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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 2 of
+2), by Frances 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/license
+
+
+Title: Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 2 of 2)
+
+Author: Frances Trollope
+
+Release Date: May 16, 2012 [EBook #39710]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS AND THE PARISIANS IN 1835 (2/2) ***
+
+
+
+
+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_.
+
+ Page 46: The phrase "find out if he can any single" seems to be
+ missing a word.
+
+ Page 384: The phrase starting "swarm _au sixième_" has no closing
+ quotation mark.
+
+
+
+
+ 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. 2.
+
+ [Illustration: MUSEUM DES CURIOSITES HISTORIQUES
+
+ LE PUBLIC EST PRIÉ DE
+ NE TOUCHER À AUCUN
+ DE CES OBJETS.
+
+ 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. II.
+
+
+ LONDON:
+ RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
+ Publisher in Ordinary to His Majesty.
+ 1836.
+
+
+
+
+ LONDON:
+ PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
+ Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS
+ TO
+ THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+
+ LETTER XLIII.
+
+ Peculiar Air of Frenchwomen.--Impossibility that an
+ Englishwoman should not be known for such in Paris.--Small
+ Shops.--Beautiful Flowers, and pretty arrangement of
+ them.--Native Grace.--Disappearance of Rouge.--Grey
+ Hair.--Every article dearer than in London.--All temptations
+ to smuggling removed. Page 1
+
+
+ LETTER XLIV.
+
+ Exclusive Soirées.--Soirée Doctrinaire.--Duc de
+ Broglie.--Soirée Républicaine.--Soirée Royaliste.--Partie
+ Impériale.--Military Greatness.--Dame de l'Empire. 11
+
+
+ LETTER XLV.
+
+ L'Abbé Lacordaire.--Various Statements respecting
+ him.--Poetical description of Notre Dame.--The Prophecy of a
+ Roman Catholic.--Les Jeunes Gens de Paris.--Their
+ omnipotence. 22
+
+
+ LETTER XLVI.
+
+ La Tour de Nesle. 37
+
+
+ LETTER XLVII.
+
+ Palais Royal.--Variety of Characters.--Party of
+ English.--Restaurant.--Galerie d'Orléans.--Number of
+ Loungers.--Convenient abundance of Idle Men.--Théâtre du
+ Vaudeville. 49
+
+
+ LETTER XLVIII.
+
+ Literary Conversation.--Modern Novelists.--Vicomte
+ d'Arlincourt.--His Portrait.--Châteaubriand.--Bernardin de
+ Saint Pierre.--Shakspeare.--Sir Walter Scott.--French
+ familiarity with English Authors.--Miss Mitford.--Miss
+ Landon.--Parisian passion for Novelty.--Extent of general
+ Information. 62
+
+
+ LETTER XLIX.
+
+ Trial by Jury.--Power of the Jury in France.--Comparative
+ insignificance of that vested in the Judge.--Virtual
+ Abolition of Capital Punishments.--Flemish Anecdote. 75
+
+
+ LETTER L.
+
+ English Pastry-cooks.--French horror of English
+ Pastry.--Unfortunate experiment upon a Muffin.--The Citizen
+ King. 85
+
+
+ LETTER LI.
+
+ Parisian Women.--Rousseau's failure in attempting to
+ describe them.--Their great influence in Society.--Their
+ grace in Conversation.--Difficulty of growing old.--Do the
+ ladies of France or those of England manage it best? 92
+
+
+ LETTER LII.
+
+ La Sainte Chapelle.--Palais de Justice.--Traces of the
+ Revolution of 1830.--Unworthy use made of La Sainte
+ Chapelle.--Boileau.--Ancient Records. 105
+
+
+ LETTER LIII.
+
+ French ideas of England.--Making love.--Precipitate retreat
+ of a young Frenchman.--Different methods of arranging
+ Marriages.--English Divorce.--English Restaurans. 116
+
+
+ LETTER LIV.
+
+ Mixed Society.--Influence of the English Clergy and their
+ Families.--Importance of their station in Society. 132
+
+
+ LETTER LV.
+
+ Le Grand Opéra.--Its enormous Expense.--Its Fashion.--Its
+ acknowledged Dulness.--'La Juive.'--Its heavy Music.--Its
+ exceeding Splendour.--Beautiful management of the
+ Scenery.--National Music. 143
+
+
+ LETTER LVI.
+
+ The Abbé Deguerry.--His eloquence.--Excursion across the
+ water.--Library of Ste. Geneviève.--Copy-book of the
+ Dauphin.--St. Etienne du Mont.--Pantheon. 156
+
+
+ LETTER LVII.
+
+ Little Suppers.--Great Dinners.--Affectation of
+ Gourmandise.--Evil effects of "dining out."--Evening
+ Parties.--Dinners in private under the name of
+ Luncheons.--Late Hours. 166
+
+
+ LETTER LVIII.
+
+ Hôpital des Enfans Trouvés.--Its doubtful advantages.--Story
+ of a Child left there. 177
+
+
+ LETTER LIX.
+
+ Procès Monstre.--Dislike of the Prisoners to the ceremony of
+ Trial.--Société des Droits de l'Homme.--Names given to the
+ Sections.--Kitchen and Nursery Literature.--Anecdote of
+ Lagrange.--Republican Law. 201
+
+
+ LETTER LX.
+
+ Memoirs of M. Châteaubriand.--The Readings at
+ L'Abbaye-aux-Bois.--Account of these in the French
+ Newspapers and Reviews.--Morning at the Abbaye to hear a
+ portion of these Memoirs.--The Visit to Prague. 212
+
+
+ LETTER LXI.
+
+ Jardin des Plantes.--Not equal in beauty to our Zoological
+ Gardens.--La Salpêtrière.--Anecdote.--Les
+ Invalides.--Difficulty of finding English Colours
+ there.--The Dome. 232
+
+
+ LETTER LXII.
+
+ Expedition to Montmorency.--Rendezvous in the Passage
+ Delorme.--St. Denis.--Tomb prepared for Napoleon.--The
+ Hermitage.--Dîner sur l'herbe. 241
+
+
+ LETTER LXIII.
+
+ George Sand. 258
+
+
+ LETTER LXIV.
+
+ "Angelo Tyran de Padoue."--Burlesque at the Théâtre du
+ Vaudeville.--Mademoiselle Mars.--Madame Dorval.--Epigram. 270
+
+
+ LETTER LXV.
+
+ Boulevard des Italiens.--Tortoni's.--Thunder-storm.--Church
+ of the Madeleine.--Mrs. Butler's "Journal." 292
+
+
+ LETTER LXVI.
+
+ A pleasant Party.--Discussion between an Englishman and a
+ Frenchman.--National Peculiarities. 302
+
+
+ LETTER LXVII.
+
+ Chamber of Deputies.--Punishment of Journalists.--Institute
+ for the Encouragement of Industry.--Men of Genius. 313
+
+
+ LETTER LXVIII.
+
+ Walk to the Marché des Innocens.--Escape of a Canary
+ Bird.--A Street Orator.--Burying-place of the Victims of
+ July. 323
+
+
+ LETTER LXIX.
+
+ A Philosophical Spectator.--Collection of Baron
+ Sylvestre.--Hôtel des Monnaies.--Musée d'Artillerie. 335
+
+
+ LETTER LXX.
+
+ Concert in the Champs Elysées.--Horticultural
+ Exhibition.--Forced Flowers.--Republican Hats.--Carlist
+ Hats--Juste-Milieu Hats.--Popular Funeral. 347
+
+
+ LETTER LXXI.
+
+ Minor French Novelists. 360
+
+
+ LETTER LXXII.
+
+ Breaking-up of the Paris Season.--Soirée at Madame
+ Récamier's.--Recitation.--Storm.--Disappointment.
+ --Atonement.--Farewell. 371
+
+
+ POSTSCRIPT 379
+
+
+
+
+ EMBELLISHMENTS
+ TO
+ THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+
+ Soirée Page 20
+
+ Le Roi Citoyen 88
+
+ Prêtres de la Jeune France 158
+
+ Lecture à l'Abbaye-aux-Bois 228
+
+ Boulevard des Italiens 294
+
+ "V'là les restes de notre Révolution de Juillet" 328
+
+
+
+
+ PARIS
+ AND THE PARISIANS
+ IN 1835.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIII.
+
+ Peculiar Air of Frenchwomen.--Impossibility that an
+ Englishwoman should not be known for such in Paris.--Small
+ Shops.--Beautiful Flowers, and pretty arrangement of
+ them.--Native Grace.--Disappearance of Rouge.--Grey
+ Hair.--Every article dearer than in London.--All
+ temptations to smuggling removed.
+
+
+Considering that it is a woman who writes to you, I think you will
+confess that you have no reason to complain of having been overwhelmed
+with the fashions of Paris: perhaps, on the contrary, you may feel
+rather disposed to grumble because all I have hitherto said on the
+fertile subject of dress has been almost wholly devoted to the
+historic and fanciful costume of the republicans. Personal appearance,
+and all that concerns it, is, however, a very important feature in
+the daily history of this showy city; and although in this respect it
+has been made the model of the whole world, it nevertheless contrives
+to retain for itself a general look, air, and effect, which it is
+quite in vain for any other people to attempt imitating. Go where you
+will, you see French fashions; but you must go to Paris to see how
+French people wear them.
+
+The dome of the Invalides, the towers of Notre Dame, the column in the
+Place Vendôme, the windmills of Montmartre, do not come home to the
+mind as more essentially belonging to Paris, and Paris only, than does
+the aspect which caps, bonnets, frills, shawls, aprons, belts,
+buckles, gloves,--and above, though below, all things else--which
+shoes and stockings assume, when worn by Parisian women in the city of
+Paris.
+
+It is in vain that all the women of the earth come crowding to this
+mart of elegance, each one with money in her sack sufficient to cover
+her from head to foot with all that is richest and best;--it is in
+vain that she calls to her aid all the _tailleuses_, _coiffeuses_,
+_modistes_, _couturières_, _cordonniers_, _lingères_, and _friseurs_
+in the town: all she gets for her pains is, when she has bought, and
+done, and put on all and everything they have prescribed, that, in the
+next shop she enters, she hears one _grisette_ behind the counter
+mutter to another, "Voyez ce que désire cette dame anglaise;"--and
+that, poor dear lady! before she has spoken a single word to betray
+herself.
+
+Neither is it only the natives who find us out so easily--that might
+perhaps be owing to some little inexplicable freemasonry among
+themselves; but the worst of all is, that we know one another in a
+moment. "There is an Englishman,"--"That is an Englishwoman," is felt
+at a glance, more rapidly than the tongue can speak it.
+
+That manner, gait, and carriage,--that expression of movement, and, if
+I may so say, of limb, should be at once so remarkable and so
+impossible to imitate, is very singular. It has nothing to do with the
+national differences in eyes and complexion, for the effect is felt
+perhaps more strongly in following than in meeting a person; but it
+pervades every plait and every pin, every attitude and every gesture.
+
+Could I explain to you what it is which produces this effect, I should
+go far towards removing the impossibility of imitating it: but as this
+is now, after twenty years of trial, pretty generally allowed to be
+impossible, you will not expect it of me. All I can do, is to tell you
+of such matters appertaining to dress as are open and intelligible to
+all, without attempting to dive into that very occult part of the
+subject, the effect of it.
+
+In milliners' phrase, the ladies dress much _less_ in Paris than in
+London. I have no idea that any Frenchwoman, after her morning
+dishabille is thrown aside, would make it a practice, during "the
+season," to change her dress completely four times in the course of
+the day, as I have known some ladies do in London. Nor do I believe
+that the most _précieuses_ in such matters among them would deem it an
+insufferable breach of good manners to her family, did she sit down to
+dinner in the same apparel in which they had seen her three hours
+before it.
+
+The only article of female luxury more generally indulged in here than
+with us, is that of cashmere shawls. One, at the very least, of these
+dainty wrappers makes a part of every young lady's _trousseau_, and
+is, I believe, exactly that part of the _présent_ which, as Miss
+Edgeworth says, often makes a bride forget the _futur_.
+
+In other respects, what is necessary for the wardrobe of a French
+woman of fashion, is necessary also for that of an English one; only
+jewels and trinkets of all kinds are more frequently worn with us than
+with them. The dress that a young Englishwoman would wear at a dinner
+party, is very nearly the same as a Frenchwoman would wear at any ball
+but a fancy one; whereas the most elegant dinner costume in Paris is
+exactly the same as would be worn at the French Opera.
+
+There are many extremely handsome "_magasins de nouveautés_" in every
+part of the town, wherein may be found all that the heart of woman can
+desire in the way of dress; and there are smart _coiffeuses_ and
+_modistes_ too, who know well how to fabricate and recommend every
+production of their fascinating art: but there is no Howell and
+James's wherein to assemble at a given point all the fine ladies of
+Paris; no reunions of tall footmen are to be seen lounging on benches
+outside the shops, and performing to the uninitiated the office of
+signs, by giving notice how many purchasers are at that moment engaged
+in cheapening the precious wares within. The shops in general are very
+much smaller than ours,--or when they stretch into great length, they
+have uniformly the appearance of warehouses. A much less quantity of
+goods of all kinds is displayed for purposes of show and
+decoration,--unless it be in china shops, or where or-molu ornaments,
+protected by glass covers, form the principal objects: here, or indeed
+wherever the articles sold can be exhibited without any danger of loss
+from injury, there is very considerable display; but, on the whole,
+there is much less appearance of large capital exhibited in the shops
+here than in London.
+
+One great source of the gay and pretty appearance of the streets, is
+the number and elegant arrangement of the flowers exposed for sale.
+Along all the Boulevards, and in every brilliant Passage (with which
+latter ornamental invention Paris is now threaded in all directions),
+you need only shut your eyes in order to fancy yourself in a delicious
+flower-garden; and even on opening them again, if the delusion
+vanishes, you have something almost as pretty in its place.
+
+Notwithstanding the multitudinous abominations of their streets--the
+prison-like locks on the doors of their _salons_, and the odious
+common stair which must be climbed ere one can get to them--there is
+an elegance of taste and love of the graceful about these people which
+is certainly to be found nowhere else. It is not confined to the
+spacious hotels of the rich and great, but may be traced through every
+order and class of society, down to the very lowest.
+
+The manner in which an old barrow-woman will tie up her sous' worth of
+cherries for her urchin customers might give a lesson to the most
+skilful decorator of the supper-table. A bunch of wild violets, sold
+at a price that may come within reach of the worst-paid _soubrette_ in
+Paris, is arranged with a grace that might make a duchess covet them;
+and I have seen the paltry stock-in-trade of a florist, whose only
+pavilion was a tree and the blue heavens, set off with such felicity
+in the mixture of colours, and the gradations of shape and form, as
+made me stand to gaze longer and more delightedly than I ever did
+before Flora's own palace in the King's Road.
+
+After all, indeed, I believe that the mystical peculiarity of dress of
+which I have been speaking wholly arises from this innate and
+universal instinct of good taste. There is a fitness, a propriety, a
+sort of harmony in the various articles which constitute female
+attire, which may be traced as clearly amongst the cotton _toques_,
+with all their variety of brilliant tints, and the 'kerchief and apron
+to match, or rather to accord, as amongst the most elegant bonnets at
+the Tuileries. Their expressive phrase of approbation for a
+well-dressed woman, "_faite à peindre_," may often be applied with
+quite as much justice to the peasant as to the princess; for the same
+unconscious sensibility of taste will regulate them both.
+
+It is this national feeling which renders their stage groups, their
+corps _de ballet_, and all the _tableaux_ business of their theatres,
+so greatly superior to all others. On these occasions, a single
+blunder in colour, contrast, or position, destroys the whole harmony,
+and the whole charm with it: but you see the poor little girls hired
+to do angels and graces for a few sous a night, fall into the
+composition of the scene with an instinct as unerring, as that which
+leads a flight of wild geese to cleave the air in a well-adjusted
+triangular phalanx, instead of scattering themselves to every point
+of the compass; as, _par exemple_, our _figurantes_ may be often seen
+to do, if not kept in order by the ballet-master as carefully as a
+huntsman whistles in his pack.
+
+It is quite a relief to my eyes to find how completely rouge appears
+to be gone out of fashion here. I will not undertake to say that no
+bright eyes still look brighter from having a touch of red skilfully
+applied beneath them: but if this be done, it is so well done as to be
+invisible, excepting by its favourable effect; which is a prodigious
+improvement upon the fashion which I well remember here, of larding
+cheeks both young and old to a degree that was quite frightful.
+
+Another improvement which I very greatly admire is, that the majority
+of old ladies have left off wearing artificial hair, and arrange their
+own grey locks with all the neatness and care possible. The effect of
+this upon their general appearance is extremely favourable: Nature
+always arranges things for us much better than we can do it for
+ourselves; and the effect of an old face surrounded by a maze of
+wanton curls, black, brown, or flaxen, is infinitely less agreeable
+than when it is seen with its own "sable silvered" about it.
+
+I have heard it observed, and with great justice, that rouge was only
+advantageous to those who did not require it: and the same may be said
+with equal truth of false hair. Some of the towering pinnacles of
+shining jet that I have seen here, certainly have exceeded in quantity
+of hair the possible growth of any one head: but when this fabric
+surmounts a youthful face which seems to have a right to all the
+flowing honours that the friseur's art can contrive to arrange above
+it, there is nothing incongruous or disagreeable in the effect; though
+it is almost a pity, too, to mix anything approaching to deceptive art
+with the native glories of a young head. For which sentiment
+_messieurs les fabricans_ of false hair will not thank me;--for having
+first interdicted the use of borrowed tresses to the old ladies, I now
+pronounce my disapproval of them for the young.
+
+_Au reste_, all I can tell you farther respecting dress is, that our
+ladies must no longer expect to find bargains here in any article
+required for the wardrobe; on the contrary, everything of the kind is
+become greatly dearer than in London: and what is at least equally
+against making such purchases here is, that the fabrics of various
+kinds which we used to consider as superior to our own, particularly
+those of silks and gloves, are now, I think, decidedly inferior; and
+such as can be purchased at the same price as in England, if they can
+be found at all, are really too bad to use.
+
+The only foreign bargains which I long to bring home with me are in
+porcelain: but this our custom-house tariff forbids, and very
+properly; as, without such protection, our Wedgewoods and Mortlakes
+would sell but few ornamental articles; for not only are their prices
+higher, but both their material and the fashioning of it are in my
+opinion extremely inferior. It is really very satisfactory to one's
+patriotic feelings to be able to say honestly, that excepting in
+these, and a few other ornamental superfluities, such as or-molu and
+alabaster clocks, etcætera, there is nothing that we need wish to
+smuggle into our own abounding land.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIV.
+
+ Exclusive Soirées.--Soirée Doctrinaire.--Duc de
+ Broglie.--Soirée Républicaine.--Soirée Royaliste.--Partie
+ Impériale.--Military Greatness.--Dame de l'Empire.
+
+
+Though the _salons_ of Paris probably show at the present moment the
+most mixed society that can be found mingled together in the world,
+one occasionally finds oneself in the midst of a set evidently of one
+stamp, and indeed proclaiming itself to be so; for wherever this
+happens, the assembly is considered as peculiarly chosen and select,
+and as having all the dignity of exclusiveness.
+
+The picture of Paris as it is, may perhaps be better caught at a
+glance at a party collected together without any reference to politics
+or principles of any kind; but I have been well pleased to find myself
+on three different occasions admitted to _soirées_ of the exclusive
+kind.
+
+At the first of these, I was told the names of most of the company by
+a kind friend who sat near me, and thus became aware that I had the
+honour of being in company with most of King Philippe's present
+ministry. Three or four of these gentlemen were introduced to me, and
+I had the advantage of seeing _de près_, during their hours of
+relaxation, the men who have perhaps at this moment as heavy a weight
+of responsibility upon their shoulders as any set of ministers ever
+sustained.
+
+Nevertheless, nothing like gloom, preoccupation, or uneasiness,
+appeared to pervade them; and yet that chiefest subject of anxiety,
+the _Procès Monstre_, was by no means banished from their discourse.
+Their manner of treating it, however, was certainly not such as to
+make one believe that they were at all likely to sink under their
+load, or that they felt in any degree embarrassed or distressed by it.
+
+Some of the extravagances of _les accusés_ were discussed gaily
+enough, and the general tone was that of men who knew perfectly well
+what they were about, and who found more to laugh at than to fear in
+the opposition and abuse they encountered. This light spirit however,
+which to me seemed fair enough in the hours of recreation, had better
+not be displayed on graver occasions, as it naturally produces
+exasperation on the part of the prisoners, which, however little
+dangerous it may be to the state, is nevertheless a feeling which
+should not be unnecessarily excited. In that amusing paper or
+magazine--I know not which may be its title--called the "Chronique de
+Paris," I read some days ago a letter describing one of the _séances_
+of the Chamber of Peers on this _procès_, in which the gaiety
+manifested by M. de Broglie is thus censured:--
+
+"J'ai fait moi-même partie de ce public privilégié que les accusés ne
+reconnaissent pas comme un vrai public, et j'ai pu assister jeudi à
+cette dramatique audience où la voix tonnante d'un accusé lisant une
+protestation, a couvert la voix du ministère public. J'étais du nombre
+de ceux qui ont eu la fièvre de cette scène, et je n'ai pu comprendre,
+au milieu de l'agitation générale, qu'un homme aussi bien élevé que M.
+de Broglie (je ne dis pas qu'un ministre) trouvât seul qu'il y avait
+là sujet de rire en lorgnant ce vrai Romain, comparable à ces tribuns
+qui, dans les derniers temps de la république, faisaient trembler les
+patriciens sur leurs chaises curules."
+
+"_Ce vrai Romain_," however, rather deserved to be scourged than
+laughed at; for never did any criminal when brought to the bar of his
+country insult its laws and its rulers more grossly than the prisoner
+Beaune on this occasion. If indeed the accounts which reach us by the
+daily papers are not exaggerated, the outrageous conduct of the
+accused furnishes at every sitting sufficient cause for anger and
+indignation, however unworthy it may be of inspiring anything
+approaching to a feeling of alarm: and the calm, dignified, and
+temperate manner in which the Chamber of Peers has hitherto conducted
+itself may serve, I think, as an example to many other legislative
+assemblies.
+
+The ministers of Louis-Philippe are very fortunate that the mode of
+trial decided on by them in this troublesome business is likely to be
+carried through by the upper house in a manner so little open to
+reasonable animadversion. The duty, and a most harassing one it is,
+has been laid upon them, as many think, illegally; but the task has
+been imposed by an authority which it is their duty to respect, and
+they have entered upon it in a spirit that does them honour.
+
+The second exclusive party to which I was fortunate enough to be
+admitted, was in all respects quite the reverse of the first. The fair
+mistress of the mansion herself assured me that there was not a single
+doctrinaire present.
+
+Here, too, the eternal subject of the _Procès Monstre_ was discussed,
+but in a very different tone, and with feelings as completely as
+possible in opposition to those which dictated the lively and
+triumphant sort of persiflage to which I had before listened.
+Nevertheless, the conversation was anything but _triste_, as the party
+was in truth particularly agreeable; but, amidst flashes of wit,
+sinister sounds that foreboded future revolutions grumbled every now
+and then like distant thunder. Then there was shrugging of shoulders,
+and shaking of heads, and angry taps upon the snuff-box; and from
+time to time, amid the prattle of pretty women, and the well-turned
+_gentillesses_ of those they prattled to, might be heard such phrases
+as, "Tout n'est pas encore fini".... "Nous verrons ... nous
+verrons".... "S'ils sont arbitraires!" ... and the like.
+
+The third set was as distinct as may be from the two former. This
+reunion was in the quartier St. Germain; and, if the feeling which I
+know many would call prejudice does not deceive me, the tone of
+first-rate good society was greatly more conspicuous here than at
+either of the others. By all the most brilliant personages who adorned
+the other two _soirées_ which I have described, I strongly suspect
+that the most distinguished of this third would be classed as
+_rococo_; but they were composed of the real stuff that constitutes
+the true patrician, for all that. Many indeed were quite of the old
+régime, and many others their noble high-minded descendants: but
+whether they were old or young,--whether remarkable for having played
+a distinguished part in the scenes that have been, or for sustaining
+the chivalric principles of their race, by quietly withdrawing from
+the scenes that are,--in either case they had that air of inveterate
+superiority which I believe nothing on earth but gentle blood can
+give.
+
+There is a fourth class still, consisting of the dignitaries of the
+Empire, which, if they ever assemble in distinct committee, I have yet
+to become acquainted with. But I suspect that this is not the case:
+one may perhaps meet them more certainly in some houses than in
+others; but, unless it be around the dome of the Invalides, I do not
+believe that they are to be found anywhere as a class apart.
+
+Nothing, however, can be less difficult than to trace them: they are
+as easily discerned as a boiled lobster among a panier full of such as
+are newly caught.
+
+That amusing little vaudeville called, I think, "La Dame de l'Empire,"
+or some such title, contains the best portrait of a whole _clique_,
+under the features of an individual character, of any comedy I know.
+
+None of the stormy billows which have rolled over France during the
+last forty years have thrown up a race so strongly marked as those
+produced by the military era of the Empire. The influence of the
+enormous power which was then in action has assuredly in some
+directions left most noble vestiges. Wherever science was at work,
+this power propelled it forward; and ages yet unborn may bless for
+this the fostering patronage of Napoleon: some midnight of devastation
+and barbarism must fall upon the world before what he has done of this
+kind can be obliterated.
+
+But the same period, while it brought forth from obscurity talent and
+enterprise which without its influence would never have been greeted
+by the light of day, brought forward at the same time legions of men
+and women to whom this light and their advanced position in society
+are by no means advantageous in the eyes of a passing looker-on.
+
+I have heard that it requires three generations to make a gentleman.
+Those created by Napoleon have not yet fairly reached a second; and,
+with all respect for talent, industry, and valour be it spoken, the
+necessity of this slow process very frequently forces itself upon
+one's conviction at Paris.
+
+It is probable that the great refinement of the post-imperial
+aristocracy of France may be one reason why the deficiencies of those
+now often found mixed up with them is so remarkable. It would be
+difficult to imagine a contrast in manner more striking than that of a
+lady who would be a fair specimen of the old Bourbon _noblesse_, and a
+bouncing _maréchale_ of Imperial creation. It seems as if every
+particle of the whole material of which each is formed gave evidence
+of the different birth of the spirit that dwells within. The sound of
+the voice is a contrast; the glance of the eye is a contrast; the
+smile is a contrast; the step is a contrast. Were every feature of a
+_dame de l'Empire_ and a _femme noble_ formed precisely in the same
+mould, I am quite sure that the two would look no more alike than
+Queen Constance and Nell Gwyn.
+
+Nor is there at all less difference in the two races of gentlemen. I
+speak not of the men of science or of art; their rank is of another
+kind: but there are still left here and there specimens of decorated
+greatness which look as if they must have been dragged out of the
+guard-room by main force; huge moustached militaires, who look at
+every slight rebuff as if they were ready to exclaim, "Sacré nom de
+D***! je suis un héros, moi! Vive l'Empereur!"
+
+A good deal is sneeringly said respecting the parvenus fashionables of
+the present day: but station, and place, and court favour, must at any
+rate give something of reality to the importance of those whom the
+last movement has brought to the top; and this is vastly less
+offensive than the empty, vulgar, camp-like reminiscences of Imperial
+patronage which are occasionally brought forward by those who may
+thank their sabre for having cut a path for them into the salons of
+Paris. The really great men of the Empire--and there are certainly
+many of them--have taken care to have other claims to distinction
+attached to their names than that of having been dragged out of heaven
+knows what profound obscurity by Napoleon: I may say of such, in the
+words of the soldier in Macbeth--
+
+ "If I say sooth, I must report they were
+ As cannon overcharged with double cracks."
+
+As for the elderly ladies, who, from simple little bourgeoises
+demoiselles, were in those belligerent days sabred and trumpeted into
+maréchales and duchesses, I must think that they make infinitely worse
+figures in a drawing-room, than those who, younger in years and newer
+in dignity, have all their blushing honours fresh upon them. Besides,
+in point of fact, the having one Bourbon prince instead of another
+upon the throne, though greatly to be lamented from the manner in
+which it was accomplished, can hardly be expected to produce so
+violent a convulsion among the aristocracy of France, as must of
+necessity have ensued from the reign of a soldier of fortune, though
+the mightiest that ever bore arms.
+
+Many of the noblest races of France still remain wedded to the soil
+that has been for ages native to their name. Towards these it is
+believed that King Louis-Philippe has no very repulsive feelings; and
+should no farther changes come upon the country--no more immortal days
+arise to push all men from their stools, it is probable that the
+number of these will not diminish in the court circles.
+
+Meanwhile, the haut-ton born during the last revolution must of
+course have an undisputed _entrée_ everywhere; and if by any external
+marks they are particularly brought forward to observation, it is
+only, I think, by a toilet among the ladies more costly and less
+simple than that of their high-born neighbours; and among the
+gentlemen, by a general air of prosperity and satisfaction, with an
+expression of eye sometimes a little triumphant, often a little
+patronizing, and always a little busy.
+
+It was a duchess, and no less, who decidedly gave me the most perfect
+idea of an Imperial parvenue that I have ever seen off the stage. When
+a lady of this class attains so very elevated a rank, the perils of
+her false position multiply around her. A quiet bourgeoise turned into
+a noble lady of the third or fourth degree is likely enough to look a
+little awkward; but if she has the least tact in the world, she may
+remain tranquil and _sans ridicule_ under the honourable shelter of
+those above her. But when she becomes a duchess, the chances are
+terribly against her: "Madame la Duchesse" must be conspicuous; and if
+in addition to mauvais ton she should par malheur be a bel esprit,
+adding the pretension of literature to that of station, it is likely
+that she will be very remarkable indeed.
+
+ [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+ SOIREE.
+ London. Published by Richard Bentley. 1835.]
+
+My parvenue duchess _is_ very remarkable indeed. She steps out like a
+corporal carrying a message: her voice is the first, the last, and
+almost the only thing heard in the salon that she honours with her
+presence,--except it chance, indeed, that she lower her tone
+occasionally to favour with a whisper some gallant _décoré_, military,
+scientific or artistic, of the same standing as herself; and moreover,
+she promenades her eyes over the company as if she had a right to
+bring them all to roll-call.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, the lady is certainly a person of talent;
+and had she happily remained in the station in which both herself and
+her husband were born, she might not perhaps have thought it necessary
+to speak quite so loud, and her bons mots would have produced
+infinitely greater effect. But she is so thoroughly out of place in
+the grade to which she has been unkindly elevated, that it seems as if
+Napoleon had decided on her fate in a humour as spiteful as that of
+Monsieur Jourdain, when he said--
+
+"Votre fille sera marquise, en dépit de tout le monde: et si vous me
+mettez en colère, je la ferai duchesse."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLV.
+
+ L'Abbé Lacordaire.--Various Statements respecting
+ him.--Poetical description of Notre Dame.--The prophecy of
+ a Roman Catholic.--Les Jeunes Gens de Paris--Their
+ omnipotence.
+
+
+The great reputation of another preacher induced us on Sunday to
+endure two hours more of tedious waiting before the mass which
+preceded the sermon began. It is only thus that a chair can be hoped
+for when the Abbé Lacordaire mounts the pulpit of Notre Dame. The
+penalty is really heavy; but having heard this celebrated person
+described as one who "appeared sent by Heaven to restore France to
+Christianity"--as "a hypocrite that set Tartuffe immeasurably in the
+background"--as "a man whose talent surpassed that of any preacher
+since Bossuet"--and as "a charlatan who ought to harangue from a tub,
+instead of from the _chaire de Notre Dame de Paris_,"--I determined
+upon at least seeing and hearing him, however little I might be able
+to decide on which of the two sides of the prodigious chasm that
+yawned between his friends and enemies the truth was most likely to
+be found. There were, however, several circumstances which lessened
+the tedium of this long interval: I might go farther, and confess that
+this period was by no means the least profitable portion of the four
+hours which we passed in the church.
+
+On entering, we found the whole of the enormous nave railed in, as it
+had been on Easter Sunday for the concert (for so in truth should that
+performance be called); but upon applying at the entrance to this
+enclosure, we were told that no ladies could be admitted to that part
+of the church--but that the side aisles were fully furnished with
+chairs, and afforded excellent places.
+
+This arrangement astonished me in many ways:--first, as being so
+perfectly un-national; for go where you will in France, you find the
+best places reserved for the women,--at least, this was the first
+instance in which I ever found it otherwise. Next, it astonished me,
+because at every church I had entered, the congregations, though
+always crowded, had been composed of at least twelve women to one man.
+When, therefore, I looked over the barrier upon the close-packed,
+well-adjusted rows of seats prepared to receive fifteen hundred
+persons, I thought that unless all the priests in Paris came in person
+to do honour to their eloquent confrère, it was very unlikely that
+this uncivil arrangement should be found necessary. There was no
+time, however, to waste in conjecture; the crowd already came rushing
+in at every door, and we hastened to secure the best places that the
+side aisles afforded. We obtained seats between the pillars
+immediately opposite to the pulpit, and felt well enough contented,
+having little doubt that a voice which had made itself heard so well
+must have power to reach even to the side aisles of Notre Dame.
+
+The first consolation which I found for my long waiting, after placing
+myself in that attitude of little ease which the straight-backed chair
+allowed, was from the recollection that the interval was to be passed
+within the venerable walls of Notre Dame. It is a glorious old church,
+and though not comparable in any way to Westminster Abbey, or to
+Antwerp, or Strasburg, or Cologne, or indeed to many others which I
+might name, has enough to occupy the eye very satisfactorily for a
+considerable time. The three elegant rose-windows, throwing in their
+coloured light from north, west, and south, are of themselves a very
+pretty study for half an hour or so; and besides, they brought back,
+notwithstanding their miniature diameter of forty feet, the remembrance
+of the magnificent circular western window of Strasburg--the
+recollection of which was almost enough to while away another long
+interval. Then I employed myself, not very successfully, in labouring
+to recollect the quaint old verses which I had fallen upon a few days
+before, giving the dimensions of the church, and which I will herewith
+transcribe for your use and amusement, in case you should ever find
+yourself sitting as I was, _bolt upright_, as we elegantly express
+ourselves when describing this ecclesiastical-Parisian attitude, while
+waiting the advent of the Abbé Lacordaire.
+
+ "Si tu veux savoir comme est ample
+ De Notre Dame le grand temple,
+ Il y a, dans oeuvre, pour le seur,
+ Dix et sept toises de hauteur,
+ Sur la largeur de vingt-quatre,
+ Et soixante-cinq, sans rebattre,
+ A de long; aux tours haut montées
+ Trente-quatre sont comptées;
+ Le tout fondé sur pilotis--
+ Aussi vrai que je te le dis."
+
+While repeating this poetical description, you have only to remember
+that _une toise_ is the same as a fathom,--that is to say, six feet;
+and then, as you turn your head in all directions to look about you,
+you will have the satisfaction of knowing exactly how far you can see
+in each.
+
+I had another source of amusement, and by no means a trifling one, in
+watching the influx of company. The whole building soon contained as
+many human beings as could be crammed into it; and the seats, which we
+thought, as we took them, were very so-so places indeed, became
+accomodations for which to be most heartily thankful. Not a pillar
+but supported the backs of as many men as could stand round it; and
+not a jutting ornament, the balustrade of a side altar, or any other
+"point of 'vantage," but looked as if a swarm of bees were beginning
+to hang upon it.
+
+But the sight which drew my attention most was that displayed by the
+exclusive central aisle. When told that it was reserved for gentlemen,
+I imagined of course that I should see it filled by a collection of
+staid-looking, middle-aged, Catholic citizens, who were drawn together
+from all parts of the town, and perhaps the country too, for the
+purpose of hearing the celebrated preacher: but, to my great
+astonishment, instead of this I saw pouring in by dozens at a time,
+gay, gallant, smart-looking young men, such indeed as I had rarely
+seen in Paris on any other religious occasion. Amongst these was a
+sprinkling of older men; but the great majority were decidedly under
+thirty. The meaning of this phenomenon I could by no means understand;
+but while I was tormenting myself to discover some method of obtaining
+information respecting it, accident brought relief to my curiosity in
+the shape of a communicative neighbour.
+
+In no place in the world is it so easy, I believe, to enter into
+conversation with strangers as in Paris. There is a courteous
+inclination to welcome every attempt at doing so which pervades all
+ranks, and any one who wishes it may easily find or make opportunities
+of hearing the opinions of all classes. The present time, too, is
+peculiarly favourable for this; a careless freedom in uttering
+opinions of all kinds being, I think, the most remarkable feature in
+the manners of Paris at the present day.
+
+I have heard that it is difficult to get a tame, flat, short,
+matter-of-fact answer from a genuine Irishman;--from a genuine
+Frenchman it is impossible: let his reply to a question which seeks
+information contain as little of it as the dry Anglicism "I don't
+know," it is never given without a tone or a turn of phrase that not
+only relieves its inanity, but leaves you with the agreeable
+persuasion that the speaker would be more satisfactory if he could,
+and moreover that he would be extremely happy to reply to any further
+questions you may wish to ask, either on the same, or any other
+subject whatever.
+
+It was in consequence of my moving my chair an inch and a half to
+accommodate the long limbs of a grey-headed neighbour, that he was
+induced to follow his "Milles pardons, madame!" with an observation on
+the inconvenience endured on the present occasion by the appropriation
+of all the best places to the gentlemen. It was quite contrary, he
+added, to the usual spirit of Parisian arrangements; and yet, in fact,
+it was the only means of preventing the ladies suffering from the
+tremendous rush of _jeunes gens_ who constantly came to hear the Abbé
+Lacordaire.
+
+"I never saw so large a proportion of young men in any congregation,"
+said I, hoping he might explain the mystery to me. What I heard,
+however, rather startled than enlightened me.
+
+"The Catholic religion was never so likely to be spread over the whole
+earth as it is at present," he replied. "The kingdom of Ireland will
+speedily become fully reconciled to the see of Rome. Le Sieur
+O'Connell desires to be canonized. Nothing, in truth, remains for that
+portion of your country to do, but to follow the example we set during
+our famous Three Days, and place a prince of its own choosing upon the
+throne."
+
+I am persuaded that he thought we were Irish Roman Catholics: our
+sitting with such exemplary patience to wait for the preaching of this
+new apostle was not, I suppose, to be otherwise accounted for. I said
+nothing to undeceive him, but wishing to bring him back to speak of
+the congregation before us, I replied,
+
+"Paris at least, if we may judge from the vast crowd collected here,
+is more religious than she has been of late years."
+
+"France," replied he with energy, "as you may see by looking at this
+throng, is no longer the France of 1823, when her priests sang
+canticles to the tune of "_Ça ira_." France is happily become most
+deeply and sincerely Catholic. Her priests are once more her orators,
+her magnates, her highest dignitaries. She may yet give cardinals to
+Rome--and Rome may again give a minister to France."
+
+I knew not what to answer: my silence did not seem to please him, and
+I believe he began to suspect he had mistaken the party altogether,
+for after sitting for a few minutes quite silent, he rose from the
+place into which he had pushed himself with considerable difficulty,
+and making his way through the crowd behind us, disappeared; but I saw
+him again, before we left the church, standing on the steps of the
+pulpit.
+
+The chair he left was instantly occupied by another gentleman, who had
+before found standing-room near it. He had probably remarked our
+sociable propensities, for he immediately began talking to us.
+
+"Did you ever see anything like the fashion which this man has
+obtained?" said he. "Look at those _jeunes gens_, madame! ... might
+one not fancy oneself at a première représentation?"
+
+"Those must be greatly mistaken," I replied, "who assert that the
+young men of Paris are not among her _fidèles_."
+
+"Do you consider their appearing here a proof that they are
+religious?" inquired my neighbour with a smile.
+
+"Certainly I do, sir," I replied: "how can I interpret it otherwise?"
+
+"Perhaps not--perhaps to a stranger it must have this appearance; but
+to a man who knows Paris...." He smiled again very expressively, and,
+after a short pause, added--"Depend upon it, that if a man of equal
+talent and eloquence with this Abbé Lacordaire were to deliver a
+weekly discourse in favour of atheism, these very identical young men
+would be present to hear him."
+
+"Once they might," said I, "from curiosity: but that they should
+follow him, as I understand they do, month after month, if what he
+uttered were at variance with their opinions, seems almost
+inconceivable."
+
+"And yet it is very certainly the fact," he replied: "whoever can
+contrive to obtain the reputation of talent at Paris, let the nature
+of it be of what kind it may, is quite sure that _les jeunes gens_
+will resort to hear and see him. They believe themselves of
+indefeasible right the sole arbitrators of intellectual reputation;
+and let the direction in which it is shown be as foreign as may be to
+their own pursuits, they come as a matter of prescriptive right to
+put their seal upon the aspirant's claim, or to refuse it."
+
+"Then, at least, they acknowledge that the Abbé's words have power, or
+they would not grant their suffrage to him."
+
+"They assuredly acknowledge that his words have eloquence; but if by
+power, you mean power of conviction, or conversion, I do assure you
+that they acknowledge nothing like it. Not only do I believe that
+these young men are themselves sceptics, but I do not imagine that
+there is one in ten of them who has the least faith in the Abbé's own
+orthodoxy."
+
+"But what right have they to doubt it?... Surely he would hardly be
+permitted to preach at Notre Dame, where the archbishop himself sits
+in judgment on him, were he otherwise than orthodox?"
+
+"I was at school with him," he replied: "he was a fine sharp-witted
+boy, and gave very early demonstrations of a mind not particularly
+given either to credulity, or subservience to any doctrines that he
+found puzzling."
+
+"I should say that this was the greatest proof of his present
+sincerity. He doubted as a boy--but as a man he believes."
+
+"That is not the way the story goes," said he. "But hark! there is the
+bell: the mass is about to commence."
+
+He was right: the organ pealed, the fine chant of the voices was heard
+above it, and in a few minutes we saw the archbishop and his splendid
+train escorting the Host to its ark upon the altar.
+
+During the interval between the conclusion of the mass and the arrival
+of the Abbé Lacordaire in the pulpit, my sceptical neighbour again
+addressed me.
+
+"Are you prepared to be very much enchanted by what you are going to
+hear?" said he.
+
+"I hardly know what to expect," I replied: "I think my idea of the
+preacher was higher when I came here, than since I have heard you
+speak of him."
+
+"You will find that he has a prodigious flow of words, much vehement
+gesticulation, and a very impassioned manner. This is quite sufficient
+to establish his reputation for eloquence among _les jeunes gens_."
+
+"But I presume you do not yourself subscribe to the sentence
+pronounced by these young critics?"
+
+"Yes, I do,--as far, at least, as to acknowledge that this man has not
+attained his reputation without having displayed great ability. But
+though all the talent of Paris has long consented to receive its crown
+of laurels from the hands of her young men, it would be hardly
+reasonable to expect that their judgment should be as profound as
+their power is great."
+
+"Your obedience to this beardless synod is certainly very
+extraordinary," said I: "I cannot understand it."
+
+"I suppose not," said he, laughing; "it is quite a Paris fashion; but
+we all seem contented that it should be so. If a new play appears, its
+fate must be decided by _les jeunes gens_; if a picture is exhibited,
+its rank amidst the works of modern art can only be settled by them:
+does a dancer, a singer, an actor, or a preacher appear--a new member
+in the tribune, or a new prince upon the throne,--it is still _les
+jeunes gens_ who must pass judgment on them all; and this judgment is
+quoted with a degree of deference utterly inconceivable to a
+stranger."
+
+"Chut! ... chut!" ... was at this moment uttered by more than one
+voice near us: "le voilà!" I glanced my eye towards the pulpit, but it
+was still empty; and on looking round me, I perceived that all eyes
+were turned in the direction of a small door in the north aisle,
+almost immediately behind us. "Il est entré là!" said a young woman
+near us, in a tone that seemed to indicate a feeling deeper than
+respect, and, in truth, not far removed from adoration. Her eyes were
+still earnestly fixed upon the door, and continued to be so, as well
+as those of many others, till it reopened and a slight young man in
+the dress of a priest prepared for the _chaire_ appeared at it. A
+verger made way for him through the crowd, which, thick and closely
+wedged as it was, fell back on each side of him, as he proceeded to
+the pulpit, with much more docility than I ever saw produced by the
+clearing a passage through the intervention of a troop of horse.
+
+Silence the most profound accompanied his progress; I never witnessed
+more striking demonstrations of respect: and yet it is said that
+three-fourths of Paris believe this man to be a hypocrite.
+
+As soon as he had reached the pulpit, and while preparing himself by
+silent prayer for the duty he was about to perform, a movement became
+perceptible at the upper part of the choir; and presently the
+archbishop and his splendid retinue of clergy were seen moving in a
+body towards that part of the nave which is immediately in front of
+the preacher. On arriving at the space reserved for them, each
+noiselessly dropped into his allotted seat according to his place and
+dignity, while the whole congregation respectfully stood to watch the
+ceremony, and seemed to
+
+ "Admirer un si bel ordre, et reconnaître l'église."
+
+It is easier to describe to you everything which preceded the sermon,
+than the sermon itself. This was such a rush of words, such a burst
+and pouring out of passionate declamation, that even before I had
+heard enough to judge of the matter, I felt disposed to prejudge the
+preacher, and to suspect that his discourse would have more of the
+flourish and furbelow of human rhetoric than of the simplicity of
+divine truth in it.
+
+His violent action, too, disgusted me exceedingly. The rapid and
+incessant movement of his hands, sometimes of one, sometimes of both,
+more resembled that of the wings of a humming-bird than anything else
+I can remember: but the _hum_ proceeded from the admiring
+congregation. At every pause he made, and like the claptraps of a bad
+actor, they were frequent, and evidently faits exprès: a little gentle
+laudatory murmur ran through the crowd.
+
+I remember reading somewhere of a priest nobly born, and so anxious to
+keep his flock in their proper place, that they might not come
+"between the wind and his nobility," that his constant address to them
+when preaching was, "Canaille Chrétienne!" This was bad--very bad,
+certainly; but I protest, I doubt if the Abbé Lacordaire's manner of
+addressing his congregation as "Messieurs" was much less unlike the
+fitting tone of a Christian pastor. This mundane apostrophe was
+continually repeated throughout the whole discourse, and, I dare say,
+had its share in producing the disagreeable effect I experienced from
+his eloquence. I cannot remember having ever heard a preacher I less
+liked, reverenced, and admired, than this new Parisian saint. He made
+very pointed allusions to the reviving state of the Roman Catholic
+Church in Ireland, and anathematized pretty cordially all such as
+should oppose it.
+
+In describing the two hours' prologue to the mass, I forgot to mention
+that many young men--not in the reserved places of the centre aisle,
+but sitting near us, beguiled the tedious interval by reading. Some of
+the volumes they held had the appearance of novels from a circulating
+library, and others were evidently collections of songs, probably less
+spiritual than _spirituels_.
+
+The whole exhibition certainly showed me a new page in the history of
+_Paris as it is_, and I therefore do not regret the four hours it cost
+me: but once is enough--I certainly will never go to hear the Abbé
+Lacordaire again.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVI.
+
+ La Tour de Nesle.
+
+
+It is, I believe, nearly two years ago since the very extraordinary
+drama called "La Tour de Nesle" was sent me to read, as a specimen of
+the outrageous school of dramatic extravagance which had taken
+possession of all the theatres in Paris; but I certainly did not
+expect that it would keep its place as a favourite spectacle with the
+people of this great and enlightened capital long enough for me to see
+it, at this distance of time, still played before a very crowded
+audience.
+
+That this is a national disgrace, is most certain: but the fault is
+less attributable to the want of good taste, than to the lamentable
+blunder which permits every species of vice and abomination to be
+enacted before the eyes of the people, without any restraint or check
+whatever, under the notion that they are thereby permitted to enjoy a
+desirable privilege and a noble freedom. Yet in this same country it
+is illegal to sell a deleterious drug! There is no logic in this.
+
+It is however an undeniable fact, as I think I have before stated,
+that the best class of Parisian society protest against this
+disgusting license, and avoid--upon principle loudly proclaimed and
+avowed--either reading or seeing acted these detestable compositions.
+Thus, though the crowded audiences constantly assembled whenever they
+are brought forward prove but too clearly that such persons form but a
+small minority, their opinion is nevertheless sufficient, or ought to
+be so, to save the country from the disgrace of admitting that such
+things are good.
+
+We seem to pique ourselves greatly on the superiority of our taste in
+these matters; but let us pique ourselves rather on our theatrical
+censorship. Should the clamours and shoutings of misrule lead to the
+abolition of this salutary restraint, the consequences would, I fear,
+be such as very soon to rob us of our present privilege of abusing our
+neighbours on this point.
+
+While things do remain as they are, however, we may, I think, smile a
+little at such a judgment as Monsieur de Saintfoix passes upon our
+theatrical compositions, when comparing them to those of France.
+
+"Les actions de nos tragédies," says he, "sont pathétiques et
+terribles; celles des tragédies angloises sont atroces. On y met sous
+les yeux du spectateur les objets les plus horribles; un mari qui
+discourt avec sa femme, qui la caresse et l'étrangle."
+
+Might one not think that the writer of this passage had just arrived
+from witnessing the famous scene in the "Monomane," only he had
+mistaken it for English? But he goes on--
+
+"Une fille toute sanglante...." (Triboulet's daughter Blanche, for
+instance.)--"Après l'avoir violée...."
+
+He then proceeds to reason upon the subject, and justly enough, I
+think--only we should read England for France, and France for England.
+
+"Il n'est pas douteux que les arts agréables ne réussissent chez un
+peuple qu'autant qu'ils en prennent le génie, et qu'un auteur
+dramatique ne sauroit espérer de plaire si les objets et les images
+qu'il présente ne sont pas analogues au caractère, au naturel, et au
+goût de la nation: on pourroit donc conclure de la différence des deux
+théâtres, que l'âme d'un ANGLAIS est sombre, féroce, sanguinaire; et
+que celle d'un FRANÇAIS est vive, impatiente, emportée, mais généreuse
+même dans sa haine; idolatrant l'honneur"--(just like Buridan in this
+same drama of the Tour de Nesle--this popular production of _la Jeune
+France_--_la France régénérée_)--"idolatrant l'honneur, et ne cessant
+jamais de l'apercevoir, malgré le trouble et toute la violence des
+passions."
+
+Though it is impossible to read this passage without a smile, at a
+time when it is so easy for the English to turn the tables against
+this patriotic author, one must sigh too, while reflecting on the
+lamentable change which has taken place in the moral feeling of
+revolutionised France since the period at which it was written.
+
+What would Saintfoix say to the notion that Victor Hugo had "heaved
+the ground from beneath the feet of Corneille and Racine"? The
+question, however, is answered by a short sentence in his "Essais
+Historiques," where he thus expresses himself:--
+
+"Je croirois que la décadence de notre nation seroit prochaine, si les
+hommes de quarante ans n'y regardoient pas CORNEILLE comme le plus
+grand génie qui ait jamais été."
+
+If the spirit of the historian were to revisit the earth, and float
+over the heads of a party of Parisian critics while pronouncing
+sentence on his favourite author, he might probably return to the
+shades unharmed, for he would only hear "Rococo! Rococo! Rococo!"
+uttered as by acclamation; and unskilled to comprehend the new-born
+eloquence, he would doubtless interpret it as a _refrain_ to express
+in one pithy word all reverence, admiration, and delight.
+
+But to return to "La Tour de Nesle." The story is taken from a passage
+in Brantôme's history "des Femmes Galantes," where he says, "qu'une
+reine de France"--whom however he does not name, but who is said to
+have been Marguérite de Bourgogne, wife of Louis Dix--"se tenoit là (à
+la Tour de Nesle) d'ordinaire, laquelle fesant le guet aux passans, et
+ceux qui lui revenoient et agréoient le plus, de quelque sorte de gens
+que ce fussent, les fesoit appeler et venir à soy, et après ... les
+fesoit précipiter du haut de la tour en bas, en l'eau, et les fesoit
+noyer. Je ne veux pas," he continues, "assurer que cela soit vrai,
+mais le vulgaire, au moins la plupart de Paris, l'affirme, et n'y a si
+commun qu'en lui montrant la tour seulement, et en l'interrogeant, que
+de lui-même ne le die."
+
+This story one might imagine was horrible and disgusting enough; but
+MM. Gaillardet et ***** (it is thus the authors announce themselves)
+thought otherwise, and accordingly they have introduced her majesty's
+sisters, the ladies Jeanne and Blanche of Burgundy, who were both
+likewise married to sons of Philippe-le-Bel, the brothers of Louis
+Dix, to share her nocturnal orgies. These "imaginative and powerful"
+scenic historians also, according to the fashion of the day among the
+theatrical writers of France, add incest to increase the interest of
+the drama.
+
+This is enough, and too much, as to the plot; and for the execution of
+it by the authors, I can only say that it is about equal in literary
+merit to the translations of an Italian opera handed about at the
+Haymarket. It is in prose--and, to my judgment, very vulgar prose; yet
+it is not only constantly acted, but I am assured that the sale of it
+has been prodigiously great, and still continues to be so.
+
+That a fearful and even hateful story, dressed up in all the
+attractive charm of majestic poetry, and redeemed in some sort by the
+noble sentiments of the personages brought into the scenes of which it
+might be the foundation--that a drama so formed might captivate the
+imagination even while it revolted the feelings, is very possible,
+very natural, and nowise disgraceful either to the poet, or to those
+whom his talent may lead captive. The classic tragedies which long
+served as models to France abound in fables of this description.
+Alfieri, too, has made use of such, following with a poet's wing the
+steady onward flight of remorseless destiny, yet still sublime in
+pathos and in dignity, though appalling in horror. In like manner, the
+great French dramatists have triumphed by the power of their genius,
+both over the disgust inspired by these awful classic mysteries, and
+the unbending strictness of the laws which their antique models
+enforced for their composition.
+
+If we may herein deem the taste to have been faulty, the grace, the
+majesty, the unswerving dignity of the tragic march throughout the
+whole action--the lofty sentiments, the bursts of noble passion, and
+the fine drapery of stately verse in which the whole was clothed, must
+nevertheless raise our admiration to a degree that may perhaps almost
+compete with what we feel for the enchanting wildness and unshackled
+nature of our native dramas.
+
+But what can we think of those who, having ransacked the pages of
+history to discover whatever was most revolting to the human soul,
+should sit down to arrange it in action, detailed at full length, with
+every hateful circumstance exaggerated and brought out to view for the
+purpose of tickling the curiosity of his countrymen and countrywomen,
+and by that means beguiling them into the contemplation of scenes that
+Virtue would turn from with loathing, and before which Innocence must
+perish as she gazes? No gleam of goodness throughout the whole for the
+heart to cling to,--no thought of remorseful penitence,--no spark of
+noble feeling; nothing but vice,--low, grovelling, brutal vice,--from
+the moment the curtain rises to display the obscene spectacle, to that
+which sees it fall between the fictitious infamy on one side, and the
+real impurity left on the other!
+
+As I looked on upon the hideous scene, and remembered the classic
+horrors of the Greek tragedians, and of the mighty imitators who have
+followed them, I could not help thinking that the performance of MM.
+Gaillardet et ***** was exceedingly like that of a monkey mimicking
+the operations of a man. He gets hold of the same tools, but turns the
+edges the wrong way; and instead of raising a majestic fabric in
+honour of human genius, he rolls the materials in mud, begrimes his
+own paws in the slimy cement, and then claws hold of every unwary
+passenger who comes within his reach, and bespatters him with the
+rubbish he has brought together. Such monkeys should be chained, or
+they will do much mischief.
+
+It is hardly possible that such dramas as the "Tour de Nesle" can be
+composed with the intention of producing a great tragic effect; which
+is surely the only reason which can justify bringing sin and misery
+before the eyes of an audience. There is in almost every human heart a
+strange love for scenes of terror and of woe. We love to have our
+sympathies awakened--our deepest feelings roused; we love to study in
+the magic mirror of the scene what we ourselves might feel did such
+awful visitations come upon us; and there is an unspeakable interest
+inspired by looking on, and fancying that were it so with us, we might
+so act, so feel, so suffer, and so die. But is there in any land a
+wretch so lost, so vile, as to be capable of feeling sympathy with any
+sentiment or thought expressed throughout the whole progress of this
+"Tour de Nesle"? God forbid!
+
+I have heard of poets who have written under the inspiration of brandy
+and laudanum--the exhalations from which are certainly not likely to
+form themselves into images of distinctness or beauty; but the
+inspiration that dictated the "Tour de Nesle" must have been something
+viler still, though not less powerful. It must, I think, have been the
+cruel calculation of how many dirty francs might be expressed from the
+pockets of the idle, by a spectacle new from its depth of atrocity,
+and attractive from its newness.
