The venerable Archdeacon Coxe, has nearly ready for publication the History of the Administration of the Right Honourable Henry Pelham, from 1743 to 1754. Mr. Coxe is now extremely infirm, and nearly blind; yet he continues still to devote himself indefatigably to literary pursuits, by means of an amanuensis, who reads and writes for him several hours in the day. We are glad to hear that Mr. Martin has resumed the publication of his splendid illustrations of Milton. Artists who have neither sense to conceive, nor power to execute such truly sublime compositions, may say what they will of Mr. Martin's extravagance, but he is the only painter who has ever succeeded in producing embellishments to Paradise Lost, worthy of that splendid poem. The ninth part of Mr. Martin's work was published a few days ago. A book of Essays, under the very affected title of "Words," is about to issue from the press. Some ill-natured critic may perhaps suggest when the work does appear, that "Verbiage" would have been a more appropriate nomenclature. Although the Napoleon Memoirs already published, constitute almost a library of themselves, two other works of the same class are announced, entitled "Napoleon; or, the Mysteries of the Hundred Days,” and “ Napoleon in the other world." Mr. Brockedon has, we perceive, issued a prospectus of a series of engravings, designed to illustrate those passes of the Alps by which Italy communicates with France, Switzerland, and Germany, from drawings made during the summer of 1821, 1822, 1823, 1824, and 1825. Judging from the very beautiful specimen which has been submitted to us of the engravings, Mr. Brockedon's work seems likely to rival in beauty the popular volumes of the same kind, published by Major Cockburn, Captain Battye, Mr. Hakewell, &c. The passes illustrated, will be those of Hannibal, Francis the First, and Napoleon. The work will be published in numbers: each number will contain illustrations of an entire pass, in eight engraved subjects of six plates and two vignettes; it will contain also a map of the route, and such fetter-press description of each pass as relates to its history and topography. The whole work will consist of twelve numbers, and will form two splendid volumes. As the proofs of works of this class almost invariably increase in value, we should recommend such of our readers as are desirous of possessing themselves of the book, to send the artist their names with as little delay as possible; we feel assured that they will have no reason to regret having done so. The Royal Society of Literature held a meeting on the 21st of June. A Collection of inscriptions, copied in Egypt by Mr. Salt, his Majesty's ConsulGeneral, was presented to the society, by Lord Mountnorris. Mr. Granville Penn read a paper on the metre of the first line in the Iliad; and the secretary also read a communication from the author of Celtic Researches, on the authenticity of the Romance of "Brut." After other push-pin play the society separated. Woolnoth has just published an Ecce Homo, from Guido, inscribed to the Duke of Bedford, which is one of the most exquisite specimens of stipple engraving we have ever met with. The account of the present Lord Byron's voyage to the Sandwich Islands will be published early in the winter, illustrated by some very spirited plates. The volume is said to abound in the most curious and interesting particulars. The dagger by which Captain Cook was slain has been brought over, with many other relics of that great navigator. Sir William Ouseley is about to publish his "Anecdotes of Eastern Bibliography," a work originally founded on the descriptive catalogue of his own Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts, which above twenty years ago, amounted in numbers to four hundred volumes. A prospectus has just been announced at Paris of an "Assurance Company for the benefit of Authors." As poets are usually made of very combustible materials, they will, of course, have to pay double hazard. The French newspapers announce that a benefit is about to be given at the French Opera for poor Weber's family. We are glad to hear that Mr. Murray has repaid himself for the splendid work he published a few months ago, from the pen of Major Denham. The exorbitant price he gave for the copyright, and the splendid style in which the book was embellished, must, with other expenses attendant upon its publication, have made a pretty large hole in five thousand pounds. A second edition, in octavo, but with far less valuable engravings, is, we are told, in preparation. A French translation of Burns has appeared in Paris, which contains as many mistakes as the Gallic versions of the Scotch novels. The translator calls the word rashes, (rushes) imprudens!! There is a rumour, we scarcely know upon what authority, that the London Magazine is about to be gathered unto its fathers. Some say that it is dying of apoplexy, it having in the course of the last eighteen months grown exceedingly corpulent and apathetic; others insist that it is afflicted with that most excruciating of all visitations, lowness of the pulse. It is rumoured that its circulation does not exceed 750 per month; notwithstanding the frequent employment of strong stimulants to correct the sluggishness of its habit. Mr. St. Leger's Stories from the Old Chroniclers, are, we hear, after all, to be published by Mr. Colburn, who seems disposed to monopolize most of the good things to himself. The book with a similar title, announced some time ago by Mr. Murray, is, it is stated, for the present, abandoned. Sir Walter Scott has been again attempting to mislead the French public as to the identity of the Great Unknown. A livraison of a new edition of his works, containing several of the Waverley