suspense. public mind of Europe be kept in a state of From The Press, 19 Jan. Let the tricksy game begin Talk- but while the tricksters chatter, If, while Freedom's sword is flashing, PUNCH. WE are in possession of some authentic details, not yet placed before the public, connected with the acceptance by Russia of the Austrian proposals. The journey of Baron Seebach, the Minister of Saxony at the Court of Paris, to St. Petersburg, has excited much speculation. On his return to Paris, M. Seebach brought back from the Cabinet of St. Petersburg an unqualified acceptance of the Allied Propositions, on condition that France and England would treat From The Examiner, 19 Jan. directly with Russia, and not through AusPRESIDENT PIERCE'S MESSAGE. tría. This proposition was favorably reA STATE of war at least enables countries garded by the French Government. The Cabinet Council on Wednesday last was held to discriminate their friends from their eneto deliberate upon it, when we have reason mies. During a period of prolonged peace to believe Lords Palmerston and Clarendon grave mistakes in this respect may be made. insisted, against the opinions of the majority A great State may imagine that it commands of the Cabinet, on the Seebach proposition the world, and such shall be the tone of being rejected, as in their opinion another adulation adopted by habit towards it, that campaign was desirable. The astonishment of these statesmen at the acceptance by Russia of the Austrian propositions, after their rejection of the Seebach overture, may be imagined. "PURE AND SIMPLE." Talk that 's what he wants to do- as long as peace lasts its ignorance cannot but endure. War alone reveals the truth, and what it may safely count upon. Russia has lately had good reason to know this, and the Allies have not been without some startling illustrations of it. Who would have believed a very few years since that in a great war England should be destined to find nothing but sympathies in France, and little but antipathies in Germany? And not in Germany only: we have found such antipathies rampant among men of our own race, and speaking our own language. All of us at first made sure that American support must follow us in a contest with Russia, reasoning from the unmistakable fervency with which the popular feeling of America had shown itself when Hungary struggled for freedom and was so mercilessly put down. We were mistaken, however. All that was intelligent in America may have wished well to our cause, but It being thus matter of doubt how the States were really disposed to us, the MesBage of the President was naturally looked for with more than usual anxiety. It has arrived, and will probably leave its readers in the same condition of doubt as before. But it makes one thing manifest. The state of relations with Great Britain is now the principal, if not the exclusive, subject of interest in American policy. Trivial as are the points of difference existing between the two countries, in themselves really not worth more than a couple of sentences in ordinary times, in the present state of the world they monopolize almost the whole of the Presidential Message. The great slavery question alone disputes with them a share of public attention. their voices have been overpowered by the and bearing throughout his mission were louder democratic voices throughout the studiously calculated to remove prejudice, to Union. weaken every ground of hostility, and to place the relations of the two countries on the one true and permanent basis of showing that England has not a single interest inimical to America, or one opinion really adverse to her people. How eminently successful he was in these endeavors, all acquainted with America can attest; and happily circumstances arose to favor his efforts for the settlement of one very difficult question. In the project of a ship-canal through Central America, England and the United States might meet upon a common ground. They had a joint interest in its being completed and secured from the exaction of the people of those states, as well as from the monopoly of each other. On this basis Sir Henry Bulwer (pace the Quarterly Review, one of the ablest of modern diploFor the rest, the terms of the Message matists) went to work, and succeeded in acmust be considered in connection with the complishing a treaty by which Britain waived position of its author. With a Presidential its sovereignty over the Musquito shore, the election or re-election before him, it must territories and states through which the be taken less as an expression of General canal was to pass being neutralized and Pierce's opinion or policy, than as an appeal established under the joint protection of the to the particular sentiments which he be- two Powers. Any history of the mode in lieves to be at this time most prevalent which the functionaries of the United States throughout the Union. Just as fearful to have acted upon this treaty would be foreign offend the more sensible citizens of the Union to our present purpose. We should have by a tone of acrimony to England, as to but to recall the bombardment of Grey-Town