From The Examiner. THE LIBERAL PARTY IN FRANCE. never ceased to express; not, as formerly, from the tribune, which is interdicted to them, nor in the public journals, which can no longer be their organs, but in the familiar France, the same writer continues, is divided into two camps; in the provinces as well as in Paris the singular spectacle is offered of two opposing forces holding each other in check. After setting forth by what unworthy means the Government recruits its forces, he says: THE publication of a French organ of opinion in London affords us a means of judgconversations of every day, conversations ing of the position of the liberal party in moderate without weakness, and free without France, which the restrictions imposed upon bravado; but which have not been without the French press have hitherto prevented us echo or effect. How many indirect threats from acquiring. The work in question, which have been made, how many artful flatteries bears the title of the Revue Indépendante, employed during the last eight years to break appears in the form of a monthly magazine, up a union which, notwithstanding every ef devoted to Politics, Philosophy, Literature, fort, remains firm and entire. The honor of Science, and the Fine Arts, the political fractions of the old parliamentary_phalanx. this loyal resistance belongs equally to all the category consisting of articles by writers of Servants of the elder branch of the Bourbons, distinction, who, however, contribute anony-partisans of the house of Orleans, founders mously, and the remainder being under the of the republic of 1848, all the men who have direction of M. Gustave Masson, Professor of played a great part in our deliberative asLiterature at Harrow School. In the open- semblies, and defended, each from his own ing number of this periodical, which was pub-point of view, the cause of public liberty and constitutional right, still profess in common lished on the 1st of July, we find three aran equal attachment to the same doctrines. ticles of more than common interest. The first of these, in the shape of a letter to the editor, treats of a movement which is gradually making progress in France towards a better understanding between parties of all shades of opinion, which, setting personal considerations aside, occupies itself with the permanent interests of the country, with the "On the one hand the representatives of constitution of society, with the organization government armed at all points, and powerful of power, and with the necessary guarantees over the multitudes whom they rule, but withfor liberty; and the writer of the letter is out authority over men's conscience, without hopeful of the result. The second article, on suffering from the ill-disguised sense of their influence over men's intelligence, and inwardly the recent loan of the five hundred millions inferiority; on the other, a certain number of of francs for the Italian war, shows very men of note, former peers, deputies, members clearly that the enormous sum subscribed, of the last republican assemblies, high funcnearly five times as much as was required, was tionaries who voluntarily resigned their emneither caused by national enthusiasm, by ployments, men of study keeping purposely confidence-save in the credit of the State aloof,-a group somewhat differing in origin, nor even by a condition of real prosperity, dainful than offensive, too careless, in our a combination of minds certainly more disbut had its motive in the desire of the smaller opinion, of active influence and useful intercapitalists to obtain for their money an inter-vention in public affairs, but surrounded by est exceeding five per cent. The third article is "On the Liberal Party of France," and from that we make the following extracts :— With the exception of a few recruits who have joined the Imperial camp,-such as MM. de la Rochejaquelin, de Pastoret, Barthe, Dupin, de Cormenin, Billault, and one or two others, the writer contends that there has been no swerving from their opinions on the part of the liberal chiefs. "Amongst them (he says) there has been no defection, no falling off; what they thought in their day of triumph they think still after their defeat, and these thoughts they have *London: W. Jeffs, 15 Burlington arcade. respect and general consideration, the natural counsellors of our country, counsellors, it is true, who have been slightly forgotten, but whose advice would alone be sought when the day arrives for again placing confidence in some one person or thing. Such, we believe, taking it altogether, since the coup d'état of the 2nd of December, is the situation of the French liberal party, as opposed to the Government founded in 1852." Time, however, observes the writer, some recent events, and particularly the war which has just broken out, have gradually wrought certain modifications in this attitude, which, without being essential, require to be noticed. "When Napoleon the Third seized the dictatorship by the coup de main which dis- concurrence of those even whom it was sought solved the National Assembly, and when, at a to re-unite; but not without having momentalater period, he appealed to the people to rily excited the suspicions of the Republicans. decree him the Imperial crown, he encoun- It is a singular fact that since the two Royaltered only divided adversaries. From 1848 ist factions no longer speak of official treaties to 1852 the former ministerialists and the to be concluded and precise arrangements to former dynastic opposition to the Government be subscribed, they have felt that their mutual of 1830 had alone found time to effect a cer- understanding has become far easier; and the tain degree of fusion, reconciled compulsorily