PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

From May 16th to May 22d.

BOOKS.

.A History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. Translated from the German of Dr. J. M. Lappenberg, For. F.S.A., Keeper of the Archives of the City of Hamburg, by Benjamin Thorpe, F.S.A. With Additions and Correktions by the Author and the Translator. In two volumes. Physical Description of New Sowed Wales and Van Diemen's Land. Ao- oompanied by a Geological Map, Sections, and Diagrams, and Figures of the Organic Rmains. By P. E De Strzelecki.

The Letters of Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield; including numerous letters now first published from the original manuscripts. Edited, with Notes, by Lord Mahon. In four volumes. [We know not when the pressure of Parliament and the publishing season will enable us to devote the attention to this work that its character and value. require. Meanwhile, let us thank Lord Mahon and Mr. Bentley for a complete edition of the Correspondence and " Characters " of the most finished gentleman and intellectual man of the world, which the " world " has ever produced. From the preface we learn, that all the letters contained in Maty's edition of Chester- field's Miscellaneous Works or scattered through other publications, are here in.. eluded. The present Lord Chesterfield has not in "his possession any private letters yet unpublished which could, as he conceived, be interesting to the public." The greatest part if not all of Lord Chesterfield's MS. drafts and papers are now., it seems, in the possession of Mr. Shirley, a kinsman of the family, and the heir of one of Lord Chesterfield's executors. These MSS., by Mr. Shirley's kindness, have been placed at Lord Mahon's disposal, and have enabled him to enrich this edition with three new Characters, (" ot Dr. Arbuthnot, of the Mistresses of George the First, and of Lady Suffolk,") besides a variety of new letters. What Lord Mahon thinks of more importance, is the whole of the original letters to Chesterfield's confidential friend-Dayrolles; some of which were suppressed altogether by Maty, and others mutilated, for reasons that were proper m 1777 but exist no longer. Lord Mahon has also exercised a power of omission himself. "The early letters of Lord Chesterfield to his son, when scarcely seven or eight years old, are fined with elementary instruction in history and geography, well fitted for that age, [they were necessary—no countless catechisms and abridgments of everything- then, as now,] but scarcely suited for a collection like the present. • * * The editor has therefore decided on expunging about forty letters of that early period." He has also left nearly unused a collection published in 1817, for the most part giving brief accounts of Chesterfield's godson and heir to his relatives at ManslieliL The arrangement is judicious. The "Letters to his Son," so far as they relate to education, are printed separately in regular order; then follow the Characters; after which comes the general Correspondence, in chronological order, without re- ference to the person addressed. Some typographical object of embracing the Educational Letters and the Characters in the first two volumes has caused too many letters to be included among the first class. The hortation touching Madame de Blot, and to perseverance, in the passage beginning "What do you mean by your Si j'osois ? qu'est cc qui vous empeche d'oser ?" not to mention many other passages of gallantry, are not what Lord Mahon would recommend for a course of education. He closes his preface by truly observing, that "only those persons whose principles are fixed and whose understandings are matured will be able to read them [the volumes] with advantage—to cull their good from their evil—to profit by their knowledge and experience without the danger of imbibing their laxity of morals: and to such persons only does the editor recommend them, After this, we need scarcely say that this is not an editio expurgate. What may have been done in four volumes we cannot tell by casual inspection: we have found. but one attempt—the substitution of Roman letters for Italics ins word contained. in a letter to Dr. Monsey of December 1767.] Letters of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland; selected from the "Recueil des Lettres de Marie Stuart"; together with the Chronological Summary" Eventa during the reign of the Queen of Scotland, by Prince AlexandeFt Labanoffi Translated, with Notes and an Introduction, by William Tame- bull, Esq., Advocate, F.S.A. Scot. [About one third of this volume contains introductory annals of the life of Mary Queen of Scots—bare facts, but clearly arranged and briefly expressed: the re- mainder consists of a selection from the seven volumes of the Letters and 0,,Ociat. Documents of Mary Stuart, by Prince Alexander Labanoffi No letter used by Miss Strickland in her Selection has been printed by Mr. Turnbull; and his trans- lation has been made into modern English, as more likely to convey the true meaning of the original than an attempt at the Elizabethan. ityle. So far as matters of fact are concerned, we think Mr. Turnbull may be implicitly trusted. In questions of conclusion, or in what may be called the colouring of a statement,. we should have greater mistrust: he appears to be too strong a partisan of Mary and too great an enemy of Elizabeth to be relied upon either to give a selection of evidence or to draw a sound conclusion from the whole. We mention all these things at once, lest we should not have an opportunity of returning. to the volume: and, sooth to say, a very small selection is not of much use in assisting to a ver- dict touching Mary's character; and translation into a style three hundred years later than the originals, though quite proper on Mr. Turnbull's grounds, is rather destructive of literary character. An engraving of Queen Elizabeth dancing before Sir Roger Aston is prefixed to the volume, from a design of the author's friend Kirkpatrick Sharpe. or graphic effect it is unrivalled; approaching art as nearly as caricature can. Looking at the grave character of the volume, however, each a species of pictorial pasquinade might have been as well away.] The Principles of the Book of Common Prayer Considered. A Series of Lecture-Sermons. By the Reverend William J. E. Bennett, M.A., late Student of Christ College, Oxford, and Incumbent of St. Paul's, Knights-

