lans of political reconstruction, and
schemes of social regeneration, which were stuck on the walls of Paris in
the first few months' agitated existence of the Revolution of 1848. At
that time the dead walls of _la grande ville_ presented an extraordinary
spectacle. They were literally covered with placards of all sizes, all
shapes, all colors, all sorts of type, and some were even in manuscript.
Several times in the course of a day was the paper renewed; and so
attractive was the reading it offered to every passer-by, that it not only
put an end to the sale of books, but nearly ruined circulating libraries
and _salons de lecture_, in which, for the moderate charge of from two to
five sous, worthy citizens are accustomed to read the journals. LOUIS
NAPOLEON has changed all that. Among other wondrous decrees that have
issued from his barracks, is "Bill-Stickers Beware!" The usurper sees
danger in the very poles and paste of an _afficheur_!

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There is in Paris, under the sole direction of an ecclesiastic, the Abbe
MIGNE, an establishment embracing a printing office, stereotype foundry,
and all other departments of book manufacture, which has in course of
publication a complete series of the chief works of Catholic literature,
amounting to 2000 volumes, and the prices are such that the mass of the
clergy of that faith may possess the whole.

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LAMARTINE has given us the third and fourth volumes of his _Histoire de la
Restauration_; BARANTE, the third volume of his _Histoire de la
Convention_, bringing the narrative down to 1793. THIERRY announces a new
edition of his works; and ALEXANDRE DUMAS has commenced his _Memoires_ in_
La Presse_.

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The most striking of French novels, or of any novels recently published,
is the _Revenants_ ("Ghosts"), of ALEXANDRE DUMAS the younger, which
exceeds in cleverness, ingenuity, and absurdity all the novels put
together of his prolific parent himself. The heroes and heroines of the
_Revenants_ are those of three of the most celebrated tales of last
century, GOETHE'S _Werther_, BERNARDIN ST. PIERRE'S _Paul and Virginia_,
and the Abbe PREVOST'S _Manon L'Escaut_. The book opens with a description
of a visit paid by MUSTEL, a German professor, to his old pupil BERNARDIN
SAINT-PIERRE, now living at Paris in the sunshine of th