the loadstone or sailing-stone. Mr. Hallam, whom Mr. Lindsay also quotes, has fallen into the analogous error of confounding the "marinière" with the mariner's compass. The "marinière," which is commemorated

by French poets of the twelfth century, and which was familiarly termed "la grenouille (the frog) by French mariners, was a needle of magnetised iron floating in water on a card or on a cork, which was only serviceable in a smooth sea. This was, no doubt, in general use before the time of Flavius Goja, of Amalfi, but it was a very different

instrument from the needle mounted on a pivot fixed in a box (pyxis nautica), the invention of which has been attributed to

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Goja, and whose claim has been persistently maintained by his native city bearing the emblem of a boxed compass on her civic banner. It would be an interesting subject of investigation for Mr. Lindsay - and we believe there are ample materials for such an enquiry to trace the successive stages of invention by which the mariner's compass has been brought to its present state of perfection; for the "complete mariner's card," or "la Rose," as it is termed by French sailors, with its lily denoting the north, its cross denoting the east, and its double-headed eagle denoting the west, belongs probably to a period subsequent to the accession of the Emperor Charles V. to the Spanish throne, and the invention of the gimbals" has been stated by Montuccia to be claimed for the English. Further, Mr. Lindsay would only fulfil the promise held out by him in the Introduction to his work, if he would in one of his forthcoming volumes detail the stages, by which astronomical science has supplied the mariner with lunars and other methods of finding the longitude. We have searched in vain also for some account of the invention of the hanging rudder, with its pintles and gudgeons, as the vessels represented on the corporate seals of the maritime towns, of which Mr. Lindsay has given illustrations, are either without rudders or exhibit, if we mistake not, the steering-oar or Latin rudder. It may be matter of doubt whether the modern rudder with its pintles and gudgeons was a Flemish or an English invention, as the earliest corporate seal on which such a rudder is engraved is a seal of the town of Damme, in Flanders, which is appended to a charter of A.D. 1328, while the earliest coins on which it is found are the gold nobles struck by Edward III. after the memorable sea-fight of the Swyn. Our space compels us to pause on the threshold of the discovery of the New World, which is narrated by Mr. Lindsay in the two last chapters of his first volume. Mr. Lindsay has done full justice to the noble character of Columbus, and to the generous heart of his faithful patroness, Isabella of Castile; and we take leave with regret of his instructive work at the moment when the history of Ancient Commerce enters on a new phase.

TRAVERS TWISS.

AMONG recent Spanish publications is a translation direct from the Sanskrit of Kalidasa's drama of Vikramorvasi, by Don Francisco Garcia Aynso, whose essays on Indo-European Philology will be familiar to he readers of the Revista de Еврана.

Travels in South America, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. By Paul Marcoy. (London: Blackie & Son, 1875.)

THE translation of the "Voyage de Paul Marcoy" appears to have met with considerable favour at the hands of the English reading public, the present being the second edition, and the "Opinions of the Press," as recommendatory in an unusually high degree. corded on a fly-leaf to the first volume, being Even in its abridged form the work comprises two quarto volumes of some 500 pages each; illustrated by 525 engravings on wood, and ten maps. On a careful perusal of the book and comparison with other contemporary works relating to the same regions, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that its success must be due almost trations; the text surely cannot have been solely to the profusion of its pictorial illusread by any of the public critics who have spoken of it in such glowing terms of praise. The first defect which strikes us is the lack meate the whole narrative. No dates are of precision and air of unreality that pergiven; we have a statement prior to starting to the effect that it was then 66

one fine

morning in the month of July," but no year is mentioned, not even for the commencement or end of the journey, and local descriptions and important incidents are so disguised that it is not without some difficulty that the period can be fixed. Undoubtedly, the style is lively; but the liveliness and dash of the writer are employed for hundreds of pages on nothing but the most insignificant details. Performing a journey of great length and risk across the South American continent at its broadest part, across snowy Andes, through picturesque defiles, and along the fertile equatorial plains, his shallow jauntiness is never subdued, and his remarks concerning the sublimest scenes are always destitute of earnest feeling. Scores of pages of, the narrative are occupied with the record of frivolous dialogues, of which the following is an example:

"There are rats here,' I cried.
"Impossible!' said Nor Medina.

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said one of the women. Monsieur has taken the guinea-pigs for rats,'

"Has a guinea-pig got a tail?' I asked.

"Well, no;' said Nor Medina; but even supposing they were rats,' he added, 'the noise you made has so frightened them, that it is a hundred to one they will not return to-night.'" And so on ad nauseam.

We do certainly find in the chapters devoted to the Peruvian portion of the journey plenty of descriptive and historical matter relating to the Incas and Inca civilisation; a great part of this has been necessarily compiled from other and more original works; but it is very readable, and so far has its merit. The numerous illustrations of Inca remains give an air of solidity to this part of the work. But we are warned against accepting without confirmation any new matter introduced by the author relating either to the history or the geography of Peru, when we meet with criticisms like the following, from a traveller of solid reputation (Professor Raimondy), who has since gone over some of the same ground. In his paper on the " 'Rivers San Gavan and Ayapata,' in the 37th volume of the Journal of the

Royal Geographical Society, p. 118, this eminent savant, who is Government Surveyor of Peru, has occasion to remark:

"In a work published in Paris in 1861, Scènes et Paysages dans les Andes, the author, who signs himself Paul Marcoy, gives an account of an expedition he made by the quebrada of Marcapata in search of the town of San Gavan, and says that the river Ollachea unites with that of Marcapata ; personally seen the junction of the river Gavan which is absolutely false, for I have followed and and the Inambari."

