the disposal of competent men as to enable them to give themselves to immediate and prolonged investigations into the cause and morbid effects of this most contagious of diseases. The most celebrated physicians of the past century lay great stress upon innoculation as the proper mode of dealing with Rinderpest. Dr. Layard in his treatise says: No one will think of 'bringing the infection into any place free from it merely for 'the sake of innoculating their cattle, but if the contagious dis' temper be in the neighbourhood of a herd, or break out so as to ' endanger the stock, the grazier may, by innoculating his cattle, 'with proper precautions, at least secure his stock, since he 'can house them before they fall sick, prepare them, and have 'due care taken, knowing the cause of the distemper.' In Holland it has failed and succeeded. Dr. Flemyng remarks: I apprehend that innoculation will stand the better chance of 'bringing on the distemper provided it is performed on subjects ( as young as safety will permit of.' Dr. Bourguignon, in his recent work on this distemper, enforces this system of treatment, and alludes to the experiments of Professor Jessen of Dorpat, made by order of the Russian Government, in 1853, at Odessa. The first results were fatal to the theory. At Kozan another mode being adopted, they were much more satisfactory: 'Passing 'from experiment to experiment, they arrived at the conclusion 'that it was necessary to innoculate several heads of cattle, 'the one after the other, without having recourse to any other 'virus than the first obtained, so that they might thereby 'obtain virus of the second, third, fourth fifth, and up to the ' tenth generation. The virus, thus attenuated in its morbid effects, answered at length in every case, and oxen thus in'noculated could mingle with impunity with diseased cattle.' At Chalkoff 1,059 animals were innoculated with virus of the third generation, and 60 only were lost. So sure is the professor of this ground that he maintains that Europe may be 'preserved from this frightful scourge by allowing no Steppe 'cattle to be exported, save those that have had the distemper naturally or by innoculation.' He further adds--we quote Dr. Bourguignon's version that beasts born of cows which 'have been affected do not contract the disease.' It is surely necessary that such experiments as these which were put a stop to by the cessation of the plague should be closely followed up both here and elsewhere; and if it proves true that Southern Russia is the true and only breeding ground of the Rinderpest, the duty of the British Government is clearly marked out in the matter. The interference of Parliament is also required in other directions. It is to be hoped that no apprehensions will be allowed to prevent the Government from dealing with the question of cattle-importation and cattle-markets generally. The present method of bringing vast quantities of cattle into the hearts of the great urban centres must be wrong. There was reason in the practice before railways existed. But now that the means of communication are perfect, and railways penetrate to the heart of every feeding district, the towns and cities can be supplied with far less loss and risk, and with quite as much certainty, from abattoirs conveniently situated. In answer to the objection that meat is such a perishable commodity, it may be asked, are not fish and vegetables, butter and milk, perishable commodities, and yet how beautifully balanced the year round are the demand and the supply? Already the instincts of traders have led them to commence this revolution. Thousands of tons of dead meat reach the London markets from Scotland and elsewhere every week, railway fare being paid only upon the prime joints, and not upon the coarse meat and offal. We shall have made a great advance in our sanitary arrangements when the private slaughter-houses are made to give place to well-appointed and properly-inspected buildings beyond the precincts of the town. There is scarcely another civilised country in Europe where the abominable practice of private slaughter-houses is tolerated, and they ought at once to be prohibited by law. Before this is done the Government will do well to try its hand upon the foreign supply. Provision should be quickly made for the slaughter of all imported fat cattle at the ports of debarkation, while for store beasts-the trade for which is, not as yet large -possibly some effective quarantine arrangements might be devised. Half-a-dozen ports of import might be appointed and supplied with all the necessary apparatus of markets and slaughter-houses. Meanwhile, what will the farmers do to meet a state of things so threatening to their best interests? The dairy farmers will to a certain extent replace the manufacture of butter and cheese by the rearing of calves, adopting what is known as store weaning. Farmers not possessed of breeding flocks of ewes will probably seek to suit their system to the new circumstances, and those who have flocks will probably increase them. Young horses will be purchased and liberally fed. Sheep will be introduced on some lands unfitted for them, especially where there are crops of turnips and no cattle to consume them. Those who have not attempted to breed and rear pigs will do so, and the same may be said of those who have made little or no acquaintance with poultry. Labourers probably may be induced to keep poultry. The wealthy will perhaps find it advisable to abstain from lamb and veal, or at any rate the price of both will confine young meats to the consumption of that class. Furthermore, the entire produce of the land, as far as may be, will be spent in rearing and fattening stock. This visitation has already taught us some wholesome lessons. We are even now willing-nay, anxious-to abolish the cowhouse system of towns for one more consonant with physiological experience. The miserable barrier which has been set up to protect the consumer from the cupidity of cattledealers and butchers no longer satisfies us; and when this is undergoing systematic revolution, the private slaughter-houses will probably not escape the besom. The regulations affecting the imported supply of cattle must undergo marked improvement. Finally, the change to a more pastoral economy, though momentarily retarded, will proceed with redoubled celerity when this plague has abated. If these be the results of the cattle plague of 1865, we may have reason hereafter to look with more satisfaction on the quarterly returns of the Registrar-General and the agricultural statistics of the kingdom. ART. IX.