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and has been studied with an amount of are which leaves nothing to be desired. There is no waste of words-the facts are given so tersely that they cannot be abridged. Very strange to us some of these facts are. Pitt's shortlived tax on maidservants in 1785, though now almost forgotten, was at one time a battle-cry between contending parties; men quarrelled over it as much, though not for so long a period, as they afterwards did about the Corn Laws. To us, who have got, whatever our political creed may be, some knowledge of the principles which should govern the imposing of new taxes, it seems almost impossible that so wild a scheme should ever have entered into a great statesman's head. It should be remembered in extenuation that Pitt copied his scheme from a Dutch original, and that before the rise of our own school of political economists the Dutch were held to be the great masters of the art of finance. Evil as the tax on women servants was, we question whether it was found to be so odious as the tax on clocks and watches, which was imposed in 1797 and repealed the following year. The demand for money was imperative, and almost every other article which a human being could use had come within the net of the tax-gatherer. This abominable oppression was removed not on account of its inherent injustice, but because it was found to be injurious to the trade. The strongest argument against it seems not to have been used-perhaps, indeed, it would have had no weight in those days. To the man who worked in a town a watch was a luxury, as he had many means of ascertaining the flight of time; but to the lonely shepherd on the hills or the farm labourer at his often solitary work it was an absolute necessity. So strongly was this felt that we have heard old men tell how the masters used to pay

the watch tax for their servants.

if we are content to receive a loose one, but that the precise meaning of terms is often the subject of controversy even among experts, and that as time went on, though the word remained stationary, the thing which it signified had altered. Modern pessimists have complained that, whereas formerly English manufacturers always supplied a good article of full weight and measure, now there are evil persons who cheat the public with false wares. A petition presented to Parliament in the reign of Richard II. shows that these worthless persons, who we have been informed have been called into existence by free trade and unrestrained competition, were at that time as active as we find them now. It is set forth that then

it was an

"every-day practice of certain makers to purchase unfulled cloths in the town of Guildford, which then enjoyed a high reputation for its woollen fabrics, and, after increasing their length by artificial means, to dress them and resell them as Guildford wares at a huge profit."

Mr. Hall gives in alphabetical order a list of the English ports with notes concerning each, which will be of much service to future historians and topographers. The account of a civil war at Bristol-for it was little less-in the reign of Edward II. is amusing and instructive. It shows that our medieval boroughs, like their sister towns in the Rhine lands, were tenacious of their rights, and had by no means accepted those theories of despotism which fashionable ignorance even yet attributes to the men of the Middle Ages. The story is too long to quote. We may remark, however, that the king's custos was set at defiance; and even the royal justices, one of whom was Thomas de Berkeley, a member of that powerful Gloucestershire house which has always been so intimately connected with Bristol, were "assaulted and bound, and finally cast into the common gaol." The end, of course, was submission on the part of the citizens; but their turbulence had not been in vain. It proved to king, courtier, and noble that the rights of the freemen of the cities were not to be lightly tampered with, even by a king's justice who was a member of the greatest family in the west.

The tax on armorial bearings was imposed by Pitt in 1798. It was intended to supply the place of the watch tax. It continues in existence still, though, like the heraldic insignia from which it draws a present revenue of some 80,000l. a year, it has suffered many mutations. A well-known Chancellor of the Exchequer has said that he does not think that "it is based on any The severity with which Mr. Hall deals scard or good principle." The only serious out justice to previous historians is somebjection we ever heard raised against it is times entertaining. Hallam is often treated that the impost does not include trade-marks in a manner that would have shocked his as well as shields and crests. When treat-contemporaries. It is an open secret that g on this subject Mr. Dowell speaks Hallam could not read manuscripts; this of "the modern invention of the wafer." is not, however, an excuse for misquoting We do not quite understand what limits them.' The careful analysis of the great the word "modern" may have in his vocabulary. We have seen more than one wafer-fastened letter of the fifteenth cen

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Mr. Hall's book differs widely from that Mr. Dowell. It is confined within much arrower boundaries, and the whole plan is erent. The medieval part of his subject as evidently by far the greater attraction Mr. Hall. As far as we have been able test his work, it seems almost free from curacy. This is, we know, high praise; r every one who has had to deal with old account rolls, instead of being content to deLive his information from modern compilers, must be aware that they are extremely hard reading. It is not that the words, whether Latin or French, are difficult of translation,

"case of currants" is important, not only as making clearer than it has ever been before an important point in legal history, but also as showing how very inaccurate some of our instructors have been. Mr.

Hall has reprinted the table of rates of merchandise for the twelfth of Charles II. This list is useful, as it contains many names of things no longer in use. "Babies" and "babies' heads," meaning toys for children, show that if the word "doll" were then known it had not become an accepted part of our speech. Robert Burton, we believe, does not use the word "doll" in the Anatomy of Melancholy,' but we have there the lines:

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As children think their babies live to be, Do they these brazen images they see.

Mr. Hall has completed his book by giving an excellent index.

Mr. Chester's little book is unpretentious, but useful. Most of us are entirely ignorant of how the Customs were levied in former days. The simple methods now in use, though still capable of improvement, are such a great advance on the practice of our predecessors, that it is hard for us to realize the constant fret and irritation to which every merchant in Britain was subjected. We shall not copy the teaching of certain foreign writers on ethics who have maintained that smuggling was not contrary to morals, but content ourselves with saying that the crude and unintelligent way in which duties were levied upon imports was a direct encouragement to enterprises which brought a host of evils, murder among others, in their train. We do not know at what amount the loss to the revenue by smuggling is at present estimated. Tobacco and spirits are the only articles which it pays to import fraudulently. In 1783 the loss to the revenue by illicit importation was 2,000,000l. per annum.

