28 JANUARY 1871, Page 24

The Wonders of Engraving. By George Daplessis. (Sampson Low and

Co.)—M. Duplessis, who has been translated into fluent and readable English by a gentleman signing himself "N. R. E. M.," devotes a pre- liminary chapter to "The Origin of Engraving," describes in the six chapters that follow the various schools of Italy, Spain, the Low Countries, Germany, England, and France, and in the last discusses the various processes that are employed. Nothing could be better than the. greater part of the work, but the translator thinks that the chapter on English engravers is unsatisfactory. The volume is adorned with ten autotypes, whieh are excellent, and thirty-four wood engravings. We must quote one naïf remark of the author about a certain English engraver named Ryland. "An accidental circumstance, however, suddenly compelled him to give up engraving. He was accused of forgery, tried, convicted, and condemned, and after that his name was never heard again." Probably not, considering the penalty which was attached to forgery in the days in which Ryland was unlucky enough to live.