those of the city banks are near three millions less, being nearly as low as in February, 1845, when the government, transferring its money to other cities for payment of the loan, had thrown the balance heavily against this city. The usual course of trade is for the city banks to expand from May to August, and for the country banks to contract. This year, under the war apprehensions, the reverse has been the case, and the city loans are probably six millions less than they would have been but for the breaking out of hostilities. The expenditure of the federal government has also continued to exceed its revenues, and the deposites have diminished during the month. There were in the city at the close of August $3,821,099 against $3.924,984 at the close of July. The aggregate deposites had from $11,132,638 fallen to $9,8 6,461. The issues of treasury notes, under the act of June, amount to less than $1,000,000. The whole state of affairs in the financial world is such as to make it a propitious moment for the operation of the hard money principles of the new Independent Treasury law, if peace can speedily be effected.

The effect of the war thus far has been to contract the circulation of credits without producing any great quantity of floating government paper. The quantity of specie in the country is large. The New-York banks hold $8,000,000, which is amply sufficient to meet the calls of the importers to discharge their duties in the precious metals, more particularly that those duties will be low, as, for instance, an invoice of 1000 boxes of sugar under the present tariff requires from the importer a cash payment of some $12,000, which payment is in bank credits that subject the institution to a demand for specie to that amount. After December, the payment on the same quantity taken out of warehouse will be but about $4,000, actually drawn from the bank and paid to the government. The demand upon the commercial capital, under low duties, must be greatly less than under high ones, and, as a consequence, the release of the capital of small importers from those requirements will off-set what stringent, if any, might arise from paying the low duties in specie.

Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon, with corrections and additions. By HENRY DRISLER, M. A., Adjunct Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages in Columbia College, New-York.

THIS is indeed a great book. To say that it is vastly superior to any Greek-English Lexicon hitherto published, either in this country or in England, is to give but a small idea of its merits. The work professes to be "based on the German work of FRANCIS PASSOw," and those who know any thing of Greek Lexicography, know how sure a basis Passow is. But Messrs. Liddell & Scott's Lexicon is any thing but a mere translation of Passow's work, with additions and corrections. They saw clearly that his system of Lexicography was the only true one; but he had not lived long enough to complete the work which he understood so well, and they wisely proposed to themselves the task of carrying it on. And well has that task

been accomplished. With a diligence and enthusiasm rarely exhibited out of Germany, and of which, certainly, we hardly suspected the present race of English scholars to be capable, they read up carefully the later authors, to whom Passow's labors had been largely extended, and wrought in the materials thus obtained in the very spirit of Passow himself, so far as the idea of the Lexicon is concerned. So far as the result could be obtained by pains-taking labor, every article in this Lexicon is a history of the usage of the word referred to, the earliest authority being given first, and latter ones added, as far as possible, in historical order. The great advantage of this system is so obvious, that not a word need be said in its favor. The student who gets his first impressions of a word from DONNEGAN'S Lexicon, for instance, if he get correct significations at all (which is a mere chance,) will get them confusedly thrown together without reference to the different periods of their use;

while in the work before us, they follow each other in an order always intelligible, and precisely that which the actual wants of study require. But the merits of the work as a book for students, do not stop here. A strict arrangement of the matter is observed throughout; first, the grammatical form, then the root, then the interpretation and examples, and lastly, special remarks on the prosody, when necessary. Irregular tenses are placed in their own alphabetical order-a necessary aid to young students.

All that we have said thus far applies to the English edition of the work before us. We are delighted to find that Mr. Drisler has made the American edition greatly better and more available for practical purposes than the English. By additional reading, and by the judicious use of the late valuable general Lexicons of Pape, Rort and Palon, &c., as well as of numerous special Lexicons, he has made very valuable additions to the list of common words, as well as to the significations and examples. Mr. Drisler's greatest improve ment, however, consists in the "insertion, in alphabetical order, of the proper names occurring in the principal Greek authors." This measure, which has the full sanction of Passow himself, is so obviously advantageous and even essential in a Lexicon intended for the use of students, that it stands in no need of the elaborate justification which Mr. Drisler gives to it in his preface; all good teachers, and countless students, good and bad, will bless him for the hard work that he has spent upon it. He has gone through a Herculean task in the mere division of the proofs of the work-his additions have been made in the spirit of German honesty and thoroughness-and he has entitled himself to rank among the best of the busy workers in classical literature, who are now bringing the name of American scholarship into good repute in the world.

The mechanical execution of this great book is something of which even the Harpers may be proud. The type is new and of a beautiful cut; the arrangement of the page is neat and satisfactory to the eye; and the paper is of the finest-not whity-brown cotton stuff, spreading the ink in every direction, but clear and strong, yet thin enough to allow of the compression of 1700 pages into wonderfully small and portable limits. No book of the sort has been produced in this country, and very few abroad, that can compare with it in beauty and finish. There must have been an immense outlay of capital in the preparation of this Lexicon, but we are sure that it will be well rewarded; no long time can elapse before such miserable compilations as Groves', and the better, but still vastly inferior Lexicon of Don

negan, will give place to Harper's edition of Liddell & Scott. No high school or college cau maintain its caste, that does not introduce the book. The price of the work is only five dollars-less than half that of the English edition.

AMERICAN TABLEAUX. of Aboriginal Life.

No. 1.

Sketches By V. V. VIDE. Buckland & Sumner, New-York. This neat volume is decidedly the most unpretending that we have received for some time past. As the author very justly admits in his preface, it lays no claim to the respect and confidence that are shown to authentic history, nor does it anticipate the ready favor accorded to highwrought romance.

He attempts, however, by a series of pictures, in some degree drawn from fact, and touched with a poetic and attractive pencil, to render the reader more familiar with the general features of early American history, and of the national peculiarities and customs of our aborigines. The author presents us accordingly with a story entitled, the "Aztec Princess," (the events of which occur in the reign of Montezuma,) together with the "Flight of the Katahba Chief," and "Tula, or the Hermitess of Athabasca."

From a hasty perusal of these, we are inclined to think most favorably of his talents; but we leave the reader to judge how far he has accomplished the object he has had in view.

Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil; with English notes, critical and explanatory, and a Metrical Index. By CHARLES ANTHON, LL.D. Harper & Brothers,

New-York.

This is decidedly the best edition we have seen of the Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil.

So much has been said and written at various epochs and by the most accomplished writers, of the sweetness of his pastorals, and the majesty and extreme elegance of diction by which his "agricultural poetry" is characterised, that it might well be deemed superfluous for us to dwell upon those unrivalled beauties which have been long acknowledged by the whole world.

The annotations of Mr. Anthon are of the most comprehensive, elaborate and useful description. He begins them by a sketch of those customs, habits and events upon which these poems are chiefly founded, and descending gradually to the minutia of his subject, removes all serious difficulties in the way of the student, and enables him to read with the greatest pleasure and advantage. It would appear from the researches of this and other learned compi lers, that originality is only comparative.