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can help neither party, and it is therefore in the highest degree instructive to find that there too the new dogma is producing

a crisis essentially the same as that through which Germany and Switzerland and Italy are passing.-Saturday Review.

MARSHAL MACMAHON.

BY THE EDITOR.

MARIE- EDMONDE - PATRICE-MAURICE MACMAHON, Marshal of France, and President of the French Republic, was born at Autun in the department of Saone-et-Loire in 1808. He came from a family distinguished in the military annals of France for the past two hundred years: his father held the rank of lieutenant-general in the French army, with the distinction of Commander of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis; his uncle was major-general, and his brother was captain, but left the service in 1830.

MacMahon received his military education at St. Cyr, and at the age of 19 was made sub-lieutenant of the 4th Hussars, of which his brother was then captain. He soon saw active service. Proceeding with his regiment to Algeria, he engaged in the Algerian war, and in the year 1830 won the Cross of the Legion of Honor, which he received from Gen. Clauzel on the field of battle. The next year he was appointed lieutenant in the 8th Cuirassiers, and in 1832, as aide-de-camp to General Achard, he shared in the expedition to Belgium, and won the Cross of the Order of Leopold by his bravery at the siege of Antwerp. This campaign over, he returned to Africa where he won still greater distinction. At the attack on Constantine, in 1836, he received a slight wound, was commended for his bravery, and was promoted to the grade of officer of the Legion of Honor. Some years afterward, he organized the Tenth Battalion of Chasseurs d'Orleans; he became in 1842 Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Foreign Legion; next Colonel of the 41st infantry; and finally, in 1848, General of Brigade and Governor of Tiemcen. In 1849, he was made Commander of the Legion of Honor and promoted to the governorship of the provinces of Oran and Constantine, a position in which he proved himself a good administrator, and acquired new laurels as a soldier. In July, 1852, he was commissioned General of Division, and advanced through the successive grades in the Legion of Honor, till

in September, 1855, he received the Grand Cross.

When in April, 1855, at the outbreak of the war with Russia, MacMahon was recalled to Paris, he had served about 25 years in Africa, obeying with military precision the several governments which had in the mean time ruled France, supporting Napoleon as loyally as he did the Bourbon Charles X. He proceeded from Paris to the seat of war in the Crimea, where he commanded a division of infantry in Marshal Bosquet's corps. In the final assault on Sebastopol (September 8, 1855,) he had the perilous honor of leading the attack on the Malakoff, which formed the key to the Russian defenses. In a few instants, owing to the irresistible ardor of his troops, he penetrated the fort, and there resisted for hours the desperate attacks of the Russians. While in this dangerous position MacMahon received orders to return from Pellissier, who had been told that the Malakoff was mined. Reluctant to give up advantages he had so dearly gained, he answered: "I will hold my ground, dead or alive," and, true to his word, he remained until the Russians, baffled by the obstinacy and daring of the French, began a

headlong retreat, and Sebastopol was won. This daring exploit, which virtually ended the war, won MacMahon worldwide fame, and secured him, with the Grand Cross, the rank of Senator. When peace relieved him from further service in Europe, he returned to the scene of his early campaigns, and was soon actively engaged in subduing the bold and intrepid mountain tribes of Kabylia. In a short time he received command of the land and sea forces of Algeria, and was reposing on his well-won laurels when called to the field by the outbreak of war with Austria. In command of the Second Army of the Alps, he rendered signal service at Magenta. In one week Napoleon had driven the Austrians across the Ticino, turned their flank, and forced them to give battle.

Attacked unexpectedly at the Bridge of

Magenta, where the Austrians had concentrated 150,000 men, the French resisted for several hours, but were on the point of giving way when MacMahon, who had early in the day crossed the river further up with the view of executing a flank movement, suddenly changed his plans, hastened to the battle-field, bore down on the Austrians with irresistible force, and utterly routed them; capturing 7,000 prisoners. He was rewarded on the field with the title of Duke of Magenta and created Marshal of France. In 1861, he represented France at the coronation of William I. of Prussia, and displayed extraordinary pomp in the Prussian capital. On his return, he suceeded Marshal Canrobert in the command of the Third Army Corps, and in 1864 was appointed Governor-General of Algeria.

