24 MAY 1851, Page 18

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

BOOKS.

A Geological Inquiry respecting the Water-Bearing Strata of the Country around London, withreferenee especially to the Water-supgy of the Metropolis; and including some .Remarks on Springs. By Soseph Prestwich jun., F.G.S., Ferdinand Castleton ; a Novel. In three volumes.

Cousin Eustace ; or Conversations on the Prayer-Book. By the Author of "Lives of the Fathers," &c. Edited by the Reverend Williana. E. Bennett. In two volumes.

[With the view of reAdering his pastorship at St. Barnabas more extensively useful, Mr. Bennett had planned a kind of cheap parish periodical, as a sub- stitute for those constant visits which in an extensive district the clergyman cannotpay. A leading object of the work was "to give, various explana- tions of the customs of the Church; her rites and ceremonies ; our Prayer- book ; the aucient practices of the Christians, and their devotions ; and specially those points of observance which seem ever since the Reformation. to have caused so much animosity among Dissenters from the Church of England." The present volume contains an explanation and defenceof the services of the Prayer-book. The framework of the exposition is this. Eustace Elder, en orphan, and a Tractarian after the straitest sect, has been designed for the church; a younger brother involves himself in difficulties, and is relieved by Eutaw with the money that was to have carried him to college. Eustace has con- sequently to get his bread as a copyist in London, and boards in the house of a diatant relation, a man bred to the church, but who holds forth at a Dissenting meeting, not from care or conviction, but from the love of hear- ing himself talk. The youngest son of the family, Willie Darlett, is more tractable; goes with Eustace to a church with full Tractarian eervice , and Willie's queries lead to a series of discourses on the various parts of the Prayer-book.

The dialogue' like all didactic. dialogues, is artificial. The discourse is ob- viously framed to bring on the discussion ; objections are made only to be answered ; the logic is rather such as explains the unknown to a person already disposed to believe than such as convinces an opponent; the views maintained are as extreme as the extremest interpretation of the Prayer book, including articles and rubric, will go. The execution may almost be' called charming ; clear, easy, animated, and with that influence over the

mind by means of manner which is said to have characteriz.ed Mr. Bennett's teaching.]

Several other religious publications are before us: three books of sermons; a series of tales published under the authority of the Archbishop of Paris, if not of the Romuih Church ; and eleven letters of FiMelon containing reli- gious advice to persons living in the world, touching practical piety, selected by Mr. Bennett.

Repentance, its Necessity, Nature, and Aids. A Course of Sermons preached in Lent. By John Jackson, M.A. Rector of St. James's Westminster, and Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen.

Thoughts Appropriate to the Season and the Days ; in Lectures, de- livered on the Tuesday mornings during Lent 1851, at St. Margaret's, Lothbury. By the Reverend Henry Melvin, B.D.

The Church in the School-Room ; being Discourses to Schoolboys. By the Reverend L. J. Bernays, M.A.

Legends of the Seven Capital Sins. By J. Collin de Plancy. Translated from the French.

Counsels to those who are living in the World. From the Original, by Fenelon, Archbishop of Cumbrai. Edited by the Reverend William J. E. Bennett.

nolensia ; a Tragedy.

[A royal ravisher of a noble maiden—an atheist-buffoon-minister—the slaughter of the king's victim by her brothers—the execution of those bro- thers by the lady's betrothed from a sense of duty—the execution of a rebel from the same cause—a march upon the monarch to dethrone him with like motive—the king's trial, which dramatically speaking is solemn farce—and a catastrophe where poetical justice and common notions arc alike violated, form the elements of " Violenziat a Tragedy." Something might be said on the sources of these unfit materials, for they are taken from the older and rarely read dramatists; somethin,g, too, on the reason why mere crime is unfit for the drama ; and a little on the power of the author,—for —for he shows power though his genius does not seem altogether adapted to the drama, or to that con- nexion of events which is called "story" ; but where fundamental principles are disregarded, it is needless to waste time on detailed criticism.]

Besides the dramatic poem of Violemia, three other books in verse are be- fore us. "The Valley of the Rea," a local descriptive poem whose chief feature is the occurrence of a wedding and a funeral on the same day at the valley church. "The Glass-Berg," whose subject is the Great Exhibition, done with some cleverness, but an affected levity of style derived from Beppo and Don Juan. "Hours of Solitude," an irregular rhapsody, descriptive of soli- tude at different times of the day, and or fancy sketches thereanent. This piece is followed by another on the death of Sempronius, the gallant of Julia, who, after a banishment of fourteen years, was slain by order of Tiberius.

. The Valley of the Rea; a Poem. By V.

The Glass-Berg; a Poem.

Hozsrsvf Solitude, and Sempronius. By M. Franklin.