6

To the

Mr. Chester is mistaken when he says that "the first important attempt to consolidate the Customs laws was made in the 12th of Charles II., when the Act styled the Book of Rates' was passed." statesmen of the Commonwealth time is due the honour or discredit of the first elaborate Customs Act. Among the statutes of 1656 is to be found A Book of Values of Merchandize Imported, according to which Excise is to be paid by the first Buyer.' This elaborate table differs but little from the one issued shortly after the Restoration. Some of the articles mentioned in the old papers belonging to the Custom House are curious. In 1748 the collector of customs at Montrose notifies that he has seized certain 'Syrop of Maiden Hair and Hungry Water." Mr. Chester believes that these articles are not known in the present day. Of the first we can give no account. Hungary water is, or was recently, on sale in London. It is said to take its name from a queen of Hungary, for whose use it was first made, and to be of singular value as a strengthener of the memory. We have understood that it is made of rosemary flowers infused in spirit of wine.

Old Church Life in Scotland. By Andrew Edgar, Minister at Mauchline. (Gardner.) MR. EDGAR does not possess much literary skill, but he has hit upon an interesting theme, and it may be fairly said of his book that, though it is not amusing, it contains some amusing matter; for if to read through Mr. Edgar's 350 pages will be found a wearisome task by any one except a Scotchman, there are occasionally passages that will reward the experienced reader who runs his eye through the volume and happens to light upon them. Mr. Edgar deserves praise for the moderate tone which he has adopted, and the most objectionable feature of his book is sundry jokes, which very likely tickled Mr. Edgar's parishioners (for the groundwork of the book consists of lectures delivered at Mauchline), but which had

better have been omitted in the published volume, as they only serve to confirm Sydney Smith's well-known remark. It is pleasant

to see a Scotch clergyman setting to work to study the records of his own and neighbouring parishes, and trying to form an impartial conception of the religious life of generations gone by.

The strict discipline maintained by the Kirk Session in Scotland is the dominating theme of Mr. Edgar's book. The Ecclesiastical Courts in the reign of Charles I. and the perpetual surveillance of the laity by the bishops were one of the main causes of the revolution that upset the throne, just as the constant interference of the Puritans in the concerns of daily life was one of the main causes of the Restoration; but the Kirk Session in Scotland being supported by the sympathies of the majority of the population-at least south of the Firth-exercised, without provoking discontent, a social tyranny which never had a parallel in England.

It is not surprising that in districts where the Episcopalians were still strong there was bitter dislike to the system, and that when the rebellion of 1715 broke out the

people of Forfarshire seized the opportunity to rabble their ministers. But in the south, so long as Calvinism retained its fervour, the yoke of the Kirk Session was laid upon a people willing to submit, and it was only when the original faith waxed cold, and hypocrisy took the place of piety, that Burns was able to satirize the system and deal it a blow from which it never recovered. The aims of the founders of Presbyterianism were undoubtedly noble -they thought they could force the people to live up to a high and austere type of morality; but the manner in which they tried to bring this about, and the deliberate encouragement that the Kirk Session gave to delation, its habit of inciting every one to report his neighbour's sins, were certain in course of time to create the evils the Church intended to repress.

The Kirk Session assumed to itself the power of fine and of excommunication, and various forms of public penance were inflicted. For instance, in 1622 an unfortunate man

"appeared before the Kirk Session of Dumbarton, and confessed, that in his passion of anger, he had cursitt the Turks for no deteinning and holding of John Campbell, sailor, when the uthers of his companie wes takene, and that he had wissit that he nor nane of his companie sould evir cum home againe, and that he had wissit all Dumbartane to be in ane fyire.' For these evil wishes and cursings he was ordained to stand ane Sabbothe bairfootit and leggit in the haire goune at the Kirk door, betwixt the second and third bells, and thair

after in the public place of repentance in tym of preiching."

A public rebuke in church, such as was inflicted on Burns, was the commonest form of ecclesiastical censure, and the culprit on these occasions was usually set upon a lofty seat in view of all the congregation, although Burns obtained the favour of sitting in his own pew when he was lectured by the minister. Drunkenness and breaches of the seventh commandment were the commonest offences dealt with in this fashion; and Sabbath breaking, which is such a trial to Free Church presbyteries nowadays, was also visited with punishment. At Mauchline, for example,

were

"in 1675 two men of the name of Campbell 'delated for travelling to Glasgow on the Sabbath day, and for bringing a cow from Eaglesham on the Sabbath, and for these offences they were subjected to a public rebuke. The same year five persons were delated in the Session for bringing home herrings on Sunday. In 1703 a woman confessed to the Session that she was almost washing yearn on the Sabbath,' but she wished to exculpate herself of such a dreadful approximation to sin by alleging a mistake in her reckoning of the days of the week."

In a neighbouring parish,

"a man in 1785 was taken to task by the Kirk Session for going to see his mother on a Sabbath day, and carrying a stone of meal to her. He refused to admit that that conduct was any breach of the Sabbath, and for his obstinacy in maintaining that view, he was......solemnly ex

communicated."