-1. L'Invasion, ou le fou Yégof. Par ERCKMANNCHATRIAN. Paris: 1862. 2. Confidences d'un Joueur de Clarinette. Par ERCKMANNCHATRIAN. Paris: 1863. 3. Madame Thérèse. Par ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN. 1863. Paris: 4. Le Conscrit de 1813. Par ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN. Paris: 1864. 5. Waterloo (suite du Conscrit). Par ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN. Paris: 1865. 6. L'homme du Peuple. Par ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN. Paris: 1865. Ir T is a significant, and certainly not a very gratifying fact, that while French novels are extensively read in this country, especially by women, they are very rarely openly discussed or reviewed. The reading of modern French romances seems to be generally considered among us as a venial sin, which may be indulged in without great danger but which can scarcely be VOL. CXXIII. NO. CCLI. spoken of with propriety. We are not disposed, on the present occasion, to discuss the soundness of this theory. The first proposition, we think, is sufficiently refuted by its companion. It is rarely a salutary practice, for body or for mind, to do that which we do not care to avow openly or to recommend to others. Nor need the explanation of the fact arrest us long. It lies on the surface. There is a vast amount of misused power of invention, clever writing, and good sense scattered about in many of the worst French novels-qualities which a conscientious literary judge is bound to recognise; but the general tendency of these productions is so mischievous that no conscientious literary judge can desire to bestow even qualified praise which would extend the number of readers of such books in this country. French novelists need seek no other reason for that unwilling silence of English reviewers of which they so often complain. To speak frankly, the literature of fiction in France presents about as surprising an amount of adulterated and deleterious intellectual food as was ever offered to the public appetite in any country or at any time, especially if we take into consideration the superior refinement or at any rate the superior fastidiousness of the atmosphere which surrounds modern novelists as compared to that in which their apparently coarser predecessors lived. The so-called realistic school, which is at present completely dominant on the other side of the Channel, exhibits a peculiarly offensive mixture of life-like commonplace and unimpassioned vice. Its pictures possess, so to speak, that almost tangible immorality which belongs to a certain class of tableaux vivants. There are two lines in M. Victor Hugo's recent work entitled Chansons des Rues et des Bois' which embody in characteristic form the idea we would wish to convey. In one of the pieces which compose that most wonderful collection of lyrical absurdities and vulgarities, the author, after asserting that poetry may be found in all places and in all subjects-and so far we are inclined to agree with him-seeks to prove that the doubtful nymphs of Paris and its suburban places of recreation may offer the same charms to a good-tempered poet or philosopher as the dryads and sylvan haunts of ancient Greece. He exclaims: : If we may be allowed to say so, it is this odious fraternisation of the bourgeois and the horned satyr,' constantly going on in French novels of the realistic school, which renders them so unfit for public discussion. In Truth resides supreme power, but within the domains of Art even Truth must be content to rule constitutionally and to reign with limitations. This is not the opinion of French realism, and as M. Hugo is one of its most approved masters, we are tempted to borrow from him once more. It will be seen by his recurring pertinaciously to the image we have already quoted, that he considers it, like ourselves, a very appropriate and striking one. He says, in another poem, entitled Réalité,' 'La vérité n'a pas de bornes. Grâce au grand Pan, dieu bestial, Sur le front bleu de l'idéal.' There is little to be seen of the 'azure brow of the Ideal' when it is overshadowed by those terrible realistic horns, though they be those of a god-un dieu bestial, it is true. It must not be supposed, however, that no attempt has been made to stem the current. On the contrary, most praiseworthy efforts have recently been made to please the public taste of France by nobler means, but they have not been attended with much success. Some well-meaning novelists have been wanting in talent-a common fault, alas! among well-meaning persons; others have attempted too much, and, from fear of over excitement, have fallen into hopeless namby-· pamby. They have injudiciously applied the total abstinence principle to the confirmed dram-drinkers of sensation novels, and seen their milk-and-water dilutions disdainfully rejected. Others, again, have thrown themselves too violently into reaction, and have run counter to the realist tendencies of the age even in those points in which they were best justified. In a word, among French writers of fiction in the present day, the two authors whose joint name heads our article stand almost alone as having at once steadfastly resisted the corrupt taste of the French novel-reading public, evinced great literary talent, and obtained wide-spread popularity. This enviable distinction justifies us amply in devoting a few pages to an investigation of the means by which they have deserved and achieved success. For a long while the signature Erckmann-Chatrian was supposed by the general public to be that of a single writer; and it was only about four years ago that the authors, M. Emile Erckmann and M. Alexandre Chatrian, informed their readers that the numerous books of fiction that had been already published under the joint name were the fruits of their friendly |