of English history. What we call the Egyptian expedition appears now as the struggle of England and France for the Mediterranean, and Nelson is exhibited as the conqueror of the Mediterranean. Our author writes in an interesting manner on the fatal effect which the Revolution had upon the French navy. The disorganization which at the outset it introduced likewise into the army was afterwards more than compensated. Not so with the navy. We may say, in fact, that whereas towards Europe France was greatly strengthened by the Revolution, towards the New World and towards England she was greatly weakened by it.

"Everywhere the arsenals were empty and the stores wasted. Of the officers, those who had been inured to the perils of the sea and of war under the last reign, having almost all either emigrated or suffered public dismissal, had had to give place to inferior men, incapable of command. The command itself was no longer absolute, as it ought to be on board ship, being restricted by the bad laws of the year 4. Of all these evils the worst was the difficulty of finding crews. For over a large extent of the coast the men accustomed to the sea had attached themselves to chouannerie; sometimes they refused to answer the call, or, disappointed of their pay, they speedily deserted, while the hardiest attached themselves to privateers, whose piratical spirit began to wear out the patience of

the Government."

The writer proceeds to show how little help the Government could get from the allied fleets of Spain and Holland, especially when the naval plans of the Republic travelled so far naval plans of the Republic travelled so far beyond the province of Spanish or Dutch interests. He exhibits this in detail in the case of Spain, by relating at length the history of a fruitless attempt made by the French fleet under Bruix to combine with the Spanish fleet in an expedition to relieve Malta and to rescue Bonaparte.

The author's method and style are alike excellent. His narration is firmly based on original documents, and it is disfigured by no gasconades or prejudiced misrepresentations. He confesses, however, that it has cost him an effort to be impartial. "Perhaps," he writes,

"some of those who at this time lament to see

France excluded from Egypt by her own fault will find a patriotic interest in going back to the events which established on the banks of the Nile our influence now expelled, which ploughed up the soil where henceforth a rival claims the exclusive right to sow and to reap."

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

Steynerille; or, Fated Fortunes. By Hélène É. A. Gingold. 3 vols. (Remington & Co.) Rogues and Vagabonds. By George R. Sims. (Chatto & Windus.)

hold of Lady Olympia Norton, whose Jacobite sympathies brought her into much trouble and danger. She was haunted by a spy, who almost accomplished her ruin; but the little foot-page contrived to baffle him in a very ingenious manner. His adventures are by no means without interest. The author has some idea of how a story should be told, and her situations are now and then thoroughly dramatic. If her English is weak, that is a fault which can be mended by practice; and Miss Gingold is probably young enough to be able to look forward to a good deal of practice in her chosen art. Without it she will scarcely gain the ear of the novel-reading public. With more experience in the weaving of romances it is quite possible that she may accomplish something good.

It is impossible to congratulate Mr. Sims on his first published attempt at novel-writing. He has succeeded in melodrama, in feuilleton, and in that kind of composition technically known as "descriptive special "; Rogues and Vagabonds' is a mixture of them all, but it does not make a pleasing whole. It shows too plainly the difficulty which the writer has felt of working together a number of threads. Half a dozen different stories are begun, and each suggests materials for excitement; but, cleverly as they are told, one sees that the author has had too much on his hands at once. attention to them all, the reader still finds Paying laborious it hard to fix his interest, and there is left something of the sense of bewilderment produced by a great spectacular melodrama. One loses all idea of proportion; the rogues are so very roguish, the vagabonds so hopelessly incorrigible, and the surprises so surprising that they cease to create any surprise at all, and it is only the most natural thing in the world that a little girl sitting on a door-step in a slum near Seven Dials should end rich, happy, and Mr. Sims has crammed into his story more But it must be allowed that crime and villainy than is usual even in the best furnished tales of vice, and he has given the details with greater elaboration and better planned contrivances. His knowledge of the dark corners of London has been of invaluable help to him; but the power which he unquestionably possesses of touching the heart seems somehow to have failed him, and the masses who have wept at 'The Lights o' London' will hardly be stirred by 'Rogues and Vagabonds.'

contented."

