thoroughly historical treatment of the subject was given in two octavo volumes, published in 1869, called Historia de la Intervencion Francesa, by E. Lefevre, editor of the Tribune de Mejico. Lefèvre covered the whole period of Mexican independence and brought plainly into view the traits of the factions whose violent contentions ultimately became the occasion of intervention. He was also the first to use extensively the archives which were left by Maximilian. Although manifesting the influence of contemporary feeling, his volumes investigated the whole field so well that but few mysteries remained in it. The volumes which are the subject of this notice appear under peculiar circumstances. Ernest Louet, who was in Mexico as paymaster to the corps expéditionnaire, conceived the idea of writing a complete history of the intervention on the basis of all the facts which could be gathered from the known official and private documents and from all the obtainable private correspondence of those who were prominent in the movement. His exhaustive search was rewarded by the discovery of many confidential letters of Napoleon III, of his Minister of War, Randon, of the Emperor Maximilian, and of others. Thus he was the first to hear all the evidence in the great case in diplomacy. Unfortunately Louet died before the literary part of his task was completed. Paul Gaulot has undertaken to finish the work. Under these circumstances it would not be fair to hold either of the writers responsible for the final product, or even for any particular part of it; for there is nothing to indicate where the work of the one ended and that of the other began. The main justification for the publication in its present form is that it contains a number of important documents which otherwise might long remain unknown to students of this period. This new material, however, makes no very startling revelations; its chief value consists in the corroboration it affords to some of the most damaging inferences of Napoleon's keenest contemporary critics. As is well known, Napoleon continued to reiterate to the United States, throughout the entire period of intervention, that he had no desire to interfere with the people of Mexico in the formation of a government. Of course no one believed that he was sincere. Here we are furnished with copies of his confidential correspondence in which he gives his military and diplomatic representatives specific instructions as to how to proceed to form a government in order to satisfy certain purposes of his own. A single sentence from a letter of September 12, 1863, to General Bazaine is only one of many similar cases: "Quoi-qu'il y ait un gouvernement provisoire, mesure indispensable (afin d'éloigner la pensée que je voulais garder le Mexique), le général français a le devoir de tant empêcher ou de tant decider par son influence." (Rêve d'Empire, page 168.) In fact nothing was left to the decision of the Mexican people, and even Maximilian constantly remained a creature of Napoleon's shifting plans. Maximilian is treated in these volumes in a very philosophical spirit; so that although his weaknesses are apparent, one cannot but sympathize with his fine sentiments and with the high purposes of his reign. Except in the first part of the earlier volume, the character of Napoleon has not been painted in colors that are sufficiently strong and positive. The reactionary and impractical struggles of the Clerical party, vigorously assisted by the Pope, are described with fulness and perspicacity. 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