complete list of all the governors, and officers, and troops, which were distributed about under the disposition of Rome, with their dignities and different offices, &c., it gives us an exact view of the interior mechanism of that vast and marvellous empire, which held within its grasp the whole known world. It is a document of great value to the antiquary and the geographer, from the circumstance that it gives lists of the different towns in the various provinces which were garrisoned by Roman troops, as well as of the different legions that were established in each. All scholars must rejoice to see a new edition of this work; and M. Böcking seems to combine in himself all the qualities which are requisite for a good editor of it. The part now published contains the Notitia of the eastern part of the empire; it will, we are told, be immediately followed by the portion which relates to the western division of the empire, and by the editor's notes. The editor has made diligent use of several early manuscripts which do not appear to have been used before.

HISTORY OF MONT ST. MICHEL.

Histoire du Mont St. Michel, et de l'ancien Diocèse d'Avranches, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours. (History of Mont St. Michel, and of the ancient Diocese of Avranches, from the earliest times to the present day.) By the Abbé Desroches. Caen, 1839. 2 vols. 8vo. with an atlas of plates.

This book has been published rather opportunely, connected as the Mont St. Michel has become, within a few weeks, with the internal politics of France. We scarcely need say that this, formerly one of the most celebrated monasteries and castles in Normandy, has been famous of late years only as a strong state prison. We think that the Abbé Desroches has, on the whole, done his work very well. He is, it is true, rather credulous, and wants historical discrimination; yet we have seen few books which exhibit more industry, and which lay a greater fund of information before the reader. We observe here and there a few errors which might have been avoided, and the author is rather more liberal than we could wish in the insertion of improbable legends and miracles; but, taken all together, these two octavos, with their accompanying atlas of interesting plates, form one of the best local histories that we remember to have received from abroad. This work is the more intrinsically valuable, because its author has made use of many inedited documents of different kinds, which once belonged to the library and archives of the monastery, and which are still preserved in the neighbourhood. M. Desroches makes, however, an injudicious boast of having used the "documents in the Tower of London, and the manuscripts of foreign libraries." With regard to the Tower, that depository in which our neighbours seem to suppose all uncommon documents since the days of Adam are concealed, his pretensions are not justified by any thing in the book; and he knows so little of what is

preserved in the British Museum, that he does not appear even to be aware that there exists in that library an early chronicle of the Mont St. Michel, written in French verse, professedly to be read or sung to the pilgrims who were, in the thirteenth century, in the habit of visiting the place.

The district of Avranches, to which the Mont St. Michel (now rising in the midst of the waves, but supposed to have been formerly a rock elevated in the middle of the plain) adjoins,* contains monuments of almost all the different people who have successively inhabited it. There may be seen the rude monuments of Gallic superstition, and the barrows which cover the bones of the primeval population; the camps. which were occupied by Cæsar and his legions; the remains of the temples and towns which the Romans built in the conquered territory; as well as of the fanes of the early Gallic, and of the later Frankish and Norman christians; and, lastly, of the castles of the Norman barons. We may observe, en passant, that M. Desroches believes that his parishioners were first converted by the preaching of St. Luke the Evangelist. The chief value of the earlier part of this book, in which the fate of the different races who peopled the Avranchin is traced through the days of the Gaul and the Roman, of the Frank and the Norman, arises from the numerous indications of the monuments above-mentioned, as well as of names, customs, and superstitions, which refer to those remote ages for their origin, and which still exist. From this time forward, the manuscripts preserved at Avranches and elsewhere furnish much new matter, and long extracts are given from them in the notes. The prominent part which this whole district, as well as the Mont St. Michel itself, acted in the English wars, from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, renders the book particularly valuable to the English historian and antiquary. We shall make one extract, but that is of a character altogether different from that from which the work in general derives its interest, and refers entirely to these latter times. It is a story which has frequently been alluded to lately in the French papers-the destruction of the " Iron Cage" of the Mont St. Michel by Louis-Philippe, then duke de Chartres, and but a boy. The relater was Madame de Genlis, the governess of the duke.

"After the mass," she says, 66 we visited every part of the house; we saw an enormous wheel, by means of which, with ropes, they raised up through a window the more bulky proyisions of the castle; these provisions were attached on the beach to the ropes, which were fixed to a great wheel placed in the interior of the fort, at a window-opening; and the wheel, as it turns, raises up and carries away every thing that is attached to the rope.

The Abbé Desroches, in referring to the tradition of a violent convulsion which had separated the isle of Great Britain, as well as these lesser rocks, from the continent, gives us a remarkable specimen of Celtic etymologies: "A proof that Neustria (Normandy) was separated from Brittany, in the most remote ages, or, at least, that it was believed to have been so separated, is found in the circumstance that this alteration was indicated in the Celtic language. The name of Neustria is formed from the Celtic an ev ze tre, or ter, the passage or rupture made by the waters, caused by the extension of the British ocean on the lands of the bay in which are, on one side, the Mont St. Michel, and, on the other, the coasts of the Cotentin and of the Avranchin. The word Vestrie is the same as ev ze ter, the rupture made by the waters!!"

