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A REMARKABLE contribution to our knowledge of China, is M. Bror's recent translation of the book called Tscheu-li. It seems that in the twelfth century before Christ, the second dynasty that had ruled the country, that of Thang, fell by its own vices, and the empire passed into the hands of Wu-wang, the head of the princely family of Tscheu-li. Wu-wang was a great soldier and statesman; he confided to his brother Tscheu-Kong, a man evidently of extraordinary political genius, the moral and administrative reformation of the empire. He first laid the foundation of a reform in moral ideas by an addition to the YKing or sacred book, which the Chinese revere and incessantly study, but which still remains an unintelligible mystery for Europeans. Of his administrative reforms a complete record is preserved in the Tscheu-li, and nothing could be easier to understand.

gives in it a mass of detailed instructions, in order to make the officials aware of their duties and the precise limits of their authority. Thus the work affords a quite exact picture of the social condition of China at that time. There is no other monument of antiquity with which it can be compared, except the Manus, the Indian book of law. The difference is, that in China the intellectual activity was altogether political, and the public organization altogether imperial and political; while in India the mental activity was metaphysical, and the public organization altogether municipal.

The translation of the Tscheu was not published till after M. Biot's decease; it was brought out by his father, with the assistance of M. Stanislas Julien.

THE library of the famous Cardinal Mezzofanti is about to be sold, and the catalogue is When the Tscheus thus came into power, already printed—in Italian, of course. It is one they found in existence a powerful feudal of the most extensive and valuable collection aristocracy, from which they themselves pro- of works in various languages ever made, and ceeded, and which they must tolerate. Ac- it is to be hoped that it may not be disposed cordingly, they recognized within the im- of at the sale, but pass all together into some perial dominions sixty-three federal juris- public library-that of some university would dictions, which were hereditary, but whose be most appropriate. To indicate the conrulers were obliged to administer according tents of the catalogue, we give the titles of to the laws and methods of the empire. Hav- the different parts: Books in Albanian or ing made this concession, they abolished all Epirotic, Arabic, Armenian, American (Inother hereditary offices, and established in- dian dialects of Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, stead, a vast system of centralization, such as Peru, United States), Bohemian, Chaldaic, the world has never seen equalled elsewhere. Chinese (Cochin-Chinese, Trin-Chinese, JaThe administration, according to the Tscheu-li, panese), Danish (Swedish, Norwegian, Iceis divided among six ministries, which were landic, Laplandic), Hebrew (Antique, Rabalso divided into sections, and the executive binic, Samaritan), Egyptian, or Coptic-Egypfunctions descend regularly and systemati- tian and Coptic, Arabic, Etruscan, Phoenician, cally to the lowest official, and include the Flemish, French (Breton-French, Lorraineentire movement of society. The emperor French, Provençal), Gothic and Visi-Gothic, and the feudal princes are restrained by for- and Greek and Greek-Latin, Modern Greek, malities and usage, as well as by the expres- Georgian or Iberian, Cretian or Rhetian, sion of disapprobation; and the officials of Illyrian, Indo-oriental (Angolese, Burmese every grade by their hierarchical dependency, or Avian,_Hindostanee, Malabar, Malayan, and by a system of incessant oversight; and Sanscrit), English (Arctic, Breton or Celtic, finally, the people by proscription, and the Scotch-Celtic, Scotch, Irish, Welch), Italian education, industrial, as well as mental and (Fineban dialect, Maltese, Milanese, Sardinian, moral, which the State dispenses to them. Sicilian), Kurdistanee or Kurdic, Latin, MaThe sole idea in which this astonishing sys- ronite and Syriac Maronite, Oceanic (Austratem rests, is that of the State, whose office is lian), Dutch, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (vato care for all that can contribute to the pub-rious dialects), Slavonian (Carniolan, Serbian, lic good, and which regulates the action of every individual with a view to this end. In his organization, Tscheu-Kong excelled every thing that the most centralized governments of Europe have devised.

The Tscheu family remained in power for five centuries, and was finally broken down by the feudal element they had preserved. But so deep was the impress of Tscheu-Kong upon the nation, that after centuries of revolutions and civil war, it returned to his institutions and principles, and it is by them and in a great degree in their exact forms, that China is now governed.

In form the Tscheu-li is like an imperial almanac of our own times. It is, however, much more complete, because Tscheu-Kong

Ruthenian, Slavo-Wallachian), Syriac, Spanish (Catalan, Biscayan), Russian, Turkish, Hungarian, Gipsey.

