PROGRESS OF PUBLICATION.

TIIE lapse of a few weeks has produced its usual piles of vats), kinds,—fiction, history, poetry, scientific or professional treat and compilations, selections, pamphlets and serials, whose names were long to tell. Of these, some from their character', nature are not adapted to any notice, and few demand more tki a brief description. We will begin with

FICTION.

The Courtier's Daughter, by Lady STEPNEY. This novel sin spirit an emanation from the old Minerva Press school, varied me. what in form by its scene being laid in courts and high life, and its principal characters consisting of courtiers. Except, 'totems ate certain inflated emptiness of dialogue, strongly dashed with et affectation of finery, no advantage is derived from this variation; for the persons are melodramatic where they are not commonplace. and tho incidents improbable. To the commonest run of cireu: hating library readers, there is a sufficiency of mystery in the story, and of gloom in the characters, to attract their attention The sort of amusement that others will find there, may be showt; by an extract or two. This is part of a scene which takes plate at court ; where the rival Earl and the rival Duke—between whom there rages such a feud that they cannot control their cows tenances even in the presence of the Queen, " the Regent, and the Duke of York "—have met the first time for years. 1Vedo not dispute the truth of the dialogue; it has all the appearance of a report : only the life of the speakers, the presence of majesty, the assemblage of courtiers, and the brilliancy of the whole scene, are wanted to give an extrinsic interest to what, speaking nakedly, is tniserable twaddle.

"Your daughter is very beautiful, is she not?" inquired the Queen, sills gratifying interest. "To a parent's eye," replied the Earl; but I can speak with more cont. denee concerning the amiability of her disposition : she is docility itself, and, at present, knows no will save mine." "That is as it ought to be," returned the Queen ; "sue has now arrived at a sweet period of life : at seventeen, the feelings are generous and vivid; there is no apprehension of change, no distrust of affection; and, while readily yielding to illusions, they are all in favour of a more exalted state of existence than the temptations of the world will permit to man. I love young people, from my heart ; they are so ready with their sympathies, so confiding in their attach.

P';'°;P" BofutTa.ini."dao.*'

anent% and so eloquent in the advocacy of those pore

which they ha, sag Iretrovi I... tor for selfish considerations.

taming you hem, away hona a beloved child, who is doubtless looking for your early return, since you are to leave England to.morrow. Farewell, therefore, and may every happiness attend you both." The Earl, deeply impressed with the condescending kindness of the illustrious lady who expressed so strong an interest in the welfare of his child, took his departure with a glow of grateful feeling around his heart, which contrasted strongly with the dark passions sweeping across it in the preceding hour.

TITLED PENNY•A-LINING.

More than two hours had flown ; but the Earl's ruminations had been marked by such deep intensity, that the carriage rolled through the gate sod stopped at the door of his villa, before he imagined that he had performed half the distance. Alighting, he walked round by a path which led into a fleeter. garden, rendered beautiful both by nature and art, and which, at every season of the year, presented some floral charm, taught to shed its blossoms amid the frost and snows even of winter, and now blooming in all the radiance of spring.

Misrepresentation, or Scenes in Real Life, has little of the pathos or exaggerated mystery which characterize the Courtier'. Daughter ; but it is far too literal and commonplace in conception, and wiredrawn in execution, to require any detailed criticism. Lady STEPNEY burlesques nature; the present writer falls below it.

Piers de Gaveston is a crude, but promising, first attempt at that most difficult style of novel-writing, the historical. Though the young author, whom we take to be of the gentle sex, has neither the vigour requisite to grapple with the weighty materials of history, nor the power of transporting us back to past times, yet her narrative is so clear and direct, and true to historical facts, her description of characters so graphic, and her reflections, though commonplace, are so free from cant and affectation, that, being in earnest, she interests the reader in the fortunes of per- sons whose fate is known beforehand.