Of witchcraft there is little trace in the

parish books of Mauchline, but to call anybody a witch was a grievous offence:

:

ye him ever drink healths? Is Saturday o his book-day or is he constantly at his calli Doth he preach plainly, or is he hard to understood for his scholastic terms, matter, manner of preaching? What time of day d he ordinarily begin sermon on the Sabbath, when doth he dismiss the people? Doth he e censure people for idleness, breach of prom or backbiting? Doth he restrain abuses at per weddings? Doth he carry any way partially that he may become popular?' After the eld had been questioned regarding the minister, elders were themselves removed, and heads families were interrogated concerning the and conduct of the several members of Sessi The precentor and beadle were in like mani inquiry was subsequently completed by put under inquisition, and the full circle moving heads of families and questionin minister and elders if they had anything

say about the congregation generally, or abo any individual members of it in particular."

Churchgoing was strictly enforced. the seventeenth century the communi

were forced to attend sermons on wee "In the year 1707 two women named Jean Reid days. At Aberdeen, in 1642, and Jean Gibson came to words. It was alleged "no merchand nor craftisman's booth dur the other witch and witch-bitten. The Session keipit be the masteris and seruandis.' In 16 that in this altercation one of the damsels called durst be opnit, that the kirk micht be the bett parties to compear on a charge of slander. Jean complained to the Town Council that up got wind of the scandal and summoned both the minister and Kirk Session of Dumbart Gibson gladly responded to the summons, and the weiklie days sermon thair ar several me complained of Jean Reid for saying that 'her chants and traidsmen within burgh who in tim (Gibson's) parents went both to the hollow pit, of sermon mak thair merchandise, and wan and that corbies conveyed them thither.' Jean Jean their wark to the great dishonour of God, co Reid, at a subsequent meeting of Session, stoutly tempt of the gospel, and hindrance of tha denied the charge as stated by her accuser, but awin edification,' and the Town Council, fo confessed that she had once on provocation said preventing of the like in time coming, ordaine grandfather's lum-head, as there were on your to Jean Gibson, 'There were not corbies on my that every person so transgressing should pa father's when he died.' an unlaw of 40s." This precious squabble

66

'actually occupied the Mauchline Kirk Session, in 1707, several months. Witnesses were called and put upon oath. Evidence was heard, and the more evidence that was led made confusion all the more confounded. It was on the 8th June that the two women were first cited to attend the Session. On the 4th August 'Ballochmyle was appointed to attend the next Presbytery and...... was directed......to consult the Presbytery anent the affair.' On the 31st August a committee of Session was instructed to confer with the parties and bring them to some reconciliation. On the 7th September the committee reported that the parties were irreconcilable, and the Session ordered the witnesses to be cited and examined anew. It was not till the 28th December that the case was brought to an end, and it ended in both parties being sessionally rebuked for so much of the slander that each was proved to have uttered."

And if the Session was always meddling with other people, it was severe to its own members:

"Not only did they take up all famas and during Mr. Auld's ministry, they held two special reports against elders, but every year, especially meetings for prayers and privy censures, or, as it might be better expressed, for private censures of their own members."

Even the minister himself did not escape:— "First of all the minister, after having given auricular proof of his pulpit gifts, by preaching a sermon from his ordinary text, was removed, and the elders were questioned about his ministerial diligence and manner of life. The questions that might be asked about him were; according to Pardovan, almost infinite in both number and variety. Among those that now-a-days would be thought most outre were the following:-'Is he a haunter of ale-houses? Is he a swearer of small minced oaths, such as, before God it is so? I protest before God, or Lord what is that? Saw

The sermons were long, yet the congregation seem to have murmured if the minister wa absent and a discourse was not forthcoming For example, in 1723, at Mauchline, "the parishioners complained to the Presbyter been of late under much indisposition of bod But the reply of the minister was that he ha and that he had fallen under sundrie difficulti in his affairs, which obliged him to be ofte abroad contrary to his inclination.'

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One curious fact was the fondness of th laity for repeated sermons on the same text

"In the year 1707 the parishioners of Craig furnished the Presbytery of Ayr with a criticis of their minister's pulpit services, which is we worthy of preservation as a sample of the stat of rural opinion in the West of Scotland at th beginning of last century. His words in prayer said the parishioners, are not connected, an he hath too frequent repetition of God's name prayer, and he doth often change his text, and do not raise many heads, and doth not prosecute su

6

333

as he names but scruffs them.' The ministers, too, shared the ideas of the congregations:

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Presbytery to be opened, as meetings of Syn Long ago it was customary for meetings still are, by a sermon. The subject of sermo too, was not left to the choice of the minist appointed to preach, but was prescribed to hi and these sermons......were meant to constitute consecutive and an exhaustive treatment of lar subjects. One minister followed up at one Pre bytery what another minister had said at t previous Presbytery. For instance, on the 28 October, 1766, the text appointed by the Pre bytery of Ayr for the opening sermon at the next meeting was the first verse of the fir chapter of the General Epistle of James. Vers after verse of this epistle was then in regula order appointed as the text for the next Presby terial sermon till the whole epistle had been go through. The last of this series of discourse was given in the beginning of 1792, more tha

y-five years after the first of the series habeen preached!......In 1792 the Presbytery red on a similar exposition, verse by verse, the first Epistle of Peter, but as the most recent volume of Presbytery Records that I have had the privilege of examining comes down only to the year 1796, I am not prepared to say whether er not this exposition of St. Peter's first epistle was ever brought to a close!"

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

A Family Affair. By Hugh Conway. 3 vols.
(Macmillan & Co.)

The Ill-tempered Cousin. By Frances Elliot.
3 vols. (White & Co.)
Se in Harvest. By Ida Ashworth Taylor.
vols. (Hurst & Blackett.)
Ten in Darkness. By W. W. Fenn. 2 vols.
(Kelly & Co.)

