PUBLICATIONS. RECEIVED.

&was.

Although no work of distinguished eminence has appeared this week, the publishers still labour pretty freely in their calling, and with a tendency to- wards books of travels. Mr. Murray sends forth two ample volumes on Damascus and its adjoining territories, the result of five years' observation and study by the Reverend J. L. Porter. In two Parts of their Traveller's Library, Messrs. Longman have included Mr. Hutchin- son's Narrative of an Exploration in a fresher but more fatal district—the Niger and its waters. A work which is likely to excite much attention for its author is Mr. Smith O'Brien's treatise on the "Principles of Govern- ment," the result of his exile in Van Diemen's Land, published by Mr.

Duffy. Actuated by private friendship,theReverend R. C. Fell has produced a biography of a London Alderman, the late Mr. Kelly. Three different publishers have supplied the publics with three fictions, two of which relate, to modern life • while "Nonpareil House," by Mr. Curling, carries back his readers to the ihne of the Great Rebellion.

Five Years in Damascus ; including an Account of the History, Topo- Praphy, and Antiquities of that city ; with Travels and Researches in almyra, Lebanon, and the Hauran. By the Reverend J. L. Porter, A.M., F.R.S.L. In two volumes. With Maps and Illustrations. Narrative of the Niger, Tschadda, and Binue Exploration ; including a Report on the Position and Prospects of Trade up those Rivera; with Remarks on the Malaria and Fevers of Western Africa. By T. J. Hutchinson, Esq., her British Majesty's Consul for the Bight of Biaffra. [Traveller's Library.] In two parts.

Principles of Government ; or Meditations in Exile. By William Smith O'Brien. In two volumes.

Passages ji.om the Private and Official Life of the late Alderman SeIly ; with Extracts from his Correspondence. By the Reverend It. C. Fell. Nonpareil House ; or the Fortunes of Julian Mountjoy. By Henry Curling, Author of " Recollections of the Mess-Table and the Stage. In three volumes.

The House of Elmore : a Family History. In three volumes. Blanche and her Betrothed: a Tale. Told by Herself. In three. volumes.

Historical Sketches of the Anglin, Literature of All Nations. By Robert Blakey, Author of the 'History of the Philosophy of Mind, &c. &c. To which is added, a Bibliography of English Writers on Angling.

[If the date of July in the preface indicates the period of publication, Mi. Blakey's Sketches of the Literature of Angling have been a long time in reaching us. Summer, too, is a more appropriate season for thoughts of fishing than " drear.nighted December." The Sketches, however, areplea: sant reading for all seasons. We learn bow the ancient Egyptians and Baby- lonians angled, and what fish they caught, as proved to us from their sculp- tures and pictures ; as well as the fishy doings of those peoples, told with a sort of lively learning. The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, are in their turn ex- hibited, in the character of what old Isaac calls " piscater" ,• and the subject is pursued through the dark night of the middle ages, till Wynkiu de Wordo and the treatise of Juliana Bemers. From the establishment of printing there is no lack of books ; they increase with each successive generation. But original writers are as rare as ever, till the present century, when philoso- phy.has been applied to practical art; Davy, and we know not who besides, having wielded rod and line. Besides the practice of angling, Mr. Blakey describes the superstitions connected with fish, whether religious, medical; or prophetic - and notices the heraldic and numismatic honours of the finny tribe. He also handles a good many miscellaneous topics. In short, the book is an agreeable melange both of learned and light literature, a abode overdone in the last particular.] Popular History of Birds ; comprising a Familiar Account of their Classification and Habits. By Adam White, Assistant, Zoological Department, British Museum. [Mr. White's "History of Birds" is a very agreeable and instructive book ; popular, yet sufficiently scientific. In a single volume, the details of so laarrggee a subject ' cannot be expected. The author satisfies himself with broadly( touching upon the features, natural characteristics, and habits of the prin- cipal representatives of the feathered tribes, classed in their respective placed after the system of Gray. The book is fully illustrated by coloured plates of a superior kind, and altogether forms a worthy companion to the similar sketches of various subjects of natural history that have been published by Mr. Reeve. The popularity of its character and. the elegance of its plates render the volume well adapted for a gift-book.] Faith and Practice; or an Exposition of the Leading Principles and

Corresponding Duties of Natural and Revealed Relon : a Treatise chiefly intended for popular use. By the Reverend John Penrose, M.A., formerly of C.C.C. Oxford, and Author of the Bampten Lecture Sermons for 1808.

