, whom I constantly see there, ever
+in the same place, and ever in the same attitude. The elder of these I
+feel perfectly sure must have passed her youth near Marie Antoinette,
+for it is at the foot of her statue that she kneels--or I might almost
+say that she prostrates herself, for she throws her arms forward on a
+cushion that is placed before her, and suffers her aged head to fall
+upon them, in a manner that speaks more sorrow than I can describe.
+The young girl who always accompanies and kneels beside her may, I
+think, be her granddaughter. They have each of them "_Gentlewoman
+born_" written on every feature, in characters not to be mistaken. The
+old lady is very pale, and the young one looks as if she were not
+passing a youth of gaiety and enjoyment.
+
+There is a grey-headed old man, too, who is equally constant in his
+attendance at this melancholy chapel. He might sit as a model for a
+portrait of _le bon vieux temps_; but he has a stern though sad
+expression of countenance, which seems to be exactly a masculine
+modification of what is passing at the heart and in the memory of the
+old lady at the opposite side of the chapel. These are figures which
+send the thoughts back for fifty years; and seen in the act of
+assisting at a mass for the souls of Louis Seize and his queen,
+produce a powerful effect on the imagination.
+
+I have ventured to describe this melancholy spot, and what I have seen
+there, the more particularly because, easy as it is of access, you
+might go to Paris a dozen times without seeing it, as in fact hundreds
+of English travellers do. One reason for this is, that it is not
+opened to the public gaze as a show, but can only be entered during
+the hour of prayer, which is inconveniently early in the day.
+
+As this sad and sacred edifice cannot justly be considered as a public
+building, the elevation of the tri-coloured flag upon it every
+fête-day might, I think, have been spared.
+
+Another, and a very different novelty, is the new flower-market, that
+is now kept under the walls and columns of the majestic church of La
+Madeleine. This beautiful collection of flowers appears to me to
+produce from its situation a very singular effect: the relative
+attributes of art and nature are reversed;--for here, art seems
+sublime, vast, and enduring; while nature is small, fragile, and
+perishing.
+
+It has sometimes happened to me, after looking at a work of art which
+raised my admiration to enthusiasm, that I have next sought some
+marvellous combination of mountain and valley, rock and river, forest
+and cataract, and felt as I gazed on them something like shame at
+remembering how nearly I had suffered the work of man to produce an
+equal ecstasy. But here, when I raised my eyes from the little flimsy
+crowd of many-coloured blossoms to the simple, solemn pomp of that
+long arcade, with its spotless purity of tint and its enduring majesty
+of graceful strength, I felt half inclined to scorn myself and those
+around me for being so very much occupied by the roses, pinks, and
+mignonette spread out before it.
+
+Laying aside, however, all philosophical reflections on its locality,
+this new flower-market is a delightful acquisition to the Parisian
+_petite maîtresse_. It was a long expedition to visit the _marché aux
+fleurs_ on the distant quay near Notre Dame; and though its beauty and
+its fragrance might well repay an hour or two stolen from the pillow,
+the sweet decorations it offered to the boudoir must have been oftener
+selected by the _maître d'hôtel_ or the _femme de chambre_ than by the
+fair lady herself. But now, three times in the week we may have the
+pleasure of seeing numbers of graceful females in that piquant species
+of dishabille, which, uniting an equal portion of careful coquetry
+and saucy indifference, gives to the morning attire of a pretty,
+elegant, Frenchwoman, an air so indescribably attractive.
+
+Followed by a neat _soubrette_, such figures may now be often seen in
+the flower-market of the Madeleine before the brightness of the
+morning has faded either from their eyes, or the blossoms they so love
+to gaze upon. The most ordinary linen gown, made in the form of a
+wrapper--the hair _en papillote_--the plain straw-bonnet drawn forward
+over the eyes, and the vast shawl enveloping the whole figure, might
+suffice to make many an _élégante_ pace up and down the fragrant alley
+incognita, did not the observant eye remark that a veil of rich lace
+secured the simple bonnet under the chin--that the shawl was of
+cashmere--and that the little hand, when ungloved to enjoy the touch
+of a myrtle or an orange blossom, was as white as either.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI.
+
+      Delicacy in France and in England.--Causes of the difference
+      between them.
+
+
+There is nothing perhaps which marks the national variety of manners
+between the French and the English more distinctly than the different
+estimate they form of what is delicate or indelicate, modest or
+immodest, decent or indecent: nor does it appear to me that all the
+intimacy of intercourse which for the last twenty years has subsisted
+between the two nations has greatly lessened this difference.
+
+Nevertheless, I believe that it is more superficial than many suppose
+it to be; and that it arises rather from contingent circumstances,
+than from any original and native difference in the capability of
+refinement in the two nations.
+
+Among the most obvious of these varieties of manner, is the astounding
+freedom with which many things are alluded to here in good society,
+the slightest reference to which is in our country banished from even
+the most homely class. It seems that the opinion of Martine is by no
+means peculiar to herself, and that it is pretty generally thought
+that
+
+      "Quand on se fait entendre, on parle toujours bien."
+
+In other ways, too, it is impossible not to allow that there exists in
+France a very perceptible want of refinement as compared to England.
+No Englishman, I believe, has ever returned from a visit to Paris
+without adding his testimony to this fact; and notwithstanding the
+Gallomania so prevalent amongst us, all acknowledge that, however
+striking may be the elegance and grace of the higher classes, there is
+still a national want of that uniform delicacy so highly valued by all
+ranks, above the very lowest, with us. Sights are seen and
+inconveniences endured with philosophy, which would go nigh to rob us
+of our wits in July, and lead us to hang ourselves in November.
+
+To a fact so well known, and so little agreeable in the detail of its
+examination, it would be worse than useless to draw your attention,
+were it not that there is something curious in tracing the manner in
+which different circumstances, seemingly unconnected, do in reality
+hang together and form a whole.
+
+The time certainly has been, when it was the fashion in England, as it
+is now in France, to call things, as some one coarsely expresses it,
+_by their right names_; very grave proof of which might be found even
+in sermons--and from thence downwards through treatises, essays,
+poems, romances, and plays.
+
+Were we indeed to form our ideas of the tone of conversation in
+England a century ago from the familiar colloquy found in the comedies
+then written and acted, we must acknowledge that we were at that time
+at a greater distance from the refinement we now boast, than our
+French neighbours are at present.
+
+I do not here refer to licentiousness of morals, or the coarse avowal
+of it; but to a species of indelicacy which might perhaps have been
+quite compatible with virtue, as the absence of it is unhappily no
+security against vice.
+
+The remedy of this has proceeded, if I mistake not, from causes much
+more connected with the luxurious wealth of England, than with the
+severity of her virtue. You will say, perhaps, that I have started off
+to an immense distance from the point whence I set out; but I think
+not--for both in France and England I find abundant reason to believe
+that I am right in tracing this remarkable difference between the two
+countries, less to natural disposition or character, than to the
+accidental facilities for improvement possessed by the one people, and
+not by the other.
+
+It would be very easy to ascertain, by reference to the various
+literary records I have named, that the improvement in English
+delicacy has been gradual, and in very just proportion to the
+increase of her wealth, and the fastidious keeping out of sight of
+everything that can in any way annoy the senses.
+
+When we cease to hear, see, and smell things which are disagreeable,
+it is natural that we should cease to speak of them; and it is, I
+believe, quite certain that the English take more pains than any other
+people in the world that the senses--those conductors of sensation
+from the body to the soul--shall convey to the spirit as little
+disagreeable intelligence of what befalls the case in which it dwells,
+as possible. The whole continent of Europe, with the exception of some
+portion of Holland perhaps, (which shows a brotherly affinity to us in
+many things,) might be cited for its inferiority to England in this
+respect. I remember being much amused last year, when landing at
+Calais, at the answer made by an old traveller to a novice who was
+making his first voyage.
+
+"What a dreadful smell!" said the uninitiated stranger, enveloping his
+nose in his pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"It is the smell of the continent, sir," replied the man of
+experience. And so it was.
+
+There are parts of this subject which it is quite impossible to dwell
+upon, and which unhappily require no pen to point them out to notice.
+These, if it were possible, I would willingly leave more in the dark
+than I find them. But there are other circumstances, all arising from
+the comparative poverty of the people, which tend to produce, with a
+most obvious dependency of thing on thing, that deficiency of
+refinement of which I am speaking.
+
+Let any one examine the interior construction of a Paris dwelling of
+the middle class, and compare it to a house prepared for occupants of
+the same rank in London. It so happens that everything appertaining to
+decoration is to be had _à bon marché_ at Paris, and we therefore find
+every article of the ornamental kind almost in profusion. Mirrors,
+silk hangings, or-molu in all forms; china vases, alabaster lamps, and
+timepieces, in which the onward step that never returns is marked with
+a grace and prettiness that conceals the solemnity of its pace,--all
+these are in abundance; and the tenth part of what would be considered
+necessary to dress up a common lodging in Paris, would set the London
+fine lady in this respect upon an enviable elevation above her
+neighbours.
+
+But having admired their number and elegant arrangement, pass on and
+enter the ordinary bed-rooms--nay, enter the kitchens too, or you will
+not be able to judge how great the difference is between the two
+residences.
+
+In London, up to the second floor, and often to the third, water is
+forced, which furnishes an almost unlimited supply of that luxurious
+article, to be obtained with no greater trouble to the servants than
+would be required to draw it from a tea-urn. In one kitchen of every
+house, generally in two, and often in three, the same accommodation is
+found; and when, in opposition to this, it is remembered that very
+nearly every family in Paris receives this precious gift of nature
+doled out by two buckets at a time, laboriously brought to them by
+porters, clambering in _sabots_, often up the same stairs which lead
+to their drawing-rooms, it can hardly be supposed that the use of it
+is as liberal and unrestrained as with us.
+
+Against this may be placed fairly enough the cheapness and facility of
+the access to the public baths. But though personal ablutions may thus
+be very satisfactorily performed by those who do not rigorously
+require that every personal comfort should be found at home, yet still
+the want of water, or any restraint upon the freedom with which it is
+used, is a vital impediment to that perfection of neatness, in every
+part of the establishment, which we consider as so necessary to our
+comfort.
+
+Much as I admire the Church of the Madeleine, I conceive that the city
+of Paris would have been infinitely more benefited, had the sums
+expended upon it been used for the purpose of constructing pipes for
+the conveyance of water to private dwellings, than by all the
+splendour received from the beauty of this imposing structure.
+
+But great and manifold as are the evils entailed by the scarcity of
+water in the bed-rooms and kitchens of Paris, there is another
+deficiency greater still, and infinitely worse in its effects. The
+want of drains and sewers is the great defect of all the cities in
+France; and a tremendous defect it is. That people who from their
+first breath of life have been obliged to accustom their senses and
+submit without a struggle to the sufferings this evil entails upon
+them,--that people so circumstanced should have less refinement in
+their thoughts and words than ourselves, I hold to be natural and
+inevitable. Thus, you see, I have come round like a preacher to his
+text, and have explained, as I think, very satisfactorily, what I mean
+by saying that the indelicacy which so often offends us in France does
+not arise from any natural coarseness of mind, but is the unavoidable
+result of circumstances, which may, and doubtless will change, as the
+wealth of the country and its familiarity with the manners of England
+increases.
+
+This withdrawing from the perception of the senses everything that can
+annoy them,--this lulling of the spirit by the absence of whatever
+might awaken it to a sensation of pain,--is probably the last point to
+which the ingenuity of man can reach in its efforts to embellish
+existence.
+
+The search after pleasure and amusement certainly betokens less
+refinement than this sedulous care to avoid annoyance; and it may be,
+that as we have gone farthest of all modern nations in this tender
+care of ourselves, so may we be the first to fall from our delicate
+elevation into that receptacle of things past and gone which has
+engulfed old Greece and Rome. Is it thus that the Reform Bill, and all
+the other horrible Bills in its train, are to be interpreted?
+
+As to that other species of refinement which belongs altogether to the
+intellect, and which, if less obvious to a passing glance, is more
+deep and permanent in its dye than anything which relates to manners
+only, it is less easy either to think or to speak with confidence.
+France and England both have so long a list of mighty names that may
+be quoted on either side to prove their claim to rank high as literary
+contributors to refinement, that the struggle as to which ranks
+highest can only be fairly settled by both parties agreeing that each
+country has a fair right to prefer what they have produced themselves.
+But, alas! at the present moment, neither can have great cause to
+boast. What is good, is overpowered and stifled by what is bad. The
+uncontrolled press of both countries has thrown so much abominable
+trash upon literature during the last few years, that at present it
+might be difficult to say whether general reading would be most
+dangerous to the young and the pure in England or in France.
+
+That the Hugo school has brought more nonsense with its mischief, is,
+I think, clear: but it is not impossible that this may act as an
+antidote to its own poison. It is a sort of humbug assumption of
+talent which will pass out of fashion as quickly as Morrison's pills.
+We have nothing quite so silly as this; but much I fear that, as it
+concerns our welfare as a nation, we have what is more deeply
+dangerous.
+
+As to what is moral and what is not so, plain as at first sight the
+question seems to be, there is much that is puzzling in it. In looking
+over a volume of "Adèle et Théodore" the other day,--a work written
+expressly "_sur l'éducation_," and by an author that we must presume
+meant honestly and spoke sincerely,--I found this passage:--
+
+"Je ne connais que trois romans véritablement moraux;--Clarisse, le
+plus beau de tous; Grandison, et Pamela. Ma fille les lira en Anglais
+lorsqu'elle aura dix-huit ans."
+
+The venerable Grandison, though by no means _sans tache_, I will let
+pass: but that any mother should talk of letting her daughter of
+"dix-huit ans" read the others, is a mystery difficult to comprehend,
+especially in a country where the young girls are reared, fostered,
+and sheltered from every species of harm, with the most incessant and
+sedulous watchfulness. I presume that Madame de Genlis conceived that,
+as the object and moral purpose of these works were good, the
+revolting coarseness with which some of their most powerful passages
+are written could not lead to evil. But this is a bold and dangerous
+judgment to pass when the question relates to the studies of a young
+girl.
+
+I think we may see symptoms of the feeling which would produce such a
+judgment, in the tone of biting satire with which Molière attacks
+those who wished to banish what might "faire insulte à la pudeur des
+femmes." Spoken as he makes Philaminte speak it, we cannot fail to
+laugh at the notion: yet ridicule on the same subject would hardly be
+accepted, even from Sheridan, as jesting matter with us.
+
+     "Mais le plus beau projet de notre académie,
+     Une entreprise noble, et dont je suis ravie,
+     Un dessein plein de gloire, et qui sera vanté
+     Chez tous les beaux-esprits de la postérité,
+     C'est le retranchement de ces syllabes sales
+     Qui dans les plus beaux mots produisent des scandales;
+     Ces jouets éternels des sots de tous les temps,
+     Ces fades lieux communs de nos méchans plaisans;
+     Ces sources d'un amas d'équivoques infâmes
+     Dont on vient faire insulte à la pudeur des femmes."
+
+Such an academy might be a very comical institution, certainly; but
+the duties it would have to perform would not suffer a professor's
+place to become a sinecure in France.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII.
+
+      Objections to quoting the names of private
+      individuals.--Impossibility of avoiding Politics.--_Parceque_
+      and _Quoique_.--Soirée Antithestique.
+
+
+It would be a pleasure to me to give you the names of many persons
+with whom I have become acquainted in Paris, and I should like to
+describe exactly the _salons_ in which I met them; but a whole host of
+proprieties forbid this. Where individuals are so well known to fame
+as to render the echoing of their names a matter of ordinary
+recurrence, I can of course feel no scruple in repeating the echo--one
+reverberation more can do no harm: but I will never be the first to
+name any one, either for praise or for blame, beyond the sanctuary of
+their own circle.
+
+I must therefore restrict myself to the giving you the best general
+idea I can of the tone and style of what I have seen and heard; and if
+I avail myself of the conversations I have listened to, it shall be in
+such a manner as to avoid the slightest approach to personal allusion.
+
+This necessary restraint, however, is not submitted to without
+regret: it must rob much of what I would wish to repeat of the value
+of authority; and when I consider how greatly at variance my
+impressions are on many points to some which have been publicly
+proclaimed by others, I feel that I deserve some praise for
+suppressing names which would stamp my statements with a value that
+neither my unsupported assertions, nor those of any other traveller,
+can be supposed to bear. Those who best know what I lose by this will
+give me credit for it; and I shall be sufficiently rewarded for my
+forbearance if it afford them a proof that I am not unworthy the
+flattering kindness I have received.
+
+We all declare ourselves sick of politics, and a woman's letters, at
+least, ought if possible to be free from this wearily pervading
+subject: but the describing a human being, and omitting to mention the
+heart and the brain, would not leave the analysis more defective, than
+painting the Parisians at this moment without permitting their
+politics to appear in the picture.
+
+The very air they breathe is impregnated with politics. Were all words
+expressive of party distinctions to be banished from their
+language--were the curse of Babel to fall upon them, and no man be
+able to discourse with his neighbour,--still political feeling would
+find itself an organ whereby to express its workings. One man would
+wear a pointed hat, another a flat one; one woman would be girt with
+a tri-coloured sash, and another with a white one. Some exquisites
+would be closely buttoned to the chin, while the lapels of others
+would open wide in all the expansive freedom of republican
+unrestraint. One set would be seen adorning Napoleon's pillar with
+trophies; another, prostrate before the altar of the elder Bourbon's
+monumental chapel; a third, marshalling themselves under the bloody
+banner of Robespierre to the tune of "Dansons la Carmagnole;" whilst a
+fourth, by far the most numerous, would be brushing their national
+uniforms, attending to their prosperous shops, and giving a nod of
+good-fellowship every time his majesty the king passes by.
+
+Some friends of mine entered a shop the other day to order some
+article of furniture. While they remained there, a royal carriage
+passed, and one of the party said--
+
+"It is the queen, I believe?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the _ébéniste_, "it is the lady that it pleases us
+to call the queen. We may certainly call her so if we like it, for we
+made her ourselves; and if we find it does not answer, we shall make
+another.--May I send you home this table, sir?..."
+
+When politics are thus lightly mixed up with all things, how can the
+subject be wholly avoided without destroying the power of describing
+anything as we find it?
+
+Such being the case, I cannot promise that all allusion to the
+subject shall be banished from my letters; but it shall be made as
+little predominant as possible. Could I indeed succeed in transferring
+the light tone in which these weighty matters are generally discussed
+to the account I wish to give you of them, I need not much fear that I
+should weary you.
+
+Whether it be essentially in the nature of the people, or only a
+transitory feature of the times, I know not; but nothing strikes me so
+forcibly as the airy, gay indifference with which subjects are
+discussed on which hang the destinies of the world. The most
+acute--nay, often the most profound remarks are uttered in a tone of
+badinage; and the probabilities of future events, vital to the
+interests of France, and indeed of Europe, are calculated with as idle
+an air, and with infinitely more _sang froid_, than the chances at a
+game of _rouge et noir_.
+
+Yet, behind this I suspect that there is a good deal of sturdy
+determination in all parties, and it will be long ere France can be
+considered as one whole and united people. Were the country divided
+into two, instead of into three factions, it is probable that the
+question of which was to prevail would be soon brought to an issue;
+but as it is, they stand much like the uncles and nieces in the
+Critic, each keeping the other two in check.
+
+Meanwhile this temporary division of strength is unquestionably very
+favourable to the present government; in addition to which, they
+derive much security from the averseness which all feel, excepting the
+naughty boys and hungry desperadoes, to the disturbance of their
+present tranquillity. It is evident that those who do not belong to
+the triumphant majority are disposed for the most part to wait a more
+favourable opportunity of hostilely and openly declaring themselves;
+and it is probable that they will wait long. They know well, and are
+daily reminded of it, that all the power and all the strength that
+possession can give are vested in the existing dynasty; and though
+much deeply-rooted feeling exists that is inimical to it, yet so many
+of all parties are firmly united to prevent farther anarchy and
+revolution, that the throne of Louis-Philippe perhaps rests on as
+solid a foundation as that of any monarch in Europe: the fear of
+renewed tumult acts like the key-stone of an arch, keeping firm,
+sound, and in good condition, what would certainly fall to pieces
+without it.
+
+In addition to this wholesome fear of pulling their own dwellings
+about their ears, there is also another fear that aids greatly in
+producing the same result. Many of the riotous youths who so
+essentially assisted in creating the confusion which ended in
+uncrowning one king and crowning another, are, as far as I can
+understand, quite as well disposed to make a row now as they were
+then: but they know that if they do, they will most incontestably be
+whipped for it; and therefore, though they pout a little in private,
+they are, generally speaking, very orderly in public. Every one, not
+personally interested in the possible result of another uproar, must
+rejoice at this improvement in discipline. The boys of France must now
+submit to give way before her men; and as long as this lasts,
+something like peace and prosperity may be hoped for.
+
+Yet it cannot be denied, I think, that among these prudent men--these
+doctrinaires who now hold the high places, there are many who, "with
+high thoughts, such as Lycurgus loved," still dream of a commonwealth;
+or that there are others who have not yet weaned their waking thoughts
+from meditations on faith, right, and loyalty. But nevertheless, all
+unite in thinking that they had better "let things be," than risk
+making them worse.
+
+Nothing is more common than to hear a conversation end by a cordial
+and unanimous avowal of this prudent and sagacious sentiment, which
+began by an examination of general principles, and the frank
+acknowledgment of opinions which would certainly lead to a very
+different conclusion.
+
+It is amusing enough to remark how these advocates for expediency
+contrive each of them to find reasons why things had better remain as
+they are, while all these reasons are strongly tinted by their various
+opinions.
+
+"Charles Dix," says a legitimate in principle, but a _juste-milieu_
+man in practice,--"Charles Dix has abdicated the throne, which
+otherwise must unquestionably be his by indefeasible right. His
+heir-apparent has followed the example. The country was in no state to
+be governed by a child; and what then was left for us, but to take a
+king from the same race which so for many ages has possessed the
+throne of France. _Louis-Philippe est roi, PARCEQU'il est Bourbon_."
+
+"Pardonnez-moi," replies another, who, if he could manage it without
+disturbing the tranquillity about him, would take care to have it
+understood that nothing more legitimate than an elective monarchy
+could be ever permitted in France,--"Pardonnez-moi, mon ami;
+_Louis-Philippe est roi, QUOIQU'il est Bourbon_."
+
+These two parties of the _Parceques_ and the _Quoiques_, in fact, form
+the great bulwarks of King Philippe's throne; for they both consist of
+experienced, practical, substantial citizens, who having felt the
+horrors of anarchy, willingly keep their particular opinions in
+abeyance rather than hazard a recurrence of it. They, in truth, form
+between them the genuine _juste-milieu_ on which the present
+government is balanced.
+
+That there is more of the practical wisdom of expediency than of the
+dignity of unbending principle in this party, can hardly be denied.
+They are "wiser in their generation than the children of light;" but
+it is difficult, "seeing what we have seen, seeing what we see," to
+express any heavy sentence of reprobation upon a line of conduct which
+ensures, for the time at least, the lives and prosperity of millions.
+They tell me that my friend the Vicomte has sapped my legitimate
+principles; but I deny the charge, though I cannot deliberately wish
+that confusion should take the place of order, or that the desolation
+of a civil war should come to deface the aspect of prosperity that it
+is so delightful to contemplate.
+
+This discrepancy between what is right and what is convenient--this
+wavering of principle and of action, is the inevitable consequence of
+repeated political convulsions. When the times become out of joint,
+the human mind can with difficulty remain firm and steadfast. The
+inconceivable variety of wild and ever-changing speculations which
+have long overborne the voice of established belief and received
+authority in this country, has brought the principles of the people
+into a state greatly resembling that of a wheel radiated with every
+colour of the rainbow, but which by rapid movement is left apparently
+without any colour at all.
+
+Our last _soirée_ was at the house of a lady who takes much interest
+in showing me "le Paris d'aujourd'hui," as she calls it. "Chère dame!"
+she exclaimed as I entered, "I have collected _une société délicieuse_
+for you this evening."
+
+She had met me in the ante-room, and, taking my arm within hers, led
+me into the _salon_. It was already filled with company, the majority
+of which were gentlemen. Having found room for us on a sofa, and
+seated herself next to me, she said--
+
+"I will present whomsoever you choose to know; but before I bring
+anybody up, I must explain who they all are."
+
+I expressed my gratitude, and she began:--"That tall gentleman is a
+great republican, and one of the most respectable that we have left of
+the _clique_. The party is very nearly worn out among the _gens comme
+il faut_. His father, however, is of the same party, and still more
+violent, I believe, than himself. Heaven knows what they would be
+at!... But they are both deputies, and if they died to-morrow, would
+have, either father or son, a very considerable mob to follow them to
+Père Lachaise; not to mention the absolute necessity which I am sure
+there would be to have troops out: c'est toujours quelque chose,
+n'est-ce pas? I know that you hate them all--and, to say truth, so do
+I too;--mais, chère amie! qu'est-ce que cela fait? I thought you would
+like to see them: they really begin to get very scarce in _salons_."
+
+I assured her that she was quite right, and that nothing in the whole
+Jardin des Plantes could amuse me better.
+
+"Ah ça!" she rejoined, laughing; "voilà ce que c'est d'être
+raisonnable. Mais regardez ce beau garçon leaning against the
+chimneypiece. He is one of _les fidèles sans tache_. Is he not
+handsome? I have him at all my parties; and even the ministers' ladies
+declare that he is perfectly charming."
+
+"And that little odd-looking man in black," said I, "who is he?...
+What a contrast!"
+
+"N'est-ce pas? Do they not group well together? That is just the sort
+of thing I like--it amuses everybody: besides, I assure you, he is a
+very remarkable person,--in short, it is M----, the celebrated
+atheist. He writes for the ----. But the Institute won't have him:
+however, he is excessively talked of--and that is everything.... Then
+I have two peers, both of them highly distinguished. There is M. de
+----, who, you know, is King Philippe's right hand; and the gentleman
+sitting down just behind him is the dear old Duc de ----, who lived
+ages in exile with Louis Dix-huit.... That person almost at your
+elbow, talking to the lady in blue, is the Comte de P----, a most
+exemplary Catholic, who always followed Charles Dix in all religious
+processions. He was half distracted, poor man! at the last revolution;
+but they say he is going to dine with King Philippe next week: I long
+to ask him if it is true, but I am afraid, for fear he should be
+obliged to answer 'Yes;'--that would be so embarrassing!... Oh, by the
+way, that is a peer that you are looking at now;--he has refused to
+sit on the trial.... Now, have I not done _l'impossible_ for you?"
+
+I thanked her gratefully, and as I knew I could not please her better
+than by showing the interest I took in her menagerie, I inquired the
+name of a lady who was talking with a good deal of vehemence at the
+opposite side of the room.
+
+"Oh! that's a person that I always call my '_dame de l'Empire_.' Her
+husband was one of Napoleon's creations; and Josephine used to amuse
+herself without ceasing by making her talk--her language and accent
+are _impayables_!"
+
+"And that pretty woman in the corner?"
+
+"Ah! ... she is charming!... It is Madame V----, daughter of the
+celebrated Vicomte de ----, so devoted, you know, to the royal cause.
+But she is lately married to one of the present ministers--quite a
+love-match; which is an innovation, by the way, more hard to pardon in
+France than the introduction of a new dynasty. Mais c'est égal--they
+are all very good friends again.... Now, tell me whom I shall
+introduce to you?"
+
+I selected the heroine of the love-match; who was not only one of the
+prettiest creatures I ever saw, but so lively, intelligent, and
+agreeable, that I have seldom passed a pleasanter hour than that which
+followed the introduction. The whole of this heterogeneous party
+seemed to mix together with the greatest harmony; the only cold glance
+I saw given being from the gentleman designated as "King Philippe's
+right hand," towards the tall republican deputy of whose funeral my
+friend had predicted such honours. The _dame de l'Empire_ was
+indulging in a lively flirtation with one of the peers _sans tache_;
+and I saw the fingers of the exemplary Catholic, who was going to dine
+with King Philippe, in the _tabatière_ of the celebrated atheist. I
+then remembered that this was one of the _soirées antithestiques_ so
+much in fashion.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII.
+
+      New Publications.--M. de Lamartine's "Souvenirs, Impressions,
+      Pensées, et Paysages."--Tocqueville and Beaumont.--New
+      American regulation.--M. Scribe.--Madame Tastu.--Reception of
+      different Writers in society.
+
+
+Though among the new publications sent to me for perusal I have found
+much to fatigue and disgust me, as must indeed be inevitable for any
+one accustomed for some scores of years to nourish the heart and head
+with the literature of the "_bon vieux temps_"--which means, in modern
+phrase, everything musty, rusty, rococo, and forgotten,--I have yet
+found some volumes which have delighted me greatly.
+
+M. de Lamartine's "Souvenirs, Impressions, Pensées, et Paysages" in
+the East, is a work which appears to me to stand solitary and alone in
+the world of letters. There is certainly nothing like it, and very
+little that can equal it, in my estimation, either as a collection of
+written landscapes or as a memorial of poetical feeling, just
+sentiment, and refined taste.
+
+His descriptions may perhaps have been, in some rare instances,
+equalled in mere graphic power by others; but who has painted anything
+which can excite an interest so profound, or an elevation of the fancy
+so lofty and so delightful?
+
+Alas! that the scenes he paints should be so utterly beyond one's
+reach! How little, how paltry, how full of the vulgar interests of
+this "working-day world," do all the other countries of the earth
+appear after reading this book, when compared to Judea! But there are
+few who could visit it as Lamartine has done,--there are very few
+capable of feeling as he felt--and none, I think, of describing as he
+describes. His words live and glow upon the paper; he pours forth
+sunshine and orient light upon us,--we hear the gale whispering among
+the palm-trees, see Jordan's rapid stream rushing between its flowery
+banks, and feel that the scene to which he has transported us is holy
+ground.
+
+The exalted tone of his religious feelings, and the poetic fervour
+with which he expresses them, might almost lead one to believe that he
+was inspired by the sacred air he breathed. It seems as if he had
+found the harps which were hung up of old upon the trees, and tuned
+them anew to sing of the land of David; he has "beheld the beauty of
+the Lord, and inquired in his temple," and the result is exactly what
+it should be.
+
+The manner in which this most poetic of travellers, while standing on
+the ruins of Tyre, speaks of the desolation and despair that appear
+settling upon the earth in these latter days, is impressive beyond
+anything I know of modern date.
+
+Had France produced no other redeeming volumes than these, there is
+enough within them to overpower and extinguish the national literary
+disgrace with which it has been reproached so loudly; and it is a
+comfort to remember that this work is as sure to live, as the literary
+labours of the diabolic school are to perish. It is perhaps good for
+us to read trash occasionally, that we may learn to value at their
+worth such thoughts as we find here; and while there are any left on
+earth who can so think, so feel, and so write, our case is not utterly
+hopeless.
+
+Great, indeed, is the debt that we owe to an author like this, who,
+seizing upon the imagination with power unlimited, leads it only into
+scenes that purify and exalt the spirit. It is a tremendous power,
+that of taking us how and where he will, which is possessed by such an
+author as this. When it is used for evil, it resembles fearfully the
+action of a fiend, tempting, dragging, beckoning, cajoling to
+destruction: but when it is for good, it is like an angel's hand
+leading us to heaven.
+
+I intended to have spoken to you of many other works which have
+pleased me; but I really at this moment experience the strangest sort
+of embarrassment imaginable in referring to them. Many agreeable new
+books are lying about before me; but while my head is so full of
+Lamartine and the Holy Land, everything seems to produce on me the
+effect of platitude and littleness.
+
+I must, however, conquer this so far as to tell you that you ought to
+read both Tocqueville and Beaumont on the United States. By the way, I
+am assured that the Americans declare themselves determined to change
+their line of conduct altogether respecting the national manner of
+receiving European sketches of themselves. This new law is to embrace
+three clauses. The first will enforce the total exclusion, from
+henceforth and for evermore, of all European strangers from their
+American homes; the second will recommend that all citizens shall
+abstain from reading anything, in any language written, or about to be
+written, concerning them and their affairs; and the third, in case the
+other two should fail, seems to take the form of a vow, protesting
+that they never will storm, rave, scold, or care about anything that
+anybody can say of them more. If this passes during the presidentship
+of General Jackson, it will immortalize his reign more than paying off
+the national debt.
+
+Having thus, somehow or other, slipped from the Holy Land to the
+United States of America, I feel sufficiently subdued in spirit to
+speak of lesser things than Lamartine's "Pilgrimage."
+
+On one point, indeed, a sense of justice urges me, when on the subject
+of modern productions, to warn you against the error of supposing that
+all the new theatrical pieces, which come forth here as rapidly and as
+brilliantly as the blossoms of the gum cistus, and which fade almost
+as soon, are of the nature and tendency of those I have mentioned as
+belonging to the Victor Hugo school. On the contrary, I have seen
+many, and read more, of these little comedies and vaudevilles, which
+are not only free from every imputation of mischief, but absolutely
+perfect in their kind.
+
+The person whose name is celebrated far above all others for this
+species of composition, is M. Scribe; and were it not that his
+extraordinary facility enables him to pour forth these pretty trifles
+in such abundance as already to have assured him a very large fortune,
+which offers an excellent excuse in these _positif_ times for him, I
+should say that he would have done better had he written less.
+
+He has shown on several occasions, as in "L'Ambitieux," "Bertrand et
+Raton," &c. that he can succeed in that most difficult of tasks, good
+legitimate comedy, as well as in the lighter labour of striking off a
+sparkling vaudeville. It is certain, indeed, that, spite of all we
+say, and say in some respects so justly, respecting the corrupted
+taste of France at the present era, there never was a time when her
+stage could boast a greater affluence of delightful little pieces than
+at present.
+
+I really am afraid to enter more at large upon this theme, from a
+literal _embarras de richesses_. If I begin to name these pretty,
+lively trifles, I shall run into a list much too long for your
+patience: for though Scribe is still the favourite as well as the most
+fertile source of these delightful novelties, there are one or two
+others who follow him at some little distance, and who amongst them
+produce such a sum total of new pieces in the year as would make an
+English manager tremble to think of;--but here the chief cost of
+bringing them out is drawn, not from the theatrical treasury, but from
+the ever-fresh wit and spirit of the performers.
+
+Such an author as Scribe is a national museum of invention--a
+never-failing source of new enjoyment to his lively countrymen, and he
+has probably tasted the pleasures of a bright and lasting reputation
+as fully as any author living. We are already indebted to him for many
+charming importations; and, thanks to the Yates talent, we begin to be
+not unworthy of receiving such. If we cannot have Shakspeare, Racine,
+and Molière got up for us quite "in the grand style of former years,"
+these bright, light, biting, playful, graceful little pieces are by
+far the best substitutes for them, while we wait with all the patience
+we can for a new growth of players, who shall give honour due to the
+next tragedy Miss Mitford may bestow upon us.
+
+Another proof that it is not necessary to be vicious in order to be in
+vogue at Paris, and that purity is no impediment to success, is the
+popularity of Madame Tastu's poetry. She writes as a woman ought to
+write--with grace, feeling, delicacy, and piety.
+
+Her literary efforts, however, are not confined to the "flowery path
+of poesy;" though it is impossible not to perceive that she lingers in
+it with delight, and that when she leaves it, she does so from no
+truant inclination to wander elsewhere, but from some better impulse.
+Her work entitled "Education Maternelle" would prove a most valuable
+acquisition to English mothers desirous themselves of giving early
+lessons in French to their children. The pronunciation and
+accentuation are marked in a manner greatly to facilitate the task,
+especially to a foreigner; whose greatest difficulty, when attempting
+to teach the language without the aid of a native master, is exactly
+what these initiatory lessons are so well calculated to obviate.
+
+It is no small source of consolation and of hope, at a period when a
+sort of universal epidemic frenzy appears to have seized upon the
+minds of men, leading them to advocate as good that which all
+experience shows to be evil, and to give specimens of dirty delirium
+that might be collected in an hospital, by way of exalted works of
+imagination,--it is full of hope and consolation to find that, however
+rumour may clamour forth tidings of these sad ravings whenever they
+appear, fame still rests only with such as really deserve it.
+
+Let a first-rate collector of literary lions at Paris make it known
+that M. de Lamartine would appear at her _soirée_, and the permission
+to enter there would be sought so eagerly, that before eleven o'clock
+there would not be standing-room in her apartments, though they might
+be as spacious as any the "belle ville" can show. But let it be
+announced that the authors of any of the obscene masques and mummings
+which have disgraced the theatres of France would present themselves,
+and depend upon it they would find space sufficient to enact the part
+of Triboulet at the moment when he exclaims in soliloquy,
+
+     "Que je suis grand ici!"
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX.
+
+      Sunday in Paris.--Family Groups.--Popular Enjoyment.--Polytechnic
+      Students.--Their resemblance to the figure of Napoleon.--Enduring
+      attachment to the Emperor.--Conservative spirit of the English
+      Schools.--Sunday in the Gardens of the Tuileries.--Religion of
+      the Educated.--Popular Opinion.
+
+
+Sunday is a delightful day in Paris--more so than in any place I ever
+visited, excepting Francfort. The enjoyment is so universal, and yet
+so domestic; were I to form my idea of the national character from the
+scenes passing before my eyes on that day, instead of from books and
+newspapers, I should say that the most remarkable features in it, were
+conjugal and parental affection.
+
+It is rare to see either a man or a woman, of an age to be wedded and
+parents, without their being accompanied by their partner and their
+offspring. The cup of light wine is drunk between them; the scene that
+is sought for amusement by the one is also enjoyed by the other; and
+whether it be little or whether it be much that can be expended on
+this day of jubilee, the man and wife share it equally.
+
+I have entered many churches during the hours of the morning masses,
+in many different parts of the town, and, as I have before stated, I
+have uniformly found them extremely crowded; and though I have never
+remarked any instances of that sort of penitential devotion so
+constantly seen in the churches of Belgium when the painfully extended
+arms remind one of the Hindoo solemnities, the appearance of earnest
+and devout attention to what is going on is universal.
+
+It is not till after the grand mass is over that the population pours
+itself out over every part of the town, not so much to seek as to meet
+amusement. And they are sure to find it; for not ten steps can be
+taken in any direction without encountering something that shall
+furnish food for enjoyment of some kind or other.
+
+There is no sight in the world that I love better than a numerous
+populace during their hours of idleness and glee. When they assemble
+themselves together for purposes of legislation, I confess I do not
+greatly love or admire them; but when they are enjoying themselves,
+particularly when women and children share in the enjoyment, they
+furnish a delightful spectacle--and nowhere can it be seen to greater
+advantage than in Paris. The nature of the people--the nature of the
+climate--the very form and arrangement of the city, are all especially
+favourable to the display of it. It is in the open air, under the
+blue vault of heaven, before the eyes of thousands, that they love to
+bask and disport themselves. The bright, clear atmosphere seems made
+on purpose for them; and whoever laid out the boulevards, the quays,
+the gardens of Paris, surely remembered, as they did so, how necessary
+space was for the assembling together of her social citizens.
+
+The young men of the Polytechnic School make a prominent feature in a
+Paris Sunday; for it is only on the _jours de fête_ that they are
+permitted to range at liberty through the town: but all occasions of
+this kind cause the streets and public walks to swarm with young
+Napoleons.
+
+It is quite extraordinary to see how the result of a strong principle
+or sentiment may show itself externally on a large body of
+individuals, making those alike, whom nature has made as dissimilar as
+possible. There is not one of these Polytechnic lads, the eldest of
+whom could hardly have seen the light of day before Napoleon had left
+the soil of France for ever,--there is hardly one of them who does not
+more or less remind one of the well-known figure and air of the
+Emperor. Be they tall, be they short, be they fat, be they thin, it is
+the same,--there is some approach (evidently the result of having
+studied their worshipped model closely in paintings, engravings,
+bronzes, marbles, and Sèvres china,) to that look and bearing which,
+till the most popular tyrant that ever lived had made it as well known
+as sunshine to the eyes of France, was as little resembling to the
+ordinary appearance and carriage of her citizens as possible.
+
+The tailor can certainly do much towards making the exterior of one
+individual look like the exterior of another; but he cannot do all
+that we see in the mien of a Polytechnic scholar that serves to recall
+the extraordinary man whose name, after years of exile and of death,
+is decidedly the most stirring that can be pronounced in France. Busy,
+important, and most full of human interest has been the period since
+his downfall; yet his memory is as fresh among them as if he had
+marched into the Tuileries triumphant from one of his hundred
+victories but yesterday.
+
+O, if the sovereign people could but understand as well as read!...
+And O that some Christian spirit could be found who would interpret to
+them, in such accents as they would listen to, the life and adventures
+of Napoleon the Great! What a deal of wisdom they might gain by it!
+Where could be found a lesson so striking as this to a people who are
+weary of being governed, and desire, one and all, to govern
+themselves? With precisely the same weariness, with precisely the
+same desire, did this active, intelligent, and powerful people throw
+off, some forty years ago, the yoke of their laws and the authority of
+their king. Then were they free as the sand of the desert--not one
+individual atom of the mighty mass but might have risen in the
+hurricane of that tempest as high as the unbridled wind of his
+ambition could carry him; and what followed? Why, they grew sick to
+death of the giddy whirl, where each man knocked aside his neighbour,
+and there was none to say "Forbear!" Then did they cling, like sinking
+souls in the act of drowning, to the first bold man who dared to
+replace the yoke upon their necks; they clung to him through years of
+war that mowed down their ranks as a scythe mows down the ripe corn,
+and yet they murmured not. For years they suffered their young sons to
+be torn from their sides while they still hung to them with all the
+first fondness of youth, and yet they murmured not;--for years they
+lived uncheered by the wealth that commerce brings, uncheered by any
+richer return of labour than the scanty morsel that sustained their
+life of toil, and yet they murmured not: for they had once more a
+prince upon the throne--they had once more laws, firmly administered,
+which kept them from the dreaded horrors of anarchy; and they clung to
+their tyrant prince, and his strict and stern enactments, with a
+devotion of gratitude and affection which speaks plainly enough their
+lasting thankfulness to the courage which was put forth in their hour
+of need to relieve them from the dreadful burden of self-government.
+
+This gratitude and affection endures still--nothing will ever efface
+it; for his military tyranny is passed away, and the benefits which
+his colossal power enabled him to bestow upon them remain, and must
+remain as long as France endures. The only means by which another
+sovereign may rival Napoleon in popularity, is by rivalling him in
+power. Were some of the feverish blood which still keeps France in
+agitation to be drawn from her cities to reinforce her military array,
+and were a hundred thousand of the sons of France marched off to
+restore to Italy her natural position in Europe, power, glory, and
+popularity would sustain the throne, and tranquillity be restored to
+the people. Without some such discipline, poor young France may very
+probably die of a plethora. If she has not this, she must have a
+government as absolute as that of Russia to keep her from mischief:
+and that she will have one or the other before long, I have not the
+least doubt in the world; for there are many very clever personages at
+and near the seat of power who will not be slow to see or to do what
+is needful.
+
+Meanwhile this fine body of young men are, as I understand, receiving
+an education calculated to make them most efficient officers, whenever
+they are called upon to serve. Unfortunately for the reputation of the
+Polytechnic School, their names were brought more forward than was
+creditable to those who had the charge of them, during the riots of
+1830. But the government which the men of France accepted from the
+hands of the boys really appears to be wiser and better than they had
+any right to expect from authority so strangely constituted. The new
+government very properly uses the strength given it, for the purpose
+of preventing the repetition of the excesses to which it owes its
+origin; and these fine lads are now said to be in a state of very
+respectable discipline, and to furnish no contemptible bulwark to the
+throne.
+
+It is otherwise, however, as I hear, with most of the bodies of young
+men collected together in Paris for the purpose of education. The
+silly cant of republicanism has got among them; and till this is
+mended, continued little riotous outbreakings of a naughty-boy spirit
+must be expected.
+
+One of the happiest circumstances in the situation of poor struggling
+England at present is, that her boys are not republican. On the
+contrary, the rising spirit among us is decidedly conservative. All
+our great schools are tory to the heart's core. The young English
+have been roused, awakened, startled at the peril which threatens the
+land of their fathers! The _penny king_ who has invaded us has
+produced on them the effect usual on all invasions; and rather than
+see him and his popish court succeed in conquering England, they would
+rush from their forms and their cloisters to repel him, shouting,
+"Alone we'll do it, BOYS!"--and they would do it, too, even if they
+had no fathers to help them.
+
+But I have forgotten my Sunday holiday, while talking about the gayest
+and happiest of those it brings forth to decorate the town. Many a
+proud and happy mother may on these occasions be seen leaning on the
+arm of a son that she is very conscious looks like an emperor; and
+many a pretty creature, whom her familiarity, as well as her features,
+proclaims to be a sister, shows in her laughing eyes that the day
+which gives her smart young brother freedom is indeed a _jour de fête_
+for her.
+
+You will be weary of the Tuileries Gardens; but I cannot keep out of
+them, particularly when talking of a Paris Sunday, of whose prettiest
+groups they are the rendezvous: the whole day's history may be read in
+them. As soon as the gates are open, figures both male and female, in
+dishabille more convenient than elegant, may be seen walking across
+them in every direction towards the _sortie_ which leads towards
+the quay, and thence onwards to _Les Bains Vigier_. Next come the
+after-breakfast groups: and these are beautiful. Elegant young mothers
+in half-toilet accompany their _bonnes_, and the pretty creatures
+committed to their care, to watch for an hour the happy gambols which
+the presence of the "chère maman" renders seven times more gay than
+ordinary.
+
+  [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+   TUILERIES GARDENS, ON SUNDAY.
+   London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.]
+
+I have watched such, repeatedly, with extreme amusement; often
+attempting to read, but never able to pursue the occupation for
+three-quarters of a minute together, till they at last abandon it
+altogether, and sit with the useless volume upon their knee,
+complacently answering all the baby questions that may be proposed to
+them, while watching with the smiling satisfaction of well-pleased
+maternity every attitude, every movement, and every grimace of the
+darling miniatures in which they see themselves, and perhaps one
+dearer still.
+
+From about ten till one o'clock the gardens swarm with children and
+their attendants: and pretty enough they are, and amusing too, with
+their fanciful dresses and their baby wilfulness. Then comes the hour
+of early dinners: the nurses and the children retreat; and were it
+possible that any hour of the day could find a public walk in Paris
+unoccupied, it would be this.
+
+The next change shows the gradual influx of best bonnets,--pink,
+white, green, blue. Feathers float onwards, and fresh flowers are seen
+around: gay barouches rush down the Rues Castiglione and Rivoli; cabs
+swing round every corner, all to deposit their gay freight within the
+gardens. By degrees, double, treble rows of chairs are occupied on
+either side of every walk, while the whole space between is one vast
+moving mass of pleasant idleness.
+
+This lasts till five; and then, as the elegant crowd withdraws,
+another, less graceful perhaps, but more animated, takes its place.
+Caps succeed to bonnets; and unchecked laughter, loud with youth and
+glee, replaces the whispered gallantry, the silent smile, and all the
+well-bred ways of giving and receiving thoughts with as little
+disturbance to the circumambient air as possible.
+
+From this hour to nightfall the multitude goes on increasing; and did
+one not know that every theatre, every guinguette, every boulevard,
+every café in Paris were at the same time crammed almost to
+suffocation, one might be tempted to believe that the whole population
+had assembled there to recreate themselves before the windows of the
+king.
+
+Among the higher ranks the Sunday evening at Paris is precisely the
+same as that of any other day. There are the same number of _soirées_
+going on, and no more; the same number of dinner-parties, just as
+much card-playing, just as much dancing, just as much music, and just
+as much going to the opera; but the other theatres are generally left
+to the _endimanchés_.
+
+You must not, however, imagine that no religious exercises are
+attended to among the rich and noble because I have said nothing
+especially about them on this point. On the contrary, I have great
+reason to believe that it is not alone the attractive eloquence of the
+popular preachers which draws such multitudes of wealthy and high-born
+females into the fashionable churches of Paris; but that they go to
+pray as well as to listen. Nevertheless, as to the general state of
+religion amongst the educated classes in Paris, it is quite as
+difficult to obtain information as it is to learn with anything like
+tolerable accuracy the average state of their politics. It is not that
+there is the least reserve or apparent hanging back when either
+subject is discussed; on the contrary, all seem kindly eager to answer
+every question, and impart to you all the information it is possible
+to wish for: but the variety of statements is inconceivable; and as I
+have repeatedly listened to very strong and positive assertions
+respecting the opinions of the majority, from those in whose sincerity
+I have perfect confidence, but which have been flatly contradicted by
+others equally deserving of credit, I am led to suppose that in
+effect the public mind is still wavering on both subjects. There is,
+in fact, but one point upon which I truly and entirely believe that an
+overwhelming majority exists,--and this is in the aversion felt for
+any farther trial of a republican form of government.
+
+The party who advocate the cause of democracy do indeed make the most
+noise--it is ever their wont to do so. Neither the Chamber of Deputies
+nor the Chamber of Peers can assemble nightly at a given spot to
+scream "Vive le Roi!" nor are the quiet citizens, who most earnestly
+wish to support the existing government, at all more likely to leave
+their busy shops for this purpose than the members of the two Chambers
+are to quit their _hôtels_;--so that any attempt to judge the
+political feelings of the people by the outcries heard in the streets
+must of necessity lead to error. Yet it is of such judgments, both at
+home and abroad, that we hear the most.
+
+As to the real private feelings on the subject of religion which exist
+among the educated portion of the people, it is still more difficult
+to form an opinion, for on this subject the strongest indications are
+often declared to prove nothing. If churches filled to overflowing be
+proof of national piety, then are the people pious: and farther than
+this, no looker-on such as myself should, I think, attempt to go.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX.
+
+      Madame Récamier.--Her Morning Parties.--Gérard's Picture of
+      Corinne.--Miniature of Madame de Staël.--M. de
+      Châteaubriand.--Conversation on the degree in which the
+      French Language is understood by Foreigners.--The necessity
+      of speaking French.
+
+
+Of all the ladies with whom I have become acquainted in Paris, the one
+who appears to me to be the most perfect specimen of an elegant
+Frenchwoman is Madame Récamier,--the same Madame Récamier that, I will
+not say how many years ago, I remember to have seen in London, the
+admired of all eyes: and, wonderful to say, she is so still. Formerly
+I knew her only from seeing her in public, where she was pointed out
+to me as the most beautiful woman in Europe; but now that I have the
+pleasure of her acquaintance, I can well understand, though you who
+know her only by the reputation of her early beauty may not, how and
+why it is that fascinations generally so evanescent are with her so
+lasting. She is, in truth, the very model of all grace. In person,
+manner, movement, dress, voice, and language, she seems universally
+allowed to be quite perfect; and I really cannot imagine a better mode
+of giving a last finish to a young lady's study of the graces, than by
+affording her an opportunity of observing every movement and gesture
+of Madame Récamier.
+
+She is certainly a monopolist of talents and attractions which would
+suffice, if divided in ordinary proportions, to furnish forth a host
+of charming women. I never met with a Frenchman who did not allow,
+that though his countrywomen were charming from _agrémens_ which seem
+peculiarly their own, they have fewer faultless beauties among them
+than may be found in England; but yet, as they say, "Quand une
+Française se mêle d'être jolie, elle est furieusement jolie." This
+_mot_ is as true in point of fact as piquant in expression;--a
+beautiful Frenchwoman is, perhaps, the most beautiful woman in the
+world.
+
+The perfect loveliness of Madame Récamier has made her "a thing to
+wonder at:" and now that she has passed the age when beauty is at its
+height, she is perhaps to be wondered at still more; for I really
+doubt if she ever excited more admiration than she does at present.
+She is followed, sought, looked at, listened to, and, moreover,
+beloved and esteemed, by a very large circle of the first society in
+Paris, among whom are numbered some of the most illustrious literary
+names in France.
+
+That her circle, as well as herself, is delightful, is so generally
+acknowledged, that by adding my voice to the universal judgment, I
+perhaps show as much vanity, as gratitude for the privilege of being
+admitted within it: but no one, I believe, so favoured could, when
+speaking of the society of Paris, omit so striking a feature of it as
+the _salon_ of Madame Récamier. She contrives to make even the
+still-life around her partake of the charm for which she is herself so
+remarkable, and there is a fine and finished elegance in everything
+about her that is irresistibly attractive: I have often entered
+drawing-rooms almost capable of containing her whole suite of
+apartments, and found them infinitely less striking in their
+magnificence than her beautiful little _salon_ in the Abbaye-aux-Bois.
+
+The rich draperies of white silk, the delicate blue tint that mixes
+with them throughout the apartment,--the mirrors, the flowers,--all
+together give an air to the room that makes it accord marvellously
+well with its fair inhabitant. One might fancy that Madame Récamier
+herself was for ever _vouée au blanc_, for no drapery falls around her
+that is not of snowy whiteness--and indeed the mixture of almost any
+colour would seem like profanation to the exquisite delicacy of her
+appearance.
+
+Madame Récamier admits morning visits from a limited number of
+persons, whose names are given to the servant attending in the
+ante-room, every day from four till six. It was here I had the
+pleasure of being introduced to M. de Châteaubriand, and had
+afterwards the gratification of repeatedly meeting him; a
+gratification that I shall assuredly never forget, and for which I
+would have willingly sacrificed one-half of the fine things which
+reward the trouble of a journey to Paris.
+
+The circle thus received is never a large one, and the conversation is
+always general. The first day that I and my daughters were there, we
+found, I think, but two ladies, and about half a dozen gentlemen, of
+whom M. de Châteaubriand was one. A magnificent picture by Gérard,
+boldly and sublimely conceived, and executed in his very best manner,
+occupies one side of the elegant little _salon_. The subject is
+Corinne, in a moment of poetical excitement, a lyre in her hand, and a
+laurel crown upon her head. Were it not for the modern costume of
+those around her, the figure must be mistaken for that of Sappho: and
+never was that impassioned being, the martyred saint of youthful
+lovers, portrayed with more sublimity, more high poetic feeling, or
+more exquisite feminine grace.
+
+The contemplation of this _chef-d'oeuvre_ naturally led the
+conversation to Madame de Staël. Her intimacy with Madame Récamier is
+as well known as the biting reply of the former to an unfortunate man,
+who having contrived to place himself between them, exclaimed,--"Me
+voilà entre l'esprit et la beauté!"
+
+To which bright sally he received for answer--"Sans posséder ni l'un
+ni l'autre."
+
+My knowledge of this intimacy induced me to take advantage of the
+occasion, and I ventured to ask Madame Récamier if Madame de Staël had
+in truth intended to draw her own character in that of Corinne.
+
+"Assuredly ..." was the reply. "The soul of Madame de Staël is fully
+developed in her portrait of that of Corinne." Then turning to the
+picture, she added, "Those eyes are the eyes of Madame de Staël."
+
+She put a miniature into my hand, representing her friend in all the
+bloom of youth, at an age indeed when she could not have been known to
+Madame Récamier. The eyes had certainly the same dark beauty, the same
+inspired expression, as those given to Corinne by Gérard. But the
+artist had too much taste or too little courage to venture upon any
+farther resemblance; the thick lips and short fat chin of the real
+sibyl being changed into all that is loveliest in female beauty on the
+canvass.
+
+The apparent age of the face represented in the miniature points out
+its date with tolerable certainty; and it gives no very favourable
+idea of the taste of the period; for the shock head of crisped Brutus
+curls is placed on arms and bust as free from drapery, though better
+clothed in plumpness, than those of the Medicean Venus.
+
+As we looked first at one picture, then at the other, and conversed on
+both, I was struck with the fine forehead and eyes, delightful voice,
+and peculiarly graceful turn of expression, of a gentleman who sat
+opposite to me, and who joined in this conversation.
+
+I remarked to Madame Récamier that few romances had ever had the
+honour of being illustrated by such a picture as this of Gérard, and
+that, from many circumstances, her pleasure in possessing it must be
+very great.
+
+"It is indeed," she replied: "nor is it my only treasure of the
+kind--I am so fortunate as to possess Girodet's original drawing from
+Atala, the engraving from which you must often have seen. Let me show
+you the original."
+
+We followed her to the dining-room, where this very interesting
+drawing is placed. "You do not know M. de Châteaubriand?" said she.
+
+I replied that I had not that pleasure.
+
+"It is he who was sitting opposite to you in the _salon_."
+
+I begged that she would introduce him to me; and upon our returning to
+the drawing-room she did so. The conversation was resumed, and most
+agreeably--every one bore a part in it. Lamartine, Casimir Delavigne,
+Dumas, Victor Hugo, and some others, passed under a light but clever
+and acute review. Our Byron, Scott, &c. followed; and it was evident
+that they had been read and understood. I asked M. de Châteaubriand if
+he had known Lord Byron: he replied, "Non;" adding, "Je l'avais
+précédé dans la vie, et malheureusement il m'a précédé au tombeau."
+
+The degree in which any country is capable of fully appreciating the
+literature of another was canvassed, and M. de Châteaubriand declared
+himself decidedly of opinion that such appreciation was always and
+necessarily very imperfect. Much that he said on the subject appeared
+incontrovertibly true, especially as respecting the slight and
+delicate shadows of expression of which the subtile grace so
+constantly seems to escape at the first attempt to convert it into
+another idiom. Nevertheless, I suspect that the majority of English
+readers--I mean the English readers of French--are more _au fait_ of
+the original literature of France than M. de Châteaubriand supposes.
+
+The habit, so widely extended amongst us, of reading this language
+almost from infancy, gives us a greater familiarity with their idiom
+than he is aware of. He doubted if we could relish Molière, and named
+Lafontaine as one beyond the reach of extra-Gallican criticism or
+enjoyment.
+
+I cannot agree to this, though I am not surprised that such an idea
+should exist. Every English person that comes to Paris is absolutely
+obliged to speak French, almost whether they can or can not. If they
+shrink from doing so, they can have no hope of either speaking or
+being spoken to at all. This is alone sufficient to account very
+satisfactorily, I think, for any doubt which may prevail as to the
+national proficiency in the language. No Frenchman that is at all in
+the habit of meeting the English in society but must have his ears and
+his memory full of false concords, false tenses, and false accents;
+and can we wonder that he should set it down as a certain fact, that
+they who thus speak cannot be said to understand the language they so
+mangle? Yet, plausible as the inference is, I doubt if it be
+altogether just. Which of the most accomplished Hellenists of either
+country would be found capable of sustaining a familiar conversation
+in Greek? The case is precisely the same; for I have known very many
+whose power of tasting the beauty of French writing amounted to the
+most critical acuteness, who would have probably been unintelligible
+had they attempted to converse in the language for five minutes
+together; whereas many others, who have perhaps had a French valet or
+waiting-maid, may possess a passably good accent and great facility of
+imitative expression in conversation, who yet would be puzzled how to
+construe with critical accuracy the easiest passage in Rousseau.
+
+A very considerable proportion of the educated French read English,
+and often appear to enter very ably into the spirit of our authors;
+but there is not one in fifty of these who will pronounce a single
+word of the language in conversation. Though they endure with a polite
+gravity, perfectly imperturbable, the very drollest blunders of which
+language is capable, they cannot endure to run the risk of making
+blunders in return. Everything connected with the externals of good
+society is held as sacred by the members of it; and if they shrink
+from offending _la bienséance_ by laughing at the mistakes of others,
+they avoid, with at least an equal degree of caution, the unpardonable
+offence of committing any themselves.
+
+I do not believe that it would be possible for a French person to
+enter into conversation merely for the pleasure of conversing, and not
+from the pressure of absolute necessity, unless he were certain, or at
+least believed himself to be so, that he should express himself with
+propriety and elegance. The idea of uttering the brightest or the
+noblest thought that ever entered a human head, in an idiom
+ridiculously broken, would, I am sure, be accompanied with a feeling
+of repugnance sufficient to tame the most animated and silence the
+most loquacious Frenchman in existence.
+
+It therefore falls wholly upon the English, in this happy period of
+constant and intimate intercourse between the nations, to submit to
+the surrender of their vanity, to gratify their love for conversation;
+blundering on in conscious defiance of grammar and accent, rather than
+lose the exceeding pleasure of listening in return to the polished
+phrase, the graceful period, the epigrammatic turn, which make so
+essential a part of genuine high-bred French conversation.
+
+But the doubts expressed by M. de Châteaubriand as to the possibility
+of the last and best grace of French writing being fully appreciated
+by foreigners, was not confined wholly to the English,--the Germans
+appeared to share it with us; and one who has been recently proclaimed
+as the first of living German critics was quoted as having confounded
+in his style, names found among the immortals of the French Pantheon,
+with those of such as live and die; _Monsieur_ Fontaine, and
+_Monsieur_ Bruyère, being expressions actually extant in his writings.
+
+More than once, during subsequent visits to Madame Récamier, I led her
+to speak of her lost and illustrious friend. I have never been more
+interested than while listening to all which this charming woman said
+of Madame de Staël: every word she uttered seemed a mixture of pain
+and pleasure, of enthusiasm and regret. It is melancholy to think how
+utterly impossible it is that she should ever find another to replace
+her. She seems to feel this, and to have surrounded herself by
+everything that can contribute to keep the recollection of what is for
+ever gone, fresh in her memory. The original of the posthumous
+portrait of Madame de Staël by Gérard, made so familiar to all the
+world by engravings--nay, even by Sèvres vases and tea-cups, hangs in
+her bed-room. The miniature I have mentioned is always near her; and
+the inspired figure of her Corinne, in which it is evident that Madame
+Récamier traces a resemblance to her friend beyond that of features
+only, appears to be an object almost of veneration as well as love.
+
+It is delightful to approach thus to a being that I have always been
+accustomed to contemplate as something in the clouds. Admirable and
+amiable as my charming new acquaintance is in a hundred ways, her past
+intimacy and ever-enduring affection for Madame de Staël have given
+her a still higher interest in my eyes.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI.
+
+      Exhibition of Sèvres China at the Louvre.--Gobelins and
+      Beauvais Tapestry.--Legitimatist Father and Doctrinaire
+      Son.--Copies from the Medicean Gallery.
+
+
+We are just returned from an exhibition at the Louvre; and a very
+splendid exhibition it is--though, alas! but a poor consolation for
+the hidden treasures of the picture-gallery. Several magnificent rooms
+are now open for the display of works in tapestry and Sèvres
+porcelain; and however much we might have preferred seeing something
+else there, it is impossible to deny that these rooms contain many
+objects as wonderful perhaps in their way as any that the higher
+branches of art ever produced.
+
+The copy of Titian's portrait of his mistress, on porcelain, and still
+more perhaps that of Raphaël's "Virgin and St. John watching the sleep
+of the infant Jesus," (the _Parce somnum rumpere_,) are, I think, the
+most remarkable; both being of the same size as the originals, and
+performed with a perfection of colouring that is almost
+inconceivable.
+
+That the fragile clay of which porcelain is fabricated should so lend
+itself to the skill of the workman,--or rather, that the workman's
+skill should so triumph over the million chances which exist against
+bringing unbroken out of the fire a smooth and level _plaque_ of such
+extent,--is indeed most wonderful. Still more so is the skill which
+has enabled the artist to prophesy, as he painted with his greys and
+his greens, that the tints which flowed from his pencil of one colour,
+should assume, from the nicely-regulated action of an element the most
+difficult to govern, hues and shades so exquisitely imitative of his
+great original.
+
+But having acknowledged this, I have nothing more to say in praise of
+a _tour de force_ which, in my opinion, can only be attempted by the
+sacrifice of common sense. The _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of a Titian or a
+Raphaël are treasures of which we may lawfully covet an imitation; but
+why should it be attempted in a manner the most difficult, the most
+laborious, the most likely to fail, and the most liable to destruction
+when completed?--not to mention that, after all, there is in the most
+perfect copy on porcelain a something--I am mistress of no words to
+define it--which does not satisfy the mind.
+
+As far as regards my own feelings indeed, I could go farther, and say
+that the effect produced is to a certain degree positively
+disagreeable,--not quite unlike that occasioned by examining
+needlework performed without fingers, or watch-papers exquisitely cut
+out by feet instead of hands. The admiration demanded is less for the
+thing itself, than for the very defective means employed to produce
+it. Were there indeed none other, the inventor would deserve a statue,
+and the artist, like Trisotin, should take the air "_en carrosse
+doré_:" but as it is, I would rather see a good copy on canvass than
+on china.
+
+Far different, however, is the effect produced by this beautiful and
+ingenious branch of art when displayed in the embellishment of cups
+and plates, vases and tea-trays. I never saw anything more gracefully
+appropriate to the last high finish of domestic elegance than all the
+articles of this description exhibited this year at the Louvre. It is
+impossible to admire or to praise them too much; or to deny that,
+wonderfully as similar manufactories have improved in England within
+the last thirty years, we have still nothing equal to the finer
+specimens of the Sèvres porcelain.
+
+These rooms were, like every other place in Paris where human beings
+know that they shall meet each other, extremely full of company; and I
+have certainly never seen such ecstasy of admiration produced by any
+objects exhibited to the public eye, as was elicited by some of the
+articles displayed on this occasion: they are indeed most beautiful;
+the form, the material, the workmanship, all perfect.
+
+The Sèvres manufactory must, I think, have some individuals attached
+to it who have made the theory of colour an especial study. It is
+worth while to walk round the vast table, or rather platform, raised
+in the middle of the apartment, for the purpose of examining the
+different sets, with a view only to observe the effect produced on the
+eye by the arrangement of colours in each.
+
+The finest specimens, after the wonderful copies from pictures which I
+have already mentioned, are small breakfast-sets--for a _tête-à-tête_,
+I believe,--enclosed in large cases lined either with white satin or
+white velvet. These cases are all open for inspection, but with a
+stout brass bar around, to protect them from the peril of too near an
+approach. The lid is so formed as exactly to receive the tray; while
+the articles to be placed upon it, when in use, are arranged each in
+its own delicate recess, with such an attention to composition and
+general effect as to show all and everything to the greatest possible
+advantage.
+
+Some of these exquisite specimens are decorated with flowers, some
+with landscapes, and others with figures, or miniatures of heads,
+either superlative in beauty or distinguished by fame. These beautiful
+decorations, admirable as they all are in design and execution, struck
+me less than the perfect taste with which the reigning colour which
+pervades each set, either as background, lining, or border, is made to
+harmonize with the ornaments upon it.
+
+It is a positive pleasure, independent of the amusement which may be
+derived from a closer examination, to cast the eye over the general
+effect produced by the consummate taste and skill thus displayed.
+Those curious affinities and antipathies among colours, which I have
+seen made the subject of many pretty experimental lectures, must, I am
+sure, have been studied and acted upon by the _colour-master_ of each
+department; and the result is to my feelings productive of a pleasure,
+from the contemplation of the effect produced, as distinct from the
+examination of the design, or of any other circumstance connected with
+the art, as the gratification produced by the smell of an
+orange-blossom or a rose: it is a pleasure which has no connexion with
+the intellect, but arises solely from its agreeable effect on the
+sense.
+
+The eye seems to be unconsciously soothed and gratified, and lingers
+upon the rich, the soft, or the brilliant hues, with a satisfaction
+that positively amounts to enjoyment.
+
+Whoever may be occupied by the "delightful task" of fitting up a
+sumptuous drawing-room, will do well to take a tour round a room
+filled with sets of Sèvres porcelain. The important question of "What
+colours shall we mix?" would receive an answer there, with the
+delightful certainty that no solecism in taste could possibly be
+committed by obeying it.
+
+The Gobelins and Beauvais work for chairs, screens, cushions, and
+various other articles, makes a great display this year. It is very
+beautiful, both in design and execution; and at the present moment,
+when the stately magnificence of the age of Louis Quinze is so much in
+vogue--in compliment, it is said, to the taste of the Duc
+d'Orléans,--this costly manufacture is likely again to flourish.
+
+Never can a large and lofty chamber present an appearance of more
+princely magnificence than when thus decorated; and the manner in
+which this elaborate style of ancient embellishment is now adopted to
+modern use, is equally ingenious and elegant.
+
+Some political economists talk of the national advantage of decreasing
+labour by machinery, while others advocate every fashion which demands
+the work of hands. I will not attempt to decide on which side wisdom
+lies; but, in our present imperfect condition, everything that brings
+an innocent and profitable occupation to women appears to me
+desirable.
+
+The needles of France are assuredly the most skilful in the world; and
+set to work as they are upon designs that rival those of the Vatican
+in elegance, they produce a perfection of embroidery that sets all
+competition at defiance.
+
+In pursuing my way along the rail which encloses the specimens
+exhibited--a progress which was necessarily very slow from the
+pressure of the crowd,--I followed close behind a tall, elegant,
+aristocratic-looking gentleman, who was accompanied by his
+son--decidedly his son,--the boy "fathered himself;" I never saw a
+stronger likeness. Their conversation, which I overheard by no act of
+impertinent listening, but because I could not possibly avoid it,
+amused me much. I am seldom thrown into such close contact with
+strangers without making a fancy-sketch of who and what they are; but
+upon this occasion I was thrown out,--it was like reading a novel, the
+_dénouement_ of which is so well concealed as to evade guessing. The
+boy and his father were not of one mind; their observations were made
+in the spirit of different parties: the father, I suspect, was a
+royalist,--the son, I am sure, was a young doctrinaire. The crowd hung
+long upon the spot where a magnificent collection of embroidery for
+the seats and backs of a set of chairs was displayed. "They are for
+the Duke of Orleans," said the father.
+
+"Yes, yes," said the boy; "they are fit for him--they are princely."
+
+"They are fit for a king!" said the father with a sigh.
+
+The lad paused for a moment, and then said, _avec intention_, as the
+stage directions express it, "Mais lui aussi, il est fils de St.
+Louis; n'est-ce pas?" The father answered not, and the crowd moved on.
+
+All I could make of this was, that the boy's instructor, whether male
+or female, was a faithful disciple of the "_PARCEQU'il est Bourbon_"
+school; and whatever leaven of wavering faith may be mixed up with
+this doctrine, it forms perhaps the best defence to be found for
+attachment to the reigning dynasty amongst those who are too young to
+enter fully into the expediency part of the question.
+
+In the last of the suite of rooms opened for this exhibition, are
+displayed splendid pieces of tapestry from subjects taken from Rubens'
+Medicean Gallery.
+
+That the achievement of these enormous combinations of stitches must
+have been a labour of extreme difficulty, there can be no doubt; but
+notwithstanding my admiration for French needles, I am tempted to add,
+in the words of our uncompromising moralist, "Would it had been
+impossible!"
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII.
+
+      Eglise Apostolique Française.--Its doctrine.--L'Abbé
+      Auzou.--His Sermon on "les Plaisirs Populaires."
+
+
+Among the multitude of friendly injunctions to see this, and to hear
+that, which have produced me so much agreeable occupation, I have more
+than once been very earnestly recommended to visit the "Eglise
+Apostolique Française" on the Boulevard St. Denis, for the purpose of
+hearing l'Abbé Auzou, and still more, that I might have an opportunity
+of observing the peculiarities of this mode of worship, or rather of
+doctrine; for, in fact, the ceremonies at the altar differ but little,
+as far as I can perceive, from those of the Church of Rome, excepting
+that the evident poverty of the establishment precludes the splendour
+which usually attends the performance of its offices. I have no very
+satisfactory data by which to judge of the degree of estimation in
+which this new sect is held: by some I have heard them spoken of as
+apostles, and by others as a Paria caste unworthy of any notice.
+
+Before hearing M. L'Abbé Auzou, or attending the service at his
+church, I wished to read some of the publications which explain their
+tenets, and accordingly called at the little bureau behind their
+chapel on the Boulevard St. Denis, where we were told these
+publications could be found. Having purchased several pamphlets
+containing catechism, hymns, sermons, and so forth, we entered into
+conversation with the young man who presided in this obscure and dark
+closet, dignified by the name of "Secrétariat de l'Eglise Apostolique
+Française."
+
+He told us that he was assistant minister of the chapel, and we found
+him extremely conversible and communicative.
+
+The chief differences between this new church and those which have
+preceded it in the reform of the Roman Catholic religion, appears to
+consist in the preservation of the external forms of worship, which
+other reformers have rejected, and also of several dogmas, purely
+doctrinal, and wholly unconnected with those principles of church
+power and church discipline, the abuse of which was the immediate
+cause of all protestant reform.
+
+They acknowledge the real presence. I find in the _Catéchisme_ these
+questions and answers:
+
+"Jésus-Christ est-il sous le pain, ou bien sous le vin?--Il est sous
+les deux espèces à la fois.
+
+"Et quand l'hostie est partagée?--Jésus-Christ est tout entier en
+chaque partie.
+
+"Que faut-il faire pendant le jour où l'on a communié?--Assister aux
+offices, et ensuite se réjouir de son bonheur avec ses parens et ses
+amis."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Their clergy are permitted to marry. They deny that any power of
+absolution rests with the priest, allowing him only that of
+intercession by prayer for the forgiveness of the penitent. Auricular
+confession is not enjoined, but recommended as useful to children.
+They profess entire toleration to every variety of Christian belief;
+but as the "Eglise Française" refuses to acknowledge dependance upon
+any _secte étrangère_,--by which phrase I conceive the Church of Rome
+to be meant,--they also declare, "d'après l'Evangile, que la religion
+ne doit jamais intervenir dans les gouvernemens temporels."
+
+They recognise the seven sacraments, only modifying that of penitence,
+as above mentioned. They deny the eternity of punishment, but I find
+no mention of purgatory. They do not enjoin fasting. I find in the
+_Catéchisme_ the following explanation of their doctrine on this head,
+which appears to be extremely reasonable.
+
+"L'Eglise Française n'impose donc pas le jeûne et l'abstinence?--Non;
+l'Eglise Apostolique Française s'en rapporte pour le jeûne aux fidèles
+eux-mêmes, et ne reconnaît en aucune façon le précepte de
+l'abstinence; mais, plus prudente dans ses principes, elle substitue à
+un jeûne de quelques jours une sobriété continuelle, et remplace une
+abstinence périodique par une tempérance de chaque jour, de chaque
+année, de toute la vie."
+
+In all this there appears little in doctrine, excepting the admission
+of the divine presence in the elements of the eucharist, that differs
+greatly from most other reformed churches: nevertheless, the
+ceremonies are entirely similar to those of the Roman Catholic
+religion.
+
+But whatever there may be either of good or of evil in this mixture,
+its effect must, I think, prove absolutely nugatory on society, from
+the entire absence of any church government or discipline whatever.
+That this is in fact the case, is thus plainly stated in the preface
+to their published Catechism:--
+
+"L'Eglise Apostolique Française ne reconnaît aucune hiérarchie; elle
+repousse en conséquence l'autorité de tout pouvoir spirituel étranger,
+et de tout autre pouvoir qui en dépend ou qui s'y soumet. Elle ne
+reconnaît d'autre autorité spirituelle que celle qu'exercerait la
+réunion de ses fidèles; réunion qui, suivant les principes des
+apôtres, constitue seule ce que de leur temps on appelait EGLISE.
+
+"Elle n'est point salariée par l'état. L'administration de ses secours
+spirituels est gratuite. Elle n'a de tarif, ni pour les baptêmes, ni
+pour les mariages, ni enfin pour les inhumations. Elle vit de peu, et
+s'en remet à la générosité, ou plutôt à la volonté, des fidèles.
+
+"Ne reconnaissant pas d'hiérarchie, elle ne reconnaît pas non plus de
+division de territoire, soit en arrondissement, soit en paroisse: elle
+accueille donc tous les Chrétiens qui se présentent à elle pour mander
+à ses prêtres l'accomplissement des fonctions de ministres de
+Jésus-Christ."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The _décousu_ principles of the day can hardly be carried farther than
+this. A rope of sand is the only fitting emblem for a congregation so
+constituted; and, like a rope of sand, it must of necessity fall
+asunder, for there is no principle of union to prevent it.
+
+After I had finished my studies on the subject, I heard a sermon
+preached in the church,--not, however, by M. l'Abbé Auzou, who was
+ill, but by the same person with whom we had conversed at the
+_Secrétariat_. His sermon was a strong exposition of the abuses
+practised by the clergy of the Church of Rome,--a theme certainly more
+fertile than new.
+
+In reading some of the most celebrated discourses of the Abbé Auzou, I
+was the most struck with one entitled--"Discours sur les Plaisirs
+Populaires, les Bals, et les Spectacles." The text is from St.
+Matthew,--"Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
+will give you rest ... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
+
+In this singular discourse, among some things that are reasonable, and
+more that are plausible, it is impossible to avoid seeing a spirit of
+lawless uncontrol, which seems to breathe more of revolution than of
+piety.
+
+I am no advocate for a Judaical observance of the Sabbath, nor am I
+ignorant of the fearful abuses which have arisen from man's daring to
+arrogate to himself a power vested in God alone,--the power of
+forgiving the sins of man. The undue authority assumed by the
+sovereign pontiff of Rome is likewise sufficiently evident, as are
+many other abuses justly reprobated in the sermons of the Abbé Auzou.
+Nevertheless, education, observation, and I might say experience, have
+taught me that religion requires and demands that care, protection,
+and government which are so absolutely essential to the well-being of
+every community of human beings who would unite together for one
+general object. To talk of a self-governing church, is just as absurd
+as to talk of a self-governing ship, or a self-governing family.
+
+It should seem, by the reprobation expressed against the severity of
+the Roman Catholic clergy in these sermons, as well as from anecdotes
+which I have occasionally heard in society, that the Church of Rome
+and the Church of Calvin are alike hostile to every kind of
+dissipation, and that at the present moment they have many points of
+discipline in common--at least as respects the injunctions laid upon
+their congregations respecting their private conduct.
+
+M. l'Abbé Auzou says, in speaking of revolutionary reforms,--
+
+"Rien n'est changé dans le sacerdoce; et l'on peut dire aussi des
+prêtres toujours romains, qu'ils n'ont rien oublié, qu'ils n'ont rien
+appris. Cependant, sous le règne de Napoléon leur orgueil a fléchi
+devant le grand intérêt de leur réinstallation.... Aussi, au retour de
+leur roi légitime, cet orgueil comprimé s'est-il relevé dans toute sa
+hauteur. Rome a placé son trône à côté de celui d'un roi, un peu
+philosophe, a-t-on dit, mais perclus et impotent. Et enfin, lorsque
+son successeur, d'abord accueilli par le peuple, est tombé entre les
+mains des prêtres, ceux-ci, profitant de son âge et de sa faiblesse,
+ont exploité les erreurs d'une jeunesse fougueuse, qui cependant lui
+avaient valu le surnom de Chevalier Français. Alors nous avons vu ce
+roi sacrifier sa popularité à leurs exigeances; appeler toute la
+nation à l'expiation de ses fautes personnelles, à son repentir, à sa
+pénitence; et la forcer à renier, pour ainsi dire, trente ans de
+gloire et de liberté.... Un roi que le remords poursuit, dévore, et
+qui ne reconnaît d'autre recours que dans le prêtre qui l'a soumis à
+sa loi par la menace et la terreur de l'enfer; ce roi, sous le coup
+d'une absolution conditionnelle et toujours suspendue, abdique, sans
+le savoir, en faveur de son confesseur....
+
+"Roi! tu languis dans l'exil, et tes fautes sont punies jusque dans
+les dernières générations!
+
+"Les prêtres, les prêtres romains se sont cependant soumis à un
+nouveau prince, à qui la souveraineté nationale a remis le sceptre;
+ils prient enfin pour lui ... et l'on sait avec quelle sincérité.
+
+"Mais, peuple, comme leur joug s'appesantit sur toi!... Dans leur
+fureur mal-déguisée ils le disent.... La maison du Seigneur est
+déserte, et tu te rues avec fureur vers les plaisirs, les fêtes, les
+bals et les spectacles! Anathême donc contre les plaisirs, les fêtes
+et les bals! Anathême contre les spectacles!
+
+"Ne sont-ce point là, mes frères, les paroles qui tombent chaque jour
+menaçantes de la chaire de l'Eglise Romaine?...
+
+"Combien notre langage sera différent! Le Dieu des Juifs est bien
+notre Dieu; mais sa colère a été désarmée par le sacrifice que son
+fils lui a offert pour notre rédemption.
+
+"Pourquoi ce sang répandu sur la croix pour nos péchés si la
+satisfaction de nos besoins physiques, si nos fonctions
+intellectuelles, si l'entrainement des passions qui constituent notre
+être peuvent à chaque instant nous faire tomber dans le péché et nous
+précipiter dans l'abîme?
+
+"Aussi nous vous disons dans notre chaire apostolique,--Exécutez les
+commandemens de Dieu, adorez et glorifiez notre Père qui est aux
+cieux, pratiquez la morale de l'Evangile, aimez votre prochain comme
+vous-mêmes, et vous aurez accompli la loi de Jésus-Christ ... et nous
+ajoutons,--Vous êtes membre de la société pour laquelle vous avez été
+créés, et cette société vous impose des devoirs; en échange elle vous
+procure des jouissances et des plaisirs: remplissez vos devoirs et
+livrez-vous ensuite sans crainte aux jouissances et aux plaisirs
+qu'elle vous présente. Votre participation à ces mêmes plaisirs, à ces
+mêmes jouissances, est encore une partie de vos devoirs, et vous aurez
+accompli encore une fois la loi de Jésus-Christ."
+
+This doctrine may assuredly entitle the Eglise Apostolique Française
+to the appellation of a NEW CHURCH.
+
+M. l'Abbé Auzou goes on yet farther in the same strain:--
+
+"Anathême!... Arme vieille, rouillée, émoussée, et que vous cherchez
+en vain à retremper dans le fiel de la colère et de la vengeance!...
+Anathême aux plaisirs! Et quoi! parceque Dieu a dit à notre premier
+père, Vous mangerez votre pain à la sueur de votre visage, l'homme
+serait condamné à rester toujours courbé sous le joug du travail?
+N'aura-t-il à espérer aucun adoucissement à ses peines?...
+
+"Non, sans doute ... vous dira le clergé romain, puisque Dieu a
+consacré le septième jour au repos?
+
+"Et quel est ce repos?
+
+"Sera-ce celui, qu'en vous servant du bras du séculier, vous avez
+tenté de lui imposer par une ordonnance préscrivant de fermer tous les
+établissemens qui décorent notre cité, nos cafés, nos restaurans, pour
+ne tolérer que l'ouverture des officines du pharmacien?--ordonnance
+dont une caricature spirituelle a fait si prompte justice."
+
+The following picture of a fanatical Sunday takes me back at once to
+America. There, however, its worst effect was to steep the senses in
+the unnecessary oblivion of a few more hours of sleep; but in Paris I
+should really expect that such restraint, were it indeed possible to
+impose it, would literally drive the sensitive and mobile population
+to madness.
+
+"Et quel est donc ce repos?
+
+"Sera-ce l'immobilité des corps; l'abandon de toutes nos facultés;
+l'oisiveté; l'ennui, compagnon inséparable de l'oisiveté; la prière;
+la méditation,--la méditation plus pénible pour la plupart des hommes
+que le travail des mains; et, enfin, vos sermons intolérans, et, qui
+pis est peut-être, si ennuyeux?
+
+"Ah! imposer à l'homme un pareil repos ne serait que suspendre son
+travail pour lui faire porter, comme à St. Simon de Cyrène, la croix
+de Jésus-Christ jusqu'au sommet escarpé du Calvaire."
+
+The Abbé then proceeds to promulgate his bull for the permission of
+all sorts of Parisian delights; nay, he takes a very pretty and
+picturesque ramble into the country, where "les jeunes garçons et les
+jeunes filles s'y livrent à des danses rustiques"--and, in short,
+gives so animated a picture of the pleasures which ought to await the
+Sabbath both in town and country, that it is almost impossible to read
+it without feeling a wish that every human being who through the six
+days of needful labour has been "weary worn with care" should pass the
+seventh amid the bright and cheering scenes he describes. But he
+effectually checks this feeling of sympathy with his views by what
+follows. He describes habitual drunkenness with the disgust it merits;
+but strangely qualifies this, by adding to his condemnation of the
+"homme dégradé qui, oubliant chaque jour sa dignité dans les excès
+d'une hideuse ivrognerie, _n'attend pas le jour que Dieu a consacré au
+repos_, à la distraction, aux plaisirs, pour se livrer à son ignoble
+passion," these dangerous words:--
+
+"Mais condamnerons-nous sans retour notre frère pour un jour
+d'intempérance passagère, et blamerons-nous celui qui, cherchant dans
+le vin, ce présent du Ciel, un moment d'oubli des misères humaines,
+n'a point su s'arrêter à cette douce ivresse, oublieuse des maux et
+créatrice d'heureuses illusions?"
+
+Is not this using the spur where the rein is most wanting? I am
+persuaded that it is not the intention of the Abbé Auzou to advocate
+any species of immorality; but all the world, and particularly the
+French world perhaps, is so well disposed to amuse itself _coûte qui
+coûte_, that I confess I doubt the wisdom of enforcing the necessity
+of so doing from the pulpit.
+
+The unwise, unauthorised, and most unchristian severity of the
+Calvinistic and Romish priesthood may, I think, lawfully and
+righteously be commented upon and reprobated both in the pulpit and
+out of it; but this reprobation should not clothe itself in license,
+or in any language that can be interpreted as such. There are many, I
+should think, in every Christian land, both clergy and laity, but
+neither popish nor Calvinistic, who would shrink both from the
+sentiment and expression of the following passage:--
+
+"Rappelons-nous que le patriarche Noé, lui qui planta la vigne et
+exprima le jus de son fruit, en abusa une fois, et que Dieu ne lui en
+fit point le reproche: Dieu punit, au contraire, le fils qui n'avait
+point caché cette faiblesse d'un père."
+
+There is some worldly wisdom, however, in the exclamation he addresses
+to his intolerant brethren.
+
+"Et vous, prêtres aveugles et impolitiques, laissez le peuple se
+livrer à ses plaisirs innocens; faites en sorte qu'il se contente de
+sa position; qu'il ne compare pas cette position pénible, douloureuse,
+avec l'oisiveté dans laquelle vous vivez vous-mêmes, et que vous ne
+devez qu'à la nouvelle dîme qui s'exprime de son front."
+
+He then proceeds to say, that it is not the poor only who are
+subjected to this severity, but the rich also ... "que le prêtre de la
+secte romaine veut arrêter, troubler dans ses plaisirs, dans ses
+délassemens."... "Un repas par lequel on célèbre l'union de deux
+jeunes coeurs, l'union de deux familles, et dans lequel règnent la
+joie, _et peut-être aussi un peu plus que de la gaîté_, est l'objet de
+la censure inexorable de ces prêtres rigides.... Ils oublient que
+celui qu'ils disent être leur maître a consacré ces réunions par sa
+présence, et que le vin ayant manqué par le trop grand usage qu'on en
+avait fait, il n'en a pas moins changé l'eau en vin. Ils sont tous
+disposés à répondre comme ce Janséniste à qui l'on rappelait cet
+intéressant épisode de la vie de Jésus,--'Ce n'est pas ce qu'il a fait
+de mieux.'--Impie! ... tu blasphêmes contre ton maître!...
+
+"Ah! mes frères, admirons, nous, dans la sincérité de notre coeur,
+cet exemple de bienveillance et de _sociabilité pratique_, et
+bénissons la bonté de Jésus."
+
+Then follows an earnest defence, or rather eulogy, of dancing. But
+though I greatly approve the exercise for young people, and believe it
+to be as innocent as it is natural, I would not, were I called upon to
+preach a sermon, address my hearers after this manner:--
+
+"Quant aux bals, je ne chercherai point à les excuser, à les défendre,
+par _des exemples puisés dans l'écriture sainte_. Je ne vous
+représenterai point David dansant devant l'arche.... Je ne vous le
+donnerai pas non plus pour modèle, à vous, jeunes gens de notre France
+_si polie_, _si élégante_, car sans doute _il dansait mal_; puisque,
+suivant la Bible, Michal sa femme, voyant le roi David qui sautait et
+dansait, se moqua de lui et le méprisa dans son coeur." There is
+about as much piety as good taste in this.