As Ill-regulated Mind. By Katharine
Wylde. (Blackwood & Sons.)
'A FAMILY AFFAIR' makes it possible to
estimate the loss caused by the death of
Hugh Conway." It proves that 'Called
Back gave no just measure of Mr. Fargus's
powers. He was not a mere fortunate in-
ventor of a happy situation; he had a strong
grasp of human character, a real talent for
devising a story, a very rare gift of being
able to tell it without a break and without
losing hold of the reader's interest, and an
almost rarer gift of reserve. One can see
that self-restraint made him wanting to
some extent in tenderness; but the obvious
genuineness of his feeling shows that the
want was only due to a studied control. It
is idle to make guesses at what the success
which was his due might have done for him;
A Family Affair' is enough to show that
he was not deficient in pathetic insight,
but it suggests a regret that he was not
spared to give fuller freedom to his natural
sympathies. It is too much to say that his
work is a masterpiece, but it is not too much
to say that it is masterly. It is done in the
manner of a man who has studied his craft

the pleasure of digression, and to pass at
will from the reign of Anne to that of
George III. Her own Twickenham
people are very remarkable. The Ger-
man speculator and virtuoso, Mr. Winter,
is an amusing conception, a compound of
good feeling and utter want of honesty;
but his broken English is inconsistent and
overdone, and is as little like what is pro-
bable as the jargon of no province put in
the mouths of the English peasants and
servants. Aunt Amelia, Winter's suffering
wife, exposed to alternations of roughness
and "gush," and passing her life in the
terror of bailiffs, is a very charming old
lady. It is hard for her to have so terrible
a niece thrust upon her as the beautiful
half-caste Sophia, wholly Indian in her
superstitious prejudices, who under the
teaching of her ayah has learnt to believe
that her kind aunt is "a devil." As im-
petuous in her love as her hate, Sophia
relieves her family of her presence, killing
herself because Maitland wishes to get his
parents' consent before marrying her. The
contrast between the healthy-minded Jane
and this really moving picture of Asiatic
passion is well presented, and without any
insipidity on the side of the civilized maiden.
The way in which Jane puts down the
vacuous Lord Edward at the ball is capital,
as are all the scenes between Maitland
and herself. The conversations are clear,
the duchess, Lady Danvers, and others,
even the slangy Brownhill, talking as
they would in nature. But in her zeal
for avoiding bookishness in conversation the
author often leaves grammar out of her
narrative. At the ball, for instance, the hall
was probably not left in darkness, though
Mrs. Elliot speaks of "a side door, leading
from the duke's study into the hall, the
only room in that vast mansion that, at its
master's earnest request, had been left un-
decorated and unlit."

Towards the end of Snow in Harvest'

one of the ladies was reading a novel which
must have been very much like Miss Taylor's
work:—

the intellect for its comprehension, and was,
"It was a novel requiring no great effort of
moreover, clever and amusing, but Conny's
attention wandered, and though she turned over
the pages with sufficient regularity she would
not have found it easy to furnish an analysis of
the plot."

description we can fancy he would be more
graphic with the pencil than the pen. The
book is, and is intended to be, a medley.
The stories, to our mind, are better than
the essays. These latter are for the most
part commonplace in their subject-matter,
and, though they embody the thoughts of a
cultivated mind, have little that is original
about them. The ghost stories on the other
hand have points which touch the appre-
hension. They are too numerous to be
treated in detail. Heart's Content' and
The Sign of the Green Dragon' are two
which have a genial moral lesson in them
to counterbalance their "eerie" character.
The self-denying sailor, and the faithful old
dame of the almshouse, who preserves her
faith in the love of her youth till he returns
a grey-bearded veteran from wars with man
and nature, are pleasant pictures. The
dying friend who puts the last energies
of his will into his friend's artistic work is
another practical ghost, but for the most
part these mysterious agents do little good
to the living. The Legend of the Light'
suggests an historic doubt. We are aware
of no authority for a persecution of Puritans
on the northern border of England in the
reign of James II. A grammatical error
presents itself in "wage
" for wages.
the whole, the style is good and the mys-
teries are thrilling.

On

"Mr. Cole was a self-made man. He had

About

begun life without relations, without schooling, without money to speak of. He was only a boy in a bookshop; a Dissenter, moreover, brought up by a pious mother under the eye of the minister whose chapel he attended twice every Sunday. The minister had a pretty daughter, very unlike her parents. Young Hugh Cole his own account. He became a good man of took to reading the books and thinking a bit on business, and there were passages between him and the minister's daughter. After a while Hugh opened a bookshop on his own account (an old bookshop; he had a poor opinion of modern writings and cheap editions). the same time, his mother being dead, he gave up Dissent, and with it the minister's daughter. After a year or two he married some one else, and before long was left a widower." This Mr. Cole, at the age of fifty, is prosperous in worldly matters, and as regards his affections entirely engrossed in the happiness of Lewis, his only son, then atat. twenty-one. He is aroused from the groove he moves in by a characteristic letter from the deathbed of his early love. Julia Duncan is now a widow; it is too late for anything in the way of amends for the past. She wishes that Lewis, whom she has seen and loved, should marry her only daughter. Lewis is something between a schoolboy and a philosopher, has studied the subject of love, and is heartily disgusted with the proposition. But he is also startled at this revelation of his father's past. "Were you 'She had an very fond of her, father? ill-regulated mind,' said Mr. Cole quietly." Mrs. Elliot's readable novel is a good deal In the end he pays a visit to the old minister disfigured by carelessness. To say nothing and his wife, is astonished at the grand cf frequent misspelling, the blame of which beauty and stately mental charms of Lust be shared by the printer, a sea-view Hugoline Duncan, and falls headlong in in Berkshire reminds one of Shakspeare's love with her pretty cousin of sixteen, the coast of Bohemia more immediately than Mr. Fenn's two volumes come to us as the idea of Twickenham fifty years ago condaughter of a scapegrace and an actress of the work of an artist "with knowledge at more than doubtful morals. "Poor little nects itself with that of the witty and fashionone entrance quite shut out." Not that any Nelly" has an ill-regulated mind. She able notabilities of some hundred years plea " ad misericordiam " is necessary in his hates the dull decorum of the austere family earlier. But Mrs. Elliot may be allowed case, though from occasional passages of in which she has to bear the burden of her

