Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

New editions of the works of Fielding and Smollett, profusely illustrated by Cruikshank and Kenny Meadows, will soon be published by Stringer & Townsend. These great classics will never cease to be read with the keenest relish by all the English race. The London publishers of the present edition of Fielding observe in their advertisement:

"It is altogether unnecessary to enlarge upon the genius of
Henry Fielding. There is no man in the brilliant history of
English literature, with the single exception of Shakspeare, to
whose genius has been paid the homage of a more general
attestation. Calumny and misrepresentation--the offspring of
envy and malice--these, in his day, he had to endure or to
deride, and these, with their authors, have long sunk into
oblivion. The greatest of his contemporaries knew and
acknowledged his transcendent merit, and since his death, there
has not been one man of genius whose opinion of Fielding is
recorded, that has not spoken of him with veneration and
delight. Dr. Johnson, spite of a personal enmity, could not but
concede his extraordinary powers. Lady Mary Wortley Montague
reluctantly confessed that 'cousin Fielding' was the greatest
original genius of the age; the fastidious Gray was charmed
with him; and the more fastidious Gibbon has left his opinion
on record, that the illustrious house of Hapsburg, from which
Fielding was descended--its name erased, its towers
crumbled,--will be forgotten, when the romance of _Tom Jones_
shall flourish in eternal youth. If Coleridge classed him, as
one of the true immortals, with Shakspeare, Goëthe could not,
nor was willing to contest, that he was so; if Byron could
cheer his heart and refresh his mind with his pages, so can,
and so does, Wordsworth. In a word, the matchless drawing of
his characters, which are not likenesses from life, but copies
from Nature--the one being a shallow art, the other a
profoundly creative power--his exquisite wit, his abounding
humor, his natural and manly pathos--in these no writer of
narrative fiction has ever approached him.

"While, therefore, nothing can be less likely than that the
fame of Fielding should ever be suffered to die, or that, as
long as literature exists it can ever diminish, nothing can be
more proper than to attempt to extend his popularity--a
consummation inevitably to be effected by producing his works
at a price accessible, and in a form attractive, to all
classes. The late Rowland Hill once observed, that it was not
fitting that the arch-enemy of mankind should have all the best
tunes to himself. In a like spirit it may be remarked, that it
ought not to be permitted to inferior writers to monopolize all
the appliances and means of popularity that art can bestow.
Accordingly, the proprietors have secured the hearty and
zealous co-operation of Kenny Meadows. It would be invidious,
and from the purpose, to institute a comparison between this
gentleman and his contemporaries; but it may be asserted that
no living artist has shown an equal versatility of genius,
which points him out as the man best fitted to trace the
many-colored life of Fielding. From the illustration, almost
page by page, of Shakspeare, where is the man but would have
shrunk? but that work of our artist has secured not merely an
English, not only a European reputation, but a world-wide
celebrity. The proprietors are assured, that from the hand of
Kenny Meadows such an edition of Fielding will proceed as we
have not yet seen, and shall not hereafter see."

* * * * *

Of Mr. JOHN BIGELOW'S work on _Jamaica_, (published a few weeks ago by Putnam,) the London _Examiner_ of April 5th, remarks:

"It contains the most searching analysis of the present state
of Jamaica, and, moreover, the most sagacious prognostications
of the future prospects of the island that have ever been
published. Mr. Bigelow is an accomplished, acute, and liberal
American. As such, an eye-witness and a participator of the
greatest and most successful colonial experiment which the
world has ever seen, he is, necessarily, a better and more
impartial judge of the subject he treats of than any Englishman
of equal capacity and acquirement. Mr. Bigelow makes short and
easy work of planters, attornies, book-keepers, sophistries,
and Stanleys. In doing so, his language is invariably that of a
man of education and a gentleman. He might have crushed them
with a sledge-hammer, but he effects his purpose as effectually
with a pass or two of a sharp and polished broad-sword."

* * * * *

The publication of a translation in the Bohemian language of Lamartine's _History of the Girondins_, has been recently prohibited at Prague by the Austrian authorities.

* * * * *

MACREADY, in retiring from the stage, had more honors showered upon him than ever before sweetened the leave-taking of any hero of the buskin: among them, this dedication of George Sand's latest publication, _Le Château des Désertes_, which is now appearing in _La Revue des Deux Mondes_:

"To W. C. MACREADY:--This little work, attempting to set forth
certain ideas on Dramatic Art, I place under the protection of
a great name, and of an honorable friendship.

GEORGE SAND."

