12 MAY 1838, Page 16

PROGRESS OF PUBLICATION.

AN immense pile of works is before us ; indicating considerable activity amongst the booksellers, yet, closely examined, nearly all consisting of what the players cull stock pieces. Reissues of es- tablished works, with some modifications called fur by the spirit or in a form adapted to the fashion of the ageā€”amid publications 'whose subjects appear to insure a demand and form a safe ven- tureā€”characterize the mass before us. The only exceptions to this cautious procedure, if COOPER as the author of a tale of the sea, and the names of CLARENDON and WILIMERFORCE as be s of biography, can be considered exceptions,yairleistsheonfis.rstitnhr5e:e:oleisa. the follewing list. 1. The Idfe of William 1Vilbeiforce. n An elaborate work, which will require further time to read as well as to digest, before we can be in a condition to estimate the much-misapprehended character of its subject. To give a notice of extracts, could be easily done. 2. Life and AdministrationnfsEiodrywagfrd the Sea.ecEt.arBl 0:JC. F1 are, don. By 1'. H. LISTER, Esq. In 3 vols. Ion. 3. The Homeward Bound; a MORE COOPER, Esq. In 3 vols.

4. A second volume of Mr. G. R. PORTER'S Progress of the Nation ; containing " Interchange " and " Revenue and Expen- diture."

3. A new edition of Mr. TOOKE'S celebrated book on Prices; which, from an entire rearrangement and very considerable addi- tions, may be considered a new work.

6. The twenty:first edition of " Letters on the subject of the Catholics, to my Brother Abraham, who lives in the Co any, by Peter Plymley. This book, so long attributed to the Reverend SIDNEY SMITH, is preceded by a curiosity, a 'Publisher's Nesse; from which it appears that those writers whose works are the most prvfitable are often the most regardless of profit.

"Before publishing this tract, we thought it right to ask permission to do so from the gentleman to whose pen it is commonly attributed ; and we received from him the following answer. " ' Gentlemenā€”I um not the author of the tract in question. I have nut the smaleet wish nor the smallest objection that it should be republished. My general principle is, Sufficient for the day is the nonsense thereof; but, if you think otherwise, it is your affair, not mine. Some just and honourable men now alive are attacked in this pamphlet with very blameable asperity; and I should feel remorse for this, if 1 were the real, as I run the putative father

of the Look. Under this imputation I um as patient as Pa,r:(1:11;:c.iDikeT.,ust Jones ; believing that the teal father will uue day be known.

Messrs. Longman and Co.

" \%.e cannot dispute with this gentleman as to who is the author of the pamphlet, but we may be allowed to differ hum him as to its character. It seems to us to be a tract written with great felicity of language, great force of humour, ninth with deep feeling for religious liberty and human hatioiftss: fur these reasons, we have used our humble efforts to rescue it from Ā°Within. "Tula Pu HI-POURS," These arc works to which we shall of necessity return. There are many reprints before us, of considerable value, but fur which, with our present lights at least, a catalogue must suffice.

I. A fifth edition cf Mr. BAKEWELL'S Naluable Introduction to Geology, with considerable additions, bringing down the informa- tion to the present time. The lapse of five and-twenty )cars since this publication first appeared, and its growing celebrity during that interval, supersede the necessity of longer notice. 2. The Third Part of Mr. TAIT'S popular edition of time Works of Jeremy &Wham. Its principal sultket is time much-talkedof, much. ridiculed, and little understood I'anopticon, in the various phases in which the author placed it in successive publications.

3. A reprint, from the Encyclopeedia Britannica, of time racy and searching papers of Metier on the " Fine Arts" and 'hy- pos; on " Painting;' a volume which no lover of independent criticism and art should be without, whether lie agrees with the views of time writers or not.

4. A reprint, from the same work, of' Dr. PATRICK NEILL'S " Horticulture," under the taking title of the Fruit, Flower, and Kitchen Garden.

5. The Seventh Volume of Southey's Poetical forks; con- taining two poems, from which those who may be bewildered in the task of judgment by his Epics, may form a tolerable estimate of his poetry. Let them compare the " Tale of v " with " Gertrude of NV) oming," and see at once the difference etween the true and the prose poetical. In " All for Love, or a Sinner well Saved," he will recognize the peculiar distinctions of SOUTHEY'S poetryā€”a quaint recognize kind of humour, and a de- scription dealing only with the externals instead of the essential characteristics of things.

7. The Fifth Volume of Mr. ST. JonN's Masterpieces of Eng- lish Prose Literature contains the best of Lady MARY WORT. LEY MONTAGU'S Lettersā€”those from the Levant, written during her sojourn in Turkey and her journey thither. The editor has prefixed a sort of Memoir, in which he takes the most striking facts Ird111 DALLAS and Lord WHAUNCL1FFE'S editioum; and aims, though not very successfully. at resolving the moral riddle that POPE failed in unravelling. S. We are not ourselves very great admirers of the writings of NIMROD ; for the author's style seems to exhibit time incongruous combination of the sporting man and the tuft-hunterā€”the slang of the field and the stable garnished with affectations of learned reading and polished discourse ; although Ile cannot be denied time toed of earnestness and knowledge of his subject. His admirers, however, are numerous, his readers still more so; and this extensive class will be glad to know that his Northern Tour has been reprinted from the pages of the Sporting Magazine. 9. MAttessee's Midshipman Easy, in a single volume forming an independent book, or the Sixty-sixth Number of BENTLEY'S Standard Novels ā€¢ about which it is only necessary to say, buy it. 10. A second edition of MACCULLOCIeS Statistical Account of the British Empire; in Parts, for time convenience of subscribers.