The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-19
NEW BOOKS.

The ATTORNEY; Or The CORRESPONDENCE CT JONI
QuoD. By JOHN T IRVING tnephew Of Washington
Irving)
The title-page Of this volume, asserting the reIa-
tonship of lis writer to the author of the "Sketch
Book" indicates, perhaps, as well as could be done
in as few words, its literary rank. "John Quod'' .
is certainly no son, but may be nephew of Laun-
celot Langstatfe, and his book is not so much
plagiarism as the fruit of obvious suggestion Had
Washington Irving written theology Mr. John T.
Irving would have published a tract or had the
uncle invented locomotive, the nephew would most
probably have patented wheelbarrew. Had the
one written nothing at all it is pretty certain that
1t would never have occurred to the other to write
Mr. John 7. Irving seems to possess just the amount
OF cleyerness which, with the requi,ite education
and inducement, would lead him to undertake a
commercial or literary enterprise, with equal rea-
diness and chances of success. lie has manifesly
none of the troublesome quality called genius,
which compes its possessor to walk in one path,
let it lead where it may. This is no alsh udg-
ment. The volume before US justifes no other. 1t
is a choice specimen Of the conventional in every
part and detail. There is not a novel idea or
character or scene or situation or dcnOHement in
the whole book. The principal character is the
perfectly familiar ard conventional "attorney" of
a bad type. His office is conventional. He has
two confederate villains, perfectly conventional
one o! these has wife, young, pretty, loving,
abused, onsumptive-thoroughly conventional
Then there is conventional attorney (good type)
on the other side, with conventional Judge, wit
nesses, trial and result. There are conventional
rookeres, conventional restaurants billiard,roong
markers, news boys aud policemen. To these must
be added the inevitable conventional humorst-
the rotund, bustling, fresh-colored old bachelor,
who goes about swearing and doing good. The
most original character Of all is the bulldog ''Bit-
ters, yet even he, fear, is also but convention
Equally trie and commonplace is the machinery
What are the introduction, the biographical
sketch of Mr.. Quod, and the correspondence livery
unnecessarily introduced in the course of the work)
but most threadbare conyentionalisms Take the
very first sentence:
"one fine afternoon in the month of October in stroll
ling short distance out of the city fell in with tall
elderly man, clad an a suit Of rusty tlack.n
Are Mr.. James three cavaliers, "who mieht have
been SEEM" &C., &c, at all conventional than
the tall, elderly man in rusty black? Lastly, all
the characters speak so precisely what is set down
for most people in such circumstances, that we
perceive the entire dialogue is committed to memo
ry and spouted by rote. With all this The Attor-
ney may be pleasantly read. 1t is a game of chess,
and powers of the pieces, yet allow ourselves to be
interested by the new combinations 1t is not with
Difference to the publishers, well gotten up book,
but fpongy, clumsy affair, which does them no
| credit.
| From D. Appleton & Co. New York:
| BRYANT & STRATToN's COMMERCIAL LAW FOR BUSINESS
| MEN. including Merchants, Farmers, Mechanics &C.
and Book of Reference for the Legal Profession aaptcd
all the States of the Union To be used as feyt
| SclOOlS Coli
| large variety of practical FORMS commonly
required in business transactions By AMOS DEAN, L.
Il d., Professor of Law in the Law Department OF the
! University Of Albany. New York D. Appleton &
| Co. 1861
This is an excellent Students book and business
mans cade mecHm, prepared with great deal of
care, and likely to be both popular and useful. AS
general rule, books which are written to make
every man his own lawyer, generally result in
| making many the clients of other people. We
| cannot warrant that the labors of Messrs BRYANT,
| Stratton and Dean, will differ altogether in this
| particular, from other works of the same class,
but we can testify, after pretty careful examina-
| ton, that those gentlemen have presented the
| matter OF their treatise in excellent shape and
order, with full references to more recent (especi-
| ally the New York;, commercial decisions, and
with due regard to simplicity and brevity of state
ment. Professional students will find considerable
the
work is dedicated, by the series of analytical
| questions appended to each division of the text
The work is for sale by GIr. G. H. Herman, 200
Baltimore street.
From Ticknor & Fields, Boston:
ELSIE YEYYER, 4 ROMANCE OF DESTINY. Ry OLIVER
WENDELL HOLMES. For sale by James S. Waters:
This wild and curious tale, from the pen of an
author who has a high place in American litera
ture, has already been freely commented upon by
the journals OF the day. All grant to it great mer-
1t in the brliancy of its graphic sketches of vii
age specialites and the trenchant keenness of its
analyses OF the idiosyncracics of character But
there is great difference Of opinion as to the force
Oh It's specuIations on physiology and ethics, as
TO its peculiar views on religion. OF these, we
leave the reader to judge. Few who take up the
DOCK can fail to be interested in the suggestive doc
trlne OF hereditary influences, which is the very
| Keynote of the story
| From Brown d Taggard, Boston:
InE NoRKs OF FRANCIS BACON, vols. Is and IL For
| sale by James s. Waters.
These two additional volumes, which We re-
| ceIved some time since, will elicit anew from the
| press and public, the words of COMMUNICATION
which have been so cordially bestowed upon the
publishers, on the appearance of the earlier vol
| umes of this beautiful edition.
From Rudd & Carleton, New York
FILTRATION, AND WHAT COMES OF IT. A comedy in five
acts. BY FRANK B. GOODRICH.
From 7. B. Peterson & Bros, Philadelphia:
| SECESSION, COERCION, CIVIL Wharf.-The Story of
| 1861. For sale by Henry Taylor, Sun Building
None of the terms OF condemnation or contempt
which have been freely avished on "Secession''
as fact, are too strong to be applied to "seces-
sion" as work of fiction. We, however. content
ourselves with saying that the book is a very silly
one, and we are pretty confident that our readers
will not be apt to dispute the point with US.
| From the same:
FATHER Tom AND THE POPE
This wonderfully clever little extravaganza has
been too well known to the public for some twenty
years past to need fresh recommendation now. The
present reprint is all that can be desired and is
sent free of postage to any one, on renting %
cents to /. b. Peterson Bros, Philadelphia.
PRESENTATION NrC.