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THE WORKS
OF
HEINRICH HEINE
VII.
THE WORKS
OF
HEINRICH HEINE
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY
CHARLES GODFREY LELAND
(HANS BREITMANX)
VOLUME VII.
LONDON
WILLIAM H El N EM ANN
1893
FRENCH AFFAIRS
LETTERS FROM PARIS
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I.
1832
:'• ' .
LONDON *
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1893
66014
j
COPYRIGHT, i8q3
. .• . . • « •
. . ... . • «••
C t 4 C t
: «'» * *« ' \ ' '' I / c tec C c .
1 c
« 1 ^
[. /// I'r^lUs reserved^
A (
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
If Heiuricli Heine had a predomiuaut character- istic, or anght in whicli he greatly surpassed all writers of his time, it was that " he nothing- touched which he did not adorn." The world is naturally enough guided in its reading by mere subjects and titles — but this would hardly be the way to treat the works of a writer who, whether he had discussed paving-stones or quadratic equa- tions, would, while fully imparting the practical or scientific view of the subject, have been sure to have woven into it wit, pathos, and quaint or bizarre reflections with much human gossip, even as he did when setting forth the very unpromis- ing subject of German metaphysics. In this he reminds us of a brilliant butterfly, which, whether it flutter in arabesque circles, as in an airy dance, over flowers, weeds, rocks, muddy marshes, or sandy plains, is always the same beautiful object, giving a charm to that over Avhich it passes. I cannot resist the conviction that, if the works of Heine are very unequally known or liked, it is due to an ignorance of this fact. It may be
vi PREFACE.
observed that many of liis most-quoted sayings have been drawn from his least-known wi'itings, for, like Nature, he appears to have been most indifferent into what kind of rocks he put his precious metals or gems. And any reader who is quite familiar with Heine's works, if asked which of them he prefers, may think with a smile of the old Yankee gentleman who was a great amateur of the noble Christmas and Thanksofiving- bird, and who when asked if he preferred breast, leg, or wing, replied, " I don't care which — I guess it's all turkev."
I trust that what I have here said will be con- sidered, because there are many merely general readers to whom the discussion of French affairs during the reign of Louis Philippe will only sug- gest the possibility of six yawns to a page, when in reality the intelligent mind which grasps with avidity the " problems and possibilities of historj^" and which takes a more than merely superficial interest in modern politics, will probably prefer this work to any other by the same author. It is worth while, in proof of this, to point out two very eminent points in the book. One is the masterly manner in which our author as early as 1832, immediately after Louis Philippe's succession to the throne, pointed out as clearly as by photograph, one by one, not with unpitying but very pitying accuracy, the causes which would lead to that
PREFACE. vii
iiioiiai'cli's overthrow. These causes were bound up aud intertwined with many influences which are still in vivid action, and which no writer in any language has expressed more wisely, more searchingly, or more succinctly than Heine. Therefore it forms an admirable preparation for a study of French politics of the present day. Owing to the heedless and careless manner in which these Letters were necessarily written — very often " to catch the post " — and from the amount of flippant gossip introduced, to " catch the eye " of the general reader, they have never received the recognition due to their real merit.
The second remarkable point in these Letters, including those in " Lutetia," is the fact that Heine alone, early in the thirties, foresaw very clearly and distinctly the tremendous future of Socialism, and the troubles which it was to cause in a few years. He himself, in the plainest words, calls our attention to the fact that he was the first man to discover the existence of Socialism as a distinct power, and that its adherents were as yet so un- developed in their ideas, and so ignorant of one another's existence in different places, that it was his comments on them, in this work, which first taught them to know their own strength. Heine had no personal sympathy with Social- ism, no desire to live in a half-time workhouse, or to see poetry, including his own, art, and
viii PREFACE.
elegant society extinguisliecl ; yet he foresaw that the speck of vapour then visible only to his ej'es would grow to a mighty tliunder-cloucl. and ])erhaps l)nrst in a cyclone. The extraordi- nary and mysterious gift of political and other prophecy, wliich alternately produc(Kl in ITeine great predictions and petty failures, probably from his poetic power, appears in this respect as grandly manifested.
I once had a friend who was said to be the firmest Abolitionist and truest friend to the blacks in America, but of wliom it was also declared that no man living was so perfectly familiar with all their faults and defects. So I consider that no one can really ap]3reciate Heine to perfection who is not fully aware of all his failings, his incon- sistencies, his petty want of smaller principles, as well as his often grand and manly struggle to be true to great ones. I have, therefore, very freely indicated the former in notes, which the reader will please to take in a jesting-philosophic mood. The better nature of the man is best set forth in the text, where if speaks for itself and needs no comment.
As I was living in Paris during by far the most interesting year which is described in these Letters. that of 1848, and as J was much nearer person- ally and in every way to the " springs of action " and t(i llic carrying out of the revolution of that
PREFACE. ix
year than Heini' liiniself was, 1 liave ventured to record a few comments and experiences in notes which I hope will not be regarded as officious or gossippy.
This work, finally, awakens a (juestion which has been put many times since the complete transla- tion of all Heine's works was announced, which is whether the British public really wants them all ? In one of the ablest reviews which the first volume had the good fortune to attract, and in which the translator had no occasion to complain of either a lack of subtle appreciation or kind compliment, the writer suggested that about one-half of the work had better have been omitted, specifying for this purpose " The Rabbi of Bacharach," and •• Shakespeare's Maidens and Women." Now, that there are thousands of vevT/ well-educated English and American readers whom these works do not interest is perfectly true. But as Heine himself was an extraordinary agglomerate of brilliant con- tradictions, so are "the Heineites," and their motto is " De gustibus uon est disputaudum." The Jews, who form a very promineiit portion of my readers, and to whose intellectual intelligence and right to judge in tlie matter predominance may well be admitted, would as certainly vote to retain the •• Habbi" in Heine's works, as they would '• Daniel Deronda" in a select edition of Georoe Eliot's. And it is hard to see how I, even if I
X PREFACE.
^\•el•e pursuing tlie eclectic system, could omit a ^vol•k of wliicli Heine himself, for some mysterious reason, had such an extraordinarily good opinion that he wrote a poem in its praise, which for rapt and well-nigh insane admiration transcends any- thing in the annals of self-praise ever executed by any jjoet in any land under the sun. No — it would never do to leave out the " Rabbi ! "
As for the " Shakespeare," we have all our whims, like our author ; and for me, I had rather have omitted this present volume, despite my personal interest in it, than that. Good or bad, it boasts a large circle of friends, and though but an outline, it has, like an artist's half-finished sketches, more of the artist in it than many of his greater and finished works. So far as I am able to judge, even those who would approve of omitting half of Heine's writings from this series, would differ utterly among themselves as to what should be omitted.
I may here call attention to the fact that, as in the " Germany," the " French Affairs" and " Lutetia" do not exist as a really complete single work, either in German or French. The last German edition gives in foot-notes what has appeared only in the first letters to the Augslmrgcr Zcitung, and which was omitted in the early German editions, and also a translation into German of what appeared only in the French work. To render this version
PREFACE. xi
complete, i have very carefully studied and com- pared the different texts, and, as I believe, omitted not a passage, nor even a shade of tliought or a word, of any value in either. I need not point out to any scholar that this has greatly increased tlie difficulty and labour of my task.
The Germans call Jean Paul Ilichter " the Only One," because he is suj^posed to be quite peculiar in his incongruities or in combining opposite characteristics. Yet I am certain that in this respect Heine, and not Jean Paul, may claim precedence. There was at least in Ilichter a deep moral unit}", and however eccentrically he piled up or over-wrought his intertwined sen- tences, he never once fell into the vulgar and careless style of the very worst of scribblers for the press. But Heine exhibits in his intellectual efforts such startling contradictions as were never yet beheld in living mortal ; while as regards style or writing, there are in his works hundreds of passages in ^vhich literary art attains the most exquisite perfection ; while, on the other hand, it is undeniable that there is not a living writer of the English language, be lie never so humble a tyro on the obscurest sheet, who would scrawl, even in haste, such bungling, reiterative, and shallow sentences as may be found — at times rather frequently — in all of our author's works, but especially in this, which he assures us is a
xii PREFACE.
perfect modt4 of superior and clear style, and which he had revised again and again. I dwell on this because it is au indication of the man, which must be always borne in mind. Any other writer may be set to the right or the left, and classed with sheep or goats, but Heinrich Heine defies such easy judgment. And as his genius and merits vastly outbalanced his errors, he is valuable to all, and perhaps the more attractive for the contrast to many. These extraordinary alternations of light and shadow, grace and clum- siness, the lithe French leopard and the muddy German bear, are specially observable in these •' Letters from Paris," and they will be much better understood if this characteristic of the author is always borne in mind.
CHARLES CxODFREY LELANR
Jl(JMliURG I.KS ISaINS,
August 15, 1892.
CONTENTS.
THE CITIZEX KINGDOM IX i8-,2.
PREF
I'KKF
I.
II.
iir.
IV.
V.
VT.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
ACE TO THE PT!EK.\CE .....
.\CE
THE ANTI-REVOLl'TIONAllY OPIXIONS OK THE KT\G
AND HIS RACE FOR BlILDIXfi LAFAYETTE AND THE REPUBLICANS . POLITICAL PARTIES IN FRANCE .... ENCLISH ARISTOCRACY — PEEIER AND CANNlNf! .
THE JUSTE-MILIEU
THE CHOLERA IN PARIS .....
APPENDIX TO LETTER W
ABSOLUTE AND CONSTITUTIONAL IMONARCHY- THE PRE
SIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL .... THE SYSTEM OF CASIMIR PERIER — THE REFORAI BIM
IN ENCLANl)
THE REVOLT OF THE REPUBLICANS . APPENDIX TO LETTER I.X
I
9
37
55
75 96
124
155
1S5
206
226
255 2S8
XIV
CONTENTS.
DAILY BULLETINS.
I'HEKACK
5rH JUNE. — FUNERAL 01<' GENERAL LAMARQUK . 6th JUNE. — BEGINNING OE THE RErmLTCAN INSUURECTION 7TH JUNE. — THE EIGHT IN THE RUE SAINT-MARTIN . StH JUNE. — THE STATE OF SIEGE .... lOTH JUNK. — THE MEASURES TAKEN BY GOVERNJIENT IITH JUNE. — THE ROYAL MILITARY REVIEW
I2TH JUNE. — ARMANI) CARREI
I7TH JUNE.— THE RIDICULOUS HEROISM OF THE JUSTE-
MILIF.r
7TH JULY". — DIFFICULTIES OF THE MINISTERIAL ELECTION. I5TH JULY.— REPUBLICANS AND CARLISTS .
rAGK
299
302
303 307 312
315 319
328
338
FROM NORMANDY.
HAVRE, AUGUST I. — POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE CLERGY IN THE PROVINCES
347
DIKl'I'K, AUGUST 20.— DEATH OF THE DUKE OF REICHSTADT 353 ROUKN, SEPTEMBER I7. — CARLIST INTRIGUES IN NORMANDY 36 1
THE CITIZEN KINGDOIM IN
THE YEAR 1832.
PREFACE TO THE PREFACE.
'' Vive la France ! qiiaud iDeme . . ."
I LEARN that the preface to the " Freuch Affairs" has appeared in such a mutilated state that duty compels me to republish it in its original form. And as I now here give an especial edition, I beg that no one will attribute to me an intention of in any way annoying or blaming the present rulers in Germany. I have nnich rather soutrht to moderate my expressions. 1 was, in consequence, not a little astonished when I observed that the preface in question was regarded as too harsh. Great God ! what would it have been had I o'iveu way to my feelings and spoken out from my heart in full freedom ? And it may come to pass ! The evil reports which come in sighs to us every day from over the Rhine may well inspire me to it.
A
2 PREFACE TO THE PREFACE.
You vainly eudeavoiir to deo-rade the friends of the Fatherland and their principles in public opinion by ciying the latter down as French Revolutionary doctrines, and the former as the French party in Germany ; for you always specu- late on what is worst in tlu^ German people, on national hatred, religious and political supersti- tions, and especially on stupidity. But you do not know that Germany can be no longer de- ceived by the old tricks, that even the Germans have observed that national hatred is only a means whereby one nation may be made to enslave another, and especially that there are now no longer nations in Europe, but only two parties, of which the one. called Aristocracy, dreams itself privileged by birth to usuqD all the distinguished privileges of the citizen-class, while the other, known as Democracy, vindicates its inalienable human rights, and will do away with privilege of birth in the name of reason. Indeed, you should call us the Heavenly, not the French party, for that declaration of human rights on which our whole political economy is based is not derived from France, where they were certainly and naturally most gloriously proclaimed; not at all from America, whence Lafayette brought them ; but from Heaven, the eternal Fatherland of Reason.
How detestable and deadly must the word
PREFACE TO THE PREFACE. 3
Eeason be to you ! Yes, quite as much so as to its liereditaiy enemies, the priests, to whose rule it brings an end, and who, in common danger, make with you a common cause.
The expression '• French party in Germany " is to-day predominant in my mind, because it specially struck me this morning in the last number of the Edinburgh lievieiv. It was, by the way, a characteristic of the poems of Uhland, the good boy, and of mine, the bad one, that the French party in Germany was represented as a leader. I observe that this is only an echo of German journals, which I unfortunately never see here ; but if I cannot now especially exalt them, it may be done another time to general advantage. As I have been for ten years a constant subject of daily criticism, which treats my writings either pro or contra, but always passionately, one may confidently attribute to me sufficient indifference as regards printed opinions ; and if I — what I have as yet never done — should often cite such remarks, people will see, I trust, that it was not the personal susceptibilities of the writer, but the general interest of the citizen, which called forth the word. But as I have remarked — more's the pity — beyond the political newspapers, very few German daily publications find their way • to Paris. For every reason I miss them sadly. Truly in this great city, where a piece of the
4 PREFACE TO THE PREFACE.
worlds history is acted every day. it would be piquant to occasionally at present occupy one's self with our domestic miseries. A young man lately wrote to me that he a year ago published certain attacks on me, which he hoped would give no offence, because my anti-national opinions had angered him. and therefore that he in his patriotic wrath was incapable of self-restraint. But this young man should have been so kind as to send me a copy of his work. He appears to belong- to the Boeotian party in Germany, whose wrath against " the French party " is very pardonable ; therefore I do forgive him with all my heart. But I should have reallj" been pleased if he had himself sent me the book. For this I praise the Sodomitic party in Germany, who always send me their abusive articles, often very prettily written, and — what is most praiseworthy — always post-paid. But these people need not take so much pains to preserve tlu-ir anonymity. In spite of the dis- guised hand, I always recognise the nameless composer of such nameless baseness. I know these people by their style. " Cognosco stilum curice Romance ! " cried the noble historian of the Tridentine Council as the cowardly dagger of the assassin struck him from behind.
But bevond the Sodomitic and Boeotian, the Abderite party in Germany is also enraged at me. But it is not only my French principles
PREFACE TO THE PREFACE. 5
which have roused the majority of them against me. Sometimes there are nobler reasons, as when, for example, a chief of the Abderite party, who for many years has incessantly attacked me in abuse, and seriously is only a champion of his wife, who believes that she has been insulted by me, and has in consequence sworn my ruin.^
Pardon me, dear reader, if these lines are not adapted to the seriousness of the time. But my enemies are really too ridiculous. I say "enemies." I give them this title out of polite- ness, though most of them are only my slanderers. They are little people, whose hate does not rise so high as my calves. They gnaw witli broken blunted teeth at my boots, barking themselves weary down below there.
It is more perplexing and vexing when friends misjudge me. That might well put me out of tune, and, in fact, so it does. But I w411 not conceal, nay, I will openly confess, that my good name has been attacked by the Heavenly party. This may, however, be due to mere imagination or caprice, and their insinuations are not so
^ I here omit an abusive passage which is as discreditable to the author as it would be disagreeable to tlie reader. It is anuising to (ibserve how Heine, after declaring that his enemies are utterly indifferent to and amuse him, manifests in this omitted sentence all the gall of bitterness and intensity of hate from wounded vanity when speaking of two petty personal foes. — Trandator.
6 PREFACE TO THE PREFACE.
coarsely prosaic as those of tlie Boeotian, Sodo- mitic, and Abderite party. Or was it not very fanciful when people accused me of anti-liberal tendencies and of renegading from the cause of freedom ? A printed expression of opinion as to this accusation of apostasy I found recently in a book entitled Briefc cincs Narrcn an eine Narrin (Letters of a Fool to a Female Fool).^ On account of much which is good and witty in it, and especially for the noble mind of the author. I cheerfully forgive him for what he has said to my discredit. I know from what side the wind blew which inspired him. Videlicet there are among our Jacobinical enrages, who have been so noisy since the July Revolution, certain imi- tators of that style of controversy which I con- ducted during the Restoration with determined daring,^ and at the same time with discreet self- confidence. They managed the affair very badly, and instead of attributing the personal afflictions which resulted to their own clumsy inability, they let their rage fall on the writer of these pages, whom they saw safe and sound. It hap-
' A work by Karl Gutzkow. Hamburg, Hoffmann Campe, 1832. The passages referred to may be found on page 75. — German PuUishcr.
- Rucksichtslosigkeit, regardlessness, recklessness, want of con- sideration. But Heine manifestly uses the word in its best sense, in compliment to himself. — Translator.
PREFACE TO THE PREFACE. 7
pened to tliem as it did to tlie monkey who had seen a man shave himself. When the latter left the room, the ape came, took the razor and brush from the drawer, soaped himself, and then cut his own throat. I do not know to what extent these German Jacobins wounded themselves, but I see that they are bleeding badly. Now they are scolding me. '"Look!" they say; "we have honourably soaped ourselves, and bled for the good cause, but Heine did not act honourably iu his shaving ; he was wanting in true earnest- ness in using the razor ; he never once cut him- self; he calmly washes away the soap, whistles while doing so, and laughs at the bloody wounds of the throat-cutters who had honourable inten- tions."
Be satisfied ; this time I have really cut myself.
HEINRICH HEINE.
Paris, end of November 1S32.
PREFACE,
" Those who can read will of themselves remark that its greatest faults cannot be attributed to me, while those who cannot read will nothing note." With this simple syllogism, which pre- cedes the Boman Comique of Scarron, I may also well begin these more serious pages.
I p-ive here a series of articles and daily bulle- tins which I wrote for the Augshnrgcr Allr/emeijie Zcitwuj (The Universal, or generally public, Gazette of Augsburg), in stormy circumstance of every kind, with an object which may easily be guessed, under restrictions which may be still more readily conjectured. I am now obliged to publish these anonymous and ephemeral leaves iinder my own name, lest some other person — as I have been threatened — should do so according to his own fashion or fancy, and change them as he may please, or perhaps mingle with them altogether foreign material which may be errone- ously attributed to me.
lo PREFACE.
I avail mj'self of this opportunity to declare, in the most positive manner, tliat I have not for two years past published a line in any political journal of Germany, with the exception of the AUgcmcinc Zcitnnrj. This publication, which so well deserves its world-renowned authority, and which may be well called the Universal Gazette of Europe, appeared to me, on account of its importance and its unparalleled circulation, to be best adapted for information referring to a comprehension of the present time. When we sluill have brouglit it so far that the great mass of the people really understand the present, they will no longer allow themselves to be goaded by the hireling writers of the aristocracy to hatred and war ; the great confederation of races, the Holy Alliance of nations, will be formed ; we shall not need, out of mutual mistrust, to feed standing armies of many hundred thousand murderers ; we will use their swords and horses for ploughs, and so attain to peace, prosperity, and freedom.
My life lias been consecrated to this active duty — it is my office. The hatred of my enemies may serve as pledge that I have fulfilled this duty truly and honourably. I will ever show myself worthy of that hatred. My enemies will never misunderstand me, although my friends, in tlie delirium of excited passion, may mistake
PREFACE. II
my deliberate caliiiness for lukewarm feeling. Doubtless the latter will misunderstand me less in these times than they did in those days when they believed they had attained the goal of their desires, and the hope of victory swelled every sail of their thoughts. I took no part in their folly, but 1 will ever share their misfortunes. I will never return to my native land so long as one of those noble fugitive exiles, who would not listen to reason because of too great inspira- tion, lingers in a foreign land in wretchedness. I had rather beg a crust from the poorest French- man than take service among those distinguished knaves^ in the German Fatherland who regard every moderation of power as cowardice or as a prelude of transition to slavery,- and who consider our best virtue or belief in the honour- able feeling of a foe mere hereditary stupidity. I should never be ashamed to be deceived by those who inspired our hearts with beautiful and smiling hopes; "how everything should be most peaceably managed ; how we should re- main delightfully moderate, so that concessions should not be compelled, and thereby prove unfruitful ; as they themselves well perceived
' German " bei jenen vornehmen Gaunern." French version, " Ces orgneilleux protecteurs." — Translator, - Servilismus.
12 PREFACE.
that one could not witliont clanger long deprive us of liberty/' Ves, we have been duped again, and we must confess that falsehood has again scored a great triumph and harvested fresh laurels. In fact, we are the con(|uered, and since the heroic deception has been officially pro- claimed, since the promulgation of the deplorable resolutions of the German Diet of the 28th June, our heart has been made sick in our breast with anger and affliction.
Poor unliap]iy Fatlierland ! What shame is before thee should'st thou endure this outrage — what agony if thou dost not !
Never yet was a people so cruelly insulted by its rulers. Not only in this, that those ordinances of the Diet presuppose that we agreed to every- thing— they would ])ersuade us that Ave have suffered no wrong or injustice ! Yet, if yon really could reckon with confidence on slavish submission, you had at least no right to regard us as fools. A handful of common nobles, who have learned nothing beyond horse-trading, card- sharping, drinking tricks, and similar stupid rascal accomplishments, with which, at the utmost, only peasants at fairs can lie duj^cd — such men tliink they can befool an cntiri^ race, and one at tliat which invented gunpowder, and also ]')rint- injj and the "Criticism of Pure lleason."' This undeserved affront, tliat you i^o^ai'd us as stupider
PREFACE. 13
tlifin yourselves, and fancy that you deceive us — thai is the most irritating' insult which you have put upon us in the presence of surrounding races, who wait with astonishment to see what we will do. "It is," they say, "no longer a questidn of liberty, but of honour."
I will not accuse the constitutional German princes. I know the difficulties of their situation ; I know that they pine in the fetters of their petty camarillas, and are really not responsible. And tliey have been tampered with and tempted and compelled in every manner by Austria and Prussia. Let us not blame, but pity them. Sooner or later they shall reap the bitter fruits of an evil seed. The fools ! they are still jealous one of the other, and while every acute eye can perceive that tliey will be in the end mediatised by Austria and Prussia, all their souls and efforts are only directed to getting from some neighbour a piece of his trifling territory. They are indeed like thieves who pick one another's pockets wliile they are being led to the gallows.
On account of the great deeds of the Diet, we can only unconditionally accuse Austria and Prussia. Nor can I determine to what degree they deserve our recognition or thanks. It seems to me, however, that Austria has been shrewd enough to shift the detested burden of respon- sibility to the shoulders of its wise colleague.
14 PREFACE.
In fact, we may war witli Austria daringly luitu death, with swurd in liaud, but we feel iu our inmost heart that we are not justified in reviling this Power in abusive terms. Austria was ever an open and honourable enemy, which never denied, nor did it for a moment suspend its attack on Liberalism. Metteruich never ogled Avitli loving eyes the Goddess of Liberty ; he never played the demagogue with troubled anxious heai-t ; he never suno- the sono-s of Arndt while drinking white beer; he never played at gymnastic exercises on the Hasenheide ; ^ he never played the pietist, nor did he ever weep with the prisoners of the fortresses while he kept them chained. One always knew exactly where he stood on such subjects — knew that he was to be guarded against, and so one governed one's self accordingly^ He was always a sure man, who neither deceived us by gracious looks nor irritated us by private malice. We knew that he was neither inspired by love or petty hatred, but acted magnanimously in the spirit of a system to which Austria had been true for three centuries.
1 "Er hat nie auf der Hasenheide geturnt." In the French version, "II n'a jamais saute avec Jalin des sauts gynastico patriotitjues sur la Haaseniieide " (Hare Heath). In reference to the gymnastic associations founded by Jahii, which were really national political societies. — Translator.
PREFACE. 15
It is tlie same system wliicli induced Austria to oppose the Reformation, the same for wliich it battled with the Revolution. For this system not only the men, bul also the daughters of the House of Habsburg fought. For this system Marie Antoinette waged war desperately in the Tuileries, and to maintain it ]\Iaria Louisa, who. as declared Regent, should have combated foi- husband and child, in the same Tuileries aban- doned the strife and laid down her arms ; and for it the Emperor Francis suppressed his deepest feelings and desires, and suffered unspeakable agonies of heart ; even to this day he wears mourning for the beloved, blooming grandson whom he sacrificed on its account. This new grief deeply bowed the grey head which once bore the German Imperial crown ; this poor Emperor is still the true representative of unfortunate Germany !
As to Prussia, we may speak of it in a very different tone. Here at least we are restrained by no regard or respect for the sacreduess of an Imperial German head. The learned menials on the banks of the Spree may dream ever on of a great Emperor of the realm of Borussia, and proclaim the hegemony and protecting lord- liness of Prussia. But thus far the lonc^ fino^ers of the Hohenzollern have not succeeded in grasp- ing the crown of Charlemagne, and to put it in
1 6 PREFACE.
the same sack with so many other stolen Polish and Saxon jewels. As vet that crown hang's far too high, and 1 doubt much whether it will ever descend to the witty head of that golden-spurred prince whom his barons already hail and offer homaore to as the future restorer of chivalrv. I much rather believe that his kinsflv hiorlmess will prove to be, instead of a successor to Charlemagne, only a follower of Charles the Tenth and Charles of Brunswick.
It is true that even receutlv mauv friends of the Fatherland have desired the extension of Prussia, and hoped to see in its kings the masters of a united Crennany. They have baited and allured patriotism to it : there was a Prussian Liberalism, and the friends of freedom look con- fidincrlv towards the lindens in Berlin. As for me, I have never shared this faith or confi- dence. On the contrary, I watched with anxiety this Prussian eagle, and. while others boasted that he looked so boldly at the sun, I was all the more observant of his claws. I did not trust this Prussian, this tall and canting, white-gaitered hero with a big belly, a broad mouth, and cor- jwral's cane, which he first dipped in holy water ere he laid it on. I disliked this philo- sophic Christian militaiy despotism, this con- glomerate of white-beer, lies, and sand. Repulsive, deeply repulsive to me was this Prussia, this
PREFACE. 17
stiff, liypociitical i'l•u.S!^ia, this Tartuffe among states.
At last, Avlieu Warsaw fell, there fell also the soft and pious cloak in which Prussia had so well wrapped itself, and then even the dimmest- eyed saw the iron armour of despotism which was hidden under it. It was to the misfortune of Poland that Germany owed this salutary dis- covery.
Poland ! The blood thrills in my veins when I write the word, when I reflect how Prussia behaved to these noblest children of adversity, and how cowardly, how vulgar, how treacherous was her conduct.^ The writer of history will, from deepest disgust, want words when he narrates what occurred at Fischau ; those shameful deeds were better written by an executioner.^ I hear the red iron already hissing on the lean back of Prussia.
^ In the first draft this sentence ends as follows :—" How treacherously the Cabinet of Berlin — I will not say the Prussian people — treated Poland."
- Heine, in his hatred of Prussia, is here verj' inconsistent, and forgets, what Von Moltke has pointed out very clearly, that it was the completely feudal and aristocratic nature of Poland, and the intolerable dissensions among its governing class, which chiefly conduced to its overthrow. Before it was "cut into three " by surrounding nations, it had so radically divided itself into a triple community of nobles, Jews, and serfs, that it had become an anomaly in modern Europe. The conduct of its concjuerors is not justifiable on such laws of morals as govern
B
iS PREFACE.
I read recently in tlie AUgcmeine Zeitung that the Privy Councillor Friedrich von Raumer, who not louo^ a,o-o gained for himself the reputation of a royal Prussian revolutionist by re\-olting, as member of the Commission of censure, against its excessive severitv, has now received the order to justify the proceedings of the Prussian Government as to Poland. The defence is finished, and the author has alreadv received foi- it two hundred Prussian dollars. However, I hear that it has not given satisfaction to the camarilla of Brandenburg, because its style is not sufficiently servile. Trifling as this incident may seem, it is of importance as indicating the S]")irit of the ruling minds and of their subordinates. I knew by chance poor Frederic von Ilaumer, having seen him now and then walking in his blue-green little coat and grey-blue little cap under tlic lime-trees, and I heard him once in the chair as lie depicted llic
the individual, but it was politically inevitable. The serf went for absolutely nothinj; in I'ohuid. A Polish Countess said to me in 1846 in Florence, in justification of this harsh rule, "Our serfs are even lower than those of Ivussia. " In several works of the seventeenth century, t.,^., in the Anthro- '/lodemus of J. Prsetorius, the condition of the Polish serfs is dwelt on with much feeling, as that of the most cruelly treated race of men in Europe, of which there was also a song begin ing with the lines —
'' Ich bin ein Polnischcr liuuer, Mein Lebcn wird mir sauer."
— Translator,
PREFACE.
19
death of Louis XVI., and slied on the occasion several royal Prussian official tears. I have also read in a lady's almanac his History of the Hohenstaufen, and I also know his " Letters from Paris," in which he communicates to Madame Crelinger and her husband his views as to the theatres and public of this place. He is altogether a peaceable person, who falls quietly into line with the rest. He is the best among mediocre writers,^ nor is he entirely devoid of salt, having a certain superficial erudition, resembling therein an old dried herring wrapped u]i in the waste- paper leaves of a learned book. I repeat it, he is the most peaceable, patient creature, who always lets himself be loaded by his betters, and trots obediently with his burden to the official mill, only stopping now and then where nnisic is being played. To what a degree of baseness must the spirit of oppression in a Government have de- scended when even a Frederic von Raumer lost patience with it, and became restive and would trot no further, and even began to speak like a man ! Did he perchance see the angel with the sword who stood in the way, and whom the blinded
1 To which is added in the original — " And is not at all so dry and hidebound {nicht so Icdern) as he looks." All of which sneering should be taken with much allowance. In the French version — " Ne s'arretant que la uu Ton faisait de la musiijue de Sebastian Bach," — Translator.
20 PRl.FACE.
Balaams of Berlin could not behold ? Alas ! they gave the poor creature the most deliberate kicks, and goaded it with their golden spurs, and beat it thrice. P.ut the people of Borussia — and by tbat one may judge its condition — exalted its Friedrich von Jxaumer as an Ajax of freedom.^
This royal Prussian revolutionist has now been employed to write an apology fur the proceedings against I'oland, and to honourably rehabilitate the Cabinet of Berlin in public opinion.
Oh this Prussia ! how well it understands how to make the utmost of its people — even its revolu- tionists! For its political comedies it employs assistants of every colour. It even puts to use zebras with tri-coloured stripes. So it has of late years set on its most fiery demagogues to preach- ing eveiywhere that all Germany must become Prussian. Hegel must justify the permanence of servitude as reasonable, and Schleiermacher is compelled to protest against freedom, and com- mend Christian submission to the will of superior authority. And it is irritating and infamous this turning to profit philosophers and theologians to influence the people, and who are thus compelled, by treason to God and common-sense and reason, to thus publicly dishonour themselves. How many
^ In the original M.S. — " As an Ajax who fights for fieedoin like — a lion. This licni, this terrible beast of the Berlin royal menagerie, this royal Prussian," &c. — German Puhlislicr.
PREFACE. 21
a noble soul, how mncli admirable talent, lias been thereby cleo-radecl for worthless aims ! How OTeat was the name of Arndt before he, by higher com- mand, wrote his scabby, shabby little work, in which he wags his tail like a dog, and, doggish as a Weudish dog, barks at the sun of July ! The name of Stiigemann had once the most honour- able sound, but how deeply has he fallen since he wrote his Russian Songs ! May he be forgiven by the Muse whose kiss once consecrated his lips to nobler poems! But what shall I say of Schleiermacher, the knight of the third class of the order of the Red Eagle ? Once he was himself noble ^ and belonged to the first class. But not only the great, even the lesser men have been ruined. There is poor Rauke, whom the Prussian sent travelling at its expense ; a fine talent — good at carving little historical figures and arranging them picturesquely — a good harmless soul, pleas- ing as mutton with Teltower turnips — an innocent man, whom, should I ever marry, I would choose for a family friend, and who is certainly also a Liberal; and he was lately compelled to pub- lish in the Staats Zeitung (the State Journal) a defence of the resolutions of the Ditt. Other stipendiaries, whom I will not name, have done the like, and are still all " Liberals."
^ French version — "Et par lui-menie un aigle."
22 PREFACE.
Oh, I know them, these Jesuits of the Nortli ! He wlio has ever, be it from dire need or heed- lessly, accepted the least thing from them is thereby lost for ever. Even as hell kept Proser- pine because she had eaten there the seed of a pomegranate, so those Jesuits never give liberty again to any one who has in the least profited by them, and be it only a single seed of the golden apple, or, to speak more prosaically, a single louis-d'or, they hardly allow him, like hell to Proserpine, to pass half the year in the light of the upper world. At such times they indeed appear as the children of light, and take their places among us, the other Olympians, and speak and write with ambrosian liberality ; but when the appointed time comes, they are found again in infernal darkness, in the realm of obscurity, and they write Prussian apologies, declarations against the Message!'} rules for the censorship, or even a defence of the resolutions of the Diet.
I cannot pass by these resolutions of the Diet without comment, yet neither to refute them, much less, as has been often done, to seek to demonstrate their illegality. As I very well know who the persons were who prepared the document on whicli those resolutions were founded.
' French version — " Et ils ociivent iles declarations contre les journaux fran9ai8."
PREFACE. 23
I do not doubt that it — that is to say, tlio federal act of \'iemia — contains the most legal rights to any despotic caprice. As yet but little use has been made of this masterpiece of the noble gentility, and its contents were of little conse- quence to the people. Now that it has been placed in a proper light, and all the peculiar beauties of the chcf-iVceuvre — its secret springs and hidden staples to which chains may be attached, its fetters for feet, its concealed iron collars, thumb-screws — in short, the whole artistic elaborate work — is generally visible, eveiy one sees that the German people, having sacrificed its princes, property, and blood, when it should receive the promised reward of gratitude, was most impiously deceived ; that we were infamously juggled, and instead of the promised Magna Charta of freedom, what was drawn up was a legal contract of slavery.^
In virtue of my academic authority as Doctor of both laws, I solemnly declare that such a document, prepared by faithless agents, is null and void ; in virtue of my duty as a citizen, I
1 This conclusion is wanting in the first draft, and in its place we have the words — "And that those who prepared this un- official, deceptive, and consequently null and void document, are impeachable and guilty, as false proxies {mandatarltn) or agents, of having abused public confidence." — German Pub- lisher.
24 PREFACE.
protest figainst all the consequences which the re- solutions of the Diet of June 28th deduced from this ■svortldess paper ; in virtue of my power as popular publicist or speaker, I lodge my com- plaint against those who prepared it, and accuse them of lese-nationality and of high treason to the German people.
Poor German people ! It was while you were resting from battling for your princes, and were burying your brothers who had fallen in battle or were binding up your faithful wounds, smiling to see the blood running from your true hearts so full of joy and confidence — of joy that your beloved princes were saved, and of confidence in the humanely holy feeling of gratitude — even then in Vienna they were forging the federal act in the old workshop of the aristocracy.
Strange ! Even the prince who owed the most gratitude to his people, arul who consequent!}^ promised that people a representative constitu- tion, or one such as other free races possess ; and who in the time of need promised it in white and black with the most positive words ; this very prince has now been crafty enough to induce to falsehood and breach of faith the other German princes, who also promised their subjects a free constitution, and he now supports himself on the Vienna federal act to destroy the newly blown German constitutions; he who should
PREFACE. 25
not dare to utter the word Constitution without blushing !
I speak of His Majesty Friedrich Wilhelni, third of the name, King of Prussia. ^
Having always had, as I shall always have, a liking for royalty, it is repugnant to my prin- ciples and feelings to criticise too severely princes as individuals. My inclinations are rather to praise them for their good qualities. Therefore I willingly praise the personal virtues of the monarch of whose system of government, or rather of whose Cabinet, I have spoken so unre- servedly. I attest with pleasure that Friedrich Wilhebn III. as a man deserves the highest honour and regard, such as the great majority of the Prussian people give him. He is good
' Instead of this sentence, the following occurs in the ori- ginal:—"I speak of His Majesty Friedrich Wilhelni, third of the name, King of Prussia, ruler of the Rhine, to whom I was transferred as subject in the year of grace 1815, with several millions of other Rhinelanders. As may be well supposed, my consent to this was not asked. I was exchanged, I believe, against a poor East Frisian whom I had never seen, who had never initiated me into his foi-mer feelings of devotion to the royal Prussian government, and who perhaps was made so unhappy by the exchange that he now lies buried as a Hano- verian. I, however, have not been made happy by that Prussian press-ganging {Ein 2'>i'eussunfj, or oppression), and all that I have gained by it is the right to most humbly remind that monarch that he should, according to his promise, graciously bestow on us a representative constitution." — German PuhUslier.
26 PREFACE.
aucl brave, lie has shown himself steadfast in adversity, and, what is much more iinnsna], gentle in prosperity. He is of chaste heart, of touchiuo-lv modest manner, with citizen-like sim- plicity, of good domestic manners, a tender father, especially so towards the beautiful Zarewna,^ to which tenderness we owe perhaps the cholera, and a still greater evil with which our descendants will do battle, and be duly grateful. Moreover, the King of Prussia is a very religious man ; lie holds strongly to religion ; he is a good Christian ; iirmly attached to the evangelical confession of faith ; he has even liimself written a liturgy ; he believes in the symbols — ah ! I wish he believed in Jupiter, the father of the gods, who punishes perjury, and that he would at last give us the promised constitution.
For is not the word of a king as holy as an oath ?
But of all the \irtues of Friedrich Wilhelm, that which is most praised is his love of justice, of which the most touching tales are told. As, for instance, that he not long ago paid 11,227 thalers and twenty-two " good groschen " from his private treasury to satisfy the legal demand of a Kyritzer citizen. It is said that the son of the miller of Sans Souci being in straitened circumstances, wished to sell the celebrated wind-
' French version— "Czarina."
PREFACE. 27
mill ill recffird to which his father had the cele- brated lawsuit with Friedrich the Great. The present King, however, had paid to the needy man a large sum of money, so that the celebrated windmill might remain in its old condition as a monument of Prussian love of justice. That is all very fine and praiseworthy ; but where is the promised constitution, to which the Prussian people have the most decided right according to every principle of divine and human justice ? So lono- as the Kino: of Prussia does not fulfil this most sacred ohlijatio, so long as he withholds from the people their well-earned free consti- tution, I cannot call him just, and the w-indmill of Potsdam does not remind me of Prussian love of justice, but of Prussian wind.^
I know well enough that literary hirelings maintain that the King of Prussia promised this constitution of his own accord and free will, which promise is quite independent of all circumstances of the time. Fools without soul or sense that they are, not to know that men w^hen we keep from
^ This word requires no explanation in English, but it is thus made clear in a note in the French version : — " Le mot ivind en allemand ne signifie pas seulement vent, mais aussi au figure, charlatanisme, vanterie et mensonge." But in French diction- aries one of its synonyms is onptincss, and of icindi/, " vain, futile." The French version here adds the sentence: — "Je parle de sa Majeste Frederic Guillaume, troisieme du noui, roi de Prusse. " — Translator.
28 PREFACE.
them that which is theirs by legal right, are much less offended than when we refuse to sfive them what has been promised out of pure love, for in this latter case our vanity is wounded by feeling that he who voluntarily offered something does not care for us.
Or was it perhaps a mere personal caprice, quite independent of all temporal circumstances, which induced the King of Prussia to promise to his people a free constitution ? In that case he liad not even the intention to be grateful ; and yet there was very great reason why he should have been, for never before did any prince find himself in such lamentable case as that into which the King of Prussia had fallen after the battle of Jena, and from which he was rescued by his people. Could he not then have availed himself of the consolations of religion, the insolence witli which he was treated by the Emperor Napoleon must have brought him to despair. But, as I said, he did find support in Christianity, whicli is truly the best religion after a lost battle. He was strengthened by the example of his Sa\'iour ; for he too could say, "My kingdom is not of this world ! " and he forgave his enemies, who had occupied all Prussia with four hundred thousand men.^
' In the original first form the beginning of this sentence is as follows : — " But I can refute the defenders of this breach
PREFACE. 29
If Ni-ipuleou luid not tlien been occupied with far more important matters than thinking of His ^lajesty Frederic AVilliam the Third, he woukl certainly liave put tlie latter entirely out of the wa}^ Some time after, when all the kings of Europe united in a rabble of conspiracy against Napoleon, and the man of the people succumbed to this (imeute of princes, and the Prussian donkey g'ave the dyino- Hon the final kick, he resetted too late the sin of omission. When he paced up and down in his wooden cage of Saint Helena, and remembered that he had cajoled the Pope and forgotten to crush Prussia, then he gnashed his teeth, and if a rat then came in his way, he stamped upon and killed the poor beast.
Now Napoleon is dead and lies well closed in his leaden coffin under the sands of Longwood on the island of Saint Helena. All round him spreads the sea. Therefore you have nothing to fear. Nor need you fear the last three gods who yet remain in heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; for you are on good terms with
of promise by a soimd document. It is the bulletin of the battle of Jena. In very truth the condition of ihe King of Prussia was then wretched in the extreme. From this he was rescued by his people, to whom he out of grati- tude promised a free constitution. How deeply had he sunk when he lived as a private individual at Kiinigsberg, and read nothing but Lafontaine's tales I " — ^'ote hij the German Editor;
30 PREFACE.
their Loly followino;. Nothing- have you to fear, for you are powerful and wise. You have gold and muskets, and all that is for sale you can buy, and what is niortal you can kill. Your wisdom is equally irresistible. Every one of you is a Solomon, and it is a pity that the Queen of Sheba, the beautiful woman, no longer lives, for you would have unriddled her to her very chemise. And ye have iron pots in which you can enclose those who give you to guess anything of which you would remain ignorant, and you can seal them up and cast them into the sea of oblivion — all like King Solomon. Like him, too, you understand the language of the birds ; you know all that is chiqied and piped in the land ; and if the song of any bird displeases you, you have a great pair of sliears wherewith to clip his bill, and, as I hear, you intend to provide a larger pair for those who sing more than twenty sheets. And you ]m\e also all the cleverest birds in your service, all the noble falcons, all the ravens— that is, the black-coats — all the peacocks, all the owls. And tlie old Simurgh still lives, and he is your grand vizier, and is the wisest, shrewdest bird in the world. lie will renovate the world as it was in the days of the pre- Adamite sultans, and .to this end he unweariedly lays eggs by night and day, and they are hatched out in Frankfort. Ilut-hnt, the accredited hoopoo, runs meanwhile
PREFACE. 31
tliroiig-h the sand of the Prussian marshes, carry- ing the most significant despatches in his bill. Ye have naught to fear !
But I bid yf)u beware of one thing — the Monitcur of 1793. That is a Ilollcnzioawj — a book of invocation of e\'il spirits, and there are words of niajxic therein which vou cannot bind — words whicli are mightier than muskets or gold — words with which the dead can be called from their graves, and the living sent to join the dead — words with which dwarfs may be raised to giants and giants overwhelmed — words which can fell all 3'our power as the guillotine decapitates a king.
I will tell you the truth. There are people who are brave enough to utter those words, and who have never been appalled by the most terrible apparitions ; but they know not where to find the right spell in the book of gramarye, nor could they pronounce it with their thick lips, for they are no conjurors.- And there are others who are indeed familiar with the mysterious divining-rod. who know where to find the magic word, and even to utter it with tongues skilled in sorcery. These are timid and fear the spectres whom they would evoke ; for alas ! we do not know the spell with which to lay the spirits when the ghostly scene becomes too terrible ; we know not how to ban the inspired broomstick back into its wooden repose when the house has once been
32 PREFACE.
iuuudated with blood ; we know not how to con- jure down the fire when its raging tong-ues are licking everywhere. We are afraid !
But do not rely on our weakness and fear. The disguised man of the time, who was bold of heart as ready with his tongue, and who knows the great word and has to utter it, is perhaps even now near you. It may be that he is masked in servile livery, or even in a harlequin's dress, and ye do not forbode that he who, perhaps, ±
servilely draws off your boots, or who by his I
jokes tickles your diaphragm, is to be your "
destroyer. Do you not often feel a strange shndder when these servile forms fawn round you with an almost ironic humility, and it sud- denly occurs to you, "This is perhaps a snare, and this wretch, who behaves so absolutely, so idiotically slavish,^ is perhaps a secret Brutus" ? Have you not sometimes by night dreams which warn you against the smallest wdnding worms whom you have perchance seen crawling in the daytime ? - Be not afraid, I am only
^ In German — ^''Dieser, Elende der sich so absolutistisch, so viehiscli gehnr.sam gebiirdet." Instead of diescr Elende, there is in the orii^inal draft "this obscure Jarke." The sentence concludes with the words "a secret Brutus who disguises him- self, and who will put an end to the kingdom." — Translator,
- The following lines form the conclusion of the sentence in the original draft : —
" Is it true what people tell in Saxony, that the King dreamed
PREFACE. 33
jesting, and you are quite safe. Our stupid devils of serviles do not disguise themselves. Even Jarke is not dangerous. And have no fear of the little fools who juggle round you ever and anon with jokes of dubious import. The great fool will protect you from the petty fellows. The great fool is a very great fool, giant-great, and his name is — the German people.
Yes, a very great fool, in faith ! His motley jacket is made of six-and-thirty patches. Instead of hawks'-bells, mighty church-bells weighing tons hang upon his cap, and he bears in his hand a colossal harlequin's sword of iron. And his heart is full of pain, but he will not think upon his griefs, for which reason he plays all the more merry pranks, and laughs to keep from weeping. When his sufferings come too bitterly to mind, then he shakes his head as if mad, and deafens himself with the pious Christian chiming of his
he stood before Whitehall and saw King Charles beheaded ? Suddenly the mask fell from the face of the executioner, and the King recognised in him with horror the Leipzig censor, an old rascal named Daniel Beck ! However, fear not these worms. The Roman Apostolic Catholic preacher, Herr Jarke, only half plays the role of a Brutus — that is, up to the death of Lucretia — and the trembling old knave of Leipzig with his executioner's shears has only courage enough to decapitate a thought. If it is not the slave, it is perhaps the fool. There is a very, very great fool, and he is called the German people. His motley jacket," &c., as in the following sentence. — German Publisher.
C
34 PREFACE.
cap. But if n o-ood frii'iul comes to liiui avIio would speak synipatlietically of his paius, or even cive liini some domestic remedy aq'ainst tbem, he becomes a raoiiio- lunatic and strikes at the adviser with his iron weapon.^ lie is particularl}^ enraged at any one who means him well. He is the bitterest foe unto his friends and the best of friends to his enemies.- Oh, the great fool will always remain faithful and submissive ; he will always amuse your knightlings {JunJcerlein) with liis giant jests or tricks ; he will every da}' repeat his old feats of dexterity, and balance countless burdens on his nose, and let many hundreds of thousands of soldiers trample over his belly. But have no fear lest the load become all at once too heavy, and that he will shake away your soldiers, and, in jest by the way, squeeze your head so with his little fiuger that your brains will spirt out up to the stars. Have not the least fear lest he ill his merry gossiping, out of mere folly, should
' Instead of this sentence the folhjwing occurs iti the original draft :—
"I myself was seized with tliis folly, and had I not sprung quickly over the Rhine, the fool would liave quickly split my iiead witli lii.s iron."' — (ierman Pithlishcr.
- The following here occurs in the original MS. : — "And yet T cannot be severe with the old jester ; I love him and weep for him here in the safe distance. Ye whom tlie fool regards as his gracious lords, ye need not fear him so long as he remains reasonable in his way." — Gcrinni} J'uhUsher.
PREFACE. 35
utter the terrible all-powerful word of incanta- tion, when the great change will unexpectedly begin, and he himself the fool, all at once dis- enchanted, will stand before you in his original beautiful blonde heroic form with his OTeat blue eyes, the purple mantle instead of the harlequin jacket, and the sword of empire in his hand instead of the dagger of lath. But ye need not fear ; the great fool will never speak the word. The great fool remains most submissively obedient to you, and if the little fools would injure you, the great one at a wink would strike them dead.^
(Written in Paris, Oct. 1 8, 1832.)
HEmPtlCII HEIXE.
^ The preceding two sentences form tlie conclusion in the original MS., and do not occur in later editions.
FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Paris, December 2S, 1831.
The hereditary peers have delivered their last speeches, and were shrewd enough to declare themselves dead, so as not to be killed by the people. This reason for action was specially impressed on their hearts by Casimir Perier. Therefore there was, so far as they were con- cerned, no pretence whatever for 6meutcs. How- ever, the situation of the lower classes in Paris is so distressing, that the least cause of irritation from without might cause a more dangerous uprising than ever before. And yet I do not think that we are actually so near such outbursts as many apprehend. It is not that I regard the Government as being altogether too powerful, or the Opposition as too weak. On the contrary, the Government shows its weakness on every
occasion, as specially happened in the disturb-
37
66014
3$ FRENCH AFFAIRS.
ances at Lyons ; while as regards its enemies, they are sufficiently exasperated, and may, more- over, find among the thousands who are dying of misery the most desperately daring support — but just now it is cold foggy weather.
"lis ne viendront pas ce soir, car il pleut." "They will not come to-night because it rains," said Pethion, after he had calmly opened and shut the window, wliile his friends the Girondists expected an attack from the populace, who had been excited by the party of La Montague — the Mountain. Tliis stor}^ is told in histories of the lievolution to indicate Pethion's coolness. But since I have studied with my own eyes the nature of Parisian revolts, I see that his words were much misunderstood. For good wild riots and rebellions, there must be good weather, agreeable sunshine, a pleasant warm day, and for this reason thev succeed best in June, Julv, and August. And there must be no rain, for Parisians fear it more than anything, since it drives awav the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children wlio, mostly well dressed and laughing, flock to the fields of battle ( Walihtdtten), and increase by their number the courage of the agitators. Nor should tlie air be foggy, because then the people cannot read the placards which the CTOvernment posts at the street corners, for the perusal of those attracts
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 39
crowds to places where they can press togetlier and riot to the greatest advantage. Monsieur Guizot, an almost German pedant, when he was Conrector of France, wished to parade in such placards all his philosophic historical learning, and it is said that because the mob could not so easily master such readiug, and as the crowds in consequence increased in number, the dmeutes became so great that the poor doctrinaire fell at last a sacrifice to his own erudition, and thereby lost his office.^ But the principal cause is probably that in cold weather people cannot read news- papers in the Palais Hoyal, yet it is here that the most zealous politicians assemble under the pleasant trees, and, debating in raging groups, spread their inspiration far and wide.
Thus it hath been shown in these our times how great was the injustice done to Philippe d'Egalite in accusing him of leading most of the popular insurrections, because people had discovered that the Palais Royal, where he dwelt, was always their head-centre. This year it was, as ever, the same chief place of meeting of all restless souls — the same headquarter of the discontented ; but it is quite certain that its present proprietor did not
^ It need astonish no one to learn that after Heine became a pensioner of France, through !M. Guizot, this passage was omitted in the French editions of this work. — Translator.
40 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
enlist and subsidise the mob. The spirit of re- volution would not leave the Palais Royal though its owner had become a king, and therefore the latter was obliged to abandon his old home. People spoke of certain inconveniences which caused this change of residence, especially of an apprehended French Guy Fawkes' ]-)lot (Pulvcr- verschivorung) ; and of course, as the lower por- tion of the palace was rented for shops, over which the King dwelt, it would have been easy to smuggle in barrels of gunpowder, and so with all ease blow His Majesty high into air. Others tliought it was unbecoming that Louis Philippe should reign above while M. Chevet sold sausages below.^ But selling sausages is just as respectable a business as reigning, and a citizen king could find no cause for complaint in it, especially Louis Philippe, who only the previous year had mocked at all feudal- istic and imperial descent and customs of costume, saying to some young Pepublicans that "the golden crown was too cold in winter and too
^ Chevet, a noted provider of all kiad.s of "comestibles," of whom it was said that the best of everything in France was always secured at once for his shop. Once when Louis Philippe was at a .seaport famous for its fish, the King wishing to have them fresh from the sea, ordered some for dinner. After en- joying the delicacy, the King inquired of the landlord if he had really had the best, and was assured that there could be no mistake regarding it — " they liad been sent from M. Chevet in Paris." — Translator.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 41
]iot ill suuiiiier, a sceptre too heavy or buncliy (stump/) to be used as a weapon, and too short for a staff, and that a round felt hat and a good ninbrelhi were much more useful in these days."
I do not know whether Louis Philippe re- members using these expressions, for some time has passed since he last strolled through the streets of Paris with a round hat and umbrella, and, with refined true-heartedness, played the part of a simple honest father of a family, a real Jesuit of plain citizenship, a citizen Jesuit.^ He in those days shook hands with every grocer and workman, wearing for this purpose, it is said, one particular dirty old glove, which he always drew off and replaced with a new and clean ' kid ' when he climbed again into the higher regions in- habited by his ancient nobility, bankers, ministers, intriguers, and scarlet lackeys. The last time I saw him, he strolled here and there among the gilded pavilions, marble vases, and flowers on the terrace of the Galerie d'Orleans. He wore a black coat, and over his broad face there passed {spazin'tc) a nonchalance which well nigh made me shiver, thinking of the man's precarious posi-
^ " Ein wahrer Jesuit der Biirgerlichkeit, ein Burgerjesuit." This little compliment is omitted in the Trench version. — Translator.
42 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
tion, an indifference offensive to both friend and foe, wliich his father also preserved even at his execution.^
It is certainly most reprehensible that the (poor)- face of the King has been chosen for a subject of most small jokes, and that he is hung up in all caricature-shops as the butt of mockery. But when the authorities attempt to restrain this, they only make matters worse. Thus we lately saw how from one suit at law of this kind there came another by which the King was still more compromised. I speak of Philippon, the publisher of a caricature-journal, who defended himself as follows : —
" Should any man wish to find in any cari- catured odd face a likeness with that of the King, he could do it as soon as he pleased in any figure, no matter how heterogeneous, so that
^ Tliis passage, which originally appeared in the Avf/shurgcr All'jcmeiiic Zcitumj, was siippi-essed in .subsequent editions, and is published again in the last by Hoffmann & Canipe. Tlie following two pages are omitted in the Prench edition, their absence being indicated by a blank. In a note to the first French edition Heine remarks as to tins: "I have here sup - jiressed a remark wliich may be very interesting for a German, but not for a French reader, to whom the Pear (in reference to a certain trial), has become a wearisome, threshed-out theme. ,\11 blanks which may occur in future will indicate the omission of similar passages." But to the attentive reader of Heine these omissions are very significant. — Translalor.
- Arme, poor, also pitiable, (liven in parenthesis.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 43
at last nobody could be safe from indictment for lese-majeste.''
To prove this, lie tlien designed on a sheet of paper several caricatures, the first of which was a striking- portrait of the King, the second was like it, but with less resemblance to royalty, and in this fashion the third suggested the second, and the fourth the third, but this last of all was a perfect picture of a pear, which, however, still preserved a slight, but all the more comical, like- ness to the traits of the beloved monarch. As ].^hilippon, despite this defence, was condemned by the jury, he published it in his journal, giving a facsimile of the caricatures which he had drawn in court. On account of this lithograph, which is now known as "The Pear," the witty artist was again prosecuted, and the most delightful results are anticipated from the trial. ^
^ No caricature ever liad such a success as " Tlie Pear." It lasted mure or less tluougii all the reign of Louis Philippe. Pears were chalked on all blank walls, and actors ate them with double entendres reflecting on royalty on the stage. Thackeray, in his burlesque of Disraeli's Cuiii)i{/shi/, indicates Louis Philippe when visiting Rafael, by saying that he wore a wig which curled up to a point "like a dirty rotten old pear." It was in this " bubby lock," as it is called in Philadelphia (and which was once affected by many small rural American politicians from the air of dignity which it is supposed to confer) that all the likeness to thi- pear consisted. It is jjrobably true, as some writer has asserted, that nothing during all the reign of Louis Philippe annoyed him so much as the pear. — Tninslator.
44 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
The Kiug lias, however, been far more painfully comproniised by the famous inheritance suit which made the Kohan family dependent on account of the Bourbon-Conde bequest. This incident is so horrible that even the most violent journals of the Opposition refrain from telling all the terrible truth. Tlie public is most painfully annoyed by this ; the secret surreptitious manner in which the world whispers about it in the salons is tormenting, and the silence of those who represent the royal liouse is more significant than the loud condem- nation of the multitude. It is the necklace story of the younger branch, only that here, instead of conrt gallantry and forging, there is something reported far more base and vulgar {gemeineres), tliat is, swindling away an inheritance and assas- sination by a female participant. The name Rohan, which here appears, painfully recalls old stories. It seems as if we heard the serpents of the Eume- nides hissing, and as if the stern goddesses would make no distinction between the elder and younger branches of the outlawed race. But it would be unjust if men did not recognise this distinction.^
' Heine in his note declared that he omitted all the preceding passages for two pages from the French version because the story of " the pear " was too familiar to Parisian readei-s. But the sting of the serpent was in the tail, or in this mention of th'- l'f)han trial, of whicli he says nothing. — Translator.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 45
I believe that Lonis Philippe is no ignoble man, who certainly will not do what is wrono- and who has only the weakness (to yield to the inborn ten- dencies of his fellows in birth), and to ignore his own most peculiar principle of life.^ And through this he may yet be ruined. For, as Sallust has shrewdly remarked, governments can only uphold themselves by that to which their existence is due — thus, for example, one which is founded by force must by force maintain itself and not by craft, and vice vcrsd. Louis Philippe has forgotten that his Government was born of the principle of popular sovereignty, and now, in afflicting blind- ness, he would uphold it by a quasi-legitimacy, by alliances with absolute princes, and by a con- tinuation of the period of the Restoration. Hence it comes that the spirits of the Revolution bear him ill-will (despise him) even more than they hate - and make war on him in every way. This strife is at all events more just than was the feud against the previous Government, which owed nothing to the people, and which from the first was in open opposition to it. Louis Philippe, who
^ This passage is reduced in the French version to the follow- ing words: — "Je crois que Louis Philippe est un lionnete homme, qui veut sans doute le bien et n'a que le tort de moconnaitre le principe vital par lequel seul il peut exister." — Translator.
