THE REVUE DES DEUX MONDES. THE Revue des Deux Mondes seldom deals with startling subjects, but its contents are never without interest for those who read them with care. The first article in the July 1st number is upon the organisation of universal Suffrage, and opens with the statement that almost every political party in France considers that things are now oing badly in the State. The old Parliamentarians have parted with their illusions, and strike their breasts regretting their own mistakes, and to those lamentaions, audible to an attentive car, the country replies nothing. The writer of the article, M. C. Benoist, thinks that universal suffrage as practised in France is anarchist, and will lead to anarchy. He discusses the best way of grouping and organising the innumerable voters, and uses the symbol of groynes pushed out into the sea, to make us understand what he means. He says it is no use any longer cradling ourselves in the political dreams current before 1818; we have nothing to do with such prehistoric methods, living as we do in an epoch later by half a century. To the English reader, accustomed to hear the checks and limitations of our own electoral system severely criticised, M. Benoist's article may give food for reflection. To the same number M. Edouard Rod contributes an essay upon Goethe. German literature has never been popular in France, and that from causes quite independent of the war of 1870. The French had ̄no Carlyle to translate the genius of Germany in magnificent prose, and the power which Goethe exercised on the rest of Europe has never been fully appreciated in France. M. Rod's remarks on the famous memoirs which have been familiar to the English reading public for fifty years should be interesting to students. Goethe, he remarks, never described himself as an artist pure and simple; he pretended, on the contrary, to be a master of philosophy, and to teach his readers how best to govern their lives, whether by the example of his fictitious personages or by the lessons taught in his own autobiography. To use a modern phrase, they are tendency writings. The great man of Weimar is described by the French writer with a total absence of the glamour with which Carlyle and George Henry Lewes invested their hero. "Russian finance," by M. G. Levy, is reassuring in tone, with this exception, that the writer considers that the Bank of Russia is too much given to philanthropic transactions. To set this national institution on a more rigorous business footing would be, he says, "the crowning of the work of financial restoration undertaken in 1888 and pursued with so much success by Alexander the Third and Nicholas the Second, and of which France has aided and followed the development with a degree of interest on which it is not necessary to insist." Most seasonable is an article by M. J. Rochard upon French seaside and inland bathing stations. The town population of France is steadily increasing; fifty years ago there were three peasants to one citizen, now they are nearly even, and the yearly emigration by a large number of the inhabitants of the towns to the seaside and watering places helps to neutralise the bad effects of this state of things. M. Rochard hopes that the seaboard of France will become more and more an aquatic suburb, the more so that everybody travels, and the expenses of foreign tours will constantly tend to become cheaper. interesting article would bear reprinting as a pamphlet. M. P. Mille has been inspired to write a long analysis of Mrs. Annie Besant, her influence on the English world of thought, connection with theosophy, and past, present, and future. He speaks with great personal respect of his This subject, and alludes with interest to a lecture given by her in Paris; but he asks himself, apparently seriously, whether she will finally end in a Carmelite convent, or end as a Sister of Charity and daughter of Saint Vincent de Paul. The Vicomte de Vogué writes somewhat obscurely on the literature of Medieval Europe, and takes for his text a late publication of Gaston Paris. The second July number of the Revue des Deux Mondes opens with an article by M. Faguet upon Auguste Comte, and is based upon two books-that written by M. de Roberty upon Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, and that by Père Gruber, a Jesuit author, who, it seems, has written a scrupulous and conscientious work. Comte is is here described as having been extraordinarily childlike and prodigiously proud, at no time of his life knowing anything of mankind, though he recoiled from injustice to himself. He perpetually wondered at the inconstancy, ingratitude, and want of insight in his fellow creatures. He complained of his wife as being without the instinct of kindness or veneration, and as having what he termed a purely revolutionary nature. This man, who was quiet and simple, whose manners were cold and polite, and who dwelt in a small student's chamber, believed that no worldly rank was so great, and even no place in the spiritual hierarchy so desirable, but what he might aspire to it by a kind of natural claim, and he believed in the height of his own future achievements and their reward, considering himself to be the only being who had perhaps ever deserved either. Not only did he think that he had absolute right to live according to his own perceptions of that which was desirable, but he believed that his own perceptions created an ultimate rule for all mankind. Thus he wrought out a picture of the universe made in his own image, and projected his own portrait in infinitude. The Kiel canal and the modern fleets of the world form the subject of a second article by an anonymous writer. The idea of a German maritime canal was not, it seems, new, since in the month of June, 1777, Prince Frederick of Denmark, who afterwards became king, lifted the first sod of the cutting