The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

M. Duchatel observed that he could neither as a colleague
nor a friend leave M. Guizot ignorant of the opinion of
their Majesties. It was agreed that he should imme•
diately seek the President of the Council. . . . The
Duke de Montpensier, who was present, supported the
opinion of the Queen by some sharp observations. .
It was about two o'clock when M. Guizot and M.
Duchatel arrived in the King's Cabinet. His Majesty was
with the Queen, and with such of his sons as were in
Paris. The King, without dissimulating the perils of the
situation, insisted on the repugnance which the idea of
separating from his Ministry caused him. He added, " I
would sooner abdicate !"

"You must not say so, my friend," replied the Queen.
"You owe yourself to France—you do not belong to
yourself."
" True," answered the King ; " I am more unfortunate
than my Ministers. I cannot give in my resignation."
Then, turning to M. Gnizot, he said, " Do you think, my
dear President, that the Cabinet is able to make head
against the difficulties which exist, and to triumph over
them ?"

" Sire," replied M. Guizot, " when your Majesty puts
such a question you solve it. The Cabinet might triumph
out of doors, but it cannot vanquish at the same time the
Royal Family and the Crown. To doubt of its force at
the Tuileries is to destroy it in the exercise of power. The
Cabinet cannot do otherwise than resign."
The King consulted his Ministers on their successors,
and named Count Mole. . . . . Then a separation
took place, and it was touching. The King embraced his
Ministers, and shed tears.
" You will always be the friends of the King," said the
Queen; "von will support him."
Louis Philippe conducted M. Duchatel and M. Guizot
to the door; and, pressing their hands once again, he
cried, " How happy you are! You leave with honour, and
I remain with shame."
We must also quote an account of the remark-
ably pleasant situation of the Republican
Minister of Finance, M. Goudchaux (the
person who has just been elected by the Red
faction at Paris), a few months after the estab-
lishment of the glorious Republic :
On the llth July, 184 d (it is a representative of the
people who speaks), I and M. de Courcelles, as members
of the Special Committee of the Assembly charged to make
a report on the new tax of one per cent. on mortgages,
went to M. Goudchsnx, Minister of Finance, to confer
with him on the subject. We found the Minister in his
own room, leaning over his desk, with his head in his
hands. As we approached he jumped up hastily, and,
coming to me (we had previously transacted banking
business together), grasped me by the hands with an
expression of the most profound sorrow, and said, " I wish
I were dead! If my religious sentiments did not prevent
me from committing suicide, I would put an end to my
life, in order to escape from the horrible situation in which
I am placed !" Tears flowed down his cheeks. He showed
me the balance•sheet of the public treasury. There were
only 16,000,0)0 fr. in hand, and every day the expenses
exceeded the receipts by 1,30(1,000 fr. We had, conse•
quently, only twelve days to exist. On the expiration of
that period were bankruptcy and an abyss! We recom-
mended M. Goudchaux not to allow the fatal secret to
escape ; and we also recommended him, on account of his
agitation, not to attend the sitting of the Assembly. And
we went, Stc.
- -

We now leave M. de Cassagnac's book to
the reader. As our copious extracts, though
losing by translation, show, he will find in it a
spirited record of one of the most stirring and
important epochs of the agitated history of
Fiance—revelations of the highest historical
and political interest—passages written with
really remarkable literary power and eloquence ;
but he will not find, we must honestly tell him.
that calm judgment upon events which the
historian is expected to display. M. do Cas-
sagnac is coo evident a political partisan, and
possesses too much of the vehemence of the
journalist to be, or affect to be, strictly impar-
tial. His book is the authentic Bonapartean
version of great events of recent occurrence.
It is extremely interesting and of great value,
and it is as such that it will be not only
eagerly read by contemporaries, but consulted
by posterity.

