SOME MODERN FRENCH BOOKS.* THE second and third volumes of

.11fimoires de la Comtesse de Boigne are even more interesting than the-first. They include the story of her father's embassy at Turin, with a curious account of the humours of the Sardinian Court. From Turin she passes on to Paris in the first days of the Restoration, and then to England, the Marquis d'Osmond being Louis XVIII.'s Ambassador in London from 1815 to 1819, when be resigned in consequence of the Due de Richelieu's retirement from the Ministry. Madame de Boigne's position made her familiar with the English Court, and she has plenty to say, not only of the Regent, but of Princess Charlotte, whom she found attractive in spite of her odd, rough manners, and whose tragic death she mourned with all England. Returning to Paris, Madame de Boigne became more and more intimate with the Orleans family, and was always one of their loyal friends and admirers. Her third volume is an interesting picture of French society during the latter years of Louis XVIII. and the reign of Charles X., ending with the Revolution of 1830, in which she took her small part. The excellent translation published by Mr. Heinemann will introduce these volumes to a large circle of readers.

A new book by M. Funck-Brentano is an event in historical literature. In Mandrin all his best qualities show themselves once more,—untiring " industry in collecting unpublished material, in hunting up forgotten witnesses ; keen interest in his subject, to the point of being carried away by it, so that his brilliant and fascinating study suggests that the contre- bandiers of the eighteenth century might have found an adventurous leader in M. Funck-Brentano. The subject of the book is the cruel system of monopolies and farmed taxes which starved France during the years that foreran the Revolution. The Farmers-general, their agents, spies, frontier- guards, and tax-gatherers, were faced by a formidable army of daring young men, who risked their lives in the work of running goods into taxed provinces from those which were comparatively free ; for each province had fiscal arrangements of its own. And the prince of smugglers, or contrebandiers, was Louis Mandrin, born at Saint-Etienne, in Dauphine, of a respectable bourgeois family, in the year 1725. In this large and most attractive volume we have the story of his exploits and those of his followers, till his terrible death at Valence in 1755. Nearly forty years later, the oppressions of some, though not all, of the Farmers-general were expiated on the Revolutionary scaffold by the deaths of Lavoisier and more than thirty others, mostly innocent men, paying like the King for the selfish greed of the majority who had gone before them.

Except on sentimental grounds, it does not seem very easy to make a hero of the childish demagogue, Camille Desmoulins. He himself forged the weapon that slew him and his young wife, with thousands of others who even less deserved their fate. His late remorse, and the attempt to check the Terror which brought about his destruction, do not alter the fact that he did his best to inflame the passions of the mob and to alter

