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    say vulgar , abuse of ltobespierre and the Jacobins ; , we have nothing but a decent ^ quiet- naroative of > the conflict of principles and doctrines at that eventfiiL period ^ Sucli a . work , may bo heavy reading to'those who ara not deeply interested * in = the fortunes- of France ; but it is an admirable study for young men who > believe inthe return : of liberty , and ; wish to prepare them * selves for its responsibilities * M-Do-veigien de HauranneV account of the career and policy of Bonaparte is . peculiarly mterestingi It " , is quite refreshing to be able for once to watch thecaceen of thi& grandest ofi parvenus * , without being stifled , by the smell of powdenfstunned by tlie roar , of cannon ,, or sickened by the stream o £ blood ; far from : flapping standards * , shining bayonets * and multitudes of convulsed fanatics , fancying , themselves heroes- and patriots-, rushing to die for that . sublime egotist : out of sight of the three-cornered hat , queer

    waistcoatv tig ht , breeches * and loose boots that make up the comical ngure which French art is not ashamed , to introduce into Paradise , telescope and . snufivboxiandMalL M . de Hauranne has nothing to , do with these things . He even refuses the advantage of painting the man for whom he has a cold , deadly repulsion . in the mean . attitude of the Ei g hteenth ; of Brumaire—now ¦ differentfromuou * Cromwell!—bnt-simply describes him in . his- political chav xacterr and shows his e-x-orbitant ambition , his utter unscrupulousness , his narrow views , his ignorance ^ and his failure . As he implies * it was scarcely worth while to wade through , slaughter and ; perfidy to a > throne which , remained erect only ten years , even though , forty years later , the tradition of this : temporary success may have enabled- a relative , by similar means-, to and

    reach a * similar position . It will be a singular dynasty that appears -disappears in . this convulsive way every half : century . As . M " . Duvergier de Hauranne clearly and imperatively shows ^ institutions like these , which alone find favour , with the Bonapartist mind , in which the sovereign is not only the fountain of honour , but the fountain of every kind of power—electing even the-representatives of tJie people—not only come as catastrophes , but inevitably depart in the same manner . "Whether he was consul for life T or hereditary ; emperor , " says the historian , " his death would infallibly have reopened the career of revolutions , and restored to all parties the chances they bad before . The best rampart that could , have been given him . ; was , not an heir ,, but liberal institutions , with representative , national , andindenendent * bodies / ' This . is sisptiificant , and reminds us of that fierce imperialist at

    General de Castellan ^ Lyons * when the telegraph . brought him word , not that' the Emperor Mieholas was dead , ' but simply , that ' the Kmperor - was dead / and ; wlio instantly proclaimed Henri , Cinq ; and , was not dismissed ibc his precipitate conversions but simply joked , with , by- Napoleon III ., the man in all the empire who best-kncrws the chances of his dynasty . M . Duvergier de Haairanne quotes- the extraordinary conversation of the Emperor with . M , Deeres , recently revealed by the Due de liaguse . It cannofc be toa often repeated , as showing the wild ) Oriental character of tlie despot by whom all intellect in Erancewas put in a . corner , like a sulky boy . at school .. "I have come too late , " saidiJtfapoleon . " Nothing , great remains

    to do . " Mc . Becres , of ; course , was too accomplished a flatterer not to contradict . " Yes , " answered Napoleon * "I agree that my career is tine ; I have travelled ; a splendid road , but : what a difference from antiquity ! Look at Alexander .: after having ; conquered Asia , and announced himself to the peoples as the son . of Jupiter , with the exception of Olympias , who knew all iibout it , and of Aristotle and some Athenian pedants ,, all thu East believed him , Well , now , if I were to declare myself to-day the son of . the Almighty Father , and , were to announce my intention ) of doing homag . 6 to him in that character , there is not a fish-fag who would not hiss me as 1 passed . People are too enlightened now-a-days . There is nothing great to be done . "

