his honor as at stake, and relying upon the| king's obstinacy in his own plans, was determined to press the adoption of the measure, in the lower house, without any concession to the clerical body. Contrary to his expectations, he found the king in a different disposition, and a warm discussion ensued. The irascibility to which his majesty always was subject has, of late years, increased to such a point, that the least contradiction puts him into a passion, and, in this state, he does not minutely weigh the expressions he makes use of, unless it be to render them still more haughty and provoking. After all, this may be proper treatment for the members of his present cabinet, and especially for the one in question, who, in April, 1814, on the place Vendôme, publicly seized the stirrups and kissed the boots of the Emperor Alexander, proclaiming him at the same time the saviour of the country! We are bound, however, to admit that the king must have carried his practice to a great extremity, since a man of the temper of Villemain, a character stamped with thirty-three years' subserviency under every successive government, could not help resenting the insult, and rejoining in terms so ill-sounding to the royal ears, that the master interrupted him in these terms: 'Allons donc ! tous êtes fou.' 6 The doctor, a clever man, immediately saw that, instead of one patient, he was likely to have two, and hesitated if he should not immediately order a private room and a strait waistcoat: but, the thought that the huge, unclean, and unintelligent mass in human form he had before him, was a minister, a Grand Maitre,' stopped him, and he ordered two servants to take a hackney coach, and see the madman home to his ministerial residence, which orders were instantly and respectfully obeyed. Immediately after, the doctor repaired to the palace, and reported the scene which he had witnessed. The news of such an event spread all over Paris, and its propagation soon alarmed the Thuileries more than the event itself, and all the ministers were speedily assembled at the palace, to consider what was to be done under such circumstances. The king, already informed of all the particulars that had been circulated, in the first moments of general emotion, thought it best, in his vaunted clemency, to forget every thing except the averred madness of Villemain, and condescended to order those of his household who had witnessed the facts, to lose all recollection of them, and be silent until the official account was regularly and formally issued. There being no doubt about the lunacy of the absent colleague, a family Most of our readers are aware that the predisposition to it was easily established. legitimate kings of France had the gift of One of his youngest brothers, a scholar of curing the scurvy, by merely touching the the imperial Lycée, (now college Louis le sufferer, and saying: Le Roi te touche; Grand,) hung himself in a cell where he Dieu te guérisse! The king of the Bar- had been placed under arrest. Another, ricades, it appears, has another, but more afterwards an officer of artillery, committed awful gift; for, no sooner had the words so many acts of folly, that, in 1823, he was escaped from his mouth, than madness had sent to the colonies, through the influence seized the minister, who, losing sight of of his brother, then a legitimist, to get rid the king, and imagining that he was 'tête a of him. Furthermore, incipient insanity, tete' with a Jesuit, rushed upon him, seiz- so far back as 1827, was proved against ed him by the neckcloth, and was doing his Villemain himself, by the publication of a best to strangle him, when, at the cries of romance, entitled, LASCARIS: therefore it the king, officers of his household entered was agreed that the fact of the lunacy and liberated him from the grasp of the should be officially admitted, with suitable madman, who, cleverly enough for a per- expressions of regret at the loss of the inson in his situation, escaped from the palace, valuable services of such a man, and of ran to the lunatic asylum where his wife is hope that his recovery would soon enable confined, and being led to her apartment by him to render new services to the state. the doctor, fell into her arms, and said that Nay more, the better to secure and hasten the Jesuits had ruined him; that he had the complete cure of the unfortunate just had a personal encounter with the very Grand Maitre, the king resolved to grant worst of them, whom, had it not been for him a pension of fifteen thousand francs a his assistants, he would have annihilated; year, and, with his customary liberality, orbut he was overpowered. What will be-dered the council to prepare and propose a come of you, my poor wife? what will be- law to make this pension payable by the come