10 MAY 1856, Page 19

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

BOOKS.

The publishing world was very slack in the early part of the week, but towards its close several long-talked-of works arrived. Foremost among them are two with a bearing on practical questions,—Lady Easthope's translation of Ubieini's "Letters on Turkey," the second volume of which is entirely devoted to the Rayahs, with regard to whom much of the fu- ture Turkish difficulty consists; and the Chevalier Bunsen's "Signs of the Times " as they refer to religious liberty There are also on our re- served list Mr. Anderson's ration in South-Western Africa over a partially new field, full of topics ; the Life of the late Dr. Kitto ; and besides two novels.

Letters on Turkey: an Account of the Religious, Political, Social, and Com- mercial Condition of the Ottoman Empire ; the Reformed Institutions, Army, Navy, &c. Translated from the French of M. A. IIbXsai, by Lady Easthope.

Signs of the Times : Letters to Ernst Moritz Arndt on the Dangers to Religious Liberty in the present state of the World. By Christian Charles Josias Bun- sen, D.D., D.C.L., D.Ph. Translated from the German by Susanna Winck- worth, Author of " The Life of Niebuhr," 84e.

Lake Nyami ; or Explorations and Discoveries, during Four Years' Wander- ings in the Wilds of South-Western Africa. By Charles John Anderson. With a Map and numerous Illustrations, representing sporting adventures, subjects of natural history, devices for destroying wild animals. &c.

Memoirs of John Kitto, D.D., F.S.A., Editor of "The Pictorial Bible," &c. Compiled chiefly from his Letters and Journals. By J. E. Ryland, M.A., Editor of " Foster's Life and Correspondence," ace. With a Critical Esti- mate of Dr. Kitto's Life and Writings, by Professor Emile, D.D., LL.D.,

Glasgow.

Henry Lyle; or Life and Existence. By Emilia Marryat. In two volumes. The Old Grey Church. By the Author of " Trevelyan" and "A Marriage in High Life. In three volumes.

An Ascent of Mont Blanc by a New Route and without Guides. By the Reverend Charles Judson, M.A., and Edward Shirley Kennedy, B.A. —One object of the adventurous party that successfully accomplished this ascent of Mont Blanc by a route new to tourists or scientific tra- :tellers, was to break down the monopoly of the Chantounix' guides. To ascend from that well-known starting-place, costs nearly thirty pounds per head ; you must take the guides as they stand upon the list, though often inexperienced ; and even after you have got the regulated number, you cannot have a particular person except by paying down to him. "If, however, the ascent be from St. Gervais, the traveller is at liberty to select his own guides, to determine for himself the number that he re- quires, or, if so inclined, to dispense with them altogether ; and in that CM the expense would be about twenty shillings." The time of ascent was early in August 1855 ; and the first attempt was made from Courmayeur, by the col du geant : at Courmayeur however, " le prix de Chamounix" was in the course of establishment, and the regulations as well. Hazy weather stopped the party as they were ap- proaching the end of their journey. It was subsequently made from St. Gervais on the opposite side of the mountain, by the Aiguille du Goutk, where De Sanssure turned back on the report of his guide ; the adven- turers descending by the usual route to Chamounix.

The ascent was a feat of bold enterprise, and it is pleasantly told. The prospects are not too long dwelt upon ; the difficulties are not de- preciated, nor the perils over-coloured; the spirit of adventure pervades the narrative, as well as the university tone—the combination of the scholar and the hardy gentleman. The " without guides," however literally true, is scarcely accurate in spirit. A transport corps in the form of porters attended the party to the spot where they took up their abode for the night ; and in the morning something like a guide, for he knew the way, accompanied them till they reached the Grand Plateau, and pointed out the road. The party had also been well trained by the manly exercises of England, and a good deal of experience in alpine ex- cursions.