The Judgment qt the Flood. By John A.
Heraud. A New Edition, Revised and
Rearranged. London : Bogue.
THIS is another appeal made by Mr. Heraud
for a reversal of the critical opinion generally
held on his claims to the rank of a philosophi-
cal poet. The work as it now stands contains
some new descriptions and episodes, and the
poem is divided into four parts. " These
" amendments," says the author, " include
" the mythos of a political truth, which hitherto
" has been corroborated by historical facts,"
and he has accordingly given fuller develop-
ment to the character of Samiasa.
. Metaphysics of the cloudiest kind are often
confounded with poetry, and tianseendentalists
of all ranks rarely distinguish between the
abstractions of pure philosophy and the

idealisms of a poetical nature. To succeed as
a philosophical poet, there is much more re-
quired than large views of man's destiny, and
lofty aspirations. There must be exquisite
choice of words and great rhythmical sweet-
ness in order to charm the reader and to
entrance his mind. If Shelley had not pos-
sessed such power over cadence, and if his
wealth of beautiful and expressive language
had not been so great, he would have been
only a philosopher, and not a poet. The
school of writers to which Mr. Heraud belongs
wants music, and its disciples misconceive
in toto the nature of poetry. Aspiration is not
invention ; ethical reflections arc not prophetic
intimations of genius ; wordy sympathy with
the welfare of society does not necessarily
touch the heart. Hence they have never• be-
come popular, and their success is limited to
the cliques of their admirers.
Mr. Heraud is a gentleman of literary
talents and knowledge, and in an unpoetical
age it is no discredit to him that his harp does
not attract a large audience. He cannot com-
plain that his works have not been made
known to the literary public, as he has had
considerable notice taken of him at various
times. What the measure of his poetical
faculty might have been if his mind had been
trained on another• system, we cannot say ; but
according to what he has written he must be
judged, and we fear unfavourably.
There is depressed feeling in the Palinode,
at the conclusion of this new edition ; but the
pathos of poetry does not inspire the compo-
sition, which is abrupt in its execution and
incongruous in its illustrations:—
Heart ; be not downcast : cheerly, cheerly.
Some be there thou hast loved too dearly,
Things that have won too much regard,
Trials that have been overhard ;
Shipwreck of hopes—thou Mariner
In seas untried—thou trespasser
On alien shores—thou sorely tempted :
Thou dupe of Faith ; whiles, unexempted
From chance, and change, who fondly trusted
A world too old ; a weapon rusted ;
An icy globe with snow o'er•crusted,
That slips, and crunches as we roll it,
Uphill and downhill, with our feet
Taught, like a gymnast, to control it,
Yet—or betrayed, or indiscreet—
Still sliding from its surface found;
Till, fallen from off the treacherous round,
Sheer into space we gyrate ; while the skies
Laugh all about us, with their starry eyes.
The leading fault of the transcendental ver-
sifiers is their perpetually confounding the
pleasures of discursive thinking with the
poetical sublime. They write upon the general
system of the world, and they fancy that
popular readers are to take pleasure in obscure
thoughts propounded in hard words and un-
musical verse. They have filled volumes with
vague and unsatisfactory passages like the
following:—
My Spirit has experienced many phases,
Since, the first time, I thought to tread the mazes
Of this great theme.
I am not what I was ; nay, I
Have nothing of my own identity,
Save in this dream :
Yet difference, even here, I apprehend—
And now her travail cometh to an end,
I feel no triumph ; rather shame, and sorrow,
Offspring of sin ; and Hope of Death tomorrow,
Sa that the Waters o'er my soul may pass,
And wash it—from the Ark shut out, alas,
Entrance wherein I wished, but wanted strength
Of Faith to reach. Well—Once set free, at length,
The Ark of Hades waits; where even the Drowned
Find refuge late, and are of Mercy found.
It is not wonderful that such writing has
failed to catch the popular ear ; and, on the
other hand, the ambitious pretensions of this
school, with its constant propensity to bathos,
excite critical hostility. Titus; in the ode to
the " Bird of Doubt," the last line is truly
ridiculous, and mars the effect of the previous
passage :
Bird of Doubt,
Let the stream run out ;
Tha stream deep,and strong,
Of the river of song,
Whose spring is thy heart;
That fountain divine,
Whence with wildness, and art,
It flows into mine.
I hear it—l hear it—
Moat beantiful Spirit,
All the Night long,
That stream deep, and strong,
Of the river of song.--
Bird of Doubt,
Ilow shall wo name thy sob, sud thy shout'?

