"Journal des Débats." From this position he was removed after the Restoration, and throwing himself with heart and soul into the "Minérve Française," produced by his "Lettres sur Paris," a prompt and prodigious success.

99 66

ment, of the attorney-general. In this he was successful, as was proved by the arrêt, or decision of the Cour Royale, and the triumph redounded to the credit of the advocate, while it greatly tended to increase the circulation of the paper. From It was soon after these letters had been col- the period of the Revolution of 1830, however, the lected in a volume, and had gone through several "Constitutionnel" began to decline, and in 1843, editions, that Etienne became a shareholder in the three years ago, it had but 3500 abonnés. In "Constitutionnel." His lively and piquant articles, changing hands in 1844, the new proprietors refull of strength and spirit, soon contributed to raise duced the price of the journal one half, i. e., from the paper. These efforts, so every way useful to 80 to 40 francs, while they raised the remunerathe liberal cause, had fixed public attention on tion for the feuilleton from 150 to 500 francs. In the most successful writer on that side of the ques-consequence of this judicious liberality, the most tion, and on a man who joined to this renown the popular writers of Paris contributed to its columns. additional merit of being the author of some of the From the 1st of April, 1845, Alexandre Dumas very best comedies in the French language; such, bound himself to produce_only eighteen volumes for instance, as the "Deux Gendres," the "Intri- in the year-nine in the "Presse," and nine in the guante, Une Heure de Mariage,' ""Jeannot et Constitutionnel;" and Eugene Sue has also lent Collin," &c. &c. The department of the Meuse his exclusive coöperation to the "Constitutionnel" selected him, therefore, in 1820, as one of its dep- for a period of fourteen years, for which he is to uties; and from that period to 1830, he continued receive an immense sum. "La Dame de Monseto figure as one of the firmest and steadiest defend-reau," by Dumas, and "Les Sept Pechés Capiers of the liberties secured by the charter. M. taux," by Eugene Sue, have both had an immense Etienne displayed at the tribune the spirit and taste success. The Constitutionnel" has agreed to with which his literary productions are imbued. give Eugene Sue 10,000 francs a volume, to take Some of his discourses produced a prodigious effect him from the " Presse ;" and Dumas receives a sum on the public mind, and his general political con- very nearly equal. There are half a dozen other duct procured for him the warm friendship and novels at this moment in publication in the columns esteem of Manuel, who frequently contributed to of this journal; among others, the "Cabinet Noir," the "Constitutionnel." Within three years after by Charles Rabou; and the subscribers are to rethis period, Manuel rendered him a signal service,ceive (gratis) all that has appeared in what they in introducing to his notice a young and unknown call their "Bibliotheque Choisie." writer, who within ten years was destined to be a minister of France. This was none other than Louis Adolphe Thiers, who had then just published, in conjunction with Felix Bodin, the two first volumes of his "Histoire de la Révolution Française.' M. Etienne, with the sagacity of a practised man of the world, saw from the first the talent of his young contributor, and at once opened to him the columns of the "Constitutionnel." The articles of Thiers bore the impress of that clearness and logical vigor, of that liveliness and lucidity of Constitutionnel" consists of twenty columns, of style, which constitute his greatest charm. For which five are devoted to advertisements. The six years Thiers continued to write in the "Con- price in Paris is 40 francs a year, and the number stitutionnel;" and it was not until August, 1829, of abonnés is 24,000-a number equal to the when he founded the "National," in conjunction" Presse," but falling far below that of the "Sièwith the late Armand Carrel, of which Thiers was cle," which is said to possess 42,000. rédacteur en chef, that he abandoned the small The "Courrier Français" is one of the oldest of room in the first floor of the Rue Montmartre, No. the Parisian papers, but it has undergone many 121, in which we have often sat in the last days of transformations of late. In 1827-28-29, it sup1828, when Etienne conducted the paper, and in ported the same cause as the "Constitutionnel," which very chamber our last visit was paid to M. with greater spirit, if not with equal talent. Merruau at present, rédacteur en chef-in the When the "Constitutionnel" had become rather month of April, 1846. During the period of indifferent or lukewarm towards those principles Thiers' collaboration, his friend and countryman, with which its fortunes originated, the "Courrier Mignet, occasionally wrote articles, distinguished Français," though poor in respect to fortune, as by neatness of style and correctness of view. Dur- compared with the Constitutionnel," was foreing the Villêle administration, the "Constitution- most boldly to attack the ministers, and to defy nel" may be said to have attained its highest pros- persecution, imprisonment, and pecuniary punishperity. It then numbered nearly 30,000 subscri- ment, whilst the "Constitutionnel," like those bers, and existed on the cry of "à bas les Jesu- individuals who have amassed immense wealth, ites!" The "Constitutionnel" of those days had no acted a more prudent part, and was content to Roman feuilleton, and lived altogether on its reputa-appear as a safe auxiliary. The principal editor tion as a political paper. Many were the prosecu- at the period of which we speak, was Bentions which this journal had to undergo; but the jamin Constant. His articles were remarkable most celebrated, perhaps, was that in which its arti- for a fine and delicate spirit of observation, for a cles were accused of "a tendency to bring the reli- finesse and irony which, in saying the bitterest gion of the state into contempt." It was on the oc- things, never transgressed the bounds of good casion of this suit, that M. Dupin, the friend and breeding. The charm of his style, too, was most counsel of M. Etienne, shut himself up for a month attractive. Shortly before the Revolution of July in his study to read theology, in order to be enabled broke out, Constant had undergone a severe surgical to tear to tatters the "acte d'accusation," or indict-operation, and had retired from Paris into the

