contemporary history, when left to ripen | own darling caste and hobby. The bourfor a generation or two under lock and key, has all the dissecting advantages of the past, as it attacks and unmasks none but the dead, or those so long deceased that none alive can take any personal interest in them. Saint-Simon's life is nothing, or next to nothing, when disconnected with his memoirs. He married the eldest daughter of the Marshal de Lorges, Turenne's nephew and favorite pupil. He was then twenty, was duke and peer of France, Governor of Blaye, Governor and Grand Bailli of Senlis, and commander of a regiment of cavalry. He served several campaigns, with the necessary propriety and application to military duties. After the peace of Ryswich, (1697,) his regiment of horse was disbanded. In 1702, (War of the Spanish Succession,) certain promotions placing above him younger men than himself, induced him to quit the profession of arms at the early age of twenty-seven, thereby forfeiting all hopes of favor in the eyes of a master, who willingly gave a slight, but never received one without a feeling of cold and settled rancor. Notwithstanding all our author's attempts at discretion, suspicions were very generally entertained of his being busy writing his memoirs: at all events, his temper was not much of a secret. Madame de Maintenon, who was his special aversion, says he was vain, censorious, and full of views; meaning bold and systematic projects. It was in vain he kept watch over his tongue—the angry and biting expression would make its escape, or be replaced by an expressive, eloquent, and equally dangerous silence. When complaining one day (he was weak enough to complain) to Louis XIV. of the slanderous language of his enemies, "Why, sir," was his majesty's answer, "you so talk and censure yourself, no wonder people talk of you; why don't you hold your tongue?" SaintSimon's first chance of positive influence lay with the Duke de Bourgogne. But his hopes, whatever they might be, were blasted by the duke's death in 1712. His political theory, (what Madame de Maintenon calls his views,) of which he treats somewhat in extenso on various occasions, was, of course, reäctionary. Deeming the power of the monarch excessive, his wish was to temper it by the coëxisting power and counsel of the dukes and peers, his geois he regards as a very sleek, very clever, insolent, and ambitious aggregate, governing the kingdom through its clerks and secretaries, and exercising unfounded but sovereign authority in the parliaments through the instrumentality of legistssuch, for instance, as the President du Harlay. This, of course, he meant to quash. As for the people, properly so called, they were yet in their political nonage, and therefore formed no part of his system of government. His connection with the hap-hazard, hand-to-mouth, extravagant regent afforded no opportunity for any theory but that of finance. The regent's death, in 1723, once more warned him of the uncertainty of all sublunary prospects-a warning further improved by a gentle hint from the future minister, (Fleury,) that his presence at Paris would be more agreeable than at Versailles. Saint-Simon thought too much aloud for the whispering system about to be inaugurated by the placid Bishop of Fréjus; he therefore retired to his estate. The last mention we hear made of him is by Marshal de Belle-Isle, who compares the old man's conversation to the most agreeable and pleasing of dictionaries. We could have wished the simile had been other, as a dictionary is not generally known as a compendium of sweets. Saint-Simon, we are further informed, would occasionally come to Paris, and visit the Duchesse de la Vallière and the Duchesse de Mancini, (both of the noble family of the Noailles,) where, availing himself of the privilege of age, and waiving the grandee in favor of the country gentleman, he would put himself at his ease, hang his wig on an arm-chair, and talk away, with his bare head reeking; reeking, one could almost fancy, like some half-extinct volcano. He died in 1755, aged eighty, long after completing his memoirs. He died during the reign of Voltaire, when Diderot's "Philosophic Cyclopædia" had begun, when Rousseau had made his appearance, and just as Montesquieu himself reäppeared from the scene, after producing all his works. What, it has been asked, must he have thought of all these novelties? Probably not much. Like the Abbé Vertot, who finished his "Siege of Malta" before the true particulars reached him, and summarily declined availing himself of further documents by his famous answer, mon 66 suddenly recalled the unhappy poet to a siége est fait," Saint-Simon, who had closed all written accounts with his own particular world, must have felt little temptation to mar the economy of his carefully-copied pages by hurriedly recording the exploits of a new and literary world. He does, it is true, make supercilious mention of Arouet, as he calls him, the son of a notary who had been his own and his father's, saying, he was exiled to Tulle for some very satirical and impudent verses. The verses, which were not Arouet's, though ascribed to his precocious malice, were directed against the memory of Louis XIV., and therefore