The Press. — London, England, 1858-01-09 00:00:00

their future organisation seems to be u follows :—Admi nistrative ion of the Prpalities ; a national repre sentation, having attributes well determined and limited to the discussion of certain special questions ; liberal muni cipal institutions ; confirmation of the suzerain rights of the Porte, with the condition, at the same time, that in case of diffi cu lties, the Principalities will be placed under the pro tection of the contracting powers to the Treaty of Paris. PRUSSIA. The approaching opening of the Chambers excites much political discussion in Berlin, as it is believed an extension of the powers of the Prince of Prussia will be early proposed. The health of the King is to some extent satisfactory. His Majesty a few days since was enabled to receive a deputation, and con- versed some time with its members. Great prepare,. tions continue to be made to do honour to the illustrious brine and bridegroom on their entry into Berlin. The Berlin journals speak in the most gratifying terms of the political prospect the marriage opens to Prussia. The Princess Stephanie de Hohenzollern, the august fiancée of the King of Portugal, will be present at the marriage fetes at Berlin. AMERICA. Intelligence to the 26th states that civil war between the free State and slavery men had broken out in Kansas. No further news has been received of the Nicaragua filibusters. The Southern Press is open in its support of the expedition, and in con. demning the commander of the Saratoga for mildly interfering with threats after he was landed. There is also an extensive organisation in New York for aiding him : Under the pretence of an emigration of labourers to Cubs, they bare enrolled a large force here (I have heard it stated as high as 2,000, but fancy that to be exaggerated) for the purpose of joining Walker's fortunes. His pluck in returning after all that had taken place attracts some; promises of haciendas and Spanish beauties attract more. An attempt was made yesterday to break up the expedition by seizing a barque which was on its way down the harbour and was supposed to contain a cargo of filibusters. The vessel was brought back to port, and put in custody of Go vernment-officers; tut there has been nothing yet dis covered to show any complicity in the alleged expedition. Those beat acquainted in Washington with the views of the Cabinet give the Government credit for sincerity in its attempts to put down the filibusters.--Lelter front New York. Governor Walker's resignation had been accepted. In the affair at Fort Scott, five pro-slavery men were killed. The report of General Lane's death was unfounded. The Kansas Legislature had passed a militia law over-riding the Governor's veto ; they also repealed the law authorising the constitutional convention. Later news from Utah states that the United States' army were concentrated at Blackfort, and slowly advancing. The Legislature of Georgia had passed an act legalising the Bank suspension, notwithstanding the Governor's veto. The President of the United States, in reply to a resolution of the Senate, had sent in the corre spondence with the French Minister regarding the bombardment of Greytown. This correspondence shows that France claimed compensation for the losses sustained by French subjects ; but Mr. Marcy denied the liability of the United States. The corre spondence with Great Britain was not sent in. THE PRESS, JANUARY 9, 1858. despatch-boat Coquette, from Alexandria, with a telegraphic despatch of the Bombay news, on Wed nesday morning last, the intelligence was imme• diately despatched to the Home Government and the leading London journals, &c. By seven a.m., that is to say, four hours after the arrival of the Coquette, the transmission of the despatches from Government had already been completed. We hear that messages have been sent to London from Malta in less than one hour, and vice versa in from two to three hours." THE FRENCH PRESS. A NEw weekly paper, under the able editorship of M. Granier do Cassagnac, has just appeared in Paris. The first article in this new periodical, written and signed by M. G. d 9 Cassagnac himself, is a critical review of the existing state of French literature, and contains some admirable remarks upon its character at the present day. M. de Cassagnac opens his article as follows : SILENCE TO ORGIES. It is a peculiarity of sensible people never to undertake anything without a motive. We therefore wish to submit to the appreciation of those who honour us with some esteem the object we have in view in accepting the editor. ship, the dangers, and the honour of a periodical literary publication. It. It , &. , I. ( he evident to all men that at the present day political journals, without having lost their utility, have lost a little of their importance. Generally speaking, when the political press is strong it is because the ruling power is weak. For writers to take up questions it is necessary that Ministers should have let them slip through their fingers ; and as power must necessarily exist somewhere, it fails into the hands of journalism as soon as the Govern. ment cannot hold it. But as soon as a beloved and energetic power is estab lished in a country which shows itself jealous of its work and accomplishes it manfully, questions and affairs remain within the circle