PROGRESS OF PUBLICATION.

THE approach of the Easter holy days has infused some energy

actions of the booksellers. Besides the picture of the into the

vest world, furnished by the Memoirs of Sir William Knighton, iss BENTLEY has also sent us a Narrative of a Voyage Round the (terraqueous) World, by Dr. RUSCITENBERGER, medical attendant to the expedition which was undertaken, with com- mercial objects, by command of the American Government. From Mr.COSBURN comes an Oriental Romance, by Mr. Quirt, the Danube traveller, entitled Nounnahal —that " light of the Harem" whose quarrel with her Sultan lover was commemorated by Tommv MOORE in Lalla Rook/i. The Despatches and Carve- svondence of the Marquis Wellesley, during his Mission in tpain, have also reached us recently. Tile current number of the Cabinet Cyclopredia furnishes a volume of the Lives of Emi- nent British Statesmen, by a pleasing and painstaking author, Kr. T. P. COURTENAY ; who has chosen the younger CECIL and "DANDY'S matchless impudence" for his themes. There is also soother arrival, which may turn out very narrow and of little general interest, or which may be very curious and characteristic- & Life nf the Reverend Alexander Kilham, a follower of WESLEY, and one of the managers of the separation which took place in the society of Wesleyans some few years after the death of their founder.

The Imperial Classics appears to be a series of reprints of standard works, which combine amusement with instruction. The specimens before us consist of the First and Second Parts of a new edition of Froissart's Chronicles. The version is, appa- rently, that of JoHNEs, with occasional specimens of Lord BER- MS, where the editor thinks the old version preferable. There arc also other illustrative notes, as well as corrections and qualifi- cations of the poetical chronicler. The wood-cuts are numerous, sad effective in execution. As the majority are taken from illuminated manuscripts of FR01SSART, the engraver of course was limited in his design.

To attempt a cheap reissue of an old chronicler, seems a bold speculation ; but is not, perhaps, so daring as it looks. As the ballad-monger is the popular poet, so is the chronicler the popular historian—his minuteness of detail, his mode of verifying every thing to the untaught imagination, by describing the dress, and narrating the particulars and very words of the dialogue, delight the vulgar, simple as the process always is, and very often absurd. And of all chroniclers FROISSART is the most picturesque and entertain- ing. In reading him we seem to be following the narrative of an eye-witness ; and those who may not go the whole length of SCOTT'S panegyric, will yet admit that his narrative is sustained with won- derful spirit, his circumstances chosen with remarkable skill, his pictures of the age very interesting, and the whole animated by a lifelike power. He has been called the HOMER of chivalry, but the analogy may be challenged : he is rather the HERODOTUS of feudalism.

"The Old Sailor," famous for Tough Yarns, has tried his hand on one so long as to fill three volumes, but by no means so tough as his shorter ones. Topsail-Sheet Blocks is the title of the novel and the surname of the hero; and to increase the oddity, his Christian prefix is Ten Thousand. In other words, Ten Thousand Topsail-Sheet Blocks is the name bestowed by an old sailor on a foundling that he picks up at sea out of an open boat. The boy is educated, takes to the sea, and gets promoted ; and his laurels are gilded by the honours and wealth that fall to him by the dis- covery that he is heir to a title and estate heretofore enjoyed by a changeling ! The narrative is a thread for stringing together de- scriptions of sea-fights, and scenes of the French Revolution, droll stories, and perilous adventures, served up with a due quantity of nautical slang, and jokes. The shore-going occurrences and cha- racters are rather below the level of circulating-library writing ; but the sea-stories are so well told that we cannot merely tolerate but relish them,—which, considering how we have been drenched with the spray of salt-water wit, is saying a good deal in their favour. Etchings by CRUIKSHANK form frontispieces to each volume.

The Shajrat U/ Atrak, or Genealogical Tree of the Turks and Tatars, translated by Colonel MILES, is rather a curious and characteristic, than a valuable addition to literature. It contains real or pretended genealogy of the Mogul race, which produced amongst its heroes ZINGIS KHAN and TAMERLANE, and furnished Hindostan, China, and Constantinople with yet existing dynasties. Commencing with (the Mahometan) Adam, the original authors overlay the Bible facts with their own fables, so that their work beat's about the same relation to sober history as the Rabbinical tra- ditions do to Scripture; and treating of nations and manners with whom we have little sympathy, they have attraction only for the Orientalist, whose learned eve can at once separate the few grains of golden truth from the dross of falsehood. The most noticeable points that struck us in our examination, were, that Tooax (the pro- genitor of the Turks) was a grandson of Noah and son of' Japhet, e_ed that it is a sign of royalty to hide the face when asleep. "Boo. ZUNJAR also possessed another sign of royalty—which ens, that in his infancy, whenever his,nurse laid him to sleep on his beck, he turned round and slept on his face." Such are the sort Of tales of an Eastern Igor SSART. number of the " Family Library contains The Sixty-tiftli nominally a Life of Gustavus Adolphus., King of Sweden, but in reality a history of the Northern and Central powers of Europe •

" during his reign. It is of course a compilation, but exhibiting signs of industry ; and forms a very readable account of a dis- tinguished hero, and of the remarkable men who were his con- temporaries, as well as of the Thirty Years' War.

