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Leader (1850-1860), 24th April 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18, A LADY'S STORY OF LUCKNOW. A Ludy's Diar...

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      One Of The Most J Eno Arkable Of Contemp...

      < jf all thought , all feeling , all aspiration , with its spies at every window , and its listeners at every door , cannot last . If it could last two generations , it would be incurable . The cure is to be found in its own principle . The wish of Camguu is accomplished at Paris : lie wished that all Rome had one neck—-all France kas now one head . " This pamphlet , remarkable in substance for its profound political sagacity , is scarcely less so for its brilliant form . It recommends itself to Trench , readers by its unsparing severity , and to liUglish readers by its generous love of England .

      402 ___ _ The Lje A B Ib, [No. 422, Apri...

      402 ___ _ THE LjE A B IB , [ No . 422 , April 24 , 1885 .

      We Have Received From Paris Eugene Peixe...

      We have received from Paris Eugene Peixetan ' s new volume , Les Droits de i'Homme , and after reading and re-reading it , we cease to despair of a better future for France . Eugene Pelletan is one of those noble aud disinterested men , who , if a country could be saved by a few isolated virtues , might be the regenerators of French liberty and of French society . He is one of those men whose absence from the ante-chambers of the Tuileries is more conspicuous than the presence of a thousand De Mornys and Bauoches . He is one ot those men . who prefer the severity of circumstances to the affluence of degradation , a " dinner o £ herbs" with , honour , to the livery and licentiousness ot servitude . " Interdicted from writing ia the independent press , because ot the great influence which his name and citings have won among the youth of France , ErreKNE Peixetan devotes his lonely and saddened leisure to the duty o teaching his fellow-countrymen , the ' rights and duties , the privileges and responsibilities of the freedom they have never yet known how to practise or preserve . The title of the work has something revolutionary in its sound ; tut the book itself is neither that of a sectary nor of a professional ag itator ; it is the solemn thought aud chastened experience of a man of blameless life and character , exalted intellect , and noble heart , who has traversed a period of storm and danger , broken by fitful gleams of light and darkening into the gloom of despotism , and who has stood in the breach of civil conflict , aud , yrith . his hand on his sword-hilt , prayed for peace . Under the form of conversations with representatives of every phase of French politics and society , M . Peixetast discusses with infinite courage , a sustained strength of reasoning , and brilliant eloquence , all the perplexities that cloud t ! ie coming future of his eountry , and all the problems that await solution . As we propose to speak at length of the contents of this volume , we < lo little more at present than announce its appearance as a happy augury . To unpolitical or indifferent readers , the exquisite charm of the style is -sufficient to recommend these pages ; hut English Liberals will be glad to find a French writer condemning every form of arbitrary government , whether it be imperial despotism or revolutionary dictatorship , appealing from force to right , and constantly invoking the sanctity of equal and protecting law .

      Historical Revelations Of 1848. •*' 1648...

