of England, Emperor of India, representing that they were equally His Majesty's advisers with his English ministers, and refusing to make any further communications to, or through, his then English advisers. Boycotted by the colonies, the English Ministry had to retire; Ireland received Home Rule; Imperial Federation followed; and Sir Julius Vogel even goes so far as to annex Belgium and the north coast of France, while, on the other hand, he ruthlessly destroys the House of Lords. In the year 2000 we find an Irish lady Prime Minister of the empire, and the whole federation convulsed by the question whether the succession to the crown should be changed in order to allow the eldest child of the Emperor to succeed whether a woman or a man, the Prime Minister holding the doctrine not of the equality, but of the superiority of the female sex. It had long since been established that every human being was entitled to a share of the good things of this world whether he or she liked or did not like to work. If men and women wished to be idle and to become State pensioners it was open to them to follow their inclination, but they had to wear uniforms and were regarded as inferiors, while the aged and infirm might enjoy State aid without being subject to such humiliation. This seems to us somewhat like the poor law of the present day as administered in a lax union. Sir Julius Vogel's experience in New Zealand

leads him to inform

us that there

were heavy succession duties in the year 2000 and strict protection, as well as differential treatment of foreign goods. Instead of there being a public debt, an enormous store of money was laid up by the empire as a reserve fund. Sir Julius Vogel says a good word for his old colony, and he amuses himself at the expense of his New Zealand friends by describing the position of their descendants-as for example the Buller family and the Fitzherberts-at the end of the next century. Sir Julius Vogel, jumping about from Alexandria to Melbourne, from Melbourne to Stewart's Island, from Stewart's Island to London, and then to Dublin, places us before a magnificent group of sculpture representing the premiers of the six Australasian colonies (Why six, and not seven or eight? Which has been swallowed by its neighbours?), the Dominion of Canada, and the South African Dominion, whose intervention in 1920 had procured Home Rule for Ireland -a description from which we observe that Sir Julius Vogel continues to be an opponent of Australasian federation, though we think it a little unfair that he should compulsorily federate the South African colonies when he will not federate his own. At Dublin he

discovers in the year 2000 that, under the vivifying influence of protection, the manufactures of Ireland are advancing with great strides, although he does not tell us that Ireland has discovered plenty of good coal. He exults over the refusal to accept "Mr. Gladstone's half-measure," and he winds up with a statement of his apparent belief in the virtue of Mary, Queen of Scots, and with an account of a war caused by the invasion of Canada by the troops of the United States on account of the chagrin of the President at the Emperor's rejection of her daughter's

hand. The British troops take New York and Washington, apparently on the same day, and the fine handsome woman of thirtyfive who was President of the United States at the time is carried off a prisoner by the air-cruisers of the British fleet.

Miss Montrésor has taken as the ground work of her story a passage which will be familiar to readers of Carlyle, referring to certain domestic reforms introduced into the court of Charles Eugene, Duke of Würtemberg. With the assistance of Körner and Vely she has treated the historical incidents with some degree of verisimilitude. The duke himself and his friend Franziska von Hohenheim appear in this narrative as their traditional repute might have led us to expect, and we seem to get a fair idea of life and manners in the Ludwigsburg of seven score years ago. The greater part of the volume, however, is occupied with the fortunes of Hans Ritter, a musician without much moral ballast, with his thoroughly human wife Olga, and with their friends, as to most of whom history is silent. The story is romantic, and quite prettily told by Miss

Montrésor.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

Mohammed and Mohammedanism Critically Examined, by Dr. S. W. Koelle (Rivingtons), contains the verdict on Islam of a missionary who has for thirty years worked for the Church Missionary Society at Sierra Leone and in Turkey, and as such deserves to be noticed. It comes from one who ought to know something about the subject; but

it is to be regretted that Dr. Koelle is appa

rently unable to look at another religion from any standpoint except that of "the straitest sect of the Pharisees," and his stout volume is merely a réchauffé of the oldest and most thoroughly exploded fallacies about Islam. We had hoped that the time had gone by for such an exhibition of the odium theologicum, and that, after all the studies that the present age has witnessed in comparative religion, it was impossible for an educated man to put forth views so uncharitable and so historically preposterous as those enounced in these 500 pages, which go a long way towards explaining why the influence of our missionary bodies among Mohammedans is, and has been, conspicuously slight. It has been our misfortune from time to time to be obliged to express a certain degree of dissent from what we considered Sir William Muir's needlessly aggressive attitude towards Islam; but Dr. Koelle evidently considers the eminent Scottish scholar's tone dangerously lax and sympathetic. The latest critic of Islam sees little but Satan's own work in every stage of one of the great religions of the world; his treatment of the Prophet's career is marked throughout by unfairness, while he permits himself more than the usual clerical licence in lingering over the affairs. unsavoury subject of Mohammed's domestic