When the Franco-German war broke out in 1870, the French placed great reliance upon Marshal MacMahon. He received command of the Army of the South, and after the declaration of war moved slowly toward the frontier. On August 6th, he was attacked by the Germans at Woerth, severely defeated, and compelled to retreat on Nancy, where he proceeded to reorganize his scattered forces with a view to defend Paris. While thus engaged, he was ordered to march to the relief of Metz and thus retard the victorious advance of the German army on the capital.

He entered promptly on the fatal campaign which .ended at Sedan, where his army was compelled to surrender, and where he himself was wounded by a shell, early in the battle.

He suffered severely from this wound for some time, but resumed his military duties about the time the Commune was proclaimed in Paris, conducting the successful siege of that city by the government forces, and cordially coöperating with M. Thiers in reëstablishing order and placing the Republic on a firmer basis. His loyalty was never impeached, though it was currently believed that he retained a strong personal attachment for Napoleon III., and obeyed the Republic because it was the established government rather than from the conviction that it was the best form that could be adopted for the French people. The army is devoted to MacMahon, his brilliant personal bravery compensating in its eyes for his defeats in the late war; and for this reason he was elected to his present post as President of the French Republic, when, on May 24th, 1873, a coalition of the Legitimist and Orleans factions in the Assembly with a squad of Republican malcontents had practically deposed M. Thiers. deposed M. Thiers. It is generally understood now that MacMahon will remain in his position but a short time, and that his retirement will be followed by a Bourbon Restoration.

LITERARY NOTICES.

THE WOOING O'T. A Novel. Leisure Hour Series. New-York: Henry Holt & Co.

We have no hesitation in saying that "The Wooing O't" is one of the very best English novels that has lately appeared, and that if it is, as it appears to be, its author's first work, he (we say "he" because no woman except George Eliot could have drawn "Trafford ") will win for himself a leading place among contemporary novelists. It is not often that a critic can feel justified in such emphatic praise of a new work; nor, indeed, is it often that a critic comes across a novel which in conception, in the characters which it presents, and in style, is so entirely satisfying.

It would be difficult, perhaps, for us to explain why the story is so charming; in fact, the reader himself will be surprised, when he has finished and comes to think over its details, at the meagreness and commonplaceness of the materials which are woven into the spell that enchained his attention for so long. A poor but well educated young

lady, whose family is uncongenial, who is compelled to earn her own living, and who is not even endowed with ordinary good looks; a high-born and wealthy gentleman of a rather blasé character and inborn pride of caste, who, together with his cousin, a good-natured and rather feeble-minded Earl, falls in love with the young lady aforesaid; an heiress immensely rich, highly cultured, and wonderfully beautiful, who employs the young lady in an almost menial capacity, and at last finds in her a successful rival; a long and losing struggle against mutual love on the part both of the poor young lady and the blasé gentleman,-here are materials surely with which we have been surfeited since the days of "Jane Eyre" yet from just these materials the author of "The Wooing O't" has woven a story which is not only absorbingly interesting from beginning to end, but which is a genuine study in human nature, and which introduces us to at least one character which the reader will not forget and whom he will be the better for having known. Maggie" was sug

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gested by "Jane Eyre" perhaps so to a certain extent was the whole book-but she is Jane Eyre cast in a more womanly mould and placed in less dubious circumstances, and we find ourselves following her course through the details of a rather uneventful life with something like personal affection and interest. She is a genuine addition to that small circle of characters which are fictitious only because we happen never to have met them in real life under their present names; and the same may be said of " Trafford," of "Mrs. Berry," and, in a minor degree, of "Torchester,"

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Miss Grantham," "Lady Torchester," and 'Lawyer Boulton." There is a sense of reality about them all which is hard to throw off even after the story is finished, and impossible while reading it; and the whole work is an admirable illustration of Emerson's saying that "true Art is independent of the material in which it works."

