This without leaving any profit to the farmer. Now, while the agricultural portion of Europe has not advanced at all in the facilities of producing or transportation since that time, every section of the United States has become intersected by public works, laying open to market tracts of laud that can, with less labor, yield double the product of any land in Europe. The principal work, the Erie Canal is now, by the liquidation of the New-York debt, rapidly getting into a position which will admit of reducing the tolls to a merely nominal rate a movement which will compel a reduction on the part of all the other rival avenues to market. When, with propellers on the lakes, and no expense but freight to encounter on the canals, wheat passes forward to market through NewYork, it must produce a price abroad which will leave the farmer of the West a handsome profit; but which cannot be competed with by the "noble" estates of Europe. Another element which operates in favor of the United States farmers, is that the income of rail-roads in the manufacturing districts of Europe, the amelioration of the condition of the people by increasing liberality of legislation, is improv ing their manufacturing districts and developing their powers of consumption, thus diminishing the surplus they may have to spare; and this displays itself in a remarkable manner in the fact, that a harvest but little less than usual has advanced prices this year in the continental ports to a point higher than they have been since the devastating wars of Napoleon, swept the grain countries of Europe, while they interrupted industry. No doubt the deficiency of the harvests has gone a great ways in advancing the prices; but the demands of the people at home for consumption must have assisted to a considerable extent, in producing the same effect as in England. In such a state of affairs, with an unusual supply of specie in England, no more auspicious moment could be desired to bring forward the " great measure of

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the age," and demolish for ever the cornlaws of England. That event must equalize the prices in England and the United States, by diminishing them there and advancing them here, making the actual cost of transportation, with merchants' profits, the only difference between the Atlantic states and Great Britain. The effect is likely to be three-fold;-a decline of prices there will necessarily throw out of cultivation, to some extent, those poor lands that were forced into cultivation by the fictitiously high prices maintained for wheat by the corn-laws. The home supply will thus measurably be diminished, while the same cause will greatly enhance the consumption. These two elements coming in aid of the actual annual deficit in the home supply, in years of good harvests, will swell the annual demand for foreign wheat to an extent perhaps double what it has been in some previous years. The aver age annual consumption of foreign and colonial wheat, during the five years ending with 1842, was 20,000,000 bushels. Under modified corn-laws, this will probably reach 30,000,000 bushels in usual years, to be increased by the increase of population in Great Britain. Such a demand must draw from every quarter of our vast agricultural country its utmost resources, pouring along the public works in swelling volumes, yielding large revenues to the states, discharging their debts and lightening the burden of taxation. Large and profitable sales of their produce will give the farmer the means of buying all the necessaries and comforts of life; and, in their prosperity, will flourish all the industry and manufactures of the country. The South will not fail to find, in the usual effect of cheap food abroad and prosperity among the farmers at home, a quickened sale for their great staple at improving prices. The prospect of future commercial prosperity, growing out of the removal of government restrictions upon trade, was never so great as now.

Since our last issue, there has been a very perceptible, and we venture to say, refreshing check, in the outpourings of the press. For many successive weeks prior to the present month, scarcely a day passed without the appearance of some work which possessed strong claims to attention. The competition of publishers has tended to flood the market with standard volumes; and readers of taste, much as they have been delighted with the superior character of recent publications, have been in despair at doing them justice, so rapidly did they succeed each other. The pause, therefore, as we have said, is refreshing, as it affords time for a little retrospective reading, and will, doubtless, prove ultimately advantageous to sellers, as well as buyers. Want of space prevents us from noticing this month the new volumes of Wiley & Putnam's library and Appletons' new number of Michelet's France, and several other works.

FRANCIS & Co.'s CLASSIC LIBRARY OF CHOICE PROSE AND POETRY.

Since our notice in the last review of this interesting series of books, two numbers have been added-"A Memoir of Felicia Hemans, by her Sister ;" and "Tragedies, Sonnets, and Verses, by T. N. Talfourd." Both of these works will prove highly acceptable to the reading public, in their present economical and convenient form. The classical power and beauty of Talfourd's Ion, has long been acknowledged; and although his other tragedies are inferior, they contain splendid passages, and are very appropriately issued together. The Sonnets and Verses appended, are now, for the first time, published in this country. They are lofty in feeling, and highly finished in style-worthy the author of Ion. The Memoir of Mrs. Hemans, is undoubtedly the most authentic and pleasing account of her extant; and will command a large sale.

