LITERARY INTELLIGENCE

AND

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

WHAT we have long desired has at length happened. From Messrs. John Wiley & Son, of New York, we have received a new edition of Mahan's "Field Fortification," being now-Part I. of “An Elementary Course of Military Engineering." Instead of the small and contracted form of the old work, it is in octavo, with generous print; instead of plates of figures, which opened out into uncomfortable scrolls, uncomfortable to handle, inconvenient of reference, and soon torn, we have each figure on the page with the letter-press, and immediately illustrating it. Besides, there is very much that is new: the Introductory Chapter; the entire subject of military mining, with illustrations taken from recent wars; siege operations, the formation of parallels, saps, &c., posting of artillery, attacks, with special notices of the sieges in the present war-Vicksburg, Charleston, &c. The book is altogether the best treatise on its subject which we know; lucid, accurate, full, and yet concise, we recommend it to every institution which has introduced the military element, as the book, if they use no other whatever, by which the most can be learned about the art of war. Field fortification is in itself an epitome of the military art. Its points and lines are chosen by strategy; engineers build it of dimensions determined by the range of fire-arms; artillery and infantry defend and assault it; cavalry is always a complementary force in the intervals; and thus a student, who learns the contents of this book, has the most varied knowledge, as well as the best basis for future study.

To the new publisher, D. Van Nostrand, we are indebted for the seventh volume of the "Rebellion Record," and also for Parts 46 and 47, which commence Volume viii. We cannot too highly commend this noble work to our readers. The Docu ments are invaluable; the "Rumors, Anecdotes, Poetry, and Incidents," are scarcely less so: the work forms, from its beginning to the very last number, a storehouse in which are collected all the important materials from which the future historian may edit a philosophic history of the war. The portraits (two in each number) are exact likenesses, from excellent photographs, and are engraved in the most beautiful manner. We are particularly struck with those of Generals Sickles and Foster, in Part 46. No family, the children of which have been growing up during this war, should fail to secure this work, in order to aid their retrospect, in the time to come, of the greatest national crisis known to history. Each part is royal 8vo, of about 120 pages, and the price is 60 cents.

The comparative geography of Carl Ritter, the famous professor in the University of Berlin, has been translated by W. L. Gage, and published by Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia, in a 12mo, of 220 pages. Of course, the original work is admi rable: it treats of the form, atmosphere, and surface; the hills, mountains, and plains; seas, lakes, and rivers, which form the anatomical structure of the great crust, and a comparative consideration of the Old World and the New. The In

troduction is long and learned, and perhaps detracts somewhat from the practical usefulness of the book, which is otherwise admirably designed for students in colleges and schools.

"OUR GREAT CAPTAINS" is the title of a volume just issued by Mr. C. B. Richardson, military publisher, of New York. It contains biographies of Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, and Farragut. The work is well done, sparkling, and accurate. The portraits are excellent, and it has the great advantage of being brought down to the very close of hostilities, thus including the surrender of the armies of Lee and Johnston. Although our space is small, we cannot help quoting, with pleasure, the following from the biography of General Sherman, illustrating as it does the malice of false reporters, and the beautiful reciprocal estimate of Grant and Sherman:-"It is related that a distinguished civilian began to speak to Sherman of Grant in terms of depreciation. 'It won't do-it won't do, Mr. -,' said Sherman, in his quick, nervous way, 'General Grant is a great general; I know him well: he stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk; and now, sir, we stand by each other always.'" Si non e vero e ben trovato; -no comment is needed. 12mo, 250 pp. $1.75.

It is with real pleasure that we notice the seventh and concluding volume of that most sterling work and splendid specimen of American book-making, "Merivale's History of the Romans under the Empire." It is reprinted from the fourth London edition, and has a copious analytical index. This volume begins with Vespasian and Titus, taking up their history after the fall of Jerusalem; it relates the cruel ties and follies of Domitian, and the wise efforts of the "good emperors" to but tress the already tottering empire; incidentally are told the sad and sudden fate of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the demolition of the "golden house" of Nero; and there is a valuable account of the condition and progress of the Christian Church. The work richly deserves at our hands an extended review, rather than · this brief notice, but we can only find space in which to congratulate Mr. Merivale upon his great achievement, and the Appletons upon the noble form in which they have presented it to American readers. 8vo, 596 pp.

From Messrs. Ticknor & Fields we have received two exquisite little blue and gold volumes, in the finest style of typography and book-making-one containing the poems, and the other the essays, of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Being ourselves very matter-of-fact men, in an extremely busy age, and having study enough to do in positive science and practical art, we are not capable of appreciating these dreamy-with occasional starts-visions of Platonic philosophy. To translate from Greek or German is one trouble, but we do it cheerfully; to translate from Emersonese into English goes against the grain. Mr. Emerson has, we are sure, great merits, quite in spite of our want of appreciation, and his admirers will find them done up in lavender in the beautiful little volumes to which we refer.

We come at length to a very refreshing book—" The Hand-Book of Dining; or, Corpulency and Leanness Scientifically Considered; translated and adapted from the French of Brillot Savarin, by L. F. Simpson." It is neither a cook-book nor a system of table etiquette; but it aims, by precept and example, to show that good dinners, adapted to the peculiar nature of the diner, have a great influence upon health, morals, society, and even revolutions. The views seem just, and the stories are pleasant. Appletons. 12mo, 200 pp.

EDITOR'S SPECIAL DEPARTMENT.

