versified version of the Psalms. But only very foundation. His leading doctrine, that "lord- While shepherds watched their flocks by night, The angel of the Lord came down And glory shone around. There is no Scriptural authority for the "all verse is altered to : While humble shepherds watched their flocks In 1751 "fields" was substituted in both lines for "plains"; and in 1781 "plains" was re- The night our Lord was born, there were In fields of Bethlehem Some shepherds staying by their flocks, Or with this on Isaiah xii. 1 by Zachary Boyd: I will thee praise, O Lord, though thou As a rule these earlier Scottish versifiers turned or Lollardy had to do with the Reforma- can be done in this way has, perhaps, been tion, except in weakening generally the sense of Pontifical and sacerdotal authority, and supplying as a counterpoise a Bible in the vernacular speech, there seem no clear indications. Mr. Poole's book, however, will be of great assistance to those who wish to think these matters out. improve on either Isaiah or the gospels by put LAW BOOKS. Outlines of the Science of Jurisprudence: an Introduction to the Systematic Study of Law. The Scottish Paraphrases: being the Translations and Paraphrases in Verse of several Pas- Translated and edited from the sages of Sacred Scripture collected and prepared the committee scottathe General Assembly of Ahrens, by W. Hastie, M.Anders, and Church of Scotland in order sung Clark)-By far the larger portion of this book in Churches. An Account of their History, consists of the translation of Puchta's "Juristic Mac'agan. Encyclopædia," entitled 'Outlines of Jurispru -on reckoned spiritual side at least-must be the "good and godly ballads" should occupy only about half of a book exten Jurist Mr. Sheldon Amos and Mr. Frederic Harrace we and probably by other eminent deceased an living writers, in this viewminent is one whic are concerned to oppose, even if we ac that there may be two opinions about it. ceding the propriety of such a sequence of staf may admit, further, that the high hơn which Puchta has long been held among juridica writers appears to justify the choice of his "Encyclopædia" as a text-book, while the brevity of the work in itself is a further recommends this character everything bered that and this character rything is dogma of of the origin of "the State." Describing brie the "Contrat Social" of Rousseau, and the riv being introduced as supplementary to Puchta, theories are equally removed from the truth of and the half dozen pages of Ahrens supple truth of each lies only in its negation of t the Wedderburns. But these songs, rude almost mentary to Falck. To a commonplace Ele other." We have carefully considered his of to coarseness, yet homely, earnest, and vigorous, man it may cause some surprise that were soon displaced by the more decorous bearing the imposing name of a work medium view on the same point, and we find "Encyclopædia " to amount to this-that the State arises from th ill of the people, but that it is, in its ultimate rigin, a thing given and instituted by the reator, though left by Him to be formed and eveloped by human agencies and methods. here is no attempt to prove this position, Which amounts apparently to an adoption of the rinciple of "divine right of kings, and its exPension to every kind of government under the This is only one of many instances in hich Puchta appears to take a private view of hings as they have been, are, or may be, and place them before the world, under a veil of High-flown language, as things which must be end ought to be. The student will suffer no inury from the perusal of such passages, if he onstantly bears in mind that big words do not un. norance and corruption, but not when a man tronstitute arguments, and that the conclusions | earliest known instances took the form of a com f one writer, however distinguished, are not riteria of truth for all mankind. The little cragment of Ahrens inculcates the principle hat jurisprudence should be taught as philoLophical, historical, and positive science, and hat the three aspects should not be separated rom one another. The book concludes with a Definition and History" of "Encyclopædia" by Friedländer), containing a good deal of Dibliographical information, and awarding to Bacon, as author of 'De Dignitate et Augnentis Scientiarum,' a high place both as a scientific and as a juristic encyclopædist. Informations (Criminal and Quo Warranto), Mandamus, and Prohibition. By John Shortt, LL.B. (Clowes & Sons.) - The popular idea of a court of law is that of an authority sitting in judgment to determine which of two or more claimants is the true owner of a particular property, or whether (and if so, to what extent) one person is indebted to another in respect of a particular transaction. This is, in truth, the ultimate aim of "the court," but there are certain ancillary mandates which, though not in the nature of decisions as to property, are useful in reserving it for decision by averting dangers which threaten it. Conspicuous among these, from very early times, have been injunction in courts of equity, and information, mandamus, and prohibition in courts of common law. Mr. Shortt