Morris's (F. B.) Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos selected from
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How shall I tell thee when I love thee best?
In rapture, or repose? How shall I say?
I only know I love thee every way,
Nor more when restlessly than when at rest.
See! What is day except the night refreshed,

And what the night except the tired-out day?
And 'tis love's difference, not love's decay,
If now I dawn, now fade upon thy breast.
Self-torturing sweet! is't not the selfsame sun
Wanes in the west that flameth in the east,
His fervour nowise altered nor decreased?
So rounds my love, returning where begun,
And still beginning, never most nor least,
But fixedly various, all love's parts in one.
ALFRED AUSTIN.

CARL JOHAN SCHLYTER.

Is Prof. Carl Johan Schlyter, who passed away at his residence in Lund on the 26th of December, Scandinavia has lost her most aged man of letters, and Sweden the most eminent of her jurists. Schlyter, who was born at Carlskrona on the 29th of January, 1795, had nearly completed his ninety-third year. He became a student at the University of Lund in 1807, and with one or two brief intervals of absence his connexion with that ancient seat of learning has been unbroken during more than eighty years. In 1822 he began to form his celebrated collection of the old laws of Sweden, in which work he had the assistance of H. S. Collin until the death of the latter in 1833. The first volume of this noble edition appeared in 1827, the twelfth and last in 1869 (index, 1877). After holding certain law lectureships at Lund, Schlyter became Professor of Jurisprudence in 1835, and of Common Law in 1838. He finally was appointed Regius Professor of Legal History in 1842; he resigned this chair in 1852 that he might concentrate his entire attention upon his literary work. Among the most important of the ancient law books edited and published by Prof. Schlyter are Vestgötalagen, of the beginning of the twelfth century; Uplandslagen,' of about 1296; Södermannalagen,' of 1327; and the Bjorköarätten,' of 1345. To all these editions he appended glossaries which are of infinite value to philological science. For many years past Prof. Schlyter in his green old age has been the centre and principal glory of the

University of Lund, where the loss of this dignified and illustrious figure will be deeply felt. E. G.

"ALL RIGHTS RESERVED."

It would be a convenience both to authors and publishers if some one of your readers learned in the law could definitely state whether it is necessary to print the well-known intimations "All rights reserved," "The right of translation is reserved," and "Entered at Stationers' Hall” on the titles of books the authors of which desire to secure their full copyright privileges? As far as a layman is able to construe the existing statutes, both national and international, such intimations would appear to be now quite gratuitous, and to confer no right whatever beyond what is contained in the statutes themselves. A PUBLISHER.

A FORGED LETTER OF SHELLEY.

Gresham Road, Cambridge.

I WAS lately reading Prof. Dowden's 'Life of Shelley,' when part of a letter from Shelley to Graham, given on pages 53 and 54 of vol. i., struck me as wearing a curiously familiar aspect. A short consideration and search enabled me to put my finger on the original passage thus recalled to my memory. I found that a considerable portion of Shelley's letter was a verbal transcript from a letter of Lord Bolingbroke, with one or two insignificant alterations, as shown by the following arrangement in parallel columns :

"Reflection and habit have rendered the world so indifferent to me, that I am neither afflicted nor rejoiced, angry nor pleased at what happens in it, any further than personal friendships interest me in the affairs of it, and this principle extends my cares but a little way. Perfect Tranquillity is the general tenour of my life: good digestions, serene weather, and some other mechanic springs, wind me above it now and then, but I never fall below it; I am sometimes gay, but I am never sad......I know no vows so solemn as those of friendship......and a friend who breaks with me unjustly, is not worth preserving."-Lord Bolingbroke to Dr. Swift, Warburton's ed. of Pope, 1757. vol. ix. Letter VIII. p. 32.

One of the first ideas which occurred to me on observing this coincidence was that Shelley might have copied the passage of Bolingbroke in a note-book or on a loose sheet and afterwards mistaken it for his own composition. This I ventured to think would be more in harmony with what we know of the poet than if we supposed him to be parading before his friend with false pretences; or, again, it might more probably

Corrected in Prof. Dowden's errata for "studiemus."

be regarded as a mere freak not due to any intention of "showing off." It seemed to me, too, that perhaps light could thus be thrown on the fact of a poem by "Monk " Lewis having been included in the "Poems by Victor and Cazire." Bearing in mind, however, that I was completely ignorant of the evidence for the letter in question being genuine, I judged it best to communicate at once with Prof. Dowden. He, as will be seen from the statement of his views which he has kindly allowed me to add, is decidedly of opinion that the letter is a forgery.

Other passages in the letter- notably the quotation from "Tully "-appear to me to have an exotic air about them; but if the letter itself be a forgery, their original habitat is no great EDWARD BENSLY.

matter.

Dublin, Dec. 23, 1888.

Dear Sir, I am particularly obliged to you for pointing out to me the identity between part of the supposed letter of Shelley to Graham and a passage from Bolingbroke, for it has set me upon a fresh examination into the matter, and my conclusion is that I have been imposed on by a clever forgery. The letter, which is now before me, belongs to Sir Percy Shelley's collection, but it was obtained by purchase. I could not easily pronounce it a forgery on the ground of handwriting without a more extended comparison than I am at present able to make. Shelley's writing is imitated skilfully, but not more skilfully than in letters certainly forged which I have had in my hands. There is no postmark, but in some of the forgeries postmarks are well imitated, and a sentence in this letter suggests that it was sent by hand: "The books which accompany this letter-you will oblige me by directing your servant to deliver them."

