Trial Chamber at the Luxembourg.--Institute.--M.
Mignet.--Concert Musard.
As a great and especial favour, we have been taken to see the new
chamber that has been erected at the Luxembourg for the trial of the
political prisoners. The appearance of the exterior is very handsome,
and though built wholly of wood, it corresponds perfectly, to all
outward seeming, with the old palace. The rich and massive style of
architecture is imitated to perfection: the heavy balustrades, the
gigantic bas-reliefs, are all vast, solid, and magnificent; and when
it is stated that the whole thing has been completed in the space of
two months, one is tempted to believe that Alladdin has turned
doctrinaire, and rubbed his lamp most diligently in the service of the
state.
The trial-chamber is a noble room; but from the great number of
prisoners, and greater still of witnesses expected to be examined, the
space left for the public is but small. Prudence, perhaps, may have
had as much to do with this as necessity: nor can we much wonder if
the peers of France should desire to have as little to do with the
Paris mob upon this occasion as possible.
I remarked that considerable space was left for passages, ante-rooms,
surroundings, and outposts of all sorts;--an excellent arrangement,
the wisdom of which cannot be questioned, as the attendance of a large
armed force must be indispensable. In fact, I believe it ever has been
and ever will be found, that troops furnish the only means of keeping
a remarkably free people in order.
It was, however, very comforting and satisfactory to hear the manner
in which the distinguished and agreeable individual who had procured
us the pleasure of seeing this building discoursed of the business
which was to be carried on there.
There is a quiet steadiness and confidence in their own strength among
these doctrinaries, that seems to promise well for the lasting
tranquillity of the country; nor does it impeach either their wisdom
or sincerity, if many among them adhere heart and hand to the
government, though they might have better liked a white than a
tri-coloured banner to wave over the palace of its head. Whatever the
standers-by may wish or feel about future struggles and future
changes, I think it is certain that no Frenchman who desires the
prosperity of his country can at the present moment wish for anything
but a continuance of the tranquillity she actually enjoys.
If, indeed, democracy were gaining ground,--if the frightful political
fallacies, among which the very young and the very ignorant are so apt
to bewilder themselves, were in any degree to be traced in the policy
pursued by the existing government,--then would the question be wholly
changed, and every honest man in full possession of his senses would
feel himself called upon to stay the plague with all his power and
might. But the very reverse of all this is evidently the case; and it
may be doubted if any sovereign in Europe has less taste for license
and misrule than King Louis-Philippe. Be very sure that it is not to
him that the radicals of any land must look for patronage,
encouragement, or support: they will not find it.
After quitting the Luxembourg, we went to the _bureau_ of the
secretary at the Institute, to request tickets for an annual sitting
of the five Academies, which took place yesterday. They were very
obligingly accorded--(O that our institutions, our academies, our
lectures, were thus liberally arranged!)--and yesterday we passed two
very agreeable hours in the place to which they admitted us.
I wish that the Polytechnic School, when they took a fancy for
changing the ancient _régimes_ of France, had included the uniform of
the Institute in their proscriptions. The improvement would have been
less doubtful than it is respecting some other of their innovations:
for what can be said in defence of a set of learned academicians,
varying in age from light and slender thirty to massive and
protuberant fourscore, wearing one and all a fancy blue dress-coat
"embroidered o'er with leaves of myrtle"? It is really a proof that
very good things were said and done at this sitting, when I declare
that my astonishment at the Corydon-like costume was forgotten within
the first half-hour.
We first witnessed the distribution of the prizes, and then heard one
or two members speak, or rather read their compositions. But the great
fête of the occasion was hearing a discourse pronounced by M. Mignet.
This gentleman is too celebrated not to have excited in us a very
earnest wish to hear him; and never was expectation more agreeably
gratified. Combined with the advantages of a remarkably fine face and
person, M. Mignet has a tone of voice and play of countenance
sufficient of themselves to secure the success of an orator. But on
this occasion he did not trust to these: his discourse was every way
admirable; subject, sentiment, composition, and delivery, all
excellent.
He had chosen for his theme the history of Martin Luther's appearance
before the Diet at Worms; and the manner in which he treated it
surprised as much as it delighted me. Not a single trait of that
powerful, steadfast, unbending character, which restored light to our
religion and freedom to the mind of man, escaped him: it was a mental
portrait, painted with the boldness of outline, breadth of light, and
vigour of colouring, which mark the hand of a consummate master.
But was it a Roman Catholic who pronounced this discourse?--Were they
Roman Catholics who filled every corner of the theatre, and listened
to him with attention so unbroken, and admiration so undisguised? I
know not. But for myself, I can truly declare, that my Protestant and
reformed feelings were never more gratified than by listening to this
eloquent history of the proudest moment of our great apostle's life,
pronounced in the centre of Cardinal Mazarin's palace. The concluding
words of the discourse were as follows:
"Sommé pendant quatre ans de se soumettre, Luther, pendant quatre ans,
dit non. Il avait dit non au légat; il avait dit non au pape; il dit
non à l'empereur. Dans ce non héroïque et fécond se trouvait la
liberté du monde."
Another discourse was announced to conclude the sitting of the day.
But when M. Mignet retired, no one appeared to take his place; and after
waiting for a few minutes, the numerous and very fashionable-looking
crowd dispersed themselves.
I recollected the anecdote told of the first representation of the
"Partie de Chasse de Henri Quatre," when the overture of Mehul
produced such an effect, that the audience would not permit anything
else to be performed after it. The piece, therefore, was
_remise_,--and so was the harangue of the academician who was to have
followed M. Mignet.
You will confess, I think, that we are not idle, when I tell you that,
after all this, we went in the evening to _Le Concert Musard_. This is
one of the pastimes to which we have hitherto had no parallel in
London. At half-past seven o'clock, you lounge into a fine, large,
well-lighted room, which is rapidly filled with company: a full and
good orchestra give you during a couple of hours some of the best and
most popular music of the season; and then you lounge out again, in
time to dress for a party, or eat ices at Tortoni's, or soberly to go
home for a domestic tea-drinking and early rest. For this concert you
pay a franc; and the humble price, together with the style of toilet
(every lady wearing a bonnet and shawl), might lead the uninitiated to
suppose that it was a recreation prepared for the _beau monde_ of the
Faubourg; but the long line of private carriages that occupies the
street at the conclusion of it, shows that, simple and unpretending as
is its style, this concert has attractions for the best company in
Paris.
The easy _entrée_ to it reminded me of the theatres of Germany. I
remarked many ladies coming in, two or three together, unattended by
any gentleman. Between the acts, the company promenaded round the
room, parties met and joined, and altogether it appeared to us a very
agreeable mode of gratifying that French necessity of amusing one's
self out of one's own house, which seems contagious in the very air of
Paris.