PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

From January 2d to January 841.

BOOKS.

Memoir of the Naval Life and Services of Admiral Sir Philip C. H. C. Durham, G. C. B., Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mirite Militaire de France. By his Nephew, Captain A. Murray, Royal Irish Fusiliers; Author of "Doings in China." The Age of Pitt and For. By the Author of " Ireland and its Rulers." In three volumes. Volume I.

The Life and Letters of Thomas a Becket. Now first gathered from the Contemporary Historians, by the Reverend J. A. Gies, D.C.L., late Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In two volumes. The Life and Times of Henry Clay. By Calvin Cotton, Author of the "Junius Tracts," &c. In two volumes. Volume L A History of New South Wales, from its Settlement to the close of the year 1841. By Thomas Henry Braim, Esq., of St. John's College, Cam- bridge; formerly Head Master of the Episcopalian Graminar School Ho- bart Town, Van Diemen's Land, and now Principal of Sydney College, New South Wales. In two volumes.

Narrative of Remarkable Criminal Trials. Translated from the German of Anslem Ritter Von Fecierbach, by Lady Duff Gordon. Recollections of a Tour; a Summer Ramble in Belgdum, Germany, and Switzerland. By J. W. Massie, D.D., M.R.LA., Author of " Continental India," &c.

The Dispatches of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington, daring his VA- rims Campaigns in India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, the Low Countries, and France. Compiled gom official and other authentic Documents, by Colonel Garwood, C.B., K.C.T.S., Esquire to his Grace as Knight of the Bath, and Deputy-Lieutenant of the Tower of London. Volume the Seventh.

[" Mentem modelle tangent." A melancholy interest attaches to several publi- cations that appear during the present week; and not the least so to the editor of this gigantic work, whose silver cord snapp.d when the over-wrought tension was relaxed. Happy in one sense that he had finished his labours, though another volume is still to appear, before the work will be completed for the public. The present volume contains the invasion of France, and our Great Captain's sojourn at Paris and Vienna till just before the reappearance of Napoleon upon the scene; so that, apparently, the eighth volume will be devoted to Waterloo and matters connected with the Hundred Days. The principal events of the volume—the operations relating to the entrance into France, the battle of Toulouse, with the observations upon the state of public feeling, and the condition of affairs at Paris —are much too large to touch upon here. It is, however, impossible to open the volume anywhere without being struck with the clearness of conception, the dis- tinct statement, and (within certain limits) the sound judgment of the writer, from the largest event to the smallest occurrence that could bear upon public affairs. Had fate so decreed, what an inimitable "foreign correspondent the Mike would have made I]

Poems, by Thomas Hood. In two volumes.

Sketchesfrorn Life, by the late Leman Blanchard. With a Memoir of the Author, by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. Embellished with a Por- trait, after a drawing by Daniel Maclise, RA., and several wood-engrav- ings, from designs by George Cruikshank, Kenny Meadows, and Frank Stone. In three volumes.

[Beth these publications come before the public with great claims to something more than a favourable reception—a hearty and liberal patronage. It is not merely that death has set his seal upon both authors, but they died prematurely, harassed, if not absolutely worn out, 'in the service of the public: they leave be- hind them claimants inheriting little more, we believe, than reputation; and the Sketches from Life, Mr. Colburn informs us, " are published entirely and ex- clusively for the benefit of the orphan children of the late Mr. Leman Blanchard," —if the Poems by Thomas Hood are not in precisely the same category. To each of these collections we shall endeavour to return; but, looking at the pile before us, and the coming events of Parliament and the London season, that return may not be so quickly as we could wish. We would not therefore risk any delay in calling attention to books whose contents have already passed through an ordeal of merit quite sufficient to justify purchasing, and been stamped, as in

the case of Hood's "Song of the Shirt, by Sheridan's last test of success--the street

musician. As regards the bibliographical particulars, we may say that the Poems only contain Hood's serious verses, the humorous pieces being reserved for another volume—should this succeed! and that the cream of poor Leman Blan-

chard's writings are prefaced by a Memoir from Sir Bulwer Lytton, which strikes us, from a glance at it, as being one of the best sketches he has done. A cha- racteristic portrait of Blanchard, after Maclise, and various wood-engravings, illustrate the volumes.]