THE French historian MICHELET, deprived of his professorship in the College of France, is devoting himself more than ever to literature. His last work, of which an authorized translation has just appeared in London, is The Martyrs of Russia.

MICHEL NICOLAS, one of the ablest among the French theologico-ethical writers, has published a translation of the Considerations on the Nature and Historical Developments of Christian Philosophy, by Dr. RITTER, of the University of Gottingen.

M. SCHONENBERGER, a music-publisher at Paris, has purchased from the heirs of Paganini the copyright of his works, and is now publishing them, under the editorial supervision of M. ACHILLE PAGANINI, the son of the great violinist. The edition will comprise every thing that he left behind in writing. Hector Berlioz speaks with enthusiasm in the Journal des Debats of the two grand concertos which have just appeared, one of them containing the marvellous rondo of the campanella. Berlioz speaks in high praise of Paganini's genius as a composer. A volume would be required, he says, to indicate the new effects, the ingenious methods, the grand and noble forms which he discovered, and even the orchestral combinations, which before him were not suspected. In spite of the rapid progress which, thanks to Paganini, the violin is making at the present day in respect of mechanical execution, his compositions are yet beyond the skill of most violinists, and in reading them it is hardly possible to conceive how their author was able to execute them. Unfortunately he was not able to transmit to his successors the vital spark which animated and rendered human those astonishing prodigies of mechanism.

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M. GUIZOT is about to publish a new volume at Paris, with the title of Shakspeare et son Temps (Shakspeare and his Times). It is to be composed of his Life of Shakspeare, and the articles that he has written at various times upon different plays. The only novelty in it is a notice on Hamlet which was prepared expressly for this publication. He regards both Macbeth and Othello as better dramas than Hamlet, but thinks the last contains more brilliant examples of Shakspeare's sublimest beauties and grossest faults. "Nowhere," says Guizot, "has he unveiled with more originality, depth and dramatic effect, the inmost state of a great soul: but nowhere has he more abandoned himself to the caprices, terrible or burlesque, of his imagination, and to that abundant intemperance of a mind pressed to get out its ideas without choosing among them, and bent on rendering them striking by a strong, ingenious, and unexpected mode of expression, without any regard to their truth and natural form." The French critic also thinks that on the stage the effect of Hamlet is irresistible.

A CAPITAL work on Paris has just been published at Berlin, from the pen of FRIEDRICH SZARVADY, a Hungarian, who has resided for several years in Paris. The titles of the chapters are:-Paris in Paris; Stran

M. PHILARETE CHASLES, one of the literary critics of the Journal des Debats, has published, at Paris, a book called Etudes sur la Lit-gers in Paris; Parisian Women; Street Eloterateur et les Maurs des Anglo-Americanis, which abounds in those curious blunders that some French authors seem to be destined to when they write upon topics connected with foreign countries. For instance, he makes the pilgrims of Plymouth to have been the founders of Philadelphia, New-York, and Boston. Buffalo he sets down opposite to Montreal, speaks of the puritans of Pennsylvania as near neighbors of Nova Scotia, and extends Arkansas to the Rocky Mountains. At New-York his regret is that a railroad has destroyed the beauty of Hoboken, and at New Orleans he laments that marriages between whites and Creoles are interdicted. Of Cooper, Irving, Bryant, Andubon, and Longfellow, he speaks in terms of just praise, but Willis is not mentioned. Bancroft and Hildreth are mentioned as historians, Prescott is spoken of briefly in connection with his Ferdinand and Isabella, while his other works are not alluded to. To Herman Melville, M. Chasles devotes fifty pages, while Mr. Ticknor has not even the honor of a mention. The author of this work is very far from doing justice either to American literature or to himself.

quence; the Temple of Jerusalem (the Bourse); Salons and Conversation; Dancing, Song, and Flowers; the Ball at the Grand Opera; Artist Life; the Press; the Feuilleton; History on a Public Square; Lamartine, Cavaignac, Thiers; Louis Bonaparte. Szarvady observes sharply, and writes with as much grace and esprit as a Frenchman. Nothing can be more taking than his pages. They deserve a translation from the German into English.

FIVE of the nine intended volumes of LAFUENTE's General History of Spain from the remotest times to the present day, have appeared in Paris.

IN Paris a new edition is announced of the best French versions of FENIMORE COOPER'S works-six or eight illustrated volumes.

VILLERGAS, the Spanish historian, who in one of his recent works drew a parallel between Espartero and Narvaez which excited great attention at Madrid and in other parts of Spain, has just been condemned by the court which has charge of the offences of the press, to a fine of twenty thousand reals, or twenty-five hundred dollars, for the sin against public order and private character contained in that parallel.

