he end of Napoleon's reign the
_Journal des Debats_, on which Fievee, Geoffroy, and many other writers
of talent worked. In the early days of these various journals political
interests naturally engrossed them. But the literary tastes and
instincts of Parisians were too strong not to demand attention, and by
degrees the critical part of the newspaper became of importance. Under
the restoration this importance grew, and the result was the
_Conservateur Litteraire_ and the _Globe_, in the former of which Victor
Hugo was introduced to the public, and in the latter Sainte-Beuve. This
sudden uprise of journalism produced a remarkable change in the
conditions of literary work, and offered chances to many who would
previously have been dependent on individual patronage. But so far as
regards literature, properly so called, all its results which were worth
anything appeared subsequently in books, and there is therefore no need
to refer otherwise than cursorily to the phenomenon of its development.
Put very briefly, the influence of journalism on literature may be said
to be this: it opens the way to those to whom it might otherwise be
closed; it facilitates the destruction of erroneous principles; it
assists production; and it interferes with labour and care spent over
the thing produced.

[Sidenote: Chamfort.]

From the crowd of clever writers whom this outburst of journalism found
ready to draw their pens in one service or the other, two names emerge
as pre-eminently remarkable. Garat and Champcenetz were men of wit and
ingenuity, Andre Chenier was a great poet, and his brother, Marie
Joseph, a man of good literary taste and master of an elegant style,
Lacretelle a painstaking historian, and many others worthy of note in
their way. But Chamfort and Rivarol deserve a different kind of notice
from this. They united in a remarkable fashion the peculiarities of the
man of letters of the eighteenth century with the peculiarities of the
man of letters of the nineteenth, and their individual merit was, though
different and complementary, almost unique. Chamfort was born in
Auvergne, in 1741. He was the natural son of a person who occupied the
position of companion, and legally possessed nothing but his baptismal
name of Nicholas. Like his rival, La Harpe, he obtained an exhibition at
one of the Paris colleges, and distinguished himself. After leaving
school he lived for a time by miscellaneous literature, and at last made
his way