The date of the letter seems to be certainly "Field Place, Sept., 1812." The figure "2" has a large loop, which might allow one a little ground for arguing that it was an imperfect "0," begun from the left and finished off with a little tail. But I do not now doubt that it is "1812," not "1810"; and this in itself would prove that the letter could not have come from Shelley, who in September, 1812, was at Tremadoc. Your interesting discovery adds proof to proof, and I shall henceforth set down the letter as one of those forgeries against which Shelley's biographer had to be constantly on his guard. I shall omit the quotation from it in the onevolume edition of the 'Life of Shelley' which I am preparing, and modify the argument I had partly based on this letter in confirmation of my conjecture that Graham was Shelley's fellow labourer in the volume of "Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire."

You will please to note that the erroneous printing of the words, which ought to be "in consuetudine studiorum" ('Life of Shelley,' i. 54), is corrected in my printed list of errata. With many thanks, very truly yours, EDWARD DOWDEN.

LIFE AND OPINIONS OF SIR CHARLES

MACGREGOR.'

39, Montpellier Square, Jan. 1, 1889. A WRITER in your columns of December 15th makes what he himself styles a serious accusation against me, as editor of my late husband's 'Life and Opinions,' lately published by Blackwood, and perhaps you will permit me to lay before your readers an opposite version of the story so severely set forth by a powerful critic.

Your censor's sweeping accusation includes several charges, to answer which fully would occupy a far larger space than I dare ask to occupy, so I will confine my remarks to the following principal indictments :

(1) Lady MacGregor's workmanship is imperfect, for she is guilty of an inaccuracy in describing Sir Charles on the title-page; the title, 'Life and Opinions,' is unwise. (2) No regard for feelings of others, and much harm done to the character of Sir Charles by publishing his censure of

superiors, &c.; the worst features of his character thereby brought into relief. (3) Editor unjustified in implying that her husband's honours should have equalled those of Lord Wolseley. I now propose to traverse all of these charges seriatim.

(1) "The workmanship, too, is open to criticism. At the very outset Lady MacGregor is guilty of an inaccuracy. She describes Sir Charles MacGregor as 'QuartermasterGeneral in India.' When he died he was nothing of the sort." Now, of Sir Charles's thirty years' service, 1856-1886, over twenty years were spent in the Quartermaster-General's department, of which he rose ultimately to be the head. With this department he thoroughly identified himself, and he is specially notable for the exceptionally high standard of efficiency to which he brought it. Surely I can hardly be blamed for commemorating his tenure of office, vacated so shortly before his death, by describing him as Quartermaster - General in India, by which title he has been best known and recognized throughout the services at home and abroad. And it must be remembered that there was a Major-General Sir G. MacGregor, also of the Indian service, so it was necessary to particularize the subject of the biography. If such hypercritical objections are to be allowed, the title even of Major-General might be disallowed, for the Gazette granting this substantive rank was only published after Sir Charles's death, although the actual rank was dated prior to his decease. Indeed, detractors have not been wanting who are ready to deny this last step in rank, and who still style Sir Charles as Colonel only.

As to inaccuracies, I might retort on my accuser that he is certainly not accurate in stating that my husband "came home to die in April, 1886." "Nor was it wise," says the censor, "to call this book 'The Life and Opinions' of Sir Charles MacGregor. On matters which he had specially studied with special advantages his opinions are of value......but when we are treated to speculations concerning matters relating to European policy and alliances, we decline to give his opinions any special weight." Will it be believed from this that the "opinions" on MacGregor's special subjects occupy page upon page-in fact, take up a very large proportion of the two volumes-whilst the speculations on European politics, prefaced by a modest deprecation of his knowledge, fill up some twelve lines on p. 350 of vol. ii. ?

(2) "What we have most to complain of, however, and that in the interest of the reputation of Sir Charles MacGregor himself, is that Lady MacGregor has performed the editorial functions she has assumed without regard for the feelings of others, and also apparently without a suspicion that in dealing with letters omission becomes sometimes a sacred duty." The complainant proceeds to admit that it was not unnatural that an ambitious soldier should in his diary and private letters judge severely his rivals, and, being exceedingly outspoken and animated by one thought, his remarks might be harsh, though perhaps more or less well founded; but he continues: "Nor were his censures confined to his rivals. The acts and plans of his superiors he was apt to criticize with the utmost confidence, and he would occasionally imply that he...was wiser or could have done better. In short, he had no little arrogance, but he can never have intended that these opinions should be published, and Lady MacGregor has done his memory much harm by letting them appear. This is a serious accusation, and we will justify it by quotations."

As a first quotation we are presented with 'the schoolboy audacity " of an ardent lad of seventeen, who had hardly been in bed or under shade for six days, before Lucknow, complaining, most naturally, of what doubtless seemed to him some unnecessary harassing of the troops by old Sir Colin Campbell; and another para

graph is quoted, expressing the jealousy, which most certainly existed among the officers in the Company's service, at the favour shown by the authorities to those in the Queen's regiments. We then hear of an adjutant being "an awfully lazy fellow," and next we have an extract, given, however, in part only, so that the sense implied by the context is almost lost sight of :

Atheneum, 1888.

"A few months later the

lad speaks of a commandant of a regiment of which he was acting second in com

mand: Meanwhile I have

to do the whole work of the regiment, as [in the book the name is given, but we omit it] sleeps all day and lets me do as I like, so that I virtually command the corps.'"

Mac Greger, 1859. "We have got a new com

manding officer in the place of Havelock - Colquhoun Grant of the Bays (ain't we

aristocratic P). He is a good

natured fellow, but, thanks to his constitution, will not stay long. Meanwhile I have to do the whole work of the regiment, as Grant sleeps all day and lets me do as I like, so that I virtually command the corps.

"Now I don't like this sort of thing, although it is very jolly being totally independent. I would far sooner see some fine energetic fellow at our head."