66

The cynicism of Mr. Tristram's present volume is a strain upon the reader's feelings, in spite of a good deal of smart writing, and in some places genuine humour. Of his four stories, three end in the madness or imbecility of the principal characters, the other Comedies from a Country Side. in the social death in a convent of a brilliant Outram Tristram. (Ward & Downey.) By W. and beautiful girl. In the first two tales we are invited to admire the imbecility HAROLD STEYNEVILLE is called by Miss of a long-descended squire, who in an Gingold "an unextraordinary man.' In agony of ambition to secure a return of childhood he cannot have been very common- prosperity to a line dating from the Saxons, place, for at the age of five he could just and to benefit his only son, is broken down pronounce his own name, whilst at nine he by the ruin of his hopes and the callousness was "advanced in the study of three or four of the modern man of the world who calls sciences," and "spoke French and German him father, and lives, a gibbering idiot, fluently," to say nothing of riding and to be insulted by the coarse parvenu who fencing, and the writing of Latin verses. has bought his estate. "The Parvenu," This prodigy lived in the reign of Queen a strong ruffian from Australia, whose acAnne, and he became a page in the house- quired possessions cannot modify his natural

tastes, gets drunk every night on whiskey, beats his wife, and transforms the ancient hall of the Sinberts to a Chinese pagoda. Endeavouring to match his only daughter with a peer, he loses both child and wife, the one running off with a farmer, the other eloping with the Byronic Lord Verulam. A strait-waistcoat and a strong valet are the last requirements of the unhappy "Parvenu.' There is less unmitigated misery in the case of the "Heiress." She is the daughter of ill-matched parents, a loitering English squire and a ballet-dancer.

Francis de la Poele......thought his wife and child not bad; he tolerated a few friends; he was certain his neighbours were dunces; he had a penchant for the family seat; he had bought up several brands of the finest champagnes; and when Perrier Jouet couldn't banish ennui, he liked roses and riding, and spent most of her went to Paris. His wife, a dark eyed Italian, spare time in wishing she had a son instead of a daughter; she thought her husband a natural (except in his taste for champagne, which she reciprocated), and she had sense enough to let him go on his own way, and to go unmolested on hers."

more

Cynthia from an early age saw that her father and mother were looked on askance, manifested a distaste for society, and "on the arrival of anybody with yellow hair remained in her bed-room." Her strength of purpose enabled her and masters; also to go her own way; she had horses "she soon had no need of leaping lessons, and she plunged into John Stuart Mill." Left an orphan at twenty, with an income of 30,000l. a year, she first proposes to her chaperon, the Anglican Aunt Ernestine, and her astonished guardians-three strangely assorted people, conventional, aesthetic, and horsey-to dedicate half her income to public charities. The result of the extremely comic interview between this ingenuous Artemis and her bewildered friends is that, as a temporary measure, a groom accompanies her on her rambles on horseback. In three weeks

Cynthia announces that she is engaged to be married to the groom. A second interview with the guardians is more tragic than cynical. Then comes a short season of London life, at the end of which the illstarred ingénue finds "rest" in a sisterhood of the Church of Rome. The last story is almost purely tragic. A good old parson of the type of fifty years ago, the "squarson " type

a good moralist, a good shot, a good rider, a good farmer, a good friend-in his hale and vigorous old age, in days when he modestly looks back upon a blameless life (in the sense that he has done his best, according to his lights, for the people committed to his charge), and forward to the simple hope of reunion with one who shared his duties and his joys (for troubles there were few), is broken at last in intellect and spirit by the shock entailed upon him by a ritualistic son-in-law and two undutiful daughters. Mr. Ambrose Aguire, who, "in common with Tiberius, James I., Metternich, Gortschakoff, and Mr. Gladstone," is a master of verbiage, and who meets the vicar's indignation "with a face as unruffled and serene as that of a Russian diplomatist about to efface a frontier," takes upon himself to set poor Vansittart's daughters upon him, and to invoke the authority of the bishop to compel him to “lay down the beagles" and institute a surpliced

SCHOOL-BOOKS.

Blackwood's Educational Series.-The Fifth Standard Reader. Edited by Prof. Meiklejohn. (Blackwood & Sons.) The contents of this reader are varied, appropriate, and derived from good writers. The last lesson consists of an account of the battle of Tel-el-Kebir.

