The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Popular Edition of " Les Miserables,"
One Vol., pp. 486, Hurst and Blackett.

A beautiful edition of an excellent translation
of a very wonderful book nothing less than
that can, in simplest truth, be said of this
new reprint, in a cheap and popular form, of "Les
Miserables." Any one who handles the volume
and reads it, will coincide with us in so speak-
ing of it. Those who have not read the
work have a treat before them. For, among
all the various writings of Victor Hugo,
we do not hesitate to pronounce " Les
Miserablea" his literary masterpiece. It is far more
than a mere companion work to his other great
fiction, " Notre Dame de Paris." It is hardly too
much to say of " Les Miserables" that it is the prose-
epic of the century. Upon the extraordinary fiction
already mentioned, that romance of " Notre Dame"
which, several years ago, acquired for the author
so distinguished a position among the great masters
of imaginative literature, there was a taint—the
taint of impurity. With " Les Mtterables" it is
otherwise. In it, there are no such scenes as those
which sully that earlier romance from the
hand of the great French Poet-Dramatist-
Novelist. In " Les Mlserables" there is no
Claude Frollo, there is no Captain Phcohua. So
far, indeed, from there being any impurity what-
ever in this later and greater work of Victor
Hugo's, the very moral of it, as we may say, is
definable by the one single word " purification."
Yet, here, in " Les Miserables," as in " Great
Expectations," the true hero of the tale that so
enthralls us, of this tale that if only read aright is so
calculated to better us in the perusal of it, is—a
felon, a convict, one who is in the eye of the
law a heinous and detestable malefactor ! And—
what Pip is to Magwitch, Cosette is to Jean
Valjean. Tempting though the continuation of
the comparison here hinted at is, however, we
will at once refrain from pursuing it, restricting
our comments upon this cheap popular reprint
of " Les Miserables" solely to " Les Miserables,"
our remarks, moreover, having simply reference
to this as the fourth edition of the authorised copy-
right English translation. The elevated character
of the work, it will be remembered by all those
who are happily already familiar with it, is very
nobly and very beautifully indicated in the opening
chapter, by a most charming delineation of the
character, the life, the household of the venerable
Charles Frau )is Bienvenu Myriel, the aged Bishop
of D—. Appearing only in the preamble, as
we may say, of the story, he is nevertheless the
good angel of the book throughout—he is at least
the good angel of the unhappy Jean Valjean, the
galley-slave. It is through the beneficent treat-
ment received at the hands of the good Bishop
Myriel that Jean Valjean in reclaimed for life,
and reclaimed, as we are led to believe, not only for
life but for the life eternal. How reclaimed—the
narrative relates through a series of enthralling in•
cidents, of hairbreadth 'ecapes and perillons adven-
tures. The vicissitades of the at first to all appear-
ance ruffianly, but the in reality saintly hero of the
work, fix the reader's interest breathlessly while
he is threading the intricate mazes of the plot, and
while he is following up the one delicate clue through
those mazes—that involved and sinuous thread of
the narrative leading him in the end t© the very
central core of the labyrinth. To the tearful yet
blissful moment, that is, when the happy young
lovers Cosette and Marius, as Baron and Baroness
de Pontmercy, kneel at the felt of their father
and benefactor while he is dying—kissing his
hands, those "august hands," at once the hands of
Jean Valjean, the galley slave, of M. Made-
leine, mayor of M. and manufacturer, and of
the white-haired Pere Fauchelevent. Besides
the three principal characters already men-
tioned, the athletic Jean Valjean, his beau-
tiful adopted daughter Cosette, and her husband
the handsome Marius, Baron Pontmercy—besides
these and the good Bishop Myriel—what a throng
of other vividly-delineated characters of all ranks
and classes there are in "Les Miserables !" Students
and grisettes, cut-throats and officers of justice, rich
and poor, old and young, male and female, and—
Ah ! the Little Children ! The exquisite little chil-
dren ! Victor Hugo's genius being always, at its
very best, at its tenderest and loveliest, whenever it
comes to treat of Children or of Childhood! Youth,
even, has an inexpressible magic in calling forth
the graces of his style, as, where he is speaking of
the lovely but fallen Fantino in her povertyand her
beauty, he depicts her in a single sentence, as with
a pencil of sunlight, thus—" She was a charming
blonde,with handsome te eCa; she had gold and pearls
for her dower, but the gold was on her head, and the
pearls were in her mouth." Here, however, is one
of those bewitching pictures by Victor Hugo—not
of Youth merely, however charming, but of what
his whole poetic soul seems always to yearn over
with such ineffable tendernese—tho angelic grace
of Childhood :