+
+But, setting aside for a moment the sin and the scandal of producing
+on a public stage such a being as the woman to whom MM. Gaillardet et
+***** have chosen to give the name of Marguérite de Bourgogne, it is
+an object of some curiosity to examine the literary merits of a piece
+which, both on the stage and in the study, has been received by so
+many thousands--perhaps millions--of individuals belonging to "_la
+grande nation_" as a work deserving their patronage and support--or at
+least as deserving their attention and attendance for years; years,
+too, of hourly progressive intellect--years during which the march of
+mind has outdone all former marches of human intelligence--years
+during which Young France has been labouring to throw off her ancient
+coat of worn-out rococoism, and to clothe herself in new-fledged
+brightness. During these years she has laid on one shelf her
+once-venerated Corneille,--on another, her almost worshipped Racine.
+Molière is named but as a fine antique; and Voltaire himself, spite of
+his strong claims upon their revolutionary affections, can hardly be
+forgiven for having said of the two whom Victor Hugo is declared to
+have overthrown, that "Ces hommes enseignèrent à la nation, à penser,
+à sentir, à s'exprimer; leurs auditeurs, instruits par eux seuls,
+devinrent enfin des juges sévères pour eux mêmes qui les avaient
+éclairés." Let any one whose reason is not totally overthrown by the
+fever and delirium of innovation read the "Tour de Nesle," and find
+out if he can any single scene, speech, or phrase deserving the
+suffrage which Paris has accorded to it. Has the dialogue either
+dignity, spirit, or truth of nature to recommend it? Is there a single
+sentiment throughout the five acts with which an honest man can
+accord? Is there even an approach to grace or beauty in the
+_tableaux_? or skill in the arrangement of the scenes? or keeping of
+character among the demoniacal _dramatis personæ_ which MM. Gaillardet
+et ***** have brought together? or, in short, any one merit to
+recommend it--except only its superlative defiance of common decency
+and common sense?
+
+If there be any left among the men of France; I speak not now of her
+boys, the spoilt grandchildren of the old revolution;--but if there be
+any left among her men, as I in truth believe there are, who deprecate
+this eclipse of her literary glory, is it not sad that they should be
+forced to permit its toleration, for fear they should be sent to Ham
+for interfering with the liberty of the press?
+
+It is impossible to witness the representation of one of these
+infamous pieces without perceiving, as you glance your eye around the
+house, who are its patrons and supporters. At no great distance from
+us, when we saw the "Tour de Nesle," were three young men who had all
+of them a most thoroughly "_jeunes gens_" and republican cast of
+countenance, and tournure of person and dress. They tossed their heads
+and snuffed the theatrical air of "_la Jeune France_," as if they felt
+that they were, or ought to be, her masters: and it is a positive fact
+that nothing pre-eminently absurd or offensive was done or said upon
+the stage, which this trio did not mark with particular admiration and
+applause.
+
+There was, however, such a saucy look of determination to do what they
+knew was absurd, that I gave them credit for being aware of the
+nonsense of what they applauded, from the very fact that they did
+applaud it.
+
+It is easy enough sometimes to discover "le vrai au travers du
+ridicule;" and these silly boys were not, I am persuaded, such utter
+blockheads as they endeavoured to appear. It is a bad and mischievous
+tone, however; and the affecting a vice where you have it not, is
+quite as detestable a sort of hypocrisy as any other.
+
+Some thousand years hence perhaps, if any curious collectors of rare
+copies should contrive among them to preserve specimens of the French
+dramas of the present day, it may happen that while the times that are
+gone shall continue to be classed as the Iron, the Golden, the Dark,
+and the Augustan ages, this day of ours may become familiar in all
+men's mouths as the Diabolic age,--unless, indeed, some charitable
+critic shall step forward in our defence, and bestow upon it the
+gentler appellation of "the Idiot era."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVII.
+
+ Palais Royal.--Variety of Characters.--Party of
+ English.--Restaurant.--Galerie d'Orléans.--Number of
+ Loungers.--Convenient abundance of Idle Men.--Théâtre du
+ Vaudeville.
+
+
+Though, as a lady, you may fancy yourself quite beyond the possibility
+of ever feeling any interest in the Palais Royal, its restaurans, its
+trinket-shops, ribbon-shops, toy-shops &c. &c. &c. and all the world
+of misery, mischief, and good cheer which rises _étage_ after _étage_
+above them; I must nevertheless indulge in a little gossip respecting
+it, because few things in Paris--I might, I believe, say nothing--can
+show an aspect so completely un-English in all ways as this singular
+region. The palace itself is stately and imposing, though not
+externally in the very best taste. Corneille, however, says of it,--
+
+ "L'univers entier ne peut voir rien d'égal
+ Au superbe dehors du Palais Cardinal,"
+
+as it was called from having been built and inhabited by the Cardinal
+de Richelieu. But it is the use made of the space which was originally
+the Cardinal's garden, which gives the place its present interest.
+
+All the world--men, women and children, gentle and simple, rich and
+poor,--in short, I suppose every living soul that enters Paris, is
+taken to look at the Palais Royal. But though many strangers linger
+there, alas! all too long, there are many others who, according to my
+notions, do not linger there long enough. The quickest eye cannot
+catch at one glance, though that glance be in activity during a tour
+made round the whole enclosure, all the national characteristic,
+picturesque, and comic groups which float about there incessantly
+through at least twenty hours of the twenty-four. I know that the
+Palais Royal is a study which, in its higher walks and profoundest
+depths, it would be equally difficult, dangerous, and disagreeable to
+pursue: but with these altitudes and profundities I have nothing to
+do; there are abundance of objects to be seen there, calculated and
+intended to meet the eyes of all men, and women too, which may furnish
+matter for observation, without either diving or climbing in pursuit
+of knowledge that, after all, would be better lost than found.
+
+But one should have the talent of Hogarth to describe the different
+groups, with all their varied little episodes of peculiarity, which
+render the Palais Royal so amusing. These groups are, to be sure, made
+up only of Parisians, and of the wanderers who visit _la belle ville_
+in order to see and be seen in every part of it; yet it is in vain
+that you would seek elsewhere the same odd selection of human beings
+that are to be found sans faute in every corner of the Palais Royal.
+
+How it happens I know not, but so it is, that almost every person you
+meet here furnishes food for speculation. If it be an elegant
+well-appointed man of fashion, the fancy instantly tracks him to a
+_salon de jeu_; and if you are very good-natured, your heart will ache
+to think how much misery he is likely to carry home with him. If it be
+a low, skulking, semi-genteel _moustache_, with large, dark, deep-set
+eyes rolling about to see whom he can devour, you are as certain that
+he too is making for a salon, as that a man with a rod and line on his
+shoulder is going to fish. That pretty _soubrette_, with her neat
+heels and smart silk apron, who has evidently a few francs tied up in
+the corner of the handkerchief which she holds in her hand--do we not
+know that she is peering through the window of every trinket-shop to
+see where she can descry the most tempting gold ear-rings, for the
+purchase of which a quarter's wages are about to be dis-kerchiefed?
+
+We must not overlook, and indeed it would not be easy to do so, that
+well-defined domestic party of our country-folks who have just turned
+into the superb Galerie d'Orléans. Father, mother, and daughters--how
+easy to guess their thoughts, and almost their words! The portly
+father declares that it would make a capital Exchange: he has not yet
+seen La Bourse. He looks up to its noble height--then steps forward a
+pace or two, and measures with his eye the space on all sides--then
+stops, and perhaps says to the stately lady on his arm, (whose eyes
+meanwhile are wandering amidst shawls, gloves, Cologne bottles, and
+Sèvres china, first on one side and then on the other,)--"This is not
+badly built; it is light and lofty--and the width is very considerable
+for so slight-looking a roof; but what is it compared to
+Waterloo-bridge!"
+
+Two pretty girls, with bright cheeks, dove-like eyes, and "tresses
+like the morn," falling in un-numbered ringlets, so as almost to hide
+their curious yet timid glances, precede the parent pair; but, with
+pretty well-taught caution, pause when they pause, and step on when
+they step on. But they can hardly look at anything; for do they not
+know, though their downcast eyes can hardly be said to see it, that
+those youths with coal-black hair, favoris and imperials, are spying
+at them with their lorgnettes?
+
+Here too, as at the Tuileries, are little pavilions to supply the
+insatiable thirst for politics; and here, too, we could distinguish
+the melancholy champion of the elder branch of the Bourbons, who is at
+least sure to find the consolation of his faithful "Quotidienne," and
+the sympathy of "La France." The sour republican stalks up, as usual,
+to seize upon the "Réformateur;" while the comfortable doctrinaire
+comes forth from the Café Véry, ruminating on the "Journal des
+Débats," and the chances of his bargains at Tortoni's or La Bourse.
+
+It was in a walk taken round three sides of the square that we marked
+the figures I have mentioned, and many more too numerous to record, on
+a day that we had fixed upon to gratify our curiosity by dining--not
+at Véry's, or any other far-famed artist's, but tout bonnement at a
+restaurant of quarante sous par tête. Having made our tour, we mounted
+au second at numéro--I forget what, but it was where we had been
+especially recommended to make this coup d'essai. The scene we entered
+upon, as we followed a long string of persons who preceded us, was as
+amusing as it was new to us all.
+
+I will not say that I should like to dine three days in the week at
+the Palais Royal for quarante sous par tête; but I will say, that I
+should have been very sorry not to have done it once, and moreover,
+that I heartily hope I may do it again.
+
+The dinner was extremely good, and as varied as our fancy chose to
+make it, each person having privilege to select three or four plats
+from a carte that it would take a day to read deliberately. But the
+dinner was certainly to us the least important part of the business.
+The novelty of the spectacle, the number of strange-looking people,
+and the perfect amenity and good-breeding which seemed to reign among
+them all, made us look about us with a degree of interest and
+curiosity that almost caused the whole party to forget the ostensible
+cause of their visit.
+
+There were many English, chiefly gentlemen, and several Germans with
+their wives and daughters; but the majority of the company was French;
+and from sundry little circumstances respecting taking the places
+reserved for them, and different words of intelligence between
+themselves and the waiters, it was evident that many among them were
+not chance visitors, but in the daily habit of dining there. What a
+singular mode of existence is this, and how utterly inconceivable to
+English feelings!... Yet habit, and perhaps prejudice, apart, it is
+not difficult to perceive that it has its advantages. In the first
+place, there is no management in the world, not even that of Mrs.
+Primrose herself, which could enable a man to dine at home, for the
+sum of two francs, with the same degree of luxury as to what he eats,
+that he does at one of these restaurans. Five hundred persons are
+calculated upon as the daily average of company expected; and forty
+pounds of ready money in Paris, with the skilful aid of French cooks,
+will furnish forth a dinner for this number, and leave some profit
+besides. Add to which, the sale of wine is, I believe, considerable.
+Some part of the receipts, however, must be withdrawn as interest upon
+the capital employed. The quantity of plate is very abundant, not only
+in the apparently unlimited supply of forks and spoons, but in
+furnishing the multitude of grim-looking silver bowls in which the
+_potage_ is served.
+
+On the whole, however, I can better understand the possibility of five
+hundred dinners being furnished daily for two francs each, by one of
+these innumerable establishments, than I can the marvel of five
+hundred people being daily found by each of these to eat them.
+Hundreds of these houses exist in Paris, and all of them are
+constantly furnished with guests. But this manner of living, so
+unnatural to us, seems not only natural, but needful to them. They do
+it all so well--so pleasantly! Imagine for a moment the sort of tone
+and style such a dining-room would take in London. I do not mean, if
+limited to the same price, but set it greatly beyond the proportion:
+let us imagine an establishment where males and females should dine at
+five shillings a-head--what din, what unsocial, yet vehement
+clattering, would inevitably ensue!--not to mention the utter
+improbability that such a place, really and _bonâ fide_ open to the
+public, should continue a reputable resort for ladies for a week after
+its doors were open.
+
+But here, everything was as perfectly respectable and well arranged as
+if each little table had been placed with its separate party in a
+private room at Mivart's. It is but fair, therefore, that while we hug
+ourselves, as we are all apt to do, on the refinement which renders
+the exclusive privacy of our own dining-rooms necessary to our
+feelings of comfort, we should allow that equal refinement, though of
+another kind, must exist among those who, when thrown thus
+promiscuously together, still retain and manifest towards each other
+the same deference and good-breeding which we require of those whom we
+admit to our private circle.
+
+At this restaurant, as everywhere else in Paris, we found it easy
+enough to class our _gens_. I feel quite sure that we had around us
+many of the employés du gouvernement actuel--several anciens
+militaires of Napoleon's--some specimens of the race distinguished by
+Louis Dix-huit and Charles Dix--and even, if I do not greatly mistake,
+a few relics of the Convention, and of the unfortunate monarch who was
+its victim.
+
+But during this hour of rest and enjoyment all differences seem
+forgotten; and however discordant may be their feelings, two Frenchmen
+cannot be seated near each other at table, without exchanging
+numberless civilities, and at last entering into conversation, so well
+sustained and so animated, that instead of taking them for strangers
+who had never met before, we, in our stately shyness, would be ready
+to pronounce that they must be familiar friends.
+
+Whether it be this _causant_, social temper which makes them prefer
+thus living in public, or that thus living in public makes them
+social, I cannot determine to my own satisfaction; but the one is not
+more remarkable and more totally unlike our own manners than the
+other, and I really think that no one who has not dined thus in Paris
+can have any idea how very wide, in some directions, the line of
+demarcation is between the two countries.
+
+I have on former occasions dined with a party at places of much higher
+price, where the object was to observe what a very good dinner a very
+good cook could produce in Paris. But this experiment offered nothing
+to our observation at all approaching in interest and nationality to
+the dinner of quarante sous.
+
+In the first place, you are much more likely to meet English than
+French society at these costly repasts; and in the second, if you do
+encounter at them a genuine native gourmet of la Grande Nation, he
+will, upon this occasion, be only doing like ourselves,--that is to
+say, giving himself un repas exquis, instead of regaling himself at
+home with his family--
+
+ "Sur un lièvre flanqué de deux poulets étiques."
+
+But at the humble restaurant of two francs, you have again a new page
+of Paris existence to study,--and one which, while it will probably
+increase your English relish for your English home, will show you no
+unprofitable picture of the amiable social qualities of France. I
+think that if we could find a people composed in equal proportions of
+the two natures, they would be as near to social perfection as it is
+possible to imagine.
+
+The French are almost too amiable to every one they chance to sit
+near. The lively smile, the kind empressement, the ready causerie,
+would be more flattering did we not know that it was all equally at
+the service of the whole world. Whereas we are more than equally wrong
+in the other extreme; having the air of suspecting that every human
+being who happens to be thrown into contact with us, before we know
+his birth, parentage, and education, is something very dangerous, and
+to be guarded against with all possible care and precaution. Query--Do
+not the Germans furnish something very like this juste milieu?
+
+Having concluded our unexpensive repast with the prescribed tasse de
+café noir, we again sallied forth to take the tour of the Palais
+Royal, in order to occupy the time till the opening of the Théâtre du
+Vaudeville, with which, as we were so very close to it, we determined
+to finish the evening.
+
+We returned, as we came, through the noble Galerie d'Orléans, which
+was now crowded with the assembled loungers of all the numerous
+restaurans. It is a gay and animated scene at any time of the day; but
+at this particular hour, just before the theatres open, and just after
+the gay people have all refreshed their animal spirits, Paris itself
+seems typified by the aspect of the lively, laughing, idle throng
+assembled there.
+
+One reason, I believe, why Paris is so much more amusing to a
+looker-on than London, is, that it contains so many more people, in
+proportion to its population, who have nothing in the world to do but
+to divert themselves and others. There are so many more idle men here,
+who are contented to live on incomes that with us would be considered
+as hardly sufficient to supply a lodging; small rentiers, who prefer
+being masters of their own time and amusing themselves with a little,
+to working very hard and being very much ennuyés with a great deal of
+money. I am not quite sure that this plan answers well when youth is
+past--at least for the individuals themselves: it is probable, I
+think, that as the strength, and health, and spirits fade away,
+something of quieter and more substantial comfort must often be wished
+for, when perhaps it is too late to obtain it; but for others--for all
+those who form the circle round which the idle man of pleasure skims
+thus lightly, he is a never-failing resource. What would become of all
+the parties for amusement which take place morning, noon, and night in
+Paris, if this race were extinct? Whether they are married or single,
+they are equally eligible, equally necessary, equally welcome wherever
+pleasure makes the business of the hour. With us, it is only a small
+and highly-privileged class who can permit themselves to go wherever
+and whenever pleasure beckons; but in France, no lady arranging a
+fête, let it be of what kind it may, has need to think twice and
+thrice before she can answer the important but tormenting question
+of--"But what men can we get?"
+
+The Vaudeville was very full, but we contrived to get a good box au
+second, from whence we saw, greatly to our delectation and amusement,
+three pretty little pieces,--"Les Gants Jaunes," "Le Premier Amour,"
+and "Elle est Folle;" which last was of the larmoyante school, and
+much less to my taste than the lively nonsense of the two former; yet
+it was admirably well played too. But I always go to a vaudeville with
+the intention of laughing; and if this purpose fail, I am
+disappointed.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVIII.
+
+ Literary Conversation.--Modern Novelists.--Vicomte
+ d'Arlincourt.--His Portrait.--Châteaubriand.--Bernardin de
+ Saint Pierre.--Shakspeare.--Sir Walter Scott.--French
+ familiarity with English Authors.--Miss Mitford.--Miss
+ Landon.--Parisian passion for Novelty.--Extent of general
+ Information.
+
+
+We were last night at a small party where there was neither dancing,
+music, cards, nor--(wonderful to say!) politics to amuse or occupy us:
+nevertheless, it was one of the most agreeable _soirées_ at which I
+have been present in Paris. The conversation was completely on
+literary subjects, but totally without the pretension of a literary
+society. In fact, it was purely the effect of accident; and it was
+just as likely that we might have passed the evening in talking of
+pictures, or music, or rocks and rivers, as of books. But Fate decreed
+that so it should be; and the consequence was, that we had the
+pleasure of hearing three Frenchmen and two Frenchwomen talk for three
+hours of the literature of their country. I do not mean to assert that
+no other person spoke--but the frais de la conversation were certainly
+furnished by the five natives.
+
+One of the gentlemen, and that too the oldest man in company, was more
+tolerant towards the present race of French novel-writers than any
+person of his age and class that I have yet conversed with; but
+nevertheless, his approval went no farther than to declare that he
+thought the present mode of following human nature with a microscope
+into all the recesses to which passion, and even vice, could lead it,
+was calculated to make a better novelist than the fashion which
+preceded it, of looking at all things through a magnifying medium, and
+of straining and striving, in consequence, to make that appear great,
+which was by its nature essentially the reverse.
+
+The Vicomte d'Arlincourt was the author he named to establish the
+truth of his proposition: he would not admit him to be an exaggeration
+of the school which has passed away, but only the perfection of it.
+
+"I remember," said he, "to have seen at the Louvre, many years ago, a
+full-length portrait of this gentleman, which I thought at the time
+was as perfect a symbol of what is called in France le style
+romantique, as it was well possible to conceive. He was standing erect
+on the rocky point of a precipice, with eye inspired, and tablets in
+his hand: a foaming torrent rolled its tortured waters at his feet,
+whilst he, calm and sublime, looked not 'comme une jeune beauté qu'on
+arrache au sommeil,' but very like a young incroyable snatched from a
+fashionable salon to meditate upon the wild majesty of nature, with
+all the inspiring adjuncts of tempest, wildness, and solitude. He
+appeared dressed in an elegant black coat and waistcoat, black silk
+stockings, and dancing pumps. It would be lost labour," he continued,
+"should I attempt to give you a more just idea of his style of writing
+than the composition of this portrait conveys. It is in vain that M.
+le Vicomte places himself amidst rocks and cataracts--he is still M.
+le Vicomte; and his silk stockings and dancing pumps will remain
+visible, spite of all the froth and foam he labours to raise around
+him."
+
+"It was not D'Arlincourt, however," said M. de C***, "who has
+either the honour or dishonour of having invented this _style
+romantique_--but a much greater man: it was Châteaubriand who first
+broke through all that was left of classic restraint, and permitted
+his imagination to run wild among everything in heaven and earth."
+
+"You cannot, however, accuse him of running this wild race with his
+imagination en habit bourgeois," said the third gentleman: "his style
+is extravagant, but never ludicrous; Châteaubriand really has, what
+D'Arlincourt affected to have, a poetical and abounding fancy, and a
+fecundity of imagery which has often betrayed him into bad taste from
+its very richness; but there is nothing strained, forced, and
+unnatural in his eloquence,--for eloquence it is, though a soberer
+imagination and a severer judgment might have kept it within more
+reasonable bounds. After all that can be said against his taste,
+Châteaubriand is a great man, and his name will live among the
+literati of France; but God forbid that any true prophet should
+predict the same of his imitators!"
+
+"And God forbid that any true prophet should predict the same of the
+school that has succeeded them!" said Madame V***--a delightful
+old woman, who wears her own grey hair, and does not waltz. "I have
+sometimes laughed and sometimes yawned over the productions of the
+_école D'Arlincourt_," she added; "but I invariably turn with disgust
+and indignation from those of the domestic style which has succeeded
+to it."
+
+"Invariably?" ... said the old gentleman interrogatively.
+
+"Yes, invariably; because, if I see any symptom of talent, I lament
+it, and feel alarmed for the possible mischief which may ensue. I can
+never wish to see high mental power, which is the last and best gift
+of Heaven, perverted so shamelessly."
+
+"Come, come, dear lady," replied the advocate of what Goethe
+impressively calls 'la littérature du désespoir,' you must not
+overthrow the whole fabric because some portion of it is faulty. The
+object of our tale-writers at present is, beyond all doubt, to paint
+men as they are: if they succeed, their labours cannot fail of being
+interesting--and I should think they might be very useful too."
+
+"Fadaise que tout cela!" exclaimed the old lady eagerly. "Before men
+can paint human nature profitably, they must see it as it really is,
+my good friend--and not as it appears to these misérables in their
+baraques and greniers. We have nothing to do with such scenes as they
+paint; and they have nothing to do (God help them!) with literary
+labours. Have you got Bernardin de Saint Pierre, ma chère?" said she,
+addressing the lady of the house. The little volume was immediately
+handed to her from a chiffonnière that stood behind us. "Now this,"
+she continued, having found the passage she sought,--"this is what I
+conceive to be the legitimate object of literature;" and she read
+aloud the following passage:--
+
+"Les lettres sont un secours du Ciel. Ce sont des rayons de cette
+sagesse qui gouverne l'univers, que l'homme, inspiré par un art
+céleste, a appris à fixer sur la terre.... Elles calment les passions;
+elles répriment les vices; elles excitent les vertus par les exemples
+augustes des gens de bien qu'elles célèbrent, et dont elles nous
+présentent les images toujours honorées."
+
+"Eh bien! a-t-il raison, ce Bernardin?" said she, laying aside her
+spectacles and looking round upon us. Every one admired the passage.
+"Is this the use your French romancers make of letters?" she
+continued, looking triumphantly at their advocate.
+
+"Not exactly," he replied, laughing,--"or at least not always: but I
+could show you passages in Michel Raymond...."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed the old lady, interrupting him; "I will have nothing
+to do with his passages. I think it is Chamfort who says, that "un sot
+qui a un moment d'esprit, étonne et scandalise comme des chevaux de
+fiacre au galop." I don't like such unexpected jerks of
+sublimity--they startle more than they please me."
+
+The conversation then rambled on to Shakspeare, and to the
+mischief--such was the word--to the mischief his example, and the
+passionate admiration expressed for his writings, had done to the
+classic purity of French literature. This phrase, however, was not
+only cavilled at, but in true French style was laughed to death by the
+rest of the party. The word "classic" was declared too rococo for use,
+and Shakspeare loudly proclaimed to be only defective as a model
+because too mighty to imitate.
+
+I have, however, some faint misgivings as to the perfect sincerity of
+this verdict,--and this chiefly because there was but one Frenchman
+present who affected to know anything about him excepting through the
+medium of translation. Now, notwithstanding that the talent shown by
+M. Ducis in the translation of some passages is very considerable, we
+all know that Shakspeare may be very nearly as fairly judged from the
+Italian "Otello" as the "French Hamlet." The party were however quite
+sincere, I am sure, in the feeling they expressed of reverence for the
+unequalled bard, founded upon the rank he held in the estimation of
+his countrymen; this being, as the clear-headed old lady observed, the
+only sure criterion, for foreigners, of the station which he ought to
+hold among the poets of the earth.
+
+Then followed some keen enough observations--applicable to any one but
+Shakspeare--of the danger there might be, that in mixing tragedy and
+comedy together, farce might unfortunately be the result; or, if the
+"fusion," as it has been called, of tragedy and comedy into one were
+very skilfully performed, the sublime and prodigious monster called
+melodrame might be hoped for, as the happiest product that could be
+expected.
+
+It being thus civilly settled that our Shakspeare might be as wild as
+he chose, but that it would be advisable for other people to take
+care how they attempted to follow him, the party next fell into a
+review, more individual and particular than I was well able to follow,
+or than I can now repeat, of many writers of verses and of novels
+that, I was fain to confess, I had never heard of before. One or two
+of the novel-writers were declared to be very successful imitators of
+the style and manner of Sir Walter Scott: and when this was stated, I
+was, to say the truth, by no means sorry to plead total and entire
+ignorance of their name and productions; for, having, as I fear,
+manifested a little national warmth on the subject of Shakspeare, I
+should have been sorry to start off in another tirade concerning Sir
+Walter Scott, which I might have found it difficult to avoid, had I
+known exactly what it was which they ventured to compare to him.
+
+I do not quite understand how it happens that the Parisians are so
+much better acquainted with the generality of our light literature,
+than we are with the generality of theirs. This is the more
+unaccountable, from the fact so universally known, that for one French
+person who reads English, there are at least ten English who read
+French. It is, however, impossible to deny that such is the fact. I am
+sure I have heard the names of two or three dozen authors, since I
+have been here, of whose existence, or of that of their works,
+neither I, nor any of my literary friends, I believe, have had the
+least knowledge; and yet we have considered ourselves quite _au
+courant du jour_ in such matters, having never missed any opportunity
+of reading every French book that came in our way, and moreover of
+sedulously consulting the Foreign Quarterly. In canvassing this
+difference between us, one of the party suggested that it might
+perhaps arise from the fact that no work which was popular in England
+ever escaped being reprinted on the Continent,--that is to say, either
+at Paris or Brussels. Though this is done solely as a sort of
+piratical speculation, for the purpose of inducing all the travelling
+English to purchase new books for four francs here, instead of giving
+thirty shillings for them at home, it is nevertheless a natural
+consequence of this manoeuvre, that the names of English books are
+familiarly known here even before they have been translated.
+
+Many of our lady authors have the honour apparently of being almost as
+well known at Paris as at home. I had the pleasure of hearing Miss
+Mitford spoken of with enthusiasm; and one lady told me, that, judging
+her from her works, she would rather become acquainted with her than
+with any author living.
+
+Miss Landon is also well known and much admired. Madame Tastu told me
+she had translated many of her compositions, and thought very highly
+of them. In short, English literature and English literati are at
+present very hospitably treated in France.
+
+I was last night asked innumerable questions about many books, and
+many people, whose _renommée_ I was surprised to find had crossed the
+Channel; and having communicated pretty nearly all the information I
+possessed upon the subject, I began to question in my turn, and heard
+abundance of anecdotes and criticisms, many of them given with all the
+sparkling keenness of French satire.
+
+Many of les petits ridicules that we are accustomed to hear quizzed at
+home seem to exist in the same manner, and spite of the same light
+chastisement, here. The manner, for example, of making a very little
+wit and wisdom go a great way, by means of short lines and long stops,
+does not appear to be in any degree peculiar to our island. As a
+specimen of this, a quotation from a new romance by Madame Girardin
+(ci-devant Mademoiselle Delphine Gay) was shown me in a newspaper. I
+will copy it for you as it was printed, and I think you will allow
+that our neighbours at least equal us in this ingenious department of
+literary composition.
+
+"Pensez-vous Qu'Arthur voulût revoir Mademoiselle de Sommery?"
+
+"NON: Au lieu de l'aimer, _Il la détestait_!"
+
+"OUI, Il la détestait!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I think our passion for novelty is pretty strong; but if the
+information which I received last night respecting the same imperious
+besoin here was not exaggerated by the playful spirit of the party who
+were amusing themselves by describing its influence, we are patient
+and tame in our endurance of old "by-gones," in comparison to the
+Parisians. They have, indeed, a saying which in few words paints this
+craving for novelty, as strongly as I could do, did I torment my
+memory to repeat to you every word said by my lively friends last
+night:
+
+ "Il nous faut du nouveau, n'en fût-il plus au monde."
+
+It is delightful to us to get hold of a new book or a new song--a new
+preacher or a new fiddler: it is delightful to us, but to the
+Parisians it is indispensable. To meet in society and have nothing new
+for the _causette_, would be worse than remaining at home.
+
+"This fond desire, this longing after" fresh materials for the tongue
+to work upon, is at least as old as the days of Molière. It was this
+which made Madelon address herself with such energy to Mascarille,
+assuring him that she should be "obligée de la dernière obligation" if
+he would but report to her daily "les choses qu'il faut savoir de
+nécessité, et qui sont de l'essence d'un bel esprit;" for, as she
+truly observes, "C'est là ce qui vous fait valoir dans les compagnies,
+et si l'on ignore ces choses, je ne donnerais pas un clou de tout
+l'esprit qu'on peut avoir;"--while her cousin Cathos gives her
+testimony to the same truth by this impressive declaration: "Pour moi,
+j'aurais toutes les hontes du monde s'il fallait qu'on vînt à me
+demander si j'aurais vu quelque chose de nouveau que je n'aurais pas
+vu."
+
+I know not how it is that people who appear to pass so few hours of
+every day out of sight contrive to know so well everything that has
+been written and everything that has been done in all parts of the
+world. No one ever appears ignorant on any subject. Is this tact? Or
+is it knowledge,--real, genuine, substantial information respecting
+all things? I suspect that it is not wholly either the one or the
+other; and that many circumstances contribute both to the general
+diffusion of information, as well as to the rapid manner of receiving
+and the brilliant style of displaying it.
+
+This at least is certain, that whatever they do know is made the very
+most of; and though some may suspect that so great display of general
+information indicates rather extent than depth of knowledge, none, I
+think, can refuse to acknowledge that the manner in which a Frenchman
+communicates what he has acquired is particularly amiable, graceful,
+and unpedantic.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIX.
+
+ Trial by Jury.--Power of the Jury in France.--Comparative
+ insignificance of that vested in the Judge.--Virtual
+ Abolition of Capital Punishments.--Flemish Anecdote.
+
+
+Do not be terrified, my dear friend, and fancy that I am going to
+exchange my idle, ambling pace, and my babil de femme, to join the
+march of intellect, and indite wisdom. I have no such ambition in my
+thoughts; and yet I must retail to you part of a conversation with
+which I have just been favoured by an extremely intelligent friend, on
+the very manly subject of.... Not political economy;--be tranquil on
+that point; the same drowsy dread falls upon me when those two
+portentous words sound in my ears with which they seem to have
+inspired Coleridge;--not political economy, but _trial by jury_.
+
+M. V***, the gentleman in question, gave me credit, I believe, for
+considerably more savoir than I really possess, as to the actual and
+precise manner in which this important constitutional right works in
+England. My ignorance, however, though it prevented my giving much
+information, did not prevent my receiving it; and I repeat our
+conversation for the purpose of telling you in what a very singular
+manner, according to his account, it appears to work in France.
+
+I must, however, premise that my friend is a stanch Henri-Quintist;
+which, though I am sure that in his case it would not produce any
+exaggeration in the statement of facts, may nevertheless be fairly
+presumed to influence his feelings, and consequently his manner of
+stating them.
+
+The circumstance which gave rise to this grave discussion was a recent
+judgment passed here upon a very atrocious case of murder. I am not
+particularly fond of hanging; nevertheless, I was startled at hearing
+that this savage and most ferocious slayer of men was condemned to
+imprisonment and travail forcé, instead of death.
+
+"It is very rarely that any one now suffers the extreme penalty of the
+law in this country," said M. V***, in reply to my remark on this
+sentence.
+
+"Is it since your last revolution," said I, "that the punishment of
+death has been commuted for that of imprisonment and labour?"
+
+"No such commutation has taken place as an act of the legislature," he
+replied: "it rests solely with the jury whether a murderer be
+guillotined, or only imprisoned."
+
+I fancied that I misunderstood him, and repeated his words,--"With the
+jury?"
+
+"Oui, madame--absolument."
+
+This statement appeared to me so singular, that I still supposed I
+must be blundering, and that the words _le jury_ in France did not
+mean the same thing as the word jury in England.
+
+In this, as it subsequently appeared, I was not much mistaken.
+Notwithstanding, my informer, who was not only a very intelligent
+person, but a lawyer to boot, continued to assure me that trial by
+jury was exactly the same in both countries as to principle, though
+not as to effect.
+
+"But," said I, "our juries have nothing to do with the sentence passed
+on the criminal: their business is to examine into the evidence
+brought forward by the witnesses to prove the guilt of the prisoner,
+and according to the impression which this leaves on their minds, they
+pronounce him 'guilty,' or 'not guilty;' and here their duty ends."
+
+"Yes, yes--I understand that perfectly," replied M. V***; "and it is
+precisely the same thing with us;--only, it is not in the nature of a
+Frenchman to pronounce a mere dry, short, unspeculating verdict of
+'guilty,' or 'not guilty,' without exercising the powers of his
+intellect upon the shades of culpability which attach to the acts of
+each delinquent."
+
+This impossibility of giving a verdict without _exercising the power
+of intellect_ reminded me of an assize story on record in Cornwall,
+respecting the sentence pronounced by a jury upon a case in which it
+was very satisfactorily proved that a man had murdered his wife, but
+where it also appeared from the evidence that the unhappy woman had
+not conducted herself remarkably well. The jury retired to consult,
+and upon re-entering their box the foreman addressed the court in
+these words: "Guilty--but sarved her right, my lord." It was in vain
+that the learned judge desired them to amend their verdict, as
+containing matter wholly irrelevant to the duty they had to perform;
+the intellect of the jurymen was, upon this occasion, in a state of
+too great activity to permit their returning any other answer than the
+identical "Guilty--but sarved her right." I could hardly restrain a
+smile as this anecdote recurred to me; but my friend was too much in
+earnest in his explanation for me to interrupt him by an ill-timed
+jest, and he continued--
+
+"This frame of mind, which is certainly essentially French, is one
+cause, and perhaps the most inveterate one, which makes it impossible
+that the trial by jury should ever become the same safe and simple
+process with us that it is in England."
+
+"And in what manner does this activity of intellect interfere to
+impede the course of justice?" said I.
+
+"Thus," he replied. "Let us suppose the facts of the case proved to
+the entire satisfaction of the jury: they make up their minds among
+themselves to pronounce a verdict of 'guilty;' but their business is
+by no means finished,--they have still to decide how this verdict
+shall be delivered to the judge--whether with or without the
+declaration that there are circumstances calculated to extenuate the
+crime."
+
+"Oh yes! I understand you now," I replied. "You mean, that when there
+are extenuating circumstances, the jury assume the privilege of
+recommending the criminal to mercy. Our juries do this likewise."
+
+"But not with the same authority," said he, smiling. "With us, the
+fate of the culprit is wholly in the power of the jury; for not only
+do they decide upon the question of guilty or not guilty, but, by the
+use of this word _extenuating_, they can remit by their sole will and
+pleasure the capital part of the punishment, let the crime be of what
+nature it may. No judge in this country dare sentence a criminal to
+capital punishment where the verdict against him has been qualified by
+this extenuating clause."
+
+"It should seem then," said I, "that the duty of judge, which is
+attended with such awful responsibilities with us, is here little more
+than the performance of an official ceremony?"
+
+"It is very nearly such, I assure you."
+
+"And your jurymen, according to a phrase of contempt common among us,
+are in fact judge and jury both?"
+
+"Beyond all contradiction they are so," he replied: "and I conceive
+that criminal justice is at this time more loosely administered in
+France than in any other civilised country in the world. In fact, our
+artisans have become, since the revolution of 1830, not only judge and
+jury, but legislators also. Different crimes have different
+punishments assigned to them by our penal code; but it rarely, or I
+might say never, occurs in our days that the punishment inflicted has
+any reference to that which is assigned by the law. That guilt may
+vary even when the deed done does not, is certain; and it is just and
+righteous therefore that a judge, learned in the law of the land, and
+chosen by high authority from among his fellows as a man of wisdom and
+integrity,--it is quite just and righteous that such a one should have
+the power--and a tremendous power it is--of modifying the extent of
+the penalty according to his view of the individual case. The charge
+too of an English judge is considered to be of immense importance to
+the result of every trial. All this is as it should be; but we have
+departed most widely from the model we have professed to follow. With
+us the judge has no such power--at least not practically: with us a
+set of chance-met artisans, ignorant alike of the law of the land and
+of the philosophy of punishment, have this tremendous power vested in
+them. It matters not how clearly the crime has been proved, and still
+less what penalty the law has adjudged to it; the punishment inflicted
+is whatever it may please the jury to decide, and none other."
+
+"And what is the effect which this strangely assumed power has
+produced on your administration of justice?" said I.
+
+"The virtual abolition of capital punishment," was the reply. "When a
+jury," continued M. V***, "delivers a verdict to the judge of
+'Guilty, but with extenuating circumstances,' the judge dare not
+condemn the criminal to death, though the law of the land assign that
+punishment to his offence, and though his own mind is convinced, by
+all which has come out upon the trial, that instead of _extenuating
+circumstances_, the commission of the crime has been attended with
+every possible aggravation of atrocity. Such is the practical effect
+of the revolution of 1830 on the administration of criminal justice."
+
+"Does public opinion sanction this strange abuse of the functions of
+jurymen?" said I.
+
+"Public opinion cannot sanction it," he replied, "any more than it
+could sanction the committal of the crime itself. The one act is, in
+fact, as lawless as the other; but the populace have conceived the
+idea that capital punishment is an undue exercise of power, and
+therefore our rulers fear to exercise it."
+
+This is a strange statement, is it not? The gentleman who made it is,
+I am sure, too much a man of honour and integrity to falsify facts;
+but it may perhaps be necessary to allow something for the colouring
+of party feeling. Whatever the present government does, or permits to
+be done, contrary to the system established during the period of the
+restoration, is naturally offensive to the feelings of the
+legitimatists, and repugnant to their judgments; yet, in this case,
+the relaxation of necessary power must so inevitably lead to evil,
+that we must, I think, expect to see the reins gathered up, and the
+command resumed by the proper functionaries, as soon as the new
+government feels itself seated with sufficient firmness to permit the
+needful exertion of strength to be put forth with safety.
+
+It is certain that M. V*** supported his statement by reciting so
+many strong cases in which the most fearful crimes, substantiated by
+the most unbroken chain of evidence, have been reported by the jury to
+the judge as having "extenuating circumstances" attached to them, that
+it is impossible, while things remain as they are, not to feel that
+such a mode of administering justice must make the habit of perjury as
+familiar to their jurymen as that of taking their oaths.
+
+This conversation brought to my recollection some strange stories
+which I had heard in Belgium apropos of the trial by jury there. If
+those stories were correct, they are about as far from comprehending,
+or at least from acting upon, our noble, equitable, and well-tried
+institution there, as they appear to be here--but from causes
+apparently exactly the reverse. There, I am told, it often happens
+that the jury can neither read nor write; and that when they are
+placed in their box, they are, as might be expected, quite ignorant of
+the nature of the duty they are to perform, and often so greatly
+embarrassed by it, that they are ready and willing--nay, thankful--to
+pronounce as their verdict whatever is dictated to them.
+
+I heard an anecdote of one man--and a thorough honest Fleming he
+was--who having been duly empannelled, entered the jury-box, and
+having listened attentively to a trial that was before the court,
+declared, when called upon for his verdict, that he had not understood
+a single word from the beginning to the end of it. The court
+endeavoured to explain the leading points of the question; but still
+the worthy burgher persisted in declaring that the business was not in
+his line, and that he could not comprehend it sufficiently to give any
+opinion at all. The attempt at explanation was repeated, but in vain;
+and at length the conscientious Fleming paid the fine demanded for
+the non-performance of the duty, and was permitted to retire.
+
+In France, on the contrary, it appears that human intellect has gone
+on so fast and so far, that no dozen of men can be found simple-minded
+enough to say 'yes' or 'no' to a question asked, without insisting
+that they must legislate upon it.
+
+In this case, at least, England shows a beautiful specimen of the
+_juste milieu_.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER L.
+
+ English Pastry-cook's.--French horror of English
+ Pastry.--Unfortunate experiment upon a Muffin.--The Citizen
+ King.
+
+
+We have been on a regular shopping tour this morning; which was
+finished by our going into an English pastry-cook's to eat buns. While
+thus engaged, we amused ourselves by watching the proceedings of a
+French party who entered also for the purpose of making a morning
+goûter upon cakes.
+
+They had all of them more or less the air of having fallen upon a
+terra incognita, showing many indications of surprise at sight of the
+ultra-marine compositions which appeared before them;--but there was a
+young man of the party who, it was evident, had made up his mind to
+quiz without measure all the foreign dainties that the shop afforded,
+evidently considering their introduction as a very unjustifiable
+interference with the native manufacture.
+
+"Est-il possible!" said he, with an air of grave and almost indignant
+astonishment, as he watched a lady of his party preparing to eat an
+English bun,--"Est-il possible that you can prefer these
+strange-looking comestibles à la pâtisserie française?"
+
+"Mais goûtez-en," said the lady, presenting a specimen of the same
+kind as that she was herself eating: "ils sont excellens."
+
+"No, no! it is enough to look at them!" said her cavalier, almost
+shuddering. "There is no lightness, no elegance, no grace in any
+single gâteau here."
+
+"Mais goûtez quelque chose," reiterated the lady.
+
+"Vous le voulez absolument!" exclaimed the young man; "quelle
+tyrannie! ... and what a proof of obedience I am about to give you!...
+Voyons donc!" he continued, approaching a plate on which were piled
+some truly English muffins--which, as you know, are of a somewhat
+mysterious manufacture, and about as palatable if eaten untoasted as a
+slice from a leathern glove. To this _gâteau_, as he supposed it to
+be, the unfortunate connoisseur in pâtisserie approached, exclaiming
+with rather a theatrical air, "Voilà donc ce que je vais faire pour
+vos beaux yeux!"
+
+As he spoke, he took up one of the pale, tough things, and, to our
+extreme amusement, attempted to eat it. Any one might be excused for
+making a few grimaces on such an occasion,--and a Frenchman's
+privilege in this line is well known: but this hardy experimentalist
+outdid this privilege;--he was in a perfect agony, and his spittings
+and reproachings were so vehement, that friends, strangers,
+boutiquier, and all, even down to a little befloured urchin who
+entered at the moment with a tray of patties, burst into
+uncontrollable laughter, which the unfortunate, to do him justice,
+bore with extreme good humour, only making his fair countrywoman
+promise that she would never insist upon his eating English
+confectionary again.
+
+Had this scene continued a minute longer, I should have missed seeing
+what I should have been sorry not to have seen, for I certainly could
+not have left the pastry-cook's shop while the young Frenchman's
+sufferings lasted. Happily, however, we reached the Boulevard des
+Italiens in time to see King Louis-Philippe, en simple bourgeois,
+passing on foot just before Les Bains Chinois, but on the opposite
+side of the way.
+
+Excepting a small tri-coloured cockade in his hat, he had nothing
+whatever in his dress to distinguish him from any other gentleman. He
+is a well-looking, portly, middle-aged man, with something of dignity
+in his step which, notwithstanding the unpretending citizen-like style
+of his promenade, would have drawn attention, and betrayed him as
+somebody out of the common way, even without the plain-speaking
+_cocarde tricolore_. There were two gentlemen a few paces behind him,
+as he passed us, who, I think, stepped up nearer to him afterwards;
+but there were no other individuals near who could have been in
+attendance upon him. I observed that he was recognised by many, and
+some few hats were taken off, particularly by two or three Englishmen
+who met him; but his appearance excited little emotion. I was amused,
+however, at the nonchalant air with which a young man at some
+distance, in full Robespierrian costume, used his lorgnon to peruse
+the person of the monarch as long as he remained in sight.
+
+The last king I saw in the streets of Paris was Charles the Tenth
+returning from a visit to one of his suburban palaces, escorted and
+accompanied in kingly state and style. The contrast in the men and in
+the mode was striking, and calculated to awaken lively recollections
+of all the events which had occurred to both of them since the last
+time that I turned my head to look after a sovereign of France.
+
+My fancy flew to Prague, and to the three generations of French
+monarchs stationed there almost as peaceably as if they had taken up
+their quarters at St. Denis!
+
+ [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+ LE ROI CITOYEN.
+ London. Published by Richard Bentley. 1835.]
+
+How like a series of conjurer's tricks is their history! Think of
+this Charles the Tenth in the flower of his youth and comeliness--the
+gallant, gay, and dissolute Comte d'Artois; recall the noble range of
+windows belonging to his apartments at Versailles, and imagine him
+there radiant in youth and joy--the thoughtless, thriftless cadet of
+his royal race--the brother and the guest of the good king who
+appeared to reign over a willing people, by every human right, as well
+as right divine! Louis Seize was king of France; but the gay Comte
+d'Artois reigned sovereign of all the pleasures of Versailles. What
+joyous fêtes! ... what brilliant jubilees!... Meanwhile
+
+ "Malignant Fate sat by and smiled."
+
+Had he then been told that he should live to be crowned king of
+France, and live thus many years afterwards, would he not have thought
+that a most brilliant destiny was predicted to him?
+
+Few men, perhaps, have suffered so much from the ceaseless changes of
+human events as Charles the Tenth of France. First, in the person of
+his eldest brother, dethroned and foully murdered; then in his own
+exile, and that of another royal brother; and again, when Fortune
+seemed to smile upon his race, and the crown of France was not only
+placed upon that brother's head, but appeared fixed in assured
+succession on his own princely sons, one of those sons was murdered:
+and lastly, having reached the throne himself, and seen this lost son
+reviving in his hopeful offspring, comes another stroke of Fate,
+unexpected, unprepared for, overwhelming, which hurls him from his
+throne, and drives him and his royal race once more to exile and to
+civil death.... Has he seen the last of the political earthquakes
+which have so shaken his existence? or has his restless star to rise
+again? Those who wish most kindly to him cannot wish for this.
+
+But when I turned my thoughts from the dethroned and banished king to
+him who stepped on in unguarded but fearless security before me, and
+thought too on the vagaries of his destiny, I really felt as if this
+earth and all the people on it were little better than so many
+children's toys, changing their style and title to serve the sport of
+an hour.
+
+It seemed to me at that moment as if all men were classed in their due
+order only to be thrown into greater confusion--knocked down but to be
+set up again, and so eternally dashed from side to side, so powerless
+in themselves, so wholly governed by accidents, that I shrunk,
+humbled, from the contemplation of human helplessness, and turned from
+gazing on a monarch to meditate on the insignificance of man. How vain
+are all the efforts he can make to shape the course of his own
+existence! There is, in truth, nothing but trusting to surer wisdom,
+and to surer power, which can enable any of us, from the highest to
+the lowest, to pass on with tranquil nerves through a world subject to
+such terrible convulsions.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LI.
+
+ Parisian Women.--Rousseau's failure in attempting to
+ describe them.--Their great influence in Society.--Their
+ grace in Conversation.--Difficulty of growing old.--Do the
+ ladies of France or those of England manage it best?
+
+
+There is perhaps no subject connected with Paris which might give
+occasion to such curious and inexhaustible observation as the
+character, position, and influence of its women. But the theme, though
+copious and full of interest, is not without its difficulties; and it
+is no small proof of this, that Rousseau, who rarely touched on any
+subject without persuading his reader that he was fully master of it,
+has nevertheless almost wholly failed on this. In one of the letters
+of "La Nouvelle Héloïse," he sketches the characters of a few very
+commonplace ladies, whom he abuses unmercifully for their bad taste in
+dress, and concludes his abortive attempt at making us acquainted with
+the ladies of Paris by acknowledging that they have some goodness of
+heart.
+
+This is but a meagre description of this powerful portion of the human
+race, and I can hardly imagine a volume that I should read with
+greater pleasure than one which should fully supply all its
+deficiencies. Do not imagine, however, that I mean to undertake the
+task. I am even less capable of it than the sublime misanthrope
+himself; for though I am of opinion that it should be an unimpassioned
+spectator, and not a lover, who should attempt to paint all the
+delicate little atoms of exquisite mosaic-work which constitute _une
+Parisienne_, I think it should not be a woman.
+
+All I can do for you on this subject is to recount the observations I
+have been myself led to make in the passing glances I have now the
+opportunity of giving them, supported by what I have chanced to hear
+from better authority than my own: but I am aware that I can do little
+more than excite your wish to become better acquainted with them than
+it is in my power to make you.
+
+It is impossible to be admitted into French society without
+immediately perceiving that the women play a very distinguished part
+in it. So, assuredly, do the women of England in their own: yet I
+cannot but think that, setting aside all cases of individual
+exception, the women of France have more power and more important
+influence than the women of England.
+
+I am aware that this is a very bold proposition, and that you may
+feel inclined to call me to account for it. But be I right or wrong in
+this judgment, it is at least sincere, and herein lies its chief
+value; for I am by no means sure that I shall be able to explain very
+satisfactorily the grounds on which it is formed.
+
+France has been called "the paradise of women;" and if consideration
+and deference be sufficient to constitute a paradise, I think it may
+be called so justly. I will not, however, allow that Frenchmen make
+better husbands than Englishmen; but I suspect they make politer
+husbands--
+
+ "Je ne sais pas, pour moi, si chacun me ressemble,
+ Mais j'entends là-dessous un million de mots:"
+
+and, all pleasantry apart, I am of opinion that this more observant
+tone or style, or whatever it may be termed, is very far from
+superficial--at least in its effects. I should be greatly surprised to
+hear from good authority that a French gentleman had ever been heard
+to speak rudely to his wife.
+
+Rousseau says, when he means to be what he himself calls
+"_souverainement impertinent_," that "il est convenu qu'un homme ne
+refusera rien à aucune femme, fût-ce même la sienne." But it is not
+only in refusing her nothing that a French husband shows the
+superiority which I attribute to him; I know many English husbands who
+are equally indulgent; but, if I mistake not, the general
+consideration enjoyed by Frenchwomen has its origin not in the
+conjugal indulgence they enjoy, but in the domestic respect
+universally shown them. What foundation there may be for the idea
+which prevails amongst us, that there is less strictness of morality
+among married women in France than in England, I will not attempt to
+decide; but, judging from the testimonies of respect shown them by
+fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons, I cannot but believe that,
+spite of travellers' tales, innuendoes, and all the authority of _les
+contes moraux_ to boot, there must be much of genuine virtue where
+there is so much genuine esteem.
+
+In a recent work on France, to which I have before alluded, a
+comparison is instituted between the conversational powers of the sex
+in England and in France; and such a picture is drawn of the frivolous
+inanity of the author's fair countrywomen, as, were the work
+considered as one of much authority in France, must leave the
+impression with our neighbours that the ladies of England are _tant
+soit peu Agnès_.
+
+Now this judgment is, I think, as little founded in truth as that of
+the traveller who accused us all of being brandy-drinkers. It is
+indeed impossible to say what effect might have been produced upon the
+ladies from whom this description was drawn, by the awful
+consciousness that they were conversing with a person of overwhelming
+ability. There is such a thing as being "blasted by excess of light;"
+but where this unpleasant accident does not occur, I believe that
+those who converse with educated Englishwomen will find them capable
+of being as intellectual companions as any in the world.
+
+Our countrywomen however, particularly the younger part of them,
+labour under a great disadvantage. The majority of them I believe to
+be as well, or perhaps better informed than the majority of
+Frenchwomen; but, unfortunately, it frequently happens that they are
+terrified at the idea of appearing too much so: the terror of being
+called learned is in general much more powerful than that of being
+classed as ignorant.
+
+Happily for France, there is no _blue_ badge, no stigma of any kind
+attached to the female possessors of talent and information. Every
+Frenchwoman brings forward with equal readiness and grace all she
+knows, all she thinks, and all she feels on every subject that may be
+started; whereas with us, the dread of imputed blueism weighs down
+many a bright spirit, and sallies of wit and fancy are withheld from
+the fear of betraying either the reading or the genius with which many
+a fair girl is endued who would rather be thought an idiot than a
+BLUE.
+
+This is, however, a very idle fear; and that it is so, a slight
+glance upon society would show, if prejudice did not interfere to
+blind us. It is possible that here and there a sneer or a shrug may
+follow this opprobrious epithet of "blue;" but as the sneer and the
+shrug always come from those whose suffrage is of the least importance
+in society, their coming at all can hardly be a sufficient reason for
+putting on a masquerade habit of ignorance and frivolity.
+
+It is from this cause, if I mistake not, that the conversation of the
+Parisian women takes a higher tone than that to which English females
+venture to soar. Even politics, that fearful quicksand which engulfs
+so many of our social hours, dividing our drawing-rooms into a
+committee of men and a coterie of women,--even politics may be handled
+by them without danger; for they fearlessly mix with that untoward
+subject so much lively persiflage, so much acuteness, and such
+unerring tact, that many a knotty point which may have made puzzled
+legislators yawn in the Chamber, has been played with in the salon
+till it became as intelligible as the light of wit could make it.
+
+No one who is familiar with that delightful portion of French
+literature contained in their letters and memoirs, which paint the
+manners and the minds of those they treat of with more truth of
+graphic effect than any other biography in the world,--no one
+acquainted with the aspect of society as it is painted there, but must
+be aware that the character of Frenchmen has undergone a great and
+important change during the last century. It has become perhaps less
+brilliant, but at the same time less frivolous; and if we are obliged
+to confess that no star remains above the horizon of the same
+magnitude as those which composed the constellation that blazed during
+the age of Louis Quatorze and his successor, we must allow also that
+it would be difficult to find a minister of state who should now write
+to his friend as the Cardinal de Retz did to Boisrobert,--"Je me sauve
+à la nage dans ma chambre, au milieu des parfums."
+
+If, however, these same minute records can be wholly trusted, I should
+say that no proportionate change has taken place among the women. I
+often fancy I can trace the same "genre d'esprit" amongst them with
+which Madame du Deffand has made us so well acquainted. Fashions must
+change--and their fashions have changed, not merely in dress perhaps,
+but in some things which appear to go deeper into character, or at
+least into manners; but the essentials are all the same. A petite
+maîtresse is a petite maîtresse still; and female wit--female French
+wit--continues to be the same dazzling, playful, and powerful thing
+that it ever was. I really do not believe that if Madame de Sévigné
+herself were permitted to revisit the scene of her earthly brightness,
+and to find herself in the midst of a Paris soirée to-morrow, that she
+would find any difficulty in joining the conversation of those she
+would find there, in the same tone and style that she enjoyed so
+keenly in days of yore with Madame de la Fayette, Mademoiselle
+Scuderie, or any other sister sparkler of that glorious _via
+lactea_--provided indeed that she did not talk politics,--on that
+subject she might not perhaps be well understood.
+
+Ladies still write romances, and still write verses. They write
+memoirs too, and are moreover quite as keen critics as ever they were;
+and if they had not left off giving _petits soupers_, where they
+doomed the poets of the day to oblivion or immortality according to
+their will, I should say, that in no good gifts either of nature or of
+art had they degenerated from their admired great-grandmothers.
+
+It can hardly, I think, be accounted a change in their character, that
+where they used to converse respecting a new comedy of Molière, they
+now discuss the project of a new law about to be passed in the
+Chamber. The reason for this is obvious: there is no longer a Molière,
+but there is a Chamber; there are no longer any new comedies greatly
+worth talking about, but there are abundance of new laws instead.
+
+In short, though the subjects are changed, they are canvassed in the
+same spirit; and however much the marquis may be merged in the
+doctrinaire, the ladies at least have not left off being light,
+bright, witty, and gay, in order to become advocates for the
+"positif," in opposition to the "idéal." They still keep faithful to
+their vocation of charming; and I trust they may contrive so far to
+combat this growing passion for the "positif" in their countrymen, as
+to prevent their turning every salon--as they have already turned the
+Boulevards before Tortoni's--into a little Bourse.
