NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

1. THE MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. By Alexandre Dumas. New-York: Stringer & Townsend, 222 Broadway.

Mr. Dumas is certainly a most extraordinary man. Whoever calls at the establishment of Messrs. Berard & Mondon, in this city, and examines the long rows of shelves. occupied by the novels, dramatic and miscellaneous works of that writer, will naturally doubt whether that "multitudinous sea" of books can have welled forth from a single human brain; nay, he will be led to question whether any number of goose-quills or steel pens, wielded successively by any single hand, could, in a man's life-time, have achieved the amount of mechanical labor represented by the countless volumes signed "A. Dumas," to say nothing of the untold mass of feuilletons, letters, contributions and other ephemeral productions, never graced by the honors of binding, which have been issued under this prolific author's responsibility. To account for the obvious disproportion between the number of works produced and the supposed capacity of the human brain, it has been stated that Dumas bestowed little but his name upon most of the works which he consented to father; that he did not so much write as manufacture books; that he and his agents bought up the rough literary attempts of junior scribblers, and caused them only to be recast and remodelled. Many of our readers remember the piquant literary squabble caused by the dispute between Dumas and Mr. Gaillardet, as to the authorship of the Tour de Nesle. What with a bloodless duel, a scandalous law-suit, the interchange of letters and recriminations through the press, and the comments of the journalists, the merits of the question never were fairly laid before the public, and Dumas' with admirable tact and savoir-faire managed to keep the laughers on his side of the question. His adversary was completely overwhelmed under an avalanche of wit and ridicule, although people generally retained some faint impression, that he had not been fairly dealt with. Dumas pursued his course, unimpeded by clamor and obloquy, and, whether right or wrong, has contrived to issue victoriously from every controversy of that nature in which he was ever engaged. Enough transpired, nevertheless, to leave the public thoroughly impressed with the idea, that Dumas employed literary men of some talent to make researches and to "do" the rough work of book-making. One of his secretaries is said to be his son; another is a Mr. Maquet. We read some time ago in a British periodical, some remarks purporting to give a different version of the affair, on the plausible ground principally, that, if Mr. Maquet could write so well, he would have no need of using another man's name. This, however, is by no means conclusive. Maquet might be well qualified to write a novel or two, and able to meet with a purchaser; yet, he might find it for his interest to sacrifice the pride of authorship, for the sake of a steady, inexhaustible market. We know but little of the real merits of the question; but we feel desirous of publishing that little. We remember M. Maquet perfectly well; we were at school with him many years ago. From our recollection of him, we should consider him perfectly capable of performing the part attributed to him by public rumor. We recollect being particularly struck with the beauty of some stanzas, his earliest we believe, which he wrote at that time. It was something about Spain and "le bleu Guadalquivir," Andalusian women and skies, mantillas and black eyes. Our recollection is indistinct, but our impression at the time was highly favorable. Since that time, we have heard but little of M. Maquet; some vague intimation reached us that he was "répétiteur" at the College of Charlemagne, our own alma mater. Years afterwards, we saw a card in some of the French newspapers, signed by Maquet and others, indignantly avowing, that they, the undersigned, were the friends of Mr. Dumas, not his suite, as some papers had then lately asserted, when noticing the perambulations of the most prolific of novelists over Europe. These gentlemen acknowledged that they accompanied Mr. Dumas in his travels, but whether for the purpose of taking down, in short-hand, the impressions of the great traveller, or daguerreotyping his emotions with a view to future book-making, they did not choose to explain. It looked plausible enough, however; and this, with other circumstances, has wrought within us the moral conviction, that Mr. Maquet had much more to do with the works of Dumas than was publicly known. He does wisely, we think, in disclaiming a worthless title to productions which have no other value than their present quotations in the market; they sell at enormous prices, and of this "the secretaries" get their share; but such works

Late Editor of the Courier des Etats Unis.

cannot-will not live long. Nearly all the novels attributed to Mr. Dumas, though attractive, are devoid of intrinsic merit, excepting a very few, such as "Les trois Mousquetaires, Monte Christo and le Chevalier d'Harmental," translated for Messrs. Harper & Brothers some years ago.

