openly on politics; but in speaking of the polished, perfumed, polite, satirical, witty, prose and poetry of Boileau and Racine instructed, writing paragraphs à la Pompaand Fontenelle, the ingenious writers gen- dour, and articles à l'ancien regime. But erally insinuated, as it were, 'par paren- this veteran of Versailles had such a varthèse,' a word or two on great questions of nish of finesse d'esprit, that his collaborastate, by which their political opinions were tion was of the greatest advantage. Delarather suggested than expressed. Thus lot subsequently became an eminent memwas Literature the wicket by which they ber of the Chamber of Deputies. Hoffinan, entered into this vast and fertile domain, a German by birth, was distinguished by a which they subsequently made their own in light, agreeable, transparent style, emifee. Bonaparte would not at this period nently French. He was a man of real have tolerated an opposition to his govern- depth and learning, and who gloried in the ment and policy, though he allowed an op- position of a public writer-a condition of position to his literary opinions-to his existence he would not have changed with ideas of tragedy and of a perfect epic. kings or emperors. Distinguished by a When he drove Mde. de Stael from France, love of labor and of letters, he wrote with that woman, of a genius so masculine and extreme facility, and could make the very profound-of feelings so deep and impas- essence of a book his own in a shorter time sioned the illustrious authoress of Co- than any man of his day. He left behind rinne' was sustained and comforted by the him a noble library, within the four corners support of the 'Débats.' Chateaubriand, of whose walls he spent the happiest days of too, was understood, sustained, and de- his existence. fended, in the Journal de l'Empire,' at a

Hoffman became connected with the period when Bonaparte would allow no su-Journal des Débats,' then called, as we periority but his own, and it is now a well- before remarked, the 'Journal de l'Empire,' known fact that the proof sheets of Atala in 1805. The connexion was promoted and René' were corrected by the friendly, conscientious, and critical hand of the elder Bertin.

He had a hatred of coteries and

and facilitated by his friend Etienne, formerly secretary of the Duke of Bassano, and who was named by the emperor, 'CenThe history of the 'Journal des Débats,' seur du Journal de l'Empire.' Hoffman therefore, naturally divides itself into two was possessed of rare qualities. He was distinct epochs. First, there was the 'Jour- learned, not merely as a classical scholar, nal de l'Empire,' which at the beginning but as a man of science. He was exact was more literary than political; and, se- and scrupulous in reading and meditating condly, there was the Journal des Débats,' on the works which he was about to criti-the same journal under a new name-cise. which, in becoming openly political, did not cliques, and a love of independence and cease to be literary. It is hardly possible impartiality. These creditable feelings into overrate the benefits which the Journal duced him to leave Paris for Passy, in order de l'Empire' conferred on literature and on that he might live isolated and remote from France. Its editors and contributors were all solicitation and influence. It was from the first to revive sound literature, and a this retreat at Passy that he attacked mesbetter taste. They raised up and placed merism and somnambulism, in articles full on their proper pedestals the ancient mod-of wit and talent. It was from Passy, too, els, forgotten, and cast down, without un- that he wrote that series of criticisms on duly depreciating any innovators distinguished by ingenuity, talent, or learning. The principal writers in the Journal de l'Empire,' were Geoffroy, who died in his 70th year, in 1814; Dussault, who in 1793 published the 'Orateur du Peuple;' Feletz, Delalot, Hoffman, Malte Brun, and Fievée. The articles of Dussault were always signed Y.; but such was the spirit, taste, and immense erudition that they disclosed, that they principally contributed to establish the literary infallibility of the journal. M. de Feletz was a man of a different order. He was a gentleman of the old school,

the works of Chateaubriand, de Pradt, and Madame de Genlis, and those celebrated articles on the Jesuits, worthy of Pascal himself, which raised the paper to 18,000 or 20,000 abonnés. Such was the effect of good literary management, that at the end of the year 1805, the Messrs. Bertin were said to be making 200,000 francs, or 80007. a-year by their paper. Hoffman continued to write in the Débats' till the middle of April, 1828, towards the close of which month he died suddenly, in the 68th year of his age. The last time we met him was at the table of a common friend, on Twelfth

day, 1828, since also numbered with the dead. His learning, modesty, and rare companionable qualities, made on us an impression which time has not effaced.