I questioned the monks concerning the famous iron cage; they informed me that it was not of iron, but of wood, made of enormous bars, with intervals between them, to admit the light, of the width of three or four fingers. It was about fifteen years since prisoners had been confined there for any length of time; but offenders were often enough imprisoned in it (when they were wicked, as I was told) for twenty-four hours, or two days, although this place was shockingly damp and unhealthy. . . . . Thereupon mademoiselle and her brothers began to cry out that they should be extremely glad to see it destroyed. At these words, the prior told us that he had power to destroy it, since the comte d'Artois (Charles X.), who had been at Mont St. Michel a few months before us, had positively ordered its demolition . . . To arrive at it we were obliged to traverse subterranean passages, so dark that it was necessary to have torches; and, after having descended many stairs, we arrived at a fearful cave, in which was the abominable cage. I entered with a feeling of horror The duke de Chartres, with a strength above his age, gave the first blow to the cage with an

axe

"I never saw any thing more touching than the transports and the acclamations of the prisoners during this execution. It was certainly the first time that these vaults had echoed cries of joy. In the midst of all this tumult, I was struck with the sad face, marked with consternation, of the porter of the castle, who looked on with an air of the greatest vexation. I communicated my observation to the prior, who told me that this man regretted the destruction of the cage, because he was in the habit of showing it to strangers. The duke de Chartres gave him ten louis, telling him that, in future, instead of showing the cage to travellers, he might show them the place which it occupied... I was delighted to have seen this place, so sorrowful, but singular this amphibious castle, cast out in turn both by the land and by the sea; for this mount is, during one part of the day, a solitary island in the middle of the waves, and, during the other part, it stands upon a vast extent of arid sand."

We may observe, before leaving this book, that, at the end of the second volume, are printed some curious fragments of early French poetry, taken from the MSS. of Mont St. Michel.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.

There are, at present, in this country, 1466 higher institutions for edncation, namely, 41 royal gymnasiums, with 10,675 pupils; 317 gymnasiums, with 22,058; 101 schools, with 8678; and 1007 boarding schools, with 23,538. Including the elementary schools, the number of institutions for education amounts to 40,000, in which about four million scholars receive instruction.

The "Leben Jesu," by Dr. Strauss, has been translated into French, but, though the name of the author is current enough among a certain class of the literati, his book finds but few readers. Of the indifference of the French generally to the language and literature of Germany, the following extract of a letter from Paris furnishes striking demonstration :-Nobody here learns German for the purpose of gaining direct access to German literature. “Of

what use is it," I lately heard a member of the Academy of Inscriptions exclaim, "for the Academy of Berlin to send us their learned and admirable memoirs, when not more than ten of us at most can understand any thing of them!" The majority of the French literati seriously insist that all books should be written in French. Those who do take the trouble to learn a little German too frequently indemnify themselves by unmercifully plundering German sources without acknowledgment. In regard to poetry and belles lettres, persons belonging to polished society know that there have been a Schiller and a Göthe, but that is all. M. Philarète Chasles, whose name is affixed to an unfinished translation of Jean Paul, can probably not read a page of German without stumbling. It is well known that this collaborateur of the Journal de Debats merely lent his name to this translation; but what would scarcely be believed abroad is that the real translator, whose name I shall not mention, a Frenchman of extraordinary attainments, but destitute of principle, is, at this moment, before the commercial tribunal at R., and is likely to be sent to the gallies. What would Jean Paul have said to this!

On the 11th of May, died in Paris, in the 78th year of his age, Alexandre Lenoir, founder of the former "Musée des Augustins." He was born in Paris in 1761, and was the author of a description of the monuments of that museum, now restored to their original places; of an account of the Passalacqua collection, at present in Berlin; of a History of the Fine Arts in France; and of a great number of minor essays and disquisitions on antiquarian and artistical subjects, most of which were inserted in the publication of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of France.

GERMANY.

The progress of literary production in Germany during the last two centuries and a half has been truly surprising. In the year 1589, there were published in that country 362 works, mostly of such a nature and quality that the best thing one can do is to say nothing about them. In 1614, the Bibliography exhibits 731; one hundred years later, 628; in 1750, about 1000; in 1780, 2115; in 1814, above 2500; in 1816, 3000; in 1822, upwards of 4000; and in 1827, more than 5000 new works. In 1814 to 1831, Germany produced 84,000 new works, among which were 6000 novels; and from 1830 to 1837, the total amount is 55,318; namely, in 1830, 5920; in 1831, 6389; in 1832, 6929; in 1833, 6320; in 1834,7202; in 1835, 7146; in 1836, 7529; in 1837, 7891. Divided according to states, there were published in the lastmentioned year in Austria 491, in Prussia 2169, in Saxony 1342, in Bavaria 889, in Würtemberg 609, in Hanover 177, in Baden 263, in the two Hesses 263, in Holstein 68, in the four Saxon duchies 309, in Brunswick 65, in Oldenburg 12, in Mecklenburg 46, in Anhalt 11, in Schwarzburg 37, in Reuss, Waldeck, and Lippe 16, in Lübeck 7, in Bremen 33, in Frankfurt on the Mayn 128, and in Hamburg, 185 new works.

