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500 THE L E _AJDTEJR. __ ___ [^0 ^ 426, ...
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ASPECTS OF PARIS. Aspects of Paris. By E...
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LETTERS FROM CONSTANTINOPLE. In and Arou...
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TUDORS AND STUARTS. Tudors and Stuarts. ...
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MM. BllODERir ON ZOOLOGY. Zoological Rec...
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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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' French Finance A.Nd Financiers. French...
Treating of the new taxes raised during this degraded reign , 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 tlie fifteenth Louis . It was to keep up the Spintrian splendours of the Parc-aux-Cerfs , and to practise the lessons taught by Pompadour , that he exhausted the nation , and helped to ruin the monarchy . The expenditure of the Couvt was not only enormous , it was in great part secret : —¦
Then the finance accounts 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 Napoleon ' 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 indi-¦ vldual independence which are so congenial to a great and gallant people . The nation which , could publicly honour him whom , its master denounced and punished , lad 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 . .
500 The L E _Ajdtejr. __ ___ [^0 ^ 426, ...
500 THE L E _ AJDTEJR . __ ___ [^ 0 ^ , May 22 , 1858 .
Aspects Of Paris. Aspects Of Paris. By E...
ASPECTS OF PARIS . Aspects of Paris . By Edward Copping , Author of " A 16 eri and Goldoni . " Longman and Co . Mr . Copping has 6 lled 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 Tillage of La Varenne , that in which the cliffs of Belleville are 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 presents Here is a paragraph descriptive of the Faits Divers column of a Paris journal : —
You are liurried away , perhaps , on the back of a remarkably fine specimen of the Astracan brehis just arrived at the Jardin dea 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 tlie 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 liarbour at Holyhead , and after recognizing General Walker giving orders for an immediate attack upon ^ Nicaragua , you discover that you arc 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 . Kre you have
recovered from your disgust , 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 Court with unstained hands , and find yourself in Sinithiield rrrarket , where an infamous Englishman is for the hundredth time selling his wife , and thence you arc immediately blown away by a tremendous hurricane from the north-west , which carries you oil" to 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 the end of tlio I'uits Divers J Some of Mr . Copping ' s " facts" are interesting : —
The following is a list of Paris periqdicals at one sou the number : —Le Passe-Temps ( third year" ); Le Roger JSontemps ( second year ); 7 > e Journal ( lit Dimamhe ( third year ) ; Les Cinq Centimes Must-res ( third year ) ; VOmnibus ( third year ) ; La Lecture , Journal da Iiomans ( third year ) . The last two are published twice a week ; all the rest once a week . Here ia the list of Paris periodicals nt two sous the number : —Journal pour Tous ( third year }; La Jtuche . Pariaienne ( second year ); La Lanterne Magique ( second year ); La iSemaine des Enfunta ( second year ); Lc Journal Illustrv des Voyages et ( Us Voyageurs ( first year ); / , e Mme ' e Universel ( first year ) ; UArmc ' e Jllustree ( first year ) ; Le Muse ' e des Sciences ( second year ) ; La Science pour Tous ( second year ) ; Le Vokur ( second year ) . Under another form , and jit another price , this last-named journal has existed upwards of thirty years . Mr . Copping describes the perplexities of a stranger at a loss for a guide to the Paris drama : — &
The playbills afford him but little information . The titles they bear , like titles of another kind , am no indications of merit . Nay , they scarcely give an idea of the nature of the pieces to which they belong . What instruction , for hiNtaiicc , can he derive from such names as " Got out of that , " " Turlututu , " "Hullon , my Little Lambkins , " "The Good Little Fellow ia still Alive , " or "A Million in the Abdomen V " We have found Mr . Copping ' s work very amusing and agreeable .
Letters From Constantinople. In And Arou...
LETTERS FROM CONSTANTINOPLE . In and Around Stamhoul . By Mrs . Edward Hornby . 2 vols . Ucntlcv . Tub recent nmlliplication of light volumes on Turkish manners has been such that iloritl narratives of first impressions can possess little novelty .
