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    of. .. THE L E APE R. [No. 380, Jujly 4,...

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    A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE. A Winter' 'a Sket...

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    GERMAINE. Gennaine. By Edmond About. Par...

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    The Sappers And Miners. History Of The H...

    the Oregon boundary . During the survey of England they built towering framelottimber upon the tallest steeples and towers , ^ an < l these performanSs aSnewerc marvels . In 1848 , unhappily , they were made ridiculous byTord John Russell , who set them to sleep in the Tower , with forty rounds of ammunition , to erect platforms on the roof of the -Bank oi ^ S ~ land , and run timber batteries along the parapets . Thousands of sand-bags were piled within against the windows ; over the entrance of the building a stron g modern inaeliicouli , resting upon ponderous teams , projected-into the street ! and within , like Chinese criminals in a cage , the Sappers were ready * to open a volley on the rabble . ' In the yard there was a vast barricade ol casks and wheelbarrows . At the Tower , some of the old masonry was spoiled by new loopholes ; stockades were constructed ; barriers of coalboxes and crates were piled up ; sand-bags and banquettes were prepared alon " Traitors' Wall , ' to enable the troops to play on the mob . in the rear . Downing-street was put into a state of defence , and London laughed at their A ° ril folly . ' « t

    p _ m , ., „ ., __ ^ a .: _ ,. Other episodes memorable in the chronicles of the Sappers and Miners ¦ were—the great Exhibition , the Shetland road enterprise , the Kaffir war of 1852 , the Central African Expedition , and Chobham Camp . Then opened the great drama of the Russian war , through which Mr . Connolly fallows his favourite corps , always in a tone of right feeling , generosity , and impartial good sense . We quote a passage of suggestive description : —

    SAPPERS AND MINERS . Look first among the embrasures , and there , ant-like , is seen an isolated red-coat coolly pegging up hides or fixing gabions , while two or three carpenters , with upturned sleevesj are discovered crouching low , fixing platforms or renewing sleepers and fighting bolts . Go next to the oave , and call , ' Sapper ! ' One immediately emerges from its markiness , spade in hand , with begrimed face and dishevelled beard , to show the quality of his exertions . Step to the saps right and left , and in each , on . bended knee , with whirling pick and cap , well down is traced the sapper . To his sturdy efforts the earth yields , and the gabion soon is filled . Watch him as he goes ahead with cautious crawl , and daringly places another basket on . the line . How many rifle-balls , how many shot fly past , few can tell ; but on he urges as if nothing had occurred , and perhaps the next discharge kills him . Steal now along the trench

    ± o its advanced limits , and there is seen a group of busy miners , black with gunpowder , in shallow depths , blasting the rocks to deepen the approach and strengthen the cover . How well they know their art—not a head is seen above the ground parapet , and scarcely that of a hammer ; but when a strong blow is required , up it goes , and the sun , sparkling on the burnished steel , gives a mark to the enemy . Bullets from the screen are quickly fired , and an occasional shot trundles in among them ; but undauntedly they proceed , watchful as dogs , till at last the mine explodes . A volume of vapour affords another indication of the activity of the enemy . Shot and shell plunge on and tear up the ground , but the miners have flown to a distance , and quietly await the cessation of the fire to resume their tasks . Walkover to the sailors ' battery , where surely none but seamen may be seen . There , in truth , the bluejackets are in droves , with their droll sayings and unsteady gait ; but press forward , " Is that a marine ?'' " Ifo , it ' s a sapper trimming the parapet . " There , too , is another

    tricing up of the flaccid cheeks of an embrasure ; and beyond is a third , giving position to platforms for sea-service mortars or naval guns . Go round that traverse ; the universal man is there completing it ; another is strengthening the parapet ; another repairing the melon ; a fourth is in the right epaulement ; a fifth in the left ; a sixth is elsewhere constructing loopholes with barrels ; others are riveting the works with tubs , casks , gabions , and hide-bags , while a couple of broad-backed miners are burrowing underground , and driving a tunnel into the jaws of some convenient cavern . The book has been much improved in the second edition , and is an honour to the British army .

