proprietà è un ferto' (property is a theft); so say these French communists, and some of our people are beginning to say it after them. Can there be anything so wicked, so insane, so monstrous? Why, the little wren and her mate, the smallest of birds, claim a property in the nest they have made, and will fight for its preservation. It is a doctrine against nature. Take away the right of property, and men will become worse than wild beasts in a forest. I hope,' said I ‘it is not come to that in Italy.' "But it is coming fast to it,' said the priest; 'the doctrine is spreading far and near, and if it be not checked, the Lord have mercy on us who possess something (Dio abbia misericordia di noi che abbiano qualche cosa.)' "But this doctrine will become dangerous only by spreading among the mass of the people; it can scarcely have reached your peasantry yet. The influence of the clergy and the resident country priests over your rural population used to be so great "It was great—it is great-except where the evil spirit of communism gets possession; but that devil is stronger than their superstition. We are losing our influence even over the ignorant. I, who live much in the country, see we are gradually losing it; but only and solely through the communists, who are telling every poor man that he ought to be, and easily might be, rich. As for all this ranting about country and political liberty, and equality, and unity, and independence of Italy, it may do among the citizens of Rome, but our peasants neither understand nor care anything about it. It is not by such appeals that our rural population are to be excited. Our revolutionists know this, and therefore have well brought communism to their aid.' "He went on a good while longer, but it was only to illustrate and enforce what he had said before. His arguments and tone were entirely worldly; he did not once appeal to any religious principle. With an Englishman and a heretic, why hide any truth?" Pisa, Leghorn, Turin, were successively visited by Mr. Macfarlane. In them all, he met the same revolutionary scenes, and heard the same revolutionary sentiments. We fear that there is too much of truth in his criticisms; that the time has not yet come for the realization of one independent Italy; that for a long time she must continue torn by internal dissensions-cursed by fanaticism and despotism, and their mutual result, ignorance-we fear that of her it must long be said, that she is Nevertheless, we cannot but think, that from efforts made by people to obtain political emancipation, abortive though they be at the time, good must ensue, even though such efforts for a time put a stop to antiquarian researches, thin the galleries of the Vatican, and empty the hotels. We regret that a man so well informed as our author thinks otherwise. cannot have rose-water revolutions. Even thunder-storms have this disadvantage, that they kill vermin. J. E. R. We LITERATURE.-NOTICES OF NEW WORKS. Cosmos. A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe. By Alexander Von Humboldt. Translated from the German by E. C. Otté. 2 vols. London: Henry G. Bohn, Yorkstreet, Covent-garden. Or this wonderful book, "the great work of our age," as Chevalier Bunsen termed it, we shall not attempt to say any thing. Its merits are too widely known. We merely call the attention of our readers to this translation of Mr. Bohn's. Three translations have appeared, but Mr. Bohn's is by far the best, as will appear from the following statement Mr. Bohn has circulated. "Preliminarily it may be as well to observe that the original work was first published in German-vol. 1, in the spring of 1845, vol. 2, in the autumn of 1847, and that three English translations of it now exist. The first translation (anonymous) was published by Mr. Bailliere-vol. 1, in July, 1845, vol. 2, in December 1847, at £1. 4s. The second (translated by Mrs. Sabine) was published by Messrs. Longman and Mr. Murray-vol. 1, September, 1846, vol. 2, December 1847, likewise at £1. 4s. The third (translated by E. C. Otté, with the assistance of scientific friends) was published by myself, both volumes simultaneously, February 1, 1849, at 7s. "Whether the first translation was satisfactory or not, or whether its priority entitled it, according to trade usages, to any exclusive possession of the market, I will not here inquire; it will be sufficient to observe that the publishers of the second were not disturbed by the latter consideration, and accordingly published a new one, which annihilated its predecessor. In the meantime my attention had been directed to the book, and, on projecting the Standard Library, in the beginning of 1846, it was one of the very first set down by me for that series. A vexatious circumstance having delayed my translation, and finding that I could not in consequence produce it so early as I intended, and the other translations being in the interim completed, I thought it as well to defer mine, and, out of what I intended