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    TEMPER OF THE FRENCH, few ofthe Frenuli with which

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    JUNIUS.*

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    Fatalism—that curse of curses ? It is no fact of the universe , but it is the gradual surrender of our individuality to the sway of circumstances . One apostle of truth after another drops , in these days , intothe devouring gulf of circumstances . A social reformer , of some eminence and of unquestionable benevolence , went so far as to < ieclare that man is the mere creature of circumstances . The decorous English , world blasphemed him as a blasphemer , for merely putting' into distinct and intelligible words its own creed . If men -were in degrading servitude to the pith , the fulness ,, the vitality of the pasti there would be little to say . A living past is so much in harmony with a living present , that they may be regarded as one . Hut men now are the leprous helots to the mere letter of the past .

    The prophet , as the teachei ? and redeemer of mankind , has no ancestors . He speaks what the Holy Ghost within him speaks . Well for him if lie does not even know that there has ever been a propliefc on the earth before . Our author iff-certainly no prophet : but he is useful iii proving what the prophet should be . When an Author devotes a solid , substantial duodecimo to anathematising social mischiefs , to sympathizing with social miseries , then refers us always to the sacred oracles ,- ^ meanrng a score or two of fragments written we know not when or by whom , and armed with no more authority than their intrinsic worth confers and commands , we marvel much whether the said author has ever found out that it was not the sight of food which first gave him his appetite for his

    dinner . Wishing to part on good ,, terrns with . ' the : . writer of this volume , who , though clever and critical , sharp and shrewd , has much to learn as thinker , writer , worshipper , man , we take the liberty of informing- him that there liave been other sacred oracles besides those of the Jews -other mysteries besides those fulminating tlirouo-h the clouds of Mount Sinai ; other miracles besides those rendering Palestine a Holy Land . Seeing that all external revelations are equally credible or incredible , we are compelled to turn to the God within ; and the God within teaches us that when fools , or knaves , or cravens lay on our shoulders the burden of their conventional laws and conventional customs , oiii- duty , our destiny is to forget the past , and to shout to creation , that one individualityo ^ r own—still survives . , ,

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    rpHERE are few ofthe departments we are not -jt familiar , and in some seventy or eighty of them- —first , second , and third-rate , towns—it has been our lot lo sojourn fjjrsonie . time during the las fc few years ; not , we believe , without-gathering something more of the real feeling of ' France-towards England'than - can , be picked tip by ordinary Parisian correspondents , who collect the on dits of the . capital , and often do not give themselves the trouble of even examining the departmental journals . To speak briefly , we have done this without detecting in France , generally , inuch ok the intense ill-feeling , or those inextinguishable , memories of Waterloo which many believe to exist , waiting for ah outbreak , sooner or without

    later , only to be quenched by war . Almost exception , we have found the mercantile and middle classes most anxious for peace , and for a good -understanding between the two countries ; the ' peasantry ' indifferent , with far ' more envy of the neighbouring field , if better than their own , than of the prosperity of their neighbour nation ; and with far more dread of additional conscription and taxation than of Derbys and 1 ? a : lhekstons . Whore we met with ill feeling , it was often the result of the most absurd and unfounded rumours . Few Englishmen have any idea of the ridiculous nature of these , or of the extent to which they run amongst our neighbours * ,. We will , give two instances . A Lancer of the Guard

    informed us tlmfc it was the general belief of a large portion of the French army , when in Italy , that , vast money subsidies had been sent from England , to ^ the Austrian qamp . This report had spread like . wildfire- throughout the French quarters , producing the most violent irrigation ; and we had the greatest difficulty , though aided by some of his own countrymen , in convincing him of the folly of any such rumour . This nonsense is only equalled , or surpassed , by q , statement made to ua by a Fronch professional man of more , than ordinary intelligenoa on most points , that tho French Emperor was entirely indebted for his first huucusis to the generosity of Queen

    Victoria ; and that lie had ' nuulo his first ultemp . in at supremacy with pockets lillod with EnyUrth gold . We may blunder sometimes on this side of tho Channel , ' but such ridiculous reports as these , begotten by mischief orignoiuuicc—and there may bo scores of themcould scarcely for two days co-exist with an enlightened and liberal prosH ; and wo commend this to tho attention of our neighbours , with the additional remark , that if . tlie same care were taken about their suppression that is sometimes exorcised by the police about more trilling matters , even such jionsensp as this would not bo allowed to do its modioum of mischief .

