froid, gros and violent; c'étaient justement l'affaire. Il n'y avait qu'à lui recommander de presser un peu les mouvements, d'être bruyant et tumultueux. ... Peu à peu il s'établit confortablement dans ce personnage, qui a été sa dernière et sa meilleure création." And most men know who it was that Sardou desired to paint in Rabagas.

A FRENCH journalist gives an amusing account of the scene at the author's "reading" of a play in the different Paris theatres. At the Odéon, there are three ways of hearing a play read. There is the way in which they hear Georges Sand, always with murmurs of joy and exclamations of enthusiastic admiration, inspired not only by present merit, but by memories of Le Marquis de Villemer. There is the way in which an everyday prose author is listened to, with calm encouragement as he reads: only at the end somebody suggests that the play would be good if the first act were altered, and somebody else that it would do if the end were changed, and somebody else that it might succeed if the middle act were wholly omitted. The third way is the way in which a young poet of modern Parnassus is received. This time the actors are no longer artists and critics, but so many fathers and mothers and brothers who press round the young man with affectionate praise. He goes away convinced that Victor Hugo's reign is over. At the Palais Royal, the wittiest writer has never been able to make the players smile. They are all determined to show that every piece owes everything to their acting, and that without their funniness it would be dull stuff. At the Variétés, the leading actor, Dupuis, sits near the door at every reading, and if the piece is good he congratulates the author when it is finished; but if it is bad, he glides away just before it closes, and his absence is rightly interpreted by his brethren to mean that the piece must be condemned. At the Gymnase, things, if not simpler, are more methodically regulated. Every member of the company keeps his eye on M. Derval, who keeps his eye on M. Montignythe most critical of all the managers in Paris. If M. Montigny smiles, M. Derval smiles, and seeing M. Derval smile, everyone smiles. But if M. Montigny sheds a tear, M. Derval sheds a tear, and seeing M. Derval shedding a tear, everyone weeps copiously. Thus at the Gymnase, the verdict is sure to be unanimous. Happily, it is generally just.

MUSIC.

Ar last Saturday's concert at the Crystal Palace, a composition by Rubinstein was brought forward for the first time in this country. This was the overture-to his opera Dimitri Donskoi. Though new here, the overture is by no means a recent work of its composer, having been written, on the authority of the programme, in the year 1849. Probably no more unequal composer than Rubinstein exists. In his larger works especially it is always uncertain whether or not he will be successful. The present overture is in all respects one of the best and most interesting pieces from his pen which has yet been produced here. Those who had heard his Don Quixote, his piano quintett, or his Fantasia for two pianos, must have been agreeably surprised at the flow of melody, the perfect clearness of form, and the absence of diffuseness which distinguish the overture to Dimitri Donskoi. Another special feature of Saturday's concert was the very fine performance by Mr. Oscar Beringer of Schumann's charming piano concerto. Mr. Beringer, who has on several previous occasions been heard at these concerts, is a pupil of the late Carl Tausig. His playing last week was characterised not merely by faultless technique, but by much taste, and the absence of the slightest tinge of that exaggeration which some people seem to consider inseparable from what is known as the "higher development." At the close of the work he was warmly and de

servedly applauded. The symphony was Beethoven's No. 7, and the opening overture Mendelssohn's Wedding of Camacho, familiar to the frequenters of the Crystal Palace by previous performances. A special word of praise should be given to the vocalists, Miss Sophie Löwe and Mr. Edward Lloyd, for their tasteful selections. There were neither the hackneyed Italian songs of these otherwise excellent concerts are somenor the trashy ballads by which the programmes times disfigured. Miss Löwe sang a scena from Spohr's Jessonda, and songs by Rubinstein, Schubert, and Brahms; and Mr. Lloyd was heard in "Oh, 'tis a glorious sight," from Oberon, and two songs by Schubert. To-day Herr Wilhelmį is to make his first appearance at the Palace since

1866.

