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With a Sketch of his Life, and Selections from his Correspondence with Coleridge, Southey, &c. Edited by his Brother, John Davy, M. D., F. R. S. 8vo, III-DIARY OF A JOURNEY FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE COASTS OF THE PACIFIC With a United States Government Expedition. By Baldwin Mollhausen, Topographical Draughtsman, and Naturalist to the Expedition With an Introduc- tion, by Alexander Von Humboldt, and illustrations in chromo lithography. Translated by Mr. Percy Sinnett. 2 vols. Svo. Fine Map and Plates, IV. THE CONSTRUCTION OF WROUGHT-IRON BRIDGES. Embracing the Prac- tical Application of the Principles of Mechanics to Wrought-Iron Girder Work. By J. Herbert Latham, Civil Engineer. With numerous detail plates, vo. V.-CURIOSITIES OF SCIENCE, Past and Present. A Book for Old and Young. By John Timbs, author of Things not Generaily Known." 12mo. Cuts. XIV. THE AFTERNOON OF UNMARRIED LIFE. By the author of "Morning XV. 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Edited by Ellis and Spedding, and comprising the "Hist ry of the Reign of King Henry VII." Essaye," "Wisdom of the Ancients," with Pretaces, Notes, Trans- lations, &c., and fine Portrait of Bacon when a Boy, from a unique bust, forming vol. 6 of the entire works (which may all now be had), XXX.-HISTORY OF THE LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. By K. O. Muller, Prot. in the University of Gottingen, continued and completed by John William Don- White's Christian Centuries. Just received, a small supply of THE DRAMATIC WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. With a Glossary. A new edition, corrected and improved. With beautiful Portrait, engraved by Robinson. (H. With 38 beautiful miniature line-engraving Illustra- This elegant edition presents greater facility and clearness for reading than any other one volume edition; this is effected by the stage directions, names, &c being rubricated (or printed in red ink), thereby bringing out the text with greater Communications should be addressed to THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' CIRCULAR, No. 6 Appletons' Building, 348 Broadway. VOL. V.-No. III. TO THE TRADE. NEW YORK, JANUARY 15, 1859. The attention of the Trade is respectfully directed to the following prospectus. The AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' CIRCULAR has now been published more than three years, with a constantly increasing circulation and advertising patronage, and the conductor is permitted to refer to many who will testify to its advantages as a reference for the bookbuyer, and as an advertising medium for the publisher. N.B.-Yearly advertisements and subscriptions may be commenced at any period. TO BOOKSELLERS, BOOK-BUYERS, AND BOOK-READERS. PRICE $2 A YEAR. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL TABLE TALK. From "The Historical Magazine." What we generally know about the history of books is concentrated chiefly in bibliographies. This dry narrative only suits a few mouldy bookworms, but there is a large class of readers that are fond of bookknowledge, were it put in a more attractive form. The vast amount of materials that are scattered in different books only require form and shape to make a most interesting volume. There are thousands of books which are encircled with anecdotes, known only to the few, which, if thus brought before the general reader, will eagerly be sought after, and may induce many of them to devote more of their time towards bringing out of obscurity many facts connected with books that would otherwise be lost. Question. What is Bibliography? Answer. The word Bibliography is from the Greek Bißiov, a book, and ypapo means a description of books; hence, a knowledge of the THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' CIRCULAR science of books is as clear a definition as we can give. AND LITERARY GAZETTE, CONDUCTED BY CHARLES R. RODE, Under the Direction of the New York Book-Publishers' Association, Is published every week at $2 per annum, payable in advance; and for the following reasons claims the favorable consideration of all individuals, companies, and associations, who take an interest in the making, selling, buying, or reading of books. 1st. It is the only journal in the United States which keeps a full and correct record of CURRENT PUBLICATIONS. Every number contains the title of books issued during the week, with their SIZE, PRICE, NUMBER OF PAGES, and PUBLISHER. 2d. It contains regularly a list of the most important NEW BOOKS issued from the ENGLISH PRESS. 3d. It is the only journal which gives PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCE MEN CA. 4th. Each number has a copious collection of current LITERARY INTELLIGENCE, concerning Books and BOOK-MAKERS, compiled from the best and most authentic domestic, and foreign sources. 5th. The Circular, besides occasional EDITORIALS upon subjects of interest, has in nearly every number EXTRACTS FROM NEW BOOKS, selected with especial regard to their general attractiveness. 6th. It also gives EXPOSITORY NOTICES of NEW PUBLICATIONS; in tended, not as critical commentaries, but as guides to the buyer, explaining the purpose, and method of each book, without examining into its intrinsic merits. 