In the political department, the "Constitutionnel" has now first-rate assistance. De Remusat, ex-minister, Duvergier d'Hauranne, one of the most enlightened deputies of the Chamber, and M. Thiers, often lend their able aid. The editor of the "Constitutionnel" is M. Merruau, an able political writer, and a gentleman of the blandest and most winning manners. It was Merruau who reviewed the "History of the Consulate and the Empire," by Thiers, in the "Constitutionnel." The

country; Lafayette wrote to him in these words- and he endeavors to compass his ends by all and "Il se joue ici un jeu terrible: nos têtes servent every means: to-day by flattering the aristocracy; d'en jeu; apportez la votre." Constant at once came and had an interview with the monarch now on the throne, who made to him certain propositions, to which Constant replied, "Je veux rester independant, et si votre gouvernement fait des fautes je serai le premier à rallier l'opposition.' The faults of the new government hastened his death. He expired within a few months, almost despairing of the liberties of his country. Though the "Courrier Français" was, from 1825 to 1830, supported by the eloquent pens of Constant, Villemain, Cauchois, Lemaire, and Mignet who was at one period its editor, yet it never, in these days, numbered above 5000 abonnés. There is no more practical truth in literature than that no amount of good writing will raise the fortunes of a falling newspaper. To write up a failing literary enterprise is a task for the pen of angels, and is almost beyond the power of mortal man. After the death of Constant there were many editors, among others, Leon Faucher, original editor of the "Temps"a paper founded by an homme à projets, named Jaques Coste, originally a cooper at Bordeaux, and subsequently one of the editors of the "Constitutionnel." This gentleman, who is an able, pains-taking, and well informed man, and who has recently made himself more advantageously known by a work called "Etudes sur l'Angleterre," continued at the "Courrier" till the end of 1842. Under him it represented the Gauche, and he had the merit of operating a fusion with the Centre Gauche; but notwithstanding this fact, and the occasional appearance of good articles, the fortunes of the "Courrier" did not improve. A change in the distribution of parts was next tried. M. Adolphe Boule was named directeur of the journal; M. E. de Reims sécrétaire du comité du Centre Gauche, rédacteur en chef, with M. Eugene Guinot as feuilletoniste, but this combination was no more successful than all previous ones. Sometime at the latter end of November, or the beginning of December, the "Courrier" was sold, and it is now conducted by M. Xavier Durrieu, by M. de Limerac, and by M. Du Coing, the defender of Rosas. The circulation is not more than 3000 or 4000.

