The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-27 00:00:00

NOTES ON FRENCH BOOKS.

ACCORDING to some of our best public instructors,'
a sort of intellectual darkness overspreads France
under the present regime ; and yet the fact is that
at no time were so many books of importance pub-
lished as new•a.days. It is no exaggeration to state
that an entire I'REsS could be filled every other week
with notices of now works of real sterling merit,
in the different departments of literature issued by
the Paris publishers. Here, for example, are a few
of the recent publications of Messrs. Didier and
Co.:—" L'Eglise et l'Empire Romain au IV. Siecle,"
by the Prince Albert de Broglie ; " Histoire d'Angle-
terre," by M. Emile de Bonuechose ; " Histoire des
Revolutions d'ltalie," by M. J. Ferrari ; " Histoire
du Regne de Louis Philippe," by M. Victor de
Nouvion ; and "Bacon, Sa Vie, et Son Tempw," by
M. Charles de Remusat, the ex-Minister. The first
work, consisting of two volumes, is the first part of
a history of the transformation of old Roman
society from Paganism by Christianity—a subject
almost as vast as, and certainly not less important
than, the " Decline and Fall." The Prince de
Broglie appears to have displayed great industry in
collecting his materials, and he classifies them
with skill, and deduces the philosophy of them with
sagacity. His book may be read with profit by the
historical student ; and, as it shows that there was a
certain similarity between Roman society of the
fourth century and that of France of these days, it
will be of interest to the politician. It has already
attained a second edition. M. Emile de Bonne-
chose's History of England appears to us a valuable
and much needed edition to French literature :
lu it (says he) I have proposed to myself, above all
things, to cause the history of institutions to be understood
by the history of facts ; to show what obstacles a people
has to encounter, what combats to maintain, what sacri-
fices to make, in order to arrive at a result in which the
freest expression of individual will is united with the
greatest public power; to show, in a word, under what
conditions a nation may become powerful and redoubtable
without ceasing to be free.

A demonstration of this kind must be, one would
think, singularly instructive to all the peoples of the
Continent, and especially to that of France, and it is
not without interest for our own. To us, too, it will be
edifying and agreeable to see how a thoughtful and
impartial Frenchman—for M. de Bonnechose not

only possesses an earnest desire to be impartial, but
is so—regards the great events of our history and
the great men who have played a part therein.
Like Lord Macaulay, he does not consider it be-
neath the gravity of his subject to notice the man-
ners and customs of the people at different epochs.
His two volumes commence with the earliest historical
times, and come down to the death of Elizabeth.
Of M. Ferrari's History of Italian Revolutions we
cannot speak so favourably : its facts are not well
grouped, and not clearly narrated; its style is terribly
heavy; and it is somewhat too metaphysical.
Victor de Nouvion undertakes to record the reign of
King Louis Philippe with fairness and impartiality;
but he displays an evident leaning to his Alajesty,
and avows that he has received information from
personages who stood high in his confidence. We
nevertheless think his book acceptable, for thus far
the late king has only had historians who, like Louis
Blanc, were his bitter enemies. It is written with
ease and elegance. M. de Remusat's high standing
in the political and literary worlds has caused his
book on Bacon to be read with such eager interest
that a second edition of it has already become neces-
sary. It comprises a rapid biographical sketch of
the great philosopher, an. analysis of his wr►tings
and philosophy, an examination of the latter, and a
history of its influence in the world down to the
present time. On the whole it expresses high ad-
miration of his intellectual greatness ; but the ad-
miration is tempered by restrictions which to partial
English readers will appear not altogether fair :

