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Since last week , the literature of France lias sustained a loss , and the operatic stage has been deprived of one of its ornaments . The daily papers have spread far and wide the intelligence of Madame Sonta g's death in Mexico from an attack of cholera ; but the loss of Emlle Souvestke is—in England at least—by no means so generally known . The . French papers inform as that he died of a heart-complaint at the age of forty-six . Though hardly ranking as a writer of the first class among modern French authors , Souvesthe , as dramatist , essayist , novelist , and historian , won a notable position in the ranks of foreign literary men . One of his plays , Un Enfant
de Paris , was produced in English , three years since , at the Lyceum Theatre , under the title of A Day of Reckoning , and met with great and well-merited success . Readers of French literature may remember some of his noTels , and certainly cannot have forgotten his Philosophe sous les Toils . The book , however , which is likely to preserve his reputation longest is his Derniers Bretons , containing a very curious and valuable account of manners and ^ usfcoms among the inhabitants of Brittany . This work will assuredly last , _ for it gives much interesting information , not attainable from other sources , on the subject of the most remarkable of all the races of people in the provinces of France .
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Judging by the magazines this month , the incomprehensible British public seems to be just as inveterately bent as ever on reading about Russia and the War—though nothing new or interesting can be written on either subject which has not previously appeared in the newspapers . Even musical criticism talks with a Russian twang in Fraser . The writer of the article called " Phases of Music in Russia , " is , of course , afflicted with the amazing mania of his fraternity for tuneless music of the ¦ ' classical" kind ; and shudders at Bellini and melody in the most approved style of solemn sarcasm . He shows himself , however , to be most innocently ignorant of the predilections of English opera audiences , when he' reviles them as
" fashionable supporters" of Linda di Chamouni . Though that delightful opera Lad a run of many consecutive nights at Vienna , and was the main attraction of a whole season at Paris , it has never succeeded in England , and is now placed most undeservedly among the " works on the shelf . " But we are digressing to Music , when our business is with Literature . Let us open the National Miscellany by way of returning to our duty . The number this month is of fair average merit ; but it would have been better without the article on Dujias' Kean . The absurdities of this play have been pointed out long ago . Virtuous indignation against a foolish drama—the mistake
of a great and admirable dramatist—published fourteen years since , is slightly out of date . Besides , the reviewer is evidently " a gent . " He is actually guilty of having compromised The National Miscellany by this very , atrocious sentence : — " Does M . Dumas , " he writes , " think that the English , Ave all brutes or fools in their conduct towards females ?' Female ¦ what ?—we should "be glad to know . Female horses ? dogs ? cats ? mice ? rabbits ? or tittlebats ? It is exasperating enough to hear this most vulgar of all errors committed by the popular tongue ; but to see it perpetuated in print , is rnore than human patience can endure . When a man calls a woman " a party , " he ought to be gently moved out of earshot ; but when he goes still further , and reviles her by the bpprobious appellation of female , the law of libel ought to be forthwith extended so as to reach him . Illaclcwood is rather more serious and political than usual this month . " Tlie Dublin" contains the beginning of a new fiction called Mosses upo 7 i Grave-stones . Bentleifs Miscellany offers the reader plenty of stories , preceded , of course , by an article on the war . One of these stories is introduced by a Note , which wo consider to be an original effort in literature . In a serial fiction , culled " Clouds and Sunshine , " by Mr . Chahxes Rkadk , author of " Christie Johnstone , " the following announcement actually appears at tho bottom of the first page : — " This iwiter's tvoi'ks we ivritten to be read tdoiuW There is a mysterious audacity in those words which has fairly bewildered us . Does Mr . Readk mean that tho works of writers in genoral are not written to bo road aloud ? or docs he mean that the only proper way to read his own story of " Clouds and Sunshine " is to rcud it aloud ? Wo ourselves , not having nny audience ready fit hand , when wo opened Bentlwfs Miscellany , took tho liberty of devouring " Clouds and Sunshine " with tho eyo , unassisted by the tongue ; and thought that tho story , as fivr us it went , boro rather a suspicious resomblance to the story of Gkorok Sani / s drama of Claudia . Perhaps , if wo hud followed Mr . Ris . vdis's directions , and had read his work aloud , tho similarity might have caenpod us"Who knows ?
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HISTORY OF CHARLES I . AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION . History of Charles I . and tJi& English Revolution . By 31 . Guizot . Translated by Andrew K . Scoble . In two volumes . . Bentley . These two volumes contain the first portion of M . Guizot ' s History of the English devolution , and embrace the period from the accession of Charles I . to his death . The only novelty , however , in this edition is a Preliminary Essay on English Revolution—a translation of * he work itself , from the pen of William . Hazlitt , having been published nine years by Mr . Bogue . To the Essay , therefore , we shall confine the few criticisms we intend to offer . M . Guizot has spent his life in the study of history . As a statesman , he has been a signal failure . It is a safe prediction that the editor of Gibbon , the author of lectures on European Civilisation , the Analyst of Governments , will be remembered long after the First Minister of Louis Philippe has shared the fate of men who attempt to govern-without the faculty of
governing . M . Guizot ' s writings are too well knowa to require any more special mention . They are all the products of an intellect at once subtle and profound ; they ' exhibit the results of laboured research , and they are written in a style remarkable for clearness and simplicity-. In most respects , therefore , M . Guizot is well qualified to write a history of the English Revolution . But , in judging of the conclusions at which he has arrived / we must notbllnd ourselves to three obvious facts—that he is not an Englishman , that he failed , when he tried to apply his principles to practice , and that he discusses English politics from an un-English point of view . Sometimes , of course , this last defect is a supreme excellence . We do not quarrel with M . Guizot because lie is a foreigner , but because he has approached the subject of English ' 'history and English institutions with preconceived notions . His object is not so much to narrate and describe as to select facts in order to prove a theory . A foreigner , with full knowledge and free from bias , is perhaps the fittest person in the world to write our history .