The Christmas Holy Days at Rome. By the Rev. Wm. Ingraham Kip, M. A. New-York; D. Appleton & Co. 1846. We have accompanied the author of this book in his excursions within and around Rome, with unexpected pleasure. The subject had been well nigh exhausted by

travellers, and we scarcely looked for so much interest as these pages afford. Mr. Kip writes with genuine enthusiasm. He is evidently a cultivated and sincere man ; and therefore a desirable guide in any scene, but especially in one so crowded with religious and historical associations, as the Eternal City. The distinctive feature in his book, is that he has made the Christmas Holy Days the nucleus, about which his observations cluster. He has much to say of the Catholic services; and, as it appears to us, in a remarkably just spirit. The chapters recording his visit to the tombs of the last Stuarts, to Mezzofanti the philologist, and to the studio of Overbeck, are among the most attractive, as they refer to subjects not previously so fully treated. We are pleased with Mr. Kip's considerate manner of estimating the Italian character; and the general tone of kindly intelligence with which he records his impressions. Those who have never visited Rome, will derive much gratifying information from this volume; and those who have, cannot fail to have their most agreeable remembrances awakened.

Handbook of Young Artists and Amateurs in Oil Painting. By an American Artist. New-York; Wiley & Putnam.

1846.

This handsome volume should be in the

hands of every painter. It is compiled from the celebrated Manual of Bouvier, with additions from other established continental writers. It contains elaborate directions for the preparation of the matethe Art. Is is designed both for a textrials, and the use of the implements, of book in Academies, and for self instruction. We have never seen a work of the kind An explanatory vocabulary is appended. containing within such available limits, such an amount and variety of information as to the details of oil painting. It is eminently a practical book, and cannot fail to be of great service to the votaries of painting.

The Young Student, by Madame Guizot. Translated by Samuel Jackson. NewYork; D. Appleton & Co. 1846.

This little specimen of juvenile litera ture is worthy of more than ordinary attention. The wife of the distinguished French statesman, has been regarded as the Edgeworth of her country. She took

a deep interest in education; and believ ing that children's books were vastly influential in giving direction to the opening mind, bestowed unwearied pains in weav ing pleasant fictions upon a ground-work of important truth. Her attempts have been deemed remarkably successful; and we hope that the publishers of the "Young Student," will be encouraged by its sale, to issue translations of Madame Guizot's other books for the young.

The Greece of the Greeks. By G. A. Perdicaris, A. M. New-York; Paine & Burgess. 1846.

The author of this work is well known as a gentleman whose lectures on Greece, some years ago, drew for him the warmest eulogiums, of select and discriminating audiences, particularly in Boston and Philadelphia, There was something in tho mere fact of a Greek of talent and enthusiasm, educated in this country, undertaking to describe and vindicate his native land, which alone was fitted to charm the imagination. Mr. Perdicaris discussed the literary claims and political condition of his country, with rare beauty of diction and eloquence of expression. His mastery of English was remarkable. These lectures introduced him to the notice and friendship of many of our leading literary men. He soon after received the appointment of U. S. Consul at Athens. Within two or three years he has returned to this his adopted country, and established himself, we believe, with a view to permanent residence. The volumes before us are the fruit of his recent sojourn in Greece; and his excellent opportunities of acquiring information, his official facilities, his Greek birth and American education, all fit him to speak of the "Greece of the Greeks," with authority and interest. We have, accordingly, taken up his work with more than ordinary anticipations. We find it a well-arranged, sensible, and unaffected narrative of travels and residence in Greece. It differs from other similar books, in being chiefly limited to the facts of the present. There are, indeed, copious allusions to the Greece of antiquity; but only such as are absolutely requisite to make modern Greece intelligible. Mr. Perdicaris has brought together, in a pleasing shape, the principal circumstances and influences now operating on the destinies of his country. He says that the most striking feature of her condition, is the "want of proportion between the magnificence of the government and the poverty of the country." Popular education is represented as on the advance, and the prospects of the land in all respects, since the last revolution, are highly encouraging. The classical reader will find much inter

est in the descriptions of the present aspect of Sparta, Marathon, and other halfowed localities; while our own countrymen, will linger with pleasure over the pages devoted to " Missolonghi," and the noble memories, which, even in its existent desolation, it retains of Byron,the beauty and manners of the queen, the tomb of Marco Botzaris, whose name has been consecrated by Halleck-and the deserved praises of the. American Missionaries. Society, localities, and politics, are ably discussed; and the volumes are very neatly printed, and contain several lithographic illustrations.

