28 APRIL 1855, Page 18

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Boons.

The History of the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. By T. W. J. Connolly, Quartermaster-Sergeant of the Corps. With seventeen coloured Illustrations. In two volumes.

The Iife,Times, and Contemporaries of Lord Cloneurry. By William John F itzpatrick, Member of the Royal Dublin Society.

41 Tar of the Last War: being the Services and Anecdotes of Sir Charles Richardson, K.C.R, Vice-Admiral of the White. By the Reverend C. E. Armstrong, M.A., Wor. Coll., Oxford, and Mauer of! Hemsworth Hospital, Yorkshire.

The World a Works/sop, or the Physical relationship of Man to the Earth. By Thomas Ewbank, Anthorof "Hydraulics and Mechanics." [This American importation is rather a remarkable book ; speculative and fanciful in a certain degree, and pushing in some of its ideas beyond the re- ceived opinions of the religious world, but ingenious, abounding in facts, and clever in the application. The principles of the writer are, that matter was designed for the employ- ment of the intellect as well as the handicraft or labour of man, and that in proportion as the matter of the world is developed so has mankind advanced. Running rapidly over the geological epochs, Mr. Ewbank says, this was all prepared for you, that you might exercise your ingenuity and labour upon it He then goes over the three materials ou which man was to work—the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal world; pointing out the adaptation in each particular instance to the object of making "the world a workshop" and man a workman, and bringing together in a striking way some remarkable statistics, though we are not always sure of their accuracy. In a second sec- tion he treats of the physical formation of man, the nature of his mind, and of surrounding circumstances, as all tending to the same conclusion. A third book touches upon the morality of his theme : there are two classes who resist the fulfilment of man's destiny—the lazy, and the genteel; though mr. Ewbank seems to think some mental influence is at the bottom even of idleness.] Cyclopedia of Universal History: comprising tabular Views of Contem- poraneous Events in All Ages, from the Earliest Records to the Pre- sent Time, arranged Chronologically and Alphabetically. Edited by Isaiah 11•Burney, B.A., and Samuel Neil. [The preface to this volume says that "the tediousness and difficulty of read- ing a systematic course [of history] tend much to discourage students ; while the impossibility of readily perceiving, in ordinary historical works the synchronistic development of events, divests the study of half its interest and value." As an attempt to obviate these two obstacles, we do not know that this work is very successful. It is of use in another point of view. The Cyclopedia of Universal History is a aeries of elaborate chronolo- gical tables from the Creation to the close of 18,54. At the outset, of course, the dates are rather wide apart; as facts become more numerous, every year has its events, and as we descend to the age of printing the number of occurrences continually increases. The pages devoted to the last hundred years, for instance, are just double the quantity of those which suffice for the history of the world from the Creation to the birth of Christ. Notes original or selected, and, except in the case of a few prefixes, of the nature of jottings, are freely intermingled with the chronology, and -remove its mere bareness The Cyclopedia is of greater use as a book of reference than for perusal. In fact, except the introductory prefixes de- scribing the national chronology and reputed origin of certain ancient na- tious—as Egypt, China, India, and occasional notes—we hardly see that the book is adapted for reading at all. It is a storehouse of facts and dates.] The Massacre at the Carnes in 1792; when an Archbishop, two Bishops, and two hundred Priests suffered Martyrdom for the Faith. By Robert Belaney, M.A. Cambridge, late Vicar of Arlington, Sussex.

[Ostensibly this is an account of the manure of the priests at the monastery of the Cannes at Paris on the 2i1 September 1792. The narrative is striking, but general ; the story of a compiler rather than of an eye-witness, orof a man skilfully reproducing the accounts of eye-witnesses. The true object of the publication is to advocate the Romanist view on excluding the interference of the State with the Church, and to enforce the blessings of martyrdom. There is the further object of attacking the English priests who submitted to Henry- the Eighth, instead of resisting like the martyrs of September— though it must be remarked these last were not aware that death awaited them ; and an insidious attack upon the clergymen of the Church of Eng- land as compared with these of France.]

Sermons, preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, by the late Reverend Frederick W. Robertson, M.A., the Incumbent.