The Life of Herodotus drawn out front his Book. By Professor Dahl- mann, of Bonn. Translated by G. V. Cox, M.A., Esquire Bedell in the University of Oxford. [This volume is a curious example of German painstaking, and, which is not always the result of German labour, a useful book. Notwithstanding the research of Herodotus was carried on locomotively and by the living voice, little, or nothing in the particular, is known of his travels; though his personal adventures would to this generation be of as great interest as his history. The best-known anecdote of his life is that of hisreadmg his History at the Olympic Games, with the emulative tears of the young Thucydidea thereupon: but this "pretty story" is shcwn by Professor Dahlmann to be most probably a fib of Lucian. Charges of literary cor- ruption—taking money for puffing the Athenians, and discrediting the Corinth- ians on being refused a fee—are disposed of by the Bonn Professor as mere scandal; and then, from the notice of Suidas, the works of Herodotus himself, and various scattered notices in ancient writers, he proceeds to bring together a connected view of the Father of History, in his life, in his travels, the geographical results de- ducible from those travels, the materials of history existing iu Greece when Herodotus began to write, and various other topics of disquisition, connected with the life, character, and works of the historian. It is a book to be recommended to the scholar, not only for the views and learning it contains, but as an example of scholarly deduction, from, at first sight, slender premises.] The Old Playgoer. By William Robson.

[A series of reminiscences of bygone actors and actresses; evidently thrown off con amore, though the form of letters to a young friend of the new school, who

stands up for " free trade " in the drama, occasionally imparts an artificial air to the composition. The "Du majores" of Mr. Robson are Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, as reaching the grand style of art, and exhibiting the most perfect finish with the highest power and effect. The force of Cooke, and his unrivalled merits in such characters as Sir Pertinax Macsycophant, where the #entleman was not es- sential, are done justice to by Mr. Robson; and he is lavish in praise of the fine taste, close study, magnificent voice, and perfect declamation of Young, but holds that " the heights and depths were not within his reach." Most of the other great actors of the last generation are passed in review, and dwelt upon according to the

writer's impression and impulse, rather than any fixed plan; though it naturally follows that very great merit—as Mrs. Jordan's—will secure a more conspicuous place. Kean is not absolutely excluded, yet hardly is he let into the catalogue a the departed great; Liston is rated as little better than nought; and Macready only alluded to in passing.]

The Prying, of a Postman. [The idea of this publication seems to have been derived from Douglas Jerrold's quiz upon the letter-writers, though the form is somewhat different. The Pry- sags of a Postman give transcripts of various letters which "the postman of Stockgate" is supposed to read before delivery; and the design of the book is to exhibit the hopes, fears, joys, sorrows, and stories of everyday life. The idea is good; but the execution is below the conception—the topics obvious, the composi- tion commonplace.] The Destination of Man. By Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Translated from the German, by Mrs. Percy Sinnett. [As there are frequent translations of the German mystical writers, who have the art of puzzling the plain and of finding in the lowest deep of obscurity a lower deph, we suppose there is a public for them, and that in some way or other they maintain the state of the literary world. As we really cannot read The Destination of Man, we cannot attempt to give an account of it; but we may say that the author is highly praised by Carlyle, and that this book has at least been of some use to somebody, since the fair translator turned it into English some years ago as an exercise.] The Poetical Works of John Keats. A new edition. [A new edition of this peculiar author; who seems to us like olives—you must like him very much, or not at all. But whatever may be thought of the author, there can be but one opinion u the neatness and cheapness of the book: it ranges with several other m ern authors whom Mr. Moxon has given to the pockets of the public.] Borrow's Gipsies in Spain. (Murray's Home and Colonial Library.) [This cheap edition of a singular and original work has been revised, and the Gipsy vocabulary, with "other parts relating to the Gipsy language and litera- ture !" judiciously omitted, the better to adapt the book for popular circulation.]

The New Tinton; a Romance of London. In four parts. Part II.

PERIODICALS.

The Plough; a Journal of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. No. L January D346.

[This agricultural periodical starts with a reference to the coming " crisis " in &ming affairs; not with any view to schemes of protection, but to enable the farmer to meet the difficulties of a transition state by putting his shoulder to the wheel and calling in science to the aid of practice. So far as we can form a judgment on technical matters, we should say the papers of The Plough are well adapted to their object; the more general notices somewhat slight. For instance, the Boman plough would have been better for a more elaborate and critical ac count; the notice of the late Lord Spencer is bald and jejune—a transcript from the daily papers would have told more. Let these things be looked to, and "Speed the Plough."] Knights Penny Magazine. Numbers L and II.