THE MODERN STANDARD DRAMA. Edited by Epes Sargent. Vol. I. New-York; Wm. Taylor. 1846.

The history of the drama involves a problem, equally remarkable with that of painting. The latter art reached its acme in the fifteenth century; and while popular education and science have steadily advanced, the old masters, as they are sig nificantly called, yet stand alone in their fame. A somewhat equal destiny seems to have obtained in regard to dramatic literature. Shakspeare has never been approached in the entireness of his grasp of the genuine elements of the drama, while, for earnestness, power, intense sympathy with humanity, and the frank, bold recog nition of her attributes, the old English dramatists, from whose plays Charles Lamb gleaned so delectable a volume, retain their freshness and originality unsurpassed, and but seldom approached, to the present hour. We have been led into these remarks by the collection of "Popular Acting Plays," mentioned above. They have each a well-established place in public estimation, and serve as the mir ror of existent taste, in the department of literature they represent. How much inferior they are, in point of vigorous delineation of character, to the earlier models of the art, need not be said. In fact, they strikingly evidence the truth, that the dramatic features of life have diminished,that reflection has taken the place, in no small measure, of action; and peaceful, domestic habits, and uniformity of manners, narrowed the scope of the play-writer. On the other hand, there is a moral tone and refinement of thought, scrupulous regard to taste and decorum, in the Modern Standard Drama, which proclaims how far social life has advanced in correct ness and intelligence. All these dramas bear the impress of genius; but it is genius chastened by scholarship, and moulded by character. They do not represent human nature in its broad, Shaksperian outlines-but only under the guise of certain traits and epochs. Ion, with which the

book opens, is conceived in the spirit, and cast, essentially, in the form, of the classic drama. Yet many of its sentiments are the offspring of Christianity, and have a self-sacrificing and delicate beauty, which breathes of the age of Wordsworth, rather than of Pericles. Fazio is a glowing personification of passion-but it is softened and rounded by scholarly diction and carefully evolved imagery. The School for Scandal, is undoubtedly the best comedy since Congreve. The plays of Bulwer and Knowles are ingenious and poetical; yet they deal rather with sentiment than character. Epes Sargent is the editor of these volumes, and has affixed very appropriate notices to each play. The collection is made with judgment, and neatly, as well as economically, issued.

FOWLER'S PRACTICAL PHRENOLOGY-Presenting a concise, elementary view of Phrenology; Remarks on Temperaments; also, describing the primary mental powers in seven different degrees of developement, the mental phenomena produced by their combined action, phrenological developements, character, talents, &c. New-York: Fowler & Wells, 131 Nassau-st. THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY APPLIED TO THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. By Andrew Comb, M. D., with Wood-cuts and Notes, by O. S. Fowler. New-York: Fowler & Wells, 136 Nassau-st.

Both of these are valuable works, published in a neat and durable form; they should be carefully read, especially by parents. The connexion between physiology and the operations of the mind, is, of all the departments of education, too little studied and understood by parents or those who have the training of youth. How many of the youth of the land ripen into manhood or womanhood with constitutions impaired and intellects destroyed-both body and mind in such a condition as either to become morbid and sickly at the first touch of affliction, or to lead the suffering and degenerate being into blighting excesses?

Comb's Physiology has long been a standard work. This edition contains such brief notes as the editor has thought necessary to show the dependence and connection of the two subjects. The former is a plain, practical work. It gives the details of phrenological developement, and discusses the character and mental power to which the different degrees of training will lead. The study of phrenology in this connection is, doubtless, the best method of pursuing it. The anatomy of the human frame-the wonderful dependence and harmony of its parts, is a subject on which there is no prejudice; and, com

There would be little to interest the rational reader in this book, had it appeared unattended by circumstances of peculiar agitation. The controversy in the Church of England, which has been so manifest, earnest, and sometimes vehement, for the last decade of years, has become rather the property of the world abroad, than the peculium of an individual sect of Christians. Great principles of human right, liberty, and duty, for which past generations of men have been content to suffer much, and to lay down their very lives, are concerned in this struggle. And as it is impossible for England to be convulsed, without the whole civilized world feeling the impression,-so this especial agitation has touched the interests, and awakened the concern of multitudes who are not in any manifest way connected with the immediate actors in the scene. Wise men discerned at the opening of the discoveries which the " Oxford agitators" were making, that the process of their system must lead consistent men to Rome. They are not surprised to know, therefore, that near half a hundred clergymen of the English Established Church have already followed this tendency to this specified result. Where the movement will end, short of the complete dismemberment of that Church, or its entire separation from the power of the state, it requires a wiser being than man to say. Mr. Newman has been one of the trio of leaders in this movement, and the present book is his apology for his separation from the Church in which he had long ministered, and his union with Rome. But there is in it nothing, save the assumption, without a show of argument, or a reference to the authority of Scripture, of all the doctrines of the Roman Church,-and an attempt to account for, and defend these, as the necessary results, not of what are universally acknowledged as Christian doctrines, but of each other. The perfectness, and the authoritative inspiration of the Scriptures are wholly set aside. Scripture no where recognizes itself, or asserts the in

