for conspiracy, and of the Mayor of Bristol for neglect of
duty during the Reform Riots: and is otherwise
composed of the trials of Mr. Stuart and Lord Cardigan for
duelling, of those of Courvoisier, M'Naughten, and the
Glasgow cotton-spinners, for murder; of the titular
Earl of Stirling for forgery, of Lord Cochrane and the
Wakefields for conspiracy, and of Mr. Ambrose Williams
and Mr. Moxon for libel and alleged blasphemous
publication. Mr. Townsend's professed object in the
compilation (which fills two large octavo volumes) was to
make it useful as well as entertaining, by popularising
the respective subjects of inquiry in essays profiled to
each case; by directing attention, in notes and otherwise,
to the principal points of jurisprudence and legal
morality, discussed or decided; and by exhibiting, in the
body of the reports themselves, the salient parts of cross-
examination, the little passages of arms between the
forensic combatants, and as it were the poetry of action
in these legal dramas. Sometimes this is done fairly
enough; but Mr. Townsend's selection of subjects is
not always to bo approved.

Mr. Rogers, an Edinburgh reviewer whose name has
not been much before the public, has dealt chiefly with
subjects of religious interest, or indirectly bearing upon
religious philosophy. He occupies about the same
relation to Sir James Stephen in these matters, as one
might say that Arnold occupied to Bunsen and Niebuhr,
or Hare and Maurice to Coleridge. He is less wide and
comprehensive in his range, in expression less eloquent
and original, but more practical in his views. He
attacks the two extremes of Tractarianism and
Scepticism; gives large and sound expositions of Dr.
Whately's views of criminal jurisprudence; and attempts
special biographical sketches, such as Fuller's, Luther's,
Pascal's, and Plato's.

The reader who happens to encounter another and
very different exposition of religious thinking, which
it also falls within our present duty to indicate,
but not to criticise, Mr. Newman's Phases of Faith, will
do well to read it after a careful study of the essay
on the claims and conflicts of reason and faith which is
contained in one of Mr. Rogers's volumes. Mr. Newman
appears to have begun life with a strong evangelical
turn, to have betaken himself to the East in a mission to
convert the Mahommedans, subsequently to have joined
the Unitarians, and, finally, to have deposited himself
in a sort of worship beginning and ending in the nature
and will of man himself, without relation or submission
to external and objective laws.

But the chief staple of the month's literary productions
has been in the department of Voyages and Travels;
and an indication of the routes taken or the subjects
described, will suffice for information respecting them.
Colonel Chesney has sent forth, in a very big book,
the first portion of his narrative of the Government
Expedition to the Euphrates; and a certain Count
Sollogub has recorded his travellmg impressions of
Young Russia, in a lively little book called The
Tarantas. An English artist, lately resident in
America, has described his Adventures in California; a
native American, named Baird Taylor, has given a
description of the same region, and adventures in other
directions of conquered Mexico, with the tempting title
of El Dorado; the distinguished American poet, Mr.
Cullen Bryant, has collected notes of things, made on
journeys in different countries on both sides of the
Atlantic, during the last sixteen years, in Letters of a
Traveller; and Mr. Robert Baird, a Scotch invalid
travelling for health, with strong party prepossessions, but
shrewd observant habits, has published two volumes on
the West Indies and North America in 1849. We have
also had pictures of travel in the Canadas, in a book
called the Shoe and Canoe, by the Secretary to the
Boundary Commissioners, Dr. Bigsby; a very curious
and complete revelation of Eastern life, in a Two Years'
Residence in a Levantine Family, described by Mr.
Bayle St. John; a peep into Nuremberg and Franconia,
by Mr. Whitling; a summer ramble through Auvergne
and Piedmont, by the intelligent Secretary of the
Royal Society, Mr. Weld; the record of a brief holiday
in Spain, Gazpacho, by a Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge; Notes from Nineveh, by a clergyman who
has lately had religious duties in the East; and a
satisfactory and compendious compilation called Nineveh
and Persepolis, by one of the officials of the British
Museum.

The Exhibition of the Royal Academy and that of
the Society of Water Colours were opened to the public
at the beginning of this month. They are both rich in
works of merit, by the artists already known as the
leading contributors to each of them, and by younger
artists whose productions are beginning to attract public
attention. In the exhibition of the Royal Academy there
are 643 pictures, of which 86 are by Academicians, and
51 by Associates; 460 Drawings and Miniatures, of which
20 are by Academicians, and 17 by Associates; 189
Architectural pieces, none of which are by Academicians
or Associates; and 164 pieces of Sculpture, of which 12
are by Academicians, and 2 by Associates.

The different Exhibitions at present open afford a
remarkable proof of the industry of British artists. The
Exhibition of the Royal Academy contains 1456 works
of art, and above 1000 offered for exhibition were
declined. At the Water-Colour Gallery 380 works are
exhibited; at the New Water-Colour Gallery, 329; at
the British Institution, 500; at the Suffolk-street
Gallery, 735; and at the Portland Gallery in Regent Street,
373. Adding to these the number that may be set down
as declined by these different exhibitions, we may
estimate the number of works of art produced for exhibition
during the year at not less than 5000; and this without
taking into account the immense amount of portrait-
painting, book illustration, and works produced in other
branches of the art.

Philharmonic Concerts took place on the 6th and
20th. At the latter, Lindley, who for nearly half a
century has maintained his position as the first English
violoncellist, bade farewell to the public. He played in
his old favourite Trio of Corelli, and retired amid the
acclamations of the audience.

At Her Majesty's Theatre, several performers, new to
this country, have lately appeared. Mademoiselle Ida
Bertrand, a contralto, made her first appearance on the
27th of April, as the boy Pierotto, in "Linda de
Chamouni." Madame Frezzolini, who has revisited England
after an absence of seven years, appeared on the 21st, as
"Lucrezia Borgia," with the most decided success.

At the Royal Italian Opera, an Opera entitled Zora,
being Rossini's "Mosè in Egitto," with the subject and
characters changed, has been produced, but with little
success, though it was splendidly "mounted" and
skilfully performed.—Roberto il Diavolo was produced
on the 23rd, the part of Alice being taken, for the first
time, by Grisi.

At the Haymarket, Mr. Douglas Jerrold's new
Comedy, The Catspaw, was performed for the first
time on the 9th inst. with triumphant success, and has
been nightly repeated ever since.

The other novelties at the English theatres have been
a Comic drama at the Adelphi called the White Serjeants,
and a Farce at the Strand, entitled Not to be Done,
both of which have been successful.—Several holiday
pieces, of the usual kind on such occasions, were
produced on Whit-Monday; among others, the Lyceum
brought out "Novelty Fair, or Hints for 1851; " and the
Strand, a "Morality" called "The Philosopher's Stone,"
founded on the Californian mania.

Drury Lane closed prematurely on the 4th instant.
Mr. Anderson, the lessee, in a valedictory address,
asscribed his "partial failure" to "the great difficulty of
converting this theatre into a temple of the legitimate
drama, after the various uses to which it has been
devoted; the opposition he has encountered in the
shape of three foreign theatres; and the positive
coolness of the public press, without one cheering word of
encouragement." He announced, however, that he is
to re-open the theatre at Christmas next.