+
+I have already given you such long extracts, that I must omit all he
+says,--and it is much in favour of this amusement. Such forbearance
+is the more necessary, as I must give you a passage or two more on
+other subjects. Among the general reasons which he brings forward to
+prove that fêtes and festivals are beneficial to the people, he very
+justly remarks that the occupation they afford to industry is not the
+least important, observing that the popish church takes no heed of
+such things; and then adds, addressing the manufacturers,--
+
+"Et lorsque le besoin se fera sentir et pour vous et vos enfans, allez
+à l'Archevêché! ... à l'Archevêché! ... un jour la colère du peuple a
+éclaté,--
+
+     "Je n'ai fait que passer, il n'était déjà plus."...
+
+The date which this sermon bears on its title-page is 1834; but the
+event to which this line from Racine alludes was the destruction of
+the archiepiscopal palace, which took place, if I mistake not, in
+1831. If the "_il n'était déjà plus_" alludes to the palace, it is
+correct enough, for destruction could not have done its work better:
+but if it be meant to describe the fate of MONSEIGNEUR L'ARCHEVÊQUE DE
+PARIS, the preacher is not a prophet; for, in truth, the sacrilegious
+rout "n'a fait que passer," and MONSEIGNEUR has only risen higher from
+the blow. Public orators of all kinds should be very cautious, in
+these moveable times, how they venture to judge from to-day what may
+be to-morrow. The only oracular sentence that can be uttered at
+present with the least chance of success from the developement of the
+future is, "Who can say what may happen next?" All who have sufficient
+prudence to restrict their prescience to this acute form of prophecy,
+may have the pleasure, let come what may, of turning to their
+neighbours triumphantly with the question--"Did I not tell you that
+something was going to happen?"--but it is dangerous to be one atom
+more precise. Even before this letter can reach you, my friend, M.
+l'Abbé's interpretation of "il n'était déjà plus" may be more correct
+than mine. I say this, however, only to save my credit with you in
+case of the worst; for my private opinion is, that Monseigneur was
+never in a more prosperous condition in his life, and that, "as no one
+can say what will happen next," I should not be at all astonished if a
+cardinal's hat were speedily to reward him for all he has done and
+suffered.
+
+I certainly intended to have given you a few specimens of the Abbé
+Auzou's manner of advocating theatrical exhibitions; but I fear they
+would lead me into too great length of citation. He is sometimes
+really eloquent upon the subject: nevertheless, his opinions on it,
+however reasonable, would have been delivered with better effect from
+the easy-chair of his library than from the pulpit of his church. It
+is not that what would be good when heard from the one could become
+evil when listened to from the other: but the preacher's pulpit is
+intended for other uses; and though the visits to a well-regulated
+theatre may be as lawful as eating, and as innocent too, we go to the
+house of God in the hope of hearing tidings more important than his
+minister's assurance that they are so.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII.
+
+      Establishment for Insane Patients at Vanves.--Description of
+      the arrangements.--Englishman.--His religious madness.
+
+
+You will think perhaps that I have chosen oddly the object which has
+induced me to make an excursion out of town, and obliged me to give up
+nearly an entire day at Paris, when I tell you that it was to visit an
+institution for the reception of the insane. There are, however, few
+things which interest me more than an establishment of this nature;
+especially when, as in the present instance, my manner of introduction
+to it is such as to give me the hope of hearing the phenomena of these
+awful maladies discussed by those well acquainted with them. The
+establishment of MM. Voisin and Fabret, at Vanves, was mentioned to me
+as one in which many improvements in the mode of treating alienation
+of mind have been suggested and tried with excellent effect; and
+having the opportunity of visiting it in company with a lady who was
+well acquainted with the gentlemen presiding over it, I determined to
+take advantage of it. My friend, too, knew how to direct my attention
+to what was most interesting, from having had a relation placed there,
+whom for many months she had been in the constant habit of visiting.
+
+Her introduction obtained for me the most attentive reception, and the
+fullest explanation of their admirable system, which appears to me to
+combine, and on a very large and noble scale, everything likely to
+assuage the sufferings, soothe the spirits, and contribute to the
+health of the patients.
+
+Vanves is situated at the distance of one league from Paris, in a
+beautiful part of the country; and the establishment itself, from
+almost every part of the high ground on which it is placed, commands
+views so varied and extensive, as not only to render the principal
+mansion a charming residence, but really to make the walks and drives
+within the enclosure of the extensive premises delightful.
+
+The grounds are exceedingly well laid out, with careful attention to
+the principal object for which they are arranged, but without
+neglecting any of the beauty of which the spot is so capable. They
+have shade and flowers, distant views and sheltered seats, with
+pleasant walks, and even drives and rides, in all directions. The
+enclosure contains about sixty acres, to every part of which the
+patients who are well enough to walk about can be admitted with
+perfect safety.
+
+In this park are situated two or three distinct lodges, which are
+found occasionally to be of the greatest utility, in cases where the
+most profound quiet is necessary, and yet where too strict confinement
+would be injurious. Indeed, it appears to me that the object
+principally kept in view throughout all the arrangements, is the power
+of keeping patients out of sight and hearing of each other till they
+are sufficiently advanced towards recovery to make it a real pleasure
+and advantage to associate together.
+
+As soon as they reach this favourable stage of their convalescence,
+they mix with the family in very handsome rooms, where books, music,
+and a billiard-table assist them to pass the hours without _ennui_.
+Every patient has a separate sleeping-apartment, in none of which are
+the precautions necessary for their safety permitted to be visible.
+What would wear the appearance of iron bars in every other place of
+the kind that I have seen, are here made to look like very neat
+_jalousies_. Not a bolt or a bar is perceptible, nor any object
+whatever that might shock the spirit, if at any time a gleam of
+recovered intellect should return to visit it.
+
+This cautious keeping out of sight of the sufferers everything that
+might awaken them to a sense of their own condition, or that of the
+other patients, appears to me to be the most peculiar feature of the
+discipline, and is evidently one of the objects most sedulously kept
+in view. Next to this I should place the system of inducing the male
+patients to exercise their limbs, and amuse their spirits, by working
+in the garden, at any undertaking, however _bizarre_ and profitless,
+which can induce them to keep mind and body healthily employed. I know
+not if this has been systematically resorted to elsewhere; but the
+good sense of it is certainly very obvious, and the effect, as I was
+told, is found to be very generally beneficial; though it occasionally
+happens that some among them have fancied their dignity compromised by
+using a spade or a hoe,--and then some of the family join with them in
+the labour, to prove that it is merely a matter of amusement: in
+short, everything likely to cheer or soothe the spirits seems brought
+into use among them.
+
+The ground close adjoining to the house is divided into many small
+well-enclosed gardens; the women's apartments opening to some, the
+men's to others of them. In several of these gardens I observed neat
+little tables, such as are used in the _restaurans_ of Paris, with a
+clean cloth, and all necessary appointments, placed pleasantly and
+commodiously in the shade, at each of which was seated one person, who
+was served with a separate dinner, and with every appearance of
+comfort. Had I not known their condition, I should in many instances
+have thought the spectacle a very pleasing one.
+
+M. Voisin walked through all parts of the establishment with us, and
+there appeared to exist a perfectly good understanding between him and
+his patients. Among many regulations, which all appeared excellent, he
+told me that the friends of his inmates were permitted at all times,
+and under all circumstances, to visit them without any restraint
+whatever: an arrangement which can only be productive of confidence
+and advantage to all parties; as it is perfectly inconceivable that
+any one who had felt obliged to place an unhappy friend or relative
+under restraint should wish to interfere with the discipline necessary
+for his ultimate advantage; whereas a contrary system is likely to
+give occasion to constant doubts and fears on one hand, and to the
+possibility of ill treatment or unnecessary restraint on the other. In
+one of the courts appropriated to the use of such male patients as
+were sufficiently convalescent to permit their associating together,
+and amusing themselves with the different games in which they are
+permitted to share, we saw a young Englishman, now rapidly recovering,
+but who had scrawled over the walls of his own sleeping-apartment,
+poor fellow! with a pencil, a vast quantity of writing, almost wholly
+on religious subjects; proving but too plainly that he was one of the
+many victims of fanaticism. Every thought seemed pregnant with suffering,
+and sometimes bursts of agony were scrawled in trembling characters,
+that spoke the very extremity of terror. "Who is there can endure fire
+and flame for ever, for ever, and for ever?" "Death is before us--Hell
+follows it!" "The bottomless pit--groans--tortures--anguish--for
+ever!"... Such sentences as these were still legible, though much had
+been obliterated.
+
+Who can wonder that a mind thus occupied should lose that fine balance
+with which nature has arranged our faculties, making one keep watch
+and ward over the other?... This poor fellow lost his wits under the
+process of conversion: Judgment being entirely overthrown, Imagination
+had vaulted into its seat, pregnant with visions black as night,
+dark--oh! far darker than the tomb! "palled in the dunnest smoke of
+hell," and armed with every image for the eternity of torture that the
+ingenuity of man could devise. Who can wonder at his madness? And how
+many crimes are there recorded in the Newgate Calendar which equal in
+atrocity that of so distorting a mind, that sought to raise its humble
+hopes towards heaven!
+
+I felt particularly interested for this poor lunatic, both as my
+countryman, and the victim of by far the most fearful tyranny that man
+can exercise on man. Against all other injury it is not difficult to
+believe that a steadfast spirit can arm itself and say with Hamlet,
+
+     "I do not set my life at a pin's fee."
+
+But against this, it were a vain boast to add,
+
+     "And for my soul, what can it do to that,
+     Being a thing immortal as itself?"
+
+For, alas! it is that very immortality which gives hope, comfort, and
+strength under every other persecution that paralyses the sufferer
+under this, and arms with such horrid strength the blasphemous wretch
+who teaches him to turn in terror from his God.
+
+M. Voisin told me that this unfortunate young man had been for some
+time daily becoming more calm and tranquil, and that he entertained
+not any doubt of his ultimate recovery.
+
+Excepting this my poor countryman, the only patient I saw whose
+situation it was particularly painful to contemplate was a young girl
+who had only arrived the preceding day. There was in her eyes a
+restless, anxious, agitated manner of looking about on all things, and
+gathering a distinct idea from none--a vague uncertainty as to where
+she was, not felt with sufficient strength to amount to wonder, but
+enough to rob her of all the feeling of repose which belongs to home.
+Poor girl! perhaps some faltering, unfixable thought brought at
+intervals the figure of her mother to her; for as I looked at her
+pale face, its vacant expression received more than once a sad but
+passing gleam of melancholy meaning. She coughed frequently; but the
+cough seemed affected,--or rather, it appeared to be an effort not so
+much required by her lungs, as by the need of some change, some
+relief--she knew not what, nor where nor how to seek it. She appeared
+very desirous of shaking off the attendance of a woman who was waiting
+upon her, and her whole manner indicated a sort of fretful unrest that
+it made one wretched to contemplate. But here again I was comforted by
+the assurance that there were no symptoms which forbade hope of
+recovery.
+
+I remember being told, when visiting the lunatic asylum near New York,
+that the most frequent causes of insanity were ascertained to be
+religion and drunkenness. Near Paris I find that love, high play, and
+politics are considered as the principal causes of this calamity; and
+certainly nothing can be more accordant with what observation would
+teach one to expect than both these statements. At New York the
+physician told me that madness arising from excessive drinking
+admitted, in the great majority of cases, of a perfect cure; but that
+religious aberration of intellect was much more enduring.
+
+At Paris I have heard the same; for here also it occasionally
+happens, though not often, that the reason becomes disturbed by
+repeated and frequent intoxication: but where either politics or love
+has taken such hold of the mind as to disturb the reasoning power, the
+recovery is less certain and more slow.
+
+Dr. Voisin told me that he uniformly found the first symptoms of
+insanity appear in the wavering, indifferent, and altered state of the
+affections towards relations and friends;--apathy, coldness, and, in
+some cases, dislike, and even violent antipathy, being sure to appear,
+wherever previous attachment had been the most remarkable. They
+sometimes, but not very often, take capricious fits of fondness for
+strangers; but never with any show of reason, and never for any length
+of time. The most certain symptom of an approach towards recovery is
+when the heart appears to be re-awakened to its natural feelings and
+old attachments.
+
+There was one old lady that I watched eating her dinner of vegetables
+and fruit at a little table in one of the gardens, who had adorned her
+bonnet with innumerable scraps of trumpery, and set it on her head
+with the most studied and coquettish air imaginable: she fed herself
+with the grace or grimace of a young beauty, eating grapes of a guinea
+a pound, from a plate of crystal, with a golden fork. I am sure she
+was enjoying all the happiness of feeling herself beautiful, elegant,
+and admired: and when I looked at the wrinkled ruin of her once handsome
+face, I could hardly think her madness a misfortune; for though I did
+not obtain any pitiful story concerning her, or any history of the
+cause which brought her there, I felt sure that it must in some way or
+other be connected with some feeling of deeply-mortified vanity: and
+if I am right in my conjecture, what has the world left for her equal
+in consolation to the wild fancies which now shed such simpering
+complacency over her countenance? And might we not exclaim for her in
+all kindness--
+
+     "Let but the cheat endure!--She asks not aught beside?"
+
+What was passing in this poor old head, it was easy enough to
+guess--wild as it was, and wide from the truth. But there was another,
+which, though I studied it as long as I could possibly contrive to do
+so, wholly baffled me; and yet I would have given much to know what
+thoughts were flitting through that young brain.
+
+She was a young girl, extremely pretty, with coal-black hair and eyes,
+and seated, quite apart from all, upon a pleasant shady bench in one
+of the gardens. Her face was like a fair landscape, over which passes
+cloud and sunshine in rapid succession: for one moment she smiled, and
+the next seemed preparing to weep; but before a tear could fall, her
+fine teeth were again displayed in an unmeaning smile. O, what could
+be the fleeting visions formed that worked her fancy thus? Could it be
+memory? Or was the fitful emotion caused by the galloping vagaries of
+an imagination which outstripped the power of reason to follow it? Or
+was it none of this, but a mere meaningless movement of the muscles,
+that worked in idle mockery of the intellect that used to govern them?
+
+I have sometimes thought it very strange that people should feel such
+deep delight in watching on the stage the representation of the utmost
+extremity of human woe that the mind of man can contrive to place
+before them; and I have wondered more, much more, at the gathering
+together of thousands and tens of thousands, whenever the law has
+doomed that some wretched soul should be separated by the hand of man
+from the body in which it has sinned: but I doubt if my own intense
+interest in watching poor human nature when deprived of reason is not
+stranger still. I can in no way account for it; but so it is. I can
+never withdraw myself from the contemplation of a maniac without
+reluctance; and yet I am always conscious of painful feelings as long
+as it lasts, and perfectly sure that I shall be followed by more
+painful feelings still when it is over.
+
+It is certain, however, that the comfort, the tenderness, the care, so
+evident in every part of the establishment at Vanves, render the
+contemplation of insanity there less painful than I ever found it
+elsewhere; and when I saw the air of healthy physical enjoyment (at
+least) with which a large number of the patients prepared to take
+their pastime, during their hours of exercise, each according to his
+taste or whim, amid the ample space and well-chosen accessories
+prepared for them, I could not but wish that every retreat fitted up
+for the reception of this unfortunate portion of the human race could
+be arranged on the same plan and governed by the same principles.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV.
+
+      Riot at the Porte St. Martin.--Prevented by a shower of
+      Rain.--The Mob in fine weather.--How to stop Emeutes.--Army
+      of Italy.--Théâtre Français.--Mademoiselle Mars in
+      Henriette.--Disappearance of Comedy.
+
+
+Though Paris is really as quiet at present as any great city can
+possibly be, still we continue to be told regularly every morning,
+"qu'il y avait une émeute hier soir à la Porte St. Martin." But I do
+assure you that these are very harmless little pastimes; and though it
+seldom happens that the mysterious hour of revolution-hatching passes
+by without some arrest taking place, the parties are always liberated
+the next morning; it having appeared clearly at every examination that
+the juvenile aggressors, who are seldom above twenty years of age, are
+as harmless as a set of croaking bull-frogs on the banks of the
+Wabash. The continually repeated mention, however, of these nightly
+meetings, induced two gentlemen of our party to go to this often-named
+Porte St. Martin a few nights ago, in hopes of witnessing the humours
+of one of these small riotings. But on arriving at the spot they
+found it perfectly tranquil--everything wore the proper stillness of
+an orderly and well-protected night. A few military were, however,
+hovering near the spot; and of these they made inquiry as to the cause
+of a repose so unlike what was usually supposed to be the state of
+this celebrated quarter of the town.
+
+"Mais ne voyez-vous pas que l'eau tombe, messieurs?" said the national
+guard stationed there: "c'est bien assez pour refroidir le feu de nos
+républicains. S'il fait beau demain soir, messieurs, nous aurons
+encore notre petit spectacle."
+
+Determined to know whether there was any truth in these histories or
+not, and half suspecting that the whole thing, as well as the
+assurance of the civil _militaire_ to boot, was neither more nor less
+than a hoax, they last night, the weather being remarkably fine, again
+attempted the adventure, and with very different success.
+
+On this occasion, there was, by their description, as pretty a little
+riot as heart could wish. The numbers assembled were stated to be
+above four hundred: military, both horse and foot, were among them;
+pointed hats were as plenty as blackberries in September, and "banners
+waved without a blast" on the tottering shoulders of little
+ragamuffins who had been hired for two sous apiece to carry them.
+
+On this memorable evening, which has really made a figure this morning
+in some of the republican journals, a considerable number of the most
+noisy portion of the mob were arrested; but, on the whole, the
+military appear to have dealt very gently with them; and our friends
+heard many a crazy burst of artisan eloquence, which might have easily
+enough been construed into treason, answered with no rougher repartee
+than a laughing "Vive le Roi!"
+
+At one point, however, there was a vehement struggle before a young
+hero, equipped cap-à-pie à la Robespierre, could be secured; and while
+two of the civic guard were employed in taking him, a little fellow of
+about ten years old, who had a banner as heavy as himself on his
+shoulder, and who was probably squire of the body to the prisoner,
+stood on tiptoe before him at the distance of a few feet, roaring
+"Vive la République!" as loud as he could bawl.
+
+Another fellow, apparently of the very lowest class, was engaged,
+during the whole time that the tumult lasted, in haranguing a party
+that he had collected round him. His arms were bare to the shoulders,
+and his gesticulation exceedingly violent.
+
+"Nous avons des droits!" he exclaimed with great vehemence.... "Nous
+avons des droits!... Qui est-ce qui veut les nier?... Nous ne
+démandons que la charte.... Qu'ils nous donnent la charte!"...
+
+The uproar lasted about three hours, after which the crowd quietly
+dispersed; and it is to be hoped that they may all employ themselves
+honestly in their respective callings, till the next fine evening
+shall again bring them together in the double capacity of actors and
+spectators at the "petit spectacle."
+
+The constant repetition of this idle riot seems now to give little
+disturbance to any one; and were it not that the fines and
+imprisonments so constantly, and sometimes not very leniently
+inflicted, evidently show that they are thought worth some attention,
+(though, in fact, this system appears to produce no effect whatever
+towards checking the daring demonstrations of disaffection manifested
+by the rabble and their newspaper supporters,) one might deem this
+indifference the result of such sober confidence of strength in the
+government, as left them no anxiety whatever as to anything which this
+troublesome faction could achieve.
+
+Such, I believe, is in fact the feeling of King Philippe's government:
+nevertheless, it would certainly conduce greatly to the well-being of
+the people of Paris, if such methods were resorted to as would
+effectually and at once put a stop to such disgraceful scenes.
+
+  [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+   PORTE ST. MARTIN.
+   London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.]
+
+"LIBERTY AND ORDER" is King Philippe's motto: he could only improve it
+by adding "Repose and Quiet;" for never can he reign by any other
+power than that given by the hope of repose and tranquillity. The
+harassed nation looks to him for these blessings; and if it be
+disappointed, the result must be terrible.
+
+Louis-Philippe is neither Napoleon nor Charles the Tenth. He has
+neither the inalienable rights of the one, nor the overpowering glory
+of the other; but should he be happy enough to discover a way of
+securing to this fine but strife-worn and weary country the tranquil
+prosperity that it now appears beginning to enjoy, he may well be
+considered by the French people as greater than either.
+
+Bold, fearless, wise, and strong must be the hand that at the present
+hour can so wield the sceptre of France; and I think it may reasonably
+be doubted if any one could so wield it, unless its first act were to
+wave off to a safe distance some of the reckless spirits who are ready
+to lay down their lives on the scaffold--or in a gutter--or over a pan
+of charcoal, rather than "live peaceably in that state of life unto
+which it has pleased God to call them."
+
+If King Louis-Philippe would undertake a crusade to restore
+independence to Italy, he might convert every traitor into a hero. Let
+him address the army raised for the purpose in the same inspiring
+words that Napoleon used of yore. "Soldats!... Partons! Rétablir le
+capitole.... Réveiller le peuple romain engourdi par plusieurs siècles
+d'esclavage.... Tel sera le fruit de vos victoires. Vous rentrerez
+alors dans vos foyers, et vos concitoyens diront en vous montrant--Il
+était de l'armée d'Italie!" And then let him institute a new order,
+entitled "L'Ordre Impérial de la Redingote grise," or "L'Ordre
+indomptable des Bras croisés," and accord to every man the right of
+admission to it, with the honour to boot of having an eagle
+embroidered on the breast of his coat if he conducted himself
+gallantly and like a Frenchman in the field of battle, and we should
+soon find the Porte St. Martin as quiet as the Autocrat's
+dressing-room at St. Petersburg.
+
+If such an expedient as this were resorted to, there would no longer
+be any need of that indecent species of safety-valve by which the
+noxious vapour generated by the ill-disposed part of the community is
+now permitted to escape. It may be very great, dignified, and
+high-minded for a king and his ministers to laugh at treasonable
+caricatures and seditious pleasantries of all sorts,--but I do greatly
+doubt the wisdom of it. Human respect is necessary for the maintenance
+and support of human authority; and that respect will be more
+profitably shown by a decent degree of general external deference,
+than by the most sublime kindlings of individual admiration that ever
+warmed the heart of a courtier. This "_avis au lecteur_" might be
+listened to with advantage, perhaps, in more countries than one.
+
+Since I last gave you any theatrical news, we have been to see
+Mademoiselle Mars play the part of Henriette in Molière's exquisite
+comedy of "Les Femmes Savantes;" and I really think it the most
+surprising exhibition I ever witnessed. Having seen her in "Tartuffe"
+and "Charlotte Brown" from a box in the first circle, at some distance
+from the stage, I imagined that the distance had a good deal to do
+with the effect still produced by the grace of form, movement, and
+toilet of this extraordinary woman.
+
+To ascertain, therefore, how much was delusion and how much was truth
+in the beauty I still saw or fancied, I resolved upon the desperate
+experiment of securing that seat in the balcony which is nearest to
+the stage. It was from this place that I saw her play Henriette; a
+character deriving no aid whatever from trick or stage effect of any
+kind; one, too, whose charm lies wholly in simple, unaffected
+youthfulness: there are no flashes of wit, no startling hits either of
+pathos or pleasantry--nothing but youth, gentleness, modesty, and
+tenderness--nothing but a young girl of sixteen, rather more quiet and
+retiring than usual. Yet this character, which seems of necessity to
+require youth and beauty in the performer, though little else, was
+personated by this miraculous old lady in a manner that not only
+enchanted me--being, as I am, _rococo_--but actually drew forth from
+the omnipotent _jeunes gens_ in the _parterre_ such clamorous rapture
+of applause as must, I think, have completely overset any actress less
+used to it than herself. Is not this marvellous?
+
+How much it is to be regretted that the art of writing comedy has
+passed away! They have vaudevilles here--charming things in their way;
+and we have farces at home that certainly cannot be thought of without
+enjoying the gratification of a broad grin. But for comedy, where the
+intellect is called upon as well as the muscles, it is dead and gone.
+The "Hunchback" is perhaps the nearest approach to it, whose birth I
+remember in our country, and "Bertrand and Raton" here; but in both
+cases the pleasurable excitement is produced more by the plot than the
+characters--more by the business of the scene than by the wit and
+elegance of the dialogue, except perhaps in the pretty wilfulness of
+Julia in the second act of the "Hunchback." But even here I suspect it
+was more the playful grace of the enchanting actress who first
+appeared in the part, than anything in the words "set down for her,"
+which so delighted us.
+
+We do now and then get a new tragedy,--witness "Fazio" and "Rienzi;"
+but Comedy--genuine, easy, graceful, flowing, talking Comedy--is dead:
+I think she followed Sheridan to the grave and was buried with him!
+But never is one so conscious of the loss, or so inclined to mourn it,
+as after seeing a comedy of Molière's of the first order,--for his
+pieces should be divided into classes, like diamonds. What a burst of
+new enjoyment would rush over all England, or all France, if a thing
+like "The School for Scandal" or "Les Femmes Savantes" were to appear
+before them!
+
+Fancy the delight of sitting to hear wit--wit that one did not know by
+rote, bright, sparkling, untasted as yet by any--new and fresh from
+the living fountain!--not coming to one in the shape of coin, already
+bearing the lawful stamp of ten thousand plaudits to prove it genuine,
+and to refuse to accept which would be treason; but as native gold, to
+which the touchstone of your own intellect must be applied to test its
+worth! Shall we ever experience this?
+
+It is strange that the immense mass of material for comedy which the
+passing scenes of this singular epoch furnish should not be worked up
+by some one. Molière seems not to have suffered a single passing
+folly to escape him. Had he lived in these days, what delicious whigs,
+radicals, "penny-rint" kings, from our side of the water,--what tragic
+poets, republicans, and parvenus from his own, would he have cheered
+us withal!
+
+Rousseau says, that when a theatre produces pieces which represent the
+real manners of the people, they must greatly assist those who are
+present at them to see and amend what is vicious or absurd in
+themselves, "comme on ôte devant un miroir les taches de son visage."
+The idea is excellent; and surely there never was a time when it would
+be so easy or so useful to put it in practice. Would the gods but send
+a Sheridan to England and a Molière to France, we might yet live to
+see some of our worst misfortunes turned to jest, and, like the man
+choking in a quinsey, laugh ourselves into health again.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV.
+
+      Soirée dansante.--Young Ladies.--Old Ladies.--Anecdote.--The
+      Consolations of Chaperones.--Flirtations.--Discussion upon
+      the variations between young Married Women in France and in
+      England.--Making love by deputy.--Not likely to answer in
+      England.
+
+
+Last night we were at a ball,--or rather, I should say, a "_soirée
+dansante_;" for at this season, though people may dance from night to
+morning, there are no balls. But let it be called by what name it may,
+it could not have been more gay and agreeable were this the month of
+January instead of May.
+
+There were several English gentlemen present, who, to the great
+amusement of some of the company, uniformly selected their partners
+from among the young ladies. This may appear very natural to you; but
+here it is thought the most unnatural proceeding possible.
+
+To a novice in French society, there is certainly no circumstance so
+remarkable as the different position which the unmarried hold in the
+drawing-rooms of England and _les salons_ of France. With us, the
+prettiest things to look at, and the partners first sought for the
+dance, are the young girls. Brilliant in the perfection of their
+youthful bloom, graceful and gay as young fawns in every movement of
+the most essentially juvenile of all exercises, and eclipsing the
+light elegance of their own toilet by loveliness that leaves no eyes
+to study its decoration,--it is they who, in spite of diamonds and of
+blonde, of wedded beauty or of titled grace, ever appear to be the
+principal actors in a ball-room. But "they manage these matters" quite
+otherwise "in France."
+
+Unfortunately, it may sometimes happen among us, that a coquettish
+matron may be seen to lead the giddy waltz with more sprightliness
+than wisdom; but she always does it at the risk of being _mal notée_
+in some way or other, more or less gravely, by almost every person
+present;--nay, I would by no means encourage her to be very certain
+that her tonish partner himself would not be better pleased to whirl
+round the mazy circle with one of the slight, light, sylph-like
+creatures he sees flying past him, than with the most fashionable
+married woman in London.
+
+But in Paris all this is totally reversed; and, what is strange
+enough, you will find in both countries that the reason assigned for
+the difference between them arises from national attention to good
+morals.
+
+On entering a French ball-room, instead of seeing the youngest and
+loveliest part of the company occupying the most conspicuous places,
+surrounded by the gayest men, and dressed with the most studied and
+becoming elegance, you must look for the young things quite in the
+background, soberly and quietly attired, and almost wholly eclipsed
+behind the more fully-blown beauties of their married friends.
+
+It is really marvellous, considering how very much prettier a girl is
+at eighteen than she can possibly be some dozen years afterwards, to
+see how completely fashion will nevertheless have its own way, making
+the worse positively appear the better beauty.
+
+All that exceeding charm and fascination which is for ever and always
+attributed to an elegant Frenchwoman, belongs wholly, solely, and
+altogether to her after she becomes a wife. A young French girl,
+"_parfaitement bien élevée_," looks ... "_parfaitement bien élevée_;"
+but it must be confessed, also, that she looks at the same time as if
+her governess (and a sharp one) were looking over her shoulder. She
+will be dressed, of course, with the nicest precision and most exact
+propriety; her corsets will forbid a wrinkle to appear in her robe,
+and her _friseur_ deny permission to any single hair that might wish
+to deviate from the station appointed for it by his stiff control. But
+if you would see that graceful perfection of the toilet, that
+unrivalled _agacerie_ of costume which distinguishes a French woman
+from all others in the world, you must turn from mademoiselle to
+madame. The very sound of the voice, too, is different. It should seem
+as if the heart and soul of a French girl were asleep, or at least
+dozing, till the ceremony of marriage awakened them. As long as it is
+mademoiselle who speaks, there is something monotonous, dull, and
+uninteresting in the tone, or rather in the tune, of her voice; but
+when madame addresses you, all the charm that manner, cadence, accent
+can bestow, is sure to greet you.
+
+In England, on the contrary, of all the charms peculiar to youthful
+loveliness, I know none so remarkable as the unconstrained, fresh,
+natural, sweet, and joyous sound of a young girl's voice. It is as
+delicious as the note of the lark, when rising in the first freshness
+of morning to meet the sun. It is not restrained, held in, and checked
+into tameness by any fear lest it should too early show its syren
+power.
+
+Even in the dance itself, the very arena for the display of youthful
+gracefulness, the young French girl fails, when her well-taught steps
+are compared with the easy, careless, fascinating movements of the
+married woman.
+
+In the simple kindness of manner too, which, if there were no other
+attraction, would ever suffice to render an unaffected, good-natured
+young girl charming, there must be here a cautious restraint. A
+_demoiselle Française_ would be prevented by _bienséance_ from showing
+it, were she the gentlest-hearted creature breathing.
+
+A young Englishman of my acquaintance, who, though he had been a good
+deal in French society, was not initiated into the mysteries of female
+education, recounted to me the other day an adventure of his, which is
+german to the matter, though not having much to do with our last
+night's ball. This young man had for a long time been very kindly
+received in a French family, had repeatedly dined with them, and, in
+fact, considered himself as admitted to their house on the footing of
+an intimate friend.
+
+The only child of this family was a daughter, rather pretty, but cold,
+silent, and repulsive in manner--almost awkward, and utterly
+uninteresting. Every attempt to draw her into conversation had ever
+proved abortive; and though often in her company, the Englishman
+hardly thought she could consider him as an acquaintance.
+
+The young man returned to England; but, after some months, again
+revisited Paris. While standing one day in earnest contemplation of a
+picture at the Louvre, he was startled at being suddenly addressed by
+an extremely beautiful woman, who in the kindest and most friendly
+manner imaginable asked him a multitude of questions--made a thousand
+inquiries after his health--invited him earnestly to come and see her,
+and concluded by exclaiming--"Mais c'est un siècle depuis que je vous
+ai vu."
+
+My friend stood gazing at her with equal admiration and surprise. He
+began to remember that he had seen her before, but when or where he
+knew not. She saw his embarrassment and smiled. "Vous m'avez oublié
+donc?" said she. "Je m'appelle Eglé de P----.... Mais je suis
+mariée...."
+
+But to return to our ball.
+
+As I saw the married women taken out to dance one after the another,
+till at last there was not a single dancing-looking man left, I felt
+myself getting positively angry; for, notwithstanding the assistance
+given by my ignorant countrymen, there were still at least half a
+dozen French girls unprovided with chevaliers.
+
+They did not, however, look by many degrees so sadly disappointed as
+English girls would do did the same misfortune betide them. They, like
+the poor eels, were used to it; and the gentlemen, too, were cruelly
+used to the task of torture,--making their pretty little feet beat
+time upon the floor, while they watched the happy wedded in pairs--not
+wedded pairs--swim before their eyes in mazes which they would most
+gladly have threaded after them.
+
+When at length all the married ladies, young and old, were duly
+provided for, several staid and very respectable-looking gentlemen
+emerged from corners and sofas, and presenting themselves to the young
+expectants, were accepted with quiet, grateful smiles, and permitted
+to lead them to the dance.
+
+Old ladies like myself, whose fate attaches them to the walls of a
+ball-room, are accustomed to find their consolation and amusement from
+various sources. First, they enjoy such conversation as they can
+catch; or, if they will sit tolerably silent, they may often hear the
+prettiest airs of the season exceedingly well played. Then the whole
+arena of twinkling feet is open to their criticism and admiration.
+Another consolation, and frequently a very substantial one, is found
+in the supper;--nay, sometimes a passing ice will be caught to cheer
+the weary watcher. But there is another species of amusement, the
+general avowal of which might lead the younger part of the civilized
+world to wish that old ladies wore blinkers: I allude to the quiet
+contemplation of half a dozen sly flirtations that may be going on
+around them,--some so well managed! ... some so clumsily!
+
+But upon all these occasions, in England, though well-behaved old
+ladies will always take especial care not so to see that their seeing
+shall be seen, they still look about them with no feeling of
+restraint--no consciousness that they would rather be anywhere else
+than spectators of what is going forward near them. They feel, at
+least I am sure I do, a very comfortable assurance that the fair one
+is engaged, not in marring, but in making her fortune. Here again I
+may quote the often-quoted, and say, "They manage all these matters
+differently at least, if not better, in France."
+
+In England, if a woman is seen going through all the manoeuvres of
+the flirting exercise, from the first animating reception of the "How
+d'ye do?" to the last soft consciousness which fixes the eyes
+immovably on the floor, while the head, gently inclined, seems willing
+to indulge the happy ear in receiving intoxicating draughts of
+_parfait amour_,--when this is seen in England, even should the lady
+be past eighteen, one feels assured that she is not married; but here,
+without scandal or the shadow of scandal be it spoken, one feels
+equally well assured that she is. She may be a widow--or she may flirt
+in the innocence of her heart, because it is the fashion; but she
+cannot do it, because she is a young lady intending to be married.
+
+I was deeply engaged in these speculations last night, when an elderly
+lady--who for some reason or other, not very easy to divine, actually
+never waltzes--came across the room and placed herself by my side.
+Though she does not waltz, she is a very charming person; and as I had
+often conversed with her before, I now welcomed her approach with
+great pleasure.
+
+"A quoi pensez-vous, Madame Trollope?" said she: "vous avez l'air de
+méditer."
+
+I deliberated for a moment whether I should venture to tell her
+exactly what was passing in my mind; but as I deliberated, I looked at
+her, and there was that in her countenance which assured me I should
+have no severity to fear if I put her wholly in my confidence: I
+therefore replied very frankly,--
+
+"I am meditating; and it is on the position which unmarried women hold
+in France."
+
+"Unmarried women?... You will scarcely find any such in France," said
+she.
+
+"Are not those young ladies who have just finished their quadrille
+unmarried?"
+
+"Ah!... But you cannot call them unmarried women. _Elles sont des
+demoiselles._"
+
+"Well, then, my meditations were concerning them."
+
+"Eh bien...."
+
+"Eh bien.... It appears to me that the ball is not given--that the
+music does not play--that the gentlemen are not _empressé_, for them."
+
+"No, certainly. It would be quite contrary to our ideas of what is
+right if it were so."
+
+"With us it is so different!... It is always the young ladies who are,
+at least, the ostensible heroines of every ball-room."
+
+"The ostensible heroines?"... She dwelt rather strongly upon the
+adjective, adding with a smile,--"Our ostensible, are our real
+heroines upon these occasions."
+
+I explained. "The real heroines," said I, "will, I confess, in cases
+of ostentation and display, be sometimes the ladies who give balls in
+return."
+
+"Well explained," said she, laughing: "I certainly thought you had
+another meaning. You think, then," she continued, "that our young
+married women are made of too much importance among us?"
+
+"Oh no!" I replied eagerly: "it is, in my opinion, almost impossible
+to make them of too much importance; for I believe that it is entirely
+upon their influence that the tone of society depends."
+
+"You are quite right. It is impossible for those who have lived as
+long as we have in the world to doubt it: but how can this be, if,
+upon the occasions which bring people together, they are to be
+overlooked, while young girls who have as yet no position fixed are
+brought forward instead?"
+
+"But surely, being brought forward to dance in a waltz or quadrille,
+is not the sort of consequence which we either of us mean?"
+
+"Perhaps not; but it is one of its necessary results. Our women marry
+young,--as soon, in fact, as their education is finished, and before
+they have been permitted to enter the world, or share in the pleasures
+of it. Their destiny, therefore, instead of being the brightest that
+any women enjoy, would be the most _triste_, were they forbidden to
+enter into the amusements so natural to their age and national
+character, because they were married."
+
+"But may there not be danger in the custom which throws young females,
+thus early and irrevocably engaged, for the first time into the
+society, and, as it were, upon the attentions of men whom it has
+already become their duty not to consider as too amiable?"
+
+"Oh no!... If a young woman be well-disposed, it is not a quadrille,
+or a waltz either, that will lead her astray. If it could, it would
+surely be the duty of all the legislators of the earth to forbid the
+exercise for ever."
+
+"No, no, no!" said I earnestly; "I mean nothing of the kind, I assure
+you: on the contrary, I am so convinced, from the recollections of my
+own feelings, and my observations on those of others, that dancing is
+not a fictitious, but a real, natural source of enjoyment, the
+inclination for which is inherent in us, that, instead of wishing it
+to be forbidden, I would, had I the power, make it infinitely more
+general and of more frequent occurrence than it is: young people
+should never meet each other without the power of dancing if they
+wished it."
+
+"And from this animating pleasure, for which you confess that there is
+a sort of _besoin_ within us, you would exclude all the young women
+above seventeen--because they are married?... Poor things!... Instead
+of finding them so willing as they generally are to enter on the busy
+scenes of life, I think we should have great difficulty in getting
+their permission to _monter un ménage_ for them. Marriage would be
+soon held in abhorrence if such were its laws."
+
+"I would not have them such, I assure you," replied I, rather at a
+loss how to explain myself fully without saying something that might
+either be construed into coarseness of thinking and a cruel
+misdoubting of innocence, or else into a very uncivil attack upon the
+national manners: I was therefore silent.
+
+My companion seemed to expect that I should proceed, but after a short
+interval resumed the conversation by saying,--"Then what arrangement
+would you propose, to reconcile the necessity of dancing with the
+propriety of keeping married women out of the danger which you seem to
+imagine might arise from it?"
+
+"It would be too national were I to reply, that I think our mode of
+proceeding in this case is exactly what it ought to be."
+
+"But such is your opinion?"
+
+"To speak sincerely, I believe it is."
+
+"Will you then have the kindness to explain to me the difference in
+this respect between France and England?"
+
+"The only difference between us which I mean to advocate is, that with
+us the amusement which throws young people together under
+circumstances the most likely, perhaps, to elicit expressions of
+gallantry and admiration from the men, and a gracious reception of
+them from the women, is considered as befitting the single rather than
+the married part of the community."
+
+"With us, indeed, it is exactly the reverse," replied she,--"at least
+as respects the young ladies. By addressing the idle, unmeaning
+gallantry inspired by the dance to a young girl, we should deem the
+cautious delicacy of restraint in which she is enshrined transgressed
+and broken in upon. A young girl should be given to her husband
+before her passions have been awakened or her imagination excited by
+the voice of gallantry."
+
+"But when she is given to him, do you think this process more
+desirable than before?"
+
+"Certainly it is not desirable; but it is infinitely less dangerous.
+When a girl is first married, her feelings, her thoughts, her
+imagination are wholly occupied by her husband. Her mode of education
+has ensured this; and afterwards, it is at the choice of her husband
+whether he will secure and retain her young heart for himself. If he
+does this, it is not a waltz or quadrille that will rob him of it. In
+no country have husbands so little reason to complain of their wives
+as in France; for in no country does the manner in which they live
+with them depend so wholly on themselves. With you, if your novels,
+and even the strange trials made public to all the world by your
+newspapers, may be trusted, the very reverse is the case. Previous
+attachments--early affection broken off before the marriage, to be
+renewed after it--these are the histories we hear and read; and most
+assuredly they do not tempt us to adopt your system as an amendment
+upon our own."
+
+"The very notoriety of the cases to which you allude proves their rare
+occurrence," replied I. "Such sad histories would have but little
+interest for the public, either as tales or trials, if they did not
+relate circumstances marked and apart from ordinary life."
+
+"Assuredly. But you will allow also that, however rare they may be in
+England, such records of scandal and of shame are rarer still in
+France?"
+
+"Occurrences of the kind do not perhaps produce so much sensation
+here," said I.
+
+"Because they are more common, you would say. Is not that your
+meaning?" and she smiled reproachfully.
+
+"It certainly was not my meaning to say so," I replied; "and, in
+truth, it is neither a useful nor a gracious occupation to examine on
+which side the Channel the greater proportion of virtue may be found;
+though it is possible some good might be done on both, were the
+education in each country to be modified by the introduction of what
+is best in the other."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," said she; "and as we go on exchanging
+fashions so amicably, who knows but we may live to see your young
+ladies shut up a little more, while their mothers and fathers look out
+for a suitable marriage for them, instead of inflicting the awkward
+task upon themselves? And in return, perhaps, our young wives may lay
+aside their little coquetries and become _mères respectables_
+somewhat earlier than they do now. But, in truth, they all come to it
+at last."
+
+As she finished speaking these words, a new waltz sounded, and again a
+dozen couples, some ill, some well matched, swam past us. One of the
+pairs was composed of a very fine-looking young man, with blue-black
+_favoris_ and _moustaches_, tall as a tower, and seeming, if air and
+expression may be trusted, very tolerably well pleased with himself.
+His _danseuse_ might unquestionably have addressed her husband, who
+sat at no great distance from us, drawing up his gouty feet under his
+chair to let her pass, in these touching words:--
+
+     "Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
+     Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
+     And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen,
+     About the world have times twelve thirties been,
+     Since Love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
+     Unite commutual in most sacred bands."
+
+My neighbour and I looked up and exchanged glances as they went by. We
+both laughed.
+
+"At least you will allow," said she, "that this is one of the cases in
+which a married lady may indulge her passion for the dance without
+danger of consequences?"
+
+"I am not quite sure of that," replied I. "If she be not found guilty
+of sin, she will scarcely obtain a verdict that shall acquit her of
+folly. But what can induce that magnificent personage, who looks down
+upon her as if engaged in measuring the distance between them--what
+could induce him to request the honour of enclosing her venerable
+waist in his arm?"
+
+"Nothing more easily explained. That little fair girl sitting in
+yonder corner, with her hair so tightly drawn off her forehead, is her
+daughter--her only daughter, and will have a noble _dot_. Now you
+understand it?... And tell me, in case his speculation should not
+succeed, is it not better that this excellent lady, who waltzes so
+very like a duck, should receive all the eloquence with which he will
+seek to render himself amiable, upon her time-steeled heart, than that
+the delicate little girl herself should have to listen to it?"
+
+"And you really would recommend us to adopt this mode of love-making
+by deputy, letting the mamma be the substitute, till the young lady
+has obtained a brevet to listen to the language of love in her own
+person? However excellent the scheme may be, dear lady, it is vain to
+hope that we shall ever be able to introduce it among us. The young
+ladies, I suspect, would exclaim, as you do here, when explaining why
+you cannot permit any English innovations among you, "Ce n'est pas
+dans nos moeurs."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I assure you, my friend, that I have not composed this conversation _à
+loisir_ for your amusement, for I have set down as nearly as possible
+what was said to me, though I have not quite given it all to you; but
+my letter is already long enough.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI.
+
+      Improvements of Paris.--Introduction of Carpets and
+      Trottoirs.--Maisonnettes.--Not likely to answer in
+      Paris.--The necessity of a Porter and Porter's
+      Lodge.--Comparative Expenses of France and
+      England.--Increasing Wealth of the Bourgeoisie.
+
+
+Among the many recent improvements in Paris which evidently owe their
+origin to England, those which strike the eye first, are the almost
+universal introduction of carpets within doors, and the frequent
+blessing of a _trottoir_ without. In a few years, unless all
+paving-stones should be torn up in search of more immortality, there
+can be no doubt that it will be almost as easy to walk in Paris as in
+London. It is true that the old streets are not quite wide enough to
+admit such enormous esplanades on each side as Regent and Oxford
+Streets; but all that is necessary to safety and comfort may be
+obtained with less expense of space; and to those who knew Paris a
+dozen years ago, when one had to hop from stone to stone in the fond
+hope of escaping wet shoes in the Dog-days--tormented too during the
+whole of this anxious process with the terror of being run over by
+carts, fiacres, concous, cabs, and wheelbarrows;--whoever remembers
+what it was to walk in Paris then, will bless with an humble and
+grateful spirit the dear little pavement which, with the exception of
+necessary intervals to admit of an approach to the portes-cochère of
+the various _hôtels_, and a few short intervals beside, which appear
+to have been passed over and forgotten, borders most of the principal
+streets of Paris now.
+
+Another English innovation, infinitely more important in all ways, has
+been attempted, and has failed. This was the endeavour to introduce
+_maisonnettes_, or small houses calculated for the occupation of one
+family. A few such have been built in that new part of the town which
+stretches away in all directions behind the Madeleine; but they are
+not found to answer--and that for many reasons which I should have
+thought it very easy to foresee, and which I suspect it would be very
+difficult to obviate.
+
+In order to come at all within reach of the generality of French
+incomes, they must be built on too small a scale to have any good
+rooms; and this is a luxury, and permits a species of display, to
+which many are accustomed who live in unfurnished apartments, for
+which they give perhaps fifteen hundred or two thousand francs a year.
+Another accommodation which habit has made it extremely difficult for
+French families to dispense with, and which can be enjoyed at an easy
+price only by sharing it with many, is a porter and a porter's lodge.
+Active as is the race of domestic servants in Paris, their number
+must, I think, be doubled in many families, were the arrangement of
+the porter's lodge to be changed for our system of having a servant
+summoned every time a parcel, a message, a letter, or a visit arrives
+at the house.
+
+Nor does the taking charge of these by any means comprise the whole
+duty of this servant of many masters; neither am I at all competent to
+say exactly what does: but it seems to me that the answer I generally
+receive upon desiring that anything may be done is, "Oui, madame, le
+portier ou la portière fera cela;" and were we suddenly deprived of
+these factotums, I suspect that we should be immediately obliged to
+leave our apartments and take refuge in an hôtel, for I should be
+quite at a loss to know what or how many additional "helps" would be
+necessary to enable us to exist without them.
+
+That the whole style and manner of domestic existence throughout all
+the middling classes of such a city as Paris should hang upon their
+porters' lodges, seems tracing great effects to little causes; but I
+have been so repeatedly told that the failure of the _maisonnettes_
+has in a great degree arisen from this, that I cannot doubt it.
+
+I know not whether anything which prevents their so completely
+changing their mode of life as they must do if living in separate
+houses, is to be considered as an evil or not. The Parisians are a
+very agreeable, and apparently a very happy population; and who can
+say what effect the quiet, steady, orderly mode of each man having a
+small house of his own might produce? What is admirable as a component
+part of one character, is often incongruous and disagreeable when met
+in another; and I am by no means certain if the snug little mansion
+which might be procured for the same rent as a handsome apartment,
+would not tend to circumscribe and tame down the light spirits that
+now send _locataires_ of threescore springing to their elegant
+_premier_ by two stairs at a time. And the prettiest and best
+_chaussés_ little feet in the world too, which now trip _sans souci_
+over the common stair, would they not lag painfully perhaps in passing
+through a low-browed hall, whose neatness or unneatness had become a
+private and individual concern? And might not many a bright fancy be
+damped while calculating how much it would cost to have a few statues
+and oleanders in it?--and the head set aching by meditating how to get
+"ce vilain escalier frotté" from top to bottom? Yet all these, and
+many other cares which they now escape, must fall upon them if they
+give up their apartments for _maisonnettes_.
+
+The fact, I believe, is, that French fortunes, taken at the average at
+which they at present stand, could not suffice to procure the pretty
+elegance to which the middle classes are accustomed, unless it were
+done by the sacrifice of some portion of that costly fastidiousness
+which English people of the same rank seem to cling to as part of
+their prerogative.
+
+Though I am by no means prepared to say that I should like to exchange
+my long-confirmed habit of living in a house of my own for the
+Parisian mode of inhabiting apartments, I cannot but allow that by
+this and sundry other arrangements a French income is made to
+contribute infinitely more to the enjoyment of its possessor than an
+English one.
+
+Let any English person take the trouble of calculating, let their
+revenue be great or small, how much of it is expended in what
+immediately contributes to their personal comfort and luxury, and how
+much of it is devoted to the support of expenses which in point of
+fact add to neither, and the truth of this statement will become
+evident.
+
+Rousseau says, that "cela se fait," and "cela ne se fait pas," are the
+words which regulate everything that goes on within the walls of
+Paris. That the same words have at least equal power in London, can
+hardly be denied; and, unfortunately for our individual independence,
+obedience to them costs infinitely more on our side of the water than
+it does on this. Hundreds are annually spent, out of very confined
+incomes, to support expenses which have nothing whatever to do with
+the personal enjoyment of those who so tax themselves; but it must be
+submitted to, because "cela se fait," or "cela ne se fait pas." In
+Paris, on the contrary, this imperative phrase has comparatively no
+influence on the expenditure of any revenue, because every one's
+object is not to make it appear that he is as rich as his neighbour,
+but to make his means, be they great or small, contribute as much as
+possible to the enjoyment and embellishment of his existence.
+
+It is for this reason that a residence in Paris is found so favourable
+an expedient in cases of diminished or insufficient fortune. A family
+coming hither in the hope of obtaining the mere necessaries of life at
+a much cheaper rate than in England would be greatly disappointed:
+some articles are cheaper, but many are considerably dearer; and, in
+truth, I doubt if at the present moment anything that can be strictly
+denominated a necessary of life is to be found cheaper in Paris than
+in London.
+
+It is not the necessaries, but the luxuries of life that are cheaper
+here. Wine, ornamental furniture, the keep of horses, the price of
+carriages, the entrance to theatres, wax-lights, fruit, books, the
+rent of handsome apartments, the wages of men-servants, are all
+greatly cheaper, and direct taxes greatly less. But even this is not
+the chief reason why a residence in Paris may be found economical to
+persons of any pretension to rank or style at home. The necessity for
+parade, so much the most costly of all the appendages to rank, may
+here be greatly dispensed with, and that without any degradation
+whatever. In short, the advantage of living in Paris as a matter of
+economy depends entirely upon the degree of luxury to be obtained.
+There are certainly many points of delicacy and refinement in the
+English manner of living which I should be very sorry to see given up
+as national peculiarities; but I think we should gain much in many
+ways could we learn to hang our consequence less upon the comparison
+of what others do. We shudder at the cruel madness of the tyrant who
+would force every form to reach one standard; but those are hardly
+less mad who insist that every one, to live _comme il faut_, must
+live, or appear to live, exactly as others do, though the means of
+doing so may vary among the silly set so prescribed to, from an income
+that may justify any extravagance to one that can honestly supply
+none.
+
+This is a folly of incalculably rarer occurrence here than in England;
+and it certainly is no proof of the good sense of our "most thinking
+people," that for one private family brought to ruin by extravagance
+in France, there are fifty who suffer from this cause in England.
+
+It is easy to perceive that our great wealth has been the cause of
+this. The general scale of expense has been set so high, that
+thousands who have lived in reference to that, rather than to their
+individual fortunes, have been ruined by the blunder; and I really
+know no remedy so likely to cure the evil as a residence in Paris;
+not, however, so much as a means of saving money, as of making a
+series of experiments which may teach them how to make the best and
+most enjoyable use of it.
+
+I am persuaded, that if it were to become as much the fashion to
+imitate the French independence of mind in our style of living, as it
+now is to copy them in ragoûts, bonnets, moustaches, and or-molu, we
+should greatly increase our stock of real genuine enjoyment. If no
+English lady should ever again feel a pang at her heart because she
+saw more tall footmen in her neighbour's hall than in her own--if no
+sighs were breathed in secret in any club-house or at any sale,
+because Jack Somebody's stud was a cut above us--if no bills were run
+up at Gunter's, or at Howell and James's, because it was worse than
+death to be outdone,--we should unquestionably be a happier and a
+more respectable people than we are at present.
+
+It is, I believe, pretty generally acknowledged by all parties, that
+the citizens of France have become a more money-getting generation
+since the last revolution than they ever were before it. The security
+and repose which the new dynasty seems to have brought with it, have
+already given them time and opportunity to multiply their capital; and
+the consequence is, that the shop-keeping propensities with which
+Napoleon used to reproach us have crossed the Channel, and are
+beginning to produce very considerable alterations here.
+
+It is evident that the wealth of the _bourgeoisie_ is rapidly
+increasing, and their consequence with it; so rapidly, indeed, that
+the republicans are taking fright at it,--they see before them a new
+enemy, and begin to talk of the abominations of an aristocratic
+_bourgeoisie_.
+
+There is, in fact, no circumstance in the whole aspect of the country
+more striking or more favourable than this new and powerful impulse
+given to trade. It is the best ballast that the vessel of the state
+can have; and if they can but contrive that nothing shall happen to
+occasion its being thrown overboard, it may suffice to keep her
+steady, whatever winds may blow.
+
+The wide-spreading effect of this increasing wealth among the
+_bourgeoisie_ is visible in many ways, but in none more than in the
+rapid increase of handsome dwellings, which are springing up, as white
+and bright as new-born mushrooms, in the north-western division of
+Paris. This is quite a new world, and reminds me of the early days of
+Russell Square, and all the region about it. The Church of the
+Madeleine, instead of being, as I formerly remember it, nearly at the
+extremity of Paris, has now a new city behind it; and if things go on
+at the same rate at which they seem to be advancing at present, we
+shall see it, or at least our children will, occupying as central a
+position as St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. An excellent market, called
+Marché de la Madeleine, has already found its way to this new town;
+and I doubt not that churches, theatres, and restaurans innumerable
+will speedily follow.
+
+The capital which is now going so merrily on, increasing with almost
+American rapidity, will soon ask to be invested; and when this
+happens, Paris will be seen running out of town with the same active
+pace that London has done before her; and twenty years hence the Bois
+de Boulogne may very likely be as thickly peopled as the Regent's Park
+is now.
+
+This sudden accession of wealth has already become the cause of a
+great increase in the price of almost every article sold in Paris;
+and if this activity of commerce continue, it is more than probable,
+that the hitherto moderate fortunes of the Parisian _boursier_ and
+merchant will grow into something resembling the colossal capitals of
+England, and we shall find that the same causes which have hitherto
+made England dear will in future prevent France from being cheap. It
+will then happen, that many deficiencies which are now perceptible,
+and which furnish the most remarkable points of difference between the
+two countries, will disappear; great wealth being in many instances
+all that is required to make a French family live very much like an
+English one. Whether they will not, when this time arrives, lose on
+the side of unostentatious enjoyment more than they will gain by
+increased splendour, may, I think, be very doubtful. For my own part,
+I am decidedly of opinion, that as soon as heavy ceremonious dinners
+shall systematically take place of the present easy, unexpensive style
+of visiting, Paris will be more than half spoiled, and the English may
+make up their minds to remain proudly and pompously at home, lest,
+instead of a light and lively contrast to their own ways, they may
+chance to find a heavy but successful rivalry.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII.
+
+      Horrible Murder.--La Morgue.--Suicides.--Vanity.--Anecdote.
+      --Influence of Modern Literature.--Different appearance of
+      Poverty in France and England.
+
+
+We have been made positively sick and miserable by the details of a
+murder, which seems to show that we live in a world where there are
+creatures ten thousand times more savage than any beast that ranges
+the forest,
+
+     "Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
+     Pard, or boar with bristled hair."
+
+This horror was perpetrated on the person of a wretched female, who
+appeared, by the mangled remains which were found in the river, to
+have been very young. But though thus much was discovered, it was many
+days ere, among the thousands who flocked to the Morgue to look at the
+severed head and mangled limbs, any one could be found to recognise
+the features. At length, however, the person with whom she had lodged
+came to see if she could trace any resemblance between her lost
+inmate and these wretched relics of a human being.
+
+She so far succeeded as to convince herself of the identity; though
+her means of judging appeared to be so little satisfactory, that few
+placed any reliance upon her testimony. Nevertheless, she at length
+succeeded in having a man taken up, who had lived on intimate terms
+with the poor creature whose sudden disappearance had induced this
+woman to visit the Morgue when the description of this mangled body
+reached her. He immediately confessed the deed, in the spirit, though
+not in the words, of the poet:--
+
+     "Mourons: de tant d'horreurs qu'un trépas me délivre!
+     Est-ce un malheur si grand que de cesser de vivre?
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Je ne crains pas le nom que je laisse après moi."
+
+The peculiarly horrid manner in which the crime was committed, and the
+audacious style in which the criminal appears to brave justice, will,
+it is thought, prevent any _extenuating circumstances_ being pleaded,
+as is usually done, for the purpose of commuting the punishment of
+death into imprisonment with enforced labour. It is generally expected
+that this atrocious murderer will be guillotined, notwithstanding the
+averseness of the government to capital punishment.
+
+The circumstances are, indeed, hideous in all ways, and the more so
+from being mixed up with what is miscalled the tender passion. The
+cannibal fury which sets a man to kill his foe that he may eat him,
+has fully as much tenderness in it as this species of affection.
+
+When "the passion is made up of nothing but the finest parts of love,"
+it may, perhaps, deserve the epithet of tender; but we have heard of
+late of so many horrible and deliberate assassinations, originating in
+what newspapers are pleased to call "_une grande passion_" that the
+first idea which a love-story now suggests to me is, that the sequel
+will in all probability be murder "most foul, strange, and unnatural!"
+
+Is there in any language a word that can raise so many shuddering
+sensations as "_La Morgue_?" Hatred, revenge, murder, are each
+terrible; but La Morgue outdoes them all in its power of bringing
+together in one syllable the abstract of whatever is most appalling in
+crime, poverty, despair, and death.
+
+To the ghastly Morgue are conveyed the unowned dead of every
+description that are discovered in or near Paris. The Seine is the
+great receptacle which first receives the victims of assassination or
+despair; but they are not long permitted to elude the vigilance of the
+Parisian police: a huge net, stretched across the river at St. Cloud,
+receives and retains whatever the stream brings down; and anything
+that retains a trace of human form which is found amidst the product
+of the fearful draught is daily conveyed to La Morgue;--DAILY; for
+rarely does it chance that for four-and-twenty hours its melancholy
+biers remain unoccupied; often do eight, ten, a dozen corpses at a
+time arrive by the frightful caravan from "_les filets de St. Cloud_."
+
+I have, in common with most people, I believe, a very strong
+propensity within me for seeing everything connected directly or
+indirectly with any subject or event which has strongly roused my
+curiosity, or interested my feelings; but, strange to say, I never
+feel its influence so irresistible as when something of shuddering
+horror is mixed with the spectacle. It is this propensity which has
+now induced me to visit this citadel of death;--this low and solitary
+roof, placed in the very centre of moving, living, laughing Paris.
+
+No visit to a tomb, however solemn or however sad, can approach in
+thrilling horror to the sensation caused by passing the threshold of
+this charnel-house.
+
+The tomb calls us to the contemplation of the common, the inevitable
+lot; but this gathering place of sin and death arouses thoughts of all
+that most outrages nature, and most foully violates the sanctuary of
+life, into which God has breathed his spirit. But I was steadfast in
+my will to visit it, and I have done it.
+
+The building is a low, square, carefully-whited structure, situated on
+the Quai de la Cité. It is open to all; and it is fearful to think how
+many anxious hearts have entered, how many despairing ones have
+quitted it.
+
+On entering I found myself in a sort of low hall which contained no
+object whatever. If I mistake not, there is a chamber on each side of
+it: but it was to the left hand that I was led, and it was thither
+that about a dozen persons who entered at the same time either
+followed or preceded me. I do not too well remember how I reached the
+place where the bodies are visible; but I know that I stood before one
+of three large windows, through the panes of which, and very near to
+them, lighted also by windows in the roof, are seen a range of biers,
+sloping towards the spectator at an angle that gives the countenance
+as well as the whole figure of the persons extended on them fully to
+view.
+
+In this manner I saw the bodies of four men stretched out before me;
+but their aspect bore no resemblance to death--neither were they
+swollen or distorted in any way, but so discoloured as to give them
+exactly the appearance of bronze statues.
+
+Two out of the four had evidently been murdered, for their heads and
+throats gave frightful evidence of the violence that had been
+practised upon them; the third was a mere boy, who probably met his
+fate by accident: but that the fourth was a suicide, it was hardly
+possible to doubt; even in death his features held the desperate
+expression that might best paint the state of mind likely to lead to
+such an act.
+
+It was past mid-day when we entered the Morgue; but neither of the
+bodies had yet been claimed or recognised.
+
+This spectacle naturally set me upon seeking information, wherever I
+was likely to find it, respecting the average number of bodies thus
+exposed within the year, the proportion of them believed to be
+suicides, and the causes generally supposed most influential in
+producing this dreadful termination.
+
+I will not venture to repeat the result of these inquiries in figures,
+as I doubt if the information I received was of that strictly accurate
+kind which could justify my doing so; yet it was quite enough so, to
+excite both horror and astonishment at the extraordinary number which
+are calculated to perish annually at Paris by self-slaughter.
+
+In many recent instances, the causes which have led to these desperate
+deeds have been ascertained by the written acknowledgment of the
+perpetrators themselves, left as a legacy to mankind. Such a legacy
+might perhaps not be wholly unprofitable to the survivors, were it not
+that the motives assigned, in almost every instance where they have
+been published, have been of so frivolous and contemptible a nature as
+to turn wholesome horror to most ill-placed mirth.
+
+It can hardly be doubted, from the testimony of these singular
+documents, that many young Frenchmen perish yearly in this guilty and
+deplorable manner for no other reason in the world than the hope of
+being talked of afterwards.
+
+Had some solitary instance of so perverted a vanity been found among
+these records, it might perhaps have been considered as no more
+incredible than various other proofs of the enfeebling effects of this
+paltry passion on the judgment, and have been set down to insanity,
+produced by excessive egotism: but nothing short of the posthumous
+testimony of the persons themselves could induce any one to believe
+that scarcely a week passes without such an event, from such a cause,
+taking place in Paris.
+
+In many instances, I am told that the good sense of surviving friends
+has led them to disobey the testamentary instructions left by the
+infatuated young men who have thus acted, requesting that the wretched
+reasonings which have led them to it should be published. But, in a
+multitude of cases, the "Constitutionnel" and other journals of the
+same stamp have their columns filled with reasons why these poor
+reckless creatures have dared the distant justice of their Creator, in
+the hope that their unmeaning names should be echoed through Paris for
+a day.
+
+It is not long since two young men--mere youths--entered a
+_restaurant_, and bespoke a dinner of unusual luxury and expense, and
+afterwards arrived punctually at the appointed hour to eat it. They
+did so, apparently with all the zest of youthful appetite and youthful
+glee. They called for champagne, and quaffed it hand in hand. No
+symptom of sadness, thought, or reflection of any kind was observed to
+mix with their mirth, which was loud, long, and unremitting. At last
+came the _café noir_, the cognac, and the bill: one of them was seen
+to point out the amount to the other, and then both burst out afresh
+into violent laughter. Having swallowed each his cup of coffee to the
+dregs, the _garçon_ was ordered to request the company of the
+_restaurateur_ for a few minutes. He came immediately, expecting
+perhaps to receive his bill, minus some extra charge which the jocund
+but economical youths might deem exorbitant.
+
+Instead of this, however, the elder of the two informed him that the
+dinner had been excellent, which was the more fortunate as it was
+decidedly the last that either of them should ever eat: that for his
+bill, he must of necessity excuse the payment of it, as in fact they
+neither of them possessed a single sous: that upon no other occasion
+would they thus have violated the customary etiquette between guest
+and landlord; but that finding this world, its toils and its troubles,
+unworthy of them, they had determined once more to enjoy a repast of
+which their poverty must for ever prevent the repetition, and
+then--take leave of existence for ever! For the first part of this
+resolution, he declared that it had, thanks to his cook and his
+cellar, been achieved nobly; and for the last, it would soon
+follow--for the _café noir_, besides the little glass of his admirable
+cognac, had been medicated with that which would speedily settle all
+their accounts for them.
+
+The _restaurateur_ was enraged. He believed no part of the
+rhodomontade but that which declared their inability to discharge the
+bill, and he talked loudly, in his turn, of putting them into the
+hands of the police. At length, however, upon their offering to give
+him their address, he was persuaded to let them depart.
+
+On the following day, either the hope of obtaining his money, or some
+vague fear that they might have been in earnest in the wild tale that
+they had told him, induced this man to go to the address they had left
+with him; and he there heard that the two unhappy boys had been that
+morning found lying together hand in hand, on a bed hired a few weeks
+before by one of them. When they were discovered, they were already
+dead and quite cold.
+
+On a small table in the room lay many written papers, all expressing
+aspirations after greatness that should cost neither labour nor care,
+a profound contempt for those who were satisfied to live by the sweat
+of their brow--sundry quotations from Victor Hugo, and a request that
+their names and the manner of their death might be transmitted to the
+newspapers.
+
+Many are the cases recorded of young men, calling themselves dear
+friends, who have thus encouraged each other to make their final exit
+from life, if not with applause, at least with effect. And more
+numerous still are the tales recounted of young men and women found
+dead, and locked in each other's arms; fulfilling literally, and with
+most sad seriousness, the destiny sketched so merrily in the old
+song:--
+
+     Gai, gai, marions-nous--
+       Mettons-nous dans la misère;
+     Gai, gai, marions-nous--
+     Mettons-nous la corde au cou.
+
+I have heard it remarked by several individuals among those who are
+watching with no unphilosophical eyes many ominous features of the
+present time and the present race, or rather perhaps of that portion
+of the population which stand apart from the rest in dissolute
+idleness, that the worst of all its threatening indications is the
+reckless, hard indifference, and gladiator-like contempt of death,
+which is nurtured, taught, and lauded as at once the foundation and
+perfection of all human wisdom and of all human virtue.
+
+In place of the firmness derived from hope and resignation, these
+unhappy sophists seek courage in desperation, and consolation in
+notoriety. With this key to the philosophy of the day, it is not
+difficult to read its influence on many a countenance that one meets
+among those who are lounging in listless laziness on the Boulevards or
+in the gardens of Paris.
+
+The aspect of these figures is altogether unlike what we may too often
+see among those who linger, sunken, pale, and hopeless, on the benches
+of our parks, or loiter under porticos and colonnades, as if waiting
+for courage to beg. Hunger and intemperance often leave blended traces
+on such figures as these, exciting at once pity and disgust. I have
+encountered at Paris nothing like this: whether any such exist, I know
+not; but if they do, their beat is distant from the public walks and
+fashionable promenades. Instead of these, however, there is a race who
+seem to live there, less wretched perhaps in actual want of bread, but
+as evidently thriftless, homeless, and friendless as the other. On the
+faces of such, one may read a state of mind wholly different,--less
+degraded, but still more perverted;--a wild, bold eye, that rather
+seeks than turns from every passing glance--unshrinking hardihood, but
+founded more on indifference than endurance, and a scornful sneer for
+any who may suffer curiosity to conquer disgust, while they fix their
+eye for a moment upon a figure that looks in all ways as if got up to
+enact the hero of a melodrame. Were I the king, or the minister
+either, I should think it right to keep an eye of watchfulness upon
+all such picturesque individuals; for one might say most truly,
+
+     "Yon Cassius hath a lean and hungry look;
+     He thinks too much: such men are dangerous."
+
+The friend to whom I addressed myself on the subject of these
+constantly-recurring suicides told me that there was great reason to
+believe that the increase of this crime, so remarkable during the last
+few years, might be almost wholly attributed to the "light
+literature," as it is called, of the period:--dark literature would be
+a fitter name for it.
+
+The total absence of anything approaching to a virtuous principle of
+action in every fictitious character held up to admiration throughout
+all the tales and dramas of the _décousu_ school, while every hint of
+religion is banished as if it were treason to allude to it, is in
+truth quite enough to account for every species of depravity in those
+who make such characters their study and their model. "How oft and by
+how many shall they be laughed to scorn!"--yet believing all the
+while, poor souls! that they are producing a sensation, and that the
+eyes of Europe are fixed upon them, notwithstanding they once worked
+as a tailor or a tinker, or at some other such unpoetical handiwork;
+for they may all be described in the words of Ecclesiasticus, with a
+very slight alteration,--"They would maintain the state of the world,
+and all their desire is in (forgetting) the work of their craft."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII.
+
+      Opéra Comique.--"Cheval de Bronze."--"La
+      Marquise."--Impossibility of playing Tragedy.--Mrs. Siddons's
+      Readings.--Mademoiselle Mars has equal power.--_Laisser
+      aller_ of the Female Performers.--Decline of Theatrical Taste
+      among the Fashionable.
+
+
+The "Cheval de Bronze" being the _spectacle par excellence_ at the
+Opéra Comique this season, we have considered it a matter of
+sight-seeing necessity to pay it a visit; and we have all agreed that
+it is as perfectly beautiful in its scenery and decorations as the
+size of the theatre would permit. We gazed upon it, indeed, with a
+perfection of contentment, which, in secret committee afterwards, we
+confessed did not say much in favour of our intellectual faculties.
+
+I really know not how it is that one can sit, not only without
+murmuring, but with positive satisfaction, for three hours together,
+with no other occupation than looking at a collection of gewgaw
+objects, with a most unmeaning crowd, made for the most part by
+Nature's journeymen, incessantly undulating among them. Yet so it is,
+that a skilful arrangement of blue and white gauze, aided by the magic
+of many-coloured lights, decidedly the prettiest of all modern toys,
+made us exclaim at every fresh manoeuvre of the carpenter,
+"Beautiful! beautiful!" with as much delight as ever a child of five
+years old displayed at a first-rate exhibition of Punch.
+
+M. Auber's music has some pretty things in it; but he has done much
+better in days of yore; and the wretched taste exhibited by all the
+principal singers made me heartily wish that the well-appointed
+orchestra had kept the whole performance to themselves.
+
+Madame Casimir has had, and indeed still has, a rich and powerful
+voice: but the meanest peasant-girl in Germany, who trims her vines to
+the sound of her native airs, might give her a lesson on taste more
+valuable than all that science has ever taught her.
+
+I should like, could I do so with a conscience that should not
+reproach me with exaggeration, to name Miss Stephens and Madame
+Casimir as fair national specimens of English and French singing. And
+in fact they are so; though I confess that the over-dressing of Madame
+Casimir's airs is almost as much out of the common way here, as the
+chaste simplicity of our native syren's strains is with us: yet the
+one is essentially English, and the other French.
+
+We were told that the manager of our London theatres had been in Paris
+for the purpose of seeing and taking a cast from this fine Chinese
+butterfly. If this be so, Mr. Bunn will find great advantage from the
+extent of his theatre: that of the Opéra Comique is scarcely of
+sufficient magnitude to exhibit its gaudy but graceful _tableaux_ to
+advantage. But, on the other hand, I doubt if he will find any actress
+quite so _piquante_ as the pretty Madame ----, in the last act, when
+she relates to the enchanted princess, her mistress, the failure she
+had made in attempting by her _agaceries_ to retain the young female
+who had ventured into the magic region: and if he did, I doubt still
+more if her performance would be received with equal applause.
+
+A _petite comédie_ called "La Marquise" preceded this brilliant
+trifle. The fable must, I think, be taken, though greatly changed,
+from a story of George Sand. It has perhaps little in it worth talking
+about; but it is a fair specimen of one of that most agreeable of
+French nationalities, a natural, easy, playful little piece, at which
+you may sit and laugh in sympathy with the performers as much as with
+the characters, till you forget that there are such things as sorrow
+and sadness in the world.
+
+The acting in this style is so very good, that the author's task
+really seems to be the least important part of the business. It is
+not at one theatre, but at all, that we have witnessed this
+extraordinary excellence in the performance of this species of drama;
+but I doubt if the chasm which seems to surround the tragic muse,
+keeping her apart on a pedestal sacred to recollections, be at all
+wider or more profound in England than in France. In truth, it is less
+impassible with us than it is here; for though I will allow that our
+tragic actresses may be no better than those of France, seeing that a
+woman's will in the one case, and the Atlantic Ocean in the other,
+have robbed us of Mrs. Bartley and the Fanny--who between them might
+bring our stage back to all its former glory,--still they have neither
+Charles Kemble nor Macready to stand in the place that Talma has left
+vacant.
+
+I have indeed no doubt whatever that Mademoiselle Mars could read
+Corneille and Racine as effectively as Mrs. Siddons read Shakspeare in
+the days of Argyle-street luxury, and, like our great maga, give to
+every part a power that it never had before. I well remember coming
+home from one of Mrs. Siddons's readings with a passionate desire to
+see her act the part of Hamlet; and from another, quite persuaded that
+by some means the witch-scene in Macbeth should be so arranged that
+she should speak every word of it.
+
+In like manner, were I to hear Mars read Corneille, I should insist
+upon it that she ought to play the Cid; and if Racine, Oreste would
+probably be the first part I should choose for her. But as even she,
+with all her Garrick-like versatility, would not be able to perform
+every part of every play, tragedy must be permitted to repose for the
+present in France as well as in England.
+
+During this interregnum, it is well for them, considering how dearly
+they love to amuse themselves, that they have a stock of comedians,
+old, young, and middle-aged, that they need not fear should fail; for
+the whole French nation seem gifted with a talent that might enable
+them to supply, at an hour's warning, any deficiencies in the company.
+
+I seldom return from an exhibition of this sort without endeavouring
+in some degree to analyse the charm that has enchanted me: but in most
+cases this is too light, too subtile, to permit itself to be caught by
+so matter-of-fact a process. I protest to you, that I am often half
+ashamed of the pleasure I receive from ... I know not what. A playful
+smile, a speaking glance, a comic tone, a pretty gesture, give effect
+to words that have often nothing in them more witty or more wise than
+may often be met with (especially here) in ordinary conversation. But
+the whole thing is so thoroughly understood, from the "_père noble_"
+to the scene-shifter--so perfect in its getting-up--the piece so
+admirably suited to the players, and the players to the piece,--that
+whatever there is to admire and enjoy, comes to you with no drawbacks
+from blunders or awkwardness of any kind.
+
+That the composition of these happy trifles cannot be a work of any
+great labour or difficulty, may be reasonably inferred from the
+ceaseless succession of novelties which every theatre and every season
+produces. The process, for this lively and ready-witted people, must
+be pleasant enough--they must catch from what passes before them; no
+difficult task, perhaps--some _piquante_ situation or ludicrous
+_bévue_: the slightest thread is strong enough to hold together the
+light materials of the plot; and then must follow the christening of a
+needful proportion of male and female, old and young, enchanting and
+ridiculous personages. The list of these once set down, and the order
+of scenes which are to bring forth the plot arranged, I can fancy the
+author perfectly enjoying himself as he puts into the mouth of each
+character all the saucy impertinences upon every subject that his
+imagination, skilful enough in such matters, can suggest. When to this
+is added an occasional touch of natural feeling, and a little popular
+high-mindedness in any line, the _petite comédie_ is ready for the
+stage.
+
+It is certainly a very light manufacture, and depends perhaps more
+upon the fearless _laisser aller_ of both author and actor than upon
+the brilliancy of wit which it displays. That old-fashioned blushing
+grace too, so much in favour with King Solomon, and called in
+scripture phrase shamefacedness, is sacrificed rather too unmercifully
+by the female part of the performers, in the fear, as it should seem,
+of impairing the spirit and vivacity of the scene by any scruple of
+any kind. But I suspect these ladies miscalculate the respective value
+of opposing graces; Mademoiselle Mars may show them that delicacy and
+vivacity are not inseparable; and though I confess that it would be a
+little unreasonable to expect all the female vaudevillists of Paris to
+be like Mars, I cannot but think that, in a city where her mode of
+playing comedy has for so many years been declared perfect, it must be
+unnecessary to seek the power of attraction from what is so utterly at
+variance with it.
+
+The performance of comedy is often assisted here by a freedom among
+the actors which I have sometimes, but not often, seen permitted in
+London. It requires for its success, and indeed for its endurance,
+that the audience should be perfectly in good-humour, and sympathise
+very cordially with the business of the scene. I allude to the part
+which the performers sometimes take not only in the acting, but in
+the enjoyment of it. I never in my life saw people more heartily
+amused, or disposed more unceremoniously to show it, than the actors
+in the "Précieuses Ridicules," which I saw played a few nights ago at
+the Français. On this occasion I think the spirit of the performance
+was certainly heightened by this license, and for this reason--the
+scene represents a group in which one party must of necessity be
+exceedingly amused by the success of the mystification which they are
+practising on the other. But I own that I have sometimes felt a little
+_English stiffness_ at perceiving an air of frolic and fun upon the
+stage, which seemed fully as much got up for the performers as for the
+audience. But though the instance I have named of this occurred at the
+Théâtre Français, it is not there that it is likely to be carried to
+any offensive extent. The lesser theatres would in many instances do
+well to copy closely the etiquette and decorum of all kinds which the
+great national theatre exhibits: but perhaps it is hardly fair to
+expect this; and besides, we might be told, justly enough, to _look at
+home_.
+
+The theatres, particularly the minor ones, appear to be still very
+well attended: but I constantly hear the same observations made in
+Paris as in London upon the decline of theatrical taste among the
+higher orders; and it arises, I think, from the same cause in both
+countries,--namely, the late dinner-hour, which renders the going to a
+play a matter of general family arrangement, and often of general
+family difficulty. The opera, which is later, is always full; and were
+it not that I have lived too long in the world to be surprised at
+anything that the power of fashion could effect, I should certainly be
+astonished that so lively a people as the French should throng night
+after night as they do to witness the exceeding dulness of this heavy
+spectacle.
+
+The only people I have yet seen enjoying their theatres rationally,
+without abstaining from what they liked because it was unfashionable,
+or enduring what they did not, because it was the _mode_, are the
+Germans. Their genuine and universal love of music makes their
+delicious opera almost a necessary of life to them; and they must, I
+think, absolutely change their nature before they will suffer the
+silly conventional elegance supposed by some to attach to the act of
+eating their dinner late, to interfere with their enjoyment of it.
+
+I used to think the theatre as dear to the French as music to the
+Germans. But what is a taste in France is, from the firmer fibre of
+the national character, a passion in Germany;--and it is easier to
+abandon a taste than to control a passion.
+
+Perhaps, however, in England and France too, if some new-born
+theatrical talent of the first class were to "flame in the forehead of
+the morning sky," both Paris and London would submit to the
+degradation of dining at five o'clock in order to enjoy it: but late
+hours and indifferent performances, together, have gone far towards
+placing the stage among the popular rather than the fashionable
+amusements of either.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX.
+
+      The Abbé de Lamennais.--Cobbett.--O'Connell.--Napoleon.--
+      Robespierre.
+
+
+I had last night the satisfaction of meeting the Abbé de Lamennais at
+a _soirée_. It was at the house of Madame Benjamin Constant; whose
+_salon_ is as celebrated for the talent of every kind to be met there,
+as for the delightful talents and amiable qualities of its mistress.
+
+In general appearance, this celebrated man recalls an original drawing
+that I remember to have seen of Rousseau. He is greatly below the
+ordinary height, and extremely small in his proportions. His
+countenance is very striking, and singularly indicative of habitual
+meditation; but the deep-set eye has something very nearly approaching
+to wildness in its rapid glance. His dress was black, but had
+certainly more of republican negligence than priestly dignity in it;
+and the little, tight, chequered cravat which encircled his slender
+throat, gave him decidedly the appearance of a person who heeded not
+either the fashion of the day, or the ordinary costume of the
+_salon_.
+
+He, in company with four or five other distinguished men, had dined
+with Madame Constant; and we found him deep sunk in a _bergère_ that
+almost concealed his diminutive person, surrounded by a knot of
+gentlemen, with whom he was conversing with great eagerness and
+animation. On one side of him was M. Jouy, the well-known "_Hermite_"
+of the Chaussée d'Antin; and on the other, a deputy well known on the
+benches of the _côté gauche_.
+
+I was placed immediately opposite to him, and have seldom watched the
+play of a more animated countenance. In the course of the evening, he
+was brought up and introduced to me. His manners are extremely
+gentlemanlike; no stiffness or reserve, either rustic or priestly,
+interfering with their easy vivacity. He immediately drew a chair
+_vis-à-vis_ to the sofa on which I was placed, and continued thus,
+with his back turned to the rest of the company, conversing very
+agreeably, till so many persons collected round him, many of whom were
+ladies, that not feeling pleased, I suppose, to sit while they stood,
+he bowed off, and retreated again to his _bergère_.
+
+He told me that he must not remain long in Paris, where he was too
+much in society to do anything; that he should speedily retreat to
+the profound seclusion of his native Brittany, and there finish the
+work upon which he was engaged. Whether this work be the defence of
+the _prévenus d'Avril_, which he has threatened to fulminate in a
+printed form at the head of those who refused to let him plead for
+them in court, I know not; but this document, whenever it appears, is
+expected to be violent, powerful, and eloquent.
+
+The writings of the Abbé de Lamennais remind me strongly of those of
+Cobbett,--not, certainly, from their matter, nor even from the manner
+of treating it, but from the sort of effect which they produce upon
+the mind. Had the pen of either of them been wholly devoted to the
+support of a good cause, their writings would have been invaluable to
+society; for they both have shown a singular power of carrying the
+attention, and almost the judgment, of the reader along with them,
+even when writing on subjects on which he and they were perfectly at
+issue.
+
+Were there not circumstances in the literary history of both which
+contradict the notion, I should say that this species of power or
+charm in their writings arose from their being themselves very much in
+earnest in the opinions they were advocating: but as the Abbé de
+Lamennais and the late Mr. Cobbett have both shown that their faith in
+their own opinions was not strong enough to prevent them from changing
+them, the peculiar force of their eloquence can hardly be referred to
+the sincerity of it.
+
+I remember hearing a lively young barrister declare that he would
+rather argue against his own judgment than according to it; and I am
+sure he spoke in all sincerity,--much as he would have done had he
+said that he preferred shooting wild game to slaughtering tame
+chickens: the difficulty made the pleasure. But we cannot presume to
+suppose that either of the two persons whose names I have so
+incongruously brought together have written and argued on the same
+principle; and even if it were so, they have not the less changed
+their minds,--unless we suppose that they have amused themselves and
+the public, by sometimes arguing for what they believed to be truth,
+and sometimes only to show their skill.
+
+As to what Mr. Cobbett's principles might really have been, I think it
+is a question that must ever remain in uncertainty,--unless we adopt
+that easiest and most intelligible conclusion, that he had none at
+all. But it is far otherwise with M. de Lamennais: it is impossible to
+doubt that in his early writings he was perfectly sincere; there is a
+warmth of faith in them that could proceed from no fictitious fire.
+Nor is it easily to be imagined that he would have thrown himself from
+the height at which he stood in the opinion of all whom he most
+esteemed, had he not fancied that he saw truth at the bottom of that
+abyss of heresy and schism into which all good Catholics think that he
+has thrown himself.
+
+The wild republicanism which M. de Lamennais has picked up in his
+descent is, however, what has probably injured him most in the general
+estimation. Some few years ago, liberal principles were advocated by
+many of the most able as well as the most honest men in Europe; but
+the unreasonable excesses into which the ultras of the party have
+fallen seem to have made the respectable portion of mankind draw back
+from it, and, whatever their speculative opinions may be, they now
+show themselves anxious to rally round all that bears the stamp of
+order and lawful authority.
+
+It would be difficult to imagine a worse time for a man to commence
+republican and free-thinker than the present;--unless, indeed, he did
+so in the hope that the loaves and fishes were, or would be, at the
+disposition of that party. Putting, however, all hope of being paid
+for it aside, the period is singularly unpropitious for such a
+conversion. As long as their doctrine remained a theory only, it might
+easily delude many who had more imagination than judgment, or more
+ignorance than either: but so much deplorable mischief has arisen
+before our eyes every time the theory has been brought to the test of
+practice, that I believe the sound-minded in every land consider
+their speculations at present with as little respect as they would
+those of a joint-stock company proposing to colonize the moon.
+
+That the Abbé de Lamennais is no longer considered in France as the
+pre-eminent man he has been, is most certain; and as it is easy to
+trace in his works a regular progression downwards, from the dignified
+and enthusiastic Catholic priest to the puzzled sceptic and factious
+demagogue, I should not be greatly surprised to hear that he, who has
+been spoken of at Rome as likely to become a cardinal, was carrying a
+scarlet flag through the streets of Paris, with a conical hat and a
+Robespierre waistcoat, singing "_Ça ira_" louder than he ever chanted
+a mass.
+
+M. de Lamennais, in common with several other persons of republican
+principles with whom I have conversed since I have been in Paris, has
+conceived the idea that England is at this moment actually and _bonâ
+fide_ under the rule, dictation, and government of Mr. Daniel
+O'Connell. He named him in an accent of the most profound admiration
+and respect, and referred to the English newspapers as evidence of the
+enthusiastic love and veneration in which he was held throughout Great
+Britain!
+
+I waxed wroth, I confess; but I took wisdom and patience, and said
+very meekly, that he had probably seen only that portion of the
+English papers which were of Mr. Daniel's faction, and that I believed
+Great Britain was still under the dominion of King William the Fourth,
+his Lords and Commons. It is not many days since I met another
+politician of the same school who went farther still; for he gravely
+wished me joy of the prospect of emancipation which the virtue of the
+great O'Connell held out to my country. On this occasion, being in a
+gay mood, I laughed heartily, and did so with a safe conscience,
+having no need to set the enlightened propagandist right; this being
+done for me, much better than I could have done it myself, by a
+hard-headed doctrinaire who was with me.
+
+"O'Connell is the Napoleon of England," said the republican.
+
+"Not of England, at any rate," replied the doctrinaire. "And if he
+must have a name borrowed from France, let it be Robespierre's: let
+him be called magnificently the Robespierre of Ireland."
+
+"He has already been the redeemer of Ireland," rejoined the republican
+gravely; "and now _he has taken England under his protection_."
+
+"And I suspect that ere long England will take him under hers," said
+my friend, laughing. "Hitherto it appears as if the country had not
+thought him worth whipping; ... mais si un chien est méchant, si même
+ce ne serait qu'un vilain petit hargneux, il devrait être lié, ou
+bien pendu."
+
+Having finished this oracular sentence, the doctrinaire took a long
+pinch of snuff, and began discoursing of other matters: and I too
+withdrew from the discussion, persuaded that I could not bring it to a
+better conclusion.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XL.
+
+      Which Party is it ranks second in the estimation of all?--No
+      Caricatures against the Exiles.--Horror of a Republic.
+
+
+I have been taking some pains to discover, by the aid of all the signs
+and tokens of public feeling within my reach, who among the different
+parties into which this country is divided enjoys the highest degree
+of general consideration.
+
+We know that if every man in a town were desired to say who among its
+inhabitants he should consider as fittest to hold an employment of
+honour and profit, each would probably answer, "Myself:" we know also,
+that should it happen, after the avowal of this very natural
+partiality, that the name of the second best were asked for, and that
+the man named as such by one were so named by all, this second best
+would be accounted by the disinterested lookers-on as decidedly the
+right and proper person to fill the station. According to this rule,
+the right and proper government for France is neither republican, nor
+military, nor doctrinaire, but that of a legitimate and constitutional
+monarchy.
