Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1

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[248] present, and that the principles of the law of Nature, therefore, must be universal. From his lecture room I passed to the École de Droit, where I found an audience of five hundred listening to a thick, black-headed man, M. Bugnet;¹ who was speaking on the code, commenting on some sections of the title relating to marriage.

This evening, was persuaded by a friend to sacrifice a French lesson and visit the French Opera, to witness the opera of the Huguenots, founded on the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The French Opera was large and brilliant beyond my anticipation, the stage extensive, the scenery imposing, and the whole machinery of the piece a wonderful spectacle. The Duc de Nemours,² a tall youth of about twenty-three or twenty-four, the second son of the King, was pointed out to me in a conspicuous box near the stage. This theatre, like many others, is under the patronage of Government, its expenses being included in the civil list.

Feb. 6. Jouffroy was to-day again prevented from lecturing, on account of indisposition. I heard again Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on zoology. He was pursuing the subject which he treated when I last heard him,—the harmony between the different parts of animals. He seems to be very popular; the close of his lecture is invariably attended by applause, and sometimes there is a straggling ‘bravo.’

Feb. 7. Dined by invitation to-day with Mr. O'Donnell, to whom I brought a letter of introduction from Mr. McNally of Baltimore. He was a simple man in his appearance, about forty or forty-two years old, who I believe lives at Paris for the sake of economy. He is a constant writer in ‘Blackwood,’ being the author of all the articles of late in that journal on the subject of France. I talked with him considerably in relation to the duties of the editor, &c. He told me that Wilson had fifteen hundred pounds a year as editor, and that contributors received sixteen guineas a sheet; that the duty of the editor is to write for the journal, and lend his name to it, and to examine or read a contribution from an untried hand; that the editor never reads the contributions of one of the regular corps, but that these are sent direct to the printer: further, that the editor never alters the manuscript of an article, but preserves the ipsissima verba of the writer; and, if the article in the shape presented is not worthy of publication, it is returned, without any troublesome attempt on the part of the editor to put it into shape. I have noted these things, as they are different somewhat from the practice in America. The Noctes Ambrosiano; Mr. O'Donnell told me had been discontinued, on account of the death of Ambrose, in whose tavern they were represented as taking place, and also of Hogg and some others.

Feb. 8. Heard this morning before breakfast Royer-Collard and Poncelet³ at the École de Droit. The former continued his review of the