has done wisely in choosing the last three as the subject of a new book; for, while injunction is the subject of one or two voluminous modern treatises, its sisters of the common law have been strangely neglected by recent authors. An information may be popularly described as a proceeding by which certain kinds of offences may be brought directly before the court, instead of passing through the usual ordeal of the grand jury. A multitude of ancient technicalities are mixed up with the "learning" on informations, and our readers would scarcely thank us for going at length into such matters. In modern times ex officio criminal informations (filed by some public officer) have been used very frequently to repress libels of a public character; for instance, an ex officio information was filed against the managers of a newspaper, in 1704, for "lamenting the sad state of the country owing to the influence of French gold on those who had the conduct of affairs"; another, in 1777, for reporting a resolution at a public meeting to the effect that certain Englishmen (apparently our American colonists, then in revolt), "preferring death to slavery, were for that reason only inhumanly murdered by the king's troops." Criminal informations not ex officio, which require the permission of the court, were formerly used in the case of private libels, but that practice has of late years been discredited. General Sir Charles Napier failed to obtain permission after he had ceased to be commander-in-chief in India, though the libel related to his conduct in that capacity; and a shipowning M.P. failed in an application against Mr. Plimsoll, who had accused him of overloading his ships in order that they might sink and he might pocket the insurances. An information was allowed when the Middlesex magistrates were accused, in a pamphlet, of ig mand by Edward III. to the University of Oxford to restore a man who was bannitus! (No such remedy, alas, in these degenerate days!) This cunning instrument of judicial torture is, however, most commonly applied in cases of appointment to offices of a public, not of a private description. Thus the court will grant a mandamus to elect a mayor, an alderman, a town councillor, or perhaps any other officer of a municipal character, but it will not interfere in the case of a barrister, an advocate, a member of the College of Physicians, or an unendowed lecturer. Mr. Shortt is right, ap. parently, in thinking that the provision as to mandamus in the Judicature Act, s. 25, sub-s. 8, is to be taken in a limited sense, and is not designed to extend to courts of equity the ancient rights of the common law courts in their full luxuriance; but the framers of the Act might have made the matter clearer. A prohibition is an order made by one court to keep another within the proper limits of its jurisdiction. It is provided by statute that no prohibition can be issued agains against the High Court of Justice or the Court of Appeal; but by a strange omission there is no such provision as to the Judicial Committee, and that august tribunal may perhaps be prohibited in its character of an ecclesiastical court of appeal. As a rule, the courts against which prohibitions may issue are those which are manifestly inferior to the court which issues them. Mr. Shortt's book is one of a good old type, going into the subject in a business-like manner, and giving cases for every point. Such a work depends for its value on the amount of accuracy with which the decisions are summarized. At p. 143 there is a misleading statement which, substantially, occurs twice over. After the words "the following have been held incompatible offices" we find "alderman and town clerk," on the authority of R. v. Pateman, 2T. R. 777, and "jurat and town clerk," on that of Milward v. Thatcher, 2 T. R. 81; but the former case distinctly asserts that the offices are not necessarily incompatible, though they were so in the particular case; the latter settles nothing as to incompatibility, merely deciding that, if the offices are incompatible, the election to the lower amounts to a resignation of the higher. Generally speaking, however, we have found Mr. Shortt's statements of cases to be clear and accurate. An appendix, consisting of nearly one hundred and fifty pages, contains the 'Crown Office Rules, 1886, a valuable collection of forms, &c. The index is copious, and the production of the book is unexceptionable. OUR LIBRARY TABLE. ever, have been vastly improved by more careful arrangement. Why should chapters on "Field Sports" and "The Turf" be interpolated between chapters on "Card-Playing" and Gambling," and a chapter on "Money Matters" between those on "Brilliant Talkers" and "Wit and Humour"? Lord Stradbroke's coursing has not much to do with the turf (vol. i. pp. 132-33); and we are totally at a loss to conceive why George Selwyn's fondness for witnessing executions is styled a "recreation," while the artistic propensities of a professional painter like David Allan are called "hobbies." Again, why should we be twice told about Shelley's paper boats (vol. i. pp. 48 and 327) and twice about Addison's visits to the pot-house (vol. ii. pp. 48 and 83)? Some