.11..ImmimmAIL

634

Mr. Heraud's pen has in this volume described
unconsciously the misapplied ingenuity and
mental toil of the transcendental bards:—
For not of nature cared they to enquire—
Idle, though curious—and conceived strange laws,
She knew not of. her goings on to rule ;
Deciding ignorant, and as of time
Eternity discoursing, or as it
Describing time : or, daring there to soar
Where no experience ventures ; region high
Of pure abstraction, beyond earth, or I:3aven..
World of void forms. Thus, of such phantasies
These sculptures were.
Their system is wrong, and even if their views
of poetry were right, more sweetness of melody,
and more condescension to the formed taste of
a people with the heritage of English litera-
tire, would I.e required before the school to
which Mr. Heraud belongs could find accept-
ance with the crowd of readers, or win the
approbation of the fastidious few.

A Visit to Salt Lake ; being a Journey across
the Plains and a Residence in the Mormon Settle-
ments at Utah. By William Chandless. London :
Smith, Eder, and Co.
THIS is the journal of a journey from Missouri, by
the valley of the Platte, to the Salt Lake, and of a
short residence among the Mormons. The book is not
wanting in the usual amount of adventure, but its
main interest lies in the description of the Mormon
town, and of its gentlemen and ladies, "in their
" habit as they live." The territory of Utah lies
between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada,
extending from lat. 37 deg. to 43 deg. north. The
country is by no means fully explored, but the whole
tart is cut up by long mountain ranges running
orth and south, inclosing fine fertile valleys at
event uninhabited. In these valleys, receiving the
\usage of the ranges, are numerous lakes, the
If of which is the great Salt Lake, and in the
/ of which lies the famous city or the Mormons,
e banks of the Jordan. The soil of the valley
d in parts, "but it is hard," says Mr. C hand-
'to find a farm site one-third of which is not
less." The climate is bad—too hot in summer,
cold in winter ; rain is scarce, and grass-
are numerous; the consequence is, that
lrought and the plague of grasshoppers the
s of Utah once in every few years are
the brink of starvation, for no grass is
attle, nor corn for the inhabitants. Here
\f the city as it stands :
es immediately at the foot, and on the
western sides, of a jutting ridge of the
terminate in Ensign Peak ; a buttress of
lure, and a warder overlooking the whole
vets rest on the " bench," here little more
rising in successive terraces to a height
feet; below them the city stretches on
plain, and forms around the peak the
three-fourths of a square. The whole
\bout four square miles !aid out in
tf ten acres : that is with a side of a
treets intersecting at right angles. .
the city is nothing ; few houses are
many of one only: style there is
I there are no " follies." Brigham
's pretentious, and looks well
and its walls are newly painted
venetiana refreshed continually :
st detached—a sort of harem—
in Gothic style. I felt a pity
veen the gables. The social
ed for any kind of public
0., and the tabernacle and
onventicles.
is a snug despotism—a
nominally chosen by
selected by Brigham
judges appointed by
tates. On the other
ecial government of
apostles
by the other, but
as with the courts at
Capperfield, so it
lies, but it is all a
'vernor, his two
lye houses—one
Lake City—and
a church. The
om to elect as
they " vote
se who were
Imore. Evi-
'e ballot-box,
ty—particu-
, the liberty
re are no
•r always
the worst
tiler and
he very
r liti-
the

THE PRESS.

bishops, and then to Brigham is about the extent of
law believers venture upon. It is refreshing to find
that these saints experience a weakness common to
us interior mortals—they are tickled by titles, and
speak with becoming awe of "his Excellency the
Governor;" but irreverent jokers have been known to
speak of him as " the old boss." But, of
course, the peculiar "institution" we always asso-
ciate with Mormonism is the one to attract most
interest. Mr. Chandless rather approves of it than
otherwise. To live in Salt Lake Valley, say the
Mormons, is to obtain the lot of Joseph ; it is the
fruitful vine the archers shot at, but could not
reach—in their words, it is " Paradise." Married life,
our author tells us, may be distinguished into three
sorts,—" the harem life, where numbers of wives (as
those of Brigham) live together and apart from their
husbands ; the belle amie life, where they occupy
separate houses scattered over the place; and lastly,
the domestic sort, where ail live under one roof, but
to some extent with their separate apartments." The
wretchedness of the wives, he assures us, is greatly
exaggerated, and as for immorality, there is not a
more modest and moral city in existence. To be
sure, the degrees within which marriage is forbidden
are narrow, for a man marries a mother and
daughter, and can indulge his taste for two sisters
at the same time, while the tone of conversation ge-
nerally is loose ; but such things are trifles.
Under such a system marriage, of course, loses all
its sanctity, and much of its romance, but Mormons
at a" the dansante" occasionally do a little flirting to
keep their hands in :

