into the very centre of this locality, and will allow of the advance of large bodies of troops who may set barricades at defiance; while it will be cut through in a transverse direction by the new boulevard. But this is not all; the once closely-inhabited ground immediately behind the Hotel de Ville has been cleared to make place for a vast pile of barracks capable of holding several thousand men-the citadel of the state overlooking and commanding the fortress of the town. Paris is indeed fallen from its ancient power. The new Rue des Ecoles will in a similar manner intersect the more turbulent districts on the southern side of the river.

In taking this strategic glance at the alterations now making in Paris, I can hardly help applying to the power that is the celebrated epigram ascribed to the poet Virgil, Sic vos non vobis. The Emperor of the French has been labouring earnestly to destroy the power of the mob, which certainly opened to him the way to the throne-is he labouring for his own advantage, or for that of others? In a short visit to Paris during the present month, I have mixed intimately and rather extensively with nearly all classes of society, and heard Louis Napoleon spoken of in private as a mere alternative-as having been the less obnoxious of two disasters while the manner in which he reached the throne is forgotten by nobody. He has, however, still many things in his favour. There appears to be little sympathy for any of the past dynasties; if there be any leaning, it is, I think, towards the house of Orleans, -the reign of Louis Philippe is the only one to which people in general look back with regret as one of peace and prosperity-but this party has ruined itself for the present by the "fusion," by consequent division, and by a mistaken advocacy by one portion of it of the policy of Russia. In fact, it has gained the character of being selfish, instead of patriotic. I believe, moreover, that still the republican sentiment is the predominant one in France, and that if the present state of things should now be suddenly overthrown, it is that sentiment which, be it for good or for evil, would gain the day. On the other hand, the position of Louis Napoleon has been greatly strengthGENT. MAG. VOL. XLII.

ened by the war with Russia, and especially by the English alliance. The alliance with England is wonderfully popular, and from what I have seen I believe that in all classes the sentiment is cordial, and calculated to be permanent; when expressed, it is always accompanied with a feeling of respect as well as of friendship; they say, we are the two nations who have never been able to conquer each other, and therefore we may be friends without jealousy, and our friendship is the triumph of civilization, and must ensure the prosperity of both countries. The enthusiasm has risen so high, that some one has published a book to prepare the world for the abolition of the channel! and I have before me more than one poem in which the Alliance is

celebrated in very glowing language. There is, under the surface, less absolute enthusiasm in France for the war with Russia than for the alliance with England, and it is perhaps more popular than it would otherwise be on account of that alliance. Any strong feeling of hostility towards Russia that is observable in France may be ascribed in a great measure to the imprudent allusions which have been made by the Emperor Nicholas to the events of the year 1812. Nevertheless, France has evidently entered into the war with cordiality, as well as with confidence as to its results, and there are far more outward indications of animosity against the Czar Nicholas in Paris than in London. The shop windows are literally filled with caricatures and prints relating to the war, some of them witty enough, but often rather coarse, and evidently intended for the lower classes. In these prints, full justice is done to the English sailor, for our Gallic neighbour is especially proud of the fact that the two navies are riding side by side in friendly union. With a somewhat singular prejudice, which has long prevailed in France, when the English army is represented in these caricatures, it is almost always by the figure of a highlander, for it seems to be a popular notion that without highlanders an English army could hardly exist. Not content with the ordinary instrumentality of paper, caricatures against Nicholas have been circulated on pockethandkerchiefs and such like articles. The same spirit of hostility is exhibited F

in multitudes of popular songs and ballads, which are sold about the town, with such titles as, La danse du papa Nicolas, Le cri de Guerre, J'veux manger un Cosaque, La Danse des Cosaques, Le départ pour la Turquie, Le Marseillais à Constantinople, and a multitude of others in the same style. The same subject has taken possession of the stage. At the Vaudeville, there is a piece entitled La Foire de l'Orient, a ridiculous caricature on the Emperor of Russia, in which there are mountebanks, and white bears, and all that sort of thing, in abundance; but it is at the theatre of the Variétés that the Question d'Orient is made amusing by its very absurdity. The Question d'Orient at the Variétés is not a drama at all, but a dialogue between two working masons, who are introduced talking politics, and astound the ears of the audience with a succession of bad puns, which keep everybody in a roar of laughter by their mere absurdity. Here is an example. Sais-tu, says one to the other, pourquoi l'étendard du Prophète est une queue de cheval? Non, says his companion.-Eh bien! c'est pour qu'il soit crin (craint)! The other now takes him up; Sais-tu, he says, pourquoi on appelle le Détroit de Constantinople la mer de Tartanelles? Non. Eh bien! c'est parce qu'elle est toujours couverte de Tartanes!! Another sample. Sais-tu pourquoi l'Empereur de Russie veut prendre la Turquie? Non. Eh bien! c'est pour que son empire aille en croissant!!!

