The Life of BRANT.-This work is making progress toward its full completion. It will appear on or before the first of March. It will be one of the most valuable additions which has ever been made to the history of our country. It is to contain, in connexion with the life of the Great Indian Warrior, a full history of the Indian and Tory War of the Mohawk Valley, and, in fact, of the whole region North and West of Albany. Nor is this all. Joseph Brant was connected with the memorable Indian wars of the North-west, from 1784 to 1795; which were closed by the splendid victory of Wayne, on the Miamis, in which Gen. Solomon Van Rensselaer bore a gallant part. A history of these wars, with the attending negotiations, will consequently be contained in the work of Col. Stone.

We have reason to know that the author has taken unwearied pains in the collection of his materials, and with great success. The massacres of the Mohawk Valley, of the Schoharie Kill, of Cherry Valley and Wyoming, will be given in full; together with many original letters from Brant himself, and various English, Tory, and American officers. In addition to the family papers of the Mohawk Chief, Col. Stone has had the advantage of Gen. Clinton's papers, General Gansevoort's, and many others; and the work will, beyond a doubt, when completed, be a valuable acquisition to American history.

It will comprise two large octavo volumes, and contain several elegantly engraved portraits; one of which will be the portrait of Brant in his younger days, as he appeared at court in London, in 1776, from a portrait for the Earl of Warwick. Another painted by Ames, in 1805. It will also contain a portrait of his son and successor, John Brant, who fought gallantly at Queenstown during the late war, and died of the cholera in 1832. In addition to which, in connexion with the siege of Fort Stanwix, it will contain a likeness of the Revolutionary General Gansevoort, from the portrait by Stuart, now in possession of General Peter Gansevoort; and also a likeness of Red Jacket, a sketch of whose life will conclude the work.

As it is to be issued from the elegant press of Messrs. Scatcherd and Adams, the public may expect a beautifully printed book.

THE WHIG ALMANACK AND POLITICIANS' RECISTER. THIS is a most valuable little manual for Politicians, and for all others who wish to preserve a complete, correct, and well-arranged Register of the important city and state elections during the year 1837. The returns will be given complete up to the first of December; and as a convenient medium of reference, nothing has appeared which gives such full political information. It should be purchased by every true-hearted Whig; for, in giving the true history of the late elections, it shows, by the incontrovertible testimony of figures, the splendid triumphs which have of late attended the cause of Liberty. To inspire confidence in the exact truth of its statements, we need but state that it was prepared by Horace Greeley, Esq., Editor of the New-Yorker. Besides the astronomical calculations and the political statistics, the Almanack is interspersed with laughable hits and good things, selected from the sayings of that wittiest of Editors, Prentice, of the Louisville Journal.

MR. BUCKINGHAM'S LECTURES.-Mr. Buckingham, for several years a member of the British Parliament, has just completed, in New-York, two highly interesting courses of Lectures on Egypt and Palestine. His lectures combine the noblest instructions with agreeable entertainment, and they have been received with favor by large audiences at Clinton Hall, and at the Stuyvesant Institute. They possess a peculiar interest from the fact of the lecturer's having travelled through all the regions described, and been himself a witness of the scenes celebrated in Scriptural History. From his address to the American public, disseminated shortly after his arrival in the country, we extract an epitome of the places through which his journeyings lay :

"A train of events, much too numerous to be narrated in detail, occasioned me, very early in life, to leave my native country, England, and to visit most of the nations of Europe-still more of the interior of Asia-many parts of the continent of Africa-and some parts also of the two Americas. It was after an active life of some twenty years thus devoted, and in which it fell to my lot to traverse, I believe, a larger portion of the earth's surface, and to visit a greater number and variety of countries, than almost any man living of my age, that I settled as a resident in the capital of the British possessions in India, where I remained for several years.

During the voyages and travels that I was permitted to make along the shores of the Mediterranean, amidst the Isles of Greece, in Asia Minor, Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, Persia, and India, I had an opportunity of personally inspecting almost all the remarkable cities and monuments of ancient greatness in the several countries named; including the gigantic pyramids, colossal temples, stately obelisks, majestic statues, and gloomy catacombs and sepulchres, which stud the classic banks of the Nile, from Alexandria and Grand Cairo to the cataracts of Syene; the hoary mountains of Horeb and Sinai, and the Desert of Wandering, across which the children of Israel were led from out of the land of Egypt, to the promised Canaan; the plains of Moab and Ammon, with Mount Pisgali, the valley of Jordan, and the Dead Sea; the ruined cities of Tyre and Sidon; the ports of Joppa, Acre, and Cesarca; the villages of Nazareth and Cana of Galilec; the cities of Sachem, Samaria, and Bethlehem; the mountains of Lebanon, Hermon, Tabor, and Carmel; the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion; the holy city of Jerusalem, with all its sacred localities, from the pools of Siloam and Bethesda, near the brook Kedron, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, to the more touching and endearing spots of the Garden of Gethsemane, the Rock of Calvary, and the Sepulchre in which the body of our Lord was laid.