7th. The American Publishers' Circular is the OFFICIAL MEDIUM of ADVERTISING of the great body of American Publishers, and in that department alone possesses sufficient value to recommend it to the Trade and the Reading Public. Back numbers can be supplied. Q. What books have already been written on this subject? A. There are several incomplete accounts of books written. In the English language we have Hallam's "Introduction to the Literature of Europe." In this book is amassed a very valuable collection of matter; perhaps of its kind the best extant. Dibdin has done much in his "Bibliographical Decameron," "Spenceriana," "Edes Althorpiana," "Cassano Catalogue,' ,""Tour in England and Scotland," "Tour in France and Germany, "Introduction to the Classics," "Literary Companion," "Ames' Typographical Antiquities," and "Bibliomania." All these works are of the most valuable that can be found, and for miscellaneous information on books, cannot be equalled. Dibdin had a rare mind for bibliographical pursuits, and he was fortunate in meeting with such a princely patron as the Earl of Spencer; both the author and the patron will be handed down to posterity, and revered and admired by the book worm. Sir Egerton Brydges, singular and eccentric as he was, has added valuable treasures to our book knowledge. His "Censoria Literaria " evinces great research among the productions of the scholars of the Elizabethan age, and preserves the knowledge of many books that are extremely rare and valuable. His Bibliography is an excellent guide for the book collector, and in fact, the English school of bibliography has not yet produced any man that has spent as much time and money as Sir Egerton Brydges. Watt's Bibliography contains the greatest number of books of any similar work in the English language, but it is not held in very high esteem by book collectors, because of the books mentioned in it not being collated. It is little more than a mere bookseller's catalogue, but the most extensive one, it must be admitted, that has appeared in the English language, and reflects much credit on the author for his industry. The most popular bibliographical English scholar is William Thomas Lowndes. This writer compiled "The Bibliographer's Manual," on the plan of Brunet, and it is considered one of the most authentic that has yet appeared on English books. It is very incomplete, but the matter is well digested and well arranged. The manual contains an account of more than 50,000 distinct books, and in nearly every case the price which each book brought at the sales of several celebrated libraries-such as Heber's, Bindley's, Roxburghe, Townley's, and others. It is well known among book collectors in London, that Lowndes noticed nearly all the books that four of the most extensive and celebrated old booksellers in London had for sale at the time; and it is thought that his "Manual" was compiled chiefly from their stocks. This ought not to detract from its value, but it may account for its not being much more extensive than it is. I will now give you an outline of what you want, and in due time will enter more fully into their merits. Borbien has written "Nouveau Bibliothèque," in five volumes, 8vo, Paris, 1808-10. But Brunet, in his "Manuel du Libraire, et de l'Amateur de Livres," of which a fourth edition appeared in five thick royal 8vo. volumes at Paris, 1842-44, has excelled all previous writers on books. This work took more than forty years of the most diligent study and research to complete. The first four volumes contain an alphabetical and descriptive catalogue of more than 20,000 works in the ancient and modern languages. The fifth volume contains 12,000 more, making in all 32,000 separate works. It is impossible for the mere book-reader to form anything like a proximate idea of the immense amount of labor such a work requires. It is not like throwing off one's thoughts on paper; but it is the constant research for books, their history, and their description. You may know by rummaging among old catalogues, that a book has been printed, but you can only get the running-title-às most catalogues give; as you are collating all the title pages, it is essentially necessary for you to see the book, copy the entire title page-note the illustrations, if any-the number of pages -and other peculiarities which the bookworm only values. Sometimes weeks are spent in collecting together all the minutia for a single book; oftentimes it is necessary to travel from one library to another, in order to insure accuracy. The labors of a bibliographer can never be properly appreciated by the public; he is generally looked upon as a bookbore, a man of one idea-totally incapable of enjoying the pleasures of a social and domestic life. A greater mistake was never made; he lives, it is true, with his books, and in them he enjoys unspeakable pleasure. He can also afford time to enjoy the sociabilities of life; for who knows better than a reading man what such things should be, and who can better converse than he who is in daily communication with the great spirits of the past? Whose opinion, on matters of real