favorable light, and afford abundant promise of very efficient aid hereafter to the cause of sound learning in our country. The attention which he has paid in particular to metrical matters shows good training, and is extremely encouraging amid the night of clouds which so many American scholars have managed to throw around these topics. What would an Etonian, for instance, say to the seven-footed hexameter of the Boston JUVENAL, or what would he think of some among us who insist that because we have lost, as they maintain, the sounds of the ancient vowels, we have lost along with them the quantities of penults, and that (shade of VIRGIL!) it is a matter of perfect indifference whether we say habēbam or haběbam ?

That Mr. BRISTed's Catullus will become very popular in some quarters admits, we think, of no doubt. That it will be attacked in others is equally clear. As he enjoys, however, the reputation of having completely demolished his former antagonists, any onslaught from them, in the present case, will be regarded by the cognoscenti as rather complimentary than otherwise. But still, since such a state of things will in all likelihood occur, we take the liberty here of anticipating less friendly critics, by pointing out a few blemishes in the notes, which may as well be removed in a future edition of the work. In the introductory note on Carm. 1, there is a misprint of the word 'spondees' for 'trochees:' in the note on ix. 2, Mr. JOHNSON adopts the explanation of MURETUS, which is not only far-fetched, but decidedly unpoetical and wanting in good taste. The reference is simply to number of friends, and millibus trecentis is the dative, not the ablative. Sætabis (p. 21) answers to the modern Alcoy, not to Xativa. In xxII. 11, mutat is not put for mutatur, but is used absolutely. In the dactyl të mi ă, (p. 55,) the long vowel in mi loses one of its two component short vowels, by elision, and retains the other; so that an elision actually takes place. In LXIII. 40, album is not 'quiet,' but 'clear' or 'bright.' The word stipendium (p. 84) always has the initial syllable long; and, on the other hand, profundo (p. 86) has the first syllable uniformly short in LUCRETIUS. The carchesium of an ancient vessel (p. 88) was the part of the mast immediately above the yard, forming a structure resembling a drinking-cup, (whence its name,) into which the mariners ascended in order to obtain a distant view, or to manage the sail, or else to discharge missiles. The cópos úμiredís of Homer (p. 122) denotes a house wanting its lord and master. In such abbreviated forms as vide'n, audï'n, (p. 145,) the vowel in the last syllable is not long, but short. It is long in the full forms, viděsne, audisne. At xI. 1, some account should have been given of the new and more correct mode of reading Greek and Latin Sapphics, (CANNING's Knife-grinder' to the contrary notwithstanding,) which has been lately introduced by Professor KEY, of London University, and the claim to the discovery of which gave rise to the memorable warfare between him and DONALDSON of Cambridge. The remark on page 38, that Synapheia, or continuous scansion, is a law in Glyconic metre, is not correct, and is contradicted in fact by several verses on pages 58, 60 and 61. COOKESLEY's explanation of the Galliambic metre needs revision, and his scale is at variance with his own words, that is, if he has been rightly copied in the American edition. The molossus in the first place must be a spondee, and so also in the fourth place, and the pyrrhic in the third place must be an iambus.

These, however, are little matters, and by no means detract from the general merits of the volume. We do wish, however, that Mr. BRISTED had employed a more careful proof-reader. Errors of the press meet the view on almost every page, and produce not unfrequently strange discord among the sweet numbers of the poet. The

only probable cause that we can assign for this is, that the types of our friends STANFORD AND SWORDS, having been long accustomed to do good service in grave patristic and orthodox theology, felt a little out of their proper element when brought into sudden and unexpected contact with that gay LOTHARIO, the heathenish CATULLUS, although arrayed in modernized and straight-laced habiliments, and that even the staid proof-readers themselves were somewhat shy of taking our bard by the hand. The bibliopoles of Cliff-street would have managed matters much better; for as they have a larger circle of pagan acquaintances, the sight of a heathen would have occasioned no alarm whatever among them, many of their proof-readers being regular dissenters, (the same of course as low-churchmen or pagans,) and therefore on the best possible terms with the queer old fellows of former times.

