have been very generally recognized by those who have had occasion to consult it. Therefore as the discontinuance of the work with the next instalment will be a cause of disappointment to many, it may be well to point out that at the present rate of production, necessitated by the elaborate plan of this calendar, no appreciable progress could have been made in the present generation. Indeed, we are almost prepared to say that the plan has hitherto been needlessly elaborate, an enormous amount of time being obviously expended upon the identification of obscure place-names, which, so long as the county is stated, might well be left to the discernment of local antiquaries. Neither are the results of this identification always satisfactory, for according to the Pipe Rolls of Henry II. and their commentator Mr. Eyton, "Gayton " is the common mediæval form of Geddington, once a favourite resting-place of early Plantagenet kings. Again, the cross-references in the body of the calendar might, we believe, more conveniently be reserved for an index. An instance in point may be seen in the entry under "Friars Preachers" of a long grant that is also calendared under "London, Friars Preachers of." Therefore the simpler and more expeditious method of revealing these foundations of our mediæval history promised by the present Deputy-Keeper should meet with general approval. With this farewell tribute to the excellence of a memorable work we may pass to the inviting promise of the future already confirmed by specimens of three new record calendars. The first of these is only represented here by a fragment, but the Report states that the whole will shortly be issued in a separate form. This Calendar of Early Chancery Proceedings will be, in its earlier numbers, an invaluable addition to our materials for the social history of what is, in spite of the 'Paston Letters,' a singularly obscure period. Indirectly, too, it may well be expected to furnish matter of greater political interest than is usually anticipated from such sources in more tranquil periods than the latter half of the fifteenth century. Although the form of the English bills filed in the court before the middle of the reign of Henry VIII. differs somewhat from the more elaborate processes of the subsequent period, yet the subject and language of the complaint are to a great extent the same. Indeed, the only outward difference apparent is in the fact that the Tudor suitor required a full membrane at least for the expression of his feelings, with equal space reserved for endless replications and sur-rejoinders, and the suppliant of Bacon and Egerton a still more extravagant scale of entry, whereas the pithy merchant stapler or yeoman between the times of Kemp and Wolsey needed a scroll little larger than one of the well-known parchment strips of the petitions to the king and his council for the relation of his far more stirring wrongs. Mr. Sharp has divided the subject-matter of the suits already dealt with almost evenly between those relating to land and those of a personal and miscellaneous character, and this proportion will probably be found to obtain throughout the series. We have not observed that the editor has provided any heading for bills intended to compel discovery of documents. This form is one of the most common of any in the Elizabethan calendar, and it is difficult to see on what other grounds a sub-pœnâ could be useful in very many cases unless such discovery were the object of interrogatories or of the stay of actions at law. Whenever such discovery is required by the bill itself, the fact should certainly be noticed in the précis of the subject-matter given in the calendar, as a possible means of identification may thus be afforded for the incredibly large mass of original documents filed during the progress of these suits, but long since detached from them, which will some day prove a source of information second to none for the elucidation of the social history of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. That portion of the vast and intricate series of records known as the Augmentation Office Enrolments of Leases and Pensions is dealt with in the third part of the Appendix, and all students of the Reformation period will be grateful for further assistance in this direction. A copious index of names of lessees and pensioners is printed here, but we venture to think that an index of places would have been of still greater help to students engaged in purely literary researches. It is true that an expert can easily trace the possessions of a religious house in the Ministers' Accounts, but it appears to us that the information chiefly required by the historian or antiquary would be exactly of the character of the specimens of pensions to individual monks given by Mr. Walford Selby in his admirable preface, none of which can, of course, be found in the present index. Indeed, it is to be regretted both that the preference has hitherto been given to indexes of names, and also that the appropriateness of the respective indexes is seldom kept in view; for though an index of names may be more useful in respect of one class of documents, an index of places is equally indispensable for others. If any one doubts this, let him analyze the results of striking out' all entries of places in the Calendar of Patent Rolls printed in the present Report, or, better still, let him try the experiment of abolishing Palmer's or Jones's indexes or the index of places to Domesday Book. The natural arrangement of records is, we believe, by counties, manors, and lands, or by equivalent divisions, in order of date, and not by the names of persons holding or pleading or impleaded. The residuum after this arrangement will be found to consist chiefly of a mass of loose documents to the contents of which an index of names will prove the most serviceable key, and even a further index of subjects more valuable than one of places. On p. 376 of this Appendix will be found the following direction for consulting a non-alphabetical calendar which had previously received a useless index of names: By reference to the 'county column, the calendar can be examined rapidly by any one searching for information about a particular family or place." This is surely a step in