Rous

We believe that we may safely add to that list the work which it is our present purpose to notice, the "Memoirs of a Physician." It is the avowed intention of Mr. Demas to "illustrate" the history of France. The period which he undertakes to " illustrate" in this work, is one fraught with intense interest, the latter end of the reign of Louis XV. Many of the personages are old acquaintances of the public. We have the superannuated representative of the Regency, Richelieu, as gay and fond of conspiracies as ever. seau plays no inconsiderable a part in this work. Maison-Rouge, already known through the pages of Dumas, is once more introduced; and, above all, the noted Cagliostro, alias Joseph Balsamo, sorcerer, conjurer, alchemist and Commander-in-Chief of all secret societies, performs the most important part. The novels of Dumas are habitually interesting; so is this one, though not so much so as we had a right to expect, considering the immense machinery brought into play-Magnetism, Alchemy, Free-Masonry, Necromancy, &c.

was "

66

We will now drop the novelist and take up the translator. We are ignorant of his name, and only guess that the translation was originally published in England, the copy before us bearing every appearance of a republication. Had not Messrs. Stringer & Townsend any journeyman in their employ capable of revising this version and putting it into English? We can hardly conceive how publishers can be found to bestow the honors of type-setting on such execrable style. One would fancy, that this translation is the work of a Frenchman, were it not for the fact, that its author is clearly ignorant of the French language. We never saw the original; but here and there we are enabled, through the abominable English of the translator, to reconstruct a sentence or two of Dumas visibly misunderstood. These are samples: "Je vous aime toujours," he translates by "I love you always," a palpable blunder. Argent" is rendered by "silver," when the context shows that the "argent" was partly copper coin. We read of a Baron, in a brown study, "measuring his little garden." Ten to one the French word arpentant; the translator was not, it seems, aware of its true meaning. Such colloquial expressions as "Econtez " and "ma foi," are given in the most literal manner, and produce a laughable effect. "Spirituel" is metamorphosed into " spiritual," for no other reason, it seems, than that they sound alike. We learn that the precise and ceremonious archduchess, Marie Antoinette, was "a little wild"-sauvage, probably in the original. To every seigneur, every honor," writes this translation-maker, puzzled at a common French sentence, which, in this case, corresponds to the Anglo-Saxon: "Give the devil his due." And so we should in this case, by consigning to oblivion the unfortunate wight who thought that he translated a novel of Dumas, were it not that we wish to seize this opportunity of beseeching publishers, if they will give us translations of French novels, to give us readable ones. Nothing is so easy. Even in the case of the translation under review, it would have been a matter of no difficulty for the publishers to cause the cheap British matter from which they copied, to be revised and corrected by some one who knows French and can write in English. A little scientific curtailing of the insipid dialogues, wherewith French novelists are in the habit of filling out," would not have come amiss. We throw out these hints in a spirit of kindness as well as justice, and, as we conceive, in the legitimate exercise of the duties of "the magistrature of the press."

2.-THE MORAL, SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL DUTIES OF ATTORNEYS AND SOLICITORS. By Samuel Warren, Esq., F. R. S., of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. Harper & Brothers, New-York.

