A work called Essai de Socialisme Rationnel, by M. Colins, has appeared at Paris, where it is exciting some attention. It is dedicated to Emile de Girardin, though in the dedication the author declares his complete dissent from the doctrines of that eminent journalist. M. Anatole Leroy is reviewing it in a series of articles in La Presse. The motto of M. Colins is this: "What I understand by socialism is the abolition of all pauperism, whether moral relating to knowledge, or material relating to riches. I affirm that this socialism has become necessary to order, and that it can be established without disorder."
Pleasant reading is there in the Memoires Pittoresques d'un Officier de Marine, just published at Paris in two handsome octavos, with the name of Captain F. Laconte as their author. The French in general are not great travellers, but the best narrators in the world. Our Captain adds to the reputation of his people in both respects. He tells the story of his adventures and experiences in out-of-the-way parts of the world with a gayety and laissez-aller which charm the reader. For the rest, what he saw in the South Sea, in Russia, in Turkey, at Madagascar, was well worth the telling in such a style. When he prints another book we hope to hear of it.
A book which our students of belles-lettres should have is M. de la Villemarque's Poemes des Bardes Bretons du VIe Siecle. It is an excellent proof of the thorough study now devoted to the early popular literature of France, whose richness, by the way, is not much suspected by the elegant scholars of other countries. M. de la Villemarque has treated his subject with equal conscientiousness and affection. He gives abundant specimens of the songs of the bards in the form of translations from the original Celtic into French. The work is concluded by some philological disquisitions of value to whoever wishes to study the Celtic tongue.
M. Perrymond, one of the most intelligent and learned staticians of France, has published a reply to Thiers's Report on Paupers and Public Charity: the title of Perrymond's work is Le Pain du Proletaire, ou le Commerce des Peuples. It is socialistic.
The political and social theory of Mazzini, and especially his doctrine that the idea of duty, with the utter subjection of the individual to the general interest, is the sole base for society and government, is the subject of some vigorous and unmerciful essays in the Journal des Debats, by Alexandre Thomas.