the right direction. A Calendar of Star - Chamber Proceedings, occupying more than two hundred pages, will be found by many readers the most interesting portion of the Appendix. This long-needed work throws a flood of light upon the origin and practical working of this much-abused tribunal. It will not be news to most people that the motive for the foundation of this "odious" jurisdiction was at least a pure one, and that, so far from overriding every personal right" of the subject, it busied itself with the alleviation of human suffering and the punishment of secret crime. Even Hallam admits that down to the reign of Elizabeth this court was chiefly occupied with civil suits which did not come within the narrow scope of the common law; but Hallam is clearly wrong in supposing that this civil jurisdiction was thenceforth abandoned to the growing practice of the Court of Chancery, the truth being that the latter, like that "younger offshoot of tyranny" the Court of Requests, had continuously exercised a parallel, but wholly distinct jurisdiction under the early Tudors. The object of the "usurping" authority of Star Chamber was partly to relieve the congestion of the courts of Westminster and partly to check the growing abuses that had once been sharply repressed by ecclesiastical discipline. The inducements to undertake this thankless task were, as of old, a traditional responsibility for the well-being of the subjects and the necessity of supplementing a now impoverished feudal revenue with fees and amerciaments. This calendar enables us to reject Hallam's assertion that the civil work of the court was swelled by Admiralty cases, and that suits respecting lands were usually dismissed to the courts of law. We find few or none of the former class, because they provided the chief work of the Court of Requests, while at least one-half of all suits before the Star Chamber appear to have been connected more or less directly with the land. The remaining half comprise a most miscellaneous assortment of cases, from sanguinary riots to pitiful cosenage, and the remedial character of which may surely be assumed without a reference to the long-lost decrees of the court. In fact, after an examination of the proceedings in both the earlier and later periods, allowing for the altered state of society, we may yet find ourselves unable to endorse Hallam's sweeping condemnation. The Appendix to this valuable Report concludes with Mr. Bliss's always interesting account of the progress made with transcripts of Roman manuscripts. Literary Gossip. IT is said that the Civic Fathers have for some time had under their consideration the advisability of undertaking a history of the City, with the view more especially of illustrating the lives of its most eminent mayors and citizens, and the prominent part taken by the City at important crises in the history of England. From the great length of time that has been allowed to elapse since first the matter was referred to a committee, it would seem that there was no very decided opinion in favour of producing such a work at the present juncture. It is whispered also. that the authorities are at a loss to whom they should entrust it. The only point upon which they at present seem to entertain no doubt is that there is no person in their service competent to carry out the work to their satisfaction. It is to be hoped that whoever eventually is asked to undertake it will be allowed a sufficiently free hand in carrying out general instructions. PROF. TH. MOмMSEN paid last week a visit to the Bodleian, where he examined the MSS. of Cassiodorus's 'Epistolæ.' His attention was drawn by the Librarian to an early MS. (at the latest of the end of the sixth century) which contains St. Jerome's translation of Eusebius's chronicle followed by that of Marcellinus. This seems to be the earliest Neither the MS. known of this work. Latin Professor nor the Latin Reader of the University knew of its existence. The MS. belongs to a collection which has never been catalogued; the hand-list gives barely the name, without dates or any other description. Would it not be more advisable to spend the in endless classification and other less pressBodley money in cataloguing MSS. than ing matters ? "THE CASKET LETTERS AND MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS,' is the title of a volume by Mr. T. F. Henderson, which will, it is said, contain some entirely new evidence of a vital kind in regard to the question of the authenticity of the letters. The volume will be published immediately by Messrs. A. & C. Black, of Edinburgh. THE report presented at the recent annual meeting of the governors of Aberdare Hall, Several students distinguished themselves University College, Cardiff, was satisfactory. by gaining scholarships at the College and at the Hall, and two took the B.A. degree. A resolution, moved by the president, Lady Aberdare, was adopted, advocating the election of a lady to the College Council, in view of the large contingent of fifty-eight women now attending the College. announce Ar the forthcoming annual meeting of the English Dialect Society an ment will be made with regard to the early completion of the Society's work, 1892 being named as the closing year. A MEETING of booksellers was to be held at Stationers' Hall yesterday (Friday) to consider the revised rates for carriage proposed to be charged by the railways, which are considered to be oppressive to the bookselling and kindred trades. THE life of Mr. Bright by Mr. Barnett Smith, based upon his former work, but entirely rewritten, is in the press, and will be published immediately by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton. Mr. John Waugh, of Bradford, is editing a series of tracts entitled "Living Celebrities," each number of which will consist of thirty-two pages of text and an etched portrait. The first number is a biography of Mr. John Bright, to whom, unfortunately, that title no longer applies. MLLE. CORELLI has just finished a romance which is a further development of her ideas given in her 'Romance of Two Worlds,' and it will be published almost immediately by Messrs. Bentley. ANDRÉE HOPE, whose powerful tale A Terrible Night' will be remembered by readers of Murray's Magazine, is writing a longer story