New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-04-01
PARTISAN TOPICS.
LETTER FROM HENRY JAMES, JR.


rrnovy,s "CHARIOT RACE "-PREsiDhNf LIN
COIN AND sIoSEwALL JACKSON pRAMAiiAhD-
,,croR I1ssoT on THE PRUsslANs.
VIZ. -, an CORRESPONDENT OF HE TRIBURe.l
p@,s Narch 1O-Except the assembling OF the
- "a the Chamber / can think OF no event Oh
of rocent occurrence here save the recep-
. my - M John Iemoinne at the Academy whlch
W. Slooo week since. NJ. John Lemoinne Is the
inaDt ionrnalist-the bright particular star Va '''
nD,,s--and journalism has received Ill HIS p,i'pn
:, tho hands of the Academy compliment Vi VIM" -
az che narticularly desires to- she may ne Irouu, "
eos proud day at least for the journal aoS Deo".|
Jobn Iemoinne replaces Jules Janln, VINO speu' 'o
:, tho basement as they call ii, OF that nom
- .boo+- turned off every Monday during tha'
,er;od the dramatic feuilleton which gl''e' '"o
.o,o of ito otherwise somewhat austere HIS, V"o
nacas He pronounced The customary onosS " ~
Sonorted ooatlye and NJ Caviher-f Ieury Iepiioo 70
Mn at very great length with euiogy Vi nin'Son'
NJ CovIer-F leury being the prnopal literary
=" g Tho Journal des D6bats. 1t was therefore,
for this journal, quite Jtto dc Jd"''"t' M: 'on"
Inu,onne is q very clever man; he possesses IN per-
49, tho French "art of saying" and If the Acad-
snv was designed simply to represent good WRITING
Ios on eminent claim 10 place in IT, Ut is SIM
- h, Tho way that NJ. John Lemoinne should,
,,r;ter he of so pure French strain. lie was
-, IN England and in measure, educated there,
ii no sneaks onr language irreproachablyj III,
bo,yever 10 reward good thinking and good teehng
Il mart of the Academy's mission, Nj. Lemolnnes
,icbt Of entrance does not seem so unquesuohaoie.
piui,nt ipcisive, and trenchant as he always Is L
bove never been able to resist tie feeling that there
J. ,o,oth;po very dry and sterile in his political
criticism. To say acrimonious and contemptuous
things in mastery manner appears to be the sum
of his ambition. He Is essentially what the
French cali o f0ndeW "a faulthnder. MS
criticism is always restrictive and denuncl-
story never suggestive or inspiring, ana he
lacks supremely Matthew Arnolds famous
rsoniste of sweetness This Is the greater pity
as he has evidently plenty of light" He seems to
proceed by fits of irritation. He appears in the
Dfbats not daily but at intervals; suddenly darts
forth, whirlng his sling and letting fly his sharp
aints. When he has quite darlened the air with
them he retires to his tent-feelng better himself,
Tor the time hope-to await fresh transportation
of his wrath 1t is all nervous capricious, splcnetc
NJ John Lemoinne's chief stock in trade is his pecu-
liarly insidions hatred of England; and, indeed,
during the past Winter exciting as the political sit
uaton has been il is only the perfdy of Albion that
has been able to rouse him to utterance. AT the
time of the purchase of the Khedive's shares he
came out as the phrase is, very strong, and pro-
dnced two or three articles in which the expression
of whitening enmity could not have been surpassed.
England, for NJ. Lemoinne, is a shabby country at
the best but her objectionable Sin was her failure
10 come TO the rescue of France when the latter
was bleeding to death IN the gripo of Prussia
her standing watching us stretched on the
earth like gadiatOrs" And yet even this is not su-
fcient to account for such perennial
tiHty. The reader cannot rid himself of feeling
= aV,r,, rNavZn RQI
Jury; where does the shoe pinch, he wonders whom
has he in his mind-d qai en- rcHi These conjectures
are probably fantastic, and they certainly vain.
NJ. LTMoINNE AND THE ACADEMY.
The fact remains, however, that NJ. Lemoinne's En-
gland is very much all affair of his imagination; it
is as The London lines said the other day, article
Dc Paris may add that the sturdiest Anglo-SaxOn
must have had last week kindly feeling for the
new Academician in seeing him undertake the heroic
task Of eulOgizng Il was gong TO say apOlogizng
for Jules Janin. NJ. John LemOinne did his best
but unless am very much mistaken one hears the
creaking of the pump. There have been many
sran Academcians but think there has been none
quite so strange as the dramatic critic of the D6bats
There have been Academicans whose literary titles
were of the slenderest. and who were adj
mitted for reasons of statc-thinly disguised
motives of convenience and propriety; there have
been - heaven knows, - dull. dreaTy, insipid
Academcians authors of classical respectable, UNI
readable prose and verse. There have also been
fimsy and futile Academicians, whose literature
was of vapOrous and mponderable sort. But there
was none before NJ. Jules Janin who had erected
futty into a system and raised fillnsness to fine
art.
There are writers in whom mannerism has gone
very far, but there are none in whom il has be-
come the all-in-all to the degree as in Janin
His maunersm in his later years attained the pro-
portions Of a mOnstrosity. Such shutting away of
substance, such juggling with thought. parto0k
really Of the nature Of the magical. He was the
great master Of the type of criticism that speaks OF
everything but tho subject and that spins tsphrases
faster in proportion as it has less and less to say
Janin ended very early by having nothing in life to
say and the rattle and CHATTER he made in saying il
was to all healthy intellectual men the most intol-
cradle noise conceivable. If the Academy has any
meaning one wOud say that its meaning should be-
exactly that its honors are not for writer's
Of the Janin family. But has the Academy any
meaningi Two or three incidents have lately
occurred which make the inquiry proper. The most
striking was certainly the admission among the
sacred party. last Spring, of Alexandra Dumas fills.
NJ. Dumas is supremacy clever, and he has composed
dramas which it is impossible on certain sides, too
hshy 10 adlre but ltseens TO Inc that he has about
as much business in the Academy as in the Cabinet
Of the Emperor Of China. He is a man with fixed
idea-a monomanac. He can SO nothing in life but
the unfortunate" woman; she is the pivot of his
imagnation-all his inspiration, his illusions and
metaphors are drawn from her. If the Academy
were an intellectual asylum, with wards, cells, and
keepers, N. Dumas might very well appeal to its
hospitality but lis there is something grotesque
In his presence there The prime duty Of the Acad
envy ought to be to distinguish between the cracked
vessel and the sOund and it seems TO me that if she
bad observed this duty she would have said TO