Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

the follies of a vague enthusiasm for the concentrated plans of genius, he would believe that you totally misunderstood his character, and rush with redoubled passion into some new absurdity, in order to prove that he deserved the title of "wise and great" which you refused to him.

This man is irritable, jealous, vain, and easily affronted but if he knows you well, his anger soon ceases; for he is generous, tender, and desirous of communicating his emotions. His friends are few; these he loves passionately, and they are generally in a worse position than himself-perhaps because such are more likely to forgive the irregularities of his temper, and to worship the virtues he possesses; perhaps because he has a sort of instinctive adoration for poverty, which corresponds with the rudeness and at the same time awakens the kindness of his nature. With the rest of his sex he is boastful, overbearing, full of his own merits and exploits; always talking of the army, "the great army," for he despises sedentary pursuits, and deems that incapability of repose is an aptitude for action. With women his heart melts he is all softness, delicacy, gentleness. If he speak with affection, the tears are in his eyes; if he love, his passion knows no bounds; his gallantry is romantic, ardent, respectful; his features are strong and coarse, his person uncouth and gigantic; but if Louis XIV. were alive, he would have no occasion to tell the ladies of his court"qu'il étoit le plus beau,-parcequ'il étoit le plus brave de son royaume." Plain, slovenly, savage, he has been listened to by the most spiritual and elegant women of his time; vain, disinterested, brave, and passionate to excess, he has in turn been deemed a hero when he boasted of his exploits, an adventurer when he refused to receive a fortune, a man full of ambition when he was only occupied by love. He seems an anachronism in his time: he represents a part of it.

Alike dissimilar from the two persons whose sketches

I have just been giving, General obtained and deserved a more solid reputation than either. His life was not formed on the scandalous memoirs of a Duc de Richelieu, nor would it afford an episode to the romance of Amadis in the desert. Gallant, courteous, endowed with equal firmness and reflection; the rigid observer of subordination in the camp, the warm defender of liberty in the tribune; sincere, independent, unaffected-uniting the somewhat brusque manner of Napoleon's soldier with the polished address that would have charmed the court of Louis XV.-in my recollections of General -, I almost see a military model for the rising generation of his country.

When

I knew this very remarkable person, fatigue, sickness, and meditation-the toils of war, and the changes of climate, had bronzed the fine, and delicate, and womanlike features of his youth, and rendered a countenance which was naturally effeminate, severe and stern.

General was acquainted with all subjects, and spoke well upon all; but his sentiments did not come from him with that easy flow, or with that passionate vehemence, which marks the man of imagination and enthusiasm: they were rather delivered in observations, separate and apart, observations remarkable for the tact with which they were turned, acute, elegant, and especially satiric. The great man of his time-legislator, warrior, statesman-he could not have been either of those men in whom these characters were most remarkably found conjoined. More vain and imperious than the simple Washington; more generous and patriotic than the selfish and ambitious Napoleon; more cold and more proud than the fanatical and deceitful Cromwell; he was too haughty to have sunk calmly into the private citizen of the republic, too just to have mounted the throne of the empire, too eloquent to have taken the mace from the table of a House of Commons. Fond of honour, he would have sacrificed it to liberty; fond of liberty, he might have sacrificed it to glory; the statesman, he would have been the soldier; but in the camp he would not have resigned the Chamber.

Fortunate in most things, Gen.

was more espe

cially fortunate in living at the moment most favourable to his genius, and in dying at the moment most susceptible to his loss.

These are characters taken from the society of France, and thus we see--now in the journalist with the sword in his hand-now in the general delivering his speech-the same influence still predominating; and let it be so!

There are political truths equally applicable to all states arrived at a similar epoch of civilization; but they will vary in their application according to the history, the customs, the ideas they meet with among the people to whom they are applied. To these variations give a full and unlimited scope: it is the only method by which you can blend the ideas of the few with the habits of the many, and give the life which you derive from ancient customs to a new constitution.