Now the natural inference from the above is that Grant was an invalid when he joined (only temporarily with the corps), and that during the extreme heat of the end of May his ill health prevented him doing any work, and that, therefore, everything was done by MacGregor, who was his acting adjutant at this time, and not acting second in command, as the critic supposes. Is any harm done to anybody by the publication of this extract from the boy's letter home, when it so well illustrates his energetic zeal, so characteristic of the man in after life? If this is the most extreme specimen which can be selected to show my disregard for the feelings of others, it is contended that this charge falls to the ground. Is it thus that the worst features of Sir Charles's character are brought into full relief? "Yet," says the critic, apologetically almost, "MacGregor had fine qualities." Is it possible?

(3) "Lady MacGregor is scarcely justified in asserting that he was badly treated, and implying that his honours and promotion should in fairness have equalled those bestowed upon Lord Wolseley." So says the censor. In fairness also he might have given the only passage

which can be thus twisted. Is this a serious accusation against the critic? Your readers may judge: "No sooner had the Mari expedition re-entered India than its gallant commander was appointed to the much-coveted post of Quartermaster-General in India, and Col.

MacGregor at once proceeded to the army headquarters to take over the active duties of that office. He was also gazetted to the local rank of major-general, a position and station seldom attained by an officer of similar age and service in the Indian army, for he was not more than forty years of age, and could reckon twenty-four years' military service.*">

In fact, I dwelt upon the good fortune of my husband's rapid attainment of his then high rank and position, whilst the subjoined note simply indicates a mode of comparison, for the uninitiated general reader, by giving as an example of the most rapid promotion the age of the luckiest as well as most notable officer of the present day when he obtained his rank of full major-general. This is what your critic calls my claiming honours for him equal to those of Lord Wolseley.

Finally, your readers will hardly allow that I should be taunted for maintaining and expressing the plain declaration of my husband that he had been badly treated, whatever opinion may be held to the contrary. This is what Sir Charles MacGregor wrote early in 1886, but a few months before he died: "The more I think of it the more pained and annoyed I feel at the way in which I have been treated." This was after some junior officers had been promoted

Lord Wolseley became a substantive major-general at thirty-five years of age, after only sixteen years' service.

over his head. Would the writer in the Athenæum desire me to state that I disagreed with my husband's direct opinion, recorded by his own hand, of the conduct towards him of certain high officials in the Military Department of the Supreme Government of India ?

CHARLOTTE MACGREGOR.

**Taking Lady MacGregor's three points in order, we may remark that Sir Charles was not Quartermaster-General in India at the time of his death, but had held and performed the duties of another appointment between the date of his quitting the Quartermaster-General's department and his death. Indeed, Lady MacGregor herself admits that she was wrong. With respect to No. 2, it is not merely the note to p. 293, vol. ii. which suggests a comparison of the services of Sir Charles MacGregor with those of Lord Wolseley. Even the letter of Lady MacGregor suggests a comparison. As a matter of fact, Lady MacGregor is incorrect in saying that Lord Wolseley was made a substantive major-general at thirty-five, after only sixteen years' service. A reference to the 'Official Army List' will show that Lord Wolseley was born June 4th, 1833, entered the army March 12th, 1852, and became major-general April 1st, 1874. As to whether Sir Charles's services were adequately rewarded, that is a matter on which neither he himself nor his widow can be deemed to be impartial judges. To come to the last point, we could easily print more extracts to prove that Lady MacGregor would have done wisely had she omitted some of her late husband's private criticism and self-glorification. We have, however, already given sufficient. We do not much blame Sir Charles for making ill-judged remarks or harsh criticisms in writing to his family, but we do blame the lady who had not a clear enough perception of what was due to her husband's memory to eliminate them.

AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.

January 5, 1889, As I read Mr. Putnam's letter in this week's

Athenaeum, there lies on my table a letter on York journal; and though I willingly admit in American copyright addressed to a leading New this letter that there are honourable publishers in America and I mention Mr. Putnam as

being one-I do not think that this admis

sion invalidates the accusation which Mr. Putnam complains of, viz., "that all American

publishers have stolen English books." Mr. Putnam challenges this statement. I accept his challenge, and I call on him to name two wellknown firms-firms that have been in existence, let us say, for thirty years-that have not stolen English books. The point is, I think, an innam's answer will be awaited with curiosity; I teresting one in literary history, and Mr. Putonly ask for two names, but Mr. Putnam's answer will be valuable in proportion to its exhaustiveness. Mr. Putnam accuses English publishers of having "appropriated" American books; in my opinion an English publisher outquixotes Don Quixote who pays a single farthing to an American author for what he could get for nothing-retaliation is our only weapon. Indeed, the English publisher who pays an American author is prejudicing the cause. Americans have their remedy in their own hands; and were conscience a force in America, the ease with which an American author may secure copyright here would have long ago forced America to do justice to us. America does not yet stand within the morals of civilization; togive up slave trading and to continue to pirate English books is equivalent to saying, "I will not break into houses, but I must stand at the street corner and pick pockets."

Regarding the Brentano scandal, Mr. Putnam says in the absence of any explanation from Mr. Brentano I have just ground for complaint. As it is important to remove all uncer

tainty regarding Mr. Brentano's conduct towards me, I take this opportunity to state that he was good enough to substantiate all my allegations in the New York Herald of December 13th European edition). His statements differ from mine in no single particular; he merely expands in a column what I compressed in a paragraph. He was, however, honest enough to inform his interviewer that it was his intention to pay me 10 per cent. Whereupon I wrote to thank him for his promise, and to suggest that I would prefer to receive 201.-not too large a sum, as the book had had, on his own admission, a very large sale in the States. As I have received no reply I suppose I must regard Mr. Brentano's promise to pay me 10 per cent. as I regard the words "authorized edition" printed on his edition of Confessions of a Young Man.'