LAST Monday's being the 500th of the Monday Popular Concerts, it was a happy idea of Mr. Chappell's to repeat the exact programme of the first concert, which took place on February 14, 1859. It is very seldom that a musical institution can announce a 500th concert; it is even seldomer that in such a case three of the performers shall be the same on both occasions. Yet such was the case on Monday night. Sir Julius Benedict, Herr Louis Ries and Signor Piatti, who took part in the performance, have been associated with the Monday Popular Concerts ever since their commencement. The programme was entirely selected from the works of Mendelssohn, and it is a curious thing that while the opening piece, the Quintett in B flat, had been performed seventeen times previously, the following instrumental piece, the Sonata in F minor for piano and violin, had, until last Monday, never been repeated since the night on which the concerts commenced. The remaining pieces in the programme are so well known that a mere record of them will suffice. They were the variations for pianoforte and violoncello in D, and the stringed quartett in the same key, Op. 44, No. 1. Mdme. Norman-Nóruda was the leader, the violas being played by Messrs. Straus and Zerbini; while the pianist was Miss Agnes Zimmermann, whose merits are so universally acknowledged that it is needless to say a word about them.

THE last number of the Revue et Gazette

Musicale, in reporting the recent performance of the Messiah in Paris, under M. Lamoureux, speaks in the highest terms of the voice and singing of Mdme. Patey, who was specially engaged for the concert. It must have seemed strange to that lady to sing the familiar music with a French text-to find, for instance, the air "He was depised" set as "Comblé d'outrages."

MDME. ESSIPOFF is at present at Paris, and was in E minor at M. Pasdeloup's popular concert. announced last Sunday to play Chopin's concerto

M. SAINT-SAENS, the talented French composer, has just completed an opera, the libretto by M. Louis Gallet, entitled Etienne Marcel.

THE last number of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik furnishes a notice from the pen of the able critic Herr A. Maczewski of Götz's new opera Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung (The Taming of the Shrew), produced last October at Mannheim. The critic speaks of it on the whole in highly favourable terms.

A GRAND musical festival is to take place at Cincinnati (U.S.) on May 11, 12, 13, and 14 under the direction of Theodore Thomas. Among the works already announced are Brahms's "Triumphlied," Beethoven's Symphony in A, Liszt's music to Prometheus, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Bach's "Magnificat," Beethoven's Choral Symphony, Schubert's Symphony in C, and scenes from Lohengrin.

Ar the Royal Albert Hall Concerts Israel in Egypt will be performed on Tuesday the 26th inst. The solo parts will be sung by Mdlle. Johanna Levier, Miss Katharine Poyntz, Miss Antoinette Sterling, Signor Fabrini, and Mr. Sims Reeves,

"The Lord is a man of war" being sung by the male voices of the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society-an alteration of the composer's intentions which it is dffficult to justify. The band, which has been considerably strengthened by the engagement of many of the best instrumentalists, will number over 100 performers. A very interesting feature at this concert will be the appearance of M. Guilmant (the celebrated organist of La Trinité, Paris), who is to play Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor before the oratorio, and between the parts "Improvisation sur des Motifs de Handel." The oratorio will be conducted as usual by Mr. Barnby.

FROM Baden is announced the death, at the age of eighty-seven years, of Johann Peter Pixis, the once famous pianist. For many years he had retired from the exercise of his professional

duties.

A NEW opera, Lenore, by Dr. Otto Bach, director of the Mozarteum at Salzburg, has been produced at Coburg with great success. The libretto is founded on Bürger's well-known ballad.

POSTSCRIPT.

The

Ir is reported from Brussels that M. Jean Baptiste Julien d'Omalius D'Halloy, one of the most distinguished men of science in Belgium, died on Friday, the 15th instant. Born at Liége, on February 16, 1783, he had nearly reached the age of ninety-two years. Although an active politician, M. d'Omalius was an enthusiastic geologist; and many of his scientific works, such as the Précis Elémentaire de Géologie and the Abrégé de Géologie, acquired an extensive reputation. Royal Society's Catalogue gives a list of upwards of forty original papers, chiefly on geology and mineralogy, which proceeded from his pen between the years 1807 and 1863. Nor should his ethnological labours be forgotten; not only was he author of a valuable work entitled Des Races Humaines, ou Eléments d'Ethnographie, but it will be remembered that he presided over the International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology held at Brussels in 1872. M. d'Omalius was the oldest member of the Belgian Senate; and among his scientific honours we may remark that he was a member of the Belgian Royal Academy, a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences, a member of the Geological Society of Society of London, having been elected so far France, and a foreign member of the Geological

back as 1829.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1875.

No. 143, New Series.

THE EDITOR cannot undertake to return, or

to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscript.