of Russian life, called 'Prin cess Ariane Karàsoumoff.' THE Hibbert Lectures for 1889, by Prof. Upton, On the Philosophic Basis of Belief,' will not be delivered orally this year, but will be published as a volume in the autumn. The publication of the lectures for 1888 has been delayed owing to Dr. Hatch's indisposition, but they are now nearly ready. would not be under the slightest obligations to 18 have in preparation an 'Intermediate Greek- MR. GAVIN HAMILTON, whose grammatical The Sussex Advertiser, established 1745, THE Law Quarterly Review for April will contain articles on Manorial Jurisdiction,' by Mr. G. H. Blakesley (with special reference to Prof. Maitland's forthcoming volume Society); The Factors Acts,' by Mr. A. of select manor rolls, edited for the Selden Cohen, Q.C.; County Court Reform,' by Mr. Francis K. Munton; Circumvention,' AT a meeting of the American Copyright by Mr. Melville M. Bigelow; 'The Swiss Association recently held at Boston, and Federal Court,' by Mr. W. A. B. Coolidge; attended by the leading American authors, Federation and Pseudo-Federalism,' by Mr. Prof. Goodwin, who presided, put the case E. W. Burton (Auckland, N.Z.); Emfor honesty in an even more concrete form ployers' Liability,' by Mr. H. D. Bateson; than Mr. Lowell, and a few sentences will The Squatter's Case' (a recent decision of the show that if the ethics of the case are mis- Judicial Committee), by Mr. H. W. Challis; understood in America it is not the fault of Murder from the Best Motives,' by Mr. American authors. After saying that some Herbert Stephen; and an obituary memoir of excellent persons among his countrymen Franz von Holtzendorff by Dr. E. Grueber. protested against being called thieves and THE authorized translation of Garibaldi's pirates, and that there was a grain of truthAutobiography' will be published by in this, he continued::Messrs. Walter Smith & Innes about the end of April. A copious supplement, to meet the requirements of English readers, has been added by Madame Jessie White Mario. Facsimiles of some of Garibaldi's letters are given. "It must be said to our credit, in the face of all the world, that if Mr. Browning were to land to-morrow in Boston, from a British steamer, and should walk up State Street with a new English ulster on, nobody would dream of taking away his ulster, even though it might be a model of comfort and elegance, and a much better one than could be bought here for what he gave for it at home. And if ever any misguided enthusiast should ever search his pockets for British gold, it is certain that Mr. Browning would be as fully protected by our police and our courts as if he were an American citizen. But if he happened to have in his pocket a new poem worth 10,000 dollars, and should innocently undertake to use this as his own property-like his coat or his gold-he would soon find out his fatal mistake. He would find that any publisher who printed his poem would be compelled by our laws to pay the printers, the paper-makers, and the binders, and could legally collect all his bills for the sale of the poem; but that the one person connected with the book to whom he THE deaths are announced of the wellknown German theologian Prof. A. Ritschl, of Göttingen, in his sixty-seventh year, the historian of Pietism; of Ludwig Walesrode, a representative of "Ostpreussischen Humors" popular in the Fatherland; and of M. Brücker, Keeper of the Archives of Strasbourg, of which he published an inventaire sommaire. He also wrote a 'Histoire des Archives de la Ville de Strasbourg avant 1790'; and at the time of his death was correcting the proofs of a collection of the 'Ordonnances du Magistrat de Strasbourg.' It was mainly through the exertions of M. Brücker that the archives were saved from being destroyed by the Germans when they bombarded the city in 1870. Paris and in London on May 1st. It is to A NEW literary magazine is to start in be called East and West. Several popular writers will contribute: Mr. Bret Harte, Mr. W. E. Norris, Mrs. Macquoid, Mrs. Parr, Sarah Tytler, George Fleming (Miss Fletcher), Mrs. Walford, Mrs. Molesworth, Mrs. Meade, Prof. Church, and Mr. Grant Allen among many others. Mr. T. Macquoid will supply a series of papers on 'Some Dutch Artists,' beginning with Hals. M. GASTON PARIS, in presenting the other day Miss Mary Robinson's (Madame Darmesteter's) volume The End of the Middle Ages' to the Academy, styled them a series essays of THE chief Parliamentary Papers of the SCIENCE CHEMICAL TEXT-BOOKS. Robert Galloway. (Longmans & Co.)-The older The Fundamental Principles of Chemistry. By fashion of opening chemical text-books with some account of those parts of physics more closely bearing on chemistry seems of late to have been generally abandoned. Mr. Galloway, however, prefers the old method, and in the first half of his book gives a readable course of chemical physics, which we decidedly prefer to the more strictly chemical portion of the book. In the latter the principles of chemistry are deduced from experiments which the student is directed to perform, whilst the usual systematic description of the elements and their compounds is carefully avoided. Whilst agreeing with much that Mr. Galloway urges against the usual plan, we still hold that the balance of advantage is most decidedly in its favour. The book as a whole seems carefully written, but is without an index, and in reading it through we have noted several points where statements are made that cannot be justified, or where the matter is not up to date. On p. 31 it is stated that "no other substances beside water expand on solidifying"; on p. 84 the absence of putrefaction and fermentation in foods, &c., to which access of air is prevented is attributed to the oxygen of the air, which causes them to change, being removed." Surely the author must be aware that putrefaction and fermentation are due to the action of micro-organisms, and that sterilized air or oxygen is perfectly incapable of causing such actions. A paragraph on p. 196 will rather astonish the manufacturers of incandescent gas burners, as it mentions that "this method of introducing the solid matter which is to evolve the light, into the burning matter from which the heat proceeds, is one never employed for ordinary illumination." The statement on p. 216 that not one of the halogens has been met with in nature in a free state is not correct, as the occurrence of free iodine in a Lincolnshire spring was announced more than two years back. A Class Book of Elementary Chemistry. By W. W. Fisher. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.)This book is intended for those cases where the teaching of elementary chemistry forms a part of regular school-work; it covers the ground required for the Oxford Senior Local Examinations and Examination of Women. It is clearly printed, and is illustrated with drawings, mostly by the author, which really represent the apparatus employed in chemical laboratories, and are not fancy sketches of impossible apparatus such as we have been treated to in some recent works. After a short introduction, the chemical and physical properties of water and air and of the length; then follow a less detailed account of elements contained therein are treated at some the other non-metallic elements and their compounds, and an account of the periodic law and of the metallic elements classified according to that law; the two closing chapters are devoted to chemical physics. The book is very well written, the descriptions, though concise, being thoroughly clear-a remark that applies particularly to the accounts of the principles underlying various chemical manufactures and metallurgical processes—and the facts are brought well up to date. There are two points to which exception may be taken: the use of the symbol C. for the thermal unit in place of "cal.," that in general use, and the name diamine applied to the interesting compound NH, NH, recently obtained by Curtius. This name is surely misleading, and would better be replaced by hydrazine or diamide, the names given to the compound by its discoverer. We hope a speedy call for a new edition will enable Mr. Fisher to reconsider these points. Outlines of Qualitative Chemical Analysis: By A. Humboldt Sexton. (Griffin & Co.) -In this book the author states that he has endeavoured to steer a middle course between comprehensive manuals of qualitative analysis, such as those of Fresenius and Valentin, which are too large for students who can devote but a limited portion of their time to chemistry, and the small books designed only to cover the syllabus of the Science and Art Department-in other words, cram books. The result is excellent; the matter of the book has been well thought out, and the methods of separation given are well-known ones that have stood the test of long experience. The only unsatisfactory point we have noticed is in the first method for the analysis of phosphates, where the table given is scarcely comprehensive enough, and no explanation seems to be given to the student of the principle on which the method depends. The book can be cordially recommended to the class of student for whom it is designed. ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. THE planet Venus will set earlier each evening during April, and arrive at inferior conjunction with the sun on the 30th of that month. Mars will be in conjunction with her (she being at the time about 7° to the north of him) on the 19th, in the constellation Aries. Jupiter is still in Sagittarius, and will rise about midnight by the middle of next month. Saturn is nearly stationary in Cancer; he will be on the meridian at 8 o'clock in the evening on the 7th prox., and at 7 o'clock on the 22nd. Dr. von Konkoly has published a tenth volume of observations made at the Astrophy sical Observatory at O'Gyalla, containing the Dr. A. Galle writes to No. 2885 of the earth's mean distance from the sun, which is less Notes on Mr. F. W. Donkin's Last Journey and GEOLOGICAL.- March 20.-Dr. W. T. Blanford, President, in the chair.-The following communications were read: Supplementary Note to a Paper on the Rocks of the Atlantic Coast of Canada,' by Silica in the Lower Chalk of Berkshire and WiltSir J. W. Dawson,-'The Occurrence of Colloid shire.' by Messrs. W. Hill and A. J. Jukes-Browne,and 'Note on the Pelvis of Ornithopsis,' by Prof. H. G. Seeley. will make to each other during the summer of the Prof. Tacchini communicates a note to the Comptes Rendus of the Académie des Sciences BOCIETIES. ROYAL.-March 21.-The President in the chair.The following papers were read: On the Velocity of Transmission through Sea-water of Disturbances of Large Amplitude caused by Explosions,' by Prof. Threlfall and Mr. J. F. Adair,-An Experimental Investigation of the Circumstances under which a Change of the Velocity in the Propagation of the Ignition of an Explosive Gaseous Mixture takes place in Closed and Open Vessels: Part I. Chronographic Measurements,' by Mr. F. J. Smith,-' On an Effect of Light upon the Magnetization of Iron,' by Mr. S. Bidwell,-and 'Recalescence of Iron' and 'Electrical Resistance of Iron at a High Temperature,' by Dr. J. Hopkinson. GEOGRAPHICAL.-March 25.-General Sir Beauchamp Walker, V.P., in the chair.-The following gentlemen were elected Fellows: Hon. C. W. C. Baillie, Major H. Cooper, Major H. L. Ellis, Lieut.-General Sir G. Graham, Col. E. T. Thackeray, Messrs. C. A. V. Butler, C. Catling, H. W. A. Cooper, A. Hodgson, P. Knee, W. S. Lockhart, J. D. Mason, R. A. Naylor, M. Salaman, G. R. Sanderson, and C. Sawyer.-The papers read were: The Ascent of Koshtantau,' by Mr. A. F. Mummery, The Peaks of the Bezingi Glacier and Ushba,' by Mr. H. W. Holder,- and ASIATIC.-March 18.-Sir M. M. Williams in the chair.