Mr. Brentano told his interviewer, notwithstanding his great admiration for my works, he had hitherto refrained, from motives of delicacy which will be easily understood, from bringing

them out in the States.

Mr. Brentano's

'motives of delicacy" seem to me decidedly ambiguous; but I am sure he would have done well to postpone talking about his morals until he had left off picking my pocket.

GEORGE MOORE.

Literary Gossip.

AN authorized translation of Dr. Geffcken's Pen Sketches of the British Empire' will shortly be published by Messrs. Sampson Low & Co. The work will also contain essays on Prince Albert, Lord Palmerston, Lord Beaconsfield, and Mr. Gladstone. A preface has been written for the English edition by Dr. Geffcken. It will be translated by Mr. S. J. MacMullan.

MR. MURRAY promises a work on 'The Foundations of the Creed,' by Dr. Harvey Goodwin, the Bishop of Carlisle. The same publisher announces 'Occasional Thoughts of an Astronomer on the Subjects of the Day,' by the Rev. Prof. Pritchard, of Oxford. Among the topics handled are the 'Continuity of the Schemes of Nature and Revelation,' 'Natural Science and Natural Religion,' On the Relations of Miracles to the Laws of Nature,' 'The Great Miracle in Joshua,' "A Solution of the Difficulties in Genesis,'

The Slowness of the Divine Proceedings in Nature and in Grace,' and 'The Star and the Magi.'

THE anonymous author of "Thoth' has nearly ready for publication a new novel of modern English life, the principal scenes of which are laid in one of our ancient university cities. The work deals with a manifestation of the supernatural, and is entitled

'A Dreamer of Dreams.' The volume will be published by Messrs. William Blackwood & Sons.

SIR HENRY ROSCOE, M.P., F.R.S., has been elected by the Council of the Royal Society as their representative on the Governing Body of Eton.

The

THE voluminous "Coke Papers" in the muniment room at Melbourne Hall, Derby: shire, will shortly be completely arranged and analyzed through the patient labours of Mr. W. D. Fane, the present tenant. Historical MSS. Commission have recently issued the first volume of Mr. Fane's abstracts and transcripts, chiefly dealing with the decade immediately preceding the Commonwealth, when Sir John Coke was "principal secretary" to the King. The second volume may be looked for early in the summer, and

the third volume, with index, by the end of the year.

THE American Authors' Copyright League has issued an appeal in favour of the Bill for International Copyright now before Congress. It will be seen from the following extracts from that appeal that the wish to do justice to alien authors is not conspicuous, even if it be entertained at all: "The authors who will be most benefited by this Bill are those of our own country. The great majority of American writers are forced to accept a beggarly pittance for their labours because of competition with works written abroad, which are appropriated by publishers in this country, without remuneration to the writers. We are speaking within bounds in asserting that the average American book brings less than two hundred dollars to its author. No other calling followed by an American has ever been required to endure the hardships of competition with stolen wares. The result is that most American authors are forced to depend upon some other kinds of labour for their subsistence." American publishers protest against being stigmatized as pirates. American authors protest as strongly against having to compete with "stolen wares the form of English books reprinted in America. Unlicensed reprinting may not be piracy, but, on the showing of American authors, it is quite as injurious to them, while it is the great grievance of English authors.

"in

THE London Society for the Extension of University Teaching has arranged for courses at Gresham College on Elizabethan literature, physiology, and chemistry.

THE statue of the Dorsetshire poet William Barnes, which has been executed in bronze by Mr. Roscoe Mullins, is now cast, and will be on view to those interested, until the 19th inst., at Mr. Moore's foundry, Thames Ditton. The statue, which is an excellent likeness, will then be set up in Dorchester, where it will be unveiled by the Bishop of Salisbury on the 4th of February.

the Malagasy Bible has been completed. THE printing of the revised version of It will be remembered that the revision Cousins, of the London Missionary Society, committee, presided over by the Rev. W. E. commenced their work in December, 1873. It has thus taken fifteen years to accomplish the great work, which has now been happily brought to a successful conclusion by the printers, Messrs. Richard Clay & Sons.

MR. HARRY JONES, a collection of whose essays was published some years ago under paring a second series, which will be the title of Holiday Papers,' has been prelished by Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co.

Sur l'Eau' and of M. Alphonse Daudet's 'Souvenirs d'un Homme de Lettres.'

THE death is announced of Mr. Norval Clyne, of Aberdeen. For a great number of years he was secretary and factor to the Society of Advocates, but he also devoted much attention to literature, his chief work being 'Ballads from Scottish History.' He was also the author of 'The Lost Eagle,' and of a dissertation on 'The Lady Wardlaw Heresy,' being a defence of the antiquity of the ballad of Hardyknute and other Scotch ballads. Mr. Clyne's latest work was a volume, published in 1887, on 'The Scottish Jacobites and their Poetry.'

WE are glad to say that Mr. Murray of Pope is in the press. announces that Mr. Courthope's biography The letters of Motley, which Mr. Murray also promises, are to be edited by Mr. G. W. Curtis.

MR. BADDELEY tells us we made a mistake in noticing his monograph on St. marriage was not mentioned in the book. Giles's, Cripplegate, in saying "Cromwell's It is mentioned on p. 60, and noticed in the index.

THE Society of Arts has at length put up a tablet over the chambers of Cromwell's

secretary Thurloe, at 26, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. It is on the front facing Chancery Lane, over the room Thurloe occupied during the term of his office, where, no visited him. We fear that the fine old doubt, Milton as well as Cromwell often

gateway is not yet safe from the hands of the destroyers.