+
+When men hold office, bringing both power and wealth, consideration
+will of necessity follow. That the ministers and their friends,
+therefore, should be seen in pride of place, and enjoying the dignity
+they have achieved, is natural, inevitable, and quite as it should be.
+But if, turning from this every-day spectacle, we endeavour to
+discover who it is that, possessing neither power nor place, most
+uniformly receive the homage of respect, I should say, without a
+shadow of doubt or misgiving, that it was the legitimate royalists.
+
+The triumphant doctrinaires pass no jokes at their expense; no _bons
+mots_ are quoted against them, nor does any shop exhibit caricatures
+either of what they have been or of what they are.
+
+The republicans are no longer heard to name them, either with rancour
+or disrespect: all their wrath is now poured out upon the present
+actual power of the prosperous doctrinaires. This, indeed, is in
+strict conformity to the principle which constitutes the foundation of
+their sect; namely, that whatever exists ought to be overthrown. But
+neither in jest nor earnest do they now show hostility to Charles the
+Tenth or his family: nor even do the blank walls of Paris, which for
+nearly half a century have been the favourite receptacle of all their
+wit, exhibit any pleasantries, either in the shape of hieroglyphic,
+caricature, or lampoon, alluding to them or their cause.
+
+I have listened repeatedly to sprightly and to bitter jestings, to
+judicious and to blundering reasonings, for and against the different
+doctrines which divide the country; but in no instance do I remember
+to have heard, either in jest or earnest, any revilings against the
+exiled race. A sort of sacred silence seems to envelope this theme; or
+if it be alluded to at all, it is far from being in a hostile spirit.
+
+"HENRI!" is a name that, without note or comment, may be read _ça et
+là_ in every quarter of Paris, that of the Tuileries not excepted: and
+on a wall near the Royal College of Henri Quatre, where the younger
+princes of the house of Orleans still study, were inscribed not long
+ago these very intelligible words:--
+
+"Pour arriver à Bordeaux, il faut passer par Orléans."
+
+In short, whatever feelings of irritation and anger might have existed
+in 1830, and produced the scenes which led to the exile of the royal
+family, they now seem totally to have subsided.
+
+It does not, however, necessarily follow from this that the majority
+of the people are ready again to hazard their precious tranquillity in
+order to restore them: on the contrary, it cannot be doubted that were
+such a measure attempted at the present moment, it would fail--not
+from any dislike of their legitimate monarch, or any affection for
+the kinsman who has been placed upon his throne, but wholly and
+solely from their wish to enjoy in peace their profitable speculations
+at the _Bourse_--their flourishing _restaurans_--their prosperous
+shops--and even their tables, chairs, beds, and coffee-pots.
+
+Very different, however, is the feeling manifested towards the
+republicans. Never did Napoleon in the days of his most absolute
+power, or the descendants of Louis le Grand in those of their proudest
+state, contemplate this factious, restless race with such abhorrence
+as do the doctrinaires of the present hour. It is not that they fear
+them--they have no real cause to do so; but they feel a sentiment made
+up of hatred and contempt, which never seems to repose, and which, if
+not regulated by wisdom and moderation, is very likely eventually to
+lead to more barricades; though to none, I imagine, that the National
+Guards may not easily throw down.
+
+It is on the subject of this unpopular _clique_ that by far the
+greater part of the ever-springing Parisian jokes expends itself;
+though the doctrinaires get it "_pas mal_" in return, as I heard a
+national guardsman remark, as we were looking over some caricatures
+together. But, in truth, the republicans seem upon principle to offer
+themselves as victims and martyrs to the quizzing propensities of
+their countrymen. Harlequin does not more scrupulously adhere to his
+parti-coloured suit, than do the republicans of Paris to their
+burlesque costume. It is, I presume, to show their courage, that they
+so ostentatiously march with their colours flying; but the effect is
+very ludicrous. The symbolic peculiarities of their dress are classed
+and lithographed with infinite fun.
+
+Drolleries, too, on the parvenus of the Empire are to be found for the
+seeking; and when they beset King Philippe himself, it should seem
+that it is done with all the enthusiasm so well expressed by Garrick
+in days of yore:--
+
+     "'Tis for my king, and, zounds! I'll do my best!"
+
+The only extraordinary part of all this caricaturing on walls and in
+print-shops, is the license taken with those who have power to prevent
+it. The principle of legislation on this point appears, with a little
+variation, to be that of the old ballad:
+
+     "Thoughts, words, and deeds, the statute blames with reason;
+     But surely _jokes_ were ne'er indicted treason."
+
+In speaking of the parties into which France is divided, the three
+grand divisions of Carlists, Doctrinaires, and Republicans naturally
+present themselves first and foremost, and, to foreigners in general,
+appear to contain between them the entire nation: but a month or two
+passed in Paris society suffices to show one that there are many who
+cannot fairly be classed with either.
+
+In the first place, the Carlist party by no means contains all those
+who disapprove of treating a crown like a ready-made shoe, which, if
+it be found to pinch the person it was intended for, may be disposed
+of to the first comer who is willing to take it. The Carlist party,
+properly so called, demand the restoration of King Charles the Tenth,
+the immediate descendant and representative of their long line of
+kings--the prince who has been crowned and anointed King of France,
+and who, while he remains alive, must render the crowning and
+anointing of any other prince an act of sacrilege. Wherefore, in
+effect, King Louis-Philippe has not received "_le sacre_:" he is not
+as yet the anointed King of France, whatever he may be hereafter.
+Henri Quatre is said to have exclaimed under the walls of the capital,
+"Paris vaut bien une messe;" and it is probable that Louis-Philippe
+Premier thinks so too; but hitherto he has been able to have this
+performed only in military style--being incapable, in fact, of going
+through the ceremony either civilly or religiously. The Carlists are,
+therefore, those only who _en rigueur_ do not approve of any king but
+the real one.
+
+The legitimate royalists are, I believe, a much more numerous party.
+As strictly attached to the throne and to the principle of regular
+and legitimate succession as the Carlists, they nevertheless conceive
+that the pressure of circumstances may not only authorise, but render
+it imperative upon the country to accept, or rather to permit, the
+abdication of a sovereign. The king's leaving the country and placing
+himself in exile, is one of the few causes that can justify this; and
+accordingly the abdication of Charles Dix is virtual death to him as a
+sovereign. But though this is granted, it does not follow in their
+creed, that any part of the nation have thereupon a right to present
+the hereditary crown to whom they will. The law of succession, they
+say, is not to be violated because the king has fled before a popular
+insurrection; and having permitted his abdication, the next heir
+becomes king. This next heir, however, choosing to follow his royal
+father's example, he too becomes virtually defunct, and his heir
+succeeds.
+
+This heir is still an infant, and his remaining in exile cannot
+therefore be interpreted as his own act. Thus, according to the
+reasoning of those who conceive the abdication of the king and the
+dauphin to be acts within their own power, and beyond that of the
+nation to nullify, Henri, the son of the Duc de Berri, is beyond all
+doubt Henri Cinq, Roi de France.
+
+Of this party, however, there are many, and I suspect their number is
+increasing, who, having granted the power of setting aside (by his own
+act) the anointed monarch, are not altogether averse to go a step
+farther, if so doing shall ensure the peace of the country; and
+considering the infancy of the rightful heir as constituting
+insufficiency, to confess Louis-Philippe as the next in succession to
+be the lawful as well as the actual King of the French.
+
+It is this party who I always find have the most to say in support (or
+defence) of their opinions. Whether this proceed from their feeling
+that some eloquence is necessary to make them pass current, or that
+the conviction of their justice is such as to make their hearts
+overflow on the theme, I know not; but decidedly the sect of the
+"_Parcequ'il est Bourbon_" is that which I find most eager to
+discourse upon politics. And, to confess the truth, they have much to
+say for themselves, at least on the side of expediency.
+
+It is often a matter of regret with me, that in addressing these
+letters to you I am compelled to devote so large a portion of them to
+politics; but in attempting to give you some idea of Paris at the
+present moment, it is impossible to avoid it. Were I to turn from this
+theme, I could only do so by labouring to forget everything I have
+seen, everything I see. Go where you will, do what you will, meet whom
+you will, it is out of your power to escape it. But observe, that it
+is wholly for your sake, and not at all for my own, that I lament it;
+for, however flat and unprofitable my report may be, the thing itself,
+when you are in the midst of it, is exceedingly interesting.
+
+When I first arrived, I was considerably annoyed by finding, that as
+soon as I had noted down some piece of information as an undoubted
+fact, the next person I conversed with assured me that it was worth
+considerably less than nought; inasmuch as my informer had not only
+failed to give me useful instruction on the point concerning which I
+was inquiring, but had altogether deluded, deceived, and led me
+astray.
+
+These days of primitive matter-of-factness are now, however, quite
+passed with me; and though I receive a vast deal of entertainment from
+all, I give my faith in return to very few. I listen to the Carlists,
+the Henri-Quintists, the Philippists, with great attention and real
+interest, but have sometimes caught myself humming as soon as they
+have left me,
+
+     "They were all of them kings in their turn."
+
+Indeed, if you knew all that happens to me, instead of blaming me for
+being too political, you would be very thankful for the care and pains
+I bestow in endeavouring to make a digest of all I hear for your
+advantage, containing as few contradictions as possible. And truly
+this is no easy matter, not only from the contradictory nature of the
+information I receive, but from some varying weaknesses in my own
+nature, which sometimes put me in the very disagreeable predicament of
+doubting if what is right be right, and if what is wrong be wrong.
+
+When I came here, I was a thorough unequivocating legitimatist, and
+felt quite ready and willing to buckle on armour against any who
+should doubt that a man once a king was always a king--that once
+crowned according to law, he could not be uncrowned according to
+mob--or that a man's eldest son was his rightful heir.
+
+But, oh! these doctrinaires! They have such a way of proving that if
+they are not quite right, at least everybody else is a great deal more
+wrong: and then they talk so prettily of England and _our_ revolution,
+and our glorious constitution--and the miseries of anarchy--and the
+advantages of letting things remain quietly as they are, till, as I
+said before, I begin to doubt what is right and what is wrong.
+
+There is one point, however, on which we agree wholly and heartily;
+and it is this perhaps that has been the means of softening my heart
+thus towards them. The doctrinaires shudder at the name of a republic.
+This is not because their own party is regal, but is evidently the
+result of the experience which they and their fathers have had from
+the tremendous experiment which has once already been made in the
+country.
+
+"You will never know the full value of your constitution till you have
+lost it," said a doctrinaire to me the other evening, at the house of
+the beautiful Princess B----, formerly an energetic propagandiste, but
+now a very devoted doctrinaire,--"you will never know how beneficial
+is its influence on every hour of your lives, till your Mr. O'Connell
+has managed to arrange a republic for you: and when you have tasted
+that for about three months, you will make good and faithful subjects
+to the next king that Heaven shall bestow upon you. You know how
+devoted all France was to the Emperor, though the police was somewhat
+tight, and the conscriptions heavy: but he had saved us from a
+republic, and we adored him. For a few days, or rather hours, we were
+threatened again, five years ago, by the same terrible apparition: the
+result is, that four millions of armed men stand ready to protect the
+prince who chased it. Were it to appear a third time--which Heaven
+forbid!--you may depend upon it that the monarch who should next
+ascend the throne of France might play at _le jeu de quilles_ with his
+subjects, and no one be found to complain."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI.
+
+      M. Dupré.--His Drawings in Greece.--L'Eglise des Carmes.--M.
+      Vinchon's Picture of the National Convention.--Léopold
+      Robert's Fishermen.--Reported cause of his Suicide.--Roman
+      Catholic Religion.--Mr. Daniel O'Connell.
+
+
+We went the other morning, with Miss C----, a very agreeable
+countrywoman, who has however passed the greater portion of her life
+in Paris, to visit the house and atelier of M. Dupré, a young artist
+who seems to have devoted himself to the study of Greece. Her princes,
+her peasants, her heavy-eyed beauties, and the bright sky that glows
+above them,--all the material of her domestic life, and all the
+picturesque accompaniments of her classic reminiscences, are brought
+home by this gentleman in a series of spirited and highly-finished
+drawings, which give decidedly the most lively idea of the country
+that I have seen produced. Engravings or lithographs from them are, I
+believe, intended to illustrate a splendid work on this interesting
+country which is about to be published.
+
+In our way from M. Dupré's house, in which was this collection of
+Greek drawings, to his atelier--where he was kind enough to show us a
+large picture recently commenced--we entered that fatal "Eglise des
+Carmes," where the most hideous massacre of the first revolution took
+place. A large tree that stands beside it is pointed out as having
+been sought as a shelter--alas! how vainly!--by the unhappy priests,
+who were shot, sabred, and dragged from its branches by dozens. A
+thousand terrible recollections are suggested by the interior of the
+building, aided by the popular traditions attached to it, unequalled
+in atrocity even in the history of that time of horror.
+
+Another scene relating to the same period, which, though inferior to
+the massacre of the priests in multiplied barbarity, was of sufficient
+horror to freeze the blood of any but a republican, has, strange to
+say, been made, since the revolution of 1830, the subject of an
+enormous picture by M. Vinchon, and at the present moment makes part
+of the exhibition at the Louvre.
+
+The canvass represents a hall at the Tuileries which in 1795 was the
+place where the National Convention sat. The mob has broken in, and
+murdered Feraud, who attempted to oppose them; and the moment chosen
+by the painter is that in which a certain "_jeune fille nommée Aspasie
+Migelli_" approaches the president's chair with the young man's head
+borne on a pike before her, while she triumphantly envelopes herself
+in some part of his dress. The whole scene is one of the most terrible
+revolutionary violence. This picture is stated in the catalogue to
+belong to the minister of the interior; but whether the present
+minister of the interior, or any other, I know not. The subject was
+given immediately after the revolution of 1830, and many artists made
+sketches in competition for the execution of it. One of those who
+tried, and failed before the superior genius of M. Vinchon, told us,
+that the subject was given at that time as one likely to be popular,
+either for love of the noble resolution with which Boissy d'Anglas
+keeps possession of the president's chair, which he had seized upon,
+or else from admiration of the energetic female who has assisted in
+doing the work of death. In either case, this young artist said, the
+popularity of such a subject was passed by, and no such order would be
+given now.
+
+Finding myself again on the subject of pictures, I must mention a very
+admirable one which is now being exhibited at the "Mairie du Second
+Arrondissement." It is from the hand of the unfortunate Leopold
+Robert, who destroyed himself at Venice almost immediately after he
+had completed it. The subject is the departure of a party of Italian
+fishermen; and there are parts of the picture fully equal to anything
+I have ever seen from the pencil of a modern artist. I should have
+looked at this picture with extreme pleasure, had the painter still
+lived to give hope of, perhaps, still higher efforts; but the history
+of his death, which I had just been listening to, mixed great pain
+with it.
+
+I have been told that this young man was of a very religious and
+meditative turn of mind, but a Protestant. His only sister, to whom he
+was much attached, was a Catholic, and had recently taken the veil.
+Her affection for him was such, that she became perfectly wretched
+from the danger she believed awaited him from his heresy; and she
+commenced a species of affectionate persecution, which, though it
+failed to convert him, so harassed and distracted his mind, as finally
+to overthrow his reason, and lead him to self-destruction. This
+charming picture is exhibited for the benefit of the poor, at the
+especial desire of the unhappy nun; who is said, however, to be so
+perfect a fanatic, as only to regret that the dreadful act was not
+delayed till she had had time to work out the salvation of her own
+soul by a little more persecution of his.
+
+There is something exceedingly curious, and, perhaps, under our
+present lamentable circumstances, somewhat alarming, in the young and
+vigorous after-growth of the Roman Catholic religion, which, by the
+aid of a very little inquiry, may be so easily traced throughout France.
+Were we keeping our own national church sacred, and guarded both by
+love and by law, as it has hitherto been from all assaults of the Pope
+and ... Mr. O'Connell, it could only be with pleasure that we should
+see France recovering from her long ague-fit of infidelity,--and, as
+far as she is concerned, we must in Christian charity rejoice, for she
+is unquestionably the better for it; but there is a regenerated
+activity among the Roman Catholic clergy, which, under existing
+circumstances, makes a Protestant feel rather nervous,--and I declare
+to you, I never pass within sight of that famous window of the Louvre,
+whence Charles Neuf, with his own royal and catholic hand, discharged
+a blunderbuss amongst the Huguenots, without thinking how well a
+window at Whitehall, already noted in history as a scene of horror,
+might serve King Daniel for the same purpose.
+
+The great influence which the religion of Rome has of late regained
+over the minds of the French people has, I am told, been considerably
+increased by the priests having added to the strength derived from
+their command of pardons and indulgences, that which our Methodist
+preachers gain from the terrors of hell. They use the same language,
+too, respecting regeneration and grace; and, as one means of regaining
+the hold they had lost upon the human mind, they now anathematize all
+recreations, as if their congregations were so many aspirants to the
+sublime purifications of La Trappe, or so many groaning fanatics just
+made over to them from Lady Huntingdon's Chapel. That there is,
+however, a pretty strong force to stem this fresh spring-tide of
+moon-struck superstition, is very certain. The doctrinaires, I am
+told, taken as a body, are not much addicted to this species of
+weakness. I remember, during the prevalence of that sweeping complaint
+called the influenza, hearing of a "good lady," of the high
+evangelical _clique_, who said to some of the numerous pensioners who
+flocked to receive the crumbs of her table and the precepts of her
+lips, that she could make up some medicine that was very good for all
+POOR people that were seized with this complaint.
+
+"What can be the difference, ma'am," said the poor body who told me
+this, "between us and Madame C---- in this illness? Is not what is
+good for the poor, good for the rich too?"
+
+The same pertinent question may, I think, be asked in Paris just now
+respecting the medicine called religion. It is administered in large
+doses to the poor, to which class a great number of the fair sex of
+all ranks happily seem to have joined themselves, intending, at
+least, to rank themselves as among the poor in spirit; nay, parish
+doctors are regularly paid by authority; yet, if the tale be true, the
+authorities themselves take little of it. "It is very good for poor
+people;" but, like the hot-baths which Anstie talks of,
+
+         "No creature e'er view'd
+     Any one of the government gentry stew'd."
+
+Whether the returning power of this pompous and aspiring faith will
+mount as it proceeds, and embrace within its grasp, as it was wont to
+do, all the great ones of the earth, is a question that it may require
+some years to answer; but one thing is at least certain,--that its
+ministers will try hard that it shall do so, whether they are likely
+to succeed or not; and, at the worst, they may console themselves by
+the reflection of Lafontaine:--
+
+     "Si de les gagner je n'emporte pas le prix,
+     J'aurais au moins l'honneur de l'avoir entrepris."
+
+One great one they have certainly already got, besides King Charles
+the Tenth,--even the immortal Daniel; and however little consequence
+you may be inclined to attach to this fact, it cannot be considered as
+wholly unimportant, since I have heard his religious principles and
+his influence in England alluded to in the pulpit here with a tone of
+hope and triumph which made me tremble.
+
+I heartily wish that some of those who continue to vote in his
+traitorous majority because they are pledged to do so, could hear him
+and his power spoken of here. If they have English hearts, it must, I
+think, give them a pang.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLII.
+
+      Old Maids.--Rarely to be found in France.--The reasons for
+      this.
+
+
+Several years ago, while passing a few weeks in Paris, I had a
+conversation with a Frenchman upon the subject of old maids, which,
+though so long past, I refer to now for the sake of the sequel, which
+has just reached me.
+
+We were, I well remember, parading in the Gardens of the Luxembourg;
+and as we paced up and down its long alleys, the "miserable fate," as
+he called it, of single women in England was discussed and deplored by
+my companion as being one of the most melancholy results of faulty
+national manners that could be mentioned.
+
+"I know nothing," said he with much energy, "that ever gave me more
+pain in society, than seeing, as I did in England, numbers of unhappy
+women who, however well-born, well-educated, or estimable, were
+without a position, without an _état_ and without a name, excepting
+one that they would generally give half their remaining days to get
+rid of."
+
+"I think you somewhat exaggerate the evil," I replied: "but even if it
+were as bad as you state it to be, I see not why single ladies should
+be better off here."
+
+"Here!" he exclaimed, in a tone of horror: "Do you really imagine that
+in France, where we pride ourselves on making the destiny of our women
+the happiest in the world,--do you really imagine that we suffer a set
+of unhappy, innocent, helpless girls to drop, as it were, out of
+society into the _néant_ of celibacy, as you do? God keep us from such
+barbarity!"
+
+"But how can you help it? It is impossible but that circumstances must
+arise to keep many of your men single; and if the numbers be equally
+balanced, it follows that there must be single women too."
+
+"It may seem so; but the fact is otherwise: we have no single women."
+
+"What, then, becomes of them?"
+
+"I know not; but were any Frenchwoman to find herself so
+circumstanced, depend upon it she would drown herself."
+
+"I know one such, however," said a lady who was with us: "Mademoiselle
+Isabelle B*** is an old maid."
+
+"Est-il possible!" cried the gentleman, in a tone that made me laugh
+very heartily. "And how old is she, this unhappy Mademoiselle
+Isabelle?"
+
+"I do not know exactly," replied the lady; "but I think she must be
+considerably past thirty."
+
+"C'est une horreur!" he exclaimed again; adding, rather mysteriously,
+in a half-whisper, "Trust me, she will not bear it long!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I had certainly forgotten Mademoiselle Isabelle and all about her,
+when I again met the lady who had named her as the one sole existing
+old maid of France. While conversing with her the other day on many
+things which had passed when we were last together, she asked me if I
+remembered this conversation. I assured her that I had forgotten no
+part of it.
+
+"Well, then," said she, "I must tell you what happened to me about
+three months after it took place. I was invited with my husband to pay
+a visit at the house of a friend in the country,--the same house where
+I had formerly seen the Mademoiselle Isabelle B*** whom I had named
+to you. While playing _écarté_ with our host in the evening, I
+recollected our conversation in the Gardens of the Luxembourg, and
+inquired for the lady who had been named in it.
+
+"'Is it possible that you have not heard what has happened to her?' he
+replied.
+
+"'No, indeed; I have heard nothing. Is she married, then?'
+
+"'Married!... Alas, no! she has _drowned herself_!'"
+
+Terrible as this dénouement was, it could not be heard with the solemn
+gravity it called for, after what had been said respecting her. Was
+ever coincidence more strange! My friend told me, that on her return
+to Paris she mentioned this catastrophe to the gentleman who had
+seemed to predict it; when the information was received by an
+exclamation quite in character,--"God be praised! then she is out of
+her misery!"
+
+This incident, and the conversation which followed upon it, induced me
+to inquire in sober earnest what degree of truth there might really be
+in the statement made to us in this well-remembered conversation; and
+it certainly does appear, from all I can learn, that the meeting a
+single woman past thirty is a very rare occurrence in France. The
+arranging _un mariage convenable_ is in fact as necessary and as
+ordinary a duty in parents towards a daughter, as the sending her to
+nurse or the sending her to school. The proposal for such an alliance
+proceeds quite as frequently from the friends of the lady as from
+those of the gentleman: and it is obvious that this must at once very
+greatly increase the chance of a suitable marriage for young women;
+for though we do occasionally send our daughters to India in the hope
+of obtaining this much-desired result, few English parents have as
+yet gone the length of proposing to anybody, or to anybody's son, to
+take their daughter off their hands.
+
+I have not the least doubt in the world that, were the custom
+otherwise--were a young lady's claim to an establishment pointed out
+by her friends, instead of being left to be discovered or undiscovered
+as chance will have it,--I have no doubt in the world that in such a
+case many happy marriages might be the result: and where such an
+arrangement infringes on no feeling of propriety, but is adopted only
+in conformity to national custom, I can well believe that the fair
+lady herself may deem her having nothing to do with the business a
+privilege of infinite importance to her delicacy. But would our
+English girls like, for the satisfaction of escaping the chance of
+being an old maid, to give up the dear right of awaiting in maiden
+dignity till they are chosen--selected from out the entire world--and
+then of saying yes or no, as may please their fancy best?
+
+If I do not greatly mistake the national character of Englishwomen,
+there are very few who could be found to exchange this privilege for
+the most perfect assurance that could be given of obtaining a marriage
+in any other way. As to which is best and which is wisest, or even
+which is likely to produce, ultimately and generally, the most happy
+_ménage_, I will not pretend to say; because I have heard so much
+plausible, and indeed, in some respects, substantial reasoning in
+favour of the mode pursued here, that I feel it may be considered as
+doubtful: but as to which is and must be most agreeable to the parties
+chiefly concerned at the time the connexion is formed, herein I own I
+think there can be no question whatever that English men and English
+women have the advantage.
+
+With all the inclination in the world to believe that France abounds
+with loving, constant, faithful wives, and husbands too, I cannot but
+think that if they are so, it is in spite of the manner in which their
+marriages are made, and not in consequence of it. The strongest
+argument in favour of their manner of proceeding undoubtedly is, that
+a husband who receives a young wife as totally without impressions of
+any kind, (as a well-brought-up French girl certainly is,) has a
+better chance--or rather, has more _power_ of making her heart
+entirely his own, than any man can have that falls in love with a
+beauty of twenty, who may already have heard as tender sighs as he can
+utter breathed in her ear by some one who may have had no power to
+marry her, but who might have had a heart to love her, and a tongue to
+win her as well as himself.
+
+But against this how much is to be placed! However dearly a
+Frenchwoman may love her husband, he can never feel that it is a love
+which has selected him; and though it may sometimes happen that a
+pretty creature is applied for because of her prettiness, yet if the
+application be made and answered, and no question asked as to her will
+or wish in the affair, she can feel but little gratification even to
+her vanity--and certainly nothing whatever approaching to a feeling of
+tenderness at her heart.
+
+The force of habit is ever so inveterate, that it is not likely either
+nation can be really a fair and impartial judge of the other in a
+matter so entirely regulated by it. Therefore, all that I, as English,
+will venture to say farther on the subject is, that I should be sorry
+on this point to see us adopt the fashion of our neighbour France.
+
+I have reason to believe, however, that my friend of the Luxembourg
+Gardens exaggerated a good deal in his statement respecting the
+non-existence of single women in France. They do exist here, though
+certainly in less numbers than in England,--but it is not so easy to
+find them out. With us it is not unusual for single ladies to take
+what is called _brevet rank_;--that is, Miss Dorothy Tomkins becomes
+Mrs. Dorothy Tomkins--and sometimes _tout bonnement_ Mrs. Tomkins,
+provided there be no collateral Mrs. Tomkins to interfere with her:
+but upon no occasion do I remember that any lady in this predicament
+called herself the widow Tomkins, or the widow anything else.
+
+Here, however, I am assured that the case is different; and that, let
+the number of spinsters be great or small, no one but the near
+connexions and most intimate friends of the party know anything of the
+matter. Many a _veuve respectable_ has never had a husband in her
+life; and I have heard it positively affirmed, that the secret is
+often so well kept, that the nieces and nephews of a family do not
+know their maiden aunts from their widowed ones.
+
+This shows, at least, that matrimony is considered here as a more
+honourable state than that of celibacy; though it does not quite go
+the length of proving that all single women drown themselves.
+
+But before I quit this subject, I must say a few words to you
+concerning the old maids of England. There are few things which chafe
+my spirit more than hearing single women spoken of with contempt
+because they are such, or seeing them treated with less consideration
+and attention than those who chance to be married. The cruelty and
+injustice of this must be obvious to every one upon a moment's
+thought; but to me its absurdity is more obvious still.
+
+It is, I believe, a notorious fact, that there is scarcely a woman to
+be found, of any rank under that of a princess of the blood royal,
+who, at the age of fifty, has not at some time or in some manner had
+the power of marrying if she chose it. That many who have had this
+power have been tyrannically or unfortunately prevented from using it,
+is certain; but there is nothing either ridiculous or contemptible in
+this.
+
+Still less does a woman merit scorn if she has had the firmness and
+constancy of purpose to prefer a single life because she has
+considered it best and fittest for her: in fact, I know nothing more
+high-minded than the doing so. The sneering which follows female
+celibacy is so well known and so coarsely manifested, that it shows
+very considerable dignity of character to enable a woman to endure it,
+rather than act against her sense of what is right.
+
+I by no means say this by way of running a-tilt against all the ladies
+in France who have submitted, _bon gré, mal gré_, to become wives at
+the command of their fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and guardians:
+they have done exactly what they ought, and I hope all their pretty
+little quiet-looking daughters will do the same; it is the custom of
+the country, and cannot discreetly be departed from. But being on the
+subject, I am led, while defending our own modes of proceeding in the
+important affair of marriage, to remark also on the result of them. In
+permitting a young woman to become acquainted with the man who
+proposes for her before she consents to pass her whole life with him,
+I certainly see some advantage; but in my estimation there is more
+still in the protection which our usage in these matters affords to
+those who, rather than marry a man who is not the object of their
+choice, prefer remaining single. I confess, too, that I consider the
+class of single women as an extremely important one. Their entire
+freedom from control gives them great power over their time and
+resources, much more than any other woman can possibly possess who is
+not a childless widow. That this power is often--very often--nobly
+used, none can deny who are really and thoroughly acquainted with
+English society; and if among the class there be some who love cards,
+and tattle, and dress, and slander, they should be treated with just
+the same measure of contempt as the married ladies who may also
+occasionally be found to love cards, and tattle, and dress, and
+slander,--but with no more.
+
+It has been my chance, and I imagine that it has been the chance of
+most other people, to have found my dearest and most constant friends
+among single women. Of all the Helenas and Hermias that before marriage
+have sat "upon one cushion, warbling of one song," even for years
+together, how few are there who are not severed by marriage! Kind
+feelings may be retained, and correspondence (lazily enough) kept up;
+but to whom is it that the anxious mother, watching beside the sick
+couch of her child, turns for sympathy and consolation?--certainly not
+to the occupied and perhaps distant wedded confidante of her youthful
+days, but to her maiden sister or her maiden friend. Nor is it only in
+sickness that such friends are among the first blessings of life: they
+violate no duty by giving their time and their talents to society; and
+many a day through every house in England has probably owed some of
+its most delightful hours to the presence of those whom no duty has
+called
+
+     "To suckle fools or chronicle small beer,"
+
+and whose talents, therefore, are not only at their own disposal, but
+in all probability much more highly cultivated than any possessed by
+their married friends.
+
+Thus, spite of him of the Luxembourg, I am most decidedly of opinion,
+that, in England at least, there is no reason whatever that an
+unmarried woman should consign herself to the fate of the unfortunate
+Mademoiselle Isabelle.
+
+
+END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+     LONDON:
+
+     PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
+     Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol.
+1 of 2), by Frances Milton Trollope
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 1 of
+2), by Frances Milton Trollope
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 1 of 2)
+
+Author: Frances Milton Trollope
+
+Release Date: February 27, 2012 [EBook #38997]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS AND THE PARISIANS IN 1835 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="tnbox">
+<p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></p>
+<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the original
+document have been preserved.</p>
+<p>The errata listed at the end of the "Embellishments" were corrected
+in this edition.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center b13 p6">PARIS AND THE PARISIANS<br />
+IN 1835.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p class="center b13">VOL. I.</p>
+
+<p class="center p6 s08">Preparing for publication, by the same Author,<br />
+In 3 vols. post 8vo. with 15 Characteristic Engravings.</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES<br />
+
+<span class="s05">OF</span><br />
+
+JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW<br />
+
+<span class="s05">OR,</span><br /></p>
+
+<p class="center">SCENES ON THE MISSISSIPPI.</p>
+
+<p class="center p6 b15"><span class="smcap">Paris and the Parisians,<br />
+in 1835.</span></p>
+<p class="center b13">VOL. I.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6">
+<img src="images/ill003.jpg" width="600" height="496" alt="Drawn &amp; Etched by A. Hervieu." />
+<p class="caption">Drawn &amp; Etched by A. Hervieu.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London</span>:</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">Publisher in Ordinary to His Majesty,<br />
+1835.</p>
+
+<h1 class="p6">
+PARIS<br /><br />
+AND<br /><br />
+THE PARISIANS<br /><br />
+IN 1835.</h1>
+
+<h2>BY FRANCES TROLLOPE,</h2>
+
+<p class="center">AUTHOR OF "DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE AMERICANS,"<br />
+"TREMORDYN CLIFF," &amp;c.</p>
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p class="center">"Le pire des états, c'est l'état populaire."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Corneille.</span></p>
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p class="center p2">IN TWO VOLUMES.</p>
+
+<p class="center">VOL. I.</p>
+
+<p class="center p6">LONDON:<br />
+RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,<br />
+Publisher in Ordinary to His Majesty.<br />
+1836.</p>
+
+<p class="center p6">
+LONDON:<br />
+PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,<br />
+Dorset Street, Fleet Street.</p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p>From the very beginning of reading and writing&mdash;nay,
+doubtless from the very beginning of
+speaking,&mdash;<span class="smcap">Truth</span>, immortal <span class="smcap">Truth</span> has been the
+object of ostensible worship to all who read and
+to all who listen; and, in the abstract, it is unquestionably
+held in sincere veneration by all:
+yet, in the detail of every-day practice, the majority
+of mankind often hate it, and are seen to
+bear pain, disappointment, and sorrow more patiently
+than its honoured voice when it echoes
+not their own opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Preconceived notions generally take a much
+firmer hold of the mind than can be obtained by
+any statement, however clear and plain, which
+tends to overthrow them; and if it happen that
+these are connected with an honest intention of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">vi</a></span>
+being right, they are often mistaken for principles;&mdash;in
+which case the attempt to shake them
+is considered not merely as a folly, but a sin.</p>
+
+<p>With this conviction strongly impressed upon
+my mind, it requires some moral courage to
+publish these volumes; for they are written in
+conformity to the opinions of ... perhaps none,&mdash;and,
+worse still, there is that in them which may
+be considered as contradictory to my own. Had
+I before my late visit to Paris written a book
+for the purpose of advocating the opinions I entertained
+on the state of the country, it certainly
+would have been composed in a spirit by no
+means according in all points with that manifested
+in the following pages: but while profiting
+by every occasion which permitted me to mix
+with distinguished people of all parties, I learnt
+much of which I was&mdash;in common, I suspect, with
+many others&mdash;very profoundly ignorant. I found
+good where I looked for mischief&mdash;strength where
+I anticipated weakness&mdash;and the watchful wisdom
+of cautious legislators, most usefully at work
+for the welfare of their country, instead of the
+crude vagaries of a revolutionary government,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span>
+active only in leading blindfold the deluded
+populace who trusted to them.</p>
+
+<p>The result of this was, first a wavering, and
+then a change of opinion,&mdash;not as to the immutable
+laws which should regulate hereditary succession,
+or the regret that it should ever have
+been deemed expedient to violate them&mdash;but as
+to the wisest way in which the French nation,
+situated as it actually is, can be governed, so as
+best to repair the grievous injuries left by former
+convulsions, and most effectually to guard against
+a recurrence of them in future.</p>
+
+<p>That the present policy of France keeps these
+objects steadily in view, and that much wisdom
+and courage are at work to advance them, cannot
+be doubted; and those most anxious to advocate
+the sacred cause of well-ordered authority
+amongst all the nations of the earth should be
+the first to bear testimony to this truth.</p>
+
+<p class="i2">London, December 1835.</p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS<br />
+TO<br />
+THE FIRST VOLUME.</h2>
+
+<div class="toc">
+<h3>LETTER I.</h3>
+
+<p>Difficulty of giving a systematic account of what is doing
+in France.&mdash;Pleasure of revisiting Paris after long absence.&mdash;What
+is changed; what remains the same. <span class="page">Page <a href="#Page_1">1</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER II.</h3>
+
+<p>Absence of the English Embassy.&mdash;Trial of the Lyons
+Prisoners.&mdash;Church of the Madeleine.&mdash;Statue of Napoleon.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER III.</h3>
+
+<p>Slang.&mdash;Les Jeunes Gens de Paris.&mdash;La Jeune France.&mdash;Rococo.&mdash;Décousu.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER IV.</h3>
+
+<p>Théâtre Français.&mdash;Mademoiselle Mars.&mdash;Elmire.&mdash;'Charlotte
+Brown.'&mdash;Extract from a Sermon.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER V.</h3>
+
+<p>Exhibition of Living Artists at the Louvre.&mdash;The Deluge.&mdash;Poussin
+and Martin.&mdash;Portraits.&mdash;Appearance of the
+company.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">x</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER VI.</h3>
+
+<p>Society.&mdash;Morality.&mdash;False Impressions and False Reports.&mdash;Observations
+from a Frenchman on a recent publication.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER VII.</h3>
+
+<p>Alarm created by the Trial of the Lyons Prisoners.&mdash;Visits
+from a Republican and from a Doctrinaire: reassured
+by the promises of safety and protection received from the
+latter.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER VIII.</h3>
+
+<p>Eloquence of the Pulpit.&mdash;L'Abbé C&oelig;ur.&mdash;Sermon at
+St. Roch.&mdash;Elegant Congregation.&mdash;Costume of the younger
+Clergy.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER IX.</h3>
+
+<p>Literature of the Revolutionary School.&mdash;Its low estimation
+in France.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER X.</h3>
+
+<p>Lonchamps.&mdash;The "Three Hours' Agony" at St. Roch.&mdash;Sermons
+on the Gospel of Good-Friday.&mdash;Prospects of
+the Catholics.&mdash;O'Connell.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XI.</h3>
+
+<p>Trial Chamber at the Luxembourg.&mdash;Institute.&mdash;M. Mignet.&mdash;Concert
+Musard.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XII.</h3>
+
+<p>Easter-Sunday at Notre Dame.&mdash;Archbishop.&mdash;View of
+Paris.&mdash;Victor Hugo.&mdash;Hôtel Dieu.&mdash;Mr. Jefferson.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">xi</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XIII.</h3>
+
+<p>"Le Monomane".<span class="page"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XIV.</h3>
+
+<p>The Gardens of the Tuileries.&mdash;Legitimatist.&mdash;Republican.&mdash;Doctrinaire.&mdash;Children.&mdash;Dress
+of the Ladies.&mdash;Of the
+Gentlemen.&mdash;Black Hair.&mdash;Unrestricted Admission.&mdash;Anecdote.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XV.</h3>
+
+<p>Street Police.&mdash;Cleaning Beds.&mdash;Tinning Kettles.&mdash;Building
+Houses.&mdash;Loading Carts.&mdash;Preparing for the Scavenger.&mdash;Want
+of Drains.&mdash;Bad Pavement.&mdash;Darkness.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XVI.</h3>
+
+<p>Preparations for the Fête du Roi.&mdash;Arrival of Troops.&mdash;Champs
+Elysées.&mdash;Concert in the Garden of the Tuileries.&mdash;Silence
+of the People.&mdash;Fireworks.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XVII.</h3>
+
+<p>Political chances.&mdash;Visit from a Republican.&mdash;His high
+spirits at the prospects before him.&mdash;His advice to me
+respecting my name.&mdash;Removal of the Prisoners from
+Ste. Pélagie.&mdash;Review.&mdash;Garde de Paris.&mdash;The National
+Guard.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XVIII.</h3>
+
+<p>First Day of the Trials.&mdash;Much blustering, but no riot.&mdash;All
+alarm subsided.&mdash;Proposal for inviting Lord B&mdash;&mdash;m
+to plead at the Trial.&mdash;Society.&mdash;Charm of idle conversation.&mdash;The
+Whisperer of good stories.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XIX.</h3>
+<p>Victor Hugo.&mdash;Racine.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">xii</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XX.</h3>
+
+<p>Versailles.&mdash;St. Cloud.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXI.</h3>
+
+<p>History of the Vicomte de B&mdash;&mdash;. His opinions.&mdash;State
+of France.&mdash;Expediency.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXII.</h3>
+
+<p>Père Lachaise.&mdash;Mourning in public.&mdash;Defacing the Tomb
+of Abelard and Eloïsa.&mdash;Baron Munchausen.&mdash;Russian
+Monument.&mdash;Statue of Manuel.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXIII.</h3>
+
+<p>Remarkable People.&mdash;Distinguished People.&mdash;Metaphysical
+Lady.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXIV.</h3>
+
+<p>Expedition to the Luxembourg.&mdash;No admittance for
+Females.&mdash;Portraits of "Henri."&mdash;Republican Costume.&mdash;Quai
+Voltaire.&mdash;Mural Inscriptions.&mdash;Anecdote of Marshal
+Lobau.&mdash;Arrest.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXV.</h3>
+
+<p>Chapelle Expiatoire.&mdash;Devotees seen there.&mdash;Tri-coloured
+flag out of place there.&mdash;Flower Market of the Madeleine.&mdash;Petites
+Maîtresses.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXVI.</h3>
+
+<p>Delicacy in France and in England.&mdash;Causes of the
+difference between them.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">xiii</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXVII.</h3>
+
+<p>Objections to quoting the names of private individuals.&mdash;Impossibility
+of avoiding Politics.&mdash;<i>Parceque</i> and <i>Quoique</i>.&mdash;Soirée
+Antithestique.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXVIII.</h3>
+
+<p>New Publications.&mdash;M. de Lamartine's "Souvenirs, Impressions,
+Pensées, et Paysages."&mdash;Tocqueville and Beaumont.&mdash;New
+American regulation.&mdash;M. Scribe.&mdash;Madame
+Tastu.&mdash;Reception of different Writers in society.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXIX.</h3>
+
+<p>Sunday in Paris.&mdash;Family Groups.&mdash;Popular Enjoyment.&mdash;Polytechnic
+Students.&mdash;Their resemblance to the figure
+of Napoleon.&mdash;Enduring attachment to the Emperor.&mdash;Conservative
+spirit of the English Schools.&mdash;Sunday in
+the Gardens of the Tuileries.&mdash;Religion of the Educated.&mdash;Popular
+Opinion.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXX.</h3>
+
+<p>Madame Récamier.&mdash;Her Morning Parties.&mdash;Gérard's
+Picture of Corinne.&mdash;Miniature of Madame de Staël.&mdash;M.
+de Châteaubriand.&mdash;Conversation on the degree in which
+the French Language is understood by Foreigners.&mdash;The
+necessity of speaking French.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXI.</h3>
+
+<p>Exhibition of Sèvres China at the Louvre.&mdash;Gobelins and
+Beauvais Tapestry.&mdash;Legitimatist Father and Doctrinaire
+Son.&mdash;Copies from the Medicean Gallery.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXII.</h3>
+
+<p>Eglise Apostolique Française.&mdash;Its doctrine.&mdash;L'Abbé Auzou.&mdash;His
+Sermon on "les Plaisirs Populaires."<span class="page"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">xiv</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXIII.</h3>
+
+<p>Establishment for Insane Patients at Vanves.&mdash;Description
+of the arrangements.&mdash;Englishman.&mdash;His religious madness.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_307">307</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXIV.</h3>
+
+<p>Riot at the Porte St. Martin.&mdash;Prevented by a shower
+of Rain.&mdash;The Mob in fine weather.&mdash;How to stop Emeutes.&mdash;Army
+of Italy.&mdash;Théâtre Français.&mdash;Mademoiselle Mars
+in Henriette.&mdash;Disappearance of Comedy.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_319">319</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXV.</h3>
+
+<p>Soirée dansante.&mdash;Young Ladies.&mdash;Old Ladies.&mdash;Anecdote.&mdash;The
+Consolations of Chaperones.&mdash;Flirtations.&mdash;Discussion
+upon the variations between young Married Women
+in France and in England.&mdash;Making love by deputy.&mdash;Not
+likely to answer in England.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_329">329</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXVI.</h3>
+
+<p>Improvements of Paris.&mdash;Introduction of Carpets and
+Trottoirs.&mdash;Maisonnettes.&mdash;Not likely to answer in Paris.&mdash;The
+necessity of a Porter and Porter's Lodge.&mdash;Comparative
+Expenses of France and England.&mdash;Increasing
+Wealth of the Bourgeoisie.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_347">347</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXVII.</h3>
+
+<p>Horrible Murder.&mdash;La Morgue.&mdash;Suicides.&mdash;Vanity.&mdash;Anecdote.&mdash;Influence
+of Modern Literature.&mdash;Different
+appearance of Poverty in France and England.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_358">358</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXVIII.</h3>
+
+<p>Opéra Comique.&mdash;"Cheval de Bronze."&mdash;"La Marquise."&mdash;Impossibility
+of playing Tragedy.&mdash;Mrs. Siddons's Readings.&mdash;Mademoiselle
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">xv</a></span>
+Mars has equal power.&mdash;<i>Laisser aller</i>
+of the Female Performers.&mdash;Decline of Theatrical Taste
+among the Fashionable.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_371">371</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XXXIX.</h3>
+
+<p>The Abbé de Lamennais.&mdash;Cobbett.&mdash;O'Connell.&mdash;Napoleon.&mdash;Robespierre.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_381">381</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XL.</h3>
+
+<p>Which Party is it ranks second in the estimation of all?&mdash;No
+Caricatures against the Exiles.&mdash;Horror of a Republic.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_389">389</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XLI.</h3>
+
+<p>M. Dupré.&mdash;His Drawings in Greece.&mdash;L'Eglise des
+Carmes.&mdash;M. Vinchon's Picture of the National Convention.&mdash;Léopold
+Robert's Fishermen.&mdash;Reported cause of
+his Suicide.&mdash;Roman Catholic Religion.&mdash;Mr. Daniel
+O'Connell.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_400">400</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>LETTER XLII.</h3>
+
+<p>Old Maids.&mdash;Rarely to be found in France.&mdash;The reasons
+for this.<span class="page"><a href="#Page_408">408</a></span></p>
+
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">xvi</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>EMBELLISHMENTS<br />
+TO<br />
+THE FIRST VOLUME.</h2>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+<div class="toc">
+
+<p>Louvre<span class="page"><a href="#illo1">Page 30</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Morning at the Tuileries Gardens<span class="page"><a href="#illo2">106</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Pro Patria"<span class="page"><a href="#illo3">140</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ce soir, à la Porte St. Martin."&mdash;"J'y serai."<span class="page"><a href="#illo4">218</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Tuileries Gardens (on Sunday)<span class="page"><a href="#illo5">264</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Porte St. Martin<span class="page"><a href="#illo6">322</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p class="p2 center">P. 155, line 2, <i>read</i> given&mdash;P. 224, line 23, <i>read</i> new.</p>
+
+<p class="p6 center"><span class="b20">PARIS</span><br /><br />
+
+<span class="b15">AND THE PARISIANS</span><br /><br />
+
+<span class="b13">IN 1835.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<h2 class="p2">LETTER I.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Difficulty of giving a systematic account of what is doing in
+France.&mdash;Pleasure of revisiting Paris after long absence.&mdash;What
+is changed; what remains the same.</p>
+
+<p class="ltrhead">Paris, 11th April 1835.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>,</p>
+
+<p>In visiting Paris it certainly was my intention
+to describe in print what I saw and heard
+there; and to do this as faithfully as possible,
+I proposed to continue my old habit of noting in
+my journal all things, great and small, in which I
+took an interest. But the task frightens me. I
+have been here but a few days, and I already find
+myself preaching and prosing at much greater
+length than I approve: I already feel that I am
+involved in such a mizmaze of interesting subjects,
+that to give anything like an orderly and well-arranged
+digest of them, would beguile me into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span>
+attempting a work greatly beyond my power to
+execute.</p>
+
+<p>The very most I can hope to do will be but to
+"skim lightly over the surface of things;" and in
+addressing myself to you, I shall feel less as if I
+were about to be guilty of the presumption of
+writing "a work on France," than if I threw my
+notes into a less familiar form. I will then discourse
+to you, as well as I may, of such things as
+leave the deepest impression among the thousand
+sights and sounds in the midst of which I am now
+placed. Should it be our will hereafter that these
+letters pass from your hands into those of the
+public, I trust that nobody will be so unmerciful
+as to expect that they shall make them acquainted
+with everything past, present, and to come,
+"respecting the destinies of this remarkable
+country."</p>
+
+<p>It must indeed be a bold pen that attempts
+to write of "Young France," as it is at present
+the fashion to call it, with anything like a reasonable
+degree of order and precision, while still surrounded
+by all the startling novelties she has to
+show. To reason of what she has done, what
+she is doing, and&mdash;more difficult still&mdash;of what
+she is about to do, would require a steadier
+head than most persons can command, while yet
+turning and twisting in all directions to see what
+this Young France looks like.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, I am disposed to believe that whatever
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span>
+I write about it will be much in the style of
+the old conundrum&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">"I saw a comet rain down hail</p>
+<p>I saw a cloud" &amp;c.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And here you will remember, that though the
+things seen are stated in the most simple and
+veracious manner, much of the meaning is occult,
+depending altogether upon the stopping or pointing
+of the narrative. This stopping or pointing
+I must leave to you, or any other readers I may
+happen to have, and confine myself to the plain
+statement of "I saw;" for though it is sufficiently
+easy to see and to hear, I feel extremely doubtful
+if I shall always be able to understand.</p>
+
+<p>It is just seven years and seven months since
+I last visited the capital of the "Great Nation."
+The interval is a long one, as a portion of human
+life; but how short does it appear when the events
+that it has brought forth are contemplated! I
+left the white banner of France floating gaily
+over her palaces, and I find it torn down and
+trampled in the dust. The renowned lilies, for so
+many ages the symbol of chivalric bravery, are
+everywhere erased; and it should seem that the
+once proud shield of St. Louis is soiled, broken,
+and reversed for ever.</p>
+
+<p>But all this was old. France is grown young
+again; and I am assured that, according to the
+present condition of human judgment, everything
+is exactly as it should be. Knighthood, glory,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span>
+shields, banners, faith, loyalty, and the like, are
+gone out of fashion; and they say it is only
+necessary to look about me a little, to perceive
+how remarkably well the present race of Frenchmen
+can do without them;&mdash;an occupation, it is
+added, which I shall find much more profitable
+and amusing than lamenting over the mouldering
+records of their ancient greatness.</p>
+
+<p>The good sense of this remonstrance is so evident,
+that I am determined henceforth to profit
+by it; remembering, moreover, that, as an Englishwoman,
+I have certainly no particular call to
+mourn over the fading honours of my country's
+rival. So in future I shall turn my eyes as
+much as I can from the tri-coloured flag&mdash;(those
+three stripes are terribly false heraldry)&mdash;and
+only think of amusing myself; a business never
+performed anywhere with so much ease as at
+Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Since I last saw it, I have journeyed half round
+the globe; but nothing I have met in all my
+wanderings has sufficed to damp the pleasure
+with which I enter again this gay, bright, noisy,
+restless city,&mdash;this city of the living, as beyond all
+others it may be justly called.</p>
+
+<p>And where, in truth, can anything be found
+that shall make its air of ceaseless jubilee seem
+tame?&mdash;or its thousand depôts of all that is
+prettiest in art, lose by comparison with any
+other pretty things in the wide world? Where
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span>
+do all the externals of happiness meet the eye
+so readily?&mdash;or where can the heavy spirit so
+easily be roused to seek and find enjoyment?
+Cold, worn-out, and dead indeed must the heart
+be that does not awaken to some throb of pleasure
+when Paris, after long absence, comes again
+in sight! For though a throne has been overturned,
+the Tuileries still remain;&mdash;though the main
+stock of a right royal tree has been torn up, and a
+scion sprung from one of the roots, that had run,
+wildly enough, to a distance, has been barricaded
+in, and watered, and nurtured, and fostered into
+power and strength of growth to supply its place,
+the Boulevards, with their matchless aspect of
+eternal holiday, are still the same. No commotion,
+however violent, has yet been able to cause this
+light but precious essence of Parisian attractiveness
+to evaporate; and while the very foundations
+of society have been shaken round them,
+the old elms go on, throwing their flickering
+shadows upon a crowd that&mdash;allowing for some
+vagaries of the milliner and tailor&mdash;might be
+taken for the very same, and no other, which has
+gladdened the eye and enlivened the imagination
+since first their green boughs beckoned all that
+was fairest and gayest in Paris to meet together
+beneath them.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst this is the case, and while sundry other
+enchantments that may be named in their turn
+continue to proclaim that Paris is Paris still,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span>
+it would be silly quarrelling with something better
+than bread-and-butter, did we spend the time
+of our abode here in dreaming of what has been,
+instead of opening our eyes and endeavouring to
+be as much awake as possible to look upon all
+that is.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+Farewell!</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER II.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span></p>
+<p class="ch_open">
+Absence of the English Embassy.&mdash;Trial of the Lyons
+Prisoners.&mdash;Church of the Madeleine.&mdash;Statue of Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>It may be doubtful, perhaps, whether the present
+period<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> be more favourable or unfavourable
+for the arrival of English travellers at Paris. The
+sort of interregnum which has taken place in our
+embassy here deprives us of the centre round
+which all that is most gay among the English
+residents usually revolves; but, on the other
+hand, the approaching trial of the Lyons prisoners
+and their Parisian accomplices is stirring
+up from the very bottom all the fermenting passions
+of the nation. Every principle, however
+quietly and unobtrusively treasured,&mdash;every feeling,
+however cautiously concealed,&mdash;is now afloat;
+and the most careless observer may expect to see,
+with little trouble, the genuine temper of the
+people.</p>
+
+<p>The genuine temper of the people?&mdash;Nay,
+but this phrase must be mended ere it can convey
+to you any idea of what is indeed likely to be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span>
+made visible; for, as it stands, it might intimate
+that the people were of one temper; and anything
+less like the truth than this cannot easily
+be imagined.</p>
+
+<p>The temper of the people of Paris upon the
+subject of this "atrocious trial," as all parties not
+connected with the government are pleased to
+call it, varies according to their politics,&mdash;from
+rage and execration to ecstasy and delight&mdash;from
+indifference to enthusiasm&mdash;from triumph
+to despair.</p>
+
+<p>It will be impossible, my friend, to ramble
+up and down Paris for eight or nine weeks, with
+a note-book in my hand, without recurring again
+and again to a theme that meets us in every
+<i>salon</i>, murmurs through the corridors of every
+theatre, glares from the eyes of the republican,
+sneers from the lip of the doctrinaire, and in some
+shape or other crosses our path, let it lead in
+what direction it may.</p>
+
+<p>This being inevitable, the monster must be permitted
+to protrude its horns occasionally; nor
+must I bear the blame should it sometimes appear
+to you a very tedious and tiresome monster
+indeed. Having announced that its appearance
+may be frequently expected, I will leave you for
+the present in the same state of expectation respecting
+it that we are in ourselves; and, while
+we are still safe from its threatened violence,
+indulge in a little peaceable examination of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span>
+the still-life part of the picture spread out before
+me.</p>
+
+<p>The first objects that struck me as new on re-entering
+Paris, or rather as changed since I last
+saw them, were the Column of the Place Vendôme,
+and the finished Church of the Madeleine.
+Finished indeed! Did Greece ever show any
+combination of stones and mortar more graceful,
+more majestic than this? If she did, it was in
+the days of her youth; for, poetical association
+apart, and the unquestionably great pleasure of
+learned investigation set aside, no ruin can possibly
+meet the eye with such perfect symmetry
+of loveliness, or so completely fill and satisfy the
+mind, as does this modern temple.</p>
+
+<p>Why might not our National Gallery have risen
+as noble, as simple, as beautiful as this?</p>
+
+<p>As for the other novelty&mdash;the statue of the
+sometime Emperor of the French, I suspect that I
+looked up at it with rather more approbation than
+became an Englishwoman. But in truth, though
+the name of Napoleon brings with it reminiscences
+which call up many hostile feelings, I can never find
+myself in Paris without remembering his good,
+rather than his terrible actions. Perhaps, too, as
+one gazes on this brazen monument of his victories,
+there may be something soothing in the
+recollection that the bold standard he bore never
+for an instant wantoned on a British breeze.</p>
+
+<p>However, putting sentiment and personal feeling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span>
+of every kind apart, so much that is admirable
+in Paris owes its origin to him, that his ambition
+and his usurpations are involuntarily forgotten,
+and the use made of his ill-gotten power almost
+obliterates the lawless tyranny of the power itself.
+The appearance of his statue, therefore, on the
+top of the column formed of the cannon taken
+by the armies of France when fighting under his
+command, appeared to me to be the result of an
+arrangement founded upon perfect propriety and
+good taste.</p>
+
+<p>When his effigy was torn down some twenty
+years ago by the avenging hands of the Allies, the
+act was one both of moral justice and of natural
+feeling; and that the rightful owners of the throne
+he had seized should never have replaced it, can
+hardly be matter of surprise: but that it should
+now again be permitted to look down upon the
+fitful fortunes of the French people, has something
+of historic propriety in it which pleases
+the imagination.</p>
+
+<p>This statue of Napoleon offers the only instance
+I remember in which that most grotesque of
+European habiliments, a cocked-hat, has been
+immortalized in marble or in bronze with good
+effect. The original statue, with its flowing outline
+of Roman drapery, was erected by a feeling
+of pride; but this portrait of him has the every-day
+familiar look that could best satisfy affection.
+Instead of causing the eye to turn away as it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span>
+does from some faithful portraitures of modern
+costume with positive disgust, this <i>chapeau à trois
+cornes</i>, and the well-known loose <i>redingote</i>, have
+that air of picturesque truth in them which is
+sure to please the taste even where it does not
+touch the heart.</p>
+
+<p>To the French themselves this statue is little
+short of an idol. Fresh votive wreaths are perpetually
+hung about its pedestal; and little draperies
+of black crape, constantly renewed, show
+plainly how fondly his memory is still cherished.</p>
+
+<p>While Napoleon was still among them, the halo
+of his military glory, bright as it was, could not so
+dazzle the eyes of the nation but that some portentous
+spots were discerned even in the very
+nucleus of that glory itself; but now that it
+shines upon them across his tomb, it is gazed at
+with an enthusiasm of devoted affection which
+mixes no memory of error with its regrets.</p>
+
+<p>It would, I think, be very difficult to find a
+Frenchman, let his party be what it might, who
+would speak of Napoleon with disrespect.</p>
+
+<p>I one day passed the foot of his gorgeous pedestal
+in company with a legitimate <i>sans reproche</i>, who,
+raising his eyes to the statue, said&mdash;"Notre position,
+Madame Trollope, est bien dure: nous avons
+perdu le droit d'être fidèles, sans avoir plus celui
+d'être fiers."</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER III.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Slang.&mdash;Les Jeunes Gens de Paris.&mdash;La Jeune France.&mdash;Rococo.&mdash;Décousu.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose that, among all people and at all times,
+a certain portion of what we call slang will insinuate
+itself into familiar colloquial intercourse,
+and sometimes even dare to make its unsanctioned
+accents heard from the tribune and the stage. It
+appears to me, I confess, that France is at present
+taking considerable liberties with her mother-tongue.
+But this is a subject which requires for
+its grave discussion a native critic, and a learned
+one too. I therefore can only venture distantly and
+doubtingly to allude to it, as one of the points at
+which it appears to me that innovation is visibly
+and audibly at work.</p>
+
+<p>I know it may be said that every additional
+word, whether fabricated or borrowed, adds something
+to the riches of the language; and no doubt
+it does so. But there is a polished grace, a finished
+elegance in the language of France, as registered
+in the writings of her Augustan age, which may
+well atone for the want of greater copiousness,
+with which it has been sometimes reproached. To
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span>
+increase its strength, by giving it coarseness, would
+be like exchanging a high-mettled racer for a
+dray-horse. A brewer would tell you, that you
+gained in power what you lost in grace: it may
+be so; but there are many, I think, even in this
+age of operatives and utilitarians, who would regret
+the change.</p>
+
+<p>This is a theme, however, as I have said before,
+on which I should not feel myself justified in saying
+much. None should pretend to examine, or at
+any rate to discuss critically, the niceties of idiom
+in a language that is not native to them. But,
+distinct from any such presumptuous examination,
+there are words and phrases lawfully within the
+reach of foreign observation, which strike me as remarkable
+at the present day, either from their frequent
+recurrence, or for something of unusual emphasis
+in the manner in which they are employed.</p>
+
+<p><i>Les jeunes gens de Paris</i> appears to me to be
+one of these. Translate it, and you find nothing
+but "the young men of Paris;" which should
+seem to have no more imposing meaning than "the
+young men of London," or of any other metropolis.
+But hear it spoken at Paris&mdash;Mercy on me! it
+sounds like a thunderbolt. It is not only loud
+and blustering, however; you feel that there is
+something awful&mdash;nay, mystical, implied by the
+phrase. It appears solemnly to typify the power,
+the authority, the learning&mdash;ay, and the wisdom
+too, of the whole nation.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>La Jeune France</i> is another of these cabalistic
+forms of speech, by which everybody seems expected
+to understand something great, terrible, volcanic,
+and sublime. At present, I confess that
+both of these, pronounced as they always are with
+a sort of mysterious emphasis, which seems to say
+that "more is meant than meets the ear," produce
+rather a paralysing effect upon me. I am
+conscious that I do not clearly comprehend all the
+meaning with which they are pregnant, and yet I
+am afraid to ask, lest the explanation should prove
+either more unintelligible or more alarming than
+even the words themselves. I hope, however, that
+ere long I shall grow more intelligent or less timid;
+and whenever this happens, and I conceive that I
+fully comprehend their occult meaning, I will not
+fail to transmit it faithfully to you.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these phrases, and some others that I
+may perhaps mention hereafter as difficult to understand,
+I have learned a word quite new to me,
+and which I suspect has but very recently been
+introduced into the French language; at least, it
+is not to be found in the dictionaries, and I therefore
+presume it to be one of those happy inventions
+which are permitted from time to time to
+enrich the power of expression. How the Academy
+of former days might have treated it, I know
+not; but it seems to me to express a great deal,
+and might at this time, I think, be introduced very
+conveniently into our own language: at any rate, it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span>
+may often help me, I think, as a very useful adjective.
+This new-born word is "<i>rococo</i>," and appears
+to me to be applied by the young and innovating
+to everything which bears the stamp of the taste,
+principles, or feelings of time past. That part of
+the French population to whom the epithet of
+<i>rococo</i> is thus applied, may be understood to contain
+all varieties of old-fashionism, from the gentle
+advocate for laced coats and diamond sword-knots,
+up to the high-minded venerable loyalist, who
+only loves his rightful king the better because
+he has no means left to requite his love. Such is
+the interpretation of <i>rococo</i> in the mouth of a
+doctrinaire: but if a republican speaks it, he
+means that it should include also every gradation
+of orderly obedience, even to the powers that be;
+and, in fact, whatever else may be considered as
+essentially connected either with law or gospel.</p>
+
+<p>There is another adjective which appears also
+to recur so frequently as fully to merit, in the
+same manner, the distinction of being considered
+as fashionable. It is, however, a good old legitimate
+word, admirably expressive too, and at
+present of more than ordinary utility. This is
+"<i>décousu</i>;" and it seems to be the epithet now given
+by the sober-minded to all that smacks of the
+rambling nonsense of the new school of literature,
+and of all those fragments of opinions which hang
+so loosely about the minds of the young men who
+discourse fashionably of philosophy at Paris.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Were the whole population to be classed under
+two great divisions, I doubt if they could be more
+expressively designated than by these two appellations,
+the <i>décousu</i> and the <i>rococo</i>. I have already
+stated who it is that form the <i>rococo</i> class:
+the <i>décousu</i> division may be considered as embracing
+the whole of the ultra-romantic school of
+authors, be they novelists, dramatists, or poets;
+all shades of republicans, from the avowed eulogists
+of the "spirited Robespierre" to the gentler
+disciples of Lamennais; most of the schoolboys,
+and all the <i>poissardes</i> of Paris.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER IV.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Théâtre Français.&mdash;Mademoiselle Mars.&mdash;Elmire.&mdash;Charlotte
+Brown.&mdash;Extract from a Sermon.</p>
+
+<p>It was not without some expectation of having
+"Guilty of rococoism" recorded against me, that
+I avowed, very soon after my arrival, the ardent
+desire I felt of turning my eyes from all that was
+new, that I might once again see Mars perform
+the part of Elmire in the "Tartuffe."</p>
+
+<p>I was not quite without fear, too, that I was
+running some risk of effacing the delightful recollections
+of the past, by contemplating the change
+which seven years had made. I almost feared to
+let my children behold a reality that might destroy
+their <i>beau idéal</i> of the only perfect actress still
+remaining on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>But "Tartuffe" was on the bills: it might not
+soon appear again; an early dinner was hastily
+dispatched, and once more I found myself before
+the curtain which I had so often seen rise to Talma,
+Duchenois, and Mars.</p>
+
+<p>I perceived with great pleasure on reaching the
+theatre, that the Parisians, though fickle in all else,
+were still faithful in their adoration of Mademoiselle
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span>
+Mars: for now, for perhaps the five hundredth representation
+of her Elmire, the barricades were as
+necessary, the <i>queue</i> as long and as full, as when,
+fifteen years ago, I was first told to remark the
+wonderful power of attraction possessed by an
+actress already greatly past the first bloom of
+youth and beauty. Were the Parisians as defensible
+in their ordinary love of change as they
+are in this singular proof of fidelity, it would be
+well. It is, however, strange witchery.</p>
+
+<p>That the ear should be gratified, and the feelings
+awakened, by the skilful intonations of a
+voice the sweetest perhaps that ever blest a
+mortal, is quite intelligible; but that the eye
+should follow with such unwearied delight every
+look and movement of a woman, not only old&mdash;for
+that does sometimes happen at Paris&mdash;but one
+known to be so from one end of Europe to the
+other, is certainly a singular phenomenon. Yet
+so it is; and could you see her, you would understand
+why, though not how, it is so. There is still
+a charm, a grace, in every movement of Mademoiselle
+Mars, however trifling and however
+slight, which instantly captivates the eye, and
+forbids it to wander to any other object&mdash;even
+though that object be young and lovely.</p>
+
+<p>Why is it that none of the young heads can
+learn to turn like hers? Why can no arms move
+with the same beautiful and easy elegance? Her
+very fingers, even when gloved, seem to aid her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span>
+expression; and the quietest and least posture-studying
+of actresses contrives to make the most
+trifling and ordinary movement assist in giving
+effect to her part.</p>
+
+<p>I would willingly consent to be dead for a few
+hours, if I could meanwhile bring Molière to life,
+and let him see Mars play one of his best-loved
+characters. How delicious would be his pleasure
+in beholding the creature of his own fancy thus
+exquisitely alive before him; and of marking,
+moreover, the thrill that makes itself heard along
+the closely-packed rows of the parterre, when his
+wit, conveyed by this charming conductor, runs
+round the house like the touch of electricity! Do
+you think that the best smile of Louis le Grand
+could be worth this?</p>
+
+<p>Few theatrical pieces can, I think, be calculated
+to give less pleasure than that of "Charlotte
+Brown," which followed the "Tartuffe;" but as the
+part of Charlotte is played by Mademoiselle Mars,
+people will stay to see it. I repented however that
+I did not go, for it made me cross and angry.</p>
+
+<p>Such an actress as Mars should not be asked
+to try a <i>tour de force</i> in order to make an abortive
+production effective. And what else can it be
+called, if her touching pathos and enchanting
+grace are brought before the public, to make them
+endure a platitude that would have been hissed
+into oblivion ere it had well seen light without
+her? It is hardly fair to expect that a performer
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span>
+should create as well as personate the chief
+character of a piece; but Mademoiselle Mars
+certainly does nothing less, when she contrives to
+excite sympathy and interest for a low-born and
+low-minded woman, who has managed to make a
+great match by telling a great falsehood. Yet
+"Charlotte Brown" is worth seeing for the sake of a
+certain tragic look given by this wonderful actress
+at the moment when her falsehood is discovered.
+It is no exaggeration to say, that Mrs. Siddons
+never produced an expression of greater power.</p>
+
+<p>It is long since I have seen any theatre so
+crowded.</p>
+
+<p>I remember many years ago hearing what I
+thought an excellent sermon from a venerable
+rector, who happened to have a curate more remarkable
+for the conscientious manner in which
+he performed his duty to the parish, and the judicious
+selection of his discourses, than for the excellence
+of his original sermons. "It is the
+duty of a minister," said the old man, "to address
+the congregation which shall assemble to hear him
+with the most impressive and most able eloquence
+that it is within the compass of his power to use;
+and far better is it that the approved wisdom of
+those who have passed away be read from the
+pulpit, than that the weak efforts of an ungifted
+preacher should fall wearily and unprofitably on
+the ears of his congregation. The fact that his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span>
+discourse is manuscript, instead of printed, will
+hardly console them for the difference."</p>
+
+<p>Do you not think&mdash;with all reverence be it
+spoken&mdash;that the same reasoning might be very
+usefully addressed to the managers of theatres,
+not in France only, but all the world over? If it
+cost too much to have a good new piece, would it
+not be better to have a good old one?</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER V.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Exhibition of Living Artists at the Louvre.&mdash;The Deluge.&mdash;Poussin
+and Martin.&mdash;Portraits.&mdash;Appearance of the
+company.</p>
+
+<p>I have been so little careful about dates and
+seasons, as totally to have forgotten, or rather neglected
+to learn, that the period of our arriving at
+Paris was that of the Exhibition of Living Artists
+at the Louvre: and it is not easy to describe the
+feeling produced by entering the gallery, with the
+expectation of seeing what I had been used to see
+there, and finding what was, at least, so very
+different.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the exhibition is a very fine one,
+and so greatly superior to any I had heretofore
+seen of the modern French school, that we soon
+had the consolation of finding ourselves amused,
+and I may say delighted, notwithstanding our
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>But surely there never was a device hit upon
+so little likely to propitiate the feelings which
+generate applause, as this of covering up Poussin,
+Rubens, Raphael, Titian, and Correggio, by hanging
+before them the fresh results of modern palettes.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span>
+It is indeed a most un-coquettish mode of
+extorting attention.</p>
+
+<p>There are some pictures of the Louvre Gallery
+in particular, with which my children are well
+acquainted, either by engravings or description,
+whose eclipse produced a very sad effect. "The
+Deluge" of Poussin is one of these. Perhaps it
+may have been my brother's striking description
+of this picture which made it pre-eminently an
+object of interest to us. You may remember that
+Mr. Milton, in his elegant and curious little volume
+on the Fine Arts, written at Paris just before the
+breaking up of Napoleon's collection, says in
+speaking of it&mdash;"Colouring was unquestionably
+Poussin's least excellence; yet in this collection
+there is one of his pictures&mdash;the Deluge&mdash;in which
+the effect produced by the mere colouring is most
+singular and powerful. The air is burdened and
+heavy with water; the earth, where it is not as
+yet overwhelmed, seems torn to pieces by its
+violence: the very light of heaven is absorbed
+and lost." I give you this passage, because I
+remember no picture described with equal brevity,
+yet brought so powerfully before the imagination
+of the reader.</p>
+
+<p>Can the place where one comes to look for this
+be favourable for hanging our illustrious countryman's
+representation of the same subject? It is
+doing him a most ungratifying honour; and were I
+Mr. Martin, or any other painter living, I would
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span>
+not consent to be exposed to the invidious comparisons
+which must inevitably ensue from such
+an injudicious arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>How exceedingly disagreeable, for instance, must
+it be for the artists&mdash;who, I believe, not unfrequently
+indulge themselves by hovering under the incognito of
+apparent indifference near their favourite
+works&mdash;to overhear such remarks as those
+to which I listened yesterday in that part of the
+gallery where Le Sueur's St. Brunos hang!&mdash;"Certainly,
+the bows on that lady's dress are of a
+delicate blue," said the critic; "and so is the
+drapery of Le Sueur, which, for my sins, I happen
+to know is hid just under it.... Would one wish
+a better contrast to what it hides, than that unmeaning
+smile&mdash;that cold, smooth, varnished skin,&mdash;those
+lifeless limbs, and the whole unspeakable
+tameness of this thing, called <i>portrait d'une dame</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>He spoke truly; yet was there but little point in
+what he said, for it might have referred with
+equal justice to many a pretty lady doomed to
+simper for ever in her gilded frame.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, however, portraits are much less
+oppressively predominating than with us; and
+among them are many whose size, composition,
+and exquisite style of finishing redeem them
+altogether from the odium of being <i>de trop</i> in the
+collection. I cannot but wish that this style of
+portrait-painting may find favour and imitation
+in England.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lawrence is gone; and though Gérard on this
+side of the water, and indeed too many to rehearse
+on both, are left, whose portraitures of the human
+face are admirable; true to nature; true to art;
+true to expression,&mdash;true, even to the want of it;
+I am greatly inclined to believe that the enormous
+sums annually expended on these clever portraits
+contribute more to lower than to raise the art in
+popularity and in the genuine estimation of the
+public. The sums thus lavished may be termed
+patronage, certainly; but it is patronage that
+bribes the artist to the restraint, and often to the
+destruction, of his genius.</p>
+
+<p>Is there, in fact, any one who can honestly
+deny that a splendid exhibition-room, crowded
+with ladies and gentlemen on canvass, as large as
+life, is a lounge of great tediousness and inanity?</p>
+
+<p>We may feel some satisfaction in recognising at
+a glance the eyes, nose, mouth, and chin of many
+of our friends and acquaintance,&mdash;nay, our most
+critical judgment may often acknowledge that
+these familiar features are registered with equal
+truth and skill; but this will not prevent the exhibition
+from being very dull. Nor is the thing
+much mended when each portrait, or pair of portraits,
+has been withdrawn from the gaudy throng,
+and hung up for ever and for ever before the eyes
+of their family and friends. The fair lady, sweetly
+smiling in one division of the apartment, and the
+well-dressed gentleman looking <i>distingué</i> in another,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span>
+contribute as little at home as they did when suspended
+on the walls of the academy to the real
+pleasure and amusement of the beholder.</p>
+
+<p>At the exhibition this year at the Louvre are
+many exquisite full-length portraits in oil, of
+which the canvass measures from eighteen inches
+to a foot in height, and from a foot to ten inches
+in width. The composition and style of these
+beautiful little pictures are often such as to detain
+one long before them, even though one does not
+recognise in them the features of an acquaintance.
+Their unobtrusive size must prevent their ever
+being disagreeably predominant in the decoration
+of a room; while their delicate and elaborate finish,
+and the richness of their highly-studied composition,
+will well reward attention; and even the
+closest examination, when directed to them, either
+by politeness, affection, or connoisseurship, can
+never be disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>The Catalogue of the exhibition notices all the
+pictures which have been either ordered or purchased
+by the king or any of the royal family;
+and the number is so considerable as to show
+plainly that the most liberal and widely-extended
+patronage of art is a systematic object with the
+government.</p>
+
+<p>The gold medal of the year has been courteously
+bestowed upon Mr. Martin for his picture of
+the Deluge. Had I been the judge, I should have
+awarded it to Stuben's Battle of Waterloo. That
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>
+the faculty of imagination is one of the highest
+requisites for a painter is most certain; and that
+Mr. Martin pre-eminently possesses it, not less so.
+But imagination, though it can do much, cannot
+do all; and common sense is at least equally important
+in the formation of a finished artist. The
+painter of the great day of Waterloo has both.
+His imagination has enabled him to dive into the
+very hearts and souls of the persons he has depicted.
+Passion speaks in every line; and common
+sense has taught him, that, however powerful&mdash;nay,
+vehement, might be the expression he sought
+to produce, it must be obtained rather by the patient
+and faithful imitation of Nature than by a
+bold defiance of her.</p>
+
+<p>The Assassination of the Duc de Guise, by M.
+Delaroche, is an admirable and highly popular
+work. It requires some patient perseverance to
+contest inch by inch the slow approach to the
+place where this exquisite piece of finishing is hung&mdash;but
+it well rewards the time and labour. One
+or two lovely little pictures by Franquelin made
+me envy those who have power to purchase, and
+sigh to think that they will probably go into
+private collections, where I shall never see them
+more. There are, indeed, many pictures so very
+good, that I think it possible the judges may have
+relieved themselves from the embarrassment of
+declaring which was best, by politely awarding
+the palm to the stranger.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I could indulge myself, did I not fear to weary
+you, by dwelling much longer upon my agreeable
+recollections of this extensive exhibition&mdash;containing,
+by the way, 2,174 pictures,&mdash;and might particularise
+many very admirable works. Nevertheless,
+I must repeat, that thus hiding the precious labours
+of all schools, and of all ages of painting, by the
+promiscuous productions of the living artists of
+France during the last year, is a most injudicious
+device for winning for them the golden opinions of
+those who throng from all quarters of the world
+to visit the Louvre.</p>
+
+<p>This exhibition reaches to about three-fourths
+of the gallery; and where it ceases, a grim curtain,
+suspended across it, conceals the precious labours
+of the Spanish and Italian schools, which occupy
+the farther end. Can anything be imagined more
+tantalising than this? And where is the living
+artist who could stand his ground against such
+cruel odds?</p>
+
+<p>To render the effect more striking still, this
+dismal curtain is permitted so to hang as to leave
+a few inches between its envious amplitude and
+the rich wall&mdash;suffering the mellow browns of a
+well-known Murillo to meet and mock the eye.
+Certainly not all the lecturers of all the academies
+extant could point out a more effectual manner
+of showing the modern French artist wherein he
+chiefly fails: let us hope he will profit by it.</p>
+
+<p>As I am writing of Paris, it must be almost
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span>
+superfluous to say that the admission to this collection
+is gratis.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot quit the subject without adding a few
+words respecting the company, or at least a part
+of it, whose appearance, I thought, gave very unequivocal
+marks of the march of mind and of
+indecorum;&mdash;for a considerable sprinkling of very
+particularly greasy citizens and citizenesses made
+itself felt and seen at every point where the critical
+crowd was thickest. But&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Sweetest nut hath sourest rind;"</p>
+
+<p>and it were treason here, I suppose, to doubt that
+such a proportion of intellect and refinement lies
+hid under the soiled <i>blouse</i> and time-worn petticoat,
+as is at least equal to any that we may hope
+to find enveloped in lawn, and lace, and broadcloth.</p>
+
+<p>It is an incontrovertible fact, I think, that when
+the immortals of Paris raised the barricades in the
+streets, they pulled them down, more or less, in
+society. But this is an evil which those who look
+beyond the present hour for their sources of joy
+and sorrow need not deeply lament. Nature herself&mdash;at
+least such as she shows herself, when man,
+forsaking the forest, agrees with his fellows to congregate
+in cities&mdash;Nature herself will take care to
+set this right again.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Strength will be lord of imbecility;"</p>
+
+<p>and were all men equal in the morning, they would
+not go to rest till some amongst them had been
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>
+thoroughly made to understand that it was their
+lot to strew the couches of the rest. Such is the
+law of nature; and mere brute numerical strength
+will no more enable a mob to set it aside, than it
+will enable the ox or the elephant to send us to
+plough, or draw out our teeth to make their young
+one's toys.</p>
+
+<p>For the present moment, however, some of the
+rubbish that the commotion of "the Ordonnances"
+stirred up may still be seen floating about on the
+surface; and it is difficult to observe without a
+smile in what chiefly consists the liberty which
+these immortals have so valiantly bled to acquire.
+We may truly say of the philosophical population
+of Paris, that "they are thankful for small
+matters;" one of the most remarkable of their
+newly-acquired rights being certainly the privilege
+of presenting themselves dirty, instead of
+clean, before the eyes of their magnates.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6" style="width: 398px;"><a name="illo1" id="illo1"></a>
+<img src="images/ill049.jpg" width="398" height="600" alt="Louvre" />
+<p class="s05">Drawn &amp; Etched by A. Hervieu.</p>
+<p class="caption smcap">Louvre.</p>
+<p class="caption s05">London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I am sure you must remember in days of yore,&mdash;that
+is to say, before the last revolution,&mdash;how
+very agreeable a part of the spectacle at the
+Louvre and in the Tuileries Gardens was constituted
+by the people,&mdash;not the ladies and gentlemen&mdash;they
+look pretty much the same everywhere;
+but by the careful coquetry of the pretty
+costumes, now a <i>cauchoise</i>, and now a <i>toque</i>,&mdash;the
+spruce neatness of the men who attended
+them,&mdash;nay, even by the tight and tidy trimness
+of the "wee things" that in long waist, silk apron,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>
+snow-white cap, and faultless <i>chaussure</i>, trotted
+beside them. All these added greatly to the pleasantness
+and gaiety of the scene. But now, till
+the fresh dirt (not the fresh gloss) of the Three
+Days' labour be worn off, dingy jackets, uncomely
+<i>casquettes</i>, ragged <i>blouses</i>, and ill-favoured round-eared
+caps, that look as if they did duty night and
+day, must all be tolerated; and in this toleration
+appears to consist at present the principal external
+proof of the increased liberty of the Parisian
+mob.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER VI.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Society.&mdash;Morality.&mdash;False Impressions and False Reports.&mdash;Observations
+from a Frenchman on a recent publication.</p>
+
+<p>Much as I love the sights of Paris,&mdash;including
+as we must under this term all that is great and
+enduring, as well as all that is for ever changing
+and for ever new,&mdash;I am more earnestly bent, as
+you will readily believe, upon availing myself of
+all my opportunities for listening to the conversation
+within the houses, than on contemplating all
+the marvels that may be seen without.</p>
+
+<p>Joyfully, therefore, have I welcomed the attention
+and kindness that have been offered me in
+various quarters; and I have already the satisfaction
+of finding myself on terms of most pleasant
+and familiar intercourse with a variety of very
+delightful people, many of them highly distinguished,
+and, happily for me, varying in their
+opinions of all things both in heaven and earth,
+from the loftiest elevation of the <i>rococo</i>, to the
+lowest profundity of the <i>décousu</i> school.</p>
+
+<p>And here let me pause, to assure you, and any
+other of my countrymen and countrywomen whose
+ears I can reach, that excursions to Paris, be they
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span>
+undertaken with what spirit of enterprise they
+may, and though they may be carried through
+with all the unrestrained expense that English
+wealth can permit, yet without the power by some
+means or other of entering into good French society,
+they are nothing worth.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, that there is something most exceedingly
+exhilarating to the spirits in the mere external
+novelty and cheerfulness of the objects which
+surround a stranger on first entering Paris. That
+indescribable air of gaiety which makes every
+sunshiny day look like a fête; the light hilarity of
+spirit that seems to pervade all ranks; the cheerful
+tone of voice, the sparkling glances of the numberless
+bright eyes; the gardens, the flowers, the
+statues of Paris,&mdash;all together produce an effect
+very like enchantment.</p>
+
+<p>But "use lessens marvel;" and when the first
+delightful excitement is over, and we begin to feel
+weary from its very intensity, the next step is
+backward into rationality, low spirits, and grumbling.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment the English tourist talks of
+nothing but wide rivers, magnificent bridges, prodigious
+<i>trottoirs</i>, unrivalled drains, and genuine
+port. It is at this stage that the traveller, in
+order to continue his enjoyment and bring it to
+perfection, should remit his examination of the
+exterior of noble <i>hôtels</i>, and endeavour to be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span>
+admitted to the much more enduring enchantment
+which prevails within them.</p>
+
+<p>So much has already been said and written on
+the grace and charm of the French language in
+conversation, that it is quite needless to dwell upon
+it. That <i>good things</i> can be said in no other
+idiom with equal grace, is a fact that can neither
+be controverted nor more firmly established than it
+is already. Happily, the art of expressing a clever
+thought in the best possible words did not die
+with Madame de Sévigné; nor has it yet been
+destroyed by revolution of any kind.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only for the amusement of an hour,
+however, that I would recommend the assiduous
+cultivation of good French society to the English.
+Great and important improvements in our national
+manners have already arisen from the intercourse
+which long peace has permitted. Our dinner-tables
+are no longer disgraced by inebriety; nor
+are our men and women, when they form a party
+expressly for the purpose of enjoying each other's
+society, separated by the law of the land during
+half the period for which the social meeting has
+been convened.</p>
+
+<p>But we have much to learn still; and the general
+tone of our daily associations might be yet farther
+improved, did the best specimens of Parisian habits
+and manners furnish the examples.</p>
+
+<p>It is not from the large and brilliant parties
+which recur in every fashionable mansion, perhaps,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span>
+three or four times in each season, that I think
+we could draw much improvement. A fine party
+at Lady A&mdash;&mdash;'s in Grosvenor Square, is not more
+like a fine party at Lady B&mdash;&mdash;'s in Berkeley
+Square, than a fine party in Paris is to one in London.
+There are abundance of pretty women, handsome
+men, satin, gauze, velvet, diamonds, chains,
+stars, moustaches, and imperials at both, with
+perhaps very little deserving the name of rational
+enjoyment in either.</p>
+
+<p>I suspect, indeed, that we have rather the advantage
+on these crowded occasions, for we more
+frequently change the air by passing from one
+room to another when we eat our ices; and as
+the tulip-tinctured throng enjoy this respite from
+suffocation by detachments, they have often not
+only opportunity to breathe, but occasionally to
+converse also, for several minutes together, without
+danger of being dislodged from their standing-ground.</p>
+
+<p>It is not, therefore, at the crowded roll-calls
+of all their acquaintance that I would look for
+anything rational or peculiar in the <i>salons</i> of
+Paris, but in the daily and constant intercourse of
+familiar companionship. This is enjoyed with a
+degree of pleasant ease&mdash;an absence of all pomp,
+pride, and circumstance, of which unhappily we
+have no idea. Alas! we must know by special
+printed announcement a month beforehand that
+our friend is "at home,"&mdash;that liveried servants
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span>
+will be in attendance, and her mansion blazing
+with light,&mdash;before we can dare venture to pass an
+evening hour in her drawing-room. How would
+a London lady stare, if some half-dozen&mdash;though
+perhaps among the most chosen favourites of her
+visiting-list&mdash;were to walk unbidden into her
+presence, in bonnets and shawls, between the
+hours of eight and eleven! And how strangely
+new would it seem, were the pleasantest and most
+coveted engagements of the week, formed without
+ceremony and kept without ostentation, to
+arise from a casual meeting at the beginning
+of it!</p>
+
+<p>It is this ease, this habitual absence of ceremony
+and parade, this national enmity to constraint and
+tediousness of all kinds, which renders the tone of
+French manners so infinitely more agreeable than
+our own. And the degree in which this is the
+case can only be guessed at by those who, by some
+happy accident or other, possess a real and effective
+"open sesame!" for the doors of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>With all the superabundance of vanity ascribed
+to the French, they certainly show infinitely less
+of it in their intercourse with their fellow-creatures
+than we do. I have seen a countess, whose title
+was of a dozen fair descents, open the external
+door of her apartment, and welcome the guests
+who appeared at it with as much grace and elegance
+as if a triple relay of tall fellows who wore
+her colours had handed their names from hall to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span>
+drawing-room. Yet in this case there was no
+want of wealth. Coachman, footman, abigail, and
+doubtless all fitting etceteras, owned her as their
+sovereign lady and mistress. But they happened
+to have been sent hither and thither, and it never
+entered her imagination that her dignity could be
+compromised by her appearing without them. In
+short, the vanity of the French does not show
+itself in little things; and it is exactly for this
+reason that their enjoyment of society is stripped
+of so much of the anxious, sensitive, ostentatious,
+self-seeking etiquette which so heavily encumbers
+our own.</p>
+
+<p>There are some among us, my friend, who
+might say of this testimony to the charm of
+French society, that there was danger in praising,
+and pointing out as an example to be followed,
+the manners of a people whose morality is considered
+as so much less strict than our own. Could
+I think that, by thus approving what is agreeable,
+I could lessen by a single hair's-breadth the
+interval which we believe exists between us in
+this respect, I would turn my approval to reproof,
+and my superficial praise to deep-dyed reprobation:
+but to any who should express such
+a fear, I would reply by assuring them that it
+would require a very different species of intimacy
+from any to which I had the honour of being
+admitted, in order to authorise, from personal
+observation, any attack upon the morals of Parisian
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span>
+society. More scrupulous and delicate refinement
+in <i>the tone of manners</i> can neither be
+found nor wished for anywhere; and I do very
+strongly suspect, that many of the pictures of
+French depravity which have been brought home
+to us by our travellers, have been made after
+sketches taken in scenes and circles to which the
+introductions I so strongly recommend to my
+countrywomen could by no possibility lead them.
