William Gardiner, the celebrated author of the Music of Nature, has published an engaging work entitled Music and Minds, or Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante.

The Diary of Martha Bethune Baliol from 1753 to 1754, is a pleasing fictitious narrative of love and adventure, and vanishing Jacobitism in Britain.

The Diary and Houres of the Ladye Adolie, 1552, from the pen of Lady CHARLOTTE PEPYS, a volume, pretty every way, devoted to the autobiography of a pious young lady of quality, supposed to be burnt at Smithfield in the days of Bloody Mary.

A book of considerable interest to antiquaries and ecclesiologists is appearing in parts, The History and Antiquities of St David's, by William Basil Jones, M.A., and Edward A. Freeman, M.A. The work is illustrated by good engravings, and is published altogether in superior style. The cathedral archaeology displays laborious research on the part of the learned editors.

A report made to the Belgian government on Industrial Instruction in England, by the Chevalier de Cocquiel, is translated into English by Peter Berlyn, who adds remarks and comments in foot-notes. The subject is important, and the views of an intelligent foreigner on this department of education in England are at the present time worthy of attention.

On the subject of emigration, a cheap pamphlet by Mr. Charles Hursthouse, jun., gives useful hints of a practical kind to different classes of emigrants.

A popular narrative of the last struggle of the Hungarian nation for freedom, by the Rev. Henry Birch, is entitled Princes against Peoples; or, the Fall of Hungary. The writer has collected the principal points of historical interest from various published works, and gives a brief but clear statement of the events of the

war.

Mr. Kingsley's powerful tale, Hypatia, or New Foes in Old Faces, which has been publishing in Fraser's Magazine, has been issued in two volumes.

The ninth volume of the works of Galileo Galilei, published by order of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, has made its appearance at Florence.

ITEMS.

The subscription list for the erection of a monument to the memory of the late Dr. Moir, of Musselburgh, being now well filled up, the subscribers are at once to determine as to the description and site of the monument.

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Chevalier Bunsen has obtained from the University of Gottingen the degree of Doctor, "for the rare theological science of which he has given proof."

The Cleopatra Needle has proved too worthless and insignificant in the eyes of the agents of the Crystal Palace to justify a removal. The Obelisk of Luxor will, however, be brought from Egypt for exhibition at Sydenham.

M. Albert Gaudry, a well known French naturalist, has been sent to the island of Cyprus and the shores of the Levant to study and report on the geology and natural history of those portions of the Turkish empire.

The contribution in aid of Lady Franklin's exertions for the recovery of her husband and his companions, from Van Dieman's Land, has reached her hands, aud amounts to 1,671. 13s. 4d. The subscribers to the testimonial include all classes and denominations of the colonists.

Lamartine is dying; his physicians have no hopes of

him.

Edinburgh is projecting a great Industrial Exhibition, to be held next year.

In forty cities and towns in Scotland every one hundred and forty-nine of the population supports a dram shop.

The Isabel (screw steamer) is to depart for Behring's Straits-another proof of the devotion and zeal of Lady Franklin in her husband's behalf. The Admiralty have rendered some assistance in the equipment of the Isabel, but the expense of provisioning and storing the vessel, and paying the crew, is defrayed by Lady Franklin. The expedition is well provided with meats and antiscorbutics, and is to be conducted on temperance principles.

A new work has appeared, on "Cretins and Idiots," in which it is stated that idiocy and goitre prevail in England to an uncredited extent, and that cretinism of the most undoubted kind, exists there as truly as in the Alps and the Andes. Various parts of Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Derbyshire, Somersetshire, and many towns are afflicted in this manner. Settle in Yorkshire) is one of the localities where cretinism prevails. In Silverdale there are 11 cretins in one family. Oldham is another afflicted place. At Chiselborough, Dr. Guggenbuhl, the Swiss physician, who has made the discovery of these facts, saw 32 cretins in a village of 300 inhabitants, a proportion of more than 10 per cent.

Abd-el-Kader has addressed a letter to Lord Londonderry, thanking him for his exertions on his behalf. it highly exalted, the man of heart, the key of happy isis addressed To his lordship the magnificent, the sues, before whom misfortune flies, the General Vane Londonderry, the Irishman."

Goldschmidt, Jenny Lind's husband, has been giving successful concerts at Berlin.

A portrait of Shakspeare has been found, painted by a contemporary of the bard of Avon.

M. Henri Herz, the well-known pianist, saw announced for sale a few days ago, a picture by Greuze, called the "Two Orphans," forming part of the effects of the Count de Paiva, a Portuguese nobleman. his absence from France in 1848 he had lost such a picAs during ture, he demanded from the Civil Tribunal authority to seize it. The Countess de Paiva caused an advocate to appear for her on Saturday, before the tribunal, to represent that the picture was hers, it having been given to her more than ten years ago by M. and Madame de Rochemure, before her marriage with M. de Paiva, and when she lived with M. Herz. On behalf of M. Herz, it was stated that the picture had been given to him, and that Mme. de Paiva had taken advantage of his absence to remove it from his residence. The tribunal

decided that as regards furniture, possession is the best title, and that, besides, the period within which claims for furniture can be made had passed away. It accordingly rejected the application of M. Herz.