alienate the "groundlings" by seeming to if we wished to show how far the Americans make concessions to us, you may trace exact- themselves have kept to the letter and spirit ly the drift of almost each particular sen- of the treaty. But certainly we must think tence. While the points of difference are it unfortunate that because unwarranted and exaggerated for one class of hearers, another unexpected pretensions were put forth by class is propitiated by representing these as others, we should have thought it right or unlikely to lead to any serious or immediate prudent to resume some old ones of our own. results. In regard to both causes of quarrel And so the difference continues. In justice General Pierce would appear to be equally it should be added that the people and the desirous to avoid any present breach, and to rulers of those barbarous republics are hardly render impossible any complete accommoda- to be kept to even their own stipulations tion. That the head of great commercial republic should thus desire to keep the prospect of a quarrel in posse over the heads of two great countries, would be inexplicable under any other system of government than that which prevails in America. But the statesmen of the Union are too often in the position of the physician whose interest it is not to heal the sore, or cure the malady, the continuation of which gives profit and importance to himself. The Nicaraguan dispute, which forms the first great section of the Presidential MesBage, we must really characterize as a not creditable piece of diplomatic pettifogging, If ever man devoted himself with zeal and good faith to remove the chief causes of contention between the United States and England, it was Sir Henry Bulwer, when Minister at Washington. His whole conduct without the employment of language that will be always apt to savor of dictation. Gentle and forbearant conduct producing little but insults and contempt, abstinence and non-interference become difficult in such a region; and unless, therefore, the representatives of England and America are on their parts actuated by a sincere desire to agree, to be just, and to give no occasion for strife, disputes must be interminable. Of the recruital grievance it does not seem that President Pierce can make much, though he does his best. The American envoy in London being understood to have generally approved the scheme as likely to increase the bonds of amity between the countries, it can hardly now be said that it was pursued with views of hostility or offence. It was unfortunate, was abandoned, was withdrawn. General Pierce knows that nothing more can come of it, and that he would injure Let us hope that the wisdom and candor himself even with his own party by adopting of our brethren across the Atlantic may the language of his Attorney-General; still speedily find some better representative of there are those who must be flattered by their genuine and honest sentiments, as well shows and signs of possible hostility to Eng- in regard to this country as to their own land, and to them the President affects to terrible blot of domestic slavery. persist in holding out a demand of reparation from this country, as if further reparation were conceivable or possible. It is surely much to be deplored that any great country should be so represented that the chief of its Government, instead of frankly expressing the sentiments and the will of its people, should prefer to adopt the ambiguous, captious, electioneering tone of a man to whom the permanent interests of the nation are nothing, and his own temporary views everything. We are bound to add that, great as have been the temptations to this course in former Presidents of the great republic, we remember no such flagrant example as this before us. Even the addresses of Mr. Tyler had a personal dignity about them to which General Pierce's message lays no pretension. It contains little else throughout than language of shabbiness and pusillanimity alternated by menaces and bravado. The financial and domestic concerns of the Union are but briefly touched upon in it, so briefly indeed as to have already challenged for it the contemptuous designation of the Stump Message. It treats at some length, however, of the great question of whether slavery is to be controlled or left to complete expansion in new States. For his own part General Pierce declares that State rights, in the maintenance and development of slavery, not only cannot be controlled, but that all past and of course all future legislation for the purpose of so controlling them are ipso facto void. As far as slavery is concerned, according to General Pierce, the Union and the Central Government do not exist. This is taking wide ground. It would go so far as to establish that the States could come to no agreement respecting slavery, unless by negotiations as independent sovereignties, which would be neither more nor less than a dissolution of the Union. If such questions must be settled, not by a majority in Congress but by negotiations of independent States, it would follow that such independent States, failing to agree, might have