PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.
Principles of Physics and Meteorology. By J. Muller, Professor of Physics at the University of Freiburg. Illustrated with 530 Engravings on wood and two coloured Plates. (Library of Illustrated Standard and Scientific Works.) Scenes and Thoughts in Europe. By an American. The Sugar Planter's Manual; being a Treatise on the Art of obtaining Sugar from the Sugar. cane. By W. J. Evans, M.D.
The Constitutional History of the University of Dublin. With some Ac- count of its Present Condition; and Suggestions for Improvement. By Denis Caulfield Heron, A.B., Trinity College, Dublin. [The author of this Constitutional History of the University of Dublin is the gentleman who in 1843 legally contested the right of the students to obtain a scholarship without taking the (test of the) sacrament, and was defeated. His volume consists of the documents which founded the University, or altered its economy, with sketches of the debates upon the subject in modern days, enlivened by notices of the leading men that have been connected with the fortunes of the College. The drift of the author is to show that education without regard to sect, and still less to Protestant propagandism, was the purpose of the foundation of the University by Elizabeth; it was not till the Stuarts that the system of ex- clusiveness was set up. This conclusion may be doubted. Romanism is not men- tioned by Elizabeth to be excluded, nor is any other religion; but it may be q_nestioned whether the education of " Papists " was contemplated. If we grant Mr. Heron's premises, however, we do not see that he gains much. As a matter of historical proof, or as a reason in support of fair claims adapted to present cir- cumstances, the antiquarian argument may be valid; but hardly in a prac- tical sense. The laws and usages of more than two hundred years must avail in practice. As a matter of arclueology, Popery should be the established religion; estates that formerly belonged to the old Church should be restored to it; and the Crown itself might be divided by the practice of the Heptarchy. Mr. Heron's compilation is readable, from its effective style of Irish eloquence; but the structure is not very close or compact] The Wayside Cross, or the Raid of Gomez; a Tale of the Carlist War. By Captain E. A. Milman, Thirty-third Regiment. (Murray's Home and Co- lonial Library.) [Quitting the more real and solid classes of the belles lettres,-travels, history, biography, sketches from life and manners in the form of fiction,-Mr. Murray has resorted to the mere tale, to give varicty to the volumes of the Colonial Li- brary: but the present attempt is not very successful. The matter of The Way- side Cross is said by the author to be derived from reality; and in the persons, some of the more startling incidents, and the traits of Spanish manners and scenery, this is doubtless the case. But Captain Milman wants art to unite the materials he has derived from the reality with the changes and additions neces- sary for fiction : he is also deficient in imagination to fuse the parts into a con- sistent whole, as well as in dramatic power to give vraisemblance to discourse: and a certain straining after effect, by means of stilted writing, mars the very purpose for which it is done. The best and most natural part of the book is the description of the chase and escape into Gibraltar of a smuggler; and this ap- pears to be a mere transcript of an actual occurrence. It is in this style of sketching-single incidents, with the introduction of a few persons to give va- riety and animation-that Captain Milman would succeed better, we think, than in formal fiction: to this his genius is nnadapted, and his strength unequal.] A Voice from the North. By Stafford Reeves. [A variety of occasional poems, chiefly differing from the mass of verses of this kind by the obvious bonhommie and simplicity of the writer and his sister; speci- mens of whose poetry are inserted in the volume. Here and there a pleasing stanza occurs; but the whole is rather of a juvenile east; and Mr. Reeves is as yet a long way from poetry, though there is often in his verses something of spode:al
i character, nsufficiently developed.]
The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil. With English Notes, Critical and Explanatory, and a Metrical Index. By Charles Anthon, LLD., Profes- sor of the Greek and Latin Languages in Columbia College, New York, &c. A new edition, corrected.
[To this reprint of Anthon's edition of the Pastorals and Georgics of Virgil, the English editor, Mr. James Nicholls, has made some additions from Holdsworth's "Dissertations," published in 1768, and thrown in a few passages from English poets that seem to have been derived from Virgil. The volume is a handsome school-book; and is illustrated by wood-cots of implements, &c.] The Double Gauge. Observations by Mr. R. Stephenson on Mr. Brunel's Re- port on the Double Gauge. [This slender quarto is an official reply by Mr. Stephenson to Mr. Brtmers report in explanation of the manner in which the narrow as well as the broad gauge should be laid down on the Oxford and Rugby Railway, so as to work both gauges on one line. Mr. Stephenson's aim is to point out the objections to the plan, on the score of working difficulties, expenses, &c. This he effects by an analysis of the various heads, and an exhibition of drawings as diagrams: but the subject is of too technical a character to be entered into here.] The Rail, its Origin and Progress; with Illustrative Anecdotes and Engra- vings. By Peter Progress the Younger.
[A pleasantly written little book, about the progress, formation, and statistics of railways; but rather a clever selection of striking facts than a history of the subject or an exposition of its principles.]
The Victories of the British Armies; with Anecdotes illustrative of Modern Warfare. By the Author of "Stories of Waterloo," &c. New edition, completed to present time. [To this new edition of Mr. Maxwell's vivid and interesting if somewhat rhetorical account of the Victories of the British Armies, from Sermgapatam to Waterloo, is added an account of their exploits in the Afghan and Scinde wars.] The Philosophy of Training, or the Principle and Art of a Normal Edu- cation; with a brief View of its Origin and History. Also, Remarks on the practice of Corporal Punishments in Schools; and Strictures on the pre- vailing mode of Teaching Languages. By A. R. Craig. Second edition. [The extensive range and systematic views of Mr. Craig, with the amiable spirit, of his remarks, seem to have brought his Philosophy of Training to a second edition.] The Knowledge and Restoration of Old Paintings: the Modes of Judging between Copies and Originals; and a brief Life of the Principal Masters in the different Schools of Painting. By T. H. Fielding, Professor of Per- spective and Painting in Water Colours to the Senior Classes at the Hon. E. I. Company's Military College, &c.
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