This is a little book upon a large subject. How attorneys and solicitors ought to act in their moral, social and professional relations-what a topic for the four lectures of Barrister Samuel Warren! Perhaps this little volume will be more effective than a quarto, in accomplishing the proposed aim; since many will read a tract, who would never take up a book. But when we think of the immense Augean stable which this diminutive Hercules undertakes to sweep clear, we doubt and despair. The "moral and social duties" of attorneys are identical all the world over; and therefore the book we are noticing will so far prove as useful in this country as abroad. But much of Mr. Warren's advice being based on peculiarities of British practice, need not have been transplanted to this soil, and should have been confined to its own meridian. We extract the following in explanation of what we have advanced :

"I recollect a case where a client of mine had his declaration on a bill of exchange demurred to, because, instead of the words, "in the year of our Lord, 1834," he had written "A. D., 1834." I attended the late Mr. Justice Littledale at Chambers, to en

deavor to get the demurrer set aside as frivolous, or leave to amend on payment of a shilling; but that punctilious, though very able and learned judge, refused to do either. "Your client, sir,' said he, has committed a blunder, sir; which can be set right only on the usual terms, sir. A. D., sir, is neither English nor Latin, sir. It may mean anything or nothing. sir. It is plain, sir, that here is a material and traversable fact, and no date to it, sir.' Whereupon he dismissed our poor summons with costs! That demurrer had been spun out by a pleader to an inconceivable length, in ringing the changes on that one objection, and my client had positively to pay out of his own pocket, between seven and eight pounds."-p. 137.

"In the last Trinity term, (1847,) the Court of Exchequer was called upon to deal with a similar slip. The plaintiff had forgotten to add the letters 'is' to the letter h,' in the printed form of a count-on which the astute defendant demurred! The demurrer was argued and he positively got judgment."-p. 138.

These instances are entertaining illustrations of the state of British practice; but our own has long ceased to be so positive and technical, and the discretion wisely lodged with officers who hear motions has always proved an effectual check upon such miserable pettifogging.

"When," writes the lecturer, you are planning the scheme of an action or defencewhen preparing your brief-keep constantly before your mind's eye the stern visage of the taxing master, and the sarcastic smile of your opponent, as he succeeds in getting item after item of your bill struck off."-p. 205.

Honest and wholesome advice-but nearly useless in a country where, under the new code of Procedure, the poor attorney has scarcely anything left to tax, save the benevolence of his client.

3.-ALBAN, THE PIRATE: A Romant of the Metropolis. By William Wallace. Fourth edition. New-York: Berford & Co.

Mr. Wallace has but little charity for the evils of civilization. He seems to consider our beloved Manhattan as a well-dressed harlot, and he is determined to strip her of her gaudy vestments:

"Off with the lying wreath

That decks the town, and show the hell beneath."

This tale opens with a savage picture of the "peopled ways" where the hero at once appears, evidently seeking some one whom he has lost. The poet then discloses the mystery, by relating his earlier history-how he and his little sister Mary, both the offspring of guilty love, in their tenth summer, lost their mother, the only parent they ever knew, how Alban, ill-treated by a harsh master, fled to the sea and became a pirate; how he boarded a vessel, abandoned by her crew, and there found a young woman, a Jewess, by name Mirian. Of course

"They loved each other, and their plight was made
One evening when the hushed sky's starry shade
Bowed on the dim blue waters."

Alban reforms-quits the sea and removes to Iowa. Nothing there would interfere with his happiness, save the recollection of his sister. In his wanderings, he formerly sent her aid and assistance through one Luria, who owed him his life. But hearing nothing either from her or from him he sent to assist her, he resolves to seek her himself. After a long search he discovers her-learns that she has been betrayed and ruined by that same Luria, who should have given her aid and comfort-awaits him in his splendid palace where he stabs him, and ends by paying the penalty of the law, although his father, the very district attorney who prosecutes him, recognizes his flesh and blood, and obtains (too late,) a pardon for Alban, the Pirate.

This simple story is told in a touching manner. We feel inclined to think that the real inspiration of Mr. Wallace would naturally prompt him to dwell on tender and graceful thoughts, and that he never wanders into the terrific, the transcendental or the satirical, without first purposely lashing himself into a frenzy.

