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    The expedition of Hoche against Ireland , and Napoleon ' s camp of Boulogne , are of more thrilluig interest , because they approach nearer our own tim ? . The volume concludes with some general reflections on our navy , our land defences , the disasters of an invasion , its probabilities , and our resources . Mr . Creasy , with abundance of patriotism , has no braggadocio . tf And- should their flat bottoms iii peace us . cprne o ' , - They still will find-Britons to receive them on shore I" . Very likely ; but Mr . Creasy would prefer the Britons receiving the enemy with something more" deadly than contempt . Without tarnishing the lustre of our national greatness , or doubting for a moment the courage and spirit of the race- ^ without even relying with any deep sense of security on that Providence which has protected and will protect us so long as we remain " a Grod-fearing people , " but relying rather on the " powder kept dry , " Mr . Creasy bids us face the present peril with open eyes : —

    " But the triump hs of those days must be read with caution , when we think of the contests that possibly our country may soon have to encounter ; nor must we , like the descendants of the . heroes of antiquity , mistake memories for hopes . Above all it is necessary , when we mark the exploits which our navy then used to achieve against superior numbers , and under apparent disadvantages , that we should bear in mind the peculiar circumstances of the time ; and not be unreasonably sanguine in the expectations which we form of what our navy might do at present . " Not that our officers and sailors are not now as brave , as skilful , as loyal , as deserving of honour , as they were ever ; but the foes , whom they would have to encounter , would be very different in fact , though nominally the same , to those against whom their predecessors used to advance with such unhesitating and

    suecessful audacity . At the beginning of the great revolutionary war , we found the French navy almost wholly destitute of trained and experienced officers . The old officers had emigrated , or ' had been deposed , or had been guillotined ; and before new ones could be trained up , we had almost crushed their navy by a series of decisive conflicts . Our admirals did not act like the pedantic and procrastinating generals of Austria and Prussia , who , by trifling with opportunities and forbearing to press advantages , gave the Carmagnoles of the French armies time to add discipline and organization to their natural valou * The French navy was promptly Revolution had causedand it

    assailed while yet in the disorder which the , never af terwards , during the war , was allowed to recover from the effects of the blows that were then promptly dealt . Now , there is no such enormous difference between the relative efficiency of the two navies : each has for thirty-seven years had opportunities for advancement and perfection of discipline ; and , however sincerely we may rely on our modern seamen not haying degenerated , we have no tight to expect to see British vessels capture those far superior in size , weight of metal , and number of crew ; or to see scanty and imperfectly manned squadrons blockade and defeat large and amply equipped fleets of the enemy . " On the whole , this is a very readable and timely book ; an historical pamphlet , it may be called , worthy the attention of a threatened nation .

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    WORKS OF LOUIS NAPOLEON . The Political and Historical Works of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte , President of the French Republic . Now first collected ; with an Original Memoir of his Life , brought down to the Constitution of 1852 . In 2 vols . Office of Illustrated Library . The writings of Louis Napoleon , like everything else relating to his base and despicable life , never attracted more than a passing curiosity due to the name he bears , until the unhappy concourse of events brought him into a position where he was enabled to show how terrible for evil an insignificant man mav become . But since his election to the presidency ,

    and above all , since the 2 nd December , the name which had hitherto been written only on the soiled annals of a roue gambler-life , and on two pages of historic buffoonery , now has its place—its dark and shameful place—in European history . His writings , therefore , are clothed with a new interest ; they have a significance which they wanted before . To collect , translate , and publish them , was an obvious thought . The proprietors of the Illustrated News have not only done this , but have done it well . The work is no catchpenny affair . It has been done deliberately and liberally . The Memoir of Napoleon which precedes the " work has been carefully compiled , and is brought down to the cowp-d'Stat , with the addition of the

    new Constitution . When we state that the Memoir occupies upwards of one hundred and fifty large octavo pages , it will be seen that sufficient space has been given to it ; and we may add , that the tone is liberal without violence . The papers relating to the coup'd ' e ' tat would have been better placed after the Memoir than at the close of the second volume ; they consist of Granier de Cassagnac ' s History of the Events of December , 1851 ; the Last Sitting of the Legislative Assembly ; the Confiscation of the Orleans Property ; and the New Electoral Law . The works contained in these two handsome volumes are , Political JZe ~ *> me *—his first scheme of a Constitution in 1832 , with which may fitly bo contrasted his last sohomo in 1852 ; the Political and Military Considerations on Sioitzerland ; the famous Ideas of Napoleonism , published hero while he was among us—ideas in which he undertakes to expound to the world "the thought which presided over the high conceptions" of his undo Historical Fraamentsof valuethe Analysis of the tuu uJLi

    ; some , no ; ¦ " "'v f ayjiuu J . J . Hfl / UT * U ( JH / JP "UUl / Wr / US f Ul XIKJ yvWLWV , vwv yw ^/ ~ .- ~ Sugar Question , the treatise which duped the Socialists into the belief that ho was of them and for thorn , because ho wrote of the Extinction of Pauperism—a treatise which , with that on Napoleonism , may bo considered as best worth reading ; together with several miscellaneous papers , including a translation , in French prose , of Schiller ' s poem , " Ideal , " It was commonly said that Louis Napoleon was stupid , * his manner is certainly not propdssessing , but if any one , after 1850-52 , still thinks him a fool , those works will certainly dissipate that error . Indeed , the reaction is likoly to bo extreme . Some of those who called , him a fool , now think him a man of groat ability ; neither judgment is acceptable . Ho is not a thinker , he is not even a good writer ; but it is hardly possible to read those works , and refuse to their author an intelligence above the average . The translation is somewhat literal , and by its adherence to iTreuoh idioms and phrases , doprivoa the writing of its duo effect .

