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    May 12,I860] The Leader and Saturday Ana...

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    CONTEMPORARY FRENCH LITERATURE.* ^lONTEM...

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    *JB7«jH/««(W Morales; Penates, JMfloxion...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Eastern Africa.-F-At The Present Moment,...

    vaied to any extent , would ultimately contribute to brings these countries under European protection ; and the eastern coast of Africa could almost produce cotton enough to satisfy the demands of the whole of England , and thus , by promoting the growth of sheep and cotton a powerful blow would be dealt to the American slav . e trade . That such a land should have no higher destiny than it at present enjoys / cannot be admitted by even the most apathetic ; butfas to who will step in to the rescue , and at ; what period , is a matter which time alone can solve . At present , the ownership of the extensive seaboard of Eastern Africa is nominally vested in foreign powers ; and the native states , excepting Abessinia and Madagascarare of little or no importance . -

    , „ , „ ., . . , " The Turks occupy several places on the Red Sea , the principal of which is Massowa , and appoint the governor of Zeila . The dominions of the Imam of Zanzibar include the whole of the coast and neighbouring islands from about five deg . N . latitude to beyond Cape Delgado , though many parts of it are virtually independent . The Portuguese claim extends from Cape Delgado to Dela <* oaBay ; but they occupy in reality only the country along the Lower Zambesi , and some isolated towns along the coast . Great Britain possesses Perim , a small island at the entrance of the Red Sea , the island of Musha , opposite Tajurra , the natural outlet for the commerce of Shoa and Southern Abessmia ; the island of fir . ™*™ ' not at m-esent occupied ; the southern half of Delagoa

    Bay and the Bay of Santa Lucia , on the coast of Kaffraria ; and lastly , Natal , a country destined , from its favourable position and climate , to eclipse Cape Colony as an agricultural settlement . The French have lately acquired ^ the port of Zula , south of Massowa ; they also claim the whole Of Madagascar , in the way the grandfather of Her Majesty claimed the kingdom of France , but at present hold but a few insignificant islands on its shore , and Mayotte , one of the Comoros . ¦• " It is the avowed design of France to found in the Eastern Sea an empire to rival , if not to eclipse B ritish . India , of which empire Madagascar is to be the centre . Hence , notwithstanding that engineers of eminence have pronounced against the practicability ot such a canal as that of Suez , the enterprise is being persevered in

    under the auspices of the French Government , or rather the isthmus-has been occupied within the last few weeks by a party of armed ouvriers . Across the Isthmus of Suez leads the shortest route from Southern Fiance to Madagascar and India ; its possession by a power desirous to extend her dominions in that quarter , and ^ capable of availing herself of its advantages , would therefore be of the utmost consequence . I he mere fact of the isthmus being _ part of the Turkish empire , or of E ° ypt , would not deter France from occupying it ; for scruples oi conscience are riot allowed by that nation to interfere with political ' ideas . ' Zula has been chosen as the second station on the ^ route to Madagascar , and while the occupation of Suez may at will furnish a pretext for seizing upon Egypt , that of Zula may open

    Abessinia to French conquest . ¦ ' 4 i " Fortunately there is a power which can put a veto upon those plans of aggrandisement in North-Eastern Africa , and that power is Great Britain . Gibraltar , Malta , Perim , and Aden , form a magnificent line of military and naval stations on the route to India , and perfectly command it ; and Perim , though at present only destined to bear a' luriifliouse , prO -pei'ly-fortiiiedT ^ vould-commaTid-fclie-entivanee of the Red Sea even more effectually than Gibraltar does that of the Mediterranean . Therefore , only after having converted the last three into French strongholds , and thus striking a decisive blow at the naval supremacy of Great Britain , could France ever hope to carry out her designs . " \ . ¦ ' ¦ Should , however , the practicability of forming the proposed canal of Suez be demonstrated by its completion * Nature herself has cast

    insurmountable impediments in the way of its lessening the distance for shipping to India . . '" No navigable river flows into the Red bea , which is full of sunken rocks aud sandbanks , that are increasing through the growth of coral-reefs . The navigation is diflicuIt and dangerous , and of the many harbours but few are safe , so that m most cases ships of large burden must anchor far out at sea . ljie great advantages to be derived from the success of the scheme will not be so much in the acquisitions which commerce may obtain from the Red Sea and the countries on its shores , as in the extension of TCnrnnAnn nhlifcv and oivilization to Arabia , Abessinia , and the whole

    oF South-Eaatern Africa . It will weaken Mohammedanism m the land of its birth , in Arabia , and on the African coast ; tend to suppress the Arabian slave-trade , and subjugate EuBt-African heathenism by Christianity and ita civilization ; and finally , open up immense and noble regions in Southern Abesainia and amongst the Gulla to thousands of European emigrants , when America , Australia , and Tnsinania cease to attract them . " [ To be continued . }

    May 12,I860] The Leader And Saturday Ana...

    May 12 , I 860 ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 449

    Contemporary French Literature.* ^Lontem...