[Except one sermon published in the author's lifetime, this collection appears under disadvantages. "They are simply recollections" of the discourses preached ; sometimes, however, dictated by the preacher himself, and some- times written out by him for the members of a family in whom he was in- terested, when they could not attend his ministration. It is from those copies, carefully preserved, that the volume is printed ; and the sermons bear obvious marks of the mode of their committal to paper, in a speciosa abruptness and occasionally a curtness, which are not without effect, and probably have spared the reader connecting and filling-up commonplace. Careened as they are, they are better worth publication than many volumes of finished sermons that appear.- is vigour, animation, and earnestness in the book, with sonic of the hstorical knowledge and vivid perception, which, as in the case of Frederick Maurice, enable its possessor to realize the past. The sermon on the Pharisees and Sadducees at John's Baptism is an example of this; as is likewise the unfinished series on the Advent, -describing the essential cha- racters of the Greek, the Roman, and the Barbarian, and the incapacity of each to attain a satisfying religion. The fourth, on the Jew, is lost, never having been written out.] The Practical Stenographer: a New and Practical System of Short-hand. Also, the Expedite Long-hand Writer, or a System of Concise Writing with the Common Letters. By David Hammond. [This system of short-hand is founded upon Taylor's • but Mr. Hammond claims to have made certain improvements, chiefly in the form of the letters, and in the signs representing frequent syllables or " arbitraries,"—that is to say, characters representing words. It is probable that the learner rather than the system is the thing in short-hand—" whate'er is best administered is best." Do what we will, every system rejects certain letters from the al- phabet; a sign or two more or fewer to be learned by heart, and by repeated practice written easily, is no great saving. The great difficulty is leas with the alphabetical and syllabic signs, or even the " arbitraries " unless very numerous, than with the short-band spelling. This rejects medial vowels, every letter that is not sounded, and practises other methods of abbreviation. The essence of the whole is to lessen writing by rejecting letters, but this writing can quite as well be written in common letters as in signs. The readi- ness, that is the rapidity, with which this can be done, constitutes the use and the difficulty, and confines the utility of the art to professional pur- poses, unless used for secret Memoranda. A person who abbreviates and writes the characters with thought and pains is probably as long over his task as if he wrote in the common way: and this last mode has always the ad- vantage of preserving the %act word intended, and being always able to be read.) Romaic and Modern Greek compared with one another, and with

• Ancient Greek. By James Clyde, M.A.

[This is a short treatise on the leading verbal and grammatical peculiarities of the popular and literary dialects of modern Greece, and their relation to the forms of classical Greek. It will serve as a sullicient substitute for a grammar to those who already know ancient Greek, the only persons who are likely for literary purposes to study its modern types, while it is free from the technicalities and repetitions of a formal grammar. What strikes. us as newest, and certainly what most interested us, are some remarks illus- trating the existence of popular dialects in ancient times beside the lite- rary language handed down in books, and from which Romaie would appear to have mom immediately descended.] Liber Oantabrigiense : an Account of the Aids afforded to Poor Stu- dents, the Encouragements offered to Diligent Students, and the Re- wards conferred on Successful Students, in the University of Cant- bridge: to which is prefixed, a Collection of Maxims, Aphorisms, &c., designed for the use of learners. By Robert Potts, MA., Trinity College. [The documents on which this very useful compilation rests are the Report of the Cambridge University Commission, with the supplementary volumes published by direction of the Commissioners- the Reports of the Commision- era on Charities; Mr. Carlisle's work on Endowed Schools in England and Wales ; and Mr. Herbert's History of the Livery Companies of London. The compiler has besides taken pains to support and extend the information de- rived from official sources, by private inquiries. He has produced a volume that will supply a want often felt by parents and schoolmasters, to whom the pecuniary aids open to students, and the emoluments attendant on University distinctions, are objects of importance, frequently determining their choice af school or college for the boys in whose career they are interested. A brief historical notice of each College, School, and Livery Company, precedes the list of their eleemosynary foundations, and gives an interest to the volume apart from its practical utility. One hundred and seventy-four pages of aphorisms, selected from solid writers, are alone worth the price of the volume.] Jives of Men of Letters of the Time of George .1.11. By Henry Lord Brougham, F.R.S., Member of the bational Institute of France, EtDsi of the Royal Academy of Naples. [This edition of what may be called the Library edition of Lord Brougham's Lives of Men of Letters of the Time of George the Third, contains Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, Robertson, Johnson, and Gibbon. The additions and modi- fications are numerous ; so numerous, indeed, as not to admit of enumera- tion.]

The library of Biblical Literature. "Volume IL [The collection into a volume of tracts on religious subjects popularly treated, which have been published separately. This is the second volume. It is a cheap series.]

Instructions for the Analysis of Soils, Limestones, and Manures. By James F. W. Johnston, M.A., F.R.SS. .L. and E., &c. ; Author of "Lec- tures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology," &c. Third edition. Kebster's Royal ,Red Book. April 1855.

NEW PERIODICAL.

The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics. Edited by J. J. Sylvester, M.A., F.R.S., late Professor of Natural Philosophy in University College, London ; and N.M. Ferrera, M.A., Fellow of Gon- ville and Caius College, Cambridge: assisted by G. G. Stokes, F.R.S., Lueasian Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cam- bridge ; A. Cayley, M.A., F.R.S., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cam- bridge; and M. Hermits, Corresponding Editor in Paris. No. I.

PAMPHLETS.

The Reorganization of the Medical De- portment of the Army; a Letter to the .Right Honourable Lord Panmure, Min- ister of War. By Philo-Medicus, Fel- low of the It. M. C. Society, Scc.

The British Cavalry at Dalaklava. Re- marks in Reply to Lieutenant-General Lucan's Speech in the House of Lords, published with an Appendix. By a Cavalry Officer.

The Polish Question from the German Point of View. By a German States- man. Translated from the German. Which? or Neither? ai Examination of the Education Bills of Lord John Rus- sell and Sir John Pakington. By John C. Miller, M.A., Honorary Canon of Worcester, Rector of St. Martin's, Bir- mingham, Re.

Our Cathedrals and their Mission. By the Reverend C. T. Heartley, M.A., Assistant Curate of Kemei ton.

A Word to my Wife. Practical Hints for Cookery and Comfort, Dinners, Suppers, Re. By a Benedict.