NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

The usual flow of publication at the height of the
winter season has been somewhat checked by currents
of interest setting strongly in other directions. But,
apart from the Wellington Literature, which of course
has been abundant, some few interesting books have
appeared during the past month.

Mr. Bancroft, the late American Minister at St.
James's, has added a second volume to his History of
the American Revolution, treating of that part of his
subject comprised between the early months of 1763
and the summer of 1766, or, as the historian himself
expresses it, the epoch in the great drama during which
"England estranged America." Sir Francis Head has
published a volume descriptive of a Fortnight in
Ireland, of which the principal drift is to show how
sedulously the Roman Catholic priests are now engaged in
estranging England from Ireland. And a relative of the
once great Liberator, Miss Catherine M. O'Connell, has
in a very different spirit related Excursions in Ireland
during 1844 and 1850, which derive their chief interest
from repeated visits to the now desolate Derrynane.

Mr. Augustus St. John, so well known by his classical
researches and works on the East, has reproduced some
results of his early travel, in a half-fanciful half-narrative
form, with the title of Isis, an Egyptian Pilgrimage.
Mr. Hillier has transcribed and deciphered the
Correspondence of Charles the First with Colonel Titus while
the latter was engaged in the king's unsuccessful
schemes to evade the custody of parliament, purchased
recently for the British Museum; and he accompanies
them with a narrative, hardly so elucidatory as might
have been desired, of The Attempted Escapes of Charles
the First from Carisbrook Castle, and of his Detection
in the Isle of Wight. Doctor Hamilton Drummond has
issued a volume on Ancient Irish Minstrelsy filled with
original translations of old Irish ballads, and with other
apt and learned illustrations of his theme. Mr. Jerdan,
in a third volume, has continued his Autobiography.

Other miscellaneous books also deserve attention.
Captain Baird Smith, employed by the East India
Company to ascertain and describe the methods of irrigation
used in Northern Italy, with a view to contemplated
improvements in India, has published the result of his
inquiry, accompanied by important plans and sections,
under the title of Italian Irrigation, a Report on, the
Agricultural Canals of Piedmont and Lombardy. The
author of a fictitious diary, supposed to have been written
by the wife of Milton, has followed up her success
in that graceful effort with a supposed narrative by a
fortunate citizen's-apprentice during the time of the
early struggles and settlement of the Reformation
(Edward VI. to Elizabeth), The Colloquies of Edward
Osborne. Major Hough has embodied the experience
of a forty years' service in India, as well as the results of
his access to official papers illustrating an earlier
period of English supremacy in the East, obtained as a
deputy judge-advocate-general in the Bengal army,
under the title of Political and Military Events in
British India from the years 1756 to 1849. Professor
Eastwick, of Haileybury College, has translated for the
first time into prose and verse the famous Gulistan, or
Rose Garden, of the immortal Sadi, by far the most
popular of all the writers of the East. And the book
deserves notice, even apart from its intrinsic literary value,
for the elegant form and rich illustration which it owes
to the spirit of a publisher in a small provincial town,
Mr. Austin of Hertford. An illustrated edition has
been given, in the Library of Messrs. Ingram & Cooke,
of Captain Wilkes's well known United Status Exploring
Expedition during 1838—1842; and in the same Library
have also appeared, The Cabin Book, or National
Characteristics, a translation from the German, descriptive
of Texan and Mexican life and manners; and another
translation, also from the German, of Juliette Bauer's
Lives of the Brothers Humboldt , Alexander and William.

Nor, speaking of serial or library publications, should
we omit to record that Mr. Bohn has added to his Classical
Library a volume of the Orations of Demosthenes,
translated by Mr. C. R. Kennedy; to his
Antiquarian Library, a first volume of Matthew Paris's
English History, translated and edited by Dr.
Giles; to his Scientific Library, a translation of
Schouw's Earth, Plants, and Man, and of Von Kobell's
Sketches fron the Mineral Kingdom, both executed by
the very competent hand of Mr. Arthur Henfrey; to his
Philological Library, an Analysis and Summary of
Herodotus, by Mr. Talboys; and to his Standard Library,
a volume of Bacon's Moral and Historical Works,
comprising the Essays, Apophthegms, Wisdom of the
Ancients, Henry the Seventh, and Historical Fragments.
Mr. F. Lancelot has contributed another to the many
descriptions with which intending emigrants have,
during the last twelve months, been favoured, of
Australia as it is, its Settlements, Farms, and Gold
Fields; the Rev. George Trevor, one of the Canons of
York, has provided us with a not unuseful illustration
of one of the exciting Church questions of the day, in
an account professed to be strictly historical, though
tinged here and there with high church opinions, of
The Convocations of the Two Provinces; Mr. Godwin
has republished from the Builder a series of graceful
and well-informed letters on famous architectural
remains, under the title of History in Ruins; and Miss
Power publishes once again the last survivor of the old
annuals and gift-books, The Keepsake, more prettily
illustrated than usual, and still supported by several
famous names in literature appended to contributions
not unworthy of them.

In the department of fiction there have been several
additions during the past month. Mr. Thackeray has
published his three-volume novel of Esmond, a story in
which the manner of a writer of the days of Queen
Anne is very happily assumed. A new novel of Irish
life, by Mr. Carleton, has appeared, Red Hall, or the
Baronet's Daughter. The author of Paddiana has
given us the Life and Opinions of Dr. Blenkinsop,
comprising actual adventures and sketches of real life
within a framework of fiction. Miss Geraldine Jewsbury
has published a juvenile tale, called The History of an
Adopted Child. To Mr. Wilkie Collins we are indebted
for Basil, a Story of Modern Life; another story of
the day has appeased as The Fortunes of Francis Croft,
an Autobiography; and Mrs. Marsh, the author of the
Two Old Men's Tales, has added Castle Avon to her
interesting series of works of fiction.

In conclusion, the principal additions of the last
month to what we may call the Wellington Literature,
may be briefly stated in their order of publication, after
singling out, as worthy of separate mention, the Poet
Laureate's Ode. They have included a reproduction of
the original designs and etchings, with descriptive notes,
of The Wellington Shield, designed by Stothard; a
republication, in parts, of Booth's History of the Battles of
Quatre-Bras and Waterloo, published at the time of
the victory with a great many etchings by Mr. George
Jones, and now further recommended by a facsimile of
the Duke's letter to the publisher expressive of the
pleasure with which, in those early days of his victories
(he cured of the habit in later life) he meant to read the
narrative; M. John Lemoinne's Wellington from a
French point of view; Wellington Lyrics, by Mrs. E.
Francis Smith; Wellingtoniana, or anecdotes selected by
John Timbs. Wellington and Waterloo, by Alphonse De
Lamartine; the first volume of a Life of the Duke of
Wellington, by Mr. J. H. Stocqueler; a small illustrated
book called The military and Political Life of the Duke
of Wellington; Mr. Nicholas Michell's poem on the
Burial of Wellington; an Oxford Graduate's Elegy on
the same subject; Mr. T. Binncy's dissertation on
Wellington as Warrior. Senator, and Man; a tract filled
with The Wisdom of Wellington , or Maxims of the Iron
Duke ,- a spirited Eloge, delivered at Edinburgh on the
day of the funeral, by the Sheriff of Mid-Lothian; and a
brief essay on the Life and Character of the Duke of
Wellington, by Lord Ellsmere. which is distinguished from
the great mass of the publications enumerated, by the
act of its containing here and there a fresh and original
impression of the Duke's opinions and conversation.