Choir d'Opuscules, Philosophigues, Historigues, Politigues, et Litaraires, de Sylvain van
de Weyer. Premiere sdrie. (Triibner and Co.)—It would not be easy to over-praise this charming little volume. The Belgian Ambassador is the gentlest, most polished, and courteous of antagonists ; he never does anything worse than banter an opponent but somehow he banters the skin off. Mr. Cobden has often provoked attack, but he has never been more damaged than by that playful yet bitter little pamphlet entitled "Cobden Roi des Beiges." The gem, however, of this volume is the letter to M. 3Iiinch, the librarian at the Hague, who in 1829, when the Belgians were energetically resisting the attempt to force the Dutch language on them, accused M. Van de Weyer of inconsistency in supporting the French tongue when he had previously written in favour of the Flemish. This called forth from the accused an essay on imaginary books, in which the heavy erudition and pedantry of poor M. Munch is exposed with a light pleasantry which is only surpassed by the extraordinary learning which the writer shows in this out-of-the-way nook of literature. Every language an- cient and modern is ransacked, and whoever wants to know all about every writer who has imitated Rabelais when he designed the famous library of Saint Victor will find it here without trouble and in the pleasantest of forms. As for authorities, we should imagine poor M. Munch neves cited another.
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