THE HIDEOUS CART, AND THE P LITTLE GI SWINGING.
Though nothing is more common than a cart at a post-
house door, the vehicle, or rather fragments of a vehicle,
which blocked up the street in front of the Sergeant of
Waterloo, one spring evening in 1813, would have certainly
attracted the attention of any painter who had passed that
way. It was the fore part of one of those wains used in
wood countries for draggiag planks and trunks of trees ; it
was composed of a massive iron axle-tree, in which a heavy
polo was imbedded and supported by two enormous wheels.
The whole thing was sturdy, crushing, and ugly, uud it
might have passed for the carriage of a monster gun. The
ruts had given the wheels, felloes, spokes, axle-trees, and
pole, a coating of mud, u hideous yellow plaster, much like
that with which cathedrals are so often adorned. The wood
work was hidden by mud and the iron by rust. Under the
axle-tree was festooned a heavy chain, suited for a convict
Goliath, This chain made you think, not of the wood it
was intended to secure, but of the mastodons and mam-
moth for which it would have served as harness ; it had the
air of a cyclopean and superhuman bagne and seemed re-
moved from some monster. Homer would have bound
Polyphemus with it, and Shakespeare, Caliban.
Why was this thing at this place in the street? First, to
block it up ; secondly, to finish the rusting process. There
is in the old social order, a multitude of institutions which
aiay be found in the same way in the open air, and which
have no other reasons for being there. The centre of the
chain hung rather close to the ground, and on the curve, as
on the rope of a swing, two little girls were seated on this
evening, in an exquisite embrace, one about two years and
a half, the other eighteen months; the younger being in the
arms of the elder. An artfully-tied handkerchief prevented
them from falling, for a mother had seen this frightful
chain, and said, " What a famous plaything for my chil-
dren I" The two children, who were prettily dressed, and
with some taste, were radiant; they looked like two roses
among old iron; their eyes were a triumph, their healthy
cheeks laughed ; one had auburn hair, the other was a
brunette; their innocent faces had a look of surprise; a
flowering shrub a little distance off sent to passers-by a
perfume which seemed to come from them ; and the younger
displayed her nudity with the chaste indecency of childhood.
Above and around their two delicate heads, moulded in
happiness and bathed in light, the gigantic wain, black
with rust, almost terrible, and bristling with curves and
savage angles, formed the porch of a cavern, as it were. A
few yards off, and seated in the inn door, the mother, a
woman of no very pleasing appearence, but touching at this
moment, was swinging the children by the help of a long
cord,. and dev ailing them with her eyes, for fear of an
accident, with that animal and heavenly expression peculiar
to maternity. At each oscillation the hideous links pro
du.ced a sharp sound, resembling a cry of anger. The little
girls were delighted ; the setting sun mingled with the joy,
and nothing could be so charming as the caprice of accident
which had made of a Titanic chain a cherub's swing.

A suggestion of a picture, that we would fain urge
upon the attention of Mr. Millais as the very sub-
ject for his diploma painting as the youngest of our
Royal Academicians !
A very world of interest and beauty and horror
has been created by tho genius of victor Hugo i❑
fills one book of "Lea MiSerablCS." As a fitting
frontispiece to this charming popular edition of the
work, Mr, Millais has contributed his lovely