of the omissions are rather astonishing. Of two statesmen who really could play, the account of Sir Robert Walpole's "happier hour of social pleasure ill exchanged for power" is singularly incomplete; and though we are told about Pitt's cushion fight with young Napier, there is no mention of his strewing the garden beds with the fragments of Dudley Ryder's opera-hat. Again, the two most remarkable of statesmenagriculturists are left out-Lord Townshend, to whom we owe the cultivation of the turnip; and Lord Althorp, who said of himself that "nature intended him to be a grazier." Among statesmen-scholars search will be made in vain for the names of Melbourne and Wellesley; among the impecunious, for obvious instances like Coleridge and B. R. Haydon; among sportsmen, for Jack Mytton and Osbaldeston, though some of them are incidentally noticed in other connexions. But it is in turf affairs that Mr. Dyer is most defective. He mentions that the twelfth Earl of Derby founded the Oaks, and says nothing about his foundation of the Derby as well; and he actually talks of Voltigeur as "which." Ag Again, his account of Admiral Rous's dictatorship at Newmarket is unsatisfactory; and as to Lord George Bentinck, he has no mention of his turf reforms, his exposure of the Running Rein fraud, or of the deeds of his famous filly Crucifix. Greville's well-known character of his cousin would have enlightened Mr. Dyer considerably, and it is remarkable that he should describe the diarist as one "whose interesting memoirs have thrown so much light on the state of political parties in the two preceding reigns." Can it be that Mr. Dyer is unaware of the publication of the second and third parts of the journals? Except an appalling statement that O'Connell died in 1835, we have not come across many absolute errors, and those chiefly trifling mistakes in proper names, of which Thomas Henry Buckle and Lord John Hervey (for Lord Hervey) are specimens. But the punctuation is often most irritating, and the style enigmatic and sententious. Card-players, however, will be glad to hear that Mr. Dyer opines that "so long as prudence, and moderation, influence this pleasing diversion, there is little fear of its forfeiting the popularity which it has rightly earned." The Civil Service Manual of Mr. Skerry (Simpkin & Marshall) is intended to aid those mainly who wish to face the examiners of the Civil Service Commission. It gives the regulations and other particulars, and specimens of examination papers. The book seems well adapted to its purpose. The sudden popularity obtained in England by golf will no doubt secure sufficient support for the Golfing Annual of the late Mr. Bauchope (Cox), which now appears for the second time under the editorial care of his brother. The "Directory of Clubs" is very welcome, the plans of greens have their use, and much of the letterpress is good, but the comic illustrations are at once silly and vulgar. Great Men at Play, by Mr. T. F. Thiselton Dyer (Remington & Co.), would have been better entitled 'Great Men in Private Life,' and even so the book includes numerous personages who have little or no claims to greatness, and is confined for the most part to Englishmen, and to Englishmen who have flourished since the We have on our table a large number of new Tudors. Still, it does not do to be too par- editions of works of fiction; among them a handy ticular in these matters, and within their modest reprint in one volume of Mr. Black's Strange limits the two volumes are by no means a dis-Adventures of a Houseboat (Sampson Low & Co); creditable piece of work. They would, how- Magnum Bonum, by Miss Yonge, and also are LIST OF NEW BOOKS. Relation to the Law of Forgiveness, er. 8vo. 2,6 cl. Deli zseli's (F.) New Commentary on Genesis, translated by S Tayler, Vol. 2. 810, 10.6 cl. Lady Hester, in the welcome edition of that a THE "Lotos Series" will raise the reputation of Messrs. Trübner for taste. Both the largepaper and the small paper editions are pretty books-as pretty as any we have recently seen. The second volume consists of the ever popular Breitmann Ballads. In an interesting little preface Mr. Leland pays a graceful tribute to the memory of the late Mr. Trübner. Mr. Trübner's own introduction to the book is rightly retained. This edition certainly deserves to be preferred to all others. We have on our table Old Yorkshire, edited by W. Smith, New Series (Longmans), - Bicentenary Lectures, by Principal Fairbairn and others (Congregational Union of England and Wales), The Antiquary, Vol. XVIII. (Stock), -Crustula; or, Unseen Passages for Lower Forms, edited by E. A. Wells (Rivingtons), Practical Iron Founding, by the Author of 'Pattern Making' (Whittaker), Modern Cremation: its History and Practice, by Sir H. Thompson (Kegan Paul), -Stellar Evolution, by J. Croll, LL.D. (Stanford), -Science and the Faith, by Aubrey L. Moore (Kegan Paul), Shelley & Co.'s Complete Press Directory for 1889 (Shelley & Co.), -Evans's Illustrated Guide and Directory to Paris and Exhibition of 1889 (Evans), The Wandering Knight, by Jean de Cartheny (Burns & Oates), - Dollars or Sense ? by A. Louis (Ward & Lock), - The Girl from Malta, by F. Hume (The Hansom Cab Publishing Company), - Golden Love, edited by G. C. Haité (Griffith & Farran), -A False Scent, by Mrs. Alexander (White & Co.), — A Fatal Affinity, by S. Cumberland (Spencer Blackett), - A Summer Day, by Alice and Louisa M. Fenn (Griffith & Farran), -The Mystery of Belgrave Square, by C. Yorke (White & Co.),-A White Umbrella in Mexico, by F. H. Smith (Longmans), - Told in a City Garden, by E. Kidson (Stock), - Poems, by Antæus (The Author), Character Studies in Macbeth, by G. Author), Fletcher (Longmans), ),-Shakespeare's --Shakespeare's 1 The Winter's Tale, with an Introduction and Notes by K. Burns's Holograph Orelli's (Dr. C. von) Prophecies of Isaiah Expounded, trans- Smith's (Horace) Poems, 12mo. 5/ cl. History and Biography. Carlyle (Jane Welsh), Early Letters of, edited by D. G. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel 787-1001 AD, edited Geography and Travel, Edgar's (A.) The Bibles of England, 8vo. 7/6 cl. Science. Brooksmith's (E. J.) Woolwich Mathematical Papers for Allen's (G.) The Tents of Shem, 3 vols. cr. 8vo. 31/6 cl. edited by C. Annandale, Vol. 2, 8vo. 6/cl. Price's (Mrs. Hilary St. John, 2 vols. cr. 8vo. 21/cl. FOREIGN. Baur (A.): Zwinglis Theologie, Vol. 2, Part 2, 9m. Deischen Evangeliums, Part 4, 2m. Weiss (A. M.): Apologie d. Christenthums, Vol. 5, 6m. Fine Art and Archæology. Dehio (G.) u. Bezold (G. v.): Die Kirchliche Baukunst d. Fabre (C.): Traité Encyclopédique de Photographie, Part 1, Philosophy. Delabre (J.): Tourville et la Marine de son Temps, 7fr. 50. Simon (E.): L'Empereur Guillaume II., 3fr. 50. Vogüé (E. M. de): Le Fils de Pierre le Grand, 3fr. 50. Geography and Travel, Millet (R.): La Serbie Economique et Commerciale, 5fr. Burchardi (Th.): Elementargrammatik der Sprache d. Egbert's v. Lüttich Fecunda Ratis, hrsg. v. E. Voigt, 9m. 1m. 50. Science. Deighton (Macmillan), Reiff (R.): Geschichte der Unendlichen Reihen, 5m. (Allen & Co.), - Our Father's Promises, edited by 5m. General Literature. Adam (J.): Jalousie de Jeune Fille, 3fr. 50. Claveau: Pile on Face, 3fr. 50. Gréville (H.): Louk Loukitch, 3fr. 50. GIORDANO BRUNO. JUNE 9TH, 1889. NOT from without us, only from within, Save of his own soul's giving. Deep and bright Burns in the soul where once its fire has been Should set with his in heaven Giordano's name. 11. Cover thine eyes and weep, O child of hell, Grey spouse of Satan, Church of name abhers Weep, withered harlot, with thy weeping lord, Now none will buy the heaven thou hast to sell At price of prostituted souls, and swell Thy loveless list of lovers. Fire and sword No more are thine: the steel, the wheel, the The flames that rose round living limbs, and fell In lifeless ash and ember, now no more Approve thee godlike. Rome, redeemed at last From all the red pollution of thy past, Acclaims the grave bright face that smiled of Even on the fire that caught it round and el To cast its ashes on the face of Rome. ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNL A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. 7, Norham Gardens, Oxford, May, HARDLY a month passes without my receivi some new proposal for a universal langua They are all more or less ingenious, but they seem to have fallen upon stony places wher they had not much earth, and forthwith the sprang up, because they had no deepness earth; and when the sun was up they we scorched, and because they had no roots, the withered away. The last proposal I have received came fro Sweden, and the enclosed letter, written in what is called the "Central Language," may possibly interest some of your readers. F. MAX MÜLLER Svezia, Gefle, 9/7, 1889. CHER SIGNORO! - Pardonnee mi, ke io n skribar al You in mon propre prov-dialekto, kirio dock esperar, ke You virt kompreni par les principal'le nur anglik, french e germanik vortos in kis ce-chi dialekto estar kompositate! Io kredar, ke an vest-evrojuk litteratur-lingvo devar esti kom prenate fen chack kultivate evropiano, e ce-lo one kelk speciale preparezios. Mon prov-dialekto نجا elektet its plazon, as an kompromiss-lingra, betvin les former lingvo-proponios de dr. Sisy, herr Lott, herr Lentze e mr. Hoinis. Io bai evitet to employi softe konsonant-tonons as terminatos del's (de les) vortos; puisk les russianik e germanis poplos not pouvar pronounzi dem. Io evitar atk gerne les french e anglik tonons ch, j, sh. etc.; puss sie havar som un decidate in its karaktero, lolai employet nur tre venige latinik vortons; puiska demie humanito: les veibas not konnezar la latick lingvon. Les french vortons io hai adoptet in der un'abbreviate formo, as sie pronounzar-se avale vortos, kommenzante mit vokalo. Aus la germanik lingvo io hai prendet principal'le nur substantives e help-vortons; puisk mon romanik passiv-forme not bene permettar la adoptezion de german' verbos. Puisk io estar an enmio de chack sistem tikezio in estetik mattros, io not amar artificale vortons; ma io may dock toleri kelk bene fundate prefixons e suffixons, exemple: sen' (ohne); (riche, plene par); -eble (-obl, -ibl); -io, -ezio (ata -asion, -ess, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -ung); -less (ohn: -eni (fari al-); softe, soft'eni fari al softe, ett Io preferar dock la analitik stilon, in kel on wel gerne dirar: "tu fari him softe," als: "tu soft'est him," etc. Aus la anglik lingvo on probab'le poc recevi les bonest pre-e suffixons; kar ce-chi ling? estar in se shon an mediatezio inter les romanik e saxonik elementos, so as auk la central-lingvo derar esti. Io kredar, ke la lingvo-sensa virt noxiar se. si la central-lingvo in its tute karakterop nahe similar la anglik, french, italik or kelk nation-lingvon; darum may es havi an mixet grac maron e vort-kollekton, ma an bone inner bar monio AUG. NILSON (Ingenieur). P.S.