It is particularly requested that all business letters regarding the supply of the paper, &c., may be addressed to the PUBLISHER, and not to the EDITOR.

LITERATURE.

Recollections and Suggestions, 1813-1873. By John Earl Russell. (London: Longmans & Co., 1875.)

(First Notice.)

Ir is not the habit of English public men to contribute much to the history of their times. To do this requires a literary taste and aptitude in which many of our most distinguished politicians have been singularly deficient, and something of a philosophic mind which is always rare in that condition of existence. Even where skill and inclination are not wanting, there is yet a serious obstacle to any such performance in the customary reticence which our rulers observe, in curious contrast to the conversational readiness, and even garrulity, of many remarkable continental statesmen; and which they regard as their best defence against the intrusive curiosity of society and the press, and the general publicity of English life. The intellectual character and political career of Lord Russell are, in many points, exceptional, and tend to obviate these difficulties. He was a writer from his earlier youth, and though he cannot be said to have any stable place in English literature, it is something to have tried his abilities as a dramatist, essayist, and historian. Born in the purple of political life, he came into the House of Commons before his majority, by an illegal immunity which was not uncommon in those days of privilege, and of which he would have found precedents in the elections of the last Lord Fitzwilliam and the late Dr. Lushington From that now distant date July, 1813-to his final retirement to the Upper House, Lord Russell has never been subjected to those temptations to secresy and evasion, those difficulties of misunderstanding and being misunderstood, those almost necessary devices of subterfuge or exaggeration, which beset the hard and narrow path of public ambition in such a country as ours, and which seem to nice and delicate minds to taint the ethics of political freedom. He is the last man not to feel the supreme advantage he has enjoyed in having been called to Parliament as to a natural position, instead of having struggled into it as a difficult profession; and if these peculiar facilities have sometimes made him practically careless of the feelings and susceptibilities of others less fortunate, they have not prevented him from exhibiting in these pages a fine appreciation of the labours and conquests even of those from whom he has materially differed in principles and in action, and have given to his judgments an air of

personal familiarity with great events that elevates even insignificant circumstances to the dignity of history.

Catholic Emancipation were the heralds of Parliamentary Reform, and Free Trade was its inevitable consequence.

For, in truth, in this career of an individual The earlier portion of this volume is occustatesman, the two great principles of poli-pied by the reprint of the sketch of this tical action as exhibited in the parliamentary movement prefixed to Lord Russell's Speeches; annals of the last fifty years are fairly and it is just that this should be so, for it is brought face to face. To hold a belief in what not only the story of the British Constituis best for the country without reference to tion, but of his own fame. In 1819 he obthe opinions or feelings of the majority; to tained an enquiry into the condition of the maintain these principles in evil as in good borough of Grampound, and after having report; to watch and encourage the acces- convicted it of bribery, proposed that its sions of slow conviction and imperfect intel- franchises should be transferred to the ligence; to wait on opportunity, and to put growing town of Leeds-laying down, as he by disappointments-this, with a short says, in this single proposition the whole gleam of occasional success, was the usual principle at issue between the Government attitude of the Whig party from the French and the Reformers. This he carried in the Revolution till the Reform administration of House of Commons, but the seats were Lord Grey; and it was in this atmosphere transferred to the county of York by the that Lord Russell grew to political maturity. House of Lords. He found scanty encourageOn the other side was a party enjoying all ment among his own friends to proceed the emoluments and dignities of office, or, further in this direction, Mr. Tierney not to look higher, all the means of public use- allowing it to be made a party question, fulness and the exercise of national benefi- and old Lord George Cavendish saying it cence. This position was occupied and was never touched without doing them inmaintained by a discreet deference to the jury. This did not prevent him from pregeneral feelings and opinions of the ruling senting to the House in 1822 a complete classes of the country, and to the Crown on scheme that provoked the magnificent tirade any questions on which the Sovereign of Mr. Canning, prognosticating at once his held decided personal predilections. As future success and its disastrous effects long as these men believed their views upon the constitution of his country. It to be the right ones, there may have been was thus but natural that when, eight years as much sincerity on the one side as on the afterwards, the Whigs succeeded to power, other, and the only difference, so far as a Lord John Russell formed part of the comrepresentative Government was concerned, mittee to prepare a measure of Parliamentary lay in the preponderance of the Conservative reform; but it is surprising and contrary to sentiment, and the fear of innovation. But our present usage, that with his advantages there came an important change of relations, of station and his well-won Parliamentary and one new to the parliamentary practice repute, he should not have held office in the of the country, when, (either by external Cabinet. The fact that vote by ballot was circumstances or by the gradual and, per- proposed by Lord Durham, and formed part haps, unconscious infiltration of Liberal of the scheme presented to Lord Grey, is not opinions), the application of principles that altogether new; Sir James Graham having had hitherto been matters of theory assumed mentioned it in the House of Commons, with the character of political necessity, and the the addition that secret suffrage would have question was plainly mooted whether the formed part of the measure then brought change was to be made by the accession to before Parliament, but for the resolute oppothe government of the country of those who sition of one member of the Committee, had been the life-long representatives of those who he left the House to infer was himself, opinions, or the retention of it by old oppo- but who is now generally believed to have nents prepared to acknowledge their errors, been Lord Duncannon. It would have been and ready to rectify them by their own ter- no breach of confidence if Lord Russell could giversation. have told us the true circumstances of this important omission. It now seems certain that if Sir Robert Peel had treated the bill as a chimerical revolution, the first reading would have been lost, and the whole question indefinitely delayed, or subjected to considerable modification. But a nine days' debate roused the country and secured the ultimate success. Lord Russell tells us that he now regrets his want of candour in not stating to the House his share in the preparation of the measure, but assuredly he has lost nothing by that momentary abnegation, and the great reform stands in English history not as the work of Lord Durham or Lord Grey, but absolutely his own. The selfconfidence so characteristic of the man as to have been made the subject of much humorous comment, was fostered by his especial training, and exhibits itself in the very readiness with which he confesses his own errors of judgment. He can afford to be wrong, and when the most calamitous consequences have followed on his mistakes,