In the Essay , which has now appeared for the first time in English , M . Guizot endeavours to solve this problem—How is it that " what France and Europe have hitherto vainly attempted" was successfully achieved in England ? The answer is that our revolutions , -whether political or religious , were based on existing institutions . What laws , traditions , and precedents were to Hampden and the patriots , in the time of Charles I ., the Bible was to the authors of the Reformation . And in addition to these " pledges of moderation" we are told that " Providence added another favour . ' * The political reformers , in the seventeenth century , were not condemned , at their very outset , to the wickedness and danger of spontaneously attacking , without clear and pressing necessity , a peaceful and inoffensive ruler . " But while this " pressing necessity" is fully admitted , while M . Guizot denounces , in forcible language , the " aggressive despotism , " which attacked ancient rights , and opposed the demand for new liberties ; he has no
sympathy with the means by which this same despotism was overthrown . He would have had no revolution at all . Here was Charles , still secretly conspiring , still granting concessions and making promises which he waited only the opportunity to revoke , and yet the faithless monarch should have been dealt with as an honest truthful man , M . Guizot admits the frivolity , insincerity , and inconsistency of the king , and yet is unable to see that there was no peace for England , no chance for order , so long as Charles was suffered to live . The punishment was terrible enough , but , most surely , it did not exceed the measure of the offence . A nation—long patient under opj > ression—was goaded past endurance . The vengeance was delayed , but , in the nature of things , it could not but be inflicted . And yet it is of this groat triumph of law and justice that M . Guizot writes as follows :
" Tho judges of Charles I . left no moans untried to free their action from this fatal character , and to represent it as a judgment of God , which they wore commissioned to perform . Charles had aimed at absolute power , and curried on civil war . Many rights had been violated , and much blood shed , by his ordora or with liia sanction . On him was cast all tho responsibility of tho anarchy and tho war . Ho was called upon to account for all tho liberties that had been oppressed , and all tho blood that had been spilt—a nameless crime , which death alono could expiate But tho conscience of a people cannot bo so far misled , even when it is under tho influence of distraction and terror . Others beside the Kin £ had been guilty of oppression and bloodshed . If tlio King had violated tho rights of his subjects , — tho rights ot royalty , equally ancient , equally by law established , equally necessary to the maintunanco of public liberty , had also boon violated , attacked , and invaded . Ho had engaged in war : but in his own defence . No ono was ignorant that , at tho time when ho
determined on war" , it was being prepared against lain , in order to compel him , after all his concessions , to deliver up tho righto and tho power which ho still rotaiuod , —the last remnants of tho logal government of tho country . And "now thut tho King was conquered , ho was judged anil condemned without law and contrary to all law , for acts whioh no law lind over contemplated or characterised as crimes , which tho conscience of neither King nor jiooplo had over thought of considering as subject to tho jurisdiction of men , and punishable by their hands . What indignation , what uniwrdal horror , would lmyo been felt if tlio moancst subject of tho realm had been thus treated , and put to death for oriimwj ilelincd after the execution of iho sentence , by pretondud judges , formerly his ouomicM , now his rivals , and about to bo bin lieira ! And that which no ono would havo dared to do to Iho obacurost . Kngliahman , whs done to tlio King of England— to tlio aupromo head of tho Ohuroh aa w « ll ua ot tho Stale—to tho roprcuentativo and tho symbol of authority , ordor . Iruv . justiao r --indooJ . everything whioh , in human aocioty , approaches and auggosts tho Idea ot tho attributes ot Oodl" ^ After thin we scarcely need toll our reader * in wliut light M . Guizot regards Cromwell . JIuro is tho portrait : " After having , it ia ouid , spent his youth in tho oxcosaos of a ( lury tomponunout , in tho outbursts of an ardont and roatleaa pioty , « ud in tho service of tho Lntureata or desires of
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L ' r . tics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws -they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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la the present dearth of literary enterprise ( which , its a natural consequence of tho war , is now beginning to be i ' clt in Franco us well aa in lingland ) it in gratifying to bo able to announce the appearance of a novelty , in thealmpo of a hook . Tho new volume of Mr . Koukut JBmijl ' s annotated
edition of the British Poets , is to contain all the best songs of all the British dramatists , from the period of the first play written in our country , down to the date of the School for Scandal . Such a complete collection as this made with the skill , correctness , and critical intelligence for which Mr . Bell ' s name is a sufficient guarantee—has hitherto been wanting in our literature . We hope to have an opportunity of examining this volume , when it is published . A song-book which appeals to all ages , all tastes , and all purses is assuredly a novelty ; and—if anything not connected with Russia and Turkey has a chance of succeeding now—seems certain before hand of success .
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" — " ^^^^^ W ^^ V ^ I ^^^ VI ^^ H ^^^^ V ^ HW ^ B ^ IV ^^ H ^ P ^ B ^^^ BB ^ IIW ^^^ H ^ BI ^ Vi ^ ^ ^ i ^ Ml ^ l ^ l P ^^ I ^ HM ^ H ^^^^^^^^^^^^ July 15 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 666
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Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 665, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2047/page/17/
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