- Mr. J. F. Hewitt read a paper in continuation and amplification of one read by him last year, and published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1888. In the present paper he gave further proof of the Dravidian and Kolarian tribes being the ruling races of India long before the Aryans entered the country. The leading tribes mentioned in the 'Rig Veda' and 'Maha Bharata' were with very few exceptions descended from Dravidian these tribes was traceable in the Greek and Latin and Kolarian ancestors, and the history of each of authors who write about India, and in early Sanskrit and Buddhist literature. The paper shows how they were descended from the races described in the Matsya Purana' as the seven snake kings of Nishadha, and in the Maha Bharata' as the five snake races of the Vasuki: Takshaka, Irāvata, Kauravya, and Dritarashta, to which must be added the Sivas and Bhojas (the cattle-herding tribes), and the Asvaka Kabul. It brings forward evidence to prove that the trade carried on by the early Accadian and Semitic peoples of Assyria, by the Egyptians, and by Jews with India was probably no less varied and extensive some thousands of years before the Christian era than it was when the Greeks visited India, and it shows that their trade implied the existence in India of a civilized and well-governed population, who on the west coast spoke, long before the advent of the Aryans, a language allied to the Tamil. It also shows, by the history of the different methods of measuring time recorded in the 'Maha Bhārata' and the 'Rig Veda,' the successive introduction of the old lunar calendar of the earlier Accads and of the solar-lunar calendar of the Semitic Accads, and proves that the thirty-three gods of Hindu mythology are the original lunar gods of the Accads, represented by the twenty-seven Nakshatras (or Rudras, the fortnightly stations of the moon) plus the six snake gods, representing the moon and the five planets who rule the seasons. It further traces the progress of the Aryan conquest, and shows that after the Aryans had established their supremacy in the great war recorded in the 'Rig Veda,' ending in the battle of the ten kings, they gradually made themselves supreme rulers, chiefly by moral means and by the missionary propaganda instituted and maintained by the Brahmans. It also traces the trading and warrior tribes of the west, and shows eastward progress of the Ikshvakas, the united how they gained possession of Bengal and of the routes leading to the great eastern port of Tamralipti. SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES-March 21.-Dr. J. Evans, President, in the chair.-Mr. Trist exhibited a fine Egyptian statuette of bronze, representing the god Chonsu, found at Thebes.-Hon. H. A. Dillon, by the kindness of the Royal United Service Institution, exhibited, and read a descriptive paper on, a curious MS. list of officers of the London Trained Bands in 1643, with coloured drawings of the banners carried by the different regiments.-Rev. Dr. Sparrow Simpson read an interesting paper on the statutes drawn up by Dean Colet for the regulation of the chantry priests and other clergy of St. Paul's Cathedral Church, London. BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.-March 20.-Mr. A. Wyon in the chair.-It was announced that the annual Congress would be held at Lincoln at the end of July, and that the Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham had been elected President of the meeting.-Various exhibitions were made, among which may be noted an interesting example of Roman Caistor ware belonging to Mr. Loftus Brock, who described its features.-The first paper was by Miss Russell, of Galashiels, on the early history of Cumbria and the etymology of the name of Glasgow, the latter being Glas-church, and gow=friend. Reference was made to some other place-names, such as Glastonbury, which have the same signification; and the "friend" was St. Mungo. It was shown that the ancient diocese of Glasgow was equal in extent to the kingdom of Cumbria, which extended to the boundary bank, the catrail, or "battle fence," in Welsh, which was the boundary between Cumbria and Bernicia. Celtic names occur along the line of coast rather than among the hills, and it was sug gested from many evidences that the Lowland Scots were of Cymric type.-The second paper was by Mr. H. Syer Cuming, on the devil's fingers and toe-nails. The well-known and common fossils so called, supposed to be either the shed fingers or toe-nails of the arch enemy of mankind, are popularly believed to shield their fortunate possessors from all harm. NUMISMATIC.-March 21.-Dr. J. Evans, President, in the chair.-Major-General V. F. Story and Mr. W. Rome were elected Members.-The President exhibited a set of remarkably fine gold coins of Nerva, Trajan, Plotina, Matidia, Marciana, Hadrian, Sabina, and Ælius Cæsar.-Mr. Hall exhibited two coins of Licinius and one of Constantine the Great, bearing unusual portraits resembling that of Diocletian. Mr. Montagu exhibited a series of coinweights, chiefly for the gold coins of James I., representing every gold denomination of that reign, some of them bearing the initials of Briot.-Mr. A. Prevost exhibited a specimen of the five-franc piece issued last year in Switzerland, and promptly withdrawn from circulation because its appearance was not considered satisfactory by the public.-Dr. O. Codrington exhibited a silver coin of Uljaitu, Mongul ruler of Persia A D. 1304-1316.-Mr. G. M. Arnold communicated a paper on the Roman station of Vagniacæ, together with a short account, by Mr. C. R. Smith, of Roman coins discovered during the last half century in the fields adjoining Springhead. -Dr. B. V. Head read a paper on Athenian coins. | Cooke, on the position of the land shells of Australia METEOROLOGICAL.—March 20.-Dr. W. Marcet, INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.-March 26. paper read was 'On the District Distribution of Steam in the United States,' by Dr. C. E. Emery. SOCIETY OF ARTS.-March 25-Mr. C. V. Boys delivered the first of his course of Cantor Lec- March 26. Sir R. Alcock in the chair.-A paper March 27.-Sir F. Bramwell in the chair.-The discussion on Prof. Kennedy's paper On the Objects and Methods of the Society of Arts' Motor Trials,' adjourned from the 20th inst., was resumed and concluded. HISTORICAL.- March 21. Mr. O. Browning in the chair.-Mr. G. Bertin read a paper 'On Babylonian History and Chronology.'-A discussion followed, in which Mr. Pinches and the Chairman took part. LINNEAN.-March 21.-Mr. Carruthers, President, in the chair.-Messrs. H. B. Hewitson, W. Narramore, W. J. Rabbits, and M. B. Slater were elected Fellows. -Mr. T. Christy exhibited the pod (36 in. in length) of an apocynaceous plant received from the Gaboon as Strophanthus, but believed to be allied to the Holarrhena.-Prof. Stewart, referring to the speci-Sir G. B. Bruce, President, in the chair.