of those who desire to educate themselves. The articles on zoology by Mr. Bettany, on English grammar by Miss Toulmin Smith, and on French by M. Kunz are especially good. The first instalment of The Child's Instructor is promising. Amateur Work will be invaluable to any one with a turn for mechanics and neat in handling tools. To Messrs. Cassell we are indebted for their excellent sixpenny almanac for 1883. A LARGE number of Christmas cards are lying on our table. Some of them show that the invention of the producers has been overtasked, and they are in consequence fantastic rather than elegant. On the other hand, many are simple and effective. The cards of Messrs. Marcus Ward & Co. are more gorgeous and elaborate than ever, and as a whole show a considerable advance.-Messrs. Raphael Tuck & Co., who are among the most energetic of the card publishers, have boldly enlisted Royal Academicians in their service. Mr. Marcus Stone has been the most successful of the painters thus employed. Mr. Poynter, Mr. Leslie, and Mr. Yeames have hardly been so happy. The cards of Mr. Herbert and Mr. Dobson are very like their contributions to Burlington House. Some of the other Christmas cards sent to us by Messrs. Tuck are excellent in design and colour, and certainly "the outsiders" beat the Academicians in this branch of art. -Prang's American cards, imported by Messrs. Ackermann, are somewhat unequal, but many of them are very nicely executed. No other designs are so uniformly good as the prize designs of Messrs. S. Hildesheimer & Co., which display a sounder knowledge of the limits of chromo-lithography than most of those we have seen this season. Too many of their rivals seem to neglect this matter altogether. LIST OF NEW BOOKS. ENGLISH. Theology. Gospel of St. Mark in Gothic, the translation by Wulfila Withers's (J.) The Messiah King, cr. 8vo. 5/ cl. Yorke's (J. F.) Notes on Evolution and Christianity, 8vo. 6/ cl. Poetry. Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages, adapted from Wagner by Macdowell, and edited by Anson, 8vo. 7/6 cl. Gay's (Mr. John) Fables, with Memoir by A. Dobson, 6/ Old Norse Sagas, cr. 8vo. 2/6 cl. Reeve's (A.) Lights and Shadows, 12mo. 3/6 cl. History and Biography. Conway's (M. D.) Emerson at Home and Abroad, 8vo. 10/6 cl Maxwell's (Gen. E. H.) With the Connaught Rangers in Waddington's (S.) Arthur Hugh Clough, a Monograph, 7/6 cl. Geography and Travel. Hudson's (T. 8.) A Scamper through America, cr. 8vo. 6/ cl. Beebohm's (H.) Siberia in Asia, a Visit to the Valley of the Yenesay in East Siberia, 8vo. 14/ cl. World (The) in Pictures, Round Africa, by C. Bruce, 2/6 cl. Wylie's (J. A.) Egypt and its Future, a Visit to the Land of the Pharaohs, cr. 8vo. 2/6 cl. Philology. Corneille's Horace, edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Vazir of Lankuran, a Text-Book of Modern Colloquial Persian, by W. H. D. Haggard and G. Le Strange, 12mo. 10/6 cl. Science. 2 Ledger's (E.) The Sun, its Planets and their Satellites, Lectures read in Gresham College, 1881-82, cr. 8vo. 10/6 cl. .Minchin's (G. M.) Uniplanar Kinematics of Solids and Fluids, cr. 8vo. 7/6 cl. Nature at Home, from the French of T. Gautier, with illus- A Thousand Years Hence, being Personal Experiences as Bowles's (T. G.) Flotsam and Jetsam, a Yachtsman's Experi ences at Sea and Ashore, cr. 8vo. 7/6 cl. Day's (L. F.) Every-Day Art, Short Essays on the Arts not Fine, cr. 8vo. 7/6 cl. Edward Bertram, or the Emigrant Heir, by G. Stebbing, 3/6 Fitzgerald's (P.) Recreations of a Literary Man, cr. 8vo. 6/ el. Gellie's (Mrs.) Dolly Dear, or the Story of a Waxen Beauty, cr. 8vo. 2/6 cl. Gibbon's (C.) The Golden Shaft, 3 vols. cr. 8vo. 31/6 cl. Gibney's (Major R. D.) Earnest Madement, a Tale of Wiltshire, cr. 8vo, 6/ el. Hatton's (J.) Three Recruits and the Girls they left behind Marshall's (E.) Constantia Carew, an Autobiography, 5/ cl. Scherr's (Dr. J.) A History of English Literature, translated Yonge's (C. M.) Pickle and his Page Boy, 18mo. 2/ cl. Lacroix (P.): Louis XII. et Anne de Bretagne, 30fr. 2 vols. 18fr. Müller (W.): Europäische Geschichte, 1871-81, 5m. Reichensperger (P.): Erlebnisse e. alten Parlamentariers, 5m. Ulrich (A.): Der Römische König Wilhelm v. Holland, 12471256, 2m. 40. Philology. Saalfeld (G. A.): Italograeca, 2m. 40. Troebst (W.): Quaestiones Hyperideae et Dinarcheae, 2 parts, 2m. 40. Wessely (C.): Prolegomena ad Papyrorum Graecorum novam Collectionem, 3m. elaborately ornamented patent for the re-estab lishment, in 1554, of the Earldom of Kildare, from the original document, which is preserved in the archives of the Duke of Leinster. 3. Pages from the Council Book of Ireland, 1558, with autographs of the Viceroy and members of the Privy Council there. 4. Gaelic letters, 1561, from Shane O'Neill, Chief of Ulster, whose visit to Queen Elizabeth is chronicled by Camden and other writers. 5. A map of Ireland, 1567, showing the districts occupied at that date by the lords, chiefs, and clans, and with entries in the writing of Sir W. Cecil, Secretary of State. 6. Latin letter of Torlogh, Chief of Tyrone, styling himself "Princeps O'Neill," addressed to the Viceroy and Council in Ireland. 7. Receipt from Donall, the "MacCarthy Mór," 1569, for a "purple robe of state, coronet, and collar of gold," presented to him by Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of his being created Earl of Clancare or Clancarty. 8. Documents connected with the proceedings of the Government in Ireland in relation to hostile movements by Sir Edmund Butler and other brethren of the Earl of Ormonde. 9. Address to Queen Elizabeth in 1569, with autographs and seals of the principal ecclesiastics and laymen in the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary. 10. Record of transactions of the Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sydney, and the Government at Dublin, with the Irish sept of Cavenagh or Kavanagh, in 1569-70. 11, 12. Letters of the Lord of Upper Ossory and his son, Sir Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, the favourite companion of Edward VI. Horace Walpole and others who have written on the subject of King Edward and Fitz-Patrick do not appear to have been acquainted with these curious letters. 