7 6

DR. HATCH'S 'Essays in Biblical Greek,' which we have before mentioned, consists his terms of office as Grinfield Lecturer, and of the lectures delivered by the writer during the Value and Use of the LXX., Short contains the seven following essays: "On Studies of the Meanings of Words in Biblical Greek,' On Psychological Terms in Biblical Greek,' 'On Early Quotations from the LXX.,' 'On Composite Quotations the LXX. Text of Job,' and 'On the Text from the LXX.,' 'On Origen's Revision of of Ecclesiasticus.'

A COURSE of public lectures on English Newnham College, Cambridge, by Mr. literature will be delivered this term at Frederick Myers, Prof. Henry Sidgwick, Mr. Edmund Gosse, and Dr. Verrall.

Ar a meeting of the Manchester City Council last week it was resolved that a sum of 250 guineas should be expended on a portrait of Mr. Alderman Abel Heywood, the well-known Manchester publisher, the portrait to be the property of the city.

MESSRS. ROUTLEDGE & SONS announce English translations of M. Guy de Maupassant's

THE twelfth number of the Antananarivo

Annual and Madagascar Magazine has been issued from the press of Imarivolanitra in the Malagasy capital. For solidity and amount of information it equals most of the English-Asiatic periodicals published in the East, and it has become an established medium of intercommunication for all interested in the great African island.

THE subscription for a very simple life of Jesus in the Italian tongue, by Signor Bonghi, based solely on the Gospel narrative, already exceeds thirty thousand copies, which is remarkable for an Italian circulation. It is possible that an English translation would have an even greater success in Great Britain, America, and other Englishspeaking countries, while success might also be predicted for an even simpler work, which should consist only of the words of Christ extracted from the Gospels and printed on good paper in large type.

A LIFE of the famous Church historian August Neander, by Pastor Wiegand, of Mittelhausen, will shortly appear on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth, which took place in January, 1789, at Göttingen.

has ever met with the king eider duck at St. Kilda in summer as Mr. Dixon professes to have done. Lovers of bird life in Scotland will be

glad to learn that a pair of white-tailed eagles inland lochs, or on the bold headlands of this may be generally met with on most of the rockbound land," where this species "does not appear to become any rarer," although, says the author, "I have seen the heads and feet of this bird nailed in dozens to the kennel doors." We should like to know the spot. The statement that the barnacle goose is "much smaller" than the brent goose is absurdly erroneous; while the assertion that the male capercaillie, a bird as bulky as an eagle, "often allows a peregrine falcon to strike him down," must have been evolved from the author's own imagination. So much for facts. As indicative of the style in which this pretentious and padded book is written, it may be said that a favourite term for St. Kilda is "a bird bazaar," the Ferne Islands being called, by way of change, "that grand

pretty, and young people are not severely critical.

CHEMICAL NOTES.

pounds of chlorine with iodine, and finds that in STORTENBEKER has reinvestigated the comthe solid state two only are capable of existing. These are the mono- and tri-chlorides; the monochloride, however, has been obtained in two modifications. It is prepared by passing dry chlorine over iodine and redistilling the product from a little iodine. When the distillate is allowed to solidify at -25°, the a-modification is obtained; this forms long dark-red needles, melting at 27-2°; but if solidification is effected at between +5 and -10°, the B-modification is frequently formed and crystallizes in dark-red plates, which melt at 139°, and gra dually change into a modification. Iodine trichloride is formed by the action of excess of chlorine on iodine; it sublimes readily in slender between 20 and 60° (? with decomposition), but at a pressure of 16 atmospheres melts regularly at 101, resolidifying on cooling in brownish-red crystals. Iodine monochloride can exist in the gaseous condition, suffering but slight decomposition at 80°; the trichloride, on the contrary, cannot exist as a gas.

week are Army, Royal Artillery, Organization, Correspondence (1d.); Births, Deaths, and Marriages, England, Report for 1887, 50th Annual (18. 8d.); Sugar Question, International Conference, Further Correspondence (38. 8d.); and Consular Report on the Agricultural Condition of Colombia (2d.).

SCIENCE

ORNITHOLOGICAL BOOKS.

a

Our Rarer Birds: being Studies in Ornithology and Oology. By Charles Dixon. With Twenty Illustrations by Charles Whymper, and Frontispiece by J. G. Keulemans. (Bentley & Son.)—The plate which serves as the frontispiece to this volume originally bore, in the right-hand upper corner, the words "Ibis, 1885, Pl. iii.," while at foot the scientific name Troglodytes hirtensis took the place of the present "St. Kilda Wren." That engraving is the property of the British Ornithologists' Union, of which body Mr. C. Dixon is certainly not a member, nor does he state that he has received the necessary authorization to use it from the committee which alone is empowered to grant such permission, and might, perhaps, have done so if asked. Instead of this, all indication of the true source has been suppressed; the words "Ibis," &c., have been erased from the top of the page, and the name of the publishers is now boldly printed at the foot, as if the production were theirs. Turning to the preface, we find it given from (we cannot say dated, for there is no date) "An Eagle's Nest in Skye," where, we believe, the author has not been for several years, and cynics may be tempted to suggest that a castle in the air" would have done equally well. Passing to the subject of the volume, it appears that among our rarer birds " are included almost any species that are less frequent than the familiar blackbirds, thrushes, robins, sparrows, &c.; and the information respecting them contains little that is new when true, though the statements to which exception might be taken are so numerous that there is room to notice only a few of them. What will our sportsmen and naturalists in the Eastern Counties think of the assertion that in all the localities in which the red-legged partridge has established itself "the common partridge has sensibly decreased in numbers, and in some places has been completely exterminated by the larger and much more pugnacious species" ? The italics

are ours.

