LOOKING BACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 280, 26 November 1938, Page 21

LOOKING BACK.

EVENTS RECALLED, j NOTABLE ANNIVERSARIES, i DUMAS, FATHER AND SON. | , I (By MAX WHATMAN*). | Although (}| o older Dumas wrote books j that will live long after tlie younger; Dumas is forgotten, tlic son gained one ! signal honour that was not accorded to j the father. He was elected into the! aiigns( assembly of the French Academy. They were a *4 range pair, the two I Dumas. 'I'he s«m was illruit his ! mother being a dresniaker. At 1 lie time of the son's birth, Dumas 4he elder \*as only a struggling clerk, but as he | became pnwperoii*. he recognised lii« son, I gave him his name, and had him decent!v ' (•(lucated. " j The two Dumas explored Paris together, and there were few of its mysteries hidden from this enterprising pair. I'lie ison admired and liked his lather, yet, strangely enough, lie was not in any way under his literary iuflu- | ence. Such books as "The Three ! Musketeers' and its successors were not for Duma* (il.s. He took himself verv seriously indeed, and most of his writings pointed a moral. Ilis best work was not seen in his novels but ill his plays, the most notalde of which is ''I.a Dam* l au\ ( amcllias. <»11 ngr Dumas had imagined his fathers resources to l>e unlimited, and he got a severe shock when he was rudely disillusioned. The father's expenditure had been prodigal and the coders were empty. Dumas the set to work to pay oH" his father's debts and restore the family fortunes. It was under this spur that he did his best work. The younger Dumas, honoured and acclaimed, died on November 27, 18»r>. Crystal Palace Destroyed. One melancholy note in regard to the second anniversary of 4he destruction by tire of the Crystal Palace. London, which falls on Tuesday next, is suggested bv the recollection that the chief idea behind the great exhibition for which it was built in the mind of the exhibition's ; chief originator, the Prince Consort, was that of the peace of nations. The Cry-lal l'alace was to be in effect the meeting place of a league of nations; there was to be liegun a new era in 4he history of Kurope and of the world. All differences were to be forgotten, all enmities assuaged in that palace of peace. There can be little doubt that the failure of the prince's lion's in that respect, compared with which all the financial success of the exhibition was a small thing to him, darkened the last period of his life. Actually, although the exhibition itself was in no way responsible, it was followed by a crowded period of wars and catastrophes. Within a few years the Crimean War. the Indian Mutiny, the wars in Italy, in Denmark and in China, and the ( ivil War ill America were showing the vanity of Prince Albert's llOjM'S. Second Empire. The Second Empire of France, that period of colour and romance which has provided a background for so many novels and light operas, endured from the prockunation of the Ktnperor Napoleon JIT. on December 2,. 1852, until, after tlie 4 disaster of Sedan, the Kmr eik tl w victorious -Prussians, spending the last three yaere of his life an exile in England.

A nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon made two unsuccessful attempts to gain the French throne, but hotli failed, and he took the oath of allegiance to the republic, becoming a member of the Assembly and a candidate for the Presidency of France. Once President, he *et about the restoration of the Napoleonic dynasty. He chose the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz and of Napoleon I.'s coronation to rid himself by arms of the National Assembly—to make himself absolute ruler with the help of the military, and to muzzle all parliamentary opposition. Napoleon was then re-elected President with all the powers of dictatorship, and a year later announced the contemplated restoration of the empire. A plebiscite was taken with nearly S.<HK),OOO votes in favour of restoration and but 2~>0,000 against.

The resulting regime was a tragedy | I for France. The Kmperor liad no 1 I capacity for government beyond an ' I obsession with the Napoleonic legend ' and a desire to become the most powerful figure in Europe. Where that led is now history. Its final result was the greatest blow proud France has ever suffered. First Editor of "Punch." When the first issue of "Punch" appeared in London nearly 100 years ago, the joint editors were Henry Mayhew and Mark Lemon. The paper was not at first successful an<l Lemon kept it alive out of the profit* of his plays. i Lemon, who was born on November I 30, 1800, had a natural talent for jour- i nalism and the stage, and at 26 retired from less congenial business to devote himself to the writing of plays. More than 80 of his melodramas, operettas and comedies were produced in London. At the same time he contributed to a variety of magazines and newspapers, and founded and edited the "Field." In 1841 Lemon and Mayhew con-* ccived the idea of a humorous weekly paper to be called "Punch," a-nd they,with the printer and engraver, were its original owners. On the sale of "Punch" Lemon became sole editor for the new proprietors, and it remained under liis control until his death in IS7O. achieving remarkable popularity and influence. Lemon wa* an actor of ability, a pleasing lecturer and a successful impersonator of Shakesperean characters. Moreau Routs Austrians. It is strange how often some incident in history, immortalised in letters, loses | itrt own real significance and is reniem- j lx-red only for that aspect of it which happens to have caught the imagination j of some poet of the period. Take fori example the evacuation of British troops from Spain by Sir John Moore. Most people recall of that incident but the burial of Sir John Moore himself. This is even more true of the battle of Holicnllnden. Holienlindcn, fought on December 3, ISOIt. is remembered chiefly by Thomas Campbell's famous poem. Of the many people who know "On Linden when the sun was low . . ." but the smallest fraction could say who fought this battle and with what result. Actually HolienIjnden was fought between the French I under Moreau and the Austrians under 1 the Archduke John. | The Austrians were attacked and | driven back and totally routed. They lost 17.000 men against only 5000 casualties suffered by the victors. The I result of the battle decided the war in' favour of the French, and, by the peace of Luneville, concluded between the French Republic and the Emperor, France gained considerably, one provision being that the Rhine, as far as the j Dutch territories, should in future form tlis boundaries of Fntnce. '