+It is not of such that I can be supposed to
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>Apropos of false impressions and false reports,
+I may repeat to you an anecdote which I heard
+yesterday evening. The little committee in which
+it was related consisted of at least a dozen persons,
+and it appeared that I was myself the only
+one to whom it was new.</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather more than two years ago," said
+the speaker, "that we had amongst us an English
+gentleman, who avowed that it was his purpose to
+write on France, not as other men write&mdash;superficially,
+respecting truths that lie obvious to ordinary
+eyes&mdash;but with a research that should make him
+acquainted with all things above, about, and underneath.
+He professed this intention to more
+than one dear friend; and more than one dear
+friend took the trouble of tracing him in his chase
+after hidden truths. Not long after his arrival
+among us, this gentleman became intimately acquainted
+with a lady more celebrated for the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span>
+variety of her friendships with men of letters
+than for the endurance of them. This lady received
+the attentions of the stranger with distinguished
+kindness, and, among other proofs of
+regard, undertook to purvey for him all sorts of
+private anecdotes, great and little, that from the
+mass he might form an average estimate of the
+people; assuring him at the same time, that no
+one in Paris was more <i>au fait</i> of its secret histories
+than herself. This," continued my informant,
+"might be, and I believe was, very particularly
+true; and the English traveller might have been
+justified in giving to his countrymen and countrywomen
+as much insight into such mysteries as he
+thought good for them: but when he published
+the venomous slanders of this female respecting
+persons not only of the highest honour, but of the
+most unspotted reputation, he did what will blast
+his name as long as his charlatan book is remembered."
+Such were the indignant words, and
+there was nothing in the tone with which they
+were uttered to weaken their expression.</p>
+
+<p>I tell you the tale as I heard it; but I will not
+repeat much more that was said on the same subject,
+nor will I give any A..., B..., or
+C... hints as to the names so freely
+mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Some degree of respectability ought certainly to
+attach to those from whom important information
+is sought respecting the morals and manners of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span>
+country, when it is the intention of the inquirer
+that his observations and statements upon it
+should become authority to the whole civilized
+world.</p>
+
+<p>The above conversation, however, was brought
+to a laughing conclusion by Madame C&mdash;&mdash;, who,
+addressing her husband as he was seconding the
+angry eloquence I have repeated, said, "Calmez-vous
+donc, mon ami: après tout, le tableau fait
+par M. le Voyageur des dames Anglaises n'a rien
+à nous faire mourir de jalousie."</p>
+
+<p>I suspect that neither you nor any other lady
+of England will feel disposed to contradict her.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">Adieu!</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER VII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Alarm created by the Trial of the Lyons Prisoners.&mdash;Visits
+from a Republican and from a Doctrinaire: reassured
+by the promises of safety and protection received from
+the latter.</p>
+
+<p>We have really had something very like a
+panic amongst us, from the rumours in circulation
+respecting this terrible trial, which is now
+rapidly approaching. Many people think that
+fearful scenes may be expected to take place in
+Paris when it begins.</p>
+
+<p>The newspapers of all parties are so full of
+the subject, that there is little else to be found
+in them; and all those, of whatever colour, which
+are opposed to the government, describe the manner
+in which the proceedings are to be managed,
+as the most tyrannical exercise of power ever
+practised in modern Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The legitimate royalists declare it to be illegal,
+inasmuch as the culprits have a right to be tried
+by a jury of their peers&mdash;the citizens of France;
+whereas it appears that this their chartered
+right is denied them, and that no other judge
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span>
+or jury is to be permitted in their case than the
+peers of France.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this accusation will be satisfactorily
+answered, I know not; but there certainly does
+appear to be something rather plausible, at least,
+in the objection. Nevertheless, it is not very difficult
+to see that the 28th Article of the Charter
+may be made to answer it, which says,&mdash;</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+"The Chamber of Peers takes cognizance of
+high-treason, and of attempts against the
+safety of the state, <i>which shall be defined
+by law</i>."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now, though this <i>defining by law</i> appears, by
+what I can learn, to be an operation not yet quite
+completed, there seems to be something so very
+like high-treason in some of the offences for which
+these prisoners are to be tried, that the first clause
+of the article may do indifferently well to cover it.</p>
+
+<p>The republican journals, pamphlets, and publications
+of all sorts, however, treat the whole
+business of their detention and trial as the most
+tremendous infringement of the newly-acquired
+rights of Young France; and they say&mdash;nay, they
+do swear, that crowned king, created peers, and
+placed ministers never dared to venture upon anything
+so tyrannical as this.</p>
+
+<p>All that the unfortunate Louis Seize ever did,
+or suffered to be done&mdash;all that the banished
+Charles Dix ever threatened to do&mdash;never "roared
+so loud, and thundered in the index," as does this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span>
+deed without a name about to be perpetrated by
+King Louis-Philippe the First.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, the horrible thing has been
+christened, and <span class="smcap">Procès Monstre</span> is its name.
+This is a happy device, and will save a world of
+words. Before it received this expressive appellation,
+every paragraph concerning it began by a
+roundabout specification of the horrific business
+they were about to speak of; but since this lucky
+name has been hit upon, all prefatory eloquence
+is become unnecessary: <i>Procès Monstre!</i> simply
+<i>Procès Monstre!</i> expresses all it could say in two
+words; and whatever follows may safely become
+matter of news and narrative respecting it.</p>
+
+<p>This news, and these narratives, however, still
+vary considerably, and leave one in a very vacillating
+state of mind as to what may happen next.
+One account states that Paris is immediately to be
+put under martial law, and all foreigners, except
+those attached to the different embassies, civilly
+requested to depart. Another declares all this to
+be a weak invention of the enemy; but hints that
+it is probable a pretty strong <i>cordon</i> of troops
+will surround the city, to keep watch day and
+night, lest <i>les jeunes gens</i> of the metropolis, in
+their mettlesome mood, should seek to wash out
+in the blood of their fellow-citizens the stain
+which the illegitimate birth of the monster has
+brought upon France. Others announce that a
+devoted body of patriots have sworn to sacrifice a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>
+hecatomb of National Guards, to atone for an
+abomination which many believe to originate with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Not a few declare that the trial will never take
+place; that the government, audacious as they
+say it is, dare do no more than hold up the effigy
+of the monster to frighten the people, and that a
+general amnesty will end the business. In truth,
+it would be a tedious task to record one half of
+the tales that are in circulation on this subject:
+but I do assure you, that listening to the awful
+note of preparation for all that is to be done at
+the Luxembourg is quite enough to make one
+nervous, and many English families have already
+thought it prudent to leave the city.</p>
+
+<p>At one moment we were really worked into a
+state very nearly approaching terror by the vehement
+eloquence of a fiery-hot republican who paid
+us a visit. I ventured to lead to the terrible subject
+by asking him if he thought the approaching
+political trials likely to produce any result beyond
+their disagreeable influence on the convenience of
+the parties concerned; but I really repented my
+temerity when I saw the cloud which gathered
+on his brow as he replied:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Result! What do you call result, madam?
+Is the burning indignation of millions of Frenchmen
+a result? Are the execrations of the noble
+beings enslaved, imprisoned, tortured, trampled on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span>
+by tyranny, a result? Are the groans of their
+wives and mothers&mdash;are the tears of their bereaved
+children&mdash;a result?&mdash;Yes, yes, there will
+be results enough! They are yet to come, but
+come they will; and when they do, think you
+that the next revolution will be one of three
+days? Do your countrymen think so? does Europe
+think so? There has been another revolution,
+to which it will more resemble."</p>
+
+<p>He looked rather ashamed of himself, I thought,
+when he had concluded his tirade,&mdash;and well he
+might: but there was such a hideous tone of prophecy
+in this, that I actually trembled as I listened
+to him, and, all jesting apart, thoughts of passports
+to be signed and conveyances to be hired
+were arranging themselves very seriously in my
+brain. But before we went out for the evening,
+all these gloomy meditations were most agreeably
+dispersed by a visit from a staid old doctrinaire,
+who was not only a soberer politician, but one considerably
+more likely to know what he was talking
+about than the youth who had harangued us
+in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Anxious to have my fears either confirmed or
+removed, I hastened to tell him, half in jest, half
+in earnest, that we were beginning to think of
+taking an abrupt leave of Paris. "And why?"
+said he.</p>
+
+<p>I stated very seriously my newly-awakened
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span>
+fears; at which he laughed heartily, and with an
+air of such unfeigned amusement, that I was
+cured at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Whom can you have been listening to?"
+said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not give up my authority," I replied
+with proper diplomatic discretion; "but I will
+tell you exactly what a gentleman who has been
+here this morning has been saying to us." And
+I did so precisely as I have repeated it to you;
+upon which he laughed more heartily than before,
+and rubbing his hands as if perfectly delighted, he
+exclaimed, "Delicious! And you really have been
+fortunate enough to fall in with one of these <i>enfans
+perdus</i>? I really wish you joy. But do not
+set off immediately: listen first to another view
+of the case." I assured him that this was exactly
+what I wished to do, and very truly declared that
+he could do me no greater favour than to put me
+<i>au fait</i> of the real state of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly will I do so," said he; "and be
+assured I will not deceive you." Whereupon I
+closed the <i>croisée</i>, that no rattling wheels might
+disturb us, and prepared to listen.</p>
+
+<p>"My good lady," he began with great kindness,
+"soyez tranquille. There is no more danger of
+revolution at this time in France than there is in
+Russia. Louis-Philippe is adored; the laws are
+respected; order is universally established; and
+if there be a sentiment of discontent or a feeling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span>
+approaching to irritation among any deserving the
+name of Frenchmen, it is against these miserable
+<i>vauriens</i>, who still cherish the wild hope of disturbing
+our peace and our prosperity. But fear
+nothing: trust me, the number of these is too
+small to make it worth while to count them."</p>
+
+<p>You will believe I heard this with sincere satisfaction;
+and I really felt very grateful, both for
+the information, and the friendly manner in which
+it was given.</p>
+
+<p>"I rejoice to hear this," said I: "but may I,
+as a matter of curiosity, ask you what you think
+about this famous trial? How do you think it
+will end?"</p>
+
+<p>"As all trials ought to end," he replied: "by
+bringing all such as are found guilty to punishment."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven grant it!" said I; "for the sake of
+mankind in general, and for that portion of it in
+particular which happen at the present moment to
+inhabit Paris. But do you not think that the
+irritation produced by these preparations at the
+Luxembourg is of considerable extent and violence?"</p>
+
+<p>"To whatever extent this irritation may have
+gone," he answered gravely, "it is an undoubted
+fact,&mdash;undoubted in the quarter where most is
+known about the matter,&mdash;that the feeling which
+approves these preparations is not only of greater
+extent, but of infinitely deeper sincerity, than
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span>
+that which is opposed to it. What you have
+heard to-day is mere unmeaning bluster. The
+trial, I do assure you, is very popular. It is for
+the justification and protection of the National
+Guard;&mdash;and are we not all National Guards?"</p>
+
+<p>"But are all the National Guards true?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not. But be sure of this, that there
+are enough true to <i>égorger</i> without any difficulty
+those who are not."</p>
+
+<p>"But is it not very probable," said I, "that
+the republican feeling may be quite strong enough
+to produce another disturbance, though not another
+revolution? And the situation of strangers
+would probably become very embarrassing, should
+this eventually lead to any renewed outbreakings
+of public enthusiasm."</p>
+
+<p>"Not the least in the world, I do assure you:
+for, at any rate, all the enthusiasm, as you civilly
+call it, would only elicit additional proof of the
+stability and power of the government which we
+are now so happy as to enjoy. The enthusiasm
+would be speedily calmed, depend upon it."</p>
+
+<p>"A peaceable traveller," said I, "can wish for no
+better news; and henceforward I shall endeavour
+to read and to listen with a tranquil spirit, let the
+prisoners or their partisans say what they may."</p>
+
+<p>"You will do wisely, believe me. Rest in
+perfect confidence and security, and be assured
+that Louis-Philippe holds all the English as his
+right good friends. While this is the case, neither
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span>
+Windsor Castle nor the Tower of London itself
+could afford you a safer abode than Paris."</p>
+
+<p>With this seasonable and very efficient encouragement,
+he left me; and as I really believe him
+to know more about the new-born politics of
+"Young France" than most people, I go on very
+tranquilly making engagements, with but few misgivings
+lest barricades should prevent my keeping
+them.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER VIII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Eloquence of the Pulpit.&mdash;L'Abbé C&oelig;ur.&mdash;Sermon at St.
+Roch.&mdash;Elegant Congregation.&mdash;Costume of the younger
+Clergy.</p>
+
+<p>There is one novelty, and to me a very agreeable
+one, which I have remarked since my return
+to this volatile France: this is the fashion and
+consideration which now attend the eloquence of
+her preachers.</p>
+
+<p>Political economists assert that the supply of
+every article follows the demand for it in a degree
+nicely proportioned to the wants of the population;
+and it is upon this principle, I presume, that we
+must account for the present affluence of a talent
+which some few years ago could hardly be said to
+exist in France, and might perhaps have been
+altogether denied to it, had not the pages both of
+Fenelon and his eloquent antagonist, Bossuet, rendered
+such an injustice impossible.</p>
+
+<p>It was, I think, about a dozen years ago that
+I took some trouble to discover if any traces of
+this glorious eloquence remained at Paris. I
+heard sermons at Notre Dame&mdash;at St. Roch&mdash;at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>
+St. Eustache; but never was a search after talent
+attended with worse success. The preachers
+were nought; they had the air, too, of being vulgar
+and uneducated men,&mdash;which I believe was,
+and indeed still is, very frequently the case. The
+churches were nearly empty; and the few persons
+scattered up and down their splendid aisles appeared,
+generally speaking, to be of the very
+lowest order of old women.</p>
+
+<p>How great is now the contrast! Nowhere are
+we so certain of seeing a crowd of elegantly-dressed
+and distinguished persons as in the principal
+churches of Paris. Nor is it a crowd that mocks
+the eye with any tinsel pretensions to a rank they
+do not possess. Inquire who it is that so meekly
+and devoutly kneels on one side of you&mdash;that so
+sedulously turns the pages of her prayer-book on
+the other, and you will be answered by the announcement
+of the noblest names remaining in
+France.</p>
+
+<p>Though the eloquence of the pulpit has always
+been an object of attention and interest to me in
+all countries, I hardly ventured on my first arrival
+here to inquire again if anything of the kind
+existed, lest I should once more be sent to listen
+to an inaudible mumbling preacher, and to look at
+the deaf and dozing old women who formed his
+congregation. But it has needed no inquiry to
+make us speedily acquainted with the fact, that
+the churches have become the favourite resort of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>
+the young, the beautiful, the high-born, and the
+instructed. Whence comes this change?</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard l'Abbé C&oelig;ur?" was a question
+asked me before I had been here a week, by one
+who would not for worlds have been accounted
+<i>rococo</i>. When I replied that I had not even
+heard of him, I saw plainly that it was decided I
+could know very little indeed of what was going
+on in Paris. "That is really extraordinary! but
+I engage you to go without delay. He is, I assure
+you, quite as much the fashion as Taglioni."</p>
+
+<p>As the conversation was continued on the subject
+of fashionable preachers, I soon found that I
+was indeed altogether benighted. Other celebrated
+names were cited: Lacordaire, Deguerry, and
+some others that I do not remember, were spoken
+of as if their fame must of necessity have reached
+from pole to pole, but of which, in truth, I knew
+no more than if the gentlemen had been private
+chaplains to the princes of Chili. However, I set
+down all their names with much docility; and
+the more I listened, the more I rejoiced that the
+Passion-week and Easter, those most Catholic seasons
+for preaching, were before us, being fully determined
+to profit by this opportunity of hearing
+in perfection what was so perfectly new to me as
+popular preaching in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>I have lost little time in putting this resolution
+into effect. The church of St. Roch is, I believe,
+the most fashionable in Paris; it was there, too,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span>
+that we were sure of hearing this celebrated Abbé
+C&oelig;ur; and both these reasons together decided that
+it was at St. Roch our sermon-seeking should
+begin: I therefore immediately set about discovering
+the day and hour on which he would
+make his appearance in the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>When inquiring these particulars in the church,
+we were informed, that if we intended to procure
+chairs, it would be necessary to come at least one
+good hour before the high mass which preceded
+the sermon should begin. This was rather alarming
+intelligence to a party of heretics who had an
+immense deal of business on their hands; but I
+was steadfast in my purpose, and, with a small
+detachment of my family, submitted to the preliminary
+penance of sitting the long silent hour in
+front of the pulpit of St. Roch. The precaution
+was, however, perfectly necessary, for the crowd
+was really tremendous; but, to console us, it was
+of the most elegant description; and, after all, the
+hour scarcely appeared much too long for the business
+of reviewing the vast multitude of graceful
+personages, waving plumes, and blooming flowers,
+that ceased not during every moment of the time to
+collect themselves closer and closer still about us.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing certainly could be more beautiful than
+this collection of bonnets, unless it were the collection
+of eyes under them. The proportion of
+ladies to gentlemen was on the whole, we thought,
+not less than twelve to one.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Je désirerais savoir," said a young man near
+me, addressing an extremely pretty woman who
+sat beside him,&mdash;"Je désirerais savoir si par hasard
+M. l'Abbé C&oelig;ur est jeune."</p>
+
+<p>The lady answered not, but frowned most indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes afterwards, his doubts upon this
+point, if he really had any, were removed. A man
+far from ill-looking, and farther still from being
+old, mounted the tribune, and some thousands of
+bright eyes were riveted upon him. The silent
+and profound attention which hung on every word
+he uttered, unbroken as it was by a single idle
+sound, or even glance, showed plainly that his
+influence upon the splendid and numerous congregation
+that surrounded him must be very
+great, or the power of his eloquence very strong:
+and it was an influence and a power that, though
+"of another parish," I could well conceive must be
+generally felt, <i>for he was in earnest</i>. His voice,
+though weak and somewhat wirey, was distinct,
+and his enunciation clear: I did not lose a word.</p>
+
+<p>His manner was simple and affectionate; his
+language strong, yet not intemperate; but he
+decidedly appealed more to the hearts of his
+hearers than to their understandings; and it was
+their hearts that answered him, for many of them
+wept plenteously.</p>
+
+<p>A great number of priests were present at this
+sermon, who were all dressed in their full clerical
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span>
+habits, and sat in places reserved for them immediately
+in front of the pulpit: they were consequently
+very near us, and we had abundant
+opportunity to remark the traces of that <i>march of
+mind</i> which is doing so many wondrous works
+upon earth.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of the tonsure which we have been used
+to see, certainly with some feeling of reverence&mdash;for
+it was often shorn into the very centre of
+crisped locks, while their raven black or shining
+chesnut still spoke of youth that scrupled not to
+sacrifice its comeliness to a feeling of religious
+devotion;&mdash;instead of this, we now saw unshaven
+crowns, and more than one pair of flourishing
+<i>favoris</i>, nourished, trained, and trimmed evidently
+with the nicest care, though a stiff three-cornered
+cowl in every instance hung behind the
+rich and waving honours of the youthful head.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of this strange mixture is very singular.
+But notwithstanding this bold abandonment
+of priestly costume among the junior clergy,
+there were in the long double row of anointed
+heads which faced the pulpit some exceedingly
+fine studies for an artist; and wherever the offending
+Adam was subdued by years, nothing
+could be in better keeping than the countenances,
+and the sacred garb of those to whom they belonged.
+Similar causes will, I suppose, at all
+times produce similar effects; and it is therefore
+that among the twenty priests at St. Roch in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span>
+1835, I seemed to recognise the originals of many
+a holy head with which the painters of Italy,
+Spain, and Flanders have made me familiar.</p>
+
+<p>The contrast furnished by the deep-set eyes,
+and the fine severe expression of some of these
+consecrated brows, to the light, airy elegance of
+the pretty women around them, was sufficiently
+striking; and, together with the mellow light of
+the shaded windows, and the lofty spaciousness
+of the noble church, formed a spectacle highly
+picturesque and impressive.</p>
+
+<p>After the sermon was over, and while the
+gaily-habited congregation fluttered away through
+the different doors like so many butterflies hastening
+to meet returning sunshine, we amused
+ourselves by wandering round the church. It is
+magnificently large for a parish church; but, excepting
+in some of the little chapels, we found
+not much to admire.</p>
+
+<p>That very unrighteous old churchman, the Abbé
+Dubois, has a fine monument there, restored from
+Les Petits Augustins; and a sort of marble medallion,
+bearing the head of the immortal Corneille&mdash;immortal
+despite M. Victor Hugo&mdash;is also restored,
+and placed against one of the heavy columns
+of, I think, the centre aisle. But we paused longest
+in a little chapel behind the altar&mdash;not the
+middle one, with its well-managed glory of crimson
+light, though that is very beautiful; but in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span>
+one to the right of it, which contains a sculptured
+Calvary. It is, I believe, only one of <i>les stations</i>,
+of which twelve are to be found in different
+parts of the church; but it has a charm&mdash;seen as
+we saw it, with a strong effect of accidental light,
+bringing forward the delicate figure of the adoring
+Magdalene, and leaving the Saviour in the dark
+shadow and repose of death&mdash;that sets at defiance
+all the connoisseurship of art, and taking from you
+all faculty to judge, leaves only the power to feel.
+Under these circumstances, whether quite delusive
+or not I hardly know, this group appeared
+to us one of exceeding beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The high altar of St. Roch, and the extremity
+of the carpeted space enclosed round it, is most
+lavishly, beautifully, and fragrantly adorned with
+flowers of the choicest kind, all flourishing in the
+fullest bloom in boxes and vases. It is the only
+instance I remember in which the perfume of
+this most fair and holy decoration actually pervaded
+the church. They certainly offer the sweetest
+incense that can be found to breathe its grateful
+life and spirit out on any altar; and were it not
+for the graceful swinging of the censers, which very
+particularly pleases my eye, I would recommend
+to the Roman Catholic church henceforth an economy
+of their precious gums, and advise them to
+offer the incense of flowers in their stead.</p>
+
+<p>Before we left the church, about a hundred and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span>
+fifty boys and girls, from ten to fourteen years of
+age, assembled to be catechised by a young priest,
+who received them behind the Lady Chapel. His
+manner was familiar, caressing and kind, and his
+waving hair fell about his ears like the picture of
+a young St. John.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER IX.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Literature of the Revolutionary School.&mdash;Its low estimation
+in France.</p>
+
+<p>Among many proofs of attentive kindness which
+I have received from my Paris friends, their care
+to furnish me with a variety of modern publications
+is not the least agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>One fancies everywhere, that it is easy, by the
+help of a circulating library, to know tolerably
+well what is going on at Paris: but this is a
+mighty fond delusion; though sometimes, perhaps,
+our state may be the more gracious from our
+ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>One gentleman, to whom I owe much gratitude
+for the active good-nature with which he seems
+willing to assist me in all my researches, has given
+me much curious information respecting the present
+state of literature and literary men in France.</p>
+
+<p>In this department of human greatness, at least,
+those of the party which has lost power and place
+have a most decided pre-eminence. Would it be a
+pun to say that there is poetical justice in this?</p>
+
+<p>The active, busy, bustling politicians of the hour
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span>
+have succeeded in thrusting everything else out
+of place, and themselves into it. One dynasty has
+been overthrown, and another established; old
+laws have been abrogated, and hundreds of new
+ones framed; hereditary nobles have been disinherited,
+and little men made great;&mdash;but amidst
+this plenitude of destructiveness, they have not
+yet contrived to make any one of the puny literary
+reputations of the day weigh down the renown
+of those who have never lent their voices to the
+cause of treason, regicide, rebellion, or obscenity.
+The literary reputations both of Châteaubriand
+and Lamartine stand higher, beyond all comparison,
+than those of any other living French
+authors: yet the first, with all his genius, has
+often suffered his imagination to run riot, and the
+last has only given to the public the leisure of his
+literary life. But both of them are men of honour
+and principle, as well as men of genius; and it comforts
+one's human nature to see that these qualities
+will keep themselves aloft, despite whatever squally
+winds may blow, or blustering floods assail them.
+That both Châteaubriand and Lamartine belong
+rather to the imaginative than to the <i>positif</i> class,
+cannot be denied; but they are renowned throughout
+the world, and France is proud of them.</p>
+
+<p>The most curious literary speculations, however,
+suggested by the present state of letters in this
+country, are not respecting authors such as these:
+they speak for themselves, and all the world knows
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span>
+them and their position. The circumstance decidedly
+the most worthy of remark in the literature
+of France at the present time, is the effect which
+the last revolution appears to have produced. With
+the exception of history, to which both Thiers and
+Mignet have added something that may live, notwithstanding
+their very defective philosophy, no
+single work has appeared since the revolution of
+1830 which has obtained a substantial, elevated,
+and generally acknowledged reputation for any author
+unknown before that period: not even among
+all the unbridled ebullitions of imagination, though
+restrained neither by decorum, principle, nor taste,&mdash;not
+even here (excepting from one female<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> pen,
+which might become, were it the pleasure of the
+hand that wields it, the first now extant in the
+world of fiction,) has anything appeared likely
+to survive its author; nor is there any writer
+who during the same period has raised himself
+to that station in society, by means of his literary
+productions, which is so universally accorded to
+all who have acquired high literary celebrity in
+any country.</p>
+
+<p>The name of M. Guizot was too well known
+before the revolution for these observations to
+have any reference to him; and however much he
+may have distinguished himself since July 1830,
+his reputation was made before. There are, however,
+little writers in prodigious abundance; and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span>
+though as perfectly sure of the truth of what I
+have here stated as that I am alive to write it,
+I should expect a terrible riot about my ears, could
+such words be heard by the swarm of tiny geniuses
+that settle in clusters, some on the newspapers,
+some on the theatres, and some on the busy little
+printing-press of the tale-tellers&mdash;could they catch
+me, I am sure I should be stung to death.</p>
+
+<p>How well I can fancy the clamour!... "Infamous
+libeller!" cries one; "have not I achieved
+a reputation? Do I not receive yearly some hundreds
+of francs for my sublime familiarity with
+sin and misery? and are not my works read by
+'Young France' with ecstasy? Is not this fame?"
+"And I," says another,&mdash;"is it of such as I and
+my cotemporary fellow-labourers in the vast field
+of new-ploughed speculation that you speak?"
+"What call you reputation, woman?" says a
+third: "do not the theatres overflow when I send
+murder, lust, and incest on the stage, to witch the
+world with wondrous wickedness?" "And, I too,"
+groans another,&mdash;"am I not famous? Are not my
+delicious tales of unschooled nature in the hands
+of every free-born youth and tender maid in this
+our regenerated Athens? Is not this fame, infamous
+slanderer?"</p>
+
+<p>Were I obliged to answer all this, I could only
+say, "<i>Arrangez-vous, canaille!</i> If you call this
+fame, take it, try it, make the most of it, and see
+where you will be some dozen years hence."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding this extraordinary lack of
+great ability, however, there never, I believe, was
+any period in which the printing-presses of France
+worked so hard as at present. The revolution of
+1830 seems to have set all the minor spirits in
+motion. There is scarcely a boy so insignificant,
+or a workman so unlearned, as to doubt his
+having the power and the right to instruct the
+world. "Every breathing soul in Paris took a
+part in this glorious struggle," says the recording
+newspaper;&mdash;"Yes, all!" echoes the smutched
+mechanic, snorting and snuffing the air with the
+intoxicating consciousness of imputed power;&mdash;"Yes!"
+answer the <i>galopins</i> one and all, "it
+is we, it is we!" And then, like the restless
+witches on the barren heath that their breath
+has blasted, the great reformers rouse themselves
+again, and looking from the mischief they have
+done to the still worse that remains behind, they
+mutter prophetically, "We'll do&mdash;we'll do&mdash;we'll
+do!"</p>
+
+<p>To me, I confess, it is perfectly astonishing
+that any one can be found to class the writers
+of this restless <i>clique</i> as "the literary men of
+France." Yet it has been done; and it is not
+till the effects of the popular commotion which
+brought them into existence has fully subsided,
+that the actual state of French literature can be
+fairly ascertained.</p>
+
+<p>Béranger was not the production of that whirlwind:
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span>
+but, in truth, let him sing what or when
+he will, the fire of genuine poetic inspiration
+must perforce flash across the thickest mist that
+false principles can raise around him. He is but
+a meteor perhaps, but a very bright one, and
+must shine, though his path lie amongst unwholesome
+exhalations and most dangerous pitfalls.
+But he cannot in any way be quoted as one of
+the new-born race whose claim to genuine fame
+I have presumed to doubt.</p>
+
+<p>That flashes of talent, sparkles of wit, and
+bursts of florid eloquence are occasionally heard,
+seen, and felt even from these, is, however, certain:
+it could hardly be otherwise. But they
+blaze, and go out. The oil which feeds the lamp
+of revolutionary genius is foul, and such noxious
+vapours rise with the flame as must needs check
+its brightness.</p>
+
+<p>Do not, however, believe me guilty of such
+presumption as to give you my own unsupported
+judgment as to the position which this "new
+school" (as the <i>décousu</i> folks always call themselves)
+hold in the public esteem. Such a judgment
+could be little worth if unsupported; but
+my opinion on this subject is, on the contrary, the
+result of careful inquiry among those who are
+most competent to give information respecting it.</p>
+
+<p>When the names of such as are best known
+among this class of authors are mentioned in society,
+let the politics of the circle be what they may,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span>
+they are constantly spoken of as a Paria caste that
+must be kept apart.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;?" has been a question
+I have repeatedly asked respecting a person
+whose name is cited in England as the most
+esteemed French writer of the age,&mdash;and so cited,
+moreover, to prove the low standard of French
+taste and principle.</p>
+
+<p>"No, madam," has been invariably the cold
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Or &mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. He is not in society."</p>
+
+<p>"Or &mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! His works live an hour (too long!)
+and are forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>Should I therefore, my friend, return from
+France with an higher idea of its good taste and
+morality than I had when I entered it, think not
+that my own standard of what is right has been
+lowered, but only that I have had the pleasure
+of finding it differed much less than I expected
+from that of our agreeable and hardly-judged
+neighbours on this side the water. But I shall
+probably recur to this subject again; and so, for
+the present, farewell!</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER X.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Lonchamps.&mdash;The "Three Hours' Agony" at St. Roch.&mdash;Sermons
+on the Gospel of Good-Friday.&mdash;Prospects of
+the Catholics.&mdash;O'Connell.</p>
+
+<p>I dare say you may know, my friend, though
+I did not, that the Wednesday, Thursday, and
+Friday of Passion-week are yearly set apart by
+the Parisians for a splendid promenade in carriages,
+on horseback, and on foot, to a part of the
+Bois de Boulogne called Lonchamps. What the
+origin could be of so gay and brilliant an assemblage
+of people and equipages, evidently coming
+together to be stared at and to stare, on days so
+generally devoted to religious exercises, rather
+puzzled me; but I have obtained a most satisfactory
+explanation, which, in the hope of your
+ignorance, I will communicate. The custom itself,
+it seems, is a sort of religious exercise; or,
+at any rate, it was so at the time of its institution.</p>
+
+<p>When the <i>beau monde</i> of Paris first adopted the
+practice of repairing to Lonchamps during these
+days of penitence and prayer, a convent stood
+there, whose nuns were celebrated for performing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span>
+the solemn services appointed for the season with
+peculiar piety and effect. They sustained this
+reputation for many years; and for many years
+all who could find admittance within their church
+thronged to hear their sweet voices.</p>
+
+<p>This convent was destroyed at <i>the</i> revolution
+(<i>par excellence</i>), but the horses and carriages of
+Paris still continue to move for evermore in the
+same direction when the last three days of Lent
+arrive.</p>
+
+<p>The cavalcade assembled on this occasion
+forms an extremely pretty spectacle, rivalling a
+spring Sunday in Hyde Park as to the number
+and elegance of the equipages, and greatly exceeding
+it in the beauty and extent of the magnificent
+road on which they show themselves.
+Though the attending this congregation of wealth,
+rank, and fashion is still called "going to Lonchamps,"
+the evolutions of the company, whether
+in carriages, on horseback, or on foot, are at present
+almost wholly confined to the noble avenue
+which leads from the entrance to the Champs
+Elysées up to the Barrière de l'Etoile.</p>
+
+<p>From about three till six, the whole of this
+ample space is crowded; and I really had no
+idea that so many handsome, well-appointed equipages
+could be found collected together anywhere
+out of London. The royal family had
+several handsome carriages on the ground: that
+of the Duke of Orleans was particularly remarkable
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span>
+for the beauty of the horses, and the general
+elegance of the "turn-out."</p>
+
+<p>The ministers of state, and all the foreign legations,
+did honour to the occasion; most of them
+having very complete equipages, chasseurs of various
+plumage, and many with a set of four beautiful
+horses really well harnessed. Many private
+individuals, also, had carriages which were handsome
+enough, together with their elegant lading,
+greatly to increase the general brilliancy of the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>The only individual, however, except the Duke
+of Orleans, who had two carriages on the ground,
+two feathered chasseurs, and twice two pair of
+richly-harnessed steeds, was a certain Mr. T&mdash;&mdash;,
+an American merchant, whose vast wealth, and
+still more vast expenditure, is creating considerable
+consternation among his sober-minded countrymen
+in Paris. We were told that the exuberance
+of this gentleman's transatlantic taste was
+such, and such the vivacity of his inventive fancy,
+that during the three days of the Lonchamps
+promenade he appeared on the ground each day
+with different liveries; having, as it should seem,
+no particular family reasons for preferring any
+one set of colours to another.</p>
+
+<p>The ground was sprinkled, and certainly greatly
+adorned, by many very elegant-looking Englishmen
+on horseback; the pretty caprioles, sleek
+skins, and well-managed capers of that prettiest
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span>
+of creatures, a high-bred English saddle-horse,
+being as usual among the most attractive parts
+of the show. Nor was there any deficiency of
+Frenchmen, with very handsome <i>montures</i>, to
+complete the spectacle; while the ample space
+under the trees on either side was crowded
+with thousands of smart pedestrians; the whole
+scene being one vast moving mass of pomp and
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the weather on the first of the
+three days was very far from favourable: the
+wind was so bitterly cold that I countermanded
+the carriage I had ordered, and instead of going
+to Lonchamps, we actually sat shivering over the
+fire at home; indeed, before three o'clock, the
+ground was perfectly covered with snow. The
+next day promised something better, and we ventured
+to emerge: but the spectacle was really
+vexatious; many of the carriages being open, and
+the shivering ladies attired in all the light and
+floating drapery of spring costume. For it is at
+Lonchamps that all the fashions of the coming
+season are exhibited; and no one can tell, however
+fashion-wise they be, what bonnet, scarf or
+shawl, or even what prevailing colour, is to be
+worn in Paris throughout the year, till this decisive
+promenade be over. Accordingly the milliners
+had done their duty, and, in fact, had far
+outstripped the spring. But it was sad to see
+the beautiful bunches of lilac, and the graceful,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span>
+flexible laburnums&mdash;each a wonder of art&mdash;twisted
+and tortured, bending and breaking, before
+the wind. It really seemed as if the lazy
+Spring, vexed at the pretty mimicry of blossoms
+she had herself failed to bring, sent this inclement
+blast on purpose to blight them. Everything
+went wrong. The tender tinted ribbons were
+soon dabbled in a driving sleet; while feathers,
+instead of wantoning, as it was intended they
+should do, on the breeze, had to fight a furious
+battle with the gale.</p>
+
+<p>It was not therefore till the following day&mdash;the
+last of the three appointed&mdash;that Lonchamps
+really showed the brilliant assemblage of carriages,
+horsemen, and pedestrians that I have described
+to you. Upon this last day, however, though it
+was still cold for the season&mdash;(England would
+have been ashamed of such a 17th of April)&mdash;the
+sun did come forth, and smiled in such a
+sort as greatly to comfort the pious pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p>We remained, like all the rest of Paris, driving
+up and down in the midst of the pretty crowd till
+six, when they gradually began to draw off, and
+all the world went home to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The early part of this day, which was Good-Friday,
+had been very differently passed. The
+same beautiful and solemn music which formerly
+drew all Paris to the Convent in the Bois de
+Boulogne is now performed in several of the
+churches. We were recommended to hear the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span>
+choir of St. Roch; and it was certainly the most
+impressive service at which I was ever present.</p>
+
+<p>There is much wisdom in thus giving to music
+an important part in the public ceremonies of
+religion. Nothing commands and enchains the
+attention with equal power: the ear may be
+deaf to eloquence, and the thoughts may often
+grovel earthward, despite all the efforts of the
+preacher to lead them up to heaven; but few
+will find it possible to escape from the effect of
+music; and when it is of such a character as that
+performed in the Roman Catholic church on Good-Friday,
+it can hardly be that the most volatile
+and indifferent listener should depart unmoved.</p>
+
+<p>This service was advertised as "The Three
+Hours' Agony." The crowd assembled to listen
+to it was immense. It is impossible to speak
+too highly of the composition of the music; it
+is conceived in the very highest tone of sublimity;
+and the deeply effective manner of its performance
+recalled to me an anecdote I have heard of
+some young organist, who, having accompanied
+an anthem in a manner which appeared greatly
+superior to that of the usual performer, was asked
+if he had not made some alteration in the composition.
+"No," he replied, "I have not; but I
+always read the words when I play."</p>
+
+<p>So, I should think, did those who performed the
+services at St. Roch on Good-Friday; and nothing
+can be imagined more touching and effective than
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>
+the manner in which the whole of these striking
+ceremonies were performed and arranged there.</p>
+
+<p>The awful gospel of the day furnished a theme
+for the impassioned eloquence of several successive
+preachers; one or two of whom were wonderfully
+powerful in their manner of recounting the dreadful
+narrative. They were all quite young men;
+but they went through the whole of the appalling
+history with such deep solemnity, such strength
+of imagery and vehemence of eloquence, as to
+produce prodigious effect.</p>
+
+<p>At intervals, while the exhausted preachers
+reposed, the organ, with many stringed instruments,
+and a choir of exquisite voices, performed
+the same gospel, in a manner that made
+one's whole soul thrill and quiver within one.
+The suffering&mdash;the submission&mdash;the plaintive yet
+sublime "It is finished!" and the convulsive
+burst of indignant nature that followed, showing
+itself in thunder, hail, and earthquake, were all
+brought before the mind with most miraculous
+power. I have been told since, that the services
+at Notre Dame on that day were finer still; but
+I really find some difficulty in believing that this
+is possible.</p>
+
+<p>During these last and most solemn days of
+Lent, I have been endeavouring by every means
+in my power to discover how much fasting, of
+any kind, was going on. If they fast at all, it
+is certainly performed in most strict obedience to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span>
+the very letter of the gospel: for, assuredly, they
+"appear not unto men to fast." Everything goes
+on as gaily as if it were the season of the carnival.
+The <i>restaurans</i> reek with the savoury vapour of a
+hundred dishes; the theatres are opened, and as
+full as the churches; invitations cease not; and
+I can in no direction perceive the slightest symptom
+of being among a Roman Catholic population
+during a season of penitence.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, contradictory as the statement must
+appear, I am deeply convinced that the clergy of
+the church of Rome feel more hope of recovered
+power fluttering at their hearts now, than they
+have done at any time during the last half-century.
+Nor can I think they are far wrong in this. The
+share which the Roman Catholic priests of this
+our day are said to have had in the Belgian
+revolution, and the part, more remarkable still,
+which the same race are now performing in the
+opening scenes of the fearful struggle which
+threatens England, has given a new impulse to
+the ambition of Rome and of her children. One
+may read it in the portly bearing of her youthful
+priests,&mdash;one may read it in the deep-set meditative
+eye of those who are older. It is legible in
+their brand-new vestments of gold and silver tissue;
+it is legible in the costly decorations of their renovated
+altars; and deep, deep, deep is the policy
+which teaches them to recover with a gentle hand
+that which they have lost by a grasping one.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span>
+How well can I fancy that, in their secret synods,
+the favourite text is, "No man putteth a piece
+of new cloth unto an old garment; for that which
+is put in to fill it up, taketh from the garment,
+and the rent is made worse." Were they a whit
+less cautious, they must fail at once; but they
+tickle their converts before they think of convincing
+them. It is for this that the pulpits are given to
+young and eloquent men, who win the eye and
+ear of their congregations long before they find
+out to what point they wish to lead them. But
+while the young men preach, the old men are not
+idle: there are rumours of new convents, new
+monasteries, new orders, new miracles, and of
+new converts, in all directions. This wily, worldly,
+tranquil-seeming, but most ambitious sect, having
+in many quarters joined themselves to the cause
+of democracy, sit quietly by, looking for the result
+of their work, and watching, like a tiger that
+seems to dose, for the moment when they may
+avenge themselves for the long fast from power,
+during which they have been gnawing their heart-strings.</p>
+
+<p>But they now hail the morning of another day.
+I would that all English ears could hear, as mine
+have done, the prattle that prophesies the downfall
+of our national church as a thing certain as rain
+after long drought! I would that English ears
+could hear, as mine have done, the name of O'Connell
+uttered as that of a new apostle, and his bold
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span>
+bearding of those who yet raise their voices in
+defence of the faith their fathers gave them,
+triumphantly quoted in proof of the growing influence
+both of himself and his popish creed,&mdash;which
+are in truth one and inseparable! But
+forgive me!&mdash;all this has little to do with my
+subject, and it is moreover a theme I had much
+better not meddle with. I cannot touch it lightly,
+for my heart is heavy when I turn to it; I cannot
+treat it powerfully, for, alas! I have no
+strength but to lament.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">"Hé! que puis-je au milieu de ce peuple abattu?</p>
+<p>Benjamin est sans force, et Juda sans vertu."</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2>LETTER XI.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Trial Chamber at the Luxembourg.&mdash;Institute.&mdash;M. Mignet.&mdash;Concert
+Musard.</p>
+
+<p>As a great and especial favour, we have been
+taken to see the new chamber that has been
+erected at the Luxembourg for the trial of the
+political prisoners. The appearance of the exterior
+is very handsome, and though built wholly of
+wood, it corresponds perfectly, to all outward seeming,
+with the old palace. The rich and massive
+style of architecture is imitated to perfection: the
+heavy balustrades, the gigantic bas-reliefs, are all
+vast, solid, and magnificent; and when it is stated
+that the whole thing has been completed in the
+space of two months, one is tempted to believe
+that Alladdin has turned doctrinaire, and rubbed
+his lamp most diligently in the service of the
+state.</p>
+
+<p>The trial-chamber is a noble room; but from
+the great number of prisoners, and greater still of
+witnesses expected to be examined, the space left
+for the public is but small. Prudence, perhaps,
+may have had as much to do with this as necessity:
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span>
+nor can we much wonder if the peers of
+France should desire to have as little to do with
+the Paris mob upon this occasion as possible.</p>
+
+<p>I remarked that considerable space was left for
+passages, ante-rooms, surroundings, and outposts
+of all sorts;&mdash;an excellent arrangement, the wisdom
+of which cannot be questioned, as the attendance
+of a large armed force must be indispensable.
+In fact, I believe it ever has been and ever will
+be found, that troops furnish the only means of
+keeping a remarkably free people in order.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, very comforting and satisfactory
+to hear the manner in which the distinguished
+and agreeable individual who had procured us
+the pleasure of seeing this building discoursed of
+the business which was to be carried on there.</p>
+
+<p>There is a quiet steadiness and confidence in
+their own strength among these doctrinaries, that
+seems to promise well for the lasting tranquillity
+of the country; nor does it impeach either their
+wisdom or sincerity, if many among them adhere
+heart and hand to the government, though they
+might have better liked a white than a tri-coloured
+banner to wave over the palace of its head.
+Whatever the standers-by may wish or feel about
+future struggles and future changes, I think it is
+certain that no Frenchman who desires the prosperity
+of his country can at the present moment
+wish for anything but a continuance of the tranquillity
+she actually enjoys.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If, indeed, democracy were gaining ground,&mdash;if
+the frightful political fallacies, among which the
+very young and the very ignorant are so apt to bewilder
+themselves, were in any degree to be traced
+in the policy pursued by the existing government,&mdash;then
+would the question be wholly changed, and
+every honest man in full possession of his senses
+would feel himself called upon to stay the plague
+with all his power and might. But the very
+reverse of all this is evidently the case; and it
+may be doubted if any sovereign in Europe has
+less taste for license and misrule than King Louis-Philippe.
+Be very sure that it is not to him that
+the radicals of any land must look for patronage,
+encouragement, or support: they will not
+find it.</p>
+
+<p>After quitting the Luxembourg, we went to the
+<i>bureau</i> of the secretary at the Institute, to request
+tickets for an annual sitting of the five Academies,
+which took place yesterday. They were very
+obligingly accorded&mdash;(O that our institutions,
+our academies, our lectures, were thus liberally
+arranged!)&mdash;and yesterday we passed two very
+agreeable hours in the place to which they admitted
+us.</p>
+
+<p>I wish that the Polytechnic School, when they
+took a fancy for changing the ancient <i>régimes</i> of
+France, had included the uniform of the Institute
+in their proscriptions. The improvement would
+have been less doubtful than it is respecting some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span>
+other of their innovations: for what can be said
+in defence of a set of learned academicians, varying
+in age from light and slender thirty to massive
+and protuberant fourscore, wearing one and
+all a fancy blue dress-coat "embroidered o'er
+with leaves of myrtle"? It is really a proof that
+very good things were said and done at this sitting,
+when I declare that my astonishment at the
+Corydon-like costume was forgotten within the
+first half-hour.</p>
+
+<p>We first witnessed the distribution of the prizes,
+and then heard one or two members speak, or
+rather read their compositions. But the great
+fête of the occasion was hearing a discourse pronounced
+by M. Mignet. This gentleman is too
+celebrated not to have excited in us a very earnest
+wish to hear him; and never was expectation
+more agreeably gratified. Combined with the
+advantages of a remarkably fine face and person,
+M. Mignet has a tone of voice and play of countenance
+sufficient of themselves to secure the success
+of an orator. But on this occasion he did
+not trust to these: his discourse was every way
+admirable; subject, sentiment, composition, and
+delivery, all excellent.</p>
+
+<p>He had chosen for his theme the history of
+Martin Luther's appearance before the Diet at
+Worms; and the manner in which he treated it
+surprised as much as it delighted me. Not a
+single trait of that powerful, steadfast, unbending
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span>
+character, which restored light to our religion and
+freedom to the mind of man, escaped him: it was
+a mental portrait, painted with the boldness of
+outline, breadth of light, and vigour of colouring,
+which mark the hand of a consummate master.</p>
+
+<p>But was it a Roman Catholic who pronounced
+this discourse?&mdash;Were they Roman Catholics
+who filled every corner of the theatre, and listened
+to him with attention so unbroken, and admiration
+so undisguised? I know not. But for myself,
+I can truly declare, that my Protestant and
+reformed feelings were never more gratified than
+by listening to this eloquent history of the proudest
+moment of our great apostle's life, pronounced
+in the centre of Cardinal Mazarin's palace. The
+concluding words of the discourse were as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Sommé pendant quatre ans de se soumettre,
+Luther, pendant quatre ans, dit non. Il avait
+dit non au légat; il avait dit non au pape; il dit
+non à l'empereur. Dans ce non héroïque et fécond
+se trouvait la liberté du monde."</p>
+
+<p>Another discourse was announced to conclude
+the sitting of the day. But when M. Mignet
+retired, no one appeared to take his place; and
+after waiting for a few minutes, the numerous and
+very fashionable-looking crowd dispersed themselves.</p>
+
+<p>I recollected the anecdote told of the first representation
+of the "Partie de Chasse de Henri
+Quatre," when the overture of Mehul produced
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span>
+such an effect, that the audience would not permit
+anything else to be performed after it. The
+piece, therefore, was <i>remise</i>,&mdash;and so was the harangue
+of the academician who was to have followed
+M. Mignet.</p>
+
+<p>You will confess, I think, that we are not idle,
+when I tell you that, after all this, we went in the
+evening to <i>Le Concert Musard</i>. This is one of
+the pastimes to which we have hitherto had no
+parallel in London. At half-past seven o'clock,
+you lounge into a fine, large, well-lighted room,
+which is rapidly filled with company: a full and
+good orchestra give you during a couple of hours
+some of the best and most popular music of the
+season; and then you lounge out again, in time to
+dress for a party, or eat ices at Tortoni's, or soberly
+to go home for a domestic tea-drinking and
+early rest. For this concert you pay a franc; and
+the humble price, together with the style of toilet
+(every lady wearing a bonnet and shawl), might
+lead the uninitiated to suppose that it was a
+recreation prepared for the <i>beau monde</i> of the
+Faubourg; but the long line of private carriages
+that occupies the street at the conclusion of it,
+shows that, simple and unpretending as is its style,
+this concert has attractions for the best company
+in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>The easy <i>entrée</i> to it reminded me of the theatres
+of Germany. I remarked many ladies coming
+in, two or three together, unattended by any
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span>
+gentleman. Between the acts, the company promenaded
+round the room, parties met and joined,
+and altogether it appeared to us a very agreeable
+mode of gratifying that French necessity of amusing
+one's self out of one's own house, which seems
+contagious in the very air of Paris.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Easter-Sunday at Notre Dame.&mdash;Archbishop.&mdash;View of Paris.&mdash;Victor
+Hugo.&mdash;Hôtel Dieu.&mdash;Mr. Jefferson.</p>
+
+<p>It was long ago decided in a committee of the
+whole house, that on Easter-Sunday we should
+attend high mass at Notre Dame. I shall not
+soon forget the spectacle that greeted us on entering.
+Ten thousand persons, it was said, were
+on that day assembled in the church; and its
+dimensions are so vast, that I have no doubt the
+statement was correct, for it was crowded from
+floor to roof. The effect of the circular gallery,
+that at mid-height encompasses the centre aisle,
+following as it does the graceful sweep of the
+chapel behind the altar, and filled row after row
+with gaily-dressed company up, as it seemed,
+almost to the groining of the roof, was beautiful.
+The chairs on this occasion were paid for in proportion
+to the advantageousness of the position
+in which they stood, and by disbursing an extra
+franc or two we obtained very good places. The
+mass was performed with great splendour. The
+dresses of the archbishop and his train were magnificent;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span>
+and when this splendid, princely-looking
+personage, together with his court of dignitaries
+and priests, paraded the Host round the church
+and up the crowded aisle spite of the close-wedged
+throng, they looked like a stream of
+liquid gold, that by its own weight made way
+through every obstacle. The archbishop is a
+mild and amiable-looking man, and ceased not to
+scatter blessings from his lips and sprinkle safety
+from his fingers'-ends upon the admiring people,
+as slowly and gracefully he passed among them.</p>
+
+<p>The latter years of this prelate's life have been
+signalized by some remarkable changes. He has
+seen the glories and the penitences of his church
+alike the favourite occupation of his king;&mdash;he
+has seen that king and his highest nobles walking
+in holy procession through the streets of Paris;&mdash;he
+has seen that same king banished from his
+throne and his country, a proscribed and melancholy
+exile, while the pomp and parade of his
+cherished faith were forbidden to offend the people's
+eyes by any longer pouring forth its gorgeous
+superstitions into the streets;&mdash;he has seen his
+own consecrated palace razed to its foundation,
+and its very elements scattered to the winds:&mdash;and
+now, this self-same prelate sees himself again
+well received at the court whence Charles Dix
+was banished; and, stranger still, perhaps, he sees
+his startled flock once more assembling round him,
+quietly and silently, but steadily and in earnest;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span>
+while he who, within five short years, was trembling
+for his life, now lifts his head again, and
+not only in safety, but, with all his former power
+and pride of place, is permitted to</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"Chanter les <i>oremus</i>, faire des processions,</p>
+<p>Et répandre à grands flots les bénédictions."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is true, indeed, that there are no longer any
+Roman Catholic processions to be seen in the
+streets of Paris; but if we look within the
+churches, we find that the splendour concentrated
+there, has lost nothing of its impressive sumptuousness
+by thus changing the scene of its display.</p>
+
+<p>The service of this day, as far as the music
+was concerned, was in my opinion infinitely less
+impressive than that of Good-Friday at St. Roch.
+This doubtless arose in a great degree from the
+style of composition; but I suspect, moreover, that
+my imagination was put out of humour by seeing
+about fifty fiddlers, with every appearance of being
+(what they actually were) the orchestra of the
+opera, performing from a space enclosed for them
+at the entrance of the choir. The singing men
+and boys were also stationed in the same unwonted
+and unecclesiastical place; and though
+some of those hired for the occasion had very fine
+Italian voices, they had all the air of singing without
+"reading the words;" and, on the whole, my
+ear and my fancy were disappointed.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Victor Hugo's description of old Paris as seen
+from the towers of Notre Dame sent us labouring
+to their summit. The state of the atmosphere
+was very favourable, and I was delighted to find
+that the introduction of coal, rapid as its progress
+has lately been, has not yet tinged the bright clear
+air sufficiently to prevent this splendid panorama
+from being distinctly seen to its remotest edge.
+That impenetrable mass of dun, dull smoke, that
+we look down upon whenever a mischievous imp
+of curiosity lures us to the top of any dome, tower,
+or obelisk in London, can hardly fail of making
+one remember every weary step which led to the
+profitless elevation; but one must be tired indeed
+to remember fatigue while looking down upon the
+bright, warm, moving miniature spread out below
+the towers of Notre Dame.</p>
+
+<p>What an intricate world of roofs it is!&mdash;and
+how mystically incomprehensible are the ins and
+outs, the bridges and the islands, of the idle
+Seine! A raft, caught sight of at intervals,
+bearing wood or wine; a floating wash-house,
+with its line of bending naïads, looking like a
+child's toy with figures all of a row; and here
+and there a floating-bath,&mdash;are all this river shows
+of its power to aid and assist the magnificent
+capital which has so strangely chosen to stretch
+herself along its banks. When one thinks of the
+forest of masts which we see covering whole
+miles of extent in London, it seems utterly unintelligible
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span>
+how that which is found needful for
+the necessities of one great city should appear so
+perfectly unnecessary for another.</p>
+
+<p>Victor Hugo's picture of the scene he has
+fancied beneath the towers of Notre Dame in the
+days of his Esmeralda is sketched with amazing
+spirit; though probably Paris was no more like
+the pretty panorama he makes of it than Timbuctoo.
+I heartily wish, however, that he would
+confine himself to the representation of still-life,
+and let his characters be all of innocent bricks
+and mortar: for even though they do look shadowy
+and somewhat doubtful in the distance,
+they have infinitely more nature and truth than
+can be found among all his horrible imaginings
+concerning his fellow-creatures.</p>
+
+<p>His description of the old church itself, too, is
+delicious: for though it has little of architectural
+reality or strict graphic fidelity about it, there is
+such a powerful air of truth in every word he
+says respecting it, that one looks out and about
+upon the rugged stones, and studies every angle,
+buttress, and parapet, with the lively interest of
+old acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>I should like to have a legend, as fond and
+lingering in its descriptions, attached to some of
+our glorious and mysterious old Gothic cathedrals
+at home. This sort of reading gives a pleasure
+in which imagination and reality are very happily
+blended; and I can fancy nothing more agreeable
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span>
+than following an able romancer up and down,
+through and amongst, in and out, the gloomy,
+shadowy, fanciful, unintelligible intricacies of such
+a structure. How well might Winchester, for
+instance, with its solemn crypts, its sturdy
+Saxon strength, its quaintly-coffined relics of
+royal bones, its Gothic shrines, its monumental
+splendour, and its stately magnitude, furnish
+forth the material for some such spirit-stirring
+record!</p>
+
+<p>Having spent an hour of first-rate interest and
+gratification in wandering inside and outside of
+this very magnificent church, we crossed the
+Place, or <i>Parvis</i>, of Notre Dame, to see the celebrated
+hospital of the Hôtel Dieu. It is very
+particularly large, clean, airy, and well-ordered in
+every way; and I never saw sick people look less
+miserable than some scores of men and women
+did, tucked snugly up in their neat little beds, and
+most of them with a friend or relative at their
+side to console or amuse them.</p>
+
+<p>The access to the wards of this building is as
+free as that into a public bazaar; but there is one
+caution used in the admission of company which,
+before I understood it, puzzled me greatly. There
+are three doors at the top of the fine flight of
+steps which leads to the building. The centre
+one is used only as an exit; at the other two are
+placed guards, one a male, the other a female.
+Through these side-doors all who enter must pass&mdash;the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span>
+men on one side, the women on the other;
+and all must submit to be pretty strictly examined,
+to see that they are conveying nothing
+either to eat or drink that might be injurious to
+the invalids.</p>
+
+<p>The covered bridge which opens from the back
+part of the Hôtel Dieu, connecting <i>l'Isle de la Cité</i>
+with the left bank of the Seine, with its light
+glass roof, and safe shelter from wind, dust, or
+annoyance of any kind, forms a delightful promenade
+for the convalescent.</p>
+
+<p>The evening of this day we spent at a <i>soirée</i>,
+where we met, among many other pleasant persons,
+a very sensible and gentlemanlike American.
+I had the pleasure of a long conversation with
+him, during which he said many things extremely
+worth listening to. This gentleman has held
+many distinguished diplomatic situations, appears
+to have acquired a great deal of general information,
+and moreover to have given much attention
+to the institutions and character of his own
+country.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that Jefferson had been the friend
+of his early life; that he knew his sentiments and
+opinions on all subjects intimately well, and much
+better than those who were acquainted with them
+no otherwise than by his published writings. He
+assured me most positively that Jefferson was <span class="smcap">not</span>
+a democrat in principle, but believed it expedient
+to promulgate the doctrine, as the only one
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span>
+which could excite the general feeling of the people,
+and make them hang together till they should
+have acquired strength sufficient to be reckoned as
+one among the nations. He said, that Jefferson's
+ulterior hope for America was, that she should,
+after having acquired this strength, give birth to
+men distinguished both by talent and fortune;
+that when this happened, an enlightened and
+powerful aristocracy might be hoped for, without
+which <span class="smcap">he knew</span> that no country could be really
+great or powerful.</p>
+
+<p>As I am assured that the word of this gentleman
+may be depended on, these observations&mdash;or
+rather, I should say, statements&mdash;respecting Jefferson
+appear to me worth noting.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XIII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">"Le Monomane."</p>
+
+<p>As a distinguished specimen of fashionable
+horror, I went last night to the Porte St. Martin
+to see "The Monomane," a drama in five acts,
+from the pen of a M. Duveyrier. I hardly know
+whether to give you a sketch of this monstrous
+outrage against common sense or not; but I think
+I will do so, because I flatter myself that no one
+will be silly enough to translate it into English, or
+import it in any shape into England; and, therefore,
+if I do not tell you something about it, you
+may chance to die without knowing to what prodigious
+lengths a search after absurdity may carry
+men.</p>
+
+<p>But first let me mention, as not the least extraordinary
+part of the phenomenon, that the theatre
+was crowded from floor to roof, and that Shakspeare
+was never listened to with attention more
+profound. However, it does not follow that approval
+or admiration of any kind was either the
+cause or the effect of this silent contemplation of
+the scene: no one could be more devoted to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>
+business of the hour than myself, but most surely
+this was not the result of approbation.</p>
+
+<p>If I am not very clear respecting the plot, you
+must excuse me, from my want of habitual expertness
+in such an analysis; but the main features
+and characters cannot escape me.</p>
+
+<p>An exceedingly amiable and highly intellectual
+gentleman is the hero of this piece; a part personated
+by a M. Lockroi with a degree of ability
+deserving a worthier employment. This amiable
+man holds at Colmar the office of <i>procureur du
+roi</i>; and, from the habit of witnessing trials, acquires
+so vehement a passion for the shedding of
+blood on the scaffold, that it amounts to a mania.
+To illustrate this singular trait of character, M.
+Balthazar developes his secret feelings in an opening
+speech to an intimate friend. In this speech,
+which really contains some very good lines, he
+dilates with much enthusiasm on the immense
+importance which he conceives to attach to the
+strict and impartial administration of criminal justice.
+No man could deliver himself more judge-like
+and wisely; but how or why such very
+rational and sober opinions should lead to an
+unbounded passion for blood, is very difficult to
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>The next scene, however, shows the <i>procureur
+du roi</i> hugging himself with a kind of mysterious
+rapture at the idea of an approaching execution,
+and receiving with a very wild and mad-like sort
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span>
+of agony some attempts to prove the culprit innocent.
+The execution takes place; and after it is
+over, the innocence of the unfortunate victim is
+fully proved.</p>
+
+<p>The amiable and excellent <i>procureur du roi</i> is
+greatly moved at this; but his repentant agony
+is soon walked off by a few well-trod melodramatic
+turns up and down the stage; and he goes on
+again, seizing with ecstasy upon every opportunity
+of bringing the guilty to justice.</p>
+
+<p>What the object of the author can possibly be
+in making out that a man is mad solely because
+he wishes to do his duty, I cannot even guess. It
+is difficult to imagine an honest-minded magistrate
+uttering more common-place, uncontrovertible
+truths upon the painful duties of his station, than
+does this unfortunate gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>M. Victor Hugo, speaking of himself in one of
+his prefaces, says, "Il (Victor Hugo) continuera
+donc fermement; et chaque fois qu'il croira nécessaire
+de faire bien voir à tous, dans ses moindres
+détails, une idée utile, une idée sociale, une idée humaine,
+il posera le théâtre déssus comme un verre
+grossissant."<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>It strikes me that M. Duveyrier, the ingenious
+author of the Monomane, must work upon the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span>
+same principle, and that in this piece he thinks
+he has put a magnifying-glass upon "une idée
+sociale."</p>
+
+<p>But I must return to my analysis of this drama
+of five mortal acts.&mdash;After the execution, the real
+perpetrator of the murder for which the unfortunate
+victim of legal enthusiasm has innocently
+suffered appears on the scene. He is brought
+sick or wounded into the house of a physician,
+with whom the <i>procureur du roi</i> and his wife are
+on a visit. Balthazar sees the murderer conveyed
+to bed in a chamber that opens from that of his
+friend the doctor. He then goes to bed himself
+with his wife, and appears to have fallen asleep
+without delay, for we presently see him in this
+state come forth from his chamber upon a gallery,
+from whence a flight of stairs descends upon the
+stage. We see him walk down these stairs,&mdash;take
+some instrument out of a case belonging to the
+doctor,&mdash;enter the apartment where the murderer
+has been lodged,&mdash;return,&mdash;replace the instrument,&mdash;-wash
+his bloody hands and wipe them
+upon a hand-towel,&mdash;then reascend the staircase
+and enter his lady's room at the top of it; all of
+which is performed in the silence of profound
+sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The attention which hung upon the whole of
+this long silent scene was such, that one might
+have supposed the lives of the audience depended
+upon their not waking this murderous sleeper by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span>
+any sound; and the applause which followed the
+mute performance, when once the awful <i>procureur
+du roi</i> was again safely lodged in his chamber, was
+deafening.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning it is discovered that the
+sick stranger has been murdered; and instantly
+the <i>procureur du roi</i>, with his usual ardour in
+discovering the guilty, sets most ably to work upon
+the investigation of every circumstance which may
+throw light upon this horrible transaction. Everything,
+particularly the case of instruments, of
+which one is bloody, and the hand-towel found
+in his room, stained with the same accusing dye&mdash;all
+tends to prove that the poor innocent physician
+is the murderer: he is accordingly taken up, tried,
+and condemned.</p>
+
+<p>This unfortunate young doctor has an uncle, of
+the same learned profession, who is addicted to
+the science of animal magnetism. This gentleman
+having some suspicion that Balthazar is himself
+the guilty person, imagines a very cunning device
+by which he may be made to betray himself if
+guilty. He determines to practise his magnetism
+upon him in full court while he is engaged in the
+duties of his high office, and flatters himself that
+he shall be able to throw him into a sleep or
+trance, in which state he may <i>par hasard</i> let out
+something of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>This admirable contrivance answers perfectly.
+The attorney-general does fall into a most profound
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span>
+sleep the moment the old doctor begins his magnetising
+man&oelig;uvres, and in this state not only
+relates aloud every circumstance of the murder,
+but, to give this confession more sure effect, he
+writes it out fairly, and sets his name to it, being
+profoundly asleep the whole time.</p>
+
+<p>And here it is impossible to avoid remarking on
+the extreme ill fortune which attends the sleeping
+hours of this amiable attorney-general. At one
+time he takes a nap, and kills a man without
+knowing anything of the matter; and then, in a
+subsequent state of oblivion, he confesses it, still
+without knowing anything of the matter.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the unfortunate gentleman has
+finished the business for which he was put to sleep,
+he is awakened, and the paper is shown to him.
+He scruples not immediately to own his handwriting,
+which, sleeping or waking, it seems, was
+the same; but testifies the greatest horror and
+astonishment at the information the document
+contains, which was quite as unexpected to himself
+as to the rest of the company.</p>
+
+<p>His high office, however, we must presume,
+exempts him from all responsibility; for the only
+result of the discovery is an earnest recommendation
+from his friends, particularly the old and young
+doctors, that he should travel for the purpose of
+recovering his spirits.</p>
+
+<p>There is a little episode, by the way, from which
+we learn, that once, in one of his alarming slumbers,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span>
+this amiable but unfortunate man gave symptoms
+of wishing to murder his wife and child; in
+consequence of which, it is proposed by the doctors
+that this tour for the restoration of his spirits
+should be made without them. To this separation
+Balthazar strongly objects, and tells his beautiful
+wife, with much tenderness, that he shall find it
+very dull without her.</p>
+
+<p>To this the lady, though naturally rather afraid
+of him, answers with great sweetness, that in
+that case she shall be extremely happy to go with
+him; adding tenderly, that she would willingly die
+to prove her devotion.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could be so unfortunate as this expression.
+At the bare mention of his hobby-horse,
+<i>death</i>, his malady revives, and he instantly manifests
+a strong inclination to murder her,&mdash;and this
+time without even the ceremony of going to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Big with the darling thought, his eyes rolling,
+his cheek pale, his bristling hair on end, and the
+awful genius of Melodrame swelling in every vein,
+Balthazar seats himself on the sofa beside his
+trembling wife, and taking the comb out of her
+(Mademoiselle Noblet's) beautiful hair, appears
+about to strangle her in the rope of jet that he
+pulls out to its utmost length, and twists, and
+twists, and twists, till one really feels a cold shiver
+from head to foot. But at length, at the very
+moment when matters seem drawing to a close,
+the lady throws herself lovingly on his bosom, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>
+his purpose changes, or at least for a moment
+seems to change, and he relaxes his hold.</p>
+
+<p>At this critical juncture the two doctors enter.
+Balthazar looks at them wildly, then at his wife,
+then at the doctors again, and finally tells them
+all that he must beg leave to retire for a few
+moments. He passes through the group, who
+look at him in mournful silence; but as he approaches
+the door, he utters the word 'poison,'
+then enters, and locks and bolts it after him.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this the lady screams, and the two doctors
+fly for a crow-bar. The door is burst open, and
+the <i>procureur du roi</i> comes forward, wide awake,
+but having swallowed the poison he had mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>This being "the last scene of all that ends this
+strange eventful history," the curtain falls upon
+the enthusiastic attorney-general as he expires in
+the arms of his wife and friends.</p>
+
+<p>We are always so apt, when we see anything
+remarkably absurd abroad, to flatter ourselves with
+the belief that nothing like it exists at home, that
+I am almost afraid to draw a parallel between this
+inconceivable trash, and the very worst and vilest
+piece that ever was permitted to keep possession
+of the stage in England, lest some one better
+informed on the subject than myself should quote
+some British enormity unknown to me, and so
+prove my patriotic theory false.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, I cannot quit the subject without
+saying, that as far as my knowledge and belief
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span>
+go, English people never did sit by hundreds and
+listen patiently to such stuff as this. There is
+no very atrocious vice, no terrific wickedness in
+the piece, as far as I could understand its recondite
+philosophy; but its silliness surely possesses the
+silliness of a little child. The grimaces, the dumb
+show, the newly-invented passions, and the series
+of impossible events, which drag through these
+five longsome acts, seem to show a species of
+anomaly in the human mind that composed the
+piece, to which I imagine no parallel can be found
+on record.</p>
+
+<p>Is this the result of the march of mind?&mdash;is it
+the fruit of that universal diffusion of knowledge
+which we are told is at work throughout the world,
+but most busily in France?... I shall never
+understand the mystery, let me meditate upon it
+as long as I will. No! never shall I understand
+how a French audience, lively, witty, acute, and
+prone to seize upon whatever is ridiculous, can
+thus sit night after night with profound gravity,
+and the highest apparent satisfaction, to witness
+the incredible absurdity of such a piece as "Le
+Monomane."</p>
+
+<p>There is one way, and one way only, in which
+the success of this drama can be accounted for intelligibly.
+May it not be, that "<span class="smcap">les jeunes gens</span>,"
+wanton in their power, have determined in merry
+mood to mystify their fellow-citizens by passing a
+favourable judgment upon this tedious performance?
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span>
+And may they not now be enjoying the
+success of their plot in ecstasies of private laughter,
+at seeing how meekly the dutiful Parisians go
+nightly to the Porte St. Martin, and sit in obedient
+admiration of what it has pleased their
+youthful tyrants to denominate "a fine drama"?</p>
+
+<p>But I must leave off guessing; for, as the wise
+man saith, "the finding out of parables is a wearisome
+labour of the mind."</p>
+
+<p>Some critic, speaking of the new school of
+French dramatists, says that "they have heaved
+the ground under the feet of Racine and Corneille."
+If this indeed be so, the best thing that the lovers
+of tragedy can do is to sit at home and wait patiently
+till the earth settles itself again from the
+shock of so deplorable an earthquake. That it
+will settle itself again, I have neither doubt nor
+fear. Nonsense has nothing of immortality in its
+nature; and when the storm which has scattered
+all this frothy scum upon us shall have fairly
+blown over and passed away, then I suspect that
+Corneille and Racine will still find solid standing-ground
+on the soil of France;&mdash;nay, should they
+by chance find also that their old niches in the
+temple of her great men remain vacant, it is likely
+enough that they may be again invited to take
+possession of them; and they may keep it too
+perhaps for a few more hundred years, with very
+little danger that any greater than they should
+arrive to take their places.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XIV.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+The Gardens of the Tuileries.&mdash;Legitimatist.&mdash;Republican&mdash;Doctrinaire.&mdash;Children.&mdash;Dress
+of the Ladies.&mdash;Of the
+Gentlemen.&mdash;Black Hair.&mdash;Unrestricted Admission.&mdash;Anecdote.</p>
+
+<p>Is there anything in the world that can be
+fairly said to resemble the Gardens of the Tuileries?
+I should think not. It is a whole made up of so
+many strongly-marked and peculiar features, that
+it is not probable any other place should be found
+like it. To my fancy, it seems one of the most
+delightful scenes in the world; and I never enter
+there, though it is long since the enchantment of
+novelty made any part of the charm, without a
+fresh feeling of enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>locale</i> itself, independent of the moving
+throng which for ever seems to dwell within it, is
+greatly to my taste: I love all the detail of its
+embellishment, and I dearly love the bright and
+happy aspect of the whole. But on this subject I
+know there are various opinions: many talk with
+distaste of the straight lines, the clipped trees, the
+formal flower-beds, the ugly roofs,&mdash;nay, some will
+even abuse the venerable orange-trees themselves,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span>
+because they grow in square boxes, and do not
+wave their boughs in the breeze like so many
+ragged willow-trees.</p>
+
+<p>But I agree not with any one of these objections;
+and should think it as reasonable, and in as good
+taste, to quarrel with Westminster Abbey because
+it did not look like a Grecian temple, as to find
+fault with the Gardens of the Tuileries because
+they are arranged like French pleasure-grounds,
+and not like an English park. For my own part,
+I profess that I would not, if I had the power,
+change even in the least degree a single feature in
+this pleasant spot: enter it at what hour or at
+what point I will, it ever seems to receive me with
+smiles and gladness.</p>
+
+<p>We seldom suffer a day to pass without refreshing
+our spirits by sitting for a while amidst its
+shade and its flowers. From the part of the town
+where we are now dwelling, the gate opposite the
+Place Vendôme is our nearest entrance; and perhaps
+from no point does the lively beauty of the
+whole scene show itself better than from beneath
+the green roof of the terrace-walk, to which this
+gate admits us.</p>
+
+<p>To the right, the dark mass of unshorn trees,
+now rich with the flowers of the horse-chesnut,
+and growing as boldly and as loftily as the most
+English-hearted gardener could desire, leads the
+eye through a very delicious "continuity of shade"
+to the magnificent gate that opens upon the Place
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span>
+Louis-Quinze. To the left is the widely-spreading
+façade of the Tuileries Palace, the ungraceful
+elevation of the pavilion roofs, well nigh forgotten,
+and quite atoned for by the beauty of
+the gardens at their feet. Then, just where the
+shade of the high trees ceases, and the bright
+blaze of sunshine begins, what multitudes of
+sweet flowers are seen blushing in its beams!
+An universal lilac bloom seems at this season
+to spread itself over the whole space; and every
+breeze that passes by, comes to us laden with
+perfume. My daily walk is almost always the
+same,&mdash;I love it so well that I do not like to
+change it. Following the shady terrace by which
+we enter to the point where it sinks down to the
+level of the magnificent esplanade in front of the
+palace, we turn to the right, and endure the splendid
+brightness till we reach the noble walk leading
+from the gateway of the centre pavilion, through
+flowers, statues, orange-trees, and chesnut-groves,
+as far as the eye can reach, till it reposes at last
+upon the lofty arch of the Barrière de l'Etoile.</p>
+
+<p>This <i>coup-d'&oelig;il</i> is so beautiful, that I constantly
+feel renewed pleasure when I look upon it. I do
+indeed confess myself to be one of those "who in
+trim gardens take their pleasure." I love the
+studied elegance, the carefully-selected grace of
+every object permitted to meet the pampered eye
+in such a spot as this. I love these fondly-nurtured
+princely exotics, the old orange-trees, ranged
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span>
+in their long stately rows; and better still do I
+love the marble groups, that stand so nobly,
+sometimes against the bright blue sky, and sometimes
+half concealed in the dark setting of the
+trees. Everything seems to speak of taste, luxury,
+and elegance.</p>
+
+<p>Having indulged in a lingering walk from the
+palace to the point at which the sunshine ceases
+and the shade begins, a new species of interest
+and amusement awaits us. Thousands of chairs
+scattered just within the shelter of this inviting
+covert are occupied by an interminable variety of
+pretty groups.</p>
+
+<p>I wonder how many months of constant attendance
+there, it would take before I should grow
+weary of studying the whole and every separate
+part of this bright picture? It is really matchless
+in beauty as a spectacle, and unequalled in interest
+as a national study. All Paris may in turn be
+seen and examined there; and nowhere is it so
+easy to distinguish specimens of the various and
+strongly-marked divisions of the people.</p>
+
+<p>This morning we took possession of half a dozen
+chairs under the trees which front the beautiful
+group of Pelus and Aria. It was the hour when
+all the newspapers are in the greatest requisition;
+and we had the satisfaction of watching the studies
+of three individuals, each of whom might have sat
+as a model for an artist who wished to give an
+idea of their several peculiarities. We saw, in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span>
+short, beyond the possibility of doubt, a royalist,
+a doctrinaire, and a republican, during the half-hour
+we remained there, all soothing their feelings
+by indulging in two sous' worth of politics, each in
+his own line.</p>
+
+<p>A stiff but gentleman-like old man first came,
+and having taken a journal from the little octagon
+stand&mdash;which journal we felt quite sure was either
+"La France" or "La Quotidienne"&mdash;he established
+himself at no great distance from us. Why it
+was that we all felt so certain of his being a legitimatist
+I can hardly tell you, but not one of
+the party had the least doubt about it. There
+was a quiet, half-proud, half-melancholy air of
+keeping himself apart; an aristocratical cast of
+features; a pale care-worn complexion; and a
+style of dress which no vulgar man ever wore, but
+which no rich one would be likely to wear to-day.
+This is all I can record of him: but there was
+something pervading his whole person too essentially
+loyal to be misunderstood, yet too delicate
+in its tone to be coarsely painted. Such as it was,
+however, we felt it quite enough to make the
+matter sure; and if I could find out that old gentleman
+to be either doctrinaire or republican, I
+never would look on a human countenance again
+in order to discover what was passing within.</p>
+
+<p>The next who approached us we were equally
+sure was a republican: but here the discovery did
+little honour to our discernment; for these gentry
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span>
+choose to leave no doubt upon the subject of their
+<i>clique</i>, but contrive that every article contributing
+to the appearance of the outward man shall become
+a symbol and a sign, a token and a stigma,
+of the madness that possesses them. He too held
+a paper in his hand, and without venturing to
+approach too nearly to so alarming a personage,
+we scrupled not to assure each other that the
+journal he was so assiduously perusing was "Le
+Réformateur."</p>
+
+<p>Just as we had decided what manner of man
+it was who was stalking so majestically past us, a
+comfortable-looking citizen approached in the uniform
+of the National Guard, who sat himself down
+to his daily allowance of politics with the air of
+a person expecting to be well pleased with what
+he finds, but nevertheless too well contented with
+himself and all things about him to care over-much
+about it. Every line of this man's jocund
+face, every curve of his portly figure, spoke contentment
+and well-being. He was probably one
+of that very new race in France, a tradesman
+making a rapid fortune. Was it possible to doubt
+that the paper in his hand was "Le Journal des
+Débats?" was it possible to believe that this man
+was other than a prosperous doctrinaire?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6" style="width: 408px;"><a name="illo2" id="illo2"></a>
+<img src="images/ill127.jpg" width="408" height="600" alt="Morning at the Tuileries" />
+<p class="s05">Drawn &amp; Etched by A. Hervieu.</p>
+<p class="caption smcap">Morning at the Tuileries</p>
+<p class="caption s05">London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thus, on the neutral ground furnished by these
+delightful gardens, hostile spirits meet with impunity,
+and, though they mingle not, enjoy in common
+the delicious privileges of cool shade, fresh
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span>
+air, and the idle luxury of an <i>al fresco</i> newspaper,
+in the midst of a crowded and party-split city,
+with as much certainty of being unchallenged and
+uninterrupted as if each were wandering alone in
+a princely domain of his own.</p>
+
+<p>Such, too, as are not over splenetic may find a
+very lively variety of study in watching the ways
+of the little dandies and dandiesses who, at some
+hours of the day, swarm like so many hummingbirds
+amidst the shade and sunshine of the Tuileries.
+Either these little French personages are
+marvellously well-behaved, or there is some superintending
+care which prevents screaming; for I
+certainly never saw so many young things assembled
+together who indulged so rarely in that salutary
+exercise of the lungs which makes one so
+often tremble at the approach of</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Soft infancy, that nothing can, but cry."</p>
+
+<p>The costumes of these pretty creatures contribute
+not a little to the amusement; it is often so
+whimsical as to give them the appearance of
+miniature maskers. I have seen little fellows
+beating a hoop in the full uniform of a National
+Guard; others waddling under the mimicry of
+kilted Highlanders; and small ladies without
+number in every possible variety of un-babylike
+apparel.</p>
+
+<p>The entertainment to be derived from sitting
+in the Tuileries Gardens and studying costume is,
+however, by no means confined to the junior part
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span>
+of the company. In no country have I ever seen
+anything approaching in grotesque habiliments to
+some of the figures daily and hourly met lounging
+about these walks. But such vagaries are confined
+wholly to the male part of the population;
+it is very rare to see a woman outrageously dressed
+in any way; and if you do, the chances are
+five hundred to one that she is not a Frenchwoman.
+An air of quiet elegant neatness is, I think,
+the most striking characteristic of the walking
+costume of the French ladies. All the little minor
+finishings of the female toilet appear to be
+more sedulously cared for than the weightier
+matters of the pelisse and gown. Every lady you
+meet is <i>bien chaussée</i>, <i>bien gantée</i>. Her ribbons,
+if they do not match her dress, are sure to accord
+with it; and for all the delicate garniture that
+comes under the care of the laundress, it should
+seem that Paris alone, of all the earth, knows
+how to iron.</p>
+
+<p>The whimsical caprices of male attire, on the
+contrary, defy anything like general remark; unless,
+indeed, it be that the air of Paris appears to
+have the quality of turning all the <i>imperials</i>, <i>favoris</i>,
+and <i>moustaches</i> which dwell within its walls
+to jetty blackness. At a little distance, the young
+men have really the air of having their faces tied
+up with black ribbon as a cure for the mumps;
+and, handsome as this dark <i>chevelure</i> is generally
+allowed to be, the heavy uniformity of it at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span>
+present very considerably lessens its striking effect.
+When every man has his face half covered with
+black hair, it ceases to be a very valuable distinction.
+Perhaps, too, the frequent advertisements of
+compositions infallible in their power of turning
+the hair to any colour except "what pleases God,"
+may tend to make one look with suspicious eyes
+at these once fascinating southern decorations;
+but, at present, I take it to be an undoubted fact,
+that a clean, close-shaven, northern-looking gentleman
+is valued at a high premium in every
+<i>salon</i> in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be denied that the "glorious and
+immortal days" have done some injury to the general
+appearance of the Tuileries Gardens. Before
+this period, no one was permitted to enter them
+dressed in a <i>blouse</i>, or jacket, or <i>casquette</i>; and no
+one, either male or female, might carry bundles or
+baskets through these pretty regions, sacred to
+relaxation and holiday enjoyment. But liberty
+and unseemly sordidness of attire being somehow
+or other jumbled together in the minds of the
+sovereign mob,&mdash;not sovereign either&mdash;the mob is
+only vice-regal in Paris as yet;&mdash;but the mob,
+however, such as it is, has obtained, as a mark of
+peculiar respect and favour to themselves, a new
+law or regulation, by which it is enacted that these
+royal precincts may become like unto Noah's ark,
+and that both clean and unclean beasts may enter
+here.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Could one wish for a better specimen of the
+sort of advantage to be gained by removing the
+restraint of authority in order to pamper the
+popular taste for what they are pleased to call
+freedom? Not one of the persons who enter the
+gardens now, were restricted from entering them
+before; only it was required that they should be
+decently clad;&mdash;that is to say, in such garments as
+they were accustomed to wear on Sunday or any
+other holiday; the only occasions, one should imagine,
+on which the working classes could wish to
+profit by permission to promenade in a public
+garden: but the obligation to appear clean in the
+garden of the king's palace was an infringement
+on their liberty, so that formality is dispensed
+with; and they have now obtained the distinguished
+and ennobling privilege of being as dirty
+and ill-dressed as they like.</p>
+
+<p>The power formerly intrusted to the sentinel,
+wherever there was one stationed, of refusing the
+<i>entrée</i> to all persons not properly dressed, gave
+occasion once to a saucy outbreaking of French
+wit in one of the National Guard, which was
+amusing enough. This civic guardian was stationed
+at the gates of a certain <i>Mairie</i> on some
+public occasion, with the usual injunction not to
+permit any person "<i>mal-mise</i>" to enter. An <i>incroyable</i>
+presented himself, not dressed in the
+fashion, but immoderately beyond it. The sentinel
+looked at him, and lowered his piece across
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span>
+the entrance, pronouncing in a voice of authority&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot enter."</p>
+
+<p>"Not enter?" exclaimed the astonished beau,
+looking down at the exquisite result of his laborious
+toilet; "not enter?&mdash;forbid me to enter, sir?&mdash;impossible!
+What is it you mean? Let me
+pass, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>The imperturbable sentinel stood like a rock
+before the entrance: "My orders are precise,"
+he said, "and I may not infringe them."</p>
+
+<p>"Precise? Your orders precise to refuse me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oui, monsieur, précis, de refuser qui que ce
+soit que je trouve mal-mis."</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XV.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Street Police.&mdash;Cleaning Beds.&mdash;Tinning Kettles.&mdash;Building
+Houses.&mdash;Loading Carts.&mdash;Preparing for the Scavenger.&mdash;Want
+of Drains.&mdash;Bad Pavement.&mdash;Darkness.</p>
+
+<p>My last letter was of the Tuileries Gardens;
+a theme which furnished me so many subjects
+of admiration, that I think, if only for the sake of
+variety, I will let the smelfungus vein prevail to-day.
+Such, then, being my humour,&mdash;or my ill-humour,
+if you will,&mdash;I shall indulge it by telling
+you what I think of the street-police of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>I will not tell you that it is bad, for that, I
+doubt not, many others may have done before me;
+but I will tell you that I consider it as something
+wonderful, mysterious, incomprehensible, and perfectly
+astonishing.</p>
+
+<p>In a city where everything intended to meet
+the eye is converted into graceful ornament;
+where the shops and coffee-houses have the air
+of fairy palaces, and the markets show fountains
+wherein the daintiest naïads might delight to
+bathe;&mdash;in such a city as this, where the women
+look too delicate to belong wholly to earth, and
+the men too watchful and observant to suffer the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span>
+winds of heaven to visit them too roughly;&mdash;in
+such a city as this, you are shocked and disgusted
+at every step you take, or at every gyration that
+the wheels of your chariot can make, by sights
+and smells that may not be described.</p>
+
+<p>Every day brings my astonishment on this
+subject to a higher pitch than the one which
+preceded it; for every day brings with it fresh
+conviction that a very considerable portion of the
+enjoyment of life is altogether destroyed in Paris
+by the neglect or omission of such a degree of municipal
+interference as might secure the most elegant
+people in the world from the loathsome disgust
+occasioned by the perpetual outrage of common
+decency in their streets.</p>
+
+<p>On this branch of the subject it is impossible to
+say more; but there are other points on which
+the neglect of street-police is as plainly, though
+less disgustingly, apparent; and some of these I
+will enumerate for your information, as they may
+be described without impropriety; but when they
+are looked at in conjunction with the passion for
+graceful decoration, so decidedly a characteristic
+of the French people, they offer to our observation
+an incongruity so violent, as to puzzle in no
+ordinary degree whoever may wish to explain it.</p>
+
+<p>You cannot at this season pass through any
+street in Paris, however pre-eminently fashionable
+from its situation, or however distinguished by the
+elegance of those who frequent it, without being
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span>
+frequently obliged to turn aside, that you may not
+run against two or more women covered with
+dust, and probably with vermin, who are busily
+employed in pulling their flock mattresses to
+pieces in the street. There they stand or sit,
+caring for nobody, but combing, turning, and
+shaking the wool upon all comers and goers; and,
+finally, occupying the space round which many
+thousand passengers are obliged to make what is
+always an inconvenient, and sometimes a very
+dirty <i>détour</i>, by poking the material, cleared from
+the filth, which has passed into the throats of the
+gentlemen and ladies of Paris, back again into its
+checked repository.</p>
+
+<p>I have within this half-hour passed from the
+Italian Boulevard by the Opera-house, in the front
+of which this obscene and loathsome operation was
+being performed by a solitary old crone, who will
+doubtless occupy the place she has chosen during
+the whole day, and carry away her bed just in
+time to permit the Duke of Orleans to step from
+his carriage into the Opera without tumbling over
+it, but certainly not in time to prevent his having
+a great chance of receiving as he passes some portion
+of the various animate and inanimate superfluities
+which for so many hours she has been
+scattering to the air.</p>
+
+<p>A few days ago I saw a well-dressed gentleman
+receive a severe contusion on the head, and the
+most overwhelming destruction to the neatness of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span>
+his attire, in consequence of a fall occasioned by
+his foot getting entangled in the apparatus of a
+street-working tinker, who had his charcoal fire,
+bellows, melting-pot, and all other things necessary
+for carrying on the tinning trade in a small
+way, spread forth on the pavement of the Rue de
+Provence.</p>
+
+<p>When the accident happened, many persons
+were passing, all of whom seemed to take a very
+obliging degree of interest in the misfortune of
+the fallen gentleman; but not a syllable either of
+remonstrance or remark was uttered concerning
+the invasion of the highway by the tinker; nor
+did that wandering individual himself appear to
+think any apology called for, or any change in the
+arrangement of his various chattels necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever a house is to be built or repaired in
+London, the first thing done is to surround the
+premises with a high paling, that shall prevent
+any of the operations that are going on within it
+from annoying in any way the public in the
+street. The next thing is to arrange a footpath
+round this paling, carefully protected by posts
+and rails, so that this unavoidable invasion of
+the ordinary foot-path may be productive of as
+little inconvenience as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Were you to pass a spot in Paris under similar
+circumstances, you would fancy that some tremendous
+accident&mdash;a fire, perhaps, or the falling
+in of a roof&mdash;had occasioned a degree of difficulty
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span>
+and confusion to the passengers which it was
+impossible to suppose could be suffered to remain
+an hour unremedied: but it is, on the contrary,
+permitted to continue, to the torment and danger
+of daily thousands, for months together, without
+the slightest notice or objection on the part of the
+municipal authorities. If a cart be loading or
+unloading in the street, it is permitted to take
+and keep a position the most inconvenient, in
+utter disregard of any danger or delay which it
+may and must occasion to the carriages and foot-passengers
+who have to travel round it.</p>
+
+<p>Nuisances and abominations of all sorts are
+without scruple committed to the street at any
+hour of the day or night, to await the morning
+visit of the scavenger to remove them: and happy
+indeed is it for the humble pedestrian if his
+eye and nose alone suffer from these ejectments;
+happy, indeed, if he comes not in contact with
+them, as they make their unceremonious exit
+from window or door. "<i>Quel bonheur!</i>" is the
+exclamation if he escapes; but a look, wholly in
+sorrow and nowise in anger, is the only helpless
+resource should he be splashed from head to
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>On the subject of that monstrous barbarism, a
+gutter in the middle of the streets expressly
+formed for the reception of filth, which is still
+permitted to deform the greater portion of this
+beautiful city, I can only say, that the patient
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span>
+endurance of it by men and women of the year
+one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five is a
+mystery difficult to understand.</p>
+
+<p>It really appears to me, that almost the only
+thing in the world which other men do, but which
+Frenchmen cannot, is the making of sewers and
+drains. After an hour or two of very violent
+rain last week, that part of the Place Louis-Quinze
+which is near the entrance to the Champs
+Elysées remained covered with water. The Board
+of Works having waited for a day or two to see
+what would happen, and finding that the muddy
+lake did not disappear, commanded the assistance
+of twenty-six able-bodied labourers, who set about
+digging just such a channel as little boys amuse
+themselves by making beside a pond. By this
+well-imagined engineering exploit, the stagnant
+water was at length conducted to the nearest
+gutter; the pickaxes were shouldered, and an
+open muddy channel left to adorn this magnificent
+area, which, were a little finishing bestowed
+upon it, would probably be the finest point that
+any city in the world could boast.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it will hardly be fair to set it amongst
+my complaints against the streets of Paris, that
+they have not yet adopted our last and most
+luxurious improvement. I cannot but observe,
+however, that having passed some weeks here, I
+feel that the Macadamised streets of London
+ought to become the subject of a metropolitan
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span>
+jubilee among us. The exceeding noise of Paris,
+proceeding either from the uneven structure of
+the pavement, or from the defective construction
+of wheels and springs, is so violent and incessant
+as to appear like the effect of one great continuous
+cause,&mdash;a sort of demon torment, which it
+must require great length of use to enable one to
+endure without suffering. Were a cure for this
+sought in the Macadamising of the streets, an
+additional advantage, by the bye, would be obtained,
+from the difficulties it would throw in the way
+of the future heroes of a barricade.</p>
+
+<p>There is another defect, however, and one much
+more easily remedied, which may fairly, I think,
+come under the head of defective street-police.
