y ease and
flow, yet by a certain gravity and weight, which is divested, however,
of the disgusting doctoral tone. He is, in truth, a solid and serious
writer, without being in the least degree heavy. Political men of the
old school read his papers with pleasure, and most foreigners may read
them with profit and instruction. M. de Sacy is a simple, modest, and
retiring gentleman, of great learning, and a taste and tact very
uncommon for a man of so much learning. Though he has been for more than
a quarter of a century influentially connected with the _Debats_, and
has, during eighteen or twenty years of the period, had access to men in
the very highest positions--to ministers, ambassadors, to the sons of a
king, and even to the late king himself, it is much to his credit that
he has contented himself with a paltry riband and a modest place, as
Conservateur de la Bibliotheque Mazarine. M. de Sacy belongs to a
Jansenist family. _Apropos_ of this, M. Texier tells a pleasant story
concerning him. A Roman Catholic writer addressing him one day in the
small gallery reserved for the journalist at the Chamber of Deputies,
said, "You are a man, M. de Sacy, of too much cleverness, and of too
much honesty, not to be one of us, sooner or later." "Not a bit of it,"
replied promptly M. de Sacy; "_je veux vivre et mourir avec un pied dans
le doute et l'autre dans la foi_."

SAINT-MARC GIRARDIN is certainly, next to De Sacy, the most
distinguished writer connected with the _Debats_. He was originally a
_maitre d'etude_ at the College of Henry IV., and sent one fine morning
an article to the _Debats_, which produced a wonderful sensation. The
article was without name or address; but old Bertin so relished and
appreciated it, that he was not to be foiled in finding out the author.
An advertisement was inserted on the following day, requesting the
writer to call at the editor's study, when M. Saint-Marc Girardin was
attached as a regular _soldat de plume_ to the establishment--a
profitable engagement, which left him at liberty to leave his miserable
_metier_ of _maitre d'etude_. The articles written in 1834 against the
Emperor of Russia and the Russian system were from the pen of M.
Girardin.--The _maitre d'etude_ of former days became professor at the
College of France--became deputy, and exhibited himself, able writer and
dialectician as he was and is, as a mediocre speaker, and ultimately
became academician and _un des quarante_.

An