ham,* which we find in the London Spectator, accompanied by remarks of the Editor.

"It is impossible to read the accounts of the military operations in China without shame and disgust. It is not war, but sheer butchery a battu in a well stocked preserve of human beings. Captain Bingham, of the Royal Navy, in a book which we have not seen, but which the Standard has quoted with a justly indignant commentary, thus describes the capture of Ningpoo :

About 12,000 [Chinese] advanced upon the southern and western gates, the guards retiring before them. On the Chinese penetrating to the market-place in the centre of the city, they were received by a heavy fire from our troops drawn up. This sudden check so damped their ardor, that their only object appeared to be to get out of the city as fast as they could; in doing which they were crowded in dense masses in the narrow street. The artillery now coming up, unlimbered within one hundred yards of the crowded fugitives, and poured in a destructive fire of grape and canister. So awful was the destruction of human life, that the bodies were obliged to be removed to the sides of the street to allow the guns to advance; and the pursuit was followed up by them [the artillery] and the Forty-ninth Regiment, for several miles.'

"Such scenes, it appears, are continually recurring in Captain Bingham's narrative. For instance, we read of the British placing a large body of Chinese between two fires, and killing six hundred with the loss of only one man: 'the Chinese could do nothing against the terrific broadsides of the ships, the shells, and the rockets.' Again, we are told of a Chinese army thrown into confusion by the unexpected appearance of two bodies of troops, which had advanced under cover while they were engaged with a third, and of fifteen hundred of them being killed with the loss of sixteen British killed and a few wounded. Nor are the armed soldiery of China the only sufferers;

With such a tremendous bombardment as had been going on for two hours in this densely populated neighborhood, it must be expected that pitiable sights were to be witnessed. At one spot were four children struck down, while the frantic father was oc

* We have in vain endeavored to procure Elliot's, McPherson's, or Bingham's narrative of the incidents of the China War, although they have been some time before the British public - long enough, at least, to have been easily republished here, before this. They are works of a deeply interesting character, to judge from extracts we have seen, and would command an extensive sale. We are surprised that their titles have not caught the eyes of those who pretend to know, and aim to supply, the wants of the market.

casionally embracing their bodies, or making attempts to drown himself in a neighboring tank. Numerous similar scenes were witnessed.'

The following is from another London paper:

"A Chinese force of from 8,000 to 10,000 men were strongly posted upon some hills commanded by Generals Twang-Yang, Yang, and Choo. Arrangements were made for an attack in three columns, two of which were led by Sir H. Gough, and Sir W. Parker, in person. Nothing could exceed the bravery of the troops. They contrived to surround the Chinese, and quite bewildered them. The carnage was dreadful, being more a butchery than a battle. Ignorant of the laws of civilized warfare, the poor creatures knew not how to surrender, and were massacred. Not less than a thousand of them, including a great number of Mandarins, were killed, or drowned in the canals; whereas of the British troops only three were killed and twenty-two wounded."

Surely no war of which history has preserved any record was ever so fatal to the good name of a people. The English officers returning home after such work must feel very much as if returning covered-not with glory-but with the blood of the shambles. We do not envy them their sensations as they meet the glance and the touch of some, at least, in England, who in their manner will show that they discriminate between the gallant soldier and the human butcher.

Since writing the above, news of peace with China and Affganistan has arrived. Every one must rejoice in the event. But one's satisfaction is far from being unmixed, as the significant fact becomes known, that in the treaty with China not so much as allusion is made to the cause of the war the Opium Trade. Was it an indispensable preliminary in the negociation that England would make peace only on such condition? and must opium still be smuggled into the country against its will and to its ruin, under penalty of another war with England? Has this door of contention been left open, that new difficulties may arise and future wars bring this immense empire wholly into the power of Great Britain? Such precaution were hardly necessary, for already do we look upon China as but a dependent province. What with the important foothold England has now obtained upon the soil, what with her navy lying in all the principal ports, and the terror which the present war has struck into the very heart of the people, we see in China already but another India.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Poetry for Schools: Designed for Reading and Recitation. The whole selected from the best poets in the English language. By the Author of "American Popular Lessons," "Primary Dictionary," "Biography for Schools," "Tales from American History," "English History," "Grecian History," &c., &c., &c. New York. 1842.