and who knows what it is that he is aiming at. He was an artist, not an amateur; and he accomplished a great deal of what he tried to do. 'A Family Affair' is one of the best of recent novels. The story is full of interest and of excitement. The characters are distinct and lifelike: the two precise bachelors who count over the linen from the wash and polish the table glass with their own hands are undoubtedly taken from life, and treated with such imaginative additions as a capable artist knows how to make out of a suggestion. They two alone are enough to make the fortune of a novel; but the Oxford "coach" is no less well portrayed, and the powerful study of the halfcrazy and wholly devoted nurse fixes an impression which is not likely to be forgotten. In praising this book there is no question of paying a tribute to the memory of a Lamented author-the book itself deserves and commands recognition.

The reviewer can well put himself into
Conny's place and agree with her. There
is but little more to be said. It is no doubt
according to rule that the hero and heroine
should be more sensitive than the other
characters, but the reader feels a touch of
wearisome sorrow when he finds that the
troubles upon which the story depends are
inadequate not only in his own judgment,
but in the opinion of those of the heroine's
relations who were most nearly concerned.
One would say there was a good deal of
fuss about nothing, and might envy people
in a world where it is so difficult to invent the
inevitable sorrows of life. But, by way of
emphasis, it may be said again that 'Snow
in Harvest' really is "clever and amusing."

mother's sins; she loves Lewis with much compunction, for Hugoline loves him too; and she has a Bohemian nostalgia for tinsel and the stage. But the lovers understand each other so well that Lewis has to travel from London, under the pressure of a presentiment, to see Eleanor for a stolen five minutes. The interview is as prettily described as all the idyllic parts of the story. But the presentiment was just. Next day the child has vanished. Supposed duty to her mother, who represents herself as dying, induces her to flight, and the letter of explanation to Lewis is intercepted by the vulgar tyrant who calls himself her mother's husband, and has decoyed her to make money by her dancing and her voice. The rest of the story relates the usual series of cross purposes and hide-and-seek between two people who are literally dying to find. each other. At length poor Nelly is found, only to die in her lover's arms, and the patient Hugoline, who has nursed her, makes up to son and father the loss of the woman "with an ill-regulated mind." There is nothing original in the story, but it may be commended for the grace of description which enhances what might have been reduced to commonplace.

SCHOOL-BOOKS.

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- This

Browne, S.J. (Dublin, Browne & Nolan; London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co.) compilation is intended to meet special needs created by the Intermediate Examinations, special features being the indication of the most important rules of syntax, or parts thereof, by more conspicuous type, and the placing of the examples on the opposite page to the rules. We have noted a few misstatements, omissions, and misprints (e.g., åvdpwv, p. 39; σwooσívny, p. 41), but on the whole the work is carefully executed. The method is clear, the diction simple, and the arrangement rational-in short, the conditions prescribed for himself by the compiler seem to be duly satisfied.

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An Elementary Greek Syntax. By F. E. work is exceedingly well compiled, as must be (Rivingtons.) This little Thompson, M. A. expected by all who know Mr. Thompson's 'Syntax of Attic Greek,' of which we have spoken in very high terms.

Andocides de Mysteriis. Edited with Critical and Explanatory Notes by W. J. Hickie (M), M. A. (Macmillan & Co.)-There is much to commend in the critical portions of this edition, but the commentary is not adapted for readers of a first Greek book, for whom it is said to be designed, nor even for the majority of those There is too little help and too much illustration, who superintend the study of first Greek books.

with countless references to books which are almost sure to be, and to remain, out of the reach of schoolboys. In the note on kai...TE... Kai, § 1, it is perhaps as well that the use of to $48 is quite irrelevant, the first kai going the particles is not discussed, as the reference with the whole clause, and being immediately followed by αὐτούς τε.

Easy Latin Prose Exercises: Detached Sentences and Continuous Prose. By H. R. Heatley, M A. (Rivingtons.)-This volume comprises 150 progressive exercises, several being recapitulatory, forms of analysis, and vocabulary. We cannot say that we are much impressed by the arrangement of the work or the style of the detached sentences.

Elementary Classics.-Q. Horatii Flacci Carminum. Liber III. By T. E. Page, M. A. (Macmillan & Co.) - This is another of Mr. Page's judicious adaptations for the use of beginners from his excellent edition of Horace's Odes.