The student of mankind can find no more apt illustration of the working of these two methods of politics in their bearing upon the character of individual men, than the conduct of Sir Robert Peel in reference to Catholic Emancipation and Free Trade, and that of Lord John Russell in reference to Parliamentary Reform. There is no room here for any dissertation on that spirit of compromise and surrender which so distinctly animates the British Constitution; but there can be no doubt which picture is the more agreeable to contemplate. The little interest taken in the posthumous apologies of Sir Robert Peel is only thus to be accounted for, and there is also this advantage on the side of Lord Russell, that the cause of Reform implicated with itself not only the advances of civil and religious liberty, which it is the privilege of our generation to have completed, but also the very financial changes on which (other reputations rest. The repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts and

he is not the less justified in criticising severely the failure of others to remedy his own shortcomings. Thus the distinct admission that he ought to have acted on the opinion of Sir Robert Collier and arrested the Alabama does not prevent him from finding serious fault with the American representative for not believing in the good intentions of the British Government. Those who remember the sagacity and heroism with which Mr. Adams conducted himself in the face of an antagonist society and insulting opinion, will hardly endorse this sentiment. Indeed, if Lord Russell had come at once to the consciousness of his error, and done all he could to repair it, by insisting on the exclusion of the pirate from every port in our colonies and dependencies, it is probable that the misfortune would have been reduced within very moderate dimensions; and when, at a much later period, he makes it a matter of accusation against Lord Granville that he did not communicate with him before the mission of Lord de Grey, and implies that his statement of the case would have modified the demand, and mitigated the indignation of the United > States, the question naturally suggests itself whether Lord Granville might not have thought it a breach of delicacy and official confidence to propose to him to incriminate himself when he had so long assumed a defensive attitude. It is the least of our regrets that that four days' indecision has cost the country a million a day, and it would be satisfactory to know that even this long delayed statement may be not without its use in healing the great division between kindred nations. However Lord Russell attempts to take away from the grace of his candid acknowledgment by exaggerated lamentations over British concessions, he

may be sure that posterity will regard them

as condonations of misjudgments and perverseness far graver than his own.

