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    supported the lady ; she carried me round . Was I about td realize the theory of perpetual motion ? Sichts and sounds were growing dim and confused , when , perhaps aroused by the noisy " bravo" of the commandiinte , I gathered my failing strength , broke away from the fair lady , and beat a retreat from the room . I was fiiirly danced down /' If the following- description be not overdraw " , the pleasing impression which the expedition left upon our author '*; mind , and which , the perusal of his work leaves upon his reader ' s mind , is far from ill-founded : —

    " I can convey no faithful impression of the beauty of the face of the country . It presents throughout , from river to river , the most varied physical features ; fine alternations of mountains , forests , and plains . The lofty Mbenaypey , crowned by primeval forests , and the Ytagua with its truncated cone , though but hiilocks compared , with the majestic eminences of the Andean range , arc imposing objects in the mountain system . Through whole districts the sierras are covered by forests of gigantic trees , and slope by rounded wooded hills to the broad sunlit plains , which were every where brilliant with verdure , and intersected by perennial streams . The hill-side ' 3

    were enlivened by the habitations of a numerous population , and the plains were covered by herds and flocks , which , with the approach of night , could be seen seeking the protection of corrals that dotted the campos . We saw no sterile wastes . The whole land seeriicd to be enriched by the vegetable tribes of tropical and temperate . zones . The air was laden at times with-the ¦ rich odours of orange blossoms and aromatic shrubs ; and yet the climate there , as in every part of the basin of La Plata that I visited , is free from the humidity and excessive heat , which , in

    other sections of this continent , exhaust the powers of man , or increase those of nature beyond his control . All that fine country is occupied by a people simple , kind , and hospitable . Thefts are not w \ - frequenf , but a higher degree of crime is rare . The administration of President Lopez is , so far as I could learn , unstained by . bloodshed . Though the Paraguayans groaned for a ^ quarter of a century under the sangtiinary tyranny of Francia , they have been saved from the demoralizing civil contests that have almost depopulated other states of La Plata . "

    These interesting states are only commencing their mature existence . Tlie policy pursued by Spain and Portu < rul , during the whole period of their supremacy , the same policy as was pursued by England , with her Colonies , until the war of Amex-ican . independence taught her its fatuity , of closing their , ports ; to' all communication and _ commerce with the vvarld , and discouraging all industrial energy and manufacture , perpetuated as it

    was , after they threw off the yoke of European rule , by the cruel and repi * es 3 ive Governments of liosas and l ^ rancia , prevented even the first steps towards commercial activity . These are only now being taken ; but being taken eagerly , and with the confidence , of success . Captain Page believes that , ere long , cotton , sugar , and tobacco , which grow with little culture , almost spontaneously , will become , staple exports , and most of the'Governments give land to immigrants for nothing , "With regard to timber , he says : —

    "We brought home sections ' of a variety of woods , and of their indestructible qualities I had some opportunity of judging in my frequent visits to the abandoned missions of tho Josuits in Paraguay , whero tho finest wood-work—columns , statuary , and roofing—exposed to the action of ' the elements for more than two centuries , woro as untouched by time as granite or . iron . « ' A ship built of Paraguay wood , " says Azara , " will outlast four of European timber . " Tho economy of nature also is . most wonderful and

    beautiful . In tho ediblo fruits , foliage , barks , fibres , and jucics of its great forest trees , as woll as in those ot every species of minor vegetation , wo find farinaceous food , a stimulant , or tea , more healthful than that afforded by tho Chinese leaf , precious medicines , raw materials for tho finest tissues and tho most useful fabrics , dye-stuffs offering varied and unfading tinges , gums , rosins . This oxuhumnce of vegetable life js united with ai climate as delicious as it is salubrious . "

    Of tho progress of trade in these countries , the increase of population will be accepted na a reliable tost . Jn the United States ) tho population doubles itself in twenty years . In some parts of those republics the population lins tripled'in twelve years . Xet this , too , not bo forgotten : the Argentine raooH lnimuflvtituro nothing . To a country like ovtr own , Avliich export nuumfiie tares and Jiriporta materials , trading " with these republics , tlwro ih a conao (| ii « nt certainty that they will biky , jw woll as sell , and that a fair " balance ot trndo will thus bo proHorved .

