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consulted a woman , who advised her to drink a glass of vinegar daily ; the young lady followed her advice , and her plumpness diminished . She was delighted with the success of the experiment , and continued it for more than a month . She began to have a cough ; but it was dry at its commencement , and was considered as a slight cold , which would go off . Meantime , from dry it ^ became moist ; a s low fever came on , and a difficulty of breathing ; her body became lean , and wasted away ; night , sweats , swelling of the feet and of the legs succeeded , and a diarrhoea terminated her life . " Therefore , young ladies , be boldly fat ! never pine for graceful slimness and romantic pallor J but if Nature means you to be ruddy and rotund , accept it with a laughing grace , which will captivate more hearts than all the paleness of a circulating library . At any rate , understand this , that if vinegar will diminish the fat , it can only do so by affecting your health . 'A Few Words on Social Philosophy' is the title of a pleasant , sensible , humorous dissertation on modern social life in general and women ' s influence in particular . There is a passage on the early marriage question in which there is a good deal of truth . The Dublin University Magazine this month has good papers on ' Recent Oxford Literature . ' and ' Beranger . * ; » * * J ^ r I \ i
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M . GUIZOT'S MEMOIRS . Memoirs of my Own Time . By F . Guizot . Vol . I . Bentley . These Memoirs constitute not only a criticism upon French events and characters during forty years , but a broad and clear exhibition of the writer ' s moral and intellectual consciousness so far as it influenced his actions in public life . Of himself , M . Guizot speaks with sombre dignity ; he has neither abdicated , he says , nor does he desire to restore , his position as a statesman . At present a spectator , he is not unwilling to emerge from retirement , but on this point his sentiments are neutral . He has had his share in the government of men ; and now , composing his personal history amid the silence of the Empire , he believes the retrospect may be calm , and that the past episodes of a career not yet ended may be judged without passion or timidity . M . Guizot has written no work with more masterly art than this ; it is noble in style and thought ; it contains a richly diversified gallery of historical portraits , a subtle analysis of national and individual motives , a series of disclosures painting vividly the inner life of politics , a frank confession of opinions upon men and circumstances . The point of departure is the decline and fall of the Bonaparte Empire , and the first volume approaches the eve of the Revolution of 1830 . Thus M . Guizot has already carried his tracings ! over an extensive surface—France before the Restoration , the deportation to Elba , the reign of Louis XVIII ., the Hundred Days , the Second Restoration , the parliamentary rule of 1815 under the Duke de Richelieu , the Government of the Centre from 1816 to 1821 , the rule of the right-hand party under M . de Villele up to 1827 , Charles the Tenth ' s regime andM . Guizot ' s opposition , the omens of resistance in 1830 , and the elections of that decisive year . Everywhere M . Guizot writes freely , but with an evident conviction that he is committing no injustice . "Whether or not his verdict is in all instances judicial , it would be rash to say ; but as the figures of Napoleon and of Chateaubriand stand in these pages , there can be little doubt that they will stand eternally in history . Of Napoleon , the character drawn by M . Guizot has been outlined and filled in with elaborate accuracy . No ruler , he says , could have been endowed with a more energetic or masculine genius , with more profound instincts in governing , or with a greater faculty for constructing a system of bis own . But he tad neither conscience nor religion ; he coavsely understood the moral necessities of human nature ; his pride passed the limit of impiety . He seldom received advice except to insult the giver and drive him from his presence ; at the hei g ht of power he was intoxicated to insolence , and when he fell it was with bitterness , hesitation , and imbecility . Even during the Hundred Days , instead of laying a concrete basis for his throne , he was engaged in ordering garments of white taffeta for the princes of his family , and orange-coloured mantles for his chamberlains and pages , " a childish attachment to palatial splendour , which accorded ill with the state of public affairs , and deeply disgusted public feeling , when , in the midst of this glittering pageant , twenty thousand soldiers were seen to march past and salute the Emperor on their road to death . ' * While