The Press. — London, England, 1854-10-21 00:00:00

yittraturt. llfemoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris. Par le Docteur Wren.. Tome 4me. Paris: De Gonet. Luca a true bourgeois, M. le Docteur Veron deals out his literary wares in a very retail and miscellaneous fashion. Four thick vo lumes of memoirs out of five have now appeared, all of them filled with the same sort, or rather sorts, of epiceries. Scraps of history, of autobiography, of anecdote, gossip, and criticism are all jumbled together with little regard to succession of date or continuity of subject, like the many-coloured sweatmeats in a bonbonniere. There are also many letters interwoven with the work, and a little scandal by way of spice to the whole. True it is that the letters are but commonplace. If never published before, as the author boasts, the sufficient reason was that they were not worth publishing. Howbeit, the names of royal personages and of diplomatic or literary cele brities are affixed to the epistles ; and, although the pages of a printed book are not exactly bills of exchange, we are willing to allow that such signatures as those of Louis Philippe, Mole, Montalivet, Guizot, Thiers, and George Sand will give them a current value, pay able at sight, even though the matter to which they are appended is almost as dry and formal as that of the commercial documents themselves. Much the same must be said of M. Veron's criticisms. They are flavoured with divers personalities, whose piquancy doubtless can be much better judged and appreciated by Parisian readers than ourselves ; but other wise they exhibit no superiority over the most ordinary level of newspaper "notices." Never theless, there are many well-known names introduced and well-known works charac terised ; so that the English reader, if he can not obtain much addition to his knowledge or materials for his judgment, yet proceeds com placently through the accounts of celebrated authors and artists, and of their celebrated productions, written by one who possessed an intimate acquaintance with most of them. M. Veron has, in fact, been an adventurer whose various enterprises brought him in contact successively with professional, politi cal, literary, and artistic circles, giving him the entrée into each, and furnishing his note book with copious memoranda touching per sons and incidents, but never entitling him to a place among their ranks. He held no com mission in the great army of intellect, but figured by turns as camp-follower, contractor, and commissary-general, —as the business manager who arranged the details of a literary speculation, or the capitalist who supplied its funds and absorbed its profits. Thus Dr. Veron acquired no rank as a physician, but made money by a pate pectoral.. He was no artist, but made money by the Opera. He was a very mediocre writer, but made money out of the Constitutionnel. He obtained no politi cal status, but, having allowed M. Thiers the free run of his journal, takes infinite credit to himself for not visiting with signal vengeance the ingratitude of that aspiring politician, who, when he became Minister in ISM), refused him even the appointment of sous-prefet. In former volumes the author has indulged in reminiscences of his youth, has gossipped about the streets and cafés of Paris, and given a copious narrative of his experiences and employes while entrepreneur of the Opera house. We now find him attacking loftier topics. One long chapter in his new tome is entitled " Parties and the Parisian Bour geoisie," another " Louis Philippe," and a third " The Fine Arts under the Monarchy of July." The same retail mode of treatment is, however, bestowed upon these as upon less exalted subjects. He sees everything from the outlook, and handles it with the dexterity of a bourgeois. His chapters are stuffed with trifling anecdotes, small reflec tions, and fragmentary philosophisings. M. Veron is a great believer in the importance of trivial events, in the danger from petty in trigues, and the potency of cant phrases. He is convinced that the monarchy of July was THE P ESS. overset by the single saying of " The King reigns, and does not govern." Of his own class, the bourgeosie, he gives a very unflatter ing picture. He represents them as dull, selfish, and fickle; fond of changes and casualties among the higher ministerial circles from sheer love of excitement ; utterly insen sible to all disasters, personal or national, so long as they do not interrupt trade or unpave the streets ; and yet so stupid as not to per ceive that the political melodramas in which they sympathise and assist find their natural conclusion in a scene of emeute and barricades. The monarchy of July rested upon bour geois support so long as it was believed to interpose between the street shopkeepers and the street fighters. As fear of the emeutiers declined, so did the popularity of the " Roi des Bourgeois." Louis Philippe, says M. Veron, one February morning found his National Guard—the essence and representa tivo of trading Paris—cheering for Reform instead of himself. He went home and abdi cated, convinced that his game was up. Yet the bourgeosie had no rational cause of com plaint against the King—they were only tired of being happy, "on etait las de vivre heu reux." Heading a new chapter with the name of Mlle. Rachel, our bourgeois finds himself upon more congenial ground. "Ilse trouve enfin "en pays de connaissance " M. Veron claims, with what justice we know not, to have first discovered Rachel. One summer evening, he tells us, he strolled into the Theatre Francais, in search of shade and solitude. There were four spectators in, the stalls, himself making a fifth. Presently, however, his reverie was disturbed by the appearance of a new actress, whose person and style he proceeds to describe with many raptures. This was in 1838. The author had then just quitted the management of the Opera ; he had plenty of spare time on hand, and was quite ready for any new object of interest and distraction. Thenceforth Mlle. Rachel became his prodigy. Forthwith he rushes to his " ami Merle " and other journal ist friends and implores them to follow and applaud the debuts of the new star. " That " child," he said to Merle, " when the twelve "or fifteen hundred clever fellows who make " the public opinion of Paris shall have seen " and appreciated her, will be the glory and " the fortune