of our children? Jesuits never for- people. give! we are all undone !' &c. &c. But a most important point remained Errant,'-'all must read the Juif Errant,' unsettled; that is to say, the immediate -for a while supplanted the customacause, and the circumstances which attend-ry greetings of every one, on meeting with ed the outburst of madness. The witnesses an acquaintance: Good morning-how do of the facts, in the first impulse of wonder you do? Such being the case among our and indignation, had been so indiscreet as neighbors, it is clear that we could not to give all the particulars, which had avoid remarking on the Juif Errant' to soon spread over Paris, on such authority, the readers of the 'Eclectic.' and with such effect, that an official denial If our limits allowed us so to do, we was considered as likely to be unsuccessful, should here claim attention to some new and even to be more injurious than the political questions arising from the facts report itself. Thanks to the wisdom evinc-admitted in Paris, and which, for aught we ed by the king, in ordering his attendants know, may soon occur here also, and ento forget all that occurred in their presence, danger, if not the person of her most graas he himself had resolved to do, though cious Majesty, at least, the existence of her they were not required to be silent, the government. We must content ourselves constitutional government was extricated with merely propounding them, in the hope from this embarrassing situation. On the that they may be taken up by some of our day after the event, twenty different and political philosophers, in want of a subject; contradictory versions were so industrious- nay, even by the author of 'Coningsby,' so ly circulated, that even the best knowing well qualified to elucidate the following began to doubt, not merely the accuracy points: of the reports, but also the truth of the fact itself, of Villemain being mad. This disposition of the public was another difficulty for the ministers, particularly at the opening of the legislative session; but fortunately, ered as a medium of government. Villemain came to their assistance, and set 3d. Romances, novels, and tales, considthe matter at rest, by jumping out of a win-ered as engines of opposition and of minisdow, without in the least injuring himself, terial revolutions. 1st. The superiority of romances, novels, and tales over history, in exhibiting the events and characters of our times. 2d. Romances, novels, and tales, consid in an attempt to escape from his ministerial 4th, and last, The superior fitness of roresidence, where, he declared, that Jesuits mance and novel writers for the governwere threatening to poison or murder him.ment of our own or any other country, on This last act of decided lunacy was at the now generally-admitted principle of exonce made known every where; and as it pediency; that is to say, of finding out exestablished that the predominant, if not the pedients in any given circumstances. only character of the mental disease, was There is no inconsistency between this hatred and fear of Jesuits, every one natu- last proposition, and the fact stated in a rally was anxious to ascertain what could preceding page, of incipient insanity being have occasioned that hatred and fear, on the proved against Villemain, by his writing part of a minister of state, who had at his and publishing Lascaris;' for, notwithdisposal the police, the gensdarmes, the standing the title and the matter of the king's attorneys, the general attorneys, the book, and the evident intention of rivaling judges and the juries of the land. This the travels of Anacharsis, by Barthelemy, anxiety was soon relieved; and the good and the journey of Anténor in Greece, by people of Paris, and of the rest of France, Lantier, the few persons who ever read the were gravely and almost officially told, that book, could never range it under any catethe reading of the Wandering Jew' had gory, except that of Livres ennuyeux;' done all the mischief. The moment this while the publisher, Ladvocat, placed it on wonderful piece of news was promulgated, the pile of unsaleable books,' where almost all the previous reports and rumors were the whole edition was found by the assignobliterated from the public mind. Ville-ees of his bankruptcy, two or three years main himself would have been completely afterwards; and sold as waste paper, with lost sight of, were it not that his madness half the edition of the Life of Cromwell, by was connected with the all-absorbing sub- the same author. ject, Le Juif Errant.' Nothing else was Villemain himself, conscious of his failspoken of. Have you read the Juif Er- ure, admitted that he was a bad hand at rant,' which disorganized the mind of our novel-writing; and, not only never thought Grand Maitre? You must read the Juif of again attempting it, but even began to VOL. VI.