of the canal which connects the river Eider with the Bay of Kiel-the Northern Sea with the Baltic. Germany has now a colonial empire, and if a great war arose the connection with the open sea would be of the first importance, and so the writer considers that England, Russia, and the Scandinavian kingdoms are bound to turn their attention, quite as much as is France, to the future importance of the Kiel canal. Inasmuch as the canal is in its nature a warlike instrument, it will conduce to war if Germany find it all-important and essential to her interest. The second article on the English contemporary drama is severe on Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan, and analyses with considerable shrewdness the conditions which led to the gradual extinction of "cup and saucer" comedy. The most genuinely interesting paper in either number of the Revue is by M. Amelineau, and deals with some recent excavations in Egypt undertaken by a M. Naville, who followed the traces of Mariette Bey in the celebrated Temple of Deir, built in the eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty, about 1700 years before our era, by an Egyptian Queen in honour of her father's achievements. This particular Pharaoh, Thothmes the First, had associated his daughter with himself in the government, as many other Pharaohs had associated their sons, and she repaid him by building this temple to his memory. Those taking an interest in Egyptian lore will do well to procure the article. THE REVUE DE PARIS. WE have noticed M. Filon's account of the Woman's Movement in Great Britain. Every month the French reviews number amongst their contributors several of those great writers who have passed out of sight if not out of memory; amongst them Marshal Davout, Charles Gounod and Taine contribute their quota to the July Revue de Paris. Those who make a study of the Napoleonic era should read Davout's official account of the Prussian campaign of 1809. The continuation of Gounod's charming memoirs cannot fail to be of wide and permanent value, especially as he describes therein his sojourn in Italy at the Roman Académie de France, and his close friendship with the great painter Ingres, who often told him he might have made an even better painter than musician. To the end of his life Gounod kept among his most precious relics a portrait of himself done by his friend during those happy years in Rome. The drawing represents the composer of "Faust" seated at a piano before Mozart's "Don Juan." It was in Italy that Gounod made the acquaintance of Fanny Henzel, the sister of Mendelssohn, and herself a composer of rare merit, who introduced the young Frenchman to German music and musicians. M. Ernest Daudet, the brother of the famous novelist, gives an eloquent account of the role played by the Chouans, the Breton royalist freebooters who performed so many deeds of heroism during the Revolution, under the First Empire. According to their latest historian, if the Allies had not entered Paris the Chouans would have provoked a general uprising in La Vendée. It is strange to think that so much valour and power should have been wasted on behalf of such a man as Louis XVIII., who finally owed his short-lived reign to the enemies of France rather than to those who had remained faithful to the old dynasty, both during the revolutionary period and through the First Empire. M. Albert Sorel's account of the negotiations which took place between General Hoche and the Irish party with reference to an attack on England by the revolutionary forces, then under the command of the famous French general, is not pleasant reading. Striking is the report of a conversation between Hoche and Wolfe Tone, to whom Ireland is indebted for the stirring ballad of the "Shan Van Voght." Hoche asked, "What form of government would suit Ireland if the expedition were successful?" Wolfe Tone answered, "A Republic." Hoche inquired, "Are you sure of this? "As sure as I can be of anything; this I know, in Ireland they think of nothing else." "And is there no fear," asked Hoche, "that the Catholics will wish to establish a separate monarchy in favour of their chiefs?" "No fear at all." This remarkable conversation took place after a dinnerparty given by Carnot. In the same number will be found the conclusion of Taine's Belgian and Dutch diary, and also the concluding portion of Lucien Perey's valuable historic paper on "Catherine the Great and the Prince de Ligne," which includes the Prince's fine testimony in favour of his Imperial friend, written some days after her death. "None could have told that she was a short woman, everything about her was measured and methodical; she possessed the art of listening, and even when her mind was full of other things she seemed to be hearing what others said. Those who invent anecdotes, and who pose as possessing special knowledge, those who are indifferent and who speak ill of others in order to say something clever, or by way of making a living, the ill-intentioned, the unkind, will perhaps attempt to diminish her celebrity; but truth will triumph. The reality of all which I myself witnessed will be remembered, the love and admiration of her subjects, the love and enthusiasm of her soldiers. I have seen them in the trenches cut down by the enemy become consoled and prepared for fresh efforts on hearing the name of Matouschka,' their mother and their idol." THE NOUVELLE REVUE. WE have noticed elsewhere Professor Lombroso's "Benefits of Crime." La Nouvelle Revue becomes each month more and more of a political pamphlet; two articles on the strategic role of the French fleet, an exhaustive analysis of the Alsace-Lorraine question, a discussion on the German plan of campaign, and a somewhat venomous article on the English occupation of Gibraltar, make, together with Madame Adam's own "Letters on Foreign Politics," a formidable