The Golden Horn , the Valley of Sweet Waters , Scutari , and the other fix 1 points of observation in and near Constantinople , are familiar to all Kn « l" 1 readers , and what advantage is enjoyed by Mrs . Hornby is attributable t the circumstance that she was enabled to penetrate into all classes of soeiet ° in Eastern Europe—Ottoman , Greek , and Armenian—and to explore the very innermost recesses of harem life . Her ; fund of general information is considerable , and she writes intelligibly as well as carefully . The fn \ x \ t of her desenptions . is . that tliey are frequently tinged by sentimental exa <*« . 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 Lalla , Rook / i glitter and beauty , so that , to interpret these pages literally would be to believe that every Turkish Pacha had anticipated the sumptuousness of the Moham .
medan heaven , and was encircled by a bevy of goddesses , perfect in face 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 "orueous show of "treasures ., from silken Sam-. rrcand , Persia , India , and the ancien t 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 thoroughly charmed Mrs . Hornby . The rest of her narrative is occupied by sketche s 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 unaiFected book . '
Tudors And Stuarts. Tudors And Stuarts. ...
TUDORS AND STUARTS . Tudors and Stuarts . By a Descendant of the Plantagenets . Vol . I . — -Tiulors . Hardwicke . The 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 monomania . The most absurd statements are made without the slightest reference to authority . The " Descendant of the riantagenets" with his visor drawnwhich ,. to say the least , is not courageous—takes up as a personal question
the characters of Richard II ., Uichard III ., Queen Mary , and Ed-ward VI . ; he breaks into the most insane extravagance concerning Charles" I ., and argues that James II . has been libelled out of compliment to George I . The Revolution of 1688 was " the most unnatural usurpation on record , " and Hampden , Sydney , and Lord William Eussell were " three of the most mischievous 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 obtained , but his citations are the most scanty and unsatisfactory conceivable . His invective against
Queen Elizabeth is a mere piece of unjustifiable ribaldry , culminating with the assertion that she was the principal instigator of the massacre of St . Bartholomew . The work professes , so far as it has } -et 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 had but three wives , and was guiltless of the murder of any o ( them , " the crime of slaughtering his " concubines" being apparently less , ia the author ' s opinion , than that of elevating them to the English throne . S \ e have no doubt hut that the " Descendant of the Plantagenets" has made ; i labour of this composition ; but ifc must be regretted that so much enthusiasm has been thrown away .
Mm. Blloderir On Zoology. Zoological Rec...
MM . BllODERir ON ZOOLOGY . Zoological Recreations . By "W . J . llrotlerip , Esq ., F . R . S . Griffin and Co-Ma . Bkoderu * 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 n power of communicating the results of great reseurch in a Jascinating manner us Mr . Urodcrip . He is well known as one of our best and most accurate writers on Natural History ( though a lawyer by profession , ami a hard-working lawyer , too ); and the volume now before us was first collected from the scattered numbers in which it originally 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 . liroderip . Some might even object that his stylo partakes too much of levity ; but we should not be inclined to set great store by siidi a criticismknowing how much knowledge has suffered from being too
iVe-, qucntly allied with dulness and pomposity . No one quarrels with the soli " worth contained in the Spectator because it is clothed in the airy gaiety an < l fascinating grace of Addisou and Steele ; and , in this very matter of-Natiin ^ History , wo should recollect the observation of Johnson when told tliftt Goldsmith was about to write a work on that subject : — " Why , sir , he will make it as entertaining as a fairy tale . " We will not suy that Mr . Broderip has the literary accomplishments of the gentle , vain , lovable Oliver ; hut in other respects he is fit r belter qualified lor the task in hand . He has . surveyed the wide field of animated nature with u glance nt once observant and loving ; and to tho accumulations of personal observation ho brings iul the enrichments that literature can bestow , He is deeply versed in those strange old fables with respect to tho brute creation which carry «?» inl ° region of doubtful shnpes , half real ami half imaginary ; and ho can indicate the boundary lino where truth ends and fiction begins . Thus he discourses of Dragons , f lighting up that tdupcndouB subject with quaint glonn'S
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 22, 1858, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22051858/page/20/
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