Q. Horati Flacci Epistule: The Epistles of Horace. Edited with Notes by Aug. S. Wilkins, M.A., LL.D. (Macmillan & Co.)-The new edition of Horace for the series of "School Class-Books is brought to a satisfactory conclusion by this third volume. Dr. Wilkins, who is especially strong on textual criticism and orthography, has provided an excellent text with a judicious selection of critical foot-notes, while a vast amount of literature is digested into reasonable limits for the copious commentary, which is unfortunately relegated to the end of the book-if, indeed, some four-fifths of the whole work can be called the end. With respect to the numerous difficulties in reading and interpretation which occur in Horace's Epistles our editor has shown taste and judgment in deciding between the various views of previous commentators. For instance, bk. i. ep. 6, v. 7, the best of five interpretations of 'ludicra quid, plausus, et amici dona Quiritis...?" is approved, according to which ludicra = trifles, with plausus, &c., in apposition. But the favoured view should have been placed first or last, not fourth. The objection to this view, that it involves "prejudging of the question," does not amount to much; for Horace is not asking whether public honours are 66 toys," but whether such toys are expetenda or not. The word ludicra expresses little more than their unsubstantiality compared with the material treasures yielded by earth and sea. In ver. 9 prints.

the phrase "his adversa" deserves a note, and means surely not

absolute want and absolute unpopularity. Con"loss and suffering," but ington's "grow numb from top to toe is not a permissible prose rendering of "animoque et corpore torpet," ver. 14. Once more, "argentum et marmor vetus æraque et artes" (ver. 17) should be annotated to point out the precise function of the conjunctions. We observe that era is explained rightly, and differently from Orelli, on bk. ii. ep. 1, v. 240. The examination of these few lines illustrates a general defect in the notes, namely, that minor difficulties and little niceties of expression are occasionally passed over. With this trifling exception Dr. Wilkins has executed his difficult and laborious task in admirable style, thereby laying students of Horace under considerable obligations.

Handbook of Greek Composition. With Exercises for Junior and Middle Classes. By Henry

Prooemia Græca: a Book of Easy and Entertaining Extracts in Attic Greek. With Notes and Complete Vocabularies by A. W. Young, M. A. (Simpkin, Marshall & Co.)-This little volume will introduce tyros in Greek to Esop, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Strabo, and Theophrastus, not to mention Herodotus Atticized, as well as the authors better known in schools. That the few pages of original Greek composition on the battle of Hastings show a mixture of styles is not surprising. The selection seems to have been carefully and on the whole judiciously made, but is here and there disfigured by mis

T. Macci Plavti Mostellaria. With Notes, E. A. Sonnenschein, M.A. (Cambridge, Deigh Critical and Exegetical, and an Introduction, by ton, Bell & Co.) This edition is a very great improvement on Ramsay's, and gives abundant research. Additional value is given to the work evidences of sound scholarship and industrious by the assistance rendered by Prof. A. Palmer, Dr. Reid, and Mr. Robinson Ellis. Prof. Sonnenschein's emendations are not invariably happy; for instance, on i. 2, 127, the substitution of which is that so long as Philematium is pleased "decere" for placere destroys Scapha's point, with her finery it does not matter whether it

becomes her or not. Just above, v. 125, for the MSS. "sátin hæc deceát, Scapha," it is better to read "sátin ecca deceát, Scapha," than with

Prof. Sonnenschein to insert mihi after deceat.

On iv. 3, 46, no such violent remedies as our editor suggests are needed, for if we change the

MSS. quis to quot is, instead of the suggeste qui is, the MS. "me exemplis hodie eludific tus" will stand, all except the last e. General speaking, however, the text is determined wi judicious discrimination, and comprises ma original corrections and additions which will accepted as probably or certainly right. We a glad to read that Prof. Sonnenschein propos to continue his contributions to the series Plautus's plays begun by Dr. W. Wagner.

Latin Prose after the Best Authors.-Part Casarian Prose. By Francis P. Simpson, B.. (Macmillan & Co.)-The simple child who engaged in doing easy Latin exercises and y has growing in his breast" a precise and defini sense of style" will doubtless derive mu gratification from Mr. Simpson's 'Cæsaria Prose' before he descends into his early grave Less gifted beings may be taught Latin as Lati and nothing more from this work, and find out i riper years that they have been writing Cæsaria prose without knowing it. Everybody shou skip the shallow remarks on the condition sentence in the preface and notes; and we won caution the less gifted youth not to infer fro Mr. Simpson's loose method that "Oratio 0 liqua" only means "reported speech,” and i therefore, always dependent on a past tense.

Sturgeon Mackay, M. A., F.R.S.E. (Chambers Key to the Elements of Euclid. By Joh -This work is simply a key to an edition Euclid's 'Elements' brought out by Mr. Macks last year, and will be very serviceable to studen using the Elements.' The edition of th 'Elements' contained a very large collection

"riders" and questions, and the key now publishe contains solutions and answers. The solution are clearly arranged; the necessary figures a seldom furnished, but adequate descriptions them are given, so that the reader will have difficulty in understanding the solutions.

The Sunday School Reader or Reciter. J. E. Clarke, M. A. (Routledge & Sons.) Simple stories, fables, and conversations, wi pieces of poetry, all of a moral and religious ca make up this volume, which is intended a adapted for the use of Sunday-school teache with their classes.

Victor Hugo.-Principaux Episodes des Mis ables. Edited by J. Boielle. (Williams & N gate.) This attempt to introduce schoolboys a knowledge of the prose writings of the gr Frenchman may be pronounced a success. selections have been made with judgment a the notes are good.