      HISTORICAL REVELATIONS OF 1848 . •* ' 1648 . "—Historical Bevelalions . Inscribed to Lord Nonnanby . By Xouis Blanc Chapman and Hall Loa » Nobmaitbt ' s volume of the French revolution of 1848 was so singu larly full of indiscretion and inaccuracy that M . Louis Blanc would have found it an easy task to to have criticised the whole statement into tatters . But he has chosen to correct the Marquis by superseding him . This book ¦ consigns Lord Normanby ' s to eternal repose . What was wanted , and what we have here , is a clear explanation of the political events that took place in France at and for several months after the fall of Louis Philippe—events which have been variously misunderstood and described with more or less party bias from different points of view . M . Louis JBlajac , of course , has his own bias , and never loses sight of the theories which characterized his policy as a minister ; but that policy was not what Lord Normanby represented it to be j and the valuable and interesting memoir now in our hands lucidly develops the entire course of cir-¦ cumstances from the overthrow of the Orleanists to the ostracism of the republican leaders . "Written in English , with surprising force and flexibility , it abounds in revelations of real historical value ; and the preface is a masterpiece of temperate remonstrance . In the body of the narrative M . iiotris Blane deals ironically -with the mass of tittle-tattle called A Year of Revolution and pleads that , not being a nobleman or an ambassador , he is compelled to employ the language of a gentleman , and is , therefore , not upon a level with , his high-bred antagonist . In the first chapter he presents a brilliant picture of Paris during the formation of the Republic ; and future historians will contrast the cheerful light and congratulations of those days with the hideous glpoin and taciturnity that followed the Napoleonic Coup d'Etat . M . Louis Blanc , as he advances , breaks up Lord Normanby ' jB version , and scatters the fragments right and left . He shows , moreover , by the quotation of debates and decrees , that to himself was largely attributable the generous act of the Republic which reversed , the sentence of banishment against the Bonaparte family and enabled Louis Napoleon to occupy a legal position in France ; and to this ¦ explanation he adds a remarkable chapter on his personal relations with the prisoner of Ham , when in captivity . Louis Napoleon wrote urgently to Louis Blanc , almost petitioning for a visit from the distinguished historian and liberal leader , and the intercourse thafc then took place was curiously characteristic . Preliminarily we read : — I know of tho Bonapartist party something moro than was gonorally known , owing to my acquaintance with Mrs . Gordon , tho real framer of tho conspiracy ot 43 trnflburg , in Which two persona only cut a figure : irtie and Lieutenant Laity . Mra . "'Taaturally eloquent , full of perseverance and courage . I have heard from her own lips tliat the conspirators of Strasburg wanting an old soldier -whoso rank and name might toll on the garrison , she hastened to Dijon , where Colonel Vaudrey lived , then in utter ignorance of what was going on , and so poworfulliy forced upon his hesitating mlnA the necessity of a prompt determination , that she liurrlod him iiwuy to Straaburg adanae tenant ^ without , so to speak , allowing him timq to put off his slippers . Her devotion to the memory of Napoleon was heedless and houndleva , but she did not make much of the Bonapartist party , which aho thought was doflolent both in mun of tnt «* Ug * iyc «> And energy , with the exception of MM . Lnity , Aladoniso , and Flaljii . BL JFJaJia , who went by the assumed name of Ite Peraiyny , and who had chosen for