-The mens of Noctilio leporinus exhibited at the last meeting of the Society, stated that he had examined the contents of the stomachs submitted to him by Mr. Harting, and had found without doubt fragments of fish, scales, and finrays, and a portion of the lower jaw of a small fish, proving the correctness of the assertions which had been made regarding the piscivorous habits of this bat.-Mr. W. B. Hemsley furnished a report on the botanical collections made on Christmas Island during the voyage of the Egeria. This included a complete list of the plants collected, with remarks on their general distribution, the author being of opinion that the flora of this island, which lies about two hundred miles south of the western end of Java, was more nearly related to that of the Malayan archipelago than to that of Australia.-Mr. C. B. Clarke, commenting on the author's observations on the buttresses of trees, described some remarkable instances which he had seen of this singular mode of growth. -Mr. J. G. Baker, referring to the ferns which had been collected, noticed their affinities and distribution. Mr. R. A. Rolfe commented on three species of orchids which had been brought home by this expedition, all of which were new.-Mr. Thiselton Dyer, referring to Mr. Lister's report to the British Association on the zoological collections from this island, in which it was stated that the character of the avifauna was Australian, considered that this was not borne out by an examination of the flora, which was decidedly Malayan.-A paper was read by Mr. R. A. Rolfe on the sexual forms of Catasetum with special reference to the researches of Darwin and others. The purport of Darwin's paper (Jour. Linn. Soc., 1862) was to show that Catasetum tridentatum had been seen by Schomburgk to produce three different kinds of flowers, belonging to the same number of supposed genera, all on the same plant, and that the three represented respectively the male, female and hermaphrodite states of the species. Mr. Rolfe showed that Schomburgk's remarks ap plied to two distinct species, C. tridentatum and C. barbatum, the females of which resembled each other so closely that they were thought to be one and the same, namely, Monacanthus viridis. Neither of these, however, belonged to the true plant of that name, which was really the female of another species, namely, C. cernuum, a fact hitherto unsuspected. The key of the situation was that the females of several species resembled each other very closely, and to three of them the name Monacanthus viridis had been applied. After some critical remarks by the President and Mr. Bull, a paper by Mr. MacOwan was read 'On some New Cape Plants.' ZOOLOGICAL.-March 19.-Prof. Flower, President, in the chair.-The Secretary read a list of the fishes collected at Constantinople and sent to the Society by Dr. E. D. Dickson. The species were sixty-six in number, and had been determined by Mr. G. A. Boulenger.- Mr. Tegetmeier exhibited a female gold pheasant in male plumage, and a curiously distorted pair of horns of the ibex of Cashmir.-Papers were read: by the Rev. A. H. FOLK-LORE.-March 20.-Mr. E. Clodd, Trea- Æsopia of Desbillons (Manheim, 1768). An Eng- 66 mainly of his own collection, and containing many curious examples. PHYSICAL.-March 23.-Prof. Reinold, President, in the chair.-The following gentlemen were elected Members: Sir J. N. Douglas, Sir D. Galton, Messrs. C. W. Biggs, C. Capito, A. C. Cockburn, R. E. Crompton, J. M. Gorham, G. C. Gümpel, W. H. Massey, E. Moynihan, F. J. Mudford, R. W. Paul, and C. E. Spagnoletti.-Prof. J. V. Jones read notes. On the Use of Lissajous Figures to Determine a Rate of Rotation, and of a Morse Receiver to Measure the Periodic Time of a Reed or Tuning-Fork.'-Dr. Hofford read extracts from the following papers: 'On the Clark Cell as a Source of Standard Currents,' by Prof. R. Threlfall and Mr. A. Pollock, and On the Application of Clark's Cell to the Construction of a Standard Galvanometer,' and 'On the Measurement of High Specific Resistances,' by Prof. Threlfall. ARISTOTELIAN.-March 25.-Mr. S. H. Hodgson, President, in the chair.-Mr. B. Bosanquet read a paper On the Part played by Esthetic in the Development of Modern Philosophy. The purpose of the paper was to show how aesthetic, as a striking embodiment of the modern spirit, influenced at a critical point the development of post-Kantian philosophy, and also has operated effectually in England, though not through technical philosophy. The writer stated the contradiction between the sensuous and supra-sensuous worlds as laid down by Kant in the Kritik der Urtheilskraft,' pointing out that ultimately and practically the only reality contemplated by Kant was neither in nature nor in freedom, but in the knowledge and morality which combine the two. Practically, therefore, reality was for Kant concrete, rational, and a subjective objectivity, though his views continued to be expressed in self contradictory form, as in his account of beauty. This account, however, in substance formed a starting-point for a new theory of ideal Schelling and Hegel formed their views from 1790 reality. Reviewing the influences under which to 1800 and after, the writer contended that the formal suggestion came from Kant, the negative determination from Fichte (Grundlage der Gesammten Wissenschaftslehre,' 1794), but that the positive conception was due to the movement of a non-philosophical æsthetic originated by Winckelmann, which touched Schelling and Hegel through Schiller's æsthetic letters (1795), and later through Goethe's Winckelmann' (1805). The "absolute standpoint" ascribed by Hegel to Schelling might be fairly paraphrased as the "modern standpoint," or spirit of rational freedom; and the peculiarity of objective idealism in approaching the world of nature from the side of the world of art and morality was defended, and connected with the influences of which aesthetic is a prominent example. In particular, the inclusion of natural beauty within the beauty of fine art, for philosophical purposes, was explained to be inevitable. The subsequent vitality in Germany of the sciences dealing with civilization was traced in part to the influence of æsthetic, as peculiarly the science of objective subjectivity, or philosophic thought. In England, during the present century, it was plain that a certain dualism had prevailed, and that the work which in Germany had been done by philosophy