the frankness with which he acknowledges the unhappy immediate results in all departments except those of finance and (what he calls) liberty, cannot, we apprehend, have been over favourably received by the actual tenant of the Tuileries and restorer of Versailles, even though that personage is repeatedly (and justly) described as 'un roi, homme supérieur;' nay, complimented very cleverly in the shape of a sarcasm upon the great Condé:

En 1649, le grand Condé put se faire roi... Il le désira; mais la maturité de sens lui manqua pour voir bien nettement cette possibilité, et pour tirer parti des circonstances. D'ailleurs, la grandeur de sa naissance lui donnait des momens de folie.'-vol. ii. p. 102.

M. Beyle says:

who can speak in public nearly as well as the best speakers among the Deputies,

We have gained the Charivari-that step is immense. The Charivari alone would render a second Napoleon impossible, though he should have won ten battles of Arcola. His first steps towards the dictatorship his first airs of superiority-far ed with ridicule. from exciting enthusiasm, would be overwhelm.

3. Europe remembers with respect that the French empire extended from Hamburgh to Terracina. This is what France owes to Napoleon, and Constantina has just been refreshing that idea, though it could never have given it birth

4. The nations of Europe, deceived by so freedom, it will come to them from France: this is many promises, know wellthat, if ever they are to get the reason that they neglect the English newspapers and devour those of Paris.'-vol. i. p. 253.

We must leave it to our reader to reconcile as best he may, the statements that the Charivari (a newspaper made up 'At present, in consequence of the Revolution, the people are energetic-witness their suicides! A of squibs) would render another Napole third of the rich persons who hire the boxes at the on impossible in spite of ten Arcolas, and Opera would find it difficult to prove that their that any king of France who had gained grand fathers could read. Hence the energy which two victories might erect any kind of seeks to force its way in the literature of 1837. The principle of energy, however, was even stronger government he thought fit, and convince in the society of the tenth century than it is now all France that it was in strict accordance with us; the son of the Roman drew back every- with the Charter of 1830. We must also where before the son of the barbarian. The twelfth leave it for M. Beyle to explain on what and thirteenth centuries began to blush for their barbarism, and the passion for church architecture grounds he asserts that all Europe is developed itself. In like manner French literature looking for liberty to France, not to Engmay hope for a period of really noble energy when land, while he himself, in many passages the grandsons of those who have been enriched by of this very book, expressly says, that he the Revolution shall come to figure on the scene.'— hopes, rather than wishes, to see France vol. i. pp. 104, 105. enjoy, before he dies, a constitutional system as wise and liberal as that of England in 1837! But indeed there would be no end to our impertinence, if we were to press our ingenious tourist for an explanation of apparent inconsistencies of this class. We merely place a few passages in juxta-position.

In a steamboat near Macon he has a long colloquy with a Carlist, whose politics he at once divined, because 'sa conversation avait une fleur exquise de politesse.' (vol. i. p. 132.) Politics were shunned-but a few days afterwards he encounters another gentleman of the same class, and the grand question is calmly discussed between them.

The author on arriving at Vannes walks out to inspect the sea, which he had supposed to be close to the town, whereas it is two leagues off-so night overtakes him and he has to return re infectâ.

This brave officer,' says the tourist, 'treated the actual state of things with very little ceremony. answered,-what is it that we have to regret? Louis Philippe has frequently had seven of the most enlightened men in France (les hommes le moins When one is so grossly ignorant, I said to arrièrés) for his ministers. With one or two myself, one should at least have the courage to ask exceptions, was not the case with Louis XVIII. the somebody for information! But I must acknowreverse? That prince chose occasionally very ledge it, I have such a horror for the vulgar, that I amiable persons such as the Abbé de Montesquiou, lose the whole thread of my sensations if I am who made him date in the 19th year of his reign-obliged to ask my way.'-vol. ii. p. 133.

but when had he a rational minister? As for the Charter, to my thinking, it much resembles the

company some wealthy 'bourgeois: '

Again he gets into a public carriage Bible, the basis of our religion, in which the ablest between Dol and St. Malo, and found for man cannot, however, point out one word about either the pope or the mass. A king who should have gained a couple of battles in person would be adored by the French, and would very soon persuade them that his government, whatever that might be, was according to the Charter. We have in fact gained only four points since Barnave, Sieyes, and Mirabeau:

1. The king must choose for ministers persons

How

Never was I in such vile company. often did I regret my calèche! These people talk. ed continually of themselves, and what belonged to themselves-their wives-their children-their pocket handkerchiefs, in the buying of which they had cheated the mercer by a franc in the dozen.

justice! La France l'admirerait s'il fut né grand | more than in the show and bustle of the seigneur.'-vol. ii. p. 285.

he

of

beau monde, preferring a book at the fire-
side to a loge at the theatre, a roman
sung by his wife or daughter to all the
warblings of Grisi, and a dance on the
village green to five thousand tumblings
Beyle's opinion, vegetates, but cannot, as
twenty Taglionis-this man, in M.
we have seen, be said to live. He in an-
other place speaks of the increasing pas-
sion for quiet domestic existence as notre
able Parisian is far above considering
In fact, our agree-
sauvagerie moderne.'
that there are in this world any such
things as duties that is to say, for peo

Marriage in the 19th century is a luxury, and a great luxury. One ought to be very rich before Et puis one thinks of indulging in such a thing. quelle manie de créer des misérables !”—vol. i. p. 226.

