The Press. — London, England, 1858-05-01 00:00:00

and gentle youth may be betrayed, upon a casual quarrel ove r some childish ga m e with his friend, into taking it sway . fi nd even so throughout his life , should some occa• ' i on come that stirs up h is passions from their depths, a wild beast, as it were, awakes within him, and he loses his humanity for a while, until reason has re established her control. Short however of such a desperate crisis, though he would not for the world rob his friend or his neighbour, yet he might not be unwilling to triumph over him in his ° cost, for the sake hostile exercise of signal ingenuity; while from a tube or a foreign shore, or from the individual who has become his enemy, he will acquire by ratio force what he can, nor will he scruple to intlia on him by stratagem even deadly injury. He must, however, give liberally to those who are in need ; to the wayfarer, the poor, the suppliant. who begs from him shelter and protection. On the other hand, should his own goods be wasted, the liberrl and openhanded contributions of his neighbours will not be wanting to replace them. His early youth is not solicited into vice by finding social excess in rogue, or the opportunities of it staring in his eye and sounding in his ear. Gluttony is hardly known; drunkenness is marked only by its degrading character and the evil consequences that flow so straight from it, and is abhorred. But he loves the genial use of meals, and rejoices in the hour when the guests, gathered in his father's ball, enjoy a liberal hospitality, and the wine mantles in the cup. .Foi then they listen to the strains of the minstrel who celebrates before them the newest and dearest of the heroic tales that stir their blood, and rouse their manly resolution to be worthy in their turn of their eountry and their country's heroes. He joins the dance in the festivals of religion, the maiden's hand upon his wnst,and the gilded knife glancing from his belt, as they course from point to point, or wheel in round on round. That maiden, some Nausicaa or some Hermione of a neighbouring ilistrict, in due time he weds, amidst the rejoicings of their families, and brings her home to cherish her, "from the flower to the ripeness of the grape," with respect, fidelity, and love." 1848. Historical Revelations. Inscribed to Lord Normanby. By Louis Blanc. Lon don : Chapman and Hall. THIS volume does not come up to its title. M. Louis Blanc deals in " refutations " rather than " revelations ;" there are few disclosures in its pages, and those no► of high importance. The work is nubli,hed in self-defence by its author against the charges more or less freely stated by the Marquis of Normanby. The noble lord published his rapid jottings at the time of the fall of Louis Philippe. They were very entertaining, but any one might see that only the impressions of the hour were set down by the English Ambassador We will not deny that M. Louis Blanc had a right, if he felt aggrieved by Lord Normanby's assertions, to enter publicly on the task of refuting them. But this object has not been carried out thoroughly by M. Louis Blanc. He diverges into speculative and purely theoretical sub jects. His disquisitions on Socialism are out of place ; and there is a half-apologetic air in the volume which gives it an inconclusiveness Recollecting the former successes of the an thor's pen, we expected more from this book, and we have read it with some disappoint ment. Controversial disputations on the character and conduct cf individuals in a foreign country are rarely interesting. But even the French democratic party will not be likely to accept this work as a triumphant testimony to the practicability of their prin• ciples, or to the purity of their course. In an o th er po i nt o f v i ew, a l so, we h ave b een disappointed in this volume. We thought that it might throw some light on the future of France, or reveal some of the motives ac tually agitating the French movement party : but, beyond the aspersions on the character and conduct of the Emperor, there is little of a present or a prospective nature in the pages of the work. The assertions of Lord Nor manby, made while writing on the spur of the moment, are answered by Louis Blanc in a positive manner. Yet it would not be difficult In some instances to make out a plausible ease for the Marquis. For example, Lord Nor manby asserted th a t Mli Marrast, Flocon, Louis Blanc, and Albert were at first only secretaries, and afterwards " crept up" into the Provisional Government. In a rather lengthy refutation of this assertion, M. Louis Blanc writes (the italics are our own) : „Be this as it m a y, th e d ecrees wh i ch appeare d i n t h e 11 "7"fur 01 the 2.5 th of February, led the public naturally think that the position of MM. Marrast, Flocon, Louis and Albert, was one of a subordinate character. The fact vas viewed is the light of a wtanizarre by the most ardent :tepnblicana. The workmen grey. indignant at the g!lPposnim that their will, so clearly expressed, had been diste garaidi and that u nderhand attempts were already THE PRESS, MAY 1, 1858. made to weaken the influence of those by whom they thought their cause was more especially represented. Many will not hold Lord Normanby as cen surable