446 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IN 1874. 



sending of a French array into Italy, were par- 

 ticularly admired. In the presidential election 

 of 1848 he received only 370,119 votes, while 

 Louis Napoleon received 5,000,000, and Cavai- 

 gnac nearly 1,500,000. His eloquent appeals in 

 behalf of a truly republican government some- 

 what revived his popularity during the first 

 part of 1849. He fraternized with the ad- 

 vanced republicans, and at the elections of 

 that year was chosen by five departments. 

 This display of popular support encouraged 

 him to a still more hearty opposition to the 

 Government, and especially to present himself 

 as the defender of the Roman Republic, which 

 had been crushed by the arms of France. On 

 June 13th he and his adherents attempted an 

 insurrectionary demonstration in Paris; but, 

 before they had time to take any decisive 

 measures, the insurgents were surrounded by 

 troops and completely overpowered. Ledru- 

 Rollin, after remaining concealed for about 

 three weeks, escaped to Belgium and thence to 

 England, whence he directed a solemn protest 

 againt the decree summoning him before the 

 High Court of Justice. He was sentenced by 

 default to transportation for life. In 1850 he 

 published a notable work on the decline of 

 England, and from time to time produced 

 other books and pamphlets, all characterized 

 by extreme views. He fraternized with the 

 leading revolutionists, such as Mazzini, Kos- 

 suth, and Ruge, and in 1857 was again con- 

 demned by default to transportation for being 

 concerned in a plot against Napoleon III. His 

 name was excepted from the general amnesty 

 of 1860, and he continued the unrelenting ene- 

 my of the imperial regime. In 1869 he was 

 again excepted by name from the general am- 

 nesty of that year; but in 1870, during the 

 short administration of Emile Ollivier, he was 

 amnestied and allowed to ree'nter France, and 

 on March 25th made his appearance in Paris, 

 after an absence of more than twenty years. 

 He was returned to the National Assembly for 

 three departments in February, 1871, but re- 

 signed at once, having previously refused to be 

 a candidate. He had since remained in retire- 

 ment. Besides the works already named, M. 

 Ledru-Rollin had published : " Orations and 

 Pleadings ; " "A Letter to M. de Lamartine, on 

 the State, the Church, and Education " (1844) ; 

 " On Pauperism in the Rural Districts, and the 

 Reforms needed to abolish Mendicity;" and 

 several pamphlets disavowing all connection 

 with the socialists. 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROG- 

 RESS IN 1874. According to statistical data, 

 our literature flourished during the past year, 

 for the Librarian of Congress reports an in- 

 crease in the number of copyrights over that 

 of the year preceding. But here, if figures do 

 not lie, they at least convey an erroneous im- 

 pression. Including school-books and ephem- 

 eral publications of all sorts, the mass of print- 

 ed leaves that come legitimately under the 

 name of books may have been -larger, but 



of literature proper there was a diminished 

 amount. Yet, it is a good token that, when 

 account is taken of the number of copies cir- 

 culated, some of the best books have had a 

 clear advantage above their inferiors. It will 

 be found, also, in noticing the works of which 

 an account is given in the following pages, 

 that, though the number of important produc- 

 tions in the higher departments of literature is 

 not large, yet enough will be recognized as 

 of such superior merit that they make up in 

 weight some part of what they lack in number. 

 HISTORY. In this important department of 

 composition, more perhaps than in any other, 

 contributions of enduring value have been 

 made to our literature. Mr. Bancroft's tenth 

 volume, completing his standard " History of 

 the United States," is worthy of the reputa- 

 tion won by his previous volumes. His treat- 

 ment of the military operations in the Revolu- 

 tionary War has occasioned no little contro- 

 versy, but no room has been left to question 

 the value of the material he has gathered to 

 illustrate the diplomatic relations of the war, 

 which he has used with brilliant effect. It is 

 to be regretted that he did not select a later 

 period for the termination of his work. A 

 narrative covering the interval between the 

 acknowledgment of American independence 

 and the organization of the national govern- 

 ment, from the materials he must have at his 

 command, would throw light on a portion of 

 our annals that has not been heretofore ade- 

 quately explored. In " The Life and Death 

 of John of Barneveld," Mr. Motley has fur- 

 nished a valuable and deeply-interesting con- 

 tinuation of his historical works on the Neth- 

 erlands, while he permits us to regard it as 

 the promise of another brilliant woik a his- 

 tory of the Thirty Years' War. " The Old 

 Regime in Canada," by Francis Parkman, car- 

 ries forward the admirable series, in which 

 the author is tracing the course of French ex- 

 ploration and attempted colonization on this 

 continent. A work of historical importance, 

 though autobiographical in form, in course of 

 publication, is the " Memoirs of John Quincy 

 Adams, comprising Portions of his Diary from 

 1796 to 1848," edited by Charles Francis 

 Adams. A second volume of Vice-President 

 Wilson's "History, of the Rise and Fall of the 

 Slave Power " covers an important portion of 

 that epoch of our political history which was 

 closed by the Civil War. His narrative is not 

 specially brilliant, but is remarkable for its 

 dispassionate treatment of a strife in which 

 the author bore so prominent a part. To the 

 materials for a history of the war itself, some 

 valuable contributions have been made. "Lin- 

 coln and Seward," by ex-Secretary Welles, con- 

 troversial in tone and not free from the asper- 

 ity of political partisanship, yet embodies state- 

 ments of fact by a competent witness that 

 cannot well be neglected by a future historian 

 of President Lincoln's Administration. "The 

 Life of Rear- Admiral Andrew Hull Foote," by 



