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    nightly to the anthotfa ear by many thousand voiees from the burning sands of Africa and the pestilential marshesof Cayenne : " Oh , you whom happiness has rendered selfish ,.-who haye never suffered the tortures of exile , you think it a slight thing to banish a man from his country ; you faare to learn that exile is a perpetual martyrdom , that it is death , —not the glorious 4 leath of those who die for their native land , not the still sweeter death of tbose whose last breath is breathed forth beside the domestic hearth , but a death of wasting away , slow and hideous , -which undermines you , hour by hour , until it at length lays you low in an obscure and desert grave . " But it was " an idea wholly philanthropic" that induced Louis Napoleon * [ Emperor , to deport the noblest citizens of France to Cayenne , to " a death .-slow and hideous , " which lays them low in " obscure and desert graves . " The Strasburg expedition was followed by the American visit . On his ¦ way he wrote to his mother in allusion to a circumstance not noticed by j > revious biographers : —

    " When , some months ago , " he says , " I -was bringing home Matbilde , ire entered ihe park together , and beheld there a tree which had just been shattered by a storm ; upon which I said -within myself that our marriage would in like manner be broken *© ff by fate . "What at that time presented itself to my mind vaguely has been since ¦ realised . Have I then during this year exhausted all the little stock of happiness which has been allotted me in this world ?" Mathilde , daughter of Jerome , is twelve years younger than Xioiiis N " apoleon . A brief stay in America sufficed to weary him . He returned within a short time " to Arenemberg , and watched the course of political events in Prance . Meanwhile his friends watched him . Says Mr . St . John : — I am amazed that authors not otherwise destitute of abilities , sliould yet , in writing : the life of Louis Napoleon , be so weak as to descant like astrologers of the middle ages about stars , destiny , secret voices , and the religion of a man's blood . While reading their productions one appears to be listening to a number of ancient crones ? crowding around a country fire , and gossiping about fate and witchcraft .

    His enemies watched him also , Louis Philippe especially , who was weak enough to demand his extradition from Switzerland . Louis Napoleon of course allowed matters io proceed until the folly of the French government had exalted him into a person of European importance , and then , with theatrical magnanimity , costing him nothing , betook himself to London . With his conduct here Mr . St . John refuses to occupy his pen ; he does not become the biographer of Louis Napoleon when , divesting himself for Ji time of all public pretensions , he became the man-about-town , well known ¦¦ where men of that sort most do congregate . We pass on to the Presidency , the Coup d'Etat , and the Empire . Mr . St . John says of the Republic : —

    The history of what the French did in 1848 is calculated to cast a damp over the spirits of every friend of liberty . Among the individuals who sought to establish the Republic , there was scarcely a single statesman . Poets , orators , journalists , filled with the traditions of 1793 , profoundly versed in the affairs of Utopia , brimful of philanthropy , violent in the hatred of their aristocracy , equally violent in their worship ¦ of the people , they were eager to establish a degree of liberty more perfect than the world had ever witnessed . Every man , like the Abbe Sieyes , went about with twenty new constitutions in his pocket . He Tvas in Paris in 1848 , and conversed with the political leaders : — There was agitation , effervescence , declamation , wild hopes , fierce antipathies , but nothing like settled political convictions . Almost everybody reverted to the events of the Great Revolution , and seemed desirous of re-enacting the scenes of 1793 . He discusses , successively , the political character of Lainartiue , Victor Hugo , the Abbe Lainennais , Louis Blanc , Armand Marrast , Proudhon , and others . The following relates to Lainennais : —

    Bom ui the bosom of the Catholic Church , he had emancipated himself from nil its prejudices , and become , in the truest sense of the word , a Protestant . He was at the ¦ same time a socialist in politics , a hater of monarchy , an enemy to tlie privileged classes , a Jacobin , a leveller , a Trench Jack Cade . With the enthusiasm , of a martyr , and the manners of a saint , he exposed himself to all kinds of persecution for the sake of a people who therefore loved him with extraordinary affection . He was the apostle and oracle of the Faubourg St . Antoine ; during and after the insurrection of June , those fierce combatants for liberty repaired to his lodgings , as to a Delphian -cavern , for inspiration , so that you could hardly ascend or descend his stairs in the Jtuo Chateaubriand without meeting some workman , or some workman ' s wife , who had conaulted , or was coming to consult , the friend and prophet of their class . We have been surprised by the tone of reticence adopted bv Mr . St . John with respect to the coup d'ttat . He condemns it ; but his condemnation .. reads like that of a judge summing up , not that of one who has- summed up And ib passing sentence . His characterization of the act itself , and of its ¦ authors , is neither acrimonious in meaning , nor violently expressed : —