sketch of Cosette. In contrast to whom, ono thinks,
upon the instant, of that most villainous of human
reptiles, the detestable innkeeper Thenardier,
workman Sondrette, the actor Fabantou, the poet
Genflot, the Spanish Don Alvares, the "unprotected"
Madame Balizard—one who is in reality, how-
ever, all the while, the keeper of the pot-
house at Montfermiel. Never yet, we believe,
was theta a better delineation of a genuine gamin
de Paris than Victor Hugo's sketch in " Les
MiEerables" of the little Gavroche I Surely the very
model gamin of all, the gamin of gamins! As to the
police inspector, Javert—tliat archetype, as he is evi-
dently intended to be (and is to a certain extent), of
the French Detective—we regard that as altogether
the greatest mistake in the whole book. Never,
we may be certain of this, would Mr. Bucket (for
whom ride "Bleak Hou9e'')--never, we may be
quite certain of this, would Mr. Bucket have ter-
minated his existence as M, Javert actually
terminates his, by going and drowning himself
in the river because of a sentiment, compounded
half of chagrin, half of a wounded sense of honour
in his calling! The fact of the matter simply being
in Javert's instance that ho has been outwitted by
Jean Valjean, and afterwards magnanimously
liberated un-scathed when his life is completely at
Jean Valjean's mercy. Overwhelmed by which
double stroke of fortune, Javert incautiously goes
and commits suicide—or asthe Bird of Prey in "Our
Mutual Friend," would croak, makes a hole in the
Seine, being himself already, of course, insane. The
incident is a violation of all probabilty. It is
simply an extravagance. But the work of art, the
production of genius, of which this is one of the
conspicuous flaws, will survive a blemish or two
such as that, by reason of its abounding merits as a
work of art, as a production of genius. And, that
it is a signal example of both the one and the other,
who shall deny that has once read " Les Alia:-
rabies ?"

The War in Denmark.
(From the Times kFpecial Correspondent lately at the Danish
Head-quarters.)

COPENHAGEN, May 7.

It has often occurred to me to allude, though very
briefly, to the peculiar hardships that are apt to beset
a Special Correspondent in the camp. Short commons,
no quarters, scanty allowance of linen and water,
worry, noise, weariness. In spite of a decent hotel
and ample leisure, the life of your correspondent in
town has also its own difficulties to contend with—
of a different nature, certainly, but hardly less gall-
ing and harassing. Out at headquarters you have
only comrades and friends, here in the city you find
readers and critics. You do not, of course, when you
write, expect to please everybody. The German
papers call me " ein fanatischer Dinenfreund," and
in that capacity they think I have pushed my sym-
pathies with Denmark to such extremities as to
deserve at their hands the elegant appellations of
" Liigner and Verleueader.'' It seems hard, after
all that, to be told by your Danish friends that you
are " seriously damaging their cause ;" but the
Danes are not the first people for whom I write, nor
yet the dearest to my heart ; nor have I now to
learn for the first time that what Philip drunk will
proclaim in a high voice about himself to-day will
give Philip sober mortal offence if repeated, even in
the most guarded language, by a stranger to-mor-
row.

The Danes area self-controlled, highly-disciplined
people. Political passions seldom run very high
among them, popular commotions are rare, and not
dangerous; rancours, suspicions, calumnies can no
more thrive among them than noxious reptiles in
certain hallowed islands of the blessed. Still, there
are parties even in Denmark ; there is a Govern-
ment and an Opposition, an army and a people. a
War-office in the capital, a general commanding in
the field. Steer clear, if you can, of their petty
wranglings and bickerings ; choose your path be-
tween diverging views and conflicting interests ;
listen to right and left, and see if you can avoid
making yourself obnoxious to both.