"While these were the objects of my inspection in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, the Scriptural countries of Syria and Mesopotamia were scarcely less prolifiic in the abundance of the materials which they presented to my view. In the former were the sea-ports of Berytus, Byblus, Tripolis, and Laodicea, with the great interior cities of Antioch on the verdant banks of the Orontes, Aleppo on the plains, and the enchanting cities of Damascus, whose loveliness has been the theme of universal admiration, from the days of Abraham and Eliezer to those of Naaman the Syrian, and the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and from thence to the present hour: while the great Temple of the Sun at Baalbeck, the splendid ruins of Palmyra, the gorgeous monuments of ancient splendor in the Roman settlements of Decapolis, and the still earlier dominions of those who reigned before either Greek or Roman in Bashan and Gilead, and the regions beyond Jordan, added splendor to beauty, and combined all that the traveller or antiquary could desire.

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Mesopotamia, including the ancient empires of Chaldea, Assyria, and Babylonia, into which I passed from Palestine, largely rewarded my researches. In the former, the celebrated city of Ur of the Chaldees received me within its gates, and I passed many days in this ancient birth-place and abode of the patriarch Abraham. The extensive ruins of Nineveh, spread in silent desolation along the banks of the Tigris, and the fallen Babylon, stretching its solitary heaps on either side of the great river Euphrates, were also objects of patient and careful examination; as well as the Oriental capital of the Caliphs, Bagadad the renowned; and the remains of the great Tower of Babel, on the plain of Shinar, of which a considerable portion still exists to attest the arrogance and folly of its builders.

"Media and Persia came next in my wanderings; and there, also, the ruins of the ancient Ecbatana, the tomb of Cyrus at Pasagarda, and the splendid remains of the great Temple at Persepolis, gratified in a high degree the monumental and antiquarian taste; while the populous cities of Kermanshah, Ispahan, and Shiraz, with the lovely valleys of Persian landscapes, amply fed my love of the beautiful and the picturesque.

"In India, as the field was more extended, and the time devoted longer by several years, far more was seen, experienced, and felt It may suffice, however, to say, that all the outlines of that magnificent "Empire of the Sun," from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf on the west, to the Bay of Bengal on the east, were traced by my voyages along its shores; for, after navigating and accurate ly surveying both the seas named, from Suez to Bab-el-mandeb in the one, and from the mouths of the Euphrates to the port of Muscat in the other, I visited Bombay, and all the ports upon the coast of Malabar; from thence to Colombo and Point de Galle in the Island of Ceylon; afterwards anchored at Madras, and entered the ports of Bimlipatam and Vizagapatam, on the coast of Coromandel and Orissa, in the region of the Idol temple of Juggernaut; and ultimately reached the British capital of India, Calcutta, on the banks of the Ganges."

These lectures were extremely popular in many parts of England, and were attended by audiences of considerable numbers and high respectability. We are informed that it is Mr. Buckingham's intention to repeat his valuable discourses in the principal cities of the United States. From the general approbation with which they have been received by the press in "the Commercial Metropolis," we have no doubt that the same courtesies will be extended in "the Literary Emporium," "the City of Brotherly Love," "the Monumental City," and other principal towns, in which he may sojourn on his tour through the different sections of the Union.

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.-James H. Lanman, Esq. of Detroit, proposes to publish a History of Michigan, from its earliest colonization to the present time. He is now, we understand, actively engaged in the preparation of this important work. From an intimate acquaintance with the abilities of this gentleman, we can prospectively recommend his book with great earnestness. The following is an exposition of his plan, furnished by himself to the Detroit Advertiser:

"The magnitude, and growing importance of the State of Michigan, have induced me to undertake the above-named work. For the last eight months I have been engaged, at intervals, in collecting materials for that object. The task has been laborious, as these materials have been scattered around in traditionary mor sels, mouldy pamphlets, and obsolete volumes. Some have existed in rough fragments, some in sculptured masses, and others had not been hewn from the quarry. My single effort has been, to gather these scattered facts, and mould them into a well-proportioned fabric, which shall exhibit the state of Michigan in all its length

and breadth.

"Subjoined are some of the principal reasons which have led to its prosecution. In the first place, no attempt has heretofore been made to set forth the progress and resources of Michigan in a connected and ample form. The sketches which have appeared under the auspices of the Historical Society, proceeding from some of the prominent minds of the state, are all for which they are designed, Frag mentary Discourses, and they could be no otherwise, from the circumstances under which they were prepared. I am aware of no other similar effort. Every man who possesses the least amount of real property in the state has an interest in any enterprise which tends to show its resources; and it is equally true, that a too general ignorance prevails abroad in regard to the actual position of Michigan. The position is such that it need not fear developement. Its amazing growth is unexampled in the history of the continent. Twenty years ago, a few small hamlets constituted the main part of its population. Since that period it has sprung forward upon the field-a powerful state-full armed, like Minerva from the brain of Jove. Nature has lavished her bounties upon its lands and lakes.