importance, is more sought after than the bookworm? All know that such a man must have met, in his extensive readings, something on the subject you wish to know something about. The Germans have produced several eminent and industrious bibliographical scholars. Engelman has produced a Bibliotheca in 12 volumes, 8vo., published in 1840-53. It is a general work, and is considered very learned and accurate. Ebert is also ranked high; he has written a work entitled, "Zur Handschriftenkunde," 2 volumes 8vo., Leipsic, 1825-7. Tiraboschi has done much good service to the world in his history of Italian literature, in 12 volumes. As the Italians were the first who produced anything like good specimens of printing (for what book collector is ignorant of the Aldines?) a book like this must be highly prized. I have now given you a mere outline of the principal books that treat on bibliography, and in my next conversation, I shall endeavor to give you the history of some of the most important books that have been printed, and illustrate them, by way of anecdote, in order to entertain as well as to instruct. W. B. THE INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT CONGRESS AT BRUSSELS. (DURATION OF COPYRIGHT.) From "Blackwood's Magazine." The most superficial glance at the questions submitted to the several sections will enable you to see that the weight of the inquiry really fell upon the Second Section. All the rest were subordinate to the fundamental proposition that was to fix the term of the right, this term being assumed as the common ground for general legislation. The result showed the importance which was attached to it. The debates in the Second Section occupied three long and tempestuous sittings, without being able to accomplish anything more than the affirmation of a general principle, while the business of the other sections was completed, and their reports were agreed upon in two short meetings. All the members of those sections, as soon as they were released from their own duties, crowded every morning into the bureau of the Second Section to listen to a debate, distinguished no less by its intelligence and the variety of views and illustrations it developed, than by the deep interest and earnest convictions manifested by the speakers. It is greatly to be regretted that these able and animated discussions were not reported, for they fairly ventilated every argument which, I imagine, can be brought to bear upon the subject. The proposition submitted to the section was to determine the duration of the right of property that ought to be assigned to an author in his works. This proposition obviously implied a limit. If the committee of organization had not contemplated a limit, in view of an ulterior right in society, they would, of course, have put the proposition in a wholly different forin. The section, however, assumed the initiative upon a broader ground, and before they entered into the consideration of what the limit ought to be, they held it to be their preliminary duty to determine whether there should be any. Instead of putting the proposition in its original shape-What should be the duration of the right of property in literary and artistic works?— they ascended to first principles, and asked, Whether the right of property in literary and artistic works should be perpetual or temporary? Upon this question a debate was raised that lasted through three days, and that called up, according to the report, no less than sixteen orators, some of whom spoke at considerable length, and all with extraordinary fervor. How much longer it might have lasted, had not the regulations of the Congress brought it to a close, it is difficult to say, for at the eleventh hour the members exhibited the utmost reluctance in coming to the vote. But the vote was decisive-a majority of 56 against 36 rejecting the doctrine of perpetuity. You will probably be surprised that there should have been so large a minority on such a question. Your surprise would be abated if you knew how strongly the sentiment-for I will not venture to designate it by any more responsible term-of a perpetual right in intellectual productions had taken possession of the feelings even of many persons in that assembly, whose judgment was opposed to its adoption, or who, at all events, were convinced that it never could be adopted as a principle of law. There were not a few who were willing to capitulate with the difficulty by first asserting the principle in a declaratory resolution, and then abandoning it in practice; anything to be allowed to put upon record their opinion that works of genius ought to be invested with the attributes of a perpetual property. Crotchets were not confined to the Second Section. In the First Section, charged with the resolution demanding the international recognition of the rights of property in works of literature and art, questions of an equally visionary character were raised. It was doubted whether the word "property " should be used at all in reference to such productions, and it was suggested that the phrase, "rights of authors," should be substituted. This produced a lively tournament, nobody perceiving at first that the right of necessity implied