to which we have all been witnesses; for example, the marriage of Napoleon with Maria Louisa, and the burning of Prince Schwartzenberg's ball-room, which was considered a fatal augury, and which presents a singular coincidence with the accident which took place on the celebration of Louis the Sixteenth's marriage. It is said, that when General Moreau fell at the battle of Dresden, the French observed a considerable confusion in the enemy's army, and some one, by mistake, announced to Napoleon that "Ah!" Prince Schwartzenberg, the Austrian General-in-Chief, was killed. exclaimed Napoleon, "then the augury is fulfilled!"

The “Memoires of M. de Girardin" are exceedingly limsy and cotonneux, to use a fashionable term. The best thing they contain is the dialogue between Napoleon and Lucien Bonaparte at Mantua, when the latter refused the crown of Portugal, which was offered him on condition of his abandoning his wife. M. de Girardin, who died a staunch Liberal, was a most servile courtier during the reign of Napoleon; but in his dialogues with the Emperor or the Kings his brothers, which are introduced in the course of his "Memoires," he is silly enough to suppress all the titles then in use, and to address them unceremoniously by the pronoun you. Without commenting on the humorous, and somewhat coarse language which M. de Girardin frequently puts into the mouth of Napoleon, it may be observed that what rendered the conversation of that extraordinary man so interesting and so peculiar, was a certain antique turn of expression, and the absence of all those little graces of the age of Louis XV. which frequently renders French conversation so insipid.

It is curious to compare the " Memoires of M. Stanislas de Girardin," a man who mingled in high life, and whose education was completed before the commencement of the French Revolution, with "The Memoirs of the Duke de Rovigo," the descendant of an honest bourgeois family, who had no education except that which he received in the camp. The ideas and the style of the son of the Revolution are marked by energy. We feel that such men are born to distinguish themselves. M. de Girardin would doubtless, had occasion required it, have evinced as much personal courage as General Savary, and nevertheless his ideas and his style of writing are impressed with a character of pusillanimity, which now-a-days appears very singular. This may help us to foresee the result of the contest which is maintained in France, in politics as well as in literature, between men who were born before 1780, and those who, being born subsequently to that period, unavoidably received an energetic education. Amidst the great events of the French Revolution, the very imperfect education that could be given to children did not by any means ingross their attention. The firing of musquetry in the streets, the great conspiracies that were discovered, the imprisonment of their friends, the guillotine which was every month erected on the Place Publique-all these appalling spectacles agitated their minds, and produced a profound turn of thinking, and an energy of character, which gave them an advantage over their parents. Thus the Duke de Rovigo is a very different man from Count Stanislas de Girardin. The latter, however, gives a very pleasing account of his travels in Italy, in the suite of the King of Naples, Joseph Bonaparte, to whom he was premier écuyer. His mistakes, when they occur, are not quite so absurd as those of M. Simond, a Frenchman, who lately published a " Voyage en Italie," and who gravely informs us that there are three hundred and sixty-five coffee-houses in the Place of St. Mark. Having alluded to Italy, I may mention a circumstance which shows the influence of France in that part of Europe; an influence which extends over the whole Continent. A literary gentleman recently returned from Naples, informed me that he had been asked in Rome, Bologna, and other towns, why M. Casimir Perier, the celebrated member of the Chamber of Deputies, had spoken less this year than in preceding sessions. The debates of our Chambers, in which the great interests of society come under discussion, are read with the greatest attention in all parts of Italy.

A literary journal, entitled "The Antologia," is published every month at Florence. Upwards of forty distinguished literary characters contribute to

that publication, not for pecuniary remuneration, but from the desire of being useful. The Grand Duke of Florence patronizes "The Antologia," to which an unusual degree of liberty is granted. It is the only publication which affords an idea of the present state of literature, &c. in Italy.