Fables de La Fontaine. A Selection, edited L. M. Moriarty. (Macmillan & Co.)-Thi

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the first instalment of Macmillan's illustra Primary Series of French and German Re ings." As Mr. Moriarty says, however, fables are difficult, and their suitability t "primary series" is doubtful. Mr. Moriar notes are good, and his grammatical intro tion is excellent. A vocabulary is append Some clever illustrations by Mr. Caldecott, too well cut, will tend to make the task of lea the book is intended. ing less repulsive to the young people for wh

Chouans et Bleus. By P. Féval. Edited Charles Sankey, M.A. (Longmans & Co.)Sankey's introduction is too short for the amo that it will be hardly intelligible to schoolbo of matter he has put into it, and the resul What will they make of such a sentence as this place of meeting without notice, retired to "Then the Commons, being shut out from th celebrated oath never to dissolve till the Tennis Court of Versailles, and there swore stitution of the kingdom should be establish explain who shut the Commons out, nor has on a firm foundation." Mr. Sankey does said anything before about "the Constitut of the kingdom." Mr. Sankey's notes are fai good, but his map is a map of modern Britta not of the Brittany of the Chouans.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

MR. LEONE LEVI'S volume on Wages and Erings of the Working Classes (Murray) conars two or three papers already published in the transactions of the British Association and

ther societies, as well as an elaborate inquiry, the form of a report to Sir Arthur Bass, which brings the subject down to the present date. Such statistics must, however, always be more less hypothetical in character, as many of actual computation; and Prof. Leone Levi has

the conclusions rest on estimates rather than on

as a partisan solely inspired by hatred of Russia,
and not by the "strictly humanitarian" views
and love of England which he puts forward.
Nor need this cause any surprise. A writer
who applies such terms as 'imbecility" and
"criminal indifference " to the leading statesmen
of one of the great parties of the country is sure
to be opposed now and again, more especially if
he is a foreigner occupying a chair in a dis-
acting under provocation.
tant university, and therefore presumably not
It is not surpris-

ing to hear that Herr Vambéry has received
several " remonstrances from this side of the

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the present at an end, and the deficit, which, as before explained, could not have been permaThe nently averted, is now very serious. author's account of the successive modifications of the system and the details given of the present sources of revenue are well worth attention.

WE have a number of catalogues on our table: among them a capital catalogue of linguistic and other foreign books from Messrs. Dulau; catalogues of second-hand books from Mr. B. Dobell, Mr. Charles Hutt, Mr. Bennett of BirBristol, Mr. Meehan of Bath, Mr. Iredale of not quite perfect), Messrs. Fawn & Son of Torquay, M. Techener of Paris, and M. Brockhaus of Leipzig (Dr. Carl von Noorden's library).

not been careful to disarm the criticism which Channel. We make bold to say, however, that mingham (including a second folio Shakspeare,

has been directed against similar investigations. The working class is not clearly defined, and the fusion or exclusion of a few highly paid foreZen and superintendents, or other members of the lower middle class, may make a great difference in an estimated average of the wages of the working class. Again, the inquiries addressed by Prof. Levi to employers for the purpose of procuring information for this book are not so worded as to draw out specific information in regard to the continuity of the employment of artisans and labourers; and many persons would contend that he has completely underestimated the loss they suffer from irregularity of work, both in his general estimate and more detailed statements. Perhaps the most curious calculation in the book is that where the author endeavours to show that the working classes spend more absolutely and relatively on luxuries than the middle and upper classes do, and commends the latter for providing for necessaries before they indulge in luxuries. This conclusion reats partly on the estimate that the working classes pay only 9 per cent. of their income for rent; but this can hardly be reconciled with another calculation, that rent now absorbs 24 per cent of the town artisan's wages as against 20 per cent. in 1857, even if the lower rents of rural cottages are taken into account. The volume contains an interesting collection of facts, but they are admittedly incomplete, and the inferences

of the two letters which he prints as specimens,
letter rails at "Jingonastic Conservatives," says
one is not written by an Englishman.,, This
Mr. Marvin "is of no age to have any practical
experience," and asserts that "there is no war
fever in this country by the great bulk of the
people.'

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MR. FREDERICK GALE'S volume on Modern English Sports (Low & Co.) is pretty sure to be popular. The author writes in a hearty, straightforward way, if not with much literary skill. There is much force in what he says of the injustice of closing footpaths, and about overpreserving and the general abuse of sport.

It is said that within a week of General Grant's death twenty lives of him had been produced by publishers in the States. General Grant's Life, which Mr. Paterson of Edinburgh sends us, seems to be of American origin, though printed in Edinburgh. It may be recommended as a popular sketch.

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We have also on our table England and Egypt, by S. L. (Pickering),-English Library of Standard Works, Vol. III. (Dicks),-Musical Snares, by A. Grey (Maxwell),-The Cottage Next Door, by H. Skipton (S.P.CK.), Pictures, Prose, and Rhymes (S.S.U.),-Child Life, by J. A. Langford (Simpkin), Love's Mood, by A. Prince (E. W. Allen), The Water Nymphs, by F. J. Chancellor (Burdett), Tales and Poems of South of Memory, by A. Furlong (Field & Tuer), India, by E. J. Robinson (Woolmer),—Echoes Songs of Coming Day (Kegan Paul), Mountain Waterbrooks, Poems, by the Rev. C. Fox (Partand Meadowsweet, by M. A. Raffalovich (Bogue), ridge), The Banquet (Blackwood),-Tuberose -Selections from the Poets, by W. Theobald (Trübner),-In the Watches, Poems, Vol. V., by Mrs. H. Dobell (Remington), - Thoughts for Every Day, selected from the Writings of the Rev. J. L. Davies (Blackwood), - The Divine Origin of Christianity, by R. S. Storrs, D.D. (Hodder & Stoughton), The Christian Ministry at the Close of the Nineteenth Century, by the Right Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, D.D. (New York, U.S., Whittaker),-The Self-Revealing Jehovah of the Old Testament the Christ of the New Testa

from them are not likely to meet with general occupied by Holland, consisting almost entirely ment, by S. M. Barclay (Nisbet), -The World

acceptance.