Blackwood's Educational Series. - The Sixth Standard Reader. (Blackwood & Sons.)-This reader deserves and is likely to command success for the variety, interest, suitability, and literary merit of its lessons, and the care and ability with which they are edited. Prefixed to each is an account of the author and his works, containing almost as much matter as the lesson, which seems rather excessive, considering that further encroachments on the space are made by the explanation of words and allusions and the grammatical exercises.

Short Stories from the History of England. (Blackwood & Sons.)-This little volume is edited by Prof. Meiklejohn, and contains a carefully and well-arranged selection of historical stories, beginning with 'The Coming of the Romans,' and ending with The Mutiny in India.' The book is clearly and distinctly printed, and the stories in it are adequately illustrated and well told. It cannot fail to be a welcome addition to the library of any young scholar, either at school or at home.

Algebra for Beginners. Part I. (Blackwood & Sons.)-This is in the main a collection of carefully chosen and extremely numerous examples in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, with a few pages devoted to theoretical teaching and explanations of processes. The book, so far as it goes, will no doubt prove serviceable to beginners; but these, especially if they find it necessary to work without much help, will find the absence of answers and solutions a serious inconvenience.

Cassell's Readable Readers. Standards III. and IV. (Cassell & Co.)-The prose lessons in these readers consist of pleasing narratives, the continuity of which, as in other volumes of the same series, is interrupted by the insertion of the lessons in verse, an arrangement which, as we have said, is inconvenient. In other respects the books, well printed and handsomely got up, with good illustrations, are of fair average merit, and likely to be serviceable.

Cassell's Readable Readers. Standards V. and VI. (Cassell & Co.)-The prime requisite of readableness is a marked feature of these volumes, which, being intended for more advanced pupils than the previous ones, naturally take a higher range and assume a more literary character. The materials are in a great measure drawn from our best writers, several of whom are still living and others only recently dead. Hence there is a freshness about them rarely to be found in such books. The mutilation and alteration of such works as 'Gulliver's Travels'

The Oriel Readers.-First, Second, and Third Primers. Coloured Pictures. (Marcus Ward & Co.) These primers are distinctly printed on stout paper, with linen covers so as to stand wear well. The lessons are progressive, those in the Third Primer being in many cases familiar nursery rhymes.

The Oriel Readers. Standards I. and II. (Marcus Ward & Co.)-The reading lessons in these well-printed and nicely bound readers are illustrated by good cuts, preceded by lists of words for spelling, and followed by writing exercises. The Oriel Readers. Standard III. (Marcus Ward & Co.)-The lessons in this reader are tolerably good. Perhaps there is rather too much natural history for so elementary a work, and not quite enough of entertaining reading in the shape of biographical and historical anecdotes and simple amusing stories. Each lesson is preceded by a list of words for spelling, and followed by a portion of English grammar and a dictation exercise. The English grammar might as well have been omitted and left to be treated as a separate subject.

The Standard Authors' Readers. Abridged Edition, arranged and annotated by the Editor of Poetry for the Young.' Standards II.-VI. (Griffith, Farran & Co.)-The editor of this series has made it his object to select such extracts from good writers as may be suited for teaching children to read well, and at the same time engage their attention, instruct their minds, awaken their sympathies, and form their character. The subjects in each volume are adapted to the requirements of the several standards, according to the latest code and circular. Among the authors quoted in the sixth are Gilbert White, Izaak Walton, Ruskin, Lord Dufferin, Leslie Stephen, Dickens, Washington Irving, and Sir Walter Scott, in prose; and Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold, and Gray, in poetry. Excellent explanatory notes, glossary, and biographical notes are appended to the later volumes. All are well

printed on good paper, strongly bound, and furnished with illustrations.

Moffatt's Geography Readers. Nos. I. and II (Moffatt & Paige.) The first notions of geo graphy are here conveyed in the form of familia narrative and conversation. A good explanation is given of the nature of maps and the scale of which they are drawn. The illustrations o this and other points are of great use.

