MAJOR RICHARDSON's _Wacousta, or the Prophecy_, is a powerfully written novel, originally printed twenty years ago, and lately republished by Dewitt & Davenport. The descriptions are graphic, and the incidents dramatic, but the plot is in some respects defective. The prophecies which have such influence over the race of De Holdimars should have been pronounced in his infancy, and not only a few days before the terrible results attributed to it; the introduction of the race at Holdimar's execution, is injudicious; and the circumstances under which Wacousta finds Valletort and Clara his auditors not well contrived. But altogether the book is one of the best we have illustrating Indian life. Major Richardson is a British American; his father was an officer in Simcoe's famous regiment; other members of his family held places of distinction in the civil or military service; and he was himself a witness of some of the most remarkable scenes in our frontier military history, and was made a prisoner by the United States troops at the battle of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed--_not_ by Colonel Johnson, very certainly. Major Richardson subsequently served in Spain, and resided several years in Paris, where he wrote _Ecarte_, a very brilliant novel, of which we are soon to have a new edition. A later work from his hand, which we need not name, is more creditable to his abilities than to his taste or discretion; but _Wacousta_ and _Ecarte_ are worthy of the best masters in romantic fiction. * * * * *