    CONTEMPORARY FRENCH LITERATURE . * ^ lONTEMPORARY French literature has now reached so dosw perate a condition , that almost any change must be for the better . A low state of morality could not but find ita exponent in a class of books which , if published on this side of the Channel , would fall under the cognizance of . Lord Campbell ' s Act ; and as the impurefafaurs of Voisenon , Louvet , and the younger CrebiUon , sprang spontaneously during the reign of La Dubarry , so

    M . Ernest Feydeau ' s realist novels , and M . Gustave Flaubert ' s " Madame Bovary , " are the repulsive pieces justificatives of an epoch and a country when all the maxims of right and wrong , and the very elements of propriety , are absolutely ignored . It is , however , some relief to feel that a few exceptions still can be found to this general' rule , and , amidst ' the shoals of rubbish daily poured forth from the French press , we turn with no small sensation of relief to productions such as Daniel Stern's " Pensees , Reflexions , et Maximes . " This book belongs to a class of writings which has long been sedulously cultivated by our neighbours . Since the days when La Rochefoucauld ' s maximes excited the admiration of Madame de Sevigne ' s friends , and were accepted as the

    code of polite society , an apophthegmatie style of composition has always proved more or less fashionable . Vauvenargues , Duclos , Pascal , La Bruyere , during the last two centuries , rendered it immortal ; . in our own times , we can add to the list the names of M . Jouberfc , Madame Swetchine , and the gifted authoress ^ who disguises herself under the pseudonymous appellation of Daniel Stern . At first sight the fragmentary process in literature may seem to present many facilities , and to require very little amount of artistic care ; it has , besides , an appearance of smartness , which is exceedingly taking with most readers . But this is precisely the stumblingblock in the case of such productions ; for smartness cannot always compensate for the absence of truth , and a false or commonplace remark isl none the better because it appears decked out in a

    galadress . The few strictures we have , thus ventured to make will show at the same time our opinions of jpensee literature in the abstract , and how highly we value the little volume in which Daniel Stern has managed to be original , true , and witty wher ^ o thers would have been witty at the expense of truth , or true without any claims to originality . This is a third edition of the " Esquisses ^ Morales , " and , as times go , it is no small merit for a work of so serious a character to have been thrice sent to press in the space of ten years . The reader will notice also that whilst the first publication of the " Esquisses " only found its way to popularity slowly , the second and third editions have been disposed of in the course of a few months . - This , we think , is an excellent test of the merit of a work ; it excludes the suspicion of puff , and clearly proves that the author in question can stand upon her owji merits .

    It would not be very difficult to assign a date to Daniel Stern ' s elegaiit duodecimo , even if the various circumstances connected Avith its production were not fully stated in the preface .. The political atmosphere of 18 IS has , evidently , determined its growtir , and the famous : question of the droit . au travail was actively discussed when the authoress sat down to pass her severe but not untrue judgment upon modern society . We have heard many duly qualified critics regret that the " Esquisses Morales " should not be of a more general character ; they would prefer a collection of maxima applicable to the leading passions of the human heart , and they maintain that a work such as the one we are now examining loses much of its value by being , so to say , the photograph of a country , a drawing-room , an epoch . But this , we believe , is a mistake ; and we question whether there ever was a writer on moral philosophy froall the

    who succeeded completely in shutting himself away m influences busily at work around him . La Rochefoucauld s popular bpok is nothing but a comment on the " Fronde . '' La Bruyere s earacleres are still more closelyHldentified with the age of Louis XIV . ; and even Pascal , whose inspirations are derived from , a far higher source , alludes here and there to facts and individuals which no one else could appropriately have mentioned amongst the moralists of his own times . If Daniel Stern ,. therefore , is the pensee-vrrhev of the France of 1813 ; if the barricades , the ateliers nationaux , and the political societies were the standing points from which she derived her observations , we are not disposed on that very account , to find fault with her ; we would rather admire the talent which can give utterance to thoughts and maxims of universal application , whilst , at the same time , its immediate circumstances are so clear , so unmistakeable ,

    The " Esquisses Morales " are composed of a series of smull chapters arranged under two groups , and followed by a few fragments more descriptive in their general character . The maxims headed DU Temps Present contain , of course , the greatest number ol allusions to transitory events , and , accordingly , will beat exemplify the style of Daniel Stern . We shall select a paragraph or two . " L'ivresae de la vanitG eat porfcGe au coinble . Oombien de jeunea gena , parmi nous , so sont interroges a lit voille do leur ontrj ge danB le monde pour Savoir a'ils y 8 eraient DonTTuan , ou Faust , Pitt , ou Napoleon Bonaparte ? J ' en connais qui , embarraaaea du choix , ae aont dit qu ' ils aeraient dieux , et l ' ont eaaaye . " Any person possessing the slightest knowledge of the Irench history of the last twenty years will easily perceive the truth ot the above remark . The Don Juuns and Fausts , the Pitts and Bonanurtfi * of 1840-60 have , no doubt , made sad exhibitions of

    themselves : and the divine character of the self-appointed gods such as M Enfantin ' s has not been such as to command universal adoration ; but that these exhibitions did actually take place no onei can deny ; and we remember witnessing displays of vanity which would have been perfeotly ridiculous if they had not sometimes ended by assassination or suicide . The next paragraph seems to us particularly striking : — , . « La discordo feat partout , la guerre r 6 ritablo Relate nu » o PjJ . L ' egoiamo materlallate qui asservlt nos cooura les rend egalement impuiaeanta pour l ' amour et pour la hainc . " This is a sad picture ; yet does it not convey a "jj ^ * ld J " _™ contemporary French society P What principle is it that keeps

    *Jb7«Jh/««(W Morales; Penates, Jmfloxion...

    * JB 7 « jH /««( W Morales ; Penates , JMfloxiona , et Maximea . Par Danibi . SxaaN , Trolslemo Edition , revue , augmemtee , et orn 6 e d ' un rortrait grave eur aoier . 12 mo . Paris : Tcchcner .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12051860/page/13/