* (1) Memoires de in Comtesse de feigns, née eV Osmond. Publies d'apres le Mauuscrit original par M. Charles Nicoullaud. Vol. H. (18154819). Vol. HI. (1o204830). Paris : Pion. [7 fr. 50 c.]—(2) Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne. Vol. II. (1815-1819). Translated from the French. London : W. Heinemann. [10e. net.1—(3) Mandrils, C,apitains ainiral des Contrebandiers de France. Par Frantz Fluick.Brentano. Hapree des Documents nouveaux. Illuitre de 23 gravures. Paris Hachette. 17 fr. MI c.1—(4) Camille DOSMOUlifill. Par Jules Claretie, de VAcademie Frangeise. Ouvrage Illustre. Paris : Hachette. 117 fr.] —(5) PrItres Soldats it Juges sous Richelieu. Par le Vicomte G. &Avenel. Parie Arlitand Colin. [4 fr.]—(6) La Vie &wis Poets Coleridge. Par Joseph Aynard. Paris : Hachette. pfr. 50 c..1 —(7) Essai Wane Psychologi. de l4ngleterr. Contemporaine z Lea Crises Politiques, Protectionnisme it Rodicalisme. Par Jacques Bardoux. Paris : Felix Alum. [5 fr.1 —(8) L'Art chez les Ions. Par Marcel Baja. Avec 26 Dewing. Paris : Societe du Zdercure de France. [Sir. 50 o.)—(9) La Bulgaria, &Mier it de Damain. Par L. de Laimay. Paris : Hachette. r5 fr. 50 c.]—(10) L'Esnigri. Par Paul Bourget, de l'Academie Frangaise. Paris : Plon. [3 fr. 50 c.] —(11) Le Bid qui Liss. Par Rene Basin, de VAcademie Francaise. Paris : Calmann-Levy. [3 fr. 50 c.] —(12) La Clef de la Vie. Par Leon de Tinseau. Paris Calmann-Levy. [3 fr. 50 c.]—(1S) L'Rerasenient. Par Charles Foley. Paris: Librairie Generale d'Education. [Ur. 50 c.]—(16) Un ChaesS-Croist. Par Gabriel dAzainlmja. Paris Plon. [3 Cr. 50 c.]—(15) Les Bsperancss. Par Mathilde Allude. Paris: Pion. Estr.500.1—(16) Uss Petit Monde A lsacian. Par Hudry-Menoe. Paris : Armand Colin. [3 Cr. 50 c.] —(17) La Ville de diguilleur. Par Pierre Mal. Onvrage illustre de 66 gravures par Dutriac. Paris Hachette. [10 fr.]—(18) Lea Maitre, Sonneurs. Par George Sand. Preface &Emile Faguet, de VAcndemie Frturaise: Illustrations de M. V. Wheelhouse. " Les Classiques Francais Illustres." London : George Bell and Sons. [5s. net.]

the character of what might have been purely beneficent changes. "The author of the Revolution," as he proudly loved to be called, "le Procureur-geneml de la Lanterne," was terribly surprised when the fate he had so lightly played with for others overtook himself. " Pauvre Camille !" says M. Jules Claretie in his brilliant Life of this typical Revolu- tionary figure. An object for pity, certainly ; but it is difficult to feel either respect or admiration for Camille Desmoulins.

M. d'Avenel's interesting books on France under Cardinal de Richelieu are invaluable to anybody who cares for a really clear idea of the life of the seventeenth century. His latest volume is divided between the Church, the Army, and the Law. It includes all particulars relating to the clergy and their benefices, the administration of dioceses, the religious Orders, the country parishes, the connexion between Church and State. In the chapters on the Army we have full details as to recruiting, organisation, position of officers, equipment, tactics, artillery, commissariat. In those on Justice the Parliaments of Paris and the provinces are described, local jurisdiction and its many officials, criminal justice and penal administration ; the laws, in short, as they affected the mass of the nation. All this is given in a clear and agreeable style, without lengthy digressions or too many technicalities.

M. Aynard's study of Coleridge is singularly interesting. It is the complete story of the poet's life, with a careful, exhaustive analysis of his works and character. If it seems a pity that it was found necessary to translate into French some of the most exquisite and purely English poetry ever written, one must remember that among the French public readers of English are not even so numerous as readers of French in England. M. Aynard appreciates to the full the peculiar nature and genius of Coleridge, and his clear view of the influence of Coleridge on life and religion in England is remarkable in a foreigner.

M. Bardoux is hardly fair when he sets down "permanent war" as one of the characteristics of a Conservative Govern- ment in England; and he is hardly right in attributing the Radical majority in great measure to a revival of religious faith and moral Puritanism. But though his Psychologie de l'Angleterre proves once more how difficult it is even for the best informed of foreigners to judge quite justly a country net his own, no Englishman will read it without considerable profit. It contains some brilliant writing, and a great deal of solid information.

M. Marcel Reja's new book, L'Art chez lee Pow, is a curious study of the relations between genius and madness. The illustrations and other specimens of the artistic productions of savages and lunatics in drawing and painting, prose and poetry, are not the least interesting part of a thoroughly scientific piece of work.

