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Treating of the new taxes raised during this degraded rei gn , Mr . Murray has a remark which might be applied to the financiers of our own time and country : " When a government gets hold of a tax capable of augmentation and certain in its returns , it is to such a tax that it is eager to resort in all its difficulties . " But the origin of this official avidity was of a peculiar nature in the days of the fifteenth Louis . It was to keep up the Spintrian splendours of the Parc-aux-Cerfs , and to pi'actise the lessons taught by Pompadour , that he exhausted the nation , and helped to ruin the monarchy . The expenditure of the Court was not only enormous , it-was in great part secret : — Then the finance siccounts for any particular year were never settled until twelve or fourteen years had elapsed , so that , in fact , the Chamber of Accounts could exercise no effectual control over the administration of the finances . No man , however experienced or skilful , could ascertain the exact state of the treasury at any particular period ; the only means of judging of its position was whether there was money enough to defray the demands made upon it . The disbursements of the secret service augmented to a prodigious height , as it has augmented in our own days under the -wisdom of Louis jSTapoleon ' s police , court favourites , and court feathers . What was the effect upon the public mind is illustrated by a notice of the popularity attending M .-de Choiseul when the king had disgraced him . For " Choiseul " we might read Migeon : — In former times , when the king withdrew his countenance from a subject , the best fate that the latter could expect was , to be allowed to live in obscurity and peace ; but , in 1770 , the man whom the king had censured and exiled was surrounded with friends and admirers . This fact furnishes the most incontestable proof that France was silently preparing for the assertion of those principles of general liberty and individual independence which are so congenial to a gTeat and gallant people . The nation which could publicly honour him whom its master denounced and punished , had already emerged from that state of abject servility which a despotic government requires from its subjects . While Louis XV . was sunk in an abyss of moral infamy , Frenchmen were becoming imbued with that civic courage which is far more useful , and far more rare , than the bravery which defies death on the field of battle . This is emphatic language , and it is not "without its meaning now .
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ASPECTS OF PARIS . Aspects of Pans . By Edward Copping , Author of " Alfieri and Goldoni . " Longman and Co . Mb . Copping has filled a volume -with bright and characteristic sketches , not the results of a few weeks' impressions of Paris , but the cream of a lengthened residence , varied by exploring expeditions among scenes and circles to / which strangers seldom penetrate . He is in manner light and lively ; he rattles through his subject with entertaining freedom , and it is a merit of his book that , as he says , lie has " avoided as much as possible the paths which previous writers on Paris have chosen . " Several of the chapters contain , entirely original matter ; that , for instance , giving an account of the new village of La Varenne , that in which the cliffs of Belleville arc described , and that -which notices the singular career of the poet Jean Journet . Mr . Copping's "Aspects of Paris" will be best judged of from extracts , two or three of which we will present . Here is a pai-ngraph descriptive of the Faits Divers column of a Paris journal : — You are hurried away , perhaps , on the back of a remarkably fine specimen of the Astracan brehis just arrived at the Jardin des Plantes , and carried by this animal into the flooded fields of the Ardeche , you pass into a new safety steam boiler of novel construction , which bursts five minutes afterwards , and leaves you high and dry upon the summit of Mount Cenis , where shafts for the great Alpine tunnel are being sunk . Descending a little , you find yourself in the midst of the new harbour at Holyhead , and after recognizing General Walker giving orders for an immediate attack upon Nicaragua , you discover that you are face to face with that gluttonous Gascon ploughman , who is consuming a leg of mutton , four kilogrammes of sausages and a dozen litres of wine , for a wager of a new pair of sabots , lire you have recovered from your tlisgust , you are knocked down