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The Praise of Paris: or, a Sketch of the French Capital; in Extracts of Letters from France in the Summer of 1802; with an Index of many. - of the Convents, Churches, and Palaces not in the French Catalogues, which have furnished Pictures for the Louvre Gallery. By S. W. F.R.S. F.A.S. 8vo. PP. 186. 5s. 6d. Baldwins. 1803.

WHEN this book was first advertised we were so stricken with the title, that we ordered it to be purchased; but some delay having occurred in the execution of our order, we had the mortification to be told that it was not to be had. Whence we naturally concluded that the rapidity of its sale had exhausted the first edition, and that a second would speedily appear; or that, for some reason or other, it had been withdrawn from circulation. Be that as it may, we could never ob tain a sight of it till the other day, when we met with it by chance. The title, as we have said, struck us; but recollecting that one book had been written in "Praise of Drunkenness," and another in " Praise of Hell," our astonishment began to subside, and we sat down, with tolerable composure, to read the production before us. The title page had sufficiently informed us that the book was written by a well known Grecian, and, of course, if we did not expect to find much light and amusing matter, we made sure of a rich Classic feast, of many learned remarks, erudite comments, and scientific annotations. What, then, was our disappointment, on casting our eyes over the half-blank pages of this meagre volume, in which it may be truly said, that "a rivulet of letter-press strays through a vale of margin!" If that rivulet, indeed, had contained some tolerable fish, if it had presented a pure current, softly gliding over the pebbles of wit and learning, we could have derived pleasure from the contemplation of it, and have been, in some degree, satisfied; but finding it a foul and muddy stream, whence neither pleasure nor profit could be derived, we regretted extremely the waste of our time and our money, and turned from it in disgust. In short, the scraps of letters, for they are literally scraps, here jumbled into the form and shape of an octavo volume, are fit for nothing but to make paragraphs in a newspaper; and indeed the matter contained in two of these octavo pages would scarcely be sufficient to form (we speak of quantity) one paragraph of common length. It is really too bad to pass such an imposition on the public.

* In an " Advertisement" the author displays his erudition on the etymology of " Paris." The word, he tells us, was derived from PAR Isis, because Paris was built near the famous temple of Isis, not far from the site of the Abbey of St. Germain des Prés. "At the establishment of Christianity the temple was destroyed; but the idol" (what idol? he has mentioned none, though no doubt he means the image of the goddess) " remained till the beginning of the sixth century, when it was thrown as a trophy into a corner of the Church of St. Germain des Prés, founded by Childebert, with the title of the Holy (Cross and St. Vincent." We suppose he intends to say, that the Church was called the Church of the Holy Cross, and that it was dedicated

to

to St. Vincent. "The title of the Holy Cross and St. Vincent," is arrant nonsense. The Advertisement is an useless manifestation of pedantry; and the author would have been more instructive, as well as more intelligible, if he had simply translated the remarks of the ingenious and truly learned author of "Historical Essays on Paris" on this subject.

"

"The commerce of the Parisians by water," says M. De St. Foix, was very flourishing; their city appears to have had, from time imme. morial, a ship for its symbol. Isis presided over navigation; she was even worshipped by the Suevì, under the figure of a ship*. These reasons were more than sufficient to convince etymologists, that Parisii came from παρα Ἴιδος, near to Isis; the Greek and Celtic having been originally the same, and both using the same characters. I do not pretend to defend this etymology, but Moreau de Mautour was deceived, when he maintained +, that that goddess was not worshipped by the Gauls, even after their subjection to the Romans. Her priest had their college at Issi, and the church of St. Vincent, afterwards St. Germain des Prés, was built on the ancient ruins of her temple ‡."

1

The " Advertisement" is followed by a "Preface," from which we learn, that Paris, a second Troy, had suffered a ten years' siege, from 1792 to 1802, during which time she had been "beset with troubles from without, and violent agitations from within, and perpetual spoil;" a city beset with spoil, is a new spectacle for the wondering traveller. Of spoil, indeed, Paris has certainly had her share, for she is gorged with the spoil of plundered nations, and of murdered individuals. If the author had represented her as the grand receiver of stolen goods, he would have been more correct, and more intelligible. In 1792, Paris was all confusion and disorder; but in 1802, our author says, " I find it swept and garnished, restored to its senses, and in its right mind." Most unquestionably, if this were his real opinion, he could not be in his right mind. It was necessary, however, that he should say so, as he could find no other excuse for giving to his. book of scraps the foolish title which it bears. But he is so eloquent, and so argumentative on this subject, that it would be the highest injustice not to let him speak for himself.

