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attributed to tjo. 461. Janttary 22,185&...
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¦ ORIGIMI CORRESPONDENCE.
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. . ¦ . . ¦ w ¦ ¦ . PBANCE, \Ftom ourown...
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GERMANY. (From our own Correspondent." )...
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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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Attributed To Tjo. 461. Janttary 22,185&...
tjo . 461 . Janttary 22 , 185 & . 1 * PHE XEADBR . 117
¦ Origimi Correspondence.
¦ ORIGIMI CORRESPONDENCE .
. . ¦ . . ¦ W ¦ ¦ . Pbance, \Ftom Ourown...
. . ¦ . . ¦ w ¦ ¦ . PBANCE , \ Ftom ourown Correspondent . *) . Paris , Thursday , 6 p . m . THE PANIC AND THE PRESS . Most men are now agreed that the chance of war this vear has passed away , but they are far from having recovered their confidence in the future . The slightest vaDOuring of a journalist is sufficient to sink the value of ^ ubHc securities below the point they fell to at any period since the establishment of the Empire . True , they recover when the fumes are dissipated . Thus , on Tuesday , Bank stock closed at 3000 fr . to open at 2980 fr . on Wednesday morning , merely because the Presse and the Patrie , that are supposed to be the organs of Prince Napoleon , chose to say that war was postponed . It would hot be ; holding too lofty an opinion of the intelligence of the Emperor to suppose that he regrets the
unsettled situation of the times , and that he would willingly sacrifice no inconsiderable portion of personal dignity to restore public confidence in the . peaceful character , moderation , arid wisdom of his Government , For it is this want of confidence in the . integrity of Ministers , and in the stability of things at home , that has created the panic , and not so much the apprehensions of" war . The withdrawal of savings and the extensive system of hoarding which have commenced , have scared the Ministers and proved , to their complete dissatisfaction , how little all classes here believe in the duration of their Government , and how indifferent people are to its fate . Easy enough has : it been to unsettle public business , which it is now found to be beyond Imperial
power to restore ; for people know-not whom to believe ; No man attaches any credit to asseverations of public journals if they do not accord with the acts of the authorities . And this is precisely the weakest part of the present regime . If the press is enchained to prevent it from criticising Government , it is also powerless to praise and to serve it . Whereas , had it been free , or partially so , the question of war would have been ventilated and the truth made apparent before this time . It is meet retribution . For the present system was founded , on the destruction of the liberties of the press , and its existence is endangered for lack of that discussion and inquiry which a free press alone can provoke and keep up among the public . . . , / ..
THE COUMT A . DE OOBI 2 TEAU ON CUNEIFORM . INSCRIPTIONS . A writer is the Moniteur , who signs himself " C' « A . de Gobineau "—a variante , one would imagine , of gobefnoucke—haa recently favoured the public with his opinion upon the merits , or rather demerits , of English decipherers of cuneiform inscriptions . ' The laboured production is intended as a preparatory flourish to the introduction of a puff of his discovery of a mode of reading these same inciaed . inscriptions . It is a novelty in advertisement literature for a man to sign his reclame in a public journal , and a still greater novelty for it to be admitted into the feuilleton of the Official Journal of the Empire , where people are accustomed to meet with signatures of Theophile Gautier ,
Edouard Thierry , Do Rovray , Edmond About , Henri Murger , and other famous pens . However , there may be aomo doubt whether the novelty will prove profitable to all parties—rto the Count , who pays to exhibit his ill-natured ignorance and vanity in print , and to the proprietor , who sacrifices the independence of his columns to that purpose . Indeed , I see no reason why , following this example , the honourable member for Boston , Professor Holloway , and Messrs . Rowlands , should not avail themselves of the Monitettr's fauilleton to teach the French public what great age may be attained by swallowing Parr ' s boluses—how " alj the ills that flesh is heir to" may bo cured by liberal use of the Professor ' s pills , and how hirsute the incomparable Macassar will make the smoothest faced Gaul that is to be found between the Rhine and the Pyrenees .