We regret that our limited space will not allow of copious extracts. Many passages there, are which we should be glad to quote. The stanzas of Alban's dialogue with the sea, when

**"burst an earnest anthem from his soul,

And Ocean interchimed its long, deep thunder roll,"

is highly characteristic. Indeed, this author always finds happy expressions whenever he chooses to write in a metre that compresses his thoughts and forces him to labor. But

even in the free couplet measure, Mr. Wallace often displays those happy turns of phrase, those unexpected circumlocutions, those concise, yet all-meaning epithets, which are the true stamp-mark of poetry. A few instances, collected at random, will exemplify our meaning:

"Oh, they were blest! the mother doubly blest

A little joy lay rose-like on her breast-
The air and rose caressing and carest."

In spite of a little obscurity, we think the expression of those lines very fine.

He calls police-officers "the hounds that ferret crime." He qualifies law as "blackletter wile," an expression which the author of "Legerdemain of Law-craft" would hug him for. Of our soldiers he remarks, in a philanthropic furor:

"Your brethren sent into the field

Are lapping gore--your red-eyed thousands wield
Their thirsty swords against a fading race

That roamed the innocent woods-"

Of a woman in a swoon, he says, "her eyes in white eclipse." He makes his hero taunt his judges in a cynical speech; reproaching his fellow-men for their legal murders, and adding that the Earth, "the grand, the lovely Earth,"

* "has gone mad, and shrieks

ForGore! from all her glens and peaks,

Startling the sunlight-hunting through the air
Corruption, and one starless sick despair."

We might multiply such examples; but we think that we have said enough to call public attention to a production well deserving of applause and encouragement. We trust, that a new edition will correct a few blunders, for instance, the following line:

"The victim shall be him whose vice sublime."

4.-HISTORY OF CONGRESS, Biographical and Political; comprising Memoirs of Members of the Congress of the United States, drawn from authentic sources, &c. By Henry G. Wheeler. New-York: Harper Brothers.

The first volume of this work, with the ambitious title, has been for a considerable time lying upou our desk. We read it, and passed it over in silence. It disappointed our expectations; it failed to perform the promise of its title-page. It seemed to be less a "History of Congress, comprising, &c., than a collection of memoirs concerning certain members, by no means the most distinguished, of the House of Representatives, with little or no "history," excepting what was indispensable to illustrate the course adopted by the several subjects of these memoirs. Besides, it appeared to us an undigested mass of materials, compiled without method and without taste. We had other objections to urge; but we chose to remain silent. We deemed the compilation, but though badly arranged, useful. Incorporated with these memoirs, we found luminous reports of Committees, extracts from powerful speeches, descriptions of legislative scenes and entertaining sketches of debate. Here and there, likewise, were interesting chapters, illustrating some curious topics, such as "a Call of the house," and "Biography of the one-hour rule." With these redeeming traits, pleading to us for indulgence, we resolved to wait the appearance of the second volume. This, we thought, might develope the plan of the work, and vindicate the flourish of trumpets on the title-page. Besides, there was an air of fairness about the book, which quite won our confidence, and we felt but little disposition to visit severely the labors of a writer, who could handle such delicate subjects with the impartiality which Mr..Wheeler assumed.

In due time, the second volume reached us, and we think that we now discern a foreshadowing of the object of the book. It is, in sober earnest, a partizan production, the more dangerous that it is insidious, and that it purports to have been written without reference to party measures. Some four hundred pages, more than two-thirds of the second volume, are devoted to a "History of Internal Improvements." This is a downright political tract, in opposition to that salutary check upon hasty legislation, the veto power, and in extenuation, it would seem, of the obviously corrupt practice of granting appropri ations of the public moneys for manifold objects, in one bill, bolstering up one obnoxious expenditure by another equally uncalled for, mustering sectional interests to make strength for each other-a practice that has been not unpicturesquely denominated "log-rolling." We cannot, within the scope of a mere notice, review the several points of this writer. We do not fear the spread of his doctrines; we do not seek to gainsay his opinions; we

only desire to warn the public at large, that the work we are noticing, is not an impartial work; that it is composed in a partisan spirit, and that it should be read with that measure of distrust always awarded to productions of that character. Far be it from us to discourage readers from taking up the book of Mr. Wheeler; on the contrary, we commend it for general perusal: only we here place on record our protest against its assumption of fairness, and so far as the expression of our opinion will do it, we would strip it of the dignity of history, and assign to it its proper place among readable compilations from the columns of newspapers.

