PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED,

American Notes for General Circulation. By CHARLES DICKENS. In two volumes.

Polynesia; or an Historical Account of the principal Islands in the South Sea, including New Zealand; the introduction of Christianity; and the actual condition of the Inhabitants in regard to civilization, commerce, and the arts of social life. By the Right Reverend M. RUSSELL, LL.D. and D.C.L., (of St. John's College, Oxford,) Author of "View of Ancient and Modern Egypt," &c. With a map and vignette. (Edin- burgh Cabinet Library, No. XXXIII.)

Food, and its Influence on Health and Disease; or an Account of the Effects of different kinds of Aliment on the Human Body. With Die- tetic Rules for the Preservation of the Health. By MATTHEW TRU- MAN, M.D., &c.

The Miser's Daughter ; a Tale. By Wit.t.raim HARRISON AINSWORTH, Author of "The Tower of London," &c. With Illustrations by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. In three volumes.

Lays of Ancient Rome. By THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY.

Forget-Me-Not; a Christmas, New-Year's, and Birthday Present, for 1843. Edited by FREDERIC SHOBERL.

The Nabob at Home ; or the Return to England. By the Author of "Life in India." In three volumes.

Widows and Widowers; a Romance of Real Life. By Mrs. THOMSON, Authoress of "Constance," &c. In three volume,.

The Neighbours ; a Story of Every-day Life. By FREDERIK& BREMER. Translated by MARY HowiTx. In two volumes.

Evelyn Howard, or Mistaken Policy; a Domestic Tale. In two volumes. (The long nights and gloomy days seem to have thawed the writers of fiction into unwonted vivacity; making them brisk whilst other people are dull. We have not for a long time past had such an inpouring of novels and romances,— four, besides Mr. AINSWORTH'S Miser's Daughter, and the parent of the An- nuals, the Forget-Me-Not, which has a variety of little novels in itself. The batch we have not had time to read, barely to look at; but we will tell about them as far as we can, in case we may be prevented from returning to them. Of the author of The Nabob at Home we have a favourable impression from a former work, Lift in India,—unless we confound that publication with some other: the Nabob, " we guess," is an old Scotchman, returning to the Land o'Cakes to enjoy the otium cum dignitate. The time of Widows and Widowers is laid in the lain century ; and seems to treat of somewhat incongruous subjects—the commonplace characters and dull realities of provincial life, with the romance of crime, founded in fact ; the hero of this portion being a gentleman who was " convicted " (unromantic term I) of murdering by means of laurel-water, i.e. prussic acid. We have not reached the details of the deed of darkness : the earlier part, descriptive of village and country-town gentility, is natural, but slow.

The Neighbours is a translation from the Swedish ; and MARY llowrrr, who is not a bad judge, vouches for the authoress as being a Scandinavian Miss Aoserzw. The story is carried on in the form of letters : its substance seems to consist of the everyday incidents in the family of a Swedish physician, and his "neighbours." The sentiments and style are simple, graceful, and foreign; but of the Swedish morality, according to English notions, we have some ques- tion. There is a Mr. Bruno concerned in the tale, whose sentiment, mystery, and air distingue, seem to be of the kind which covers and excuses all sorts of vices with a certain class of foreign writers.

Evelyn Howard is the production, we should infer, of an amateur author: it seems written without exaggeration or attempts at forced effects, and with the object of pointing a useful moral] A Scripture HerbaL By MARIA Cara,corr.

[There is something touching in the circumstances under which this work is produced. Three years the author has been lingering under a hopeless illness; and the execution of the Scripture Herbal has been her employment and her solace. The examination and comparison of many works furnished an occa. pinion ; the drawing of the plants after the representations of other botanists varied the monotony of "confinement to a sick bed "; and the pious purpose— to illustrate the Scriptural allusions to vegetable objects, and to facilitate the perusal of the sacred text by presenting the image to the eye—seems to have soothed her mind.

The plan of The Scripture Herbal is simple. The names are arranged in alphabetical order : each subject is introduced by a wood-cut ; the texts in Scripture where the vegetable is alluded to follow ; and then comes the exposi- tion, in which the first point is to establish the identity of the plant with that mentioned by the inspired writer. The book, however, is not a mere botanical lexicon, or controversy touching vegetable identities: a good many curious facts in the natural or commercial history of the plant are introduced, and the fair author animates and illustrates her pages by often pouring into them her own experience, derived from a varied pilgrimage in many countries. The book is handsomely got-up ; and displays that care which is often character- istic of the sick, whose attention, limited to a few things, seems to regard those few with the exactest nicety.]

