history of the Crusades, derived, in considerable part, as he honestly acknowledges, from Mill, Gibbon, and other modern writers on the period. We will take the liberty here of suggesting a still shorter abstract of the history of the Crusades, in which each Crusade is localized by its main characteristic, in such a way that the numerous class whose memories cannot hold a bald figured date, may cling by a chain of associations. Our list is as follows: Abortive mobbish expeditions, about 1096, not counted as Crusades, under Walter the Penniless. Peter the Hermit, Gottschalk the German Monk, and the goat and goose; destruction of the whole crew. First Crusade, 1096; taking of Jerusalem, and Latin Kingdom there. Second, 1147; erection of principalities of Antioch and Edessa. Third, 1189; nothing at all. Fourth, 1202; Latin Empire at Constantinople. Fifth, 1217; free access to Jerusalem. Sixth, 1238; Jerusalem in possession of Christians. Seventh, 1245; defeat and captivity, in Egypt, of Louis IX. of France. Eighth; death of Louis, in Tunis; abortive expedition, into Palestine, of Edward II. of England. The profuse insertion of wretched woodcuts is a great blemish to a really valuable and well-written book. And, aside from the miserable execution of these, they are calculated to operate as impositions upon the innocent. What propriety is there in pretending to furnish portraits, either of the face, dress, or outfit of Mohammed, Zingis Khan, Bondocdar, Alexius Comnenus, or Theodore Lascaris? These absurd limnings continually remind us of the pictured forms of Ahasuerus, of Xerxes, of Adam and Eve, in the New England Primer, and are precisely as reliable. These pictures go to degrade the book to the level of those diluted concoctions which, under the name of Pictorial Histories and the like, within a few years deluged the country. In the name alike of truth and honesty, we enter a solemn protest against this most unpleasant practice, which sins both in omission and commission. It cannot give us a right idea of the appearance of the men and things in question; and, further, it does, in fact, give us a wrong one. —Synonyms of the New Testament, by RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, is a neat little volume of 250 pages, uniform with the au thor's two other books, on Proverbs and on the Lessons of Words. It is a careful discussion of the distinctions among about a hundred and fifty Greek synonyms in the New Testament. Of its precise practical value to the student of the mixed and intricate dialect of the Testament, we cannot speak. But the book is one of a comparatively new, and positively valuable character. The cautious examination and comparison of such expressions as are here discussed, cannot fail to suggest valuable new truths upon the verbal study of the Scriptures. -A more timely scientific work could not appear than that just issued by H Baillière, of No. 290, Broadway, we mean Latham's Races of the Russian Empire. It is a complete and accurate account of all the varieties of people dwelling under the protection of the Russian government, including all those who have been conquered by the dominant race, or absorbed into its body. It is founded upon the great ethnological and statistical map of Russia, which was published by the Imperial Geographical Society of St. Petersburg, in the year 1852. Few men are more competent to write on the subject than Dr. Latham, wellknown for his "English Language,” his "Varieties of Men," and his "Ethnological Notes to the Germania of Tacitus." A colored map of the whole of the Russian Empire, distinguishing the several tribes, adds greatly to the value of the work, which, also, constitutes a second volume of Norris's Ethnological Series. BOOKS RECEIVED. WEBSTER, AND HIS MASTER-PIECES; by Rev. B. F. Tefft. Auburn and Buffalo: Miller, Orton & Mul. ligan. 2 vols. 12mo., pp. 1034. MAXIMS OF WASHINGTON; POLITICAL, SOCIAL, MORAL, SALT WATER BUBBLES. By Hawser Martingale. MILE-STONES IN OUR LIFE-JOURNEY. By Samuel Osgood. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Svo., pp. 307. AFRAJA; a Norwegian and Lapland Tale; translated from the German of Theodore Mügge; by E. J. Morris. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 12mo., pp. 571. NATURE IN DISEASE. By Jacob Bigelow, M. D. Boston Ticknor & Fields. 12mo., pp. 391. CLOVERNOOK CHILDREN. By Alice Carey. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 18mo. HIGH LIFE IN NEW YORK. By Jonathan Slick, Esq. New York: Bunce & Brother. 12mo. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND QUARTERLY REVIEW, October, 1854. London: Sampson Low & Son. LEAVES FROM THE TREE IGDRASYL. By Martha Russell. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 12mo., pp. 348. WISDOM, WIT, AND WHIMS OF DISTINGUISHED ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. By Joseph Banvard, A. M. New York: Sheldon, Lamport & Blakeman. 12mo., pp. 408. HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. The Spanish Domination. By Charles Gayarré. New York: Redfield. 8vo. pp. 649. IN DOORS AND OUT; or Views from the Chimney Cor- By Lady Scott. New York: H. Boston; SERMONS; by Thomas T. Stone. Boston Crosby, Nichols & Co. 12mo., pp. 356. HEARTS-EASE; or, The Brother's Wife. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 2 vols. 12mo., pp. 618. SOUTHWARD, HO! A SPELL OF SUNSHINE. BY W. Gilmore Simms. New York: Redfield. 12mo., pp. 472. YOU HAVE HEARD OF THEM. By Q. New York: Redfield. 