acting upon this parti-colourcd stage , he endeavoured simultaneously to conciliate the populations of the Faubourgs St . Antoine and St . Marcpau , and to check their traditional enthusiasm . A few of them were formed into a band of " confederated soldiers , " and M . Guizot saw a hundred of the corps , in shabby uniforms , raising a tumult in the garden of the Tuileries , in order to attract a recognition from the Emperor . It was long before ho complied ; but at length a window was opened , he came forward , and waved his hand ; almost instantly the window was reclosed , and , adds M . Guizot , " I distinctly saw Napoleon retire , shrugging his shoulders ; vexed , no doubt , at being obliged to lend himself to demonstrations so repugnant in their nature , ana so unsatisfactory in their limited extent . " The splendour that surrounds the fame of Bonaparte has visibly waned of late years ; the Marmont Memoirs sullied it deeply ; Miot de Melito has contributed the testimony of his contempt- ; but we doubt whether any one more than M . Guizot has , in a few words , shown the vulgarity that strutted under the Tyrian purple . Chateaubriand is described as a man of genius , and a slave to selfishness and vanity , M . Guizot first knew him through his writings , when in 1809 the Martyres were published . He read that work , admired , quoted , and defended it . Chateaubriand acknowledged the justice and the courtesy ^ n ^ raUohjraJbjrJjii ^ tip . How the intimacy ripened is tola at large , but with what result in one curt phrase . " Between M . de Chateaubriand and myself , frankness and honour , most certainly , have never been disturbed throughout our political controversies ; but friendship has not been able to survive them / ' Nor « yen respect , we must believe , for M . Guizot cannot but despise the individual of whom he writes . "He was , I admit , a troublesome ally ; for he « spired to nil things , and complained of all . On a level with the rarest spirits and most exalted imaginations , it was his chimera to fancy himself equal to the greatest masters in the art of government , and to fool bitterly hurt if he were not looked upon as the rival of Napoleon as well as of '
Milton . " In another passage , M . Guizot declares Chateaubriand to h ~" been passionately absorbed , on the stage of the world , in his own dpi 8 and reputation , more annoyed by the slightest check than gratified hvth * most brilliant triumph , more jealous of success than , power , greedy toexc of praise and fame . That he attributes to Chateaubriand better and high * qualities , is a proof of his desire to be just ; but an acrimony of classic cold ' ness and polish gives an edge to every allusion throughout the volume t that singular man whose genius was eaten up in his vanity , a French TT ° Foscolo of another type , who could make no figure in the world without fancying himself its centre . The Memoirs are chiefly interesting as preserving M . Guizot ' s estimates of public men—Napoleon , Chateaubriand , Blacas , Montesquiou " Charles X . We , therefore , notice one other historical portrait . Louis XVIIL , after the second restoration , is pictured as he was a per-Bonification of impotence and dignity , an old man who sat as if nailed in his arm-chair , confident in the midst of his feebleness of supreme ri ght and power , listening with condescending interest to li g ht couplets and epiirrams in his own praise , prohibiting all mention ot "serious causes of uneasiness " threatening to place his throne upon the bridge of Jena to preserve that monument of German defeat , and talking with his thin voice about suppressing ranges of mountains . " Louis XIV . levelled the Pyrenees ; I shall not allow them to be raised again . " But there are fragments of M . Guizot's volume which , detached from their contexts , are lessons of wisdom to the living race of Trenchmen . When he argues in favour of limiting the rights of the press and of public discussions , he is transparently a casuist ; but concerning the policy of the royalist restoration generally , his statement is undeniable . He is speaking of the electoral bill introduced in 1817 : — I was well informed as to its intent and true spirit , and I speak of it without embarrassment in presence of the universal suffrage , as now established . If the electoral system of 1817 disappeared in the tempest of 1848 , it conferred on France thirty years of regular and free government , systematical ^ ' sustained and controlled ; and amidst all the varying influences of parties , and the shock of a revolution , this system sufficed to maintain peace , to develop national prosperity , and to preserve respect for all legal rights . In this age of ephemeral and futile experiments , it is the only political enactment which has enjoyed a long and powerful life . At least it was a