To conclude, we hail this work with a feeling of sincere pleasure, and consider it highly creditable, as we have already remarked, to the taste and scholarship of both Mr. COOKESLEY and Mr. BRISTED. And when a new edition is called for, which we hope will soon be the case, we would advise Mr. BRISTED to add to the volume some selections from TIBULLUS and PROPERTIUS, especially the former, whose sweet elegiacs are meet companions for the strains of CATULLUS. An edition containing extracts from these three poets, and supplied with a good body of notes, which Mr. BRISTED is so well qualified to give; printed, moreover, from a fount of less refractory high-church types, and having passed the ordeal of proof-readers more Catholic in their feelings toward the poor bards of heathendom, and exhibiting in their typographical movements a more Romanizing tendency, cannot fail to prove a very acceptable contribution to the cause of American literature.

A COMPENDIUM OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. By Dr. JoHN C. L. GIESELER, of Göttingen, Germany. Translated from the German by SAMUEL DAVIDSON, LL. D. In two volumes. pp. 793. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS.

THE present is the fourth edition, revised and amended, of the above-named work. It is described in a well-written prefatory notice, as being marked by peculiar excellencies. The text is very brief and condensed, marking the results at which the learned author has arrived; while the accumulated materials in the notes enable the reader to see at once the basis on which the statements of the text rest. If the student be not convinced of the correctness of the assertions made by the historian, he can easily draw his own conclusion by the help of what is presented to him. The work is characterized by immense research, and by striking impartiality. In the latter respect, indeed, the author has been blamed by some, his spirit of impartiality preventing him from expressing a decided opinion, where it would be desirable to throw the weight of his authority into the side of truth. There is also an air of dryness diffused over the work, inseparable perhaps from its exceeding brevity, but also indicating a deficiency in vivid sketching. The excellencies, however, far outweigh any minor faults that may be supposed to belong to it. Its rigid impartiality is its chief recommendation; and the abundant references and quotations in the notes supply the want of a library such as very few have within their reach. The work in the original consists of several volumes published at different times. The first division of the last volume, containing a portion of the history of the Reformation in different lands, appeared in 1840. In 1844 and 1845 a fourth edition of the first volume was published, one part in each year, greatly improved and enlarged. The translator has adhered closely to the original text; his simple aim having been to give the sense of his author.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

NEW-YORK IN THE OLDEN TIME. Our true KNICKERBOCKER citizens cannot fail to be deeply interested in the perusal of an unpretending but extremely useful and entertaining volume, now lying before us; the 'Manual of the Corporation of the City of New-York for the Year 1849.' The work, like its predecessors, has been compiled by Mr. D. T. VALENTINE, so long the indefatigable and justly popular clerk of the Common Council. Minute and accurate accounts of all receipts and disbursements; all public offices and officers; all municipal departments, specific or collateral; every species of local information, in short, which could be wanted by the citizen or be useful to a stranger; are here brought together and rendered immediately accessible by a clear and simple arrangement and classification. But the charm of the volume to us, consists in its records of the Olden Time in Manahatta; into which we shall at once plunge, without any very special regard to regular collocation of incident. JACOBUS VAN CORTLANDT, in 1698, we suspect was not much of a tory. He was brought before His Excellency, RICHARD EARL OF BELLAMont, and the Mayor and Aldermen, upon two 'severall informations of seditious words uttered and spoke by him: One whereof was at a Comittee of Comon Councell, where it being proposed that a Town-house should be built for the accommodation of the Assembly of the Province, and of the Courts of Justice, and it being debated what part of the Town would be most proper and Comodious for the same to be built in, the said CORTLANDT Excepted against its being built on the upper end of the Broad-street in this City, (which had been agreed to by the Major part of the said Comittee,) saying, that was too high a part of the Town for the Town-house to be built in, for that it would be too much under the awe of the ffort; that an Assembly could have no ffreedom of debate where they were lyable to have the house beat down about their eares from the ffort. Then Mr. Alderman Lewis and Captain BYRANG, one of the Comon Council being called upon by his Lordship, did declare before the said CORTLANDT, that he had sayd the foregoing words in their hearing.' Another accusation was based upon a 'deposition of FFRANCIS WESSELLS, Sworn before the Mayor, which Imported his discouraging the said WESSELLS from giving his Vote for Mr. GRAHAM, the Attorney-Generall at this next Election of Assemblymen, for that the said Mr. GRAHAM would be for settling the revenue in the crown.' Touching all which the said JACOBUS VAN CORTLANDT ' went about to excuse himself by saying that he Thought he might Lawfully oppose the settlement of a Revenue, that this province might be eased of that Burthen as well as its neighbors.'

