Literary items.
Among the works announced for immediate publication in London are "A Jewish Reply to Bishop Colenso on the Pentateuch," by the Jewish Association for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge; Mr. Edwards's new book on "Libraries and their Founders;" "Major-General McClellan and the Campaign on the Yorktown Peninsula," by Frederick Milnes Edge, late American correspondent of The Morning Star; a new and revised edition of Rask's Anglo-Saxon Grammar; the fifth volume of Professor Horace Hayman Wilson's works; "Sea Sickness, its Nature and Treatment," by Dr. John Chapman; "Lessons from the World of Matter and the World of Man," by Theodore Parker; "Zulu-Land, or Life among the Zulu-Kafirs of Natal and Zulu-Land," with illustrations, by Lewis Grout; a translation of Comte's "View of Positivism," by Dr. J. H. Bridges; and a new book on India, by Major Evans Bell.The eighth volume of the "History of Modern States," which contains the history of England from the conclusion of peace in 1815 to the death of George IV., has just appeared in Leipsic.
A curious periodical is about to be published at Brussels. It is to be called " La Chronique Seandaleuse," a record of "all truths that are not good to be told"--it is to be adorned by "ridiculous or compromising autographs," and will give an index of all the books prohibited in France, with the reason why.
M. Emile de Girardin, the well known political writer, is seemingly ambitious of success in another walk of literature. He has been reading a play of his own composition to the Committee of the Theatre Fra The title is said to be "Le Supp d'une Femme," and the piece was received with great favor.
M. Guillemin, the publisher of the Journal des Economistes, founded by him in 1841, and of other important works on political economy and social science, died suddenly at Paris on the 16th instant of disease of the heart. His "Dictionnaire du Commerce," published originally in 1836, has been several times reprinted, as has also his "Dictionary of Political Economy." He was buried at Pere-la-Chaise.
Jules Gerard, the famous lion-killer, has been drowned in attempting to cross the river Jong, in Africa. He was born of poor parents, at Pignan, Var, June 14, 1817, so that he was in his forty-eighth year. Gerarnd was fond of sport from his youth; at ten he chased cats and monkeys; at sixteen he carried a rifle and was a bit of a pugilist. He was a volunteer for the Algerian campaign in 1841, and commenced the life of adventures which has been terminated in so untimely a manner. He describes, in his well-known work "Le Tueur de Lions " (1857 and 1858), how it came to pass that a poor dwarf of a creature like him ventured to declare war against the giant of the woods--"one against one; chance for chance; God alone being a witness of the fight." Not long after his arrival at Bona he heard of the terrible lion of the Archiona, which had committed unheard-of devastations among villagers and troops alike. Said Gerard magnanimously, "If it pleases God, I who am not an Arab, will kill the lion, and he shall not devour you any more." His heart, he tells us, bounded for joy at the coming fight. "Soon this all-powerful lord, the terror of the country, will bite the dust under the ball of a dog of a Christian." The villagers were incredulous, and intimated to Jules that, if he killed the lion, they would kiss his feet and become his slaves; meanwhile they would mind their own business. Of the twenty-five lions which have fallen victims to Gerard's rifle we are told the appalling stories of "El Haib," the lame one, alias Bon-Acherin-Radiel, the murderer of twenty men; the lion of Krou Nega, the lion of Mejez Amar, the lion of Zerazer, the lioness of El Hanout, &c. He was called by the Arabs "The Terrible Frank." The Ducd' Aumale had given him a brace of pistols, and on his return to France, in 1847, he had an interview with the Duchess of Orleans and the youthful Count de Paris, who, unsolicited, left the room for five minutes, and returning said artlessly, "These villain beasts will finish you one day. A good hunter must be a good soldier. You must be preserved to the army. Accept these pistols to preserve you." In 1855, Gerard returned once more to France with the rank of sub-lieutenant, and received the decoration of the Legion of Honor. He had within the last year or two left France on another expedition into Africa, and he has unfortunately perished in the course of it by a sad accident.
The London journals announce the decease of Mrs. Carmichael Smyth, the mother of the late Mr. Thackeray. Her first husband, Richmond Thackeray, the great humorist's father, died at Calcutts in 1815, when his son, William Make peace, was just four years old. Mr. Theodore Taylor, in speaking of the youthful Thackeray, remarks that "the son, after remaining in India for some time with his widowed mother, finally bade adieu forever to that country, and was brought to England in 1817. His mother, who had married Major Carmichael Smith, still survives — a lady of more than eighty years of age, whose vigorous health and cheerful spirits are proverbial in her son's family." Since the decease of her son, however, Mrs. Smyth has not enjoyed her former robust health. His loss was a blow from which her failing age would not allow her to recover. She had been complaining all the summer, and as the winter cold came on, it was plain to her family that her strength was rapidly leaving her. Major Carmichael Smyth died about ten years ago.
Mr. Serjeant A. J. Stephen recently died, in his seventy-eighth year. His "Commentaries on the Laws of England" and "Pleadings in Civil Actions" are well known as useful law books.
Toward the close of last month died at Dobrzechow, in Galicia, Andress Eduard Kozmian, the Polish translator of Shakespeare.
The German papers mention the death of Dr. Carl Graul, the well known Tamal scholar, editor of "Kaivaljanavanita," a Vedanta poem, published in London in 1855. Dr. Graul also published his "Travels in the East" in German. He was for some years Director of the Missionsanstalten in Dresden and Leipsic, and at the date of his death, on the 10th ultimo, he was Professor of Missions wissenschaften (Missionary Knowledge) at Erlangen, where he died.