Mr. WATERTON, the well-known author of " Wanderings in South America," has made a selection from his contributions to Mr. LOUDON'S Magazine of Natural History ; which he has pub- lished in a neat volume, under the title of Watertoris Essays on Natural History. They treat of various subjects, in a fresh, racy, vigorous manner, the product of a peculiar mind dealing with facts which it has itself observed. The autobiography of the author, prefixed to the Essays, is of a similar stamp,—very odd, very egotistical, but very amusing ; and reminding one of those characters whom we are always pleased to meet, though we do not recommend them for imitation. Let us, however, deprecate his anger, for he is a hasty man ; telling us himself, that a short time since he mauled a Professor of King's College in a review, for calling him the " eccentric" WATERTON.

A Geographical and Comparative List of the Birds of Europe and North America, by CHARLES LUCIEN BONAPARTE, is only a skeleton, a mere list of names to the uninitiated; but the result of much labour and long time, and highly useful to the ornitho- logist, as presenting him at a glance, in juxtaposition, the genus of each continent, and the varieties ot the Species, with a reference to the authors where their description may be found. The basis adopted is the binoininal system of Limm.Eus.

Poents,for the most part Occasional, by JOHN KENYON, for- merly of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. The good sense and liveliness of Mr. KENYON'S preface raised hopes which his book did not sustain. In his versification there is no want of smooth- ness; his diction is selected with care, and polished above prose ; and his thoughts are not vulgar, scarcely commonplace. But he wants the matter, depth of thought, arid strength of expression, without which no poetry can please if it has not an original cast, and even then perhaps not for long.

The Incarnate One is the first part of a blank verse narrative, apparently designed to embrace the life of the Saviour and turn the Gospels into a poem. The present volume gets as far as the Transfiguration ; up to which it pretty closely follows the Scrip- tural authority ; but the sight of " Moses and Elijah, as the repre- sentatives of the Jewish Chinch, resigning their trust and authority into the hands of Christ," is too much for the patience of Satan : he proposes by means of his &citrons to" possess" all the inhabitants of Palestine, and impute the madness to Christ. To stop this plan, a legion of angels come down from heaven ; and a pitched battle takes place between the two supernatural hosts, which ends of course in the Devil's defeat, arid terminates the volume.

Brendallah, a poem, by THOMAS EAGLES. Mr. EAGLES is well known to those whose lot compels them to look at the new poems which are put before them, as a voluminous writer of verse, which he pours forth with much fluency, and, judging by the result, without much premeditation. His present attempt, Brendallah, is written in the Spenserian stanza, whose facility is so tempting to quick rhymers. The scene, we guess, is laid in she East. Of the style, a couple of stanzas will give a notion.

"A Sultan once within this palace dwelt, Elgentha named, and such a man was he Whose heart each worm and kind emotion felt ; From most kings' vices he exempt was, free ; Ifis greatest fault, as thou full soon wilt see, Was that depended he too much on those Who had hie confidence, and would agree With aught which they propounded. 'Rose

Unto their projects wild no drawbacks, no oppose.

" His heart was mild, susceptible, and kind,

Sore when disturbed unto a high degree ;

His highest wish was great renown to find, And would inflamed and quickly heated be

With any project rare. His Vizir, he, With glorious plans his vision dazzled quite;

And there were moments when submissively

He would have him obeyed : in such strong light

This Vizir with him stood, he thought he aye was right."

These verses, followed by worse, occur at the beginning of the volume, which consists of two hundred and fifty pages. Shall we be pardoned for saying we have not read them?

We pass from poetry, to a higher flight than Pegasus himself has soared. rEronautica, or Sketches Illustrative of the Theory and Practice of iErostation, contains an enlarged reprint of Mr. MONCK MASON'S journey to Germany in the monster balloon, with the addition of an analysis of the plicenomena of aerostation, and several papers historical or speculative on the practice arid theory of ballooning. The enthusiasm and thoughtlessness of the writer render his lucubrations more readable than could have been expected. The extent of Mr. MASON'S views in consequence of Mr. GREEN'S improvements may be shown in a brief quotation. " In his (the aerial voyager's) view, the Atlantic is no more than a simple canal ; three days might suffice to effect its passage. The very circumference of the glebe is not beyond the scope of his expectations; in fifteen days and fifteen nights, transported by the trade-winds, he does not del- aii. to accomplish in his pro- gress the great circle of the earth itself. Who can now fix a limit to his career?"—No one. Nothing can stop him but the laws of gravitation and respiration ; and though they cannot fix him to the earth, they will confine him to its atmosphere.

The Biographical Treasure, by SAMUEL MAUNDER, is an ex- traordinary book, whether we look at the labour necessary to its production, the quantity of matter it contains, or the price at which it is sold. How many thousand lives are embraced in this thick volume, we cannot tell; but we should guess that the me- dium number is hard upon ten thousand. To criticize such a compilation, would involve as much labour as to make it : the lives we have looked at are well done, explicit, and informing. Considering the space at this author's disposal, to say that there are omissions, is to say nothing ; and it must be remembered that we have turned to men with whose lives we are most familiar. The question is, could more information have been packed into less compass? and we think hardly. In a second edition, if it be possible and does not involve too much labour, the year of the birth as well as of the death should invariably be given.

Liber Mercatoris, or the Merchant's Manual, by FRANCIS HOBLER junior, is a book about Bills of Exchange; discussing thair character, the laws and customs to which they are subject, with a table of "dates, sights, and usances" of foreign bills of exchange, in eight different languages. As Mr. HOHLER writes "attorney at law" after his name, his legal lore is doubtless better than ours, but we have a notion—very probably wrong—that it is not an "erroneous opinion that a bill cannot be protested before twelve o'clock at night." Did not Lord ELLENHOROUGH, on some occasion, lay down the dictum pretty broadly, that the natural day was not to terminate because bankers choose to "shut up shop at six o'clock ? "