* * * * *

The first volume of _The Stones of Venice_, by Mr. RUSKIN, has been republished by Mr. Wiley, and we trust it will have a very large sale in this country, which was never in greater need of instructions upon any subject than it is now upon that of architecture. In all our cities there is remarkable activity in building; the surplus wealth of the American people is largely applied for the increase of the magnificence of town and country residences--for the most part so ignorantly applied, that the Genius of Architecture might almost be frightened from our shores by the spectacles reared here to vex and astonish the next ages. To bring about a reform, to lead the way for rationalism, in the noblest of the practical arts, Mr. Ruskin has approved himself worthy by his previous works. The _Stones of Venice_ will increase the fame won by his "Modern Painters." The _Literary Gazette_ says:

"It is a book for which the time is ripe, and it cannot fail to
produce the most beneficial results, directly and indirectly,
on our national architecture. The low condition into which that
has fallen has been long felt. Mr. Ruskin has undertaken to
lead us back to the first principles of the art, and, in doing
so, to enable every reader who will bestow the necessary
attention to his exposition, to discover for himself the causes
of this decline, and to master the principles, by attention to
which, the significance and dignity of the art may be restored.
The subject is one of the widest interest; but it has been so
hedged about with technical difficulties as to debar from its
study all who had not more leisure, more perseverance, and more
money, than fall to the lot of the majority of even cultivated
minds. At once popular and profound, this book will be
gratefully hailed by a circle of readers even larger than Mr.
Ruskin has found for his previous works. He has so written as
to catch the ear of all kinds of persons: 'Every man,' he says
truly, 'has at some time of his life personal interest in
architecture. He has influence on the design of some public
building; or he has to buy, or build, or alter his own house.
It signifies less, whether the knowledge of other arts be
general or not; men may live without buying pictures or
statues; but in architecture all must in some way commit
themselves; they _must_ do mischief, and waste their money, if
they do not know how to turn it to account. Churches, and
shops, and warehouses, and cottages, and small row, and place,
and terrace houses, must be built and lived in, however joyless
and inconvenient. And it is assuredly intended that all of us
should have knowledge, and act upon our knowledge, in matters
in which we are daily concerned, and not be left to the caprice
of architects, or mercy of contractors."

"Those who live in cities are peculiarly dependent for
enjoyment upon the beauty of its architectural features. Shut
out from mountain, river, lake, forest, cliff, and hedgerow,
they must either find in streets and squares food for pleasant
contemplation, or be drawn into indifference by meaningless,
ill-proportioned, or unsightly forms. 'We are forced,' says Mr.
Ruskin, 'for the sake of accumulating our power and knowledge,
to live in cities; but such advantage as we have in association
with each other, is in great part counterbalanced by our loss
of fellowship with nature. We cannot all have our gardens now,
nor our pleasant fields to meditate in at eventide. Then the
function of our architecture is, as far as may be, to replace
these; to tell us about nature; to possess us with memories of
her quietness; to be solemn and full of tenderness like her,
and rich in portraitures of her; full of delicate imagery of
the flowers we can no more gather, and of the living creatures
now far away from us in their own solitude. If ever you felt or
found this in a London street; if ever it furnished you with
one serious thought, or any ray of true and gentle pleasure; if
there is in your heart a true delight in its green railings,
and dark casements, and wasteful finery of shops, and feeble
coxcombry of club-houses, it is well; promote the building of
more like them. But if they never taught you any thing, and
never made you happier as you passed beneath them, do not think
they have any mysterious goodness of occult sublimity. Have
done with the wretched affectation, the futile barbarism, of
pretending to enjoy; for, as surely as you know that the meadow
grass, meshed with fairy rings, is better than the wood
pavement cut into hexagons; and as surely as you know the fresh
winds and sunshine of the upland are better than the choke-damp
of the vault, or the gaslight of the ball-room, you may know
that the good architecture which has life, and truth, and joy
in it, is better than the bad architecture, which has death,
dishonesty, and vexation of heart in it from the beginning to
the end of time.

"To show what this good architecture is, how it is produced,
and to what end, is the object of the present volume. It is,
consequently, purely elementary, and introductory merely to the
illustration, to be furnished in the next volume from the
architectural riches of Venice, of the principles, to the
development of which it is devoted. Beginning from the
beginning, Mr. Ruskin carries his reader through the whole
details of construction with an admirable clearness of
exposition, and by a process which leaves him at the close in a
position to apply the principles which he has learned by the
way, and to form an intelligent and independent judgment upon
any form of architectural structure. The argument of the book
hangs too closely together to be indicated by extracts, or by
an analysis within the limits to which we are confined."

We perceive that the work of which the first volume is here noticed, is to be followed immediately by _Examples of the Architecture of Venice_, selected and drawn to measurement from the edifices, by Mr. Ruskin: to be completed in twelve parts, of folio imperial size, price one guinea each. These will not be reproduced in this country, and as the author probably has little advantage from the American editions of his works, we trust that for his benefit as well as for the interests of art, the _Examples_ will be largely imported.