[This is emphatically a good book ; excellent in object, moderate and chari- table in tone, grave and scholarly in treatment, without being dull or diffuse. i It is not, however, a book which is adapted for review in a lay journal, on account of its subject, which is a mixture of theology and metaphysics. The theology, among other topics, carries us to proofs of the existence of God and his attributes, derived from a survey of many portions of creation, to the question of a future state, the doctrine of Proviilence, and the nature of Christ. The metaphysics involve arguments upon these and subordinate topics; not always dealing with subjects strictly metaphysical in their na- ture, but becoming very closely so as regards the mind of man. A news- paper can only, with propriety, treat theology as applied to the conduct of men and enforced by illustrations drawn from nature and society.] The Adventures of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid. Recounted by the Author of " Mary Powell." [There is a falling-oft in the interest of the Caliph Harms: Alraschid, compared with this writer's previous tales ; and the causes are various. Formerly, when sometimes dealing with known names, the heroes or heroines of the author of "Mary Powell" (except in the case of Palissy the Potter) were persons of whom few or no particulars have been, pre- served ; so that, while the reader felt an interest in the subject, there were no associations to be disturbed by the necessary changes or interpolations of fiction. The Caliph Haroun Alraschid is the hero of Eastern romance, and as conspicuous in history as Saladin himself, if the events of his reign are more obscure. One of two things consequently happens : the adventures which the reader knows already have no novelty ; in those which are added he is startled or disappointed. Another cause of failure is the absence of the Oriental mind and manner. The addition of historical matter to the adven- tures proper, so as to produce a kind of "life and times," has necessitated rewriting the received adventures. But uniformity of style is attained at the expense of nature. The imitation is palpable, the European mind being continually visible. The young Haroun and his boy friend Giafar, when introduced to each other by the Caliph, "promptly embraced; and having eyed one another, they slave unto one another from that time forth for evermore " : and afterwards we find them "together pouring out all their young thoughts." This is not only English, but with a touch of the cant of sentiment.] Poems of Ten Years. (1846-1855.) By Mrs. D. Ogilvy. [These poems, written as occasion prompted during ten successive years, are of a miscellaneous character ; and, we infer from the nature of the sub- jects, were in part dependent for their origin upon the place where the fair writer happened to be. In 1846, the topics are mostly Anglo-Indian;

I

and " The Child's Departure from India," in which the feelings of the mother are the theme, is the best poem in the book. The next year, 1847, carries us to the European Continent; and one of the pieces, written on a convent near Boulogne, contains a very pretty bit of description—life itself. In various parts of the Continent Mrs. Ogilvy would seem to have been re-

siding for some yews: at least she draws hersubjects from incidents or land- scapes of the Rhine an& mingled with recollections of Scotland, public events, and "occasional" themes. There ie fluency, imagery and poetical treatment., in almost every piece; but the fluency is of a mischievous nature, for it leads the writer to run down her subjects. Whether Mrs. Ogilvy

could attain to high , may be questioned. If she has the natural newer, she will not b'eve success, till she bring more art and industry to bear upon the Male instead of leaving her pieces when they have reached a certain self-satisfying point. We seem to have met some of the poems be- fore; but perhaps it is only the style which suggests the notion. This style is highly conventional, and of the drawingroom school.]

Tim Poetry of Creation. In seven parts. By Nicholas Michell, Au- thor of " Rains of Many Lands." [Mr. Nicholas Michell made a mistake when he chose creation for the sub- pet of a poem. He is not able to soar so high as the heaven of heavens, the actual presence of the Deity, the creation of the world, and Paradise. He cannot even reach the tone of thought which is requisite for such a theme, or select a proper metre. His versification is that of the Giaour ; and the reader, when supposed to be in Heaven or in Eden, is perpetually reminded of Byron or Moore. A large part of the Poetry of Creation deals with the world as it now is, in a species of descriptive geographical survey. The style in this part is not so misappropriate as in the earlier cantos, but the whole is imitative, though fluent and tripping.] A Pocket Dictionary of the English and Turkish Languages. By G. Sauerwein.

A handy little volume for the pocket ; containing a copious Anglo-Turkish dictionary of useful words likely to occur in practice—and some more, per- haps, than are likely. The Trickish words are printed in Roman characters ; and the dictionary is preceded by directions for the pronunciation,—which appears difficult from its nicety. We suspect, a brief phrase-book would be the most useful for a visitor to the East, unless he intends to study the language, in which case the grammar and the proper Turkish character should be acquired.] Medley. By Cuthbert Bede, B.A., Author of " Motley," &c. LA collection of funny papers in prose and verse, illustrated by wood-cuts. The thing is not very new, but it is clever, and laughable_] Mesmerism in its relation to Health and Disease, and the present state of Medicine.. By William Neilson, Esq.