- -
The one special point of romance here (and you must
look close for it), is the relation in which married men
and girls stand to each other : elsewhere, the attentions of
the former to the latter pass for nothing; here a girl knows
that her partner may at any moment be her lover ani her
suitor, though his wife is dancing in the vie it•vis; and
many a flirtation is buoyed up by the circumstance. Men,
too, of the brighter sort, love to use their position, and
carry on canvas that would capsise a monogamist craft.
Second and third wives take little heed of the flirting or
the wooing; but you may now and then see a woman
glancing too eagerly round, and from her half concealed
jealously and hatred, and fear predominating overthe other
two, you may guess, what you will to told, that the watcher
is an only wife: other women, if they see her, will come
and tell her she is no Mormon to look so after her hus-
band, and laugh at her foolish expectation of keeping an
entire husband to herself. That girl now evidently knows
the wife is watching her, and coquets all the more eagerly
with the husband perhaps she may refuse him after all,
perhaps not wish to do so, perhaps find herself unable if
she wishes ; but they are not the only couple followed by
eyes struggling to see, and yet not to believe.
How horrible to our notions is all this ! What
must our clergy be about to permit some of the
youngest and most promising girls of their villages
to br decoyed into such a " whited sepulchre" as this
Salt Lake City?
We must close our extracts with a sketch of
Brigham Young :
He is a portly man of middle height, apparently about
fifty four ; his face bespeaks strong common sense, and
when in the prayer he was spoken of as the " prophet and
revelator," I tried—but in vain—to discover any sign of
contempt in his countenance. After the main discourse
he spoke for a few minutes; he complained that men
would come to his house without any sufficient object, and
that women would come and ask for Sister Young (which?),
and then try to see over the house, and the thing had be•
come a nuisance : he bad lost shirts; his wives had lost
articles of dress. There were capacious offices for the
transaction of business, to which strangers could come;
friends he should always be happy to see at his own house,
but he wished to give warning to all present that he had
just received from London a new pair of boots with par-
ticularly strong toes, and that he should not scruple to use
them on intruders. He then—l forget how—turned aside
to the subject of inspiration, and how, because the Ameri-
can pecple would not believe in visions and spirits, " God
had sent on them a strong delusion that they should be-
lieve a lie ;" and those who rejected Joseph were now
deluged with evil spirits ; with this he concluded.
The last remark I did not at the time understand, but
on inquiry found the allusion was to table•turning; which
Mormons refer to the agency of evil spirits, permitted,
and even sent forth, to deceive the " sectarian world."
The previous remarks of Brigham Young are a charac.
teristic specimen : he never flatters the people, nor apes
the supposed mien and language of a prophet. Neither
would succeed : the Mormons are not fond of " soft
sander," and would suspect affectation. He rather affects
coarse and common language, merely now and then adding
with conscious superiority, " I feel to speak of these
things is beneath my position and my office, but the people
are such dolts and fools lam obliged to do so." He is in
shrewdness and energy well fitted to be the head, though
by no means the most intellectual or most eloquent in the
" Church."
The Mormons appear to show symptoms of
breaking up their family party, the last accounts
from the Salt Lake representing matters as
being most unsettled. Brigham Young was at
Great Salt Lake City, organising a secret ex-
pedition to somewhere in the North, for some pur-
pose unknown to the Gentile world. This fact is
corroborated by a despatch from St. Louis. His
negotiations with the Chief Pah-litah for his co.
operation in the plans of the expedition, fully