+This is the profound darkness of every part of the
+city in which there are not shops illuminated by
+the owners of them with gas. This is done so
+brilliantly on the Boulevards by the <i>cafés</i> and
+<i>restaurans</i>, that the dim old-fashioned lamp suspended
+at long intervals across the <i>pavé</i> is forgotten.
+But no sooner is this region of light and
+gaiety left, than you seem to plunge into outer
+darkness; and there is not a little country town
+in England which is not incomparably better
+lighted than any street in Paris which depends
+for its illumination upon the public regulations
+of the city.</p>
+
+<p>As it is evident that gas-pipes must be actually
+laid in all directions in order to supply the individuals
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span>
+who employ it in their houses, I could in
+no way understand why these most dismal <i>réverbères</i>,
+with their dingy oil, were to be made use of
+in preference to the beautiful light which almost
+outblazes that of the sun; but I am told that
+some unexpired contract between Paris and her
+lamplighters is the cause of this. Were the convenience
+of the public as sedulously studied in
+France as in England, not all the claims of all
+the lamplighters in the world, let it cost what it
+might to content them, would keep her citizens
+groping in darkness when it was so very easy to
+give them light.</p>
+
+<p>But not to dwell ungratefully upon the grievances
+which certainly disfigure this city of delight,
+I will not multiply instances; yet I am sure I
+may assert, without fear of contradiction or reproach,
+that such a street-police as that of London
+would be one of the greatest civic blessings
+that King Philippe could possibly bestow upon
+his "<i>belle ville de Paris</i>."</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XVI.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Preparations for the Fête du Roi.&mdash;Arrival of Troops.&mdash;Champs
+Elysées.&mdash;Concert in the Garden of the Tuileries.&mdash;Silence
+of the People.&mdash;Fireworks.</p>
+
+<p class="ltrhead">
+May 2, 1835.</p>
+
+<p>For several days past we have been watching
+the preparations for the King's fête, which though
+not quite equal to those in the days of the
+Emperor, when all the fountains in Paris ran
+wine, were on a large and splendid scale, and if
+more sober, were perhaps not less princely. Temporary
+theatres, ball-rooms, and orchestras in the
+Champs Elysées&mdash;magnificent fireworks on the
+Pont Louis-Seize&mdash;preparations for a full concert
+immediately in front of the Tuileries Palace, and
+arrangement of lamps for general illuminations,
+but especially in the Gardens, were the chief of
+these; but none of them struck us so much as
+the daily-increasing number of troops. National
+Guards and soldiers of the line divided the streets
+between them; and as a grand review was naturally
+to make a part of the day's pageantry, there
+would have been nothing to remark in this, were
+it not that the various parties into which the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span>
+country is divided perpetually leads people to suppose
+that King Philippe finds it necessary to act
+on the defensive.</p>
+
+<p>Numberless are the hints, as you may imagine,
+on this theme that have been thrown out on the
+present occasion; and it is confidently asserted in
+some quarters, that the reviewing of large bodies of
+troops is likely to become a very fashionable and
+frequent, if not a very popular, amusement here.
+If, indeed, a show of force be necessary to ensure
+the tranquillity of this strife-worn land, the government
+certainly do right in displaying it; but if
+this be not the case, there is some imprudence
+in it, for the effect much resembles that of</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"A rich armour, worn in heat of day,</p>
+<p>That scalds with safety."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Yesterday, then, being marked in the calendar
+as sacred to St. Jacques and St. Philippe, was kept
+as the fête of the present King of the French.
+The weather was brilliant, and everything looked
+gay, particularly around the courtly region of the
+Tuileries, Champs Elysées, and all parts near or
+between them.</p>
+
+<p>Being assured by a philosophical looker-on upon
+all such assemblings of the people as are likely to
+show forth indications of their temper, that the
+humours of the Champs Elysées would display
+more of this than I could hope to find elsewhere,
+I was about to order a carriage to convey us
+there; but my friend stopped me.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You may as well remain at home," said he;
+"from a carriage you will see nothing but a
+mob: but if you will walk amongst them, you
+may perhaps find out whether they are thinking
+of anything or nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything?&mdash;or nothing?" I repeated. "Does
+the <i>anything</i> mean a revolution? Tell me truly,
+is there any chance of a riot?"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of answering, he turned to a gentleman
+of our party who was just returned from the
+review of the troops by the king.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not say you had seen the review?"
+he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I am just come from it."</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you think of the troops?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are very fine troops,&mdash;remarkably fine
+men, both the National Guards and the troops of
+the line."</p>
+
+<p>"And in sufficient force, are they not, to keep
+Paris quiet if she should feel disposed to be frolicsome?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly&mdash;I should think so."</p>
+
+<p>It was therefore determined, leaving the younger
+part of the females behind us however in case of
+the worst, that we should repair to the Champs
+Elysées.</p>
+
+<p>No one who has not seen a public fête celebrated
+at Paris can form an idea of the scene which the
+whole of this extensive area presents: it makes me
+giddy even to remember it. Imagine a hundred
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span>
+swings throwing their laughing cargoes high into
+the air; a hundred winged ships flying in endless
+whirl, and bearing for their crews a <i>tête-à-tête</i> pair
+of holiday sweethearts: imagine a hundred horses,
+each with two prancing hoofs high poised in air,
+coursing each other in a circle, with nostrils of
+flame; a hundred mountebanks, chattering and
+gibbering their inconceivable jargon, some habited
+as generals, some as Turks,&mdash;some offering their
+nostrums in the impressive habit of an Armenian
+Jew, and others rolling head-over-heels upon a
+stage, and presenting a dose with the grin of
+Grimaldi. We stopped more than once in our
+progress to watch the ways of one of these animals
+when it had succeeded in fascinating its
+prey: the poor victim was cajoled and coaxed
+into believing that none of woman born could
+ever taste of evil more, if he would but trust to
+the one only true, sure, and certain specific.</p>
+
+<p>At all sides of us, as we advanced, we were
+skirted by long lines of booths, decked with gaudy
+merchandise, rings, clasps, brooches, buckles, most
+tempting to behold, and all to be had for five sous
+each. It is pretty enough to watch the eager
+glances and the smirking smiles of the damsels,
+with the yielding, tender looks of the fond boys
+who hover round these magazines of female
+trumpery. Alas! it is perhaps but the beginning
+of sorrow!</p>
+
+<p>In the largest open space afforded by these
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span>
+Elysian fields were erected two theatres, the interval
+between them holding, it was said, twenty
+thousand spectators. While one of these performed
+a piece, pantomimic I believe, the other
+enjoyed a <i>relâche</i> and reposed itself: but the
+instant the curtain of one fell, that of the other
+rose, and the ocean of heads which filled the space
+between them turned, and undulated like the
+waves of the sea, ebbing and flowing, backwards
+and forwards, as the moon-struck folly attracted
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Four ample <i>al fresco</i> enclosures prepared for
+dancing, each furnished with a very respectable
+orchestra, occupied the extreme corners of this
+space; and notwithstanding the crowd, the heat,
+the sunshine, and the din, this exercise, which was
+carried on immediately under them, did not, I was
+told, cease for a single instant during the whole of
+that long summer-day. When one set of fiddlers
+were tired out, another succeeded. The activity,
+gaiety, and universal good-humour of this enormous
+mob were uniform and uninterrupted from
+morning to night.</p>
+
+<p>These people really deserve fêtes; they enjoy
+them so heartily, yet so peaceably.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the great and most striking features
+of the jubilee; but we hardly advanced a single
+step through the throng which did not exhibit
+to us some minor trait of national and characteristic
+revelry. I was delighted to observe, however,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span>
+throughout the whole of my expedition, that,
+according to our friend's definition, "<i>nobody was
+thinking of anything</i>."</p>
+
+<p>But what pleased me incomparably more than
+all the rest was the temperate style of the popular
+refreshments. The young men and the old, the
+time-worn matron and the dainty damsel, all alike
+slaked their thirst with iced lemonade, which was
+furnished in incredible quantities by numberless
+ambulant cisterns, at the price of one sou the
+glass. Happily this light-hearted, fête-loving population
+have no gin-palaces to revel in.</p>
+
+<p>But hunger was to be satisfied as well as thirst;
+and here the <i>friand</i> taste of the people displayed
+itself by dozens of little chafing-dishes lodged at
+intervals under the trees, each with its presiding
+old woman, who, holding a frying-pan, for ever
+redolent of onions, over the coals, screamed in
+shrill accents the praises of her <i>saucisses</i> and her
+<i>foie</i>. This was the only part of the business that
+was really disagreeable: the odour from these <i>al
+fresco</i> kitchens was not, I confess, very pleasant;
+but everything else pleased me exceedingly. It
+was the first time I ever saw a real mob in full
+jubilee; and I did not believe it possible I could
+have been so much amused, and so not at all
+frightened. Even before one of these terribly
+odoriferant kitchens, I could not help pausing
+for a moment as I passed, to admire the polite
+style in which an old woman who had taken
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span>
+early possession of the shade of a tree for her
+<i>restaurant</i> defended the station from the wheelbarrow
+of a merchant of gingerbread who approached
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon, monsieur!... Ne venez pas, je vous
+prie, déranger mon établissement."</p>
+
+<p>The two grotesque old figures, together with
+their fittings up, made this dignified address delightful;
+and as it was answered by a bow, and
+the respectful drawing back of the wheelbarrow,
+I cannot but give it the preference over the more
+energetic language which a similar circumstance
+would be likely to produce at Bartholomew Fair.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether we were infinitely amused by this
+excursion; but I think I never was more completely
+fatigued in my life. Nevertheless, I contrived
+to repose myself sufficiently to join a large
+party to the Tuileries Gardens in the evening,
+where we were assured that <i>two hundred thousand
+persons</i> were collected. The crowd was indeed
+very great, and the party soon found it impossible
+to keep together; but about three hours afterwards
+we had the satisfaction of assembling in safety at
+the same pleasant mansion from which we set out.</p>
+
+<p>The attraction which during the early part of
+the evening chiefly drew together the crowd was
+the orchestra in front of the palace. A large military
+band were stationed there, and continued
+playing, while the thousands and tens of thousands
+of lamps were being lighted all over the gardens.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span></p>
+
+<p>During this time, the king, queen, and royal
+family appeared on the balcony. And here the
+only fault which I had perceived in this pretty
+fête throughout the day showed itself so strongly
+as to produce a very disagreeable effect. From
+first to last, it seemed that the cause of the jubilee
+was forgotten; not a sound of any kind greeted
+the appearance of the royal party. That so gay
+and demonstrative a people, assembled in such
+numbers, and on such an occasion, should remain
+with uplifted heads, gazing on the sovereign,
+without a sound being uttered by any single voice,
+appeared perfectly astonishing. However, if there
+were no bravoes, there was decidedly no hissing.</p>
+
+<p>The scene itself was one of enchanting gaiety.
+Before us rose the illuminated pavilions of the
+Tuileries: the bright lights darting through the
+oleanders and myrtles on the balcony, showed to
+advantage the royal party stationed there. On
+every side were trees, statues, flowers, brought out
+to view by unnumbered lamps rising in brilliant
+pyramids among them, while the inspiring sounds
+of martial music resounded in the midst. The
+<i>jets d'eau</i>, catching the artificial light, sprang high
+into the air like arrows of fire, then turned into
+spray, and descended again in light showers,
+seeming to shed delicious coolness on the crowd;
+and behind them, far as the eye could reach,
+stretched the suburban forest, sparkling with festoons
+of lamps, that seemed drawn out, "fine
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span>
+by degrees and beautifully less," up to the Barrière
+de l'Etoile. The scene itself was indeed lovely;
+and if, instead of the heavy silence with which it
+was regarded, a loud heartfelt cheering had greeted
+the <i>jour de fête</i> of a long-loved king, it would
+have been perfect.</p>
+
+<p>The fireworks, too, were superb; and though
+all the theatres in Paris were opened gratis to the
+public, and, as we afterwards heard, completely
+filled, the multitudes that thronged to look at
+them seemed enough to people a dozen cities.
+But it is so much the habit of this people, old and
+young, rich and poor, to live out of doors, that a
+slight temptation "bye common" is sufficient to
+draw forth every human being who is able to stand
+alone: and indeed, of those who are not, thousands
+are deposited in chairs, and other thousands in
+the arms of mothers and nurses.</p>
+
+<p>The Pont Louis-Seize was the point from
+which all the fireworks were let off. No spot
+could have been better chosen: the terraces of the
+Tuileries looked down upon it; and the whole
+length of the quays, on both sides of the river, as
+far as the <i>Cité</i>, looked up to it, and the persons
+stationed on them must have seen clearly the
+many-coloured fires that blazed there.</p>
+
+<p>One of the prettiest popular contrivances for
+creating a shout when fireworks are exhibited
+here, is to have rockets, sending up tri-coloured
+balls, blue, white, and red, in rapid succession,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span>
+looking, as I heard a young republican say, "like
+winged messengers, from their loved banner up
+to heaven." I could not help remarking, that if
+the messengers repeated faithfully all that the
+tri-coloured banner had done, they would have
+strange tales to tell.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>bouquet</i>, or last grand display that finished
+the exhibition, was very fanciful and very splendid:
+but what struck me as the prettiest part of the
+whole show, was the Chamber of Deputies, the
+architecture of which was marked by lines of
+light; and the magnificent flight of steps leading
+to it having each one its unbroken fencing of fire,
+was perhaps intended as a mystical type of the
+ordeal to be passed in a popular election before
+this temple of wisdom could be entered.</p>
+
+<p>How very delightful was the abounding tea of
+that hot lamp-lit night!... And how very thankful
+was I this morning, at one o'clock, to feel that
+the <i>fête du roi</i> was peaceably over, and I ready to
+fall soundly to sleep in my bed!</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XVII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Political chances.&mdash;Visit from a Republican.&mdash;His high spirits
+at the prospects before him.&mdash;His advice to me respecting
+my name.&mdash;Removal of the Prisoners from Ste. Pélagie.&mdash;Review.&mdash;Garde
+de Paris.&mdash;The National Guard.</p>
+
+<p>We are so accustomed, in these our luckless
+days, to hear of <i>émuetes</i> and rumours of <i>émuetes</i>,
+here, there, and everywhere, that we certainly
+grow nerve-hardened, and if not quite callous, at
+least we are almost reckless of the threat. But
+in this city the business of getting up riots on the
+one hand, and putting them down on the other,
+is carried on in so easy and familiar a manner,
+that we daily look for an account of something of
+the kind as regularly as for our breakfast bread;
+and I begin already to lose in a great degree my
+fear of disagreeable results, in the interest with
+which I watch what is going on.</p>
+
+<p>The living in the midst of all these different
+parties, and listening first to one and then to
+another of them, is to a foreigner much like the
+amusement derived by an idle spectator from
+walking round a card-table, looking into all the
+hands, and then watching the manner in which
+each one plays his game.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It has so often happened here, as we all know,
+that when the game has appeared over, and the
+winner in possession of the stake he played for,
+they have on a sudden shuffled the cards and begun
+again, that people seem always looking out
+for new chances, new bets, new losses, and new
+confusion. I can assure you, that it is a game of
+considerable movement and animation which is
+going on at Paris just now. The political trials
+are to commence on Tuesday next, and the republicans
+are as busy as a nest of wasps when
+conscious that their stronghold is attacked. They
+have not only been upon the alert, but hitherto in
+great spirits at the prospect before them.</p>
+
+<p>The same individual whose alarming communications
+on this subject I mentioned to you soon
+after we came here, called on me again a few days
+ago. I never saw a man more altered in the interval
+of a few weeks: when I first saw him here, he
+was sullen, gloomy, and miserable-looking in the
+extreme; but at his last visit he appeared gay,
+frolicsome, and happy. He was not disposed,
+however, to talk much on politics; and I am persuaded
+he came with a fixed determination not to
+indulge our curiosity by saying a word on the
+subject. But "out of the fulness of the heart the
+mouth speaketh;" and this gentleman did not depart
+without giving us some little intimation of
+what was passing in his.</p>
+
+<p>Observe, that I do no treason in repeating to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span>
+you whatever this young man said in my hearing;
+for he assured me the first time I ever saw him,
+that he knew me to be "<i>une absolutiste enragée</i>;"
+but that, so far from fearing to speak freely before
+me, there was nothing that would give him so
+much pleasure as believing that I should publish
+every word he uttered on the subject of politics.
+I told him in return, that if I did so, it
+should be without mentioning his name; for that
+I should be truly sorry to hear that he had been
+consigned to Ste. Pélagie as a rebel on my evidence.
+So we understand each other perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning in question, he began talking
+gaily and gallantly concerning the pleasures of
+Paris, and expressed his hope that we were taking
+care to profit by the present interval of public
+tranquillity.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this interval of calm likely to be followed
+by a storm?" said one of the party.</p>
+
+<p>"Mais ... que sais-je?... The weather is so
+fine now, you know.... And the opera? en vérité,
+c'est superbe!... Have you seen it yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seen what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh! mais, 'La Juive'! ... à présent il n'y a
+que cela au monde.... You read the journals?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Galignani's at least."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! ah!" said he, laughing; "c'est assez
+pour vous autres."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any interesting news to-day in any
+of the papers?"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Intéressante? ... mais, oui ... assez.... Cependant...."
+And then again he rattled on about
+plays, balls, concerts, and I know not what.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would tell me," said I, interrupting
+him, "whether you think, that in case
+any popular movement should occur, the English
+would be molested, or in any way annoyed."</p>
+
+<p>"Non, madame&mdash;je ne le crois pas&mdash;surtout les
+femmes. Cependant, si j'étais vous, Madame Trollope,
+je me donnerai pour le moment le nom
+d'O'Connell."</p>
+
+<p>"And that, you think, would be accepted as a
+passport through any scene of treason and rebellion?"
+said I.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed again, and said that was not exactly
+what he meant; but that O'Connell was a name
+revered in France as well as at Rome, and might
+very likely belong one day or other to a pope, if
+his generous wishes for an Irish republic were too
+dear to his heart to permit him ever to accept
+the title of king.</p>
+
+<p>"An Irish republic? ... perhaps that is just
+what is wanted," said I. But not wishing to
+enter into any discussion on the niceties of speech,
+I waived the compliments he began to pay me
+on this liberal sentiment, and again asked him if
+he thought anything was going on amongst the
+friends of the prisoners that might impede the
+course of justice.</p>
+
+<p>Though not aware of the quibble with which I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span>
+had replied to him, he answered me by another,
+saying with energy&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No! ... never!... They will never do anything
+to impede the course of justice."</p>
+
+<p>"Will they do anything to assist it?" said I.</p>
+
+<p>He sprang from his chair, gave a bound across
+the room, as if to hide his glee by looking out of the
+window, and when he showed his face again, said
+with much solemnity&mdash;"They will do their duty."</p>
+
+<p>The conversation continued for some time
+longer, wavering between politics and dissipation;
+and though we could not obtain from him anything
+approaching to information respecting what
+might be going on among his hot-headed party,
+yet it seemed clear that he at least hoped for
+something that would lead to important results.</p>
+
+<p>The riddle was explained a very few hours after
+he left us. The political prisoners, most of whom
+were lodged in the prison of Ste. Pélagie, have
+been removed to the Luxembourg; and it was
+confidently hoped and expected by the republicans
+that enough malcontents would be found among
+the citizens of Paris to get up a very satisfactory
+<i>émeute</i> on the occasion. But never was hope
+more abortive: not the slightest public sensation
+appears to have been excited by this removal; and
+I am assured that the whole republican party are
+so bitterly disappointed at this, that the most sanguine
+among them have ceased for the present to
+anticipate the triumph of their cause. I suspect,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span>
+therefore, that it will be some time before we shall
+receive another visit from our riot-loving friend.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile preparations are going on in a very
+orderly and judicious style at the Luxembourg.
+The trial-chamber and all things connected with
+it are completed; tents have been pitched in the
+gardens for the accommodation of the soldiers,
+and guards stationed in such a manner in all
+directions as to ensure a reasonable chance of
+tranquillity to the peaceable.</p>
+
+<p>We have attended a review of very fine troops
+in the Place du Carrousel, composed of National
+Guards, troops of the line, and that most superb-looking
+body of municipal troops called <i>La Garde
+de Paris</i>. These latter, it seems, have performed
+in Paris since the revolution of 1830 the duties
+of that portion of the police formerly called <i>gendarmerie</i>;
+but the name having fallen into disrepute
+in the capital&mdash;(<i>les jeunes gens</i>, <i>par exemple</i>,
+could not bear it)&mdash;the title of <i>Garde de
+Paris</i> has been accorded to them instead, and it
+is now only in the provinces that <i>gendarmes</i> are to
+be found. But let them be called by what name
+they may, I never saw any corps of more superb
+appearance. Men and horses, accoutrements and
+discipline, all seem perfect. It is amusing to observe
+how slight a thread will sometimes suffice
+to lead captive the most unruly spirits.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"What is there in a name?"</p>
+
+<p>Yet I have heard it asserted with triumphant
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span>
+crowings by some of the revolutionary set, that,
+thanks to their valour! the odious system was
+completely changed&mdash;that <i>gendarmes</i> and <i>mouchards</i>
+no longer existed in Paris&mdash;that citizens
+would never again be tormented by their hateful
+<i>surveillance</i>&mdash;and, in short, that Frenchmen were
+redeemed from thraldom now and for evermore;
+so now they have <i>La Garde de Paris</i>, just to take
+care of them: and if ever a set of men were
+capable of performing effectually the duties committed
+to their charge, I think it must be this
+well-drilled stalworth corps.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of a large body of the National
+Guard too, when brought together, as at a review,
+in full military style, is very imposing. The eye
+at once sees that they are not ordinary troops.
+All the appointments are in excellent order; and
+the very material of which their uniform is made,
+being so much less common than usual, helps to
+produce this effect. Not to mention that the
+uniform itself, of dark blue, with the delicately
+white pantaloons, is peculiarly handsome on parade;
+much more so, I think, though perhaps
+less calculated for a battle-field, than the red
+lower garments by which the troops of the French
+line are at present distinguished.</p>
+
+<p>The king looks well on horseback&mdash;so do his
+sons. The whole staff, indeed, was gay and gallant-looking,
+and in style as decidedly aristocratic
+as any prince need desire. Shouts of "<i>Vive le Roi!</i>"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span>
+ran cheerily and lustily along the lines;
+and if these may be trusted as indications of the
+feelings of the soldiery towards King Philippe, he
+may, I think, feel quite indifferent as to whatever
+other vows may be uttered concerning him
+in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>But in this city of contradictions one can never
+sit down safely to ruminate upon any one inference
+or conclusion whatever; for five minutes
+afterwards you are assured by somebody or other
+that you are quite wrong, utterly mistaken, and
+that the exact contrary of what you suppose is
+the real fact. Thus, on mentioning in the evening
+the cordial reception given by the soldiers to
+the king in the morning, I received for answer&mdash;"Je
+le crois bien, madame; les officiers leur
+commandent de le faire."</p>
+
+<p>We remained a good while on the ground, and
+saw as much as the confinement of a carriage
+would permit. Like all reviews of well-dressed,
+well-appointed troops, it was a gay and pretty
+spectacle; and notwithstanding the caustic reprimand
+for my faith in empty sounds which I have
+just repeated to you, I am still of opinion that
+King Philippe had every reason to be contented
+with his troops, and with the manner in which he
+was received by them.</p>
+
+<p>Every hour that one remains at Paris increases,
+I think, one's conviction of the enormous power
+and importance of the National Guard. Our volunteer
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span>
+corps, in the season of threatenings and
+danger, gave us unquestionably an immense accession
+of strength; and had the threatener dared to
+come, neither his legions nor his eagles, his veterans
+nor his victories, would have saved him from
+utter destruction. He knew this, and he came
+not: he knew that the little island was bristling
+from her centre to her shore with arms raised to
+strike, by the impulse of the heart and soul, and
+not by conscription; he knew this, and wisely
+came not.</p>
+
+<p>Our volunteers were armed men&mdash;armed in a
+cause that warmed their blood; and it is sufficient
+to establish their importance, that History must
+record the simple fact, that Napoleon looked at
+them and turned away. But, great as was the
+power of this critical show of volunteer strength
+among us, as a permanent force it was trifling
+when compared to the present National Guard of
+France. Not only are their numbers greater&mdash;Paris
+alone has eighty thousand of them,&mdash;but their discipline
+is perfect, and their practical habits of being
+on duty keep them in such daily activity, that a
+tocsin sounded within their hearing would suffice
+to turn out within an hour nearly the whole of
+this force, not only completely armed, equipped,
+and in all respects fit for service&mdash;not only each
+one with his quarters and rations provided, but
+each one knowing and feeling the importance of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span>
+the duty he is upon as intimately as the general
+himself; and each one, in addition to all other
+feelings and motives which make armed men
+strong, warmed with the consciousness that it is
+his own stronghold, his own property, his own
+castle, as well as his own life, that he is defending.</p>
+
+<p>This force will save France from devouring her
+own vitals, if anything can do it.</p>
+
+<p>Among all the novelties produced by the ever-growing
+experience of men, and of which so many
+have ripened in these latter days, I doubt if any
+can be named more rationally calculated to fulfil
+the purpose for which it is intended than this
+organization of a force formed of the industrious
+and the orderly part of a community to keep in
+check the idle and disorderly,&mdash;and that, without
+taxing the state, compromising their professional
+usefulness, or sacrificing their personal independence,
+more than every man in his senses
+would be willing to do for the purpose of keeping
+watch and ward over all that he loves and values
+on earth.</p>
+
+<p>The more the power of such a force as this
+increases, the farther must the country where it
+exists be from all danger of revolution. Such
+men are, and must be, conservatives in the strongest
+sense of the word; and though it may certainly
+be possible for some who may be rebel to the
+cause of order to get enrolled among them, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span>
+danger of the enterprise will unquestionably prevent
+its frequent recurrence. The wolf might as
+safely mount guard in the midst of armed shepherds
+and their dogs, as demagogues and agitators
+place themselves in the ranks of the National
+Guard of Paris.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6" style="width: 409px;"><a name="illo3" id="illo3"></a>
+<img src="images/ill163.jpg" width="409" height="600" alt="Pro Patria!" />
+<p class="s05">Drawn &amp; Etched by A. Hervieu.</p>
+<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Pro Patria!</span></p>
+<p class="caption s05">London, Published by Richard Bentley. 1835.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2>LETTER XVIII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+First Day of the Trials.&mdash;Much blustering, but no riot.&mdash;All
+alarm subsided.&mdash;Proposal for inviting Lord B&mdash;&mdash;m to
+plead at the Trial.&mdash;Society.&mdash;Charm of idle conversation.&mdash;The
+Whisperer of good stories.</p>
+
+<p class="ltrhead">
+6th May 1835.</p>
+
+<p>The monster is hatched at last! The trials
+began yesterday, and we are all rejoicing exceedingly
+at having found ourselves alive in our beds
+this morning. What will betide us and it, as its
+scales or its plumes push forth and gather strength
+from day to day, I know not; but "sufficient for
+the day is the evil thereof;" and I do assure you
+in very sober earnest, that when Galignani's paper
+arrived this morning, the party round the
+breakfast-table was greatly comforted by finding
+that nothing more alarming than a few republican
+demands on the part of the prisoners, and
+a few monarchical refusals on the part of the
+court, took place.</p>
+
+<p>This interchange of hostilities commenced by
+some of the accused refusing to answer when
+their names were called;&mdash;then followed a demand
+for free admission to the chamber, during
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span>
+the trials, for the mothers, wives, and all other
+females belonging to the respective families of
+the prisoners;&mdash;and next, a somewhat blustering
+demand for counsel of their own choosing;
+the body of legal advocates, who, by general rule
+and common usage, are always charged with the
+defence of prisoners, not containing, as it should
+seem, orators sufficiently of their own <i>clique</i> to
+content them.</p>
+
+<p>This was of course stoutly refused by the court,
+after retiring, however, for a couple of hours to
+deliberate upon it&mdash;a ceremony I should hardly
+have supposed necessary. The company of the
+ladies, too, was declined; and as, upon a moderate
+computation, their numerical force could not have
+amounted to less than five hundred, this want of
+gallantry in the Peers of France must be forgiven
+in favour of their discretion.</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman, however, who was appointed,
+as he said, by the rest, to request the pleasure of
+their society, declared loudly that the demand
+for it should be daily renewed. This reminds one
+of the story of the man who punished his wife for
+infidelity by making her sit to hear the story of
+her misdeeds rehearsed every day of her life, and
+pretty plainly indicates that it is the plan of the
+accused to torment their judges as much as they
+conveniently can.</p>
+
+<p>One of the prisoners named the celebrated Abbé
+de Lamennais, author of "Les Paroles d'un Croyant,"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span>
+as his advocate. The <i>procureur-général</i> remarked,
+that it was for the interest of the defence
+that the rule for permitting lawyers only to plead
+should be adhered to.</p>
+
+<p>Next came a demand from one of the accused,
+in the name of all the rest, that permission for
+free and unrestrained intercourse between the prisoners
+of Lyons, Paris, and Marseilles should be
+allowed. This was answered only by the announcement
+that "the court was adjourned;" an
+intimation which produced an awful clamour; and
+as the peers quitted the court, they were assailed
+with vehement cries of "We protest! ... we protest!...
+We will make no defence!... We protest!
+... we protest!" And so ended the business
+of the day.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that the government, and all those
+who are sufficiently connected with it to know
+anything of the real state of the case, were
+perfectly aware that no public movement was
+likely to take place at this stage of the business.
+Every one seems to know that the restless spirits,
+the desperate adventurers engaged in the
+extensive plot now under investigation, consider
+their trial as the best occasion possible for a
+political <i>coup de théâtre</i>, and that nothing would
+have disturbed their performance more than a riot
+before the curtain rose.</p>
+
+<p>Everything like panic seems now to have subsided,
+even among those who are farthest from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span>
+the centre of action; and all the effects of this
+mighty affair apparently visible at present are to
+be seen on the faces of the republicans, who, according
+to their wont, strut about wherever they
+are most likely to be looked at, and take care that
+each one of their countenances shall be</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Like to a book where men may read strange matters."</p>
+
+<p>I thank Heaven, nevertheless, that this first day
+is so well over. I had heard so over-much about
+it, that it became a sort of nightmare to me,
+from which I now feel happily relieved. It is quite
+clear, that if the out-of-door agitators should think
+proper to make any attempts to produce disturbance,
+the government feels quite equal to the task
+of making them quiet again, and of insuring that
+peaceable security to the country for which she
+has so long languished in vain.</p>
+
+<p>The military force employed at the Luxembourg
+is, however, by no means large. One battalion of
+the first legion of National Guards was in the court
+of the palace, and about four hundred troops of
+the line occupied the garden. But though no
+show of force is unnecessarily displayed, every one
+has the comfort of knowing that there is enough
+within reach should any necessity arise for employing
+it.</p>
+
+<p>I was told the other day, that when Lord
+B&mdash;&mdash;m was in Paris, he was so kind as to visit
+M. Armand Carrel in prison; and that, on the
+strength of this proof of sympathy and affection,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span>
+it has been suggested to the prisoners at the
+Luxembourg, that they should despatch a deputation
+of their friends to wait upon his lordship,
+requesting the aid of his eloquence in pleading
+their cause against the tyrants who so unjustifiably
+hold them in durance.</p>
+
+<p>The proposal, it seems, was very generally approved;
+but nevertheless, it was at last negatived
+on the representation of a person who had once
+heard his lordship argue in the French language.
+This is the more to be regretted by the friends of
+these suffering victims, since their choice of defenders
+is to be restricted to members of the bar:
+and this restriction, narrow-minded and severe
+as it is, would not exclude his lordship; a legal
+advocate being beyond all question a legal advocate
+all the world over.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till we had sent out in one or two
+directions to ascertain if all things were quiet,
+that we ventured to keep an engagement which
+we had made for last night to pass the <i>soirée</i> at
+Madame de L*****'s. I should have been sorry
+to have lost it; for the business of the morning
+appeared to have awakened the spirits and
+set everybody talking. There are few things I
+like better than listening to a full, free flow of
+Paris talk; particularly when, as in this instance,
+the party is small and in a lively mood.</p>
+
+<p>It appears as if there were nothing like caution
+or reserve here in any direction. Among those
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>
+whom I have had the satisfaction of occasionally
+meeting are some who figure amongst the most
+important personages of the day; but their conversation
+is as gaily unrestrained as if they had
+nothing to do but to amuse themselves. These,
+indeed, are not likely to commit themselves; but
+I have known others less secure, who have appeared
+to permit every thought that occurred to
+them to meet the ear of whoever chose to listen.
+In short, whatever restraint the police, which
+by its nature is very ph&oelig;nix-like, may endeavour
+to put upon the periodical press, its influence
+certainly does not as yet reach the lips, which
+open with equal freedom for the expression of
+faith, scepticism, loyalty, treason, philosophy, and
+wit.</p>
+
+<p>In an intercourse so transient as mine is likely
+to be with most of the acquaintance I have formed
+here,&mdash;an intercourse consisting chiefly, as to the
+manner of it, of evening visits through a series of
+<i>salons</i>,&mdash;amusement is naturally more sought than
+information: and were it otherwise, I should, with
+some few exceptions, have reaped disappointment
+instead of pleasure; for it is evident that the same
+feeling which leads the majority of persons you
+meet in society here, to speak freely, prevents
+them from saying anything seriously. So that,
+after talking for an hour or two upon subjects
+which one should think very gravely important, a
+light word, a light laugh, ends the colloquy, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span>
+very often leaves me in doubt as to the real sentiments
+of those to whom I have been listening.</p>
+
+<p>But if not always successful in obtaining information,
+I never fail in finding amusement.
+Rarely, even for a moment, does conversation languish;
+and a string of lively nothings, or a startling
+succession of seemingly bold, but really unmeaning
+speculations, often make me imagine that a vast
+deal of talent has been displayed; yet, when memory
+sets to work upon it, little remains worth
+recording. Nevertheless, there is talent, and of a
+very charming kind too, in this manner of uttering
+trifles so that they may be mistaken for wit.</p>
+
+<p>I know some few in our own dear land who
+have also this happy gift; and, as a matter of grace
+and mere exterior endowment, I question if it be
+not fairly worth all the rest. But I believe we
+have it in about the same proportion that we have
+good actors of genteel comedy, compared to the
+number which they can boast of the same class
+here. With us this easy, natural style of mimicking
+real life is a rare talent, though sometimes
+possessed in great perfection; but with them it
+seems more or less the birthright of all.</p>
+
+<p>So is it with the gift of that bright colloquial
+faculty which bestows such indescribable grace
+upon the airy nothings uttered in French drawing-rooms.
+To listen to it, is very like quaffing the
+sparkling, frothy beverage native to their sunny
+hills;&mdash;French talk is very like champagne. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span>
+exhilaration it produces is instantaneous: the spirits
+mount, and something like wit is often struck
+out even from dull natures by merely coming in
+contact with what is so brilliant.</p>
+
+<p>I could almost venture to assert that the effect
+of this delightful inspiration might be perceived by
+any one who had gained admission to French society
+even if they did not understand the language.
+Let an observing eye, well accustomed to read the
+expression so legibly, though so transiently written
+in the countenances of persons in conversation,&mdash;let
+such a one only see, if he cannot hear, the effect
+produced by the hits and flashes of French eloquence.
+Allow me another simile, and I will tell
+you that it is like applying electricity to a bunch
+of feathers tied together and attached to the conductor
+by a thread: first one, then another starts,
+flies off, mounts, and drops again, as the bright
+spark passes lightly, gracefully, capriciously, yet
+still all making part of one circle.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I am not speaking now of large
+parties; these, as I think I have said before, are
+wonderfully alike in all lands, and nothing approaching
+to conversation can possibly take place
+at any of them. It is only where the circle is
+restricted to a few that this sort of effect can be
+produced; and then, the impulse once given by
+a piquant word, seemingly uttered at random,
+every one present receives a share of it, and contributes
+in return all the lively thoughts to which
+it has given birth.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But there was one gentleman of our party
+yesterday evening who had a most provoking
+trick of attracting one's attention as if on purpose
+to disappoint it. He was not quite like
+Molière's Timante, of whom Célimène says,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Et, jusques au bonjour, il dit tout à l'oreille;"</p>
+
+<p>but in the midst of pleasant talk, in which all
+were interested, he said aloud&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Par exemple!</i> I heard the very best thing
+possible to-day about the King. Will you hear
+it, Madame B...?"</p>
+
+<p>This question being addressed to a decided doctrinaire,
+the answer was of course a reproachful
+shake of the head; but as it was accompanied
+by half a smile, and as the lady bent her fair neck
+towards the speaker, she, and she only, was made
+acquainted with "the best of all possible things,"
+conveyed in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>At another time he addressed himself to the
+lady of the house; but as he spoke across the
+circle, he not only fixed her attention, but that of
+every one else.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame!" said he coaxingly, "will you let
+me tell you a little word of treason?"</p>
+
+<p>"Comment?&mdash;de la trahison?... Apropos de
+quoi, s'il vous plaît?... Mais c'est égal&mdash;contez
+toujours."</p>
+
+<p>On receiving this answer, the whisperer of good
+stories got up from the depth of his arm-chair&mdash;an
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span>
+enterprise of some difficulty, for he was neither
+rapid nor light in his movements,&mdash;and deliberately
+walking round the chairs of all the party, he
+placed himself behind Madame de L*****, and
+whispered in her ear what made her colour and
+shake her head again; but she laughed too, telling
+him that she hated timid politics, and had no
+taste for any <i>trahisons</i> which were not "<i>hautement
+prononcées</i>."</p>
+
+<p>This hint sent him back to his place; but it
+was taken very good-humouredly, for, instead of
+whispering any more, he uttered aloud sundry
+odds and ends of gossip, but all so well dressed
+up in lively wording, that they sounded very like
+good stories.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XIX.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Victor Hugo.&mdash;Racine.</p>
+
+<p>I have again been listening to some curious
+details respecting the present state of literature
+in France. I think I have before stated to you,
+that I have uniformly heard the whole of the
+<i>décousu</i> school of authors spoken of with unmitigated
+contempt,&mdash;and that not only by the venerable
+advocates for the <i>bon vieux temps</i>, but
+also, and equally, by the distinguished men of
+the present day&mdash;distinguished both by position
+and ability.</p>
+
+<p>Respecting Victor Hugo, the only one of the
+tribe to which I allude who has been sufficiently
+read in England to justify his being classed by
+us as a person of general celebrity, the feeling
+is more remarkable still. I have never mentioned
+him or his works to any person of good moral
+feeling and cultivated mind, who did not appear
+to shrink from according him even the degree of
+reputation that those who are received as authority
+among our own critics have been disposed to
+allow him. I might say, that of him France
+seems to be ashamed.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Again and again it has happened to me, when
+I have asked the opinions of individuals as to the
+merit of his different plays, that I have been
+answered thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you I know nothing about it: I
+never saw it played."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you read it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I have not. I cannot read the works of
+Victor Hugo."</p>
+
+<p>One gentleman, who has heard me more than
+once persist in my inquiries respecting the reputation
+enjoyed by Victor Hugo at Paris as a man
+of genius and a successful dramatic writer, told
+me, that he saw that, in common with the generality
+of foreigners, particularly the English, I
+looked upon Victor Hugo and his productions as
+a sort of type or specimen of the literature of
+France at the present hour. "But permit me
+to assure you," he added gravely and earnestly,
+"that no idea was ever more entirely and altogether
+erroneous. He is the head of a sect&mdash;the
+high-priest of a congregation who have abolished
+every law, moral and intellectual, by which the
+efforts of the human mind have hitherto been
+regulated. He has attained this pre-eminence,
+and I trust that no other will arise to dispute it
+with him. But Victor Hugo is <span class="smcap">not</span> a popular
+French writer."</p>
+
+<p>Such a judgment as this, or the like of it, I have
+heard passed upon him and his works nine times
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span>
+out of ten that I have mentioned him; and I
+consider this as a proof of right feeling and sound
+taste, which is extremely honourable, and certainly
+more than we have lately given our neighbours
+credit for. It pleased me the more perhaps
+because I did not expect it. There is so much
+meretricious glitter in the works of Victor Hugo,&mdash;nay,
+so much real brightness now and then,&mdash;that
+I expected to find at least the younger and
+less reflective part of the population warm in their
+admiration of him.</p>
+
+<p>His clinging fondness for scenes of vice and
+horror, and his utter contempt for all that time
+has stamped as good in taste or feeling, might,
+I thought, arise from the unsettled spirit of the
+times; and if so, he could not fail of receiving the
+meed of sympathy and praise from those who had
+themselves set that spirit at work.</p>
+
+<p>But it is not so. The wild vigour of some of
+his descriptions is acknowledged; but that is all
+of praise that I ever heard bestowed upon Victor
+Hugo's theatrical productions in his native land.</p>
+
+<p>The startling, bold, and stirring incidents of his
+disgusting dramas must and will excite a certain
+degree of attention when seen for the first time,
+and it is evidently the interest of managers to
+bring forward whatever is most likely to produce
+this effect; but the doing so cannot be quoted
+as a proof of the systematic degradation of the
+theatre. It is moreover a fact, which the play-bills
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span>
+themselves are alone sufficient to attest, that
+after Victor Hugo's plays have had their first run,
+they are never brought forward again: not one of
+them has yet become what we call a stock-play.</p>
+
+<p>This fact, which was first stated to me by a
+person perfectly <i>au fait</i> of the subject, has been
+subsequently confirmed by many others; and it
+speaks more plainly than any recorded criticism
+could do, what the public judgment of these pieces
+really is.</p>
+
+<p>The romance of "Notre Dame de Paris" is
+ever cited as Victor Hugo's best work, excepting
+some early lyrical pieces of which we know nothing.
+But even this, though there are passages
+of extraordinary descriptive power in it, is always
+alluded to with much more of contempt
+than admiration; and I have heard it ridiculed
+in circles, whose praise was fame, with a light
+pleasantry more likely to prove an antidote to its
+mischief than all the reprobation that sober criticism
+could pour out upon it.</p>
+
+<p>But may not this champion of vice&mdash;this chronicler
+of sin, shame, and misery&mdash;quote Scripture
+and say, "A prophet is not without honour, save
+in his own country"? For I have seen a criticism
+in an English paper (The Examiner) which
+says, "<i>The</i> Notre Dame <i>of Victor Hugo must
+take rank with the best romances by the author of</i>
+Waverley.... <i>It transcends them in vigour, animation,
+and familiarity with the age.</i>"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In reply to the last point here mentioned, in
+which our countryman has given the superiority to
+Victor Hugo over Sir Walter Scott, a very strong
+testimony against its correctness has reached me
+since I have been in Paris. An able lawyer, and
+most accomplished gentleman and scholar, who
+holds a distinguished station in the Cour Royale,
+took us to see the Palais de Justice. Having
+shown us the chamber where criminal trials are
+carried on, he observed, that this was the room described
+by Victor Hugo in his romance; adding,&mdash;"He
+was, however, mistaken here, as in most
+places <i>where he affects a knowledge of the times of
+which he writes</i>. In the reign of Louis the Eleventh,
+no criminal trials ever took place within
+the walls of this building; and all the ceremonies
+as described by him resemble much more a trial
+of yesterday than of the age at which he dates
+his tale."</p>
+
+<p>The vulgar old adage, that "there is no accounting
+for taste," must, I suppose, teach us to
+submit patiently to the hearing of any judgments
+and opinions which it is the will and pleasure
+of man to pronounce; but it does seem strange
+that any can be found who, after bringing Sir
+Walter Scott and Victor Hugo into comparison,
+should give the palm of superiority to the author
+of "Notre Dame de Paris."</p>
+
+<p>Were the faults of this school of authors only
+of a literary kind, few persons, I believe, would
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span>
+take the trouble to criticise them, and their nonsense
+would die a natural death as soon as it
+was made to encounter the light of day: but such
+productions as Victor Hugo's are calculated to
+do great injury to human nature. They would
+teach us to believe that all our gentlest and best
+affections can only lead to crime and infamy.
+There is not, I truly believe, a single pure, innocent,
+and holy thought to be found throughout
+his writings: Sin is the muse he invokes&mdash;he
+would</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">"Take off the rose</p>
+<p>From the fair forehead of an innocent love,</p>
+<p>And set a blister there;"</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Horror is his handmaid; and "thousands of liveried
+<i>monsters</i> lackey him," to furnish the portraits
+with which it is the occupation of his life to disgust
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>Can there, think you, be a stronger proof of
+a diseased intellect among the <i>décousu</i> part of the
+world, than that they not only admire this man's
+hideous extravagances, but that they actually believe
+him to be ... at least they say so ... a second
+Shakspeare!... A Shakspeare!</p>
+
+<p>To chastise as he deserves an author who
+may be said to defy mankind by the libels he
+has put forth on the whole race, requires a stouter
+and a keener weapon than any a woman can
+wield; but when they prate of Shakspeare, I feel
+that it is our turn to speak. How much of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span>
+gratitude and love does every woman owe to
+him! He, who has entered deeper into her heart
+than ever mortal did before or since his day, how
+has he painted her?&mdash;As Portia, Juliet, Constance,
+Hermione;&mdash;as Cordelia, Volumnia, Isabella,
+Desdemona, Imogene!</p>
+
+<p>Then turn and see for what we have to thank
+our modern painter. Who are his heroines?&mdash;Lucrèce
+Borgia, Marion de Lorme, Blanche, Maguelonne,
+with I know not how many more of
+the same stamp; besides his novel heroine, whom
+Mr. Henry Lytton Bulwer calls "the most delicate
+female ever drawn by the pen of romance"&mdash;The
+Esmeralda! ... whose sole accomplishments
+are dancing and singing in the streets, and who ...
+delicate creature! ... being caught up by a horseman
+in a midnight brawl, throws her arms round
+his neck, swears he is very handsome, and thenceforward
+shows the delicate tenderness of her nature,
+by pertinaciously doting upon him, without
+any other return or encouragement whatever than
+an insulting caress bestowed upon her one night
+when he was drunk ... "delicate female!"</p>
+
+<p>But this is all too bad to dwell upon. It is,
+however, in my estimation a positive duty, when
+mentioning the works of Victor Hugo, to record
+a protest against their tone and tendency; and
+it is also a duty to correct, as far as one can,
+the erroneous impression existing in England respecting
+his reputation in France.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Whenever his name is mentioned in England,
+his success is cited as a proof of the depraved state,
+moral and intellectual, of the French people. And
+such it would be, were his success and reputation
+such as his partisans represent them to be. But, in
+point of fact, the manner in which he is judged
+by his own countrymen is the strongest possible
+evidence that neither a powerful fancy, a commanding
+diction, nor an imagination teeming with
+images of intense passion, can suffice to ensure
+an author any exalted reputation in France at
+the present day if he outrages good feeling and
+good taste.</p>
+
+<p>Should any doubt the correctness of this statement,
+I can only refer them to the source from
+whence I derived the information on which it is
+founded,&mdash;I can only refer them to France herself.
+There is one fact, however, which may be ascertained
+without crossing the Channel;&mdash;namely,
+that when one of their reviews found occasion to
+introduce an article upon the modern drama, the
+editors acquitted themselves of the task by translating
+the whole of the able article upon that subject
+which appeared about a year and a half ago
+in the Quarterly, acknowledging to what source
+they were indebted for it.</p>
+
+<p>Were the name and the labours of Victor Hugo
+confined to his own country, it would now be high
+time that I should release you from him; but
+it is an English critic who has said, that he has
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span>
+heaved the ground from under the feet of Racine;
+and you must indulge me for a few minutes,
+while I endeavour to bring the two parties
+together before you. In doing this, I will be
+generous; for I will introduce M. Hugo in "Le
+Roi s'amuse," which, from the circumstance (the
+happiest, I was assured, that ever befel the author)
+of its being withdrawn by authority from the
+Théâtre Français, has become infinitely more celebrated
+than any other he has written.</p>
+
+<p>It may be remarked by the way, that a few
+more such acts of decent watchfulness over the
+morals and manners of the people may redeem
+the country from the stigma it now bears of
+being the most licentious in its theatre and its
+press in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The first glorious moment of being forbidden
+at the Français appears almost to have turned the
+lucky author's brain. His preface to "Le Roi
+s'amuse," among many other symptoms of insanity
+has the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Le premier mouvement de l'auteur fut de
+douter.... L'acte était arbitraire au point d'être
+incroyable.... L'auteur ne pouvait croire à tant
+d'insolence et de folie.... Le ministre avait en
+effet, de son droit divin de ministre, intimé
+l'ordre.... Le ministre lui avait pris sa pièce, lui
+avait pris son droit, lui avait pris sa chose. Il ne
+restait plus qu'à le mettre, lui poëte, à la Bastille....
+Est-ce qu'il y a eu en effet quelque chose
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span>
+qu'on a appelé la révolution de Juillet?... Que peut
+être le motif d'une pareille mesure?... Il parait
+que nos faiseurs de censure se prétendent scandalisés
+dans leur morale par 'Le Roi s'amuse;' le
+nom seul du poëte inculpé aurait dû être une suffisante
+réfutation (!!!)... Cette pièce a révolté la
+pudeur des gendarmes; la brigade Léotaud y
+était, et l'a trouvé obscène; le bureau des m&oelig;urs
+s'est voilé la face; M. Vidocq a rougi.... Holà,
+mes maîtres! Silence sur ce point!... Depuis
+quand n'est-il plus permis à un roi de courtiser
+sur la scène une servante d'auberge?... Mener
+un roi dans un mauvais lieu, cela ne serait pas
+même nouveau non plus.... L'auteur veut l'art
+chaste, et non l'art prude.... Il est profondement
+triste de voir comment se termine la révolution de
+Juillet...."</p>
+
+<p>Then follows a <i>précis</i> of the extravagant and
+hateful plot, in which the heroine is, as usual, "une
+fille séduite et perdue;" and he sums it up thus
+pompously:&mdash;"Au fond d'un des ouvrages de
+l'auteur il y a la fatalité&mdash;au fond de celui-ci il y a
+la providence."</p>
+
+<p>I wish much that some one would collect and
+publish in a separate volume all M. Victor Hugo's
+prefaces; I would purchase it instantly, and it
+would be a fund of almost inexhaustible amusement.
+He assumes a tone in them which, all
+things considered, is perhaps unequalled in the
+history of literature. In another part of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span>
+one from which I have given the above extracts,
+he says&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Vraiment, le pouvoir qui s'attaque à nous
+n'aura pas gagné grand' chose à ce que nous,
+hommes d'art, nous quittions notre tâche consciencieuse,
+tranquille, sincère, profonde; notre tâche
+sainte...." What on earth, if it be not insanity,
+could have put it into Mr. Hugo's head that the
+manufacturing of his obscene dramas was "une
+tâche sainte"?</p>
+
+<p>The principal characters in "Le Roi s'amuse" are
+François Premier; Triboulet, his pander and buffoon;
+Blanche, the daughter of Triboulet, "la fille
+séduite," and heroine of the piece; and Maguelonne,
+another Esmeralda.</p>
+
+<p>The interest lies in the contrast between Triboulet
+pander and Triboulet père. He is himself
+the most corrupt and infamous of men; and because
+he is humpbacked, makes it both his pastime and
+his business to lead the king his master into every
+species of debauchery: but he shuts up his daughter
+to preserve her purity; and the poet has put
+forth all his strength in describing the worship
+which Triboulet père pays to the virtue which he
+passes his life as Triboulet pander in destroying.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the king falls in love with Blanche,
+and she with him; and Triboulet pander is made
+to assist in carrying her off in the dark, under the
+belief that she was the wife of a nobleman to
+whom also his majesty the king was making love.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Triboulet père and pander finds out what
+he has done, he falls into a terrible agony: and
+here again is a <i>tour de force</i>, to show how pathetically
+such a father can address such a daughter.</p>
+
+<p>He resolves to murder the king, and informs his
+daughter, who is passionately attached to her royal
+seducer, of his intention. She objects, but is at
+length brought to consent by being made to peep
+through a hole in the wall, and seeing his majesty
+King Francis engaged in making love to Maguelonne.</p>
+
+<p>This part of the plot is brought out shortly and
+pithily.</p>
+<div class="drama">
+<p class="p2 center">
+BLANCHE (<i>peeping through the hole in the wall</i>).</p>
+
+<p>Et cette femme! ... est-elle affrontée! ... oh!...</p>
+
+<p class="p2 center">TRIBOULET.</p>
+
+<p class="right">Tais-toi;</p>
+<p>Pas de pleurs. Laisse-moi te venger!</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">BLANCHE.</p>
+
+<p class="right">Hélas!&mdash;Faites&mdash;</p>
+<p>Tout ce que vous voudrez.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">TRIBOULET.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Merci!</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This <i>merci</i>, observe, is not said ironically, but
+gravely and gratefully. Having arranged this
+part of the business, he gives his daughter instructions
+as to what she is to do with herself, in the
+following sublime verses:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="drama">
+<p class="center p2">TRIBOULET.</p>
+
+<p>Écoute. Va chez moi, prends-y des habits d'homme,<br />
+Un cheval, de l'argent, n'importe quelle somme;<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span>
+Et pars, sans t'arrêter un instant en chemin,<br />
+Pour Evreux, où j'irai te joindre après-demain.<br />
+&mdash;Tu sais ce coffre auprès du portrait de ta mère;<br />
+L'habit est là,&mdash;je l'ai d'avance exprès fait faire.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Having dismissed his daughter, he settles with
+a gipsy-man named Saltabadil, who is the brother
+of Maguelonne, all the details of the murder, which
+is to be performed in their house, a small cabaret
+at which the foul weather and the fair Maguelonne
+induce the royal rake to pass the night. Triboulet
+leaves them an old sack in which they are to pack
+up the body, and promises to return at midnight,
+that he may himself see it thrown into the Seine.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche meanwhile departs; but feeling some
+compunctious visitings about the proposed murder
+of her lover, returns, and again applying her ear
+to the hole in the wall, finds that his majesty is
+gone to bed in the garret, and that the brother
+and sister are consulting about his death. Maguelonne,
+a very "delicate female," objects too; she
+admires his beauty, and proposes that his life shall
+be spared if any stranger happens to arrive whose
+body may serve to fill the sack. Blanche, in a fit
+of heroic tenderness, determines to be that stranger;
+exclaiming,</p>
+<div class="drama">
+<p class="center">
+"Eh bien! ... mourons pour lui!"</p>
+</div>
+<p>But before she knocks at the door, she kneels down
+to say her prayers, particularly for forgiveness to
+all her enemies. Here are the verses, making
+part of those which have overthrown Racine:&mdash;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="drama">
+<p class="center p2">BLANCHE.</p>
+
+<p><span class="i10">Oh! Dieu, vers qui je vais,</span><br />
+Je pardonne à tous ceux qui m'ont été mauvais:<br />
+Mon père et vous, mon Dieu! pardonnez-leurs de même<br />
+Au roi François Premier, que je plains et que j'aime.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>She knocks, the door opens, she is stabbed and
+consigned to the sack. Her father arrives immediately
+after as by appointment, receives the
+sack, and prepares to drag it towards the river,
+handling it with revengeful ecstasy, and exclaiming&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="drama">
+<p><span class="i10">Maintenant, monde, regarde-moi:</span><br />
+Ceci, c'est un bouffon; et ceci, c'est un roi.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At this triumphant moment he hears the voice
+of the king, singing as he walks away from the
+dwelling of Maguelonne.</p>
+
+<div class="drama">
+<p class="center p2">TRIBOULET.</p>
+
+<p>Mais qui donc m'a-t-il mis à sa place, le traître!</p>
+</div>
+<p>He cuts open the sack; and a flash of lightning
+very melodramatically enables him to recognise
+his daughter, who revives, to die in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>This is beyond doubt what may be called "a
+tragic situation;" and I confess it does seem very
+hard-hearted to laugh at it: but the <i>pas</i> that
+divides the sublime from the ridiculous is not
+distinctly seen, and there is something vulgar and
+ludicrous, both in the position and language of
+the parties, which quite destroys the pathetic
+effect.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It must be remembered that she is dressed in
+the "habit d'homme" of which her father says
+so poetically&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="drama">
+<p>
+Je l'ai d'avance exprès fait faire.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Observe, too, that she is still in the sack; the
+stage directions being, "Le bas du corps, qui est
+resté vêtu, est caché dans le sac."</p>
+
+<div class="drama">
+<p class="center p2">BLANCHE.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Où suis-je?</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">TRIBOULET.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche! que t'a-t-on fait? Quel mystère infernal!<br />
+Je crains en te touchant de te faire du mal<br />
+...Ah! la cloche du bac est là sur la muraille:<br />
+Ma pauvre enfant, peux-tu m'attendre un peu, que j'aille<br />
+Chercher de l'eau....</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A surgeon arrives, and having examined her
+wound, says,</p>
+<div class="drama">
+<p><span class="i10">Elle est morte.</span><br />
+Elle a dans le flanc gauche une plaie assez forte:<br />
+Le sang a dû causer la mort en l'étouffant.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">TRIBOULET.</p>
+
+<p>J'ai tué mon enfant! J'ai tué mon enfant!</p>
+<p class="right">(<i>Il tombe sur le pavé.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+<p class="center">FIN.</p>
+
+<p>All this is very shocking; but it is not tragedy,&mdash;and
+it is not poetry. Yet it is what
+we are told has heaved the earth from under
+Racine!</p>
+
+<p>After such a sentence as this, it must be, I
+know, <i>rococo</i> to name him; but yet I would say,
+in his own words,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>D'adorateurs zélés à peine un petit nombre</p>
+<p>Ose des premiers temps nous retracer quelque ombre;</p>
+<p>Le reste....</p>
+<p>Se fait initier à ces honteux mystères,</p>
+<p>Et blasphème le nom qu'ont invoqué leurs pères.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As I profess myself of the <i>petit nombre</i>, you
+must let me recall to your memory some of the
+fragments of that noble edifice which Racine
+raised over him, and which, as they say, has now
+perished under the mighty power of Victor Hugo.
+It will not be lost time to do this; for look where
+you will among the splendid material of this uprooted
+temple, and you will find no morsel that is
+not precious; nothing that is not designed, chiseled,
+and finished by the hand of a master.</p>
+
+<p>Racine has not produced dramas from ordinary
+life; it was not his object to do so, nor is it the
+end he has attained. It is the tragedy of heroes
+and demi-gods that he has given us, and not of
+cut-purses, buffoons, and street-walkers.</p>
+
+<p>If the language of Racine be poetry, that of
+M. Hugo is not; and wherever the one is admired,
+the other must of necessity be valueless.
+It would be endless to attempt giving citations
+to prove the grace, the dignity, the majestic flow
+of Racine's verse; but let your eye run over
+"Iphigénie," for instance,&mdash;there also the loss of a
+daughter forms the tragic interest,&mdash;and compare
+such verses as those I have quoted above with
+any that you can find in Racine.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hear the royal mother, for example, describe
+the scene that awaits her:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>Un prêtre environné d'une foule cruelle</p>
+<p>Portera sur ma fille une main criminelle,</p>
+<p>Déchirera son sein, et d'un &oelig;il curieux</p>
+<p>Dans son c&oelig;ur palpitant consultera les dieux;</p>
+<p>&mdash;Et moi&mdash;qui l'amenai triomphante, adorée,</p>
+<p>Je m'en retournerai, seule, et désespérée.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Surely this is of a better fabric than&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>Tu sais ce coffre auprès du portrait de ta mère;</p>
+<p>L'habit est là,&mdash;je l'ai d'avance exprès fait faire.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I have little doubt but that the inspired author,
+when this noble phrase, "exprès fait faire," suggested
+itself, felt ready to exclaim, in the words of
+Philaminte and Bélise&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>Ah! que cet "exprès fait" est d'un goût admirable!</p>
+<p>C'est à mon sentiment un endroit impayable;</p>
+<p>J'entends là-dessous un million de mots.&mdash;</p>
+<p>&mdash;Il est vrai qu'il dit plus de choses qu'il n'est gros.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But to take the matter seriously, let us examine
+a little the ground upon which this school
+of dramatic writers found their claim to superiority
+over their classic predecessors. Is it not
+that they declare themselves to be more true to
+nature? And how do they support this claim?
+Were you to read through every play that M.
+Hugo has written&mdash;(and may you long be preserved
+from so great annoyance!)&mdash;I doubt if you
+would find a single personage with whom you
+could sympathise, or a single sentiment or opinion
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span>
+that you would feel true to the nature
+within you.</p>
+
+<p>It would be much less difficult, I conceive, so
+strongly to excite the imagination by the majestic
+eloquence of Racine's verses as to make you conscious
+of fellow-feeling with his sublime personages,
+than to debase your very heart and soul so
+thoroughly as to enable you to fancy that you
+have anything in common with the corrupt creations
+of Victor Hugo.</p>
+
+<p>But even were it otherwise&mdash;were the scenes
+imagined by this new Shakspeare more like the
+real villany of human nature than those of the
+noble writer he is said to have set aside, I should
+still deny that this furnished any good reason for
+bringing such scenes upon the stage. Why
+should we make a pastime of looking upon vulgar
+vice? Why should the lowest passions of
+our nature be for ever brought out in parade before
+us?</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"It is not and it cannot be for good."</p>
+
+<p>The same reasoning might lead us to turn from
+the cultured garden, its marble terraces, its velvet
+lawns, its flowers and fruits of every clime, that
+we might take our pleasure in a bog&mdash;and for all
+consolation be told, when we slip and flounder
+about in its loathsome slime, that it is more
+natural.</p>
+
+<p>I have written you a most unmerciful letter,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span>
+and it is quite time that I should quit the theme,
+for I get angry&mdash;angry that I have no power
+to express in words all I feel on this subject.
+Would that for one short hour or so I had
+the pen which wrote the "Dunciad!"&mdash;I would
+use it&mdash;heartily&mdash;and then take my leave by
+saying,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Rentre dans le néant, dont je t'ai fait sortir."</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XX.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Versailles.&mdash;St. Cloud.</p>
+
+<p>The Château de Versailles, that marvellous
+<i>chef-d'&oelig;uvre</i> of the splendid taste and unbounded
+extravagance of Louis le Grand, is shut up, and
+has been so for the last eighteen months. This is
+a great disappointment to such of our party as
+have never seen its interminable chambers and
+their gorgeous decorations. The reason assigned
+for this unwonted exclusion of the public is, that
+the whole of this enormous pile is filled with
+workmen; not, however, for the purpose of restoring
+it as a palace for the king, but of preparing
+it as a sort of universal museum for the
+nation. The buildings are in fact too extensive
+for a palace; and splendid as it is, I can easily
+believe no king of modern days would wish to
+inhabit it. I have sometimes wondered that Napoleon
+did not take a fancy to its vastness; but,
+I believe, he had no great taste in the upholstering
+line, and preferred converting his millions into
+the sinews of war, to the possession of all the carving
+and gilding in the world.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If this projected museum, however, should be
+<i>monté</i> with science, judgment and taste, and on
+the usual scale of French magnificence, it will be
+turning the costly whim of <i>le Grand Monarque</i>
+to excellent account.</p>
+
+<p>The works which are going on there, were
+mentioned at a party the other evening, when
+some one stated that it was the intention of the
+King to convert one portion of the building into
+a gallery of national history, that should contain
+pictures of all the victories which France had
+ever won.</p>
+
+<p>The remark made in reply amused me much,
+it was so very French.&mdash;"Ma foi!... Mais
+cette galerie-là doit être bien longue&mdash;et assez
+ennuyeuse pour les étrangers."</p>
+
+<p>Though the château was closed to us, we did
+not therefore give up our purposed expedition to
+Versailles: every object there is interesting, not
+only from its splendour, but from the recollections
+it revives of scenes with whose history we are all
+familiar. Not only the horrors of the last century,
+but all the regal glories of the preceding one, are
+so well known to everybody, that there must have
+been a prodigious deal of gossip handed down to
+us from France, or we never could feel so much
+better acquainted with events which have passed
+at Versailles than with any scenes that have occurred
+at an equal distance of time at Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>But so it is; and the English go there not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span>
+merely as strangers visiting a palace in a foreign
+land, but as pilgrims to the shrine of the princes
+and poets who have left their memory there, and
+with whose names and histories they are as familiar
+as if they belonged to us.</p>
+
+<p>The day we passed among the royal spectres
+that never fail to haunt one at this palace of recollections,
+was a mixture of sunshine and showers,
+and our meditations seemed to partake of the
+vicissitude.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that the great Louis reared this stupendous
+dwelling in which to pass the gilded hours
+of his idleness, because from St. Germain's he
+could see the plain of St. Denis, over which his
+funeral array was to pass, and the spire that
+marked the spot where his too precious dust was
+to be laid. Happy was it for him that the scutcheoned
+sepulchre of St. Denis was the most distant
+and most gloomy point to which his prophetic
+glance could reach! Could the great king
+have looked a little farther, and dreamed of the
+scenes which were destined to follow this dreaded
+passage to his royal tomb, how would he have
+blessed the fate which permitted him to pass into
+it so peacefully!</p>
+
+<p>It is quite wonderful to see how much of the
+elaborate decoration and fine finishing of this
+sumptuous place remains uninjured after being
+visited by the most ferocious mob that ever collected
+together. Had they been less intent on the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span>
+savage object of their mission, it is probable that
+they would have sated their insane rage in destroying
+the palace itself, and the costly decorations
+of its singular gardens. Though far inferior
+in all ways either to the gardens of the Elector of
+Hesse Cassel at Wilhelmshöhe, or to those of the
+Grand Duke of Baden at Schwetzingen, those of
+Versailles are still highly interesting from many
+causes, and have so much of majesty and pomp
+about them, that one cannot look upon them without
+feeling that only the kings of the earth could
+ever have had a master's right to take their pleasure
+therein.</p>
+
+<p>Before we entered upon the orderly confusion
+of groves, statues, temples, and water-works
+through which it is necessary to be led, we made
+our grey-headed guide lead us round and about
+every part of the building while we listened to
+his string of interesting old stories about Louis
+Seize, and Marie Antoinette, and Monsieur, and
+le Comte d'Artois, (for he seemed to have forgotten
+that they had borne any other titles than
+those he remembered in his youth,) all of whom
+seemed to retain exactly the same place in his
+imagination that they had occupied some fifty
+years ago, when he was assistant to the keeper of
+the <i>orangerie</i>. He boasted, with a vanity as fresh
+as if it had been newly born, of the honours of
+that near approach to royalty which he had formerly
+enjoyed; recounted how the Queen called
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span>
+one of the orange-trees her own, because she fancied
+its blossoms sweeter than all the rest; and
+how from such a broad-leafed double-blossoming
+myrtle he had daily gathered a <i>bouquet</i> for her
+majesty, which was laid upon her toilet exactly at
+two o'clock. This old man knew every orange-tree,
+its birth and history, as well as a shepherd
+knows his flock. The venerable father of the
+band dates his existence from the reign of François
+Premier, and truly he enjoys a green old age.
+The one surnamed Louis le Grand, who was twin
+brother, as he said, to that mighty monarch, looks
+like a youth beside it&mdash;and you are told that it
+has not yet attained its full growth.</p>
+
+<p>Oh! could those orange-trees but speak! could
+they recount to us the scenes they have witnessed;
+could they describe to us all the beauties over
+whom they have shed their fragrant flowers&mdash;all
+the heroes, statesmen, poets, and princes who have
+stepped in courtly paces beneath their shade; what
+a world of witty wickedness, of solemn warning,
+and of sad reflection, we should have!</p>
+
+<p>But though the orange-trees were mute, our old
+man talked enough for them all. He was a faithful
+servant to the old <i>régime</i>: and indeed it should
+seem that there is something in the air of Versailles
+favourable alike to orange-trees and loyalty;
+for never did I hear, while wandering amidst their
+aristocratic perfume, one word that was not of
+sound orthodox legitimate loyalty to the race for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span>
+whose service they have for so many hundred
+years lived and bloomed. And still they blossom
+on, unscathed by revolution, unblighted though an
+usurper called them his;&mdash;happier in this than
+many of those who were once privileged to parade
+their dignity beneath their royal shade. The old
+servitors still move among these venerable vegetable
+grandees with the ceremonious air of courtiers,
+offering obsequious service, if not to the king himself,
+at least to his cousin-germans; and I am
+persuaded there is not one of these old serving-men,
+who wander about Versailles like ghosts
+revisiting the scenes of former happiness, who
+would not more humbly pull off his hat to François
+Premier or Louis le Grand in the greenhouse,
+than to any monarch of a younger race.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon has left less trace of himself and his
+giant power at Versailles than anywhere else; and
+the naïads and hamadryads still lift their sculptured
+heads with such an eternity of stately grace,
+as makes one feel the evanescent nature of the
+interlude that was played among them during the
+empire. It is of the old race of Bourbon that the
+whole region is redolent. "There," said our old
+guide, "is the range of chambers that was occupied
+by the Queen ... those were the King's
+apartments ... there were the royal children ...
+there Monsieur ... and there the Comte d'Artois."</p>
+
+<p>Then we were led round to the fatal balcony
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span>
+which overhangs the entrance. It was there that
+the fallen Marie Antoinette stood, her young son
+in her arms, and the doomed King her husband
+beside her, when she looked down upon the demons
+drunk with blood, who sought her life. I had
+heard all this hateful, but o'er-true history, more
+than once before on the same spot, and shortening
+the frightful detail, I hastened to leave it, though
+I believe the good old man would willingly have
+spent hours in dwelling upon it.</p>
+
+<p>The day had been named as one on which the
+great waters were to play. But, little as Nature
+has to do with this pretty exhibition, she interfered
+on this occasion to prevent it. There was no
+water. The dry winter would, they told us, probably
+render it impossible to play them during the
+whole summer.</p>
+
+<p>Here was another disappointment; but we
+bore it heroically, and after examining and much
+admiring the numberless allegories which people
+the grounds, and to the creation of which, a poet
+must have been as necessary as a sculptor, we
+adjourned to the Trianons, there to meditate on
+all the ceaseless vicissitudes of female influence
+from Maintenon to Josephine. It is but a sad
+review, but it may serve well to reconcile the majority
+of womankind to the tranquil dreaminess of
+obscurity.</p>
+
+<p>The next thing to be done was dining&mdash;and
+most wretchedly done it was: but we found
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span>
+something to laugh at, nevertheless; for when the
+wine brought to us was found too bad to drink, and
+we ordered better, no less than four bottles were
+presented to us in succession, each one increasing
+in price, but being precisely of the same quality.
+When we charged the black-eyed daughter of the
+house with the fact, she said with perfect good-humour,
+but nowise denying it, that she was very
+sorry they had no better. When the bill was
+brought, the same damsel civilly hoped that we
+should not think ten sous (half-a-franc) too much
+to pay for having opened so many bottles. Now,
+as three of them were firmly corked, and carefully
+sealed besides, we paid our ten sous without any
+complaining.</p>
+
+<p>The looking at a fête at St. Cloud made part
+of the business of the day; but in order to get
+there, we were obliged to mount into one of
+those indescribable vehicles by which the gay
+<i>bourgeoisie</i> of Paris are conveyed from palace to
+palace, and from <i>guinguette</i> to <i>guinguette</i>. We
+had dismissed our comfortable <i>citadine</i>, being assured
+that we should have no difficulty in finding
+another. In this, however, we were disappointed,
+the proportion of company appearing greatly to
+exceed that of the carriages which were to convey
+them, and we considered ourselves fortunate in
+securing places in an equipage which we should
+have scorned indignantly when we quitted Paris
+in the morning.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The whimsical gaiety of the crowd, all hurrying
+one way, was very amusing; all anxious to reach
+St. Cloud before the promised half-hour's display
+of water-works were over; all testifying, by look,
+gesture, voice, and words, that light effervescence
+of animal spirits so essentially characteristic of
+the country, and all forming a moving panorama
+so gay and so bright as almost to make one giddy
+by looking at it.</p>
+
+<p>Some among the capricious variety of vehicles
+were drawn by five or six horses. These were
+in truth nothing but gaily-painted waggons, hung
+on rude springs, with a flat awning over them.
+In several I counted twenty persons; but there
+were some few among them in which one or
+perhaps two seats were still vacant&mdash;and then
+the rapturous glee of the party was excited to
+the utmost by the efforts of the driver, as gay
+as themselves, to obtain customers to fill the
+vacancies.</p>
+
+<p>Every individual overtaken on the road was invited
+by the most clamorous outcries to occupy the
+vacant seats. "St. Cloud! St. Cloud! St. Cloud!"
+shouted by the driver and re-echoed by all his company,
+rang in the startled ears of all they passed;
+and if a traveller soberly journeying in the contrary
+direction was met, the invitation was uttered
+with tenfold vehemence, accompanied by shouts
+of laughter; which, far from offending the party
+who provoked it, was invariably answered with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span>
+equal frolic and fun. But when upon one occasion
+a carriage posting almost at full gallop towards
+Versailles was encountered, the ecstasy of
+mirth with which it was greeted exceeds description.
+"St. Cloud! St. Cloud! St. Cloud!&mdash;Tournez
+donc, messieurs&mdash;tournez à St. Cloud!" The
+shouts and vociferations were enough to frighten
+all the horses in the world excepting French
+ones; and they must be so thoroughly broken
+to the endurance of din, that there is little
+danger of their starting at it. I could have almost
+fancied that upon this occasion they took
+part in it; for they shook their ropes and their
+tassels, snorted and tossed, very much as if they
+enjoyed the fun.</p>
+
+<p>After all, we, and many hundred others, arrived
+too late for the show, the supply of water failing
+even before the promised half-hour had elapsed.
+The gardens, however, were extremely full, and
+all the world looked as gay and as well-pleased as
+if nothing had gone wrong.</p>
+
+<p>I wonder if these people ever grow old,&mdash;that
+is, old as we do, sitting in the chimney-corner,
+and dreaming no more of fêtes than of playing at
+blind-man's-buff. I have certainly seen here, as
+elsewhere, men, and women too, grey-headed, and
+wrinkled enough to be as solemn as the most
+venerable judge upon the bench; but I never
+saw any that did not seem ready to hop, skip,
+jump, waltz, and make love.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXI.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+History of the Vicomte de B&mdash;&mdash;. His opinions.&mdash;State
+of France.&mdash;Expediency.</p>
+
+<p>I have had a curious conversation this morning
+with an old gentleman whom I believed to
+be a thorough legitimate, but who turns out,
+as you will see, something else&mdash;I hardly know
+what to call it&mdash;<i>doctrinaire</i> I suppose it must be,
+yet it is not quite that either.</p>
+
+<p>But before I give you his opinions, let me present
+himself. M. le Vicomte de B&mdash;&mdash; is a person
+that I am very sure you would be happy to
+know anywhere. His residence is not in Paris,
+but at a château that he describes as the most
+profound retirement imaginable; yet it is not
+more than thirty leagues from Paris. He is a
+widower, and his only child is a daughter, who
+has been some years married.</p>
+
+<p>The history of this gentleman, given as he gave
+it himself, was deeply interesting. It was told
+with much feeling, some wit, and no prolixity.
+Were I, however, to attempt to repeat it to you
+in the same manner, it would become long and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span>
+tedious, and in every way as unlike as possible
+to what it was as it came fresh from the living
+fountain.</p>
+
+<p>In brief, then, I will tell you that he was the
+younger son of an old and noble house, and, for
+seven years, page to Louis Seize. He must have
+been strikingly handsome; and young as he was
+at the time of the first revolution, he seems
+already to have found the court a very agreeable
+residence. He had held a commission in
+the army about two years, when his father, and
+his only brother, his elder by ten years, were
+obliged to leave the country, to save their lives.</p>
+
+<p>The family was not a wealthy one, and great
+sacrifices were necessary to enable them to live
+in England. What remained became eventually
+the property of our friend, both father and brother
+having died in exile. With this remnant
+of fortune he married, not very prudently; and
+having lost his wife and disposed of his daughter
+in marriage, he is now living in his large dilapidated
+château, with one female servant, and an
+old man as major-domo, valet, and cook, who
+served with him in La Vendée, and who, by his
+description, must be a perfect Corporal Trim.</p>
+
+<p>I would give a good deal to be able to accept
+the invitation I have received to pay him a visit
+at his castle. I think I should find just such a
+<i>ménage</i> as that which Scott so beautifully describes
+in one of his prefaces. But the wish is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span>
+vain, such an excursion being quite impossible;
+so I must do without the castle, and content myself
+with the long morning visits that its agreeable
+owner is so kind as to make us.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen him frequently, and listened with
+great interest to his little history; but it was only
+this morning that the conversation took a speculative
+turn. I was quite persuaded, but certainly
+from my own preconceived notions only, and not
+from anything I have heard him say, that M. de
+B&mdash;&mdash; was a devoted legitimate. An old noble&mdash;page
+to Louis Seize&mdash;a royalist soldier in La
+Vendée,&mdash;how could I think otherwise? Yet he
+talked to me as ... you shall hear.</p>
+
+<p>Our conversation began by his asking me if I
+was conscious of much material change in Paris
+since I last visited it.</p>
+
+<p>I replied, that I certainly saw some, but perhaps
+suspected more.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say you do," said he; "it is what your
+nation is very apt to do: but take my advice,&mdash;believe
+what you see, and nothing else."</p>
+
+<p>"But what one can see in the course of a month
+or two is so little, and I hear so much."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true; but do you not find that what
+you hear from one person is often contradicted by
+another?"</p>
+
+<p>"Constantly," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what can you do at last but judge by
+what you see?"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, it appears to me that the better plan
+would be to listen to all parties, and let my balancing
+belief incline to the testimony that has
+most weight."</p>
+
+<p>"Then be careful that this weight be not false.
+There are some who will tell you that the national
+feeling which for so many centuries has
+kept France together as a powerful and predominating
+people is loosened, melted, and gone;&mdash;that
+though there are Frenchmen left, there is no
+longer a French people."</p>
+
+<p>"To any who told me so," I replied, "I would
+say, that the division they complained of, arose not
+so much from any change in the French character,
+as from the false position in which many were
+unhappily placed at the present moment. Men's
+hearts are divided because they are diversely drawn
+aside from a common centre."</p>
+
+<p>"And you would say truly," said he; "but
+others will tell you, that regenerated France will
+soon dictate laws to the whole earth; that her
+flag will become the flag of all people&mdash;her government
+their government; and that their tottering
+monarchies will soon crumble into dust, to
+become part and parcel of her glorious republic."</p>
+
+<p>"And to these I should say, that they appeared
+to be in a very heavy slumber, and that the
+sooner they could wake out of it and shake off
+their feverish dreams, the better it would be for
+them."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But what would your inference be as to the
+state of the country from such reports as these?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think that, as usual, truth lay between.
+I should neither believe that France was
+so united as to constitute a single-minded giant,
+nor so divided as to have become a mass of unconnected
+atoms, or a race of pigmies."</p>
+
+<p>"You know," he continued, "that the fashionable
+phrase for describing our condition at present
+is, that we are in <i>a state of transition</i>,&mdash;from
+butterflies to grubs, or from grubs to butterflies,
+I know not which; but to me it seems that the
+transition is over,&mdash;and it is high time that it
+should be so. The country has known neither
+rest nor peace for nearly half a century; and
+powerful as she has been and still is, she must at
+last fall a prey to whoever may think it worth
+their while to despoil her, unless she stops short
+while it is yet time, and strengthens herself by a
+little seasonable repose."</p>
+
+<p>"But how is this repose to be obtained?" said I.
+"Some of you wish to have one king, some another,
+and some to have no king at all. This is
+not a condition in which a country is very likely
+to find repose."</p>
+
+<p>"Not if each faction be of equal power, or
+sufficiently so to persevere in struggling for the
+mastery. Our only hope lies in the belief that
+there is no such equality. Let him who has
+seized the helm keep it: if he be an able helmsman,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span>
+he will keep us in smooth water;&mdash;and it is
+no longer time for us to ask how he got his commission;
+let us be thankful that he happens to
+be of the same lineage as those to whose charge
+we have for so many ages committed the safety of
+our bark."</p>
+
+<p>I believe my countenance expressed my astonishment;
+for the old gentleman smiled and said,</p>
+
+<p>"Do I frighten you with my revolutionary
+principles?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, you surprise me a little," I replied:
+"I should have thought that the rights of a
+legitimate monarch would have been in your
+opinion indefeasible."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the law, my good lady, that may
+control necessity?... I speak not of my own
+feelings, or of those of the few who were born
+like myself in another era. Very terrible convulsions
+have passed over France, and perhaps
+threaten the rest of Europe. I have for many
+years stood apart and watched the storm; and I
+am quite sure, and find much comfort in the
+assurance, that the crimes and passions of men
+cannot change the nature of things. They may
+produce much misery, they may disturb and confuse
+the peaceful current of events; but man still
+remains as he was, and will seek his safety and
+his good, where he has ever found them&mdash;under
+the shelter of power."</p>
+
+<p>"There, indeed, I quite agree with you. But
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span>
+surely the more lawful and right the power is, the
+more likely it must be to remain tranquil and undisputed
+in its influence."</p>
+
+<p>"France has no longer the choice," said he,
+interrupting me abruptly. "I speak but as a
+looker-on; my political race is ended; I have
+more than once sworn allegiance to the elder
+branch of the house of Bourbon, and certainly
+nothing would tempt me to hold office or take
+oath under any other. But do you think it
+would be the duty of a Frenchman who has
+three grandsons native to the soil of France,&mdash;do
+you really think it the duty of such a one to
+invoke civil war upon the land of his fathers, and
+remembering only his king, to forget his country?
+I will not tell you, that if I could wake to-morrow
+morning and find a fifth Henry peacefully seated
+on the throne of his fathers, I might not rejoice;
+particularly if I were sure that he would be as
+likely to keep the naughty boys of Paris in order
+as I think his cousin Philippe is. Were there
+profit in wishing, I would wish for France a government
+so strong as should effectually prevent
+her from destroying herself; and that government
+should have at its head a king whose right to
+reign had come to him, not by force of arms, but
+by the will of God in lawful succession. But
+when we mortals have a wish, we may be thankful
+if the half of it be granted;&mdash;and, in truth, I
+think that I have the first and better half of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span>
+mine to rejoice in. There is a stout and sturdy
+strength in the government of King Philippe,
+which gives good hope that France may recover
+under its protection from her sins and her sorrows,
+and again become the glory of her children."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, M. de B&mdash;&mdash; rose to leave me, and
+putting out his hand in the English fashion, added,
+"I am afraid you do not like me so well as
+you did.... I am no longer a true and loyal
+knight in your estimation ... but something,
+perhaps, very like a rebel and a traitor?... Is it
+not so?"</p>
+
+<p>I hardly knew how to answer him. He certainly
+had lost a good deal of that poetical elevation
+of character with which I had invested him;
+yet there was a mixture of honesty and honour
+in his frankness that I could not help esteeming.
+I thanked him very sincerely for the openness
+with which he had spoken, but confessed
+that I had not quite made up my mind to think
+that expediency was the right rule for human
+actions. It certainly was not the noblest, and
+therefore I was willing to believe that it was not
+the best.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go," said he, looking at his watch,
+"for it is my hour of dining, or I think I could
+dispute with you a little upon your word <i>expediency</i>.
+Whatever is really expedient for us to
+do&mdash;that is, whatever is best for us in the
+situation in which we are actually placed, is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span>
+really right. Adieu!&mdash;I shall present myself
+again ere long; and if you admit me, I shall
+be thankful."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he departed,&mdash;leaving us all, I believe,
+a little less in alt about him than before,
+but certainly with no inclination to shut our doors
+against him.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Père Lachaise.&mdash;Mourning in public.&mdash;Defacing the Tomb
+of Abelard and Eloïsa.&mdash;Baron Munchausen.&mdash;Russian
+Monument.&mdash;Statue of Manuel.</p>
+
+<p>Often as I have visited the enclosure of Père
+Lachaise, it was with feelings of renewed curiosity
+and interest that I yesterday accompanied thither
+those of my party who had not yet seen it. I was
+well pleased to wander once more through the cypress
+alleys, now grown into fine gloomy funereal
+shades, and once more to feel that wavering sort
+of emotion which I always experience there;&mdash;one
+moment being tempted to smile at the fantastic
+manner in which affection has been manifested,&mdash;and
+the next, moved to tears by some
+touch of tenderness, that makes itself felt even
+amidst the vast collection of childish superstitions
+with which the place abounds.</p>
+
+<p>This mournful garden is altogether a very solemn
+and impressive spectacle. What a world of
+mortality does one take in at one glance! It will
+set one thinking a little, however fresh from the
+busy idleness of Paris,&mdash;of Paris, that antidote to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span>
+all serious thought, that especial paradise for the
+worshippers of <span class="smcap">Sans Souci</span>.</p>
+
+<p>A profusion of spring flowers are at this season
+hourly shedding their blossoms over every little
+cherished enclosure. There is beauty, freshness,
+fragrance on the surface.... It is a fearful contrast!</p>
+
+<p>I do not remember any spot, either in church
+or churchyard, where the unequal dignity of the
+memorials raised above the dust which lies so
+very equally beneath them all is shown in a
+manner to strike the heart so forcibly as it does
+at Père Lachaise. Here, a shovelful of weeds
+have hardly room to grow; and there rises a
+costly pile, shadowing its lowly neighbour. On
+this side the narrow path, sorrow is wrapped
+round and hid from notice by the very poverty
+that renders it more bitter; while, on the other,
+wealth, rank, and pride heap decorations over the
+worthless clay, striving vainly to conceal its nothingness.