August 21.-Our expedition to the Morea, and the incidents to which it has given rise, have during the last month been a source of peculiar interest here, and exceedingly gratifying to the military taste of the French. If the colonel of one of our regiments gave in his resignation to avoid accompanying the expedition, five thousand officers of the old army have urgently solicited permission to join it. The booksellers are besieged by applications for M. Pouqueville's History of the Regeneration of Greece, though it is worse written than any work of the kind that has appeared for many years past. The author has adopted the emphatic style, in imitation of Chateaubriand, and the consequence is, that he cannot allude to war without speaking of the fury of Mars, nor to a pretty woman without comparing her to Venus rising from the waves. His style is so ridiculous that it borders on the burlesque, but in our southern provinces it nevertheless passes off for esprit. M. de Pouqueville, however, spent many years near the Pacha of Janina, and is very well acquainted with some parts of Greece. The enthusiasm which prevails among our young officers with respect to Greece, causes the writings of English travellers in that country to be much read. But all English travellers are not like Basil Hall. Many of them are merely dull triflers, who describe the beautiful scenery of the country, and expatiate on its moral degeneration, in pompous and affected language. An English traveller does not endeavour to make himself acquainted with all classes of people in the country he visits: on the other hand, the eternal desire of seeing and being seen, which characterizes the French adventurer, induces him, as soon as he arrives, to take part in every thing, be it a procession or a horse-race. For example, M. Cochelet, an unfortunate Frenchman who was shipwrecked on the Coast of Africa, finding the Moors engaged in preparations for a horse-race, solicited permission to ride one of the horses. This favour was with some difficulty obtained; M. Cochelet mounted, set off at full speed, and after proceeding a few yards was thrown. (See his Travels, 2 vols. 8vo.) No consideration would have induced an Englishman to make himself so ridiculous. His sensitive pride would have allowed him only to view this race from the window of his apartment, where probably he would have been engaged in the important office of preparing his tea. His travels would have contained but a very brief and vague description of the affair; while on the contrary, M. Cochelet, impelled by the restless spirit of his nation, took an active part in the scene which he minutely describes. The rage for translating English books of travels into French is now at an end, because detailed description is preferred to vagueness. The French do not appreciate sufficiently the courage with which English travellers brave danger and journey thousands of miles with the indifference with which a Frenchman would take a trip from Paris to Rouen. A little work translated from the English, entitled "Austria as it is," was, on account of its attractive title, eagerly bought on the day of its publication, and unanimously condemned the day after. The author, though a German, does not give any clear idea of the artful measures employed by M. Metternich to put down the Austrian oligarchy.

In one of my former letters I mentioned the brilliant success of the three exquisite political pictures sketched by M. Scribe in his comedy entitled "Avant, Pendant, et Après," (viz. Before, During, and After the Revolution.) The Ultras of the Faubourg St. Germain are furiously enraged at the avant. The young republicans, who in their writings seek to justify Robespierre, are very indignant at the pendant; while the après is also displeasing to the Faubourg St. Germain. Yet, notwithstanding the disapproval of these different parties, the piece nightly brings three thousand francs to the Théatre du Gymnase. M. Scribe is said to have realized by his writings a million and a half of francs. His dramatic productions, including those in which he has been assisted by other authors, amount to upwards of a hundred and

twenty. He would, of course, long ago have been made a member of the French Academy, but that his popularity has roused the envy and indignation of the dull dramatists of the old school, who style themselves the littérateurs classiques. M. Duval, author of the "Jeunesse de Henri V." has just published a preface of about eighty pages against M. Scribe. M. Duval looks back with regret on the servile days of the old regime, when, he says, authors were better off than they now are. In those times, he observes, a young man who might distinguish himself by any considerable production, These nohad a chance of getting appointed secretary to some nobleman. tions are doubly absurd on the part of M. Duval, who professes to be a liberal; but all his liberality gives way to his indignation against the romantic style and the success of M. Scribe.

Gonthier the performer has just quitted the Théatre du Gymnase. You will very likely see this excellent actor in England; and if so, he will afford you an admirable idea of the manners of our young Parisians, their mode of speaking, walking, &c. It is the fashion here to imitate the affected manners of our military officers, which will not bear a comparison with the easy natural politeness of the officers of the English navy.

The popularity of the excellent work published by M. Broussais, entitled, "de l'Irritation et la Folie," is daily increasing, and its success gives great offence to the dreamy and mystical philosophy of some of our youthful pretenders to literary distinction. This is natural enough; for M. Broussais endeavours to deduce his conclusions from carefully investigated and wellattested facts. But our young philosophers, who are at war with Condillac and Cabanis, shut their eyes against facts, and despise such reasoning. They declare that they commune only with their soul, and thereby discover that the ideas of duty and God are independent of all demonstration.

