in regard to his slaves:—He has directed that all
born after the 1st of January, 1850, shall be liberated
and sent to Liberia, the males when they arrive at the
age of twenty-eight years, and the females when twenty-
five, previous to which they are to be taught to read,
write, &c.; and the proceeds of their labour for three
years previous to starting are to be appropriated to
defray their expenses to their new home. The older
slaves are to remain for the benefit of the family.

The latest accounts state that Mr. Crampton, the
British minister, has had an interview with the
President, and has informed him that Lord Derby has
taken the fishing question out of his hands and referred
it to the colonial government.

It is also stated that Mr. Webster and the President
have had a pretty plain conversation, the result of which
will be the immediate withdrawal of that gentleman
from the cabinet. In confirmation of this, several waggon
loads of furniture left Mr. Webster's house on the
10th inst. for Georgetown, there to be shipped on board
a Boston packet. Mr. Webster wrote to a friend here,
some days ago, that he would only visit Washington to
wind up his business, and retire.

On the 9th inst. the escaped convict, Thomas Francis
Meagher, made a formal declaration to one of the judges
of the superior court of his intention of becoming a citizen
of the United States. The following is the form of
the oath to which he subscribed:

"I, Thomas Francis Meagher, do declare on oath, that it is
my bona fide intention to become a citizen of the United States,
and to renounce for ever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign
prince, potentate, or sovereignty whatever, and particularly to
the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, of whom I am now a
subject."

NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

There is even less to notice this month in the department
of original publication than last month presented.
The pamphlets are more numerous, the books more
scanty.

The reader will judge of their importance by the
following list, given in their order of appearance. A small
volume on the Calling and Responsibilities of a Governess.
A collection of the Lectures on Gold delivered
lately at the Museum of Practical Geology. A history,
by the reverend incumbent, of All Saints' Church,
Sudbury. Two numbers of the Messrs. Longman's
Travellers' Library, containing Mr. Macaulay's Essay
on Bacon, and a popular account of Electricity and the
Electric Telegraph. A thin octavo of Conversations
about Hurricanes. The first volume of a proposed
series of (we regret to say ill written) Lives of the
Sovereigns of Russia. A volume of American travel by
Mr. Casey called Two Years on the Farm of Uncle Sam.
A novel by a Mr. Pepys with the title of Constance
Tyrrell. A compilation on the history, construction, and
social influences of Our Iron Roads. A small child's
story of Defoe origin called The Canadian Crusoe. A
thin octavo of Annals of Calais. A botanical study of
Western Himalaya and Thibet. A second volume of
Mr. Jerdan's Autobiography . A series of republished
chapters from a weekly law publication on the duties
and responsibilities of the Advocate. A new and more
portable Handbook of Belgium by Mr. Murray, and
another of Mr. Bogue's Guides for Travellers in
Switzerland and the Savoy. A summary by Mr.
Desborough Cooley of the results of recent African
discovery which he entitles Inner Africa Laid Open.
A second volume of the Notes upon Russia issued
by the Hakluyt Society. A school-book of Studies from
the English Poets by Mr. G. F. Graham. A thin tract
of Hints to Travellers in Portugal. A novel by Miss
Pennefather called Helen Talbot. The concluding
volume of Mr. Robert Chambers's Life and Works of
Burns. A translation, from the German, of the first
volume of Doctor Marx's School of Musical Composition.
Two small succinct treatises by Doctor Latham on the
Ethnology of Europe and the Ethnology of the British
Islands. And Doctor Sutherland's Journal of a Voyage
in Baffin's Bay and Barrow Straits in 1850-1. This
last work describes by far the most interesting and
successful of the voyages of search made for Franklin and
his companions, though made under a commander of no
higher rank than the master of a whaler, Mr. William
Penny; and the describer, Doctor Sutherland, though
no great writer, is a singularly faithful as well as minute
observer of nature and natural phenomena.

Pamphlets it does not come within our plan to
preserve any formal record of, but a slight summary of
subjects will indicate their variety and number. Lord
Mahon has answered Mr. Jared Sparks on the subject of
imputations he had brought against that gentleman of
having tampered with the text of Washington's letters
in editing his works, and appears now to succeed in
establishing substantial grounds for that charge. The Rev. Mr.
Mereweather has described, in the form of extracts from
a diary of a voyage to Australia, the ordinary course of
daily life on board an emigrant ship. Mr. Robert
Christie has discoursed on life assurance institutions;
Mr. Fairfax on the colonies of Australia; Mr. Willasey
on education; Mr. Edward Warrington (in French) on
the text of Bonapartism being now the sole safety of
France; Mr. Toulmin Smith on the Baroness Von
Beck's case; Mr. William H. Hall on his own practical
experience at the gold diggings; Mr. W. J. Thomson on
the present position of the life assurance interests of
Great Britain; Archbishop Whately (in a charge to
his clergy) on the claims of truth and unity in reference
to the Church; and Lord Beaumont on the position of
France and Austria in regard to Central Italy. As
many pamphlets anonymous, on a like variety of
subjects, might be added to these. And a publisher with
a taste for county antiquities, Mr. Gray Bell, has
commenced a series of reprints of rare tracts and imprints
of unpublished manuscripts illustrative of the
topography, family history, antiquities, customs, dialects,
&c, &c, of the various counties of Great Britain;
limiting the number issued of each tract, and charging
for them by general subscription.

A few words may be spared in conclusion for serial
and republished works. Rob Roy has been added to the
Library Edition of the Waverley Novels. Notes and
Queries has completed its fifth volume. Oliver Holmes's
Poetical Works, being the songs and ballads of a
clever American rhymer, have been reprinted. A new
edition has appeared of that remarkable book, Uncle
Tom's Cabin, which, besides having the advantage of a
clearer type than any other we have seen, and a price as
reasonable as any, has the not less strong recommendation
of setting apart a share of its profits for the writer—
one of the cleverest writers of fiction that America has yet
produced. A new story of Emilie Carlen, Ivar, has
been translated, and the republication of Hazlitt's
Life of Napoleon completed, for the Illustrated London
Library. Mr. Bohn has added to his libraries
another volume of Neander's Church History, and
a new prose translation of Juvenal and Persius to
which Clifford's rhymed version is subjoined. The
completion of Michaud's History of the Crusades is the
last translated addition to Routledge's library. Mr. Dod
has described the new parliament in a new edition of his
famous Companion. And finally some brief treatises on
popular law subjects have appeared; embracing The
Practice of the County Courts, by Mr. Broom; The
Militia Acts, by Mr. Saunders; Controverted Elections
and Parliamentary Committees, by Mr. Pickering;
On Investments, by Mr. Ward; and editions of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, and Law of International
Copyright between England and France, both
annotated and explained by Mr. Peter Burke. On the latter
act, too, in so far as it relates to dramatic pieces, Mr.
Charles Mathews has been discoursing in livelier fashion,
and always very cleverly, if not always very logically,
both in French and English.