He adds in a note, "Marcoy's work contains many other inaccuracies, and should be looked upon as the product of a vivid imagination rather than as a truthful composition;" and further on (p. 130), he exposes

a fictitious statement in the same work on a question of Peruvian history.

difficulty that the date of these remarkable travels can be fixed. The only clue to this

We have said that it is not without some

we have been able to find is the mention of Padre Plaza, the famous missionary patriarch of Sarayacu, on the Ucayali, and of the circumstance that the author in his journey down this great river travelled in the company of a French scientific expedition. Now, as Padre Plaza died in 1848, and the only French expedition in these regions during his time was that of Count de Castelnau in 1846, there is prima facie reason for supposing this to be the year of our traveller's descent of the river. A further examination establishes this date conclusively. In Paul Marcoy's narrative the Count is, in fact, introduced and abominably satirised, under the pseudonym of the Duke de la Blanche Epine, and the objects of the expedition are throughout ridiculed in the most childish manner, although it was one carried out with rare courage and devotion, and fruitful in results in almost all branches of science, as proved by the noble series of volumes of its Report subsequently published. Turning to the narrative of this expedition in the hope of finding some means of identifying our unsatisfactory artisttraveller, we find, it is true, no "Paul Marcoy," but a certain "Monsieur de SaintCricq mentioned, a dessinateur," whom Count Castelnau picked up at the identical village on the upper waters of the Ucayali where "Paul Marcoy" describes his meeting with the "Duc de la Blanche Epine." Very little is said by the Count about this gentleman. He was asked by his host in the village to allow him to accompany the expedition down the river, and the request was granted: "la position pénible dans laquelle il se trouvait me fit consentir" are the words used. The ingratitude of the artist is the more to be wondered at when we learn that during the perilous voyage the life of M. de Saint-Cricq was saved, on the upsetting of a canoe in the rapids, by M. Deville, a member of the expedition. was finally left behind, at his own request, at Sarayacu.

He

The comparatively remote and concealed date of Paul Marcoy's travels would not, of course, detract from the value of his descriptions and delineations of scenery and people, were there not other grounds for suspecting the trustworthiness of the author. The countries he traversed, however, are rapidly

changing, if not progressing, in their social and economical aspects, and in these respects dates are an important factor. Scientific value the work can lay no claim to. But the author has evidently had the ambition of shining in this direction, for he enters (vol. i. p. 173 et seq.) into a long disquisition on the races of the American continent, and exhibits his competency as an instructor by classifying the Aztecs, Toltecs, Aymaras, &c., as belonging to the Irano-Aryan race, in contradistinction from the rest of the American tribes, who are Mongolo-American. With regard to the illustrations with which the two volumes are so bountifully supplied, they appear to us very unequal both as to fidelity and artistic execution. Many of the landscapes and town views are undoubtedly based on sketches taken on the spot, but some of this class are spoilt by conventional additions evidently made by artists at home.

Some of the views of forest and river scenery in the second volume are exquisitely beautiful, and faithful both in detail and general effect; they are so true, that we are inclined to think these must have been engraved from photographs; but none the less credit is due to the wood-draughtsman, engraver, and printer. We except from this commendation all the representations of Indians: they are, with some few exceptions, gross caricatures, and fail to give any approach to a just idea of their physique and the expression of their features. The translation by Mr. Elihu Rich strikes us as exceedingly well done-free from stiffness and all traces of foreign idiom.

H. W. BATES.

Far from the Madding Crowd. By Thomas Hardy. (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1874.)

Far from the Madding Crowd is so clever a novel, so original in atmosphere and in character, that its brilliant qualities are likely to neutralise the glare of its equally prominent faults. The writer has the advantage of dealing with an almost untouched side of English life. His scene is laid somewhere in the country of Mr. Freeman's favourite Seaxsaetas, in a remote agricultural and pastoral district of south-western England. Among peasants who look on Bath as a distant and splendid metropolis, it is likely that much of the old country existence lives on undisturbed. The country folk in the story have not heard of strikes, or of Mr. Arch; they have, to all appearance, plenty to eat, and warm clothes to wear, and when the sheep are shorn in the ancient barn of Weatherbury, the scene is one that Shakespeare or that Chaucer might have watched. This immobile rural existence is what the novelist has to paint. "In comparison with cities," he says,