Our readers can, however, be at no great loss for the mot de l'énigme. M. Beyle may placard whatever liberalism be thinks proper upon fit occasions, but neither he, no, nor any other gentleman (the French have adopted this word by the way, as well as dandy) can be at heart an enemy of aristocracy. He has exactly the same horror for universal suffrage, even for the coaxing of shopkeepers, and the mystification of town-councils, that the most dainty Sybarite of Vienna could avow. In all his habits, feelings, opi-ple who posess de quoi vivre-who nions-in all but a certain stock of phrases keep a calêche. -he is diametrically opposed to the principles of the Movement and the practices of its sincere advocates. He is not within the immediate circle of court and cabinet influence he is easy in his fortune-his literary reputation is fixed and considerable, and he has no longer (if he ever had) any ambition out of literature: therefore, he does not keep that strict watch over his expressions which many of his equals see excellent reasons for doing; every now and then the truth escapes from his pen, whereas it never comes from their lips except when doors are shut. Le is not a deputy-he is not a candidate either for a prefecture or a peerage he is merely a literary Whig." In his book, therefore, we have every now and then honest glimpses of his political infidelity, whereas Whigs differently situated carry their hypocrisy with edifying gravity about them in all their outward sayings and doings, consoling themselves occasionally in a corner with a Leo-like chuckle of 'Prodest nobis hæc fabula.'

Madame R. serait encore fort bien de mise si

elle le voulait; mais elle commence à voir les choses du côté philosophique, c'est à dire triste, com. me il convient à une dame de trente-six ans, fort honnête sans doute, mais qui n'est plus amoureuse de son mari. Quant à moi, dans mes idées perveres, je lui conseillerai fort de prendre un petit amant: cela ne ferait mal à personne, et retarderait de dix ans peut-être l'arrivée de la méchanceté et le départ des idées gaies de la jeunesse. C'est une maison où j'irais tous les jours si je devais rester ici.'-vol. ii. p. 2.

The temples of the ancients were small, their circuses very large. It is otherwise with us; reli. gion now a-days proscribes the theatre and enjoins was one festival, and not demanding of the faithful that they should sacrifice their passions, but only that they should give them a direction useful to the country, had no occasion for crowding people together for hour after hour, with the intention of cutting the fear of hell deep into their hearts.”—Ibid. 241.

mortifications of the flesh. That of the Romans

LE CORAN est fort supérieur à UN AUTRE LIVRE.'-Ibid. P. 265.

What comes next is from a letter dated at St. Malo's :

A ce moment com

'On ne sait rien faire bien en province, pas meme mourir. Huit jours avant sa fin, un malheureux femme et de ses enfans, par les propos gauches de provincial est averti du danger par les larmes de sa ses amis, et enfin par l'arrivée terrible du prêtre. A la vue du ministre des autels, le malade se tient pour mort; tout est fini pour lui. mencent les scènes déchirantes, renouvelées dix fois le jour. Le pauvre homme rend enfin le dernier soupir au milieu des cris et des sanglots de sa famille et des domestiques. Sa femme se jette sur son corps inanimé; on entend de la rue ses cris épouvantafans un souvenir éternel d'horreur et de misère: c'est bles, ce qui lui fait honneur; et elle donne aux en

M. Beyle presents a French mirror in which many elegant English faces are reflected. He abhors the idea of investing his moneys in land; he says, truly, that such property yields but a moderate per centage he is of opinion that it cannot be managed even to decent advantage without personal intercourse with 'brutal, ignorant, cunning, and rapacious peasants; and, therefore, he is all for the public funds, or 'houses in Paris well insured against fire.' He cannot comprehend how any body should follow the other course, unless with views to a place in the Chamber, which he would look upon as a bore. The country genUn homme tombe gravement malade à Paris; tleman who resides on his estates, im-il ferme sa porte, un petit nombre d'amis pénètrent proving them by his care and example, jusqu'à lui. On se garde bien de parler tristement de la maladie; après les premiers mots sur sa santé, enjoying the society of his home circle, on lui raconte ce qui se passe dans le monde. Au taking no part whatever in politics, any dernier moment, le malade prie sa garde de le laisser

une scène affreuse.

seul un instant; il a besoin de reposer. Les choses proved that he spent the night of the attristes se passent comme elles se passeraient tou- tack away from home-but Ganthier rejours, sans sottes institutions, dans le silence et la newed his denial of having recognised solitude. Voyez l'animal malade, il se cache, et, pour the assassin, and treated the charge mourir, va chercher dans le bois le fourré le plus against his friend and kinsman with utter épais. Fourrier est mort en se cachant de sa por- contempt; so the man was dismissed, and the affair remained in mystery.

tière.

