THE REV. JAMES H. PERKINS, of Cincinnati, whose suicide during a fit
of madness, several months ago, will be generally recollected for
the many expressions of profound regret which it occasioned, we are
pleased to learn, is to be the subject of a biography by the Rev. W.H.
Channing. Mr. Perkins was a man of the finest capacities, and of large
and genial scholarship. He wrote much, in several departments, and
almost always well. His historical works, relating chiefly to the
western States, have been little read in this part of the Union;
but his contributions to the North American Review and the Christian
Examiner, and his tales, sketches, essays, and poems, printed under
various signatures, have entitled him to a desirable reputation as
a man of letters. These are all to be collected and edited by Mr.
Channing.
* * * * *
Mrs. ESLING, better known as Miss Catherine H. Waterman, under which
name she wrote the popular and beautiful lyric, "Brother, Come Home!"
has in press a collection of her writings, under the title of _The
Broken Bracelet and other Poems_, to be published by Lindsay &
Blackiston of Philadelphia.
* * * * *
M. ROSSEEUW ST. HILAIRE, of Paris, is proceeding with his great work
on the History of Spain with all the rapidity consistent with the
nature of the subject and the elaborate studies it requires. The work
was commenced ten years ago, and has since been the main occupation of
its author. The fifth volume has just been published, and receives the
applause of the most competent critics. It includes the time from 1336
to 1492, which comes down to the very eve of the great discovery of
Columbus, and includes that most brilliant period, in respect of which
the history of Prescott has hitherto stood alone, namely, the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella. M. St. Hilaire has had access to many sources
of information not accessible to any former writer, and is said
to have availed himself of them with all the success that could be
anticipated from his rare faculty of historical analysis and the
beautiful transparency of his style.
* * * * *
THE REV. ROBERT ARMITAGE, a rector in Shropshire, is the author of
"Dr. Hookwell," and "Dr. Johnson, his Religious Life and his Death."
In this last work, the _Quarterly Review_ observes, "Johnson's name is
made the peg on which to hang up--or rather the line on which to hang
out--much hackneyed sentimentality, and some borrowed learning, with
an awful and overpowering quantity of twaddle and rigmarole." The
writer concludes his reviewal: "We are sorry to have had to make such
an exposure of a man, who, apart from the morbid excess of vanity
which has evidently led him into this scrape, may be, for aught we
know, worthy and amiable. His exposure, however, is on his own
head: he has ostentatiously and pertinaciously forced his ignorance,
conceit, and effrontery on public notice." We quite agree with the
_Quarterly_.
* * * * *
JOHN MILLS--"John St. Hugh Mills," it was written then--was familiarly
known in the printing offices of Ann street in this city a dozen
years ago; he assisted General Morris in editing the Mirror, and wrote
paragraphs of foreign gossip for other journals. A good-natured aunt
died in England, leaving him a few thousand a year, and he returned
to spend his income upon a stud and pack and printing office, sending
from the latter two or three volumes of pleasant-enough mediocrity
every season. His last work, with the imprint of Colburn, is called
"Our Country."
* * * * *
Mr. PRESCOTT, the historian, who is now in England, has received the
degree of Doctor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford. Two or
three years ago he was elected into the Institute of France.
* * * * *
DR. MAGINN's "Homeric Ballads," which gave so much attraction
during several years to _Fraser's Magazine_, have been collected and
republished in a small octavo.
