1828.] 
ing—some washing thelr linen—others cook- 
ing. Several, entirely naked, were cleansing 
themselyes—and some were holding their 
shirts over the flames, and turning them ra- 
pidly round to prevent their catching fire 
—the inflated and scorching shirt was then 
suddenly rolled up, to destroy its minute 
and many-legged inhabitants. 
Among the first acts of the provisional 
government was a decree emancipating the 
schools—giving parents and guardians, that 
is, permission to remove those who had been 
placed in the public schools against their in- 
clinations—and doing so on the ground that 
the late government had given too violent 
a direction to military pursuits, and thus 
cramped the varying energies of nature, 
which would otherwise have operated to the 
more general benefit of the nation. 
The foreign troops generally—as was na- 
tural—were odious to the Parisians ; but the 
first time the public hatred was expressed 
against the English was at the Théatre 
Frangais, on the representation of Hamlet ; 
“ T/ Angleterre en forfaits trop sowvent 
Sut féconde,” was received with loud accla- 
mations, though the same line had often been 
repassed without the slightest notice. 
“ Tt was not,’’ says the author, “till the 
llth of June that appeared the first official 
but full demonstration of Talleyrand’s obser- 
vation—that the Bourbons had learnt no- 
thing, and forgotten nothing.”? In con- 
tempt, or rather in ignorance, of the change 
of manners, customs, prejudices, an ordon- 
nance was published for the strict observance 
of Sundays, consisting of thirteen articles. 
One of them, which forbade coffee-houses 
being open between eight and twelve, under 
the penalty of 300 francs, excited the great- 
est dissatisfaction, as the number of persons 
who breakfasted in these houses from neces- 
sity as well as pleasure—particularly on Sun- 
days—was incalculable. By another, book- 
stalls were forbidden, and all shops were to 
be closed except those of the apothecaries, 
which were to be half-closed. A caricature, 
with the title “ Un déjetiné selon Pordon- 
nance,” represented a person at the half- 
opened door of an apothecary’s shop, through 
which he was in the act of having a clyster 
administered; and several others waiting 
their turn for the injection. Ordonnance is 
used for a physician’s prescription.—On the 
Sunday following also appeared, for the first 
time since the Revolution, the proces- 
sion of the Féte Dieu (Corpus Christi). In 
lic countries, all who meet it kneel 
when the Host passes; and this kneeling 
was enforced by some of the more national 
guards with the butt-end of their muskets, 
which so incensed the people, that the next 
Sunday it was received with shouts, and mis- 
siles, and mud.—<* Thus began,” concludes 
the author, “ a series of follies on the part 
of the Bourbons, the ancient noblesse, and 
the priests, which brought on a state of feel- 
ing in the nation that produced the most 
extraordinary event in ancient or modern 
Domestic and Foreign. 
197 
history—the journey of Napoleon from the 
coast of the Mediterranean to Paris, on his 
return from the Isle of Elba !—an event as 
honourable to the French nation, as his re- 
pression of the spirit of liberty, which thus 
placed him a second time on the throne, was 
disgraceful, and which met with its merited 
reward.”’ 
Some of this may sound like gossiping; 
but there is much in the book of a more im- 
portant character,, though not so easily com~ 
pressible. 
A General Biographical Dictionary, by 
John Gorton, 2 vols. 8vo. ; 1828.—A very 
slight comparison will prove the superiority 
of this work over all similar abridgments. 
It consists of considerably more than 2,000 
pages of very close type, comprising thus 
treble the matter containedin Dr. Watkins’ 
—the one in most general circulation—and 
published at a price scarcely exceeding the 
cost of Dr. Watkins’, more than one-fourth. 
Selected from the best authorities, and col- 
lected from all quarters, the articles have 
been carefully examined, and generally re- 
written, to give an uniform tone. A liberal 
and impartial spirit runs through the whole 
of it. All acrimonious censure is sedulously 
avoided, and merit allowed without reference 
to any exclusive political or sectarian preju- 
dice. Accumulation has not, by any means, 
been an object. On the contrary, a number 
of obscure, unimportant, and forgotten 
names have been withdrawn, to enable the 
very competent compiler to do more justice 
to men of more undeniable pretension. The 
names, however, thus withdrawn are thrown, 
or rather intended to be thrown, into an 
alphabetical appendix, in a smaller type ; so 
that nothing, even the worthless, will be 
wholly lost. 
As to the principle of selection, the com- 
piler has omitted names essentially historical 
—those only being selected in which, as he 
says, the character of the individual distin- 
guishes him from and amidst the transactions 
in which he was engaged. Generally, 
sketches of sovereigns, rulers, warriors, and 
statesmen, can only supply a vague summary 
of public events, which, in the necessary ab- 
sence of all detail, must be unsatisfactory. 
Scripture names are wholly omitted, as con- 
stituting a distinct department, and usually 
omitted in collections of this kind. The 
same may be said of mythological ones. 
The number of new names, brought down 
to the latest period, is very considerable, and 
very creditable to the industry of the com- 
piler—some of them, to be sure, not of the 
most memorable cast. Sir Charles Bam- 
fylde, for instance, of whom it is recorded 
that he was the fifth baronet of his family— 
sat in seven parliaments—was known in the 
first circles of fashion, and, moreoyer, on the 
turf—and finally assassinated at his own 
door, in Montague-square, by a man whose 
wife had lived in his service. 
_ A book of this kind is essentially one for 