THE Opening volume of the new series of Tales from Blackwood (Blackwood & Sons) is not unworthy of a famous name. Laurence Oliphant's 'The Brigand's Bride' is the liveliest story, the escape of the writer from the robber's clutches and the eccentric but effective manner in which he pays his debt of honour to the fair Valeria being excellently told. He went a little far, we think, but his love making is capital. It seems from this story that there is much virtue in an airgunfor travelling purposes. 'Bourgoneff' (anonymous) is of a more gruesome tinge. The Russian monomaniac and his mysterious servant, who carry on a war of revenge with young brides as a class, are hideously systematic villains, though the motive seems slight enough. But have we

not seen worse horrors at our own doors lately? 'Thomas,' by Mrs. W. K. Clifford, a story of an errand-boy who developes into an accomplished doctor and marries the daughter of the house in which he cleaned knives and boots, is declared to be that of a real personage,

which, of course, disarms any criticism of the probability of his good fortune. Mr. Prothero's 'Misogynist' is an amusing record of the defeat of a bore by a paradoxical humourist he meets on his travels in Normandy. 'The Fetish City,' by Mr. Frederick Boyle, is a well-imagined story of the discovery of Greek ruins beyond the Matabele territory, which reads a little like a chapter of Mr. Rider Haggard; and the ballad of 'The Gascon O'Driscol' closes the volume with a bit of Irish legend reflecting credit upon an ancient

race.

"As

Pendle Hill in History and Literature. By James McKay. (Davies.) - This is not, as many may imagine, a book of county history. old as Pendle Hill" is a well-known Lancashire saying, employed by any one who wishes to imply that the thing he is discoursing of is of immemorial antiquity. Pendle and its neighbourhood might have a large series of volumes written concerning it without the authors being guilty of waste of time or energy. Mr. McKay, however, has not undertaken original research in any large measure. He has confined himself for the most part to retelling what has been told before. Though somewhat verbose, he has produced an interesting book about places and things in the Pendle neighbourhood. By far the best chapter in the volume is that entitled "Pendle Churches." We should like to reprint the whole of it. For this there is not room, and no good end would be gained by giving a mere fragment. The author knows wherein the

charm of our old churches consists. We may

have no sympathy with the beliefs of the hands which built them, or with the sixteenth century reformers who adapted them to a worship far different from that for which they were originally intended. Still less need we take delight in the works of churchwardens who for three centuries have been making additions and improvements but notwithstanding all this, Mr. McKay knows that an old church which has not passed through the hands of the restorer is an object which must stir the hearts of all thoughtful people. We have often before us a memorial of eight hundred years of history-a building which, from the days of the Normans until the present moment, has been without intermission the centre of the religious life of the people. When the restorer comes down on buildings of this sort, and sweeps away everything which tells of the changes of the last three hundred years, Mr. McKay cannot restrain his indignation. If even the medieval history were spared, it would be something; but the restorer is commonly so ignorant as well as self-confident that the old as well as the new perishes under his hands. The information collected as to Pendle Forest will be found highly useful, though it is probable that if our public collections of manuscripts were overhauled, much more might be discovered. The reader will welcome, also, what he is told as to Edmund Spenser. It is well to have the facts and guesses as to the poet's origin brought together in one place.

MESSRS. CHAPMAN & HALL publish a translation by Mr. Cooke, a British vice-consul in Finland, of Senator Mechelin's Précis of the Public Law of Finland. It is almost a pity that this excellent view of the Finnish Constitution is not accompanied by a few general chapters about Finnish affairs, as it is too much confined to the subject mentioned in the title to take with the general public. It is always a matter of astonishment to travellers in the Russian empire when they discover how near the frontier of Finland is to the capital of Russia, and how complete is Finnish autonomy. The

Arnold's (M.) Reports on Elementary Schools, 1852-82, 7/6 cl. Bailey's (J.) Oral Teaching in Infaut Schools, er. 8vo. 2/6 cl. Beaconsfield's (Earl of) Coningsby, or the New Generation,

Preface and Notes by Francis Hitchman, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Beytage's (M. E.) Kathleen Kilmaine, a Novel, cr. 8vo. 5/ cl. Cooper's (J. F.) Last of the Mohicans, cr. 8vo. 2/ cl. Cruden's (G.) Manual of Musical Drill and System of Phy

sical Training for Use of Teachers, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Dowling's (R) Indolent Essays, cr. 8vo. 6/cl. Elizabeth, and other Sketches, by the Author of 'Miss

Molly,' cr. 8vo. 6/el.