There was very little satisfaction got out of JACOBUS on that occasion. It is not a very pleasant thing to read accounts of the barbarous punishments visited upon offenders here in the latter part of sixteen hundred' and the early part of 'seventeen hundred.' A ducking-stool stood in 1690, in front of the old City-Hall; and in 1703, a cage, whipping-post, pillory and stocks were erected near the same spot. A windmill stood at that time where Dr. SPRING's Brick Church' has so long reared its shingled steeple ; and not far distant, on The Common,' ('the place where the negroes were burnt some five years before,') a gallows was erected. There was a slave-market at the foot of Wall-street in 1709, at which place all negro and Indian slaves to be let out to hire, or to be sold, took their stand.' Broad-street in 1665, run down to an inlet from the East-River; and we find the citizens petitioning the burgomasters and schepens to decree the erection of a hoist,' by which the yachts, sloops and schooners could be laden and unladen! One can form some idea of 'De Heere-straat,' or Broadway, from the following ordinance, promulged in December, 1697:

'AN ordinance for lighting the streets, afterward generally enforced throughout the city, was put in operation in Broadway: It is resolved as to the regulation of the lights to be put out in the darke time of the moon within this citty, and for the ease of the Inhabitants, that every seaventh house doe every night in the darke time of the moon, until 25 March next, cause a lanthorn and a candle to be hung out on a pole every night. The charge to be defrayed in equal proportion by the inhabitants.'

In 1653, 'in apprehension of an invasion from New-England, the inhabitants threw up an embankment and constructed a line of palisades on the present line of Wallstreet, from which the name of that street is derived.' About this time JAN VINGE complains to the burgomasters that in the erection of this palisade wall, (of posts set six feet apart and sided up with boards) his land was laid open, and his crops exposed to the cattle! In March of the same year the 'General Session of the Councillors' took vigorous warlike measures against the reported approach of the English. Citizens were directed to keep watch by night, the old mud fort was ordered to be repaired, and Captain VISCHER was requested to 'fix his sails, have his piece loaded, and keep his vessel in readiness! Equally vigorous measures were adopted in the war with the Indians in July, 1656. While the brave 'HARD KOPPIG PIET' STUYVESANT, with PAULUS LEENDERIN VANDERGRIST, and other gallant officers, were gone out against the Swedes on the Delaware river, the Tappaan Indians fell upon the hamlets and farms of the Dutch settlements, robbing and firing the tenements, and murdering the inhabitants. Many escaped to the city, and the magistrates, on the twentieth of September, resolved to raise up the palisides to the height of at least ten or twelve feet, to prevent the overloopen, (jumping over) of the savages.' Thereafter, all Indians were forbidden to be admitted with a gun into any fortified place; and they were to be informed of this ordinance in the Indian tongue, and in the most civil manner.' It is pleasant to find, that all the petitions offered for freedom to worship GoD, in various places by different religious sects, (including Quakers,) were at once granted by the Dutch authorities. It was not exactly so 'other-where,' during that and later times on this continent. Public executions must at this period have been sad spectacles to witness. In April, 1712, Tom, the negro man, slave of NICHOLAS ROSEVELT,' having 'nothing to the contrary to say for himself,' it' was considered by the court that he be carried from hence to the place from whence he came, and from thence to the place of Execution, and there to be burned with a slow fire, that he may Continue in Torment for eight or ten hours, and continue burning in the said fire until he be dead and consumed to Ashes.' Soon after, MARS, another negro slave, for that with force of arms in