property, and that, in this sense, they were in fact convertible terms. The absurdity of the distinction without a difference was illustrated by a pertinent anecdote. ogous objections, it appears, had been urged in the Belgian Legislature in 1839, when a project of law, relating to literary and artistical property, was before the Chambers. Several members opposed the introduction of the word "property," contending in effect that the intention of the law was to confer rights, and not to maintain property; when one of the speakers put an end to the discussion by quietly observing, that they could not dream of removing a word which had already been admitted into the legal vocabulary. "It is evident," he said, "that the law which confers upon authors rights in their own works, confers upon them at the same time a sort of property. It would therefore be a mere puerile affectation to attempt to evade the word while we recognize the thing." Anal Another view of the question was taken by the artists. They considered that property in works of intelligence was a natural (whatever that may be) and absolute right, and that it ought to be protected, and guaranteed, and fenced round by social privileges, like all other property; but they guarded themselves carefully against the supposition that they derived from this principle a claim to perpetuity of rights on the part of the author. On the contrary, they maintained that property, though absolute in its origin and character, is never absolute in its enjoyment. The arguments on this point are clear and precise. All property is obliged to sacrifice a part of its rights to the public interest; all property is held under conditions imposed for the public good. There are restrictions upon cutting down forests, building houses, extracting minerals, and a hundred operations which proprietors carry into execution on their own property. In a certain time, bridges, railroads, and other works of common utility, fall into the hands of the public; but it does not follow that we ignore the right because the public interest limits the usage. The same rational view of the subordination of private property, so to speak, to the general interests, was finally adopted by the Fourth Section, at the close of their tumultuous contests on the principle of perpetuity. They held that property is a right which responds to the desire of appropriation inherent in man; but that property which seeks to be guaranteed by social law must submit to social conventions, and be subjected to conditions of enjoyment, conditions of transmissions, imposts, disinherison, appropriation to public utility. All these obligations are corollaries from the rights guaranteed by law; and if literary and artistical property is to be legally guaranteed in its rights, it must come in under these obligations unless logic is to be wholly disregarded in such affairs. It might be supposed that this very plain statement of an extremely reasonable necessity would have put the advocates of perpetuity to flight; but it only compelled them to shift their position. Driven from their original ground of claiming for ideal property (if we may so designate it for the sake of distinction) the same rights as real property, by which they would have thus, against the grain of their own views, subjected it to the same conditions and restraints; some of the advocates of perpetuity retreated upon a plea which looked very much like begging the question. They asserted that literary property was essentially different from other property; that it conferred peculiar benefits upon society; that it was the great agent of civilization and intellectual advancement; and that, therefore, it should be exempt from the obligations which law imposed upon other kinds of property. But this argument, if worth anything, would apply with equal, perhaps with greater, force to the discoveries and inventions of science; and if books, busts, and pictures were to be relieved from legal restrictions on these grounds, we certainly could not, with any pretence of justice, refuse to extend a similar consideration to steam-engines and electric telegraphs, which have undoubtedly contributed effectively, to say the least of them, to the march of human improvement. If the Congress had accomplished no other result, it would be entitled to the gratitude of all reflecting men for the completeness with which it has disposed of the principle of perpetuity. It has settled that doctrine for ever. The principle of perpetuity, as one of the speakers very significantly observed, is not only inconsistent with the progress of knowledge, by shutting up thought within limits which cannot be overleaped, but, which is still more dangerous, it is irreconcilable with true liberty, notwithstanding that it was in the name of that liberty its advocates clamored for its adoption. So far as authors themselves are concerned, it would not add a shilling to their gains, or a leaf to their laurels. Publishers would purchase copyrights just as they do at present, with a withering indifference to their transmission into an illimitable future. What author could hope to obtain larger terms by being enabled to whisper in the ear of his Dodsley or