Employee, cr. 8vo. 7/6 el.

Gilman's (N. P.) Profit Sharing between Employer and Hausrath's (Prof.) Elfriede, a Romance of the Rhineland, 6/ Henderson's (W.) Clues, or Leaves from a Chief Constable's

Note-Book, cr. 8vo. 2/ bds.

Herford's The School, Essay towards Humane Education, 3/6
Herne Lodge, by the Earl of Desart, er. 8vo. 6/ el.
Jones's (E. R.) Una Montgomery, cr, 8vo. 2/6 cl.

Kitts's (E. J.) Serious Crime in an Indian Province, 2/bds.
Letters from Wales, Letters from the Times' on the State

of Wales by a Special Correspondent, cr. 8vo, 2/6 cl. Marsh's (E. M.) Saved as by Fire, 3 vols. cr. 8vo. 31/6 cl. Perry's (J. J. M.) Edlingham Burglary, or Circumstantial

Evidence, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl.

Spearman's (R. H) County Councillor's Manual, 8vo. 7/6 cl. Whittier's (J. G.) Margaret Smith's Journal, Tales and

Sketches, cr. 8vo. 6/ cl.

March 26, 1889.

I FEAR I am not quite convinced by Mr. Gosse's kind and courteous reply to my note on the authorship of the libel in the Examiner.

I aimed at brevity in that note, or could have made my case, I think, rather stronger. The article in the Examiner (March 22nd, 1812) is signed with the hand and outstretched finger (), which was Leigh Hunt's invariable signature to articles written by himself. The style of the article is, I venture to say, beyond all question the same style as that of the other articles, political or literary, scattered through the Examiner bearing the same signature. This seems to me, thenfes, a tolerably strong argu

ment against Lamb authorship.

ALFRED AINGER.

Barton-le-Street Rectory, March 26, 1889.

SOME twenty years ago, at a time when I was writing for the Examiner, I had the opportunity of purchasing three bound volumes of the paper, for the years 1811, 1812, and 1813, which had stood on the office shelves, I believe, since the shelve paper was first started. Inserted in the volume for 1812, opposite No. 221, published on Sunday, March 22nd, 1812, was a slip of dustbegrimed paper bearing the words "L. H.'s jail Article," which I have always looked upon as being inserted there at the time when he was in prison, and when first this volume came back from the binders. I have just been again read ing 'The Prince on St. Patrick's Day, which is the title of the celebrated article, and so far as my knowledge of Lamb's style is concerned I fail to find any of his special characteristics. As I turn over the subsequent pages of this volume, it seems an absolute certainty that Leigh Hunt wrote that article, as was obviously the case with the great majority of the opening articles of the section of the paper that was termed

"The Political Examiner." Mr. Gosse says that "when literary men descend into the political arena their style is apt to abandon them." I venture to say that no one can form a just estimate of Leigh Hunt's style, often at its very best, unless he is conversant with his frequent political leaders. On one occasion, in this very year, when the Examiner went to press without the political opening, apology is made because of the indisposition of the editor. In No. 226, adverting to the charge of libel, the Prince is reminded how in the very first volume of the Examiner the editor had addressed a letter to him warning him of follies and of bad company. This article is personal all through, even to the frequent use of "I"; it is scarcely credible that any sensible person can read this second article through without seeing that it is written by the same pen as the first, and that it must be Leigh Hunt. The article in No. 235 ('The Prince versus the Examiner'), and especially the article in No. 257 ('To His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Regent of the United Kingdom'), are, to my mind, proof positive of the authorship of the original "libel." If Mr. Gosse had read the last of these, he would not have written gravely about the supposition of Lamb writing an article on Leigh Hunt's order, which Leigh Hunt "adopts, revises, perhaps partly rewrites, and finally inserts." I fancy the modern method of newspaper editing was not then known. At all events, on Sunday, November 29th, Leigh Hunt (unless it is a fable that he wrote anything in the paper) writes to the Prince: "The composition of that alleged libel was the work of an instant; it was struck out in the heat of an honest indignation." If Lamb wrote the article or had any material share in it, then Brougham's famous speech at the trial was a singular and artful deceit in one of its ablest and most telling passages, wherein he describes the character, occupations, and life of the writer.

I saw it asserted yesterday in a daily paper that after the imprisonment John Hunt had his own name only registered as proprietor to protect his brother Leigh; but in the very issue of the "libel" only John Hunt's name appears, thus: "Printed and published by John Hunt at the Examiner Office, 15, Beaufort Buildings, Strand. Price 8td."