by a runaway horse , and upon rising , find yourself before the Correctional Tribunal of Paris police , upon a charge of robbing a poor old -woman of twopence-halfpenny . You leave the Oourt with unstained hands , and find yourself in Smithlield market , Avhere an infamous Englishman is for the hundredth time selling his wife , and tlience you are immediately blown away by a tremendous hurmane from tlie north-west , which carries you oil ' the shores of the Bosphorus , where a heavy meteorological stone , weighing seventy-four pounds eight ounces , falls upon your head , and , rubbing your eyes , you recover from the shock , and find yourself at tlie end of the Faits Divers ! Some of Mr . Copping ' s " facts" are interesting : — The following is a list of Paris periodicals at one sou the number : —Le Pctsse-Te » ij > 8 ( third year ); Le Roger Bontcmps ( second year ); Lc Journal du Dimanchc ( third year ) ; Les Cinq Centimes Mint res ( third year ); L'Omnibus ( third your ) ; La Lecture , Journal de Romans ( third year ) . The last two are published twice a week all the rest once a week . Here is the list of Paris periodicals at two sous the number : —Journal jiour Tons ( third year ) -, Lit Ruche ¦ Purisienne ( second year ); La Lanterne Magiqite ( second year ) ; La Semaine dea Enfants ( second year ); Lc Journal Illtustrd des Voyages et des Vot / ageurs ( first year ); Le Musee Universel ( first year ); LWrme ' e lllmtrec ( first year ) ; Le Mmee des Sciences ( second year ); La Science pour Tous ( second year ) ; La Voleur ( second year ) . Under another form , and at another prico , this last-named journal has existed upwards of thirty years . Mr . Copping describes the perplexities of a stranger at a loss for a "uide to the Paris drama : — ° The playbills afford him but little information . The titles they bear , like titles of another kind , are no indications of merit . Nay , they scarcely give an idea of the nature of the pieces to whkh they belong . What instruction , for instance , can ho derive from su « h names as " ( Jet out of that , " " Turlututu , " " Hulloa , my Little Lambkins , " "' Ilio Good Little Fellow is still Alive , " or " A Million in tho Abdomen ?" We have found Mr . topping ' s work very amusing mul agreeable .
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LETTERS FROM CONSTANTINOPLE . In and Around Stamboid . Hy Mrs . Edward Hornby . 2 voln . , llcntlny . Tub recent multiplication of ' light -volumes on Turkish manners has been such , that florid narratives of first impressions can possess little novelty .
The Golden Horn , the "Valley of Sweet Waters , Scutari , and the other fixed points of observation in and near Constantinople , are familiar to all En < rli 8 u readers , and what advantage is enjoyed by Mrs . Hornby is attributable to the circumstance that she was enabled to penetrate into all classes of societv in Eastern Europe—Ottoman , Greek , and Armenian—and to explore the very innermost recesses of harem life . Her fund of general inf ormation is considerable , and she writes intelligibly as well as carefully . The fault of her descriptions is that they are frequently tinged by sentimental cxai ^ e . ration , Mrs . Hornby being a lady easily fascinated , and liable to illusion " The splendours of Oriental costume and luxury appear to have dazzled her imagination , which perpetually recurs to visions of Ijttlla lloohh glitter nnd beauty , so that , to interpret these pages literally would be to believe that every Turkish Pacha had anticipated the sumptuousness of the JMohanj . niedan 'heaven , and was encircled by a bevy of goddesses , perfect in f ace form , attitude , and apparel . Mrs . Hornby inspected at least half a score / of harems , emerging from each bewildered by the loveliness of the occupants a bewilderment which , it may be suspected , was enhanced by the | Torucous show of treasures from silken Sam : ircand , Persia , India , and the ° ancient Sin . Of this magnificence she supplies elaborate details , amounting almost to an . inventory , and it may interest a particular class of ' readers to know precisely how the superior and inferior wives are dressed who so thoroug hly charmed Mrs . Hornby . The rest of her narrative is occupied by sketches of scenery and general manners , by notes of visits and festivals at the embassies , by reminiscences of poetical excursions by land and water , by a hurried but romantic and painful glance at the Crimea , and ' by various Grecian interludes , which confer variety upon an agreeable , unpretending and unaffected book .