men of 1848, satisfied that the destinies of by the hard lesson of their sudden and com- the country are not to be disposed of without mon shipwreck. Between the Legitimists and them, have in their turn drawn closer to the the Orleanists, between the Royalists of the Royalists. This fusion has not been brought two branches and the Republicans of 1848, about by deliberate consultation, but by dethe divisions had been much wider; longer grees and without premeditation. No one trials, experienced side by side, were neces- can especially boast of having been the agent sary, gradually to appease mistrusts so tena- to effect it. It has been provoked by the incious and of such old date; and in the outset supportable continuance of a degrading tyrsome untimely efforts unfortunately delayed a anny which weighs alike on all. Equality of union so desirable. The old Parliamentary suffering, by prolongation, has created a comparties could scarcely believe in the duration munity of resistance. Bent beneath the same of a despotic empire in France. They read-yoke, subjected to the same outrages, it could ily imagined that the new régime would fall not be but sooner or later every generous quickly and by its own fault; they were both mind should mingle their sorrows, their less eager to work for its fall than occupied in making sure of the expected succession. Instead of practically agreeing upon the incidents of the day, which was by no means an impossibility, several important personages in the two monarchical camps expended their energy in solving beforehand amongst themselves certain arduous questions that should have been reserved for the future alone, and the settlement of which was not imposed upon them. This laborious toil was necessarily abandoned before they had gained the hatreds, and even their hopes! The force of things led of itself to this result; but, as commonly happens in political affairs, it is the governing power which, by its own faults, has come to the assistance of its enemies. The violent acts of the Imperial Government after the attempt of Orsini have raised the last barriers which still separated the different sections of the liberal party, and their complete reconciliation dates from the publication of the law of general safety. RELIGIOUS AWAKENING AMONG THE TURKS. -We are indebted to a friend for the following information respecting a religious movement observable more or less in different parts of the Turkish Empire "We had a few days ago very interesting intelligence from the interior of the country. A certain number of Mussulman tribes inhabiting the country between Erzeroum and Trebizond (about 20,000 people), who appear to have been Greeks (Christians) once, and forced to turn Mahometans three hundred years ago, have addressed the Sultan, asking him permission to become Christians. The Sultan granted their request by a firman. About one thousand of them joined the Greek Church. The remainder are undecided, and have applied to the Protestant missionaries for preachers and schools, and say they cannot go to the Greek Church as it is not the church of their traditions. "The movement among the Turks begins to Here in Smyrna be most powerful everywhere. Another letter, dated March 12th, 1859, says: "Most astonishing things occur every day among the Turks in the interior. A short time ago, after a judicial trial against some Armenian Protestants on account of their new opinions, the Pasha of called them in private, and told them to fear nothing, but not to work with axe and pick, which make noise-only to bore into people's minds with a screw.' 'He then asked them to give religious instruction to his only son. There would be no end of anecdotetelling in this respect. The Turkish converts are all very bold; they fear neither poverty, shame, nor death, and realize the words, Rejoice always.'"-Calendar. A From The Saturday Review. the more accurate study of our own tongue. DEAN TRENCH'S SELECT GLOSSARY.* We suppose the Dean is speaking of those WE are always well pleased to see another who learn no language at all but their own. of those small volumes whose look, at the Otherwise, though no tongue can ever fully first glimpse, pronounces them to be some- supply the place of Greek, yet much would thing new from the pen of Dean Trench. The be gained if modern foreign languages were Dean fills a position of his own in English better taught than they commonly are. literature a position both highly honorable man who has learned German and French and highly useful. He is a firstrate English has the means, if he chooses to use them, of scholar. By this we mean that he has in a gaining considerable insight into the history hign degree that sort of knowledge of English of English. German especially, as an original which a good Greek scholar has of the lan-language with a real grammar, might be so guage of ancient Greece. Such a scholar taught as, in some slight degree, to serve as a need not be a profound philologer. We do substitute for Greek. But foreign languages not think Dean Trench is one. When he are commonly taught in such a wretched emattempts the higher philology he often shows pirical way as to supply no mental discipline that it is not exactly his forte. But he dis-whatever. Germans learn English, and Engplays a wonderful knowledge of English liter-lishmen learn German, without the faintest ature of every age and of every kind since the notion of the real analogies and differences English language assumed any thing like its between the two languages. For instance, present form. And he has not only read the that certain letters in one language answer, books, but he has thought about the language. as an almost invariable rule, to certain