PUBLICATIONS RECEVIED.

From May 13th to May 19th.

BOOKS. •

Travels and Researches in Asia Minor Mesopotamia, ChaldeaLand Ar- menia. By WILLIAM FRANCIS AINSWORTH, F.G.S., F.R..G.S., in charge of the Expedition sent by the Royal Geographical Society, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, to the Christian Tribes in Malden. In two volumes.

Morley Erastein, or the Tenants of the Heart. By G. P. R. Janes, Esq., Author Of " The Robber," &c. In three volumes.

Poems, by ALFRED TENNYSON. In two volumes.

The Accordance of Religion with Nature. By the Reverend J. H. L. GABELL, M.A., formerly of Christ Church, Oxford.

.4 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Edited by WILLIAM SMITH, Ph. D. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

American Criminal Trials. By PELEG W. CHANDLER. Volume I.

[A very judicious design; for as it is from the laws of a people that we form a judgment of the national character and social condition, so the exhibition of those laws in action enables us to correct any erroneous conclusions we draw from the theory, by an examination of the actual practice. It is like bringing an invention to the test of experiment. In addition to this philosophical advantage, there is the interest inseparably attached to humanity in danger, especially when it arises from deeds of mystery and darkness ; actions of a questionable nature—as treason or rebellion, or crimes existing only in the imagination of the accusers—as witchcraft.

Besides this interest inherent in the subject, the volume before us possesses a further attraction to British readers, for the light it throws upon the charac- ter and manners of the early colonists of the present United States, as well as upon their domestic institutions. Trials for impossible crimes or religious opinions are not, indeed, confined to New England ; but the conduct of the Quakers and other religionists, whether persecuted or persecuting, exhibits much of the sturdy fanaticism that might be expedteil from the few inhabitants of a province, almost every one of whom had either fled thither on account of religion or were the descendants of those who had. The trials for witchcraft, too, displaying equal superstition, exhibit perhaps more particularity. and method in establishing the charge than was practised at home; whilst the other trials in the volume, for libel, blasphemy, treason, and questions originating in events connected with the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, may all be read with interest.

The work—if it be proceeded with—which depends upon its success—will not be an entire series, but a selection ; and the trials themselves are not mere reprints, but are revised and recast so as to embrace matter excluded on the trial, to omit technical or subordinate points received by the courts, and to in- terweave in the story information not required by contemporaries but now ne- cessary to the full comprehension of the case. The trials in the present volume all occurred in the States of New York and Massachusetts; but we should think there must have been proceedings equally singular in some of the Middle and Southern States, though not of so early a period. These probably are reserved for the succeeding volumes; whose European interest is likely to increase when we come to the trials under the Federal Government,—especially if Mr. CHANDLER do not allow either fear or favour to influence his choice of or his treatment of Southern subjects. We wish the work every success.]

Thoughts at Whitsuntide, and other Poems. By Lord LEIGH.

[Lord LEIGH was a creation of the late Whig Ministry, and had a literary re- putation in the Whig coteries, which we believe never extended to the world at large. This was to be expected; for the highest point he could achieve is the

errs de societe, and even there he is not of the first rank—he has neither pun- gency nor delicacy, the matter of his satire is obvious, and the manner a mix-

ture of the school and the boudoir. In what we remember of his past lam- bretions and in what we see of the present, there is not a thought which any- body might not think, and nothing in his manner which any one with a turn for versifying might not be trained to. It must be said, however, that his style has more of scholastic and polished elegance than the generality of modern versifiers, of the Lake, Scott, or Byronic schools. It has also the retenue of a gentleman; and though constantly commonplace in sentiment, and often ver- ging upon the prosaic in versification, there is none of the exaggeration of the intense school to offend against good taste. With the exception of a few occa- sional poems, the volume is a series of essays in verse—poems on Centraliza- tion, (somewhat Conservative,) and questions on What is Taste ? Sentiment ? and Truth ? "Thoughts at Whitsuntide 1841" could as well have been thought at any other time.]