13. Holograph letters of Gerald, the unfortunate Earl of Desmond, and Eleanor his countess. 14. Gaelic letters to and from James Fitz-Maurice in connexion with his attempt against the rule of Queen Elizabeth in Ireland. 15. Map of the north-east of Ireland, about 1580, showing the principal places on the route from Dublin to Carrickfergus, in Ulster. the then important town of Knockfergus or 16. A statement in Latin, written by a Brehon, or professional native jurist, in 1571, in reference to old Irish law. 17. Letter of Elizabeth FitzGerald, "the fair Geraldine of the Earl of Surrey. 18. Letter of Miler Magrath, the Archbishop of Cashel, who contrived to possess himself of four bishoprics, with a great number of benefices, and was referred to by Strafford as "that wicked bishop Meilerus." 19. Address to Queen Elizabeth from the chief personages of Munster and Kilkenny, with their seals and signatures, in reference to the death of the Earl of Desmond. 20. A unique and interesting drawing, elaborately coloured and gilt, of the year 1582, representing an Irish foot soldier fully equipped, with coat of mail, sword, and axe. 21. Journal of the House of Lords in Ireland, 1586, the contents of which have hitherto been unnoticed. 22. A Dahn (F.): Kleine Romane aus der Völkerwanderung, primer of the Irish language prepared for the Science. use of Queen Elizabeth by Christopher Nugent, Baron of Delvin, the original of which is in the Shirley collection. 23. A drawing made in 1597 of the attack by the Viceroy, with the English forces, on the Fort of Blackwater, in Ulster, which at that time was regarded as of high value in a military point of view. 24. A contemporary plan of the engagement between the English and Irish at the Blackwater, 1598, with referential notes in the handwriting of Sir George Carew, sometime Viceroy of Ireland. 25. Letters from the Lords Justices at Dublin to the Privy Council in England on the "disaster at the Blackwater" in 1598. 26. Drawing by Capt. Charles Montague of the engagement in which he took part between Sir Henry Harington's forces and the Irish of Wicklow, during the viceroyalty of Robert, Earl of Essex, in 1599. 27. A drawing containing numerous figures and representing the capture of the Earl of Ormonde by O'More 1 an and some of the Irish of Leinster in 1600, with observations in the writing of Sir George Carew, who was present on the occasion. 28, 29. Letters of the Countess and Earl of Ormonde, while the latter was detained in the hands of his Irish captors. 30, 31. Gaelic proclamation by Hugh O'Neill and a letter from him in English signed as Earl of Tyrone. 32. Letter written in the Tower of London to the Earl of Salisbury in 1602 by Florence MacCarthy, the apprehension of whose influence over his countrymen in Munster led to his detention in England as a State prisoner for nearly forty years. 33. Intercepted letter addressed in 1602 to the Governor of Galicia by Donell O'Sullivan, and dated from his castle of Bearehaven, which subsequently maintained "obstinate and resolved defence" against Queen Elizabeth's forces. 34. A Gaelic letter written to Robert Nugent, Superior of the Jesuits in Ireland. 35. The anonymous letter addressed in 1607 to the Clerk of the Privy Council in Ireland and transmitted to the Lords of the Council in England, with certificate signed by the Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, and the members of the Privy Council in Ireland. 36. A page from the elegantly written volume of Irish genealogies preserved in the Carew collection. 37. The patent issued in 1616 to Sir Gerald Moore on his advancement to the title of Baron of Mellifont, under the Great Seal of Ireland. The original, with miniature portrait of James I., and elaborate emblazonment of arms and allegorical devices, is preserved in the archives of the Marquis of Drogheda. 38, 39. Specimens of Anglo-Irish heraldry, containing the escutcheons of the peers and principal families in Ireland in the early part of the reign of James I. 40. Drawing of the Fort of Charlemont in Ulster, erected in the reign of James I. by Sir Toby Caulfield, first Baron of Charlemont. As a frontier post Charlemont Fort was of great importance and underwent various vicissitudes of war. In an appendix to this part are given facsimiles of pages of an ancient Psalter of Christ Church, Dublin, and of ornamental initial letters from the MS. in the Irish language known as the "Book of Mac Richard Butler. The Psalter, executed towards the middle of the fourteenth century, and now in the Bodleian Library, is one of the finest volumes of its time and class produced in these countries. The pages copied from it in the present part are replete with elaborate and varied artistic ornamentation in colours and gold, with fine initial letters and floral borders of rare elegance and beauty. These reproductions from the Psalter include highly finished miniatures, amongst which may be specially mentioned some which contain delineations of fools and grotesques, and representations of performances with musical instruments. The contents of all the specimens are fully noticed and printed opposite to the facsimiles. Descriptions are likewise given by the editor of the various manuscripts from which the specimens have been taken. Several original documents of historical importance hitherto unpublished are also printed in this publication in elucidation of the facsimiles. ENGLISH AUTHORS AND AMERICAN PUBLISHERS. 