(Vick,

"There is no book of reference more useful to all classes of readers than a good gazetteer." So says Putnam's new "Hand-Book of Geography;" and, we may add, that none is more needed just now than a good American gazetteer. Independently of the fact that old works of the kind have been recklessly negligent of American geography, (meaning by that, of course, the topography of "Uncle Sam's farm,") such has been the recent growth of our civil geography that a very large proportion of our important localities are now to be set down for

the first time. Mr. Putnam's volume is a real

The standard Life of Wellington has yet to be written; meanwhile, many temporary and not uninteresting memoirs are appearing; the very best of them, judging from the first volume, is Stocqueller's "Life of Field Marshal, the Duke of Wellington," published by Ingraham, Cooke & Co., London. The author was personally acquainted with the Duke, and has drawn his data from his recollections, the "Dispatches," and a great variety of other sources. He quotes too much, and has written with evident haste, but gives us a very readable book. The first volume only has yet appeared; it reaches to Napoleon's return from Elba. The engravings are numerous, and have the important merit of accuracy in "the matter of scenery, costume, and portraiture." (Bangs, Brother & Co., New-York.)

The "Pretty Plate" is the title of a juvenile story well written and well got up, but teaching the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Confessional. (Redfield, New-York.)

Such of our readers as have examined Trench "on Words" will welcome his new work on “Proverbs”—a singularly interesting dissertation, in five lectures, on the formation and generation of Proverbs; the Proverbs of different nations compared; the poetry, wit, and wisdom of Proverbs; the morality of Proverbs; and the theology of Proverbs. An appendix on the metrical Latin Proverbs of the Middle Ages concludes the volume. (Redfield, New-York.)

Messrs. Carlton & Phillips have issued a neat pocket-volume entitled a "Guide to the Lord's Supper," by Rev. Daniel Smith. It con

statistical inaccuracies; it comprises more places than even M'Culloch's. It is on the basis of Johnston's, but supplies his deficiencies. It is closely but neatly printed, and must inevitably supersede all other works of the kind among us. The public are much indebted to Mr. Callicott, its indefatigable editor. (Putnam, New-York.)

It

She

Messrs. Harpers have issued the third volume of Agnes Strickland's Queens of Scotland. sketches, in part, the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, and is, of course, the most romantic in the series of her entertaining volumes. justly remarks that "more books have been written about Mary Stuart than all the queens in the world put together." She has entered upon her task with great spirit, and a command of its best resources; but its romance has too much fascination for her. She repeats the old enthusiastic eulogies, despite the latest historical verdicts to the contrary.

The Cabin Book is an illustrated volume of sketches of character in the south-west-a fiction from the German of Charles Sealsfield, issued by Ingraham, Cook & Co., London, and for sale by Bangs, Brother & Co., New-York. The engravings are unusually fine for wood-cuts.

An interesting volume, entitled "The Conversion of a Pupist," an autobiographical sketch by Rev. J. B. Cocagne, has been published by Carlton & Phillips, New-York. It is introduced by a few appropriate pages from Professor Mattison, who indorses the character of the author. Its style and temper is excellent, and, unlike many late works of the kind, is well adapted to conciliate the attention of Roman Catholic readers. The incidents of the book are quite interesting, and its illustrations of Popery are of no little value-showing its popular influences and workings in a manner at once striking and evidently truthful. It is a good book to put into the hands of inquiring Roman Catholics. Several attractive engravings illustrate the volume.

THE Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, one of the oldest literary institutions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, continues to flourish finely under the care of Rev. Miner Raymond. It reports nearly five hundred students.

At a late public meeting, held at Birmingham, England, it was decided to establish a Literary and Scientific Society on an extensive scale. A letter from Mr. Charles Dickens was read, in which that gentleman proposed to read his Christmas Carols, the proceeds to be appropriated in aid of the proposed institution. It is designed to erect a spacious building at a cost of $100,000.

Professor Petermann, of the Berlin University, is at present engaged at Damascus in copying, with the aid of other learned men, a Syriac New Testament of the sixth century, which, it is said, there is reason to believe was itself translated verbally from one of the earliest and most authentic Greek manuscripts.