-No. I. 7 feel and to express contempt and aversion husbands or their parents to take an abonfor that special kind of literature; so much nement to the paper, This plan succeeded so, that being asked one day by a lady, his well enough with one (we think) la Presse, opinion of Notre Dame de Paris, he an- to induce other newspaper proprietors to swered, Je ne lis pas ces ordures! (I do follow the example; and, finally, the old not read those dirty books.) How, then, Constitutionel' itself adopted the same did it occur that the despiser of Victor Hu- course; taking care, in the mean while, to go, should have made an exception in fa- announce that the services of M. Eugene vor of Eugene Sue, and should have read Sue had been engaged, at the price of one the Juif Errant,' after his unqualified re- hundred thousand francs for a novel which probation of Notre Dame'? This must be he was then writing, and which would reguexplained. larly appear in the Feuilleton. On the Our readers are not aware of the dis- faith of this report, and judging of the value credit into which the daily press of Paris of the work, by the enormous sum said to has fallen. The inconsistency, the party have been paid for it, every reader of roprejudices, the unblushing corruption of mances subscribed to the Constitutionel,' all the newspapers, their neglect of general whose circulation was increased, it is said, interests for coterie quarrels, have so dis- by nine or ten thousand copies a day. gusted the public, that very few care about Thus it is that the Wandering Jew' them, except for the scanty news which was introduced to the Grand Maître, who, they occasionally contain. A glance at as well as all the other ministers, subscribthis part of the paper is all they condescended to all the newspapers; sometimes condeto give; and as they can see all the news-scending to look at them. After the quasipapers for nothing at the coffee-houses, or official announcement that Villemain used for one penny, at the cabinets de lecture,' to read, with deep interest, all the numbers (reading-rooms,) established in almost every street in Paris, very few persons regularly take in a paper, as annnal or even quarterly subscribers, except coffee-house or reading-room keepers. The consequence naturally has been a considerable decrease in the circulation of all the newspapers, an idea of which may be formed from the fact, that the twenty-eight thousand annual subscribers to the Constitutionel,' in 1829, had dropped down to three thousand, a few years ago; whilst, at the same time, the circulation of other newspapers did not increase. All the efforts of newspaper proprietors to raise the general circulation of their journals, literary critiques, verses, police and law reports, and even a considerable reduction in price, were of no avail. At last, one of the proprietors imagined that tales and novels might be more acceptable than his politics; that, if gentlemen were disinclined to waste their time on such reading, ladies would probably be less fastidious; and that, as they could not, without impropriety, frequent the coffee-houses or reading-rooms, to gratify their desire for startling emotions, they would induce their * In 1828, Lafitte bought one of the fifteen shares of the Constitutionel,' for Messrs. Cauchois-Lemaire, and Thiers, for which he paid 100,000 francs, (£4000,) and three years ago the whole paper was bought for £5000 sterling, by Veron, a compeer of Thiers. of the Constitutionel which contained a portion of the new novel, we know French ministerial veracity too well to express a doubt with regard to the truth of the statement, and, therefore, our readers will, if they please, take for granted that the minister studiously perused the work, and that the work upset the understanding of the minister. We should think that many other brains have been similarly affected, by the same cause, and perhaps all the cases will soon he publicly reported, to add to the triumph of the author, and to the circulation of the Constitutionel. Eugene Sue is one of the most prolific of French novel writers. The Female Bluebeard,' the Godolphin Arab,' 'Mathilde,'' the Mysteries of Paris,' and, we believe, three or four other works of the same sort in three, four, or five volumes each, had prepared the public for the present performance, which reproduces, in their worst features, the extravagance, the licentiousness, the ignorance, the absurdity, and the horrors of the thirty or forty preceding volumes, from the same pen, and of twenty times as many volumes from other purveyors for the depraved appetites of French readers, who, we regret to say, are principally women of the upper classes, and milliners known as grisettes. We