The "libel" is certainly very stiff; the sting of the "Adonis" sentence is nothing to the conclusion of the paragraph. This is how it runs : "In short, that this delightful, blissful, wise, pleasurable, honourable, virtuous, true, and immortal Prince, was a violator of his word, a libertine over head and ears in debt and dis

grace, a despiser of domestic ties, the companion of gamblers and demireps, a man who has just the gratitude of his country or the respect of

closed half a century without one single claim on posterity."

J. CHARLES COX,

March 25, 1889.

As Mr. Gosse asks for "fresh facts regarding he has contributed the an amusing episode of literary history," to which Lamb was concerned in writing the famous libel "fact" that "Charles in the Examiner on the Prince Regent," allow and some of his Contemporaries,' in which Hunt me to refer him to Leigh Hunt's 'Lord Byron interest I took in the disappointment of the Irish says: "I was provoked to write the libel by the nation, which had peculiar claims on his Royal

"I wrote an attack

Highness"; and again: equally grave and vehement, such as everybody said would be prosecuted." These words, issued in 1828, seem even less capable than those cited by Mr. Gosse from the 'Autobiography,' which appeared in 1850, of being "tortured into a sibility and personal part-authorship." To the declaration of no more than editorial responarticle in the number of the Examiner which contained it, moreover, is appended the small index-hand by which Hunt distinguished his

own contributions from others' work.

Mr. Gosse's only avowed "authority" for his

"torturing" is Mr. Browning, to whom, we are told, a "statement had been transmitted by John Forster" in or about 1837; and he says, "A great deal of positive evidence of a contrary kind is needed to shake our confidence in his [Forster's] word." It is, of course, impossible to say that Lamb was in no way "concerned" in the writing of the article. As he and Hunt were in constant communication at that time (1812), it is not unlikely that the matter was talked over between them, and not inconceivable, as the "libel" was a rejoinder to an article in the Morning Post, to which Lamb had formerly contributed the "fashionable intelligence" described in Elia's 'Newspapers Thirty-five Years Ago,' that he may have suggested the writing of it. But Hunt himself wrote nearly all the political "leaders," one a week, that appeared in his paper. If he now and then assigned the responsible work to another, it was probably his brother John, or his friend Barnes, or perhaps Hazlitt. As he tells us in the Monthly Repository for 1837 ('The Examiner Twenty Years Ago'), "Charles Lamb occasionally put forth a piece of criticism worth twenty of the editors'," in the Examiner; but the criticism was literary, not political. If there were no other reason for rejecting Mr. Gosse's "fact," Canon Ainger's argument from style would be conclusive to most of us. Lamb certainly wrote plenty of squibs for the newspapers, but they were generally on social trifles, not political enormities, and, as far as my reading among the old newspapers shows, very different from the article that caused the Hunts to be imprisoned. On the other hand, though Mr. Gosse "ventures to say that it exhibits no trace of Leigh Hunt's [style] either," there are scores of articles similar in style, which were undoubtedly Leigh Hunt's, in the Examiner of three-quarters of a century ago.

Though Forster knew both Lamb and Hunt in their later years, he was hardly, as Mr. Gosse thinks, " in an exceptionally favourable position for knowing the secrets of the office" of the Examiner, which had changed hands long before his connexion with it began; and whatever "impressions" he may have "transmitted" to Mr. Browning, twenty-five years after date and fifty years ago, about an article written in the year of his own and his friend's birth, I hope no one will accept as "a fact" Mr. Gosse's version of a piece of gossip dishonouring to the memory both of Leigh Hunt and of Charles Lamb. H. R. Fox BOURNE,

A MODERN TURKISH ALMANAC.
Buda-Pesth University.

ANY one conversant with the Ottoman litera

ture of fifty, or even thirty years ago, will be greatly struck by the publications recently

issued at Constantinople in the most varied

fields of literature. Not to mention the extraordinary increase of the daily press, which has become an important factor in the social and political life of the country, and leaving out of consideration the translations of standard Euroscience, I may point to works which, owing pean works in various branches of modern to their wide circulation, fully deserve the tribute towards a radical change in the minds title of popular, and which must largely constaunchly conservative, in the Ottoman empire. and views of the Mohammedan masses, hitherto Out of the publications of the last-mentioned 1306 Heg., published by Ebuzzia Tevfik Bey, species I may select the almanac for the year of Constantinople, a gentleman who is publisher and printer in one, and who during the last ten years has rendered considerable service towards the development of the Ottoman nation. The artistically got up, contains little of the matter work in question, a book of 242 pages properly in almanacs, and in this part of the book the innovation which surprises me consists in the adoption of new names for the Levantine ones formerly used. A few decades ago the Turks adopted for daily and political

life the names of the months employed by their Christian subjects, and retained the Arabic names only for religious and literary purposes; but here quite new names are substituted, taken from the four seasons of the year, each season being | divided into three parts, to correspond to the three months. They have thus first spring, second spring, and third spring, &c., but they are reckoned, as before, by the Greek calendar instead of the Gregorian.

