THE REVIEWER'S TABLE.

I. The Family Library, No. XV.—His- tory of British India, Vol. I. By the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M.A. &c. 2. Letters on England, by A de Steel- Holstein. Second Edition. With Ad- ditional Letters, anti a Life of the Au- thor, by the Duchess de Broglie. 3. Two Memoirs on the successful Inhal- ation of Diluted Chlorine in the early stages of pulmonary consumption. By M. Gannal. 4. Practical Observations on Leucorrhcea, with Cases. By George Jewel, Mem- ber of the Royal College of Surgeons. 5. Apology for the Metropolitan Female Asylum. By the Permanent Com- mittee.

6. The Child's Own Book.

7. Lothian's County Atlas of Scotland. Lothian's Historical Atlas of Scot- land.

1. Mr. GLEIG states, that his first intention was to produce only a connected narrative of the rise and progress of the British Em- pire in India ; a task which the admirable work of Mr. MILL had rendered of easy accomplishment. He was induced, on second thoughts, to extend his plan to a general history of that important portion of Asia. We are glad that he was ; his work, in its pre- sent form, is more complete, and much more interesting, than it would have been had he proceeded as he at first intended. The first eight chapters are devoted to what may be called the home history of the Hindoos, from the earliest notices of that singular people down to the virtual extinction of the Mogul power, towards the end of last century. The ninth contains a succinct and lucid account of the system of government under the Mahommedars conquerers. The history of British India commences with the tenth chapter; and is continued to the twelfth, which closes the first volume. There are to be three volumes altogether. The compilation of the work does credit to Mr. GLEIG'S industry and taste. The books he has had recourse to are accessible enough, but they are not few in number, and he appears to have consulted them carefully and impartially. His style is smooth, flowing, and perspicuous, never tarnished by the prevailing vice of our second- rate authors, a love of high-sounding words, or "forcible lan- guage," as it is called—the more fitting name would be forced. A history of India of necessity abounds with strange names. One passage occurs in Mr. GLEIG's work, so remarkable in this respect, that it merits extracting as a curiosity. He is speaking of the state of India after the departure of Timour:—

" Guzerat, says Ferishta., was held by Moorzuffur Khan; Melva, by Delawar Khan ; Kunowj, Oude, Kurra, and Soonpoor, by Kw aja Jehan,

commonly called Shah Shurk ; Lahore, Depalpoor, and. Multaig-by Khixr Khan ; Samana, by Ghalib Khan; Byana, by Shums Khan ; Ahdy Kalpy,- and Mahoba, by Mahomed Khan, the son of Mulfiksada Feroze."

If the reader be afflicted with tic doulaureux after reading this sentence, let him have his back rnbbed. • The Family Library still keeps the lead in embellishments. This volume, in addition to a very neat map of India, has no fewer than six engravings, by FINDEN ; the portrait of Lord CLIVE-." a sly, sulky, sensual-looking personage—painted by GArNEBO ROUGH, forming the frontispiece.

2. The life, added to the second edition of the Baron de STARTS Letters, is an interesting and eloquent tribute to the talents and worth of their amiable author. We could have wished that it had been better translated. It offends the eye to see the Baron de STAEL perpetually styled Mr. de STAEL. Monsieur, on the Con-1tinent, is applied indifferently to a prince and a shopkeeper; our Mr. is applicable only to those who have no distinctive title. Mr. de STAEL iS as inappropriate as "Mr. of WELLINGTON." The [two] additional letters are incomplete: they were intended to form part of a second volume, the progress of which was interrupted by the premature death of the Baron. The following remarks, which close the first fragment, will not, we hope, be always applicable to the state of government in England. "I have conceived the plan of a canal, which will animate the corn.. merce of a whole town ; which will enrich Iva:tole province : very well 7, but it must pass through the park of a great nobleman; to whom the plan is inconvenient, and all is stopped. I may certainly have recourse to the power of Parliament, and to the still greater power of the press {? ??] : but whom shall I find in the Parliament ? the friends, the relations, the de- pendants of him whose letters I have to oppose - and years, generations perhaps, may pass away, before the repeated atacks of opinion have be=

able to break this phalanx. A long time will even elapse, before opinion pronounces itself; for respect for vested rights is so deeply rooted in the heads of the English, that nobody takes it amiss if the most burdensome privileges are enforced with the utmost rigour.". "What shall we say of thousands of men, who languish in the prisons, where they are brought up in the school of vice, for no other crime than having taken some partridges from the lord of the manor ? Suppose for a moment, that it should be thought expedient to introduce among us the English game-laws ; to prohibit the sale and purchase of game ; to forbid every one who is not an esquire, or proprietor of a landed estate of a hundred a year, the pleasure of walking with a gun in his hand, in his own field; and! ask you if any government would be strong enough not to fail in such an enterprise; and if, notwithstanding the mute docility which the administrative monarchy has so long impressed upon our =ti- llers, the whole country would not break out into murmur and insurrec- tion? Such, however, are the laws which their palpable absurdity does not hinder from maintaining their ground in England; and every year the Parliament listens with patience, in support of such a system, I dare not say to arguments, but to language which excites a smile of compas- sion."

