cere yet discriminating sympathy with the liberal elements of the British Constitution, fit him eminently well to be the historiographer of Cromwell and his times, His narrative is a perfectly colorless medium. He is not an admirer of Cromwell; but at the same time fully appreciates all in his genius, tact, and policy that is worthy to be admired. He represents the Protector as less a hypocrite than a self-deceiver, — as undoubtedly patriotic in his plans and purposes, but as disposed to identify his country's interests with his own elevation. Cromwell's diplomatic relations and alliances occupy a large portion of the story, which is enriched by copious references to, and extracts from, documents in the archives of the French government; and, almost throughout the work, we are permitted at the same time to trace the external development of events, and to see in what aspects they presented themselves to the several French agents, who, either as accredited negotiators or as official spies, maintained a constant watch over the varying phases of English affairs. 12. First Lessons in Language; or Elements of English Grammar. By DAVID B. TOWER, A.M., and BENJAMIN F. TWEED, A.M. New York: Daniel Burgess & Co. 1854. 12mo. pp. 125. OUR schools suffer no imposition so egregious as in the cumbrous grammatical text-books in common use, which serve no earthly purpose except to overtask the verbal memory, and to obfuscate the mental perception of the pupil. The Grammar now before us is an honorable exception. Its definitions are as simple as language can make them, and are in every instance illustrated by examples carefully analyzed. Its rules of syntax are few, concise, and comprehensive. It contains no irrelevant matter, and could be studied with interest and profit by an intelligent child of seven or eight years of age. There are but one or two minor points at which we are disposed to take exception. One of these is the identification of articles with adjectives. An article is not an adjective. "Adjectives describe nouns "; but the article designates not a quality of the object to which it is prefixed, but a particular category under which that object is present to the mind of the speaker or writer. Perhaps, however, the definite should be regarded as the only article, and the indefinite as another form of the numeral adjective one. But the definite article ought to be presented as a distinct part of speech, if for no other reason, because in most languages it differs essentially from the adjective in its inflections and habitudes. One of the rules of syntax in the book before us says: "Adverbs describe or limit verbs, adjectives, and adverbs." Why not add prepositions? When we say "He went almost to Boston," almost does not limit went, but to. He did not almost go; but went almost to. 13.-1. Thomas à Becket, and other Poems. By PATRICK SCOTT. London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans. 1853. 16mo. pp. 214. 2. The Recalled; in Voices of the Past, and Poems of the Ideal. By JANE ERMINA LOCKE. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1854. 16mo. pp. 246. WE associate these two volumes, not by the law of resemblance, but of contrast. Mr. Scott's poetry is greatly praised in some leading English journals; but we have been very little moved by it. It has a perfectness of form worthy of the highest genius. The words are fitly chosen, and the versification is mellifluous; but the sentiments are prosaic and frigid. The drama of Thomas à Becket occupies more than half the volume, and contains hardly a false quantity or an ill-put phrase, but not an original image or a stirring thought. The Cardinal's murder in history is fraught with the deepest tragic interest; in this poem it sinks into the region of commonplace. Mrs. Locke, on the other hand, must be conscious of powers much beyond the general appreciation. Her deficiency is in form,—in careful elaboration. Her poems abound in rich, bold, striking, truly poetic conceptions, often expressed so crudely and unartistically, that they can hardly be enucleated at the first reading. Had she the unfeminine audacity to set the conventional laws of verse at open defiance, with much less merit, she might rise, or rather sink, to more extended celebrity; for because now and then a genius has been a literary outlaw, the public are over-prone to take every outlaw for a genius. But Mrs. Locke's defects result apparently from her intense and absorbed interest in the vision that is passing before her thought, excessive rapidity of composition, and perhaps an indisposition amounting to a conscious incapacity to revise what she has once written. The following stanzas may illustrate our meaning. The conception to which they give utterance is a profound truth of experience vivified by images of exquisite beauty; the expression is by no means inharmonious or ungraceful, but in point of finish and richness inadequate to the sentiment. 66 'Only the wounded oyster in its shell Leaves the pure pearl-drop, beauty's priceless gem; 14. Christ in History; or, the Central Power among Men. By ROBERT TURNBULL, D.D. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. 1854. 