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    ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. ' ¦ '¦ . ¦ ¦ . : a ¦ ¦ ¦

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    Untitled Article

    .. ..-.,. FRANCE . { From our own Correspondent . } Pabis . Thursday , 6 p . m .

    THE PANIC AND THfE PRESS . Most men are now agreed that the chance of war this vear has passed away , but they are far from having recovered their confidence in the future . The slightest vapouring of a journalist is sufficient to sink the value of public securities below the point : they , fell" to at any period since the establishment of the Empire . True , they recover when the fumes are dissipated . Thus , on Tuesday , Bank stock closed at 3000 fr . to open at 2980 fr . on Wednesday morning , merely because the Presse and the Patrie , that are supposed to be the organs of Prince Napoleon , chose to say that war was postponed . It would not be holding too lofty an opinion of the

    intelligence of the Emperor to suppose that he regrets the unsettled situation of the times , and that he would willingly sacrifice no inconsiderable portion of personal dignity to restore public , confidence in the peaceful character , moderation , and wisdom of his Government . For it is this want of confidence in the integrity of Ministers , and in the stability of things at home , that has created the panic * and not so much the Apprehensions of war . The withdrawal of savings and the extensive system of hoarding which have commenced , have scared the Ministers arid proved , to their complete dissatisfaction , how little all classes here believe in the duration of their Government , and how indifferent people are to its fate . Easy enough has it been to unsettle \ public

    business ,, which it is now found to be beyond Imperial power to restore ; for people know not whom to believe . No man attaches any credit to asseverations of public journals if they do not accord with the acts Of the authorities . And this is precisely the weakest part of the present regime . If the press is enchained to prevent it from criticising Government , it is also powerless to praise and to serve it . , Whereas , had it been free , or partially so , the question of war . would have been ventilated and the truth made apparent before this time . It is meet retribution . For the present system was founded on the destruction of the liberties of the press , and its existence is endangered for lack of that ' discussion and inquiry which a free press alone can provoke and keep up among the public .

    THE COUNT A . DE GOBINKAU ON fcUSEIKORM INSCRIPTIONS . A writer in the Moniteur , who signs himself " C' « A . de Gobineau "—a variante , one would imagine , at gobemouche—has recently favoured the public with his opinion upon the merits , or rather demerits , of English decipherers of cuneiform inscriptions . The laboured production is intended as a preparatory flourish to the introduction of a puff of his discovery of a mode of reading these same incised inscriptions . It is a novelty in advertisement literature for a man to sign his reclame in a public journal , and a atill greater novelty for it to be admitted into the feitilleton of the Official . Journal of the Empire , where people are

    accustomed to meet with signatures of Theophilo Gautier , Edouard Thierry , De Rovray , Edmond About , Henri Murger , and other famous pens . However , there may be some doubt whether the novelty will prove profitable to all parties— -to the Count , who pays to exhibit his ill-natured ignorance and vanity in print , and to the proprietor , who sacrifices the independence of his columns to that purpose . Indeed , I see no reason why , following this example , the honourable member for Boston , Professor Holloway , and Messrs . Rowlands , should not avail themselves of tho Afoniieur'ajbuilleton to teach the French public what great age may be attained by swallowing Parrta boluses—how " nil the ills that flesh is heir to" may be cured by liberal use of the Professor ' s

    pilla , and how hirsute tho incomparable Macassar will make tho smoothest faced Gaul that ia to bo found botween the Rhine and the Pyrenees , Among the discoveries of the Count do Gobineau are these : that in Oriental literature Germany , Russia , and France are superior to England ; and that , although you are allowed to havo " distinguished " men in all matters of Asiatic science , you have acquired no preeminence in Any one " In truth , she ( England ) has done in a little way for science , what she attempted in the war ; she has raised at her cost a learned phalanx upon Germanio soil ; but to the illustrious names which she invokes , the Continent opposes others as brilliant , merits as

    truthful , successes as vast and as fruitful . She feels this , and , probably from this motive , has turned her attention , with real passion and interest , to the cuneiform monuments of Assyria and Persia-r-a now ground , where all the palma remain to be culled . Thoro she sot up first of all ( ho pretension to be the first-come and tho dominatrice . She wished to , and will have it that sho aid , inyent the modes of deciphering Actually employed ; oho vaunts them , " and flnda ( hem excellent , booauao they have been published by one of her sons . Lastly , «» a JPtQtottant rtatlon , and it is this perhaps which touched , her roost nearly In this kind of work , she Is proud of having found no many monuments which , If