    Masses of soldiers , infuriated with brandy , extended in long lines through the great thoroughfares , to intimidate or slaughter the population . . . . Suddenly , on the Loulwards , when the thronging and excited passengers least cxpectod it , a pistol was fired , by whom is not known . The soldiers immediately presented arms , a lino of flame passed along the streets followed by the report of mus-Jcotry , and the shrieks of men , women , and children rolling upon the earth in mortal agony . The soldiers again loaded , their pieces , nnd raked the windows , and balconies ot the opposite houses , killing indiscriminately all who presented thoansclves . The streets wcro encumbered with the dead ; the kenncla rau red with blood ; here the grey hairs of nge were dabbled in the gory puddle , and thore infants crawled over the dead bodies of _ their mothers . The drunken soldiers proceeded with their butchery until nothing that had lifo was seen in the streets

    . . . ^ £° . 2 t * c * rC ( : ora haa Perhaps been kept of the inns ' sac ' res by which Louis Napoleon -celobratod lu » inauguration as President for ten years . nlSv U

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    HIEROGLYPHIC SCIENCE . 7 Vic Efiypt \ ann in ilio , Tinw of the Pharno 7 is . Being a Companion to the Crystal Palace Egyptian Collection . By Sir J . Gardner Wilkinson . With jui Introduction to the Study of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs . By Samuel Birch . Hmdbiiry and Evans . What if a new epoch of learning should disturb the satisfied Uiith of the Egyptologers ? Mr . Birch predicts that ere long it will bo a . s cu . sy to read an inscription of hieroglyphs us a . page of Greek or Latin ; but is it certain thai n single inscription has been , deciphered ? Tracing closel y tho lines by which this pretentious science has been advanced , from tlie writings of llorus Apollo—for the earlier works extant deal only in conjecture and allusion—to those of Lepsiua and Bunsen , wo do not find the nbsoluto cvi-

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    notieeable book , distinguished among controversial -works alike h "•" candour and its moral tone- According to the terms of the r » ro < r lts Miss Hennell first states tlie objections to Christianft y which hav * ?"" ' urged by various writers , each objection being met by a counterstifo ™ 1 from Christian writers ; and next she expounds the objections to Infil r ¦ which have been urged by Christian writers , each objection bein < v metK 7 * counter-statement from infidel writers . la this way Butler Pale T Taylor , James Martineau , " Whatel y , Henry Rogers , Channin ' o- Mr-ill ? others , are placed in opposition to Newman , Parker , Froude' FeuerhV Charles Hennell , Charles Bray , Auguste Comte , and others . The «» , ? : verba are in most cases given , or else a condensation of their- lano-uaoV ^ -fif out any substitution of the compiler ' s own . The scrupulous candour i fairness with which the difficult task has been executed -will be arm ™ ., by . every reader of this volume . Although Miss Hennell bears a „ which holds a distinguished place among the earnest advocates off 1116 thought—indeed , the name of Charles Hennell is quite the most eminp t among ^ modern English writers on the side of free biblical criticism- ! <\ would it be difficult , if not impossible , for any one ignorant , of the fact t determine on which , side of the question she herself would be found * ' J no one acquainted with controversy needs to be told how singular a ' m ^ this implies . e merit

    The defect of the -work is one inseparable from the programme which tli aforesaid silly person who offered the prize laid down ; There was often no possibility of making the passages truly represent answers to the specific objections . The utmost that could be done was to show how each side considered each topic . Into ariy of the vexaia qucestiones argued here we cannot enter . Instead of discussion let us quote the noble passage in which Miss Hennell expounds the answer to the objection that without revelation there can he no ground for the belief in the moral government of the world : The result of the scientific observation of nature is more and more to discover that mind is as obedient to law as matter ; that the laws which govern mental phenomena —or rather , the methods according to which we find that mental phenomena are developed , —are as strict and unvarying as the physical economy of tlie universe . Tho great moral law , that virtue "brings good consequences and vice evil , —which * is but