[The objectls

dgt e.f the Reverend William Bennett in these dlireburses appears to have been, to smooth the way for the introduction of Tractarian practices into his church, by a series of lectures from the pulpit, showing or trying to show that these changes were ancient practices, rightful, proper, and ordered by the Rubric; which last, considering the opinion of two Primates upon the subject, is un pets - fort. The theme of this volume of sermons is the Prayer-book: first, the neces- sity of a liturgy; then, the history of ours, and its superiority to that of the &- monists; and lastly, on the propriety, either as matter of essence or matter of form,, of returning to what Mr. Bennett thinks the proper mode of worship. How far this topic, involving as it does neither morals nor doctrine but much of mere criti- cal archaeology, is proper for the pulpit, we do not undertake to settle. The exe- cution of the plan does not appear to us happy. It wants unction, mastery, and comprehension, not to speak of the preacher's animus against Puritans and Dis- senters. Mr. Bennett, moreover, does not seem to possess the accomplishments of the controvertist ; and if his book was preached as it is printed, the occasional illustrative quotations, which require separate types to display them clearly, must have been difficult for the audience to follow, unless Mr. Bennett is a master of elocution.] The Real Union of England and Ireland. By R. Monckton Manes, Esq. [This is a very remarkable book to come from an avowed and stanch Conserva- tive Member of Parliament. It presents a pleasing picture of a candid and thought- ful mind—attached to the past from association, and naturally averse to change— adapting itself to a state of public opinion which, though new, has fairly gained the ascendancy. Mr. Mikes is one of the few public men who may with Justice Call himself a "Conservative." He does not seek to escape the odium which attaches to an unpopular party-name, by substituting a new one: heir really, by the constitution of his mind, conservative; but he has nothing of the party Tory in his constitution. Even this little volume contains ample evidence that he has listened candidly to all kinds of opinions; has embraced those which he thought just, because ha thought them so; and has even them unity and coherence by assimilating them to the tone of his own mind.]

Lectures delivered at Literary and Mechanics Institutions. By William Henry Leathern.

[No one could expect much.originality of research or depth of view in lectures composed "in intervals snatched from business" to deliver at Mechanics Institu- tions, unless they related to subjects connected with that basluess. Mr. Leathern, however, takes a wide range,--art, in a lecture on the Human Form; natural phi- losophy, on Imitative Sounds; history and biography, on Cromwell and Cones; ads' chin; in a notice of some modern poets and Macaulay's prose; topography, in the History of Wakefield. These subjects are all doubled up ma small volume of lees than a hundred and fifty pages- so that, according to Chesterfield's rule, if they do not please they will not tire. They are, however, well enough; the facts as]ected from very common sources, and the opinions of a kind not likely to breed nontention. We think the Lecture on Sounds the best: it brings together a number of curious facts.]

The Ford Family in Ireland; a Novel. In three volumes.

[The time of The Ford Family in Ireland is fixed in the early part of the pre- sent century, while the suppression of the first Rebellion and the Union were still distracting the minds of men. The leanings of the writer are Whiggish; and her object is to portray the grievances of the people and the oppressions of the natives by the Anglo-Isiah, as well as to exhibit the state of Irish society at that period, in the provinces. In the latter point she has succeeded better than in the former. She has aptitude for the description of a social scene or a common character, especially a female, but not comprehension sufficient to conceive the larger subjects of national grievances, or power to delineate them vigorously. Neither has she managed the delicate matter of making her hero unfortunate through his faults yet retaining the reader's sympathy. The Ford Family is in its subject and materials much fresher than a commonplace novel, yet it is infe- rior as a work of art; perhaps from the circumstance of the lady having drawn her social sketches from nature, but relied upon herself for the romance, instead of the circulating library.]

The Flight of Armida; a Poem, in one thousand prospective cantos. By One of the Surviving Whims of Ludovico Ariosto. Canto the First.

[.We cannot well make out this poetical enterprise, it is so ill-compact and pur- poseless; but we will tell what we can. For about thirty stanzas of eight lines each, the author is walking somewhere and pouring out his thoughts upon all things, when suddenly the apparition of a Woman, bight Armida, rises; and -her de- scription being done, she continues the theme her coming interrupted. When she vanishes, the author takes up the reverie; and yields the pas to her when she again appears, and so on. The original ideas of the topics, tone, style, and mode of colouring, are drawn from Byron; chiefly from the sombre and mystic parts of Childe Harold. If we could put aside plan, purpose, sentiment, and sense, the Flight of Armida could claim praise for fluency and sound. It is a curious ex- ample of poetical mimicry.]

Poems. By William Anderson.

[This volume contains a reprint of "Landscape Lyrics," noticed on their appear- :tape in 1838; a selection from the author's first work, "Poetical Aspirations," originally published in 1830; a variety of occasional poems now first brought tgetber, and a few original productions of the same character. It forms a neat vØuine of pleasing poetry; not brilliant, but calm and rational.]