Among the discoveries of the Count do Gobineau are these : that in Oriental literature Germany , Russia , and France are superior to England ; and that , although you are . allowed to have " distinguished " men in all matters of Asiatic scionce , you have acquired no pre-eminence in any one , "In truth , aha ( England ) has done in a little way for science , what she attempted in the war ; she has raised at her cost a learned phalanx upon Germanic soil ; but to the illustrious names which sho invokes , the Continent opposes others , as brilliant , merits as truthful , successes as vast and as fruitful . She feols this ,
what is stated be true , would have the incomparable merit to explain , commentate , and corroborate the truths of the Bible . " Before proceeding farther , it may not be inappropriate to remark that when Count A . de Gobineau is instructed to , sneer in the Government paper at our co-operation in the war , it is high time to establish the alliance upon a new basis altogether . Never again , it is to be hoped , will an English Prime Minister involve the State in intimate and entangling alliances with continental Governments . With them there can
be no sympathy nor fellowship . And should an occasion again occur , it is sincerely to be hoped that the British forces , whether naval or military , will have a clear and independent field s unhampered by allies , in order that our noble fellows may not suffer every deprivation and risk their lives to enable others to trade upon their deeds . It is bad enough to have to do the main part of the work while those who looked on get the credit and benefit , but it is adding insult to injury when any gobemouche is allowed to void the bile beswallowed up
our name . Were the Count A . de Gobineau less ignorant than he is , although he has published a work on cuneiform inscription , and possesses a collection of Assyrian Pylinders , he would know that it is not from lack of success in Oriental literature , but because of it * that Englishmen have directed their attention to the study of cuneiform inscriptions . He may also be told that it is not on account of a man ' s modesty and retiring disposition he is to be held less capable than the charlatan who boasts his merits at every corner of the street . When , therefore , the feuilletonnisle va . the Moniteur says that the cuneiform
inscriptions . of Persepolis have been long known ; that it was not an Englishman who revealed them to the world ; that if M . Rich , the British Consul at Bagdad , suggested the vast tumuli in the valley of the Enphrates contained ancient ruins ; he had been preceded by the Abbe de Beauchamp ; that if Mr . Layard was successful in his researches , he had been guided , counselled , and led by M . Botta , who , enlightened by M . Mohl , had opened a hillock before any one ; and that it is in reality M . Botta who revealed to Europe the remains of Mesopotamia , —when these things are said to any one who remembers the circumstahcos , he must be surprised at the artful admixture of truth with falsehood , and astounded
at the audacity with which it is put forth . For when this mendacious ye « i 7 feton met the public eye it was already refuted elsewhere at the Academy of Fine Arts by the candid admissions of M . Jules Oppert , to which I will presently refer . The Count de Gobineau fancies that , he singularly detracts from the merits of Sir Henry Rawlinson when he states that Sir Henry ' s " principles ( for reading cuneiform , inscriptions ) were engrafted on the conjectures of Grotefend . " But , if I remember correctly , not only Sir Henry Rawlinson , but also Mr . Layard and Mr , Fergusson have fully admitted the priority—without
stayclass of monuments" was attributed to King Sargori , which proves the power imagination exercises over science . " Divested of its verbiage , the allegation amounts to this : that to gratify the " Biblical passion" of the English , Sir Henry , Rawlinson has forged a system of translating cuneiform inscriptions . It would be waste of time to point out how absurd , and ridiculous the slander is , and I prefer to show the mendacity of this JhuiUetonniste by reference to the evidence of one of his own countrymen . Almost at the same time that the Comte A . de Gobineau was making such apitiful exhibition of himself , M . Jules Oppert read a paper
to the Acade ' miedes Beaux Arts , in which he stated that the philological demonstration of the mode of deciphering cuneiform inscriptions had been accepted by the learned competent men in all the countries of Europe ; and he referred to the London Asiatic Society having obtained , from four persons working independently of one another , translations of one of the inscriptions of King Tiglatpileser . The four versions were found sufficiently concordant to leave no doubt as to the truth of the system of deciphering . Moreover , M . Oppert gave his translation of the inscriptions on the bulls from Khorsabad , one of which states that Sargon was the founder of the city .. "In the valley , near the beginning of the mountains that stand below Nineveh , I built a city , and I named its name Hisri-Sargon . " He late found
gave a further translation of a gold p xn a stone case at Khorsabad by M . Place , and which was as follows : — - " Palace of Sargon , who is also Belpatissaasour , the powerful king , the king of the world , king of Assyria , who reigned from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the four celestial regions ; he constituted governments in these countries . Then I built , according to my good pleasure , in the country which is near unto the mountains , above Nineveh , a city of which I called the name Hisri-Sargon . " Yet the Comte A . de Gobineau says the name Sargon is an invention to please the Protestantism : of the English . What then about M . Oppert ? Your readers may probably recal to mind an Italian proverb , more vigorous than courteous , as to the value of Counts generally . They cannot be at a loss to whom to apply it in the
present instance . The hostility of the family of the Gobemouches to the progress of Oriental philology is extraordinary and incomprehensible , unless we suppose this same progress be favourable to those who do appeal to the Bible on every fitting occasion , which the Comte A . de Gobiueau says he , and those who think with him , are not accustomed to do ' .
ing to inquire whether it was in conjecture or logical deduction—of the illustrious philbloger of Hanover , and these Englishmen have rendered ample justice to his claims . Nevertheless , this same Count , after claiming all the merit for Grotefend , writes that the instrument which the great German placed in the hands of his learned followers ! is good for nothing ? From this decision it will be readily understood that Count A . de Gobineau has an instrument of his own which he offers for sale , and , like every Cheap John , he seeks to depreciate his superiors if , indeed , any comparison can be instituted between him on one side , and Grotefend , Rawlinson , and Layard on the other .
