New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-05-31
SOCIETY IN LONDON.

w
M. PAUL YASILL
,vnou THE nEcUtAR CORRESPONDENT OF TIE TRiBuNE'J
ti0 LONDON, May 10.
Another of the various writer's who figure uhacr
the;pseudonym Of Cont Paul VaSill has mace Ms
onncorance with first instalmcnt OF La oociete
dc Londres.r in the Noprelle Revue of Madame
Edmond Adam. He seems little likely to rivai the
o,tbor of ola Soci6t6 de Berlin" except in bitter
nose Wbetber he will be equally successful IN
hiding hs identity remains to be seen. A frlena
tells me he has seen the letter of instructions from
Mme Adam to her present cortrioutor WHOM ",
describes as a man of letters, short, Stout al"
dark. whose name he found it convenient LOT the
moment to forget Whoever the author may pc he
will be we'll advised to keep his mask on. Ihere
are passages of calumnous brutality III the present
number which might bring the author of them into
trouble That he is Frenchuan may be taken LOT
granted No Englishman American would writo
about women as this man docs 1t has been SAID
that the letters when complete would be Translated
into English and published in London They VIII
make work for the lawyers if they are. Meantime
Society in London" has been translated into
French and published in Paris by Dentu. under the
title Il Societ6 de Londrcs" Nine. Adam thinks
this an invasion of her rights. and means TO con-
| test in court the question Of priority OF title.
II the enterprising American publisher thinks OF
bringing odt an edition OF this astonishing Chronicle
| I will tell him how he can add much to It's
pio nancy Let him have it annotated by COIN
petent hand The correction of N. Fasilis mistakes
will much enlarge the size of the volume and much
enhance such yalue as il has. After all the mis-
takes have been set right. and all the vulgsrties
pruued away. and all The hdeous innucndoes sup
pressed, the enterprsing American publisher VIII
be still better advised il he pitches the whole thing
into the fire.
II there be any living Englishwoman in whom
Americans are interested. it is. | suppose, Her
MAJESTY, the Queen. There is none about whom II
is easier to ascertain the facts out of which an &C
curate if not complete, account might be maze up
NJ yasii devotes some eleven pages TO tins inter
estinr.pcrsonago They swarm with errors; many
of them errors such the most superficial knowl-
edge of his subiect would have enabled him to
avoid. He has not an approach 10 conception of
the actual political position of the Sovereign. He
has picked up q number of plausible absurdities
from French papers, and reproduced them with
that air Of authoritative Ignorance in which a
Frenchman has rival Scores of sentences
might be quoted which no man who understands
ANYTHING whatever about the conditions OF English
sovereignty and English public life could possibly
have written. Out OF the scores Of errors choose
few neither more nor less gross than the rest
The Queen he tells us, has seen her authority and
her prestige disappear little by little Both are in
Tie Constitution in n. Paul Vasilis opinion, re-
CARDS the Queen as nfaibe. inviolsble, aud above
the law He has been taken in. "A a Frenchman
often is by the maxim that the Queen can do no
wr,ng; the true meaning of which tue most elc-
mentary law book would have expounded to him.
Inviolsble is a word which has meaning IN French
law, none in English. As for being above the law,
she sits OH the Throne by Act of Parliament and
could be unseated by Act of Parliament He alleges
has
the House Of Commons. In the press, IN the Cabinet
| itself. Ho had better try to name them. The Re-
| publican party does not exist in England. He de-
scribes the Queen az TIE pupil of Lord Palmerston,
| TO whom she administered the severest rebukc
Minister in modern days has received from the
Crown. and OF Mr. Gladstone. whom she has barely
| tolerated. Of Lord Melbourne. whose influence
ever the Queen exceeded that OF all other Ministers
| together NJ Yasili has never heard. He speaks OF
Her Majesty rs guided by the prudence of Prince
Albert whom every Minister disliked for his fussy
| intermeddling and who riskcd his position in Eng
| land by the celebrated observation that Parlia-
,nentary Government in this country was on Its
trial; an example of prize stupidity which nobody
| but n German Prince-pedant could have offered TO
1 the world. He quotes with approval the senseless
saving Of NJ. Nisard: "The Queen Is only an august
4 hostage whom Liberty keeps Ia prison in her
| palace" he speaks of Her Majesty as woman
who efaces herself before her Ministers. Not dis
patch leaves this country which the Queen has not
| seen and approved. Not decision is taken on any
| great question. foreign domestic. of which the
Queen does not insist being informed in advance
| nor one on which she has not much to say not
many on which Ministers have not to use some
| "reminiscences to insure the royal appreciation.
They could dispense with il in the last resort but
so immense is still the authority of the Queen that
| Ia
energy and time in combating queenly scruples.
NJ yasilrs errors In social matters are less impor-
tant but are numerous aud occasionally grotesque.
Where he avoids errors of fact he too often substi
tutes the gravest faults of taste have spoken Of
Che tone In which he writes about women. IL Is the
| tone Of the Boulevards at thor worst. He dis
cusses women whose lives strictly private with
| gross Publicity. He has misunderstood much OF
I what has been told him about court etiquette.
There is often truth enough at the bottom TO mis-
| lead his readers but doformedi by bunders which
prove and again that his prssence of per-
sonal knowledge is only pretcnce. Hcuixcs up
dinners and drawing-rooms in the most extrasSdi-
nary way. The reader may well enough suppose
him to that both oecnr together. and that
other strange things occur. There are plenty OF
true stories In existence and still current in Lon
don about the Queens stiffness in the matter of
costumes and of the people who wear them. NJ.
Yas cannot get either right The Queen, he tells
us, long refused to receive Mrs. Langtry whom. in
the end. the Prince of Wales forced upon her. The
Queen never refused; IL she had, the Prince knows
too we'll the disposition of his mother to have tried
to force" anybody on her. Anybody about the
court will tell you that the Queen shared the gen.
eral curiosity ia those early days about Mrs
Lanetry. and that in order to sec the beauty on
whom London then lavisbed its homage she re-
NAMED for the only time for many years to tho end
of the drawing-room. Mira. Langtry arrived last in
! cnmnany with Lady RomneY. The story about the