naturally enough attracted Saint-Simon's attention. He does him the honor of a second mention for a second copy of satirical verses, of which he was equally guiltless, and for which he was sent to the Bastille. He states, he should not have thought it worth his while to mention such a trifle, had not the author become a Saint-Simon's memoirs, though long person of consequence in a certain society, considered as state papers, and therefore as well as poet and academician by the jealously guarded, have at various times name of Voltaire, a name assumed by the appeared in printed fragments, and as freadventurer to disguise his own! He is quently been read in manuscript. Duclos equally brief, though by no means so dis- and Marmontel were acquainted with dainful, in his mention of Racine, Boileau, them, as is evident from their historioMolière, and Lafontaine. He thinks highly graphic labors. Madame du Deffand had of Racine; who, as he says, had nothing them from the Minister Choiseul, (Yorick's of the poet in his manner, but tout de old acquaintance,) and conveyed her iml'honnête homme-everything of the honest pressions to her friend Horace Walpole, man; that is, gentleman of the period. that other man of memoirs, thus: "We And yet he is unwittingly the cause of a read after dinner" (November 21, 1770) very popular error as regards this illus-the Memoirs of M. de Saint-Simon,' and trious poet, who is, in consequence, be- I cannot but regret your absence: you lieved to have died of that singular men- would feel unspeakable pleasure." And tal malady known in France by the name in another letter, (December 2,) that "the sottise rentrée-a species of slow and sponta- style is abominable, the portraits badly neous combustion, occasioned by taking a done, and the author no man of wit!" silly or awkward slip too much to heart. In the following year (1771,) she writes Saint-Simon, in fact, gravely relates, that how désespérés, how distressed she is at Racine, (the second most polished and being unable to procure him a perusal of handsome man in the kingdom, taking those memoirs; she has just finished the King Louis himself to be the first,) being last volume, which has given her infinite asked by his majesty why comedy had so pleasure: "il vousmettrait," says she, "hors much declined of late, adduced as a rea- de vous!" ("It would put you beside son the practice of representing superan- yourself with delight.") Voltaire, too, nuated old pieces-among others, the in- had had a glimpse of them, and towards significant and disgusting plays of Scarron. the decline of his life had, as he says, conMadame de Maintenon, the relict of that ceived the project of refuting all those facetious author, reddens to the tip of her passages in Saint-Simon's still secret menose, not so much at hearing the reputa-moirs which had been prompted by prejution of her first husband so rudely attacked, as at having his name so awkwardly mentioned in presence of his royal successor. The king looked at a loss what to say, so there was a dead silence, which dice or hatred. Voltaire had too much experience, and a little too much of the author's own peculiar character, not to pounce at once on what was really objectionable in the formidable memoirs. But, while he thus attempted to forestall pub-| lic opinion, he must have been equally conscious how dangerous a rival they would become to his own "Siècle de Louis XIV.," and how easily such pictures as Saint-Simon's, when brought to light, would darken the most brilliant sketches of a merely temporary nature. Numerous extracts appeared between 1788 and 1791, and subsequently, in 1818, but miserably garbled, and though uniformly allowed to be extremely interesting, were as uniformly stated to be badly written! The age had evidently degenerated, as the cavilling spirit and bald rhetoric of Voltaire alone ruled in the literary ascendant. The edition of 1829, in twenty-one octavo volumes, was the first signal reparation made to the mangled and mutilated author. And yet the reparation was far from complete. A whole gallery of portraits (that connected with the Spanish council on the accession of Philip of Anjou to the throne of Spain) was suppressed. Impertinent liberties, too, were taken with the author's text, on the plea that a grandee could know nothing of grammar; while, to crown the whole, a very poor portrait of the author's father flourished on the frontispiece, instead of that of the son; a substitution flattering enough, no doubt, to the filial piety of Saint-Simon, or that of such a man as Montaigne, who used to say he wrapped himself up in his father every time he put on the old gentleman's cloak, but which could not, by any stretch of imagination, be supposed to excite much rapt enthusiasm in a purchaser who bargains for the effigy of the son, and not for that of the father. Thanks to a praiseworthy spirit of competition, we are now about to be presented with an edition positively authentic and complete, both of the works and portrait. To this the publisher Ha chette has fairly committed himself. In a first circular, or premiére note, as he judiciously terms it, we have a rather interesting account of the various editions hitherto published, or in course