Inland seas wash its shores, which, in their aggregate size, are exceeded by no other body of fresh water upon the globe; and they constitute a line of navigable water for Michigan, which would reach nearly half across the Atlantic. The internal strength of the state, springing from its agricultural, commercial, manufacturing and mineral resources; the extent of its domain, and the variety of the soil, connected at the remotest points by numerous rivers, furnishing the means of navigation, extensive hydraulic power, and facilities for the establishment of public works, such as rail-roads and canals, spread out glorious visions of future growth and opulence. Of such a country, its citizens may be justly proud.

Independently of the recent advance of the state, its ante-constitutional history is of marked interest. From the period when James Cartier first trod the shores of New France, the region of country which we inhabit exhibits a strange and wild succession of facts, as connected with the fur-trade, the Indian tribes, and the struggles between the French, the Savages, the British and Americans for the dominion of the country, which deserves a permanent record. "The following will be the plan of the work :

I shall give a general chronological history of New France, within whose limits the settled portion of Michigan was embraced, down to the colonization of Detroit, and thence the progress of the state in a condensed form to the present time. It will contain an account of the early Catholic Missionary Establishments, the Fur Trade, the Indian, French, British and American Wars; the constitutional changes of the State, its growth, the character of the soil in the different sections, the Topography, its Commerce, Population, and General Statistics. In carrying out this enterprise, I seek from the public no countenance in advance, except so far as it will enable me to carry out the work as it should be accomplished; although I shall require all their indulgence. Such enterprizes are discouraging at best, and barren indeed must this be unless supported by public approbation.'

THOMAS GREEN Fessenden.-A valued friend will furnish for our Magazine a biographical sketch of this excellent man; at present it must suffice that we add our own to the general testimony of his worth. He died on Saturday evening, November 11th, of an apopletic fit. His death was sudden, but he had reached old age. His sheaf of years was full, and he was ready for the garnering; for his life was that of a man who knew his duties and performed them well. "He was," says the Boston Daily Advertiser, " a man of most amiable character-of excellent principles, and of extensive information." He was a candidate for election from Boston to the next General Court. Mr. Fessenden is best known to the literary world as the author of a humorous poem, written in the Hudibrastic measure, and entitled--" Terrible Tractoration." A notice of it at length was given in this Magazine, on the appearance of a recent edition in this country. It met with an extensive sale in England. But Mr. Fessenden's chief merit as an author consisted in the valuable additions which he made, from time to time, to the Science of Agriculture. To its cultivation he devoted the mature powers of his mind. He was for many years highly esteemed as the editor of the New England Farmer, and was still engaged in that respectable employment at his death.

DE TOCQUEVILLE'S DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.-George Dearborn and Co. propose to publish this highly valuable work. It should be in the library of every man who is desirous to be acquainted with the most able, clear, and philosophical views ever presented by any foreigner who has visited this country. It is surprising to us, that, while so many trashy works, written by English men and women, have been devoured by the public, no publisher could deem it pru

dent to issue those two excellent books by French authors of celebrity, which have received the universal commendation of English and American Reviews of the highest character. We allude to this of De Tocqueville and that of M. De Chevalier. The former is replete with the most sagacious reflections; and the impressive and entertaining style in which they are conveyed has been felicitously retained by Mr. Reeve in his faithful and elegant translation. We trust that Messrs. Dearborn and Co. may receive such encouragement from the press and from gentlemen of taste as will authorise them in prosecuting their design of publication.

THY LOVE, BY J. N. M‘JILTON.—A piece of verse with this title, which was some time since communicated to this Magazine, and is published this month, has, we perceive, appeared in the Ladies' Companion for November. It is, perhaps, a sufficient excuse for its having been sent to another journal, that, through our neglect, it remained for a long time unacknowledged by this.

OUR NEW VOLUME.-We are happy to assure our friends that our stout barque, THE AMERICAN Monthly, still floats on the top of the wave. We have, of late, taken in new ballast, in the shape of strong, solid, Whig principles, which will keep all steady, and we shall float cheerily along. We have also run up a new banner, that is star-spangled and striped gloriously, and blazoned with the motto "True Liberty." In these bright words there is much significancy. We hold that liberty to be true which guards, not prostrates the Laws; which, while it secures to the people equal rights, also teaches "equal duties;" and which, while it reforms abuses, conserves the institutions established by the wisdom of our fathers. We have also a brave crew on board of our tight vessel, -men cast in the right mould, who have stood and will stand by us through all our voyage. Next month we shall show-to continue our nautical simile,-new rigging throughout; or, to leave metaphor, and subside into sober statement, we shall appear in January in new type, and a more elegant array altogether. The size of the Magazine will also be enlarged, and it will vie in the beauty of its exterior with the most finished English periodical. Neither will its internal improvements be neglected. We have engaged articles of stirring interest and sterling merit, on both political and literary subjects; and we shall most assiduously cater for the various tastes of our many gentle readers. This is our brief "Vale." With many thanks, for the uniform kindness which has attended our efforts, to the gentlemen of the newspaper press, as well as to our immediate friends and supporters, whether readers or contributors, we repent our respectful " Farewell," in the earnest hope that we shall all meet again on the First of January, and heartily wish each other a "Happy New Year."