The death of Geoffroy, and the official occupations of Fievée obliged the elder Bertin, who had been for some time judge of the Tribunal de Commerce of the Seine, to look out for recruits. The Restoration had now taken place, and a new era dawned on literature. Men breathed

thoughts in a somewhat bolder tone. A hundred thousand new ideas, stifled amid the clangor of battle and the din of arms, now found free expression. The reign of terror had passed, and the reign of despotism. Men were sickened with the smell of gunpowder, and fatigued with the sound of cannon. The pen, now that the sword was sheathed, began to be used. Mind vindicated itself against matter-intellect against mere brute force. There was on the throne of France a learned and philosophic sovereign, a gentleman and a man of letters; a royal author, if not a noble one; for Louis the Eighteenth had translated Horace with spirit and fidelity, and was the writer of the Voyage à Coblentz,'-not exactly a tour, but a forced march, or flight from France, made by himself on the 21st June, 1791. It was therefore a moment propitious to letters and progress. Chateaubriand gave full rein to his imagination; Lamartine composed his first

Articles on foreign politics became, from the period of Napoleon's letter, addressed directly to George III. (14th January, 1805,) a principal feature in the Journal more freely, and dared to utter their des Débats.' The greatest number of these articles from 1806 to the end of 1826, were written by the famous Danish geographer, Malte Conrad Brun, more commonly called in France, Malte Brun. Malte Brun was a brilliant but not a profound writer; but it must to his credit be admitted, that he was the first to render the study of geography attractive in France. It is a curious fact, yet perfectly true, and which we may state, en passant, that of the three great geographers of whom France is so proud, not one is a Frenchman. Brunn, or Malte Brun, to use his French name, was a Dane, Oscar M'Carthy is of Irish origin, and Balbi is an Italian. Of Fievée, we shall only say that his literary articles were considered solemn decisions, from which there was no appeal. He passed judgment of life or death on books, like an infallible, immovable judge, and was rewarded by his sovereign with a prefecture. We manage these things very differently in England. No critic, however eminent in England, ever obtained the place of Police Magistrate, from which an unknown Mr. Twyford has been dismissed, or the place of Consul, at Calais, to which a too well known Mr. Bonham has been appointed. Such were the men who sustained the 'Débats' up to the year 1814, when Geoffroy died, in the 71st year of his age. The gratitude and good feeling of the proprietors of the journal, of which he had been so long the glory and the pride, secured to his widow a pension of 2400 francs, a sum equal, at that period, to 2007. a year in England now-a-days.

Méditations Poétiques;' Victor Hugo started into literary life, and Scott, Byron, Goethe, and Schiller, found hundreds of translators and imitators. The classic taste of the learned and voluptuous old king recoiled from much of the new literature:-but he resolved that, at least, the Muse should be free, that the thoughts of men should range unconfined, and that no padlock should be clapped on mind. The Journal des Débats' was the first to understand the new era. Bertin the elder was a keen observer, and he comprehended the distinctive character of the Restoration as readily as he had understood the We have heard, and believe, that such quality of the Empire. New and fresh, if good and generous things have been done not young blood, was infused into the réby the Times' in reference to old writers daction of the paper. Duvicquet-the and reporters, and in the days of Mr. Perry, worthy and excellent Duvicquet, so fond of at the Morning Chronicle;' but we do a good glass of Clos Vougeot, and so devotnot believe that in any English journal, how-ed an admirer of the plats truffés-had ever liberal, the example has been as gen- succeeded to Geoffroy. But Duvicquet erally followed as it ought to have been.* was a rigid classicist, and it was necessary to find some one who would read and com*The Morning Herald' is said to have pass-prehend the rising literature of France, ed, recently, into the hands of Mr. Edward

Baldwin, a gentleman distinguished by munificent

liberality, and the most gentlemanly feelings. It the Débats' will be more liberally followed in is therefore to be hoped that the good example of this country.

