LITERARY NOTES. Paris, October 14.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2228, 19 October 1886, Page 4

LITERARY NOTES. Paris, October 14.

At what age docs memory with an infant commence to be fixed ? At the age of throe the .souvenirs of the first two years dwindle to unconsciousness. Now to know a man it is necessary to study the child. The period between three and seven yeais M. Perez regards as that wheie the intellectual dc\el<>puu>nt of an infant is moist continuous, and where the e\olutnm is mo^t marked. It i* th'Mi that the blood is dm en in rapid and abundant eiments to the brain, to feed and form the pi owing connections. It is the acre most favoniable to the registration of perceptions, of emotions, and of simple judgments. At three year* the infant hardly lemembers things which have occurred within the last eight <>r ten months ; or at least they rarely float in the flex and reflex of buperior reminiscences. At least we can discover no trace of the impressions of that tender age in those wnters who have nat rated their childhood. Itousscan confesses his inability to recall what he did firther back than when five or six years old ; he knew not how he learned to read ; they were the impressions of his reading that he could only bi ing to his mind, anchit was about the same time that commenced and continued the consciousness of self. Jules Valles, Daudet, and other modern writers who have treated of their infancy do not relate any of its incident*. M. Ribot .states that often in case of great mental excitement the memory of adults will summon up circumstances dating from their early youth. Instances have occurred where a child remembers a circumstance happening when aged only two, and failing to recall what took place at four yeais old. Every one can test that it is easier to evoke souvenirs of events which occurred in early childhood, three to seven, at 25 to 30 years of age, than when aged 100 years. It is by noting the differences in the retentive faculty— which, according to Bain is at its nmxitnum between six and eleven years, that the educationist can measure the dose of knowledge to administer to youth, and thus place instruction on a rational basis. France had eleven "National"' Exhibitions, between the first, in 17i)S with 111 exhibitors, and the last in 1549 with 4532. The Prince Consort originated the idea of the " International " show, and Sir Joseph Pa.xton gave it a glass home, in 1851 at London. France copied this in 1855, with her first universal Exhibition, and 24,000 exhibitors ; this was succeeded by the World's Fairs of 1807 and 1878 ; the latter with 53,000 exhibitors. To these may be added the decided upon Centennial exhibi- , tion foi 1889. The Directory, in 170S, in its plan of an exhibition of national products, ranked it as merely a "spectacle of a new kind." It was a sort of pendant to the fete oiganised in 1708, to welcome the reception of the artistic spoils that General Bonaparte carried away as the sequence of his Italian campaign — which art treasures France had to return to their rightful owneis by the treaty of Vienna. The practical business proposition of focusing specimens of the nation's industry for the hist time — and on the Champs de Mars too, that "Fair Green "of Parisians, was due to a poetFrancois de IS euf chateau. He urged, that an appeal be made to all the useful arts which contribute to the prosperity of the nation, which nourish man, that minister to all his wants, and which aid his natural faculties by the invention and employment of machines— those arts, in a word, which form the bond of society ; that are the soul of commerce and agriculture ; and the most fruitful source of riches and joys. The Exhibition nearly collapsed, owing to the refusal of England to make peace. The English Government was consequently roundly abused for "conspiring against French liberty and the whole world." The directory publicly announced its revenge on England for her disturbing the festival of peace. An army was enrolled to invade Great Britain. Napoleon, who had just arrived in Pans, was nominated to its command. But he preferred to wound England through India by annexing Egypt, and making the valley of the Nile the head quarters for his invasion of the Ea«t. In due tune the effervescence calmed down, to take an industrial revenge on the British. The Exhibition building in the Champs de Mars was an amphitheatre, enclosed by a square frame of wooden pillars. The exhibits were to be Fiench, and the best of their kind. Admission was fiee. The in,iugiuation took place on the Premieie sans Culottide. When the jury had indicated the model exhibits the latter weie collected into a special apace called the "Temple of Industry." In this holiest of holies an orchestra, executed the choicest symphonies, while at the «.