heroic endurance of the people, and of the noble efforts made by English philanthropy to rescue from starvation and despair an industrial population that found itself, from no fault of its own, cut off without warning from all its ordinary sources of livelihood. What more characteristic incident could be found than the advent of the first bale of cotton to Farrington after the famine? The villagers crowded round the symbol of renewed industry, and, amid tears and sobs, sang the Doxology over that which brought them once more the assurance of the bread of independence. The "Besom Ben Stories" are capital studies of Lancashire life. They are brimful of quaint sayings, odd characters, and practical jokes. There is no plot, no elaborate construction, but a series of detached pictures worked out with all the care and attention to detail of Dutch paintings, and like them also in the very homely nature of their subjects. When the series is complete we may attempt to estimate Mr. Waugh's place in works are produced in an exceedingly creditliterature. We need only say now that the able manner. WILLIAM E. A. AXON. NEW NOVELS, ETC. Julian Karslake's Secret. By Mrs. J. H. Master of Al. By E. R. Chapman. In having caused more anguish and suffering Nevill does not look like a long-lived man! Bonnie Dunraven is a good Irish lovestory, full of interest. The girl who gives her name to the story is a charming character, guileless and handsome, and she makes her The plot is not way with readers at once. new, for it turns on a theme which has novel-writers. Bonnie is beloved by two men received frequent treatment at the hands of her love and the other much the reverse. at once-the one, of course, being worthy of The former, Bob Grace, a village docter, loses her for a time, and she falls under the enhaving a wife living already; but he attempts chantments of his rival, Paul Earnscliffe. Now Earnscliffe is in the awkward plight of to square matters by pushing her over the cliffs into the sea on a dark and stormy night. She does not die, as he supposes, but at a later stage of the narrative reappears in time to prevent her husband's marriage with Bonnie Dunraven. Convinced at last of the unworthiness of Earnscliffe, against which she has fought for a long time, Bonnie parts from him for ever, but forgives him in a final interview. The dangerous lover being now out of the way, what more natural than that our heroine should begin to see the merits of Bob Grace, who has always been steadfastly devoted to her? The "reading" of this book has not been well done, for we get Earncliffe and Earnscliffe, Lieder ohne Worte and Leider ohne Worte, &c. Most persons confess to a prejudice against historical novels, or novels with a purpose, unless they be such works as those of Sir Walter Scott. But Mr. Canning has succeeded very well with his tale, based on the He gives us stirring events of 1690-91. a striking picture of the Irish life of the time, and graphically sketches the portraits of William of Orange, Tyrconnel the Deputy, James II., and the gallant Frenchman Lauzun. The historical characters and incidents have been founded chiefly on the statements of Leland and Lord Macaulay. As to the proA Ruined Life. Translated from the French ceedings of the hero of the novel, Baldearg of C. C. de Rocfort, by S. Russell. In 2 vols. (F. V. White.) O'Donnell, with his escape from Spain, his hopes of independence, his inactivity during Dorrincourt. By Bernard Heldmann, the battle of Aghrim, and his subsequent Author of "Boxall School," &c. (Nisbet.) adhesion to William III., are not these facts We Four. By Mrs. Reginald Bray, Author also written in the chronicles of historians? of "Ten of Them," &c. (Griffith & Farran.) The author has constructed a very interesting THE first novel in our list is undoubtedly narrative, and he writes with great impartiality. Fighting and intrigue are, of course, clever in its way, but the majority of readers the basis of the story, and not love; and to his wife, Lady Donald, Countess de will condemn Mrs. Needell's hero for the these we have in abundance. The character Kerouac. He is a Protestant, while the lady worse than Quixotic stubbornness with which of Father Roche stands out conspicuous for is the most bigoted of Catholics. he preserves a secret that wrecks his own happiness and that of his wife. Julian Karslake, a clergyman, falls deeply in love with Sybil Dorrimore, the daughter of a poor literary man, and herself a paragon of virtue and learning. Sybil fights against fate in vain. Though Karslake is at first very distasteful to her, circumstances compel her to accept him in the end. From her first feeling of dislike, Sybil comes at last to love her husband with a passion amounting to idolatry. But an old friend of the family discovers that Mr. Karslake has some painful