100, Harley Street, Nov. 20, 1882. In regard to his other remarks, as they in no way lead me to modify my previous statements, I shall not further encumber your columns with a useless discussion on a matter of fact. HORACE N. PYM. Crown Buildings, 188, Fleet Street, Nov. 22, 1882. THERE is a substratum of truth in what Mr. Clark Russell has said in your columns about his books in the United States; but really I think his wrath has been somewhat misdirected. If he had applied his vigorous pen in attacking those who have injured him most in America I mean those American freebooters who are using, and whose interest it is to use, the most determined efforts to prevent an international copyright treaty with this country-he would have done good service; but instead of doing so, he has chosen by implication, if not in fact, to attack the very publishers who are doing more even than they could reasonably be expected to do to checkmate these depredators by issuing English books as cheaply as their unauthorized opponents, and yet (frequently to their own loss) securing at least some payment to English authors. Mr. Russell must pardon me for saying that I think he is not quite ingenuous when he avers that he has never received a farthing from America. Messrs. Harper's agent, Mr. Sampson Low, has already stated in your columns that Messrs. Harper have paid for what they have used of his books, therefore they are blameless. I may venture to say, further, that when Mr. Russell sold his copyright to his English publishers, he had no longer any right to expect even a farthing" from America. Whatever sum came from America surely belonged to those who had already paid him for all his rights-including America. I may also be permitted to say that the sum mentioned in Mr. Low's letter is not quite correctly stated. Only a small portion of that sum is referable to the books specified by Mr. Russell-viz., 'A Sailor's Sweetheart' and 'The Wreck of the Grosvenor'-out of which small portion an honorarium was handed to Mr. Russell, not, it is true, by Messrs. Harper, but by his English publishers. Another portion was for a work since published under the conditions already mentioned, which gave Mr. Russell no claim to any of it. A third portion pertains to a work not yet published, and, owing to subsequent arrangements, has not been, and probably will not be, paid except through some other channel. I freely admit, therefore, that Mr. Russell has ground for complaint that he has not been adequately remunerated for the great popularity of his books in America, and I heartily sympathize with him; but my argument is that he does not attribute the blame to the proper quarter. It should be borne in mind that Messrs. Harper are the only publishers through whom Mr. Clark Russell has received any payment, although they are by no means the only publishers who have published his books. Perhaps G.W.S., who telegraphed to the New York Tribune the substance of Mr. Low's letter (with an incorrect comment), will correct his statement and remove the reflection therein cast upon the English publishers. EDWARD MARSTON. In reply to Mr. Sampson Low's letter in your THE letters you have published bearing witness last impression, I beg to say that Messrs. to the liberality shown by Messrs. Harper & Lippincott's attractive little volume con- Brothers in their dealings with English authors taining Caroline Fox's journals has no portrait, must be highly gratifying to that eminent firm, none having been supplied them; the vile wood- which has always been proud of its "liberality,' cut in Messrs. Harper's reprint being merely a and which, if I am not mistaken, actually tracing or copy of the etching by Mr. Her- printed a catalogue of its publications for diskomer in the first English edition of the book,tribution at the Paris Exposition of 1878, conover which Messrs. Lippincott had no power taining a statement of the exact number of whatever. Whether Mr. Low's letter or mine dollars it had expended in presents to foreign is the more 66 misleading" your readers can judge from this. writers. At the same time it is only fair to warn in experienced authors that Mr. Sampson Low's repeated statement about Harper & Brothers' "invariable rule of paying for early sheets "must not be taken to mean that they have adopted any rule which precludes them from following the time-honoured practice of publishing unauthorized editions of English books without payment. Messrs. Harper no doubt pay for early sheets; it is improbable that they could obtain them on any other terms; but should an author omit to send them "early sheets," or should he send his "early sheets" to some other publisher with whom Messrs. Harper have a feud (Mr. Froude could give some interesting experiences on this point), or, worst of all, should he commit the unpardonable sin of attempting to supply his Transatlantic readers with an English-printed edition, he would, if his book was worth anything, run an excellent chance of having it included in the valuable "Franklin Square" collection, an honour unsullied by any mere pecuniary reward. It is one of the fundamental articles of the American publishers' creed that no book is worthy of consideration which has not an American imprint. It was their insistence on this point, and the care with which they made it obvious that it was for themselves and not for the English authors that they sought protection from the so-called "pirates" of the West, that probably rendered abortive Messrs. Harper's schemes for an international copyright treaty. When it became clear to authors that their interests were to be made subsidiary to those of American printers and paper-makers, their zeal, not unnaturally, abated. In spite of this I read in Harper's Weekly for September 16th that the failure of the negotiations "is undoubtedly due to the hostility of the British publishers." These selfish and unscrupulous persons insist, according to the writer in Harper, "that the British author shall not be paid a copyright in the United States unless the British publisher manufactures the book." Now, as the writer in Harper's Weekly must certainly have been in a position to know the facts of the case, I have no hesitation in denouncing the above statement as a deliberate and disgraceful attempt to mislead the public. The "British publisher" had little to say about the matter, for he felt that it was one that did not greatly affect himself; but when asked his opinion as to the advisability of embodying Messrs. Harper's proposals in a treaty, probably did say that he thought it would be better for the United States to grant copyright to foreigners on the terms on which it is at present granted to American citizens-that is to say, to allow them to get their books printed at home or abroad as may seem most desirable to themselves in each individual case. This view, though not in itself unreasonable, was not favourably received by those who were agitating for a treaty, ostensibly in the interest of foreign authors, but really for the sake of protecting their own printing presses; and accordingly, when the negotiations fell through, the English publisher, who in reality had little or nothing to say in the matter, was singled out as a convenient scapegoat. 