Conduct of this sort--the changing of titles, in violation of the wishes of authors, or any change in a book, by a publisher--is atrocious crime, for the punishment of which a revival of the whipping-post would not be inappropriate. There have been many such cases in this country, and to some of them we may hereafter call particular attention. * * * * * One of the most truly successful of the younger living French writers is ALFRED DE MUSSET. His works are principally poetic and dramatic. He originated a style of pieces called _Caprices_, which have become exceedingly popular not only from their own point and spirit, but from the incomparable manner in which they are rendered on the stage of the _Théâtre Français_. M. de Musset's reputation has been achieved since the revolution of July. The last number of the _Grenzboten_ devotes a long leading article to the discussion of his works and his position in the world of letters. We translate the following paragraph: "We find in him an elegance of language, a truth of views, even though they be true only for him individually, a sensibility to all the problems of the soul and heart, and a freedom from the usual French prejudices, which lay a strong claim to our attention. He never falls into that shallow pathos with which Victor Hugo in his 'greatest moments' sometimes covers an intolerable triviality; phrases never run away with him as they do so often with the king of the romanticists, whose profoundest monologues not seldom turn out to be empty jingle. In clearness, delicacy and grace, he can be compared, among the modern romanticists, with only Prosper Merimée and Charles de Bernard. They also resemble him in the fear of being led away by general modes of expression and reflection. They strive only for _individual_ truth; but he differs from them in the breadth and multiformity of his perspectives, and in a singular power of assimilation which is based on extensive reading. In fact, the combinations of his wit and fancy often go so into the distant and boundless, that we think we are reading a German author." The critic then compares De Musset with Byron; the latter is more original and spontaneous, the former richer and more comprehensive. The questions Byron discusses have forced themselves upon him; those of De Musset are of his own invention. For the rest he has been greatly influenced by Heine and Hoffmann, as well as by the Faust of Goethe. The more important of his works are: _Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie_ (1830); _Un Spectacle dans un Fauteuil_ (1833); _Poésies Nouvelles_ (1835-40); the same (1840-49); _Les Comédies Injouables_, a collection of small dramatic pieces (1838); _Louis, ou il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée_, _Les deux Martiesses_, _Emmeline_, _Le Seuet de Javatte_, _Le Fils de Titien_, _Les Adventures de Laagon_, _La Confession d'un Enfant du Siècle_; romances published between 1830-40. De Musset is still a young man.