of Government; or when they leave it, they leave it sifted and settled. This is precisely the position in which France now is, after many years of confusion and struggles. The Govern ment governs. The executive power is at the Tuileries and in the great bodies of the State, and not in half a dozen inkstands. Public opinion and public interests follow their natural guides, instead of losing themselves in a thousand labyrinths, the freaks of journalists, tribunes, and sectarians. The press envenomed questions without solving them ; the Government solves them without en venoming them. Let us praise God for it! But if society has no longer anything to fear from factions, we think that it stands in great peril from the noxious doctrines with which the stage, books, and (mine tons infect public morals. The steadfast champion of order, after having vanquished the ancient enemy, we now prepare to encounter a new one; and we intend to wage against bad literature the same war which we waged against bad politics. The general characteristic of the French lite. nature, he asserts, is that "there are hosts of work men and dearth of works " : This incessant labour of literary men, accomplished without taste or spirit, which neither amuses the public nor themselves, which does not produce either pleasure to the one or fame to the other, keeps up papermakers and printers, fills cafés. gives passing amusement to travellers, without ever affording serious occupation to any one. Men skim over the verse or prose while the waiter is bringing their dinner or the hairdresser is curling their hair, because literature is offered on the market by coffee housekeepers, Savoyards, and hairdressers as toothpicks are at a dining-house. Few would give to the poet the twopence they give to the waiter. The effect of this great movement has been, if you like, the creation of a new literature—the literature of public resorts—that is to say, where every book is glanced over and none read with attention. Art derives no benefit from it ; and if we con sider the principles it spreads, the public mind is daily receiving a formidable attack. Of the character of the French literature at the present day, he remarks : We cannot cast a glance on the moral direction of the literary productions of the present day without a feeling of shame and pain. Look at the theatres. We do not wish to speak of those obscene representations which no one goes to, unless a bachelor or in liquor. We do not allude to those where the favourite actors owe their position to a false voice or an ugly nose, and who create a laugh rather by their na tural defects than by their parts. We leave aside all those unknown regions where the public that frequents them has more muscle than brain, turned to account by writers who, not having the talent to be comical, resign themselves to be ridiculous. Let us speak first of the French stage, unequalled by any other in the world in authority and fame, and then of those stages which, though far behind it, were neverthe less, for a long period, schools of humour, sound feeling, and good morale. Well, gipeiea, vice, and slang have swamped them all. At the Theatre Francais, where our youth on leaving college went to study the manners of polished society, choice morals and language. and respect to the fair sex, we behold barefaced adultery displayed, and supported without shame by the masters of art and by 33 their pupils who tread in their footsteps. As regards the second-rate theatres, they invite openly every class of ,ffr ciety to witness the private life of prostitntes. They boldly throw open the gates of the demi-monde to the real world, which rushes in headlong without being told on the threshold that there is not such a thing as demi-howneur, demi-morale, or demi-dignili. The stage has arrived very near the edge which leads to s precipice at the bottom of which neither morals nor literature are to be found. It is so far sunken that it would be a difficult task to say honestly what is represented, and the culpable complicity of criticism holds out no prospect of a limit to this miscon duct and desecration. Novels pervaded by the same spirit—that is to say, be spattered with tbe same dirt—are still more baneful. At least you must go to the theatre to see it, but a novel pre sents itself. No man of common sense will go into a bookseller's to buy novels to amuse his wife and children. A woman of education will not aniscribe to a circulating library for those abominable books which bear upon them the finger-marks of those who read them, and the indies tions of the mind that wrote them. But now the novel is thrust upon you. It comes with your newspaper, without cost or trouble ; and even the most prudent family rarely escapes tbe effects of this quiet and subtle poison, which is imbibed in leisure hours, and which kills quietly and gra- tnitously. It is clear all this, theatre as well as novels, is not litera ture. lint happily it terminates like the orgie in Lucrezia Borgia. This art, which flourishes between wine cups and women, has it coffin close behind it. In fact—and it alone is ignorant of the fact—this gipsy revel has had its day, and ita morals are an insulting anachronism to contemporary society. Doubtless, as long as the human race exists it will have its burning passions ; but every period of society has its good