ADYEETISEMENT. 



" A YEAR or two ago/' says a writer in the 

 London Review of the 8th of March last, " a lady 

 who was an intimate friend of Queen Hortense, 

 and who had known Louis Napoleon from his 

 boyhood, drew his attention to the great literary 

 merit of Monsieur Ernest Renan. The Emperor, 

 ever anxious to attract to his side the leading 

 minds of France, listened with interest, and lost 

 no time in casting about for some means to get 

 Monsieur Kenan into his service. This, however, 

 was not so easy, for Monsieur Renan was a 

 member of what we may call the party of the 

 Institut, and was utterly opposed to the existing 

 state of things. At length, however, an interview 

 was arranged, and a series of negotiations com- 

 menced, which ended in Monsieur Kenan's agree- 

 ing to go to Syria, with a view to carrying out, 

 under the auspices of the French Government, 

 explorations and excavations amongst the old 

 Phoenician cities. He went thither, and he re- 

 turned thence, unpledged to the Government. 

 His journey was saddened by a most melancholy 

 event in his family, but he accomplished his 