"Weatherbury was immutable. The citizen's then, is the rustic's now. In London, twenty or thirty years ago are old times; in Paris, ten years or five; in Weatherbury, three or four score years were included in the mere present, and nothing less than a century set a mark on its face or tone. Five decades hardly modified the cut of a gaiter, the embroidery of a smock-frock, by the breadth of a hair. Ten generations failed to alter the turn of a single phrase. In these nooks the busy out

sider's ancient times are only old, his old times are still new, his present is futurity." No condition of society could supply the writer who knows it well with a more promising ground for his story. The old and the new must meet here and there, with curious surprises, and our world may find curious surprises, and our world may find itself face to face with the quaint conceited rustics of Shakespeare's plays. Such a story might be written as George Sand has often told of the vallée noire, sober characters and simple might appear in the foreground of scenes exquisitely quiet and harmonious. In our opinion the writer of Far from the Madding Crowd has only partially succeeded in making the best of his theme, and though his failure is more valuable than many successes, he has been misled by attempting too much. In his way of looking at his subject he rather resembles George Eliot than George Sand. He contemplates his shepherds and rural people with the eye of a philosopher who understands all about them, though he is not of them, and who can express their dim efforts at rendering what they think and feel in language like that of Mr. Herbert Spencer. It is this way of writing and thinking that gives the book its peculiar tone. The author is telling clever people about unlettered people, and he adopts a sort of patronising voice, in which there are echoes, now of George Eliot, and now of George Meredith. Thus there are passages where the manner and the matter jar, and are out of keeping.

There are three circles of interest in this story,-first, the rural surroundings, the effects of weather and atmosphere, the labours of beasts and men, as the lambing of sheep, and such mild struggles with Nature's storms and rains as M. Victor Hugo would scarcely find dramatic enough for his tremendous canvas. Next, there are the minor characters-a sort of chorus of

agricultural labourers, very ready with adwith themselves, as was the way with the vice, very helpless, and very much taken up ancient chorus. Last, there are the main persons of the drama-the people in whose passions and adventures the interest ought

to centre.

of the tale, the first may be pronounced Of these three component parts nearly perfect, and worthy of all praise. We might instance the description of Norcombe Hill by starlight, in the beginning of the second chapter, as an original and admirable treatment of nature-of nature which is terest in our modern fiction. We prefer to more and more tending to become a main inquote the enumeration of the signs by which the hero detected the approach of a storm, because the quotation includes the sheep, whose birth and death, in this tale, are narrated with great minuteness.

"The sheep were crowded close together on the other side around some furze bushes, and the first peculiarity observable was that, on the sudden appearance of Oak's head over the fence, they did not stir or run away. They had now a terror of something greater than their terror of man. But this was not the most noteworthy feature: they were all grouped in such a way that their tails, without a single exception, were towards that half of the horizon from which the storm threatened. There was an inner circle closely huddled, and outside these they radiated wider apart, the pattern formed by the flock as a whole

not being unlike a vandyked lace collar, to which the clump of furze bushes stood in the relation of the wearer's neck.

"This was enough to re-establish him in his right, and Troy was wrong. Every voice in previous opinion. He knew now that he was nature was unanimous in bespeaking change. But two distinct translations attached to these dumb expressions. Apparently there was to be a thunder-storm, and afterwards a cold continuous rain. The creeping things seemed to know all about the latter rain, but little of the interabout the thunder-storm and nothing of the latter polated thunder-storm; while the sheep knew all

rain."

When the thunder-storm bursts, it is described with much pictorial effect; and is a quite disagreeable enough trial to Oak, the English Gilliat, and contender with Nature.

Coming from the scenery to the chorus, we are a good deal puzzled. Few men know the agricultural labourer at home, and it is possible that he is what Mr. Hardy describes him. The labourers are all humourists in their way, which is a very dreary and depressing way. Odd scraps of a kind of rural euphuism, misapplications of scripture, and fragments of modern mechanical wit, are stirred up into a queer mixture, which makes the talk of Henery Fray, Cainy Ball, Jan Coggan, and especially of that pre-eminent bore, Joseph Poorgrass. Do labourers really

converse like this

Here is another specimen of rural speech. "For a drunk of really a noble class, and on the highest principles, that brought you no nearer to the dark man than you were afore you began, there was none like these in Farmer Everdene's kitchen. Not a single damn allowed, no, not a bare poor one, even at the most cheerful moment when all were blindest, though the good old word of sin thrown in here and there would have been a great relief to a merry soul.'

"True,' said the maltster, 'nature requires her and unholy exclamations is a necessity of life."" And so on.

swearing at the regular times, or she's not herself;

way: we hope not; but if they do, it is a Shepherds may talk in this revelation; and if they don't, it is nonsense, and not very amusing nonsense.

Leaving the servants, and coming to their master and mistress, we cannot say that we are greatly fascinated with the persons, or much concerned in their fortunes. Nothing could be more true or more careful than the study of Troy, the handsome sergeant, with his half education, his selfishness, his love, which he only finds out to be something like true love under the influence of remorse. When the soldier erects a costly tomb to the woman whose heart he has broken, and plants flowers on her grave, in such a way as to wound to the quick the woman he has married, we recognise an insight, and a touch, like that of Flaubert. But we cannot easily pardon Bathsheba, the heroine, for losing her heart to Troy's flattery, and to the glitter of his brass and

