PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Boons.

THE publications of the week are more numerous, and some of them of greater promise, than we have lately had to chronicle. re At last there comes an English full-length edition of De Bazancourt's French hi:4 on the Crimean Expedition, which has kept "a pother o'er our heads " with fragmentary notices, in both countries, for several months past. Mr. : Hamilton's Travels in the ancient Cyrenaitut, and his exploration of its antiquities, and the Caravan Journeys of General Ferrier, a French mill, adventurer, in the countries lying between Persia and the Indus, are both works of novelty and interest as regards their subject. The History of. Gustavus Adolphus is an important theme, if treated with regard to *6'' principles and consequenoes contained in it, rather than with reference to art: more facts. The History of the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus is a subject still fresher than Gustavus; but requires still more to be guarded against in the dwelling upon rune facts than the life of Gus- tavus : for there at least are events great in themselves without reference to consequences; the history of the Jews after their dispersion must mainly consist in their social, literary, scientific, or commercial influence. The present volume of Dr. idersheim only comes down to the last Pagan Emperors and thelnal dispersion of the Jews. Besides the novels already noticed, Colonel Elers Napier has throvii the result of his military experience and reflections on military abuses into the form of a story, wider the title of " The Linesman' ; and Mr. Lever has collected into a large volume " The Martins of Oro' Martin," originally published in parts.

The Crimean Expedition, to the Capt are of Sebastopol. Chronicles of the War I in the East, from its Commencement to the signing of the Treaty of Peace. By the Baron De Basancourt, charged with a Mission to the Crimea by his Excellency the Minister of Public Instruction. Translated from the french, by Robert Howe Gould, M.A. In two volumes.

Wanderings in North Africa. By James Hamilton.

Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkistan, and Belooehistats; with Historical Notices of the Countries lying between Russia and India. By J. P. Ferrier, formerly of the Chasseurs D'Afrique, and late Adjutant-General of the Persian Army. Translated from the Original un- published Manuscript by Captain William Jesse. Edited by U. D. Seymour. M.P. With Original Map and Wood-cuts.

The Mem*. of Gustavus Adolphus, and of the Thirty-Years War, up to the Hing's Death ; with some Account of its Conclusion by the Peace of West- phalia, Anne 1648. By B. Chapman, M.A., Vicar of Letherhead. Illus- trated with Plans of the Battles of Leipsig and Latin, and a rough Project of the Imperialists' Order of Battle at Lateen, from a Plan drawn out in Wallenstein's own hand.

History of the Jewish Nation after the Destruction of Jerusalem wider Mom By the Reverend Alfred Edersheun, Ph. D., Old Aberdeen.

The Linesman ; or Service in the Guards and the Line during England's Long Peace and Little Wars. By Colonel Elea Napier, Author of " Hal

marks on the Tread," In three volumes.

The Martins of Cro' Martin. By Charles Lever, Author of " Harry Lorre., quer," &c. With Illustrations by " Phiz."

Hertha. By Fredrika Bremer. Translated by Mary Howitt.

Banded Vaughan; or Self in Self-Sacrifice : a Novel. In two volumes. By C: Warren Adams, Esq., Author of " A Spring in the Canterbury Settlement." Stories of an Old Maid, related to her Nephews and Nieces. By Madasne Emile De Girardin. • California ; its Gold and its Inhabitants. By the Author of " Seven Years on the Slave Coast of Africa," Re.

Trees and their Nature, or the Bud and its Attributes. By Alexander Harvey, A.M., M.D., &c.—Dr. Harvey makes no pretensions to origin- ality in the theory on vegetable life promulgated in these " letters to his sons " : it is, " in the main at least, the same as that first set forth by De La Hire, as long ago as 1708, and subsequently held by Darwin. Mirel, Du Petit Thouazs, Gaudichaud, and others." This theory is, thac the life of the tree exists only in its annual buds, each bud being in face a distinct plant like any so-called annual : what we are accustomed to call the wood of the tree—that is, the trunk and branches, together with the old roots—being dead matter, and merely serving as a basis for the bud to spring from. The scientific advantages from this theory are, that the difficulties or anomalies connected with the size and age of trees are' got over. Upon this principle there is nothing to prevent a tree from living for over unless cut short by accident, or from growing even bigger' than the largest on record.

