NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART

AN assumed construction lias been given to tlie recent decision on the subject of foreign copyright in the
Court of Error which will affect the rights of English authors somewhat seriously if found to be correct.
It is affirmed that under that decision a foreign author will not be required to have assigned his copyright for
any valuable consideration here, or even be called upon to establish his right by a priority of publication in
this country. It will suffice to protect his property, it is said, if he is simply careful to register his work in
our Stationers' Hall before its publication in either country. This construction of Lord Campbell's judgment
does not seem to us likely to prove correct; but it is highly necessary, the doubt being raised, that the
question should be finally settled one way or other. The preamble to the international copyright act, as
well as the act itself, was a mere useless absurdity, if the judgment of the Court of Error be so interpreted.
But agitation of the matter is premature till the Lords shall have pronounced final judgment in the case.
Let the law of England be irrevocably established and declared; and then move the legislature, if need be,
to alter or amend the law.

The publishers have been busier during the past
month than for several months preceding, but the books
of any importance that have appeared are not numerous.
Mr. Foss has published a third and fourth volume of
his Judges of England, from the time of the Conquest.
More than two centuries are comprised in this portion
of the proposed series, and it is supposed that the scheme
may be completed in four additional volumes. The
reigns of the first five Edwards, of the fourth, fifth, and
sixth Henries, and of Richard the Second and Third,
supply the present memoirs. Though brief, they are
very carefully executed; the original authorities (for
the most part not easy of access) having in every case
been consulted; and to several new and not unimportant
facts, they add the correction of many old mistakes.
Of other productions in the biographical department,
we may mention a second volume of Mr. Robert
Chambers' new Life and Works of Burns; a Life of
William Allen, a member of the Society of Friends
noted for his scientific tastes and unwearied
philanthropy: and an extremely pleasing Memoir of Bishop
Copleston, by his nephew, in which justice is unpretendingly
done to the character of that wit, scholar, ana divine.

One or two rather important contributions have been
made to recent history in connection with the affairs of
Italy. Mr. W. E. Gladstone has translated and
pubblished the first two volumes of Luigi Carlo Farini's
work upon the Roman State from 1815 to 1850. The
author of this book is an Italian who has taken a
prominent part for some years in the public affairs of his
country. During the brief and ill-fated Roman
Constitution, he was a member of the chamber of deputies;
and he served as one of the ministers of Pio Nono during
his Holiness' "fine frenzy" of shortlived liberalism.
He belongs to what is called the moderate
constitutional party, being as strongly opposed to the
republicanism of Mazzini as to the domination of Austria;
but his present book derives its great value from its
deliberate and unmitigated protest against that old
papal system which French bayonets have so recently
restored, and from its having obtained the approval and
imprimatur of so able and moderate an English statesman
as Mr. Gladstone. A second book on the Italian
struggle is an account of the Italian Volunteers and
Lombard Rifle Brigade, by Emilio Dandolo, a young
and enthusiastic Italian who served in it, who fought
with it through Charles Albert's mournful but not
inglorious campaign, and, taking part in the subsequent
siege of Rome, saw his brother and his dearest friends
perish by his side. These personal incidents give great
interest to the volume, which is otherwise remarkable
for its unaffectedness and candour. The writer is no
politician, and has evidently a very imperfect appreciation
of the merits of the various sections into which the
liberal party is divided. The sum of his political creed
appears to be an ardent resolve to drive out the Austrians.
A third book, connected with the same theme—Mr.
Beldam's Recollections of Scenes and Institutions in
Italy and the East—is little more than a book of travels,
undertaken with strong religious views and a desire to
make personal examination of biblical sites and scenes.

Other books of travel of the month have been upon
the Shores and Islands of the Mediterranean, by the
Rev. Mr. Christmas; upon the principal scenes of the
late Hungarian Civil War, described under the title of
The Goth and the Hun, by Mr. Paton; upon a Voyage
from Leith to Lapland, by Mr. Hurton, presenting
several animated pictures of Scandinavia of a minute
and novel kind; and upon Society in Spain from the
Notes of an Attaché. Mr. Charles Knight's Excursion
Companion takes the more limited range of adventure
comprised by the circuit of our English railways, but
admirably supplies that new want which the pleasure
trains have created. And with these little guide-books
may be mentioned a book upon The Legends and Fly-
flshing of the Erne, by a reverend and most worthy
follower of Walton and Cotton in the dexterous management
of both pen and rod.

Even the departments of Poetry and Science have not
been without some noticeable additions during the past
month. Mr. Babbage has forcibly reiterated his well-
known views of the industry, science, and (in respect to
the ill rewards of both) the government of England, in
a volume on the Exposition of 1851. Doctor Lardner
has published a Hand-book of Natural Philosophy and
Astronomy; to Mr. Wilkinson, the thoughtful biographer
of Swedenborg, we owe a somewhat remarkable volume
on The Human Body and its connexion with Man; and
Mr. Francis Newman has collected into a compact volume
a series of Lectures on Political Economy. The principal
poetical publications have been a ballad-epic on Abd-el-
Kadir, by Lord Maidstone; some gracefully written
Poems by Mr. C. H. Hitchings; A little Book of Songs
and Ballads, gathered from ancient music books, many
of them heretofore unpublished, by Doctor Reimbault;
and a retrospect of the last four years of Italy, under
the title of Casa Guidi Windows, in the eager and
impassioned verse of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

The third performance, by the amateur company of
the Guild of Literature and Art, of Sir Bulwer Lytton's
new comedy, Not so Bad as We Seem, took place on
the 19th, at the Hanover-square Rooms. The price of
admission was ten shillings; and the large hall was
crowded by a distinguished company.

Auber's new opera, L'Enfant Prodigue, has been
produced, in an Italian dress, at Her Majesty's Theatre,
under the title of Il Prodigo. The principal characters
are sustained by Gardoni, Massol, Coletti, Madame
Sontag, and Madame Ugalde. It has been highly
successful.

A new five-act play, called Ingomar, has been
performed at Drury Lane.

The Haymarket has produced two comic operas, taken
from the French: the one, Good Night, Sir, and Pleasant
Dreams, is a version of Grisar's Bon Soir, Monsieur
Pantalon; and the other, The Cadi, of Ambroise
Thomas's Le Caid.

The seventh Philharmonic Concert was on the 9th,
and the eighth (the last of the season) on the 23d inst.
At the last, Herr Pauer, a distinguished pianist from
Vienna, made his appearance.