The most impudent scandal-monger must look now for a pou stou , be it never so small and unsubstantial , whence , he may deliver himself ; and the Count has discovered that it is the English love for the Bible which render * Grotofend's system worthless ! " The Biblical passion has not been one of the least causes that have prevented British savants from using their judgment freely : it has driven them to wander further and further from the right road . They have worked to find , and been constrained to discover , so to say , that which the English public wished to have . To nppear to hesitate would have been to lose , perhaps , the good graces of this rother domineering public . Popularity imposes great obligations and sometimes costs dear , as has been the case under the present circumstances . It was laid down in principle at London that the monuments found on the soil of ancient Assyria , from the mountains to the
north of Mosul up to the Persian Gulf , belonged to those ancient and famous empires , which wore already flourishing when Abraham and his tribe loft the mountains of Chaldoa . The thomo proposed was to discover in tho exhumed texts tho remembrance of all the kings named in tho Bible , and a mention of tho acts attributed to thorn . In short , all that was desired was an archwojogical amplification of a well-known thomo . Tho English public asked for nothing more , but hold essentially to have it . Learned men made It their duty to obey the wish , A monument was presented contemporaneous with a king who ought to have { known Abraham . There wore read to the . public the memoirs of Sennacherib , written by himself ; also a mass of Inscriptions of Nabuohadonosor ; arid lastly , a certain king , Sargon , having been named by Isaiah , ho must not be forgot ton : and a whole
ana , probably from this motive , has turned her attention , w real passion and Interest , to the cuneiform monuments of Assyria and Persia— -a now ground , whore all the palms remain to bo cullod . There she sot up « rs . fc of all the , pretension to bo the first-come and the apininatrlco . Sho wished to , and will have it thnt oho aw , Invent the modes of deciphering actually employed , one vaunts them , and finds them excellent , because iney have been published by one of her sons . Lastly , w * Pr otestant nation , And It is this perhaps which * ouo *«* her most nearly In this kind of work , sho b proua of having found so many monuments which , if
Germany. (From Our Own Correspondent." )...
GERMANY . ( From our own Correspondent . " ) January 18 tb , 1859 . If happy is the nation whose history is dull , trulyhappy are the Germans at the present time , for her daily historians , the newspaper press , are particularly tedious just now . Their readers have learnt more about India and England within the last two weeks than they have about their own country . What with the frightful information respecting the homeless poor of London and the degenerate condition of England ' s wooden walls , poor old England appears to have hardly a leg to stand upon ; and a great deal of ominous head-shaking and shoulder-shrugging is the consequence here . Disliked though England be , her utter dovrnfal is not desired .
It is true , the London correspondents of the German papers , who , by the way , dwell on the map of London merely , and are frequently not even quite at * courant there , are somewhat puzzled at finding terrific pictures of starving wretchedness and luscious letters and leading articles upon dinner giving in one and the same impression . On one page all London is represented as dying of hunger , and on the other all London is complaining of too many ways and means , and too little wit to gratify satiated palates . We cannot wonder if foreigners do not understand us . The firm of Brockhaus are , doubtless , highly delighted at the notice taken by the Thnea and Sir C- Napier of tho article which appeared in their "Conversations Lexicon . " No quantity of flattery would ever have profited them to such an extent . Columns of advertisements would not have done so much for tho Barnumian Brookhaus' speculation . _ The
British Mawworm is beginning to be understood here . "Ah , I knows you despises me , but I likes to be despised . " Truth , though it bo uttered in spite and envy , is advantageous ; " dock ullzuoiel iat ungeaund — - too much is sickening , and I think you , gentlemen of England , who scold at homo at ease , might have some little pity upon us boyond tho seas , for if you in England like to bo dospisod , we abroad don ' t ; at least X don't , and I judge of tho feelings of others by my own . I do not like tho treatment that tho neat Irishman ovinced towards his friend and countryman whom he mot in n tent at Donnybrook fair . English orators , editors , and novelists ought to reflect that the English tongue is now a world-wide one , and that not long hence it will bo tho universal one . Let truth , by all means , bo made public to the world , but only tho truth — the simple truth , and nothing but tho truth . I venture to nirtko U « 080 remarks bocauso both uewspwpor and people
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1859, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22011859/page/21/
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