In these, which will occupy (at least) three more volumes, we are promised a series of original memoranda and remarks upon the court and private life of George III. and his queen. Those now in our hand contain some entertaining pictures of life and manners in the time of the two first Georges. The grains of wheat they contain are well worth looking for; but skilful winnowing would have got rid of a large heap of chaff, and rendered the resulting work, so far, more accessible and interesting to general readers.

History of Life and Times of Edmund Burke. Vol. III. By T. Macknight. (Chapman & Hall.)-With this volume Mr. Macknight concludes his biography of Burke. The period over which the narrative extends ranges from 1782 to the death of the illustrious subject of the memoir in 1797, and includes, of course, the most memorable passages in his political as well as his literary career, embracing, as it does, not only the impeachment of Warren Hastings, but also the outbreak and consummation of the French Revolution, with which the name of Burke is so intimately associated in English minds. Mr. Macknight is not a genial biographer. So far from falling into the ordinary error of his class, and becoming a partisan and panegyrist of his hero, he runs rather into an opposite extreme. His judgments are harsh and stern. He is ready to impute questionable motives; and his criticisms are bitter and acrid. The many admirers of Burke will not rest satisfied with the judgment pronounced in this work, either of his personal, his literary, or his public character. Apart from this want of appreciative sympathy, the work is carefully written, and presents, so far as facts are concerned, a fair and full, if not exhaustive, biography of the author of "Reflections on the French Revolution."

Paul the Pope, and Paul the Friar; a Story of an Interdict; by J. Adolphus Trollope. (Chapman & Hall.)—Mr. Trollope professes to be absolute master of all matters pertaining to Italian policy. He has gone back to the dreary days of Paul V. to detail, in a semi-epic form, a quarrel between the pope and the republic of Venice-a quarrel of European interest in its own day, almost forgotten in the present, and one of the incidents o

which was an interdict which the republic laughed at, and of which Mr. Trollope makes a mighty affair. This is very well for an historical romance, but the author professes to be writing history. He has taken a period and a story out of which a good series of scenes might be created by the fictionist; but which, without embroidery, are scarcely bold enough to have grand historical pictures all to themselves. Mr. Trollope's book is a large one; and, in order to make the most of his subject, he has become prolix and diffuse, till he has seriously injured the general effect of his narrative. Still, the period is one of no small importance, as the one in which the great political question between Roman Catholic and Protestant settled down into the form which it retained, without great alteration, for more than two centuries. The episode further serves well to illustrate the peculiar condition of Italian policy at the time of the downfal of the independence of the great republics of the middle ages. The story has, therefore, a sound and political moral well worth studying. In many respects, it could not have been in better hands, as Mr. Trollope is master of the modern Italian question; but his views on the Papacy are so thoroughly one-sided, that we can neither depend on his deductions nor his illustrations, There are some points in which a little brag does no harm to the narrative of an historian, but the Papacy is not one of these ; and least of all at a time when she was making her final struggle for such remnants of power as she could preserve after the storm of the first half of the fifteenth century. Justice is but scantily given either to Venice or Rome, and the great want of individual passages, and high qualifications of the author, are both marred by the weakness of the principles on which he founds his views, and the narrowness of the foundation upon which he builds so rambling a superstructure.

Revolutions in English History; by Robert Vaughan. Vol. II. (Parker & Son.)—Similar titles to the present, in foreign languages, have been prefixed to some of the most important histories. To say nothing of Vertot, few historical works are of more interest than the revolutions of Italy and Venice. The work of Dr. Vaughan, without reaching so high a standard,

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nevertheless places many of the more stirring periods of our history in a point of view sometimes new, and always striking. The present volume takes up the religious revolutions, of which, of course, the main period is the reign of Henry VIII. Dr. Vaughan is here especially readable, and his book is in many parts as interesting as a novel. Divine as he is, he views the great events of that strange period in a spirit singularly impartial; and the book may be read by all sects without fear of offence. This is no small praise to give to a chapter on the Reformation, written by a clergyman. Beyond this the book is full of information; and the facts it narrates are told in a manner which impresses them on the memory much more than is usual in ordinary histories.

TRAVELS AND ANTIQUITIES.