Society, in Paris, does not appear to have sustained any permanent change from the succession of revolutions which have followed the expulsion of the House of Orleans. In the fashionable world there is at present an evident tendency to English manners and forms, and I thought I could even trace a certain importation of English stiffness into French social manners. The suppression of the liberty of the press has taken away one great cause of political excitement; but, independent of this, the strong political temperament of the lower orders seems to be in a great measure extinguished, and it may be doubted if they will soon or easily recover their influence. The next revolution, when it comes, will probably originate among the higher and more educated class, where

a great independence of sentiment and language still exists. This independence has been recently shewn in an incident in the Académie des Inscriptions (Institute of France), which has made a considerable sensation. M. Fortoul, the Minister of Public Instruction, has for some time aspired to the honour of being a member of that learned body. All his influence as Minister of State has been employed (and it must be borne in mind that the Institute comes immediately under his ministry); neither promises nor intimidations were spared for the purpose of obtaining votes. At length a vacancy occurred, but the spirit of the Académie rebelled against this attempt at undue influence, and the Minister of State was beaten by M. de Longpérier, the talented conservateur of the antiquities of the Louvre, who was elected into the vacant place by a majority of, I think, two over his powerful opponent.

The French people seek, above all things at the present moment, peace, as the only condition on which they can hope to secure prosperity. They have accepted war against Russia, because they believe that it will end in making peace permanent. To them the English alliance represents peace; and they received the empire with less regret because they were told that it signified peace. The influence of this word alone has already produced an improvement in the condition of the nation, which no doubt will go on improving if left to its own resources.

Perhaps nothing in France has received a greater shock from its recent revolutions than its literature. Most of the distinguished writers of the generation which is passing away have been involved in political disasters, and have been prematurely swept from the stage. Victor Hugo lives a broken exile in the isle of Guernsey. Lamartine is almost forgotten. You sometimes meet in Paris a half-negro whose hair has lost its colour and become white, and who stoops alarmingly in the shoulders it is Alexandre Dumas. This popular writer resides with his daughter, at the Maison d'Or, on the Boulevard, but has lately taken a small "hôtel" in the Rue d'Amsterdam. I passed one evening on the Boulevard a gouty old man, bent almost double,

who seemed hardly able to drag himself along; he was returning from the Divan, a sort of estaminet, celebrated as a place of reunion for men of letters, and was pointed out to me as the celebrated critic Gustave Planch, but he looks now like a critic of the past. Alfred de Vigny, the author of St. Mars, is a tolerably constant attendant at the Academie Française, and still holds up his head comme un Saint Sacrement, to use a French phrase; his locks hang long, like those of the Franks described by Thierry; but, alas! they are no longer black. Emile Deschamps has retired to Versailles, where he cultivates his garden more than the muses. Sainte-Beuve has thrown himself into the Moniteur Universel, where he has turned a prophet of evil, and appears in wearisome articles, which are read only in the provinces. The bibliophile Jacob (Paul Lacroix) must also be classed among the forgotten ones, as well as his brother, who once enjoyed a reputation as a writer of romances and dramatic pieces, and who has married the sister-in-law of Balzac. Some of the writers of a higher class of literature remain, such as Guizot, Villemain, Augustin Thierry, and Victor Cousin, but of these Guizot alone is active.

The names I have been enumerating have left few or no successors. The names which compose la jeune litterature, such as Augier, Murger, Baschet, Barbier, Champfleury, &c. are little known out of France. Méry, a poet of Marseilles of some merit, is understood to be aiming at a seat in the Académie Française. The younger literary men of the reign of Louis Philippe lived principally in the journals, and the suppression of so large a portion of the periodical press has almost destroyed their occupation. Some of the more talented are labouring to lay the foundation of a new and better school, which we may hope will soon begin to make itself powerful. An attempt has been made to guide the public taste by the establishment of a purely literary journal, which is entitled 'Athenaum Français, and is similar in form and price to our English Athenæum. It is ably conducted under the editorial care of Ludovic Lalanne, and numbers among its contributors most of the rising men of the day. Among the

writers in the Athenæum Français whose names are best known in this country are Alfred Maury, Longpérier, De Saulcy, Emile Forgues (who writes usually under the pseudonym of Old Nick), Delessert, &c.