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scarlet. Indeed we have some difficulty in being much moved by Bathsheba's character and mischances. When we first see her, she is stealing a look at herself in a mirror, unconscious of the presence of young Farmer Oak. When she hears that Oak has asked her aunt for leave to court her, and has been discouraged, she runs after the exemplary man, and explains that she is heart free. Then she sends a valentine, with a seal marry me, to Farmer Boldwood, and so fascinates that apparently calm, but really passionate rustic. Meanwhile, Oak fails as a farmer, and Bathsheba, having become a farmer in her own right, takes him on as shepherd, and has curiously confidential" passages with him. At last, the gay serjeant fixes her fancy with a display of swordsmanship, and she drives alone at night to Bath, and is married to him. We feel inclined to say to her, as Mr. Buckstone does to Galatea in the play, "You're sure it's innocence ?" The young lady's misfortunes deepen, as Troy spends her money, and takes to drinking. There is a very powerful and strange scene between them when she opens the coffin of her dead rival, Fanny Robin, and her husband kisses the lips of the corpse, and tells his wife that he only loved the dead. It is a situation worthy of the drama of Webster or of Ford, and wild as it is, is led up to in a perfectly natural way. This part of the tale, including Fanny Robin's terrible walk, to her rest in the workhouse, is eminently tragic, and is not improved by the commonplace tragedy of the dénouement. We leave Bathsheba wedded to the worthy Oak, a capital overseer, and a husband who may be trusted. We hope the babies were "put in the papers, every man jack of them," as Mr. Oak promised when he wooed. Bathsheba is so seldom on the level that her troubles

life. The following lines are from the commencement of the poem :

"Trees of the forest and the open field, Have ye no sense of being?

When on your winter sleep The sun shines warm, have ye no dreams of spring? And when the glorious spring-time comes at last, Have ye no joy of all your bursting buds, And fragrant blooms and melody of birds To which your young leaves shiver?

Nay, doubt we not that under the rough rind, In the green veins of these fair growths of earth, There dwells a nature that receives delight From all the gentle processes of life, And shrinks from loss of being. Dim and faint May be the sense of pleasure and of pain As in our dreams; but, haply, real still." The conclusion of the poem falls off when the poet leaves the trees and speaks of human beings. It would have gained in force by the omission of the last eleven lines. The illustrations are beautiful, and the book, though a small one, is altogether one of the most attractive that have appeared this Christmas.

FROM Messrs. Warne we have received a new translation of Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Mrs. H. B. Paull; also Grimm's Fairy Tales, by the same translator; and a revised edition with notes of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, by the Rev. Geo. Fyler Townsend-all of which are prettily bound and illustrated, and will be sure of a hearty welcome in any nursery which they may gladden these holidays.

Nursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles, with 400 Illustrations, is a most delightful encyclopaedia of nursery lore. The rhymes and tales have been admirably arranged by Mrs. Valentine, and her notes to several of them are extremely interesting. For instance, many people are ignorant that the original of "The House that Jack built" is in the Chaldee language, and is presumed to be a hymn; or of the antiquity and original version of "Little

Jack Horner."

The Fiery Cross, or the Vow of Montrose. By Barbara Hutton. (Griffith & Farran.) This is the story of the great Marquis told from a Royalist point of view, and it has the usual faults of a one-sided story. But hero-worship and prejudice are carried to a dangerous extent when they prompt such a passage as the following, which occurs when Montrose receives the news of King Charles's death, and says that life henceforward has no charm for him. His chaplain tries to rouse him from despair, saying:

CURRENT LITERATURE..

Among the Trees. By William Cullen Bryant. (New York: G. Putnam's Sons.) Mr. Bryant studies nature as Wordsworth did. It is not to him as it is to many other poets, a mirror in which his own moods are reflected; but he lays himself aside, and reverently and sympathetically listens to whatever nature has to tell him. He literally "lives not in himself, but becomes portion of that around him." In "A Forest Hymn," "An Inscription in a Wood," and in the poem before us, "Among the Trees," this passion for what we should call "inanimate nature is distinctly marked, and the poet's expression of it is most felicitous when trees are his subject. There is something specially attractive to him in their strength, their grace, and their constantly renewed

immediately roused himself. Drawing himself to his full height, he stretched his hands towards heaven, and as one inspired he cried, Yes! yes! I will live. But I vow before God and man to devote my life to avenge the royal martyr's death and to place his son on the throne.'"

However true it may be that Dr. Wishart, in his capacity of chaplain, urged revenge, it cannot be said that it was a proof of worth, and is hardly to be held up to the admiration of youth. The story of Montrose is so interesting in itself, so full of stirring adventure, and of misfortune nobly borne, that it will always be popular; but we could wish that it had been written in a calmer and less prejudiced manner.

Hetty; or, Fresh Watercress Sellers. By Mrs. Henry Keary. (Warne & Co.) A short religious story, the scene of which is laid with tolerable success in very poor life.

The Floral Poesy; A Book for all Seasons. (Warne & Co.) A book about flowers, with appropriate quotations of poetry. The subject is not strikingly original, and the illustrations are poor.

The Billow and the Rock. By Harriet Martineau. (Routledge.) It is refreshing to see reprints of H. Martineau's stories; we get very few of the same high order of writing among the popular tales of the present day. This one is founded on the incidents of Lady Grange's captivity, and is full of interest and power.

Naval Enterprise and Military Enterprise. With Coloured Illustrations. (Warne & Co.) Two closely-printed little volumes, containing stories of sailors and soldiers, which are sure to be popular with boys.

Aesop's Fables. With Fifty Illustrations by Harrison Weir. (Routledge.) A cheap and attractive edition of a book which can never be old. The translation is a new one, by the Rev. George Fyler Townsend, and the preface is interesting.

