THE POEMS OF GRAY, in an edition of singular typographical and pictorial beauty, are to be issued as one of the autumn gift-books by Henry C. Baird, of Philadelphia.  They are to be edited by the tasteful and judicious critic, Professor Henry Reed, of the University of Pennsylvania, to whom we were indebted for the best edition of Wordsworth that appeared during the life of that poet.  We have looked over Professor Reed’s life of Gray, and have seen proofs of the admirable engravings with which the work will be embellished.  It will be dedicated to our American Moxon, JAMES T. FIELDS, as a souvenir. we presume, of a visit to the grave of the bard, which the two young booksellers made together during a recent tour in Europe.  Mr. Baird and Mr. Fields are of the small company of publishers, who, if it please them, can write their own books.  They have both given pleasant evidence of abilities in this way.

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BURNS.—­It appears from the Scotch papers that the house in Burns-street, Dumfries, in which the bard of “Tam o’Shanter” and his wife “bonnie Jean,” lived and died, is about to come into the market by way of public auction.

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“EUROPE, PAST AND PRESENT:”  A comprehensive manual of European Geography and History, derived from official and authentic sources, and comprising not only an accurate geographical and statistical description, but also a faithful and interesting history of all European States; to which is appended a copious and carefully arranged index, by Francis H. Ungewitter, LL.D.,—­is a volume of some six hundred pages, just published by Mr. Putnam.  It has been prepared with much well-directed labor, and will be found a valuable and comprehensive manual of reference upon all questions relating to the history, geographical position, and general statistics of the several States of Europe.

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M. LIBRI, of whose conviction at Paris (par contumace, that is, in default of appearance), of stealing books from public libraries, we have given some account in The International, is warmly and it appears to us successfully defended in the Athenaeum, in which it is alleged that there was not a particle of legal evidence against him.  M. Libri is, and was at the time of the appearance of the accusation against him, a political exile in England.

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MAJOR RAWLINSON, F.R.S., has published a “Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylon and Assyria,” including readings of the inscriptions on the Nimroud Obelisk, discovered by Mr. Layard, and a brief notice of the ancient kings of Nineveh and Babylon.  It was read before the Royal Asiatic Society.

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REV.  DR. WISEMAN, author of the admirable work on the Connection between Science and Religion, is to proceed to Rome toward the close of the present month to receive the hat of a cardinal.  It is many years since any English Roman Catholic, resident in England, attained this honor.