1U 



MARRTAT, FREDERICK. 



MARS, ANNE-FRANCOISK. 



lie 



NalieakTtn 1SJ4; and on the death of CarreL July 24th l?3tl, be 

 MGSSiili him as chief editor. From thU tima until the revolution of 

 February 1848, period of nearly twelve years. Marra*t conducted 

 the* jowwl, cad maintained it in the high position it had acquired 

 ader Thkn. its first editor . and then under Caml. 



During 14T, serfs* of exciting incidents rapidly followed one 

 another, highly favourable to Marrast's eatirical ability. At one time, 



, 



it wee a course of miniitcrial prosecutions ; at another, rumour* of 

 bribery and corruption among men high in office ; next, theee rumours 

 were Bceeeded by flagrant exposure* or confessions ; and, lastly, came 

 the semn.Ul of an sssealnsllnn in the mansion of a great noble. The 

 repablican journals made the mort of theM incident*, and 'Le 

 National' took the lead in denouncing the government and the court. 

 The revolution of February, and the abdication of Louis Philippe, 

 followed. Pending the criau of thi* event, the office of < Le National ' 

 became for a few day* the aeat of goremment ; and deputations visited 

 Marrast, and receired their instructions from him. Hi name was 

 now on every tongne ; and whrn Lamartine wai placed by the rapid 

 utmiess of erenU at the bead of the provisional government, Marrut 

 necims secretary, afterwardi maire de Paris, and finally president 

 of the National Assembly. Thii but office was limited by a new 

 reguUtion to one month ; but the urbanity of the new president, and 

 hi* extraordinary influence orer the 900 member* in consequence of 

 hi* tact in calling them to order by humorous appeals, caused him to 

 be re elected several times. To him likewise was committed the task 

 of drawing up the new constitution. But the red republican party 

 soon found Uiat Marrast was not advanced enough for thorn ; they 

 began to stif matise him a* moderate, and his popularity fast declined. 

 On the 15th of May 1848 the insurgents, beaded by Barbie and Bbinqui, 

 forced their way into the HOel-de-Ville, tbeir first cry beiug " Where 

 is Mams* I We must make an end of that soft-handed republican !'' 

 But be had withdrawn for concealment to a private chamber which 

 was not searched. After the iniumctiou of June, and the conse- 

 quent dissolution of the .Lamartine cabinet, Harrast retired into 

 private life. We believe that he (till contributed to ' Le National ' 

 without any longer being its editor, until the paper was suppressed 

 fay the government of Louis Napoleon, lie died on the 10th of 

 M.rch 1822. 



MAKKYAT, FREDERICK, was born in London on the 10th of 

 July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, Eq., of Wimbledon, Surrey, 

 was a wealthy West India merchant, and M.P. for Sandwich, aud 

 traced bis descent from a French Protestant refugee, who had come 

 over to England in the 16th century. His mother was the daughter 

 of an American loyalist After being educated at variou* schooli in 

 and near London, young Marryat entered the naval service in Sep- 

 tember loO, as a midshipman on board the Impt'-rieuse, 44 guns, 

 omwmended by the celebrated Lord Cochrane. Under this daring 

 onm mender be was engaged in upwards of fifty actions, of more or less 

 importance, off the French and Mediterranean ooaita during the next 

 thrte yer. In one be was left for dead ou the deck of a ship which 

 be had boarded, and only recovered when a fellow midshipman, who 

 bad a grudg. against him, touched his supposed dead body with his 

 foot, and began to moralise in rather uncomplimentary terms on hi* 

 premature exit from life, The reputation for gallantry and ability 

 which be acquired under Lord Cochrane, was amply sustained by his 



i additional years 



conduct UDO. r other commanders during three 



erviee as a midship 



yean of 



On fuur or five occasions he saved men from 



drowning by leaping overboard, at the risk of his own life. On one 

 eaab occasion be saved the life of a son of William Cobbett, then his 

 fellow midshipman. At another time, on jumping overboard in an 

 attempt to save a sailor's life, be found to his horror tho man bleeding 

 from the maw of one of three sharks that were following the ship ; and 

 he bad given himself over for lost before he was picked up. In 1812 

 be was appointed to his lieutenancy on board the Kspiogle sloop, 

 whence be removed to the Newcastle, sent under Lord George Stuart, 

 toerwM off the American coast He attained a commander's rank 

 in 1*16. la 1820 be commanded the Beacon sloop off St. Helena, 

 whence be exchanged into the Rosario, in which he brought home 

 fcsasln 1 i despatches announcing the death of Napoleon. After being 

 I tor some time in the preventive service, he was appointed 

 _ 182J to the Lame, 18 guns, and proceeded to the East 

 He was senior naval officer in the attack on Rangoon, and in 

 Dec. 1 (.84 be accompanied Sir Robert Sale in the expedition up the 

 BMssiaKivsr. His good services in the East Indies procured him the 

 thanks of U . gov.iitoraeueial and much distinction at home. In 

 i be raosrvtd the decoration of C.B., and at the fame time 



, J ., 



the Boyal Hataaiw Society awarded him its medal for having saved 

 so many lives from drowning. From November 1828 to November 



at this Urn*, wbra be was approaching Us fortieth year, that be bega^ 

 Us career as a novelist by the publication of his ' Frank ilildmay ' 



Tntt * fit] Ixvesr^tft *fe4i \ iJ t ! -! 1 J * 4 |_ 



I intervale during the next sixteen yean by 

 " sU-stK>wn writings, meet of them novels of sea-life' I'eUr 

 .1 J * eob r 'MV * J*pb* in Search of a Father,' The King 

 'Mr. llldabipman Eay,' 'Newton Forrter,' 'The Pacha of 

 ales, 'Bstuia the Keefrr,' 'Snarly-yew or the Doe-Fiend' 

 hildren of the New Forest,' 'OUa Podrida,' "The Pirate and 

 TSWK Cottons' ' The Pbantom Ship,' Poor Jack.' The Poacher,' 