* * * * *

The new play written by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, as his contribution towards the fund raising for the new Literary Institute, is in the hands of the literary and artistic amateurs by whom it is to be enacted, and rehearsals are in progress. The first performance will take place probably in June.

* * * * *

It was a custom when the world was younger than it is now, for disappointed lovers, and outlaws, and portionless youths too proud to labor and afraid to steal, to go into the wars; nobility, that would not suffer them to become journeymen mechanics, led them to hire out as journeymen butchers. But at length the field of military adventure is almost every where closed. There is no region, ever so remote, where a spirited and adventurous youth could hope ever to learn the art martial. A few skirmishes on the Parana and the Plata, on the Fish River, or the Keiskamma, form all the fighting that is going on upon the globe; and that fighting offers no premium to the adventurer. There is no native prince of great wealth and numerous followers, no mogul, or sultan, or sikh, with whom the turbulent European might make a good bargain for his courage. The last field for such enterprise was the country of the Mahrattas, where French and English mercenaries--with a sprinkling of Americans--created a colony which enabled the ignorant, bigoted and jealous savages to keep in check the best European armies. A Frenchman named Person was a pioneer in the business. He was succeeded by the Savoyard, De Boigne, whose statue now adorns the principal square of Chamberry. James Skinner, whose _Memoirs_ have just been published in London by the novelist and traveler Mr. Bailie Fraser, began a similar career under De Boigne. Some idea may be formed of the Mahratta army, when the Peishwa at times brought 100,000 horse into the field. A trusted officer, as Skinner afterwards became, might thus command a division of twenty, thirty, or forty thousand men, equal in fact to the largest European armies in the last century. When men played with such tools as these, it may be easily imagined how they themselves rose and fell; how empires crumbled, or were reared anew. When Wellesley and Loke overthrew the Mahrattas, Skinner entered the British service, and it appears from the book before us that he died in 1836 a knight of the Bath.

* * * * *

"Hitherto," says M. de Sainte Beuve, "the real learning of women has been found to be pretty much the property of their lovers;" and he ridicules the notion that even Mrs. Somerville has any scholarship that would win the least distinction for a man. It may be so. We see, however, that a Miss FANNY CORBAUX has lately communicated to the Syro-Egyptian Society in London a very long and ambitious paper _On the Raphaïm and their connexion with Egyptian History_, in which she quotes Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, &c., with astonishing liberality.

* * * * *

Carlyle's translation of the _Apprenticeship and Travels of Wilhelm Meister_, has been issued in a very handsome edition, by Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of Boston.

* * * * *

Mr. Macaulay has been passing the Winter and Spring in Italy.

* * * * *

The Late Mr. John Glanville Taylor, an Englishman, left in MS. a work upon _The United States and Cuba_, which has just been published by Bentley, and is announced for republication by Mr. Hart of Philadelphia. Mr. Taylor was born in 1810, and when about twenty-one years of age he left Liverpool for the United States, on a mining speculation. After travelling a few months in this country, he was induced to go to Cuba to examine a gold vein of which he thought something might be made. The place in Cuba which was to be the scene of his operations, was the neighborhood of Gibara, on the north-eastern side of the island, which he reached by sailing from New-York to St. Jago de Cuba, and travelling across the island forty-five leagues. The gold vein turned out a wretched failure; and, after having been put to some disagreeable shifts to maintain himself, Mr. Taylor resolved to settle as a planter in Holguin--the district to which Gibara forms the port of entry. Returning to the United States, he made the necessary arrangements; and in the summer of 1843, was established on his _hacienda_, in partnership with an American who had been long resident in that part of the island. In this and the following year, however, the east of Cuba was visited by an unprecedented drought; causing famine which, though it destroyed many lives and ruined thousands of proprietors, attracted no more attention, he says, in England, than was implied by "a paragraph of three lines in an English newspaper." The west of Cuba was at the same time devastated by a tremendous hurricane, accompanied by floods; and, all his Cuban prospects being thus blasted, the author was glad to return to New-York in September, 1845, whence, after a short stay, he returned to England. He did not long, however, remain in his native country, but left it for Ceylon, where he died suddenly in January, of the present year. His _United States and Cuba: Eight Years of Change and Travel_, was left in MS., and within a few weeks has been printed. It is a work of much less value than Mr. Kimball's _Cuba and the Cubans_, published in New-York last year. Of that very careful and judicious performance Mr. Taylor appears to have made considerable use in the preparation of his own, and his agreement with Mr. Kimball may be inferred from the fact that, though pointedly protesting that he does not advocate the annexation of Cuba to the United States, he holds that "worse things might happen,"--and indeed hints that sooner or later the event is inevitable. Of _Cuba and the Cubans_, we take this opportunity to state that a new and very much improved edition will soon be issued by Mr. Putnam.