- Omitted in the French version.
46 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
owed his throne to the people and to the pav- ing-stones of July, is an ungrateful man, whose apostasy is the more distressing as we ]3erceive day by day tliat we are grossly deceived.^ Yes, there are certainly every day most evident retro- gressions ; and just as they arc now quietly replacing the paving-stones which were used in the days of July for warfare (and which in some places are still to be seen heaped up), so that no external trace of the Revolution mav be visible, so the people are again being stamped into their previous place like pa%dng-stones, and trodden as before under foot.
I forgot to mention that among the motives which are said to have induced the King to leave the Palais Royal for the Tuileries is attri- buted the rumour that he had only accepted the crown for appearance' sake, that he remained at heart devoted to his legitimate lord, Charles X., for whose return he was preparing, and that for this reason he would not return to the Tuileries. The Carlists had manufactured this report, and it was absurd enough to obtain credence among the people. Now it is contra-
' In the French version this is very ingeniously modified and mollified bv tlie chancre of a single word as follows: — "Louis l'hilip[)e scrait un iiigrat dont la defection serait d'autant plus deplorable," &c. — Translator,
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 47
dieted by facts, for the sou of Egalite has finally passed as victor through the triumphal arch of the Carrousel, and promenades with his countenance devoid of care, his round hat and his umbrella, in the historically famous apart- ments of the Tuileries. It is said that the Queen was very much opposed to living in this maison fatalc — this disastrous dwelling, and report goes that during the first night there the King did not sleep as well as usual, and was haunted by many visions. For example, he beheld Marie Antoinette sweeping about with nostrils dis- tended with rage, as once before, on the lOth of August, and then anon heard the spiteful laughter of the Red Mannikin — k 2^ctit Jiomvie roi'//e — who often laughed audibly behind the back of Napoleon, even while the Emperor was uttering his proudest commands in the Hall of Audience ; till at last Saint Denis appeared to him and summoned him to the guillotine in the name of Louis X\I. Saint Denis, it is well known, is the patron guardian of the kings of France, and especially a saint who carries his own head in his hand.^
More significant than all the spectres which lurk in the recesses of the castle are the follies mani-
1 In the French version the end of this sentence is as fol- lows :— "Qu'enfin Saint Denis lui etait apparu portant selon son habitude sa propre tete dans line de ses mains." Tins extra- ordinary coincidence of the headless saint and the decapitated
4S FRENCH AFFAIRS.
fested ill its outer works. I here refer to the famous fossi's des 2\iilerics. These were for a loiifj time the subject of conversation in salons or at street corners, and they are still spoken of with hatred and bitterness. So long as the hoarding of high boards hid the garden front of the.Tuileries from public sight, the most absurd fancies obtained currency regarding what was being done. The majority thought that the King wished to fortify the castle, and that on the garden side, where the mob once entered so easily on the loth of August, and it was even said that with this view the Pout Eoyal was to be destroyed. Others thought that the King would only build a long- wall to hide from his sight the \'iew of the Place de la Concorde, not from childish fear, but tender feeling, for his father died in the Place de la Greve, but the Place de la Concorde was the ground of execution for the elder line.^ However, a wrong was done to poor Louis l^hilippe here, as so often elsewhere.
king is here very ingeniously introduced. As regards these visions, all of Heine's on dits and wic man sa(jt must be taken with the utmost suspicion or absolute distrust. He was never hO happy as when retailing the sorriest and flimsiest gossip from the lowest sources, and, as in the case of W. A. von Schlegel and Platen, he brought it forward seriously in grave writing as absolutely established fact. — Translator.
' The preceding sentence is omitted in the French version. — - 'Translator,
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 49
When the mysterious plauks were torn away, people beheld neither fortifications nor ramparts, ditches nor bastions, but mere folly and flowers. The King, who has a mania for building, took a fancy to make a little garden for himself and family in and separate from the great garden, which was effected by means of a common ditch and a wire-fence but a few feet high, and in the beds laid out there were already growing flowers as innocent as the garden fancy of the King himself.
Casimir Perier, however, was, it seems, very irate at this innocent idea, which was executed without his previous knowledge or consent.^ In any case, the public could justly complain of the disfiguring the whole garden, which was a master- work of Le Notre, and which was so imposing from its grand ensemUe. It is altogether like cutting scenes from one of Racine's tragedies. English gardens and Romantic dramas may often be curtailed or lessened without injury, often even to advantage, but the poetic gardens of Racine, with their sublime and tiresome unities, pathetic marble statues, their compassed alleys with the cut severe, can — no more than Le Notre's green tragedy, which begins so grandly with the
' Vonoissen only in the German version ; consentement onl}' in the French. — Translator.
D
50 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
g-raiid view of tlie Tuileries, and termiuates so grandly with the high terraces whence we per- ceive the catastrophe of the Place de la Concorde,^ — be changed in the least without disturbing their symmetry, and consequently their real beauty. ^Moreover, this untimely garden-work is for other reasons bad for the King. Firstly, it makes the sovereign an object of constant gossip, which is just at present not peculiarly to his advantage ; and secondly, it is a cause that multitudes of street- folk assemble before it, making all kinds of signi- ficant comments, who perhaps seek to forget their hunger in gossiping, and who in any case have hands which have long been idle. There may be heard many a bitter sharp remark and red- burning sarcasm which recall 1 790. At the entry of the new garden may be seen a copy in bronze of the Knife-grinder, the original of which may be seen in the Tribune of Florence, as to the mean- ing of which many opinions prevail.^
^ So ill both German and French versions, the words " scene of the" being inadvertently omitted. If Louis Philippe had the catastrophe itself always before his eyes, it is no wonder that he had a flower fence erected to .shut out the ghostly vision. — Translator.
- In all of which it is probable tliat the learned make as great mistakes as did the revolutionary philanthropist of the Anti- Jacobin when he believed his living knife-grinder to be a victim of social abuses. I conjecture that this statue represents a tinker grinding a knife, "only this and nothing more," for he
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 51
But here, in the Tuileries, I heard modern ex- planations of the meaning of this image at which many an antiquary would smile in pity, and many an aristocrat secretly shudder.
In any case, this garden plan is a colossal folly, and exposes the King to the most abominable accusations. It may even be interpreted as a symbolic deed. Louis ]^hilippe draws a ditch between himself and his people — that is, he visibly divides himself from them. Or has he grasped the spirit of constitutional monarchy in such a feeble-minded and short-sighted manner as to think that by leaving to the people the greater portion of the garden he can appropriate the lesser more decidedly for himself ? No ; abso- lute royalty, with its grandly egotistic Louis XIV., who instead of " L'etat c'est moi," could also say, " Les Tuileries c'est moi," such royalty ap- peared far more stately than constitutional popular sovereignty with its Louis Philippe I., who in anxious care fences in his little private garden and claims a petty wretched chacun ehez soi — every one by himself. It is said that the work
lias the chccl; face, and expression of a tinker, which are tiie same in all lands and ages, be it among Aryans, Shemites, or Turanians. The terrible explanations of the meaning of the statue to which Heine alludes are that the people saw in it an executioner sharpening the knife of the guillotine. — Translator.
52 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
will all be completed in the spring ; and then, too, the new kingdom, which as yet seems to be so little or newly built, and so freshly smelling of iindried mortar {kalkfrisch) will appear more finished.^ At present it seems to be in the hio-hest decree uninhabitable. In fact, when we now consider the Tuileries from the garden side, with all its digging up and about, its displaced statues and plantings of leafless trees, its stone rubbish, new material for building and all the reparations, amid which there is so much hammer- ing, shouting, laughing and squabbling, we seem to liave before us an euiblem of the new and incouiplete royalty itself.
[In lliis letter Heine, Avith marvellous intuition, as if iusjiired with prophecy, sets forth clearly the cause which led to the final overthrow of Louis Philippe. That monarch had concluded from liis vast experience of the French peojile that the houryeoiaie were the strength of the nation, and that his own strength depended on them. The country was weary with the wars of the Revolution and of Napoleon, and lecpiiied rest. But lie left out of sight the great fact that the peo])le were restless hy temperament, and would soon recover, and that there remained an insatial^le sense of chivalry and
' Geiiiiau — "Wird etwas fertiger aussehen." French ver- hion — " Aura auHsi quelque chose de plus habitable."
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 53
pride, wliicli Napoli'on had greatly increased. When signs of revolution showed themselves in 1847 in Italy, Hungary, and Germany, the French Government mani- fested great sympathy ^\■ilh the railing powers of these countries, by surrendering fugitives and similar measures, which was extremely irritating to the French, who sym- l^athised with the foreign movement. They had a King Log at a time when even a King Stork would have been more popular. So the honlwmme Louis, with his umbrella and affected ecpiality, became detestaljle. They began to laugh at the Pear and the little garden, and in France ridicule kills. I was in Paris in 1847-48, and was well informed as to Avhat was going on. Claude, who was then the prefect of police, tells us in his Memoirs that the Revolution of 1848 came upon him unexpectedly at three hours' notice. He had not time to move his office furniture. One month before, I had written letters to America predicting that the revolution would burst on the 24tli February, and its successful issue. I remarked in those days that if the King could have read the signs of the times and have led the people to something, he might have remained in power.
Many very intelligent writers have declared that they could not understand the cause why Louis Philippe was driven away, but I antici])ated it — as many others did — long before. He had utterly alienated or irritated the Republicans by his foreign alliances and sympathies, and disgusted the Bonapartists and Legitimists by his patronage of the epiciers or bourgeoisie.
As straws show how the wind blows, I may here re- mark that Alexander Dumas, who on the 2Sth February 1848 was heard by a Danish friend of mine to remark tliat he had brought about the Revolution by writing Le Ghoiur des Girondim, had really contributed to it
54 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
much more eflVctively than lie imagined hy liis uni- versally read romances in which Messieurs D'Artagnan and Co. figure so extensively as dashing swashbucklers. Duelling and romance and war were in the air, and the world, after enjoying peace for a brief season, had begun to tire of their march in the desert, and long for the highly-seasoned fieshpots of old Egypt. Then came King Stork in Napoleon III. - and in due time ihey tired of him. — Translator.]
I
JJ.
Paris, January 19, 1832.
The Temps remarks to-day that the Allgcmeine Zeitung now publishes articles which are hostile to the royal family, and that the German censor- ship, which does not permit the least remark levelled at absolute monarchs, does not manifest the least regard for a citizen-king. And yet the Temps is the shrewdest and cleverest journal in the world ! It attains its object with a few mild words much more readily than others with the most blustering warfare. Its crafty wink is well understood, and I know at least one Liberal writer wlio does not consider it honourable to use under the permission of the censorship such inimical language of a citizen-king as would not be allowed when applied to an absolute monarch. But for that let Louis Philippe do us in return one single favour — which is to remain a citizen-king. For it is because he is becoming every day more and more like an absolute king that we must com- plain of him. He is certainly perfectly honour- able as a man, an estimable father of a family, a
55
56 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
teutler spouse and a tlirifty, but it is vexations to see how he allows all tlie trees of liberty to be felled and stripped of tlieir beautiful foliage that they maybe sawed into beams to support the totter- ing house of Orleans. For that, and that only, the Liberal press blames him, and the spirits of truth, in order to make war on him, even condescend to lie. It is melancholy and lamentable that through such tactics even the family of the King must suffer, althougli they are as innocent as they are amiable. As regards this, the German Liberal press, less clever but much kinder than its French elder sister, is guilty of no cruelties. " You should at least have pity on the King," lately cried the good-tempered Journal dcs DShats. " Pity on Louis Philippe ! " replied the Tribune. "This man asks for fifteen millions and our pity ! Did he have pity on Italy, on Poland? " — d cetera}
I saw witliin a few days the infant orphans of ^fenotti, who was hung in Modena. Nor is it long since I saw Senora Luisa de Torrijos, a poor deathly-pale lady, who quickly returned to J^aris when she learned on the Spanish frontier the news of the execution of her husband and of his fifty-two companions in misfortune. Ah ! I really pity Louis IMiilippe.
' This List passage is omitted in tlie French version. — Translator.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 57
La Tribune, the organ of the openly declared Republican party, is pitiless as regards its royal enemy, and every day preaches the Republic. The National, the most reckless and independent journal in France, has recently chimed in to the same air in a most surprising manner. And terrible as an echo from the bloodiest days of the Convention sounded the speeches of those chiefs of the Soci6U des Amis du Peuple who were placed last week before the court of assizes, " accused of having conspired against the existing Govern- ment in order to overthrow it and establish a republic." They were acquitted by the jury, because they proved that they had in no way conspired, but simply uttered their convictions publicly. "Yes, we desire the overthrow of this feeble Government, we wish for a republic." Such was the refrain of all their speeches before the tribunal.
While on one side the serious Republicans draw the sword and growl with words of thunder, the Figaro flashes lightning, and laughs and swings its light lash most effectually. It is inexhaustible in clever sayings as to "the best republic," a phrase with which poor Lafayette is mocked, because he, as is well known, once em- braced Louis Philippe before the Hotel de Ville and cried, " Vous etes la meilleure republique ! " The Figaro recently remarked that we of course
5S FRENCH AFFAIRS.
now require no republic, since we have seen the best. And it also said as cruelly, in reference to the debates on the civil list, that "la raeilleure republique coute qninze niillions."
The ]\fpiil)lican party will never forgive La- fayette his blunder in supporting a king. They reproacli liiin witli tliis, that he knew Louis IMiilippe - long enough not to be aware before- hand what was to be expected of him. Lafayette is now ill — maladc de chagrin — heart-sick. Ah ! the greatest heart of two worlds must feel bitterly tlu^ royal trickery. It was all in vain that he in the very beginning continually in- sisted on the Programme dc VHotcl de Ville, on the republican institutions with which the monarchy should be surrounded, and on similar promises. But he was out-cried by the doc- trinaire gossips and chatterers, who proved from the English history of 1688 that people in l^aris in July 1830 had fought simply to main- tain La Charie, and that all their sacrifices and battles had no other object save to replace the elder line of the J3ourbons by the younger, just as all was finished in England by putting the House of Orange in place of the Stuarts. Thiers,
' This passage is wanting in the French version. — Translator. - French version^" Par la connai'isance personelle des honi- mes." — Translator,
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 59
who does not think with this party, thougli he speaks according to their meaning-, lias of late given them a good push forward.^ 'J'his indif- fereutist of the deepest kind, who knows so admirably how to keep time in the clearness, intelligence, and illustration of his style, this (loethe of politics,- is certainly at present the most powerful defender of tlie system of Perier, and, in fact, with his pamphlet against Cha- teaubriand he well nigh annihilated that Don Quixote of Legitimacy, who sat so pathetically on his winged Kosinante,^ whose sword was more shining than sharp, and who only shot with costly pearls, instead of good piercing leaden bullets.
In their irritation at the lamentable turn which events have taken, many of the enthusiasts for freedom go so far as to slander Lafayette. How far a man can go astray in this direction is shown by the pamphlet of Belmontet, whicli is also an attack on that by Chateaubriand, and in which the Republic is advocated with frank freedom. I
^ " Hat ihr in der letzten Zeit zwar nicht geringen Vorschub geleistet." I know of no word which translates this so accu- rately as the Yankee "given them a good boost up." French — " nn bon coup d'epaule."
- French version — " Get esprit, ;i la fois lucide et profond, qui sait garder une mesure si admirable dans la chart(5," &c.
■' Omitted in the French version.
6o FRENCH AFFAIRS.
would licre cite the bittei' passages against La- fayette contained in tliis work, were they not on one side too spiteful, and on the other connected with a defence of the lle])ublic which is not suit- able to this journal. I therefore refer the reader to tlie pamplilet itself, and especially to a chapter in it entitled "The Republic." One may there see how even the noblest men may be led astray by evil fortnne.
I will not here find fault with the brilliant delusion of the possibility of a republic in France. A royalist by inborn inclination, I have become niore so in France from conviction. For I am convinced that the French could never tolerate any republic, neither (according to) the constitu- tion of Athens nor of Sparta, and least of all that of North America. The Athenians were the student-youths of mankind ; their constitution was a kind of academic freedom, and it would be mere folly to seek to introduce it in this our matured age, to again revive it in our grey-haired I'^urope. And ho^v could we put up with that of Sparta, that great and tiresome manufactory of patriotism, that soldiers' barrack of republican \irtue, that sublimely bad kitchen of equality, ill which black broth was so vilely cooked that Attic wits declared it made men despise life and defy death in battle ? Jlow could such a con- stitution flourish in the very foi/cr or focus of
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 6i
gourmands, in the fatherland of Very, of Vefour, and of Oareme ? This latter would certainly have thrown himself, like Vatel, on his sword, as a Brutus of cookery and as the last gastronome. Indeed, had Robespierre only introduced Spartan cookery, the guillotine would have been quite superfluous, for then the last aristocrats would have died of terror, or emigrated as soon as possible, I'oor Robespierre ! you would intro- duce stern republicanism to Paris — to a city in which one hundred and fifty thousand milliners and dressmakers, and as many barbers and per- fumers, exercise their smiling, curling, and sweet- smelling industries ! ^
The monotony, the want of colour, and the petty domestic citizens' life {S[)icsshimjcrei) of America would be even more intolerable in the home of a love of spectacles {Schaulust), vanity, fashion, and novelties. Indeed, the disease of self- distinction flourishes nowhere so much as in France. Perhaps, witli the exception of August Wilhelm Schlegel, there is not a woman in Germany so fond of gay ribbons as the French ; even the heroes of July, who fought for freedom and equality, afterwards wore blue ribbons to disting-uish them-
' French version — '" Ville ou cent cinquante mille modistes, jiarfumeuses, et coiffeurs exercent leur riunte, odoninte et frisante industrie."
62 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
selves from the rest of the people.^ Yet, if I on this account tloubt the success of a republic in Europe, it still cannot be denied that everything is leading to one ; that the republican respect for law in place of veneration of royal personages is showing itself among the better classes, and that the Opposition, just as it played at comedy for fifteen years with a king, is now continuing the same game, and that a republic may be for a short time, at least, the end of the song. The Carlists wish for this as they regard it as a necessary phase in politics which will enable them to attain the absolute royalty of the elder branch. There- fore thev now bear themselves like the most
t/
zealous republicans. Even Chateaubriand praises the Hepublic, calls himself a llt'publican from inclination, fraternises with ]\larrast, and receives the accolade from Beranger. The Gazette — the hy]50critical Gazette de France^ — now yearns for
' Our author here argues a very large estate from very small jiremises. The Germans, as Hood remarks, are as fond of the jjonips and vanities of this wicked world as anybody in it, and the Ameiicans rather more so. Among the latter, the mem- bers of widely spread agrarian associations call themselves "Knights." in order to assume, in name at least, something of an air of cliivalry and aristocracy ; and one Governor once appointed eighteen hundred aides-de-camp, every one with the rank of "Colonel," ijnoriumtnuH fui. Yet many of these knights and colonels died in battle in defence of Republicanism, or live earnestly devoted to it.
- In the French version— "La bonne Gazelle de France.^'
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republican state forms, universal franchise, pri- mary meetings, et cetera. It is amusing to see liow these disguised priestlings now play the bully- braggart ^ in the language of Sans-culottism, how fiercely they coquet with the red Jacobin cap, yet are ever and anon afflicted with the thought that they might forgetfully have put on in its place the red cap of a prelate ; they take for an instant from their heads their borrowed covering and show the tonsure unto all the world. Such men as these now believe that they may insult Lafayette, and it serves as an agreeable re- laxation from the sour republicanism which they have assumed.
But let deluded fiiends and hypocritical enemies say what they will, Lafayette is, after Robes- pierre,^ the purest character of the French Revo- lution, and, next to Napoleon, its most popular hero. Napoleon and Lafayette are the two names which now bloom most beautifully in France. Truly their fame is each of different kind. The latter fought for peace, not victory, the former rather for the laurel wreath than for that of oak leaves. It would indeed be ridiculous to measure the greatness of the two heroes with the same
1 Bramarlasiercn, from Bramarbas, a bnlly in a Danish pla}'.
- These words, niichst Rohcspkrrc, are omitted in the French version, and they do not, indeed, harmonise very well with Heine's recent expressions of devotion to monarchy. — Translator.
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meter, ami put one on the pedestal of the other, eveu as it ^\ould be absurd to set the statue of Lafayette on the Vendome column — that monu- ment made of tlie cannon conquered on so many fields of battle, the sight of which, as Barbier sings, no French mother can endure.^ On this bronze column place Napoleon, the man of iron, here as in life standing on his fame, earned by cannon {Kanonenrulim), rising in terrible isolation to the clouds, so that every ambitious soldier, when he beholds him, the unattainable one, there on high, may have his heart humbled and healed of the \'ain love of celebrity, and thus this colossal column of metal, as a lightning conductor of conquering heroism, will establish the most peaceable profit in Europe.-'
Lafayette has raised for himself a better column than that of the Place Vendome, and a better
1 This citation from Barbier is omitted in later French editions. In the next passage the French version varies a little from the (Jerman, viz., " Sur hi colonne d'airain niettez Napoleon, I'homme d'airain, po.ste ici, comme dans la vie, par les ti'ophoes de sa gloire militaire." — Translator.
- Thi.s singular sentence i« given as follows in the French version : -" Et ({u'ainsi celte colossale agnille de mdtal devienne pour I'Europe I'instrument le plus benin de la pacification de I'esprit guerrier, le paratonnere preservateur de I'heroisme conquerant." A lightning rod of conc^uering heroism found- ing or establishing peaceful profit in Europe, combined with a "brass Xapoleon " as part "f tin- apparatus, is indeed a fine bold simile. — Truanlulor.
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monumeutal image than one of metal or marble. Where is there marble as pure as the heart of old Lafayette, or metal as firm as his fidelity ? It is true that he was always one-sided or par- tial {einscitig), but one-sided like the magnetic needle, which always points to the north, and never once in change to south or west. So he has for forty years said the same thing, and pointed constantly to North America. He is the one who opened the llevolution with the declara- tion of the rights of man ; to this hour he perse- veres in this belief, without which there is no salvation, and no health to be hoped for — the one-sided man with his one-sided heavenly region of freedom.^ He is indeed no genius, as was Napoleon, in whose head the eagles of inspiration built their nests, while the serpent's calculation entwined in his heart ; but then he was never intimidated by eagles nor seduced by serpents. As a young man he was wise as a greybeard, as a greybeard fiery as a youth, a protector of the people against the wiles of the great, a protector of the great against the rage of the people, compassionating yet combating, never arrogant and never discouraged, equally firm and mild, Lafayette ever remained the same ; and so, in his
1 French version — "Get homme invariable, avec son invariable point cardinal de la liberty."
E
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oue-sidedness and perfect uniformity, he ever remained standing in the same spot from the days of Marie Antoinette to the present hour. And, as a trusty I*]ckhart of liberty, so he still stands leaning on his sword ^ before the entrance to tlie Tuikn-ies, warning tlie world against that sediicti\i' A'enusberg, whose magic tones sing so enticingly, and from whose sweet snares the poor wretches who are once entangled in them can never escape.
It is certainly true that the dead Napoleon is more beloved by the French than is the living Lafayette. This is perhaps because he is dead, whicli is to nil' the most delightful thing con- nected with liim, for were he alive, I should be obliged to help him to fight.- Tlie world out of Franct* has no idea of how much the French pi'0]ile are still devoted to Napoleon. Tlierefore the discontented, when they determine on a de- cided and daring course, will begin by proclaiming the young Napoleon, in order to secure the sym- pathy of the masses. Napoleon is, for the French,
' The faitlifiil Kckliart, ;in ulil warrior, who, according to German U-gends, «tands before the Venusberg and warns way- farers against tlie sirens who tempt them to enter. Vide Heine's " Doctor Faust." A German proverb says of a true friend to the world, " He's like the faithful ]']ckhart, who warns everybody."
■ This piissage is omitted in the later Frencli editions.
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a mao'ic word wliicli electrifies and benumbs them.^ There sleep a thousand cannon in this name, even as in the column of -the Place Yendome, and the Tuileries will tremble should these cannon once awake. As the Jews never idly uttered the name of their God, so Napoleon is here very seldom called by his, and people speak of him as llwmvic, "the man." But his picture is seen everywhere, in engravings and plaster casts, metal and wood, and everywhere. On all boulevards and carre- fours are orators who praise and popular minstrels who sing him — the Man — and his deeds. Yester- day evening, while returning home, I came into a dark and lonely lane, in which there stood a child some three years old, who, by a candle stuck into the earth, sang an old song praising the Emperor. As I threw him a sou on the handkerchief spread out, something moved by me, also begging for another. It was an old soldier, who could also sing a song of the glory of the great Emperor, for this glory had cost him both legs. The poor
^ During the few preceding passages our author manifests most strikingly his peculiar characteristic of alternating weak- ness and folly with wisdom and strength. Thus, his feeble- funny remarks as to republicanism and his Hibernian mixtures of metaphors are succeeded by the eulogy of Lafayette — a masterpiece of appreciation — and this deeply shrewd and pro- phetic remark, that the decisive blow to the monarchy would come from the young Napoleon, which it did indeed, though it was not the young man whom Heine had in view. — Translator.
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man did not beg in the name of God, but implored with most believing fervour, "Au nom de Na- poleon, donnez-moi un sou." So this name is the deepest word of adjuration among the people. Napoleon is its god, its cultus, its religion, and this religion will, by and by, become tiresome, like every other. Lafayette, on the contrary, is venerated more as a man or as a guardian angel. He, too, lives in picture and in song, but less heroically, and — honourably confessed — it had a comic effect on me when I last year, on the 28th July, heard in the song of La Parisienne the words —
" Lafayette aux cheveux blancs,"
while I saw him in person standing near me in his brown wig. It was the Place de Bastile ; the man was on his own right ground, and still I needs must laugh unto myself. It may be that such a comic contradiction brings him humanly somewhat nearer to our hearts. His good-nature, his honliomic, acts even on children, and they perhaps understand his greatness better than do the great. And here I will tell a little story about a beggar which will show llie characteristic contrast between the glory of Lafayette and that
' l-"rcnch vei'Hioii--" Lafayette en cheveux blaiics, "
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of Napoleon. I was lately standing- at a street corner before the Pantheon, and contemplating- that beautiful building, as is my custom, when a little Auvergnat came begging- for a sou, and I gave him half-a-franc to be rid of him. But he approached me more familiarly with the words, " Est-ce que vous connaissez le general Lafay- ette ? " and as I assented to this strange question, the proudest satisfaction appeared on the naive and dirty face of the pretty boy, and with serio- comic expression he said, "II est de mon pays," for he naturally believed that any man who was generous enough to give him ten sous must be, of course, an admirer of Lafayette, and judged me worthy that he should present himself as a com- patriot of that great man.
The country folk have also for Lafayette the most affectionate respect, and all the more be- cause he chiefly busies himself with agriculture. From this result the freshness and simplicity which might be lost in constant city life. In this he is like one of those great Republicans of earlier days who planted their own cabbages, but who in time of need hastened from the plough to the battle or the tribune, and after combat and vic- tory returned to their rural work. On the estate where Lafayette passes the pleasant portion of the year, he is generally surrounded by aspiring- young men and pretty girls. There hospitality.
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be it of heart or of table, rules supreme;^ there is much laughing and dancing; there is the court of the sovereign people ; there any one may be presented who is the son of his own works and has never made mesalliance with falsehood, and Lafayette is the master of ceremonies. The name of this country place is Lagrange, and it is very charming, especially when the hero of two worlds relates to the 3'oung people his adventures, when he appears like an epoch surrounded b}' the gar- lands of an idyll-
But it is in the real middle-class more than any other, that is, among tradespeople and small shop- keepers, that there is the most veneration for Lafayette. They simply worship him. Lafayette establishing order is their idol. They adore him as a kind of Providence on horseback, an armed tutelary patron of public peace and security, as a genius of freedom, who also takes care in the
' German — " Umringt von strebeiiden jiinylingen ; " French — " Entouru do jeunes gens au noble ca'ur." Of the hospi- tality here alluded to I am well assured. I heard long ago, of a fellow-countryman who, when in Paris, packed his trunk, and, without any letter of introduction to Lafayette, went to Lagrange, sent up iiis card to the (Jeneral as "an American," was received civilly, and stayed a week. I mention this not for gossip's sake, but as illustrating Heine's remurk to the effect that an unbounded hospitality prevailed at Lagrange. — 2'raniiln('jr.
- This last paragraph is omitted in the French version.
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battle for freedom that notliing is stolen and that everybody keeps his little property. The great army of public order, as Casimir Pcrier called the National Guard, the well-fed heroes in great bearskin caps into which small shopmen's heads are stuck, are drunk with delight when they speak of Lafayette, their old general, their Napoleon of peace. Truly he is the Napoleon of the small citizens, of those brave folk who are hioi solvahles, — good for their money — those nncle tailors and cousin glovemakers who are indeed too busy by day to think of Lafayette, but who praise him afterwards in the evening with double enthu- siasm, so that one may say that it is about 1 1 p.m., when the shops are shut, that his fame is in full bloom.
I have just before used the word " master of ceremonies." I now recall that Wolfgang Men- zel has in his witty trifling called Lafayette a master of ceremonies to Liberty.^ This was when
^ It was the most natural thing in the world that the public should liave this impression. Could I have remembered what occurred wiien I was an infant in arms, I too should be justified in entertaining it. I was one month old, and, as General Lafayette was riding by tn gvandc procession, my nurse held me up at the window, declaring that I too should see the great man. And the great man seeing this, with a smile, and some remark which is not recorded, courteously bowed to me. He was, indeed, the first person who ever paid me this formal com- pliment ! As a boy, Lafayette seems to me from pictures as
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the fonnei- spoke in the LitcratiirUatl of the triumphal march of the former across the United States, and of the deputations, addresses, and solemn discourses wliich ensued on such occasions. Other mucli less witty folk wrongly imagine that Lafayette is only an old man who is kept for show or used as a machine. ]jut they need only hear him once speak in public to learn that he is not a mere flag which is followed or sworn by, but that he is in person the gonfalonitrc in whose hands is the good banner, the oriflamme of the people. Lafayette is perhajjs the most signifi- cant and influential speaker in the Chamber of deputies. When he speaks, he always hits the nail, and his nailed-up enemies, on the head.^
When it is needed, when one of the great ques- tions of humanity is discussed, then Lafayette ever rises, eager for strife as a youth. Only the body is weak and tottering, broken by age and battles of his time, like a hacked and dented old
reviewing the National Guard, repressing disorder, and always on liorseback, but in one place. Napoleon, on the contrary, appeared to be always on a spirited charger rearing upon its iiind-legs on tlie Alps in a most perilous position. Hence my youthful associations with the two names, which agree admirably with all which Heine has liere written. — Translator.
' To nail a man up, American and German to settle or silence him ; German lernagdt sein, to be a blockhead. Original : " Wenn tr spricht, trifft er immer den Nagel auf den Kopf, und seine vernagelten I'einde auf die Kopfe." — Translator.
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iron armour, and it is touching when he totters under it to the tribune and has reached his old post, to see how he draws a deep breath and smiles. This smile, the deportment, and the whole being- of the man while speaking on the tribune, are indescribable. There is in it all so much that is winsome and yet so much delicate irony, that one is enchained or enchanted as by a marvellous curiosity and a sweet strange enigma. We know not if these are the refined manners of a French marquis or the straightforward simpli- city of an American citizen. All that is best in the ancien Hgime, the chivalresque courtesy and tact, are here marvellously fused with what is best in the modern hourgeoisic, love of freedom, simplicity, and honour. Nothing is more in- teresting than when mention is made in the Chamber of the first days of the Revolution, and some one in doctrinaire fashion tears some his- torical fact from its true connection and turns it to his own account in speech. Then Lafayette destroys with a few words the erroneous deduc- tion by illustrating or correcting the true sense of such an event by citing the circumstances relating to it. Even Thiers must in such a case strike sail, and the great historiographer of the Revolu- tion bows before the outburst of its great and living monument. General Lafayette.
There sits in the Chamber just before the tri-
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buue a man old as tlie lulls {cin steinaltcr Mann), with shining silver hair falling at length over his black clothing. His body is girt with a very broad tricoloured scarf, and he is the old mes- senger who has always filled that office in the Chamber since the beginning of the Revolution, . and who in this post has been present in univer- sal history since the days of the first National Assembly till the juste milieu. I am told that he often speaks of Robespierre, whom he calls Ic hon Monsieur de Iiohcspicrre. During the Restoration the old man suffered from colic, but since he has wound the tricoloured scarf round his waist he finds himself well again. His only trouble now in the dull and lazy times of the juste milieu is drowsiness. I even once saw him fall asleep while Mauguin was speaking. Indeed, the man has, doubtless, in his time heard better than Manguin, who is, however, one of the best orators of the Opposition, though he is not found to be very startling (hefting) or effective by one qui a bcaucoup connu ce hon Monsieur de Rolespierre — who has well known good Monsieur de Jlobespierre. Hut wlien Lafayette speaks, then the old messenger awakes from his twilight drowsiness, he seems to be stirred up like unto an old war-horse of hussars when he hears the sound of a trumpet — there rise within liini sweet memories of youth, and he nods delightedly with his silver-white head.
III.
Paris, February lo, 1832.
The writer of the foreg-oing article was guided by true tact when he, blaming the desire for distinction or notoriety which flourishes even more in the hearts of the French than with women in Germany, mentioned exceptionally among the latter a German author who is celebrated as an art critic and translator.'^ This specially excepted person, who, on account of the German disturb- ances which he himself had caused by certain almanac epigrams (almanachxcnien), emigrated hither last year, and who has since then received from His Majesty the order of the Legion of Honour, has been, owing to his restless desire for decorations, only too well remarked by many Frenchmen as supplying them with ample ground
' A. W. V. Schlegel. If, as has been truly said, the real plebeian meanness and bad blood of a man's nature, if it appear in nothing else, will show itself in " incisive " criticism, subtle abuse, or some form of the low art of being disagreeable, it may be declared that in this sentence our author shows himself at its zenith, or rather nadir. — Translator.
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for retaliation I'or the reproacli of vanity cast at them from over the Ehine. Willi their usual perfidy, they have not so much as once advertised this grant of an order in the French journals, and as the Germans, of course, felt themselves honoured in tlieir fellow-countryman, and out of modesty forbore to mention it, it has happened that this event, which is of such great importance for both countries, has as yet been little known. Such neglect and silence was the more intolerable to the new-made knight since it was whispered rather loudly in his hearing that the new order, though he had received it at the hands of the Queen, was utterly valueless so long as its be- stowal was not published in the Monitcur. The new knight wished to see this difficulty removed, but there came unfortunately in the way a worse impediment, namely, that the patent of an order granted by the King is utterly devoid of value if it is not countersigned by a Minister. Our knight had, by means of the doctrinaire relations of a certain famous lady, by whom he was once prime favourite,^ got his order from the King, and it is said that the latter remarked in his whole person- ality a most striking resemblance to his deceased
' A'ajxtuii till Korbc. \ cuiiiiuon (jleiiuaii proverb c;ill.s any one who is specially pottiid a '^ II aim tm korh," — "A cock in a basket." Heine lu-re spitefully mak^'s of the cock a capon.
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governess, Madame de Genlis, and wished to pay her honour even after her death in her facsimile.' But the ]\Iinister, who liad at the sight of the Chevalier experienced no such genial emotions, and erroneously mistook him for a German Liberal, feared lest he should discredit the abso- lute Governments by countersigning the patents. Meantime, a judicious arrangement is anticipated, and in order to secure the acquiescence of the Continental powers negotiations have been entered into, to the effect that the Cabinet of St. James shall move for a similar order, and the petitioner will thereupon go in person to England with an old Indian epic, dedicated to His Majesty King William lY. For the Germans here it is, however, a deeply moving sight to see their highly honoured, weakling, fallen countryman compelled by such delays and hindrances to run from Pontius to Pilate in mud and cold and assaulting anxieties, which are the more difficult to understand since he has at command and for consolation all the examples of Indian indifference which are given in the Ramayana and ]\Iahabharata.^
1 Among tlie inmmieiable vile and lying slanders on the royal family was one that Madame de Genlis iiad been the mistress not only of her yoiitlifiil pupil, but also of his father. Its truth or falsehood was all one to Heine, so that with it he could point a \\he].—Translato7:
" All of the foregoing, from the beginning of the book to this jieridd, is judiciously omitted in the French vei'sion. — Trandalor.
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The manner in wliich the French treat the most important subjects witli mocking frivolity shows itself in what is said about the late conspiracies. •'That which was acted on the towers of Xotre Dame has the air of liaviuf? been altogfether a police intrigue and an arrangement." People say jestingly that it was the disciples of the Classic school, who, out of hatred to Victor Hugo's Romantic romance, "Notre Dame de Paris," wished to burn the church itself. There were revived the witticisms of Rabelais relative to its bells, and the well-known saying, " Si Ton m'accu- sait d'avoir vole les cloches de Notre Dame, je commencerais par prendre la fuite,"^ was varied in jest when certain Carlists took to flight in conse- f|uence of these occurrences. The last conspiracy of the night of February 2nd is also chiefly attri- buted to the machinations of the police. It was rumoured that they had ordered in a restaurant of the Rue des Prouvaises a splendid conspiracy of two hundred converts, and invited some weak- minded Carlists as guests, who were naturally expected to pay the bill. The latter had not on this occasion been sparing of money, and in the boots of one conspirator who had been arrested
* It is curious that the origin of this saying was not in refer- ence to the weiglit of the bells, but to the stealing of such bells by wizards for magical jjurposes. — Translatur,
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they found twenty-seven thousand francs. With such a sum something might have been done. I once read in the Memoirs of Marmontel an assertion by Chamfort that with a thousand louis one could stir up a regular insurrection in Paris, and during the recent dmeutes this remark con- tinually recurred to me.^ I cannot for important reasons suppress the fact that money is always needful for a revolution.- Even the glorious Revolution of July was not brought out so en- tirely gratis as is believed. This drama for divinities cost several millions, although the real actors, the people of Paris, strove as rivals in heroism and magnanimity. These things are not done for money alone, but it requires money to set them going. P)ut the foolish Carlists think that they will go of themselves if they have only money in their boots. The Republicans are cer- tainly innocent as regards all the proceedings of the night of the 2ud of February, for as one of them lately said to me, "When you hear that money has been spent in a conspiracy, you may rest assured that no Republican has anything to
' Omitted in the Frencli version. — Translator.
- Especially when the writers and fighters for it are gentle- men of expensive and luxurious habits, as was illustrated by the late lamented Boulanger, who may be said to have taken this hint from Heine, and to have lived upon it so long as it paid. — Tvan&lator,
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elo with it." In fact, tins party has but little nione}", as it generally consists of honourable and unselfish men. They may, when they attain to power, stain their hands with blood, but not with money. This is known, and people have less fear of intriguers who seek for money more than blood.
The guillotinomania which we find among the Republicans has perhaps been caused by the writers and orators who first employed the phrase sysUnie dc la terreur to characterise the Government which in 1793 employed the extremest measures to save France. Yet the terrorism which was thereby de- veloped was more a mere show than a system, ^ and the terror was as great in the souls of the rulers as in the people. It is folly when people now, to excite to zealous imitation of the man, carry about plaster casts of llobespierre ; and it is folly when people would invoke again the language of 1793, as the Amis dn FcujJle are doing, and acting thereby, without knowing it, as retrogressively as the most zealous champions of the old regime. He who gathers the red flowers which in the spring have fallen from the trees, and would stick them again with wax to the boughs whereon they grew, acts as foolishly as the one who plants cut and faded white lilies in the sand. Republicans
' The French version here r.dds " \m fait passager."
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and C'arlist.s are plagiaries from the past, and when they unite it recalls the most ridiculous alliances in mad-houses, where a common restraint brino's the most heteros'eneous lunatics into the most friendly relationships, although the one who believes himself to be Jehovah despises from the depths of his heart the one who professes to be Jupiter.i Ho we saw this week Genoude and Thouret, the one editor of La Gazette, and the other of La Revolution, standing as allies before the Assizes, and as chorus stood behind them Fitz-James with his Carlists, and Cavaiguac with his Republicans. Could there be a more repulsive contrast ? And although I am very much averse to the whole being of Republicanism {Repiiblih wesen), yet it pains my very soul when I behold Republicans in such unworthy company. They may indeed meet on the same scaffold with those friends of Absolutism and Jesuitism, but never in the same court of justice. How contemptible do they appear in such association ! There is nothing more lidiculous than the mention by the journals that among the conspirators of Feb-
1 French version — '• Quoi que I'un, qui s'intitule Dieu le Pere, uicprise du plus profond de son cceur, I'autre qui se donue pour Dieu le Fils." This was too strong for Germany. Ten lines of the German text from the word " assizes," in the next sentence, are omitted in the French version. — Tranalator.
F
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riiary 2nd were four ex-cooks of Charles X. aud four Kepublicans of the society Amis du Peujdc.
I cannot really believe that the latter were involved in this stupid business. I was myself, by chance, that evening in the meeting of the Amis du Pciqjle, and I conclude from many circum- stances that they thought rather of defence than of attack. There were present fifteen hundred men, well packed together in a small hall, which had the appearance of a theatre. The citizen Blanqui,^ son of a member of the Convention, made a long speech against the bourgeoisie, the shopmen who had elected as king Louis Philippe, " la hoiUiqiie incarnee'' and that in their own interests, not in those of the people — du 2Jeuplc qui n'4tait pas complice d'une si indigne usurpation. It was a speech full of wit, honesty, and anger, but there was wanting free delivery of the freedom to be delivered.^ In spite of ReiDublicau severity, old-fashioned gallantry was not ignored, and with true French courteous attention, the best places near the tribune of the orator were reserved for the dames " citoyennes." The meeting smelt like an old pile of the Moniteur of 1793 which had become dirty from much reading. It consisted
' Afterwards in the Gouvemement Provisoire of 1848. - Omitted in the French version. It has the air of a phrase " manufactured to point." — Translator.
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principally of eitlier very young or old people. In the first Revolution the enthusiasm of" liberty had chiefly inspired men of middle age, in whom the still youthful hatred of priestly deceit and aristocratic insolence was combined with clear and manly matured insight. The youngest and oldest men were the partisans of the senile regime — the latter, or the silver-haired ancients, out of mere custom — the former, the jcunesse dorie, from dis- content with the bourgeois simplicity of republican manners. Now it is all changed — rest I'invcrse anjourdlmi — and the true enthusiasts for freedom consist entirely of young or aged people. The latter know from personal experience the infamies of the ancien regime, and they recall with rapture the times of the first llevolution, when they were so strong and great. The former, or the youth, love that age because they yearn for great deeds, and are above all things ambitious of sacrifice and heroism ; hence they scorn the stingy small- mindedness and the huckstering selfishness of the present jDOwers that be. The men of middle age are mostly weary with the harassing business of opposition during the Restoration, or spoiled and corrupted by the Empire, whose lond -roaring am- bition and brilliant soldier -state destroyed all citizen-like simplicity and love of freedom ; and, moreover, this Imperial period of heroism cost so many their lives who would be in their prime
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now had they survived, that there are really few complete examples of many years to be found.
But among both old and young, in the hall of the Amis du Pcuple there was a dignified serious- ness, such as we always find among men who are conscious of their own strength. Their eyes, however, flashed, and they often cried "C'cs^ vrai! cest vrai ! " — " it is true ! " — when the orator ad- duced a fact. When the citizen Cavaignac, in a discourse which I could not well understand, on account of his short, careless, and rapidly-ejacu- lated sentences, mentioned the judicial prosecu- tions to which writers are always exposed, I noticed that my neighbour clung to me from inner emotion.^ He was a young enrag4, a fire- eater with his eyes like raging stars, wearing the low, broad-brimmed hat of black glazed cloth which distinguishes the Republican. "But is it not true," he at last remarked to me, "that this persecution of writers is an indirect censorship? One should dare to print whatever one may say, and man has the right to say anything. Marat declared that it was a great wrong to cite a citizen before a tribunal merely for his opinions, and that a man is only resjoonsible to the public for whatever opinions he may hold. ("Toute citation
' III the German text festhtelt, ami in the French nc cramjtonncdl it, iiioi. — Translator.
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(levant nii tribunal ponr nne opinion est nne in- justice ; on ne pent citer, en ce cas, un citoyen que devant le public") Whatever a man says is only an opinion. And Camille Desmoulins declared, and with reason, that as soon as the Decemvirs interpolated into the body of laws which they had brought from Greece a law against defamation or libel, it was at once discovered that they meant to destroy freedom and to render permanent the Decemvirate ; and in like manner, when Octavius, four hundred years later, revived that law of the Decemvirs against writings or speeches, and added to the lex Julim kcsce majestatis, one could say that Roman freedom had drawn its last breath."
I have given these citations to show what are authorities current among the Amis clu Peuplr. The address of Eobespierre of the eighth of Ther- midor is their gospel. It was, however, very droll to observe that these people complained of oppression while they were permitted to publicly ally themselves against the Government, and say things the tentli part of which would suffice in Germany^ to subject them to life -long super- vision. But it was reported that on this same evening an end would be put to these disturb-
' North Gcrnumy in the original and Germany in the French version ; but when Heine wrote this was true of every corner of Continental Europe, Switzerland hardly excepted. — Translator.
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ances, and the liall of tlie Amis du Pcv.plc be closed. "I believe that the National Gnard and the line \Yill shell us out {nous cerncront) Xo-m^hi " remarked my neighbonr ; •' have you your pistols for such an emergency?" '■! will go and get them," I replied, anpl leaving the hall, went to a soiree in the Faubourg Saint Germain, where there was naught save lights, mirrors, flowers, bare shoulders, can sucr(^e, yellow gloves, sxndfad- aises — frivolities. There was on every face a triumphant joy, as if the victory of the ancien regime had been established, and while the " Vive la ]{q)ublique " of the line Grenelle was still ringing in my ears, I must needs hear that the return of the enfant du miracle and of the whole miraculous set of his relations was as good as certain. I cannot here help betraying that I there saw two doctrinaires dance an " Anr/laise." These gentlemen dance nothing else but to the English step.^ A lady in a white dress, on which were green bees which looked like lilies, asked me if the Germans and Cossacks might be relied
' The point is better given in French than in German : — '■ Je ne puis m'empccher de ddnoncer deux doctrinaires que j'ai vus dans cette maison danser des f,'igues anglaises ; ces messieurs nu dansaiit qu'li I'anglaise." The next sentence is reduced in the French version to "une aimable dame me demanda." It is hardly necessary to remark that the bees indicated Napoleon- ism and lilies Legitimacy.
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on for support. I assured her tliat we should consider it as the greatest honour to be allowed to sacrifice our lives and property for the restora- tion of the elder branch of the Bourbons. '■ And do you know," added the lady, " that this is the day when Henry V., as Duke of Bordeaux, took his first communion ! " " What an important day for the friends of the throne and the altar," 1 replied ; "a holy day, deserving to be sung by Lamartino ! "
The niofht, however, of this fine dav deserves to be marked blood-red in the calendar of France, and rumours relative to it were the next morn- ing the talk of all Paris. Contradictions of the strangest kind were in circulation, and there is still a mysterious veil over all the history of the conspiracy. It was said that it had been intended to murder all the royal family with the large assembly which had been present in the Tuileries. The concierge of the Tuileries had been won over, and persuaded to admit the conspirators through the great gallery directly to the ball-room ; some one had shot at the King but missed his mark ; hundreds had been arrested ; and so forth, and so on. Even in the afternoon I found before the garden-side of the Tuileries a great crowd gaping and gazing up at the windows, as if trying to see the shot which had been fired there. One man told how Perier had the night before ridden to
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the Rue des Pronvaires jiist as tlie conspirators were arrested, and an agent of police had been shot dead. It had been intended to burn down the Pavilion de Flore and attack the Pavilion Marsan. The King, it is said, is sadly disturbed ; women pity him, while men shake their heads in discontent. The French dislike all killing by night. In the stormy days of the Revolution the most terrible deeds were perfectly public and executed by day. As for the horrors of the night of Saint Bartholomew, they were planned and executed by Roman Catholic priests.^
How far the concierge of the Louvre was in- volved in the conspiracy of February 2nd, I have not yet precisely ascertained. Some say that he
^ This is doubtless due to the same cause which makes a French mob dispei'se when it begins to rain, as our author has observed. I have seen many emeittes with bloodshed in America, and had some experience of them in France, and have observed that in the former country tlie populace fight on in grim deter- mination, unheeding rain, storm, or darkness, to the very last, till killed or utterly overpowered, and that tlie fighting always becomes much more desperate after dark. Very often, as I have myself witnessed, rival parties, after pop-shooting all the afternocju at one another, did not close in for a decisive strife till towards midnight, or later. I believe that this is due to the inflexible dogged perseverance of the American in anything which he undertakes, allied to an insatiate curiosity to know without delay what the end will be. The last sentence, or the reference to Saint Bartholomew, is omitted in the French ver- sion,— Translator.
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at once gave the alarm to the police as soon as money was offered to liim for the keys. Others say that he really did deliver them, and has, in consequence, been arrested. In any case, it is evident enough how on such occasions the most important posts in Paris are intrusted without any special precautions to the most unqualified persons. The very treasury itself was long in the hands of a speculator in public paper, a M. Kessner, whom the state should reward with the oaken crown for not gambling away on the Ex- change a hundred millions of francs, instead of six, as he really did. So the gallery of the Louvre, which is rather the property of all mankind than of the French, might easily be made the scene of nightly riots, and thereby be destroyed.^
So the cabinet of medals has become the booty of thieves, who certainly did not take the treasure from love of numismatics, but to put them at once into the crucible. What a loss for science, when we consider that among the stolen antiques were not only examples of the greatest rarity,
' This insecurity still exists. When Henri Rochefort gave the diabolical order, "Faites flamber Paris," he was particu- larly desirous of destroying the BibliothcqueNationale, and this library was only saved by the accidental breaking of a wire, which should have transmitted an electric current. So I read at the time in the newspapers ; if it be untrue, I am willing to correct the statement. — Trandator.
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but perhaps many whicli were absolutely unique. The destruction of these old coins is irreparable, for the ancients cannot, unfortunately, sit down and make new ones for us. But it is not only a loss for learning ; it is that by the destruction of such small monuments of efold and of silver, life itself loses the exisression of its reality. Ancient history would sound like a fairy-tale if its coins — the most actual of the realities of those times — did not exist to show us that the early races and their kings, of which ^ve read such wonderful things, really existed — tliat they were no idle forms of fantasy, no mere creation of a poet's brain, as many writers assert, who would fain persuade us that all the history of olden time, witli all its written records, were forged by monks in the Middle Age.^ Against such assertions we had the most clearly ringing counter-proof in the cabinet of medals in Paris. But these treasures are now irreparably lost, and a part of the world's history has been at once stolen and melted, and the mightiest kings and races of antiquity are now vanished fables, in which man needs to put liis faitli no more.
' What would Heine have said cnuld he have lived to the present day ? Apparently all we are now waiting for is some sophist humbugger to persuade us that the monks themselves were all forgeries. — Translator.
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It is cliarming tliat the window of the cabinet of medals is now provided witli iron railings or bars, though it is hardly to be hoped that the thieves will by night restore the stolen property. The said iron bars are painted rosy-red, which makes, indeed, a very fine effect ; so every passer-by looks up and lauglis. Monsieur Raoul Kochette, the consertatciir des cx-mcdaillcs — the guardian of the medals which are gone — should wonder that the thieves did not steal him too, since he has always regarded himself as of far more w^eight and importance than the medals, and regarded the latter as valueless unless accompanied by his oral explanations ! Now he strolls about idly, and smiles as our cook did when the cat had stolen a piece of raw meat from the kitchen. " At any rate, she does not know how it ought to be cooked," quoth the cuisinUre, and laughed.^
Meanwhile, great as the loss may be to ancient history from that theft of the medals, the deficit in the accounts of Kessner appears to cause much greater irritation, for this is more important in
^ As it befell me once in America, when certain thieves took from me, among other things, a very valuable and rare Egyptian scai-abanis— one of two found in the tomb of a king. "Fortu- nately the beggars do not know what it is worth," whispered my consoling genius. But it was never found again, and was lost to the world. Two pages from this period are omitted from the French version. — Traudator.
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the history of to-day. While I ^vrite, I learn that the loss is not of six, but ten millions, and that it may amount to twelve. This, of course, greatly diminishes the man's merit, and I can no lonsfer award him the oaken crown. In this treasury deficit, to which touching scenes in the style of Iffland were not wanting, Baron Louis was in great peq^lexity, for he must eventually pay the guarantee, which was not required of Kessner. He can easily bear this, for he is enormously rich, having annually 200,000 francs of cash revenue, and is an old ahb^ without family. Perier grieves over this affair far more than is generally sup- posed, as it concerns money, which is his strength and his weakness, and how little mercy the Op- position show him under the circumstances is known from the newspapers. These report in detail the undignified scenes which take place in the Chamber of Deputies, which here require no special mention. Indeed, the Oi)position behaves as pitifully as the Ministry, and is quite as repul- sive to consider. Among the best there is no unity. Odillon Barrat, that crafty brain witli the gloomy-plausible glance, will not get away too far from the desired portfolio, and remains behind his part v. On the other hand. IVfausfuin is as much too far in advance of his colleaerues. They think he has gone astray because they no longer behold him, and he sees them no more,
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aud that iu the literal seuse of the tfiiii. For Maugiiiii gives every Wednesday a demagogue soiree, and one of my friends who tliis week attended one did not find there a single deputy. An old member of the Convention who was present praised i\lauguin for the energy of his action and efforts {fortstrebcns) ; but Mauguin modestly replied that, as regarded this, he could keep no comparison with the men of power of the old Convention, yet that he had gone farther, poli- tically, than his colleagues of the Opposition, and that the latter, as was evident, were leaving him. But while distress and dire need of every kind riot in the bowels of the State, and foreign affairs since the events iu Italy and Don Pedro's expedi- tion become more seriously complicated ; while all institutions, and even the royal, highest of all, is in danger, and the political disorder ( Wirr-iuarr) menaces every life, Paris is still this winter the same old Paris, the beautiful enchanted city, which smiles so charmingly on youth, which so power- fully inspires the man grown, and so gently con- soles old age. "O'est la qu'on pent se passer de X bonheur " — " there one can do without happiness," said Madame de Stael — a remark which was strik- ingly true, but which in her mouth lost its point, because she could not live in Paris, and Paris was all her happiness. So the patriotism of the French ^ consists in a great measure of love for Paris, and
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if Dantnji would not ily abroad, "parce qu'ou ne pent emporter la patrie attachee anx semelles de ses souliers," — "■ because one cannot carry his native laud attached to the soles of his shoes," it was as much as to say that he could not find in a foreign country the magnificence of beautiful Paris. But l^xris is really France, which is only the great suburb of i'aris. Setting aside beautiful land- scapes and the agreeable qualities of the people, France is utterly empty, at least intellectually so. Everything which is distinguished in the provinces soon strays to the capital, the foyei' of all light and brilliancy. France is like a garden whence all the fairest tlowers have been plucked to form a bouquet, and that bouquet is called Paris. It is true that its perfume has not now such power as it possessed after those days of July when the nations were overcome by it, yet it is ever beauti- ful enough to show magnificently on the bosom of Europe. Paris is not only the chief city of France, but of the whole civilised world, and is the rendez- vous of its intellectual celebrities. All is here assembled which is great by love or hate, by feeling or thought, by knowledge or ability, by fortune or adversity, by the future or the past. When we ccmsider the assembly of famous or distinguished men who meet here, Paris may be regarded as a Pantheon of the living. A new art, a new religion, a new life is here created, and the
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creators of a uew world are here in joyous action together. The men in power may act meanly, but the people are great, and feel their terribly sublime destiny. The sons will rival their fathers, who went down with such glory, and so holily. unto the grave. These great deeds are dimly developing and unknown gods revealing them- selves. And these men laugh and dance every- where ; everywhere gay jesting and the merriest mockery flourish, and as it is Carnival-tide, many mask themselves as doctrinaires, and cut laughably pedantic faces, and declare that they are afraid of the Prussians.
IV.
Paris, March i, 1S32.
Events in England have for some time had special claims on our attention. We must finally admit that the open enmity of an absolute king is less dangerous than the equivocal friendship of consti- tutional John Bull. The folk-murderingi intrigues of the English aristocracy step forth, threateningly enough, into the clear light of official day, and the fogs of London scantly conceal the subtle snares and knots which connect the network of the protocols of the Conference with the parlia- mentary slip-nooses. Diplomacy has there watched more actively than ever ^ its hereditary interests, and spun more industriously than ever the most destructive webs, and Monsieur de Talleyrand seems to be at one and the same time araign^e d mouclie — " botli spider and fly." Can it be that the veteran diplomatist is not so crafty as of old, when he, a second llephaistos, caught the mighty
' Vijlkermcuchdndcn. French version — populicidc.
- French Nersion— " (^ue piutout iiilleurs."