The greater part of the work is filled with articles for the general instruction of the reader. Thus I find under the heading of "Statistics" an account of the armies, navies, railways, telegraphs, schools, libraries, newspapers, &c., of the countries of Europe; whilst under the title of "Various Essays" is printed a learned treatise on the differential relations between the lunar and the solar year by a great Turkish dignitary (I suppose the learned Shakir Pasha, actually Turkish Ambassador at St. Petersburg). The famous general Ghazi Mukhtar Pasha, who defeated the Russians at Zivin in the late RussoTurkish war, is also amongst the contributors of the almanac, in which the most varied topics are discussed, and the doings as well as writings of famous Mohammedan scholars are reported alongside of descriptions of the study of Prince Bismarck, of the castle of Charlottenburg, of the late Emperor Frederick, and of M. Geffcken. Thirty years ago this would have been a sheer impossibility, for the idea of associating the life of renowned Mohammedans with the doings of unbelievers would have been most revolting to even the most advanced Mohammedans. In a similar way is it surprising to find the axioms of Mohammedan, pagan, and Christian worthies given under one and the same heading, and extracts from the Talmud, from a letter of Omar the Khalif, and a conversation between the fireworshipper Nushirvan and his Vezir placed upon the same level. I dare say such an amount of toleration would hardly be evinced in similar books edited by a Christian writer, Catholic or Protestant, and still less would this be the case in a book destined for popular purposes.

In the portion entitled "Biography" the lives of Sultan Selim, Barbarossa, Reshid Bey, and of several of the Ommayyads and Abbasides are sketched, together with the lives of Francis Joseph I., of Von der Golz Pasha, of the present Empress of Germany, of the late Said Bargash of Zanzibar, of Menelek of Abyssinia, and of Dr. Schnitzer or Emin Pasha, of whose doings during his career and his stay in Constantinople, I am sorry to remark, the author speaks in not very flattering terms. The concluding portion of the almanac contains short papers on the religion of Siva and Vishnu, on the Horatii and Curiatii, on certain habits of the Caribs, a list of the richest men in the world, and a few amusing anecdotes. Last, but not least, I have to mention that the almanac contains many illustrations and portraits a circumstance which would have seemed formerly a deadly sin in the eyes of Sunnite Mohammedans, but has become nowadays of daily occurrence. A. VÁMBÉRY.

THE SPRING PUBLISHING SEASON.

MR. FISHER UNWIN announces for the season 'Caroline Schlegel and her Friends,' by Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick, - Essays towards a Critical Method, by Mr. J. M. Robertson, - ' 'Joseph Rogers, M.D.: Reminiscences of a Workhouse Medical Officer,' edited with preface by Prof. Thorold Rogers, 'Sylvan Folk,' by Mr. J. Watson, - Poem Pictures, and other Lyrics,' by Fauvette, new editions of 'The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola, by Prof. Villari, translated by Madame Villari; 'English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages,' by M. J. J. Jusserand, translated by Miss Toulmin Smith; 'Old Chelsea,' by Dr. Martin, illustrated by Pennell; 'The Parnell Movement,' by Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P. ; and 'The Coming of

the Friars,' by Dr. Augustus Jessopp, in the "Nations" Series, 'The Hansa Towns,' by Miss Helen Zimmern; 'Early Britain,' by Prof. A. J. Church; and 'Russia,' by Mr. W. R. Morfill, and in "Unwin's Novel Series," Miss Bayle's Romance; or, an American Heiress in Europe,' second and revised edition, by Mr. W. Fraser Rae.

WATER-MARKS,

23, Abchurch Lane, March 19, 1889.

THE mould used by paper-makers is a wire sieve, not unlike that of a domestic cinder-sifter. The workman, holding it at each end, dips it into a vat of watery fibrous pulp, and in lifting it out the water runs through the wires, leaving on the surface a sheet of paper. The wooden frame of the mould (a a a a) is about one-fourth longer from side to side than from top to bottom. There are stout wires, about an inch apart, called "chain wires" (b b, &c.), which run from top to bottom, and fastened across these are numerous thread-like "laid wires," between