+
+I was so much struck by the truth and elegance of "a thought" apropos
+to this subject, which I found the other day in turning over the
+leaves of a French lady's album, that I transcribed it:--
+
+"Proscrire les arts agréables, et ne vouloir que ceux qui sont
+absolument utiles, c'est blâmer la Nature, qui produit les fleurs, les
+roses, les jasmins, comme elle produit des fruits."
+
+This sentiment, however, simple and natural as it is, appears in some
+danger of being lost sight of while the mind is kept upon such a
+forced march as it is at present: but the unnatural oblivion cannot
+fall upon France while her women remain what they are. The graces of
+life will never be sacrificed by them to the pretended pursuit of
+science; nor will a purblind examination of political economy be ever
+accepted in Paris as a beautiful specimen of light reading, and a
+first-rate effort of female genius.
+
+Yet nowhere are the higher efforts of the female mind more honoured
+than in France. The memory of Madame de Staël seems enshrined in every
+woman's heart, and the glory she has brought to her country appears to
+shed its beams upon every female in it. I have heard, too, the name of
+Mrs. Somerville pronounced with admiration and reverence by many who
+confessed themselves unable to appreciate, or at least to follow, the
+efforts of her extraordinary mind.
+
+In speaking of the women of Paris, however, I must not confine myself
+to the higher classes only; for, as we all know but too well, "les
+dames de la Halle," or, as they are more familiarly styled, "les
+poissardes," have made themselves important personages in the history
+of Paris. It is not, however, to the hideous part which they took in
+the revolution of Ninety-three that I would allude; the doing so would
+be equally disagreeable and unnecessary, for the deeds of Alexander
+are hardly better known than their infernal acts;--it is rather to the
+singular sort of respect paid to them in less stormy times that I
+would call your attention, because we have nothing analogous to it
+with us. Upon all great public occasions, such as the accession of a
+king, his restoration, or the like, these women are permitted to
+approach the throne by a deputation, and kings and queens have
+accepted their bouquets and listened to their harangues. The
+newspapers in recording these ceremonious visitings never name these
+poissardes by any lesser title than "les dames de la Halle;" a phrase
+which could only be rendered into English by "the ladies of
+Billingsgate."
+
+These ladies have, too, a literature of their own, and have found
+troubadours among the beaux-esprits of France to chronicle their
+bons-mots and give immortality to their adventures in that singular
+species of composition known by the name of "Chansons Grivoises."
+
+When Napoleon returned from Elba, they paid their compliments to him
+at the Tuileries, and sang "La Carmagnole" in chorus. One hundred days
+after, they repeated the ceremony of a visit to the palace; but this
+time the compliment was addressed to Louis Dix-huit, and the _refrain_
+of the song with which they favoured him was the famous calembourg so
+much in fashion at the time--
+
+ "Rendez-nous notre _père de Gand_."
+
+Not only do these "dames" put themselves forward upon all political
+occasions, but, if report say true, they have, _parfois_, spite of
+their revolutionary ferocity, taken upon themselves to act as
+conservators of public morals. When Madame la Comtesse de N***
+and her friend Madame T*** appeared in the garden of the
+Tuileries with less drapery than they thought decency demanded, les
+dames de la Halle armed themselves with whips, and repairing in a body
+to the promenade, actually flogged the audacious beauties till they
+reached the shelter of their homes.
+
+The influence and authority of these women among the men of their own
+rank is said to be very great; and that through all the connexions of
+life, as long as his mother lives, whatever be her rank, a Frenchman
+repays her early care by affection, deference, and even by obedience.
+"Consolez ma pauvre mère!" has been reported in a thousand instances
+to have been the last words of French soldiers on the field of battle;
+and whenever an aged female is found seated in the chimney-corner, it
+is to her footstool that all coaxing petitions, whether for great or
+small matters, are always carried.
+
+I heard it gravely disputed the other day, whether the old ladies of
+England or the old ladies of France have the most _bonheur en partage_
+amongst them. Every one seemed to agree that it was a very difficult
+thing for a pretty woman to grow old in any country--that it was
+terrible to "devenir chenille après avoir _été_ papillon;" and that
+the only effectual way of avoiding this shocking transition was, while
+still a few years on the handsome side of forty, to abandon in good
+earnest all pretensions to beauty, and claiming fame and name by the
+perennial charm of wit alone, to bid defiance to time and wrinkles.
+
+This is certainly the best parachute to which a drooping beauty can
+trust herself on either side of the Channel: but for one who can avail
+herself of it, there are a thousand who must submit to sink into
+eternal oblivion without it; and the question still remains, which
+nation best understands the art of submitting to this downfall
+gracefully.
+
+There are but two ways of rationally setting about it. The one is, to
+jump over the Rubicon at once at sight of the first grey hair, and so
+establish yourself betimes on a sofa, with all the comforts of
+footstool and elbow-room; the other is, to make a desperate resolution
+never to grow old at all. Nous autres Anglaises generally understand
+how to do the first with a respectable degree of resignation; and the
+French, by means of some invaluable secret which they wisely keep to
+themselves, are enabled to approach very nearly to equal success in
+the other.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LII.
+
+ La Sainte Chapelle.--Palais de Justice.--Traces of the
+ Revolution of 1830.--Unworthy use made of La Sainte
+ Chapelle.--Boileau.--Ancient Records.
+
+
+A week or two ago we made a vain and unprofitable expedition into the
+City for the purpose of seeing "La Sainte Chapelle;" sainte to all
+good Catholics from its having been built by Louis Neuf (St. Louis)
+expressly for the purpose of receiving all the ultra-extra-super-holy
+relics purchased by St. Louis from Baldwin Emperor of Constantinople,
+and almost equally sainte to us heretics from having been the scene of
+Boileau's poem.
+
+Great was our disappointment at being assured, by several flitting
+officials to whom we addressed ourselves in and about Le Palais de
+Justice, that admission was not to be obtained--that workmen were
+employed upon it, and I know not what besides; all, however, tending
+to prove that a long, lingering look at its beautiful exterior was all
+we had to hope for.
+
+In proportion to this disappointment was the pleasure with which I
+received an offer from a new acquaintance to conduct us over the
+Palais de Justice, and into the sacred precints of La Sainte Chapelle,
+which in fact makes a part of it. My accidental introduction to M.
+J***, who has not only shown us this, but many other things which
+we should probably never have seen but for his kindness, has been one
+of the most agreeable circumstances which have occurred to me in
+Paris. I have seldom met a man so "rempli de toutes sortes
+d'intelligences" as is this new Parisian acquaintance; and certainly
+never received from any stranger so much amiable attention, shown in
+so profitable a manner. I really believe he has a passe-partout for
+everything that is most interesting and least easy of access in Paris;
+and as he holds a high judicial situation, the Palais de Justice was
+of course open to him even to its remotest recesses: and of all the
+sight-seeing mornings I remember to have passed, the one which showed
+me this interesting edifice, with the commentary of our
+deeply-informed and most agreeable companion, was decidedly one of the
+most pleasant. There is but one drawback to the pleasure of having met
+such a man--and this is the fear that in losing sight of Paris we may
+lose sight of him also.
+
+The Palais de Justice is from its extent alone a very noble building;
+but its high antiquity, and its connexion with so many points and
+periods of history, render it one of the most interesting buildings
+imaginable. We entered all the courts, some of which appeared to be in
+full activity. They are in general large and handsome. The portrait of
+Napoleon was replaced in one of them during the Three Days, and there
+it still remains: the old chancellor d'Auguesseau hangs opposite to
+him, being one of the few pictures permitted to retain their places.
+The vacant spaces, and in some instances the traces of violence with
+which others have been removed, indicate plainly enough that this
+venerable edifice was not held very sacred by the patriots of 1830.
+
+The capricious fury of the sovereign people during this reign of
+confusion, if not of terror, has left vestiges in almost every part of
+the building. The very interesting bas relief which I remember on the
+pedestal of the fine statue of Malesherbes, the intrepid defender of
+Louis Seize, has been torn away; and the _brute_ masonry which it has
+left displayed, is as striking and appropriate a memento of the
+spoilers, as the graphic group they displaced was of the scene it
+represented. M. J*** told me the sculpture was not destroyed,
+and would probably be replaced. I heartily hope, for the honour of
+Frenchmen, that this may happen: but if it should not, I trust that,
+for the sake of historic effect, the statue and its mutilated
+pedestal will remain as they are--both the one and the other mark an
+epoch in the history of France.
+
+But it was in the obscurer parts of the building that I found the most
+interest. In order to take a short cut to some point to which our kind
+guide wished to lead us, we were twisted through one of the old--the
+very old towers of this venerable structure. It had been, I think they
+said, the kitchen of St. Louis himself; and the walls, as seen by the
+enormous thickness pierced for the windows, are substantial enough to
+endure another six hundred years at least.
+
+In one of the numerous rooms which we entered, we saw an extremely
+curious old picture, seized in the time of Louis Quinze from the
+Jesuits, as containing proof of their treasonable disrespect for
+kings: and certainly there is not wanting evidence of the fact; very
+speaking portraits of Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth are to be
+found most unequivocally on their way to the infernal regions. The
+whole performance is one of the most interesting specimens of
+Jesuitical ingenuity extant.
+
+Having fully indulged our curiosity in the palace, we proceeded to the
+chapel. It is exquisitely beautiful, and so perfect in its delicate
+proportions, that the eye is satisfied, and dwells with full
+contentment on the whole for many minutes before the judgment is at
+leisure to examine and criticise the different parts of it. But even
+when this first effect is over, the perfect elegance of this
+diminutive structure still rests upon the mind, producing a degree of
+admiration which seems disproportioned to its tiny dimensions.
+
+It was built for a shrine in which to preserve relics; and Pierre de
+Montreuil, its able architect, appears to have sought rather to render
+it worthy by its richness and its grace to become the casket for those
+holy treasures, than to give it the dignity of a church. That
+beautiful miniature cathedral, St. George's Chapel at Windsor, is an
+enormous edifice compared to this; but less light, less lofty in its
+proportions--in short, less enchanting in its general effect, than the
+lovely bijou of St. Louis.
+
+Of all the cruel profanations I have ever witnessed, that of turning
+this exquisite chef-d'oeuvre into a chest for old records is the
+most unpardonable: as if Paris could not furnish four walls and a roof
+for this purpose, without converting this precious _châsse_ to it! It
+is indeed a pitiful economy; and were I the Archbishop of Paris, I
+would besiege the Tuileries with petitions that these hideous presses
+might be removed; and if it might not be restored to the use of the
+church, that we might at least say of it--
+
+ ---- "la Sainte Chapelle
+ Conservait du vieux tems l'oisiveté fidèle."
+
+This would at least be better than seeing it converted into a cupboard
+of ease to the overflowing records of the Palais de Justice. The
+length of this pretty reliquaire exactly equals its height, which is
+divided by a gallery into a lower and upper church, resembling in some
+degree as to its arrangement the much older structure at
+Aix-la-Chapelle,--the high minster there being represented by the
+Sainte Couronne here.
+
+As we stood in the midst of the floor of the church, M. J***
+pointed to a certain spot--
+
+ "Et bientôt LE LUTRIN se fait voir à nos yeux."
+
+He placed me to stand where that offensive mass of timber stood of
+yore; and I could not help thinking that if the poor chantre hated the
+sight of it as much as I did that of the ignoble cases containing the
+old parchments, he was exceedingly right in doing his utmost to make
+it disappear.
+
+Boileau lies buried here. The spot must have been chosen in
+consequence of the connexion he had established in the minds of all
+men between himself and its holy precincts. But it was surely the most
+lively and light-hearted connexion that ever was hallowed by so solemn
+a result. One might fairly steal or parody Vanburgh's epitaph for
+him--
+
+ "Rise graceful o'er him, roof! for he
+ Raised many a graceful verse to thee."
+
+The preservation of the beautiful painted glass of the windows through
+the two revolutions which (both of them) were so busy in labours of
+metamorphosis and destruction in the immediate neighbourhood, not to
+mention all the ordinary chances against the safety of so frail a
+treasure during so many years, is little short of miraculous; and,
+considering the extraordinary sanctity of the place, it is probably so
+interpreted by _les fidèles_.
+
+A remarkable proof of the reverence in which this little shrine was
+held, in consequence, I presume, of the relics it contained, may be
+found in the dignified style of its establishment. Kings and popes
+seem to have felt a holy rivalry as to which should most distinguish
+it by gifts and privileges. The wealth of its functionaries appears
+greatly to have exceeded the bounds of Christian moderation; and their
+pride of place was sustained, notwithstanding the _petitesse_ of their
+dominions, by titles and prerogatives such as no _chapelains_ ever had
+before. The chief dignitary of the establishment had the title of
+archichapelain; and, in 1379, Pope Clement VII. permitted him to wear
+a mitre, and to pronounce his benediction on the people when they were
+assembled during any of the processions which took place within the
+enclosure of the palace. Not only, indeed, did this arch-chaplain take
+the title of prelate, but in some public acts he is styled "Le Pape
+de la Sainte Chapelle." In return for all these riches and honours,
+four out of the seven priests attached to the establishment were
+obliged to pass the night in the chapel, for the purpose of watching
+the relics. Nevertheless, it appears that, in the year 1575, a portion
+of the _vraie croix_ was stolen in the night between the 19th and 20th
+of May. The thief, however, was strongly suspected to be no less a
+personage than King Henry III. himself; who, being sorely distressed
+for money, and knowing from old experience that a traffic in relics
+was a right royal traffic, bethought him of a means of extracting a
+little Venetian gold from this true cross, by leaving it in pawn with
+the Republic of Venice. At any rate, this much-esteemed fragment
+disappeared from the Sainte Chapelle, and a piece of the holy rood was
+left _en gage_ with the Venetians by Henry III.
+
+I have transcribed, for your satisfaction, the list I find in Dulaure
+of the most sacred of the articles for the reception of which this
+chapel was erected:--
+
+ Du sang de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ.
+
+ Les drapeaux dont Notre Sauveur fut enveloppé en son
+ enfance.
+
+ Du sang qui miraculeusement a distillé d'une image de Notre
+ Seigneur, ayant été frappé d'un infidèle.
+
+ La chaîne et lien de fer, en manière d'anneau, dont Notre
+ Seigneur fut lié.
+
+ La sainte touaille, ou nappe, en un tableau.
+
+ Du lait de la Vierge.
+
+ Une partie du suaire dont il fut enseveli.
+
+ La verge de Moïse.
+
+ Les chefs des Saints Blaise, Clément, et Simon.
+
+Is it not wonderful that the Emperor of Constantinople could consent
+to part with such precious treasures for the lucre of gain? I should
+like to know what has become of them all.
+
+As late as the year 1770, the annual ceremony of turning out devils on
+Good Friday, from persons pretending to be possessed, was performed in
+this chapel. The form prescribed was very simple, and always found to
+answer perfectly. As soon as it was understood that all the demoniacs
+were assembled, _le grand chantre_ appeared, carrying a cross, which,
+spite of King Henry's _supercherie_, was declared to enclose in its
+inmost recesses a morsel of the _vraie croix_, and in an instant all
+the contortions and convulsions ceased, and the possessed became
+perfectly calm and tranquil, and relieved from every species of
+inconvenience.
+
+Having seen all that this lovely chapel had to show, and particularly
+examined the spot where the battle of the books took place, the
+passe-partout of M. J*** caused a mysterious-looking little door
+in the Sainte Couronne to open for us; and, after a little climbing,
+we found ourselves just under the roof of the Palais de Justice. The
+enormous space of the _grande salle_ below is here divided into three
+galleries, each having its entire length, and one-third of its width.
+The manner in which these galleries are constructed is extremely
+curious and ingenious, and well deserves a careful examination. I
+certainly never found myself in a spot of greater interest than this.
+The enormous collection of records which fill these galleries,
+arranged as they are in the most exquisite order, is one of the most
+marvellous spectacles I ever beheld.
+
+Amidst the archives of so many centuries, any document that may be
+wished for, however remote or however minute, is brought forward in an
+instant, with as little difficulty as Dr. Dibdin would find in putting
+his hand upon the best-known treasure in Lord Spencer's library.
+
+Our kind friend obtained for us the sight of the volume containing all
+the original documents respecting the trial of poor Joan of Arc, that
+most ill-used of heroines. Vice never braved danger and met death with
+such steady, unwavering courage as she displayed. We saw, too, the
+fatal warrant which legalised the savage murder of this brave and
+innocent fanatic.
+
+Several other death-warrants of distinguished persons were also shown
+to us, some of them of great antiquity; but no royal hand had signed
+them. This painful duty is performed in France by one of the superior
+law-officers of the crown, but never by the hand of majesty.
+
+Another curious trial that was opened for our satisfaction, was that
+of the wretched Marquise de Brinvilliers, the famous _empoisonneuse_,
+who not only destroyed father, brother, husband, at the instigation of
+her lover, but appears to have used her power of compounding fatal
+drugs upon many other occasions. The murderous atrocities of this
+woman seem to surpass everything on record, except those of Marguérite
+de Bourgogne, the inconceivable heroine of the "Tour de Nesle."
+
+I was amused by an anecdote which M. J*** told me of an
+Englishman to whom he, some years ago, showed these same curious
+papers--among which is the receipt used by Madame de Brinvilliers for
+the composition of the poison whose effects plunged Paris in terror.
+
+"Will you do me the favour to let me copy this receipt?" said the
+Englishman.
+
+"I think that my privilege does not reach quite so far as that," was
+the discreet reply; and but for this, our countryman's love for
+chemical science might by this time have spread the knowledge of the
+precious secret over the whole earth.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIII.
+
+ French ideas of England.--Making love.--Precipitate retreat
+ of a young Frenchman.--Different methods of arranging
+ Marriages.--English Divorce.--English Restaurans.
+
+
+It now and then happens, by a lucky chance, that one finds oneself
+full gallop in a conversation the most perfectly unreserved, without
+having had the slightest idea or intention, when it began, of either
+giving or receiving confidence.
+
+This occurred to me a few days ago, while making a morning visit to a
+lady whom I had never seen but twice before, and then had not
+exchanged a dozen words with her. But, upon this occasion, we found
+ourselves very nearly tête-à-tête, and got, I know not how, into a
+most unrestrained discussion upon the peculiarities of our respective
+countries.
+
+Madame B*** has never been in England, but she assured me that her
+curiosity to visit our country is quite as strong as the passion for
+investigation which drew Robinson Crusoe from his home to visit
+the...."
+
+"Savages," said I, finishing the sentence for her.
+
+"No! no! no!... To visit all that is most curious in the world."
+
+This phrase, "most curious," seemed to me of doubtful meaning, and so
+I told her; asking whether it referred to the museums, or the natives.
+
+She seemed doubtful for a moment whether she should be frank or
+otherwise; and then, with so pretty and playful a manner as must, I
+think, have disarmed the angry nationality of the most thin-skinned
+patriot alive, she answered--
+
+"Well then--the natives."
+
+"But we take such good care," I replied, "that you should not want
+specimens of the race to examine and make experiments upon, that it
+would hardly be worth your while to cross the Channel for the sake of
+seeing the natives. We import ourselves in such prodigious quantities,
+that I can hardly conceive you should have any curiosity left about
+us."
+
+"On the contrary," she replied, "my curiosity is only the more
+_piquée_: I have seen so many delightful English persons here, that I
+die to see them at home, in the midst of all those singular customs,
+which they cannot bring with them, and which we only know by the
+imperfect accounts of travellers."
+
+This sounded, I thought, very much as if she were talking of the good
+people of Mongo Creek, or Karakoo Bay; but being at least as curious
+to know what her notions were concerning the English in their remote
+homes, and in the midst of all their "singular customs," as she could
+be to become better acquainted with them, I did my best to make her
+tell me all she had heard about us.
+
+"I will tell you," she said, "what I want to see beyond everything
+else: I want to see the mode of making love _tout-à-fait à
+l'Anglaise_. You know that you are all so polite as to put on our
+fashions here in every respect; but a cousin of mine, who was some
+years ago attached to our Embassy at London, has described the style
+of managing love affairs as so ... so romantic, that it perfectly
+enchanted me, and I would give the world to see how it was done
+(_comment cela se fait_)."
+
+"Pray tell me how he described it," said I, "and I promise faithfully
+to tell you if the picture be correct."
+
+"Oh, that is so kind!... Well then," she continued, colouring a
+little, from the idea, as I suppose, that she was going to say
+something terribly atrocious, "I will tell you exactly what happened
+to him. He had a letter of introduction to a gentleman of great
+estate--a member of the chamber of your parliament, who was living
+with his family at his chateau in one of the provinces, where my
+cousin forwarded the letter to him. A most polite reply was
+immediately returned, containing a pressing invitation to my cousin to
+come to the chateau without delay, and pass a month with them for the
+hunting season. Nothing could be more agreeable than this invitation,
+for it offered the best possible opportunity of studying the manners
+of the country. Every one can cross from Calais to Dover, and spend
+half their year's income in walking or driving through the long wide
+streets of London for six weeks; but there are very few, you know, who
+obtain an entrée to the chateaux of the noblesse. In short, my cousin
+was enchanted, and set off immediately. He arrived just in time to
+arrange his toilet before dinner; and when he entered the salon, he
+was perfectly dazzled by the exceeding beauty of the three daughters
+of his host, who were all _décolletées_, and full-dressed, he says,
+exactly as if they were going to some very elegant _bal paré_. There
+was no other company, and he felt a little startled at being received
+in such a ceremonious style.
+
+The young ladies all performed on the piano-forte and harp, and my
+cousin, who is very musical, was in raptures. Had not his admiration
+been too equally drawn to each, he assures me that before the end of
+that evening he must inevitably have been the conquest of one. The
+next morning, the whole family met again at breakfast: the young
+ladies were as charming as ever, but still he felt in doubt as to
+which he admired most. Whilst he was exerting himself to be as
+agreeable as he could, and talking to them all with the timid respect
+with which demoiselles are always addressed by Frenchmen, the father
+of the family startled and certainly almost alarmed my cousin by
+suddenly saying,--"We cannot hunt to-day, mon ami, for I have business
+which will keep me at home; but you shall ride into the woods with
+Elizabeth: she will show you my pheasants. Get ready, Elizabeth, to
+attend Monsieur...!"
+
+Madame B*** stopped short, and looked at me as if expecting that I
+should make some observation.
+
+"Well?" said I.
+
+"Well!" she repeated, laughing; "then you really find nothing
+extraordinary in this proceeding--nothing out of the common way?"
+
+"In what respect?" said I: "what is it that you suppose was out of the
+common way?"
+
+"That question," said she, clasping her hands in an ecstasy at having
+made the discovery--"That question puts me more au fait than anything
+else you could say to me. It is the strongest possible proof that what
+happened to my cousin was in truth nothing more than what is of
+every-day occurrence in England."
+
+"What did happen to him?"
+
+"Have I not told you?... The father of the young ladies whom he so
+greatly admired, selected one of them and desired my cousin to attend
+her on an excursion into the woods. My dear madame ... national
+manners vary so strangely.... I beseech you not to suppose that I
+imagine that everything may not be exceedingly well arranged
+notwithstanding. My cousin is a very distinguished young
+man--excellent character--good name--and will have his father's estate
+... only the manner is so different...."
+
+"Did your cousin accompany the young lady?" said I.
+
+"No, he did not--he returned to London immediately."
+
+This was said so gravely--so more than gravely--with an air of so much
+more meaning than she thought it civil to express, that my gravity and
+politeness gave way together, and I laughed most heartily.
+
+My amiable companion, however, did not take it amiss--she only laughed
+with me; and when we had recovered our gravity, she said, "So you find
+my cousin very ridiculous for throwing up the party?--_un peu timide,
+peut-être?_"
+
+"Oh no!" I replied--"only a little hasty."
+
+"Hasty!... Mais que voulez-vous? You do not seem to comprehend his
+embarrassment."
+
+"Perhaps not fully; but I assure you his embarrassment would have
+ceased altogether, had he trusted himself with the young lady and her
+attendant groom: I doubt not that she would have led the way through
+one of our beautiful pheasant preserves, which are exceedingly well
+worth seeing; but most certainly she would have been greatly
+astonished, and much embarrassed in her turn, had your cousin taken it
+into his head to make love to her."
+
+"You are in earnest?" said she, looking in my face with an air of
+great interest.
+
+"Indeed I am," I replied; "I am very seriously in earnest; and though
+I know not the persons of whom we have been speaking, I can venture to
+assure you positively, that it was only because no gentleman so well
+recommended as your cousin could be suspected of abusing the
+confidence reposed in him, that this English father permitted him to
+accompany the young lady in her morning ride."
+
+"C'est donc un trait sublime!" she exclaimed: "what noble
+confidence--what confiding honour! It is enough to remind one of the
+_paladins_ of old."
+
+"I suspect you are quizzing our confiding simplicity," said I; "but,
+at any rate, do not suspect me of quizzing you--for I have told you
+nothing more than a very simple and certain fact."
+
+"I doubt it not the least in the world," she replied; "but you are
+indeed, as I observed at first, superiorly romantic." She appeared to
+meditate for a moment, and then added, "Mais dites moi un peu ... is
+not this a little inconsistent with the stories we read in the 'novels
+of fashionable life' respecting the manner in which husbands are
+acquired for the young ladies of England?... You refuse yourselves,
+you know, the privilege of disposing of your daughters in marriage
+according to the mutual interests of the parties; and therefore, as
+young ladies must be married, it follows that some other means must be
+resorted to by the parents. All Frenchmen know this, and they may
+perhaps for that reason be sometimes too easily induced to imagine
+that it is intended to lead them into marriage by captivating their
+senses. This is so natural an inference, that you really must forgive
+it."
+
+"I forgive it perfectly," I replied; "but as we have agreed not to
+_mystify_ each other, it would not be fair to leave you in the belief
+that it is the custom, in order to 'acquire' husbands for the young
+ladies, that they should be sent on love-making expeditions into the
+woods with the premier venu. But what you have said enables me to
+understand a passage which I was reading the other day in a French
+story, and which puzzled me most exceedingly. It was on the subject of
+a young girl who had been forsaken by her lover; and some one,
+reproaching him for his conduct, uses, I think, these words: 'Après
+l'avoir compromise autant qu'il est possible de compromettre une
+jeune miss--ce qui n'est pas une chose absolument facile dans la
+bienheureuse Albion....' This puzzled me more than I can express;
+because the fact is, that we consider the compromising the reputation
+of a young lady as so tremendous a thing, that excepting in novels,
+where neither national manners nor natural probabilities are permitted
+to check the necessary accumulation of misery on the head of a
+heroine, it NEVER occurs; and this, not because nothing can compromise
+her, but because nothing that can compromise her is ever permitted,
+or, I might almost say, ever attempted. Among the lower orders,
+indeed, stories of seduction are but too frequent; but our present
+examination of national manners refers only to the middle and higher
+classes of society."
+
+Madame B*** listened to me with the most earnest attention; and
+after I had ceased speaking, she remained silent, as if meditating on
+what she had heard. At length she said, in a tone of much more
+seriousness than she had yet used,--"I am quite sure that every word
+you say is _parfaitement exact_--your manner persuades me that you are
+speaking neither with exaggeration nor in jest: _cependant_ ... I
+cannot conceal from you my astonishment at your statement. The
+received opinion among us is, that private and concealed infidelities
+among married women are probably less frequent in England than in
+France--because it seems to be essentially _dans vos moeurs de faire
+un grand scandale_ whenever such a circumstance occurs; and this, with
+the penalties annexed to it, undoubtedly acts as a prevention. But, on
+the other hand, it is universally considered as a fact, that you are
+as lenient to the indiscretions of unmarried ladies, as severe to
+those of the married ones. Tell me--is there not some truth in this
+idea?"
+
+"Not the least in the world, I do assure you. On the contrary, I am
+persuaded that in no country is there any race of women from whom such
+undeviating purity and propriety of conduct is demanded as from the
+unmarried women of England. Slander cannot attach to them, because it
+is as well known as that a Jew is not qualified to sit in parliament,
+that a single woman suspected of indiscretion immediately dies a civil
+death--she sinks out of society, and is no more heard of; and it is
+therefore that I have ventured to say, that a compromised reputation
+among the unmarried ladies of England NEVER occurs."
+
+"Nous nous sommes singulièrement trompés sur tout cela donc, nous
+autres," said Madame B***. "But the single ladies no longer young?"
+she continued;--"forgive me ... but is it really supposed that they
+pass their entire lives without any indiscretion at all?"
+
+This question was asked in a tone of such utter incredulity as to the
+possibility of a reply in the affirmative, that I again lost my
+gravity, and laughed heartily; but, after a moment, I assured her very
+seriously that such was most undoubtedly the case.
+
+The naïve manner in which she exclaimed in reply, "Est-il possible!"
+might have made the fortune of a young actress. There was, however, no
+acting in the case; Madame B*** was most perfectly unaffected in her
+expression of surprise, and assured me that it would be shared by all
+Frenchwomen who should be so fortunate as to find occasion, like
+herself, to receive such information from indisputable authority.
+"Quant aux hommes," she added, laughing, "je doute fort si vous en
+trouverez de si croyans."
+
+We pursued our conversation much farther; but were I to repeat the
+whole, you would only find it contained many repetitions of the same
+fact--namely, that a very strong persuasion exists in France, among
+those who are not personally well acquainted with English manners,
+that the mode in which marriages are arranged, rather by the young
+people themselves than by their relatives, produces an effect upon the
+conduct of our unmarried females which is not only as far as possible
+from the truth, but so preposterously so, as never to have entered
+into any English head to imagine.
+
+So few opportunities for anything approaching to intimacy between
+French and English women arise, that it is not very easy for us to
+find out exactly what their real opinion is concerning us. Nothing in
+Madame B***'s manner could lead me to suspect that any feeling of
+reprobation or contempt mixed itself with her belief respecting the
+extraordinary license which she supposed was accorded to unmarried
+woman. Nothing could be more indulgent than her tone of commentary on
+our _national peculiarities_, as she called them. The only theme which
+elicited an expression of harshness from her was the manner in which
+divorces were obtained and paid for: "Se faire payer pour une aventure
+semblable! ... publier un scandale si ridicule, si offensant pour son
+amour-propre--si fortement contre les bonnes moeurs, pour en
+recevoir de l'argent, was," she said, "perfectly incomprehensible in a
+nation de si braves gens que les Anglais."
+
+I did my best to defend our mode of proceeding in such cases upon the
+principles of justice and morality; but French prejudices on this
+point are too inveterate to be shaken by any eloquence of mine. We
+parted, however, the best friends in the world, and mutually grateful
+for the information we had received.
+
+This conversation only furnished one, among several instances, in
+which I have been astonished to discover the many popular errors
+which are still current in France respecting England. Can we fairly
+doubt that, in many cases where we consider ourselves as perfectly
+well-informed, we may be quite as much in the dark respecting them? It
+is certain that the habit so general among us of flying over to Paris
+for a week or two every now and then, must have made a great number of
+individuals acquainted with the external aspect of France between
+Calais and Paris, and also with all the most conspicuous objects of
+the capital itself--its churches and its theatres, its little river
+and its great coffee-houses: but it is an extremely small proportion
+of these flying travellers who ever enter into any society beyond what
+they may encounter in public; and to all such, France can be very
+little better known than England is to those who content themselves
+with perusing the descriptions we give of ourselves in our novels and
+newspapers.
+
+Of the small advance made towards obtaining information by such visits
+as these, I have had many opportunities of judging for myself, both
+among English and French, but never more satisfactorily than at a
+dinner-party at the house of an old widow lady, who certainly
+understands our language perfectly, and appears to me to read more
+English books, and to be more interested about their authors, than
+almost any one I ever met with. She has never crossed the Channel,
+however, and has rather an overweening degree of respect for such of
+her countrymen as have enjoyed the privilege of looking at us face to
+face on our own soil.
+
+The day I dined with her, one of these travelled gentlemen was led up
+and presented to me as a person well acquainted with my country. His
+name was placed on the cover next to the one destined for me at table,
+and it was evidently intended that we should derive our principal
+amusement from the conversation of each other. As I never saw him
+before or since, as I never expect to see him again, and as I do not
+even remember his name, I think I am guilty of no breach of confidence
+by repeating to you a few of the ideas upon England which he had
+acquired on his travels.
+
+His first remark after we were placed at table was,--"You do not, I
+think, use table-napkins in England;--do you not find them rather
+embarrassing?" The next was,--"I observed during my stay in England
+that it is not the custom to eat soup: I hope, however, that you do
+not find it disagreeable to your palate?"... "You have, I think, no
+national cuisine?" was the third observation; and upon this
+_singularity in our manners_ he was eloquent. "Yet, after all," said
+he consolingly, "France is in fact the only country which has one:
+Spain is too oily--Italy too spicy. We have sent artists into Germany;
+but this cannot be said to constitute _une cuisine nationale_. Pour
+dire vrai, however, the rosbif of England is hardly more scientific
+than the sun-dried meat of the Tartars. A Frenchman would be starved
+in England did he not light upon one of the imported artists,--and,
+happily for travellers, this is no longer difficult."
+
+"Did you dine much in private society?" said I.
+
+"No, I did not: my time was too constantly occupied to permit my doing
+so."
+
+"We have some very good hotels, however, in London."
+
+"But no tables d'hôte!" he replied with a shrug. "I did very well,
+nevertheless; for I never permitted myself to venture anywhere for the
+purpose of dining excepting to your celebrated Leicester-square. It is
+the most fashionable part of London, I believe; or, at least, the only
+fashionable restaurans are to be found there."
+
+I ventured very gently to hint that there were other parts of London
+more à-la-mode, and many hotels which had the reputation of a better
+cuisine than any which could be found in Leicester-square; but the
+observation appeared to displease the traveller, and the belle
+harmonie which it was intended should subsist between us was evidently
+shaken thereby, for I heard him say in a half-whisper to the person
+who sat on the other side of him, and who had been attentively
+listening to our discourse,--"Pas exact...."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIV.
+
+ Mixed Society.--Influence of the English Clergy and their
+ Families.--Importance of their station in Society.
+
+
+Though I am still of opinion that French society, properly so
+called,--that is to say, the society of the educated ladies and
+gentlemen of France,--is the most graceful, animated, and fascinating
+in the world; I think, nevertheless, that it is not as perfect as it
+might be, were a little more exclusiveness permitted in the formation
+of it.
+
+No one can be really well acquainted with good society in this country
+without being convinced that there are both men and women to be found
+in it who to the best graces add the best virtues of social life; but
+it is equally impossible to deny, that admirable as are some
+individuals of the circle, they all exercise a degree of toleration to
+persons less estimable, which, when some well-authenticated anecdotes
+are made known to us, is, to say the least of it, very startling to
+the feelings of those who are not to this easy manner either born or
+bred.
+
+To look into the hearts of all who form either a Parisian or a London
+lady's visiting list, in order to discover of what stuff each
+individual be made, would not perhaps be very wise, and is luckily
+quite impossible. Nothing at all approaching to such a scrutiny can be
+reasonably wished or expected from those who open their doors for the
+reception of company; but where society is perfectly well ordered, no
+one of either sex, I think, whose outward and visible conduct has
+brought upon them the eyes of all and the reprobation of the good,
+should be admitted.
+
+That such are admitted much more freely in France than in England,
+cannot be denied; and though there are many who conscientiously keep
+aloof from such intercourse, and more who mark plainly enough that
+there is a distance in spirit even where there is vicinity of person,
+still I think it is greatly to be regretted that such a leven of
+disunion should ever be suffered to insinuate itself into meetings
+which would be so infinitely more agreeable as well as more
+respectable without it.
+
+One reason, I doubt not, why there is less exclusiveness and severity
+of selection in the forming a circle here is, that there are no
+individuals, or rather no class of individuals, in the wide circle
+which constitutes what is called _en grand_ the society of Paris, who
+could step forward with propriety and say, "_This may not be_."
+
+With us, happily, the case is as yet different. The clergy of England,
+their matronly wives and highly-educated daughters, form a distinct
+caste, to which there is nothing that answers in the whole range of
+continental Europe. In this caste, however, are mingled a portion of
+every other; yet it has a dignity and aristocracy of its own: and in
+this aristocracy are blended the high blood of the noble, the learning
+which has in many instances sufficed to raise to a level with it the
+obscure and needy, and the piety which has given station above either
+to those whose unspotted lives have marked them out as pre-eminent in
+the holy profession they have chosen.
+
+While such men as these mingle freely in society, as they constantly
+do in England, and bring with them the females who form their
+families, there is little danger that notorious vice should choose to
+obtrude itself.
+
+It will hardly be denied, I believe, that many a frail fair one, who
+would boldly push her way among ermine and coronets where the mitre
+was not, would shrink from parading her doubtful honours where it was:
+and it is equally certain, that many a thoughtless, easy, careless
+giver of fine parties has been prevented from filling up her
+constellation of beauties because "It is impossible to have Lady This,
+or Mrs. That, when the bishop and his family are expected."
+
+Nor is this wholesome influence confined to the higher ranks
+alone;--the rector of the parish--nay, even his young curate, with a
+smooth cheek and almost unrazored chin, will in humbler circles
+produce the same effect. In short, wherever an English clergyman or an
+English clergyman's family appears, there decency is in presence, and
+the canker of known and tolerated vice is not.
+
+Whenever we find ourselves weary of this restraint, and anxious to mix
+(unshackled by the silent rebuke of such a presence) with whatever may
+be most attractive to the eye or amusing to the spirit, let the stamp
+of vice be as notorious upon it as it may, whenever we reach this
+state, it will be the right and proper time to pass the Irish Church
+Bill.
+
+These meditations have been thrust upon me by the reply I received in
+answer to a question which I addressed to a lady of my acquaintance at
+a party the other evening.
+
+"Who is that very elegant-looking woman?" said I.
+
+"It is Madame de C***," was the reply. "Have you never met her
+before? She is very much in society; one sees her everywhere."
+
+I replied, that I had seen her once or twice before, but had never
+learned her name; adding, that it was not only her name I was anxious
+to learn, but something about her. She looked like a personage, a
+heroine, a sybil: in short, it was one of those heads and busts that
+one seems to have the same right to stare at, as at a fine picture or
+statue; they appear a part of the decorations, only they excite a
+little more interest and curiosity.
+
+"Can you not tell me something of her character?" said I: "I never saw
+so picturesque a figure; I could fancy that the spirit of Titian had
+presided at her toilet."
+
+"It was only the spirit of coquetry, I suspect," answered my friend
+with a smile. "But if you are so anxious to know her, I can give you
+her character and history in very few words:--she is rich, high-born,
+intellectual, political, and unchaste."
+
+I do not think I started; I should be shocked to believe myself so
+unfit for a salon as to testify surprise thus openly at anything; but
+my friend looked at me and laughed.
+
+"You are astonished at seeing her here? But I have told you that you
+may expect to meet her everywhere; except, indeed, chez moi, and at a
+few exceedingly rococo houses besides."
+
+As the lady I was talking to happened to be an Englishwoman, though
+for many years a resident in Paris, I ventured to hint the surprise I
+felt that a person known to be what she described Madame de C***
+should be so universally received in good society.
+
+"It is very true," she replied: "it is surprising, and more so to me
+perhaps than to you, because I know thoroughly well the irreproachable
+character and genuine worth of many who receive her. I consider this,"
+she continued, "as one of the most singular traits in Parisian
+society. If, as many travellers have most falsely insinuated, the
+women of Paris were generally corrupt and licentious, there would be
+nothing extraordinary in it: but it is not so. Where neither the
+husband, the relatives, the servants, nor any one else, has any wish
+or intention of discovering or exposing the frailty of a wife, it is
+certainly impossible to say that it may not often exist without being
+either known or suspected: but with this, general society cannot
+interfere; and those whose temper or habits of mind lead them to
+suspect evil wherever it is possible that it may be concealed, may
+often lose the pleasure of friendship founded on esteem, solely
+because it is possible that some hidden faults may render their
+neighbour unworthy of it. That such tempers are not often to be found
+in France, is certainly no proof of the depravity of national manners;
+but where notorious irregularity of conduct has brought a woman fairly
+before the bar of public opinion, it does appear to me very
+extraordinary that such a person as our hostess, and very many others
+equally irreproachable, should receive her."
+
+"I presume," said I, "that Madame de C*** is not the only person
+towards whom this remarkable species of tolerance is exercised?"
+
+"Certainly not. There are many others whose _liaisons_ are as well
+known as hers, who are also admitted into the best society. But
+observe--I know no instance where such are permitted to enter within
+the narrower circle of intimate domestic friendship. No one in Paris
+seems to think that they have any right to examine into the private
+history of all the _élégantes_ who fill its salons; but I believe they
+take as good care to know the _friends_ whom they admit to the
+intimacy of their private hours as we do. There, however, this species
+of decorum ends; and they would no more turn back from entering a room
+where they saw Madame de C***, than a London lady would drive
+away from the opera because she saw the carriage of Lady ---- at the
+door."
+
+"There is no parallel, however, between the cases," said I.
+
+"No, certainly," she replied; "but it is not the less certain that the
+Parisians appear to think otherwise."
+
+Now it appears evident to me, that all this arises much less from
+general licentiousness of morals than from general easiness of temper.
+SANS SOUCI is the darling device of the whole nation: and how can this
+be adhered to, if they set about the very arduous task of driving out
+of society all those who do not deserve to be in it? But while feeling
+sincerely persuaded, as I really do, that this difference in the
+degree of moral toleration practised by the two countries does not
+arise from any depravity in the French character, I cannot but think
+that our mode of proceeding in this respect is infinitely better. It
+is more conducive, not only to virtue, but to agreeable and
+unrestrained intercourse; and for this reason, if for no other, it is
+deeply our interest to uphold with all possible reverence and dignity
+that class whose presence is of itself sufficient to guarantee at
+least the reputation of propriety, in every circle in which they
+appear.
+
+Though not very german to Paris and the Parisians, which I promised
+should make the subjects of my letters as long as I remained among
+them, I cannot help observing how utterly this most important
+influence would be destroyed in the higher circles--which will ever
+form the model of those below them--if the riches, rank, and worldly
+honours of this class are wrested from them. It is indeed very certain
+that a clergyman, whether bishop, priest, or deacon, may perform the
+duty of a minister in the desk, at the altar, or in the pulpit, though
+he has to walk home afterwards to an humble dwelling and an humble
+meal: he may perform this duty well, and to the entire satisfaction of
+the rich and great, though his poverty may prevent him from ever
+taking his place among them; but he may not--he can not, while such is
+the station allotted him, produce that effect on society, and exert
+that influence on the morals of the people, which he would do were his
+temporal place and power such as to exalt him in the eyes even of the
+most worldly.
+
+Amidst all the varieties of cant to which it is the destiny of the
+present age to listen, there is none which I endure with so little
+patience as that which preaches the "_humility of the church_." Were
+there the shadow of reason or logic in the arguments for the
+degradation of the clergy drawn from the Scriptures, they must go the
+length of showing that, in order to follow the example of the great
+Master, they must all belong to the class of carpenters and fishermen.
+Could we imagine another revelation of the Divinity accorded to man,
+it would be natural enough to conceive that the rich gift of direct
+inspiration should be again given to those who had neither learning,
+knowledge, pride, nor power of any kind, to combat or resist, to
+explain or to weaken, the communication which it was their duty
+simply to record and spread abroad. But the eternal word of God once
+delivered, does it follow that those who are carefully instructed in
+all the various learning which can assist in giving strength and
+authority to the propagation of it should alone, of all the sons of
+men, be for ever doomed to the lower walks of social life in order to
+imitate the humility of the Saviour of the world?
+
+I know not if there be more nonsense or blasphemy in this. The taking
+the office of preaching his own blessed will to man was an act of
+humility in God; but the taking upon themselves to instruct their
+fellow-men in the law thus solemnly left us, is a great assumption of
+dignity in men,--and where the offices it imposes are well performed,
+it becomes one of the first duties of the believers in the doctrine
+they have made it their calling to expound, to honour them with such
+honour as mortals can understand and value. If any one be found who
+does not perform the duties of this high calling in the best manner
+which his ability enables him to do, let him be degraded as he
+deserves; but while he holds it, let him not be denied the dignity of
+state and station to which all his fellow-citizens in their different
+walks aspire, in order forsooth to _keep him humble_! Humble
+indeed--yea, humbled to the dust, will our long-venerated church and
+its insulted ministers be, if its destiny and their fortune be left
+at the mercy of those who have lately undertaken to legislate for
+them. I often feel a sort of vapourish, vague uncertainty of
+disbelief, as I read the records of what has been passing in the House
+of Commons on this subject. I cannot _realise_ it, as the Americans
+say, that the majority of the English parliament should consent to be
+led blind-fold upon such a point as this, by a set of low-born,
+ignorant, bullying papists. I hope, when I return to England, I shall
+awake and find that it is not so.
+
+And now forgive me for this long digression: I will write to you
+to-morrow upon something as essentially French as possible, to make up
+for it.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LV.
+
+ Le Grand Opéra.--Its enormous Expense.--Its Fashion.--Its
+ acknowledged Dulness.--'La Juive'.--Its heavy Music.--Its
+ exceeding Splendour.--Beautiful management of the
+ Scenery.--National Music.
+
+
+Can I better keep the promise I gave you yesterday than by writing you
+a letter of and concerning le grand opéra? Is there anything in the
+world so perfectly French as this? Something like their pretty opéra
+comique may exist elsewhere; we have our comic opera, and Italy has
+her buffa; the opéra Italien, too, may be rather more than rivalled at
+the Haymarket: but where out of Paris are we to look for anything like
+the Académie Royale de Musique? ... le grand opéra? ... l'opéra par
+excellence?--I may safely answer, nowhere.
+
+It is an institution of which the expenses are so enormous, that
+though it is more constantly and fully attended perhaps than any other
+theatre in the world, it could not be sustained without the aid of
+funds supplied by the government. The extraordinary partiality for
+this theatre seems to have existed among the higher classes, without
+any intermission from change of fashion, occasional inferiority of the
+performances, or any other cause, from the time of Louis Quatorze to
+the present. That immortal monarch, whose whim was power, and whose
+word was law, granted a patent privilege to this establishment in
+favour of the musical Abbé Perrin, but speedily revoked it, to bestow
+one more ample still on Lulli. In this latter act, it is ordained that
+"_tous gentilshommes et demoiselles puissent chanter aux dites pièces
+et représentations de notre dite Académie Royale sans que pour ça ils
+soient censés déroger au dit titre de noblesse et à leurs
+priviléges_."
+
+This was a droll device to exalt this pet plaything of the fashionable
+world above all others. Voltaire fell into the mode like the rest of
+the fine folks, and thus expressed his sensibility to its
+attractions:--
+
+ "Il faut se rendre à ce palais magique,
+ Où les beaux vers, la danse, la musique,
+ L'art de charmer les yeux par les couleurs,
+ L'art plus heureux de séduire les coeurs,
+ De cent plaisirs font un plaisir unique."
+
+But the most incomprehensible part of the business is, that with all
+this enthusiasm, which certainly rather goes on increasing than
+diminishing, every one declares that he is _ennuyé à la mort_ at le
+grand opéra.
+
+I do not mean that their being ennuyés is incomprehensible--Heaven
+knows that I understand that perfectly: but why, when this is avowed,
+they should continue to persecute themselves by going there two or
+three times in every week, I cannot comprehend.
+
+If attendance at the opera were here, as it is with us, a sort of
+criterion of the love of music and _other fine arts_, it would be much
+less difficult to understand: but this is far from being the case, as
+both the Italian and the comic operas have more perfect orchestras.
+The style and manner of singing, too, are what no genuine lover of
+music could ever be brought to tolerate. When the remembrance of a
+German or Italian opera comes across one while listening to the dry,
+heavy recitative of the Academy, it produces a feeling of impatience
+difficult to conceive by those who have never experienced it.
+
+If, however, instead of being taken in by the name of opera, and
+expecting the musical treat which that name seems to promise, we go to
+this magnificent theatre for the purpose of seeing the most superb and
+the best-fancied decorations in the world, we shall at least not be
+disappointed, though before the end of the entertainment we may
+probably become heartily weary of gazing at and admiring the dazzling
+pageant. I told you just now what Voltaire said of the opera, either
+when he was particularly enchanted by some reigning star--the adorable
+Sophie Arnould perhaps--or else when he chose to be particularly
+à-la-mode: but he seems more soberly in earnest, I think, when he says
+afterwards, "L'opéra n'est qu'un rendezvous publique, où l'on
+s'assemble à certains jours, sans trop savoir pourquoi: c'est une
+maison où tout le monde va, quoiqu'on pense mal du maître, et qu'il
+soit assez ennuyeux."
+
+That little phrase, "où tout le monde va," contains, I suspect after
+all, the only true solution of the mystery. "Man is a gregarious
+animal," say the philosophers; and it is therefore only in conformity
+to this well-known law of his nature that hes and shes flock by
+thousands to be pent up together, in defiance of most _triste musique_
+and a stifling atmosphere, within the walls of this beautiful
+puppet-show.
+
+That it is beautiful, I am at this moment particularly willing to
+avouch, as we have just been regaling ourselves, or rather our eyes,
+with as gorgeous a spectacle there as it ever entered into the heart
+of a carpenter to _étaler_ on the stage of a theatre. This splendid
+show is known by the name of "La Juive;" but it should rather have
+been called "Le Cardinal," for a personage of no less dignity is
+decidedly its hero. M. Halévy is the composer, and M. Scribe the
+author of the "paroles."
+
+M. Scribe stands so high as a dramatic composer, that I suppose he
+may sport a little with his fame without running much risk of doing it
+an injury: but as the Académie Royale has the right of drawing upon
+the Treasury for its necessities, it is to be hoped that the author of
+"Bertrand et Raton" is well paid for lending his name to the pegs on
+which ermine and velvet, feathers and flowers, cardinals' hats and
+emperors' mantles, are hung up to view for the amusement of all who
+may be curious in such matters. I suspect, however, that the
+composition of this piece did not cost the poet many sleepless nights:
+perhaps he remembered that excellent axiom of the Barbier de
+Seville,--"Ce qui ne vaut pas la peine d'être dit, on le chante;" and
+under this sentence I think such verses as the following, which
+strongly remind one of the famous Lilliputian ode in the Bath Guide,
+may fairly enough be condemned to music.
+
+ "Fille chère
+ Près d'un père
+ Viens mourir;
+ Et pardonne
+ Quand il donne
+ La couronne
+ Du martyr!
+ Plus de plainte--
+ Vaine crainte
+ Est éteinte
+ En mon coeur;
+ Saint délire!
+ Dieu m'inspire,
+ Et j'expire
+ Vainqueur."
+
+Unhappily, however, the music is at least as worthless as the rhymes.
+There is one passage, nevertheless, that is singularly impressive and
+beautiful. This is the chorus at the opening of the second act, where
+a party of Jews assembled to eat the passover chant a grace in these
+words:--
+
+ "Oh! Dieu de nos pères!
+ Toi qui nous éclaires,
+ Parmi nous descends!"
+ &c. &c. &c.
+
+This is very fine, but perhaps it approaches rather too closely to the
+"Dieu d'Israël" in Méhul's opera of "Joseph" to be greatly vaunted on
+the score of originality.
+
+Yet, with all these "points of 'vantage" at which it may be hostilely
+attacked, "La Juive" draws thousands to gaze at its splendour every
+time it is performed. Twice we attempted to get in without having
+secured places, and were told on both occasions that there was not
+even standing-room for gentlemen.
+
+Among its attractions are two which are alike new to me as belonging
+to an opera: one is the performance of the "Te Deum laudamus," and the
+other the entrance of Franconi's troop of horse.
+
+But, after all, it was clear enough that, whatever may have been the
+original object of this institution, with its nursery academies of
+music and dancing, its royal patronage and legalised extravagance,
+its present glory rests almost wholly on the talents of the Taglioni
+family, and with the sundry MM. décorateurs who have imagined and
+arranged the getting up this extraordinary specimen of scenic
+magnificence, as well as the many others of the same kind which have
+preceded it.
+
+I have seen many very fine shows of the kind in London, but certainly
+never anything that could at all be compared with this. Individual
+scenes--as, for instance, that of the masqued ball in "Gustavus"--may
+equal, by the effect of the first coup-d'oeil, any scene in "La
+Juive"; but it is the extraordinary propriety and perfection of all
+the accessaries which make this part of the performance worthy of a
+critical study from the beginning to the end of it. I remember reading
+in some history of Paris, that it was the fashion to be so _précieuse_
+as to the correctness of the costumes of the French opera, that the
+manager could not venture to bring out "Les Trois Sultanes" without
+sending to Constantinople to obtain the dresses. A very considerable
+portion of the same spirit has evidently been at work to render the
+appearance of a large detachment of the court of Rome and the whole
+court of the Emperor Sigismund _comme il faut_ upon the scene.
+
+But, with all a woman's weakness at my heart in favour of velvet,
+satin, gold tissue, and ermine, I cannot but confess that these
+things, important as they are, appear but secondary aids in the
+magical scenic effects of "La Juive." The arrangement and management
+of the scenery were to me perfectly new. The coulisses have vanished,
+side scenes are no more,--and, what is more important still, these
+admirable mechanists have found the way of throwing across the stage
+those accidental masses of shadow by aid of which Nature produces her
+most brilliant effects; so that, instead of the aching eyes having to
+gaze upon a blaze of reflected light, relieved only by an occasional
+dip of the foot-lights and a sudden paling of gas in order to enact
+night, they are now enchanted and beguiled by exactly such a mixture
+of light and shade as an able painter would give to a picture.
+
+How this is effected, Heaven knows! There are, I am very sure, more
+things at present above, about, and underneath the opera stage, than
+are dreamed of in any philosophy, excepting that of a Parisian
+carpenter. In the first scene of the "Juive," a very noble-looking
+church rears its sombre front exactly in the centre of the stage,
+throwing as fine, rich, deep a shadow on one side of it as Notre Dame
+herself could do. In another scene, half the stage appears to be sunk
+below the level of the eye, and is totally lost sight of, a low
+parapet wall marking the boundary of the seeming river.
+
+Our box was excellently situated, and by no means distant from the
+stage; yet we often found it impossible to determine at what point, in
+different directions, the boards ended and the scenery began. The
+arrangement of the groups too, not merely in combinations of grace and
+beauty, but in such bold, easy, and picturesque variety, that one
+might fancy Murillo had made the sketches for them, was another source
+of wonder and admiration; and had all these pretty sights been shown
+us in the course of two acts instead of five, I am sure we should have
+gone home quite delighted and in the highest possible good-humour. But
+five acts of raree-show is too much; and accordingly we yawned, and
+talked of Grétry, Méhul, Nicolo, and I know not whom beside;--in
+short, became as splenetic and pedantic as possible.
+
+We indulged ourselves occasionally in this unamiable mood by
+communicating our feelings to each other, in a whisper however which
+could not go beyond our own box, and with the less restraint because
+we felt sure that the one stranger gentleman who shared it with us
+could not understand our language. But herein we egregiously deceived
+ourselves: though in appearance he was _Français jusqu'aux ongles_, we
+soon found out that he could speak English as well as any of us; and,
+with much real politeness, he had the good-nature to let us know this
+before we had uttered anything too profoundly John Bullish to be
+forgiven.
+
+Fortunately, too, it appeared that our judgments accorded as well as
+if we had all been born in the same parish. He lamented the decadence
+of music in this, which ought to be its especial theatre; but spoke
+with enthusiasm of the Théâtre Italien, and its great superiority in
+science over every other in Paris. This theatre, to my great vexation,
+is now closed; but I well remember that such too was my judgment of it
+some seven years ago.
+
+The English and the French are generally classed together as having
+neither one nor the other any really national music of their own. We
+have both of us, however, some sweet and perfectly original airs,
+which will endure as long as the modulations of sound are permitted to
+enchant our mortal ears. Nevertheless, I am not going to appeal
+against a sentence too often repeated not to be universally received
+as truth. But, notwithstanding this absence of any distinct school of
+national music, it is impossible to doubt that the people of both
+countries are fondly attached to the science. More sacrifices are made
+by both to obtain good music than the happy German and Italian people
+would ever dream of making. Nor would it, I think, be fair to argue,
+from the present style of the performances at the Académie, that the
+love of music is on the decline here. The unbounded expense bestowed
+upon decorations, and the pomp and splendour of effect which results
+from it, are quite enough to attract and dazzle the eyes of a more
+"thinking people" than the Parisians; and the unprecedented perfection
+to which the mechanists have brought the delusion of still-life seems
+to permit a relaxation in the efforts of the manager to obtain
+attraction from other sources.
+
+But this will not last. The French people really love music, and will
+have it. It is more than probable that the musical branch of this
+academic establishment will soon revive; and if in doing so it
+preserve its present superiority of decoration, it will again become
+an amusement of unrivalled attraction.