amount of matter devoted in various shapes and phases to the god of war, the more so that the fine verses of George Meredith on 1870 also form a feature of the July 1st number. What remains of general interest is, however, valuable. M. Rodoachi continues and concludes his life of Princess Renée de France, a beautiful gentle French princess, who married into Italy and became, as may be imagined to the horror of the people of Ferrara, a disciple of Calvin. She returned to France when widowed to become a pillar of the Reformed Church, and sheltered many a fugitive Huguenot in her château of Montargis. It is not easy to understand what is meant by the article dealing with "Snobbism and Mysticism." It seems a somewhat confused attack on that section of Parisian society which has of late become enamoured of "Liberty materials, anæmia, Greek robes, the PreRaphaelism of Burne-Jones, stained glass windows, Edgar Poe, the Primitives, Sarah Bernhardt, and Huysmann's novels dealing with the unseen.' Ibsen's poems have inspired M. Khan with some curious theories. He points out that the Swedish writer is only known as a dramatist, and that unlike Björnsen, who has been in his day novelist, poet, politician, and playwright, Ibsen has never published a story and not even written his views on the Swedish and Norwegian Separation question; and yet, continues the French critic, when he was a young man, the author of "The Doll's House" published a small volume of verse, the first dating from 1850, the last from 1875. For preface to the volume Ibsen placed the lines, of which the following is a rough translation: "Life is spent in warring with spirits, We are roofed in by our brain and our heart." Many of the poems deal with the Prussian-Danish War and are full of intense patriotism, and some few verses, written during the Siege of Paris, were so violent that they were never included in the German edition of his works. M. Khan considers that Ibsen the poet gives the key to Ibsen the dramatist, and he declares that these verses throw a clear light on the soul of a great writer. M. D'Almeras begins a series of articles on Paris, interesting alike to the lover of the picturesque and to those concerned with the historical and social side of the town. He begins with the Marais, a quarter little visited by English visitors, and yet possessing some of the most curious streets and houses on the Continent, among others the beautiful Hotel Carnavalet, where Madame de Sévigné wrote her celebrated letters, and which has now become a museum, filled with relics of the Revolution. THE GENERAL ELECTION, 1895: THE POSTER IN POLITICS. THE librarian of the British Museum has issued a special appeal to all candidates at the recent elections to forward to the Museum, for preservation in the archives of our great national library, copies of bills, placards, pictures, etc., which they have issued for the purpose of influencing the electors in the General Election of 1895. Such a collection would, no doubt, be extremely interesting to the future historian. In the pages of a monthly magazine it is impossible to do more than merely glance at the literature of the hoardings which came into existence at the beginning of last month and which has been buried in oblivion by the beginning of August. But before all these eloquent appeals which the artist and painter have made vanish altogether from the sight and the memory of man, it inay be well to put on record some of the more effective pictures which have influenced the result of this memorable election. A whole volume of Parliamentary eloquence may be condensed into a single placard. One effective picture in glaring colour will bring home a political lesson the party billsticker has covered the hoardings and available walls which he must pass when he takes his walks abroad. Mr. Carlyle has told us how in the hot fever of the French Revolution the newspapers preferred the circulation which they obtained by means of the bill sticker to the circulation secured by the ordinary method of subscription. It would be possible to construct from the placards and pictures issued during the recent election a very faithful and accurate picture of the condition of the mind of England when the last appeal was made to the country. Whatever may be the case in regard to argument, it must be admitted that the Tories had the best of the contest so far as pictures and illustrations went. In South Wales, for instance, the Liberals showed hardly any pictures at all, and in most places the balance of pictorial argument was distinctly favourable to the Tories. There was not much originality one way or the other. The political artist harps for the most part on a very few and familiar notes.. One of the most frequent forms of electoral placard was that of the portrait of the candidate, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Rosebery, or Sir William Harcourt. Both Liberals and Tories made use of the Union Jack. In Glasgow the Unionist candidates issued cards with their own portraits surrounded by the Union Jack, and with the Royal arms at foot. One popular but very commonplace device is that which represents the party leader as Saint George or some valiant knight slaying a dragon, which according to the politics of the author is either Radicalism or Reaction, the same dragon doing equally well for either Tories or Liberals. It is only the label which requires to be altered. Mr. Gladstone made a much more heroic "FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY." or point a moral far better than all the oratory of the platform or all the eloquence of the pulpit. Mural literature has a great advantage over all other Kinds of propaganda. Like wisdom in the book of Proverbs, the placard cries aloud in the main thoroughfares, it stands at the corners of the streets, it forces itself upon your attention the moment