M. de Saint Beuve has published two massy volumes on Ronsard and the first ages of French Poetry. The work possesses considerable merit, but it might have been made more amusing. It is also on the ground of not being sufficiently amusing, that "the Memoirs of Stanislas Girardin," are condemned by the friends of the author, who died in 1827, and who was a very amiable man.

Many, who by no means deserve the same character, are daily publishing political pamphlets, which are now quite a drug in the literary market. The celebrated Delaunoy, the principal bookseller of the Palais Royal, says that he does not, on an average, sell more than three copies of each new pamphlet. The general discredit into which this kind of publication has fallen, renders the more remarkable the extraordinary sale of a new pamphlet by M. Cottu, under the following title:-" Des moyens de mettre la Charte en harmonie avec la Monarchie." M. Cottu is a young Law Officer, attached to the Cour Royale of Paris, who in 1822 had made a sufficient progress in ultraism, to induce the Government to send him to England to study the admirable, but costly manner, in which justice is administered to you. On his return from England, M. Cottu published a work which was not much esteemed; and here I may take the opportunity to remark, that for these twenty years past, only two French writers, namely, MM. Duvergier de Hauranne and Rubichon de Grenoble, have spoken favourably of England. After his pamphlet on England, M. Cottu published another, which obtained some success, because it attacked the Jesuits, who were, and still are, too powerful in France. M. Cottu however, who, in his former essays, never rose above mediocrity, has quite unexpectedly published a pamphlet full of sound observation, and, what is not a little remarkable at the present moment, his ideas are not clothed in an emphatic, exaggerated, and ambitious style. It appears that the author felt so certain of the truth of his views respecting the state of France, that he thought a plain statement preferable to any thing like ornament.

M. Cottu lays it down as an indisputable fact, that at least nineteentwentieths of Frenchmen, who have incomes of six thousand livres or thereabouts, want a Government suited to themselves at a reasonable market price. These persons have not the slightest attachment to the Bourbon dy

nasty, or prejudice in favour of monarchy. The French would like a King well enough, if they could be persuaded that the kingly office was really of use to them. But the magistrate whom we call King, and whom we had forgotten during the Revolution, costs us now thirty-seven millions a-year. The French do not interest themselves much about their civil rights, or what, strictly speaking, may be called liberty; but they are enthusiasts for equality. It is well known, that they have a good share of vanity, and the King has the distribution of blue ribbons, which are in some esteem, and red ones, which are in much less reputation. Since 1814, the manner in which he has bestowed these ribbons has been very unpopular, especially with the land-owners. He has protected the Jesuits, who are abhorred. The administration of justice, the protection of individual liberty, and the organization of the army, are duties, the superintendence of which the French have been accustomed to attribute to the kingly office; but the execution of these duties is at once very imperfect and very expensive. If a criminal be a priest, like Mingrat, the law cannot be made to reach him. The army, which costs proportionally much more than under Napoleon, is composed of regiments only five or six hundred men strong. Our fortresses, as General Pajot has proved in the Constitutionnel, are dismantled and left without guns; while large sums are lavished on old ultra officers. General Lamarque, one of those men of talent whom Napoleon intended to raise to the rank of Marshal, demonstrated in the Courier of July, that out of four hundred Generals who are highly paid, nearly three hundred and fifty are men whom the King honours with his favour, but who have had no experience in war. Such, as may be gathered from M. Cottu's pamphlet, are the complaints of the nation against that regal Magistrate who is maintained at an expense of thirty-seven millions of francs per annum. If that Magistrate had imposed upon himself the task of offending the nation, he could not have succeeded better.

In the late elections M. de Villele resorted to all sorts of tricks to prevent popular sentiment from finding its way into the Chamber of Deputies. He did well, for the bulk of the nation, instead of giving thirty-seven millions to the first magistrate, wishes to have a government at a reasonable price. The Chamber of Deputies of 1828 approximates, however, very closely to the feelings of the nation, and M. Cottu observes that this approximation will increase more and more every year. M. Cottu proposes a change in the law of elections. His plan is, that the deputies should be nominated by electors chosen by the King from among the wealthiest landed proprietors of each department: the functions of elector to be transmissible from the father to his eldest son by the establishment of majorates. This would bring us to something like the English mode of election. If, in 1814, Louis XVIII. had put M. Cottu's idea into practice, the French monarchy would have been established on more solid bases than those on which it now stands. The journals of all parties seem to have leagued together to cry down M. Cottu's pamphlet. Some go so far as to say that it is not his writing. The fact is, it speaks the truth, though that truth is not agreeable to every one.

