DER DEUTSCHE KIRCHENFREUND. Organ für die gemeinsamen Interessen der amerikanish-deutschen Kirchen. Herausgegeben von Philipp Schaff, Professor der Theologie zu Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

This is a monthly publication of high character, and it is a great credit to the German Theological literature of the country. It contains an interesting Address by Neander, on the mission of Güzlaff to China. It was delivered eight days before the death of the great Church historian. There are many other articles of interest. The work is to be had of Rudolph Garrigue, 2 Barclay-street.

THE DOVE AND THE EAGLE. Ticknor, Reed & Fields, Boston.

This is a very clever practical satire upon the hobby-riding propensities of would-bereformers, each of whom imagines that the object which perchance has attracted his feeble attention, is the only existing evil upon the footstool-and that reform, and that only, according to his plan, should henceforth solely occupy mankind. The subject is skillfully treated.

PRINCIPLES OF TOOLOGY: Touching the Structure, Development, Distribution, and Natural Arrangement of the Races of Animals, Living and Extinct, with numerous illustrations. Part I., Comparative Physiology, for the use of Schools and Colleges. By Louis Agassiz, and A. B. Gould. Gould & Lincoln, Boston.

This very valuable work has appeared in a revised edition. The high reputation it has acquired, does justice to the eminent source from which it emanates. Although simple and elementary in its style, it is full in its illustrations and comprehensive in its range: bringing information a half century in advance of all other elementary works on this subject, into the narrow compass proper for its intended object. It is elegantly and cheaply printed.

FOREIGN REMINISCENCES. By Henry Richard Lord Holland; edited by his son, Henry Edward Lord Holland. Harper Brothers.

These exceedingly interesting Reminiscences of Lord Holland are dedicated to Jerome Bonaparte, the only surviving brother of the great Emperor. It contains many new and pleasing anecdotes of that remarkable man. Recent events in France have called forth the publication, and imparted a new interest to it.

Jane Bouverie; or, Prosperity and Adversity. By Catherine Sinclair, author of “Sir Edward Graham," &c. Harper Brothers.

This is a very interesting romance of English life, and of a moral tendency. It is handsomely bound, and published in the neat and very cheap style for which the Mess. Harpers are so justly celebrated.

L'AVENGRO: The Scholar-The Gipsey-The Priest. By George Borrow, author of "The Bible in Spain," &c. G. P. Putnam, 155 Broadway.

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This is certainly a very interesting story, well sustained, and of a racy style, but of a theological cast:-directing its attack against the Church of Rome with much bitterness. Mr. Putnam, it appears, contracted at a high figure," in November, 1848, with Mr. Murray, of London, for an early copy of this work for publication, and has now produced it in his well-known elegant style. The publication has given rise to a controversy between his house and that of Harper Brothers. He alleges, that in violation of the usages of the trade, the Messrs. Harpers obtained an early, but incorrect copy of his reprint, and published a rival cheap edition, which is imperfect. The Messrs. Harper in reply, state their right to reprint, and also as a reason for doing so, that Mr. Putnam has republished their works; which, however, Mr. Putnam denies.

A SCHOOL DICTIONARY OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. By Dr. J. H. Kaltschmidt. In two Parts. 1st. Latin-English. Lee & Blanchard.

This valuable School Dictionary belongs to the classical series edited by Drs. Schmitz and Zumpt, and supplies a great want, viz., a Lexicon within reasonable compass, and at a moderate price.

LOVE AND AMBITION: A Novel. By the author of "Rockingham." H. Long & Brother, 43 Ann-street.

Messrs. Long & Brother have been very successful as the publishers of interesting new novels, in a well-printed and cheap style. The present vol. is of 160 octavo pages.

THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS.