      his motto these two words , " I serve '—Je sers , was , in Mrs . Gordon ' s opinion pillar of the party . As to Louis Bonaparte , she did not make much of him nei ' 1 remember that one day I asked her in jest whether she loved him . " Well " k '" said , with a smile , " 1 love him political /// . To tell the truth , il me fait Vvffkt d femnie . " . UW The first thing wliich struck M . Louis Blanc was that Louis 3 \ nnole had in him nothing of the Napoleonic type—that ho spoke with a foreign accent , and that he had less command of language than any man lie bad ever conversed with . It was afterwards that he remarked the difference in features , manner , and deportment of the prisoner of Ham from the other members of the Bonaparte family . However , the conversation became free , and Louis Philippe ' s conduct was unanimously condemned . Then arose the question of the future . Louis Napoleon declared in favour of universal suffrage , but said , "My creed is the Empire ; " and when his visitor asked how an hereditary empire could be reconciled with the sovereignty of the people and universal suffrage , turned the point , deserted liis argument , and plunged into professions of Socialism . At times , Louis Napoleon broke into a passion of tears ; at others ho defended the ' Roman despots against Tacitus ; then he expatiated on the infamy of the spy system ; lastly , he clasped M . Louis Blanc in his arms , and said farewell with moistened eyes . Afterwards , when Louis Blanc was in London , an . exile , his first visitor was Louis Napoleon , who inveighed against the tyranny of proscription ; but , even then , he was a conspirator , and endeavoured to dupe his republican friend even as he deluded tho Count d'Orsay , whose letter on the invasion of Home is one of the most interesting among the historical revelations of M . Louis Blanc . The entire volume ) however , is one of disclosures and explanations which will constitute the li ght of French history at a period to come when the story of the Republic and the Empire of the nineteenth century shall be broadly and impartiall y told . The political and social character of the revolution of 1848 , the process by which it prevailed in popular confidence , the discussions on the right of labour , the theoretical and practical developments of Socialism , the establishment at the Luxembourg of the Corporative Associations , the opening of the National Workshops by M . Marie , in spite of M . Louis Blanc ' s most strenuous opposition , the forei gn policy of the Provisional dovernment , its judicial operations , the alarms , intrigues , and contests that arose , and the elections , pass under close review , and contribute to the picturesque variety of the relations , The chapter entitled "The Insurrection of Hunger , " illustrates the stupendous difficulties with wliich the Republic bad to deal , while those which describe the personal acts and progress of Louis Napoleon expose with singular effect the under-current of duplicity and craft in the Emperor ' s character . Finally , M . Louis Blanc writes : — So was the coup d ' etat of December made not only possible but easy . There was no need , for its success , of deep calculation , plans long matured and skilfnlly framed ; there was no need of cleverness : the only thing required was that the man in whose hands all the forces of the State had been foolishly concentrated , should bs one of those men who are fettered by no scruple , trammelled by no respect for justice , and determined to shrink , in the attaiuraent of their object , from no kind of violence . Now , thanks to French administrative centralization , Paris once manacled , Franco could not fail to be enslaved . Nor can the maintenance of the Empire to this day be ascribed to the skill of the Imperial ruler . It certainly requires a great deal of talent and a high intellijfeace successfully to govern a mighty nation , despite auy such impediments as may be created by the liberty of the press , the fact of every political step being submitted to parliamentary control , the free and public discussion of aJl the schemes devised , the disclosure of all the blunders committed , and the necessity of observing the laws of the country as well as the principles of justice . But where no such iu >|> ediments are to be dealt with , the task of governing is one to which the first coiner is uquul , provided he may have at bis disposal a sufficient number of police spies and bnyonots . In these cases , brute force supplies the deficiency of genius . Let , therefore , the lowminded worshippers of success kneel dowu before the Empire ; let them call " a great man" him whose greatness consists in the permanent violation of nl \ that id hold sacred amongst men ; let them , after mistaking might for right , mistake also the power of the eword for that of the mind , and the efficiency of an unopposed will for tho triumph of a keen intellect—pitiful us misconceptions of this Ictml may bu , they are hardly to be wondered at , so little are most men capable of fonniug a souuu judgment of anything that glitters . A perusal of this book , written in English , " the vernacular of frwdom , " is necessary to a right comprehension of 18 J 8 , the year of revolution in France .

      A Lady's Story Of Lucknow. A Ludy's Diar...

      A LADY'S STORY OF LUCKNOW . A Ludy ' s Diary of the Siege ofLwhnow . Written for the Perusal of Friend * 1 * ° ™ ° ; The originality of this volume consists in its descriptions of scenes that came seldom under tho military or civilian evo during the siege ot Liu ^ 'iow-The narrator has little to say of tho incidents noticed by Mr . Reoa , I ho totiiu Officer , or Captain Anderson ; her pictures are of thoee interiors in too Residency where the women and children were crowded , where ronmt-suoi , shattering the waills , struck oil" the limbs of infants , and ruiidi-rod it uw surgeon ' s frequent task to amputate the limbs of tho delicate mid the » oip * leas . One of the author ' s fir « t impulses is to outer in her simple ana naturally written diary an expression of joy that bug is childless . U |><>» »»« outburst of the siege , she , with moat of the ladies und children , wiw | ™ down into a . subterranean room , the gloomy , damp , and dark m-puici r Tye KUana , remaining there until nightfall , while tho onamv ¦ lluniilureu w > -, fche-givt « B-in *« K > rinouH-massesrftnd-with-po ^ melancholy entries . — - ' < Poor Miss Palmer ' s lug was shot ofl tins tiUcrnoi » i . " Mr . Ommaney died this evening . " " Mr . Polohampton w shot ""' ' !" the body this morning . " "A little girl ut the liogum Kutoo w w < " <« to-dny by a round-shot . " " 1 ' oor Mrs . Thoirnw died of small-pox . «• ot " round-shot came through our house to-duy . " Almosji ovury i > tt « u ' * . llju"J f terized by one or moro similarly heartrending records , in the ml ( n V these deaths it ia ourioua to rend of a birth utLuoknow : " A huleaietfo uauj couain came to-duy into this stormy world . " But the infanta wit Iwruu aw ^ like flowers , and one of the writer ' s occupations was to olosu their cy ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 24, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24041858/page/18/