' llatterman Ready,' ' Percival Keene,' ' The Narrative of Monsieur 

 Violet in California, Ac.,' ' The Settlers in Canada,' ' The Mission, or 

 Scenes in Africa,' ' The Privateer's Man,' and ' Valerie.' The merits 

 of these works as amusing works of adventure and description are 

 universally known. Besides these, he published in 1837 a work of a 

 different class, ' A Code of Signals for the use of vessel* employed in 

 the Merchant Service,' which wo* adopted by government, aud is now 

 in general use by our own and all foreign navies, and which procured 

 him the cross of the Legion of Honour from Louis Philippe. He 

 also published in 1389 in two series of three volume* each, 'A 

 Diary in America, with remarks on its Institutions,' a work which 

 gave great offence to the Americans by it* satirical spirit. It 

 is said that the free expression of opinions by Captain Marryat 

 against the practice of impressment was the cause of his not having 

 been raised to higher professional rank. For a year or more before 

 his death he was laid aside from duty and literary labour by an 

 illness arising from the bunting of several blood-vessels. He died 

 at his residence at Langham, Norfolkshire, on the 2nd of August 

 1848, aged fifty-six years. By his marriage with Catherine, daughter 

 of Sir Stephen Shairp, once chargd-d'affaires at the court of Russia, he 

 bad six children. Of two of his sons who had entered the navy, ouo 

 perished, before his father's death, in the Avenger steamer ; one of his 

 daughters has recently appeared in her father's character as a writer of 

 novels. Captain Marryat was a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



MARS, ANNE-FRA.NCOISE-HYPPOLITE BOUTET, known as 

 MADEMOISELLE MARS, was born in Paris on the 9th of February 

 1778 ; her father being the actor Monvel of the The'Atre Montansicr ; 

 her mother a country actress named Mars-Boutet. She appeared 

 before she was ten years old in juvenile parts, and in 17U3 she 

 already filled at the The'Atre Feydeau, what on the French stage are 

 called " les roles d'ingiiuues." She met with a generous patroness in 

 Mademoiselle Contat, then the leading actress in comedy, and received 

 from her the beat training for the cast of characters which her early 

 talents pointed out as her own. After she had made herself familiar 

 with these parts of the young girl, she was induced, still directed 

 by Mademoiselle Contat, to attempt ' les jeunes amoureuses ; ' in 

 which characters she succeeded to the first place, after the retirement 

 of Meedemoisellea Mecoray and Lange in 1798. She was then twenty. 

 Her fine talent was very gradual in its development, nor did the 

 public at all foresee what she would become. It was not until 1803 

 that her first marked success had been obtained. In that year the 

 part of a deaf and dumb pupil of the Abbd de 1'Epee, in the pieca of 

 that name, having been assigned to her, she displayed so much feeling, 

 ingenuousness, and grace in its performance, that from that night she 

 took rank as one of the great comic actresses. Her talents rapidly 

 increased under the influence of cordial encouragement. Her kind 

 instructress, Mademoiselle Contat, took leave off the stage in 1809, 

 leaving the inheritance of her 'repertoire' to be divided between 

 Mademoiselle Mars and Mademoiselle Leverd, which gave rise to a 

 long contest between the rival stars. The former however Boon 

 distanced all competitors, and for a space of thirty years stood at the 

 head of all French actresses in genteel comedy, gaining a new success 

 in every new part, down to that of Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle, in 

 Dumas 's drama, which she played for the first time on the 2nd of 

 April 1839, when she had passed the age of three-score. 



Yet, although she never refused to take the leading characters in 

 plays of the new school, and in each achieved a new triumph, she was 

 to the last opposed to the modern romanciatf, and generally required 

 extensive changes to be made in her own parts, victor Hugo nml 

 the elder Dumas were sometimes embarrassed by her criticisms and 

 (strictures, and the hitter, in his ' Memoires,' has described some 

 piquant disputes of this nature between the actress and the dramatists. 

 But her grandest delineations were in the ancient drama, especially 

 in the comedies of Molicre. In the lady of fashion, in the coquette of 

 the beau monde, every spectator felt the collected self-possession, 

 the fulness of attention with which she performed these characters. 

 It was her resolute will and extraordinary ability which alone kept 

 alive a respect for the ancient dramatic literature iu the house to 

 which she belonged, when a dozen theatres and fifty modern drama- 

 tists were endeavouring to subvert it. 



Those who never saw Mademoiselle Mars ou the stage, can form no 

 idea of the simplicity, the seeming artlessness, the graceful elegance 

 of her acting ; nor of the music of her voice, so distinct that the very 

 letters seemed printed in it, nor of the exquisite expression of her 

 mile. Her form was very fine, her gait easy yet majestic, her costume 

 remarkably elegant and distinguished. Sue was one of the share- 

 holders of the The'Atre Francois, and her yearly rent from this source 

 amounted to 40,000 francs; and, in 1816, Louis XVIII. settled on 

 her as well as on Talma a pension of 30,000 francs. The hotel in 

 which she lived was open to the most celebrated foreign as well as 

 native artists aud literati, some of whom were daily to be seen paying 

 their court to her. Hho was sedulously attentive to the critics and 

 feuilletonists, all of whom vied with each other in describing her 

 performances. On the night of the 7th of March 1841 she appeared 

 for the last time on the boards of the Theatre Franvais, in tho 

 Misanthrope' and tho 'Fausses Confidences.' It was of course a 

 benefit uight, and for the last time she performed the parts of 

 CoMimonc aud Araminte. She died on the 20th of March 1847, her 