The retrenchment of illustrative ornament is not the only change by which Knights Penny Magazine is made to differ from its parent Penny Magazine of the Useful Knowledge Society. The first Penny Magazine, though profusely adorned with engravings, was grave, prosaic, didactic, in its letterpress: the new Penny Magazine, though of outward show less elaborate, is more amusing. The one was a grave plodding man of business in a rich dress; the other is an entertaining companion in genteel but plain apparel. The two numbers before us have a lively imaginary conversation of Steele and Addison with their printer; a versified contrast between the golden age of a poet in the seventeenth and the iron age of the Realists in the nineteenth century; some amusing brief paragraphs about the curiosities of archreology, and similar light matters; mixed up with a Ilgrave essay on the art of Popular Writing, and remarks on Hunger Panics. lustration, though not so exclusive a feature as formerly, is not neglected: there is a wood-cut from Hogarth's Wilkes, in the second number, that is perfect of its kind. The print of the Useful Knowledge hoof remains, but the spirit of amusement is in the ascendant. The new phasis of the Magazine appears to be experimental: it is put forth to try whether the fourteen years' labours of the men of Useful Knowledge have so far increased the popular stock of ideas, and opened up new sources of pleasurable contemplation to the masses, as to admit of imaginative writers assuming a greater amount of intelligence and knowledge among general readers than formerly prevailed, and choosing their topics and mode of treating them accordingly. The attempt is honourable and calculated to be useful, and has our best wishes for its success.]

The People's Journal. No. L [A cheap miscellany, intended to amuse and enlighten the working classes. The prospectus promises a variety of useful information on economics: the first number contains a little to in with; but it is filled chiefly with a lecture on the Press by Mr. Fox, an article on Dickens by William Hewitt, (illustrated with a black-looking portrait,) and some verses by Mary Hewitt and Ebenezer Elliott. There are some sensible hints to the working men to raise themselves in the social scale, in the first of a series of papers on the " Organization of Labour "; and under the head of " Annals of Industry " the proceedings in the different trades are reported.] The Torch. No. L

[An Edinburgh weekly journal of literature, science, and the arts; containing some creditable writing of an informing character.]

ILLUSTRATED WORKS.

Old England; a Pictorial Museum of Regal, Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Mu- nicipal, and Popular Antiquities. Volume II. [This volume of the pictured antiquities of England—the buildings, costumes, coins, portraits, sports, and arts of the nation—brings us down to Hogarth's time; and contains some of his prints, well copied. The illuminated interiors of old halls are good specimens of colour-printing.]

The Cat's Festival. Written and illustrated by Frances Mary Cooper. [A child's book in verse; remarkable as being the production of a girl twelve years old, who wrote the verses and drew the pictures for the amusement of her younger sister.]

ALMANACKS.

The Anglo-Indian and Colonial Almanack, and Civil, Military, and Com- mercial Directory, for 1846. [There is nothing of novelty as regards subject in the Anglo-Indian and Colonial Almanack; but alterations within the year are of course attended to. It still seems to us that the "Colonies" are somewhat slighted, compared with the fulness of the Indian information; but it is the Colonial book for settlements East- ward of the Cape.] The Post Magazine Almanack, for 1846.

[This Almanack is full in its notes of the month, and its Post-office, Court, and Parliamentary information; but perhaps its feature is the Insurance Directory— an elaborate list of the offices, but deficient in a table of rates.] The Almanack of the Month; a Review of Everything and Everybody. Edited by Gilbert A. a Beckett. No. I. January.

[A pocket periodical of the Punch species; full of pleasantries on current topics, chiefly by the facetious editor; illustrated by miniature drolleries by Richard Doyle.] Rue.

Path of the New Planet Astryea, January 1846. The Stars from Bessel's Zones; the Planet's places by J. R. Hind, Esq.

[Wherever on earth or in the heavens the attention of people is directed, Mr. Wyld is sure to be ready with a map for the nonce. The correctness of this diagram of the new planet's path among the stars must be determined by astro- nomers.]