66 30, St. James's Road, Brixton, Nov. 20, 1882. LET me assure Mr. Clark Russell that I am not an opponent of the British authors' grievance," and that my sympathy will be always with my brother novelists. I only wrote to bear witness in my own case to Messrs. Harper's fair dealing in the matter of advance sheets, and this as an act of simple duty to those with whom I have worked very amicably, and to whom I am considerably indebted. I am certain Mr. Russell in my place would have done the same; and if in future agreements with English publishers for his stirring stories he will merely add the clause, "The author reserves to himself all foreign rights,' I feel confident he will be enabled to treat direct for advance sheets with almost any American publisher whom he may select to represent him, F. W. ROBINSON. Stanley Place, Chelsea, Nov. 20, 1882. I HAVE read with a good deal of pain the attacks on Messrs. Harper which have lately appeared in the Athenæum. Will you allow me to say, on the other side, that for some years past, ever since the publication of 'Patty,' Messrs. Harper have always paid me for any of my works that they have printed? Moreover, they have sent me a cheque as soon as they have received the copy or sheets, even when they have not been able to use the work for a space of time. In the case of 'Patty' I received Messrs. Harper's cheque through Messrs. Macmillan, although I had not made any stipulation about American rights. It seems to me that the simple way is, either to reserve the American right of publication in making an arrangement with one's English publisher, or else to ask a larger price for one's book or article than one would expect to receive for merely the right to publish in England. I am sure that many other English authors will be ready to testify to the fair dealing and prompt payment of Messrs. Harper & Brothers. KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. Literary Gossip. A NEW feature will appear in the Illustrated London News with the beginning of the coming year. The number for January 6th will contain the first instalment of a new tale, entitled 'Yolande,' by Mr. William Black. MR. MOZLEY, in his recently published Reminiscences of Oriel College,' pays a just tribute to Palmer, of Worcester College, and expresses his indignation that so learned a divine should have been allowed to die without receiving any preferment. It is true that Palmer was tabooed by the bestowers of patronage-as, indeed, all the leaders of the Oxford movement were till Mr. Gladstone became Prime Minister; and most of them had then passed away. Fortunately, however, Mr. Palmer, of Worcester, is still among us, and is employing his old age in bringing out, under the editorship of the Rev. Malcolm MacColl, a revised and partly rewritten edition of his great work, the Treatise on the Church of Christ,' which has been out of print for forty years. Dr. Newman reviewed the book in the British Critic when it was first published, and this review, which is highly laudatory, Cardinal Newman has lately republished. In his Apologia, too, he calls Palmer "the only really learned man among us," i. e., among the leaders of the Oxford movement; and adds that Father Perrone, the Roman theologian, saluted the Treatise on the Church' as the work of a foe worthy of being vanquished," and thought little of the other Oxford writers in comparison. IN a cireular just issued Mr. MacColl states that the new edition of Mr. Palmer's book has been undertaken at the urgent suggestion of Mr. Gladstone, who has at the same time permitted Mr. MacColl to publish a letter in which Mr. Gladstone gives a brief sketch of the kind of book which an experience of "fifty years of adult life" leads him to regard as "the most rational of all " in the way of Christian apologetic. This experience Mr. Gladstone describes as spent "in the mélée of systems, dogmatic and undogmatic, revealed and unrevealed, particularist, pagan, secular, anti-theistic, or other, which marks the age." Mr. MacColl also quotes from a recent letter of Dr. orders." He thinks that the republication of the book, revised up to the requirements of the day, "would be a real boon to Christendom"; and he offers his own aid in the work, which he regards as arduous. Among the subscribers to the new edition are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Chancellor, Mr. Gladstone, the Marquis of Durham, and most of the bishops, the Lord Salisbury, the Marquis of Bath, Sir Stafford Northcote, Mr. Childers, Mr. Beresford Hope, the Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Liddon, the Earl of Glasgow, the Dean of Carlisle, the Earl of Strathmore, the Earl of Rosebery, the Dean of Norwich, and the Hon. and Rev. W. H. Fremantle. MADAME DE NOVIKOFF is engaged in writing a biography of the late General Skobeleff. DR. SMILES has in the press a biography of the veteran engineer and inventor Mr. James Nasmyth, whose steam hammer has done so much solid work in the world as to justify the adoption by its inventor of the motto Non arte sed marte. Mr. Nasmyth's varied accomplishments as an astronomer, an artist, and an archeologist give promise of a volume of unusual interest, while his personal reminiscences extend over a large part of the present century. M. Paul Rajon has etched for the book one of his best portraits, after a painting by Mr. George Reid, R.S.A. MR. W. D. HOWELLS, who is writing his new novel in a retired place in Switzerland, has known nothing