Jugel, of Frankfurt on the Mayn, is preparing "Illustrations to the Handbook for Travellers on the Continent, contained in a series of Maps on the most frequented Roads through Holland, Belgium, and Germany, beautifully engraved, coloured, and more minutely and carefully laid down than in any post-map, with the By-roads through the most interesting districts, and with a great number of plans of the principal towns on the Continent, drawn from the most recent surveys, and engraved on stone by J. Lehnhardt." The first part will contain Holland, Belgium, and the Rhine to Basle and Constance. Professor Gfrörer, of Stuttgart, is engaged upon a " General Ecclesiastical History for the German Nation," which is to be published in six parts, forming two Svo, volumes.

A. J. Bachmann's Essay on the Breeding of the Domestic Animals, to which a prize was awarded by the Royal Society of Sciences at Göttingen, is in the press.

Engelmann, of Leipzig, is preparing for the press, by the title of "Biblio

theca Orientalis," a Catalogue of all the works in Oriental Literature, including grammatical works, which have appeared in France, England, and Germany.

Dr. Justinus Kerner, who has just completed his "Blätter aus Prevorst," in 12 numbers, is about to follow up that work with a periodical publication, entitled "Magikon; Archiv für Beobachtungen aus dem Gebiete der Geisterkunde, und des magnetischen und magischen Lebens." Three or four numbers are to appear annually.

The Kunst-Verlag, of Leipzig and Carlsruhe, has just published in an octavo volume, with twenty-one steel engravings and a map, " Spanien und Portugal," a geographical, statistical, and historical account of the Pyrenean Peninsula, by Carl von Rotteck. Should this work find that acceptance with the public which the firm expect for it, they intend to follow it up with aecounts of the other European states on the same plan, so as in time to form a complete whole.

SWEDEN.

Swedish literature is, strictly speaking, not above two hundred years old; it is coeval with the time of the great Gustavus Adolphus. It was Christina, the learned daughter of that prince, who invited to Sweden a great number of foreign literati, by whom the professors of native genius were excited to the exertion of their mental powers, while the graudees of the kingdom were gathering glorious laurels abroad in German battle-fields. The wars of Charles XII, and the pietism of that period, afterwards smothered for some time the intellectual crop that was springing up, till another learned queen, Louisa Ulrica, called forth into existence the humorous compositions of Dalins. The poetry of the age of Christina hobbled about in Roman fetters; the genius of Dalins voluntarily suffered half-French bonds to be imposed upon it. Somewhat later, Gustavus III. thought to create a genuine Swedish school of literature; but, with the exception of three master-spirits who stood alone, Thorild, the philosopher, Bellman, the bacchanalian songster, and the heart-stirring Lidner, all the court-poets of that king-for at that time nobody thought of writing for the people-were but echoes of the Voltaire school in France. The extravagant Gallomania, which raised sparkling, but, at the same time, chilling ice-palaces, produced two other extremes, namely, an excessive Gothomania, and a misty Germanism, which built aërial castles, and planted rose-gardens in the clouds. The Gothomania put many to sleep; Germanism set many tongues a-wagging.

The most inveterate Gothomane was Ling, the most harmonious Germanist, or, as it is also called, Phosphorist, was Atterbom,who, however, is rich in genius, and possesses, in a high degree, the art of drawing forth from material things the spirit that dwells within them. A single great poet came forward, at least to outward appearance, as national, namely, Tegnér, to whose fame Europe is now no stranger; but his nationality is, in reality, only that of the polished European middle class, which knows no other nationality but that of names; for, were German names to be substituted, for example in Tegnér's Fridhiof, instead of Swedish, all the connoisseurs of Germany would solemnly declare that it was a genuine German composition.

At length, however, a writer has arisen who does not deem it beneath his dignity to study the national spirit among the people, that is to say, not among the dregs of the people, nor only in a ludicrous point of view, as formerly, but among the good and the noble-minded of his country. That writer is Lowe Almquist. He contends against the system of education prevailing among the higher classes, which, he asserts, is uniform every where, in England and France, as in Germany and Scandinavia; and, precisely because it is uniform, he alleges that it is prejudicial, because it is unnational. He likes to see Britons British; he laments that the polished class in Sweden should assume an air so thoroughly European; he wishes it to draw nearer to the people, to