letters He has marked every change in usage which in the other, is a piece of knowledge not has taken place in the course of successive vouchsafed to one learner in a hundred. We centuries. And a similar knowledge of other languages, both ancient and modern, supplies him with abundant stores for etymology and analogy. Scholarship of this kind, if some thing different from scientific philology, is yet more different from a mere empirical knowledge of a spoken language, or even from that heavy kind of scholarship which cannot get beyond an occasional emendation in the text of a particular author. In this department of his own Dean Trench stands quite unrivalled. And his power of communicating knowledge is fully equal to the value of the knowledge which he has gathered together. His works are always no less pleasant than profitable. If they have any fault, it is an over tendency to moralizing. The Dean is rather too fond of finding a moral lesson in the changes of meaning in words at different times. This is a sort of thing of which one may easily have too much, and which moreover often leads the writer into needless sub- The Dean's present book consists of specitleties. mens of English words which have changed Dean Trench thinks that, as the number of their meaning-supported, of course, by quothose who receive a classical education is tations showing the meanings which have He does not put it forth as diminishing-at any rate proportionably di-gone out of use. minishing—a substitute must be sought in exhaustive, but merely as a selection which may lead others to carry on the study for themselves. He tells us in his preface A Select Glossary of English Words used for merly in different senses from their present. By Richard Chenevix Trench, D.D. London: J. W. Parker and Son. 1859. speak especially of German, as an original language, and one cognate with our own. As for the French tongue, its history is one of the most curious things in the whole his tory of language, but one who has not learned Latin can hardly learn French in any but an empirical way. But as the Dean introduces, in his present book less reference than usual to foreign languages, whether ancient or modern, we suppose he wishes to show how great materials for thought and mental discipline are supplied by the existing English tongue only. For the same reason it is, doubtless, that he does not carry his present inquiry further back than to the times when English first began to assume its present shape. We do not think he quotes any writer earlier than Wickliffe. English of an earlier date is, in fact, a matter of philology rather than of scholarship. Historically the same speech, it is practically another tongue. "My purpose being rather to arouse curiosity than fully to gratify it, to lead others themselves to take note of changes and to and one of the worst results of the Norman account for them, rather than to take alto- Conquest has been that we can no longer gether this pleasant labor out of their hands, freely create and compound words in our own and to do for them what they could more prof-tongue, like our fellow-Teutons on the Conitably do for themselves, I have consciously left much of the work undone, even as untinent. But besides these necessary evils, consciously, no doubt, I have left a great deal heaps of French and Latin words, or what more. At the same time, it has not been would fain be taken for French and Latin mere caprice which has induced the particular words, have been poured in upon us without selection of words which has been actually the slightest need. The language of Sir made. Various motives, but in almost every Thomas Browne and the language of a modcase such as I could give account of to myself, have ruled this selection. Sometimes the ern penny-a-liner can neither of them be called Teutonic; each writes in a Romance past use of a word has been noted and compared with the present as usefully exercising dialect of his own making. It is some little the mind in tracing minute differences and comfort to see that words of both these kinds fine distinctions: or, again, as helpful to the almost always lose their meaning. They understanding of earlier authors, and likely come in originally as technical or quasi-techto deliver the readers of them from misap-nical terms, and scholars are content to use prehensions into which they might very easily them in their right places. Then those who fall; or once more, as opening out a curious 66 chapter in the history of manners, or as in- are not scholars seize upon them because they volving some interesting piece of history, or do not know their meaning, and therefore some singular superstition: or again, as wit- think them finer than those words whose nessing for the good or for the evil which meanings they do know. Individual," achave been unconsciously at work in the minds cording to Johnson, is an adjective. He and hearts of those who insensibly have modi- knows nothing of it as a substantive; but its fied in part or changed altogether the mean- substantive use often supplies a real need ing of some word; or, lastly, or more gener- when we want to speak in a marked way of ally, as illustrating well under one aspect or another those permanent laws which are a single person as opposed to a corporation everywhere affecting and modifying human or a commonwealth. But "individual" has speech." five syllables, while "man" has only one; Words change their meaning in various therefore, hundreds of talkers and writers ways. Sometimes they change in an imper- speak of an "individual," when no real special ceptible kind of way which it would not be opposition is thought of, and when they simeasy to explain, any more than we can explain ply mean