    what is stated be true , would have the incomparable merit to explain , commentate , and corroborate the truths of the Bible . " Before proceeding farther , it may not be inappropriate to remark that when Count A . de Gobineau is instructed to sneer in the Government paper at our co-operation in , the war , it is high time to establish the alliance upon a new basis altogether . Never again , it is to be hoped , will an English Prime Minister involve the State in intimate and entangling alliances with continental Governments . With them there can , . "• • _ . u i . „ *» . „ : u «< vmna » aV > 1 o

    be no sympathy nor fellowship . And should an occasion again occur , it is sincerely to be hoped that the British forces , whether naval or military , will have a clear and independent field , unhampered by allies , in order that our noble fellows may not suffer every deprivation and risk their lives to enable others to trade upon their deeds . It is bad enough to have to do the main part of the work while those who looked on get the credit and benefit , but it is adding insult to injury when any gobemouche is allowed to void the bile beswallowed up

    our name . Were the Count A . de Gobineau less ignorant than be is , although he has published a work on cuneiform inscription , and possesses a collection of Assyrian Pylinders , he would know that -it is not from lack of success in Oriental literature , but because of it , that Englishmen have directed their attention to the study of cuneiform inscriptions . He may also be told that it is not on account of a man ' s modesty and retiring disposition he is to be held less capable than the charlatan who boasts his merits at every corner of the street . When , therefore , the feuilletomiiste in the Moniteur says that the cuneiform inscriptions of Persepolis have been long known '¦; that it was not an . Englishman who revealed them to the

    world ; that if M . Rich , the British Consul at Bagdad ^ suggested the vast tumuli in the valley of the Euphrates contained ancient ruins , he liad been preceded by the Abbe de Beauchamp ; that if Mr . Layard was successful in his researches , he had been guided , counselled , and led by Mi- Botta , who , enlightened by M . Mohl , had opened a hillock before any one ; and that it is in reality M , Botta who revealed tQ Europe the remains of Mesopotamia , —when these things are . said to any one who remembers the circumstances , he must be surpr ised at the artful admixture of truth with falsehood , and astounded at the audacity with which it is put foith . For when this mendacious JetiiUeton met the public eye it was already refuted elsewhere at the Academy of Fine Arts by the candid admissions of M . Jules Oppert , to which I will

    presently refer . The Count de Gobineau- fancies that he singularly detracts from the merits of Sir Henry Rawlinspn when he states that Sir Henry's " principles ( for reading cuneiform inscriptions ) were engrafted on the conjectures of Grotefend . " But , if I remember correctly , not only Sir Henry Rawlinson , but also Mr . Layard and Mr . Fergusspri have fully admitted the priority—without staying to inquire whether it was in conjeoture or logical deduction—of the illustrious philologer of Hanover , ! and

    these Englishmen have rendered ample justice to his claims . Nevertheless , this same Count , after claiming all the merit for Grotefend , writes that the instrument which the great German placed in the hands of his learned followers ! is good for nothing . From this decision it will be readily understood that Count A . d e Gobineau has an instrument of his own which he offers for sale , and , like every Cheap John , he seeks to depreciate his superiors if , indeed , any comparison can be instituted between him on one side , and Grotefend , Rawlinson , and Layard on the other .

    The most impudent scandal-monger must look now for A pott stou , be it never so small and unsubstantial , whence he may deliver himself ; and the Count has discovered that ' it is the English love for tho Bible which renders Grotcfend ' s system worthless ! " The Biblical passion has not been one of the least causes that have prevented British savants from using their judgment freely : it has driven them to wander further and further from the rig ht road . They havo worked to find , and been constrained , to discover , so to say , that which the English public wished to have . To appear to hesitate

    wduld have been to lose , perhaps , the good graces of this rather domineering public . Popularity imposes great obligations and sometimes costs dear , as has been the case under tho present circumstances , It was laid down in principle at London that the monuments found on the soil of ancient Assyria , from the mountains to tho north of Mosul up to the Persian Gulf , belonged to those Ancient and famous empires , which wore already flourishing' when Abraham and his tribe loft the mountains of Chaldoa . The theme proposed was to discover in tho exhumed toxts tho remembrance

    of all tho kings named in the Bible , and a mention of tho acts attributed to them . In short , all that was desired was an archaeological amplification of n well-known themo . Tho English public asked for nothing more , but held essentially to havo it . Learned men made it their duty to obey tho wish . A monument was presented contemporaneous with a king who aught to'havo ' known Abraham . There were read to tho public the- , memoirs of Sennacherib , written by himself ; also a mass of inscriptions of Nabuolmdonoaor ; And lastly , a certain king , Sargon , having been . named by Isaiah , ho must not bo forgotten ; ' und a whole

    class of monuments was attributed to King Sargon , which proves the power imagination exercises over science . " ¦ " Divested of its verbiage , the allegation amounts to this : that to gratify the ' Biblical passion" of the English , Sir HenryBawlins . on has forged a sys ^ tem of translating cuneiform inscriptions . It would be waste of . time to point out how absurd and ridiculous the slander is , and I . prefer . to show the mendacity of this jeuiMetonnisie by reference . to the evidence of one of his own countrymen . Almost at the same time that the Comte A . de Gobineau was making such a pitiful exhibition of himself , M . Jules Oppert read a paper s » 1 aaa nf mrmTunpntn ¦ was attrihnt . fiil t ' n Kihor Sap .

