ts solidity
had been taken into consideration, her reputation must have
suffered. Nations in general make more account of talents than
of the use that has been made of them. They reserve for princes
favored by fortune the homage which they ought to pay to good
and honest princes, who have exercised paternal rule. They
deify him who knows how to subjugate them. Thus it happens in
all countries that the king who has established absolute
monarchy is styled the great king. But it happens often that
such founders have built up the present at the expense of the
future. In Spain absolute monarchy sent forth for a time a
formidable lustre, and then came suddenly a protracted period
of progressive decay, which ended in the revolutions of which
we have been witnesses. Barren glory, shameful prostration,
interminable and possibly fruitless revolution, are all the
work of Isabella."

This is very different from the estimate of Mr. Prescott, but perhaps
more just. In his forthcoming _Memoirs of the Reign of Philip the
Second_, Mr. Prescott will have to trace the results of Spanish policy
toward the Moors. We shall compare his views with those of MM. Circourt
and Viardot.

* * * * *

M. DE VILLEMERQUE has translated the _Poeme des Bardes Bretons du VI.
Siecle_, and the book is praised by the French critics.

* * * * *

LOUIS PHILIPPE'S last apology for his policy as King of the French has
just made its appearance at Paris, and justly excites attention. It is a
pamphlet written by M. Edward Lemoine, and bears the title of
_L'abdication du roi Louis Philippe raccontee par lui meme_. It is the
report of a series of conversations which M. Lemoine had with the
deceased King during the month of October, 1849, and which he was
authorized to give to the world after his death. The writer gives every
thing in the words of Louis Philippe, as they were uttered either in
reply to questions or spontaneously in reference to the topics under
discussion. The exiled monarch defends his conduct in every particular
with ingenuity and force, dwelling especially on his abdication, on his
refusal to yield to the opposition and admit the demanded reform, which
brought on the revolution, on his abandoning Paris with so little effort
at resistance, on his peace policy, and on the Spanish marriages. He
denies emphatica