    "Do wenot see , " asks the historian , " in thia strange regret , so strangely expressed , the certain sign of a mind that was going , astrayr . o £ an ambition that could acknowledge no bounds , of a pride which even the ; empire of the world could . not satisfy ? " He might have added that this speech , which has many counterparts in the history of Napoleon , exhibited also the meunness which waa created in him by the presence inthis world of enlightenment nnfl intellect .. He felt that though hia awn was strong enough to beat down foe atime all physical opposition , his genius , which hud . a strong relationship tc * vulgar enthusiasm , could only impose on . those who were prostrate before him ; and he knew that his -memory would only be preserved with respect in . the traditions of the lowest developments of humanity . This partly explains-his determined hatred against men of ideas , ok ideologues , as he chose too calk them , and wlio formed a permanent as . well aa a temporary danger to

    thei State , as * he conceived it . Imthe chapter on the Empire , M , Duvergjler . do Hauranno ably develops the tuesis ^ that , * the enonaies of . fr . ee institutions always see tho embarrassments lhey » cause , but . never , the support , they , give ; and , do . not reflect that despotism in tha-days . of adversity dearly paysi for . the facilities it bus enjoyed in the days of prosperity : ' He brings forward some curious examples to prove that not , only , political liberty , but civil liberty , which , v / ae still sometimes talked of , was tampered with . The Emperor , wished to abolish thu jury , and spared , it only on condition that the lists should be so chosen aa to be hurinlesis ,, and . that there sliould be tribunals of exception , against forgers , armed smuggling ,, and resistance to public , authority . Ho . established state prisons , in . which ,, deapite certain formalities people . were , shut up arbitrarily . " When I foil , " said ho at St .. Helena ,, " tho state prisons scarcely- contained more than / two'hundred and . fifty individuals . ! ' " wideed ! " exolmrua M . Duvorgier deiHUuronne ; " that wua a great deal more than , the stato prisons of thu old regime . oontainod , at the taking , of thai Bastille . !" — : tepeauliftr-c « d © un-ji »^ ven ., t oJ ; hiB ^^ ewooywUeue expressed that libenty-will have its . day . aga'iiv in ' SYaneo . TBS writer ) denies , that the French' people , is radically incapable of selt ' -goveriir meat , '

    andiadds-j—If . tills-wot © SO 4 Pmnoo ohoultl seek * the socrol o £ ita , aootlnlea in tho annals of tho XLomaU'Empu-oj and Uipwtotuosp writer ^ . who ,.. wUh . more oruouc thiiu < glory , labour to xah « bilitRte > thutx wretched periods But , pcrhaptt X may , be allowed , to iMxKost , against a 4 « oreoi dictated ; byi interest : and . accepted * u $ > weakuesa , t fretfrmfl ^ f mi « takii » K the sleep ; oft li ' ranoo for . death ,, would it not , bo bettor to look

    forward to the time when it sh . ill rise up , gather new strenglb , and determine to use it ? "Whether that time be desired or feared , it will come infallibly , and the world will prepare for it . " I have never loved and do not now love absolute power , " says the historian , in his preface ; " but I understand it . I understand that " with , more or less success , for a longer or shorter period ,-all political life may be stifled in a country , all spirit of resistance crushed , all liberty suppressed or annulled . What I do not understand is the strange , idea of granting to a people liberty of election , liberty of speech , liberty of the press , on condition that it shall not make use of them , or that it shall do so uselessl y ; of putting into the hands of citizens a powerful weapon , and warning them at the same time that they are to be treated as if they were disarmed ; of giving them , in a word , the form and the attributes of Parliamentary government , without giving the substance . "

    In this way does M . Duvergier de Hauranne criticize the present Government , with the evident object of insinuating , that the time may come when the system of machinery which is now nothing but a huge hypocrisy may be used to restore liberty in France . It is certain that if the electors throughout the empire were on one and the same day to insist 011 exercising their right freely , an Assembly might be returned before which the -governing coterie would fly like chafi " before the wind . But it is precisely to prevent this possible though not probable result that the whole ingenuity of the Government is directed . However , we would not seek to discourage M . Duvergier de

    Hauranne and his friends , who no doubt are allied , at least in sympathy and intention , to the new party which since the death of General Cavnignac is endeavouring to form in preparation for the future ; which abjures all narrow doctrines of " Legithnism or Orleanism , whilst it admits the necessity of a monarchy , surrounded by institutions- no matter how liberal ; which looks with hope to the young pretender who , under the guardianship of his mother , is waiting for the conspiracy of time and circumstances ; which may include all fragments of old parties-, royalist or moderate republican ; and which must necessarily go on recruiting from the unprejudiced masses , who feel only the shame and the inconvenience of the present system .