Marie Madeleine. Translated by Lady Mary Fox. With Illustrations by M. Lepelle de Bois-Gallais. [This story was originally printed as a charitable contribution to a fancy bazaar, held at the Palais Royal for the relief of the sufferers by the earth- quake at Guadeloupe in 1843. Lady Mary Fox was one of the purchasers ; and was so struck by the tale that at last she determined to translate it, with a dedication to the authoress. But the authoress did not live to receive this gratification ; the translator received tho news of her death as the pages were sent to the press. The tale is clever, animated, elegant, sentimental ; perhaps worth trans- lation, certainly very French. The nationality of the writer is shown in the framework, the style, the incidents, and the story. There are two twin brothers; one falls in love with Madeleine, and is engaged to marry her, but is drowned: the shock is so great that Madeleine not only nearly loses her life, but her reason is shaken a little : she sets off in search of the brother of her betrothed, and finds him a recluse student, whose skulls and other "'anatomies" frighten the maids of the village, so that they will not enter his house : Madeleine engages herself as the servant of Paul d'Ercourt, and he mistakes the manner in which she watchesliim for love. The interest of the tale turns upon this mystery, and Paul's passion; till Madeleine's death, and a paper left behind her, clear up everything.] Realities ; a Tale. By E. Lynn, Author of " Azeth the Egyptian," &c. Tn three volumes.

[The author of this work, when she tried her hand at a remote place and a distant period, did not exhibit that imagination which is necessary to em- body the spirit of the past, or that aptitude for a perception of the events of life which is necessary to form a story. The advantage of being contemporary with the state of society chosen as the subject of Realities does not change the nature of her qualifications. It seems from the preface, that the writer's friends advised her not to publish this tale ; and request of friends may generally be safely complied with in this direction.] The Game of Life. By Leitch Ritchie. (The Parlour Library.)

The Mirror of History; or Lives of the Men of Great "Eras from Julius Caesar to William the Conqueror. By the Reverend Edward Budge, [The object of this book is to give a summary view of the great terns of Euro- pean history from the downfall-of the Roman Republic to William the Con- queror : and it is done in the form of lives of the men who may be said to have marked the epoch, if not to have effected the change—as Julius Caesar, Constantine, Mahomet, Charlemagne, Alfred the Great. This plan is more at- tractive to the reader than favourable to continuity of view, unless the bio- graphies be connected by historical essays ; which is not the case in the book before us. It is, however, a very good and useful compilation, primarily in- tended for schools, and accompanied by summaries designed to facilitate scholastic study ; but it will be found advantageous to other persons than schoolboys, for its clear and careful narrative of facts. There rs also philo- sophy in the commentary, but rather of the age than peculiar to the author.]

College Life in the Time of fames the First, as Illustrated by an Unpub- lished Diary of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, Baronet, and M.P., for some time a Fellow Commoner of St. John's College, Cambridge.

[This is not only a clever and interesting book in itself, but it may claim the credit of being a model of the way in which antiquarian books, if not an- tiquaxiap manuscripts,. may be popularized,—for sometimes it is desirable to have a manuscript printed, for the advantage of a few who may use it, though the many will not read it. College Life professes to be founded upon "an unpublished Diary of Sir Simon D'Ewes" ; and it strips the original of all its probable weakness, prosiness, and minuteness, while it preserves whatever is quaint, curious, and characteristic of the man, the times, and the University of Cambridge in the days of James the First.] Observations on Heraldry. By Philip Gilbert Hamerton.-

[This publication contains its author's opinions on the credit and respect- olsility attached to coots of arms, together with some remarks on the dif- ferent features of heraldry considered as a science of family honours, rather

than as a practical art. The tyro will learn little respecting the elements of heraldry that he can render available in the systematic study of the subject; at least he will learn thou more readily and fully from other works, not- withstanding Mr. Damerton's depreciatory assertions respecting elementary books—that "the high price and great bulk of most of the works on heraldry, that are worth anything, is in many cases an effectual bar to its acquisition."]

Not so Bad as we Seem, or Many Sides to a Character; a Comedy, in five acts. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart.

PAMPHLETS.

A Moral and Religious Guide to the Great _Exhibition. By the Rave.' rend J. A. Emerton, D.D.

Catalogue of Articles exhibited at the Great Exhibition 1851 by Hunt and Roskell, New Bond Street.

A Frenchman's Visit to England and the Crystal Palace.

Peace.

The Church of England in the Colonies. A Lecture delivered before the Members of the Colchester Literary Institution, on Wednesday, January 22d 1851. By the Right Honourable Lord John Manners, M.P.

Letters on Church Matters. By D. C. L Reprinted from the Morn- ing Chronicle. No. PT.

Education, National, Voluntary, and Free. By Joseph Fletcher, Esq., Barrister-at-law.

Sixteenth Report of the Inspectors appointed to Visit the Prisons of Great Britain. II—Northern and Eastern District.

Speech of the Right Honourable Viscount Torrington, on the Afairs of Ceylon, in the House of Lords, April 1, 1851. An Appeal from Earl Grey and Sir William Denison to British Justice and Humanity, against the Proposed Continuance of l'ransportation. to Van Diemen's Land ; in a Letter to the Liberal Press of the Nation. By C. G. Stevens. Letter to the Right Honourable William E. Gladstone, M.P.; with the

Address to the Jury by his Honour Mr. Justice Merry., at the Opening

of the First Circuit Court, at Brisbane, Moreton Bay, key 13, 1850, &c. Letter from Count Thomar to the Duke of Saldanha. Suggestions for the Supply of the Metropolis from the Soft 1Fater Springs of the Surrey Sands ; addressed to the General Board of Health. By the Honourable William Napier. Plan and Description of the Original Ekctro-Magnetic Telegraph. By the Inventor, William Alexander, Esq. Letter to the Right Honourable the Speaker upon the System of Proce- dure for the Trial of Controverted Elections. By Frederic Calvert, Esq., Q.C.