20 AUGUST 1859, Page 20

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

M. Alfred Michiels, the well-known historian of the fine arts and lite- rature, descending, as he says, like the Florentine, to commune with the Inferno, has written the SECRET DISTORT OF Tun AUSTRIAN GOTERN3IENT, and of its systematic persecutions of Protestants. The work is founded on official documents, and chiefly on those made public by Horrnayr after he had quitted Vienna, where he had been for five-and- twenty years director of Imperial Archives; by Dr. Vehse, Archivist of the Kingdom of Saxony ; and by some clumsy panegyrists of the nabs- burgs, who were foolish enough to cite certain documents believing that their own worthless glosses would suffice to neutralise the damna- tory effect of the evidence thus brought to light. From such sources M. Michiels asserts that he has drawn a really secret history ; for it has been the practice of the Austrian Government to print fraudulent docu- ments for the purposes of deception, and to allow no historian to obtain a sight of the real documents. Hormayr compares the official annals of Austria to a manufacture of base coin.

Mr. Venables has opportunely republished from the Edinburgh Review two essays by his friend, the late Henry Lusbington' on THE ITALIAN WAR or 1848-9, and one from the British Quarterly, by the same writer, on GIUSEPPE GIUSTI, the greatest poet of modern Italy. The biogra- phical preface by Mr. Venables is remarkable for its literary excellence and its intrinsic interest.

THE STORY or ITALY from the sack of Rome by Alaric to the battle of Solferino, could hardly be told effectively in 380 small and loosely printed pages ; nor indeed has the author of • Mary Powell" attempted this feat. The title of her book does not correspond to the matter, which is rather a series of scraps from the history of Italy arranged chronologically. They are selected chiefly with a view to their dramatic and pictorial effect, and are treated in a lively and graceful manner. The book is slight, but pleasing. It would be the better for the correc- tion of some typographical and other errors ; such as that at p. 290, where Montenotte is said to be a strong height west of Geneva.

The greater part of the Rev. Mr. Williams's volume, THE CRUISE or THE PEARL, is devoted to the services of that ship's Naval Brigade in the Indian campaigns of 1857 and 1858. The officers and seamen of the Pearl took their guns seven or eight hundred miles into the interior, marched and countermarched for fifteen months through extensive districts, and bore an active part in upwards of twenty actions.

The Rev. Mr. Webb's CELESTIAL Osazezs FOR C031MON TELESCOPES admirably fulfils its professed design of furnishing the possessors of ordinary telescopes with plain directions for their use, and a list of objects for their advantageous employment. We believe that only such a book as this was wanting to make the telescope as popular as the aquarium.

NEW EDITION.

Sketches and Stories of Scotland and the Scotch, and Shetland and the Shet- landers. By Catherine Sinclair. With Corrections and Additions.

Giles's English Parsing : comprising the Rules of Syntax, exemplified by appropriate Lessons under each rule. Improved edition, remodelled by Margaret E. Darton.

BOOKS.

Secret History of the Austrian Government and of its Systematic Persecutions

of Protestants. Compiled from Official Documents. By Alfred Michiels.

The Italian War, 1848-9, and the Last Italian Poet. Three Essays. By the late Henry Lushington, Chief Secretary to the Government of Malta. With a Biographical Preface by George Stovm Venables.

The Story of Italy. By the Author of" Mary Powell."

The Cruise of the Pearl round the World. With an Account of the Operations of the Naval Brigade in India. By the Rev. E. A. Williams, M.A., Chap- lain Royal Navy.

Celestial Objects for CO7101104 Telescopes. By the Rev. T. W. Webb, M.A., F.R.A.S.

The Invasion of Britain by Julius avatar. By Thomas Lewin, Esq. of Trin. Coll. Oxon. M.A.

The Shakespeare Fabrications; or, the MS. Notes of the Perkins Folio shown to be of recent origin. With an Appendix on the Authorship of The Ireland Forgeries. By C. Mansfield Inglesby, Esq., LL.D. of Trinity College, Cam- bridge.

Irene; or, Sketches of Character.

A Handy Book for Rifle Volunteers; or, a Compendium of Instruction for Drill and the Rifle, according to the most recent regulations. By Captain W. G. Hartley., Royal Denbigh Rifles.

Marco Griffi, the Italian Patriot. By Mrs. Webb, Author of "Naomi," ike.

History of the Parish of Broughton Gi:iford, Wilts. By John Wilkinson, M.A., Rector.

The Symbolic Anglo-German Vocabulary; in which the most useful and common words are taught by Illustrations. Edited and revised by Fakk Lebahn, Pb. Dr., Etc.

Theory of Compound Interest, and Annuities with Logarithmic Tables. By Fedor Thoman.

Frank Marland's Manuscripts; or, Memoirs of a Modern Templar. By F. Frederick Brandt.