The statement of the case is made in a very clear and pleasant way ; but we think the writing better than the reasoning. We do not sec that Dr. Harvey removes the difficulties connected with absorption, nutria tion, and circulation, which point so strongly to the tree being an in- dividual body. The Doctor is also rather apt to confound illustrations with arguments. A corporation may doubtless endure for ever unless put an end to by some external cause ; but even a self-selected corporation is a very different thing from living buds annually shooting from the trunk of a tree.

A Dictionary of Botanical Terms. By the Reverend J. S. Henslow, M.A., Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge.—A little vo- lume useful if not indispensable to the botanical student ; giving him at once the meaning of about two thousand words and synonyms, Eng- lish and Latin ; though, not to frighten the tyro, it should be said that

many of these are not in frequent use. The execution is terse and clear ; the definitions are illustrated by nearly two hundred cuts.

An Examination of the Ancient Orthography of the Jews, and of the Original State of the Text of the Hebrew Bible. Part the Third. By Charles William Wall, MD., Vice Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Vol. I.—Although " volume the first" appears upon the titlepage of this, treatise to prove that the " sacred text was originally written with- out vowel letters, or any other signs whatever of the vocal, considered apart from the articulate ingredients of syllabic sounds," the volume is in reality the continuation of a very elaborate book on the alphabetical sys- tem of the Jews, and an argument that the Hebrew alphabet was not of human invention but communicated to Moses by inspiration. These topics, we imagine, were handled at length in the first two parts of the work, one of which seems to have been published in 1840. So far as regards the Hebrew orthography, the present volume is chiefly engaged in showing that the Hebrew alphabet was in its origin merely syllabic. " For example, the first letter of this alphabet was written by them [the early writers] to denote Ha, Hi, or Hu, without their distinguishing be- tiveen Hi and He, or between Ha and Ho." The arguments in this vo- lume touching the Jewish alphabet form, however, but a small portion of the book. As that alphabet, although confessedly very imperfect, was given by inspiration, it seems to follow that it was the first ; and Dr. Wall devotes a good deal of his space to " exposing" the claims of other peoples to great antiquity in the art of writing. The arguments of the

re xeleud Doctor do not seem always convincing, but this is not the place to enter into them.

Flemish Interiors. By the Writer of "A Glance behind the Grilles."— This work is an account of a visit to the religious houses of. Belgium, mingled with incidents of a journey, sketches of the country, and of particular characters. The author is a very self-satisfied Romanist, with , a. good stock of bigotry and prejudice "drawn mild." His style is clear and scholarly, with that fulness which we have more than once observed as characterizing the well-trained Romanist writer, not diffuse in thought, but full of particulars. There is a good deal of information in the volume pleasantly conveyed ; but the tone, though emanating from a so- called Catholic, is in reality very sectarian; the mode of looking at everything is that of a man who moves in a narrow circle of ideas. The information chiefly concerns the " interior " of the religious houses, with digressions to the rules and characters of their founders ; but there is matter of a more general kind. In Belgium they truly " bear about the mockery of wo."

"I was told a curious fact the other day respecting mourning in Belgium, which it appears is only worn for a deceased relative by those survivors to Whom. he has bequeathed legacies, or whose circumstances have in some way been benefited by his death; so that it is by no means uncommon for persons to be congratulated the moment they appear in black, upon the inheritance they are imagined to have acquired, and the amount of which is supposed to correspond with the depth of the crape worn on the occasion.

" It is also impossible to avoid remarking the extraordinary length of the veils the women ;may on their bonnets when in mourning. Weeds, how- ever, would seemnot to be the fashion ; and are, I think, seldom, if ever, seen out of England, unless round the face of an English widow, where it must be confessed they form a by no means unbecoming entourage. Foreign widows, perhaps, do not think it necessary to announce the fact of their con- dition to every passer-by."