    Behind'th ? Scenes in Paris ; a Tale of the Clubs and the Sezrct Police . James Hogg and Sons . The author of this work- —a reprint from the pages of our excellent contemporary " Titan "—has constructed a powerful fiction upon one of the numerous conspiracies against the life of Napoleon III ., which the Imperial police have so much distinguished themselves by . thwarting , or , as their enemies say , by inventing . Singularly enough , the scene of the chapter , is laid at the door

    entitled " How to Play llegicidc , " of the Opera-house ; and its action is an attempted assassination of the Emperor . This and other coincidences might induce : some . to suppose that the book Was written subsequent to the Orsini affair ; but the pledge of the talented author , that he had previously completed is task , his sufficient to establish his claim to be considered a farseeing mail , if not a prophetic one . The chapter in question furnishes the [ . following passage , -which-we extract as a specimen of liis smartest manner . Among his remarks on the crowd at . the door of the Opera-house he t says ( p . 253 ) : —

    " On these two carriages the looks of a motley crowd ^ were fixed . But what looks ! The looks of a people unworthy of liberty , because they can be so easily cheated out of it ¦• —a people who , respecting little in this world , have so gTeat a respect for power , that they worship it . There were looks of stupid admiration ; of servile appre-. ciatioh : of childish fascination . The sturdy Englishman pooh-poolis and scoffs at a show of finery , though lie will p-o miles to see it ; but the Frenchman enjoys it thorou gh ly . There are three ways by which a French mob may be tamed , . and only three — a bon-mot , a dazzling show , and the mouth of a cannon . The present" Emperor , lias had recourse to the latter two already . He is not celebrated for . ' smart sayings , but a day may come yet , when his life at least , it not li-ia throne , will depend on his ready wit . " One of the opening scenes is laid in a Parisian ppllnr rlwnllinir . The characters are a starving

    mechanic and his -. family .- We are introduced to a deiyree of wretchedness that we confess we would ' not have believed , except on the word of an old resident ih Paris , to have existed in that city . We even till now believed that tlie absolute starvation of an entire family , whose head being able-bodied enough to seek work ' at his trade , could have at least nia < le known the deplorable situation of his wife and children to the public charity board of that town ; but bur author gravely ignores , any such resource . He evidently does not do so to relieve his hero from the degradation of public relief , because he makes him adopt the lower depths of begging and treason . We have either , then , marvellously erred all along respecting French charity , or one who , like the writer before us , boasts twenty years '

    acquaintance with that country has , by implication , cruelly libelled it . We cannot protend , at a injnute ' s notice , to decide the point ; but we much incline to the latter alternative . But our sympathy for French charity has led us far astray from the point we had in view when we called the reader ' s attention to Girardin ' s cellar . Our desire was to quote for the reader ' s instruction , arid to submit for his admiration , some true and forcible remarks on French domesticity . The ties "do famille" wo have ourselves always observed to mean something more among our neiglibom-s than do their representative words in our own language : and we share the author ' s views on their comparative strength among the two peoples as well as the nervous language with which he has clothed them , as follows : —

    " England is a very boastful country , but there is not on *; oflier many bonsta so highly choriahed , yet so utterly unfounded , as that of her domestic ties . I know that in saying this X call down thunderbolts upon my head . I care liot—truth is more precious than popularity . Wut to prove it ; and first between husband and wiIo . IIna any , who has lived longer in Franco than the author * ever heard of a husband , in any class oflife , beating his wife , knocking- her about with his fists , brutally asserting his superior stronjrth , and taking advantage ? of her wonlc-J 1089 , us wo huur of every day , in every class in England ? And if to this it be unsworn ! that tho husband abroad inflicts afar worse than bodily injury on his wife , and lavishes his lovu on soiuo wretched inlstross , I voplytlint I do not uphold their morality ., only their domesticity . Again , as between parent and child j where , toll me , clo

    you see in linglunu that tender nuuctiou , respect , anu «« - votion , which we havu soon a , thousand times abroad in sons and daugliNira ? Would it not appenr even ridiculous to our cold cvos . If a dualling young dandy , stnrting in his cabriolet for his club , wort ) to proas a kiss upon his i ' nthur ' s brow each time ho left tho house 'I Or wlioj'e do you soo In England generation after gonoratlon cdiitoni to live to ^ othor in tho sauiohouso ? la It not ahnoat a rulo that tliu young married couplo ahn ]\ inatull themselves rntluir in wretched lodgings than in tliu same house with thoir parunis ? Nay . tho lovo of honour from child to parent Is so strong In I'Vanco , compared to England , that it is this which partly accounts for tho number bf , mado-up mavrlnujca $ n $ many « . son iind daughter Would vntUuv marry a ' cannibal at onco than oppose tho will of a inthor or mothor . ' " Tho hero , "Paul Montague , who it need hardly bo said is an Ifiuull&Uinan , happens to have been a

    member of the secret society charged with the above-r mentioned plot against the Imperial life . Thoughr personally no party to the attempt--his name havingbeen removed from the roll prior to its organisation , —he was proscribed and pursued by the police . Hi * wanderings led him to the coast Of JBrittany and *• night -scene * when he find ' s himself exhausted , starving , arid penniless among the mysterious stones . of Carnac Not-withstanding the comparative proximity of ( these wbriderful remains to our shores , so few English : travellers , arid so limited a circle of English readers" , are acquainted with them , that we venture to extract their picture—and a piece of broad scene-painting it is—from tlie pages before us .

