7 MARCH 1874, Page 2

M. 011ivier, an orator of some ability, but otherwise scarcely,

fit for the French Academy, was in the last days of the Empire admitted as Napoleon's Premier into that august body. During the war which he had advocated he fled into Italy, to escape the popular fury, but has returned. He now demands his reception, but M. Guizot discovered that the dloge he was about to read on Lamartine, whose seat he occupied, contained some sentences- praising his former master, Napoleon III. M. Guizot, therefore, after a coarse reprimand for M. 011ivier's use of the celebrated phrase that he entered on the war with a light heart, demanded the excision of this praise. M. 011ivier refused, and the Academy,, which had admitted him solely out of servility, refused by twenty- to six to accord him his reception, avowedly on the ground that he had still a kind thought for the Sovereign whose wish had made them elect him.