PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

BOOKS.

Borneo and the Indian Archipelago. With Drawings of Costumes and Scenery. By Frank S. Marryat, late Midshipman of IL M. S. Semarang surveying-vessel. Germany, England, and Scotland; or Recollections of a Swiss Minister. By J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, D.D.

Essays and Tales by John Sterling. Collected and edited, with a Memoir of his Life, by Julius Charles Hare, M.A., Rector of Herstmonceux. In two volumes.

The Saints Tragedy; or the True Story of Elizabeth of Hungary, Land- gravine of Thuringia, Saint of the Romish Calendar. By Charles Kings- ley junior, Rector of Eversley. With a Preface by Professor Maurice.

Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, with other Original Documents re- lating to his Four Voyages to the New World. Translated and edited by R. H. Major, Esq., of the British Museum. (Printed for the Haklay t Society.) Sermons preached in the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital, with others preached in St. Stephen's Walbrook, in 1847. By the Reverend George Croly, LL.D., Rector of St. Stephen's Walbrook, and St. Benet's. The publication of this volume appears to have originated in a difference. Wearied with his position at St. Stephen's Walbrook, and the contention of the parish with Alderman Gibbs, which locked up his income, Dr. Croly allowed him- self to be proposed as afternoon preacher at the Foundling. His election was car- ried, but without the good-will of the Treasurer; and thence came trouble. The Committee, egged on, as we are given to understand, by that functionary, began finding fault with the afternoon sermons, and charged them with being too "ab- struse" for the congregation. To criticism Dr. Croly does not object; but he did object to the " crude and empty cavil" of the Committee. After some fourteen weeks he resigned his office, in a letter which he prints in his preface. The plea and declaration of the Committee, we think, cannot be supported. We see no " abstruseness " in the discourses; but, possibly they were un- adapted to the place. Dr. Croly considers that the " immediate vicinity of the Foundling contains perhaps the most intelligent population in England." It did, probably it does yet; but we doubt whether " the elite of the British bar, besides many other leading persons of the learned professions," predominate in the after- noon congregation; and even in addressing them, perhaps Dr. Croly aimed at too much. Besides choosing topics, and adopting a mode of treating them not well suited to a mixed assembly, the preacher, we think, tried at patting too many subjects and too much proof into a single discourse. The sermon on the theory of Food, for example, is an able idea, combining economical knowledge with a good theological argument: but the topic is scientific; preached on the Irish famine fast-day, it took off the attention of those who could thoroughly relish it from the main business in hand, a collection; and as this was not alto- gether lost sight of, two inappropriate subjects were coupled together—the plea to the pocket not sufficiently driven home, (at least, we dare affirm, to the Trea- surer's apprehension,) the theory of food too limited in space to allow a full exposition. Again, the discourse on Religion as a science is a capital idea: but the consideration of the three topics, a God, an Atonement, a Future State—and the three dispensations, the Patriarchal, the Judaical, and the Christian—might well form a series of sermons. Dr. Croly having condensed the subject into one has given a fragmentary disjointed air to his discourse. He is not at all illogical; but, putting forth a succession of independent propositions, the work has a dog-

matic and inconsequential appearance. We therefore can understand the objection of the Committee, though they did not themselves see or shape it, and, as is the wont in such cases, took up inconclusive points, and urged them, it would appear, in an unseemly way.]