-Here is another letter just received, and which I cannot quite decipher :Esperantalingre. ESTIMATA SINJORO!-Vi skribis al mi, ke nis lingvo internacia placas al vi kaj ke vi konsilas kunvoki la kongreson: gi estos kunvokata, kiam ni havos la plej multajn adeptojn, por ke ciuj povas doni sian vocon, car unu sago estas bona, sed du da sagoj estas pli bonaj. Estu tiel bona: skribu sur la posta karto por respondo, kian mi sendas al vi, ke vi promes ellerni la lingvon internacian de Esperanto senkon dice kaj sigelu je via [sic] promeso (tion ci autors petas en antaupa rolo de gramatiko), car ni eldonos baldaue la adresaron de l'Esperantalingvistoj kaj por la lingvo estos plej grava havi inter siaj adeptoj la plej grandan instruit, ul, o, n [sic] de l'mondo, Via estonta promeso suldigos vin je l'nenio, car vi jam as la gramatikon de l'lingvo, sed vi faros la plej andan bonon al la mondo kaj Dio donos al vi per egoj de ciuj homoj la bonan vivon en la tero rajen cielo! Mi pregas Dion, ke vi skribus al mi tiun promeson kaj kredas, ke Liaudos la mian pregon! La autoro de l'lingvo vin salutas raj dankas, ke legis la lian gramatikon. Kun estimo. DE MAJNOV VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVIC. 'LAND CHARTERS.' Swanswick, June 3, 1989. In the review of my 'Land Charters' which =opears in the last number of the Athenœum tere occurs a misapprehension which I should glad if you would permit me to remove. is there said that I have in many in-ances ignored Mr. Birch's 'Cartularium,' and _ though this is not the fact in any one instance, et the appearance is so far against me that I ecognize some explanation is due. The adanced state of the 'Cartularium' by the time hat my book was published would easily suggest The inference that I had had the opportunity of sing it during my editorial work on the texts. But this was not the case; my texts were nearly 11 printed off before Mr. Birch began to pubsh, or before the issue (which appeared in Darts) had amounted to the character of a book f reference. The preparation of my critical pparatus, which is almost wholly new, required considerable time, and in this part of my work st will be found that the 'Cartularium' receives ts full meed of recognition. J. EARLE. THE HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS COMMISSION. THE DANBY PAPERS. In a luminous essay upon the progress of hiscorical research in Europe a recent American - diplomatist and scholar has defined a British what may be called the secret service money of the Crown. It is to be regretted that more space could not be allotted to the Tangier papers and to an apparently interesting series of Irish and colonial and foreign despatches. After the incident of the Earl of Danby's impeachment there is a gap in his correspondence until we come to the account of the Revolution in Yorkshire, which is indicated in the titles of the family papers for the year 1688-9. Among these is an intercepted Jacobite letter conveying early news of the battle of Killiecrankie, and denying with suspicious vehemence the report of the fatal loss sustained by the victors. Under the head of "Miscellaneous MSS. and Papers" some highly interesting treatises and official compilations are preserved, including a Dutch army list dated 1607 and a copy of the regulations of the Russian navy in 1788. A still more important series of State Papers has been unearthed by Mr. Macray among the Holdernesse MSS., which came into the possession of the fifth Duke of Leeds by marriage. Lord Holdernesse was Secretary of State during the Newcastle ministry, and several large parcels of foreign correspondence, which will be found to fill certain gaps in the State Paper Office collection, may be mentioned as possessing a very real value. Among these are Benjamin Keene's despatches from Madrid between 1751 and 1756. Other State Papers of scarcely inferior interest are enumerated, together with the above, as forming part of the contents of three iron boxes. These include despatches from Lord George Sackville, the Marquis of Granby, the Duke of Cumberland, and Admirals Hawke and Anson. It is certainly to be regretted that this rare historical material has not received the same atten who were under Lord Holdernesse's care between 1771 and 1776. Calendar of State Papers as a précis sufficiently ❘tion as the polite effusions of the royal princes full to save the necessity of reference to the original documents. It is to be feared, however, that the latest publication but one of the Historical Manuscripts Commission would scarcely answer to this flattering description, or satisfy more than the most modest