The Gazette de France," as we stated at the beginning of this article, is one of the oldest newspapers in France. Under Villêle and Peyronnet, in 1827 and 1828, it was converted into an evening paper, and substituted for the "Etoile." It was then the organ of the Jesuitical party, and expressed in all its hideous nakedness the frenzy of the most fanatical ultraism. It had in 1827 no support whatever from private subscribers, but drew all its resources from the treasury, where it had powerful and influential friends. The Bishop of Hermopolis-Count Frassynous-at that period minister of worship and of public instruction, was one of its most able and influential supporters M. de Genoude, then a married man, now an abbé and a priest, was the theatrical critic, and M. Benabin, formerly of the "Etoile," his associate. Genoude having since become a widower, entered holy orders, and is now a mundane abbé, so devoured by ambition, that he looks to the cardinalate. Though a regular priest, Genoude is a thorough Jesuit at heart, and we verily believe neither honest nor sincere as a priest or a politician. Like Henry of Exeter, his great object is personal advancement,

We are indebted for these details concerning our lamented friend to Monsieur J. P. Pagès.

and to-morrow, by pandering to the lowest tastes of the lowest rabble. De Genoude pretends to write under the inspiration of M. de Villêle, who lives at Toulouse, altogether retired from public life, but it may be well doubted whether so able a man would commit himself in any way with such a charlatan. It would be unjust not to admit that there are occasionally (there were the contributions of Colnet, from 1836 to 1837) good articles in the Gazette; but, on the other hand, it must be averred that it is generally an unreadable paper, unless to such as are strongly tinged with a Carlist or priestly bias. The great writer and chief support of the "Gazette de France"-Colnet-died of cholera, in May, 1832. The last time we spent a day in his company, was in September, 1831. We had just returned from Russia, where the cholera was raging furiously, and well remember his making many inquiries as to the progress of the complaint, which had then reached Germany, and which he predicted would soon rage in France. Within four months afterwards, it had reached France, and within seven, poor Colnet was a victim to it. Colnet was born a noble, being the son of a garde-du-corps who distinguished himself at the battle of Fontenoy. His first studies were made at the Military College of Brie, then at the Military College of Paris, where Bonaparte and Bertrand were his fellow-students and associates. Neither his taste nor his feeble health allowing him to enter the army, he studied medicine under Cabanis and Corvisart, but expelled from the capital, in 1793, as a noble, he passed more than two years in solitude at Chauny, at the house of a poor apothecary. Returning to Paris in 1795, he established himself as a bookseller at the corner of the Rue du Bac, opposite the Port Royale. He was so prosperous in this enterprise, that in 1805 he was enabled to establish a second shop in the Quai Malaquais. Here, in a little room which he called his caverne, he assembled around him some able writers, a majority of whom were hostile to the imperial government. These half dozen men were deemed so formidable, that Fouché tried every means to silence or bribe the chief. But Colnet was as inflexible as incorruptible. During fifteen years, i. e., from 1816 to 1831, he labored at the "Gazette de France," signing all his articles with his name; and it may be truly said, that nine out of every ten readers only took up the journal to read Colnet. His lively and learned attacks against the apocryphal memoirs in vogue about twenty years ago, which he exposed with the hand of a master, induced the Minister of the Interior, Count Corbière, to thank him in a friendly and flattering letter. But we order these things differently in England. A man might now write with the eloquence of Burke, the wisdom of Plato and Socrates, and the wit of Sheridan, and neither the Peels, nor the Gladstones, nor the Goulburns, nor any of the mediocre fry whom we in our besotted ignorance call statesmen, would take the least notice of him. It was not always so. The minister Wyndham, within the memory of living men, wrote to that racy writer of pure Saxon, Cobbett, thanking him for his aid, and saying that he deserved a statue of gold. By the means of translations and open plagiarisms from Colnet, a late Right Hon. Secretary of the admiralty and great Quarterly Reviewer, obtained the praise of being a good French scholar and historian. The staple of most of the articles on French literature and

7

memoirs, published about ten or twelve years ago a member of the Polignac administration, frein the Quarterly," was contraband, stolen from quently wrote in it; and one of the recognized Colnet, and smuggled into the Review as though editors at this period was the founder of the jourit were native produce. There was not a critic in nal, Joseph Michaud, author of the "History of England to detect or expose this plagiarism, or to the Crusades." M. Merle used to write the prove to our countrymen that there was scarcely an theatrical, and M. Balzac the feuilletons; but original thought in the articles, all being borrowed of late, this latter person has ceased to write. or literally translated from the French. The igno- The circulation of the "Quotidienne" is under rance of France and of French literature in Eng-4000. land is astonishing. With the exception of Mr. Crowe, recently foreign editor of the "Morning Chronicle," we do not believe there is a single man at the press of England well informed on France and French literature.

