9-SOUTHERN AND WESTERN CONVENTION throughout the South, and the opening of TO BE HELD IN NEW-ORLEANS, JANUARY a direct foreign trade from our immediate seaports. As these matters are intimately connected with the success of rail-road 5, 1852. Delegations of influential and intelligent gentlemen are named at public meetings in all of our neighboring states to attend the meeting of this important body, and we have every reason to believe there will be a large and very general attendance. These gen. tlemen will be welcomed among us, and be received with a warm and enthusiastic greeting. works, and have been the themes of discussion throughout the country by the press and the late conventions in Richmond, Virginia, and Macon, Georgia, which will both be represented in ours, we trust that dele. gates will come fully prepared upon them. Indeed, a special circular has been sent out to eminent and practical men, inviting them to be present to report or to speak upon these points, and the confident hope is cherished that they will comply. The states of the Sonth and West have a common interest in the great purposes of improvement which will be suggested, and As this will be the first great Convention advocated at the Convention, and their dele- in New-Orleans, and her first hearty regations should collect and amass the necessponse to the shouts of progress heard everysary information for its guidance, and come where in the nation, and as her citizens fully prepared to present it in the shape of reports or oral addresses. We make this suggestion in advance, and trust that every delegation and every interest will fully adopt it. The Convention will, without question, pass upon the great subject of a communication with the Pacific Ocean across the continent, so much new matter having come to light since the adjournment of the Memphis and St. Louis Conventions, which were convened especially for this purpose. The idea of a great connection between the distant shores of the republic has taken too fast hold upon the American people ever to die out again. In twenty years the problem will have been solved, and men be called upon to wonder that doubt should have ever existed, as they are now continually wondering at the skepticism of those who twenty years ago branded as dreamers the advocates of twenty miles an hour upon rail-roads!! It belongs to the Southwest to take hold of this matter for herself, and she will also press the subject of the Tehuantepec route home upon the governments of Washington and of Mexico. warmly sympathized and co-operated in the conventions at Memphis and St. Louis, our neighbors from Virginia to Florida, from the Rio Grande to Missouri, should foster and sustain it. It will be the precursor of a series of movements among us calculated to be broadly and deeply felt in the future history of the country. We entreat gentlemen throughout the states who may read these remarks, late as it is in the day, to take immediate steps to have their communities represented, if it has not yet been done, and to press upon the delegates the importance of a general attendance. Let none neglect a service due to so great a cause. The rivers will all be Even the most distant delegate may leave high, and traveling uninterrupted by them. his home after Christmas, and reach NewOrleans in abundant time for the convention. The season, too, is one of the gayest and pleasantest ever enjoyed in the Crescent City. Let all come. They will find us ready and active. 10. NOTICES OF BOOKS AND PERIODICALS 1.-History of Alabama, and inciden tally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. By Albert J. Pickett, of Montgomery, in Two Volumes. Third ediNew-Orleans: J. B. Steel. tion. Charleston: Walker & James. 1851. The assembling of a convention like this, representing ten or twelve states, and embracing their most distinguished citizens, will present an opportunity entirely too favorable to be overlooked for discussing many other great questions, deeply interesting to This beautiful work marks an epoch in all of the states, to wit, the extension of the southern publishing business. The manufactures in the Western Valley, and printing, the binding, the illustrations-and they are very numerous-are all the labors of southern hands, and nothing which has yet been issued in the country, can be said to surpass it in either of these particulars. Let the credit, therefore, be awarded to the Charleston house, who have done so much to illustrate the capacities of the South in a branch of enterprise hitherto almost exclusively confined to the North. Volume one of the history is chiefly occupied with the abridgment and French his tory of the state, and the author has embellished it with many exquisite drawings, taken from the work of Le Moyne, which we have never been fortunate enough to see. This man was a painter attached to