12mo., pp. 353. THE LANDS OF THE SARACEN; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain. By Bayard Taylor. New York: G. P. Putnam & Co. 12mo., pp. 451. SANDERS' NEW SPELLER, DEFINER, AND ANALYZER. By Charles W. Sanders, A. M. New York: Ivison & Phinney. 12mo., pp. 168. SERMONS FOR THE PEOPLE. By T. H. Stockton. Third Edition. Pittsburgh: A. H. English & Co. 12mo., pp. 420. THE RAT-CATCHER; or, The Magic Fife. A Story of the Olden Time. By Gustav Nieritz. Translated from the German, by Mrs. H. C. Conant. New York: Charles Scribner. 12mo., pp. 166. THE LADIES' WORK-BOOK. Containing instructions in knitting, netting, point-lace, embroidery, crochet, &c. Illustrated; 4to., pp. 98. New York: T. L. McElrath. POEMS BY PAUL H. HAYNE. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1855. 12mo., pp. 108. WAY DOWN EAST; or Portraitures of Yankee Life. By Seba Smith. New York: J. C. Derby. 12mo., pp. 384. ELLEN MONTGOMERY'S BOOK-SHELF. By the author of the Wide, Wide World, &c. Mr. Rutherford's Children. Second Volume. New York: G. P Putnam & Co. 16mo., pp. 212. AMABEL: A FAMILY HISTORY. By Mary E. Wormeley. New edition. New York: Eunce & Brother. 12mo., pp. 466. A GREEK READER. By J. O. Colton, M. A. Third Edition, by Henry M. Colton. New Haven: Durrie & Peck. 12mo., pp. 529. ART, SCENERY, AND PHILOSOPHY IN EUROPE; from the portfolio of the late H. B. Wallace. Philadelphia: Herman Hooker. 12mo. JOYS AND SORROWS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL YEAR. BY Maria G. Milward. Philadelphia: Herman Hooker. 12mo., pp. 300. THE NEWSBOY. New York: J. C. Derby. 12mo., pp. 527. THE THEATRICAL JOURNEY-WORK, and Anecdotal Recollections of Sol. Smith. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson. 12mo., pp. 254. IDA MAY: a story of things actual and possible. By Mary Langdon. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. 12mo. THE MOTHERS OF THE BIBLE. By Mrs. S. G. Ashton. Co. 12mo., pp. 847. Boston: John P. Jewett & OLD KARL, THE COOPER; and his wonderful book. By Elbert Perce. New York: Charles Scribner. 12mo., pp. 227. EXPOSITION OF THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Abridged for the use of schools. By John Mulligan, A. M. New York: Ivison & Phinney. 12mo., pp. 801. BROWN'S SELF-INTERPRETING FAMILY BIBLE, containing the Old and New Testaments, with copious notes and marginal references, together with an exact summary of the several books, and paraphrase on the most obscure and important passages. By the late Rev. John Brown, minister of the Gospel at Haddington. With numerous additional notes by the Rev. Henry Cooke, D. D., LL. D. Illustrated with numerous fine engravings. Folio. Part I. to XV. R. Martin: London and New York. [This superb edition will be noticed when completed.] FANNY GRAY; a History of her Life. Illustrated by six colored figures. Crosby, Nichols & Co.: Boston. [One of the prettiest and best executed little divertisements for children we have ever seen. Little misses of five to ten will be delighted with it.] PUTNAM'S MONTHLY. A Magazine of Literature, Science, and Art. VOL. V.-FEB. 1855.-NO. XXVI. THE DIPLOMACY AND CANNON-BALLS. THE IMPERIAL GAME IN EUROPE. HE calendar has completed a full cycle, since the "game of kings" was again commenced in Europe. Slowly, but steadily, the great players have brought out their forces, and calmly and deliberately strengthened themselves for a long and desperate struggle. The world has looked with the deepest interest at the magnitude of preparation, the magnificent displays of power, and the wonderful development of resources by the Western Powers, contrasted with the sluggish movements and stubborn and dogged self-reliance of their great enemy. Young America and its kindred spirit every where, has scarcely been able to restrain its impatience at these cautious and deliberate movements, and, like the spectator of other and smaller games, has been constantly overlooking the board, hurrying the players, suggesting all manner of wise or foolish experiment, and restraining with the greatest difficulty the appetite for blood and carnage which its own fevered condition has created. press have sneered, it is true, at the supposed inferiority of Russia, and kept up their courage and fanned the war spirit of her enemies by boastful predictions of victories won without a struggle, and triumphs so easily obtained as to be shorn of their value. But, with all their mistakes-and they have been neither few nor small-the allied nations have not made that great one, of undervaluing the enemy they were to en counter. The war having begun, it became necessary to avoid the appearance of indecision or hesitation, while time should be gained to make those vast preparations that were indispensable for its successful prosecution. For this purpose, far more than with any expectation of an amicable arrangement of the difficulties, negotiations have been carried on-congresses held-meetings between royal nobodies arranged, and all the machinery of continental diplomacy brought into the fullest action. The time has not yet come for the history of all this maneuvering to be written; but if either of the great actors in it shall preserve the record in detail, it will exhibit, when it shall be brought forth to astonish another age, a degree of duplicity, an extent of chicanery, an amount of cunning, and a succession of blunders, that has not been excelled, if equalled, on the earth, since the day when the Arch Enemy first commenced teaching diplomacy to man. It has been the habit of Western Europe to arrogate to itself a superiority |