France in her turn had to decline advances, more or
less direct, which are not without resemblance to those
which were first made to England."

The treaty of the triple alliance between France,
England, and Turkey, was signed on the 12th at
Constantinople. The prohibition to export corn from
Odessa has occasioned a temporary scarcity at
Constantinople. The Turkish government had taken
measures in consequence, and posts were doubled: all,
however, was quiet. The rumoured massacre of the
Christians at Samos is contradicted: there had been
merely a demonstration against Canemenos, who had
been dismissed.

The Austrian government has published an official
document, in which it makes known its views in regard
to the differences between Russia and Turkey. This
document expresses regret that the communication sent by
the Western Powers to Russia is of such a nature as to
leave hardly any hope of a favourable reply. The document
proceeds to say that it was never doubted by the
Imperial government that the demands of those Powers
were just, and in accordance with the interests of
Europe. Till the very last, the Imperial government
has obeyed the calls of duty to Europe, and those of
friendship to its Imperial ally. Should war take place,
the sole duty of the Austrian government is to maintain
the interests of the nations under the sceptre of his
Majesty, which interests are not in conflict with those
of any other nation. Austria is prepared to meet the
dangers which may accrue from a great war in an
adjoining country, and from the subversive tendencies
which may manifest themselves on the frontiers of
the empire during the continuance of that war.

The intelligence from China is to the 29th of January.
A Hong Kong paper of that date gives the following
account of the state of the civil war. Shanghai has now
been four months and upwards in possession of the
rebels; but reports are current of internal dissensions,
and it is not improbable that before long the imperialists
will succeed in causing the place to be evacuated. As
the party in possession are in no way steady in their
professions of adherence to the Nankin dynasty, such a
result will leave little cause for regret. At present the
annoyance to foreigners, and absolute danger from falling
shot, are much to be deplored. From other places on
the coast we hear of nothing extraordinary. The whole
country contains all save one of the elements for a
revolution—and that is, the spirit to urge them into a blaze.
The professional rebels of the Toongkoon district have
been obliged to succumb to the arms of the Canton
imperialists. The Kwang-chow-foo has returned to
Canton, still leaving, however, large bodies of troops in
the disturbed districts. Between Hong Kong and
Canton, piracy is still of frequent occurrence, but our
naval authorities take little notice of it.

NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

The more important publications of the past month
comprise n new library edition, in four octavos, with
much new and careful annotation, of Pepys's Diary and
Correspondence; the commencement of a new eight-
volume edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, in which
all the historian's references to ancient authors for the
first time receive verification by the editor, Dr. William
Smith, and thus become accessible to every modern
student; a translation, in two octavos, sanctioned by
the author, of the work on which M. Guizot has been
some time engaged, the History of Oliver Cromwell and
tlie English Commonwealth; two volumes illustrative of
the condition of the Arab tribes of the Sahara, by the
Rev. N. Davis, called Evenings in my Tent, or, Wanderings
in Balad Ejjareed; a translation of Weiss's History
of the Early Protestant Refugees, from the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes to the present day; a translation, so
skilfully executed and adapted as to have not a few of
the characteristics of an original work, of Abeken's
Account of the Life and Letters of Cicero, by Mr.
Charles Merivale; two volumes of Travels in Siberia by
Mr. Hill, a subject always interesting, but now peculiarly
so; a biography of Jerome Cardan by Mr. Morley, the
biographer of Bernard Palissy; an illustrated volume
on Armenia by the Hon. Robert Curzon; a subtle and
learned treatise on Claudius Ptolemy and the Nile, by
Mr. Desborough Cooley, being an inquiry into that
geographer's real merits and speculative errors; a
volume by a very earnest Protestant clergyman, the
Rev. Mr. Sanderson Robins, on the Evidence of Scripture
against the Claims of the Romish Church; a
new edition of Stephens's Incidents of Travel hi
Central America, with additions by Mr. Frederick
Catherwood; two large volumes on Canada, Past,
Present, and Future, containing very valuable statistics
of that most important colony; a richly illustrated
volume, full of curious research into the antiquities
of India, Ladak, Physical, Statistical and Historical,
by Major Alexander Cunningham; and a History of
Latin Christianity by Dean Milman, including that of
the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicholas V.

In miscellaneous literature there have been published
two volumes on the present social condition of France,
called Purple Tints of Paris, by Mr. Bayle St. John;
a volume of Conversations on Geography by Viscountess
Falmouth; a treatise on The Rifle Musket by Captain
Jervis White Jervis; a description of a Visit to Portugal
and Madeira by Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley; the
second volume of Dryden's poems, in Mr. Bell's
Annotated Edition of the English Poets; a fifth volume of Mrs.
Green's Lives of the Princesses of England; an Exploration
of the Valley of the Amazon, by an officer in the
United States Navy, Lieutenant Herndon; a volume
of inedited documents connected with Russian history
and diplomacy, translated by Mr. Reynell Morell, and
entitled Russia Self-Condemned; another translation,
from the French of De Lagny, on the Czar and his
empire, the Knout and the Russians; a translation by
Mr. Cayley, in the original rhyme, of Dante's Paradise;
a second volume of Mr. Knight's Stratford Shakspeare;
a translation of the Lusiad of Camoens, by Lieutenant-
Colonel Sir T. L. Mitchell; the commencement of a
new and cheap edition of the Diary and Letters of
Madame d'Arblay; a volume of Chronicles of Merry
England, of which the object seems to be to show that
there was not so much mirth in the merry days as is
generally supposed; a treatise by the Rev. Chauncy Hare
Townshend, entitled Mesmerism Proved True, and the
Quarterly Reviewer Reviewed; a translation of Tieck's
Midsummer Night and the Fairies, a fantastic little
dream of Shakspeare's youth; a curious volume on
Liberia containing an account of how far the experiments
to colonize a negro commonwealth have hitherto been
successful; a translation by Mr. Roberts, from the
Russian of Ustrialoff, of An, Historical Review of the
Reign of the Emperor Nikolai I.; a volume of scriptural
lectures to merchants, by an American Doctor of Divinity,
called the Bible in the Counting House, commended to
English acceptance by Mr. Bickersteth; a volume of
clerical sketches by Mr. James Ewing Ritchie,
published as the London Pulpit; a volume on the National
Songs and Legends of Roumania, by Mr. Grenville
Murray; and a skilfully condensed republication of the
most interesting of all existing accounts of the Muscovite
Empire, Russia, by the Marquis de Custine.

There remains only to add to this summary the
principal novels which have appeared during the month.
They have comprised Maude Talbot, by Holme Lee;
Progress and Prejudice, by Mrs. Gore; Janet Mowbray,
by Caroline Grantoff; the Heir of Vallis, by William
Matthews; and The Boatman of the Bosphorus, a tale
of Turkey, by a writer whose name is at present less
familiar in our circulating libraries than it is to be
hoped this book will make it, "The Osmanli Abderahman
Effendi."