* * * * *

Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley has in the press of Bentley her _Travels in the United States_. She passed about two years, we believe, in this country. She has written several books, in verse and prose, but we never heard that any body had read one of them.

* * * * *

The _Nile Notes_, by Mr. CURTIS, have been republished in London by Bentley, and the book is as much approved by English as by American critics. The _Daily News_ says:

"The author is evidently a man of great talent."

Leigh Hunt, in his _Journal_, that--

"It is brilliant book, full of thought and feeling."

The _Athenæum_, that--

"The author of _Nile Notes_, we may now add, is richly
poetical, humorous, eloquent, and glowing as the sun, whose
southern radiance seems to burn upon his page. An affluence of
fancy which never fails, a choice of language which chastens
splendor of expression by the use of simple idioms, a love for
the forms of art whether old or new, and a passionate enjoyment
of external nature such as belongs to the more poetic order of
minds--are the chief characteristics of this writer."

The _Literary Gazette_--

"The genial and kindly spirit of this book, the humor and
vivacity of personal descriptions, redeemed by an exquisite
choice of expression from the least taint of the common or the
coarse; the occasional melody and music of the diction,
cadenced, as it were, by the very grace and tenderness of the
thought it clothes, or the images of beauty it evokes; the
broad, easy touches, revealing as at a glance the majestic and
tranquil features of the Eastern landscape, and the ultimate
feeling of all its accessories of form and hue; the varied
resources of learning, tradition, poetry, romance, with which
it is not encumbered but enriched, as a banquet table with
festal crowns and sparkling wines--all these, and many other
characteristics, to which our space forbids us to do justice,
render these 'Nile Notes' quite distinct from all former books
of Eastern travel, and worthy 'to occupy the intellect of the
thoughtful and the imagination of the lively.' Never did a
wanderer resign his whole being with more entire devotion to
the silence and the mystery that brood, like the shadow of the
ages, over that dead, dumb land. A veritable lotus-eater is our
American Howadji!'"

And a dozen other London journals might be quoted to the same effect. But critics disagree, as well as doctors, and the Boston _Puritan Recorder_ comes down on the Howadji in the following exemplary manner:

"This is a much-vaunted book, by a young American, but one in
which we take no pleasure. In the first place, it is written in
a most execrable style,--all affectation, and verbal wriggling
and twisting for the sake of originality. The veriest sophomore
ought to be "rusticated" for such conceited phrases as
"beautiful budburstiness of bosom,"--"her twin eyes shone forth
liquidly lustrous"--and innumerable expressions in the same
namby-pamby dialect. But dellacruscan folly is but a trifle
compared with the immoral tendency of the descriptions of the
_gahzeeyah_, or dancing girls of Egypt, and the luscious
comments on their polluted ways and manners. We thought the
Harpers had done publishing this indecent trash."

* * * * *

D. M. Moir, the "Delta" of _Blackwood's Magazine_, has just published in Edinburgh, _Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half Century_, in six Lectures, delivered at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution.

* * * * *

The Rev. Satan Montgomery, otherwise called _Robert_ Montgomery, is not dead, as some have supposed, but is still making sermons and verses--probably sermons and verses of equally bad quality; and we see with some alarm that the Rivingtons advertise, as in preparation, a complete edition of his _Poetical Works_ [we never saw any works by him that were poetical] in one octavo volume, similar in size and appearance to the octavo editions of Southey, Wordsworth, &c., &c., and including the whole of the author's poems--_Satan_, _Woman_, _Hell_, and all the rest,--in a revised form, with some original minor pieces, and a general preface. We don't suppose he will take our counsel, yet we will venture it, that he make use of Macaulay's reviewal of his poems, instead of any "general preface" of his own.

* * * * *

Documentary History of New-York.--The forthcoming (third) volume of this State contribution to our historical literature will well sustain the reputation of its predecessors and of its zealous editor. Dr. O'CALLAGHAN is an enthusiast in his zeal for lighting up "the dark ages of our history," as Verplanck called the Dutch period; and he has done as much as any man living to rescue the fast perishing memorials of the founders of the Empire State. It is fortunate for the State that his industry and patient research are secured for the proper arrangement of the Archives--too long neglected and subject to loss and mutilation. The new volume has come to hand too late for any elaborate notice or review of its contents; but a glance at the list of papers and illustrations alone warrants the opinion we have expressed. We notice particularly the account of Champlain's explorations in Northern New-York, &c., from 1609 to 1615--translated from the edition of 1632. The historical student cannot fail to note the coincidence of discovery and exploration by the Dutch and French; and the credit due to the "Founder of New France;" to which we have alluded in the article on the Jesuit Relations. The translations of the extracts from Wassenaar (1624, etc.), give an interesting cotemporaneous view of the progress of the European discoveries and settlements in America. A chapter on Medals and Coins contains attractive matter, particularly that portion which relates to the "Rosa Americana coins," connected as they are with the "Wood's half-pence," immortalized by Dean Swift. The notes and biographical sketches by the editor, scattered through the volume, add materially to its value--as also the numerous maps and engravings. We have heard hints that some small suggestions of disinterested economists of the public money, or other considerations less creditable, have been brought to bear against the continuation of this publication--but we trust that they will end when they begin. New-York owes it to her own great history to make its material accessible to all.