novels, has just appeared in Paris, edited by Monsieur Gasselin. It is accompanied by a fac-simile of the following letter from Sir Walter to the editor, which, considering that he has more than once avowed himself to be the author, and considering also, that manuscript copies in his hand writing, are now splendidly bound in green morocco, in the possession of Mr. Constable of Edinburgh, savours not a little of that species of humbug, which we should have conceived the worthy baronet would have most despised. SIR, To M. Defauconpret, London. I am favoured with your letter, which proceeds on the erroneous supposition, that I am the author of Waverley and other Noyels and Tales which you have translated into French. But as this proceeds on a mistake, though a very general one, I have no title whatsoever, either to become a party to any arrangement in which that author or his works may be concerned, or to accept the very handsome compliment which you design for him. Edinburgh, 15th April, 1821. I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, A splendid view of the City of Madrid, is, we hear, about to be submitted to public inspection, at Messrs. J. and R. Burford's Panorama, Leicester Square. The present subject of this highly interesting exhibition, is Edinburgh. The panorama of the City of Mexico, belonging to the same proprietors, is one of great interest and fidelity. Mr. D'Israeli jun. has been at great pains, in his catch-penny publications, to flatter Blackwood's Magazine, in the hope, of course, of extracting from its writers, something laudatory in return; how far he has succeeded in this expectation may be gathered from the following pithy critique, in the last number." Colburn must have sent puffs of Vivian Grey to all the newspapers, fastening the authorship on various gentlemen, either by name or inuendo; thus attaching an interest to the book, at the sacrifice of the feelings of these gentlemen, and the feelings of his own conscience. The foolish part of the public, thus set afloat after Vivian Grey, for example, puff after puff continues to excite fading curiosity, and Colburn knowing all the while that the writer is an obscure person, for whom nobody cares one straw, chuckles over the thumping sale, and sees the names of distinguished writers opprobriously bandied about by the blackguards of the press, indifferent to every thing but the monish which he is thus enabled to scrape together from defrauded purchasers, who on the faith of puff and paragraph believed the paltry catchpenny to be from the pen of a man of genius and achievement." We are pleased to see honest Christopher North thus echoing the opinions already expressed of this book and its author in the Literary Magnet. Mr. Bish, the "Last Man" as he calls himself in his Lottery puffs, has taken a lease of Drury Lane Theatre, for fourteen years, at a rent of a 11,250l, per annum. Since then, we are told, he has manifested an anxiety to get off his bargain. The American manager, Mr. Price, will, it is said, take it off his hands. Sir William Browne's gold medals for the Greek ode, Latin ode, and epigram, for the present year, are all adjudged to Mr. William Selwyn, of St. John's College. The following are the subjects :— Greek Ode.-DELPHI. Latin Ode.-IRIS. (Pluvius describitur Arcus.-Hor.) Latin Epigram.-Eloquiumve oculi, aut facunda silentia linguæ. The Porson prize is adjudged to Mr. B. H. Kennedy, of St. John's College. Subject, Shakspeare, King John, Act 3, Scene 3, beginning with "Come hither, Hubert," and ending with " I think thou lovest me well." A second prize was adjudged by the examiners to Mr. John Wordsworth, scholar of Trinity College. Dr. Gooch has been appointed librarian to the King, in the room of the Bishop of Llandaff. The scene of the novel on which Sir Walter Scott's pen is now engaged, is, it is said, laid in Ireland. The afflicting deprivation which the worthy baronet has lately sustained, has, however, so greatly depressed his natural flow of spirits, that he can scarcely be expected to produce another novel for some time to come. The Ass, a weekly publication, edited by the graceless author of the Modern Athens, had its last kick a few days ago, after an existence of about four months. Mr. Mudie is the only modern editor, with whom we are acquainted, who has had the candour to call himself by his real name! A new expedition under Captain Parry, has been resolved on, at the earnest solicitation of that gentleman, for the purpose of exploring the northern hemisphere. We are not surprised that Captain Parry should desire to cut out work for himself; but when is this preposterous humbug to have an end? Mr. Colburn is said to have given twelve hundred guineas for the copyright of Gaston de Blondeville; which sum has been distributed among various charitable institutions. He is not likely to gain much by the speculation. The John Bull newspaper, whose wit has long since arrived at its lees, and who has now exhausted even them, attributed, a few weeks ago, the following atrocious Joe, to Samuel Rogers, Esq., banker and poet, of St. James's Place. "Our friend from Ascott was wrong, Mr. Samuel Rogers was not at the races; it was Lord Fife who made the joke: Mr. Thornhill, asked Lord Sefton, if he had come from Slike? Lord Sefton said, "no, come straight from town;" thereupon Lord Fife, in a whisper to Lord Graves, observed, "that if he did,” he had got deucedly warped by the way." Joe Miller flourished some years after Adam, consequently there are older jokes on record even than thisbut certainly there are not many. John ought, really, to be well bastinadoed for his atrocious malyersation of stale witticisms. An ante-slavery Album is being published at Sheffield, containing a series of negro stories, having for their object, the exemplification of the wickedness of slavery. Memoirs of M. G. Lewis, Esq., author of the Monk, are preparing for publication. There is a volume of unpublished sketches of travels, in the West Indies, in the hands of Mr. Lewis's relations; we wonder they are not also announced for publication; Mat., although an M. P., was a very lively and clever writer. The city of Westminster is about to find an historian of its topography and antiquities. The English version of Sismondi's History of the Crusades against the Albigenses, in the Thirteenth century, is now in course of publication. A Mr. Perceval is about to publish a history of France. An English version of Tieck's novel of Sternbald the painter, is, we learn, preparing for the press. The Rondini Fawn, an antique statue which excited great admiration whilst in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, has, we learn, been transferred to the national collection at the British Museum. A Mr. Browne, (if the newspapers are to be believed), has succeeded in constructing a carriage to be impelled by gas, which will ascend an acclivity of ten inches in ten feet, at the rate of five miles an hour. The Bishop of Salisbury, who seems to be very ambitious of making a noise in the literary world, is on the eve of publishing a book, in which he proves, or rather attempts to prove, that The Essay on Christian Doctrine, lately published as the posthumous word of John Milton, was not written by that illustrious republican: we think the bishop may save his labour with advantage both to his friends and himself. The evidence already furnished on the subject is conclusive. We are told, but we cannot pretend to vouch for the fact, (as our informant is anonymous and we have not so much as seen the article ourselves), that the Vivian Grey impostor, has been writing a puff in the London Magazine, in which, for the purpose of keeping up the ball, he has turned to such good account, he has introduced most of the characters of his contemptible catch-penny, as well as "Tremaine, the Man of Refinement." Mr Morton has, we are told, written a new comedy for Covent Garden. The name of this production has not transpired. A new life of Garrick is said to be in preparation, which promises to afford a rich treat to the admirers of the drama. It will comprise upwards of two thousand letters, to and from Garrick, printed from the originals, lately in the possession of his widow. There will also be introduced, a long and curious account, in Garrick's hand-writing, of the origin and history of Goldsmith's Retaliation. Mr. Southey has, we regret to find, declined sitting in parliament for the borough for which he has been elected, on the score of not being possessed of sufficient landed property. Some persons, it has been justly remarked, have been acting on the converse of Mr. Southey's rule. Had Mr. Southey taken his seat, we are satisfied that his opinions would have been treated with the highest respect, and the rich stores of his highly cultivated mind, might have been of eminent service to the country in which he already holds so dignified a station. It is curious enough to see an illiterate lottery office keeper, striving for those honours to which such a man as Southey does not consider himself entitled. Such is the state of the bookselling trade at the present moment, that Messrs. Longman, Baldwin, Whittaker, and other wholesale houses, have been compelled to discharge a great number of their clerks, in consequence of having no employment for them. Most of the magazines of the higher order, decrease, we are told, awfully in circulation, each succeeding month. The country booksellers' monthly parcels have began to look quite consumptive, when compared with their former portly appearance. A correspondent has reminded us of a slip of the pen in an article entitled "Nuisances of the Press," in our last number. In speaking of young D'Israeli, it was stated, that he had damned " Mr. Murray's Representative irremediably," instead of "irremediably," read "pro tempore;" for the paper is now conducted by a gentleman of first rate talent, and has, under his superintendence, in a great degree, recovered from the disgrace which the author of Vivian Grey was the means of drawing down upon it. It is extremely difficult to raise a journal which has been once talked down, but the arduous task is now in a fair way of being achieved by its present editor. If it were dull, the Representative would stand a chance of rivalling the united circulation of the Morning Post, and New Times; if brutally vulgar, it would have a claim to vie with the Morning Herald; if brazen and barefaced, beyond all human calculation, it might certainly hope to distance the Times; but the public are SO accustomed to dullness, brutality, brazen and assurance in a newspaper editor, that they do not seem to consider him as an adept in his craft, unless he possesses one or other of these indispensable qualifications. The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal has, we learn, departed this life and left the field to Dr. Brewster, whose admirable Journal of Science, we are happy to perceive increased in interest and popularity with every succeeding number. The Rev. Winter Hamilton, a dissenting minister of Leeds, has just published an able Essay on Craniology, in which he refers the origin of this celebrated art, to one John Rohan de Retham, who published a tract upon the subject, in the year 1500. That the modern discovery is about 300 years too late, is, he tells us, evident from this tract. The terms in both are the same, generally ending in iva. The local seats of the mind are as determinately indicated in each. The ancient German speaks of the cellula imaginativa, |