The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-24 00:00:00

JANUARY 24, 1857. :fittraturt. Quatre Ana de Rigne—Olt en &mimes none t I Par Dr. Veron. Paris: Librairie Nouvelle. ALTHOUGH, as all the world knows, poor Dr. Veron long since tumbled from his high political position in France, it is impossible for him, from the prestige he derives from his oast repute, and from his operatio, journalistic, senatorial, gastronomic, literary, and quack medicine -selling renown, to publish anything which does not create profound sensation amongst all classes of the good city of Paris. Of all the works to which he could put his hand, none was so calculated to excite a perfect hubbub of curiosity as a treatise on the political situation of France, or, to use the Doctor's own expression, on " where we are " at the present juncture, after " four years' reign." We therefore learn without surprise that everybody in Paris—regardless of the Conferences, the Neufchatel question, the murder of the Archbishop, the Chinese war, and everything else—is just now devouring, discussing, abusing, wondering at, admiring, or ridiculing the volume before us, which has just been ushered into the world. The foreign reader will perhaps expect that the Doctor's answer to his own question, "Where are we?" will be an exposition, more or less elaborate, of the present political, moral, social, and material condition of France. But little does he know the jovial Doctor ! On finance, commerce, agriculture, the state of religion, the growth of crime, and other grave subjects which form the condition of a country, the good gentleman says not a word. Even the purely political position of France he treats only under , :ertain aspects, and he d.)es that in a flighty style, which renders his opinions of no great value. But then he hears many anecdotes cf Doted personages, and he tells them ; and :re is very sarcastic on all his con temporaries on whom it is safe to be so. We will go rapidly through the volume, and cull here turd there a few passages which may amuse the reader. If he does not find much consecutiseness in them, he must remember that it is Dr. Veron's fault, not ours. After a )rief sketch of the principal events of the fort• years' reign of the Emperor, M. Veron gives this description of his Majesty : Far from fillowing the old lines traced in politics, the Emperor avods them, and draws out new ones. An apostle of Napoleonim ideas, lie is neither a sceptic nor a doubter, like the cenury in which he lives. He is of a calm and firm mind, as a noble and haughty soul, full of courage, boldness, arlent convictions, and generous sentiments. He believes n democracy to which all European societies are marching, with steps more or less slow and through obstacles more or less difficult. He loves the people; but he will not giver° by them though he governs for tilt m. He thinks, Ina he has always thought, that the ancien re• lime is ended, and he will attempt all things to render the new regime linable. He will not—and the forco of his will is great—albw the revolution of 1759 to remain sterile and impuissant. privations aid misery of the necessitous population and of the working classes, to pacify society by labour, to illustrate his reign and to astonish his century by the creation of useful insti utions which do good to all, and by great things which speak to all imaginations. It is in this path that the Erupera has already marched with a step rapid and sure. But the Doctor asks if France is, as might be expec ed, full of enthusiasm and devoted ness for the Emperor? He does not answer his own question, but says that " the silence "of the press, exaggerated and profound, " makes - night "; that in France " there is still " a left aid a riyht" (or, as we should say, a Minister al party and an Opposition) ; and that whist the Emperor " is chief of the left, " his Ministers represent the right, and oppose " him." This will seem " bosh" to the reader, and so I does to us ; but it is the Doctor's own language. He than rebukes M. de Remusat, M. de Tocqueville, and other eminent men, for the protesta:ious in favour of liberty they have recently made; but he complains that under the present Government there is not room for rn►ulnttoz, though it is necessary for the French : In Frame, we like movement, we like intelligence, we like to fee: that we live, we like glory, we desire opportu nities of destining and the means of obtaining it. But ore not tht Senate and the Legislative Body the surest retreat at ?resent in which a man can cause himself to VS THE PRESS. forgotten ? Such or such a deputy of these dap', whose eloquence and whose labours would certainly cause great éclat, if they were known out of doors, is now less known than the most obscure member of thel old Parliaments. Does not this give hostile parties the pretext for saying, though very unjustly, that the Government of Napoleon 111. only counts amongst its legislators and its function aries a majority of supernumeraries, chosen and preferred fir their blind submission and their adulatory com plaisance ? - - The Doctor then goes on to criticise the constitution of the Senate, and, in violation of the law which declares the deliberations of that body secret, he relates at length a discus sion which took place therein ; although he says that, according to the text of the Con stitutionithat discussion was altogether irregu lar and illegal. He also gives an account of the debate in the same body on the Senatus Consultum for the establishment of a regency, which account is another violation of the law. He next, at very great and very wearisome length, passes in review the labours of the Legislative Body. He contrasts the discus sions carried on in a conversational tono in that body with the fierce debates of the old Parliaments ; and, quoting Tacitus, he says, not without a sneer, that Napoleon 111., like Augustus, has " pacified eloquence like every " thing else." He complains that those dis cussions are not allowed to be reported in the newspapers as they take place, but that bald, emasculated summaries of them can only be given. He describes the principal speakers of the Chamber, and says goodnatured things of some of them, illnatured things of others. He reveals the petty grievances and the private conversations of the legislators, and amongst his revelations is this one : In the private conversations whichitake place every day I have heard men express themselves discouraged and downhearted—alarmed for the future, disquittel at the restrictions placed on the body to which they belong . . . suffocating in an atmosphere which seems to them heavy ),nd burning, they believe they hear at a distance the noise of conflicts and the roll of thunder! The Doctor next reviews the Council of State, and draws pen and ink portraits in his fashion of the gentlemen who compose it. He relates anecdotes of several of them Here is one of M. Villemain, brother of