M. de Launay's book on the past, present, and future of Bulgaria and the neighbouring States will be found full of valuable information. It is written in a lively, pleasant style, and illustrated from the author's own photographs. One cannot here enter on the political question ; but it may be noted that M. de Lannay's panacea for the peace of Europe is the uniting of the Balkan States in a strong association, of which the "centre of gravity" would be at Sofia.

L'Emigre is a striking novel of the most modern character, and well worth reading, not only for its high literary merit and the interest of its plot, but because it frankly expresses the best French opinion on various questions of the day. It deals with the private lives of two men, each distinguished in his own way : one an ideal representative of the old nobility ; the other, his supposed son, of a charaCter no less fine and attractive because of the shadow that hangs over his birth.

M. Bourget has never been afraid of difficult problems, and his influence, especially in his later novels, has been "on the side of the angels" ; but perhaps his moral convictions have never been more evident or more strongly set forth than in this recent book. It bits modern society hard on more points than one.

Many French readers, we understand, find fault with Le Ble qui Live as lacking what they think the necessary elements of le roman. And it is true that of the ordinary "love interest" M. Rene Basin's new book has little or none. For all that, it is one of the best books he has written. The story is strong and deeply pathetic, showing the influence of modern ideas on the relations between a country proprietor,

fall of the worthiest ambitions, and the men in his employ. The descriptions of forest and farm are both true and beautiful. The tone of the book is necessarily sad, yet the story ends on a note of faith and hope. A French corre- spondent writes to the reviewer: "La terre de France se meurt cheque jour davantage, parcequ'on deracine la religion, lee croyances de nos pres." No one feels this more keenly than M. Bazin, yet no one knows better that "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep."

In M. de Tinsean's amusing and attractive novel we follow the fortunes of a hero with the plebeian name of Jacques le Tonturier. A long experience of being snubbed in childhood and youth produces a character of quite singular charm. The key of life, for him, appears to be pure unselfishness. With this, and the author's talent for light comedy, unexpected doors are unlocked.

L'i:crasenient is a thoughtful, clever, and pathetic story. Its hero is a novelist, who after long effort and disappoint- ment is just arriving at success by means of a book which expresses his deepest conviction,—that money (not the love of it) is the root of all evil. An uncle with whom he has quarrelled, and who knows his eccentric nephew intimately well, takes the original revenge of crushing him under the weight of a gigantic fortune. What brings despair to the poor author himself brings life and joy to his suffering wife and children. The characters are so well touched that one's sympathy is divided. But the largest share, in spite of common-sense, remains with Pierre de Barolles in his hopeless struggle.

Un Chasse-Crois6 can hardly be called a novel ; it is a lively, clever, rather farcical, and really amusing sketch of the love affairs of two young men, intimate friends, one of whom thinks it right to marry for the sake of money, the other for the sake of romance, and each of whom succeeds in flatly contradicting himself. .In these pages may be gleaned a rich harvest of modern slang.

The author of that attractive story, Le Maitre du Moulin- Blanc, gives us in Les Esperanc,es a clever study of life in a provincial town, with the various hopes and ambitions which stir the lives of its inhabitants. The idea is well worked out. Hope has its victims in the persons of the greedy flatterers who swarm round a rich old woman and are cheated of their expected reward by a cunning outsider. On the other hand, success in art and happiness in life are the portion of the honest and unworldly.

In Un Petit Monde Alsaeien Madame Hudry-Menos gives us another of her stories of middle-class life, thoroughly good in tone, yet not without exciting incidents. As in Ames Cevenoles, he is careful to give local colour, and her Alsatian families have a distinct character of their own.

La File de l'Aiguilleur is a wild and tragic tale of the Saint- Gothard railway, rather too much of a nightmare character, and rather too freely furnished with strong language, to be quite suitable to the young persons for whom it is intended. But the adventures and illustrations are thrilling, and poetical justice triumphs to a reader's perfect satisfaction.

Though not a "modern French book," we must notice the charmingly illustrated Mitres Sonneurs, the first volume of a delightful series of French classics in French, prefaced by 31. Emile Faguet, edited by Mr. D. O'Connor, and published by Messrs. Bell.