THE brilliant administration of Mr. Polk, with its commanding talents, sound democratic principles, decided action, and vast practical results, heightening the glory, as well as extending the territory of the nation, was succeeded, as if by contrast, by a weak, vacillating executive, of negative powers, a feeble and mercenary cabinet, which compromised the rights of the country in its foreign policy, the peace and integrity of the Union by abolition intrigues in its home policy, and which tarnished the national name by scandalous pecuniary intrigues in its personal policy. Under President Polk the honor of the nation and the government was unclouded, the Union presented an unbroken front-internal resources of men and money equal to any emergency, and a military prowess which sufficed, without a reverse of fortune, in a few months to conquer a peace from a nation of 8,000,000 souls, occupying a supposed inaccessible country. The prosperity and power of the Great Republic astonished the world, and established its claim to the first rank among nations. In an unfortunate hour, however, many democratic southern states were induced to give their suffrages to a successful soldier, without political principles or capacity; and a few months found the powerful republic on the brink of a civil war; despised abroad, for betraying the rights of her citizens and allies in Central America, while honest men blushed at home for the open spoliation of the public treasury, by the persons appointed to guard it. Under such a government no settled principles of national policy could develope themselves. The principle of individual and sectional plunder alone could be discerned, amidst that general rush upon the treasury for which the " Galphin claim" had been the signal. The old land-marks of the two great parties had been disturbed, as in 1820-221, by the adroit introduction of a sectional question, which was used to divide the democratic ranks and give power to federalism. The Thirty-First Congress, elected under such circumstances, has been governed by two elements. The party in power struggled fiercely to carry out that spoils principle, for which it has ever been distinguished, and the expenditures of the government have swollen to an amount never before reached, either in peace or VOL. XXVIII.-NO. 4.

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war. The new element of discord, which had divided the democratic party, sought to ally itself to the government which it had helped to elect, and by so doing to consolidate a national party, on the ground of opposition to interests guaranteed by the Constitution. It is a remarkable fact, that the executive, himself a southerner, identified personally with the institutions of that region, should have entered into correspondence with that northern faction which had elected him, by deserting the northern friends of the South. Under this alliance the new northern party daily gained strength and importance. Gen. Taylor was the first southern man who bid for re-election, by courting the northern opponents of southern institutions. The course of affairs, which had been called "southern dictation," and which it was the avowed purpose of Van Burenism to "break up," was, through the policy of Gen. Taylor, rapidly becoming northern dictation. The desperate means used by the northern demagogues, consisted in direct attacks upon sectional rights under the Constitution, and in open and shameless disregard of the obligations imposed by that instrument. The dangers incurred by the nation, through the exercise of these means of agitation, in the hands of men who had no pretensions to integrity, were too manifestly great, and the patriots of all parties rallied to the support of the Union. The struggle between the party of the Union and the desperate northern faction, which was fiercely contending for a permanent position, was severe, and the result doubtful. The South were losing ground, and northern fanatics becoming daily more audacious. The power of the Executive was thrown into the scale of the disunionists, who seemed to be on the eve of triumph, at the moment when Providence interfered, and removed the Chief Magistrate by death.

The accession of Mr. Fillmore to the Presidential chair, with a new, and, in some cases, better cabinet, turned the scale in favor of the Union, and against freesoilism, which, with the agitation it had created, gradually subsided, permitting the old parties in some degree to resume their former relative positions. Gradually the fabric reared by Van Buren-Sewardism was dismantled, and the position abandoned. The old party issues began once more to marshal their respective partisans, and to restore order out of the confusion which had followed unwonted success on one side, and betrayal and defeat on the other. In this state of affairs, we discover the causes which finally defeated most of those federal measures, which the dominant party had hoped to carry, during the disarray of the party of the people. There remains, however, as a general result, a considerable increase of federal power and patronage. The expenditure has become immense, and the construction of the powers of the govern ment in their exercise more loose, while circumstances are developing a power contained in the Constitution, and which has hitherto lain dormant. We allude to the application of the penalties for treason to those who organize forcible resistance to a Congressional law. A strong government would undoubtedly promptly apply that provision of the Constitution to those found in arms against it, not on an isolated occasion, but as part of permanent organization to resist its authority. The government is becoming stronger through the course of events, and nothing is more likely to consolidate its power than to give occasion for its exercise. Federalism has thus gained largely by the defeat of Gen. Cass at the election of 1848, and it will cost the democracy many a long and dreary year of