crucifix and the plate necessary for administering the holy sacrament.' There was also found an account-book, on one page of which, signed by the duchess, appeared an entry of the date of an inscription on the great book [the public funds] of 80,000l. capital. M. Bonnellier, with a delicacy for which he seems to claim great merit, affected (fit semblant) to believe the jewels and spoons to be M. Charlet's private property-but he carried off the crucifix, the sacramental plate, the cash and the bank-notes-though these were certainly as likely to have been Monsieur Charlet's property as the female ornaments. We must confess there seems something very suspicious in the whole of this part of the affair. He also carried off the account-book, which, in his supreme ignorance, he considered a great prize,-though, in fact, it was only a note that Madame had so much stock, and was not worth a rush, except as a memorandum between her and her secretary..

But while he was thus triumphantly bullying, rummaging, and seizing, a serious reverse was preparing for him. The regular patroles which traversed the town observed Bonnellier's detachments at each end of the Rue de la Chaise, and demanded the countersign-the pass-word; they had it not; nor-such were the prévoyance and habits of business of the Provisional Government and its agents-any token whatsoever that these people were acting by authority. Strong suspicions ensued that they were robbers or disguised Carlists; the regular troops accumulated; they forced the detachments at the street ends; a scuffle and skirmish ensued, which bore for a time a very serious aspect; at length the Polytechnics, who had by this time remounted, were all unhorsed— and they, and the National Guards, M. Bonnellier, and all his assistants, were knocked down, beaten, and finally arrested, and carried off prisoners to the Hôtel de Ville, on foot, through the same streets along which they had so lately ridden in such triumphant state. The only person of the whole party who escaped was a common street porter, whom Bonnellier-having only sixty men and the whole police of the quarter at his disposal -had most judiciously hired to carry away the money and effects, which had accordingly been fastened on the poor man's pack just as the tumult began, and with which, strange to say, he walked quietly away, while his employers were taken into custody. Was there ever a more comic retribution of a more odious atrocity? However, when Mr. Secretary Bonnellier and his suite were brought to the Hôtel de Ville, they were recognized, and, of course, set at liberty; and next day the poor street porter, whose name or residence no one knew or knows, came voluntarily and delivered up his valuable cargo, and M. Bonnellier generously rewarded him with 17s. 6d. of the public money-and never asked

his

his name, for which parsimony and neglect he is now very sorry,' -as he is no doubt for many other occasions manquées of his short reign. M. Bonnellier does not tell us whether M. Charlet's cash, or Madame's crucifix and account book have been returned to them. As M. Bonnellier owns that he seized them, it would have been as well if he had been so obliging as to tell us what became of them. We wish also that M. Charlet would tell us how much he lost, and how much has been restored.

'This last adventure must of itself have settled M. Bonnellierbut as there was no longer any danger, even from feux de joie, he began to have a great many colleagues and rivals.

'M. Plougoulm and M. Aylies, barristers [now both law-officers of the crown], under the patronage of their friend the Honourable M. Mauguin [the French make strange trash of their imitation of our parliamentary phrase of "Honourable Gentleman"]-appeared to assume the functions of secretaries of the government. A M. Lecomte (since dead) installed himself at this time by the same title.'-p. 136.

Here, then, were six Secretaries of State to a Council of five members; and, wonderful to relate, they increased in number just in the proportion that the dangers and business decreased. When the commission might have had something to do, they had only Bonnellier; as they became powerless and insignificant, they had, in addition, Odillon Barrot, Baude, Plougoulm, Aylies, and Lecomte. We suspect that Odillon and Baude had already begun to fly higher, and that Mauguin had his Plougoulni and Aylies ready to fill their places. Plougoulm and Aylies, however, have by this time outstripped their patron; and the whole affair is a specimen of impudent pretension and shameless jobbing, which nothing-no, nothing in the most profligate days of the ancien régime can equal; and so it is all throughout. The July revolt, which was, in its principle, the most profligate of all the profligacies of the whole revolution, has stained, personally and indelibly, with fraud, perjury, or corruption, every man, from the highest to the lowest, who has had any hand in it. The public men of revolutionary France are, we hesitate not to say, a dishonoured class ;~dishonoured by the successive abandonment of every public principle-dishonoured by the shameless exhibition of every personal meanness-there is no man in France in whom any other man has the slightest confidence-except the King. In him-believing him to be the cleverest, and (though very unjustly) the most thorough rogue of all-they have some reliance; but the real ground of even that confidence is, that they do not see whom it is worth his while to cheat. Such, we believe, is the sum total of French public morality; the political heart of the nation is corrupted to its core; and with no over-favourable leaning

towards

towards Louis Philippe, we are inclined to call him, as he audaciously called his infamous FATHER, le plus honnête homme de la France.

We beg, however, to say that there is a class of men of whom we do not wish to speak in the same breath with those men— -MM. de Chateaubriand, De Brezé, Fitzjames, De Conny, Berruyer, Kergolay and many less eminent-but honest and unhappy men-both royalists and republicans-who are expiating the sincerity of their opinions in the Bastilles of liberty, and under the iron rod of a Citizen-King.

As to Bonnellier himself, who has given us his clue into this labyrinth of corruption, profligacy, and incapacity, we have heard that, immediately after the revolution, he was hoisted up into the sous-prefecture of Compiègne; that he was, however, very justly, perhaps, but somewhat ungratefully removed from that office; and that he was afterwards appointed to some pequin employment in the Algerine expedition. We do not choose to repeat what we have heard of the alleged causes of his successive dismissals, but we learn that the ex-secretary of the provisional government is now again restored to his native nothing on the pavé of ParisPulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris!-is the sum of revolutionary life!

