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    CONTEMPOHAIIY FRENCH LITERATURE.*

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    vated to any extent , would ultimately contribute to bring , these countries under European protection ; and the eastern coast of Africa could aWt produce cotton enough to satisfy fl . e demands of the whole ofEiiglana , and thus , by promoting the growth of sheep and cottonTa powerful blow would be dealt to tlie American slave trade . ' That such a land should have no higher destiny than it at present enjoys , cannot be admitted by even the most apathetic ; butas to who will step in to the rescue , and at what period , is a matter which time alone can solve . At present , the ownership of the ^ tensive seaboard of Eastern Africa is nominally vested » foreign powers ; and the native states , excepting Abessmia and Madagascar are of little or no importance . . . " The Turks occupy several plaees on the Red Sea , the principal of which is Massowa , and appoint the governor of Zeila . lhe dominions of the Imam of Zanzibar include the whole of he coast and neighbouring islands from about five deg . N . latitude to beyond Cape Delgaoo , though many parts of it are virtually independent . The Portuguese claim extends from Cape Delgado to DelagoaBay ; but they occupy in reality only the country along the Lower Zambesi , and some isolated towns along the coast Gieat Britain possesses Perim . a small island at the entrance of the Red Sea , the ishmd of Musha , opposite Tajurra , the natural outlet for the commerce of Shoa and Southern Abessmia ; the island [ of Socotra , not at present occupied ; the southern halt of Delagoa Bay and the Bay of Santa Lucia , on the coast of Kaffraua ; and lastly , Natal , a . country destined from , ts f ^^ te poaition and climate , to eclipse Cape Colony * s an agi ^ f ^ settlement . The French have lately acquired th % P ° * f Zulu , south of Massowa ; they also claim the whole of ^ dagascar in the way the grandfather of Her Majesty claimed the kingdomoflrance , but at present hold but a few insignificant islands on its shore , and Mayotte , one of the Comoros . Wjeto .. _ a- ~ « It is the avowed design of France to found m the Eastern Sea an empire to rival , if notV eclipse British India , of vvhu * entire Madagascar is to be the centre . Hence , notwithstandu g that engineers of eminence have pronounced against the practicability of sScWcanal as that of Sues , the enterprise is bemg persevered in under the auspices of the French Government , or rather the Shmus has been occupied within the last lew weeks b ^ a partv of armed ouvriers . Across the Isthmus of Suez leads ^ shortest route from Southern France to Mad agascar ^ and India ; its possession by a power desirous to extend her dominions in " that quarter , and capable of availing herself of its advantages , would therefore be of the utmost consequence , lhe mere fact of the isthmus being part of the Turkish emp , re or of Egyptf would not deter France from occupying it ; for sciuples ot _ Conscience are not allowed by that-nation to interfere ^ th pol t , cal ideas . ' Zula has been chosen as the second station ou the ^ loute to Madagascar , and while the occupation ot Suez may at will tuinir ^ eteit for seizing upon Egy pt , that of Zula may open Abessinia to French conquest . ,. " Fortunately there is a power which can put a veto upon those plans of aggrandisement in North-Eastern Africa and that power is & ? eat Britain . Gibraltar , Malta , Perim , and Aden , form a magnificent line of military and naval stations on the route to India and perfectly command it ; and Perim , though at present only destined to bearififffthouse ^ of the Bed " Sea even more effectually than Gibraltar does that of the Mediterranean . Therefore , only after having converted the last thrao into French strongholds , and thus sinking a decisive blow at the naval supremacy of Great Britain , could France ever hope to % LuM , ^ yevTt iil practicability of forming the proposed canal of Suez be demonstrated by its completion , Nature herself has cast insurmountable impediments in the way of its ; lessening flie diatanca for shipping to India . " No navigable river flows into the Red feea , whiciTf ^ l of sunken rocks and sandbanks , that are mcreasn . g Throug h the growth , of coral-reefs . The navigation- is difneu t and dangerous , and of the many harbours but few are safe so ^ thatn most cases ships of large burden must anchor far out at a 1 great advantage * to be derived from the success of the scheme « 'Ul not be so much in the acquisitions which commerce may obtain torn the Red Sea and the countries on its shores as in the ox ens o of European polity and civilization to Arabia , Abessinia , and the whole of South-Extern Africa , It will weaken Mohammedanism in the land of its birth , in Arabia , and on the African coast _ ; _ tend to suppress the Arabian slave-trade , and subjugate East-At"oan heathenism by Christianity and its civilization ; and finally , open up immense and noble regions in Southern Abessinia and amongst tho Galla to thousands of European eniigiants , when America , Australia , and Tasmania cease to attract them *" [ To be continued . ]

    CONTEMPORARY Fronoh litorature nas now reuunuu »» ««» - perate a condition , that almost any change must be tor the better . A low state of morality could not but tind its exponent in a class of books which , if published on this side of the Channel , would fall under tho cognizance of Lord Cumpbells Act ; and as the bn ^ ro fadeilrs of Voisenon , Louvet , and the younger Crebillon , sprang spontaneously during the reign of La Dubarry , bo minianoa Morales ; Pfl ; w < W < Inflexions , et Maximes . Par » AN * BL Sthrn 7 Trolsitimo Edition , rovuo , augmontee , ot orneo d un 1 © rtnuc grny 6 eur noler . 12 mo . Pftrls : Teohoner .