secret. He searches for a clue to it, and produces at last apparently irrefragable proofs of the clergyman's duplicity and immorality. Confronted with damnatory evidence, Karslake will make no effort at exculpation; even a few more words, which he might well have uttered, would have set his wife's mind at ease; but these he refuses to pronounce, and her faith begins at last to waver, After its individuality. We assume that Master of All is by a lady; and, while there are some things in it that are promising, on the whole we are obliged to confess that the story is not much above the average. Whether it is worth while under these circumstances to persevere, when novels are as plentiful as blackberries in autumn, Miss Chapman must herself decide. We do not say it is impossible for her to become a novelist. The plot of her present novel is interesting enough; but we are loth to believe that there are English mothers and daughters who can deliberately plot together for the ruin of a man as Lady Perceval and her daughter are represented as doing in the first volume. It is absolutely necessary that Miss Gladys Perceval should secure the wealth of Mr. Nevill in order to save her own family from disgrace; and Lady Perceval assures her daughter, by way of encouragement, that Mr. Miss Russell has made a spirited translation of M. Rocfort's novel. The story is in some respects a very painful one; and it brings before us very vividly the scenes in the great French Revolution. The narrative turns the devotion of Sir George Donald upon Her former lover has become her confessor; and under his tutelage she is taught to regard her husband as one who will eternally burn in hell-fire, and that she must rescue her son from his clutches, preserving him, with herself, to the "true Church." Some of the things which appear in this work we should feel inclined to regard as incredible did we not know to what abnormal lengths devotees to the Roman Catholic religion have gone. As the author remarks, regarded in a poetical light, the Breton's simple faith delights one; looked at from another point of view, it disgusts. Here is a lady of the aristocracy, polished and refined, yet a helpless victim to the most degrading superstitions. At the very name of the Bible she is taught to shudder, and she is encouraged in all kinds of secret machinations against her husband, on the principle that anything is good enough for a heretic. These loathsome opinions nearly lead to the loss of three lives; and, as it is, they place an inseparable and eternal barrier between husband and wife. The work certainly conveys some useful lessons. Boys will relish the story of a term at Dorrincourt School. The author writes in a manly and healthy tone, and his book is of the right kind to put into the hands of schoolboys. When there is so much gutter literature written for boys this of itself is no slight praise; and a polished style becomes a matter of secondary consequence. Mrs. Bray has written several very entertaining books for children, and this, their latest successor, is likely to be as popular as any of them. The four persons referred to in the title are four children, whose amusements and fortunes we must leave our younger readers to trace for themselves. G. BARNETT SMITH. SOME MORE GIFT BOOKS. Sugar and Spice and All that's Nice. Pictures and Rhymes for the Little Ones. By J. K. and V. B. (Strahan.) Having become not a little wearied by the imitators of Walter Crane and Kate Greenaway, we were at first hardly disposed to accord this book a fair reception. But, after the more careful scrutiny that a reviewer owes, our original hasty opinion has entirely changed round. In truth, we have no hesitation in saying that this ought to be the nursery-book of the season. Of the pictures (which are initialled J. K.) we cannot give our readers an adequate impression. But we must say that, on second and wiser thoughts, they suggest R. Caldecott rather than either of the two mentioned above. What R. Caldecott would be like in a child-world, we must leave our readers to find out for themselves. Of the text (which we assume to be by V. B.) we may give one or two examples: "I DON'T KNOW, "Why, you little silly, Willy, nilly, Give your hand, be good now; That's Gerlinda, she knows how. 'No, but I shan't.' Why do you say 'shan't'? 'Because I don't want.' Why don't you want? 'I can't.' 66 WHAT HAS THE CHILD GOT? "What have you found there, little one?' 