and not be disposed to make a holocaust of Louis XVIII., in September, 1824, of it. Charles Nodier, a man of an easy and whose character he gave an admirable facile character, of gentle manners, but of sketch, till the present day, M. Salvandy solid learning, a pupil of the school of may be considered among the contributors Chateaubriand, was the censor chosen to to the Débats.' There are few public men stretch out the friendly hand to the new in France who have more of the talent of band of innovators. It were difficult to the journalist than Narcisse Achille de fix on a happier choice. Nodier was not Salvandy. To an extreme vivacity of inmerely a classical scholar, in the best ac- tellect he joins great power of expression, ceptation of the word, but a man well read an energy and enthusiasm almost inexin the modern and living literature of Eng-haustible. Some of the best and most bitland and Germany. His articles were ter articles against the Villêle ministry learned without pedantry, and distinguished proceeded from his pen, and he it was who, by an admirable freedom, freshness, and grace. While Nodier yielded to the spirit of progress in literature, the high political doctrines of the journal were maintained by Castelbajac, Clausel de Cousserques, and the famous De Bonald.

from his country-house near Paris, dealt, in some very able leading articles, the deadliest blows against the Polignac ministry. To this deplorable ministry the Débats' was as much opposed as the Constitutionel,' and both waged an inextinguishable war against the Jesuits.

From the death of Hoffmann, in 1828, Eugene Béquet, the last of the old school, took a more prominent part in the literary department. His productions were distinguished, not more by sound sense than by exact learning, and a pleasant vein of humor.

In March 1815, the proprietor of the 'Débats' followed the king to Ghent, and in the September following was named President of the Electoral College of the Seine. Soon after, he was appointed to the Secretariat Général du Ministère de la Police. Meanwhile the columns of the 'Débats' resounded with the eloquent prose of Chateaubriand, and this was a In 1826-27 the 'Débats' counted not step in advance of the ultra and excessive more than 12,600 subscribers. This was royalism of 1814. Men of genius in every not owing to any lack of interest or ability walk of life were now encouraged to write in its articles, for it was conducted with in the paper, and in such a season it was amazing tact and talent; but a formidable that the Abbé de Lammenais, since become competitor had appeared, in the shape of a so famous in a democratical sense, compos-journal called the Globe,' to which some ed some remarkable articles, not yet for- of the ablest and most educated young gotten after the lapse of a quarter of a men of France contributed. Among othcentury. The old classical school of lit-ers, M. de Rémusat, one of the Deputies erature in France was fast disappearing, for Garonne, and minister under Thiers, and Bertin soon perceived that the classical school of criticism must disappear with it. He again cast about him for young writers, and fixed upon M. St. Marc Girardin, then a nearly unknown young man, but whose Tableau de la Littérature Française,' subsequently to 1829, obtained the prize of eloquence from the French Academy, and who is now one of the most learned professors of the Sorbonne, and M. de Sacy, the son of the celebrated Orientalist, a young and learned advocate, of ripe studies and a pure taste. Both these gentlemen still afford their valuable assistance to the paper, and both are among the ablest writers in France. Previously to this pe- When, however, the insurgents obtained riod, Salvandy, the present Minister of Pub- the upper hand, the note of the writer sudlic Instruction in France, had written some denly changed, and Lafayette was then remarkable articles, distinguished by a fe- spoken of asle viel et illustre ami de la liblicitous imitation of the style of Chateau-erté, le defenseur intrepide de l'ordre, dont briand. From the period of the death of l'âge ne refroidit pas le zèle patriotique.'

and M. Duvergir de Hauranne, one of the Deputies for Cher, MM. Duchatel and Dumon, now Ministers of the Interior and of Public Works respectively, and M. Piscatory, Minister of France in Greece.

Against that illegal ordonnance of Charles X. which abolished the press, the Débats' made no such energetic remonstrances as the other journals. In speaking of the tumultuous groups of workmen traversing the boulevards, the writer of a leading political article remarked, 'On s'attendait à des actes énergiques de la part de l'autorité, l'autorité ne se fait remarquer que par son absence.'