customs and its virtues as well as its faults. With the Fronde the morals of the Fronde passed away : such also was the case with the Regency. A few idle and rich young noblemen may still indulge in their vices ; they have no longer their little establishments. There was a time, not far back, when the acquaintance with the demi monde was an accomplishment. It may still be an attrac tion, but it is no longer a fashion. It is spoken of but as Turenne consented to speak of his ancient passion for Madame de Coßquen, by extinguishing the lights. Thus, literature at the present time is, in its ensemble. outside the pale of firm principle and real morality ; it partakes neither of truth nor of the acknowledged cus toms of society. It mast, therefore, either undergo a change or die. it is one of the qualities of intelligent and useful reforms to regenerate institutions and works by restrengthening them with their own principles. The best 'friend, there fore, of French literature would be the man who possesses either sufficient authority to offer a reform or sufficient power to enforce one. We know ourselves well enough to be aware that we do not possess either. Nevertheless, the value which we attach to the fame of French literature, and that feeling of duty which we always obey, do not allow us to remain tacit and indifferent spectators. We are not called upon to persuade literary men that they are in error ; but convinced that they are so, we think that we are bound to tell them so. Even when a man shouts in a desert, God and his conscience hear him. In conclusion he declares the object of the journal to be the realisation of a healthier and a better state of public literature : We mast advance boldly to the task with' scalpel and branding-iron in hand, and amputate and purify by fire the corrupt members. And how much will remain after this painful, but necessary operation ? Not mach, perhaps; but is it not the tree which has been pruned closest which sends forth the healthiest shoots? This journal is nothing more than the realisation of this idea. We shall work at it with a small circle of Mends gathered round our principle, and of whom we shall say nothing here, as they will be better understood by their labours than by words of ours. Devoted to a useful work, we shall have no considerations for men or things, except such as are inspired by courtesy and imposed by dignity. Doing thus, and assembled under a literary standard. we shall still take part in politics without speaking of them, for we know of no calling more elevated, none mere effica cious, than that of preparing healthy and upright minds for the service of their country. A. GRANTER DE CASSAGNAC, Deputy of the Corps-Legislatif. CHINA. The following extract of a letter from an officer in the squadron at China, dated Hong Kong, Nov. 12, 1857, gives a description of the position of affairs at that date : Since the leaving of last mail, there 'have been several additions to the squadron. The gunboats Drake, Banterer, Woodcock, Watchful, and H.M.S. Furious have arrived at Hong Kong. The steam-transports Imperador and Ripe ratriz have also made their appearance with the marines, each vessel having performed an extraordinay passage — the former 71, and the latter 79, days from England to Singapore—the Imperador reaching Hong Kong within 80 days. Both have proceeded to the Bogue, at the entrance of Canton River, and two companies of the men have been quartered in the North Wantong Fort. They all arrived in perfect health, and are a flue body of men. The blockade of the main branch of the river is strictly en forced ; but the communications with Canton by creeks are so numerous that trade goes on almost as freely as ever. General Ashburton goes to India in the Ave imme diately, leaving the admiral to do the work with the blue jackets and jollies; he (the admiral) proceeds in his flag ship Calcutta to the Bogne on the 16th, and no one has any doubt but that he will at once proceed to operations. Three hundred men of the 09th Regiment will assist, which, with marines and naval brigade, will make a force of about four thousand men. The changes in the tem perature during the present season have caused a large amount of sickneu in many of the ships of the squadron ; but it is not of a serious nature. The ships blockading the river are AR follows, commencing from the highest downwards —Bittern, Elk, Sampson, Higlitlyer, and Sybille, at Boca Tigris ; and Nankin at Cheuna Pe. "We are glad to find," writes the Malta Times, 1)43e. 21, "th a t tho telegraph connecting this island with the Continent and England is now in excellent working order. On the arrival of her 111ajosty.3 COW! 4116 r t as trio it. Her Majesty and the Court have passed the week at Windsor Castle. His Grace the Duke of Northumberland is enter taining a distinguished party at Clamber. The Duke and Duchess of Wellington will return to Apsley-house this day, from Strathfieldsaye. The Marquis of Lansdowne is expected in town early next week, from Bowood. The Earl of Shel burne comes to town on Monday. -- The Countess of Jersey and Lady Clementina Villiers will return to town at the latter end of next week, from Middleton-park, Oxon. The Earl of Durham has arr►ved at Copeland Castle from Ireland. The countess and her youthful family have left town to juin his lordship at Copeland Castle. . I