which the water can escape. Take any sheet of old paper-and in these remarks I confine myself to books and paper before 1750-and holding it up to the light you will see numerous white lines close together - these are called "laid lines"; and across these are the few bolder "chain-lines." In addition you will see a water-mark (c), the figure of a jug, a unicorn, a bull's head, Britannia, a fool's cap, or something else. This as well as the wire-marks appear translucent, because the wires are slightly raised on the face of the mould, and therefore the paper-pulp is thinner just in those parts. The water-mark originally was the trade-mark of the maker, but in course of time became the symbol of size only. Thus the smallest size of paper, which had a jug for its mark, was called pot; that bearing a cap and bells, foolscap; and that with a horn, post. The Shakspeare and Jonson folios were all printed on pot paper. Now, remembering that in all papers the chain-lines run from top to bottom, and that when a sheet is folded in half (see (see dot making folio, the water - mark appears about the centre of the leaf, we deduce the following

laws:

dotted line),

Law 1. In any old book, if the chain-lines run down, and the water-mark is found about the centre of the page, that book must be folio.

There is no getting out of this; it is true of all books in all times up to about 1750, when wove paper and the absence of water-marks came in. Of course it applies to all hand-made laid papers up to the present time, but not to machine-made papers. Perhaps the simplest way for readers who have no means of folding a sheet for themselves is to take a sheet of common note paper, open it, and draw a few lines from top to bottom to represent chainlines, and then to make any figure they like to represent the water-mark about the centre of the right-hand half. This should be done on both sides, and then the accuracy of these remarks can be proved experimentally.

ing to its size) runs into, and often through, the back of the sheet. Therefore

Law 2. If the chain-marks are across, and the water-mark is found in the middle of the back of a book, that book must be quarto.

In a similar way, by folding in half again we make the size called octavo, and we find here the chain-lines down and the water-mark at the top edge.

Law 3. If the chain-lines are down, and the water-mark is found at the top edge of a book, that book must be octavo.

Here, then, for the large class of books between octavo and folio, is a true, because a natural test. It is good for books of all nationalities, and is the only true guide for the bibliographer as to size.

In

An objection may perhaps be made that by this plan a contradiction in nomenclature is sure to arise, and that the quarto of a large sheet like that upon which the Mazarin Bible is printed will stand higher on the shelf than a Shakespeare folio. What then? The large quarto is larger in that case than the small folio, and when this is once understood all objection must cease. And then see the great advantage of having a fixed rule that has no exceptions, a true nomenclature, independent of the caprice or haphazard fancy of an erratic printer, and based on a fundamental law in the science of books. fact, we have no more the right to ignore than we have the power to alter such laws; and it is because these laws have been unrecognized that we find some of our greatest bibliographers quite wrong as to sizes, cataloguing folios as quartos and quartos as folios. Before me lies 'Aretinus de Bello Gallico,' by Jenson of Venice, 1471; all the authorities call it a folio, because of its fine size, but the chain-lines run across the page; it must be a quarto. No bibliographer has a better name for accuracy than the celebrated Van Praet, yet he errs in the size of a book printed by his hero, Colard Mansion; and because the unique volume entitled 'Purgatorie des Mauvais Maris' has been greatly cropped he catalogues it as a small quarto. Now all the other books of this printer are folio, and the down chain-lines and the water-mark near the fore-edge prove this to be folio also, the water-mark appearing out of place in consequence of so much paper having been ploughed off one side. No old book should be catalogued as to size by the eye, but always by the water-marks. This would prevent much confusion, for if a book is entered here as a quarto because cropped, and there as a folio because uncut, it makes two editions out of one. Truly the natural system is the only correct way. It may be too much to expect, especially from the undermanned staff of our national libraries, that they should re-examine their numerous volumes of fifteenth and sixteenth century workmanship, and alter the size in their catalogues where found wrong; but surely we may hope that in future fresh acquisitions will not have their sizes judged by the appearance or by the dictum of any bibliographer, but by the watermarks. Bodley's Librarian has for some time past adopted a set of rules founded upon watermarks-why should not all others?

WILLIAM BLADES.

THE NEW EDUCATION CODE.

THE production of a new code by the Committee of Council on Education coincides with the completion of the fiftieth year of its existence. When Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth organized the Education Office, he started by asking for the modest sum of 30,000l. to distribute amongst the voluntary schools which came to the Government for aid. Last year the total expenditure, on day and evening schools, from the parliamentary grant, amounted to 3,075,000l. Until the year 1860 the regulations by which the Committee of Council was governed in the distribution of its grants were contained in a number of

which provided for augmentation grants to teachers and stipends to pupil-teachers. There are inspectors and teachers still amongst us who look back fondly at those Minutes now.