This was in the first days of August, | heavy, pedantic manner, the modern feuiland within seven weeks afterwards M. Ber-leton has become affected, mincing, and tin de Vaux was named minister plenipo- manéirée. The ancient feuilleton was too tentiary to the king of Holland. In a very learned and too erudite-the modern is too little while afterwards, Armand Bertin, the ignorant and superficial. The ancient frepresent gérant responsable of the journal, quently dived too deep into the subject in was appointed commissaire' of the Aca- hand for a daily newspaper-the modern démie Royale de Musique. almost always skims too lightly over the surface of the subject, if it does not give the real question the go-by.

6

After the revolution of 1830 Duvicquet retired to his native place, Clameci, and the feuilleton* of the Journal des Débats' The great abuser and perverter of the passed into the hands of Jules Janin, who modern feuilleton has undoubtedly been had previously been connected with the Jules Janin. There is, as it appears to Messager,' the Quotidienne' and the us, in every thing that he has written, what 'Revue de Paris,' and who was then has been well characterized a marivaudbetter known as the author of L'Ane Mort age de bas étage.' He seems always to et la Femme Guillotinée,' published in the wish to be saying things uncommonly fine, year previously. The modern feuilleton, witty and clever, and to be fully persuaded under his management, no longer resem- that it is his duty not only to write, but to bles the ancient. Whether it has been im- think differently from other people. To proved is, we think, more than questiona- accomplish this, he performs all sorts of ble, and it certainly no longer possesses the mental gyrations and contortions, all sorts authority which it enjoyed in the time of of grey-goose antics. Sometimes he is Fréron, Geoffroy, Feletz, and Hoffmann, seized with a forced gaiety, which is, after The earlier feuilleton was distinguished by all, but an abortive and lugubrious hilarilearning, judgment, critical acumen, and ty; anon he assumes a melancholy, which, discretion, and a measured moderation of if not sickly and sentimental, is put on as tone. It was occasionally dry, sometimes mask to suit the occasion. Jules Janin smelling too much of the rust of the is just the man who, for effect,-to use the schools, almost always ignorant of, and invariably intolerant towards, foreign literature. But though it did not exhibit the variety and vivacity of tone of the modern feuilleton, it was devoid of its shallowness, pretension, and parade. The ancient feuilleton aspired to instruct, the modern seeks merely to amuse. If the ancient feuilleton adhered somewhat too strictly to certain canons of criticism, certain cardinal principles in literature and art, the modern has too freely trifled with received notions, too much indulged in paradox, and a laisser aller style. In seeking to avoid a

An explanation of the word 'feuilleton' may be needed by some of our readers. Till within the last ten years, that part of the newspaper separated by a line of demarcation from the politics and mere news, was called the feuille

ton. It consisted of small, short columns, and was devoted to literature and literary criticism. It was in these colums that the Geoffroys, Hoffmanns, and other able and learned men of the day, produced articles worthy of a permanent place in the standard literature of France. This was the ancient feuilleton, which degenerated in the hands of Janin. Though subsequently sought to be restored to its pristine purity by Evariste, Dumoulin, Saint Beuve, Nisard, Gustave Planche, and others, the ancient feuilleton has now expanded into the 'Roman feuilleton,' in which all sorts of literary monstrosities are perpetrated.

phrase of Curran,- would teach his tears to flow decorously down his cheeks; who would writhe with grace, and groan with melody.' He has sought the pretty, as Longinus sought the sublime. He delights in ingenious parodoxes, which he presents to you in ten different fashions: sometimes all rude and naked; sometimes with a thin robe of gauze; sometimes painted, powdered, and patched, with flounce and furbelow to match. Janin is seldom deficient in delicate irony, but is always full of mincing airs and graces, and an esprit à-la-mode de Paris. But in his gallon of sugared sack, there is but a' ha'porth' of bread af ter all. In the stream of pet phrases which he pours forth, there is a tinyness, if not a tenuity of idea. His style might be stereotyped. It would be a great saving to the Debats' to have certain fond familiar words always set up, standing in case. Scores and scores of times, speaking of debutantes, he has said: 'Pauvre jeune fille aux joues roses aux mains blanches elle si pure elle si candide.'