Bacon was (says M. de Remusat in his conclusion) a
writer of brilliant imagination, who taught practical truths,
and who charms the mind by endeavouring to render it
wiser. But he has not always gone to the bottom of the
truths be sought to embellish ; still more iarely has he
enlarged the sciences which he celebrated. He applies
not very happily and with little clearness the methods he
prescribed, and does not always know how to exercise the
learned experience of which he laid down the rules.
Superior in his general rules, he is wanting in special
questions, in penetration, and exactness. He indicates
the road but does not give the clue to the labyrinth. He
has excited to discoveries rather than led to them. In
sciences, he is a promoter not an inventor. Metaphysics
owe to him little more than a vague summons to observa-
tion, and he has thereby left his principles to the mercy of
extreme interpretations and facile exaggerations. Ile was
a man of great mind; but may we venture to say th it he
was not exactly a great philosopher?
The publications of Messrs. Hachette are so very
numerous that we can only select a few at hazard.
First, we have four volumes of criticism and com-
ments on the works of Euripides, Sophocles, and
.Eschylus, entitled " Etudes sur lea Tragiques
Grecs," by M. Patin, Professor of the Faculty of
Letters of Paris. The " Etudes " are the result of
a life's study, and are marked by great acumen; but
we find the worthy Professor's style a little heavy.
Next we see a third edition of Count Eduard de
Warren's " L'lnde Anglaise avant et apresl'lnsurrec-
tion de 1857." The insurrection in Hindostan has
given rise to a vast number of publications in the
French language ; but, if we mistake not, the authors
of only two of them ever set foot in India, and one
of the two is Count de Warren. Though upwards of
twenty years since lie was in India, his accounts of
the singular people and their customs possess as
much freshness as if perfectly new. He says many
sharp things of our rule, but much of what he says
is, we fear, not unmerited. When the first edition
of his work was published the insurrection was at
its height, and the accounts from India were de-
plorable in the extreme ; and yet, in spite of all his
prejudice against us, he predicted that, from his
knowledge of the English on the one hand, and the
natives on the other, the insurrection would cer-
tainly be quelled, and British power he established
more firmly than ever. It is not a little singular
that, though a Frenchman, Count de Warren
actually served for sonic years in India as an odicer
of the Queen's 55th Regiment. Two other of
Messrs. Hatchette's publications are by M. Edmond
Abut, one of the youngest, but one of the most
charming and popular, writers of the day. '!'he first,
" Nos Artistes," contains an account of the paintings
of living artists in the last Exhibition of Paris,
and it gives a synoptic view of the present state
of art in France, whilst, at the same time, it 14
written with a facile grace which will please those
who only read for amusement. The second
work, " Maitre Pierre," is a tale of the Landes, a
barren tract down by Bordeaux ; and, under. the
guise of amusing only, it teaches the " great tact'
that the Landes may be brought under cultivation,
and shows how that can be done. The Emperor
its
utility, so pleased with this work, and so struck with
utility, that he wrote the author an autograph letter
of comp:iment, and made him a Knight of the Le-
gion of Honour. Books of voyages we also nonce--
" Sejour chez le Grand Cherif de la Mekke," and
" Cinquante Jours au Desert," by Charles Didier—.
simple offhand accounts of wanderings in parts of
Africa, somewhat out of the beaten track, and of
a,lventures with strange people. In "La Nurve,ze,
M. Louis Enault, an admired and rapidly rising
young man, takes us to a country to which our own