'Don't take him to the shoemaker's, The shoemaker would laugh at you. May come up instead." Unless we are greatly mistaken, these rhymes (and others like them) possess that indescribable charm of "depth" which children feel no less than grown-up people. Indian Pictures, drawn with Pen and Pencil. By the Rev. W. Urwick. (Religious Tract Society.) This forms, we believe, one of the series of "Illustrated Books of Travel," so many of which we owe to the late Dr. Samuel Manning. The present writer may claim to have a pretty wide acquaintance with the books that have been published about India during the past few years; and it is a pleasant duty for him to say that he has never come across a finer collection of illustrations than these, though some of them have done service before. Those which appear to him new are also the best. Especially would he single out the set representing the marvellous, but little-known, buildings at Madura in the South. Taken altogether, we have here a most creditable example both of draughtsmanship and of the engraver's craft. Of the letterpress we cannot speak in quite such high terms. Mr. Urwick was evidently a hasty traveller through the country. What he saw with his own eyes he describes vividly, though with a bias that is perhaps excusable. He is not so successful in describing what he did not see; though here, too, he has had the sense to go to good authorities. He occasionally quotes, or rather condenses, passages from Mr. Hunter's Imperial Gazetteer; but it was not from that source that he got the astounding piece of information that "half the present Mohammedan population in India is Musalman in race." The spelling is, of course, uncertain. The Children's Kettledrum. By M. A. C. (Dean and Son.) This book occupies a curious half-way position between the very modern style of Crane and Co. and the illustrations of our own childhood. It combines, in some degree, the aesthetic effort of the one with the matter-of-fact plainness of the other. In brief, it is art labouring to express itself_through the medium of chromo-lithography. For our part, we are inclined to think that children that are children like this sort of thing best. Colour that is bright, but not gaudy; scenes that remind them of their actual life, rather than of their dreams; a surface they can finger, and a binding whose back they cannot at once breakall these are given them here. The rhymes accompanying the pictures are clever-in fact, so clever that they occasionally suggest to us a celebrated English poet. But they have too many long words, and are printed in a type that is scarcely legible. Among the Gibjigs: a Child's Romance. By Sydney Hodges. With numerous Illustrations be deterred from buying this by being told that by H. Petherick. (Remington.) Let no one it would never have been written if there had not been an Alice in Wonderland; nor let anyone judge it too hastily from the pictures. Despite a few faults of taste (such as giving the animals human heads instead of human The Cruise of the Walnut-Shell. Written and Illustrated by André. (Sampson Low.) The cruise is a daring fancy, full of fun; but if cannibals and gorillas do not haunt the Christmas dreams of others besides the Arthur and Elsie of the story it will not be the fault of these illustrations. Tea-time Tales for Young Little Folks and Young Old Folks. (Sonnenschein and Co.) By Richard Gustafsson. This volume of the Nations" is from the Swedish of Gustafsson, a "Illustrated Library of the Fairy Tales of all name already well known to the children of many lands. Although Gustafsson is scarcely likely to attain to such popularity as his Danish predecessor, the late Hans Christian Andersen, such collections of his tales as is the present will, doubtless, succeed in continually increasing his retinue of readers. The collection before us, comprising the two volumes of tales published as "Chit Chat by Puck," and "Roseleaves," is the translation of Mr. Albert Alberg, a foreigner, as appears from an occasional quaintness of diction. As a rule, these tales are more distinctly suitable for children than are Andersen's, whose volumes probably include as many grown-up as juvenile persons among their readers; nevertheless, a certain number of "young old folks" will derive pleasure from their perusal. That Gustafsson's tales have a more pronounced religious element than Andersen's have will be a recommendation to a large class of children's book buyers. Naturally, in a collection of this class, the stories are unequal in merit, but they are all suitable for children, and are unexceptional in tone. Here and there they remind one of something read elsewhere-as, for instance, in "The Boy who went to seek his Fortune," where not only the moral, which is that true fortune may be found at home, but other more salient points of resemblance recal one of Hawthorne's "Twice-Told Tales." The volume is a work for youth, while its excellence of paper, very readable and, at the same time, suitable binding, and the other technicalities of bibliography render it in all respects a most desirable gift book. Girls and their Ways. A Book for and about Girls. features), the world of fairy-land is skilfully (John