The Reedham Dialogues. By John Edmed. (James Clarke & Co.) A harmless little book of dialogues for children. If it helps to lessen the amount of noise and obstruction in the streets on

November 5, by its discouragement of "Guys," it will have accomplished a useful mission.

Waking and Working; or, From Girlhood to Womanhood. By Mrs. G. S. Reaney (H. S. King & Co.). The story of an ideal young lady who does good to every one around her, and specially to an unbelieving doctor, whom she converts and marries. There is some pretty writing in the book, but it is crude.

Opening a Chestnut Burr. By the Rev. E. P. Roe. (Routledge.) This is an American story on the same subject as the last-mentioned book. Only in this case the unbelieving young man is more hardened, and it takes nearly double the number of pages to convert him. The heroine starts on her crusade with the assertion that "she thinks she can disturb the even current of the

hero's vanity." Certainly, if unceasing sermonising is meant to have that effect, she does not spare him. He proves his remarkable fortitude and strength of mind by marrying her—but he does it with his eyes open.

Prince Perindo's Wish (Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas), is a really pretty fairy tale, with many clever touches in it, and it has the merit of not being too long.

FROM Messrs. Marcus Ward we have received in spite of many hard names and much necessary Aunt Charlotte's Stories of French History, which condensation contrives to convey to children many interesting facts and picturesque details of the history of France, and is most attractively bound and illustrated. The Fairy Spinner and Out of Date or not. Two stories of unusual merit; the trials of Ethelsiega and the final triumph of her love being gracefully told; while the second story, of a knight who comes back to the world 400 years after his death and finds that philanthropy has taken the place of chivalry, is original and good.—Turnaside Cottage, the story of a boy who rose from being a cowherd to be a village schoolmaster.-Pollie and Jack, an excellent story in simple language for little children.-The Twin Brothers of Elvedale, which no one would expect from its little gay cover of roses and lilies to be a Norwegian love story with an attempt at murder, numerous whaling adventures, and a death by drowning in it. Puck and Blossom, a charming book for children, with most fairy-like illustrations and prettily-told stories. A Cruise in an Acorn, also beautifully illustrated.-Roses with and without Thorns, a well-told story of two exceptionally naughty little children. Katie Summers, a simple story for the nursery.-Ella's Locket, and what it brought Her, a little book that will disappoint small readers, as the locket never brings Ella anything except a relation whom she did not want. And two prettily illustrated volumes of Scottish Scenery and English Lake Scenery, which bring pleasant thoughts of summer in this wintry weather. F. M. OWEN.

NOTES AND NEWS.

EDLER VON PLENEN's interesting monograph on English Building Societies will shortly be published in an English dress by Messrs. Abel Heywood and Son. The translator, Mr. F. J. Faraday, of Longsight, has added notes explanatory of the operation of the new Act, which was only in prospect when Von Plener wrote.

The Fern Paradise; or, a Plea for the Culture of Ferns is to be the title of a little book from the pen of Mr. Francis George Heath, author of The English Peasantry. Mr. Heath's new book, which will be published shortly by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, has for its object to increase the popular taste for the most graceful and beautiful forms of vegetable life. It will include descriptions of ferny rambles through the green lanes, the woods and the glens of Devonshire, "the home of our native ferns."

DR. RICHARD MORRIS will put off for a time the preparation of his volume of Selections from Chaucer's Minor Poems for the Clarendon Press. DR. ABBOTT's How to Parse will be out next week.

THE Rev. T. V. Bridgett, in his just published Our Lady's Dowry, points out that the "Alma Redemptoris," sung by Chaucer's little martyr in the Prioresses Tale, was the antiphone with that title which has been in use in the Roman Catholic Church for many centuries. It is sung during Advent and until the feast of Candlemas; and Chaucer makes the child say that he will learn it 66 ere Christmas be went." So the boys in the school were supposed to be practising, during Advent, the music they were singing in the church.

THE collection in the British Museum known as the Egerton Manuscripts has lately been enriched by the following purchases :

Two Paper Rolls of the time of Henry VII., formerly belonging to Sir W. Le Neve, containing instructions for painted windows at the Grey Friars of Greenwich, representing English Sovereigns and Saints.

Copy of Ordinances of War, 9 Richard II., and a printed order for payment of a loan, February 14, 1643 [4] signed by Charles I. and Lord Keeper

Lyttleton.

Eight letters of Lord Palmerston to H. B. Hoppner at Lisbon, 1831-1833.

Autograph letters of the Prince de Condé to Baron Gelb, 1793-1796, and letters of Cardinal de Rohan, dated March 26, 1794, and January 26, 1797.

"Liber Pacis," or List of Persons on the Commission of the Peace, 16 Elizabeth, with notes by Lord Burghley.

"The Constitution of the Loyal and Friendly Society of the Blue and Orange," founded by the officers of the King's Own Regiment of Foot, 1714, with devices.

A fifteenth century Treatise on Falconry, in Italian, with coloured drawings.

Letters of Prince Charles Buonaparte and other Naturalists to G. R. Gray, F.R.S., 1831–1871. Copies of Miniatures and ornamentation from the Vatican Virgil and other ancient MSS. in Italy, by Mrs. Conolly.