Some of the younger writers of the reign of Louis Philippe have now thrown themselves entirely into politics. One of these, an old friend of ours, whose name in past years has often been mentioned in our columns, Achille Jubinal, the author of Les Tapisseries historiques de France, Le Musée d'Armes de Madrid, and other important archæological works, and the editor of the works of Rutebeuf, and of many volumes of French medieval poetry, now represents in the legis lative body of France the department of the Hautes-Pyrénées. In this quality, though he has little leisure for literary labours, he remains heartily attached to literature and art, and in his zeal for the welfare of the department he represents may well be held out as a model for a member of parliament. It will hardly be believed that, although his career as a deputy has hardly yet exceeded two years, M. Jubinal has enriched his department with three important institutions of his own foundation-1. The Société Académique des Hautes-Pyrénées, which has already begun to publish memoirs and a bulletin of its proceedings; 2. A public library in the town of Bagnères-deBigorre (the chief town of the division of the department he particularly represents), which already contains nine thousand volumes, nearly all obtained for it by himself, and without expense to the town; and, 3. a museum in the same town, for which he has obtained about 80 paintings, some hundreds of engravings, and a considerable collection of antiquities, objects of art, and collections of natural history, geology, and mineralogy.

While mentioning M. Jubinal it may be observed that the taste for the study of medieval literature, which has been dormant since 1848, appears to be reviving. During the interval most of those who cultivated this study formerly, have, like Jubinal, left it to follow other pursuits. Leglay has become the sous-prefect of a department; Fr. Michel is a professor at Bordeaux; Le Roux de Lincy, having inherited

a fortune, has retired from Paris to Choisy-le-roi, where he has become a collector, instead of an editor of old texts; Génin is vegetating in the Vosges; Chabaille, more humble, though not less zealous than the others, has become a corrector of the press, or, as we should say, a reader, in a printing office. Paulin Paris remains alone of this class, and is now editing a new and more perfect edition of Tallement des Reaux. A new school, however, is arising, in which one of the most prominent names at present is that of M. Anatole de Montaiglon, who has just completed the publication of the three volumes of the singular collection of early French farces, the originals of which were discovered a few years ago in Germany, and purchased for the British Museum, and who is now passing through the press his edition of the rather celebrated "Book" of the Chevalier de la Tour-Landry. These publications form part of an extensive series of publications of medieval literature which has been commenced by M. Jannet, one of the most intelligent of the publishers of Paris, the successor of Silvestre. Of more extensive works of this class there are also several in progress of great historical importance. I may mention especially the diplomatic history of the Emperor Frederic II. to form six volumes 4to. edited by M. Huillard-Bréholles, a name well known in this class of literature. It is understood that the expenses of this publication are defrayed by a nobleman distinguished as much for his learning and liberality as for his wealth-the Duc de Luynes. It may be mentioned also that M. Alexandre Teulet is preparing for publication the whole of the Trésor des Chartes.

There has been much more activity in the arts than in literature. Horace Vernet, Gudin, Delaroche, and David,

names of old celebrity, still stand at the head of their profession, but there has risen around them a young and numerous school, among the more remarkable names in which are Diaz, Antigna, Daubigny, Justin Ouvrié, Dauzats, Duval-le-Camus (the younger), Baccuet, Gabriel Lefebure, Mademoiselle Rosa Bonheur, Glaize, Chassériau, Camille Chazal, Goyet, Emile Thomas, Elschoet, Clésinger, Courbet, Jules David, Giraud, Levèel, Hanoteau, Lucot, Hugard, Jadin, Bérot, Laemlein, Lazarges, Luminais, Duveau, Montpezat, Borione, Dallemagne, and so many others that it would fill a page to enumerate them. A certain number of foreign artists have also settled in Paris, and contributed to the progress of art by bringing thither the principles of the schools of their different countries. Among the more distinguished of these are Rieck, Jäger, Kiorböe, Kniff, Stevens, Madame O'Connell, and Melbye. With such a host of talent collected together within its enceinte, Paris merits to be regarded as the centre of European art at the present day, and the great alterations which it is undergoing promise to make it one of the noblest cities in the world. Still I left it with an impression that public taste is considerably debased from what it was a few years ago. This struck me even in some of its recently erected monuments, among which I need only point out the new statues in the garden of the Luxembourg, most of which are execrable. The same observation struck me in glancing over the ornamental articles in the shops, where a great proportion of the novelties are absolutely ugly, and it extends even to the fashions in dress, which, in the present season, have been less than usual distinguished by elegance or T. W.

taste.

OUR attention has been again called to the neglected state of the public records of Ireland. It has been represented to us that they are to be found in the vaults of the Dublin Custom House, in the dome of the Four Courts, where they are strewed upon

the floor and are trodden under foot, and in the dark oubliettes of a state prison. The editor of the "Kilkenny Moderator," who apparently has been the first to bring the subject before the Irish public, remarks that "he has a keen remembrance of the mode in