THE hopes with which we opened our editorial of last month were not simply wishes "father to the thought." The murder of President Lincoln has not paralyzed the Great Republic. Still and forever mourning the sad event, the country has yet risen from the blow; the new President, ANDREW JOHNSON, commends himself, by every act and word, as a worthy successor, who will deal right manfully with the chief traitors, even now that the treason is dead; the finances are in the best possible condition, and-to use the President's words-" Armed resistance to the authority of this Government, in certain States heretofore declared to be in insurrection, may be regarded as virtually at an end." The armies of Joe Johnston and Dick Taylor have surrendered. Jefferson Davis is a captive, accused of complicity in the great murder, as well as of high treason. The Great PAN of the Southern Rebellion is dead, dead, dead!

With less scope and less warrant for current, stirring intelligence, the province of our magazine becomes still more important and dignified, as, in closing our Fourth Volume with this number, we proceed to gather up, in the coming issues, the details of the great campaigns, jealous in our historical labors that even of the fragments nothing be lost. Indeed, the value and importance of our magazine are greatly enhanced by the peace opening to us the new material from the pens of distinguished eye-witnesses, who have hitherto been, from prudence and necessity, silent.

Sherman having brought the army of Johnston to a final stand, and having proposed a basis of agreement, elsewhere referred to, which was not approved by the Government, afterwards received the surrender upon the terms dictated by General Grant, which were the same as those offered to Lee. Right generous were those terms, for we are informed that Johnston's army was greatly demoralized, without supplies, and ready upon many pleas to dissolve. The force which should have surrendered was more than thirty thousand, but pending the making out of papers, &c., ten thousand dissolved themselves, making the actual surrender of not more than twenty thousand, composing the remnants of Hardee's, Stewart's, and Lee's corps, and a portion of Hampton's cavalry. The rest of the cav. alry, handsomely paid by Jeff. Davis, out of the abstracted gold, went to escort him in partibus—towards Texas most probably, whither he had prepared himself a nidus, by sending word to Kirby Smith by no means to surrender: Homme propose! It is said that the first terms proposed by Sherman were the cause of his capture, for, hoping by them to be a partaker in the amnesty, he lingered too long, and the delay was fatal.

Dick Taylor surrendered to Canby, and the special surrenders were made by detached commands all through the South; General Sam Jones being paroled in Florida by General Vogdes, and Jeff. Thompson surrendering to Captain Mitchell, of the navy.

Only Kirby Smith remains in the field. General Grant sent an officer down

to demand his surrender. Whether he will adhere to the spirit of his recent proclamation and still show fight, remains to be seen. Ho is in a far better position to do so than any of the others were; but if he does, he will be outlawed, and the result is by no means doubtful. Sheridan has gone down to see.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.-The doctrine of punishing ringleaders is as old as history, and if ever it needed the perfection of an illustration we have it now. It will not do to say, he is no worse than others. He is the very head and front of the offending; the most prominent man before the war; a chief among the instigators, and a manifold traitor: a traitor to the memories of West Point and Mexico; a traitor to the Federal Senate-chamber; a traitor to the Federal cabinet; a man upon whom his country had bestowed rank and station, and who turned his arms and his influence against her. We need not go to his family antecedents: we need but take him for himself, to hold him up to the condemnation which he now receives both at the North and at the South. Nor is this all: before his capture, and with remarkable dramatic connection, the President of the United States, declaring that the murder of Mr. Lincoln was incited, concerted, and procured by and between Jefferson Davis and other fugitives from justice, had set a price upon his head, of one hundred thousand dollars. What a horrible antithesis! not long since, he was a dictator out-Heroding Herod; standing out against the world; now none so base to do him reverence.

We shall not anticipate the evidence upon which the President's proclamation was based; but merely say, that no cabinet would issue such without strong grounds for commitment to trial. But this is not yet all. The high tragedy was to end in a most ridiculous farce; the great actor, who had played the part of "the king" in a manner to satisfy the critical Partridge in Tom Jones (among whose kingly crimes, by-the-by, was the murder of a brother-king), was fain at last to conceal himself in the petticoats of his wife, and fly to the woods, in the most ridiculous of disguises. If the Confederacy still retained a particle of the esteem of foreign nations, this ludicrous ending must extinguish it forever. It has made thoroughly contemptible that which before was simply execrable and detestable.

We place on record what is now old news to the country-the capture and death of J. Wilkes Booth, the assassin of the President. The vengeance was executed speedily. Colonel L. C. Baker, efficiently aided by Colonel Conger, tracked him in his flight to a barn in Accomac County. The barn was fired, and Booth, thus brought to bay, was shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett, through the head-far too noble a death for one who deserved the extreme of ignominy in the mode of his punishment. The investigation has brought to light a wide-spread conspiracy. Besides Jefferson Davis and the fugitives in Canada, the following persons are now being tried by the military court, of which General Hunter is president-Arnold, Dr. Mudd, Spangler, O'Laughlin, Atzerott, Payne, Harold, and, we regret for the sake of humanity to add, a woman, Mrs. Surratt. But no! If she is declared guilty, she has unsexed herself. She is not a woman.

THE RETURN OF THE HERACLIDE.-Reminding us of the march of the Dorians to Peloponnesus, under the conduct of the descendants of Hercules, the great corps of heroic men who have achieved the liberty, vindicated the power, and assured the perpetuity of the Republic, have set out on their triumphant march homeward. Schofield is left for a time in North Carolina; Wright, with the Sixth Corps, remains temporarily at Danville; Sheridan marched through Richmond with his invincible troopers, and is now at Washington; Humphreys with the Second, and Griffin with the Fifth, passed in grand procession up and down the streets of