PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

From 4pn7 12th to April 23d.

BOOKS.

America, its Realities and Resources: comprising important details con- nected with the present Social, Political, Agricultural, Commercial, and Financial state of the Country, its Laws, and Customs; together with a Review of the Policy of the United States that led to the War of 1812 and Peace of 1814; "The Right of search," the Texas and Oregon Questions, &c. By Francis Wyse, Esq. Observations on the Books of Genesis and Exodus, and Sermons. By the late Robert Forsyth, Esq., Advocate. To which is prefixed, a Memoir of the Author.

.4 Book ryr Highland Minstrelsy. By Mrs. D. Ogilvy. With illustrations by R. R Mlan.

Nao1ogy; or a Treatise on the Origin, Progress, and Symbolical Import of the Sacred Structures of the most eminent Nations and Ages of the world. By John Dudley, M.A., Vicar of Ilumberston, and of Sdeby, Leicestershire, Sec.; and Author of "An Essay on the Identity of the River Niger and the Nile."

Precedents of Conveyances and other Instruments relating to the Transfer of Lands to Railway Companies; with Introductory Matter and Ex- planatory Notes. By Henry Tyrwhitt Freud, and T. Ilibbert Ware, Barristers-at-law.

[Until last year, each railway was a law unto itself; its act not only containing such provisions as its special circumstances might render necessary, but all those general provisions which every other company of a similar character re- riled. During the last session, three acts were passed, to consolidate certain pro- visions usually inserted in acts, (1) incorporating companies carrying on undertak- ings of a public nature, (2) authorizing the taking of lands and (3) authoriz- ing the making of railways. To the second act schedules containing forms of con- veyance were appended; but a refined professional objection is urged to their use. They are said to be not legally operative of themselves, but owe all their force to the act; so that " should the ix-minions of that act, requisite to create the power or render it capable of execution, be not duly and completely complied with and observed, the instrument must, as a legal transfer of land, entirely fail of effect." The meaning of which we take to be, that a person distinctly conveying all " such estate, right, title, and interest," as he is or shall become seized or

of, will be void and of no effect, because the deed, though expressiesse direc- ted by the Legislature, and clearly expressing its object upon its face, is in " form unlike any instrument recognized by or known to the law as a means of transfer of real estate." We are the last persons to wish to sub- stitute laxity for regularity, .vagueness for precision, or individual caprice for established forms; but this kind of refinement, or, to characterize it truly, this kind of quibbling, passes our comprehension. These are the things which bring odium on the profession as a self-seeking body, and upon the judges as persons who avail themselves of forms of law to deny justice: the guilty parties not being the well-abused attornies and solicitors, but the "superior members" of the pro- fession,—whose interests, indeed, are chiefly affected by anything which simph- - Sea the law and shortens legal instruments. To the solicitor it brings business by multiplying transactions, which he can execute without having recourse to the assistance of counsel.

Such, however, being the supposed state of affairs, it is well to be prepared; and this is the object of the volume of Messrs. Freud and Ware. It reprints, with notes, the statute for consolidating the provisions usually inserted in acts "authorizing the taking of lands for undertakings of a public nature"; and contains an analysis of the other two acts passed at the same time; which seem to us more useful and intelligible than the original documents. These are followed by a series of precedents from instruments that have beenalready used in the convey- ance of lands to railway companies, and whose use is still deemed necessary, instead of the forms provided by the act; and some preliminary observations and foot-notes direct or suggest their application: but the subject is of too technical a character to be entered 'into in our columns.] The Life and Speeches of Daniel O'Connell, M. P. Edited by his Son, John O'Connell, M.P. rilketiny City; Author of "An Argument for Ireland," Sec. Volume L [This enormous volume ia a striking example of the art of staffmg. Beyond a few pagesof not uninteresting particulars respecting the family history and private life of O'Connell, the 536 pages are filled with his speeches at public meetings, at the bar, and at the Catholic Board between 1800 and 1813; garnished with reso- lutions to be moved, or matters as formal, and often with a sketch of the whole proceedings, including an abridgment of the opposing orator. The only relief to these floods of stale news are the comments with which Mr. John O'Connell, or his father, (who has revised both the "speeches and general narration,") connects the rxtraets from the newspapers. The deficiency in closeness of thought or clearness of logic, the absence of philosophic or any other view, and of all literary excellence in Mr. O'Connell's speeches with the presence of a coarse and scur- rilous vulgarity, a blanaeying drollery ioo barefaced to pass one moment after the occasion, and endless repetition or emptiness, reader his orations not very readable even when the question is contemporary; but to put upon the public the ill- reported and we think inferior speeches of his earlier days—to be followed, how- ever, by the entire collection—seems a bold undertaking. These speeches were made to be spoken, not read, and often made for a temporary purpose, and more often spoken before a peculiar audience. Neither is it ass speaker that O'Connell is to be altogether judged: his speaking was merely a means, and by itself could never have given bun the influence he possesses.]

