The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-03 00:00:00

6tertion

MINTSTEIIIIL changes and deaths have caused an un.
usual number of vacancies in the House of COIIIIIIOIIB, and
electioneering rumours and preparations have boen rife
during the week. New writs have been moved for the
following places, where the vacancies have been occasioned
by accepture of office :—City of London (Lord John Rus-
sell), Radnor (Sir G. C. Lewis), Halifax (Sir C. Wood),
Northampton ( Mr. V. Smith), Forfarshire (Lord Duncan),
Stroud ( Mr. Horsman), Athlone (Mr. Keogh), and Ennis
( Mr. Fitzgerald). Montrose is vacant by the death of
Mr. Hume, Dudley by the decease of Mr. Beubuw, and
Stirlingshire from the decease of Mr. Forbes. Coteau has
also been vacated by the retirement of Sir J. Young.
In the City of London the election takes place today
(Saturday). Lord John Russell sent over from Paris an
address to his constituents, dated February 23, stating that
lie had accepted office under Lord Palmerston, and should
be prepared to assume its duties and responsibilities after
his return from Vienna. A requisition was talked of to
Sir C. Napier, but Lord John will be returned without
opposition.
The Halifax election also commences to-day Sir C.
Wood issued his address on Monday. lie will be etre-
nuonsly opposed by Major Edwardes, and a chew contest
is anticipated.
In Northampton, Monday next is appointed for the
nomination. Mr. Vernon Smith seeks re-election, and is
opposed by Captain Napier Sturt, of the Grenadier Guards,
lately returned from the Crimea, who has issued a moat
spirited address to the electors, declaring he is resolved to
stand in consequence of " the incapacity of the Home
Government, which has suffered an army victorious in the
field to be wasted and almost destroyed by want of food
and shelter."
No opposition is as yet indicated to the return of Sir G.
C. Lewis fur Radnor, Lord Duncan for Forfarshire, Mr
Keogh for Athlone, and Mr. Fitzgerald for Ennis. The
elections in these places will take place in the course of
the ensuing week.
The election for Stirlingshire takes place on Monday
next, when Mr. Blackburn (Conservative) expects to be
returned.
For the Montrose burghs the nomination takes place
on Tuesday. Sir John Young (Conservative) and Mr. J.
S. Trelawney (Liberal) are in the field, and other Liberal
candidates, Mr. Burnley Hume and Mr. E. limiter, Dun-
dee, are:spokeu of.
Sir Stafford Northcote, formerly connected with the
Board of Trade, is a candidate for Dudley, the seat for
which has become vacant by the death of Mr. Benbow.
The Hon. Cavendish Butler has issued his address to
the electors of Cavan, the retirement of Sir John Young
from the representation of that county having been offi-
cially announced. Mr. Butler declares himself to be an
adherent of Lord Derby. Captain Annesley and Mr.
Anthony O'Reilly arc also in the field.
The election for Swansea, to fill the vacancy caused by
the demise of J. H. Vivian, Esq., took place on Tuesday,
when Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, Esq., was returned without
opposition. iu
The election for the Cardigan burgles has terminated
the return of the Conservative candidate, Mr. Lloyd
Davies, who polled 29S votes, against Mr. Evans's 286.

HER MAJESTY AND PRINCE ALIIRT have generously
forwarded to the Bishop of London a mum of :3001.
as a joint contribution to the Association fur Pro-
moting the Relief of Destitution in the Dluuopolih.
Thu newly-appointed Governor of South Australia
has received the honour of knighthood lioul
Ma •
jesty. Sir Bichartl APDonald has been gtidEinor of
the Brittbh pubscssious on the western coast of
Africa, St. Lucia, and of St. Vincent. He is the son
of the Provost of the Dublin University.

-";

212

Nittraturt.

Memoirs d'un Bourgeois de Paris. Par Dr.

Veron. Paris : Coquebert.
THE last two volumes of this work have just
appeared in Paris. They have excited infi-
nitely greater interest than the first four ; and
this interest seems to us to be fully justified
by the nature of their contents. For they
give comparatively little about Dr. Veron him-
self and his doings, the former being a quack
and a bore, and the latter of no earthly con-
cern to the public, while they treat of recent
events, some of them of gigantic importance,
and they throw light on the public and private
cha'xicters of the men who have played the
teasing part therein : in a word, they are a valu-
able contriblition to modern history. Neverthe-
less, in a literary point of view, they are pitiable
in the extreme: every page, and almost every
sentence, displays the pen of an unpractised
writer; the reflections are singularly shallow
and trivial ; there is no great cohesion or
liaison in the subjects treated, and still less in
the manner of treating them ; and the volumes
are swelled by copious cuttings from the
Moniteur, and from those grotesque leading
articles which Veron, in the time of the dead
and gone Republic, used, with astounding im-
pudence, to palm on the public in the columns
of the Constitutionnel

Casting aside the rubbish of the two volumes,
we will briefly notice their more interesting fea-
tures. In the first place, then, there are some
very curious private letters of M. Guizot, about
the Eastern question of 1840. In the next there
is a 'detailed account of the Revolution of 1848,
and in the Appenlix along report of a general,
an aide-decamp of Louis Philippe, who was
actively concerned in it. In this account we
are introduced to the royal family, in the
Tuileries, on the eventful day which stripped
them of their power and
.glory, and sent them
impoverished as exiles into a foreign land.
Much of what is said has been said before
by Lamartine, and other French writers,
and by our own Mr. Croker in the Quarterly
Review ; but Dr. Veron's narrative is not the
less interesting. What particularly strikes us
in it is, that the aged and venerable Queen of
Louis Philippe was the only member of the
family who displayed anything like energy
When energy was so much needed. She it
was who, when things were rapidly coming to
a crisis, compelled M. Guizot and his col
leagues to resign,—a step which if taken in
due time might have stayed the revolutionary
tempest. " YOUT continued presence in power,
•' gentlemen," said she, " endangers the throne,
" and I invite you to resignwas her
Maiestor, toe, who compelled Louis Philippe to
mount his horse and show himself to the troops
and National 'Guard ; and it was she who com-
bated the proposition that he should abdicate.
It was she, also, though Dr. Veron does not
mention this, who, when flight became neces-
sary, led off the poor old King leaning on her
s:rtn. But though Louis Philippe was in dis-
may, and anything but dignified, in quitting
the Tuileries, he seems soon to have recovered
his serenity of mind; for on arriving at Dreux
he wrote in a calm and firm hand to Count
Montalivet, the Intendant of his Civil List,
for a supply of money, and gave the necessary
written authorisation for the payment of a
certain sum. Another trait is—and it is one
which does him great credit—that notwith-
standing his anxieties for himself, his children,
and his grandchildren, and, it may be added,
his country also, he found time to make in-
quiries about one of his aides-de-camp, Gene-
ral Athalin. Passing over the account of the
escape of the King and Queen from Havre—an
escape effected by the instrumentality of the
English consul, Mr. Featherstonhaugh—wa
come to details of the sack of the Tuileries,
which, though not new, will be read with cu-
riosity. The only novel incident we notice in
them is, that in Prince de Joinville's apart-
ments the mob were surprised and delighted
find poll-parrot, which cried, as loud as
Dow- But amongst
!e copies of a
preserved ac-
te wanton de-

to find a poll-parrot, wuicu claux■
any of them, " Down with Guizot!"
decid ew matter we notice
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