of publication. And as all these are mere reïssues of that of 1829, the errors and deficiencies of the first are naturally repeated, and, as might be expected, reasonably increased. To correct these errors and supply these deficiencies, recourse has been had to the manuscript, now in possession of Saint-Simon's lineal descendant, and the task of collation pursued with such searching accuracy and success, as to supply the abovementioned premiére note with such an overwhelming list of blunders, misprints, and misnomers, as amply to justify the enterprising firm of Hachette & Co., were they even to entitle their publication not merely an original, but the original edition; l'édition princeps des Mémoires du Duc de Saint-Simon. In all probability, the undertaking will be carried out on a scale of liberality commensurate with its importance and deserved popularity. No fewer than three distinct editions are announced: the first, a beautiful tall 8vo edition, in 20 volumes, price 300 francs; the second, a handsome ordinary-sized 8vo edition, also in 20 volumes, price 80 francs; the third, a neat 18mo edition, in 12 volumes, price 24 francs. For the two first and highest priced of these, we profess unqualified admiration, but reserve all our tender sympathies for the third and lastsympathies enhanced by a glance at the long receding vista of our own reading past, portions of which are so many grievous blanks occasioned by the exclusively aristocratic tendencies of our great bibliopolists, throwing ourselves and the public at large some quarter of a century in arrear of every valuable and standard publication. BALMORAL CASTLE.-The furniture of the building-its situation, and its associathe new castle is of a very peculiar char- tions. Another peculiarity is the absence acter. All the rooms are alike, that is, all of paint on any of the internal doors; withthe curtains, draperies, and coverings of out any exception, of all these the wood is the apartments are of one pattern, though perfectly au naturel, though it is very differing in the costliness of the fabric. highly polished; and thus the aspect The design is a tartan, with a red and of the old feudal castle is maintained white check; and it is extraordinary how in connection with every possible degree well this harmonizes with the character of of modern comfort. From Bentley's Miscellany. FRENCH NEWSPAPERS. IT has frequently occurred to us that the character of a nation is well depicted in the history of its press. If the comparison be far-fetched, the most uncompromising Gallomaniac must allow that it is most ominously correct in the case of France. Here we find the newspaper at its birth restricted by the combined influence of autocracy and bigotism: then it gave way to the most riotous excesses during the First Revolution. Brought to a sense of its dignity under Charles X., it formed the most efficient lever to overthrow his bigoted tyranny; then allowing that dignity to be compromised by the bribery and corruption which gave Louis Philippe his bad preeminence; then once more dragging its honor through the mire by the most brutal pandering to King Mob, it has at length ended by becoming But we will not say what the French press now is. Let our readers who feel any curiosity satisfy themselves by a glance at the daily papers, which are flatteringly supposed to represent intellectual France. But, apart from these somewhat mournful considerations, a short sketch of the rise and progress of the French press may afford instruction, by allowing our readers to institute a parallel between it and that most interesting account of British journalism which a monthly contemporary is publishing. Of course the limits of an article will not allow us to approfondir our subject, and we must content ourselves with noting the most salient points, in which a little book,* published by that most enterprising of Parisian publishers, M. P. Jannet, will afford us the most noteworthy services. The first journal published in France was the brain-child of a physician named Theophraste Renaudot, and appeared on the 20th of May, 1631, under the title of *Histoire du Journal en France, 1631-1853. Par Eugène Matin. the Gazette. The far-sighted Richelieu, the man before his age, who was as necessary to the France of that day as Louis Bonaparte is to the present, greeted its appearance with pleasure, for he knew that it would act as his unbounded partisan. Nor was he mistaken; and the Victor Hugos and Louis Blancs of the seventeenth century were forced to vent their spleen at not having discovered the new source of wealth and influence by covert inuendo and malevolent good wishes. Another point in which they succeeded was in involving the unfortunate gazetteer in a quarrel with the faculty, and embittered his life by the most venomous sallies against his schemes; for, unfortunately, Renaudot was a projector, and could not stick to his Gazette without dabbling in other schemes, which improved him neither in reputation nor in pocket. As long as Richelieu lived, he was in clover; for, as a journalist recently wrote, "Louis XIII. quittait sournoisement son Louvre, pour se rendre à bas bruit dans la Rue de Îa Calandre, dans cette boutique gazetière