THE PARSON, PEN, AND PENCIL.
THREE volumes devoted to a three-weeks trip to Paris, including in that time a six-and-thirty hours flight to Tours and back again by railway, a similar run to Rouen, and a rapid excursion through Normandy, might seem to savour terribly of bookmaking; but there is no such vice in the case. Mr. Musgrave, "the Parson" of the titiepage, wields his "pen" agreeably; and his "pencil" illustrates the descriptions with an aptness that not only renders them clear but makes them striking. When dealing with externals obvious to eyesight or common apprehen- sion, he is somewhat too diffuse or garrulous, giving to his work a touch of the literary eketcher • but a minute fulness belongs to his nature— perhaps a little increased by the habit of pulpit discourse. On other sub- jects this fulness brings the original more completely before the reader ; and Mr. Mus,grave's range of observation is considerable. He is a con- noisseur as well as an amateur in art ; he is a "good judge of music.," if not a musician ; he has given great attention to agriculture. As a di- vine, he naturally bestowed a critical attention on the rival ritual, not merely in the more open displays such as most tourists in Catholic countries go to see, but on the more professional parts of the service, and the regulations connected with births, marriages, and burials. He seems to be an active man in parish and county business, with a turn for meetings of the "public society" kind. This disposition took him to charitable and ether institutions ; where his character as an English clergy- man, the goodnatured politeness of the French, and the traveller's evident wish to acquire information and readiness to impart it, procured him much attention, and enabled him to describe a good deal which tra- vellers rarely see, as the subjects are not to be found in guide-books, or at least not exhibited in "the Parson's" way. Mr. Musgrave also, by experience, has the faculty of making the most of his qualifications. He is an old traveller, acquainted with many parts of Europe, and familiar with France at different periods since 1816. Hence, he not only has the active habits of the traveller, which enable an old stager with good health to see much in a comparatively short space of time, by early rising and short cuts to things, but he is enabled to illustrate the present by com- parison with the distant or the past.
Another feature of the book is its tolerant and liberal temper. "The Parson" left his vicarage with his eldest son to enjoy himself; and he has the buoyant spirit of the holyday-maker, who finds a source of pleasure in everything, inanimate and animate, especially inhis fellow men. With- out being blind to some of the faults and vices of Paris, his estimate of the French generally is such as will tend to improve the good feeling be- tween the countries. He holds that the bulk of the people did not desire war, and never contemplated an invasion ; but he sees distinctly that the Duke of Wellington wished to guard, not against anything they were then bent upon doing, but against what might be done in the event of a war.
One object of Mr. Musgrave in writing his book was to furnish hints to tourists about objects meriting attention, of which little or insufficient mention is made in guide-books. This end is well accomplished by about a half of the work ; provided the tonrist has the author's ad- vantage of time and qualifications. The public meeting at the Blind School only occurs occasionally; the vesper service at St. Sulpice on the eve of St. Peter's, with its organ display, can only take place once a year ; and to do as the author did will require a readiness with the tongue, and the easy manners of the divine. In tarrying out his purpose, how- ever, the author is, as we have intimated, somewhat lengthy ; and he would be literal were it not for the judging eye with which he observes, and by which he animates his observations. The description of the shops of Paris might have been done by our old friend Reminiscent Grant, if he could have brought such a critical mind to his task. See, for example, how learnedly the sound divine estimates the positive and comparative merits of the French joints.
THE BUTCHERS' SHOPS ut swim.