Reason, Revelation, and Faith. Some few Thoughts by a Bengal Civilian. [These " Thoughts " are not presented in the most effective form; the author be- ginning with a species of commentary on passages in Scripture, and then con- tinuing in a sort of running controversy with other writers. The subjects are not well adapted to a lay journal, especially in the way they are hero treated.] English Misrule and Irish Misdeeds. Four Letters from Ireland, addressed to an English Member of Parliament. By Aubrey de Vere. [Aubrey de Yen has mistaken his vocation: his calling is not to write books,. but articles for the Nation newspaper. He might infuse a little more sobriety and a little better taste into what connoisseurs would call " the second manner of that journal; he could preserve the swagger of warlike Young Ireland without mounting on its very high stilts; and, though not a Repealer' he might pat the Repeal fallacies and assumptions into a less tumid shape: but that is all. The De Vere could condense and improve the genuine Milanan eloqeence; but to re- form a nation, especially a nation like Ireland, is mite out of his line. • The matter of English Misrule and Irish Miris just the old story over 3e, again: a cnrsorrand condensed survey of the hiafty a Ireland since the con. quest, taken at second, third, or fourth hand; a rehash of O'Connell's defence of the Irish and abuse of the English, done in better composition, if not in better taste; a censure of the Government for delaying the repeal of the Labour Rate Act and not calling Parliament together in the autumn of 1846, with other criticisms on Ministerial measures; a bold assertion of the Irish claim to Imperial assistance; with intimations that England has done nothing to boast of in the money voted for relief; and a variety of suggestions, including colonization, in which we see nothing new. The tone and style of the book are as bad as can be. There is none of the ear- nest gravity or passion, and the total forgetfulness of self, which distinguish a man who really feels charged with a mission, or who has even studied a subject till he has thoroughly mastered it, and is conscious that he can furnish useful infor- mation and views deserving attention. There is nothing good in the book, but the clever, terse, and flippant writing; which is too good for the occasion. " Self- and-pen " might be the device of the De Vera He is so little in earnest about any- thing except self-display by means of smart phrases, that he addresses a shadow.. His Member may be Mr. Roebuck, or the Times, or a sort of combination of quali- ties out of the House and in ; so that his pointed imitative Junius addresses to " Sir," only exhibit the hollowness of the whole. Mr. De Vere is personal to an impersonality; he is fencing with a poet. The last letter, in which the sake takes a sort of balloon voyage into the regions of fancy or the future, is the beet; but the rhetorician is u permost there.] A Twelvemonth's Residence in Ireland during the Famine and the Public Works, 1846-1847. With Suggestions to meet the Coming Crisis, &c. By William Henry Smith, C.E., late Conducting Engineer of Public Works. [This volume is not equal to the opportunities the author enjoyed, partly from his deficient literary skilL The book is divided into six parts, but its subject matter is threefold,—first, travel, with incidental sketches of society ; second, the mode of carrying on the various public works, with the conduct of the persons concerned, from the ruling Boards to the humblest labourer; third, the capabilities of Ire- land, with suggestions for their development. These good subjects, however, are made but little of Mr. Smith is too discursive, quitting a topic almost as soon as he starts it so that if he is really au fond of his questions, the reader does not find it out. He holds that Ireland is as favourable for the results of coloniza- tion—that is, the employment of labour and the production of agricultural pro- duce—as any colony can be: but he forgets that the land is appropriated, and that the titles are encumbered. Besides, there is a good deal in change of place: it is not every one whose mind is unchanged in a new region; and Irish society, with its anarchy, its brawls, and its murders, certainly cannot be matched, let the end- grant go where he will.] Italy, Past and Present. By L. Mariotti. In two volumes. [This is the new edition of a work which was first published about seven years ago, and which now appears in a revised and extended form; the additions having a reference to the present state of Italy, and the prospects apparently opened by the conduct of Pius the Ninth,—in whom, however, our author does not place implicit confidence. Pressure and accident combined together to postpone a no- tice of Mariotti's Italy at its first appearance, and it still stands before us as a duty unfulfilled. The length of time since its first appearauce, the de- mands of new publications continually pouring in, and the prospect of the Parliamentary incubus, may a second time defeat our intentions. Let us there- fore advise the reader to procure the book, without waiting for our notice. He will find in Italy Past and Present a complete survey of Italian history and lite- rature, growing in fulness as it approaches our times, with a special consideration of the actual present.] A Concise History of the Hampden Controversy, from the period of its commencement in 1832 to the present time. With all the Documents which have been published, and a brief Examination of the "Bampton Lectures" for 1832, and of the "Observations on Dissent." By the Re- verend Henry Christmas, MA., F.R.S., F.S.A., late of St. John's College, Cambridge.

[A useful publication, as bringing together the documents connected with a re- markable incident in our ecclesiastical history; the consequences of which are perhaps by no means over with the exhibition in Bow Church.]