3. The attempt to apply a direct remedy to diseases of the lungs is of old date and was naturally prompted by the unfortunate failure of internal and external applications, whether in the form of medicines, or of blisters and issues. Various gases have been used for the purpose ; but none seems to promise so well for success in remediable cases as that of chlorine, recommended by M. GANNAL. In all the trials to which he submitted it, it seems to have been fol- lowed by a decided alleviation of the more distressing symptoms ; and in some, where the patient was not too far pone, it effected a cure. The application is without danger, and unattended with difficulty ; all that is necessary is to practise with perfectly pure gas, and to increase the doses carefully and gradually. The translation of M. GANNAL'S memoirs has been correctly performed by Mr. POTTER, of Compton Street. They hardly, however, re- quired a separate publication ; they would have been better placed in one of the medical reviews.

4. This well-written treatise addresses itself to the faculty, by whom its merits will be best appreciated. It is the object of Mr. JEWEL to recommend dilute nitrate of silver as an injection. The cases which he cites seem amply to justify his opinion of its efficacy.

5. We cordially recommend the Metropolitan Female Asylum. The principal feature of the "Apology" is a series of rules, in- tended to be submitted at the first General Meeting in 1831. We shall state them in the Committee's own words. Two objects are to be submitted to the subscribers, to be pursued by the Managers of the institution,— " First, To interpose on behalf of the virtuous unmarried female, directly and immediately, in cases when, deprived of the means of support by honest industry, she has to contend with STARVATION on the one hand, or with VICE and its CONSEQUENT DESTRUCTION on the other.

"Secondly, The reformation of character and restoration to society, of those penitent females who, having either departed from chastity, or fallen under the rebuke of the law, have lost the protection of their homes, or the countenance of their friends."

In their attempt to attain these objects the Society will observe the following plain and simple rules :— " First, IMMEDIATE, ADMISSION, without any formal recommendation, simply by applying at the door of the Asylum, GROVE STREET, HAcxxxy, at any hour of the day or night.

"Second, CONSTANT EMPLOYMENT in various branches of female in- dustry, so as to enable the inmates as much as possible to contribute, while in the asylum, to their own support.

"Third, MORAL CLASSIFCATION : benevolent treatment : daily religious instruction ; and reconciling their friends to them. "Fourth, OBTAINING SUITABLE SITUATIONS either in this country, or, in some of the British Colonies, as may be more in concurrence with their Own wishes, and the advice of their friends."

A society so actuated and so acting cannot fail to recommend itself to sympathy and support. For the satisfaction of those by whom such adventitious claims to attention may be deemed of im- portance, we may add that Sir ROBERT PEEL is patron of the In- stitution, and among the patronesses are the names of Lady ELI- ZABETH WHITBREAD and the Countess of SHAFTESBURY.

6. This compilation evidently owes its origin tu the popularity and success of its forerunners the Boy's Own Book and the Young Lady's Book; but, unlike them, it contains no original matter, and its object is not instruction, but amusement only. The idea is nevertheless good, and the volume will prove a most acceptable gift to all young masters and misses. It is a collection of the most popular fairy tales and other stories of the nursery, printed in a bold type, and thickly interspersed with cuts to the number of three hundred. The designs are in generalolever and effective, and the engravings on wood clear and distinct: some of them are on too small a scale to suit very young readers, but there are a sufficient number of a large' size to render the volume inter- esting as a "picture-book." It contains, in addition to the infan- tine tales of little Jacks and Giants, Tom Thumb, Goody Two Shoes, Cinderella, Children in the Wood, Robinson Crusoe, Gul- liver, La Perouse, Prince Lee Boo, Robin Hood, Whittington, and a selection from the Arabian Nights and other Eastern tales. Waving the Utilitarian question of the fitness of some of these subjects as exercises for the infant mind, we object, on behalf of the nursery, to the long words which are very superfluously re- tained or introduced in stories intended for children to read. This fault—and a great Mistake it is—is found more or less in most nursery books, Miss Euovoirrn's admirable tales alone excepted. We wonder-so obvious a.eharacteristie of a child's book as plain language should lave been thus pertinaciously neglected by that class of writers. We wish they would condescend to lay aside the trisyllabic stilts on which they stride to the catastrophe, leaving their little readers agape until the parent becomes interpreter.

7. These County Maps, thirty-three in number, are executed with great neatness, and, we believe, with most commendable accuracy. They are embellished with an ingenious frontispiece, exhibiting the comparative heights of the Scottish mountains. The historical Atlas is curious. It contains a fac-simile of Ptolemy's map, con- structed A. D. 146, and of that of Richard de Cirencester, con- structed A. D. 1336—Scotland under the Romans—under the Picts—under the Picts and Scots united—and as divided and named in the fifteenth century ; an itinerary of the Pretender's various journeys in 1745, with a map of his route ; and lastly, a map of Scotland as it now flourishes. The whole series well deserves the attention both of the antiquarian and the general reader.