Mr. Headley has already won a popularity by his work on Napoleon and his Marshals, which his present volume will much increase. It doubtless has many inaccuracies, and displays here and there too much of the earthquake and thunderbolt in the style, but the object which the author set before him to obtain he has brilliantly accomplished. This object we take to be, the representation of the most glorious portions of American history in such a style as to impress them vividly on the popular imagination. In reading his book, the old passions burn anew in the veins of the reader, and the old forms start up, as from the tomb, and fight all their battles o’er again. The volume is as entertaining as the most exciting novel, and will convey more real information than many histories. All we have to regret is, that the author does not produce his effects by simpler and subtler means, with a less convulsive strain upon his rhetoric, and less carelessness of minor excellencies. As his books will have a very large circulation, it becomes him to avoid faults of diction, which must exert a bad influence upon public taste. His fiery and picturesque manner would really be even more effective if unaccompanied by his faults of taste; and these faults in so able a writer, must be rather the result of haste than of design or natural defect. We should advise him to look at Alison less, and at Robertson more, and combine simplicity with vividness. * * * * * _Memoirs of the Queens of France. By Mrs. Forbes Bush. Phila.: Carey & Hart. 2 vols. 12mo._ These elegant volumes should have a place on every lady’s table. The authoress has treated those portions of her subject which most require softening, with that cunning delicacy peculiar to a woman’s mind. Most of these queens were associated in their empire over the hearts of their lords, with certain queens, belonging to what Mrs. Slipsop might call “the frail sect,” and the latter were more numerous than the former. Both queens and mistresses had no small share in the government of France, especially after it became an absolute monarchy. Frederick the Great said that the “petticoat government of the 18th century was yet to be written.” Mrs. Forbes has done much to supply this defect in the case of France, for a number of centuries. * * * * * _Hill-Side and Border Sketches: with Legends of the Cheviots and Lammermuir. By W. H. Maxwell. New York: D. Appleton & Co._