of the animated discussion which his remarks in the November number of the Century Magazine have called number of the Century Magazine have called forth from the English press. He writes to a friend who has called his attention to magazine itself, and cannot recollect what he the subject that he has not even seen the is sure that he has been misprinted or missaid about Dickens and Thackeray. But he understood if he seems to be disrespectful to those great writers. myself," he says, "I always thought "quite unapproached in my appreciation of the great qualities of Dickens and Thackeray, and I can hardly believe that I have 'arraigned' them. I suspect that no Englishman could rate them higher than I do." The eminent novelist goes on to say that he only waits to see the Century Magazine and "what my offence in it against the great shades amounts to," to write further on the subject; and he is now determined, on the earliest opportunity, to carry out a design which has long been in his thoughts, namely, "to say my say about the art of Dickens and Thackeray in full." Next to a new novel from the pen of Mr. Howells, no contribution of his to literature would be more welcome than such a study. Ar their last meeting the members of the Council of the Camden Society, after expressing their regret at the loss of their late colleague, Mr. Daniel Tyssen, and of their late auditor, Mr. Hill, proceeded to select the books to be issued in pro the following year. It had been arranged at a previous meeting that Mr. Scott's Diary of Gabriel Harvey' should be published in the present year. As, however, Mr. Scott finds that in order to annotate the book perly it will be necessary to keep it back for the account of the Cadiz expedition of 1625, a few months, Dr. Grosart will edit at once which is probably the work of Glanville, and which exists in the library of the Earl of St. Germains. For next year the Society will probably have, in addition to Gabriel Harvey's Diary, a volume of selections from the Lauderdale papers, throwing great light early part of the reign of Charles II., to upon the management of Scotland in the be edited by Mr. Osmund Airy, and, unless these two books run to great length, a volume of the Miscellany, which will contain, with other interesting matters, some unpublished letters of the Earl of Strafford, and a poem, probably writtten by Cartwright, on Straf ford's illness in 1640. The Council has also in view for publication in the year 1884-5 a very interesting volume of the correspondence of Secretary Nicholas, to be edited by Mr. Warner, and the volume of the privy purse expenses of Henry, Earl of Derby, afterwards King Henry IV., part of which was prepared for the press by Dr. Pauli before his death. ON the afternoon of the 17th inst. an Early Scottish Text Society was inaugurated by a meeting held in Edinburgh. Many literary men and antiquaries were present, Prof. Eneas J. G. MacKay acting as chairman. The Rev. Walter Gregor submitted an account of the manner in which he had originated the scheme, and intimated that both in England and Scotland leading scholars were sanguine of its ultimate success. From America and the Continent several foreign libraries have been added to assurances of support have been received, the list of subscribers, and everything is in the list of subscribers, and everything is in train for early publications. Prof. Skeat, Mr. Furnivall, Dr. Murray, and other editing of the Scottish society's literary members of the Early English Text Society offered at an early period to help in the safely launched nearly one hundred subVentures. In order that the society may be scribers are required in addition to the present membership, which now stands above two hundred. Prof. MacKay pointed out to the meeting what scope for practical work lay before a Scottish Text Society, and moved, "That the meeting, having heard with interest Mr. Gregor's statement, resolve to use every effort to place the society on a working basis." Mr. Gregor was appointed honorary secretary, while Messrs. W. Blackwood & Sons were named as the society's publishers. MR. EDMUND W. Gosse has printed privately ten copies of a very interesting memoir of Thomas Lodge, the Elizabethan poet and romance writer. It will be remembered that Mr. Gosse is editing Lodge's works for the Hunterian Society. Ir is generally said that when Benjamin Franklin first came to England he was employed at Palmer's printing office on the second edition of Wollaston's Religion of Nature,' and in fact Franklin himself asserts as much; but Mr. Solly will try to prove, in an article in the December number of the Bibliographer, that it was the third edition, published in 1725, after the author's death, upon which Franklin worked. SOME rather important changes of action are signalized by the latest report of the Cambridge Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate. The first proposal is to provide for backward students a possibility of entering the junior examination up to the age of seventeen; and these students are to be placed on a separate list, after that of the candidates who have passed the examination at the ordinary age of sixteen. A second proposal is that the Syndicate shall be empowered to examine schools or parts of schools, instead of, as now, the whole of the scholars of a school individually. The latter course causes great expense to the school and entails arduous labour on the examiners. It is suggested that a sufficient report on the efficiency of a school may be given without a detailed examination of the scholars. This part of the work of the Syndicate has increased largely, as they now examine about eighty schools annually. Under the new regulation they would probably gain a great share of the inspection of secondary schools throughout the country. A third proposal is that the Syndicate be empowered to cooperate with the University of Durham in conducting courses of lectures and classes in the Durham district. THE Joint Board appointed by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London has made a report to