It appears that the bill introduced for the removal of
the prohibitions on raw cotton and coarse cotton fabrics
had passed the Chamber of Deputies, but had been
thrown out by the Senate.

Advices have been received from California to the
15th of December. At the mines there was nothing
new. The rainy season caused a suspension of labour
on the rivers, but increased it in another way by
supplying water for washing soil that had been previously
heaped up. Fresh discoveries of quartz veins and other
deposits were made with undiminished frequency, and
were sufficient to show that the room for employment is
inexhaustible. In some places, it is mentioned, the
quartz increases in richness with its depth, and in one
instance several pounds weight, that showed no gold,
yielded on being tested 2 dollars to the pound. The
account of the extraordinary discovery made by some
Mexicans at a spot called Bear Valley, whence they
obtained 200,000 dollars in ten days, is fully confirmed.
The profits of agriculture in California during the
past year had been very great. Outrages by the Indians
still caused much excitement. But many murders
committed by other persons were charged upon them. It
appears that the total of Californian gold received at
the mints of New Orleans and Philadelphia during 1851
had amounted to £11,000,000. This, with a moderate
estimate for the sums retained at San Francisco, and the
direct exports thence to England, China, Australia, the
Sandwich Islands, the Pacific coast, and other places,
would indicate that the aggregate yield for the year
must have exceeded £15,000,000, which has been the
highest amount generally anticipated.

NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

ONE of the busiest months of the publishing year has
supplied us with a larger proportion than usual of
volumes likely to find a permanent place in libraries.
The fifth and sixth volumes of Lord Mahon's History
have been followed by four volumes of the Grenville
Papers and the Rockingham Memoirs, respectively
comprising the principal correspondence of Lord Temple,
Mr. George Grenville, and the Marquis of Rockingham,
with their friends and contemporaries, and throwing
light on the track of Lord Mahon's narrative. There
has been published also, in three octavo volumes, Lady
Theresa Lewis's Lives of the Contemporaries of Lord
Clarendon, including biographies of the great
Chancellor's friends Lords Falkland, Capell, and Hertford,
who with him adhered to the Royal Standard after
Charles had planted it at Edgehill; and containing
also a descriptive and quasi-biographical catalogue of
all the Vandyke portraits painted for Lord Clarendon's
gallery. The Life and Letters of Barthold George
Niebuhr is a yet more important biographical work;
comprising, in two volumes, all the most valuable of the
letters included in the celebrated German publication
by the great historian's sister; and contributing much
matter of equal value from original sources. Nor
greatly inferior to these in interest are the two large
octavos which contain the Life and Letters of Joseph
Story, the celebrated lawyer and jurist of America,
which have been carefully edited by his son.

The latter work is a contribution from the United
States. So is the Life of General Washington,
compiled in two duodecimos by the Rev. Mr. Upham from
letters and memorials indited by the great father of the
Republic himself. So (in as far as relates to the getting-
up, as well as authorship, of the volumes) are the two
handsome octavos published by Messrs. Longman on
Nicaragua, its people, its scenery, its monuments, and,
describing that proposed great Interoceanic Canal in
which the author of the book, Mr. Squier, the late
Commissioner of the United States in those distant
scenes, has so notably interested himself. And so, we
may say (though the collecting, reprinting, and editorship
may be held to constitute an original book), are
the Traits of American Humour by Native Authors,
collected by Mr. Haliburton, and published in three
amusing volumes.

Returning now to the more direct contributions of
English writers or translators, we have to mention, among
the more prominent publications of the month, two octavo
volumes with the title of Protestantism Contrasted with
Romanism, of which the object is to put in close apposition,
on successive dogmas and doctrines of Christianity,
the acknowledged and authentic teaching of each religion.
Mr. Caird has also republished his letters on English
Agriculture in 1850-51 which were written for publication
in the Times. Mr. E. Pococke has given us a
disquisition on India in Greece, of which the design is
to refer the sources of Hellenic faith and civilisation to
the East. Mr. Worsaae, an intelligent Danish
antiquarian, has written an Account of the Danes and
Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland,
vindicating the fair fame of his countrymen in the doubtful
transaction of their English invasion, which Mr. Murray
publishes in an excellent translation. The Hakluyt
Society have added to their valuable and interesting
stores a translated volume of Notes upon Russia at
the opening of the sixteenth century, by the German
ambassador Herberstein. And another curious translation
has been made of a series of tales illustrative of
the political morality of the East, written by a Sicilian
Arab of the twelfth century, first brought into notice
by Amari, and now published in English with the title
of Solwan, or the Waters of Comfort.

General literature has had several agreeable
additions. Mr. Broderip has collected another volume of his
delightful anecdotes and illustrations of natural history,
under the title of Note Book of a Naturalist. To
Miss Mitford we are indebted for three volumes of
Recollections of a Literary Life, which relate
however (and they are none the worse for this) more to
books than persons. To the Hon. Henry J. Coke we owe
thanks for A Ride over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon
and California; to Mr. R. H. Mason for Pictures of
Life in Mexico, half-fact, half-fiction, but meant to
express life as actually existing there; to the Rev. H.
Formby for a pleasing collection of words and music
under the title of the Young Singer's Book of Songs;
and to sundry publishers for sundry additions to
illustrated, fanciful, and children's literature, of which
the single volumes best worth mention are a new
translation of Andersen's Danish Fairy Tales and
Legends; a collection of illustrated nursery lays,
called Child's-Play, by E. V. B.; a little story on the
Pathway of the Faun, by Mrs. T. K. Hervey; another
entitled Mary Gray, by the author of the 'Discipline
of Life;' and two little volumes which are meant as
imitations of old books, written and printed after the
manner of some centuries ago, with the respective
titles of Queen Philippa's Golden Booke, and the
Household of Sir Thomas More.

Our list for the month will be tolerably complete
when we have added some works of fiction, and two
books suggested by a leading topic of the day, which
latter we will mention first. Captain Addison has
translated and annotated a Swiss baron's treatise (the
Baron P. E. Maurice) On National Defence in England,
and Colonel Chesney has published Observations on
the Past and Present State of Fire Arms, and on the
probable effects in war of the new musket. Of the
principal novels of the month the names are the Two
Families, Emily Howard, the Delameres of Delamere
Court, Allerton and Drew, and Darien, the last by poor
Eliot Warburton. Mr. Lemon has published a volume of
his papers and poems from periodicals, with the title of
Prose and Verse; and Mr. Wilkie Collins has written
a Christmas story called Mr. Wray's Cash-Box.

We may close with a mention of the appearance of the
first part of Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Geography, which will convey a welcome
intimation to all who possess the other classical
dictionaries issued by the same scholar.