\nn' time the porticoes of thp building were illuminated. The names of the prize winners were announced between salutes of artilluiy. The bouquet of the ceremony consisted in the bombardment of a big ship, symbolizing England, with firenades and (heck Hie, thrown down from balloons. Fui ther ; in the officially reserved places, noindmdual was allowed to enter, unless clad in home numufactuies. It is thus that appeared nankeen — then for the Kr&t time manufactured in France, jackets and pantaloons to match. There were only 111 exhibitor*, representing l(i out of the 88 departments ; and like all .subsequent shows, the building was not completed on the day of inauguration. Tli>3 Exhibition appeared to realise what the deciee of Turgot of 1770 laid downemancipation of work ; that is, the liberty to sell. Since two centuries the tailors were divided into Montague and Capulet guilds, respecting the vending of old and new clothing; the shoemakers relative to new and cast-off shoes ; the publisher* apple of discoid was o\er-selling secondhand volumes ; the lock smith*' because not allowed to make the nails required for their own use. Many inventions and improvements in the arts and industry date from this first national exhibition, and that, the jury declared, fully justified "the envy and jealousy of rivals." The successful exhibitor* received silver medals, and the industriel whose business inflicted the most fatal blow to any English manufacture* was rewarded with a gold medal. Tempora mutantnr ! Navy-Lieutenant Gouin estimates the total population of Tonkin at ten millions, and the area of the Delta at 8,000 square miles ; the base of the delta is 100 mile* wide, and 50 from base to apex. Oysterfishing is original. Two men m a small boat stop in the middle of the river, where tho water is frequently 33 feet deep. They throw overboard a large stone attached to a rope ; one of the men glides down this rope, and in a few seconds he arrives at the bottom and detacher the oysters. Then lie chucks a line communicating with his comrade in the boat, who pulls up the halfasphixiated diver and his finds. The 11 natives " thus dredged fetch one or two sous per dozen ! Baron de Casse draws the attention to several unpublished letters of the First Napoleon, and to be found in the thirty-two magnificent volumes brought out between 1854-70 by Napoleon 111, under the editorship of his cousin, Prince Jerome. In August, 1801, Napoleon tells his youngest brother, Jerome, later king of Westphalia, to pur.sue his sailor career practically, and to become the beat of middies. He does not object to his dying young, provided he can cover himself with glory. To his elder brother, Joseph, who was king of Naples and Spain, he writes from Milan in December, 1790 : " The dances, the plays, and the ladies of Milan are the most beautiful in the world, and form the grand preoccupation of everyone." In the following May he writes also to him : " Malta has cost us two days of cannonading and it is the strongest place in Europe." Later he directs that "the interest on 100,000f., which he has inve&ted in the pawn offices, be added to the capital. Tell Louis to give good advice to my wife." In March, 1800, he wrote to Joseph : " Monsieur de Stael is the most profound misery, and his wife gives dinners and balls. If you see her still persuade her to allow her husband a pension of l,ooof. or 2,000f. a month. In 1803 he wrote from the camp at Boulogne respecting "Paulette," the pet name for his yoangest and handsome sister, Pauline, married to General Leclerc whe was killed at St. Domingo, who later became the Princess Borghese: "Paulette states the banns of her marriage ha\e been published. Let mamma write to the mother of Prince Borghese at Rome introducing her." In 1804 he wrote from Alexandria to Cambactres: "No act is necessary to annul ' the marriage of Jerome with Madlle Paterson. If he wishes to contract a new union in France, the registrars will admit it, and they would be acting right. Miss Pater- | son, I see, has been at London and created a sensation, which condemns her more than ever." The«e letters were discovered in Corsica by the brother of the notorious anarchist, Blanqui. The earliest date from October 1783, when Bonaparte was only 14, and at school in Brienne. He always wrote to his father in a spirit of affectionate gravity, displaying quite a paternal interest in the bringing up of his brothers. Joseph was intended for the chuicb, his uncle Fesch buiug then an archdeacon. Joseph was