his Tonson, "Remember, my friend, times are changed with us; I am not now selling you a copyright terminable by law in forty or fifty years, but a copyright which will belong to you, and your children, and your children's children, and your children's children's children, to the end of the world?" How much more would a publisher be likely to give for this interminable terin? And if it did not improve the author's relations with his publisher, if it did not, in other words, improve the market value of the copyright, of what earthly satisfaction would it be to endow works of art or literature with a sham character of perpetuity? Should we not find under a regime of perpetuity, exactly the same state of things we find under a term such as we have in England, which is ample enough to cover the sale of nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand books out of a million-authors consulting their convenience, or their wants, in the sale of their copyrights, and copyrights constantly passing out of the hands of their creators into the hands of the publishers? The great bulk of the literary copyrights belong to the "trade." Who ever hears of copyrights passing down, like family pictures, to the descendants of authors, and bringing them profits? There are, no doubt, examples; but legislation is not to be put in motion for very rare exceptional cases. The final decisions of the Congress not only affirm a limited right of property in literary and artistical works, but embrace every detail necessary to its establishment. The resolutions are minute and comprehensive, and may be said to lay down the whole machinery for carrying the plan into operation. These resolutions have been so imperfectly, and indeed so blunderingly, slurred over and epitomised in the English newspapers, that I will give you a summary of them, upon the accuracy of which you may rely. As a mere historical record, the recapitulation is interesting: I. The Congress is of opinion that the international recognition of property in literary and artistic works, ought to be adopted in the legislature of every civilized people; that it ought to be extended from country to country even in the absence of reciprocity; and that legislation in all countries where the principle is adopted, should be founded on an uniform basis. The rights of foreign and native authors to be assimilated, and no further formalities to be required of an author in the prosecution of his rights in a foreign country, than were required to establish them in his own. IV. There are sundry resolutions in this division relating to works of art, conformable in their general principles to those which apply to literature, and presenting no special feature except a recommendation that penal legislation be adopted against counterfeits and forgeries. V. The proposed fiscal regulations are simple and sweeping. The Congress demands the abolition, or modification, of customs' duties on books and works of art, the simplification of tariffs, so as to facilitate the interchange of such works, and the reduction of postal duties. Here is a complete code of suggestions for the institution of a system of international copyright; nor can it be regarded as the mere speculation of an assembly of men of letters and artists, since it has already received the sanction of at least one of the governments for whose consideration it was compiled. The Belgian minister has declared his intention of supporting in the legislature a law in which these resolutions shall be practically embodied. Nor is it less significant of the sincerity with which the subject has been taken up by those who have the power to influence still more extended results by their example, that the King, accompanied by the Duke of Brabant, attended one of the meetings of the Congress, and that at the close of its sittings he received at dinner some of the principal members of the bureau. It is not unusual for the sovereigns of free countries to be seen in public assemblies, and even to invite special guests to their palaces; but a sovereign who appears in the midst of an assembly convened for a particular purpose, identifies himself with that purpose; and in conferring so marked a distinction upon its promoters, as to give them an express reception in private, he places beyond doubt the interest he takes in its success. His Majesty has since given the most practical proof of his intentions on the subject, by announcing in his recent speceh on the opening of the Chambers a project of law for embodying the recommendations of the Congress. THE LAST DINNER OF DOUGLAS JERROLD. From the "Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold.” Arriving some minutes before the time (Mr. Dickens tells me), I found your father sitting alone in the hall. "There must be some mistake," he said. No one else was there; the place was locked up: he had tried all the doors; and he had been waiting a quarter of an hour by himself. I sat down by him in a niche on the staircase, and he told me that he had been very unwell for three or four days. A window in his study had been newly painted, and the smell of the paint (he thought it must be that) had filled him with nausea and turned him sick, and