Life in the Trenches before Sebastopol. By Major Whitworth Porter, Royal Engineers.—The title well indicates the nature of the better part of this volume ; it is really a picture of " life in the trenches." The reader is shown the arrival of the engineer at head-quarters, introduced into his tent, carried through the routine of his daily duty, and presented with a picture of the more stirring incidents of a siege,—as the formation of a battery, the bringing up and placing of the great guns, repelling a sortie. With these perpetual occurrences in sieges are intermixed anec- dotes and incidents that took place within the writer's experience before Sebastopol. There is a narrative of his voyage from Malta to Balaklava, and a sketch of his sojourn in the hospital on his return invalided. But trench life is the feature of the book. The gallant Major. passes no judgment on the conduct of the war—he does not deem it right for an officer to criticize his superiors. As he did not arrive till the latter end of February, and left the Crimea some time (it would appear) in June, he saw nothing of the hardships of the winter, the assaults of the sum- mer, or the inside of Sebastopol.

The Annals of England: an Epitome of English History, from Con- temporary Writers, the Rolls of Parliament, and other Public _Records. Vol. IL—It was originally intended to have comprised these " Annals" in two volumes; but that limit was insufficient, and the work will be extended to three. The present volume commences with the accession of Henry the Fourth, and closes with the death of Charles the First. It exceeds the first volume, we think, in fulness of matter and originality of view ; the writer painting Henry the Fourth in dark colours, uphold- ing the house of York, and the merits of Richard the Third as King, while he doubts the murder of the Princes. The mass of information in the form of authentic facts, at least of matter quoted from acts of Parlia- ment and other public records, is very great. To the painstaking stu- dent of history this work will be invaluable. The form of annals and the frequency of foot-notes militate against a continuous narrative, though an introductory coup d'ceil is taken of each reign and each dy- nasty. There are numerous wood-cut illustrations from contemporary monuments, &c.

Blair's Chronological Tables Revised and Enlarged. By J. Willoughby Rosse.—Universal history, in the form of annals, from the dawn of civili- zation, Nimrod and Menes (after the chronology of Usher, Hales, and Clinton), to April month in the present year. The general outline is that of Blair, with some improvement by the publisher, Mr. Bohn. The editor states that the execution of the work is in reality new: not only the additional matter since Blair's publication, but every date, has been tested and compared—for ancient times, with modem authorities as to the period to which they refer ; Bunsen and others for Egypt, Layard for the Assyrian empires, Niebuhr for Rome, &c. Mediaeval and modern dates have been examined with great care, on account of the various errors which beset them, according to Mr. lipase. It is an indispensable book for the library, and useful for every room, if its minute facts ap- proach the correctness claimed for them.

Physicians and Physic : Three Addresses. By James Simpson, M.D., F.R.S.E., &c. &e.—The two first of these three discourses were ad- dressed to young men who had just taken their medical degrees at Edin- burgh and were about to start in life ; the duties of a young practitioner to himself and the world being the subject of the first address, his " prospects " that of the second. The third was delivered before the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society ; and takes a rapid review of the progress of medical, surgical, and chemical science, during the present century. The addresses are clear in their arrangement, broad in their scope, and fluent in their diction. The newest matter is the warning in the first address against young men wasting time in cultivating social with a view to medical connexions—the practitioner must depend upon his professional reputation; and the warning, equally needed, in the se- cond address, against over-sanguine hopes at starting, and undue depres- sion when those hopes are disappointed.

Essays on State Medicine. By Henry Wyldbore Rumsey.—This vo- lume is rather special in its topics and pamphletlike in its treatment ; consisting of a series of articles on the conduct which the state should pursue in reference to medical practitioners, with a history of the subject. The book opens with a sketch for a sanitary code ; then there is an essay on " education in the healing and health-preserving arts,"—a sort of continuation of the first subject ; and it advocates more stringent mea- sures than public opinion would tolerate in this country. There are several papers on the medical care of the poor, as well as some on sani- tary topics, and what may be termed medical police.

A History of Philosophy in Epitome. By Dr. Albert Schwegler. Trailer lated from the original German, by Julius H. Seelye.—An American importation. Schwegler himself is a disciple of Hegel, and in the more strictly philosophical parts is tinged with the obscurity of his master. His account of the lives of the philosophers is clear and terse ; his cri- tical estimate of their character (apart from his exposition of their prin, ciples) less plain, but not obscure. His survey is extensive, beginning with Thales and the ancients are treated as fully as the nature of "ail epitome " admits. The moderns are exhibited more fully than the an- cients from the time of Descartes. The schoolmen are summarily treated.

