text:  le Comte Francois de Neufchateau a member of the French Institute and an Ex-minister of the Interior published a dissertation in which after a modest insinuation that the extraordinary merit of Gil Blas was a sufficient proof of its French origin the feeble arguments of Padre Isla were triumphantly refuted and the claims of Le Sage to the original conception of Gil Blas were asserted to the complete satisfaction of all patriotic Frenchmen