23 AUGUST 1856, Page 19

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Boors.

English Cavalry in the Army of the East, 1854 and 1855. Divisional Orders and Correspondence whilst under the command of Lieutenant-General the Earl of Lucan, K.C.B.

The Social History of the People of the Southern Counties of England in Past Centuries, illustrated in regard to their Habits. Municipal Bye-laws, Civil Pro- gress, &c. From the Researches of George Roberts, Author of " The History of Lyme Regis," &c. &c.

American Slavery : a Reprint of an Article on " Uncle Tom's Cabin," of which a portion was inserted in the 206th number of the Edinburgh Review. —It seems that the critique on " Uncle Tom's Cabin" in the Edinburgh BEI, jeer, some fifteen months ago, was "partially published" during the author's absence from Europe. It now appears verbatim from the proofs as finally settled by the writer himself. To the completed article are added the speech of Mr. Charles Sumner which led to the assault upon him, and a variety of matter relating to that subject or to the Kansas question.

The article deserved separate publication, without reference to the omissions which have moved the author. The paper, some will remem- ber, was less merely a criticism on " Uncle Tom" than a brief notice of the history of slavery, and an investigation of the principles of American slavery, especially of that part of the institution which relates to "breed- ing" for the home market. The leading facts that exhibit the history or illustrate its principles are well selected. They are presented in a sVle which some perhaps will recognize by its terse lucidity as that of a dis- tinguished political economist as well as a wise reformer of olden time, when reform was not so easy a profession as it is now. Yet he evi- dently looks on America with opinions shaken by late events.

"The moral and intellectual character of Mr. Sumner has long been ad- mired by Europe. To sympathy for his courage is now added sympathy for his calamity. I cannot believe that he has suffered in vain. I cannot be- lieve that the great country, to which he is an honour is destined to be much longer an example of the depravation and ferocity which sudden wealth and uncontrolled power can produce in nations, as they have often produced them in individuals.

"The present degradation of the United States is a tremendous warning. It must sadden and alarm all who believe in the excellence of purely demo- cratic institutions."

The outrage on Mr. Sumner, its different reception in the North and in the South, and the general nature of the Kansas question, are well known through the newspapers. The speech of Mr. Sumner is not so ac- cessible. It is long and able, in a style to which we are not accustomed ; being classical rhetoric engrafted on stump oratory. Severe it undoubt- edly is, and very bitter; but we know not that it can properly be called personal—certainly not according to American practice. But whatever it may have been, it was repaid in kind upon the spot, so far as the opposing orators had the means. Mr. Douglas, a late candidate for the Presidencywhom Mr. Sumner had designated as Sancho Panza to Don Quixote (Mr. Butler), thus replied—

"Is it the object of the Senator to provoke some of us to lick him as we would a dog in the street, that he may get sympathy upon the just chastise- ment ? "

Mr. Mason of Virginia, the author of the Fugitive Slave Bill, was a degree higher in pitch, but in the same strain—

"The necessity of political position alone brings me into relations with men upon this floor whom elsewhere I cannot acknowledge as possessing manhood in any form. Here I am constrained to hear depravity, vice in its most odious form uncoiled in this presence, exhibiting its loathsome de- formities in accusation and vilification against the quarter of the country from which I come; and I must listen to it because it is a necessity of my position, under a common Government, to recognize as an equal, politically, one whom to see elsewhere is to shun and despise."

H. Tullii Cieeronis Orations. With a Commentary by George Long.— This third volume of what must be pronounced the edition of Cicero's Orations for the British public, takes the best modern editions for its text. This text it accompanies by grammatical, critical, and illustrative English notes.; while each oration is introduced by an account of the subject which gave rise to the speech, and the bearing of Roman law upon the matter in hand. Both notes and introductions are distinguished by extensive learning and perspicacious criticism, expressed in the weighty and lifelike yet homely style which characterizes Mr. Long. It is not only as a critical and explanatory edition for advanced students that the labours of George Long are valuable, and indeed unique : he frequently throws into his notes the very quintessence of Roman history and biography, explained in a modern spirit and tested by an inde- pendent judgment. Nor are the remarks confined to Rome : when occa- sion offers, the past is used to read a lesson to the present. The prefaces to the speeches have the same qualities. The introduction to the ora- tions against Cataline is the history of the conspiracy, told after Sallust, with his force and clearness, but translated into English. For not only is the style very racy English, but the Reman's allusions to the manners and practices of his age, which are only distinctly appreciable by the scholar, are made quite living without losing their Roman character ; as, for instance, the execution of the conspirators. Mr. Long represents the conspiracy and the conspirators as Sallust depicts them ; indeed, any- thing additional which ancient authors have changed to their account is duly posted.

The Seven Kings of Home, abridged from the First Book of Livy. By Josiah Wright, M.A.—In about thirty-six pages Mr. Wright presents the beginner of Latin with the story of Rome from the landing of /Knees till the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, told in the dear and picture- like style of Livy ; the " abridgment " of the titlepagc being made by the omission of difficult passages, not by change or condensation of the original. Very copious grammatical notes are added, extending in fact to three times the length of the text.

The Sporting Capabilities of Ireland. By a Deputy Lieutenant —It was Nelson's opinion that no man published even a pamphlet without having something to say, if you could but get at his meaning. The " Deputy Lieutenant" has various suggestions to offer for increasing game of all kinds in Ireland, fish, flesh, and fowl He has zeal, he has experience, he has plans ; but he has little logic. Some people attribute the comparative paucity of " birds " in Ireland to the dampness of the climate. The Lieutenant answers, that " two hundred pheasants have been shot in a day in Ross-shire," and that he himself has started black

game on the downs of Brighton ; which facts prove nothing, unless it were shown that both those places were as damp as the Green Isle. Beyond stocking and judicious preserving, the great panacea of the author is the destruction of vermin. A poacher is perfectly harmless, compared with grey crows, magpies, weasels, at id genus Caine.

Illustrated Handbook of Military Engineering, and of the Implements of War. By R. Forrest, Woolwich.—Wars make amateur students of matters military, and the late war has multiplied these. Mr. Forrest has published this little book with the hope of rendering war-books in- telligible to the non-professional reader. He has accordingly taken the technical terms of the military art, defined them in language, and illus- trated them by clear and precise engravings. Thus, modem fortification is dissected, as it were, into its component parts—bastion, parapet, ram- part, redan, scarp and counterscarp, ravelin, horn-work, and so on ; each part is simply described, and the reader can read the description with his eye on the plate. Again, the author sketches the progress of a regular siege ; makes manifest the mysteries of the sap ; describes the different kinds of ordnance, from the 68-pounder to the Cohorn mortar, and the different kinds of missiles, from the 68-pound ball to the rifle-bullet. Professional as well as non-professional men will find this little work in- structive.

Southern Africa : a Geography and Natural History of the Country from the Cape of Good Hope to Angola. By the Reverend Francis Fle- ming, M.A., &c.—A compilation from various sources, expanded or cor- rected by the results of personal experience. It is a readable book, but dealing more with the outward than inner existence of men and things. The natives, for example, are described rather in their manners and cus- toms than in their characteristics. The subjects treated are very nu- merous : some heads we should have thought as well omitted,—as the etymology of "Africa," the knowledge which the ancients possessed of it, and the modern discoveries by the Portuguese.

Plain Rules for Improving the Health of the Delicate, Preserving the Health of the Strong, and Prolonging the Life of all. Second edition, carefully re- vised. By William Henderson, M.D.