+It is an epitome of the world they
+have left: remove the marble and disturb the
+turf, human nature will be found to wear the
+same aspect under both.</p>
+
+<p>Many groups in deep mourning were wandering
+among the tombs; so many indeed, that when
+we turned aside from one, with the reverence one
+always feels disposed to pay to sorrow, we were
+sure to encounter another. This manner of lamenting
+in public seems so strange to us! How
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span>
+would it be for a shy English mother, who sobs
+inwardly and hides the aching sorrow in her
+heart's core,&mdash;how would she bear to bargain at
+the public gate for a pretty garland, then enter
+amidst an idle throng, with the toy hanging on
+her finger, and, before the eyes of all who choose
+to look, suspend it over the grave of her lost
+child? An Englishwoman surely must lose her
+reason either before or after such an act;&mdash;if it
+were not the effect of madness, it would be the
+cause of it. Yet such is the effect of habit, or
+rather of the different tone of manners and of
+mind here, that one may daily and hourly see parents,
+most devoted to their children during their
+lives, and most heart-broken when divided from
+them by death, perform with streaming eyes these
+public lamentations.</p>
+
+<p>It is nevertheless impossible, let the manner of it
+differ from our own as much as it may, to look
+at the freshly-trimmed flowers, the garlands, and
+all the pretty tokens of tender care which meet
+the eye in every part of this wide-spread mass of
+mortal nothingness, without feeling that real love
+and real sorrow have been at work.</p>
+
+<p>One small enclosure attracted my attention as
+at once the most <i>bizarre</i> and the most touching
+of all. It held the little grassy tomb of a young
+child, planted round with choice flowers; and at
+its head rose a semicircular recess, containing,
+together with a crucifix and other religious emblems,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span>
+several common playthings, which had
+doubtless been the latest joy of the lost darling.
+His age was stated to have been three years, and
+he was mourned as the first and only child after
+twelve years of marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Below this melancholy statement was inscribed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Passans! priez pour sa malheureuse mère!"</p>
+
+<p>Might we not say, that</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>Thought and affliction, passion, death itself,</p>
+<p>They turn to favour and to prettiness?</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It would, I believe, be more just, as well as
+more generous, instead of accusing the whole nation
+of being the victims of affectation instead of
+sorrow under every affliction that death can cause,
+to believe that they feel quite as sincerely as ourselves;
+though they have certainly a very different
+way of showing it.</p>
+
+<p>I wish they, whoever they are, who had the command
+of such matters, would have let the curious
+tomb of Abelard and Eloïsa remain in decent
+tranquillity in its original position. Nothing can
+assimilate worse than do its Gothic form and decorations
+with every object around it. The paltry
+plaster tablet too, that has been stuck upon
+it for the purpose of recording the history of the
+tomb rather than of those who lie buried in it,
+is in villanously bad taste; and we can only hope
+that the elements will complete the work they
+have begun, and then this barbarous defacing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span>
+will crumble away before our grandchildren shall
+know anything about it.</p>
+
+<p>The thickly-planted trees and shrubs have
+grown so rapidly, as in many places to make it
+difficult to pass through them; and the ground
+appears to be extremely crowded nearly over its
+whole extent. A few neighbouring acres have
+been lately added to it; but their bleak, naked,
+and unornamented surface forbids the eye as yet
+to recognise this space as part of the enclosure.
+One pale solitary tomb is placed within it, at
+the very verge of the dark cypress line that
+marks the original boundary; and it looks like a
+sheeted ghost hovering about between night and
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>One very noble monument has been added
+since I last visited the garden: it is dedicated
+to the memory of a noble Russian lady, whose
+long unspellable name I forget. It is of white or
+greyish marble, and of magnificent proportions,&mdash;lofty
+and elegant, yet massive and entirely simple.
+Altogether, it appeared to me to be as perfect
+in taste as any specimen of monumental architecture
+that I have ever seen, though it had not
+the last best grace of sculpture to adorn it. There
+is no effigy&mdash;no statue&mdash;scarcely an ornament
+of any kind, but it seems constructed with a view
+to unite equally the appearance of imposing majesty
+and enduring strength. This splendid mausoleum
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span>
+stands towards the top of the garden, and
+forms a predominating and very beautiful object
+from various parts of it.</p>
+
+<p>Among the hundreds of names which one reads
+in passing,&mdash;I hardly know why, for they certainly
+convey but small interest to the mind,&mdash;we met
+with that of the <i>Baron Munchausen</i>. It was a
+small and unpretending-looking stone, but bore a
+host of blazing titles, by which it appears that
+this Baron, whom I, and all my generation, I
+believe, have ever looked upon as an imaginary
+personage, was in fact something or other very
+important to somebody or other who was very
+powerful. Why his noble name has been made
+such use of among us, I cannot imagine.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of our wanderings we came upon
+this singular inscription:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ci-gît Caroline,"&mdash;(I think the name is Caroline,)&mdash;"fille
+de Mademoiselle Mars."</p>
+
+<p>Is it not wonderful what a difference twenty-one
+miles of salt-water can make in the ways and
+manners of people?</p>
+
+<p>There are not many statues in the cemetery,
+and none of sufficient merit to add much to its
+embellishment; but there is one recently placed
+there, and standing loftily predominant above
+every surrounding object, which is strongly indicative
+of the period of its erection, and of the
+temper of the people to whom it seems to address
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span>
+itself. This is a colossal figure of Manuel. The
+countenance is vulgar, and the expression of
+the features violent and exaggerated: it might
+stand as the portrait of a bold factious rebel
+for ever.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXIII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Remarkable People.&mdash;Distinguished People.&mdash;Metaphysical
+Lady.</p>
+
+<p>Last night we passed our <i>soirée</i> at the house of
+a lady who had been introduced to me with this
+recommendation:&mdash;"You will be certain of meeting
+at Madame de V&mdash;&mdash;'s many <span class="smcap">remarkable
+people</span>."</p>
+
+<p>This is, I think, exactly the sort of introduction
+which would in any city give the most piquant
+interest to a new acquaintance; but it does so
+particularly at Paris; for this attractive capital
+draws its collection of remarkable people from a
+greater variety of nations, classes, and creeds, than
+any other.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, this term "remarkable people"
+must not be taken too confidently to mean individuals
+so distinguished that all men would desire
+to gaze upon them; the phrase varying in
+its value and its meaning according to the feelings,
+faculties, and station of the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody has got his or her own "remarkable
+people" to introduce to you; and I have begun to
+find out, among the houses that are open to me,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span>
+what species of "remarkable people" I am likely
+to meet at each.</p>
+
+<p>When Madame A&mdash;&mdash; whispers to me as I
+enter her drawing-room&mdash;"Ah! vous voilà! c'est
+bon; j'aurais été bien fâchée si vous m'aviez manquée;
+il y a ici, ce soir, une personne bien remarquable,
+qu'il faut absolument vous présenter,"&mdash;I
+am quite sure that I shall see some one who has
+been a marshal, or a duke, or a general, or a physician,
+or an actor, or an artist, to Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>But if it were Madame B&mdash;&mdash; who said the
+same thing, I should be equally certain that it must
+be a comfortable-looking doctrinaire, who was, had
+been, or was about to be in place, and who had
+made his voice heard on the winning side.</p>
+
+<p>Madame C&mdash;&mdash;, on the contrary, would not
+deign to bestow such an epithet on any one whose
+views and occupations were so earthward. It
+could only be some philosopher, pale with the
+labour of reconciling paradoxes or discovering a
+new element.</p>
+
+<p>My charming, quiet, graceful, gentle Madame
+D&mdash;&mdash; could use it only when speaking of an ex-chancellor,
+or chamberlain, or friend, or faithful
+servant of the exiled dynasty.</p>
+
+<p>As for the tall dark-browed Madame E&mdash;&mdash;,
+with her thin lips and sinister smile, though she
+professes to hold a <i>salon</i> where talent of every party
+is welcome, she never cares much, I am very sure,
+for any remarkableness that is not connected with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span>
+the great and immortal mischief of some revolution.
+She is not quite old enough to have had
+anything to do with the first; but I have no
+doubt that she was very busy during the last, and
+I am positive that she will never know peace by
+night or day till another can be got up. If her
+hopes fail on this point, she will die of atrophy;
+for nothing affords her nourishment but what is
+mixed up with rebellion against constituted authority.</p>
+
+<p>I know that she dislikes me; and I suspect I
+owe the honour of being admitted to appear in her
+presence solely to her determination that I should
+hear everything that she thinks it would be disagreeable
+for me to listen to. I believe she fancies
+that I do not like to meet Americans; but she is
+as much mistaken in this as in most other of her
+speculations.</p>
+
+<p>I really never saw or heard of any fanaticism
+equal to that, with which this lady worships destruction.
+That whatever is, is wrong, is the rule
+by which her judgment is guided in all things.
+It is enough for her that a law on any point is established,
+to render the thing legalised detestable;
+and were the republic about which she raves, and
+of which she knows as much as her lap-dog, to be
+established throughout France to-morrow, I am
+quite persuaded that we should have her embroidering
+a regal robe for the most legitimate king
+she could find, before next Monday.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Madame F&mdash;&mdash;'s <i>remarkables</i> are almost all of
+them foreigners of the philosophic revolutionary
+class; any gentry that are not particularly well
+off at home, and who would rather prefer being
+remarkable and remarked a few hundred miles
+from their own country than in it.</p>
+
+<p>Madame G&mdash;&mdash;'s are chiefly musical personages.
+"Croyez-moi, madame," she says, "il n'y a que lui
+pour toucher le piano.... Vous n'avez pas encore
+entendu Mademoiselle Z&mdash;&mdash;.... Quelle voix superbe!...
+Elle fera, j'en suis sûre, une fortune
+immense à Londres."</p>
+
+<p>Madame H&mdash;&mdash;'s acquaintance are not so "remarkable"
+for anything peculiar in each or any of
+them, as for being in all things exactly opposed to
+each other. She likes to have her parties described
+as "Les soirées antithestiques de Madame H&mdash;&mdash;,"
+and has a peculiar sort of pleasure in seeing people
+sitting side by side on her hearth-rug, who would be
+very likely to salute each other with a pistol-shot
+were they to meet elsewhere. It is rather a singular
+device for arranging a sociable party; but her
+<i>soirées</i> are very delightful <i>soirées</i>, for all that.</p>
+
+<p>Madame J&mdash;&mdash;'s friends are not "remarkable;"
+they are "distinguished." It is quite extraordinary
+what a number of distinguished individuals I
+have met at her house.</p>
+
+<p>But I must not go through the whole alphabet,
+lest I should tire you. So let me return to the
+point from whence I set out, and take you with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span>
+me to Madame de V&mdash;&mdash;'s <i>soirée</i>. A large party
+is almost always a sort of lottery, and your good
+or bad fortune depends on the accidental vicinity
+of pleasant or unpleasant neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot consider myself to have gained a prize
+last night; and Fortune, if she means to make
+things even, must place me to-night next the most
+agreeable person in Paris. I really think that
+should the same evil chance that beset me yesterday
+pursue me for a week, I should leave the
+country to escape from it. I will describe to you
+the manner of my torment as well as I can, but
+must fail, I think, to give you an adequate idea
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>A lady I had never seen before walked across
+the room to me last night soon after I entered it,
+and making prisoner of Madame de V&mdash;&mdash; in the
+way, was presented to me in due form. I was
+placed on a sofa by an old gentleman with whom
+we have formed a great friendship, and for whose
+conversation I have a particular liking: he had
+just seated himself beside me, when my new acquaintance
+dislodged him by saying, as she attempted
+to squeeze herself in between us, "Pardon,
+monsieur; ne vous dérangez pas! ... mais si
+madame voulait bien me permettre" ... and
+before she could finish her speech, my old acquaintance
+was far away and my new one close
+beside me.</p>
+
+<p>She began the conversation by some very obliging
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span>
+assurances of her wish to make my acquaintance.
+"I want to discuss with you," said she. I
+bowed, but trembled inwardly, for I do not like
+discussions, especially with "remarkable" ladies.
+"Yes," she continued, "I want to discuss with
+you many topics of vital interest to us all&mdash;topics
+on which I believe we now think differently, but
+on which I feel quite sure that we should agree,
+would you but listen to me."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled and bowed, and muttered something
+civil, and looked as much pleased as I possibly
+could,&mdash;and recollected, too, how large Paris was,
+and how easy it would be to turn my back upon
+conviction, if I found that I could not face it
+agreeably. But, to say truth, there was something
+in the eye and manner of my new friend that
+rather alarmed me. She is rather pretty, nevertheless;
+but her bright eyes are never still for
+an instant, and she is one of those who aid the
+power of speech by that of touch, to which she
+has incessant recourse. Had she been a man, she
+would have seized all her friends by the button:
+but as it is, she can only lay her fingers with emphasis
+upon your arm, or grasp a handful of your
+sleeve, when she sees reason to fear that your
+attention wanders.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a legitimatist! ... quel dommage!
+Ah! you smile. But did you know the incalculable
+injury done to the intellect by putting
+chains upon it!... My studies, observe, are confined
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span>
+almost wholly to one subject,&mdash;the philosophy
+of the human mind. Metaphysics have been
+the great object of my life from a very early age."
+(I should think she was now about seven or eight-and-twenty.)
+"Yet sometimes I have the weakness
+to turn aside from this noble pursuit to look
+upon the troubled current of human affairs that is
+rolling past me. I do not pretend to enter deeply
+into politics&mdash;I have no time for it; but I see
+enough to make me shrink from despotism and
+legitimacy. Believe me, it cramps the mind; and
+be assured that a constant succession of political
+changes keeps the faculties of a nation on the
+<i>qui vive</i>, and, abstractedly considered as a mental
+operation, must be incalculably more beneficial
+than the half-dormant state which takes place
+after any long continuance in one position, let it
+be what it may."</p>
+
+<p>She uttered all this with such wonderful rapidity,
+that it would have been quite impossible for
+me to have made any observation upon it as she
+went along, if I had been ever so much inclined
+to do so. But I soon found that this was not
+expected of me.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"'Twas hers to speak, and mine to hear;"</p>
+
+<p>and I made up my mind to listen as patiently as
+I could till I should find a convenient opportunity
+for changing my place.</p>
+
+<p>At different times, and in different climes, I
+have heretofore listened to a good deal of nonsense,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span>
+certainly; but I assure you I never did nor
+ever can expect again to hear such a profusion of
+wild absurdity as this lady uttered. Yet I am
+told that she has in many circles the reputation of
+being a woman of genius. It would be but a vain
+attempt did I endeavour to go on remembering
+and translating all she said; but some of her
+speeches really deserve recording.</p>
+
+<p>After she had run her tilt against authority, she
+broke off, exclaiming&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mais, après tout,&mdash;what does it signify?...
+When you have once devoted yourself to the study
+of the soul, all these little distinctions do appear
+so trifling!... I have given myself wholly to
+the study of the soul; and my life passes in a
+series of experiments, which, if I do not wear
+myself out here," putting her hand to her forehead,
+"will, I think, eventually lead me to something
+important."</p>
+
+<p>As she paused for a moment, I thought I ought
+to say something, and therefore asked her of what
+nature were the experiments of which she spoke.
+To which she replied&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Principally in comparative anatomy. None
+but an experimentalist could ever imagine what
+extraordinary results arise from this best and
+surest mode of investigation. A mouse, for instance....
+Ah, madame! would you believe it
+possible that the formation of a mouse could
+throw light upon the theory of the noblest feeling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span>
+that warms the heart of man&mdash;even upon
+valour? It is true, I assure you: such are the
+triumphs of science. By watching the pulsations
+of that <i>chétif</i> animal," she continued, eagerly laying
+hold of my wrist, "we have obtained an immense
+insight into the most interesting phenomena
+of the passion of fear."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment my old gentleman came back
+to me, but evidently without any expectation of
+being able to resume his seat. It was only, I
+believe, to see how I got on with my metaphysical
+neighbour. There was an infinite deal of humour
+in the glance he gave me as he said, "Eh
+bien, Madame Trollope, est-ce que Madame &mdash;&mdash;
+vous a donné l'ambition de la suivre dans ses sublimes
+études?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear it would prove beyond my strength," I
+replied. Upon which Madame &mdash;&mdash; started off
+anew in praise of <i>her</i> science&mdash;"the only science
+worthy the name; the science...."</p>
+
+<p>Here my old friend stole off again, covered by
+an approaching tray of ices; and I soon after did
+the same; for I had been busily engaged all day,
+and I was weary,&mdash;so weary that I dreaded dropping
+to sleep at the very instant that Madame &mdash;&mdash;
+was exerting herself to awaken me to a higher
+state of intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>I have not, however, told you one tenth part of
+the marvellous absurdities she poured forth; yet
+I suspect I have told you enough. I have never
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span>
+before met anything so pre-eminently ridiculous
+as this: but upon my saying so to my old friend
+as I passed him near the door, he assured me that
+he knew another lady, whose mania was education,
+and whose doctrines and manner of explaining
+them were decidedly more absurd than Madame
+&mdash;&mdash;'s philosophy of the soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Be not alarmed, however; I shall not bestow
+her upon you, for I intend most carefully to keep
+out of her way. Do you know of any English
+ladies thus devoted to the study of the soul?"...
+I am sincerely happy to say that I do not.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXIV.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Expedition to the Luxembourg.&mdash;No admittance for Females.&mdash;Portraits
+of "Henri."&mdash;Republican Costume.&mdash;Quai
+Voltaire.&mdash;Mural Inscriptions.&mdash;Anecdote of Marshal
+Lobau.&mdash;Arrest.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since the trials at the Luxembourg commenced,
+we have intended to make an excursion
+thither, in order to look at the encampment in the
+garden, at the military array around the palace,
+and, in short, to see all that is visible for female
+eyes in the general aspect of the place, so interesting
+at the present moment from the important
+business going on there.</p>
+
+<p>I have done all that could be done to obtain
+admission to the Chamber during their sittings,
+and have not been without friends who very kindly
+interested themselves to render my efforts successful&mdash;but
+in vain; no ladies have been permitted
+to enter. Whether the feminine regrets have been
+lessened or increased by the daily accounts that
+are published of the outrageous conduct of the
+prisoners, I will not venture to say. <i>C'est égal</i>;
+get in we cannot, whether we wish it or not. It
+is said, indeed, that in one of the tribunes set
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span>
+apart for the public, a small white hand has been
+seen to caress some jet-black curls upon the head
+of a boy; and it was said, too, that the boy called
+himself George S&mdash;&mdash;d: but I have heard of no
+other instance of any one not furnished with that
+important symbol of prerogative, <i>une barbe au
+menton</i>, who has ventured within the proscribed
+limits.</p>
+
+<p>Our humble-minded project of looking at the
+walls which enclose the blustering rebels and their
+patient judges has been at length happily accomplished,
+and not without affording us considerable
+amusement.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to our usual party, we had the pleasure
+of being accompanied by two agreeable Frenchmen,
+who promised to explain whatever signs and
+symbols might meet our eyes but mock our comprehension.
+As the morning was delightful, we
+agreed to walk to the place of our destination, and
+repose ourselves as much as the tossings of a <i>fiacre</i>
+would permit on the way home.</p>
+
+<p>That our route lay through the Tuileries Gardens
+was one reason for this arrangement; and, as
+usual, we indulged ourselves for a delightful half-hour
+by sitting under the trees.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever six or eight persons wish to converse
+together&mdash;not in <i>tête-à-tête</i>, but in a general confabulation,
+I would recommend exactly the place
+we occupied for the purpose, with the chairs of
+the party drawn together, not spread into a circle,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span>
+but collected in a group, so that every one can
+hear, and every one can be heard.</p>
+
+<p>Our conversation was upon the subject of various
+prints which we had seen exposed upon the
+Boulevards as we passed; and though our two
+Frenchmen were excellent friends, it was very
+evident that they did not hold the same opinions
+in politics;&mdash;so we had some very pleasant
+sparring.</p>
+
+<p>We have been constantly in the habit of remarking
+a variety of portraits of a pretty, elegant-looking
+youth, sometimes totally without letters&mdash;and
+yet they were not proofs, excepting of an antique
+loyalty,&mdash;sometimes with the single word
+"Henri!"&mdash;sometimes with a sprig of the pretty
+weed we call "Forget-me-not,"&mdash;and sometimes
+with the name of "Le Duc de Bordeaux." As
+we passed one of the cases this morning which
+stand out before a large shop on the Boulevards,
+I remarked a new one: it was a pretty lithographic
+print, and being very like an original
+miniature which had been kindly shown me during
+a visit I paid in the Faubourg St. Germain,
+I stopped to buy it, and writing my name on the
+envelope, ordered it to be sent home.</p>
+
+<p>M. P&mdash;&mdash;, the gentleman who was walking
+beside me when I stopped, confirmed my opinion
+that it was a likeness, by his personal knowledge of
+the original; and it was not difficult to perceive,
+though he spoke but little on the subject, that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span>
+an affectionate feeling for "<span class="smcap">the cause</span>" and its
+young hero was at his heart.</p>
+
+<p>M. de L&mdash;&mdash;, the other gentleman who had
+joined our party, was walking behind us, and
+came up as I was making my purchase. He
+smiled. "I see what you are about," said he:
+"if you and P&mdash;&mdash; continue to walk together,
+I am sure you will plot some terrible treason
+before you get to the Luxembourg."</p>
+
+<p>When we were seated in the Tuileries Gardens,
+M. de L&mdash;&mdash; renewed his attack upon me
+for what he called my seditious conduct in having
+encouraged the vender of a prohibited article,
+and declared that he thought he should but do
+his duty if he left M. P&mdash;&mdash; and myself in safe
+custody among the other rebellious characters at
+the Luxembourg.</p>
+
+<p>"My sedition," replied M. P&mdash;&mdash;, "is but speculative.
+The best among us now can only sigh that
+things are not quite as they should be, and be
+thankful that they are not quite as bad as they
+might be."</p>
+
+<p>"I rejoice to find that you allow so much, mon
+cher," replied his friend. "Yes, I think it might
+be worse; par exemple, if such gentry as those
+yonder were to have their way with us."</p>
+
+<p>He looked towards three youths who were stalking
+up the walk before us with the air of being
+deeply intent on some business of dire import.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span>
+They looked like walking caricatures&mdash;and in
+truth they were nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>They were republicans. Similar figures are
+constantly seen strutting upon the Boulevards, or
+sauntering, like those before us, in the Tuileries,
+or hovering in sinister groups about the Bois de
+Boulogne, each one believing himself to bear the
+brow of a Brutus and the heart of a Cato. But
+see them where or when you will, they take good
+care to be unmistakable; there is not a child of ten
+years old in Paris who cannot tell a republican
+when he sees him. In several print-shops I have
+seen a key to their mystical toilet which may
+enable the ignorant to read them right. A hat,
+whose crown if raised for a few inches more would
+be conical, is highest in importance, as in place;
+and the shade of Cromwell may perhaps glory in
+seeing how many desperate wrongheads still mimic
+his beaver. Then come the long and matted
+locks, that hang in heavy ominous dirtiness beneath
+it. The throat is bare, at least from linen;
+but a plentiful and very disgusting profusion of
+hair supplies its place. The waistcoat, like the hat,
+bears an immortal name&mdash;"<span class="smcap">Gilet à la Robespierre</span>"
+being its awful designation; and the extent
+of its wide-spreading lapels is held to be a
+criterion of the expansive principles of the wearer.
+<i>Au reste</i>, a general air of grim and savage blackguardism
+is all that is necessary to make up the
+outward man of a republican of Paris in 1835.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But, oh! the grimaces by which I have seen
+human face distorted by persons wearing this
+masquerading attire! Some roll their eyes and
+knit their brows as if they would bully the whole
+universe; others fix their dark glances on the
+ground in fearful meditation; while other some
+there be who, while gloomily leaning against a
+statue or a tree, throw such terrific meaning into
+their looks as might naturally be interpreted into
+the language of the witches in Macbeth&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"We must, we will&mdash;we must, we will</p>
+<p>Have much more blood,&mdash;and become worse,</p>
+<p>And become worse" ... &amp;c. &amp;c.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The three young men who had just passed us
+were exactly of this stamp. Our legitimate friend
+looked after them and laughed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"C'est à nous autres, mon cher," said de L&mdash;&mdash;,
+"to enjoy that sight. You and yours would have
+but small reason to laugh at such as these, if it
+were not the business of us and ours to take care
+that they should do you no harm. You may
+thank the eighty thousand National Guards of
+Paris for the pleasure of quizzing with such a
+complacent feeling of security these very ferocious-looking
+persons."</p>
+
+<p>"For that I thank them heartily," replied M.
+P&mdash;&mdash;; "only I think the business would have
+been quite as well done if those who performed it
+had the right to do so."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Bah! Have you not tried, and found you
+could make nothing of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not, my friend," replied the legitimatist:
+"we were doing very well, and exerting
+ourselves to keep the unruly spirits in order,
+when you stepped in, and promised all the
+naughty boys in Paris a holiday if they would
+but make you master. They did make you master&mdash;they
+have had their holiday, and now...."</p>
+
+<p>"And now ..." said I, "what will come
+next?"</p>
+
+<p>Both the gentlemen answered me at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Riots," said the legitimatist.</p>
+
+<p>"Good order," said the doctrinaire.</p>
+
+<p>We proceeded in our walk, and having crossed
+the Pont Royal, kept along the Quai Voltaire,
+to avoid the Rue du Bac; as we all agreed that,
+notwithstanding Madame de Staël spoke so lovingly
+of it at a distance, it was far from agreeable
+when near.</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for a sort of English horror of
+standing before shop-windows, the walking along
+that Quai Voltaire might occupy an entire morning.
+From the first wide-spread display of "remarkable
+people" for five sous apiece&mdash;and there
+are heads among them which even in their
+rude lithography would repay some study&mdash;from
+this five-sous gallery of fame to the entrance of
+the Rue de Seine, it is an almost uninterrupted
+show;&mdash;books, old and new&mdash;rich, rare, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span>
+worthless; engravings that may be classed likewise,&mdash;<i>articles
+d'occasion</i> of all sorts,&mdash;but, far
+above all the rest, the most glorious museums of
+old carving and gilding, of monstrous chairs, stupendous
+candlesticks, grotesque timepieces, and
+ornaments without a name, that can be found
+in the world. It is here that the wealthy fancier
+of the massive splendour of Louis Quinze comes
+with a full purse, and it is hence that beyond all
+hope he departs with a light one. The present
+royal family of France, it is said, profess a taste
+for this princely but ponderous style of decoration;
+and royal carriages are often seen to stop at
+the door of <i>magasins</i> so heterogeneous in their
+contents as to admit all titles excepting only that
+of "<i>magasin de nouveautés</i>," but having at the
+first glance very greatly the air of a pawnbroker's
+shop.</p>
+
+<p>During this lounge along the Quai Voltaire,
+I saw for the first time some marvellously uncomely
+portraits, with the names of each inscribed
+below, and a running title for all, classing them
+<i>en masse</i> as "<i>Les Prévenus d'Avril</i>." If these be
+faithful portraits, the originals are to be greatly
+pitied; for they seem by nature predestined to
+the evil work they have been about. Every one
+of them looks</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i1">"Worthy to be a rebel, for to that</p>
+<p>The multiplying villanies of nature</p>
+<p>Do swarm upon him."</p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It should seem that the materials for rebellion
+were in Shakspeare's days much of the same kind
+as they are in ours. If these be portraits, the
+originals need have no fear of the caricaturist
+before their eyes&mdash;their "villanies of nature"
+could hardly be exaggerated; and I should think
+that H. B. himself would try his pencil upon them
+in vain.</p>
+
+<p>On the subject which the examination of these
+<i>prévenus d'Avril</i> naturally led to, our two French
+friends seemed to be almost entirely of the same
+opinion; the legitimatist confessing that "any
+king was better than none," and the doctrinaire
+declaring that he would rather the country should
+have gone without the last revolution, glorious
+and immortal as it was, than that it should be
+exposed to another, especially such a one as
+MM. les Prévenus were about to prepare for
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Being arrived at <i>le quartier Latin</i>, we amused
+ourselves by speculating upon the propensity manifested
+by very young men, who were still subjected
+to restraint, for the overthrow and destruction
+of everything that denotes authority
+or threatens discipline. Thus the walls in this
+neighbourhood abounded with inscriptions to that
+effect; "<i>A bas Philippe!</i>"&mdash;"<i>Les Pairs sont des
+assassins!</i>"&mdash;"<i>Vive la République!</i>" and the like.
+Pears of every size and form, with scratches signifying
+eyes, nose, and mouth, were to be seen in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span>
+all directions: which being interpreted, denotes
+the contempt of the juvenile students for the
+reigning monarch. A more troublesome evidence
+of this distaste for authority was displayed a few
+days ago by four or five hundred of these disorderly
+young men, who assembling themselves
+together, followed with hootings and shoutings
+M. Royer Collard, a professor lately appointed by
+the government to the medical school, from the
+college to his home in the Rue de Provence.</p>
+
+<p>Upon all such occasions, this government, or
+any other, would do well to follow the hint given
+them by an admirable man&oelig;uvre of General Lobau's,
+the commander-in-chief of the National
+Guard. I believe the anecdote is very generally
+known; but, in the hope that you may not have
+heard it, I will indulge myself by telling you the
+story, which amused me infinitely; and it is better
+that I should run the risk of your hearing it
+twice, than of your not hearing it at all.</p>
+
+<p>A party of <i>les jeunes gens de Paris</i>, who
+were exerting themselves to get up a little republican
+<i>émeute</i>, had assembled in considerable
+numbers in the Place Vendôme. The drums
+beat&mdash;the commandant was summoned and appeared.
+The young malcontents closed their
+ranks, handled their pocket-knives and walking-sticks,
+and prepared to stand firm. The general
+was seen to dismiss an aide-de-camp, and a few
+anxious moments followed, when something looking
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span>
+fearfully like a military engine appeared advancing
+from the Rue de la Paix. Was it cannon?...
+A crowd of high-capped engineers
+surrounded it, as with military order and address
+it wheeled about and approached the spot where
+the rioters had formed their thickest phalanx.
+The word of command was given, and in an
+instant the whole host were drenched to their
+skins with water.</p>
+
+<p>Many who saw this memorable rout, in which
+the laughing <i>pompiers</i> followed with their leather
+pipes the scampering heroes, declare that no military
+man&oelig;uvre ever produced so rapid an evacuation
+of troops. There is something in the tone
+and temper of this proceeding of the National
+Guard which appears to me strikingly indicative
+of the easy, quiet, contemptuous spirit in which
+these powerful guardians of the existing government
+contemplate its republican enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Having reached the Luxembourg and obtained
+admission to the gardens, we again rested ourselves,
+that we might look about at our ease upon
+a scene that was not only quite novel, but certainly
+very singular to those who were accustomed
+to the ordinary aspect of the place.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of lilacs and roses an encampment
+of small white tents showed their warlike fronts.
+Arms, drums, and all sorts of military accoutrements
+were visible among them; while loitering
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span>
+troops, some smoking, some reading, some sleeping,
+completed the unwonted appearance of the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been impossible, I believe, in all
+France to have fixed ourselves on a spot where
+our two French friends would have found so many
+incitements to unity of opinion and feeling as this.
+Our conversation, therefore, was not only very
+amicable, but ran some risk of being dull from
+the mere want of contradiction; for to a hearty
+conscientious condemnation of the proceedings
+which led to this trial of the <i>prévenus d'Avril</i>
+there was an unanimous sentence passed <i>nem.
+con.</i> throughout the whole party.</p>
+
+<p>M. de L&mdash;&mdash; gave us some anecdotes of one
+or two of the persons best known among the
+prisoners; but upon being questioned respecting
+the others, he burst out indignantly in the words
+of Corneille&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&mdash;&mdash;"Le reste ne vaut pas l'honneur d'être nommé:</p>
+<p>Un tas d'hommes perdus de dettes et de crimes,</p>
+<p>Que pressent de nos loix les ordres légitimes,</p>
+<p>Et qui désespérant de les plus éviter,</p>
+<p>Si tout n'est renversé, ne sauraient subsister."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Ben trovato!" exclaimed P&mdash;&mdash;; "you could
+not have described them better&mdash;but...."</p>
+
+<p>This "but" would very probably have led to
+observations that might have put our <i>belle harmonie</i>
+out of tune, or at least have produced the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span>
+renewal of our peaceable sparring, had not a little
+bustle among the trees at a short distance behind
+us cut short our session.</p>
+
+<p>It seems that ever since the trials began, the
+chief duty of the gendarmes&mdash;(I beg pardon, I
+should say, of <i>la Garde de Paris</i>)&mdash;has been to
+prevent any assembling together of the people in
+knots for conversation and gossipings in the courts
+and gardens of the Luxembourg. No sooner are
+two or three persons observed standing together,
+than a policeman approaches, and with a tone of
+command pronounces, "Circulez, messieurs!&mdash;circulez,
+s'il vous plaît." The reason for this precaution
+is, that nightly at the Porte St. Martin a
+few score of <i>jeunes gens</i> assemble to make a very
+idle and unmeaning noise, the echo of which regularly
+runs from street to street till the reiterated
+report amounts to the announcement of an <i>émeute</i>.
+We are all now so used to these harmless little
+<i>émeutes</i> at the Porte St. Martin, that we mind
+them no more than General Lobau himself: nevertheless,
+it is deemed proper, trumpery as the
+cause may be, to prevent anything like a gathering
+together of the mob in the vicinity of the
+Luxembourg, lest the same hundred-tongued lady
+who constantly magnifies the hootings of a few
+idle mechanics into an <i>émeute</i> should spread a
+report throughout France that the Luxembourg
+was besieged by the people. The noise which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span>
+had disturbed us was occasioned by the gathering
+together of about a dozen persons; but a policeman
+was in the midst of the group, and we heard
+rumours of an <i>arrestation</i>. In less than five
+minutes, however, everything was quiet again:
+but we marked two figures so picturesque in their
+republicanism, that we resumed our seats while
+a sketch was made from them, and amused ourselves
+the while in fancying what the ominous
+words could be that were so cautiously exchanged
+between them. M. de L&mdash;&mdash; said that there could
+be no doubt that they ran thus:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"Ce soir, à la Porte St. Martin!"<br />
+Answer.--"J'y serai."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6" style="width: 403px;"><a name="illo4" id="illo4"></a>
+<img src="images/ill243.jpg" width="403" height="600" alt="Ce soir, à la Porte St. Martin!" />
+<p class="smcap s05">Drawn &amp; Etched by A. Hervieu.</p>
+<p class="caption smcap">"Ce soir, à la Porte S<sup>t</sup>. Martin!"<br />
+"J'y serai."</p>
+<p class="s05 caption">London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1836.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXV.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Chapelle Expiatoire.&mdash;Devotees seen there.&mdash;Tri-coloured
+flag out of place there.&mdash;Flower Market of the Madeleine.&mdash;Petites
+Maîtresses.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the edifices finished in Paris since my
+last visit, there is not one which altogether pleases
+me better than the little "Chapelle Expiatoire"
+erected in memory of Louis the Sixteenth, and
+his beautiful but ill-starred queen.</p>
+
+<p>This monument was planned and in part executed
+by Louis the Eighteenth, and finished by
+Charles the Tenth. It stands upon the spot
+where many butchered victims of the tyrant mob
+were thrown in 1793. The story of the royal
+bodies having been destroyed by quicklime is
+said to have been fabricated and circulated for
+the purpose of preventing any search after them,
+which might, it was thought, have produced a
+dangerous reaction of feeling among the whim-governed
+populace.</p>
+
+<p>These bodies, and several others, which were
+placed in coffins, and inscribed with the names of
+the murdered occupants, lay buried together for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span>
+many years after the revolution in a large <i>chantier</i>,
+or wood-yard, at no great distance from the place
+of execution.</p>
+
+<p>That this spot had been excavated for the purpose
+of receiving these sad relics, is a fact well
+known, and it was never lost sight of from the
+terrible period at which the ground was so employed;
+but the unseemly vault continued undisturbed
+till after the restoration, when the bodies
+of the royal victims were sought and found.
+Their bones were then conveyed to the long-hallowed
+shrine of St. Denis; but the spot where
+the mangled remains were first thrown was consecrated,
+and is now become the site of this beautiful
+little Chapelle Expiatoire.</p>
+
+<p>The enclosure in which this building stands is
+of considerable extent, reaching from the Rue de
+l'Arcade to the Rue d'Anjou. This space is lined
+with closely-planted rows of cypress-trees on every
+side, which are protected by a massive railing,
+neatly painted. The building itself and all its
+accompaniments are in excellent taste; simple,
+graceful, and solemn.</p>
+
+<p>The interior is a small Greek cross, each extremity
+of which is finished by a semicircle surmounted
+by a semi-dome. The space beneath the
+central dome is occupied by chairs and benches
+covered with crimson velvet, for the use of the
+faithful&mdash;in every sense&mdash;who come to attend the
+mass which is daily performed there.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As long as the daughter of the murdered monarch
+continued to reside in Paris, no morning
+ever passed without her coming to offer up her
+prayers at this expiatory shrine.</p>
+
+<p>One of the four curved extremities is occupied
+by the altar; that opposite to it, by the entrance;
+and those on either side, by two well-composed
+and impressive groups in white marble&mdash;that to
+the right of the altar representing Marie Antoinette
+bending beside a cross supported by an
+angel,&mdash;and that to the left, the felon-murdered
+monarch whose wretched and most unmerited
+destiny she shared. On the pedestal of the king's
+statue is inscribed his will; on that of the queen,
+her farewell letter to the Princess Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can exceed the chaste delicacy of the
+few ornaments admitted into the chapel. They
+consist only, I think, of golden candlesticks, placed
+in niches in the white marble walls. The effect
+of the whole is beautiful and impressive.</p>
+
+<p>I often go there; yet I can hardly understand
+what the charm can be in the little building itself,
+or in the quiet mass performed there without
+music, which can so attract me. It is at no great
+distance from our apartments in the Rue de Provence,
+and a walk thither just occupies the time
+before breakfast. I once went there on a Sunday
+morning with some of my family; but then it was
+full&mdash;indeed so crowded, that it was impossible to
+see across the building, or feel the beauty of its
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span>
+elegant simplicity. The pale figures of the royal
+dead, the foully murdered, were no longer the
+principal objects; and though I have no doubt
+that all present were right loyal spirits, with
+whose feelings I am well enough disposed to sympathise,
+yet I could not read each saddened brow,
+and attach a romance to it, as I never fail to do
+during my week-day visits.</p>
+
+<p>There are two ladies, for example, whom I constantly
+see there, ever in the same place, and ever
+in the same attitude. The elder of these I feel
+perfectly sure must have passed her youth near
+Marie Antoinette, for it is at the foot of her statue
+that she kneels&mdash;or I might almost say that she
+prostrates herself, for she throws her arms forward
+on a cushion that is placed before her, and
+suffers her aged head to fall upon them, in a manner
+that speaks more sorrow than I can describe.
+The young girl who always accompanies and
+kneels beside her may, I think, be her granddaughter.
+They have each of them "<i>Gentlewoman
+born</i>" written on every feature, in characters
+not to be mistaken. The old lady is very pale,
+and the young one looks as if she were not passing
+a youth of gaiety and enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>There is a grey-headed old man, too, who
+is equally constant in his attendance at this
+melancholy chapel. He might sit as a model
+for a portrait of <i>le bon vieux temps</i>; but he has
+a stern though sad expression of countenance,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span>
+which seems to be exactly a masculine modification
+of what is passing at the heart and in the
+memory of the old lady at the opposite side of the
+chapel. These are figures which send the thoughts
+back for fifty years; and seen in the act of assisting
+at a mass for the souls of Louis Seize and
+his queen, produce a powerful effect on the imagination.</p>
+
+<p>I have ventured to describe this melancholy
+spot, and what I have seen there, the more particularly
+because, easy as it is of access, you might
+go to Paris a dozen times without seeing it, as in
+fact hundreds of English travellers do. One reason
+for this is, that it is not opened to the public
+gaze as a show, but can only be entered during
+the hour of prayer, which is inconveniently early
+in the day.</p>
+
+<p>As this sad and sacred edifice cannot justly be
+considered as a public building, the elevation of
+the tri-coloured flag upon it every fête-day might,
+I think, have been spared.</p>
+
+<p>Another, and a very different novelty, is the
+new flower-market, that is now kept under the
+walls and columns of the majestic church of La
+Madeleine. This beautiful collection of flowers
+appears to me to produce from its situation a very
+singular effect: the relative attributes of art and
+nature are reversed;&mdash;for here, art seems sublime,
+vast, and enduring; while nature is small, fragile,
+and perishing.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It has sometimes happened to me, after looking
+at a work of art which raised my admiration to
+enthusiasm, that I have next sought some marvellous
+combination of mountain and valley, rock
+and river, forest and cataract, and felt as I gazed
+on them something like shame at remembering
+how nearly I had suffered the work of man to
+produce an equal ecstasy. But here, when I
+raised my eyes from the little flimsy crowd of
+many-coloured blossoms to the simple, solemn
+pomp of that long arcade, with its spotless purity
+of tint and its enduring majesty of graceful
+strength, I felt half inclined to scorn myself and
+those around me for being so very much occupied
+by the roses, pinks, and mignonette spread out
+before it.</p>
+
+<p>Laying aside, however, all philosophical reflections
+on its locality, this new flower-market is a
+delightful acquisition to the Parisian <i>petite maîtresse</i>.
+It was a long expedition to visit the
+<i>marché aux fleurs</i> on the distant quay near Notre
+Dame; and though its beauty and its fragrance
+might well repay an hour or two stolen from the
+pillow, the sweet decorations it offered to the
+boudoir must have been oftener selected by the
+<i>maître d'hôtel</i> or the <i>femme de chambre</i> than by
+the fair lady herself. But now, three times in
+the week we may have the pleasure of seeing
+numbers of graceful females in that piquant species
+of dishabille, which, uniting an equal portion of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span>
+careful coquetry and saucy indifference, gives to
+the morning attire of a pretty, elegant, Frenchwoman,
+an air so indescribably attractive.</p>
+
+<p>Followed by a neat <i>soubrette</i>, such figures may
+now be often seen in the flower-market of the
+Madeleine before the brightness of the morning
+has faded either from their eyes, or the blossoms
+they so love to gaze upon. The most ordinary
+linen gown, made in the form of a wrapper&mdash;the
+hair <i>en papillote</i>&mdash;the plain straw-bonnet drawn
+forward over the eyes, and the vast shawl enveloping
+the whole figure, might suffice to make
+many an <i>élégante</i> pace up and down the fragrant
+alley incognita, did not the observant eye remark
+that a veil of rich lace secured the simple bonnet
+under the chin&mdash;that the shawl was of cashmere&mdash;and
+that the little hand, when ungloved to enjoy
+the touch of a myrtle or an orange blossom, was
+as white as either.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXVI.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Delicacy in France and in England.&mdash;Causes of the difference
+between them.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing perhaps which marks the
+national variety of manners between the French
+and the English more distinctly than the different
+estimate they form of what is delicate or indelicate,
+modest or immodest, decent or indecent:
+nor does it appear to me that all the intimacy of
+intercourse which for the last twenty years has
+subsisted between the two nations has greatly
+lessened this difference.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, I believe that it is more superficial
+than many suppose it to be; and that it arises
+rather from contingent circumstances, than from
+any original and native difference in the capability
+of refinement in the two nations.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most obvious of these varieties of
+manner, is the astounding freedom with which
+many things are alluded to here in good society,
+the slightest reference to which is in our country
+banished from even the most homely class. It
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span>
+seems that the opinion of Martine is by no means
+peculiar to herself, and that it is pretty generally
+thought that</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Quand on se fait entendre, on parle toujours bien."</p>
+
+<p>In other ways, too, it is impossible not to allow
+that there exists in France a very perceptible
+want of refinement as compared to England.
+No Englishman, I believe, has ever returned from
+a visit to Paris without adding his testimony to
+this fact; and notwithstanding the Gallomania so
+prevalent amongst us, all acknowledge that, however
+striking may be the elegance and grace of
+the higher classes, there is still a national want
+of that uniform delicacy so highly valued by all
+ranks, above the very lowest, with us. Sights are
+seen and inconveniences endured with philosophy,
+which would go nigh to rob us of our wits in
+July, and lead us to hang ourselves in November.</p>
+
+<p>To a fact so well known, and so little agreeable
+in the detail of its examination, it would be worse
+than useless to draw your attention, were it not
+that there is something curious in tracing the
+manner in which different circumstances, seemingly
+unconnected, do in reality hang together and
+form a whole.</p>
+
+<p>The time certainly has been, when it was the
+fashion in England, as it is now in France, to call
+things, as some one coarsely expresses it, <i>by their
+right names</i>; very grave proof of which might
+be found even in sermons&mdash;and from thence downwards
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span>
+through treatises, essays, poems, romances,
+and plays.</p>
+
+<p>Were we indeed to form our ideas of the tone
+of conversation in England a century ago from
+the familiar colloquy found in the comedies then
+written and acted, we must acknowledge that we
+were at that time at a greater distance from the
+refinement we now boast, than our French neighbours
+are at present.</p>
+
+<p>I do not here refer to licentiousness of morals,
+or the coarse avowal of it; but to a species of
+indelicacy which might perhaps have been quite
+compatible with virtue, as the absence of it is
+unhappily no security against vice.</p>
+
+<p>The remedy of this has proceeded, if I mistake
+not, from causes much more connected with the
+luxurious wealth of England, than with the severity
+of her virtue. You will say, perhaps, that I
+have started off to an immense distance from the
+point whence I set out; but I think not&mdash;for both
+in France and England I find abundant reason to
+believe that I am right in tracing this remarkable
+difference between the two countries, less to natural
+disposition or character, than to the accidental
+facilities for improvement possessed by the one
+people, and not by the other.</p>
+
+<p>It would be very easy to ascertain, by reference
+to the various literary records I have named, that
+the improvement in English delicacy has been
+gradual, and in very just proportion to the increase
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span>
+of her wealth, and the fastidious keeping
+out of sight of everything that can in any way
+annoy the senses.</p>
+
+<p>When we cease to hear, see, and smell things
+which are disagreeable, it is natural that we should
+cease to speak of them; and it is, I believe, quite
+certain that the English take more pains than any
+other people in the world that the senses&mdash;those
+conductors of sensation from the body to the soul&mdash;shall
+convey to the spirit as little disagreeable intelligence
+of what befalls the case in which it
+dwells, as possible. The whole continent of
+Europe, with the exception of some portion of
+Holland perhaps, (which shows a brotherly affinity
+to us in many things,) might be cited for its inferiority
+to England in this respect. I remember
+being much amused last year, when landing at
+Calais, at the answer made by an old traveller to
+a novice who was making his first voyage.</p>
+
+<p>"What a dreadful smell!" said the uninitiated
+stranger, enveloping his nose in his pocket-handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the smell of the continent, sir," replied
+the man of experience. And so it was.</p>
+
+<p>There are parts of this subject which it is quite
+impossible to dwell upon, and which unhappily
+require no pen to point them out to notice. These,
+if it were possible, I would willingly leave more
+in the dark than I find them. But there are
+other circumstances, all arising from the comparative
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span>
+poverty of the people, which tend to produce,
+with a most obvious dependency of thing on
+thing, that deficiency of refinement of which I am
+speaking.</p>
+
+<p>Let any one examine the interior construction
+of a Paris dwelling of the middle class, and compare
+it to a house prepared for occupants of the
+same rank in London. It so happens that everything
+appertaining to decoration is to be had <i>à bon
+marché</i> at Paris, and we therefore find every article
+of the ornamental kind almost in profusion.
+Mirrors, silk hangings, or-molu in all forms;
+china vases, alabaster lamps, and timepieces,
+in which the onward step that never returns is
+marked with a grace and prettiness that conceals
+the solemnity of its pace,&mdash;all these are in abundance;
+and the tenth part of what would be considered
+necessary to dress up a common lodging
+in Paris, would set the London fine lady in this
+respect upon an enviable elevation above her neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>But having admired their number and elegant
+arrangement, pass on and enter the ordinary bed-rooms&mdash;nay,
+enter the kitchens too, or you will
+not be able to judge how great the difference is
+between the two residences.</p>
+
+<p>In London, up to the second floor, and often
+to the third, water is forced, which furnishes an
+almost unlimited supply of that luxurious article,
+to be obtained with no greater trouble to the servants
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span>
+than would be required to draw it from a
+tea-urn. In one kitchen of every house, generally
+in two, and often in three, the same accommodation
+is found; and when, in opposition to this, it is
+remembered that very nearly every family in Paris
+receives this precious gift of nature doled out by
+two buckets at a time, laboriously brought to them
+by porters, clambering in <i>sabots</i>, often up the same
+stairs which lead to their drawing-rooms, it can
+hardly be supposed that the use of it is as liberal
+and unrestrained as with us.</p>
+
+<p>Against this may be placed fairly enough the
+cheapness and facility of the access to the public
+baths. But though personal ablutions may thus
+be very satisfactorily performed by those who do
+not rigorously require that every personal comfort
+should be found at home, yet still the want of
+water, or any restraint upon the freedom with
+which it is used, is a vital impediment to that
+perfection of neatness, in every part of the establishment,
+which we consider as so necessary to
+our comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Much as I admire the Church of the Madeleine,
+I conceive that the city of Paris would have been
+infinitely more benefited, had the sums expended
+upon it been used for the purpose of constructing
+pipes for the conveyance of water to private dwellings,
+than by all the splendour received from the
+beauty of this imposing structure.</p>
+
+<p>But great and manifold as are the evils entailed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span>
+by the scarcity of water in the bed-rooms and
+kitchens of Paris, there is another deficiency greater
+still, and infinitely worse in its effects. The
+want of drains and sewers is the great defect of
+all the cities in France; and a tremendous defect
+it is. That people who from their first breath of
+life have been obliged to accustom their senses
+and submit without a struggle to the sufferings
+this evil entails upon them,&mdash;that people so circumstanced
+should have less refinement in their
+thoughts and words than ourselves, I hold to be
+natural and inevitable. Thus, you see, I have
+come round like a preacher to his text, and have
+explained, as I think, very satisfactorily, what I
+mean by saying that the indelicacy which so
+often offends us in France does not arise from
+any natural coarseness of mind, but is the unavoidable
+result of circumstances, which may, and
+doubtless will change, as the wealth of the country
+and its familiarity with the manners of England
+increases.</p>
+
+<p>This withdrawing from the perception of the
+senses everything that can annoy them,&mdash;this
+lulling of the spirit by the absence of whatever
+might awaken it to a sensation of pain,&mdash;is probably
+the last point to which the ingenuity of man
+can reach in its efforts to embellish existence.</p>
+
+<p>The search after pleasure and amusement certainly
+betokens less refinement than this sedulous
+care to avoid annoyance; and it may be, that as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span>
+we have gone farthest of all modern nations in
+this tender care of ourselves, so may we be the
+first to fall from our delicate elevation into that
+receptacle of things past and gone which has
+engulfed old Greece and Rome. Is it thus that
+the Reform Bill, and all the other horrible Bills
+in its train, are to be interpreted?</p>
+
+<p>As to that other species of refinement which
+belongs altogether to the intellect, and which, if
+less obvious to a passing glance, is more deep and
+permanent in its dye than anything which relates
+to manners only, it is less easy either to think
+or to speak with confidence. France and England
+both have so long a list of mighty names
+that may be quoted on either side to prove their
+claim to rank high as literary contributors to
+refinement, that the struggle as to which ranks
+highest can only be fairly settled by both parties
+agreeing that each country has a fair right
+to prefer what they have produced themselves.
+But, alas! at the present moment, neither can
+have great cause to boast. What is good, is
+overpowered and stifled by what is bad. The
+uncontrolled press of both countries has thrown
+so much abominable trash upon literature during
+the last few years, that at present it might be
+difficult to say whether general reading would be
+most dangerous to the young and the pure in
+England or in France.</p>
+
+<p>That the Hugo school has brought more nonsense
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span>
+with its mischief, is, I think, clear: but it is
+not impossible that this may act as an antidote
+to its own poison. It is a sort of humbug assumption
+of talent which will pass out of fashion as
+quickly as Morrison's pills. We have nothing
+quite so silly as this; but much I fear that, as it
+concerns our welfare as a nation, we have what
+is more deeply dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>As to what is moral and what is not so, plain
+as at first sight the question seems to be, there is
+much that is puzzling in it. In looking over a
+volume of "Adèle et Théodore" the other day,&mdash;a
+work written expressly "<i>sur l'éducation</i>," and by
+an author that we must presume meant honestly
+and spoke sincerely,&mdash;I found this passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Je ne connais que trois romans véritablement
+moraux;&mdash;Clarisse, le plus beau de tous; Grandison,
+et Pamela. Ma fille les lira en Anglais lorsqu'elle
+aura dix-huit ans."</p>
+
+<p>The venerable Grandison, though by no means
+<i>sans tache</i>, I will let pass: but that any mother
+should talk of letting her daughter of "dix-huit
+ans" read the others, is a mystery difficult to comprehend,
+especially in a country where the young
+girls are reared, fostered, and sheltered from every
+species of harm, with the most incessant and sedulous
+watchfulness. I presume that Madame de Genlis
+conceived that, as the object and moral purpose
+of these works were good, the revolting coarseness
+with which some of their most powerful passages
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span>
+are written could not lead to evil. But this is a
+bold and dangerous judgment to pass when the
+question relates to the studies of a young girl.</p>
+
+<p>I think we may see symptoms of the feeling
+which would produce such a judgment, in the
+tone of biting satire with which Molière attacks
+those who wished to banish what might "faire
+insulte à la pudeur des femmes." Spoken as he
+makes Philaminte speak it, we cannot fail to laugh
+at the notion: yet ridicule on the same subject
+would hardly be accepted, even from Sheridan, as
+jesting matter with us.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"Mais le plus beau projet de notre académie,</p>
+<p>Une entreprise noble, et dont je suis ravie,</p>
+<p>Un dessein plein de gloire, et qui sera vanté</p>
+<p>Chez tous les beaux-esprits de la postérité,</p>
+<p>C'est le retranchement de ces syllabes sales</p>
+<p>Qui dans les plus beaux mots produisent des scandales;</p>
+<p>Ces jouets éternels des sots de tous les temps,</p>
+<p>Ces fades lieux communs de nos méchans plaisans;</p>
+<p>Ces sources d'un amas d'équivoques infâmes</p>
+<p>Dont on vient faire insulte à la pudeur des femmes."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Such an academy might be a very comical institution,
+certainly; but the duties it would have to
+perform would not suffer a professor's place to become
+a sinecure in France.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXVII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Objections to quoting the names of private individuals.&mdash;Impossibility
+of avoiding Politics.&mdash;<i>Parceque</i> and <i>Quoique</i>.&mdash;Soirée
+Antithestique.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a pleasure to me to give you the
+names of many persons with whom I have become
+acquainted in Paris, and I should like to describe
+exactly the <i>salons</i> in which I met them; but a
+whole host of proprieties forbid this. Where individuals
+are so well known to fame as to render
+the echoing of their names a matter of ordinary
+recurrence, I can of course feel no scruple in repeating
+the echo&mdash;one reverberation more can do
+no harm: but I will never be the first to name
+any one, either for praise or for blame, beyond
+the sanctuary of their own circle.</p>
+
+<p>I must therefore restrict myself to the giving
+you the best general idea I can of the tone and
+style of what I have seen and heard; and if I avail
+myself of the conversations I have listened to, it
+shall be in such a manner as to avoid the slightest
+approach to personal allusion.</p>
+
+<p>This necessary restraint, however, is not submitted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span>
+to without regret: it must rob much of
+what I would wish to repeat of the value of authority;
+and when I consider how greatly at variance
+my impressions are on many points to some which
+have been publicly proclaimed by others, I feel
+that I deserve some praise for suppressing names
+which would stamp my statements with a value
+that neither my unsupported assertions, nor those
+of any other traveller, can be supposed to bear.
+Those who best know what I lose by this will
+give me credit for it; and I shall be sufficiently
+rewarded for my forbearance if it afford them a
+proof that I am not unworthy the flattering kindness
+I have received.</p>
+
+<p>We all declare ourselves sick of politics, and a
+woman's letters, at least, ought if possible to be
+free from this wearily pervading subject: but the
+describing a human being, and omitting to mention
+the heart and the brain, would not leave the analysis
+more defective, than painting the Parisians
+at this moment without permitting their politics
+to appear in the picture.</p>
+
+<p>The very air they breathe is impregnated with
+politics. Were all words expressive of party distinctions
+to be banished from their language&mdash;were
+the curse of Babel to fall upon them, and no man
+be able to discourse with his neighbour,&mdash;still political
+feeling would find itself an organ whereby to
+express its workings. One man would wear a
+pointed hat, another a flat one; one woman
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span>
+would be girt with a tri-coloured sash, and another
+with a white one. Some exquisites would be
+closely buttoned to the chin, while the lapels of
+others would open wide in all the expansive freedom
+of republican unrestraint. One set would be
+seen adorning Napoleon's pillar with trophies; another,
+prostrate before the altar of the elder Bourbon's
+monumental chapel; a third, marshalling
+themselves under the bloody banner of Robespierre
+to the tune of "Dansons la Carmagnole;" whilst a
+fourth, by far the most numerous, would be brushing
+their national uniforms, attending to their
+prosperous shops, and giving a nod of good-fellowship
+every time his majesty the king passes by.</p>
+
+<p>Some friends of mine entered a shop the other
+day to order some article of furniture. While
+they remained there, a royal carriage passed, and
+one of the party said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is the queen, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," replied the <i>ébéniste</i>, "it is the lady
+that it pleases us to call the queen. We may certainly
+call her so if we like it, for we made her
+ourselves; and if we find it does not answer, we
+shall make another.&mdash;May I send you home this
+table, sir?..."</p>
+
+<p>When politics are thus lightly mixed up with
+all things, how can the subject be wholly avoided
+without destroying the power of describing anything
+as we find it?</p>
+
+<p>Such being the case, I cannot promise that all
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span>
+allusion to the subject shall be banished from my
+letters; but it shall be made as little predominant
+as possible. Could I indeed succeed in transferring
+the light tone in which these weighty matters are
+generally discussed to the account I wish to give
+you of them, I need not much fear that I should
+weary you.</p>
+
+<p>Whether it be essentially in the nature of the
+people, or only a transitory feature of the times, I
+know not; but nothing strikes me so forcibly as
+the airy, gay indifference with which subjects are
+discussed on which hang the destinies of the world.
+The most acute&mdash;nay, often the most profound
+remarks are uttered in a tone of badinage; and
+the probabilities of future events, vital to the interests
+of France, and indeed of Europe, are calculated
+with as idle an air, and with infinitely
+more <i>sang froid</i>, than the chances at a game of
+<i>rouge et noir</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, behind this I suspect that there is a good
+deal of sturdy determination in all parties, and it
+will be long ere France can be considered as one
+whole and united people. Were the country
+divided into two, instead of into three factions,
+it is probable that the question of which was to
+prevail would be soon brought to an issue; but as
+it is, they stand much like the uncles and nieces
+in the Critic, each keeping the other two in check.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile this temporary division of strength
+is unquestionably very favourable to the present
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>
+government; in addition to which, they derive
+much security from the averseness which all feel,
+excepting the naughty boys and hungry desperadoes,
+to the disturbance of their present tranquillity.
+It is evident that those who do not belong
+to the triumphant majority are disposed for the
+most part to wait a more favourable opportunity
+of hostilely and openly declaring themselves; and
+it is probable that they will wait long. They
+know well, and are daily reminded of it, that all
+the power and all the strength that possession can
+give are vested in the existing dynasty; and
+though much deeply-rooted feeling exists that is
+inimical to it, yet so many of all parties are firmly
+united to prevent farther anarchy and revolution,
+that the throne of Louis-Philippe perhaps rests on
+as solid a foundation as that of any monarch in
+Europe: the fear of renewed tumult acts like the
+key-stone of an arch, keeping firm, sound, and
+in good condition, what would certainly fall to
+pieces without it.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to this wholesome fear of pulling their
+own dwellings about their ears, there is also another
+fear that aids greatly in producing the same
+result. Many of the riotous youths who so essentially
+assisted in creating the confusion which
+ended in uncrowning one king and crowning another,
+are, as far as I can understand, quite as well
+disposed to make a row now as they were then:
+but they know that if they do, they will most incontestably
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span>
+be whipped for it; and therefore,
+though they pout a little in private, they are,
+generally speaking, very orderly in public. Every
+one, not personally interested in the possible result
+of another uproar, must rejoice at this improvement
+in discipline. The boys of France
+must now submit to give way before her men;
+and as long as this lasts, something like peace
+and prosperity may be hoped for.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it cannot be denied, I think, that among
+these prudent men&mdash;these doctrinaires who now
+hold the high places, there are many who, "with
+high thoughts, such as Lycurgus loved," still dream
+of a commonwealth; or that there are others who
+have not yet weaned their waking thoughts from
+meditations on faith, right, and loyalty. But nevertheless,
+all unite in thinking that they had better
+"let things be," than risk making them worse.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more common than to hear a conversation
+end by a cordial and unanimous avowal
+of this prudent and sagacious sentiment, which
+began by an examination of general principles,
+and the frank acknowledgment of opinions which
+would certainly lead to a very different conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>It is amusing enough to remark how these advocates
+for expediency contrive each of them to
+find reasons why things had better remain as they
+are, while all these reasons are strongly tinted by
+their various opinions.</p>
+
+<p>"Charles Dix," says a legitimate in principle,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span>
+but a <i>juste-milieu</i> man in practice,&mdash;"Charles
+Dix has abdicated the throne, which otherwise
+must unquestionably be his by indefeasible right.
+His heir-apparent has followed the example. The
+country was in no state to be governed by a child;
+and what then was left for us, but to take a king
+from the same race which so for many ages has
+possessed the throne of France. <i>Louis-Philippe est
+roi</i>, <span class="smcap">parcequ</span>'<i>il est Bourbon</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardonnez-moi," replies another, who, if he
+could manage it without disturbing the tranquillity
+about him, would take care to have it understood
+that nothing more legitimate than an elective
+monarchy could be ever permitted in France,&mdash;"Pardonnez-moi,
+mon ami; <i>Louis-Philippe est
+roi</i>, <span class="smcap">quoiqu</span>'<i>il est Bourbon</i>."</p>
+
+<p>These two parties of the <i>Parceques</i> and the
+<i>Quoiques</i>, in fact, form the great bulwarks of King
+Philippe's throne; for they both consist of experienced,
+practical, substantial citizens, who having
+felt the horrors of anarchy, willingly keep their
+particular opinions in abeyance rather than hazard
+a recurrence of it. They, in truth, form between
+them the genuine <i>juste-milieu</i> on which the present
+government is balanced.</p>
+
+<p>That there is more of the practical wisdom of
+expediency than of the dignity of unbending principle
+in this party, can hardly be denied. They
+are "wiser in their generation than the children
+of light;" but it is difficult, "seeing what we have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span>
+seen, seeing what we see," to express any heavy
+sentence of reprobation upon a line of conduct
+which ensures, for the time at least, the lives and
+prosperity of millions. They tell me that my
+friend the Vicomte has sapped my legitimate principles;
+but I deny the charge, though I cannot
+deliberately wish that confusion should take the
+place of order, or that the desolation of a civil
+war should come to deface the aspect of prosperity
+that it is so delightful to contemplate.</p>
+
+<p>This discrepancy between what is right and
+what is convenient&mdash;this wavering of principle
+and of action, is the inevitable consequence of
+repeated political convulsions. When the times
+become out of joint, the human mind can with
+difficulty remain firm and steadfast. The inconceivable
+variety of wild and ever-changing speculations
+which have long overborne the voice of
+established belief and received authority in this
+country, has brought the principles of the people
+into a state greatly resembling that of a wheel radiated
+with every colour of the rainbow, but which
+by rapid movement is left apparently without any
+colour at all.</p>
+
+<p>Our last <i>soirée</i> was at the house of a lady who
+takes much interest in showing me "le Paris
+d'aujourd'hui," as she calls it. "Chère dame!"
+she exclaimed as I entered, "I have collected <i>une
+société délicieuse</i> for you this evening."</p>
+
+<p>She had met me in the ante-room, and, taking
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span>
+my arm within hers, led me into the <i>salon</i>. It
+was already filled with company, the majority of
+which were gentlemen. Having found room for us
+on a sofa, and seated herself next to me, she said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will present whomsoever you choose to
+know; but before I bring anybody up, I must
+explain who they all are."</p>
+
+<p>I expressed my gratitude, and she began:&mdash;"That
+tall gentleman is a great republican, and
+one of the most respectable that we have left of
+the <i>clique</i>. The party is very nearly worn out
+among the <i>gens comme il faut</i>. His father, however,
+is of the same party, and still more violent, I
+believe, than himself. Heaven knows what they
+would be at!... But they are both deputies, and
+if they died to-morrow, would have, either father
+or son, a very considerable mob to follow them to
+Père Lachaise; not to mention the absolute necessity
+which I am sure there would be to have
+troops out: c'est toujours quelque chose, n'est-ce
+pas? I know that you hate them all&mdash;and, to say
+truth, so do I too;&mdash;mais, chère amie! qu'est-ce
+que cela fait? I thought you would like to see
+them: they really begin to get very scarce in
+<i>salons</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I assured her that she was quite right, and that
+nothing in the whole Jardin des Plantes could
+amuse me better.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah ça!" she rejoined, laughing; "voilà ce
+que c'est d'être raisonnable. Mais regardez ce
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span>
+beau garçon leaning against the chimneypiece.
+He is one of <i>les fidèles sans tache</i>. Is he not
+handsome? I have him at all my parties; and
+even the ministers' ladies declare that he is perfectly
+charming."</p>
+
+<p>"And that little odd-looking man in black,"
+said I, "who is he?... What a contrast!"</p>
+
+<p>"N'est-ce pas? Do they not group well together?
+That is just the sort of thing I like&mdash;it
+amuses everybody: besides, I assure you, he is a
+very remarkable person,&mdash;in short, it is M&mdash;&mdash;,
+the celebrated atheist. He writes for the &mdash;&mdash;.
+But the Institute won't have him: however, he is
+excessively talked of&mdash;and that is everything....
+Then I have two peers, both of them highly
+distinguished. There is M. de &mdash;&mdash;, who, you
+know, is King Philippe's right hand; and the gentleman
+sitting down just behind him is the dear
+old Duc de &mdash;&mdash;, who lived ages in exile with
+Louis Dix-huit.... That person almost at your
+elbow, talking to the lady in blue, is the Comte
+de P&mdash;&mdash;, a most exemplary Catholic, who always
+followed Charles Dix in all religious processions.
+He was half distracted, poor man! at the last revolution;
+but they say he is going to dine with
+King Philippe next week: I long to ask him if
+it is true, but I am afraid, for fear he should be
+obliged to answer 'Yes;'&mdash;that would be so embarrassing!...
+Oh, by the way, that is a peer that
+you are looking at now;&mdash;he has refused to sit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span>
+on the trial.... Now, have I not done <i>l'impossible</i>
+for you?"</p>
+
+<p>I thanked her gratefully, and as I knew I could
+not please her better than by showing the interest
+I took in her menagerie, I inquired the name
+of a lady who was talking with a good deal of
+vehemence at the opposite side of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! that's a person that I always call my
+'<i>dame de l'Empire</i>.' Her husband was one of
+Napoleon's creations; and Josephine used to amuse
+herself without ceasing by making her talk&mdash;her
+language and accent are <i>impayables</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"And that pretty woman in the corner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! ... she is charming!... It is Madame
+V&mdash;&mdash;, daughter of the celebrated Vicomte
+de &mdash;&mdash;, so devoted, you know, to the royal cause.
+But she is lately married to one of the present
+ministers&mdash;quite a love-match; which is an innovation,
+by the way, more hard to pardon in France
+than the introduction of a new dynasty. Mais
+c'est égal&mdash;they are all very good friends again....
+Now, tell me whom I shall introduce to you?"</p>
+
+<p>I selected the heroine of the love-match; who
+was not only one of the prettiest creatures I ever
+saw, but so lively, intelligent, and agreeable, that
+I have seldom passed a pleasanter hour than that
+which followed the introduction. The whole of
+this heterogeneous party seemed to mix together
+with the greatest harmony; the only cold glance
+I saw given being from the gentleman designated
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span>
+as "King Philippe's right hand," towards the tall
+republican deputy of whose funeral my friend had
+predicted such honours. The <i>dame de l'Empire</i>
+was indulging in a lively flirtation with one of the
+peers <i>sans tache</i>; and I saw the fingers of the
+exemplary Catholic, who was going to dine with
+King Philippe, in the <i>tabatière</i> of the celebrated
+atheist. I then remembered that this was one of
+the <i>soirées antithestiques</i> so much in fashion.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXVIII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+New Publications.&mdash;M. de Lamartine's "Souvenirs, Impressions,
+Pensées, et Paysages."&mdash;Tocqueville and Beaumont.&mdash;New
+American regulation.&mdash;M. Scribe.&mdash;Madame
+Tastu.&mdash;Reception of different Writers in society.</p>
+
+<p>Though among the new publications sent to
+me for perusal I have found much to fatigue and
+disgust me, as must indeed be inevitable for any
+one accustomed for some scores of years to nourish
+the heart and head with the literature of the "<i>bon
+vieux temps</i>"&mdash;which means, in modern phrase,
+everything musty, rusty, rococo, and forgotten,&mdash;I
+have yet found some volumes which have delighted
+me greatly.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Lamartine's "Souvenirs, Impressions,
+Pensées, et Paysages" in the East, is a work
+which appears to me to stand solitary and alone
+in the world of letters. There is certainly nothing
+like it, and very little that can equal it, in my
+estimation, either as a collection of written landscapes
+or as a memorial of poetical feeling, just
+sentiment, and refined taste.</p>
+
+<p>His descriptions may perhaps have been, in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span>
+some rare instances, equalled in mere graphic
+power by others; but who has painted anything
+which can excite an interest so profound, or an
+elevation of the fancy so lofty and so delightful?</p>
+
+<p>Alas! that the scenes he paints should be so
+utterly beyond one's reach! How little, how
+paltry, how full of the vulgar interests of this
+"working-day world," do all the other countries
+of the earth appear after reading this book, when
+compared to Judea! But there are few who
+could visit it as Lamartine has done,&mdash;there are
+very few capable of feeling as he felt&mdash;and none,
+I think, of describing as he describes. His words
+live and glow upon the paper; he pours forth
+sunshine and orient light upon us,&mdash;we hear the
+gale whispering among the palm-trees, see Jordan's
+rapid stream rushing between its flowery
+banks, and feel that the scene to which he has
+transported us is holy ground.</p>
+
+<p>The exalted tone of his religious feelings, and
+the poetic fervour with which he expresses them,
+might almost lead one to believe that he was inspired
+by the sacred air he breathed. It seems
+as if he had found the harps which were hung up
+of old upon the trees, and tuned them anew to
+sing of the land of David; he has "beheld the
+beauty of the Lord, and inquired in his temple,"
+and the result is exactly what it should be.</p>
+
+<p>The manner in which this most poetic of travellers,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span>
+while standing on the ruins of Tyre, speaks
+of the desolation and despair that appear settling
+upon the earth in these latter days, is impressive
+beyond anything I know of modern date.</p>
+
+<p>Had France produced no other redeeming volumes
+than these, there is enough within them to
+overpower and extinguish the national literary
+disgrace with which it has been reproached so
+loudly; and it is a comfort to remember that this
+work is as sure to live, as the literary labours of
+the diabolic school are to perish. It is perhaps
+good for us to read trash occasionally, that we
+may learn to value at their worth such thoughts
+as we find here; and while there are any left on
+earth who can so think, so feel, and so write, our
+case is not utterly hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>Great, indeed, is the debt that we owe to an
+author like this, who, seizing upon the imagination
+with power unlimited, leads it only into scenes
+that purify and exalt the spirit. It is a tremendous
+power, that of taking us how and where
+he will, which is possessed by such an author as
+this. When it is used for evil, it resembles fearfully
+the action of a fiend, tempting, dragging,
+beckoning, cajoling to destruction: but when it
+is for good, it is like an angel's hand leading us to
+heaven.</p>
+
+<p>I intended to have spoken to you of many other
+works which have pleased me; but I really at this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span>
+moment experience the strangest sort of embarrassment
+imaginable in referring to them. Many
+agreeable new books are lying about before me;
+but while my head is so full of Lamartine and
+the Holy Land, everything seems to produce on
+me the effect of platitude and littleness.</p>
+
+<p>I must, however, conquer this so far as to tell
+you that you ought to read both Tocqueville and
+Beaumont on the United States. By the way, I
+am assured that the Americans declare themselves
+determined to change their line of conduct altogether
+respecting the national manner of receiving
+European sketches of themselves. This new law
+is to embrace three clauses. The first will enforce
+the total exclusion, from henceforth and for
+evermore, of all European strangers from their
+American homes; the second will recommend
+that all citizens shall abstain from reading anything,
+in any language written, or about to be
+written, concerning them and their affairs; and
+the third, in case the other two should fail, seems
+to take the form of a vow, protesting that they
+never will storm, rave, scold, or care about anything
+that anybody can say of them more. If
+this passes during the presidentship of General
+Jackson, it will immortalize his reign more than
+paying off the national debt.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus, somehow or other, slipped from
+the Holy Land to the United States of America,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span>
+I feel sufficiently subdued in spirit to speak of
+lesser things than Lamartine's "Pilgrimage."</p>
+
+<p>On one point, indeed, a sense of justice urges
+me, when on the subject of modern productions,
+to warn you against the error of supposing that
+all the new theatrical pieces, which come forth
+here as rapidly and as brilliantly as the blossoms
+of the gum cistus, and which fade almost as soon,
+are of the nature and tendency of those I have
+mentioned as belonging to the Victor Hugo school.
+On the contrary, I have seen many, and read more,
+of these little comedies and vaudevilles, which are
+not only free from every imputation of mischief,
+but absolutely perfect in their kind.</p>
+
+<p>The person whose name is celebrated far above
+all others for this species of composition, is M.
+Scribe; and were it not that his extraordinary
+facility enables him to pour forth these pretty
+trifles in such abundance as already to have assured
+him a very large fortune, which offers an
+excellent excuse in these <i>positif</i> times for him,
+I should say that he would have done better had
+he written less.</p>
+
+<p>He has shown on several occasions, as in
+"L'Ambitieux," "Bertrand et Raton," &amp;c. that he
+can succeed in that most difficult of tasks, good
+legitimate comedy, as well as in the lighter labour
+of striking off a sparkling vaudeville. It is certain,
+indeed, that, spite of all we say, and say in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span>
+some respects so justly, respecting the corrupted
+taste of France at the present era, there never
+was a time when her stage could boast a greater
+affluence of delightful little pieces than at present.</p>
+
+<p>I really am afraid to enter more at large upon
+this theme, from a literal <i>embarras de richesses</i>.
+If I begin to name these pretty, lively trifles, I
+shall run into a list much too long for your
+patience: for though Scribe is still the favourite
+as well as the most fertile source of these
+delightful novelties, there are one or two others
+who follow him at some little distance, and who
+amongst them produce such a sum total of new
+pieces in the year as would make an English
+manager tremble to think of;&mdash;but here the chief
+cost of bringing them out is drawn, not from the
+theatrical treasury, but from the ever-fresh wit
+and spirit of the performers.</p>
+
+<p>Such an author as Scribe is a national museum
+of invention&mdash;a never-failing source of new enjoyment
+to his lively countrymen, and he has probably
+tasted the pleasures of a bright and lasting reputation
+as fully as any author living. We are
+already indebted to him for many charming importations;
+and, thanks to the Yates talent, we
+begin to be not unworthy of receiving such. If
+we cannot have Shakspeare, Racine, and Molière
+got up for us quite "in the grand style of former
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span>
+years," these bright, light, biting, playful, graceful
+little pieces are by far the best substitutes for
+them, while we wait with all the patience we can
+for a new growth of players, who shall give honour
+due to the next tragedy Miss Mitford may
+bestow upon us.</p>
+
+<p>Another proof that it is not necessary to be
+vicious in order to be in vogue at Paris, and
+that purity is no impediment to success, is the
+popularity of Madame Tastu's poetry. She writes
+as a woman ought to write&mdash;with grace, feeling,
+delicacy, and piety.</p>
+
+<p>Her literary efforts, however, are not confined
+to the "flowery path of poesy;" though it is
+impossible not to perceive that she lingers in it
+with delight, and that when she leaves it, she
+does so from no truant inclination to wander
+elsewhere, but from some better impulse. Her
+work entitled "Education Maternelle" would
+prove a most valuable acquisition to English mothers
+desirous themselves of giving early lessons
+in French to their children. The pronunciation
+and accentuation are marked in a manner greatly
+to facilitate the task, especially to a foreigner;
+whose greatest difficulty, when attempting to
+teach the language without the aid of a native
+master, is exactly what these initiatory lessons
+are so well calculated to obviate.</p>
+
+<p>It is no small source of consolation and of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span>
+hope, at a period when a sort of universal epidemic
+frenzy appears to have seized upon the
+minds of men, leading them to advocate as good
+that which all experience shows to be evil, and
+to give specimens of dirty delirium that might
+be collected in an hospital, by way of exalted
+works of imagination,&mdash;it is full of hope and
+consolation to find that, however rumour may
+clamour forth tidings of these sad ravings whenever
+they appear, fame still rests only with such
+as really deserve it.</p>
+
+<p>Let a first-rate collector of literary lions at
+Paris make it known that M. de Lamartine
+would appear at her <i>soirée</i>, and the permission
+to enter there would be sought so eagerly, that
+before eleven o'clock there would not be standing-room
+in her apartments, though they might
+be as spacious as any the "belle ville" can show.
+But let it be announced that the authors of any
+of the obscene masques and mummings which
+have disgraced the theatres of France would present
+themselves, and depend upon it they would
+find space sufficient to enact the part of Triboulet
+at the moment when he exclaims in soliloquy,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">"Que je suis grand ici!"</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXIX.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Sunday in Paris.&mdash;Family Groups.&mdash;Popular Enjoyment.&mdash;Polytechnic
+Students.&mdash;Their resemblance to the figure
+of Napoleon.&mdash;Enduring attachment to the Emperor.&mdash;Conservative
+spirit of the English Schools.&mdash;Sunday in
+the Gardens of the Tuileries.&mdash;Religion of the Educated.&mdash;Popular
+Opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday is a delightful day in Paris&mdash;more so
+than in any place I ever visited, excepting Francfort.
+The enjoyment is so universal, and yet so
+domestic; were I to form my idea of the national
+character from the scenes passing before my eyes
+on that day, instead of from books and newspapers,
+I should say that the most remarkable features in
+it, were conjugal and parental affection.</p>
+
+<p>It is rare to see either a man or a woman, of
+an age to be wedded and parents, without their
+being accompanied by their partner and their offspring.
+The cup of light wine is drunk between
+them; the scene that is sought for amusement
+by the one is also enjoyed by the other; and
+whether it be little or whether it be much that
+can be expended on this day of jubilee, the man
+and wife share it equally.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I have entered many churches during the hours
+of the morning masses, in many different parts of
+the town, and, as I have before stated, I have uniformly
+found them extremely crowded; and though
+I have never remarked any instances of that sort
+of penitential devotion so constantly seen in the
+churches of Belgium when the painfully extended
+arms remind one of the Hindoo solemnities, the
+appearance of earnest and devout attention to
+what is going on is universal.</p>
+
+<p>It is not till after the grand mass is over that
+the population pours itself out over every part of
+the town, not so much to seek as to meet amusement.
+And they are sure to find it; for not ten
+steps can be taken in any direction without encountering
+something that shall furnish food for
+enjoyment of some kind or other.</p>
+
+<p>There is no sight in the world that I love better
+than a numerous populace during their hours
+of idleness and glee. When they assemble themselves
+together for purposes of legislation, I confess
+I do not greatly love or admire them; but
+when they are enjoying themselves, particularly
+when women and children share in the enjoyment,
+they furnish a delightful spectacle&mdash;and
+nowhere can it be seen to greater advantage than
+in Paris. The nature of the people&mdash;the nature of
+the climate&mdash;the very form and arrangement of
+the city, are all especially favourable to the display
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span>
+of it. It is in the open air, under the blue vault
+of heaven, before the eyes of thousands, that they
+love to bask and disport themselves. The bright,
+clear atmosphere seems made on purpose for them;
+and whoever laid out the boulevards, the quays,
+the gardens of Paris, surely remembered, as they
+did so, how necessary space was for the assembling
+together of her social citizens.</p>
+
+<p>The young men of the Polytechnic School
+make a prominent feature in a Paris Sunday; for
+it is only on the <i>jours de fête</i> that they are permitted
+to range at liberty through the town:
+but all occasions of this kind cause the streets
+and public walks to swarm with young Napoleons.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite extraordinary to see how the result
+of a strong principle or sentiment may show
+itself externally on a large body of individuals,
+making those alike, whom nature has made as
+dissimilar as possible. There is not one of these
+Polytechnic lads, the eldest of whom could hardly
+have seen the light of day before Napoleon
+had left the soil of France for ever,&mdash;there is
+hardly one of them who does not more or less
+remind one of the well-known figure and air of
+the Emperor. Be they tall, be they short, be they
+fat, be they thin, it is the same,&mdash;there is some
+approach (evidently the result of having studied
+their worshipped model closely in paintings, engravings,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span>
+bronzes, marbles, and Sèvres china,) to
+that look and bearing which, till the most popular
+tyrant that ever lived had made it as well
+known as sunshine to the eyes of France, was
+as little resembling to the ordinary appearance
+and carriage of her citizens as possible.</p>
+
+<p>The tailor can certainly do much towards
+making the exterior of one individual look like
+the exterior of another; but he cannot do all
+that we see in the mien of a Polytechnic scholar
+that serves to recall the extraordinary man whose
+name, after years of exile and of death, is decidedly
+the most stirring that can be pronounced
+in France. Busy, important, and most full of
+human interest has been the period since his
+downfall; yet his memory is as fresh among them
+as if he had marched into the Tuileries triumphant
+from one of his hundred victories but yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>O, if the sovereign people could but understand
+as well as read!... And O that some
+Christian spirit could be found who would interpret
+to them, in such accents as they would listen
+to, the life and adventures of Napoleon the Great!
+What a deal of wisdom they might gain by it!
+Where could be found a lesson so striking as this
+to a people who are weary of being governed, and
+desire, one and all, to govern themselves? With
+precisely the same weariness, with precisely the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span>
+same desire, did this active, intelligent, and powerful
+people throw off, some forty years ago, the
+yoke of their laws and the authority of their king.
+Then were they free as the sand of the desert&mdash;not
+one individual atom of the mighty mass but
+might have risen in the hurricane of that tempest
+as high as the unbridled wind of his ambition could
+carry him; and what followed? Why, they grew
+sick to death of the giddy whirl, where each man
+knocked aside his neighbour, and there was none
+to say "Forbear!" Then did they cling, like
+sinking souls in the act of drowning, to the first
+bold man who dared to replace the yoke upon
+their necks; they clung to him through years of
+war that mowed down their ranks as a scythe
+mows down the ripe corn, and yet they murmured
+not. For years they suffered their young
+sons to be torn from their sides while they still
+hung to them with all the first fondness of youth,
+and yet they murmured not;&mdash;for years they
+lived uncheered by the wealth that commerce
+brings, uncheered by any richer return of labour
+than the scanty morsel that sustained their life
+of toil, and yet they murmured not: for they
+had once more a prince upon the throne&mdash;they
+had once more laws, firmly administered, which
+kept them from the dreaded horrors of anarchy;
+and they clung to their tyrant prince, and his
+strict and stern enactments, with a devotion of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span>
+gratitude and affection which speaks plainly enough
+their lasting thankfulness to the courage which
+was put forth in their hour of need to relieve
+them from the dreadful burden of self-government.</p>
+
+<p>This gratitude and affection endures still&mdash;nothing
+will ever efface it; for his military tyranny
+is passed away, and the benefits which his colossal
+power enabled him to bestow upon them remain,
+and must remain as long as France endures. The
+only means by which another sovereign may rival
+Napoleon in popularity, is by rivalling him in
+power. Were some of the feverish blood which
+still keeps France in agitation to be drawn from
+her cities to reinforce her military array, and
+were a hundred thousand of the sons of France
+marched off to restore to Italy her natural position
+in Europe, power, glory, and popularity
+would sustain the throne, and tranquillity be restored
+to the people. Without some such discipline,
+poor young France may very probably die
+of a plethora. If she has not this, she must have
+a government as absolute as that of Russia to
+keep her from mischief: and that she will have
+one or the other before long, I have not the
+least doubt in the world; for there are many
+very clever personages at and near the seat of
+power who will not be slow to see or to do
+what is needful.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile this fine body of young men are, as
+I understand, receiving an education calculated to
+make them most efficient officers, whenever they
+are called upon to serve. Unfortunately for the
+reputation of the Polytechnic School, their names
+were brought more forward than was creditable
+to those who had the charge of them, during the
+riots of 1830. But the government which the
+men of France accepted from the hands of the
+boys really appears to be wiser and better than
+they had any right to expect from authority so
+strangely constituted. The new government very
+properly uses the strength given it, for the purpose
+of preventing the repetition of the excesses to
+which it owes its origin; and these fine lads are
+now said to be in a state of very respectable discipline,
+and to furnish no contemptible bulwark to
+the throne.</p>
+
+<p>It is otherwise, however, as I hear, with most
+of the bodies of young men collected together in
+Paris for the purpose of education. The silly cant
+of republicanism has got among them; and till this
+is mended, continued little riotous outbreakings of
+a naughty-boy spirit must be expected.</p>
+
+<p>One of the happiest circumstances in the situation
+of poor struggling England at present is,
+that her boys are not republican. On the contrary,
+the rising spirit among us is decidedly conservative.
+All our great schools are tory to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span>
+heart's core. The young English have been
+roused, awakened, startled at the peril which
+threatens the land of their fathers! The <i>penny
+king</i> who has invaded us has produced on them
+the effect usual on all invasions; and rather than
+see him and his popish court succeed in conquering
+England, they would rush from their forms
+and their cloisters to repel him, shouting, "Alone
+we'll do it, <span class="smcap">boys</span>!"&mdash;and they would do it, too,
+even if they had no fathers to help them.</p>
+
+<p>But I have forgotten my Sunday holiday, while
+talking about the gayest and happiest of those it
+brings forth to decorate the town. Many a proud
+and happy mother may on these occasions be seen
+leaning on the arm of a son that she is very conscious
+looks like an emperor; and many a pretty
+creature, whom her familiarity, as well as her
+features, proclaims to be a sister, shows in her
+laughing eyes that the day which gives her smart
+young brother freedom is indeed a <i>jour de fête</i>
+for her.</p>
+
+<p>You will be weary of the Tuileries Gardens; but
+I cannot keep out of them, particularly when talking
+of a Paris Sunday, of whose prettiest groups
+they are the rendezvous: the whole day's history
+may be read in them. As soon as the gates are
+open, figures both male and female, in dishabille
+more convenient than elegant, may be seen walking
+across them in every direction towards the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span>
+<i>sortie</i> which leads towards the quay, and thence
+onwards to <i>Les Bains Vigier</i>. Next come the
+after-breakfast groups: and these are beautiful.