HISTORY. The Religious History of Man. So far as the expressions of a person can be relied on who is obviously in total ignorance of logic and ontology, the plan of this book was both extensive and important—etebracing an inquiry into the nature of Revelation, and its influence upon the opinions and customs of mankind. This, however, was a subject far beyond the capacity of our author, even had he intended to pursue it : his book is a wild, unrea- soning, and fanciful rhapsody; the writer using Scripture as an interpreter to explain the mysteries of every science, and making himself the true interpreter of Scripture. Mr. D. MORISON,our mental hygeist, finds, for example, the Trinity in the Creation; and sticks to the literal text of the " six days," on the strength of the providential discoveries of Mr. CROSS touching "electrical influences."

An Historical and Genealogical Account of the Clan Maclean. to the account befere us, the clan MACLEAN was at mai to the powerful family of ARGYLE, till the two One histories( chieftains of that name contrived 9to destroy the stre th

bee rivals througi ti political infi uence during the civil oft

eta, and the troubles consequent on the rule and rejection of the or, as our stanch clansman hag it, through the base St of the RGYLE. esat's,—

The historical part of the narrative is not ts A

a geneial interest ; but few, excepting MACLEANS or °without rivals, will take much interest in genealogical trees, notices tidal:amen, disquisitions touching the rightful head of the sept, ad so forth. The Third Volume of the History of Russia, (" Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopredia,") apparently completes the work. The reed nominally embraced is not very extensive, being only eleven „ars, (1796, accession of PAUL — 1507, treaty of Tilsit); but ise time is really extended by a retrospective view of the Persian war, and of the Emperor PAUL'S early life, elitist the subject is still further amplified by a disquisition on the capability of invad- ing India. In a volume containing so little time and so much type, it is obvious that a searching revision would have shortened e considerably without " much loss of facts or of sentiments ;" but the writer still displays the foice of style we mentioned in the notice of the first volumes ; and his poWer of composition, with the importance of the events, and the almost contemporary interest Attached to the wars springing out of the Revolution, combine to render his work very readable.

aronological Tables of the History of the Middle Ages. This work includes the period between the fourth and the fifteenth centuries; and briefly describes, under their respective dates, the contemporaneous events in the various countries whose annals are ta all known to us, and also notes the progressive state of lite- rature and the arts of civilization during each century. To the student it will be a must acceptsble guide through the devious DAUS of this long and oliscure period of the history of mankind, during which society and letters stewed in a transition state, and the sword of the spoiler was the ploughshare that prepared the soil of Europe to receive seeds of liberty and refinement. And to those who ale not students it will furnish a useful work of re- ference.

We shall endeavour to return to the Scandinavia, Ancient and Modirn, in the " Edinburgh Cabinet Library." In the mean time, if the reader wish to decide, he may buy in safety.

TREATISES. •

The Functions of the Cerebellum is a translation, by GEORGE COMBE, or the lucubrations of Doctors GALL, VIMONT, arid BROINSAIS Droll this subject ; to which Mr. COMM? and his brother the Doctor have added some remarks on objections urged against Phrenology by various eminent physiologists. The scien- tific manner in which the subject is treated, will limit the circulation of the work to the professed plirciolegkt or the medical Factitioner its nature will be indicated sufficiently when we say, that the gallant irregularities of Dr. GALL himself are chargeable upon the development of his cerebellum.

Mr. TRAVERs'S Hunterian Oration, for 1838, is a pleasant and instructive review of the progress of medical and surgical science, from its first reduction to an art down to the period of JOHN HUNTER, in the attractive form of brief biographical notices of those practitioners who contributed to its advancement, and indi- cations of their discoveries. The whole is crowned by a fully. deserved panegyric upon HUNTER himself.

Mel/ode Pratique, par L. A. Co UPELIER, is a plan tolearn French by considering the conjugation of the verb as the most important part of the language, and forming a series of exercises by which the pupil shall be thoroughly and continually practised in all its tenses and persons; whilst, as this practice is connected with the transla- tion and retranslation of sentences, a knowledge of other words is acquired at the same time. This plan, if persisted in, will doubtless ground the pupil ; but we do not feel inclined to speak quite so highly of it as its author does ; and the execution of his book is deficient in propriety of selection, and is too large and elaborated for the purpose in view.

Elementary Latin Exercises, by Mr. THORNBORROW, may be recommended as a well-planned and well-executed little book, whose use will thoroughly exercise the pupil in the inflections of the parts of speech and some of the principal rules of syntax. The fourth edition is on our table.