+
+I believe the French themselves generally consider us as having less
+claim to the reputation of musical amateurship than themselves; but,
+with much respect for their judgment on such subjects, I differ from
+them wholly in this. When has France ever shown, either in her capital
+or out of it, such a glorious burst of musical enthusiasm as produced
+the festivals of Westminster Abbey and of York?
+
+It was not for the sake of encouraging an English school of music,
+certainly, that these extraordinary efforts were made. They were not
+native strains which rang along the vaulted roofs; but it was English
+taste, and English feeling, which recently, as well as in days of
+yore, conceived and executed a scheme of harmony more perfect and
+sublime than I can remember to have heard of elsewhere.
+
+I doubt, too, if in any country a musical institution can be pointed
+out in purer taste than that of our ancient music concert. The style
+and manner of this are wholly national, though the compositions
+performed there are but partially so; and I think no one who truly and
+deeply loves the science but must feel that there is a character in it
+which, considering the estimation in which it has for so many years
+been held, may fairly redeem the whole nation from any deficiency in
+musical taste.
+
+There is one branch of the "gay science," if I may so call it, which I
+always expect to find in France, but respecting which I have hitherto
+been always disappointed: this is in the humble class of itinerant
+musicians. In Germany they abound; and it not seldom happens that
+their strains arrest the feet and enchant the ear of the most
+fastidious. But whenever, in France, I have encountered an ambulant
+troubadour, I confess I have felt no inclination to linger on my way
+to listen to him. I do not, however, mean to claim much honour for
+ourselves on the score of our travelling minstrels. If we fail to
+pause in listening to those of France, we seldom fail to run whenever
+our ears are overtaken by our own. Yet still we give strong proof of
+our love of music, in the more than ordinary strains which may be
+occasionally heard before every coffee-house in London, when the noise
+and racket of the morning has given place to the hours of enjoyment. I
+have heard that the bands of wind instruments which nightly parade
+through the streets of London receive donations which, taken on an
+average throughout the year, would be sufficient to support a theatre.
+This can only proceed from a genuine propensity to being "moved by
+concord of sweet sounds;" for no fashion, as is the case at our costly
+operas, leads to it. On the contrary, it is most decidedly mauvais ton
+to be caught listening to this unexclusive harmony; yet it is
+encouraged in a degree that clearly indicates the popular feeling.
+
+Have I then proved to your satisfaction, as completely as I
+undoubtedly have to my own, that if without a national music, at least
+we are not without a national taste for it?
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVI.
+
+ The Abbé Deguerry.--His eloquence.--Excursion across the
+ water.--Library of Ste. Geneviève.--Copy-book of the
+ Dauphin.--St. Etienne du Mont.--Pantheon.
+
+
+The finest sermon I have heard since I have been in Paris--and, I am
+almost inclined to think, the finest I ever heard anywhere--was
+preached yesterday by the Abbé Deguerry at St. Roch. It was a
+discourse calculated to benefit all Christian souls of every sect and
+denomination whatever--had no shade of doctrinal allusion in it of any
+kind, and was just such a sermon as one could wish every soi-disant
+infidel might be forced to listen to while the eyes of a Christian
+congregation were fixed upon him. It would do one good to see such a
+being cower and shrink, in the midst of his impotent and petulant
+arrogance, to feel how a "plain word could put him down."
+
+The Abbé Deguerry is a young man, apparently under thirty; but nature
+seems to have put him at once in possession of a talent which
+generally requires long years to bring to perfection. He is eloquent
+in the very best manner; for it is an eloquence intended rather to
+benefit the hearer than to do honour to the mere human talent of the
+orator. Beautifully as his periods flowed, I felt certain, as I
+listened to him, that their harmonious rhythm was the result of no
+study, but purely the effect, unconsciously displayed, of a fine ear
+and an almost unbounded command of language. He had studied his
+matter,--he had studied and deeply weighed his arguments; but, for his
+style, it was the free gift of Heaven.
+
+Extempore preaching has always appeared to me to be a fearfully
+presumptuous exercise. Thoughts well digested, expressions carefully
+chosen, and arguments conscientiously examined, are no more than every
+congregation has a right to expect from one who addresses them with
+all the authority of place on subjects of most high importance; and
+rare indeed is the talent which can produce this without cautious and
+deliberate study. But in listening to the Abbé Deguerry, I perceived
+it was possible that a great and peculiar talent, joined to early and
+constant practice, might enable a man to address his fellow-creatures
+without presumption even though he had not written his sermon;--yet it
+is probable that I should be more correct were I to say, without
+reading it to his congregation, for it is hardly possible to believe
+that such a composition was actually and altogether extempore.
+
+His argument, which was to show the helpless insufficiency of man
+without the assistance of revelation and religious faith, was never
+lost sight of for an instant. There was no weak wordiness, no
+repetition, no hacknied ornaments of rhetoric; but it was the voice of
+truth, speaking in that language of universal eloquence which all
+nations and all creeds must feel; and it flowed on with unbroken
+clearness, beauty, and power, to the end.
+
+Having recently quitted Flanders, where everything connected with the
+Roman Catholic worship is sustained in a style of stately magnificence
+which plainly speaks its Spanish origin, I am continually surprised by
+the comparatively simple vestments and absence of ostentatious display
+in the churches of Paris. At the metropolitan church of Notre Dame,
+indeed, nothing was wanting to render its archiepiscopal dignity
+conspicuous; but everywhere else, there was a great deal less of pomp
+and circumstance than I expected. But nowhere is the relaxation of
+clerical dignity in the clergy of Paris so remarkable as in the
+appearance of the young priests whom we occasionally meet in the
+streets. The flowing curls, the simple round hat, the pantaloons, and
+in some cases the boots also, give them the appearance of a race of
+men as unlike as possible to their stiff and primitive predecessors.
+Yet they all look flourishing, and well pleased with themselves and
+the world about them: but little of mortification or abstinence can be
+traced on their countenances; and if they do fast for some portion of
+every week, they may certainly say with Father Philip, that "what they
+take prospers with them marvellously."
+
+ [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+ PRÊTRES DE LA JEUNE FRANCE.
+ London. Published by Richard Bentley. 1835.]
+
+We have this morning made an excursion to the other side of the water,
+which always seems like setting out upon a journey; and yet I know not
+why it should be so, for as the river is not very wide, the bridges
+are not very long; but so it is, that for some reason or other, if it
+were not for the magnetic Abbaye-aux-Bois, we should very rarely find
+ourselves on the left bank of the Seine.
+
+On this occasion, our object was to visit the famous old library of
+Ste. Geneviève, on the invitation of a gentleman who is one of the
+librarians. Nothing can be more interesting than an expedition of this
+sort, with an intelligent and obliging cicisbeo, who knows everything
+concerning the objects displayed before you, and is kindly willing to
+communicate as much of his _savoir_ as the time may allow, or as may
+be necessary to make the different objects examined come forth from
+that venerable but incomprehensible accumulation of treasures, which
+form the mass of all the libraries and museums in the world, and
+which, be he as innocent of curiosity as an angel, every stranger is
+bound over to visit, under penalty, when honestly reciting his
+adventures, of hearing exclamations from all the friends he left at
+home, of--"What! ... did you not see that?... Then you have seen
+nothing!"
+
+I would certainly never expose myself to this cutting reproach, could
+I always secure as agreeable a companion as the one who tempted us to
+mount to the elevated repository which contains the hundred thousand
+volumes of the royal library of Ste. Geneviève. Were I a student
+there, I should grumble prodigiously at the long and steep ascent to
+this temple of all sorts of learning: but once reached, the tranquil
+stillness, and the perfect seclusion from the eternal hum of the great
+city that surrounds it, are very delightful, and might, I think, act
+as a sedative upon the most restive and truant imagination that ever
+beset a student.
+
+I was sorry to hear that symptoms of decay in the timbers of the
+venerable roof make it probable that this fine old room must be given
+up, and the large collection it has so long sheltered be conveyed
+elsewhere. The apartment is in the form of a cross, with a dome at the
+point of intersection, painted by the elder Restout. Though low, and
+in fact occupying only the roof of the college, formerly the Abbaye of
+Sainte Geneviève, there is something singularly graceful and pleasing
+to the eye in this extensive chamber, its ornaments and general
+arrangement;--something monastic, yet not gloomy; with an air of
+learned ease, and comfortable exclusion of all annoyance, that is very
+enviable.
+
+The library appears to be kept up in excellent style, and in a manner
+to give full effect to its liberal regulations, which permit the use
+of every volume in the collection to all the earth. The wandering
+scholar at distance from his own learned cell, and the idle reader for
+mere amusement, may alike indulge their bookish propensities here,
+with exactly the same facilities that are accorded to the students of
+the college. The librarians or their deputies are ready to deliver to
+them any work they ask for, with the light and reasonable condition
+annexed that the reader shall accompany the person who is to find the
+volume or volumes required, and assist in conveying them to the spot
+which he has selected for his place of study.
+
+The long table which stretches from the centre under the doom, across
+the transepts of the cross, was crowded with young men when we were
+there, who really seemed most perfectly in earnest in their
+occupation--gazing on the volumes before them "with earnest looks
+intent," even while a large party swept past them to examine a
+curious model of Rome placed at the extremity of one of the transepts.
+A rigorous silence, however, is enjoined in this portion of the
+apartments; so that even the ladies were obliged to postpone their
+questions and remarks till they had passed out of it.
+
+After looking at splendid editions, rare copies, and so forth, our
+friend led us to some small rooms, fitted up with cases for the
+especial protection under lock and key of the manuscripts of the
+collection. Having admired the spotless vellum of some, and the fair
+penmanship of others, a thin morocco-bound volume was put into my
+hands, which looked like a young lady's collection of manuscript
+waltzes. This was the copy-book of the Dauphin, father of the
+much-regretted Duke de Bourgogne, and grandfather of Louis Quinze.
+
+The characters were evidently written with great care. Each page
+contained a moral axiom, and all of them more or less especially
+applicable to a royal pupil. There was one of these which I thought
+might be particularly useful to all such at the present day: it was
+entitled, in large letters--
+
+ SE MOQUEUR DE LIBELLES
+
+--the superfluous U being erased by a dash of the master's pen. Then
+followed, in extremely clear and firm characters, these lines:--
+
+ Si de vos actions la satyre réjoue,
+ Feignez adroitement de ne la pas ouïr:
+ Qui relève une injure, il semble qu'il l'avoue;
+ Qui la scait mépriser, la fait évanouir.
+
+ L LOUIS LOUIS LOUIS LOUIS
+
+In one of these smaller rooms hangs the portrait of a negress in the
+dress of a nun. It has every appearance of being a very old painting,
+and our friend M. C*** told us that a legend had been ever
+attached to it, importing that it was the portrait of a daughter of
+Mary Queen of Scots, born before she left France for Scotland. What
+could have originated such a very disagreeable piece of scandal, it is
+difficult to imagine; but I can testify that all the internal evidence
+connected with it is strong against its truth, for no human
+countenance can well be conceived which would show less family
+likeness to our lovely and unfortunate northern queen than does that
+of this grim sister.
+
+From the library of Ste. Geneviève, we went under the same kind escort
+to look at the barbaric but graceful vagaries of St. Etienne du Mont.
+The galleries suspended as if by magic between the pillars of the
+choir, and the spiral staircases leading to them, out of all order as
+they are, must nevertheless be acknowledged as among the lightest and
+most fairy-like constructions in the world. This singular church,
+capricious in its architecture both within and without, is in some
+parts of great antiquity, and was originally built as a chapel of ease
+to the old church of Ste. Geneviève, which stood close beside it, and
+of which the lofty old tower still remains, making part of the college
+buildings. As a proof of the entire dependance of this pretty little
+church upon its mother edifice, it was not permitted to have any
+separate door of its own, the only access to it being through the
+great church. This subsidiary chapel, now dignified into a parish
+church, has at different periods been enlarged and beautified, and has
+again and again petitioned for leave from its superior to have a door
+of its own; but again and again it was refused, and it was not till
+the beginning of the sixteenth century that this modest request was at
+length granted. The great Pascal lies buried in this church.
+
+I was very anxious to give my children a sight of the interior of that
+beautiful but versatile building called, when I first saw it, the
+Pantheon--when I last saw it, Ste. Geneviève, and which is now again
+known to all the world, or at least to that part of it which has been
+fortunate enough to visit Paris since the immortal days, as the
+Pantheon.
+
+We could not, however, obtain an entrance to it; and it is very
+likely that before we shall again find ourselves on its simple and
+severe, but very graceful threshold, it will have again changed its
+vocation, and be restored to the use of the Christian church.--Ainsi
+soit-il!
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVII.
+
+ Little Suppers.--Great Dinners.--Affectation of
+ Gourmandise.--Evil effects of "dining out."--Evening
+ Parties.--Dinners in private under the name of
+ Luncheons.--Late Hours.
+
+
+How I mourn for the departed petits soupers of Paris!... and how far
+are her pompous dinners from being able to atone for their loss! For
+those people, and I am afraid there are many of them, who really and
+literally live to eat, I know that the word "dinner" is the signal and
+symbol of earth's best, and, perhaps, only bliss. For them the
+steaming vapour, the tedious long array, the slow and solemn progress
+of a dîner de quatre services, offers nothing but joy and gladness;
+but what is it to those who only eat to live?
+
+I know no case in which injustice and tyranny are so often practised
+as at the dinner-table. Perhaps twenty people sit down to dinner, of
+whom sixteen would give the world to eat just no more than they like
+and have done with it: but it is known to the Amphitryon that there
+are four heavy persons present whose souls hover over his ragoûts like
+harpies over the feast of Phinæus, and they must not be disturbed, or
+revilings instead of admiration will repay the outlay and the turmoil
+of the banquet.
+
+A tedious, dull play, followed by a long, noisy, and gunpowder-scented
+pantomime, upon the last scene of which your party is determined to
+see the curtain fall; a heavy sermon of an hour long, your pew being
+exactly in front of the preacher; a morning visit from a lady who
+sends her carriage to fetch her boys from school at Wimbleton, and
+comes to entertain you with friendly talk about her servants till it
+comes back;--each of these is hard to bear and difficult to escape;
+but which of them can compare in suffering to a full-blown, stiff,
+stately dinner of three hours long, where the talk is of food, and the
+only relief from this talk is to eat it?... How can you get away? How
+is it possible to find or invent any device that can save you from
+enduring to the end? With cheeks burning from steam and vexation, can
+you plead a sudden faintness? Still less can you dare to tell the real
+truth, and confess that you are dying of disgust and ennui. The match
+is so unfair between the different parties at such a meeting as
+this--the victims so utterly helpless!... And, after all, there is no
+occasion for it. In London there are the clubs and the Clarendon; in
+Paris are Périgord's and Véry's, and a score beside, any one of whom
+could furnish a more perfect dinner than can be found at any private
+mansion whatever, where sufferings are often inflicted on the wretched
+lookers-on very nearly approaching to those necessary for the
+production of the _foie gras_.
+
+Think not, however, that I am inclined in the least degree to affect
+indifference or dislike to an elegant, well-spread table: on the
+contrary, I am disposed to believe that the hours when mortals meet
+together, all equally disposed to enjoy themselves by refreshing the
+spirits, recruiting the strength, and inspiring the wit, with the
+cates and the cups most pleasing to the palate of each, may be
+reckoned, without any degradation to human pride, among the happiest
+hours of life. But this no more resembles the endless crammings of a
+_repas de quatre services_, than a work in four volumes on political
+economy to an epigram in four lines upon the author of it.
+
+In fact, to give you a valuable hint upon the subject, I am persuaded
+that some of the most distinguished gourmets of the age have plunged
+themselves and their disciples into a most lamentable error in this
+matter. They have overdone the thing altogether. Their object is to
+excite the appetite as much as possible, in order to satisfy it as
+largely as possible; and this end is utterly defeated by the means
+used. But I will not dwell on this; neither you nor I are very
+particularly interested in the success either of the French or English
+eaters by profession; we will leave them to study their own business
+and manage it as well as they can.
+
+For the more philosophical enjoyers of the goods the gods provide I
+feel more interest, and I really lament the weakness which leads so
+many of them to follow a fashion which must be so contrary to all
+their ideas of real enjoyment; but, unhappily, it is daily becoming
+more necessary for every man who sits down at a fashionable table to
+begin talking like a cook. They surely mistake the thing altogether.
+This is not the most effectual way of proving the keenness of their
+gourmandise.
+
+In nine cases out of ten, I believe this inordinate passion for good
+eating is pure affectation; and I suspect that many a man, especially
+many a young man, both in Paris and London, would often be glad to eat
+a reasonably good dinner, and then change the air, instead of sitting
+hour after hour, while dishes are brought to his elbow till his head
+aches in shaking it as a negative to the offer of them, were it not
+that it would be so dreadfully bourgeois to confess it.
+
+If, however, on the other hand, an incessant and pertinacious
+"diner-out" should take up the business in good earnest, and console
+himself for the long sessions he endures by really eating on from soup
+to ice, what a heavy penalty does he speedily pay for it! I have lived
+long enough to watch more than one svelte, graceful, elegant young
+man, the glory of the drawing-room, the pride of the Park, the hero of
+Almack's, growing every year rounder and redder; the clear,
+well-opened eye becoming dull and leaden--the brilliant white teeth
+looking "not what they were, but quite the reverse," till the
+noble-looking, animated being, that one half the world was ready to
+love, and the other to envy, sank down into a heavy, clumsy,
+middle-aged gentleman, before half his youth was fairly past; and this
+solely for the satisfaction of continuing to eat every day for some
+hours after he had ceased to be hungry.
+
+It is really a pity that every one beginning this career does not set
+the balance of what he will gain and what he will lose by it fairly
+before him. If this were done, we should probably have much fewer
+theoretical cooks and practical crammers, but many more lively,
+animated table-companions, who might oftener be witty themselves, and
+less often the cause of wit in others.
+
+The fashion for assembling large parties, instead of selecting small
+ones, is on all occasions a grievous injury to social enjoyment. It
+began perhaps in vanity: fine ladies wished to show the world that
+they had "a dear five hundred friends" ready to come at their call.
+But as everybody complains of it as a bore, from Whitechapel to
+Belgrave-square, and from the Faubourg St. Antoine to the Faubourg du
+Roule, vanity would now be likely enough to put a general stop to it,
+were it not that a most disagreeable species of economy prevents it.
+"A large party kills such a prodigious number of birds," as I once
+heard a friend of mine say, when pleading to her husband for
+permission to overflow her dinner-table first, and then her
+drawing-rooms, "that it is the most extravagant thing in the world to
+have a small one." Now this is terrible, because it is true: but, at
+least, those blest with wealth might enjoy the extreme luxury of
+having just as many people about them as they liked, and no more; and
+if they would but be so very obliging as to set the fashion, we all
+know that it would speedily be followed in some mode or other by all
+ranks, till it would be considered as positively mauvais ton to have
+twice as many people in your house as you have chairs for them to sit
+on.
+
+The pleasantest evening parties remaining in Paris, now that such
+delightful little committees as Molière brings together after the
+performance of "L'Ecole des Femmes" can meet no more, are those
+assembled by an announcement made by Madame une Telle to a somewhat
+select circle, that she shall be at home on a certain evening in every
+week, fortnight, or month, throughout the season. This done, nothing
+farther is necessary; and on these evenings a party moderately large
+drop in without ceremony, and depart without restraint. No preparation
+is made beyond a few additional lights; and the albums and portfolios
+in one room, with perhaps a harp or pianoforte in another, give aid,
+if aid be wanted, to the conversation going on in both. Ices, eau
+sucrée, syrup of fruits, and gaufres are brought round, and the party
+rarely remain together after midnight.
+
+This is very easy and agreeable,--incomparably better, no doubt, than
+more crowded and more formal assemblées. Nevertheless, I am so
+profoundly rococo as to regret heartily the passing away of the petits
+soupers, which used to be the favourite scene of enjoyment, and the
+chosen arena for the exhibition of wit, for all the beaux esprits,
+male and female, of Paris.
+
+I was told last spring, in London, that at present it was the parvenus
+only who had incomes unscathed by the stormy times; and that,
+consequently, it was rather elegant than otherwise to _chanter misère_
+upon all occasions. I moreover heard a distinguished confectioner,
+when in conversation with a lady on the subject of a ball-supper,
+declare that "orders were so slack, that he had countermanded a set of
+new ornaments which he had bespoken from Paris."
+
+Such being the case, what an excellent opportunity is the present for
+a little remuement in the style of giving entertainments! Poverty and
+the clubs render fine dinners at once dangerous, difficult, and
+unnecessary; but does it follow that men and women are no more to meet
+round a banqueting table? "Because we are virtuous, shall there be no
+more cakes and ale?"
+
+I have often dreamed, that were I a great lady, with houses and lands,
+and money at will, I would see if I could not break through the
+tyrannous yoke of fashion, often so confessedly galling to the patient
+wearers of it, and, in the place of heavy, endless dinners, which
+often make bankrupt the spirit and the purse, endeavour to bring into
+vogue that prettiest of all inventions for social enjoyment--a real
+supper-table: not a long board, whereat aching limbs and languid eyes
+may yawningly wait to receive from the hand of Mr. Gunter what must
+cost the giver more, and profit the receiver less, than any imaginable
+entertainment of the kind I propose, and which might be spread by an
+establishment as simply monté as that of any gentleman in London.
+
+Then think of the luxury of sitting down at a table neither steaming
+with ragoûts, nor having dyspepsia hid under every cover; where
+neither malignant gout stands by, nor servants swarm and listen to
+every idle word; where you may renew the memory of the sweet strains
+you have just listened to at the opera, instead of sitting upon thorns
+while you know that your favourite overture is in the very act of
+being played! All should be cool and refreshing, nectarine and
+ambrosial,--uncrowded, easy, intimate, and as witty as Englishmen and
+Englishwomen could contrive to make it!
+
+Till this experiment has been fairly made and declared to fail, I will
+never allow that the conversational powers of the women of England
+have been fully proved and found wanting. The wit of Mercury might be
+weighed to earth by the endurance of three long, pompous courses; and
+would it not require spirits lighter and brighter than those of a Peri
+to sustain a woman gaily through the solemn ceremonies of a fine
+dinner?
+
+In truth, the whole arrangement appears to me strangely defective and
+ill-contrived. Let English ladies be sworn to obey the laws of fashion
+as faithfully as they will, they cannot live till eight o'clock in the
+evening without some refreshment more substantial than the first
+morning meal. In honest truth and plain English, they all dine in the
+most unequivocal manner at two or three o'clock; nay, many of those
+who meet their hungry brethren at dinner-parties have taken coffee or
+tea before they arrive there. Then what a distasteful, tedious farce
+does the fine dinner become!
+
+Now just utter a "Passe! passe!" and, by a little imaginative
+legerdemain, turn from this needless dinner to such a petit souper as
+Madame de Maintenon gave of yore. Let Fancy paint the contrast; and
+let her take the gayest colours she can find, she cannot make it too
+striking. You must, however, rouse your courage, and strengthen your
+nerves, that they may not quail before this fearful word--SUPPER. In
+truth, the sort of shudder I have seen pass over the countenances of
+some fashionable men when it is pronounced may have been natural and
+unaffected enough; for who that has been eating in despite of nature
+from eight to eleven can find anything _appétissant_ in this word
+"supper" uttered at twelve.
+
+But if we could persuade Messieurs nos Maîtres, instead of injuring
+their health by the long fast which now precedes their dinner, during
+which they walk, talk, ride, drive, read, play billiards, yawn--nay,
+even sleep, to while away the time, and to accumulate, as it were, an
+appetite of inordinate dimensions;--if, instead of this, they would
+for one season try the experiment of dining at five o'clock, and
+condescend afterwards to permit themselves to be agreeable in the
+drawing-room, they would find their wit sparkle brighter than the
+champagne at their supper-tables, and moreover their mirrors would pay
+them the prettiest compliments in the world before they had tried the
+change for a fortnight.
+
+But, alas! all this is very idle speculation; for I am not a great
+lady, and have no power whatever to turn dull dinners into gay
+suppers, let me wish it as much as I may.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVIII.
+
+ Hôpital des Enfans Trouvés.--Its doubtful
+ advantages.--Story of a Child left there.
+
+
+Like diligent sight-seers, as we are, we have been to visit the
+hospital for les Enfans Trouvés. I had myself gone over every part of
+the establishment several years before, but to the rest of my party it
+was new--and certainly there is enough of strangeness in the spectacle
+to repay a drive to the Rue d'Enfer. Our kind friend and physician,
+Dr. Mojon, who by the way is one of the most amiable men and most
+skilful physicians in Paris, was the person who introduced us; and his
+acquaintance with the visiting physician, who attended us round the
+rooms, enabled us to obtain much interesting information. But, alas!
+it seems as if every question asked on this subject could only elicit
+a painful answer. The charity itself, noble as it is in extent, and
+admirable for the excellent order which reigns throughout every
+department of it, is, I fear, but a very doubtful good. If it tend, as
+it doubtless must do, to prevent the unnatural crime of infanticide,
+it leads directly to one hardly less hateful in the perpetration, and
+perhaps more cruel in its result,--namely, that of abandoning the
+creature whom nature, unless very fearfully distorted, renders dearer
+than life. Nor is it the least melancholy part of the speculation to
+know that one fourth of the innocent creatures, who are deposited at
+the average rate of above twenty each day, die within the first year
+of their lives. But this, after all, perhaps is no very just cause of
+lamentation: one of the sisters of charity who attend at the hospital
+told me, in reply to an inquiry respecting the education of these
+immortal but unvalued beings, that the charity extended not its cares
+beyond preserving their animal life and health--that no education
+whatever was provided for them, and that, unless some lucky and most
+rare accident occurred to change their destiny, they generally grew up
+in very nearly the same state as the animals bred upon the farms which
+received them.
+
+Peasants come on fixed days--two or three times a week, I believe--to
+receive the children who appear likely to live, as nurslings; and they
+convey them into the country, sometimes to a great distance from
+Paris, partly for the sake of a consideration in money which they
+receive, but chiefly for the value of their labour.
+
+It is a singular fact, that during the years which immediately
+followed the revolution, the number of children deposited at the
+hospital was greatly diminished; but, among those deposited, the
+proportion of deaths was still more greatly increased. In 1797, for
+instance, 3,716 children were received, 3,108 of whom died.
+
+I have lately heard a story, of which a child received at this
+hospital is in some sort the heroine; and as I thought it sufficiently
+interesting to insert in my note-book, I am tempted to transcribe it
+for you. The circumstances occurred during the period which
+immediately followed the first revolution; but the events were merely
+domestic, and took no colour from the times.
+
+M. le Comte de G*** was a nobleman of quiet and retired habits,
+whom delicate health had early induced to quit the service, the court,
+and the town. He resided wholly at a paternal chateau in Normandy,
+where his forefathers had resided before him too usefully and too
+unostentatiously to have suffered from the devastating effects of the
+revolution. The neighbours, instead of violating their property, had
+protected it; and in the year 1799, when my story begins, the count
+with his wife and one little daughter were as quietly inhabiting the
+mansion his ancestors had inhabited before him, as if it stood on
+English soil.
+
+It happened, during that year, that the wife of a peasant on his
+estate, who had twice before made a journey to Paris, to take a
+nursling from among the enfans trouvés, again lost a new-born baby,
+and again determined upon supplying its place from the hospital. It
+seemed that the poor woman was either a bad nurse or a most unlucky
+one; for not only had she lost three of her own, but her two
+foster-children also.
+
+Of this excursion, however, she prophesied a better result; for the
+sister of charity, when she placed in her arms the baby now consigned
+to her care, assured her it was the loveliest and most promising child
+she had seen deposited during ten years of constant attendance among
+the enfans trouvés. Nor were her hopes disappointed: the little Alexa
+(for such was the name pinned on her dress) was at five years old so
+beautiful, so attractive, so touching, with her large blue eyes and
+dark chesnut curls, that she was known and talked of for a league
+round Pont St. Jacques. M. and Madame de G***, with their little
+girl, never passed the cottage without entering to look at and caress
+the lovely child.
+
+Isabeau de G*** was just three years older than the little
+foundling; but a most close alliance subsisted between them. The young
+heiress, with all the pride of a juvenile senior, delighted in nothing
+so much as in extending her patronage and protection to the pretty
+Alexa; and the forsaken child gave her in return the _prémices_ of
+her warm heart's fondness.
+
+No Sunday evening ever passed throughout the summer without seeing all
+the village assembled under an enormous lime-tree, that grew upon a
+sort of platform in front of the primitive old mansion, with a
+pepper-box at each corner, dignified with the title of Château
+Tourelles.
+
+The circular bench which surrounded this giant tree afforded a
+resting-place for the old folks;--the young ones danced on the green
+before them--and the children rolled on the grass, and made garlands
+of butter-cups, and rosaries of daisies, to their hearts' content. On
+these occasions it was of custom immemorial that M. le Comte and
+Madame la Comtesse, with as many offspring as they were blessed
+withal, should walk down the strait pebbled walk which led from the
+chateau to the tree exactly as the clock struck four, there to remain
+for thirty minutes and no longer, smiling, nodding, and now and then
+gossiping a little, to all the poor bodies who chose to approach them.
+
+Of late years, Mademoiselle Isabeau had established a custom which
+shortened the time of her personal appearance before the eyes of her
+future tenants to somewhat less than one-sixth of the allotted time;
+for five minutes never elapsed after the little lady reached the tree,
+before she contrived to slip her tiny hand out of her mother's, and
+pounce upon the little Alexa, who, on her side, had long learned to
+turn her beautiful eyes towards the chateau the moment she reached the
+ground, nor removed them till they found Isabeau's bright face to rest
+upon instead. As soon as she had got possession of her pet, the young
+lady, who had not perhaps altogether escaped spoiling, ran off with
+her, without asking leave of any, and enjoyed, either in the
+aristocratic retirement of her own nursery, or her own play-room or
+her own garden, the love, admiration, and docile obedience of her
+little favourite.
+
+But if this made a fête for Isabeau, it was something dearer still to
+Alexa. It was during these Sabbath hours that the poor child learned
+to be aware that she knew a great many more wonderful things than
+either Père Gautier or Mère Françoise. She learned to read--she
+learned to speak as good French as Isabeau or her Parisian governess;
+she learned to love nothing so well as the books, and the pianoforte,
+and the pictures, and the flowers of her pretty patroness; and,
+unhappily, she learned also to dislike nothing so much as the dirty
+cottage and cross voice of Père Gautier, who, to say truth, did little
+else but scold the poor forsaken thing through every meal of the week,
+and all day long on a Sunday.
+
+Things went on thus without a shadow of turning till Alexa attained
+her tenth, and Isabeau her thirteenth year. At this time the summer
+Sunday evenings began to be often tarnished by the tears of the
+foundling as she opened her heart to her friend concerning the
+sufferings she endured at home. Père Gautier scolded more than ever,
+and Mère Françoise expected her to do the work of a woman;--in short,
+every day that passed made her more completely, utterly, hopelessly
+wretched; and at last she threw her arms round the neck of Isabeau,
+and told her so, adding, in a voice choked with sobs, "that she wished
+... that she wished ... she could die!"
+
+They were sitting together on a small couch in the young heiress's
+play-room when this passionate avowal was made. The young lady
+disengaged herself from the arms of the weeping child, and sat for a
+few moments in deep meditation. "Sit still in this place, Alexa," she
+said at length, "till I return to you;" and having thus spoken, with
+an air of unusual gravity she left the room.
+
+Alexa was so accustomed to show implicit obedience to whatever her
+friend commanded, that she never thought of quitting the place where
+she was left, though she saw the sun set behind the hills through a
+window opposite to her, and then watched the bright horizontal beams
+fading into twilight, and twilight vanishing in darkness. It was
+strange, she thought, for her to be at the chateau at night; but
+Mademoiselle Isabeau had bade her sit there, and it must be right.
+Weary with watching, however, she first dropped her head upon the arm
+of the sofa, then drew her little feet up to it, and at last fell fast
+asleep. How long she lay there my story does not tell; but when she
+awoke, it was suddenly and with a violent start, for she heard the
+voice of Madame de G*** and felt the blaze of many lights upon
+her eyes. In another instant, however, they were sheltered from the
+painful light in the bosom of her friend.
+
+Isabeau, her eyes sparkling with even more than their usual
+brightness, her colour raised, and out of breath with haste and
+eagerness, pressed her fondly to her heart, and covered her curls with
+kisses; then, having recovered the power of speaking, she exclaimed,
+"Look up, my dear Alexa! You are to be my own sister for evermore:
+papa and mamma have said it. Cross Père Gautier has consented to give
+you up; and Mère Françoise is to have little Annette Morneau to live
+with her."
+
+How this had all been arranged it is needless to repeat, though the
+eager supplication of the daughter and the generous concessions of the
+parents made a very pretty scene as I heard it described; but I must
+not make my story too long. To avoid this, I will now slide over six
+years, and bring you to a fine morning in the year 1811, when Isabeau
+and Alexa, on returning from a ramble in the village, found Madame de
+G*** with an open letter in her hand, and an air of unusual
+excitement in her manner.
+
+"Isabeau, my dear child," she said, "your father's oldest friend, the
+Vicomte de C***, is returned from Spain. They are come to pass a
+month at V----; and this letter is to beg your father and me to bring
+you to them immediately, for they were in the house when you were
+born, my child, and they love you as if you were their own. Your
+father is gone to give orders about horses for to-morrow. Alexa dear,
+what will you do without us?"
+
+"Cannot Alexa go too, mamma?" said Isabeau.
+
+"Not this time, my dear: they speak of having their chateau filled
+with guests."
+
+"Oh, dearest Isabeau! do not stand to talk about me; you know I do not
+love strangers: let me help you to get everything ready."
+
+The party set off the next morning, and Alexa, for the first time
+since she became an inhabitant of Château Tourelles, was left without
+Isabeau, and with no other companion than their stiff governess; but
+she rallied her courage, and awaited their return with all the
+philosophy she could muster.
+
+Time and the hour wear through the longest fortnight, and at the end
+of this term the trio returned again. The meeting of the two friends
+was almost rapturous: Monsieur and Madame had the air of being
+_parfaitement contents_, and all things seemed to go on as usual.
+Important changes, however, had been decided on during this visit. The
+Vicomte de C. had one son. He is the hero of my story, so believe him
+at once to be a most charming personage in all ways--and in fact he
+was so. A marriage between him and Isabeau had been proposed by his
+father, and cordially agreed to by hers; but it was decided between
+them that the young people should see something more of each other
+before this arrangement was announced to them, for both parents felt
+that the character of their children deserved and demanded rather more
+deference to their inclinations that was generally thought necessary
+in family compacts of this nature.
+
+The fortnight had passed amidst much gaiety: every evening brought
+waltzing and music; Isabeau sang _à ravir_; but as there were three
+married ladies at the chateau who proclaimed themselves to be
+unwearying waltzers, young Jules, who was constrained to do the
+honours of his father's house, had never found an opportunity to dance
+with Isabeau excepting for the last waltz, on the last evening; and
+then there never were seen two young people waltzing together with
+more awkward restraint.
+
+Madame de G***, however, fancied that he had listened to
+Isabeau's songs with pleasure, and moreover observed to Monsieur son
+Mari that it was impossible he should not think her beautiful.
+
+Madame was quite right--Jules did think her daughter beautiful: he
+thought, too, that her voice was that of a syren, and that it would be
+easy for him to listen to her till he forgot everything else in the
+world.
+
+I would not be so abrupt had I more room; but as it is necessary to
+hasten over the ground, I must tell you at once that Isabeau, on her
+side, was much in the same situation. But as a young lady should never
+give her heart anywhere till she is asked, and in France not before
+her husband has politely expressed his wish to be loved as he leads
+her to her carriage from the altar, Isabeau took especial good care
+that nobody should find out the indiscretion her feelings had
+committed, and having not only a mind of considerable power, but also
+great confidence and some pride in her own strength, she felt little
+fear but that she should be able both to conceal and conquer a passion
+so every way unauthorised.
+
+Now it unfortunately happened that Jules de C. was, unlike the
+generality of his countrymen, extremely romantic;--but he had passed
+seven years in Spain, which may in some degree excuse it. His
+education, too, had been almost wholly domestic: he knew little of
+life except from books, and he had learned to dread, as the most
+direful misfortune that could befall him, the becoming enamoured of,
+and perhaps marrying, a woman who loved him not.
+
+Soon after the departure of Isabeau and her parents, the vicomte
+hinted to his son that he thought politeness required a return of the
+visit of the de G*** family; and as both himself and his lady
+were _un peu incommodés_ by some malady, real or supposititious, he
+conceived that it would be right that he, Jules, should present
+himself at Château Tourelles to make their excuses. The heart of Jules
+gave a prodigious leap; but it was not wholly a sensation of pleasure:
+he felt afraid of Isabeau,--he was afraid of loving her,--he
+remembered the cold and calm expression of countenance with which she
+received his farewell--his trembling farewell--at the door of the
+carriage. Yet still he accepted the commission; and in ten days after
+the return of the de G*** family, Jules de C. presented himself
+before them. His reception by the comte and his lady was just what may
+be imagined,--all kindness and cordiality of welcome. That of Isabeau
+was constrained and cold. She turned a little pale, but then she
+blushed again; and the shy Jules saw nothing but the beauty of the
+blush--was conscious only of the ceremonious curtsy, and the cold
+"Bonjour, Monsieur Jules." As for Alexa, her only feeling was that of
+extreme surprise. How could it be that Isabeau had seen a person so
+very graceful, handsome and elegant, and yet never say one word to her
+about him!... Isabeau must be blind, insensible, unfeeling, not to
+appreciate better such a being as that. Such was the effect produced
+by the appearance of Jules on the mind of Alexa,--the beautiful, the
+enthusiastic, the impassioned Alexa. From that moment a most cruel
+game of cross purposes began to be played at Château Tourelles. Alexa
+commenced by reproaching Isabeau for her coldness, and ended by
+confessing that she heartily wished herself as cold. Jules ceased not
+to adore Isabeau, but every day strengthened his conviction that she
+could never love him; and Isabeau, while every passing hour showed
+more to love in Jules, only drew from thence more reasons for
+combating and conquering the flame that inwardly consumed her.
+
+There could not be a greater contrast between two girls, both good,
+than there was both in person and mind between these two young
+friends. Isabeau was the prettiest little brunette in France--et c'est
+beaucoup dire: Alexa was, perhaps, the loveliest blonde in the world.
+Isabeau, with strong feelings, had a command over herself that never
+failed: in a good cause, she could have perished at the stake without
+a groan. Alexa could feel, perhaps, almost as strongly as her friend;
+but to combat those feelings was beyond her power: she might have died
+to show her love, but not to conceal it; and had some fearful doom
+awaited her, she would not have lived to endure it.
+
+Such being the character and position of the parties, you will easily
+perceive the result. Jules soon perceived the passion with which he
+had inspired the young and beautiful Alexa, and his heart, wounded by
+the uniform reserve of Isabeau, repaid her with a warmth of gratitude,
+which though not love, was easily mistaken for it by both the innocent
+rivals. Poor Jules saw that it was, and already felt his honour
+engaged to ratify hopes which he had never intended to raise.
+Repeatedly he determined to leave the chateau, and never to see either
+of its lovely inmates more; but whenever he hinted at such an
+intention, M. and Madame de G*** opposed it in such a manner that
+it seemed impossible to persevere in it. They, good souls, were
+perfectly satisfied with the aspect of affairs: Isabeau was perhaps a
+little pale, but lovelier than ever; and the eyes of Jules were so
+often fixed upon her, that there could be no doubt as to his feelings.
+They were very right,--yet, alas! they were very wrong too: but the
+situation of Alexa put her so completely out of all question of
+marriage with a gentleman _d'une haute naissance_, that they never
+even remembered that she too was constantly with Jules.
+
+About three weeks had passed in this mischief-working manner, when
+Isabeau, who clearly saw traces of suffering on the handsome face of
+poor Jules, believing firmly that it arose from the probable
+difficulty of obtaining his high-born father's consent to his marriage
+with a foundling, determined to put every imaginable means in
+requisition to assist him.
+
+Alexa had upon her breast a mark, evidently produced by gunpowder. Her
+nurse, and everybody else who had seen it, declared it to be perfectly
+shapeless, and probably a failure from the awkwardness of some one who
+had intended to impress a cipher there; but Isabeau had a hundred
+times examined it, and as often declared it to be a coronet. Hitherto
+this notion had only been a source of mirth to both of them, but now
+it became a theme of incessant and most anxious meditation to Isabeau.
+She remembered to have heard that when a child is deposited at the
+Foundling Hospital of Paris, everything, whether clothes or token,
+which is left with it, is preserved and registered, with the name and
+the date of the reception, in order, if reclamation be made within a
+certain time, that all assistance possible shall be given for the
+identification. What space this "certain time" included Isabeau knew
+not, but she fancied that it could not be less than twenty years; and
+with this persuasion she determined to set about an inquiry that might
+at least lead to the knowledge either that some particular tokens had
+been left with Alexa, or that there were none.
+
+With this sort of feverish dream working in her head, Isabeau rose
+almost before daylight one morning, and escaping the observation of
+every one, let herself out by the door of a salon which opened on the
+terrace, and hastened to the abode of Mère Françoise. It was some time
+before she could make the old woman understand her object; but when
+she did, she declared herself ready to do all and everything
+Mademoiselle desired for her "dear baby," as she persisted to call the
+tall, the graceful, the beautiful Alexa.
+
+As Isabeau had a good deal of trouble to make her plans and projects
+clearly understood to Mère Françoise, it will be better not to relate
+particularly what passed between them: suffice it to say, that by dint
+of much repetition and a tolerably heavy purse, Françoise at last
+agreed to set off for Paris on the following morning, "without telling
+a living soul what for." Such were the conditions enforced; which were
+the more easily adhered to, because cross Père Gautier had grumbled
+himself into his grave some years before.
+
+On reaching the hospital, Françoise made her demand, "de la part d'une
+grande dame," for any token which they possessed relative to a baby
+taken ... &c. &c. &c. The first answer she received was, that the time
+of limitation for such inquiries had long expired; and she was on the
+point of leaving the bureau, all hope of intelligence abandoned, when
+an old sister of charity who chanced to be there for some message from
+the superior, and who had listened to her inquiries and all the
+particulars thus rehearsed, stopped her by saying, that it was odd
+enough two great ladies should send to the hospital with inquiries for
+the same child. "But, however," she added, "it can't much matter now
+to either of them, for the baby died before it was a twelvemonth old."
+
+"Died!" screamed Françoise: "why, I saw her but four days ago, and a
+more beautiful creature the sun never shone upon."
+
+An explanation ensued, not very clear in all its parts, for there had
+evidently been some blunder; but it plainly appeared, that within a
+year after the child was sent to nurse, inquiries had been made at the
+hospital for a baby bearing the singular name of Alexa, and stating
+that various articles were left with her expressly to ensure the
+power of recognition. An address to a peasant in the country had been
+given to the persons who had made these inquiries, and application was
+immediately made to her: but she stated that the baby she had received
+from the hospital at the time named had died three months after she
+took it; but what name she had received with it she could not
+remember, as she called it Marie, after the baby she had lost. It was
+evident from this statement that a mistake had been made between the
+two women, who had each taken a female foundling into the country on
+the same day.
+
+It was more easy, however, to hit the blunder than to repair it.
+Communication was immediately held with some of the _chefs_ of the
+establishment; who having put in action every imaginable contrivance
+to discover any traces which might remain of the persons who had
+before inquired for the babe named Alexa, at length got hold of a man
+who had often acted as commissionnaire to the establishment, and who
+said he remembered _about that time_ to have taken letters from the
+hospital to a fine hôtel near the Elysée Bourbon.
+
+This man was immediately conveyed to the Elysée Bourbon, and without
+hesitation pointed out the mansion to which he had been sent. It was
+inhabited by an English gentleman blessed with a family of twelve
+children, and who assured the gentleman entrusted with the inquiry
+that he had not only never deposited any of his children at the Enfans
+Trouvés, but that he could not give them the slightest assistance in
+discovering whether any of his predecessors in that mansion had done
+so. Discouraged, but not chilled in the ardour of his pursuit, the
+worthy gentleman proceeded to the proprietor of the hôtel: he had
+recently purchased it; from him he repaired to the person from whom he
+had bought it. He was only an agent; but at last, by means of
+indefatigable exertion during three days, he discovered that the
+individual who must have inhabited the hôtel when these messages were
+stated to have been sent thither from the Enfans Trouvés was a Russian
+nobleman of high rank, who, it was believed, was now residing at St.
+Petersburg. His name and title, however, were both remembered; and
+these, with a document stating all that was known of the transaction,
+were delivered to Mère Françoise, who, hardly knowing if she had
+succeeded or failed in her mission, returned to her young employer
+within ten days of the time she left her.
+
+Isabeau, generously as her noble heart beat at learning what she could
+not but consider as a favourable report of her embassy, did feel
+nevertheless something like a pang when she remembered to what this
+success would lead. But she mastered it, and, with all the energy of
+her character, instantly set to work to pursue her enterprise to the
+end. It was certainly a relief to her when Jules, after passing a
+month of utter misery in the society of the woman he adored, took his
+leave. The old people were still perfectly satisfied: it was not the
+young man's business, they said, to break through the reserve which
+his parents had enjoined, and a few days would doubtless bring letters
+from them which would finally settle the business.
+
+Alexa saw him depart with an aching heart; but she believed that he
+was returning home only to ask his father's consent to their union.
+Isabeau fed her hopes, for she too believed that the young man's heart
+was given to Alexa. During this time Isabeau concealed her hope of
+discovering the parents of the foundling from all. Day after day wore
+away, and brought no tidings from Jules. The hope of Alexa gave way
+before this cruel silence. The circumstances of her birth, which
+rankled at her heart more deeply than even her friend imagined, now
+came before her in a more dreadful shape than ever. Sin, shame, and
+misery seemed to her the only _dot_ she had to bring in marriage, and
+her mind brooded over this terrible idea till it overpowered every
+other; her love seemed to sink before it, and, after a sleepless
+night of wretched meditation, she determined never to bring disgrace
+upon a husband--she heroically determined never to marry.
+
+As she was opening her heart on this sad subject to Isabeau, and
+repeating to her with great solemnity the resolution she had taken, a
+courier covered with dust galloped up to the door of the chateau.
+Isabeau instantly suspected the truth, but could only say as she
+kissed the fair forehead of the foundling, "Look up, my Alexa!... You
+shall be happy at least."
+
+Before any explanation of these words could even be asked for, a
+splendid travelling equipage stopped at the door, and, according to
+the rule in all such cases, a beautiful lady descended from it, handed
+out by a gentleman of princely rank: in brief, for I cannot tell you
+one half his titles and honours, or one quarter of the circumstances
+which had led to the leaving their only child at the Hôpital des
+Enfans Trouvés, Alexa was proved to be the sole and most lawful idol
+and heiress of this noble pair. The wonder and joy, and all that, you
+must guess: but poor Isabeau!... O! that all this happiness could but
+have fallen upon them before she had seen Jules de C----!
+
+On the following morning, while Alexa, seated between her parents, was
+telling them all she owed to Isabeau, the door of the apartment
+opened and the young Jules entered. This was the moment at which the
+happy girl felt the value of all she had gained with the most full and
+perfect consciousness of felicity. Her bitter humiliation was changed
+to triumph; but Jules saw it not--he heard not the pompous titles of
+her father as she proudly rehearsed them, but, in a voice choking with
+emotion, he stammered out--"Où donc est Isabeau?"
+
+Alexa was too happy, too gloriously happy, to heed his want of
+politeness, but gaily exclaiming, "Pardon, maman!" she left the room
+to seek for her friend.
+
+Jules was indeed come on no trifling errand. His father, having waited
+in vain for some expression of his feelings respecting the charming
+bride he intended for him, at last informed him of his engagement, for
+the purpose of discovering whether the young man were actually made of
+ice or no. On this point he was speedily satisfied; for the
+intelligence robbed the timid lover of all control over his feelings,
+and the father had the great pleasure of perceiving that his son was
+as distractedly in love as he could possibly desire. As to his doubts
+and his fears, the experienced vicomte laughed them to scorn. "Only
+let her see you as you look now, Jules," said the proud father, "and
+she will not disobey her parents, I will answer for it. Go to her, my
+son, and set your heart at ease at once."
+
+With a courage almost as desperate as that which leads a man firm and
+erect to the scaffold, Jules determined to follow this advice, and
+arrived at Château Tourelles without having once thought of poor Alexa
+and her tell-tale eyes by the way;--nay, even when he saw her before
+him, his only sensation was that of impatient agony that the moment
+which was to decide upon his destiny was still delayed.
+
+As Alexa opened the door to seek her friend, she appeared, and they
+returned together. At the unexpected sight of Jules, Isabeau lost her
+self-possession, and sank nearly fainting on a chair. In an instant he
+was at her feet. "Isabeau!" he exclaimed, in a voice at once solemn
+and impassioned--"Isabeau! I adore you--speak my fate in one
+word!--Isabeau! can you love me?"
+
+The noble strangers had already left the room. They perceived that
+there was some knotty point to be explained upon which their presence
+could throw no light. They would have led their daughter with them,
+but she lingered. "One moment ... and I will follow you," she said.
+Then turning to her almost fainting friend, she exclaimed, "You love
+him, Isabeau!--and it is I who have divided you!"... She seized a
+hand of each, and joining them together, bent her head upon them and
+kissed them both. "God for ever bless you, perfect friend!... I am
+still too happy!... Believe me, Jules,--believe me, Isabeau,--I am
+happy--oh! too happy!" The arms that were thrown round them both,
+relaxed as she uttered these words, and she fell to the ground.
+
+Alexa never spoke again. She breathed faintly for a few hours, and
+then expired,--the victim of intense feelings, too long and too
+severely tried.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+This story, almost verbally as I have repeated it to you, was told me
+by a lady who assured me that she knew all the leading facts to be
+true; though she confessed that she was obliged to pass rather
+slightly over some of the details, from not remembering them
+perfectly. If the catastrophe be indeed true, I think it may be
+doubted whether the poor Alexa died from sorrow or from joy.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIX.
+
+ Procès Monstre.--Dislike of the Prisoners to the ceremony
+ of Trial.--Société des Droits de l'Homme.--Names given to
+ the Sections.--Kitchen and Nursery Literature.--Anecdote of
+ Lagrange.--Republican Law.
+
+
+It is a long time since I have permitted a word to escape me about the
+trial of trials; but do not therefore imagine that we are as free from
+it and its daily echo as I have kindly suffered you to be.
+
+It really appears to me, after all, that this monster trial is only
+monstrous because the prisoners do not like to be tried. There may
+perhaps have been some few legal incongruities in the manner of
+proceeding, arising very naturally from the difficulty of ascertaining
+exactly what the law is, in a country so often subjected to revolution
+as this has been. I own I have not yet made out completely to my own
+satisfaction, whether these gentry were accused in the first instance
+of high treason, or whether the whole proceedings rest upon an
+indictment for a breach of the peace. It is however clear enough,
+Heaven knows, both from evidence and from their own avowals, that if
+they were not arraigned for high treason, many of them were
+unquestionably guilty of it; and as they have all repeatedly
+proclaimed that it was their wish to stand or fall together, I confess
+that I see nothing very monstrous in treating them all as traitors.
+
+It is only within these few last hours that I have been made to
+understand what object these simultaneous risings in April 1834 had in
+view. The document which has been now put into my hands appeared, I
+believe, in all the papers; but it was to me, at least, one of the
+thousand things that the eye glances over without taking the trouble
+of communicating to the mind what it finds. I will not take it for
+granted, however, that you are as ignorant or unobservant as myself,
+and therefore I shall not recite to you the evidence I have been just
+reading to prove that the union calling itself "La Société des Droits
+de l'Homme" was in fact the mainspring of the whole enterprise; but in
+case the expressive titles given by the central committee of this
+association to its different sections should have escaped you, I will
+transcribe them here,--or rather a part of them, for they are numerous
+enough to exhaust your patience, and mine too, were I to give them
+all. Among them, I find as pet and endearing names for their separate
+bands of employés the following: Section Marat, Section Robespierre,
+Section Quatre-vingt-treize, Section des Jacobins; Section de Guerre
+aux Châteaux--Abolition de la Propriété--Mort aux Tyrans--Des
+Piques--Canon d'Alarme--Tocsin--Barricade St. Méri,--and one which
+when it was given was only prophetic--Section de l'Insurrection de
+Lyon. These speak pretty plainly what sort of REFORM these men were
+preparing for France; and the trying those belonging to them who were
+taken with arms in their hands in open rebellion against the existing
+government, as traitors, cannot very justly, I think, be stigmatised
+as an act of tyranny, or in any other sense as a monstrous act.
+
+The most monstrous part of the business is their conceiving (as the
+most conspicuous among them declare they do) that their refusing to
+plead, or, as they are pleased to call it, "refusing to take any part
+in the proceedings," was, or ought to be, reason sufficient for
+immediately stopping all such proceedings against them. These persons
+have been caught, with arms in their hands, in the very fact of
+enticing their fellow-citizens into overt acts of rebellion; but
+because they do not choose to answer when they are called upon, the
+court ordained to try them are stigmatised as monsters and assassins
+for not dismissing them untried!
+
+If this is to succeed, we shall find the fashion obtain vogue amongst
+us, more rapidly than any of Madame Leroy's. Where is the murderer
+arraigned for his life who would not choose to make essay of so easy a
+method of escaping from the necessity of answering for his crime?
+
+The trick is well imagined, and the degree of grave attention with
+which its availability is canvassed--out of doors at least--furnishes
+an excellent specimen of the confusion of intellect likely to ensue
+from confusion of laws amidst a population greatly given to the study
+of politics.
+
+Never was there a finer opportunity for revolution and anarchy to take
+a lesson than the present. It is, I think, impossible for a mere
+looker-on, unbiassed by party or personal feelings of any kind, to
+deny that the government of Louis-Philippe is acting at this trying
+juncture with consummate courage, wisdom, and justice: but it is
+equally impossible not to perceive what revolution and revolt have
+done towards turning lawful power into tyranny. This is and ever must
+be inevitable wherever there is a hope existing that the government
+which follows the convulsion shall be permanent.
+
+Fresh convulsions may arise--renewed tumult, destruction of property
+and risk of life may ensue; but at last it must happen that some
+strong hand shall seize the helm, and keep the reeling vessel to her
+stays, without heeding whether the grasp he has got of her be taken
+in conformity to received tactics or not.
+
+Hardly a day passes that I do not hear of some proof of increased
+vigour on the part of the present government of France; and though I,
+for one, am certainly very far from approving the public acts which
+have given the present dynasty its power, I cannot but admire the
+strength and ability with which it is sustained.
+
+The example, however, can avail but little to the legitimate monarchs
+who still occupy the thrones their forefathers occupied before them.
+No legitimate sovereign, possessing no power beyond what
+long-established law and precedent have given him, could dare show
+equal boldness. A king chosen in a rebellion is alone capable of
+governing rebels: and happy is it for the hot-headed jeunes gens of
+France that they have chanced to hit upon a prince who is neither a
+parvenu nor a mere soldier! The first would have had no lingering
+kindness at all for the still-remembered glories of the land; and the
+last, instead of trying them by the Chamber of Peers, would have had
+them up by fifties to a drum-head court martial, and probably have
+ordered the most troublesome among them to be picked off by their
+comrades, as an exercise at sharp-shooting, and as a useful example of
+military promptitude and decision.
+
+The present government has indeed many things in its favour. The
+absence of every species of weakness and pusillanimity in the advisers
+of the crown is one; and the outrageous conduct of its enemies is
+another.
+
+It is easy to perceive in the journals, and indeed in all the
+periodical publications which have been hitherto considered as
+belonging to the opposition, a gradual giving way before the
+overwhelming force of expediency. Conciliatory words come dropping in
+to the steady centre from côté droit and from côté gauche; and the
+louder the factious rebels roar around them, the firmer does the
+phalanx in which rests all the real strength of the country knit
+itself together.
+
+The people of France are fully awakened to the feeling which Sheridan
+so strongly expresses when he says, that "the altar of liberty has
+been begrimed at once with blood and mire," and they are disposed to
+look towards other altars for their protection.
+
+All the world are sick of politics in England; and all the world are
+sick of politics in France. It is the same in Spain, the same in
+Italy, the same in Germany, the same in Russia. The quiet and
+peaceably-disposed are wearied, worried, tormented, and almost
+stunned, by the ceaseless jarring produced by the confusion into which
+bad men have contrived to throw all the elements of social life.
