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- " ¦ ¦ ¦ m m& THE IiEAPE^R. [No.¦ 284, ...
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THE BULGARIAN, THE TURK, AND THE GERMAN-...
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A BATCH OF BOOKS. The Reign ofTerror; or...
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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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The History Op Napoleon Bonaparte. The H...
" plowed , " " maneuver , " & c , & c . And then there are certain pet epithets al & phrases which recur again and again . Throughout the first volume Napoleon is ever introduced with a " pale brow and feminine appearance ; fitombis " emaciated frame" issue " trumpet-toned" proclamations , bulletins , and speeches : in every battle he " hurls" his " bleeding , mangled columns " at some very obstinate enemy ; and . the weapons of this " bleeding , mangled soldiery" are always " dripping , " while in naval combats the decks are invariably " slippery with gore . " The assault at Acre began with " dripping sabres and bayonets , " and was maintained with " sabres and dripping bivonets . " In India , " English soldiers , with unsheathed swords , ever
dripp ing with blood , hold in subjection provinces containing uncounted ffiillums ' of inhabitants . " And at Waterloo—where the English were defeated— " Blucher and Wellington , with their dripping swords , met , with congratulations , in the bloody arena . " It is pleasant to turn from these gloomy images to contemplate Mdlle . St . Simon , " a graceful and fragile maiden , " interceding for her father ' s life ; but it is still more pleasant to lay aside the book for ever , after cutting out the engravings , and so bid a long ¦ adieu to Mr . Abbott and his " trumpet- toned" periods .
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The Bulgarian, The Turk, And The German-...
THE BULGARIAN , THE TURK , AND THE GERMAN-* The Bulgarian , the Turk , and the German . By A . A . Paton . Longman and Co . Mr . Paton allows his personal narrative to be absorbed in a pamphlet . He has few incidents to relate , and , therefore , takes a generous latitude of declamation . But , in a book with such a title , we have a right to look for some illustrations of national character , some social criticism applied to the varied population which spreads from the Rhine to the Danube , and from tlie Danube to the Dardanelles . Here is a subject for an observing and philosophical writer . The German people is that 1 which now , amid the commotions of the old world , thinks most deeply , and reposes most securely on the hope of the future . The Bulgarian sees his race aspiring to an independent destiny . The Turk is on the debatable land of Europe , and has reached that point in his history when he mtist decay or rise renewed . And and
Mr . Paton sojourned among these nations , talked with their ministers -chiefs , saw the latest development of their energies , and heard them judging of the Russian war and its results , and yet he indites a volume of feeble and -affected commonplace about the high policy of Lord Aberdeen , the musical compositions of Lord Westmorland , the table-gossip of the aristocracy , and other trivialities , fit only for the tittle-tattle of a private letter . This is , ¦ indeed , the way of one who has opportunities only to waste them , and who makes no other use of experience than to natter his own self-esteem . For , if we must deal justly with Mr . Paton , we have to describe his work as a dreary ^ amp lification of self-lov * . Mr . Paton is the main idea . He lauds himself in every allusion to a friend , in every pompous epigram , in every harsh antithesis , in all the wanderings of his rhetoric , as he enlarges on the titles and qualities of his " worthy friends . " Not that he comes to the point and . sings a paean over himself , after the heroic manner of Mr . Samuel Warren , but a number of individuals are introduced , with the dignities of
Peers , Pachas , or Princes , and each of these is made , by an account of his . assiduous politeness to Mr . Paton , to demonstrate how far honoured he feels by that gentleman ' s acquaintance . In return for so much affability , Mr 3 ? atpn takes the glorious company of statesmen and diplomatists under his protection . If there be in Europe a man who has sunk his name by incapacity , or sullied it by public crimes , or rendered it unpopular by acts of an equivocal colour , that man becomes at once the object of our author ' s solicitude . In the right , or in the wrong place , he speaks of him ; and if he cannot defend his character , praises his conversation ; or , if his obvious qualities are of a low order , ascribes to him secret merits of the very highest . The style in which he patronises Lord Westmorland must be peculiarly agreeable to that nobleman . His lordship " has not a voluble facility and precision of expression , " but " as acquaintance rolls on it is easy to see that his mind goes straight to the quintessence of a question "—an ingenious mode of reminding the reader that Mr . Paton is quite on familiar terms with the British Minister at Vienna .
