The Press.
London, England, 1856-02-23 00:00:00

writing. He brings into prominent relief
points of mere secondary importance, and slurs
over others of high consequence. He arranges
his materials badly. He is not sufficiently
communicative of " facts and figures " as to
the internal state of the armies, their numeri-
cal strength at particular intervals, their loss
by cholerat and sickness, and so on. He enters
at too great length into mere incidenal matters
connected with the expedition, and does not
do so at the right moment. He is constantly
abouring to be picturesque and dramatic, and
does not always succeed; and when he does
succeed, he overdoes the thing. He puts
some of his gravest facts which naturally be-
long to the text into foot-notes, and thrusts
into the text what would have been properly
placed in notes At times he is terribly
magniloquent; for example, he thus begins
his narrative :

The die is cast; the last belief in peace has vanished;
the diplomatic relations of France and England with Russia
have ceased ; declarations of war are exchanged ; prepara-
tions are being made to combat. From all parts troops
are marching t3wards the ports at which they are to em-
bark. The breath of battles has passed over the French
nation and awakened its ardent and bellicose nature, for
this war is a national war, which moves the noblest in-
stincts in the heart of every man and ►n the heart of the
natiou! In all parts of France religion calls down from
heaven protection on the soldier. Already our vessels
cover the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. The national
flag flaunts from the top of the masts; the cannon has
thundered before Odessa, etc., etc.

On other occasions he indulges in such bom-
bast as this :

The Sultan smiled for perhaps the first time in his life,
for there was France,—warlike France, protecting France !
On others, again, he constructs his sentences
in such a slovenly way as to make them un-
grammatical and unintelligible. We observe,
t" that, not content with dividing his history
into books and chapters, he is guilty of the sad
affectation of numbering his paragraphs in
Roman characters, as if they were of sufficient
importance to merit that honour. In so doing,
it is true, he imitates Tacitus ; but if be had
been wise he would have abstained from a
typographical peculiarity which recals to mind
the Latin writer; for the difference is wide
indeed between Tacitus and Bazancourt.

The Moncton. By Mrs. Moodie. Two Vols.
London: Bentley.
THIS novel is inferior to the former productions of
the same authoress. It is a tale of the present day,
but we should hope modern society could hardly
permit such characters and incidents as Mrs. Moodie
has depicted in these volumes. There is hardly a
crime in the annals of the Newgate Calendar which
is not to be met with here torgery, seduction,
suicide, murder, and parricide are all narrated, to say
nothing of the minor offences of destroying church
registers, and exchanging children at nurse. We
hope for the future Mrs. Moodie will employ her in-
ventive faculties on more pleasing subjects. She
has written so many really good works, that we are
sorry to see her take up with this Dumas style of
composition.

The British Empire; Historical, Biographical, and
Geographical. One Vol. London: Grant and
Griffith.
Is a volume of near a thousand pages, we have com•
bined a copious chronology of British history, a bio-
graphical dictionary of our most eminent men, and a
gazetteer including the names of our Indian and
colonial possessions. Each department has been
compiled by writers of repute, and in the biographical
division the initials of the writer supply fair pre-
sumption that great care has been taken to insure
correctness. The introductory sketch of British
history is written by Professor Creasy, and the chro-
nology is composed by Mr. Neil, Rector of Motfat
Academy. The whole compilation is judicious ; it may
be made extremely serviceable as a scho3l-book ; and
the publishers, we are persuaded, will not lose by
their liberality in engaging for each division of the
book the services of writers fully competent to the
satisfactory fulfilment of the work assigned them.

Men of the Time. One Vol. London : Bogue.
A Both" of this kind, unless carefully and conscien-
tiously done, is worse than useless—it is a source of
error. The editor seems to have taken the ridiculous
biographical sketches written by the late Mr. Phillips
for the Crystal Palace as his model. He makes
hardly any pretence to care, and none to impartiality.
His book is full both of blunders and prejudice. It
is in no respect correct, and it has some appearance
of being corrupt. Such a work, the reader will readily