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* See Lactantius, Apuleius, and Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum. + Histoire de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. iii. p. 295. D. Martin (in his Religion of the Gauls, vol. ii. p. 295,) proves this, by monu ments with which the academician in question ought to have been acquainted. The town of Melun having adopted the worship of Isis, changed its ancient natne (Melodunum) for that of Iseos or Isia. Abbon. carmen 3. lib. 1.

‡ This celebrated temple of Isis, says Sauval, which gave its name to the whole country, was served by a college of priests, who lived, as it is believed, at Issi, in a castle, the ruins of which were still visible at the commencement of the present century.

But

" But since we all see things and persons with different eyes (and most fortunately for the general content, and the acquisition of truth and reality), many, probably, will be more inclined to find fault than to commend; in order, therefore, to preserve some balance between panegyric and pasquinade, and prevent the preponderance of censure, I have resolved to reserve the good part to myself, and leave the bad for my fellow-travellers; just as the hero of Ivry served his prime minister, by giving him all his troublesome affairs to negotiate, and keeping the tarif of favours, and the dispensation of benefits, in his own hands."

This is a most curious reason truly for misleading the public. The author thinks that more will be disposed to censure than to praise, which is a tacit admission that he thinks there is more just ground for blame than for commendation; and, on this account, and not from any conviction of the justice or propriety of his conduct, he determines to praise whatever he beholds. Why, in the name of common sense, aye, and of common honesty too, why prevent the preponderance of censure, if censure be called for by justice, and pronounced by truth? What is this but to say, there is too much truth on one side, so I will throw in a little falsehood on the other? Mr. S. W. should be told, however, that the hero of Ivry affords no sanction to such preposterous and reprehensible conduct: his honest heart was a stranger to duplicity, imposition, and fraud; his tongue was the herald of truth; and he never sought for a pretext to give to his language the varnish of falsehood; he had his frailties; and who is without them? but an avowed admiration of the fruits of theft and murder, without a detestation of the thief and assassin, was certainly not one of them. We do not mean to charge the author with the actual commission of falsehood, but merely to shew the absurdity of his motive, and the danger of his inference. He represents the Parisians as the same lively, gay, thoughtless race as they always were. Not having seen them ourselves since the revolution, we can only say, that his account differs toto cælo from the various accounts which we have received from other travellers, from men, too, who knew the French well under the Monarchy, and who are incapable of falsehood or deceit. He justifies all the opulent upstarts of the day, on the ground that they were not the authors of, nor agents in the French Revolution, but only reaped the fruits of it; in other words, they did not commit robberies themselves, they only received the stolen goods! Blessed morality this! But the assertion is at variance with the fact. Was not the Imperial Ruffian himself one of the prime authors and agents of the revolution? Were not most of his family, his brother-in-law, who assumed the name of the cutthroat Marat, and nearly the whole of his generals, among the most active of the regicidal gang? Let the author amuse himself as much as he pleases with his fantastical speculations, but let him not pervert falts! The Corsican, he thinks, has finished the revolution, and the reign of peace and good order is restored! We fear he will find that the worst part of it is yet to come.

As a fair specimen of the amusement and information to be derived fromy

from a perusal of these epistolary scraps, we shall extract two whole pages of matter.

"There are about sixteen theatres open almost every night. At the François the best actor is half an Englishman, his name is Talma; the best actress is Mademoiselle Duchesnoy, who is not twenty years old. Talma's great part is Orestes, and Mademoiselle Duchesnoy's is Phedre. There is a sinall piece of one act represented every now and then on this stage, which has great merit in exhibiting the manners de la vieille cour sous l'ancien regime. The characters are a financier's widow and her daughters, a young colonel, who is a marquis, an old officer, a baron, a physician, an abbé, and a wit, or bel esprit. It was first acted in 1764."

