JEAN PAUL . MART : His - Career In England and France
before the Revolution. By Sidney L. Phipson, M.A. (Methuen. 7s. 6d. net.) There is always interest, both legitimate, and purely sensationalist, in the beginnings of men who ' have made of themselves figures in the world. Particularly during this present era of actual or imminent revolution is there interest, when these beginnings are humble and obscure. In fact, a patent of lowly origin seems, among such as can display it, a more valuable possession than ever were many quarterings to aristocracy. The early life of Jean Paul Marat is an acceptable tonic to the idea that in itself the life of the gutter is the most admirable school of statesman- ship. There has been no lack of adulators to supply L'Ami du Peuple with the thick coat of whitewash which his record so urgently needed. They were considerably aided by the obscurity in which Jean Paul had, for good reasons, buried his early struggles. The author of this book has investigated this obscurity with thoroughness and impartiality - and his exposition leaves little doubt as to the real facts of the case. It is hardly a pleasing portrait that is revealed. We see Marat as the scoundrel that he was : an unexampled liar of a particularly nauseous type, a sponger, a sneak-thief, a braggart and a gaol-bird. We can only regret in this case the change in the penal code of this country, which in the very year of his robbery of the Ashrnolean Museum at Oxford Saved him from the gallows, and in ironic consequence doomed hundreds of better men to the guillotine.
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