curiosity of intending *students of Cis-Trentine ar archæology. Perhaps The papers connected with the Marquis of Carmarthen's official career are of the same character as the foregoing, and here we are indebted to Mr. Macray for an interesting account of the remarkable official relations that existed between the Duke of Dorset and the Foreign Department in the years 1784 and 1785. Three parcels are also referred to which probably contain the missing despatches of Keith, Elliot, and Harris between 1787 and 1790. Although the Danby papers occupy little more than a sixth part of the present volume, they have been almost exclusively selected for notice here because their importance appears to have been somewhat ruthlessly overlooked. On the other hand, certain manuscript collections included in this report-such as the Saville, Clifford, and Le Strange papers-have been calendared at sufficient length for ordinary purposes of reference. the meagre entries of Mr. Macray's reports are due to a conscientious desire of distinguishing the less important materials at the disposal of the Commissioners from those of more absorbing interest; but if this is the case we venture to think that he has scarcely given credit to the growing demand for local information, which has proved itself so frequently in the present day the fittest handmaid of scientific history. This reflection is at least inspired by a perusal of the MSS. of the Duke of Leeds, which occupy the first place in this Appendix, and which might have been thought worthy of a separate report instead of a bare inventory of fifty-eight pages. It is | not uncommon here to find nearly a hundred | letters and other State Papers, the titles of which are suggestive of the secret history of the prerevolutionary period, crowded into the compass of a single page; while in the case of another report, that upon the muniments of the Corporation of Reading, identical information contained in two parallel series of books seems to have been calendared without much care for the ❘teristic letters of Foote, Macklin, and Garrick exigencies of condensation. The series of papers in the former collection known as Tower Warrants supply considerable information about the disposal of political offenders excepted from the Act of Indemnity at the Restoration. Although many of the prisoners were made free of the liberty of the Tower and benefited in other ways, from the laxity of prison discipline then and long afterwards prevalent the rate of mortality among them was very high, and it may be reasonably suspected that it was only by an ability to pay extortionate "fees” that the prisoners could expect to be "civilly used." Among the numerous news-letters enumerated here are some from Charles and Peregrine Bertie to their sister, the Countess of The Stixwold charters among the MSS. of Lady Waterford form a remarkably perfect series of ancient deeds illustrative of the village community of Honington in the thirteenth century. The Delaval papers in the same collection should be noted by students of the English drama in the last century. Several charac are printed here for the first time. Mr. Macray tells us of the hopes that were entertained in some quarters of a clue to the authorship of the Junius letters being found among the Holdernesse State Papers. A similar disappointment will have been experienced by those who anticipated the discovery of some allusion to the poet Milton's visit to Ludlow Castle among the family papers of the Earls of Bridgewater. Instead of this they must be content with the instructive anecdote of a Puritan worthy who broke the stained glass of Leint wardine Church with a hammer in order that he might throw it into the brook Kidron, "and because he could not come at Kydron, he threw it into Teame"; and an interesting notice of Danby. The former for some years dispensed | Jeremy Taylor. In the household accounts of Mistress Jane Cheyne at Chelsea we read: "Oweing Mr. Cheyne more what I had for Dr. Taler's chrisninge £2 10s. Oweing more what I gaue Doctor Taler at his goeing into Irland £5." The voluminous records of the Corporation of Reading and of the Society of the Inner Temple will repay a close examination. Among other matters of great interest, the sufferings of the townspeople during the Civil War may be mentioned; and the Jesuit papers in the famous Temple Library ibrary will be found useful for comparison with the Calendar of Elizabethan State Papers. A RARE HISTORICAL WORK. 11, Cromwell Crescent, South Kensington, June 8, 1889. LEST you may not be tired of the inquiry as to the rarity or scarcity of the 'Eikon Basilike Deutera' and May's 'Epitomy,' I would mention that I have them both in fine condition, and have seen them occasionally named in booksellers' catalogues. Col. Ross's copy of May, mentioned in the Atheneum of to-day, appears to be very incomplete, inasmuch as it contains but one copperplate out of four: the first, 'The Commonwealth ruleing with a standing Army'; the second, Charles I. with sword drawn, apparently to defend the tree of Religion; and two plates in four compartments each. H. G. REID. A COPY of the book described by Mr. De Quarrendon in your columns was sold at Christie & Manson's on the 3rd of May, 1878. I was present, and as the particulars in the catalogue of three of the lots and of the prices given may interest your readers, I subjoin them : Lot 43. Charles I. Eikon Basilike the Portrait of his Sacred Majesty Charles I. in his Solitudes and Sufferings. Frontispiece by Marshall and portrait of Charles II., fine copy, in the contemporary blue morocco binding, the sides tooled with Charles I. cipher and a death's head in the centre. 