* * * * *

Colonel Albert J. Pickett, of Montgomery, has in the press of Walker and James, of Charleston, _The History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period_. It will make two handsome volumes, and from some passages of it which we have read, we believe it will be a work of very unusual attraction. It will embrace an account of the invasion of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, by De Soto, in 1539-41; of the Aborigines of these states, their appearance, manners and customs, games, amusements, wars, and religious ceremonies, their ancient mounds and fortifications, and of the modern Indians, the Creeks, Chickasaws Choctaws, Alabamas, Uchees, Cherokees, and other tribes; the discovery and settlement of Alabama and Mississippi by the French, and their occupation until 1763; the occupation of Alabama and Mississippi by the British for eighteen years; the colonization of Georgia by the English; the occupation of Alabama and Mississippi by the Spaniards for thirty years; and the occupation of these states by the Americans from 1800 until 1820. One whole chapter is taken up with an interesting account of the arrest of Aaron Burr in Alabama in 1807; and the exciting controversies between Georgia, the Federal Government, Spain, and the Creek Indians, are treated at length. The work will be illustrated by really valuable engravings, after original drawings made by a French traveller in 1564.

* * * * *

Mrs. Farnham, author of _Prairie-Land_, (a very clever book published three or four years ago by the Harpers), and widow of the late Mr. Farnham who wrote a book of travels in Oregon and other parts of the Pacific country, is now living in a sort of paradise, about seventy miles south of San Francisco. In a published letter she gives the following description of her farm:

"It is very heavily timbered and watered with clear living
streams running through valleys of the most fertile soil, on
which delicious vegetables grow ten months of the year. The
region is especially famed for potatoes, which become almost a
fruit here. The farm I live on is charmingly situated about a
mile from the old Mission, and two from the beach, on which a
tremendous surf breaks and thunders day and night. From my
house I look over the coast-table and range of mountains, the
hills of Monterey, the bay, and a near landscape, exquisitely
diversified by plain and wood, hill and valley, and almost
every shade that herbage and foliage, in a country without
frost, can show. The rainy season is about a month old, and the
earth as green as it is at home in June. Another month will
pile it with clover, and less than another variegate it with an
inconceivable variety of the most exquisite flowers--for this
is the land of flowers as well as of gold. Our prairies are
quite insignificant in their floral shows, compared to it. The
country and climate are faultless--except in the lack of
showers through the dry months. Nearly every thing one can
desire may be grown upon one's own farm here."

* * * * *

Mr. Charles Gayarre, a gentleman distinguished in the affairs of Louisiana, in which state he has held some important offices, has just published in a handsome octavo, _Louisiana, its Colonial History and Romance_, (Harper & Brothers.) It appears from the preface, that Mr. Gayarre has had excellent opportunities for the collection of materiel for a really good book of the sort indicated by his title; but this performance is utterly worthless, or worse than worthless, being neither history nor fiction, but such a commingling of the two that no one can tell which is one or which the other. The uncertainty with which it is read will be disagreeable in proportion to the interest that it excites; and, knowing something of the colonial history of Louisiana, we are inclined to think that a book quite as entertaining as this might have been composed of authenticated facts. Indeed the _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, by Mr. French, (published by Daniels and Smith, Philadelphia,) must be to even the most superficial reader a far more attractive volume.

* * * * *

The _Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution_, by BENSON J. LOSSING, (Harper & Brothers,) is a work that cannot well be praised overmuch. There have been an immense number of illustrated and pictorial histories of this country, all or nearly all of which are worthless patchwork; but Mr. Lossing's is a production of equal attractive interest and value. The first volume only has been completed; one more will follow with all convenient haste, ending the work. The letter-press is written from original materials, the drawings of scenery are made from original surveys, the engravings are executed, all by Mr. Lossing himself; and in every department he evinces judgment and integrity. The Field Book will not serve the purposes of a general history, but to the best informed and most sagacious it will be a useful companion in historical reading, while to those who seek only amusement in books, it may be commended, for its pleasant style and careful art, as one of the most entertaining works of the time.

* * * * *

We are glad to perceive that Mr. J. H. INGRAHAM, author of _The Southwest, by a Yankee; Burton, or the Sieges_; and a large number of the vilest yellow-covered novels ever printed in this country, has been admitted to the deaconate in the Episcopal church at Natchez, and intends shortly to remove to Aberdeen, in the same state, to found a society in that city.