The good temper and general moderation of these pages do not extend to the record of the party divisions that broke up the Government to which Lord Russell succeeded on the death of Lord Palmerston. We all remember the humorous application of a passage in Jewish history by Mr. Bright, and there is no great harm in the extension of the metaphor which gives the name of "bandits to the refugees of the Cave of Adullam. But it is beyond a joke when Lord Russell, after the reservation that "there were, no doubt, some honest men in that company," goes on to say that "he had never known in his long political life a party so utterly destitute of consistent principle or patriotic end-indifferent to the state of the suffrage or the disfranchisement of the boroughs, provided their own selfish objects were attained." Now, of this section the present Duke of Westminster, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord Elcho were prominent members, and Mr. Lowe the chief orator. They may have shown a great absence of political prevision in preferring the disruption of their party to an inevitable extension of the suffrage; and they may have contributed largely to the very event they most earnestly deprecated, the supercession of the middle class by the popular masses in the larger towns; but there is assuredly no ground for the imputation of

personal objects when it is notorious that they refused to take part in a combination by which two at least of the persons named would have obtained seats in the Cabinet, with a fair distribution of subordinate offices among their friends.

But the acerbity which has dictated the remarks on the close of Lord Russell's administration does not end here: the same spirit animates much of the remainder of the volume. This portion, indeed, altogether loses the importance of the earlier recollections and suggestions, and declines from the range of political memoir to that of newspaper criticism. For here Lord Russell is no longer the actor in history, and though it may satisfy curiosity to know that he thinks Mr. Gladstone might have composed his Administration more judiciously-that Mr.

Cardwell would have been a better Chancellor of the Exchequer than Mr. Lowe, and that Mr. Bruce made an unpopular Home Minister when he would have been a good Minister of Education-yet these are

no

more than opinions; easy and by no means indisputable judgments after the event. There are men who think that Mr. Forster has achieved what would have been impossible for Mr. Bruce, and that the Licensing Acts of the late Government bear a strong analogy to the new Poor Law, by which the Whigs of an earlier time incurred so much contemporary odium, and earned so much national gratitude.

In still more reckless language, after doing justice to Mr. Gladstone's financial skill and courage, he deliberately commits to paper what might have been admissible (and very much in Lord John's manner) as the conclusion of a party speech, viz., that "he regrets to have found himself wrong in having believed that Mr. Gladstone was no less

late military administration, the high-handed measure of the Abolition of Purchase, per fas et nefas, was hardly an indication of a willingness to stop short of a supposed improvement and efficiency from pecuniary motives, and it is surprising that its opponents did not make more use of that flagrant contradiction to the professions of national economy.

In another notice of this work, Lord Russell's suggestions for the legislation of the future in Ireland, and on the subject of national education, may well deserve consideration and criticism; but his religious lucubrations are not likely to elucidate either the past or the future of controversy. His Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was nearly as great a political blunder in its time as Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet is to-day; and, indeed, he is now convinced that a resolution of the House of Commons declaratory of the Queen's supremacy in the matter of episcopal designations would have produced all the effect he desired without the impotent affront to the Catholic community. His observations on the Ritualist disturbance in the Church of England are an expansion of the sentiment of the famous Durham letter, of which two good stories have been told the one, that Lord Clarendon laughed at Sir William Somerville for not seeing that it was a hoax; and the other, that when it was read in the Cabinet, Lord Palmerston remarked that nothing could be better written, but that he trusted it had been marked confidential; and shared the general consternation of his colleagues when informed that it had been sent to the Times. HOUGHTON.

66

PLACARDS OF THE FRENCH WAR AND THE COMMUNE.

that he was as proud of the achievements of our nation by sea and land, that he had no ill-will to the extension of our colonies, and that his measures would not tend to reduce the great and glorious empire of which he was put in charge to a manufactory of cotton cloths and a market for cheap goods, with an army and navy reduced by petty savings to a standard of weakness and inefficiency."

It is certainly unbecoming that any one politician of high station should make such an indictment as this against another in an off-hand manner. It says too much and too little-whether true or false it demands abundant proof and confirmation, and has really no value as a simple assertion. As an illustration of the necessity of some investigation before this summary decision, it may be mentioned that while Lord Russell's estimate of Mr. Gladstone's feelings towards our Colonial Empire is supported by common rumour, and some confirmatory expressions may possibly be found in his speeches, as a matter of fact the only serious surrender of territorial power in our time, that of the Protectorate of the Ionian Islands, was the unexpected act, not of Mr. Gladstone, but of Lord Russell himself, and that it is to the Cabinet of Mr. Gladstone that we owe the acquisition of the possessions in West Africa that provoked the Ashantee war, and the project accomplished by the present Government of the annexation of the Fiji Islands. Again, with regard to the niggardliness of the

Volumes. (Paris: Le Chevalier, Editeur, 1875.)