SATURDAY,

explain the statement that he had been treating
with the Indians for safe conduct out of the country.
Women, it is said, are becoming scarce in the terri-
tory, and the Mormons resort to mere children to
replenish the harems. A new doctrine, too, had
been practically introduced into the Mormon creed,
and was expected soon to be promulgated—viz.,that
of furnishing proxies to supply the place of husbands
to wives of missionaries absent on foreign service,
so that " the duty of raising up a kingdom to the
Lord" may not fail of performance during their
absence. The correspondents of the American
papers relate that the Federal Court was terminated
with the bowie knife and the revolver, the Federal
judge having pistols placed at his head and dirks at
his throat while sitting on the bench; and of what
they call in Kentucky a " free fight " within the bar,
while these exciting amusements were going on,
upon the bench.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED-JUNE 25.
BOOKS.

Industrial and Social Position of Women in the Middle and
Lower Ranks. Chapman and Hall.
The 2hoice of a Profession. H. Byerley Thomson, B.A.
Ditto.
The Questions of the Day. By the Creature of an Hour.
I,ongruans.
Miching Mallecho and other Poems. Paul Richardson.
Mozley_
Life's Problems; Essays, Moral, Social, and Psychological.
Bell and I/slily.
La Question Napolitaine Decant L'Europe. Chapman.
A Summer Everting Reverie. Bulman.
Our College. Leaves from an Undergraduate's Scribbling.
Book. Earle.
General Board of Health. Papers relating to the History
and Practice of Vaccination. Spottiswoode.
Tom Burke of Ours. Charles Lever. Vol. T.
Chapman and Hall.
Practical Observations on Diseases of the Lungs and Heart.
Archibald Billing, M.D., F.R S. Highley.
The Solar System as it Is, and not as it is Represented. R.
J. Morrison. Stephenson.
North America ; its Agriculture and Climate. Robt. Russell
of Kilwhiss. Black.
Cuthbert St. Elme, 3f.P. ; or, Passages in the Life of a Poli-
tician. Three Vols. Hurst and Blacken.
Guy Livingstone; or, Thorough. J. W. Parker.
The Athelings ; or, the Three Gifts. Margaret Oliphant.
Three Vola. Blackwood and Sons.

PERIODICALS.

Putnam's 3forilhly. Sampson Low—The Monthly Bericto.
Hall and Virtue—Journal of the Statistical Society. J. W.
Parker.

pus tr.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

ALLUSION has been made in the columns of THE.
PRESS, from time to time, to a Spanish tenor, named
Belart. His first appearance in this country was on
Tuesday night as Elvino in Bellini's ever-melodious
Sonnambula. Never was a singer's debut heralded
with less preparation by the Haymarket director-
ship, and it was scarcely possible to have produced
the opera with less care and efficiency; and yet the
success of the newcomer was positive, even in the
absence of the ordinary claque. The critics of the
diurnal papers seem to have been taken by surprise.
His voice, states the Times, is not very powerful, but
is of pleasing quality, and his style is unexception-
able. He is a tenor of more than average excel-
lence, writes the Chronicle ; his voice is sonorous,
clear, and sympathetic ; his execution is marked by
artistic power, and as an actor he is graceful and
intelligent. The Herald praises him as the expo-
nent of tenderness and passion. He has, declares
the Post. a very agreeable light tenor voice, and
sings with feeling and judgment, joining the falsetto
to the chest voice with all the skill of a well trained
artist. He is an admirable artist, according to the
Daily News, and Elvin() has been seldom better
acted or more beautifully sung. The Advertiser
asserts that Belart has come upon the public without
preliminary puffing, and his success will, therefore,
be the more lasting. Our contemporaries have
underrated the new tenor. He is a much more
valuable acquisition than has been conceived, and it
is but right to add that his full powers were not at all
developed last Tuesday. He was in the agonies of
stage-fright more or less throughout the opera.
Nothing but his genuine ability and fine voice
carried him through. To describe him as a light
tenor, although he can execute roulades of the most
wonderful description, as we heard him do at Madrid
in Spanish airs, is not accurate. He has mure the
attributes of the tenure robust°. His fa'setto is very
remarkable, and it is so skilfully allied to his chest
voice that the connecting link almost escaped the ear.
He has immense power, but his style is in many
respects open to much improvement. He is,
in fact, by far too impulsive and emotional. Possess-