Copies made in the last century from MSS. at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, relating to Ecclesiastical affairs of the period of the Reformation.

A parchment roll containing an inventory of the Reliques in the Monastery of St. Bertin, of St. Omer, 1465.

Muster Roll of scholars of Winchester School, 1706.

We also notice an original letter of Lord Byron, dated July 21, 1807, to Mr. Crosby, offering his stanzas "To Jessie," a copy of which is enclosed, for publication in Monthly Literary Recreations. The above-mentioned Cardinal de Rohan writes

from Brussels, and signs himself "Pr. Ferd. de Rohan arch. duc. de Cambrai." He is best known to posterity by his connexion with the notorious affaire du collier, or diamond necklace fraud.

The following are a few of the entries on the Rolls of Instructions for painted windows at Greenwich included in the above lists:

"Edburga a nonne dought' to Seynt Ethelbert kyng of kent lying at Canterbury-Make her aft' th'abbyte of a nonne crowned wt an open crowne & wt a croyse on her ryght hand and a booke on her left hand wt a mantell of Seynt Ethelberts armes."

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Kyng Henry the vijmake hym on the Ryght syde of the gret Red Roose lyke a yong man in a hoole Image stonding in his Robes & abyte Royall of astate of purpull colour w1 a closse crowne Imperyall, in the Ryght hand a ball wt a crosse & in the left hand a septure and make his countenance lokyng towards ye quene his wyf stondyng by hym holdyng Iche oder by ye hand."

ORIENTALISTS will rejoice in the completion of the fifth volume (dád to 'eyn, pp. 1759-2219) of Mr. Lane's Arabic Lexicon, which is just leaving the printer's hands. To give some idea of the magnitude of this work, we may mention that the amount already published in the five volumesextending over more than two thousand two hundred pages, super-royal quarto-is more than double the entire lexicon of Freytag. Besides the main use of Mr. Lane's work as the authoritative

lexicon of the Arabic language, the light it throws on the manners and customs of the early Arabs; on the idioms of the Semitic races, which have ever been the stumbling-blocks of biblical critics, and which nothing but the intimate acquaintance with the Semitic mind which Mr. Lane possesses can explain; and on many points connected with the literature, law, religion, and customs of the East;-is of priceless value to the student.

THE Parisian lovers of fine books-of impressions out of the common--are just now all agog about an edition of Manon Lescaut, published at the moment of our writing by a young publishing firm-Glady Brothers. It is printed on Turkey mill paper; has illustrations by Flameng and Jacquemart, and-even more notable thing-a preface by Dumas fils, written with consummate literary art, and with an audacity hardly less con

summate.

Before proceeding to analyse the work of L'Abbé Prévost, M. Dumas takes occasion to rate the mere book hunter, who, when he has purchased a fine copy of a chef-d'œuvre, instead of reading it, only sends it to the binder. And from this little bit of personal audacity, Dumas proceeds to further boldness, in discussing the natures of whom Manon Lescant is a symbol.

IN the Revista de la Universidad de Madrid there is a memorial sketch of Heinrich Ahrens, whose writings have "powerfully contributed to the incipient renovation of Spanish culture." He was born at 1808, and graduated in Göttingen (his thesis was entitled De Confederatione Germanica). His reputation as a "privat docent" in the philosophy of law was so great that Guizot invited him to give a course at Paris. While professor at Brussels he was elected a deputy of the celebrated Frankfort Parliament. Afterwards he filled Chairs at Grätz and Leipzig. He died August 2, aged sixty-six. The Cours de Psychologie fait à Paris sous les Auspices du Gouvernement has been translated into Dutch and Spanish, but has not been so popular in Spain as his other writings. His Cours de Droit Naturel has passed through six editions in French, six in German, four in Spanish, four in Italian, one in Dutch, one in Portuguese, and one in Hungarian. This is his greatest work, and is now used as a text-book in Spanish America, while its influence in Old Spain has been very great. Besides Die Organische

Staatslehre (Wien, 1850) and Juristische Encyclopaedie (Wien, 1857), he was a frequent contributor to reviews and other periodicals.

THE Scotch papers announce the death, at Edinburgh, of Alexander Leighton-not a great man certainly, but one who for half a century has done such honest labour in the field of literature, that he deserves a passing notice in the journals of his calling. He had reached the ripe age of seventy-four, having been born in Dundee in the year 1800, and was a distinguished pupil in the Academy of that town, then a mere straggling village. He afterwards studied medicine in Edinburgh, but abandoned it for the law. The law in turn was deserted for literature, and to this, his last love, he clung to the end of his long and laborious life. A complete list of his writings it would be next to impossible to give. He was ready to write on almost any subject, as well as to edit and adapt the less popular writings of others. Writing much, not for fame but for his daily bread, he could scarcely be expected to write in every case well. Yet many of his works had a wide circulation, and his name is held in deep respect all over the south of Scotland. This was mainly owing to the popularity of The Tales of the Borders, commenced originally at Berwick-onTweed by John Wilson, but after his death, with some little assistance from Hugh Miller, the geologist, conducted almost entirely for years by Leighton. They are not above criticism, but are written with much spirit, and have fairly kept their hold on the rustic imagination. They are still reprinted. He was also the author of The Romance of the Old Town of Edinburgh, The Men and Women of History, Jephtha's Daughter, The Tangled Yarn, a Latin metrical version of the songs of Burns, sufficiently meritorious to gain the praise of Carlyle; a dictionary of religious denominations, perfectly impartial, though he himself was a warm admirer of David Hume; a good novel, and a host of other books. He was also generally believed to be the author of various religious and other works, on the title-pages of which the names of less able men appeared. Be this as it may, literature has had few more laborious workmen. He was almost the last of the purely still have their permanent home in the "grey professional men of letters, journalists aside, who metropolis of the North.”