96
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god of war himself in his fiuely-forged network ? Or did it happen to him, as of yore to tlie over- cunning Master ]\lerlin, who, entwined in his own mao-ic, lies word-chained and self-banned in the grave ? ^ But why was Monsieur de Talleyrand put into a position of the very highest importance for the interests of the Revolution of July, when there was far greater need of the inflexible straightforwardness of an irreproachable citizen ? I will not absolutely or distinctly declare that the slippery old ex-Bishop of Autun is not honourable. On the contrary, the oath which he has now sworn he will certainly keep, for it is his thirteenth. We have, it is true, no other guarantee of his honour or truth, but it will suflSce, for there is no case on record of any honourable man ever having broken thirteen oaths in succession. And, more- over, we are assured that Louis Philippe, in his audience de congt', or farewell interview, said to him as precaution, "Monsieur de Talleyrand, do not forget that, however large the offers may be which you will receive, I in any case will give you double." However, with a faithless man that would still be no security, for it is in the character of treachery
1 Or a cavern. " ' Chere Bertha,' repondit la ft^e Viviane, ' ce conte est une allegorie. L'antre ou tombeau, dont tu paries, est la caverne d'amour, que il Signore Merlin entre quand il veut, mais duquel il sort quand il lui plait.' " — Le Lutin du Chateau, Roman par Charles G. Leland.
a
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that it does not reniaiu true to itself, so that we cannot count upon securing it even by satisfying its selfishness.
The worst is that the French imagine London as a second Paris, the West End as another Saint Ger- main f|uarter; that they regard the British reformers as allied Liberals, and Parliament as Chambers of deputies and peers — in short, that they measure and judge all that exists in England by a French standard. From all this result errors which will perhaps be eventually dearly paid for. Both nations have a character too sharply opposed one 10 the other to be capable of mutual intelligence. and all circumstances and relations in both coun- tries are too radically different to admit com- parison, especially in political relations. The additions to the licUchildcr — " Pictures of Travel," contain much information on this subject derived from direct observation, and I must refer to this to avoid repetition. And I will here again men- tion the admirable Bricfc eines Vcrstorhcnen — " Letters from a Dead Man," ^ although the poetic feeling of the author has made him imagine that he peiceived (hineiiir/csrhaut) more intellec- tual activity in stock-stiff JBritishism than is to be actually found therein. To describe England
^ French version — " Je citerai eiicore les excellents M(5inoire.s (111 I'rince Puckler-Muskau."
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accurately, one should adopt the style of a Manual of Advanced ]\Iechanism, very much as if writing- of a vast complicated manufactory, of a roaring, whizzing, choking, pounding, and wearisomely humming and buzzing machine existence, where the brightly polished wheels of utility turn around old and rusty historical dates.^ The Saint-Simo- niaus declare with right that England is the hand and France the heart of the world. Ah! this o-rand heart of the world would lose all its noble blood if, counting on English generosity, it should some day beg help from this dry and frozen hand. I do not imagine egoistic England as an enor- mously fat, prosperous, beer-belly, as caricaturists depict it, but, as a satirist describes, in the form of a tall, lean, bony old bachelor sewing a torn- off button on his breeches, and that with a thread the end knot of which is the globe; and then, cutting off the thread where he no longer needs it, he calmly lets the world fall into the abyss.
The French think that the English people cherish a desire for freedom like their own, and that it is striving like them against the usurpations of an aristocracy, and that this gives and guaran-
^ French version — " Une machine roulant, bourdonnant, gron- (lant, pottant, sifflant, foulant et bruissant h, en faire mal, ou les rouages d'utilite, biillantes et palis, tournent autour des dates revetues de rouille histoiicjue."
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tees many interests and assurances of both inter- nal and external close alliance. But they do not know that the English race is in itself thoroughly aristocratic, that it only demands liberty in the most narrow-minded manner or sense of a small corporation — that is. liberties legally secured by documents — and that the French freedom for all mankind, in which the whoh' world shall share according to the charter of reason, is to its deepest depth utterly detested by the English. They only know an English freedom — one histori- cally English, patented for the use of royal Great Britannic subjects, or based on some old law — let us say of the time of Queen Anne. Burke, who wished to hurlce souls,^ and traded life itself to the anatomy of history, chiefly reproached the French Revolution because it was not formed, like the English, on old institutions, and he can- not comprehend that a state could exist without noUlity. But England's nobility is altogether different from the French noUcssc, and deserves that I here award it the most distinctive praise. English nobility has always opposed the abso- lutism of its kings, in common cause with the
' " A play of words," says the German editor, "on that other Hurke, who committed murder to provide anatomical lecturers with corpses, and caused in all England a panic-fear of beino- ' burked,' as it was called at the time."'
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people, whose rights it sustaiued as ideutical wif li its own, while the noblesse of France, on the con- trary, always yielded to royal authority — aufGnade und Ungnade — in favour or in disgrace.^ It has not since the days of Mazarin resisted their power ; it has only sought to profit by supple court-ser- vice, and by most submissive and subordinate service {Handlangergcmcinscliafi) ; with its kings it oppressed and betrayed the people. All un- consciously the French nobility revenged itself for former wrongs from these monarchs by re- ducing them to a debilitating immorality, and making them almost idiotic by flattery. Of course, it also, weakened and deprived of all spirit, fell with the old royalty ; the lOth of August only found in the Tuileries a grey-haired decrepid crowd, with brittle court-rapiers, and not one man — only a single woman who commanded resistance with firmness and courage ; and even this last lady of French chivalry — the last representative of the perishing ancien regime — was not destined to descend to the grave in all the glory of her youth, and one single night made white as snow the blonde locks of the beautiful Antoinette.
It went differently with the English nobility. This has kept its strength ; it is rooted in the people, in that healthy soil which receives as
^ Omitted in the French version. — Translator.
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uohle scions the yoimger sons of tlie nobility, and through these the real gentry remains allied to nobility itself. The English nobility is, withal, full of patriotism ; it has thus far truly represented Old England with unfeigned zeal, and those lords, who cost so much, have also in time of need made great sacrifices for their country. It is true that they are arrogant,^ and mucli more so than the noUcssc of the Continent, who make a show of their pride, and distinguish themselves externally from the people by dress, ribbons, bad French, coats of arms, crosses, and other playthings. The English nobility despise the middle class too much to judge it to be necessary to impose on it by exterior means, and to show off in public tho parti-coloured indications of rank.- On the contrary, we see the English nobles, like gods in- cognito, clad in simple and citizen-like attire, and
^ Though they bear this reputation, chiefly among those who are least familiar witli them, I believe that the English nobility are by far the least arrogant of their kind, and I have certainly never met with or heard of anything among them to be com- pared to that of the Hanoverians, and especially of titled officers in the Prussian service;. — Translator.
* It is not that they despise the middle class, but every form of idle personal ornament and all indications of vanity — an anti- pathy characteristic of the whole English, and, to as great a degree, of the American people. Hence the modern simplicity m men's clothing, which begun in England and has spread to the Continent. — Translator,
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therefore uuubserved, running about tlie streets, or to the theatres and receptions [routs — Frencli version, raonts) of London. Tlieir feudal decora- tions and similar tinsel they reserve for court fes- tivals and old anniversaries. Therefore they are more respected among the people than are our gods on the Continent, who are so readily re- cognised with all their attributes. One day on Waterloo Bridge in London I heard one boy say to the other, " Have you ever seen a nobleman ? " To which the other rej^lied, "No, but I have seen the coach of the Lord ]\Iayor." This said coach is an extravagantly large chest, excessively gilt, painted with fabulous richness of colour, with a red-velveted, stiff-golden, powder-wigged coach- man, and three ditto powder-wigged lackeys behind on the box. If the English people quarrel with their nobility, it is not on account of social equality, of which they never think, and least of all about civil freedom, which they fully enjoy, but because of pure questions of money ; because the nobility, in possession of all the sinecures, ecclesiastical endowments and offices, which are extravagantly salaried, revel bravely and luxuriously, while the greater part of the people, overloaded with taxes, languish in deepest misery and die of hunger. There- fore a parliamentary reform is required, and those among the nobility who support it have
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iiothino- else in view save to make it aid in material ameliorations.
Yes, the nobility of J*]no-land is always more closely allied to the people than to their kings, as regards whom they have always maintained a strict independence, in which they differ en- tirely from the Trench aristocracy. It lent them onlv its sword and its word, takiuq- in the de- lights and desires of their private life only an indifferently confidential part. This is true even of the most corrupt times. Hamilton, in his " Memoirs of the Duke de Grammont," has given a clear account of this relationship.^ So the hhiglish nobility continued to the latest time kissing hands and kneeling according to eti- fjuette, yet practically on equal footing with the kings, whom they opposed earnestly enough wlien their privileges were attacked, or aught was done to weaken their influence. This latter came to pass a few years ago in a most open manner, when Canning was Minister. During the ]\Iiddle Ages, in such a case, the English barons met in helmet and cuirass, and sword in hand, and, accompanied by their vassals, they entered the royal castle, and, witli ironical humi- lity and weaponed courtesy, made known their will. In these our days they must have recourse
Thib last passage is wanting in thu French version.
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to less cliivalric means, and the gentlemen who composed the Ministry endeavoured to coerce the King by suddenly, and in a perfidiously arranged manner, giving in their resignations. The results of this are well known. George the Fourth relied on George Canning, the St. George of England, Avho came near slaying the mightiest dragon in the world. After him came Lord Goderich, with his flushed and flourishiuo- face and affected lawyer-like vehemence of voice, who soon let fall from his weak hands the lance which was intrusted to them, so that the poor King was soon obliged to cast himself on the mercy or immercifulness of his ancient barons, and the field-marshal of the Holy Alliance again resumed the staff of office. I have elsewhere shown why no Liberal jMinister can do any special good in England, and must therefore resign to make room for the high Tories, who can of course pass a grand Bill for amelioration or reform, all the more easily because they have no occasion to overcome the obstinacy of parliamentary oppo- sition. In all ages it is the devil who has built the greatest churches. Wellington gained the victory of that emancipation for which Canning had fought in vain, and he is perhaps the man destined to carry that Reform Bill on which Lord Grey will probably be wrecked. I foresee the speedy fall of this latter, and we shall then see
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again returniug to power all the irreconcilable aristocrats who have for forty years fought unto life and death the French people as the represen- tatives of democratic ideas. This time the ancient hatred will give way to more practical interests, and they will willingly see the more dangerous rival of the East and his satellites fought by French arms, and all the more so because they will weaken one another. Yes, the Ensflish will specially spur on the Gallic cock to fight with the autocratic eagle, and, eager to see the sight, stare with their lono- necks over the Channel, and applaud as at a cockpit, and bet many thousands of guineas on the I'esult.
Will the great gods above in the blue pavilion regard this spectacle indifferently? AVill they, like Englishmen of heaven, look down on the strife of nations, heartless and with leaden stare, unheeding our cries for aid and our bloody wounds ? ^ Or was the poet right who declared that as we hate monkeys because they of all the mammalia most resemble us, and thereby wound our pride, so the gods hate men, who, made in their own image, have such great and aggravating
' Tlie two following,' passages are omitted in the French Version. They are, however, in Heine's highest and most cliarac- teristic style. Fortunately, the singe-tiyrc, as Voltaire called him, is still flourishing.
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likeness to them — for wliicli cause the deities, the g-reater, fairer, and more divine mortals may be, persecute them the more by misfortune and annihilate them, while they graciously spare the little, ngly, mean mammalian-like of mankind, and let them flourish in prosperity ? If this last melan- choly view be true, then are the French much nearer to their fall than any other race upon the earth. Ah ! may the example of their Emperor teach the French what is to be hoped for from the magnanimitv of Eng-land ! Did not the Belle- rophon long since destroy this chimasra ? May France never trust in England as Poland trusted in France !
But should the most terrible disaster come to pass, and France, the motherland of civilisation and liberty, be lost by frivolity and treason, and the dialect of Potsdam nobility be heard snarling in the streets of Paris, and dirty German boots again defile the holy ground of the Boulevards,^ and the Palais Hoyal again smell of Russian
^ Tliis will reuiiiid some of uiy older American readers of the indignant outbursts of the Richmond newspapers when the feet of the "Northern hordes" first defiled "the sacred soil" of Virginia. " C'est tout comme chez nous." In the French version " noble pavi." But, oddly enough, it has all come to pass as Heine predicted — even to the Russian leather, for I lately observed in the Palais Royal a shop where they sell beautiful objcts de fantasie made of the objectionable material. — Translator.
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leather, then there will be one man in the world more miserable than man has ever been — a man who, by his wretched haggling, trades- manlike small-mindedness, will have been guilty of betraying his country, and who will bear all the serpents of remorse in his heart and all the curses of mankind on his head. The damned in hell will then, to console one another, relate the torments of this man — the torments of Casimir Perier.^
What a terrible responsibility weighs on this one man ! A shudder steals over me when I come near him. As if banned by an unholy spell, I lately stood near him one hour, and beheld that gloomy figure which has intruded so boldly be- tween the people and the sun of July. " When this man falls," I said, "the great eclipse of that sun will be ended, the tricoloured flag on the Pantheon will gleam again as if inspired, and the trees of liberty bloom once more ! This man is the Atlas who bears ujDon his shoulders the Bourse, and the House of Orleans, and all the State fabric of all Europe ; and when he falls, there will fall with him the whole shop in which the noblest hopes of humanity are bargained for,
' " Myself I named him once below, And all the soids in hell that be Leaped up at once in anarchy."
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and therewith the exchange-tables and the rates of stocks, and selfishness and meanness ! "'
He is not altogether inappropriately called an Atlas. Perier is an uncommonly great, broad- shouldered man, of powerful bony structure and very robust in general appearance. There are erroneous ideas current as to his looks, partly because the journals are always speaking of his feeble health to irritate him who is so thoroughly sound, and would fain remain President of the Council, partly because the most exaggerated anec- dotes are told of his irritation, and the nervous passion which he displays in public is believed to be his normal condition. But the man is altogether a different being when seen in the domestic circle, in society, and, above all, in a quiet state. For then his face assumes, instead of the inspired and elevated or depressed expres- sions peculiar to the tribune, a truly imposing- dignity, his form rises with more manly beauty and dignity, and he is seen with pleasure so long- as he does not speak. In this respect he is quite the contrary of the femme die hiircan in the Cafe Colbert,^ who seems to be almost plain so long as she is silent, but whose face is brightly charm- ing as soon as she opens her mouth to speak.
^ French version — " Sims ce rapport, il est tout I'oppose de I.1 dame da comptoir de mon cafe de predilection."
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Ouly that rerier, wlieu he is long silent and listens to others with consiclerateness, contracts deeply his thin lips, causing his month to look like a holldw ill his face. Then he has a habit of nod- ding his listening and l)()\ved head like one who seems to say, '' Das wird sich schon geben," — " All that will be arranged." llis forehead is high, and seems to be the more so because the front is covered with very little hair, which is grey or nearly white, lying smoothly and sparsely cover- ing the rest of his head, the arch of which is beautiful and symmetrical, and in which the little ears may almost be called winsome and graceful, ^ but' the chin is short and commonplace. The black thickets of his eyebrows hang wild and waste down to the deep hollows in which the small dark eyes, far hidden, lie in ambush, now and then flashing out like a stiletto. The com- plexion is yellowish-grey — the common colour of care and weary woe — and all kinds of strange wrinkles stray about in it, which are not vulgar nor yet noble — perhaps intermediate — highly re- spectable, peevish, jitstc-viilku wrinkles. It is thought that there is something of the banker in
' " Woran die kleinen Ohreii fast antnuthig genannt werden kiinnten." These " pleasing ears " are too much for tlie Frencli, which more prosaically states that " le long de laquelle de petitfs oreilles se dessinent prestjue avec grace." — Translatnr.
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his mieu, a,Dcl that his general air is mercantile, and one oi" my friends says that lie always feels tem^^ted to ask him what is the price of sugar or the current rate of discount. " But when one knows that a man is blind," says Lichtenberg, ■• we think we can see it from behind." ' I do not, indeed, find in all the person of C'asimir Perier anything suggesting noble birth, but there is in his appearance much of the refined culture of the hour(jcoisie as we find it in men who are charged with the most active cares of state, and therefore can occupy themselves but little with chivalric manners and such and similar toilet matters.'-
Perier can be best judged by his speeches,
^ A shrewd remark well applied, and one capal)le of vast illustration. As a general rvile, the more commonplace and feeble men are, the more they refer every peculiarity of another to .some one trait, such as his nationality or family, which may have, in all likelihood, nothing whatever to do with it. " I believe," said a joung American lady in a vei-y provincial circle, '■ that if I had horns growing on my head, you would say, ' That is so like all you Yankees. ' "
■■^ Toilettcwjcschdfte. 3/oi/cns de toilette. An admirable designation, by which our author, without denying to style, manner, or deportment their real value, classes them correctly with mere physical matters of the exterior. A vast number of people, even in good society, need the lesson that because a tiling may be very desirable it is not always quite essential, while it again may be essential and yet not the sumrmim honum or everything in itself.
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which is iudefd from his best side, or which at least was during the period of the Eestoration, wheu he, as one of tlie best speakers of the Opposition, waged noblest war on windy parasite and parsondoni.' I do not know whether he was so physically vehement and impetuous then as now. At the time I only read his speeches, which, while models of discretion in taste (Hal- tuiuj) and dignity, were also so calm and care- fully considered that I believed him to be a really old man. The strictest logic prevailed in these speeches ; there was something stiff and set in them, stern arguments of reason ranged straight upright like rows of unbreakable iron bars, while behind them often lurked a tender sorrow or omlre de seiisihiliW, like the pale face of a fair nun behind a cloister grate. The stiff and strong rational arguments, the iron bars are still in his speeches, but now we see behind them
^ P/affen und Schranzcnthiim. We rather need a more ex- tended use of this dom or German thum in Englisii to indi- cate general collectiveness or attribute, though I do not assert that it need be carried so far as it was by a Pennsylvania exhibitor at an agricultural fair, who declared that his own particular prize-pig was " the noblest animal in all hog-dom." J/fdiiiu'j, in the next sentence, is an admirable word, combining the idea of judicious deportment with " iiolding the just pro- portion." Thus, as we say "in keeping," the Germans may declare that " it is in holding,"' which latter is better, as also indicating an act of will.
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only an impotent rage which springs here and there like a wild beast.
Many of the latest speeches of Perier concern- ing projects of laws, as, for instance, that on the Peerage, are not composed by him ; for time is wanting to a Minister for such great elaborate works, and he must now become more irritable, petty, and passionate in his addresses, the more doubtfully difficult, worthless, and ignoble the system is which he must defend.^ What is most to his advantage, according to public opinion, is his contrast to Monsieur Sebastiani, the coquet- tish old man with an ashy-grey heart and yellow face, on which many a bit of red may yet be seen, as on autumnal trees where many a scarlet leaf grins out among dead orange-coloured leaves. Truly there is nothing so repulsive as this puffed- np nothing, who, though invalided, still comes often into the Deputies and sits upon the Minis- terial benches, a fetched and feeble smile upon his lips, and some dull and silly remark on his tongue, I can hardly understand that this neatly gloved, nicely shod, weak dwarf with swimming- vapoury eyes once did great things in field and council, as the historians of the Russian campaign
1 Prom this period fifty lines are omitted in the French version. The word "petty" in the previous paragraph is also shrewdly left out.
H
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and Tvirkisli embassy relate. His whole art and knowledge now consist of a few played-out old diplomatic tricks, which are always rattling in his tin brain-pot. His own peculiar political ideas are like the great straps which the Carthaginian queen cut from a cowhide, and therewith spanned a whole country. The cycle of ideas of the good man is very great and taking in much land, but he himself is leather and naught elsc.i Perier once said of him, " He has a great idea of him- self, and it is his only one idea."
I have placed the Cupid of the Imperial regime, as Sebastiani was called, by the Hercules of the juste milieu epoch, or Perier, that the latter may appear in all his greatness. I would, indeed, rather magnify than diminish him, and yet I cannot refrain from declaring that even at the sight of him there comes into my memory a form by which he seems to be as small a man as is Sebastiani placed by him. . Is it the spirit of satire which recalls antitheses ? Or has Casimir Perier really some resemblance to the greatest Minister who ever ruled in England — with George
^ Er igt ron Lcder. As we may say in English, "hide- bound." But leather in German by it^'elf implies dulness or the tedious, while in English "nothing like leather" has wandered from its ancient Roman way into something complimentary. — Trandator.
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Cauniiig ? But there are others who say that he strangely reminds them of the latter, and that there exists a hidden affinity or relation between them.
It is, perhaps, in their equally middle-class birth and personal appearance, in the difficulty of their position, in their invincible vigour, and in resistance to feudal aristocratic attack that the similarity between Perier and Canning con- sists. Not at all, in their careers and personally developed tendencies or aim. The first, born and nursed on the soft pillows of prosperity, could tranquilly work out his best desires, and calmly take his part in the opulent Opposition which led the bourgeoisie during the days of the Eestoration against Aristocracy and Jesuitry. The other, George Canning, on the contrary, born of un- happy parents, was the poor child of a poor mother, who, waiting and weeping, nursed him by day, and to gain him bread by which to live, went by night to the theatre to play and laugh. Then passing from the minor misery of poverty to the greater misery of brilliant dependence, he endured the support of an uncle and the patronage of a proud nobility. ^
^ This is an admirable passage, as every reader will observe, and it is made touching by truth. Heine himself was always dependent more or less, in a pecuniary sense, on an uncle, and,
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But if these men differ by the conditions which Fortune imposed on them, and in which it long kept them, they are still more distinguished by the feelings and tendencies {Gesinnnng) which tliey manifested when they attained the summit of power, and where the great Word of Life could be uttered free from all restraint. Casimir Perier, who was never dependent, who always possessed the golden mean to maintain in himself the feeling of freedom and to inform and elevate himself by culture, at once became small-minded, and then, like a petty shopkeeper, ignoring his true power, bowed low before the men of might whom he could have crushed, and begged for the peace which he should have demanded as a right or granted as a favour. For now he wrongs hospitality, and with it the most sacred adversity, and, like a reversed Prometheus, steals light and fire from men that he may return it to the gods. But George Canning, on the contrary, once a
ti) maintain a social po.sition, on so-callud " betters ; " and, while he was not at all ungrateful to them for their kindness, as his writings at)nndantly manifest, he still had the feeling of a proud and sensitive mind, that it would be in every way better for him had he been really independent. And it is well worth noting that this appreciation of the value of money never interfered with great generosity and charity. In tiiis he was strikingly like Goldsmith, whose failings have been more noted than his feelings or his nobler traits. — Translator.
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gladiator in the service of the Tories, when he at last shook off the chains of mental slavery, rose in all the majesty of his inborn citizenship, and, to the terror of his former patrons, like a Spartacns of Downing Street, ])roclaimed muni- cipal and ecclesiastical freedom for all mankind, and won for England every liberal heart, and with it preponderance in Europe.
At that time all was dark in Germany — nothing but owls, censor's edicts, prison vapours, romances of resignation, night-watch or military parades, bigotry and stupidity ; and when the gleam of Canning's words shone from afar on us, the few hearts which still felt hope rejoiced. As for the writer of these words, he kissed farewell to his loving and most loved ones, embarked, and went to London to see and hear Canning. There I sat whole days in the gallery of the Chapel of St. Stephen, and lived in his sight and drank the words from his mouth, and my heart was intoxi- cated. He was of middle height, a handsome man, who had a nobly formed and open counte- nance, very high forehead and somewhat bald, lips curving in a good-natured expression {ivohlwollend- (jeivdlhtc), soft persuasive eyes, but a man vigorous enough in his movements when he now and then struck on the sheet-iron box which was before him on the table for documents. Yet, even in moments of excitement and passiou, he was always
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well-maunered, dignifiecl, gentlemanlike.'^ Wherein then consisted his personal likeness to Casimir Perier ? 1 do not know, but it seems to me as if the shape of the head of the latter, though harsher and greater, was strikingly like him. The peculiar expression of invalidity, over excitement and lassi- tude which we see in Canning is as perceptible in Perier, and reminds us of the Englishman. As regards talents they are equally balanced, but Canning completes everything with a peculiar ease, like unto Ulysses, who drew the mighty bow as readily as players with deft fingers tune a lyre ; while Perier manifests in the most trifling act a certain heaviness of effort, puts forth all his power on the most insignificant measure,^ bringing out
^ Though there is much precedent against it in mere usao-e, still it is worth observing that while " gentleman-Z/Ar " really means only resembling a gentleman, " gentlemanly," by analogy, implies being one in reality. Among the lower orders in America the expression " he is so like the gentleman," and "so very much of a gentleman," fully betray the consciousness that the one thus praised is only an unfinished article ; albeit, some purists declare that the only " finished " gentleman in the world is one who is "dead, fiat broke," or "laid ont."— Translator.
' It is said of a very distinguished American politician who was noted for this peculiarity that he once, when he was one of the officers of a small church, remarked, in a passionate out- burst of eloquence, and after exhausting Lempri5re, "And in conclusion. I declare before my God that, though I should devote to it the energies and labour of my life and the fortune of my ancestors, the letter-box of this vestry shall be re-painted despite any opposition which I may encounter ! "—Translator.
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horse, foot, and dragoons, and when he touches the higljest chord, strains himself with as mighty effort as if he were indeed bending the bow of Ulysses.
I have already spoken of his speeches, and Canning was also one of the greatest orators of his time, though it was objected that his language was too flowery and ornate. But this reproach was only applicable during his earlier period, while he was still in a dependent position, and, not daring to speak out his mind freely, gave instead flowers of oratory, beautiful arabesques, and bril- liant witticisms. His eloquence was in those days no sword, but only a scabbard, and indeed a very costly one, on which gold repousse flower-work and inlaid gems flashed in rich splendour. From this scabbard he in later time drew the straight, plain, steel blade which gleamed even more brilliantly, and was in truth both cutting and pointed.^ I think that I still see the grinning faces which surrounded him, especially that of the ludicrous Sir Thomas Lethbridge, who asked him with much feeling if he had already selected the members for his Ministry. On which George Canning rose calmly, with the air of one who is
^ In the German only scharf und schneidend c/enug, in the French version, assez de point et tranchant. It is natiu-:il for the French to take the lead in matters of {encin<j:.— Translator.
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about to deliver a grand oration, and exclaiming with equal pathos, simply, " Yes," sat down, while the whole House rang with laughter. There was then a great sight : nearly all the former Opposi- tion sat behind the Minister, among them the valiant Russell, the indefatigable Brougham, the learned Mackintosh, Cam llobhouse of the storm- worn countenance, the noble Wilson with the pointed nose, and even Francis Burdett, the in- spired, tall, Don Quixote form, whose good heart is a never-fading garden of liberal thoughts, and whose lean knees, as Cobbett said, touched Canning's back. That time will ever live in my memory, and never can I forget the hour when I heard George Canning speak regarding the rights of nations, and listened to the words of liberation which rolled like sacred thunder over the whole earth, and left behind them a consoling echo in the hut of the Mexican as well as of the Hindoo. " That is my thunder I " Canning could well say in those days. His fine, full, deep voice came sadly, yet with energy, from his suffering breast in the clear unveiled parting words of a dying man. His mother had died a few days before, and the mourn- ing apparel which he wore increased the solemnity of his appearance. I can still recall him in his black overcoat and the black gloves, at which he often looked while he spoke, and when he seemed to regard them with special attention, then I
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reflected, " Now lie is thinking of his dead mother, and her long misery and suffering, and on that of all the other poor who hunger in wealthy England, and these gloves are the guarantees that Canning knows how they suffer {wie I/im zu Muthe ist) and will help them." In the excite- ment of debate he tore one of these gloves from his hand, and I believed at the instant that he would cast it at the feet of the whole high aristocracy of England as the black gauntlet of defiance to all foes of suffering humanity.
If that aristocracy has not murdered him out- right, any more than they did him of Saint Helena, who died of a cancer in the stomach, it has at least stuck enough poisoned needles into his heart. I was told, for instance, that once, as he was entering the House of Parliament, he received a letter sealed with a well-known coat-of-arms, which letter he opened in the chamber, and found in it an old theatrical play-bill, in which his mother's name appeared among those of the performers. Canning died soon after, and now for five years he has slept in Westminster Abbey by Fox and Sheridan, and it may be that a spider now spins her stupid silent web over the mouth which once uttered so much ^vhich was great and overwhelming. George the Fourth also now sleeps among his fathers and ancestors, who lie stretched out in effigies of stone upon their monu-
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ments, with stone heads on stony pillows, the balls of empire and sceptres in their hands, while round them in their lofty monuments repose the aristocracy of England, the stately dukes and bishops, lords and barons, wlio press around tiie king in death as they did in life — and he who will see them there in Westminster may do so on payment of one shilling and sixpence. This fee is taken by a poor little custodian, whose inherited office it is to exhibit the distinguished dead, and who in doing so chatters their names and deeds as if showing a cabinet of wax figures. I gladly look at such a sight, which makes me realise that the great ones of the earth are not immortal ; therefore I did not regret my eighteen- pence, and as I left Westminster I said to the verger, "1 am content with your exhibition, and I would gladly pay double if the collection were complete."
That is the whole story. Until all of England's aristocracy shall be gathered to their fathers — until the collection in Westminster be completed — the strife of the people with that of the aristocracy of birth will not be settled, and the alliance of the citizens of France with England will remain doubtful.
We will in another article set forth on this subject our bitterest needs, and determine by a comparison of the spirit of the two races and that
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of their rulers the limits to which the French may trust the British, Meanwhile we refer our readers to the profound and clever essays which the National has for some time published on the subject. The present number of this newspaper is, next to the writings referred to, best worthy of consideration.^
Tliis final passage is omitted in the French version.
Paris, March 25, 1S32,
The Belg-ian campaign, the blockade of Lisbon, and tlie capture of Ancona are the three charac- teristic heroic deeds with which the juste Qnilieu manifests to the world its power, its wisdom, and its grandeur; while in the Department of the Interior it gathers as glorious laurels beneath the pillars of the Palais Eoyal or at Lyons and Grenoble. France never stood so low before in foreign eyes, not even in the days of a Pompa- dour and of a Dubarry. People now perceive that there is something even more lamentable than the rule of royal-kept mistresses. There is more honour to be found in the boudoir of a femme fialante than in the counting-house of a banker.^ Even in the oratory of Charles IX. natural dignity was not so utterly lost sight of,
^ A saying with little sense or truth ; but Heine never lost an opportunity to compliment Venus-Lorette. He professed to reg.-inl his uncle Solomon, the banker, as the most honourable man living, while in many passages he manifests a deep convic- tion that all gay women are utterly unprincipled.
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and from it went foi'tli the couqucst of Algiers. And that our humiliation may be complete, this conquest is to be resigned — this last rag of the honour of France is to be sacrificed to the delusion of an alliance with England.^ As if the vain hope of it had not already cost enough ! On account of this alliance the French must bear the blame, and toil not only on the fort of Ancona, but on the plains of Belgium and under the walls of Lisbon. And should Lord Grey fall, England will ask yet more ; but with him will fall Casimir Perier. Both keep them- selves upright by their mutual tendency to tumble down, like two drunkards who remain standing by leaning one against the other.
In the interior embarrassments and inconsis- tencies have reached such a pitch that even a German would lose his patience over them. The French at present resemble those of the damned in the hell of Dante, whose state has become so intolerable that they wish to be freed from it at any cost, though it should be for something worse. This explains why the Republicans would prefer Legitimacy, and the Legitimists the Re- public to the mud-hole of a juste milieu which lies between, and in which both are now friends.
^ The passage following, iintil the words "in the interior," is omitted in the French version.
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A common torture binds them both in one ; they share not the same heaven, but the same hell, and there we hear them howl, amid weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teetli, " Vive la Ik'publique ! " " Vive Henri V. ! " i
The partisans of the Ministry, that is to say, people in place, the bankers, owners of real estate, and shopkeepers, increase the very general dis- content by declaring, with a smile, that we are all living in perfect peace, that that thermometer of popular prosperity, the Foncls, has risen, and that we have this winter seen in Paris more balls than ever, while the Opera attained its zenith. This was truly the case, for such people have the means to give balls, and they danced to show that France is prosperous ; they danced for their system, for the peace and repose of Europe — they wanted, in fact, to dance stocks up, and foot it
^ This is a very interesting passage, as giving a clue to the association and transmission of thought and tiie origin of one of Heine's best epigrams. The damned in Dante's Inferno wishing for a change, suggested a memory of the hell of mud, and the comparison of the jmte milieu to a bourbier, in which both parties arrived at mutual toleration and understanding, which is the basis of the epigram : —
" Seldom did we know each (jther, Seldom were we understood, But our souls soon came together When we met in filth and mud."
— Translalor.
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d la haussc. It is very true that very often tlie merriest entrechats or fancy fig'urings were in- terrupted by the diplomatic corps bringing all kinds of Job's messages from Belgium, Spain, England, and Italy, but they allowed no sign of disturbance to show itself, and danced while in despair all the more wildl}^, as did Aline, the Queen of Golconda, who swept on in her appar- ently absorbing, intoxicating waltz while the chorus of eunuchs continued to announce with shuddering voices one disaster after the other. All of this folk were dancing for their rentes or incomes ; the more moderate they were, the wilder was their dance ; and the fattest and most virtuous bankers whirled in the valse irtfcrnale — the infamous round of the nnns in liohert le Diahle. Meyerbeer achieved also something- unheard of by keeping captive or constant the fickle Parisians for a whole winter. The multitude still crowd to the Academie Royale de la Musique to see liohert le Diahle ; but the enthusiastic Meyerbeerians will pardon me when I say that many are attracted not so much by the music as by the political meaning of the opera libretto. Robert the Devil, son of a devil as reprobate as Philippe d'Egalite, and of a princess as pious as was the daughter of Penthievre, is impelled to evil, or the Revolution, by the spirit of his father, and by that of his mother to good —
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that is to say, to the ancicn r4<jiinc. These two natures battle iu his being ; he swims between the two opposing principles, he is the juste milieu. In vain do the infernal voices from the gulf of helP endeavour to draw liim into "the move- ment; " in vain is he called by the spirits of the Convention who rise like Revolutionary nuns from their tombs ; in vain does Robespierre, under the figure of Madame Taglioni, give him the accolade or stroke of knighthood — he resists all attacks, all temptations ; he is led by the love of a princess of the Two Sicilies who is very pious, to becom- ing the same, so that at last we behold him iu the bosom of the Church, amid the buzzing and droning of priests, and in clouds of incense. I cannot refrain from remarking by the way, that during the first representation of this opera, it happened, by a mistake of the machinist, that the ti'ap-door on which the old father-devil had sunk into hell was not bolted, and that the devil-son soon after, by inadvertently stepping on it, went down into the depths after his parent.
Since so much has been said in the Chamber of Deputies of this opera, or of Robert the Devil, mention of it is not out of place in these pages. The incidents of society are here by no means of
' WoIfschlucJitsiimmcn. The voices of the Wolf's Ravine. In reference to the incantatii)n scene in Dcr Frcyschutz,
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political iniimportance, and I can now well under- stand Jiow Napoleon, even in Moscow, busied himself with regulating the theatres in Paris. These have been during the late Carnival an object of special observation for Government, since at this time its attention is especially awak- ened, there being great fear of the misuse of masks and of an Smeute on Shrove Tuesday. We have seen in Grenoble how easily a masquerade can afford opportunity for such disorders, and last year Mardi Gras was celebrated by the destruction of the palace of the Archbishop,
Since this is my first winter in Paris, I cannot decide whether the Carnival of this year has been so brilliant as the Government boasts, or as wretched as the Opposition deplores. Even in such superficial trifles one cannot here come at the truth. For every party seeks but to deceive, so that we cannot trust our very eyes. One of my friends, Si. juste-millionaire,^ was kind enough, on the last Mardi Gras, to guide me through Paris, that I might see with my own eyes how pros-
^ A millionaire of the juste milieu, also in German " just a millionaire." Heine describes Rothscliild in the Beischilder as conversing " famillionairlij ." Our author was very much given to this, which may be described as the agr/lutinative form of joke, manufactured by piecing together parts of words. It is carried to the highest possible development in the American Red Indian languages. — Translator.
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perous and gay the people were. The same day he sent forth all his servants, giving them express orders to be extremely happy. Delightedly he clasped me by the arm, and ran delighted with me through the streets, and now and then burst into loud laughter. By the Porte Saint -Martin there lay on the damp pavement a death-pale, hoarsely-coughing man, of whom the crowd said that he was dying of hunger. But my companion assured me that this man died of hunger every day in another street, and got his living by it, being paid for it by the Carlists, in order that the mob by such a sight might be goaded against the Government. It would appear, however, that this cannot be a very remunerative calling, because such numbers of those who follow it actually starve to death. There is this which is remarkable as regards dying for want of food, which is that we should see daily many thousands of people in such a state if they could endure it longer. But generally after three days without food the poor sufferers perish. One after the other are silently interred and hardly noticed.
" See how happy the people are ! " remarked my companion, showing me the many carriages full of maskers, who hurrahed and indulged in merriest madness. The Boulevards did indeed present a marvellously gay and brilliant sight, recalling the old proverb, " Quand le bon Dieu s'ennuie dans
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le ciel, il onvre la fenetre et regarde les boulevards de Paris." ^ But it seemed to me as if there were more gens d'armes or jjolicemeu about than were actually required for peaceful joys. A Republican whom I met quite spoiled my sport by assuring me that most of the masks who played so merrily were paid to sport, by the police, so that there might be no complaint that the people were not joyful. IIow far this was true I will not decide, the masked men and women seemed extremely sincere in their gaiety, and if over and above this they were paid for it by the police, it was certainly very kind of the latter."- What might have indi- cated its influence was the lanCTuao"e of the masked
1 " When the good Lord in heaven is bored, He opens the window and looks down On a Parisian boulevard."
^ A curious book might be written on the subject of gaiety and dissipation created for purely political purposes. Intro- duced by Napoleon I., it was further developed by Louis Pliilippe, and carried to an extreme by Louis Napoleon, under whose rule the Bal Mabille and other haunts which had once been "fast" were kept going with hired lorettes and rehearsed can-cans until the whole affair became lugubrious. The carnivals in Italy until 1847, with many other festas, were almost entirely sustained to keep the people "ignorant and happy," that is, to prevent them from meddling with politics. The proof of this was seen in the fact that as soon as Italy was free, the Carnival and similar shows became at once extremely thin, according to the saying : perdidisti vinv/m, infusa aqua — that is, as the intoxi- cating wine of dissipation disappeared, it was replaced by the cold sober water of couimon-sense. —Translator.
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commou fellows And JiUcs pnhliq^tcs, who, iu hired court-dresses, with beanty-plasters on their rouged faces, parodied the aristocratic manners of the preceding regime, gave themselves grand Carlist titles, and fanned and spread themselves ^ in such courtly style that I involuntarily recalled the diofnified festivities which I as a boy had the honour of beholding from the upper gallery, there being only this difference, that the poissardes or fishwives of Paris spoke better French than the cavaliers and noble ladies of my native laud.-
To do justice to the latter, I confess that the Bceuf Gras or fatted ox of this year would not have caused the least sensation or attracted any attention in Germany. A German would have lausfhed at the insicfnificant creature whose im-
^ " Und sich dabe so hoffahrtig facherten und Bpreizten." French — " Se pavanaient avec des mimes de coeur." The American term "to spread oneself" expresses to perfection both the French se pavanei; "to peacock," and the German s/ircizcn. — Translator.
- A fade joke which Heine repeats in all his prose works, so that it appears to have been to him an endless joy to reflect that even uneducated French people spoke their own native lani^age better than foreigners, which is, however, really not very remarkable. The illustration of the poissardes is, however, unfortunate, for the French which they speak is 7wt, " taking it all round," nearly so good as that which one generally hears from respectable Germans, as the reader may verify for him- self from a small work entitled La Poissarde, the language of which would not be intelligible to an ordinary French lady. — ■ Translator,
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mensity was here so generally admired. During an entire week the smaller journals abounded in allusions to the poor ox, and one heard every- where the standing joke that he was gros, gras et hete, while in caricatures the procession of this half-fatted ox was parodied most disgustingly. It was indeed said that this year the corUge would be forbidden, but on happy second thought it was allowed. La marcltc du haeuf gras is now almost the only one remaining of so many popular jokes.^ The throne of absolute autocracy {den ahsoliden Thron), the Pare aux Cerfs^ Christianity, the Bastile, and other similar institutions of the good old time, were destroyed by the Revolution — only the ox remains. So he is led in triumph through the town, crowned with flowers, amid the butchers' men, who are generally clad in helmets and armour, who have inherited from knights of yore, as their next of kin, this iron rubbish.
It is easy enough to understand the meaning of public masquerades, but much more difficult to understand the secret mumming which meets us everywhere under all circumstances. This higher and greater Carnival begins with the year and ends on the 3 1 st of December. Its most brilliant
^ Volhsspdssen. This is more piquant than the tame French divertissements nailonaux, as appears by its application in the next sentence. — Translntor.
- In the Gei'man original, Pare des cei'fs.
134 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
masked balls {Ecdoutcn) are to be seen in the Palais Bourbon, in the Luxembourg, and the Tuileries. Not only in the Chamber of Deputies, but also in that of the Peers and in the royal cabinet there is played an abominable comedy, which will per- haps end as a tragedy. The men of the Opposi- tion, who only keep on playing the comedy of the time of the Restoration, are masked llepublicans, who, with evident irony or plain repugnance, act as apparent aids {comparses) to royalty. The peers now play the part of men who have not inherited office but earned it by merit ;^ yet when we look behind their masks we generally find the well- known noble faces, and however modern their attire may be, they are still the heirs of the old aristocracy, and they still bear the names which recall the ancient horrors {miserr), so that we even find among them a Dreux-Breze, of whom the National remarks that he is only famous for a ffood retort which he once made to one of his ancestors.- As for Louis Philippe, he always
' " Die Pairs spielen jetzt die Rolle von unerblichen, durcii Verdienstberufenen Aiiitsleuten." Tn French — " Les pairs jouent mainteiiant le role de fonctionnaires viagers, choisis a cause de leur merite." Many such passages in these letters seem to indicate a French original.
- Vorfahrcn. In the French version — " Un Drenx-Breze, dont le National dit fju'il n'est remarquable que par une belle reponee rjui fut fait Ji son p^re."
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 135
plays his part of roi-citoyen, and wears the citizen dress appropriate to it ; but it is generally known tliat under liis modest felt hat he wears an alto- gether unpretentious {unmassgcbliche) crown of the usual pattern, and that in his umbrella he hides the most absolute sceptre. It is only when their nearest and dearest interests are discussed, or when some stinging word awakes their ire, that these men forget their studied parts and show themselves as they really are. These interests are, first of all, those of a pecuniary nature, and all must yield to them, as may be seen in the discus- sion of the Budget. The sarcasms by which the Republican feeling betrayed itself in the Chamber of Deputies are well known. The discussions of the word sujct were not so insignificant and casual as they have in Germany been supposed to be. This expression, even in the beginning of the first Revolution, caused expectorations by which the Republican sj^irit of the age expressed itself. How men raged when this word once accidentally escaped in a speech by poor Louis XVI. ! As a comparison with this our time, I have read the journals of those days, and the tone of 1790 has not grown feebler {verhcdlt), but nobler. Nor are the Philippistes devoid of guile when they by such sarcasms irritate the Opposition. They took good care last year not to call the Tuileries the chateau, and the Moniteur was expressly directed to speak
136 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
of it as the palace. Subsequently this was not so strictly observed. Now they are more daring, and the Dchats writes about "the court" — la co\w ! "We are going full speed backward to the Restoration," said to me a too- susceptible friend, when he read that the sister of the King is called " Madame." Such distrust borders on the ridiculous.
"And we are going still farther back to the Eestoration ! " cried the same friend, since then pale with fright. For he had seen something horrible at a soiree, which was a beautiful young- lady with powdered hair ! To tell the truth, it was really very becoming ; the blonde locks seemed to be lightly touched with frost, and the warm and fresh flowers peeped out from them with a more touching loveliness. The lady of whom I speak is Madam Lelion, wife of the Belgian ambassador, and she is an enchanting Flemish beauty, who would seem to have stepped out of a picture by llubens.
"The Twenty-first of January" was in like manner the retort by which, in the Chamber of Peers, disguised hereditary passion and the boldest aristocracy revealed themselves. What I had long foreseen then came to pass. The aristocracy bore and behaved itself as if specially privileged to bewail the death of Louis XVI., and it mocked the French people by maintaining the
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decree of a day of expiation which Louis XVIII., that regal agent of the Holy Alliance, had laid on the whole French people. The 2 1 st of December was a day when the regicide people should stand before Notre Dame in sackcloth and ashes, candle in hand, as a terror and warning to surrounding races. The De]5uties justly voted for the abolition of a law which tended far more to humiliate the French than to console them for the national disaster which befell them on the 21st January 1793. The Chamber of Peers, by refusing to repeal the law, betrayed its irreconcilable grudge against Young France, and unmasked all its aris- tocratic vendetta against the children of the Re- volution and the Revolution itself. The lifelong- lords of the Luxembourg fought not so much for the vital interests of the day as against the j^rin- ciples of the Revolution. For this reason they did not reject the law proposed by Briqueville ; they degraded their honour and suppressed their raging disaffection. That proposition in no degree concerned the principles of the Revolution ; but the Law of Divorce could not be admitted, for it is thoroughly of a revolutionary nature, as every thoroughly Catholic gentleman can understand.
The schism which developed itself on this occa- sion between the Chamber of Deputies and the peerage will have the most lamentable results. It is said that the King is beginning to foresee its
ijS FRENCH AFFAIRS.
lUL'aning. and the disaster which it will entail. That is the natural consequence of that half-way policy, that vacillating between heaven and hell, or of that Robert -the -devilish jnst-milieuism. Louis Philippe should beware^ lest he should unguardedly tread upon a loose trap-door, for he stands on most uncertain ground. He has by his own fault lost his best support. He has com- mitted the common error of hesitating, half-hearted men, who wish to be well with their enemies, and so offend their frieutls. He cajoled the aristocracy who hate him, and angered the people who were his best reliance. His sympathy for the hereditary rights of the peerage has alienated from him many hearts in this France who yearn for equality, and his trouble with the privileged for life will cause the former much malicious joy. But it is only when the question rises, " What was it that the He volution of July meant?" that the mocking discontent disappears, and gloomy anger breaks forth in threatening speech. That is the most biting of the sarcasms which bursts forth to light when both parties drop disguise altogether. I believe that we could wake from their slumber
' Th« following here occurs in the original letter to the Avgs- Ijurijcr AlUjemcine Zeitunrj : — " A.s Nourrit, when he acted Robert the Devil, on the first performance of the opera, full through a trap in the stage by which his father had descended to hell, so shouM Louis Philippe beware," &c. — Note by the German Editor.
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the dead of the Great Week who lie buried under the walls of the Louvre, should one ask them if the men of the Revolution of July really wanted nothing more than what the Opposition demanded in the Chamber during the Restoration. Such was in fact the definition which the Ministry and its men gave of the Revolution during the most recent debates. We can perceive how pitiful this explanation was in itself when we recall that the Opposition has since confessed that it merely played a comedy during the whole period of the Restoration. How can there then be any question here of any precise or exact manifestations ? Even that which the populace cried during the three days amid the thunder of cannon was not the exact expression of its will, as the Philippistes subse- quently declared. The cry Vive la Charte ! which was afterwards interpreted as a general desire to maintain the Charte, was really nothing but a rally- ing word or signal which served as a signc de ralli- 7nent. We should not attach too exact a meaning to every expression which men use in such circum- stances. This is true for every revolution made by the people. Then came invariably " the men of the morrow," who pick out and peel words, finding in them only the letter which kills, and not the spirit which giveth life. Yet it is the former, not the latter, which we must seek, for the populace under- stand as little of the meaning of words as of their
I40 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
practical applicatiou. Tliey understand only acts and facts or needs and deeds, and by these they speak. Such a deed was the Revolution of July, and this consists not merely in the fact that Charles X. was driven from the Tuileries to Holy- rood, and that Louis Philippe took his place; such a personal change was of no consequence to any one except the porter of the palace. The people in banishing Charles X. saw in him only the representative of the aristocracy, such as he had shown himself all his life since 1788, when in his quality as prince of the blood-royal he declared in a presentation to Louis XVI. that a prince was before all things a nobleman,^ that as such he nationally belonged to the corps de la noblesse, and must consequently defend its rights before all other interests. But in Louis Philippe the people saw a man whose father had recognised citizenly equality even in his name,^ a man who had himself fought for freedom at Valmy and Jemappes, who from his earliest youth had ever had the words liberty, egalite, freedom and equality, in his mouth, and who, in opposition to his own kin, had put himself forward as a representative of democracy.
' " Dass ein Fiirst vor Allem Edelmann sei." In the French version— " Qu'un prince otait (/entilliommc avant tout." The latter is correct and gives the point to what iollows.— Translator.
- Philippe d'Egalitu.
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How gloriously he gleamed in the glow of the suu of July, which rayed his head as with an aureole, and even cast such splendour over his faults that we were even blinded more by them than by his virtues. Valmy and Jemappes was the patriotic refrain which ran through all his speeches, and he caressed the tri-coloured flag like a lady-love long lost and found again. He stood on the balcony of the Palais Eoyale, and beat time with his hand to the Marseillaise which the mob sang below, and he was altogether the son of Equality, of Egalite, the soldat tricolore of freedom, as he had himself sang by Delavigne in the Parisienne, and painted by Horace Vernet in the pictures which were so significantly placed on exhibition in the chambers of the Palais Koyale. The multitude always had free access to them, and there they wandered about on Sundays, and were amazed to see how citizen-like everything looked in contrast to the Tuileries, where no poor common person could come in. And they regarded with special delight the picture in which Louis Philippe is represented standing as a school- master in Switzerland before a globe teaching- children geography.^ The good folks wondered
^ It is alfso said that he gave lessons in French in Philadelphia, wherewith there is also a romance ; to all of which Heine would doubtless have done the fullest injustice had he ever heard of it. — Translator.
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at thiukiug how mucli lie must have learned himself while so doiug ; but what people now say is that all he learned was to /aire bonne mine d mauvais jeu — to make the best of bad luck, and to think entirely too much of money. The glory from his head hath jDassed away, and all men see in it is but a pear.
That pear is always the permanent standing joke of the people in sarcastic publications and caricatures. The former, especially Le Bevenant, Les Cancans, Le BricVOison, La Mode, and what- ever such Carlistic vermin may be called, maltreat the King with an insolence which is the more revolting because it is well known tliat tlie noble Faubourg pays their ex]Denses. It is said that the Queen often reads them and weeps. The poor lady receives them through the unwearied zeal of those worst of enemies who are to be found as good friends in all great families.^
The pear, as before said, is a standing joke, and hundreds of caricatures in which it is seen liang everywhere. In one is depicted Perier on the platform, holding in on.- hand a pear, whicli he offers at auction to all seated round, and knocks down to the highest bidder for eighteen millions. There again is a monstrous
' The nineteen lines following are emitted in the Frencli version.
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pear lying like a uightmare (Alf) on the breast of the slumbering- Lafayette, who, as we see in writing on the Avail, is dreaming of the best re- public. And we may also behold Perier and Sebastiani, the former clad as Pierrot, the latter as a tri-coloured harlequin, wading through the deepest mud, bearing on their shoulders a staff from which hangs an immense pear. The young Henri appears as a pious pilgrim with cockle- shelled hat and staff, on which hangs a pear as if it were a decapitated head.^
I do not in very truth defend the indecency of these wretched caricatures, least of all when they attack the person of the Prince ; but their inces- sant multitude is a popular voice,^ and it means something. Such pictures are in a way pardon- able when, without intending to offend the in- dividual, they censure a deception by which the people have been duped. Then the effect is without limit. Since a caricature appeared in which a tri-coloured parrot replies continually to every question, " ^"almy " or " Jemappes," Louis
^ I have not seen the original of thi> picture, but I tliink it more likely that as a pear is exactly of the .same sliape as a gourd, from which pilgrims' bottles were commonly made (I have such a gourd before me as I write), this was the motive here referred to. — 'Translator.
' French version — "Mais leur foule incessante est j^cut-ctrc line voix du peuple."
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Philippe no longer repeats those words so fre- quently as he was wont to do ; for he felt, in truth, that there was a promise in them, and he who had them ever in his mouth could seek for no quasi-legitimacy, nor maintain aristocratic institutions, nor beg for peace, nor allow any- one to insult France without punishment, nor leave the liberties of other lands to their hangmen. It is necessary that Louis Philippe should base upon the confidence of the people that throne which the conSdence of the people bestowed on him. He must surround it with republican institutions, as he promised to do, according to the testimony of the most blameless citizen of the two worlds.^ The lies of the Charte should be destroyed, Valmy and Jemappes become a truth, and Louis Philippe fulfil what his whole life has symbolically promised. As he did once before in Switzerland, so must he now again step as schoolmaster before the globe, and pub- licly declare, " See these beautiful countries, all their inhabitants are free and equal, and if you small folk do not remember it, you Avill catch a switching." ^ Yes, Louis Philippe should have
' Lafayette. This sentence is omitted in the French version, which omission is not noticed by the German editor. — Translator.
■ French version — " Ketenez bien cela, vous autres petites bons hommes, si non vous aurez dea palettes," — i.e., a spanking. — Translator,
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advanced at the head of European freedom, have identified its interests with his own, and, as one of his predecessors said boldly, " L'^tat, c'est moi ! " so should he say with greater confidence, "Za liber tS, c'est moi /"
He has not done it. Let us await the conse- quences. They are inevitable, although it is im- possible to fix the time when they will come to pass.^ We are told to be on our guard when the fine days of spring shall come to us. The Carlists think that the new throne will last till autumn ; should it not have fallen then, it may hold good for four or five years. The Republicans will not commit themselves to close predictions. It is enough, they say, that the future is ours. And there they are probably in the right ; for though they have been hitherto always the dupes of Carlists and Bonapartists, the time may come
^ Here Heine again appears at his best as a political prophet. It wonld, howevei", seem as if at the moment when he uttered this he had seen a white horse, which, according to the lore of Italian witchcraft, means that a certain thing, e.c/. a prediction, will inevitably come to pas.«, but not until after long delay. And the white horse also means a champion for the people, as was predicted of the celebrated Crescentius. Napoleon III. always declared that he appeared in this light, so to speak, as a white horse, though he eventually turned out to be a very dark one. But what is truly remarkable as regards Heine is that he, with very great accuracy, indicated the causes which led to the overthrow of Louis Pliilippe in iS^S.—l'ranslator.
K
146 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
when the activity of both the latter parties will prove to have been all to the pi'ofit of the Eepub- licans. And they rely all the more on this energy of their enemies, not being able themselves to act on the masses either with money or by sympathy. But gold is now ilowing in streams from the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and whatever is for sale is bought. Unfortunately, there is always in the market in Paris a great deal of such ware as they want, and it is believed that the Carlists have made a great advance during the past month. ^ IMany men who have always had great influence upon the people are said to have been won over. The pious machinations and movements of the black-robed gentry in the provinces are notorious, gliding and slipping and hissing softly every- where, and lying in the name of God. The picture of the miracle-brat ^ is everywhere exhibited, generally in the most sentimental attitudes. Here he is on his knees praying for the prosperity of France and his unhappy subjects, in most touching fashion, and there he climbs the hills of Scot- land, clad in Highland costume, without breeches.
' French ver»ion — " L'on croit que les Ciirlistes ont fait bwaucoiip d'emplettes de ce genre," i.e., made many purchases. Here we have probably the original tex\,.—Transla1or.
- Mifakdjunger. French — Mioche du lairacle. The won- drous boy, or the miraculous child, as the infant Henry V. was called. — Translato?:
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" Matin ! " (the cur !) said a workman who was looking with me at the picture before a j^rint- sliop. '• On le reprt'sente sans-culotte, mais nous Savons bien qu'il est jesuite.'" In a similar work of art he is seen weeping with his little sister, and beneath are these sentimental lines : —
•' Oh ! que j'ai douce souveuance Du Lean pays de mon eni'ancc," &c.
Songs and poems of every kind in praise of the young Henry circulate in great numbers, and are well paid for.^ As there was once a Jacobite poetry in England, so France has now its Carlistic.
But the Bonapartist poetry is far more signifi- cant, weighty, and threatening to the Government. There is not a grisette in Paris who does not sing and feel the songs of Beranger. The people best understand this Bonaparte poetry, the poets specu- late on it, and other people in their turn on them.^
' " Und sie werden gut bezahlt." Omitted in tiie French version. It would seem to have been absolutely impossible for any French artist or poet, in the beginning of this century, to be in the least degree pathetic or sentimental without be- coming supremely silly, and the acme of this niaiscrie and affectation was reached in these " Henridicules," which are still to be found in abundance in old printshops. — Translator.
- French version — " Et c'est Ik-dessus que spcculent les poetes, les petits et les grands, qui exploitent I'enthousiasme de la foule au profit de leur popularito. Par exemple, Victor Hugo, dout la lyre resonne encore dii chant du sacre de Charles X., se
14S FRENCH AFFAIRS.
Victor Hugo is now writing a grand heroic poem on the old Napoleon and the paternal relatives of the younger one, in correspondence with such popular poets as are known to be the Tyrtajuses of Bonapartisni, in the hope of turning to profit at the right time their inspiring lyrics.^
It is generally believed that " the son of the man " need only appear to put an end to the present Government. We know that the name of Napoleon enraptures the people and disarms the army, but the most sagacious and sincere democrats are by no means inclined to join in the general homage. The name of Napoleon is un- questionably dear to them, because it has almost become synonymous with the fame of France and the victory of the tricolour. In Napoleon they see the son of the Revolution; in young Reich- stadt only the son of an emperor, the recognition of whom would be acknowledging or rendering- homage to the principle of legitimacy, which would certainly be ridiculously illogical." And quite as absurd is the oj)inion that the son, even
met a present h, celcbrcr I'empereur avec cette hardiesse roman- tique ((ui characterise son genie." This is all wniitin^ in tlie first French version. — Trandutoi-.
' This passage is omitted from the French version, without observation from the (^lerman editor. — Translator.
- Omitted in the French version. There are also trivial deviations or differences between the French and German texts in the following passage. — Translator.