We can not say more without trenching on the enjoyment of those who may be induced to read the book for themselves; so we will only add, in conclusion, that we have read no novel since "Middlemarch" (though there is nothing in common between the two) which has afforded us such genuine and unalloyed pleasure. We shall look forward with interest to the appearance of its author's next work.

THE TOUR OF THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS. From the French of Jules Verne. Boston: 7. R. Osgood&Co.

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Like "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea," and in fact all of M. Verne's works, "The Tour of the World in Eighty Days" is one of those books which may fairly be spoken of as thrilling." We doubt if there is any reader so blasé or with palate so jaded that he can read half a dozen chapters without feeling an absorbing sort of eagerness to know how the project is going to end, or can approach the critical parts of the narrative without a perceptible quickening of the pulse. Criticism is fairly disarmed by the enchantment of the raconteur; we follow the eager foot steps of Mr. Fogg very much as in the olden time we devoured the pages of Robinson Crusoe, and not even the preposterous misconceptions of the chapters on America (and they are preposter ous in a fearful and wonderful way) can destroy the potency of the charm.

The "Tour," we may say, grew out of a discussion between some London gentlemen of the Reform Club on a newspaper paragraph to the effect that, owing to the completion of a new railway in India, it would be possible to accomplish the tour of the world in 80 days. All the other gentleman laughed at it, but Mr. Phileas Fogg coolly offered to undertake the journey, and to stake twenty thousand pounds on the result. The bet was ac cepted, Mr. Fogg quietly entered it in his notebook, started home to make his preparations, and that very night took the 9 P. M. train for Liverpool. The book gives a detailed narrative of the

journey thus begun, and when we recollect that Mr. Fogg's whole fortune was at stake and that a single accident, or miscalculation, or failure to make connection at any point on the vast line would destroy his charces, it is easy to imagine M. Verne's opportunities. Of course, accidents did happen, and worse than accidents, but-but it would be cruel to make premature revelations. Let every reader make the discovery for himself; and we can promise that he will not only be abundantly and harmlessly entertained, but that he will obtain something of instruction as well, since there is reason for believing that the author is not elsewhere so hopelessly at sea as in his Pacific Railway incidents.

A brief biographical sketch of M. Verne is prefixed to the "Tour," from which pretty much all we learn is, that he is" a Catholic and a Breton," and that he spends most of his time sailing about in his yacht. The "Tour" itself will convince the reader that, besides this, he is a story-teller of that good old kind, who were not afraid to tell a story for its own sake, and who utterly declined to be bound by the vulgar fetters of experience and probability.

THE UNDEVELoped West; oR FIVE YEARS IN THE TERRITORIES. By J. H. Beadle. Philadelphia: National Publishing Company.

There is a well-grounded suspicion in the minds of most readers of that class of books which come to us in portly 8vo form, which are crowded with showy illustrations, and which are always "published by subscription only." This suspicion has been justified by long experience of the sort of literary trash which these books usually contained; but it can not have escaped the attention of the critic whose attention has been directed to the matter, that an altogether better and higher type of literature is of late being offered to the public through agents.

Its

The character of "subscription books" in fact is improving, and the " Undeveloped West" is a very fair example of this improvement. author was for several years Western correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, and in that capacity earned an excellent reputation for sound insight, accuracy, and practical common sense. His present work displays the same qualities in a conspicuous degree, and indeed is largely made up from the materials which those letters furnished. There is no fine or exaggerated writing, no thrilling tales of danger and adventure, though the narrative is filled with incidents of a lively and dramatic character; but he used keenly observant eyes wherever he went in the Great West, and what he saw he writes down without fear or favor, and apparently with a simple desire to tell the exact truth. For this latter reason especially, the book will be of decided use to that vast body of emigrants, or possible emigrants, to the West, whose imaginations have been captivated by the extravagant and, in many cases, deceptive accounts

placed before them by interested parties. Mr. Beadle palliates naught and sets down naught in malice, but out of the stores of his personal experience he records some striking and novel facts concerning the trans-Mississippi country from Nebraska to Washington Territory, and from Texas to Minnesota-facts which have a very important and practical bearing upon its settle

ment.