the expedition of Landouriere, and published a very valuable work in 1591, upon the Indians, &c., containing over forty plates, representing their houses, games, manners, rites, &c. The subjects of the second volume are, the occupation of Alabama and Mississippi by the English; the Hardships of the Early Emigrants; Bertram's Journey through Alabama; the Revolutionary War; Sufferings of the Natchez Refugees; the Spaniards of Alabama and Mississippi; Bloody Scenes in Alabama and Georgia; Singular inhabitants of Alabama; Genet's Intrigues; Yazoo Claims; the Americans in Alabama; Burr's Arrest; this is a most interesting chapter, which we have previously published from the proof-sheets; Tecumseh and the Creek Wars; Fort Minus Massacre; Indian Battles; Attack upon Mobile Point, and March upon Pensacola; the Alabama Territory; French Colony in Alabama; Territorial Legislature, and State Government; first Legislature of Alabama. The volume concludes with biographical sketches of many old and leading citizens, which are deeply interesting, viz.: Elmore, Jackson, Pickett, Bibb, &c., &c. hers, having breathed no other air, swam i no other streams, and sported upon no other plains; and, above all, having been reared with no other inhabitants but hers, it was natural that I should feel the liveliest interest in whatever concerned her. I looked around me, and saw the Atlantic States of this great confederacy supplied with histories, the pages of which unfolded to the readers of the present generation the remarkable incidents of their colonial exist ence, and of the heroic deeds of their inhabitants from the earliest period to modern dates. I knew that Alabama had been overrun by three different European powers, and also by the American people, and that her colonial and aboriginal history would be more varied and interesting than that of any state in this Union, if the scattered mate rials could be collected, to write it. It was with sorrow that I saw Alabama without a single page of her history. Again, I never had studied a profession. I had no taste for politics. My only pursuit, that of planting, did not occupy one-fourth of my time. All these were reasons, connected with the belief that it was my duty to benefit my fellowcitizens in some way, which influenced me to write the history of my own Alabama. That history has been written, published in Charleston, and sent to you to be distributed, for sale, in various parts of North Alabama. In the preparation of that work, I have known no man, nor creed, nor politics. Believing that a historian ought to be the most conscientious of men, I have endeavored to tell the truth in all cases, and to divest my self of every prejudice. I had but one object-to elevate the character of Alabama, in a historical point of view, and to place her by the side of her most enlightened and renowned sisters." Mr. Pickett's style as a historian, is nei- of the Crystal Palace, by Samuel Warren, 2.-The Lily and the Bee, an Apologue ther finished nor elaborate, but clear, per-author of Diary of a Physician, &c. Harper spicuous, and simple. Indeed, we are not a & Brothers. J. C. Morgan, New-Orleans. little surprised that one whose previous pur- This is a quaint and singular production. which one must read entirely through before he can understand its significance, as the author, indeed, tells us in the preface. suits have been more of active life than the closet, should have made so interesting and attractive a work. We regret that the volumes come to hand too late for a lengthy review the present 3.-Romantic History of the Huguenots month, but in our January number they will and the Protestant Reformation in France, be made the basis of an article upon Alabama, by Mrs. Marsh. Blanchard & Lea. Morgan, complete in all its parts, historical, phy- New-Orleans, 1851. In Two Volumes. The sical, industrial, &c., like those we have object of this work is to relate a domestic been publishing upon the other states. story, not to undertake a political history; to In a letter which Mr. Pickett has pub-display the virtues and sufferings of men, lished, he speaks of himself in the following manner: rather than the intrigues of cabinets. The narration is brought down to the death of Charles IX., and will, perhaps, be continued to the revocation of the edict of Nantes. 4.