The abandonment of the Dannewerke and the
non-evacuation of Dybbol have given rise to a
certain amount of mutual reproach and recrimi-
nation. Both measures were, in all probability,
matters of sheer necessity ; both were, perhaps,
defensible on military, as well as on political
grounds. Time being given fur reffiction, parties
have come to an understanding, end have shaken
hands thereupon. But on the first outbreak of
the intelligence great unpopularity naturally
attached to those measures, and their authors
shifted its weight from each other's shoulders, and
acted somewhat on the sauce qui pent principle,
It was " the commander's fault," " the War Mini-
ster's," " the Premier's ;" the charge was even laid
on 4' high shoulders." Your correspondent said
nothing on his own responsibility; he merely re-
ported everybody's talk; and when notes were com-
pared and anger had cooled, and it was found that
" no one was to blame," it was contended that " the
wicked correspondent was at the bottom of all mis-
chief; that it was all pure invention or evil con-
struction on his part." Be it so. For my own
part, I have always tried to do justice to the good
intentions of all persons connected with the manage-
ment of public affairs in Denmark ; and were it
even manifest that " some one had blundered," it
is certainly not I who shall lay claim to infallibility.
Fault is found with me for attaching too great an
importance to the disaster at Dybbol, and for my
proneness to look upon the cause of Denmark as a
somewhat hopeless one. I have said that the Danes
lost at Dybbol " nearly one-half of their small army."
I must so far rectify that expression as to explain
that by it I meant half the army in occupation of the
Dybbol and Alsen position. The Danish army soon
after the outbreak the war was said to have been
raised to about 50,000 men. There were not,
however, more than 25,000 to 30,000 actually
in the field at the Dannewerke, and I doubt
whether a much larger force than that was at
any time brought into actual service. Imme-
diately on the retreat from Schleswig it was found
that even this force would be too cumbrous
for the little island to which it came for refuge,
and, besides the cavalry division which marched
by land towards Jutland, under Hegermann -
denkrone, other large detachments were shipped
off from Sonderborg to Fredericia and Veile, and
the garrison permanently settled on either side of
the Alssund was not intended to exceed 18,000
combatants. Frequent shifting of troops took
place from A?sen to Jutland and vice versa during
the siege, but it is my firm conviction that towards
the end the army in Alsen and Dybbol, owing
to losses by death, wounds, capture, and sickness,
was reduced to something like 12,000. If, as it is
now generally admitted, the fall of Dybbol involved
a loss of about 5,500 combatants, my original state-
ment that nearly one-half of the army—of that
army—was sacrificed to a point of honour cannot be
so far from the truth, I never uttered any opinion
as to the expediency cr necessity of that lamentable
sacrifice. I limited myself to plain facts, leaving it
to time and the world to weigh the circumstances in
which Denmark was placed, and to do justice to her
heroic and generous, however, perhaps, cruel and
improvident, resolution.
From what I have said of the original numbers of
the Danisharmy I may easily infer its actualstreegth
at this moment. I have no access to official informa-
' tion, and had I obtained it, I might not feel at
liberty to put it in print, affording the enemies of
Denmark facts which might be turned to her injury.
As mere matter of guesswork, I may say I believe
the army now concentrated in Funen, with head-
quarters at Assene; may be computed at 18,000 to
20,000 men. Adding the 3,500 to 4,000 who still
make up liegermann Lindenkrone'd division, I
should say that 24,000 combatants constitute the
whose disposable force of Denmark at the present
moment. I must add my conviction also that this
small Stale has already strained its powers to their
utmost to muster even such an army as has so gal-
lantly kept its ground hitherto, and that she is at
the end of her recruiting resources.
Now, with 24,000 men arrayed against a host of
80,000 to 100,000 Austro-Prussians, a host with an
unlimited command of reinforcements, was 1 so
very wrong if I considered the cause of Denmark
in itself as nearly desperate ? With all her lionlike
courage and endurance, Denmark would scarcely
have engaged single-handed in a struggle against
the corabiaed forces of two such eolcssal States as