the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching, in which satisfaction is expressed that the regulations. have been more carefully observed during the past year than on previous occasions, especially with respect to the adoption of the class in connexion with the lecture. It still complains of the syllabuses, though in several cases, it says, there is a marked improvement, and suggests that the Council should undertake the printing of the syllabuses, thus getting over the local difficulties as to expense. The reports of the lecturers and examiners for the past year are pronounced satisfactory, and indicative of progress with respect both to the extent and the quality of the work done. There is, the report adds, some idea of granting an advanced certificate to those students who shall have gained a certain number of certificates in any of several specified branches of study. THE Council of the new University College at Dundee have this week appointed professors for the chairs of mathematics and natural philosophy, chemistry, engineering, and English language and modern history, the chair of classics and ancient history to be occupied by Mr. Peterson, the principal. The regular work of the college will begin with the winter of next year. THE United Service Gazette has been purchased by Mr. Rance. The valuations for the purchaser were made by Mr. Wellsman (C. Mitchell & Co.). PROF. PACKARD has written the history of Bowdoin College, Maine. In it he says he remembers Hawthorne in the "recitation room" with "the same shy, gentle bearing, black, drooping, full, inquisitive eye, and low musical voice that he ever had," and Longfellow, two seats behind Hawthorne, a fair-haired youth, blooming with health and early promise. THE Advocates' Library in Edinburgh is about to be considerably enlarged, the extension being necessary owing to the constantly increasing addition of books to its shelves. IT appears from the Administration Report of the Central Provinces of India for 1881-82 that the average attendance at schools during the year was only 58,135 out of a population of nearly ten millions, and that only 4.7 per cent. of the whole male population were returned as under instruction or able to read and write. It is stated that a considerably larger percentage of Mohammedans than of Hindus avail themselves of the education offered at the schools of the province and are employed under Government. THE death is announced on the 17th of last month of Rao Bahadoor Dadoba Pandurung, one of the oldest social and religious reformers in Bombay and a well-known scholar and littérateur. He rose to a high position in the Bombay Educational Department, and was the author of various works, including a pamphlet on Swedenborg which was much admired by the Swedenborgians in this country. THE Corporation of Shrewsbury proposes to adopt the Free Libraries Act and to form a library, reading-room, and museum, intending to utilize the buildings forming the Grammar School, which is being removed, for that purpose. A subscription, which so far considerably exceeds 2,000l., has been started to effect the object in view. A REQUISITION, Signed by 9,401 ratepayers of Hull favourable to the establishment of a public free library, was presented to the Mayor of Hull last Saturday, requesting him Mayor of Hull last Saturday, requesting him to convene the statutory meeting with a view to the adoption of the Libraries Acts. This is the third attempt made to obtain a public library for Hull, two previous efforts, in 1857 and 1872, having been unsuccessful. On the present occasion the working men of the town have, through their trade and friendly societies and other organizations, taken a warm interest in the movement. Thomas Milner, author of Universal GeoTHE death is announced of the Rev. graphy,' the Gallery of Nature,' and many other works. From Switzerland comes the news of the death of Gottfried Kinkel, best known in this country as one of the leaders of the Baden insurrection, but highly esteemed in Germany as a poet and novelist. Since 1866 he had been a professor of Kunstgeschichte at Zürich. A NEW book by the Bishop of Rochester, entitled Christ's Claim on the Young,' will be issued next week. MR. EDWARD KING, the author of a work on the Southern States since the war and of a volume of poems and also a successful American journalist, has written a novel, which will shortly be published both in this country and the United States. It will be entitled 'The Gentle Savage.' THE books sold at the last day of the Sunderland sale, the 16th inst., included the following: Rhetores Antiqui Gracci, the Aldine collection, 2 vols., Venet., Aldus, 1508-9, 197.; Sabellicus, De Vetustate Aquileiensis Patriæ,' printed on vellum, 227.; Sagard Theodat, Le Grand Voyage aux Pays des Hurons,' Paris, Denys Moreau, 1632, 297. 10s. DR. HYDE CLARKE writes to us with re ference to a letter of M. de Lacouperie's which we published some time ago:: "As it is now too late to take up such a controversy at length, I beg permission to say that I see no reason to qualify in any respect the statements I have laid before your readers." SCIENCE SCHOOL-BOOKS. The Four Rules of Arithmetic. By W. Wooding, B.A. (Longmans & Co.)-It is a mistake to think of teaching the first four rules of arithmetic by means of a book. The only effectual method is oral instruction. Few children would have the patience to read Mr. Wooding's lengthy remarks, or, if they had, would always clearly model of distinctness or accuracy:-" Number is understand them. The first definition is not a the name given to a class of words, by the use of which people say how many things they are talking about." Mr. Wooding is profuse in his directions as to what is to be done, but scarcely ever explains the reasons on which they are founded, thus omitting what constitutes the chief value of the subject as a discipline of the mind. On the other hand, his miscellaneous examples are well calculated to call the thinking power into exercise. The account of the history of numeration is interesting and in the main correct. Euclid. Books I. and II. Edited by Charles L. Dodgson, M.A. (Macmillan & Co.)