+Elegant young mothers in half-toilet accompany
+their <i>bonnes</i>, and the pretty creatures committed
+to their care, to watch for an hour the happy
+gambols which the presence of the "chère maman"
+renders seven times more gay than ordinary.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6" style="width: 405px;"><a name="illo5" id="illo5"></a>
+<img src="images/ill291.jpg" width="405" height="600" alt="Tuileries&#39; Gardens, on Sunday." />
+<p class="s05">Drawn &amp; Etched by A. Hervieu.</p>
+<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Tuileries Gardens, on Sunday.</span></p>
+<p class="s05 caption">London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I have watched such, repeatedly, with extreme
+amusement; often attempting to read, but never
+able to pursue the occupation for three-quarters
+of a minute together, till they at last abandon it
+altogether, and sit with the useless volume upon
+their knee, complacently answering all the baby
+questions that may be proposed to them, while
+watching with the smiling satisfaction of well-pleased
+maternity every attitude, every movement,
+and every grimace of the darling miniatures
+in which they see themselves, and perhaps
+one dearer still.</p>
+
+<p>From about ten till one o'clock the gardens
+swarm with children and their attendants: and
+pretty enough they are, and amusing too, with
+their fanciful dresses and their baby wilfulness.
+Then comes the hour of early dinners: the nurses
+and the children retreat; and were it possible that
+any hour of the day could find a public walk in
+Paris unoccupied, it would be this.</p>
+
+<p>The next change shows the gradual influx of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span>
+best bonnets,&mdash;pink, white, green, blue. Feathers
+float onwards, and fresh flowers are seen around:
+gay barouches rush down the Rues Castiglione and
+Rivoli; cabs swing round every corner, all to deposit
+their gay freight within the gardens. By
+degrees, double, treble rows of chairs are occupied
+on either side of every walk, while the whole
+space between is one vast moving mass of pleasant
+idleness.</p>
+
+<p>This lasts till five; and then, as the elegant
+crowd withdraws, another, less graceful perhaps,
+but more animated, takes its place. Caps succeed
+to bonnets; and unchecked laughter, loud with
+youth and glee, replaces the whispered gallantry,
+the silent smile, and all the well-bred ways of
+giving and receiving thoughts with as little disturbance
+to the circumambient air as possible.</p>
+
+<p>From this hour to nightfall the multitude goes
+on increasing; and did one not know that every
+theatre, every guinguette, every boulevard, every
+café in Paris were at the same time crammed
+almost to suffocation, one might be tempted to
+believe that the whole population had assembled
+there to recreate themselves before the windows
+of the king.</p>
+
+<p>Among the higher ranks the Sunday evening
+at Paris is precisely the same as that of any other
+day. There are the same number of <i>soirées</i> going
+on, and no more; the same number of dinner-parties, just
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span>
+as much card-playing, just as much
+dancing, just as much music, and just as much
+going to the opera; but the other theatres are
+generally left to the <i>endimanchés</i>.</p>
+
+<p>You must not, however, imagine that no religious
+exercises are attended to among the rich
+and noble because I have said nothing especially
+about them on this point. On the contrary, I
+have great reason to believe that it is not alone
+the attractive eloquence of the popular preachers
+which draws such multitudes of wealthy and
+high-born females into the fashionable churches
+of Paris; but that they go to pray as well as
+to listen. Nevertheless, as to the general state
+of religion amongst the educated classes in Paris,
+it is quite as difficult to obtain information as it
+is to learn with anything like tolerable accuracy
+the average state of their politics. It is not
+that there is the least reserve or apparent hanging
+back when either subject is discussed; on
+the contrary, all seem kindly eager to answer
+every question, and impart to you all the information
+it is possible to wish for: but the
+variety of statements is inconceivable; and as I
+have repeatedly listened to very strong and positive
+assertions respecting the opinions of the majority,
+from those in whose sincerity I have perfect
+confidence, but which have been flatly contradicted
+by others equally deserving of credit, I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span>
+am led to suppose that in effect the public mind
+is still wavering on both subjects. There is, in
+fact, but one point upon which I truly and entirely
+believe that an overwhelming majority exists,&mdash;and
+this is in the aversion felt for any farther trial
+of a republican form of government.</p>
+
+<p>The party who advocate the cause of democracy
+do indeed make the most noise&mdash;it is ever
+their wont to do so. Neither the Chamber of Deputies
+nor the Chamber of Peers can assemble
+nightly at a given spot to scream "Vive le Roi!"
+nor are the quiet citizens, who most earnestly
+wish to support the existing government, at all
+more likely to leave their busy shops for this purpose
+than the members of the two Chambers are
+to quit their <i>hôtels</i>;&mdash;so that any attempt to judge
+the political feelings of the people by the outcries
+heard in the streets must of necessity lead to
+error. Yet it is of such judgments, both at home
+and abroad, that we hear the most.</p>
+
+<p>As to the real private feelings on the subject of
+religion which exist among the educated portion
+of the people, it is still more difficult to form an
+opinion, for on this subject the strongest indications
+are often declared to prove nothing. If
+churches filled to overflowing be proof of national
+piety, then are the people pious: and farther than
+this, no looker-on such as myself should, I think,
+attempt to go.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXX.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Madame Récamier.&mdash;Her Morning Parties.&mdash;Gérard's Picture
+of Corinne.&mdash;Miniature of Madame de Staël.&mdash;M.
+de Châteaubriand.&mdash;Conversation on the degree in which
+the French Language is understood by Foreigners.&mdash;The
+necessity of speaking French.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the ladies with whom I have become
+acquainted in Paris, the one who appears to me
+to be the most perfect specimen of an elegant
+Frenchwoman is Madame Récamier,&mdash;the same
+Madame Récamier that, I will not say how many
+years ago, I remember to have seen in London,
+the admired of all eyes: and, wonderful to say,
+she is so still. Formerly I knew her only from
+seeing her in public, where she was pointed out
+to me as the most beautiful woman in Europe;
+but now that I have the pleasure of her acquaintance,
+I can well understand, though you who
+know her only by the reputation of her early
+beauty may not, how and why it is that fascinations
+generally so evanescent are with her so
+lasting. She is, in truth, the very model of all
+grace. In person, manner, movement, dress,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span>
+voice, and language, she seems universally allowed
+to be quite perfect; and I really cannot
+imagine a better mode of giving a last finish to
+a young lady's study of the graces, than by affording
+her an opportunity of observing every
+movement and gesture of Madame Récamier.</p>
+
+<p>She is certainly a monopolist of talents and
+attractions which would suffice, if divided in ordinary
+proportions, to furnish forth a host of
+charming women. I never met with a Frenchman
+who did not allow, that though his countrywomen
+were charming from <i>agrémens</i> which
+seem peculiarly their own, they have fewer faultless
+beauties among them than may be found in
+England; but yet, as they say, "Quand une
+Française se mêle d'être jolie, elle est furieusement
+jolie." This <i>mot</i> is as true in point of fact
+as piquant in expression;&mdash;a beautiful Frenchwoman
+is, perhaps, the most beautiful woman in
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>The perfect loveliness of Madame Récamier
+has made her "a thing to wonder at:" and now
+that she has passed the age when beauty is at
+its height, she is perhaps to be wondered at still
+more; for I really doubt if she ever excited more
+admiration than she does at present. She is
+followed, sought, looked at, listened to, and,
+moreover, beloved and esteemed, by a very large
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span>
+circle of the first society in Paris, among whom
+are numbered some of the most illustrious literary
+names in France.</p>
+
+<p>That her circle, as well as herself, is delightful,
+is so generally acknowledged, that by adding
+my voice to the universal judgment, I perhaps
+show as much vanity, as gratitude for the privilege
+of being admitted within it: but no one, I
+believe, so favoured could, when speaking of the
+society of Paris, omit so striking a feature of it
+as the <i>salon</i> of Madame Récamier. She contrives
+to make even the still-life around her partake of
+the charm for which she is herself so remarkable,
+and there is a fine and finished elegance in everything
+about her that is irresistibly attractive: I
+have often entered drawing-rooms almost capable
+of containing her whole suite of apartments, and
+found them infinitely less striking in their magnificence
+than her beautiful little <i>salon</i> in the
+Abbaye-aux-Bois.</p>
+
+<p>The rich draperies of white silk, the delicate
+blue tint that mixes with them throughout the
+apartment,&mdash;the mirrors, the flowers,&mdash;all together
+give an air to the room that makes it accord
+marvellously well with its fair inhabitant. One
+might fancy that Madame Récamier herself was
+for ever <i>vouée au blanc</i>, for no drapery falls
+around her that is not of snowy whiteness&mdash;and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span>
+indeed the mixture of almost any colour would
+seem like profanation to the exquisite delicacy
+of her appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Récamier admits morning visits from
+a limited number of persons, whose names are
+given to the servant attending in the ante-room,
+every day from four till six. It was here I had
+the pleasure of being introduced to M. de Châteaubriand,
+and had afterwards the gratification
+of repeatedly meeting him; a gratification that I
+shall assuredly never forget, and for which I
+would have willingly sacrificed one-half of the
+fine things which reward the trouble of a journey
+to Paris.</p>
+
+<p>The circle thus received is never a large one,
+and the conversation is always general. The
+first day that I and my daughters were there,
+we found, I think, but two ladies, and about half
+a dozen gentlemen, of whom M. de Châteaubriand
+was one. A magnificent picture by Gérard,
+boldly and sublimely conceived, and executed
+in his very best manner, occupies one side
+of the elegant little <i>salon</i>. The subject is Corinne,
+in a moment of poetical excitement, a lyre in her
+hand, and a laurel crown upon her head. Were
+it not for the modern costume of those around
+her, the figure must be mistaken for that of
+Sappho: and never was that impassioned being,
+the martyred saint of youthful lovers, portrayed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span>
+with more sublimity, more high poetic feeling,
+or more exquisite feminine grace.</p>
+
+<p>The contemplation of this <i>chef-d'&oelig;uvre</i> naturally
+led the conversation to Madame de Staël.
+Her intimacy with Madame Récamier is as well
+known as the biting reply of the former to an
+unfortunate man, who having contrived to place
+himself between them, exclaimed,&mdash;"Me voilà
+entre l'esprit et la beauté!"</p>
+
+<p>To which bright sally he received for answer&mdash;"Sans
+posséder ni l'un ni l'autre."</p>
+
+<p>My knowledge of this intimacy induced me
+to take advantage of the occasion, and I ventured
+to ask Madame Récamier if Madame de
+Staël had in truth intended to draw her own
+character in that of Corinne.</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly ..." was the reply. "The soul of
+Madame de Staël is fully developed in her portrait
+of that of Corinne." Then turning to the
+picture, she added, "Those eyes are the eyes of
+Madame de Staël."</p>
+
+<p>She put a miniature into my hand, representing
+her friend in all the bloom of youth, at an
+age indeed when she could not have been known
+to Madame Récamier. The eyes had certainly
+the same dark beauty, the same inspired expression,
+as those given to Corinne by Gérard.
+But the artist had too much taste or too little
+courage to venture upon any farther resemblance;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span>
+the thick lips and short fat chin of the real sibyl
+being changed into all that is loveliest in female
+beauty on the canvass.</p>
+
+<p>The apparent age of the face represented in
+the miniature points out its date with tolerable
+certainty; and it gives no very favourable idea of
+the taste of the period; for the shock head of
+crisped Brutus curls is placed on arms and bust
+as free from drapery, though better clothed in
+plumpness, than those of the Medicean Venus.</p>
+
+<p>As we looked first at one picture, then at
+the other, and conversed on both, I was struck
+with the fine forehead and eyes, delightful voice,
+and peculiarly graceful turn of expression, of a
+gentleman who sat opposite to me, and who joined
+in this conversation.</p>
+
+<p>I remarked to Madame Récamier that few
+romances had ever had the honour of being illustrated
+by such a picture as this of Gérard, and
+that, from many circumstances, her pleasure in
+possessing it must be very great.</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed," she replied: "nor is it my
+only treasure of the kind&mdash;I am so fortunate as
+to possess Girodet's original drawing from Atala,
+the engraving from which you must often have
+seen. Let me show you the original."</p>
+
+<p>We followed her to the dining-room, where this
+very interesting drawing is placed. "You do not
+know M. de Châteaubriand?" said she.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I replied that I had not that pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"It is he who was sitting opposite to you in
+the <i>salon</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I begged that she would introduce him to me;
+and upon our returning to the drawing-room she
+did so. The conversation was resumed, and most
+agreeably&mdash;every one bore a part in it. Lamartine,
+Casimir Delavigne, Dumas, Victor Hugo,
+and some others, passed under a light but clever
+and acute review. Our Byron, Scott, &amp;c. followed;
+and it was evident that they had been
+read and understood. I asked M. de Châteaubriand
+if he had known Lord Byron: he replied,
+"Non;" adding, "Je l'avais précédé dans
+la vie, et malheureusement il m'a précédé au
+tombeau."</p>
+
+<p>The degree in which any country is capable
+of fully appreciating the literature of another was
+canvassed, and M. de Châteaubriand declared himself
+decidedly of opinion that such appreciation
+was always and necessarily very imperfect. Much
+that he said on the subject appeared incontrovertibly
+true, especially as respecting the slight and
+delicate shadows of expression of which the subtile
+grace so constantly seems to escape at the
+first attempt to convert it into another idiom.
+Nevertheless, I suspect that the majority of English
+readers&mdash;I mean the English readers of
+French&mdash;are more <i>au fait</i> of the original literature
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span>
+of France than M. de Châteaubriand supposes.</p>
+
+<p>The habit, so widely extended amongst us, of
+reading this language almost from infancy, gives
+us a greater familiarity with their idiom than he
+is aware of. He doubted if we could relish
+Molière, and named Lafontaine as one beyond
+the reach of extra-Gallican criticism or enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot agree to this, though I am not surprised
+that such an idea should exist. Every English
+person that comes to Paris is absolutely obliged
+to speak French, almost whether they can or can
+not. If they shrink from doing so, they can have
+no hope of either speaking or being spoken to
+at all. This is alone sufficient to account very
+satisfactorily, I think, for any doubt which may
+prevail as to the national proficiency in the language.
+No Frenchman that is at all in the
+habit of meeting the English in society but must
+have his ears and his memory full of false concords,
+false tenses, and false accents; and can we
+wonder that he should set it down as a certain
+fact, that they who thus speak cannot be said to
+understand the language they so mangle? Yet,
+plausible as the inference is, I doubt if it be
+altogether just. Which of the most accomplished
+Hellenists of either country would be found
+capable of sustaining a familiar conversation in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span>
+Greek? The case is precisely the same; for I
+have known very many whose power of tasting
+the beauty of French writing amounted to the
+most critical acuteness, who would have probably
+been unintelligible had they attempted to converse
+in the language for five minutes together;
+whereas many others, who have perhaps had a
+French valet or waiting-maid, may possess a passably
+good accent and great facility of imitative
+expression in conversation, who yet would be
+puzzled how to construe with critical accuracy
+the easiest passage in Rousseau.</p>
+
+<p>A very considerable proportion of the educated
+French read English, and often appear to enter
+very ably into the spirit of our authors; but
+there is not one in fifty of these who will pronounce
+a single word of the language in conversation.
+Though they endure with a polite
+gravity, perfectly imperturbable, the very drollest
+blunders of which language is capable, they cannot
+endure to run the risk of making blunders
+in return. Everything connected with the externals
+of good society is held as sacred by the
+members of it; and if they shrink from offending
+<i>la bienséance</i> by laughing at the mistakes of
+others, they avoid, with at least an equal degree
+of caution, the unpardonable offence of committing
+any themselves.</p>
+
+<p>I do not believe that it would be possible for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span>
+a French person to enter into conversation merely
+for the pleasure of conversing, and not from
+the pressure of absolute necessity, unless he were
+certain, or at least believed himself to be so,
+that he should express himself with propriety and
+elegance. The idea of uttering the brightest or
+the noblest thought that ever entered a human
+head, in an idiom ridiculously broken, would, I
+am sure, be accompanied with a feeling of repugnance
+sufficient to tame the most animated
+and silence the most loquacious Frenchman in
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>It therefore falls wholly upon the English, in
+this happy period of constant and intimate intercourse
+between the nations, to submit to the surrender
+of their vanity, to gratify their love for
+conversation; blundering on in conscious defiance
+of grammar and accent, rather than lose
+the exceeding pleasure of listening in return to
+the polished phrase, the graceful period, the epigrammatic
+turn, which make so essential a part
+of genuine high-bred French conversation.</p>
+
+<p>But the doubts expressed by M. de Châteaubriand
+as to the possibility of the last and best
+grace of French writing being fully appreciated
+by foreigners, was not confined wholly to the
+English,&mdash;the Germans appeared to share it with
+us; and one who has been recently proclaimed as
+the first of living German critics was quoted as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span>
+having confounded in his style, names found
+among the immortals of the French Pantheon,
+with those of such as live and die; <i>Monsieur</i>
+Fontaine, and <i>Monsieur</i> Bruyère, being expressions
+actually extant in his writings.</p>
+
+<p>More than once, during subsequent visits to
+Madame Récamier, I led her to speak of her lost
+and illustrious friend. I have never been more
+interested than while listening to all which this
+charming woman said of Madame de Staël: every
+word she uttered seemed a mixture of pain and
+pleasure, of enthusiasm and regret. It is melancholy
+to think how utterly impossible it is that
+she should ever find another to replace her. She
+seems to feel this, and to have surrounded herself
+by everything that can contribute to keep the
+recollection of what is for ever gone, fresh in her
+memory. The original of the posthumous portrait
+of Madame de Staël by Gérard, made so familiar to
+all the world by engravings&mdash;nay, even by Sèvres
+vases and tea-cups, hangs in her bed-room. The
+miniature I have mentioned is always near her;
+and the inspired figure of her Corinne, in which
+it is evident that Madame Récamier traces a resemblance
+to her friend beyond that of features
+only, appears to be an object almost of veneration
+as well as love.</p>
+
+<p>It is delightful to approach thus to a being
+that I have always been accustomed to contemplate
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span>
+as something in the clouds. Admirable and
+amiable as my charming new acquaintance is in
+a hundred ways, her past intimacy and ever-enduring
+affection for Madame de Staël have given
+her a still higher interest in my eyes.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXI.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Exhibition of Sèvres China at the Louvre.&mdash;Gobelins and
+Beauvais Tapestry.&mdash;Legitimatist Father and Doctrinaire
+Son.&mdash;Copies from the Medicean Gallery.</p>
+
+<p>We are just returned from an exhibition at the
+Louvre; and a very splendid exhibition it is&mdash;though,
+alas! but a poor consolation for the hidden
+treasures of the picture-gallery. Several magnificent
+rooms are now open for the display of
+works in tapestry and Sèvres porcelain; and however
+much we might have preferred seeing something
+else there, it is impossible to deny that
+these rooms contain many objects as wonderful
+perhaps in their way as any that the higher
+branches of art ever produced.</p>
+
+<p>The copy of Titian's portrait of his mistress, on
+porcelain, and still more perhaps that of Raphaël's
+"Virgin and St. John watching the sleep of the
+infant Jesus," (the <i>Parce somnum rumpere</i>,) are, I
+think, the most remarkable; both being of the
+same size as the originals, and performed with
+a perfection of colouring that is almost inconceivable.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That the fragile clay of which porcelain is fabricated
+should so lend itself to the skill of the
+workman,&mdash;or rather, that the workman's skill
+should so triumph over the million chances which
+exist against bringing unbroken out of the fire a
+smooth and level <i>plaque</i> of such extent,&mdash;is indeed
+most wonderful. Still more so is the skill which
+has enabled the artist to prophesy, as he painted
+with his greys and his greens, that the tints which
+flowed from his pencil of one colour, should assume,
+from the nicely-regulated action of an element
+the most difficult to govern, hues and shades
+so exquisitely imitative of his great original.</p>
+
+<p>But having acknowledged this, I have nothing
+more to say in praise of a <i>tour de force</i> which, in
+my opinion, can only be attempted by the sacrifice
+of common sense. The <i>chefs-d'&oelig;uvre</i> of a Titian
+or a Raphaël are treasures of which we may
+lawfully covet an imitation; but why should it
+be attempted in a manner the most difficult, the
+most laborious, the most likely to fail, and the
+most liable to destruction when completed?&mdash;not
+to mention that, after all, there is in the most
+perfect copy on porcelain a something&mdash;I am
+mistress of no words to define it&mdash;which does not
+satisfy the mind.</p>
+
+<p>As far as regards my own feelings indeed, I
+could go farther, and say that the effect produced
+is to a certain degree positively disagreeable,&mdash;not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span>
+quite unlike that occasioned by examining
+needlework performed without fingers, or
+watch-papers exquisitely cut out by feet instead
+of hands. The admiration demanded is less for
+the thing itself, than for the very defective means
+employed to produce it. Were there indeed none
+other, the inventor would deserve a statue, and
+the artist, like Trisotin, should take the air "<i>en
+carrosse doré</i>:" but as it is, I would rather see a
+good copy on canvass than on china.</p>
+
+<p>Far different, however, is the effect produced
+by this beautiful and ingenious branch of art
+when displayed in the embellishment of cups
+and plates, vases and tea-trays. I never saw
+anything more gracefully appropriate to the last
+high finish of domestic elegance than all the
+articles of this description exhibited this year at
+the Louvre. It is impossible to admire or to
+praise them too much; or to deny that, wonderfully
+as similar manufactories have improved in
+England within the last thirty years, we have
+still nothing equal to the finer specimens of the
+Sèvres porcelain.</p>
+
+<p>These rooms were, like every other place in
+Paris where human beings know that they shall
+meet each other, extremely full of company; and
+I have certainly never seen such ecstasy of admiration
+produced by any objects exhibited to
+the public eye, as was elicited by some of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span>
+articles displayed on this occasion: they are indeed
+most beautiful; the form, the material, the
+workmanship, all perfect.</p>
+
+<p>The Sèvres manufactory must, I think, have
+some individuals attached to it who have made
+the theory of colour an especial study. It is
+worth while to walk round the vast table, or
+rather platform, raised in the middle of the apartment,
+for the purpose of examining the different
+sets, with a view only to observe the effect produced
+on the eye by the arrangement of colours
+in each.</p>
+
+<p>The finest specimens, after the wonderful copies
+from pictures which I have already mentioned, are
+small breakfast-sets&mdash;for a <i>tête-à-tête</i>, I believe,&mdash;enclosed
+in large cases lined either with white
+satin or white velvet. These cases are all open
+for inspection, but with a stout brass bar around,
+to protect them from the peril of too near an
+approach. The lid is so formed as exactly to
+receive the tray; while the articles to be placed
+upon it, when in use, are arranged each in its
+own delicate recess, with such an attention to
+composition and general effect as to show all
+and everything to the greatest possible advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these exquisite specimens are decorated
+with flowers, some with landscapes, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span>
+others with figures, or miniatures of heads, either
+superlative in beauty or distinguished by fame.
+These beautiful decorations, admirable as they
+all are in design and execution, struck me less
+than the perfect taste with which the reigning
+colour which pervades each set, either as background,
+lining, or border, is made to harmonize
+with the ornaments upon it.</p>
+
+<p>It is a positive pleasure, independent of the
+amusement which may be derived from a closer
+examination, to cast the eye over the general
+effect produced by the consummate taste and
+skill thus displayed. Those curious affinities and
+antipathies among colours, which I have seen
+made the subject of many pretty experimental
+lectures, must, I am sure, have been studied and
+acted upon by the <i>colour-master</i> of each department;
+and the result is to my feelings productive
+of a pleasure, from the contemplation of the effect
+produced, as distinct from the examination of the
+design, or of any other circumstance connected
+with the art, as the gratification produced by
+the smell of an orange-blossom or a rose: it is
+a pleasure which has no connexion with the intellect,
+but arises solely from its agreeable effect
+on the sense.</p>
+
+<p>The eye seems to be unconsciously soothed
+and gratified, and lingers upon the rich, the soft,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span>
+or the brilliant hues, with a satisfaction that
+positively amounts to enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>Whoever may be occupied by the "delightful
+task" of fitting up a sumptuous drawing-room,
+will do well to take a tour round a room filled
+with sets of Sèvres porcelain. The important
+question of "What colours shall we mix?" would
+receive an answer there, with the delightful certainty
+that no solecism in taste could possibly be
+committed by obeying it.</p>
+
+<p>The Gobelins and Beauvais work for chairs,
+screens, cushions, and various other articles,
+makes a great display this year. It is very
+beautiful, both in design and execution; and at
+the present moment, when the stately magnificence
+of the age of Louis Quinze is so much in
+vogue&mdash;in compliment, it is said, to the taste of
+the Duc d'Orléans,&mdash;this costly manufacture is
+likely again to flourish.</p>
+
+<p>Never can a large and lofty chamber present
+an appearance of more princely magnificence than
+when thus decorated; and the manner in which
+this elaborate style of ancient embellishment is
+now adopted to modern use, is equally ingenious
+and elegant.</p>
+
+<p>Some political economists talk of the national
+advantage of decreasing labour by machinery,
+while others advocate every fashion which demands
+the work of hands. I will not attempt
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span>
+to decide on which side wisdom lies; but, in our
+present imperfect condition, everything that brings
+an innocent and profitable occupation to women
+appears to me desirable.</p>
+
+<p>The needles of France are assuredly the most
+skilful in the world; and set to work as they are
+upon designs that rival those of the Vatican in
+elegance, they produce a perfection of embroidery
+that sets all competition at defiance.</p>
+
+<p>In pursuing my way along the rail which encloses
+the specimens exhibited&mdash;a progress which
+was necessarily very slow from the pressure of
+the crowd,&mdash;I followed close behind a tall, elegant,
+aristocratic-looking gentleman, who was accompanied
+by his son&mdash;decidedly his son,&mdash;the boy
+"fathered himself;" I never saw a stronger likeness.
+Their conversation, which I overheard by
+no act of impertinent listening, but because I
+could not possibly avoid it, amused me much.
+I am seldom thrown into such close contact with
+strangers without making a fancy-sketch of who
+and what they are; but upon this occasion I
+was thrown out,&mdash;it was like reading a novel,
+the <i>dénouement</i> of which is so well concealed as
+to evade guessing. The boy and his father were
+not of one mind; their observations were made
+in the spirit of different parties: the father, I
+suspect, was a royalist,&mdash;the son, I am sure, was
+a young doctrinaire. The crowd hung long upon
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span>
+the spot where a magnificent collection of embroidery
+for the seats and backs of a set of
+chairs was displayed. "They are for the Duke
+of Orleans," said the father.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," said the boy; "they are fit for him&mdash;they
+are princely."</p>
+
+<p>"They are fit for a king!" said the father with
+a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>The lad paused for a moment, and then said,
+<i>avec intention</i>, as the stage directions express it,
+"Mais lui aussi, il est fils de St. Louis; n'est-ce
+pas?" The father answered not, and the crowd
+moved on.</p>
+
+<p>All I could make of this was, that the boy's
+instructor, whether male or female, was a faithful
+disciple of the "<span class="smcap">Parcequ</span>'<i>il est Bourbon</i>"
+school; and whatever leaven of wavering faith
+may be mixed up with this doctrine, it forms
+perhaps the best defence to be found for attachment
+to the reigning dynasty amongst those who
+are too young to enter fully into the expediency
+part of the question.</p>
+
+<p>In the last of the suite of rooms opened for this
+exhibition, are displayed splendid pieces of tapestry
+from subjects taken from Rubens' Medicean
+Gallery.</p>
+
+<p>That the achievement of these enormous combinations
+of stitches must have been a labour of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span>
+extreme difficulty, there can be no doubt; but
+notwithstanding my admiration for French needles,
+I am tempted to add, in the words of our
+uncompromising moralist, "Would it had been
+impossible!"</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Eglise Apostolique Française.&mdash;Its doctrine.&mdash;L'Abbé Auzou.&mdash;His
+Sermon on "les Plaisirs Populaires."</p>
+
+<p>Among the multitude of friendly injunctions
+to see this, and to hear that, which have produced
+me so much agreeable occupation, I have more
+than once been very earnestly recommended to
+visit the "Eglise Apostolique Française" on the
+Boulevard St. Denis, for the purpose of hearing
+l'Abbé Auzou, and still more, that I might have
+an opportunity of observing the peculiarities of this
+mode of worship, or rather of doctrine; for, in
+fact, the ceremonies at the altar differ but little,
+as far as I can perceive, from those of the Church
+of Rome, excepting that the evident poverty of
+the establishment precludes the splendour which
+usually attends the performance of its offices. I
+have no very satisfactory data by which to judge
+of the degree of estimation in which this new sect
+is held: by some I have heard them spoken
+of as apostles, and by others as a Paria caste
+unworthy of any notice.</p>
+
+<p>Before hearing M. L'Abbé Auzou, or attending
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span>
+the service at his church, I wished to read
+some of the publications which explain their tenets,
+and accordingly called at the little bureau
+behind their chapel on the Boulevard St. Denis,
+where we were told these publications could be
+found. Having purchased several pamphlets containing
+catechism, hymns, sermons, and so forth,
+we entered into conversation with the young man
+who presided in this obscure and dark closet,
+dignified by the name of "Secrétariat de l'Eglise
+Apostolique Française."</p>
+
+<p>He told us that he was assistant minister of the
+chapel, and we found him extremely conversible
+and communicative.</p>
+
+<p>The chief differences between this new church
+and those which have preceded it in the reform
+of the Roman Catholic religion, appears to
+consist in the preservation of the external forms
+of worship, which other reformers have rejected,
+and also of several dogmas, purely doctrinal, and
+wholly unconnected with those principles of church
+power and church discipline, the abuse of which
+was the immediate cause of all protestant reform.</p>
+
+<p>They acknowledge the real presence. I find in
+the <i>Catéchisme</i> these questions and answers:</p>
+
+<p>"Jésus-Christ est-il sous le pain, ou bien sous
+le vin?&mdash;Il est sous les deux espèces à la fois.</p>
+
+<p>"Et quand l'hostie est partagée?&mdash;Jésus-Christ
+est tout entier en chaque partie.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Que faut-il faire pendant le jour où l'on a
+communié?&mdash;Assister aux offices, et ensuite se
+réjouir de son bonheur avec ses parens et ses
+amis."</p>
+
+<p class="p3">Their clergy are permitted to marry. They
+deny that any power of absolution rests with the
+priest, allowing him only that of intercession by
+prayer for the forgiveness of the penitent. Auricular
+confession is not enjoined, but recommended
+as useful to children. They profess entire toleration
+to every variety of Christian belief; but as
+the "Eglise Française" refuses to acknowledge
+dependance upon any <i>secte étrangère</i>,&mdash;by which
+phrase I conceive the Church of Rome to be
+meant,&mdash;they also declare, "d'après l'Evangile,
+que la religion ne doit jamais intervenir dans les
+gouvernemens temporels."</p>
+
+<p>They recognise the seven sacraments, only modifying
+that of penitence, as above mentioned.
+They deny the eternity of punishment, but I find
+no mention of purgatory. They do not enjoin
+fasting. I find in the <i>Catéchisme</i> the following
+explanation of their doctrine on this head, which
+appears to be extremely reasonable.</p>
+
+<p>"L'Eglise Française n'impose donc pas le jeûne
+et l'abstinence?&mdash;Non; l'Eglise Apostolique Française
+s'en rapporte pour le jeûne aux fidèles eux-mêmes,
+et ne reconnaît en aucune façon le précepte
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span>
+de l'abstinence; mais, plus prudente dans
+ses principes, elle substitue à un jeûne de quelques
+jours une sobriété continuelle, et remplace une
+abstinence périodique par une tempérance de
+chaque jour, de chaque année, de toute la vie."</p>
+
+<p>In all this there appears little in doctrine, excepting
+the admission of the divine presence in
+the elements of the eucharist, that differs greatly
+from most other reformed churches: nevertheless,
+the ceremonies are entirely similar to those of the
+Roman Catholic religion.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever there may be either of good or
+of evil in this mixture, its effect must, I think,
+prove absolutely nugatory on society, from the
+entire absence of any church government or discipline
+whatever. That this is in fact the case, is
+thus plainly stated in the preface to their published
+Catechism:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"L'Eglise Apostolique Française ne reconnaît
+aucune hiérarchie; elle repousse en conséquence
+l'autorité de tout pouvoir spirituel étranger, et de
+tout autre pouvoir qui en dépend ou qui s'y soumet.
+Elle ne reconnaît d'autre autorité spirituelle
+que celle qu'exercerait la réunion de ses
+fidèles; réunion qui, suivant les principes des
+apôtres, constitue seule ce que de leur temps on
+appelait <span class="smcap">Eglise</span>.</p>
+
+<p>"Elle n'est point salariée par l'état. L'administration
+de ses secours spirituels est gratuite. Elle
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span>
+n'a de tarif, ni pour les baptêmes, ni pour les
+mariages, ni enfin pour les inhumations. Elle vit
+de peu, et s'en remet à la générosité, ou plutôt à la
+volonté, des fidèles.</p>
+
+<p>"Ne reconnaissant pas d'hiérarchie, elle ne reconnaît
+pas non plus de division de territoire, soit
+en arrondissement, soit en paroisse: elle accueille
+donc tous les Chrétiens qui se présentent à elle
+pour mander à ses prêtres l'accomplissement des
+fonctions de ministres de Jésus-Christ."</p>
+
+<p class="p3">The <i>décousu</i> principles of the day can hardly
+be carried farther than this. A rope of sand is
+the only fitting emblem for a congregation so constituted;
+and, like a rope of sand, it must of necessity
+fall asunder, for there is no principle of union
+to prevent it.</p>
+
+<p>After I had finished my studies on the subject,
+I heard a sermon preached in the church,&mdash;not,
+however, by M. l'Abbé Auzou, who was ill, but
+by the same person with whom we had conversed
+at the <i>Secrétariat</i>. His sermon was a strong exposition
+of the abuses practised by the clergy of
+the Church of Rome,&mdash;a theme certainly more
+fertile than new.</p>
+
+<p>In reading some of the most celebrated discourses
+of the Abbé Auzou, I was the most struck
+with one entitled&mdash;"Discours sur les Plaisirs
+Populaires, les Bals, et les Spectacles." The text
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span>
+is from St. Matthew,&mdash;"Come unto me all ye that
+labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
+rest ... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is
+light."</p>
+
+<p>In this singular discourse, among some things
+that are reasonable, and more that are plausible,
+it is impossible to avoid seeing a spirit of lawless
+uncontrol, which seems to breathe more of revolution
+than of piety.</p>
+
+<p>I am no advocate for a Judaical observance
+of the Sabbath, nor am I ignorant of the fearful
+abuses which have arisen from man's daring to
+arrogate to himself a power vested in God alone,&mdash;the
+power of forgiving the sins of man. The
+undue authority assumed by the sovereign pontiff
+of Rome is likewise sufficiently evident, as are
+many other abuses justly reprobated in the sermons
+of the Abbé Auzou. Nevertheless, education,
+observation, and I might say experience,
+have taught me that religion requires and demands
+that care, protection, and government
+which are so absolutely essential to the well-being
+of every community of human beings who would
+unite together for one general object. To talk
+of a self-governing church, is just as absurd as
+to talk of a self-governing ship, or a self-governing
+family.</p>
+
+<p>It should seem, by the reprobation expressed
+against the severity of the Roman Catholic clergy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span>
+in these sermons, as well as from anecdotes which
+I have occasionally heard in society, that the
+Church of Rome and the Church of Calvin are
+alike hostile to every kind of dissipation, and
+that at the present moment they have many
+points of discipline in common&mdash;at least as respects
+the injunctions laid upon their congregations
+respecting their private conduct.</p>
+
+<p>M. l'Abbé Auzou says, in speaking of revolutionary
+reforms,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Rien n'est changé dans le sacerdoce; et l'on
+peut dire aussi des prêtres toujours romains, qu'ils
+n'ont rien oublié, qu'ils n'ont rien appris. Cependant,
+sous le règne de Napoléon leur orgueil
+a fléchi devant le grand intérêt de leur réinstallation....
+Aussi, au retour de leur roi légitime,
+cet orgueil comprimé s'est-il relevé dans
+toute sa hauteur. Rome a placé son trône à
+côté de celui d'un roi, un peu philosophe, a-t-on
+dit, mais perclus et impotent. Et enfin, lorsque
+son successeur, d'abord accueilli par le peuple,
+est tombé entre les mains des prêtres, ceux-ci,
+profitant de son âge et de sa faiblesse, ont exploité
+les erreurs d'une jeunesse fougueuse, qui
+cependant lui avaient valu le surnom de Chevalier
+Français. Alors nous avons vu ce roi sacrifier
+sa popularité à leurs exigeances; appeler
+toute la nation à l'expiation de ses fautes personnelles,
+à son repentir, à sa pénitence; et la
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span>
+forcer à renier, pour ainsi dire, trente ans de
+gloire et de liberté.... Un roi que le remords
+poursuit, dévore, et qui ne reconnaît d'autre recours
+que dans le prêtre qui l'a soumis à sa loi
+par la menace et la terreur de l'enfer; ce roi,
+sous le coup d'une absolution conditionnelle et
+toujours suspendue, abdique, sans le savoir, en
+faveur de son confesseur....</p>
+
+<p>"Roi! tu languis dans l'exil, et tes fautes sont
+punies jusque dans les dernières générations!</p>
+
+<p>"Les prêtres, les prêtres romains se sont cependant
+soumis à un nouveau prince, à qui la souveraineté
+nationale a remis le sceptre; ils prient
+enfin pour lui ... et l'on sait avec quelle
+sincérité.</p>
+
+<p>"Mais, peuple, comme leur joug s'appesantit
+sur toi!... Dans leur fureur mal-déguisée ils
+le disent.... La maison du Seigneur est déserte,
+et tu te rues avec fureur vers les plaisirs, les
+fêtes, les bals et les spectacles! Anathême donc
+contre les plaisirs, les fêtes et les bals! Anathême
+contre les spectacles!</p>
+
+<p>"Ne sont-ce point là, mes frères, les paroles qui
+tombent chaque jour menaçantes de la chaire de
+l'Eglise Romaine?...</p>
+
+<p>"Combien notre langage sera différent! Le
+Dieu des Juifs est bien notre Dieu; mais sa
+colère a été désarmée par le sacrifice que son
+fils lui a offert pour notre rédemption.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Pourquoi ce sang répandu sur la croix pour
+nos péchés si la satisfaction de nos besoins physiques,
+si nos fonctions intellectuelles, si l'entrainement
+des passions qui constituent notre être peuvent
+à chaque instant nous faire tomber dans le
+péché et nous précipiter dans l'abîme?</p>
+
+<p>"Aussi nous vous disons dans notre chaire
+apostolique,&mdash;Exécutez les commandemens de
+Dieu, adorez et glorifiez notre Père qui est aux
+cieux, pratiquez la morale de l'Evangile, aimez
+votre prochain comme vous-mêmes, et vous aurez
+accompli la loi de Jésus-Christ ... et nous
+ajoutons,&mdash;Vous êtes membre de la société pour
+laquelle vous avez été créés, et cette société vous
+impose des devoirs; en échange elle vous procure
+des jouissances et des plaisirs: remplissez
+vos devoirs et livrez-vous ensuite sans crainte aux
+jouissances et aux plaisirs qu'elle vous présente.
+Votre participation à ces mêmes plaisirs, à ces
+mêmes jouissances, est encore une partie de vos
+devoirs, et vous aurez accompli encore une fois
+la loi de Jésus-Christ."</p>
+
+<p>This doctrine may assuredly entitle the Eglise
+Apostolique Française to the appellation of a <span class="smcap">New
+Church</span>.</p>
+
+<p>M. l'Abbé Auzou goes on yet farther in the
+same strain:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Anathême!... Arme vieille, rouillée, émoussée,
+et que vous cherchez en vain à retremper dans le
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span>
+fiel de la colère et de la vengeance!... Anathême
+aux plaisirs! Et quoi! parceque Dieu a dit à notre
+premier père, Vous mangerez votre pain à la
+sueur de votre visage, l'homme serait condamné
+à rester toujours courbé sous le joug du travail?
+N'aura-t-il à espérer aucun adoucissement à ses
+peines?...</p>
+
+<p>"Non, sans doute ... vous dira le clergé romain,
+puisque Dieu a consacré le septième jour
+au repos?</p>
+
+<p>"Et quel est ce repos?</p>
+
+<p>"Sera-ce celui, qu'en vous servant du bras du
+séculier, vous avez tenté de lui imposer par une
+ordonnance préscrivant de fermer tous les établissemens
+qui décorent notre cité, nos cafés, nos
+restaurans, pour ne tolérer que l'ouverture des
+officines du pharmacien?&mdash;ordonnance dont une
+caricature spirituelle a fait si prompte justice."</p>
+
+<p>The following picture of a fanatical Sunday
+takes me back at once to America. There, however,
+its worst effect was to steep the senses in
+the unnecessary oblivion of a few more hours of
+sleep; but in Paris I should really expect that
+such restraint, were it indeed possible to impose
+it, would literally drive the sensitive and mobile
+population to madness.</p>
+
+<p>"Et quel est donc ce repos?</p>
+
+<p>"Sera-ce l'immobilité des corps; l'abandon de
+toutes nos facultés; l'oisiveté; l'ennui, compagnon
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span>
+inséparable de l'oisiveté; la prière; la méditation,&mdash;la
+méditation plus pénible pour la plupart des
+hommes que le travail des mains; et, enfin, vos
+sermons intolérans, et, qui pis est peut-être, si
+ennuyeux?</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! imposer à l'homme un pareil repos ne
+serait que suspendre son travail pour lui faire
+porter, comme à St. Simon de Cyrène, la croix
+de Jésus-Christ jusqu'au sommet escarpé du Calvaire."</p>
+
+<p>The Abbé then proceeds to promulgate his
+bull for the permission of all sorts of Parisian
+delights; nay, he takes a very pretty and picturesque
+ramble into the country, where "les jeunes
+garçons et les jeunes filles s'y livrent à des danses
+rustiques"&mdash;and, in short, gives so animated a picture
+of the pleasures which ought to await the
+Sabbath both in town and country, that it is almost
+impossible to read it without feeling a wish
+that every human being who through the six
+days of needful labour has been "weary worn
+with care" should pass the seventh amid the
+bright and cheering scenes he describes. But
+he effectually checks this feeling of sympathy
+with his views by what follows. He describes
+habitual drunkenness with the disgust it merits;
+but strangely qualifies this, by adding to his condemnation
+of the "homme dégradé qui, oubliant
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span>
+chaque jour sa dignité dans les excès d'une hideuse
+ivrognerie, <i>n'attend pas le jour que Dieu a
+consacré au repos</i>, à la distraction, aux plaisirs,
+pour se livrer à son ignoble passion," these dangerous
+words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mais condamnerons-nous sans retour notre
+frère pour un jour d'intempérance passagère, et
+blamerons-nous celui qui, cherchant dans le vin,
+ce présent du Ciel, un moment d'oubli des misères
+humaines, n'a point su s'arrêter à cette douce
+ivresse, oublieuse des maux et créatrice d'heureuses
+illusions?"</p>
+
+<p>Is not this using the spur where the rein is
+most wanting? I am persuaded that it is not
+the intention of the Abbé Auzou to advocate any
+species of immorality; but all the world, and particularly
+the French world perhaps, is so well
+disposed to amuse itself <i>coûte qui coûte</i>, that I
+confess I doubt the wisdom of enforcing the necessity
+of so doing from the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>The unwise, unauthorised, and most unchristian
+severity of the Calvinistic and Romish priesthood
+may, I think, lawfully and righteously be commented
+upon and reprobated both in the pulpit and
+out of it; but this reprobation should not clothe
+itself in license, or in any language that can be
+interpreted as such. There are many, I should
+think, in every Christian land, both clergy and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span>
+laity, but neither popish nor Calvinistic, who
+would shrink both from the sentiment and expression
+of the following passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Rappelons-nous que le patriarche Noé, lui qui
+planta la vigne et exprima le jus de son fruit, en
+abusa une fois, et que Dieu ne lui en fit point le
+reproche: Dieu punit, au contraire, le fils qui
+n'avait point caché cette faiblesse d'un père."</p>
+
+<p>There is some worldly wisdom, however, in the
+exclamation he addresses to his intolerant brethren.</p>
+
+<p>"Et vous, prêtres aveugles et impolitiques, laissez
+le peuple se livrer à ses plaisirs innocens;
+faites en sorte qu'il se contente de sa position;
+qu'il ne compare pas cette position pénible, douloureuse,
+avec l'oisiveté dans laquelle vous vivez
+vous-mêmes, et que vous ne devez qu'à la nouvelle
+dîme qui s'exprime de son front."</p>
+
+<p>He then proceeds to say, that it is not the poor
+only who are subjected to this severity, but the
+rich also ... "que le prêtre de la secte romaine
+veut arrêter, troubler dans ses plaisirs, dans ses
+délassemens."... "Un repas par lequel on célèbre
+l'union de deux jeunes c&oelig;urs, l'union de deux
+familles, et dans lequel règnent la joie, <i>et peut-être
+aussi un peu plus que de la gaîté</i>, est l'objet
+de la censure inexorable de ces prêtres rigides....
+Ils oublient que celui qu'ils disent être leur maître
+a consacré ces réunions par sa présence, et que le
+vin ayant manqué par le trop grand usage qu'on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span>
+en avait fait, il n'en a pas moins changé l'eau en
+vin. Ils sont tous disposés à répondre comme ce
+Janséniste à qui l'on rappelait cet intéressant épisode
+de la vie de Jésus,&mdash;'Ce n'est pas ce qu'il a
+fait de mieux.'&mdash;Impie! ... tu blasphêmes contre
+ton maître!...</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! mes frères, admirons, nous, dans la sincérité
+de notre c&oelig;ur, cet exemple de bienveillance
+et de <i>sociabilité pratique</i>, et bénissons la bonté de
+Jésus."</p>
+
+<p>Then follows an earnest defence, or rather eulogy,
+of dancing. But though I greatly approve
+the exercise for young people, and believe it to be
+as innocent as it is natural, I would not, were I
+called upon to preach a sermon, address my hearers
+after this manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Quant aux bals, je ne chercherai point à les
+excuser, à les défendre, par <i>des exemples puisés
+dans l'écriture sainte</i>. Je ne vous représenterai
+point David dansant devant l'arche.... Je ne
+vous le donnerai pas non plus pour modèle, à vous,
+jeunes gens de notre France <i>si polie</i>, <i>si élégante</i>,
+car sans doute <i>il dansait mal</i>; puisque, suivant la
+Bible, Michal sa femme, voyant le roi David qui
+sautait et dansait, se moqua de lui et le méprisa
+dans son c&oelig;ur." There is about as much piety as
+good taste in this.</p>
+
+<p>I have already given you such long extracts,
+that I must omit all he says,&mdash;and it is much in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span>
+favour of this amusement. Such forbearance is
+the more necessary, as I must give you a passage
+or two more on other subjects. Among the general
+reasons which he brings forward to prove that
+fêtes and festivals are beneficial to the people, he
+very justly remarks that the occupation they afford
+to industry is not the least important, observing
+that the popish church takes no heed of such things;
+and then adds, addressing the manufacturers,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Et lorsque le besoin se fera sentir et pour
+vous et vos enfans, allez à l'Archevêché! ... à
+l'Archevêché! ... un jour la colère du peuple a
+éclaté,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+"Je n'ai fait que passer, il n'était déjà plus."...</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The date which this sermon bears on its title-page
+is 1834; but the event to which this line from
+Racine alludes was the destruction of the archiepiscopal
+palace, which took place, if I mistake not,
+in 1831. If the "<i>il n'était déjà plus</i>" alludes to
+the palace, it is correct enough, for destruction
+could not have done its work better: but if it be
+meant to describe the fate of <span class="smcap">Monseigneur l'Archevêque
+de Paris</span>, the preacher is not a prophet;
+for, in truth, the sacrilegious rout "n'a fait que
+passer," and <span class="smcap">Monseigneur</span> has only risen higher
+from the blow. Public orators of all kinds should
+be very cautious, in these moveable times, how
+they venture to judge from to-day what may be
+to-morrow. The only oracular sentence that can
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span>
+be uttered at present with the least chance of
+success from the developement of the future is,
+"Who can say what may happen next?" All who
+have sufficient prudence to restrict their prescience
+to this acute form of prophecy, may have the pleasure,
+let come what may, of turning to their neighbours
+triumphantly with the question&mdash;"Did I
+not tell you that something was going to happen?"&mdash;but
+it is dangerous to be one atom more
+precise. Even before this letter can reach you,
+my friend, M. l'Abbé's interpretation of "il n'était
+déjà plus" may be more correct than mine. I say
+this, however, only to save my credit with you in
+case of the worst; for my private opinion is, that
+Monseigneur was never in a more prosperous condition
+in his life, and that, "as no one can say
+what will happen next," I should not be at all
+astonished if a cardinal's hat were speedily to reward
+him for all he has done and suffered.</p>
+
+<p>I certainly intended to have given you a few
+specimens of the Abbé Auzou's manner of advocating
+theatrical exhibitions; but I fear they
+would lead me into too great length of citation.
+He is sometimes really eloquent upon the subject:
+nevertheless, his opinions on it, however reasonable,
+would have been delivered with better effect
+from the easy-chair of his library than from the
+pulpit of his church. It is not that what would
+be good when heard from the one could become
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span>
+evil when listened to from the other: but the
+preacher's pulpit is intended for other uses; and
+though the visits to a well-regulated theatre may
+be as lawful as eating, and as innocent too, we go
+to the house of God in the hope of hearing tidings
+more important than his minister's assurance that
+they are so.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXIII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Establishment for Insane Patients at Vanves.&mdash;Description of
+the arrangements.&mdash;Englishman.&mdash;His religious madness.</p>
+
+<p>You will think perhaps that I have chosen oddly
+the object which has induced me to make an excursion
+out of town, and obliged me to give up
+nearly an entire day at Paris, when I tell you that it
+was to visit an institution for the reception of the
+insane. There are, however, few things which
+interest me more than an establishment of this
+nature; especially when, as in the present instance,
+my manner of introduction to it is such as to give
+me the hope of hearing the phenomena of these
+awful maladies discussed by those well acquainted
+with them. The establishment of MM. Voisin
+and Fabret, at Vanves, was mentioned to me as
+one in which many improvements in the mode of
+treating alienation of mind have been suggested
+and tried with excellent effect; and having the
+opportunity of visiting it in company with a lady
+who was well acquainted with the gentlemen presiding
+over it, I determined to take advantage of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span>
+it. My friend, too, knew how to direct my attention
+to what was most interesting, from having
+had a relation placed there, whom for many
+months she had been in the constant habit of
+visiting.</p>
+
+<p>Her introduction obtained for me the most
+attentive reception, and the fullest explanation of
+their admirable system, which appears to me to
+combine, and on a very large and noble scale,
+everything likely to assuage the sufferings, soothe
+the spirits, and contribute to the health of the
+patients.</p>
+
+<p>Vanves is situated at the distance of one league
+from Paris, in a beautiful part of the country; and
+the establishment itself, from almost every part of
+the high ground on which it is placed, commands
+views so varied and extensive, as not only to render
+the principal mansion a charming residence,
+but really to make the walks and drives within
+the enclosure of the extensive premises delightful.</p>
+
+<p>The grounds are exceedingly well laid out, with
+careful attention to the principal object for which
+they are arranged, but without neglecting any of
+the beauty of which the spot is so capable. They
+have shade and flowers, distant views and sheltered
+seats, with pleasant walks, and even drives
+and rides, in all directions. The enclosure contains
+about sixty acres, to every part of which the
+patients who are well enough to walk about can
+be admitted with perfect safety.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In this park are situated two or three distinct
+lodges, which are found occasionally to be of the
+greatest utility, in cases where the most profound
+quiet is necessary, and yet where too strict confinement
+would be injurious. Indeed, it appears
+to me that the object principally kept in view
+throughout all the arrangements, is the power of
+keeping patients out of sight and hearing of each
+other till they are sufficiently advanced towards
+recovery to make it a real pleasure and advantage
+to associate together.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they reach this favourable stage of
+their convalescence, they mix with the family in
+very handsome rooms, where books, music, and a
+billiard-table assist them to pass the hours without
+<i>ennui</i>. Every patient has a separate sleeping-apartment,
+in none of which are the precautions
+necessary for their safety permitted to be visible.
+What would wear the appearance of iron bars in
+every other place of the kind that I have seen,
+are here made to look like very neat <i>jalousies</i>.
+Not a bolt or a bar is perceptible, nor any object
+whatever that might shock the spirit, if at any
+time a gleam of recovered intellect should return
+to visit it.</p>
+
+<p>This cautious keeping out of sight of the sufferers
+everything that might awaken them to a
+sense of their own condition, or that of the other
+patients, appears to me to be the most peculiar
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span>
+feature of the discipline, and is evidently one of
+the objects most sedulously kept in view. Next
+to this I should place the system of inducing the
+male patients to exercise their limbs, and amuse
+their spirits, by working in the garden, at any undertaking,
+however <i>bizarre</i> and profitless, which
+can induce them to keep mind and body healthily
+employed. I know not if this has been systematically
+resorted to elsewhere; but the good sense
+of it is certainly very obvious, and the effect, as I
+was told, is found to be very generally beneficial;
+though it occasionally happens that some among
+them have fancied their dignity compromised by
+using a spade or a hoe,&mdash;and then some of the
+family join with them in the labour, to prove that
+it is merely a matter of amusement: in short,
+everything likely to cheer or soothe the spirits
+seems brought into use among them.</p>
+
+<p>The ground close adjoining to the house is
+divided into many small well-enclosed gardens;
+the women's apartments opening to some, the
+men's to others of them. In several of these
+gardens I observed neat little tables, such as
+are used in the <i>restaurans</i> of Paris, with a
+clean cloth, and all necessary appointments, placed
+pleasantly and commodiously in the shade, at each
+of which was seated one person, who was served
+with a separate dinner, and with every appearance
+of comfort. Had I not known their condition, I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span>
+should in many instances have thought the spectacle
+a very pleasing one.</p>
+
+<p>M. Voisin walked through all parts of the establishment
+with us, and there appeared to exist a
+perfectly good understanding between him and
+his patients. Among many regulations, which
+all appeared excellent, he told me that the friends
+of his inmates were permitted at all times, and
+under all circumstances, to visit them without
+any restraint whatever: an arrangement which
+can only be productive of confidence and advantage
+to all parties; as it is perfectly inconceivable
+that any one who had felt obliged to place an
+unhappy friend or relative under restraint should
+wish to interfere with the discipline necessary for
+his ultimate advantage; whereas a contrary system
+is likely to give occasion to constant doubts
+and fears on one hand, and to the possibility of
+ill treatment or unnecessary restraint on the other.
+In one of the courts appropriated to the use of
+such male patients as were sufficiently convalescent
+to permit their associating together, and
+amusing themselves with the different games in
+which they are permitted to share, we saw a
+young Englishman, now rapidly recovering, but
+who had scrawled over the walls of his own sleeping-apartment,
+poor fellow! with a pencil, a vast
+quantity of writing, almost wholly on religious
+subjects; proving but too plainly that he was one
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span>
+of the many victims of fanaticism. Every thought
+seemed pregnant with suffering, and sometimes
+bursts of agony were scrawled in trembling
+characters, that spoke the very extremity of
+terror. "Who is there can endure fire and flame
+for ever, for ever, and for ever?" "Death is before
+us&mdash;Hell follows it!" "The bottomless pit&mdash;groans&mdash;tortures&mdash;anguish&mdash;for
+ever!"... Such
+sentences as these were still legible, though much
+had been obliterated.</p>
+
+<p>Who can wonder that a mind thus occupied
+should lose that fine balance with which nature
+has arranged our faculties, making one keep watch
+and ward over the other?... This poor fellow lost
+his wits under the process of conversion: Judgment
+being entirely overthrown, Imagination had
+vaulted into its seat, pregnant with visions black
+as night, dark&mdash;oh! far darker than the tomb!
+"palled in the dunnest smoke of hell," and armed
+with every image for the eternity of torture that
+the ingenuity of man could devise. Who can
+wonder at his madness? And how many crimes
+are there recorded in the Newgate Calendar which
+equal in atrocity that of so distorting a mind,
+that sought to raise its humble hopes towards
+heaven!</p>
+
+<p>I felt particularly interested for this poor lunatic,
+both as my countryman, and the victim of
+by far the most fearful tyranny that man can
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span>
+exercise on man. Against all other injury it is
+not difficult to believe that a steadfast spirit can
+arm itself and say with Hamlet,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"I do not set my life at a pin's fee."</p>
+
+<p>But against this, it were a vain boast to add,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"And for my soul, what can it do to that,</p>
+<p>Being a thing immortal as itself?"</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>For, alas! it is that very immortality which gives
+hope, comfort, and strength under every other persecution
+that paralyses the sufferer under this,
+and arms with such horrid strength the blasphemous
+wretch who teaches him to turn in terror
+from his God.</p>
+
+<p>M. Voisin told me that this unfortunate young
+man had been for some time daily becoming more
+calm and tranquil, and that he entertained not
+any doubt of his ultimate recovery.</p>
+
+<p>Excepting this my poor countryman, the only
+patient I saw whose situation it was particularly
+painful to contemplate was a young girl who had
+only arrived the preceding day. There was in
+her eyes a restless, anxious, agitated manner of
+looking about on all things, and gathering a distinct
+idea from none&mdash;a vague uncertainty as to
+where she was, not felt with sufficient strength to
+amount to wonder, but enough to rob her of all
+the feeling of repose which belongs to home.
+Poor girl! perhaps some faltering, unfixable
+thought brought at intervals the figure of her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span>
+mother to her; for as I looked at her pale face,
+its vacant expression received more than once a
+sad but passing gleam of melancholy meaning.
+She coughed frequently; but the cough seemed
+affected,&mdash;or rather, it appeared to be an effort
+not so much required by her lungs, as by the need
+of some change, some relief&mdash;she knew not
+what, nor where nor how to seek it. She appeared
+very desirous of shaking off the attendance
+of a woman who was waiting upon her, and her
+whole manner indicated a sort of fretful unrest
+that it made one wretched to contemplate. But
+here again I was comforted by the assurance that
+there were no symptoms which forbade hope of
+recovery.</p>
+
+<p>I remember being told, when visiting the lunatic
+asylum near New York, that the most frequent
+causes of insanity were ascertained to be
+religion and drunkenness. Near Paris I find that
+love, high play, and politics are considered as the
+principal causes of this calamity; and certainly
+nothing can be more accordant with what observation
+would teach one to expect than both these
+statements. At New York the physician told me
+that madness arising from excessive drinking admitted,
+in the great majority of cases, of a perfect
+cure; but that religious aberration of intellect was
+much more enduring.</p>
+
+<p>At Paris I have heard the same; for here also
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span>
+it occasionally happens, though not often, that
+the reason becomes disturbed by repeated and
+frequent intoxication: but where either politics
+or love has taken such hold of the mind as to
+disturb the reasoning power, the recovery is less
+certain and more slow.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Voisin told me that he uniformly found the
+first symptoms of insanity appear in the wavering,
+indifferent, and altered state of the affections towards
+relations and friends;&mdash;apathy, coldness,
+and, in some cases, dislike, and even violent antipathy,
+being sure to appear, wherever previous
+attachment had been the most remarkable. They
+sometimes, but not very often, take capricious fits
+of fondness for strangers; but never with any
+show of reason, and never for any length of time.
+The most certain symptom of an approach towards
+recovery is when the heart appears to be
+re-awakened to its natural feelings and old attachments.</p>
+
+<p>There was one old lady that I watched eating
+her dinner of vegetables and fruit at a little table
+in one of the gardens, who had adorned her bonnet
+with innumerable scraps of trumpery, and set
+it on her head with the most studied and coquettish
+air imaginable: she fed herself with the grace
+or grimace of a young beauty, eating grapes of
+a guinea a pound, from a plate of crystal, with
+a golden fork. I am sure she was enjoying all
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span>
+the happiness of feeling herself beautiful, elegant,
+and admired: and when I looked at the wrinkled
+ruin of her once handsome face, I could hardly
+think her madness a misfortune; for though I
+did not obtain any pitiful story concerning her,
+or any history of the cause which brought her
+there, I felt sure that it must in some way or
+other be connected with some feeling of deeply-mortified
+vanity: and if I am right in my conjecture,
+what has the world left for her equal in
+consolation to the wild fancies which now shed
+such simpering complacency over her countenance?
+And might we not exclaim for her in
+all kindness&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Let but the cheat endure!&mdash;She asks not aught beside?"</p>
+
+<p>What was passing in this poor old head, it was
+easy enough to guess&mdash;wild as it was, and wide
+from the truth. But there was another, which,
+though I studied it as long as I could possibly
+contrive to do so, wholly baffled me; and yet I
+would have given much to know what thoughts
+were flitting through that young brain.</p>
+
+<p>She was a young girl, extremely pretty, with
+coal-black hair and eyes, and seated, quite apart
+from all, upon a pleasant shady bench in one of
+the gardens. Her face was like a fair landscape,
+over which passes cloud and sunshine in rapid
+succession: for one moment she smiled, and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span>
+next seemed preparing to weep; but before a
+tear could fall, her fine teeth were again displayed
+in an unmeaning smile. O, what could be the
+fleeting visions formed that worked her fancy
+thus? Could it be memory? Or was the fitful
+emotion caused by the galloping vagaries of an
+imagination which outstripped the power of reason
+to follow it? Or was it none of this, but a
+mere meaningless movement of the muscles, that
+worked in idle mockery of the intellect that used
+to govern them?</p>
+
+<p>I have sometimes thought it very strange that
+people should feel such deep delight in watching
+on the stage the representation of the utmost extremity
+of human woe that the mind of man can
+contrive to place before them; and I have wondered
+more, much more, at the gathering together
+of thousands and tens of thousands, whenever the
+law has doomed that some wretched soul should
+be separated by the hand of man from the body
+in which it has sinned: but I doubt if my own
+intense interest in watching poor human nature
+when deprived of reason is not stranger still. I
+can in no way account for it; but so it is. I can
+never withdraw myself from the contemplation of
+a maniac without reluctance; and yet I am always
+conscious of painful feelings as long as it lasts, and
+perfectly sure that I shall be followed by more
+painful feelings still when it is over.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is certain, however, that the comfort, the
+tenderness, the care, so evident in every part of
+the establishment at Vanves, render the contemplation
+of insanity there less painful than I ever
+found it elsewhere; and when I saw the air of
+healthy physical enjoyment (at least) with which
+a large number of the patients prepared to take
+their pastime, during their hours of exercise, each
+according to his taste or whim, amid the ample
+space and well-chosen accessories prepared for
+them, I could not but wish that every retreat
+fitted up for the reception of this unfortunate
+portion of the human race could be arranged on
+the same plan and governed by the same principles.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXIV.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Riot at the Porte St. Martin.&mdash;Prevented by a shower of
+Rain.&mdash;The Mob in fine weather.&mdash;How to stop Emeutes.&mdash;Army
+of Italy.&mdash;Théâtre Français.&mdash;Mademoiselle Mars
+in Henriette.&mdash;Disappearance of Comedy.</p>
+
+<p>Though Paris is really as quiet at present as
+any great city can possibly be, still we continue
+to be told regularly every morning, "qu'il y avait
+une émeute hier soir à la Porte St. Martin." But
+I do assure you that these are very harmless little
+pastimes; and though it seldom happens that the
+mysterious hour of revolution-hatching passes by
+without some arrest taking place, the parties are
+always liberated the next morning; it having appeared
+clearly at every examination that the juvenile
+aggressors, who are seldom above twenty years
+of age, are as harmless as a set of croaking bull-frogs
+on the banks of the Wabash. The continually
+repeated mention, however, of these nightly
+meetings, induced two gentlemen of our party to
+go to this often-named Porte St. Martin a few
+nights ago, in hopes of witnessing the humours of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span>
+one of these small riotings. But on arriving at
+the spot they found it perfectly tranquil&mdash;everything
+wore the proper stillness of an orderly and
+well-protected night. A few military were, however,
+hovering near the spot; and of these they
+made inquiry as to the cause of a repose so unlike
+what was usually supposed to be the state of
+this celebrated quarter of the town.</p>
+
+<p>"Mais ne voyez-vous pas que l'eau tombe, messieurs?"
+said the national guard stationed there:
+"c'est bien assez pour refroidir le feu de nos républicains.
+S'il fait beau demain soir, messieurs,
+nous aurons encore notre petit spectacle."</p>
+
+<p>Determined to know whether there was any
+truth in these histories or not, and half suspecting
+that the whole thing, as well as the assurance of
+the civil <i>militaire</i> to boot, was neither more nor
+less than a hoax, they last night, the weather
+being remarkably fine, again attempted the adventure,
+and with very different success.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion, there was, by their description,
+as pretty a little riot as heart could wish.
+The numbers assembled were stated to be above
+four hundred: military, both horse and foot, were
+among them; pointed hats were as plenty as
+blackberries in September, and "banners waved
+without a blast" on the tottering shoulders of little
+ragamuffins who had been hired for two sous
+apiece to carry them.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On this memorable evening, which has really
+made a figure this morning in some of the republican
+journals, a considerable number of the
+most noisy portion of the mob were arrested;
+but, on the whole, the military appear to have
+dealt very gently with them; and our friends
+heard many a crazy burst of artisan eloquence,
+which might have easily enough been construed
+into treason, answered with no rougher repartee
+than a laughing "Vive le Roi!"</p>
+
+<p>At one point, however, there was a vehement
+struggle before a young hero, equipped cap-à-pie
+à la Robespierre, could be secured; and while
+two of the civic guard were employed in taking
+him, a little fellow of about ten years old,
+who had a banner as heavy as himself on his
+shoulder, and who was probably squire of the
+body to the prisoner, stood on tiptoe before him
+at the distance of a few feet, roaring "Vive la
+République!" as loud as he could bawl.</p>
+
+<p>Another fellow, apparently of the very lowest
+class, was engaged, during the whole time that
+the tumult lasted, in haranguing a party that
+he had collected round him. His arms were
+bare to the shoulders, and his gesticulation exceedingly
+violent.</p>
+
+<p>"Nous avons des droits!" he exclaimed with
+great vehemence.... "Nous avons des droits!...
+Qui est-ce qui veut les nier?... Nous ne démandons
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span>
+que la charte.... Qu'ils nous donnent
+la charte!"...</p>
+
+<p>The uproar lasted about three hours, after
+which the crowd quietly dispersed; and it is to
+be hoped that they may all employ themselves
+honestly in their respective callings, till the next
+fine evening shall again bring them together in
+the double capacity of actors and spectators at the
+"petit spectacle."</p>
+
+<p>The constant repetition of this idle riot seems
+now to give little disturbance to any one; and
+were it not that the fines and imprisonments so
+constantly, and sometimes not very leniently inflicted,
+evidently show that they are thought
+worth some attention, (though, in fact, this system
+appears to produce no effect whatever towards
+checking the daring demonstrations of disaffection
+manifested by the rabble and their newspaper
+supporters,) one might deem this indifference the
+result of such sober confidence of strength in the
+government, as left them no anxiety whatever
+as to anything which this troublesome faction
+could achieve.</p>
+
+<p>Such, I believe, is in fact the feeling of King
+Philippe's government: nevertheless, it would
+certainly conduce greatly to the well-being of the
+people of Paris, if such methods were resorted
+to as would effectually and at once put a stop
+to such disgraceful scenes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6" style="width: 413px;"><a name="illo6" id="illo6"></a>
+<img src="images/ill351.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="Porte St. Martin" />
+<p class="s05">Drawn &amp; Etched by A. Hervieu.</p>
+<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Porte S<sup>t</sup>. Martin</span></p>
+<p class="caption s05">London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span>
+"<span class="smcap">Liberty and Order</span>" is King Philippe's
+motto: he could only improve it by adding
+"Repose and Quiet;" for never can he reign by
+any other power than that given by the hope of
+repose and tranquillity. The harassed nation
+looks to him for these blessings; and if it be disappointed,
+the result must be terrible.</p>
+
+<p>Louis-Philippe is neither Napoleon nor Charles
+the Tenth. He has neither the inalienable rights
+of the one, nor the overpowering glory of the
+other; but should he be happy enough to discover
+a way of securing to this fine but strife-worn
+and weary country the tranquil prosperity
+that it now appears beginning to enjoy, he may
+well be considered by the French people as
+greater than either.</p>
+
+<p>Bold, fearless, wise, and strong must be the
+hand that at the present hour can so wield the
+sceptre of France; and I think it may reasonably
+be doubted if any one could so wield it, unless
+its first act were to wave off to a safe distance
+some of the reckless spirits who are ready to lay
+down their lives on the scaffold&mdash;or in a gutter&mdash;or
+over a pan of charcoal, rather than "live peaceably
+in that state of life unto which it has pleased
+God to call them."</p>
+
+<p>If King Louis-Philippe would undertake a crusade
+to restore independence to Italy, he might
+convert every traitor into a hero. Let him address
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span>
+the army raised for the purpose in the
+same inspiring words that Napoleon used of yore.
+"Soldats!... Partons! Rétablir le capitole....
+Réveiller le peuple romain engourdi par
+plusieurs siècles d'esclavage.... Tel sera le fruit
+de vos victoires. Vous rentrerez alors dans vos
+foyers, et vos concitoyens diront en vous montrant&mdash;Il
+était de l'armée d'Italie!" And then let him
+institute a new order, entitled "L'Ordre Impérial
+de la Redingote grise," or "L'Ordre indomptable
+des Bras croisés," and accord to every man the
+right of admission to it, with the honour to boot
+of having an eagle embroidered on the breast of
+his coat if he conducted himself gallantly and
+like a Frenchman in the field of battle, and we
+should soon find the Porte St. Martin as quiet as
+the Autocrat's dressing-room at St. Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>If such an expedient as this were resorted to,
+there would no longer be any need of that indecent
+species of safety-valve by which the noxious
+vapour generated by the ill-disposed part of the
+community is now permitted to escape. It may
+be very great, dignified, and high-minded for a
+king and his ministers to laugh at treasonable
+caricatures and seditious pleasantries of all sorts,&mdash;but
+I do greatly doubt the wisdom of it. Human
+respect is necessary for the maintenance
+and support of human authority; and that respect
+will be more profitably shown by a decent
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span>
+degree of general external deference, than by the
+most sublime kindlings of individual admiration
+that ever warmed the heart of a courtier. This
+"<i>avis au lecteur</i>" might be listened to with advantage,
+perhaps, in more countries than one.</p>
+
+<p>Since I last gave you any theatrical news, we
+have been to see Mademoiselle Mars play the
+part of Henriette in Molière's exquisite comedy
+of "Les Femmes Savantes;" and I really think it
+the most surprising exhibition I ever witnessed.
+Having seen her in "Tartuffe" and "Charlotte
+Brown" from a box in the first circle, at some
+distance from the stage, I imagined that the distance
+had a good deal to do with the effect still
+produced by the grace of form, movement, and
+toilet of this extraordinary woman.</p>
+
+<p>To ascertain, therefore, how much was delusion
+and how much was truth in the beauty I still
+saw or fancied, I resolved upon the desperate
+experiment of securing that seat in the balcony
+which is nearest to the stage. It was from this
+place that I saw her play Henriette; a character
+deriving no aid whatever from trick or stage
+effect of any kind; one, too, whose charm lies
+wholly in simple, unaffected youthfulness: there
+are no flashes of wit, no startling hits either of
+pathos or pleasantry&mdash;nothing but youth, gentleness,
+modesty, and tenderness&mdash;nothing but a
+young girl of sixteen, rather more quiet and retiring
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span>
+than usual. Yet this character, which seems
+of necessity to require youth and beauty in the
+performer, though little else, was personated by
+this miraculous old lady in a manner that not
+only enchanted me&mdash;being, as I am, <i>rococo</i>&mdash;but
+actually drew forth from the omnipotent <i>jeunes
+gens</i> in the <i>parterre</i> such clamorous rapture of
+applause as must, I think, have completely overset
+any actress less used to it than herself. Is
+not this marvellous?</p>
+
+<p>How much it is to be regretted that the art of
+writing comedy has passed away! They have
+vaudevilles here&mdash;charming things in their way;
+and we have farces at home that certainly cannot
+be thought of without enjoying the gratification
+of a broad grin. But for comedy, where the intellect
+is called upon as well as the muscles, it is
+dead and gone. The "Hunchback" is perhaps the
+nearest approach to it, whose birth I remember
+in our country, and "Bertrand and Raton" here;
+but in both cases the pleasurable excitement is
+produced more by the plot than the characters&mdash;more
+by the business of the scene than by the
+wit and elegance of the dialogue, except perhaps
+in the pretty wilfulness of Julia in the second
+act of the "Hunchback." But even here I suspect
+it was more the playful grace of the enchanting
+actress who first appeared in the part, than anything
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span>
+in the words "set down for her," which so
+delighted us.</p>
+
+<p>We do now and then get a new tragedy,&mdash;witness
+"Fazio" and "Rienzi;" but Comedy&mdash;genuine,
+easy, graceful, flowing, talking Comedy&mdash;is
+dead: I think she followed Sheridan to the grave
+and was buried with him! But never is one so
+conscious of the loss, or so inclined to mourn it,
+as after seeing a comedy of Molière's of the first
+order,&mdash;for his pieces should be divided into
+classes, like diamonds. What a burst of new enjoyment
+would rush over all England, or all
+France, if a thing like "The School for Scandal"
+or "Les Femmes Savantes" were to appear before
+them!</p>
+
+<p>Fancy the delight of sitting to hear wit&mdash;wit
+that one did not know by rote, bright, sparkling,
+untasted as yet by any&mdash;new and fresh from the
+living fountain!&mdash;not coming to one in the shape
+of coin, already bearing the lawful stamp of ten
+thousand plaudits to prove it genuine, and to
+refuse to accept which would be treason; but as
+native gold, to which the touchstone of your own
+intellect must be applied to test its worth! Shall
+we ever experience this?</p>
+
+<p>It is strange that the immense mass of material
+for comedy which the passing scenes of this singular
+epoch furnish should not be worked up by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span>
+some one. Molière seems not to have suffered
+a single passing folly to escape him. Had he
+lived in these days, what delicious whigs, radicals,
+"penny-rint" kings, from our side of the water,&mdash;what
+tragic poets, republicans, and parvenus from
+his own, would he have cheered us withal!</p>
+
+<p>Rousseau says, that when a theatre produces
+pieces which represent the real manners of the
+people, they must greatly assist those who are
+present at them to see and amend what is vicious
+or absurd in themselves, "comme on ôte devant
+un miroir les taches de son visage." The idea is
+excellent; and surely there never was a time
+when it would be so easy or so useful to put it
+in practice. Would the gods but send a Sheridan
+to England and a Molière to France, we might
+yet live to see some of our worst misfortunes
+turned to jest, and, like the man choking in a
+quinsey, laugh ourselves into health again.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXV.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Soirée dansante.&mdash;Young Ladies.&mdash;Old Ladies.&mdash;Anecdote.&mdash;The
+Consolations of Chaperones.&mdash;Flirtations.&mdash;Discussion
+upon the variations between young Married Women
+in France and in England.&mdash;Making love by deputy.&mdash;Not
+likely to answer in England.</p>
+
+<p>Last night we were at a ball,&mdash;or rather, I
+should say, a "<i>soirée dansante</i>;" for at this season,
+though people may dance from night to morning,
+there are no balls. But let it be called by what
+name it may, it could not have been more gay
+and agreeable were this the month of January
+instead of May.</p>
+
+<p>There were several English gentlemen present,
+who, to the great amusement of some of the
+company, uniformly selected their partners from
+among the young ladies. This may appear very
+natural to you; but here it is thought the most
+unnatural proceeding possible.</p>
+
+<p>To a novice in French society, there is certainly
+no circumstance so remarkable as the different
+position which the unmarried hold in the
+drawing-rooms of England and <i>les salons</i> of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span>
+France. With us, the prettiest things to look at,
+and the partners first sought for the dance, are
+the young girls. Brilliant in the perfection of
+their youthful bloom, graceful and gay as young
+fawns in every movement of the most essentially
+juvenile of all exercises, and eclipsing the light
+elegance of their own toilet by loveliness that
+leaves no eyes to study its decoration,&mdash;it is
+they who, in spite of diamonds and of blonde, of
+wedded beauty or of titled grace, ever appear
+to be the principal actors in a ball-room. But
+"they manage these matters" quite otherwise
+"in France."</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, it may sometimes happen among
+us, that a coquettish matron may be seen to lead
+the giddy waltz with more sprightliness than
+wisdom; but she always does it at the risk of
+being <i>mal notée</i> in some way or other, more or
+less gravely, by almost every person present;&mdash;nay,
+I would by no means encourage her to be
+very certain that her tonish partner himself would
+not be better pleased to whirl round the mazy
+circle with one of the slight, light, sylph-like
+creatures he sees flying past him, than with the
+most fashionable married woman in London.</p>
+
+<p>But in Paris all this is totally reversed; and,
+what is strange enough, you will find in both
+countries that the reason assigned for the difference
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span>
+between them arises from national attention
+to good morals.</p>
+
+<p>On entering a French ball-room, instead of seeing
+the youngest and loveliest part of the company
+occupying the most conspicuous places, surrounded
+by the gayest men, and dressed with the
+most studied and becoming elegance, you must
+look for the young things quite in the background,
+soberly and quietly attired, and almost
+wholly eclipsed behind the more fully-blown beauties
+of their married friends.</p>
+
+<p>It is really marvellous, considering how very
+much prettier a girl is at eighteen than she can
+possibly be some dozen years afterwards, to see
+how completely fashion will nevertheless have its
+own way, making the worse positively appear the
+better beauty.</p>
+
+<p>All that exceeding charm and fascination which
+is for ever and always attributed to an elegant
+Frenchwoman, belongs wholly, solely, and altogether
+to her after she becomes a wife. A young
+French girl, "<i>parfaitement bien élevée</i>," looks ...
+"<i>parfaitement bien élevée</i>;" but it must be confessed,
+also, that she looks at the same time as
+if her governess (and a sharp one) were looking
+over her shoulder. She will be dressed, of course,
+with the nicest precision and most exact propriety;
+her corsets will forbid a wrinkle to appear
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span>
+in her robe, and her <i>friseur</i> deny permission to
+any single hair that might wish to deviate from
+the station appointed for it by his stiff control.
+But if you would see that graceful perfection of
+the toilet, that unrivalled <i>agacerie</i> of costume
+which distinguishes a French woman from all
+others in the world, you must turn from mademoiselle
+to madame. The very sound of the
+voice, too, is different. It should seem as if the
+heart and soul of a French girl were asleep, or
+at least dozing, till the ceremony of marriage
+awakened them. As long as it is mademoiselle
+who speaks, there is something monotonous, dull,
+and uninteresting in the tone, or rather in the
+tune, of her voice; but when madame addresses
+you, all the charm that manner, cadence, accent
+can bestow, is sure to greet you.</p>
+
+<p>In England, on the contrary, of all the charms
+peculiar to youthful loveliness, I know none so
+remarkable as the unconstrained, fresh, natural,
+sweet, and joyous sound of a young girl's voice.
+It is as delicious as the note of the lark, when
+rising in the first freshness of morning to meet
+the sun. It is not restrained, held in, and checked
+into tameness by any fear lest it should too
+early show its syren power.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the dance itself, the very arena for
+the display of youthful gracefulness, the young
+French girl fails, when her well-taught steps are
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span>
+compared with the easy, careless, fascinating
+movements of the married woman.</p>
+
+<p>In the simple kindness of manner too, which,
+if there were no other attraction, would ever
+suffice to render an unaffected, good-natured
+young girl charming, there must be here a cautious
+restraint. A <i>demoiselle Française</i> would be
+prevented by <i>bienséance</i> from showing it, were she
+the gentlest-hearted creature breathing.</p>
+
+<p>A young Englishman of my acquaintance, who,
+though he had been a good deal in French society,
+was not initiated into the mysteries of female
+education, recounted to me the other day an adventure
+of his, which is german to the matter,
+though not having much to do with our last
+night's ball. This young man had for a long
+time been very kindly received in a French family,
+had repeatedly dined with them, and, in
+fact, considered himself as admitted to their house
+on the footing of an intimate friend.</p>
+
+<p>The only child of this family was a daughter,
+rather pretty, but cold, silent, and repulsive in
+manner&mdash;almost awkward, and utterly uninteresting.
+Every attempt to draw her into conversation
+had ever proved abortive; and though often
+in her company, the Englishman hardly thought
+she could consider him as an acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>The young man returned to England; but, after
+some months, again revisited Paris. While standing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span>
+one day in earnest contemplation of a picture
+at the Louvre, he was startled at being suddenly
+addressed by an extremely beautiful woman, who
+in the kindest and most friendly manner imaginable
+asked him a multitude of questions&mdash;made a
+thousand inquiries after his health&mdash;invited him
+earnestly to come and see her, and concluded by
+exclaiming&mdash;"Mais c'est un siècle depuis que je
+vous ai vu."</p>
+
+<p>My friend stood gazing at her with equal admiration
+and surprise. He began to remember
+that he had seen her before, but when or where
+he knew not. She saw his embarrassment and
+smiled. "Vous m'avez oublié donc?" said she.
+"Je m'appelle Eglé de P&mdash;&mdash;.... Mais je suis
+mariée...."</p>
+
+<p>But to return to our ball.</p>
+
+<p>As I saw the married women taken out to
+dance one after the another, till at last there was
+not a single dancing-looking man left, I felt myself
+getting positively angry; for, notwithstanding
+the assistance given by my ignorant countrymen,
+there were still at least half a dozen French girls
+unprovided with chevaliers.</p>
+
+<p>They did not, however, look by many degrees
+so sadly disappointed as English girls would do
+did the same misfortune betide them. They, like
+the poor eels, were used to it; and the gentlemen,
+too, were cruelly used to the task of torture,&mdash;making
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span>
+their pretty little feet beat time upon the
+floor, while they watched the happy wedded in
+pairs&mdash;not wedded pairs&mdash;swim before their eyes
+in mazes which they would most gladly have
+threaded after them.</p>
+
+<p>When at length all the married ladies, young
+and old, were duly provided for, several staid
+and very respectable-looking gentlemen emerged
+from corners and sofas, and presenting themselves
+to the young expectants, were accepted with quiet,
+grateful smiles, and permitted to lead them to the
+dance.</p>
+
+<p>Old ladies like myself, whose fate attaches
+them to the walls of a ball-room, are accustomed
+to find their consolation and amusement from
+various sources. First, they enjoy such conversation
+as they can catch; or, if they will sit tolerably
+silent, they may often hear the prettiest airs
+of the season exceedingly well played. Then the
+whole arena of twinkling feet is open to their
+criticism and admiration. Another consolation,
+and frequently a very substantial one, is found in
+the supper;&mdash;nay, sometimes a passing ice will be
+caught to cheer the weary watcher. But there is
+another species of amusement, the general avowal
+of which might lead the younger part of the civilized
+world to wish that old ladies wore blinkers:
+I allude to the quiet contemplation of half a dozen
+sly flirtations that may be going on around them,&mdash;some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span>
+so well managed! ... some so clumsily!</p>
+
+<p>But upon all these occasions, in England, though
+well-behaved old ladies will always take especial
+care not so to see that their seeing shall be seen,
+they still look about them with no feeling of restraint&mdash;no
+consciousness that they would rather
+be anywhere else than spectators of what is
+going forward near them. They feel, at least
+I am sure I do, a very comfortable assurance
+that the fair one is engaged, not in marring, but
+in making her fortune. Here again I may quote
+the often-quoted, and say, "They manage all
+these matters differently at least, if not better, in
+France."</p>
+
+<p>In England, if a woman is seen going through
+all the man&oelig;uvres of the flirting exercise, from
+the first animating reception of the "How d'ye
+do?" to the last soft consciousness which fixes
+the eyes immovably on the floor, while the head,
+gently inclined, seems willing to indulge the happy
+ear in receiving intoxicating draughts of <i>parfait
+amour</i>,&mdash;when this is seen in England, even
+should the lady be past eighteen, one feels assured
+that she is not married; but here, without
+scandal or the shadow of scandal be it spoken,
+one feels equally well assured that she is. She
+may be a widow&mdash;or she may flirt in the innocence
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span>
+of her heart, because it is the fashion; but she
+cannot do it, because she is a young lady intending
+to be married.</p>
+
+<p>I was deeply engaged in these speculations last
+night, when an elderly lady&mdash;who for some reason
+or other, not very easy to divine, actually never
+waltzes&mdash;came across the room and placed herself
+by my side. Though she does not waltz, she
+is a very charming person; and as I had often
+conversed with her before, I now welcomed her
+approach with great pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"A quoi pensez-vous, Madame Trollope?" said
+she: "vous avez l'air de méditer."</p>
+
+<p>I deliberated for a moment whether I should
+venture to tell her exactly what was passing in
+my mind; but as I deliberated, I looked at her,
+and there was that in her countenance which
+assured me I should have no severity to fear if I
+put her wholly in my confidence: I therefore replied
+very frankly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am meditating; and it is on the position
+which unmarried women hold in France."</p>
+
+<p>"Unmarried women?... You will scarcely
+find any such in France," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Are not those young ladies who have just
+finished their quadrille unmarried?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!... But you cannot call them unmarried
+women. <i>Elles sont des demoiselles.</i>"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, my meditations were concerning
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh bien...."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh bien.... It appears to me that the ball is
+not given&mdash;that the music does not play&mdash;that the
+gentlemen are not <i>empressé</i>, for them."</p>
+
+<p>"No, certainly. It would be quite contrary
+to our ideas of what is right if it were so."</p>
+
+<p>"With us it is so different!... It is always
+the young ladies who are, at least, the ostensible
+heroines of every ball-room."</p>
+
+<p>"The ostensible heroines?"... She dwelt
+rather strongly upon the adjective, adding with a
+smile,&mdash;"Our ostensible, are our real heroines
+upon these occasions."</p>
+
+<p>I explained. "The real heroines," said I,
+"will, I confess, in cases of ostentation and display,
+be sometimes the ladies who give balls in return."</p>
+
+<p>"Well explained," said she, laughing: "I certainly
+thought you had another meaning. You
+think, then," she continued, "that our young
+married women are made of too much importance
+among us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!" I replied eagerly: "it is, in my
+opinion, almost impossible to make them of too
+much importance; for I believe that it is entirely
+upon their influence that the tone of society depends."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite right. It is impossible for those
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span>
+who have lived as long as we have in the world
+to doubt it: but how can this be, if, upon the
+occasions which bring people together, they are to
+be overlooked, while young girls who have as yet
+no position fixed are brought forward instead?"</p>
+
+<p>"But surely, being brought forward to dance in
+a waltz or quadrille, is not the sort of consequence
+which we either of us mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not; but it is one of its necessary
+results. Our women marry young,&mdash;as soon, in
+fact, as their education is finished, and before
+they have been permitted to enter the world, or
+share in the pleasures of it. Their destiny, therefore,
+instead of being the brightest that any women
+enjoy, would be the most <i>triste</i>, were they
+forbidden to enter into the amusements so natural
+to their age and national character, because they
+were married."</p>
+
+<p>"But may there not be danger in the custom
+which throws young females, thus early and irrevocably
+engaged, for the first time into the society,
+and, as it were, upon the attentions of men whom
+it has already become their duty not to consider
+as too amiable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!... If a young woman be well-disposed,
+it is not a quadrille, or a waltz either, that
+will lead her astray. If it could, it would surely
+be the duty of all the legislators of the earth to
+forbid the exercise for ever."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no!" said I earnestly; "I mean nothing
+of the kind, I assure you: on the contrary,
+I am so convinced, from the recollections of my
+own feelings, and my observations on those of
+others, that dancing is not a fictitious, but a
+real, natural source of enjoyment, the inclination
+for which is inherent in us, that, instead of wishing
+it to be forbidden, I would, had I the power,
+make it infinitely more general and of more frequent
+occurrence than it is: young people should
+never meet each other without the power of
+dancing if they wished it."</p>
+
+<p>"And from this animating pleasure, for which
+you confess that there is a sort of <i>besoin</i> within
+us, you would exclude all the young women
+above seventeen&mdash;because they are married?...
