In many cases, indeed, it seems as if more as reconstructed, revised, and very greatly attention had been paid to the position of enlarged by myself, was substantially a new the biographer than to that of the subject work," but he omits to tell us to whom the of his memoir. Some years ago the Society credit belongs of having made that Treasfor the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge made ury available to the public. It is true, an attempt to bring out a really complete moreover, that a memoir of the original and satisfactory biographical dictionary. compiler has been inserted in the body of All due preparations were completed, a the book; but we think it would have been staff of ready writers secured, and the su- at least a graceful tribute to his memory if perintendence of the work placed in the his name had been given a place on the able hands of Mr. George Long, the excel- titlepage of a work to the authorship of lent editor of the "Penny Cyclopædia." which he can put in no small claim. It But after publishing a number of volumes, may be as well for us to supply the omission. and only arriving at the end of the letter It was in 1838 that the first edition apA, the speculation was found to be of any-peared of the " Biographical Treasury," a thing but a paying nature, and so, after an work intended by its author, Samuel Maununsuccessful attempt to induce Parliament der, to form a companion to his " Treasury to vote a sum of money sufficient to defray of Knowledge." Both of these works soon the expenses of its publication, it was finally became exceedingly popular, as also were abandoned. The biographical dictionary the "Treasury of History," the "Universal just published by the Messrs. Longmans, under the editorship of Mr. Cates, is a very useful and creditable work. Being in one volume only it cannot of course pretend to anything like general completeness, or to minuteness of detail. But it contains a very great number of short memoirs, and they have, as a general rule, been so contrived as to give considerable information in a small space. Care has been taken, also, to prevent some of the persons commemorated from jostling others out of their fair share of standing-room. Mr. Cates has done his work conscientiously, and the publishers have made the volume not only a handsome one, but, what is of more importance, one which can be consulted without injury to the eyes. The previous edition of the Dictionary was printed in letters small enough to drive any one but an ophthalmist frantic. On the whole, it is a work which may be safely recommended, and which every one who stands in need of biographical assistance, would do well to keep beside him. There is one peculiarity about it to which we cannot help calling attention. The name of its original projector and compiler is altogether ignored on its titlepage and in its preface. It is true that Mr. Cates tells us it is "based on the thirteenth edition of the well-known 'Treasury of Biography,' which, Class Book," and the various other books of a similar nature which this indefatigable compiler produced. In addition to the labours they involved, he undertook a considerable share of the task of bringing out the well-known catechisms drawn up by his brother-in-law, William Pinnock. Indeed, his share in them was the larger of the two, though to Pinnock belongs the honour of their original design. Pinnock, it is well known, in spite of the large profits which his works brought in, euded by ruining himself, but Maunder would have nothing to do with his brother-in-law's wild schemes, and kept steadily on in his own limited, though highly useful, sphere of work, until his death, which took place in the year 1849. His "Treasury of Biography" went through edition after edition, the thirteenth of which was published last year under the editorship of Mr. Cates, who did much to alter and to improve it. Its main defect, in the form it then wore, was the painful minuteness of its type. Now it appears in all the glories of a "library edition," and the only fault we have to find with it is that which we have just mentioned, the omission of its original compiler's name. After all, the titlepage of this book is Samuel Maunder's best tombstone. He is fairly entitled to be mentioned upon it. POETRY: The Old Book-keeper, 514. Priestly Thanks to Napoleon, 514. New Books LIFE AND LABORS OF FRANCIS WAYLAND, D.D., LL.D., late Pres- MRS. PUTNAM'S RECEIPT BOOK, AND YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER'S KANSAS AND THE COUNTRY BEYOND; OR, THE LINE OF THE ILLUSTRATED ANNUAL OF PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOGNOMY. THE CHAPLET OF PEARLS. By the author of "Heir of Redclyffc.' THE BROWNLOWS. By Mrs. Oliphant. LINDA TRESSEL. By the author of "Nina Balatka." THE BRAMLEIGHS OF BISHOP'S FOLLY. By Charles Lever. ALL FOR GREED. PHINEAS FINN, THE IRISH MEMBER. By Mr. Trollope. Just Published at this Office THE TENANTS OF MALORY. By J. S. Le Fanu. 50 cents. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the Living Age will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year; nor where we have to pay e. mmission for forwarding the money. Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars. " Second Third The Complete work 20 66 50 44 80 66 Any Volume Bound, 3 dollars; Unbound, 2 dollars. The sets, or volumes, will be sent at the expense of the publishers. From the Edinburgh Review. Correspondance de Napoléon I. publiée par ordre de l'Empereur Napoléon III. Vols. I-XV. Paris: 1858-1864. In September 1854 the Emperor of the French appointed a Commission whose functions were 'to collect, set in order, and publish the Correspondence of his august THE diffidence we feel in commencing predecessor, Napoleon I., relating to the our present task arises far less from the different branches of public interest.' This thought of what we shall say, than from the Commission was composed of thirteen memconsciousness of all that must unavoidably bers, and had for its President Marshal be left unsaid. The mass of materials be- Vaillant, then Minister of War. It was infore us is disheartening from its abundance; structed and the instructions appear to and the stern necessity for rejection and have been faithfully followed to abstain compression, which generally becomes evi- from any alteration, suppression, or modifident to reviewers when they draw nigh to cation of the texts.' The Commission imtheir concluding pages, strikes us with dis-mediately commenced its labours, and in may at the very outset. warning of Boileau The salutary 'Qui ne sut se borner ne sut jamais écrire,' was never more necessary than in the present instance, and no writer who was not resolved to confine himself strictly within certain self-imposed bounds could hope in a few pages to give any idea of the value and interest of the Correspondence of Napoleon I. The work is still in progress and will not be completed, it is said, for some years. Twenty-one volumes have been already published, comprising nearly twelve thousand closely printed large octavo pages, and containing upwards of seventeen thousand letters, proclamations, bulletins and