* * * * *

Mrs. Judson ("Fanny Forrester") left Calcutta in January for the United States, by way of England, and she is now daily expected home, by her old and warmly attached friends here. We see suggested a volume of her poems--some of which have much tenderness and beauty; and hope that measures will be taken to insure such a publication, for her exclusive benefit, immediately.

* * * * *

Our contemporary, the Philadelphia _Lady's Book_, is a little out of season in its fashions. The April number of that excellent periodical contains the Parisian Fashions which appeared in _The International_ for February; and for this present month of May, we see in _The Lady's Book_ the altogether too warm and heavily made dresses given in _The International_ for last January--mid-winter. Certainly Philadelphia ought not to be so far behind New-York in these matters. In its literary character the _Lady's Book_ is still sustained by the contributions of its favorite critic Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman, with those of Mr. T. S. Arthur, Miss Adaliza Cutter, and Mrs. Sarah J. Hale.

* * * * *

We regret that the terms in which we lately announced Mr. J. R. TYSON'S forthcoming _History of the American Colonies_ were capable of any misapprehension. We know Mr. Tyson quite too well to entertain a doubt of his perfect integrity as a historian; but it has been a subject of frequent observation in the middle and southern states that the New-England writers, who have furnished most of our histories, have exaggerated the influence of the Puritans and depreciated that of the Quakers and Cavaliers: Mr. Tyson himself, we believe, has been of this opinion; and we merely look for an able, fair, and liberal history, from his point of view.

* * * * *

Mr. VALENTINE is preparing a new volume of his _Manual of the Common Council of New-York_. The volumes hitherto published have been edited with great care and judgment; they embody an extraordinary amount and variety of interesting and important facts connected with the advancement and condition of the city; and the series is indispensable to any one who would write a history of New-York, or the lives of its leading citizens. The last volume was unusually rich in maps and statistics, and we understand that the next one will be even more interesting and valuable.

* * * * *

Mr. WILLIS has just published (through Charles Scribner) a new volume under the characteristic title of _Hurry-graphs, or Sketches of Scenery, Celebrities and Society_, taken from life. It embraces the author's letters to the Home Journal, from Plymouth, Montrose, the Delaware, the Hudson, the Highlands, and other summer resorts, with personal descriptions of Webster, Everett, Emerson, Cooper, Jenny Lind, and many other notabilities. It will be a delightful companion for the watering places this season.

* * * * *

Among the most beautiful books from the American press is _Episodes of Insect Life_, by ACHETA DOMESTICA, just reprinted by J. S. Redfield. The natural history and habits of insects of every class are delineated by a close observer with remarkable minuteness, and in a style of unusual felicity; and the peculiar illustrations of the book are more spirited and highly finished than we have noticed in any publication of a similar character.

* * * * *

The Harpers have published a new edition of the _Greek Grammar_ of Philip Buttman, revised and enlarged by his son, Alexander Buttman, and translated from the eighteenth German edition by Dr. EDWARD ROBINSON. It is not to be doubted, we suppose, that this grammar, in the shape in which it is now presented, is altogether the best that exists of the Greek language. We are not ourselves competent to a judgment in the case, but from all we have seen upon the subject by the best scholars, we take this to be the general opinion.

* * * * *

JOHN P. KENNEDY has in the press of Putnam a new and carefully revised edition of his _Swallow Barn, or a Sojourn in the Old Dominion_, one of the most pleasant books illustrative of local manners and rural life that has ever been written. It is more like Irving's Bracebridge Hall than any other work we can think of, and is as felicitous a picture of old Virginia as Jeffrey Crayon has given us of Merrie England. The first edition of Swallow Barn was published twenty years ago; the new one is to be beautifully illustrated in the style of Irving's _Sketch Book_.

* * * * *

Dr. FRANCIS LIEBER, the learned Professor of the South Carolina College, has been elected a member of the National Institute of France. Dr. Lieber is a German, but he has resided in this country many years. Among Americans who have been thus complimented are Mr. Prescott and Mr. Bancroft. The late Henry Wheaton was also a member of the Institute.

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The entertaining book, _Ship and Shore_, by the late Rev. WALTER COLTON, has just been published by A. S. Barnes & Co., who will as soon as practicable complete the republication of all Mr. Colton's works, under the editorship of the Rev. Henry T. Cheever.

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The _Domestic Bible_, by the Rev. Ingram Cobbin, just published in a very handsome quarto volume in this city by S. Hueston, we think decidedly the best edition of the Scriptures for common use that has ever been printed in the English language. Its chief merit consists in this, that without embracing a syllable of debatable matter in the form of notes, it contains every needful explanation and illustration of the text that can be gathered from ancient art, literature and history, expressed with great distinctness and compactness, together with such well-executed wood engravings as unquestionable knowledge in this age could suggest--omitting altogether the absurd fancy embellishments which in most of the illustrated Bibles are so offensive to the taste, and so worthless as guides to the understanding. The editor we believe is a clergyman of the Episcopal Church in England, but he has had the good sense to avoid, so far as we can see, everything that would vex the sectarian feelings of any one who admits that the Bible itself is true.