'Depuis que l'idée d'un enfer éternel s'en va, la

mort redevient une chose simple-ce qu'elle était avant le règne de Constantin. Cette idée aura valu des milliards à qui de droit, des chefs-d'œuvre aux beaux-arts, de la profondeur à l'esprit humain.'— vol. ii. pp. 179, 180.

By this time our readers begin to have a tolerably accurate notion of M. Beyle. We proceed to consider a few of the many very curious and striking facts which he has accumulated in illustration of the excellent effects which attend even

in the provinces, emancipation from the vulgar credence in a future state of rewards and punishments.

'My dear Man, I cannot rest as I am, for I am the most wretched woman in the world ever since certainly means to have you apprehended, and since he told me that he knew it was you that did it. He that I have no consolation, and if you wish to finish your days with your wife, you must give the an swer immediately by Mary. Don't be afraid about something for it, and you will tell me what we Mary, she will keep our secret, and I will give her should do to get rid of life. My dear delight, don't forget your own girl: the sooner it is done it will be

Three weeks passed; Ganthier recov ered, and the first visit he paid was to the magistrate. He now said that he had perfectly recognised Marandon as his as sailant; but that knowing the suspicion entertained of a liaison between him and his wife, and having entire faith in her innocence, he had controlled his feelings and maintained silence, lest, by naming the sabotier, he should confirm the idle and malevolent rumours of the neighbourWhen he had got nearly well hood. again, he had told his wife all about it, and she had expressed the warmest gratiOur tourist visited Argenton in the tude for his consideration of her characspring of 1837. The town was at this ter. That morning, however, the maidmoment the scene of one of those roman- servant had found means to see him alone, ces of real life which are so faithfully and had given him a billet written by her copied by the existing masters of melo- mistress, which the latter had asked the dramatic energy. A young man of the girl to deliver to Marandon; it was in working class, but in easy circumstances, these words :by name Ganthier, had married his cousin, a remarkably pretty and sweet-tempered girl. They seemed to have no earthly distress, except that, after several years of union, they were still childless. She passed for a model of conjugal affection and contentment, and he was greatly esteemed. Early in January he had to drive a load of corn to Limoges; he started at peep of day, and as he was passing a bridge over the Creuse, a man leaped in- The magistrate sent in quest of Maranto the cart and stabbed him. Ganthier don, but he had, it seems, observed Ganjumped out of the cart a violent strug-thier enter the prefecture, and instantly gle ensued-he received five or six disappeared. He was found dead, but thrusts of a knife, but at last put the as- still warm, in a cave by the river: he had sassin to flight. He by and by fainted, shot himself through the head. however, from loss of blood, and was As they were carrying the body to the found senseless on the road; but he reviv- town, Madame Ganthier, who had been ed and was bandaged in a farm-house, car- calling on her mother in a neighbouring ried home in the course of the day, and village, met them: she was on horseback; put to bed by his afflicted wife, to whom, she fainted, and fell from her saddle; they as well as to the neighbours, he said that, lifted her up, conducted her home, and from the imperfect light, he had been un- treated her with every kindness, but as able to distinguish the features of his as- soon as, feigning to be asleep, she was sailant. Nevertheless, suspicion rested left alone, the poor woman rose, ran up on a relation of his own, a maker of stairs, and flung herself out of a garret wooden shoes, by name Marandon, who window. The fall was severe-forty feet had been for about two years a widower, --but she recovered--was tried as an acand had, it seems, been observed to pay cessory before the fact, and acquittedparticular attentions to his cousin's hand-comme on l'avait prévu.' 'Marandon had,' some helpmate. The magistrates order- says M. Beyle, 'black eyes, d'une expresed inquiry; they found a few drops of sion admirable et singulière chez un payblood on Marandon's clothes, and it was san. Il était aimé dans le pays.'

the better.'

Walking with a distinguished silk-lord and bon-vivant of Lyons by the Rhone, near the Barrière de Genève, M. Beyle remarked a particularly elegant hotel. His friend exclaims, 'Ah! c'est la maison de la pauvre Madame Girer de Loche'— and then comes another story.

identity, however, was discovered by a sort of accident. Inquiries were made: the Valence workmen heard of the affair, and came forward. They had been employed to remove a little staircase, masked by a couple of cabinets, which had afforded the means of private communication between Madame's 'premier étage,' and the apartment on the floor above.