A dozen pages dismisses everything between the Platonic-Christianizing of some of the Fathers and Jacob Boehme.

The Lives and Works of Michael Angelo and Raphael. By R. Duppa and Quatremere de Quincy. Illustrated with Engravings.—These bio- graphies, the first republished and the second translated, form a new vo- lume in Bolm's Illustrated Library. Mr. Duppa's contains a multitude of facts, and is amusing from its aneedotical character, but is loosely put to- gether, loosely written, and in criticism feeble. Dc Quincy's Raphael has more of the cleverness common to French composition ; running through the painter's life and works with considerable detail, and a great deal of glibness, if not of depth. As bringing forward in an accessible form most of the facts and particulars which readers will require for reference on the subject, the lives were worth republishing in default of better.

Dictionary of Latin Quotations, Classical and Medifeval ; including Law Terms and Phrases. With a Selection of Greek Quotations. Edited by H. T. Riley, B.A.—The materials for this volume seem to have been to a large extent collected by the publisher, Mr. Bohn. The Dictionary it- self is very copious, and sometimes passes beyond quotations into passages or extracts. In his preface the publisher justly piques himself upon the very moderate price of the volume.

The following list consists of small fry—small not only in character, but in form and substance. In Ups and Downs of a Public School, a whilom Winchester boy revives the days of his pupilage, in a genial manly spirit. From its source, it might be supposed a satire upon fight- ing, fagging, &c. ; but that idea is not attained in practice. The Song of Drop 0' Wather is a parody on Longfellow's " Hiawatha," describing the life of a London gamin : it is clever, and titillating at first, but soon gets tiresome. "I too" is a collection of graver miscellaneous verses, well enough in sound, but strangely deficient in purpose. The Newspaper and General Reader's Pocket Companion is a collection of ex- tracts from public speeches, leading articles, &c., in which some foreign words occur, with translations after a fashion. The series of original essays entitled Manchester Papers are lighter in topics and treatment than the previous number, and are consequently more popular.

Ups and Downs of a Public School. By a Wykehamist, Author of " Public School Matches," &c.

The Song of Drop o' Wather. By Henry Wandsworth Shortfellow.

"/too." By Beelzebub.

Read and Reflect : the Newspaper and General Reader's Pocket Companion. By the Author of " Live and Learn."

Manchester Papers : a Series of Occasional Essays. No. II.

The most important reprint is Professor Masson's "Biographical and Critical Essays, chiefly on English Poets." They consist of a selection of articles from reviews and other periodicals; and possess greater unity of subject than such collections in general have. Seven out of the ten papers furnish an historical précis of English literature from Shakspere to Wordsworth; an author being taken not only for his literary merit, but as a type or character of the age. The execution is good ; the opin- ions may not be always sound, but they are thoughtful and striking. The principal reprints are Mr. Hazhtt's complete edition of Guizot's " Lectures on Civilization," incorporated in Mr. Bohn's Standard Li- brary; and Mr. M'Combie's "Hours of Thoughts," to which consider- able additions have been made. The two novels are cheap editions.

Essays Biographical and Critical. chiefly on English Poets. By David Masson, A.hI., Professor of English Literature in IIniversity College, London.

The History of Civilization, from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution. By F. Quizot, Author of " History of the French Revolution of 1640." Translated by William Hazlitt, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barris- ter-at-law. Volumes I. and H.

Hours of Thought. By William DPCornbie, Author of " Moral Agency," &c. &c. Third edition, revised and corrected, with supplementary dissertations on Social Reform, Preaching, &c.

The Ring's Own. By Captain Marryat, Author of " Peter Simple," &c.

The Marchioness of Brinvilliers, the Poisoner of the Seventeenth Century : a Romance of Old Paris. By Albert Smith, Author of " Christopher Tadpole." Narrative of an Ascent to the Summit of Mont Blanc on the 8th and 9th of August 1827. By John Auldjo, Esq., of Trinity College, Cambridge. New edition. (The Traveller's Library.)

The Cottage Garden. By Robert Adamson, Gardener ; Author of "Cottage Gardening Economy," 8ze. Second edition, enlarged and improved.