Hogg.) It is no secret that girls prefer By One who Knows Them. described, and in a way that children can appre-books written for boys to those composed for ciate. Older people will like the introductory verses, and those to "General Jack." For ourselves, we are so little inclined to criticise that our chief complaint is that the continuation should be reserved for another volume. Indian Summer: Autumn Poems and Sketches, by L. Clarkson (Griffith and Farran), contains some really beautiful pictures of American autumn leaves on shaded backgrounds which greatly enhance their effect. The compiler says on the title-page, "To American poets only I am indebted for these verses, and to the woods of Maryland for the studies." The letterpress contains poems by Whittier, Bryant, Lowell, Longfellow, Joaquin Miller, Emerson, &c.; but the book will be best remembered by a wonderful study of Virginiancreeper in colour, and an illustration in black and white of faded beech-leaves. Snowdrops and Whisperings in the Wood. From the Swedish of Zach Topelius, by Albert Alberg. (W. H. Allen.) There is a great deal of freshness about these Swedish fairy tales. They are very imaginative, and occasionally rambling; but there is fine humour in some of the stories, as, for instance, in "Pikka Matti" and in "The Ambitious Birch ;" and the poetry of the pineforest, of the fishermen and the fiords, of the simple peasant lives and the simpler religion, will be a novelty to the children whose fairyland is for the most part made up of German and Danish scenery. their own sex, and the causes are not difficult to discover. Still, there is no reason why renewed attempts should not be made to supply them with an attractive literature of their own, such as the work before us purports to be a specimen of. It is an attempt to trace "the general characteristics of girlhood," and to show by precept and example what girls have been and should be in a manner at once amusing and instructive. In some of the chapters, it must be confessed, the author has well succeeded in the object proposed, especially so in the section devoted to amateur gardening; but that portion of the book entitled "The Girls' Library" is not altogether so satisfactory. The very voluminous catalogue of What to Read" would have been much more useful had the list been made less lengthy, and the comments more numerous, while the selection of the works, particularly in the historical section, is frequently open to animadmeritorious, and one that it will be thoroughly version. However, the volume is really safe to entrust to youthful readers; it is a Venture in a not over-crowded direction, and will, doubtless, become a popular gift book for girls. Stories of Young Adventurers. By Ascott R. Hope. (John Hogg.) If Mr. Hope have not broken new ground in this work he has certainly brought together a collection of thrilling narratives that will be new to the generation of than those ordinarily found in books of this The Cornet of Horse. By G. A. Henty. A Gem of an Aunt: a Story in Short Words. By Mary E. Gellie. (Griffith and Farran.) A delightful little book for very little children, which they can read to themselves as soon as they have mastered the rudiments of spelling. Little Loving-Heart's Poem-Book. By Margaret Elenora Tupper. (Griffith and Farran.) A book of poems and pictures, also for very little children. The poems are simple, but not very remarkable for their novelty; and the pictures are, many of them, old favourites. (Seeley and Co.) Another of Mrs. Marshall's Dorothy's Daughters. By Mrs. Marshall. healthy and harmless novelettes, full of vigorous good sense and pretty domestic incidents. readers for whom they have been compiled. Taking for his text the old dictum that "truth is stranger than fiction," he has gathered from various out-of-the-way corners a decade of stories of real life, and has compressed, expanded, or otherwise transformed them into a series of marvellous tales. That the whole of these narratives are to be accepted as fact is not necessary for their enjoyment, any more than one is compelled to agree with the deprecatory remarks Mr. Hope makes about current fiction for boys; it suffices that there is a substratum of truth both in the narratives and in their compiler's comments. That "adventures in real life generally mean getting into trouble more or less " is fully exemplified by the exploits of the young adventurers given in A Winter Nosegay: being Tales for Children at Christmas-tide. this volume, but that is not a circumstance (Sonnenschein and Co.) likely to deter lads from its perusal. For boys THE Society for Promoting Christian Know- We have here three stories, of which the first to read of boys getting "more kicks than half- ledge has at length seen the necessity for pre- and third betray a German parentage, especially