We are now about to speak of a remarkable man and a remarkable journal-the man, the late Armand Carrel-the journal, the "National." Carrel was born at Rouen, in 1800, of a legitimist family. From his earliest youth, though his family were all engaged in commerce, he exhibited a predominant passion for the military profession, and was entered of the college of St. Cyr. While a sous-lieutenant of the 29th regiment of the line, in garrison at Béfort, he took an active part in the conspiracy of 1821, which failed miserably. He was not either discovered or denounced, and proceeded with his regiment to Marseilles.

Under the ministry of Villêle, Genoude was made a Conseiller d'Etat. He then placed the prefix to his name, and obtained, although son of a limonadier of Grenoble, letters of nobility. Now it suits M. de Genoude to demand assemblées primaires-or a general council of the nation-in the hope the vain hope that the people would call back the elder branch of the Bourbons. This cry has failed to cause any fusion of ultra-royalists and republicans. The people well know that Genoude The war of 1824 had just broken out in Spain, and his party are not sincere, and that he and they when, impelled by a love of adventure, he resigned only clamor for universal suffrage, under the im- the military service of his country, embarked on pression that power would be transferred from the board a fishing-boat at Marseilles for Barcelona, bourgeoisie to the grands and petits seigneurs and and entered the French regiment of Napoleon the their dependents. M. Lourdoueix, formerly an Second. This foreign legion, after much adverse ex chef des Belles Lettres in the Ministry of the fortune, capitulated to the French troops. The Interior, is supposed to write many of the articles capitulation included the French as well as the conceived in this spirit. He is undoubtedly a Spanish soldiers. They were, nevertheless, man of talent, but, to use a vulgar phrase, he has thrown into prison, and ultimately dragged before brought his talent to a wrong market. Theatres a council of war. Carrel was tried and acquitted. are supposed to be reviewed by M. de la Forest, But this affair put an end to all hope of preferment and a few years ago the place of Colnet was in the army, or, indeed, to a military career, and filled-though his loss was not supplied-by Carrel thought of studying the law. But he was another bookseller, M. Bossange, author of a the-not a Bachelor of Arts, or, as the French say, a atrical piece.

Bachelor in Letters, and the law, too, he was M. de Nettement, son of the late consul-general obliged to renounce. He became the secretary of of France in London, frequently writes in the a distinguished historian, and in this way it was "Gazette de France," and also in the "Corsaire that his literary and political labors commenced. Satan," another paper of M. Genoude. The cir- He wrote a resumé of the Histories of Scotland culation of the "Gazette de France" has dimin- and Modern Greece for the booksellers; and variished within the last year. It had, a couple of ous articles in the "Revue Americaine," the years ago, about 1500 subscribers in Paris, and Constitutionnel," the "Globe," the "Revue about 4000 in the provinces, but now the abonnés Française," and the “ Producteur." In 1827, he in Paris are scarcely a thousand, and it is said not published, in his twenty-seventh year, his "Histo have 3000 in the provinces. The legitimist toire de la contre Révolution en Angleterre," a press is reported to have lost 4000 subscribers work of sterling merit, and was rising into the since the feuilletons of Alexandre Dumas, and of first eminence as author and journalist, when, in that lively writer, Theophile Gautier, have been 1829, Jules de Polignac was called from the emadmitted into it. Both these gentlemen are bassy of London, to fill the place of president of liberals, and your true Carlist, too much like some the council of ministers in France. Carrel's eager of the same breed among ourselves, would scornmind, weary of what appeared to him the languor to be instructed, and will not deign to be even and indifference of the other journals, conceived entertained by the most amusing liberal in Chris- the idea of founding the "National." He comtendom. municated his intention to Thiers and Mignet. It The "Quotidienne" was a most furiously big-was agreed that they should each in turn take the oted high church paper in the days of Villêle, and place of rédacteur-en-chef for a year. Thiers, as it is so still. It detests the very name of the revo-the eldest of the three, was first installed, and conlution, and abhors the memory of all those who remained in France during its progress. In 1827 and 1828, the "Quotidienne" was written in a most obsolete and barbarous style, by young seminarists, who had never seen the world, and who were taught to admire the ages of monks and inquisitors. During the Martignac administration, the "Quotidienne" was enthusiastically supported by the pure Ultras, at the head of whom were La Bourdonnaye, Delalot, and Hyde de Neuville. M. de la Bourdonnaye, then the leader of the centre opposition, and afterwards, for a short period,

