PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Booze.

Now and Then. By Samuel Warren, F.R.S., Author of " Ten Thousand a Year," &c.

The Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke; with Selections from his Corre- spoodence, Diaries, Speeches, and Judgments. By George Harris, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-law. In three volumes. The I. of William: Shakespeare. Including many particulars respecting the .Poet and his Family never before published. By James Orchard Hal- Newell, Esq. F.R.S., &c. Lectures on the History of Rome, from the Earliest Times to the Commence- ment of the First Panic War. By B. G. Niebuhr. Edited by Dr. M. Isles. 'Translated, with many Additions from MSS., by Dr. Leonhard Schmitz, F.R.S.E., Rector of the High School of Edinburgh.

The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Ent., in his Voyage into the South Sea in the Year 159& Reprinted from the edition of 1622. Edited by C. R. Drinkwater Bethune, Captain R.N. Letters from the Danube. By the Author of " Gisella," &c. In two volumes.

Australia .Fliar; or a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Settlement of Port Phillip, New South Wales; including full particulars of the Manners and Condition of the Aboriginal Natives; with Observations on Emigra- tion, en the System of Transportation, and on Colonial Policy. Illustrated with Drawings of the Natives, and a large and beautifully engraved Map, &c. By William Weetgarth. Brian O'Limt; or Luck is Everything. By the Anther of " Stories of Water- loo," Scc. In three volumes.

Village Tales from Abatis. By Alexander Weill. Translated from the German by Sir Alexander Duff Gordon, Bait i[These stories were written by Weill to exhibit peasant life in Alsatia: they er from Anerbach's " Tales from the Black Forest" in presenting a harder and sterner view of peasant existence, with its vices and its grossnesses unre- deemed, says the translator, by Auerbach's "more poetical view." We do not conceive that the literal character of Weill's stories is any advantage. As far as mere information goes, the matter of fact may be more accurate; but we should be more accurate still by recurring to the facts themselves—to official reports and law proceedings. A work of fiction should be large and pleasing; and such is hardly the case with the Village Tales from Alsatia. They have an indi- vidual truth about them, but of the narrow and literal kind; and what sort of a truth is it? The coarseness of the peasant mind and the profligacy of the country presented without art or purpose, so far as we can see, or at least without more purpose than might exist in expanding a workhouse incident or a police report into narrative and dialogues. " Stasi," the first tale, is a story of a double seduction by a village Lothario, with several more in the background, wanting anything of sentiment or art to relieve them. The next story is free from this offensive matter, and points a sort of moral in the case of one heroine, Udilie, who sacrifices her fortune to filial duty, and loses one lover by her de- votion but gains another: the general manners and feelings, however, are so Alsa- tian as to be strange and unattractive. In the third tale, "Crazy Semel," there is also an illicit love affair; though the story turns upon a passion between a rich miller's heiress and her father's foreman; • which, for aught we see, might have ended happily, instead of the deaths and madness in which it closes, but without any tragic interest or sympathy.]

Charles Boner's Book. With numerous Illustrations by Count Pocci, of Munich.

[This is a handsome little volume pretty cuts, fall of character, and in the

modern style of German art. The reading matter io both verso and promo, wall varied, especially the prose—now a species of fairy tale, now an incident of travel, now a story of real life; the best of which," Trine," we think we have met with before, though mayhap treated dfferently. The fault of the book is, that in some of the pieces there is too much of writing: children, much more than grown-up people, require you to go direct to thepoint, and not to dwell upon minutiae or elaborate sentiment, however well done.]

final Matter contained in Lieutenant-Colonel SutherlancTs Memoir on e Rafters, Hottentots, and Bosjesmans of South Africa. Heads 1st and 2d. Commentaries and Notes on the Text used in the Compilation of the Memoirs.

[Colonel Sutherland is an Indian officer of standing and experience; having re- presented the Governor-General with the nineteen states of Rajpootana, and managed the Bheel and other Border tribes. He visited the Cape for his health; and, thinking the Border district would be more beneficial, thither he went, after a short sojourn at Cape Town. Once on the frontier, Colonel Sutherland took up its wars and politics with the zeal of an old soldier and diplomatist. Three sub- jects occupied him—the past, the present, and the future. The past took the form of an historical review; he narrates the wars against the Aborigines by the Dutch and British, appending his own commentary to each event.; he commented upon the treaties and so forth then going on (1844); and he proposes plans for the management of the Border derived from his Indian experience, one of which is to raise a Native " corps" analagous to the Sepoys. This volume possesses the order and method of the well-trained official; but it has too much of the blue book character for our columns at this busy period. It is a Cape Town publica- tion.] Sights in Italy; with some Account of the State of Music and the Sister Arts in that Country. By William Gardiner.