cannot describe the plan of the author, for now-a-days, particularly in France, authors dispense with plans. Plans have lasted their time.' (Les plans ont fait leur different way. The man to whom the money temps,) as the high priest of the Doctrine had been entrusted, Isaac Samuel, and after says of all the moral, political and religious him his descendants, were requested to unprinciples, which are incompatible with dertake the management of this sum, and doctrinarian science. Plans are obsolete, of the capitalized interest, until the expiraridiculous, rococo. Without plan, one is tion of the one hundred and fiftieth year, free to write what he pleases, and as he commencing from the day of the nobleman's pleases. Imagination may run wild, in- death. At that period, that is to say, on the stead of being shut up in the narrow limits 13th of February, 1832, before noon, the of order and taste, of the methodus ordo. existing members of his family were to apFor the same reason there is not merely a pear in person at a certain house, Rue St. plot, there are as many plots as may be Francis, to witness the opening of the will; suggested to the author, in the course of his and those who should be present were to performance, by any new object, fact, or share equally in the accumulated treasure. impression which may affect his mind. Thus every thing can be made available for the purpose of diversity. The whole world, and every part of it successively, may be made the theatre of one scene, and all without connection or dependence. Coherence would be a damning defect in modern works of fiction. Modern genius, in one word, consists in making, if we can use the expression, literary kaleidoscopes, in which epochs, events, countries, institutions, manners, and personages are so congregated, confused, distorted, and wheeled round, that nobody can say of what he sees, either what it is, or what it is not. Such is pre-eminently the character of the Wandering Jew.' The object of M. de Rennepont, whose family had been so cruelly persecuted by the Jesuits, is explained in the will in the following terms: 'If an evil association, based on human degradation, fear, and despotism, and followed by the curses of mankind, has survived for ages, and frequently governed the world by fraud and terror, what might not be expected from one proceeding on brotherly affection, or evangelical love, and having no other end than to free both man and woman from every degrading bondage; administering here below to the happiness of those who have never known aught but grief and misery: ennobling and enriching wholesome labor; enlightening those who are in the darkness The real beginning of the work takes of ignorance; promoting the free expansion place in the third volume, chap. Ixviii and of all those feelings which God, in his inİxxvii. In 1682, a certain Marius de Renne- finite wisdom, in his inexhaustible bounty pont, a French nobleman, one of the most has bestowed on man, as so many powerful active and determined leaders of the re- levers, to sanctify all that emanates from the formed religion, pretended to abjure protest- Almighty,-love as well as maternal soliciantism, in order to preserve his immense tude,-power as well as knowledge, -beauty property, and so leave it to his only son, then as well as wisdom;-rendering, in short, all a young man of eighteen years of age, who men truly pious and profoundly grateful to however remained faithful to his creed, and their Creator, for giving them a knowledge 'died a victim to a mysterious crime.' The of the splendors of nature, and their mefather could no longer submit to a deception rited share of the treasures which he has repugnant to his religious feelings; he was showered down upon us? Oh! that it watched, accused, and condemned as a re- would please heaven, in a century and a lapsed heretic; he was sentenced to the half, that the descendants of my family, galleys. Rather than submit to this degra- faithful to the last wishes of one who is a dation, slavery and wretchedness, he re- friend to humanity, may thus be gathered solved to put an end to his own existence, together in one holy community! If heaven and, before accomplishing his design, made grants that among those who may then meet, his will. A sum of fifty thousand crowns, there be charitable spirits overflowing with which he had entrusted to a friend, was all pity for those who are suffering-generous that remained of his fortune. These fifty souls who are friendly to freedom-warm thousand crowns, divided amongst his re- and eloquent hearts-firm characters-wolatives, then exiled and dispersed through- men uniting wisdom and freedom with out Europe, in consequence of the revoca- beauty-how fruitful and powerful would tion of the edict of Nantes, would have be the