weak in health and deficient in boldness to become a soldier ; besides, he was lazy, and had no other idea of army life than to reside in barracks and be a man upon town, lie had talents for society and tact for the frivolities of the world, but for campaigning that vas doubtful. When a sub-lieutenant and quartered at Au\onne in July 17SN, the futiuo Emperor was low in health and lean in purse. Ho wrote to a family friend :— " I have no other resources than my work ; I dre-a but once a week ; I vsleep but little since my illness ; Lgo to bed at ton and rise at six, and only oat once a day." He was then 1!) years of ngp, and these habits characterised Inm through life. Henover caved for table pleasiues; a chop and a few glasses of Chambertin wino formed at any time and moment his chief daily meal, and that he despatched in ten minutes. He always recommended those who expected a good dinner to seek an invitation to the table of his matshals. Napoleon 111. had the reputation ot giving the worst dinners in France. Napoleon I. was a short sleeper, and could go to sleep at any hour if necessary. He exacted never to be wakened unless theie wax bad news to communicate. It is also asseited he larely e\er dreamed. Till now, no one very clearly knew why that model ambassador from Austria to France, the Comte yon Beust, was called. He id a native of Saxony, yet it is to him reverts the honour of having, in 18(17, Austria —that conglomeration of eleven colonies or nationalities— from dislocation. The Comte is now SO yeais of age, and lives in the vicinity of Vienna, " the world forgetting, by the world forgot. " Hois *till juvenile aiid elastic, ft is over 46 years since he i first visited France, as an attache' of the Saxon embassy. The- day after his arrival in Paris, eager to commence lionising, lip j was unexpectedly caught at the Porte St. Denis, between the cro^s tire of the insurgents led by Bathes (and where M. Grevy, then a law student, tigmed), and the troop-,. The combatants seemed to have sprung up from the Boulevard by enchantment. Comte de Beu&t was an inveterate purchaser ot curios while here. It was thus he picked up a precious copy of Gobelins tapestry, dating from the reign of Louis XIII, subject: " The pains of Hell." This hangs m the ante-chamber to his study, the fittest decoration, he consider^, for a diplomatist's residence. The four walls of his study are covered with engravings, photos, extracts from the public journal and caricatures, all contemporary with his public career. One side is dedicated to the Eastern question — on the solution of which solutionless problem hangs the fate of Austria. The other walls are appiopnated to London, Vienna and Paris, Many of the portraits and photos are souvenns with dedications by their illustrious subjects. The Comte attributes the abrupt termination of his public career to the intxigues of the Court of Vienna, which accused him of supplying to his intimate friend, Madame Adauio, editress and proprietress of the Nouvelle l\t'-\ue, the material for her sketches uf Vienna Imperial life, published under the mask of Comte de Vasili. It is above all Prince Bismarck he accuses, because in an inaugural address delivered in this city, before the International Literary Society, he avowed " his heart was French." He states the reason why the alliance between France and Austria in 1870 fell through was owing to the refusal of Napolepn to bind himself to a common programmed t Austria suspected Napoleon would acfcks he did at Villafranca towards Italy— fight a battle or two, then leave Austria at the mercy of Geimany, to pay the expenses of the war. When the French were beaten at Speickern Napoleon condescended to remember the projected alliance. "Oh! what about that alliance?" asked his majesty. " Sire, is it that one makes alliance with the conquered?" was the crushing and fatal respouse he received. The Israelitish Annual for the current year states that theie are 0,300,000 Jews in the world, of which five trillions are in Europe. M. Prague rotnnrks thp creed of the Talmud is) progressing, save in Italy, where the flesh pots of Egypt are undermining Jewish manners. In France the Isiaelites flourish in the Legislature and the Academy. Though some Jews are ennobled by Gentiles they have not want of the Crusade* from which to date their patents. All Israelites ate the children of kinga, aristocrats remounting thirty-two centuries up the stream of time to the foot of Mount Sinai, where God ennobled his chosen people.