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The _Life, Speeches, Orations, and Diplomatic Papers of Lewis Cass_, are in press at Baltimore, under the editorship of Mr. George H. Hickman. _The Speeches, Forensic Arguments, and Diplomatic Papers_ of Daniel Webster (to be comprised in six large octavo volumes), are in the press of Little & Brown of Boston, under the care of Mr. Edward Everett. _The Memoirs and Works of the late John C. Calhoun_ are soon to be published in Charleston, by Mr. R. K. Craller, and we hear of collections of the Speeches and Public Papers of Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Benton. All these are important works in literature, affairs or history.

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Professor GILLESPIE, of Union College, has just published (Harper & Brothers) a translation of The Philosophy of Mathematics, from the _Cours de Philosophie Positive_ of AUGUSTE COMTE. The intellect of Europe in this century has evolved no greater work than the Philosophie Positive, and Professor Gillespie has done a wise thing in rendering into English that part of it which relates to the field of mathematical science.

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Professor LINCOLN'S edition of Horace (recently published by the Appletons) is the subject of much commendatory observation from critical scholars. For purposes of instruction it is likely to have precedence of any other that has been printed in this country. Those having marginal translations may be very convenient for indolent boys, but they are not altogether the most serviceable.

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A work of very great ability has appeared in Paris, under the title of _De la Certitude_, (Upon Certainty), by A. JAVARY. It makes an octavo of more than five hundred pages, and for originality of ideas and illustrations, and cumulative force of logic, is almost unrivalled. The sceptical speculation of the time is reduced by it to powder, and thrown to the winds.

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Mr. MCCONNELL, who gave us last year a brilliant volume under the title of "Talbot and Vernon," has just published, _The Glenns, a Family History_, by which his good reputation will be much increased. It displays much skill in the handling, and is altogether an advance from his previous performance. (C. Scribner.)

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The wife of a shipmaster trading from Boston in the Pacific, has just published a volume entitled _Life in Fejee, or Five Years among the Cannibals_. It is a very entertaining book, and we are obliged to the cannibals for not eating the author.

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Noticing the appointment of Mr. S. G. GOODRICH to be consul for the United States at Paris, the London _News_ says: "In these days of testimonials and compliments, we should not be surprised to hear of an address of congratulation to the admired Peter, from the 'children of England.'"

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Of recent American Novels, the best that have fallen under our notice (except those of Hawthorne and McConnell, before noticed), are, _The Rangers, or the Tory's Daughter_, a very interesting tale illustrative of the revolutionary history of Vermont, by D. P. Thompson, author of "The Green Mountain Boys," (B. B. Mussey & Co., Boston); _Mount Hope, or Philip, King of the Wampanoags_, by C. H. Hollister, (Harper & Brothers); _Rebels and Tories, or the Blood of the Mohawk_, by Lawrence Labree, (Dewitt and Davenport); and _Second Love_, a pleasant domestic story, by an anonymous writer, (G. P. Putnam.)

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The Hakluyt Society, in London, has commenced its series of publications with _Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America and the Islands adjacent_, collected and published by Richard Hakluyt, Prebendary of Bristol, in the year 1582: edited, with notes and an introduction, by John Winter Jones. The society should have many subscribers in this country.

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Dr. MAYO has published a new book of tales, not unworthy of the author of "Kaloolah" and "The Berber," under the title of "_Romance Dust from the Historic Placers._" We shall give it attention hereafter. (Putnam.)

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MASANIELLO is suppressed at Berlin, as _Tell_ had been--not modern imitations of those heroes, but the operas so called, by Rossini and Auber. The Prussian Government, liberal as it was a few months ago in professions, cannot stand the performance of operas!

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Mr. THACKERAY is to commence in London, about the middle of the present month, a course of lectures embracing biographical reminiscences of some of the comic writers of England during the eighteenth century.

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Mr. ALISON, the historian, has been chosen Rector of the University of Glasgow, by the casting vote of Col. Mure, the historian of Greek Literature, who occupied the same place before Macaulay.

The Fine Arts.

The engravings of the several Art-Unions of this country for the coming year will be from excellent pictures. The American Art-Union will offer its subscribers Mr. Woodville's _Mexican News_, engraved by Alfred Jones; the Philadelphia Art-Union, Huntington's _Christiana and Her Children_, by Andrews; and for the same purpose, Mr. Perkins, of Boston, has allowed the New-England Art-Union to make use of his magnificent picture of _Saul and the Witch of Endor_, painted by Alston, and generally considered one of the finest historical productions of that eminent artist. Each of the Unions, we believe, will also publish some less important works for distribution or prizes.

