The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

AUGUST 23, 1856. which its advocates ascribe to it; while, on the other hand, the chances of escape may act as a temptation to the most cunning classes of villains to perpetrate the crime. The instances collected in these papers of persons who, having witnessed executions, have shortly afterwards committed capital crimes, are very numerous and striking ; but they seem rather to belong to the argument against public executions than against capital punishments. The penalty of civil death in every case of murder, with the extinction, so far as society is concerned, of the existence and name of the criminal, by life-long imprisonment in some special fortress cut off from all intercourse with the outward world, would probably deter from murder far more effectually than the pre sent uncertain system, and consequently tend more 10 the great aim of all punishments—the safety of society. On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789. By Alexis de Tocqueville. Translated by Henry Reeve. London : Murray. (Second Notice.) ACCORDING to M. de Toequeville, the revolution of 1789, viewed philosophically, was but one epoch in the great revolutionary movement, which began many years earlier, and has not yet reached its final consummation. When the debris was cleared away, and the Empire stood out in clear outline before the eyes of Europe, men might have recognised the iden tical fabric which had been reared by the later Bourbons. That they did not do so is simply attributable to the fact that before 1789 the system of centralisation was veiled behind ghost of ancient formalities, customs, and traditions, and because, also, there existed alongside of it the two ancient orders of the nobility and the clergy, who, though completely detached from its working, were still associated with it in the national mind, and so interwoven with the whole social state as to obscure the progress of the movement by which they were gradually overshadowed : Under the social condition of France anterior to the revolution of 1789, as well as at the present day, there was no city, town, borough, village, or hamlet in the king dom—there was neither hospital, church fabric, religious house, nor college, which could have an independent will in the management of its private affairs, or which could administer its own property according to its own choice. Then, as now, the executive administration therefore held the whole French people in tutelage; and if that in solent term had not yet been invented, the thing itself already existed. Again : Amongst the nine or ten constitutions which have been established in perpetuity in France within the last sixty years, there is one in which it was expressly provided that no agent of the Administration can be prosecuted before the ordinary courts of law without having previously ob tamed the assent of the Government to such a prosecu tion. This clause appeared to be so well devised that when the constitution to which it belonged was destroyed, this provision was saved from the wreck, and it has ever since been carefully preserved from the injuries of revolu tions. The administrative body still calls the privilege sectinid to them by this article one of the great conquests of 1789; but in this they are mistaken, for under the old monarchy the Government was not less solicitous than it is in our own times to spare its officers the unpleasantness of rendering an account in a court of law, like any other private citizens. The only essential difference between the two periods is this : before the revolution the Go vernment could only shelter its agents by having recourse to illegal and arbitrary measures ; since the revolution it can legally allow them to violate the laws. Before 1789, all classes in France above the lowest were growing more and more like one another. This state of things has found its legitimate issue in the present condition of France : Education and habits of life had already created a thou sand other points of resemblance between these two classes of men. The middle class man was as enlightened as the noble, and, it deserves to be remarked, his acquirements were derived from the very same source. The same light shone upon both. 'Their education hail been equally theoretical and literary. Paris, which became more and more the sole preceptor of France, had ended by giving to all minds one common form and action. At the end of the eighteenth century no doubt some difference was still perceptible between the manners of the nobility and those of the middle class, for nothing assimi lates more slowly than that surface of society which we call manners; at bottom, however, all men above the rank of the common people were alike; they hail the same ideas, the same habits, the same tastes • they indulged in the same pleasures, read the s am e bode, and spoke the same ... . . THE PRESS. language. The only difference left between them was in their rights. 1 much doubt whether this was the case in the same degree anywhere else, even in England, where the different classes, though firmly united by common interests, still differed in their habits and feelings; for political liberty, which possesses the admirable power of placing the citizens of a state in needful intercourse and mutual dependence, does not on that account always make them alike ; it is the government of one man which, in the end, has the inevitable effect of rendering all men alike, and all mu• tually indifferent to their common fate. This, like the concluding sentence of the last extract, giving an unexpectd turn to what had gone before, contains a sting, which will doubt less make itself felt in the quarter at which it is aimed. Another not less fatal result is indicated in the following passages : The baseness of mankind is, moreover, not to be esti. mated by the degree of their subserviency to a sovereign power: that standard would be an incorrect one. How ever submissive the French may have been before the revolution to the will of the King, one sort of obedience was altogether unknown to them ; they knew not what it was to how before an illegitimate and contested power—a power but little honoured, frequently despised, but which is willingly endured because it may be serviceable or be cause it may hart. To this degrading form of servitude they were ever strangers. The King inspired them with feelings which none of the most absolute princes who have since appeared in the world have been able to call forth, and which are become incomprehensible to the present generation, so entirely has the revolution extirpated them from the hearts of the nation. They loved him with the affection due to a father; they revered him with the re spect due to God. in submitting to the most arbitrary of his commands they yielded less to compulsion than to loyalty, and thus they frequently preserved great freedom of mind even in the most complete dependence. To them the greatest evil of obedience was compulsion ; to us it is the least: the worst is in that servile sentiment which leads men to obey. We have no right to despise our forefathers. Would to God that we could recover, with their prejudices and their faults, something of their greatness! In the eighteenth century a clique of literary men had assumed the 'guidance of public opinion, and introduced that' a taste for theories, " for general ideas and big words," which is still characteristic of the French. This, too, was the product of the revolution, though often erroneously supposed to be the indigenous growth of French genuis. On this subject M. de Tocqueville has some striking com ments : Even the political language of the time caught some th'ng of the tone in which the authors spoke : it was full of genus' expressions, abstract terms, pompous words, and literary turns. This style, aided by the political pas sions which it expressed, penetrated through all classes, and descended with singular facility even to the lowest. Considerably before the revolution, the edicts of Louis XVI. frequently spoke of the law of nature and the rights of man ; and I have found instances of peasants who, in their memorials, called their neighbours "fellow-citizens," their Intendant "a respectable magistrate," their parish priest " the minister of the altar," and God " the Supreme Being," and who wanted nothing but spelling to become very indifferent authors. It is singular that the French have preserved the habits which they had derived front literature, whilst they have almost entirely lost their ancient love of literature itself. I have been frequently astonished in the course of my own public life to see that men who had never read the works of the eighteenth century, or of any other, and who had a great contempt for authors, nevertheless so faithfully retain some of the principal defects which were displayed before thew birth by the literary spirit of that day. The reason of this is, that previous to 1789 men had never seen radical or socialist theories put in practice, and did not therefore believe it possible. As the telescope is said to have been discovered by the experiments of a child playing with some bits of broken glass, so the revolution gradually grew into life from the harmless reveries with which the French phi losophers delighted to amuse themselves : The nobles even shared as a pleasant pastime in these discussions, and quietly enjoyed their immunities and pri vileges ; whilst they serenely discussed the absurdity of all established customs. Hence, it is to be feared, the difficulty of tranquillising France. The theoretical spirit still remains, whetted by the example of re peated efforts to realise its dreams, which were wanting to the eighteenth century. It is hard to say which is most dangerous, to give it rein, or to compress it. The former produces a normal state of turbulence, the latter always involves the risk of a sudden and terrible explosion. From the general progress and results of this great political convulsion, now so ably brought under our notice, one other conclu sion, but slightly glanped at by M. de Tocclue- 809 vine, is forced on our attention. It is, that with the progress of civilisation and luxury the dread of oppression has diminished, and the fondness for public affairs has declined. How few of our youthful aristocracy, or sons of wealthy families, take the same interest in political life that was displayed by their grand fathers. And that circumstance it is which renders other classes in society less tolerant of their superiority. The aristocracy at this moment inspires less fear and more jealousy than in former times ; and the consequence is that the revolutionary spirit in this country, as far as it exists at all, manifests itself in a craving for social equality, rather than for political freedom. We believe this spirit is not wide spread ; but where it has taken root, it is with a class thoroughly well able to give effect to their opinions, and likely to be far from disagreeable to those who are favorable to the continental system of government. This sentiment has long been dominant in France, and there M. de Tocqueville sees its operation with perfect distinctness, though he has not noticed its existence in Europe generally. This is the most pernicious legacy of the revo lution. It is destructive of free government, subversive of natural order, and calculated to enervate all the more noble and masculine elements of a nation's character. We take our leave of M. de Tooqueville with a twofold feeling of satisfaction—first, that a writer of such acknowledged genius should have given to the world so purely conservative a work ; and, next, that Imperial France should have contributed another witness to the utility of the traditions and policy of Constitutional England. Bibliotheca Clanica. M. Tullii Cioeronis Orationes. With a Commentary by George Long. Vol. 111. London : Whittaker. Ma. Loire's services to the cause of classical literature are too well known to the learned world to demand any encomium from us. His popular expositions of Roman law in the " Dictionary of Antiquities " are not likely to be surpassed in our own day ; awl the scholar. ship displayed by him in the two former volumes of the " Bibliotheca Classics" is cer tainly sufficient to induce all schoolmasters or classical instructors to consider him a perfectly safe guide. He does not aim at being original on points of critical scholarship ; but his usual plan is to review the conflicting opinions of the two or three most distin guished scholars who have written on ), ny passage, and then to pronounce which in his opinion is the soundest view. His judgments on such occasions are generally characterised by uncommon clearness, force, and common sense. The few original decisions which he enunciates are distinguished by the same qualities; and the possession of these cannot fail to secure him, among all the fluctua tions of opinion, a high place among classical editors. It is, however, on questions of Roman law that his remarks will be found most valuable. To read the " Verres " with the aid of his admirable notes and appendices was a great and novel pleasure. The whole Roman system was brought so vividly before our eyes, and intricate questions affecting most intimately the aspect of their daily life so cleverly unravelled and elucidated. Mr. Long is always on these questions definite. He always has a view, whether right or wrong, which is whole and perfectly intelligible. He always enables us to read on without the uneasy sensation of having left an uncon quered difficulty in our rear. The present volume does not afford Mr. Long quite so many opportunities for the dis play of his peculiar powers as the " Verres." It contains—" The Orations against Catiline," " Pro Murena," " Pro Sulla," " Pro Archie," " Pro Valerio Flacco," " Quum Senatui Gratias Egit," " Quum Populo Gratias Egit," "Do Demo Sus," "De Haruspicum Responsis," " Pro Sestio." There is however a considerable amount of legal lore scattered through the notes, and in this respect Mr. Long displays the same industry and ability as ever. We fear, however, we detect in this third volume some symptoms of Mr. Long having succumbed to that snare of all annotators—. the habit of garrulity. It contaius a great hum