11

travellers have already began to wend their way, and
which presents a wide field to curiosity. The natu-
ral beauties of Norway, her productions, her govern-
ment, the manners of her people, are all described,
not only with the pen of a ready writer, but with the
sagacity of one who has seen much of people of
different climes, and has profoundly studied books.
French though he be, we notice en passant that, with
more frankness than the majority of his countrymen
would have displayed, M. Enault admits that the
Norwegians entertain great esteem for the Eng-
lish. The well-known M. Michelet, in a book called
'• L'lnsecte," records observations of insect life, made
by himself, which are really extraordinary. Even
professional entomologists, we are assured, have been
struck by many of his revelations. To the ignorant
public they are literally marvellous. In a volume of
the compass of " L'lnsecte " we have rarely found
such a mass of information so pleasantly told.
Under the taking title of " Seul," M. X. Saintine
records with considerable artistic power the real life
and adventures of Selkirk whom Defoe has im
mortalised.
Turning to the productions of Messrs. Levy, we
find a goodly volume of " Souvenirs de Voyage en
Asie Mineure et Syrie," by the Princess de Belgiojoso.
The countries to which the Princess takes us have
been often traversed, but rarely by an adventure-
seeking woman. The Princess, in the course of her
wanderings, filet with strange folks, and saw strange
things ; and she possessed What the great majority
of travellers cannot hope for, the privilege of ad-
mission to the inner domestic life of the people.
She writes in a pleasant, gossipping style, and oc-
casionally makes tefiections which display great
shrewdness. A lady of high rank, whose name is no
secret in the Parisian world, though she has not
thought fit to publish it, has brought out a work
called " Robert Emmet," which, partly on account of
her rank, partly of the merit which the work dis•
plays, and partly, perhaps, on account of the person
of whom it treats, has excited considerable sensation.
The book is a sort of romantic biography of the Irish
rebel. 01 course, the rebel is adorned with qualities
and graces he did not possess, and of course, also,
great sympathy is manifested for him, and some
very hard things ara said of England for her treat-
ment of him ; but English people ca,i rend the book
with pleasure for its excellencies, and without being
at all ruffled by what it says contrary to their i leas.
In'- Les Manieurs d'Argent," by M. Oscar de Vallee,
Advocate-General of the Imperial Court of Paris, we
have a vigorous denunciation of stockjobbers and
speculators past and present. People of this class
have of late years been infinitely too numerous in
France, and they have caused not a few melancholy
scandals : so that M. de Vallee's castigation of them
is well•timed. It had the honour of attracting the
special attention of the Emperor, who wrote the
author a complimentary letter about it: and the
public have proved their approbation by havinr,
bought up three editions of it.

Amongst the publications of M. Plon we notice a
" Refutation des Memoires du Duc de Baguse," by M.
Laurent de l'Ardeche. This is the second refutation on
a grand scale to which Marmont's Memoirs have been
subjected ;—M. Itapetti's, noticed a few weeks ago,
having been the first. We also remark in M. Plon's
list a " Histoire de l'Empereur Nicolas," in two good.
sized volumes, by Alphonse Balleydier. A biography
of that sovereign is certainly highly acceptable ; but
M. Balleydier has unfortunately written his in such
a tone of enthusiastic admiration that in spite of
ourselves we feel a certain distrust of it ; and he has
adorned it with anecdotes, many of which are so very
sentimental that we feel certain they cannot be true.
With all his faults, the Emperor Nicholas was one of
the most remarkable characters of his time, and lie
played fer the long space of twenty.five years a more
Important part in European politics than any other
personage, whether sovereign or subject. His
biography, therefore, ought to have been written in
a more sober strain than that which M. Balleydier
has adopted, and which is only suitable to an opera-
singer who is " the idol of the public."
We conclude here for the paesent.

The Galley Slave and his Daughter. A Tale.
Founded on French Protestant History. By
Mrs. D. P. Thompson. London : Hamilton,
Adams, and Co.

- - -
WE are not surprised at Mrs. Thompson thinking
that in the effects of the revocation of the Edict of
Names a good background would be given for an
historical tale. She seems to have calculated that if
Mrs. Stowe had created a sensation by her " Uncle
Tom," another form of slavery might be made
equally thrilling. Mrs. Thompson, however, forgets
that Mrs. Stowe's book owed a large measure of its
success to its undoubted novelty, and to its effective
pictures cf the interiors of " nigger " life, which had
been closely and carefully studied. We doubt whe-
ther Mrs. Stowe would create a sensation by a novel
on the sufferings of the Huguenots of France. The
interest in the subject is too much familiarised, and