pence "-more trial than triumph-is not senting its publications in more attractive bind- in their illustrations. The middle one, sandaltogether unprofitable; and for them to learn ings, and the covers of its newest books are deli-wiched in between, pleases us by far the most, what hardships these young adventurers (one cately tinted and aesthetically ornamented. and we fancy that it will also please children. being a girl, by-the-way) had to undergo may The paper covers of a set of shilling books just They never weary of dogs and cats. act, as Mr. Hope desires it should, as an anti-published are quite pretty. The series contains dote to the somewhat too glowing pictures at present Our Bob, a story of the rise and procontemporary fiction presents of "runaways'' gress of a waif; The Young Draytons, a spirited and "stowaways'" adventures. As a book for story of some young Australians who are lost in the bush; Under Palm and Pine, the advenboys, these Stories of Young Adventurers are certain to be popular, amounting as they do to tures of a young French sailor in New Zealand, nearly 400 pages of closely printed narratives which will delight boys; The Raven's Nest, a of "hair-breadth escapes by sea and land.” story of thrilling sea-coast adventure, somewhat tritely told; and Ned Lyttelton's Little One, which tells how a traveller found a little English boy on a Swiss mountain. Peter Trawl; or, the Adventures of a Whaler. By W. H. G. Kingston. (Hodder and Stoughton.) We had almost feared that it would be useless to hope that the present season would bring us another of the late Mr. Kingston's excellent stories, but, thanks to Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, boys will not miss their customary treat this Christmas-tide. The little volume before us opens with the hero's brother Jack's start in life as a sailor. By-and-by Peter himself also goes to sea, and, of course, meets with many thrilling adventures, including hair-breadth escapes from drowning. Among other matters, the story gives an account of how whales are captured and their oil extracted, and of the great perils to which whalers are liable. Brother Jack is lost sight of for some time, but eventually turns up towards the end of the book, and, as perhaps might have been expected, on a desert island. For the comfort of mothers who dread the coming of the sea-mania, we may mention that Mr. Kingston has here depicted the rough side of sea lite, and gives boys, on the whole, a grim picture of what is before them if bent on seeking adventures afloat. Given the name of its lamented and deservedly popular author, it is hardly necessary for us to say that Peter Trawl is a most interesting book, and the story a capital one for boys. King's Marden. By the Author of "Our Valley," &c. (S. P. C. K.) To those not accustomed to country life King's Marden may sound somewhat oddly as the name of a village, and town children may perhaps be puzzled at the author's explanation that it was one of a group of villages known as the Mardens. Yet within five-and-twenty miles of this great city we have an example of this peculiarity in the Rodings of Essex, near Dunmow and Ongar, where we meet with Aythorpe Roding, White Roding, Beauchamp Roding, and half-a-dozen others. King's Marden, as it treats of a country village, is not a particularly exciting story; indeed, boys might vote it tame. Twin sisters, daughters of a carpenter, are the heroines of the book, which tells the story of their lives. One is a mild maiden, and, as befits her temperament, settles down quietly without encountering trouble, while her sister goes through some vicissitudes, but eventually marries the schoolmaster. The story of village life is prettily told, and the few illustrations are rather better The A Boy's Ideal; or, the Story of a Great Life. By Frances E. Cooke. (Sonnenschein and Co.) The "great life" is that of Sir John More. His fortune and misfortunes, his education, his surroundings, his family, and his friends— all are very vividly brought before us. have here a study of character, no less than a study in history. Above all, we must commend the writer for her skill in choosing short words and short sentences without becoming childish.; We Only a Drop of Water, and other Stories. By (Sonnenschein and Co.) The influence of Hans Andersen is conspicuous in many of these stories-by which we intend a compliment rather than a reproach. The one entitled "From Hand to Hand" strikes us as both original and effective. "The Piper of Hamelin," again, is told in a Kingsleian vein. Annette Lyster Eric Stafford. White Gipsy, by (S. P. C. K.), is a larger book, and less good of its kind. There is a curious mixture of Gipsies and school-boys, with a railway accident and kidnapping. It is undoubtedly clever to have represented a boy's unwillingness