1649. [32mo. 14s.] Lot 44. Charles I. Bonde, Scutum Regale, the Royal Buckler. Frontispiece. 1660. [24mo. 88.] Lot 45. Charles II. Eikon Basilike Deutera: the Portraiture of his Sacred Majesty Charles II. Frontispiece representing Charles II. praying to the Duchess of Portsmouth, fine copy, red morocco extra, gilt edges, by Bedford, very scarce. 1694. [12mo. 31. 158.] M. Kilclooney, Tuam, May 28, 1889. THE following note of a pamphlet at present in my possession may be of interest to the fortunate owner of the rare historical work described in your last issue. My pamphlet is bound up in a quarto volume of curious controversial tracts. I give the title-page in full : A | Short | And | Plain Way | To The | Faith and church | composed | Many Years since by that Eminent Devine Mr. | Richard Hudleston of the English Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict. And Published Common Good by his Nephew Mr. Jo. Hudleston of the same Congregation. To which is Annexed his late Majesty King Charles | the Second his Papers found in his Closet after | his Decease. | As also a Brief Account of what occurred on his | Death-Bed in Regard to Religion. | Permissu Superiorum. | London, Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's Most | Excelent Majesty, for His Houshold and Chappel; And are sold at | his Printing-house on the Ditchside in Black-Fryers. 1688. The pamphlet contains a dedicatory epistle "To The Queen Dowager," and an address, "The Publisher to the Reader," together six pages not numbered. 'A Short and Plain Way' fills thirty pages, and ends with the word "Finis." The other papers take up only eight pages, the pagination being continuous-1 to 38. The two papers "written by the late King Charles II. of Blessed Memory" conclude each with the words, "This is a true Copy of a Paper I found in the late King my Brother's StrongBox, written in his own Hand. J. R." Not the least curious part of this little tract is the priced catalogue of books printed by Henry Hills, with which it concludes. JOHN BODKIN. Literary Gossip. MR. LOWELL, who is paying us his usual summer visit, has written a preface to a new edition of The Compleat Angler.' He has had the good fortune to discover one or two facts which, if not of great importance, will still be a welcome addition to a life of which there is so little new or exciting to tell as Izaak Walton's. The book is to be published at Boston in the autumn. THE annual dinner of the Incorporated Society of Authors is to take place on the 3rd of July, an occasion on which the society hopes to welcome some distinguished French writers whose names have not yet transpired. MESSRS. MACMILLAN will issue shortly a popular life of Father Damien by his friend and correspondent Mr. Edward Clifford, who visited him within a few months of his death. very In the forthcoming volume of the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' which extends from Finch to Forman, Mr. Richard Garnett writes on Finlay, the historian of Greece; Mr. J. Bass Mullinger on Cardinal Fisher; Mr. Robert Dunlop, Prof. Tout, and Mr. T. A. Archer on the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Desmond and Kildare; Mr. G. P. Macdonell on Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare; Mr. R. L. Poole on Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh; Mr. W. P. Courtney on A. H. Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton; Mr. T. E. Kebbel on Earl Fitzwilliam; Mr. T. A. Archer on Rannulf Flambard; Miss A. M. Clerke on Flamsteed, the astronomer; Mr. Sidney Colvin on Flaxman; Mr. C. H. Firth on Fleetwood, Cromwell's general; Mr. Francis Espinasse on Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun; Mr. A. H. Bullen on Fletcher and Ford, the dramatists; Mr. Sidney L. Lee on Phineas Fletcher and Simon Forman the astrologer; Prof. J. K. Laughton on Capt. Flinders; Mr. G. F. Russell Barker on Flood; the Rev. Alexander Gordon on Fludd, the Rosicrucian; Mr. Cosmo Monkhouse on Foley, the sculptor; Mr. Joseph Knight on Foote; Mr. Leslie Stephen on Duncan Forbes; Mr. G. T. Bettany on Edward Forbes, the naturalist; and Mr. Ormsby on Richard Ford, author of the 'Handbook for Spain.' AMONG those talked of as possible successors of Mr. Gosse in the Clark Lectureship at Trinity College, Cambridge, are Dr. Garnett, Prof. Hales, Prof. Minto, the Hon. Roden Noel, Mr. Saintsbury, and Dr. Verrall. Another vacant chair of English literature is that of Glasgow, which is supposed to be worth some 800l. or 900l. a year. M. JUSSERAND, Councillor to the French Embassy in London, well known as a writer on certain aspects of social life in England during the reigns of the Plantagenets, has made considerable