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spiration of those portions which are most essential." is one of the author's principles. The infallibility of the Pope, is essential to make up "the completeness of Scripture," in his view-and from the assumptions thus of the whole subject, without an attempt at proof, he proceeds with his developments. The same concessions might prove any other system with as much accuracy as the one which he brings out of them. There are displayed, extensive reading and a remarkable collection of illustrations. But the arguments are wholly incoherent, a mere congeries of assumptions, and the moral principles are exceedingly low. Of the latter assertion, perhaps the following extract is a sufficient exhibition:

"The doctrine of post-baptismal sin," (by which he means sin after baptism, for which there is in this world, no promised forgiveness,) "especially when realized in the doctrine of purgatory, leads the recipient to fresh developments beyond itself."—"He who believes, that suffer he must, and that delayed punishment may be the greater, will be above the world, will admire nothing, fear nothing, desire nothing. He has within his breast, a source of greatness, self-denial, heroism. This is the secret spring of strenuous efforts and persevering toil, of the sacrifice of fortune, friends, ease, reputation, happiness. There is, it is true, a higher class of motives which will be felt by the saint; who will do from love, what all Christians who act acceptably, do from faith. And, moreover, the ordinary measures of charity which Christians possess, suffice for securing such respectable attention to religious duties, as the routine necessities of the Church require. But if we would raise an army of devoted men, to resist the world, to oppose sin and error, to relieve misery, or to propagate the truth, we must be provided with motives which keenly affect the many. Christian love is too rare a gift, philanthropy is too weak a material for the occasion. Nor is an influence to he found to suit our purpose, besides this solemn conviction which arises out of the very rudiments of Christian theology, and is taught by its most primitive mastersthis sense of the awfulness of post-baptismal sin. It is in vain to look out for missionaries for China or Africa, or evangelists for our great towns, or Christian attendants on the sick, or teachers of the ignorant, on such a scale of numbers as the need requires, without the doctrine of purgatory. For thus the sins of youth are turned to account by the profitable penance of manhood; and terrors which the philosopher scorns in the individual, become the benefactors, and earn the gratitude of nations," p. 194.

Of principles like these, we can but say,

that the avowed development of the motives of Christianity has brought out nothing but the native principle of paganism; and sooner than we could adopt such a system, we should say with the rejecter of Christianity, "Sit anima mea cum philosophis."

ARD.

Sketches from Life, by LAMAN BLANCHEdited with a Memoir, by Sir EDWARD LYTTON BULWER, Bart. NewYork. Wiley & Putnam, 1846.

This is decidedly the most attractive number of the Publisher's Library of Choice Reading, which has recently ap peared. The name of Laman Blanchard has long been familiar to the readers of the English Magazines, and many will recall his biography of L. E. L. with pleasure. His native endearments fitted him for the career of a man of letters, but his circumstances, during his whole life, were such as to render his intellectual development fragmentary and brilliant, rather than sustained and continuous. He was an editor and contributor to the periodical literature of the day for more than twenty years. His writings were chiefly the result of observation, and confirmed sketches of life and manners, genial criticism and political paragraphs. There was often in the former an exquisite simplicity and cheerfulness, and the latter were frequently enlivened by a more cordial sympathy than is usual with the literary party-work of the day. As evidences of genius, some of Blanchard's Sonnets are, in our view, more interesting than any other of his productions. Bulwer quotes some remarkable lines from Shean, in the memoir attached to these volumes. This little piece of literary biography would add another tragic chapter to D'Israeli's Calamities of authors. Appended to the lively articles of the depart ed, it reminds us of the description of the Plague, which forms the Introduction to the Decameron. Never did a more gloomy portal lead to any palace! It seems that the industry, versatility, and poetic spirit of Blanchard, were not his only claims upon our admiration. He seems to have endeared himself to all, by singular urbanity, affectionateness, and Catholic taste. His biographer well observes, that these gleanings from his writings should form part of every Belles-Lettres Library.