5.-PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, with some of their applications to Social Philosophy. By John Stuart Mill. In two volumes. Charles C. Little & James Brown, Boston, Mass.

The study of political economy, probably one of the most important in this utilitarian age, is that most neglected by practical men, and in consequence of this neglect, the nation's welfare has to struggle slowly against the ignorance of the lawmakers, the selfish folly of many, and the stupid sophistry of designing demagogues. After a lapse of seventy years, the sound principles enunciated by Adam Smith have just begun. practically, to work their way into the government of nations. The modification of commercial restrictions, and the abrogation of the corn laws, are gratifying evidences of the progress of those principles in the popular mind. Since Smith wrote, a very great advance has taken place in political economy, both as a "science" and as an "art," and the spread of poplar intelligence has stimulated its growth, while events have tended to develope the truth of the principles laid down by Smith. Mr. Mill, with clear judgment and a powerful pen, has brought down the subject, as it were, to the present year, drawing illustratious from current events, showing the necessary connection between free trade principles and popular progress. It is a work which should, in this country, be in the hands of all, and from which we shall frequently draw matter for the information of the general reader.

6.—BRACEBRIDGE HALL; or the Humorists. A medley. By Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.; author's revised edition. Geo. P. Putuam, 155 Broadway.

Time does not, in any degree, take from the productions of Irving that wonderful charm which, through its salutary influence over the English world, whether situated on the islands of the North Sea, or spreading over the mighty continent of the west. They have, in the present edition of Mr. Putnam, assumed their standard form, that in which they will be models of American literature, long after those who deny the existence of such a thing will have been forgotten.

7.-POEMS. By John G. Whittier; illustrated by N. Billings. Benjamin B. Mussey & Co.. Boston.

Our readers are particularly well acquainted with the attractive and high merits of Mr. Whittier. The prescut beautiful volume contains a collection of his admired works, many of which have already appeared in the columus of this Review. The "Bridal of Pennacook" is familiar to all our readers. The strongly net, nervous and pure Saxon of his language, well express therepublican energy and purely philanthropic spirit of his thoughts. The stirring vigor of his appeals in behalf of human rights strike a responsive chord in the hearts of every American, and is an element of popularity that must be as enduring as his merits. The style of the publication does great credit to Messrs. Mussey & Co.

8. PROVERBS FOR THE PEOPLE; or, Illustrations of Practical Godliness, drawn from the Book of Wisdom. By C. L. Magoon, author of the Orators of the American Republic. Gould, Kendall & Lincoln, 59 Washingtou-street, Boston.

This is a beautiful volume, containing essays under differeut heads, and well calculated to impress the great truths of Scripture upon the mind as guides in the daily walks of life.

9. THE SHIPMASTERS' ASSISTANT AND COMMERCIAL DIGEST. By Joseph Blunt, Counsellor at Law. New-York: Harper Brothers.

The world is getting daily inore homogenous. The different nations of the vast human family, no longer separated by the interdict of distance, but linked in mutual interest, feel the necessity of learning each other's ways and customs; while, as a consequence of intercourse, these ways and customs are losing much of their local peculiarity, and are constantly assuming greater uniformity. Nevertheless, enough remains-and will long remain-of specialty and variety to throw a thousend obstacles in the way of trade and travel. The compiler, therefore, whose patient labor and research, in a degree, removes those obstacles, confers a blessing on his fellow-men, and deserves their gratitude. Such gratitude is certainly due to the author of the work before us, who, in the compass of a