On the Uses of Biography. By .1. B. Brown. (Lengmans.)—This
is a 'mature delivered before a society which calla itself "The Bromley Friends in Coattail," and is a favourable specimen of its kind, putting the points of the argument forcibly, and making some happy allusions to local associations and circumstances,—to neighbouring spots, for instance, which are connected with the names of the elder Pitt and Henry Hallam. If we might give a word of advice to Mr. Brown, it would be to exclude from his list of the "great characters " who, as he says, "still live with us," the name of one of the most selfish and pro- fligate villains who ever helped to ruin his country, Alcibiades ; and, again, though here we scarcely hope that ho will be brought to agree with us, to reconsider his judgment of Napoleon III. Some there are who never " bowed the knee to Baal ;" and who, therefore, can still say without shame, even now that the dynasty has perished, that a Court which surpassed all others of its time in profligacy and extravaganoe, and a Government which was permanently at war with all the virtue and intellect of France, was a curse.
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