-The Queens of Scotland, by Agnes Strickland, author of the Queens of England. Vol. I. Harper, New-York, Morgan, "When a boy, eight years of age, I was carried from my native state, North Carolina, to the " Alabama Territory," in the year 1818. Thirty-three years ago, I first saw Alabama. She was then a vast wilderness, inhabited by Indians, and a few emigrants. She is now an enlightened and New-Orleans. powerful state. Having grown with her The present volume, by this distinguished growth, and strengthened with her strength,' lady, is the first of a series on Scotland, and having been educated in no other school but includes Margaret Tudor, Madaleine of 6 . EDITORIAL AND LITERARY DEPARTMENT. "The biograFrance, and Mary Lorraine. phies of royal females, who have played distinguished parts in the history of the country, especially those who have been involved in the storms caused by revolutions in popular opinion, afford not only instances of lofty and heroic characteristics elicited by striking reverses of fortune, but the most touching examples of all that is lovely, holy and endearing in womanhood." 5.-Memoirs of Mary, Queen of Scots, with Anecdotes of the Court of Henry II., during her residence in France. By Miss Benger, author of Memoirs of Anne Boleyn. Two Volumes. Carey & Hart. J. B. Steel, New Orleans. In tracing the destiny of Mary after she quitted France, the author consulted almost every annalist and biographer by whom her character has been illustrated, from Lesley to Udal, from Crawford to Chalmers, but her chief guide has been Keith, that unexceptionable historian, to whom Hume and Robertson, Goodall and Loring, have offered homage. Four original letters from Mary, addressed to the Earl of Argyle, the author has obtained from the We doubt not present Earl of that name. that this will be a popular and widely-read work. 6.-American Cotton Spinner-A practical Treatise on Spinning, giving all the details and descriptions of machinery, &c with notices of improvements, from the papers of R. H. Baird. 7.-The Moulders and Founders' Pocket Guide, containing processes of moulding in all descriptions of pottery and metals, with receipts for alloys, bronze, varnishes, and tables of strength in metals, &c. The above works are published in neat and compact style, beautifully bound. The first should be in extensive demand throughout the South, among all persons interested in the cotton manufacture-a business we must all very soon fully learn, if we are true to ourselves. We shall make some extracts from it hereafter. Philadelphia: A. Hart. New-Orleans: J. B. Steel. 8.-Hand Book of Facts, 1851, bound in the same style as the above, and contains the most important discoveries and improvements of the past year, in mechanics and the arts, philosophy, chemistry, geology, zoology, botany, geography, meteorology and astronomy. By John Timbs. Hart: Philadelphia. J. B. Steel: New-Orleans. 9.-Memoirs of the Queens of France, including a memoir of her majesty, the late Queen of the French, by Mrs. Forbes Bush, in Two Volumes. A. Hart, Philadelphia. J. B. Steel, New-Orleans. 1851. This work makes a very good companion for those admirable publications of the Misses Strickland, the Queens of England and the Queens of Scotland. When one considers the important part which woman performs in the government of the world, even 10.-Restoration of Monarchy in France, No man in France is better qualified to depict the political character and fluctuations of the French people than M. Lamartine, and no one could adorn the picture with the graces of more elegant and attractive composition. His History of the Girondists had an extraordinary popularity. Though scarcely a middle-aged man, Lamartine has lived, he tells us, under ten dominations, or ten different governments in France, and witnessed ten revolutions-the Constitutional Government of Louis XVI., the first Republic, the Directory, the Consulate, the second Government of the Hundred Days Empire, the first Restoration in 1814, the by Napoleon, the second Restoration in 1815, the reign of Louis Philippe, and the second Republic, ten cataracts, by which the spirit of modern liberty and the stationary or obstructive spirit have endeavored by turns to descend, or to remount the declivity of revolutions, &c. 11.-Rule and Misrule of the English Harper & in America. By Haliburton. Brothers. J. C. Morgan, New-Orleans. This writer, who is known to the world as the author of those very popular productions, "Sam Slick the Clock-Maker," "The "Old Judge," &c., is now disLetter-Bag," posed to try his hand in a new field. The early history of the colonies is very fully traced, and the consecutive steps towards their political independence. The work furnishes also a very interesting view of Canadian and British North American affairs. In two volumes. J. C. 12.