Mr. Dixon is quite wrong in saying that St. Kilda is the only British locality frequented by the fulmar in the breeding season, for the fact that it nests on Foula, one of the Shetland Islands, has been well known for some years past to really practical ornithologists. None of the native fowlers, most observant men,

where that "Eldorado of the ornithologist"; while the obtrusive egotism displayed is exasperating. Some of the woodcuts by Mr. Whymper display considerable merit, but the appearance of the stone-curlew-a bird which, as Mr. Dixon correctly states, frequents dry sandy soils-standing in the wet sedge like a sentinel to guard the wading water-rail (p. 177) is ludicrous in the extreme; nor will the up-soaring razor-bill (p. 268) add to the artist's reputation among those who are really acquainted with the flight of that bird, although it may go down with the general public.

Birds in Nature. By R. Bowdler Sharpe, F.L.S., F.Z.S. With Thirty-nine Coloured Plates and other Illustrations by P. Robert.

(Sampson Low.)-In our No. 2791 (April 23rd, 1881) we noticed a work entitled 'Glimpses of Bird Life pourtrayed with Pen and Pencil,' the letterpress of which was written by Mr. J. E. Harting to suit twenty coloured illustrations by P. Robert, selected from a book published in Paris, and called 'Les Oiseaux dans la Nature. Fourteen of these plates are again before us in the present volume with twenty-five others, the text of the whole being now undertaken by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, of the British Museum. We can hardly congratulate the present publishers upon their choice of new illustrations, for many of them are so rough in execution and so angular in outline as to be mere caricatures of the birds they are intended to represent; but the drawings surrounding the initial letters are not devoid of a certain quaintness, and there is a touch of (perhaps unconscious) humour in the close proximity of the figure of an absolutely nude female to such words as "the dry bones of fact (p. 35). Even in these days, when Royal Academicians supply pictorial advertisements for soapsellers, we cannot without regret see a naturalist of Mr. Sharpe's undoubted scientific attainments descend to this kind of work, although it must be admitted that he has performed with ability a task which must necessarily have been uncongenial. The descriptions of the birds and their habits are undoubtedly well written, and as an instance of the author's acuteness of observation we may cite his remarks respecting the swifts at Peterborough Cathedral, where their abundance, strange to say, concerns the ornithologist less than it does the architect. Thirty years ago these birds used to nest in the spouts only; but on revisiting the city in 1887, Mr. Sharpe noticed that dozens of swifts were frequenting

the grand old west front—a thing they never did in his young days. "They evidently had their nests in crannies and crevices which were nonexistent years ago, and if the authorities would be taught a lesson from the birds, they might

find that the subsidence which forced them to rebuild the lantern-tower has also affected the

west front." As a gift-book this volume will no doubt prove attractive, for it is certainly

NHO, is obtained when dried ammonium According to M. Maumene, oxide of ammonia, oxalate is gently heated with a solution of potas sium permanganate and sulphuric acid; it is

gaseous, and yields crystalline salts when passed into acids. When a solution of the nitrate is of nitrogen and hydrogen of the composition heated, amongst other products a compound NH, is said to be obtained.

The atomic weight of tin has been redeter

mined by Bongartz and Classen. The determinations were effected by various methods, with the result that twenty-six experiments made with those methods found by experience to be the most trustworthy gave as a mean the number 118:8034, the mean of all the determinations made being the slightly lower figure 1187745. The value hitherto accepted as correct is 1178.

Amongst the numerous cases of the successful artificial formation of minerals, the production of the micas by C. Doelter is very noteworthy. They were obtained by fusing various minerals with fluorides. For instance, beautiful crystals of muscovite were prepared by fusing andalusite with potassium fluoride, aluminium fluoride, and silicon fluoride at a low red heat.

SOCIETIES.

BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.-Jan, 2. Mr. B. Winstone in the chair.-It was reported by Mr. Loftus Brock that an extension of the North British Railway was contemplated near Lanark, and that the lines of deviation of the deposited plans included an important part of the wall of Antoninus, near Bonnybridge.-A resolution was proposed by Mr. J. W. Grover, and duly carried, to the effect that a strenuous effort should be made to avert the danger in which the wall was placed.-Mr. J. T. Irvine exhibited a collection of drawings of ancient remains recently found near Peterborough, among which

were portions of stone interlaced work from the tower of Helpstone Church, now in the vicarage gardens, and part of a cross shaft, also of interlaced patterns, now lying in a mason's yard, having been used on a public road at Cais tor.-A paper was then read by Messrs. Peter, the historians of Launceston, on the remains of the ancient priory of that town which have been re cently found in extending the railway. These works revealed the foundations of the day room. Further excavations for the gas works have laid bare a large portion of the east end of the priory church. The foundations of the presbytery, 56 ft. long and 19 ft. wide, and also those of two side chapels, each 15 ft. long and 11 ft. 6 in. wide, have been exposed to view; also several graves and encaustic tiles.-A paper on the representation of a Roman house on one of the remarkable Roman mosaic pavements recently placed on the staircase of the British Museum was read by Mr. W. de Gray Birch. The pavement is one of the fine series brought from Carthage by Dr. Davies.-A third paper, by Mr. S. Cowper, was then

read. It described a curious moated enclosure at Acton, on the road to Willesden. It consists of an irregular parallelogram surrounded by a broad shallow ditea, there being no visible means of crossing the latter It is situated in a field known as the Moated Meadow.

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.-Jan. 8.— Sir G. B. Bruce, President, in the chair.-It was announced that four Associates had been transferred to the class of Members and sixteen candidates had been admitted as Students.-The monthly ballot resulted in the election of two Members, of thirtythree Associate Members, and of two Associates.

The paper read was 'On the Compound Principle as applied to Locomotives,' by Mr. E. Worthington.

SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY.-Jan. 8.—

Anniversary Meeting. Mr. P. Le Page Renouf, President, in the chair.-The Secretary's Report for the year 1888 was presented.-The following officers and Council for the current year were elected : President, Mr. P. Le Page Renouf; Vice-Presidents, Rev. F. C. Cook, Lord Halsbury, Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Right Hon. Sir A. H. Layard, Right Rev. J. B. Lightfoot, W. Morrison, Sir C. T. Newton, Sir C. Nicholson, Canon Rawlinson, Sir H. C. Rawlinson, and Very Rev. R. P. Smith; Council, Rev. C. J. Ball. Canon Beechey, E. A. W. Budge, A. Cates, T. Christy, Rev. R. Gwynne, C. Harrison, Rev. A. Löwy, Prof. A. Macalister, Rev. J. Marshall, F. D. Mocatta, A. Peckover, J. Pollard, F. G. H. Price, E. T. Whyte, and Rev. W. Wright; Honorary Trearer, Mr. B. T. Bosanquet; Secretary, Mr. W. H. Rylands; Hon. Secretary for Foreign Correspondence, Prof. A. H. Sayce; Hon. Librarian, Mr. W. Simpson.

MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. Royal Academy.-4. Demonstrations,' Mr. J. Marshall; 8, Painting. Mr. J. E. Hodgson. London Institution, 5-Recent Babylonian Explorations,' Mr. W St. Chad Boscawen.

Institute of British Architects, 8-Special General Meeting; Award of Prizes.

Aristotelian, The Starting-point and First Conclusions of Scholastic Philosophy, Mr M. H. Dziewicki.

Surveyors Institution, 8-Resumed Discussion on 'The Prospects of an Agricultural Revival.'

Statistical 7The Amount and Incidence of Imperial Taxation in Different Countries,' Mr J. S. Jeans.

Civil Engineers, 8.-Resumed Discussion on the Paper by Mr. E. Worthington on The Compound Principle applied to Locomotives."

Colonial Institute, 8.- British West Africa and the Trade of the Interior,' Mr. H H. Johnston.

Zoological 8 - New Species and a New Genus of Araneidea,'
Rev. O. P. Cambridge; Additions to the Echinoderm Fauna
of the Bay of Bengal,' Prof. F. J. Bell; Anatomy of Rhino-
ceros lasiatis,' Mesars F. E. Beddard and F. Treves.
Royal Academy. 4- Demonstrations,' Mr. J. Marshall.
Entomological, 7-Anniversary Meeting.
Meteorological, 7-Election of Fellows; Annual General Meet-
ing.

Society of Arts, 8.- The Channel Tunnel,' Col. Hozier.
British Archæological Association, 8.-Subscription for build-
ing St. Antholin's Steeple,' Major H. H. Joseph; 'Notes on
North Caithness and Orkney,' Rev. S. M. Mayhew.

Tauns. Royal 4).

London Institution. 6-The English Novel in the Seventeenth Century, Mr. E. Gosse.

Royal Academy, 8-Painting Mr. J. E Hodgson. Linnean, 8. —Notes on Euphrasia officinalis, L,' Mr.F. Townsend ; • The Kangaroo Grass Tree,' Mr. J. G. O Tepper; Heliotropism under Flashing Light,' Mr. G. J. Romanes. Chemical, 8.- Election of Fellows; Contributions from the Laboratory of Gonville and Catus College, Cambridge. Nos. XIII. to XVII: Cubical Form of B smuthous Oxide," Messrs. M. M. P. Muir and A. Hutchinson; 'Oxides of Copper,' Mr. D. Carnegie; Periodates,' No. II., Mr. C. W. Kimmins; 'Compounds of Arsenious Oxide and Antimonious Oxide with Sulphuric Anhydride,' Mr. R. H. Adie: Compound of Boron Oxide with Sulphuric Anhydride,' Mr. R F. D'Arcy. Antiquaries, 8-On a Letter of Henry Hexham, 1651, concerning Members of the Holles Family, and on a List of Officers employed in Suppressing the Rising in the North in 1569,' Mr. B Peacock; On a Culver Hole in Glamorganshire.' Chancellor Ferguson; Recent Explorations of Barrows in Yorks, Berks, and Wilts,' Rev. W. Greenwell.

Historical, History and Assassination.' Mr. H. Haines. Royal Academy. 4.- Demonstrations,' Mr. J. Marshall. Philological, SA Dictionary Evening, Mr. H. Bradley, with a Report from Oxford.

Science Gossiy.

MR. MURRAY promises a collection of the scientific papers and discourses of the late Sir William Siemens, F.R.S., edited by Mr. E. F. Bramber, C.E., in three volumes. Vol. i. will be devoted to Sir William's writings on heat and metallurgy, vol. ii. to his writings on electricity and miscellaneous subjects, and vol. iii. to his addresses and lectures.

full recognition to photographic chemistry as a branch of applied science in technical colleges. Each lecture is followed by an appendix containing hints for the experimental illustration of the subject by means of lecture demonstrations, many of which are new, and all of which have been devised with a view to enabling lecturers to demonstrate the chemical principles of photography before an audience in a simple manner. The mode of treatment adopted will, it is hoped, be found of use also to practical photographers, by enabling them to obtain a concise and comprehensive view of the scientific principles of

their art.

PROF. GAIRDNER, of Glasgow, is about to print in a volume various addresses and memoirs prepared during more than thirty years as illustrating the progress of the healing art, and also papers already published in various journals on the limits of alcoholic stimulation in typhus fever and other acute diseases. The book will be published by Messrs. James MacLehose & Sons, of Glasgow.