he felt weak and giddy, through not having been able to retain any food. He was a little subdued at first, and out of spirits; but we sat there half an hour talking, and when we came out together he was quite himself. In the shadow I had not observed him closely; but when we got into the sunshine of the streets I saw that he looked ill. We were both engaged to dine with Mr. Russell at Greenwich, and I thought him so ill then that I advised him not to go, but to let me take him, or send him, home in a cab. He complained, however, of having turned so weak (we had now strolled as far as Leicester Square) that he was fearful he might faint in the cab, unless I could get him some restorative, and unless he could "keep it down." I deliberated for a moment whether to turn back to the Athenæum, where I could have got a little brandy for him, or to take him on to the Covent Garden for the purpose. Meanwhile he stood leaning against the rails of the inclosure, II. Authors to possess exclusive right over their works during their lives, the same right to descend to the conjoint survivor during his or her life: and the heirs or grantees of the author to enjoy the right for fifty years, to date either from the decease of the author, or from the extinction of the right in the late husband or wife. Posthumous works published before the rights of the conjoint survivor, or of the heirs or grantees, shall have expired, to enjoy the same duration of time orig-looking, for the moment, very ill indeed. Finally, we walked on to inally granted by law; if published after those rights are extinguished, the duration to be limited to thirty years. Anonymous works to have a copyright of thirty years, dating from the year of publication; but the author may enter upon his full legal rights by making himself known at any time within that term. The exclusive right of publication is guaranteed to the authors of lectures, sermons, and other discourses publicly delivered; but the speeches of pleaders, and discourses delivered in political assemblies, may be published without the consent of the authors. The exclusive right of translation to be guaranteed to the author for ten years, on condition that he exercises his right before the expiration of the third year, in failure of which any person may exercise it anywhere except in the country where the work was originally pub-. lished. III. Under this head are the resolutions which relate to Dramatic and Musical works. They declare the right of representation to be independent of the right of reproduction, and that there should be no distinction as to the enjoyment of those rights. Musical works to be protected against being executed in public without the consent of the author. It is a strange omission in this department of the labors of the Congress, that no provision is suggested for the protection of dramatic productions against transplantation and adaptation. It may be difficult to identify a child stolen and smeared and stained by the gypsies; but that is no reason why some wholesome police regulation should not be devised with that end in view. Covent Garden, and before we had gone fifty yards he was very much better. On our way Mr. Russell joined us. He was then better still, and walked between us unassisted. I got him a hard biscuit, and a little weak, cold brandy and water, and begged him by all means to try to eat. He broke up and eat the greater part of the biscuit, and was much refreshed and comforted by the brandy. He said that he felt the sickness was overcome at last, and that he was quite a new man. It would do him good to have a few quiet hours in the air, and he would go with us to Greenwich. I still tried to dissuade him; but he was by this time bent upon it; his natural color had returned, and he was very hopeful and confident. We strolled through the Temple on our way to a boat; and I have a lively recollection of him stamping about ElmTree Court (with his hat in one hand, and the other pushing his hair back), laughing in his heartiest manner at a ridiculous remembrance we had in common, which I had presented in some exaggerated light to divert him. We found our boat, and went down the river, and looked at the Leviathan which was building, and talked all the way. It was a bright day, and as soon as we reached Greenwich we got an open carriage, and went out for a drive about Shooter's Hill. In the carriage Mr. Russell read us his lecture, and we discussed it with great interest. We planned out the ground of Inkermann on the heath, and your father was very earnest indeed. The subject held us so that we were graver than usual; but he broke out, at intervals, in the same hilarious way as in the Temple, and he over and over again said to me, with great satis faction, how happy he was that he had "quite got over that paint." The dinner party was a large one, and I did not sit near him at table. But he and I had arranged, before we went into dinner, that he was to eat only of some simple dish that we agreed upon, and was only to drink sherry and water. We broke up very early, and before I went away with Mr. Leech, who was to take me to London, I went around to Jerrold, and put my hand upon his shoulder, asking him how he