Mr. Madden, the Oriental traveller, announces a work on the Life and Martyrdom of Savonarola.

The Edinburgh Review, under its new management, resumes something of its old temper. Two of the articles in the April number are fierce attacks upon Tory characters-Alison and D'Israeli. The new editor, it will be remembered, is E. Cornewall Lewis, Esq.

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The Royal Family now consists of the following The Queen Alexandrina Victoria was born May 24, 1819. Prince Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emanuel of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, was born August 23, 1819. The twain were married at the age of 21, on the 10th of February, 1840. The issue has been :

Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, born November 21, 1840. Albert Edward, born November 9, 1841. Alice Maud Mary, born April 25, 1843. Alfred Ernest Albert, born August 6, 1844. Helena Augusta Victoria, born May 25, 1845. Louisa Caroline Alberta, born March 18, 1848. Arthur William Patrick Albert, born May 1, 1850. A son not yet named, born April 7, 1853. Eight children-four sons and four daughters.

It appears, from a return to Parliament, just issued, that the expense of the Oxford Commission defrayed last year was 1,220l. 4s., and of that relating to Cambridge, 400l.

Prince Albert has headed a subscription list with a donation of 251., towards the erection of a monument to the memory of Dr. Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination. The statue is to be a colossal bronze figure to be erected in the metropolis. The model has been designed by Mr. Calder Marshall.

On the decease of the late Duke of Wellington, there remained in the possession of his family three Ribands of the Order of the Garter. The latest worn by the lamented hero has recently been presented to, and graciously accepted by, her Majesty. A second, of very old and historical interest, is retained in the family; and the third has been sent by the present Duke of Wellington to the Marquis of Londonderry, upon whom the Garter of the great duke was conferred by the Queen.

The Leander, Captain King, of 50 guns, is to bring the Earl of Ellesmere to America, and is to remain at New York during the Great Exhibition in this city.

A new play, by Sir T. N. Talfourd, called "The Castilian," is said to be in private circulation.

Mrs. Stowe and her friends had agreed, while in Edinburgh, to attend an anti-slavery and a total abstinence meeting.

Grisi has once more appeared as Norma, and is said to be the wonder of the age. Her voice is still magnificent, and her acting sublime. Her reception was enthusiastic.

As an example of the declining state of the bar, it is stated that twenty-two sets of chambers are now to be

let in the Middle Temple solely, which numbers two hundred and fifty.

An

Dr. Alexander Mayer, of Paris, announces that he has been able to obtain heat for all the purposes for which heat is now used, by means of friction. apparatus for this purpose will soon be exhibited to the public.

The Edinburgh Philosophical Institution is in a state of great activity and growing success. The members appear to be nearly 2,400 in number-and we observe that fifty-one lectures on various subjects, generally of a high, grave class, have been delivered during the past season. The library contains about 6,000 volumes-and this seems to us the weakest department of the institution.

The Academy of Sciences of Berlin has granted to Dr. Freund, the eminent philologist and lexicographer, the expenses of a journey in Switzerland and the Tyrol, for the purpose of investigating the Romanic dialects spoken in the districts of ancient Rhætia.

Lord Brougham has been favoring the Academy of Sciences of Paris with a paper "On Light," but his communication does not appear to have contained anything new.

It appears from the report of a meeting of the subheld in Dublin, under the presidency of the Earl of scribers to the Moore Testimonial, which has just been Charlemont, that £1,315 had been subscribed, out of which £1,161 has been paid up, and an expenditure of £138 incurred. A communication had been received from London, through Mr. Longman, announcing that the London subscription for the Moore Testimonial amounted to £279. The testimonial is to take the

shape of a statue on a pedestal-the figure to be of bronze, and executed from the marble portrait taken of the poet by Mr. Charles Moore. An admirable site has been chosen for the work. It is to be placed in an open space fronting what was the Old Parliament House of Ireland, and close to Trinity College, where Moore received his education.

summer.

The Earl of Ellesmere has been appointed by Royal Commission to represent the British Government to the Crystal Palace Exhibition in New York, the ensuing Besides the Earl of Ellesmere, Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Dilke, Professor G. Wilson, Mr. Whitworth, and Mr. Wallis, are also to accompany the commission. It will thus consist of six members, and form a body well calculated not only worthily to represent this country on the other side of the Atlantic, but to bring back, in the shape of official reports, the results of the approaching industrial display. The nobleman who is placed at the head of the Commission is thoroughly qualified to pronounce a judgment upon the merits of the fine arts' section, while he unites with a highly cultivated taste, the prestige of rank and wealth. Science, especially in the departments of raw produce and mineralogy, could not find in this country a worthier representative than Sir Charles Lyell; and Mr. Dilke, the least rewarded, and certainly not the least valuable member of our own Executive Committee in Hyde-Park, by his practical good sense, his business habits, and his experience, may fairly be expected to stamp the new Commission with a useful as well as a merely dignified character.