MARMIER, Xavier (mar-mee-ay), French author, born in Pontarlier, Doubs, 24 June, 1809. He received his education in Besancon, and became a journalist when eighteen years of age, afterward visiting Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland, and going in 1830 to Paris, where he published a volume of poetry. He was editor of the "Revue Germanique " from 1832 till 1834, was sent in 1835 on a mission to northern Europe, and in 1839 appointed professor of foreign literature in the University of Rennes. Resigning a few months later, he became librarian of the home department, and went in 1842 on a voyage of three years to North America, visiting Canada and the northern United States. In 1846 he became librarian of the Sainte Genevieve library in Paris, which post he still (1888) holds. Returning again in 1847 to this country, he visited the western states, and in particular California, which he explored thoroughly. Since that time Marmier has maile several trips to this country, and has published a set of works about the United States which at first were the cause of much discussion, as the author, contradicting the received ideas about the United States. explained for the first time to Europeans the true condition of things in the New World, and claimed that most of them were improvements on the customs of the Old World. On 19 May, 1870, he was elected a member of the French academy. Marmier, as a rule, is an author of much exactness and impartiality, but is sometimes a little severe in examining new customs that offend his European tastes. His works number over one hundred, and not only have passed through many editions, but have been translated several times into English and Spanish, They include " Etudes sur Goethe" (Strasburg, (1835 ; "Langue et litterature islandaises " (Paris, (1838" " Histoire de l'islande depuis sa ddcouverte jusqu'a nos jours" (1838)" "Lettres sur le nord" (2 vols., 1840); "Voyage en Californie" (1849)" "Lettres sur l'Amerique" (2 vols., 1852)" " En Amerique et en Europe " (1859); " De Paris a San Francisco" (1860)" "Gazida" (1860) ; " En therain de fer" (1864)" and "De l'est a l'ouest" (1867). He has also published numerous articles concerning this country, its development, its future, and the civil war, in "Rewte des Deux-Mondes," the "Revue Britannique," and the "Annales des Voyages."