Plighted Troth, or a Woman her own Rival; a Dramatic Tale, in five acts.

[This play, so summarily condemned on its first performance at Drury Lane a month ago, is published by the author, as he expresses himself in a short pre- face becomingly written, not with a view of reversing the sentence, but as a plea "in mitigation of damages." In this object he is so far successful as to

evince, by the traces of poetical feeling and expression which appear on perusal, that be possesses a faculty of doing much better things. Yet the unfitness of Plighted Troth for representation is even more apparent in the reading than it was in the acting; for scenes that were either curtailed or omitted in the stage-version are given at length, and thus the incongruities and flighty extravagances that obscure the sense and mar the occasional beauties of the writing become more conspicuous. But the capital defect of the play is its undramatic nature the story is improbable to absurdity ; the characters have no individuality ; no action takes place on the stage, but all that happens before the catastrophe is supposed to occur behind the scenes and between the acts; and the audience, woeder-struck at startling changes of condition in the persons, are left to listen to imperfect and unsatisfactory explanations of these pantomimic transformations, from life to death, from wealth to poverty, from rags to robes, and to be puzzled by allusive intimations in the wild speech of the transformed parties. There is very little direct dramatic dialogue throughout the play ; the speakers mostly soliloquize, or talk at instead of to each other—than which nothing is more tantalizing; the dialogue is in other respects also unsuited to the stage, by reason of the rhetorical and paraphrastic stele which clouds the meaning in a whirl of verbiage; and it is too vague, diffuse, and broken, even to be read with pleasure. The violations of rhythm are occasionally too glaring to be tolerated ; and the sudden alterations from colloquial vulgarisms to high-flown rhapsody jar on the feeling as well as on' the ear. Mere bald and literal imitation of the phraseology of ignorant people is scarcely tolerable in farce, unless made subservient to ludicrous effect by humour ; for which the author of Plighted Troth has no turn. The secret of the failure is proclaimed in the confession that the play was commenced with- out any view to the stage, in the form of "a dramatic tale," which was sub- sequently recast into its present form : unless conceived in a dramatic shape, with a view to the presentment of incidents and characters by action alone, no play can hope to lire on the stage.]

The Maid of Orleans, and other Poems. Translated from the German, by E. S. and F. J. TURNER. [Another translation of SCHILLER'S historical drama, which professes to be more correct in the conveyance of the author's meaning. A variety of trans- lations of occasional poems from other authors are appended to the tragedy.] Astolfo ; a Dramatic Romance, in three parts.

De Valcneourt ; a Tragedy, in five acts. By WILLIAM HENRY HOS- KINS, principal Tragedian of the Theatre Royal, Norwich, and Ilona- TIO HUNTLEY HOSKINS, Author of " Count De Denia," a Play, &c.