-Literature and Literary Men of Great Britain and Ireland. By Abraham Mills, A. M., author of Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. New-York: Harper & Brothers. Morgan, New Orleans. Twenty years ago, the author was invited to deliver a course of lectures upon English Literature. They have been subsequently corrected and enlarged, and are now presented to the public. There are forty-six lectures, the first opening with an interesting account of the Celtic of Ossian. The language, the origin of the Anglo-Saxon, and a review of the progression is then regularly through poems the writers of every age down to Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Junius. The sketch of Lord Monboddo, near the close, gives a correct picture of that singular man. In his " Essay," he maintained that men were originally monkeys, in which condition they remained for ages, destitute of speche, reason, and social affections. They gradually improved, as geologists say the earth was changed by successive revolutions; but he contends the ourang-outangs are still of the human species, and that, in the Bay of Bengal, there exists a nation of human beings with tails like monkeys, which had been discovered 130 years before by a Dutch skipper. All the moral sentiments and af fections are the result of experience, art, &c., and man in his natural state is below beavers and sea-cats, which he terms social and political animals." 13.-Nile Boat, or Glimpses of the Land of Egypt. New-York: Harper & Brothers J. C. Morgan, New-Orleans. 1851. This is a splendid volume in typography, binding and illustrations, equal to any of the annuals, and adapted to the richest parlor table. The author is W. H. Bartlett, author of Forty Days in the Desert." He has endeavored, he tells us, to present within a small compass as much variety as possible, displaying the principal monuments of the earlier or Pharonic monuments, as at Thebes; the later Ptolemaic style, as at Edfon and Philae, with some of the most beautiful specimens of the Arabian at Cairo. The sites of Alexandria and Thebes, with their principal ruins, are rendered distinct and intelligible, and the book, "though far from giving an adequate idea of Egyptian scenery and monuments, which is, indeed, impossible on the scale so far as it goes, may claim to be a correct one, at least in intention and endeavor." Among the splendid illustrations are Alexandria, Cairo, approach to Thebes, the Pyramids, the Bazaar, Valley of the Nile, &c., &c. the revolutionary and colonial history of the country, than upon that of the period immediately succeeding the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and establishment of the present government. Taking him up for his religious prejudices, the North American Review at Boston, remarks of Mr. Hildreth's work: "It is not a feeble or careless produc tion; the author of it is an independent thinker, a correct writer, and has other eminent qualifications for his task. His work is most faulty in the very respect in which he seems most ambitious to excel, and he has thus shown, though in a manner which he did not intend, that freedom from prejudice is the first requisite of a historian." 15-Affleck's Southern Rural Almanac, and Plantation and Garden Calendar, 1852. Published at the office of the Picayune, New-Orleans. This little work, of about 100 pages, is the most valuable Almanac for planters that could be used. It contains instructions for every month of the year, in regard to the details of the sugar and cotton plantation, and also of the garden and the orchard. Mr. Affleck has himself one of the most extensive nurseries of fruit and ornamental trees in the country. 16.-Harper's Magazine for November, 1851, which closes the third volume of this most popular and valuable miscellany. Many great improvements are being added constantly to its pages. 17.-Banker's Magazine, Boston. Contents, October, 1851: Supply and consump tion of gold; export of gold to Europe; Gilbart on Banking; new varieties of silver coin and bullion; bank statistics, &c., $5 per annum. J. Smith Homans, editor and proprietor. 18.-The Catholic Pulpit, containing a sermon for every Sunday and holiday in the casional discourses. Baltimore: John Muryear and for good Friday; with several ocphy & Co. 1851. We are indebted to Mr. Thomas O'Don14.-Hildreth's History of the United nell, Catholic bookseller of New-Orleans, States, from the adoption of the Federal for a copy of this handsomely issued work. Constitution to the end of the Sixteenth It contains sixty-eight sermons, in large fine Congress. By Richard Hildreth. In three print-on almost every subject of Chrisvolumes; Volume two, John Adams' and tian faith, belief, or daily and practical life. Jefferson's Administration. New York: We regret that the names of the authors of Harper & Brothers. New-Orleans: J. C. the sermons are not given. The work was first published in a serial form, and met with a flattering reception. Every Catholic should have a copy, and even Protestants might read it to advantage. Morgan. Many months ago, we noticed the first series of this history, embracing our AnteConstitutional, or colonial and federated existence, and more lately referred to the first volume of the new series on the administration of George Washington. The views then expressed regarding the strong political bias and prejudices of the writer are unchanged. Whilst the work should be read by every one, as embodying a valuable collection of material, not otherwise to be obtained without great labor and time, it should yet be read with a great deal of circumspection; most persons are better informed upon at Tuscoloosa. This institution, now under the presidency of that able divine and accomplished gentleman, Dr. Basil Manly, is in successful operation. There are nine pro fessors aad ninety-one students. The library consists of 4,450 volumes. Au astronomical observatory has been erected, complete chemical and philosophical apparatus are attached, &c. . 