BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2687, 5 February 1916, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY

, DUMAS AS HISTORIAN. ' Of Dumas the novelist, Dumas, the playwright, even Dumas the.:'autobiognapher, who has not 1 heard ? But Dumas as here for. most peopie, even many who have read and, re-, read more than once the famous D'Artagnan and Valois romances/ or " the equally famous "Monte is the great Alexandre in an entirely new role. And! yet Dumas was the author of ,ah historical work of no mean importance, a work, .although perhaps open to criticism on the score of certaininaccuracies aoid - unoonscious bias, which makes'most lively and fascinating reading. ' I rofer to the history of France under Louis Philippe; which, Tinder the title of "Tho Last King* of the French,". was published in 1852, and ran into,several editions inits original French torm. " Now . for the, first time the work lias been translated'into English, its present title being : "The, Last King,-or the, New France, being a History from tlie Birth of Louis Philippe in 1773 to the Revolution of 1848." It is safe to say that tho two handsome volumes in Which -fchft first English, edition of Dumas's work is-presented by Messrs.. Stanley ' Paul" and Co. will have many readers.Certainly .so interesting and 'historically valuable'.-iwork-deserves to be widely: read, especially at the present time, when the' political evolution of our ally is. necessarily a , subject' of considerable interest.', Spina of the/matter contained .in'the work may. have already appeared 'in tho twenty-two volumes of Dumasls "Memoires," but to the' vast majority . of readers tlffe narrative will come, as a welcome surprise. ' 11 • •/'.

■ In a lengthy; and interesting preface, Mr. B.'S. Garnett summarises Dumas' personal connection with botlh -the mi&narchy and the republic. The great Alexandre that was to be commenced his We in Paris in 1823 as a ''supernumerary" in the office of the Due D'Orleans, , as the future Louis Philippe-was then called. His father, Thoinas Alexandre Dumas, had died in 1806, poor and neglected by Napoleon, wlho, in, spite, of the entreaties of men such as Murat, .'Augereau, and Junot, did nothing for the family of the staunch old .'Republican',. even though he had fought side by side with him. 1 It was bard work;'even in 1824, living in Paris on £60 a year,which was all the salary allotted to the position held by the young mari,.but>the ■future King of the French; was always given to parsimony. When Dumas absented himself, from the .offipe to attend the rehearsals of his drama, "Henry the Third and Hi's Court," his modest salary was 'stopped, and t)he story/goes' that; the young playwright'was' so poor-thaE he cut a collar out of a sheet of paper to wear at. the production of nis drama. Dumas, threw himself with .enthusiasm. into the Revolution of July. Of his share" in'tlhat event he gives a very lively account in his ."Memoires," telling how he disarmed three^: royal guards, : assisted in the construction of barricades, joined' in an attempt to seize the 'Hotel' de "Ville, dodged' grape shot behind one of the'bronze lions in the Palais Mazarin, and finally was' one of .the invaders of tlie"Tuileries, where always a devoted- bibliophile, he" secured as'personal loot a copy of "Christine," exquisitely bound, and bearing the arms of the Duchesse' do Berry. Th 4 Bourbon regime was ended, -and the crown of France -went- to Uhe Orleanist branch, Dumas's. old employer, Louis, Philippe' being declared King of the French. .

' Neaily .the whole of, tho-first volume of tie'fhistory' is] devoted"to the.'experi-'. eoces of the Orleaaist princes'during tpie' great Revolution and the first Einpire,the, narrative, thus given constituting, a new and important record, specially valuable when, the period between. 1815 and 1820 is dealt with, a period, much . neglected by other! historians,'and "yet re-'' plet'e with events wliich had ndt a little io do with, the growth of sound and safe democratic principles in France.;. In ■ the second volume we'have a detailed litory of Louis Philippe' s reign, an analysis of its leading events, and a dramatic; and quite fascinating record of the. revolution. of. 1848, , which drove Louis Philippe from France, an exile to England. ! > :

How vigorous and vivacious jt writer was Alexandre Dumas everyone knows .who has read, and who has not?- his delightful historical romances. Here,, again,' he displays special, qualities oi .dramatic presentment' of a notable incident, of vigorous and effective , delineation of character. , How able • and fafseeing a student of politics was 'Dumas, even in 1832, when he was only thirty, ■is proved by the remarkable prediction made by him in his , book "Gaule et France/' when ho foretold .the end of monarchy in France as being certain. He pointed out that the new monarchical edifice "needed buttresses." . "The. fifty. - thousand aristocrats of Louis XV rio. longer existed, the two hundred grand seigneurs of Francis I were' no more,- the twelve grand vassals of Hugh Capet slept in tlieir feudal tombs." The great landed proprietors and industrial lords of the ■Restoration' had replaced the ancient aristocracy—' 'the monarchical arch lowered itself by another'degree towards the people—it was the lowest, it was, the last." . He then foretells of the fall" of the monarchy because, it represented "the aristocracy of proprietorship only,' and solely Tested upon that, the aristocracy of proprietorship which is.each day sapped, by internal dissensions,' and; will crumble away." The'final passage is very striking: "This is' the gulf which .will'swallow, up the present Government. . . Tn the hour. of its destruction our feelings as .a man will out-' .weigh our stoicism as a;-'citizen; one? voice will be heard crying, 'Let royaltyperish, but God save the King,' and that voice will 'he my voice."

The pen-portraits of famous French- • men which arc given in Uumsis's fas-cinating-pages include such' ivell-kuown names as Guizot and Thiers, la Fayette, Prince Louis, Napoleon (afterwards; Napoleon the Third), Arago, Casimir, ])elavigne, Victor Hugo, Laniartine, and others equally .famous. A detailed account is given of Fieschi's attempted assassination, of the King, arid of. the trial of the Corsican conspirator and his iwo accomplices, Morey, who constructed the infernal machine which fieschi manipulated, and Pepin, who' had hired the room whence the guns? were fired. The"final chapter, describing, the flight of Louis Philippe and liis family to England, makes pathetic reading. Never a brilliant," indeed; in many .ways, a very stupid mail, narrow-mimi-id, parsimonious to the verge of miser-' ' liness, the last King of the French had • certain good (nullities ivhicli must not be forgotten. He wasp. faithful husband," a good' father, and according to his own limited lights, ■honestly endeavoured to be a canahlo fend useful head of the nation. When he died, in 1850,> at his Bullish home, . ho was , in his seventy-sixth "year, bumas says: "During the seventy-six years since Louis XV, who died after r, debauch, this was tho fifth King of franco to be buried, and out of five ! . " J

of these Kings, one only, Louis XVIII, died in the Tuileries. Louis XVI had lic-civ guillotined on La Place de la Revolution, Napoleon died at St. Helena, Charles X at Goritz, Louis Philippe at Claremont. ' What a terrible refleo t-ion to those who still wished to reign." Dumas had full confidence m the power of the French democracy to withstand successfully aiiy attempt to -reestablish monarcbism in France, but He did not foresee the coup d'etat by j which Louis. Napoleon, after swearing allegiance to the Republic, betrayed it and made himself Emperor. He lived, however,-to see the advent of the "terrible year," and the downfall of the second Empire. To-day how proud would he not be of the third Republic, and of the superbly cool defiance of their foks which is being exhibited by the French people. The two volumes contain a large number of well-execut-ed photographic portraits of , members of the French Royal Family, and famous statesmen of the epoch dealt with in the history, also reproductions ■of old engravings of various historic iicenes, described in the work. ■ No public.' library should be without a copy nf this valuable addition to French historical literature.