to acknowledge a long-lost brother because he deprives him of certain cherished privileges, but we doubt THE November number of Aunt Judy's whether it is well for children to have the Magazine (David Bogue), which begins a new spontaneity of selfishness so strongly repre-series, has for frontispiece a very characteristic sented to them even with the subsequent victory. coloured plate by R. Caldecott. We also notice The book is a romance for children not alto-in it a pleasant little article by Miss Masson on gether of the healthiest type. Missy and Master, by M. Bramston (S. P. C. K.), is the experiences of a little waif, first in a circus and then in an industrial school. It is well told, and will be a popular reward book. Ambrose Oran; or, with the Buccaneers. By F. Scarlett Potter. (S. P. C. K.) An autobiographical story of adventure in Jamaica and Hispaniola in the stirring times towards the close of the seventeenth century. A book which will keep a boy quiet for an hour or two. Vanda, by Esmé Stuart (S. P. C. K.), is a novelette of a very ordinary description. The high-spirited school-girl who learns by experias a governess to be thankful for the honest love of a good man is not an uncommon character in fiction, and always seems interesting. ence Marcel's Duty: a Story of War Time, by Mary E. Palgrave (S. P. C. K.), is a pretty, if somewhat improbable, story of the FrancoPrussian War, in which a French orphan boy who has been brought up in England volunteers with an English friend, and survives almost miraculously to return to admiring friends. Miscellanies of Animal Life, by Elizabeth Spooner (S. P. C. K.), is an exceptionally pleasant collection of stories about animals for children which have been gathered from various sources. WE have received from the same society Carry's Christmas Gift, Mary Cloudsdale, Turned to Gold, and Ann Whitby's Trial, all of which are prettily bound and illustrated, and will find their vocation as reward books in schools. "Charles Lamb and his Sister." NOTES AND NEWS. Col. Rockwell, requesting him to make known WE are glad to notice that the name of Mr. Alexander Gibson has been sent up to the University Curators by the Faculty of Advocates as one of two candidates for the Chair of Constitutional Law and History at Edinburgh vacant by the resignation of Mr. E. J. G. Mackay. The other selected candidate is Mr. Kirkpatrick. MR. ROBERTSON SMITH, who was recently presented by his friends in Edinburgh with a collection of books and MSS. for the study of Biblical criticism to the value of £1,000, is now delivering a course of lectures on "Hebrew Poetry Ettles Trust. During the coming winter he will also lecture both at Edinburgh and Glasgow. at Inverness at the invitation of the DURING the last three years, the American poet Walt Whitman has explored the Rocky Mountains, the great plains, and the Canadian and St. Lawrence regions. His travels covered many thousand miles of territory-no light undertaking for a man in his sixty-third year. MESSRS. HOUGHTON AND CO. (of Birmingham) have in the press a biography of Card. Newman, by H. J. Jennings, author of Curiosities of Criticism. The work will contain a new cabinet photo portrait, for which the Cardinal has recently given a special sitting; also several other portraits, and a facsimile of the original MS. of "Lead, Kindly Light." The Cardinal, having seen the early proof-sheets of the work, pronounced the memoir to be written in a careful, conscientious, and impartial manner, at the same time thanking the publishers "for the interest in him which is shown in their proposing to publish a Life of him." MESSRS. LONGMANS AND CO. have in the press a work upon Primitive Belief, by Mr. C. F. Keary. The beliefs dealt with are those of the Vedic-Indians, the Graeco-Italicans, and the Teutons; and these are treated synthetically rather than analytically. MESSRS. W. SATCHELL AND CO. have nearly ready a collection of essays on Aesthetics, by Vernon Lee, partly reprinted from magazines, which will be issued under the title of Belcaro; and The Flying Dutchman, and other Poems, by E. M. Clerke. THEIR announcements also include, as usual, a number of books upon the literature and practice of fishing. Among these we may notice Dr. Samuel Gardiner's Book of Angling or Fishing (1606), reprinted from one of the only two copies known to exist, which may be described as a singular specimen of "angling spiritualised; a new and greatly enlarged edition of Thomas Westwood's Bibliotheca Piscatoria, edited by Mr. Thomas Satchell, who has had access to more than one library famous for its collection of angling literature; and a new series of the deservedly popular Angler's Note-Book, which will be issued in twelve monthly numbers. MR. J. HEYWOOD, of Manchester, is about to publish a little treatise aiming to prove that