    " Peep purple clouds lay heavy over all tlie heavens y but , in the east , the morning sun was driving them , before it , and came up tr iumphing , round and bold , and throwing back on each side a curtain of white mist , which rolled sparkling away . Paul looked up . Around him stood . a score of huge gaunt stones , rough , grey , and irregular , and caught the rising beams upon the yellow lichen of their faces . ' ¦ X " He raised himself wondering , to wonder rnore ^ He was in a camp—an army—of stones . Far away , down the gentle slope , and up the smooth fields beyond , far in fact as he could see , and bounded only by the sky and . triumphant sun , were stones—stones , nothing- but stones . Their number was countless . Men have tried to count them in vain , and when the calculators have come together to compare their countings , one says two thousand , another twenty thousand .

    " " ¦ There they stood > in regular lines—some say eleven , some thirteen—at regular distances ; and in regular descending size ; those where Paul lay being- the largest , standing higher than g iants , and those at the further end , towards the east , smaller than pigmies . " Was it -.-. Caesar ' s ' - army turned to stone upon the Druid ' s hallowed ground ? The peasants tell you so . _ " Was it the last resting-place of some band of Celtic patriots ' , and these their tombs ? So some say-. " Was it , perchance , a stone temple raised to somer unknown God , perhaps the Maker himself , and each His f

    stone of which designated some attribute ot divinity " Qu'ien sabet Tliis field of stones , stretching formiles away , till its limits are lost in the sniaHness of . the obieets—this wild plain is called parnac , the city of thedead . Truenanie ! whatever be its origin ; since all they mean is dead , save the lifeless stones themselves , which live , though lifeless . The people that raised—the mechanical power employed to move these huge Mocks—the mystic meaning- of the eleven lines , and the regular distances of the pillars—all , all are unknown—lost to the world for ever . . h ecovered

    "We have unearthed Nineveh ; we ave r Babylon ; the wise men of the West have given tongues to the graven slabs of Pfimroud and Khorsabad , and the Past lias been dragged back a skeJeton into the Present ,, and Learning played coroner over his bones . J 3 ut here tlie corpse has lain beneath our very eyes for centuries ,, and refused to rot . " We have preferred ti > quote the preceding passagesfor our readers' pleasure and instruction to giving them the mere plot of the love story winch runs through the book . v The trials of the hero and heroine will find admirers in plenty among ordinarynovel readers , but the extracts we have given will , we hope , procure recognition of the author arid bis . excellent performance among . readers of a far higher stamp . ' .... ; On Liberty . By John Stuart Mill . London : J . W . Parker .

    Few porsons who huvc directed their attention to the progress of political philosophy will receive without interest the announcement of a now A \ -ox * k on ¦ that subject from the pen of Mr . Stuart Mill . The power which Mr . Millhas displayed , in . his 4 > Essays , ? and in his great work on - ' Political Economy , " m dealing with the most important and difficult questions in the social science—tho admirable clearness with which ho unfolds his views—tho high regard for truth , the fairness and perfect good temper towards opponents , everywhere manliest in hiswritings , entitle him at all times to attention . It is Mill those sub

    impossible that a work from Mr . on - jects should bo wanting in that which will amply repay a careful study . This writer is no bookmaker . His publications mark , onch one , a step gained in human knowledge— an addition to , that stock of truths whoso good fruits yut tocomo no nmn can estimate . It Is lamentable to think that tno innuonco of such a writer should bo rotimlod by ; the deluge of contemporary publications—by "' o . noisier claims of worthless books , which must « ink inta their dufitlnoil oblivion bi ' foro thy true vuluo pt lus . works can be fully munia-st . ti .

    _ , _ „„ . The subiwt of Mr MIH ' a Kiwiy «» « T | ! ° . nftt »[ o and limits ' of the po ,-or which can Ik . Qffltmwtoly exercised by society over tho individual . " A question ( hit sny *) s . ildom stated , and hardly ever dlscusaSd In guuorul tunua ; but wh oh proloun . y Influnces the i raotlqal oouli-ovowlws cj l * . tho nuu by Its latent "Sonco , and Ifl HMy mw to inako ItBolPrqcogujBod 1 ft » tho vital question of ( lio tutinra . It In so iur froin beln ^ now that In a wvtnln sonso , It bus dlvidodnianklnd almoS ion tho romotuttt aef » J , *> " * l » «»« 8 t M « f * 2 gross Into which tho move olvlftaod portions of ? lio spec ea havo now ontorod , It prosonts itsulf under now condf-

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    ¦ NTo . 468 , March 12 , 1859- ] THE LEADEB . 333

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 12, 1859, page 333, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2285/page/13/