Where the same species of government finds a new soil, a different genius presides over its foundations. Thus may we see two oaks, whose height and grandeur are nearly the same, lifting with equal majesty their heads to heaven, but their roots will all the while be taking a different course; for in nature and society there is a secret sympathy-and as the fibres of the tree will, if they meet a stone or a ditch, strike under it, in order to escape the obstacle or avoid the cold; so the interior course of institutions, regulated by obscure causes, is oftentimes shaped in darkness, and escaping your observation, defies your control.

France, then, may yet be able to blend a military spirit with a free constitution, and the sword which, appearing as an accident in England, banished the mace of civil authority from the House of Commons, seen here as a custom, may lie side by side with it in the Chamber of Deputies. This idea, as it seems to me, should be present to the monarch who governs the French; the people who have just mourned Lamarque

and Lafayette, saw in the general and the legislator the type of their own mind.*

*Time that France has passed in war from the Thirteenth to the Eight eenth Century.

In the fourteenth century, forty-three years of war; i. e. five of civil war, thirteen of war off the territory, twenty-five of war on the territory of France. In this period there were fourteen great battles. -among others, that of Contrai, where the Flemish won four hundred pair of spurs from the French knights; and that of Poictiers, where the King of France was taken prisoner.

In the fifteenth century, seventy-one years of war; i. e. thirteen of civil war, forty-three of war on the territory, and fifteen of war carried out of the territory of France. In this period there were eleven great battles-Agincourt, Castillon, and Monthery were among the number.

In the sixteenth century, eighty-five years of war; i. e. fortyfour of war off the French territory, eight of war on the French territory, and thirty-three of civil and religious war.-In this period there were twenty-seven great battles.

In the seventeenth century, sixty-nine years of war; i. e. eleven of civil war, fifty-two of war carried off the French territory, and six of religious war.-In this period there were thirty-nine great battles.

In the eighteenth century, fifty-eight years of war; i. e. one of religious war, six of civil war, and fifty-one of war off the French territory.

Thus in the space of five centuries we have:

Civil war

Religious war

On the French territory

Off the French territory

Total

[blocks in formation]

326 years.

During which time were fought one hundred and eighty-four great

battles.

LITERARY INFLUENCE.

The anniversary of Molière-Speech of M. Thiers-The man of letters is what the Baron and the Courtier were-The literary man in France is what he is not in America, Germany, and EnglandElection of Finsbury-The false conclusions drawn during the reform bill, as to the respect which would be afterward felt for men of letters-How a love of letters grew up in France-The causes that extend a power need not be those which have created it-If you wish to create a love for the arts and for science in England, how you must do it-Dr. Bowring's evidence on silk trade-What are the advantages that England would derive from a taste for the arts-How men of science and letters have been encouraged in France-List-Public establishments in France-Ecole des arts et métiers-What is honoured by the state is honoured in societySituation of literary men in France and literary men in EnglandUnhappy situation of the latter-Causes-The French might even derive more advantages than they have yet done from their national love of science and letters-New aristocracy that might be based upon it.

6

16th January, 1832. IT is the anniversary of Molière..... "Le Théatre Français joue le Misanthrope' et le Malade Imaginaire,' avec la cérémonie. Mademoiselle Mars, et l'élite de la troupe joueront dans cette réprésentation. L'anniversaire de la naissance de Molière sera aussi célébré au Faubourg St. Germain. L'Odéon jouera ‘Tartuffe' et le Médecin malgré lui.""* I copy this paragraph from the newspaper. Every year, on the same day, is observed and celebrated the birthday of Molière, by the great theatre of France. On this day one of his comedies is invariably given, and the best performers, male and female,

"The French Theatre will give The Misanthrope' and 'The Malade Imaginaire,' with the usual ceremony. Mademoiselle Mars and the élite of the company will perform in this representation. The anniversary of Molière will also be celebrated in the Faubourg St. Germain. The Odéon will give the 'Tartuffe' and the 'Médecin malgré lui.'"

+ The great comedian's bust is placed in the middle of the theatre; the comedians, all in the costume of some of the great parts in Molière, walk in procession round the theatre, salute the assembly, and depose, one after the other, a laurel branch at the foot of the statue.

« VorigeDoorgaan »