    Of. .. The L E Ape R. [No. 380, Jujly 4,...

    of . .. THE L E APE R . [ No . 380 , Jujly 4 , 1857 . O' 3 * 2 ¦ . ' . ., . ¦ ¦ ¦ " ^

    A Residence In France. A Winter' 'A Sket...

    A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE . A Winter ' ' a Sketches in the South of France and Hie Pyrenees . With Remarks upon the Use of the Climate and Mineral Waters in the Cure of Disease . By Fred . H . Johnson , M . R . C . S ., formerly President of the Hunterian Society of Edinburgh . Chapman and Hall . The south of France , which has long been the resort of valetudinarian tourists— -of those who seek after ' a beaker full of the warm south , full of the true , the blushful Hippocrene '—seems destined soon to have a new class of visitors— those who long for and can appreciate the sublime and the beautiful in nature . As section after section of the railroad from Paris to the Pyrenees , either on the western or the eastern borders of France , is opened for public traffic , the nearer are those magnificent mountains which

    lie like a barrier-wall between the Franks and Iberians drawn to the inhabitants of the north . Naturally , as the facilities of travelling are increased , now scenery will be desired by the pilgrims , unfrequented routes and untrodden tracks sought out . Moot Blanc is now no longer the grand thing it was . Its snows no longer preserve their virgin purity , and the adventurous and peril-loving tourist will have henceforth , it he courts novelty , to encounter the difficulties or risk the dangers of Monte Bosa , the Wetterhorn , or the still more stupendous altitudes of the Jungfrau . Maps will Lave to be more patiently studied , and original spots—original , at least , to the oi polloi of excursionists who obtain a month ' s oongiiw the summer or ¦ autumn—selected . Wo should not bo surprised , then , if the eyes of these butterfly tourists be directed to the land of Provence , across whoso ancient

    plains and amid whoso olive groves still float the melodies of the wandering troubadours and the memories of the Courts of Love . A , step further will oarry them to the foot of those mountain pasturages , and snow-mantled pinnacles within the shelter of whoso valleys exist the most ancient and most untransforracd races of Europe , whose costume betruya the fashion of the middle nges , and whose institutions dute back to an epoch anterior to the reign of Charlemagne . Anticipating , that the love of exploring new scenery will induce not a few Englishmen ^ to direct their autumn tour , perhaps even this year , whither the facilities of the Southern of France Railway will conduct them , Mr . Johnson has collected his experiences of a short residence in Paris and visits to the most interesting spots in the neighbourhood into readable shape , and published them in a slight , sketchy volume . Thp book is not , however , exclusively directed to the pleasure-seeking tourist . An appendix gives a short account of the climatic influences of the country on disease and on the properties of the mineral waters of the Pyrenees . Tlus chapter ,,

    however , is very brief , and in no way interferes with the general scope the work , which is to create an interest in the reader by the tenfold agency of historical association , and a description of the national allurements in the midst of which Pau and its neighbour-towns are situated . As we have said , the book is but slight aad sketchy , and beyond this it would merit no . attention . It is pleasant to talk either viva voce or on paper with travellers capable of exciting oar interest in the spots they have visited , and with this feeling we-accompany Mr . Johnson from page to page through his book . The road from Bordeaux to Pau lies through a . district spudded with names familiar to the taster of wine—Medoc , St . George , St . Julien , Chateau Mnrgaux , and the shelterless flats of the Landes , whose arid and sandy wastes , a strange figure of gigantic stature may occasionally bo discovered , stalkin" - Hie the ghost of a pre-Adamite stork . Of course this stiltsThe

    is an inhabitant of these Gascon wilds perched on Ins lofty . historical student may survey at Orthez the ground upon which Wellington o-ained one of his mosfc decisive if not brilliant successes over Marshal Soulfc , and speculate on the results of a sleeping sentinel , and the clever manoeuvres which put the British forces in possession of the right and left banks of the Adour . He might also linger around its old chateau and , contemplating the lingering ruins of desolated strength , recal the fortunes of its varied chieftains , and dwell upon the capricious achievements of that furious , and savage knight Gaston Phoebus de Foix , whose amiable career is chronicled in the pages of the curious and inquisitive Froissart . But it is enough for us that we hasten on to our destination . Pau wears many phases . ° There is Pau historical , Pau civic , Pau architectural , Pau picturesqueand Pau vicinal . Probably Pau vicinal , a Pau in relation to