The Prince of Wales in Canada and the United States; by N. A. Wood. (London: Bradbury & Evans.)-Most people are already acquainted with the letters written from America on the occasion of the Prince's visit by the Times' special correspondent, of which this publication is a reprint. The letters at the time were criticised as singularly unequal; the manly tone of a clever English journalist struggling, not always successfully, against the influence of proximity to royalty, so peculiarly accessible to an English constitution. Our author-sufficiently just in his observations on every other matter-sees in the good humour, high spirits, and geniality of a youth of nineteen, in the midst of new scenes, excitement, and flattery, proofs of energy and magnanimity which, in an ordinary person, would have passed for ordinary traits of character. Apart from these, as a record of a princely progress so very different from the ordinary run of royal progresses, the work stands not only as one of the most interesting, but the most important, of its class. Without doubt, Mr. Wood's narrative stands infinitely above the rambling, slipshod sketches of the American papers-not merely in style and spirit, but in the comparative obscuracy of flunkeyism, of which last the correspondents of the democratic newspapers of the model republic furnished some superb instances.

In his delineations of the princely adventures, Mr. Wood comes first in the field, and has no rival, because he has had no competitor with equal advantages to those given him by the influence of the journal he represented. But in the trodden field of American scenic description, he has produced some passages which equal-if they do not surpass-the effusions of previous travellers. Descriptive powers are absolutely necessary to the success of newspaper correspondence, and are cultivated and appreciated accordingly. For a graphic picture of a Canadian forest, or a fall of Niagara, "our own correspondent" is sure to stand first amongst his competitors.

. The style of the work is simple and modest, amid many temptations to thec ontrary; and the work itself, in its collected form, justifies the praise bestowed on the original letters.

The Medical Missionary in China; a Narrative of Twenty Years' Experience; by W. Lockhart, F.R.C.S. (Hurst & Blackett.)-It has often been remarked, that in no character does the Christian missionary obtain easier access, and win a readier acceptance among heathen nations, than in that of physician. As a mere visitor he is always suspected, and often expelled-as a preacher he is rarely understood, even in those cases when he is allowed to preach and can find hearers; and, as a proselytizer, his efforts seldom attain even a semblance or promise of success without awakening the jealousy of native priests and sovereigns, and involving either the missionary himself or his converts, and sometimes both, in bitter persecution. But, as a curer of bodily ailments, the surgeon, with a little judgment and good fortune, may speedily acquire not only tolerance, but respect and confidence, among the people of almost any land; and from this point may begin the more appropriate work of his mission under manifold advantages. Upon this idea, and with a special view to the conversion of the Chinese, an association was formed in India, many years ago, with the title of the "Medical Missionary Society," of which Mr. Lockhart was a member and missionary. It is thirty years since he left England for the East his first position being that of head of the hospital in Macao, Here he remained long enough to attain sufficient proficiency in

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the Chinese language; and was then transferred successively to other stations and establishments connected with the society in different parts of China. In the present volume he gives an account of the experiences he derived from this prolonged residence, and wide investigation, in the Celestial Empire. It is full of curious matter, especially in reference to the author's own profession. His description of the strange theories, and still stranger practice, of the Chinese in all questions relating to health and disease, are highly interesting. In the character of missionary Mr. Lockhart modestly assumes merely a secondary function; a "medical missionary," he says, "should be a lay teacher." But he looks with sanguine anticipations to the beneficial effect which preaching, whether lay or clerical, the distribution of bibles and other evangelizing efforts, are, as he believes, calculated to produce, in spite of the utter failure of every attempt hitherto made to arouse the Chinese from the intense apathy with which they are accustomed to regard all questions of religion.

The Great Sahara. Wanderings South of the Atlas Mountains; by H. B. Tristram. (Murray.)—Mr. Tristram has presented us with a very light and lively volume of travel and gossip. He pretends to no higher character for his work, which, as he says himself, is merely the contents, written out somewhat at length, "of a journal kept at such spare moments as could be snatched from the urgent labours of composing, cooking, horse-feeding, and preserving specimens." The author visited Algeria in company with a friend-both tourists being clergymen, and both in search of health; and this primary object being happily attained, afterwards extended their journey through those contiguous regions indicated in the title-page. Their tour is varied by the occurrence of divers scrapes and vicissitudes, such as African travellers are seldom permitted to escape, from thievish attendants, suspicious natives, hard fare, and the "chapter of accidents." In his account of their wanderings, Mr. Tristram mixes philosophy with fun in a very agreeable combination, and succeeds in avoiding the fault of dulness on one hand, or flippancy on the other.