had here been largely done by poets, historians, and critics; philosophy itself having been, for laudable reasons, in antagonism, on the whole, to traditional culture and institutions. The independent development of æsthetic by Mr. Ruskin and others, in combination with the tendencies of the time, had, however, created a profound historical sense and a sense of the ideal in nature which, though of in digenous development, now demand a fuller philosophy, not in the direction of ontology, but in the direction of a study of civilization. In view of such a need, to which Mr. Spencer's researches bear witness, the recent work of Prof. T. H. Green and his sympathizers offered an element drawn from the analogous development of a kindred nation, which might aid in organizing the material provided by the independent growth of the national life. MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. Society of Engineers, 7-Fire-proof Floors,' Mr. G. M. Law- ford. Surveyors' Institution, 8.-'The Rating of Ground-Rents,' Mr. Society of Arts, 8.-Instruments for the Measurement of Civil Engineers, 8-Discussion on Dr. C. E. Emery's Paper, 'The Society of Arts, 8. The Argentine Republic,' Mr. F. K. WED. = Entomological, 7. Geological, 8. The Elvans and Volcanic Rocks of Dartmoor,' Shorthand, 8.- Theory and Practice,' Mr. H. Richter. Society of Arts, 8- Fruit-growing for Profit in the Open Air in THURS. Royal Institution, 3.- Ancient Houses and their Decoration,' = FRI. SAT. Archæological Institute, 4.-'Silver Chalice and Paten and Gold Ring lately found in the Tomb of Bishop Sutton at Lincoln,' Rev Precentor Venables; Fougères and its Lords, a Reminiscence of Feudal Brittany,' Mr. J. Bain. Royal, 4. Linnean 8-Myxomycetes,' Mr. A. Lister; 'Heleion pellucidum,' Antiquaries, 8- Bronze Sword and Scabbard from Bossington, Philological, 8.-An Attempt to explain some Peculiarities of Science Gossip. MESSRS. SONNENSCHEIN will publish shortly a translation of Prof. H. Rosenbusch's 'Petrographical Tables: an Aid to the Microscopical Physiography of the Rock-making Minerals.' The tables will be edited for English students by Dr. F. H. Hatch, of the Royal School of Mines. THE death is announced of Dr. Woolley, formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Principal of the School of Naval Construction at Portsmouth, afterwards Admiralty Director of Education. He was the author of a "Treatise on Descriptive Geometry.' MESSRS. SONNENSCHEIN & Co. have in the press a series of papers on vivisection by Miss Frances Power Cobbe. The book will be published under the title of 'The Modern Rack.' FINE ARTS The STUART EXHIBITION of PORTRAITS, MINIATURES, and PERSONAL RELICS connected with the ROYAL HOUSE of STUART. Under the Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen. OPEN DAILY from 10 AM to 7 PM-Admission, 1s; Season Tickets, 5s. Will CLOSE April 13th. New Gallery, Regent Street. ONE HUNDRED and NINETY FIVE MASTERPIECES of the GREAT ROMANTICISTS NOW ON VIEW.-An important Loan Collection of Works by the most eminent French and Dutch Painters, comprising Examples by Millet, Corot, Diaz, Rousseau, Meissonier, Israëls, the three Marises. Mauve, &c.-Messrs. Dowdeswell's Galleries, 160, New Bond Street.-Admission, 1s. The TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION of PICTURES by Artists of the British and Foreign Schools is NOW OPEN at THOMAS MCLEAN'S GALLERY, 7, Haymarket (next the Theatre).-Admission, including Catalogue, 1s. ROYAL SOCIETY of PAINTER-ETCHERS' EXHIBITION, including a special Collection of Works by the President, Mr. Seymour Haden, NOW OPEN at the Gallery, 5A, Pall Mall East. THE VALE OF TEARS.'-DORE'S LAST GREAT PICTURE, completed a few days before he died, NOW ON VIEW at the Doré Gallery, 35, New Bond Street, with Christ leaving the Prætorium,'' Christ's Entry into Jerusalem.' The Dream of Pilate's Wife,' and his other great Pictures. From 10 to 6 Daily.-Admission, ls. A Dictionary of the Leading Technical and Trade Terms of Architectural Design and Construction. (Ward, Lock & Co.)-By "trade" the compiler of this volume means craft or handicraft. About trade in the sense of buying and selling there is nothing said in the work from beginning to end. The book is not always to be relied upon for architectural definitions. For instance, Egyptian capitals are said (under "Egyptian Style") to be "always conventionalized forms of the Egyptian plants," &c., which is not true; and under "Elizabethan Style" it is stated that a certain "Jacobin" style immediately followed Gothic, and was a debased form thereof. 66 Again, Die" is described as "the flat space between the base and cornice of a pedestal," which is less exact than comprehensive. A "decorator" is called "an artist workman, who ornaments or decorates domestic structures with designs in various styles and classes. The difference in detail between an artist, popularly termed a painter [why painter only ?], and a decorator is that the latter executes his designs on the large scale, and in a less finished style than the painter, his subjects being, as a rule, what are known as ornamental,' consisting of curved and straight lines in endless combinations of form and figure; and if natural objects are chosen these are usually conventionalized." Surely this is rigmarole. Among a majority of entries expounding terms current a very considerable number are supererogatory. What is the use of telling an inquirer that a billiard-room is an apartment set aside for the billiard-table; an arm-chair, a chair with arms; an ash-pit, a place where ashes are deposited, and so on? We find "bargeboard," which is a corruption, but not the correct "verge-board"; "glazier's putty" is said to be made up of "whiting or powdered chalk with sweet (!) oil"; "gold leaf" is "the metal gold beaten out to a thinness inconceivably fine," which is difficult to conceive; and the art of lacquering or varnishing with a material of a deep intense black" is japanning, which is only partly true. That "kennel" comes "from the Latin canis, a dog," we are not prepared to admit; "stratum" is not "the term used to denote the layers or beds in which soil and geological formations are placed in relation to one another "; we have "key," but not "keyfret." There are other kinds of belvederes than those in towers or campaniles. There are other bench-marks than pieces of timber set up to denote heights. In a dictionary which devotes a great deal of space to the pronouncing of French and German terms by means of English letter-sounds we ought to have been told that apartment" means more in French than in English. Apart from these and similar shortcomings there is much that may be useful in this rather commonplace compilation. 