ducted the paper with energy and spirit till the revolution of 1830 broke out. From the first the "National" set out with the idea that the dynasty was incorrigible, and that it was necessary to change it. The leading principle of the journal was Orleanism, yet at this period Thiers had never seen the Duke of Orleans, now Louis-Philippe.* The effect produced by the refusal of a budget, and the refusal to pay taxes, was immense-a

*He has stated this in his last famous speech, in the month of March, in the chamber of deputies.

refusal owing altogether to the spirited counsels and articles of the "National." The crisis and the coup d'état of the incapable ministry were hastened, if not produced, by this journal.

al,"

and manly eloquence-the eloquence of feeling, not of phrases or of words-and a political writer of the very highest order. There was a simplicity, a clearness, a firmness, and a noble colorOn the 26th of July, 1830, the editors behaved ing and grandeur in all he said and in all he wrote, nobly. At the office of the "National" it was, for he was a man of heart and conviction, simple, that the famous protest was drawn up and signed, sincere, and straightforward. The two greatest which proclaimed the right, and exhibited the geniuses of France-representing the poetry and example, of resistance. The authors of this prose of our epoch-followed him to the tomb. remarkable document were Thiers and Rémusat-His friends Béranger and Chateaubriand wept both afterwards ministers-and Cauchois Lemaire, over his mangled remains, and have recorded-the a journalist and man of letters. To issue such a one in undying verse, the other in imperishable document was to put one's head in peril; yet it prose-their deep and mournful sense of the loss was signed, and speedily, too, by the soldiers of which France sustained in his premature and the pen. On the following day the office of the melancholy end. Carrel was tall and handsome, paper was surrounded by the police, aided by an with a countenance sicklied over with the pale cast armed force, and there the presses of the journal of thought. His air was chivalrous, and that of a were broken, Thiers and Carrel protesting against soldier, but his manners were somewhat haughty this illegal violence. It was Carrel's turn, after and stern. His habits and tastes were what would the revolution had been happily accomplished, to be called aristocratic, and he was no lover of take the conduct of the paper, for Thiers and Mig- equality or of communism. He had engaged, a net had both received employments in the new few months before his death, to write the life of government. Ably for some time did he fulfil his Napoleon, and had he lived he would have protask, till public opinion pointed him out as the duced a work worthy of the subject-worthy of fittest person to be sent on a pacific mission to the himself. It was so arranged, also, that if he had insurgent west. On his return from this mission been spared a month longer, the chamber would he was named Prefect du Cantal, and also offered have resounded with his earnest and eloquent promotion in the army; but he rejected both voice, but the hopes of his friends and his country offers, and resumed the editorship of the "Nation- concerning him were soon to be forever blighted. now the firmest as well as the ablest organ Since the death of Carrel the "National" has been of the democracy. In the columns of the journal, conducted with much less talent, and with a total which he conducted with such surpassing ability, absence of judgment. It has ever remained a pure he never concealed or mitigated his radical and republican paper, and conscientiously so; but it is republican tendencies. His idea of a supreme possible to be purely republican without_sowing magistrate was, that he should be elective and noxious national hatred, or seeking to set Englishresponsible; that the second chamber should be men and Frenchmen by the ears, as it now does elective, and the press inviolable. Political re-designedly, and with malice prepense. We desire forms were, in his opinion, the only sure logical a good intelligence with all the world, but a and legitimate mode of producing social reforms. friendly, a kindly intelligence with France. "The To the arbitrary and high-handed ministry of Douglas and the Percy both together" are more Périer he opposed a vigorous resistance. When than a match for all the other nations of the earth. the rich banker, merchant, manufacturer, and min- The "National" now reflects the opinions of a ister, who had all the arrogance of a nouveau portion of the French working classes, but it has riche, and all the insolence of a vieux talon rouge, not above 3000 or 4000 abonnés. In 1836, before wished to proceed to extremities against the press, Carrel was killed, it had 4300 abonnés. But Carrel said, in the "National," "that every though the number of subscribers was then small, writer, with a proper sense of the dignity of a the influence of the journal was immense. This citizen, would oppose the law to illegality, and is no uncommon thing in France. The "Globe," force to force-that being a sacred duty, come under the restoration, though far from having so what might." The minister hesitated in his many subscribers as the Constitutionnel," had plans, and Carrel remained victor. The mascu- much more influence-influence not merely upon line breadth of Carrel's style-his bold, brave, and the men, but upon the ideas of the epoch. A defiant tone-which, to use the graphic descrip-journal may have a great and wide publicity, withtion of his friend, M. de Cormenin, "semblait out a great many subscribers. The publicity of sonner du clairon et monter à l'assaut," procured the "Reforme" and the "National" is as real and him many enemies; and there were not wanting as great as the publicity of the "Siècle" and the those who speculated to rise in life, by coming" Presse." They may have less abonnés, but into personal encounter with a man so formidable, they have as many readers. It were a great misand filling so large a space in the public eye. take to suppose that the numbers of a French Just, generous, disinterested, Carrel was intrepid journal subscribed for, or sold, is any test of the as a lion-chivalrous, and, like all noble natures, number of its readers. The Débats," for insomewhat touchy on the point of honor; prompt stance, has about 9000 subscribers, and probably to take offence, yet forgetful of injuries. He be-not above 20,000 readers, i. e., two and a fraction came engaged in a miserable quarrel or squabble, to each paper, whereas, the " National," with which was not his, and this remarkable man, and only 4000 abonnés, probably has 24,000 readers, most eminent writer-to the irresistible ascendancy or six to each paper. of whose character all who came in contact with Every Frenchman, high or low, is more or less him bowed down-was shot, in 1836, by the of a politician, and therefore newspapers are in hand of M. Emile Girardin, the editor of "La greater number, and circulate through infinitely Presse." more hands than in England. This is true of the Thus perished, in his thirty-sixth year, the dearest among them, the organ of every governfounder-the creator-the life and soul of the ment, the "Débats ;" but it is true in a ten-fold "National”—a person of rare courage-of a bold | degree, of a paper appealing to popular style, and