    , its neighbourhood , is the most interesting point of view under which to noticelt . Parallel with the river in its course for nearly half a mile , and situated in the grand park , rises far above the level of the stream a high terraced mound , planted on every part with lofty trees of luxuriant growth , except where a gravel path , undulating and winding like a woodland alley , creeps along the forest shade . Running east and west , it commands the great panorama of the southern coteaux and mountain range , with a foreground of meadow and river stretching away into the plain of l . escar , and filled up on the east by the bridge of the Gave , where the white houses of Jurancon cast their long shadows into the mirror of the waters beneath . The sunsets of Pau have long been famous , and it is especially at this time of the day that the magnificent beauties of the landscape unfold themselves in their most splendid charms , the mountains of Bigorre having taken on a

    head-gear of rosy pink , and B the tower-like Pic du Midi standing flushed in a glow of ruddy light , as if throwing back the glare of a burning city , and all the central summits being crimsoned in their turn and the Pic d'Ossau bathed in an atmosphere of warm and mystic tints . With Pau historic are associated many great and illustrious names . It was here that Henri of Navarre , the chevalier prince of Ivry -was born , and that his heroic mother Jeanne d'Albret' sang the celebrated song at his birth whieh gained for her a massive chain of gold and the affectionate admiration of her old warrior sire . It was here too—to descend from days of ancient strife to modern contest—that the old African war-hawk Abd-ei-Kader was confined in close keeping . His visit , one of affliction , was rendered doubly sad by the loss of live children who died during his short in the

    sojourn or captivity , and whose remains he buried cemetery , an Arabic inscription aud the sign of a crescent marking the spot of their interment . Pau social would lead us into a description of the various characters , noble , plebeian , and eccentric , who frequent this delightful place during the winter months , either for valetudinarian reasons or from a love of the indescribable natural beauties with which the country abounds . We need scarcely remind the reader that Pau is the first step in in his approach to those populated eyries Farbcs , and Bagncres , and that oven in this respect a friendly descriptive guide is of service to him . He will find in Mr . Johnson ' s book much pleasant reading about the place , a few historical sketches , a g lance at the habits and customs of tho people , an account of the manner in which the resident visitors employ their time and drown the day , and an interesting narrative of personal visits to neigliboui'ing places of note .

    « w , »

    Germaine. Gennaine. By Edmond About. Par...

    GERMAINE . Gennaine . By Edmond About . Paris : Hachette . This new novel , by _ tlie author of Tolla , possesses the merit of great originality in its story , in addition to its incontestable qualities of stylo . We have not every day to award such praise . Volume after volume comes before us , often displaying a remarkable power of execution — sufficient , at any rate , to force approval—yet with so little attempt at novelty of plot or situation , that we have sometimes tried to persuade ourselves that thorc were only three plots and a dozen situations possible The lover , pursuing

    a perfect beauty , and marrying her after surmounting a hundred difficulties , is rather out of date now . In an age when all gentlemen , stand aloof , afraid to commit themselves to a compliment lest it should be construed into a declaration , wo scarcely believe in impassioned youth kept apart by artificial obstacles . But there remain one or two more probable stories of blighted affection and unfortunate marriages , which we are almost sure to incut with in any volume of which the price is 1 / . Us . 6 d . As play writers never venture on new jokes for fear they should not bo understood , so novol writers never venture on new plots for fear they should not be appreciated . Tho old ones are found to do sufficiently well .

    ^ M . About has evidently resolved to loavo tho beaten track , though at tho risk of offending his readers . His present conception is daring even to coarseness ; and some , of its developments are gratuitously repulsive . How beautiful , however , is tho central idea round which his notion moves 1 A young girl , Germain *) , supposed to be dying of consumption—actually in extreme peril of her life— -is married , from interested motives in all partiesexcept herself , for she is moroly a Baorifiee—to a Spanish noble of nigh and chivalrous diameter , but oaught in the toils of a Lorotto of the ' first class . ' M , do Villanera ( loos not caro for his sick young wifo , but treats hor with profound respect , and pays her every attention that the strictest duty tlio

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 4, 1857, page 642, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_04071857/page/18/