qu'annonçait si bien l'oiseau criard, le grand coq de son enseigne, et que là le pauvre roi, endoctrinant à l'aise le pédantesque Renaudot, se dédommageait, par les petits commérages qu'il lui glissait à l'oreille, du silence et de l'inaction auxquels le condamnait son ministre." Renaudot, like all inventors who benefited humanity, died a poor man, while a nation reaped the benefit of his discovery. For a very long period the Gazette supplied the newspaper wants of France; and, although slightly altered in form, and improved by the admission of advertisements, it was not till the First Revolution that the full force of the power of the newspaper press began to be felt. Still it must not be supposed that no imitators started on the already beaten track; but their efforts were principally confined to jocularity. The most remarkable of these papers was the Gazette Burlesque, in verse, established in 1650 by the poet | writer of family stories, which no family Loret, so called because his pages related could be without in those days, and which what occurred; doing so, however, in a no family would tolerate in the present, pleasant and agreeable style. On the La Harpe, Mallet du Pau, and, among principle of ex pede Herculem, we will many other literary heroes, the great give our readers a specimen brick or two Chateaubriand, who in those days, we as an example of the pleasant and agree- presume, was only dreaming of his future able style. For instance, he writes: possible successes, and still more impossible failures. "Sa plume eût été vite usée The first daily paper in Paris appeared only a few years prior to the Revolution, and was called the Journal de Paris. When, during the first pangs of revolu tion, heads were cut off with the celerity which at present typifies the clearance of an asparagus bed, newspapers, like mushrooms, grew up apace from the same congenial filth. The best which our French author gives is positively tedious, and we do not know where to begin or where to ary ideas is, however, gloriously typified end. The gradual progress of revolution which means, being translated into common small-bill dunning phrase, had he not had at his back the bank-stock book of a young and lovely princess, Mademoiselle de Longueville, who generously discounted the rhymes of her pensionary. In fact, the most noteworthy point of his verses the most noteworthy point of his verses is, that for fifteen long years he contrived in this Copia Gazettarum. At the outset, to address fire-new prefaces, fresh from everybody is amical: we have friends of the mint, to his princess. This newspaper every possible shade excepting the bloodwas originally meant to be exclusive to a the rainbow, and conducted by men of red; journals exemplifying every color of degree, but that unlucky habit of printing the same political chameleon hue; in fact, led to so much of the contrefaçon Belge, everything was in confusion, because nothat the author was compelled to take refuge in the press, his lucubrations having not till the king had proved his weakness body knew what they wanted, and it was been hitherto written by hand, and disthat the people found their courage. tributed among the select circle to whom Mademoiselle de Longueville dispensed cenaries; he would not take warning by Louis Seize spared the blood of his merher literary favors. The success of the Gazette Burlesque was rapid and great, him, and so paid the penalty. Le Deux the menacing aspects that surrounded Décembre had not, at that benighted period, been enrolled in the calendar of saints' days. Had it been so, the French press might have been in almost the same condition as it is now. What an apotheosis of intellectualism! As, however, Louis Seize possessed no phlegma, and was constitutionally weak, the opposition press soon gained a head; the illustrious Mirabeau the Elder set the ball a-rolling with his "Lettres à ses Commettants," which was the prolegomena of the Courrier de Provence. He was followed by a countless swarm, among others by the Révolu tions de Paris, with its motto, as bold as it became famous, "Les grands ne nous paraissent grands que parce que nous sommes à genoux. Levons-nous!" for we are assured: "Qu'elle avait passé le Bosphore, Et qu'on lui faisait de l'honneur A la porte du Grand Seigneur." In 1672 a new journal made its appear ance, which was destined to have a great amount of popularity and a long life. It was called the Mercure Galant. This was a monthly periodical of three or four hundred pages, sold at three livres. From the first editor it passed into the hands of Lefèvre de Fontenay, who altered its title, and called it the Mercure de France, and it lived, after undergoing the most unexampled vicissitudes, which can only find their parallel in the history of our own penny press, until it attained its 667th number, in 1815. During the Revolution it had acquired a certain degree of importance, which it owed to its political editorialism. Among the contributors we may quote Marmontel, that celebrated VOL. XL-NO. I. Liberty was speedily followed by libertinism, and hence arose the countless throng of papers, which began by disgusting Europe and ended by revolutionizing France. It is hardly possible to believe 5 |