Paris in Peril. Edited by Henry Vizetelly. 2 vols. (Tinsley
Brothers.)—The story of the siege of Paris is told in these two volumes with much detail, gathered, one may safely conjecture, from personal knowledge and experience. There have been many sieges more tragical in their incidents and their denouement, but none Which have had a more varied and remarkable history. None cer- tainly have been more thoroughly described. All the civilised world Was watching the scene ; and, not to speak of the besiegers, the besieged were possessed of even too great a gift of expressing their feelings. Hence, there arose the most curious mixture of tragic and comic elements. There was no lack of genuine heroism, and side by side with it the exhibition, at once pitiful and ludicrous, of mean and cowardly natures trying to assume an heroic pose. All this made a succession of very remarkable scenes, of which we get in these volumes impressions that are photographic in their minute- ness and fidelity. The editor's care in collecting information is worthy of all praise; and his general method of dealing with his subject., and of judging the conduct of both sides in this terrible conflict, are excellent. It is a pity that he should have injured the effect of the whole with the absurd con- clusion which his political prejudices lead him to draw. It is simply irrational to suppose that our action was influenced by the fact Mr. Gladstone, and not Mr. Disraeli, was at the head of affairs. .rk. Conservative Government would have been as unable to intervene as Was the Liberal.
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