... TWO SETS OF E TCHINGS.-, YW.n have more than once had occasion to call attention to evidences of the progress of the art of etching among artists and amateurs in this country. Last summer one of the most characteristic sets of plates ever done in ?? was published, and ought to have received earlier notice at our hands-we mean the long-promised and long-talked-of series by Mr. James Whistler, ...

... VICZ3RGAL COVUR T. Their Excellencies the Lord Lieutenant and the Countess Spender, accompanied by the Countess ]Dowager Spencer, and attended by Major Stirling, were present on Friday at the Christmas exhibition t'f the Queen's Institute. The Earl of Leitrin and suite have arrived at the Bilton Hotel, Dublin. The funemal of thve Late Lorde 3Ellenbo=94s took place at Oxenton, on Friday. ...

... TJlE VICEIEEGNAL COURT. Their Excellencies the Lord Lieutenant and the Coan- tess Spencer, accompanied by the Countess Dowager 8penrcr, the Ladics Sarah and Victoria Spencer, the Eon. ?? Spencer, Viscoimtess Clifden, and Lord and Lady Chales Bruce, and attended by Major Stirlingand lr. C. Boyle, were present at Divine service at the CLtapcl Boyal yesterday morning. The service ivxs read and ...

... The Old Year paled and sicken'd-let it go! We know its bost and wYorst. 'Twas swathed in rai. And spent its infancy in stolin and snow- Apt prelude to the woe and suffering That fell in after days-and then it died, Beneath the freezing stare of wintry stars, Wben it was poor and old. There was a hope That some mysterious gcod might be enclosed 'Within its prodigal and affluent hand; But now we ...

... LITERA TURB. . RBpoatT OiN SPIrrruLSIM, OF THE COMMISME a! _ ow OF tE LONDON D5ALEMCAL SoWTY$, TO- GETNEB WITH TUZ EVIDENcE, ORAL ArD I FT WRrTrEN, AND A. SiLSMON1 ROM van k4 _ ConnRwoNiPEN= London: Longgmans, Green, ?? B eader & Dyer. . Tmns Report may be regarded as both a fahilre I aT snd a success. It is a failure, because it' does 0 _ not sucoeedein proving the truth of Spiritualism, o ...

... CURIOJS EPITAPHS.-No. II. (Ro'o A CORRZSPONDbENT.) 1. In St Dunstan's Churchyard, Stepney, Lon- don- Here lies the body of Daniel Satl, Spittaiflelds Weaver-and that's all. 2. In Chester Cathedral Grafeyard, on a woman named Catherine Gray, who had kept a potter's shop in the town- Beneath this stone Iles the old Catherine Gray, Changed from a busy life to lifeless clay By earth and clay she ...

... CURRENT LITERATUBE. - - I Count Beugnot's Life and Adventures, ,rnslated by Miss Charlotte M. Yonge (London: ;,:urst and Blackett, two vols.), are full of interest, dealing as they do with the interior ,of a historical period of the gravest moment, 'and giving us pictures by an eye-witness of scenes and personages whose real characters *Have been rather bidden than exposed through ,the pens ...

... FASHIONS FOR JANUARY. (Frown Le Esl/et.) La mode is, we have much pleasare in saying, pir- sistently following its new course, leading quietly but surely to the substitution of a recherche and refined eleganc, for the confusion of styles and colours prevalent only a few months ago, and even then never adopted by the Parisian grands dame pur sang. The colours for evening wear are as brilliant ...

... THrE CO UR T THEA TRE. WHEN but some ten of its twenty monthly numbers had been issued, the story cf Nicholas Nickleby was roughly hewn into a dramatic form, and. hurried on to the stage of the old Adelphi Theatre. How greatly this kidnapping and mutilation of his book vexed the author we have recently gathered from Mr. Forster's Life ; but indeed before NNickleby was completed, in the ...

... kTnBRENOLOGY, AND HOW TO UsE IT IN ANALYSIN k- CaARAcTar. By Nicholas Morgan. IlllPi I trated with numerous Portraits and ?? i Engravings, London: Longmans, Q>een:'& Co. ?? IMR MORGAN informs us that the objecoV6 this itreatise is to promote the advancement of the cisence of phrenology, and to draw attention to dit-lsef alness in ainaly singchnracter'S .Whether- I akiind -~hais not yet ...

... HALF A DOZEN DAUGZTERS. * THIS story belongs to the placid school of fiction, and recalls in many of its peculiarities of construction and style the novels of Miss Austen. The author owes nothing to those current successes in romantic literature which, as fast as they are achieved, generate and develop a tribe of unhealthy imitators, who base their claims to attention upon the circumstance ...

... 2WB BE0018 OF 1871. V (Prose the Aabliahen ra'uiosar.)' We. have prepared for our readers in tWi, the last number of the year our analysis of the books of 1871, made up to the end of VIecomber. Figures are such ex- cellent arguments and good correctives of the popular in. lijuation to theorise, ?? we do not hesitate to recoin- mend theiroclosest aplication, esecially to thosevwho are engaged ...