66 Our National Cathedrals. 3 vols. Illustrated. (Ward, Lock & Co.)-Gorgeous is a feeble term when applied to the gold, azure, and vermilion of the covers of these volumes. The back of each is a terror to the eyes, which cannot turn for relief to the flaming red of one side. The letterpress is a fairly good compilation, and comprises buildings only lately called cathedrals, Manchester, Southwell, Newcastle, Wakefield, Truro, St. Albans, as well as the new cathedrals in Scotland and Ireland. We cannot agree with the compiler that the east front of St. Albans is "splendid," or that the three porches at the west end of that unlucky structure are very fine in an architectural sense; we cannot regard the lancets of the south front as noble; least of all dare we compare them with the Five Sisters of York. The woodcuts are sufficient for their purpose, which is picturesque rather than architectural, and the plans accompanying them are large enough to be useful. The book is well printed. On the Making of Etchings, by F. Short, illustrated (R. Dunthorne), is a model of good binding in warm cream white and gold spartaste in decorative typography and delicate ingly used. It contains many neatly drawn diagrams and two etchings proper, one by Mr. W. Ball and the other by Mr. Short. Mr. Short gives a clear and compact account of the processes usually grouped under the term etching, with details of "biting in" and printing from mended as an excellent introduction, and is sure plates of copper. His essay may be recomrecondite notes. not to mislead the tyro with obscure details and MINOR EXHIBITIONS. No exhibition in this country of the pictures of the père Corot has surpassed that now open in the Goupil Gallery, consisting of twentyone examples in all. Le Lac de Garde' (No. 2) is a typical specimen, marked by that enchanting sense of repose which is characteristic of one of the best of our poet - painters and tone masters. 'La Danse des Nymphes' (3) is a delicious idyl, quite after the heart of Corot, representing pale rosy twilight just after sundown, when the moon is seen near the topmost branches of the trees, and is just strong enough to cast a warm brown shadow across a wide glade where four nymphs dance joyfully. The nacreous grey of Le Lac' (4) belongs to a tender and subtly graded effect of vaporous sunlight, and is most delicate and choice; the little figures are better 'Mantes drawn than was common with Corot. la Jolie' (7) was one of the père's favourite subjects; he seldom painted it more charmingly than in Mr. A. Young's picture. The same owner has lent 'L'Arbre Brisé' (9), which is named after a fallen trunk near a pool in the foreground; the flushed edges of the morning clouds overhead are delightfully subtle and pure. The landscape is nobly suggestive of repose and silence. 'La Toilette' (15) is an unusually large picture, and the figures of a girl who has bathed and her companion are rather unfortunate as showing that Corot had not troubled himself to draw the nude with searching taste, care, and knowledge. Yet it is a charming study of tone and colour as a whole, and the awkward outlines of the nude figures do not mar the piece so much as might be feared. It is a lovely harmony throughout. 'La Vanne' (16) shows, with exquisite gradations and soft hues finely assorted, the influence of a still autumnal afternoon, such as Corot prized above all other effects, upon a little plain, bounded by a shaw on one hand, a pool on the other; a sluicehead standing in the meadow in the middle of the picture gives a name to the picture, an incident to the scene, and the one distinctly marked feature where all the rest is, so to say, nebulous and half concealed by the misty air -a very tender work indeed. The other noteworthy pictures are 'Le Passeur' (17), 'Pastorale' (20), and' La Mare aux Grenouilles' (13), a peculiarly characteristic work. Messrs. Vokins's gathering of a large proportion of the works of George Cattermole is extremely interesting, and, to the student, possesses exceptional value in enabling him to observe the progress of public taste in matters of design, especially as regards that highly popular form of melodramatic art of which Cattermole forty years ago was the chief professor. It is twenty years since he died, and this is the first time his works have been collected in considerable numbers. On the present occasion Messrs. Vokins have naturally omitted all that pushed melodrama beyond the bounds of good taste and were conspicuously violent and stagey, and in consequence the selection is the most fortunate that could be made. Yet it is beyond question that no artist of similar powers would find acceptance at the present day, or make a high mark as Cattermole did. Even his best work, despite the immense cleverness, chic, and movement of his designs, will not bear bringing together, in this differing from the collections of De Wints and Fieldings for which we are We have here indebted to Messrs. Vokins. melodrama in excelsis and in nearly all its phases, some of which sank to the level of Kenny Meadows, while others were not unworthy of the average work of Gustave Doré, not, of course, having any trace of the nobler side of Dore's much wasted genius. At his best Cattermole was sometimes within a measurable distance of James Holland's good fortune and fine Bonington-like taste; and some touches not unworthy of Sir John Gilbert-one of the greatest spectacular artists the world has known-are discoverable among these six score pictures. So various was Cattermole that we find reminiscences in this exhibition of Cox, Newton, Copley Fielding, and even-so low did he go-the late Mr. Joy. Among the best, because least viciously melodramatic, 'Reading the Bible,' 'The Rizzio Conspiracy' (which is less " transpontine than such a subject might have become in Catter are |