THE LATEST REMARKABLE ANTI- ENGLISH book in Paris.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 17, 15 August 1884, Page 22

THE LATEST REMARKABLE ANTI- ENGLISH book in Paris.

Thb Pans correspondent of the Pilot recently gave some striking extracts from a late anti-English book published in France, which has attracted great attention. Mr. James Stephens, the ex-Head Centre, writes about it as follows to the N. Y. World:-* A very remarkable book entitled " Les Malheurs de John Bull" has been published by one of the well-known firms of Paris, and is creating some sensation in official aod other circles. It purports beiog a prophesy of Joba Bull's coming desolation. The hero ot the volume is an en terprisiog Frenchman called Maxime Jean, wko from beiag a pirate becomes emperor of the seas, and with the aid of a powerful fleet plays such havoc with England's forces on land and sea, that after a long and desperate struggle the flag that braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze, meets with irreparable disaster, and Ireland and all the colonies are lost for ever to the British Empire. The volume is brimful of sarcasm at the expense or. England and Englishmen generally. I quote the following as a literary curiosity. It shows how the author scans the future with prophetic eye, so far as Ireland's destinies are concerned :— ' Frum the very moment that Maxime Jean arrived before tralway with his fleet and army, Ireland sprung like one man to her ieet: There was mot a single corner of • Green Erin ' where an Irishman, armed with a rifle or a knife, could not be found ready to fall upon the detested English." After a description of tbo naval battle that took place, and the victory that alighted on the arms of Maxime Jean, the writer continues :— " Scarcely had the conquering army been encamped in martial order on the Irish heights, than the telegraph flashed everywhere the decree of the new sovereign of Ireland, whereby the land that hitherto belonged to the lords now became the property of the people of the country. A law was to be passed later on to formulate this change of proprietors ; but on principle the lords were dispossessed, and in this manner the surest means were arrived at of doing away with the English Army in fortyei<?ht hours, for it could no longer show any signs of resistance in a country where every man was Teady to die for the soil of his forefathers. Three days afterwards allUreland was in the hands of Maxime Jean. When the last English eoldier left the green isle for ever, a loud cry of acclamation rang from end to end of that disenthralled land which had struggled for en long under the yoke of its oppressors. The entire population of Ireland blessed Maxime Jean. Millions acclaimed the liberator with joy and delight, tfrom Galway to Dublin the victor's steed marched along the flowers which the Irish had strewn on his pathway. Long files of young women, beautiful as Irish women know how to be, came in costumes of fete so present their sons to the conqueror, and one of them, speaking for the others, exclaimed : 'We offer you our children. Here are the coming soldiers, devoted to the independence of Erin. 1 A few miles from Dublin the clergy clothed in their chasubles went in procession to meet and welcome Maxime Jean. The joy of the people assumed

vast proportions. They were labouring under feelings of delirious joy. Maxime Jean, delighted to see this spontaneous effusion of happiness, advanced, saluting on this side and that. The cortege finally arrived at the Cathedral of Dublin, where a solemn 75? Demi -was chanted with enthusiasm by a congregation of 2,000 souls. The Archbishop warmly welcomed Maxime Jean and the ceremony was brongh* to a conclusion in the midst of a profound and general emotion. The remainder of the day was consecrated to public rejoicing, and thus was the final independence of Ireland consummated." The work, fautas'ic as it may appear, is decidedly well-written, and logical in its details. The author faithfully interprets the animus against England and Englishmen now prevailing in this country by a clever exposition of the jealousy with which England vievs every effort made by France to extend her colonial possessions. The following and final extract which I translate from this volume may be considered as a somewhat exaggerated condemnation of Britishers in general, but it will nevertheless, I am sure, prove of interest to the readers of The World :— " Aiter these three hundred pages, more than one reader will tell me that I hate the English. If I were a diplomatist ot a hypocrite I would indulge in a lot of circumlocutions to prove that one can execrate a nation without execrating its inhabitants. Such a line of argument, however, is to my mind evasive. I am neither ,a hypocrite nor a diplomatist, aud as the word franchise or sinceijpfe: has for its origin our country's very name, I frankly declare, yes, I detest the English t I detest them in their political capacity • I detest them as a people; I detest them as individual men. I detest them in the first place because they hate us cordially, and show evidence of that hate on every possible occasion."