Mr. Spedding proposes, in the forthcoming volumes of the Occasional Works of Lord Bacon, to connect his speeches and letters with an explanatory narrative,—­thus presenting, he says, “a biography the most copious, the most minute, and, by the very necessity of the case, the fairest that I can produce.”  He promises “new matter which is neither little nor unimportant; but,” he adds, “more important than the new matter is the new aspect which (if I may judge of other minds by my own) will be imparted to the old matter by this manner of setting it forth.”  We await this part of Mr. Spedding’s work with especial interest, for in it will unquestionably be afforded, for the first time, the means of forming a correct judgment of Bacon’s character, and just conclusions concerning those public actions of his which have hitherto stood in perplexing contradiction to his avowed principles, to the nobility of his views, to his religious professions, to the reverential love with which he was regarded by those who knew him best.  It is not to be hoped that his life can be redeemed from stain; but it may be hoped that a true presentation of the grounds and bearings of his actions may relieve him from the name of “meanest of mankind,” and may show that his faults were rather those of his time than of his nature.  We shall keep our readers informed of the progress of this invaluable edition, which should lead to the more faithful and general study of the works of him whom “all that were great and good loved and honored.”

A New History of the Conquest of Mexico. In which Las Casas’ Denunciations of the Popular Historians of that War are fully vindicated.  By ROBERT ANDERSON WILSON, Counsellor at Law; Author of “Mexico and its Religion,” etc.  Philadelphia:  James Challen & Son.  Boston:  Crosby, Nichols, & Co.

Before touching on the subject-matter of this book, we have something to say respecting the spirit in which it appears to have been written, the style of its execution, and the manner in which it has been introduced to the world.  As it is avowedly an attempt to refute the positions taken up by Mr. Prescott in his “History of the Conquest of Mexico,” and to destroy the established reputation of that work, we are naturally led into a comparison between the two writers, that extends beyond the theories and ideas which they have respectively adopted and maintained.  We cannot but remember, (and such remembrances awaken now other feelings besides mere respect and admiration,) that, when Prescott was entering upon his literary career, he labored in silence and retirement; that, in the prosecution of his researches, in the gradual formation of his views, and in the preparation of his work, he spared no labor and made no account of time; that, devoting himself to his chosen pursuit with the ardor of a scholar and a searcher after truth, he felt a modest self-reliance, and a just confidence in the utility of his labors, without