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M. LOms BLANC'S REVELATIONS.*
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E-ECEOT HISTORIES.*
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worship . We do not doubt it . Has our author any idea that not a Sunday passes ' .-. but what some policeman comrnences a proems faerhal— verbal indeed—against sorne unfortunate tavern-keeper who allows beer to be drawn one miniite before one or after eleven p > m . on Sundays ? If , as our author sti ^ s , and we do not doubt it , our " . tradesman retires on Sunday tq 'is ' ouse hat 'Aekriey , or ' Amstead , 'Oxton or 'Ammersmith , " to follow dear Mr . Silyertongue to chapel , and to hear 'im preach a most beautiful sermon , so as to be sent ' ome to his bit o' roast pork in a ' appy state of mind ; " surely even he will : allow that the Parisian tradesman hopes also to enjoy his rus inwrbe in the Bois de Boulogne , or at Passy , or elsewhere . He , also , if he be not an infidel , has his mild religiotis excitement under the Rev . Pere Langue-d ' argent also . Cockneys are cockneys
all over the world , and hard-working ? citizens ' no doubt live in glass houses . It is cruel—it is more than that ,. it is wicked—to take , as this author has done , one set of statistics—those of crime—and to seek to prove by them that his own country is by far the worst in the world . The English , with all their vices , have not that of excessive self-praise . We are the Lest abused people in the world ; not by others only , but chiefly by ourselves . We are continually grumbling and . finding fault with , and , thank God , mending our ways ; but to make us mend them we must have truth at the bottom of the complaint . Our vices , like our virtues , are very apparent . We trumpet them in the newspapers ; we make political -capital out of them ; we multiply statistics to show what thiev _ es , what poor , what misery , what . Crime we have ; but we do , it not with
the purpose of parading , but remedying our state . This author does so in a manner as false and stupid as it is ' cruel , and is obliged to contradict in one page what he sets down in a former one . He has advertised a political and serni :-religious treatise under a false name ; he has poisoned his avrow , and drawn it to the head with the purpose of giving a deep wonnd to Protestantism . But he has missed his mark . If he sketches , as he does , one infidel lecturer that we have , he is obliged to own that the lecture does not pay . and that the audience are ignorant and few . If he quotes an advertisement of a prize fight , he must own that that amusement decreases ; if he talks about brutality , he" -must ' . know-that it is less frequent , and only dragged into sight by vigilant societies and police . He does not mention that Papistical countries boast also their infidels ,
that they have ever been most fertile of them ; that they-have their bull fights arid other brutalities ; that their prostitution is more wide ; their charity less general . He is afraid to go into the open day to quote the broad distinctions between Protestantisin and Papacy . He knows that ev / en his own book could not be issued under Papal rule without an imprimatur , or the free scissors of the censor . He knows , also , that progress , a free press , a constitutional g-overnment , a reverence for property , for law , a love of order , peace , and general security—live here and in Protestant countries . He knows , also , such things do not exist in favoured Rome ( where " the Pope has built model lodging houses" ) nor in Franco , where they lately closed ! a Protestant church . He knows all this well enough but he chooses to look at the small . stains-which abound
in our social system , and which have abounded , and will abound in every social system in the world , past , present , and to come . At a time when the Papacy is on its trinl before the world , when its head is in great tribulation , its governments are weighed and found wanting ; its princes the only disturbers of peace ; its bishops the loudest demagogues and greatest traitors ; its people generally debased and ignorant , the sordid and blind only content , the good longing for a , change— -this writer has chosen to assault his own country , to decry her civilization and to deny her Christianity , But " Oh , " cries old Burton , r—" oh , that Peter and Paul had been alivo to wnttcn
hear this 1 " The failure is lamentable . Few inenoouUl have so stupid a hook . The author has squirted his garden engine at the SMn , but ho has not yet' put it out . He will only deceive the race of novel readers by his ' title , that is all . Mr . Thaqkoray , in one of his early illustrations in " Punch , " pictures the disappointment ' of two Lisbon longshoremen who had picked up a floating" bottle , in which owe of our societies , debarred from other dutmncq , had packed u tract . , At a distance he cries , " Bvandy , I hope " nearer , it is ' Sherry , ! four ; " when uncorked , he shouts , with disgust , " Tracts , by Jingo 1 " So our beguiled readws will hope for something delectable , and find , after all , that they hui " ve only certain papistical " undercurrents , " the bearing of which will bo perceived , simply for the book to be ' ? overlooked ! "
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flVHE part which has been taken m , regard to tlio cause or . - * t liberty toy the head of the groat house of Phipps , however much-it may ' have been criticised , cannot be doemtid surpvi » ing by those who remember the prejudice and misstatoments which Lord Normanby lavished upon the French 'Revolution of 1 H 48 , and the loading actors in that groat national drama . Consistent his lordship at least is , in his views of good government nnd patriotism ,
arid therefore Jticasoli nnd Ifarim must npt expect to stand higher jri the mavq . uis ' s estimation than M . Louis Blanc and his followrepublicans . Every one is ( Roomed to crosses in this world however , and Lord Normanby is not without his mortifications in the shape of flnfc contradictions to hiB accounts of foreign © vents ; indeed , only » few days haVe elapsed sineo we read tho sturdy Jtulian baker ' s refutation of the marquis ' s version pf recent transactions in Tuscnny . ' ' -PUo two volumes before us are a French translation of
M . Louis Blanc's work , published in London , and in our own . language , two years ago ; and , so far as Lord Normanby is concerned , do not contain any additions of importance to the signal castigatiqn bestowed upon the noble peer in the English work . The author has , nevertheless , greatly increased and enriched ' the work by amplifying his account of the ; eventful period during which lie took a prominent part in public aiFiiirs , and by much valuable and eloquent matter upon the present state of French , politics . The most conspicuous and important statement in this new issue is that um'eilirig the intrigues of the Bonapartists during the fearful insurrection of Juiie , 1 SJ . 8 ; and documents are given which show the determination of Louis Napoleon , at that time , to lay the foundation of his power by corrupting the chiefs of the army . The story of the" Insurrection de la Faim" is now written at much greater length , and is full of tragic interest ; apart from its political importance the descriptive vigour and the nervous eloquence of the author render it difficult to lay aside the book till we come to the end of the terrible narrative . Strong iu his own integrity , and feeling intensely the justice of his cause , M . Louis Blanc pours a torrent of sarcasm and invective against the ruler whose iron despotism , in his opinion , is repressing the energy and crushing the hupes of his native country ; and , though Louis jNTapoledn has succeeded in creating a more favourable impression upon the opinion ; of most Englishmen than he has upon that of our author , few readers will be able to resist the brilliancy of his eloquence or the charms , of .-his clear and elegant style . Allusions are frequently found in his pages to the noble position which'free England holds among the nations , and we congratulate ourselves upon 'haying 1 amongst tis a Freuclunan capable of understanding and of judging without prejudice our national character and our peculiar institutions . M . Louis Blanc , indeed , has lived so long with us as to become half naturalised as a citizen of our free community ; liis logic bears an almost British stamp , and his sentiments are marked by English heartiness j he has acquired no inconsiderable portion of the solidity of our nation , while sacrificing no particle , of the espt ' it which belongs par excellence to his own .