the English people are not Gentiles, and that outside nations (being Gentile) have neither part nor lot in that inheritance which is by the old covenant promised to the seed of Abraham only. This newest aspect of an old theological controversy is to be advanced by Mr. George Bullock, of Liverpool. title of The Church Worker, will be published A NEW penny monthly magazine, with the by the Church of England Sunday School Institute at the beginning of the New Year. The magazine is intended primarily for Sundayschool teachers, but it will also embrace topics of interest to church-workers generally. AMONG the announcements for The Century Magazine (late Scribner's) for the coming year, we notice "Russia of To-day," by Tourgénieff; a Life of Bewick, by Mr. Austin Dobson, with engravings from some of the original woodblocks; and "Living English Sculptors," by Mr. E. W. Gosse. To an early number, also, Mr. James Bryce, M.P., will contribute an article Lord Beaconsfield. upon By a strange oversight (which we hope that the context served to correct) we spoke of Bradford instead of Bradfield College, near Reading, as the school which has undertaken to perform the Alcestis of Euripides in the original Greek. We are now able to give some further particulars about the caste. Mr. F. R. Benson, the famous Clytemnestra of the Agamemnon, will take the part of Apollo: Mr. Courtney, of New, that of Hercules; Mr. Armstrong, of Queen's, an old Bradfield boy, that of an attendant; and the Rev. H. B. Gray, the headmaster, that of Admetus. The enterprise, it will be observed, promises to be something more than a mere school-boy performance. MR. HALL CAINE'S lectures on "c We are happy to announce that M. E. Joseph Prose Writers" continue to draw very large English Tardif, of the French Archives, is preparing an audiences to the Free Library, Liverpool. Lecedition of a Latin text of an ancient" Coustu-tures on Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Sterne, mier de Normandie," to which the late Comte Johnson, Goldsmith, Junius, and Burke have Beugnot assigned so early a date as 1180. already been delivered, and lectures on ColeThe MS. from which the text is derived is ridge, Southey, and De Quincey are announced. Manuscrit François F. 2 de la Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève. Sir Travers Twiss, in his Introduction to the third volume of Bracton's Commentaries, has called attention to the importance of this MS. as being co-eval with the treatise of Ranulphus de Glanville "De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Angliae," and as illustrating the close affinity between the legal institutions of England and of Normandy in the reign of Henry II. THE Scotsman draws attention to an interesting relic of Abbotsford, being the piano on which Sir Walter Scott's daughters, Anne and Sophia, received their first instruction in music. It is of the spinet form, with only thirty-six notes; and its date probably goes back to the middle of last century. It was given to an ancestor of its present owner by Scott himself as far back as 1817; and, after having suffered theological dissertation by Theophilus Lessing, the grandfather of the poet, dated 1669. In view of the political use that has recently been made of Nathan der Weise, on the occasion of the centenary of the poet's death, it is interesting to observe that his grandfather's dissertation is entitled "De tolerantia religionum." It has been translated, with notes, by Dr. C. Men sel, and has lately been published in full in the Vossische Zeitung of Berlin. du Christianisme," the Revue politique et litté UNDER the title of "Raisons de la Victoire raire for November 5 prints a chapter from M. Renan's book on Marcus Aurelius, which is on the eve of being published by the firm of Calmann Lévy. Louis Blanc will be published this month by A VOLUME of speeches (1848-80) by M. Germer Baillière in their "Bibliothèque historique et politique." THE two concluding volumes (iii. and iv.) of Jules Favre's speeches, including several papers left unpublished, have just been issued by Plon, of Paris. THE first volume of a Histoire de Charles VII., by M. de Beaucourt, is announced for the present month; it will cover the period from 1402 to 1423. PROF. ZUPITZA tells Mr. Furnivall that in his Browning Bibliography he has not done justice to the study of Mr. Browning in Germany, as witnessed by the existence of "A Selection from the Works of Mr. Robert Rrowning. With a Memoir of the Author and Explanatory Notes. For the Use of Schools and Private Tuition. Edited by F. H. Ahn, Ph.Dr. Leipzig: Ernst Fleischer, 1872." WE are glad to hear that M. Alfred Mezières' Contemporains et Successeurs de Shakspeare, which edition (Paris: Hachette). In his Preface, the first appeared in 1863, has now reached a third author says: "The Transactions