The popularity of the Memoires of Tilly is augmenting daily, and every one is buying the work to take it into the country. The author occasionally relates anecdotes of rather a loose description, but these are pardoned for the sake of the elegant style in which the work is written. In French, you know, there is an artful method of telling every thing. Many of the ladies mentioned by M. de Tilly, are still living, among others the Countess de who, alluding to the publication, lately said, "Truly, if people go on writing Mémoires in this way, we must take care how we play the fool." This remark has been much repeated, and it must be confessed it is exceedingly just.

IRISH PROCEEDINGS.

The Clare Election.

THE Catholics had passed a resolution, at one of their aggregate meetings, to oppose the election of every candidate who should not pledge himself against the Duke of Wellington's administration. This measure lay for some time a mere dead letter in the registry of the Association, and was gradually passing into oblivion, when an incident occurred which gave it an importance far greater than had originally belonged to it. Lord John Russell, flushed with the victory which had been achieved in the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and grateful to the Duke of Wellington for the part which he had taken, wrote a letter to Mr. O'Connel, in which he suggested that the conduct of his Grace had been so fair and manly towards the Dissenters, as to entitle him to their gratitude; and that they would consider the reversal of the resolution which had been passed against his government, as evidence of the interest which was felt in Ireland, not only in the great question peculiarly applicable to that country, but in the assertion of religious freedom through the empire. The authority of Lord John Russell is considerable, and Mr. O'Connel, under the influence of his advice, proposed that the anti-Wellington resolution should be withdrawn. This motion was violently opposed, and Mr. O'Connel perceived that the antipathy to the Great Captain was more deeply rooted than he had originally imagined. After a long and tempestuous debate, he suggested an amendment, in which the principle of his original motion was given up, and the Catholics remained pledged to their hostility to the Duke of Wellington's administration. Mr. O'Connel has reason to rejoice at his failure in carrying this proposition; for if he had succeeded, no ground for opposing the return of Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald would have existed. The promotion of that gentleman to a seat in the Cabinet created a vacancy in the representation of the County of Clare; and an opportunity was afforded to the Roman Catholic body of proving, that the resolution which had been passed against the Duke of Wellington's government was not an idle vaunt, but that it could be carried in a striking instance into effect. It was determined that all the power of the people should be put forth. The Association looked round for a candidate, and without having previously consulted him, re-elected Major M'Namara. He is a Protestant in religion, a Catholic in politics, and a Milesian in descent. Although he is equally well-known in Dublin and in Clare, his provincial is distinct from his metropolitan reputation. In Dublin he may be seen at half-past four o'clock, strolling, with a lounge of easy importance, towards Kildare-street Club-house, and dressed in exact imitation of the King; to whose royal whiskers the Major's are considered to bear a profusely powdered, and highly frizzed affinity. Not contented with this single point of resemblance, he has, by the entertainment of "a score or two of tailors," and the profound study of the regal fashions, achieved a complete look of Majesty; and by the turn of his coat, the dilation of his chest, and an aspect of egregious dignity, succeeded in producing in his person a very fine effigy of his sovereign. With respect to his moral qualities, he belongs to the good old school of Irish gentlemen; and from the facility of his manners, and his graceful mode of arbitrating a difference, has acquired a very eminent character as "a friend." No man is better versed in the strategics of Irish honour. He chooses the ground with an O'Trigger eye, and by a glance over the fifteen acres," is able to select, with an instantaneous accuracy, the finest position for the settlement of a quarrel. In his calculation of distances, he displays a peculiarly scientific genius; and, whether it be expedient to bring down your antagonist at a long shot, or at a more embarrassing interval of feet, you may be sure of the Major's loading to a grain. In the county of Clare, he does not merely enact the part of a sovereign. He is the chief of the clan of the M'Namaras, and after rehearsing the royal character at Kildare-street, the moment he arrives on the coast of Clare, and visits the oyster-beds at Pooldoody, becomes "every inch a king." He possesses great influence with the people, which is

Oct. 1828.-VOL. XXIII. NO. XCIV.

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