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if ho slioukl not attain the greatness of his father, is still certainly not quite out of his kind, and must always be a little Napoleon ! A small Napoleon ! As if the column of the Place Vendome did not by its greatness alone awaken our admiration ! It is because it is so great and strong that the people support themselves by it in these vague and tot- tering times, when the Vendome pillar is the only tiling in France which stands firmly.
Round this column all the thoughts of the people turn. It is for them an imperishable iron book of history, in which they read their own heroic deeds.^ But there lives especially, in their memory, the infamous manner in which the statue of this column was treated by the Germans — how they sawed away the feet from the poor Emperor, and tied a rope round his neck as if he were a thief, and tore him down from his height. The good Germans did their duty. Every one has his mission on this earth, a mission which he unconsciously accomplishes, and leaves behind him a symbol that it has been fulfilled.^ So
^ French version — " EUe est le livre impdrissable de son histoire, sa chronique d'ah'ain." Which i.s certainly more correct from a metallic point of view. — Translator.
'-' A nonsensical fatalistic "utterance," which has been im- mensely popular, especially in America. If we are all sjjecially destined unto what we do, it is a great pity that so many are specially planned to make fools of themselves, or, in fact, to misbehave in any way. — Translator.
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Napoleou was destined to gain in every country the victory of Revolution, but, forgetful of this mission, he would fain glorify himself by his victory, and so, egoistically sublime, he placed his own image on the trophies conquered by the Revolution, or on the many melted cannon of the column of the Place Vendome. And then the Germans had the mission to avenge the Revolu- tion, and to tear down the Emperor from the usurped eminence on that pillar. Only the tri- coloured flag is appropriate to this place, and since the days of July it floats there victorious and full of promise.^ If after a time Xapoleon should be replaced on the Vendome column, he will no longer stand there as Emperor or as Ca3sar, but as a representative of the Revolution, absolved by adversity and purified by death, or as an emblem of the all-conquering power of the people.
As 1 have spoken of the young Napoleon and the young Henri, I must also mention the young Duke of Orleans. In the printshops we generally see the three hung in a row, and our pamphleteers are ever busy in discussing these three strange
' French version — " Depuis la revolution de juillet le drapeaii tricolore a pris provisoirement la place de I'empereur siir la colonne, et il y flotte victorieux et plein d'avenir." There is much of a stranj^e spirit of unconscious prophecy and truth in these remarks. — Translalor.
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legitimacies. That the latter is a leacliug theme of public gossip, speaks for itself. It is far too vague and profitless to be discussed here. The least iuformatiou as to the personal peculiarities of the Duke of Orleans seems to me to be more important, because so many interests of deepest importance are attached to his personality. The most practical question is not whether he has the right to ascend the throne, but whether he has the power to do so ; whether his party can rely on this strength, and what — since he in any event must play a prominent part — is to be expected of his character ? As regards the latter, opinions are opposed, and even " different." Some say that the Duke of Orleans is quite narrow- minded, dull, and stupid ; 1 that even in his family he is called grand 2^ouIot ; that he is somewhat beset with Absolutist inclinations, and has at times mad attacks of ambition — as, for example, that he insisted with much obstinacy that his father during the workmen's emeutes should send him to Lyons, fearing that lest he did so the Duke de Reich- stadt would be beforehand with him. Others declare, upon the other hand, that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is all kind-hearted- ness, goodwill, and modesty ; that he is very
^ French version — " Les uns, adversaires decides de la nouvelle dynastie, disent que le duo d'Orleans est tout ;i fait borne."
152 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
sensible, having' liad a most befitting education and admirable instruction ; that he is full of courage, lionourable feeling, and love of freedom, as he has often earnestly begged his father to adopt a liberal system : that he is altogether devoid of trick or vice — in fine, that he is amiability itself, and that the only vengeance which he inflicts on his enemies is to whisk away from them at a ball the prettiest "[partners. I need not say that the favourable opinion is from the dependents of the dynasty, and the unfavourable from its foes, and the one is worth about as much as the other. ^
I cannot really give any very exact information regarding this young prince beyond what I have seen myself, and I know nothing of him beyond his personal appearance. To speak truthfully, I must declare that he looks well.^ He is rather tall, and without being absolutely lean is certainly slender, with a long narrow head on a long neck, with equally long and noble features, and bold and free brow, a straight, well-proportioned nose, a fine fresh mouth, with gently arched imploring (hit- tenden) lips, small, bluish, very unimpressive {imhe- deutende), thoughtless eyes, like small triangles.
^ French version — "Le premier jugement est dictc par la malveillance. Est-ce que I'autre serait plus vrai ? Je le soup- (,:onne."
* Er sieht (jut aus. In tlie French version, il a Uair aimable.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 153
browu hair aucl light bloude side-whiskers, which meet under the chiu, enclosing- almost like a golden frame the rosy, healthy, blooming, youthful face. I think that I can read in the lineaments of this form a future, and yet not one too happy or cheer- ful. At best this young man is destined to a great martyrdom, for he will be king. If he does not see witli clear intelligence (mit dem Geistc) through future events, he seems at least to forebode them instinctively ; the animal nature or that of the body appears to be occupied with gloomy presenti- ments, whence a certain melancholy is apparent < in him. He at times lets his long narrow head sink from his long neck as if in sad reverie. His gait is sleepy and slow, as of a man who fears to arrive too early, and his speech is drawling or in short accents, as if in half slumber. In this lies the melancholy referred to, or rather the melan- choly indication (Signatur) of the future. In other respects his external appearance is rather simply citizen-like. This characteristic is the more marked because the contrary is apparent in his brother, the Duke de Nemours. The latter ^ is a handsome,
^ French version — "Celui-ci est un jeune et joli gargon Ji la tournure aisee, svelte sans etre grand, d'une complexion delicate en apparance, petite figure blanche et fine, regard spirituel ; nez legdrement courbc a la Bourbon ; nn fair blondin d'antique et noble souche." The German appears to be, in all this letter, translated from the French. — Translator.
154 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
very clever {gcscheitcr) youth, tall, but not stout, extremely well formed, a pale dainty little face, an intelligent and quick glance, a rather aquiline Bour- bon nose — he is altogether a fine blonde (Blondin) of ancient noble appearance. He has not the arro- gant traits of a Hanoverian rural noble [Kraui- Jimler, French gentilldtre), but a certain air of dis- tinction in deportment and behaviour such as is only found in the most cultivated higher nobility. As this kind daily diminishes in number or deterio- rates by misalliances, the aristocratic exterior of the Duke de Nemours is all the more remarkable. I once heard some one say regarding him, " That face will, in the course of a few years, make a great sensation in America." ^
' All intimation tiiiit in due time Lis father and tiie royal family would be expelled from France. — Translator.
VI.
Paris, Airril 19, 1832.
I WILL not borrow from the workshops of political parties their common vulgar rnle wherewith to measure men and things, still less will 1 determine their greatness or value by dreamy private feelings, but I will contribute as much as possible impar- tially to the intelligence of the present, and seek the solution of the stormy, noisy enigma of the day in the past. Saloons lie, graves speak the truth. But ah! the dead, those cold reciters of history, speak in vain to the raging multitude, who only understand the language of passion.
Yet certainly the saloons do not lie with de- liberate intention. The society of those in power really believes in its eternal duration, when the annals of universal history-, the fiery Menc tclcd of the daily journals, and even the loud voice of the people in the streets, cry aloud their warnings. Nor do the coteries of the Opposition utter pre- detennined falsehoods ; they believe that they are sure to conquer, just as men always believe in what
they most desire ; they intoxicate themselves with
155
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the cliampague of their hopes, interpret every mis- chance as a necessary occurrence which must bring tliem nearer to their goal, their confidence flashes most brilliantly on the eve of their downfall, and the messenger of justice who ofiicially announces to them their defeat generally finds them quarrel- ling as to their share in the bear's skin.^ Hence the one-sided errors — ces crreurs cCicUe fixe — which we cannot escape when we stand too near to one or the other party ; either deceives, yet does it unaware, and we confide most willingly in those who think as we do. But if we are by chance of such indifferent nature that we, without special predilection, keep in continual intercourse with all. then we are bewildered by the perfect self- confidence of either party, and our judgment is neutralised in the most depressing manner. There are indeed such all-indifferent men who have no true opinions of their own, who take no part in questions of the time, who only wish to learn what may be going on, to gather all the gossip of saloons, and retail all the clrronirj^uc scandaleuse of one party to the other.- The result of such iudiffer- entism is that they see everywhere only persons
^ In allusion to the fable in ^^sop of the hunters who rjuar- relled as to the bear'-s skin before they had killed the bear.
- " Die chronique scandaleuse jeder partie bei dor aiidern auf gabeln." French — "A colporter dans chaque parti la chronique scandaleuse de I'autre."
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find not principles (Dlnc/c), or rather that they see in principles only persons/ and so prophesy the ruin of the first, because they have perceived the weakness of the latter, and thereby lead their constituents or those who believe in them (Kom- mittenten) into most serious errors and mistakes.
I cannot refrain from calling special attention to the false relationship^' which now exists in France between things (that is, spiritual and material interests) and persons [i.e., the repre- sentatives of these). This was quite different at the end of the last century, when man towered so colossally to the height of things, so that they form in the history of the Revolution at the same time an heroic age, and as such are now celebrated, worshipped, and loved by our Repub-
^ Dinge, chosc^i, "things." A word far too generally and loosely applied both in French and German, as in the present instance. This was satirised in the Breitmann Ballads ; —
" O vot ish all dis eart'ly pliss ? Und vot ish man's sookcess ? Und vot ish various kinds of dings ? Und vot is happiness ? "
It is an amusing instance of Heine's remarkably quick per- ception, as well as of his very frequent disposition to let errors stand rather than take the trouble to correct them, that in the ne.Kt sentence he gives these " dings " a definition in parenthesis. — Translator.
■ French version, disproportion.
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lican youth. ^ Or are we in this respect deceived by the same error whicli we find in Madame KoLaud, who bewails so bitterly in her Memoirs that there was not among the men of her time one of iinjDortance ? The worthy lady did not know her own greatness, nor did she observe that her contemporaries were indeed great enough when they were in nought inferior to lier as regards intellectual stature. The whole French people has to-day grown so mightily that we are perhaps unjust to its public representatives, who do not rise so markedly from the mob, 3'et who are not on tliat account to be considered as small. We cannot see the forests for the trees.^ In Germany we see the country, a terrible jungle of scraggy thicket and dwarf pines, and here and there a giant oak, whose head rises to the clouds — while down below the worms do gnaw its trunk.
To-day is the result of yesterday. We must find out what the former would ere we can find what it is the latter will have. The Kevolu-
^ This admirable sentena;, in whicli the coiiceptiuii of impcriiim in imperio is so ingeniously paraphrased, is given rather feebly ill Frejifh as "en sorte qu'ils foimaient dans I'histoire de la revolution la temps lu''roi(|Uc."'
- " Man kanii jetzt vor lauter Wald die Buumu nicht sehen," a common German saying; in English, "He cannot see the wood for the leaves;" in French, " Tout etant devenu haute futaie 11 est impossible d'y distingiier les arbres isolds." — Translator.
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tion is ever one and the same. It is not as tlie doctrinaires would Lave us think ; it was not for the Charte that they fought in the great week, but for those same Revolutionary interests for which the best blood in France has been spilt for forty years. But that the author of these pages may not be mistaken merely for one of these holders-forth {Prcedicanten), who under- stand by revolution only one overthrow after another, and who see in accidental occurrences that which is the spirit of the Revolution itself. I will here explain the main idea {Hauptlegriff) as accurately as I can.
When the intellectual developments or culture of a race are no longer in accord with its old established institutions, there results necessarily a combat in which the latter are overthrown, and which is called a revolution. Until this revolution is complete, until that reformation of institutions does not perfectly agree with the intellectual development and the habits and wants of the people, just so long the national malady {Staats- siechthnm) is not perfectly cured, and the sickly and excited people will often relapse into the ^veakness of exhaustion, yet ever and anon be subject to attacks of burning fever, when they tear away the tightest bandages and the most soothing lint from the old wounds, throw the most benevolent, noblest nurses out of the window,
i6o FRENCH AFFAIRS.
aud roll about in agony until they finally find themselves in circumstances, that is, adapt them- selves to institutions, which suit them better.
The question whether France is now at rest, or wliether we are to anticipate new political changes, and finallv what end it will all take, amounts to this — "What motive had the French in beginning a revo- lution, and have they obtained what they desired ? To aid the reply I will discuss the beginning of the Revolution in my next article. This will be a doubly profitable occupation, since, while endea- vouring to explain the present by the past, it will at the same time be shown how the past is made clear and in mutual understanding with the pre- sent, and how every day new light is thrown upon it, of which our writers of historical hand-books had no idea. Tliey believed that the acts of the history of the Revolution had come to an end, and they had uttered their last judgment over men and things, when all at once there thundered the cannons of the great week, and the faculty of Gottingen remarked that there had been an ap- peal from the decision of its academic senate (academischen Spruchcollegium) to a higher juris- diction, and that not only the French special revolution was not finished, but that the far more comprehensive universal revolution had begun. How terrified must these peaceable people have been when they, one fine morning, put their
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heads out of the window and beheld the over- throw of states and of their compendia, and the tones of the "Marseillaise" forced themselves into their ears despite their nightcaps. In fact, that in 1830 the tri-coloured flag fluttered for several days on the towers of Gottingen was a student's joke which universal history played on the emi- nently erudite Philistia of Georgia Augusta. In this all too serious age we have need of a few such cheerful incidents. ^
So much for preface to an article which will busy itself with clearing up the past. The pre- sent is at this moment the most important, and the theme which it offers for discussion is of such a kind that further writing thereon especially depends on it.
I will give a fragment of the article which is here promised in an appendix. In another work the eulai'gement subsequently written may follow.2
' This remark is a curious instance of intuition or prophetic spirit. When Heine wrote it, the esprit r/aidois had mani- fested no sign whatever of decadence, and in England merry Dickens had not even begun to publish. But, with his usual perception, Heine felt that the "all too serious age" was coming, when the world was to put away childish things, and " take its amusements sadly," even in novels, as it is now doing.
- This sentence, as well as the Appendix to Letter VI., is wanting in the French version. — Note by the German Editor.
L
1 62 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
I Avas very much disturbed while writing this article, chiefly by the agonising cries of a neigh- bour who died of cholera, and I must here lay stress on the fact that the events of that time had a sad influence on the following pages. I am not indeed conscious that I was in the least troubled, but it is very disgusting when the whetting of the scythe of Death rings distinctly in our ears. A disorder or discomfort which was more physi- cal than mental, for which nothing could be done, would have driven me from Paris, but then my best friend would have been left here alone, and seriously ill. I note this that my remaining in Paris may not be considered as a mere bravado. Only a fool would have found pleasure in brav- ing the cholera. It was a reign of terror far more dreadful than the flrst, because the execu- tions took place so rapidly and mysteriously. ^ It was a masked executioner who passed through Paris with an invisible guillutinc anihulante. '"We shall all be stuck into the sack, one after the other," said my servant, with a sigh,
' It might be here added that it was far nunc terrible, owing to the niniiber ol victims, since people died in Paris at the rate of from looo to 2000 per diem, as I remember to have heard at the time. Tliere are not many of my readers who now remem- ber the cholera of 1832 and its horrors. I can recall distinctly passing through New York when it was at its worst, and that the city seemed to bo almost deseited. — ?V«».«/rt^'7'.
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every morning, when he announced how many had died or the loss of some one known. The expres- sion "stuck into the sack " was no mere figure of speech, for cofhns were soon wanting, and the greater part of the dead were buried in bags. Wlien I, a week ago, passed a great open public building, and saw in the roomy halls the nierr}^ people, the gaily springing Frenchies {Frcmzo- schcu), the dainty little gossiping Frenchwomen, who did their shopping laughing and joking, I remembered that here, during the time of the cholera, there were ranged high piled, one on the other, many hundreds of white sacks containing every one a corpse, and that there were then heard here very few, but all the more terrible voices, or those of the watchers of the dead, who with a grim indifference counted out the sacks to the men who buried them, and how the latter, us they piled them on their cars, repeated the numbers in lower tones, or complained harshly that they had received one corpse too few, over which there often arose a strange dispute. And I remember how two small bovs with sorrowful faces stood by, and that one asked me if I could tell him in which sack his father was.i
^ It is a strange fact that the cholera of 1832, with all its horrors, was as nothing compared to the pestilences which had previously swept over the world. Then the dead in the great capitals of Europe were often not buried at all, and lay every-
1 64 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
That wliicli follows has perhaps the merit that it is at once a bulletin written on the field of battle during- the fight, and thus bears the im- press and colour of the moment. Thucydides the historian and Boccaccio the novelist have certainly left us better sketches of the kind, but I doubt whether they had sufiicient calmness, while the cholera of their day was raging most terribly around, to sketch them so beautifully and in such a masterly manner as off-hand articles for the Universal Daily Gazette of Florence or Pisa.i^
I shall, in the following pages, remain true to a principle which I have followed from the begin- ning of the book, which is to change nothing and to let it be printed as it was originally written, excepting, perhajxs, putting in or taking out a
where in heaps for many months. It is only yesterday, as I now write (April 29, 1892), that I saw in the National Museum of Florence the marvellous groups in wax, modelled after the piles of corpses in the streets in the Great Plague commemo- rated by Boccaccio. Yet even this appears to have been as nmch surpassed in its turn by the earlier scourges as the cholera of 1832 surpassed the influenza of 1891.
' In justice to Heine it should be observed that while this sentence miglit be misunderstood as declaring tliat neither Thucidydes nor Boccaccio could write so beautifully as himself under the circtiriistances, it really means tliat they could not have sketched so well as they did had they been exposed as our author was. It is less ambigiKjus in the French version — " .Je doute b'ils eussent eu Tame assez caime pour les faire si belles et si savantes, si pendant que le chol(5ra de leur temps," &c. Tlie twelve following lines are wanting in the French. — Translator.
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word here and there when it, so far as I can remember, corresponds with the original manu- script. I cannot reject sucli small reminiscences, but they are very few, very trifling, and never involve actual errors, false prophecies, and oblique perceptions, which cannot, of course, be wanting, since they belong to the history of the time. The events themselves afford their own and the best corroboration.
I speak of the cholera which has raged here till now without limit, and which, regardless of rank and opinion, fells its victims by the thousand.
The pestilence had been regarded with less apprehension, because it was reported that there had been in London comparatively few deaths. People seemed at first inclined to really make fun of it, and it was thought that the cholera, as happens to so many other great characters, would have its reputation mightily diminished when it should come to Paris. One must not blame the good honest cholera for having, out of fear of ridicule, had recourse to means which Robespierre and Napoleon had found efficacious (Prohat) — that is, in order to secure respect they decimated the people. Owing to the vast misery prevailing here, to the incredible filth, which is by no means limited to the lower classes, to the excitability of the people and their unrestrained frivolity, and to utter want of all preparation and precaution what-
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ever, tlie cholera laid hold here more rapidly and terribly than elsewliere.^
Its arrival was ofiiciallv anuouuced on the 29th of Marcli, and as this was the day of Mi- Careme, and there was bright sunshine and beau- tiful weather, the Parisians hustled and fluttered the more merrily on the Boulevards, where one could even see maskers, who, in caricatures of livid colour and sickly mien, mocked the fear of the cholera and the disease itself. That night the balls were more crowded than usual ; excessive laughter almost drowned the roar of music ; people grew hot in the clialmt ; a dance of anything but equivocal character ; all kinds of ices and cold beverages were in great demand — when all at once the merriest of the harlequins felt that his legs were becoming much too cold, and took off his mask, when, to the amazement of all, a violet-blue
' Our author sketches the true causef? of the cholera with great intelligence. Prominent among these was that neglect of cleanliness, which, as he says, was by no moans confined to the lower classes. Even in the Forties and Fifties there was to be founil in a vast majority of the liouses in Paris snch fearful filth and poisonous .smells as would be now deemed utterly incredible. That the cholera was to a great degree endemic or local from .such causes was fully proved by its being confined cliiefly to town.s. While it raged, for instance, in cities, it often hap- pened that in rural villages at no great distance not a single case occurred. In the last generation it was very commonly said and believed by many that "dirt is healthy." Now we are learning that it is another name for de^iih.— Translator.
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face became visible. It was at once seen tliat there was no jest in this ; the langhter died away, and at once several carriages conveyed men and women from the ball to the Hotel Dieu, the Central Hospital, where they, still arrayed in mask attire, soon died. As in the first shock of terror people believed the cholera was contagions, and as those who were already patients in the hospital raised cruel screams of fear, it is said that these dead were buried so promptly that even their fantastic fools' garments were left on them, so that as they lived they now lie merrily in the grave.
It was amid unparalleled trouble and confusion that hospitals {Sichernngs-anstaltcn) and other institutions for preserving public health were organised. A Sanitary Commission was created, Bureaux de Skours were established, and the ordinances as regards the saluhritS jonblique were promptly put into effect. In doing this there was at once a collision with the interests of several thousand men who regarded public filth as their own jDrivate property. These were the chiffoniers or rag-men, who pick their living from the sweep- ings from houses piled up in dirt heaps in odd corners. With great pointed baskets on their backs and hooked sticks in their hands, these men, with pale and dirty faces, stray through the streets, and know how to find and utilise many
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objects in these refuse piles. But when the police, not wishing this filth to remain longer in the public streets, had given out the cleaning to their agents, and the refuse, put into carts, was to be carried out into the open country, where the chiffoniers could freely fish in it to their hearts' content, then the latter complained tliat, though not reduced to starvation, that their business had been reduced, and that this industry was a right sanctioned by ancient usage, and like property, of which they could not be arbitrarily deprived. It is very curious that the proofs which they pro- duced in this relation were quite identical with those which our country squires and nobles {Kraut- junker), chiefs of coiiDorations, guild-masters, tithe- preachers, members of faculties, and similar pos- sessors of privileges, bring forward when any old abuses by wliich they profit, or other rubbish of the ]\Jiddle Ages, must be cleared away, so that our modern life may not be infected by the ancient musty mould and exhalations. As their protests were of no avail, the chiffoniers attempted to oppose the reform of cleanliness by force, or get up a small counter-revolution, and that in con- nection with the old women called revendenscs, who had been forbidden to ])u])]icly sell on the quays or trafl^ic in tlic evil-s}nelling stuff which they had bought from the chiffoniers. Then we beheld the most repulsive riot; the neAv hand-cars
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used to clean the town were broken and tlironn into the Seine ; the chiffoniers barricaded them- selves at the Porte Saint-Denis ; the old women dealers in rubbish ( Trodehimher) fought with their great umbrellas on the Chatelet; the general march was beaten ; Casimir Perier had his myrmidons drummed up from their shops ; the citizen-throne trembled ; Pentes fell ; the Carlists rejoiced. The latter, by the way, had found at last their natu- ral allies in rag-men and old huxter-wives, wlio adopted the same principles as the champions of transmitted rights Qicrkdminlichen), or hereditary rubbish-interests and rotten things of every kind. When the emeute of the chiffoniers was sup- pressed, and as the cholera did not take hold so savagely (oiirht so wilthend urn sicli griff) as was desired by certain people of the kind who in every suffering or excitement among the people hope, if not to profit themselves, to at least cause the overthrow of the existing Government, there rose all at once a rumour that many of those who had been so promptly buried had died not from disease but by poison. It was said that certain persons had found out how to introduce a poison into all kinds of food, be it in the veo-etable markets, in bakeries, meat-stalls, or wine. The more extraordinary these reports were, the more eagerly were they received by the multitude, and even the sceptics must needs believe in them
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wlieu au order on the subject was published by the chief of police. For the police, who in every country seem to be less inclined to prevent crime than to appear to know all about it, either desired to display their universal information or else thought, as regards the tales of poisoning, that whether they were true or false, they them- selves must in any case divert all suspicion from the Government — suffice it to say, that by their unfortunate proclamation, in which they distinctly said that they were on the track of the poisoners, thev official Iv confirmed the rumours, and therebv threw all Paris into the most dreadful apprehension of death.
"We never heard the like!" said the oldest people, who, even in the most dreadful times of the Revolution, had never experienced such fear- ful crime. "Frenchmen! we are dishonoured!" cried the men. striking their foreheads. The woTnen, pressing their little children in agony to their hearts, wept bitterly and lamented that the innocent babes were dving in their arms. The poor people dared neither eat nor drink, and wrung their hands in dire need and distress. It seemed as if the end of the world had come. The crowds a-ssembled chiefly at the corners of the streets, where the red-painted wine-shops are situated, and it was generally there that men who seemnd suspicious were searched, and woe
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to them when any donl)tfnl objects were found on them. The mob threw themselves like wild beasts or lunatics on their victims. IMany saved themselves by their presence of mind, others were rescued by the firmness of the INTunicipal Guard, who in those days patrolled everywhere ; some received wounds or were maimed, while six men were unmercifully murdered outright. Nothing is so horrible as the anger of a mob when it rages for blood and strangles its defence- less prey. Then there rolled through the streets a dark flood of human beings, in which, here and there, workmen in their shirt-sleeves seemed like the white caps of a raging sea, and all were howling and roaring — all merciless, heathenish, devilish. I heard in the Kue Saint-Denis the well-known old cry, " A la laid erne I " and from voices trembling with rage I learned that they were hanging a poisoner. Some said that he was a Carlist, and that a Inrirt du lis had been found in his pocket ; others declared he was a priest, and others that he was capable of anything. In the Rue Yaugirard, where two men were killed because certain white powders were found on them, I saw one of the wretches, while he was still in the death-rattle, and at the time old women plucked the wooden shoes from their feet and beat him oa the head till he was dead. He was naked and beaten and bruised, so that
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liis blood flowed ; tliey tore from liim not only his clothes, but also his hair, and cut off his lips^ and nose ; and one blackguard tied a rope to the feet of the corpse and dragged it through the streets, crying oat, '• Voild le clwlera-morhis /" A very beautiful woman, pale with rage, with bare breasts and bloody hands, was present, and as the coqDse passed her she kicked it. She laughed to me, and begged for a few francs reward for her dainty work wherewith to buy a mourning-dress, because her mother had died a few hours before of poison.
It appeared the next day by the newspapers that the wretched men who had been so cruelly murdered were all quite innocent, that the suspi- cious powders found on them consisted of camphor or chlorine, or some other kind of remedy against the cholera, and that those who were said to have been poisoned had died naturally of the prevailing epidemic. The mob here, like the same every- where, being quick to rage and readily led to cruelty, became at once appeased, and deplored with touching sorrow its rash deeds when it heai'd the voice of reason. With such voices the news- papers succeeded the next day in calming and quiet- ing the populace, and it may be proclaimed, as a
' iJif schfim occurs here in the German text. It is omitted in the French. — Tranglator.
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tiiuiupli of tlie press, that it was able to so promptly stop the mischief which the police had made.
I must here blame the conduct of certain people who by no means belonged to the lower class, yet who were so carried away by their prejudices as to publicly accuse the Carlists of poisoning. Pas- sion should never carry us so far, and I should hesitate a long time ere I would accuse my most venomous foes of such horrible intentions.^ The Carlists were quite right in complaining of this, and it is only the bitter manner in which they cursed and railed over it which could excite sus- picion. That is certainly not the language of innocence. But according to the conviction of those best informed, there had been no poison- ing. It may be that sham poisonings were contrived, or that a few wretches were really induced to sprinkle harmless powders on pro- visions in order to irritate and rouse the people ; and if this 2uas indeed the case, the people should not be too severely blamed for their riotous con- duct, since it sprang not from private hate, " but in the interest of the commonweal, quite according to the theory of terrorism." Yes, the Carlists would themselves have perished in the pit dug for the Republicans, but the poisoning was not geue-
^ All which follows, to the word Constitutional, is omitted in the French version, that is, twenty-seven lines of the German text, and it is little to our author's credit that it is found in German.
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rally attributed to the one or to the other, but to that party which, "ever conquered by arms, always raises itself again by cowardly means, which attains to prosperity and power invariably by the ruin of France, and which now, dispensing w^itli the aid of Cossacks, may readily seek refuge in common poison." This is about what is said in the Constitutional.
"What I gained by personal observation on the day when these murders took place was the con- viction that the rule of the elder branch of the Bourbons will never be re-established in France. I heard the most remarkable utterances in different groups; I saw deep into the heart of the people — it knows its men.
Since these events all has become quiet again, or, as Horatius Sebastiani would say, '^Vordre rcgnc a Paris." There is a stony stillness as of death in every face. For many evenings very few people were seen on the Boulevards, and they hurried along with hands or handkerchiefs held over their faces. The theatres are as if perished and passed away. When I enter a salon, people are amazed to see me still in Paris, since I am not detained by urgent business. In fact, most strangers, and especially my fellow-countrymen, left long since. Obedient parents received from their children orders to return at once. God-fearing sons ful- filled without delay the tender wishes of their
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loviug sires, who longed to see them in their homes again — Honour thy father and thy mother, then thy days shall be prolonged upon the earth ! In others, too, there suddenly awoke an endless yearning for their fatherland, for the romantic valleys of the noble ilhine, for the dear moun- tains, for winsome Suabia, the land of pure true love and woman's faith, of joyous ballads and of healthy air. It is said that thus far more than 1 20,000 passports have been issued at the Hotel de Ville.^ Although the cholera evidently first attacked the poorer classes, the rich still very promptly took to flight. Certain parvenus should not be too severely judged for having done so, for they probably reflected that the cholera, which came hither all the long way from Asia, does not know that we have quite lately grown rich on Change, and thinking that we are still poor devils, will send us to turn up our toes to the daisies.- M. Aguado, one of the richest bankers and a che- valier of the Legion of Honour, was field-marshal
^ French version — '"On dit qu'on ;i delivre dans ces circon- stauces plus de cent mille passeports. " — IVanslator.
^ " Halt uns vielleicht noch fiir einen armen Lump, und l;i.sst uns ins Gras beissen." French version — " Pourrait bien nous prendre encore pour de pauvres hcres et nous faire inanger de I'herbe par la racine," An American might render this : — " Bid us go to grass, and stay under.'" " Midta; terricolis Hngiiic, una co3lestibus." — Translator.
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ill this o-reat retreat. The kniii-lit is said to have glared with mad apprehension out of the coach- window, and believed that his footman all in blue who stood behind w^as blue Death himself or the cholera morbus.
The multitude murmured bitterly when it saw how the rich fled away, and, well ])acked with doctors and drugs, took refuge in healthier climes. The poor man saw with bitter discontent that money had become a protection also against death. The greater portion of tlie juste milieu and of la haute finance have also departed, and now live in their chateaux. 13ut the real representatives of wealth, the Messieurs Rothschild, have, however, quietly remained in T'aris, thereby manifesting that they are great-minded and brave. ^ Casimir Perier also showed himself great and brave in visiting the Hotel Dieu or hospital after the cholera had broken out. It should have grieved even his enemies that he was attacked by the cholera after this visit. He did not, however, succumb to it, being in himself a much worse pestilence. The young Prince d' Orleans, who, in company with Perier, visited the hospital, also
^ Our author here indirectly compliments himself. But unless a man remains to nurse and aid the sufferers, it is diffi- cult to see wherein the braver^' or coniniou-sense of staying in a pestilence consists. — Tramlator.
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deserves the most honourable mention. But the whole royal family has behaved quite as nobly in this sad time. When the cholera broke out, the Queen assembled her friends and servants, and distributed among them flannel bandages, which were mostly made by her own hands. The manners and customs of ancient chivalry are not yet extinct ; they have only changed into domestic citizen-like forms : great ladies now bedeck their champions with less poetical, but more practical and healthier scarfs. We live no longer in the ancient days of helm and harness and of warring- knights, but in the peaceful, honest hourgeois days of under-jackets and warm bandages ; that is, no lons'er in the iron a^e. but that of flannel — flannel everywhere. It is, in fact, the best cuirass against the cholera, our most cruel enemy, Venus, accord- ing to the Firjaro, would wear to-day a girdle of flannel. I myself am up to my neck in flannel, and consider myself cholera-proof. The King himself wears now a belt of the best hourgeois flannel.
Nor should I forget to mention that he, the citizen-king, during the general suffering, gave a great deal of money to the poor citizens, and showed himself inspired with civic sympathy and noble. And while in the vein {da ich mril im Zuge bin), I will also praise the Archbishop of Paris, who also went to the Hotel Dieu, after the
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Prince Royal and Perier had made their visits, to console the patients. lie had long prophesied that God would send the cholera as a judgment and punishment on the people "for having banished a most Christian king, and struck out the privi- leges of the Catholic religion for the Charte.'' ^ Now when the wrath of God falls on the sinners, M. de Quelen would fain send prayers to heaven and implore grace, at least for the innocent, for it appears that many Carlists also die.^ Moreover. M. de Quelen offered his Chateau de Conflans to be used as a hospital. The jiroffer was declined by Government because the building is in such a ruined and deplorable condition that it would cost too much to repair it. And the Bishop had, as a
^ So a few years a^o tlie President of an American Collec;e, who had, as it was declared, utterly and scandalously neglected his duty as to sauitary precautions and cleanliness, informed the public, when a number of students died of typhoid fever, that it was a "dispensation." We may, however, both as regards Paris and the American College, for "decree of Providence," read "dirt." — Translator.
2 This remark recalls the anecdote of a Baptist minister in Kansas during the civil war. "I am asked, my hearers, how it is that, if this war is sent to punish rebels and slave-holders, so many Union nun perish 't ^Vfy friends, when an Injun goes for buffalo, he .still knocks over any antelojje or jack-rabbits or skunks which come in his way ; and even so the Lord, when he is on the war-path after the chief of sinners — which are Secesh — still takes a pop at any smaller evil-doer who comes on the trail, even though he be an Union man." — TranKlator.
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condition, exacted that he should have unconditional authority or caric hlanche in directing the hospital. But it was deemed too dangerous an experiment to intrust the souls of the poor patients, whose bodies were already suffering terribly, to the tortures of attempted salvation, which the Arch- bishop and his familiars intended to inflict. It was thought better to let the hardened Revolu- tionary sinners die simply of the cholera, without threats of eternal damnation and hell-fire, without confession or extreme unction. For though it is declared that the Catholic is a religion perfectly adapted to the unhappy time through which we are now passing, the French will have none of it for fear lest they should be obliged to keep on with this epidemic faith {Kranldieitsreligion) when better days shall come.
Many disguised priests are now gliding and sliding here and there among the people, per- suading them that a rosary which has been consecrated is a perfect preservative against the cholera.^ The Saint-Simonists regard it as an
1 We are not as yet so far advanced in physiology as to under- stand the causes, but it is quite certain that those wlio have no fear of a disease or who boldly affront it often escape contagion. This saving confidence is often the result of a man's bearing something which lie firmly believes protects him, be it a rabbit's paw, a blessed rosai-y, a relic of a saint, or any other kind of "hand" or "charm." The antiquities and illustrations of this
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advantage of their religion that none of their number can die of the prevailing malady, because progress is a law of nature, and as social progress is specially in Saint-Simonism, so long as the number of its apostles is incomplete none of its followers can die. The Bonapartists declare that if any one feels in himself the symptoms of the cholera, if he will raise his eyes to the column of the Place Vendome he shall be saved and live. And so hath every man his special faith in these troubled times. As for me, I believe In flannel. Good dieting can do no harm, but one should not
subject are most fully given in a very rare work of n bout 800 pages, entitled, " Curiosus Amuletorum Scrutator . . . ac in Specie de Zenechtis," to which is added a treatise on ainulets by Julius Rei- chalt (Frankfort, 1690). In this extraordinary and immensely enidite book almost every known disease is cited, and the amulets described which must be carried about the person to cure it. Thus, according to this authority, ivy (as I have heard in Florence, and read in Marcellus of Bordeaux, fourth century), when worn, is a cure for headache ; also plaintain-roots and the gem ophites. In addition to these there are directions as to what should be dime to secure favour, to avert the evil eye, to protect against lightning, to become ricli, or be constantly jolly {hcrba contra melancholiam) — in short, for almost everything desirable under the sun. In some cases legitimate cures seem to indicate a certain empirical knowledge, as, for instance, where we are told that camphor when carried is good for heart complaints. It is remarkable that, as regards amulet-rosaries, those which are made of a curious kind of triangular seed or nut are considered as possessing special virtue both by Turks and Italian Christians, — Trandator.
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eat too little, as do certain persons who mistake pangs of hunger felt in the night for premonitory symptoms of cholera. It is amusing to see the poltroonery Avhicli many manifest at table, re- garding with defiance or suspicion the most philanthropic and benevolent dishes, and swallow- ing every dainty with a sigh.^ The doctors told us to have no fear and avoid irritation ; but they feared lest they might be unguardedly irritated, and then were irritated at themselves for being- afraid. Now they are love itself, and often use the words 3/on Diea ! and their voices are as soft and low as those of ladies lately brought to bed {accoucMes). Withal they smell like peram- bulating apothecary-shops, often feel their stom- achs, and ask every hour how many have died. But as no one ever knew the exact number, or rather as there was a general suspicion as to the exactitude of the fibres mven, all minds were seized with vague terror, and the extent of the malady was magnified beyond limits. In fact, the
^ I can well remember the ^reat fear wliicli prevailed during all the cholera season of 1832 as regards food, especially fish and fruit. Young as I was, I do not think that I touched a peach or a water-melon all that summer, and I can remember the amazement which I felt in the autumn at hearing from a black servant-girl that she had during the whole time eaten all the peaches she could get, which must have been many, since fruit of all kinds was almost given awaj-. — Translator.
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journals luive since published that on one day, on the loth of April, two thousand people died. But the people would not be deceived by any such official statement, and continually complained that far more died than were accounted for. My barber told me how an old woman sat at her window a whole night on the Faubourg Mont- martre to count the corpses which were carried by, and she counted three hundred ; but when morning came she was chilled with frost, and felt the cramp of the cholera, and soon died herself. Wherever one looked in the streets, there he saw funerals, or, sadder still, hearses with no one following. But as there were not hearses suffi- cient, all kinds of vehicles were used, which, when covered with black stuffs, looked very strange. Even these were at last wanting, and I saw coffins carried in hackney-coaches.^ It was most disagreeable to see the great furniture-
' I have heard my father relate how, during a terrible attack of yellow fever in Philadelphia in tlie earlier part of the present century, he remained by a friend who died in a lodging-house, and the panic was so great that no medical attendance or any kind of aid whatever could be had (hiring the last stages. The patient passed awaj' about midnight, and my father, going forth, with some diflSculty obtained a coffin or box and a black man, with whose help the body was nailed up, put into a hackney- coach and taken to the burying-ground. Of this yellow fever pestilence I remember a strange tale. There was a very small house of one storey in Eleventh Street, near Locust, in which a man had been left to die, and the dooi's locked. He recovered,
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waggons which were used for '*' moving " now inoviug about as dead men's omnibuses, or omnibus mortuis, going from house to house for fares and carrying them by dozens to the field of rest.
The neighbourliood of a cemetery wliere many funerals met presented the most dispiriting scene. Wishing to visit a friend one day, I arrived just as they were placing his corpse in the hearse. Then the sad fancy seized me to return the call which he had last made, so I took a coach and accompanied him to Pere la Chaise. Having arrived in the neighbourhood of the cemetery, my coachman stopped, and awaking from my reverie, I could see nothing but literally sky and coffins. I was among several hundred vehicles bearing the dead, which formed a queue or train before the narrow gate, and as I could not escape, I was obliged to pass several hours among these gloomy surroundings. Out of ennui, I asked my coachman the name of my neighbour- corpse, and — woe the chance ! — he named a young lady whose coach had, some months before, as I was going to a ball at Lointier, been crovpded against mine and
and endeavouring to escape from the upper window, fell to the ground and was killed. As his ghost was believed to haunt the house, it remained without a tenant until about 1840, when it was pulled down. Tempi passat'i ! such events are becoming almost incomprehensible to the younger readers of the present day. — Translator.
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delayed just as it was to-day. There was ouly this difference, that then she often put out of the window lier little head, decked with flowers, her lovely, lively face lit by the moon, and mani- fested the most charming vexation and impatience at the delay. Now she was quite still, and pro- bably very blue ; but ever and anon, when the mourning-horses of the hearses stamped and grew unruly, it seemed to me as if the dead themselves were growing impatient, and, tired of waiting, were in a hurry to get into their graves; and when, at ibe cemetery gate, one coachman tried to get before another, and there was disorder in the qiiene, then the gendarmes came in with bare sabres; here and there were cries and curses, some vehicles were overturned, coffins rolling out burst open, and I seemed to see that most horrible of all diiiaitcs — a riot of the dead.^
To spare the feelings of my readers, I will not
1
^ The reader will excuse the remark that nine-tentlis of all which constituted the external horrors of the cholera or other ^reat pestilences would have been avoided by the very simple process of cremation. It is said that even within a very few years, in breaking up the ground where great numbers of victims of cholera or yellow fever were long since buried, the most deadly forms of disease or malaria have been developed, which could not assuredly have taken place had the remains been reduced to ashes. When I, in 1856, published an article advocating the burning of the dead, I was literally alone in my ideas. Epiur si mvovf. — Trandator,
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further describe what I saw at Pere ki Chaise. Hardened as I am, I could not help yielding to the deepest horror. One may learn by deathbeds how to die, and then await death with calmness, but to learn how to be buried in graves of quick- lime, among cholera corpses, is beyond my power. I liastened to the highest hill of the cemetery, whence one may see the city spread out in all its beauty. The sun was setting ; its last rays seemed to bid me a sad good-bye ; twilight vapours covered sick Paris as with a light-white shroud, and I wept bitterly over the unhappy city, the city of freedom, of inspiration and of martyrdom, the saviour-city which has already suffered so much for the tem- poral deliverance of humanity.
Appendix to Letter \\}
'•' Seest thou the foundations of usury, of theft and robbery, are our great men and lords, who take all creatures unto their possession : the fish in the waters, the birds in the air, all that groweth on the earth luust be theirs (Jes. v.). Therefore they send forth God's commandment among the poor and say, ' God hath commanded that ye shall not steal !' yet it serves them naught. So they all bring it to pass that from the poor ploughman.
' This Appendix or Beitrage is not given in the French version — Translator,
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workuian, and all which lives, they pluck off their skin from them and the flesh from off their bones [^licah iii. 3]. And should he then lay violent hands on what is holiest, he must hang. Then saith Doctor I.iar, ' Amen I ' The great men are them- selves the cause that the poor man is their enemy. If they will not do away with the cause of strife. how can it go well in the long-run ? And if I, saying that, am rebellious and a stirrer-up of strife, so let it be!"
In these words spake three hundred years ago Thomas Miinzer, one of the most heroic-minded and unfortunate sons of the German Fatherland. a preacher of the Gospel, which, according to his belief, promised not only happiness in heaven, but also equality and brotherhood unto men upon earth. Doctor Martin Luther was of a different opinion, and condemned such rebellious doctrines, by which his own work, the separation from Rome and the foundation of the new faith, was endangered, and inspired perhaps more by worldly wisdom than by evil zeal, wrote his dis- reputable book against the unfortunate peasants. Pietists and canting hypocrites {Duchnduser) have of late re\dved this work, and spread the reprints far and wide — partially to show their high pro- tectors how much the pure Lutheran faith upholds absolute government, and partially to suppress by Luther's authority the enthusiasm for freedom in
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Germany. But a holier testimony, wliich flows like blood from the Gospel, contradicts the slavish interpretation and the erroneous authority; for Christ, who died for the equality and brotherhood of mankind, did not reveal his Word to serve as the tool of Absolutism, and Thomas Mlinzer was right and Luther in the wrong. Miinzer was beheaded at Modlin. His companions were also in the right, and they were beheaded with the sword or hung with the rope, as they chanced to be of plebeian or noble origin. The Margrave Oasimir von Ansimch, in addition to such execu- tions, had the eyes put out of eighty-five peasants. Avho afterwards went begging about the country, and who were also in the right. How it went with the wretched peasants in Upper Austria and Suabia, and how in Germany many hun- dreds of thousands of peasants, who asked for nothing but human rights and Christian mercy. were slaughtered or strangled by their spiritual or temporal lords, is commonly known. But the latter were in the right, because they were in all the fulness of power, and the peasants were often led astray by the authority of a Luther and of other clergymen who made common cause with secular powers, and by untimely controversies over ecpnvocal Biblical passages, or often singing- psalms when they should have fought.
In the year of grace 1789, the same strife
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begau iu France as to eqnality and brotherhood, on tlie same grounds, against the same class in power, with this difference, that the latter lost the power which tlie people gained, while their cause drew its claims to justice, not from the Bible, but from philosophy. 'Jlie fV-udalistic and hierarchic institutions which Charlemao-ne had founded in his vast realm, and which had developed them- selves in many forms in the realms which spread forth from it, had struck root most powerfully iu France, flourished bravely for centuries, and, like all things in this world, at last lost their strength. The kings of France, vexed at their dependence on the nobility and clergy — the first of whom con- sidered themselves as the equals of their monarch, while the latter ruled the people more than they did — gradually contrived to weaken their power, and this great work was completed by Louis XIY. Instead of a warlike feudal nobility, which had at once governed and guarded their kings, there now crept to the steps of the throne a weakly court nobility, whose prestige was derived not from its castles and retainers, but from the number of its ancestors ; instead of stiff and stern priests, who terrified kings with confessional and excommuni- cation (Jjcicht' villi Bann) while they kept the multitude in check, tiiere was now a Gallicau or, so to speak, a mediatised Church, whose posts or offices were surreptitiously obtained iu the ceil dc
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hceuf of Versailles or iu the boudoirs of mistresses, and whose chiefs belonged to the same aristocracy, who paraded as court-domestics, so that the cos- tumes of abbes and bishops, pallium and mitre, might be considered as a kind of court-costume. Despite which change, the nobility retained the privileges which it always had over the people ; in fact, its pride as regards the latter rose the more it was abased before its royal lords. It usurped, as of old, all the enjoyments of life, oppressed and wronged as before, as did the clergy, who had long lost their hold on men's souls, but who still kept their titles, their Trinity monopoly, their privileges of suppressing intellect, and their churchly tricks and wiles. What the teachers of the Gospel had tried in the Peasants' War was now done by philosophers in France, and with better success. They demonstrated to the people the usurpations of the nobilit}' and of the Church ; they showed them that both had lost their power, and the people exulted; and on the 14th of June 1789, the weather being fine, they began the work of their emancipation, and he who on that day had sought the spot where the old, musty, grimly unpleasant Bastile had stood, would have found in its place an airy, cheerful building with the laughiug inscription, "/ci on dansc.'"
For seventeen years many writers in Europe have busied themselves unweariedly in trying to
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free the learned men of France from the reproach that they had especially caused the outbreak of the French Revolution. The writers of the present day would fain be in favour again with the great ; they have sought to win once more a soft place at the feet of power, and have behaved, in so doing, with such an air of servile innocence that they are now considered not as seii^ents, but common worms. But I cannot refrain from declarino- the truth, that the writers of the last century were the men who did most to cause the outbreak of the Kevolution, and who determined its character. I praise them for this as one praises a physician who brings about a rapid crisis, and alla}s by his skill the illness which might have been deadly. Without the word spoken by those scholars, France would have lingered on more miserably, and the Revolution, which must have inevitably come, would have assumed a far less noble form ; it would have been vulgar and barbarous, instead of tragic and bloody. Or, what is worse, it might have deteriorated into something laughable and stupid, if its positive needs {inaterielle Nothcn) had not assumed an ideal expression, as has unfortu- nately not been the case in those countries where the writers have not led the peo])h^ to demand a declaration of human rights, and where people make a revolution to escape paying a toll or to get I'id of a mistress. Voltaire and Rousseau are
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two writers who did more than all others to pre- pare the Revolution, who determined its later paths, and who still spiritually lead and rule the French race. Ev'en the enmity between these two has had a marvellous after-effect; perhaps the party strife among the men of the Revolution itself even to this hour is only a continuation of this conflict.
^ For the battle among the revolutionary men of the Convention was nothing but the secret ill- will (GroH) of Rousseau rigorism to Yoltairean Ug^rete. The true Montagnards cherished all the manner of thought and feeling of Rousseau, and as they guillotined at the same time Dantonists and Hebertistes, it came to pass not altogether because the former preached a relaxing mode- ratism, and the latter degenerated into the most unbridled sans-culotteism, or as an old man of the Mountain said to me lately, " Parcequ'ils etaient tons des hommes pourris, frivoles, sans croyance et sans vertu." "When \\\e old state of affairs was overthrown, the wild men of the Revolution were tolerably at peace ; but when something new was to be enacted and the most positive questions were discussed, natural antipathies awoke. That
* The following passages, unto the words " Injustice, however, is dotie to Voltaire," were added by the author as a note ; but as tiiey belong substantially to tlit' text, I have included them in it. — Translator.
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serious dreamer of the Rousseau school, Saint - Just, liated henceforth the gay and witty fan- faron, Desnioulius. The morally pure, incorrupt- ible Robespierre hated the sensual, money-tainted Danton. Maximilian Robespierre of holy memory was the incarnation of Rousseau ; he was deeply religious; he believed in God and immortality; he hated Voltairean mockeries of religion, the undig- nified tricks of a Gobel,^ the orgies of the atheists, the loose conduct of the r>tprits, and perhaps he hated everybody who was witty and laughed.
On the nineteenth Thermidor the Voltairean party, which had been not long previously sup- pressed, conquered ; under the Directory it exer- cised its reaction on the Mountain ; later, during the heroic drama of the Empire, as during the pious Christian comedy of the Restoration, it could only play in minor parts ; yet we have seen it, even to this hour, more or less active, standing at the helm of state, and indeed represented by the former Bishop of Autun, Charles Maurice Talley- rand. J^ousseau's party, suppressed since that unhappy day of Thermidor, lived poorly, but sound in mind and body, in the Faubourgs Saint- Antoine and Saint-Marceaii, in the forms of Garnier Pages, Cavaignac, and of so many other noble Republicans,
* Accordinjj to Carlyle, this luuiie .should be (iobel — "goose Gobei," probably because he was from .Strasburg.
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wlio from time to time appear for the gospel of Freedom. I am not virtuous enough to be able to attach myself to this party, but I hate vice too much to ever make war on it.
Injustice, however, is done to Voltaire should any one assert that he was not as fully inspired as Rousseau ; lie was only more crafty and clever. Heavy unskilfulness always takes refuge in stoi- cism, and growls laconically at seeing adroitness in others. Alfieri reproaches Voltaire because he wrote against great men, while he always carried the candle before them like a chamberlain. The gloomy Piedmontese never observed that Voltaire, while he carried the candle as a servant before the great, at the same time lit up their nakedness. Yet I will by no means acquit Voltaire from the reproach of flattery ; he and the greater portion of the learned men of France crept like spaniels to the feet of the nobles, and licked the golden spurs, and smiled when they wounded their tongues on them or were trampled under foot. Yet when small dogs are kicked they suffer as much as great hounds. The secret hatred of French scholars against the great must have been the more terrible because in addi- tion to the kicks they also received from them mam- benefits.^ Garat relates of Champfort that he
' In allusion to the common saying that our bitterest foes are those whom we have benefited. " Tu omnium ingratissime pro
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once took a thousand dollars (thalers), the savings of a verv hard-worked life, from an old leather purse, and joyfully contributed them to a Revolu- tionar}' cause, on a certain occasion when, at the beginning of the Revolution, money was being collected ; and Champfort was avaricious and had always been protected by the great.
But the men of the working-classes (die Manner cler Geicerbc) did much more than the literati to bring about the fall of the old regime. If the latter believed that in its place there would be a Government of intellectual capacity, the former, as the industrials, held that there would be given to them, as the practically most powerful and influential part of the people, a legal recognition of their higher significance, and quite as certainly citizenly equality and co-operation in state affairs. And in fact, as all institutions had hitherto rested on the ancient military system and church faith — neither of which had any longer a life in them- selves— society must in future be based on the two new powers in which throbbed the most life- power : that is, on industry and science. The clergy, who had been spiritually behind-hand ever
fiumiuis officiis quantum potes maleficiorum reponis." The Romans had even discovered a type of character so detestable that he would do to those who liad rendered him kind service worse evil than he would have inflicted on an enemj'. — Trans- lator.
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siuce the invention of printing, and the nobility, who had been levelled to the ground by the inven- tion of guujDowder, were now compelled to realise that the power which they had held for a thousand years was now passing from their proud but weak hands,^ and going to the despised yetvigorous grasp of scholars and labourers. And they should now have perceived that they could only regain the lost power in common with those labourers and learned men, but they would not perceive it ; they warred foolishly against the unavoidable, and there began a painful and absurd battle, in which crawl- ing, windy falsehood and decaying, diseased pride fought with iron necessity against the guillotine and truth, against life and inspiration, and we still stand on the ground of conflict.
There was a miserable jMinister, a respectable banker, a good father of a family, gouod Christian,
1 Melancthon has given some curious testimony to the fact that the Catholic Church perceived from the beginning that the art of printing would be indeed a black art, and one full of evil for it. It is very amusing to contrast the exultation which Heine here displays over the power of gunpowder as destructive to chivalry, with his scornful and bitter contem2)t of " base villanous saltpetre " when it was employed in cannon at Cressy against French nobility, as is most amusingly set forth in " Shakespeare's Miidchen und Frauen." The contempt which Heine evinces in that work, for common soldiers is only to be paralleled by his unbounded love for them elsewhere.— Translator.
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good arithmetician aud accountant, the jack -fool of the Revolution. He believed stiff aud strong that the deficit of the Budget was the only cause of the trouble and the strife, and he figured night and day to raise the deficit, till at last for mere sheer numerals he could see neither men nor their threatening aspect ; and yet he had in all his folly one happy thought, which was to assemble the Notables. I say that it was a very happy thought, for it benefited Freedom ; without that deficit France might have dragged on much longer in a condition of wretched sickliness. The calling together of the Notables hastened the crisis, and also the cure ; and if the bust of Necker should ever be placed in the Pantheon of Freedom, we will place a fool's-cap crowned with patriotic oak-leaves on his head. It is indeed ridiculous to see only persons in great events and circum- stances,^ but far more absurd when they see in these things only figures or numerals. But there are small minds who in the slyest manner attempt
' DbujtH. " things." I have already commented on tlie luipitying manner in which Germans "ding" this word into our ears to .signify everything, from a teapot up to a revuhition or the Divinity ; but I may here praise Heine's great wi.sdom in declaring the folly of only seeing individuals in "things." It would seem as if, with his occasional spirit of propliecy, he foresaw this end of the century, when biography — the more gossipy and feeble the better — was to outbalance hiritorj', and .Jane C'lrlyle soar in triumph far above Tlunnas. — Tfanshilor.
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to recoucile both errors, who even seek for the numbers in persons with which to explain things. They are not contented to regard Julius Ceesar as the origin of the downfall of Roman freedom, but they assert that the genial Julius was so deeply in debt that, to avoid being put into the jug,^ he was compelled to jug the world with all his creditors. If I am not mistaken, there is a passage in Plutarch where he speaks of Caesar's debts as the basis of such an argument. Bour- ienne, the little, trim, spruce Bourienne, the venal croupier at the hazard-table of the Empire, the pitifully-poor soul, has somewhere indicated in his Memoirs that it was pecuniary difficulties which inspired Napoleon Bonaparte in the be- ginning of his career to great undertakings.^ In
^ Eingestedit, literally " stuck in " or " put up " — as one might say of a man in prison in English slang, that he is "stuck" at last.
- Heine would have had no want of illustration for this theory that all genius or desert may be traced to money, or a want of it, had he looked to the United States, where it pre- vails among the multitude to an incredible extent. Thus Abraham Lincoln's ability is popularly ascribed entirely to his having been extremel)' poor, and, above all, a wood-chopper. Henry Clay's best card was that he had been the mill-boy of the Slashes ; Johnson's, that he was an illiterate tailor ; and so on through most modern candidates. Even a college education is hardly a creditable thing to many, imless indeed the student supported himself by teaching or waiting at hotels in vacation, and, above all, endured great hardships. Wliich is in a great
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this fasliion many deep tliinkers are not contented with considering Mirabeau as the cause of the overthrow of the French monarchy, but declare that he was compelled by want of money and debt to seek relief in overthrowing the existing state of affairs. I will no longer discuss such absurdity, yet I must mention it, because it may be that in a later time it may develop itself in fullest bloom. Mirabeau is now regarded as peculiarly the representative of that fir.st phase of the E evolution which begins and ends Avith the National Assembly.
As such he has become a popular hero. He is discussed daily ; he is seen chiselled and painted eveiywhere ; he is set forth in all French theatres in all his forms, poor and wild, loving and liating, laughing and gnashing his teeth, a reckless, bank- rupt god, whom heaven and earth obeyed, and who was capable of gambling away his last fixed
measure great folly, for genius is independent of both adversity or prosperity, developing itself, it is true, very often in apitr- of the former, but being far more frequently aided and en- couraged by the latter. Tliis claiming that want of money is the one cieative cause of genius is but a natural form of the belief that money is all in all, and the mere millionaire the very greatest and noblest of mortals. It may be observed that Heine predicts that a time is coming when this vulgar error " sich am hlUhcmhtcn entfaJtcn konntc" — "may develop itself most bloomingly," which prophecy is being rapidly fulfilled. — Tianslatoi:
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star and iiis last lonis-d'or at faro ; a Samson who tears down the pillars of the state to bury in the ruins his threatening creditors ; a Hercules who at the parting roads of life accommodates himself to both ladies, and who recreates and refreshes him- self in the arms of Vice from the exertions of Virtue; "an Ariel-Caliban, flashing with genius and ugliness," whom the poetry of love sobered when the poetry of reason had intoxicated him ; a transfigured, glorified profligate of Freedom, worthy of great worship, a thing of doubtful nature (Zireiterwescn), whom only Jules Janin could depict.