An interesting and valuable series of articles reviewing historically the systems of land tenure which have prevailed in different countries, is appearing in the Journal des Débats from the pen of M. IIENRY TRIANON. The systems of India and China have already been examined.

THE termagant wife of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton has just published The School for Husbands, a novel founded on the life and times of Moliere. Probably her own husband is shot at in all the chapters.

THE books on modern French history would already fill an Alexandrian library, and every month produces new ones. M. LEONARD GALLOIS, a well-known historical writer, announces a History of the Revolution of February, 1848, in five large octavos, with forty-one portraits. M. BARANTE's History of the Convention will consist of six octavos, of which three are published, and the last is accompanied by a biographical sketch of each of the seven hundred and fifty members. The period embraced in this work is from 1792 to 1795, inclusive. There is a new History of the City of Lyons, in three octavos, by the city librarian.

THE REV. JOHN HOWARD HINTON, author of a well-known History of the United States, has published, in London, a volume under the title of The Test of Experience, in which he has presented a masterly argument for the voluntary principle in matters of religion. The "test of experience" is in this, as in all other things, the best of tests, and the religious institutions of the United States can well bear its application. One of the most noticeable results of the non-interference of the State is pointed out in the following passage:

"To travellers in the United States, no fact has been more immediately or more powerfully striking than the total absence of religious rivalry. Amidst such a multitude of sects, an inhabitant of the old world naturally, and almost instinctively looks for one that sets up exclusive pretensions' finds nothing of the kind. Neither presbyterianand possesses an actual predominance. But ho ism, or prelacy, nor any other form of ecclesiasticism, makes the slightest effort to lift its head above its fellow. And with the resignation of exclusive pretensions, the entire ecclesiastical strife has ceased, and the din of angry war has been hushed; and here, at length, the voluntary princi

The Letters and unpublished Essays of Count JOSEPH DE MAISTRE have been brought out at Paris, in two volumes octavo. The letters show the celebrated author in a new and pleasing light; a tone of genial unreserve prevails in many of them, which those who have become familiar with his brilliant, dogmatic, and paradoxical intellect, in his more elaborate writings, would hardly suppose him capable of. No writer, of this century at least, has more powerfully set forth the doc-ple is able to exhibit itself in its true colors, as a trines of the Roman Catholic Church than he.

lover of peace and the author of concord. It is busied no longer with the arguing of disputed THE Political Situation of Cuba, a volume claims, but throws its whole energy into free and published in Paris, by Don ANTONIO SACO, is combined operations for the extension of Christiancommended in the Revue des Deux Mondes, ity. The general religious energy embodies itself Don Antonio was one of the most distinguish-in a thousand forms; but while there is before the church a vast field to which the activities of all ed intelligences and liberals of the precious island: he argues against independence, or are scarcely equal, there is, also, a fair field and no favor, a field in which all have the same adannexation to the American Union: he sug-vantages, and in which each is sure to find rewards gests various arrangements by which Spain proportionate to its wisdom and its zeal. This incould safely establish political freedom in Cu- estimable benefit of religious peace is clearly due ba, and he thinks administrative and judicial to the voluntary principle." reforms to counteract the worst ills of her present situation, might be accomplished.

A NEW edition of SHARON TURNER'S History of the Anglo-Saxons has just appeared in London, with important additions and revision. The first edition of Turner's History was published in London more than fifty years ago. At the time when the first volume appeared, the subject of Anglo-Saxon antiquities had been nearly forgotten by the British public, although the most venerated laws, customs, and institutions of the nation originated before the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon manuscripts lay unexamined in archives, and the important information they contained had never been made a part of general history. Mr. Turner undertook a careful and patient investigation of all the documents belonging to the period preserved in the kingdom, and the result of his labors was the work in question, which at once gave rise to an almost universal passion for the records and remains of the Anglo-Saxon people, and called forth general applause from the best minds of England. A good edition of his History was published several years ago by Carey and Hart of Philadelphia, but it is now, we believe, out of print.

JUNIUS, since the publication of his Letters, never figured more conspicuously than during the last month. The Paris Revue des Deux Mondes has a very long article on the great secret by M. Charles Remusat, a member of the Institute, well known in historical criticism. He arrays skilfully the facts and reasonings which British inquirers have adduced in favor of Sir Philip Francis, and the other most probable author, Lord George Sackville. He seems to incline to the latter, but does not decide. He pronounces that, on the whole, Junius was not "a great publicist." His powers and influence are investigated and explained by M. de Remusat with acuteness and comprehensive survey. Lord Mahon, in his new volumes, says, "From the proofs adduced by others, and on a clear conviction of my own, I affirm that the author of Junius was no other than Sir Philip Francis." We think not. The London Athenæum, last year, we thought, settled this point. It is understood that the editor of the Grenville Papers, now on the eve of publication, in London, is in favor of Lord Temple as a claimant for the authorship of Junius. The January number of the Quarterly Review contains an article on the subject.