The Law of Nisi Prins, Evidence in Civil Actions, and Arbitration and Awards : with an appendix of the new rules, the statutes of set-off, interpleader, and limitation, and the decisions thereon. By Anent- BALD Jona STEPHENS, Barrister-at-law. In three volumes. [Here is a mighty mass—reversing the motto, " Tria juncta in uno," for it is one divided into three ; the large octavo pages running continuously on, for facility of reference, to 2995, besides a large lettered amount in "Contents," Index, "Statutes cited," and " Cases,"—though the necessity of use compels a division into three volumes. To master such a work would be a labour of years; and its knowledge, when gotten, could be turned to more profitable account than criticising. From the slight inspection we have been able as yet to give The Law of Nisi Prins, it appears to us lucidly arranged, carefully di- gested, and almost popularly written—at least it is very intelligible. And if what naturalists would call the genera of the Contents may sometimes give the uninitiated pause, the Index sets all right by its facilities of ready refer- ence. To meet the wishes of practitioners in the sister kingdom, Irish eases are referred to as well as English by Mr. STEPHENS ; whose Prac- tical Treatise on the Law of Nisi Prins seems to us to deserve well of all interested in the law. As an example of what we mean, let any one connected with the press turn to the article "Libel," and see how its all- enclosing meshes compass them round, and what gross inconsistencies both in justice and reason disfigure the whole law. Not a police report, scarcely a trial, or a barrister's speech, or a Member of Parliament's oration, but is libel- loos for printing, though not for uttering. Strictly enforced, these precious laws could not endure a session—if laws they can be called which are mostly judge-made.]

Mews. Waghorn and Company's Overland Guide to India, by four routes to Egypt.

[This little book is issued from the well-known agency firm, to give prac- tical directions to parties proceeding to India viii Egypt, as respects the fear routes by which they may reach Alexandria, the common expenses of each, and the preference of one over the other according to the travellers' time and means, and the season of the year. Persons not bound for India, but only for Egypt or Constantinople, may also find the brochure of use for its specific and business-like information. But the price (two shillings, sent by post) will militate against circulation of this kind. According to Messrs. Wannoasr, the most pleasant and interesting route to Alexandria is up the Rhine, &c. to Trieste ; and thence by the Austrian steamers : by passing through France and embarking at Marseilles the traveller is able to see Paris, Lyons, &c. But Messrs. WACHIORN do not recommend either of these routes in winter ; and that by the Danube is closed. The least troublesome way, we imagine, at all seasons, is to get aboard the steamer at Southampton, and get out again at Alexandria ; and the cheapest too, for the passage-money feeds you, whilst by the other routes, though nominally cheaper, you have more or less to find yourself. Of course a tourist for pleasure would not choose this last mode.]

The Fair Chinese Maid; a Tale of Macao, in rhyme. By an Officer in China. [A poem begun by an English officer to "while away a tedious fortnight in the harbour of Hong-Kong"; and only the first canto finished, because professional duty calls him elsewhere. Nothing in the poem is attributed to the Chinese but on authority, be tells us ; which may be as regards forms, but the spirit of the thing is Byronic.]

The Recreations of Christopher North. In three volumes. Vol. ILL Blackwood's Standard Novels, Vol. X. —4, Reginald Dalton," by the Author of " Valerius."

SERIALS,

Stow's Survey of London. Edited by Wria.tem J. Tnoms, Esq., F.S.A., &c. (Popular Library of Modern Authors. Copyright Editions.) [Of the different works published by Messrs. WHITTAKER among their "Copyright Editions," STOW'S Survey of London, if not the most popular, is the most choice. Any comment would be superfluous upon the character of the " venerable " antiquarian, whose name, as Mr. BOLTON CORNET ob- serves, "still acts as a charm upon the lovers of English history "; and any panegyric is needless upon the quaintest, truest, and minutest history and pic- ture of a great city that has ever been given to the world—the history extending from the Conquest to the commencement of the seventeenth century, the contemporary picture embracing the London of SHAKSPERE'S time. net valuable 88 is the work, its genuine text is dear and scarce ; the editions, ex- cepting the two first, having additions made to them by their editors, and even the genuine text, however precious to the bibliographer, being difficult to the general reader from its orthography, and inconvenient from its type and form. These obstacles are removed in the present republication. The edition of 1603 is taken as a basis, with the variations from the previous one of 1598, where any fact is affected by the alteration ; the spelling is modernized ; and Mr. Tames, without encumbering the text, has added "such notes illustrative of early manners, or explanatory of obsolete terms and usages, as might serve to bring STOW'S vivid picture of London life distinctly beneath the eye of the general reader."] Waterston's Cyclopordia of Commerce, Part V.

ALMANACKS.

The Diurnal Recorder and Diary of Obligations, Engagements, and Events. With an Almanack, and a variety of other important and useful information. No. L 1843.