On the Cultivation of Flax, the Fattening of Cattle with Native Produce, Box-Feeding, and Summer Grazing. By John Warnes, Esq.

["Nothing like flax" is the motto of Mr. Warnes: its cultivation will feed oar poor and fatten our cattle; keep our money at home, instead of sending it abroad, and enable the agriculturist to survive the abolition of the Corn-laws: a Flax League will work more good than any other league, raising the value of land under cultivation, and enabling us to bring our wastes into the cultivated state. The how these blessings may be brought about is told, though somewhat cir- cuitously, in Mr. Warnes's volume; which seems to consist of old matter, either reprinted, or reproduced from pamphlets and reports of meetings.]

Prison Discipline. The Advantages of the Separate System of Imprison ment, as established in the new County Gaol of Reading ; with a description of the former Prisons, and a detailed Account of the Discipline now pur- sued. By the Reverend J. Field, MA., Chaplain to the Gaol.

[The germ of this volume was a Report on the advantages of the Separate Sys- tem, prepared by Mr. Field at the request of the Magistrates of Berkshire; who have erected a gaol to carry the plan into effect, and with success. The atten- tion excited by his report induced Mr. Field to add to its matter by a view of gaols as they were in former times, and of the evils which arise from prisoners associating together even in the present day. It will be found a useful contribu tion to the subject of prison discipline.] The Honey Stew of the Countess Bertha; a Fairy Tale. Translated from the French of Dumas, by Mrs. Cooke Taylor. Illustrated by IL Weir, and printed in colours by Gregory and Co. [This little book, with its effective and gaily-coloured pictures and gold-bordered pages, is sure to catch the attention of young readers•' and the story will not fail to fascinate them. It is a clever imitation of the German fairy tales, artfully concocted of the old materials of ghost-stories and i dieblerie, and full enough of incidents to excite the youthful fancy. The moral pointed s the good policy of liberal hospitality and keeping up old customs; of which the annual feast called the "Honey Stew" of the Countess Bertha is one. The designs, by Mr. Weir, are very bold and striking; and the artist, whose name is new to us, appears to possess a vein of comic humour, as well as a vigorous style. The cuts are capital specimens of printing in colours from wood.]

The Dream of the Opium-Eater. [A bereaved husband, "inconsolable and sleepless," takes opium, whose effects this little poem professes to describe. After some preluding, descriptive of the common class of disturbed dreams, the sleeper has a vision of the past, and an- other of the future, terminating in the Day of Judgment. There is a good deal of crudity in the poem, and the style seems founded on Shelley's Queen Mob; but there is more of power about it than in many of the numberless experiments in verse that are constantly coming forth.] Love's Trial; a Play, in five acts. [A play founded upon the author's "recollections" of the once popular tale of Caroline of Litch..] Nan Darrell; or the Gipsy Mother. Bt the late Miss Ellen Pickering, Author of "The Fright," &c. (Newby s Standard Library. Volume I.) [A compact edition of one of Miss Pickering 's novels—though not the best of them—rn a single volume, and purporting to form the commencement of" Newby's Standard Library. ]

On the Scripture Doctrine of Future Punishment; an Argument in two parts. By H. H. Dobney. Second edition.

