The Sun. — 1848-04-13 (London, England)

LITERATURE.  THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF FEBRUARY, 1848. 1 Vol., pp. 383. By Percy B. St. John. The author of this attractive volume has been doubly fortunate—as a man and as a writer—in witnessing the late remarkable and glorious revolution. We, residents in England are fortunate likewise in the circumstance that Mr. Percy St. John was a sojourner in Paris during the immortal days of February. He has appreciated so accurately the position of parties in the French capital ; he observed the emeutes so vigilantly; he sympathised with the people so thoroughly; he has described recent occurrences with a pencil so vivid, so rapid, and so inimitably copious (considering that the book under consideration was completed within a fortnight after the transference of the Go • vernnaent from the Tuileries to the Hotel de Ville), that we may well congratulate ourselves on the coincidence of his presence throughout the disturbances. Those who may erroneously anticipate from the title-page a narrative of the entire revolution from personal observation are sanguine overmuch, and (if the apparent play upon words is allowable) frivolous over more. They are associating the divine attribute of übiquity with the body of a mere bookman. No sueh deacription of the progress of events among the Parisians can be expected until M. Etienne Arago shall (like M. Alphonse de Lamartine) given us his confidences in the shape of an autobiography, or until a semi-romance or demi-history shall appear from the pen of M. Alexandre Dumas the hero of which shall be the Marquis de la Pailleterie.' For the brother of the great astronomer seems more than any one else to have been in half a dozen places at once, even according to the explicit revelations of Mr. Percy St. John, and the gifted but eccentric author of the " Monte Christo" some time Under-Secretary to the Due d'Orleans, now the most worshipful devotee of the Republican' regime —figured in nearly twenty different quartiers simultaneously, clothed in the trappings of the Garde National, and elevated on the shoulders of the gamins. Mr. St. John has judiciously collected his materials from a variety of authentic sources---from his own experience as an eye-witness, from the hearsay of trustworthy informers, from orations, reports, proclamations, and printed sketches. ',lle book evidences in every sentence the hurry in which it was composed and the excitement with which it was projected; yet these very characteristics—characteristics which at firstsight might seem to be absolute blemishes —are among the principal merits of the volume, seeing that they authenticate in a remarkable manner the actual hurry and excitement of which they constitute the congenial record. The work is partitioned into seventeen chapters, and partakes of the confusion consequent upon the late catastrophe. Chapter I. defines " the causes of the recent revolution"—causes which date back even to the three days of July, 18$0, when the transference of the crown of Charles X. to the brow of Louis Philippe I.—a miserablestock-jobbing trick from first to last—was the earliest blunder of the dethroned despot. No one will gainsay for an instant the accuracy of our author's assertion that— " The causes of the recent French Revolution may be variously stated to be:—the Revolution of 1830; the reaction which has taken place ever since; the personal government of Louis Philippe; the appointment of the Due d'Aumale as Governor of Algiers; the ruling of France by purchased majorities ; the entrance of corruption into the administration of affairs ; the Teste trial; the suicide of the Due de Praslin; the Reform banquets; the King's Speech; the prohibition of public meetings." This accumulation of reasons for an insurrectionary movement has long been notorious. Chapter 11. displays the overt progress of the popular opposition as revealed by the " Reform Banquets' in the vicinity of the capital, and in the departments ; and thus preludes the opening of the newly-elected Parliament of 1847 : " To face the Legislature, composed of a compact majority of contented placemen, ministers, and personal friends of King and Cabinet, there was an old King, who for eighteen years had succeeded every day in adding some link to the chain of power, with one son, the future regent; another married to the heiress presumptive to the throne of Spain ; another Viceroy of Algeria ; another with a high position in the navy; a daughter the wife of a neighbouring King ; in close alliance with the Monarch of Austria, and ruling in Spain through his creatures; with an army generalled and officered at his will ; a capital surrounded by the most extraordinary fortifications in the world, and commanded by eighteen detached forts ; a police the most perfect and extensive known to civilized society, and composed not only of constables, but of regiments of horse and foot;—he seemed to occupy an impregnable position, from which nothing but the thunder of the Almighty could dislodge him; a Cabinet, headed by a great orator and historian, though an impracticable statesman, enjoying the friendship and support of its Sovereign, and commanding a perfectly servile cohort of Deputies in the Chamber. " The Opposition was in itself weak, but in the errors of their opponents they were mighty ; for the Cabinet of the 29th of October stood before the country convicted of corruption and servility; of alliance with absolutism ; of opposing the liberal intentions of the Pope; of conniving with Jesuits to enslave Switzerland; of impelling Ferdinand of Naples to resist the just demand of his subjects ; and, worse than all, of having, in their anxiety to curry favour with the dynasty, given way to every counter-revolutionary scheme of Louis Philippe. In Chapter 111. " the opening of the Chambers " (the last session of the Parliament of the French monarchy) by Louis Philippe, in person, on the 28th December, 1847, is described with graphic brilliancy. Chapter IV. glances at " the February sittings of the Chambers, and recounts very minutely " the preparations for the great Reform Banquet.' Chapter V. begins the diary of the revolution with " Sunday and Monday, February 20 and 21 ;" Chapter VI., " Tuesday, February 22 ;" Chapter