* * * * *
Mr. KENDALL, of the _Picayune_, has sailed once more for Paris, to
superintend there the completion of his great work on the late war
in Mexico upon which he has been engaged for the last two years. The
highest talent has been employed in the embellishment of this book,
and the care and expense incurred may be estimated from the fact that
sixty men, coloring and preparing the plates, can finish only one
hundred and twenty copies in a month. The original sketches were
taken by a German, Carl Nebel, who accompanied Mr. Kendall in Mexico,
and drew his battle scenes at the very time of their occurrence. He
has engaged in the prosecution of the whole enterprise with as much
zeal and interest as Mr. Kendall himself, and has spared no pains to
procure the assistance of the most skillful operatives. The book is
folio in size, and will be published early in the fall. The letter
press has long been finished, and only waiting for the completion of
the plates. These are twelve, and their subjects are Palo Alto, the
Capture of Monterey, Buena Vista: the Landing at Vera Cruz, Cerro
Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, two views of the
Storming of Chapultepec, and Gen. Scott's entrance into the city of
Mexico. The lithographs are said to be unsurpassed in felicity of
design, perfection of coloring, and in the animation and expression
of all the figures and groups. No such finished specimens of colored
lithography were ever exhibited in this country. The plates will have
unusual value, not only on account of their intrinsic superiority,
but because of their rare historical merit, since they are exact
delineations of the topography of the scenes they represent and
faithful representations in every particular of the military positions
and movements at the moment chosen for illustration.
* * * * *
MRS. TROLLOPPE is as busy as she has ever been since the failure of
her shop at Cincinnati--trading in fiction, with the capital won
by her first adventure in this way, "The Domestic Manners of the
Americans." Her last novel, which is just out, has in its title the
odor of her customary vulgarity; it is called "Petticoat Government."
Her son, Mr. A. Trolloppe, his just given the world a new book also,
"La Vendee" a historical romance which is well spoken of.
* * * * *
THE REV. DR. WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS, it will gratify the friends of
literature and religion to learn, has consented to give to the press
several works upon which he has for some time been engaged. They
will be published by Gould, Kendall & Lincoln, of Boston. In the next
number of _The International_ we shall write more largely of this
subject.
* * * * *
Dr. BUCKLAND, the Dean of Westminster--the eloquent and the learned
writer of the remarkable "Bridgewater Treatise" is bereft of reason,
and is now an inmate of an asylum near Oxford.
* * * * *
Dr. WAYLAND's "Tractate on Education," in which he proposes a thorough
reform in the modes of college instruction, has, we are glad to see,
had its desired effect. The Providence _Journal_ states that the
entire subscription to the fund of Brown University has reached
$110,000, which is within $15,000 of the sum originally proposed.
The subscription having advanced so far, and with good assurances of
further aid, the committee have reported to the President, that the
success of the plan, so far as the money is concerned, may be regarded
as assured, and that consequently it will be safe to go on with the
new organization as rapidly as may he deemed advisable. Of the sum
raised, about $96,000 have come from Providence. A meeting of the
Corporation of the University will soon be called, when the entire
plan will be decided upon, and carried into effect as rapidly as so
important a change can be made with prudence.
* * * * *
SIR JAMES EMERSON TENNANT has in the press of Mr. Murray a work
which will probably be read with much interest in this country,
upon Christianity in Ceylon, its introduction and progress under the
Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, and the American missions, with a
Historical View of the Brahminical and Buddhist superstitions.
* * * * *
CHARLES EAMES, formerly one of the editors of the Washington _Union_,
and more recently United States Commissioner to the Sandwich Islands,
is to be the orator of the societies of Columbia College, at the
commencement, on the evening of the 6th of October. Bayard Taylor will
be the poet for the same occasion.
* * * * *
CHATEAUBRIAND'S MEMOIRS.--The eleventh and last volume has just been
published at Paris in the book form, and will soon be completed in
the _feuilletons_. An additional volume is however to be brought out,
under the title of "Supplement to the Memoirs."
* * * * *
THE THIRD AND FOURTH SERIES of Southey's Common-Place Book are in
preparation, and they will be reprinted by the Harpers. The third
contains Analytical Readings, and the fourth, Original Memoranda.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON IRVING's Life of General Washington, in one octavo volume,
is announced by Murray. It will appear simultaneously from the press
of Putnam.
* * * * *
MRS. JAMESON has in press Legends of the Monastic Orders, as
illustrated in art.
* * * * *
Dr. ACHILLI is the subject of an article in the July number of the
_Dublin Review_--the leading Roman Catholic journal in the English
language. Of course the history of the missionary is not presented in
very flattering colors.
* * * * *
[FROM HOUSEHOLD WORDS.]