790 Revieivs of Books of 1830 so interfered with the writer's position and plans (he lived in provincial literary labors till 1847) that he abandoned a publication that perhaps would not have been safe under the July monarchy (there are frequent attacks upon the Due d'Orleans). What the editor has now done in the way of revision or arrangement is not shown ; almost the only editorial work visible is a very inadequate biographical sketch, and a large amount of personal notes of this order: "Jean-Pierre-Claude- Nicolas Moyne-Petiot, depute de Saone-et-Loire de 1828 a 1830 ; ne en 17S3, morten 1853," — information that we are given in regard to almost every individual mentioned (a vast number), no matter how incidental the reference or how obscure the person (generally however without any statement of political affiliations). And yet this is precisely a case where full editorial aid is essential, where it ought to be lavished in making clear to us obscure political situations and connections that the writer refers to in ordinary pamphleteering style. What is the value of these "Souvenirs" to the investigator? They are written by a man of sixty who is a devoted Royalist of the more moderate Villele section. They are written in the bitterness of impend- ing or accomplished defeat by a man who had always been distinguished among his own narrow and passionate and intolerant associates for his uncompromising political positions and the violence of his expression of them.' It is evident therefore that we must scrutinize every sentence with deep distrust. The writer had been an emigre (as the editor naively puts it, "avait voyage en Allemagne en 1790 et 1791 "), whose father had lost his head on a revolutionary scaffold in 1794, and who himself had fought among the Vendeans ; elected from Blois to the " Chambre Introuvable " in 1815, he held that seat till 1830. He was in his day of no particular political importance, though a characteristic and respected figure, and was never in office ; his tastes were literary and a large section of the editor's meagre introduction is occupied by a list of his very varied productions. The reader of the Souvenirs will not be surprised that none of these productions had previously been known to him ; though a felicitous expression here and there and poetical effu- sions scattered throughout bear witness to the "esprit" with which Mme. de Stael credited him, the book is on the whole dreary reading. In what degree does M. de Salaberry illustrate the opinions and pas- sions of the Ultra- Royalists in the years 1821-30? The epoch to which the writer always looks back fondly is that of the " Chambre Introuvable," and he cannot forget or forgive its dismissal in 18 16. Richelieu is for him a nincompoop, all his supporters fools or knaves; it is only with Charles X. that the good time comes fully in again. There could be no better illustration of the attitude toward the crown of the Ultra-Royalists than we have in M. de Salaberry's hysterical account of the coronation of Charles X. (I. 173-191). .-Vll Liberals are to him revolutionist, anti- monarchial, Carbonarist, made such simply by private passions and ■ See editor's preface, pp. xii, xiii. The Count was referred to in a political squib of the time as " Don Quichotte Salaberry."