A Popular Law Dictionary, by THOMAS EDLYNE TOMLINS, contains upwards of five hundred closely-printed pages. To read all this was of course out of the question ; but we have exa- mined several subjects on which we happen to have some of the knowledge of experience and the sharpness of interest ; and in these we find the work full, clear, and to the point. To the public, however, the chief use of books of this kind is to enable them to talk of law, to steer clear of it, or to keep their lawyers under a "moral check." When it comes to actual practice, a man who is his own client exemplifies the proverb.

1. Plain Guide to Executors and Administrators. By the Author of " Plain Instructions for Making Wills."

2. The Executor's Guide. By J. C. lluesoN of the Legacy. Duty °thee, Somerset House; Author of "Plain Directions for Making Wills."

The only exception to the rule just laid down is an executor ; though even this is scarcely an exception, for an executor's duties

are often matters or business only ; whenever any law arises, he Will always do well to consult his lawyers. There are, however, certain peculiarities attending the duty of an executor, which it is neces- sary to know, or to know how to set about, even if a proctor or a legacy-office clerk must show the way : and as there are seven- teen thousand wills annually proved in England and Wales, with always one, and sometimes two, three, or more executors, this fact alone accounts for the number of guides upon the subject. Of the two little books before us, it would be difficult to say which is absolutely best, for both contain the compendium of the legal truisms upon the subject; but the Plain Guide seems the more popularly done, and to possess more original matter in the shape of " forms • " whilst the Executor's Guide exhibits more conden- sation, and is more specific and clear in its divisions and arrange- ment.

The contents of the Second Part of the popular edition of the IF:irks of Jeremy Bentham, now first collected, are purely juris- prudential; containing the " Principles of the Civil Code" and the " Principles of Penal Law."

POETRY.

Lays of Leisure Hours, by Lady EMMELINE STUART WORT- LEY, are two volumes of flowing and elegant verse, superior to the common run of album verses, both in thought and metre. The recreations of a lady's leisure, however, are better appreci- ated by a private circle of friends, than by those whose ungentle task it is to apply the critical guage even to the overflowings of the heart.

The Bridal of Naworth, a poem in three cantos, is a narrative, that, for any poetical reason to the contrary, might have been as well written in plain prose.

Gems from British Poets, form a very pretty series of four pocket volumes, so arranged that each is complete in itself; one containing extracts from contemporary poets, another sacred poetry, a third giving specimens from CnAucuit to GOLDSMITH, and the fourth from FALCONER to CAMPBELL. The space to which the work is confined, necessarily limits its extracts to frag- ments or short pieces, and forbids any thing like a critical display of the characteristics of the poet ; but the work answers its pur- poie—which was, apparently, to furnish a collection of various, and often of excellent poetry, in a small compass and an elegant fe -in.

The republication of Southey's Poetical Works has reached m:dway to completion. Volume V. contains " Madoc." In the new preface to that poem, there is an amusing anecdote of one of the most famous of the blue-stocking tribe, ANNA SEWARD.

" I paid bier a visit, when next on my way to London, in 1807. She resided in the Bishop's palace. I was ushered up the broad brown staircase by her cousin, the Reverend Henry White, then one of the Minot Canons of that cathe- dral, a remarkable person, who introduced me into the presence with jubilant but appalling solemnity. Miss Seward was seated at her desk. She had just finished some vetses to be inscribed on the blank leaves of the poem Aladoe and the first greeting was no sooner past, than she requested that I would per- mit her to read them to me. It was a mercy that she did not ask me to read them aloud. But she read admirably herself. The situation, however, in which I found myself, was so ridiculous, and I was so apprehensive of catching the eye of one person in the room, who was equally afraid of meeting mine, that I never felt it more difficult to control my emotions, than while listening, or seeming to listen, to my own praise and glory. But, bending my bead, as if in a posture of attentiveness, and screening my face with my hand, and occasionally using some force to compress the risible muscles, I got through the scene with- out any misbehaviour, and expressed my thanks, if not in terms of such glow. Mg admiration as she was accustomed to receive from others, aud bad bestowed upon my unworthy self, yet as well as I could."