We have always thought this one of the best volumes in the extended series, which the author has prepared for the use of the young, and of schools. It should have passed through many large editions before this; but we are glad that it has come to a second. It should be more widely known and used than it is. There are few volumes prepared for the young, which in so few pages offer so much to please the taste, to inform the mind, and enlighten the moral sense. It is not a book of mere extracts, but a manual of the spirit and principles of an enlightened, and Christian criticism. It not only collects together amusing or instructive passages from the eminent poets of past ages and the present, Class books of this kind, and volumes called "Beauties," there are in abundance, containing double the amount of poetry for the same price, and, for aught we know, better selections, but it is the peculiar merit of this little volume, that it not only provides the poetry to be read, but shows the pupil how to read it with the understanding. In a few examples it supplies all the collateral information necessary to a full comprehension of the author; and with the criticisms that introduce and follow the passages selected, gives the most valuable lessons in the art, not only of reading intelligently, but of forming a judgment of the real merits of what is read. A great amount of biographical and historical information is conveyed, in the brief sketches, and personal anecdotes of authors, often prefixed to the lessons. Excellent judgment is shown, we think, in the character of the pieces chosen for this purpose, as, passing over the hackneyed selections and, unfortunately for the after enjoyment of the poet, generally the bestthose passages have been taken, equally well suited to the object of the volume, but of much humbler pretensions; which the pupil is less likely to have previously met with elsewhere, and which, though they should become familiar, would less interfere afterwards with the enjoyment of the writers, from whom they are taken. In the author's own language:

"In order to compose it, I resorted to the purest fountains of English verse, and took what I found suitable to my humble purpose. I left the more elevated and sublime portions of the poets who supplied me, and appropriated to my selection such passages only as I believed would, with a little exposition, be useful and agreeable to young readers. As a bird does not lead her new-fledged offspring to the skies in her first flight with them, so I would dictate short excursions to the unformed faculties of the human mind, that young readers, feeling their own power and felicity as they proceed, may at length be able and willing, without assistance, to ascend the brightest heaven of invention." " Preface, p. viii.

6

It is to be stated distinctly as a merit of the present volume, but more particularly so of her histories of Greece and of England and her Sequel to Popular Lessons, that no opportunity is lost of illustrating, by wise comparisons, in a natural and unforced manner, the advantages and blessings of Christian civilization, as contrasted with former periods of both Heathen and Jewish history. In no books of the kind, that we have met with, is this indirect argument for Christianity so constantly pressed upon the thoughts of the young reader. It is woven all along into the very substance of her matter.

We are gratified to learn the wide circulation of some of these admirable volumes. The Primary Dictionary and Popular Lessons are spread over the country. The second of these has perhaps enjoyed the widest popularity; and has lately, as we are informed, been translated into both Spanish and French, with reference to their being introduced into the schools of those countries. Excellent, and highly esteemed abroad, as these books are, we are not aware that a single one of the series has been introduced into the common schools of Massachusetts.

1. M. Accii Plauti Amphitruo et Aululario. Ex editione J. F. Gronovii. Accedunt notæ Anglica. Cura C. K. Dillaway, A. M. Philadelphia; Perkins et Purves. Bostoniæ: B. Perkins. 1842, pp. 204.

2. M. T. Ciceronis Tusculanarum Quæstionum libri quinque ex editionibus Oliveti et Ernesti. Accedunt Note Anglica. Cura C. K. Dillaway, A. M. Tom. I. II. Philadelphiæ et Bostoniæ. 1842. 18mo.

THE public is again indebted to the scholarship and industry of Mr. Dillaway for three more volumes of his beautiful series of selections from the Latin Classics. They are formed precisely on the model of the preceding volumes, and it is necessary, therefore, only to announce to our readers their appearance.

Those who cannot afford to purchase complete editions of the works of the Roman authors, may here supply themselves with selections from them, accompanied by a large body of notes, with solutions of the most difficult passages, and full of illustrative matter, drawn from Mythology, Antiquities, History, and Biography. Prettier volumes could hardly be desired; nor could they be had, except from the London press. They seem well adapted by their form, for the higher classes in our classical schools, and the first years of college.

Self-Culture, by William E. Channing, D. D. With a Biographical Sketch of the Author. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1842.

A VERY beautiful miniature edition of this useful essay, possessing additional value from the brief memoir which introduces it.

Bos

The Rights of Conscience and of Property; or The True Issue of the Convent Question; by George Ticknor Curtis. ton: Charles C. Little and James Brown. 1842.

THE present session of the Legislature, we trust, will not terminate before justice, long delayed, shall be done to the Catholics, whose moderation and patience, under the most grievous wrongs at the hands of a mob, and under the neglect of the Commonwealth to make all the reparation in its power by full reimbursement for their loss, have done them lasting honor. It was injury enough to them, and to the reputation of our time-honored State, when a lawless rabble with whatever sprinkling of respectability there might have been in it set fire at midnight to a large and costly edifice, crowded with women and children, impelled to the deed by religious prejudice. But every disgrace which that act of savage violence inflicted upon Massachusetts, and every injury it inflicted upon the Catholics, has been exceeded in the fact of the virtual justification of that act by the withholding of justice for so long a period, where right is so plain, that no other blindness but that of religious prejudice could fail to see and acknowledge it. This we think is the most serious aspect of the case, that the whole body of our representatives should, to so great an extent, share the feelings and passions of the mob. Unless it be their religious prejudice operating in secret, we in vain attempt to conjecture a reason for this weary denial of a righteous compensation. Perhaps we ought to add that there is another aspect of the case more serious yet,