for his insinuations on the point at issue, when M. Louis Blanc bears his testi mony to the fact that at the time there were suspicions about conduct "viewed in the light of a manoeuvre;' dread of " underhand at tempts." Lord Normanby's journal, it is fair to state, recorded only the feelings of the day. As a specimen of the severity of tone which M. Louis Blanc employs towards Lurd Normanby we cite the following passage : As to the spirit that breathes in every page of his book, I will not stop to bring it under discussion. I leave to those more closely acquainted than I am with diplomatic usages and etiquette, to decide whether it be fit fur an ambassador to speak in the following refined terms of a fweign Government, whose members entertained with his country through hie own medium the must amicable rela• tions : "It appears to be as easy to filch a share of a soi•disant populdx dictatorship as to forge anacceptauce, or to pick a pocket." This is simply an insult levelled at the French nation, and I trust every well-educated and true Englishman will be ashamed to read any such lines in a book published by an ambassador of England. Moreover, in my humble opinion, to be appointed am bassador by a Prime Minister, owing to high family con nections, or, perhaps, to mere official intimacies, is some thing more easy than to become member of a Provisional Government, by attracting the eyes and winning the patriotic affection of about two hundred thousand men as clever and keen as the Parisians are known to be. At all events, the fact of coming forward in stormy hours, at the peril of one's life, and with a certainty to have deadly enmities to encounter, for no other purpose than to save a great nation, both from the grasp of despotism and the flood of anarchy, can hardly arise out of a low, vulgar ambition; and a man is really to be pitied who was not able to find iu his own heart a motive, if not for sympa thising with such as acted so, at least for doing them justice. I will not insist. Nor do I feel inclined to retort upon Lord Normanby the insulting expressions with which he has thought proper to adorn his style. Being neither a nobleman nor a diplomatist, I am sensible that it is no privilege of mine to use language unbecoming a gentleman. Lord Normanby, of course, must encounter the full responsibility of having printed in 1858 the impressions of 1848. The opening page of this work is strikingly singular, coming from so extreme a democrat as M. Louis ,Blanc. He writes of Louis Phi lippe : Louis Philippe was a prince gifted with many good qualities. His domestic virtues were such as to command respect. He was by no means wanting in enlightened perceptions. Both from a disposition naturally merciful, and from a philosophical notion of the value of human life, he was so averse to shedding blood, that his Ministers were sure to meet with an almost desperate resistance on his part, whenever they asked him to affix his signature to a sentence of death. Upon the whole, he was a man of remarkably sober character. Nor did Liberty, under his reign, receive any mortal wound. In times of foreign and internal difficulties, he succeeded in warding off im minent dangers, and the middle classes were indebted to him for the repose they so dearly prized. And he thus continues : Still, when the hour of his doom struck, no wish was expressed for his crown's preservation ; no helping band was held out to bun ; the moneyed classes kept aloof; the soldiers either refused to fight or fought reluctantly ; for the first time, the shopkeepers seemed to have forgotten that revolutions are bad for trade ; the most active part of the National Guard actually countenanced the insurrec tion ; the old King. looking around him, and seeing nothing but a dreary wilitade, became disheartened, and a Government which had lasted no less than seventeen years was overthrown by a touch. How i• such a phenomenon to be accounted for? In my " History of Ten Years," the reader will find the causes explained and the result foretold. Of these causes, the most effective lay in Louis Philippe's utter inability to comprehend all that there was of chivalrous and elevated in the genius of France. To the meaner principles of action he applied for support. Bribery was his principal engine of government. He fostered the blind fears of the bourgeoisie, and took pleasure in nursing selfishness. Some persons have affected to discover a kind of parallel between the political policies of Louis Philippe and the late Sir R. Peel, but the comparison is too far-fetched. Neither, however, believed in the power of principle. They almost deified the force of circumstances, and they did not appreciate the nature of poli tical passion acting upon masses of men. On one point they both held the same opinion, viz , that the safety of modern States consists in keeping the middle classes prosperous, and so that end was achieved they were nut vPry scrupulous of the means; but they omitted from their views the disturbing forces of poli tical ambition, and they also forgot that, in 415 this sublunary state, social prosperity can never be long counted upon. A great part of the literary vogue obtained by this author's celebrated " History of Ten Years " arose from the mass of small and curious