was. He turned round to show me the glass beside him, with a little wine and water in it. "I have kept to the prescription; it has answered as well as this morning's, my dear old boy. I have got quite over the paint, and I am perfectly well." He was really elated by the relief of having recovered, and was as quietly happy as I ever saw him. We exchanged "God bless you!" and shook hands. I went down to Gad's Hill next morning, where he was to write to me after a little while, appointing his own time for coming to see me there. A week afterwards, another passenger in the railway carriage in which I was on my way to London Bridge, opened his morning paper, and said, "Douglas Jerrold is dead!" Extracts from New Books. ABOUT BOOKS. From "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table." How sweetly and honestly one said to me the other day, "I hate books!" A gentleman,-singularly free from affectations,-not learned, of course, but of perfect breeding, which is often so much better than learning, by no means dull, in the sense of knowledge of the world and society, but certainly not clever either in the arts or sciences,—his company is pleasing to all who know him. I did not recognize in him inferiority of literary taste half so distinctly as I did simplicity of character and fearless acknowledgment of his inaptitude for scholarship. In fact, I think there are a great many gentlemen and others, who read with a mark to keep their place, that really "hate books," but never had the wit to find it out, the manliness to own it. [Entre nous, I always read with a mark.] We get into a way of thinking as if what we call an "intellectual man" was, as a matter of course, made up of nine-tenths, or thereabouts, of book-learning, and one-tenth himself. But even if he is actually so compounded, he need not read much. Society is a strong solution of books. It draws the virtue out of what is best worth reading, as hot water draws the strength of tea-leaves. If I were a prince, I would hire or buy a private literary tea-pot, in which I would steep all the leaves of new books that promised well. The infusion would do for me without the vegetable fibre. You understand me; I would have a person whose sole business should be to read day and night, and talk to me whenever I wanted him to. I know the man I would have a quick-witted, out-spoken, incisive fellow; knows history, or at any rate has a shelf full of books about it, which he can use handily, and the same of all useful arts and sciences; knows all the common plots of plays and novels, and the stock company of characters that are continually coming on in new costume; can give you a criticism of an octavo in an epithet and a wink, and you can depend on it; cares for nobody except for the virtue there is in what he says; delights in taking off big wigs and professional gowns, and in the disembalming and unbandaging of all literary mummies. Yet he is as tender and reverential to all that bears the mark of genius,-that is, of a new influx of truth or beauty,-as a nun over her missal. In short, he is one of those men that know everything except how to make a living. Him would I keep on the square next my own royal compartment on life's chessboard. To him I would push up another pawn, in the shape of a comely and wise young woman, whom he would of course take-to wife. For all contingencies I would liberally provide. In a word, I would, in the plebeian, but expressive phrase, "put him through" all the material part of life; see him sheltered, warmed, fed, button-mended, and all that, just to be able to lay on his talk when I liked,-with the privilege of shutting it off at will. Literary Intelligence. DEATH OF THE SISTER OF ROBERT BURNS-The following notice of Mrs. Begg, the youngest sister of Robert Burns, is from the Ayr Observer :— Isabella Burns, or, as she was more familiarly known, Mrs. Begg, was born at Mount Oliphant, near Ayr, on the 29th of June, 1771, and had she lived till her next birthday would have completed her eighty-eighth year. She was the seventh child and third daughter of William Burns and Agnes Brown, the members of whose family we may mention in the order of their age:-Robert, Gilbert, Agnes, Annabella, William, John and Isabella. About the year 1794 or 1795 she was married, at Mosegiel, Mauchline, to John Begg, who was accidentally killed at Lesmahagow in 1813, and whom she thus survived for the long period of forty-five years. At her husband's death Mrs. Begg was left with a family of nine children, the eldest of them being only eighteen. Except an allowance of £20 per annum for three years from Mr. Vere, she had no other means of support; but, with the indefatigable spirit of Burns, she set herself to eke out her scanty income by teaching a school at Kirkmoorhill, a small village near Lesmahagow, where she continued for three years. Her eldest son, who had received a superior education, and had been intended for the medical profession, was unable to follow out his original views, owing to the slender resources his mother had at her disposal, and was obliged to content himself with the situation of parish schoolmaster. A younger son also occupied a similar post. For some years Mrs. Begg