recourse to war. Civil war thus becomes the ultima ratio of General Pierce's political rule for the treatment of slavery. THE message of President Pierce to the Congress of the United States, characteristic of the present state of politics in America, is not favorable either to its author or to the Model Republic. It intends to make the most of the situation" for all purposes, and to expose the President to a minimum of risk in any direction. Nationally, he desires to be considered "firm "” in presence of all who have controversies with the Union; abroad, he desires to be thought "conciliatory." Thus, he still looks to diplomacy for settlement of the Central American question, though he labors to show that the BulwerClayton treaty has been infringed by England, against every sense of the words, of justice, and good faith. He rakes up the settled recruitment question, in order to exhibit himself as the champion of "neutrality"; while he sinks the same championship, of which he might have boasted in stopping the New Orleans recruits for Walker's army, in a small and almost apologetical paragraph. He boasts the compensation that he has wrung from Spain for the Black Warrior and other grievances in Cuba, compensation surrendered without breaking the friendly relations of the Spanish Government; while the President's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, glances over the past and future of the Republic, and discovers delights for his heart in annexations of all kinds-from Florida and Louisiana to Missouri and Texas; for why should Texas, he asks, have "remained a lone star?". the phrase, it will be remem bered, applied by Annexationists to Cuba. A surplus revenue makes the treasury rich; but the President, as jealous as the most "hard cider" demagogue, cannot tolerate an increased surplus, and he desires to keep it down by lowering the import duties. In sum, President Pierce, whose term of office is about to expire, is seeking to curry favor with every section, every minority, that, put together, could make up a majority for his continuance in office. Such being the unconcealable motive of the message, it neoessarily follows that its spirit must be ungenerous, its views inconsistent, and its tone undignified. — Spectator, 19 Jan. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 616.-15 MARCH, 1856. is: 1854-55. En vente. 2. Vies de Haydn, et Mozart, et de Métas- 5. De L'Amour. Seule édition complète. From the Edinburgh Review. fourth story, writing a drama or a novel." 1. Bibliothèque Contemporaine. 2e Série. This ideal was never realized, because the bookDe Stendhal. Euvres complètes. Par-sellers and theatrical managers would not, or could not, .bid high enough for dramas or novels from his pen; and he was eventually compelled to accept the consulship at Civita Vecchia, where the closing period of his life was shortened by the diseases of the climate, ennui. as well as embittered by disappointment and There occurred, indeed, one striking exception to this general indifference. In the "Revue Parisienne" of September 23rd 1840, appeared a long and carefully written article, entitled an Etude sur H. Beyle," by Balzac, in which "La Chartreuse de Parme" was declared to be a masterpiece, and its author was described as one of the finest observers and most original writers of the age. although elaborately reasoned out, and largely supported by analysis and quotation, this honorable outburst of enthusiasm was commonly regarded as an extravagance into which Balzac had been hurried by an exaggeration of generosity towards a fancied rival; and Beyle's courteous letter of acknowledgment contains the following sentence, showing how little disposed he was to overestimate his position or his hopes: "This astounding article, such as no writer ever before received from another, I have read, I now venture to own to you, with bursts of laughter. Every time I came to a eulogium a little exalted. and I encountered such at every step, I saw the expression of my friends' faces at reading 9. Mémoires d'un Touriste. Préface et la 10. Le Rouge et Le Noir. Chronique du omb. 1 vol. But THE literary career of Henri Beyle, who wrote under the pseudonyme of M. De Stendhal, deserves to be commemorated, if only as a curious illustration of the caprice of criti-it." cism; or it may well be cited in proof of the Could he wake from the dead and see his occasional readiness of contemporaries to fore- friends' faces now, his characteristic smile of stall the judgment of posterity, when there is irony, rather than loud laughter, would be the no longer a living and sentient object for their form in which his feelings might be most apjealousy. His habits were simple, his tastes propriately expressed; for those friends have were of a nature to be easily and cheaply not waited till 1880, the earliest era at which gratified, and his pecuniary wants were con- he expected to be read; they have barely exsequently of the most modest description. He ceeded the time prescribed by Horace would have been content, he tells us, to rub umque prematur in annum — for testing the on with 4000 francs a year at Paris; he