LITERARY NEWS.

Mr. John Bardoe Elliott, a well-known Oriental scholar, formerly of the East India Civil Service, has presented to the Bodleian library a very valuable collection of Persian manuscripts, upwards of a thousands n number, consisting partly of the bulk of the library of the late Sir Gore Ouseley, and partly of private purchases made duringthe last half century in India. All the manuscripts are in an excellent state of preservation, and are perfect specimens of caligraphy, as well as fair samples of Persian literature.

Among books advertised as in the press are " Shakespeare Papers," by William Maginn, LL.D. (Bentley) ; " Erin-go-Bragh," or Irish Life Pictures," by W. H. Maxwell, two volumes (ib.) ; "Travels in the

.renees, France, Savoy, &c.," by Selina Bunbury, two volumes (Newby) ; and " An Autumn in Silesia, Austria-Proper, and Ober-Enns," by the author of " Travels in Bohemia."

The Reverend Charles Kingsley is reported to be engaged in the com- position of a new work of fiction "on a historical subject of much in- terest." The same is said of the author of " Tom Brown's School Days," who is to launch his work in a new weekly periodical, to be called "Macmillan's Magazine," the first number of which is announced to appear with the beginning of November, under the editorship of M. David Masson.

Messrs. Routledge and Co. announce a new monthly issue of the best copyright novels in their possession, to be published uniformly, in a su- perior style, with illustrations. The first volume is to be Sir Bulwer Lytton's "Caxton."

We regret, says the Cumberland Paeguet, to record the death of Mr. John Rayson, of Penrith, " the last of the Cumberland bards." For some time he has been suffering from disease of the heart, and on Tues- day last a severe but sudden attack proved fatal. Mr. Rayson's name has long been associated with our local literature, his last effort being the translating of the Songs of Solomon into the Cumberland dialect for Prince Lucien Bonaparte. He was fifty-six years of age.

A society has been formed at New York for the publication of mann- scripti and scarce pamphlets, concerning the early history of America. The association is called " The Bradford Club," in memory of the name of the first New York printer ; and its operations have already begun with the issue of the first series of some "Papers concerning the Attack on Hatfield and Deerfield, by a Party of Indians from Canada, September i 19, 1677," to which is added an introductory essay of considerable length by Mr. Franklin B. Hough, of Albany. An interesting map, printed on old paper, of New England and New York in the seventeenth century, accompanies this volume.

A translation, by Dr. Palmer, of Michelet's last work "L'Amour," a book as much praised in France as abused in England, has been pub- lished in New York, and has proved eminently successful as far as the sale is concerned.

A very timely historical work by M. G. Pauthier, "The History of the Political Relations of China with the Western World, from the Earliest Records to the present Time," has just been published by Didot, Paris.

M. Brockhaus, , of Leipzig, has this week published a "Précis Historique des Ev6nements Politiques les plus remarquables qui se sent passes depuis 1814 a 1859," by the Baron Ferdinand de Clasp. The author, a well-known diplomat and political writer, has aimed at giving in this work a complete diplomatic history of the last forty-five years.

The fourth volume of the privately-printed " Reise-skizzen," (Sketches of Travel,) by Archduke Maximilian of Austria, has been recently dis- tributed among the friends of the illustrious author. The volumes which have now appeared include travels in Albania, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Portugal, and Madeira, the description of all which countries and inhabitants nhabitants is said to be given in a masterly manner, and with an extraordinary freedom of language. It is stated in Vienna circles that the Archduke further intends to distribute within the next month a volume of lyrical poems of his own composition among a select few of his acquaintances.

A splendid work, which has been thirty-four years in progress, under the direction of Professor Zahn, has just been issued by Reimer, Berlin. It is entitled " Pompeji, Herculanum, and Stabiw," and contains 300 plates, with accompanying French and German letterpress describing the three famous towns, covered by the ashes of Mount Vesuvius.

The first volume of a new historical work by Professor Ranke, " Eng-. lische Geschichte vornehmlich im 16 and 17 Jahrhunders," (English His- tory, principally of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,) has this week been published at Berlin ;—also the first half of the fourth volume of Gervinus' celebrated work, " Geschichte des 17 jahrhunderts " (His- tory of the Seventeenth Century), upon which the author has been en- gaged more than twenty years.

A Leipzig bookseller announces the forthcoming publication of a "History of the Gulfstream " by a well-known German traveller, J. F. Kohl. In the promised book the history of the famous current of the sea, "the calorifere of Great Britain and Ireland," is said to be traced from the earliest times, through the Sagas of the Northmen and the pri- vate reports of Columbus' crew, up to the last English and American in- vestigations.

The ninth and concluding volume of the "Memoirs of Varnhagen von Ense," by Ludmilla Awing, has appeared at Berlin.

A little book by Adolph Schmidt, entitled "Alsace and Lorraine : a history how these Provinces were lost to the German Empire," is at pre- sent making considerable sensation in Germany. The work, pointing to the past, preaches with great fervour the necessity of federal union be- tween the several Teutonic States, and of watchful mistrust of the move- ments of France.

A new novel in three volumes by the Swedish authoress, Emilio Flygare-Carlen, called " A Merchant House on the Sea Coast," has ap- peared simultaneously at Stockholm and Copenhagen, and is reported at be the best work which has yet come from her pen.

ORIGIN' OF THE JUDGES' BLACK CAP.—The practice of our Judges, in putting on a black cap when they condemn a criminal to death, will be found on consideration to have a deep and sad significance. Covering the head was in ancient days a sign of mourning. 'Haman heated to his house, mourning and having. his head covered." (Esth. vi. 12.) In like manner Demosthenes, when insulted by the populace, went home with his head covered. " And David . . . wept as he went up, and had his head covered ; . . . and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up." (2 Sam. xv. 30.) Darius, too, covered his head on learning the death of his Queen. But, amongst ourselves, we find traces of a similar mode of expressing grief, at funerals. The mourners had the hood "drawn forward over the head." (Fosbroke, Ent-ye. of tfntig. p. 951.) Indeed the hood drawn forward thus over the head, is still part of the mourning habiliment of females, when they follow the corpse. And with this it should be borne in mind that, as far back as the time of Chaucer, the most usual colour of mourning was black. Atropos also, who held the fatal scissors which cut short the life of man, was clothed in black. When, therefore, the Judge puts on the black cap, it is a very significant as well as solemn procedure. He puts on mourning; for he is about to pronounce the forfeit of a life ! And, ac- cordingly, the act itself, the putting on of the black cap, is generally under- stood to be significant. It intimates that the Judge. is about to pronounce

no merely registered or supposititious sentence ; the very formula of condemnation he has put himself in mourning for the convicted culprit, as for a dead man. The criminal is then left for execution, and, unless mercy exert its sovereign prerogative, suffers the sentence of the law. The mourning cap expressively indicates his doom.—Ebtes and Queries.