Shakespeare: Select Plays.-Twelfth Night Edited by W. A. Wright. (Oxford, Clarendo Press.)-Mr. Aldis Wright has taken advantag of the leisure accruing to him from the comple tion of the revision of the Old Testament t continue his admirable school editions of Shal speare's plays. The notes in this edition ( 'Twelfth Night' are a storehouse of information given in a simple and concise fashion. Mi Wright's knowledge is encyclopedic, yet hi learning is always controlled by sound sense.

Voltaire's Mérope. Edited by George Saints bury. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.)—The genera public, we fancy, know only two lines o Mérope':

Le premier qui fut roi fut un soldat heureux : Qui sert bien son pays n'a pas besoin d'aïeux. To the student of literature Mérope' is de cidedly interesting, but we fear schoolboy will find it dull, as they probably will find al Voltaire's plays. Mr. Saintsbury's prolego mena are models of what the introduction t such a book should be, but the notes seem little meagre, more especially to the critic wh turns from Mr. Aldis Wright's book to Mr Saintsbury's. No doubt Voltaire does not offe much of a field to the commentator, but w think Mr. Saintsbury is a trifle too curt. H calls parallel passages "the Delilahs of th mere scholar," and of course the citation o parallel passages may be carried too far; bu surely the object of a good editor is to mak

the author his own commentator.

J

Mademoiselle de la Seiglière. Comédie par Sandeau. Edited by H. C. Steel. (Macmillan & Co.)-Mademoiselle de la Seiglière' is excellently adapted for school reading, as it is bright and interesting and not difficult. Mr. Steel's note are good. If they have any fault, it is that unlike Mr. Saintsbury's, they are so numerou that they leave little for the pupil to find out fo himself.

Letters of Cicero. Selected and edited, with Introduction and Notes, by J. H. Muirhead B. A.Oxon. (Rivingtons.)- Mr. Muirhead ha is "to illustrate] from the Letters of Cicer satisfactorily achieved his first object, which

voice.

Still the present volume may furnish teachers with useful suggestions. The combination of music with drilling, though advantageous in some respects, is inconvenient in others. It must hamper the freedom of the teacher in pointing out faults and requiring their correction immediately.

A Kindergarten Drawing Book. Compiled by T. E. Rooper. (Griffith, Farran & Co.)-Five ing of geometrical patterns formed on squares, hundred blackboard drawing exercises, consistcompose this volume. Starting with dots at the extremities, they advance first to single lines formed by joining the dots, then to the combinations of several lines into every variety of straight-lined figures. Mr. Rooper disapproves of attempts to express perspective, and confines himself to exercises on the flat.

an articulate view of the character of the orator as it influenced or was influenced by contem His attention has therefore

unfortunately, been confined to the political epistles, in which Cicero is at his worst; but still the selection is not without interest.

We are

glad to see Cato's letter ('Ad Fam., xv. 5) inserted. The editor does not profess to be much more than a follower of Süpfle and Billerbeck. His commentary is good so far as it goes, but somewhat thin. The idiomatic use of ridero, viderint does not seem familiar to Mr. Muirhead. In the appendix on the legal aspect of the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators reference should have been made to Mr. Heitland's 'Pro Rabirio.' The general introduction gives a good sketch of Cicero's public career.

The Economicus of Xenophon. With Introduction, Explanatory Notes, Critical Appendix, and Lexicon by Hubert A. Holden, M.A., LL.D. (Macmillan & Co.)-This interesting treatise would have been long ago edited for the use regulated by chance or caprice, which is, as a of English boys if such matters were not rule, constant in only one particular-that of following a recent German edition. The volume before us breaks this spell, as no complete lished since Breitenbach's, 1841. The first nine annotation of the Economicus' has been pubchapters, about half the work, were edited, 1878, by the able young French scholar Graux, whose promising career was cut short by his early death.

