The Council of the Shakspeare Society have received a very welcome and unexpected present, in the shape of a translation of Shakspeare, in twelve volumes 8vo., into Swedish verse. This laborious work has been accomplished by Professor Hagberg, of the University of Lund, and it was transmitted through the Swedish Minister resident in London.
A Signor Antonio Caccia, an Italian exile, sends from the freer press of Leipzig, a book of practical and philosophic travel: Europa ed America. Scene della Vita dal 1848 al 1850 (“Europe and America, Scenes from Life in both hemispheres during the years 1848-50”), which contains, besides a notice of California, a good many useful hints to travelers.
The librarian of the Emperor of Russia has purchased, for the Imperial Library, a complete collection of all the pamphlets, placards, caricatures, songs, &c, published at Berlin during the revolutionary movement of 1848.
Dr. Smith, bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong, has sent to the library of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a Chinese work On the Geography and History of Foreign Nations, by Seu-ke-yu, Governor of the province of Fokeen. Seu-ke-yu is a man of high official station, a distinguished scholar, and very liberal in his views. He commences the geographical part of his book with a statement of the spherical form of the earth, as opposed to the universal belief in China of its being a vast level area, of which the Celestial Empire occupies the central and most considerable part. Numerous maps illustrate the text, being tolerably correct copies from European atlases, the names given in Chinese characters. The work is in six volumes, very well printed, and instead of binding, each part is contained in a wooden case, ingeniously folding, and fastened with ivory pins.
When the department of the Ministry of Public Instruction was created some four or five years ago in Constantinople, it became apparent that there existed a great desideratum of Moslem civilization, necessary to be supplied as soon as possible—a Turkish Vocabulary and a Turkish Grammar compiled according to the high development of philology. The Grammar has now been published; being compiled by Fuad Effendi, mustesher of the Grand Vizier, a man known for his high attainments—assisted by Ahmed Djesvid Effendi, another member of the Council of Instruction. The work has been printed at Constantinople, and translations will be made into several languages: the French edition being now in preparation by two gentlemen belonging to the Foreign Office of the Sublime Porte, who have obtained a privilege of ten years for its sale.