[This is one of a series of eight publications, differing only in size, price, and minutire. The object of The Diurnal Recorder is to present a ruled and dated diary for events that have occurred, and appointments that are to be kept, followed by monthly folios into which the accurate or self-examining may post the accounts of the past week or month, and do it on Sundays-for Nos. 1, 2, and 3,-are intended for gentlemen who knock out of the year one seventh part, and consider, with the law, that Sunday is a dies non. The prepared blank paper, intended for manuscript-records, is preceded by tables and miscella- neous information-legal, commercial, Parliamentary, official, &c. There is the new Tariff, printed beautifully, but small, and the items so run into each other, to save space, as almost to render it useless for reference. There is "our views of the Income-tax," on which the compilers seem to pique them- selves; though it strikes us the " views " are those of the Tax-office people, touching the filling up the forms of Schedule D. Which "views," by the by, are so unintelligible, that the officials at the twelfth hour, when the tax ought to be in the course of collection, have been obliged to issue a commentary, longer than the text, on the most important part of the Act, (as regards the numbers to be troubled,) after having raised, on mere formal grounds, as great a degree of odium as ought to have arisen from the inevitable and substan- tial difficulties of such a tax-surcharging, inquisition, and pay. As this book is essentially the occupied man's desk-companion, the work would have been improved by making the printed memoranda really useful to such persons, by noting the events, say since the accession of GEORGE the Third, or any other period of modern history, instead of such as that under the 234 April, "Romu- lus commenced the foundation of Rome, 735 years B. C." With these draw- backs, the printed information is various, useful, and plentiful ; and the woll one to be recommended-though the size is perhaps too small for a manuscript book.] Pazosey's Ladies Fashionable Repository for 1843. [Pocket-books, we suppose, like women and music, should not be dated ; and Pawsey's Ladies' Fashionable Repository for 1843 contains no mark by which we can estimate its standing: but we should call it, not old of course, but of a certain age. There are the features that ,struck us in boyhood-feminine- looking ruled pages for diary, cash-accounts, and "engagements"; original poetry, new enigmas (also in verse) and "conundrums," together with solu- tions to the puzzles of the former year. Yet, alas! even this venerable me- mento of old ladies is not, we fear, altogether unchanged. It has got an almanack, which we think the high rate of duty forbade in days of yore. Even dumb things speak to the old Tory-" Go to Mr. Pawsey, thou sluggard, and be wise."]

PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND PRINTS.

Roberts's Sketches in the Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia. Part V.

[This magnificent work proceeds with undiminished interest and beauty. The present Part contains an extract of a letter received by Mr. Moon from Dr. B.OnINSON, of New York, author of Biblical Researches in Palestine, testifying to the accuracy of Mr. ROBERTS'S sketches; which, he says, "exhibit the very counterpart of the scenes and objects themselves, in perfect truthfulness of out- line, colouring, and expression." The three large plates are views of the two superb temples of the rock-built city of Petra, carved out of the face of the cliff, and both exhibiting the same peculiarities of structure, though one is much richer than the other,-namely, a Grecian facade of two stories, the pediment being divided by a small circular temple, or lantern : the columns in the near view have almost palpable rotundity. The vignettes re- present an Arab of the Desert, an Arab Encampment, and a Watch-tower cut out of a huge overhanging rock rising from the plain. The drawings on stone, by Mr. L. IIACHE, are the perfection of tinted lithography ; and the lights are graduated with painter-like delicacy.] Gailltabaud's Ancient and Modern Architecture, Part II. [The Second Part of this valuable work illustrates the Persian and Hindoo styles : the two examples being the rock-tomb called Nakshi-Rustam, from the symbols of Rustam, one of the demigods of Persian fable sculptured on its elegant facade; and the Temple of Visuacarma, one of the vast caves of El- lora-a lofty hall, with an arched roof composed of semicircular ribs resting on massive pillars, having at its upper end a colossal statue of Buddha. The plans, details, and descriptions of these curious and beautiful relics of anti- quity, give an insight into the general characteristics of the architecture of Persia and Hindostan.] Abbotsford Edition of the Waverley Novels, Part XIV.

PAMPHLETS.

The Stone, or the Prospects of Modern Legislation ; a Political Tract for the Times.

Quacks and Quackery Unmasked: Strictures upon the Medical Art, as now practised by physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, with some regulations for its complete reform ; and hints upon a " simple method" in connexion with the Cold-water Cure. By J. E. FELDMANN, M.D. Our Representative System, its tendency and effects ; with practical suggestions for its formation on a new basis.

The Anglo-Prussian Bishopric of St. James in Jerusalem. To which are appended, Remarks on Dr. M'Catil's Sermon at the consecration of Bishop Alexander. By the Reverend W. HOFFMANN, Inspector of the Missionary Seminary at Basle. Translated from the German.

On the Application of Rape-Dust, and other Hand-Tillages. By Joint Harewess, Honorary and Corresponding Member of the New York State Agricultural Society. (Prize Essay of the Wetherby Agricultural Association. September 1842.) Pb Act to Consolidate and Amend the Laws relating to the Copyright of Designs for Ornamenting Articles of Manufacture; with explanatory notes, practical directions, tables of fees, and forms. By Messrs. J. C. ROBERTSON and Company. Report by the Committee of Management of the Association for the Pro- motion of the Fine Arts in Scotland. For the year 1841-42.