And it is by the veiy same moral contradictions of his nature and life that JMirabeau was the representative of his age, which was just as re- probate and sublime, so deeply in debt and rich, who while in prison wrote the most lasci\aous romances,^ yet at the same time the noblest books of freedom, and who afterwards, though
^ The work chiefly referred to is the Erolika JJiblion, a kind of cyclopedia or general account of all the aberrations of sensual passion, and not a romance. From a scientific-liistorical point of view it is not without value, as, for its time, it was a bold protest against the intolerable petty tyranny of the Church in matters which should be left to physicians. Mirabeau is said to have written this witii no other work of reference except the Bible, but it certainly appears to have been modelled on that rare work, tlie Brevis Delincatio, Szc, of Johann Georo- Simon, .Tena, 1682. — Translator,
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loaded witli tlie old powdered wig and a frag- ment of the infamous old chain, advanced as the herald of the coming spring of the world, and cried to the pale and frightened master of the ceremonies of the past, " Allez dire a votre midtre que nous sommes ici par la puissance du peuple, et qu'on ne nous en arrachera que par la force des baionettes." AYith these words the French Ee- volution began ; no bourgeois would have had the courage to utter them ; the tongues of roturicrs and vilains were as yet tied by the dumb spell of ancient obedience, and so it was that it was only in the nobility, in that over-bold, arrogant caste, which never felt true fearful reverence {Ehrfurcht) before a king, that the new era found its first organ. And here I cannot refrain from mentioning that those world-famed words of ]\Iirabeau, as I was recently assured, were really due to Count Yolney, who, sitting by him, whispered them in his ear. I do not believe that this report is quite groundless ; it in no respect conflicts with the character of Mirabeau, who borrowed ideas of his friends as freely as he did their money, and who on that account has been terribly abused in many memoirs, especially in those of Brissot and the recently published work of Dumont.^
* Dumont declares, and evidently with truth, that Mirabeau had entire speeches written for him. which he merely got by
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For this reason mfiny of his conteinporaries have doubted as to his being a really great orator, and only allowed his real sallies of wit and coups de thMtre in the tribune. It is now very difficult to judge him fairly in this respect. According to the testimony of men of his time who may still be questioned, the magic of his oratory lay more in his personal appearance than in his words. It was especially when he spoke slowly and deli-
heart and repeated. Yet it is very certain that the authors of these speeches conld never, as orators, have been Mirabeaus. This leads to the truth that there is something so radically different in the French mind to the German or Anglo-Saxon or American that it is simply incomprehensible to us. Maquet did, with amanuenses or hacks, the greater, and even the most inventive part, of the work of Dumas the elder, yet Maquet never distinguished himself as a novelist. The revising "eye of the master" was needed. Shakespeare had to perfec- tion this art of turning by the alchemy of genius the silver of others into gold. A stage manager and a very distinguished actress have both explained to me in detail that the most suc- cessful drairjas are those in which the greater portion of the text is arranged, with the mise en scene, &c., by " the company,'' but where the author sketches the plot, writes the salit-nt points of dialogues— which are generally cut down — and makes the characters. The innately dramatic character of the French mind explains this apparent contradiction. This paper by Heine i-j, me judice, throughout admirable, and pi-ominent in it is his subtle perception of the true character of Mirabeau, which was in so many respects like his own. But Heine, like a German, always did his own work in full. It would have been practically better for him had, for example, his "Faust" and "Diana" been passed through the crucible of stage management. — Trandator,
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berately that the hearer was thrilled at the mar- vellous sound of his voice, and when one heard the hissing of serpents under the iiowers of speech. In passion he was irresistible. It is told of ^ladame de Stal-l that she once sat in the gallery of the National Assembly when Mirabeau rose to speak against Xecker. It may be well under- stood that such a daughter as she was, who adored her father, was tilled with wrath and rage against .Mirabeau, but these inimical feelings vanished as she listened, and finally, when the storm of his eloquence increased to terrible power — when the poisoned lightnings shot from his eyes and the world-crushing thunder roared from his soul — ^ladame de Stael leaned far out over the railing of the gallery and applauded like mad.
But far more important than the oratorical power of the man was that which he said. This we can now judge most impartially, and see from it tliat Mirabeau most thoroughly under- stood his time ; that he not only knew how to tear down but to build up,^ and that he under-
1 Tlieie are many passages in Carlyle's works whicli to ine conclusively prove that he was under great obligation to Heine, and this is nn'- r.f tli'Mn. The great English writer, in speaking of Voltaire in " Sartur Resartu^,'' sneers at him for having only a hammer to destroy, not a trowel wherewitti to build, and requests him to take our thanks — and himself away. But
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stood the latter better than the great masters who are to-day still Inisy at the work. In the writings of Mirabeau we find tlie chief ideas of constitutional monarchy such as France needed ; we discover the plan, though it be sketched hastily in mere outlines — and I sincerely com- mend unto all the wise and anxious rulers of Europe the study of these lines — lines of state which the greatest political genius of our age drew beforehand with prophetic insiglit and mathematical accuracy. It would be an im- portant matter should any one make a serious study of adapting Mirabeau's works in this respect to Germany. His revolutionary and negative (negicrendcn) thoughts have found quick appreciation and promptly applied action ; but his quite as powerful, positive, and constructive thoughts are less understood or applied.
Least of all did the world understand ]\Iirabeau's predilection for the monarchy. What he would take from this of absolute power he helped to restore by means of constitutional security. Yes, he even thought of increasing and strengthening royal power by boldly tearing the king from the hands of the higher orders, who practically go^■-
in Voltaire's time there was everything to destroy ere the bnilfling could begin. It is not improbable that this work of Heine suggested "The French Revolution."
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evned him by court intrigues and the confessional, and placing him in those of the Third Estate. ]\Iirabeau was the herald of that constitutional monarchy wliich, in my opinion, was the want of the time, and which, more or less democratically formulated, is now needed by us in Germany.
It was this constitutional monarchy which did the greatest injury to the Count, for the Eevolu- tionary men, who did not understand him, saw in it a desertion or falling oft', and thought he had sold the Revolution. They rivalled, in abusing him, the aristocrats, who hated him because they knew that jMirabeau, by destroying their business of privileges, would save and rejuvenate the king- dom at their expense. But just as the wretched conduct (misdre) of the privileged class repulsed liim, so was the coarseness of most of the dema- gogues destructive, and all the more because they, in the mad unchecked manner which we well know, already preached the Eepublic. It is inte- resting to read in the newspapers of that time to what strange resorts those democrats who did not as yet dare oppose him openly had recourse to annul the monarchical tendency of the great tribune. So, for example, when ]\Iirabeau once expressed himself distinctly as a royalist, these journals could only help themselves by declaring that, as Mirabeau very often did not write his own speeches, it came to pass that the address
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which he had from a friend hud not been read by him before delivery, and that it was for the first time on the tribunal that he noted that an altogether royalist oration had been perfidiously passed upon him.
Whether Mirabeau could have ever succeeded in saving the monarchy and founding it anew is to this day a subject of dispute. Some will have it that he died too soon, while others think he died a timely death. He did not die of poison, for the aristocracy just then had need of him. Men of the people do not poison ; the deadly cup belongs to old-fashioned tragedies of palaces. Mirabeau died because he had enjoyed an hour before two dancing-girls, Mesdemoiselles Helis- berg and Colombe, and a ;pate de foie gras mix truffes.
VII.
Paris, May 12, 1832.
The historical reminiscences which I promised in the previous article must be delayed. The present has made itself so harshly felt {so herhe geltend gemaclit) that no one can now busy him- self with the past. The great universal af Miction, the cholera, is gradually passing away, but it leaves behind mucli sorrow and alUiction. The sun shines cheerfully enougli, men go about once more chatting intimately and smiling, but the black suits of mourning which we see everywhere are a check to really cheerful feeling. A sickly sorrow seems to prevail among the people, as if they had all passed through a serious illness ; something like a sentimental weariness oppresses not only the Government, but also the Opposition. The enthusiasm of hatred is very weak, hearts are muddy {versum2)fen), thoughts are pale in the brain ; we look at one another gaping good- naturedly ; we are no longer ill-natured ; men
seem lo ha\e become peaceable and pleasant.
206
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German pietists might now do a good business here.^
People once believed that wonders would come to pass and sudden changes take place should Casimir Perier no longer take the lead ; but it would seem as if meantime the evil had become incurable, and even the death of Perier cannot cure the state.
That Perier should perish by the cholera, or by a general disaster which neither strength nor cunning could resist, must needs disconcert his bitterest enemies. The universal enemy Death had crept in to their confedei'ation, and the most vigorous assistance from such an ally was not agreeable. Perier, indeed, gained liy it the sym- ])athy of the multitude, who all at once felt that he was a great man. Now, when he must be replaced by others, this greatness becomes evident. If he could not with ease bend the bow of Ulysses, he was at least able to achieve it when he exerted all his strength. Certainly his friends can now boast that if the cholera had not pre- vented, he would have accomplished all his plans.
1 A friend of mine who was in Port au Prince, San Uomingo (Haiti), after a great fire, which had destroyed nearly all the houses, and which was followed by a terrible pestilence, observed the same thing ; with this difference, that the blacks, owing to their excitable temperament, touk to merriment and dancing. It was the feeling of rd irf aiter a great disaster. — Translator.
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But what will become of France ? Well, France is a persevering Penelope, who daily w^eaves and duly waits in hope of gaining time till the arrival of the right man or the husband. And who is he ? That I know not. Only this I know, that he will bend the great bow and break up the ban(|uet of the insolent suitors ; he will treat them to deadly bolt-heads ; he will hang the doctrinaire servant-girls who have prostituted themselves to all ; he will purify the house of all its horrible disorder, and, with the help of the wise goddess, will establish better management. And as our actual situation, in which weakness is alto- gether like that of the time of the Directory, so shall we experience another Eighteenth of Brumaire, and the right man will suddenly appear among the powerful men, grown pale, and announce the end of their reign. Tlien there will, of course, be outcries that the Constitution has been violated, as of old in the Council of the Elders when there also came the right man to clear the house. But as he in anger cried aloud : — " Constitution ! You dare to appeal to the Constitution ! you who violated it on the Eighteenth of Fructidor, on the Twenty-second of Floreal, on Thirtieth of Prairiall" — even so will the right man cite the day and date when the Jusie-milieu Ministry also violated the Constitution. How little the Constitution has entered not only
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into the thoughts and schemes of the Government, but also into the popular mind, is manifest when the weightiest constitiitional questions are dis- cussed. Both people and Government seek to explain or profit by the Constitution according to their own private feelings. The people are misled to this by writers and orators, who, either from uncertainty or party feeling, endeavour to pervert ideas. The Government is misled by that fraction of the aristocracy which, devoted through selfishness, form the present Court, and still regard, as they did during the Eestoration, the rej)resen- tative system as a modern superstition to which the people cling, and which cannot be turned from them by force, yet which may be rendered harm- less by slipping in under the new names and forms old personalities and ideas, and that with- out its being perceived. According to the con- ceptions of such men, he is the greatest Minister who can effect as much with the new constitu- tional formulas as was formerly achieved with the formulas of the old regime. Such a Minister was VilMle, of whom, however, when Perier fell ill, no one ventured to think, though they indeed had courage to consider Decazes. He would certainly have been appointed Minister, if the new Court had not feared that it would be soon supplanted by the members of the old. They feared lest he might bring the whole Eestoration with him into
o
2IO FRENCH AFFAIRS.
the Ministry. After Decazes, Guizot was care- fully considered.^ He also was greatly trusted when it was necessary to conceal the most abso- lute aims under constitutional names and forms. For this quasi-father of the new doctrinaires, this author of an English history and of a book of Frencli synonymes, understands how in tlie most masterly manner, by aid of Parliamentary exam- ples drawn from England, to disguise the most illegal things with an ordre Ugal, and to suppress the high-tlying spirit of the French with the heavy and learned letter of the law {das ;plump (jdchrtc Wort). But it is said that even while he conversed warmly with the King, who offered him a portfolio, he suddenly experienced the most ignoble symptoms of the cholera, and abruptly breaking off his discourse, departed, declaring that he could not resist the pressure of the time." Guizot's failure (Bicrchfall) in the choice of a new ]\linister is narrated even more comically by others. Negotiations were then begun with Dupin, who was always regarded as Perier's suc- cessor, and who was believed to be a man of great strength and courage. But the proposal came to
1 The two sentences following, on to the words, " But it is said," do not occur in the French version.
- Abridged in tlie French version to " se sauva en abrcgeaiit son discours." The following sentence is also omitted. Lurch- fall has a coarse double meaning.
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grief because Dupin would not submit to the many restrictions wliich surrounded the presi- dency of the Council. There are, in fact, some peculiar circumstances as regards this presidency. The King himself often assumed it, especially in the beginning of his reign. This was always a great embarrassment for the Minister, and the misunderstandings of those times mostly pro- ceeded from it. I'erier alone wns able to resist such encroachments, and thereby he withdrew affairs from the too great influence of the Court, which under every regime directs the King ; for which reason it is said that the news of Perier's ill- ness was not unacceptable to many of the friends^ of the Tuileries. The King now seemed to be perfectly justified when he personally assumed the presidency of the Council ; but when this pro- visory arrangement was made public there arose in the salons and newspapers a very violent dispute as to whether the King had a right to act thus.
In doing this there was manifested much chica- nery and more ignorance. People gossipped about what they had only half learned and not at all understood, and there was a rustling and spirting from many mouths lilce a political waterfall.-
1 French version — habitues. — Translato?: - French version — " Et tout cela deviiit uii havardage bouil- lonnant et intarissable."
212 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
The views of most of the journals were not of the most brilliant kind, excepting only the NationaJ, and there was again heard the old war-cry, which the Restoration l)ad originated : " Le roi regne, mais ne gouverne pas." The three men and a half who then occupied themselves with politics in Germany translated his axiom, if I do not err, with the words, " Der Konig herrscht, aber er regiert nicht " — " The king rules, but does not reign." But I do not approve of that word herrsc/icn ; there is in it, according to my manner of thinking, a shade of despotism. And yet this maxim indicates the difference of the two powers, the Absolute and the Constitutional.^
In what does this difference consist ? He who is politically pure at heart may most accurately discuss the question even on the other side of the llhine. By deliberately turning it round and round, people have succeeded in making it on one side an aid to the most daring Jacobinism, and on the other to the most cowardly servility.
As the theory of Absolutism, from the con- temptible but learned Salmasius down to Herr Jarke, who is not learned at all,^ has been
1 French version — "Et pourtant cette maxiine formulee par le genie politique de Thiers, a 6t6 acceptde pour bien dtablir la difference entre les deu.x pouvoirs absolu et constitutionnel."
- Heine speaks of the same Jarke in the Rcischilder — not very politely — as a contemptible legal insect. — Translator.
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chiefly defended by writers of suspicious char- acter, it has happened that the evil reputation of its advocates has greatly injured the cause itself. He to whom an honourable name is dear, hardly dare openly defend it, though he were never so firmly convinced of its truth. And yet the doc- trine of absolute power is just as honest and defensible as any other political opinion. No- thing is more revolting than what now so often happens — the confounding absolutism with des- potism. The despot acts arbitrarily according to the caprice of his will; the absolute prince, with clear intelligence and sense of duty.^ The characteristic of the absolute king is this, that
^ It can hardly fail to occur to any thinking reader that this is not at all a distinction between two kinds of political power, but merely that of the possible difference between a good man and a bad, or of the varied private character of rulers in the same position. Carlyle, who, I believe, was very much indebted to Heine, though he nowhere manifests his obligations, made the utmost of this mighty and just hero in power, and roars for him aloud in many pages ; but neither the one nor the other ever gave the world any idea how we are to put the right man in the right place. First catch your hero. There is again the mystical and supernatural theory that the Great Endowed always makes or finds his way to his proper position — " God alone knows how, but always somehow ;" which is a manifest absurdity, since, if it were true, there could be nothing to complain of. The result of all which is simply this, that genius is a glorious thing, but by far too rare to be absolutely relied on, even in kings, while Heine and Carlyle demand that it shall be supplied with as much confidence as if it were oysters in season. — Translator.
214 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
everything in the state is done by his will. But as only very few men have any will of their own, or rather as most men unwittingly wish for only tliat which their surrounding will, it comes to pass that the latter generally rule in place of the absolute king. We call the surrounding of a king his court, and it is the courtiers who rule in those absolute monarchies, where the kings are not of stubborn nature and impassable to foreign influences. The art of courts consists in harden- ing soft princes so that they may become a club in the hand of the courtier, and in so taming the wild that they willingly lend themselves to every game or to all postures and actions, like the lions of M, Martin ; just as the latter knows how to tame the king of beasts by weakening him,^ so courtiers know how to tame many a king of men when he is too stubborn "^ and wild by enervating vices, and to govern them through mistresses aided by cooks, comedians, voluptuous music, dancing, and similar intoxication of the senses. It too
' Original — " Ach ! f;ist auf dieselbe Weise vvie Dieser den Konig der Thiere zu zlihnien weiss, indem er nachtlich des Xachts seinuin Kiifige nalit, ihn niit dmikler Hand in mensch- liche Laster einwciiit uud nachlier am Tage, den Geschwachten ganz gehorsam findet, so wissen die Hoflinge inanchen Konig . . . zu zjihmen."
- Straubsaia, lituially bristly, or, as is commonly said in New linglaiKJ, "has got liis bristles up."
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often happens that absohite rulers are the most dependent of slaves on then- surrounding, and if we could only hear the true opinions of those who are publicly regarded with the utmost hate, we should perhaps be deeply moved l)y the most truthful complaints of unheard-of arts of seduction and the sad perversion of the best feelings of the human heart. And there is, moreover, in unlimited power such a terrible capacity for evil temptation that only the very noblest man can resist it. He who is subject to no law is deprived of the most salutary means of defence, for the laws should protect us not only against others, but ourselves. Therefore the belief that their power is bestowed on them by God is not only pardonable in absolute princes, but even necessary. Without such a faith they would be the most unfortunate of mortals who, without being more than men, are subject to superhuman temptations and responsibilities. It was tlmt faith in a divine mandate which gave the absolute kings whom we admire in history a glory and a greatness to which no modern royalty can rise. They were mundane mediators ; ^ they had at times to expiate the crimes of their people ; they were at once the offering and the priest ; they were holy or sacer in the antique sense of
^ French versiuu — "lis otaient des iiiediateurs celestes," (Jeriiiau— " Weltliclie Vtjnnittler."
2i6 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
the consecration of death. So we see kings of ancient days who in pestilences atoned with their own blood for the people, or who believed that the pnblic suffering was a penalty for their private or personal sins. Even now, when there is an eclipse of the sun in China, the Emperor is terri- fied, and reflects whether he has not by some evil act caused the universal darkness, and so does penance that the light of heaven may again shine on his subjects. Among races in which absolu- tism still reigns in all its holy vigour, as is the case among; the north-western neighbours of China even unto the Elbe, it would be taken ill should one preach doctrine of a representative constitu- tion ; but it is held to be quite as blamable to teach absolutism in the greater portion of the rest of Europe, where the faith in the divine right is extinct among princes and people.
By declaring that the essential being of Absolu- tism consists in this, that the will of the king himself governs {regiert), I indicate the character or true nature of representative or of consti- tutional monarchy the more readily when I say, "This differs from that, because institutions therein replace a royal will." ^ In place of this
^ Institutions and ideas or principles also replace that more elusive and .>ji)ifting form of despotism or sainth(jod, as the case may be, known as reliance on genius, coming men, and hero- worship. — Translator.
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will, which may easily be perverted, we here see an institution or a system of political principles which are immutable. The king is here a kind of moral person in a judicial sense, and he is less influenced by the individual passions of those who immediately surround him, than by the wants of his people ; nor does he any longer act according to the unbridled desires of a court, but according to firm laws. Therefore in every country courtiers are the secret or open enemies of a constitutional system. This system has killed their power, which endured many thousands of years, by the pro- foundly ingenious arrangement that the king only represents the idea of power ; that he may indeed choose his Ministers, but that they rule— not he ; and that they in turn can only rule so long as they represent the opinions of the majority of the repre- sentatives of the people, since the latter can refuse the means of governing — that is, taxes. Therefore, as the king does not govern himself, the discontent of the people in case of bad administration cannot directly reach him. From which it results that in constitutional states the king in such cases chooses other and more popular Ministers, from whom a better government may be expected, while in absolute governments, where the king himself rules of his own free will, he is at once subjected to the wrath of his people, who, to help themseh^es, must overthrow the state. Therefore
2iS FRENCH AFFAIRS.
only by the king's 7wt governing in person is the safety of the state independent of his person- ality, nor is it imperilled by every kingly, great, or niggardly small passion, and thereby attains a security of which earlier state-sages had no con- ception.^ Since from Xenophon to Fenelon the education of a prince seemed to be a matter of primary importance, e^'en great Aristotle must aim at it in his " Politics," and the greater Plato could propose nothing better than setting philo- sophers on tjie throne, or making princes into philosophers.
Therefore, as the king does not himself govern, he cannot be responsible ; he is inviolable, and only his Ministers can be accused, condemned, and punished for bad government. Blackstone, I he commentator on the English Constitution, erred in including the irresponsibility of the king among his prerogatives. This idea ilatters a king
' The seven line.s of the German text following are omitted from the French version. As regards the ensniug sentence, even the most aristocratic of conservatives will not deny that in the education of princes we sei'in to be falling to the other extreme of neglect, there still being li!ft in Europe a few geiitle- men of tliis class, for whom it W(nUd iiave been mucii better had tht'Y been better educated as regards morals, intellect, and true di;,'nity. For wiiat is a peccadillo in a private man be- comes in truth a glaring sin or crime in a prince, by whose example, tastes, and habits thousands are seriously influenced. — Tv'inslntor.
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more than it aids or profits him. In the countries of political Trotestantism, i.e., in those which are Constitutional, the rights of princes are rather recognised as founded on reason, which furnishes sufficient cause for their inviolability so soon as we admit that they cannot act themselves, and are therefore neither accountable, responsible, nor punishable any more than any one can be who does nothing. The maxim that " the kiiKj can do no wronff," so far as irresponsibility is based on it, amounts to nothing unless we add to it " because he docs nofhing." But it is the Ministers who act in the place of the constitutional king, and they are in consequence responsible. They act inde- pendently ; they may or can directly thwart any royal suggestion which does not agree with their own principles, and in case their manner of governing is displeasing to the king they can retire altogether. Without such freedom of will the responsibility of the Ministers, which they assume whenever they countersign any act of government, would be an impious injustice or cruelty — an absurdity ; it would be an introduc- tion of the doctrine of the scapegoat into political rights and principles. They are only account- able to their independent ruler, as lie is to God.^ They are only his devoted aids, his true servants,
1 Thirteen lines of the Geinuin text are here wanting in tlie French version. — Trcoislator.
220 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
and must obey him unconditionally.^ Their en- dorsement only serves to confirm the authenticity of the deed and of tlie royal signature. It is true that after the death of princes many such Minis- ters have been impeached and condemned, but always unjustly. Enguerrand de Miraguy de- fended himself in such circumstances with the touching words : — " AVe as ^Ministers are only hands and feet ; we must obey our head, the king ; he is now dead, and his thoughts lie with him in the grave — we cannot and we dare not speak."
After these few indications of the difference between absolute and constitutional power, it will be clear to every one that the discussion as to the Presidency as it has appeared during pre- sent circumstances does not so much concern the question whether the King should preside at the Council, as how far he can preside.- It is of no consequence that the Charte does not forbid it,
^ The reader is requested to remember that such "damnable iterations" when they occur are the fault of the author, and not (as is too often the cas^e in other books) that of tlie trans- lator. Heine would have been delighted, if not with the grammar, at least with the form of expression of Martin Van Buren when he said in a message, "Our sufferings is intolerable, and not to be borne." There are, however, cases in which a German word, being, as it were, double-barrelled, requires a double load, or two words to convey all its strength. But " this is a horse of very different hue." — Translator.
- " Wie fern er es prasidieren darf." French version — " De quelle mani6re entend-il pr^sider."
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or that a paragraph seems to periuiL it ; but it is necessary to know whether he is to preside simply lionoris causa, for his own edification, quite pas- sively, without active participation, or whether he, as President, may make his own will prevail in leading and executing state affairs. In the first case, it may henceforth be allowed him to rnnuyer himself, if it should be his pleasure, a few hours daily in the society of Messrs Berthe,^ Louis, Sebastiani ; in the other, it must be most decidedly forbidden to him.
In fact, according to this last supposition, he would, governing by his ow^n will, come near being an absolute monarch — at least he would himself be regarded as a responsible Minister. Certain journals have asserted with much reason that it would be unjust, if a man lying on his deathbed, like Perier, or one who cannot so much as control the muscles of his face, like Sebastiani,^ should be responsible for the independent acts of govern- ment of the King.^ It is in any event a trouble- some question of severe significance, for it will recall to many the saying of the Terrorists — " La rcq)onsahiliU c^est la mort." On this occasion the National declares, with a disagreeable for-
^ This name, Berthe, is omitted in the French version. — I'Tanslator.
^ French version — " Un apoplectique coinnie M. Sebastiani." ■^ Jiegkrunrjsactc. French version — Actes. — Translator,
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wardness of wliich I cannot approve, the respon- sibility of the King, and consequently denies his inviolability. This cannot be other than a very unpleasant reminder {Mahmnig), and one which may well cause him some reflection. His friends think it would be desirable that he should do nothing whatever which would in the least lead to discussing the principle of inviolability, which would ruin it in public opinion. Yet Louis Philippe, when we consider fairly his situation, cannot be altogether blamed for trying to help a little in governing. He knows that his Ministers are no geniuses;^ the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak. The actual maintenance of power seems to him to be the main object. The principle of inviolability became to him only a matter of secondary importance. He knows that Louis XVI., of headless memory, was also inviolal)le. There is this which is peculiar as regards inviolability in France : the principle of inviolability is there inviolable. It is like the diamond which Don Fernando Perez de Acaiba wore in a ring, which had this wondrous power, that though its l)earer
' " Er weiss, seine Minister .sind keine Genies." French version — "II salt que ses ministres ne sent pas desfjmnts." Heine's secre- tary has here mistaken Genies for tlie giant Genii of the "Arabian Ni;,'lits." In almost every sentence of tliis page there is a similar looseness or inaccuracy in the French translation. But it is sometimes impossible to decide as to which version is really the original. — Translator,
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should fall from the highest tower of a church, the stone would remain uninjured.
Howe^'er, to remedy to a certain degree this terribly embarrassing dilemma [Mlssstand), Louis Philippe has created a provisional Presidency, and given it to ]M. Montalivet, who is at the same time Minister of the Interior, M. Girod de 1' Ain becoming in his place Minister of Public Instruction. One need but see these men to be able to declare with perfect certainty that they have no independence and act as mere countersigning puppets.^ Mon- sieur the Count de Montalivet is a well-formed young man, who has almost the appearance of a pretty schoolboy looked at with an opera-glass. The other, M. Girod de I'Ain, sufficiently known as President of the Chamber of Deputies, where he knows very well how to serve the interests of the King by prolonging or shortening the sittings, is devotion itself. He is a flabby, thick-set, stout man,- stiffish little legs, with a heart of papier- mache, and he looks like a Brunswicker who sells pipes in fairs and market-places, or a family friend who brings biscuits for thv'^ children, and who pats the dogs.
^ " Das sie nur als contrasignieiende Hanipelnianner agiren." French version — "Griffes a contre-seign."
- The words '"flabby" and "of papier-mache" are omitted in the French version, and also all that remains of this chapter, — Translator.
224 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
It is said, or rather very well known, of Mar- shal Soiilt, the ^Minister of War, that he is con- tiuiuilly intriguing to be made President of the Council. This position is the aim of great strife iu the Ministry itself, and the intrigues and snares which thereby cross one another often ruin the best plans, whence result antagonism, strife, and discords,^ apparently originating in differences of opinion, but actually resulting from one common vanity, every one being ambitious (ehrgeizt) for the " Presidency." President of the Council is a de- fined title, which divides him rather too distinctlv from the rest of the Ministry. Thus, for example, in tlie question of the respon.sibility of the Mini- ster, the opinion prevails that the President is responsible for errors in the tendency of the ^Ministry, but every other ^Minister only for those of his own Department. This distinction, and especially the official nomination of a President of the Council, is a confining and confusing mis- take. We do not find this among the English, whose constitutional forms are a model. The Presidency, if I am not wrong, does not exist among them as an official title. The "First Lord of the Treasury" is indeed commonly president, but not as such. The natural presi-
^ " Gegnerschaft, Zvvi.st und Zerwurfnisse," " Insatiate archer, would not one suffice ? " — Translator.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 225
dent, ihoiigli not legally such, is always that Minister whom the King has empowered to form a Ministry — that is, to choose among his friends and acquaintances those who agree with him in political opinions, and at the same time can control a majority in Parliament.^ Such a commission has the Duke of Wellington received, Lord Grey and his Whigs being suppressed — for the moment.
^ ill the original letter wliich appeared in the Albjehuine ZeitiuKj the following was the conclusion of this sentence : "So we have recently seen, when Lord Grey was obliged to resign, that the King gave the Duke of Wellington the order to form a new Ministry. I cannot refrain from mentioning, by the way, that when 1 lately predicted in these pages, in the beginning of March, in the most decided manner, the direction which the affair was taking, I was annoyed with much contradiction from every side, and many statesmen shrugged their shoulders at the German prophet. 1 have now — more's the pity ! — the sad satisfaction of knowing that my prophecy has been fulfilled. Lord Grey and his Whigs are defeated, though it may be but for an instant ; and the devil must again build a church."
VIII.
Paris, May 27, 1832.
Casimir Perier degraded France in order to raise prices on Change. He wished to sell the liberty of Europe for the price of a shameful and short peace for France. He aided and availed himself of the sbirri of slavery, and whatever is worst in our own nature or selfishness, so that thousands of the noblest men perished by want and misery, wretchedness and degradation (Schiriipf), and loss of self-respect. He caused the dead in the tombs of July to appear ridiculous — the poor martyrs of the great week, who did not fight for the younger Bourbon line ^ — while he has made life so terrible for the living that they must needs envy the dead. He has extinguished the sacred fire, closed the temple, angered the gods, and broken men's hearts. He has spiritually dis- armed France, while he granted the enemy an armistice in which to supply themselves with
^ This sentence is omitted in the French version. — Trans- lator.
226
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 227
material weapons ten times more threatening.^ And yet I would vote that Casimir Perier should be laid in the Pantheon, or in that great house of honour which bears the golden legend, " Aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante." For Perier was a great man ; he had rare talents and rare strength of will, and what he did he did in good faith that he was serving his country, and he did it at the sacrifice of his peace, his prosperity, and his life.
And there, be it marked, a country should be grateful to its great men, not so much for the profit and mere results of their deeds, but for their sacrifices and intentions.- Even more, when they attempted nothing and did nothing for their native land, it should houour its great names after death, for they glorified it by their great-
' This sentence is omitted in the French version. — Trans- lator.
- A principle a> applicable to individuals, as regards those who seek to aid them, as to the State, yet one which is rapidly losing ground in modern life, in which "taking the will for tlie deed " is distanced by the American saying that " Nothing suc- ceeds like success." For those who live in ''the movement " to say, " He meant well, and did his best to help me, but failed," is almost equivalent to saying that he wms good for nothing, or as indifferent as an impotent enemy. The degree to which this is being unconsciously manifested in novels and journals is as remarkable as the fact that there has been no perception of its increase, and no indignant protest against it, by those who keep guard on the citadel of literature. — Translator.
228 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
iiess. As the stars are the splendour of the heavens, so do great men make splendid their home and the whole earth. For the hearts of men are as the stars of the earth, and I believe that could one look down from above on our planet, these hearts would ray forth to our eyes like brilliant lights or as the planets in the sky around. Perhaps from such a lofty point of view one may truly see how many splendid stars are spread on earth; how many shine in deserts all ob- scure, unknown and alone; how brilliant with them is our German land; how flashing and gleaming, France, that Milky Way of great human hearts.
^ A great star perished with Casimir Perier. Yes, altliough this star, which followed so obe- diently the financial kings of the East, announced a salvation which was not for the poor but the rich, and a star of ill-omen for the sons of free- dom, we will still with upright hearts recognise and bear witness to its greatness.
France has of late lost many stars of the first magnitude. The cholera has taken away nume- rous heroes of the time of the Itcvolution and of the Empire. Many distinguished statesmen, among whom jMartignac was the most eminent, have
"^ This sentence is wanting in the French version — an extra- ordinary instance of omission, since the whole preceding page is a leading up or introduction to it. — Translator .
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 229
died of other disorders. Tlie friends of learninp; especially regret the death of CharnpoUion, who discovered so many ]']gyptian kings, and that of Cuvier, who found so many other great creatures which no longer exist, and proved to our mother earth, most ungallantly, that she is many thou- sands of years older tlian she has claimed to be. " Liih, Tiihte sannc won " (les tetes s'en vont,) quacked M. Sebastiani when he heard of the death of Perier, and then cackled that he too must die. The death of Perier caused less sensation than was expected, and had no effect on the Bourse. I could not refrain from going thither on the day when he died. There stood the great temple of marble where Perier was honoured like a god and his word like an oracle, and I felt the columns — the hundred colossal columns which range round without ^ — and they were all motionless and cold, even like the hearts of those for whom Perier had done so much. Oh, the pitiful dwarfs ! They will never again find a giant wlio will sacrifice himself for them, and wdio will abandon the giants his brothers for their pigmy interests. This petty folk may henceforth ever mock the giants who, poor and clumsy, sit on the mountains, while they, the little ones, favoured by their stature.
' French version — " Je mis la main sur les colonnes qui s'dlancent sons le pourtonr."
230 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
creep into the narrow entries of the mines and knock off the precious metals, or get them by the aid of the still smaller gnomes or metallarii. Descend e^'en deeper into your mines, hold fast to the ladder, nor trouble yourself because its rounds are ever growing dirtier the lower you go to the richest veins of wealth.
I vex myself every time I enter the Bourse, the beautiful edifice of marble, built in the noblest Greek style, and consecrated to the most con- temptible business — to swindling in the public funds.'^ It is the most beautiful building in Paris. Napoleon erected it, and he also built in the same style and proportions a temple to Glory. Unfor- tunately, the temple to Glory is as yet unfinished ; the Bourbons changed it to a church, and dedi- cated it to the repentant Magdalen {La Madeleine). But the Bourse is perfect in its completed splen- dour, and to its influence we may ascribe the fact that its nobler rival, the Temple of Fame, is still unfinished and still remains, as if in disgraceful derision, dedicated to the repentant Magdalen. Here, in the vast space of the high-arched hall, here it is that the swindlers in public funds, with all their repulsive faces and disagreeable screams,
^ Staatspapicrensehacho: Schachcr, from the Hebrew, shachcrrij to haggle, make profit by shari) and close dealing, imi)lying cheating. " Schiicher," robber, wrctcli.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 231
sweep here and there, like the tossing of a sea of egotistic greed, and where, amid the wild billows of human beings, the great bankers dart up, snapping and devouring like sharks — one monster preying on another; and where,in the gallery, like birds of prey watching on a cliff", even speculating ladies may be seen. Yet here it is that the interests are at home which in this our time decide peace and war.i
Therefore the Bourse is of such importance for us publicists.^ Yet it is not easy to accurately grasp the nature of those interests according to every inlluential event, or to justly appreciate the results. The rate of state papers and of dis- count is of course a political thermometer, but one would be deceived if he believed that this
1 It is a question not for the present, but the future, whether a time may come when stock-exchange gambling, and with it syndicates and " trusts," will be legislated, with Italian lotteries, out of existence. " While men live they will gamble," says an (lid sharper in one of Lever's novels, referring to the rouge et noil- and roulette banks of the last generation. Yet with the closing of tliat in Homburg in 187 1, where I was present, sucli institutions were effectively ended in Germany, as were lotteries in all really civilised countries. In America, I believe that Louisiana is the only State which still officially maintains this latter lowest form of "play." — Translator.
- Publicist, literally an authority on public law, now gene- rally extended to writers on public affairs. A publicist is often a literary man who publishes opinions in either newspapers, pamphlets, or books, and who sometimes also prints them. There is no word in English which quite corresponds to it. — Translator.
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thermometer indicated the highest degree of any of the great questions which now agitate humanity. The rise or fall of funds does not indicate that of the liberal or servile party, but the greater or lesser hopes entertained for the pacification of Europe, for the maintenance of afTairs as they are, or rather for the keeping in safety those relations on which the payment of the interest of the public del)t depends.^
From this limited point of view, the speculators on the Bourse are, as regards anything which may liappen, greatly to be admired. Undisturbed by any intellectual or sentimental feeling, all their faculties are directed to the practical, and it is with almost animal instincts that they, like weather- frogs,- divine whether any event which is appa- rently a promise of peace may not be a cause of future storms, or whether a great disaster may not in the end confirm general tranquillity.
' Tims it lias been slidwn that in Italy the gold in which this interest is paid is ab(jut e([uivalent to that which is annually brought intfi the country by foreign travellers. Of this sum one-third is contributed by Americans alone. The Engli.><h probably jiay more. — TranHlator.
- A peculiar kind of small frog, which i.s, I believe, in France also called a camargo. It is kept in a glass jar iialf-full of water, in which there is a small ladder. When tlie weather will be fine, the frog climbs to the top of the ladder. I have read a French novelette entitled " Mademoiselle Camargo," the subject of which is what befell such a frog. — Translator.
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When "Warsaw fell, no one asked what evil would result from it to humanity, but "Will the victory of the knout ^ discourage the stirrers-up of disorder —that is, the friends of freedom ? " The affirma- tive to this question caused a rise in securities. Should there be suddenly received on Change a telegraphic message stating that M. Talleyrand believed in retribution or reward after death, French funds would at once fall 10 per cent., for it would be felt that he would attempt to reconcile himself with God, and renounce and sacrifice Louis I'hilippe and the whole Jus/c- milien, and set at stake the admirable tran- (|uillity which we now enjoy.- Neither existence nor non-existence, but peace or disturbance is the great question of the Bourse. According to this, the rate of discount regulates itself. In restless times money is uneasy ; it retreats into the coffers of the rich as into a citadel, remains retired, and the rate of interest rises ((7c?- Diskonto stcigt). In peaceful times money becomes free from care and confiding; oilers itself cheaply, shows itself pub-
•^ Kantscliu. Originally :\ Tnrkisli word, signifying a leather whip.
- In the first or original letter in the Allgemeinc Zeitung this sentence ends as follows : — " He would apply to Louis Philippe and the whole Justc-milicu his well-known — 'Talleyrand hath given, Talleyrand hath taken away, blessed be the name of Talleyrand!' and so set at stake the admirable tranquillity which we now enjoy."
234 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
liely, and is very affiible — discount is low. By which we see that an old louis d'or has more intel- ligence than any man, and can best tell of coming war or peace. It may be that from such close inter- course with money all the aamblers on the Bourse have gained a kind of political instinct, and that while of late the deepest thinkers only expect a war, they remained quiet of soul and only believed in tlie maintenance of peace. If you asked of any of them his reasons for such security, then, like Sir John Falstaff, he would give none on compulsion, but always declared, " It is my idea." In this idea the Bourse has of late strengthened itself, and even the death of Perier could inspire no other. It is true that it was long prepared for the event, and it is believed that his system of peace will survive him and l)e firmly main- tained by the death of the King.^ But this com- plete indifference to the news of the death of Perier gave me a disagreeable feeling. For decency's sake tlie Bourse might have shown its sorrow by just a little fall. But no; not an eighth of one per cent. ; not an eighth of one mournful red cent, did funds fall at the death of Casimir Perier, the great banker-minister !
^ French version — "On se figure d'ailleurs que son syst6me lui servira." If not a mere typoyrapliical error, this indicates translation by anotlier than lleine.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 235
There was the coldest indifference manifested at the burial of Perier, as there had been at his death. It was a spectacle, like any other; the weather was fine, and hundreds of thousands of people were afoot to see the iuneral as it slowly passed along the Boulevard to Pcre la Chaise. Smiles were on many faces ; on others, the dullest, e very-day expression ; on most, simply ennui. Of course there w^ere innumerable troops, though ihey hardly suited the hero of the pacific system of disarmament, with many National Guards and gendarmes. The artillery were also there with their guns, and they perhaps felt sincere grief, for they had under Perier good and easy times, like a sinecure. The multitude regarded it all with strange apathy, showing neither hate nor love. It was the enemy of all enthusiasm who was buried, and the convoy was Indifference. The only truly afflicted ones in this multitude of mourners were the two sons of the deceased. They, dressed in long black cloaks and with pale faces, walked behind the hearse. They are two young men of about twenty, short and stout, and of a general appearance rather indicating health and comfort than intellect. I saw them during the past winter at all the balls, jolly and rosy. There were spread on the coffin tricoloured flags draped with black crape. But truly the tricoloured flag had little cause to go into mourn-
22,6 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
ing at the death of Casimir Perier. It lay mournfully like a silent reproach on his coffin, that Hag of freedom \vhieh had suffered so much through his fault. And as much as by the flag was I touched at the sight of old Lafayette at the funeral of Perier, tlie apostate, who had once so gloriously fought witli liim under that banner.
^ ]\Iy neighbours who saw the procession spoke of the obsequies of Benjamin Constant. As 1 have been only a year in Paris, I only know the grief wlncli the people felt on that day from description. Yet I can imagine what such popular sufiering must be, as I had not long before seen the burial of the former Bishop of Blois, or the Gregoire of the Convention. There were, indeed, no grand officials, no infantry or cavalry, no empty mourning-coaches full of court-lackeys, no cannon, no ambassadors with gay liveries, no official pomp. But the people wept. There was the suffering of sori'ow on every face, and though it rained like bucketsful from heaven, all heads were uncovered,- and the crowd harnessed itself before the hearse, and drew it to Mont Parnasse. Gregoire, a true priest, fought during liis whole
^ Tlie fiilIo\viii'4 passage to the words "The funeral of Perier,'" or twenty-three lines of the German text, are wanting in the French version. — Trnndator,
- Apropos of which it might be suggested that it would be a very humane thing if peojjle wlien dying would kindly leave
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 237
life for freedom and equality of men of every colour and of every faith ; he was always hated and persecuted by the enemies of the people, and the people loved him and wept when he died.
It was between two and three o'clock when the funeral of Perier passed along the Boulevards. When I came out from dinner at half-past seven, 1 met the soldiers and the hearse returning from the cemetery. The vehicles now rolled fast and merrily along; the mourning drapery had been taken from the tricoloured tk^g ; it and the equip- ments of the cuirassiers gleamed in the airiest sunshine; the red-clad trumpeters, trotting on white horses, gaily played tlie Marseillaise ; the multitude, well dressed and smiling, tripped to the theatres; the sky, which had long been overcast w^ith clouds, was now su charmingly blue, so sun-perfumed ; the trees gleamed as if enraptured with their own verdure ;^ the cholera
the i-tiijuest that 110 lieads should be uncovered duriiiy the religious ceremonies at tlieir funeral. There are probably very few of my readers wlio cannot recall instances, not merely of catarrhs, but of deaths resulting from this absurd custom. Nor is it much wiser to stand for perhaps half-an-hour in the open air, in possibly inclement weather, by a newly-dug grave, subject to the worst influences of malaria. — Translator.
1 GriinvercjniUjt. The French version gives this simply as ".si fraiche, si heureuse."
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and Casimir Peiier were forgotten — and it was spring.
Now the man is indeed buried, but the system still lives. Or is it really true that that system is not the creation of Perier, but of the King ? Certain Philippistes were the first to express this opinion, that confidence in the independent power of the King might be awakened, that it might not be supposed that he stood wanting counsel and support by the grave of his protector, and finally, that there should be no doubt as to the mainten- ance of the system which has so far existed. And now many enemies of the King are availing them- selves of this belief ; it comes to them like a wish at once magically fulfilled ^ that people date that unpopular system before the 13th of March, and attribute to it a most eminent founder, to whom, accordingly, the most eminent responsibility is attached. Friends and enemies often agree to mutilate Truth. They either cut oft" her legs, or else draw them out till they are as slender and thin as a lie. Party-spirit is a Procrustes which
' "Es kommt ihnen ganz erwiinscht." There is in this word imnschen a very curious indication of early association with magic and sorcery, as if the wish had been fulfilled by mira- culous or fairy aid. We find traces of it in Wiinschelhut, WilnKchdruthe (a magic wand), and verv-iinschen, to enchant, bewitch, or spell-bind. French version — " C'est combler uu de lenrs voeux les plus cheis." — 2'ranslator.
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 239
makes a bad bed for Truth. 1 do not believe that Perier, as regards the so-called system of March 13, only sacrificed his honourable name, and that Louis Philippe is the real father.^ He per- haps denies the paternity of this embarrassing child, as did the peasant youth who innocently added, " Mais pour dire la verite, je n'y ai pas nui." All the abuse which has been lavished on France is now placed to the account of the King. The kick which the sickly lion lately received at Ptome from the she-ass of the Lord has intolerably exasperated the French. Yet they wrong him. Louis Philippe does not lightly endure an insult, and would be willing enough to fight, though not with every one, — for instance, with Ptussia, though willing enough with Prussia, whom he has already fought at Valmy, and consequently does not seem to fear. It has been observed that he shows no apprehension when Prussia and its threatening chivalry are discussed. Louis Philippe Orleans, the descendant of Saint Louis, a scion of the most
^ In the French version this is better expressed as a question : ''Serait-il vrai que, dans le systeme du 13 mars, Perier n'ait fait que sacrificier son nom honorable, et que Louis Philippe soit le veritable pere de ce systeme ? " As regards the anecdote which follows, there is an old jest of sixteenth-century Latin origin which would have been even more appropriate, in whicli a rustic, when similarly accused, replies, " I was neither author nor artist of this work — 7ion auctor ncc faber sum Jiujus opcris — I did but aid a little in the makincr thereof." — Translator.
240 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
ancient race ot" kin'is, the first uentleman of Christendom, then jests like a jolly citizen at Nvhat is, however, mortifying enough — that the Brandenburg [die Uckcrnmrlcssclic) camarilla look down so very aristocratically and with such pride of nobility on him, the poor citizen-king.
I may here mention that no one ever sees any airs of the grand seigneur in Louis I'hilippe, and that the French people coidd not, in fact, have chosen a more citizen-like man for king. Nor does he attach much importance to being a legiti- mate king, and, as it is said, Guizot's invention of quasi-legitimacy was not to his liking.^ He does not envy Henry \. in the least his advantage of lenitimacv, nor is lie inclined tu negotiate with or oll'er liim money fur this (jbject ; but Louis Philippe is, once I'oi' all, tirndy of the opinion that he invented the citizen-kingdom ; he has taken out a patent for the invention ; he derives from it an annual income of eighteen millions, a sum which ahnost surpasses that of the gambling-houses of I'aris, and he would like to secure sucli a profitable l)usiness to himself and his descendants.
I ]iave shown in the previous article how dear tu tlie heart of Louis Philippe, above all thmgs,
' In the French vernion Guizot's name is omitted. " Et Ton dit que Tinvenlion du mot, de quaai-lcjilimitt n'etait pas tout a fait de son "out."
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 241
is the retaining that royal monopoly, and con- siderinu" how liunian and natural such manner of thought is, how much excuse there is for his usurpation of the Presidency of the Council. In fact, he does not seem to have retired into the proper limits of his constitutional riglits, although he dares no longer preside formally. The real cause of dispute is as yet by no means settled, and it will be pulled and tugged at till the forma- tion of a new ]\Iinistry. What chiefly indicates the weakness of Government is that the mainten- ance, renewal of, or changes in the Ministry depend not on internal wants or requirements of the country, but on foreign events. Such a depend- ence on external interests was shown sadly and publicly enough during the latest occurrences in England. Every rumour wafted thence to us caused consultation as to new combinations in the Ministry. Much was thought of Odilon Barrot, and people were well on the way to even think of Mauguin.i When the British helm was known to be held by Wellington, people lost their heads altogether, and were of a mind, by way of mili- tary counterpoise, to make Marshal Soult Prime Minister.
Freedom in Enoland and France would then have been commanded by two old soldiers, who,
^ This sentence is omitted in the French version.
Q
242 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
never having learned aught except to obey as slaves or to order as despots, would have been utter strangers or enemies to all independent citizenship. Soult and "Wellington as regards character are mere condottieri/ only that the first was trained in a nobler school to the trade of arms, and thirsts for renown as much as for gold. Nothing less than a crown once formed a part of his booty, and I have been assured that Soult was for a few days actually King of Portugal under the name of Nicolo I., King of the Algarvi. The whim of his stern superior did not permit him to carry the joke farther. Yet he can certainly never forget that he has heard with delighted ears the sweet title of " ^Majesty," and seen with enraptured eyes men kneeling before him in most abject homage, and still feels on his hands the burning kisses of Portuguese lips — and the free- dom of France is to be trusted to such a man !
^ Which thing Heine might have said with even greater truth of his idol Napoleon the First, or indeed in a sweeping way of any great conqueror who has ri.sen from a humble position. But it is nnt at all applicable to a Wellington or Washington or firant, for these men truly had principles for which they fought, and therefore were not mere adventurers. And here it may be remarked that if Soult had indeed as keen a desire for glory as he had f<jr plunder, his must indeed have been a vaulting am- bition which o'er-arched the skies ; for history records little among civilised races to be compared to his "thorough, complete, and utterly unscrupulous "' looting. — Tranduior,
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As regards Lord Wellington I need say nothing. Late events have proved that in my earlier writ- ings I spoke only too gently of him. People, blinded by his clumsy, stupid victories, never knew that he was really a fool, but recent circum- stances have proved it. He is stupid, like all men who have no heart ; for intellect comes not from the head, but from the heart. Praise him then henceforth, ye A-enal courtly poets and rhym- ing flatterers of Tory pride ! Sing him unceas- ingly, 0 Caledonian bard, thou bankrupt ghost with a leaden harp whose chords are of cobweb.^ Sing him, pious laureates and paid singers of heroes, and while so doing sing his last heroic deeds ! Never yet did a mortal show himself before the eyes of all the world in such pitiful nakedness. Almost unanimously has all England — a jury of twenty million free citizens — pro- nounced a verdict of "guilty" on the poor sinner who, like a connnon thief by night, aided by crafty female receivers of stolen property, would have fain stolen the crown-jewels of the sovereign people, its freedom and its rights. Piead the Morning Chronicle, the Times, and even the words
^ This beautiful invocation is supposed to be addressed to Sir Walter Scott, whom Heine at times praised and then abused, even as he did Hans Sachs, in phrases which, if collocated, would suggest a lunacy of inconsistency. — Translator,
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of orators who are haljitually most self-controlled, and be amazed at the deadly executing (scharf- richtcrlichcn Work) words with which they have scourged and Itranded the hero of Waterloo. His name has become a curse. By the most con- temptible court trickery, it was brought about that he for a few days held the power in his hands w^hich he dared not wield. For this, Leigh Hunt compared him to a grey old libertine, who would fain seduce a maid, who in this extremity consulted a friend as to what she should do. The latter replied, "Let him do what he likes, my dear, and then, in addition to the guilt of his sin, he will incur the shame of inability." ^
I have always hated this man, but never thought he was so despicable. I have ever re- garded those whom I hate as greater than they deserved; and I confess tliat I ascribed to the Tories of England more courage and power and magnanimous will to sacrifice, than they have now manifested, when such virtues were called for.
' Heine is here very amusing, and indeed interesting as a study, from tlie fact that a man of such extraordinary clever- ness never seems to have perceived that to create a conviction in the mind of the reader of the evil nature of anybody, one should never run to the extremes of abuse, or, as the negroes express it, "sling too much sass." He goes too far for his own purpose who spasmodically screams, "Est ipsa netjuitia nequitior, et quamvis peste pestilentior— trifurcifer, et vir vel cruce dignus ! "
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Yes, I erred as to this high nobility of England. I believed that they would, like the proud Romans, never sell the field on which they had fought the foe at a lesser price than of old ; that they would await the enemy seated in their curule chairs. No, a panic terror seized them when they saw that John Bull was behaving more seriously, and the lands with the rotten boroughs are now offered more cheaply for sale, and the number of the curule chairs is increased that the enemy may kindly seat themselves. The Tories now trust no more in their own strength, and put no longer faith in themselves. Their strength is broken. Of course the AVhigs are also aristocrats, Lord Grey is as earnest in devotion to nobility as Lord Wellington, but it will go with this aristocracy as it did with that of France — one arm will hew oft' the other.
It is inconceivable that the Tories, relying on a subtle trick by night of their Queen, should be terrified when this succeeded, and the people rose against it, loudly protesting. This was to be fore- seen by any one duly considering the character of the English and their legal means of resistance. Every man among the people had firmly made up his mind on the Eeform Bill. All reflection on it had become a fact. The English have the great advantage in practical action or business, that they being accustomed as free men to speak their
246 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
luiiids freely, ulways have a promptly formed opinion on every question. So they judge more than they think.^ AVe Germans, on the contrary, are always thinking ; from excess of thought we come to no decision, nor would it always be prudent to express it if we had one. One man is perhaps afraid of the displeasure of the Herr I'olice Director, another is restrained by modesty, another by sheepish shamefacedness - from form- ing any judgment. Many German thinkers have gone to their graves without ever having ex- pressed an opinion on any great question. The
' 'J'his is (juite true, and it is also true that it has been carried to excess in America, where the greatest freedom of thought and speech prevails. But as every excess tends to a reaction or reform, it is remarkable to what a degree of late years the editors, who are the chief leaders of thought, have earnestly endeavoured to correct this evil by enforcing more thorough consideration of disputed public questions. Many striking proofs and illustrations of this could be adduced, as, for instance, the eminently practical manner in which the Socialist ijuestion has been treated. But the subject would require a chapter to fully set it forth.— I'ranshdor.
- Blod, adj., Blodifjhcit, n. We have not an exact equivalent for this in English, though there is one in the Scotch and Irish hlate. It implies modesty of a foolish, simple nature. Blod is also commonly used to express silliness or weak-mindedness, without any reference to modesty, as in Scotch. " He's no' that blate" — "He is not such a fool." There a])pears, indeed, to be some reason for believing that tlie common phrase, "a bloody fool," owes its origin to Uocd, and not to blood. In such case it would mean a bashful fool. — Translator.
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English are, on the contrary, decided and prac- tical ; every suhject of thought assumes with them consistency, so that their thoughts, their lives, and they themselves become undeniable facts with inalienable rights. Yes, they are " brutal as a fact," and offer material resistance. A German with his thoughts, his ideas, which are weak as the brain from which they come, is at the same time only an idea, and when this idea displeases Government, they send him to prison in a fortress. So they had sixty ideas locked up in Kcipenick, and nobody missed them; the brewers brewed their beer even as before ; the almanac press con- tinued to issue its art-novels all the same. But to that practical resistant nature of the English- man, to that unbending obstinacy on decided questions, must be added the legal certainty with wdiich they can act.^
We have no conception of the extent to which the English Opposition, the opponent of the Gov-
' This leads in England and America to such strict interpre- tation of the letter of the law that the guilty often escape under _/?'ri lex. Then the newspapers compare our administration of justice unfavourably with the French, &c. But it is forgotten that absolute and general belief in the fact that the law will really be carried out to the letter, prevents a vast amount of crime in men, who would otherwise rely on a clever advocate to twist the letter to suit his own idea of the spirit, which is a very common occurrence in French, and still more so in Italian courts, in civil cases. — Translator.
24S FRENCH AFFAIRS.
ernment, can proceed by legal means. One can only understand the days of Wilkes when one has himself seen England. Travellers who would give us an idea of English freedom do so by enumerating- the laws. Laws, however, are not liberty itself, but only its limits ; nor has any one on the Continent any conception of how much intense freedom is concentrated within those re- strictions, and still less of the idleness and sloth of its guardians. It is only where they should be a protection against the arbitrary will of those in power that those boundaries are sternly and vigilantly guarded. When the men in power step beyond their rightful limits, all England rises like a single man, and arrogance is repulsed. In fact, the English people do not wait till liberty has been wronged, but whenever it is so much as threatened they rise in force with words and guns. The French of July did not rise in rebellion till they had received the first blow with the cudgel of arbitrary will— that is to say, the Ordinances — on their heads. The English of this month of May did not wait for the first blo\v ; it was enough for them that the sword had been put into the hands of the far-famed executioner who had in other lands put Liberty to death.
Strange fellows are these Englishmen indeed ! I cannot bear them, for I find them bores, most uncompanionable, and egoists : and as they croak
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and quack like frogs, they are to all good music natural enemies. They go with gilded prayer- books to their church, and despise us Ger- mans because we eat sauer-kraut.^ But when the English aristocracy succeeded by means of
' For some reason, which absolutuly defies all i-ational ex- planation, the ordinary German has an antipathy beyond ex- pression for people who go to church bearing prayer-books. I once at a political German meeting in Philadelphia (where I indeed was one of the speakers) heard one of the orators, after attributing everything horrible to an opponent, such as demo- crac)', tempurancc, and a belief in God, canio to a climax by darkly hinting that he had been seen entering a church bearing a book of devotion. I took from this the idea embodied in Hans Breitniann as a politician : —
" I iiear an confounded rumour dat der Schmitz pelieve in Gott, Und also dat he go to shoorsh niit a pniyer-buch for . salvation."
The susceptibility as to sauer-kraut is not less remarkable. The only abusively severe attack on the Breitniann ballads which I ever read was by a German editor who most errone- ously thought he had detected in them a sneer at this great national esculent. I had spoken of stimjuvj sauer-kraut, and the good fellow thought I meant "stinking," not knowing, in all probability, much English. Truly no such thing ever occurred to me, one of whose earliest literary exploits was the translation into English of Uhland's beautiful poem on '• Sauer- kraut mit Speck."' It is said that there are in the lunatic asylum of Boston several modern Athenians who have been driven mad by sneers at pork and beans, but this is as nothing compared to what the stoclc- Deutschcr feels when sauer-kraut is insulted. — Translator.
