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The virtue of arbitrary government is seen in its most advantageous aspect when it wears the mask of justice . To say that it controls the licence of thought and suppresses the anarchy of opinion , is to pay an idle and vulgar compliment lo its most obvious superiority : but it is in its last expression , in the form of a corrupt Tribunal , that it comes home to the admiration of every man whose soul is not sickened by the prejudices of honour and morality .
In August last { Leader , No . 330 ) we were enabled to celebrate ' a great victory for the cause of justice and of free inquiry . ' The battle fought in the French law courts over the literary remains of Lamennais had resulted in a complete -vindication of the rights of his literary executorship . We may be permitted to recal to our readers the circumstances of the case : Instead of his Memoirs ( we quote from the Leader of August 30 , 1856 ) , which he had often been solicited to write , it was the intention of Laniennais to bequeath to the world a complete collection of his letters , as the best possible exponent of his life and character . He made some progress towards the fulfilment of this design during the two or three years preceding his death , and committed its final execution to Emile Forgues , whom he appointed his literary executor by his will , dated December , 1853 . The main provisions made in that document -were but two : Madame Kertangui , the testator ' s niece , was constituted his ' universal legatee ; ' but to M . Emile Forgues
were left the copyrights of one published work , and of articles inserted in various journals , together with certain papers , being the materials which Lamennais had collected and arranged for the projected book of his Correspondence . M . Forgues was expressly empowered to choose out of these materials what he should think fit , and to publish them when he pleased , the testator adding , " My intentions concerning them are sufficiently known to him through the verbal instructions I have given him . " The personal confidence thus implied was emphatically exhibited in another clause of the will . M . Forgues was to share equally with Madame Kertangui or her daughter whatever sums he might realize by their uncle ' s literary bequest , but he was not to be called on for any detailed accounts or vouchers , it being the testator's " express desire that his simple declaration should stand in lien of all accounts for the settlement of the profits to be divided . " So much for the implicit trust reposed by Lamennais in the integrity and discretion of his literary executor . which instituted
We are in no danger of mistaking the animus of the suit was against M . Forgues , nominally by Madame Kertangui , but in reality by her brother , acting as the tool of the Jesuits . M . Forgues had intimated his intention of procuring for publication other letters of Lamennais' besides those which their author himself had collected . This was strictly in accordance with the verbal instructions given by the latter . The instigators of the suit , however , professing to be actuated by a pious regard for the written commands of the deceased , sought to restrain his literary executor from fulfilling the spirit of his will . They stood upon the letter of that document , which entitled their opponent to all the testator ' s papers not of a business nature , and stated that the s « me were to be found partly in a chest and partly in the drawers of a certain bookcase [ ct que Von trouvera enpartie renftrmes dans une caisse , en partie deposes dans les armoires de la bibliotlieque non vitree de mon cabinet ] . This , they said , clearly indicated that M . Forgues ' right of publication was restricted to the papers contained in those two places , and they prayed that he should he forbidden to exceed the limits of his powers as thus interpreted by themselves . The court took a different view of the case , and rejected their demand with costs .
This trial very naturally created an extraordinary sensation in France . But the contradictory result of the appeal will , we dare say , leave a more serious and enduring impression upon the minds of the most indifferent observers of the prevailing regime . Many such victories would go hard with the victors ; we trust they may not live to rue the day in which the last refuge from political tempers was degraded and destroyed . " You have observed , " writes a friend in Paris , " the decision of the Cour Imperiale ( never better deserving that title !) reversing the judgment of the court below , which had confirmed Exui , e Foiujues in his right of publishing the letters of Lamennais at his own discretion . The flagrant iniquity
of this decision may be estimated by simply comparing its terms with those of the will which it annuls both in the spirit and in the letter . It lias been extorted from the weakness of the Bench—after u resistance which surprised a public not yet awaro how pliunt even justice may become—by the Premier President Dki , anglk , to whom , by the way , the character of M . Forguics was personally known , since it was under M . Delanglk that M . Fokcujks had commenced his studies at the bur , and hud won the first honours of a high und pure reputation , to which even the servant of the Empire could not refuse a tribute of respect . " The truth is thai , as in the prod's Vmioix , tho Premier President has seized an opportunity of paying his court to power , and striking two implacable enemies of the present regime in the persons of Lamknnai . n and his lifemry executor .
Such an opportunity of disposing publicly of the consciences of his collengues , and of testifying to his master with what agreeable facility the awkward obstinacy of Law can bo taught to bow with grace—such an opportunity whs not to be lost . Certainly the temptation was great ; yet , if servility were not . bereft of sight , M . Disi . angws might well have hesitated to deliver a judgment directly contrary to tho conclusions of an honest , Avoeat-GtfncYul , and to the decision of the judges of tho lower court . But M , Di > j . angJjU is , no doubt , convinced that an upright judge is an anomaly in a Court where an august will is always . supposed to preside . For tho present ., therefore , M . Fougukh is prevented from exercising tlies full and absolute discretion which Lamknnais , byii special clause in his -will , expressly desired him to exercise , froe from airinterfcreuee , in the publication of his posthumous works . Much of his correspondence , selected from the documents ho left , in order , at his death , will bo published ; but , tliuuks to M . Delangle , a low
precious letters will be wanting to the complete discovery of that lofty genius , and to the full exposition of that noble life . The name of M . Emile Fojrgues needs no adorning , but it will receive new lustre from the courage and fidelity with which he has upheld , in the face of corrupt oppression , the cause of free thought , unsullied honour , and incorruptible integrity , speaking from that pauper ' s grave in which all that was mortal of Francois Lamennais reposes .