    f < English scholars are driven out of the schools by the French ones . . ¦ ' ¦ ' . ' . ' ¦ ¦ " The French Cabinet was divided ; four for war , and four fos T 563 CG" ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' '¦ *'¦¦ *' ' ¦ ¦ ' ' ' We have only ta ken the liberty of slightly abbreviating these entries of Mr ; Raikes , and we commend them to alarmists , to show what we have tided over , when the memory of Waterloo was some few years fresher than it is now ; in fast , jealous neighbours may go on , decade after decade , growling and showing their teeth without biting ; as History cannot help showing , fond as she is of confining- her views to the details of downright and practical quarrel . The maiii causes of recent dissatisfaction in Paris have been the indefatigable ad cwptandum attacks of a large portion of the English press on the French Emperor ; the indecent yells Of triumph in an English court of law on the acquittal of a man concerned in a ruthless massacre of innocent people , of whom the Empress might have been one ; and the refusal of England to bear a liand in the Italian campaign—and , strange to say , the last of the three seems to have been the most offensive to the ouvrier class , who are the most noisy and menacing . This we gathered often enough from their own mouths , and from the owner of a cabaret much frequented by the ouvriers , who , according to his account , were for war with England , almost to a man . We have heard equally hostile language , and scarcely more polite , from the mouths of the aristocratic extreme of French society , but that is an old grudge , far less dangerous , which has smouldered so long that it may smoulder still . As to the army , we do not see ; with the firm hand which at present bridles it , why it may not be made to acquiesce in peace as well as our own , which is certainly quite as fond of fighting , though , perhaps , not quite so fond of glory % though y / e have , it must be confessed ' , more of the amusement and change of colony service—to men of active minds andbodies no bad substitute for lighting-. That a-large proportion of the officers of the French army—that those of the soldiers who have voluntarily conimitted themselves to a life of military service instead of merely to their eight years of conscription ^—that the Zouaves , those ; enfans gates , pets of Parismay have a chronic desire for war , and especially for war with England , we do not deny ; and we may add > perhaps , many of the soldiers of the Guard , as more fully imbued with the military spirit ; . though amongst these classes we have certainly found exceptions ; indeed * an instance of a Zouave just occurs to us ,, whom we met . at La Grande Chartreuse , in Dauphiny , and who said that ; such had been the treatment which he and some of his comrades had received from Engli s h officers in t he Crimea , that he would as soon fight for anEnglishman as a Frenchman . . Another of these heroes , whom a Paris ouvrier on the grand enirie of the troops was endeavouring to -stimulate , by a prophecy of war witli England , declined seeing any reason fur it whatever . There is , we believe and trust , a good deal of this leaven even in the most warlike part of the French army * though not quit © enough of it . • ... ' ,, ' ¦ , . . , „ Of the . ordinary soldier of the line , who would often buy himscit out if he could afford it , who leaves his family and his employment with reluctance , and looks to the termination of hi . s service with pleasure , the case is very different . Ip ' h true-and creditable to him that he bears himself as bravely in the field as those who , having an appetite for war , have made themselves soldiers , and continued so of their own free will—a fact little considered when French troops are compared with English ; but it . is absurd to' suppose that . this man has proprio motto any earnest desire for war with England , or , indeed , for war at all ; and there are circumstances under which hu would have the greatest objection to it . ¦ ¦ Our political economists , in viewing the quostion of the reduction of the duties on French wines , seem scarcely to have thought of thu special effect which sucln a , measure , whether on other grounds desirable or not , would be likely to have , on a very largo portion o . l ' the French army- ^ the sons and brothers of tho wine-growing families in France . A young Frenchman ' s family feeling is almost as stronff as his national one . WjiAXAtL , the historian of the House of Vaijois , has said that this family affection is one of the few virtues that survive in France when all others seem extinguished ; and we believe that he says so with truth . One of the commonest sights during the off hours , in a French sallo a manger , is that oi the gavgqn inditing at some side ti \ ble a letter to-iutner , mother , or sister in the provinces : the possession of a-little ancostral property , a homestead , keeps up this fooling amongst tlio ' poorov . Qlassoalo a far greater degree than exists among ourselves " . Wo do not behovu that a young Fronch soldier would take part with pleasure in a war which materially damaged the prosperity of the old folkt ) , and thu brothers and sisters at homo . Whatever hatred the first Napoleon incurred in Franco was mainly owing to his reckless disregard oi this family feeling . " In conclusion , it is as well to state that none of tho considerations here stated ought to throw England pff her guard against possible , if not probable , contingencies , or dissuade from that solid system of » eU-def ' enoe which she is wisely though tardily adopting .

    That there hna been more ill humour in the Capital than in the departments we do nob deny . Tho French , when they have much intercourse , soon talk themselves into a paroxysm , and , thanks to their mobility , which acts both ways , as eoon forget it . Our contemporaries seem scarcely to remember what n . few years back passed , ftnd pastied ever , without serious results . In the latter years of that lung who was called . the policeman of Europe , when Louis Napoleon- \ vns only enacting the part of apooial policeman in St . James ' s , wo have tlie following entries in the diary of a resident in Paris : — " All French society is for wnr . V . . .... . " The mob nttaofted . Lord Granvillo s carnage , crying 1 , ' a b « s les Anglais , " and tho Municipal Guard ] iad to proteot him . "

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    WHO wns the Man in ( lie iron JMask V . Vui Jbiuly raciungum write the " Whole Duty of Man P" Was Bishop Gaudon tho author of "Eikon BasiljUo ? " Who was the father of tho old Pi-olonder P Was not PerUin "VVarbeck king of England dejavo f Who in good truth are Annius of Viterbo , George Psivlnuvnnazar , and Dninborgor P Has any one soon the original Ousian MSS . P It ? it pos »

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    T 04 The Leader and Saturday Anal yst , [ Fj ^ b . 25 , I 860 .

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    * Preface to "LowMos ' aJSibUograpjKir'e Manual , " ftnd article < vuuiufl Intheeftmo . Part V , tf . 0 . BpUn , I 860 .

    Temper Of The French, Few Ofthe Frenuli With Which

    French with which TE ^ IPER OF THE FRENCH .

    Junius.*

    JUNIUS . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1860, page 184, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2335/page/12/