work which may be acknowledged , and which deserves to be correctly estimated , even after its overthrow . A ruling idea inspired the bill of the 5 th . of February , 1817 to fix a term to the revolutionary system , and to give vigour to the constitutional Government . At that epoch , universal suffrage had ever been , in France , an instrument of destruction or deceit—of destruction , when it had really placed political power in the hands of the multitude ; of deceit , when it had assisted to annul political rights for the advantage of absolute power , by maintaining , through the vain intervention of the multitude , a false appearance of electoral privilege . Upon the liberty of the press his argument has , at least , the merit of candour , and it is not without its points of truth : — I am one of those who have been much assisted and fiercely attacked by the press . Throughout my life , I have greatly employed this engine . By placing my ideaa publicly before the eyes of my country , I first attracted her attention and esteem . During the progress of my career , I have ever had the press for ally or opponent ; and I have never hesitated to employ its weapons , or feared to expose myself to its blows . It is a power which I respect and recognize willingly , rather than coropulsorily , but without illusion or idolatry . Whatever may he the form of government , political life is a constant struggle ; and it would give me no satisfaction—I will even say more—1 should feel ashamed of finding myself opposed to mute and fettered adversaries . The liberty of the pres 3 is human nature displaying itself in broad daylight , sometimes under the most attractive , and at others under the most repelling aspect ; it is the wholesome air that vivifies , and the tempest that destroys , the expansion and impulsive power of steam in the intellectual system . I have ever advocated a free press ; I believe it to be , on the whole , more useful than injurious to public morality ; and I look upon it as essential to the proper management of public affairs , and to the security of private interests . But I have witnessed too often and too closely its dangerous aberrations as regards political order , not to feel convinced that this liberty requires the restraint of a strong organization of effective laws ana of controlling principles . From one of his conversations with M . Manuel , he detaches the following reminiscence : — . " What France requires at present is to expel the revolutionary spirit which still torments her , and to exercise the free system of which she is in full possession . ioo House of Bourbon is extremely well suited to this double exigence of tno country . Its government is anti-revolutionary by nature , and liberal through necessity . J should much dread a power which , while maintaining order , would cither in lacj u appearance bo sufficiently revolutionary to dispense with being liberal . | " ^ ' " apprehensive that the country would too easily lend itself to euch a ruio . "" | quire to be a little uneasy as regards our interests , that wo may loam how * ° » tain our rights . The Restoration satisfies while it keeps ua on ow guwa . '" at the same time as a spur and a bridle . Both are good for us . I know not ww would happen if we wore without either . " . , We make one more quotation , which occurs as a generality , but wm has a present meaning : — A groat public terror ia worse than a groat positive ovil ; above all , w " ° n °° perspectives of tho future oxcito tho hopes of enemies and blunderers , as wou » alarms of honest mqn and friends . Wo have read thia volume with unabated interest from tho first , ° ' ° lnst line . It is groat in its quality as a political autobiograp hy ^ nndo n great in its wisdom and finely tempered eloquence . A . tinge o » "jolanono j bitterness mellows the richer memories , but tho book is emp hnt . cauy i work of a statesman who writes with his eye fixed on the present wniio » mind reviews the past . ____ ^ ^
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NEW NOVELS . The Netherwoods of Otterpool : a Novel . 3 vols . / Bentf ^ T ^ m ^ m ' oriiS harm in hinting at tho plot of this story atneo it is one of in » ? antiquity . The rich master of Otterpool hath a sensitive son , who , w indiscreet hour , plights , his troth to tbo daughter of ft buronot wituwu the ancient Derbvafiire gentleman has a fpudT Tho lather desires tno * to abandon his first love , which tho young man ( straightway roluses w although upon that instant tho broad lands , the ancestral trees , w »
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352 THE LEADER . [ No . 420 , April 10 , 185 ft
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1858, page 352, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2238/page/16/
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