The butchers' shops are respectable enough; but there is neither the fatted ex nor the well-fed, wholesomely pastured sheep, to produce the jolly sirloin of old England, or the elegant saddle and venison-like haunch we can command in small post-town in our own favoured country. I saw some joints of mutton and veal very tidily displayed on clean white cloths in the shops; but few hooks, ard par consequence, few hanging legs or ribs to tempt healthy appetite, and cons. tote one plain substantial dish. The legs of veal were invariably era out with the tail depending from them. As for the nobly proportioned fillet or rmn aitah-bone, or brisket, conveying by turns the wholesornest reminiscence of cJij round and cauliflower pickles, or hot marrow, dark gravy, and carrots, suet dump. hogs, and other such trimmings to salted beef ia its vaned presentations, then was no spectacle of the kind. The meat is disjointed uncomfortably, grotesquely shaped, and deplorably lean, The butchers have no more idea of the outline, even of a genuine steak, than they have of our Domesday Book. They cat a gibbous lump from any inferior fleshy part, somewhat akin to our "clods and stickings," give it a blow or two with es, chopper, and entitle it a " biftik." It contracts lie bulk on being placed in a fry. ing-pan or gridiron, by many a shifting, twisting movement, till its surface is in- dented, and full of little cavities, into which the infatuated cook pours oil, or but. ter melted into an oil, and a spoonful or two of shredded parsley; and this her. ror " is served away hot, Beton lea regles, tough as a pelican's leg, greasy as a tal- low-tub, sans fat, sans gravy, or Harvey sauoe, sans horse-radish, sans shalott or oysters, or any of those little relishing adjuncts which on our tables requite the teeth for occasionally extra labour and the outlay of tenpence on each pound of beef-steak.
FRENCH DELICACY.
There is a goodly collection of flags [at the Hfitel des Invadides) taken inwar; the majority of which were Turkish, Arabian, Austrian, and Italian. I plucked up resolution, and asked if there were any English flags. The attendant smiled, and quietly replied, "Four." On looking up, I eapied one King's fiag,.and three regi. mental colours of yellow ground,—accordant with the facings of the gallant re. giments from whose slaughtered ensigns they had been borne off, "Where mingled wars rattle
With groans of the dying."
These were suspended at too great a height to enable us to distinguish any particular device, or form the slightest conjecture as to the particular host over whose brave warriors they had waved in battle. Whilst we were gazing up, and endeavouring to decipher some initials on the three yellow flags, a French gentle- man, who was going over the building with a friend, quietly nudged our guide, and said, " Pourquoi tear montrer?" (Why show them that?) To which our attendant replied, with equal mildness "11 m'a prie." (He begged I would do so.) This trait of delicacy was very gr;itifying.
The trip to Tours was undertaken to examine the institution called the " Colonie Agrieole et Penitentiare," established for the purpose of re- ceiving and instructing youths who have been convicted of various mis- demeanours, but who have "transgressed rather from not having been brought up in habits of rectitude than from the impulses of a mind hard. ened in vice." And of this society and its working Mr. Musgrave gives a full description. Nearly a third of his work is devoted to an elaborate account of the agriculture of Picardy and Normandy. Part of this sur- vey was the result of cursory observation, but the greater part of it took place under some advantages. Mr. Musgrave addressed a note to M. de Paganel, the Director of the Board of Agriculture and Trade, expressing his wish to inquire into the subject, and requesting an interview: A courteous answer and an appointment immediately followed; after a long interview, M. de Bitruni, proffered letters of introetection to agricul- turists near Rouen, whither Mr. Musgrave was going. In consequence of this powerful and polite assistance, spontaneously offered by a public functionary to an English inquirer, our author was able to investigate the buildings and management of two crack Norman farms, to discuss agricultural topics with the leading agriculturists, and to examine the archives and the management of their agricultural societies. To enter fully into this practical and important subject, would be out of place in our literary department; but the principal resets are, that in intelligence, management, accuracy, and science, the French agricultnriiii are supe- rior to the English ; but, except on a few first-rate farms, the produce is inferior to ours, owing to a bad system and insufficient capital. The real root of the evil is traced by Mr. Musgrave and his French friends to the system of partition, which, continually subdividing the land, leaves the "peasant proprietor" without space or means to follow any proper sys- tem of cultivation, or even to carry out his own. The good wages of farm-servants, exhibited at large by our traveller, seem, however, to mili- tate against this view ; unless we allow so much weight to the lave of proprietorship, as to assume that a man would rather starve as his own master than live sufficiently under another.
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