you stir outside your doors. Men can refuse to read newspapers, they can absolutely abjure all public meetings, they can bundle the canvasser into the gutter, but unless they shut their eyes they cannot prevent themselves from seeing the cartoons, pictures, and caricatures with which AR knight in armour than Lord Salisbury; but even Lord Salisbury makes a very respectable figure, as is shown in the cartoon which I reproduce on the previous page, and which might have been labelled "Behold the Conquering Hero Comes." Such pictures are not so much weapons of electoral warfare as standards under which the faithful can go forth to battle. general agreement among electioneering authorities that this bold and impudent placard, or rather the bold and impertinent appropriation of these companion pictures by the Unionists, gained them many votes, especially in South Wales. The chief interest in mural literature is in those pictures which endeavour to influence votes. The first place must be given by general consent to a very effective placard, containing companion pictures, which was issued by the Unionists. Nothing could be more simple, more artless than this poster, which stood the Unionists in such good stead. It will be seen from the reduced copies which I reproduce here, the pictures represent a working man's home in prosperity and in adversity. In one the workman comes home to find his table well laden with good cheer, and is welcomed by a happy wife and chubby child. In the other a workman sits beside an empty cupboard, in the midst of his starving family. There is nothing political in the pictures. They represent scenes with one of which our workmen are unfortunately only too familiar. They were used for political purposes by the Unionists, who represented the prosperous home, with plenty on the table, as the result of Unionist policy; while the picture of CLADSTONIAN GOVERNMENT There were many effective placards intended to illustrate the advantages of maintaining the Union or the disadvantages of Home Rule. One of the most effective and brightly-coloured of these was issued in Glasgow, representing three soldiers -a young Guardsman, a Highlander, and one of the Connaught Rangers standing side by side in defence of the Union Jack. A good specimen of the mendacious poster was that which was issued by the Irish Unionist Alliance, in which the most unwarrantable liberty was taken with my name. In opposing the In and Out Clause in Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill, I had described the clause as the most lunatic device that was ever invented for destroying an Empire. Owing to this and similar representations the clause was abandoned, but notwithstanding this the Irish Unionist Alliance deemed it honest to issue huge placards, a reduced copy of which is to be found on another page, in which my declaration concerning the In and Out Clause is quoted as if it were my deliberate judgment upon Home Rule. squalor and misery was boldly labelled so as to make it represent the results of the Liberal administration. There was nothing in the world to prevent the Liberals from issuing exactly the same pictures labelled the other way on. It would have been just as true in one case as in the other, for no one in their senses will contend that want never invades a workman's home under either Liberal or Tory administration. Lack of work and distress are never absent from certain sections of our population, nor do they time their coming according to the ascendency of this or that party at St. Stephens. Nevertheless, there seems to be a Mr. Chamberlain in every conceivable position. For genuine humour and original force there are few to excel those in which he represents the union of the Parson, the Publican, and the Peer, entitled "United we stand, divided we fall," or that other cartoon representing Lord Salisbury before and after his absorption by Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Gould may certainly lay the flattering unction to his soul that he has contributed as much as any man to make Mr. Chamberlain the leader of the hour, and to fix attention upon the Liberal Unionist leader to the exclusion of any other figure in the electoral battle. palm by its cartoons for the crisis, of which it brought out a series of over two dozen. The pencil, pen, and fertile brain of Mr. Carruthers Gould seldom achieved a greater triumph than in the success with which he hit off from day to day the salient features of the contest. I reproduce here, by permission of the Westminster Gazette, some of the best of this notable series. Mr. Gould has seldom done anything better than in these cartoons. From of old time he had a perfect passion for delineating Mr. Chamberlain's somewhat hard and unprepossessing features, and he revelled in the opportunity which this erection gave him of depicting From Inverness I hear that the most effective placard issued in the election was a plain bit of printing, which I reproduce here: WHAT THE LIBERAL DONE SINCE 1892. 1892. Came into Office. Made Peers. Made Promises. 1893. Home Rule Fiasco. Made more Promises. 1894. Passed a Local Govern ment Act. Increased the Death Duties. Won the Derby. Lost their Leader. Made more Peers. Made more Promises. 1895. Again won the Derby. TOTAL. 1 Act, 2 Derbys, 15 Peers. Promises innumerable. Among the humours of the election must be mentioned the fact that in East Fife the Tories were so confident of the defeat of Mr. Asquith that they actually prepared and printed huge placards, as follows: "Glorious Unionist victory. Triumphant return of Mr. Gilmore. Defeat of ex-Home Secretary." On the whole, the mural literature of this election seems to have been singularly free from offensive denunciation and mendacious statements, or anything that could be described as hitting below the belt. The billsticker has very few sins to answer for. |