PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

BOOKS.

Sawbuck Grange; or the Sporting Adventures of Thomas Scott, Esq. By the Author of "Handley Cross, or the Spa Hunt," &c. With eight illus- trations by Phiz.

The Life and Correspondence of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, G.C.B. By John Barrow, Esq., F.R.S. In two volumes.

Ernest Singleton. By the Author of "Doctor HookwelL" In three volumes. Henry Doraville; or a Younger Son. By Himself. In two volumes.

Post-office London Directory, for 1848.

[We did not see this Directory last year; and in the interval it has almost

• grown out of knowledge," the additions have made it so stout. The Street di- rectory has been considerably enlarged; the Postal information is fuller; the Provincial Inns and the Official directory seem new features; and the Convey- ance department, especially in the Railways, has also been extended. But there are limits to the convenience of bulk, and we think the Past-Uwe London Di- rectory has fully reached those limits: any further extension will involve the ne- cessity of division into two volumes; for a book that will be incessantly bandied in the shop or countinghouse should be handy. In the preface, the proprietors state that, at their own desire, the system of employing the Post-office letter-carriers as collectors of names has been discon- tinued, and private agents are now engaged. If this do not diminish the accuracy of the work, well and good: but the objection was not against employing the let- ter-carriers, for if they were the best agents it was best that they should be em- ployed—the objection that we urged was, that if the public servants were em- ployed, the public should reap the benefit; which it was alleged was not the case. However, it does not appear that any evil has arisen from the change.] Studies of Shakespeare, in the Plays of King John, Cymbeline, Macbeth, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet; with Obser- vations on the Criticism and Acting of those Plays. By George Fletcher, Author of Historical and Critical Essays, entitled "Heloise and Abelard," 8cc.

[This is the collected reprint of some articles from periodicals, several of which excited attention at the time of their appearance, especially the series of papers on the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Mr. Fletchees doctrine is the comfortable one, that everybody who has written on Shakspere, acted Shakspere, or seen him acted, is more or less wrong, and that he alone is right in his estimate. The leading theory by which he accounts for this is the depraved style of criticism and acting introduced at the Restoration; which has dontinued to overbear a better taste, even to the present day. His mode of esta- blishing particular cases is by a general notice of the play, or the induction of particular passages. There is generally a distinct view in Mr. Fletcher's com- mentaries; sometimes shrewd, often a mere hobby: he wants the large compre- hension necessary to the critic of Shakspere. The articles were worth reprintulg,• but they should have received a more careful revision, so as to have removed blemishes, not to say vulgarities of style, strong traits 03: self-sufficiency, and the endless panegyrics on a particular actress, done in the style of Mr. Puff.] A Book of Stories for Young People. By Mary Howitt, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Mrs. Cowden Clarke, &c. Honor; or the Story of the Brave Caspar and the Fair Annerl. By Clemens Brentano. With an Introduction, and a Biographical Notice of the Author, by T. W.Appell. Translated from the German.

[The Annuals seem to rank amongst the things that have been; but the crimson and gold covers, and the pretty little pictures inside of some books, indicate the approach of the gift season.

Of the two table books before us, A Book of Stories is the most adapted for the young, and will form a pretty and:interesting Christmas present. It consists of half a dozen tales; two by Mrs. Hall, two by Mary Hewitt, one by Mrs. Cowden Clarke, and another by her husband. The scenes of the tales are well varied: Mary Howitt carries her juvenile readers to Germany; Mr. Clarke to the East; Mrs. Clarke, in " Perseverance' " conducts a little boy from Dover to France; while Mrs. Hall sticks to England. Some critical objections might be urged as to the likelihood of some of the incidents; but the stories move, and point a moral.

Honor is not so much of a juvenile tale; it having been selected and translated with a view to give the English public another specimen of the German stories descriptive of peasant life in Germany. We think it not very well chosen; too Ger- man both in its incidents and ideas. The brave Caspar is a soldier, who is a devotee to French notions of honour: when he detects his father and brother in stealing his regimental horse, honour compels him to denounce them, but equally forbids him to survive the disgrace; so he goes and shoots himself on his mother's grave. The story of the Fair Annerl is even more opposed to English tastes.]

Domestic Memoirs of a Christian Family Resident in the County of Cum-

berland; with Descriptive Sketches of the Scenery of the British Lakes. By Henry Tudor, Esq., Author of "Narrative of a Tour in North America,

Mexico," Stc.

[This is a didactic religious fiction of the older school, such as was fashionable in the days of Hannah More, when incidents and dialogue were used as mach to impress religion and morality as to carry on the story or to develop character. The Graceloves are the pattern family of the fiction: besides bringing up their own children in the best of modes, they eventually operate upon their neighbours; converting Mr. Stately from Infidelity, and a Mr. Merton from Romanism; the success of this latter gentleman as a suitor, however, depends upon his renun- ciation of the errors of Popery. The narrative is rather slow, and continually im- peded by religious discussion; but the book is not heavy, though solid.]

A Plot and a Peerage. [A rather coarse attempt at social satire in the form of a fiction.]

Fables for Children, Young and Old, in Humorous Verse. By W. Edwards Staites, Author of " The Lays and Legends of Normandy." [Part of these so-called fables are tales, with a moral tagged on; and those where the form resembles the fable, want its closeness and point. The pictures are good.] Cowper's Works. Volume VIII. [This volume closes the cheapest and completest edition of Cowper. Its con • tents are miscellaneous, chiefly poetry, with a little prose.] ILLUSTRATED Wonx.

Gailhabauds Ancient and Modern Architecture. Third Series. Pub LXXI. to LXXXII.

ALMANACHS.

The British Alrnanack and Companion, for 1848. There is not much to he said of this well-known work, except that it maintains its character for utility, variety, and quantity of information. The papers in the Companion bring up the utilitarian history of the year, or discuss topics of cur- rent interest in the same line,—as Decimal Coinage, the Government School of Design.] The Weather Almanack, for the Tear 1848: With an Account of the Lunar Barometer. By P. Murphy, Esq., Author of the Weather Almauack of 1838, &e...