21-Remarks on the Supply of Water to the City of Mobile, by Albert Stein. We shall guage, by Dr. Kaltschmidt, in two parts, These compact and beautifully printed volumes are from the press of Blanchard & Lea, Philadelphia, and J. B. Steel, of NewOrleans. They deserve to be widely adopted in our schools, academies and private families. The German editions of the classies have great merit among scholars throughout the world. 26.-Works on Finance-Mr. Homans, the publisher of the Bankers' Magazine, has issued editions of the following standard works on Finance, which should find a place in every public library, and in the hands of bank directors, insurance offices, &c. I. Gilbart's Practical Treatise on Banking. make some references to this in our next. 22.-Carcinologica! Collections of the Ca binets of Natural History in the United ·States; with an enumeration of the species contained therein, and descriptions of new species, by Lewis R. Gibbes, M.D., Prof. Math. in College of Charleston. This tract of Prof. Gibbes, despite of the hard name at the head of it, (though that can be no objection to them,) will be of great value to scientific men. It is laborious and pains-taking, like everything else from his hand. Who hut this enthusiast in the cause of science would, after the toils of daily lecturing for five hours (Of this work the "Edinburgh Review" in a college, during nearly ten months of the says: Mr. McCulloch has condensed a great year, think of employing the remaining two mass of knowledge, which men of all parties months, as he tells us in his catalogue. "I should be glad to see so put together, in his have, in the last few years, visited the cabi- political economy, exchange, interest, taxanets of natural history belonging to the socie-tion, paper money, and principles of bankties devoted to that science in the cities of ing.) II. McCulloch's Essays on Exchange, Interest, Paper Money, Banks, Coins. Coinage, &c. IV. The Banker's Almanac. Boston, New-York and Philadelphia, and III. The Banker's Common Place Book. V. Chronicles and Characters of the Stock SOME EDITORIAL NOTES. Prof. Gibbes, though still a young man, was our preceptor and guide through the alluring fields of science in college days. With an ambition to grasp the whole field, five dollars. there is nothing that his mind will not essay, and with him to essay is to triumph. As a mathematician, he has no superior. He studies the stars, and delights in the most OUR readers are referred to the list of abstruse calculations in regard to them. books to be had of J. C Morgan, NewAnalyses plants and minerals-is forever in Orleans. Mr. Morgan has just returned the laboratory amid retorts and crucibleslooks into everything, studies everything, from the North, with a new and valuable Mistalks about everything, and talks accurately cellaneous stock of Literature and Stationand well. As a student, we were often sur prised to find him branching out from chem-ery, some of the finest English editions of the istry and mathematics, to find illustrations or Classics; all the American Authors; Periodiparallels in morals or metaphysics. The cals; Newspapers; Illustrated Works, etc. reputation of Prof. Gibbes should be the Every one knows bis position-next door to pride of his native state, as it is of the college of Charleston, and of all its alumni. 23.-New Orleans Monthly Medical Register. Edited by A. Forster Axson. No. 2. We have long desired to see Dr. Axson in a position favorable for the display of his fine talents, and extensive medical, scientific and literary attainments. We trust that the present work will eventually lead to such a result. Though small, and without pretensions, the number before us embraces, many interesting communications, and the most judicious selections. The editor has furnished a paper himself upon "arsenic poisoning." the Post Office. Mr. Asa Whitney has sent us a copy of his speech in England upon the Pacific RailRoad. As these matters are particularly in our line just now, we shall notice and extract from the speech in our next. Could not Mr. Whitney attend our Convention in January? We know that it is necessary for him to be in Washington, but then his past history proves him to possess a sort of 24.-School Dictionary of the Latin Lan-ubiquity. |