The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

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Charles Shirley Brooks was born in Donghty.street,
Mecklenburg-square, in the year 1415. His father is the
eminent architect who built the London Institution,
Dudley Church, the Church Missionary College, &c. ;
and on his mother's side he is connected with the Ferrers
family, of which Laurence Shirley, Earl Ferrers (a noble-
man who had not the good fortune to live in days when
the commission of a crime is held proof that you are
innocent, because irresponsible), was a notorious member.
He was educated at Islington, by the 11ev. J. T. Bennett,
now Sub-Dean of St. Paul's, whose house was opposite
to Charles Lamb's cottage, on the banks of the New
Inver. He was subsequently articled to his relative, Mr.
Charles Sabine, a leading solicitor at Oswestry, in Shrop•
shire.
Shropshire life, with their concomitants of horses, dogs,
guns, and pursuance of sporting and manly exercise did
not materially advance him in the law, they had, at all
events, one good effect, that of providing him with a
stock of health and a most excellent constitution, which
he maintains to the present day.

Having traced the leading incidents in his career,
the writer concludes :

Journalism generally is his calling, and the anonymons
system will, of course, prevent a hundredth part of what
any journalist does from being known ; but any particu•
larly salient hit in the pages of Punch may, with safety,
be ascribed to his pen. An admirable article on the
" House of Commons," published about two years ago,
in the Quartetly Review, proceeded from the same source:
and by his excellent letters to the Calcutta Englishman,
he retrieved the character of " London Correspondents "
hem the disgrace into which they had fallen.
In pursuance of his profession, Mr. Brooks resides in
London; he has been married for some years, and has
children. And while his talent secures for him the ad.
miration of his brother litierateurs, his affability, kind•
heartedness, and great knowledge of the world, render
him a great favourite in general society.
These sketches of "Men of Mark," though con-
taining some details of interest, are lamentably want-
ing in artistic skill, and in that closeness of por-
traiture which alone renders such sketches valuable.
The writer is deficient in knowledge of character,
and seems always to be sketching his friends in a
fog.
The usual monthly number of the National Maga-
zine will be found to contain much light and instruc-
tive reading, and to sustain its high character. It is
incontestably the best cheap serial of the day.
Ot serials we have No. 111. of Davenport Dunn
and No. VII. of Paved with Gold. Both display
great ability, and promise well for the future.

THE BEST MAP OF INDIA yet published has this
week been issued by Mr. Stanford. It is upon a
large scale, but moderate in price. It is a special
map of the revolted provinces, and shows not only
each military station, but the roods and railroads. It
is most useful, and to be highly recommended.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED-SEPT. 3.
BOOKS.

Lives of the Lord Chancellors. By Lord Campbell.
Vol. IX. Murray
__ .

Ethel Churchill; or, the Two Brides. Hodgson
Phrenology made Practical. Sampson Low
Footprint* of Life, and other Poems. By Alsager Hay Hill.
Hall anti Virtue
Daceitee in Excelsis ; or, the Spoliation of Oude by the East
India Company. Taylor
Exelerhall Sermons for the Working Classes. Partridge
The Danube and the Black Sca. By Thomas forester, Esq.
Stanford
The Conquerors of British India. Illustrated. By J. H.
Stocqueler. Routledge
PAMPHLETS.

The Master and Mist; eSea7;4l)cimestic Saroant—Gorern•
ment, Legal, and General Saturday Half Holiday—Summary
of the Case in reference to the London and liorth•lt'estern
Railway—A Lecture on Bodily Exercise.

PERIODICALS.

Fraser's Magazine—Le Follet—The Art-Journal—Casselrs
Art-Treasures Exhibition.

MAP.
Stanford's Special 3fap of the Revolted Districts of India

THE QUEEN'S SPEECH, which we published last
week, was delivered in London on Friday afternoon
at two p.m., Greenwich time, and was transmitted
by the magnetic telegraph so rapidly as to arrive in
Belfast at ten minutes before two—the telegraph
thus beating Old Time by ten minutes. The diti'e•
rence between London and Belfast is twenty-five
minutes ; so that the time actually employed in the
transmission of the speech was fifteen minutes only.

THE FIRST TUBE OF THE ROYAL ALBERT RAIL-
WAY BRIDGE was safely floated across the Tamar on
'Tuesday, at Saltash, in the presence of Mr. Brunel,
Mr. Michael Williams, M.P., and many distinguished
persons.

IS PHOTOGRAPHY A TRADE, is a question at present
under the consideration of the Recorder of Leeds,
before whom a case has been laid by the Leeds
magistrates, charging a photographer with a breach
of the act which forbids any tradesman, artificer,
workman, or labourer from following his calling on a
Sunday. The point is, whether a photographer is an
artificer?