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court bastards in drawiufj "the German woman" {"the nasfi/ Ocrman frow") into their interests; when King William, who had promised in the evening to Lord Grey to make as many new peers as would be necessary to pass the Eeform Bill, and, inihienced to the contrary l)y the Queen in tlie night, broke his word in the morning; when "Wellincrton and liis Tories laid their liberti- cidal hands on the power of the state — then the English were all at once no longer tiresome, but very interesting; they even ceased to be un- sociable, and, united by hundreds of thousands, they became men of one mind ; their words were no longer croaking and quacking, but full of boldest euphony, they uttered things which rang more winsomely than the melodies of liossini or of jMeyerbeer, and they spoke no more with prayer-book piety of the priests of the Church, but took counsel quite free-thinkingly " whether they should not hunt the bishops to the hang- man, and send King William with his sauer- kraut kith and kin back to Hanover."
I laughed at many things while I was in England, but most heartily at the Lord Mayor, the real master of the precincts or limits of London, who has maintained himself as a ruin of medigeval communalty, in all his majesty of full peruke and broad spreading dignity of guilds and companies. I saw him in the society of his alder-
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 251
men, who are tlie grave chiefs and elders of the hourcfcoisic, daddy tailors, and uncle glovemakers,' mostly plum[) tradesmen, with red beefsteak faces and living pots of porter, but sober and very rich through industry and economy, so that I was assured that many of them had more than a million pounds sterling lying in the Bunk of England. This is a great building in Thread- needle Street, and if a revolution were tu break out in England, the Bank might be in great dano;er, and the rich citizens of London lose their property and become beggars in an hour. Never- theless when King William bioke his word, and the freedom of England was in danger, the Lord Mayor of London put on his mighty wig, and set forth on his way with the fat aldermen, and they all seemed as serene and secure and officially calm as if they were going to a glorious banquet in Guildhall ; but they went to the House of Com- mons, and there protested most vigorously against the new Government, declaring themsehes against the King in case he did not dismiss it, and would rather set life and property at stake by a re-
^ Gevattcr Schneider. Gtvattev, in the time of Elizabeth, was closely appi'oached as "gossip " or '' gaffer," but the latter word has now lost much of its old meaning. Gevattcr implies in German, familiarity, a bourgeois common-life position, not devoid necessarily of respect and age. — Translator.
252 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
volution than permit the overthrow of English freedom. Strange fellows, truly, are these Eng- lishmen !
I shall never forget a man whom I saw sitting at the left side of the Speaker in the English House of Commons, for never did a man dis- please me more. He is always there. He is a stout short figure with a great square head covered with repulsively-bristling reddish hair. His excessi\'ely red full-cheeked face is common- placely and regularly ignoble, he has expression- less and cheap-looking eyes, a short pattern nose, far below which is a mouth which can never utter three words consecutively, unless there is a number among them or the subject is money. There is in his whole being a something niggardly, sordid, and shabby — in short, he is the true son of Scotland, Mr. Joseph Hume.^ One should place an engraving of this head in the beginning of every account-book. He belongs to the Opposi- tion, and the Ministers have all sore dread of him when sums of money are in question. Even when Canning was Minister he continued to sit
' " Sleep, Mr. Speaker, Cobbett will soon Move to abolish the sun and the moon ; Hume will ere lony be taking the sense
Of the House on a question of eighteenpence."
— Pracd's Poems.
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253
Oil the bench on the Opposition, and if Canning had to cite a figure in his speech, he asked in a low voice from Huskisson who sat near, " How much ? " and wlien it was whispered, he repeated it aloud, whilst looking almost laughingly at Hume. Truly, no man ever displeased me as did this one. But when King William broke his word, -Joseph Hume rose high and heroic as a god of freedom, and spoke words which rang as powerfully and solemnly as the great bell of St. Paul's ; though the question here too was of money, but it was to say that the people would pay no more taxes — and Parliament adopted the proposal of its great citizen.
That settled the question. The legal refusal to pay the taxes alarmed the enemies of freedom. They dared not war with a people which set its life and fortune at stake. It is true they had their soldiers and their guineas. But they could no longer trust in the red-coated retainers, al- though they had, with faith well thrashed into them, been hitherto so obedient to Wellington's baton. ^ Nor did they rely any more on the de- votion of purchased orators, for even the nobility
1 " Obgleich sie bis^her dein Wellington'schen Stocke so pitigeltreu gehorcht." French version — " Quoi qu'ils eussent jusque-lli obei sans murinurc au batOn de Wellington.' — : Tramlato?:
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of England now saw " that everything in the world is not for sale, and that eventually there will not 1>e money enough to buy e^'ery thing." So the Tories yielded. It was really the basest, but still the most prudent course to follow. Dut how did it come to pass that they per- ceived it ? Did they perhaps find among the stones with which their windows were broken the stone of wisdom ? ^
^ " Habeu sie etwa unter den Steinen womit man ihnen die Fen.ster einwarf, ziifjillig den Stein der Weisen gefunden." French version — "la pierre philosophale."
IX.
Paris, June i6, 1832. John Bull now demands a cheap government and cheaj) religion, and will no longer give away all the fruits of his labour so that the whole crew of those gentlemen who administer his public affairs, or who preach to him Christ and humility, shall revel in the most arrogant excess. He has no longer that awe of their power which once in- fluenced him, and John has also oljserved that la force des grands 71 est que dans la tele des petits. The spell is broken since the English nobility have shown their weakness. They are no longer feared, since it has been seen that they are only weak mortals like the rest of us. When the first Spaniard fell, and the Mexicans observed that the white gods whom they saw armed with thunder and lightning were also sul:)ject to death, it might have gone badly with the latter, had not their firearms given them a balance of power. But our enemies have not this advantage. Barthold Schwarz invented gunpowder for us all. In vain the clergy cry gaily, " Eender unto Cassar the
?55
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things which are Ca3sar's." ' Our reply is, " We have for eighteen hundred years been giving Ca?sar far too much ; wlint remains shall now be for us."
Since the lieform Bill has become a law, the aristocrats have grown of a sudden so magnani- mous, that they declare that not only the man who pays ten pounds in annual taxes, but that every Englishman, even the poorest, should have the right to vote in electing meniljers of Parlia- ment. They would rather be dependents on the lowest molj of beggars and blackguards {Bcttlcr VM(l Linnpcngesindcl) than on the prosperous middle-class, which is not so easy to bribe or corrupt, and which has not so great a sympathy for them as it has for the populace. The latter has indeed an affmitv of feelino; with the hit^hly born ; for they both, nobs and snobs {der Add Wild dcr Fobd), ha^'e the greatest detestation of work, the extreniest loathing for common in- dustrial activity : they prefer stealing the goods of another, or the presents and " tips " for occasional menial service ; making debts is not beneath their dignity. The beggar and the lord
' '■ Verjrebens schcr::t die Klcrisei." French version — " C'est en vain que le clerge nous crie en soujiirant." This hints at schmcrzen, which I cann(jt, however, regard as an appropriate word in this connection. — Translator.
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both despise middle-class honour ; they have equal shamelessness when hungry, and they both agree in hating the prosperous citizen.^ There is a fable which tells us that tlie upper rounds of a ladder once said scornfully to the lowest, " Do not believe that ye are like to us : ye stick in the mud, while we rise high above it. The hierarchy of the rounds was established by Nature and rendered holy by time — it is legiti- mate." But a philosopher who was passing by heard this highly aristocratic speech, and re- versed the ladder. This often happens in life, and then it is seen that the highest and lowest rounds of the social ladder show similar sentiments in the same circumstances. The noblest 4migr4s who fell into misery in foreign countries became utterly vulgar beggars in feelings and tastes, while the idle and vulgar Corsican wretches who took their place in France spread themselves as auda-
^ It is hardly worth while to remark to any intelligent un- prejudiced English reader, be he Conservative, Liberal, or even Radical, that our author here sinks to the level of a low pot- house orator, abusing what he does not understand. But there may be a few in other countries who may be reminded that the yreat majority of Englishmen even in Heine's time, who were below paying ten pounds taxes, were far from being all " beggars and blackguards," preferring occasional tips to steady wages, and that then, and still more now, that was a very trifling minority of the nobility who despised work or could be classed as mere arrogant idlers. — Translator.
R
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ciously, witli upturned noses, and as court-like as if they were the phis ancienne noblesse.
How dangerous for the friends of freedom the alliance l)etween the noblesse and the mob may be has been shown most repulsivel}' in the Iberian (pt/renaischen Halbinsd) peninsula. Here, as in certain provinces in "Western France and Southern Germany, the Catholic priesthood blessed the Holy Alliance ; and the clergy of the Protestant Church have busied themselves everywhere in pro- moting the beautiful alliance between the people and the men in power — that is to say, between the populace and the aristocracy — in order that the ungodly — i.e., the Liberals — ma}' not get the upper hand. For as they very correctly perceive, he who recklessly uses his own reasoning powers and denies the privileges of the aristocracy will end by doubting the holiest doctrines of religion, and will no longer believe in original sin or Satan, or redemption or the Ascension ; he will no longer seek the table of the Lord — in which case he will not bestow on the servants of the Lord any of the Lord's-supper pour-hoircs, or other fees and tips on which their subsistence — and of course the salvation of the world — depends. The aristocrats have, on their side, seen that Christianity is a very profitable religion ; that he who believes in original hereditary sin will not deny hereditary privileges ; that hell is a very good institution to keep men
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ill fear, and that any man who can eat his god can swallow and digest anything. All of these noble people were, it is true, once very impious themselves, and contributed much by the dissolu- tion of their manners towards the overthrow of the ancicn regime. But they have now amended their manners, and at the last perceive that they must set the multitude a good example. After the old orgie had such a shameful end, and the bitterest penance succeeded the sweetest intoxi- cation of sin, the noble gentlemen exchanged their nasty novels for books of devotion, and became very devout and chaste — for they would fain set the folk a good example. And the noble ladies, with the rouge wiped from their faces,^ have risen from the floor of sin, and arranged their dishevelled locks and rumpled skirts, and preach virtue and decency and Christianity, and will also give the people a good example.'
I love the memories of the battles of the hrst Kevolution and of the heroes who sustained them,
' 111 the French version — " Les nobles dames aussi, la figure rouge se sont releveos du sol du pechd."
- Heine here adds the following note, which is omitted in the latest French etlition : — •
" T have here been obliged to cut out several passages (Stiickr) which favour too much that Moderatism which in time of reaction is no longer creditable nor expedient. In their place I give a subsequently written note, which I append to the end of this letter."
26o FRENCH AFFAIRS.
and honour the latter as much as even the young men of France can do — yes, even before the days of July 1 admired Eobespierre, Sanctum Justum/ and tlie great Mountam — and yet I would not like to live under the regime of such great souls. I could never endure being guillotined every day — and nobody ever did endure it — and the French licvolution could only concjuer, and, conquering, bleed to death {Sicgcnd verhhUen). It is no contra- diction that I enthusiastically love this Republic without desirimr in the least the restoration of this form of government in France, and still less a German version of it. - Yes, one can, with- out being illogical, wish the Eepublic might be introduced to France, and, at the same time, monarchism be maintained in Germany. In fact, he to whom the securing the victory for which the democratic principle is to be fought lies nearer to the heart than any other interest, may easily find himself in such case.
Here I touch the great controversy which is now waged in such a bloody and bitter spirit in France, and I nmst give the reasons why so many friends of freedom still adhere to the present Government, and why so many more desire its
' Saint Just, here Latiniaed to more emphatically mark the Saint.
- The following sentence is wanting in the latest French version. — German Editor.
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overtlirow and the restoration of the liepublic. The former, or the Philippists, say, " France, wliich can only be governed ninnarchically, has its fittest king in Louis riiili])pe ; he will more certainly secure the freedom and equality which has been attained, because he is in manners and sentiments reasonable and citizen-like ; he cannot have, like those of the previous dynasty, a grudge in his heart against the Eevolution, because his father, like himself, took part in it ; he cannot, like a traitor, betray the people to this old dynasty, since he as a relative must hate them more sin- cerely than any others ; he can live at peace with other kings, because he, in regard to his high birth, may be pardoned his illegitimacy, whereas a war would have been promptly proclaimed if a mere rofAirier had been placed on the French throne, or the Eepublic had been proclaimed ; and peace is, after all, necessary for the prosperity of France." To which the licpublicans reply, that the tran- quil happiness of peace is doubtless a great bless- ing, but that it is worth nothing without freedom. It was inspired with this feeling that their fathers stormed the Bastile, l)eheaded Louis Capet, and waged war with the whole aristocracy of Europe ; that this war is not yet at an end, that there is only a truce ; that the European aristocracy has still the deepest hatred of France, and that it is a hatred unto death, which can only end with the
202 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
destruction of one power or another. But Louis Philippe is ;i king whose chief care is to keep his crown : he has an understanding with and allies himself by marriage with kings, and that, pulled hither and thither by various private interests, and condemned to the most pitiful, shillyshallying, half-way course,^ he is incompe- tent to represent those holiest interests which the Republic only could once set forth so vigo- rously, and that in consequence the re-establish- ment of the Iicpublic is a necessity.
He who has not in France those precious possessions wliich war may destroy, may easily sympathise with those warriors, eager for battle, who sacrifice peaceful prosperity to the victory of democratic principles, \vho set fortune and life at stake, and who will fight till all European aristocracy is destroyed. And as Germany be- longs to Europe, there are many Germans who sympathise with the French llepublicans ; but as men often go too far, it takes the form among them of a prepossession for the Republican form itself, from wliich results something almost unin- telligible— German llepublicans. That Poles and Italians, who, like the German friends of freedom, expect more benefit from the French Piepublicans
' "Unci zur leidigsten Halbheit verdammt. " French version — " Condamn(5 Ji une intolerable duplicity." — Translator.
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tlum from ilw Juste-milicii, and therefore like them more, should also think well of the Eepublican form of government, which is not quite unknown to them, is natural enough. But German Eepublicans ! one can liardly trust his eyes or ears, and yet we see them both here and in Germany.
And still, when I behold my German Eepub- licans, I rub my eyes, and say to myself, " Dost thou dream ? " And when I read the German Tribune or similar publications, I ask myself, " AVho was, then, the great poet who imagined all this ? Does Dr. Wirth, with his shining sword of honour, really exist ? Or is he only a fantastic image by Tieck or Immermann ?" But then I feel that poetry cannot rise so high, that our great bards cannot conceive such remarkable and signi- ficant characters, and that Doctor Wirth really has body and soul {wirklich leibt unci Icbt), a wandering but brave knight of freedom, of such as Germany has seen but few since the days of Ulricli von Hiltten.
Can it be true tliat the silent land of dreams has begun to live and act ? Who could have imagined it before July 1830 ? Goethe with his nursery songs, the Pietists with their tiresome prayer-book tones, the IMystics with their mag- netism, had completely lulled Germany to sleep, and spreading far and wide over the immense surface, everything was quiet. But the bodies
264 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
were only sleep-bound, the souls prisoned in them still had strange consciousness of their existence. The writer of these pages wandered once as a young man through the German land, and looked at the sleeping men. I saw pain on their faces ; I studied their physiognomies, I laid my hand on their hearts ; they began to speak in somnambulic condition in strange broken phrase, revealing their inmost thoughts. The guardians of the people, with their gold nightcaps drawn down deeply over their ears and well wrapped in ermine, in dressing-robes of ermine, sat on red-cushioned chairs of velvet, slept, and snored also ; and as I wandered on with sack and staff, I spoke or sang aloud what 1 had heard, and what I saw on the sleeping faces, or had heard from their sighing hearts. All was very still around me then, and 1 heard nothing but the echo of my own words. Since then, Germany, startled by the cannon of the great week, is now awake, and now every one who has hitherto been silent would fain make up for lost time, and there is a chatter of tongues and a riot, and there is a great smoking of tobacco, and from the dark clouds threatens a di'cadful stoi'm. It is like a raging sea, and on the higli cliffs stand the orators. Some are blowing with puffed-out checks at the waves, and really believe they caused the storm, and that the more they blow the wilder howls the
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gale;^ others, in fear, hear the sliip of state creaking, and gaze on the wild waves with terror, and having learned from their school-books that one may calm the sea with oil, pour the contents of their study-lamps into the howling Hood of humanity — or, to speak more prosaically, they write a conciliatory pamphlet, and are amazed that 'tis of no effect, and murmur sadly, " Olauii 2)erdidi ! "
It is easy to foresee that the idea of a German republic, as so many German minds now conceive it, is by no means a fleeting fancy. ] )octors Wirth and Siebenpfeiffer, and ]\Iessrs. Scharfi'and George Fein of Brunswick, and Grosse and Schiiler and Savoye, may and will be imprisoned, but their thoughts will be free and sweep free as birds through the air. They will nest like birds in the summit of German oaks, and perhaps for half a century nothing more will be heard of them.
Then, some fine summer morning, they will appear all at once in the public square, grown to be great as the eagle of the god supreme, with lightnings in their claws. For what is fifty years, or even a whole century ? Eaces have time enough, for they are eternal — only kings are mortal.
^ Windsbraut, given in dictionaries as a gust of wind, &c., but properly the breeze or puff of air which precedes a storm. In legend it is the storm-hunter chasing his bride. — Tranxlntor.
266 FREXCH AFFAIRS.
I do not believe that there mil be a German revolution very soon, still less a C4ernian republic, and come what may, I sliall never see the latter ; but I am certain that when we shall long have decayed in our graves there will be strife in Germany, with word and sword, for the Eepublic. For the Eepublic is an idea, and Germans never yet abandoned one till they had fought it out to its last consequences. Can we Germans, who in our Art era fundamentally fought out the smallest ccsthetic questions — as, for example, the sonnet — now that our political period is beginning, leave that far weightier problem unresolved '{
For such strife the French have supplied us with special arms, as we, both French and Germans, have of late learned much of one another — the former having received much German philosophy and poetry, and we, in turn, the political experi- ences and practical sense of the French, Both races are like the Homeric heroes who exchanged weapons and armour on the field of battle in sign of friendship. Thence came especially the mighty change which is now progressing among German writers. In earlier times they were either learned professional men ^ or poets, who troubled them-
' FalcuUiitH'jclehrtc, implying connection with or education at an university ; '' members of the learned prufessions ;" savants (les facuHis,
FRENCH AFFAIRS. 267
selves little as to the people, for whom neither wrote, and in philosophic, poetic Germany the multitude were crusted with the mire of igno- rance, and when they quarrelled with authority the question was of rough practical facts, actual needs, burdens of taxes, customs, injuries by game, tolls, and so forth ; while in practical France the people, educated and trained by writers, fought much more for ideal interests and philosophic principles.
In the War of Freedom {hccus a non luccndo) ^ the Government employed a couple of university - learned and poetic gentlemen to work upon the people, who showed great susceptibility, read the Mercury of Joseph Gorres, sang the songs of E. ]\I. Arndt, bedecked themselves with the leaves of their national oaks, armed themselves, showed themselves inspired in rank and file, assumed to be addressed as " You," ^ militia-ed and stormed
^ " Light, from not shining."' Our author here intimates that there was no principle of freedom at stake in tlie earlier German war with France.
- " Koppcl," generally applied to two dogs coupled together. Hence, in the French version, unc meute, i.e., a pack of hounds. Our author refers, howevei-, only to two authors. — Translator.
* " Liess sich Sic tituliren," that is, claimed to be addressed more respectfully. "He expects to be always called Mister, now he's got thirty dollars a month," said an American. In Pennsylvania-German Sie is unknown. In tlie words of an observer, "They're always du-'mg one another — specially in
268 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
{lamhtVrmtc) and fought and conquered Napoleon, for, as Schiller says, " Against stupidity the gods themselves fight in vain." And now the German Government would fain use that pair again, but they have meantime been lying chained together in a dark den, and become very mangy and in evil odour, and learned nothing new, and always bark in the old fashion ; l)ut the ])eople have heard other tones since tlien — high and noble notes of civic equality, of rights of men — inalien- able rights — so that it is witli a smile of com- passion, if not with contempt, that they look down on the well-known barkers, the mediaeval hounds — the trusty poodle and the pious pug of 1 8 14.1
Yet I would not re-echo utterly and altogether
horse-trades." In the next clause, " as Schilkr says " only occurs in the French version. — Trandalor.
^ In the preceding passages our author sets forth strikingly one of his commonest weaknesses or follies, that of blaming or ridiculing the jjast because it was not like the present. If the evolutionary philosophy of the pi-esent day has had no other good result, it has at least begun to teach us that, as nature goes, we cannot have everything at once. The high and noble notes of civic equality and songs of inalienable rights were not wanted when the question was to repel French invaders, any more than a blast from the last trump is wanted to call hotel boarders to dinner. But Giirres, though dead, was not "played out," even during the last French-German war, for good words for the time were even then found in the SiuihUin Treasury. — Translator.
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the tones of 1832. I have aheacly expressed my- self as regards the least attractive of them, that is to say, our German Eepublieans, I have indicated the accidental circumstance to which their appearance is due. And I will not here by any means combat their opinions. That is not my office, and for such business the Govern- ments have their special agents, who receive for such work special pay. But I cannot here refrain from the remark that the chief error of the German Republicans consists in not duly con- siderincr the difference between the two countries when they desire for Germany that republican form of Government which may perhaps be quite suitable to France. It is neither its geographical position nor the armed interpellation of neigh- bouring princes which must prevent Germany from becoming a republic, as the Grand Duke of Baden lately declared. On the contrary, it is those very geographical relations which would Ijest support the German Ptcpublicans in their arguments ; and as for foreign danger, an united Germany would be the most terrible power in the world, for truly a race which fought so bravely under servile influences, if it should consist of pure Eepublieans, would easily surpass in braver) all threatened Bashkirs and Cossacks. But Ger- many cannot be a republic, because it is essentially royalist. France, on the contrary, is in its very
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being republican.^ I do not here assert that the French have more republican virtues than we — by no means, for sucli virtues are not super- abundant, even in France. I speak only of the being or of the character by which llepublicanism and Eoyalism not only differ from each other, 1 )ut also manifest and make themselves practically felt as radically different phenomena.-
The royalism of a race consists, according to its nature (deni Wcsen naclt), in this : that it respects authority, that it believes in the persons who represent that authority, and that in this con- fidence also attaches itself to the person. The licpnhlicanisin of a race lies really in the Eepublican believing in no authority, that he only esteems the laws, constantly demanding account from their representative, regards the latter with distrust, controls them, never attaches himself to persons ; and, what is more, the higlier they raise them- selves above the people the more zealously does he seek to degrade them by contradiction, mis- trust, mockery, and persecution.
^ Tliis sentence is diiiitted in the French version, though the following directly depends on it. The omission is not noticed in the German edition. — Translator.
2 " Rondern sich auch als grundverscliiedene Erscheinungen- kundgeben, und geltend niachen," French version^" Mais le manifestent conuue deux faits radicalement differents." — 2'ra7ialalor.
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Ostracism was from this point of view the most republican of institutions, and that Athenian who voted for the punislnnent of Aristides " because people were always calling him the Just " was the veY)\\\Aican par excellence {der echtcste RepnU leaner). He would nut have virtue represented by one person, and that the person would at last l)e more than the law — he feared the authority of a name. This man was tlie greatest citizen of Athens, and it is most characteristic of him that history has not preserved his name.^ Yes, since I have studied the French Republicans in their writings, as in their lives, I recognise everywhere as a characteristic sign that distrust of persons, that hatred of the authority of a name. It is not a petty narrow yearning for equality which makes these men hate great names — ah, no ! — they fear lest those who bear them will use them against freedon), or else by weakness and yielding may allow others to misuse them.- For this reason so many great and popular heroes of liberty were
1 Not so. Wluit was most characteristic of iiiin was that he could neither read nor write. — Translator.
" Doubtful, to the last degree. Wlien I, in ultra-republican far Western American villages, have heard the natives bitterly revile a stranger for wearing a chimney-pot or stove-pipe shiny liat, it struck me that the motive was great indignation that any one should be by any chance better dressed than themselves, or that they were, in fact, inspired by the most burning WetViZicAe
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executed, because it was feared lest iu a time of peril tliey might in perilous circumstances make bad use of their authority.^ For this cause I still hear from many a mouth the Eepublican doctrine that we should ruin all Liberal reputations, be- cause they miffht exercise in some decisive moment the most injurious influence, as was recently seen by Lafayette, to whom we owe thanks for the best ru public. -
I have here, perhaps, indicated incidentally the cause why there are now so few great characters in France ; they have for the most part been destroyed. From the highest to the very lowest
Gleichcitssucht, or luirrow yearning for equality — plainly envy — but were in no degree afraid lest the wearers of the hats should use them against freedom, or in an unguarded moment suffer them to be turned against " Virtue, Liberty, and Inde- pendence."
1 "It was feared lest" — "might" and "perhaps!" And therefore, for such vagne, cowardly fears and dim possibilities, all the great heroes who had caused the Revolution were justly put to death, or because they had distinguished themselves ! Truly a fine way iwur cncounujcr les autrcs. This is a very thin defence. They were put to death by the coarser, viler, and more cowardly characters who had not the brains or courage to begin the Revolution, but who, when the real workmen had toiled through the heat of the day, fell on them and slew them to take their wages. It was the spirit of blood and deviltry let loose, and no transceiidental-socialistictheoriesastothe cabalistic power of names which destroyed those great men. — Translator.
^ The words after "Lafayette" are wanting in the French version. — Translator.
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persons, there are now no longer any authorities. From Louis Philippe to Alexander, the chef des clacqiieurs ;i from the great Talleyrand to Vidocq ; from Gaspard Debureau, the celebrated Pierrot of the Funambules Theatre, up to Hyacinthe de Quelen, Archbishop of Paris ; from Monsieur Staub, maitre tailleur, to Lamartine, the pious little goat ; from Guizot to Paul de Kock ; from Cherubini to Biffi ; from Passini to the smallest gaping Ape-ino {Maulrtffi) — no one, whatever his trade may be, has an uncontested supremacy, a sole consideration. But it is not only the faith in individualities which is contested, but in all which exists. Indeed, in most cases one does not even doubt, for doubt presupposes belief. There are no atheists here ; there has not survived so much respect for the good Lord as even to deny him. The old religion is utterly dead and gone into decay ; the " majority of Frenchmen " pay no attention to this corpse, and hold handkerchief to nose when Catholicism is spoken.- Ancient morality is likewise dead ; when it appears, it is
^ "■ Auyuste" in the French version. I may be mistaken, but I think it was this same Auguste, chef dcs clacqueurs, whom I met in 1847 at a small and cheap but respectable restaurant outside the Barrier. The following list of names is much abridged in the French version. — Translator.
^ In the French version — as usual — Catholicism is omitted, and V Eglise substituted.
S
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but as a ghost, which tloos not even walk by night. Truly, when I regard this race, how it ever and anon rages up and l)realvs on the table called the altar the holy playthings, and tears the crimson velvet of the chair— I mean the throne — and wants new bread and new games, and finds delight in seeing the bold blood of life spirt from wounds in its own heart — then it seems to me as if it did not e'en believe in death !
Among such unbelievers royalt}' is only rooted in the little wants of vanity ; but a far greater power impels it, despite itself, to a republic. Tho.se men whose desires for distinction and di.<=- play agree only with a monarchical form of govern- ment are still, by the incompatibility of their natures with the conditions of royalty, condemned to endure a republic.^ But the Germans are not yet in this state ; the faith in authority is not yet extinct emoug them, and nothing essential (nichts Wcsentliclies) impels them to a republican form of
' This was somethinj? more than a merely safe prediction or gues.s. Even in Louis Philippe's reiyn the rapid growth of bankers, capitalists, and nouveaux richn, with their love of ostentation, which afterwards increased to such extravagance under the Empire, was such as to indicate to a thinker that a reyime based on the Bour.se would in time create a republic. From one point of view it may be said, that where there are the most exchanges or the greatest passing of money from hand to liand, there is not only the most prosperity, but the greatest freedom and equality. — Translator,
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government. They have not outgrown royalty ; respect for princes has not been forciljly destroyed; they have not lived througli the misfortune of a twenty- first of January; they still Ijelieve in per- sons, in autliorities, in a high command,^ in the police, in the Holy Trinity, in the Literary GaxdU of Halle, in ])lotting-paper and packing-paper, but most of all in parchment. Poor AYirth ! you reckoned without your guests. -
The author or writer who would prepare a social revolution must be a century in advance of his time, but the tribune, on the contrary, who schemes a political revolution, must keep close to the masses. Before all, in politics, as in life, one must only aim at what is practically attainable.
When I previously spoke of the republicanism of the French, I had in my mind, as I mentioned, rather the involuntary tendency of the people than its formally expressed will. The events of the fifth and sixth of June showed how little, for the moment, the expressed will of the people is favourable to the Republicans. I have already written enough sorrowful news on these remark- able days to render any further details unneces-
1 " An eine hohe Obigkeit." French version— "li la tres-haute diete."
- Wirtli, in allusion to a famed republican of that name, means landlord. " Behold ! he hath made a pun ! "^-Translator,
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sary. Xor are the legal proceedings relative to the aftair at an end : it may be that the military tribunal will give iis more disclosures than we have thus far obtained. AYe do not know as yet anything about the real beginning of the fray, and still less the number of the combatants. The riiilippistes are interested in representing the affair as a conspiracy which had been long prepared, and to exaggerate the number of their enemies. Thereby they justify the violent mea- sures of the Government, and gain the reputation of a military victory. The Opposition maintain that, on the contrary, there was not the least pre- paration for the revolt, that tlie Eepublicans were (piite without leaders, and that their number was very small. This seems to be the truth. In any case, it is a great misfortune for the Opposition that while they were assembled m corpore, and stood in rank and file, that the unsuccessful attempt at a revolution took place. But if the Opposition lost credit by this event, the Govern- ment suffered still more by its heedless declara- tion of a state of siege. ^ It looks as if it would show that if it came to a test, it could show itself more grandly absurd than even the Opposition. I really believe that the days of the fifth and sixth
' French vei\sion — " Le gouvernement en a perdu davantage par ses meaures utourdies."
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of June are to be considered as a mere event which was not specially prepared. The Lamarqne funeral was only meant to be a grand review of the Opposition. But the assembling of so many men, ready and willing to fight, all at once broke forth into irresistible enthusiasm; but the Holy Ghost descended on them at the wrong time. They began at the wrong time, too, to prophesy, and the sight of the red flag must, like a magic spell, have turned their senses.
There was indeed some mysterious influence in this red flag with black-fringed border, in which were in black the words " La Lihcrtd ou la Mort!" and which rose like a banner of consecration to death above all heads on the Pont d'Austerlitz. Many people who closely beheld the mysterious bearer of this standard declare that he was a very tall, lean, and haggard man, with a long corpse-like face, staring eyes, a firmly-closed mouth, above which a black Old- Spanish moustache^ stuck forth its tips far out on
1 It may be worth noting here that the wearing the moustache, the frock-coat, and also the smoking cigars, all date from the ytar 1830. That is to say, it was about that time they all became fashionable in Paris, and spread thence over Europe. The Havannah cigar had, however, been for a long time well known in the United States. The earliest use of them in the latter, according to advertisements, appears to have been in Pliiladelphia about a century ago, when they were announced
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either side — an uncanny figure, which sat like a moveless spectre on a great black pony while the battle raged furiously round him.
The rumours relative to Lafayette connecting liim with this red ilag are denied by his friends in the most emphatic manner. Tt seems that he neither wreathed tlie red flag nor the red cap — Ic bonnet rouge. The poor General sits retired in liis house, and weeps over the mournful end of that fete in which he again played a part, as he has done at most popular risings ever since the beginning of the Eevolution, always strangely drawn into the popular movement, and with the Ijest intention to keep the people by his presence from too great excesses. He is like the tutor ^ who accompanied his pupil to the bawdy-houses, to see tliat he at least did not get drunk there ; to the taverns, to keep liim from gambling; to the gambling-houses, to guard him from duelling ; but when a duel was unavoidable — why then the good old gentleman served as his second.
Though some disturbances were to be expected at the burial of Lamarque, where an army of discontented men assembled, still no one really believed in the outbreak of a real insuri'ection.
as a novelty. When Heine wrote in 1832, the moustache was, however, remarkable among any save " swells." — Translator.
^ " Er gleicht Jem ILjfuieister. " The French version adds — " de ma connaissance." — Translator.
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It was perhaps the thought that all were so happily come together and so apropos, which sug- gested to some Republicans the idea of improvising a revolution.'' The instant was certainly not badly chosen to bring out a general excitement and fire even the timid. It was an instant which at least powerfully stirred up llic soul, and banished commonplace, every-day feelings, and all little petty cares. This funeral must have made a deep impression, even on the calmest spectator, as much ])y the number of the mourners— of whom there were more than a hundred thousand — as well as by the dark and bold spirit which w^as expressed in their mien and gestures. There was something animating yet disquieting in the sight of the youth of all the high schools, of the Amis clu Fcuplc, and of so many other Republicans of all
^ Heine is here, I think, quite mistaken. I have been far deeper in the practical preparation for and execution of a French revolution than he ever was, for I knew a month before the Prefect ever found it out, or before it came off, the coming of that of February 1848 ; and when I re-entered Paris in 1869, it was also with full foreknowledge of the ^me^ite of the Plebiscite, in which I was offered a position. The truth is that though, as Heine surmised, there were never more than a very few indeed practically engaged in the Republican attempts, there was always in his time — as now — a revolution organised and ready, only waiting for something to turn up. Had there been no preparation before the Lamarque funeral, where did the man on the black horse get his red flag with " Liberty or death ? " Such figures are not common at Umevcih. — Trandator.
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classes, who, filling the air with terrible accla- luations, swept by like Bacchanals of freedom, bearing in their hands leafy staves, which they swung like thyrses. They wore garlands of willow round their small hats, their garb was all of brotherly simplicity, their eyes expressed the intoxication of desire to do, with Hushed necks and cheeks — ah ! on many of these faces I saw the melancholy shadow of "coming death — as may be full easily prophesied of young heroes. He who had seen these youths in their proud delirium of freedom would indeed have felt that many of them had not long to live. And it was a full sad omen that the chariot of victory, followed by the acclamations of that Bacchantic youth, did not bear a living but a dead triumjjhaior !
Unfortunate Lamarque ! how much blood did this funeral cost ! And those were not forced or bribed gladiators, who massacred one another to exalt the idle display of mourning by combats. It was a blooming and inspired youth which sacrificed its blood for the holiest feelings, for the most generous dream of its soul. It was the best blood of France which ran in the Rue Saint-Martin, and I do not believe that there was better fighting at Thermopyla3 than at the mouth of the Alley of Saint-Mery and Aubry-des-Bouchers, where at the last a handful of some sixty Republicans fought against sixty thousand troops of the line and
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iS^ational Guards, aud twice beat them back ! The old soldiers of Napoleon, who understand fighting as well as we do — perhaps — Christian dogmatics, mediation of extremes, or acting (Ku/istlcis(ungen einer Mimin), declared that the fight in the Eue Saint-Martin was one of the most heroic events of modern history. The Republicans did marvels of bravery, and the few who remained alive in no wise asked for mercy. All the researches which my occupation exacted, and which were conscien- tiously executed, confirm this. They were for the greater part bayonetted by the National Guard. Some Eepublicans, seeing that all resistance was useless, rushed with bared breasts before the enemy, offering themselves to be shot. When the corner-house of the Rue Saint-Mery was taken, a pupil of the Ecole d'Alfort climbed with a flag on the roof, cried Vive la R^jDiibliquc ! and fell down drilled through with bullets. To a house, of which the first storey was held by Republicans, there came the soldiers, who pre- vented retreat by breaking away the stairs, and as the insurgents would not fall alive into the hands of their enemies, they all committed suicide, so that all which was taken was a room full of corpses. This was related to me in the Church of Saint- Mery, and I was obliged to lean against the image of Saint Sebastian to prevent my falling to the ground from deep inward emotion, and
282 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
T wept like a child. ^ All the tales of heroes over which I, as a boy, had already wept so much, came into my memory, hut I especially thought of Cleomenes, King of Sparta, and his twelve companions, who ran through the streets of Alexandria calling on the people to fight for their liberty, but iinding none to respond, slew themselves to escape the tyrant's followers. The last of them was the beautiful Antiios, who first bent over his friend the dead Cleomenes, kissed his dear lips, then fell upon his sword.
Xothing is as yet exactly known of the number of those who fought in the line Saint-Martin. I believe there were at the beginning about two hundred licpublicans, who were at last, during the sixth of June, reduced to sixty. There was not one among them of well-known name, or who had been recognised as a distinguished champion {KO.nipen) of Ilepublicanism — another proof that if there are not now many heroic names which
^ Even as of old men touched the image of the Delphian god to give them strength of mind. Did Heine here recall that beautiful Saint Sebastian with his arrows is known as the Christian Apollo ? Our author tells in anotlier work that once, when in great mental distress, he took refuge and fell before the Apollo Belvedere. On this later occasion, not having the classic orii'lnai, he was obliged to make shift with the Catholic imita- tion. From his emotion on this occasion, I draw the inference that Heine, though he assures tis that he was a brave soldier in the cause of freedom, would have been rather too nervous, or " weepy and fainty,"' for a turn under fire. — -Translator.
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ring aloud in France, it is not due to any want of heroes. But it is to be noted that that phase of history is past when the deeds of individuals stand boldly forth : races, parties, masses them- selves are the heroes of the modern time : modern tragedy distinguishes itself from the ancient in this respect, that now the chorus acts and plays the leading parts, while the gods, heroes, and tyrants, who were once the true actors, are fallen to being moderate representatives of the will of parties and of popular action, and employed for mere lo(|uacious reflection as presiders at dinners, deputies, ministers, tribunes, and so forth.^ The
^ As Heine was perhaps the first to set before the public or to make popular this idea of the " devoutly-to-be-wished-for disappearance " of all leaders in everything, and as it continually recurs in liis writings, I maybe permitted to remark, that while no one knows into what undreamed-of conditions human nature hiay be evoluted, it is simply impossible to now conceive of any work dependent on organised labour being done at all without a foreman, who must necessarily be the cleverest of all ; nor is it possible to conceive this foreman as assisting or acting unless he be better paid and more highly esteemed than the others. Nor, unless honour and reward — i.e., pre-eminence — be in some form the payment for exertion, would any man devote himself to art, letters, or invention, or anything beyond merely making a livin"-. One author has already spoken with approbation of what was effectively the Venetian system — that is, the putting out of the way all very prominent persons who had distinguished themselves fur virtue and patriotism, iov fear (cowardice being prominent in this principle) lest they niirjht take the lead. According to this doctrine, which forms the corner-stone of extreme Socialism, man is to be reduced to a level far below
284 FRENCH AFFAIRS.
round-table of the great Louis Philippe, the whole Opposition with its comptcs rendus, with Messieurs Odilon-Barrot,Lafitte,and Arago — how passiveand miserably small do all these threshed-out men of note and sham notabilities seem compared to the heroes of the Kue Saint-]\Iartin, whose names were all unknown, and who died anonymously together.^ The modest death of these great unknown should not only inspire in us mournful emotions, but also inspire our souls with courage, as a proof that many thousand men whom we do not know are ready to sacrifice their lives for the holy cause of freedom. But despots should be seized with secret terror at the thought that such an unknown
that of bees or ants in his instinctive working for the common weal ; for even these insects have tlieir overseers and superiors in intelligence, who enjoy special privileges. One practical result of this system or theory is to be seen in many trades unions, in which ambitious and eNcellent workmen are kept down, or even excluded, while half-taught bunglers are allowed full wages. As regards Heine himself, it may be just as well to remember that on this, as on all other earthly subjects, there are numerous passages in his works which eloquently set forth the contrary utito extremes— inconsistency being the only thing to which he was always perfectly consistent. — Translator. ^ The French version is here far superior to the German, if brevity be the soul of wit : — "Toutes ces rc'putations rebattues, toutes ces notabilites upparentes, tout cela nous apparait bien passif et bien mince, compare aux heros de la rue Saint-Martin tous raorts anonymts." Tiie information in the original, tliat the heroes were " all unknown and died anonymously," is exquisitely Heine-like. — Translator.
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host of men, daring and seeking death, ever sur- rounds them, like the masked servants of a Holy A''ehm. They are right in fearing France, the red soil of liberty.
It is a mistake to suppose that the heroes of the line Saint-Martin belonged to the loiccr classes, or even to the mob, as they are called.- No, they were mostly students, beautiful youths from the Ecole d'Alfort, artists, journalists, chietiy aspiring men ; among them also a few worlc- men {Hnvje), who under coarse jackets bore noble
^ The jurisdiction of the Vehmgericht was known as d(r rothe Erde, or the red earth, i.e., Westphalia.
- This reminds me of the American negro song, in which we are informed tiiat " de reason why dey called him so was kase dat was his name."' If there be such a thing as pbbel, plebs, or j)Copli', there must be some name for it, and while there are " lower orders," the awful fact must be mentioned in some kind of descriptive English, altliough I have known the proprietor of an American newspaper (who was a great scamp, by the way, and ground down and cheated all his employes), who forbade any writer in his office tu use the term. It is very amusing to observe here how our author endeavours to prove that the martyrs did not belong to, and were much superior to, his darling Pobel. And here our opinions differ, for the squad of about fifty whom I led at the barricades in 1848 were as thorough a set uf roughs and finished specimens of " the lower orders " as I have ever beheld, and such was the character of the vast majority of the insurgents cvcrijivherc. I did not see any '• beautiful youths" or "Mollies," or apparent literary men or artists ; in fact, gentlemen were remarkably conspicuous by their absence from the barricades, though I saw some pretty girls at them of the she-devil class, who are never wanting in any French row. — Translator.
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hearts. It would appear that those who fought by the Cloister Saint-^Mery were all young men, but among the prisoners who were led through the streets there were grey-bearded men, and very striking to me was the appearance of an old man who was being conducted witli some scholars of the Ecole Polytcchnique to the Conciergerie. His companions walked along with bowed heads, gloomy and sad, their souls torn with grief as their garments were by other causes ; the old fellow, however, marched along, clad, it is true, rather poorly, and in A'ery old-fashioned (altfrcmk- isah) but well-cared-for clothes, a much-worn straw-coloured dress-coat (FracJ^) and ditto waist- coat and trousers, cut according to the latest fashion of 1793, with a great three-cornered hat on his old powdered head, with an expression on his face as void of trouble and almost as gay as if going to a wedding.^ liehind him ran an old woman with an und^rella, which she seemed to be keeping for liim, and with a terrible fear {Todesangst) in every wrinkle of her face, such as one may feel when any one dear to us is to go before a military tribunal, and perhaps be shot within twenty-four hours. T can never forget the face of that old man. In the Morgue I also
' Our author here sketches with a master-hand in a few strokes a type whicli may nut be known to all readers. I knew his counterpart in an old soldier named iiuniberg, a German,
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saw Oil the eighth of June the corpse of an old man covered with wounds, who, as a Garde National who stood by assured me, was " very much committed as a llepubHcan." But he lay on the marble slabs of la Munjue. This is a building where the bodies which are found in the streets or in the Seine are brought and laid out, and where people seek for friends who are missing.
On that day, the eighth of June, so many people thronged to the Morgue that there was as long a queue formed as when " llobert le Diable " is to be given at the Opera. I had to wait an hour ere I could enter, and so had time enough to look at that melancholy building, which looks like a great pile of stones. I do not know what is the meaning of a yellow tablet of wood with a blue centre like a Brazilian cockade, which hangs before the door.^ The number of the house is twenty-one. It was
who seemed to live only for revolutions and beer. My brother always called him Cartouche, from the character in La Fille du lieijuacnt. Whenever an tmcute took place in Europe, he was always there, not as leader, but as a reckless fighter. When the great insurrection of the coup d'etat took place in Paris, he left Philadelphia, fought at the barricades, and returned, all within six weeks. I never could imagine how he lived. Fighting, imprisonment, and subordinate plotting and conspiring seemed to make up his whole life. He was an old man, full of life, with glittering and fierce, yet almost laughing eyes, and enor- mous white moustaches, like reversed horns ; a type of the old Revolutionaries of 1798. — Trandator.
^ I believe that this indicates a hospital, or tliat the place is under civic sanitary control. — Translator.
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sad enough when within to see how anxiously some people looked at the corpses, seeking what they feared to find. There were indeed two agonising scenes. A boy found his dead brother, and stood silent in grief, as if rooted to the spot. A young girl discovered her dead lover, screamed, and swooned. As I knew her, I had the sad task to carry the poor disconsolate creature home. She was employed in a magasin de modes in my neigh- bourhood, where eight young ladies are employed, all of whom are r^puhlicaines. Their lovers are all young Eepublicans. I am in this establishment the only Royalist.
Appendix to Letter IX}
[Written October i, 1S32.)
The passages suppressed in the preceding let- ter referred chiefly to the German nobility. The more I reflect on the most recent events of the day, the more important does the subject seem, and I must soon make up my mind to a funda- mental discussion of it. This indeed is no result of private feelings. I believe that I have fully proved of late that my conflict {Befelidung) con- cerns only the principles, and not directly the
^ This appendix or Ztdschenotc, as Heine terms it, is wanting in the French version.
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persons of the opponents. The cnrag4s of the clay have recently cried out against me as a secret ally of the aristocracy, and if the insurrection of the fifth of June had not come to grief, they could easily have intlicted on me the death which they had schemed. I willingly forgive them this folly, and only a word in reference to it escaped me in ray letter of the seventh of June. Parly spirit is as blind as is a raging beast.
As regards the German aristocracy, we have a bad business to deal with. All constitutions, even the best, cannot help us until the whole nobility {AdeWium) is torn up to the last root. The poor princes or kings are themselves in the utmost distress ; their best intentions are fruitless, they must act contrary to their holiest oaths, they are compelled to act contrary to the cause of the people ; in a word, they cannot remain true to the constitution as they have sworn, until they shall be freed from that older constitution which the nobility when it did penance for its armed inde- pendence gained by the silken arts of courtier- ship. These are constitutions which, as unwritten laws of custom, are far more deeply grounded than the most absolutely printed blotting-paper documents of the kind — constitutions whose codex is known by heart to every rustic noble- man, and whose maintenance is under the special care of every old court-tabby, — constitutions from
T
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wliicli the most absolute king dare not remove the smallest tittle — I refer to etiquette.
Through etiquette the princes are entirely in the power of the nobility; they are not free, they are not responsible ; and the want of truth which some of them manifested at tlie latest ordinance of the Diet is to be ascribed, if we judge them fairly, not to their will, but to their circumstances. No constitution secures the rights of the people so long as their rulers lie bound in the etiquette of nobility, for so soon as caste- interests are concerned all private enmities are set aside, and all unite in a bod}". "What can the only one, the prince, do against that body which is practised in intrigue, which knows every princely weakness, which counts among its members even the prince's nearest relatives, who have exclusively the right to be about his person, so that the prince, even when he hates them, must endure their pre- sence ; must bear their charming glances, let them clothe him, wash and lick his hands; must eat, drink, and converse with them because they are qualified to appear at court (hoffahig), privileged by right of birth to those court charges and duties ; and all the ladies of the court would rise and make his own home uninhabitable should he act as his heart desired, and not according to the laws of etiquette ? So it happened that William of England, a noble, excellent king, was compelled by the tricks
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of his suiTouudiug to break liis word in the most miserable manner, and lose for ever the respect and confidence of his peoi^le. And so, too, it came to pass that one of the noblest and most intelli- gent princes who ever adorned a throne, King- Louis of Bavaria, who three years ago was so devoted to the popular cause, and who so firmly- resisted all the tyrannical efforts of his nobility, and who so heroically endured their provoking- insolence and slanders — even he at last, wearied and weak, sank into their traitorous arms and became untrue to himself! Poor heart, which was once so ambitious and proud ! how sadly must thy courage have been broken since thou, not to be annoyed longer by the retorts of a few stub- born subjects, didst resign thy own independent supremacy, aud become thyself a subordinate vassal — the vassal of thy natural enemy — vassal of thy brother-in-law !
I repeat it, that all written constitutions can avail naught so long as we do not destroy the nobility utterly. It is not abolished when we, by discussed, voted, sanctioned, and promulgated laws, annul the privileges of the nobility. This has been done in several places, yet the interests of the nobles stOl prevail there. We must destroy the traditional abuses in royal householding, in- troduce a new system of service for the rabble of court-retainers, break up the "etiquette," and,
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to be free ourselves, begin the work with freeing the princes and emancipating the kings. The old dragon must be driven away from the fountain of power; and, when this shall have been done, beware lest he steal back by night and poison the well. Once we belonged to kings, now they be- long to us ; therefore, we must ourselves educate them, and not leave them any longer to those high-born royal court-tutors {Frinzenliofmcistcrn), y\]io train them to the aims of their own caste, and dwarf or deform body and soul. Nothing is so dangerous to the people as that early surround- ing a crown-prince with young noblemen's ideas. ^ The best citizen should be, by choice, of the people, the educator of princes ; and he who has an evil reputation, or is in the least of evil fame, should be legally removed from the person of the heir -apparent; but, sliould he press with that shameless forwardness which is characteristic of the nobility in such cases, then let him be scourged in the market-place in the most perfect measure, and let the measure be marked with red iron on his shoulder. But if he should declare that lie intruded on the young Iving to be regarded as clever and witty, and should he have a big belly like Sir John, then put him in
^ Unijunkcrunij. A junlcer is a young nobleman, but the term is often applied to any nobles when speaking of them as in court dependency. — TransJatoi:
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the House of Correction, but where the women are kept.^
However, there are occasionally white ravens.
I will discuss this subject more fully, as I have already done, in the preface to Kahldorf's Letters to Count ]Moltke. A statistic of the diplomatic body to whom the interests of the people are con- fided would therewith be extremely interesting. Tables can be added with catalogues of their different virtues in the various capitals — it being- shown, for instance, how in one of the latter
1 Heine is here supremely silly on a subject which easily atfoi-ded great opportunity to be nobly edifying or grandly sarcastic. The immensely demoralising influence which a prince or sovereign can exert, at fir.st directly, in a court, and then over society and the whole people, has never been realised, nor fully set forth by any writer, and it might have been well done here. In childishly describing how he would whip and brand and imprison courtiers, our author talks like a schoolboy. He leaves out of sight altogether that the heir-apparent, what- ever court influences may have been, is supposed to have some small allowance of common-sense, and to learn from the woidd, of which he really sees a great deal, enough to teach him a proper sense of duties and dignity. Courtiers, however vile and demoralising they may be — and there are, unfortunately, always too many of this kind — are never utterly and cntirehj responsible for a prince's conduct, as Heine would have us believe. History abounds in examples of kings who grew up deeply respected, though they had been exposed to every evil influence from infancy. In the cases of Charles II. and George IV. there were far worse influences at work than those of sur- rounding men or circumstances — there was a poison of imbecility in their blood, and, as we have been told, against this the gods themselves fight in vain. — Translator,
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every third man is either a gamLler or a homeless hireling, an escroc or the mjlano'^ of his own wife or tliat of his groom, or a general spy, or some such noble good-for-nothing. I have on behalf of this statistic made very fundamental studies — in fact, at the tables of King Pharaoh- and other mon- archs of the East, in the soirees of the most beantiful goddesses of dance and song, in the temples of gourmandise and gallantly — in short, in the most distinguished houses of Europe.
I must here by way of supplement mention, as regards Count Moltke, that he was here in the July of last year in Paris, and wished to engage me in a literary dispute {Federkrieg) on the nobility, to convince the public that I had mis- understood his principles, or voluntarily misre- presented them. But it seemed to me to be a sei'iously doubtful matter whether I should then discuss in my usual manner and publicly a subject which appealed so teriibly to the passions of the day. I communicated this apprehension to the Count, and he was reasonable enough not to attack me. As I first attacked him, I could not have ignored his reply, and a rejoinder must have come from me. The Count deserves the highest praise,
1 Escroc. Heine gives it as cscroque, a sharper or swindler. Ruffiano (Italian), a pander.
- The reference being to faro-tabl<s. This game was origin- ally called Pharaoh. — Translator.
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which I hereby award him, for his insight, and I give it the more willingly since I have found in him personally a brilliant {geistrcichen), and, what is much more, a correctly-thinking man, who had well deserved in the preface to the Kahldorf Letters to be treated otherwise than as a common nobleman. Since then I have read his monograph on trade freedom (Gcioerhrfreiheit), in which he, among many other subjects, expresses the most liberal principles.
It is a strange thing as regards these nobles ! The best among them cannot free themselves from the interests of blood. They can in most cases think liberally — perhaps more unselfishly liberally than common people {Boturiers), they can even love freedom better and devote offerings to it, but they are very insensible to citizen-like erpiality. At heart no man is perfectly liberal ; only mankind is quite so ; some one has a bit of liberalism which the other wants, while the people as a whole possess them all. Count INIoltke is certainly of the deepest conviction that the slave-trade is something illegal and infamous, and he would doubtless vote for its abolition. But Mynheer van der Null, a slave-dealer whose accpiaintance I made under the Bohmchen in Rotterdam, is perfectly convinced that the slave- trade is perfectly natural and proper, but that the privilege of birth is something unjust and
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unnatural, which every honest state should sweep away.
That I in July 1831 was unwilling to have a controversy with Count Moltke, the champion of the nobility, will be appreciated by every reason- ablv feelino; man when he considers the nature of the fearful and threatening circumstances which were then developing in Germany.
Passions were raging more wildly than ever before, and it was as necessary to show as bold a front to Jacobinism as to absolutism. Immovably fixed in my principles, even the wiles of Jaco- binism have never been able here in Paris to tear me away into the dark stream where German stupidity rivalled French frivolity. I have taken no part in the German associations here, beyond contributing a few francs to a collection for sup- porting a free press ; and long before the days of June I notified the directors of that association in the most explicit manner that I was no longer in any connection with them. I can therefore only shrug my shoulders in pit}', when I hear that the Jesuit-aristocratic party in Germany gave them- selves at that time the greatest pains to represent me as one of the enragh of the day, in order to cast on me by their excesses a compromising authority.^
' " Um mir beideren Excessen eine koiiipromittierende Solida- ritiit aufzubiirden." SoHdaritiit, a joint liability. Germans are
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It was a mad time, and I had sad trouble even with my best friends, and I was in sorrow sore for my worst enemies. Yes, ye dear enemies, ye do not know how much trouble I endured for you ! People talked of doing up in one bundle all the treacherous nobles, slanderous priests, and similar scamps in Germany. How could I endure that ? If the question had only been one of punishing you a little — whipping you on the Schlossplatz in Berlin or on the Schrannenmarkt in Munich in gentle time, or nailing the tri- coloured cockade on your tonsure, or ha\'ing with you some joke of that kind ! — that I might have let pass ; but to really make away with you, that I never could endure. Yonr death to me had been the saddest loss. In that case I should have had to make new enemies, perhaps among honest, decent folk, which is always a bad thing for an author. Nothing is so profitable for us as to have really bad fellows for enemies. The Lord hath made me immeasurably rich with this kind, and I am glad that they are now in safety. Yes, let us sing Te Mctternich Laudamus ! ye dear enemies ! Ye were in the greatest danger of being hung,
of opinion that most words in their language are more expressive tlian any in English, and it certainly cannot be denied that s^oUd is indeed "worked for all it is woi'th." There are "solid maidens " who advertise for solid husbands to enter into sollda- risch marriage relations in solid society. — Translator.
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and then I slionlcl have lost ye for ever! Now all is still once more ; everything will be set aside or firmly fixed by law. The Act of Confederacy will be dismissed and the patriots imprisoned, and we look forward to a long, sweet, and safe repose. Now we can once more, undisturbed, resume our old delightful relations ; I can scourge you as of old, and you can slander me. How glad I am to see you as yet unhung ! Your life is dearer to me than ever. I cannot resist a certain feeling of emotion in seeing you. I beg you, take good care of your health — do not swallow your own poison ; rather lie and slander when you can, a little more than usual — that lightens the pious heart. Do not go about so bent over and bowed — that is bad for the breast. Go sometimes to the theatre when a tragedy by Raupach is to be played — that exhilarates one. Try a change in your private pleasures ; visit a pretty girl now and then — but beware of tlie rope - maker's daughter !
Now vou are plavini' with the end of a longf rope ; but who knows, perhaps some fine morning- early you will hang at the end of a short cord.
DAILY BULLETINS.^
PREFACE.
There is not much wliicli is true or accurate wliicli will ever be published relative to the un- successful insurrection of the fifth and sixth of
1 Only ten pages of these Bulletins, dc. (which occupy seventy- nine in the German original), are given in the French version. Of this omission the French editor remarks as follows : —
" L'auteur avait ecrit sur les dvenements des 5 et 6 juin et sur les mesures qui en furent la consequence, des bulletins jour par jour, heure par heure. Ces recits n'auraient rien de nouveau pour nous. D'ailleurs le sens poetique de I'ingenieux et spirituel ecrivaiu nu salt oil se prendre au milieu de ces descriptions ccourtees, niatcrielles, et de lincessante fluctuation du com- morage des places publiques. Nous avons done pense que nous ue ferions tort a personne en les supprimant, et (jue l'auteur meme, qui ccrivait pour instruire des AUemands, nous saurait gre d'alleger son bagage et de lui rendre I'allure plus facile en le presentant devant les Frangais. Nous n'avons pu cependant nousrdsoudre a sacritier le passage suivant, auquel nous ajoutons d'autres fragments de lettres ecrites de Normandie."
I can only say, and I sincerely believe that my readers in England and America will agree with me, that these fragmen- tary bulletins seem to be far more interesting than they appear to have been to the French editor. ~2\-a»slator.
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June 1832, because both parties are deeply inte- rested in distorting such facts as are known, and in concealing those which are not. The following- bulletins, written in the face of events, in the roar of party strife, and always just before the depar- ture of the post, as hastily as possible, in order that the correspondents of the Juste-Milicu should not be first in the field — these fleeting leaves I here give unchanged, so far as they refer to the insurrection of the fifth of June. The writer of history may perhaps use them the more conscien- tiously, since he may at least be sure that they were not prepared for or adapted to later in- terests.
