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 236 R. ]I. Johnston does not relate to the beloved Napoleon. The editing has been well and thoroughly done ; for the first time the names left in blank in all former editions have been successfully filled in, and Mr. Welsch- inger has added to the whole an introductory essay on Mirabeau that is acceptable and readable. This said, one or two criticisms may not be out of place. The first of these relates to the title. Why name the book La Mission Secrete dc Alirabeaii a Berlin when in reality it is nothing more than an amplified edition of the Histoire Secrete de la Coiir de Berlin ? What is meant is this. Mr. ' elsch- inger had clearly two courses before him, — either to edit Mirabeau's original book, in which case his title should have been the original title, — or to relate the history of Mirabeau's mission, giving as a part of that history the text of the dispatches, in which case the title he has chosen would have been justified. Between these two courses Mr. Welschinger has hesitated ; he has given us perhaps more than an edition, certainly less than a history. Working in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has filled the blanks left in all former editions with the names of the people for whom they stood ; he has added some interesting letters from Talleyrand to Mirabeau, and from Esterno to Vergennes ; further, he has collated Trenck and annotated profusely. Had he but gone a step further and ad- equately dealt with two difficult and obscure matters of great inter- est and vital importance he might have claimed to have given us a full and authoritative relation of a curious and, in some ways, mys- terious international episode ; omitting these, as he practically does, he lays himself open to the criticism of incompleteness that has just been made. Mr. Welschinger makes no attempt to follow out either the financial interests that played so large a part in Mirabeau's mission to Berlin, or his relations with the secret societies, the Freemasons, the Illumines, the German Union. Besides, one or two criticisms of detail may be made. The dis- patch Number XII. that is given under date August 22, was cer- tainly written earlier, probably between the loth and the 15th of that month. The date assigned to dispatch Number XVII. is obvi- ously wrong. Among the prominent figures of the French Revolution, that of Mirabeau is perhaps the most typical of that violent social upheaval, but beneath the rugged and hideous distortion of his large features was concealed immense common sense and a constructive genius that placed him far in front of most of his contemporaries. He appeared by his face, by the strange violence and passion of his life, by his flaming disregard for decency, for reserve, for honor, by the overflowing of his superabundant vital energy, to personify the