New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-05-19

pretty vigorously applied In numerous cases A prou
snt, he commits an indictabls 0feuso ovcYy eme 4,
writes il. He saves it, and saves himself from
prosecution, not more by his high position a. On
advocate Of the power that is than by his sdmirs-
BILE, bold impudence in parading it. enlarge
little upon the circumstance, because it is 10 char.
acteristic Of the man; bold in assumption bold in
assertion. To do him justice, he is something bet.
ter than swash-buckler; though bully, and ssps-
BILE, as he has too often shown HIMSELF Of STRIKING
man below the belt when he is down, when he
il on his knees--of calling the police and tbs
Interests Of humanity" to his aid in any ever 90
brutal cOBtest-he is not coward. He has been.
on the whole, q vigorous and unscrupu!ous but
toleraby consistent partisan OF what's called strong
Government under the various French regimes VI
the past twenty years. lie has written In liberal
papers with great violence Of tone, but that was an
accident Of party opposition. Through oil his at
tacks upon Racine aud laudations of Victor Hugo.
his licking Of Moles boots, and Guizot's boots, and
Louis Napoeons boots there runs q consistent eur.
rent respect for force, strength; consistent vio-
leDce, coupled with real Igor and holiness of eI-
preston. So much for the newspaper editor.
The present, Ike his previous works, and like
too many other works that bear the respectable
name Of history, partakes somewhat Of the nature
Of political pamphlet. The nexhaustible interest
That attaches TO his theme, and his nervous style,
uIihc IL very INT EtCbsf uIoWn IlOM
official documents and here first brought 10 light,
make it very well worth reading. "irhe tits d
this book, he says in his preface, :" will probably
give rise in the readers mind TO this question:
" How comes il that the name of the GirondiDs is
associated with the names Of the assassns OF Sep
" tember and that the history Of great party Is
Z" mingled with the history of great crime The
Z" reader Of the book will answer this question and
resolve this problem" The answer that be
presses upon the readers assent Is that the Giron-
dns who, az individuals would have rec0Ded with
horror from the idea Of hiring gang Of assassins to
do the butcheries of September, 1892, did effect
yely as political party, impeied by the ambition
of founding their own dominion on the bloody ruins
Of the monarchy, make themselves accompicss Of
the assassins 1t is sad to admit would be sadly
worse to deny-that, making large allowance for
NJ de Cassaenac's prejudices and holding firm tony
own convictions Gin the matter OF revolutions),
after reading of his book, his answer seems sadly
near the truth. His explicit inference that the
Girondns in this their great nexcusabe crime, are
the type of all reyolutionists his implicit inference
that the revolution from beginning 10 end, l. o. from
1859 to to-day, was IN accidental bunge, an error
that poor Louis XVI might have prevented with q
triae more of energy-these are the common eI-
travaganzas of q clever partisan pamphleteer.
AS has been limited above, NJ. Granier's book *
mainly noteworthy for its new revelation OF old
facts We are to thank the author, not as teacher,
but IA a reporter He has rummaged the archives
of the Hotel de Vile and Of the Prefecture OF Police
discovering documents which are often importantand
ALWAYS curious bearing upOn'tbe massacres OF Sep
tember. He is careful to indicate where the
originals nav to-day be consulted. The historian
ia much more scrupulous than the newspaper writer.
10 nroyes t least TO as unerudite reader ss your
correspondent that the butchery Of the inmates Of
the Partisan prisons, continued day after Gay Tor
nearly week, was not the result Oh an accidental
e6eryescence Of popular fear or rage, but Oh pre-
determined plan; that the members OF Government
who were NOT actively promoting the bloody WORK
purposely abstained from impeding It's execution;
Thar the working butchers regularly paid regu
lar dav WAGES for their work. The names of every
one of the assassins. Of the acting butchers, well
as of the members on the tribunals improvEed In
the PRISONS and of every one OF the vlctims nave
been discovered, and are here set down In pnnt ny
their diligent investigator among the more striking
novelties of the book is that part OF IT relating TO
the Last BANQUET Of the Giroadins at the Con-
cergerie on the eve of their execoilon-a banquet
first mentioned by Theirs, elOquenty enlarged upon
by Charles Nodier, magnifeently poetized by Lamar
fine. prandly painted by DelarOche. Ii never took
place. The proof is positive, irretutable. fou
NAV remember another of Lamartines fictions one
{ the finest in his Historic des GTondips where
he reader is treated to those fine sentiments (mln-
cribed by the Girondns about to die on the garnet
walls of the Convent des Carmes, in the Rue Van
tirard, served up with additional appropriate sen-
ments and cOniectural commentary by the imagina-
five Lamartine Here again, Cassagnac's documents
irreiutably prove that the Grondins were never
imprisoned in the Carmelite Convent OF the Rae
Vanguard. -
New anecdotcal matter and pOrtraitures of the
Girondins and their Otemporarles-more remarks
~, l.. IoI1 % and coin
than strict initiative fidelity-add to the attractive
ness of VI. Graners book.
To q much higher order of historical composition
belongs the Historic de Ia Libere POlique en- frane
by NJ Jules de Lasteyrie. His purpose in writing
il was he says " 10 collect and classify the facts Of
- liberty, in which the history of France is not 90
poor is supposed 10 correct the errors OF those
:" who, fancying that liberty is modern invention,
refuse to believe in IT, and of those who, thinking
they have discovered it, assume the right to make
Z" bad use of it," He declares that in repudisnng
" all solidarity with the aneisn regime, modern Eb-
90 erty has denied its ancestOrs;" that those who
defend the rights of the people leave unfortunately
tradition to those who uphold the primitive, COO
A." tinuous and necessary servitnde of humanity"
Even from the above brief extracts you will be
like to guess the drift of NJ Lasteyrie's argument
which may be not unfairly summed up thus: The
- facts of liberty having existed from of old IN
France, il is old France and not the Revolution
which is TO be thanked for the so-called principles
of 80, principles whose practical development was
retarded by the revolutions; revolutions are bunges
they "exclte hatred between the past and present
4" aud perpetuate a divorce fatal to liberty" II tho
old regime had been let alone, it would have done
well by peaceful reform, what was attempted 70 Do
done i'll by violent revolution.
NJ. Lasteyries argument seems to rest on o com
mon enough error, 10 wit: that revolutions arc
made solely by reyontionsts-as though they always