The Marchioness ; a Strange but True Tale. By ELIZA.BETM Tuoan- TON, Author of " Lady Alice." In two volumes. [This tale is founded on a fact which occurred in France in the seventeenth cen- tury—the abduction of a new-born heir by the sister of the husband, in ordee that her own daughter might inherit the estate. This incident is expanded in vari- ous additions by Mrs. THORNTON ; one of them being a love-passage between the unknown heir and the lady in whose favour the crime had been perpetrated. Although we question the propriety of taking extraordinary cases as the sub- ject of a fiction merely because they are true, (fur a person might select a case of cannibalism for a romance, and let his readers "sup full of horrors" that could be established by evidence,) the Marchioness is not treated with great exaggeration, and the characters are drawn by a person who has evidently a knowlege of the world ; but the conduct of the story is somewhat monotonous, and the work deficient in the imagination requisite fur fiction.] Botany. Popular Cyclopedia of Natural Science. (Published by the Society for the Promotion of Popular Instruction.) [The completion of the volume on botanical science of which Vegetable Phy- siology* formed the first part. The object of the present publication is to give a coup-d'mil of botany upon the natural system of CANDOLLE, which classifies plants according to their general resemblance in physiological character and structure, in opposition to the artificial system of LINNIEUS, which makes the stamen and pistils the chief test. As this artificial system is, however, by much the easiest for beginners, it is exhibited at sufficient length for the tyro to acquire. The more difficult because more extended and comprehensive na- tural system, involving as it does a thorough knowledge of the structure of every plant which it professes to classify, is then popularly treated ; the more simple British plants being chosen to exemplify the type of a class—as the buttercup of the class Exogens ; whilst in foreign productions the better- known articles of food or commerce—as tea, cocoa, tobacco—are selected for the fullest exhibition.] Practical Chemistry for Farmers and Landowners. By JosnUA HER, F.G.S., Author of " Practical Geology and Mineralogy." [Having lately had before us two works with a similar object to the present, it is useless again to go over the ground. Mr. TRIMMER'S book agrees, of course, in its main outlines, with SQUAREY'S Popular Agricultural Chemistry, or JOHNSON'S excellent Elements; but he goes somewhat further than those writers, by giving plain directions for performing simple experiments, so as to possess the farmer with a practical notion of chemistry, as well as acquainting him with its principles as applied to agriculture.] Life of Lieutenant- General Hugh Mackay of Scoury, Commander-in-

Chief of the Forces in Scotland, 1689 and 1690, Colonel Commandant of the Scottish Brigade in the service of the States-General, and a Privy Councillor in Scotland. By the late Joao MACKAY, Esq., of Rock- field. A new edition, revised; with a Memoir of the Author.

[This life of a Scotch officer, distinguished under WILLIAM the Third, in whose service he eventually fell, is a revised edition from a quarto publication printed to accompany Mackay's Memoirs. The revision has been performed by Mr. MACKAY, the author of the Thames and its Tributaries • who has also prefixed a life of Mr. Joan MACKAY, the amiable biographer having died whilst this new edition of his account of his ancestor was passing through the press.] A new French and English Lexicon : comprising, besides the usual num- ber of words found in the best dictionaries extant of a similar size, an extensive addition of commercial, nautical, military, and other highly

useful terms; with the novel introduction of the singular and. plural persons of every tense and mood belonging to all the regular and irregu- lar verbs in the French language ; the whole alphabetically arranged, and preceded by a compendious key. Constructed upon an entirely new plan, by Mann: G. DE LA VOTE, from the University of Paris, Pro- t'essor of French Literature at the Honourable East India Company's Military Academy, Addiscombe, 8r,c.

[A capital hook for students, as it meets a difficulty which is continually be- setting both teachers and learners. No one, we may say, whether boy

or man, ever yet attempted a language but he was constantly, and in a measure uselessly, impeded by its inflections, especially when the verb changes its entire form as well as its final syllables—as dam from sum. These difficul- ties are obviated in the work before us by the insertion of every word with a direction to its root, and an explanation of its tense, person, &c. ; so that, with a little attention, the student can advance in grammar whilst he is learning the meaning of words. It is the best approach we have seen to a ready mode of learning a language.]

The Game of Grammar. By Mrs. MARCET. [A simple and ingenious toy for explaining in an amusing way to children the different parts of speech. It consists of a little box shaped like a book ; divided into ten compartments, nine for the parts of speech and one for the forfeit counters ; containing a variety of words painted on strips of card, and a book of explanations. The game is played by turning out the cards and mixing them up in a heap, from which each player picks out one at a time, and ie re- quired to state whether the word is a verb, noun, preposition, or what else, or to forfeit for ignorance. The explanation sketches several games, in Mrs. kisacre's clear and lively manner ; but teacher and learners may play in their own way.] conversations on the History of England, for the Use of Children. By Mrs. MARCET.