The Christian Commonwealth. By John Winter Morgan.

[The" Christian Commonwealth" is a new Utopia, to be gradually formed by the establishment of a number of self-supporting communities. The plan of one for the reception of 300 ps.inper families, who are to be maintained out of the produce of `heir labour, is given in this volume with a view of the proposed building, and Atimates of the probable expenditure and return. The benevolent proposer of &is scheme for ameliorating the condition of the working classes, puts forward attek arguments as he can in support of its practicability and expediency, and answers objections made to it in tamale; giving, in an appendix, facts and figures to illustrate the moral improvement and physical distress of the population of this and other countries.]

Politics of the New Testament. [The reprint of an article in Tail's Magazine, endeavouring to show that the New Testament is opposed to establishments and authority, and that religion is properly connected with politics. One hundred copies are presented by the author to the League Bazaar, and clothed in scarlet and gold, as if the whole were a militant concern.] Seven Lectures on Somnambulism. Translated from the German of Dr. Arnold Wienholt; with a Preface, Introduction, Notes, and an Appendix, by J. C. Colquhoun, Esq., Advocate, Author of "Isis Revelata," Soc. [Dr. Wienholt, a physician of Bremen, who fifty years ago practised animal magnetism as a curative agent, published these lectures to prove the exercise of the senses by persons in a natural state of somnambulism, and also to show that the faculty of vision may be exercised by the blind; in short, that in certain ahnorroal states of the nervous system, the perceptions of the senses are trans- ferred to other parts of the body than their appointed organs. The prefatory and appended matter relates to the progress and sliomena of mesmerism, of which • Colqulionn is a zealous advocate.] . Pulmonary Consumption Suceesifull.g Treated with Naphtha; with Cases from other medical men in support of that treatment; and an Appendix, showing the utility of puncturing tuberculous cavities, as an adjuvant in

- the cure of phthisis. Second edition, revised and enlarged. By John Hastings, M.D., Senior Physician to the Blenheim Street Dispensary.

(The chief features of this new and revised edition are the new cases, the remarks of Dr. Hastings on the alleged failures of his remedy, and the recommendation in the appendix of treating certain cases of phthisis by puncturing tuberculous cavities, after the plan advocated by Dr. Barry of Dublin on 1726.] The Physiology of Digestion Considered with relation to the Principles of Dietetics. By Andrew Combe, M.D. 8ze. Fifth edition, revised and enlarged. (The fifth edition of Dr. Andrew Combe's elaborate and popular work on the ptinciples and practical management of digestion, is here reprinted in a neat size, and in double columns, at the price of a number of the "Colonial Library"; which ianot only cheap itself, but seems to be the cause of cheapness in others.] (Euvres Choisies de E. Scram, de l'Academie Fraucaise. Tome premier. (Lhandsome duodecimo edition of the select works of the inexhaustible M. Scribe, ftw the press of M. Firmin Didot. The first volume contains sixteen popular vaudevilles.] A Glance at Belgium and the Rhine. By Thomas Ramsay.

NEW SERIAL.

Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry; with Biographical Sketches of the An- those, Interlinear Literal Translations, and Historical Illustrative Notes, by John Daly; together withldetrical Versions, by Edward Walsh. Parts L and IL [This serial appears to have been for some time in the course of penny publication inrIreland; the preface or address bearing date 1843. Its professed object is to col- lect the national Jacobite songs; though, compared with the Scotch mode of aid- ing a cause, the ittilesian method is truly Irish, and their swigs would appear tehave been sung after the battle was over and the cause lost. The title, how- ever, to a great extent strikes us as being incorrect. So far as we can judge from the kindred and twenty pages before us, Mr. Daly's object seems to be to o rillect the Irish popular songs, composed by what are called bards, but who were in reality hunted priests or peasants with a poetical tarn if not a poetical genius,

which a smattering of learning, picked up at the hedge-schools, often injured. In other countries, such men contributed to the national ballad literature by choosing traditionary or homely subjects, and drawing their images from their own experience of life and nature. These affilesian bards deal somewhat too much in Heathen mythology, without the skill to use it; and do not always seem very well versed in Jacobite particulars, whilst their boasts offers singular con- trast to the result. Some of the poems, however, are occasional, some satirical, and some directed against the Saxon in general, whose oppressions occasionally figure in the Jacobite lays—as if the Stuarts had not oppressed Ireland. Looking at the tone of the work, and the strong Italicised style of Mr. Daly's prose com- ments, we think the publication is connected with Young Ireland objects; and Mr. Walsh, a poet of the Nation, is engaged to translate the native Irish into Saxon verse,—from which, it should be observed, our opinion is formed. The ori- ginal text is also accompanied by an interlinear translation on the Hamiltonian principle; Mr. Daly prefacing the poems by an introduction to the Irish

to enable the Irish-ons to read the tongue. He has also given liveslan fra; bards; and a very questionable set they appear to have been.]