12mo. pp. 540. If Christ indeed sustains the relations to the Supreme God and the offices toward collective humanity which he claimed to hold, and in which he is received by all Christian believers, then he must needs be in all history. It is impossible that the spiritual teaching and providential leading of man by the Almighty should not, from the very earliest ages, have been in a Christward direction; and equally impossible that the infusion of an element of such transforming power as the Christian revelation and the life and sacrifice of its Author should not thenceforward have tinged the entire current of transactions and events among This is the thought which Dr. Turnbull, in the work before us, has illustrated, both in ancient and modern history. The book is scholarly, but not pedantic; grave, yet never dull; redolent of profound religious conviction and feeling, but wholly devoid of cant, exaggeration, and mysticism. "Its form," as the author says, "is rather popular than philosophical"; but, without the abstruseness and technicality, it has the method, precision, and accuracy, of a rigidly philosophical treatise. We regret that we cannot afford room for a more adequate notice of a production equally creditable to the theology and literature of the country. men. 15.- Purple Tints of Paris; Character and Manners in the New Empire. By BAYLE ST. JOHN. New York: Riker, Thorne, & Co. 1854. 24mo. pp. 446. THE avowed object of this work is to show how well the Parisians are fitted for the imperial yoke by the absence of all traits that would qualify them for self-government. The author has performed his task ad nauseam. We fear that his representations are too true; but we are sorry to have such loathsome and pernicious details made current in a popular book. Especially must we condemn the gratuitous and disgusting prominence given to the prevailing licentiousness of the French capital. 16.-Africa and the American Flag. FOOTE, U. S. Navy. New York: 24mo. pp. 390. By Commander ANDREW H. THIS book does honor to the author's head and heart. Its prime object is to illustrate the beneficent influence exerted by the American squadron on the Coast of Africa, in checking the slave-trade, in protecting the institutions of incipient civilization in and around the colonies, and in defending the legitimate commerce of our citizens. With this purpose, Captain Foote enters somewhat at large into the history and statistics of the Guinea Coast, Upper and Lower, and gives a condensed and spirited narrative of the cruise of the United States brig Perry, under his command, in the years 1850 and 1851. The work is characterized by a wise humanity, and contains much information and numerous suggestions that cannot but be of value to all who are interested in plans for the regeneration of Africa. 17.- The Church: in a Series of Discourses. By REV. SYLVESTER JUDD, Pastor of Christ Church, Augusta, Maine. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. 1854. 12mo. pp. 274. -- THE object of the Sermons in this volume is to set forth the Christian and ecclesiastical rights of the children of Christian parents, their right to be regarded and educated as born members of the Church, and to avail themselves from their earliest years of all the benefits and privileges to be derived from the organization and ordinances of the Church. As to the formal portion of the author's theory, there must of course be a wide diversity of opinion; but his clear and masterly exposure of prevalent defects and anomalies in what is called religious education, and his earnest advocacy of the highest standard of early Christian culture, must needs give currency and value to the book beyond the denomination of which he was a member. The Memoir of Mr. Judd, which will soon be published, will afford us the opportunity, which we must now forego, of considering his merits as a literary artist, as also of paying our affectionate tribute to the memory of one whose noble powers and strenuous industry were consecrated to whatever could diffuse among men the spirit of heaven, and whose undeniable eccentricities, if they sometimes cast a penumbra over his genius, only heightened the manifestation of his kindliness and philanthropy. 18.-1. Russia as it is. By COUNT A. DE GUROWSKI. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 24mo. pp. 312. 2. The Knout and the Russians; or, the Muscovite Empire, the Czar, and his People. By GERMAIN DE LAGNY. Translated from the French by JoпN BRIDGEMAN. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1854. 16mo. pp. 266. COUNT GUROWSKI is a Pole by birth, and was actively engaged in the Polish insurrection of 1830-31. At a subsequent period he became a zealous champion of Panslavism, and looked to the Emperor Nicholas, in the earlier and better portion of his career, as the destined head of the Slavic races. He is now again a republican exile, after having won the right to say, with regard to the principles and policy of the Russian autocrat, Expertus novi. His work is almost wholly confined to the political condition and administration of the empire, and constitutes, as we suppose, by far the most trustworthy source of information on that subject within reach of the American public. He writes in the most grave and serious spirit, and is evidently more solicitous to convey the exact truth, than to give vent to his personal prejudices and enmities. The Frenchman's book, garnished with illustrative engravings, is light, sketchy, dashing, almost gay, though the subject-matter is all sombre and sad. It enters into numerous details of manners, customs, domestic life, and characteristic anecdotes. It gives a sad picture of the priesthood and the religious condition of the Russian Empire, which is represented as being hardly a shade above heathenism. These books, though occupying separate planes of delineation, mutually confirm each other. They corroborate the belief, which we had derived from other sources, that the Russian government, with its show of invincible strength, has the weakness of barbarism, and cannot permanently sustain itself in conflict with more civilized nations. Its finances are ill-managed; its commissariat inefficient and corrupt; its military forces, for the most part, poorly appointed, ill-disciplined, and |