+Chaos seems come again--a moral chaos, far worse for the poor animal
+called man than any that a comet's tail could lash the earth into. I
+assure you I often feel the most unfeigned longing to be out of reach
+of every sight and sound which must perforce mix up questions of
+government with all my womanly meditations on lesser things; but the
+necessity _de parler politique_ seems like an evil spirit that follows
+whithersoever you go.
+
+I often think, that among all the revolutions and rumours of
+revolutions which have troubled the earth, there is not one so
+remarkable as that produced on conversation within the last thirty
+years. I speak not, however, only of that important branch of it--"the
+polite conversation of sensible women," but of all the talk from
+garret to cellar throughout the world. Go where you will, it is the
+same; every living soul seems persuaded that it is his or her
+particular business to assist in arranging the political condition of
+Europe.
+
+A friend of mine entered her nursery not long ago, and spied among her
+baby-linen a number of the Westminster Quarterly Review.
+
+"What is this, Betty?" said she.
+
+"It is only a book, ma'am, that John lent me to read," answered the
+maid.
+
+"Upon my word, Betty," replied her mistress, "I think you would be
+much better employed in nursing the child than in reading books which
+you cannot understand."
+
+"It does not hinder me from nursing the child at all," rejoined the
+enlightened young woman, "for I read as the baby lies in my lap; and
+as for understanding it, I don't fear about that, for John says it is
+no more than what it is the duty of everybody to understand."
+
+So political we are, and political we must be--for John says so.
+
+Wherefore I will tell you a little anecdote apropos of the Procès
+Monstre. An English friend of mine was in the Court of Peers the other
+day, when the prisoner Lagrange became so noisy and troublesome that
+it was found necessary to remove him. He had begun to utter in a loud
+voice, which was evidently intended to overpower the proceedings of
+the court, a pompous and inflammatory harangue, accompanied with much
+vehement action. His fellow-prisoners listened, and gazed at him with
+the most unequivocal marks of wondering admiration, while the court
+vainly endeavoured to procure order and silence.
+
+"Remove the prisoner Lagrange!" was at last spoken by the
+president--and the guards proceeded to obey. The orator struggled
+violently, continuing, however, all the time to pour forth his
+rhapsody.
+
+"Yes!" he cried,--"yes, my countrymen! we are here as a sacrifice.
+Behold our bosoms, tyrants! ... plunge your assassin daggers in our
+breasts! we are your victims ... ay, doom us all to death, we are
+ready--five hundred French bosoms are ready to...."
+
+Here he came to a dead stop: his struggles, too, suddenly ceased....
+He had dropped his cap,--the cap which not only performed the
+honourable office of sheltering the exterior of his patriotic head,
+but of bearing within its crown the written product of that head's
+inspired eloquence! It was in vain that he eagerly looked for it
+beneath the feet of his guards; the cap had been already kicked by the
+crowd far beyond his reach, and the bereaved orator permitted himself
+to be led away as quiet as a lamb.
+
+The gentleman who related this circumstance to me added, that he
+looked into several papers the following day, expecting to see it
+mentioned; but he could not find it, and expressed his surprise to a
+friend who had accompanied him into court, and who had also seen and
+enjoyed the jest, that so laughable a circumstance had not been
+noticed.
+
+"That would not do at all, I assure you," replied his friend, who was
+a Frenchman, and understood the politics of the free press perfectly;
+"there is hardly one of them who would not be afraid of making a joke
+of anything respecting _les prévenus d'Avril_."
+
+Before I take my final leave of these precious prévenus, I must give
+you an extract from a curious volume lent me by my kind friend M. J***,
+containing a table of the law reports inserted in the Bulletin of the
+Laws of the Republic. I have found among them ordinances more
+tyrannical than ever despot passed for the purpose of depriving of all
+civil rights his fellow-men; but the one I am about to give you is
+certainly peculiarly applicable to the question of allowing prisoners
+to choose their counsel from among persons not belonging to the
+bar,--a question which has been setting all the hot heads of Paris in
+a flame.
+
+ "_Loi concernant le Tribunal Révolutionnaire du 22
+ Prairial, l'an deuxième de la République Française une et
+ indivisible._
+
+ "La loi donne pour défenseurs aux patriotes calomniés, (the
+ word 'accused' was too harsh to use in the case of these
+ bloody patriots,)--La loi donne pour défenseurs aux
+ patriotes calomniés, des jurés patriotes. Elle n'en accorde
+ point aux conspirateurs."
+
+What would the LIBERALS of Europe have said of King Louis-Philippe,
+had he acted upon this republican principle? If he had, he might
+perhaps have said fairly enough--
+
+ "Cæsar does never wrong but with just cause,"
+
+for they have chosen to take their defence into their own hands; but
+how the pure patriots of l'an deuxième would explain the principle on
+which they acted, it would require a republican to tell.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LX.
+
+ Memoirs of M. de Châteaubriand.--The Readings at
+ L'Abbaye-aux-Bois.--Account of these in the French
+ Newspapers and Reviews.--Morning at the Abbaye to hear a
+ portion of these Memoirs.--The Visit to Prague.
+
+
+In several visits which we have lately made to the ever-delightful
+Abbaye-aux-Bois, the question has been started, as to the possibility
+or impossibility of my being permitted to be present there "aux
+lectures des Mémoires de M. de Châteaubriand."
+
+The apartment of my agreeable friend and countrywoman, Miss Clarke,
+also in this same charming Abbaye, was the scene of more than one of
+these anxious consultations. Against my wishes--for I really was
+hardly presumptuous enough to have hopes--was the fact that these
+lectures, so closely private, yet so publicly talked of and envied,
+were for the present over--nay, even that the gentleman who had been
+the reader was not in Paris. But what cannot zealous kindness effect?
+Madame Récamier took my cause in hand, and ... in a word, a day was
+appointed for me and my daughters to enjoy this greatly-desired
+indulgence.
+
+Before telling you the result of this appointment, I must give you
+some particulars respecting these Memoirs, not so much apropos of
+myself and my flattering introduction to them, as from being more
+interesting in the way of Paris literary intelligence than anything I
+have met with.
+
+The existence of these Memoirs is of course well known in England; but
+the circumstance of their having been read _chez Madame Récamier_, to
+a very select number of the noble author's friends, is perhaps not
+so--at least, not generally; and the extraordinary degree of sensation
+which this produced in the literary world of Paris was what I am quite
+sure you can have no idea of. This is the more remarkable from the
+well-known politics of M. de Châteaubriand not being those of the day.
+The circumstances connected with the reading of these Memoirs, and the
+effect produced on the public by the peep got at them through those
+who were present, have been brought together into a very interesting
+volume, containing articles from most of the literary periodicals of
+France, each one giving to its readers the best account it had been
+able to obtain of these "lectures de l'Abbaye." Among the articles
+thus brought together, are _morceaux_ from the pens of every political
+party in France; but there is not one of them that does not render
+cordial--I might say, fervent homage to the high reputation, both
+literary and political, of the Vicomte de Châteaubriand.
+
+There is a general preface to this volume, from the pen of M. Nisard,
+full of enthusiasm for the subject, and giving an animated and
+animating account of all the circumstances attending the readings, and
+of the different publications respecting them which followed.
+
+It appears that the most earnest entreaties have been very generally
+addressed to M. de Châteaubriand to induce him to publish these
+Memoirs during his lifetime, but hitherto without effect. There is
+something in his reasonings on the subject equally touching and true:
+nevertheless, it is impossible not to lament that one cannot wish for
+a work so every way full of interest, without wishing at the same time
+that one of the most amiable men in the world should be removed out of
+it. All those who are admitted to his circle must, I am very sure,
+most heartily wish never to see any more of his Memoirs than what he
+may be pleased himself to show them: but he has found out a way to
+make the world at large look for his death as for a most agreeable
+event. Notwithstanding all his reasonings, I think he is wrong. Those
+who have seen the whole, or nearly the whole of this work, declare it
+to be both the most important and the most able that he has composed;
+and embracing as it does the most interesting epoch of the world's
+history, and coming from the hand of one who has played so varied and
+distinguished a part in it, we can hardly doubt that it is so.
+
+Of all the different articles which compose the volume entitled
+"Lectures des Mémoires de M. de Châteaubriand," the most interesting
+perhaps (always excepting some fragments from the Memoirs themselves)
+are the preface of M. Nisard, and an extract from the Revue du Midi,
+from the pen of M. de Lavergne. I must indulge you with some short
+extracts from both. M. Nisard says--
+
+"Depuis de longues années, M. de Châteaubriand travaille à ses
+Mémoires, avec le dessein de ne les laisser publier qu'après sa mort.
+Au plus fort des affaires, quand il était ministre, ambassadeur, il
+oubliait les petites et les grandes tracasseries en écrivant quelques
+pages de ce livre de prédilection."... "C'est le livre que M. de
+Châteaubriand aura le plus aimé, et, chose étrange! c'est le livre en
+qui M. de Châteaubriand ne veut pas être glorifié de son vivant."
+
+He then goes on to speak of the manner in which _the readings_
+commenced ... and then says,--"Cette lecture fut un triomphe; ceux qui
+avaient été de la fête nous la racontèrent, à nous qui n'en étions
+pas, et qui déplorions que le salon de Madame Récamier, cette femme
+qui s'est fait une gloire de bonté et de grâce, ne fut pas grand comme
+la plaine de Sunium. La presse littéraire alla demander à l'illustre
+écrivain quelques lignes, qu'elle encadra dans de chaudes apologies:
+il y eut un moment où toute la littérature ne fut que l'annonce et la
+bonne nouvelle d'un ouvrage inédit."
+
+M. Nisard, as he says, "n'était pas de la fête;" but he was admitted
+to a privilege perhaps more desirable still--namely, that of reading
+some portion of this precious MS. in the deep repose of the author's
+own study. He gives a very animated picture of this visit.
+
+"... J'osai demander à M. de Châteaubriand la grace de me recevoir
+quelques heures chez lui, et là, pendant qu'il écrirait ou dicterait,
+de m'abandonner son porte-feuille et de me laisser m'y plonger à
+discretion ... il y consentit. Au jour fixe, j'allai Rue d'Enfer: le
+coeur me battait; je suis encore assez jeune pour sentir des
+mouvemens intérieurs à l'approche d'une telle joie. M. de
+Châteaubriand fit demander son manuscrit. Il y en a trois grands
+porte-feuilles: _ceux-là, nul ne les lui disputera_; ni les
+révolutions, ni les caprices de roi, ne les lui peuvent donner ni
+reprendre.
+
+"Il eut la bonté de me lire les sommaires des chapitres--Lequel
+choisir, lequel préférer? ... je ne l'arrêtais pas dans la lecture, je
+ne disais rien ... enfin il en vint au voyage à Prague. Une grosse et
+sotte interjection me trahit; du fruit défendu c'était la partie la
+plus défendue. Je demandai donc le voyage à Prague. M. de
+Châteaubriand sourit, et me tendait le manuscrit.... Je mets quelque
+vanité à rappeler ces détails, bien que je tienne à ce qu'on sache
+bien que j'ai été encore plus heureux que vain d'une telle faveur;
+mais c'est peut-être le meilleur prix que j'ai reçu encore de quelques
+habitudes de dignité littéraire, et à ce titre il doit m'être pardonné
+de m'en enorgueillir.
+
+"Quand j'eus le précieux manuscrit, je m'accoudai sur la table, et me
+mis a la lecture avec une avidité recueillie.... Quelquefois, à la fin
+des chapitres, regardant par-dessus mes feuilles l'illustre écrivain
+appliqué à son minutieux travail de révision, effaçant, puis, après
+quelque incertitude, écrivant avec lenteur une phrase en surcharge, et
+l'effaçant à moitié écrite, je voyais l'imagination et le sens aux
+prises. Quand, après mes deux heures de délices, amusé, instruit,
+intéressé, transporté, ayant passé du rire aux larmes, et des larmes
+au rire, ayant vu tour à tour, dans sa plus grande naïveté de
+sentimens, le poète, le diplomate, le voyageur, le pèlerin, le
+philosophe, je me suis jeté sur la main de M. de Châteaubriand, et lui
+ai bredouillé quelques paroles de gratitude tendre et profonde: ni lui
+ni moi n'étions gênés, je vous jure;--moi, parce que je donnais cours
+à un sentiment vrai; lui, parce qu'à ce moment-là il voulait bien
+mesurer la valeur de mes louanges sur leur sincérité."
+
+This is, I think, very well _conté_; and as I have myself been _de la
+fête_, and heard read precisely this same admirable _morceau_, _le
+Voyage à Prague_, I can venture to say that the feeling expressed is
+in no degree exaggerated.
+
+"Que puis-je dire maintenant de ces Mémoires?" ... he continues. "Sur
+le voyage à Prague ma plume est gênée; je ne me crois pas le droit de
+trahir le secret de M. de Châteaubriand--mais qui est-ce qui l'ayant
+suivi dans tous les actes de sa glorieuse vie, ne devine pas d'avance,
+sauf les détails secrets, et les milles beautés de rédaction, quelle
+peut être la pensée de cette partie des Mémoires! Qui ne sait à
+merveille qu'on y trouvera la vérité pour tout le monde, douce pour
+ceux qui ont beaucoup perdu et beaucoup souffert, dure pour les
+médiocrités importantes, qui se disputent les ministères et les
+ambassades auprès d'une royauté qui ne peut plus même donner de croix
+d'honneur? Qui est-ce qui ne s'attend à des lamentations sublimes sur
+des infortunes inouïes, à des attendrissemens de coeur sur toutes
+les misères de l'exil; sur le délabrement des palais où gîtent les
+royautés déchues; sur ces longs corridors éclairés par un quinquet à
+chaque bout, comme un corps de garde, ou un cloître; sur ces salles
+des gardes sans gardes; sur ces antichambres sans sièges pour
+s'asseoir; sur ces serviteurs rares, dont un seul fait l'étiquette qui
+autrefois en occupait dix; sur les malheurs toujours plus grands que
+les malheureux, qu'on plaint de loin pour ceux qui les souffrent, et
+de près pour soi-même?... Et puis après la politique vient la poésie;
+après les leçons sévères, les descriptions riantes, les observations
+de voyage, fines, piquantes, comme si le voyageur n'avait pas causé la
+veille avec un vieux roi d'un royaume perdu...."
+
+I have given you this passage because it describes better than I could
+do myself the admirable narrative which I had the pleasure of hearing.
+M. Nisard says much more about it, and with equal truth; but I will
+only add his concluding words--"Voilà le voyage à Prague.... J'y ai
+été remué au plus profond et au meilleur de mon coeur par les choses
+touchantes, et j'ai pleuré sur la légitimité tombée, quoique n'ayant
+jamais compris cet ordre d'idées, et y étant resté, toute ma jeunesse,
+non seulement étranger, mais hostile."
+
+I have transcribed this last observation for the purpose of proving to
+you that the admiration inspired by this work of M. de Châteaubriand's
+is not the result of party feeling, but in complete defiance of it.
+
+In the "Revue de Paris" for March 1834 is an extremely interesting
+article from M. Janin, who was present, I presume, at the readings,
+and who must have been permitted, I think, now and then to peep over
+the shoulder of the reader, with a pencil in his hand, for he gives
+many short but brilliant passages from different parts of the work.
+This gentlemen states, upon what authority he does not say, that
+English speculators have already purchased the work at the enormous
+price of 25,000 francs for each volume. It already consists of twelve
+volumes, which makes the purchase amount to £12,000 sterling,--a very
+large sum, even if the acquisition could be made immediately
+available; but as we must hope that many years may elapse before it
+becomes so, it appears hardly credible that this statement should be
+correct.
+
+Whenever these Memoirs are published, however, there can be no doubt
+of the eagerness with which they will be read. M. Janin remarks, that
+"M. de Châteaubriand, en ne croyant écrire que ses mémoires, aura
+écrit en effet l'histoire de son siècle;" and adds, "D'où l'on peut
+prédire, que si jamais une époque n'a été plus inabordable pour un
+historien, jamais aussi une époque n'aura eu une histoire plus
+complète et plus admirablement écrite que la nôtre. Songez donc, que
+pendant que M. de Châteaubriand fait ses mémoires, M. de Talleyrand
+écrit aussi ses mémoires. M. de Châteaubriand et M. de Talleyrand
+attelés l'un et l'autre à la même époque!--l'un qui en représente le
+sens poétique et royaliste, l'autre qui en est l'expression politique
+et utilitaire: l'un l'héritier de Bossuet, le conservateur du principe
+religieux; l'autre l'héritier de Voltaire, et qui ne s'est jamais
+prosterné que devant le doute, cette grande certitude de l'histoire:
+l'un enthousiaste, l'autre ironique; l'un éloquent partout, l'autre
+éloquent dans son fauteuil, au coin de son feu: l'un homme de génie,
+et qui le prouve; l'autre qui a bien voulu laisser croire qu'il était
+un homme d'esprit: celui-ci plein de l'amour de l'humanité, celui-là
+moins égoïste qu'on ne le croit; celui-ci bon, celui-là moins méchant
+qu'il ne veut le paraître: celui-ci allant par sauts et par bonds,
+impétueux comme un tonnerre, ou comme une phrase de l'Ecriture;
+celui-là qui boite, et qui arrive toujours le premier: celui-ci qui se
+montre toujours quand l'autre se cache, qui parle quand l'autre se
+tait; l'autre qui arrive toujours quand il faut arriver, qu'on ne voit
+guère, qu'on n'entend guère, qui est partout, qui voit tout, qui sait
+presque tout: l'un qui a des partisans, des enthousiastes, des
+admirateurs; l'autre qui n'a que des flatteurs, des parens, et des
+valets: l'un aimé, adoré, chanté; l'autre à peine redouté: l'un
+toujours jeune, l'autre toujours vieux; l'un toujours battu, l'autre
+toujours vainqueur; l'un victime des causes perdues, l'autre héros des
+causes gagnées; l'un qui mourra on ne sait où, l'autre qui mourra
+prince, et dans sa maison, avec un archevêque à son chevet; l'un grand
+écrivain à coup sûr, l'autre qui est un grand écrivain sans qu'on s'en
+doute; l'un qui a écrit ses mémoires pour les lire à ses amis, l'autre
+qui a écrit ses mémoires pour les cacher à ses amis; l'un qui ne les
+publie pas par caprice, l'autre qui ne les publie pas, parce qu'ils ne
+seront terminés que huit jours après sa mort; l'un qui a vu de haut et
+de loin, l'autre qui a vu d'en bas et de près: l'un qui a été le
+premier gentilhomme de l'histoire contemporaine, qui l'a vue en habit
+et toute parée; l'autre qui en a été le valet de chambre, et qui en
+sait toutes les plaies cachées;--l'un qu'on appelle Châteaubriand,
+l'autre qu'on appelle le Prince de Bénévent. Tels sont les deux hommes
+que le dix-neuvième siècle désigne à l'avance comme ses deux juges les
+plus redoutables, comme ses deux appréciateurs les plus dangereux,
+comme les deux historiens opposés, sur lesquels la postérité le
+jugera."
+
+This parallel, though rather long perhaps, is very clever, and, à ce
+qu'on dit, very just.
+
+Though my extracts from this very interesting but not widely-circulated
+volume have already run to a greater length than I intended, I cannot
+close it without giving you a small portion of M. de Lavergne's
+animated recital of the scene at the old Abbaye-aux-Bois;--an Abbaye,
+by the way, still partly inhabited by a society of nuns, and whose
+garden is sacred to them alone, though a portion of the large building
+which overlooks it is the property of Madame Récamier.
+
+"A une des extrémités de Paris on trouve un monument d'une
+architecture simple et sévère. La cour d'entrée est fermée par une
+grille, et sur cette grille s'élève une croix. La paix monastique
+règne dans les cours, dans les escaliers, dans les corridors; mais
+sous les saintes voûtes de ce lieu se cachent aussi d'élégans réduits
+qui s'ouvrent par intervalle aux bruits du monde. Cette habitation se
+nomme l'Abbaye-aux-Bois,--nom pittoresque d'où s'exhale je ne sais
+quel parfum d'ombre et de mystère, comme si le couvent et la forêt y
+confondaient leurs paisibles harmonies. Or, dans un des angles de cet
+édifice il y a un salon que je veux décrire, moi aussi, car il
+reparaît bien souvent dans mes rêves. Vous connaissez le tableau de
+Corinne de Gérard: Corinne est assise au Cap Misène, sur un rocher, sa
+belle tête levée vers le ciel, son beau bras tombant vers la terre,
+avec sa lyre détendue; le chant vient de finir, mais l'inspiration
+illumine encore ses regards divins.... Ce tableau couvre tout un des
+murs du salon, en face la cheminée avec une glace, des girandoles, et
+des fleurs.... Des deux autres murs, l'un est percé de deux fenêtres
+qui laissent voir les tranquilles jardins de l'Abbaye, l'autre
+disparaît presque tout entier sous des rayons chargés de livres. Des
+meubles élégans sont épars çà et là, avec un gracieux désordre. Dans
+un des coins, la porte qui s'entr'ouvre, et dans l'autre une harpe qui
+attend.
+
+"Je vivrais des milliers d'années que je n'oublierais jamais rien de
+ce que j'ai vu là.... D'autres ont rapporté des courses de leur
+jeunesse le souvenir d'un site grandiose, ou d'une ruine monumentale;
+moi, je n'ai vu ni la Grèce ... etc: ... mais il m'a été ouvert ce
+salon de l'Europe et du siècle, où l'air est en quelque sorte chargé
+de gloire et de génie.... Là respire encore l'âme enthousiaste de
+Madame de Staël; là reparaît, à l'imagination qui l'évoque, la figure
+mélancolique et pâle de Benjamin Constant; là retentit la parole
+vibrante et libre du grand Foy. Tous ces illustres morts viennent
+faire cortége à celle qui fut leur amie; car cet appartement est celui
+d'une femme célèbre dont on a déjà deviné le nom. Malgré cette pudeur
+de renommée qui la fait ainsi se cacher dans le silence, Madame
+Récamier appartient à l'histoire; c'est désormais un de ces beaux noms
+de femme qui brillent dans la couronne des grandes époques ainsi que
+des perles sur un bandeau. Révélée au monde par sa beauté, elle l'a
+charmé peut-être plus encore par les graces de son esprit et de son
+coeur. Mêlée par de hautes amitiés aux plus grands événemens de
+l'époque, elle en a traversé les vicissitudes sans en connaître les
+souillures, et, dans sa vie toute d'idéal, le malheur même et l'exil
+n'ont été pour elle que des charmes de plus. A la voir aujourd'hui si
+harmonieuse et si sereine, on dirait que les orages de la vie n'ont
+jamais approché de ses jours; à la voir si simple et si bienveillante,
+on dirait que sa célébrité n'est qu'un songe, et que les plus superbes
+fronts de la France moderne n'ont jamais fléchi devant elle. Aimée des
+poètes, des grands, et du Ciel, c'est à-la-fois Laure, Eléonore et
+Béatrix, dont Pétrarque, Tasse et le Dante ont immortalisé les noms.
+
+"Un jour de Février dernier il y avait dans le salon de Madame
+Récamier une réunion convoquée pour une lecture. L'assemblée était
+bien peu nombreuse, et il n'est pas d'homme si haut placé par le rang
+ou par le génie qui n'eût été fier de s'y trouver. A côté d'un
+Montmorency, d'un Larochefoucauld, et d'un Noailles, représentans de
+la vieille noblesse française, s'asseyaient leurs égaux par la
+noblesse du talent, cet autre hasard de la naissance; Saint-Beuve et
+Quinet, Gerbet et Dubois, Lenormand et Ampère: vous y étiez aussi,
+Ballanche!...
+
+"Il parut enfin celui dont le nom avait réuni un tel auditoire, et
+toutes les têtes s'inclinèrent.... Son front avait toute la dignité
+des cheveux gris, mais ses yeux vifs brillaient de jeunesse. Il
+portait à la main, comme un pèlerin ou un soldat, un paquet enveloppé
+dans un mouchoir de soie. Cette simplicité me parut merveilleuse dans
+un pareil sujet; car ce noble vieillard, c'était l'auteur des Martyrs,
+du Génie du Christianisme, de René--ce paquet du pèlerin, c'étaient
+les Mémoires de M. de Châteaubriand.... Mais quelle doloureuse émotion
+dans les premiers mots--'_Mémoires d'Outre-tombe!... Préface
+testamentaire!_'...
+
+ * * * * *
+
+"Continuez, Châteaubriand, à filer en paix votre suaire. Aussi bien,
+il n'y a de calme aujourd'hui que le dernier sommeil, il n'y a de
+stable que la mort!... Vieux serviteur de la vieille monarchie! vous
+n'avez pas visité sans tressaillir ces sombres galeries du Hradschin,
+où se promènent trois larves royales, avec une ombre de couronne sur
+le front. Vous avez baigné de vos pleurs les mains de ce vieillard qui
+emporte avec lui toute une société, et la tête de cet enfant dont les
+graces n'ont pu fléchir l'inexorable destinée qui s'attache aux races
+antiques.... Filez votre suaire de soie et d'or, Châteaubriand, et
+enveloppez-vous dans votre gloire; il n'est pas de progrès qui vous
+puisse ravir votre immortalité."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I think that by this time you must be fully aware, my dear friend,
+that this intellectual fête to which we were invited at the
+Abbaye-aux-Bois was a grace and a favour of which we have very good
+reason to be proud. I certainly never remember to have been more
+gratified in every way than I was on this occasion. The thing itself,
+and the flattering kindness which permitted me to enjoy it, were
+equally the source of pleasure. I may say with all truth, like M. de
+Lavergne, "Je vivrais des milliers d'années que je ne l'oublierais
+jamais."
+
+The choice of the _morceau_, too, touched me not a little: "du fruit
+défendu, cette partie la plus défendue" was most assuredly what I
+should have eagerly chosen had choice been offered. M. de
+Châteaubriand's journey to Prague furnishes as interesting an
+historical scene as can well be imagined; and I do not believe that
+any author that ever lived, Jean-Jacques and Sir Walter not excepted,
+could have recounted it better--with more true feeling or more
+finished grace: simple and unaffected to perfection in its style, yet
+glowing with all the fervour of a poetical imagination, and all the
+tenderness of a most feeling heart. It is a gallery of living
+portraits that he brings before the eye as if by magic. There is no
+minute painting, however: the powerful, the painfully powerful effect
+of the groups he describes, is produced by the bold and unerring touch
+of a master. I fancied I saw the royal race before me, each one
+individual and distinct; and I could have said, as one does in seeing
+a clever portrait, "That is a likeness, I'll be sworn for it." Many
+passages made a profound impression on my fancy and on my memory; and
+I think I could give a better account of some of the scenes described
+than I should feel justified in doing as long as the noble author
+chooses to keep them from the public eye. There were touches which
+made us weep abundantly; and then he changed the key, and gave us the
+prettiest, the most gracious, the most smiling picture of the young
+princess and her brother, that it was possible for pen to trace. She
+must be a fair and glorious creature, and one that in days of yore
+might have been likely enough to have seen her colours floating on the
+helm of all the doughtiest knights in Christendom. But chivalry is not
+the fashion of the day;--there is nothing _positif_, as the phrase
+goes, to be gained by it;--and I doubt if "its ineffectual fire" burn
+very brightly at the present time in any living heart, save that of M.
+de Châteaubriand himself.
+
+ [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+ LECTURE À L'ABBAYE-AUX-BOIS.
+ London. Published by Richard Bentley. 1835.]
+
+The party assembled at Madame Récamier's on this occasion did not, I
+think, exceed seventeen, including Madame Récamier and M. de
+Châteaubriand. Most of these had been present at the former readings.
+The Duchesses de Larochefoucauld and Noailles, and one or two other
+noble ladies, were among them. I felt it was a proof that genius is
+of no party, when I saw a granddaughter of General Lafayette enter
+among us. She is married to a gentleman who is said to be of the
+extreme côté gauche; but I remarked that they both listened with as
+much deep interest to all the touching details of this mournful visit
+as the rest of us. Who, indeed, could help it?--This lady sat between
+me and Madame Récamier on one sofa; M. Ampère the reader, and M. de
+Châteaubriand himself, on another, immediately at right angles with
+it,--so that I had the pleasure of watching one of the most expressive
+countenances I ever looked at, while this beautiful specimen of his
+head and his heart was displayed to us. On the other side of me was a
+gentleman whom I was extremely happy to meet--the celebrated Gérard;
+and before the reading commenced, I had the pleasure of conversing
+with him: he is one of those whose aspect and whose words do not
+disappoint the expectations which high reputation always gives birth
+to. There was no formal circle;--the ladies approached themselves a
+little towards THE sofa which was placed at the feet of Corinne, and
+the gentlemen stationed themselves in groups behind them. The sun
+shone _delicately_ into the room through the white silk
+curtains--delicious flowers scented the air--the quiet gardens of the
+Abbaye, stretched to a sufficient distance beneath the windows to
+guard us from every Parisian sound--and, in short, the whole thing
+was perfect. Can you wonder that I was delighted? or that I have
+thought the occurrence worth dwelling upon with some degree of
+lingering fondness?
+
+The effect this delightful morning has had on us is, I assure you, by
+no means singular: it would be easy to fill a volume with the
+testimonies of delight and gratitude which have been offered from
+various quarters in return for this gratification. Madame Tastu, whom
+I have heard called the Mrs. Hemans of France, was present at one or
+more of the readings, and has returned thanks in some very pretty
+lines, which conclude thus fervently:--
+
+ "Ma tête
+ S'incline pour saisir jusques aux moindres sons,
+ Et mon genou se ploie à demi, quand je prête,
+ Enchantée et muette,
+ L'oreille à vos leçons!"
+
+Apropos of tributary verses on this subject, I am tempted to conclude
+my unmercifully long epistle by giving you some lines which have as
+yet, I believe, been scarcely seen by any one but the person to whom
+they are addressed. They are from the pen of the H. G. who so
+beautifully translated the twelve first cantos of the "Frithiof Saga,"
+which was so favourably received in England last spring.
+
+H. G. is an Englishwoman, but from the age of two to seventeen she
+resided in the United States of America. Did I not tell you this, you
+would be at a loss to understand her allusion to the distant dwelling
+of her youth.
+
+This address, as you will perceive, is not as an acknowledgment for
+having been admitted to the Abbaye, but an earnest prayer that she may
+be so; and I heartily hope it will prove successful.
+
+ TO M. LE VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND.
+
+ In that distant region, the land of the West,
+ Where my childhood and youth glided rapidly by,
+ Ah! why was my bosom with sorrow oppress'd?
+ Why trembled the tear-drop so oft in mine eye?
+
+ No! 'twas not that pleasures they told me alone
+ Were found in the courts where proud monarchs reside;
+ My knee could not bend at the foot of a throne,
+ My heart could not hallow an emperor's pride.
+
+ But, oh! 'twas the thought that bright genius there dwelt,
+ And breathed on a few holy spirits its flame,
+ That awaken'd the grief which in childhood I felt,
+ When, Europe! I mutter'd thy magical name.
+
+ And now that as pilgrim I visit thy shore,
+ I ask not where kings hold their pompous array;
+ But I fain would behold, and all humbly adore,
+ The wreath which thy brows, Châteaubriand! display.
+
+ My voice may well falter--unknown is my name,
+ But say, must my accents prove therefore in vain?
+ Beyond the Atlantic we boast of thy fame,
+ And repeat that thy footstep has traversed our plain.
+
+ Great bard!--then reject not the prayer that I speak
+ With trembling emotion, and offer thee now;
+ In thy eloquent page, oh! permit me to seek
+ The joys and the sorrows that genius may know.
+
+ H. G.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXI.
+
+ Jardin des Plantes.--Not equal in beauty to our Zoological
+ Gardens.--La Salpêtrière.--Anecdote.--Les
+ Invalides.--Difficulty of finding English Colours
+ there.--The Dome.
+
+
+Another long morning on the other side of the water has given us
+abundant amusement, and sent us home in a very good humour with the
+expedition, because, after very mature and equitable consideration, we
+were enabled honestly to decide that our Zoological Gardens are in few
+points inferior, in many equal, and in some greatly superior, to the
+long and deservedly celebrated Jardin des Plantes.
+
+If considered as a museum and nursery for botanists, we certainly
+cannot presume to compare our comparatively new institution to that of
+Paris; but, zoologically speaking, it is every way superior. The
+collection of animals, both birds and beasts, is, I think, better, and
+certainly in finer condition. I confess that I envy them their
+beautiful giraffe; but what else have they which we cannot equal? Then
+as to our superiority, look at the comparative degree of beauty of the
+two enclosures. "O England!" as I once heard a linen-draper exclaim
+in the midst of his shop, intending in his march of mind to quote
+Byron--
+
+ "O England! with all thy faults, I can't help loving thee still."
+
+And I am quite of the linen-draper's mind: I cannot help loving those
+smooth-shaven lawns, those untrimmed flowing shrubs, those meandering
+walks, now seen, now lost amidst a cool green labyrinth of shade,
+which are so truly English. You have all this at the Zoological
+Gardens--we have none of it in the Jardin des Plantes; and, therefore,
+I like the Zoological Gardens best.
+
+We must not say a word, my friend, about the lectures, or the free
+admission to them--that is not our forte; and if the bourgeoisie go on
+much longer as they do at present, becoming greater and more powerful
+with every passing day, and learning to know, as their mercantile
+neighbours have long known, that it is quite necessary both
+governments and individuals should turn all things to profit;--
+
+ "Car dans le siècle où nous sommes,
+ On ne donne rien pour rien;"--
+
+if this happens, as I strongly suspect it will, then we shall have no
+more lectures gratis even in Paris.
+
+From the Jardin des Plantes, we visited that very magnificent
+hospital, La Salpêtrière. I will spare you, however, all the fine
+things that might be said about it, and only give you a little
+anecdote which occurred while we stood looking into the open court
+where the imbecile and the mad are permitted to take their exercise.
+By the way, without at all presuming to doubt that there may be
+reasons which the managers of this establishment conceive to be
+satisfactory, why these wretched objects, in different stages of their
+dreadful calamity, should be thus for ever placed before each other's
+eyes, I cannot but observe, that the effect upon the spectator is
+painful beyond anything I ever witnessed.
+
+With my usual love for the terrible, I remained immovable for above
+twenty minutes, watching the manner in which they appeared to notice
+each other. If fancy did not cheat me, those who were least wildly
+deranged looked with a sort of triumph and the consciousness of
+superiority on those who were most so: some looked on the mad
+movements of the others and laughed distractedly;--in short, the scene
+is terribly full of horror.
+
+But to return to my anecdote. A stout girl, who looked more imbecile
+than mad, was playing tricks, that a woman who appeared to have some
+authority among them endeavoured to stop. The girl evidently
+understood her, but with a sort of dogged obstinacy persevered, till
+the nurse, or matron, or whatever she was, took hold of her arm, and
+endeavoured to lead her into the house. Upon this the girl resisted;
+and it was not without some degree of violence that she was at last
+conquered and led away.
+
+"What dreadful cruelty!" exclaimed a woman who like ourselves was
+indulging her curiosity by watching the patients. An old crone, a very
+aged and decrepid pensioner of the establishment, was passing by on
+her crutches as she spoke. She stopped in her hobbling walk, and
+addressing the stranger in the gentle voice of quiet good sense, and
+in a tone which made me fancy she had seen better days,
+said--"_Dreadful cruelty, good woman?_... She is preventing her from
+doing what ought not to be done. If you had the charge of her, you
+would think it your duty to do the same, and then it would be right.
+But 'dreadful cruelty!' is easily said, and sounds good-hearted; and
+those who know not what it is to govern, generally think it is a sin
+and a shame to use authority in any way." And so saying, the old woman
+hobbled on, leaving me convinced that La Salpêtrière did not give its
+shelter to fools only.
+
+From this hospital we took a very long drive to another, going almost
+from the extremest east to the extremest west of Paris. The Invalides
+was now our object; and its pleasant, easy, comfortable aspect offered
+a very agreeable contrast to the scene we had left. We had become
+taciturn and melancholy at La Salpêtrière; but this interesting and
+noble edifice revived our spirits completely. Two of the party had
+never been there before, and the others were eloquent in pointing out
+all that their former visits had shown them. No place can be better
+calculated to stimulate conversation; there is so much to be said
+about our own Greenwich and Queen Elizabeth, versus Louis le Grand and
+the Invalides. Then we had the statue of a greater than he--even of
+Napoleon--upon which to gaze and moralise. Some veteran had climbed up
+to it, despite a wooden leg, or a single arm perhaps, and crowned the
+still-honoured head with a fresh wreath of bays.
+
+While we stood looking at this, the courteous bow and promising
+countenance of a fine old man arrested the whole party, and he was
+questioned and chatted to, till he became the hero of his own tale,
+and we soon knew exactly where he had received his first wound, what
+were his most glorious campaigns, and, above all, who was the general
+best deserving the blessing of an old soldier.
+
+Those who in listening to such chronicles in France expect to hear any
+other name than that of Napoleon will be disappointed. We may talk of
+his terrible conscriptions, of poisonings at Jena or forsakings at
+Moscow, as we will; the simple fact which answers all is, that he was
+adored by his soldiers when he was with them, and that his memory is
+cherished with a tender enthusiasm to which history records no
+parallel. The mere tone of voice in which the name of "NAPOLEON!" or
+the title of "L'EMPEREUR!" is uttered by his veterans, is of itself
+enough to prove what he was to them. They stand taller by an inch when
+he is named, and throw forward the chest, and snuff the air, like an
+old war-horse that hears the sound of a trumpet.
+
+But still, with all these interesting speculations to amuse us, we did
+not forget what must ever be the primary object of a stranger's visit
+to the Invalides--the interior of the dome. But this is only to be
+seen at particular hours; and we were too late for the early, and too
+early for the late, opening of the doors for this purpose. Four
+o'clock was the hour we had to wait for--as yet it was but three. We
+were invited into the hall and into the kitchen; we were admitted,
+too, into sundry little enclosures, appropriated to some happy
+individuals favoured for their skill in garden craft, who, turning
+their muskets into hoes and spades, enjoy their honourable leisure ten
+times more than their idle brethren. In three out of four of these
+miniature domains we found plaister Napoleons of a foot high stuck
+into a box-tree or a rose-bush: one of these, too, had a wreath of
+newly-gathered leaves twisted round the cocked-hat, and all three were
+placed and displayed with as much attention to dignity and effect as
+the finest statues in the Tuileries.
+
+If the spirit of Napoleon is permitted to hover about Paris, to
+indulge itself in gathering the scattered laurels of his posthumous
+fame, it is not to the lofty chambers of the Tuileries that it should
+betake itself;--nor would it be greatly soothed by listening to the
+peaceful counsels of his once warlike maréchals. No--if his ghost be
+well inspired, it will just glide swiftly through the gallery of the
+Louvre, to compare it with his earthly recollections; balance itself
+for a moment over the statue of the Place Vendôme, and abide, for the
+rest of the time allotted for this mundane visit, among his faithful
+invalids. There only would he meet a welcome that would please him.
+The whole nation, it is true, dearly love to talk of his greatness;
+but there is little now left in common between them and their sometime
+emperor.
+
+France with a charter, and France without, differs not by many degrees
+so widely as France military, and France bourgeoise and boursière.
+Under Napoleon she was the type of successful war; under
+Louis-Philippe, she will, I think--if the republicans will let her
+alone--become that of prosperous peace: a sword and a feather might be
+the emblem of the one--a loom and a long purse of the other.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+But still it was not four o'clock. We were next invited to enter the
+chapel; and we did so, determined to await the appointed hour reposing
+ourselves on the very comfortable benches provided for the veterans to
+whose use it is appropriated.
+
+Here, stretched and lounging at our ease, we challenged each other to
+discover English colours among the multitude of conquered banners
+which hung suspended above our heads. It is hardly possible that some
+such should not be there; yet it is a positive fact, that not all our
+familiar acquaintance with the colours we sought could enable us to
+discover them. There is indeed one torn and battered relic, that it is
+just possible might have been hacked and sawed from the desperately
+firm grasp of an Englishman; but the morsel of rag left is so small,
+that it was in fact more from the lack of testimony than the presence
+of it that we at length came to the conclusion that this relic of a
+stick might once have made part of an English standard.
+
+Not in any degree out of humour at our disappointment in this search
+after our national banner, we followed the guide who summoned us at
+last to the dome, chatting and laughing as cheerily and as noisily as
+if we had not been exhausting our spirits for the last four hours by
+sight-seeing. But what fatigue could not achieve, was the next moment
+produced by wonder, admiration, and delight. Never did muter silence
+fall upon a talking group, than the sight of this matchless chapel
+brought on us. Speech is certainly not the first or most natural
+resource that the spirit resorts to, when thus roused, yet
+chastened--enchanted, yet subdued.
+
+I have not yet been to Rome, and know not how I shall feel if ever I
+find myself under the dome of St. Peter's. There, I conceive that it
+is a sense of vastness which seizes on the mind; here it is wholly a
+feeling of beauty, harmony, and grace. I know nothing like it
+anywhere: the Pantheon (ci-devant Ste. Geneviève), with all its
+nobleness and majesty, is heavy, and almost clumsy, when compared to
+it. Though possessing no religious solemnity whatever, and in this
+respect inferior beyond the reach of comparison to the choir of
+Cologne, or King's College Chapel at Cambridge, it nevertheless
+produces a stronger effect upon the senses than either of them. This
+is owing, I suspect, to the circumstance of there being no mixture of
+objects: the golden tabernacle seems to complete rather than destroy
+its unity. If I could give myself a fête, it should be, to be placed
+within the pure, bright, lofty loveliness of this marble sanctuary,
+while a full and finished orchestra performed the chefs-d'oeuvre of
+Handel or Mozart in the church.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXII.
+
+ Expedition to Montmorency.--Rendezvous in the Passage
+ Delorme.--St. Denis.--Tomb prepared for Napoleon.--The
+ Hermitage.--Dîner sur l'herbe.
+
+
+It is more than a fortnight ago, I think, that we engaged ourselves
+with a very agreeable party of twenty persons to take a long drive out
+of Paris and indulge ourselves with a very gay "dîner sur l'herbe."
+But it is no easy matter to find a day on which twenty people shall
+all be ready and willing to leave Paris. However, a steadfast will can
+conquer most things. The whole twenty were quite determined that they
+would go to Montmorency, and to Montmorency at last we have been. The
+day was really one of great enjoyment, but yet it did not pass without
+disasters. One of these which occurred at the moment of starting very
+nearly overthrew the whole scheme. The place of general rendezvous for
+us and our hampers was the Galerie Delorme, and thither one of the
+party who had undertaken that branch of the business had ordered the
+carriages to come. At ten o'clock precisely, the first detachment of
+the party was deposited with their belongings at the southern
+extremity of the gallery; another and another followed till the
+muster-roll was complete. Baskets were piled on baskets; and the
+passers-by read our history in these, and in our anxious eyes, which
+ceased not to turn with ever-increasing anxiety the way the carriages
+should come.
+
+What a _supplice_!... Every minute, every second, brought the rolling
+of wheels to our ears, but only to mock us: the wheels rolled on--no
+carriages came for us, and we remained in statu quo to look at each
+other and our baskets.
+
+Then came forth, as always happens on great and trying occasions, the
+inward character of each. The sturdy and firm-minded set themselves
+down on the packages, determined to abide the eyes of all rather than
+shrink from their intent. The timid and more frail of purpose gently
+whispered proposals that we should all go home again; while others,
+yet listening to
+
+ "Hope's enchanting measure,
+ Which still promised coming pleasure,"
+
+smiled, and looked forth from the gallery, and smiled again--though
+still no carriage came.
+
+It was, as I suspect, these young hopes and smiles which saved us from
+final disappointment: for the young men belonging to the cortége,
+suddenly rousing themselves from their state of listless watching,
+declared with one voice and one spirit, that les demoiselles should
+not be disappointed; and exchanging _consignes_ which were to regulate
+the number and species of vehicles each was to seek--and find, too, on
+peril of his reputation,--they darted forth from the gallery, leaving
+us with renewed spirits and courage to bear all the curious glances
+bestowed upon us.
+
+Our half-dozen aides-de-camp returned triumphantly in a few minutes,
+each one in his delta or his citadine; and the Galerie Delorme was
+soon left far behind us.
+
+It is lucky for you that we had not to make a "voyage par mer" and
+"retour par terre," or my story might be as long--if resembling it in
+no other way--as the immortal expedition to St. Cloud. I shall not
+make a volume of it; but I must tell you that we halted at St. Denis.
+
+The church is beautiful--a perfect bijou of true Gothic
+architecture--light, lofty, elegant; and we saw it, too, in a manner
+peculiarly advantageous, for it had neither organ, altar, nor screen
+to distract the eye from the great and simple beauty of the original
+design. The repairs going on here are of a right royal character--on a
+noble scale and in excellent taste. Several monuments restored from
+the collection made under the Empire aux Petits Augustins are now
+again the glory of St. Denis; and some of them have still much
+remaining which may entitle them to rank as very pure and perfect
+specimens of highly-antiquated monumental sculpture. But the chiselled
+treasures of a thousand years' standing cannot be made to travel about
+like the scenery of strolling players, in conformity to the will and
+whim of the successive actors who play the part of king, without great
+injury. In some instances the original nooks in this venerable
+mausoleum of royal bones have again received the effigies originally
+carved to repose within them; but the regal image has rarely been
+replaced without showing itself in some degree way-worn. In other
+cases, the monumental portrait, venerable and almost hallowed by its
+high antiquity, is made to recline on a whitened sepulchre as bright
+as Parisian masonry can make it.
+
+Having fully examined the church and its medley of old and new
+treasures, we called a council as to the possibility of finding time
+for descending to the crypts: but most of the party agreeing in
+opinion that we ought not to lose the opportunity of visiting what a
+wit amongst us happily enough designated "le Palais Royal de la Mort,"
+we ordered the iron gates to be unbarred for us, and proceeded with
+some solemnity of feeling into the pompous tomb. And here the
+unfortunate result of that bold spirit of change which holds nothing
+sacred is still more disagreeably obvious than in the church. All the
+royal monuments of France that could be collected are assembled in
+this magnificent vault, but with such incongruity of dates belonging
+to different parts of the same structure, as almost wholly to destroy
+the imposing effect of this gorgeous grave.
+
+But if the spectator would seek farther than his eye can carry him,
+and inquire where the mortal relics of each sculptured monarch lie,
+the answer he will receive must make him believe that the royal dust
+of France has been scattered to the four winds of heaven. Nothing I
+have heard has sounded more strangely to me than the naïveté with
+which our guide informed us that, among all this multitude of regal
+tombs, there was not one which contained a single vestige of the
+mortal remains of those they commemorate.
+
+For the love of good taste and consistency, these guardians of the
+royal sepulchre of France should be taught a more poetical lesson. It
+is inconceivable how, as he spoke, the solemn memorials of the
+illustrious dead, near which my foot had passed cautiously and my
+voice been mute, seemed suddenly converted into something little more
+sacred than the show furnishing of a stone-mason's shop. The bathos
+was perfect.
+
+I could not but remember with a feeling of national pride the contrast
+to this presented by Westminster Abbey and St. George's Chapel. The
+monuments of these two royal fanes form a series as interesting in the
+history of art as of our royal line, and no painful consciousness of
+desecration mixes itself with the solemn reverence with which we
+contemplate the honoured tombs.
+
+The most interesting object in the crypts of St. Denis, and which
+comes upon the moral feeling with a force increased rather than
+diminished by the incongruities which surround it, is the door of the
+vault prepared by Napoleon for himself. It is inscribed,
+
+ ICI REPOSENT
+ LES DÉPOUILLES MORTELLES
+ DE
+
+This inscription still remains, as well as the massive brazen gates
+with their triple locks, which were designed to close the tomb. These
+rich portals are not suspended on hinges, but rest against a wall of
+solid masonry, over which the above inscription is seen. The imperial
+vault thus chosen by the living despot as the sanctuary for bones
+which it was our fortune to dispose of elsewhere is greatly
+distinguished by its situation, being exactly under the high altar,
+and in the centre of the crypts, which follow the beautiful curve of
+the Lady Chapel above. It now contains the bodies of Louis Dix-huit
+and the Duc de Berri, and is completely bricked up.
+
+In another vault, at one end of the circular crypts, and perfectly
+excluded from the light of day, but made visible by a single feeble
+lamp, are two coffins enclosing the remains of the two last defunct
+princes of the blood royal; but I forget their names. When I inquired
+of our conductor why these two coffins were thus exposed to view, he
+replied, with the air of a person giving information respecting what
+was as unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians, "C'est
+toujours ainsi;" adding, "When another royal corpse is interred, the
+one of these two which was the first deposited will be removed, to be
+placed beneath its monument; but two must ever remain thus."
+
+"Always" and "ever" are words which can seldom be used discreetly
+without some reservation; but respecting anything connected with the
+political state of France, I should think they had better never be
+used at all.
+
+We returned to the carriages and pursued our pretty drive. The latter
+part of the route is very beautiful, and we all walked up one long
+steep hill, as much, or more perhaps, to enjoy the glorious view, and
+the fresh delicious air, as to assist the horses.
+
+Arrived at the famous _Cheval Blanc_ at Montmorency, (a sign painted,
+as the tradition says, by no less a hand than that of Gérard, who, in
+a youthful pilgrimage with his friend Isabey to this region
+consecrated to romance, found himself with no other means of defraying
+their bill than by painting a sign for his host,) we quitted our
+wearied and wearisome citadines, and began to seek, amidst the
+multitude of horses and donkeys which stood saddled and bridled around
+the door of the inn, for twenty well-conditioned beasts, besides a
+sumpter-mule or two, to carry us and our provender to the forest.
+
+And, oh! the tumult and the din that accompanied this selection!
+Multitudes of old women and ragamuffin boys assailed us on all
+sides.--"Tenez, madame; voilà mon âne! y a-t-il une autre bête comme
+la mienne?..." "Non, non, non, belles dames! Ne le croyez pas; c'est
+la mienne qu'il vous faut..." "Et vous, monsieur--c'est un cheval qui
+vous manque, n'est-ce pas? en voilà un superbe...."
+
+The multitude of hoarse old voices, and shrill young ones, joined to
+our own noisy mirth, produced a din that brought out half the
+population of Montmorency to stare at us: but at length we were
+mounted--and, what was of infinitely more consequence, and infinitely
+more difficulty also, our hampers and baskets were mounted too.
+
+But before we could think of the greenwood tree, and the gay repast
+to be spread under it, we had a pilgrimage to make to the shrine which
+has given the region all its fame. Hitherto we had thought only of its
+beauty,--who does not know the lovely scenery of Montmorency?--even
+without the name of Rousseau to give a fanciful interest to every path
+around it, there is enough in its hills and dales, its forest and its
+fields, to cheer the spirits and enchant the eye.
+
+A day stolen from the dissipation, the dust, and the noise of a great
+city, is always delightful; but when it is enjoyed in the very fullest
+green perfection of the last days of May, when every new-born leaf and
+blossom is fully expanded to the delicious breeze, and not one yet
+fallen before it, the enjoyment is perfect. It is like seeing a new
+piece while the dresses and decorations are all fresh; and never can
+the mind be in a state to taste with less of pain, and more of
+pleasure, the thoughts suggested by such a scene as _the Hermitage_. I
+have, however, no intention of indulging myself in a burst of tender
+feeling over the melancholy memory of Rousseau, or of enthusiastic
+gratitude at the recollection of Grétry, though both are strongly
+brought before the mind's eye by the various memorials of each so
+carefully treasured in the little parlour in which they passed so many
+hours: yet it is impossible to look at the little rude table on which
+the first and greatest of these gifted men scribbled the "Héloïse,"
+or on the broken and untuneable keys of the spinette with which the
+eloquent visionary so often soothed his sadness and solitude, without
+some feeling tant soit peu approaching to the sentimental.
+
+Before the window of this small gloomy room, which opens upon the
+garden, is a rose-tree planted by the hand of Rousseau, which has
+furnished, as they told us, cuttings enough to produce a forest of
+roses. The house is as dark and dull as may be; but the garden is
+pretty, and there is something of fanciful in its arrangement which
+makes me think it must be as he left it.
+
+The records of Grétry would have produced more effect if seen
+elsewhere,--at least I thought so;--yet the sweet notes of "O Richard!
+O mon roi!" seemed to be sounding in my ears, too, as I looked at his
+old spectacles, and several other little domestic relics that were
+inscribed with his name. But the "Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire" are
+worth all the notes that Grétry ever wrote.
+
+A marble column stands in a shady corner of the garden, bearing an
+inscription which states that her highness the Duchesse de Berri had
+visited the Hermitage, and taken "le coeur de Grétry" under her
+august protection, which had been unjustly claimed by the Liégeois
+from his native France. What this means, or where her highness found
+the great composer's heart, I could not learn.
+
+We took the objects of our expedition in most judicious order, fasting
+and fatigue being decidedly favourable to melancholy; but, even with
+these aids, I cannot say that I discovered much propensity to the
+tender vein in the generality of our party. Sentiment is so completely
+out of fashion, that it would require a bold spirit to confess before
+twenty gay souls that you felt any touch of it. There was one young
+Italian, however, of the party whom I missed from the time we entered
+the precincts of the Hermitage; nor did I see him till some time after
+we were all mounted again, and in full chase for the well-known
+chesnut-trees which have thrown their shadow over so many al-fresco
+repasts. When he again joined us, he had a rose in his button-hole: I
+felt quite certain that it was plucked from the tree the sad
+philosopher had planted, and that he, at least, had done homage to his
+shade, whoever else had failed to do so.
+
+Whatever was felt at the Hermitage, however, was now left behind us,
+and a less larmoyante party never entered the Forest of Montmorency.
+When we reached the spot on which we had fixed by anticipation for our
+salle-à-manger, we descended from our various _montures_, which were
+immediately unsaddled and permitted to refresh themselves, tied
+together in very picturesque groups, while all the party set to work
+with that indescribable air of contented confusion and happy disorder
+which can only be found at a pic-nic. I have heard a great many very
+sensible remarks, and some of them really very hard to answer, upon
+the extreme absurdity of leaving every accommodation which is
+considered needful for the comfort of a Christian-like dinner, for the
+sole purpose of devouring this needful repast without one of them.
+What can be said in defence of such an act?... Nothing,--except
+perhaps that, for some unaccountable reason or other, no dinner
+throughout the year, however sumptuously served or delicately
+furnished, ever does appear to produce one half so much light-hearted
+enjoyment as the cold repast round which the guests crouch like so
+many gipsies, with the turf for their table and a tree for their
+canopy. It is very strange--but it is very true; and as long as men
+and women continue to experience this singular accession of good
+spirits and good humour from circumstances which might be reasonably
+expected to destroy both, nothing better can be done than to let them
+go on performing the same extraordinary feat as long as the fancy
+lasts.
+
+And so we sat upon the grass, caring little for what the wise might
+say of us, for an hour and a half at the very least. Our attendant
+old women and boys, seated at convenient distance, were eating as
+heartily and laughing as merrily as ourselves; whilst our beasts, seen
+through the openings of the thicket in which they were stabled, and
+their whimsical housings piled up together at the foot of an old thorn
+at its entrance, completed the composition of our gipsy festival.
+
+At length the signal was given to rise, and the obedient troop were on
+their feet in an instant. The horses and the asses were saddled
+forthwith: each one seized his and her own and mounted. A council was
+then called as to whither we should go. Sundry forest paths stretched
+away so invitingly in different directions, that it was difficult to
+decide which we should prefer. "Let us all meet two hours hence at the
+Cheval Blanc," said some one of brighter wit than all the rest:
+whereupon we all set off, fancy-led, by twos and by threes, to put
+this interval of freedom and fresh air to the best account possible.
+
+I was strongly tempted to set off directly for Eaubonne. Though I
+confess that Jean-Jacques' descriptions (tant vantées!) of some of the
+scenes which occurred there between himself and his good friend Madame
+d'Houdetot, in which she rewards his tender passion by constant
+assurances of her own tender passion for Saint-Lambert, have always
+appeared to me the very reverse of the sublime and beautiful; yet
+still the place must be redolent of the man whose "Rêveries" have made
+its whole region classic ground: and go where I will, I always love to
+bring the genius of the place as near to me as possible. But my wishes
+were effectually checked by the old lady whose donkey carried me.
+
+"Oh! dame--il ne faut pas aller par là ... ce n'est pas là le beau
+point de vue; laissez-moi faire ... et vous verrez...."
+
+And then she enumerated so many charming points of forest scenery that
+ought to be visited by "tout le monde," that I and my companions
+decided it would be our best course to permit the _laisser faire_ she
+asked for; and accordingly we set off in the direction she chose. We
+had no cause to regret it, for she knew her business well, and, in
+truth, led us as beautiful a circuit as it was well possible to
+imagine. If I did not invoke Rousseau in his bosquet d'Eaubonne, or
+beside the "cascade dont," as he says, "je lui avais donné _l'idée_,
+et qu'elle avait fait _exécuter_,"--(Rousseau had never seen Niagara,
+or he would not have talked of his Sophie's having executed his idea
+of a cascade;)--though we did not seek him there, we certainly met
+him, at every step of our beautiful forest path, in the flowers and
+mosses whose study formed his best recreation at Montmorency.
+"Herboriser" is a word which, I think, with all possible respect for
+that modern strength of intellect that has fixed its stigma upon
+_sentiment_, Rousseau has in some sort consecrated. There is something
+so natural, so genuine, so delightfully true, in his expressions, when
+he describes the pleasure this occupation has given him, contrasted as
+it is with his sour and querulous philosophy, and still more perhaps
+with the eloquent but unrighteous bursts of ill-directed passion, that
+its impression on my mind is incomparably greater than any he has
+produced by other topics.
+
+"Brillantes fleurs, émail des prés!" ... is an exclamation a thousand
+times more touching, coming from the poor solitary J.J. at
+sixty-five, than any of the most passionate exclamations which he
+makes St. Preux utter; and for this reason the woods of Montmorency
+are more interesting from their connexion with him than any spot the
+neighbourhood of Vévay could offer.
+
+The view from the Rendezvous de Chasse is glorious. While pausing to
+enjoy it, our old woman began talking politics to us. She told us that
+she had lost two sons, who both died fighting beside "_notre grand
+Empereur_," who was certainly "le plus grand homme de la terre;
+cependant, it was a great comfort for poor people to have bread for
+onze sous--and that was what King Louis-Philippe had done for them."
+
+After our halt, we turned our heads again towards the town, and were
+peacefully pursuing our deliciously cool ride under the trees, when a
+holla! from behind stopped us. It proceeded from one of the boys of
+our cortége, who, mounted upon a horse that one of the party had used,
+was galloping and hollaing after us with all his might. The
+information he brought was extremely disagreeable: one of the
+gentlemen had been thrown from his horse and taken up for dead; and he
+had been sent, as he said, to collect the party together, to know what
+was to be done. The gentleman who was with our detachment immediately
+accompanied the boy to the spot; but as the unfortunate sufferer was
+quite a stranger to me, and was already surrounded by many of the
+party, I and my companion decided upon returning to Montmorency, there
+to await at Le Cheval Blanc the appearance of the rest. A medical man,
+we found, had been already sent for. When at length the whole party,
+with the exception of this unfortunate young man and a friend who
+remained with him, were assembled, we found, upon comparing notes
+together, that no less than four of our party had been unhorsed or
+undonkeyed in the course of the day; but happily three of these were
+accidents followed by no alarming results. The fourth was much more
+serious; but the report from the Montmorency surgeon, which we
+received before we left the town, assured us that no ultimate danger
+was to be apprehended.
+
+One circumstance attending this disagreeable contre-tems was very
+fortunate. The accident took place at the gates of a chateau, the
+owners of which, though only returned a few hours before from a tour
+in Italy, received the sufferer and his friend with the greatest
+kindness and hospitality. Thus, though only eighteen of us returned to
+Paris to recount the day's adventures, we had at least the consolation
+of having a very interesting, and luckily not fatal, episode to
+narrate, in which a castle and most courteous knights and dames bore a
+part, while the wounded cavalier on whom their generous cares were
+bestowed had not only given signs of life, but had been pronounced, to
+the great joy of all the company, quite out of danger either of life
+or limb.
+
+So ended our day at Montmorency, which, spite of our manifold
+disasters, was declared upon the whole to have been one of very great
+enjoyment.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIII.
+
+ George Sand.
+
+
+I have more than once mentioned to you my observations on the
+reception given in Paris to that terrible school of composition which
+derives its power from displaying, with strength that exaggerates the
+vices of our nature, all that is worst and vilest in the human heart.
+I have repeatedly dwelt upon the subject, because it is one which I
+have so often heard treated unfairly, or at least ignorantly, in
+England; and a love of truth and justice has therefore led me to
+assure you, with reiterated protestations, that neither these
+mischief-doing works nor their authors meet at all a better reception
+in Paris than they would in London.
+
+It is this same love of truth and justice which prompts me to separate
+from the pack one whom nature never intended should belong to it. The
+lady who writes under the signature of George Sand cannot be set aside
+by the sternest guardian of public morals without a sigh. With
+great--perhaps, at the present moment, with unequalled power of
+writing, Madame de D---- perpetually gives indications of a heart and
+mind which seem to prove that it was intended her place should be in a
+very different set from that with which she has chosen to mingle.
+
+It is impossible that she should write as she has done without
+possessing some of the finest qualities of human nature; but she is
+and has been tossed about in that whirlpool of unsettled principles,
+deformed taste and exaggerated feeling, in which the distempered
+spirits of the day delight to bathe and disport themselves, and she
+has been stained and bruised therein. Yet she has nothing in common
+with their depraved feelings and distorted strength; and there is so
+much of the divine spirit of real genius within her, that it seems as
+if she could not sink in the vortex that has engulfed her companions.
+She floats and rises still; and would she make one bold effort to free
+herself from this slough, she might yet become one of the brightest
+ornaments of the age.
+
+Not her own country only, but all the world have claims on her; for
+genius is of no nation, but speaks in a language that can be heard and
+understood by all. And is it possible that such a mind as hers can be
+insensible to the glory of enchanting the best and purest spirits in
+the world?... Can she prefer the paltry plaudits of the obscure herd
+who scorn at decency, to the universal hymn of love and praise which
+she must hear rising from the whole earth to do honour to the holy
+muse of Walter Scott?
+
+The powers of this lady are of so high an order as in fact to withdraw
+her totally, though seemingly against her will, from all literary
+companionship or competition with the multitude of little authors
+whose moral theories appear of the same colour as her own; and in the
+tribute of admiration which justice compels me to pay her, my memory
+dwells only on such passages as none but herself could write, and
+which happily all the world may read.
+
+It is sad, indeed, to be forced to read almost by stealth volumes
+which contain such passages, and to turn in silence from the lecture
+with one's heart glowing with admiration of thoughts that one might so
+proudly quote and boast of as coming from the pen of a woman! But,
+alas! her volumes are closed to the young and innocent, and one may
+not dare to name her among those to whom the memory clings with
+gratitude as the giver of high mental enjoyment.
+
+One strong proof that the native and genuine bent of her genius would
+carry her far above and quite out of sight of the whole décousu school
+is, that, with all her magical grace of expression, she is always less
+herself, less original, a thousand times less animated and inspired,
+when she sets herself to paint scenes of unchaste love, and of
+unnatural and hard indifference to decorum, than when she throws the
+reins upon the neck of her own Pegasus, and starts away into the
+bright region of unsoiled thoughts and purely intellectual meditation.
+
+I should be sorry to quote the titles of any books which ought never
+to have been written, and which had better not be read, even though
+there should be buried in them precious gems of thought and expression
+which produce the effect of a ray of sunshine that has entered by a
+crevice into a dark chamber; but there are some morsels by George Sand
+which stand apart from the rest, and which may be cited without
+mischief. "La Revue des Deux Mondes" has more than once done good
+service to the public by putting forth in its trustworthy pages some
+of her shorter works. Amongst these is a little story called "André,"
+which if not quite _faultless_, may yet be fairly quoted to prove of
+what its author might be capable. The character of Geneviève, the
+heroine of this simple, natural little tale, is evidence enough that
+George Sand knows what is good. Yet even here what a strange
+perversity of purpose and of judgment peeps out! She makes this
+Geneviève, whose character is conceived in a spirit of purity and
+delicacy that is really angelic,--she makes this sweet and exquisitely
+innocent creature fall into indiscretion with her lover before she
+marries him, though the doing so neither affects the story nor changes
+the catastrophe in the slightest degree. It is an impropriety _à pure
+perte_, and is in fact such a deplorable incongruity in the character
+of Geneviève--so perfectly gratuitous and unnecessary, and so utterly
+out of keeping with the rest of the picture, that it really looks as
+if Madame D---- _might not_ publish a volume that was not timbré with
+the stamp of her clique. It would not, I suppose, pass current among
+them without it.
+
+This story of "André" is still before me; and though it is quite
+impossible that I should be able to give you any idea of it by
+extracts, I will transcribe a few lines to show you the tone of
+thought in which its author loves to indulge.
+
+Speaking of the universal power or influence of poetry, which
+certainly, like M. Jourdain's prose, often exists in the mind sans
+qu'on en sache rien, she says,--
+
+"Les idées poétiques peuvent s'ajuster à la taille de tous les hommes.
+L'un porte sa poésie sur son front, un autre dans son coeur;
+celui-ci la cherche dans une promenade lente et silencieuse au sein
+des plaines, celui-là la poursuit au galop de son cheval à travers les
+ravins; un troisième l'arrose sur sa fenêtre, dans un pot de tulipes.
+Au lieu de demander où elle est, ne devrait-on pas demander où
+n'est-elle pas? Si ce n'était qu'une langue, elle pourrait se perdre;
+mais c'est une essence qui se compose de deux choses, la beauté
+répandue dans la nature extérieure, et le sentiment départi à toute
+l'intelligence ordinaire."
+
+Again she shows the real tone of her mind when, speaking of a future
+state, she says,--
+
+"Qui sait si, dans un nouveau code de morale, un nouveau catéchisme
+religieux, le dégoût et la tristesse ne seront pas flétris comme des
+vices, tandis que l'amour, l'espoir, et l'admiration seront
+récompensés comme des vertus?"
+
+This is a beautiful idea of the _duties_ belonging to a happier state
+of existence; nay, I think that if we were only as good as we easily
+might be here, even this life would become rather an act of
+thanksgiving than what it too often is--a record of sighs.
+
+I know not where I should look in order to find thoughts more true, or
+fanciful ideas more beautifully expressed, than I have met with in
+this same story, where the occupations and reveries of its heroine are
+described. Geneviève is by profession a maker of artificial flowers,
+and the minute study necessary to enable her to imitate skilfully her
+lovely models has led her to an intimate acquaintance with them, the
+pleasures of which are described, and her love and admiration of them
+dwelt upon, in a strain that I am quite persuaded none other but
+George Sand could utter. It is evident, indeed, throughout all her
+writings, that the works of nature are the idols she worships. In the
+"Lettres d'un Voyageur,"--which I trust are only begun, for it is here
+that the author is perfect, unrivalled, and irreproachable,--she gives
+a thousand proofs of a heart and imagination which can only be truly
+at home when far from "the rank city." In writing to a friend in
+Paris, whom she addresses as a person devoted to the cares and the
+honours of public life, she says,--"Quand tu vois passer un pauvre
+oiseau, tu envies son essor, et tu regrettes les cieux." Then she
+exclaims, "Que ne puis-je t'emmener avec moi sur l'aile des vents
+inconstans, te faire respirer le grand air des solitudes et
+t'apprendre le secret des poètes et des Bohémiens!" She has learned
+that secret, and the use she makes of it places her, in my estimation,
+wondrously above most of the descriptive poets that France has ever
+boasted. Yet her descriptions, exquisite as they sometimes are,
+enchant me less perhaps than the occasional shooting, if I may so
+express it, of a bold new thought into the regions of philosophy and
+metaphysics; but it is done so lightly, so playfully, that it should
+seem she was only jesting when she appears to aim thus wildly at
+objects so much beyond a woman's ken. "Tous les trônes de la terre ne
+valent pas pour moi une petite fleur au bord d'un lac des Alpes," she
+says; and then starts off with this strange query: "Une grande
+question serait celle de savoir si la Providence a plus d'amour et de
+respect pour notre charpente osseuse, que pour les pétales embaumés de
+ses jasmins."
+
+She professes herself (of course) to be a republican; but only says of
+it, "De toutes les causes dont je ne me soucie pas, c'est la plus
+belle;" and then adds, quite in her own vein, "Du moins, les mots de
+patrie et de liberté sont harmonieux--tandis que ceux de légitimité et
+d'obéissance sont grossiers, mal-sonnans, et faits pour des oreilles
+de gendarmes."... "Aduler une bûche couronnée," is, she declares,
+"renoncer à sa dignité d'homme, et se faire académicien."
+
+However, she quizzes her political friend for being "le martyr des
+nobles ambitions;" adding, "Gouvernez-moi bien tous ces vilains idiots
+... je vais chanter au soleil sur une branche, pendant ce tems-là."
+
+In another place, she says that she is "bonne à rien qu'à causer avec
+l'écho, à regarder lever la lune, et à composer des chants
+mélancoliques ou moqueurs pour les étudians poètes et les écoliers
+amoureux."
+
+As a specimen of what this writer's powers of description are, I will
+give you a few lines from a little story called "Mattéa,"--a story, by
+the way, that is beautiful, one hardly knows why,--just to show you
+how she can treat a theme worn threadbare before she was born. Is
+there, in truth, any picture much less new than that of a gondola,
+with a guitar in it, gliding along the canals of Venice? But see what
+she makes of it.
+
+"La guitare est un instrument qui n'a son existence véritable qu'à
+Venise, la ville silencieuse et sonore. Quand une gondole rase ce
+fleuve d'encre phosphorescente, où chaque coup de rame enfonce un
+éclair, tandis qu'une grêle de petites notes légères, nettes, et
+folâtres, bondit et rebondit sur les cordes que parcourt une main
+invisible, on voudrait arrêter et saisir cette mélodie faible mais
+distincte qui agace l'oreille des passans, et qui fuit le long des
+grandes ombres des palais, comme pour appeler les belles aux fenêtres,
+et passer en leur disant--Ce n'est pas pour vous la sérénade; et vous
+ne saurez ni d'où elle vient, ni où elle va."
+
+Could Rousseau himself have chosen apter words? Do they not seem an
+echo to the sound she describes?
+
+The private history of an author ought never to mix itself with a
+judgment of his works. Of that of George Sand I know but little; but
+divining it from the only source that the public has any right to
+examine,--namely, her writings,--I should be disposed to believe that
+her story is the old one of affection either ill requited, or in some
+way or other unfortunate; and there is justice in quoting the passages
+which seem to indicate this, because they are written in a spirit
+that, let the circumstances be what they will, must do her honour.
+
+In the "Lettres d'un Voyageur" already mentioned, the supposed writer
+of them is clearly identified with George Sand by this passage:--"Meure
+le petit George quand Dieu voudra, le monde n'en ira pas plus mal pour
+avoir ignoré sa façon de penser. Que veux-tu que je te dise? Il faut
+que je te parle encore de moi, et rien n'est plus insipide qu'une
+individualité qui n'a pas encore trouvé le mot de sa destinée. Je n'ai
+aucun intérêt à formuler une opinion quelconque. Quelques personnes
+qui lisent mes livres ont le tort de croire que ma conduite est une
+profession de foi, et le choix des sujets de mes historiettes une
+sorte de plaidoyer contre certaines lois: bien loin de là, je
+reconnais que ma vie est pleine de fautes, et je croirais commettre
+une lâcheté si je me battais les flancs pour trouver un système
+d'idées qui en autorisât l'exemple."
+
+After this, it is impossible to read, without being touched by it,
+this sublime phrase used in speaking of one who would retire into the
+deep solitudes of nature from struggling with the world:--
+
+"_Les astres éternels auront toujours raison_, et l'homme, quelque
+grand qu'il soit parmi les hommes, sera toujours saisi d'épouvante
+quand il voudra interroger ce qui est au-dessus de lui. _O silence
+effrayant, réponse éloquente et terrible de l'éternité!_"
+
+In another place, speaking with less lightness of tone than is
+generally mixed throughout these charming letters with the gravest
+speculations, George Sand says:--
+
+"J'ai mal vécu, j'ai mal usé des biens qui me sont échus, j'ai négligé
+les oeuvres de charité; j'ai vécu dans la mollesse, dans l'ennui,
+dans les larmes vaines, dans les folles amours, dans les vains
+plaisirs. Je me suis prosterné devant des idoles de chair et de sang,
+et j'ai laissé leur souffle enivrant effacer les sentences austères
+que la sagesse des livres avait écrites sur mon front dans ma
+jeunesse.... J'avais été honnête autrefois, sais-tu bien cela,
+Everard? C'est de notoriété bourgeoise dans notre pays; mais il y
+avait peu de mérite,--j'étais jeune, et les funestes amours n'étaient
+pas éclos dans mon sein. Ils ont étouffé bien des qualités; mais _je
+sais qu'il en est auxquelles je n'ai pas fait la plus légère tache au
+milieu des plus grands revers de ma vie, et qu'aucune des autres n'est
+perdu pour moi sans retour_."
+
+I could go on very long quoting with pleasure from these pages; but I
+cannot, I think, conclude better than with this passage. Who is there
+but must wish that all the great and good qualities of this gifted
+woman (for she must have both) should break forth from whatever cloud
+sorrow or misfortune of any kind may have thrown over her, and that
+the rest of her days may pass in the tranquil developement of her
+extraordinary talents, and in such a display of them to the public as
+shall leave its admiration unmixed?
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIV.
+
+ "Angelo Tyran de Padoue."--Burlesque at the Théâtre du
+ Vaudeville.--Mademoiselle Mars.--Madame Dorval.--Epigram.
+
+
+We have seen and enjoyed many very pretty, very gay little pieces at
+most of the theatres since we have been here; but we never till our
+last visit to the Théâtre Français enjoyed that uncontrollable
+movement of merriment which, setting all lady-like nonchalance at
+defiance, obliged us to yield ourselves up to hearty, genuine
+laughter; in which, however, we had the consolation of seeing many of
+those around us join.
+
+And what was the piece, can you guess, which produced this effect upon
+us?... It was "Angelo!" It was the "Tyran de Padoue"--_pas doux_ du
+tout, as the wits of the parterre aver. But, in truth, I ought not to
+assent to this verdict, for never tyrant was so _doux_ to me and mine
+as this, and never was a very long play so heartily laughed at to the
+end.
+
+But must I write to you in sober earnest about this comic tragedy? I
+suppose I must; for, except the Procès Monstre, nothing has been more
+talked of in Paris than this new birth of M. Hugo. The cause for this
+excitement was not that a new play from this sufficiently well-known
+hand was about to be put upon the scene, but a circumstance which has
+made me angry and all Paris curious. This tragedy, as you shall see
+presently, has two heroines who run neck and neck through every act,
+leaving it quite in doubt which ought to come in prima donna.
+Mademoiselle Mars was to play the part of one--but who could venture
+to stand thus close beside her in the other part?--nobody at the
+Français, as it should seem: and so, wonderful to tell, and almost
+impossible to believe, a lady, a certain Madame Dorval, well known as
+a heroine of the Porte St. Martin, I believe, was enlisted into the
+corps of the Français to run a tilt with--Mars.
+
+This extraordinary arrangement was talked of, and asserted, and
+contradicted, and believed, and disbelieved, till the noise of it
+filled all Paris. You will hardly wonder, then, that the appearance of
+this drama has created much sensation, or that the desire to see it
+should extend beyond the circle of M. Hugo's young admirers.
+
+I have been told, that as soon as this arrangement was publicly made
+known, the application for boxes became very numerous. The author was
+permitted to examine the list of all those who had applied, and no
+boxes were positively promised till he had done so. Before the night
+for the first representation was finally fixed, a large party of
+friends and admirers assembled at the poet's house, and, amongst them,
+expunged from this list the names of all such persons as were either
+known or suspected to be hostile to him or his school. Whatever
+deficiencies this exclusive system produced in the box-book were
+supplied by his particular partisans. The result on this first night
+was a brilliant success.
+
+"L'auteur de Cromwell," says the Revue des Deux Mondes, "a proclamé
+d'une voix dictatoriale la fusion de la comédie et de la tragédie dans
+le drame." It is for this reason, perhaps, that M. Hugo has made his
+last tragedy so irresistibly comic. The dagger and the bowl bring on
+the catastrophe,--therefore, _sans contredire_, it is a tragedy: but
+his playful spirit has arranged the incidents and constructed the
+dialogue,--therefore, _sans faute_, it is a comedy.
+
+In one of his exquisite prefaces, M. Hugo says, that he would not have
+any audience quit the theatre without carrying with them "quelque
+moralité austère et profonde;" and I will now make it my task to point
+out to you how well he has redeemed this promise in the present
+instance. In order to shake off all the old-fashioned trammels which
+might encumber his genius, M. Hugo has composed his "Angelo" in
+prose,--prose such as old women love--(wicked old women I
+mean,)--lengthy, mystical, gossiping, and mischievous. I will give you
+some extracts; and to save the trouble of describing the different
+characters, I will endeavour so to select these extracts that they
+shall do it for me. Angelo Tyran de Padoue thus speaks of himself:--
+
+"Oui ... je suis le podesta que Venise met sur Padoue.... Et
+savez-vous ce que c'est que Venise?... C'est le conseil des dix. Oh!
+le conseil des dix!... Souvent la nuit je me dresse sur mon séant,
+j'écoute, et j'entends des pas dans mon mur.... Oui, c'est ainsi,
+Tyran de Padoue, esclave de Venise. Je suis bien surveillé, allez. Oh!
+le conseil des dix!"
+
+This gentleman has a young, beautiful, and particularly estimable
+wife, by name Catarina Bragadini, (which part is enacted on the boards
+of the Théâtre Français by Madame Dorval, from the Théâtre de la Porte
+St. Martin,) but unfortunately he hates her violently. He could not,
+however, as he philosophically observes himself, avoid doing so, and
+he shall again speak for himself to explain this.
+
+"ANGELO.
+
+"La haine c'est dans notre sang. Il faut toujours qu'un Malipieri
+haïsse quelqu'un. Moi, c'est cette femme que je hais. Je ne vaux pas
+mieux qu'elle, c'est possible--mais il faut qu'elle meure. C'est une
+nécessité--une résolution prise."
+
+This necessity for hating does not, however, prevent the Podesta from
+falling very violently in love with a strolling actress called La
+Tisbe (personated by Mademoiselle Mars). The Tisbe also is a very
+remarkably virtuous, amiable, and high-minded woman, who listens to
+the addresses of the Tyrant pas doux, but hates him as cordially as he
+hates his lady-wife, bestowing all her tenderness and private caresses
+upon a travelling gentleman, who is a prince in disguise, but whom she
+passes off upon the Tyrant for her brother. La Tisbe, too, shall give
+you her own account of herself.
+
+"LA TISBE (_addressing Angelo_).
+
+"Vous savez qui je suis? ... rien, une fille du peuple, une
+comédienne.... Eh bien! si peu que je suis, j'ai eu une mère.
+Savez-vous ce que c'est que d'avoir une mère? En avez-vous eu une,
+vous?... Eh bien! j'avais une mère, moi."
+
+This appears to be a species of refinement upon the old saying, "It is
+a wise child that knows its own father." The charming Tisbe evidently
+piques herself upon her sagacity in being quite certain that she had a
+mother;--but she has not yet finished her story.
+
+"C'était une pauvre femme sans mari qui chantait des chansons dans
+les places publiques." (The "_delicate_" Esmeralda again.) "Un jour,
+un sénateur passa. Il regarde, il entendit," (she must have been
+singing the _Ça ira_ of 1549,) "et dit au capitaine qui le suivait--A
+la potence cette femme! Ma mère fut saisie sur-le-champ--elle ne dit
+rien ... a quoi bon? ... m'embrassa avec une grosse larme, prit son
+crucifix et se laissa garrotter. Je le vois encore ce crucifix en
+cuivre poli, mon nom Tisbe écrit en bas.... Mais il y avait avec le
+sénateur une jeune fille.... Elle se jeta aux pieds du sénateur et
+obtint la grace de ma mère.... Quand ma mère fut déliée, elle prit son
+crucifix, ma mère, et le donna à la belle enfant, en lui disant,
+Madame, gardez ce crucifix--il vous portera bonheur."
+
+Imagine Mademoiselle Mars uttering this trash!... Oh, it was grievous!
+And if I do not greatly mistake, she admired her part quite as little
+as I did, though she exerted all her power to make it endurable,--and
+there were passages, certainly, in which she succeeded in making one
+forget everything but herself, her voice, and her action.
+
+But to proceed. On this crucifix de cuivre poli, inscribed with the
+name of Tisbe, hangs all the little plot. Catarina Bragadini, the wife
+of the Tyrant, and the most ill-used and meritorious of ladies, is
+introduced to us in the third scene of the second day (new style--acts
+are out of fashion,) lamenting to her confidential femme de chambre
+the intolerable long absence of her lover. The maid listens, as in
+duty bound, with the most respectful sympathy, and then tells her that
+another of her waiting-maids for whom she had inquired was at prayers.
+Whereupon we have a morsel of naïveté that is _impayable_.
+
+"CATARINA.
+
+"Laisse-la prier.--Hélas! ... moi, cela ne me fait rien de prier!"
+
+This, I suspect, is what is called "the natural vein," in which
+consists the peculiar merit of this new style of writing. After this
+charming burst of natural feeling, the Podesta's virtuous lady goes on
+with her lament.
+
+"CATARINA.
+
+"Il y a cinq semaines--cinq semaines éternelles que je ne l'ai vu!...
+Je suis enfermée, gardée, en prison. Je le voyais une heure de tems en
+tems: cette heure si étroite, et si vite fermée, c'était le seul
+_soupirail_[1] par où entrait un peu d'air et de soleil dans ma vie.
+Maintenant tout est muré.... Oh Rodolpho!... Dafné, nous avons passé,
+lui et moi, de bien douces heures!... Est-ce que c'est coupable tout
+ce que je dis là de lui? Non, n'est-ce pas?"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Now you must know, that this Signor Rodolpho plays the part of gallant
+to both these ladies, and, though intended by the author for another
+of his estimable personages, is certainly, by his own showing, as
+great a rascal as can well be imagined. He loves only the wife, and
+not the mistress of Angelo; and though he permits her par complaisance
+to be his mistress too, he addresses her upon one occasion, when she
+is giving way to a fit of immoderate fondness, with great sincerity.
+
+"RODOLPHO.
+
+"Prenez garde, Tisbe, ma famille est une famille fatale. Il y a sur
+nous une prédiction, une destinée qui s'accomplit presque
+inévitablement de père en fils. Nous tuons qui nous aime."
+
+From this passage, and one before quoted, it should seem, I think,
+that notwithstanding all the innovations of M. Hugo, he has still a
+lingering reverence for the immutable power of destiny which overhangs
+the classic drama. How otherwise can he explain these two mystic
+sentences?--"Ma famille est une famille fatale. Il y a sur nous une
+destinée qui s'accomplit de père en fils." And this other: "La haine
+c'est dans notre sang: il faut toujours qu'un Malipieri haïsse
+quelqu'un."
+
+The only other character of importance is a very mysterious one called
+Homodei; and I think I may best describe him in the words of the
+excellent burlesque which has already been brought out upon this
+"Angelo" at the Vaudeville. There they make one of the dramatis
+personæ, when describing this very incomprehensible Homodei, say of
+him,--
+
+ "C'est le plus grand dormeur de France et de Navarre."
+
+In effect, he far out-sleeps the dozing sentinels in the "Critic;" for
+he goes on scene after scene sleeping apparently as sound as a top,
+till all on a sudden he starts up wide awake, and gives us to
+understand that he too is exceedingly in love with Madame la Podesta,
+but that he has been rejected. He therefore determines to do her as
+much mischief as possible, observing that "Un Sbire (for such is his
+humble rank) qui aime est bien petit--un Sbire qui se venge est bien
+grand."
+
+This great but rejected Sbire, however, is not contented with avenging
+himself on Catarina for her scorn, but is pushed, by his destiny, I
+presume, to set the whole company together by the ears.
+
+He first brings Rodolpho into the bed-room of Catarina, then brings
+the jealous Tisbe there to look at them, and finally contrives that
+the Tyrant himself should find out his wife's little innocent love
+affair--for innocent she declares it is.
+
+Fortunately, during this unaccountable reunion in the chamber of
+Madame, la Tisbe discovers that her mother the ballad-singer's
+crucifix is in the possession of her rival Catarina; whereupon she not
+only decides upon resigning her claim upon the heart of Signor
+Rodolpho in her favour, but determines upon saving her life from the
+fury of her jealous husband, who has communicated to the Tisbe, as we
+have seen above, his intention of killing his wife, because "il faut
+toujours qu'un Malipieri haïsse quelqu'un."
+
+Fortunately, again, it happens that the Tisbe has communicated to her
+lover the Tyrant, in a former conversation, the remarkable fact that
+another lover still had once upon a time made her a present of two
+phials--one black, the other white--one containing poison, the other a
+narcotic. After he has discovered Catarina's innocent weakness for
+Rodolpho, he informs the Tisbe that the time is come for him to kill
+his lady, and that he intends to do it by cutting her head off
+privately. The Tisbe tells him that this is a bad plan, and that
+poison would do much better.
+
+"ANGELO.
+
+"Oui! Le poison vaudrait mieux. Mais il faudrait un poison rapide, et,
+_vous ne me croirez pas_, je n'en ai pas ici.
+
+"LA TISBE.
+
+"J'en ai, moi.
+
+"ANGELO.
+
+"Où?
+
+"LA TISBE.
+
+"Chez moi.
+
+"ANGELO.
+
+"Quel poison?
+
+"LA TISBE.
+
+"Le poison Malispine, _vous savez_: cette boîte que m'a envoyée le
+primicier de Saint Marc."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+After this satisfactory explanation, Angelo accepts her offer, and she
+trots away home and brings him the phial containing the narcotic.
+
+The absurdity of the scene that takes place when Angelo and the Tisbe
+are endeavouring to persuade Catarina to consent to be killed is such,
+that nothing but transcribing the whole can give you an idea of it:
+but it is too long for this. Believe me, we were not the only part of
+the audience that laughed at this scene _à gorge déployée_.
+
+Angelo begins by asking if she is ready.
+
+"CATARINA.
+
+"Prête à quoi?
+
+"ANGELO.
+
+"A mourir.
+
+"CATARINA.
+
+"... Mourir! Non, je ne suis pas prête. Je ne suis pas prête. Je ne
+suis pas prête _du tout_, monsieur!
+
+"ANGELO.
+
+"Combien de temps vous faut-il pour vous préparer?
+
+"CATARINA.
+
+"Oh! je ne sais pas--beaucoup de temps!"
+
+Angelo tells her she shall have an hour, and then leaves her alone:
+upon which she draws aside a curtain and discovers a block and an axe.
+She is naturally exceedingly shocked at this spectacle; her soliloquy
+is sublime!
+
+"CATARINA (_replacing the curtain_).
+
+"Derrière moi! c'est derrière moi. Ah! vous voyez bien que ce n'est
+pas un rêve, et que c'est bien réel ce qui passe ici, puisque _voilà
+des choses là derrière le rideau_!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Corneille! Racine! Voltaire!--This is tragedy,--tragedy played on the
+stage of the Théâtre Français--tragedy which it has been declared in
+the face of day shall "lift the ground from under you!" Such is the
+march of mind!
+
+After this glorious soliloquy, her lover Rodolpho pays Catarina a
+visit--again in her bed-room, in her guarded palace, surrounded by
+spies and sentinels. How he gets there, it is impossible to guess: but
+in the burlesque at the Vaudeville they make this matter much
+clearer;--for there these unaccountable entrées are managed at one
+time by the falling down of a wall; at another, by the lover's rising
+through the floor like a ghost; and at another, by his coming flying
+down on a wire from an opening in the ceiling like a Cupid.
+
+The lovers have a long talk; but she does not tell him a word about
+the killing, for fear it should bring him into mischief,--though
+where he got in, it might be easy enough for her to get out. However,
+she says nothing about "_les choses_" behind the curtain, but gives
+him a kiss, and sends him away in high glee.
+
+No sooner does he disappear, than Angelo and the Tisbe enter, and a
+conversation ensues between the three on the manner of the doomed
+lady's death that none but M. Victor Hugo could have written. He would
+represent nature, and he makes a high-born princess, pleading for her
+life to a sovereign who is her husband, speak thus: "Parlons
+simplement. Tenez ... vous êtes infâme ... et puis, comme vous mentez
+toujours, vous ne me croirez pas. Tenez, vraiment je vous méprise:
+vous m'avez épousée pour mon argent...."
+
+Then she makes a speech to the Tisbe in the same exquisite tone of
+nature; with now and then a phrase or expression which is quite beyond
+even the fun of the Vaudeville to travestie; as for instance--"Je suis
+toujours restée honnête--vous me comprenez, vous--mais je ne puis dire
+cela à mon mari. _Les hommes ne veulent jamais nous croire_, vous
+savez; cependant nous leur disons _quelquefois_ des choses bien
+vraies...."
+
+At last the Tyrant gets out of patience.
+
+"ANGELO.
+
+"C'en est trop! Catarina Bragadina, le crime fait, veut un châtiment;
+la fosse ouverte, veut un cercueil; le mari outragé, veut une femme
+morte. _Tu perds toutes les paroles qui sortent de ta bouche_
+(montrant le poison).
+
+"Voulez vous, madame?
+
+"CATARINA.
+
+"Non!
+
+"ANGELO.
+
+"Non?... J'en reviens à ma première idée alors. Les épées! les épées!
+Troilo! qu'on aille me chercher.... J'y vais!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Now we all know that his première idée was not to stab her with one or
+more swords, but to cut her head off on a block--and that _les choses_
+are all hid ready for it behind the curtain. But this "J'y vais" is
+part of the machinery of the fable; for if the Tyrant did not go away,
+the Tisbe could have found no opportunity of giving her rival a hint
+that the poison was not so dangerous as she believed. So when Angelo
+returns, the Tisbe tells him that "elle se résigne au poison."
+
+Catarina drinks the potion, falls into a trance, and is buried.
+(Victor Hugo is always original, they say.) The Tisbe digs her up
+again, and lays her upon a bed in her own house, carefully drawing the
+curtains round her. Then comes the great catastrophe. The lover of the
+two ladies uses his privilege, and enters the Tisbe's apartment,
+determined to fulfil his destiny and murder her, because she loves
+him--as written in the book of fate--and also because she has poisoned
+his other and his favourite love Catarina. The Signor Rodolpho knows
+that she brought the phial, because one of the maids told him so: this
+is another instance of the ingenious and skilful machinery of the
+fable. Rodolpho tells the poor woman what he is come for; adding,
+"Vous avez un quart d'heure pour vous préparer à la mort, madame!"
+
+There is something in this which shows that M. Hugo, notwithstanding
+he has some odd décousu notions, is aware of the respect which ought
+to be paid to married ladies, beyond what is due to those who are not
+so. When the Podesta announced the same intention to his wife, he
+says--"Vous avez devant vous une heure, madame." At the Vaudeville,
+however, they give another turn to this variation in the time allowed
+under circumstances so similar: they say--
+
+ "Catarina eut une heure au moins de son mari:
+ Le tems depuis tantôt est donc bien renchéri."
+
+The unfortunate Tisbe, on receiving this communication from her dear
+Rodolpho, exclaims--"Ah! vous me tuez! Ah! c'est la première idée qui
+vous vient?"
+
+Some farther conversation takes place between them. On one occasion he
+says--like a prince as he is--"Mentez un peu, voyons!"--and then he
+assures her that he never cared a farthing for her, repeating very
+often, because, as he says, it is her _supplice_ to hear it, that he
+never loved anybody but Catarina. During the whole scene she ceases
+not, however, to reiterate her passionate protestations of love to
+him, and at last the dialogue ends by Rodolpho's stabbing her to the
+heart.
+
+I never beheld anything on the stage so utterly disgusting as this
+scene. That Mademoiselle Mars felt weighed down by the part, I am
+quite certain;--it was like watching the painful efforts of a
+beautiful racer pushed beyond its power--distressed, yet showing its
+noble nature to the last. But even her exquisite acting made the
+matter worse: to hear the voice of Mars uttering expressions of love,
+while the ruffian she addresses grows more murderous as she grows more
+tender, produced an effect at once so hateful and so absurd, that one
+knows not whether to laugh or storm at it. But, what was the most
+terrible of all, was to see Mars exerting her matchless powers to draw
+forth tears, and then to look round the house and see that she was
+rewarded by--a smile!
+
+After Tisbe is stabbed, Catarina of course comes to life; and the
+whole farce concludes by the dying Tisbe's telling the lovers that she
+had ordered horses for them; adding tenderly, "Elle est
+déliée--(how?)--morte pour le podesta, vivante pour toi. Trouves-tu
+cela bien arrangé ainsi?" Then Rodolpho says to Catarina, "Par qui
+as-tu été sauvée?"
+
+"LA TISBE (_in reply_).
+
+"Par moi, pour toi!"
+
+M. Hugo, in a note at the end of the piece, apologises for not
+concluding with these words--"Par moi, pour toi," which he seems to
+think particularly effective: nevertheless, for some reason which he
+does not very clearly explain, he concludes thus;--
+
+"LA TISBE.
+
+"Madame, permettez-moi de lui dire encore une fois, Mon Rodolpho.
+Adieu, mon Rodolpho! partez vite à présent. Je meurs. Vivez. Je te
+bénis!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+It is impossible in thus running through the piece to give you any
+adequate idea of the loose, weak, trumpery style in which it is
+written. It really seems as if the author were determined to try how
+low he might go before the boys and grisettes who form the chorus of
+his admirers shall find out that he is quizzing them. One peculiarity
+in the plot of "this fine tragedy" is, that the hero Angelo never
+appears, nor is even alluded to, after the scene in which he
+commissions la Tisbe to administer the poison to Madame. His sudden
+disappearance is thus commented upon at the Vaudeville. The Tyrant
+there makes his appearance after it is all over, exclaiming--
+
+ "Je veux en être, moi ... l'on osera peut-être
+ Finir un mélodrame en absence du traître?
+ Suis-je un hors-d'oeuvre, un inutile article,
+ Une cinquième roue ajoutée au tricycle?"
+
+In the preface to this immortal performance there is this passage:--
+
+"Dans l'état où sont aujourd'hui toutes ces questions profondes qui
+touchent aux racines même de la société, il semblait depuis long-tems
+à l'auteur de ce drame qu'il pourrait y avoir utilité et grandeur"
+(utilité et grandeur!) "à développer sur le théâtre quelque chose de
+pareil à l'idée que voici...."
+
+And then follows what he calls his idea: but this preface must be read
+from beginning to end, if you wish to see what sort of stuff it is
+that humbug and impudence can induce the noisiest part of a population
+to pronounce "fine!" But you must hear one sentence more of this
+precious preface, for fear "the work" may not fall into your hands.
+
+"Le drame, comme l'auteur de cet ouvrage le voudrait faire, doit
+donner à la foule une philosophie; aux idées, une formule; à la
+poésie, des muscles, du sang, et de la vie; à ceux qui pense, une
+explication désintéressée; aux âmes altérées un breuvage, aux plaies
+secrètes un baume--à chacun un conseil, à tous une loi." (!!!!)
+
+He concludes thus:--
+
+"Au siècle où nous vivons, l'horizon de l'art est bien élargi.
+Autrefois le poète disait, le public; aujourd'hui le poète dit, le
+peuple."
+
+Is it possible to conceive affected sublimity and genuine nonsense
+carried farther than this? Let us not, however, sit down with the
+belief that the capital of France is quite in the condition he
+describes;--let us not receive it quite as gospel that the raptures,
+the sympathy of this "foule sympathique et éclairée," that he talks
+of, in his preface to "Angelo," as coming nightly to the theatre to do
+him honour, exists--or at least that it exists beyond the very narrow
+limits of his own clique. The men of France do not sympathise with
+Victor Hugo, whatever the boys may do. He has made himself a name, it
+is true,--but it is not a good one; and in forming an estimate of the
+present state of literature in France, we shall greatly err if we
+assume as a fact that Hugo is an admired writer.
+
+I would not be unjustly severe on any one; but here is a gentleman who
+in early life showed considerable ability;--he produced some light
+pieces in verse, which are said to be written with good moral
+feeling, and in a perfectly pure and correct literary taste. We have
+therefore a right to say that M. Hugo turned his talents thus against
+his fellow-creatures, not from ignorance--not from simple folly--but
+upon calculation. For is it possible to believe that any man who has
+once shown by his writings a good moral feeling and a correct taste,
+can expose to the public eye such pieces as "Lucrèce Borgia," "Le Roi
+s'amuse," "Angelo," and the rest--in good faith, believing the doing
+so to be, as he says, "une tâche sainte?" Is this possible?... and if
+it be not, what follows?... Why, that the author is making a job of
+corrupting human hearts and human intellects. He has found out that
+the mind of man, particularly in youth, eagerly seeks excitement of
+any kind: he knows that human beings will go to see their fellows
+hanged or guillotined by way of an amusement, and on this knowledge he
+speculates.
+
+But as the question relates to France, we have not hitherto treated it
+fairly. I am persuaded that had our stage no censorship, and were
+dramas such as those of Dumas and Victor Hugo to be produced, they
+would fill the theatres at least as much as they do here. Their very
+absurdity--the horror--nay, even the disgust they inspire, is quite
+enough to produce this effect; but it would be unwise to argue thence
+that such trash had become the prevailing taste of the people.
+
+That the speculation, as such, has been successful, I have no doubt.
+This play, for instance, has been very generally talked of, and many
+have gone to see it, not only on its own account, but in order to
+behold the novel spectacle of Mademoiselle Mars _en lutte_ with an
+actress from La Porte St. Martin. As for Madame Dorval, I imagine she
+must be a very effective melodramatic performer when seen in her
+proper place; but, however it may have flattered her vanity, I do not
+think it can have added to her fame to bring her into this dangerous
+competition. As an actress, she is, I think, to Mademoiselle Mars much
+what Victor Hugo is to Racine,--and perhaps we shall hear that she has
+"heaved the ground from under her."
+
+Among various stories floating about on the subject of the new play
+and its author, I heard one which came from a gentleman who has long
+been in habits of intimacy with M. Hugo. He went, as in duty bound, to
+see the tragedy, and had immediately afterwards to face his friend.
+The embarrassment of the situation required to be met by presence of
+mind and a _coup de main_: he showed himself, however, equal to the
+exigency; he spoke not a word, but rushing towards the author, threw
+his arms round him, and held him long in a close and silent embrace.
+
+Another pleasantry on the same subject reached me in the shape of four
+verses, which are certainly droll enough; but I suspect that they must
+have been written in honour, not of "Angelo," but of some one of the
+tragedies in verse--"Le Roi s'amuse," perhaps, for they mimic the
+harmony of some of the lines to be found there admirably.
+
+ "Où, ô Hugo! huchera-t-on ton nom?
+ Justice encore rendu, que ne t'a-t-on?
+ Quand donc au corps qu'académique on nomme,
+ Grimperas-tu de roc en roc, rare homme?"
+
+And now farewell to Victor Hugo! I promise to trouble you with him no
+more; but the consequence which has been given to his name in England,
+has induced me to speak thus fully of the estimation in which I find
+him held in France.
+
+ "RARE HOMME!"
+
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] Vent-hole.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXV.
+
+ Boulevard des Italiens.--Tortoni's.--Thunder-storm.--Church
+ of the Madeleine.--Mrs. Butler's "Journal."
+
+
+All the world has been complaining of the tremendous heat of the
+weather here. The thermometer stands at.... I forget what, for the
+scale is not my scale; but I know that the sun has been shining
+without mercy during the last week, and that all the world declare
+that they are baked. Of all the cities of the earth to be baked in,
+surely Paris is the best. I have been reading that beautiful story of
+George Sand's about nothing at all, called "Lavinia," and chose for my
+study the deepest shade of the Tuileries Garden. If we could but have
+sat there all day, we should have felt no inconvenience from the sun,
+but, on the contrary, only have watched him from hour to hour
+caressing the flowers, and trying in vain to find entrance for one of
+his beams into the delightful covert we had chosen: but there were
+people to be seen, and engagements to be kept; and so here we are at
+home again, looking forward to a large party for the evening!
+
+The Boulevard as we came along was prettier than ever;--stands of
+delicious flowers tempting one at every step--a rose, and a bud, and
+two bits of mignonette, and a sprig of myrtle, for five sous; but all
+arranged so elegantly, that the little bouquet was worth a dozen tied
+up less tastefully. I never saw so many sitters in a morning; the
+people seemed as if they were reposing from necessity--as if they sat
+because they could walk no farther. As we passed Tortoni's, we were
+amused by a group, consisting of a very pretty woman and a very pretty
+man, who were seated on two chairs close together, and flirting
+apparently very much to their own satisfaction; while the third figure
+in the group, a little Savoyard, who had probably begun by asking
+charity, seemed spell-bound, with his eyes fixed on the elegant pair
+as if studying a scene for the _gaie science_, of which, as he carried
+a mandoline, I presume he was a disciple. We were equally entertained
+by the pertinacious staring of the little minstrel, and the utter
+indifference to it manifested by the objects of his admiration.
+
+A few steps farther, our eyes were again arrested by an exquisite, who
+had taken off his hat, and was deliberately combing his coal-black
+curls as he walked. In a brother beau, I doubt not he would have
+condemned such a degree of _laisser-aller_; but in himself, it only
+served to relever the beauty of his forehead and the general grace of
+his movements. I was glad that no fountain or limpid lake opened
+beneath his feet,--the fate of Narcissus would have been inevitable.
+
+Last night we had intended to make a farewell visit to the
+Feydeau,--Feydeau no longer, however,--to the Opéra Comique, I should
+say. But fortunately we had not secured a box, and therefore enjoyed
+the privilege of changing our minds,--a privilege ever dear, but in
+such weather as this inestimable. Instead of going to the theatre, we
+remained at home till it began to grow dark and cool--cooler at least
+by some degrees, but still most heavily sultry. We then sallied forth
+to eat ices at Tortoni's. All Paris seemed to be assembled upon the
+Boulevard to breathe: it was like a very crowded night at Vauxhall,
+and hundreds of chairs seemed to have sprung up from the ground to
+meet the exigences of the moment, for double rows of sitters occupied
+each side of the pavement.
+
+ [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+ BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS.
+ London. Published by Richard Bentley. 1835.]
+
+Frenchwomen are so very lovely in their evening walking-dress, that I
+would rather see them thus than when full-dressed at parties. A
+drawing-room full of elegantly-dressed women, all looking prepared for
+a bal paré, is no unusual sight for English eyes; but truth obliges me
+to confess that it would be in vain at any imaginable evening
+promenade in London to look for such a spectacle as the Italian
+Boulevard showed us last night. It is the strangest thing in the world
+that it should be so--for it is certain that neither the bonnets, nor
+the pretty faces they shelter, are in any way inferior in England to
+any that can be seen elsewhere; but Frenchwomen have more the habit
+and the _knack_ of looking elegantly-dressed without being
+full-dressed. It is impossible to enter into detail in order to
+explain this--nothing less skilful than a milliner could do this; and
+I think that even the most skilful of the profession would not find it
+easy: I can only state the fact, that the general effect of an evening
+promenade in Paris is more elegant than it is in London.
+
+We were fortunate enough to secure the places of a large party that
+were leaving a window in the upper room at Tortoni's as we entered it:
+and here again is a scene as totally un-English as that of a
+restaurant in the Palais Royal. Both the rooms above, as well as those
+below, were quite full of gay company, each party sitting round their
+own little marble table, with the large _carafe_ of ice--for so it may
+well be called, for it only melts as you want it--the very sight of
+which, even if you venture not to drain a draught from the slowly
+yielding mass, creates a feeling of delicious coldness. Then the
+incessant entrées of party-coloured pyramids, with their
+accompaniment of gaufres,--the brilliant light within, the humming
+crowd without,--the refreshing coolness of the delicate regale, and
+the light gaiety which all the world seem to share at this pleasant
+hour of perfect idleness,--all are incontestably French, and, more
+incontestably still, not English.
+
+While we were still at our window, amused by all within and all
+without, we were started by some sharp flashes of lightning which
+began to break through a heavy cloud of most portentous blackness that
+I had been for some time admiring, as forming a beautiful contrast to
+the blaze of light on the Boulevard. No rain was as yet falling, and I
+proposed to my party a walk towards the Madeleine, which I thought
+would give us some fine effects of light and darkness on such a night
+as this. The proposal was eagerly accepted, and we wandered on till we
+left the crowd and the gas behind us. We walked to the end of the Rue
+Royale, and then turned round slowly and gradually to approach the
+church. The effect was infinitely finer than anything I had
+anticipated: the moon was only a few days past the full; and even when
+hid behind the heavy clouds that were gathering together as it seemed
+from all parts of the sky, gave light enough for us dimly, yet
+distinctly, to discern the vast and beautiful proportions of the
+magnificent portico. It looked like the pale spectre of a Grecian
+temple. With one accord we all paused at the point where it was most
+perfectly and most beautifully visible; and I assure you, that with
+the heavy ominous mass of black clouds above and behind it--with the
+faint light of the "inconstant moon," now for a moment brightly
+visible, and now wholly hid behind a driving cloud, reflected from its
+columns, it was the most beautiful object of art that I ever looked
+at.
+
+It was some time before we could resolve to leave it, quite sure as we
+were that it never could be our chance to behold it in such perfection
+again; and while we stayed, the storm advanced rapidly towards us,
+adding the distant rumbling of its angry voice to enhance the effect
+of the spectacle. Yet still we lingered; and were rewarded for our
+courage by seeing the whole of the vast edifice burst upon our sight
+in such a blaze of sudden brightness, that when it passed away, I
+thought for an instant that I was struck blind. Another flash
+followed--another and another. The spectacle was glorious; but the
+danger of being drenched to the skin became every moment more
+imminent, and we hastily retreated to the Boulevard. As we emerged
+from the gloom of the Madeleine Boulevard to the glaring gas-light
+from the cafés which illuminated the Italian, it seemed as if we had
+got into another atmosphere and another world. No rain had as yet
+fallen; and the crowd, thicker than ever, were still sitting and
+lounging about, apparently unconscious of the watery danger which
+threatened them. So great is the force of example, that, before we got
+to the end of the promenade, we seemed unconscious of it too, for we
+turned with the rest. But we were soon punished for our folly: the
+dark canopy burst asunder, and let down upon us as pelting a shower as
+ever drove feathers and flowers, and ribbons and gauze, to every point
+of the compass in search of shelter.
+
+I have sometimes wondered at the short space of time it required to
+clear a crowded theatre of its guests; but the vanishing of the crowd
+from the Boulevard was more rapid still. What became of them all,
+Heaven knows; but they seemed to melt and dissolve away as the rain
+fell upon them. We took shelter in the Passage de l'Opéra; and after a
+few minutes the rain ceased, and we got safely home.
+
+In the course of our excursion we encountered an English friend, who
+returned home with us; and though it was eleven o'clock, he looked
+neither shocked nor surprised when I ordered tea, but even consented
+to stay and partake of it with us. Our tea-table gossip was concerning
+a book that all the world--all the English world at least--had been
+long eagerly looking for, and which we had received two days before.
+Our English friend had made it his travelling-companion, and having
+just completed the perusal of it, could talk of nothing else. This
+book was Mrs. Butler's "Journal." Happily for the tranquillity of our
+tea-table, we were all perfectly well agreed in opinion respecting it:
+for, by his account, parties for and against it have been running very
+strong amongst you. I confess I heard this with astonishment; for it
+appears to me that all that can be said against the book lies so
+completely on the surface, that it must be equally visible to all the
+world, and that nobody can fail to perceive it. But these obvious
+defects once acknowledged--and they must be acknowledged by all, I
+should have thought that there was no possibility left for much
+difference of opinion,--I should have thought the genius of its author
+would then have carried all before it, leaving no one sufficiently
+cold-blooded and reasonable to remember that it contained any faults
+at all.
+
+It is certainly possible that my familiarity with the scenes she
+describes may give her spirited sketches a charm and a value in my
+eyes that they may not have for those who know not their truth. But
+this is not all their merit: the glow of feeling, the warm eloquence,
+the poetic fervour with which she describes all that is beautiful, and
+gives praise to all that is good, must make its way to every heart,
+and inspire every imagination with power to appreciate the graphic
+skill of her descriptions even though they may have no power to judge
+of their accuracy.
+
+I have been one among those who have deeply regretted the loss, the
+bankruptcy, which the stage has sustained in the tragic branch of its
+business by the secession of this lady: but her book, in my opinion,
+demonstrates such extraordinary powers of writing, that I am willing
+to flatter myself that we shall have gained eventually rather than
+lost by her having forsaken a profession too fatiguing, too exhausting
+to the spirits, and necessarily occupying too much time, to have
+permitted her doing what now we may fairly hope she will do,--namely,
+devote herself to literature. There are some passages of her
+hastily-written, and too hastily-published journal, which evidently
+indicate that her mind was at work upon composition. She appears to
+judge herself and her own efforts so severely, that, when speaking of
+the scenes of an unpublished tragedy, she says "they are not
+bad,"--which is, I think, the phrase she uses: I feel quite persuaded
+that they are admirable. Then again she says, "Began writing a
+novel...." I would that she would finish it too!--and as I hold it to
+be impossible that such a mind as hers can remain inactive, I comfort
+myself with the belief that we shall soon again receive some token of
+her English recollections handed to us across the Atlantic. That her
+next production will be less _faulty_ than her last, none can doubt,
+because the blemishes are exactly of a nature to be found in the
+journal of a heedless young traveller, who having caught, in passing,
+a multitude of unseemly phrases, puts them forth in jest,
+unmindful--much too unmindful certainly--of the risk she ran that they
+might be fixed upon her as her own genuine individual style of
+expression. But we have only to read those passages where she
+certainly is not jesting--where poetry, feeling, goodness, and piety
+glow in every line--to know what her language is _when she is in
+earnest_. On these occasions her power of expression is worthy of the
+thoughts of which it is the vehicle,--and I can give it no higher
+praise.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVI.
+
+ A pleasant Party.--Discussion between an Englishman and a
+ Frenchman.--National Peculiarities.
+
+
+I told you yesterday that, notwithstanding the tremendous heat of the
+weather, we were going to a large party in the evening. We
+courageously kept the engagement; though, I assure you, I did it in
+trembling. But, to our equal surprise and satisfaction, the rooms of
+Mrs. M---- proved to be deliciously cool and agreeable. Her
+receiving-apartment consists of three rooms. The first was surrounded
+and decorated in all possible ways with a profusion of the most
+beautiful flowers, intermixed with so many large glass vases for gold
+fish, that I am sure the air was much cooled by evaporation from the
+water they contained. This room was lighted wholly by a large lamp
+suspended from the ceiling, which was enclosed in a sort of gauze
+globe, just sufficiently thick to prevent any painful glare of light,
+but not enough so to injure the beautiful effect always produced by
+the illumination of flowers. The large croisées were thrown open, with
+very slight muslin curtains over them; and the whole effect of the
+room--its cool atmosphere, its delicious fragrance, and its subdued
+light--was so enchanting, that it was not without difficulty we passed
+on to pay our compliments to Mrs. M----, who was in a larger but much
+less fascinating apartment.
+
+There were many French persons present, but the majority of the
+company was English. Having looked about us a little, we retreated to
+the fishes and the myrtles; and as there was a very handsome man
+singing buffa songs in one of the other rooms, with a score of very
+handsome women looking at and listening to him, the multitude
+assembled there; and we had the extreme felicity of finding fresh air
+and a sofa _à notre disposition_, with the additional satisfaction of
+accepting or refusing ices every time the trays paraded before us. You
+will believe that we were not long left without companions, in a
+position so every way desirable: and in truth we soon had about us a
+select committee of superlatively agreeable people; and there we sat
+till considerably past midnight, with a degree of enjoyment which
+rarely belongs to hours devoted to a very large party in very hot
+weather.
+
+And what did we talk about?--I think it would be easier to enumerate
+the subjects we did not touch upon than those we did. Everybody
+seemed to think that it would be too fatiguing to run any theme far;
+and so, rather in the style of idle, pampered lap-dogs, than of
+spirited pointers and setters, we amused ourselves by skittishly
+pursuing whatever was started, just as it pleased us, and then turned
+round and reposed till something else darted into view. The whole
+circle, consisting of seven persons, were English with the exception
+of one; and that one was--he must excuse me, for I will not name
+him--that one was a most exceedingly clever and superlatively
+agreeable young Frenchman.
+
+As we had snarled and snapped a little here and there in some of our
+gambols after the various objects which had passed before us, this
+young man suggested the possibility of his being _de trop_ in the
+coterie. "Are you not gênés," said he, "by my being here to listen to
+all that you and yours may be disposed to say of us and ours?... Shall
+I have the amiability to depart?"
+
+A general and decided negative was put upon this proposition; but one
+of the party moved an amendment. "Let us," said he, "agree to say
+everything respecting France and the French with as much unreserve as
+if you were on the top of Notre Dame; and do you, who have been for
+three months in England, treat us exactly in the same manner; and see
+what we shall make of each other. We are all much too languid to
+suffer our patriotism to mount up to 'spirit-boil,' and so there is no
+danger whatever that we should quarrel."
+
+"I would accept the partie instantly," said the Frenchman, "were it
+not so unequal. But six to one! ... is not this too hard?"
+
+"No! ... not the least in the world, if we take it in the quizzing
+vein," replied the other; "for it is well known that a Frenchman can
+out-quiz six Englishmen at any time."
+
+"Eh bien!" ... said the complaisant Parisian with a sigh, "I will do
+my best. Begin, ladies, if you please."
+
+"No! no! no!" exclaimed several female voices in a breath; "we will
+have nothing to do with it; fight it out between yourselves: we will
+be the judges, and award the honours of the field to him who hits the
+hardest."
+
+"This is worse and worse," cried our laughing enemy: "if this be the
+arrangement of the combat, the judgment, à coup sûr, will be given
+against me. How can you expect such blind confidence from me?"
+
+We protested against this attack upon our justice, promised to be as
+impartial as Jove, and desired the champions to enter the lists.
+
+"So then," said the Englishman, "I am to enact the part of St. George
+... and God defend the right!"
+
+"And I, that of St. Denis," replied the Frenchman, his right hand upon
+his breast and his left gracefully sawing the air. "Mon bras ... non
+...
+
+ 'Ma _langue_ à ma patrie,
+ Mon coeur à mon amie,
+ Mourir gaiement pour la gloire et l'amour,
+ C'est la devise d'un vaillant troubadour.'
+
+Allons!... Now tell me, St. George, what say you in defence of the
+English mode of suffering ladies--the ladies of Britain--the most
+lovely ladies in the world, n'est-ce pas?--to rise from table, and
+leave the room, and the gentlemen--alone--with downcast eyes and timid
+step--without a single preux chevalier to offer them his protection or
+to bear them company on their melancholy way--banished, turned
+out--exiled from the banquet-board!--I protest to you that I have
+suffered martyrdom when this has happened, and I, for my sins, been
+present to witness it. Croyez-moi, I would have joyfully submitted to
+make my exit à quatre pattes, so I might but have followed them. Ah!
+you know not what it is for a Frenchman to remain still, when forced
+to behold such a spectacle as this!... Alas! I felt as if I had
+disgraced myself for life; but I was more than spell-bound--I was
+promise-bound; the friend who accompanied me to the party where I
+witnessed this horror had previously told me what I should have to
+endure--I did endure it--but I have not yet forgiven myself for
+participating in so outrageous a barbarism."
+
+"The gentlemen only remain to drink the fair ladies' health," said our
+St. George very coolly; "and I doubt not all ladies would tell you,
+did they speak sincerely, that they were heartily glad to get rid of
+you for half an hour or so. You have no idea, my good fellow, what an
+agreeable interlude this makes for them: they drink coffee, sprinkle
+their fans with esprit de rose, refresh their wit, repair their
+smiles, and are ready to set off again upon a fresh campaign, certain
+of fresh conquests. But what can St. Denis say in defence of a
+Frenchman who makes love to three women at once--as I positively
+declare I saw you do last night at the Opera?"
+
+"You mistook the matter altogether, mon cher; I did not make love--I
+only offered adoration: we are bound to adore the whole sex, and all
+the petits soins offered in public are but the ceremonies of this our
+national worship.... We never make love in public, my dear friend--_ce
+n'est pas dans nos moeurs_. But will you explain to me un peu, why
+Englishmen indulge themselves in the very extraordinary habit of
+taking their wives to market with that vilaine corde au cou that it is
+so dreadful to mention, and there sell them for the mesquine somme de
+trois francs?... Ah! be very sure that were there a single Frenchman
+present at your terrible Smithfield when this happened, he would buy
+them all up, and give them their liberty at once."
+
+The St. George laughed--but then replied very gravely, that the custom
+was a very useful one, as it enabled an Englishman to get rid of a
+wife as soon as he found that she was not worth keeping. "But will you
+tell me," he continued, "how it is that you can be so inhuman as to
+take your innocent young daughters and sisters, and dispose of them as
+if they were Virginian slaves born on your estates, to the best
+bidder, without asking the charming little creatures themselves one
+single word concerning their sentiments on the subject?"
+
+"We are too careful of our young daughters and sisters," replied the
+champion of France, "not to provide them with a suitable alliance and
+a proper protector before they shall have run the risk of making a
+less prudent selection for themselves: but, what can put it into the
+heads of English parents to send out whole ship-loads of young English
+demoiselles--si belles qu'elles sont!--to the other side of the earth,
+in order to provide them with husbands?"
+
+Our knight paused for a moment before he answered, and I believe we
+all shook for him; but at length he replied very sententiously--
+
+"When nations spread their conquests to _the other side of the earth_,
+and send forth their generals and their judges to take and to hold
+possession for them, it is fitting that their distant honours should
+be shared by their fair countrywomen. But will you explain to me why
+it is that the venerable grandmothers of France think it necessary to
+figure in a contre-danse--nay, even in a waltz, as long as they think
+that they have strength left to prevent their falling on their noses?"
+
+"'Vive la bagatelle!' is the first lesson we learn in our nurses'
+arms--and Heaven forbid we should any of us live long enough to forget
+it!" answered the Frenchman. "But if the question be not too
+indiscreet, will you tell me, most glorious St. George, in what school
+of philosophy it was that Englishmen learned to seek satisfaction for
+their wounded honour in the receipt of a sum of money from the lovers
+of their wives?"
+
+"Most puissant St. Denis," replied the knight of England, "I strongly
+recommend you not to touch upon any theme connected with the marriage
+state as it exists in England; because I opine that it would take you
+a longer time to comprehend it than you may have leisure to give. It
+will not take you so long perhaps to inform me how it happens that so
+gay a people as the French, whose first lesson, as you say, is 'Vive
+la bagatelle!' should make so frequent a practice as they do of
+inviting either a friend or a mistress to enjoy a tête-à-tête over a
+pan of charcoal, with doors, windows, and vent-holes of all kinds
+carefully sealed, to prevent the least possible chance that either
+should survive?"
+
+"It has arisen," replied the Frenchman, "from our great intimacy with
+England--where the month of November is passed by one half of the
+population in hanging themselves, and by the other half in cutting
+them down. The charcoal system has been an attempt to improve upon
+your insular mode of proceeding; and I believe it is, on the whole,
+considered preferable. But may I ask you in what reign the law was
+passed which permits every Englishman to beat his wife with a stick as
+large as his thumb; and also whether the law has made any provision
+for the case of a man's having the gout in that member to such a
+degree as to swell it to twice its ordinary size?"
+
+"It has been decided by a jury of physicians," said our able advocate,
+"that in all such cases of gout, the decrease of strength is in exact
+proportion to the increase of size in the pattern thumb, and therefore
+no especial law has passed our senate concerning its possible
+variation. As to the law itself, there is not a woman in England who
+will not tell you that it is as laudable as it is venerable."
+
+"The women of England must be angels!" cried the champion of France,
+suddenly starting from his chair and clasping his hands together with
+energy,--"angels! and nothing else, or" (looking round him) "they
+could never smile as you do now, while tyranny so terrible was
+discussed before them!"
+
+What the St. Denis thus politely called a smile, was in effect a very
+hearty laugh--which really and bonâ fide seemed to puzzle him, as to
+the feeling which gave rise to it. "I will tell you of what you all
+remind me at this moment," said he, reseating himself: "Did you ever
+see or read 'Le Médecin malgré Lui'?"
+
+We answered in the affirmative.
+
+"Eh bien! ... do you remember a certain scene in which a certain good
+man enters a house whence have issued the cries of a woman grievously
+beaten by her husband?"
+
+We all nodded assent.
+
+"Eh bien! ... and do you remember how it is that Martine, the beaten
+wife, receives the intercessor?--'Et je veux qu'il me batte, moi.'
+Voyez-vous, mesdames, I am that pitying individual--that kind-hearted
+M. Robert; and you--you are every one of you most perfect Martines."
+
+"You are positively getting angry, Sir Champion," said one of the
+ladies: "and if that happens, we shall incontestably declare you
+vanquished."
+
+"Nay, I am vanquished--I yield--I throw up the partie--I see clearly
+that I know nothing about the matter. What I conceived to be national
+barbarisms, you evidently cling to as national privileges. Allons! ...
+je me rends!"
+
+"We have not given any judgment, however," said I. "But perhaps you
+are more tired than beaten?--you only want a little repose, and you
+will then be ready to start anew."
+
+"Non! absolument non!--but I will willingly change sides, and tell you
+how greatly I admire England...."
+
+The conversation then started off in another direction, and ceased not
+till the number of parties who passed us in making their exit roused
+us at length to the necessity of leaving our flowery retreat, and
+making ours also.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVII.
+
+ Chamber of Deputies.--Punishment of Journalists.--Institute
+ for the Encouragement of Industry.--Men of Genius.
+
+
+Of all the ladies in the world, the English, I believe, are the most
+anxious to enter a representative chamber. The reason for this is
+sufficiently obvious,--they are the only ones who are denied this
+privilege in their own country; though I believe that they are in
+general rather disposed to consider this exclusion as a compliment,
+inasmuch as it evidently manifests something like a fear that their
+conversation might be found sufficiently attractive to draw the Solons
+and Lycurguses from their duty.
+
+But however well they may be disposed to submit to the privation at
+home, it is a certain fact that Englishwomen dearly love to find
+themselves in a legislative assembly abroad. There certainly is
+something more than commonly exciting in the interest inspired by
+seeing the moral strength of a great people collected together, and in
+the act of exerting their judgment and their power for the well-being
+and safety of millions. I suspect, however, that the sublimity of the
+spectacle would be considerably lessened by a too great familiarity
+with it; and that if, instead of being occasionally hoisted outside a
+lantern to catch an uncertain sight and a broken sound of what was
+passing within the temple, we were in the constant habit of being
+ushered into so commodious a tribune as we occupied yesterday at the
+Chamber of Deputies, we might soon cease to experience the sort of
+reverence with which we looked down from thence upon the collected
+wisdom of France.
+
+Nothing can be more agreeable than the arrangement of this chamber for
+spectators. The galleries command the whole of it perfectly; and the
+orator of the hour, if he can be heard by any one, cannot fail of
+being heard by those who occupy them. Another peculiar advantage for
+strangers is, that the position of every member is so distinctly
+marked, that you have the satisfaction of knowing at a glance where to
+find the brawling republican, the melancholy legitimatist, and the
+active doctrinaire. The ministers, too, are as much distinguished by
+their place in the Chamber as in the Red Book, (or whatever may be the
+distinctive symbol of that important record here,) and by giving a
+franc at the entrance, for a sort of map that they call a "_Table
+figurative_" of the Chamber, you know the name and constituency of
+every member present.
+
+This greatly increases the interest felt by a stranger. It is very
+agreeable to hear a man speak with fervour and eloquence, let him be
+who he may; but it enhances the pleasure prodigiously to know at the
+same time who and what he is. If he be a minister, every word has
+either more or less weight according ... to circumstances; and if he
+be in opposition, one is also more au fait as to the positive value of
+his sentiments from being acquainted with the fact.
+
+The business before the house when we were there was stirring and
+interesting enough. It was on the subject of the fines and
+imprisonment to be imposed on those journalists who had outraged law
+and decency by their inflammatory publications respecting the trials
+going on at the Luxembourg.--General Bugeaud made an excellent speech
+upon the abuse of the freedom of the press; a subject which certainly
+has given birth to more "cant," properly so called, than any other I
+know of. To so strange an extent has this been carried, that it really
+requires a considerable portion of moral courage to face the question
+fairly and honestly, and boldly to say, that this unrestricted power,
+which has for years been dwelt upon as the greatest blessing which can
+be accorded to the people, is in truth a most fearful evil. If this
+unrestricted power had been advocated only by demagogues and
+malcontents, the difficulties respecting the question would be slight
+indeed, compared to what they are at present; but so many good men
+have pleaded for it, that it is only with the greatest caution, and
+the strongest conviction from the result of experience, that the law
+should interfere to restrain it.
+
+Nothing, in fact, is so plausible as the sophistry with which a young
+enthusiast for liberty seeks to show that the unrestrained exercise of
+intellect must not only be the birthright of every man, but that its
+exercise must also of necessity be beneficial to the whole human race.
+How easy is it to talk of the loss which the ever-accumulating mass of
+human knowledge must sustain from stopping by the strong hand of power
+the diffusion of speculation and experience! How very easy is it to
+paint in odious colours the tyranny that would check the divine
+efforts of the immortal mind!--And yet it is as clear as the bright
+light of heaven, that not all the sufferings which all the tyrants who
+ever cursed the earth have brought on man can compare to those which
+the malign influence of an unchecked press is calculated to inflict
+upon him.
+
+The influence of the press is unquestionably the most awful engine
+that Providence has permitted the hand of man to wield. If used for
+good, it has the power of raising us higher in the intellectual scale
+than Plato ever dreamed; but if employed for evil, the Prince of
+Darkness may throw down his arms before its unmeasured strength--he
+has no weapon like it.
+
+What are the temptations--the seductions of the world which the
+zealous preacher deprecates, which the watchful parent dreads,
+compared to the corruption that may glide like an envenomed snake into
+the bosom of innocence from this insidious agency? Where is the
+retreat that can be secured from it? Where is the shelter that can
+baffle its assaults?--Blasphemy, treason, and debauchery are licensed
+by the act of the legislature to do their worst upon the morals of
+every people among whom an unrestricted press is established by law.
+
+Surely, but perhaps slowly, will this truth become visible to all men:
+and if society still hangs together at all, our grandchildren will
+probably enjoy the blessing without the curse of knowledge. The head
+of the serpent has been bruised, and therefore we may hope for
+this,--but it is not yet.
+
+The discussions in the Chamber on this important subject, not only
+yesterday, but on several occasions since the question of these fines
+has been started, have been very animated and very interesting. Never
+was the right and the wrong in an argument more ably brought out than
+by some of the speeches on this business: and, on the other hand,
+never did effrontery go farther than in some of the defences which
+have been set up for the accused gérans of the journals in question.
+For instance, M. Raspail expresses a very grave astonishment that the
+Chamber of Peers, instead of objecting to the liberties which have
+been taken with them, do not rather return thanks for the useful
+lesson they have received. He states too in this same _defence_, as he
+is pleased to call it, that the conductors of the "Réformateur" have
+adopted a resolution to publish without restriction or alteration
+every article addressed to them by the accused parties or their
+defenders. This _resolution_, then, is to be pleaded as an excuse for
+whatever their columns may contain! The concluding argument of this
+defence is put in the form of a declaration, purporting that whoever
+dooms a fellow-creature to the horrors of imprisonment ought to
+undergo the same punishment for the term of twenty years as an
+expiation of the crime. This is logical.
+
+There is a tone of vulgar, insolent defiance in all that is recorded
+of the manner and language adopted by the partisans of these Lyons
+prisoners, which gives what must, I think, be considered as very
+satisfactory proof that the party is not one to be greatly feared.
+After the vote had passed the Chamber of Peers for bringing to account
+the persons who subscribed the protest against their proceedings, two
+individuals who were not included in this vote of reprobation sent in
+a written petition that they might be so. What was the official answer
+to this piece of bravado, or whether it received any, I know not; but
+I was told that some one present proposed that a reply should be
+returned as follows:--
+
+"The court regrets that the request cannot be granted, inasmuch as the
+sentence has been already passed on those whom it concerned;--but that
+if the gentlemen wished it, they might perhaps contrive to get
+themselves included in the next indictment for treason."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In the evening we went to the Institute for the encouragement of
+Industry. The meeting was held in the Salle St. Jean, at the Hôtel de
+Ville. It was extremely full, and was altogether a display extremely
+interesting to a stranger. The speeches made by several of the members
+were in excellently good taste and extremely to the purpose: I heard
+nothing at all approaching to that popular strain of eloquence which
+has prevailed of late so much in England upon all similar
+occasions,--nothing that looked like an attempt to bamboozle the
+respectable citizens of the metropolis into the belief that they were
+considered by wise men as belonging to the first class in society.
+
+The speeches were admirably calculated to excite ingenuity, emulation,
+and industry; and I really believe that there was not a single word of
+nonsense spoken on the occasion. Several ingenious improvements and
+inventions were displayed, and the meeting was considerably égayé by
+two or three pieces exceedingly well played on a piano-forte of an
+improved construction.
+
+Many prizes were bestowed, and received with that sort of genuine
+pleasure which it is so agreeable to witness;--but these were all for
+useful improvements in some branch of practical mechanics, and not, as
+I saw by the newspapers had recently been the case at a similar
+meeting in London, for essays! One of the prize compositions was, as I
+perceived, "The best Essay on Education," from the pen of a young
+bell-hanger! Next year, perhaps, the best essay on medicine may be
+produced by a young tinker, or a gold medal be awarded to Betty the
+housemaid for a digest of the laws of the land. Our long-boasted
+common sense seems to have emigrated, and taken up its abode here;
+for, spite of their recent revolution, you hear of no such stuff on
+this side the water;--mechanics are mechanics still, and though they
+some of them make themselves exceeding busy in politics, and discuss
+their different kings with much energy over a bottle of small wine, I
+have not yet heard of any of the "_operative classes_" throwing aside
+their files and their hammers to write essays.
+
+This queer mixture of occupations reminds me of a conversation I
+listened to the other day upon the best manner in which a nation could
+recompense and encourage her literary men. One English gentleman, with
+no great enthusiasm of manner or expression, quietly observed that he
+thought a moderate pension, sufficient to prevent the mind from being
+painfully driven from speculative to practical difficulties, would be
+the most fitting recompense that the country could offer.
+
+"Is it possible you can really think so, my dear sir?" replied
+another, who is an amateur, and a connoisseur, and a bel esprit, and
+an antiquary, and a fiddler, and a critic, and a poet. "I own my ideas
+on the subject are very different. Good God! ... what a reward for a
+man of genius!... Why, what would you do for an old nurse?"
+
+"I would give her a pension too," said the quiet gentleman.
+
+"I thought so!" retorted the man of taste. "And do you really feel no
+repugnance in placing the immortal efforts of genius on a par with
+rocking a few babies to sleep?--Fie on such philosophy!"
+
+"And what is the recompense which you would propose, sir?" inquired
+the advocate for the pension.
+
+"I, sir?--I would give the first offices and the first honours of the
+state to our men of genius: by so doing, a country ennobles itself in
+the face of the whole earth."
+
+"Yes, sir.... But the first offices of the state are attended with a
+good deal of troublesome business, which might, I think, interfere
+with the intellectual labour you wish to encourage. I should really be
+very sorry to see Dr. Southey made secretary-at-war,--and yet he
+deserves something of his country too."
+
+"A man of genius, sir, deserves everything of his country.... It is
+not a paltry pension can pay him. He should be put forward in
+parliament ... he should be..."
+
+"I think, sir, he should be put at his ease: depend upon it, this
+would suit him better than being returned knight of the shire for any
+county in England."
+
+"Good Heaven, sir!"... resumed the enthusiast; but he looked up and
+his opponent was gone.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVIII.
+
+ Walk to the Marché des Innocens.--Escape of a Canary
+ Bird.--A Street Orator.--Burying-place of the Victims of
+ July.
+
+
+I must give you to-day an account of the adventures I have encountered
+in a _course à pied_ to the Marché des Innocens. You must know that
+there is at one of the corners of this said Marché a shop sacred to
+the ladies, which débits all those unclassable articles that come
+under the comprehensive term of haberdashery,--a term, by the way,
+which was once interpreted to me by a celebrated etymologist of my
+acquaintance to signify "_avoir d'acheter_." My magasin "à la Mère de
+Famille" in the Marché des Innocens fully deserves this description,
+for there are few female wants in which it fails to "avoir d'acheter."
+It was to this compendium of utilities that I was notably proceeding
+when I saw before me, exactly on a spot that I was obliged to pass, a
+throng of people that at the first glance I really thought was a
+prodigious mob; but at the second, I confess that they shrank and
+dwindled considerably. Nevertheless, it looked ominous; and as I was
+alone, I felt a much stronger inclination to turn back than to
+proceed. I paused to decide which I should do; and observing, as I did
+so, a very respectable-looking woman at the door of a shop very near
+the tumult, I ventured to address an inquiry to her respecting the
+cause of this unwonted assembling of the people in so peaceable a part
+of the town; but, unfortunately, I used a phrase in the inquiry which
+brought upon me more evident quizzing than one often gets from the
+civil Parisians. My words, I think, were,--"Pourriez-vous me dire,
+madame, ce que signifie tout ce monde?... Est-ce qu'il y a quelque
+mouvement?"
+
+This unfortunate word _mouvement_ amused her infinitely; for it is in
+fact the phrase used in speaking of all the _real_ political hubbubs
+that have taken place, and was certainly on this occasion as
+ridiculous as if some one, on seeing forty or fifty people collected
+together around a pick-pocket or a broken-down carriage in London,
+were to gravely inquire of his neighbour if the crowd he saw indicated
+a revolution.
+
+"Mouvement!" she repeated with a very speaking smile: "est-ce que
+madame est effrayée?... Mouvement ... oui, madame, il y a beaucoup de
+mouvement; mais cependant c'est sans mouvement.... C'est tout
+bonnement le petit serin de la marchande de modes là bas qui vient de
+s'envoler. Je puis vous assurer la chose," she added, laughing, "car
+je l'ai vu partir."
+
+"Is that all?" said I. "Is it possible that the escape of a bird can
+have brought all these people together?"
+
+"Oui, madame, rien autre chose.... Mais regardez--voilà les agens de
+police qui s'approchent pour voir ce que c'est--ils en saisissent un,
+je crois.... Ah! ils ont une manière si étonnante de reconnaître leur
+monde!"
+
+This last hint quite decided my return, and I thanked the obliging
+bonnetière for her communications.
+
+"Bonjour, madame," she replied with a very mystifying sort of
+smile,--"bonjour; soyez tranquille--il n'y a pas de danger d'un
+_mouvement_."
+
+I am quite sure she was the wife of a doctrinaire; for nothing
+affronts the whole party, from the highest to the lowest, so much as
+to breathe a hint that you think it possible any riot should arise to
+disturb their dear tranquillity. On this occasion, however, I really
+had no such matter in my thoughts, and sinned only by a blundering
+phrase.
+
+I returned home to look for an escort; and having enlisted one, set
+forth again for the Marché des Innocens, which I reached this time
+without any other adventure than being splashed twice, and nearly run
+over thrice. Having made my purchases, I was setting my face towards
+home again, when my companion proposed that we should go across the
+market to look at the monuments raised over some half-dozen or
+half-score of revolutionary heroes who fell and were buried on a spot
+at no great distance from the fountain, on the 29th July 1830.
+
+When we reached the little enclosure, we remarked a man, who looked, I
+thought, very much like a printer's devil, leaning against the rail,
+and haranguing a girl who stood near him with her eyes wide open as if
+she were watching for, as well as listening to, every word which
+should drop from his oracular lips. A little boy, almost equally
+attentive to his eloquence, occupied the space between them, and
+completed the group.
+
+I felt a strong inclination to hear what he was saying, and stationed
+myself doucement, doucement at a short distance, looking, I believe,
+almost as respectfully attentive as the girl for whose particular
+advantage he was evidently holding forth. He perceived our approach,
+but appeared nowise annoyed by it; on the contrary, it seemed to me
+that he was pleased to have an increased audience, for he evidently
+threw more energy into his manner, waved his right hand with more
+dignity, and raised his voice higher.
+
+I will not attempt to give you his discourse verbatim, for some of
+his phrases were so extraordinary, or at least so new to me, that I
+cannot recall them; but the general purport of it made an impression
+both on me and my companion, from its containing so completely the
+very soul and essence of the party to which he evidently belonged. The
+theme was the cruel treatment of the amiable, patriotic, and
+noble-minded prisoners at the Luxembourg. "What did we fight for?" ...
+said he, pointing to the tombs within the enclosure: "was it not to
+make France and Frenchmen free?... And do they call it freedom to be
+locked up in a prison ... actually locked up?... What! can a slave be
+worse than that? Slaves have got chains on ... qu'est-ce que cela
+fait?... If a man is locked up, he cannot go farther than if he was
+chained--c'est clair ... it is all one, and Frenchmen are again
+slaves.... This is what we have got by our revolution...."
+
+The girl, who continued to stand looking at him with undeviating
+attention, and, as I presume, with proportionate admiration, turned
+every now and then a glance our way, to see what effect it produced on
+us. My attention, at least, was quite as much riveted on the speaker
+as her own; and I would willingly have remained listening to his
+reasons, which were quite as "plentiful as blackberries," why no
+Frenchman in the world, let him do what he would, (except, I suppose,
+when they obey their king, like the unfortunate victims of popular
+tyranny at Ham,) should ever be restricted in his freedom--because
+freedom was what they fought for--and being in prison was not being
+free--and so on round and round in his logical circle. But as his
+vehemence increased, so did his audience; and as I did not choose to
+be present at a second "mouvement" on the same day, or at any rate of
+running the risk of again seeing the police approaching a throng of
+which I made one, I walked off. The last words I heard from him, as he
+pointed piteously to the tombs, were--"V'là les restes de notre
+révolution de Juillet!" In truth, this fellow talked treason so
+glibly, that I felt very glad to get quietly away; but I was also glad
+to have fallen in with such an admirable display of popular eloquence,
+with so little trouble or inconvenience.
+
+We lingered long enough within reach of the tombs, while listening to
+this man, for me to read and note the inscription on one of them. The
+name and description of the "victime de Juillet" who lay beneath it
+was, "Hapel, du département de la Sarthe, tué le 29 Juillet 1830."
+
+ [Illustration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
+ "V'LA LES RESTES DE NOTRE REVOLUTION DE JUILLET".
+ London. Published by Richard Bentley. 1835.]
+
+Nothing can be more trumpery than the appearance of this burying-place
+of "the immortals," with its flags and its foppery of spears and
+halberds. There is another similar to it in the most eastern court
+of the Louvre, and, I believe, in several other places. If it be
+deemed advisable to leave memorials upon these unconsecrated graves,
+it would be in better taste to make them of such dignity as might
+excuse their erection in these conspicuous situations; but at present
+the effect is decidedly ludicrous. If the bodies of those who fell are
+really deposited within these fantastical enclosures, it would show
+much more reverence for them and their cause if they were all to
+receive Christian burial at Père Lachaise, with all such honours, due
+or undue, as might suit the feelings of the time; and over them it
+would be well to record, as a matter of historical interest, the time
+and manner of their death. This would look like the result of national
+feeling, and have something respectable in it; which certainly cannot
+be said of the faded flaunting flags and tassels which now wave over
+them, so much in the style of decorations in the barn of a strolling
+company of comedians.
+
+As we left the spot, my attention was directed to the Rue de la
+Ferronnerie, which is close to the Marché des Innocens, and in which
+street Henri Quatre lost his life by the assassin hand of Ravaillac.
+It struck me as we talked of this event, and of the many others to
+which the streets of this beautiful but turbulent capital have been
+witness, that a most interesting--and, if accompanied by good
+architectural engravings, a most beautiful--work might be compiled on
+the same plan, or at least following the same idea as Mr. Leigh Hunt
+has taken in his work on the interesting localities of London. A
+history of the streets of Paris might contain a mixture of tragedy,
+comedy, and poetry--of history, biography, and romance, that might
+furnish volumes of "entertaining knowledge," which being the favourite
+_genre_ amidst the swelling mass of modern literature, could hardly
+fail of meeting with success.
+
+How pleasantly might an easy writer go on anecdotizing through century
+after century, as widely and wildly as he pleased, and yet
+sufficiently tied together to come legitimately under one common
+title; and how wide a grasp of history might one little spot sometimes
+contain! Where some scattered traces of the stones may still be seen
+that were to have been reared into a palace for the King of Rome, once
+stood the convent of the "Visitation de Sainte Marie," founded by
+Henriette the beautiful and the good, after the death of her martyred
+husband, our first Charles; within whose church were enshrined her
+heart, and those of her daughter, and of James the Second of England.
+Where English nuns took refuge from English protestantism, is
+now--most truly English still--a manufactory for spinning cotton.
+Where stood the most holy altar of Le Verbe Incarné, now stands a
+caserne. In short, it is almost impossible to take a single step in
+Paris without discovering, if one does but take the trouble of
+inquiring a little, some tradition attached to it that might
+contribute information to such a work.
+
+I have often thought that a history of the convents of Paris during
+that year of barbarous profanation 1790, would make, if the materials
+were well collected, one of the most interesting books in the world.
+The number of nuns returned upon the world from the convents of that
+city alone amounted to many thousands; and when one thinks of all the
+varieties of feeling which this act must have occasioned, differing
+probably from the brightest joy for recovered hope and life, to the
+deepest desolation of wretched helplessness, it seems extraordinary
+that so little of its history has reached us.
+
+Paris is delightful enough, as every one knows, to all who look at it,
+even with the superficial glance that seeks no farther than its
+external aspect at the present moment; but it would, I imagine, be
+interesting beyond all other cities of the modern world if carefully
+travelled through with a consummate antiquarian who had given enough
+learned attention to the subject to enable him to do justice to it.
+There is something so piquant in the contrasts offered by some
+localities between their present and their past conditions,--such
+records furnished at every corner, of the enormous greatness of the
+human animal, and his most _chétif_ want of all stability--traces of
+such wit and such weakness, such piety and profanation, such bland and
+soft politeness, and such ferocious barbarism,--that I do not believe
+any other page of human nature could furnish the like.
+
+I am sure, at least, that no British records could furnish pictures of
+native manners and native acts so dissimilar at different times from
+each other as may be found to have existed here. The most striking
+contrast that we can show is between the effects of Oliver Cromwell's
+rule and that of Charles the Second; but this was unity and concord
+compared to the changes in character which have repeatedly taken place
+in France. That this contrast with us was, speaking of the general
+mass of the population, little more than the mannerism arising from
+adopting the style of "the court" for the time being, is proved by the
+wondrously easy transition from one tone to the other which followed
+the restoration. This was chiefly the affair of courtiers, or of
+public men, who as necessarily put on the manners of their master as a
+domestic servant does a livery; but Englishmen were still in all
+essentials the same. Not so the French when they threw themselves
+headlong, from one extremity of the country to the other, into all the
+desperate religious wildness which marks the history of the Ligue; not
+so the French when from the worship of their monarchs they suddenly
+turned as at one accord and flew at their throats like bloodhounds.
+Were they then the same people?--did they testify any single trait of
+moral affinity to what the world thought to be their national
+character one short year before? Then again look at them under
+Napoleon, and look at them under Louis-Philippe. It is a great, a
+powerful, a magnificent people, let them put on what outward seeming
+they will; but I doubt if there be any nation in the world that would
+so completely throw out a theorist who wished to establish the
+doctrine of distinct races as the French.
+
+You will think that I have made a very circuitous ramble from the
+Marché des Innocens; but I have only given you the results of the
+family speculation we fell into after returning thence, which arose, I
+believe, from my narrating how I had passed from the tombeaux of the
+_victimes de Juillet_ to the place where Henri Quatre received his
+death. This set us to meditate on the different political objects of
+the slain; and we all agreed that it was a much easier task to define
+those of the king than those of the subject. There is every reason in
+the world to believe that the royal Henri wished the happiness and
+prosperity of France; but the guessing with any appearance of
+correctness what might be the especial wish and desire of the Sieur
+Hapel du département de la Sarthe, is a matter infinitely more
+difficult to decide.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIX.
+
+ A Philosophical Spectator.--Collection of Baron
+ Sylvestre.--Hôtel des Monnaies.--Musée d'Artillerie.
+
+
+We have been indebted to M. J***, the same obliging and amiable
+friend of whom I have before spoken, for one or two more very
+delightful mornings. We saw many things, and we talked of many more.
+
+M. J*** is inexhaustible in piquant and original observation,
+and possesses such extensive knowledge on all those subjects which are
+the most intimately connected with the internal history of France
+during the last eventful forty years, as to make every word he utters
+not only interesting, but really precious. When I converse with him, I
+feel that I have opened a rich vein of information, which if I had but
+time and opportunity to derive from it all it could give, would
+positively leave me ignorant of nothing I wish to know respecting the
+country.
+
+The Memoirs of such a man as M. J*** would be a work of no
+common value. The military history of the period is as familiar to
+all the world as the marches of Alexander or the conquests of Cæsar;
+the political history of the country during the same interval is
+equally well known; its literary history speaks for itself: but such
+Memoirs as I am sure M. J*** could write, would furnish a
+picture that is yet wanting.
+
+We are not without full and minute details of all the great events
+which have made France the principal object for all Europe to stare at
+for the last half-century; but these details have uniformly proceeded
+from individuals who have either been personally engaged in or nearly
+connected with these stirring events; and they are accordingly all
+tinctured more or less with such strong party feeling, as to give no
+very impartial colouring to every circumstance they recount. The
+inevitable consequence of this is, that, with all our extensive
+reading on the subject, we are still far from having a correct
+impression of the internal and domestic state of the country
+throughout this period.
+
+We know a great deal about old nobles who have laid down their titles
+and become men of the people, and about new nobles who have laid down
+their muskets to become men of the court,--of ministers, ambassadors,
+and princes who have dropped out of sight, and of parvenus of all
+sorts who have started into it; but, meanwhile, what do we know of
+the mass--not of the people--of them also we know quite enough,--but
+of the gentlemen, who, as each successive change came round, felt
+called upon by no especial duty to quit their honourable and peaceable
+professions in order to resist or advance them? Yet of these it is
+certain there must be hundreds who, on the old principle that
+"lookers-on see most of the game," are more capable of telling us what
+effect these momentous changes really produced than any of those who
+helped to cause them.
+
+M. J*** is one of these; and I could not but remark, while
+listening to him, how completely the tone in which he spoke of all the
+public events he had witnessed was that of a philosophical spectator.
+He seemed disposed, beyond any Frenchman I have yet conversed with, to
+give to each epoch its just character, and to each individual his just
+value: I never before had the good fortune to hear any citizen of the
+Great Nation converse freely, calmly, reasonably, without prejudice or
+partiality, of that most marvellous individual Napoleon.
+
+It is not necessary to attempt recalling the precise expressions used
+respecting him; for the general impression left on my mind is much
+more deeply engraven than the language which conveyed it: besides, it
+is possible that my inferences may have been more conclusive and
+distinct than I had any right to make them, and yet so sincerely the
+result of the casual observations scattered here and there in a
+conversation that was anything but _suivie_, that were I to attempt to
+repeat the words which conveyed them, I might be betrayed into
+involuntary and unconscious exaggeration.
+
+The impression, then, which I received is, that he was a most
+magnificent tyrant. His projects seem to have been conceived with the
+vastness and energy of a moral giant, even when they related to the
+internal regulation only of the vast empire he had seized upon; but
+the mode in which he brought them into action was uniformly marked by
+barefaced, unshrinking, uncompromising tyranny. The famous Ordonnances
+of Charles Dix were no more to be compared, as an act of arbitrary
+power, to the daily deeds of Napoleon, than the action of a dainty
+pair of golden sugar-tongs to that of the firmest vice that ever
+Vulcan forged. But this enormous, this tremendous power, was never
+wantonly employed; and the country when under his dominion had more
+frequent cause to exclaim in triumph--
+
+ "'Tis excellent to have a giant's strength,"
+
+than to add in suffering,
+
+ "But tyrannous to use it like a giant."
+
+It was the conviction of this--the firm belief that the GLORY of
+France was the object of her autocrat, which consecrated and confirmed
+his power while she bent her proud neck to his yoke, and which has
+since and will for ever make his name sound in the ears of her
+children like a pæan to their own glory. What is there which men, and
+most especially Frenchmen, will not suffer and endure to hear that
+note? Had Napoleon been granted to them in all his splendour as their
+emperor for ever, they would for ever have remained his willing
+slaves.
+
+When, however, he was lost to them, there is every reason to believe
+that France would gladly have knit together the severed thread of her
+ancient glory with her hopes of future greatness, had the act by which
+it was to be achieved been her own: but it was the hand of an enemy
+that did it--the hand of a triumphant enemy; and though a host of
+powerful, valiant, noble, and loyal-hearted Frenchmen welcomed the son
+of St. Louis to his lawful throne with as deep and sincere fidelity as
+ever warmed the heart of man, there was still a national feeling of
+wounded pride which gnawed the hearts of the multitude, and even in
+the brightest days of the Restoration prevented their rightful king
+from being in their eyes what he would have been had they purchased
+his return by the act of drawing their swords, instead of laying them
+down. It was a greatness that was thrust upon them--and for that
+reason, and I truly believe for that reason only, it was distasteful.
+
+In days of old, if it happened by accident that a king was unpopular,
+it mattered very little to the general prosperity of his country, and
+still less to the general peace of Europe. Even if hatred went so far
+as to raise the hand of an assassin against him, the tranquillity of
+the rest of the human race was but little affected thereby. But in
+these times the effect is very different: disaffection has been taught
+to display itself in acts that may at one stroke overthrow the
+prosperity of millions at home, and endanger the precious blessings of
+peace abroad; and it becomes therefore a matter of importance to the
+whole of Europe that every throne established within her limits should
+be sustained not only by its own subjects, but by a system of mutual
+support that may insure peace and security to all. To do this where a
+king is rejected by the majority of the people, is, to say the least
+of it, a very difficult task; and it will probably be found that to
+support power firmly and legally established, will contribute more to
+the success of this system of mutual support for the preservation of
+universal tranquillity, than any crusade that could be undertaken in
+any part of the world for the purpose of substituting an exiled
+dynasty for a reigning one.
+
+This is the _doctrine_ to which I have now listened so long and so
+often, that I have ceased all attempts to refute it. I have, however,
+while stating it, been led to wander a little from those reminiscences
+respecting fair France which I found so interesting, coming forth as
+they did, as if by accident, from the rich storehouse of my agreeable
+friend's memory: but I believe it would be quite in vain were I to go
+back to the point at which I deviated, for I could do justice neither
+to the matter nor the manner of the conversations which afforded me so
+much pleasure;--I believe therefore that I had better spare you any
+more politics just at present, and tell you something of several
+things which we had the pleasure of seeing with him.
+
+One of these was Baron Gros' magnificent sketch, if I must so call a
+very finished painting, of his fine picture of the Plague of Jaffa. A
+week or two before I had seen the picture itself at the Luxembourg,
+and felt persuaded then that it was by far the finest work of the
+master; but this first developement of his idea is certainly finer
+still. It is a beautiful composition, and there are groups in it that
+would not have lowered the reputation of Michael Angelo. The severe
+simplicity of the Emperor's figure and position is in the very purest
+taste.
+
+This very admirable work was, when we saw it, in the possession of
+the Baron de Sylvestre, whose collection, without having the dignity
+of a gallery, has some beautiful things in it. Our visit to it and its
+owner was one of great interest to me. I have seldom seen any one with
+a more genuine and enthusiastic love of art. He has one cabinet,--it
+is, I believe, his own bed-room,--which almost from floor to ceiling
+is hung with little gems, so closely set together as to produce at
+first sight the effect of almost inextricable confusion;--portraits,
+landscapes, and historic sketches--pencil crayon, water-colour and
+oil--with frames and without frames, all blended together in utter
+defiance of all symmetry or order whatever. But it was a rich
+confusion, and many a collector would have rejoiced at receiving
+permission to seize upon a chance handful of the heterogeneous mass of
+which it was composed.
+
+Curious, well-authenticated, original drawings of the great masters,
+though reduced to a mere rag, have always great interest in my
+eyes,--and the Baron de Sylvestre has many such: but it was his own
+air of comfortable domestic intimacy with every scrap, however small,
+on the lofty and thickly-studded walls of this room, which delighted
+me;--it reminded me of Denon, who many years ago showed me his large
+and very miscellaneous collection with equal enthusiasm. I dearly
+love to meet with people who are really and truly in earnest.
+
+On the same morning that we made this agreeable acquaintance, we
+passed an hour or two at the Hôtel des Monnaies, which is situated on
+the Quai Conti, and, I believe, on the exact spot where the old Hôtel
+de Conti formerly stood. The building, like all the public
+establishments in France, is very magnificent, and we amused ourselves
+very agreeably with our intelligent and amiable cicisbeo in examining
+an immense collection of coins and medals. This collection was
+formerly placed at the Louvre, but transferred to this hôtel as soon
+as its erection was completed. The medals, as usual in all such
+examinations, occupied the greater part of our time and attention. It
+is quite a gallery of portraits, and many of them of the highest
+historical interest: but perhaps our amusement was as much derived
+from observing how many ignoble heads, who had no more business there
+than so many turnips, had found place nevertheless, by the outrageous
+vanity either of themselves or their friends, amidst kings, heroes,
+poets, and philosophers. It is perfectly astonishing to see how many
+such as these have sought a bronze or brazen immortality at the Hôtel
+des Monnaies: every medal struck in France has an impression preserved
+here, and it is probably the knowledge of this fact which has tempted
+these little people so preposterously to distinguish themselves.
+
+On another occasion we went with the same agreeable escort to visit
+the national museum of ancient armour. This Musée d'Artillerie is not
+quite so splendid a spectacle as the same species of exhibition at the
+Tower; but there are a great many beautiful things there too. Some
+exquisitely-finished muskets and arquebuses of considerable antiquity,
+and splendid with a profusion of inlaid ivory, mother-of-pearl, and
+precious stones, are well arranged for exhibition, as are likewise
+some complete suits of armour of various dates;--among them is one
+worn in battle by the unfortunate Maid of Orleans.
+
+But this is not only a curious antiquarian exhibition,--it is in truth
+a national institution wherein military men may study the art of war
+from almost its first barbarous simplicity up to its present terrible
+perfection. The models of all manner of slaughtering instruments are
+beautifully executed, and must be of great interest to all who wish to
+study the theory of that science which may be proved "par raison
+démonstrative," as Molière observes, to consist wholly "dans l'art de
+donner et ne pas recevoir." But I believe the object which most amused
+me in the exhibition, was a written notice, repeated at intervals
+along all the racks on which were placed the more modern and ordinary
+muskets, to this effect:--
+
+"Manquant, au second rang de ce râtelier d'armes, environ quatre-vingt
+carabines à rouet, _ornées d'incrustation d'ivoire et de nacre, dans
+le genre de celles du premier rang_. Toutes celles qu'on voit ici ont
+servi dans les journées de Juillet, et ont été rendues après. Les
+personnes qui auraient encore celles qui manquent sont priées de les
+rapporter."
+
+There is such a superlative degree of _bonhomie_ in the belief that
+because all the ordinary muskets which were seized upon by the July
+patriots were returned, those also adorned with "incrustations
+d'ivoire et de nacre" would be returned too, that it was quite
+impossible to restrain a smile at it. Such unwearied confidence and
+hope deserve a better reward than, I fear, they will meet: the
+"incrustations d'ivoire et de nacre" are, I doubt not, in very safe
+keeping, and have been converted, by the patriot hands that seized
+them, to other purposes, as dear to the hearts they belonged to as
+that of firing at the Royal Guard over a barricade. Our doctrinaire
+friend himself confessed that he thought it was time these naïve
+notices should be removed.
+
+It was, I think, in the course of this excursion that our friend gave
+me an anecdote which I think is curious and characteristic. Upon some
+occasion which led to a private interview between Charles Dix and
+himself, some desultory conversation followed the discussion of the
+business which led to the audience. The name of Malesherbes, the
+intrepid defender of Louis Seize, was mentioned by our friend. The
+monarch frowned.
+
+"Sire!"--was uttered almost involuntarily.
+
+"Il nous a fait beaucoup de mal," said the king in reply to the
+exclamation--adding with emphasis, "Mais il l'a payé par sa tête!"
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXX.
+
+ Concert in the Champs Elysées.--Horticultural
+ Exhibition.--Forced Flowers.--Republican Hats.--Carlist
+ Hats.--Juste-Milieu Hats.--Popular Funeral.
+
+
+The advancing season begins to render the atmosphere of the theatres
+insupportable, and even a crowded soirée is not so agreeable as it has
+been; so last night we sought our amusement in listening to the
+concert "en plein air" in the Champs Elysées. I hear that you too have
+been enjoying this new delight of al-fresco music in London. France
+and England are exceedingly like the interlocutors of an eclogue,
+where first one puts forth all his power and poetry to enchant the
+world, and then the other "takes up the wondrous tale," and does his
+utmost to exceed and excel, and so go on, each straining every nerve
+to outdo the other.
+
+Thus it is with the two great rivals who perform their various feats à
+l'envi l'un de l'autre on the opposite sides of the Channel. No sooner
+does one burst out with some new and bright idea which like a
+newly-kindled torch makes for awhile all other lights look dim, than
+the other catches it, finds out some ingenious way of making it his
+own, and then grows as proud and as fond of it as if it had been truly
+the offspring of his own brain. But in this strife and this stealing
+neither party has any right to reproach the other, for the exchange is
+very nearly at par between them.
+
+A very few years ago, half a dozen scraping fiddlers, and now and then
+a screaming "sirène ambulante," furnished all the music of the Champs
+Elysées; but now there is the prettiest "salon de concert en plein
+air" imaginable.
+
+By the way, I confess that this phrase "salon de concert en plein air"
+has something rather paradoxical in it: nevertheless, it is perfectly
+correct; the concerts of the Champs Elysées are decidedly _en plein
+air_, and yet they are enclosed within what may very fairly be called
+a salon. The effect of this fanciful arrangement is really very
+pretty; and if you have managed your echo of this agreeable fantasia
+as skilfully, an idle London summer evening has gained much. Shall I
+tell you how it has been done in Paris?
+
+In the lower part of the Champs Elysées, a round space is enclosed by
+a low rail. Within this, to the extent of about fifteen or twenty
+feet, are ranged sundry circular rows of chairs that are sheltered by
+a light awning. Within these, a troop of graceful nymphs, formed of
+white plaster, but which a spectator if he be amiably disposed may
+take for white marble, stand each one with a lamp upon her head,
+forming altogether a delicate halo, which, as daylight fades, throws a
+faint but sufficient degree of illumination upon the company. In the
+centre of the enclosure rises a stage, covered by a tent-like canopy
+and brilliant as lamps can make it. Here the band is stationed, which
+is sufficiently good and sufficiently full to produce a very
+delightful effect: it must indeed be very villanous music which,
+listened to while the cool breeze of a summer's evening refreshes the
+spirit, should not be agreeable. The whole space between the exterior
+awning and the centre pavilion appropriated to the band is filled with
+chairs, which, though so very literally en plein air, were all filled
+with company, and the effect of the whole thing was quite delightful.
+
+The price of entrance to all this prettiness is one franc! This, by
+the bye, is a part of the arrangement which I suspect is not rivalled
+in England. Neither will you, I believe, soon learn the easy sort of
+unpremeditated tone in which it is resorted to. It is ten to one, I
+think, that no one--no ladies at least--will ever go to your al-fresco
+concert without arranging a party beforehand; and there will be a
+question of whether it shall be before tea or after tea, in a carriage
+or on foot, &c. &c. But here it is enjoyed in the very spirit of sans
+souci:--you take your evening ramble--the lamps sparkle in the
+distance, or the sound of the instruments reaches your ears, and this
+is all the preparation required. And then, as you may always be
+perfectly sure that everybody you know in Paris is occupied as well as
+yourself in seeking amusement, the chances are greatly in your favour
+that you will not reach the little bureau at the gate without
+encountering some friend or friends whom you may induce to _promener_
+their idleness the same way.
+
+I often marvel, as I look around me in our walks and drives, where all
+the sorrow and suffering which we know to be the lot of man contrives
+to hide itself at Paris. Everywhere else you see people looking
+anxious and busy at least, if not quite woe-begone and utterly
+miserable: but here the glance of every eye is a gay one; and even
+though this may perhaps be only worn in the sunshine and put on just
+as other people put on their hats and bonnets, the effect is
+delightfully cheering to the spirits of a wandering stranger.
+
+It was we, I think, who set the example of an annual public exhibition
+by an horticultural society. It has been followed here, but not as yet
+upon the same splendid scale as in London and its neighbourhood. The
+Orangery of the Louvre is the scene of this display, which is employed
+for the purpose as soon as the royal trees that pass their winters in
+it are taken out to the Gardens of the Tuileries. I never on any
+occasion remember having been exposed to so oppressive a degree of
+heat as on the morning that we visited this exhibition. The sun shone
+with intolerable splendour upon the long range of windows, and the
+place was so full of company, that it was with the greatest difficulty
+we crept on an inch at a time from one extremity of the hall to the
+other. Some of the African plants were very fine; but in general the
+show was certainly not very magnificent. I suspect that the extreme
+heat of the apartment had considerably destroyed the beauty of some of
+the more delicate flowering plants, for there were scarcely any of the
+frail blossoms of our hothouse treasures in perfection. The collection
+of geraniums was, compared to those I have seen in England, very poor,
+and so little either of novelty or splendour about them, that I
+suspect the cultivation of this lovely race, and the production of a
+new variety in it, is not a matter of so great interest in France as
+in England.
+
+The climate of France is perhaps more congenial to delicate flowers
+than our own; and yet it appears to me that, with some few exceptions,
+such as oranges and the laurier-rose, I have seen nothing in Paris
+this year equal to the specimens found at the first-rate florists'
+round London. Even in the decoration of rooms, though flowers are
+often abundant here, they are certainly less choice than with us; and,
+excepting in one or two instances, I have observed no plants whatever
+forced into premature bloom to gratify the pampered taste of the town
+amateur. I do not, however, mention this as a defect; on the contrary,
+I perfectly agree in the truth of Rousseau's observation, that such
+impatient science by no means increases the sum of the year's
+enjoyment. "Ce n'est pas parer l'hiver," he says,--"c'est déparer le
+printemps:" and the truth of this is obvious, not only in the
+indifference with which those who are accustomed to receive this
+unnatural and precocious produce welcome the abounding treasures of
+that real spring-time which comes when it pleases Heaven to send it,
+but also in the worthless weakness of the untimely product itself. I
+certainly know many who appear to gaze with ecstasy on the pale
+hectic-looking bloom of a frail rose-tree in the month of February,
+who can walk unmoved in the spicy evenings of June amidst thousands of
+rich blossoms all opening their bright bosoms to the breeze in the
+sweet healthy freshness of unforced nature: yet I will not assert that
+this proceeds from affectation--indeed, I verily believe that fine
+ladies do in all sincerity think that roses at Christmas are really
+much prettier and sweeter things than roses in June; but, at least, I
+may confess that I think otherwise.
+
+Among the numerous company assembled to look at this display of
+exotics, was a figure perhaps the most remarkably absurd that we have
+yet seen in the grotesque extremity of his republican costume. We
+watched him for some time with considerable interest,--and the more
+so, as we perceived that he was an object of curiosity to many besides
+ourselves. In truth, his pointed hat and enormous lapels out-Heroded
+Herod; and I presume the attention he excited was occasioned more by
+the extravagant excess than the unusual style of his costume. A
+gentleman who was with us at the Orangery told me an anecdote
+respecting a part of this sort of symbolic attire, which had become,
+he said, the foundation of a vaudeville, but which nevertheless was
+the record of a circumstance which actually occurred at Paris.
+
+A young provincial happened to arrive in the capital just at the time
+that these hieroglyphic habiliments were first brought into use, and
+having occasion for a new hat, repaired to the magasin of a noted
+chapelier, where everything of the newest invention was sure to be
+found. The young man, alike innocent of politics and ignorant of its
+symbols, selected a hat as high and as pointed as that of the toughest
+roundhead at the court of Cromwell, and sallied forth, proud of being
+one of the first in a new fashion, to visit a young relative who was
+en pension at an establishment rather celebrated for its
+freely-proclaimed Carlist propensities. His young cousin, he was told,
+was enjoying the hour of recreation with his schoolfellows in the
+play-ground behind the mansion. He desired to be led to him; and was
+accordingly shown the way to the spot, where about fifty young
+legitimatists were assembled. No sooner, however, had he and his hat
+obtained the entrée to this enclosure, than the most violent and
+hideous yell was heard to issue from every part of it.
+
+At first the simple-minded provincial smiled, from believing that this
+uproar, wild as it was, might be intended to express a juvenile
+welcome; and having descried his young kinsman on the opposite side of
+the enclosure, he walked boldly forward to reach him. But, before he
+had proceeded half a dozen steps, he was assailed on all sides by
+pebbles, tops, flying hoops, and well-directed handfuls of mud.
+Startled, astounded, and totally unable to comprehend the motives for
+so violent an assault, he paused for a moment, uncertain whether to
+advance boldly, or shelter himself by flight from an attack which
+seemed every moment to increase in violence. Ere he had well decided
+what course to pursue, his bold-hearted little relative rushed up to
+him, screaming, as loud as his young voice would allow,--"Sauve-toi,
+mon cousin! sauve-toi! Ôte ton vilain chapeau!... C'est le chapeau! le
+méchant chapeau!"
+
+The young man again stopped short, in the hope of being able to
+comprehend the vociferations of his little friend; but the hostile
+missives rang about his ears with such effect, that he suddenly came
+to the decision at which Falstaff arrived before him, and feeling
+that, at least on the present occasion, discretion was the better part
+of valour, he turned round, and made his escape as speedily as
+possible, muttering, however, as he went, "Qu'est-ce que c'est donc
+qu'un chapeau à-la-mode pour en faire ce vacarme de diable?"
+
+Having made good his retreat, he repaired without delay to the hatter
+of whom he had purchased this offensive article, described the scene
+he had passed through, and requested an explanation of it.
+
+"Mais, monsieur," replied the unoffending tradesman, "c'est tout
+bonnement un chapeau républicain;" adding, that if he had known
+monsieur's principles were not in accordance with a high crown, he
+would most certainly have pointed out the possible inconvenience of
+wearing one. As he spoke, he uncovered and displayed to view one of
+those delicate light-coloured hats which are known at Paris to speak
+the loyal principles of the wearer.
+
+"This hat," said he, gracefully presenting it, "may be safely worn by
+monsieur even if he chose to take his seat in the extremest corner of
+the côté droit."
+
+Once more the inexperienced youth walked forth; and this time he
+directed his steps towards the stupendous plaster elephant on the
+Place de la Bastile, now and ever the favourite object of country
+curiosity. He had taken correct instructions for his route, and
+proceeded securely by the gay succession of Boulevards towards the
+spot he sought. For some time he pursued his pleasant walk without any
+adventure or interruption whatever; but as he approached the region of
+the Porte St. Martin sundry little _sifflemens_ became audible, and
+ere he had half traversed the Boulevard du Temple he became fully
+convinced that whatever fate might have awaited his new, new hat at
+the pensionnat of his little cousin, both he and it ran great risk of
+being rolled in the mud which stagnated in sullen darkness near the
+spot where once stood the awful Temple.
+
+No sooner did he discover that the covering of his unlucky head was
+again obnoxious, than he hastened once more to the treacherous
+hatter, as he now fully believed him to be, and in no measured tone
+expressed his indignation of a line of conduct which had thus twice
+exposed the tranquillity--nay, perhaps the life of an unoffending
+individual to the fury of the mob. The worthy hatter with all possible
+respect and civility repelled the charge, declaring that his only wish
+and intention was to accommodate every gentleman who did him the
+honour to enter his magasin with exactly that species of hat which
+might best accord with his taste and principles. "If, however," he
+added with a modest bow, "monsieur really intended to condescend so
+far as to ask his advice as to which species of hat it was best and
+safest to wear at the present time in Paris, he should beyond the
+slightest shadow of doubt respectfully recommend the _juste milieu_."
+The young provincial followed his advice; and the moral of the story
+is, that he walked in peace and quietness through the streets of Paris
+as long as he stayed.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On our way home this morning we met a most magnificent funeral array:
+I reckoned twenty carriages, but the _piétons_ were beyond counting. I
+forget the name of the individual, but it was some one who had made
+himself very popular among the people. There was not, however, the
+least appearance of riot or confusion; nor were there any military to
+_protect the procession_,--a dignity which is always accorded by this
+thoughtful government to every person whose funeral is likely to be
+honoured by too great a demonstration of popular affection. Every man
+as it passed took off his hat; but this they would have done had no
+cortége accompanied the hearse, for no one ever meets a funeral in
+France without it.
