Morning journal and courier., 1885-07-25
MAX O'RELL'S LETTER.

HER. All Rights Reserved.l
 LONDON, July Ii. | To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: When the reigning Duke of Sake Coburg Gotha dies his family estates will most as-
 suredly share the fate of those of the Hano- | verian and Brunswick Guelphs, and his heir, the Duke of Edinburgh, will be unable to prevent Prince Bismarck from absorbing
 them. His Royal Highness has long been trying to dispose of this inheritance of his for palpable consideration of course, but he is not likely to be successful. The mighty German chancellor looks upon the Duchy | as Germany's by right, and does not see the force of paying hard cash for thing which l can be had for nothing. However, the duke
 is rather relying upon Lord Salisbury being able to soften Prince Bismarck. MT. Glad
 stone, it seems, was very indifferent to the I duke's interests in Germany. The fact is l that the Queens second son is no favorite. ! Sir Arthur Sullivan, the musical composer, | is about his only true and staunch follower here, and his visits to Germany have not won him any friends there. I suppose that ordi-
 nary mortals think that royal princes ought 1 to be princely, and when they find them pos sessing traits of character which would be ! excusable in 8 struggling professional man or l tradesman, but are quite out of place in a l man whose bread is we'll buttered, they l turn away a trifs disappointed. Yet should like to add that, considering the fact l that Prince Bismarck sends host of Ger l man dependents over here to be fed at the public expense, it seems hard that somebody, even if it were the careful duke, should not ! the color of Garman moDav
 It is rumored that Queen Victoria's son-in- I law, the Grand Duke of Hesse- -Darmstadt, will abdicate before the end of the year, and l in that case will most probably reside for the | future in England. I am afraid these good | Germans will overdo it. John Bulls quite ox-like patience will be exhausted one of these days and he will show his horns. The
 rumor of the German dukes intention to re- tire in England suggests the following re-
 mark to a society paper, which cannot be suspected of any lack of loyalty: 'Have we not already too many of these German pau pers to provide berths for without the addi- tion or this gems'' This shows which way the wind is beginning to blow.
 Seventy-fve young ladies of society are trying to get up ball in honor of Princess Louise of Wales, who came out a few months ago. The 'tRose ball' is the name to be giv- en to this entertainment. Each fair and aristocratic maid is to pay 95 towards the expenses and to invite dancing man. But I am afraid the ball runs chance of coming to grief, as the Prince of Wales, who at first approved of the idea, now threatens to have nothing to do with 1t, because the committee of election have blackballed three young la dies whom he thinks should be among the sev- enty-five.
 The Ay1esford scandal is still the town talk It is discussed and rediseussed on eve
 " hand The Mrs. Candors, the Lady Sheer
 wells, the Lady, Teazles arc whispering and
 reproduce here much of what has been said,
 I am sorry to say, for whenever I inquired
 what the fun was about was informed that
 it was ladies' joke, and not fit for mems
 ears.
 In France it would not be safe to under
 take the calling of journalist deputy
 without being good swordsman, and Pro
 testant pastors who wish to be returned to Parliament should make sure that they have
 a talent for handling the foils before canvass ing among the electors. The Rev. Mir. Due
 land, one of the deputies for the department
 of La Charente. has just fought 8 duel with
 a Bonapartist deputy on the Belgian frontier
 and come off victor. The reverend gentle
 man was very warmly congratulated by his
 friends in the Chamber, but how his pious
 flock may look upon the feat remains to be
 seen.
 The French government have found out the way to get the farmers to vote for their
 
 tions. In order to relieve the suffering agri- cultural interest they have placed at it's dis posal the troops who for whole month will be changed into reapers and mowers. This courteous office from Mars to Ceres is very praiseworthy no doubt but of course the Royalists, Bonapartists, Radicals, Socialists will swear, fume and yell that this act of the government, patriotic in appearance, is noth- | ing but a gigantic bribe held out to the French peasants who, it is well known, are more easily ready to open their hearts than their pockets. To save the cost ci hands to ! assist him in the harvest, already says con | temporary, the French peasant will ] pledge his vote without even as | much as qualm of conscience. This is a severe judgment, accounted for by the fact l that Jacques Bonhomme, having always vot- | ed for the government in power, is held in | contempt by the Parisians. However this may be, the result of this new order will be an overwhelming majority for the govern I ment Whatever the opposition of all shades | may say, they will have to confess that it is l a very clever move which, cunning as they | were in their own generation, neither Legiti-
 mists, Orleanists nor Bonapartists had the | ingenuity to hit upon. Napoleon III ob | tained the votes of the French peasants by calling himself the Father to the Peasant ry." NJ. Jules Ferry, who invented the Farmers Republics republic that should 1 take count of the farmers welfare before at | tending to any other consideration-is nicely | outdone by his most hated rivals, to whom he gave @ wrinkle which they improved up on. Sic vos non vobis.
 had long been wondering how it was that | the most successful French novelist of the l century had not yet been taken to task by French critics. I refer to M. George Ohnet. His tIronmastern has run through more than l 25O editions, Serge Famine, /" crowned by the | French academy, through ITO, "Countess Sarah'' through 137, "Liser Fluron" through l 12S. and his last work, ''La Grande Mari niere," although only three months old, has | already reached it's eighty sixth edition. M. George Ohnet is very modest, indeed, if he l novelist of lis time. His young critic, M Jules Le1aaitre, is not tender to him. He begins his criticism thus: s'I am in the | habit of speaking to the readers of the Revue on literary subjects. They must excuse me | if speak to them to-day of M. George Oh
 nets novels; but if his works do not belong
 to literature, they perhaps be-
 Thus it begins crushing, is it nota The eriti- | cism is very clever, but, in spite of what M. Lemaitre may say, the public are not utter | fools A literary success may no doubt be exaggerated, but there is no great success without some foundation for it. M. Ohnets novels owe their unprecedented success to l their wholesomeness, the French public be- ginning to be tired of the realistic produc- tions of M Zola aud his intimators. In M. George Ohnets novel the personages move in decent society, and the events are rapid. | The style is not finished one, it is even very | often loose, but the matter is inoffensive, and
 may be safely put in the hands of youth. l This, no doubt, accounts for the enormous | sale of this new kind of literature. Now M.
 Jules Lemaitre may be very clever critic,
 but criticism is easy, art is difficult, and, as 1 8 novelist, I imagine this brilliant writer has l yet to make himself known. M. George Oh | net, since the dashing attack from the Revue, has seen himself parked at by all the French
 failures. If ever M. George Ohnet should
 take it into his head to make an answer, I
 would suggest to him the following one for
 more than half of his critics: ''Dear Sir,-
 You send your reflections to the wrong ad
 dress. If I am famous, as you are pleased to
 say, without believing it anymore than my
 self, do not lay the blame upon me, my dear
 confrere, lay it rather upon that pig of a
 public who is silly enough to prefer my
 scribblings to your masterpieces. Not for the world would I say anything that might
 be disagreeable to you, but would fain re