From our emphasizing the practical features of the work, the reader must not infer that it is

without interest in other respects. It is literally

a narrative of "five years of life and adventure in the Territories," lively, stirring, exciting now and then, and possessing throughout that attraction which always pertains to bond-fide personal adventures of any kind. It is too copious perhaps, and it shows at time the journalist writing against "space," but much must be conceded in a work big of this kind to the agents' demand for " books."

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This is the first volume devoted to a special subject in Freeman's 'Historical Course for Schools," the initial work of which-Outlines of History-by Mr. Freeman himself, was noticed in these pages a few months ago. It is on the same general plan as the Outlines, and may fairly be taken as the type which will be followed in the remainder of the series. If this be so, and the same high level is maintained throughout, it can not be doubted that they will be accepted as the

best text-books of the kind which have been offered to teachers, and will add materially to the profit to be derived from the study of history in schools. No sketch of general history comparable in value to Mr. Freeman's has ever come under our notice, and in the present volume Miss Thomson has given us by far the clearest, most comprehensive, and most accurate sketch of the history of England that has ever been condensed into so small a space. Its clearness, in fact, is surprising, seeing that the most striking and complex annals of modern times are brought into the limits of a volume of but 252 pages; and it is not a mere recast of the customary well-worn materials, but, as Mr. Freeman says in the preface, "the result of genuine work among the latest and best lights on the subject." We could wish indeed that a little more relative prominence had been given to the great and critical epochs, such as the Norman Conquest, the Reformation, and the Revolution of 1688; and that a little more color were infused into the narrative; but these are minor defects, if they are defects at all, and do not impair the fact that the student who masters the contents of the volume will find himself possessed of all the really essential facts of English history.

A very useful "Chronological Table" is pre

fixed to the work, and its value as a text book for our schools is enhanced by the present edition having been specially adapted for American students.

WHITE ROSE AND RED. A Love Story. By the author of "St. Abe and his Seven Wives." Boston J. R. Osgood & Co. If "White Rose and Red" were written in prose, it would obtain the credit of being a neatlyconceived and vigorously-told story, interesting as a tale, and in its accessories displaying consider

able imaginative power; and hardly more can be

said of it, though it is presented in poetic form. Some bewildered or heedless critic, indeed, has attributed it to Robert Buchanan, hoping thereby to secure for it an importance which its own merits would scarcely justify; but it certainly shows none of the qualities of that poet's work, and has a very decided flavor of the American soil and American experience. Here, in fact, lies the book's greatest attraction. The author has an almost redundant fluency of thought and imagery; but the reader will look in vain for Buchanan's mechanical skill and facility of expression, the versification throughout being for the most part slovenly and inaccurate in the extreme.

Our own guess is, that it is the work of some youthful American who is not without experience in South-Western parts, and who is certainly not without considerable vigor of thought, dramatic insight, and power of description. Several portions of the book rise very nearly to the level of true poetry, and others are genuinely pathetic; but, as a whole, "White Rose and Red" is evidently the product of an unpracticed and rather crude hand, which has the capacity, under proper discipline, of achieving something very much bet

ter.

CHURCH AND STATE IN THE UNITED STATES. By Rev. Joseph P. Thompson. Boston: 7. R. Osgood & Co.

This brief but admirable treatise was prepared by the author in Germany for the German public; it grew, in fact, "out of a conversation in a circle of learned, devout, and patriotic Germans, who requested that the information then communicated touching the relations of church and State in the United States should be put in writing for publication in the German language." For this reason, the work is doubtless much more elementary than it would have been were it addressed especially to our own reading public, and it can hardly be said to contain any thing with which educated Americans are not already familiar. Nevertheless, so admirable is it in method of arrangement and grouping of facts, and so lucid in statement and in logic, that no one will regret the hour or two required for its perusal. That it contains a suggestive lesson for Germany at this juncture of affairs is conceded by her own critics; while Americans may well feel proud that our forefathers found so wise a solution to a problem

which is now profoundly agitating nearly every nation of the Christian world, and which, as the Saturday Review points out in an article quoted elsewhere, is one of the most threatening questions of the time.