to be courtesy, abstained from announcing it, even after it was ready for publication. "In January 1848, Messrs. Longman, in reply to their express inquiry, were informed by me, in writing, that my edition was in progress; subsequently I mentioned that it was nearly ready; and in the beginning of January last I called on them to say that it would be issued at the end of that month. As I am not accountable to any one for giving to the public cheap editions of books open to all, I thought I was performing an act of extra civility in affording them time to take whatever measures they might deem necessary to compete with me. It soon transpired that I was to be met by an active opposition; I thereupon determined to give publicity to certain advantages in my edition which I might otherwise have allowed to pass sub silentio. "On consulting my translators and examining the book myself, I was enabled to point out the following: DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF MY EDITION. 1. The notes are conveniently placed beneath the text, instead of at the end, as heretofore. 2. The notes are augmented. (See the word Translator, notes by, etc., in the indexes.) 3. The author's Analytical Summaries are for the first time translated. (These amount in the original to 24, and in my edition to 21, pages.) 4. A short memoir is prefixed. 5. A portrait of the author. 6. ALL the foreign measures are converted into corresponding English terms. 7. The passages suppressed in Mrs. Sabine's edition are inserted. 8. Complete indexes are subjoined. I had no idea that any of these advantages could be disputed, but I find that one (No. 6) is altogether denied, and another (No. 7) so ingeniously excused, that it would almost seem a merit to excise the thoughts of great minds, when they do not fall in with the notions of their translato: s. I cannot, however, to use the words of a reviewer, subscribe to the taste which sets literary laundresses to clearstarch the productions of thinkers like Humboldt."" Mr. Bohn's edition of the "Cosmos" forms two handsome volumes; and we feel bound to recommend it in preference to any other edition. The book itself, no student, or no pretender to ordinary intelligence, should be without. Lectures addressed chiefly to the Working Classes. By W. J. Fox, M.P. Vol. IV. London: Charles Fox, Paternoster-row. OUR readers may be aware that Mr. Fox has already published three volumes of lectures to working men. The last and concluding one has just appeared. They are volumes alike honourable to the author and to that great class to which they are addressed. "They may," as Mr. Fox remarks, “serve as a memorial of that earnest desire which has possessed me through life to do something for obtaining the rights and improving the condition of the industrious many, amongst whom I was born and bred, to whose interests I have never been unfaithful, deeming them identical with those of the whole human race, and with whom will be my latest, as were my earliest, sympathies.' Volumes more worthy of perusal it has seldom been our lot to read. We trust the working men of England will prefer these lectures, calm, dignified, instructive, suggestive, as they are, to the inflammatory addresses of the inflated demagogues by whom their cause has so often been placed in jeopardy. They cannot read them without becoming wiser and better men. Zayda; A Tale; the Lady's Dream; and other Poems. Thomas Stuart Traill, Esq. London: William Pickering. By "Zayda, a Tale; the Lady's Dream, and other Poems;" by Thomas Stuart Traill, Esq., is dedicated to Robert Y. Traill, Esq., and is published by that prince of publishers, William Pickering. All this guarantees respectability-that our author is no Grubb street rhymester-that he was not, as many true poets, alas ! have been "Born in a garret; in a kitchen bred:" but, alas! as 66 "The mob of gentlemen who write with ease," know full well, it is equally true, that respectability—a onehorse chay, an account on the bank-do in no degree guarantee poetic power. Indeed, in some quarters it is believed that verses by a lady of quality," have been felt to be verging towards the prosaic and the dull. Not that we mean to insinuate that Mr. Traill belongs to this class-far from it. He versifies pleasantly enough, he has evidently read good poetry, and profited by his reading; so he ought, even Byron condescended to plagiarize. The principal poem in the volume, Zayda, is a tale of Moorish life, the scene is laid in the Vega or great plain of Granada, and the vicinity, at that period when the Moors struggled so valiantly, but ineffectually, against the invasion of Ferdinand and Isabella. It is a tale of love, of death. The sketch of Zayda will give a good idea of our author's power. Slow fades the light of evening from the sky. Why lingers Zayda in her leafy bower? She loved not-save in fondness, twas the fawn At her sweet presence brighter seemed the bowers, Of streams and bowers with sunshine 'mid the leaves, |