The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-08-18

| terlOE anytnlng Oh the ksuu I'D fariot anu
scarcely suffer by comparison with any public
building in London. In religious edifces. we
can sustain no comparison. The architectu-
raj genius of Europe seems to have derived its
highest inspiration from religion. In England
and all over the continent the art of man has
exhausted itself in rearing and adjoining tenn
pies to the Most High. The most beautiful
church have ever seen, is the Madeleine, at
Paris the grandest 81. PaurS, in London.
What shall be said of the great collections OF
paintings and statusry in the palaces of Paris
and its environsi Nothing by me, except that
was content simply to wander among them
for hours. and wonder. Paris has more taste
in statuary than London. How spiritess the
sculpture Of the latter, compared with that OF
the former In this, everything is light grace
ful, spirited, and expressive; that is heavy and
lifeleSs The remark is, of course general
one. The bronze equestrian statues here strike
me as clumsy and inexpensive. The intense
power and almost visible action of Clark Mlllss
equestrian statue of General Jackson would
he admired even in the gardens of the Tulie-
ries. which are adorned with numerous pieces
of sculpture Although finely executed, in one
respect, these do little credit to the judgment
Of Paris Every age or epoch has, or ought to
have, its leading characteristic ideas; and We
naturally look for these not only in its insti-
buttons and usages but in its literature and
art What has the mythology Of Greece and
Rome to do with us Its heroes and gods and
fables were chiselled out in stone ages ago.
Let them alone What has an artist in this
dispensation to do with Jupiter and his amours!
| The French have taken care to crowd their
galleries with pictures Illustrative of the prin-
cipal actors and events in their own history, |
but much of their sculpture is not only ante
France, but ante Christ The statuary of their |
gardens is made to represent the myths and
heroes of ancient Paganism, and at the best
must be a mere imitation. Art should cOnse-
crate itself to the characteristic ideas the great
events and heroes, of its own epoch.
The public grounds OF gardens of Paris are
famous Kings and mobiles in former times re-
served them for their own benefit, but revolu-
ton has made them in effect the property of
the people. The gardens of the Luxembourg
and the Tuileries, and the Champs Elysees
are in the heart of the city; the Bots de Bou-
logne, large forest of small trees is two or
three miles away Versailles, fourteen miles
Fontainebleau, nearly forty. London has the
advantage of Paris in this respect-its great
parks are within its limits. Besides, they are
far more extensive and luxuriant, and less tor
tured by art than the gardens Of Paris. The
Partisan seems to regard natural scenery as c
n bad taste He trains his trees, and lays out s
lis walks, as the barber trims the whisker
md the moustache and the nameless patches .,
If hair on the face Of an exquisite. He ar
anges his trees in parallel rows, mathemati-
ally exact trims the foliage of each in pre-
,isely the same way trains them to unite their
ops in gothic STYLE and 30 constructs the
whole, that, from whatever point you take an G
observation, you look down through long aisles t
With gothic arches, as like each other as CON-
,any of soldiers in uniform, or procession of .
charity children. Nothing, absolutely nothing
8 left to Nature. She is shaved, and trimmed {
most extraordinary style. In London, the
hair.dresser is confined to his legitimate call
ing, and the trees in its noble parks are left to
grow pretty much as God intended they should I
maid.
The Parisians are small, lghtly-built
graceful, amiabe-looking people. We can
hardly help thinking that the men of blood ,
and barricades have disappeared. The French
generally are small in size and weight, much
below the English and American. They are
active and enduring, but in hand to-hand
encounter would be no match, certainly, for
the Anglo-Saxon race
In riding through France, and observing the
wretchedness Of its villages and the ignorance
and degradation of its peasantry, ceased to
wonder that nation of thirty-sx millions of
people should always follow the movements of
city of one million. The taste, intelligence,
and glory Of France are concentrated in Paris.
lts history is written there; its monuments
the symbols of its power, the trophies of its
victories, the great works Of art, Of which it
has plundered other nations, are all there; and
there is the entire machinery of Government.
So the history of Paris is the history of France.
While this state of things shall continue, there
may be revolution after revolution, but no free
government. Earnest men, laborng for the
oIoya t;oy, Of thar onuntrv NOV avail than,
selves of temporary disgusts, the appetite for
excitement and popular discomfort among the
working classes, to overthrow the existing Des-
potism but, this accomplished, where are their
materials for selfgoyernment the goddess,
frivolous pleasure seeking million of Paris,
who the next moment are ready to surrender
all power into the hands of any man who has
| boldncss and tact enough to seize it, Were
the thirty.six million people of France intelli-
| gent accustomed to act in concert under mu-
uicipal institutions as independent of Paris
AZ the people of our country are independent
Of metropolitan influences, selfgovernment
were possblity-ior then the course of revo-
luton could not be arrested by the frvolity
and caprice of corrupt fuctuating capital
France must be redeemed from Paris before she
can be redeemed from Despotism q. b,
| MORTUARY.
| feHOW Feuer at New Orleans the 9th
instant, Ga deaths from yellow fever on the
| 10th, 1874. The total number of deaths from
Saturday to Wednesday days-7o6. On
the It'll, the report is that the fever is pro-
/ crossing more leariully than ever many per-