and upon EPHRAIM PIERSON, that is to say, with clubs, staves and other weapons,did beat, wound with evil intent, so that of his life he did dispair, and of other harms to him did,'was sentenced by the same 'worshipfull courte,' to be stripped from the middle Upward, and tyed to the tail of a cart, at the City-Hall and be drawn from thence to the Broadway in the said city, and from thence to the custom-house, thence to Wall-street, and from thence to the City-Hall again, and that he be whipped upon the naked back ten lashes at the corner of Every street he shall pass, and that he afterward be discharged from his Imprisonment, paying his fees.' Not long after another negro was condemned to 'be hung up in chains, alive, and so to continue without any sustenance, until he be dead.' We wonder if it is generally known, that Buttermilk channel,' which now admits of the safe passage of the largest merchant ships, was formerly a mere creek, fordable at low water, and that the first female born in the ancient colony of New-Amsterdam was ferried over it in a tub?' This is an authentic fact. Judge BENSON, the valued friend of the late PETER VAN SCHAACK, of venerated memory, stated that he well remembered the time when this channel was fordable at low water; that the gradual extension of the wharfs into the East-River, on the New-York and Brooklyn shores, had contracted the river, and the volume of water thus forced through Buttermilk channel had deepened the passage so as to admit at that time of the transit of small craft.'

On the twentieth of August, 1655, P. STUYVESANT issued the following proclamation of a day of fast and supplication, by order of the Honorable Director-General and Supreme Council of New-Netherland:

'WORSHIPFUL, RIGHT BELOVED :

'Considering, on the one hand God's manifold mercies and benefits which in His bounty He hath, from time to time, not only exhibited but also continued to this budding Province; and on the other hand, the resolution and order of the Supreme Authority of this Province adopted and executed for the further benefit and security of this Province: We, the Director-General and Council of this Province have, above all things, deemed it necessary to order and prescribe a General day of Fasting, Prayer and Thanksgiving, which order we hereby send to your Worships according to the form of our Fatherland, to the end that it shall be proclaimed and observed in your Worship's City, Whereunto confiding we are and remain

'Your Worship's good friends,
'The Director General and
'Council of New-Netherland.
'P. STUYVESANT.'

We must close for the present with these extracts. In a subsequent number we may find occasion to present some of the many passages we have marked in the amusing 'Proceedings of the Burgomasters and Schepens,' continued from previous issues of the Manual.' The illustrative views, maps, etc., in the present 'Manual' are capital. One, 'A South Prospect of y, Flourishing City of New-York, in y. Province of New-York, North-America,' published in March, 1746, shows precisely how old Gotham looked at that remote period, with its wooded hills, and vales, and streams, where now stretch interminable streets, teeming with busy life, its fluctuations, and its vast concerns;' another shows a plan of the city from actual survey in 1755; and a third in 1804. There are views of Federal-Hall,' in Wall-street, where WASHINGTON was made First President in 1789, but where is now heard the 'hum of multitudes commercing' in the custom-house; of the old Walton-House,' in Franklin-Square, Pearlstreet, WASHINGTON's head-quarters in town; coming down to our own day, with views of Union-Square, city establishments on RANDALL'S Island, and one of the best and most comprehensive maps of the city in 1849, that we have ever seen; containing, beside the usual boundaries of wards, the fire-districts, the assembly, senatorial, and congressional election-districts, the telegraph-lines, half-mile distances from the CityHall, etc.; embracing the metropolis as high up as Fifty-Third street.