the eminent writer and academician : He was asked one day ironically, on the birth of the Imperial Prince, why the title of " * Child of France " was given to him. " Because he is the grandson of Universal Suffrage !" was his answer. M. h'eron's next subject, lugged in apropos des Lotto, is a disquisition on the manner in which the official Mostiteur ought to be edited, and a complaint of the negligence with which the present editor discharges his duty. What can this unfortunate editor have done to have offended the redoubtable Doctor ? We now arrive at a chapter entitled " The Institute," and the Doctor wants to know " where we arc " with regard to that learned body. He answers himself by detailing at some length the various acts of opposition which the Institute, and especially two academies of it, that of Moral and Political Sciences and the Academie Franco.ise (com• posed for the most part of ex-Ministers and eminent politicians), thought fit to indulge in against the Emperor and his Government But he says that the Institute, with the excep tion of some few individuals, has become far less hostile than it was. He insinuates that the Emperor ought to be elected a member of it : Does not his great talent as a writer give him the right of citizenship in the republic of letters? The poet Beranger once said, " If only for his proclamations I would nominate Napoleon 111. a member of the French Academy !" Newspapers and books form the subject of the chapter that follows. On newspapers the Doctor thus discourses : A drawing-room game, which places in relief the spirit of apropos, to require antinstant (answer to any question proposed off hand. In one of the private parties at the Tr.ileries, this question was put. to the Emperor:—" How can you distinguish truth from falsehood ? ' ' Open the door to both of them " answered the Emperor, and falsehood will come out first." It is perhaps falsehood which first of all slips into newspapers, but truth always ends by forcing its way in. In a dark night we see phantoms which a little light causes to disappear. Silence makes people think, and the thoughts which besiege us during a long silence are gene rally full of disquietude, distrust, and fear. Ido not hesi tate to believe that if, in spite of all the great things accomplished during four years' reign, there now exists some bad cuctenta is public opiaioa, they are owing to 87 the exaggerated silence of the press. The moving dram* of the Eastern war . interest public opinion ; but at present may not the flat calm of politics, and the apparent immobility of a Govern ment which seems not to act because little is said of what it does, suggest hostile prejudices and false and unjust suppositions ? The Doctor then describes the terrible restric tions to which newspapers are now subjected, and the anxiety their conductors undergo, lest by publishing anything offensive to the Government they should run the risk of having the paper stopped, and so ruin the numerous families whose fortunes are wholly or partly invested in them. He says that one of the consequences of those restrictions is that, the French papers not daring to speak of public personages, the French public actually know less about their own Ministers than those of foreign countries. His next chapter, which is on the Ministry of State and of the household of the Emperor, contains a very illnatured article on M. Achille Fould—:tll the more illnatured from being written with affected mildness and kindliness. According to the Doctor, his Excellency, though charged with the imperial patronage of literature and art, has "little taste for litera ture," or for that of the theatre, and cares little for writers, for poetry, and for poets. He, besides, is possessed of little educa tion, reads little, and never makes a quotation from Virgil or Horace. He , moreover, is too economical fur the Minister of an Emperor, and heinous crime !—he made the Doctor pay for a box at the Opera, which for many years he had, in his quality of ex-director of the theatre, occupied gratui tously. And now once more asks the Doctor, arrived at his 350th page, " where are we ?" France, during the four years' reign of Napoleon 111., has, so to speak, been labouring under a constant fever. But in spite of our manufacturing progress, in spite of the glory of our victories, in spite of the peace in Europa which has followed them, France perhaps does not feel as she ought to do : one would say that she is almost in that state of malaise and disquietude winch succeeds to pro found excitations. This moral condition is aggravated by unexpected symptoms and incidents—the dearness of living, the increase of house rent, and the monetary crisis. A revolution in France at present, the Doctor says, would be more serious than:any that have yet taken place : Tt would not only be the new and the old regimes—not only the elder and the younger branch, the dynasty of th. Bourbons and that of the Napoleons, which would be opposed to each other, hut it would be the Itepublic,—it would be Socialism,—in all parts there would be civil war. What arm would be sufficiently powerful to stop the effu sion of blood? In the midst of tempests and of ruins, what sword would protect, in presence of European rivali ties, the dignity and national glory of France now re conquered? What form of government would prevail? what pretender would be elected, or would attain power without election? If a revolution were to break out now, France would have neither vessel nor pilot. From these considerations, the Doctor comes to the conclusion that " Napoleon 111. is more " than ever necessary,"—and as he says his Majesty will not hesitate to place himself on a level with the ideas of his tiines, he de nounces those who oppose him, and predicts that, thanks to him, " the second half of the "nineteenth century will finish better than it commenced." Nevertheless the Doctor pro claims that " the mutism of newspapers and " the too restricted action of the Legislative " Body are dangers for the present and the " future." Such is a resume of Dr. Veron's new work. Descriptive Essays. Contributed to the Quarterly Review. By Sir Francis B. Head. Two Vols. London : Murray. Tile titlepage to these entertaining volumes represents an inverted number of a Quarterly Review, under which a hen has just hatched her brood of chickens, and the engraving is accompanied by the following preface : This brood of literary chickens, all of which, save one, have been hatched in the Quarierly Review, now migrate from their coop to fare in the wide word fur themselves. The proverb says, "Birds of a feather flock together," hut in this motley group the reader will find that in size, in substance, and iu colour, there are no two of them alike. The author is mistaken. All the essays have obviously the same parentage—his chickens are all of the same breed. If we were to adopt the always lire y ouct gft9n witty harouet'q I / .....4 I I