Then

came their embodiment in a code (1860), which was followed by the greatly debated Revised Code of 1861, inseparably connected with the name of Mr. Lowe, now Lord Sherbrooke. That code instituted the system of individual examination and of payment by the results of the scholars' examination, which with various modifications has prevailed to this day. The system has been the subject of vehement debate; it has been attacked by inspectors, by managers, by school boards, and by teachers, many great authorities condemning it as conducive only to "cram," and as worked in a manner most mechanical and lifeless. The teachers have had

one great object before them-to "pass," not to "educate," the child. The managers of the voluntary schools, who, when a deficit has stared them in the face, have had no School Board rate to fall back on, have complained of the increasing difficulty of maintaining their schools in the face of School Board competition. So, owing to universal discontent with things as they were, the Government appointed in 1886 a strong commission, with Lord Cross as chairman, to inquire into the present elementary school system of England and Wales. The result of their inquiry, the evidence given before them, and the recommendations of the Commissioners lie before us in ten huge folios. It is upon the recommendations contained in them that the extensive

alterations in the Code for 1889 are mainly based. These amendments may be qualified as revolutionary. The appendix, showing separately (for 1889) all articles of the Code modified and all new articles, occupies fourteen pages.

We will look at the principal amendments. First as to pupil-teachers. In deference to the universal complaints of their backwardness and unpreparedness to enter training colleges, the regulations are made much more stringent. No probationer will be recognized now unless the inspector passes him in the three subjects of Standard VI. and the managers certify that he has been instructed in two "class subjects." When the probationer is recognized as a pupilteacher his examination will be much more stringent throughout his apprenticeship, which may now cover five years instead of four. At the termination of the apprenticeship the pupilteacher may be examined for admission into either a residential or day training college. The latter is a new institution, and is to be aided in this way. In the case of male students 25l. and of female students 20l. will be paid annually, through the local committee establishing the

day training college, to each Queen's scholar, and 10l. to the committee itself in respect of each Queen's scholar enrolled for continuous training throughout the year. The same college may be both a residential and a day training

college. At the examination for certificates of merit candidates, in order to be recognized as capable of superintending pupil-teachers, must take second-year papers and appear in the first or second division. Considerable changes respecting the certificate of merit are instituted; but we need not set them forth in detail. Henceforth there will be only one class of certificate,

and the right to superintend pupil-teachers may be withdrawn on the report of Her Majesty's

inspector. As to the staff, a certificated teacher

will still be reckoned as equal to an average

attendance of 60, each additional certificated teacher to 70 (instead of 80), each assistant teacher to 50 (instead of 60), and each pupilteacher to 30 (instead of 40).

School managers will henceforth be obliged to publish the accounts of their schools in their districts, and they will have to provide a hundred cubic feet of internal space and ten square feet of internal area for each unit of average attendance. But it is on Article 100 (now replacing 109) that general attention will be con

centrated. Instead of the grants under Article 109 of 4s. 6d. fixed grant and the merit grant of 1s., 2s., and 3s., the grants offered are a fixed general grant of 12s., 14s., or 15s. 6d. While the inspector will have power to examine individual scholars as before, he will only be bound to examine individually in the specific subjects. Here is the new article, which will be read with much interest by teachers :"100.

The grants made are as follows:

"(a) a general grant of 128., or 148., or 158. 6d. "(i.) Whethera school should receive any of these sums is determined by the Department after considering the report and recommendation of the inspector. The report shall set forth the condition of the school as to general efficiency, Art. 85 (e), and as to premises, apparatus, staff, organization, discipline, and the amount and quality of the instruction given to the scholars, especially in the elementary subjects, and shall recommend which of these grants (if any) should be paid.

"(ii.) No school shall receive more than 128. unless the inspector reports that the scholars throughout the school are satisfactorily taught re

petition as set forth in Schedule II.

"(iii.) No school with an average attendance of 100 boys or more shall receive 15s. 6d, unless drawing is

satisfactorily taught.

(iv.) If any general grant has once been made it may be reduced to 12s., but shall not be wholly withdrawn on the ground of inefficiency until after warning that it may be withdrawn at the next annual inspection if the report then made is not satisfactory."

100 (a) "(vi.) The examination of the scholars examined should include the three elementary subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic, in a

standard in each of them suitable to their capacity: As a rule, the scholars examined in any subject instruction are examined in the classes in which they are taught."

The grants of 1s. and 2s. for class subjects and

of 4s. for specific subjects remain as before.

For schools in sparsely populated districts a new article (103) runs thus :

"Where the population within two miles measured as aforesaid from any public elementary school is between 300 and 400, and there is no other public elementary school recognized by the Department as available for that population, or where the managers of a school are entitled to the grant of 10l. or 15l. (Article 102), the Department may, on the recommendation of the inspector, make a grant, in addition to the ordinary grant, amounting to a sum not exceeding 10l. in each case. Provided that the inspector reports that the school is supplied with a thoroughly efficient staff of teachers, including a certificated teacher or teachers, and that the fee charged is suitable.