harmonious junction of all these been very little for each, he therefore de-ideas, of all these influences, of all these termined to dispose of his property in a powers, of all these attractions, grouped just decrees already issued against the members of the reformed church, those indomitable foes of our holy religion. around this regal fortune, which, con- [cation of the edict of Nantes, went into voluncentrated by union and wisely governed,ary exile, in order to avoid the rigorous and might render practicable the most utopian schemes! What a wonderful concentration of generous and fertile thoughts; what salutary and vivifying rays would constantly go forth from such a centre of charity, of freedom, and of love! What grand things might be attempted; what magnificent -;' but we must stop, though we have hardly arrived at the middle of the paragraph, which is followed by many others equally magniloquent. 'Some members of this family sought refuge in Holland, and afterwards in the Dutch colonies; others in Poland and Germany; some in England, and soine in America. It is supposed that only seven descendants remain of this family, who have undergone strange vicissitudes. Its in all ranks of society, from the sovereign to present representatives are found the mechanic. These descendants, direct or indirect, are: on the mother's side: In this literal translation our object is to 'Rose and Blanch Simon; under age. (Gegive, as much as is in our power, an accu-neral Simon married at Warsaw a descendant rate idea of the mind of Eugène Sue, and of the said family.) of his style; we confess that we are much beneath our original; perhaps the British language does not lend itself to the reproduction of the beauties of French romant-scendant of the aforesaid family, then settled at ism. 'M. Francis Hardy, manufacturer at Plessis, near Paris. 'Prince Djalma, son of Kadja Sing, King of Mondi. (Kadja Sing married, in 1802, a de Batavia, in the island of Java, a Dutch colony. 'On the father's side: 'James Rennepont, mechanic. Rennepont, Duke of Cardoville. 'Adrienne de Cardoville, daughter of Count 'Gabriel Rennepont, priest of the foreign missions. 'On one side: 'Victim In 1832, the capital and accumulated interests of the fifty thousand crowns, according to the accounts regularly kept, balanced and given by M. Sue, in the seventy-second chapter, entitled, Debit and Credit, amounted to two hundred and All the members of the family possess, or twelve millions one hundred and seventy-should possess, a bronze medal, bearing the five thousand francs. The grandson of following inscriptions: the first depositor, now an old man of eighty-two, had for above fifty years continued and extended the operations begun by his father and grandfather, while at the same time he fulfilled the humble functions of concièrge of the old house in St. Francis street, where all the documents and the will were deposited. Samuel, the good old man, and his wife Bathsheba, anxiously awaited the coming of the 13th of February, and of the legitimate claimants to the property, who were dispersed all over the world. But the Jesuits, who are everywhere, and know everything, not only had discovered of L. C. D. I. 13th February, 1682,' 'On the other side: 'At Paris, No. 3, Francis street, The 13th February, 1832. Pray for me.' 'These words and dates show that all of that an enormous amount of property was them have a great interest to be in Paris on on the point of being divided among the the 13th of February, 1832, and not by proxy, descendants of the relatives of their vic-but in person, whether they be of age or mitims, but also had resolved to become possessors of it. They were acquainted with all the particulars of the will of M. Marius de Rennepont; nay, even more, they had traced out all the parties having a claim to the property, notwithstanding the long time that had elapsed, and the perigrinations and vicissitudes they had been subjected to. Thus we find (chap. xvi.) the superior agent of the Jesuits in Paris, receiving the following communication: 'A hundred and fifty years ago, a French protestant family, foreseeing the speedy revo nors, married or single; but other persons have an equal interest that none of the descendants of the family be at Paris on that day, except Gabriel Renne pont, priest of the foreign missions. At all hazards, therefore, Gabriel must be the only person present at the rendezvous appointed to the descendants of the family, a century and a half ago. To prevent the six other persons from reaching Paris on that day, has been already done; but much more reor to render their presence of no effect, much mains to be done to ensure the success of the affair, which is considered as the most vital and most important of the age, on account of its probable results.' |