the Phoenician
character upon the island, and seems to have no affinity either with that
or with the Assyrian, which is discovered to have been once used there.
The work of M. de Luynes will open a new problem for the philologists. It
will be difficult to decipher the inscriptions and language, unless there
can be found somewhere an ancient Cyprian inscription, with a translation
in some known tongue; but in a time which has read the riddles of the
pyramids, nothing of this sort is to be despaired of. M. de Luynes is the
last of the great French nobles who makes a worthy use of his riches.

* * * * *

SIR ROBERT PEEL left full and specific directions in his will for the
early publication of his political memoirs; and ordered that the profits
arising from the publication shall be given to some public institution
for the education of the working-classes. He believed his manuscripts and
correspondence to be of great value, as showing the characters of the
great men of his age; and directed that his correspondence with the Queen
and Prince Albert shall not be published during their lives without their
express consent. He confided the task of preparing these memoirs to Lord
Mahon and Mr. Cardwell. Their duty will, however, be comparatively light,
though delicate, from the admirable and orderly state in which he left
his papers.

* * * * *

MR. JOHN P. BROWN, author of "The Turkish Nights Entertainments,"
recently published by Putnam, is now on a visit to this country as the
Secretary of the Commissioner of the Sublime Porte, Captain Ammin Bey.

* * * * *

EUGENE SUE'S new romance "The Mysteries of the People," has been
prohibited in Prussia.

* * * * *

M. BURNET DE PESLE has just published the first part of his _Examen
Critique de la Succession des Dynasties Egyptiennes_, a work to which
competent critics assign a high value. He follows the method of
Champollion, rejecting hypotheses and admitting only the testimony of the
historians and monuments. At the same time he treats his subject with
independence and originality, though he advances nothing for the sake of
novelty. The second part of the work will be devoted to the discussion of
the ancient inscriptions, dynasty by dynasty, and reign by reign.

* * * * *

WASHINGTON IRVING is claimed by the English as by