advocating doctrines which obtain a ready acqui- | Eighteenth the night of his departure for Ghent, escence and favor among the working classes. In and who received in recompense of his loyal tears, every cabinet de lecture-in every restaurant-in at the period of the second Restoration, as a gift every café-in every gargote-in every guinguette from the king, a place which he afterwards sold to -on the counter of every marchand de vin-in the Jew advocate, Crimeux, for 300,000f.-no every workshop where ouvriers are congregated-wonder that they call this patriotic recipient and such a paper is to be found. In the workshop it dispenser of good fat sinecures," orateur eminent, is read aloud by some one workman, pro bono homme politique considerable." If a pompous publico-in the restaurant, the café, the gargote, and prophetic tone, a magisterial and solemn air, and the guinguette, it is eagerly passed from hand and common-place ideas and sentiments, suffice to to hand. Though, therefore, it may be admitted make an eminent orator, and the postponing of that the "Débats" has more abonnés than the electoral reform till liberty is secured by the erecNational," and makes more money, yet the tion of the enceinte continuée, a considerable politi"National" makes more converts, for its senti- cian-what an anti-climax!-then is Odillon Barments are diffused more widely and take deeper rot an eminent orator and a considerable politician. root. La Roche and Marrast, formerly of the The Siècle" has not enlarged its size. It con"Tribune," conducted the "National" subse- sists of twelve columns, exclusive of advertisequently to the death of Carrel. It is now, we ments, and is about eighteen inches long, and believe, conducted by Bastide and Thomas. twelve and a half broad. The feuilleton consists of six columns, and is much better written than any other portion of the paper. Alphonse Karr, the author of the "Guèpes," is one of the principal contributors, and Frederic Soulié has sold his pen as a feuilletoniste for six years to the "Siècle" and the" Presse" conjointly. The "Siècle" has always appeared to us a dull paper-probably it is necessary that the writers should level themselves down to the intellect of the genre epicierand indifferently written. The review of Thiers' History, which made some noise, was by Chambolle, the editor, as the review in the "Constitutionnel" was written by Merruau, the friend of Thiers. But a far more correct, comprehensive, copious and fairer review of this work, appeared just after its publication, in No. 69 of the "Foreign Quarterly Review," published in the month of April, last year.

