Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/796

786 Rcviczus of Books in the following words : " Ainsi, d'ufie part, un administrateur eclaire et genereux qui reclame les mesures les plus contraires a la liberte dont il est partisan ; d'autre part, un gouvernement reformateur, desireux de corriger les erreurs administratives de ses predecesseurs en matiere de cereales, qui conserve sous la liberte les habitudes de la prohibition et rend impossible le commerce qu'il pretend favoriser." Henry E. Bourne. Klcbcr ct iMciwu cii Egyptc dcpiiis le Depart dc Bonaparte, Aout 1/99 — Septembre iSoi. Documents publics pour la Societe d'Histoire Contemporaine par M. F. Rousseau. (Paris: Al- phonse Picard et Fils. 1900. Pp. lix, 455.) This volume contains the correspondence of Generals Kleber and Menou as commanders of the French army in Egypt from the return of Bonaparte to France August 22, 1799, ^o the final capitulation. The Kleber papers extend from August 25, 1799, to June 14, 1800 (on which day Kleber was assassinated), those of Menou from June 16, 1800, to November 21, 1801. The papers comprise letters of these commanders, nearly all official, to the French government, to the English and Turkish commanders, to the civil and military authorities in Egypt, and to the French agents at the English and Turkish headquarters ; as well as gen- eral administrative decrees and ordres dii Jour. In addition there are a number of letters from Menou to Kleber and to authorities in France, written during the period of Kleber' s command. It is evident therefore (though it is nowhere explicitly stated) that the collection is intended to embrace only papers emanating from Kleber and Menou, and we are left to infer that it is in this sense exhaustive. The Kleber papers num- ber 325, those of Menou 65 ; these are all printed in e.xtenso, and in addition there is an appendix containing 41 Menou papers in briefest ab- stract. We have here thus only one side (though the main one), of these two years in Egypt; we have no communications from the home government, from the English and Turks, nor from the diplomatic agents of the commanders. A peculiar feature is that 171 of the 390 documents had already been printed. It is true that some oi these earlier publications are. now difficult of access (as the "Pieces relatives a, I'Armee d'Orient," published iSoi); but there are few such, and fully a hundred of the 325 Kleber papers are taken from Pajol's Kleber, (published 1877). The source of the document is always carefully indicated, but it is annoying to find most of them without any place of writing shown. The editing otherwise seems careful ; the introduction acutely discusses the characteristics of Kleber and Menou, and presents a judicious narrative on the basis of these papers and some supplementary material ; the documents are accompanied by helpful notes. The publication of course cannot be presented as a full docu- mentary presentation of the matter, and it does not seem likely to materially