anecdotes of the times which he neatly put together so as to produce striking descrip tive effects, and to suggest political induc tions. He carried this love for detail so far us to lose his sense of the relative importance of certain facts. We can cite au instance fro►n this volume. He says : When I left school, I was scarcely of an age to look fur employment. Still I found tnyvelf obliged to do so, on account of family circumstances which admitted of no delay. Among the friends of my family was a man of great merit, wno had been vice•ptes ident of the Legisla tive Body during the Cent Apure, in which capacity hip uttered, when the intelligence of the defeat of Waterloo reached the Assembly, these memorable words: "Ds calme! Mes.ieurs, apris la bataille de Cannes, Pagitation etait dana Rome et is tranquillite dans le Senat." The gentleman I allude to was M. Flaugergues. He had not much influence at that period, owing to his liberal views and independent character; but I knew he was acquainted with M. le duc Decazes, then grand referendary of the House of Peers, and I applied to him. Of what took place, I have preserved a vivid recollecticn. One fine morning, M. Flaugergues took me to the palace of the Luxembourg, where we were ushered into the duke's bedroom. He was sitting up in bed, and reading the Con slit utionnel. AI. Flaagergues, after the usual forinalities oi introduction, requested him to exercise his influence on my behalf. AL Decazes turned round to me, and, tapping my cheek with his hand, in a lofty patronizing way, said, " We'll see what can be done for the lad." We parted, nor did we meet again. Well, strange to say, on the First of March, 1848, it was the lot of this lad to sleep in that very bed on which, many years ago, he had seen the duke sitting, and which the duke had just been obliged to vacate for his use. The transition thus described seems very great to M. Louis Blanc, but any reader, even moderately acquainted with the astounding vicissitudes of modern French society, cannot see any startling contrast in such a change. On the political and personal pretensions of M. Ledru Rollin, there is great difference of sentiment amongst observers of French politics. Lord Normanby wrote of him as follows (the italics are M. Louis Blanc's) : Leib-a Rollin is a man of no great capacity, and not undoubted moral courage. but a regular mob orator, of ruined fortune, who is desirous, as long as he can, to main tain his present power, and quite bold enough to attempt anything, provided he feels himself backed by a multitude. To which M. Louis Blanc replies : If, before hazarding these odious insinuations, his lord ship had taken the trouble to make himself mastmr of the facts, as the simplest notions of justice prescribed to him , he would have known that, far from being a man of ruined fortune, M. Ledru Rollin was rich when the Revolution broke out, that he had nothing to gain from it in a purely personal point of view, bat, on the contrary, had every thing to luse; an•l that any idea of the derangement which so violent a political crisis might bring down upon his affairs, never induced him to hesitate a single instant. Lord Normanoy is • romance writer; but I submit to him that the evidence, or the want of evidence, which is suffi— cient for a novel, is not sufficient for an historical work. Lord Normanby wrote again : M. Ledru Rollin said to the majority of Government, "Do you know that your popularity is nothing, compared to mine? I have but to open that window, and call upon the people, and you would every one of you be tnrned into the street. Do you wish me to try?" rising and moving towards the window beneath which there were assembled crowds. 31. Gamier Pages, who is a man of great nerve, walked up to him, drew a pistol from his pocket, placed it at Ledru Rollin's breast, and said, " If you make one step towards tie window, it shall be your last !" Ledru Rollin looked daggers, paused a moment, and sat down again. And the statement is traversed thus by M. Louis Blanc Great must have been the astonishment of M. Gamier Pages. and of 3f. Ledru Rollin, the first time these lines met their eyes, if so be they have done his lordship's book the honour of reading it. For myself, having attended the meetings of the Council, while the Provisional Govern ment lasted, with the greatest punctuality, I declare, not only that I never witnessed anything like it, but that neither then nor since have I ever heard a whisper of any• thing like it having happened; and I can assure Lord Nur manby that the members of the Provisional Government, even when their disputes ran highest, never failed in that mutual respect which is usual among gentlemen. As to representing us as bravoes, going to the Council with pistols in our pockets, ready to blow out each other's brains, this is simply ridiculous ; and Lord Nortmanby, in accept ing such tittle-tattle, has not perceived, which is rather awkward for a diplomatist, that some one or other has made a dupa of him. Here we hive ass e rtion against assertion. The Fnglish Ambassador at Paris wrote his diary in an oilthand, easy manner, and put down the general impressions left on his mind from all that he was told. Of course, any one could understand that several misstatements