IN the article on Mr. Mullinger's History of the University of Cambridge in our last issue, in par. 2, line 7, for "Antonius "read "Ausonius;" in the last paragraph, for "mystic" read "mythic" and for "Casstebro" read "Cantebro."

THE Nation states that the valuable Squier collection of American antiquities from Peru, Central America, and the Mississippi valley, now and for some time past on temporary deposit at the Central Park Museum, is in the market, and is, it is feared, likely to be sold out of the country. The same paper, in chronicling the death of Mr. Ezra Cornell, founder of the university which bears his name, remarks:

No one with half a million dollars, or with fifty times that sum, is going to found off-hand a university at which anyone may learn anything he desires;' and there was nothing in the start which Mr. Cornell gave to his creation which either did or could bring it nearer his idea than the older colleges like Yale and Harvard, by furnishing it something which should take the place of their accumulated wealth, traditions, and culture. There was, if we may say so without the slightest disrespect to his memory, in his belief in the power of mere money to accomplish what he sought, something of the short-cut' notion to which 'self-made men' seldom rise superior, and which is a main cause, perhaps, of that scattering of endowments which we daily have to deplore. To abstain, however, from praising the liberality of his conception simply because it was one which would not have been entertained by a highly-e lucated man, possessed of even greater means, would of course be absurd. He will be permanently and prominently remembered among those Americans, already too numerous

to

recall by a single effort of the memory, who have returned to the public the wealth which they had acquired by their own exertions. He had the good sense to make this return in his lifetime, and the good fortune to witness the contagion of his example leading to the still further endowment of his university on a scale hardly less munificent than his own."

WHATEVER

may

be the judgment finally passed upon the judicial and Parliamentary labours of the late Lord Romilly, he will never be forgotten as the Master of the Rolls who brought the work of writing English History within the bounds of possibility. Before 1851 the public records of the kingdom had already to a great extent been brought together under his official custody in the new repository erected for their reception. But the imposition of fees for permission to search and copy, made the boon an illusory one to literary enquirers who were not in the exceptional position of commanding an almost bottomless purse. On July 7 a memorial from Lord Mahon, the present Earl Stanhope, and others, on the subject, was forwarded to the Master of the Rolls, and met with a prompt response. Regulations for the free admission of literary enquirers were approved by the Treasury on November 17, and were issued on December 4 of the same year, a date which marks the commencement of a silent revolution in one great class of English literature, the consequences of which will doubtless be more permanent than those of the coup d'état which had taken place in Paris two days before.

Many, however, who accepted the invitation to the intellectual banquet prepared for them, must have felt as deep a sense of disappointment as that which troubled the soul of Sancho Panza when his dinner was waved away from him in the island of Barataria. The documents were there in countless numbers, but who was to guide them in their search for the special entries which they wanted? Sir John Romilly at once met the demand for help. On December 7, 1855, he stated to the Lords of the Treasury, that although "the records, state papers, and documents in his charge constitute the most complete and perfect series of their kind in the civilised world," and although "they are of the greatest value in an historical and constitutional point of view, yet they are comparatively useless to the public, from the want of proper calendars and indexes." The result of these words is already seen in that magnificent series of Calendars of State Papers which is going steadily on towards completion, to say nothing of those other indexes still in manuscript, which are available to all who need them.

The publication of the Calendars served as a guide to those who were able to examine the State Papers on the spot, and they might be used, though with considerable caution, even by those who were at a distance from London. Two years later, in 1857, a further step was taken. Hitherto the Master of the Rolls had contented himself with rendering accessible the documents in his own custody. He now constituted his office into a medium for the "endowment of research" on historical matters. The State Papers could not be traced earlier than the reign of Henry VIII. Before that date there was on the one hand a vast collection of legal and historical records which might be submitted to the slow process of calendaring. But outside the walls of the office there were numerous chronicles and other writings, either never printed at all, or insufficiently edited. This was the mine to which Sir John Romilly summoned labourers from all sides, and the goodly rows of the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages are the result.

Nor was this all. To know England as it was painted by Englishmen is, after all, something like knowing a man as painted by himself. To complete the picture we must cross the seas, and the archives of Simancas and Venice, of Paris and Vienna, must be sedulously ransacked. This, too, came to be part of the growing plan of the late Master of the Rolls.

No doubt, acts of this kind can never be wholly ascribed to a single individual. The public can never know, never ought to know, how much of counsel and advice, how much of skilful execution is to be placed to the credit of Sir Thomas Hardy and the able staff around him. But, after all deductions are made, the great fact remains that this important change was carried out not, as an old Roman would have said, under Lord Romilly's auspices, but as his personal act, and under his constant and direct supervision. When some years ago those who had profited most by his activity subscribed to place a bust of the late Master of the Rolls in the Literary Search Room, they only represented the gratitude which will be felt by all who follow in their footsteps.