ART. VI. 1, Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles, contenant une Introduction à l'étude de ces Animaux, l'Anatomie comparée des Systêmes organiques qui peuvent contribuer à fuciliter la Détermination des Espèces Fossiles; une nouvelle Classification des Poissons, exprimant leurs rapports avec la série des Formations; Exposition des Lois de leur Succession, et de leur Développement durant toutes les Métamorphoses du Globe Terrestre, accompagnée de Considérations géologiques générales; enfin la Description de cinque cents Espèces qui n'existent plus, et dont on a rétabli les Caractères d'après les Débris qui sont contenus dans les Couches de la Terre. Par Louis Agassiz, Docteur en Philosophie, Médecine, et Chirurgie; Membre de la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles, de la Société Géologique de France, de celles des Sciences Naturelles de Francfort, de Strasbourg, &c., Professeur d'Histoire Naturelle à Neuchâtel.-Neuchâtel (Suisse). Aux frais de l'Auteur. 1835.

2. Rapport sur les Poissons Fossiles découverts en Angleterre. (Extrait de la 4me livraison des Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles.) Par Louis Agassiz.-Neuchâtel. 1835.

W

ITHIN the last few years the progress of fossil zoology, that talisman by whose aid the secret history of our earth is laid open, has been most rapid. Among the works which have

2 F 2

lately

lately contributed to throw so much light on this useful branch of The science, that of Professor Agassiz stands pre-eminent. beauty and nice accuracy of the magnificent illustrations are worthy of the text; which exhibits a happy union of sound philosophical views and practical information, the product of hard work executed by a mind of no ordinary patience and intelligence.

To those who cannot look without interest on a gallant spirit winning its way, in obedience to au irresistible impulse, amid toil and difficulty, as, modestly but resolutely, it climbs

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar,'

it may not be wholly unpleasing if we attempt to give a sketch of some few passages in the life of the gifted author.

His annals are indeed simple; but a glance at them may be worth something as a lesson of perseverance, and as demonstrating with how little how much may be done.

Louis Agassiz was born in 1807. His father, a Protestant minister of the gospel, living on the banks of the lake Morât, was the schoolmaster of his district-and his son, who learned with facility, was permitted, as soon as he had finished his task, to enjoy his merry holyday in his own way; but his hours of play were not passed in the mysteries of trap-ball and taw.

From his earliest youth the angling rod was always in his hand, and the observation of the habits of fishes his delight. We think we can see the little Agassiz, leaving the noisy herd behind him, and sallying forth from the worthy pastor's door with his tiny tackle to tempt the trout.' His whole soul seems to have been absorbed in his favourite pursuit; and the only parental chastisement he ever received was for embarking in a cockle-shell of a boat at a very tender age on a perilous pike-fishing expedition, This correction made an impression not yet effaced; the Professor confesses that even now, when he is employed in decyphering a fossil pike, he tingles at the view.'

*

In the course of his watchings in well selected haunts, a mind such as his could not fail to be arrested by the phenomena of insect life which teemed around him; and he soon began to collect these gay creatures (especially Lepidoptera), not for the purpose of making a collection, but in order to observe their metamorphoses: when he was satisfied, the new-born Imagot was dismissed to the enjoyment of its sunny hour. But the finny

inhabitants of his little lake and its tributary streams formed the great attraction: and, young as he was, he then made observations which gave him a knowledge of the fishes of his country not to be learned from books, and an insight into their organization and

Butterflies, moths, &c.

The perfect or winged insect that emerges from the pupa or chrysalis.

habits yet unknown to ichthyologists. Thus he became an outdoor naturalist, and his passion for the study grew with his growth. But these bright days were soon clouded. At the age of ten he was removed from the paternal roof and his beloved lake to a German school, that he might, among other things, learn that language, with a view to his employing it in commerce. Little did he think that the prizes which he brought home so frequently were only hastening his intended separation from the pursuits so dear to him. A fair prospect at last presented itself-his fate was pronounced-and poor Agassiz had all the horrors of a counting-house before his eyes. Visions of hard stools, high desks, and ponderous ledgers, with reams of letters, of which he was destined to be the unhappy copyist, haunted him nightly; and when he started from the dream, he

'Awoke and found it true.'

He now earnestly begged to be allowed to choose a literary career, and his master, who fortunately possessed a prophetic eye, saw that there was something in the lad superior to the wood of which merchants' clerks may be made, and seconded his prayer. A respite was granted, and he was permitted to study for one or two years at the Academy of Lausanne. Here he first received lessons in natural history, and, as the enchanting science opened upon a mind already disposed for its adoption, he intreated to be allowed to assume the medical profession, as the only one which might favour his studies. His maternal grandfather and uncle both were medical men, and he induced the worthy pair to urge every argument to shake the determination of his mother, who was more particularly anxious to see him in the mercantile line.' A period of indecision followed, which he passed at home entirely under the guidance of his own discretion. His time was employed in the woods, in the fields-wherever, in short, the worship of his dear goddess' led him. A collection of plants, land shells, and insects was soon formed, and a kindred spirit, which he discovered in a neighbouring young curé who possessed Decandolle's 'French Flora,' was his sole resource in his botanical difficulties. The caricatures of God's creatures in a vile counterfeit of Buffon, which he had discovered in a nook of his father's little library, so disgusted him, that he took lessons to enable him to draw animals from the life, and soon became a proficient.

At length Agassiz obtained permission to enter upon the study of surgery; and, at the age of seventeen, he was sent to the Medical School of Zurich. Both human and comparative anatomy were pursued with ardour, and the lessons of Professor Schinz gave him a taste for ornithology, which induced him to compile a history of the birds of Switzerland.

Ichthyology