Prussia and Austria. She thought she would no
I be alone in the field ; that she might rely on the
chapter of aCeiei.F•hts. That on one hand only being
stretched out to her rescue her generous spirit would
immediately revive, and that her efforts would be
equal to her ancient renown, 1 by no means doubt;
but, left to herself, she perishes.
Her army, small as it was—too small to confront
even such enemies as Saxony, Hanover, and other
minor States in the field—was thought to have some
chance behind strong positions. "Danes' works"
might be held where Danes' arms would have been
worsted. An attempt was made at a biave stand
at the Danne werke. A glorious defence was made
for the best part of three months at the bastions
of Dybt,iil. Bat when Dylatol fell the faith of the
Danes in earth mounds and trenches was shaker.).
It was then, I said, without any claim to pro-
phetic gifts, that Alsen could be taken by the
Prussians in three hours, and Fredeticia in three
days. The Danes were indignant at my words,
but Fredericia was, if not taken, forsaken la, fore
those words appeared in print in England ; and if
Alsen is still uninvaded, where is there a man in
his senses who doubts, or who does not avow, that
her fate is put off from political, not from military,
considerations ?
If, then, Denmark, with all her courage and
obstinacy could not stand her ground beyond three
months even behind strong intrenchmente, how
can she hope to prolong the struggle on that open
field which she was unable to maintain at the be.
ginning ? The wastes of Jutland are extensive, and
General Hegermann may contrive long to dodge
anti finally to give the slip to Gablenz and
Wrangel, His division, with the main Danish army,
may muster in Funen, and the sea may for some
time afford Denmark in an island that security
which her military engineers could not construct for
her on the main land. But the Little Belt at Midi
dlefart is only half a mile in width. The Pruasian
cannon from the Jutland coast can sweep the Funen
shore for two or three miles inland ; and the naval
superiority of Denmark depends on the will and
the power the Austrian ironclads may have to cross
from the North into the East Sea, from the German
Ocean into the Baltic.
Taking all these circumstances into consideration,
I do really feel that Denmark, unless powerfully
supported from abroad, is brought to the brink of
ruin. Let only a score or two of good rifled cannon
be landed by a friendly vessel in Funen ; let only a
positive veto be laid upon the further movements o
Austrian frigates by a mighty ally, and the struggle
may yet be prolonged ; rien qu'une main tendered
by ono of the Western Powers, and I will answer
that Denmark will do as much as may be expected
of mere human endeavour; but isolation brings with
it not only physical weakness and exhaustion—it
engenders that desponaency, that consternation,
moral death, which prostrates the eoul before the
body is borne to the ground.
The actual physical strength of Denmark as a
mere third-rate Power—for to that rank had the
blows dealt by England and the Treaty of 1814
reduced her—is something prodigious, and speaks
volumes in favour of the wise, thri.ty management
with which especially the finances of the country
have been conducted. Both as a State and as a
people Denmark was in the enjoyment of a general
wellbeing rarely attained by any earthly commu-
nity. Her husbandry, her popular education, her
charitable institutions were in the most flourishing
condition, I hardly know whether it may be ascribed
to the wisdom and liberality of the governors or to
the instinctive docility and good temper of the go-
verned, but the fact is that Europe had nowhere a
better organised, more leniently handled set of
people. It is not in the nature of the Dane to eAer-
eise tyranny, and even the malcontents in Schleswig
and Holstein never preferred any serious complaint
against their rulers for extortions, for rnaladminstra-
tion of justice, for vexatious police restraints, or for
political persecution. These Northern people are a
mere flock—the happiest mixture of strength end
gentleness, of the lion and lamb I ever fell in with.
An English clergyman of my acquaintance found
fault with their lukewarmness in Divine matters.
Lutheranism, as I said on a former occasion, " bits
easy on this people ;" but the same reverend gentle..
man confessed in the sama breath that the Danes
even in this city are " the truest and most honest
people in the world." It is the purpose of all re-
ligion, as of all law, to " bind ;" and why should
the bonds on a man be tighter than his nature re-
quires ? It is lucky, indeed, for a part of Denmark
that the peace and good government she enjoyed
during the last fourteen years have spread so general
a wellbeing over the country. The poor Jutlanders
are now being plundered by the Prussians and
Austrians without mercy, Marshal Wrangel im-
posed, on the 28th, a contribution of 650,000 Prus-
sian thalers over that province, to be paid within
48 hours. Jutland had already been drained of her
resources by more than two months' requisitions in
kind. It is, however flouriahinge, merely an agri-
cultural country. The farmers invest their earnings
in stock and implements, and have seldom much
cash at hand. The Prussian, however, would hear
neither of remonstrance nor delay in the payment
of this tax. Towns which were not ready with their
contingent were threatened with sack, and the
siisies of some of them were indeed plundered by
the so.ldiery. From other places the most con-
spicuous citizens were taken into captivity as
hostages. Private letters from Horsens, Veile,
Vigor, Mariattter, Hobro, &c., describe scenes in
which the Prussian and Austrian officers actually
play the part of Cisiavone and Ninco-Nanco. Jut-
land is delivered over to military execution. Mar-
shal Wrangel informs us that these a obberies are
committed by way of compensation for the seizure
of German vessels by the Danish cruisers. He adds
that the estimate of these damages is only approxia
mate, and that either the sum will have so be attar
naented, or the contributors reimbursed, a ccording
as that estimate may happen to be below or above
the mark. The Marshal does not consider, how.
ever, that the seizure of vessels inflicts a de-
finite loss which it is izt the power of the Ger-
man Government to indcnnity ; while the coo"
tribution falls on the Jutondtrs upon an arbi-
trary system of distribution., and its ex:net...opt
in the event of non-solvency, is entrusted no Liu
irresponsible soldiery, who take what they like.
Moreover, their depredations la)l upon pri-vate
people withdrawn from the protectic n of the Dahiska
Government, which has no power to make good
their losses out of the public purse. By these out-
rages, at all events, the fruesians, w,,,0 in this AvEL
are certainly the aggressors, give the most empbati°
lie to the civilisation which constituted their boast'
and force our age two centuries back iiito bar-
barism.
His Majesty the King has determined to S 6 t:aside
the amount of 4,000 rigsdalers annually from his
Civil List for the next 10 years towards the Bur
support ot the relatives of fallen Danish soldiers'