THE following works, all of which have promising titles, will soon be published by J. S. REDFIELD: Men of the Times in 1852, comprising biographical sketches of all the celebrated men of the present day; Charac

THE Natural History of the Human Species, by Lieutenant-Colonel CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH, is the title of a duodecimo volume from the press of Gould & Lincoln of Boston. An American editor (Dr. Kneeland) has added an introductory survey of recent liter-ters in the Gospels, by Rev. E. H. Chapin; ature on the subject. The whole perform ance is feeble. The author and his editor endeavor to make out something like the infidel theory of Professor AGASSIZ, which, a year or two ago, attracted sufficient attention to induce an investigation and an intelligent judgment, in several quarters, as to the real claims of that person to the distinctions in science which his advertising managers claim for him. We have not space now for any critical investigation of the work, and therefore merely warn that portion of our readers who feel any interest in ethnological studies, of its utter worthlessness.

Tales and Traditions of Hungary, by Theresa Pulzky; The Comedy of Love, and the History of the Eighteenth Century, by Arsene Houssaye; Aytoun's Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers; The Cavaliers of England, and The Knights of the Olden Time, or the Chiralry of England, France and Spain, by Henry W. Herbert; Lectures and Miscellanies, by Henry James; and Isa: a Pilgrimage, by Caroline Chesebro.

poet of the rank of Mrs. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING in England; the literary critic of The Tribune (the learned and accomplished RIPLEY whose judgment in such a matter is beyond appeal) prefers her Clovernook to Miss MITFORD'S Our Village, or Professor WILSON'S Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life.

The Westminster Review says of ALICE CAREY, whose Clovernook we noticed favorsbly in the last International, that " no American woman can be compared to her for AN Englishman, Mr. FRANCIS BONYNGE, re-genius;" the Paris Débats refers to her as a cently from the East Indies, has come to this country at the instance of our minister in London, for the purpose of bringing before us the subject of introducing some twenty of the most valuable agricultural staples of the East, among which are the tea, coffee, and indigo plants, into the United States. He gives his reasons for believing that tea and indigo would become articles of export from this country to an amount greater than the whole of our present exports. He says that tea, for which we now pay from sixty-five to one hundred cents per lb. may be produced for from two to five cents, free from the nox-linois, and Iowa, with remarks on Minnesota ious adulterations of the tea we import. He has published a small volume under the title of The Future Wealth of America, in which his opinions are fully explained and illustrated.

THE first volume of a work on Christian Iconography, by M. Didron, of Paris, opens to the curious reader a new source of intellectual enjoyment, both in the department of ancient religious art, and in the archæology of the early paintings of the Catholic Church. The rich, profuse, and quaint plates of the original work are used in a translation ably made by E. J. Millington, published in London by Bohn, and in New-York by Bangs.

MR. DANIEL S. CURTISS has availed himself well of large opportunities for personal observation, in his volume just published under the title of Western Portraiture, and Emigrant's Guide, a description of Wisconsin, Il

and other territories. It is the most judicious and valuable book of the kind we have seen.

HERR FREUND, the Philologist, is in London, engaged in constructing a German-English and English-German dictionary upon his new system; and Professor SMITH, the learned editor of the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, announces a dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, the articles to be written by the principal contributors to his previous works.

THE CHRISTMAS BOOKS of the present season in England have not been very remarkable. Mr. DICKENS, in an extra nuinber of his SIR FRANCIS BOND HEAD, So well known Household Words, printed What Christmas in this country as one of the former gover- is to Everybody; and we have from WILKIE nors of Canada, and as an author of remarka- COLLINS, A New Christmas Story; by the ble versatility and cleverness, has published author of "The Ogilvies," Alice Learmont, a an agreeable but superficial book on Paris-Fairy Tale of Love; by the author of "The the Paris of January, 1852-under the quaint title of A Bundle of French Sticks; and Mr. Putnam has reprinted it in his new library.

A REMARKABLE book published in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1847, by J. D. NOURSE, under the title of Remarks on the Past, and its Legacies to American Society, has just been reprinted in London, with an introduction by D. T. COULTON.