The twenty-sixth exhibition of the _National Academy of Design_, has commenced under favorable auspices. Upon the whole, the collection of pictures is the best ever made by the society. We have not space for any particular criticism, but must refer to Mr. Durand's admirable landscapes; the Greek Girl and full length portrait of General Scott by Mr. Kellogg; Mount Desert Island by Mr. Church; The Defence of Toleration by Mr. Rothermel; The Edge of the Wood by Mr. Huntington; Mr. Gignoux's Winter Sunset, and other pictures in the same department by Richards, Cropsey, and Kensett; and portraits by Elliott, Osgood, Hicks and Flagg,--are the works which strike us as deserving most praise.

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The _Bulletin of the American Art-Union_ for April, describes the opposition to the institution of which it is the organ, as directed by "envy, malice, and uncharitableness," and intimates that it is occasioned by the inability or unwillingness of the committee to purchase the trashy productions of incompetent painters constantly offered to them. We submit to the gentlemen connected with the Art-Union, that they should not suffer the hirelings they may sometimes employ upon the Bulletin, thus to refer to such artists and such men as Durand, Wier, Kellogg, Elliott, and many others, who have ventured to think that their Association does not present altogether the best means to be devised for the promotion of the fine arts. Taste may be displayed in writing, as well as in buying pictures.

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There was recently sold at auction at Paris, for 2,700 francs, a picture by GIRODET, which in its time caused not a little amusement to the Parisians. It was originally a portrait of an actress of the Theatre Français, who married a rich banker. Girodet tried to get the pay for his picture, but the lady and her husband obstinately refused. Hereupon he transformed her into a Danae, receiving the shower of gold, adding other figures, such as a turkey cock representing the eagle of Jove, which rendered the whole work as laughable as it was uncomplimentary to its subject. It was exhibited in one of the expositions in the time of the empire, and no picture was ever more successful with the public.

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KOTZBUE, a historical painter, now residing at Munich, has nearly completed a large picture representing the battle of Züllichau, in 1759, where the Germans under General Wedel were defeated by the Russians under Soltikoff. The work is highly praised, and its author even compared with Horace Vernet for vividness of narrative, truth in detail, and force and harmony of color.

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Mr. ELLIOTT, probably the best portrait painter now living, will soon visit Marshfield, where Mr. Webster has promised to sit to him, for a friend of his in this city.

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Two statues by the lamented SCHWANTHALER have just been set up in the royal library at Munich. The first represents Albert V., Duke of Bavaria, the founder of the library, and a great patron of science. Of course, he is presented in middle-age costume; his head is bare, his face reflective, and his right hand supports his chin,--an image of repose, after a work is accomplished. The other statue is of King Louis (of Lola Montes memory), in royal robes, the left hand resting on his sword, and his right holding the plan of the edifice containing the library, which was built by him. His whole expression is the opposite to that of the Duke, not repose, but restless activity in search of new objects. A critic says that these statues do not stand well on their feet, and that the knees are bent as if one leg was lame, a fault, he says, not peculiar to Schwanthaler.

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We last month spoke of the New Museum at Berlin, one of the finest edifices of modern times. It may be interesting to our readers to know that the total expense of the building and interior decoration was in round numbers $1,100,000. Of this sum the execution of the ornamental work and works of art in the interior, including the frescoes of Kaulbach and others, with the arrangement of objects of art and furniture necessary for their display, cost upwards of $220,000.

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The Exhibition of the Munich Art-Union took place in the beginning of March. Among the pictures, attention was particularly drawn to a series of sketches from Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor, by Löfller. Baade exhibited a Norwegian picture, representing an effect of moonlight: Peter Hess two small humorous pieces from military life, which were greatly admired, as was especially a series of aquarelles representing scenes in Switzerland and Italy, by Suter, a Swiss artist.

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KAULBACH only works at Berlin on his frescoes in the New Museum during the pleasant season. The second picture, the Destruction of Jerusalem, was nearly finished last fall when the cold came on. He left it, and it is now covered and concealed by brown paper till he shall again set to work on it.

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M. LAMARTINE recently presented in the French Assembly a petition from William Tell Poussin, formerly minister of the Republic in the United States, praying the French Government to grant a block of granite, taken from the quarries of Cherbourg, for the national monument to Washington.

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WIDNMANN, the sculptor, of Munich, has recently completed in plaster a group of the size of life, of a man defending his wife and child against the attack of a tiger. The figures are nude, and the only figure yet finished, that of the man, is spoken of as a model.

HAS THERE BEEN A GREAT POET IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY!

The _Eclectic Review_ for the last month, in an article upon the writings of Joanna Baillie, answers this question in the manner following: