The Last of the Barons: By Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer: | oriental, German, in the conception of their character and one volume octavo: New York, Harper & Brothers; Phil- the part they play. We think, moreover, that the outrage adelphia, Burgess & Zeiber. offered by Edward to Anne of Warwick is in accordance neither to historical truth nor historical probability. No such event is recorded, to our knowledge, in any history; and if the novelist has discovered in his researches, which evidently have been deep and careful, any such circumstance, he should have put it, and its authority, on open record.

Bulwer's style and language in the Last of the Barons are, as usual, involved, artificial and meretricious; but pro

abundance of attempts to convert pompous nothings into striking antitheses by dint of capitals and quaintness. These faults admitted, it is, as we have said before, a great and striking work, full of fine scenes and stirring conversations, and high thoughts and deep research.

The Bible in Spain: Or the Journies, Adventures, and Imprisonment of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula. By George Borrow. Philadelphia, James M. Campbell.

This is in our opinion the best work that Bulwer has ever given to the public; and in many essentials the finest novel of the day. It is founded on incidents of great and stirring interest. Its scene is laid in one of those transition eriods-those eras of change from one phase of society and civilization to another-which are beyond all others suited the historical romance. Its hero is one of the noblest that can be imagined, or could be chosen by the novelist-bably less so than in his other romances; though there is an ichard Neville, the great Earl of Warwick, better known as the "king-maker." Its title is derived from the following sententious passage in Hume's History-" He was the greatest, as well as the last, of those mighty Barons who formerly overawed the crown." We do not intend to destroy the pleasure of our readers who have not yet this taken up work, by anticipating its interest and disclosing its plot; nor, if such were our intention, would it be possible for us to do so, the limits which we cannot transgress forbidding an attempt to analyze a book so copious, so full of stirring matter, and comprising so many master characters. Our great reason for preferring this to the other works of Bulwer is the comparative absence of that pseudo philosophy, of that continual attempt by specious sophistry to raise the worse above the better cause; and the entire absence of that pandering to corrupt or vitiated tastes-that palliation of sensuality, and that straining effort to undermine our most sacred institutions and to subvert the morality of marriage-which are features so transparently concealed, and when discovered so offensive, in the former works of this brilliant but false and dangerous writer. Even Rienzi was not free from this reproach. We feel real pleasure in recording our opinion that THE LAST OF THE BARONS is a grand, stately, manly English novel; that, although it contains descriptions of vice, those descriptions are open and revolting, not poetical and seductive; that it does not contain one passage detracting from the sanctity of marriage, or justifying seduction and adultery; but that, on the contrary, the moral of the work is stern and pure; and that it exhibits nothing which need call up a blush to the cheek of

the chariest maiden.

The main plot of the work is the revolution which changed the government of England from a feudal aristocracy to an absolute tyranny, by the destruction of almost all the mightier baronial families at the battle of Barnet and the confirmation of Edward IV. on the bloodbought throne of the sixth Henry-a revolution which, beginning with the battle of Barnet, was completed by that of Bosworth-the first and foremost cause of the change of England from an agricultural to a commercial nation, and the after establishment on her throne of a line of absolute and supreme despots, which was overthrown only by the counter revolution of 1642-a change which could never have occurred but by the demolition of the great baronial race which stood between the people and the throne, checking alike the aristocratic tendencies of the one and the democratic tendencies of the other. There is a kind of underplot, which is most absurd, most characteristic of Bulwerthe history of an inventor of a steam-engine! yes, reader, a steam engine in the year of our Lord 1467!—which is of course utterly apocryphal, and unworthy of the most dignified style of modern writing, the historical romance, in which it is a standing law that every thing which is not true must be like truth, and consonant to the spirit of the age, the country and the men among whom the scene is laid. For the same reason we object to the Tymbesteres, who are not by any means English, but oriental; or if not

Mr. Borrow, known before the appearance of this work as the author of "The Gipsies in Spain," is one of the most remarkable men of his time. As a linguist he is quite equal to our "learned blacksmith," of New England, but in addition to his knowledge of languages and general scholarship, he has a thirst for adventure, an indomitable perseverance, and a peculiar chivalrous feeling about him, that, four hundred years ago, and in Spain, would have made him one of the first knights errant of Christendom. In November, 1835, he left London, under the direction of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to print and circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula. The account which he gives of his mission is exceedingly interesting, but by the mass of readers his book will be valued most for its personal adventure, anecdote, and graphic descriptions of character and manners. Mr. Borrow wandered in the footsteps of the hero of La Mancha, and no work relating to Spain, in the English language, is so worthy to be placed beside the immortal creation of Cervantes. We regret our inability to review it at length in these pages. The late period at which we received it enables us only thus briefly to commend it to our readers.

A Residence of Eight Years in Persia, among the Nestorian
Christians, with Notices of the Muhammedans: By Rev.
Andover,
Justin Perkins: One volume octavo, pp. 500.
Allen, Morrill & Wardwell: New York, M. W. Dodd.

Written by a missionary, and therefore connected mainly with the religious purposes which the author had chiefly in view, this work still embodies a very large amount of interesting and valuable information concerning a country but little known and deserving of attention. It is written in an easy and agreeable style, and bears the marks of manliness and honesty. The author wrote to gratify no personal end, but to impress upon his countrymen the feasibility and duty of advancing the spiritual welfare of the people among whom he resided, by making their character and wants more widely known. We are sure the work will be read with general pleasure and advantage. The striking sketches of personal character, the graphic descriptions of natural scenery, the details of curious incident and adventure, all combine to place it among the most popular books of travel recently published. It contains twenty-seven colored engravings, illustrative of the manners, costume, etc. of Persian society, and other embellishments.

Volumes, small octavo. Philadelphia, Carey & Hart.

Journal and Letters of the late Samuel Curwen, Judge of | The Noctes Ambrosiana of Blackwood. Complete in Four Admiralty, &c.-an American Refugee in England from 1775 to 1764-Comprisng Remarks on the Men and Measures of that Period. To which are added Biographical Notices of Many American Loyalists and other Eminent Persons: By George Atkinson Ward. One volume octavo, pp. 580. New York, C. S. Francis.

Every body acquainted with Blackwood, has a lively recollection of the famous nights at Master Ambrose's, where the "most excellent magazinity," sat in council one evening in every month, to discuss politics, morals, religion and law, letters and art, and indeed every thing which at the time attracted or deserved regard. These "Noctes" were for a long time the chief distinguishing feature of the maga zine. No series of papers were ever more admirably sustained-none ever contained more wit, humor and pathos, more shrewd observation and acute criticism, more merciless personal satire, or more frank, cordial and enthusiastic

Many valuable private journals and letters written during the Revolutionary War remain still to be published, and the earlier they are given to the press the better, as from carelessness or unavoidable accidents there is great danger of their being lost if suffered to remain in manuscript. In the lofts of one of the stores destroyed by the "great fire" in New York was perhaps the largest and most inter-recognitions of truth and genius, in foes as well as friends. esting collection of original letters relating to that interesting period, in the possession of any individual or family. It embraced several hundred by one of the most celebrated wits of the day, whose epistolary style is said to have been equal to Sir Horace Walpole's. A venerable maiden lady in one of the rural districts decided last summer to "move to town." In her garret were a dozen or more trunks filled with old letters-some of which were by one of the most eminent English noblemen of the age, and others by celebrated American and British statesmen and soldiers, written during the Revolution. The good lady thought it a needless trouble to carry them about with her, and made a bonfire of such a melange of "love, war, and politics," as our Philosophical Society would have thought cheaply purchased by a monument to their possessor as high as a lighthouse. All publications of this kind, therefore, which possess any value, should be encouraged. The correspondence of the men who founded the Republic, or who lived in the time of its establishment especially their private letters relating to public characters and events-will ever be read with interest and possess intrinsic worth.

They furnish a brilliant running commentary on the political and literary history of Great Britain for the period through which their publication extends. While reading them in their collected form, we "turned down the corners of the pages" in which passages of peculiar beauty or wit attracted our attention, and the thickness of the volumes was nearly doubled by the operation. Did our limits permit us to do so we should like to quote the touching account which the shepherd gives of Mary Morrison, the graphic descriptions of Macaulay, Shiel, and others, and a hundred things beside, which are hardly equaled in their way but by Christopher North. Yet the Noctes Ambrosianæ have their faults: their uproarious conviviality, for instance, is hardly in keeping with the spirit of "this temperance age;" and there is somewhat too much of bitterness in the denunciations by Christopher and his crew; but their extraordinary merits so exceed these slight blemishes that the reader will be quite willing to forget them. The publishers have done the public an acceptable service by bringing out the Noctes in so excellent a style.

-To Professor Wilson's "Miscellanies" and these "Noctes" we hope the publishers will add a uniform edition of his Poems and Tales, the first of which would make one and the latter two volumes, and thus complete their collection of his works.

The Farmer's Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Rural Affairs:
By Cuthbert W. Johnson. Adapted to the United States by
a Practical Farmer. Numbers I. to IV. Philadelphia,
Carey & Hart.

Judge Curwen was descended from one of the most wealthy and influential familes of Salem, in Massachussets. He was educated at Cambridge, became a merchant, then an officer of the New England forces engaged in the expedition against Louisburg, in 1745, and afterward a justice in the Admiralty court. On the breaking out of the troubles with the mother country he went to London, and in 1784 returned to his native town, where he lived in seclusion until his death, in 1802. In adhering to the royal government he doubtless acted with honesty. His diary and letters show that he was warmly attached to his native country. With other true hearted men, he erred in judg-tion to this very valuable publication. The original work ment. Though the principle which in any event causes a person to sustain the prerogative of a sovereign at the cost of the rights of a subject is ignoble, it is not criminal. We have read Mr. Ward's Memoir, as we read the recently published Life of Mr. Van Schaack-also a Tory-with great satisfaction, and we commend both of these works to all students in American history.

Readings in American Poetry, for the Use of Schools: Edited by Rufus W. Griswold. New York, J. C. Riker. The necessity of introducing our own writers more largely in the common schools, by giving selections from their writings in place of the old and frequently worthless compilations of foreign literature now used, has been often urged and generally acknowledged. The volume before us embraces what the editor deems the best poems of Bryant, Dana, Halleck, Longfellow, Sprague, Whittier, and others, suited to this purpose. We of course have nothing to say of the manner in which he has executed his task. The book is much more elegantly printed and embellished than any of a similar description with which we are acquainted.

Our readers who live in the country, and are engaged in agricultural pursuits, will thank us for calling their atten

which forms its basis is one of the most popular on the subject ever published in England; but our climates, soils and productions are so different from those of Great Britain, that many alterations were necessary to adapt it for the use of the American farmer. These alterations have been made by an experienced and scientific agriculturist, who has carefully revised the book and added much new and useful matter in its several departments. It is what it professes to be, a "complete encyclopedia of rural affairs," well written, well printed, and well illustrated with engravings exhibiting the different kinds of horses, cattle, sheep, grasses, weeds, etc. It will be completed in sixteen numbers.

Tales and Sketches: Translated from the Italian, French and German: By Nathaniel Greene. One volume. Boston, Little & Brown.

We are not acquainted with his originals, and cannot therefore judge of the fidelity of Mr. Greene's translations; but his style is exceedingly correct and graceful, and in their English dress these tales and sketches possess great merit.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

LITERATURE OF THE SEASON.-We are to have few valuable books hereafter in this country, or if good works appear they will come in such a "questionable shape" that those who have been used to the elegant typography of former days will be chary of reading them, and still more so of admitting them to fellowship with the good old editions in their libraries. Cheapness is the only cry. Novels which once cost a dollar may now be purchased for a shil-logy. We trust it will be published. ling, and the only penalty is three or four hundred to the occulist, and a few months confinement in a darkened chamber-matters of little consequence, so that the books be "cheap." In earnestness, the wretched condition of the copyright law-which by "protecting" the native author but makes his productions utterly valueless to him-and the present extraordinary laxity of "commercial morality," have so disordered the business of publishing and bookselling, that the old houses will do very little indeed, and the "news-venders," who have taken up their trade, will give us such writings as they may think proper, in a style so repulsive that they will be read with little pleasure, however brilliant or valuable.

in the preparation of the plates. We are not advised of the probable time of its appearance. We hear also of a very profound Treatise on Music, by the late Dr. Lincoln, of Burlington, one of the most gifted and scientific men of his time. It was left, we believe, in the hands of Mr. George P. Marsh, known to the public chiefly by his extended researches into Scandinavian literature, and Icelandic philo

We await with interest the appearance of the Life and Remains of the late Dr. James Marsh, of the University of Vermont, from the hands of Professor Torrey, his successor in the chair of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy. Beside many philosophic sermons and occasional discourses, with an outline of Psychology, and a Treatise on Logic, Dr. Marsh left behind him a large collection of letters, which we understand will make up the body of these volumes. To the young, they will be among the most valuable and instructive publications of the day. The spirit of a scholar, of a profound thinker, and above all of one who through his life was the "bondman of duty" and of truth, marks these as well as all his other productions, and gives to them a far higher worth than belongs to much of the more ambitious literature of the time. The Memoir by Professor Torrey will be a chaste and tasteful record of a life not abounding in striking incident, but distinguished by a stately growth, and a true development of the highest principles of action and of thought. We understand that the work will comprise two large octavo volumes, and that it will be published during the coming Summer.

There are several other books of great value at Burlington, awaiting the pleasure of those who have them in charge to be allowed to see the light. We fear the distinguished literary gentlemen of that vicinity are somewhat selfish in their views, finding, perchance, a sufficient reward for their productions in the labor of producing, and thinking not enough of the wants of the world around them. We are especially anxious to see in print Professor Torrey's translation of Neander's Church History, a work greatly needed by the whole body of theological students in this country. It is the only complete translation of Neander that has been made. Two volumes were once presented in an English dress, in London, but the whole eight have never before been translated. The appearance of a new edition of the original, in Germany, has probably some connection with the delay in its publication. Professor Torrey has also in manuscript a translation of Schilling's Discourse on Fine Art, which we should be glad to see printed. Professor Benedict's work on Conchology was announced several months ago, and considerable progress was made

There will be the usual number of annuaries published for 1844. "The Gift" will be issued by Messrs. Carey & Hart; and the new volume will surpass any of its predecessors in the merit of its literary contents and the beauty of its embellishments. The "contributions" will be chiefly by the writers for this magazine; and pictures by Page, Sully, Chapman, Cheney, Huntington, and other eminent painters, will be engraved for it. "The Christian Offering," edited by Rufus W. Griswold, and illustrated by J. G. Chapman, N. A., will be issued by Mr. Riker, of New York. It will contain articles by many of the most eminent theological and literary writers of the country, and its embellishments will be of a unique and beautiful description. "The Rose of Sharon," a religious annual, will be published in Boston.

Little & Brown, of that city, will publish in July or August The History of the Conquest of Mexico, with the Life of the Conqueror, Hernando Cortes, and a Preliminary View of Ancient Mexican Civilization, by William H. Prescott, author of the History of Ferdinand and Isabella. It will be founded on original documents, chiefly derived from the Archives of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, and the collection of its President, Señor Navarette-the result of fifty years' researches in the public and private repositories of Spain and the Colonies; and other materials obtained by the author, from Mexico, Paris and London. From England, the best market for a work of this description, the author will not receive a penny for his copyright, in consequence of the absurd and iniquitous absence of laws for the protection of literary property in this country. Two houses in London have advertised editions of it.

We noticed at length in a recent number of this magazine the first volume of the Natural History of the State of New York. Two additional volumes have since been issued-in large quarto, with admirable pictorial illustrations-and we learn with surprise and regret that the four others, necessary to complete the work, will probably not appear at present, on account of a very ridiculous theory of "retrenchment" in the State Government, which, instead of curtailing extravagant salaries and abolishing sinecures, strikes first at the New York Foreign Historical Mission, and at this publication-the noblest of the kind ever made in this or we believe any other country. We hope the concluding volumes will be published, and thus the implied contract of the state with those who have purchased the earlier volumes, fulfilled.

A new edition of "Hinton's History of the United States," in two volumes quarto, with numerous maps and illustrative engravings on steel, will be published in New York on the first of May-edited and continued to the present time by the Rev. John Overton Choules, a most honest and able writer. Of the first American edition of this work there were sold in a few years more than ten thousand copies.

A new historical romance entitled "Hoboken," by our correspondent, Theodore S. Fay, author of "Norman Leslie," "The Countess Ida," etc., will be published by the Harpers in a few weeks. The same house have in press a "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," from the best authorities, and embodying all the recent discoveries of the most eminent German philologists and jurists, illus-cellany had been conducted with distinguished taste and trated by a large number of engravings. This edition has been corrected and much enlarged by Dr. Anthon. They also advertise, "The May-flower; or, Sketches of Scenes and Characters among the Descendants of the Pilgrims:" by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe; "The Speeches of John Caldwell Calhoun," and several reprints of foreign works.