Maiden Aunt," a pleasant little book entitled
The Use of Sunshine.

UNDER the title of Excerpta de P. Ovidii Nastonis, Blanchard & Lea of Philadelphia have published a series of selections from a poet whose works, for obvious reasons, are not read entire in the schools. The extracts present some of the most beautiful parts of this graceful and versatile poet.

E

The Fine Arts.

THE American Art Unions have not been IN our musical world there have been sesuccessful in the last year, unless an excep- veral noticable facts in the last month. The tion may be made in regard to that of New opera company, perhaps from the utter inEngland, at Boston. The American, at New- capacity of its director, has been divided, and York, deferred indefinitely its annual distri- the best portion of it has been singing at Nibution of pictures, on account of the small blo's Theatre. Jenny Lind's farewell series number of its subscriptions; and the Pennsyl- of concerts was prevented by intelligence of vanian, at Philadelphia, by a recent fire in the death of the great singer's mother, in that city has lost its admirably-engraved Sweden. Catherine Hayes has been successplates of Huntington's pictures from the Pil- ful in several concerts at Tripler Hall, and grim's Progress, the last of which was just Mrs. Bostwick, whom the best critics of the completed and placed in the hands of the city regard as superior to any singer who has printer. It will make no distribution. appeared among us, except Jenny Lind, has given a second series of her subscription concerts, which were extremely well attended.

A SICILIAN artist, residing at Naples, has amused himself, and probably pleased his sovereign, by composing a life-sized group, representing Religion supporting King Ferdinand, and guarded by an angel, who places his foot on an evil spirit. On the other side of this group is a child bearing the scales of justice. "How much," writes a correspondent of the Athenæum, "the artist is to get for this plaster blasphemy, I know not; but a more impudent caricature (at the present moment) it would be difficult to imagine." Another artist has, however, beaten the Sicilian sculptor quite out. A small bronze group represents Religion triumphing over Impiety and Anarchy. Impiety is represented by a female figure, under whose arm are two books! inscribed Voltaire and Luther! Anarchy has taken off her mask, and let fall two scrolls, on which are written Communismo and Constituto.

Professor Zahn, who has been engaged during a period of more than twenty years in examining the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneun, has exhibited at Berlin a collection of casts unique in their kind. These are 8,000 in number; and comprise all the remarkable sculptures of the above places, besides those found at Stabiæ, and those of the vast collection of the Museo Borbonico and other museums of the Two Sicilies. The casts from the Museo Borbonico are the first ever made, -the King of Naples having accorded the privilege of taking these copies to M. Zahn alone, in royal recompense for the Professor's great work on Pompeii and Herculaneum.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Athenæum, writing from Egypt, urges that a few young artists should be sent out with orders to copy all the hieroglyphics on the most important temples, as well as the numerous tablets and fragments which are daily brought to light. "A work pursued with such materials-all theories and arbitrary classification being excluded-would ever remain as a lasting monument, and would reflect great credit on the Government which should order its execution." Less than one-half of the money required for the removal of the Obelisk would amply cover all expenses.

A CORRESPONDENT of Kuhne's Europa writes from Dresden that a number of humorous drawings, sketched by the pencil of Schiller, and accompanied by descriptions in his own hand, have been found in the possession of a Swabian family, with whom the great poet became acquainted during his residence at Loschwitz.

IN Berlin, M. von Prinz, a pupil of Kiss, the sculptor, is erecting a group which he calls The Lion-killer, in imitation of the Amazon. Kiss himself is engaged on a set of groups from a fox-hunt. Rauch has almost completed a bust of Humboldt, and statues of General Gneisenau and of Hope.

A COLOSSAL statue of the Emperor Napoleon, thirty feet high, is to be placed on the top of the Triumphal Arch, at the end of the Champs Elysées, in Paris.

A BOOK which all students of art should possess, is DR. KUGLER'S Geschichte der Kunst (History of Art), with the Illustrations (Bil- KAULBACH has undertaken to draw a set deratlos) which accompany it, and which are of sketches for an illustrated edition of Shaksnow being published at Stuttgart. The an-peare, which will shortly be published by cient and modern schools of Art-Painting, Nicolai, at Berlin. Sculpture, and Architecture-are here represented in outlines of their most celebrated and characteristic works. Eleven numbers of these Illustrations have appeared, and the whole work will be completed in the course of the coming year.

MR. GREENOUGH, is now in New-York, awaiting the arrival of his splendid group for the Capitol, from Italy. He will soon be engaged on his statue of his friend the late Mr. Cooper, to be erected in this city.

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