    to the Acade ' miedes Beaux Arts , in which he stated that the philological : demonstration of the mode of deciphering cuneiform inscriptions had been accepted by the learned competent men in all the countries of Europe ; and he referred to the London Asiatic Society having obtained , from four persons working independently of one another , translations of one of the inscriptions of King Tiglatpileser . The four versions were found sufficiently concordant to leave no doubt as to the truth of the system of deciphering . Moreover , M . Oppert gave his translation of the inscriptions on the bulls from Khorsabad , one of which states that Sargon was the founder of the city . " In the valley , near the beginning of the mountains that stand below Nineveh , I built a city , and I named its name Hisri - Sargon . " He late found in

    gave a further translation of a gold p a stone case , at Khorsabad by M . Place , and which was as follows : — " Palace of Sargon , who is also Belpatissassour , the powerful king , the king of the world , king of Assyria , who reigned from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the four celestial regions . ; he constituted governments in these countries . Then I built , according to my good pleasure , in the country which is near unto the mountains , above Nineveh , a city of which I called the name Hisri-Sargon . " Yet the Comte A . de . Gobineau says the name Sargon is an . inyention to please the Protestantism of the English . What then about M . Oppert ? Your readers may probably recal to mind an Italian proverb , more vigorous than courteous , as to the value of Counts generally . They cannot be at a loss to whom to apply it in the

    present instance . The hostility of the family of the Gobemouches to the progress of Oriental philology is extraordinary and incomprehensible , unless we suppose this same . progress be favourable to those who do appeal to the Bible on every fitting occasion , which the Gomte A . de Gobineau says he , and those who think with him , are not accustomed to do .

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    GERMANY . ( . From our own Correspondent . ' ) January 18 th , 1859 . If happy is the nation whose history is dull , truly happy are the Germans a . t the present time , for her daily historians , the newspaper press , are particularly tedious just now . Their , readers have learnt more about India arid England within the last two weeks than they have about their own country . What with the frightful information respecting the homeless poor of London and the degenerate condition of England ' s wooden walls , poor old England appears to have hardly a leg to stand upon ; and a great deal pf ominous head-shaking and shoulder-shrugging is the consequence here . Disliked though England be , her utter downfal is not desired .

    It is true , the London correspondents of the German papers , who , by the way , dwell on the map of London merely , and are frequently not even quite au courdnt there , are somewhat puzzled at finding terrific picturea of starving wretchedness and luscious letters and leading articles upon dinner giving in one and the same impression . On one page all London is represented as dying of hunger , And oh the other all London is complaining of too many ways and means , and too little wit to gratify satiated palates . We cannot wonder if foreigners do not understand us . The firm of Brockhaus are , doubtless , highly delighted at tho notice takfen by the Times and Sir C . Napior of tho article which appeAred in their •' Conversations Lexicon . " No quAntity of

    flattery would ever have profited them to such an extent . Columns of advertisements would not have done so much for the Barnuminn Brockhaus' speculation . The British Mawworm is beginning to bo understood here . " Al > , I knows you despises me , but I likes to be despised . " Truth , though it be uttered in spite and envy , is advantageous ; " doch allzuviel i $ t ungetmnd — too much is sickening , and X think you , gentlemen of Englund , who scold at home at ease , might havo some little pity upon us boyond the eoas , for if you in

    England like to bo despised , wo Abroad don ' t 5 At leASt I don't , and I judge of tho feelings of others by my own . I do not liko tho treatment that tho neat Irishman evinced towards his friend anil countryman whom he mot in a tent At Dcwnybropk fair . English orators , editors , and novelists ought to reflect that tho English tongue is now a worldrwWo one , And that not Ions honco it will bo tUo universal one . Let truth , by aH means , be made public to the world , but only tho truth -r-the simple truth , and nothing but tho truth . I venture to make Iheao remarks because both uowpapor and people

    Original Correspondence. ' ¦ '¦ . ¦ ¦ . : A ¦ ¦ ¦

    ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE . ' ¦ '¦ . ¦ ¦ . : a ¦ ¦ ¦

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    No . 461 , ^ Janttaby 2 ^ 1859 . ] T H E 1 ; E A B E B . 11 ? ^ n ^ : ^ ¦¦ ¦

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1859, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2278/page/21/