By multiplying the number of lines in this quotation by 93, the reader will have the whole quantity of matter contained in this octavo volume.

The whole is so trifling, as our readers may perceive by the specimen adduced, as to be almost beneath criticism. But it is really lamentable to find so many violations of grammar, and of all the rules of good composition, as are here exhibited, in any production of a classical scholar. Two or three instances of this defect (from many which might be produced) in addition to those already exhibited, will suffice.

" The gallery of the Louvre is the great feature of Paris, which is itself a vast bonbonniere, an immense academie de jeu, and an enormous table d'hote; where all natives meet, like travellers through a desert, at a watering-place." P. 6.

"Here it is that the Jugement de Salomon is acted, which was brought out in the beginning of the year 10, and ran for forty nights; and Madame Angot, of which something has been said." P.21.

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In page 108, we are told of "alleys (for avenues) and walks buttoned on each side with lines of flower-pots." In the same page, 1800 French livres are said to be nearly 7001. sterling; whereas they are exactly 7501.

The reader is perpetually disgusted with the constant recurrence of French words or phrases, with which these scraps are copiously interlarded, and which can be intended for no other purpose than to prove that the author understands them, which, however, is by no means so self-evident as he may imagine.

THE PICTONIAN PROSECUTION.

1. A Statement, Letters, and Documents respecting the Affairs of Trini dad; including a Reply to Colonel Picton's Address to the Council of that Island; submitted to the Consideration of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. By Colonel Fullarton. 4to.

PP. 202. 1804. (Not sold.)

NO. XCIV. VOL. XXIV.

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2. A Letter to the Right Honourable Lord Hobart, His Majesty's late principal Secretary of State for the Colonial Department. By Colonel Thomas Picton, late Governor and Captain-General of the Island of Trinidad, and Brigadier-General commanding His Majesty's Troops in that Island. A new edition. 8vo. PP. 122. Lloyd. 1804.

3. A Refutation of the Pamphlet which Colonel Pitton lately addressed to Lord Hobart. By Colonel Fullarton, F. R.S. 4to. PP. 102. 2s. 6d. Stockdale. 1805.

4. Evidence taken at Port of Spain, Island of Trinidad, in the Case of Louisa Calderon, under a Mandamus issued by the Court of King's Bench, and directed to the Lieutenant-Governor; with a Letter addressed to Sir Samuel Hood, K. B. late one of the Commissioners for the Government of that Colony. By Colonel Thomas Picton, late Governor and Captain-General of the Island. 8vo. PP. 164. Budd. 1806.

5. Extracts from the Minutes of His Majesty's Council of the Island of Trinidad. Published by Authority. 12mo. PP. 34. Port of Spain.

6. An Address to the British Public, on the Case of Brigadier-General Picton, late Governor and Captain-General of the Island of Trinidad; with Observations on the Conduct of William Fullarton, Esq. F. R.S. and the Right Honourable John Sullivan. By Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Alured Draper, of the Third Regiment of Foot Guards, formerly Military Secretary to the late General Grinfield, in the West Indies. 8vo. PP. 358. 4s. Budd. 1806.

NEVER, not only since the commencement of our critical labours, but during the whole course of our natural lives, have we experienced so much astonishment and disgust, at the perusal of any book or books, as we have experienced on the perusal of the various tracts now upon our table. We have frequently seen men, inflamed by the spirit of party, come forward to accuse their political opponents, with all the warmth, and with all the virulence, which such a spirit is so apt to engender; but never, till this hour, did we see or hear of an individual, who had any pretensions to the name and character of a GENTLEMAN, spontaneously stand forth, as a public accuser, with the avowed object of submitting to legal investigation the public conduct of an officer whose character, for upwards of thirty years that he had served his Sovereign, faithfully and honourably, the breath of calumny had never once dared to assail, and who stood high in the estimation of his country; and, so standing forth, promulgate, while the suit was still pending, as if with a view to prejudice the minds of those who were sitting in judgment upon him, the most violent abuse, the most scandalous invectives, and the most licentious attacks, that

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