The "Siècle" is a paper which, though established within the last eleven years, has a greater circulation than any journal in Paris. This is owing partly to its having been the first journal to start at the price of forty francs a year, at a period when every other journal was published at a cost of from seventy to eighty francs; partly to its being published under the auspices of the deputies of the constitutional opposition-and partly to its being what the "Constitutionnel" was, from 1820 to 1825, the journal of the shop-keepers and epiciers. Since it started into being, every journal in Paris, with the exception of the "Débats," has lowered its price, and all of them have enlarged their form; but these mutations and transformations have not injured the "Siècle," because it represents the opinion of the majority-the opinion, in a word, of la petite bourgeoisie-the small shopkeepers in cities and towns, and the proletaires throughout the country. The "Siècle" is said to have 42,000 abonnés, and the shares of 200 francs, which have always borne an interest, have been nearly reimbursed to the proprietors, and are now worth five or six times their original cost. Ten years ago there were only two journals which paid, as a literary and commercial speculation; these were the Gazette des Tribunaux" and the "Constitutionnel;" but now the "Siècle" and the "Presse" are the most successful as commercial speculations. To show the vicissitudes of newspaper property in France, it may be here stated, that in 1839 the "Presse" was sold for 1200 francs, but in 1841, two years afterwards, it was worth a million to its new proprietors.

|

We are now to speak of the oldest of the new order of journals-we mean "La Presse." This paper was founded in June, 1836, by M. Emile de Girardin, said to be a natural son of the Count Alexander, or his brother, Stanislas Girardin, by an English mother. The revolution of 1830 saw Emile de Girardin an Inspector des Beaux Arts. Shortly after that event, he became the editor of the "Journal des Connaissances Utiles," of the "Panthéon Littéraire," of the "Musée de Familles," and of the " Voleur;" but all these journals died in quick succession. He then published a book called "Emile," which had no great success.

This is certainly no proof of want of talent, or, at best, but negative proof, while it affords positive evidence of no common energy, and very great

The editor of the "Siècle" is M. A. Cham-industry. As M. Girardin had no fortune, and bolle, a member of the chamber; and M. Gustave had married the pretty Delphine Gay, (daughter Beaumont, the author of a work on Ireland, forms of Sophie Gay,) who had nothing but her pen and a portion of the conseil de rédaction. The pains- poetry, it was necessary he should do something taking and laborious Leon Faucher also writes in to create an existence, or a name and an existence, the political department. That very dull, com- if that were possible. Conjointly, then, with an mon-place, pompous, overrated man, Odillon Bar-homme à projets, one M. Boutmey, who had inrot, to whose family comprising brothers, brothers- vented a machine called paracrotte, or mud-dein-law, uncles, and nephews, the revolution has fender, which was to be attached to the heels of given 110,000f. a year, and concessions of land in pedestrians, and another instrument, called a phyAfrica, valued at 42,000f. a year, is the object of siortype, the ingenious Emile launched on the the "Siècle's" idolatry. This is not to be won- waters of the Seine, the project of the "Presse." dered at. Ferdinand Barrot, brother of Odillon, a As the journal was larger and cheaper than all writer, and a share-holder in and supporter of the other French journals-as it was a joint-stock "Siècle," received 24,000f. as avocat du Trésor; company on a new plan, as applied to newspapers and on the first of May, in the past year, one ofas, in a word, there was a garish, slap-dash the editors of the "Siècle" obtained the decoration of the Legion of Honor. No wonder, then, that the writers in this journal call the ex Volontaire Royal, who wept over the boots of Louis the

flourish, and melodramatic charlatanism about the thing, and a certain varnish of cleverness, shrewdness, modest assurance, novelty, and rouérie-the prospectus took; the shares went off briskly; and,