maintained herself by teaching and such sewing as she and her daughters could obtain in the neighborhood of Tranent. In those days the name and fame of Burns made comparatively little noise. Few even of his admirers knew their relationship to the bard at all, and those who did know it had probably to make the discovery for themselves, at least the fact was never obtruded upon public notice. One gentleman in Edinburgh who had dealt with the family for twenty years, never knew of the relationship till they came to live in this neighborhood, although he was an enthusiast about all relating to the Scottish poet. At last, however, interest was made with the government, and a pension of £10 was obtained for Mrs. Begg through the late Mr. Fergusson, of Raith, M.P. Afterward, in 1842, by the kind exertions of Mr. Robert Chambers, a sum of £400 was raised by public subscription, part of which was sunk in an annuity for Mrs. Begg, and which dies with her, £160 being reserved for the two daughters. The proceeds of Chambers' "Life of the Poet," which amounted to £200, also fell to the daughters, and the late Sir Robert Peel, when in power, granted them a pension of £10 each; so that, in coming to reside in the neighborhood of Ayr, the united sums of mother and daughters made up about £37 of annuity. Mrs. Begg is described as bearing considerable resemblance to her gifted brother. She retained her faculties to the last; so much so that on the Tuesday before her death, having had some seed sent her by Mr. Currie, sculptor, in a letter from Melrose, gathered from the "Broom of the Cowden Knowes,' she remarked to one of her daughters that she used to sing that song to her own father more than seventy years ago; and on being asked by her daughter to repeat it then, she gave it with all the glee and spirit she was wont to throw into her vocal snatches. In concluding this notice of Mrs. Begg, the Ayr Observer remarks :—“ It is not fitting and least of all is it fitting at such a time as this, when, in a few weeks, almost the universal voice of civilized men will be raised in celebration of the great poet's centenary-that relatives so near should be left with a miserable pittance, making less than £18 a year to each. The honor we are about to pay to the dead would be empty if we failed properly to show regard to the living, and the first sentiment that will rise to the tongue of thousands and tens of thousands, we believe, will be that a sum in some measure worthy of so august an occasion should be subscribed and set apart for them and theirs by a grateful and admiring people. Thus may an event, which might otherwise damp the joy of many at the approaching centenary, be converted into occasion of a more worthy and satisfactory com memoration." LITERARY CHIT-CHAT.-The fact that very eminent men are seldom represented, after a generation or two, in a direct line, has frequently been observed. Pope, Johnson, Goldsmith, and many others of that time were unmarried. Edmund Burke died, nearly heart-broken, after he had lost his only son. Pitt was a bachelor, but Fox, a married man, had no child. Byron was represented only in the female line, by "Ada, sole daughter of his house and heart." Moore's children all died before himself. Scott left two sons. One died unmarried, and the other had no children by his union with Miss Jobson, the heiress of Lohore. The only one of Scott's children who had issue was his eldest daughter, Mrs. Lockhart. Her daughter, wife of Mr. Hope Scott, died about six weeks ago, leaving a son and two daughters. One of the daughters died about a month ago, and the son, only a year and a half old, has died within the last three weeks. One little girl is all now remaining to bear what Sir Walter Scott fondly hoped would be the long honors of the house of Abbotsford. Thackeray's children are daughters. On the other hand, Tom Hood left a son and daughter; his son, distinguished as author and artist, is about taking holy orders in the Church of England, and the daughter, Mrs. Broderip, is wife of a clergyman. Disraeli is childless. Dickens, as he lately told the operatives of Coventry, when thanking them for a present of a gold watch, has seven sons. By the way, an English paper tells the following amusing anecdote: In the window of the library, No. 212 Rue de Rivoli, Paris, there has lately been exhibited an engraved portrait of Mr. Charles Dickens, with a beard, á la impériale, sitting at a desk in a thoughtful position, and writing. The police entered the shop the other day, and told the proprietor in very angry terms to take the engraving out of the window. They mistook Mr. Dickens's portrait for a caricature of the Emperor.—Philadelphia Press. Mr. Harward's Library has been recently dispersed by Messrs. Sotheby & Wilkinson at high prices, as will be seen by the following quotations:Abbot's" England's Parnassus," 31. 38.; fine copies of the first six editions of Walton's "Angler," 427.; collection of Old Ballads with the plate of the Swimming Lady, 47. 68.; a curious Manuscript on Alchemy, 227.; Brandt's "Stultifera Naves," 8l. 28. 6d.; "Cokain's Poems," 47. 108.; "Scourge of Folly," by Davies, 97. 128.; Dibdin's "Bibliomania," large paper, with illus |