    But if this be the case—if the former Minister , when he assures us that if not he yet bis sons- will iissui-edly behold the revival of Parliamentary Government , speaks patriotically and not in the spirit of a coterie—why should lie persist in saying offensive things of the men without whose aidthere can be no return of liberty in France ? Clearly , a restored monarchy must lean on something more than the personal friends and adherents of M . Guizot , most of whom are now growing old and grey . Why use , then , that hackneyed and unjust expression , ' the catastrophe of February V In . one sense , the Revolution oi' 184 H may be considered a catastrophe , because it led to the Coup d ' etat j but M . Duvergier de Hauranne , in defending the greater Revolution of 1789 , proves tlmt its excesses were not logically necessary ,

    and that events do not succeed one another-in this world mechanically , without regard to the merits and the conduct of men . He must know thut many active ^ romoters of the fall of Louis Philippe are only withheld from becoming Orleanists in the sense we have explained by the fear that they will thus 'deny their past ; ' and that it is from the foolish and bigoted vocabulary of the Reaction that he borrows the obnoxious phrase we allude to . Is he afraid to condemn his own past ? Considering the ignoble fate of the dynasty ho : loves , he might do so with a good grace . Why not admit that the Revolution of February , with all its fearful and humiliating consequences , was not a catastrophe but a lessoni ? The confession may be a grievous one to make ; but it is neoessary to the union . Besides , M . Duvergier de Hauranne makes it elsewhere , when lie says : —

    If we consider the result to -which onr Parliamentary struggles have led us , nvbody has the right to be very proud ; and if there be a party or a man who boasts not to have committed a fault , that party or that man exhibits more pride than ^ oinl sense . Why not tell the whole truth V The Government of 1830 , "Ministry and Opposition , did not sufficiently trouble itself ; to know what the popular masses felt , thought , nnd desired . Thus it was that tbo ground was mined under our feet , whilst wo wore combating with courteous anus , and that wo cunie , with closed eyes , to u ctituslroplw unexpected by everybody , even by those who made it and those -who proliti . il by it . When absolute governments perish in this way no one has a right to bo u . Monisheil . Free governments are bound nnd are able to be more clear-sighted and prudent . But even in free governments people are sometimes inclined to . allow tlu-ni . u-h os to bo blinded by success and lulled to sleep in the aims of power . It lmj j in .-, iIm-h , that for fear of going too fast , they make up their minds not to advance M all , nnd that between those who govern am \ those who are governed isncli a distnna : tit lnst is placed that they lose sight of one another . The merest accident , a spark , tin " lningn about an' explosion .

    Wo hope that M . Guizot is not the man who ' boastp that he nc-vcr conimittyd a fault , ' who will not allow that it wits by his obstinacy that the ' ¦ lesson ' or ' catastrophe ' was rendered necessary . It is ecrlaii ) , however , that , oven at the risk of admitting that he contributed from pride nnd ignorance to increase tho distance between the governors and the ^ overncu , he ought to subscribe to this declaration , which wipes- out many limits , nnd may be eminently ubeful in tho future . Tho work of JM . Duvorjjior do Huuranne , though it hus mado no sensation—nothing literary iniikiia now ft sensation in France but novels so highly coloured that they bring their authors before the Court oft Assiasua— has been favourably received by < J I 11 C J politicians und by studious youths . It cannot bo read without irint ; anOwill be agood antidoto to the sound and fury of revolutionary annw '"*

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    OEHLENSCHLAGER'S ALADDIN . Aladdin ; or , The Wonderful Lamp . A Dramatic Foom in Two Part * . ' l , }"" 0 ehlenHolilU ^ or . ^ - ^ a : mnalatoa .. bv-. TljicodQAfl-Ma rtiii . J ; " " , l " At the latter end of laat century , tho caatle of Frc <] cricksbor « j , ' Ty « x 3 ' -ot- < tlio residences of the kings of Denmark , uaed to be occupied during , tlio < uUul . . " and winter , when the court was absent , by a worthy iScblowwiyur nnu . «>' wife and family , who took wire of the royal abode until tho rcuin * ol . monarch . Tho ca » tlo , which is oaid to have been erected from lliu " ) fe "" of our gvoat English architect , lnigo Jones , stands about two niil «« » l' ° " tho vveatorn galoa of Copenhagen ; and here , in comparative noliludo , " youthful son of tho noraoiX'charged with tho caro of the cuatlo—a uoy 01

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    162 > THEE 1 IADIK [ Nch 4 & % Pebotary 13 > 1858 *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 162, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2230/page/18/