An American lady , a few months ago , published a delicate panegyric on ¦ the personal appearance of the Earl of Derby , and brought it to a climax by saying that he had all the elegance of an accomplished waiter . Exactly -similar , though less entertaining , is Mr . Paton ' s style of showing off Ins friends . It is refreshing to read the passage in which it is recorded that he ( Mr . PatonXwas good natured enough at Schumla , where he was entirely beyorjd the range of lorgnettes in the Embassy box at [ the Grand Opera , to consort with individuals " of the democratic persuasion" and " got on pretty well with them , all things considering . " After this , why not go as a missionary to the cannibal Kaffirs beyond Waterkloof ? They also are savages , and it needs the suavity , the considVrateness , the forbearing disposition of a man like Mr , Paton to combat their errors without provoking their ferocity .
To resume , however , with a topic suggested by Lord Westmorland ' s defect—that he is not voluble or precise in his expressions . We doubt whether Mr . Pnton be a competent judge ; at least , we refer to " precision " of language , for we are jealous of no gossip's claim to the merit of volubility . It is garrulity deprived of its humour—and is a characteristic frequently discovered by sextons , showmen , street-ranters , and the orators of itinerant quackery . With " precision" we associate truth , grace , and power , and our readers shall judge , from a specimen or two of Mr . Paton ' s most -emphatic diction , whether he possesses the style of which he . laments a want in tho Earl of Westmorland . That diplomatist , a patron of the elegant
arts , is not an advocate of continental liberalism , for to be such would be " to perpetrate the most screeching discord in ethnical history . " We submit that this is not precise but ridiculous , and it is an example of the false , coarse , and conceited style , in which the whole volume is written . Mr , Paton has a notion , of which more presently , that theftA . nglo-Saxon is the onlv ' rnce fitted for political freedom . With a people of steady , tolerant , aha phlegmatic character " a large and liberal measure of self-government is both safe and normal . " To such " constitutional liberty may bo conceded " ( by whom ?) , because they have " an inherent cement . " In such phrases
we perceive only an effort , absurd and distressing , to compose s mart , new , curious sentences , and this is another indication of that torturing selfexaltation which forces Mr . Paton to forget the Bulgarians , the Germans , the Turks , that he may reflect upon himself and compensate for his want of observation . At Berlin , for example , Mr . Paton tells us , that he had a long conversation with Lord Bloomfield . Why is this told ? That we may learu our Prussian envoy ' s op inions on any subject ? No , but that we may be informed of Mr . Paton ' s conversations with Lord Bloomfield , since the report of it merely is " least said is soonest mended , " a mystic sentence , interesting us to know what it was that Mr . Paton heard at Berlin !
With dislike and weariness we follow him through chapters of this obsequious self-attention , written , like the Diary of Tom Moore , in humble acknowledgment of aristocratic civility . For the book is full of contrasts . Proud of himself , our author is more proud of his friends , and contrives to reconcile a minute description of their courtesies with the body of tropes and figures , in which he exhausts his opinions on events and parties in Europe . Parallel with his lordly allusions to the high-bred , are his invectives against the low-born , who dare , unless they are Anglo-Saxon to the heart , to think themselves qualified to manage public affairs . After all his travels , Mr . Paton is an islander in prejudice . He has oppressed his intellect with certain Cockney epigrams about foreigners , and thinks that the French and German nations are only capable of existing so long as they have
a single will to prescribe the order of their lives . There is this manifest absurdity in the idea : that , whereas Germany and France have not a class of citizens capable of voting rationally at elections , they are certain to produce men with all the qualities of genius , learning , and virtue , necessary for them to determine wisely the opinions , acts , and conditions of millions of the human race . Marshal St . Arnaud is Mr . Pat & n ' s ideal of a hero . The present French Emperor he considers a greater man than his uncle . Prince Metternich seems to him the incarnation of statesmanship , and he ( the author himself ) the representative of all philosophy . For , while he explodes in terms of gratuitous malevolence against every liberal man or section of men in Europe , Mr . Paton announces himself to be a liberal , though Ins liberalism is evinced by ung enerous sarcasms on , the failure of every liberal movement that has recently been attempted in Christendom .
