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A 2HA.Y GARLAND. * volume of
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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rifle , the Whitwoktbc rifle , and the Minie rifle , and the man is M .. Minie himself . Redoubtable Blanohajid has been in M . Minie s workshop at Vincennes , where he teaches the . famous Chasseurs the use of the rifle , and saw him there filing or forging in his shirt sleeves . Thi re -was a little forge at hand , and on all sides were bits of armourer ' s machinery . The idea of attempting improvements in fire arms had struck M . Minie many years ago . He had begun by learning particulars of everything that had already been done ; he had also mastered all the details of the gunmaker ' s trade ; he had become a working man , able to carry out his own ideas ; he could fashion eveiy part ot a , rifle . Louis Philippe had rather discouraged than encouraged with dismissal
him in his pursuit , and threatened the innovator . " Officials , " says B . J ., " resent , the disturbance of familiar routine The man with an idea is avoided rather than courted . Martyrdom and Minie had almost become alliterative companions . Thus is it ever ! , ¦ - » , , ¦ « - „ Napoleon the Third has acted better towards M . Minie than the citizen-king . M . Minie enjoys free access to the Emperor , sits down with him at the breakfast-table . On one occasion , when he sent a rifle to the Emperor , he received an acknowledgment in the shape of 20 , 000 francs from the privy purse .. M . Minie is always the same man ; his idea is ever before bini . The perfection of arms is the devouring passion of bis life . Always attempting something new—always practising bis arms , he may , dayproduce a great result . . ' ¦ ' '
any , .. _ , , , Very interesting is the conversation that B . J . had with M , M . Seek it , however , in the book . The story of the foreign legends of France is next told . France had derived great advantage from the employment of foreign troops . In estimating the glory of the first empire , most writers have neglected the claims of foreign battalions to a large share of it . Of these the Swiss have been the bravest . At the present time France does not employ mercenaries , as in the days of Louis XTV \ ; she has now only her foreign legions , which has won its glory in useful works , promoting Algerian colonisation . This legion has included French officers of distinction , and among these we find the name of Canrobert , The whole of this chapter merits careful perusal .
And now we meet the Zouave , with his bronzed features , his oriental gait , and his Turkish dress . His name is derived from the Arabic Zouaoua , the appellation of a valiant tribe , or rather a confederation of tribes , that inhabit the most distant passes of the Juxjura . The Zouaves originally consisted of Parisians and natives of ¦ this country surrounding Algiers . They soon began their experiences ; for they had not been enrolled more than six weeks when the general in command included them in the first expedition to Medeah . They received their " baptismal fire"in the defile of Mouzain , a spot they were destined to redden with their blood and make memorable by their valour . The Zouave costume is considered at the present moment by high military authorities as at once the most striking- and the most convenient soldier ' s uniform in Europe . The Zouaves are remarkable in the thick of a fight ; but they are equally so when campaigning , for they carry but little baggage , and turn everything on their way to good account . They are the first to have fires , the first to repair torn garments , the first to have a provision of wood . With a few onions and some bacon
soup is made . If there be no wine leit the bread is soaked m coffee- Spirited and picturesque is the account given by B . < T . of the Zouave . Scarcely inferior to it is the chapter on the Chasseurs of Vincennes . There is also an eminently characteristic and instructive chapter on Marshal de St . Arnaud . Take a passage from this exciting section . " It would bo impossible for tho most skilful novelist , for the most practised and successful elabomtor of dramatic inoidents to exceed in tragio power the effect De St . Arnaud ' s correspondence baa upon the mind of the attentive reader . With all tho charm of familiar plcneantriea—unguarded verdicts on xnon and ovents—playful endearments , realiflinK most complotoly the strictly private naturo of theso letters now
given to the world—there is a dark figure in the book-ground , to which tho eye turns constantly . This figure—struggling with an inexorable disease , impelled hither and thither by an ambition that know no bounds ; heroically rising to do battle , with tho livid hues of death upon its brow—is that of the Marshal . If in the early passages of his trenaenaoua story there be points certainly blamcable—if , us on slender authority it is asaerted , ho acted a poor part as tlio spy upon a royal la ( j y—if , in Decerabor 1851 , he earned the execration of the French party against which he aoted—wo can hardly consent to boar even fuults bo grave in mind , in the presonoo of that death-bed after tho grout Crimean victory . No man ever played out his story with a courage more constant , with a perseverance in tho face of didloulties , inoro heroic . He committed political errors , from ono point of viovv , undoubtedly ; but the oorreepondonoo , which we havo examined at groat
length , and at vrhioh -we are about to take a parting glanoe , goos to prove that these errors were the effeofc of defeotive eduoation and faulty logic , and not of a cold-blooded jobbing with , tho dostinios of his oountry . Wo niuet look at tho Marshal as a soldier , and not as a politician . Ho disliked tho business of the cabinet , and longed for the military command of Algoria ; but whoa i ' orood into tho ministry , he wont to work as he nnd been aoouatomod to-labour in tho camp . Ho . wns , porlmpa , a sabroitr ^ oi ! a ferocious ntiunp , but lie playod his gnmo when Franco ' -wanted , n sabronr . Ho inl ' usod Imh Bpiriti and his courag ' o into ovory department of tho publio eervioe with whioli lio enmo iu contact . Ho fuocd doiith ¦ without -tho movement , of a musolo , nyicl snntohod from lts ' ghii&I . Iy flncera tho laurels that go to ninliii a marshul , imd to finish tho flcuro of a military hero . Ho lovod his country , ns ovory man mueli love the land where his glory grow , and for which hie «« "S ° ™ ^ 'oro encountered . He wns » u anti-republiqan , if one ever breathed ; but ho