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A GOOD , book is- a living- tiring . There is a pulse or vitality each sentence , each member of a sentence . There are motion and warmth in the very vyords . There is also , underlying the whole literal expression , a pre . v « tiling idea—a pervading . . principle , which associates with itself , and with one another , an aggregate of facts , and makes them illustrative of a law .. Professor iniies , of Edinburgh , has given to the world a portly volume , ostensibly on Scottish history , but truly on the growth of order and authority in Europe , comrnencing 1 with Charlemagne , which the serious historical student will find anything biit dry reading . There is indeed much of the manner of lively discourse about i % > ' Perhaps'this may . be the result of the sketches that compose the work bavin * been originally prepared for lectures to a class in the university to which the Professor is attached . At any rate , here we have a charming , andin spiritan original book .
, , Professor Innes deals with general history , before ( to use a Scotch phrase ) he condescends to the special history which it serves to introduce . We have much about Charlemagne , and the consequences of his avatar to Europe , It is owing , Mr . limes tell bus , to Jus wisdom and vigour , and to the success of the party of Avliich he was the leader sind type , not only that the Geniianic race is lord of the ascendant in Europe , but , perhaps , that Europe has set up the standard of mind against brute 'furce—¦ hits identified . its existence with Christianity , instead of the wor .-hip of the groves and of Odin , or the . doctrine of the prophet of Islam . -Chiirlemagrie , however , Jilce Mohammed , converted with the sword . The rude freemen oi Suxoijy long resisted " the soft persuasion of the sabre ; " Some Take tale
yielded to other teaching , but not without difficulty . a told of Kadbod , a tierce -chief of the Frirtians , who had withstood ' the arms / of Pepih Hevistal , but was at length almost gained over to Christianity , by the persevering introaties ,. and preaching of Wulimnin and other missionaries . This chieftain was brought to the sacred font . "Ho had already one foot in the Water , when ho suddenly stopped , turned to Wulframn , and asked , wliether there were more Frierihindors in heaven or in hell . Tho missionary could not hesitate , and tuld him that all his ancestors , boinjr unbaptized , were certainly in tho latter place . Tho prince immediately drew back his foot from the font . ' I cannot , ' ho snjd , yive up tho company of my ancestors , even for the joys of hoaven . ' And Duke lltidbod" says the chronicler , " died unbiiptizod . "
, Christianity has suffered more from iin interpreters than from any other cause . But wherever Christianity has beeu ^ introduced , our author tolls us , it has brought in it « train throe remarkable , ejects : a tendency to unite , an inclination for kingly governments , and a preference for hereditary institutions . And tln ' a proposition he illustrates by reference to the spread of Christianity among tho Anylo-SaxonH . On tho character of King Alfred ho dwells with peculiar eomplacejiey . , , At lengtU we come to Sootlaud , boginnuig with Mnoboth , whoso clinractov does not meri t the description of it by our national poet . The reign of Mncbetlj was proHporous and long- ^ -ot
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210 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . | Miucii 3 , 1 S 60 .
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* Mv 6 latio 7 \ s Historiaum en Ktpanw < w Jblvra da Lord ^ ormajibt / , intitnltS 11 Y «<* r ( ifftpoohMonin Paris ? ' Pnr JUpms BtANO . BruxcUee ; Mclino , Cans ot Oompngnio .
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* Scotland in tho MUMlo Af / os : Sketalm qr JVarQ / Hootan J * wory arm ffooial Proyrofls . By Cosmo Ijsnbs , Profepaor of History in the UnivorBuy of Eaiwbunsli . Eaiaoristpri ana PoupIwB , » T History of ( ho llvUjn of Jlonrj / XV ., Kinn of Franco and Navarre . ( I ' art I . ) ttenry XV . and tho Xtoatjvo . « y MAnxnA Wai-KER ^ RIdbr . 'Xvro vola . Hurat and 131 ivokott .
M. Loms Blanc's Revelations.*
M . LOtTIS BLANC'S REVELATIONS . *
E-Eceot Histories.*
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1860, page 210, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2336/page/14/
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