M. LE CHEVALIER has put forth an interesting collection of the political notices and placards which covered the walls of French towns between September 4, 1870, and May 28, 1871. The mural literature of Alsace-Lorraine from the declaration of war between France and Prussia to the day when the German troops evacuated Nancy is also given, and forms the first volume of the series, the second being chiefly devoted to the siege of Paris, and the third to the reign of the Commune. Each poster is reproduced in facsimile, even to its colour; and the work presents a complete and picturesque history of France during the Terrible Year. pages open with the proclamations of Napoleon III.: they close with a brief general order of Marshal MacMahon, announcing that the last positions of the Communist insurgents have been taken, that the strife is ended, and that "order, work and security" are renewed.

Its

It would be easy to over-estimate the historical value of official proclamations, but they furnish incontestable evidence as to the facts which those who issued them desired that people should believe, and as to the spirit by which they desired that people should be guided. Thus the government of Tours stands self-condemned by its appeal

a

to the country after the fall of Metz. Then, if ever, the time had assuredly come for silencing party cries, and allowing no watchword but France. Of quite a different tenour is the language of M. Gambetta and his colleagues. "So long," they protest, "as there shall remain an inch of the sacred soil beneath our feet we will firmly grasp the glorious banner of the French Revolution; very encouraging declaration to M. de Kératry's Breton levies. This document was published on October 30. Two days later the old officials of the Empire left in Paris must have smiled as they read the decree for a plébiscite signed by Jules Favre, who in the previous May had so eloquently denounced that method of taking the popular opinion. A terrorist circular was even distributed which ran thus: "Notice to Electors. YES signifies, We maintain the Government of National Defence. NO signifies, We overthrow the Government. Upwards of 60,000 voters did wish to overthrow the Government, and said so. These irreconcileables contribute largely to the pages of M. le Chevalier's compilation. Every few days a flaming handbill announced a new plan for saving Paris and regenerating France, presumably by a patriotic artisan of Belleville or Montmartre. With the same object the "Club de la Solidarité" held its sittings. Among the conditions of membership to this select society were freedom from all religious obligations, and a subscription of five pence a month. Its prospectus may have suggested one of the most amusing scenes in Rabagas. To an equally emancipated school of thought probably belonged M. Thobois, architect, once the colleague of M. Renan in the scientific mission of the latter to Phoenicia. He has the honour to inform the public that he has discovered the secret of aerial navigation, and that on the sum of 300,000 francs and the Place du Carrousel being placed at his disposition, he will in the space of one month deliver both France and Germany. The promise held out to both countries may sound mysterious, but M. Thobois is a philanthropist, and heads his proposal with the legend" Universal Republic," which may account for the friendliness therein displayed toward the Germans. Three days later appeared the unlucky address of General Ducrot to the Second Army of Paris, and his boast being in print is handed down to posterity

:

"Before you, before the whole nation, I take this oath: I will not re-enter Paris, except dead or victorious; you may see me fall, you will never see me flinch. When I am fallen, pause not, but avenge me!"

General Ducrot's gasconade, it is fair to add, is better known than his bravery, which was conspicuous on all occasions.

There are advanced Republicans who share the pacific principles of the Society of Friends. At the beginning at the siege they expressed, in a bright yellow placard, their conviction that if the Prussians were earnestly argued with, they would see the wickedness of attacking Paris. Christ, they declared, had said Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." These maxims (they feared) were not always true : if one knocked at the door of a prince or of an aristocratic mansion without an equipage,

66

or without a high recommendation, the porter would answer "You enter not." But the maxim was true when one demanded what was absolutely just-and so forth. Close to this production is a kind of pastoral epistle from Mr. Congreve, who, with that absolute imperviousness to the humorous which characterises Positivists and Scotchmen, apostrophises Paris as a Holy City. He laments the apathy of England. Her Queen is in the mountains of Scotland, far from care and trouble; her first minister is visiting exhibitions or at Clumber; her minister for foreign affairs is in villeggiatura at Walmer; her first lord of the Admiralty in Belgium. Her nobles and her gentlefolk are at their annual destruction of game. On October 3, Dr. Robinet, High Priest of the Comtists for the whole Western Republic, solemnly anathematised Germany. "The malediction of humanity" is invoked upon her devoted head, and the destinies are bidden to accomplish themselves. Strange to say, this document is dated, after a carnal fashion, October 3, 1870. It commits two unpardonable historical solecisms, speaking of the Dukes of Brandenburg and of the Holy Germanic Empire. Deficiency in the sense of humour is not confined to Positivists and Scotchmen. Thus the proclamation of a district mayor runs :-" French Republic. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Kidneys will be sold at Î fr. 50 the kilogramme."