"In any case under this article a certificated teacher is considered sufficient for 40 scholars, and an assistant teacher for 30, and a pupil-teacher for 20. Efficient paid monitors may also be included as supplementary members of the staff."

As to evening schools the same amount per head (16s.) may still be earned, but if a scholar has already passed in Standard V. he may be presented in the "additional" subjects alone. We have now mentioned the principal and radical changes proposed. On a first inspection of them they seem to be in the right direction. Practically the rigid system of payment by individual examination has gone. Years ago we said the individual examination schedule was doomed, and here is the evidence of the justice of our prediction. The bulk of the grant now depends on the general report of the inspector, and the grant for "specific subjects" only will depend on the individual examination of the scholar. The limitation of the grant to 17s. 6d. per scholar, or the total income of the school from all sources other than the grant, remains the same (by the Act of 1876). Doubt

less these alterations will disappoint some and

displease other interests; but speaking generally they appear to be decided improvements on the present system.

SALE.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge sold a selection of duplicate and other books from the well-known library of the Duke of Buccleuch. The principal rarities in the sale were several Caxtons,

a Boccaccio in beautiful binding by Padeloup, and two or three manuscripts. The Caxtons especially sold well, as the following prices show. Boccaccio, Il Decamerone, the Giunta edition, 1527, bound in variegated leathers by Padeloup, fetched 185l. Juliana Barnes, Treatyses perteyning to Hawkynge and Huntynge, &c., printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496 (imperfect), 44l. S. Brant, Shyp of Folys of the Worlde, 1509 (imperfect), 23l. Caxton, The Chronicles of England, 1480, 470l.; another copy (imperfect), second edition, 1482, 45l. Les Grands Chroniques de St. Denis, an illuminated manuscript on vellum of the fifteenth century, 98l. Chronicles of England in English, manuscript on vellum, fifteenth century, 581. Chroniques de Normandie, 1487, 15l. 158. Chronicon Nurembergense, 20l. Hearne's Works, on large paper, fifty-six volumes, 80l. Caxton, Dictes and Sayengis of the Philosophers, first edition, Westminster, 1477, 650l. Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, 1730, 18l. Caxton, Higden, Discripcion of Britayne, 1480 (repaired), 1951. Lyf of Saint Katherin of Senis with the Reuelaycons of Seynt Elysabeth of Hungarye, probably printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1492 or 1493, 99l. (this book cost the late Duke 45l.). Roomsch Gebedeboek, illuminated manuscript on vellum, fifteenth century, 50l. Purchas, Pilgrims, five volumes (engraved title inlaid), 1625-1626, 50l. Caxton, Kyal Book, or Book for a King, translated from the French, and printed by Caxton in the "second yere of the Regne of Kyng Rychard the Thyrd," 365l. The sale realized 3,705l. 4s. 6d.

THE DEPUTY-KEEPER'S REPORT.

THE latest return of the work of the Public Record Office, albeit somewhat "long drawn out," like the sessions of Parliament upon which it attends, is one of exceptional interest. The statistics printed here give ample evidence of the rapidly increasing work and public usefulness of the Office in each of its several departments. We have also satisfactory evidence of great industry displayed in the identification and repair of documents, and of the wise precautions taken for their security from accidental, but equally irreparable damage. Lastly there is a most tempting announcement of forthcoming calendars, prepared by the official staff as the final stage of a gradual, but comprehensive arrangement of the national records.

Portions of these calendars are printed as usual in the Appendix to the Report, the first on the list being a continuation of the Calendar of Patent Rolls for the year 1279-80. This is probably the least attractive period of Edward I.'s reign, in the interval between the two Welsh wars and the two statutes of Westminster. There is an opportunity, indeed, for some curious speсиlations respecting the exact position of the justices appointed to take the three great assizes, whether they are to be regarded as special commissioners or as an earlier instance of justices of nisi prius; and several other matters of constitutional importance will be discovered here. An interesting investigation is suggested by the frequent evidences of the steady progress of the friars and of those less welcome foreign adventurers who gained substantially by the political crusade against the Jews. We are often troubled with the suspicion that the commons of England were not only losers by this exchange

of intelligent foreigners, but that they made no

secret of their views whenever it was possible to obtain a hearing. On the very first page of this calendar there is a grant in favour of the famous civilian Francesco Accursi, which strongly recalls those glaring abuses of patronage that provoked the revolution of 1258, and at least one other before the close of the Middle Ages. This calendar has for some years past formed one of the most noticeable features of the DeputyKeeper's reports. Its many excellences have been noticed by us on previous occasions, and