SHILLING stories having come into favour some months ago, it is not unnatural that Mr. Joseph Hatton should be found amongst the caterers for the reading public in this shape. It is, perhaps, still less unnatural that he should so faithfally follow the prevailing fashion as to commit murder for the purpose of showing how ineniously and artistically it may be done, and what a great deal of mystery can be woven around a deliberate, cold-blooded crime. He is at any rate fresh in a few of his details, though main facts are terribly stale. crrder must sooner or later pall upon the jaded Demoniac appetite, if it has not already begun to pall; and then, if the cheap and short novel is to retain its hold upon us, writers must go further ad for their plots. The best points in John Salam's Double (Maxwell) only serve trengthen this impression.

to

I the British public is not yet thoroughly zstructed upon all the aspects of the great Ceral Asian question, this is not the fault of ats and journalists. The latest contribution of this kind, The Coming Struggle for India Cell & Co), we receive at the hands of Prof. Tambéry, who, besides being a student of CenAsian history and philology, has personal edge of the country he deals with, and therefore, speak with authority. Vabery's opinions are well known. Herr Paned in the present publication he distrusts the loyalty of the Mohammedans in India, and s upon Afghan friendship or neutrality as a Celson; advises the construction of a railway Kandahar and the occupation of Herat by troops; and advocates the cultivation of Ce most friendly relations with Turkey and Persia None of these suggestions would strike an ordinary person as being very original; yet Herr Vambéry is looked upon by a good many

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As ex

Fremantle (Rivingtons),
as the Subject of Redemption, by the Rev. W. H.
-The Students' Com-
mentary of the Holy Bible: New Testament,
Vol. I., edited by J. M. Fuller (Murray),— The
Bible Record of Creation, by C. B. Waller (Kegan
Paul),-Lectures on Pastoral Theology, by the
Ven. J. P. Norris (S.P.C.K.),-Ungedruckter
Predigten d. Martin Luthers aus den Jahren
1528 bis 1546, Vol. I., by Dr. G. Buchwald
Congregationis Indulgentiis Sacrisque Reliquiis
(Leipzig, Grunow),-Rescripta Authentica Sacræ
Præposita: necnon Summaria Indulgentiarum,
by J. Schneider (Ratisbon, Pustet),-Transac
tions of the Videnskabs-Selskab of Christiania for
the Years 1878 to 1882 (Christiania, Brogger),-
Rome, by O. Riemann (Paris, Rothschild),-Les
Petits Côtés de l'Histoire, by H. d'Ideville
(Paris, Lévy),—and Eléonore Desmier d'Olbreuze,
Duchesse de Zell, by Vicomte H. de Beaucaire
(Paris, Oudin). Among New Editions we have
Henry Irving, by W. Archer (Field & Tuer),-
Biographies of Celebrities (Maxwell), Healey,
by J. Fothergill (Bentley), Old London Street
Cries, by A. W. Tuer (Simpkin),-Man's Destiny
viewed in the Light of his Origin, by J. Fiske
(Macmillan), Loch Etive and the Sons of
Uisnach, by R. A. Smith, LL.D. (Gardner),
-The Biblical Treasury: Vol. II., Exodus to
Deuteronomy (S.S.U.), and Lyall's Propadeia
Prophetica, edited by G. C. Pearson (Kegan
Paul).

Aperçu Politique et Économique sur les Colonies Néerlandaises aux Indes Orientales. Par M. Roi des Belges. Joseph Jooris, Ministre Résident de S. M. le (Brussels, Muquardt; Amsterdam, Feikema.)—This is a clear and serviceable résumé, chiefly from the economical side, of the main facts and statistics connected with the administration by the Dutch of their Malay dependencies. The great colonial position once of possessions taken from the Portuguese, embraced, besides her present colonies, the islands of Formosa and Ceylon, the Cape and Brazil, with stations on the Indian coasts, to say nothing of and Persia. the command of the trade with India, China, The two causes of her decline were political embarrassments and the commerThe collapse of her mercantile supremacy from cial rivalry of France, Spain, and England. only a question of time; for not only was this the latter cause was, as the writer clearly shows, founded on a system of absolute exclusiveness, eventually either break down from within or be which, though enforced by savage penalties, must attacked from without, it was also at the mercy of any fluctuation of taste; thus the demand for the newly discovered luxuries of coffee, sugar, and tea, which could be produced in various other countries, caused a great diminution in the demand for the spices of which Holland had the monopoly. The author, as a Belgian, asserts his share in the glories of the Dutch colonial empire, but he describes its abuses with great candour. He defends, indeed, the system of forced labour as being merely the equivalent of a State tax, and the practice was besides an inheritance from the native governments; but it led to endless abuses, and the people were further oppressed by the compulsory cultivation of unsuitable crops, taken off their hands either in payment of tribute or at unremunerative prices, the necessary production of rice being thus dangerously diminished. For some time past, indeed since 1848, gradual but radical change of system in the interest of the population has been pressed on the Government by public Buxton's (H. J. W.) The Life of Duty, Plain Sermons on the opinion at home, and steadily carried out in the face of great financial difficulties. Population and free cultivation have largely increased, but the great colonial revenue of former days is for

LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
ENGLISH.
Theology.

Gospels and Epistles, Vol. 2, cr. 8vo. 5/ el.
Christ for To-day, International Sermons, edited by the Rev.
H. D. Rawnsley, roy. 16mo. 6/ cl.

Hiley's (Rev. R. W.) The Inspiration of Scripture, cr. 8vo. 2/6
Lightfoot's (J. B.) Apostolic Fathers: Part 2, S. Ignatius,
S. Polycarp, with Introduction, &c, 3 vols. 8vo 48/ cl.

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