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The name of Montaigne is beginning to be often repeated in the French , press , on account , partly , of a very curious circumstance . His Chateau and estate , which were worth sixty thousand francs at his death , are now advertised for sale , and are estimated at five hundred thousand francs . A journalist makes the amusing suggestion that some English lord should effect the purchase and make a present of the property to Dr . Pa yen , as a recognition of his praiseworthy and valuable researches into the biography of the Gascon philosopher . Such English lords , alas ! so disinterestedly over-generous , exist 110 longer , save in the imaginations of French men of letters .
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An interesting discussion has been carried on recently between the Sitcle and some royalist journals on the character of Henri IV . The statue on the Pont Neuf is being undermined . M . Peyrat , writing some weeks ago in the Sii'de on M . Poirson- ' s cumbersome report—it can scarcely be called a history —on the reign of the founder of the Bourbon dynasty , grappled in a remarkably independent spirit with the popular traditions about the good king who thought so much of the soup-pots of his subjects , and stated the final results of modern research . The Henbi IV . of M . Poirson is nothing but the old legendary personage , with a primmer mien and more pedantic step . The Henki IV . of M . Peyrat , who is , perhaps , provoked into a little exaggeration on the other side , is the vert-galant , who threw away his most brilliant
victories in order to hasten back to the lap of the fair Corisandre ; who pardoned all his enemies , and sacrificed all his friends ; and who was so eager for peace and quietness in his amours , that when he might have inaugurated the reign of toleration in France uudcr the impulse of the sceptical indifference of Montaigne , he hastened towards an ignoble abjuration which prepared the way for the triumph of bigotry , and yet did not blunt the dagger of Havaillac . The Royalist writers arc irritated at the clear manner in which the reign oi the Bourbons is shown to have been inaugurated by a perjury , and have sharply attacked M . Peyrat ; but they have found their match . That
vigorous dialectician , instead of retreating , has maintained Ins point in such a manner that he will scarcely be assailed again . The Siecle does itself honour by the publication of such articles . We may also compliment it on the excellent series entitled Le Parti Catholiqiie , by M . Lani'REY , in which the most , urbane and yet destructive wit is directed against the ludicrous faction founded by M . Thiers . The description of the various sections of this so-called ' party' — an unfortunate designation provoking criticism—competing for public notice , and each calling out "Eccoil vero Pulcine / lo" is infinitely comic and damaging . The Political Church will find another implacable but : cautious , and therefore dangerous , adversary iu M . Lanfrey .
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HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY . The Bioy raphical History of Philosophy , from its Origin in Greece down to the Present Day . Hy George Henry Lewes . Library Edition , much Enlarged and thoroughly Revised . J . W . Parker and Son . This volume is not simply a new edition of a woll-known work . While retaining tho substance of his original history , Mr . Lowes , in preparing tho present edition for tho press , has pruned away its occasional redundances , corrected its casual errors , supplied its admitted defect ? , and thoroughly revised tho whole throughout . This revision is indeed bo complete , tho additions thus made are so numerous and extensive , that it would be moro correct to consider it as a new work than as a mere reissue of an old one .
it thus ohitins a distinct recognition , to which n reprint would not bo en titled . Our renders will , however , understand why a notice in tho Leader should bo historical and descriptive rather than critical ; indicating tho general purpose and character of the work rather than pronouncing judgment ; on its special merits . We shall accordingly confine ourselves to 11 general account of the history and of tho main points in which tho now and library edition did ' ers from the popular shilling volumes . Tho Biographical History of Philosophy , as most of our readers will remember , was published , ten years ago iu four successive volumes of Knight s
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* ¦ — - Pritics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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Hay 16 , 1857 . ] T H EJL EADEB , ... _* gg _
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In the few words we dedicated to the memory of Alfred de Musset last week , we made a slight mistake in saying that in his latest volume of poems , published in 1850 , there was nothing that bore a later date than' 39—42 . There are , in truth , some seventeen minor poems in that slender volume , with dates ranging from ' 43 to the year of publication . Among these , the longest are —the stanzas on the death of the Due d'Orleans— " Le Treize Juillet ; " the " Keponse a M . Charles Nodier ; " the ode "A MonFrere , revenant d'ltalie , " and the " Conseils a unc Parisienne . the concluding " Sonnet au Lectcur , " dated January , IS 50 , the poet strikes the key-note of despair : — Kn verite , ce siecle est un mauvais moment .
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Messrs . CiiAriiAN and Hall have published the first instalment of the Memoirs of St . Simon , compressed in an English translation by Mr . Bayle St . John . Mr . St . John ' s plan is to abridge the narrative and to leave the anecdotes to speak for themselves . We shall next week present an analysis of the two volumes , which are a close reduction of nine volumes of the original .
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Leader (1850-1860), May 16, 1857, page 473, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2193/page/17/
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