On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    The two volumes on France , published by Mr . Henry Lytton Bulwer , in 1834 , have been followed by two more which complete the work . A very great variety of matter must necessarily be included in a book having " France" for its title , and

    the ability with which the different branches of the subject are handled , is as various as the topics it embraces . Some portions are essentially light reading , and adapted for the amusement of an idle hour , while others must be carefully studied to be understood at all , and others would be dull and tedious to

    the general reader . Some subjects are treated superficially , and others are elaborately worked out . Thus , if any one reading the chapters headed , " Light Literature , " " Religion /* " New Philosophies , " " Social State , " &c , were to please himself with the idea that he had , in consequence , made himself master of all these matters , as existing in France , in all their wide and important bearings and relations , he would be likely

    to find out in time that he had adopted as truth many a prejudice , and many an error ; while , on the other jband , if he should wish to learn the state of the working classes ; to ascertain the effects of the division of property and the abolition of the law of primogeniture ; to understand the government of France in its civil and military administration ; the constitution of the chambers , or the law of election ; he would find in

    these volumes a mass of valuable information . These points are to be ascertained and verified ; they are matters of fact , and Mr . Bulwer has carefully and laboriously collected them from statistical tables and valuable authorities , and has arranged them clearly and concisely . The first class of subjects ,

    on the contrary , requires long and deep observation , and a peculiar talent for their comprehension . They are too varied and extensive to be carelessly hit off in a few amusing pages of a popular book . The chapters which treat of them are amusing however , and if considered as a succession of isolated anecdotes ,

    or as the opinions of the author , formed according to the opportunities of observation he had enjoyed , they are very good reading . The review of the \\< A \ t literature of the day in France is evidently written much more with a design to be

    striking and brilliant , than to give any correct ideas on the subject , and it is moreover misleading and unjuet , because characters and passages are distorted in it , and , by differences apparently very slight , but really very important , are made to appear absurd or worse , when their true meaning is the' reverse of either . The pldn adopted is , to collect a number of

    cha-• The Monarchy of the Middle Classes . France , Social , Literary . Political Second » erie » . By Henry l 4 yttoii Bulwer , Ksu ., JY 1 . P . 2 vol » . Hentlev , JUM 6 .

    Untitled Article

    BULWER'S FRANCE .

    Untitled Article

    160

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1836, page 160, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2655/page/32/