[Explanatory comments on the leading points in Little Arthur's History of England by Lady CALLCOTT, suggested by actual remarks and inquiries made by Mrs. 1HARCET'S granddaughter during its perusal, and grandmatnnia's an-

swers. The subjects touched upon are savage life and civilization, barter and trade, laws and punishments, reason and instinct, slavery and the feudal sys- tem, conquest and chivalry, civil war and charters, parliaments and corpora- tions, religion and morality, and so on ; all of which are explsiued in a simple • Spectator, 2411, April 1841. and engaging manner, suited to the comprehension of a child, and arising in- cidentally from the leading events of English history. Lady CAts.core's text is a desirable if not an indispensable companion to Mrs. Manore's con- versational commentary.]

The Biblical Cabinet; or Hermeneutical, Exegetical, and Philological Library. Volume XXXVII. Philological Tracts, Volume III. [Four theological tracts, some translated from the German ; but of too scien- tific, not to say professional character, to have much attraction for any save divinity-students. The first takes a view of the sinless character of Jesus; the second and third consider the resurrection ; the last discusses the question which had produced a schism in Edinburgh when Mr. Humphrey Clinker and party arrived there, the limitation or eternity of future punishments. Mr. Mosze STUART, from a grammatical examination of the meaning of words, decides for their eternal duration.] Discursive Remarks on Modern Education. By E. Loan.

[A series of weRintentioned, hut, as the titlepage bath it, somewhat "discur- sive" remarks on education. The main points of our fair author's discussions are—the education of the poor, to whose over-teaching she is adverse, though We think she mistakes the crotchets of individual schemers for the .general tendency of opinion among the friends of education; the mischiefs arising to the middle classes from the "gentility " and "accomplishment" mania ; and the respective advantages and disadvantages of school and home education, which she leaves to be determined by individuals for themselves. The book contains a practical proposal of a more useful character than the philosophy—a suggestion to establish a Governesses Fund, for reduced and necessitous teachers, upon the model of the Theatrical Fund and other similar societies.] An Investigation of the present Unsatisfactory and Defective State of Vac- cination; and the several expedients proposed for removing the acknow- ledged defects of the Jennerian practice. In a series of letters, addressed to Dr. George Gregory, Physician to the Smallpox and Vaccination Hospital, London ; and which are also intended as an answer to the Queries of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, proposed as the subject of a prize essay. By Tsomas Bnows, formerly Medical Practitioner in Musselburgh.

SERIALS.

Captain Cook's Voyages Round the World, Parts VI. and VIL Quain's Series of Anatomical Plates, Fascieuli XCIX. to CIV.

PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND PRINTS. Beattie's Castles and Abbeys of England, Part IV.

PAMPHLETS.

Letter to his Grace the Duke of Wellington, 6w., on the Present State of Affairs in India.

The Case of the Creole Considered, in a Second Letter to the Right Ho- nourable Lord Ashburton, &c. By ROBERT PHILLIMORE, Advocate in Doctors Commons, &e.

Horrible Prostitution and Murder of Females and Children. The Con- dition and Treatment of the Children employed in the Mines and Col- lieries of the United Kingdom. Carefully compiled from the Appendix to the First Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into this subject ; with copious extracts from the Evidence, and illustrative en- gravings.

Latest Information from the Settlement of New Plymouth, on the coast of Taranaki, New Zealand. Comprising letters from settlers there ; with an account of its general products, agricultural and commercial capabi- lities, &c. (Published under the direction of the West of England Board of the New Zealand Company.) A Word or Two on the Use of Guano and of some other Fertilizers, ad- dressed to the Agriculturists of Great Britain ; with an account of a new manure, Artificial Guano, a cheap and efficient substitute for the Guano. By WILLIAM Hoe.terro Povvra, M.R.A.S., &c.

Hoinceepathy Vindicated: being a Reply to the objections made against that doctrine by Captain Basil Hall, Dr. Verity (of Paris), Mr. Edwin Lee, and others. With an appendix. By an Amateur.