ing letters, being some of the most interesting, realized good prices: Two autograph letters gned from R. Baxter to Mrs. Sargeant, 147. 10s. Catherine of Aragon, A. L.s., in Spanish, to Cardral Santa Cruz, 751. O. Cromwell, A.L.s., written whilst besieging Pembroke to the Committee of Carmarthen, 25l. 10s. Queen Elizabeth, A.L.s., to Henry IV. of France, referring to recent attempts on his life and her own, 551. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, A.L.s., in French, 11 58 0. Goldsmith, A.L.s., to David Garrick, referring to his refusal to produce She Stoops Conquer,' 341. J. Jordaens, A.L.s., to Constantine Huyghens, dated October 19th, 1649, 13. Lafontaine, poem, 'Tiriel et Amarante,' dated December 11th, 1674, signed in full, and a signed receipt, 13. 10s. W. Penn, two ALS., dated respectively 10. 5. 1703 and 20. 12. 1704, 151. 12s. 6d. N. Poussin, three A.L.s., in Italian, respecting some of his pictures, 16. 78. 6d. Sir W. Ralegh, signature on a petition to the Lord High Treasurer, 177. Sir P. P. Rubens, A.L.s., in Italian, respecting the siege of Rochelle, 1627, 16. 10s. Sir W. Scott, autograph draft of an article on the 'Sagacity of a Shepherd's Dog,' 10. P. B. Shelley, two A.La., one to Messrs. Lackington & Co. respectng the publication of a novel by a friend, and the other to G. Gisborne, 101. 15s. L. Sterne, ALS, 2 pp. folio, 15l. 10s. G. Washington, ALS, dated Philadelphia, May 1st, 1792, to the Earl of Buchan, intimating that he is sending to him his portrait painted by Mr. Robertson, of New York, 301. King Richard III, sign manual in monogram, 10l. 10s. O. Goldsmith, the original manuscript of 'The Captives,' 311. 10s. The sale realized 2,781l. 19s.

NOTES FROM PARIS.

August 1, 1885.

the picture presented by the author of Bel-Ami' as it would for a decent bourgeois of Paris to form an idea of the morals of London from the translation or adaptation of the articles of the Pall Mall Gazette, which hawkers of the lowest class have been shouting at the passers-by for the last ten days.

I imagine that these note-books, full of fragments, of chips, as Victor Hugo said, will form part of that extraordinary book 'Océan.' But this is not the first book the executors will publish. I believe that in October next they will give us the continuation and supplement of L'Année Terrible,' a volume of satirical verse, probably arranging this new volume at this

Victor Hugo, whom the champions of Naturalism have been criticizing irreverently for a month past, had this superiority, quite apart from his genius, that he believed in the generosity of human nature and in the perfectibility of humanity. The old man cherishad this faith, and he did not allow it to be diminished, weakened, or annihilated by the debilitating pessimism which is becoming more and more the fashion among our new writers. This is the reason why at eighty he was still erect, and fought for his ideas with a kind of youthful fervour.

He has slept for nearly two months in the vault of our Westminster Abbey, and the classifying and arranging of the manuscripts which he left behind him is not yet ended. The other day his literary executors, MM. Vacquerie, Paul Meurice, and Ernest Lefèvre, in making known that they have undertaken the honourable task of publishing his posthumous works, declare their intention, in spite of the wish of the poet, of not THE season is at an end. It terminated like accepting any remuneration for the work. They a display of fireworks with the celebration of have published the will by which Victor Hugo the oncours-competitions of painters and divided the works he left behind him into several sculptors for the Prix de Rome; competitions catalogues-books completed, books on the stocks, of singers, tragedians, and comedians for the notes, and reminiscences. In my opinion what prizes of the Conservatoire; finally, competi- will surprise and interest the public most keenly tions of schoolboys at the Sorbonne for the in the quantity of manuscripts which the great awards accompanied by flourishes of trumpets, author has left is, perhaps, those scattered pages azd for crowns of green paper. Then for a recording the impressions and reflections of the ng month, at least, public life is suspended, moment which he desires should be collected and the Parliament taking its holidays will be under the title 'Océan.' The poetry, dramas, a Parliament on an electioneering tour, because and philosophy of Victor Hugo are known to us, the elections to the Chamber of Deputies are and the new books will simply add a flower to appointed to take place at the end of September. each branch of a robust trunk. But in what I know a legislator, a clever man, a great he calls 'Océan ' he will reveal to us, more than Padical, who, being sure of his seat, and dreadng the excitement and the weariness of the once, several of the secrets of his genius. In those hurriedly written pages he allowed his ectoral campaign, has already announced his thoughts to flow freely. If a violent article parture for his department, where he says he appeared against him, I fancy Victor Hugo, ying to deliver speeches and fight for the who used to read everything, used to answer it cause. In reality, he leaves in three days ab irato for himself, for his own satisfaction only, fr Jersey, where he will meet with no murmurs committing to paper the expression of his wrath her than those of the waves on the beach of and contempt, and, that done, used to throw the St. Clement. This candidate is a wise man, and can lumber without fear of seeing the spectre page, on which the ink had scarcely dried, into of defeat at the poll. But the majority of the some box or trunk, and thought no more about deputies whom universal suffrage is on the point again some day or other. it. He knew that it would all come to light Thus vindicated by of sending to the crucible enjoy less tranquil himself, Victor Hugo sketched in these private cribers, or, rather, do not slumber at all. It memoranda a number of prose portraits which are as good, they tell me, as certain portraits in verse 'Châtiments.' A who has had some of these papers in his hands, tells me that more than one adversary of the poet, such as Louis Veuillot, Jules Vallès, and M. Barbey d'Aurevilly, are terribly mauled.' But what is also known, and very clearly, is that we are ignorant of all that Hugo contrived to