+
+But though everything had so peaceful an air, we still felt disposed
+to avoid the crowd, and to effect this, turned from the quay down a
+street that led to the Palais Royal. Here there was no pavement; and
+the improved cleanliness of Paris, which I had admitted an hour before
+to a _native_ who had remarked upon it, now appeared so questionable
+to some of my party, that I was challenged to describe what it had
+been before this improvement took place. But notwithstanding this want
+of faith, which was perhaps natural enough in the Rue des Bons Enfans,
+into which we had blundered, it is nevertheless a positive fact that
+Paris is greatly improved in this respect; and if the next seven years
+do as much towards its purification as the last have done, we may
+reasonably hope that in process of time it will be possible to
+drive--nay, even walk through its crowded streets without the aid
+either of aromatic vinegar or eau de Cologne. Much, however, still
+remains to be done; and done it undoubtedly will be, from one end of
+the "_belle ville_" to the other, if no barricades arise to interfere
+with the purifying process. But English noses must still have a little
+patience.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXI.
+
+ Minor French Novelists.
+
+
+It is not long since, in writing to you of modern French works of
+imagination, I avowed my great and irresistible admiration for the
+high talent manifested in some of the writings published under the
+signature of George Sand; and I remember that the observations I
+ventured to make respecting them swelled into such length as to
+prevent my then uttering the protest which all Christian souls are
+called upon to make against the ordinary productions of the minor
+French story-tellers of the day. I must therefore now make this amende
+to the cause of morality and truth, and declare to you with all
+sincerity, that I believe nothing can be more contemptible, yet at the
+same time more deeply dangerous to the cause of virtue, than the
+productions of this unprincipled class of writers.
+
+While conversing a short time ago on the subject of these noxious
+ephemera with a gentleman whose professional occupations of necessity
+bring him into occasional contact with them, he struck off for my
+edification a sketch which he assured me might stand as a portrait,
+with wonderfully little variation, for any individual of the
+fraternity. It may lose something of its raciness by the processes of
+recollecting and translating; but I flatter myself that I shall be
+able to preserve enough of the likeness to justify my giving it to
+you.
+
+"These authors," said their lively historian, "swarm _au sixième_ in
+every quarter of Paris. For the most part, they are either idle
+scholars who, having taken an aversion to the vulgar drudgery of
+education, determine upon finding a short cut to the temple of Fame;
+or else they are young artisans--journeymen workers at some craft or
+other, which brings them in just francs enough to sustain an honest
+decent existence, but wholly insufficient to minister to the sublime
+necessities of revolutionary ambition. As perfect a sympathy appears
+to exist in the politics of all these gentry as in their doctrine of
+morals: they all hold themselves ready for rebellion at the first
+convenient opportunity--be it against Louis, Charles, Henri, or
+Philippe, it is all one; rebellion against constituted and recognised
+authority being, according to their high-minded code, their first
+duty, as well as their dearest recreation.
+
+They must wait, however, till the fitting moment come; and,
+meanwhile, how may they better the condition in which the tyranny of
+kings and law-makers has placed them? Shall they listen to the inward
+whisperings which tell them, that, being utterly unfitted to do their
+duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call them,
+they must of necessity and by the inevitable nature of things be
+fitted for some other?... What may it be?... Treason and rapine, of
+course, if time be ripe for it--but _en attendant_?
+
+To trace on an immortal page the burning thoughts that mar their
+handicraft ... to teach the world what fools the sages who have lived,
+and spoken, and gone to rest, would make of them ... to cause the
+voice of passion to be heard high above that of law or of gospel....
+Yes ... it is thus they will at once beguile the tedious hours that
+must precede another revolution, and earn by the noble labours of
+genius the luxuries denied to grovelling industry.
+
+This sublime occupation once decided on, it follows as a necessary
+result that they must begin by awakening all those tender sympathies
+of nature, which are to the imagination what oil is to the lamp. A
+favourite grisette is fixed upon, and invited to share the glory, the
+cabbage, the inspiration, and the garret of the exalted journeyman or
+truant scholar. It is said that the whole of this class of authors are
+supposed to place particular faith in that tinsel sentiment, so
+prettily and poetically untrue,--
+
+ "Love, light as air, at sight of human ties,
+ Spreads his bright wings, and in a moment flies;"
+
+and the inspired young man gently insinuates his unfettered ideas on
+the subject to the chosen fair one, who, if her acquaintance has lain
+much among these "fully-developed intelligences," is not unfrequently
+found to be as sublime in her notions of such subjects as himself; so
+the interesting little ménage is monté on the immortal basis of
+freedom.
+
+Then comes the literary labour, and its monstrous birth--a volume of
+tales, glowing with love and murder, blasphemy and treason, or
+downright obscenity, affecting to clothe itself in the playful drapery
+of wit. It is not difficult to find a publisher who knows where to
+meet with young customers ever ready to barter their last sous for
+such commodities, and the bargain is made.
+
+At the actual sight and at the actual touch of the unhoped-for sum of
+three hundred francs, the flood of inspiration rises higher still.
+More hideous love and bloodier murders, more phrensied blasphemy and
+deadlier treason, follow; and thus the fair metropolis of France is
+furnished with intellectual food for the craving appetites of the
+most useful and productive part of its population.
+
+Can we wonder that the Morgue is seldom untenanted?... or that the
+tender hand of affection is so often seen to pillow its loved victim
+where the fumes of charcoal shall soon extinguish a life too precious
+to be prolonged in a world where laws still exist, and where man must
+live, and woman too, by the sweat of their brows?
+
+It was some time after the conversation in which I received this
+sketch, that I fell into company with an Englishman who enjoys the
+reputation of high cultivation and considerable talent, and who
+certainly is not without that species of power in conversation which
+is produced by the belief that hyperbole is the soul of eloquence, and
+the stout defence of a paradox the highest proof of intellectual
+strength.
+
+To say I _conversed_ with this gifted individual would hardly be
+correct; but I listened to him, and gained thereby additional
+confirmation of a fact which I had repeatedly heard insisted on in
+Paris, that admiration for the present French school of décousu
+writing is manifested by critics of a higher class in England than
+could be found to tolerate it in France.
+
+"Have you read the works of the _young men_ of France?" was the
+comprehensive question by which this gentleman opened the flood-gates
+of the eloquence which was intended to prove, that without having
+studied well the bold and sublime compositions which have been put
+forth by this class, no one had a right to form a judgment of the
+existing state of human intelligence.
+
+For myself, I confess that my reading in this line, though greatly
+beyond what was agreeable to my taste, has never approached anything
+that deserved the name of study; and, indeed, I should as soon have
+thought of forming an estimate of the "existing state of human
+intelligence" from the height to which the boys of Paris made their
+kites mount from the top of Montmartre, as from the compositions to
+which he alluded: but, nevertheless, I listened to him very
+attentively; and I only wish that my memory would serve me, that I
+might repeat to you all the fine things he said in praise of a
+multitude of authors, of whom, however, it is more than probable you
+never heard, and of works that it is hardly possible you should have
+ever seen.
+
+It would be difficult to give you any just idea of the energy and
+enthusiasm which he manifested on this subject. His eyes almost
+started from his head, and the blood rushed over his face and temples,
+when one of the party hinted that the taste in which most of these
+works were composed was not of the most classic elegance, nor their
+apparent object any very high degree of moral utility.
+
+It is a well-known fact that people are seldom angry when they are
+quite in the right; and I believe it is equally rare to see such an
+extremity of vehemence as this individual displayed in asserting the
+high intellectual claims of his favourites exhibited on any question
+where reason and truth are on the side espoused by the speaker. I
+never saw the veins of the forehead swell in an attempt to prove that
+"Hamlet" was a fine tragedy, or that "Ivanhoe" was a fine romance; but
+on this occasion most of the company shrank into silence before the
+impassioned pleadings of this advocate for ... modern French
+historiettes.
+
+In the course of the discussion many _young_ names were cited; and
+when a few very palpable hits were made to tell on the literary
+reputations of some among them, the critic seemed suddenly determined
+to shake off all slighter skirmishing, and to defend the broad
+battle-field of the cause under the distinguished banner of M. Balzac
+himself. And here, I confess, he had most decidedly the advantage of
+me; for my acquaintance with the writings of this gentleman was
+exceedingly slight and superficial,--whereas he appeared to have
+studied every line he has ever written, with a feeling of reverence
+that seemed almost to bear a character of religious devotion. Among
+many of his works whose names he cited with enthusiasm, that entitled
+"La Peau de Chagrin" was the one which evidently raised his spirit to
+the most exalted pitch. It is difficult to imagine admiration and
+delight expressed more forcibly; and as I had never read a single line
+of this "Peau de Chagrin," my preconceived notions of the merit of M.
+Balzac's compositions really gave way before his enthusiasm; and I not
+only made a silent resolution to peruse this incomparable work with as
+little delay as possible, but I do assure you that I really and truly
+expected to find in it some very striking traits of genius, and a
+perfection of natural feeling and deep pathos which could not fail to
+give me pleasure, whatever I might think of the tone of its principles
+or the correctness of its moral tendency.
+
+Early then on the following morning I sent for "La Peau de
+Chagrin."... I have not the slightest wish or intention of entering
+into a critical examination of its merits; it would be hardly
+possible, I think, to occupy time more unprofitably: but as every
+author makes use of his preface to speak in his own person, whatever
+one finds written there assuming the form of a literary dictum may be
+quoted with propriety as furnishing the best and fairest testimony of
+his opinions, and I will therefore take the liberty of transcribing a
+few short sentences from the preface of M. Balzac, for the purpose of
+directing your attention to the theory upon which it is his intention
+to raise his literary reputation.
+
+The preface to "La Peau de Chagrin" appears to be written chiefly for
+the purpose of excusing the licentiousness of a former work entitled
+"La Physiologie du Mariage." In speaking of this work he says, frankly
+enough certainly, that it was written as "une tentative faite pour
+retourner à la littérature fine, vive, railleuse et gaie du
+dix-huitième siècle, où les auteurs ne se tenaient pas toujours droits
+et raides.... L'auteur de ce livre cherche à favoriser la réaction
+littéraire que préparent certains bons esprits.... Il ne comprend pas
+la pruderie, l'hypocrisie de nos moeurs, et refuse, du reste, aux
+gens blasés le droit d'être difficiles."
+
+This is telling his readers fairly enough what they have to expect;
+and if after this they will persist in plunging headlong into the mud
+which nearly a century of constantly-increasing refinement has gone
+far to drag us out of ... why they must.
+
+As another reason why his pen has done ... what it has done, M. Balzac
+tells us that it is absolutely necessary to have something in a
+_genre_ unlike anything that the public has lately been familiar
+with. He says that the reading world (which is in fact all the world)
+"est las aujourd'hui" ... of a great many different styles of
+composition which he enumerates, summing up all with ... "et
+l'Histoire de France, Walter-Scottée.... Que nous reste-t-il donc?" he
+continues. "Si le public condamne les efforts des écrivains qui
+essaient de remettre en honneur la littérature _franche_ de nos
+ancêtres...."
+
+As another specimen of the theories of these new immortals, let me
+also quote the following sentence:--"Si Polyeucte n'existait pas, plus
+d'un poète moderne est capable de _refaire_ Corneille."
+
+Again, as a reason for going back to the tone of literature which he
+has chosen, he says,--"Les auteurs ont souvent raison dans leurs
+impertinences contre le tems présent. Le monde nous demande de belles
+peintures--où en seraient les types? Vos habits mesquins--vos
+révolutions manquées--vos bourgeois discoureurs--votre religion
+morte--vos pouvoirs éteints--vos rois en demi-solde--sont-ils donc si
+poétiques qu'il faille vous les transfigurer?... Nous ne pouvons
+aujourd'hui que nous moquer--la raillerie est toute la littérature des
+sociétés expirantes."
+
+M. Balzac concludes this curious essay on modern literature
+thus:--"Enfin, le tems présent marche si vite--la vie intellectuelle
+déborde partout avec tant de force, que plusieurs idées ont vieilli
+pendant que l'auteur imprimait son ouvrage."
+
+This last phrase is admirable, and gives the best and clearest idea of
+the notions of the school on the subject of composition that I have
+anywhere met with. Imagine Shakspeare and Spenser, Swift and Pope,
+Voltaire and Rousseau, publishing a work with a similar prefatory
+apology!... But M. Balzac is quite right. The ideas that are generated
+to-day will be old to-morrow, and dead and buried the day after. I
+should indeed be truly sorry to differ from him on this point; for
+herein lies the only consolation that the wisdom of man can suggest
+for the heavy calamity of witnessing the unprecedented perversion of
+the human understanding which marks the present hour. IT WILL NOT
+LAST: Common Sense will reclaim her rights, and our children will
+learn to laugh at these spasmodic efforts to be great and original as
+cordially as Cervantes did at the chronicles of knight-errantry which
+turned his hero's brain.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXII.
+
+ Breaking-up of the Paris season.--Soirée at Madame
+ Récamier's.--Recitation.--Storm.--Disappointment.--Atonement.
+ --Farewell.
+
+
+My letters from Paris, my dear friend, must now be brought to a
+close--and perhaps you will say that it is high time it should be so.
+The summer sun has in truth got so high into the heavens, that its
+perpendicular beams are beginning to make all the gay folks in Paris
+fret--or, at any rate, run away. Everybody we see is preparing to be
+off in some direction or other,--some to the sea, some to philosophise
+under the shadow of their own vines, and some, happier than all the
+rest, to visit the enchanting watering-places of lovely Germany.
+
+We too have at length fixed the day for our departure, and this is
+positively the last letter you will receive from me dated from the
+beauteous capital of the Great Nation. It is lucky for our
+sensibilities, or for our love of pleasure, or for any other feeling
+that goes to make up the disagreeable emotion usually produced by
+saying farewell to scenes where we have been very happy, that the
+majority of those whose society made them delightful are going to say
+farewell to them likewise: leaving Paris a month ago would have been a
+much more dismal business to us than leaving it now.
+
+Our last soirée has been passed at the Abbaye-aux-Bois; and often as I
+have taken you there already, I must describe this last evening,
+because the manner in which we passed it was more essentially
+un-English than any other.
+
+About ten days before this our farewell visit, we met, at one of
+Madame Récamier's delightful reception-nights, a M. Lafond, a tragic
+actor of such distinguished merit, that even in the days of Talma he
+contrived, as I understand, to obtain a high reputation in Paris,
+though I do not believe his name is much known to us;--in fact, the
+fame of Talma so completely overshadowed every other in his own walk,
+that few actors of his day were remembered in England when the subject
+of the French drama was on the tapis.
+
+On the evening we met this gentleman at the Abbaye-aux-Bois, he was
+prevailed upon by our charming hostess (to whom I suspect that nobody
+can be found tough enough to pronounce a refusal of anything she asks)
+to recite a very spirited address from the pen of Casimir Delavigne to
+the people of Rouen, which M. Lafond had publicly spoken in the
+theatre of that city when the statue of Racine, who was native to it,
+was erected there.
+
+The verses are good, full of fervour, spirit and true poetical
+feeling, and the manner in which they were spoken by M. Lafond gave
+them their full effect. The whole scene was, indeed, striking and
+beautiful. A circle of elegant women,--among whom, by the way, was a
+niece of Napoleon's,--surrounded the performer: the gentlemen were
+stationed in groups behind them; while the inspired figure of Gérard's
+Corinne, strongly brought forward from the rest of the picture by a
+very skilful arrangement of lamps concealed from the eye of the
+spectator, really looked like the Genius of Poetry standing apart in
+her own proper atmosphere of golden light to listen to the honours
+rendered to one of her favourite sons.
+
+I was greatly delighted; and Madame Récamier, who perceived the
+pleasure which this recitation gave me, proposed to me that I should
+come to her on a future evening to hear M. Lafond read a play of
+Racine's.
+
+No proposition could have been more agreeable to us all. The party was
+immediately arranged; M. Lafond promised to be punctually there at the
+hour named, and we returned home well pleased to think that the last
+soirée we should pass in Paris would be occupied so delightfully.
+
+Last night was the time fixed for this engagement. The morning was
+fair, but there was no movement in the air, and the heat was intense.
+As the day advanced, thick clouds came to shelter us from the sun
+while we set forth to make some of our last farewell calls; but they
+brought no coolness with them, and their gloomy shade afforded little
+relief from the heavy heat that oppressed us: on the contrary, the
+sultry weight of the atmosphere seemed to increase every moment, and
+we were soon driven home by the ominous blackness which appeared to
+rest on every object, giving very intelligible notice of a violent
+summer-storm.
+
+It was not, however, till late in the evening that the full fury of
+this threatened deluge fell upon Paris; but about nine o'clock it
+really seemed as if an ocean had broken through the dark canopy above
+us, so violent were the torrents of rain which then fell in one vast
+waterspout upon her roofs.
+
+We listened to the rushing sound with very considerable uneasiness,
+for our anxious thoughts were fixed upon our promised visit to the
+Abbaye-aux-Bois; and we immediately gave orders that the porter's
+scout--a sturdy little personage well known to be good at need--should
+be despatched without a moment's delay for a fiacre: and you never, I
+am sure, saw a more blank set of faces than those exhibited in our
+drawing-room when the tidings reached us that not a single voiture
+could be found!
+
+After a moment's consultation, it was decided that the experienced
+porter himself should be humbly requested to run the risk of being
+drowned in one direction, while his attendant satellite again dared
+the same fate in another. This prompt and spirited decision produced
+at length the desired effect; and after another feverish half-hour of
+expectation, we had the inexpressible delight of finding ourselves
+safely enveloped in cloaks, which rendered it highly probable we might
+be able to step from the vehicle without getting wet to the skin, and
+deposited in the corners of one of those curiously-contrived swinging
+machines, whose motion is such that nothing but long practice or the
+most vigilant care can enable you to endure without losing your
+balance, and running a very dangerous tilt against the head of your
+opposite neighbour with your own.
+
+I never quitted the shelter of a roof in so unmerciful a night. The
+rain battered the top of our vehicle as if enraged at the opposition
+it presented to its impetuous descent upon the earth. The thunder
+roared loud above the rattling and creaking of all the crazy wheels we
+met, as well as the ceaseless grinding of those which carried us; and
+the lightning flashed with such rapidity and brightness, that the
+very mud we dashed through seemed illuminated.
+
+The effect of this storm as we passed the Pont Neuf was really
+beautiful. One instant our eyes looked out upon the thickest darkness;
+and the next, the old towers of Notre Dame, the pointed roofs of the
+Palais de Justice, and the fine bold elevation of St. Jacques, were
+"instant seen and instant gone." One bright blue flash fell full, as
+we dashed by it, on the noble figure of Henri Quatre, and the statua
+gentilissima, horse and all, looked as ghastly and as spectre-like as
+heart could wish.
+
+At length we reached the lofty iron grille of the venerable Abbaye.
+The ample court was filled with carriages: we felt that we were late,
+and hastening up the spacious stairs, in a moment found ourselves in a
+region as different as possible from that we had left. Instead of
+darkness, we were surrounded by a flood of light; rain and the howling
+blast were exchanged for smiles and gentle greetings; and the growling
+thunder of the storm, for the sweet voice of Madame Récamier, which
+told us however that M. Lafond was not yet arrived.
+
+As the party expected was a large one, it was Miss C----'s noble
+saloon that received us. It was already nearly full, but its stately
+monastic doors still continued to open from time to time for the
+reception of new arrivals--yet still M. Lafond came not.
+
+At length, when disappointment was beginning to take place of
+expectation, a note arrived from the tragedian to Madame Récamier,
+stating that the deluge of rain which had fallen rendered the streets
+of Paris utterly impassable without a carriage, and the same cause
+made it absolutely impossible to procure one; ergo, we could have no
+M. Lafond--no Racine.
+
+Such a contre-tems as this, however, is by no means very difficult to
+bear at the Abbaye-aux-Bois. But Madame Récamier appeared very sorry
+for it, though nobody else did; and admirable as M. Lafond's reading
+is known to be, I am persuaded that the idea of her being vexed by his
+failing to appear caused infinitely more regret to every one present
+than the loss of a dozen tragedies could have done. And then it was
+that the spirit of genuine French _amabilité_ shone forth; and in
+order to chase whatever was disagreeable in this change in the
+destination of our evening's occupations, one of the gentlemen present
+most good-humouredly consented to recite some verses of his own,
+which, both from their own merit, and from the graceful and amiable
+manner in which they were given, were well calculated to remove every
+shadow of dissatisfaction from all who heard them.
+
+This example was immediately followed in the same delightful spirit by
+another, who in like manner gave us more than one proof of his own
+poetic power, as well as of that charming national amenity of manner
+which knows so well how to round and polish every rough and jutting
+corner which untoward accidents may and must occasionally throw across
+the path of life.
+
+One of the pieces thus recited was an extremely pretty legend, called,
+if I mistake not, "Les Soeurs Grises," in which there is a sweet and
+touching description of a female character made up of softness,
+goodness, and grace. As this description fell trait by trait from the
+lips of the poet, many an eye turned involuntarily towards Madame
+Récamier; and the Duchesse d'Abrantes, near whom I was sitting, making
+a slight movement of the hand in the same direction, said in a half
+whisper,--
+
+"C'est bien elle!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On the whole, therefore, our disappointment was but lightly felt; and
+when we rose to quit this delightful Abbaye-aux-Bois for the last
+time, all the regret of which we were conscious arose from
+recollecting how doubtful it was whether we should ever find ourselves
+within its venerable walls again.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT.
+
+
+The letters which are herewith presented to the public contain nothing
+beyond passing notices of such objects as chiefly attracted my
+attention during nine very agreeable weeks passed amidst the
+care-killing amusements of Paris. I hardly know what they contain; for
+though I have certainly been desirous of giving my correspondent, as
+far as I was able, some idea of Paris at the present day, I have been
+at least equally anxious to avoid everything approaching to so
+presumptuous an attempt as it would have been to give a detailed
+history of all that was going on there during the period of our stay.
+
+These letters, therefore, have been designedly as unconnected as
+possible: I have in this been _décousu_ upon principle, and would
+rather have given a regular journal, after the manner of Lloyd's List,
+noting all the diligences which have come in and gone out of "la belle
+ville" during my stay there, than have attempted to analyse and define
+the many unintelligible incongruities which appeared to me to mark the
+race and mark the time.
+
+But though I felt quite incapable of philosophically examining this
+copious subject, or, in fact, of going one inch beneath the surface
+while describing the outward aspect of all around me, I cannot but
+confess that the very incongruity which I dared not pretend to analyse
+appeared to me by far the most remarkable feature in the present state
+of the country.
+
+There has, I know, always been something of this kind attributed to
+the French character. Splendour and poverty--grace and grimace--delicacy
+and filth--learning and folly--science and frivolity, have often been
+observed among them in a closeness of juxta-position quite unexampled
+elsewhere; but of late it has become infinitely more conspicuous,--or
+rather, perhaps, this want of consistency has seemed to embrace
+objects of more importance than formerly. Heretofore, though it was
+often suspected in graver matters, it was openly demonstrated only on
+points which concerned the externals of society rather than the vital
+interests of the country; but from the removal of that restraint which
+old laws, old customs, and old authority imposed upon the public acts
+of the people, the unsettled temper of mind which in time past showed
+itself only in what might, comparatively speaking, be called trifles,
+may in these latter days be traced without much difficulty in affairs
+of much greater moment.
+
+No one of any party will now deny, I believe, that many things which
+by their very nature appear to be incompatible have been lately seen
+to exist in Paris, side by side, in a manner which certainly resembled
+nothing that could be found elsewhere.
+
+As instances of this kind pressed upon me, I have sometimes felt as if
+I had got behind the scenes of a theatre, and that all sorts of
+materials, for all sorts of performances, were jumbled together around
+me, that they might be ready at a moment's notice if called for. Here
+a crown--there a cap of liberty. On this peg, a mantle embroidered
+with fleurs-de-lis; on that, a tri-coloured flag. In one corner, all
+the paraphernalia necessary to deck out the pomp and pageantry of the
+Catholic church; and in another, all the symbols that can be found
+which might enable them to show respect and honour to Jews, Turks,
+infidels, and heretics. In this department might be seen very noble
+preparations to support a grand military spectacle; and in that, all
+the prettiest pageants in the world, to typify eternal peace.
+
+I saw all these things, for it was impossible not to see them; but as
+to the scene-shifters who were to prepare the different tableaux, I in
+truth knew nothing about them. Their trap-doors, wires, and other
+machinery were very wisely kept out of sight of such eyes as mine; for
+had I known anything of the matter, I should most assuredly have told
+it all, which would greatly tend to mar the effect of the next change
+of decorations.
+
+It was with this feeling, and in this spirit of purely superficial
+observation, that the foregoing letters were written; but, ere I
+commit them to the press, I wish to add a few graver thoughts which
+rest upon my mind as the result of all that I saw and heard while at
+Paris, connected as they now are with the eventful changes which have
+occurred in the short interval that has elapsed since I left it.
+
+"_The country is in a state of transition_," is a phrase which I have
+often listened to, and often been disposed to laugh at, as a sort of
+oracular interpretation of paradoxes which, in truth, no one could
+understand: but the phrase may now be used without any Delphic
+obscurity. France was indeed in a state of transition exactly at the
+period of which I have been writing; but this uncertain state is past,
+nearly all the puzzling anomalies which so completely defied
+interpretation have disappeared, and it may now be fairly permitted,
+to simple-minded travellers who pretend not to any conjuring skill, to
+guess a little what she is about.
+
+I revisited France with that animating sensation of pleasure which
+arises from the hope of reviving old and agreeable impressions; but
+this pleasure was nevertheless dashed with such feeling of regret as
+an _English conservative_ may be supposed to feel for the popular
+violence which had banished from her throne its legitimate sovereign.
+
+As an abstract question of right and wrong, my opinion of this act
+cannot change; but the deed is done,--France has chosen to set aside
+the claim of the prince who by the law of hereditary succession has a
+right to the crown, in favour of another prince of the same royal
+line, whom in her policy she deems more capable of insuring the
+prosperity of the country. The deed is done; and the welfare of tens
+of millions who had, perhaps, no active share in bringing it about now
+hangs upon the continuance of the tranquillity which has followed the
+change.
+
+However deep therefore may be the respect felt for those who, having
+sworn fealty to Charles the Tenth, continue steadfastly undeviating in
+their declaration of his right, and firm in their refusal to recognise
+that of any other, still a stranger and sojourner in the land may
+honestly acknowledge the belief that the prosperity of France at the
+present hour depends upon her allegiance to the king she has chosen,
+without being accused of advocating the cause of revolution.
+
+To judge fairly of France as she actually exists, it is absolutely
+necessary to throw aside all memory of the purer course she might have
+pursued five years ago, by the temperate pleading of her chartered
+rights, to obtain redress of such evils as really existed. The popular
+clamour which rose and did the work of revolution, though it
+originated with factious demagogues and idle boys, left the new power
+it had set in action in the hands of men capable of redeeming the
+noble country they were called to govern from the state of disjointed
+weakness in which they found it. The task has been one of almost
+unequalled difficulty and peril; but every day gives greater
+confidence to the hope, that after forty years of blundering,
+blustering policy, and changes so multiplied as to render the very
+name of revolution ridiculous, this superb kingdom, so long our rival,
+and now, as we firmly trust, our most assured ally, will establish her
+government on a basis firm enough to strengthen the cause of social
+order and happiness throughout all Europe.
+
+The days, thank Heaven! are past when Englishmen believed it patriotic
+to deny their Gallic neighbours every faculty except those of making a
+bow and of eating a frog, while they were repaid by all the weighty
+satire comprised in the two impressive words JOHN BULL. We now know
+each other better--we have had a long fight, and we shake hands across
+the water with all the mutual good-will and respect which is
+generated by a hard struggle, bravely sustained on both sides, and
+finally terminated by a hearty reconciliation.
+
+The position, the prospects, the prosperity of France are become a
+subject of the deepest interest to the English nation; and it is
+therefore that the observations of any one who has been a recent
+looker-on there may have some value, even though they are professedly
+drawn from the surface only. But when did ever the surface of human
+affairs present an aspect so full of interest? Now that so many of the
+circumstances which have been alluded to above as puzzling and
+incongruous have been interpreted by the unexpected events which have
+lately crowded upon each other, I feel aware that I have indeed been
+looking on upon the dénouement of one of the most interesting
+political dramas that ever was enacted. The movements of King Philippe
+remind one of those by which a bold rider settles himself in the
+saddle, when he has made up his mind for a rough ride, and is quite
+determined not to be thrown. When he first mounted, indeed, he took
+his seat less firmly; one groom held the stirrup, another the reins:
+he felt doubtful how far he should be likely to go--the weather looked
+cloudy--he might dismount directly.... But soon the sun burst from
+behind the cloud that threatened him: Now for it, then! neck or
+nothing! He orders his girths to be tightened, his curb to be well
+set, and the reins fairly and horsemanly put into his hands.... Now he
+is off! and may his ride be prosperous!--for should he fall, it is
+impossible to guess how the dust which such a catastrophe might raise
+would settle itself.
+
+The interest which his situation excites is sufficiently awakening,
+and produces a species of romantic feeling, that may be compared to
+what the spectators experienced in the tournaments of old, when they
+sat quietly by to watch the result of a combat _à outrance_. But
+greater, far greater is the interest produced by getting a near view
+of the wishes and hopes of the great people who have placed their
+destinies in his hands.
+
+Nothing that is going on in Paris--in the Chamber of Deputies, in the
+Chamber of Peers, or even in the Cabinet of the King--could touch me
+so much, or give me half so much pleasure to listen to, as the tone in
+which I have heard some of the most distinguished men in France speak
+of the repeated changes and revolutions in her government.
+
+It is not in one or two instances only that I have remarked this
+tone,--in fact, I might say that I have met it whenever I was in the
+society of those whose opinions especially deserved attention. I
+hardly know, however, how to describe it, for it cannot be done by
+repeating isolated phrases and observations. I should say, that it
+marks distinctly a consciousness that such frequent changes are not
+creditable to any nation--that they feel half ashamed to talk of them
+gravely, yet more than half vexed to speak of the land they love with
+anything approaching to lightness or contempt. That the men of whom I
+speak do love their country with a true, devoted, Romanlike
+attachment, I am quite sure; and I never remember to have felt the
+conviction that I was listening to real patriots so strongly as when I
+have heard them reason on the causes, deplore the effects, and
+deprecate the recurrence of these direful and devastating convulsions.
+
+It is, if I mistake not, this noble feeling of wishing to preserve
+their country from the disgrace of any farther demonstrations of such
+frail inconstancy, which will tend to keep Louis-Philippe on his
+throne as much, or even more perhaps, than that newly-awakened energy
+in favour of the _boutique_ and the _bourse_ of which we hear so much.
+
+It is nowise surprising that this proud but virtuous sentiment should
+yet exist, notwithstanding all that has happened to check and to chill
+it. Frenchmen have still much of which they may justly boast. After a
+greater continuance of external war and internal commotion than
+perhaps any country was ever exposed to within the same space of time,
+France is in no degree behind the most favoured nations of Europe in
+any one of the advantages which have ever been considered as among the
+especial blessings of peace. Tremendous as have been her efforts and
+her struggles, the march of science has never faltered: the fine arts
+have been cherished with unremitting zeal and a most constant care,
+even while every citizen was a soldier; and now, in this
+breathing-time that Heaven has granted her, she presents a spectacle
+of hopeful industry, active improvement, and prosperous energy, which
+is unequalled, I believe, in any European country except our own.
+
+Can we wonder, then, that the nation is disposed to rally round a
+prince whom Fate seems to have given expressly as an anchor to keep
+her firm and steady through the heavy swell that the late storms have
+left? Can we wonder that feelings, and even principles, are found to
+bend before an influence so salutary and so strong?
+
+However irregular the manner in which he ascended the throne,
+Louis-Philippe had himself little more to do with it than yielding to
+the voice of the triumphant party who called upon him to mount its
+troublesome pre-eminence; and at the moment he did so, he might very
+fairly have exclaimed--
+
+ "If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me
+ Without my stir."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Never certainly did any event brought on by tumult and confusion give
+such fair promise of producing eventually the reverse, as the
+accession of King Louis-Philippe to the throne of France.
+
+The manner of this unexpected change itself, the scenes which led to
+it, and even the state of parties and of feelings which came
+afterwards, all bore a character of unsettled confusion which
+threatened every species of misery to the country.
+
+When we look back upon this period, all the events which occurred
+during the course of it appear like the rough and ill-assorted
+fragments of worsted on the reverse of a piece of tapestry. No one
+could guess, not even the agents in them, what the final result would
+be. But they were at work upon a design drawn by the all-powerful and
+unerring hand of Providence; and strange as the medley has appeared to
+us during the process, the whole when completed seems likely to
+produce an excellent effect.
+
+The incongruous elements, however, of which the chaos was composed
+from whence this new order of things was to arise, though daily and
+by slow degrees assuming shape and form, were still in a state of
+"most admired disorder" during our abode in Paris. It was impossible
+to guess where-unto all those things tended which were evidently in
+movement around us; and the signs of the times were in many instances
+so contrary to each other, that nothing was left for those who came to
+view the land, but to gaze--to wonder, and pass on, without attempting
+to reconcile contradictions so totally unintelligible.
+
+But, during the few weeks that have elapsed since I left the capital
+of France, this obscurity has been dispersed like a mist. It was the
+explosion of an infernal machine that scattered it; but it is the
+light of heaven that now shines upon the land, making visible to the
+whole world on what foundation rest its hopes, and by what means they
+shall be brought to fruition.
+
+Never, perhaps, did even a successful attempt upon the life of an
+individual produce results so important as those likely to ensue from
+the failure of the atrocious plot against the King of the French and
+his sons. It has roused the whole nation as a sleeping army is roused
+by the sound of a trumpet. The indifferent, the doubting--nay, even
+the adverse, are now bound together by one common feeling: an assassin
+has raised his daring arm against France, and France in an instant
+assumes an attitude so firm, so bold, so steady, and so powerful, that
+all her enemies must quail before it.
+
+As for the wretched faction who sent forth this bloody agent to do
+their work, they stand now before the face of all men in the broad
+light of truth. High and noble natures may sometimes reason amiss, and
+may mistake the worse cause for the better; but however deeply this
+may involve them in error, it will not lead them one inch towards
+crime. Such men have nothing in common with the republicans of 1835.
+
+From their earliest existence as a party, these republicans have
+avowed themselves the unrelenting enemies of all the powers that be:
+social order, and all that sustains it, is their abhorrence; and
+neither honour, conscience, nor humanity has force sufficient to
+restrain them from the most hideous crimes when its destruction is the
+object proposed. Honest men of all shades of political opinion must
+agree in considering this unbridled faction as the common enemies of
+the human race. In every struggle to sustain the laws which bind
+society together, their hand is against every man; and the inevitable
+consequence must and will be, that every man's hand shall be against
+them.
+
+Deplorable therefore as were the consequences of the Fieschi plot in
+its partial murderous success, it is likely to prove in its ultimate
+result of the most important and lasting benefit to France. It has
+given union and strength to her councils, energy and boldness to her
+acts; and if it be the will of Heaven that anything shall stay the
+plague of insurrection and revolt which, with infection more fearful
+than that of the Asiatic pest, has tainted the air of Europe with its
+poisonous breath, it is from France, where the evil first arose, that
+the antidote to it is most likely to come.
+
+It will be in vain that any republican clamour shall attempt to
+stigmatise the acts of the French legislature with the odium of an
+undue and tyrannical use of the power which it has been compelled to
+assume. The system upon which this legislature has bound itself to act
+is in its very nature incompatible with individual power and
+individual ambition: its acts may be absolute--and high time is it
+that they should be so,--but the absolutism will not be that of an
+autocrat.
+
+The theory of the doctrinaire government is not so well, or at least
+so generally, understood as it will be; but every day is making it
+better known to Europe,--and whether the new principles on which it is
+founded be approved or not, its power will be seen to rest upon them,
+and not upon the tyrannical will of any man or body of men whatever.
+
+It is not uncommon to hear persons declare that they understand no
+difference between the juste-milieu party and that of the
+doctrinaires; but they cannot have listened very attentively to the
+reasonings of either party.
+
+The juste-milieu party, if I understand them aright, consists of
+politicians whose principles are in exact conformity to the expressive
+title they have chosen. They approve neither of a pure despotism nor
+of a pure democracy, but plead for a justly-balanced constitutional
+government with a monarch at its head.
+
+The doctrinaires are much less definite in their specification of the
+form of government which they believe the circumstances of France to
+require. It might be thought indeed, from some of their speculations,
+that they were almost indifferent as to what form the government
+should assume, or by what name it should be known to the world,
+provided always that it have within itself power and efficacy
+sufficient to adopt and carry into vigorous effect such measures as
+its chiefs shall deem most beneficial to the country for the time
+being. A government formed on these principles can pledge itself by no
+guarantee to any particular line of politics, and the country must
+rest contented in the belief that its interests shall be cared for by
+those who are placed in a situation to control them.
+
+Upon these principles, it is evident that the circumstances in which
+the country is placed, internally and externally, must regulate the
+policy of her cabinet, and not any abstract theory connected with the
+name assumed by her government. Thus despotism may be the offspring of
+a republic; and liberty, the gift of a dynasty which has reigned for
+ages by right divine.
+
+M. de Carné, a political writer of much ability, in his essay on
+parties and "le mouvement actuel," ridicules in a spirit of keen
+satire the idea that any order of men in France at the present day
+should be supposed to interest themselves seriously for any abstract
+political opinion.
+
+"Croit-on bien sérieusement encore," he says, "au mécanisme
+constitutionnel--à la multiplicité de ses poids et contre-poids--à
+l'inviolabilité sacrée de la pensée dirigeante, combinée avec la
+responsabilité d'argent?"...
+
+And again he says,--"Est-il beaucoup d'esprits graves qui attachent
+aujourd'hui une importance de premier ordre pour le bien-être moral et
+matériel de la race humaine à la substitution d'une présidence
+américaine, à la royauté de 1830?"
+
+It is evident from the tone sustained through the whole of this
+ingenious essay, that it is the object of M. Carné to convince his
+readers of the equal and total futility of every political creed
+founded on any fixed and abstract principle. Who is it, he asks, "qui
+a établi en France un despotisme dont on ne trouve d'exemple qu'en
+remontant aux monarchies de l'Asie?--Napoleon--lequel régnait comme
+les Césars Romains, en vertu de la souveraineté du peuple. Qui a
+fondé, après tant d'impuissantes tentatives, une liberté sérieuse, et
+l'a fait entrer dans nos moeurs au point de ne pouvoir plus lui
+résister?--La maison de Bourbon, qui régnait par le droit divin."
+
+In advocating this system of intrusting the right as well as the power
+of governing a country to the hands of its rulers, without exacting
+from them a pledge that their measures shall be guided by theoretical
+instead of practical wisdom, M. Carné naturally refers to his
+own--that is to say, the doctrinaire party, and expresses himself
+thus:--"Cette disposition à chercher dans les circonstances et dans la
+morale privée la seule règle d'action politique, a donné naissance à
+un parti qui s'est trop hâté de se produire, mais chez lequel il y a
+assez d'avenir pour résister à ses propres fautes. Il serait difficile
+d'en formuler le programme, si vaporeux encore, autrement qu'en disant
+qu'il s'attache à substituer l'étude des lois de la richesse publique
+aux spéculations constitutionnelles, dont le principal résultat est
+d'équilibrer sur le papier des forces qui se déplacent inévitablement
+dans leur action."
+
+It is certainly possible that this distaste for pledging themselves to
+any form or system of government, and the apparent readiness to
+accommodate their principles to the exigences of the hour, may be as
+much the result of weariness arising from all the restless experiments
+they have made, as from conviction that this loose mode of wearing a
+political colour, ready to drop it, or change it according to
+circumstances, is in reality the best condition in which a great
+nation can place itself.
+
+It can hardly be doubted that the French people have become as weary
+of changes and experiments as their neighbours are of watching them.
+They have tried revolutions of every size and form till they are
+satiated, and their spirits are worn out and exhausted by the labour
+of making new projects of laws, new charters, and new kings. It is, in
+truth, contrary to their nature to be kept so long at work. No people
+in the world, perhaps, have equal energy in springing forward to
+answer some sudden call, whether it be to pull down a Bastile with
+Lafayette, to overturn a throne with Robespierre, to overrun Europe
+with Napoleon, or to reorganise a monarchy with Louis-Philippe. All
+these deeds could be done with enthusiasm, and therefore they were
+natural to Frenchmen. But that the mass of the people should for long
+years together check their gay spirits, and submit themselves, without
+the recompense of any striking stage effect, to prose over the thorny
+theories of untried governments, is quite impossible,--for such a
+state would be utterly hostile to the strongest propensities of the
+people. "Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop." It is for this
+reason that "_la loi bourgeoise_" has been proclaimed; which being
+interpreted, certainly means the law of being contented to remain as
+they are, making themselves as rich and as comfortable as they
+possibly can, under the shelter of a king who has the will and the
+power to protect them.
+
+M. Carné truly says,--"Le plus puissant argument que puisse employer
+la royauté pour tenir en respect la bourgeoisie, est celui dont usait
+l'astrologue de Louis Onze pour avoir raison des capricieuses
+velléités de son maître,--'Je mourrai juste trois jours avant votre
+majesté.'"
+
+This quotation, though it sound not very courtier-like, may be uttered
+before Louis-Philippe without offence; for it is impossible, let one's
+previous political bias have been what it will, not to perceive in
+every act of his government a firm determination to support and
+sustain in honour and in safety the order of things which it has
+established, or to perish; and the consequence of this straightforward
+policy is, that thousands and tens of thousands who at first
+acknowledged his rule only to escape from anarchy, now cling to it,
+not only as a present shelter, but as a powerful and sure defence
+against the return of the miserable vicissitudes to which they have
+been so long exposed.
+
+Among many obvious advantages which the comprehensive principles of
+the "doctrine" offered to France under the peculiar circumstances in
+which she was placed at the time it was first propagated, was, that it
+offered a common resting-place to all who were weary of revolutions,
+let them be of what party they would. This is well expressed by M.
+Carné when he says,--"Ce parti semble appelé, par ce qu'il a de vague
+en lui, à devenir le sympathique lien de ces nombreuses intelligences
+dévoyées qui ont pénétré le vide de l'idée politique."
+
+There cannot, I think, be a happier phrase to describe the host who
+have bewildered themselves in the interminable mazes of a science so
+little understood by the multitude, than this of "_intelligences
+dévoyées qui ont pénétré le vide de l'idée politique_." For these, it
+is indeed a blessing to have found one common name (vague though it
+be) under which they may all shelter themselves, and, without the
+slightest reproach to the consistency of their patriotism, join heart
+and hand in support of a government which has so ably contrived to
+"draw golden opinions from all sorts of men."
+
+In turning over the pages of Hume's History in pursuit of a particular
+passage, I accidentally came upon his short and pithy sketch of the
+character and position of our Henry the Seventh. In many points it
+approaches very nearly to what might be said of Louis-Philippe.
+
+"The personal character of the man was full of vigour, industry, and
+severity; deliberate in all his projects, steady in every purpose, and
+attended with caution, as well as good fortune, in each enterprise. He
+came to the throne after long and bloody civil wars. The nation was
+tired with discord and intestine convulsions, and willing to submit to
+usurpations and even injuries rather than plunge themselves anew into
+like miseries. The fruitless efforts made against him served always,
+as is usual, to confirm his authority."
+
+Such a passage as this, and some others with which I occasionally
+indulge myself from the records of the days that are gone, have in
+them a most consoling tendency. We are apt to believe that the scenes
+we are painfully witnessing contain, amidst the materials of which
+they are formed, elements of mischief more terrible than ever before
+threatened the tranquillity of mankind; yet a little recollection, and
+a little confidence in the Providence so visible in every page of the
+world's history, may suffice to inspire us with better hopes for the
+future than some of our doubting spirits have courage to anticipate.
+
+"The fruitless efforts made against" King Philippe "have served to
+confirm his authority," and have done the same good office to him
+that similar outrages did to our "princely Tudor" in the fourteenth
+century. The people were sick of "discord and intestine convulsions"
+in his days: so are they at the present time in France; so will they
+be again, at no very distant period, in England.
+
+While congratulating the country I have so recently left, as I do most
+heartily, on the very essential improvements which have taken place
+since my departure, I feel as if I ought to apologise for some
+statements to be found in the preceding pages of these volumes which
+if made now might fairly be challenged as untrue. But during the last
+few months, letters from France should have been both written and read
+post-haste, or the news they contained would not be of much worth. We
+left Paris towards the end of June, and before the end of July the
+whole moral condition of France had received a shock, and undergone a
+change which, though it does not falsify any of my statements, renders
+it necessary at least that the tense of many of them should be
+altered.
+
+Thus, when I say that an unbounded license in caricaturing prevails,
+and that the walls of the capital are scrawled over with grotesque
+representations of the sovereign, the errata should have--"for
+_prevails_, read _did prevail_; for _are_, read _were_;" and the like
+in many other instances.
+
+The task of declaring that such statements are no longer correct is,
+however, infinitely more agreeable than that of making them. The
+daring profligacy of all kinds which was exposed to the eyes and the
+understanding at Paris before the establishment of the laws, which
+have now taken the morals of the people under their protection, was
+fast sinking the country into the worst and coarsest species of
+barbarism; and there is a sort of patriotism, not belonging to the
+kingdom, but to the planet that gave one birth, which must be
+gratified by seeing a check given to what tended to lower human nature
+itself.
+
+As a matter of hope, and consolation too, under similar evils which
+beset us at home, there is much satisfaction to be derived from
+perceiving that, however inveterate the taint may appear which
+unchecked licentiousness has brought upon a land, there is power
+enough in the hands of a vigorous and efficient magistracy to stay its
+progress and wipe out the stain. A "Te Deum" for this cleansing law
+should be performed in every church in Christendom.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+There is something assuredly of more than common political interest in
+the present position of France, interesting to all Europe, but most
+especially interesting to us. The wildest democracy has been advocated
+by her press, and even in her senate. The highest court of justice in
+the kingdom has not been held sufficiently sacred to prevent the
+utterance of opinions within it which, if acted upon, would have taken
+the sceptre from the hands of the king and placed it in those of the
+mob. Her journals have poured forth the most unbridled abuse, the most
+unmitigated execrations against the acts of the government, and almost
+against the persons of its agents. And what has been the result of all
+this? Steadily, tranquilly, firmly, and without a shadow of
+vacillation, has that government proceeded in performing the duties
+intrusted to it by the country. It has done nothing hastily, nothing
+rashly, nothing weakly. On first receiving the perilous deposit of a
+nation's welfare,--at a moment too when a thousand dangers from within
+and without were threatening,--the most cautious and consummate wisdom
+was manifested, not only in what it did, but in what it did not do.
+Like a skilful general standing on the defensive, it remained still a
+while, till the first headlong rush which was intended to dislodge it
+from its new position had passed by; and when this was over, it
+contemplated well the ground, the force, and the resources placed
+under its command, before it stirred one step towards improving them.
+
+When I recollect all the nonsense I listened to in Paris previous to
+the trial of the Lyons prisoners; the prophecies that the king would
+not DARE to persevere in it; the assurances from some that the
+populace would rise to rescue them,--from others, that the peers would
+refuse to sit in judgment,--and from more still, that if nothing of
+all this occurred in Paris, a counter-revolution would assuredly break
+out in the South;--when I remember all this, and compare it to the
+steady march of daily-increasing power which has marked every act of
+this singularly vigorous government from that period to the present, I
+feel it difficult to lament that, at this eventful epoch of the
+world's history, power should have fallen into hands so capable of
+using it wisely.
+
+Yet, with all this courage and boldness of decision, there has been
+nothing reckless, nothing like indifference to public opinion, in the
+acts of the French government. The ministers have uniformly appeared
+willing to hear and to render reason respecting all the measures they
+have pursued; and the king himself has never ceased to manifest the
+same temper of mind which, through all the vicissitudes of his
+remarkable life, have rendered him so universally popular. But it is
+quite clear that, whatever were the circumstances which led to his
+being placed on the throne of France, Louis-Philippe can never become
+the tool of a faction: I can well conceive him replying, to any
+accusation brought against him, in the gentle but dignified words of
+Athalie--
+
+ "Ce que j'ai fait, Abner, j'ai cru le devoir faire--
+ Je ne prends point pour juge un peuple téméraire."
+
+And who is there, of all those whom nature, fortune, and education
+have placed, as it were, in inevitable opposition to him, but must be
+forced to acknowledge that he is right? None, I truly believe,--save
+only that unfortunate, bewildered, puzzle-headed set of politicians,
+the republicans, who seem still to hang together chiefly because no
+other party will have anything to say to them, and because they alone,
+of all the host of would-be lawgivers, dare not to seek for
+standing-room under the ample shelter of _the doctrine_, inasmuch as
+its motto is "Public Order," and the well-known gathering word of
+their tribe is "Confusion and Misrule."
+
+There are still many persons, I believe, who, though nowise desirous
+themselves of seeing any farther change in the government of France,
+yet still anticipate that change must come, because they consider it
+impossible that this restless party can long remain quiet. I have
+heard several who wish heartily well to the government of
+Louis-Philippe express very gloomy forebodings on this subject. They
+say, that however beneficial the present order of things has been
+found for France, it is vain to hope it should long endure, contrary
+to the wish and will of so numerous a faction; especially as the
+present government is formed on the doctrine, that the protection of
+arts and industry, and the fostering of all the objects connected with
+that wealth and prosperity to which the restoration of peace has led,
+should be its first object: whereas the republicans are ever ready to
+be up and doing in any cause that promises change and tumult, and will
+therefore be found, whenever a struggle shall arise, infinitely better
+prepared to fight it out than the peaceable and well-contented
+majority, of whom they are the declared enemies.
+
+I think, however, that such reasoners are altogether wrong: they leave
+out of their consideration one broad and palpable fact, which is,
+however, infinitely more important than any other,--namely, that a
+republic is a form of government completely at variance with the
+spirit of the French people. That it has been already tried and found
+to fail, is only one among many proofs that might easily be brought
+forward to show this. That love of glory which all the world seems to
+agree in attributing to France as one of her most remarkable national
+characteristics, must ever prevent her placing the care of her dignity
+and her renown in the hands of a mob. It was in a moment of "drunken
+enthusiasm" that her first degrading revolution was brought about; and
+deep as was the disgrace of it, no one can fairly say that the nation
+should be judged by the wild acts then perpetrated. Everything that
+has since followed goes to establish the conviction, that France
+cannot exist as a republic.
+
+There is a love of public splendour in their nature that seems as much
+born with them as their black eyes; and they must have, as a centre to
+that splendour, a king and a court, round which they may move, and to
+which they may do homage in the face of Europe without fearing that
+their honour or their dignity can be compromised thereby. It has been
+said (by an Englishman) that the present is the government of the
+bourgeoisie, and that Louis-Philippe is "un roi bourgeois." His
+Bourbon blood, however, saves him from this jest; and if by "the
+government of the bourgeoisie" is meant a cabinet composed of and
+sustained by the wealth of the country, as well as its talent and its
+nobility, there is nothing in the statement to shock either patrician
+pride or regal dignity.
+
+The splendid military pageant in which the French people followed the
+imperial knight-errant who led them as conquerors over half Europe,
+might well have sufficient charm to make so warlike a nation forget
+for a while all the blessings of peace, as well as the more enduring
+glory which advancing science and well-instructed industry might
+bring. But even had Napoleon not fallen, the delirium of this military
+fever could not have been much longer mistaken for national
+prosperity by such a country as France; and, happily for her, it was
+not permitted to go on long enough to exhaust her strength so entirely
+as to prevent her repairing its effects, and starting with fresh
+vigour in a far nobler course.
+
+But even now, with objects and ambition so new and so widely different
+before their eyes, what is the period to which the memory of the people
+turns with the greatest complacency?... Is it to the Convention, or to
+the Directory?--Is it to their mimicry of Roman Consulships? Alas! for
+the classic young-headed republicans of France!... they may not hope
+that their cherished vision can ever endure within the realm of St.
+Louis long enough to have its lictors' and its tribunes' robes
+definitively decided on.
+
+No! it is not to this sort of schoolboy mummery that Gallic fancies
+best love to return,--but to that portentous interval when the bright
+blaze of a magnificent meteor shone upon their iron chains, and made
+them look like gold. If this be true--if it cannot be denied that the
+affections of the French people cling with more gratitude to the
+splendid despotism of Napoleon than to any other period of their
+history, is it to be greatly feared that they should turn from the
+substantial power and fame that now
+
+ "Flames in the forehead of the morning sky"
+
+before their eyes, accompanied as they are by the brightest promise of
+individual prosperity and well-being, in order to plunge themselves
+again into the mingled "blood and mire" with which their republic
+begrimed its altars?
+
+Were there even no other assurance against such a deplorable effort at
+national self-destruction than that which is furnished by the cutting
+ridicule so freely and so generally bestowed upon it, this alone, in a
+country where a laugh is so omnipotent, might suffice to reassure the
+spirits of the timid and the doubting. It has been said sturdily by a
+French interpreter of French feelings, that "si le diable sortait de
+l'enfer pour se battre, il se présenterait un Français pour accepter
+le défi." I dare say this may be very true, provided said diable does
+not come to the combat equipped from the armoury of Ridicule,--in
+which case the French champion would, I think, be as likely to run
+away as not: and for this reason, if for no other, I truly believe it
+to be impossible that any support should now be given in France to a
+party which has not only made itself supremely detestable by its
+atrocities, but supremely ridiculous by its absurdities.
+
+It is needless to recapitulate here observations already made. They
+have been recorded lightly, however, and their effect upon the reader
+may not be so serious as that produced upon my own mind by the
+circumstances which drew them forth; but it is certain that had not
+the terrible and most ferocious plot against the King's life given a
+character of horror to the acts of the republican party in France, I
+should be tempted to conclude my statement of all I have seen and
+heard of them by saying, that they had mixed too much of weakness and
+of folly in their literature, in their political acts, and in their
+general bearing and demeanour, to be ever again considered as a
+formidable enemy by the government.
+
+I was amused the other day by reading in an English newspaper, or
+rather in an extract from an Irish one, (The Dublin Journal,) a
+passage in a speech of Mr. Daniel O'Connell's to the "Dublin Trades'
+Union," the logic of which, allowing perhaps a little for the
+well-known peculiarities in the eloquence of the "Emerald Isle,"
+reminded me strongly of some of the republican reasonings to which I
+have lately listened in Paris.
+
+"The House of Commons," says Mr. Daniel O'Connell, "will always be a
+pure and _independent_ body, BECAUSE we are under the lash of our
+masters, and we will be kicked out if we do not perform the duties
+imposed on us by the people."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Trifling as are the foregoing pages, and little as they may seem
+obnoxious to any very grave criticism, I am quite aware that they
+expose me to the reproach of having permitted myself to be wrought
+upon by the "_wind of doctrine_." I will not deny the charge; but I
+will say in defence of this "shadow of turning," (for it is in truth
+no more,) that I return with the same steadfast belief which I carried
+forth, in the necessity of a government for every country which should
+possess power and courage to resist at all times the voice of a
+wavering populace, while its cares were steadily directed to the
+promotion of the general welfare.
+
+As well might every voice on board a seventy-four be lifted to advise
+the captain how to manage her, as the judgment of all the working
+classes in a state be offered on questions concerning her government.
+
+A self-regulating populace is a chimera, and a dire one. The French
+have discovered this already; the Americans are beginning, as I hear,
+to feel some glimmerings of this important truth breaking in upon
+them; and for our England, spite of all the trash upon this point that
+she has been pleased to speak and to hear, she is not a country likely
+to submit, if the struggle should come, to be torn to pieces by her
+own mob.
+
+Admirably, however, as this jury-mast of "the doctrine" appears to
+answer in France, where the whirlwind and the storm had nearly made
+the brave vessel a wreck, it would be a heavy day for England were she
+to find herself compelled to have recourse to the same experiment for
+safety--for the need of it can never arise without being accompanied
+by a necessity for such increased severity of discipline as would be
+very distasteful to her. It is true, indeed, that her spars do creak
+and crack rather ominously just at present: nevertheless, it will
+require a tougher gale than any she has yet had to encounter, before
+she will be tempted to throw overboard such a noble piece of heart of
+oak as her constitution, which does in truth tower above every other,
+and, "like the tall mast of some proud admiral," looks down upon those
+around, whether old or new, well-seasoned and durable, or only
+skilfully erected for the nonce, with a feeling of conscious
+superiority that she would be very sorry to give up.
+
+But whatever the actual position of England may be, it must be
+advantageous to her, as well as to every other country in Europe, that
+France should assume the attitude she has now taken. The cause of
+social order is a common cause throughout the civilised world, and
+whatever tends to promote it is a common blessing. Obvious as is this
+truth, its importance is not yet fully understood; but the time must
+come when it will be,--and then all the nations of the earth will be
+heard to proclaim in chorus, that
+
+ "Le pire des états, c'est l'état populaire."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+ LONDON:
+
+ PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
+ Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol.
+2 of 2), by Frances Trollope
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