A German critic, who of course belongs to the conservative party, writing under date of June 16, says of Miss HELEN WEBER, the inventor of the hybrid costume which _Punch_ satirizes as an _American_ absurdity, that "except in a certain disregard of public decencies there is nothing by which to distinguish her from the mass of vulgar women of the middling classes; she is about thirty-five years of age, and appears to be willing to do or say any thing that may be required for the attraction of observation; from her writings, throw out what is stolen or compiled, and there is nothing left to evince even a mediocrity of talent." This is less favorable than an account we published in an early number of the _International_ (vol. i. 463), but it may be quite as just. * * * * * When Professor ZAHN sojourned in Naples, he took an active part in the excavations of Pompeii--studies which eventually led to the publication of his meritorious work on this subject. At the same time he faithfully reported the progress of these operations to old Goethe. The poet's replies to these communications on the ancient paintings of Pompeii, its theatres, and other buildings, were replete with those sparks of genius he exhibited on every occasion. This rather voluminous correspondence, long laid up at Naples, has been lately discovered, and will be published by Professor Zahn. * * * * * _Geschichte der Deutschen Stadte und des Deutschen Burgerthums_ (History of the Cities of Germany, and of German Citizenship), by F. W. BARTHOLD, is the first of a series of painstaking and exhausting books of German historical materiel, in course of publication by Weizel, of Leipsic. The style of treatment resembles that adopted in _The Pictorial History of England_, which will make the work easy of reference. * * * * * DR. CORNILL publishes a dissertation upon Louis Feuerbach and his position toward the religion and philosophy of the present time. The author finds in every thing the famous professor does a farther religious development. But it is very doubtful if Feurbach has advanced at all since his memorable essay in the Halle _Book of the Year_, upon the relation of philosophy to theology. Since then he has only varied this theme, and his last work, upon the transcendental thesis _Man is what he eats_, in which the worthy Professor with Teutonic energy seeks to seduce the immorality of the age from the potato disease, the German critics declare to be totally devoid of that bold and thoughtful spirit which formerly fought so well for the emancipation of the understanding from its long scholastic thraldom. * * * * *