is the quart d'heure de Rabelais that is going to ske, and the French peasant, who has been wah for the last four years, is going to have la ay on more than one man and one question. at Paris there is as yet no anxiety, or only Aspericial anxiety. The rich are going off to

moment.

M. Meurice himself would, to tell the truth, be busy already with a personal matter if the Comédie Française had still M. Émile Perrin for its acting director. Some months ago M.

Perrin and M. Meurice went to London for the purpose of seeing Hamlet' as put on the stage by Mr. Henry Irving, and, if I mistake not, of talking the matter over with Mr. Irving. The revival of the translation, or, I should say rather, the adaptation, of 'Hamlet' by Alexandre Dumas père and Paul Meurice was to have been one of the first novelties of the next season at the Théâtre Français; but the illness of M. Perrin has pretty nearly stopped the preparations, and M. Mounet-Sully, who was to play Hamlet, is suffering, it appears, from an affection of the eyes.

All that interests Paris forms part of what is called the contingent future. I do not know a month in the year which is so empty as the Parisian August. It is not that the Parisians are not at work, but that they are away. They are working under the trees of their villas or at the sea-side, and do not set foot on the hot Boulevards. M. Victorien Sardou, who was said to be ready to set sail for America, has shut himself up at Marly-le-Roi, where he is finishing, or rather beginning, a new comedy-that which he promised for next winter to the Vaudeville. M. Dumas fils has just left for Puys, near Dieppe, and has carried with him a piece which he has almost completed. M. Octave Feuillet, who has been living at Versailles for some months, is awaiting, under the shade of the trees in the Avenue de Saint Cloud, the moment when the rehearsals begin at the Rue Richelieu of his 'Chamillac,' in which Coquelin is to play the principal part-a sort of personnage fatal, it appears, enigmatic, and tormented by a secret. And let it be said in passing that all who are acquainted with M. Feuillet's work predict a considerable success for 'Chamillac. M. Ernest

Legouvé, whose Adrienne Lecouvreur' Sarah Bernhardt is to revive at the Porte Saint Martin, is

travelling in Switzerland with his family. M. Emile Augier is perhaps meditating some project of a social drama while gazing at the water in front of his house at Croissy. M. Ludovic Halévy is completing at Dieppe the revision of the speech in honour of the Comte d'Haussonville which he has to deliver some months hence at his reception at the Academy. M. Pailleron, who has two pieces finished, the one very gay,

the other highly dramatic, is reposing somewhere at the seaside, and is talking to the fishermen. scattered as tout Paris, and is making holiday like the school boys.

I may say that Paris, like the happy peoples, has no history for the moment. She recently inaugurated a number of statues, among them those of Voltaire and Béranger. She held repast. She is resting now. She is waiting. In six or seven weeks she will be feverish enough. Till then she is seeking fresh air where she can

does in the winter.

A few new

and wretch under the pretext of depicting a

a man !

"when I do not

"At night," he told me once,

It would be as absurd to judge journalists by formulate it at once and I write it-sometimes