Port Royal and its Saints : being the " Select Memoirs of Port Royal." By M. A. Schimmelpenninck. Fifth edition, somewhat abridged. SERIALS.

Little Dorrit. By Charles Dickens. With Illustrations by H. K. Browne. No. L December.

[There are three chapters and part of a fourth chapter in this first number of Little Dorrit. Each of the three chapters has more or less of a mystery, and there is the beginning of another mystery in chapter fourth. The story opens in a prison at Marseilles, where an Italian smuggler is confined in the same cell as a gentleman of the Mantilini class, who is carried off to be tried for the murder of his wife. The second chapter introduces the reader to the laza- retto, and a company in their last day of quarantine, who on obtaining their freedom adjourn to an hotel. A "practical" couple and their daughter, with Mr. Clennam, a fellow traveller, are donhtleaspart of the future dramatis per- iionse ; but the mysterious persons are a " scornful lady" with a melodramatic air, and a foundling waiting-maid of a most violent temper. The mystery of the third chapter is more latent. Its striking features are a dull wet Sun- day, done or overdone in the wonted way of Dickens, with some allusions to the benefit of Sunday exhibitions; and the return of Mr. Clennam from India to his paternal home, where he was made wretched by the strict and gloomy religion of his parents, especially of his stern strong-minded mother. In this chapter there is a slight adumbration of "Little Dorris" evidently with a mystery attached. The opening of the fourth chapter indicates fur- ther mystery in the form of "a dream which was not all a dream." In the execution the weakest point is the manner, degenerated into an unattractive mannerism ; the strongest point is the indication of the wretchedness pro- duced by a narrow, hard, vindictive Calvinism.] The Hungarian Generals of the War 1848-1849: Historical and Bio- graphical Sketches, with Portraits of the most distinguished Generals. By Richard Gelich, late Major of the Staff, attached to the General Staff-Section of the Hungarian Ministry of War. Part I. [A work of this kind, which proposes to take a full review of the Hungarian war in the form of a biographical notice of the Generals engaged in it, can- not be judged of till its completion. Under the title of a life of General hieszaros, the first number contains a summary sketch of the war from the beginning to the end. For although the General was a worthy man, an honest patriot, and a good soldier as an administrator or second, he was too old, and too much accustomed to the established Austrian routine, to be fit for the posts of War Minister and Commander-in-chief during the stirring days of the Hungarian Revolution. The consequence is, that the biography is quite subordinate to the historical sketch. The most curious part is the account of the vanity and weakness or culpable ambition of Kossuth, in de- throning the Austrian dynasty ; which, in Major Gelich's opinion, led to the loss of Hungarian independence.]

ALMANACS& The British Almanack of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know- ledge, for the Year of Our Lord 1856, being Bissextile or Leap Year. Companion to the Almanack; or Year-Book of General Information, for 1856.

[As usual, the "Companion, or Year-book" is the chief feature of this double annual, as containing that novelty of subject which an estab- lished ahnanack scarcely admits of. In the first part, Mr. De Morgan's "Notes on the History of the Coinage" may be praised as a paper that well combines antiquarian information with numismatic knowledge, an extensive acquaintance with the qualities which render money useful as a medium apart from coinage, and sagacious common-sense. The history of the efforts to procure Agricultural Statistics, and a coup-d'ceil of the Civil Service question, are both informing and well-digested papers. "Shipwrecks and Life-Boats" has some startling facts as to the number of annual wrecks and loss of life. The second part of the Year-Book contains the usual statistics, abstracts of legislation, and the view of public improvements that have been made in architecture; closing with a terse story of "the Campaign,"—in which rather too much weight is ascribed to the representations of newspaper correspondents.] Parker's Church Calendar and General Almanack, for the Year of Our Lord 1856: containing information relating to the Church, the Uni- versities, sod the State ; a Calendar, with the Daily Lessons; Statis- tics of the Population, &c. ; and a variety of other useful Information. Second year of issue.

[A variety of statistical Information relating to the Episcopal Churches of Ragland, America, and the Colonies, with a more summary notice of Dis- *enters, are the leading characteristics of this publication. There is also the usual official and business matter, as well as some more immediately relating to the clergy.. The whole is carefully arranged and neatly displayed,]