We must give the third specimen in its native shape-and for the sake of one or two happy phrases, let us begin a little before the beginning :

Grenoble, le 12 Août. 'On m'a conduit ce matin au château de Mont

bonot qui appartient à un homme aimable et savant. Ce château couronne une jolie petite colline qui avance vers l'Isère. C'est sans doute la plus belle position de la vallée. D'un côté la vue s'étend jusque de l'autre jusqu'aux environs du fort Barreaux. Mais comment décrire ces choses-la? Il faudrait dix pages, prendre le ton épique et emphatique que j'ai en horreur; et le résultat de tant de travail ne serait peut-être que de l'ennui pour le lecteur. J'ai remarqué que les belles descriptions de Madame Radcliffe ne décrivent rien; c'est le chant d'un matelot qui fait rêver.

This was the beauty of Lyons. At nineteen she lost a husband whom she had married for love, and remained till fiveand-twenty mistress of this charming residence, besieged by suitors, but deaf to all their proposals. She passed some weeks of autumn at a watering-place near Grenoble, and on her return let her hotel-près de Saint. Egrève, Noyarey, le pont de Claix, et took the first floor in a small house in an obscure street--gave up her usual habits of company and gaiety-was seldom visible abroad, except on her way to and from church. 'La dame étoit devenue plus jolie, mais en même temps fort dévote.' About two months after this change in her arrangements, a young gentleman from Grenoble arrived in Lyons to superintend the conduct of a lawsuit--he took the second floor in the same house--went occasionally to Grenoble, and returned--the lawsuit was likely to be a tedious one. By degrees he became fond of Lyons addicted himself to angling in the Rhone, &c. : thus several years passed. He was observed to have some slight acquaintance with his pretty neighbour, at least he visited her in due form once a year, about Christmas-but this was all. He also was considered as dévot.

'Je ne puis que dire au voyageur; Quand vous passez par Lyons, faites vingt lieues de plus pour voir ces aspects sublimes.

De Montbonot, je suis descendu jusqu'à l'Isère, pour voir l'emplacement d'un pont en fil de fer pour lequel je fournirai peut-être du fer de La Roche (en Champagne). On a raconté devant moi, sur les tra. vaux, le singulier [?] suicide d'une jeune protestante de Grenoble. Elle avait les plus beaux yeux du Dauphiné, mais passait pour être un peu légère; c'est à dire que dans ses jours de gaîté elle ne refusait pas à certains jeunes gens de ses amis de se promener avec eux devant la boutique de sa mère, ce qui passait pour un grand crime aux yeux des dévots du voisinage, tres disposés déjà à la haïr à cause de sa religion. Rien de plus innocent, comme la suite la prouve. Victorine avait un caractère vif et gai, connu dans tout le faubourg Tréscloître ; elle se laissait facilement entraîner par la joie. Un jeune voisin, d'un caractère sombre, catholique de

At the end of five years he disappeared: it came out soon afterwards that he had married a rich and beautiful young Jew-religion, et qui la blamait d'abord avec emporteess, and was established at Grenoble.

dernier, le jeune homme apporte cent francs au chirurgien du faubourg, en lui disant ces propres paroles : "J'aurais un duel un de ces jours; si je succombe, donnez-moi votre parole de faire l'autopsie des cadavres. Cela est essentiel à la paix de nos Vous êtes homme de sens et derniers momens.

ment, devint éperdument amoureux d'elle; d'abord la jeune personne se moqua de lui, puis elle l'aima. About this time Mad. de Loche required Les parens du jeune homme se sont refusés avec to have some alterations made in her indignation à ce mariage avec une fille d'une gaîté si suspecte, et d'ailleurs protestante. Les jeunes apartment, so she took the floor over gens ont employé tous les moyens possibles pour les it also. The workmen she employed féchir; ensuite ils ont eu l'idée, maintenant si sim. came from another town-fifty or sixtyple, de se tuer. La veille du jour qui devait être le miles off-Valence: they remained for a few days, and went away again without having told any one what the job had been. On their departure Madame's physicians recommended the air of the south. She embarked in the Marseilles steam-vous me comprendrez dans trois jours. Rappelezvous que je compte sur votre honneur, et c'est l'honboat, but travelled on to Ciotat, and took neur qui me fait parler." a lodging in that little town, where nobody knew who she was. After the lapse of a month she was found 'asphyxiée dans sa chambre.' She had burnt her passport, and taken out the marks in her linen. Her 7

VOL. LXV.

Le chirurgien, qui n'entendait rien à ce langage, le crut revenu à ses anciennes idées de mysticité. 'Les pauvres jeunes gens ont loués une chambre, où on les a trouvé asphyxiés. La jeune fille avait dit la veille en pleurant : Un jour on reconnaîtra que j'ai toujours été sage." C'est sur quoi l'autopsie

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