Rev. F. Hodgson, so well known in his earlier time to the readers of the Byron Memoirs, and of late years Provost of Eton College, died recently in his seventy-second year. Mr. Hodgson was not only a friend of the author of "Childe Harold," but a brother poet. poem on Lady Jane Grey is, perhaps, the most notable of his original efforts; but his most accepted work is the translation of Juvenal.

His

A new edition of the Fathers of the Church is in course of publication in Paris, under the revision, and with the notes, of the erudite Abbé Caillau.

From the report of the Leeds Mechanics' Institution, it appears that this is the largest and most flourishing establishment of the kind in England. The number of members and subscribers is now upward of two thousand one hundred. Besides numerous journals and periodicals, the library contains nearly nine thousand volumes.

Dr. Max Müller has been appointed to a lectureship of modern literature at the University

of Oxford.

The fifth and concluding volume of The Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield, including some new letters now first published from the original manuscripts, under the editorship, as before, of Lord Mahon, are about to appear in London. Two volumes of Letters of the Poet Gray, announced by Mr. Bentley, are also to be issued during the present season. They will be edited by the Rev. J. Mitford, author of "The Life of Gray."

Mr. Walter Scott Lockhart Scott, only son of Mr. Lockhart, and only surviving male descendant of the author of "Waverley," died recently, aged twenty-seven years.

The ecclesiastical publications, to appear under the title of The Church Historians of England from Bede to Fox, are about to be issued from the London press. Between these two celebrated authors, in an interval of eight hundred years, there were many ecclesiastical

annalists and historians in England; but their works are almost unknown, except to a few antiquaries and authors. Those parts of the histories relating only to secular affairs will be omitted, and notes, explanatory or illustrative, be appended by the editor. A new edition of Fore's Acts and Monuments is to be given. The books are to appear in volumes, published occasionally, at intervals extending over five or six years, by annual subscription, as with the publications of the Parker Society, the Library of Anglo-Catholic Divinity, and similar works. It is

estimated that the historians of the Pre-Refor mation period will occupy eight octavo volumes, edition of Fore's Acts and Monuments will conof about eight hundred pages each, and the new sist of the same number of volumes.

A late number of the Hebrew Christian Maga zine, published in England, mentions the discovery of some interesting MSS. in that language, which, it is said, are not unlikely to come into the market. The titles and contents of five works are enumerated:-1. "The Mantle by Rabbi Jacob Elijah, circa Charles II of Elijah-a commentary on the Pentateuch, 2. "The Gleanings of Paradise"-a collection of Cabalistic pieces, explanations of difficult passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, moral aphorisms illustrated by allegories, and a treatise on Hebrew Grammar. A MS. of this work-but thought to be a copy-is now in the Bodleian Library. 3. Eight MS. works, by the late Rabbi Natta Ellingen, of Hamburg. 4. Three volumes of the work called "Great Understanding"being a commentary on the obscure passages of the Medrash Rabba, with an explanation of all foreign words not in the Rabbinical Lexicon "Aaruch." 5. A book of names-written by R. Solomon Ben Aaron in 1676, being an analy sis of the Cabala, with an illustration of the Cabalistic alphabet.

At Calcutta there are not less than forty native presses, established for the purpose of publishing Bengali books, which send out thirty thousand volumes annually. It is fifty-one years since the Serampore missionaries published the first book in the Bengali language. Within this period, every ancient Bengali book but one, all of which were full of idolatry, has ceased to be published, while nearly four hundred works have taken their place.

The society formed about ten years ago, to circulate the writings of M. Victor Hugo, has just parted with the copyrights of MM. Lebigre and Delayhays. The purchase money is said

to be 82,000 francs.