And though no special conti'adiction is needed for many erroneous conjectures which may be found in these pages, I cannot here refrain from giving one. General Lafayette has recently de- clared that he was not the man who, on the fifth of June, draped the red flag and the Jacobin cap. Our old general showed himself on that day, as I have since learned, fully worthy of himself. A discretion, which will be readily appreciated, for- bids my communicating at present certain details in reference to this, which would inspire the most incarnate Jacobin with emotion and respect for Lafayette.
And some may find in these pages, as in the whole book, many contradictory assertions, but
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they never coucern tliiugs, but always persons.^ Over the first we must have settled opinious, as to the latter they may change every day. Even so I, as regards the evil system in which Louis Philippe sticks as in a bog, have always said the same thing: but as regards his person, I have not always ex- pressed myself in the same tone. At first I disliked him, because I thought him an aristocrat ; later, when I was convinced of his sound citizen feel- ing (Bilrgerlichkcit), I spoke much better of him ; when he frightened us with the c'lal dc sUgc, I was again angered, but this was allayed after the first days, when it appeared that the poor Louis Philippe only in the stupefaction of his own terror had made that mistake. And since then the Carlists by their slanders ha^'e inspired in me a true fond- ness for the person of this monarch, and this would still increase in my heart if I could compare him to
' Heine here recalls a certain Western citizen of refined feel- ings who once remarked of a small mishap : — " I hev sometimes, Mrs. Jones, inadvertently committed murders, and in moments of forgetfulness hev stolen hosses, but I assure you on the honour of a gentleman that I never before broke a sasser at a lady's tea-table."' Our author really had a reporter's conscience. — Translator.
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Pauls, June 5, 1832.
The I'uueral of General Lamarque, ioi convoi cV opposition, as the Philippistes say, lias just passed from the Madeleine to the Place de la Bastile. There were many more mourners and spectators than at the burial of Casimir Perier. The people themselves drew the hearse. A very striking sight in the procession was that of foreign patriots, whose national flags were carried in a row. I remarked among them one whose colours were black, carmine-red, and gold. At one o'clock there fell a lieavy rain, which lasted half-an-hour or more, \'et in spite of it there remained an im- mense crowd on the Boulevards, mostly bareheaded. When the procession came to the Varietes Theatre, and just as it passed the column of the Amis du Peuple, and many called "Yive la Republique ! " a police sergeant attempted to interfere, but the mob fell on him, broke his sword, and a terrible tumult ensued, \\'liich was subdued with great difficulty. The sight of such a disturbance, which set several hundred thousands of men into motion, was both remarkable and significant.
It is said to have been known yesterday in the Tuileries that the Duchesse de Berry had been captured in Nantes. Should this be the case,
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Louis Philippe must be iu a, sad dilemma, since he cannot really hand over the niece of the Queen — who made such piteous appeal to him — to the tribunals, and yet must avert from himself suspicion of maintaining intimate relations with his family in Holy rood. It is positively known that Marshal Bourmont has been taken. If delivered to a military court he will die like Ney, but less famous and less lamented.
Paris, June 6, 1832.
I do not know whether I mentioned in my letter of yesterday that an 4mcuie was announced in the evening. As Lamarque's funeral passed along the Boulevards and appeared at the Theatre des Vaiietus, trouble was already perceptible.
It is difficult to determine on which side lay the blame that passion broke out so terribly. The most contradictory rumours are current as regards the beginning of hostilities, the events of the night, and the whole situation of things. I will here mention only one incident which has reached me from many directions, and which has been confirmed by most credible authority. When Lafayette, whose presence at the funeral awoke universal enthusiasm, had ended his address on the place by the Bridge of Austerlitz, where the ceremonies took place, a wreath of immortelles was
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placed upon liis head. At the same time a red Phrygian cap was put on an entirely red flag which had previously attracted much attention, and a pupil of the Ecole Polytechuique, raised on the shoulders of bystanders, waved his shining- sword over the red cap and cried, " Vive la Liberte !" or, as others say, •'•Vive la Rcpublique ! " Then La- fayette, it is said, placed his wreath of immortelles on the red cap of freedom, as is declared by many credible people who saw it with their own eyes. It is possible that he executed this symbolic deed by compulsion or surprise, but it is also possible that a third hand was in the game which played without being remarked in the great crowd. After this manifestation, according to some, an attempt was made to carry the red flag and wreath in triumph through the city, and as the municipal guards and sergeants de ville opposed this with arms, the fight begun. This is at least certain, that when Lafayette, wearied with a four hours' drive, got into a fiacre, the mob took out the horses and dragged their old and truest friend with their own hands, amid tremendous cheers, along the Boulevards. Many of the working-class had torn up young trees from the ground and ran with them like wild creatures beside the carriage, which seemed at one time to be in danger of being upset by the unmanageable crowd. It is said that two bullets (Schiisse) struck
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the carriage. I can give no details relative to this singular occurrence.
Many \Yhom I questioned as to the beginning of the hostilities declare that they broke out by the Bridge of Austerlitz, on account of the corpse of the hero ; that while a portion of the " patriots" bore the coffin to the Pantheon, another jDortion would carry it farther to the next village, and that the ser- geants de ville and municipal guards opposed such plans. So they fought with great bitterness, even as men fought of yore before the Skaic gate about the body of Patroclus. Much blood was spilt on the Place de la Bastile. At half -past six battle had begun at the Porte Saint-Denis, where the people built barricades. Many posts of importance were taken, for the National Guards who defended them made but feeble resistance and gave up their arms. And so the people got many guns. I found on the Place Notre Dame des Victoires a great noise of fighting; the "patriots" had occupied three positions by the Bank. As I turned to the Boulevards, all the shops were closed, and few people, amongst them very few women, who are, however, generally accustomed to very boldly gratify their curiosity on such occasions ; every one looked very serious. Troops of the line and cuirassiers moved hither and thither ; orderlies with anxious countenances rushed about bearing orders ; in the distance firing of guns and powder-smoke. The
U
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vreatlier was now clear, and towards evening very- favourable. Matters seemed to be looking very serious for the Government when it was made known that the National Guards had declared for the insurgents. The error originated in this, that many of the patriots yesterday assumed the dress of the National Guards, and the guards were really for some time in doubt as to which partv thev should support. During the night the wives pro- bably proved to their husbands that that party should be supported which offered the best guar- antees for personal safety and property, and that this was to be expected far more from Louis Philippe than from the Kepublicans, who are very poor and very detrimental 1o trade or business. Therefore the National Guard is to-day altogether against the Republicans, and the affair is decided. " C'est un coup manque," say the people. Troops of the line are coming from every direction to Paris. On the Place de la Concorde as well as on the other side of the Tuileries and the Place de Car- ousel are many cannon. The bourgeois king is surrounded by bourgeois cannon — ou peut on itre mieux qu'au sein de sa famille ?■
Now it is four o'clock and raining heavily, which is very unfavourable for the patriots, who have mostly barricaded themselves in the Quartier Saint-]\rartin and receive little aid. They are sur- rounded on all sides, and I hear at this instant the
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most terrible roar of caunon. I am told that two hours ago the people had great hope of victory, but now their ouly liope is to die heroically. And there will be many of them. As I live by the Porte Saint-Denis, I have hardly slept all night, for the discharge of arms was without cessation. The roar of the cannon has in my heart the saddest echo. It is an unfortunate event, which will have still sadder consequences.
Paris. June 7, 1832.
When I went yesterday to the Bourse to throw my letter into the post-box, there stood the whole race of speculators between the columns and before the broad stairs. And as the news had just been received that the defeat of the patriots was cer- tain, the sweetest content was seen in every face, — one might say that the whole Bourse smiled. Amid the roar of cannon the funds shot up ten per cent. That is to say, they fired at five o'clock — at six the devolution had been quelled. Then the newspapers could communicate as much in- formation as they pleased. The Constitutionncl and the D(^bats seem to a certain degree to have cor- rectly understood or hit what has happened, but the colour and measurements are incorrect. I have just come from the theatre of the strife of yesterday, where I convinced myself how difficult
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it would be to get at the whole real truth. This theatre {Schauplatz) is one of the greatest anjd most densely inhabited streets of Paris, i.e., the Rue Saint-Martin, which, beginning at the gate of that name on the Boulevards, ends on the Seine at the Bridge Xotre Dame. At both ends of the street I heard the number of the patriots, or, as they are called to-day, the rebels, who fought there, esteemed at from five hundred to a thousand ; but in the middle of the street the sum became less, and in tlic very centre it was reduced to fifty. •' What is truth ? " said Pontius Pilate.^
The number of troops of the line is easier to give. Yesterday even the Journal des D6hats de- clares there weic forty thousand men ready for action in Paris. Add to these at least twenty
' The late Mr. Chadbaiid also put tin- same question to as much purpose. The truth as regards all insurrections is that the number <>f the defeated is always reduced to the .'-mallest credible dimensions, like that of the native American party in the United States, of which it was perfectly proved that "nobody whatever had ever belonged to it at any time." There was, by the way, something pathetic — not to say romantic — in tlie last appearance of this latter party on eartli. Tiiere was but one Lodge of them left in Pennsylvania, and it was accustomed to meet in a cavern or holt; in the ground in a secluded spot. After the defeat of their candidate, Fillmore, they once more assembled and drew the hole in after them, and so disappeared for ever. It would almost seem that but for the unwearied efforts of Heine the patriots of 1832 must also have been i-e- duced in number even unto total evaporation. — Translator,
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thousand National Guards, and we find that a mere handful of insurgents fought with sixty thousand men ! The heroism of these insanely brave men is unanimously praised ; they indeed achieved miracles of bravery. They cried con- tinually, *' Vive la Republique ! " but it found no echo in the breasts of the people. Had they instead cried " Vive Napol<^on ! " then (as is gene- rally declared to-day in all groups of the people) the line would hardly have fired on them, and the great masses of workmen would have joined them. But they scorned a lie, for they were the purest, though not the craftiest, friends of freedom. And yet people are stupid enough to declare to-day that they were acting in intelli- gence with the Carlists ! Verily, he who fights unto death for the holy delusion of his heart and for the beautiful error of an ideal future, will never ally himself to that cowardly filth which the past has left us under the name of "Carlists." lam, by God ! no Republican. I know that if the Republicans conquer they will cut my throat^ — and that because I will not admire what they
^ An apprehension which was not borne out by facts. All that the Republicans did when they came to power was to find out and publish the facts relative to the little pension — which pension, by the way, casts innumerable dark-lantern side-lights on all that Heine ever wrote in Paris — and which (to change the image) may be heard like the drone of a bagpipe in every melody
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aduiire ; but still the tears rose in my eyes to-day when I trod the place which was still wet witli their blood. It would have pleased me more had I, and all my fellow moderates, died iu place of those Republicans.
The National Guards rejoice greatly over their ^•ictory. In the intoxication of victory they came yesterday evening very near sending a most in- sanitary bullet through my body, although 1 belong to their party — for they shot heroically at everybody who came near their post. It was a rainy, starless, repulsive evening, with little light in the streets, since almost all the shops were closed as they had been all day. To-day, however, all is in gay movement, and one would hardly believe that anything had taken place. Even iu the Rue Saint-Martin all the shops are open. Though it is difficult to A\alk there on ac- count of the turned-up pavement and the remains of the barricades, still a great multitude whirls on through the street, which is very long and narrow, the houses being built extremely high. Nearly all the windows there were broken by the sound of the cannon, and we everywhere behold the marks of balls ; for cannon were discharged into
whicli he played. But, metaphorically speaking, his throat was very badly cut by tiiis exposure, so that lie may be said to have saved liis credit as a prophet, after all. — TransUitor.
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the street from both sides, so thut the Republicans were driven into the middle. It is said that yesterday they were at last shut iu ou every side in the Church Saint-]\Iery, but this I heard denied upon the spot. A somewhat prominent house called the Cafe Leclerque, which is situated on the corner of the Alley Saint-Mery, seems to have been the headquarter of the Republicans. Here they held out longest, here they made their final stand. They asked for no mercy, and were mostly slain by the bayonet. Here fell the pupils of the Ecole d'Alfort, and here the warmest blood in France ran. It is, however, a mistake to believe that the Republicans consisted entirely of young madcaps or fire-eaters [Brausehopfen). Many old men fought among them. A young woman with whom I conversed near the Church Saint-Mery bewailed the death of her grandfather. He had always lived very peaceably, but when he saw the red flag and heard '' Vive la Republique " cried, he ran with an old pike to the young people, and died with them, l^oor old man ! he heard the ranche (Us r aches of "the Mountain," and the memory of his first love of freedom awoke, and he would fain dream once more the dream of his youth. Sleep well !
The consequences of this wrecked revolution may be seen in advance. More than a thousand men have been arrested, among them, as is re-
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ported, a deputy, Garnier Pages. The Liberal journals are suppressed. The shopkeeper world re- ioices, egoism flourishes, and many of the best men must needs go into mourning. The system of ter- ror will require many more victims. The National Guard is already frightened at its own force ; these lieroes are terrified when they see themselves in a mirror. The King, the great, strong Louis Philippe, will bestow many crosses of honour. The hired wit ( Witzhold) will ridicule the friends of freedom though in their graves; even the latter are now called enemies of public peace and assassins.
A tailor who dared this morning in the Place A^endome to allude to the good intentions of the Republicans was beaten by a powerful woman, who was probably his wife. That is the counter- revolution.
Paris, June 8, 1832.
It appears that it was not an entirely red, but a red-black golden banner which Lafayette crowned with immortelles at the funeral of Lamarque. This fabulous flag, which was un- known to everybody, was supposed by many to be a Republican standard. I knew it very well, and thought at once : " Great heaven ! why, these are our old Burschenschaft colours ; to-day there will be either a disaster or something stupid ! " Unfortunately both came to pass. When the
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dragoons in the beginning of the hostilities also attacked the Germans who followed that flag, they barricaded themselves behind the great beams of a carpenter's shop. After a while they retreated to the Jardin des Plantes, and the flag- was rescued, though in a very tattered condition. To the Frenchmen who have asked of me the meaning of this black -red-golden banner, I have conscientiously replied that the Emperor Bar- barossa, who has lived for many centuries in Kyffhauser, sent us that flag as a sign that the ancient land of dreams still exists, and that he himself is to come with sword and sceptre. As for me, I do not believe that it will so soon come to pass ; there are as yet too many black ravens flying round the mountain.
Here in Paris affairs look less dream-like. There are bayonets and watchful military faces in every street. I regarded it at first as a mere unmeaning sign of alarm (SchrcckscJiiiss) that people declared that Paris was in a state of siege. It was supposed that this declaration would be promptly recalled ; but as I yesterday afternoon saw more and more cannon passing along the Rue Richelieu, I ob- served that the overthrow of the Republicans would be turned to profit against other enemies of the Government or the journalists. It is now the question as to whether the "good-will " is coupled with the requisite strength. They are now turn-
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ing to profit the amazement at their victory of the National Ciuards, who, as regards the Eepiib- licaus, have taken part in most vigorous measures, and whose hands Louis Philippe is now shaking as intimate!}- as evm-. Since people hate the Carlists and distrust the Republicans, they sup- port the King as the maintainer of order, and he is as popular as a delightful necessity. Yes, I have heard " \'ivt' le Roi ! " cried as the King- rode along the Boulevards, but I also saw a tall man near the Faubourg ]\rontmartre who ad- vanced to the King and boldly cried, "A bas Louis Philippe I " Several riders in the King's suite at once descended from their horses and carried the intruder away.
I have never known Paris to be so sultry as it was yesterday evening. Despite the bad weather the public places were crowded. The groups of politicians assembled closely in the garden of the Palais Royal, and conversed in subdued tones — in fact, very much subdued — for one may now be brought before a military tribunal and shot within twenty-four hours. I began to long again for the slow and lazy course of law in my Cxerman}'. The lawless condition in which we find ourselves here is repulsive. That is a greater evil than the cholera. As people were tormented when the disease raged by the successive numbers of deaths, so they are now terrified by the fearful amount of
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arrests, or when they hear tlie secret fusillades, and while a thousand dark rumours spread in obscurity, as was the case yesterday. To-day by suulio-ht there is more confidence and calm. The world admits that it was alarmed yesterday, and now we are more vexed than frightened. There prevails at present a Juste-milieu terror.
The journals are more moderate in their pro- tests, yet are far from being subdued. The National and the Temps speak out fearlessly, as becomes free men. I cannot communicate more as reo-ards recent events than is to be found in the newspapers. People are quiet, and let matters come quietly. The Government is perhaps alarmed at the tremendous power which it finds that it really possesses. It has raised itself above the law — a serious position ; for it is justly said, " Qui est au-dessus de la loi est hors de la loi." The only argument with which many true friends of freedom defend the present powerful measures is the necessity which the royaute de- mocratiquc feels of strenglhening itself at home in order to take hold more powerfully abroad.
Paris, June 10, 1832.
Yesterday Paris was perfectly quiet. The ru- mours of many military executions (Filsilladen), which Avere still believed in, the evening before
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yesterday, by most credible authority, have been contradicted in the most reassuring manner by those \yho are nearest to the Government. A great number of arrests are, however, admitted. Of this it is easy enough to convince oneself by personal observation, since yesterday, and much more on the day before, arrested persons were seen being conducted by soldiers of the line or communal guards in every part of the city. It seemed sometimes like a procession, old and young- men in wretched garments, and accompanied by lamenting friends, being among the prisoners. The report was that every one would be at once brought to a military trial, and shot within four- and-twenty hours at Vincennes. Groups were to be seen everywhere standing before houses where searches were being made. This was chiefly the case in the streets where fighting had taken place, and where many of the com- batants, despairing of their cause, concealed them- selves until some betrayer traced them out. The greatest crowding {Volksgeioimmcl) was along the quais where they pressed on, staring and gos- sipping, especially near the Rue Saint-Martin, which is still full of curious lookers-on, and about the Palais de Justice, to which many prisoners were brought. There was also much thronging to La Morgue to see the dead there laid out ; there were the most painful scenes of
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recognition. The city had indeed a sorrowful aspect, everywhere were seen groups of people with grief plainly marked in their faces, patrol- ling troops, and funerals of National Guards who had fallen.
But in society, since the day before yesterday no one is the least concerned ; they know their people and also that the Juste-miliea feels very uncomfortable in its present plenitude of power. It holds the great sword of justice, but wants the strong hand wliich it requires. It is afraid of wounding itself at the least blow. Intoxicated at the victory, which was at first ascribed to Mar- shal Soult, Government let itself be led astray to military nieasures, proposed by that old soldiei', who is still full of the whims {velkitdten) of the Empire. Now this man actually stands at the head of the ministerial council, and his colleagues and the rest of the Juste-milieu fear lest the Pre- sidency, which he so ardently desired, may devolve upon him. Therefore they would like to turn round again and extricate themselves completely from heroism ; and it was for this that milder interpretations {Befinitioncn) of the decree as to the state of siege followed its publication. One can see how the Juste-milieu is now alarmed at its own power, and in alarm hold it as if in con- vulsive terror tightly in its hands, and will not give it up until assured of forgiveness. There
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may be in the desperate confusion a few unim- portant victims. Government may lie itself into a ridiculous raoje to frio-Iiteu its enemies, it mav
commit frightfully stupid errors ; it may
But it is impossible to foretell what appre- hension may do when it is barricaded in the hearts of those in power, and sees itself surrounded by death and mockeiy. The deeds of a fright- ened man, like those of a genius, lie out of the sphere of conjecture. Meantime the higher public fully understand that the extra-legal con- dition in wbicli matters are now misplaced is only a formula. AVhere laws lire in the conscience of the people, a Government cannot annul them by a sudden edict. Every one is here de facto more secure as to his life and property than anywhere else in Europe, excepting in England and Hol- land. Tliough military tribunals are instituted, there prevails here continually more practical freedom of the press, and journalists write here more freely on the measures of government than in many states of the Continent where freedom of the press is sanctioned by pap<n' laws.
As t])e post leaves by noon on Sunday, I can give no news of to-day. I can only refer you to the newspapers. Their tone is more significant than what they say. Au resfe, they are certainly asrain abundant in lies.
n
There has been incessant drumming since
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morning. To-day there is a, grand review. My servant says that on the Boulevards the whole extent from the Barriere du Trone to the Barriere de I'Etoile is covered with troops of the line and National Guards. Louis Philippe, the father of his native land, the conqueror of Catiline of June 5, the Cicero on horseback, the enemy of the guillotine and of paper-money, tlie preserver of life and of shops, the Citizen-King, will in a few hours show himself to his people. He will be greeted with loud applause ; he will press many men's hands, and the police will see that there are especial precautions taken to ensure safety and an extra enthusiasm.
P.MUs, June II, 1832. The review of yesterday was favoured by very fine weather. There were on the Boulevards from the Barriere du Trone to the Barriere de I'Etoile perhaps fifty thousand National Guards and troops of the line, and a countless multitude of spectators on their feet or at the windows, eagerly waiting to see the King, and note how he would be re- ceived after such remarkable occurrences. About one o'clock His Majesty with his general staff passed by the Porte Saint-Denis, where I stood on a reversed bath-tub in order to observe him more closely. The King did not ride in the centre, but at the right side, where the National Guards
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were ranged, and all along the whole route he was continually bending over sideways from his horse to shake hands with these soldiers. When he returned, two hours later, by the same road, he was on the left side, where he continued the same manoeuvre, so that I should not wonder if in consequence of this oblique position he had to-day the greatest pain in his heart, if not a dislocated rib.^ This extraordinary patience of the King was really incomprehensible. And he was obliged to maintain a constant smile, but I think that under the imper- vious friendliness of tbat face there lay hidden much trouble and sorrow. His appearance inspired in me deep compassion. He has changed greatly since I saw him last winter at a ball in the Tuileries. His features, then so plump and rosy, were yesterday yellow and flabby, his black side whiskers were quite grey, so that it seemed as if his very face had meantime grown anxious over present or future blows of fate ; it certainly was a sign of grief that he had never thought of dyeing
' American politicians j-omt-times suffer terribly for several days in con equence of severe and long-continued hand-shaking, A mechanical genius is said to have invented an artificial arm with a grasping hand for the use of Presidents and other victims. In the Letters of Jack Downing that clever humourist tells us that when General Jackson was once completely exhausted in this manner, he, Downing, passed his .-irm under the General's, and for a long time shook hands for him, the eager crowd not observing the substitution. — Translator,
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his beard. The three-cornered hat, of which the whole front flap was thrown deeply over his fore- head, gave liiui, moreover, a very unfortunate appearance. He seemed to look about as if seek- ing with his eyes for sympathy and forgiveness. In truth, he had not the appearance of one who had declared us to be all in a state of siege. Accordingly there was not the slightest manifesta- tion of ill-will towards him, and I must bear witness that great applause greeted him everywhere; those especially with whom he shook hands raised a roaring hurrah, and there rang from a thousand women's throats a piercing " Vive le Roi ! " I saw an old woman who punched her husband in the ribs because he did not cry loud enough. A bitter feeling seized me when I reflected that this mob which now exulted round the poor hand-shaking Louis Philippe, are the same Frenchmen who so often saw Napoleon ride by with his marble face as of Ctesar, and his immovable eyes and his •• unapproachable" (ruler's) hands.^
After Louis Philippe had held the review, or rather felt the army to make sure that it really existed, the noise of the military continued for several hours. The different corps continually shouted compliments to one another as they
' Cud '' iiiniahbarcn" llicrrschcr] lldnden. So given in the original text.
X
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J
uiarcliecl b\ . " Vive la ligne ! " cried the guards, and " Vive la garde nationale I " replied "tlie line. They fraternised. Some of them would be seen in symbolical embraces ; others as symbolically ex- chanced with their allies their sausao-e. bread, and wine. There was not the slightest disturbance.
I must mention that the cry " Vive la liberte " was the one most frequently heard; and when these words were thundered forth in joy from the full hearts of so many thousands of armed men, one must needs feel cheerful despite a condition of military occupation and the court - martials. But there we have it ; Louis Philippe u'ill never, of free accord, oppose public opinion ; he will always find out by crafty means what are its most urgent desires and act accordingly. That is the important meaning of yesterday's review. Louis Philippe felt the necessity of assembling the people en masse to convince himself that his cannon-shots and proclamations had not been ill received ; that he is not regarded as a harsh tyrant, and that there is no other misunderstanding. The people also wished to see its Louis Philippe, to convince itself that he is always the subject-courtier to its sove- reign will, and ever obedient and devoted. ^ One
' "Subject to, obedient, and devoted." Heine reminds us very often of the conscientious village arciiitect, who, when he built a house — whatever his other sins may have been — " always
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could therefore say that the people permitted the King- his review ; there was a king-show held, and it expressed its snlDlinie satisfaction at the manoeuvres.
Paris, Jane 12, 1S32.
The great review was yesterday the general subject of conversation. The Moderates saw in it the best understanding between the Kino; and the citizens. But many men of experience will not put faith in this fine alliance, and predict a quarrel between the King and the citizens should the interests of the throne ever clash with those of the shops. Now of course they give mutual aid, and King and citizens are contented with one another. I heard that the Place A'endome ^vas yesterday afternoon the sjDot where this beautiful harmony could be best seen, the King- being exhilarated by the joyous applause with which he had been received on the Boulevard ; and as the columns of the National Guard swept by, some men, without ceremony, stepped from the ranks, offered him their hands, spoke a friendly word to him, concisel}'- expressed to him their opinions of the late events, or unceremoni- ously declared that they would support him. so
put in all the nails he could afiford, whether they were wanted or not." — Translator.
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luug as lie did uot abuse Lis power. That tliis should never come to pass, that he would only repress the disorderly, that he would defend the freedom and equality of France more vigorously than ever, was averred by Louis Philippe in the most solemn manner, and his word gave strength to faith. I have, for the sake of being quite impartial, mentioned these additional facts, and I confess that my doubtiug heart was thereby much relieved.
The Opposition journals almost seem to desire to ignore the events of yesterday. Their tone is indeed very remarkable ; it indicates a kind of self-restraint such as generally precedes a terrible outbreak. They seem to simply await the recall of the decree as to a state of siege. The tone of every journal manifests the degree in which it is compromised by late events. The Tribune must be altogether silent, for it is in the greatest danger. The National is implicated to a less degree, and can speak more fully and boldly. The Temps, which spoke out most strongly against the pro- clamation of a state of siege, is on good terms mth certain ringleaders {Rddelsfilhrern) of the Jude-milieu, and is much more screened than Sarrut or Carrel ; but we will not permit such considerations to hinder us from praising M. Coste as one of the best citizens of France, on account of the manly and great words which he.
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ill a time of utmost clanger, uttered against the illegal and arbitrary conduct of the Government.^ M. Sarrut has been arrested, and M. Carrel is being sought for. Carrel is the one against whom the greatest irritation exists, and it is possible that he was especially thought of when exceptional courts were instituted. Yes ; if it be true, as is declared, that M. Thiers originated this stroke of genius, we may be sure that he did so, thinking of his old colleague Carrel, for he must have greatly feared the latter. He accurately knew his power, and he knows, too, that every party, when it comes to power, first of all punishes its renegades. The little head of Thiers, still full of the charivaris of the Marseilles kitchen-pots and
1 It is impossible for any impartial person to perceive wherein this " illegal and ai-bitrary conduct" consisted. The Republican party was immensely strong in France, witli an influential press, had already caused two terrible revolutions ; and no man living knew but that the Government was in the greatest peril during the events of .June. Our writer, with liis frequent incredible inconsistency, has already declared that if the Republicans had appealed to tiie Bonapartists the Government must have collapsed at once. Yet, despite this fearfully critical situation, the very simple and most natural means of securing peace, which evi- dently caused no one an}' inconvenience, is decried by him as a great crime. But Heine throughout runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds, to see how much the hounds will give him — making, however, a very brilliant run withal — as I have seen a gipsy on foot accompanying a hunt — to beg — whose ex- ploits in running and leaping were the mo^t amusing part of the whole performance. — Translator.
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Binuet's eulogistic verses, must have been utterly bewildered when the thunder of cannons and the name of Carrel rang in his ears ; for it was gene- rally believed that Carrel stood at the head of the lUncutc of June 5. Tlie great building in the Eue du Croissant, where were the printing-office and bureaux of the National, was believed to be their headquarters, and about two thousand per- sons, many of thi^m of great importance, went there to offer tlieir allegiance and that of their friends to the cause. It is, however, quite certain that Carrel declined all such offers, and it was sure in advance that the proposed revolution would fail, because there was not sufficient pre- paration, because the sympathy of the people had not been secured, because all that was most neces- sary was wanting, because no one knew who were the managing agents, and so forth ; and, in fact, there never was an uprising which was so badly managed, and to this hour no one knows how it originated and who planned it. A man who fought in the Rue Saint-Martin declared that, as the Re- publicans who were shut up together there first beheld one another, all were strangers, and it was only a mere chance which had brought them to- gether. But they soon became acquainted as they fought together, and most of them died as most cordial and trusted brothers in arms (a/s JwrJnnif/ vertraute Waffenhriidrr).
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111 like manner, it lias never been discovered to this hour what occurred at the escorting home- ward of Lafayette. One who is well informed assured me yesterday that the Government, which mistrusted the Lamarque funeral, and in accord- ance with its suspicions kept the dragoons ready, had given order to the police, in case of any signs of outbreak, to at once seize Lafayette, lest he might fall into the hands of the insurgents, who would use his name as a support. Therefore, when the first shots were fired, several police agents, disguised as workmen, placed Lafayette by force in a carriage, while others, also in disguise, dragged it along, and crying " Vive Lafayette ! " bore him in triumph away.
When the Republicans speak, they declare that on the fifth of June the misfortune of their friends greatly injured them, but that the folly of the enemy the day after in declaring Paris to be in a state of siege greatly profited them. They declare that the fighting of the fifth and sixth of June was only to be regarded as a preparatory skirmish — that none of the noted men of the Republican party were in it,^ and that from the blood spilt
^ Noted men are in Paris generally as conspicuous for their absence from barricades as for their presence at the sharing of the spoils. In the Revolution of February 1S48, as before remarked, I was particularly impressed with the fact that there were so rrr*/ few gentlemen among the insurgents. — Translator,
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there have risen many new cliampions. What I before mentioned seems to somewhat support this assertion. The party which the National repre- sents, and which is represented by the treacherous Gazette dc France, as doctrinaire Republicans, took no part in the demonstration, nor did the chiefs of the party of the Trihmc or the Montagnardti appear in it.
Paris, Jum 17, 1832.
Doubtk^ss those who are at a distance make strange conjectures as to our affairs when they think of the latest events, the still-existing state of siege, and the threatening aspect of opposed parties. And yet we have so little change that the want of aught to surprise us is what occasions the greatest surprise. This remark is the chief thing which I have to communicate, and this negative context of my letter \vill unquestionably correct many erroneous suppositions.
All here is quiet. The military events direct and proceed {instruiren) with grim mien, but as yet not a cat has been shot. People laugh, joke,
' I doubt whether the most ingenious and voluble of New York reporters ever contrived to spin out the simple fact that he had nothing to say, or "no news," into so many words as Heine has here done. — Translator.
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and are witty over the state of siege, and the bravery of the National Guard, and the wisdom of Government. Wliat I at once predicted has come to pass ; the Jusic-milicu does not know how to get out of its heroism, and the beleaguered behold with mocking merriment this ambiguous predicament of the beleaguerers. The latter would fain appear as barbaric as possible ; they grope in the archives of the most barbarous times to call the cruellest laws again to life, and they only succeed in making themselves laughable, 'i'hey would fain be tyrants, but nature has meant them for something entirely different.
The gaily-dressed groups which promenade the gardens of the Palais Royal, the Tuileries, and of the Luxembourg, to breathe the silent summer coolness and see the idyllic games of little children, and otherwise amuse themselves in j)ef^ceful re- pose, form unconsciously the bitterest satire on the state of siege, which, however, legally exists. As the public seem to distrust its existence, there are searches in houses most ingeniously carried on everywhere. The sick are dragged out of their beds, wherein there is poking and groping to find if there be not concealed a gun, or perhaps a powder-horn. The unfortunate foreigners are the most afflicted, as they, on account of the military occupation, must all go to the jw^cc^«?v dc police to take out fresh carks-dc-sdjour or ■\^eY-
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missions to remain. There they must, 7:?7'o forma, endure all kinds of questions. Many French — especially students — must write on the back of their passports a promise to the effect that they during their stay in Paris will take no part in aught against the government of Louis Philippe. Many have preferred leaving the city to sub- scribing to such a condition.^ Others merely de- clared in signing it, as they were permitted, that they were Republicans. It is certain that such police-like measures of prevention were introduced by the doctrinaires from the example of German universities.
Arrests are continually being made, occasionally of the most heterogeneous kind under the most heterogeneous pretences ; some for taking part in the Republican revolt, and others because of a newly-discovered Bonapartist conspiracy. Yester- day they even seized on three Carlistic peers, among whom was Don Chateaubriand, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance, the best writer and
* This condition was more onerous than would at first appear, because in case of the Government being superseded by any re- volution or change, those who had signed it could be represented by the police, which never changes, as Philii^pistes. Its expedi- ency was more tiian doubtful, because it sent into the provinces a number of young men of decided character, who henceforth became Republican propagandists. This and many other petty, sliort-sighted police whims eventually frittered away the power of the Juste-milieu, — Translator,
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tlie greatest fool in France. The prisons are crammed. There are in Sainte P(^lag-ie alone more than six hundred accused of political offences. From one of my friends who is confined there for debt, and who is engaged in writing a great book, in which he proves that Sainte Pelagie was founded by the Pelasgii, I yesterday received a letter in which he complains very much of the noise which now prevails there, and which greatly disturbs liim in his learned investigations. The greatest pride prevails among the prisoners in the place. They have drawn on the wall of the court a great pear, and over it an axe.
Speaking of the pear, I would mention that the picture-shops have taken no notice whatever of the siege. But the j)ear, and always the pear, is to be seen in every caricature. The most striking is one representing the Place de la Concorde, with the monument dedicated to La CJiarte, which is repre- sented as an altar, and on it lies an immense pear with the features of the king. To a German this at last becomes wearisome and repulsive. These endless mockeries, painted and printed, rather awake in me a sympathy for Louis Philippe. He is to be pitied, now more than ever. He is by nature good and gentle, and is assuredly now obliged b}^ the laws to be severe. And he feels that executions neither help nor frighten, espe- cially as it is but a few weeks since the cholera
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put to death thirty-five thousand people amid the greatest suffering. But the powers that be would sooner forgive the greatest cruelties than the in- fringement of the inhei'ited ideas of law, as they are exitrossed in the reactionary power of the declaration of a state of war. Whence it has resulted that the threats of military-legal severity have insjDired in the Republicans such a lofty tone and caused their enemies to seem so small.
Paris, Jnli/ 7, 1832.
A lassitude such as generally sets in after periods of great excitement is now very per- ceptible in Paris. One sees everywhere grey and grim discontent, weary wailing woe, opening mouths, half-yawning yet half-shivering teeth, without power to bite. The decision of the Court of Cassation has brought our marvellous military occupation almost merrily to an end. There has been so much laughter over this unforeseen catas- trophe, that the Government has almost been for- given its coii^} (Vi'fat failure. AVith what delight did we all read at the street-corners the proclamation of M. Montalivet, in which he thanked the Parisians for having taken so little notice of the state of siege as not to even allow themselves to be dis- turbed in their amusements ! I do not believe
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that Beanmarcliais could have written this formal public decree any better. The present Govern- ment indeed does a great deal to amuse the people !
At the same time the French are amusing themselves with a curious game or puzzle. This, as is well known, is a Chinese pastime, and the object of it is to put together certain angular or oblique pieces of wood so as to make a certain figure.^ According to the rules of this game, people occupy themselves in salons with forming a new Ministry, and no one can imagine what angular and oblique characters were grouped to- gether, and how all these wooden combinations, after all, did not make one single honest figure. Talleyrand and Dupin the elder were mostly
^ These puzzles were immensely populai' in the Thirties, but they have long since sunk to the level of children's toys. There was another trifle of the same sort at the same time which was to be found in every fancy -shop. This consisted of a picture, e.g., of a dragon, of which when the upper half was turned up tlie half of a human body took its place, and so with the lower moiety. Sometimes they had four divisions. Fast youths de- lighted themselves witli the full-length portrait of a celebrated dancer, which, in the unfolding, eventually set her forth as Eve befoi'e the Fall. Some of the applications of this toy to political changes and persons were extremely amusing and ingenious. I have often seen the principle of late years applied to Christmas and Easter cards, but always with the utter lack of anything like dsprit which seems to characterise all sucli articles. — Tramlaior.
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ex]3erimented ou in this way. As regards the former, the newspapers have not failed to publish nil possible falsehoods. A leading error was to attribute such extraordinary importance to him in the founding a new jNIinistry. He is now old ^ and used-up, and has probably come hither only on account of the most personal considerations. It is also declared that he is very ill and weak, because he assures every one continually that he never felt so strong and robust as at present. He intends, he says, to journey to some bathing-place to improve his strength and health. So one listens to this ancient wlio has hardly learned anything of the world from its good side, running on with the ctvurdcrie or recklessness of a boy who has never had a suspicion of the bad one, about all the variegated complications and threatening events of the day in the most light-hearted manner. By this well-known device of taking heavy things lightly he assumes an air of confidence and in- fallibility, and he is in fact the Pope of the unbelieveis or of that wretched Church which neither believes in the Holy Ghost of the people, nor in the incarnation {Mcnscheniverdunrj) of the Divine Word.
The newspapers have gossipped much over
^ Heine in this instance goes so far as to say that der alte Maun isl alt uml uhijcnutzt — "The old man is old I " — Translator,
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Dupiu's perplexities aucl perils iii forniing a ^linistrv, and not altog-etlier without reason. It is true tliat lie came into rather hard collisiuii with the King, and that they parted with mutual irritation. And it is also true that Lord Granville was the cause ; but thus the matter stood : M. Dupin had previously promised to His Majesty Louis Philippe that when it might be required by the latter he would accept the Presidency of the Council. But Lord Granville, to whom it was not agreeable to see such a bourgeois at the head of the Government, and who in the spirit of his caste wished for a nobler Prime Minister, addressed, it would appear, to Louis Philippe serious remon- strances as to the capacity of M. Dupin. When the King repeated these remarks to M. Dupin, the latter became so angry/ and burst out into such unbecoming expressions, that discord ensued be- tween him and the King. This occurrence is tra- versed by a number of minor intrigues. Had Dupin become President of the Council, most of the mem- bers of the present Ministry must have resigned, and a number of high officials must have been set aside. The former editor of the National, M. Thiers, would necessarily have taken another direc- tion, while, on the contrary, the present editor of
1 Uiiicirsch, advei'se ; icirsch, angry. From Anglo-Saxon or other root ; xyrs, perhaps Latin versus.
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Le Temps, M. Coste, would have retained that important office whicli was once occupied by M. Kessner, that is, the chief control of the State Treasury. However, the power of events will settle many dissensions. Dupin being, as soon as the Chamber shall again begin its debates, the only possible Minister of the Juste-milieu, he alone can offer parliamentary resistance to the Opposi- tion, and indeed the Government will have talking- enough to do.^
Hitherto Louis Philippe has always been his own I'rime Minister. This is shown in the fact that all Government measures are ascribed to him alone, and not to M. Montalivet, who is hardly ever men- tioned, and who is not so much as hated. The change which seems to have shown itself in the views of the King since the revolt of the fifth and sixth of June is remarkable. He now thinks that he is emphatically strong ; he believes that he can really count with certainty on the support of the great mass of the nation ; he believes that lie is the necessary man,- whom the nation would
' Rede delicn mussen. To stand talk in German is not to i-ndui-f, but to inflict it, as we in English stand treat.
- "Man der Nothweudigkeit," the man of the necessity, the only one who in a great and generally felt need can fill the place —the maTi fur the time. It may here be remarked that especially in Italy when style waa much studied, books in Latin abounded \vliich gave in aliundance not merely the literal synonyms,
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uiiconditioiiall}'' choose to guide in case of foreign hostilities, and he consequently does not seem to dread war with such anxiety as before. The patri- otic party is of course in the minority, and this inspires in him distrust, for it fears, and justly, that he is less inimical to foreigners than to those at home. The former threaten only his crown, the latter his life ; and the King is well aware that the latter is really possible. And indeed, when we consider that Louis Philippe is con- vinced to the depths of his soul of the bloodiest evil-will of his adversaries, we cannot fail to be amazed at his moderation. He has actually, by the declaration of a state of siege, been guilty of an irresponsibly illegal act, but no one can say that he abused his power in an unworthy manner. He has rather, in a magnanimous manner, spared all who personally injured him, while he endea- voured to restrain or disarm only those who as foes opposed his Government.
such as those of Crabbe and Roget in English, but also of a great variety of forms in which an idea can be expressed, as, for example, in the "Specchio della Lingua Latina" of Giovanni da Pesaro, " Useful for every one who desires as soon as possible to be a true Latinist, and not a barbarian," Venice, 1572. It is however, true that such culture, while it induced formal ele- gance, also resulted in much second-hand grace of expression Many of Heine's most felicitous terms are in^^like manner bor- rowed from old writers and popular phrases, though he also excelled in inventing them. — Translator.
y
33S DAILY BULLFTIXS.
In spite of all ill-feeling which may be cherished against Louis Philippe. I cannot repress the con- viction that the man Louis l^hilippe is uncom- monly noble-hearted and great-minded. His chief passion seems to be a love of architecture. I was vesterdav in the 'J'uileries. where buildinq; was going on everywhere, above ground and below. Walls are being torn away, great cellars dug — a constant crash and clatter. The King, who now lives with all his family in Saint Cloud, visits Paris every day, and first of all looks at the progress of the building in the Tuileries. This palace is now empty ; only the Ministerial Council is held there. Oh ! if every drop of blood could speak, as liap- pens in nursery tales, one could there listen to much edifying counsel, for in every room of that tragical liouse wise blood has run.
Paris, July 15, 1832.
The fourteenth of July has passed by quietly without any ^mcvte being signalised by the police. But then it was such a burning hot day, and there was such an oppressive sultriness in all Paris, that even such an announcement would not have attracted the recpn'red number of curious lookers-on to the usual haunts of disturbance and imeutes. It was only on the great inaugural Place
DAILY BULLETINS. 339
of the ]?Pvolntioii, wliere the I'astile was de- stroyed on this same day, that many groups of men appeared, who quietly endured the fiercest noonday heat and let themselves be broiled like martyrs to freedom in the sun of July. It was previously reported that on this fourteenth of July the old stormers of the Bastile, who are still alive receiving pensions, would be publicly laurelled on this spot. A leading part in this cere- mony was assigned to Lafayette. But probably owing to the events of the fifth and sixth of June this project has appareiitly failed, nor does Lafayette seem this year to long for any more triumphal processions. It is possible that there were among the groups on the Place de la Bas- tile more police than people,^ for bitter bad re- marks were uttered in tones so loud that onlv disguised mouchards would have dared to use them. Louis Philippe, they cried, was a traitor, the National Guards were traitors, the deputies were traitors ; only the sun of July seemed to be honest. And indeed it did its best, and warmed us through with his rays until it was well-nigh beyond endurance. As for myself, I
' Mtnschen. Heine does not here regard the police as human beings, and it must be fuirly admitted that when they act as provocateurs by inciting in every way to crinip and disorder the poor wretches whom they afterwards punish, that they are hardly to be classed with other men. — Translator.
340 DAILY BULLETINS.
made the remark in the terrible heat, that the Bastile must have been a ver}^ cool building, and certainly threw out a cooling shade in sum- mer. When it was destroyed there were in it only five prisoners. Now there are ten state- prisons, and there are more than six hundred confined in Saiute Pt'lagie. This latter is very unhealthy, being very closely built. Yet men are very jolly there, and the EejDublicans or Carlists, though separated, cry out all manner of jests at one another, and laugh and rejoice. The Repub- licans wear red Jacobin caps, the Carlists green, with a white lily-tassel. The former cry " Vive la llepublique ! "' and the latter •' Yive Henri Cinq ! " But they shout as in a common cause when some one storms in wild rage at Louis Philippe. This takes place the more freely, because in Sainte P^lagie no prisoner can be personally confined (iveder arretirt noch festgesetzt werden kann). The greater portion of the fiery spirits who generally burst on every possible occasion into tumult, there restrain themselves so that the police cannot manage to get up a possible riot. The Repub- licans will for the present strictly avoid violent measures. Nor have they any weapons, disarming having been very thorough.
This is the birthday of the youthful Henry, and some excesses are expected of the Carlists. A proclamation in favour of Henry the Fifth was
DAILY BULLETINS. 341
yesterday eveuiiig distributed by ragmen and dis- guised priests. In it he promises to make France happy, and to protect it from foreign invasion. Next year he will be of age, for the French mon- archs attain majority at their teens, having then reached their highest possible stage of mental development. On this proclamation the young Henry is for the first time represented with crown and sceptre ; hitherto we have always seen him depicted as a pilgrim or as a Scotch Highlander, climbing mountains, or placing his purse in the hand of a poor beggar woman. But there is little that is dangerous to be expected from this miserable affair. The Carlists are now in a deeply depressed condition, the insane boldness of the Duke de Berry having greatly injured them. In vain did the leaders of the Carlist party in Paris send M. Berryer to the Duchess to persuade her to return to Holy rood, and in vain did Louis Philippe attempt to do the same. In vain was she implored by foreign legations for the love of God to relinquish her efforts for the present. No reasoning, threats, or prayers could persuade her to return. She is still in La Vend(^e. Though utterly devoid of means, nor longer finding sup- port, she still will not yield. The solution of the enigma is that stupid or crafty priests have in- spired her with fanaticism, and persuaded her that she will brino- blessing's and fortune to her
342 DAILY BULLETINS.
child if she will die for him ; aud so she seeks death with tlie religious zeal of a martyr, aud the most visionary aud euthusiastic maternal love.
If there are here no public manifestations, there is all the more disquiet in society. This is princi- pally caused by German topics or the decisions of the Diet, which excite every one. So the most ridiculous opinions as to Germany are uttered, the French thinking — frivolously and erroneously — that our princes suppress liberty, not seeing that an end should be put to anarchy among the German Liberals, and that the unity and welfare of the German people will be thereby promoted. So early as the 5th June the Temjjs gave an abridgment of the six articles of the decisions of the Diet. A well-known Pietist had already carried extracts from those decisions about in his pocket, and by imparting them edified many hearts.
Next to the German, people are here most occupied with the Belgic-Dutch affairs, which become more complicated every houi-, yet which must be settled as soon as possible. It is believed that England intends to clear the confusion by determined measures of some kind, and it is this. and not any interest in Poland, which is the real aim of the journey of Lord Durham to St. Petersburg. In any case, the mere appointment
DAILY BULLETINS. 343
of the messenger is a sign of a decided determina- tion, for Lord Durham is one of the most grimly pugnacious sharp-cornered sous of Albion, and one who withal personally hates the Kussian cama- rilla because it on the occasion of the Reform Bill (of which he was the most zealous supporter) intrigued very inimically against him and his father-in-law, Lord Grey, and employed every means to cause his fall. The friends of peace hope that he and the Emperor Nicholas will not confer much together personall}-, since the latter, on account of the veiy improper and contemp- tible manner iu which he has been spoken of in ParliauK'iif-. cannot be of friendly inclination ; and it is also possible that from quite natural grounds there can be no intercourse of any significance, and that all will depend on inter- mediate interpreters.
Louis Philippe ^ is still of the opinion that he is strong. " See how strong we are ! " is the refrain of every speech on the Tuileries. Even as an invalid talks continually of his own health,
' The following passage of twenty-one lines is given in the French vei'sion, and is the beginning of the fragments. Why it should have been selected from among scores of better obser- vations I know not. Something very like the same comparison to an invalid who would appear strong had already been written by Heine regarding Talleyrand. — Translator.
344 DAILY BULLETINS.
aud canuot boast enough how well he cau digest, aud stand upon his legs without a cramp, and inhale great lungfuls of air, so these people hold forth without cessation on the strength and power which they have developed in many threatening circumstances, and which they can still display. Then the diplomatists come every day to the chateau, and feel the sick man's pulse, look at his tongue, and then his water, with great care, and send to their respective courts the political bulletins of health. Therefore the foreign Ministers never cease putting the question, " Is Louis Philippe strong or weak ? " In the first case, their masters may calmly determine on and cany out any measure, but, on the other hand, when an overthrow of the French Government and war are to be apprehended, they must under- take nothing severe at home.
This great question whether Louis be strong or weak may be hard to decide, but it is easy to see that the French themselves at this time are anything but feeble. They have found new allies in the hearts of other races, while their foes are not really on the pinnacle of popularity. They have invisible hosts of spirits for fellow combat- ants, while their bodily armies are in a most flourishing condition. The youth of France are as ardent for war and as enthusiastic as they were in 1792. The young conscripts march with meriy
DAILY BULLETINS. 345
music tlirougii the towu, beariug- ou their hats flutteriug- ribbons and flowers, and the numbers they have drawu, which are their great prizes, aud all round them are sung songs of freedom, while the marches of 1790 are drummed.
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Havre, August i, 1832.
Whether Louis Philippe be strong or weak, seems to be the great question in whose solution so many peoples as well as potentates are interested. I always bore this in mind during my excursion in the northern provinces of France. Yet, as regards public opinion, there is so much which is contradictory, that I cannot communicate any- thing more fundamental than what is told by those who draw their wisdom from the Tuileries, or even from Saint Cloud. The North French, or the crafty Normans, are not so lightl}- bent to loosely speak as the people in the land of Oc Or is it a sio-u of discontent that those of tin- citizens in the land of Oul, who only care for local interests, generally keep silent when the latter are discussed ? Only the young men who are inspired with the interests of ideas express themselves openly as to what they believe to be the unavoid- able approach of a republic ; or the Carlists, who.
being devoted to a personal interest, insinuate in
347
348 FROM NORMANDY.
every manner possible tlieir hatred o£ the present rulers, whom they depict in the most extravagant colours, and whose fall they predict as certain almost unto the day and hour thereof. The Car- lists are tolerably abundant here. This is due to the fact that there is about Havre a peculiar interest in the cause, owing to a prepossession for certain members of the fallen dynasty who are accustomed to pass the summers here whei'e they have made friends. Tliis was specially done by the Duchesse de Berry. Her adventures are therefore matters of daily discussion in this pro- vince, and the priests of the Catholic Church find out in addition the divinest legends for glorifying the political Madonna and the blessed fruit of her body. In earlier times the priests were by no means so well satisfied with the churchly devotion of the Duchess, yet, though she often awakened ])riestly displeasure, she won thereby the favour of the people, for it was said, "The nice little lady is not at all so bigoted as the rest. See how coquettishly, like a worldling, she strolls along, holding her prayer-book so negligently in her hand, and in jest holds her taper so low that the wax drops on the satin train of her sister-in-law — of the grimly pious Angouleme ! " Those times are past ; the rosy merriment has faded from the cheeks of poor Caroline ; she has become as pious as the others, and carries the wax candle as faith-
FROM NORMANDY. 349
fully and properly as the priests desire, and with it she lights up the flame of civil war in France, as the priests also wish.
And here I may remark that the influence of the Catholic clergy is greater in this province than is supposed in Paris. We see them here at funerals in their ecclesiastical garments, with crosses and banners, chanting in melancholy tones as they pass along the street — a sight which is startling when one comes from Paris, where such ceremonies are strictly forbidden by the police, and much more by the people. Since I have been in Paris I have never seen a priest in his official dress in the street, nor among the many thousand funerals which passed me during the cholera season did I see the Church represented either by its servants or its symbols. Yet many still assert that the religion still exists, even in Paris, and it is true that the French Catholic cons're- gation of the Abbe Chatel increases every day; their hall in the Rue Clichy has become too small for the multitude of believers, and for some time they have held their service in the great building on the Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, where M. Martin once exhibited his beasts, and on which may now be read, inscribed in great letters, "]5glise Catholique et Apostolique."
Those of the Northern French who will not even hear anything regarding either the Republic
350 FROM NORMANDY.
or the niiraculons boy, aucl who only desire the welfare of France, are not, for all that, by any means zealous adlierents of Louis Philippe, nor do they praise him for open-heartedness or straight- forwardness ; on the contrary, they complain qu'if n'est 2}«'S franc; but they are penetrated by the conviction that he is the uiau for the occasion {Mann dcr JSfothv'endigliCit), that his authority must be supported, since public peace is thereby maintained, tliat the suppression of dmentes is good for trade, and that, above all things, to prevent stoppage (Stoclccn) of trade, every new revolution, and even war, must be avoided. They fear the latter onlv on account of trade, which is now in a languishing condition, but they d(j not fear war itself, for they are French; therefore they are fond of fame, having the love of battle in their blood, and are. moreover, larger and more strongly built than the Southern French, and surpass them perliaps where firmness and stubborn en- durance are rer|uired. Is this a result of mix- ture with the Germanic race ? They are like their great and po^verful horses, which are as admirable at a brave trot as at carrying bur- dens and overcoming all the weariness of storm or rough roads. These men fear neither Aus- trians nor Russians, Prussians nor Bashkirs, They are neither dependents on, nor foes of Louis Philippe. Sluiiild there be war, they will follo\v
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the tricolour flag, no matter by wliom if may he borne. ^
T indeed believe thai if war f^hould be declared, all the domestic difficulties of the Fi'ench would be very promptly smoothed over- by concessions or force, and France become a mig-hty and single power which could defy the world. The strength or weakness of Louis Philippe is therefore no subject for controversy. He must in such case either become strong or not exist at all. The question whether he is strong or Aveak only holds for the maintenance of a state of i^eace, and it is only in this respect that it is of importance for foreign powers. I have heard from many sides the answer, •• Le parti du roi est tres nonibreux, mais il n'est i^as fort." I think that these words give much subject for reflection. For. firstly, they suggest the painful thought that the Govern- ment is but a party, and subject to all party interest. The King is not here a sublime superior power, who from the height of his throne calmly looks down on the strife of parties, and is able to keep them in a proper balance ; no, he himself
' The remainder of this letter from thi^s i>oint is also given in the French version.
- German, gcschlichtct. French, " etouffees de maiii^re on (I'autre par conciliation ou par la force." To strangle or suffo- cate by conciliation is admirable, reminding one of the dog who was choked to death with butter. — Translator.
352 FROM NORMANDY.
has descended into the arena. Odilon Barrot, Manguiu, Carrel. Pages. Cavaignac perhaps think there is no difference between themselves and him save the mere chance of momentary power. ^ This is the melancholy result of the King's re- serving for himself the Presidency of the Council. And now Louis Philippe cannot change the pre- vailing system of government without falling into contradiction with himself and his party. So it came to pass that the press, treating him as the first chef of a party, find fault with him personally for all the mistakes in government,, attribute to him every ministerial word, and sec in him only the citizen-king or the king-minister. When the figures of the gods descend from their high pedestals to earth, the holy awe we once felt disappears, and we judge them according to their deeds and words, as if they were our like.
As for the assertion that the party of the King is numerous but not strong, there is cer- tainly nothing new in it, for it is a long known truth ; but it is remarkable that the people have also found it out, and that it does not now count merely the heads, as usual, but the hands, and that it accurately distinguishes those who clap with their hands and those who grasp the sword.
* No great wonder. In 184S LM. Gamier Pag^s and family occupied the royal apaitnients, or the rooms of Marie Antoi- nette.— Translator,
FROM NORMANDY. 353
The people have studied their world very care- fully, and found that the party of the King consists of three classes. Firstly, of the commercial and proprietary class, who are concerned for their shops and possessions ; of people tired of war, who long for rest ; and finally, of the timid, who dread a reign of terror. This royal party, loaded with property, dreading any disturbance of their com- fort, this majority is opposed by a minority which has but little baggage to carry, which is disorderly beyond all discipline, and which in the wild un- restrained rush of its ideas sees in terror only an ally,
So that, despite the great number of heads and the great victory of the sixth of June, the people doubt the strength of the Juste-milieu. But it is very serious when a Government does not seem to be strong in the eyes of the people. It then incites every one to try his strength on it ; a dark and demoniac impulse inspires the world to shake it, and that is the secret of revolutions.
Dieppe, August 20, 1832.*
One can have no idea what an impression the death of the young Napoleon made upon the lower
' This letter, with the exception of the last two passages, is
Z
ffiven in the French version.
J54 i^ROM NORMANDY.
class of tliL' I'Veucli people. The sentiiuental bulletin which the Tcmjys ])iiblishecl six weeks ago, iu relation to his gradually dying, and which was reprinted and sold iu Paris for a sous, had begun to excite in every carrcfour or at every corner the greatest distress. I even saw young Rei^ublicans weep ; the elder did not seeni to be so moved ; ^ and from one I heard with dis- pleasure the peevish expression, " Ne pleurez pas ; c'etait le fils de I'liomine qui a fait mitrailler le peuple le 13 A'endemiaire."' It is strange that, when a disaster befalls any one, we unconsciously recall some old wrong from him of which we have not thought for a long time. There is no limit to the veneration of the country people for the Emperor. There hangs in every hut a portrait of " the man ; " and indeed, as the Quotidiennc remarked, on the same wall where the portrait of the eldest sou would have hung, had he not been sacrificed by that man in one of liis hundred fields of battle. Anger sometimes extracts from the Quotidiennc the most honourably candid remarks, which give offence to the Jesuitical and subtlei- Gazette. That is their chief political difference.
I journeyed over the greater portion of the northern French coast while the news of the death of young Napoieou was there being dis-
' The ccjiiclusion of this sentence .and the fallowing paragrapli are wantin'' in the Frencli version. •
FROM NORMANDY. 35S
semiuated. I fouud, wherever 1 went, a marvel- lous grief among the people. They felt a sincere sorrow, not connected with the interests of the day,^ but in the dearest memories of a glorious past. And specially among the beautiful Nonuan women was there great wailing for the early death of the young son of the hero.
Yes, the portrait of the Emperor hangs in every hut. I found it everywhere crowned with mourn- ing flowers, like images of Christ in Passion-week. Many soldiers wore crape. A veteran, with a wooden leg, mournfully took my liand, saying, '•A present tout est fmi."'