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    BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Memoir * and Correspondence of Mallet Du Pan , lUuttrative of the History o / # « - ^ £ nlw Revolution . By 1 . Sayons . 2 vola , . *^ 7 * SL 2 ° T * The Political and Historical Works of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte , P ^ ufte ^ fcndon Library . UfeM Bombay dnd ' the Neighbouring Out-Stations . With Dlustrationa . Bichard Bentley . lie Farce of Life . A Novel . By Lord B- . 3 vols . . j i ftw S Ussays and Opinions . By Alfred Bate Kicharda . Second Series . Vol . III . - ^ of * Mi ^ . ° ^* Verdicts . ' ¦' .: •' : '¦ . ¦ . _ Emngnam wusob . How to See the British Museum in Four Visits .- By W . Blanchard Jerrold . _ - ¦ . : . ' .. : ¦' ... ¦ ' . . ¦ -Bradbury and Jfivans . Meliora ; or , Better Times to Come . Edited by Viscount Ingestre . John W . Parker and Son . Letter to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty . By W . Penny . Chapman and Hall . Is Everybody Responsible for his Conduct , By John Mone , Esq . A School Atlas of Physical Geoaraphy , Illustrating , ina Series of Original Designs , the Mlementary Facts of Geology , Hydrology , $ c . By Alexander Keith Johnston , F . K-B . E ., &c . A School Atlas of General and Descriptive Geography , Exhibiting the Actual and Comparative Extent of all the Countries in the World . By Alexander Keith Johnston . William BlackwoodTind Sons . A System of English Grammar , Founded on the Philosophyof Language , and the Practice of the best Authors . By C . W . Connon , M . A . Second Edition . Oliver and Boyd . Researches in Cerebral Developments . By James Straton . Bailliere . The Portrait Gallery of distinguished Poets , Philosophers , Statesmen , Divines , Painters , # c . Part I . Orr and Co . The British Soldier : a Journal devoted to the Interests of the United Services . No . VI . Kent and Co . Notes of Interviews with the Ministers and principal Statesmen of France , in reference to the Policy of Louis Napoleon . By P . O'Brien , Esq . Colburn and Co .

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    MAGNETIC EVENINGS AT HOME . Letteb IV . —To G . H . Lewes . When I entered the house of Count P— , on the evening appointed for our experiment in clairvoyance , one of the first objects which attracted my attention in the drawing-room , was a piece of wood that lay on the table , shaped like a hand-mirror . On taking it up , 1 observed a highly-polished oval piece of coal attached to one side of the wood , instead of the ordinary lookmg-glass , which I had expected to find there . The history of this strange mirror was as follows : —

    An old friend of the Count ' s preserved , among his other curiosities , the celebrated " wishing-stone , " formerly possessed by Dr . Dee . Convinced that the old Doctor ' s evil reputation among his contemporaries as a sorcerer had been solely derived from his knowledge and practice of animal magnetism , in days when new sciences of all kinds were fathered upon the devil , as a matter of course , our host conceived the idea of procuring as good an imitation of this " wishing-stone" as could be obtained , and of

    rivalling the magic achievements of Dr . Dee , by applying to it the magnetic process necessary to produce the phenomenon of clairvoyance . A piece of " Cannel coal" was procured , as the nearest available approach to the mysterious " wishing-stone : " it was polished and fixed to the wood by an ordinary artisan . Placed in the hands of V , when she was magnetized , it proved quite as fertile a source of marvels as the Doctor ' s original instrument of sorcery , —in other words , it was found to be a very useful aid to

    experiments m clairvoyance . This coal-mirror was now placed on the table , in case we wished it to be used as a matter of curiosity . The experiment on which we were about to enter could be carried on just as easily without it . V would see the perfect stranger to herself whom we might wish her to see , if a vacant chair were placed before her , on which she might behold the absent person ; or if that person ' s visiting-card were put into her hand . But if , as a matter of antiquarian amusement , we desired that the vision should appear to her in the " wishing-stone , " there it was , ready for use , just as Dr . Dee might have used it in the olden time .

    We chose the " wishing-stone" by general acclamation . It was already magnetized ; so that V would be thrown into the sleep by merely taking it in her hand , and looking at it . She was placed , by her own desire , with her back to the table , and with the candles put behind her . By this arrangement , the coal-mirror was thrown into complete shadow , when she took it up , and held it before her . As soon as she was comfortably seated , I was asked to indicate the person whom I wished her to see . I wrote on a sheet of paper ( keeping well behind her , at the further end of then in London

    the table ) " my brother ; " knowing him to he , some hundred and thirty miles away from us , and to be perfectly unknown to y , , the Count , and , indeed , to everybody present except one gentleman , a mere spectator like myself , and quite as determined as I was that the proceedings of the evening should be subjected to the severest possible test . The Count looked at the two words I had written down , ( they were never , from first to last , even whispered by any of us , ) and simply said to y tt j desire that you will sec and describe the person whom that gentleman has indicated to me . " She nodded her head as a sign of acquiescence , and , in about ten minutes after , her eyes were fast closed in the magnetic sleep . '

    _ _ . .,.. . » . ., She held the mirror before her , at the distance from her face that she would have held a hook—keeping it in the same position ( heavy as it was ) for the whole two hours during which she was in the magnetic state . The first thing she did was to take out her handkerchief , and wipe the surface of the coal , over and over again , very carefully , and with a very anxious , searching expression of countenance . Then she changed her position in the chair eevcrftl times , shifting the mirror from » ido to aide , and occasion-

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    Feb . 28 , 1852 . ] THf I / BADES . 20 y

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    We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . — Goethb .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1852, page 207, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1924/page/19/