Curiously enough, an act of clemency on the part of a Prussian officer enabled the editor of these volumes to bring home to the Prussians the charge (which they denied) of having purposely fired the town of Saint Cloud. On January 28, the German troops did, as it appears, receive orders to burn the houses of Saint Cloud. While the work of destruction was proceeding, a major on the Staff was posted near the church, and from thence surveyed the execution of his orders. The house where dwelt a woman whose name is, for obvious reasons, withheld, was about to share the common fate, when its proprietor rushed towards the major, threw herself at his knees and entreated him to spare her home, reminding him at the same time of little services she had rendered the Prussians during the occupation. Picking up a half-burnt brand, the officer scrawled over the shutters in German, "This house is to be spared till further orders. January 28. Jacobi, Major at Head-Quarters." A facsimile of the shutter and its inscription is given in M. le Chevalier's book. It will be observed that the Prussians determined to reduce St. Cloud to ashes on the very day that Favre and Bismarck were signing the convention for the armistice.

The volume devoted to memorials of the Commune is a little disappointing. Wellauthenticated anecdotes of that tragic farce made one expect too much. But there are still some instructive facts to be gleaned from the Murailles de Paris. Thus, three days after the insurrection had commenced, one lights upon traces of Prussian coquetting with the Commune. Major-General von Schlotheim writes, on March 21, "to the actual Commander of the Forces in Paris," to say that he has received orders to maintain a friendly neutrality so long as the

terms of peace are not called in question. Boursier, delegate for Foreign Affairs, replies on the morrow that the "Central Committee," as the insurgents at first termed their government, had no idea of impugning the validity of the preliminaries of peace ratified by the National Assembly. For the publication of untruthful military bulletins the Commune can scarcely be blamed. It merely followed the immemorial usage of war. On April 30 Rossel was named delegate for the War Department. On May 9 he was so ill-advised as to announce without reserve that "the three-coloured flag floated over Fort Issy." The very next day appeared a decree appointing Delescluze delegate in his room, and ordering a court-martial to try Rossel. No dry enumeration of dates could speak more eloquently. To do Rossel justice, he displayed extraordinary vigour during his brief tenure of power. A colonel of Engineers, distinguished for professional skill, he must have been conscious that he was leading a forlorn hope. He had hardly been installed in office before he directed the formation of barricades, which, as he knew, could only prolong a strife the issue of which was already certain. The utter want of discipline among the National Guards is indicated by a general order of Rossel's, dated May 9. He finds it necessary to tell the men under his command that they are on no account to cease firing while in action, even at the sight of a flag of truce. a direction implies, of course, that common soldiers had taken upon themselves to recognise flags of truce without waiting for their officer's commands. Again, he forbids them, under pain of death, to continue firing after the word to cease has been given, or to advance after they have received orders to halt.

Such

M. Thiers has often been reproached with inconsistency-as, indeed, have been most statesmen worthy of the name, the course of history constantly revealing new necessities to the careful observer of events. But the Communists did prove when they covered the walls of Paris with extracts from old speeches of M. Thiers, that he had in former days spoken with singular rashness and want of foresight. It was on January 31, 1848, that he exclaimed from the Tribune

"You know, gentlemen, what is passing at Palermo: you have all thrilled with horror at learning that, during forty-eight hours, a great city has been bombarded. By whom? By a foreign enemy exercising the rights of war? No; by its own Government. And why? Because that unfortunate city demanded its rights."

A "Friend of Order" recalled to the Parisians other words of the President in the year 1840, which, with the important addition of a negative throughout, would have been prophetic. He declared himself astonished (in the Chamber of Deputies) at persons imagining that fortified works of any kind could be a menace to liberty. Those who expressed such opinions regarded matters from an unreal-from an impossible point of view. It was a calumny on any government that might arise to suppose that it could one day seek to maintain itself by bombarding the capital:

"What!" he concluded; "after having pierced with its shells the dome of the Invalides or of the