would soundness of a work. Beyle died in 1842, have thought himself rich with 6000; and and few beyond the very limited circle of his in an autobiographical sketch he says, "The intimates then seemed aware that a chosen only thing I see clearly is, that for twenty spirit had departed, or that a well of valuayears my ideal has been to live at Paris in a ble thought and a fountain of exquisite sensi DCXVI. LIVING AGE. VOL. XII. 41 - non bility had been dried up. One solitary garland of immortelles was flung upon his grave. An essay on his life and character, by M. Auguste Bussière, appeared in the "Revue dex Deux Mondes" for January, 1843; but the first paragraph was an avowal of the hazardous character of the attempt: and reminiscences by M. Merimée. M. SainteBeuve has devoted two papers, distinguished by his wonted refinement and penetration, to Stendhal, in the "Causeries du Lundi." An extremely interesting biographical notice, drawn up by M. Colomb, Beyle's most attached friend and testamentary executor, from private "We approach a task which is at the papers and other authentic sources of infor same time both embarrassing and seducing, mation, is prefixed to the "Romans et Nouv that of appreciating a man of talent whose elles ;" and by way of preface or introducupright character and original qualities tion to the "Chartreuse de Parme," the seemed to promise a greater extent of influ- publishers have judiciously reprinted the longence than he has exercised on his contempora- neglected éloge of Balzac. As if to complicate ries. We shall encounter in this mind and the problem, Beyle's critics and biographers in this character odd specialities, strange ano-announce and claim him as eminently malies, contradictions which will explain how, French," although he systematically ridiculed after having been more vaunted than read, the vanity of his countrymen, reviled their more read than relished, more decried than taste, disliked the greater part of their literjudged, more cited than known, he has lived, ature, and, deliberately repudiating his counif the expression may be used, in a sort of try as "le plus vilain pays du monde que les clandestine celebrity, to die an obscure and nigauds appellent la belle France," directed unmarked death. Contemporary literature, himself to be designated as Milanese on his it must be owned, has found before the tomb tombstone. Here is enough, and more than of one of its most distinguished cultivators, enough, to justify us in devoting our best atonly silence, or words worse than silence. tention to the social and intellectual phenomM. Beyle dead, all has been said for him. enon thus presented, to say nothing of the His remains have not seen their funeral at- interest we naturally take in the reputation tendance swell by those regrets which delight of an author who, in straitened circumstances, in display, and which come to seek under ordered the complete collection of "mon cher ” the folds of the pall a reflection of the lustre Edinburgh Review, and appealed to its exshed by the living." tended circulation as an unanswerable proof that the English are more reasonable in politics than the French. mous. A noble English poet, after an ordinary night's sleep, awoke and found himself faBeyle must have slumbered thirteen Marie-Henri Beyle was born at Grenoble, years, dating from the commencement of his on the 23d of January, 1783, of a family last long sleep, before he could have calcu- which, without being noble, was classed and lated on a similar surprise on waking. But lived familiarly with the provincial aristocracy. his hour has come at last, and come sooner One of his earliest preceptors was a priest, than he anticipated. We have now (1855) who appears to have sadly misunderstood and before us popular and cheap editions of almost mismanaged his pupil. "Beyle," says M. all his books (thirteen volumes), in addition | Merimée, 66 was wont to relate with bitter to two closely printed volumes of correspond-ness, after forty years, that one day, having ence, and three volumes of novels from his torn his coat whilst at play, the Abbé enunpublished MS., bearing striking evidence trusted with his education reprimanded him to the assiduity with which every scrap of severely for this misdeed before his comrades, his composition has been hunted up. We and told him he was a disgrace to religion have, moreover, a somewhat embarrassing and to his family. We laughed when he superfluity of biographical notices from sur- narrated this incident; but he saw in it simviving friends, who, whatever their amount ply an act of priestly tyranny and a horrible of agreement with Balzac in 1840, have no injustice, where there was nothing to laugh objection to respond to the popular demand at, and he felt as acutely as on the day of its for Beyle testimonials in 1855. Prefixed to occurrence the wound inflicted on his selfthe "Correspondence is a condensed and love." It was one of his aphorisms that our pithy series of clever, polished, highly illus-parents and our masters are our natural enetrative, and by no means enthusiastic, notes mies when we enter the world; the simple |