was an open , even a careless foe . He attacked the Republic when it commanded the army in which lie served . He \ vas inexorable in punishing its extravagant defenders , when they fell within his power . He could never realise the picture . of France at once republican and glorious . Whether this leaning from the Republic towards the privileged classes—towards a strong and despotic government—be evidence of a clear mind or proof of a weak one , is a nice point ; but it is one beyond the limits of . the subject with which we are dealing . The despotic side was natural to De St . Arnaud ' s birth , Ins education , and his profession . We now turn to the closing pages of this correspondence , ¦ with the remark , due to the Marshal ' s memory , that there is nothing in all these letters to prove that he was a dishonest politician , while there is copious evidence of the greatness of his soul and the soundness of his heart . He was a doting father , a most attentive and tender husband , and a model brother . These may be minor , qualities' iu the estimation of a public inan according to sonae authorities , but we are inclined to regard them as lights by which we are enabled to see truly the honesty of the minister and the merits of the soldier . " Caustic , indeed , is B . J . in comparing , or rather contrasting the very different manners in -which French officers and English officers are made . Lord Tuppingham stands as the type of the latter— -the spoiled child of rank and wealth , learned in nothing , and misdoing everything that he attempts . The French officer has been practically educated for his profession—can make his own clothes—can make his own bed . He sympathises -with Ms men as a fellow workman . " You will find a lieutenant and a sergeant arm-in-arm On ! the heights of Boulogne , or drinking Lyons beer together at the Grau de Ifatfe , or arguing -warmly over a game of dominoes . On the march you-will see them chatting together . A French officer has a polite -word for every inquirer . " Mr . Jerrold we take it , has -written this book , to inflame England with a noble envy . France is a great military nation ; England may become so . This book has been -written to show the -way to such a desirable consummation . ' ¦¦'• ¦¦
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Tn T ; WU 1 K U 1 U 9 I'Utl-UUi 13 Hi t vjju ^^ vj it' -vijT " »»" yet rejoices in the -spring of ' life , and would cnll on others to partake . her youthful delights . Her poems arc divided under several heads , namely . '' Religious and Moral Poems , " " Songs b , \ - the Sea , " " Shakspeare ' s Heroines , " " Scenes and Hymns of Life , " ' - ' Lays of Love , " and ' Miscellaneous Melodies . " There is much , merit in some of these effusions , and a tendency to finish , which we hope to see improve . At present her verse is faulty ; not always certain , of its feet . 1 Jut there is fire and ambition . Let us test her powers Avith one . of her Skakspeare heroines . We premise thallo her four heroines she has accorded differently-coloured eyes . To Ophelia violet ; to Juliet hlue , to Desdcmona black , and to } 'kla brown . Well , we will take her brown-eyed beauty . VIOLA . Oh sho was rich in beauty ' s rarest dower Her chesnub hair was banded in fair braids , From her white brow ; and in long massy waves Fell looped up with a golden arrow there . Her spiritual brown eyes Upturned , gazed in your face ; as softly trembled The yielding lyre ' s light wire beneath her fingers . Thti ripe carnution ' s mirrored loveliness Suffused her snowy cheek and forehead o ' er : In her small ears were hung two matchless pearls , And moored in safety on hoi' heaving' breast , A rich gold cross laid like a charmed barque . Bofore her luy somo poems sho had ponnocl : Tuning hex * lyro she sung their numbers sweetly ; Then proudly sho looked up ; and arched her nock To soo if aught but silence was a listener ? . Hero at any rate is si conunund over poetic ( lieti ^ n . These four portraits , indeed , show a gift of iumgiuution ; nncl we should thinh that in nurrativo poetry the authoress would sut'ccedhidistmguishinH ; character . Of her lyrical and descriptive powurn tliu following is i \ favourable specimen / : — STANZAS . Composed while sailing up the Orwell . Sailing on tho sapphire sen , In this gay barque rao rrily j While above us , in its glue , Waves St . George a ban nor free ! l ^ lng of England ' s noblost eon , When will thy day ' s work bo dono ? Foromoafc for tho good to fight , — Forjompst in tho cause of right , — Waving o ' ov thy rosy daughters , Sailing o ' er those suinmor waters : How thy l'ed cross wivvoth high ! Up againsfc tho oloar bluo sky i Tlirough tlio banks of twinkling ilowt'i-s , Through t ho green onnmollod bowers ; On wo go in plehsuro l'roo , Bird-like in oviv liberty . On thy banl < 8 , ho like tho llliino , Gleam old oast led walls sublime s Shadowing the sunboiun ' u way , Down in wutors fur uway . t / iu
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* AAfMitarlanils or , W < H /« M « t'htrei' «> ^ at ^ mUn « pring of life . " l * y . Tull . i 8 . lilott , W . ICont < b Co .
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gig The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Sept . 22 , 1860
A 2ha.Y Garland. * Volume Of
A HAY GARLAND . *
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 22, 1860, page 818, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2366/page/10/
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