a "man." "Party" is a good why pronunciation alters-why, of two kin- word enough when we are talking of a lawdred tongues starting from the same point, suit, or of any thing which an easy metaphor one keeps one sound and one another, why can regard as such. But "party" is used by one retains a word in one sense and another a vast number of Englishmen simply as the in a quite different one. "Knecht" and translation of homo. "Party," luckily, is "Knight" are originally the same in sound still a vulgarism, but honorable and right and in meaning, and it is easy to trace the honorable persons talk about “individuals.” steps by which they reached their present "Residence" is a word good enough in a diversity; but it is not so easy to give the sort of technical and official sense. A clergywhy or the wherefore of each stage of the man "resides" on his living. The Cabinet process. Changes like these are part of the Minister has an official "residence" in Downphilological history of several languages. ing-street. But we suppose that half our They take place, as we may say, naturally, newspaper writers, if called on to make a though in different directions. Some words German dictionary, would translate "Haus " get a wider, some a narrower meaning-some by "residence," and "wohnen" by "to rerise in the world, others fall. Quite another side." Nothing is enough for an individual, class are the foreign imported words, of which but some things may be sufficient. The inthe last two centuries have given us so many. dividual never speaks of a thing, he always Of these, many were really wanted, others alludes to it. He is never drunk, but he is are mere affectation. For abstract and tech-sometimes inebriated. He is never naked, aical words of all sorts we must draw upon but he is sometimes in a state of nudity. He other languages. One of the most lasting is the owner of nothing, but he may be a He would not | our wisdom is, Believe.'-HOOKER, Ecclesiastical Polity, l. v. proprietor to any amount. Slang of this sort Dean Trench seems to have thought beneath him to speak of. But it is an evil especially to be struggled against with the class whom the Dean wishes particularly to benefit. A real scholar will, cæteris paribus, prefer a Teutonic word to a Latin one; and when a Latin word is really wanted, he will use it in its right place and in its right meaning. The half-educated man will use the Latin word by choice, because he thinks it finer, and of course he will often use it when it is not wanted, and use it in a wrong sense. We must now give a few specimens of the instances selected by the Dean. Among them we will pick out one or two illustrating the vein of over-moralizing which we mentioned above : "Curse, miscreant, when thou comest to the stake.-SHAKSPEARE. I Henry VI., act 5, sc. 2. "The consort and principal servants of Soliman had been honorably restored without ransom; and the Emperor's generosity to the miscreant was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause.-GIBBON, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, c. 58. use MEASLES. This has only been by later restrained to one kind of spotted sickness; but meazel' (it is spelt in innumerable ways) was once leprosy, or more often the leper himself, and the disease 'meselry.' "Forsothe he was a stronge man and riche, but mesell.-4 Kings, v. I. WICLIF. "In this same year the mysseles thorowouto mad covenaunt with Sarasenes for to poison all Cristendom were slaundered that thei had Christen men.-CAPGRAVE, Chronicle of Englande, p. 186. "He (Pope Deodatus) kissed a mysel, and sodeynly the mysel was whole.-Id. Ib. p. 95. "BEASTLY, BEASTLINESS. We translate (Cor. 15: 44), a natural body;' some have regretted that it was not rendered an aniwhen he translated the corpus animale,' mal body. This is exactly what Wiclif meant which he found in his Vulgate, a beastly body.' The word had then no ethical coloring; nor, when it first acquired such, had it exactly that which it now possesses. "It is sowen a beestli bodi; it shall rise a spiritual bodi.-1 Cor. 15: 44. WICLIF "Where they should have made head with the whole army upon the Parthians, they sent him aid by small companies, and when they were slain they sent him others also. So that they had like to have made all the army fly. by their beastliness and lack of consideration NORTH, Plutarch's Lives, p. 769. "MISCREANT. A settled conviction that to believe wrongly is the way to live wrongly, has caused that in all languages words which originally did but indicate the first have gradually acquired a meaning of the second. There is no more illustrious example of this than miscreant,' which now charges him to whom it is applied, not with religious error, but with extreme moral depravity; while yet, according to its etymology, it did but mean at the first misbeliever, and as such would have been as freely applied to the morally most blameless of these as to the vilest and the grave's Chronicle of England. It is a pity worst. In the quotation from Shakspeare, York means to charge the maid of Orleans as he has "Turk" in his Select Glossary-as he a dealer in unlawful charms, with apostacy might thus have explained to the editor and from the Christian faith, according to the low translator of Capgrave how Henry of Lanand unworthy estimate of her character, above caster came to fall in with that particular which even Shakspeare himself has not risen. kind of miscreant, not only on the banks of We are not therefore ashamed of the Gospel the Jordan, but also on those of the Niemen of our Lord Jesus Christ, because miscreants Dean Trench several times quotes Cap he did not include the word "Saracen "— in scorn have upbraided us that the highest of and the Dwina. |