Would he describe an age or an epoch, here are his words:- 'Ce XVIe siècle en manchette, en dentelles, en tallons rouges, en velours, en paillettes, avec ses mouches, son rouge, ce XVI siècle si fardé si cor

rumpu, &c.' This carillon of click-clack, it is no part of our business to dwell. He this fredon-to use a musical term-ot has outlived those follies, and is now purphrases; this fioritura of variations and suing a useful and prosperous career, not doubles, called by musicians' follia di merely in the Débats,' but as a professor Spagna,' is very contemptible; but it has in the university; and what is better still, had great vogue; for the object of this in his profession. writer is more to amuse than to inform the reader, more to be playful than profound, more to be satirical than solid or satisfying. It is, therefore, no matter of marvel that Janin has many admirers and many imitators, and is the rage of men, women, and children.

Another recruit obtained in 1830, was our excellent friend, M. Philarete Chasles, one of the half-dozen men in France who are learned in ancient lore, and complete master of their native language. M. Chasles is one of the very few Frenchmen well versed in Greek literature. He accompaOne of the burning and shining lights of nied Marshal Soult to England in 1837, the higher feuilleton of the Débats' in and wrote the articles and letters on his 1830 and 1831, was Loëve Weymar, who visit which appeared in the 'Débats' at that had become known, in 1828 and 1829, by time. M. Chasles was then also deputed, translations from the German. His articles on the part of the government, to inquire were distinguished by considerable brillian- into the scholastic and university system of cy, and secured the approbation of the England; and from conversations we had minister of the day. He was, in conse- with him on the subject, we can take upon quence, sent on a kind of literary mission ourselves to assert, that he had a more acto Russia. At St. Petersburg he married a curate knowledge on those matters than young Russian lady, with 700 or 800 slaves falls to the lot of the great majority of for a dowry, and is now Consul-general of Frenchmen. M. Chasles' familiarity with France in some part of the eastern hemisphere. This is a sort of accident, which has never happened, we believe, to any writer in the Times' or 'Chronicle,' literary or political. Ministers in England claim no kindred, and have no fellow-feeling, with the press; and if the 'sublime of mediocrity,' the descendant of the Lancashire cotton-spinner, has any thing to give away, he bestows it, not on writers or literary men, but on the stupid son of some duke, who calls him Judas and traitor, or on the thirty-first cousin of some marquess, who tells him, for his pains, that he is no gentleman, and does not know what to do with his hands; or on the nephew of the Countess of Fashington,* who simpers out, with a seductive smile, that the premier is like Thresher's best silk stockings, fine and well woven on the leg, but, after all, with a cotton top.

ancient literature in no respect indisposes him to the modern; and he is well read in our English historians and poets.

We have now gone through the greater number of regular writers in the Débats,' and of these M. de Sacy, M. St. Marc Girardin, M. Philarete Chasles, and others, still afford their valuable aid. At the head of the establishment is M. Armand Bertin, the son of one of the late proprietors and the nephew of the other-a scholar, a gentleman, and a man of large and liberal feelings. The great boast of M. Armand Bertin is, that he is a journalist, and nothing but a journalist; and for renowned journalists of all countries M. Bertin has a predilection. With one of the most celebrated journalists that England ever produced, he was on terms of the warmest friendship; and we are ourselves in possession of his last gift to his and our departed friend, the The 'Débats' was also enriched shortly rarest edition of Lucan, according to Bruafter the Revolution of 1830, by the letters net, beautifully bound by Koehler, which and articles of Michel Chevalier, an elève bears this autograph, To my friend, Thoof the Ecole Polytechnique,' and former mas Barnes. Armand Bertin.' editor of the Globe.' Some of his earliest But the writers who afford a literary supproductions in the 'Débats' were the Let-port to the 'Débats,' and whose names are ters from America-letters remarkable in not known, or at least not avowed, are of every respect, and well entitling this celebrated economist and engineer to the renown he has subsequently attained. On the early freaks of M. Chevalier as a St. Simonian,

as much, if not more, consequence to the Journal, than the regular contributors. There has been scarcely, for the last forty years, a minister of France or a councillor of state of any ability, who has not written in it; and since the accession of Louis Phil