PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

BOOKS.

History of Friedrich the Second, called Frederick the Great. By Thomas Car- lyle. Vols. I. and II. Faults on Both Sides. By Mrs. Thomson, Author of "Anne Boleyn," &c. In three volumes.

Hy Lady; a Tale of Modern Life. In two volumes.

Essays. By Geldart J. E. Riadore, B.A. Cantab. Domestic Chaplain to the Duke of Buccleuch, &c.—Those essays were originally read as lectures, and have been revised, and extended to their present form. They are three in number, the first treating of the gradual growth and de- velopment of the Jewish law till it ended in the Christian Church, or more properly perhaps Church government, seeing that the closing topics are Episcopacy and the Apostolical succession. The second paper is a species of historical sketch of the Jesuits ; the third handles the very im- portant question of "the influence of locality," that is of geographical features upon the character of peoples. in a literary sense the first paper is the best ; "Rob Roy is on his native heather "—the chaplain is at home. Either from want of space, or from an attempt to emulate the comprehensive grasp and brilliant generalization of Macaulay, the two other Essays are rather vague and inconclusive. The third on the in- fluence of locality is to a great extent a question of political economy, in which science the essayist does not seem to be skilled, and consequently misses much that is to be seen.

Romaic Beauties and Trojan Humbugs. By Rattlebrain.—It is ex- ceedingly difficult to give an idea of the publication, or even to form a conception of it in the mind. It is not a book of travels, or strictly of the impressions of travel, but the author seems to have been to the East and written down his notions of women, men, and manners in a style "as bad as bad can be." It is not merely that there is the empty word- spinning, forced vivacity, and affectation of depth which distinguish in- ferior but ambitious periodicals. There is in " Romaic Beauties and Trojan Humbugs" a flippant self-sufficiency, striving after smartness, which we think excels all we ever met with, accompanied by the worst taste. Here and there some fact or smart observation may be picked out of the mass of verbiage, but when found, it does not repay the un- pleasantness of the search.

The Local Government Act, 1858, and the Acts incorporated therewith, together with the Public Health Act, 1858. By Tom Taylor, Esq., 31.A., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-law, 8m.—An Act of the late session brings "local government," as regards " hygiene " and local improve- ments home to places ''with or without known boundaries," and even where officials of so common a class as t' overseers or churchwardens" do not exist. How this government is to be originated, established, set-a- flomg, and carried on, is settled, it is to be hoped, by the act itself, the Portions of former acts " incorporated " with it and the Public Health Act of 1858, altered from that of ten years ago. These are tests not to be tampered with by anything less than Parliament or the Judges. Mr. Tom Taylor's task is to make the complex simple, the obscure plain, and to put law language into English. This he has done very well, according t.° Our comprehension, in his introductions and commentary to the texts themselves. He has also given indexes. The Secret of a L. By M. M. Bell. Author of "Deeds not Words," fr,C.-TOne of Messrs. Routledge's cheap "original novels." The scene is 51d modem life, and the main story as we understand it, connected with me.lm ove of the admirable heroine for a man who engages her affections 7/1n1e he is entangled with another woman. This woman he marries and

le eventually converted to goodness by misfortunes, his old love soothing Ins each bed and protecting his insane wife and young daughter. The

!tory might be better plumed and society more happily depicted, but we nave read worse novels at more than a dozen times the price of The Seereg of a Life.

Old

the ultGingerbread and the Schoolboys. By the Author of "Uncle Jack

e F-killer," &C.—.AS far as matter and pleasant description of farm and country life go, this tale is very good, the descriptions being natural with a feeling of country freshness. The story of Old Gingerbread, the sobriquet of a fruit and cake stall-keeper, is, we think, mischievous from the false views it is likely to inculcate. The old man is a person of al- most impossible excellence ; his poverty—for trouble, his religion pre- vents him from feeling, is brought about by the discharge of a family duty towards near relations ; the two good boys and the goodnatured squire who rebuild Old Gingerbread's cottage and make him comfortable are as unreal as himself; and to cap the moral, he converts four wicked boys who come to steal, by giving them more than they intended to take. There are four illustrations printed in colours, very pretty, but, like the story, not very real.

_Rhymes for Little Ones. By the Author of "The Servant's hail,"— Juvenile poems on games, lessons, and miscellaneous themes. They are sometimes childish in their tone, but always cordial and pleasant in spirit. Occasionally they reach a higher elevation than merely juvenile verses, though they are still "rhymes for little ones." For instance, these lines from one of two poems on "What is the tiniest thing alive." "The diligent ant is small if you will, But the blight insect is smaller still. He is so small that we hardly can show 'Whether he be an insect or no : Yet he touches the rose and it withers away, He touches the vine and its tendrils decay: And the ash and the elm and the great oak itself Be quite lays waste for his mischievous pelf. Here is the lesson they call to mind ; Work, like the bee or the ant, you may find; They are little, and so are you, But good, like them, if you choose, you can do ; And alas, you also, if such your joy, Good, like the insect of blight, can destroy."

A Course of Exercises in German, with complete vocabularies. By Feick Lebahn, Ph. Dr.—The principal object of this educational book is to furnish a series of exercises on the irregular German verbs, but some are given on "the declensions of nouns and adjectives, as also on the pronouns, the regular conjugation and prepositions," while the more advanced exercises of necessity teach the general structure of the lan- guage. It is at once a simple and elaborate affair, well qualified to carry a learner through a course of German composition so far as gram- mar and construction are concerned. The vocabularies are both in Gar- man-English and English-German.

her Schwither, an amusing introduction to the German Language on the plan of "Le Babillard."—Primarily a series of vocabularies on com- mon objects, and articles in common use, with a few common conversa- tions, but thrown into a species of dialogue, so contrived as to form con- tinuous sentences when brought together in a paragraph at the end of the vocabulary. Improved by a brief outline of grammar it would form a simple and taking introduction to German. It is a useful book as it is The principal reprint of the week is the fourth edition of Mrs. Gas- kell's vigorous and interesting, if somewhat highly-coloured, life of Charlotte Bronte. It is compressed into a single volume. Messrs. Smith and Elder have also published a fourth and cheap edition of that strange but powerfully-written tale "Paul Ferrell"; and the same publishers bring out a third edition of Mary Sewell's "Homely Ballads for the Working Man's Fireside."

Messrs. Longman's reprint of the week is limited to a new edition of "Laneton Parsonage," forming one of the uniform series of novels by the author of" Amy Herbert " ; Messrs. Blackwood add another number to their sixpenny tales ; and Messrs. Routledge continue the elder Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature" by the publication of the second volume. The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Author of" Jane Eyre" &c. By E. C. Cashel!, Author of "Mary Barton," Sze. Fourth Edition. Paul Ferrell. A. Tale. By the Author of "IN. Poems by V." Fourth Edition. Homely Ballads for the Working Man's Fireside. By Mary Sewell. Third thousand. Landon Parsonage. A Tale for Children on the practical use of a portion of the Church Catechism. By the Author of "Amy Herbert." New edition. Tales from "Blackwood." No. 7. A Reading Party in the Long Vacation.

Father Tom and the Pope.

Curiosities of Literature. By Isaac Disraeli. A New Edition. Edited with Memoir and Notes by his Son the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, Chancellor of Her Majesty's Exchequer. In three volumes. Vol. II.