Mark Wilton, the Merchant's Clerk. By Charles B. Tayler, M.A., Author of " Records of a Good Man's Life," &c. LMark Wilton is a species of George Aarnwell, adapted to the manners and ideas of the age, and therefore thrown into the form of a novel; although it is easy to see that Mr. Tayler has hardly got himself up to the time. Mark Wil- ton, after being corrupted by reading novels on the sly, taught by a schoolfellow to tell fibs and play truant, comes up to London, and is placed with a relation —a capital merchant. In Mr. Arnold's employ, Mark has every opportunity and prospect of advancement, even to the extent of marrying one of his principal's daughters; but a facile disposition, bad company, and town gayeties, are his ruin. Be gets deeply involved with his intimate friend, Desmond Smith; Desmond sug- gests a forgery; Mark is saved by a fides Achates; poor Smith carries through the affair, is taken, and sentenced to be hanged, but escapes from Newgate--on to be drowned in making his way to France. All this is too much. for Mark Wilton's spirits, especially as he suspects himself suspected by the world. He retires to the country to write his own biography, as a warnmg to youthful clerks, who feel a difficulty in resisting present enjoyment, thoughtless of the conse- quences. The story is told with the minute old-fashioned quaintness and the reality (but without the literalness) which are Mr. Taylor's characteristics. Like most expressly didactic works it is not very successful in its result. The moral is indeed plain enough; but in some points the ethics are (according to worldly usage) rigid, and in others it is not so much temptation as weakness or folly that leads the hero astray. Such a one would not "hear Moses and the prophets."] Aubrey Luson, or the Field of Sedgemoor; an Historical Tale of the Dis- senters. By the Author of " Hildebrand," &c. This little book is stated by the publisher to contain as much reading as an or- irmary octavo volume of 300 pages; and should this experiment succeed, Aubrey Luson will be followed by other tales in a similar form. The object of this story is to exhibit the persecutions the Dissenters underwent during the times of the Stuarts; but a better mra might have been chosen than Monmouth's rebellion, for then they were regarded as traitors. The plot of the story is a ready one: a Dis- senting lover is sheltered by his mistress unknown to her father, who is thrown into prison for her offence; to procure his pardon, she travels to London, is through various adventures, till all is finally wound up happily. There s no-

thing new in the persons, incidents, or plot, to those who are familiar with the historical tales or novels relating to the time; but the story is well enough con- trived, and told with a kind of literal dramatic manner.]

The Poetic Prism; or Original and Reflected Rays from Modern Verse Sacred and Serious. Edited by Robert Northmore Greville. LA handsome volume of selected poetry, with some original verses. The authors &Gem are modern, American as well as English, and not of the very highest rank: a good many of the pieces are serious.]

Songs. By Andrew Park. [Mr. Andrew Park is known by several publications of songs and poems; of which this pretty little volume contains a selection. The songs greatly predomi- nate.] The National Cyclopedia of Useful Knowledge. Volume III. Bavaria— User.

Waverley Novels. Volumes M. and IV. Guy Mannering:

MCrochet Sampler. Second series. By Miss Lambert. Exemplified by engravings. Second edition.

Practical Hints on Decorative Needle-work, Ic. By Miss Lambert. Second. edition.

ALMANACS.

Thom's Irish Almanack and Official Directory, with the Post-office Dublin City and County Directory, for the year 1848.

[There appears to be no new feature in this volume; but the work well sustains its reputation for variety of subject, the number of its facts, the utility of its in- formation, and the vast amount of matter presented with typographical clearness and at a moderate price. Some idea of the extent of its topics may be formed when we say that the index fills nearly eighteen pages.]

Oliver and Boyd's New Edwburgh Almanack and National Repository, for the year 1848. [The principal new feature of this well-known work is a very careful and con- densed narrative and statietical account of monetary affairs during the last four years. The tables relating to the Scotch Railways, and the monthly view of the price of Funds, will be found particularly useful.]

ILLUSTRATED WORK.

Selections from the Rejected Cartoons; with Descriptive Letterpress and Critical Remarks.

[A title which suggests some analogy with the Rejected Addresses, but erro- neously: they were parodies of known living writers; the author of the Rejected Cartoons has not parodied living artists—he only gives caricatured representa- tions of historical subjects, in which a certain breadth of style combines with a low comedy breadth of humour. The Rejected Cartoons will serve to excite a smile; but the idea is better than its development.]