VICTOR HUGO'S POPULARITY IN FRANCE.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3024, 24 October 1878, Page 3

VICTOR HUGO'S POPULARITY IN FRANCE.

Of Victor Hugo Mr Oonway writes to the Ginoinnati Commercial:—l believe Victor Hugo to be really the most popular man in France. Hi« "History of a Grime " has gone through the nation like wildfire, and produced a profound impresiion. On erery wall and old tree, on country roads as well as in cities, may now be seen the tragic picture of a man laid out on stone which advertises the work, and this being published in cheap parts, nearly everyone is able to obtain from it tome impression of that fearful crime which is the heavy burden Buonapartists XDUBt bear. If there could just now be a fair and square competition between Marshal MacMahon, in whom Napoleon 111. found a ready tool, and Victor Hugo, in whom he found a relentless foe, I feel certain the latter would triumph. The enthusiasm for the poet and the author grows daily, and the people appear to be just waking up to the idea that the great exile of the Empire is the truest successor of the Emperor, and natural President of the Republic. But Victor Hugo seems to have no personal ambition in this direction. He is too deeply satisfied with the new-found bliss of saying to the French people from the capital, which is his Mecca, just what he feels and thinks, to aspire aft«r power. Probably his destiny will be somewhat like that of Mazzini, whose statue was crowned with laurel on Capitol Hill at 'Home—after he was dead. -...,.