The Benedictines of France, though much they used to be, are very creditably mainless numerous and much less wealthy than taining the long-established renown of their order for learning and literary industry. In addition to the recent publication of several works, highly appreciated by all who occupy themselves with ecclesiastical matters, they are busily engaged in completing their famous Spicilegium Solesmense—a vast repository of un

Rev. J. Mullen, of the London Missionary Society, now laboring in Ceylon, gives the following interesting statistics:-At the commencement of 1852 there were in India and Ceylon, under the direction of 22 missionary societies, 443 missionaries (of whom 48 were ordained natives) and 668 catechists, who were employed on 313 missionary stations. There were 331 native churches, containing 18,410 communicants, in a community of 112,191 native Christians. The missionarics maintain 1,347 day-schools in the native language, in which were 47,504 boys; and 93 boardingschools, containing 2,414 Christian boys. They also sustain 126 superior day-schools in the English language, in which are instructed 14,562 boys and young men. They have 347 day-schools for girls, containing 11,519 scholars; and 202 female boarding-schools, containing 2,779 Christian girls. The entire Bible has been translated into ten languages, the New Testament into five others, and separate Gospels into four others. Besides numerous works for Christians, thirty, forty, and even seventy tracts have been prepared in some of these different languages, suitable for Hindoos and Mussulmans. Missionaries maintain in India twenty-five printing establishments. The greater part of this vast missionary agency has been brought into operation within the last twenty years. It is supported at an annual cost of $900,000, of which about one-sixth is contributed by European Christians resident in the country.

By the report of the treasurer of the Boston City Missionary Society, it appears that the receipts of the society for the past year were $6,329 08, and the expenditures $6,670 66.

There are 715 churches and 283,000 members of the society of Friends in the United States. Of these, Pennsylvania has 141, with 60,000 members; New-York 132, with 49,314. Indiana has 35 churches, with 43,000 members.

A grandson of the celebrated William Paley was ordained recently in England. He is going out to Africa as a missionary of the Established Church.

Under the control of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, South, at the present time, are 299 missions, 273 missionaries, 229 churches, 6,368 church-members, 136 Sabbath schools, 19,894 children under religious instruction, with eight manual-labor schools, and 489 pupils. The total missionary contributions for the past year amounted to $125,000.

The Young Men's Christian Association of New-York has about eight hundred members, and nearly one hundred are added at each monthly meeting. They have a library of about five hundred volumes-constantly enlarging and their regular meetings are fully attended.

The number of Baptist Associations in Pennsylvania is 16; of churches, 332; of ordained ministers, 251; of licentiates, 46; of baptized

within the year, 1,852. Net gain, 568. Total of membership, 30,053.

There has been a net increase of fifteen hun

dred persons in the German Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States the past year. The whole German Methodist membership is now about ten thousand.

The membership of the South Carolina Methodist Conference numbers 32,828 whites, and 40,358 colored; increase in the former year 435, in the latter 2,877. The amount contributed for missions is $22,320, exclusive of $1,000 and upward, given for the erection of churches on the missions for the service of the blacks. Twenty-four ministers of the confer ence are stationed on missions to the blacks, besides a supply of five local preachers under the supervision of the superintendents of the

missions. No annual conference in the United States gives so much to the missionary cause as this conference.

In 1752 there were 53 ministers and about 96 Protestant Episcopal churches in America. Now the Episcopal Church in this country is divided into 20 dioceses. Two years ago, the date of its last report, it numbered 1,558 ministers, 1,500 parishes, 92,238 communicants, and 120 candidates for orders. Its present membership is estimated at 100,000.

George Hadfield, of Manchester, England, member of Parliament, has offered $25,000, to be appropriated in sums of $500 for churchextension among Congregationalists; thus giving "material" toward the erection of nifty churches.

There are 40,000 Baptists in Mississippi. The sum of $30,000 was subscribed by the recent Baptist Convention toward the endowment fund of $100,000, proposed to be raised for the Literary and Theological Institute, located at Clinton, besides several thousands for other interests, home and foreign, under the direction of that body.

The Protestant Episcopal Church have in China one bishop, three clergymen, four female missionaries, one native deacon, one American also a bishop, six clergymen, ten American and and two native teachers. In Africa they have nine native teachers.

There are fourteen Protestant schools in Constantinople, and twenty-six Protestant sermons are preached in or near that city every Sunday.

We learn from the annual register, recently published by the Unitarian denomination at Boston, that there are in the United States two hundred and twenty-two ministers belonging to that denomination, and about the same number of societies, located in twenty-one

states.

The Louisiana Methodist Conference has 4,872 white and 4,890 colored members.

There are 19 traveling preachers in the French Methodist Conference, 34 local preachers, 4 catechists or evangelists, 873 Church mem