The most elaborate and erudite modern work on international law is the _Histoire du Droit des Gens et des Relations Internationales_, by Prof. G. LAURENT, of Ghent, of which three volumes were published, in 1850, in that city. The first volume treats of international law in Hindostan, Egypt, Judea, Assyria, Media and Persia, Phoenicia, and Carthage; the second is devoted to Greece, and the third to Rome. The mass of learning exhibited is astonishing. The idea of the author is that through the great course of history, humanity is ripening to a state of universal peace and fraternity. It is unnecessary to say that from this stand-point, international law becomes a subject of the grandest proportions and significance. Prof. Laurent treats it with as much ability as erudition. ALEXANDRE DUMAS is the subject of a masterly criticism in the _Grenzboten_, in which justice is done him with that impartiality and moderation in respect to which a competent German is unequalled among critics. Among Dumas's dramas, the writer regards _Caligula_ as the best in spite of its grossness. In all the excesses, indecencies, improbabilities, and lawlessness of his romances, there is the trace of splendid talent. It is doubtful whether this talent could have been developed by industry and an earnest love of art into a higher sphere of power. Finally, the writer concludes that Dumas is doing more to corrupt the taste of France and Germany than any other romancer, except, perhaps, Eugene Sue. * * * * * Among the French socialists there has recently been considerable discussion on the principles of Government--discussion which has resulted in angry separation of the republican party into opposite camps; Rittinghausen, Considerant, Ledru Rollin, and Girardin having been severally aiming at the destruction of representative government, and the erection of _Direct Legislation_--a scheme which LOUIS BLANC, in his _Plus de Girondins_ and _La Republique Une et Indivisible_, has opposed with a degree of ability which promised to restore him to a respectable reputation. But PRUDHON, in his last book, not only denounces Rollin, Girardin, Blanc, and all the rest, with a school-boy vehemence, which _The Leader_ says is "pitiless," but he attacks without disguise _all government_, no matter what its form, as false in principle and vicious in effect. He believes neither in absolute monarchy, in constitutional monarchy, nor in democracy; he admits no divine right, no legal right, no right of majorities. He only believes in the right of justice in the empire of reason. The principle of authority he rejects in politics as in religion: he will admit only liberty--reason. Prudhon has won a name for talents, and has frequently written with real force--but such propositions are a disgrace to any man who has ever possessed a good reputation. * * * * *