To force these views upon his reader , Mr . Paton states , gracefully enough , that they are the views of all persons who have travelled extensively , studied deeply , or reflected rationally ! Ma y we modestly doubt it ? There are travellers , and not a few , who have seen more of the world than this writer , and whose knowledge and judgment are at least equal to his , who have come to opposite conclusions . As we have said , indeed , his politics are the most confined . * He reasons as if there were none sober-minded , no , not one , out of the limits of the Anglo-Saxon race . This , let us say , is a home-bred , insulaiycontracted form of thought , astonishing in a traveller , unless that traveller , like Mr . Paton , has accustomed himself to set down half of humanity as a composition of idiots , incapables , and slaves , fit only for
tutelage , and to be " pulverised into infinitesimal atoms' whenever they interfere with the action of " a set of men" assuming to control them . Sucii a writer should take an example from his fellow tourist , a religious lecturer who was seized at Naples , and thrown into jail , on the charge of having a revolutionary cockade in his writing-desk . The cockade turned out to be a two penny pen-wiper , of red and blue cloth , and the doctor was released . Many of Mr . Paton ' s bugbears are cockades of red and blue cloth , which would alarm none but a Neapolitan policeman , or a declaimer with a taste for political foppery . There is no foppery in the statement of a public question , will Mr . Paton reply ? Possibly so ; but what is it to meet the Honourable Mrs . Norton at an hotel , and to call her " the salt of the earth "
— " Corinne and Re " camier rolled into one ? ' If this is not puerility , Mr . Paton is a solid writer ; but if it is , his book contains so much that is similarly weak , or similarly offensive that we must pronounce it , from beginning to end , a mistake and a failure .
A Batch Of Books. The Reign Ofterror; Or...
A BATCH OF BOOKS . The Reign ofTerror ; or , the Diary of a Volunteer of the Year IT . Translated fromtlie French . By Samuel Copland . W . and F . G . Cash . The Rag-Bag , a Collection of Ephemera . By N . P . Willis . New York : Charles Seribner . Out-doors at Idlewild . By N . P . Willis . New York ; Charles Scribuer . The Story of a Nun . A Novel . By Mrs . A . Crawford . Thomas Cautley Nowby . The Dwarf ; or Mind and Matter . By E . L . A . Berwick , Esq . Thomas Cautloy Neivby .
An historical character , often quoted for the wisdom of his remarks , although a royal personage and a Jew , had reason to complain many centuries ago that " of ' the making of books there was no end . " Ir the nuisance was sufficiently great to excite peevishness in Solomon , some indulgence is due to ourselves if we display an equal degree of petulance under a far larger amount of provocation . At the heading of this notice we have placed tho titles of five new works , all of which we can honestly recommend to line trunks or wrap up cheese and bacon . But we protest against this waste of paper at a time when that useful commodity is becoming rare and expensive . Nor do we recognise any man ' s right to insult the understanding and occupy the scanty leisure of his neighbour by selfish exhibitions of intellectual vanity . To pass , however , from general denunciations to particular charges , we
summon before the bar of public opinion the author , the translator , and the editor of the Diary of a French Volunteer—it is a" triune productionand we demand to know how long the patience of the general reader is to be abused by the Catilines who conspire against sound and healthy li tfj " literature . The Diary is simply on attempt to string together a certain number of very common-place incidents in an egotistical style , for tho glorificationyof tho hero , a curious compound of bravery and cowardice Whenever Alexis meets a stranger , which happens about every other page , the latter becomes violently prepossessed in his favour , and straightway relates the most secret particulars of his life . His only friend , however , is « u Herculean soldier , a ci-devant friar , who walks up and down the streets o
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 1, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01091855/page/18/
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