Yes, for those Bonapartists who believed in an Imperial resurrection in the flesh, all is at an end. Napoleon is now for them only a name, like that of Alexander of Macedon,- or Charlemagne, whose direct heirs died earlv in like manner. But for the Bonapartists who believe in a resurrection of the spirit, there now blooms the best hope. Bona- partism is not for them a transferral of power by begetting and primogeniture ; no, their Bona- partism is now free from all animal admixture ;
^ "Sie fuhlten eiueii leiiieii Scbnierz, der nicht in deia Eigeuniitze des Tages wurzelte." French version : — " Et n'lu ait pas sa source daus I'egoisuie du moment."
- The ten words after Macedon are omitted in tlie French version.
356 FROM NORMANDY.
it is i'or tliem the idea of an autocracy (Allein- hcrrscliaft) of the highest power, applied to the best condition of the people, and he who shall have this power, and will so apply it, him they will call Napoleon the Second. As C^sar gave his name to absolute rule, so the name of Napoleon will be bestowed on a new Ctesardom, to whom he alone has the right who possesses the highest ability and the strongest will.
In a certain respect Napoleon was a Saint-Simo- nian emperor, for as lie reached the highest power by his intellectual superiority, so he con- tributed only to the advancement of men of capacity, and aimed at the physical and moral well-being of the more numerous and poorer classes. He reigned less to benefit the Tiers-^tat, the middle class, the Juste-milieu, than the men whose means consisted of hearts and hands alone ; and even his army was a hierarchy whose grades of honour were gained solely by desert and capacity. Under him the humblest son of a peasant could attain to the highest dignities, or win wealth and orders as easily as any nobleman of the most ancient family. i For this reason the
' Thi.s recalls an anecdote of Abraham Lincoln, to whom huii.e foreign adventurer of noble extraction once .applied for a commission in the army, which he (jbtained. Speaking of his own qualifications, he mentionf^d iii.s title. "Oh," replied Lin-
FROM NORMANDY. 357
portrait of the Emperor liaugs in the hut of every peasant, on the same wall where the portrait of the man's own son would hang had the latter not fallen on some battlefield ere he became a general, or it may be a duke or king, as happened to many a poor fellow who had the spirit and talent to raise himself so high while the Emperor as yet reigned. In whose image many a one mourns perhaps only the faded hope of his own pre-emi- nence.
I found most frequently in peasants' homes the picture of the Emperor visiting the hospital at Jaffa or as lying at St. Helena on his deathbed. Both of these bear a striking likeness to the pictures of that Catholic religion which is now dead in France. In one of these, Napoleon re- sembles a Saviour who seems to cure the afflicted with the pest by a touch; in the other, he is himself dying the death of expiation.
We who have adopted a different symbolism see in the martyrdom of Napoleon at St. Helena no expiation in the sense here indicated, for the Emperor there did penance for his most fatal error, or for his truthlessness to his mother, the Revolution. History had long before shown that
coin naively and encouragingly, "don't mind that. If you only show yourself brave and capable, you'll get on just as well as if you hadn't it." — Translator.
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the alliauce between the son of the Revolution and the daughter of the past would never lead to any good, and we now see how the only fruit of that marriaqv liad not lona' lo live, and so died deplorably.
As regards the inheritance of the deceased, opinion is divided. Tlie friends of Louis Philippe believe that now the orphaned Bonapartists mil join with them, but I doubt whether the men of war and of fame will pass so rapidly into the peaceful Justc-milieu. The Carlists think that the Bonapartists will now pay homage to the only pretender, Henri the Fifth ; and in this I do not know whether to be most astonished at their folly or their insolence. The Republicans seem to be in the best condition to attract the Bonapartists ; but though it was once easy to make the most brilliant ImiDerialists out of the most uncombed Sans-culottes, it may be difficult to effect to-day the opposite miracle.
We regret that the dearly-beloved relics,^ such as the sword of the Emperor, the cloak of Mar- engo, tlie world-famous three-cornered hat, and the rest, which, according to the will made at St. Helena, should pass to the young Reichstadt, did not return home to France. Every joarty in France could turn a part of this inheritance to
' Die theuren Rdiquien. French version — les saintes reliqucs.
FROM NORMANDY. 359
good account. And indeed, liad 1 the disposal of them, it should be thus effected : I would give the Republicans the sword, since they alone know how to use it. The gentlemen of the Jiiste-milien, the cloak of IMarengo ; and truly they need one to cover their pitiable {niJimlosc) nakedness. And to the Carlists I would give the Emperor's hat, which, it must be admitted, is not very suitable for such heads, but it may some day be useful when those heads or chiefs are knocked in ; yes, I would also bestow on them the imperial boots, which they may use when compelled to run away.^ But as for the stick with which the Emperor walked at Jena, I doubt whether it is to be found among the relics of the Duke de Eeichstadt, and I believe that the French hold it still in their hands.2
After the death of the young Napoleon I heard principally in these provinces of the journey of the Duchesse de Berry. The adventures of this lady are here told so poetically that one might suppose that the descendants of the old Trouvers {Fahliauxclichter) had invented them at leisure. The wedding of Compiegne also afforded much material for amusement. I could contribute an
' French version — "Qui leur facility sont les enjambdes de sept lieues," &c.
- Here the French version rif this series of letters ends. — Transilator.
36o FROM NORMANDY.
iusect-collection of bad jokes which i heard set forth in a Carlist chateau, as, for instance, when a table orator in Compiegne remarked that there llip ;Maid of Orleans had been captured, and that it was now quite befitting that fetters should be bound in Compiegne on another Maid of Orleans.
Though it is set forth most pompously in all the French ])apers that the crowd of strangers here is very great, and especially that the bathing season is this year in Dieppe very brilliant, I find in town or country the contrary. There are not here actually fifty summer visitors ; all is adrift and sad, and the bathing which the Duchesse de Berry made so flourishing when she came here every summer is now gone to nothing. As many people thereliy in the town have sunk into bitterest poverty, and as they attribute all their trouble to the fall of the IBourbons, it is intelligible that there are here ]nanv of the most raginer Carlists. Yet it would be slandering Dieppe to say that more than a fourth of its inhabitants cling to the last dynasty. In no place do the National Guards show more patriotism ; all assemble at the first tap of the drum when parade is held, and all are here in full uniform, w4iich indeed indicates unusual zeal. The festival of Napoleon was here recently celebrated with striking enthusiasm.
Louis l^hilippe is here generally neither loved nor hated. His maintenance in powei- is regarded
FROM NORMANDY. 361
as essential to the prosperity of France, but as regards his s^'steni of government (rcyimcni) there is no special insi3iratiou. The French are so well informed by their free press as to the true state of affairs, and are so politically enlightened, that they bear small troubles with patience, lest greater befall them. Little is said against the personal character of the King : he is believed to be an honourable man.
Rouen, September 17, 1832.
I write these lines in the former residence of the Duke of Normandy, in the ancient town where there yet remain so many monuments which re- mind us of the history of that race once so renowned for its heroic wanderings and love of knightly adventure, and now so notorious for its love of litigation and craftiness in trade. In yon castle once dwelt Robert the Devil, whom Meyerbeer has set to music ; on that market-place the Maid of Orleans was burnt — that great-hearted girl whom Schiller and Voltaire have sung; in that cathedral lies the heart of Richard, the brave kino- who was called Cceur de Lion, for his lion heart ; from this soil sprung the conquerors of Hastings, the sons of Tancred, and so many other flowers of Norman chivalry ; but it all concerns us but little now, when we are more busied with the question, "Has the peaceful system of Louis Philippe taken
362 FROM NORMANDY.
root in the warlike soil of Nonnandy ? Is the new citizen-kino-dom well or ill couched in the old lieroic cradle of the English and Italian aristocracy, or in the land of the Normans ? This I can now briefly answer. The great landed proprietors, chiefly noble, are Carlists ; the well-to-do workers and farmers are Pliilippistes ; while the lower classes despite and hate the Bourbons, loving, in the minority, the gigantic memories of the Republic, but for the greater part the brilliant heroism of the Empire. The Carlists, like ever}'- suppressed party, are more active than the Philip- pistes, who feel secure, and it may be said to the credit of the fonuer that they make greater offer- ings— that is, of money. The Carlists, who have no doubt of their ultimate victory, and who are convinced that the future will repay a thousand- fold all their sacrifices, contribute their last sou when party interests seem to require it. It is markedly characteristic of this class that they care less for their own property than for that of others — sni profiisvs, cdieni appetcns. Greed and extravagance are twins. The roturier who earns his earthly goods by hard and bitter work, and not by court service, fawning on mistresses, sweet speech, and easy gambling, holds more firmly to what he gains.
Meanwhile the good citizens of Normandy have taken the view that the newspapers by means of
FROM NORMANDY. 363
wliicli the Carlists strive to influence public fipinion are clangerons both as regards public security and tliat of their own property, and that sometliing- should be done by the same means, that is, the press, to counteract their intrigues. With this view there was recently founded tlic Edafdtc chi Havre, a mild, soft Juste-milicu daily, on which the honourable shopkeepers of Havre spend a great deal of money, and on which several Parisians are employed, especially Monsieur de Salvandy, a little, supple, watery soul in a long, stiff, meagre body. He was once praised by Goethe. 1 'Jims far this journal is the only counter-mine which has been dug against the Carlists in Normandy. The latter, however, are unwearied, and establish everywhere their news- papers or citadels of falsehood, on which the spirit of freedom may wreak its powers till succour shall come -from the East. These journals are moi-e or less in the spirit of the Gazette de France and the QuotvHenne, and the latter is the most actively disseminated among the people. Both are attractive in appearance, and wittily and attractively written, but therewith they are in- tensely spiteful, perfidious, full of useful infor- mation and delightful malice ; and their noble
^ Heine has declared that praise from Goethe was a sure sign of mediocrity ("Germany ").— Translator.
364 FROM ^^OR^[ASDY.
colporteurs, who often give them awa}' gratis, and perhaps nioney with them, naturally find a greater demand than there is for the tame Justc-milica journals. 1 cannot praise too highly these two publications, since, from a higher point of view, I do not think they injure in the least- the cause of freedom, but rather aid it bv stimu- lating tlu' champions, who now and then grow weary, to new exertion. The two journals are the real representatives of those people who, when their cause droops, revenge themselves on the individual, — it is an old relation, — we tread on their heads, and they sting us in the heel. But it must be said in praise of the Quotidicnne, that while it is quite as much of a serpent as the Gazette, it does not so much conceal its ill-will ; that its real cause of complaint shows itself in every word — in short, it is a kind of rattlesnake, which, while it comes creeping on, gives warning Avith its rattle. The Gazette has, unfortunately, no such rattle. The latter sometimes attacks its own principles in order to thereby indirectly aid in their victory ; while the Quotidienne in the heat of excitement will rather sacrifice victory than degrade itself by such cold self-abnegation. The Gazette has the calmness of Jesuitism, which does not let itself be led astray from the passion of opinion, which is all the easier because Jesuitism is really no opinion or principle, but only a trade ;
FROM NORMANDY. 365
while ill the QuoLidiennc, on the contrary, there are, brooding or raging, high-trotting 1-cnights and vindictive monks badly disguised in knightly loyalty and Christian love. This is also the char- acter of the Carlist journal which appears here in Rouen under the title of Gazette de Normandic. We find in it a sweetly-toned lament for the good old time which has disappeared — more's the pity ! — with its chivalric forms, its crusades, tourna- menting, heralds-at-arms, honourable burghers, pious nuns, lively and winsome dames, trouba- dours, and similar comforts of soul and sentiment, so that one is strangely reminded of the feudalistic romances of a celebrated German poet in whose head there bloomed more blossoms than brains, yet whose heart was full of love ; but with the editor of the Gazette de Normandie the head, on the contrary, is full of the thickest reactionary darkness (Ohskurantismus), and his heart of gall and poison. This editor is a certain Viscount Walsh, a long grey light-haired man of perhaps sixty years. I saw him in Dieppe, where he was invited to a Carlist council, and very much feted by the whole noble society. Yet, gossippy as they all are, a little Carlist whispered in my ear, '• C'est un fameux compere. He is really not of good French noble family. His father, an Irish- man, was in the French military service when the Revolution broke out, and when he was obliged
366 FROM NORMANDY.
to emigrate, iu order to prevent liis estates from being confiscated, he nominally sold tliem to Iiis son ; but the latter denied that it was a sale for mere form (Schci/iJccmf), maintained that the trans- fer was complete, and so kept the property of his cheated father and of his poor sister. The latter became a lady of the court of Madame the Duchess de Berry, and la-r brother's enthusiasm for this lady is based on personal advantage as
well as vanity for "" I had heard enough.
It is difiicult to fully understand with what a ])erfidious consistency the present Government is being undermined by the Carlists. Whether they will succeed, time alone can show. There is no man and no means so vile but what they gladly turn them to advantage. In addition to tlie canonic journals already described, they make great use of oral and personal report of all kinds, of scandal, or by tradition. This black projoa- ganda endeavours to destroy fundamentally the fair fame of those who are now in power, that is to say, of the King. The falsehoods which are circidated with this intent are sometimes as abominable as they are absurd. " Always abuse, always — something will stick," was long ago the motto of these nice teachers.^
^ "CaluiiiiiiiUL; foititur, aliijuid beniper luuiebit," calumniatb boldly, something will be sure to stick. A saying attributed to
FROM NORMANDY. 3(>7
A young priest ouce said to me iu a Carlisl) assembly at Dieppe, "If you give your fellow- couutrymen information as to our affairs, you should help the truth a little, so that when the war breaks out, should Louis Philippe still re- main at the head of the French Government, the Germans may hate him all the more and fight with greater enthusiasm against him." In reply to my (juestiou as to whether victory was well assured for us, he smiled almost pityingly, and assured me that the Germans were the bravest race, and that only a trifliug and feigned opposition would be made to them ; that the North as well as the South was devoted to the right and just dynasty ; that Henry V. and Madame were every- Avhere worshipped like a suuill Saviour and a mother of God— that was the religion of the people, and sooner or later this legitimate zeal of piety would burst out in Normandy into open numifestation.
While the young man of God spoke thus, there suddenly resounded in the street before the house in which we were, a tremendous noise, drums were beaten, trumpets pealed, the Marseilles hymn rang so loudly that the Avindows shook, and there came
the Jesuits. The remainder of this letter is given in the earlier, but not the latest French version, which work is, in fact, a mere selection of extracts from the complete t^xi.— Translator.
368 FROM XORMANDY.
witli tivniendous force the cry, •• Vive Louis Philippe ! A bas les Carlistes ! Les Carlistes h la lauterne ! " This was at one o'clock in the morning, and the whole assembly was in dire alarm. I also was frightened and thought of the proverb, '• ^litgefangen, mitgehangen — "Caught with the gang, with it you hang." ^ But it was only a joke by the National Guard of Dieppe. The latter having learned that Louis Philippe had arrived at the Chateau d'Eu, determined at the instant to march thither and greet his Majest}'. But thinking it well to combine pleasure with business, they resolved first, while on the way, to give the poor Carlists a good scare, and so made the most horrible noises before their houses, also singing as if mad the Marseilles hymn — that Dies irm, dies ilia of the new Church, which announces tf) the Carlists their da}^ of judgment and doom.
As I myself went immediately to Eu, I can as (^ye-witness testify that it was no prearranged in- spiration to order with which the National Guards jo^'ously greeted the King. He had them pass in review, and was much pleased with their open delight as they smiled on him ; and I cannot deny that in these days of dissension and of mistrust
' Ui- "Caught with bad fc-llows, you go to the gallows." In its full form in German this proverb is " Mitgegangen, mit- gefangen, mitgehangen." — 'translator.
FROM NORMANDY. 369
such a picture of harmony was most edifyiug and comforting. They were free and armed citizens, who witliout fear looked their King in tlie face, showing their respect with weapons in their hands, and noAV and then according him faith and obedi- ence with a manly grasp of the hand. For Louis Philippe, as may be understood, offered his hand to every one. The Carlists make the utmost in mockery of this hand-shaking, and I confess that hate occasionally makes them witty, as when they jest on that "messianic popularit6 des poir/ndcs de mam." So I saw in the chateau already men- tioned a dramatic joke 01 2Jetit comity, wherein it was most delightfully set fortli how Fip I., king of the Philistines (^jnciers), gives his son High- Cockalorum ^ {Grand Poulot) instruction in diplo- matic or state science, and paternally teaches him that he must not let himself be led astray by theorists, nor to see the citizen-kingdom in popular sovereignty, much less in maintaining the Charte ; that he shall not heed the gabble of the Left nor of the Right ; it is of no consequence that France be free within and honoured without, much less whether the throne is barricaded with Republican institutions or suj^ported by hereditaiy peers, since neither chartered words nor heroic deeds are of much importance, and that the citizen-kingdom
1 Grosskiihen. In Americanese, " big he-biddy."
2 A
370 FROM NORMANDY.
and the whole act of rei'o-nino- consists in sliakincf hands Avith everv blacko-uard. Then lie teaches hini the dillei'eut shakes, and how to squeeze men's liands in all kinds of positions, when afoot or on horseback, Avhcn galloping- through rows and ranks, or as soldiers come parading past. llio-h-Cockalorum is ready to learn, and o-oes through all tli<' motions accurately; yes, he de- clares that he will improve on this invention of the citizen-kingdom, and every time when he presses a burgher's hand also exclaim, " How are you, mon vieux cochon f " ^ or what amounts to the same thing, " How are you, citoyen ?■ " " Yes, that is synonymous," the king adds drily, and the Carlists laughed. After this High-Cockalorum will practise hand-shaking, first with a grisette, then with Baron Louis, but he does it all too clumsily, and cramps people's fingers ; in all of which there is no lack of scorn and slander of those well-known people whom we exalted before the Revolution of July as lights of Liberalism, and have since then decried as " servile." And though I am not so very much inclined to the Juste-milicu, I still felt in my heart a certain respectful regard (Fietdt) for men once so highly honoured, and the old feelings awoke as I saw them mocked by far worse men. Yes, even as he
^ Monsieur lapin in tlie French version. — German editor.
FROM NORMANDY. 371
who is at tlie bottom of a deep well can see at clear noouday the stars of" heaven, so could I, sunk in the depth of an obscure Carlist assembly, again perceive clearly the merits of the men of the Justc-milicu, and again feel a late regard for the late Duke of Orleans, for the Doctrinaires, for a Guizot, a Thiers, a Royer-Collard, a Dupin, and other stars who have lost their glory by the excess of daylight of the sun of July.
It is now and then of great advantage to see things from such a deep, instead of from an elevated point of view. For, incidentally, we learn to judge men more impartially, even if we hate the cause which they represent, and how to distinguish the men of the Juste-milieu from its system. This latter is in itself bad according to our views, but its persons deserve our regard, especially the man whose position is the most trying in Europe, and who now sees only in the thoughts of March 13th the possibility of his existence, a motive for self-preservation which is very human. And if we come among Carlists, and hear this man continually reviled, he naturally rises in our esteem, since we remark that they ridicule in Louis Philippe what we best like in him, and that in him is deeply to their taste which of all things most displeases us. For that he has in the eyes of the Carlists the merit of being a Bourbon, such advantage seems to us a levis nota.
3/2 FROM NORMANDY.
But it would be most unjust if we did uot dis- tinguish him and his family most favourabl}' and famously from the elder line of tlie Bourbons. The House of Orleans has attached itself so firmly to the French people that has been regene- rated in common with it, so that both it and they have come out of Ihe terrible blood-bath of the Bevolution purified and ameliorated, healed and citizened ; while the older Bourbons, who took no part in that rejuvenation, belong as yet alto- gether to that ancient, sickly generation which Crebillon, Laclos, and Louvet sketched so admir- ably in their gayest gleams of sin and most radiant rottenness. France grown young again, can never attach itself to this dynasty, or to these spectres of the past ; its sham-life becomes more re- pulsive every day ; its conversion after death was a disgusting sight ; its perfumed decay offended eveiy honest nose, so that one fine morning in July, when the Gallic cock crowed, the ghosts must need vanish.
But Louis Philippe and his own are hearty and healthy, they are the blooming children of young France, chaste of soul, sound in body, and of good bourgeois manners. Indeed, it is just that citizenness or civility which the Carlists dislike so much in Louis Philippe which causes us to respect him. Yet I cannot, with tlie best will, so entirely free myself from party spirit as to be able to
FROM NORMANDY. 373
accurately decide liow far he is seriously in earuest as regards the citizen-kingdom. The great jury of history will bring in a verdict whether his intentions were all honourable. In such a case the ^poignks de main are not at all laughable, and the manly grasp of the hand may become a sjmibol of the nt-w citizen-kingdom, just as servile kneeling was that of feudal sovereignt}-. Louis Philippe, should he keep the throne with an honourable mind, and transmit them to his children, may leave a great name behind liim in history — not only as the founder of a new dynasty, but as that of a new sovereignty which shall give unto the world a new form ; that of the first
citizen-king of Louis Philippe if he
keeps the throne and to honourable intentions and til at is just the great question !
KND OF VOL. I.
PiiiUed by Ballantyn'k, Hanson & Co. lidiiibity^h and London
"ttcleavavibic B^6l■c93 ;
Sii II lixl.s, J.oii'loil.
SI Bedford Si-keet, iv.c. October iSg2.
A LIST OF
Mr WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S
Publications
AND
Forthcoming Works
The Books luentioned in this List cnn he obtained to order by any Book- seller if not in stock, or will be sent by the Publisher fast free on receipt o/ price.
MR. WILLIAM IIEINEMANN'S LIST.
JnDcj of autbors.
Alexander
Arbuihnot
Athetton
Baleslier
Barrett
P.ehrs .
Bendall
BjSrnson
Bo wen
Brown and
)!Mchanan
Butler
Caine .
Cambridge
Chester
Clarke
Colomb
Compayre
Coiiperus
Davidson
Dawson
De Qninccj'
Dilke .
Keden
Ellwanger
Ely .
Farrar .
Fitch .
Forbes
Fothergill Franzos
Frederic
Garner
Garnctt
Gilchrist
Gore . Gosse
Gray .
Gray (Max
Grifruhs
Hall .
Harland
Hardy
Heine .
Henderson
Henderson
Howard
Hughes
Hnngerforc
Ibsen .
Irving .
Ingersoll
rifiiih
8.9,
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Jaeger .
JeafTreson
Kimball
Kipling and
Lanza .
Le Caron
Lee
Leland
Lie
Lowe .
Lynch .
ftLaartens
Maeterlinck
Maude
Maiipassan
Maurice
Mitford
Murray
N orris
Ouida .
Palacio-Va
Pearce
Pennell
Philips
Phelps
Pineru
Rawusl'.-y
Richter
Riddell
Rives .
Roberts
Roberts (V
Robinson
Salaman
Scudamore
Serao .
Sienkiewicz
Tasma
Terry .
Thurston
Tolstoy
Tree .
Valera
Warden
Weitcmeye
West .
Whistler
Whitman
Williams
Zaiigwill
Zola .
Bale
tier
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MR. WILLIAM HEINE MANN'S LIST. '■
VICTORIA:
QUEEN AND EMPRESS.
BY
JOHN CORDY JEAFFRESON,
Author of "The Real Lord Byrou," etc. In Two Volumes, 8vo. With Portraits. [/« October.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE SECRET SERVICE.
THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A SPY.
BY
MAJOR LE CARON.
In One Volume, 8vo. With Portraits and Facsimiles.
[In October.
REMINISCENCES OF
COUNT LEO NICHOLAEVITCH
TOLSTOI.
BY
C. A. BEHRS,
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY
PROFESSOR C. E. TURNER.
In One Volume, Crown 8vo. \_In October
THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS
BY
SIDNEY WHITMAN,
Author of" Imperial Germany." In One Volume. Crown Svo. [/« November.
J\IR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
THE WORKS OF HEINRICH HEINE. Translated by Charles Godfrey Leland, M.A., F.R.L.S. (Hans Bieitmann). Crown 8vo, cloth, s^ . per Volume.
I. FLORENTINE NIGHTS, SCHNABELEWOPSKI, THE RABBI OF BACHARCAH, and SHAKE- SPEARE'S MAIDENS AND WOMEN. iReady.
Times.— ""We can recommend no better medium for making acquaintance at first hand with ' the German Aristophanes ' than the works of Heinrich Heine, translated by Charles Godfrey Leland. Mr. Leland manages pretty successfully to preserve the easy grace of the original."
II., III. PICTURES OF TRAVEL. 1823-1828. In Two Volumes. [Ready.
Daily Chronicle.—" Mr. Leiand's translation of ' The Pictures of Travel ' is one of the acknowledged literary feats of the age. As a traveller Heine is delicious beyond description, and a volume which includes the magnificent Lucca series, the North Sea, the memorable Hartz wanderings, must needs possess an everlasting charm."
IV. THE BOOK OF SONGS. [In the Press.
v., VI. GERMANY. In Two Volumes. [Ready.
Daily Telegraph.— ^'Vlx. Leland has done his translation in able and scholarly fashion."
VIL, VIII. FRENCH AFFAIRS. In Two Volumes.
\In the Press.
IX. THE SALON. [In preparation.
•»* Large Paper Edition, limited to 100 Numhered Copies. Particulars on
application.
THE POSTHUMOUS WORKS OF THOMAS DE
QUINCEV. Edited with Introduction and Notes from the Author's Original MSS., by Alexander H. Jafp, LL.D, K.R.S.E., &c. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. each.
I. SUSPIRIA DE PROFUNDIS. Wiih Other Essays.
Times.—" Here we have De Quincey at his best. Will be welcome to lovers of De Quincey and good literature."
II. CONVERSATION AND COLERIDGE. With other
Essays. \_In preparation.
MR. WILLIAM HE/NEMANN'S LIST.
Z\)Z (Breat Ebucatoiu
A Series of Volumes by Eminent Writers., presenting in their entirety "^ Biographical History of Education.'''
The Times. — "A Series of Monographs on 'The Great Educators' should prove of service to all who concern themselves with the history, theory, and practice of education."
The Speaker. — " There is a promising sound about the title of Mr. Heine- mann's new series, ' The Great Educators.' It should help to allay the hunger and thirst for knowledge and culture of the vast multitude of young men and maidens which our educational system turns out yearly, provided at least with an appetite for instruction."
Each subject will form a complete volume, crown 8vo, s*. Now ready.
ARISTOTLE, and the Ancient Educational Ideals. By Thomas Davidsom, M.A., LL.D. The Times. — "A very readable sketch of a very interesting subject."
LOYOLA, and the Educational System of the Jesuits. By
Rev. Thomas Hughes, S.J. Saturday Review. — " Full of valuable information If a school- master would learn how the education of the young can be carried on so as to confer real dignity on those engaged in it, we recommend him to read Mr. Hughes' book."
ALCUIN, and the Rise of the Christian Schools. By
Professor Andrew F. West, Ph.D. [/« October.
In preparation. ABELARD, and the Origin and Early History of Uni- versities. By Jules Gabriel Compayre, Professor in the Faculty of Toulouse.
ROUSSEAU ; or, Education according to Nature.
HERBART; or, Modern German Education.
PESTALOZZI ; or, the Friend and Student of Children,
FROEBEL. By H. Courthope Bowen, M.A.
HORACE MANN, and Public Education in the United States. By Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph.D.
BELL, LANCASTER, and ARNOLD; or, the English Education of To-Day. By J. G. Fitch, LL.D., Her Majesty's In- spector of Schools.
Others to follow.
MR. WILLIAM IIEINEMANN'S LIST.
THE GREAT WAR OF 189-. A Forecast. By Rear-
Admirai. Colomb, Col. Maurice, R.A., Major Henderson, Staff C0L1.EGE, Captain Maude, AKCHrBALD Forbes, Charles Lowe, D. Christie Murray, F. Scudamore, and Sir Charles Dilke. In One Volume, 410, Illustrated. In this narrative, which is reprinted from the pages of Black and JV/iife, an attempt is made to forecast the course of events preliminary and mcidental to the Great War which, in the opinion of military and political experts, will probably occur in the immediate future. . , ,. . ,
The writers, who are well-known authorities on international politics and strategy, have striven to derive the conflict from its most likely source, to concefve the most probable campaigns and acts of policy, and generally to give to their work the verisimilitude and actuality of real warfare. The work has been profusely illustrated from sketches by Mr. Frederic VilHers, the well- known war artist. [Nearly ready.
THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES. As
pleasingly exemplified in many instances, wherein the serious ones of this earth, carefully exasperated, have been prettily spurred on to indiscretions and unseemliness, while overcome by an undue sense of right. By J. M'Neil Whistler. A New Edition. Pott 4to, half cloth, xos. ed.
{Just ready. Putich.—" The book in itself, in its binding, print and arrangement, is a
work of art A work of rare humour, a thing of beauty and a joy for now
and ever."
THE JEW AT HOME. Impressions of a Summer and Autumn Spent with Him in Austria and Russia. By Joseph Pennei.l. With Illustrations by the Author. 4to, cloth, 5^. U"^i ready.
THE NEW EXODUS. A Study of Israel in Russia. By Harold Fkederic. Demy 8vo, Illustrated. i6s. \J«st ready.
PRINCE BISMARCK. An Historical Biography. By
Charles Lowe, M. A. With Portraits. Crown 8vo, 6j. [Just ready.
The Times.—" Is unquestionably the first important work which deals,
fully and with some approach to exhaustiveness, with _the career of Bismarck
from both the personal and the historical points of view."
ADDRESSES. By Henry Irving. Small crown 8vo. With Portrait by J. M'N. Whistler. [/» the Press.
STRAY MEMORIES. By Ellen Terry. 4to. With
l'i>ilraits. [In preparation.
LITTLE JOHANNES. By Frederick van Eeden. Trans- lated from the Dutch by Clara Bell. With an Introduction by Andrew Lang. Illustrated. [In preparation.
*,* Also a Large Paper Edition.
LIFE OF HEINRICH HEINE. By Richard Garnett,
LL.D. With Portrait. Crown 8vo (uniform with the translation of Heine's Works). [In preparation.
THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. By Professor R. L.
Gar.ner. Crown 8vo, 7^-. M. . . iJ^'st ready.
Daily Chronicle.—" A real, a remarkable, contribution to our common
knowledge."
Daily TeU^aph.—" Kn entertaining book.
THE OLD MAIDS' CLUB. By I. Zangwill, Author of "The Bachelors' Club." Illustrated by F. H. Townsend. Crown 8vo,
cloth, V- 6rf. , ... , • • 1
National Review.—" Mr. Zangwill has a very bright and a very original
humour and every page of this closely printed book is full (jf point and go, and
full too', of a healthy satire that is really humorously applied common-sense." ^
' Alhenirum.-" Most strongly to be recommended to all classes of readers.
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
WOMAN— THROUGH A MAN'S EYEGLASS. By
Malcolm C. Salaman. With Illustrations by Dudley Hardy. Crown 8vo, cluth, 3f. f>d. Daily Giaphic. — "A most amusing book."
Daily Telt-gi-aph. — " Written with brightness and elegance, and with touches of bot' caustic satire and kindly luiniour."
Daily Cltvonicle. — "It is tlie very thing for a punt cushion or a garden hammock."
GIRLS AND WOMEN. By E. Chester. Poit 8vo, cloth,
■zs. 6(/., or gilt extra, ■>,s. 6d. Literary World. — " We gladly commend this delightful little work to the thoughtful girls of our own country. We hope that many parents and daughters will read and ponder over the little volume."
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY. By Edmund Gosse, Author c' " Northern Studies," &c. Second Edition. Crown 8vo, buckram, gilt top, ■}S. 6d. Atheiiieitin. — "There is a touch of Leigh Hunt in this picture of the book- lover among his books, and the volume is one that Leigh Hunt would have delighted in."
*,* Large Paper Edition, liviited to loo Nuiiil •>rd Copies, 2$s. net.
THE LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN. By Henrik J^ger.
Translated by Clara Bell. With the Verse done into English from the Norwegian Original by Edmund CiosSE. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6j-. AcadcDiy. — " We welcome it heartily. An unqualified boon to the many English students of Ibsen."
DE QUINCEY MEMORIALS. Being Letters and other Records here first Published, with Communications from Coleridge, The WoRDSwoRTHS, Hannah More, Professor Wilson andothers. Edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Narrative, by Alexander H. Japp, LL.D. F.R.S.E. In two volumes, demy 8vo, cloth, with portraits, 30J. net. Daily Telegraph. — " Few works of greater literary interest have of late years issued from the press than the two volumes of ' De Quincey Memorials.' They comprise most valuable materials for the historian of literary and social England at the beginning of the century ; but they are not on that account less calculated to amuse, enlighten, and absorb the general reader of biographical memoirs."
THE WORD OF THE LORD UPON THE WATERS.
Sermons read by His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Germany, while at Sea on his Voya;^es to the Land of the Midnight Sun. Composed by Dr. RiciiTER, Army Chaplain, and Translated from the German by John R. McIlraith. 4to, cloth, is. dd. Times. — "The Sermons are vigorous, simple, and vivid in themselves, and well ail.ipted to tlie circumstances in which tliey were delivered."
THE HOURS OF RAPHAEL, IN OUTLINE.
Together witli the Ceiling of the Hall where they were originally painted. Hy Maky E. Williams. Folio, cloth, £2 2s. net.
THE PASSION PLAY AT OBERAMMERGAU, 1890.
By F. W. Fakrar, D.D., F.R.S., Archdeacon and Canon of Westminster
&c. &c. 4to, cloth, 2S. 6d. Spectator. — "This little book will be read with delight by those who have, and by those who have not, visited Obcraiiimergau."
THE GARDEN'S STORY; or, Pleasures and Trials of an Amateur Gardener. By G. H. Ellwanger. With an Introduction by the Rev. C. WoLLEY DoD. izmo, cloth, with Illustrations, 5^. Scotsman. — " It deals with a charming subject in a charming manner."
IDLE MUSINGS: Essays in Social iMosaic. By E. Co.nder
( iRAV, Author of '■ Wise Words and Loving Deeds," &c. &c. Crown ovo, cloth. 6s. Saturday Review. — " Light, brief, and bright."
8 MR. WILLIAM IIEINEMANNS LIST.
THE COMING TERROR. And other Essays and Letters. By RoBFKT Buchanan. Second Edition. Demy Svo, cloth, \is. (>d.
Daily Chronicle. — "This amusing, wrong-headed, audacious, 'cranky book should be widely read, for there is not a dull line in it."
ARABIC AUTHORS: A Manual of Arabian History and Literature. By F. F. Auuuthnot, M.R.A.S., Author of" Early Ideas," " Persian Portraits," &c. Svo, cloth, \os.
Manchester Rxnmitier. — "The whole work has been carefully indexed, and will prove a handbook of the highest value to the stiulcnt who wishes to gain a better .acquaintance with Arabian letters."
THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN AMERICA. By
RtCHARn T. Ely, Pli.D., Associate in Political Economy, Johns Hopkins University. Crown Svo, cloth, 51-.
Saturday Rei'ieiu.—" Both interesting and valuable.
THE LITTLE MANX NATION. (Lectures delivered at the Royal Institution, 1891.) By Hai.l Caine, Author of "The Bond- man," "The Scapegoat," &c. Crown Svo, cloth, 3^-. 6d.; paper, ■zs. dd. Wc^rld. — "Mr. Hall Caine takes us back to the days of old romance, and,
treating tradition and history in the pictorial style of which he is a master, he
gives us a monograph of Man especially acceptable."
NOTES FOR THE NILE. Together with a Metrical Rendering of the Hymns of Ancient Egypt and of tlie Precepts of Ptah- hotep (the oldest book in the world). By Hakdwicke D. Kawnslev, M.A. i6mo, cloth, 5J. The Times.— " AM visitors to Egypt will find much instruction and enter- tainment pleasantly conveyed."
Saturday Review. — " A pleasant and useful little companion for the cult;- vated traveller."
DENMARK: Its History, Topography, Language, Literature, Fine Arts, Social Life, and Finance. Edited by H. Weitemever. Demy Svo, cloth, with Map, 12s. 6d. *,* Dedicated, by permission, to H.R.H. tJu Princess of Wales.
Morning Post. — "An excellent account of everything relating to this Northern country."
IMPERIAL GERMANY. A Critical Study of Fact and character. By Siu.s'ey Whitman. New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Crown Svo, cloth is. td.\ paper, ■iS. Prince Bismarck. — " I consider the different chapters of this book masterly."
THE CANADIAN GUIDE-BOOK. Part I. The Tourist's and Sportsman's Guide to Eastern Canada. and Newfoundland, including full descriptions of Routes, Cities, Points of Interest, Summer Resorts, Fishing Places, &c., in Eastern Ontario, Ihe Muskoka District, The St. Lawrence Region, The Lake St. John Country, The Maritime Provinces, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. With an Appendix giving Fish and Game Laws, and Official Lists of Trout and Salmon Kivcrs and their Lessees. By Chakles G. D. Robkkts, Professor of English Literature in King's College, Windsor, N.S. With Maps and many Illustrations, Crown Svo, limp cloth, ds.
Part II. WESTERN CANADA. Including the Peninsula and Northern Regions of Ontario, the Canadian Shores of the Great Lakes, the Lake of the Woods Region, Manitoba and "The Great North-West," The Canadian Rocky Mountains and National Park, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island. By Ernest Ingkksoll. With Maps and many Illustrations. Crown 8vo, limp cloth. \,ln preparation.
i\JR. WILLIAM IIEINEMANN'S LIST.
Jfictioiu
In Three Volumes.
THE HEAD OF THE FIRM, \^y Mrs. RinnKT.T,, Author
of " Ot-orgc Geilh," " Maxwell Drewett," &c. \Just ready.
CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO. By I. Zanowii.l,
Author of " Tlic Old Maids' Club," &c. [/z/i/ ready.
THE TOWER OF TADDEO. A Novel. By Ouida,
Author of "Two Little Wooden Shoe-," &c. 'iln October.
KITTY'S FATHER. By Frank Barrett. Author of
" Lieutenant Barnabas," &c. [/» November.
THE COUNTESS RADNA. By W. E. Nokris, Author of " Matrimony," &c. \^ln January.
ORIOLE'S DAUGHTER. A Novel. By Jessie Fothergill,
Author of "The First Violin," &c. [/« February.
THE LAST SENTENCE. By Maxwell Gray, Author of " The Silence of Dean Maitland," &c. [/« March.
In Two Volumes.
WOMAN AND THE MAN. A Love Story. By Robert
Buchanan, Author of "Come Live with Me and be My Love," "The Moment After," "The Coniinir Terror," &c. {hi preparation.
A KNIGHT OF THE WHITE FEATHER. By " Tasma,"
.'Vuthor of "The Penance of Portia James," "Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill,"&c. Uust ready.
A LITTLE MINX. By Ada Camuridge, Author of "A Marked Man," "The Three Miss Kings," &c.
In One Volume. THE NAULAHKA. A Tale of West and East. ByRuDYARD Kipling and Wolcott Balestier. Crown 8vo, cloth, Cs. Second Edition. ( I"st ready.
THE AVERAGE WOMAN. By Wolcott Balestier.
With an Introduction by Henry James. Small crown 8vo, y. 6d.
[Just ready.
THE ATTACK ON THE MILL and Other Sketches
of War. By Emii.e Zola. With an essay on the short stories of M. Zola by Edmund CJosse. Small crown 8vo, 3^. 6d. \Just ready.
DUST. By Bjornstjerne Bjornson. Translated from the
Norwegian. Small crown 8vo.
THE SECRET OF NARCISSE. By Edmund Gosse.
Crown Svo. [/« October.
MADEMOISELLE MISS and Other Stories. By Henry
Harland, Author of " Mca Culpa," &c. Small crown Svo. [/« the Press.
THE DOMINANT SEVENTH. A Musical Story. By Kate Elizabeth Clarke. Crown Svo, cloth, 5i-. .Speaker. — "A very romantic story."
PASSION THE PLAYTHING. A Novel. By R. Murray
GiLCiiKiST. Crown Svo, cloth, 6f. Athemeum, — "This well-written story must be read to be appreciated."
lo MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
Ube Crown CopiU'ujbt Scvics.
Mr. Heinemann has made arrangements with a number of the First and Most Popular English, American, and Colonial Authors which will enable him to issue a series of New and Original Works, to be known as The Crown Copyright Series, complete in One Volume, at a uniform price of Five Shillings each. These Novels will not pass through an Ex- pensive Two or Three Volume Eciition, but they will be obtaimble at the Ci! culating Libraries, as well as at all Booksellers' and Bookstalls.
ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. By Am6lie Rives, Author
of "The Quick or the Dead."
Scotsman. — "The literary work is highly artistic It has beauty and
brightness, and a kind of fascination which carries the reader on till he has read to the last page."
THE PENANCE OF PORTIA JAMES. By Tas.ma, .\uthor of " Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill," &c.
Atluneeiim. — "A powerful novel."
Daily Chronicle. — " Captivatmg and yet tantalising, this story is far above the average."
Vanity Fair. — "A very interesting story, morally sound, and flavoured throughout with ease of diction and lack of strain."
INCONSEQUENT LIVES. A Village Chronicle, shewing how certain folk «et out for El Dorado ; what they attempted ; and what they attained. By J. H. Pearce, Author of "Esllicr Pentreath," &c.
Saturday Review. — " k. vivid picture of the life of Cornish fisher-folk. It is unquestionably interesting."
Literary World. — " Powerful and pathetic .... from first to last it is profoundly interesting. It is long since we read a story revealing power of so high an order, marked by such evident carefulness of workmanship, .'uch skill in the powerful and yet temperate presentation of passion, and in the sternly realistic yet delicate treatment of difficult .situations."
A QUESTION OF TASTE, By Maarten Maartens,
Author of " .\n Old Maid's Love," &c. National Obserz'er. — "There is more than cleverness; there is original talent, and a good deal of humanity besides."
COME LIVE WITH ME AND BE MY LOVE. By
KoBEKT BfciiANAN, Author of "The Moment After," "The Coming Terror," &c.
Gtol'e.—" Will be found eminently readable."
Daily Telegraph. — " We will conclude this brief notice by expressing our cordial admiration of the skill displayed in its construction, and the genial humanity that has inspired its author in the shaping and vitalising of the indi- viduals created by his fertile im.agination."
THE O'CONNORS OF BALLINAHINCH. By Mrs. Hu.N'Gi'KioKi), Author of " .Mjlly I'uwn," &c. {^In the Press.
A BATTLE AND A BOY, By Bla.nciie Willis Howard,
Author of " Guenn," &c. \_In preparation.
VANITAS. By Vernon Lee, Author of " Hauntings," &c.
[/« preparation
MR. WILLTAM HEINEMANN'S Ll^T. W
lKinentann'0 international Xibrar^,
F:ditkd by EDMUND GOSSE.
Neiv Revietv. — " If you have any pernicious remnants of literary chauvinism I hope it will not survive the series of foreign classics of which Mr. William Hcinemann, aided by Mr. Kdnuind Gosse, is publishing translations to the great contentment of all lovers of literature."
Times. — "A venture which deserves encouragement." Each Voliiine /las an Introduction specially written by the Editor. Price, in paper covers, is. 6d. each, or cloth, 3^. 6d. IN GOD'S WAY. From the Norwegian of BjOrnstjerne
BjORNSON.
AtheiicEuin. — " Without doubt the most important and the most interesting
vvosk published during the twelve months There are descriptions which
certainly belong to the best and cleverest things our literature has ever produced. Amongst the many characters, the doctor's wife is unquestionably the first. It would be difficult to find anything more tender, soft, and refined than this charming personage."
PIERRE AND JEAN. From the French of Guy de Mau-
PASS.\NT.
Pall Ulall Gazette. — "So fine and faultless, so perfectly balanced, so steadily progressive, so clear and simple and satisfying. It is admirable from beginning to end."
Athcnaum. — " Ranks amongst the best gems of modem French fiction."
THE CHIEF JUSTICE. From the German of Karl Emil
Franzos, Author of " For the Right," &c.
New Revie^o. — " Few novels of recent times have a more sustained and vivid human interest."
Christian World. — "A story of wonderful power .... as free from any- thing objectionable as ' '1 he Heart of Midlothian.' "
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. From the Russian of Count LvoF Tolstoy.
Liverpool Mercury. — "Marked by all the old power of the great Russian novelist."
Manchester Guardian. — "Readable and well translated; full of high and noble feeling."
FANTASY. From the Italian of Matilde Serao.
National Observer. — " The strongest work from the hand of a woman that has been published for many a day."
Scottish Leader. — " The book is full of a glowing and living realism
There is nothing like ' Fantasy ' in modern literature It is a work of elfish
art, a mosaic of light and love, of right and wrong, of human weakness and strength, and purity and wantonness, pieced together in deft and witching precision."
FROTH. From the Spanish of Don Armando Palacio Valdes. Daily Telegraph. — " Vigorous and powerful in the highest degree. It aboimds in forcible delineation of character, and describes scenes with rare and graphic strength."
FOOTSTEPS OF FATE. From the Dutch of Louis
COUPEKUS.
Daily Chronicle. — "A powerfully realistic story which has been excellently translated. '
Gentlewoman. — "The consummate art of the writer prevents this tragedy from sinking to melodrama. Not a single situation is forced or a circumstance exaggerated."
12 MR. WILLIAM IIEINEMANN'S LIST.
Ibeinemann's Jntevnattonal Xibrar^,
PEPITA JIMENEZ. Fiom the Spanish of JUAN Valera.
Xnv /C<-:'ieu' Mr. George Saiiusbury) :— " Tliere is no do\ibt at all that it is one of tlie best stories that have appeared in any country in Europe for the last twenty years."
THE COMMODORE'S DAUGHTERS. From the Nor- wegian of Jonas Lik.
Aiheuieum. — " Everything th.at Jonas Lie writes is .attractive and pleasant ; the plot of deeply human interest, and the art noble." THE HERITAGE OF THE KURTS. Kiom the Norwegian
of BjoKNSTJI;kNE BjiiRNSO.M.
Pall Mall Gazette. — " A most fascinating as well as a powerful book." National Obsen<er.~" It is a book to read and a book to think about, for, incontestably, it is the work of a man of genius."
In the Press.
LOU. From the German of Baron v. Roberts. DONA LUZ. From tlie Spanish of Juan Valera. WITHOUT DOGMA. From the Pohsh of H. SienkieWICZ.
popular 3s. 6b. HAovels.
CAPT'N DAVY'S HONEYMOON, The Blind Mother, and The Last Confession. By IIai.i. Caine, Author of " The Bondman," "The Scapegoat," &c.
THE SCAPEGOAT. By Hall Caine, Author of "The
Bondman," &c. _
Mr. Gladstone ivrit,-s :—" I congi atidate you upon The Scapegoat as a work of art, and especially upon the noble and skilfully drawn character of
Israel." , . . ,, , . . ^
Times.—" In our judgment it excels iii dramatic force all his previous efforts. For grace and touching pathos Naomi is a character which any romancist in the world might be proud to have created."
THE BONDMAN. A New Snga. By Hall Caine.
Twentieth Thousand.
Mr. Gladstone.— ""ihc Bondman' is a work of which I recognise the freshness vigour, and sustained interest no less than its integrity of aim."
Standard.—" Its argument is grand, and it is sustained with a power that is almost marvellous."
DESPERATE REMEDIES. By Thomas Hardy, Author
of "Tessof the D'UrberviUes," &c. .
Saturday Rcvicm.—" A remarkable story worked out with abundant skill.
A MARKED MAN: Some Episodes in his Life. By Ada Cambridge, Author of "Two Years' Time," "A Mere Chance," &c. Mortiins; Post . — "A depth of feeling, a knowledge of the human heart, and an amount of tact that one rarely finds. Should take a prominent place among the novels of the season."
THE THREE MISS KINGS. By Ada Cambridge, Author
of "A Marked Man." AtltcH(eum.—" X charming study of character. The love stories are ex- cellent, and the author is happy in tender situations."
NOT ALL IN VAIN. By Ada Cambridge, Author of "A
Marked Man," " The Three Miss Kings," &c. Guardian.—^" A clever and absorbing story." _ _
Queen.—" All that remains to be said is ' read the book.
MR. WILLIAM HE/NEMANN'S LIST. 13
popular 3s. 6t). IRovels.
UNCLE PIPER OF PIPER'S HILL. By Tasma. New Popular Edition. Guardian.—''' Every page of it contains good wholesome food which demands and repays digestion. The tale itself is thoroughly charming, and all the characters are deliyhifully drawn. We strongly recommend all lovers of whole- some novels to make acquaintance with it themselves, and are much mistaken if they do not heartily thank us for the introduction."
IN THE VALLEY, By Harold Frederic, Author of
"The Lawton Girl," " Seth's Brother's Wife," &c. With Illustrations. Times. — "The literary value of the book is high; the author's studies of bygone life presenting a life-like picture."
PRETTY MISS SMITH. By Florence Warden, Autlior
of "The House on the Marsh," "A Witch of the Hills," &c. Punch. — " Since Miss Florence Warden's ' House on the Marsh,' I have not read a more e.\citing tale."
NOR WIFE, NOR MAID. By Mis. Hungerford, Author
of "Molly Bawn,"&c. Queen. — " It has all the characteristics of the writer's work, and greater emotional depth than most of its predecessors."
Scotsman. — " Delightful reading, supremely interesting."
MAMMON. A Novel. By Mrs. Ale.xander, Author of "The
Wooing O't," &c. Sco/sman. — " The present work is not behind any of its predecessors. 'Mammon ' is a healthy story, and as it has been thoughtfully written it has the merit of creating thought in its readers."
DAUGHTERS OF MEN. By Hannah Lynch, Author of
" The Prince of the Glades," &c. Daily Tehgi-aph. — " Singularly clever and fascinating." Academy. — " One of the cleverest, if not also the pleasantest, stories that have appeared for a long time."
A ROMANCE OF THE CAPE FRONTIER. By Bertram
MiTFORD, Author of "Through the Zulu Country," &c. Observer. — " This is a rattling tale, genial, healthy, and spirited."
'TWEEN SNOW AND FIRE. A Tale of the Kafir War of 1877. By Bertram Mitford.
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D. Ward. AthetuBum. — "A thrilling story."
LOS CERRITOS. A Romance of the Modern Time. By Gertrude Franklin Atherton, Author of " Hermia Siiydam," and " What Dreams may Come." Athenceuin. — "Full of fresh fancies and suggestions. Told with strength
and delicacy. A decidedly charming romance."
A MODERN MARRIAGE. By the Marquise Clara Lanza.
Qiicei;.— "A powerful story, dramatically and consistently carried out." Black and White. — " A decidedly clever book."
14 MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
popular Sbillino aSooI?3.
MADAME VALERIE. By F. C. Philips, Author of "As in a Lookiiig-Glass," &c.
THE MOMENT AFTER: A Tale of the Unseen. By Robert Buchanan.
Atlunitiim. — "Should be read— in daylight."
Obsei'cr. — "A clever tour de force."
Guardian. — " Particularly impressive, graphic, and powerful."
CLUES ; or, Leaves from a Chief Constable's Note-Book.
By WiLLTAM Henderson, Chief Constable of Edinburgh.
Mr. Gladstone.—^' I found the book full of interest."
A VERY STRANGE FAMILY. By F. W. Robinson,
Author of " Grandmother's Money," " Lazarus in London," &c.
Glasgoiu Herald. — " An ingeniously devised plot, of which the uiterest is kept up to the very last page. A judicious blending of humour and pathos further helps to make the book delightful reading from start to finish."
Dramatic Xiteratuve.
THE PLAYS OF ARTHUR W. PINERO.
With Introductory Notes by Malcolm C. Salaman. i6mo, Paper Covers, \s. 6d. ; or Cloth, 2s. 6d. each.
THE TIMES: A Comedy in Four Acts. With a Preface by the Author. (Vol. L)
Daily Telegraph.— '^^'X\\<t Times' is the best example yet given of Mr. Pinero's power as a satirist. So clever is his work that it beats down opposition. So fascinating is his style that we cannot help listening to him."
Momijig Post. — "Mr. Pinero's latest belongs to a high order of dramatic literature, and the piece will be witnessed again with all the greater zest after the perusal of such admirable dialogue."
THE PROFLIGATE : A Play in Four Acts. With Portrait
of the Author, after J. Mokuecai. (Vol. H.)
Pall Mall Gazette. — " Will be welcomed by all who have the true interests of the stage at heart."
THE CABINET MINISTER: A Farce in Four Acts. (Vol. in.) Observer. — " It is as amusing to read as it was when played."
THE HOBBY HORSE: A Comedy in Three Acts. (Vol. IV.)
St. James's Gazette. — "Mr. Pinero has seldom produced better or more Interesting work th.iu in 'The Hobby Horse.'"
LADY BOUNTIFUL. A Play in Four Acts. (Vol. V.)
THE MAGISTRATE. A Farce in Three Acts. (Vol. VI.)
To be followed by Dandy Dick, The Schoolmistress, The Weaker Sex, Lords and Commons, The Squire, and Sweet Lavender.
I\IR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST. 15
IDminatic Xiteratuve,
A NEW PLAY. By Henrik Ibsen. Translated from the Norwegian. Small 4to. \_In prcJ>aration.
A NEW PLAY. By Bj5rnstjerne Bj6rnson. Translated
from the Norwegian. \^In preparation.
THE PRINCESSE MALEINE: A Drama in Five Acts
(Translated by Gerard Harry), and THE INTRUDER : A Drama in One Act. By Maukice Maf.tehlinck. With an Introduction by Hall Caine, and a Portrait of tlie Author. Sm.all 4to, cloth, 5^.
A thenaunt. — " In the creation of the 'atmosphere' of the play M. Maeter- linck shows his skill. It is here that he communicates to us the nouvcaii frisson, here that he does what no one else has done. In 'The Intruder' the art consists of the subtle gradations of terror, the slow, creeping progress of the nightmare of apprehension. Nothing quite like it has been done before— not even by Poe— not even by Villiers."
THE FRUITS OF ENLIGHTENMENT: A Comedy in Four ."Xcts. By Count LvoK Toi.SToy. Translated from the Russian by E. J. Dillon. With Introduction by A. W. Pineko. Small 4to, with Portrait, 51.
Pail Mnii Guzelte.— " The whole efTect of the play is distinctly Molieresque; it has something of the large humanity of the master. Its satire is genial, almost gay."
HEDDA GABLER: A Drama iu Four Acts. By IIenrik Ibsen. Translated from the Norwegian by Edmund Gosse. Small 410, cloth, with Portrait, 5^. Vaudeville Edition, paper, i^. Also a Limited Large Paper Edition, 21^. nei.
Times. — "The language in which this play is couched is a model of brevity,
decision, and pointedness Every line tells, and there is not an incident
that does not bear on the action immediate or remote. As a corrective to the vapid and foolish writing with which the stage is deluged ' Hedda Gabler ' is perhaps entitled to the place of honour."
STRAY MEMORIES. By Ellen Terry, In one volume.
Illustrated. [In preparation.
SOME INTERESTING FALLACIES OF THE
Modern St.age. An Address delivered to the Playgoers' Club at St. James's Hall, on Sunday, 6th December, 1891. By Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Crown 8vo, sewed, dd.
THE LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN. By Henrik J^ger.
Translated by Claka Bell. With the Verse done into English from the Norwegian Original by Edmund Gosse. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6j.
St. James's Gazette. — " Admirably translated. Deserves a cordial and emphatic welcome."
Guardian. — " Ibsen's dramas at present enjoy a considerable vogue, and their admirers will rejoice to find full descriptions and criticisms in Mr. Jsger's book."
10 J/ A'. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
IVY AND PASSION FLOWER: Poems. By Gerard
Kenuai.l, Aiilhor of " Eatclle," &c. &c. iziiio, clolli, 3i-. dd.
Sci'tit/iiin. — " Will be read with pleasure."
Musical H'orld.—" The poems are delicate speciniLiis of art, graceful and polibhed. "
VERSES. By Gertrude Hall. i2mo, cloth, 35. 6d.
ManchcsUr Guardian. — " Will be welcome to every lover of poetry who takes it up."
MAGONIA: A Poem. By Charles Godfrey Leland (Hans
Bkkitmann-). Fcap. 8vo. {In the Press.
IDYLLS OF WOMANHOOD. By C. Amy Dawson.
Fcap. 8vo, gilt top, 5J.
Ibeineinann's Scientific H^aubbool^s,
MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY. By A. B. Griffiths,
Ph.D., F.R.S. (Kdin.), F.C.S. Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated.
[/« the Press.
MANUAL OF ASSAYING GOLD, SILVER, COPPER,
and Lead Ores. l!y Walter Lee Brown, B.Sc. Revised, Corrected, and considerably Enlarged, with a cliapter on the Assaying of Fuel, &c. By A. B. Griffiths, Ph.D., F.R.S. (Edin.), F.C.S. Crown 8vo, cloth. Illustrated, ts. td.
Colliery Guardian. — "A delightful and fascinating book." Financial IVorld. — " The most complete and practical manual on everything which concerns assaying of all which have come before us."
GEODESY. By J. Howard Gore. Crown 8vo, cloth. Illus- trated, 5J.
St. James's Gazette. — "The book may be safely recommended to those who desire to acquire an accurate knowledge of Geodesy."
Science Gossip. — " It is the best we could recommend to all geodetic students. It is full and clear, thoroughly accurate, and up to date in all matters of earth- measurements."
THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF GASES. By
Arthur L. Kimball, of the Johns Hopkins University. Crown Svo, cloth. Illustrated, 5i.
Clieinical News. — "The man of culture who wishes fur ageneral and accurate acquaintance with the physical properties of gases, will find in Mr. Kimball's work just what he requires."
HEAT AS A FORM OF ENERGY. By Professor R, H. Thukston, of Cornell University. Crown Svo, cloth, Illustrated, 5J.
Manchester Examiner. — "Bears out the character of its predecessors for careful and correct statement and deduction under the light of the most recent discoveries."
/l
LONDON: Z? (/ ^ 74^?
WILLIAM HEINEMANN, ^
21 BEDFORD blkJilir, W.C. ^C
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