Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 403, May, 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 403, May, 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
In sight of the struggle, which is continually going on in newspapers,
pamphlets, printed notices, and every other form of publication,
between the Socialists and Red-Republicans on the one hand, and the
"friends of order" on the other--a struggle carried on by the former
not only with the utmost violence and virulence, but with every most
desperate weapon of calumny, falsehood, distorted fact, and perverted
reasoning--in sight of the propagandising efforts, made by these same
men, to demoralise and debauch the army from its allegiance to the
country by every underhand corrupting poison--it is quite "refreshing"
to the spirit, to use a hackneyed phrase, to greet a few words of
conviction in favour of those considered the enemies of the republic,
penned, in spite of previous prepossessions and firm opinions, by an
honest-hearted republican. To men of real and genuine convictions all
honour is due, more especially in the confusion of party intrigue and
reckless personal ambition of these revolutionary times, even although
they be our adversaries: respect may be shown them, even if they
appear to us mistaken. Unhappily, such men seem in France to be but
few. But if we find them firm and honest in the expression of their
convictions, even when in open _opposition_ to their preconceived
notions, and to the direct tendency of their political opinions, a
tribute of especial admiration may be given them. And such a tribute
may be frankly and willingly bestowed upon M. Charles Didier, for his
little book entitled _Une visite au Duc de Bordeaux_,--a book which
has lately excited considerable sensation in France, not so much as a
curious historical document, giving a simple but charming account of
the life, manners, appearance, and attitude in exile of such prominent
historical figures as the Duke of Bordeaux, and that patient and pious
victim of revolutions, the Duchess d'Angoulême; but, in the eyes of
the legitimists, as a striking refutation of various calumnies
attached to the person, as well as the education and opinions of the
young prince, and the highest eulogium of their monarch--in the eyes
of all, as a "feeler," (in spite of the intentions of the author,) in
the obscure chances of the future.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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