    M . Ernest Feydeau ' s realist novels , and M . Gustave Flaubert's " Madame Bovary , " are the repulsive pieces justificatives of an epoch and a country when all the maxims of right and wrong , and the very elements of propriety , are absolutely ignored . It is , however , some relief to feel that a few exceptions still can . be found to this general rule , and ; amidst the shoals of rubbish daily poured forth from the French press , we turn with no small sensation of relief to productions such as Daniel Stern ' s " Pense ' es , Re'flexions , et Maximes . " This book belongs to a class of writings which has long been sedulously cultivated by our neighbours . Since the days when La Rochefoucauld ' s maximes excited the admiration of Madame de Sevigne's friends , and were accepted as the code of polite society , an apophthegmatie style of composition has always proved more or less fashionable . Vauvenargues , Duclos , Pascal , La Bruyere , during the last two centuries , rendered it immortal- in our own times , we can add to the list the names of M . Joubert , Madame Swetchine , and the gifted authoress who disguises herself under the pseudonymous appellation of Daniel Stern . At first sio-ht the fragmentary process in literature may seem to present many facilities , and to require very little amount of artistic care ; it has , besides , an appearance of smartness , which is exceedingly takin ° - with most readers . But this is precisely the stumblingblock in the case of such productions ; for smartness cannot always compensate for the absence of truth , and a false or commonplace remark is | none the better because it appears decked out in a gala-The few strictures we have thus ventured to make will show at the same time our opinions of pertsee literature in the abstract , and how highly we value the little volume in which Daniel btern has managed to be original , true , and witty where others would have been witty at the expense of truth , or true without any claims to originality . This is a third edition of the " ¦ Esquisses Morales , and as times go , it is no small merit for a work of so serious a cha ^ racter to have been thrice sent to press in the space of ten years . The reader will notice also that whilst the first publication of the " Esquisses * ' only found its way to popularity slowly , the second and third editions have been disposed of . .. in the course ot a tew months . This , we think , is an excellent test of the merit of a work ; it excludes the suspicion of puff , and clearly proves that the author in question can stand upon her own merits . - _ _ # It would not be very difficult to assign a date to Daniel ktern * elegant duodecimo , even-4 f the various circumstances connected with its ° production were not fully stated in the preface . The political atmosphere of IS 13 has , evidently , determined its ^ growth , and the famous question of the droit au travail was actively discussed when the authoress sat down to" pass her severe but not untrue judgment upon modern society . We have heard many duly , qualified critics regret that the ' ^ Esquisses Morales should not be of a more general character ; they would prefer a collection of maxims applicable to the leading passions of the human heart , and they maintain that a work such as the one we are now examining loses much of its value by being , so to say , the photograph of a country , a drawing-room , an epoch . But this , we believe , is a mistake ; and ! we question whether there ever was a writer on moral philosophy who succeeded completely in shutting himself away from all the Xences busily at work around hi . n La Rochefoucauld ' , popular book is . nothing , but a comment on the " Fronde . "L" Bruyere s caracleres are still more closely fdeTTttflud—witlr-the—age—oi Louis XIV . ; and even Pascal , whose inspirations are derived trom a far higher source , alludes here and there to facts and individuals which i ? o one else could appropriately have mentioned amongst the moralists of his own times . If Daniel Stern , therefore , is the awMfc-writer of the France of 184 S ; if the barricades , the ateliers nationaux , and the political societies were the standing points from which she derived her observations , we are not disposed on that very account , to find fault with her ; we would rather admire the talent which can give utterance to thoughts and maxims of universal application , whilst , at the same time , its immediate cncumstanccs are so clear , so unmistakeable . The " E . squisses Morales " are composed of a series of small chapters arranged under two groups , and followed by a few fragments more descriptive in their general character . The maxims , headed Du Temps PrJsent contain , of course , the greatest number of allusions totransitory events , and / accordingly , will beat exemplify the stylo of Daniel Stern . Wo shall select a paragraph or two . " L'ivrc-sae de la vanite eat nortec au comble . Combion de jeunes gens , , mr . » i Jous se sont interrog 6 a a la veille do lour entree dans le monde pour Lvoir f ils V soroiont DonW , ou Fausfc , Pitt , ou Napol 6 ou Bonaparte ? ? In c ( mnai 8 qui / embarrasS 6 s du ohoix , se aont dit qu ' ila aeraient dieux , et 1 O An 7 pe » 8 on possessing the slightest knowledge-of the French history of the last twenty years will easily perceive the truth / J the above romarlc . Tho Don Juana and Fausts the Pitts a ^/ Bonapartea of 1810-60 have , no doubt , made sad exh . bitions ^ ' theinseTves ; and the divine character of tho self-apnomted gods sueh as M Bnfantin'shas not boen such as to command universal adoration ; butt at £ eaa exhibitions did actually take place no oue can deny ; and W 6 remember witnessing displays of vanity which would have been Derfectlv ridiculous if they had not sometimes ended by LsTssination or 7 « icW The noxfc paragraph seems to us part . cularly striking : — ' . ' . ' contemporary French society P What principle is it lhat Keeps

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    May 12 , 1860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 449 .

    Contempohaiiy French Literature.*

    CONTEMPOHAIIY FRENCH LITERATURE . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 448, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2347/page/13/