The Flight of Armida. Volume IL

SERIALS.

Duiry's Library of Ireland. Volumes I. to X.

[We have received from Mr. Duffy a complete set of his Library for Ireland; looking quite in holyday trim as regards garb, and as it seems to us with a clearer type and a somewhat better paper than the earlier volumes—at lewd they form veryndsome little books. Of these volumes one or two have been reviewed, and one or two acknowledged on their monthly appearance. Of those new to us, the majority partake more of selection or compilation than the earlier numbers; probably through the untimely death of the animating and guiding genius of this and several other National undertakings—Thomas Davis. There is more wlldneis of tone, and more of a loose recklessness of' assertion, than Davis, as editor, would have passed without pruning or removal ; whilst some of the col- lections only differ by these questionable qualities from common compilations. Of the last =numbers, the most original is

Parra Sashta; or the History of Paddy-Go-East. By W. Carleton.

The hero of this work is one of the regular take-it-east school, such as Miss Edgeworth delighted to paint: and Mr. Carleton's object is to show how he was reformed by his wife, and the excellent effects that followed his reformation. There is some felicitous description of Irish life and character; but, as is usually the case in didactic novels, things happen too apropos, and the whole is not equal in force and lightness of touch to some of Mr. Carleton's other Irish fictions. But for any defects of this kind there is ample excuse: the story was written in nine days, to supply the place of a volume which Thomas Davis had undertaken, and its completion was frustrated by death: conscious of the value which his friend attached to the Library of Ireland, and to the importance of punctuality, Mr. Carleton undertook to supply a volume on the spur of the moment, and struck off Parra Sashta.

Literary and Historical Essays. By Thomas Davis. A selection from the articles, or more properly a collection of the reviews or notices, which Davis contributed to the Nation on literary and historical subjects; though occasionally his original was so slight in itself that the papers are entitled to the character of essays. The volume furnishes good specimens of that class of notice which rather throws off the writer's view, derived from the book, or from his own knowledge conjoined with that of the author he is reviewing, than criti- cizes the work itself. But they will not extend the fame of Davis; which must be estimated as well from -what he•es. Aid, and the tone he imparted to others, as from what he actually wrote hiinseiL

: The Songs of Ireland. Edited by M. J. Barry. - The Casket of Irish Pearls. Edited by Thornton Mactnahon. These two volumes are a species of Recueil Chobri, selected from the writings of Irishmen; the Songs having of necessity more unity and purpose, and forming a collection altogether superior to the Pearls, which is a mere miscellany of selected prose and verse.

The Poets and Dramatists of Ireland. By D. F. Worthy. The Irish Writers of the Seventeenth Century. By Thomas D'Arcy M‘Gee. Both these volumes are series of biographical sketches of Irish writers, contain- ing nearly forty names, with specimens of the Poets and Dramatists. Such a num- ber of biographies in so small a compass must of necessity induce a rather unsa- tisfactory brevity; and, looking at the popular objects of the work, we should think most of the persons of too little Interest to support a national circulation, unless mere Irish names will suffice. Both the books seem to us more like a species of biographical dictionary than a work for the people. The only two names among the writers of the seventeenth century whom the general reader has ever heard of are Usher and Molyneux. The poets and dramatists are richer; though, excepting Denham Swift, Congreve, Farquhar, and Steele, they only en- joy a very twilight sort Of existence, unless, like MacFlecknoe they are pre- served in pickle. Of these, by the by, Congreve was not an Irishman; and the place of Swift's birth was doubtful, though he made himself Irish by adoption, if he were not native; and the mind and literature of all were English—not nearly so national as Walter Scott, for example, leaving Robert Burns altogether out of the question.] Valentine JP Catchy, the frisk Agent. By William Carleton. Numbers L to IIL