documents of different kinds, all emanating, directly or indirectly, from Napoleon - yet these only bring the collection down to the spring of 1811. Judging from these data, and taking into consideration the fact that the number of letters contributed from private and foreign sources increases as the Correspondence draws nearer to our own times, we may pretty safely reckon on about ten volumes more. Under these circumstances we might fairly hope to be excused, without further explanation, for limiting our criticism in the present instance to what may be considered as the first half of this stupendous collection. But a short account of the two successive Editorial Commissions to which the duty of carrying out the instructions of the present Emperor of the French has been entrusted, will show that we have drawn no arbitrary line for our own convenience, and that, in some very material respects, the first fifteen volumes of the Correspondence may be taken as a separate work. Where so much depends on the spirit in which the selection of materials is made, a change of editors — involving, as in this case, a change in the mode of exercis 1858 published a first volume headed by a Report, the opening sentence of which is in the grandest style of Napoleonic magniloquence: Sire, Augustus placed Cæsar among the Gods and dedicated a temple to him; the temple has disappeared, the Commentaries have remained.' The Commentaries of the modern Cæsar, as they stand collected in the Correspondence, are as little likely, we should say, to be overlooked by posterity as those of his Roman prototype. Fourteen other volumes had followed in quick succession, with an interval of only a few months between each, when suddenly, in 1864, the Commission, notwithstanding its zeal in the cause of historical truth — or, as it may be surmised, in consequence of a zeal too little tempered with discretion was superseded, and other editors were appointed in its stead. -- It any surprise was felt by the public, it was caused, not by the measure itself, but by the fact of its having been so long delayed. Had the situation of the French press been different, had there existed in France any of those sure and prompt means for testing public opinion which free countries afford, there can be little doubt that the knowledge of the impression produced by the publication of this Correspondence would have quickly dispelled the delusions of those who flattered themselves that they were raising a monument to the glory of the founder of the Bonaparte dynasty. No pamphleteer, however hostile, could have produced a work half so damaging to the reputation of the imperial hero; no libeller, however unscrupulous, would have dared to invent some of the letters which have thus been given to the world in the blindness of political idolatry. But it was long before the effect on the public outside the imperialist atmosphere could be appreciated, and, in the meantime, fifteen volumes had been published. The work was expensive and quite beyond the reach of popular readers; it was long and filled up in a great measure with administrative and military matters which deterred indolent minds accustomed to the light food of small chronicles and lively causeries. Newspapers and reviews were afraid to tread on such dangerous ground, and withheld their criticism; in a word, the Correspondence, all things considered, was little read and still less spoken of. Now and then a political writer, bolder than the rest, would quote some startling passage to show the evils of uncontrolled power and the dangers of excessive centralisation, but without daring to add a commentary. So the work proceeded rapidly and noiselessly, watched and appreciated only by a select few. It was half completed before its most zealous promoters had found out that their pious efforts had resulted in the most complete and irrefragable collection of accusing testimony that any one man was ever made to furnish against himself. Still, the stifled whispers of public opinion will with time, in the best ordered States, grow into a collective murmur which makes itself heard, even through palace walls and in the chambers where Imperial Commissions sit; and in 1864, as we have said, the present Commission was appointed. It consists of six members only - a manageable number and the President is Prince Napoleon. With the labours of this second Commission we do not mean to deal, our object in alluding to them being merely to show that the spirit in which they are conducted is somewhat different from that which actuated the first editors. A single sentence, taken from Prince Napoleon's first half-yearly Report to the Emperor, will suffice: they exhibit the Emperor as he would have wished to be presented to the judgment of future ages. Most certainly they do not show him as he painted himself at St. Helena, when the fear of posterity was upon him. It is impossible to read some of these letters without feeling wonder that men devoted to the imperial dynasty, and jealous of its honour, should have willingly given them to the world. Was it possible that unquestioning admiration had so far blunted their moral sense, that they could not foresee what the judgment of mankind would be? We would rather try to believe that the Commissioners were enlightened and honest men, who, being carried away by the engrossing interest of the labours in which they were engaged, forgot all else, and lost sight for a time of the political passions of the day in the ardour of historic research. We have, however, heard it whispered that even these conscientious collectors have not given us all, and that some letters, incautiously sent to the Commission by their too confiding possessors, have been neither inserted nor returned. Be that as it may, the first part of the Correspondence, as it stands, is a most valuable collection of materials for history, and the public may well be thankful for it. Many of these letters, it is true, have been published before: some in a collected form under the Restoration, others, interspersed in the memoirs or correspondence of those to whom they were addressed; but the effect is much heightened by the circumstance of their being now presented in one series. The same subject was often treated by Napoleon in several letters, and the mode of treatment generally varied greatly according to the correspondent. The discrepancies and contradictions thus brought forward are not the least curious parts of the work. We have said that our first care must be to circumscribe our field. The fact of limiting our review to the first fifteen volumes would scarcely prove a sufficient precaution. These range over fourteen eventful years, from the siege of Toulon in 1793 down to the end of August 1809, after the conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit, and comprise nearly fourteen thousand documents of different kinds. Naturally we had almost said fortunately these are of very unequal interest, and many may pass unnoticed without any great effort of self-denial on the part of the reviewer. The distinction between what strictly comes under the head of Correspondence and the general works |