Men of the Third Republic. (Strahan.)—The title is a sufficiently
convenient one, though it includes the description of many men who are rather in "the Third Republic" than of it. The Due d'Audriffet Pasquier, for instance, is one of its provisional supporters. Bishop Dnpan- leap pays it the obedience which a devout Christian owes to the powers that be, and M. Henri Rochefort is an inmate of one of its prisons, but it would not be wronging any one of the three to suppose that they would view its overthrow without regret. There are some twenty-five sketches in all. The first is of 31. Thiers, and the second of Marshal MacMahon, a sufficiently curious coincidence, if, as we imagine to be the case, the book appeared before the Presidential office changed hands. Then come MM. Gambetta and Gravy, and among others, of politicians; M. Rouher, the Due d'Aumale, M. Jules Simon, and M. Louis Blanc ; and of literary men, M. Louis Venillot, MM. Erckmann-Chatrian, M. Edmond About, and 31. Victor Hugo. The writer is not a hero-worshipper. Sometimes he seems a little cynical, but he is an honest, impartial writer, not without the gift of appreciating diverse kinds of merit; he has worked up his subject carefully, and he can draw his portraits with great vigour. The author does not give his name, which indeed it would have been hardly convenient to give, and we do not know with what authority he speaks. But he has observed closely, and his judgments about men, their powers and their chances, are probably of considerable value. The essay on the Due d'Aumale is especially interesting.
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