15 SEPTEMBER 1866, Page 24

The Beginner's Comprehensive French Book. By J. Delpech, B.A., late

Regent de College, French Master at Christ's Hospital. (Trubner and Co.)—" I have endeavoured to make the study of French an attraction, as children require such an inducement to enable them profitably. to parsue a study which is often forced upon them, and they should not be repelled by the dryness of the first lessons." The author of this clever compendium has truly attained the aim he had in view, for with the first lesson the young scholar becomes acquainted with one of the beautiful fables in prose which Fendlon wrote for the Due de Bour- gogne, as well as with one of the charming masterpieces of La Fontaine. The rules, which the pupils have in this way to apply doubly, by translation into English and ratranslation into French, are given and explained with great clearness and precision. The work is altogether highly useful, and to the parpose. It shows the experienced hand of a teacher who had ten years' practice as a regent in the University of France, before the political persecution of 1852 sent him to this country, where he at once resumed his modest functions.