LITERARY NEWS.

Trade news is not very copious at present but we observe a large sale an- nounced for the present month by Messrs. Southgate and Barrett. A few shares are included in the catalogue, which consists for the most part of cheap popular literature.

The copyright and plant of the Bath Chronicle (Conservative) have been purchased by Mr. P. Taylor, son of Mr. Taylor, proprietor of the Mirror.

The sale of the Libri MSS. terminated on Tuesday the 5th instant ; the( proceeds of the entire sale amounted to 67831.

Among other curiosities recently sold by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkimionf- mention is made of a curious Jewish manuscript written in the 15th century, and adorned by 100 specimens of the ancient Spanish art of illumination. This MS. is written on vellum, and contains a copy of the Hagadah. The' price obtained for it at public, auction was 100/.

A very extensive and curious collection of play bills was sold by Messnel Southgate and Barrett on the 8th instant, and is supposed to have been pure, chased for the British Museum. These interesting documents data from' about 1787, and extend to 1852. Their weight alone exceeds 16 cwt.

A work destined to fill a want in theatrical literature is announced to tip= pear in Paris, in a week or two The title is " Parallele des Principaux Theitres Modernes de l'Europe, et des Machines Theatrales Francruses, Allemandes et Anglaises." The authors are M. Joseph de Filippi and M. Clement Constant, formerly principal machinist of the Imperial Theatre, at Paris. The work is to appear in numbers, accompanied by some 130 en- gravings, illustrative of the scenic art.

" Du droit hereditaire des Auteurs," (The hereditary right of Authers,), is the title of a work by M. Jules Mareschal, which is a good deal discussed': at present in French literary circles. The author, who in 1825 and '26 was Secretary of the Royal Commission instituted to investigate the laws of lite- rary property, has brought a great deal of practical knowledge to bear on his subject. His proposal is to make literary property absolute, like any other property acquired and held by man.

Count Foucher de Careil, a French savant, has published this week four', hitherto unknown Essays by the great Descartes, which were brought to , light under very curious circumstances. It appears that the manuscripts.- were sent by their author from Rouen to Paris by the boat whit% in the. seventeenth century carried the mails up the Seine. This boat foundered, when near its destination, at the port de rEoole, and its contents being fished up from the river, Descartes' writings, nearly illegible, were sold as waste paper, and, by a very lucky chance fell into the hands of Leibnitz, the German philosopher, who was then in Paris, and who after having de- ciphered and copied the contents, took his own copy with him to Hanover Itwas in the Royal library of the latter place that Count Cared discovered the papers, safely hidden among heaps of other manuscripts, yet distin- guishedi - ed by a label in the handwriting of Leibnitz, bearing the inscription,. " Copie le 5 Juin, 1676." The titles of the Essays are— Some Comintern-' Lions on Sciences in general " ; "Notes on Algebra" ; " Experiments" ; and " Olympiques, a Discourse."

The King of Bavaria has offered a prize of 200 louis-d'or (about 96/.) for the best drama illustrative of German history. The competition is open to authors of all nations, and in order that it may be as extensive as possible, the time for sending in manuscripts is fixed as late as the end of November 1860.

A poem, written by the Prince Regent of Sweden, and entitled " Ther, Fairy of the Lake," hes just been translated into French, and is meeting with great success in the salons of Paris. Another poem, by Prince Oscar,' called "The Song of the Swedish Navy," has been recently crowned, in a prize competition, by the Institute of Stockholm, having been sent in under ' the veil of the anonymous. [Though veils are sometimes seen through.] Colonel Guillaume, an officer in the Belgian service, has published, this: week, .a " Histoire des Grudes Wallones au Service d'Espagne," a work of . some importance to the students of the military history of Europe. The Walloons, it is well known, played until recently the same role in Oda:- which the Swiss still act in the kingdom of Naples and in the States of the Pope.

The masterpiece of Lermontoff, the most celebrated of the living poets of Russia, a pieoe called "The Demon," has this week been published at Paris , in a French dress. The translator is If. Pelan, or Pelan d'Angers as he is commonly called, a poet of the Victor Hugo school.

The commission named to revise the statutes of the Theitre Francais has decided to increase the percentage due to the authors of the pieces repre- sented on its stage. Henceforth, the author of a piece of four or more acts- will receive 12 per cent of the profits; of a piece of three acts, 8 per cent ; and of a piece of one or two sots, 6 per cent. M. Empis, the director of eliet theatre, has given his immediate consent to this new table of remuneration..

Mr. Morphy, the celebrated American chess-player, left Paris on Thurs- day last week, to return to his native country. The day before his de- parture , a splendid farewell banquet was offered to him by the elite of Pa- risian chess amateurs, presided over by M. St. Amend, the former champion of France, who in a neat speech declared that in the matter of chees, Europe had to lower her flag before the young genius whom the New World had produced. In the course of the fete, a marble bust of Mr. Morphy, by Lequeime, was unveiled, and it was also announced that Mr. Morphy, on the demand of many players had consented to write a Treatise on Chess, in conjunction with M. de Retkere, one of the celebrities of the Cafe de la Regenee.

The Municipal Council of Paris has decided to present Lamartine with a splendid country house and large garden situated in the Bois de Boulogne, and called La Petite Muette. The property which Miss Martin left him, (mentioned in the Spectator some week& ago,) Lamartine has refused, de- claring himself unwilling to deprive the poor relations of the deceased of what is justly their own.

A "Life of Mary, Queen of Soots," by Latnrutine, is announced for pub- lication by Messrs. Black and Co. English readers have now the opportunity of forming their own opinion as to the genuineness of the alleged "Autobiography of Catherine the Great," the work having been translated from the French, and published by Trabner and Co. Abd-el-Kader is about to publish his autobiography.

A kind of literary and sentimental duel is taking place at present between Georges Sand and Paul de Musset. Madame Dudevant, some little time ago, began the publication, in the _Revue des _Deux Mender, of a sort of autobiographical sketch, entitled "Bile et Lai" (She and He) of which the late poet Alfred de Musset was the Lie hero. Great part of the contents of this tale were very displeasing to the friends of the poet and also to his family ; and, at the instigation of the latter, M. Paul de Musset now replies- to the " Elle et Lui" by. a novel entitled " Lui et Rile," which appeareds this week, and which it is said contains some letters of the heroine, trail-

scribed word for word from original documents found among the papers of the late poet. Of course, the whole affair is making considerable sensation among those sufficiently initiated in French literary biography to under- stand all the hints and allusions of the two works.