HARPER'S Household Edition of "PICKWICK PAPERS," illustrated by Thomas Nast, is on our table. The volume has been looked for with much interest by the public familiar with Nast's work, and though the result is rather disappointing from a critical point of view, his admirers will find in it many of his most striking characteristics. There is the same dramatic vigor of conception and mastery of drawing in which Nast is nearly unequaled, and, we must add, the same "mannerisms," (so to call them,) the same types of character and form, with which his political caricatures have made us so familiar.

"Pickwick Papers" is the seventh volume in the "Household Edition" of Dickens, which, as we have before said, is one of the most attractive of all the forms in which these delightful works have appeared.

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FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES.

A RUSSIAN translation of Sir Henry Maine's Village Communities' has just been published at St. Petersburg.

WE hear that the first two volumes of the edition of Hume's Philosophical Works, long promised by Messrs. Green and Grose, are actually in the press in London.

MR. MONCURE D. CONWAY is engaged on a work called 'The Sacred Anthology,' a book of Ethnical Scriptures, which will contain a collection of classified passages from the sacred books of all races.

THE ninth edition of the " Encyclopædia Britannica" is preparing for publication by Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, of Edinburgh. The editor will be Professor Thomas Spencer Baynes, who fills the Chair of Logic at St. Andrew's University; and the expense involved in this great national undertaking, it is calculated, will be, says the Illustrated Review, at the lowest computation, about £200,000.

AMONG Messrs. Longman's announcements for the coming season is 'A History of Greece, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time,' by the Rev. G. W. Cox. It will be in four volumes. The first and second volumes will be published in November, and will comprise the historical narrative to the end of the Peloponnesian War. They will form in themselves a complete work, provided with a copious index.

THE eldest son of Mr. Tennyson, the PoetLaureate, will shortly be gazetted a baronet. Her Majesty, it is said, recently renewed her offer to signalize Mr. Tennyson's services to litera

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"German

MAX MUELLER'S charming story Love from the Papers of a Foreigner," a fourth edition of which has just been issued by Brockhaus, Leipzig, has been translated into French under the title of "Amour Allemand: Souvenirs receuillis dans les notes d'un Etranger" (Paris, Germer Baillière, 1873). The translator, naturally afraid to present a German work to his compatriots, has placed his translation under the ægis of Emile Verdet, who, he says, advised him to undertake it.

M. VICTOR HUGO has nearly finished a novel, which will be published in the month of February, 1874, under the title of Quatre-Vingt Treize,' with the sub-title of Premier récit: la Guerre Civile.' The plot carries the reader for an instant to Paris, and the imposing figures of Robespierre, Danton, and Marat appear upon the stage; but the action takes place almost entirely in the Vendée. The relations of the Vendéens to the English, and those of the Channel Islands to the Breton coast, are illustrated by documents hitherto hardly known. An encounter between English frigate and a French squadron is said to be grandly told.

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Two of the many volumes to which the agitation on ecclesiastical subjects at present existing in Germany has given rise, deserve especial mention. The one is Der Jesuiten-Orden,' by Dr. J. Huber, published at Berlin by Habel, and the other Staat und Kirche,' by Prof. Zeller, published at Leipzig, by Reisland. The Munich Professor has thought the present a fit opportunity for publishing his volume, as it was on the 21st of July, 1773, that by the bull "Dominus ac Redemptor Noster," Clement the Fourteenth dissolved the Society. Dr. Huber concludes his history with the re-establishment of the Order by Pius the Seventh. Prof. Zeller's lectures were delivered at Berlin.

A BOOK that promises to be very entertaining is now on the anvil, in London. It is the autobiography of Dr. Granville, whose practice was great not only in England and its metropolis, but in Russia and St. Petersburg, and at all the German spas. He was a pupil of the celebrated Volta, and obtained a diploma at the early age of nineteen. He served in the Turkish as well as

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