    another formulary for expressing the very definition of virtue and vice , —acts as uninterruptedly and as irresistibly as the law of gravitation ; ' arid if all the moral universe were in order , would doubtless act as perfectly for every individual as for the whole . But moral order is" not accomplished ; although apparently tending to it a 3 towards " God ' s ideal . " There are a myriad conflicting impulses at work which mix and thwart one another at present . If adverse circumstances divert the course of retribution , and interfere with its legitimate sequences , a distortion of moral phenomena takes place . The law 5 s not changed , cannot be changed ; but the reward or punishment falls on the wrong head . Events smove on : the plane of individual action , which lay eccentric and unconformable , adjusts itself to parallelism with the general movement ; falls by degrees into its right place;—by the friction , of the eighty whirl of life obstructions are worn down , and the amorphous conglomerations of mental atoms sphere themselves into harmonious combination .

    True , in this whirl individual interests seem uncared for . —But how shall we say so , when out of it there is evolving itself in our breasts this nice sense of Justice , which tells us what is due to ourselves , and by a farther , nobler stage , what is therefore due to every fellow-being ? litre- is God showing- His will to do Justice to each one ; by this means where first he can , —if we must speak of Him in human Ianguage . —In the heart of man He lias made expression for this generous sentiment , which now first has means of uttering itself amidst this brute world . Man alone in the world is capable of the feeling of Justice ; and it is for Man to realize it . let him see to it : it is his mission , his prerogative , to bring it about ; and if he fail ha will have to perish , and God to make a better instrument ; for we see plainly that God has a will to have it done . By the . indignation stirring iu our ' breasts at tie wrongs endured by our poor trampled brethren , be urges us to procure for them redress . -Revenge , perhaps , by the same rule ?—No : for we have a better teaching , from our Godlike reason , that revenge will fail to effect its purpose .

    This , we think , is the true lesson of Nature ; and we may call it true piety .. la this way , we recoguize a genuine command of God . But in the anthropomorphic idea of God and Providence , taught by Christianity , we find a great hindrance to the real duty of man . By leading him to look for tho personal care of G od , as of a Being who out of his human emotion would do all for innii Himself , human ell ' ort to right the wronged is cramped and stunted ; since the best that man can do is thought to bo to leave all to God . Here is a mighty obstruction at the heart of the matter that has to be cleared away : a false piety which , through necessary disappointment , is the fruitful source of blasphemy and impiety .

    And tho poor injured individual , who has no help from God , and as yet no help from his fellow-men , —what shall wo say to him ?—If he has the blasmny of a great soul within him , that can solace itself in noble sympathy with the good if the whole , —if too he can feel the benefit ho himself shares in being subject to so grand a principle , an instrument in wording it out , —it is well with him . If not , tJic more our compassion for our poor brother ! Let us not beat about to satisfy our own minds with some comfortable imaginary alleviation , some conceited device of vindication tor the ways of God ; but confess with the sincerity due to our best feelings , and tho sympathy due to the sufferers , that it is hard . In God ' s name let us strive that these things bo so no more . This admirable extract leads us to remark on the general vigour with winch Miss llonuell ' s expositions arc written ; indeed , except wlion slio is quoting some splendid passage from Isaac Taylor , or some clear direct passage from . Archbishop vVhately , we greatly prefer her own exposition tot-bo patehworlc of extracts , which her desire for perfect fairness has nunle necessary .

    CHRISTIANITY AND INFIDELITY . S ^ ZS ^ SZ ^ T ^^ ° V *?™* ™ IT ** Argn ^ nts on Both Honnoll 8 ^ cording to a plan proposed by George Baillie , Esq . By S . S . TMn r ™ ,,,- t > . Arthur Hall and Co . ^ ElSS ^ BT £ ^^ - ^^ on v , urisnanity and Infidohty , and the unexpected result has been a really

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    : 210 T H E LEADE R . [ No . 362 , Saturn -, . | ' l . l .-ll-.-l . ' -l' ¦ ' . _ - _ ..... _ .... _^ ^___^^__—^ ___^ _ J ^— _^^^^__^__ ^_^ _^___^__ 1 1 . ¦¦!»¦ , J

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1857, page 210, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2182/page/18/