ACCORDING to a letter recently received from the south-west coast of Africa, Mr. J. J. Jones, a trader at Ngove (a country situated immediately south of Camma and the river Fernand Vaz), has for some time past had in his possession a young female gorilla whose docility and tractability are most remarkable. Mr. Jones has trained the little anthropoid to follow him like a dog, and she recently accompanied him on a journey to Sette-Camma, a distance of twenty miles or more, walking all the way. Jeannie, as the baby gorilla has been named, sleeps with her master and follows him wherever he goes, weeping like a child if left behind. She has acquired many civilized tastes and habits, and will drink tea, ale, brandy, &c., out of a cup or glass, displaying the utmost carefulness not to break the vessel; and will, in fact, do almost anything her master wishes, and is so intelligent and affectionate as to greatly astonish and interest all who have seen her. And yet, although the latest, this is by no means a solitary instance of the facility with which a young gorilla can be tamed, as there are at present living in London two former residents in the Fernand Vaz who succeeded without difficulty in taming young gorillas, and who could corroborate the foregoing account of their docility and of their affectionate disposition when treated with kindness, as well as the distress and sensitiveness they exhibit if scolded for

misconduct or disobedience.

THE Lalande Prize of the French Academy for last year has been awarded to M. Bossert, the Valz Prize to Prof. Pickering, and the Janssen Prize to Dr. Huggins. The Damoiseau Prize, the subject of which on that occasion was 'Perfectionner la Théorie des Inégalités à Longues Périodes causées par les Planètes dans le Mouvement de la Lune,' has not been awarded, but an encouragement of 1,000 fr. has been granted to the author of a memoir-the only one presented-inscribed "Lagrange, Laplace, Cauchy," prize of 3,000 fr., for the present year, to be and the subject is proposed again, with the full awarded in 1890 if any memoir presented be found deserving of it.

FINE ARTS

We regret to hear that Mr. Francis Day, the well-known ichthyologist, is very dangerously -5, Pall Mall East, from 10 till 5-Admission, 13. Catalogue, 6d. ill, and that but faint hopes are entertained of his recovery.

ROYAL SOCIETY of PAINTERS in WATER COLOURS -The WINTER EXHIBITION of SKETCHES and STUDIES is NOW OPEN. ALFRED D. FRIPP, R. W.S., Secretary.

PROF. R. MELDOLA, F. R. S., has in the press a work on 'The Chemistry of Photography,' which will shortly be issued by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. as one of the volumes of their "Nature Series." The work consists of a course of lectures delivered last year at the Finsbury Technical College. The chief object kept in view by the author is the necessity for giving

ROYAL HOUSE of 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, 58. New Gallery, Regent Street.

'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, la.

ANNUALS.

THE letterpress of the Art Journal, New Series, 1888 (Virtue & Co.), is a considerable improvement on that in some of its forerunners; while the cuts, in which improvement would be difficult, are at least as good as before. Of the etchings, perhaps the best is Mr. Masse's 'Hard Hit,' after Mr. Orchardson's well-known picture. Mr. Raeburn's 'Ho! Ho!' after Mr. Pettie, is not nearly so good. M. Brunet Debaines's 'Trafalgar Square' is capital, and almost divides the palm with Mr. Masse's work. Spilt Milk,' by Mr. Raeburn, is coarse. The Art Journal, notwithstanding its failures in producing what are called line engravings, still cherishes a superstition that under this name things so bad and poor as the late C. Cousen's 'Catching a Mermaid,' after Mr. Hook's fine picture, are acceptable. Immeasurably better, although there is a certain flatness about the print, is the delicate and sympathetic 'Nativity,' by M. Jacoby, after Lippi. The most thorough, careful, and competent of the longer papers are Mr. M. B. Huish's articles on Japan and its Art Wares,' which we have already reviewed in its separate shape. Among the other with papers interesting subjects are an old Academy Student's account of the existing Schools of the Royal Academy, with several capital cuts of drawings lately produced there; an animated criticism on Barye, one of the greatest modern sculptors (why does not some one write on that noble animalier M. Cain and his art?); and a spirited, but rather slight description of 'Landscape in America,' comprising (p. 83) a cut of the Keene Valley, which is the choicest of its class in the volume. The paper is by Miss M. G. Humphries, and its companion on the American Wonderland' is by Mr. E. Roberts. The last is illustrated by some capital cuts. Mr. Henry Wallis has written in Mrs. Meynell's notes on Herr Lenbach's portrait his best manner upon The Boulaq Museum.' painting are accompanied by an extraordinary engraved portrait of Mr. Gladstone, which may be a revelation to his admirers, and is the truest we have seen. Very charming indeed are the cuts to Mr. Prideaux's With the Camera from Lechlade to Oxford,' cuts which, in their own line, surpass most of the socalled American woodcuts. It would be diffi cult to beat 'Radcot Bridge' and 'New Bridge'; with which should be grouped 'Crossing the Meadow,' after Mrs. Allingham; 'St. Cross, near Winchester,' after Mr. A. Goodwin; 'On the Thames,' after Mr. A. W. Hunt; and 'On a Common,' after David Cox, in various parts of the volume.

Art and Letters, Vol. IV. (Boussod, Valadon & Co.), contains an extraordinary number of Goupilgravures and other coloured and uncoloured, nearly all of them of process" prints, high merit, and some of them of rare beauty in their way a way not to be despised by any means. Best of the coloured imitations of engravings in the taste of the Directory is M. Kaemmerer's

Pluviôse,' a charming girl in blue satin spencer trimmed with black fur, adjusting her pelisse with all the piquante grace of a Parisienne of high degree. Next to it is the tender and delicate Gladys Harvey at the Gate of the Villa,' by M. Doucet, an illustration of a courtesan's story written, with extreme insight and spirit, by M. P. Bourget. The volume is full of animated and picturesque narratives. The best of them all is the fourth part of M. Ludovic Halévy's 'Notes and Recollections' of the siege and of the reign of the Commune in Paris. The most solid and practical part of this volume is by General Thoumas, who treats Old and New Ordnance' with care and research. Art and Letters retains the distinction of being the most costly (the price is a guinea each monthly part) of the magazines, but it is by no means the dearest.