of the Comedie Franeaise." "On " meeting my acquaintance," he adds, "before " bidding them good day, I asked them have "you seen her in Hermione, in Andromache fr" When, in the course of weeks, the talent of the actress obtained some measure of public recognition, M. Veron partook the gale of success. " When the theatre seemed tolerably " full, I wiped my forehead and exclaimed, " with a degree of satisfaction amounting to " pride, Mademoiselle Rachel and I will be " content with the public ! These people have " common sense." But, amidst all his raptures and rhapsodies, the author remains true to his bourgeois propensities. Rachel's talents and triumphs are estimated, not by the illustration they afforded to dramatic poetry, or the im pulse given to dramatic art, but by their influence upon the receipts of the theatre. A detailed list is set forth of the nightly amounts received upon every performance in which Rachel appeared during the first twelvemonth after her debut. The items commence with the modest sum of 733 francs (about 301.) on her first appearance, and, after falling as low as 121., gradually expand until the actress regu larly drew " houses " of five or six thousand francs. Considering the incessant compari sons that are drawn between the state of the drama in England and in France, this return of theatrical revenue is somewhat surprising. Playhouses were always said to be flourishing in Paris, yet we find the great temple of the classical drama, the Theatre Franeaise, open ing its doors to a 121. or 201. audience, while it is quoted, as a proof of immense attraction and success, that there were 2001. or 2401. in the house. Drury Lane itself has seldom fallen so low as the smaller receipts; and for many years, under successive managements of the " enterprising" order, 2001. would not have cleared current expenses. Edmund Kean made his debut in Shylock before an audience about as numerous as witnessed the first appearance of Rachel. His success was SATURDAY, established quite as rapidly as hers, and its pecuniary results were more than double. A Kean "house " was more frequently above 5001. than below it, and his benefit produced once, if not oftener, 1,0001. Rachel's average was about 5,500 francs, and her highest re• ceipt, also a benefit, 14,000 francs. Either in failure or in success, the London theatre seems to have the best of it. M. Veron, like all memoir-writers, is liberal of anecdotes ; but he is not a good conteur, and his stories are apt to be pointless. Some of the best relate to Mlle. Rachel. Among them is the following : While still young, and a pupil at the Conservatoire, Mlle. Rachel solicited private lessons in acting from an artist justly esteemed, and of real talent, M. Prevost, a societaire of the Comedie Francaise. Upon seeing the poor weak girl, as she was then, he said to her, "Go and sell bouquets, my child." The young Herwtiotte one even ing revenged with charming spirit, the contempt of her col league, who had proved so false a prophet. The house had been crammed, every box being filled with rank and fashion. Rachel had played Hermione. Applauded with enthusiasm and recalled with frenzy, she was able when the curtain fell to fill her Greek tunic with the flowers thrown upon the stage. Running up to him whose only lesson had been the recommendation to sell bouquets, she knelt with graceful coquetry at his feet. " I have followed your advice, M. Prevost," she said, "and sell flowers. Will you buy any ?" The learned professor raised the young artist, and expressed his joy that his prediction had been belied. Progressing to the period when he became entangled in journalism, M. Veron gives a long narrative of his connection with the Conetitu. tionnel. It is a dull and melancholy history of squabbles and intrigues, and full as usual of money matters. The journalists fare at his hands no better than the bourgeois. Person ally, a few of his own cronies—" mon ami Romieu," " mon ami Merle," and one or two more—are lauded for many excellences; but in their profession he represents the litter ateurs of his generation, from M. Thiers downwards, as labouring only for the advancement of their individual ambition, or the gratification of some petty spite or vanity. Their " organs" are worked, and parties, politics, and princi pies discussed, for the sake of the most sordid considerations. If M. Veron has drawn any thing like a true picture of Parisian journal ism, we can well appreciate both the motive and the justification of the present Empe ror's sternly-repressive edicts. Such a press as he found flagrant in his capital must he inexorably gagged if he hoped to give his sys tem a chance of durability. With a fifth volume, in which we are pro mised a full detail of the events of the "Three Days" of July, 1830, M. Veron will close his series of reminiscences. Very bulky, very pretentious, and very egotistical, the work constitutes by no means a favourable specimen of that numerous family of " Memoirs to which, by its title, it belongs. Egypt's Place in Universal History. By Christian C. J. Bunsen, D.Ph. and D.C.L. Translated from the German by Charles H. Cottrell, Esq., M.A. Vol. 11. Lon don : Longmans. OF late years the imposing termination of ology has been too frequently applied to various branches of knowledge net entitled to separate scientific classification. Amongst a certain class of intellects a characteristic proneness to induction on insufficient proofs has urged them to give a fallacious appearance of method to their cursory opinions on heaps of quasi facts industriously collected from all quar ters. Hence all the sciences, physical and moral, have had their libraries augmented by works claiming importance for some cele: brated ologist offering to the world his " new system, in which the old facts, rearranged and rediscussed under formulce, are novel to the learned eye only in their arbitrary nomencla ture. In such an age it is necessary to dis tinguish between spurious knowledge and genuine science ; we must carefully discrimi nate between the flashy pretender and the profound philosopher; and if the task ended there the duty of experienced criticism would be tolerably easy. But the duty of a literary judge goes much farther. When an author's attainments are ascertained there remains still the important question whether his logic can be accepted as philosophically ratiocina . milmoMMlNiild