-We agree with Mr. Dodgson that for ordinary educational purposes the system of geometrical teaching so well known to the school world under the venerable name of Euclid is superior to any of its modern rivals, and we are glad to find that, although the editor has not hesitated to make many not inconsiderable changes by way of alteration or abridgment of language, no real change has been attempted either in Euclid's This edition of the first two books seems to be "methods of proof or in his logical sequence.' intended for the use of beginners in geometry who have not the advantage of competent instruction, and these will unquestionably find it of the greatest service. The introduction and appendices will be read with profit by those scholars who are not content with a parrot-like from the propositions. Mr. Dodgson explains acquaintance with Euclid, but wish to derive a maximum of information and mental discipline his reasons for emending the generally received school texts, these reasons being mostly sound and always instructive. Exception may, however, be. taken to some of the verbal changes; for instance, in the enunciation of the fortyeighth proposition we read described proposition we read in a definition "the square on one side," &c., while in the page facing this "the square of the line," &c. A boy working at Euclid without help might well be perplexed by this use of two different propositions under like circumstances, the more so as the use of one involves the geometrical, while that of the other involves the algebraical, conception of a square. In spite, however, of one or two such defects, we can recommend this edition, the type and arrangement of which are commendably clear, for the use of young students. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. MR. STANLEY is at present at Nice, recruiting his health, but intends shortly to return to the Congo. In the mean time Dr. van den Heuvel and Lieut. Schaumann, an Austrian, have left. Antwerp on board the Harkaway, with instructions to make a reconnaissance in advance of the fifth Belgian station established at the confluence of the Kuango with the Congo, and consequently far above Stanley Pool. The Harkaway takes out a cargo of calico, small mirrors, beads, garments embroidered in gold, scarlet dressinggowns, and other articles coveted by the negroes, and will bring back ivory, palm oil, copal, and ground-nuts. The telegraph announces the arrival of Lieut. Wissmann at Zanzibar. Dr. Pogge and Lieut. Wissmann started from the west coast of Africa as long ago as December, 1880. It was originally their intention to proceed to the residence of the Muata Yanvo, but finding the road closed by war, they turned to the north, and in November, 1881, reached Mukenge's town on the Lulua. From here both travellers started for Nyangwe on the Lualaba. Dr. Pogge then turned back, as originally intended by him, whilst Lieut. Wissmann continued his journey to the east. This is the fifth time Africa has been crossed by a European between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, Livingstone, Cameron, Stanley, and Serpa Pinto being the only explorers who have preceded Lieut. Wissmann in this feat. Mr. Hubert Bancroft, the San Francisco publisher, who is the author of an elaborate history of the native races of the Pacific States, has nearly ready for the press the first volume of a still vaster undertaking, upon which he has been engaged for fifteen years. His new work is the history of the region from Central America to Alaska during three centuries. The work will extend to at least thirty volumes. The first volume will contain new particulars concerning the discovery of the American continent, and facts about Columbus which throw a new light upon his character. The death is announced of the Italian traveller and man of science, the Marchese O. Antinori, at the age of seventy-one. His first travels in Africa were made between 1859 and 1861, and led to the publication of his 'Catalogo di una Collezione di Uccelli fatta nell' Interno dell' Africa Centrale Nord.' The good people of Calvi in Corsica have quite made up their mind that their town gave birth to Christopher Columbus, and are about to erect a monument in honour of the great discoverer of the New World. Dr. Arthur Krause arrived at Bremen at the beginning of this month, after an absence of eighteen months in the Chukchi peninsula and Alaska. The natural history collection secured by him and his brother is looked upon as the most important result of their expedition. The ethnographical collection is now on exhibition at Bremen. We are in receipt of the Annual Report of the New York State Survey for the Year 1880,' signed by Mr. James T. Gardner, the director. The progress made is slow, which is not surprising if we bear in mind that the total annual expenditure does not quite reach 12,000 dollars. A chain of triangles extending right across the state, and connecting the United States coast survey with Lake Erie, has been completed, and is exhibited on the five charts which accompany the report. Gross errors in the older maps were once more revealed, and the area of the state appears to be 300 to 400 square miles less than has been hitherto assumed. Perfect letter, as well as in a letter published in the ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. GEOLOGICAL.- -Nov. 15.-Dr. J. G. Jeffreys, V.P., in the chair.-Mr. J. E. Thomas and Mr. J. Williams were elected Fellows.-The following communications were read: On the Drift-Beds of the NorthWest of England and North Wales, Part II. Their Nature, Stratigraphy, and Distribution,' by Mr. T. M Reade, and 'On the Evidences of Glacial Action in South Brecknockshire and East Glamorganshire,' by Mr. T. W. E. David, communicated by Prof. J. Prestwich. ASIATIC.-Nov. 20.-Sir Bartle Frere, Bart., President, in the chair.-The following were elected-as Resident Members, Major-General R. P. Anderson, Capt. Fairman, Dr. A. H. Howe, Messrs. W. E. Windle, E. H. Whinfield, F. B. Morse, and J. Fenton; as Non-Resident Members, H.H. the Prince Prisdang Chowsai, Right Hon. Sir J. Fergusson, Bart., Sir J. D. Gordon, Dr. S. D. Bhabha, Dr. J. Anderson, Rev. O. Minos, Rev. J. Sibree, Messrs. E. C. Baber, H. Soltau, and G. Geflowski.