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TUDOKS AND STUAHTS . Tudors and Stuarts . By a Descendant of the Plantagenets . Vol . 1 .- —Tadors . Hanlwicke . Tub compiler of this volume belongs to the class of historical . doubters . - He has discovered , he thinks , with De Maistre , that history during the last three centuries has been a conspiracy against truth . His faith is of a character that would attribute Shakspeare's works to Lord Bacon and Homer ' s to the monks of the middle ages . We have but little to say of his first volume ,, which is nothing more than a crude , violent , and eccentric distortion of events and characters , a work inspired , it would almost appear , by mono mania . The most absurd statements ai'e made without the slightest reference to authority . The " Descendant of the Plantagenets" with his visor 'drawn—¦ whi ch , to say the least , is not courageous— -takes up as a personal questioa the characters of Richard II ., Richard III ., Queen Mary , and Edward VI . ; he breaks into the most insane extravagance concerning Charles I ., and . argues that James II . las been libelled out of compliment to George I . The Revolution of 16 S 8 was "the most unnatural usurpation on record , " and Hampden , Sydney , and Lord William Itussell were "three of the most inisehievous knaves , upon whom party spirit ever bestowed false varnish and brilliancy . " This leads naturally to the conclusion that "the last three kings of the House of Stuart were among the most persecuted , maligned , and mercilessly oppressed of men . " The compiler makes a grand parade of documentary evidence , which he says has been obtain-ed , but his citations are the most scanty and unsatisfactory conceivable . His invective against Queen Elizabeth is a mere piece of unjustifiable ribaldrj ' , culminating with the assertion that she was the principal instigator of the massacre " of St . Bartholomew . The work professes , so far as it has yet been completed , to review the reign of the seventh and eighth Henrys , the sixth Edward , Mary , and Elizabeth . With respect to Henry , the fantastic verdict found is , " that he bad but three wives , and was guiltless of the murder of any of them , " the crime of slaughtering his " concubines" being apparently less , in the author ' s opinion , ' than that of elevating them to the . English throne . We have no doubt but that the "Descendant of the Plantagenets'Vhas made a labour of this composition ; but it must be regretted ! " that so much enthusiasm has been thrown away .
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MIL J 3 RODERIP . ON ZOOLOGY . Zoological Recreations . By W . J . Broderip , Esq ., F . R . S . Gritlin and Co . Hit . Brodkrip here issues in a handsome shape a third edition of those delightful " recreations" in Zoology which he first published in successive numbers of the New Monthly Magazine . Few writers have so enviable a power of communicating the results of great research in a fascinating manner as Mr . ttrodorip . lie is well known as one of our beat and most accurate writers on Natural History ( though a lawyer by profession , and a hard-working lawyer , too ) - , and the volume now before us wtis first collected from tlie scattered numbers in which it ori ginally- came forth , at the recommendation of no less a man than " the great Comparative Anatomist , " Professor Owen . Yet there never was an author with Less of the pedant in him than Mr . Broderip . Some mi ght even object that his style partakes loo much of levity ; but we should not be inclined to set great store by such a criticism , knowing how much knowled ge has sufteredl from being too frequently allied with dulness and pomposity . No one quarrels with the solid worth contained in the Spectator because it is clothed iu the airy gaiety and fascinating grace of Addison andSteele ; and , in this very matter of . Natural History , we should recollect the observation of Johnson when told that Goldsmith was about to write a work on tluit subject : — Why , sir , he will make it as entertaining as a fairy tale . " We will not say that Mr . Broderip has the , literary accomplishments of the gentle , vain , lovable Oliver ; Imfc in other rospeeta he is l ' ar better qualified lor the task h * hand . He bus surveyed the wide field of animated nature with a glance at one < i observant and loving ; and to tUo accumulations of personal observation ho brings all the enrichments that literature can bestow . He is deeply versed in tliose strange old fables Avitli respect to the brute creation which curry us into d region of doubtful shapes , , half real and half imaginary ; and he ciin indicate the boundary line where truth ends and fiction begins . Thus ho discourses of Dragons , lighting up that stupendous subject with quaint gleams
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500 __ _____ __ T _ HJE JL ] frA PJEJj ^ ____ _ ¦ [ No ^ jgg , jVTay _ , 1858 ,
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Leader (1850-1860), May 22, 1858, page 500, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2243/page/20/
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