The Will Divine and Human. By Thomas Sony, Barrister-at-law, and Lecturer on the English Language and Literature at the University of Berlin.—" Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute," were sub- jects that puzzled the angels just fallen out of heaven • nor could they arrive at any conclusion, though they had nothing else to do during their leader's absence. Of course they are not matters that we can un- dertake to settle ; nor indeed are they fitted for discussion except in very scholastic forms. Mr. Solly's views are not in favour of necessity, but in a modified way. 9f free will

Hardwicke's Annual Biography for 1856. By Edward Walford, M.A., &c.—The object of this annual is to give biographical, notices of the most eminent persons who have died in the previous year. The subjects are arranged according to their social rank or professions,—as royalty, peers, baronets, knights, arms, arts, law, literature. There is a miscellaneous class, which includes persons of note enough to have a sentence of record, but who do not fall under any of the regular heads. The notices vary from. a few sentences to short biographies ; but the length seems as much governed by the information ready at hand or furnished by connexions, SO, by a. determinate scale. The book is useful as a record, and not with- out interest as a summary of death's doings in a limited time.

The Channel Islands, Pictorial, Legendary, and Descriptive. By Oeta-

Rooke.—Designed as a guidebook, the author having found a diffi- Cully in procuring one when starting on a trip to the Channel Islands. Mr. Rooke wants the art of an entrepreneur of this kind ; he directs ' his attention more to legends, historical summaries, and sketches of acenery, than to the practical matters which are the first requisite of a guidebook.

Poems. By James Sykes, Head Master of the Scarborough Grammar Sehool.—Mr. Sykes appears to have some minor poetical faculties, but jre has undertaken too long and lofty a flight. Nor is the subject of his principal poem equal to the stress he puts upon it. The Pilgrim of Death is a sort of " red " Radical, who undergoes the common lot of hu- vanity in losing his sister and father, and falling under some other troubles, which he tells in the style of the Giaour or other Byronic hero.

A Fragmentary Poem on the Crimean War. By a Civilian.—An ac- •

count of the principal events in the Crimea, done into verse, and printed in quarto. There are touches that revive the remembrance of Mr.

F—zg--Id in the Rejected Addresses : ex. gra. "Then raged a combat, such as ne'er before In any time was waged on any shore Then had the British bleeps, surprised, cut off, Marched in the triumph of a Mentzikoff. But Heaven enclosed them in a misty shroud."

A Glimpse of the Wonders of Creation. By Leonora C..Prinem—Some of the striking facts of geology, geography, the solar system, animaland Vegetable life, &e., applied with a religious object.

The Memoir of Sohn Carpenter, Town-perk of London in the reigns of Item the Fifth and. Sixth, and the founder of the. revived_ and ex.- tended City of London School, was originally drawn up twenty years ago, from such materials as were in Mr. Brewer's possession. Sinee'that time, his researches have brought to light other information connected with Carpenter, especially wills of himself and his wife ; and this now matter is embodied in a new edition, almost claiming the reputation of a new. work. The Memoirs. are antiquarian; as indeed they must be from the nature of the materials—Corporation, Parliamentary, or legal records. Of manners there is nothing : the character of John is matter of inference ; but we are to hope he was a good man, as he was clearly a good citizen. Notwithstanding the editor's opinion to the contrary, we think, with the mass of people, that the speeches of Plunkett have been imperfectly reported—indeed, not reported at all, in any usual sense of the term, till he entered the Imperial Parliament. However, Mr. Hoey has with praiseworthy industry collected and collated all h4 could find. He has added explanatory notices of the occasion of their delivery, and intro- duced the whole by a memoir.

Memoir of the Life and Times of John Carpenter, Town-Clerk of London in the Reigns of Henry V. and Henry VI., and Founder of the City of London School: with an Appendix of Documents and particulars of Benefactions to the School. By Thomas Brewer, Secretary to the School.

Speeches at the Bar and in the Senate, by the Right Honourable William Conyngham, Lord Plunkett, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland. Edited, with a Memoir and Historical Notices, by John Cashel Hoey.

The Almighty's Everlasting Circles : an Essay. By the Venerable Henry Jeffreys, A.M., late Archdeacon of Bombay. Third edition, much enlarged and improved.

NEW SERIAL.

Transactions of the Surrey Archeological Society. Volume I. Part I.— This publication inaugurates the early history of a Society which has been formed, under good auspices, to illustrate the antiquities of Surrey. It gives an account of the different meetings of the Society, tells the story of what it has done, and contains some of the papers read before the as- sembled' members ; one or two of which are on the study of antiquities in general, the others on some remains discovered in the county.