-A paper was read by the Rev. J. Sibree, jun., ' On Malagasy Place-Names,' in which he pointed out that the coast nomenclature shows naturally the parts taken by the Portuguese, the English, and the French in its discovery, while it at the same time retains some traces of a very early Arabian colonization; and mentioned the various names given to the island by natives and foreigners. The native names he showed to belong, as a rule, to the Malayo-Polynesian stock of languages, some of the more obscure ones being probably relics of an geographical features of the island were then de scribed, particularly those referring to the mountain ranges. Many examples were given showing how strikingly descriptive these were of natural features -height, prominence, bulk, including also the ideas of mystery, dread, inaccessibility, &c., and giving also the appearance of various of the hills, as rocky, bare, wooded, &c. Many mountains, Mr. Sibree added, bear the names of animals and of birds; others are known by personal names. The river and lake names were then noticed in the same order of classification as that of the mountains; to these were added the names of the towns and villages. THE great comet appears to have been first seen by Dr. Gould at Cordoba on the 6th of September. Mr. Finlay, as already mentioned, noticed it at the Cape on the 8th, but in the mean time it had also been seen in Australia at Sydney, as it was soon afterwards at Melbourne. It has already been stated in the Athenæum that it cannot be identical with both the comets of 1843 and 1880, with a supposed rapidly shorten-aboriginal race. The names applied to the various ing period; and it now appears, from the latest determination of its orbit (calculated by Messrs. O. C. Wendell and S. C. Chandler, jun., of Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, U.S.), that it is, in fact, identical with neither, but that, although the orbit does deviate slightly from a parabola, it is best represented by a very elongated ellipse with a period of several thousands of years. In that respect, therefore, it would seem to resemble the great comet of 1680, which came within an equally short distance of the sun; and the theory, of which so much has been heard lately, of its approaching absorption by the sun must be definitely abandoned. Dr. Oppenheim, of Berlin, has computed an ephemeris for the remainder of the year from the elements just mentioned of the Harvard College astronomers, from which it may be useful to extract the places until the 17th of December, when the moon is in her first quarter and after which not much more is likely to be seen of the comet, except with large telescopes. These places are subjoined, and are for midnight at Berlin : The November number of Petermann's Mittheilungen abounds in information on the movements of African travellers. Dr. Emin Bey writes from Lado, July 18th, 1882. quiet reigns in his province; his stores are full of ivory, rubber, ostrich feathers, tamarinds, and oil; and his relations with the big native chiefs grow more friendly from day to day. At the time he wrote this letter Dr. Emin was preparing to pay a visit to Dr. Junker in the Niamniam country, and after his return he proposes to ascend the Sobat in a steam launch. F. Lupton Bey's last letter is dated Jangay, May 10th, 1882. In it he gives a few latitudes which materially affect our maps of the countries to the west of the Upper Nile. The lake referred to in this BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.-Not. 15.-Mr. T. Morgan in the chair.-It was announced that the autumn Congress would be held at Dover.The memorial in favour of the preservation of the ancient Tolhouse at Great Yarmouth had been presented, and the Town Council have resolved to preserve the building. It is about to pass into the hands of trustees, and to be devoted to some local ford, a building of triangular plan, the work of Sir use. The quaint Rectory House of St. Paul's, DeptJ. Vanbrugh, is about to be demolished, the site having been sold for building purposes.-Mr. Loftus Brock described a portion of the Roman wall of London now being removed at Finsbury Place. It is nine feet two inches thick, of similar construction to what has been already noticed of the wall else. where. Mr. W. G. Smith exhibited several pre historic stone implements.-Mr. W. Myers produced a fine collection of Egyptian antiquities of early date and a series of flint arrow-heads from Chiusi and Perugia. Several fragments of fictile vessels of Egyptian manufacture were inscribed with receipts for the delivery of wine to the garrison of Thebes.Mr. F. Petrie referred to the frequency of similar inscriptions on ancient Egyptian sites, although but little attention has hitherto been bestowed upon them. The first paper was by Mr. C. H. Compton, 'On the Archæological Features of the Recent Exhibition of the Horners' Company,' an exhibition which was visited by 7,000 persons during the four days that it was open. There were a large number of prehistoric objects, mainly recovered from London, exhibited by Mr. H. S. Cuming and others. Among the objects placed on the table were two or three examples of the Jewish shofar or horn, used in synagogues on the day of the new year, including that from the synagogue in Bevis Marks. These were so similar in form to the horn found in the Thames, now in Mr. Cuming's collection, as to render it all but certain that the latter is a relic of the presence of the Jews in England in mediæval times, prior to their expulsion. It was recognized as a shofar both by Mr. A. A. Newman and by Mr. Adler, who described its use. Its form has not been changed since the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.The second paper was by Mr. R. Smith, on the discovery of a hoard of bronze armlets grouped around a single lance-head, in what was probably an ancient cemetery, at Brading, Isle of Wight. |