is in press, and a preparatory notice of it, signed M. de Cesena, appears in the Constitutionnel. After praising the genius, activity, imagination and style of the author, the notice proceeded to say that the "Preface" would be found in another part of the paper, and the subscribers to the Constitutionnel were congratulated on being enabled to read this production, by one so familiar with the affairs of the East, in advance of the regular publication. "They will, perhaps," said M. de Cesena, "observe some few expressions betraying opinions that are not ours, but they will understand that we owe it to M. Alphonse de Lamartine's renown, to leave him his entire independence. We desire to see nothing in this preface but the entire justice which the eminent historian, in his dignified impartiality, renders to the national conduct of the Imperial grovernment, so far as regards foreign policy, and the Eastern question. It seems to us useful and opportune to let France and Europe see what is thought of this conduct by an Ex-Member of the Provisional Government, and of the Executive Committee. Praise from a friend is doubtless a delight, but praise from an adversary is more, it is a triumph." Among the passages of this Preface, however, which occupies eight columns of the Constitutionnel, is one, in which he represents France as fighting the battle of liberty. The principle of obedience to tyrants, it says, is maintained by Russia, and the cause of liberty and order identified with Turkey. "But then," it adds, "I hear it objected, why you yourselves abdicate liberty; look at the present state of things in France, and other western nations." Lamartine answers. "Eclipses do do not extinguish the sun, they merely intercept its rays. The eclipse passes away and the light remains. The state of the nations of Europe, at this moment, is not a principle but an accident: it is a moment of lassitude, a mere halt in the march of transition." The present suspension of liberty in France, he also avers, is the result of the mere mechanism of government, which may be broken to-morrow, and all the vital elements of a great nation remain intact. The principle which has induced France to resist Russian ag

gression, he again alleges, is a principle superior to the vicissitudes of growth, "a principle anterior to dynasties or republics, which survives empires and dictatorships." Now, much as M. de Cesena admires this kind of writing, Louis Napoleon did not, and a peremptory order came down to the Constitutionnel office to destroy all the copies of the Preface. Lamartine's eloquent periods were instantly snuffed out!

A scientific work of unusual merit is the General Natural History of the Organic Realm (Histoire naturelle générale du regne organique, principalement étudié chez l'homme et les animaux) by M. ISIDORE GEOFFREY ST. HILAIRE, with which the illustrious author, of still more illustrious descent, has been occupied for some years. It contains, an introductory narrative of the great naturalists, a valuable criticism of their various schemes of classification, and an able presentation and defence of the author's own system, which rejects in its arrangements of the organic world, all linear series, and adopts that which has taken the name of parallelism. Of these different plans we shall give some account when the remaining volumes (the first only is published) shall have reached us.

The French press, like the English, groans with books upon the Oriental nations, and the Eastern question. Besides those we have alseady mentioned, we may refer to M. Famier's History of the Rivalry and of the Protectorate of the Christian Churches of the East (Historie de la Rivalité et du Protectorate des églises chretiennes en Orient) to D'OHSSINS's picture of the Ottoman Empire. (Tableau de l'Empire Ottoman); to BEAUJOUR'S Journey in the Ottoman Empire, a description of its natural and artificial frontier (Voyage dans l'Empire Ottoman, &c.); to JOUANIN's History and Description of Turkey (Histoire et description de la Turkie); to CHOPIN'S History of Russia, the Crimea, Circassia and Georgia (Histoire de la Russie, et de la Crimée, Circassie, Georgie, etc.); to Lacroix's Isles of Greece (les de la Gréce), and some two dozen others, whose names it is scarcely worth while to copy.