[Mr. Gardiner of Leicester is well known as the author of several agreeable works on musical subjects, particularly The Music of Nature, and Music and Friends; Which, without evincing much knowledge of the principles or history of the art, contain a great deal of pleasant gossip, and sometimes real information, about the musical notabilites of the authors own time; and are, moreover, interesting from

his taste and enthusiastic love of music. At the age of seventy-seven, Mr. Ga er has just made the tour of Italy; and the present volume, the result of his ions, though it adds nothing to our knowledge, will be read with plea- sure, m the cit eerful and genial spirit in which it is written.] Sermons for Working Men. By William John Bailer, M.A., Vicar of Wantage, &c.

[Mr. Butler having resided for six years in a district where his parishioners were chiefly labourers, became convinced that the generality of sermons are pitched too high for their comprehension, and that a plainer class of discourses is a want in our literature, whether for reading or preaching to the very lowly. Upon this principle Sermons for Working Men are composed: but, though plain as regards Ideas and expressions, we doubt whether the structure said modes of composition in these discourses are sufficiently homely for the object in view. As for words, a genuine Saxon style is alike racy and intelligible from the throne to the cot- tage, if the subject be within the auditor's comprehension. The more difficult part is structure—a distinct placing of the drift at once before the mind: which, by the by, was William Cobbett's great excellence; right or wrong, he could not be misunderstood. It strikes us that Mr. Butler's manner is too allusive, his con-

clusion too long kept in suspense, and he personifies too much; things which are not literally faults, but are scarcely, we should think, adapted to mere labourers. No doubt, an intelligent Bible reader would have no difficulty: but readers of the Bible are not, we take it, the class Mr. Butler speaks of.] Boswells Life of Johnson: including their Tour to the Hebrides. By the Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL D., F.R.S. A new edition, thoroughly revised, with much additional matter. With Portraits. [After appearing in various sizes, here is Croker's Boswell in a single double- columned volume. The " 5 vols. 8vo., 1831," incorporated the narratives of the other biographers; but in the next edition, of " 8 vols. 12mo.," in 1835, those pas- sages were published in two separate volumes. In the compact undertaking be- fore us that arrangement is still retained; but the Tours in Wales and to the

Hebrides, with Johnson's Letters, are excepted, and form part of Boswell's text. The variorum notes appear at the foot of the page; and Mr. Croker has 'made some corrections and additions. The chief feature of this edition is its compact- ness and its illustrations. We have Johnson at six periods of his life, byRey- nolds, Barry, and Nollekens; a full-length Boswell "even in his habit as he lived," with a second sketch of him by Lawrence in his youth, when the biographer had reached maturer years.]

The Family Jo. Miller; a Drawingroom Jest-Book. Jo. Miller; a Biography. [This is a species of Christmas-book in the sense of geniality; for it is NI of amusing matter, which after all is the one thing needful—in a book. The sub- stance of the life of the renowned " Joe" is made a vehicle for satire upon modern biography; while it furnishes a medium for many sketches of social and theatri-

cal life during the period in which Mr. Joseph Miller lived and the age which succeeded him. The jests are only a culling from Joe; the interstices or inter- mediate spaces being filled up by a selection from ancient and modern saws and facettai. The volume is handsomely got up, and is adapted to a " drawingroorn " or any other room.]

Poems of Early and After Years. By N. P. Willis. Illustrated by R. Leutze.

[This is the final edition of N. P. Willis's poems, (except his plays,) by which-he is to be known to the world and posterity. A few pieces have been introduned

that were never before printed; several have been rejected; several restored that were excluded from former editions; and the whole has been revised. The exer- fions of the publisher correspond with the care of the poet: the typography, binding, and illustrations, all combine to form a volume which reflects credit on the taste and liberality of Messrs. Carey and Hart, of Philadelphia.]

The Eventful History of Mrs. Fitzroy Slam's Trip to Italy. By Fiddle- sticks-and-rubbish.

[Mrs. Slam is a rich widow, who, going to Italy with a fortune-bunter, Captain O'Dash, is (rather improbably) left by the gallant for an opera-dancer, and event- ually marries an Italian adventurer. The story is designed as a vehicle for satire

on the social cant of the day, and the contradiction between theory and practice in the estimate-of vices among the poor and the rich. The verse is smart, but

the points are obvious: Mr. Fiddlesticks-and-rubbish sees no more than any one else; and, beyond the smartness of his doggrel, does not eexprns himself better. The prose letter from Aunt Deborah is superior to the verse.]

Little Poems for Little People. By M. S.C. With numerous Illustrations. [This volume is entitled to commendation for the choice of its subjects, and the simple yet not prosaic style in which they are treated. It is a neat little book, and will form an appropriate Christmas present for " little people."]

Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children. By Isaac Watts, D.D. With thirty Illustrations, drawn on wood by C. W. Cope, A.R.A.; and en- graved by John Thompson. [A very handsome volume, with a number of illustrative wood-cuts in the shape of head and tail pieces. The designs are varied in style and treatment ac- cording to the character of the subject, from the bearing of the cross to the slug- gard who is " wakened too soon, and must slumber again." The wood-engravings are of the high excellence which distinguishes all Mr. Van Voorst'a illustrated publications.] My Own Annual; an Illustrated Gift-book for Boys and Girl. Edited by Mark Merri well. One hundred Engravings. [A medley of stories, sketches of foreign manners and customs, of remarkable places, of natural history, &c.; all entertaining, and much of it- instructive. The wood-cuts are of unequal merit, some spirited and well executed, others poor and indifferent; but all have the merit, not universal in such books, of being apt ' to the text.] A Romance of a Mince-Pie. By Angus B. Reach.

[An amusing comic story about a poisoned mince-pie spun out to five times its proper length. There is life in Phie's illustrative woodcuts; but it is a sort of conventional life, only to be found in the figures of his design, and not at all coming up to real flesh and -blood.]

Shakespeare Proverbs; or the Wise Saws of our'Wisest Poet collected into a Modern Instance. By Mary Cowden Clarke, Author of the Concordance ' to Shakespeare. [In this season of pooket-books, Mrs. Cowden Clarke's pocket-book of proverbs from Shakspere is the most instructive and enduring in its utilities. P some are rather maxims than proverbs; and, looking at the number that w remain after any revision, a few might perhaps be well away: but, according to the proverb, "store is no sore."] Webster's Royal Red Book; or Court and Fashionable Register, &c., for 1848. [This new edition of a very useful guide to the nobility, gentry, and professional men of the Metropolis, has been extended by adding an alphabetical list of Ba- ronets, and improved by incorporating the guide to the Inns of Court with the general directory; so that Quality Court; for example, now stands in the street- guide, and the names of the lawyers are mingled with those of other men.] Criticisms. By John W. Lester, Christ's College, Cambridge. [With the exception of Coleridge and Heber, the criticisms in this volume are upon second-rate or forgotten writers. The style of Mr. John W. Lester is an imi- tation of Carlyle, conjoined with the wordiness of the modern American school: but, however successful he may be in the latter mode, Mr. Lester has only caught the peculiar mannerisms of Carlyle. His ideas run away with him at such a rate that one half of his criticisms are occasionally essays upon something else. The notice of Hurdle begins with a paper on the improvement of the taste of villagers by means of the pastor, the connexion of ideas being that Handis was a clergyman.] Essays. By Thomas M. Lester, late of King's College, London.

[This essayist is the brother of the above-named critic, but with a far less dis- ciplined mind than even John W. Lester displays. So bad a case of wordy diar- rhea& we never encountered before.] The Six Days of Creation; a Series of Familiar Letters from a Father to his Children. Describing the Natural History of each day's mercies, with per reference to the illustration of Scriptural truth. By W. G. Rhind. Third edition.

Du Cholera Moyens Preservatifs et Curatifs, on Philosophic des Grandes Epidebfies. Par A. M. Bureand-Riofrey.

ILLUSTRATED WORKS AND PRINTS.

The Miracles of our Lord.

[One of Messrs. Longman and Co.'s richly illuminated books, with cast cover to Imitate carved ebony, Some of the miracles are adorned with small designs let into the text; each page is surrounded by a border of grotesque foliage, Sm.; and on the outer side of the page stands the figure of an apostle, fitted, ad it were, is a niche of the border. The designs are not striking nor forcible either in draw- ing or expression; but the borders are clever, and the general effect of colotfrs is at once solemn and rich. The effect is enhanced by an ingenious artifice: e'veler alternate pair of the pages which face each other is of a neutral quality of colour- ing; so that the next pair, painted in positive tints, looks the more gorgeous.]- • Portrait of the Right Honourable Sidney Herbert, M.P. Painted by Francis Grant, A.R.A.; engraved by George Raphael Ward. [idr. Sidney Herbert is one of those fortunate men whose aspect does justice to their estimation in society: a delicate apprehension, a kindness almost tender, a lively intelligence, and a manly spirit, are mingled in his cotultenance; a favour- able subject for the painter. Mr. Francis Grant has not missed the spirit of the original: although his picture was rather hasty and washy in execution, it is fall of tiib and animation; and the pose of the figure is well designed-not a common merit with our portrait-painters. The engraver has done his part well.]

ALMANACK.

73raddrazols Railway Almanack, Directory, Shareholders' Guide, and Ma- nual, for 1848.

(This volume of course contains the general information of an almanack, Joint Stock Company facts properly figuring in the calendar: thus, under the 15th Au- gust, we read-" Mr. Hudson elected for Sunderland, 1845." Its chief feature, however, is the directory; which gives the chairman, directors, and officers of every company, a list of British and Foreign Railways, with the number of shares, capital paid, and dividends if any, together with a variety of similar information.] The Life Assurance Altnanack, and General Calendar, for 1848. The People's Journal A lmanack, for 1848. A Table for finding the Day of the Week or Month at Sight, from the year 1840 to 1900.