+Poor things!... Instead of finding them so willing
+as they generally are to enter on the busy
+scenes of life, I think we should have great difficulty
+in getting their permission to <i>monter un
+ménage</i> for them. Marriage would be soon held
+in abhorrence if such were its laws."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not have them such, I assure you,"
+replied I, rather at a loss how to explain myself
+fully without saying something that might either
+be construed into coarseness of thinking and a
+cruel misdoubting of innocence, or else into a
+very uncivil attack upon the national manners:
+I was therefore silent.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My companion seemed to expect that I should
+proceed, but after a short interval resumed the
+conversation by saying,&mdash;"Then what arrangement
+would you propose, to reconcile the necessity
+of dancing with the propriety of keeping married
+women out of the danger which you seem to imagine
+might arise from it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would be too national were I to reply, that
+I think our mode of proceeding in this case is
+exactly what it ought to be."</p>
+
+<p>"But such is your opinion?"</p>
+
+<p>"To speak sincerely, I believe it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you then have the kindness to explain
+to me the difference in this respect between
+France and England?"</p>
+
+<p>"The only difference between us which I
+mean to advocate is, that with us the amusement
+which throws young people together under
+circumstances the most likely, perhaps, to elicit
+expressions of gallantry and admiration from the
+men, and a gracious reception of them from the
+women, is considered as befitting the single rather
+than the married part of the community."</p>
+
+<p>"With us, indeed, it is exactly the reverse," replied
+she,&mdash;"at least as respects the young ladies.
+By addressing the idle, unmeaning gallantry inspired
+by the dance to a young girl, we should
+deem the cautious delicacy of restraint in which
+she is enshrined transgressed and broken in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span>
+upon. A young girl should be given to her
+husband before her passions have been awakened
+or her imagination excited by the voice of
+gallantry."</p>
+
+<p>"But when she is given to him, do you think
+this process more desirable than before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly it is not desirable; but it is infinitely
+less dangerous. When a girl is first
+married, her feelings, her thoughts, her imagination
+are wholly occupied by her husband.
+Her mode of education has ensured this; and
+afterwards, it is at the choice of her husband
+whether he will secure and retain her young
+heart for himself. If he does this, it is not a
+waltz or quadrille that will rob him of it. In
+no country have husbands so little reason to
+complain of their wives as in France; for in no
+country does the manner in which they live with
+them depend so wholly on themselves. With
+you, if your novels, and even the strange trials
+made public to all the world by your newspapers,
+may be trusted, the very reverse is the case.
+Previous attachments&mdash;early affection broken off
+before the marriage, to be renewed after it&mdash;these
+are the histories we hear and read; and
+most assuredly they do not tempt us to adopt
+your system as an amendment upon our own."</p>
+
+<p>"The very notoriety of the cases to which
+you allude proves their rare occurrence," replied I.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span>
+"Such sad histories would have but little interest
+for the public, either as tales or trials, if they
+did not relate circumstances marked and apart
+from ordinary life."</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly. But you will allow also that,
+however rare they may be in England, such
+records of scandal and of shame are rarer still
+in France?"</p>
+
+<p>"Occurrences of the kind do not perhaps produce
+so much sensation here," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Because they are more common, you would
+say. Is not that your meaning?" and she smiled
+reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly was not my meaning to say so,"
+I replied; "and, in truth, it is neither a useful
+nor a gracious occupation to examine on which
+side the Channel the greater proportion of virtue
+may be found; though it is possible some good
+might be done on both, were the education in
+each country to be modified by the introduction
+of what is best in the other."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt of it," said she; "and as we
+go on exchanging fashions so amicably, who knows
+but we may live to see your young ladies shut up
+a little more, while their mothers and fathers look
+out for a suitable marriage for them, instead of
+inflicting the awkward task upon themselves?
+And in return, perhaps, our young wives may lay
+aside their little coquetries and become <i>mères respectables</i>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span>
+somewhat earlier than they do now.
+But, in truth, they all come to it at last."</p>
+
+<p>As she finished speaking these words, a new
+waltz sounded, and again a dozen couples, some
+ill, some well matched, swam past us. One of
+the pairs was composed of a very fine-looking
+young man, with blue-black <i>favoris</i> and <i>moustaches</i>,
+tall as a tower, and seeming, if air and
+expression may be trusted, very tolerably well
+pleased with himself. His <i>danseuse</i> might unquestionably
+have addressed her husband, who
+sat at no great distance from us, drawing up
+his gouty feet under his chair to let her pass,
+in these touching words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"Full thirty times hath Ph&oelig;bus' cart gone round</p>
+<p>Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,</p>
+<p>And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen,</p>
+<p>About the world have times twelve thirties been,</p>
+<p>Since Love our hearts and Hymen did our hands</p>
+<p>Unite commutual in most sacred bands."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>My neighbour and I looked up and exchanged
+glances as they went by. We both laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"At least you will allow," said she, "that this
+is one of the cases in which a married lady may
+indulge her passion for the dance without danger
+of consequences?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not quite sure of that," replied I. "If
+she be not found guilty of sin, she will scarcely
+obtain a verdict that shall acquit her of folly.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span>
+But what can induce that magnificent personage,
+who looks down upon her as if engaged in measuring
+the distance between them&mdash;what could
+induce him to request the honour of enclosing her
+venerable waist in his arm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing more easily explained. That little
+fair girl sitting in yonder corner, with her hair
+so tightly drawn off her forehead, is her daughter&mdash;her
+only daughter, and will have a noble <i>dot</i>.
+Now you understand it?... And tell me, in case
+his speculation should not succeed, is it not better
+that this excellent lady, who waltzes so very
+like a duck, should receive all the eloquence with
+which he will seek to render himself amiable,
+upon her time-steeled heart, than that the delicate
+little girl herself should have to listen
+to it?"</p>
+
+<p>"And you really would recommend us to adopt
+this mode of love-making by deputy, letting the
+mamma be the substitute, till the young lady has
+obtained a brevet to listen to the language of love
+in her own person? However excellent the scheme
+may be, dear lady, it is vain to hope that we shall
+ever be able to introduce it among us. The young
+ladies, I suspect, would exclaim, as you do here,
+when explaining why you cannot permit any
+English innovations among you, "Ce n'est pas
+dans nos m&oelig;urs."</p>
+
+<hr class="l30" />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I assure you, my friend, that I have not composed
+this conversation <i>à loisir</i> for your amusement,
+for I have set down as nearly as possible
+what was said to me, though I have not quite
+given it all to you; but my letter is already long
+enough.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXVI.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Improvements of Paris.&mdash;Introduction of Carpets and Trottoirs.&mdash;Maisonnettes.&mdash;Not
+likely to answer in Paris.&mdash;The
+necessity of a Porter and Porter's Lodge.&mdash;-Comparative
+Expenses of France and England.&mdash;Increasing
+Wealth of the Bourgeoisie.</p>
+
+<p>Among the many recent improvements in Paris
+which evidently owe their origin to England, those
+which strike the eye first, are the almost universal
+introduction of carpets within doors, and the frequent
+blessing of a <i>trottoir</i> without. In a few
+years, unless all paving-stones should be torn up
+in search of more immortality, there can be no
+doubt that it will be almost as easy to walk in
+Paris as in London. It is true that the old streets
+are not quite wide enough to admit such enormous
+esplanades on each side as Regent and Oxford
+Streets; but all that is necessary to safety and comfort
+may be obtained with less expense of space;
+and to those who knew Paris a dozen years ago,
+when one had to hop from stone to stone in the
+fond hope of escaping wet shoes in the Dog-days&mdash;tormented
+too during the whole of this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span>
+anxious process with the terror of being run over
+by carts, fiacres, concous, cabs, and wheelbarrows;&mdash;whoever
+remembers what it was to walk in Paris
+then, will bless with an humble and grateful spirit
+the dear little pavement which, with the exception
+of necessary intervals to admit of an approach to
+the portes-cochère of the various <i>hôtels</i>, and a few
+short intervals beside, which appear to have been
+passed over and forgotten, borders most of the
+principal streets of Paris now.</p>
+
+<p>Another English innovation, infinitely more important
+in all ways, has been attempted, and has
+failed. This was the endeavour to introduce
+<i>maisonnettes</i>, or small houses calculated for the
+occupation of one family. A few such have been
+built in that new part of the town which stretches
+away in all directions behind the Madeleine; but
+they are not found to answer&mdash;and that for many
+reasons which I should have thought it very easy
+to foresee, and which I suspect it would be very
+difficult to obviate.</p>
+
+<p>In order to come at all within reach of the
+generality of French incomes, they must be built
+on too small a scale to have any good rooms; and
+this is a luxury, and permits a species of display,
+to which many are accustomed who live in unfurnished
+apartments, for which they give perhaps
+fifteen hundred or two thousand francs a year.
+Another accommodation which habit has made it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span>
+extremely difficult for French families to dispense
+with, and which can be enjoyed at an easy price
+only by sharing it with many, is a porter and a
+porter's lodge. Active as is the race of domestic
+servants in Paris, their number must, I think, be
+doubled in many families, were the arrangement
+of the porter's lodge to be changed for our system
+of having a servant summoned every time a parcel,
+a message, a letter, or a visit arrives at the house.</p>
+
+<p>Nor does the taking charge of these by any
+means comprise the whole duty of this servant of
+many masters; neither am I at all competent to
+say exactly what does: but it seems to me that the
+answer I generally receive upon desiring that anything
+may be done is, "Oui, madame, le portier
+ou la portière fera cela;" and were we suddenly
+deprived of these factotums, I suspect that we
+should be immediately obliged to leave our apartments
+and take refuge in an hôtel, for I should be
+quite at a loss to know what or how many additional
+"helps" would be necessary to enable us
+to exist without them.</p>
+
+<p>That the whole style and manner of domestic
+existence throughout all the middling classes of
+such a city as Paris should hang upon their
+porters' lodges, seems tracing great effects to little
+causes; but I have been so repeatedly told that
+the failure of the <i>maisonnettes</i> has in a great degree
+arisen from this, that I cannot doubt it.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I know not whether anything which prevents
+their so completely changing their mode of life as
+they must do if living in separate houses, is to be
+considered as an evil or not. The Parisians are a
+very agreeable, and apparently a very happy population;
+and who can say what effect the quiet,
+steady, orderly mode of each man having a small
+house of his own might produce? What is admirable
+as a component part of one character, is
+often incongruous and disagreeable when met in
+another; and I am by no means certain if the
+snug little mansion which might be procured for
+the same rent as a handsome apartment, would
+not tend to circumscribe and tame down the light
+spirits that now send <i>locataires</i> of threescore
+springing to their elegant <i>premier</i> by two stairs at
+a time. And the prettiest and best <i>chaussés</i> little
+feet in the world too, which now trip <i>sans souci</i>
+over the common stair, would they not lag painfully
+perhaps in passing through a low-browed
+hall, whose neatness or unneatness had become a
+private and individual concern? And might not
+many a bright fancy be damped while calculating
+how much it would cost to have a few statues
+and oleanders in it?&mdash;and the head set aching by
+meditating how to get "ce vilain escalier frotté"
+from top to bottom? Yet all these, and many other
+cares which they now escape, must fall upon them
+if they give up their apartments for <i>maisonnettes</i>.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The fact, I believe, is, that French fortunes,
+taken at the average at which they at present
+stand, could not suffice to procure the pretty elegance
+to which the middle classes are accustomed,
+unless it were done by the sacrifice of some portion
+of that costly fastidiousness which English
+people of the same rank seem to cling to as part
+of their prerogative.</p>
+
+<p>Though I am by no means prepared to say that
+I should like to exchange my long-confirmed habit
+of living in a house of my own for the Parisian
+mode of inhabiting apartments, I cannot but allow
+that by this and sundry other arrangements a
+French income is made to contribute infinitely
+more to the enjoyment of its possessor than an
+English one.</p>
+
+<p>Let any English person take the trouble of
+calculating, let their revenue be great or small,
+how much of it is expended in what immediately
+contributes to their personal comfort and luxury,
+and how much of it is devoted to the support of
+expenses which in point of fact add to neither, and
+the truth of this statement will become evident.</p>
+
+<p>Rousseau says, that "cela se fait," and "cela
+ne se fait pas," are the words which regulate
+everything that goes on within the walls of Paris.
+That the same words have at least equal power
+in London, can hardly be denied; and, unfortunately
+for our individual independence, obedience
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span>
+to them costs infinitely more on our side of the
+water than it does on this. Hundreds are annually
+spent, out of very confined incomes, to
+support expenses which have nothing whatever
+to do with the personal enjoyment of those who
+so tax themselves; but it must be submitted to,
+because "cela se fait," or "cela ne se fait pas."
+In Paris, on the contrary, this imperative phrase
+has comparatively no influence on the expenditure
+of any revenue, because every one's object is not
+to make it appear that he is as rich as his neighbour,
+but to make his means, be they great or
+small, contribute as much as possible to the enjoyment
+and embellishment of his existence.</p>
+
+<p>It is for this reason that a residence in Paris
+is found so favourable an expedient in cases of
+diminished or insufficient fortune. A family coming
+hither in the hope of obtaining the mere necessaries
+of life at a much cheaper rate than in
+England would be greatly disappointed: some
+articles are cheaper, but many are considerably
+dearer; and, in truth, I doubt if at the present
+moment anything that can be strictly denominated
+a necessary of life is to be found cheaper
+in Paris than in London.</p>
+
+<p>It is not the necessaries, but the luxuries of
+life that are cheaper here. Wine, ornamental furniture,
+the keep of horses, the price of carriages,
+the entrance to theatres, wax-lights, fruit, books,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span>
+the rent of handsome apartments, the wages of
+men-servants, are all greatly cheaper, and direct
+taxes greatly less. But even this is not the chief
+reason why a residence in Paris may be found
+economical to persons of any pretension to rank
+or style at home. The necessity for parade, so
+much the most costly of all the appendages to
+rank, may here be greatly dispensed with, and that
+without any degradation whatever. In short,
+the advantage of living in Paris as a matter of
+economy depends entirely upon the degree of
+luxury to be obtained. There are certainly many
+points of delicacy and refinement in the English
+manner of living which I should be very sorry
+to see given up as national peculiarities; but
+I think we should gain much in many ways
+could we learn to hang our consequence less upon
+the comparison of what others do. We shudder
+at the cruel madness of the tyrant who would
+force every form to reach one standard; but
+those are hardly less mad who insist that every
+one, to live <i>comme il faut</i>, must live, or appear
+to live, exactly as others do, though the means
+of doing so may vary among the silly set so
+prescribed to, from an income that may justify
+any extravagance to one that can honestly supply
+none.</p>
+
+<p>This is a folly of incalculably rarer occurrence
+here than in England; and it certainly is no
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span>
+proof of the good sense of our "most thinking
+people," that for one private family brought to
+ruin by extravagance in France, there are fifty
+who suffer from this cause in England.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to perceive that our great wealth
+has been the cause of this. The general scale of
+expense has been set so high, that thousands who
+have lived in reference to that, rather than to
+their individual fortunes, have been ruined by the
+blunder; and I really know no remedy so likely
+to cure the evil as a residence in Paris; not, however,
+so much as a means of saving money, as of
+making a series of experiments which may teach
+them how to make the best and most enjoyable
+use of it.</p>
+
+<p>I am persuaded, that if it were to become as
+much the fashion to imitate the French independence
+of mind in our style of living, as it
+now is to copy them in ragoûts, bonnets, moustaches,
+and or-molu, we should greatly increase
+our stock of real genuine enjoyment. If no English
+lady should ever again feel a pang at her heart
+because she saw more tall footmen in her neighbour's
+hall than in her own&mdash;if no sighs were
+breathed in secret in any club-house or at any
+sale, because Jack Somebody's stud was a cut
+above us&mdash;if no bills were run up at Gunter's, or
+at Howell and James's, because it was worse than
+death to be outdone,&mdash;we should unquestionably be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span>
+a happier and a more respectable people than we
+are at present.</p>
+
+<p>It is, I believe, pretty generally acknowledged
+by all parties, that the citizens of France have
+become a more money-getting generation since
+the last revolution than they ever were before it.
+The security and repose which the new dynasty
+seems to have brought with it, have already given
+them time and opportunity to multiply their capital;
+and the consequence is, that the shop-keeping
+propensities with which Napoleon used
+to reproach us have crossed the Channel, and are
+beginning to produce very considerable alterations
+here.</p>
+
+<p>It is evident that the wealth of the <i>bourgeoisie</i>
+is rapidly increasing, and their consequence with
+it; so rapidly, indeed, that the republicans are
+taking fright at it,&mdash;they see before them a new
+enemy, and begin to talk of the abominations of
+an aristocratic <i>bourgeoisie</i>.</p>
+
+<p>There is, in fact, no circumstance in the whole
+aspect of the country more striking or more
+favourable than this new and powerful impulse
+given to trade. It is the best ballast that the
+vessel of the state can have; and if they can
+but contrive that nothing shall happen to occasion
+its being thrown overboard, it may suffice
+to keep her steady, whatever winds may
+blow.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The wide-spreading effect of this increasing
+wealth among the <i>bourgeoisie</i> is visible in many
+ways, but in none more than in the rapid increase
+of handsome dwellings, which are springing
+up, as white and bright as new-born mushrooms,
+in the north-western division of Paris. This is
+quite a new world, and reminds me of the early
+days of Russell Square, and all the region about
+it. The Church of the Madeleine, instead of
+being, as I formerly remember it, nearly at the
+extremity of Paris, has now a new city behind it;
+and if things go on at the same rate at which
+they seem to be advancing at present, we shall
+see it, or at least our children will, occupying as
+central a position as St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.
+An excellent market, called Marché de la Madeleine,
+has already found its way to this new town;
+and I doubt not that churches, theatres, and restaurans
+innumerable will speedily follow.</p>
+
+<p>The capital which is now going so merrily on,
+increasing with almost American rapidity, will
+soon ask to be invested; and when this happens,
+Paris will be seen running out of town with the
+same active pace that London has done before
+her; and twenty years hence the Bois de Boulogne
+may very likely be as thickly peopled as
+the Regent's Park is now.</p>
+
+<p>This sudden accession of wealth has already
+become the cause of a great increase in the price
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span>
+of almost every article sold in Paris; and if this
+activity of commerce continue, it is more than
+probable, that the hitherto moderate fortunes of
+the Parisian <i>boursier</i> and merchant will grow into
+something resembling the colossal capitals of England,
+and we shall find that the same causes which
+have hitherto made England dear will in future
+prevent France from being cheap. It will then
+happen, that many deficiencies which are now perceptible,
+and which furnish the most remarkable
+points of difference between the two countries, will
+disappear; great wealth being in many instances
+all that is required to make a French family live
+very much like an English one. Whether they
+will not, when this time arrives, lose on the side
+of unostentatious enjoyment more than they will
+gain by increased splendour, may, I think, be very
+doubtful. For my own part, I am decidedly of opinion,
+that as soon as heavy ceremonious dinners
+shall systematically take place of the present easy,
+unexpensive style of visiting, Paris will be more
+than half spoiled, and the English may make up
+their minds to remain proudly and pompously at
+home, lest, instead of a light and lively contrast
+to their own ways, they may chance to find a
+heavy but successful rivalry.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXVII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Horrible Murder.&mdash;La Morgue.&mdash;Suicides.&mdash;Vanity.&mdash;Anecdote.&mdash;Influence
+of Modern Literature.&mdash;Different
+appearance of Poverty in France and England.</p>
+
+<p>We have been made positively sick and miserable
+by the details of a murder, which seems
+to show that we live in a world where there are
+creatures ten thousand times more savage than
+any beast that ranges the forest,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,</p>
+<p>Pard, or boar with bristled hair."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This horror was perpetrated on the person of a
+wretched female, who appeared, by the mangled
+remains which were found in the river, to have
+been very young. But though thus much was
+discovered, it was many days ere, among the thousands
+who flocked to the Morgue to look at the
+severed head and mangled limbs, any one could
+be found to recognise the features. At length,
+however, the person with whom she had lodged
+came to see if she could trace any resemblance
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span>
+between her lost inmate and these wretched relics
+of a human being.</p>
+
+<p>She so far succeeded as to convince herself of
+the identity; though her means of judging appeared
+to be so little satisfactory, that few placed
+any reliance upon her testimony. Nevertheless,
+she at length succeeded in having a man taken
+up, who had lived on intimate terms with the
+poor creature whose sudden disappearance had
+induced this woman to visit the Morgue when
+the description of this mangled body reached her.
+He immediately confessed the deed, in the spirit,
+though not in the words, of the poet:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">"Mourons: de tant d'horreurs qu'un trépas me délivre!</p>
+<p>Est-ce un malheur si grand que de cesser de vivre?</p>
+
+<hr class="l30" />
+
+<p>Je ne crains pas le nom que je laisse après moi."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The peculiarly horrid manner in which the
+crime was committed, and the audacious style
+in which the criminal appears to brave justice,
+will, it is thought, prevent any <i>extenuating circumstances</i>
+being pleaded, as is usually done, for
+the purpose of commuting the punishment of
+death into imprisonment with enforced labour.
+It is generally expected that this atrocious murderer
+will be guillotined, notwithstanding the
+averseness of the government to capital punishment.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The circumstances are, indeed, hideous in all
+ways, and the more so from being mixed up
+with what is miscalled the tender passion. The
+cannibal fury which sets a man to kill his foe
+that he may eat him, has fully as much tenderness
+in it as this species of affection.</p>
+
+<p>When "the passion is made up of nothing but
+the finest parts of love," it may, perhaps, deserve
+the epithet of tender; but we have heard of late
+of so many horrible and deliberate assassinations,
+originating in what newspapers are pleased to
+call "<i>une grande passion</i>" that the first idea
+which a love-story now suggests to me is, that
+the sequel will in all probability be murder "most
+foul, strange, and unnatural!"</p>
+
+<p>Is there in any language a word that can raise
+so many shuddering sensations as "<i>La Morgue</i>?"
+Hatred, revenge, murder, are each terrible; but
+La Morgue outdoes them all in its power of
+bringing together in one syllable the abstract of
+whatever is most appalling in crime, poverty,
+despair, and death.</p>
+
+<p>To the ghastly Morgue are conveyed the unowned
+dead of every description that are discovered
+in or near Paris. The Seine is the great receptacle
+which first receives the victims of assassination
+or despair; but they are not long permitted
+to elude the vigilance of the Parisian police: a
+huge net, stretched across the river at St. Cloud,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span>
+receives and retains whatever the stream brings
+down; and anything that retains a trace of human
+form which is found amidst the product of
+the fearful draught is daily conveyed to La Morgue;&mdash;<span class="smcap">daily</span>;
+for rarely does it chance that for
+four-and-twenty hours its melancholy biers remain
+unoccupied; often do eight, ten, a dozen
+corpses at a time arrive by the frightful caravan
+from "<i>les filets de St. Cloud</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I have, in common with most people, I believe,
+a very strong propensity within me for seeing
+everything connected directly or indirectly with
+any subject or event which has strongly roused
+my curiosity, or interested my feelings; but,
+strange to say, I never feel its influence so irresistible
+as when something of shuddering horror
+is mixed with the spectacle. It is this propensity
+which has now induced me to visit this citadel of
+death;&mdash;this low and solitary roof, placed in the
+very centre of moving, living, laughing Paris.</p>
+
+<p>No visit to a tomb, however solemn or however
+sad, can approach in thrilling horror to the sensation
+caused by passing the threshold of this charnel-house.</p>
+
+<p>The tomb calls us to the contemplation of the
+common, the inevitable lot; but this gathering
+place of sin and death arouses thoughts of all
+that most outrages nature, and most foully violates
+the sanctuary of life, into which God has
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span>
+breathed his spirit. But I was steadfast in my
+will to visit it, and I have done it.</p>
+
+<p>The building is a low, square, carefully-whited
+structure, situated on the Quai de la Cité. It is
+open to all; and it is fearful to think how many
+anxious hearts have entered, how many despairing
+ones have quitted it.</p>
+
+<p>On entering I found myself in a sort of low
+hall which contained no object whatever. If I
+mistake not, there is a chamber on each side of
+it: but it was to the left hand that I was led,
+and it was thither that about a dozen persons
+who entered at the same time either followed
+or preceded me. I do not too well remember
+how I reached the place where the bodies are
+visible; but I know that I stood before one of
+three large windows, through the panes of which,
+and very near to them, lighted also by windows
+in the roof, are seen a range of biers, sloping
+towards the spectator at an angle that gives the
+countenance as well as the whole figure of the
+persons extended on them fully to view.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner I saw the bodies of four men
+stretched out before me; but their aspect bore
+no resemblance to death&mdash;neither were they
+swollen or distorted in any way, but so discoloured
+as to give them exactly the appearance
+of bronze statues.</p>
+
+<p>Two out of the four had evidently been murdered,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span>
+for their heads and throats gave frightful
+evidence of the violence that had been practised
+upon them; the third was a mere boy, who
+probably met his fate by accident: but that the
+fourth was a suicide, it was hardly possible to
+doubt; even in death his features held the desperate
+expression that might best paint the state
+of mind likely to lead to such an act.</p>
+
+<p>It was past mid-day when we entered the
+Morgue; but neither of the bodies had yet been
+claimed or recognised.</p>
+
+<p>This spectacle naturally set me upon seeking
+information, wherever I was likely to find it,
+respecting the average number of bodies thus
+exposed within the year, the proportion of them
+believed to be suicides, and the causes generally
+supposed most influential in producing this dreadful
+termination.</p>
+
+<p>I will not venture to repeat the result of these
+inquiries in figures, as I doubt if the information
+I received was of that strictly accurate kind
+which could justify my doing so; yet it was
+quite enough so, to excite both horror and astonishment
+at the extraordinary number which
+are calculated to perish annually at Paris by self-slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>In many recent instances, the causes which
+have led to these desperate deeds have been
+ascertained by the written acknowledgment of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span>
+the perpetrators themselves, left as a legacy to
+mankind. Such a legacy might perhaps not be
+wholly unprofitable to the survivors, were it not
+that the motives assigned, in almost every instance
+where they have been published, have been of so
+frivolous and contemptible a nature as to turn
+wholesome horror to most ill-placed mirth.</p>
+
+<p>It can hardly be doubted, from the testimony
+of these singular documents, that many young
+Frenchmen perish yearly in this guilty and deplorable
+manner for no other reason in the world
+than the hope of being talked of afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Had some solitary instance of so perverted a
+vanity been found among these records, it might
+perhaps have been considered as no more incredible
+than various other proofs of the enfeebling
+effects of this paltry passion on the judgment,
+and have been set down to insanity, produced by
+excessive egotism: but nothing short of the posthumous
+testimony of the persons themselves could
+induce any one to believe that scarcely a week
+passes without such an event, from such a cause,
+taking place in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>In many instances, I am told that the good
+sense of surviving friends has led them to disobey
+the testamentary instructions left by the
+infatuated young men who have thus acted, requesting
+that the wretched reasonings which have
+led them to it should be published. But, in a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span>
+multitude of cases, the "Constitutionnel" and other
+journals of the same stamp have their columns
+filled with reasons why these poor reckless creatures
+have dared the distant justice of their
+Creator, in the hope that their unmeaning names
+should be echoed through Paris for a day.</p>
+
+<p>It is not long since two young men&mdash;mere
+youths&mdash;entered a <i>restaurant</i>, and bespoke a dinner
+of unusual luxury and expense, and afterwards
+arrived punctually at the appointed hour
+to eat it. They did so, apparently with all the
+zest of youthful appetite and youthful glee. They
+called for champagne, and quaffed it hand in
+hand. No symptom of sadness, thought, or reflection
+of any kind was observed to mix with
+their mirth, which was loud, long, and unremitting.
+At last came the <i>café noir</i>, the cognac,
+and the bill: one of them was seen to point out
+the amount to the other, and then both burst out
+afresh into violent laughter. Having swallowed
+each his cup of coffee to the dregs, the <i>garçon</i> was
+ordered to request the company of the <i>restaurateur</i>
+for a few minutes. He came immediately, expecting
+perhaps to receive his bill, minus some
+extra charge which the jocund but economical
+youths might deem exorbitant.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of this, however, the elder of the two
+informed him that the dinner had been excellent,
+which was the more fortunate as it was decidedly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span>
+the last that either of them should ever eat: that
+for his bill, he must of necessity excuse the payment
+of it, as in fact they neither of them possessed
+a single sous: that upon no other occasion
+would they thus have violated the customary etiquette
+between guest and landlord; but that finding
+this world, its toils and its troubles, unworthy
+of them, they had determined once more to enjoy
+a repast of which their poverty must for ever prevent
+the repetition, and then&mdash;take leave of existence
+for ever! For the first part of this resolution,
+he declared that it had, thanks to his cook
+and his cellar, been achieved nobly; and for the
+last, it would soon follow&mdash;for the <i>café noir</i>, besides
+the little glass of his admirable cognac, had
+been medicated with that which would speedily
+settle all their accounts for them.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>restaurateur</i> was enraged. He believed
+no part of the rhodomontade but that which
+declared their inability to discharge the bill, and
+he talked loudly, in his turn, of putting them into
+the hands of the police. At length, however,
+upon their offering to give him their address, he
+was persuaded to let them depart.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, either the hope of obtaining
+his money, or some vague fear that they
+might have been in earnest in the wild tale that
+they had told him, induced this man to go to
+the address they had left with him; and he there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span>
+heard that the two unhappy boys had been that
+morning found lying together hand in hand, on
+a bed hired a few weeks before by one of them.
+When they were discovered, they were already
+dead and quite cold.</p>
+
+<p>On a small table in the room lay many written
+papers, all expressing aspirations after greatness
+that should cost neither labour nor care, a profound
+contempt for those who were satisfied to
+live by the sweat of their brow&mdash;sundry quotations
+from Victor Hugo, and a request that their names
+and the manner of their death might be transmitted
+to the newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>Many are the cases recorded of young men,
+calling themselves dear friends, who have thus
+encouraged each other to make their final exit
+from life, if not with applause, at least with effect.
+And more numerous still are the tales recounted
+of young men and women found dead, and locked
+in each other's arms; fulfilling literally, and with
+most sad seriousness, the destiny sketched so
+merrily in the old song:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+Gai, gai, marions-nous&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i1">Mettons-nous dans la misère;</p>
+<p>Gai, gai, marions-nous&mdash;</p>
+<p>Mettons-nous la corde au cou.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I have heard it remarked by several individuals
+among those who are watching with no unphilosophical
+eyes many ominous features of the present
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span>
+time and the present race, or rather perhaps
+of that portion of the population which stand
+apart from the rest in dissolute idleness, that the
+worst of all its threatening indications is the reckless,
+hard indifference, and gladiator-like contempt
+of death, which is nurtured, taught, and lauded
+as at once the foundation and perfection of all
+human wisdom and of all human virtue.</p>
+
+<p>In place of the firmness derived from hope
+and resignation, these unhappy sophists seek courage
+in desperation, and consolation in notoriety.
+With this key to the philosophy of the day, it is
+not difficult to read its influence on many a countenance
+that one meets among those who are
+lounging in listless laziness on the Boulevards or
+in the gardens of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>The aspect of these figures is altogether unlike
+what we may too often see among those who
+linger, sunken, pale, and hopeless, on the benches
+of our parks, or loiter under porticos and colonnades,
+as if waiting for courage to beg. Hunger
+and intemperance often leave blended traces on
+such figures as these, exciting at once pity and
+disgust. I have encountered at Paris nothing
+like this: whether any such exist, I know not;
+but if they do, their beat is distant from the public
+walks and fashionable promenades. Instead
+of these, however, there is a race who seem to
+live there, less wretched perhaps in actual want
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span>
+of bread, but as evidently thriftless, homeless, and
+friendless as the other. On the faces of such, one
+may read a state of mind wholly different,&mdash;less
+degraded, but still more perverted;&mdash;a wild, bold
+eye, that rather seeks than turns from every passing
+glance&mdash;unshrinking hardihood, but founded
+more on indifference than endurance, and a
+scornful sneer for any who may suffer curiosity
+to conquer disgust, while they fix their eye for a
+moment upon a figure that looks in all ways as if
+got up to enact the hero of a melodrame. Were
+I the king, or the minister either, I should think
+it right to keep an eye of watchfulness upon all
+such picturesque individuals; for one might say
+most truly,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"Yon Cassius hath a lean and hungry look;</p>
+<p>He thinks too much: such men are dangerous."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The friend to whom I addressed myself on the
+subject of these constantly-recurring suicides told
+me that there was great reason to believe that the
+increase of this crime, so remarkable during the
+last few years, might be almost wholly attributed
+to the "light literature," as it is called, of the
+period:&mdash;dark literature would be a fitter name
+for it.</p>
+
+<p>The total absence of anything approaching to
+a virtuous principle of action in every fictitious
+character held up to admiration throughout all
+the tales and dramas of the <i>décousu</i> school, while
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span>
+every hint of religion is banished as if it were
+treason to allude to it, is in truth quite enough
+to account for every species of depravity in those
+who make such characters their study and their
+model. "How oft and by how many shall they
+be laughed to scorn!"&mdash;yet believing all the while,
+poor souls! that they are producing a sensation,
+and that the eyes of Europe are fixed upon them,
+notwithstanding they once worked as a tailor or
+a tinker, or at some other such unpoetical handiwork;
+for they may all be described in the words
+of Ecclesiasticus, with a very slight alteration,&mdash;"They
+would maintain the state of the world,
+and all their desire is in (forgetting) the work of
+their craft."</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Opéra Comique.&mdash;"Cheval de Bronze."&mdash;"La Marquise."&mdash;Impossibility
+of playing Tragedy.&mdash;Mrs. Siddons's Readings.&mdash;Mademoiselle
+Mars has equal power.&mdash;<i>Laisser
+aller</i> of the Female Performers.&mdash;Decline of Theatrical
+Taste among the Fashionable.</p>
+
+<p>The "Cheval de Bronze" being the <i>spectacle par
+excellence</i> at the Opéra Comique this season, we
+have considered it a matter of sight-seeing necessity
+to pay it a visit; and we have all agreed that
+it is as perfectly beautiful in its scenery and decorations
+as the size of the theatre would permit.
+We gazed upon it, indeed, with a perfection of
+contentment, which, in secret committee afterwards,
+we confessed did not say much in favour
+of our intellectual faculties.</p>
+
+<p>I really know not how it is that one can sit,
+not only without murmuring, but with positive
+satisfaction, for three hours together, with no
+other occupation than looking at a collection of
+gewgaw objects, with a most unmeaning crowd,
+made for the most part by Nature's journeymen,
+incessantly undulating among them. Yet so it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span>
+is, that a skilful arrangement of blue and white
+gauze, aided by the magic of many-coloured lights,
+decidedly the prettiest of all modern toys, made
+us exclaim at every fresh man&oelig;uvre of the carpenter,
+"Beautiful! beautiful!" with as much
+delight as ever a child of five years old displayed
+at a first-rate exhibition of Punch.</p>
+
+<p>M. Auber's music has some pretty things in
+it; but he has done much better in days of yore;
+and the wretched taste exhibited by all the principal
+singers made me heartily wish that the well-appointed
+orchestra had kept the whole performance
+to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Casimir has had, and indeed still has,
+a rich and powerful voice: but the meanest peasant-girl
+in Germany, who trims her vines to the
+sound of her native airs, might give her a lesson
+on taste more valuable than all that science has
+ever taught her.</p>
+
+<p>I should like, could I do so with a conscience
+that should not reproach me with exaggeration,
+to name Miss Stephens and Madame Casimir as
+fair national specimens of English and French
+singing. And in fact they are so; though I confess
+that the over-dressing of Madame Casimir's
+airs is almost as much out of the common way
+here, as the chaste simplicity of our native syren's
+strains is with us: yet the one is essentially English,
+and the other French.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We were told that the manager of our London
+theatres had been in Paris for the purpose of seeing
+and taking a cast from this fine Chinese butterfly.
+If this be so, Mr. Bunn will find great
+advantage from the extent of his theatre: that of
+the Opéra Comique is scarcely of sufficient magnitude
+to exhibit its gaudy but graceful <i>tableaux</i> to
+advantage. But, on the other hand, I doubt if he
+will find any actress quite so <i>piquante</i> as the
+pretty Madame &mdash;&mdash;, in the last act, when she relates
+to the enchanted princess, her mistress, the
+failure she had made in attempting by her <i>agaceries</i>
+to retain the young female who had ventured
+into the magic region: and if he did, I doubt
+still more if her performance would be received
+with equal applause.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>petite comédie</i> called "La Marquise" preceded
+this brilliant trifle. The fable must, I
+think, be taken, though greatly changed, from a
+story of George Sand. It has perhaps little in it
+worth talking about; but it is a fair specimen of
+one of that most agreeable of French nationalities,
+a natural, easy, playful little piece, at which you
+may sit and laugh in sympathy with the performers
+as much as with the characters, till you forget
+that there are such things as sorrow and sadness
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The acting in this style is so very good, that the
+author's task really seems to be the least important
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span>
+part of the business. It is not at one theatre,
+but at all, that we have witnessed this extraordinary
+excellence in the performance of this species
+of drama; but I doubt if the chasm which seems
+to surround the tragic muse, keeping her apart on
+a pedestal sacred to recollections, be at all wider
+or more profound in England than in France. In
+truth, it is less impassible with us than it is here;
+for though I will allow that our tragic actresses
+may be no better than those of France, seeing
+that a woman's will in the one case, and the Atlantic
+Ocean in the other, have robbed us of Mrs.
+Bartley and the Fanny&mdash;who between them might
+bring our stage back to all its former glory,&mdash;still
+they have neither Charles Kemble nor Macready
+to stand in the place that Talma has left vacant.</p>
+
+<p>I have indeed no doubt whatever that Mademoiselle
+Mars could read Corneille and Racine as
+effectively as Mrs. Siddons read Shakspeare in the
+days of Argyle-street luxury, and, like our great
+maga, give to every part a power that it never
+had before. I well remember coming home from
+one of Mrs. Siddons's readings with a passionate
+desire to see her act the part of Hamlet; and
+from another, quite persuaded that by some means
+the witch-scene in Macbeth should be so arranged
+that she should speak every word of it.</p>
+
+<p>In like manner, were I to hear Mars read
+Corneille, I should insist upon it that she ought
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span>
+to play the Cid; and if Racine, Oreste would
+probably be the first part I should choose for
+her. But as even she, with all her Garrick-like
+versatility, would not be able to perform
+every part of every play, tragedy must be permitted
+to repose for the present in France as
+well as in England.</p>
+
+<p>During this interregnum, it is well for them,
+considering how dearly they love to amuse themselves,
+that they have a stock of comedians, old,
+young, and middle-aged, that they need not fear
+should fail; for the whole French nation seem
+gifted with a talent that might enable them to
+supply, at an hour's warning, any deficiencies in
+the company.</p>
+
+<p>I seldom return from an exhibition of this sort
+without endeavouring in some degree to analyse
+the charm that has enchanted me: but in most
+cases this is too light, too subtile, to permit itself
+to be caught by so matter-of-fact a process. I
+protest to you, that I am often half ashamed of
+the pleasure I receive from ... I know not
+what. A playful smile, a speaking glance, a
+comic tone, a pretty gesture, give effect to words
+that have often nothing in them more witty or
+more wise than may often be met with (especially
+here) in ordinary conversation. But the whole
+thing is so thoroughly understood, from the "<i>père
+noble</i>" to the scene-shifter&mdash;so perfect in its getting-up&mdash;the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span>
+piece so admirably suited to the
+players, and the players to the piece,&mdash;that whatever
+there is to admire and enjoy, comes to you
+with no drawbacks from blunders or awkwardness
+of any kind.</p>
+
+<p>That the composition of these happy trifles
+cannot be a work of any great labour or difficulty,
+may be reasonably inferred from the ceaseless
+succession of novelties which every theatre
+and every season produces. The process, for this
+lively and ready-witted people, must be pleasant
+enough&mdash;they must catch from what passes before
+them; no difficult task, perhaps&mdash;some <i>piquante</i>
+situation or ludicrous <i>bévue</i>: the slightest
+thread is strong enough to hold together the
+light materials of the plot; and then must follow
+the christening of a needful proportion of male
+and female, old and young, enchanting and ridiculous
+personages. The list of these once set
+down, and the order of scenes which are to
+bring forth the plot arranged, I can fancy the
+author perfectly enjoying himself as he puts into
+the mouth of each character all the saucy impertinences
+upon every subject that his imagination,
+skilful enough in such matters, can suggest.
+When to this is added an occasional touch of
+natural feeling, and a little popular high-mindedness
+in any line, the <i>petite comédie</i> is ready for
+the stage.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is certainly a very light manufacture, and
+depends perhaps more upon the fearless <i>laisser
+aller</i> of both author and actor than upon the
+brilliancy of wit which it displays. That old-fashioned
+blushing grace too, so much in favour
+with King Solomon, and called in scripture phrase
+shamefacedness, is sacrificed rather too unmercifully
+by the female part of the performers, in the
+fear, as it should seem, of impairing the spirit and
+vivacity of the scene by any scruple of any kind.
+But I suspect these ladies miscalculate the respective
+value of opposing graces; Mademoiselle
+Mars may show them that delicacy and vivacity
+are not inseparable; and though I confess that
+it would be a little unreasonable to expect all
+the female vaudevillists of Paris to be like Mars,
+I cannot but think that, in a city where her mode
+of playing comedy has for so many years been
+declared perfect, it must be unnecessary to seek
+the power of attraction from what is so utterly
+at variance with it.</p>
+
+<p>The performance of comedy is often assisted
+here by a freedom among the actors which I
+have sometimes, but not often, seen permitted
+in London. It requires for its success, and indeed
+for its endurance, that the audience should
+be perfectly in good-humour, and sympathise very
+cordially with the business of the scene. I allude
+to the part which the performers sometimes take
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span>
+not only in the acting, but in the enjoyment of
+it. I never in my life saw people more heartily
+amused, or disposed more unceremoniously to
+show it, than the actors in the "Précieuses
+Ridicules," which I saw played a few nights ago
+at the Français. On this occasion I think the
+spirit of the performance was certainly heightened
+by this license, and for this reason&mdash;the scene
+represents a group in which one party must of
+necessity be exceedingly amused by the success
+of the mystification which they are practising on
+the other. But I own that I have sometimes
+felt a little <i>English stiffness</i> at perceiving an air
+of frolic and fun upon the stage, which seemed
+fully as much got up for the performers as for
+the audience. But though the instance I have
+named of this occurred at the Théâtre Français,
+it is not there that it is likely to be carried to
+any offensive extent. The lesser theatres would
+in many instances do well to copy closely the
+etiquette and decorum of all kinds which the
+great national theatre exhibits: but perhaps it
+is hardly fair to expect this; and besides, we
+might be told, justly enough, to <i>look at home</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The theatres, particularly the minor ones, appear
+to be still very well attended: but I constantly
+hear the same observations made in Paris
+as in London upon the decline of theatrical taste
+among the higher orders; and it arises, I think,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span>
+from the same cause in both countries,&mdash;namely,
+the late dinner-hour, which renders the going to
+a play a matter of general family arrangement,
+and often of general family difficulty. The opera,
+which is later, is always full; and were it not
+that I have lived too long in the world to be
+surprised at anything that the power of fashion
+could effect, I should certainly be astonished that
+so lively a people as the French should throng
+night after night as they do to witness the exceeding
+dulness of this heavy spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>The only people I have yet seen enjoying their
+theatres rationally, without abstaining from what
+they liked because it was unfashionable, or enduring
+what they did not, because it was the
+<i>mode</i>, are the Germans. Their genuine and universal
+love of music makes their delicious opera
+almost a necessary of life to them; and they must,
+I think, absolutely change their nature before
+they will suffer the silly conventional elegance
+supposed by some to attach to the act of eating
+their dinner late, to interfere with their enjoyment
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>I used to think the theatre as dear to the
+French as music to the Germans. But what is
+a taste in France is, from the firmer fibre of the
+national character, a passion in Germany;&mdash;and
+it is easier to abandon a taste than to control
+a passion.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, however, in England and France too,
+if some new-born theatrical talent of the first
+class were to "flame in the forehead of the morning
+sky," both Paris and London would submit
+to the degradation of dining at five o'clock in
+order to enjoy it: but late hours and indifferent
+performances, together, have gone far towards
+placing the stage among the popular rather than
+the fashionable amusements of either.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XXXIX.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">381</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+The Abbé de Lamennais.&mdash;Cobbett.&mdash;O'Connell.&mdash;Napoleon.&mdash;Robespierre.</p>
+
+<p>I had last night the satisfaction of meeting the
+Abbé de Lamennais at a <i>soirée</i>. It was at the
+house of Madame Benjamin Constant; whose
+<i>salon</i> is as celebrated for the talent of every kind
+to be met there, as for the delightful talents and
+amiable qualities of its mistress.</p>
+
+<p>In general appearance, this celebrated man recalls
+an original drawing that I remember to have
+seen of Rousseau. He is greatly below the ordinary
+height, and extremely small in his proportions.
+His countenance is very striking, and singularly
+indicative of habitual meditation; but
+the deep-set eye has something very nearly approaching
+to wildness in its rapid glance. His
+dress was black, but had certainly more of republican
+negligence than priestly dignity in it; and
+the little, tight, chequered cravat which encircled
+his slender throat, gave him decidedly the appearance
+of a person who heeded not either the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span>
+fashion of the day, or the ordinary costume of the
+<i>salon</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He, in company with four or five other distinguished
+men, had dined with Madame Constant;
+and we found him deep sunk in a <i>bergère</i> that
+almost concealed his diminutive person, surrounded
+by a knot of gentlemen, with whom he was
+conversing with great eagerness and animation.
+On one side of him was M. Jouy, the well-known
+"<i>Hermite</i>" of the Chaussée d'Antin; and on the
+other, a deputy well known on the benches of the
+<i>côté gauche</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I was placed immediately opposite to him, and
+have seldom watched the play of a more animated
+countenance. In the course of the evening, he
+was brought up and introduced to me. His manners
+are extremely gentlemanlike; no stiffness
+or reserve, either rustic or priestly, interfering
+with their easy vivacity. He immediately drew
+a chair <i>vis-à-vis</i> to the sofa on which I was placed,
+and continued thus, with his back turned to the
+rest of the company, conversing very agreeably,
+till so many persons collected round him, many
+of whom were ladies, that not feeling pleased, I
+suppose, to sit while they stood, he bowed off,
+and retreated again to his <i>bergère</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that he must not remain long in
+Paris, where he was too much in society to do
+anything; that he should speedily retreat to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span>
+profound seclusion of his native Brittany, and
+there finish the work upon which he was engaged.
+Whether this work be the defence of the <i>prévenus
+d'Avril</i>, which he has threatened to fulminate
+in a printed form at the head of those who refused
+to let him plead for them in court, I know
+not; but this document, whenever it appears, is
+expected to be violent, powerful, and eloquent.</p>
+
+<p>The writings of the Abbé de Lamennais remind
+me strongly of those of Cobbett,&mdash;not, certainly,
+from their matter, nor even from the manner
+of treating it, but from the sort of effect
+which they produce upon the mind. Had the
+pen of either of them been wholly devoted to the
+support of a good cause, their writings would
+have been invaluable to society; for they both
+have shown a singular power of carrying the
+attention, and almost the judgment, of the reader
+along with them, even when writing on subjects
+on which he and they were perfectly at issue.</p>
+
+<p>Were there not circumstances in the literary
+history of both which contradict the notion, I
+should say that this species of power or charm in
+their writings arose from their being themselves
+very much in earnest in the opinions they were
+advocating: but as the Abbé de Lamennais and
+the late Mr. Cobbett have both shown that their
+faith in their own opinions was not strong enough
+to prevent them from changing them, the peculiar
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">384</a></span>
+force of their eloquence can hardly be referred to
+the sincerity of it.</p>
+
+<p>I remember hearing a lively young barrister
+declare that he would rather argue against his
+own judgment than according to it; and I am
+sure he spoke in all sincerity,&mdash;much as he would
+have done had he said that he preferred shooting
+wild game to slaughtering tame chickens: the
+difficulty made the pleasure. But we cannot presume
+to suppose that either of the two persons
+whose names I have so incongruously brought
+together have written and argued on the same
+principle; and even if it were so, they have not
+the less changed their minds,&mdash;unless we suppose
+that they have amused themselves and the public,
+by sometimes arguing for what they believed to
+be truth, and sometimes only to show their skill.</p>
+
+<p>As to what Mr. Cobbett's principles might
+really have been, I think it is a question that
+must ever remain in uncertainty,&mdash;unless we adopt
+that easiest and most intelligible conclusion, that
+he had none at all. But it is far otherwise with
+M. de Lamennais: it is impossible to doubt that
+in his early writings he was perfectly sincere;
+there is a warmth of faith in them that could
+proceed from no fictitious fire. Nor is it easily
+to be imagined that he would have thrown himself
+from the height at which he stood in the opinion
+of all whom he most esteemed, had he not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">385</a></span>
+fancied that he saw truth at the bottom of that
+abyss of heresy and schism into which all good
+Catholics think that he has thrown himself.</p>
+
+<p>The wild republicanism which M. de Lamennais
+has picked up in his descent is, however,
+what has probably injured him most in the general
+estimation. Some few years ago, liberal
+principles were advocated by many of the most
+able as well as the most honest men in Europe;
+but the unreasonable excesses into which the ultras
+of the party have fallen seem to have made
+the respectable portion of mankind draw back
+from it, and, whatever their speculative opinions
+may be, they now show themselves anxious to
+rally round all that bears the stamp of order and
+lawful authority.</p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to imagine a worse time
+for a man to commence republican and free-thinker
+than the present;&mdash;unless, indeed, he did
+so in the hope that the loaves and fishes were, or
+would be, at the disposition of that party. Putting,
+however, all hope of being paid for it aside,
+the period is singularly unpropitious for such a
+conversion. As long as their doctrine remained a
+theory only, it might easily delude many who had
+more imagination than judgment, or more ignorance
+than either: but so much deplorable mischief
+has arisen before our eyes every time the
+theory has been brought to the test of practice,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">386</a></span>
+that I believe the sound-minded in every land
+consider their speculations at present with as
+little respect as they would those of a joint-stock
+company proposing to colonize the moon.</p>
+
+<p>That the Abbé de Lamennais is no longer
+considered in France as the pre-eminent man he
+has been, is most certain; and as it is easy to
+trace in his works a regular progression downwards,
+from the dignified and enthusiastic Catholic
+priest to the puzzled sceptic and factious demagogue,
+I should not be greatly surprised to hear
+that he, who has been spoken of at Rome as
+likely to become a cardinal, was carrying a scarlet
+flag through the streets of Paris, with a conical
+hat and a Robespierre waistcoat, singing "<i>Ça ira</i>"
+louder than he ever chanted a mass.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Lamennais, in common with several
+other persons of republican principles with whom
+I have conversed since I have been in Paris, has
+conceived the idea that England is at this moment
+actually and <i>bonâ fide</i> under the rule, dictation,
+and government of Mr. Daniel O'Connell. He
+named him in an accent of the most profound
+admiration and respect, and referred to the English
+newspapers as evidence of the enthusiastic
+love and veneration in which he was held throughout
+Great Britain!</p>
+
+<p>I waxed wroth, I confess; but I took wisdom
+and patience, and said very meekly, that he had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">387</a></span>
+probably seen only that portion of the English
+papers which were of Mr. Daniel's faction, and
+that I believed Great Britain was still under the
+dominion of King William the Fourth, his Lords
+and Commons. It is not many days since I met
+another politician of the same school who went
+farther still; for he gravely wished me joy of the
+prospect of emancipation which the virtue of the
+great O'Connell held out to my country. On this
+occasion, being in a gay mood, I laughed heartily,
+and did so with a safe conscience, having no need
+to set the enlightened propagandist right; this
+being done for me, much better than I could have
+done it myself, by a hard-headed doctrinaire who
+was with me.</p>
+
+<p>"O'Connell is the Napoleon of England," said
+the republican.</p>
+
+<p>"Not of England, at any rate," replied the doctrinaire.
+"And if he must have a name borrowed
+from France, let it be Robespierre's: let him be
+called magnificently the Robespierre of Ireland."</p>
+
+<p>"He has already been the redeemer of Ireland,"
+rejoined the republican gravely; "and now <i>he
+has taken England under his protection</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"And I suspect that ere long England will
+take him under hers," said my friend, laughing.
+"Hitherto it appears as if the country had not
+thought him worth whipping; ... mais si un
+chien est méchant, si même ce ne serait qu'un
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">388</a></span>
+vilain petit hargneux, il devrait être lié, ou bien
+pendu."</p>
+
+<p>Having finished this oracular sentence, the doctrinaire
+took a long pinch of snuff, and began discoursing
+of other matters: and I too withdrew
+from the discussion, persuaded that I could not
+bring it to a better conclusion.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XL.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">389</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Which Party is it ranks second in the estimation of all?&mdash;No
+Caricatures against the Exiles.&mdash;Horror of a Republic.</p>
+
+<p>I have been taking some pains to discover, by
+the aid of all the signs and tokens of public feeling
+within my reach, who among the different parties
+into which this country is divided enjoys the
+highest degree of general consideration.</p>
+
+<p>We know that if every man in a town were
+desired to say who among its inhabitants he
+should consider as fittest to hold an employment
+of honour and profit, each would probably answer,
+"Myself:" we know also, that should it happen,
+after the avowal of this very natural partiality,
+that the name of the second best were asked for,
+and that the man named as such by one were so
+named by all, this second best would be accounted
+by the disinterested lookers-on as decidedly the
+right and proper person to fill the station. According
+to this rule, the right and proper government
+for France is neither republican, nor military,
+nor doctrinaire, but that of a legitimate and constitutional
+monarchy.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">390</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When men hold office, bringing both power
+and wealth, consideration will of necessity follow.
+That the ministers and their friends, therefore,
+should be seen in pride of place, and enjoying the
+dignity they have achieved, is natural, inevitable,
+and quite as it should be. But if, turning from
+this every-day spectacle, we endeavour to discover
+who it is that, possessing neither power nor place,
+most uniformly receive the homage of respect, I
+should say, without a shadow of doubt or misgiving,
+that it was the legitimate royalists.</p>
+
+<p>The triumphant doctrinaires pass no jokes at
+their expense; no <i>bons mots</i> are quoted against
+them, nor does any shop exhibit caricatures either
+of what they have been or of what they are.</p>
+
+<p>The republicans are no longer heard to name
+them, either with rancour or disrespect: all their
+wrath is now poured out upon the present actual
+power of the prosperous doctrinaires. This, indeed,
+is in strict conformity to the principle which
+constitutes the foundation of their sect; namely,
+that whatever exists ought to be overthrown.
+But neither in jest nor earnest do they now show
+hostility to Charles the Tenth or his family: nor
+even do the blank walls of Paris, which for nearly
+half a century have been the favourite receptacle
+of all their wit, exhibit any pleasantries, either in
+the shape of hieroglyphic, caricature, or lampoon,
+alluding to them or their cause.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">391</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I have listened repeatedly to sprightly and to
+bitter jestings, to judicious and to blundering reasonings,
+for and against the different doctrines
+which divide the country; but in no instance do
+I remember to have heard, either in jest or earnest,
+any revilings against the exiled race. A sort
+of sacred silence seems to envelope this theme; or
+if it be alluded to at all, it is far from being in
+a hostile spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Henri!</span>" is a name that, without note or comment,
+may be read <i>ça et là</i> in every quarter of
+Paris, that of the Tuileries not excepted: and on
+a wall near the Royal College of Henri Quatre,
+where the younger princes of the house of Orleans
+still study, were inscribed not long ago these very
+intelligible words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Pour arriver à Bordeaux, il faut passer par
+Orléans."</p>
+
+<p>In short, whatever feelings of irritation and
+anger might have existed in 1830, and produced
+the scenes which led to the exile of the royal
+family, they now seem totally to have subsided.</p>
+
+<p>It does not, however, necessarily follow from this
+that the majority of the people are ready again to
+hazard their precious tranquillity in order to restore
+them: on the contrary, it cannot be doubted
+that were such a measure attempted at the present
+moment, it would fail&mdash;not from any dislike of
+their legitimate monarch, or any affection for the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">392</a></span>
+kinsman who has been placed upon his throne,
+but wholly and solely from their wish to enjoy in
+peace their profitable speculations at the <i>Bourse</i>&mdash;their
+flourishing <i>restaurans</i>&mdash;their prosperous
+shops&mdash;and even their tables, chairs, beds, and
+coffee-pots.</p>
+
+<p>Very different, however, is the feeling manifested
+towards the republicans. Never did Napoleon
+in the days of his most absolute power, or
+the descendants of Louis le Grand in those of their
+proudest state, contemplate this factious, restless
+race with such abhorrence as do the doctrinaires
+of the present hour. It is not that they fear them&mdash;they
+have no real cause to do so; but they feel a
+sentiment made up of hatred and contempt, which
+never seems to repose, and which, if not regulated
+by wisdom and moderation, is very likely eventually
+to lead to more barricades; though to none, I
+imagine, that the National Guards may not easily
+throw down.</p>
+
+<p>It is on the subject of this unpopular <i>clique</i> that
+by far the greater part of the ever-springing Parisian
+jokes expends itself; though the doctrinaires
+get it "<i>pas mal</i>" in return, as I heard a national
+guardsman remark, as we were looking over some
+caricatures together. But, in truth, the republicans
+seem upon principle to offer themselves as victims
+and martyrs to the quizzing propensities of their
+countrymen. Harlequin does not more scrupulously
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span>
+adhere to his parti-coloured suit, than do
+the republicans of Paris to their burlesque costume.
+It is, I presume, to show their courage,
+that they so ostentatiously march with their colours
+flying; but the effect is very ludicrous. The
+symbolic peculiarities of their dress are classed
+and lithographed with infinite fun.</p>
+
+<p>Drolleries, too, on the parvenus of the Empire
+are to be found for the seeking; and when
+they beset King Philippe himself, it should seem
+that it is done with all the enthusiasm so well
+expressed by Garrick in days of yore:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"'Tis for my king, and, zounds! I'll do my best!"</p>
+
+<p>The only extraordinary part of all this caricaturing
+on walls and in print-shops, is the license
+taken with those who have power to prevent it.
+The principle of legislation on this point appears,
+with a little variation, to be that of the old
+ballad:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"Thoughts, words, and deeds, the statute blames with reason;</p>
+<p>But surely <i>jokes</i> were ne'er indicted treason."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In speaking of the parties into which France
+is divided, the three grand divisions of Carlists,
+Doctrinaires, and Republicans naturally present
+themselves first and foremost, and, to foreigners
+in general, appear to contain between them the
+entire nation: but a month or two passed in
+Paris society suffices to show one that there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">394</a></span>
+are many who cannot fairly be classed with
+either.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, the Carlist party by no means
+contains all those who disapprove of treating a
+crown like a ready-made shoe, which, if it be
+found to pinch the person it was intended for,
+may be disposed of to the first comer who is
+willing to take it. The Carlist party, properly
+so called, demand the restoration of King Charles
+the Tenth, the immediate descendant and representative
+of their long line of kings&mdash;the prince
+who has been crowned and anointed King of
+France, and who, while he remains alive, must
+render the crowning and anointing of any other
+prince an act of sacrilege. Wherefore, in effect,
+King Louis-Philippe has not received "<i>le sacre</i>:"
+he is not as yet the anointed King of France,
+whatever he may be hereafter. Henri Quatre
+is said to have exclaimed under the walls of the
+capital, "Paris vaut bien une messe;" and it is
+probable that Louis-Philippe Premier thinks so
+too; but hitherto he has been able to have this
+performed only in military style&mdash;being incapable,
+in fact, of going through the ceremony either
+civilly or religiously. The Carlists are, therefore,
+those only who <i>en rigueur</i> do not approve of any
+king but the real one.</p>
+
+<p>The legitimate royalists are, I believe, a much
+more numerous party. As strictly attached to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">395</a></span>
+the throne and to the principle of regular and
+legitimate succession as the Carlists, they nevertheless
+conceive that the pressure of circumstances
+may not only authorise, but render it
+imperative upon the country to accept, or rather
+to permit, the abdication of a sovereign.
+The king's leaving the country and placing himself
+in exile, is one of the few causes that can
+justify this; and accordingly the abdication of
+Charles Dix is virtual death to him as a sovereign.
+But though this is granted, it does not
+follow in their creed, that any part of the nation
+have thereupon a right to present the hereditary
+crown to whom they will. The law of succession,
+they say, is not to be violated because the king
+has fled before a popular insurrection; and having
+permitted his abdication, the next heir becomes
+king. This next heir, however, choosing to follow
+his royal father's example, he too becomes
+virtually defunct, and his heir succeeds.</p>
+
+<p>This heir is still an infant, and his remaining
+in exile cannot therefore be interpreted as his
+own act. Thus, according to the reasoning of
+those who conceive the abdication of the king
+and the dauphin to be acts within their own
+power, and beyond that of the nation to nullify,
+Henri, the son of the Duc de Berri, is beyond all
+doubt Henri Cinq, Roi de France.</p>
+
+<p>Of this party, however, there are many, and I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">396</a></span>
+suspect their number is increasing, who, having
+granted the power of setting aside (by his own
+act) the anointed monarch, are not altogether
+averse to go a step farther, if so doing shall ensure
+the peace of the country; and considering
+the infancy of the rightful heir as constituting
+insufficiency, to confess Louis-Philippe as the next
+in succession to be the lawful as well as the actual
+King of the French.</p>
+
+<p>It is this party who I always find have the
+most to say in support (or defence) of their opinions.
+Whether this proceed from their feeling that some
+eloquence is necessary to make them pass current,
+or that the conviction of their justice is such as to
+make their hearts overflow on the theme, I know
+not; but decidedly the sect of the "<i>Parcequ'il
+est Bourbon</i>" is that which I find most eager to
+discourse upon politics. And, to confess the truth,
+they have much to say for themselves, at least on
+the side of expediency.</p>
+
+<p>It is often a matter of regret with me, that in
+addressing these letters to you I am compelled to
+devote so large a portion of them to politics; but
+in attempting to give you some idea of Paris at
+the present moment, it is impossible to avoid it.
+Were I to turn from this theme, I could only do
+so by labouring to forget everything I have seen,
+everything I see. Go where you will, do what
+you will, meet whom you will, it is out of your
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">397</a></span>
+power to escape it. But observe, that it is wholly
+for your sake, and not at all for my own, that I
+lament it; for, however flat and unprofitable my
+report may be, the thing itself, when you are in
+the midst of it, is exceedingly interesting.</p>
+
+<p>When I first arrived, I was considerably annoyed
+by finding, that as soon as I had noted
+down some piece of information as an undoubted
+fact, the next person I conversed with assured
+me that it was worth considerably less than
+nought; inasmuch as my informer had not only
+failed to give me useful instruction on the point
+concerning which I was inquiring, but had altogether
+deluded, deceived, and led me astray.</p>
+
+<p>These days of primitive matter-of-factness are
+now, however, quite passed with me; and though
+I receive a vast deal of entertainment from all, I
+give my faith in return to very few. I listen to
+the Carlists, the Henri-Quintists, the Philippists,
+with great attention and real interest, but have
+sometimes caught myself humming as soon as
+they have left me,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"They were all of them kings in their turn."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, if you knew all that happens to me,
+instead of blaming me for being too political, you
+would be very thankful for the care and pains I
+bestow in endeavouring to make a digest of all
+I hear for your advantage, containing as few
+contradictions as possible. And truly this is no
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">398</a></span>
+easy matter, not only from the contradictory
+nature of the information I receive, but from some
+varying weaknesses in my own nature, which sometimes
+put me in the very disagreeable predicament
+of doubting if what is right be right, and
+if what is wrong be wrong.</p>
+
+<p>When I came here, I was a thorough unequivocating
+legitimatist, and felt quite ready and
+willing to buckle on armour against any who
+should doubt that a man once a king was always
+a king&mdash;that once crowned according to law, he
+could not be uncrowned according to mob&mdash;or
+that a man's eldest son was his rightful heir.</p>
+
+<p>But, oh! these doctrinaires! They have such
+a way of proving that if they are not quite right,
+at least everybody else is a great deal more
+wrong: and then they talk so prettily of England
+and <i>our</i> revolution, and our glorious constitution&mdash;and
+the miseries of anarchy&mdash;and the
+advantages of letting things remain quietly as
+they are, till, as I said before, I begin to doubt
+what is right and what is wrong.</p>
+
+<p>There is one point, however, on which we
+agree wholly and heartily; and it is this perhaps
+that has been the means of softening my heart
+thus towards them. The doctrinaires shudder at
+the name of a republic. This is not because their
+own party is regal, but is evidently the result of
+the experience which they and their fathers have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">399</a></span>
+had from the tremendous experiment which has
+once already been made in the country.</p>
+
+<p>"You will never know the full value of your
+constitution till you have lost it," said a doctrinaire
+to me the other evening, at the house of the
+beautiful Princess B&mdash;&mdash;, formerly an energetic
+propagandiste, but now a very devoted doctrinaire,&mdash;"you
+will never know how beneficial is
+its influence on every hour of your lives, till your
+Mr. O'Connell has managed to arrange a republic
+for you: and when you have tasted that for about
+three months, you will make good and faithful
+subjects to the next king that Heaven shall bestow
+upon you. You know how devoted all France
+was to the Emperor, though the police was somewhat
+tight, and the conscriptions heavy: but he
+had saved us from a republic, and we adored him.
+For a few days, or rather hours, we were threatened
+again, five years ago, by the same terrible
+apparition: the result is, that four millions of
+armed men stand ready to protect the prince who
+chased it. Were it to appear a third time&mdash;which
+Heaven forbid!&mdash;you may depend upon it that the
+monarch who should next ascend the throne of
+France might play at <i>le jeu de quilles</i> with his
+subjects, and no one be found to complain."</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XLI.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">400</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+M. Dupré.&mdash;His Drawings in Greece.&mdash;L'Eglise des Carmes.&mdash;M.
+Vinchon's Picture of the National Convention.&mdash;Léopold
+Robert's Fishermen.&mdash;Reported cause of his
+Suicide.&mdash;Roman Catholic Religion.&mdash;Mr. Daniel O'Connell.</p>
+
+<p>We went the other morning, with Miss C&mdash;&mdash;,
+a very agreeable countrywoman, who has however
+passed the greater portion of her life in Paris, to
+visit the house and atelier of M. Dupré, a young
+artist who seems to have devoted himself to the
+study of Greece. Her princes, her peasants, her
+heavy-eyed beauties, and the bright sky that
+glows above them,&mdash;all the material of her domestic
+life, and all the picturesque accompaniments
+of her classic reminiscences, are brought home by
+this gentleman in a series of spirited and highly-finished
+drawings, which give decidedly the most
+lively idea of the country that I have seen produced.
+Engravings or lithographs from them
+are, I believe, intended to illustrate a splendid
+work on this interesting country which is about
+to be published.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">401</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In our way from M. Dupré's house, in which
+was this collection of Greek drawings, to his
+atelier&mdash;where he was kind enough to show us
+a large picture recently commenced&mdash;we entered
+that fatal "Eglise des Carmes," where the most
+hideous massacre of the first revolution took
+place. A large tree that stands beside it is
+pointed out as having been sought as a shelter&mdash;alas!
+how vainly!&mdash;by the unhappy priests, who
+were shot, sabred, and dragged from its branches
+by dozens. A thousand terrible recollections are
+suggested by the interior of the building, aided
+by the popular traditions attached to it, unequalled
+in atrocity even in the history of that time of
+horror.</p>
+
+<p>Another scene relating to the same period,
+which, though inferior to the massacre of the
+priests in multiplied barbarity, was of sufficient
+horror to freeze the blood of any but a republican,
+has, strange to say, been made, since the
+revolution of 1830, the subject of an enormous
+picture by M. Vinchon, and at the present moment
+makes part of the exhibition at the Louvre.</p>
+
+<p>The canvass represents a hall at the Tuileries
+which in 1795 was the place where the National
+Convention sat. The mob has broken in, and
+murdered Feraud, who attempted to oppose them;
+and the moment chosen by the painter is that in
+which a certain "<i>jeune fille nommée Aspasie Migelli</i>"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">402</a></span>
+approaches the president's chair with the
+young man's head borne on a pike before her,
+while she triumphantly envelopes herself in some
+part of his dress. The whole scene is one of the
+most terrible revolutionary violence. This picture
+is stated in the catalogue to belong to the minister
+of the interior; but whether the present minister
+of the interior, or any other, I know not.
+The subject was given immediately after the revolution
+of 1830, and many artists made sketches
+in competition for the execution of it. One of
+those who tried, and failed before the superior
+genius of M. Vinchon, told us, that the subject
+was given at that time as one likely to be popular,
+either for love of the noble resolution with
+which Boissy d'Anglas keeps possession of the
+president's chair, which he had seized upon, or
+else from admiration of the energetic female who
+has assisted in doing the work of death. In
+either case, this young artist said, the popularity
+of such a subject was passed by, and no such
+order would be given now.</p>
+
+<p>Finding myself again on the subject of pictures,
+I must mention a very admirable one which is
+now being exhibited at the "Mairie du Second
+Arrondissement." It is from the hand of the unfortunate
+Leopold Robert, who destroyed himself
+at Venice almost immediately after he had completed
+it. The subject is the departure of a party
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">403</a></span>
+of Italian fishermen; and there are parts of the
+picture fully equal to anything I have ever seen
+from the pencil of a modern artist. I should
+have looked at this picture with extreme pleasure,
+had the painter still lived to give hope of, perhaps,
+still higher efforts; but the history of his
+death, which I had just been listening to, mixed
+great pain with it.</p>
+
+<p>I have been told that this young man was of a
+very religious and meditative turn of mind, but a
+Protestant. His only sister, to whom he was much
+attached, was a Catholic, and had recently taken
+the veil. Her affection for him was such, that she
+became perfectly wretched from the danger she
+believed awaited him from his heresy; and she
+commenced a species of affectionate persecution,
+which, though it failed to convert him, so harassed
+and distracted his mind, as finally to overthrow
+his reason, and lead him to self-destruction. This
+charming picture is exhibited for the benefit of
+the poor, at the especial desire of the unhappy
+nun; who is said, however, to be so perfect a
+fanatic, as only to regret that the dreadful act
+was not delayed till she had had time to work
+out the salvation of her own soul by a little more
+persecution of his.</p>
+
+<p>There is something exceedingly curious, and,
+perhaps, under our present lamentable circumstances,
+somewhat alarming, in the young and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">404</a></span>
+vigorous after-growth of the Roman Catholic religion,
+which, by the aid of a very little inquiry, may
+be so easily traced throughout France. Were
+we keeping our own national church sacred, and
+guarded both by love and by law, as it has hitherto
+been from all assaults of the Pope and ...
+Mr. O'Connell, it could only be with pleasure that
+we should see France recovering from her long
+ague-fit of infidelity,&mdash;and, as far as she is concerned,
+we must in Christian charity rejoice, for
+she is unquestionably the better for it; but there
+is a regenerated activity among the Roman Catholic
+clergy, which, under existing circumstances,
+makes a Protestant feel rather nervous,&mdash;and I
+declare to you, I never pass within sight of that
+famous window of the Louvre, whence Charles
+Neuf, with his own royal and catholic hand, discharged
+a blunderbuss amongst the Huguenots,
+without thinking how well a window at Whitehall,
+already noted in history as a scene of horror,
+might serve King Daniel for the same purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The great influence which the religion of Rome
+has of late regained over the minds of the French
+people has, I am told, been considerably increased
+by the priests having added to the strength
+derived from their command of pardons and indulgences,
+that which our Methodist preachers
+gain from the terrors of hell. They use the same
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">405</a></span>
+language, too, respecting regeneration and grace;
+and, as one means of regaining the hold they had
+lost upon the human mind, they now anathematize
+all recreations, as if their congregations were
+so many aspirants to the sublime purifications of
+La Trappe, or so many groaning fanatics just
+made over to them from Lady Huntingdon's Chapel.
+That there is, however, a pretty strong
+force to stem this fresh spring-tide of moon-struck
+superstition, is very certain. The doctrinaires, I
+am told, taken as a body, are not much addicted
+to this species of weakness. I remember, during
+the prevalence of that sweeping complaint called
+the influenza, hearing of a "good lady," of the
+high evangelical <i>clique</i>, who said to some of the
+numerous pensioners who flocked to receive the
+crumbs of her table and the precepts of her lips,
+that she could make up some medicine that was
+very good for all <span class="smcap">poor</span> people that were seized
+with this complaint.</p>
+
+<p>"What can be the difference, ma'am," said the
+poor body who told me this, "between us and
+Madame C&mdash;&mdash; in this illness? Is not what is
+good for the poor, good for the rich too?"</p>
+
+<p>The same pertinent question may, I think, be
+asked in Paris just now respecting the medicine
+called religion. It is administered in large doses to
+the poor, to which class a great number of the fair
+sex of all ranks happily seem to have joined themselves, intending,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">406</a></span>
+at least, to rank themselves
+as among the poor in spirit; nay, parish doctors
+are regularly paid by authority; yet, if the tale
+be true, the authorities themselves take little of
+it. "It is very good for poor people;" but, like
+the hot-baths which Anstie talks of,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i2">
+    "No creature e'er view'd</p>
+<p>Any one of the government gentry stew'd."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Whether the returning power of this pompous
+and aspiring faith will mount as it proceeds, and
+embrace within its grasp, as it was wont to do,
+all the great ones of the earth, is a question that
+it may require some years to answer; but one
+thing is at least certain,&mdash;that its ministers will
+try hard that it shall do so, whether they are
+likely to succeed or not; and, at the worst, they
+may console themselves by the reflection of Lafontaine:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="o1">
+"Si de les gagner je n'emporte pas le prix,</p>
+<p>J'aurais au moins l'honneur de l'avoir entrepris."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>One great one they have certainly already got,
+besides King Charles the Tenth,&mdash;even the immortal
+Daniel; and however little consequence
+you may be inclined to attach to this fact, it cannot
+be considered as wholly unimportant, since
+I have heard his religious principles and his influence
+in England alluded to in the pulpit here
+with a tone of hope and triumph which made me
+tremble.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">407</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I heartily wish that some of those who continue
+to vote in his traitorous majority because they
+are pledged to do so, could hear him and his
+power spoken of here. If they have English
+hearts, it must, I think, give them a pang.</p>
+
+<h2>LETTER XLII.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">408</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ch_open">
+Old Maids.&mdash;Rarely to be found in France.&mdash;The reasons
+for this.</p>
+
+<p>Several years ago, while passing a few weeks
+in Paris, I had a conversation with a Frenchman
+upon the subject of old maids, which, though so
+long past, I refer to now for the sake of the
+sequel, which has just reached me.</p>
+
+<p>We were, I well remember, parading in the
+Gardens of the Luxembourg; and as we paced up
+and down its long alleys, the "miserable fate," as
+he called it, of single women in England was
+discussed and deplored by my companion as being
+one of the most melancholy results of faulty
+national manners that could be mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing," said he with much energy,
+"that ever gave me more pain in society, than
+seeing, as I did in England, numbers of unhappy
+women who, however well-born, well-educated,
+or estimable, were without a position, without
+an <i>état</i> and without a name, excepting one that
+they would generally give half their remaining
+days to get rid of."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">409</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I think you somewhat exaggerate the evil,"
+I replied: "but even if it were as bad as you
+state it to be, I see not why single ladies should
+be better off here."</p>
+
+<p>"Here!" he exclaimed, in a tone of horror:
+"Do you really imagine that in France, where
+we pride ourselves on making the destiny of our
+women the happiest in the world,&mdash;do you really
+imagine that we suffer a set of unhappy, innocent,
+helpless girls to drop, as it were, out of society
+into the <i>néant</i> of celibacy, as you do? God keep
+us from such barbarity!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how can you help it? It is impossible
+but that circumstances must arise to keep many
+of your men single; and if the numbers be equally
+balanced, it follows that there must be single
+women too."</p>
+
+<p>"It may seem so; but the fact is otherwise:
+we have no single women."</p>
+
+<p>"What, then, becomes of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know not; but were any Frenchwoman to
+find herself so circumstanced, depend upon it she
+would drown herself."</p>
+
+<p>"I know one such, however," said a lady who
+was with us: "Mademoiselle Isabelle B*** is
+an old maid."</p>
+
+<p>"Est-il possible!" cried the gentleman, in a
+tone that made me laugh very heartily. "And
+how old is she, this unhappy Mademoiselle Isabelle?"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">410</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I do not know exactly," replied the lady;
+"but I think she must be considerably past
+thirty."</p>
+
+<p>"C'est une horreur!" he exclaimed again; adding,
+rather mysteriously, in a half-whisper, "Trust
+me, she will not bear it long!"</p>
+
+<hr class="l30" />
+
+<p>I had certainly forgotten Mademoiselle Isabelle
+and all about her, when I again met the lady who
+had named her as the one sole existing old maid
+of France. While conversing with her the other
+day on many things which had passed when we
+were last together, she asked me if I remembered
+this conversation. I assured her that I had forgotten
+no part of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," said she, "I must tell you what
+happened to me about three months after it took
+place. I was invited with my husband to pay a
+visit at the house of a friend in the country,&mdash;the
+same house where I had formerly seen the Mademoiselle
+Isabelle B*** whom I had named to
+you. While playing <i>écarté</i> with our host in the
+evening, I recollected our conversation in the
+Gardens of the Luxembourg, and inquired for the
+lady who had been named in it.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is it possible that you have not heard what
+has happened to her?' he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"'No, indeed; I have heard nothing. Is she
+married, then?'
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">411</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Married!... Alas, no! she has <i>drowned
+herself</i>!'"</p>
+
+<p>Terrible as this dénouement was, it could not
+be heard with the solemn gravity it called for,
+after what had been said respecting her. Was
+ever coincidence more strange! My friend told
+me, that on her return to Paris she mentioned
+this catastrophe to the gentleman who had seemed
+to predict it; when the information was received
+by an exclamation quite in character,&mdash;"God
+be praised! then she is out of her misery!"</p>
+
+<p>This incident, and the conversation which followed
+upon it, induced me to inquire in sober
+earnest what degree of truth there might really
+be in the statement made to us in this well-remembered
+conversation; and it certainly does
+appear, from all I can learn, that the meeting a
+single woman past thirty is a very rare occurrence
+in France. The arranging <i>un mariage convenable</i>
+is in fact as necessary and as ordinary a
+duty in parents towards a daughter, as the sending
+her to nurse or the sending her to school.
+The proposal for such an alliance proceeds quite
+as frequently from the friends of the lady as
+from those of the gentleman: and it is obvious
+that this must at once very greatly increase the
+chance of a suitable marriage for young women;
+for though we do occasionally send our daughters
+to India in the hope of obtaining this much-desired
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">412</a></span>
+result, few English parents have as yet
+gone the length of proposing to anybody, or to
+anybody's son, to take their daughter off their
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>I have not the least doubt in the world that,
+were the custom otherwise&mdash;were a young lady's
+claim to an establishment pointed out by her
+friends, instead of being left to be discovered or
+undiscovered as chance will have it,&mdash;I have no
+doubt in the world that in such a case many
+happy marriages might be the result: and where
+such an arrangement infringes on no feeling of
+propriety, but is adopted only in conformity to
+national custom, I can well believe that the fair
+lady herself may deem her having nothing to
+do with the business a privilege of infinite importance
+to her delicacy. But would our English
+girls like, for the satisfaction of escaping the
+chance of being an old maid, to give up the dear
+right of awaiting in maiden dignity till they are
+chosen&mdash;selected from out the entire world&mdash;and
+then of saying yes or no, as may please their
+fancy best?</p>
+
+<p>If I do not greatly mistake the national character
+of Englishwomen, there are very few who
+could be found to exchange this privilege for
+the most perfect assurance that could be given
+of obtaining a marriage in any other way. As
+to which is best and which is wisest, or even
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">413</a></span>
+which is likely to produce, ultimately and generally,
+the most happy <i>ménage</i>, I will not pretend
+to say; because I have heard so much plausible,
+and indeed, in some respects, substantial
+reasoning in favour of the mode pursued here,
+that I feel it may be considered as doubtful: but
+as to which is and must be most agreeable to
+the parties chiefly concerned at the time the
+connexion is formed, herein I own I think there
+can be no question whatever that English men
+and English women have the advantage.</p>
+
+<p>With all the inclination in the world to believe
+that France abounds with loving, constant,
+faithful wives, and husbands too, I cannot but
+think that if they are so, it is in spite of the
+manner in which their marriages are made, and
+not in consequence of it. The strongest argument
+in favour of their manner of proceeding undoubtedly
+is, that a husband who receives a young
+wife as totally without impressions of any kind, (as
+a well-brought-up French girl certainly is,) has a
+better chance&mdash;or rather, has more <i>power</i> of making
+her heart entirely his own, than any man can
+have that falls in love with a beauty of twenty,
+who may already have heard as tender sighs as
+he can utter breathed in her ear by some one
+who may have had no power to marry her, but
+who might have had a heart to love her, and a
+tongue to win her as well as himself.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">414</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But against this how much is to be placed!
+However dearly a Frenchwoman may love her husband,
+he can never feel that it is a love which
+has selected him; and though it may sometimes
+happen that a pretty creature is applied for because
+of her prettiness, yet if the application be
+made and answered, and no question asked as to
+her will or wish in the affair, she can feel but
+little gratification even to her vanity&mdash;and certainly
+nothing whatever approaching to a feeling
+of tenderness at her heart.</p>
+
+<p>The force of habit is ever so inveterate, that it
+is not likely either nation can be really a fair and
+impartial judge of the other in a matter so entirely
+regulated by it. Therefore, all that I, as
+English, will venture to say farther on the subject
+is, that I should be sorry on this point to see us
+adopt the fashion of our neighbour France.</p>
+
+<p>I have reason to believe, however, that my friend
+of the Luxembourg Gardens exaggerated a good
+deal in his statement respecting the non-existence
+of single women in France. They do exist here,
+though certainly in less numbers than in England,&mdash;but
+it is not so easy to find them out. With
+us it is not unusual for single ladies to take what
+is called <i>brevet rank</i>;&mdash;that is, Miss Dorothy
+Tomkins becomes Mrs. Dorothy Tomkins&mdash;and
+sometimes <i>tout bonnement</i> Mrs. Tomkins, provided
+there be no collateral Mrs. Tomkins to interfere
+with her: but upon no occasion do I remember
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">415</a></span>
+that any lady in this predicament called herself
+the widow Tomkins, or the widow anything else.</p>
+
+<p>Here, however, I am assured that the case is
+different; and that, let the number of spinsters be
+great or small, no one but the near connexions
+and most intimate friends of the party know anything
+of the matter. Many a <i>veuve respectable</i>
+has never had a husband in her life; and I have
+heard it positively affirmed, that the secret is often
+so well kept, that the nieces and nephews of a
+family do not know their maiden aunts from their
+widowed ones.</p>
+
+<p>This shows, at least, that matrimony is considered
+here as a more honourable state than that
+of celibacy; though it does not quite go the length
+of proving that all single women drown themselves.</p>
+
+<p>But before I quit this subject, I must say a few
+words to you concerning the old maids of England.
+There are few things which chafe my spirit
+more than hearing single women spoken of with
+contempt because they are such, or seeing them
+treated with less consideration and attention than
+those who chance to be married. The cruelty
+and injustice of this must be obvious to every one
+upon a moment's thought; but to me its absurdity
+is more obvious still.</p>
+
+<p>It is, I believe, a notorious fact, that there is
+scarcely a woman to be found, of any rank under
+that of a princess of the blood royal, who, at the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">416</a></span>
+age of fifty, has not at some time or in some
+manner had the power of marrying if she chose
+it. That many who have had this power have
+been tyrannically or unfortunately prevented from
+using it, is certain; but there is nothing either
+ridiculous or contemptible in this.</p>
+
+<p>Still less does a woman merit scorn if she has
+had the firmness and constancy of purpose to
+prefer a single life because she has considered it
+best and fittest for her: in fact, I know nothing
+more high-minded than the doing so. The sneering
+which follows female celibacy is so well
+known and so coarsely manifested, that it shows
+very considerable dignity of character to enable a
+woman to endure it, rather than act against her
+sense of what is right.</p>
+
+<p>I by no means say this by way of running a-tilt
+against all the ladies in France who have submitted,
+<i>bon gré, mal gré</i>, to become wives at the
+command of their fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts,
+and guardians: they have done exactly what
+they ought, and I hope all their pretty little quiet-looking
+daughters will do the same; it is the
+custom of the country, and cannot discreetly be
+departed from. But being on the subject, I am
+led, while defending our own modes of proceeding
+in the important affair of marriage, to remark also
+on the result of them. In permitting a young
+woman to become acquainted with the man who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">417</a></span>
+proposes for her before she consents to pass her
+whole life with him, I certainly see some advantage;
+but in my estimation there is more still in
+the protection which our usage in these matters
+affords to those who, rather than marry a man
+who is not the object of their choice, prefer remaining
+single. I confess, too, that I consider the
+class of single women as an extremely important
+one. Their entire freedom from control gives them
+great power over their time and resources, much
+more than any other woman can possibly possess
+who is not a childless widow. That this power is
+often&mdash;very often&mdash;nobly used, none can deny who
+are really and thoroughly acquainted with English
+society; and if among the class there be some
+who love cards, and tattle, and dress, and slander,
+they should be treated with just the same measure
+of contempt as the married ladies who may also
+occasionally be found to love cards, and tattle, and
+dress, and slander,&mdash;but with no more.</p>
+
+<p>It has been my chance, and I imagine that it
+has been the chance of most other people, to have
+found my dearest and most constant friends among
+single women. Of all the Helenas and Hermias
+that before marriage have sat "upon one cushion,
+warbling of one song," even for years together, how
+few are there who are not severed by marriage!
+Kind feelings may be retained, and correspondence
+(lazily enough) kept up; but to whom is it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">418</a></span>
+that the anxious mother, watching beside the sick
+couch of her child, turns for sympathy and consolation?&mdash;certainly
+not to the occupied and perhaps
+distant wedded confidante of her youthful
+days, but to her maiden sister or her maiden
+friend. Nor is it only in sickness that such
+friends are among the first blessings of life: they
+violate no duty by giving their time and their
+talents to society; and many a day through every
+house in England has probably owed some of its
+most delightful hours to the presence of those
+whom no duty has called</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"To suckle fools or chronicle small beer,"</p>
+
+<p>and whose talents, therefore, are not only at their
+own disposal, but in all probability much more
+highly cultivated than any possessed by their
+married friends.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, spite of him of the Luxembourg, I am
+most decidedly of opinion, that, in England at
+least, there is no reason whatever that an unmarried
+woman should consign herself to the fate of
+the unfortunate Mademoiselle Isabelle.</p>
+
+<p class="center p4">END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2 s08">LONDON:</p>
+
+<p class="center s08">PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,<br />
+Dorset Street, Fleet Street.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes p6">
+<p class="center b13">FOOTNOTES</p>
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> April 1835.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> G. Sand.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Translation.</i>&mdash;He will continue then firmly; and every
+time that he shall think it necessary to make visible to all, in
+its least details, a useful idea, a social idea, a humane idea,
+he will place upon it the theatre, as a magnifying-glass.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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