progress with a work on English literature, the publication of which may be expected in the autumn. MRS. LYNN LINTON is writing an article on the question of woman's suffrage for the New Review. IT is understood that there will be no serious opposition to Mr. Robertson Smith's candidature for the Chair of Arabic at Cam bridge which Dr. Wright held, and Mr. Jenkinson, of Trinity, is being talked of as Mr. Smith's successor as University Librarian. A COMPLETE bibliography of the numerous works of Prof. Ruskin is now being compiled. It will include the entire series A NEW novel, by the author of 'John A SET of Arabic MSS., lately purchased in Mossul for the British Museum by Mr. Ernest Budge, includes two rare and important works. One is al-Nawawi's commentary upon the Sahih, or collection of authentic traditions, of Muslim, a fine fourteenth century copy of a work as yet unknown to European libraries. The other is a volume of the 'Akhbar al-Duwal alMunkati'ah,' a history arranged according to dynasties, by Ali Ben Záfir al-Azdi, who died A.H. 623. The only hitherto known copy of that valuable work is in the Gotha Library, and has been described by Dr. Pertsch under No. 1555. It is the chief authority followed by Freytag in his account of the Beni Hamdan, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morg. Ges., vol. x., and is also frequently quoted by Weil in his 'Geschichte der Chalifen.' THE monthly magazine To-Day, which has ably expounded the views of the Socialists from a literary standpoint, passes after this month into the hands of a new proprietor, who promises a further development of its programme. THE death is announced of a well-known antiquary, Mr. William Beamont, of Warrington. He was a prolific writer, most of his books being of a local character, appertaining to Lancashire and Cheshire. Amongst his most recent publications may be named 'A History of the Castle of Halton and the Priory or Abbey of Norton,' a quarto volume, with illustrations, issued in 1873. Mr. Beamont was at one period vice-president of the Chetham Society, and was a contributor to the "Chetham Library Series." He died on the 6th of this month at the age of ninety-two. MESSRS. SAMPSON LOW & Co. are going to publish a new book of travel, entitled Friesland Meres: Round about the Netherlands in a Norfolk Wherry,' by Mr. H. Montagu Doughty. The book will be fully illustrated by reproductions of original penand-ink drawings done by the author and his family. An édition de luxe is to be published by subscription of Mr. Austin Dobson's translation of Manuel's 'Captain Castagnette,' which originally appeared in 1866. A DINNER was given the other day at Camden, New Jersey, in honour of Mr. Walt Whitman's seventieth birthday. "The good grey poet," who was wheeled in in a chair, said a few words. Mr. Gilder, of the Century, and Mr. Julian Hawthorne were among the speakers. Mr. H. H. Giletz represented the English admirers of Whitman. A GERMAN translation of Max OTA 'Jonathan and his Continent' has just peared in Stuttgart, and a Danish one in preparation in Copenhagen. A MEETING to commemorate the death Giordano Bruno in 1600 at the hands of Inquisition was held at an Italian clut Gerrard Street on Sunday last, in connere with the commemoration simultanena taking place at Rome. After a speec the chairman, Dr. Guastalla, recounting debt of Bruno, as of later Italian wanderer to the sanctuary of England, Signor D Bassi delivered an eloquent oration on life and teachings of the Nolan thinker, 1 key-note of which was naturally a claim universal liberty of thought. Letters we read from Mr. Gladstone and Prof. We Müller regretting their inability to be pr sent. THE extensive collection of books shorthand which had been gathered gether by the late Mr. J. Eglington Bailey the sale of whose library will take pus in the last week of this month, will acquired by the Manchester Free Library which will thereby, it is presumed, have of the largest and rarest accumulations ci shorthand books in existence. AT the annual general meeting of th: Goethe-Gesellschaft, held last Thursday at Weimar, Prof. M. Bernays, of Munich, delivered the "Festrede," treating of 'Goethe's Geschichte der Farbenlehre. Prof. Suphan read a paper on the extension of the Goethe Archives, and the usual festive performance took place in the evening at the Court Theatre. THE chief Parliamentary Papers of the week are Public Income and Expenditure, an Account for the Year ending March 31st. 1889 (1d.); Sugar Trade, Copy of Report to Board of Trade (9d.); East India, Factory Act, Correspondence (1d.); Spain, No. 1. 1889, Amending Treaty of June, 1878, fr Surrender of Fugitive Criminals (1d.); East India, Estimate of Revenue and Expend ture of the Government of India for 1888(2d.); Sweating System, Third Report (7s. 6d.); Education, Report of the Inter mediate Education Board for Ireland the Year 1888 (5d.); East India, Review of Indian Administration during the past Thirty Years (5d.); and Colonial Possessions, Bermuda, Report on the Blue-Book for 1888 (1d.). SCIENCE The Life of Sir William Siemens, F.R.S. By CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS was the youngest |