Parisiana. By Cameron Stuart Macdowall. (Provost.)—Mr. Mac- clowall describes himself
as "a volunteer with the besieged armies," and claims for his book that it tells "the real truth about the bombard- ment." He is evidently a witness with very strong prepossessions on the side of the French, not thinking any words too strong to describe the conduct of the invading army. At the same time many will doubt- less consider that the value of his testimony is diminished by the strange pretensions which he makes to a gift of second sight or prophecy ; he tells us, for instance, that he foresaw that the French would gain a great success on the 110th day of the war, and that this was accomplished by the recapture of Orleans. In some points he gives an account of things somewhat different from that which we have had from other sources. Observers, possibly of different sentiments, have told us that frequently the French did not fight as they ought ; which means, we take it, that their courage was not beyond reproach. Mr. Macdowall, on the other hand, says that, with the possible exception of some Socialists, he saw no instance of want of bravery in any French troops, regular or irregular. On the whole, his testimony, which, though wild and incoherent, has every appearance of sincerity, must betaken into account, and will, with the mass of other evidence inconsistent and even contradictory, go to make up for a generation which will be able to see these things more clearly than we can hope to do the history of "The Great Siege."
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