MR. CARLYLE has told us that the constituent elements of the most remarkable Parliament that ever sat-definable, indeed, as the Father of Parliaments, which first rendered Parliaments supreme, and has since set the whole world upon chase of Parliaments-deserve "a history, constitutional, biographical, political, practical, picturesque, better than most entities that yet have one among us." Whether a writer will ever be found capable of treating the Long Parliament in the exhaustive manner above expressed, it is impossible to say. Our intention is but to contribute in a very slight degree to so great a subject, by printing a petition, lately turned up among the State papers, of one of its honourable members. Oxford, we believe, was the constituency represented by the petitioner, until he was disabled:

"To the honble the Committee at Goldsmith's hall. Inne, sometimes an unworthy member of the Commons "The humble Petition of John Whistler of Graies

'For, goeing into the country to attend the execution of the Commission for regulating of forrests with the county of Oxon (being by the honble house of Commons therein named a Commissioner) that business (by reason of strong opposition) continued many moneths, and was not ended till very neere the time of the battaile at Edgehill.

"And before yor Pet' could conveniently returne to

London, the King came from Edgehill to Oxford. At

which time yo' Pet left the place of his habitation, and almost all his goods, to the spoile, and (within a short space after) was brought a prisoner to Oxford. And after hee had there given 2,000l. baile with two sureties, he was taken from the cheife Justices chamber, carried to prison againe, had his money, sword, watch and horses taken from him and continued seven weekes in prison. And during that time his house was taken from him, and a woman put in who kept a taverne and a house of worse fame, who tore his house, burnt great part of the matterialls and spoiled and embezilled almost all his goods.

"And upon new baile of 2,000, with two other sureties to appeare at the Assises yor Pet' was againe delivered. And the day before the Assises was imprisoned againe, and carried prisoner to Hungerford, with purpose to cause him to forfeit his baile. But (making meanes to have leave to appeare at the Assises) albeit nothing was objected against him, yet was his recognizance continued until the meeting of the Parliament men at Oxford and long after.

"1 Junii, 1644 yo' Petitioner gott forth of Oxford, and being brought before Sir Will. Waller, who after examination of your Pet intreated him courteously and dismissed him. Then yo' Pet' (having no meanes to maintaine himselfe) went to Combe in Hampshire, and lived with his brother (who had served at Edgecarried hill for the Parliament) untill his said brother was carried away Prisoner to Winchester.

"And then yor Pet' came to another brother's house at Whitchurch within foure miles of Reading, where he continued sick for some time untill he came to

London and voluntarily submitted himselfe to Mr Speaker, from whom he stands referred unto yo' grave

wisdome and consideration.

WITH reference to the interest that is now felt in all that can be learnt respecting the great river Congo, we hear that a very important work by Captain R. F. Burton, containing a history of Congo and an account of all that is known of the river from the days of Diego Cam to recent times has been, for upwards of a year, in the hands of Mr. Tinsley. We are at a loss to understand why there should have been so long a delay in the publication of a work of such great geographical importance, especially at the present moment. It will be remembered that Captain Burton visited the Congo in 1863, and ascended the river as far as the Yellala Falls; so that he combines personal knowledge with that rare geographical erudition, in which the discoverer of Lake Tanganyika has few living rivals.

WE understand that Mrs. Richard Burton's new work, entitled The Inner Life of Syria; or, published. This work contains an account of the Benoni the Child of My Sorrow, is about to be habits and customs of the harim, and also enters upon the kind of life that an English woman may make for herself who takes her abode in up the East. The residence of the wife of the great traveller for two years in Damascus, and her knowledge of Arabic, are excellent guarantees for the value of anything she may write on the East.

MR. H. F. BLANFORD has just returned to India as head of the Meteorological Department. The great want has long been a central leader and organiser of the observations in the different provinces, through whom uniformity might he secured, and to whom the results might be referred and worked out. This essential to useful meteoro

logical work in India has now been conceded, and real progress may be confidently anticipated from Mr. Blanford's appointment. The requirements of meteorology have too long been neglected, and we rejoice to find that the Government of India have at last taken a step which shows that their importance is appreciated.

MR. J. C. HANNYNGTON, of the Madras Civil Service, explored a portion of the Anamallay hills last April. His report is a valuable addition to the little that was previously known of a range which has been recently found, in the course of the operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, to contain the loftiest peak in India south of the Himalayas. He roughly surveyed the portion of the hill range which he visited, and his map has been photo-lithographed at the office of the Superintendent of Madras Revenue Surveys, on a scale of two miles to an inch. Mr. Hannyngton also made six photographs which show the magnificent scenery of these hills.

THE Hydrographer is about to publish a portion of the circumpolar chart on a large scale, including the American side and all the English discoveries, and extending so as to take in the whole of the 80th parallel. This publication will be very opportune at the present time; and will be most useful to all who are interested in the Arctic expedition, as a help to the following any discussions that may arise hereafter, and to the comprehension of the scope and objects of the exploring operations.

NEWS has recently been received of the European