citizens styling themselves the Vigilance Committee of
San Francisco, on the afternoon of Sunday, August 24, at
about three o'clock, in front of the Vigilance Committee
Room, on Battery Street, near California Street, from
the second story thereof.—At Sacramento, three
highwaymen, named Gibson, Thompson, and Robinson, had
been condemned to death, and the time of their execution
was fixed. Robinson, however, was reprieved by
Governor Macdougal, on which the multitude determined
that Robinson should be executed along with his
companions. On the day appointed, immense crowds
assembled, and after venting their indignation against
the governor, took forcible possession of Robinson,
and carried him to the place of execution. Gibson and
Thompson were executed under the regular legal authority,
the vast crowd of spectators remaining perfectly
quiet. At the moment their bodies were cut down, cries
were heard, "Now for Robinson," "Hang the scoundrel!"
"Bring him here!" "Let him hang too!" The
scene which followed was the most terrific we ever
witnessed. The thronging crowds rushed for the station-
house in the greatest excitement, and on all sides was
heard the same thrilling cry, "Hang the rascal!" A
gentleman came forward upon the platform, and
announced that Robinson was on the ground, and as soon
as the bodies of Gibson and Thompson were cut down,
would be brought forward to meet his doom. The
sheriff and his officers retired from the scene, and the
victim was brought forward. The crowd gave way, and
the Committee, with their prisoner, slowly ascended the
scaffold, while the guards formed a hollow square round
it. He made an incoherent address to the multitude; a
clergyman prayed for him fervently, and he was hurried
into eternity, the President of the Committee performing
the function of executioner. During the scene, says
the local newspaper, "business was entirely suspended
—the streets were deserted—the city was at the
scaffold."

NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

THE promoters of the meeting which was held some months ago to protest against Lord Campbell's
construction of the English copyright law in favour of the foreign author, have issued a statement in which
they seem to abandon that more limited view of the question, and profess their desire to unite all whom
the subject in any way interests in an endeavour "to secure an equitable adjustment of the general law of
copyright, but especially to promote international copyright." In such views and exertions all who are
engaged in literature ought heartily to coöperate. There can be no question that unmitigated evil has
arisen from the conflicting state of the copyright law, almost ever since the acts were passed; and that hardly
a violation of propriety or property has been committed, without some kind of sanction from one or other
of the legal tribunals. At first the disagreement was between Law and Equity, but more recently all the
common law courts themselves have fallen to loggerheads; and in regard to our English law of copy at
least, there seems to be hardly a hope of any satisfactory settlement of the points in dispute without a special
act of the legislature. But the society must be careful not to ask at the same time for any clauses having
solely in view a compulsory action on other countries. International copyright is not to be obtained by
such means. Fiat justitia. That is all we have any right to claim. We may not force others to be just
by being ourselves unjust.

The most interesting book of the month is Mr.
Carlyle's Life of John Sterling, and other works of
pretension have come to dispel the dullness of the non-
publishing season. The professor of the classics in
King's College, Mr. Browne, has commenced a History
of Classical Literature; the first part of an able
translation of the entire Comedy of Dante in the ternary
rhymes of the original (not well adapted, we must
remark, to the genius of our English tongue) has
appeared; Mr. George Long and Mr. Macleane have
ventured on a new edition of the original Greek and
Latin authors, under the title of Bibliotheca Classica,
of which Cicero's orations form the first part; Mr.
Francis has issued two portly volumes of a History of
the English Railway; the Exhibition Contractors have
sent forth their Illustrated Catalogue in three glittering
octavos; and in the same number of volumes, though
of more sober appearance and hue, a Scotch divine has
published an Exposition of the Gospel according to
Saint Luke which recalls the laborious and elaborate
theology of the days of Solemn League and Covenant.

Beside these graver publications there has been a
great gathering of voyages and travels. The Rev.
Henry Cheever, an American, gives us Life in the
Sandwich Islands: a countryman of his, Mr. Herman
Melville, relates more of the ocean experiences of his
Typees and Omoos in a motley book called The Whale;
another countryman, the Rev. Mr. Cotton, tells us all
the incidents of a cruise with an American frigate to
California, in a dirty little volume, entitled Deck and
Port; and Mr. Pridham excites his readers by announcing
Kossuth and the Magyar Land as the title of a book
which contains not very much of either. We have also
had a Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, from the pen of
Mr. Philip Gosse; a description of Scinde, as the
Unhappy Valley, by Lieut. Burton of the Bombay army:
some very clever and valuable Recollections of Manilla
and the Philippines, by Mr. M'Micking, a practical
merchant; and a view of Spain as it is, by Mr. Hoskins,
not an unpractised traveller.

To these we have to add some books of general
interest. A Sheffield gentleman, Mr. Holland, has
published Memorials of Chantrey the Sculptor, of which
some future biographer will be able to make good use;
Mr. Grant has written the Life of Sir John Hepburn,
one of the Scotch soldiers of Gustavus Adolphus; Mr.
Thompson has opened up the old question of reason
and instinct in a curious volume on the Passions of
Animals, the illustrated Christmas books have paid
us their first visit in an elaborately illuminated volume
of Mr. Humphries, called the Sentiments and Similes
of Shakspeare; Mr. Chenevix Trench has published
five very thoughtful and suggestive lectures on the
Study of Words; and Dr. Latham and Professor Craik
have brought out respectively two books with
something of a similar aim, the one a Handbook of the
English Language for the Use of Students of the
Universities and Higher Classes of Schools, and the
other Outlines of the History of the English Language
for the Use of the Junior Classes in Colleges and the
Higher Classes in Schools; both volumes well deserving
of attention.

Finally, there has been no lack of novels—prominent
among which may be mentioned Mrs. Trollope's Mrs.
Matthews, or Family Mysteries; a tale called the
Livingstones; a story with the name of Lady Avice;
an autobiography of Florence Sackville, or Self-
Dependance, by Mrs. Burbury; and a single volume from
the author of Rockingham on the fate of Cecil the
Pervert.

Two American children, Kate and Ellen Bateman,
have appeared at the St. James's, and attracted great
notice by their singular precocity.