of the New Shakspere Society and the Jahrbuch of the German Shakspere Society (1865-79), which I have scrupulously consulted during the past eighteen years, have supplied me with materials for several fresh investigations, without modifying the general character of my work." A CHARACTERISTIC letter from M. Zola appears in the Magazin für die Literatur des In- und Auslandes of November 5 : Vous me dites qu'il existe deux traductions de laquelle des deux j'ai autorisée. Ma réponse sera l'Assommoir en Allemagne, et vous me demandez THE second volume of The Kentish Garland the common vicissitudes of old furniture, it will simple: je n'ai autorisé ni l'une ni l'autre. Toutes edited by Miss De Vaynes (of which the first volume was reviewed in the ACADEMY of August 20) is two-thirds printed, and will probably be ready by the end of the year. We anticipate that it will be received with yet more favour than the first, for it is devoted to special localities in alphabetical order. MESSRS. KERBY AND ENDEAN will shortly publish a book entitled Fair Trade versus Free Trade; or, which System will best promote the Commercial and Financial Interests of Great Britain? It is written by a manufacturer, who feels confident that he has succeeded in shatter ing many of the common arguments on the subject. A New Illustrated Biblical Dictionary, specially suited to the requirements of Sunday-school teachers, to be issued at an exceptionally low price, is announced by Mr. Elliot Stock. A WORK on the History, Law, and Practice of Banking, principally intended for the banking profession, by Mr. Charles M. Collins, Barristerat-Law and Fellow of the Institute of Bankers, will be published by Messrs. J. Cornish and Sons, of Dublin, during the ensuing week, now be treasured as a relic. THE two distinguished Italian scholars Signors Giuseppe Pitrè and Salomone-Marino have undertaken a quarterly journal of folk-lore and the allied subjects, to be entitled Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni popolari. The articles will be in Italian or any other of the neo-Latin original matter will be published textually in languages at the pleasure of the author, and the the language or dialect in which it was taken down. Special attention will be paid to the bibliography of the subject. The first part will be issued on January 1, 1882, and the publishers are Messrs. Pedone-Lauriel, 358-60 Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Palermo. The subscription (including postage) is fixed at 14 frs. per annum. We are glad to see that the parts will be on sale separately-a boon which special journals on the Continent are somewhat too chary of granting to the literary public. CHANCE recently brought to light a curious document bearing upon the family history of Lessing. About two years ago a lady living at Bernstadt, a little town in East Saxony, sold for waste paper a large accumulation of old books and MSS. Among these was discovered a les propositions qui nous sont venues d'Allemagne, ont paru inacceptables à mon éditeur. Autant se laisser voler que de conclure des marchés dérisoires. 'Quant à maintenir nos droits à quoi bon? Nous perdrions. Les mieux est de rester volé et content. 66 'Médan." "EMILE ZOLA. THE new volume of the Universal History edited by M. V. Duruy, and published by the firm of Hachette, is entitled Histoire de l'Empire ottoman depuis les Origines jusqu'au Traité de Berlin, by the vicomte A. de la Jonquière, formerly Professor of History at Constantinople in the imperial military school of KumbarHané. The work is divided into the following chapters:-Islam and the Turks; Their Conquests; Their Apogee; Their Decline; Turkish Reforms; The Turkey of To-day. THE two next volumes of the series published by M. Maisonneuve, of Paris, under the title of "Les Littératures populaires de toutes les Nations," will be Contes égyptiens, by Prof. Maspero, and Légendes chrétiennes de la BasseBretagne, by M. Luzel. : We learn from the Revue critique that M. H.-D. de Grammont has published (Algiers Jourdan) a French translation, with notes, of the Epitome de los Reyes de Argel (Valladolid, 1612) by Haedo, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Fromesta, which is the only history by a European eye-witness of the events that took place in Algiers during the fifteenth century. PROF. A. H. SAYCE wishes the following correction to be made in his review of Delitzsch's book upon the site of Paradise, which appeared in last week's ACADEMY. On p. 349, col. 2, about half-way down, in the passage discussing the derivation of the tetragrammaton-for "from the personal pronoun read "from the Accadian I God." a MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS. Macmillan's Magazine for November has very interesting account by Mr. W. Gifford Palgrave of a pilgrimage to the "Phra-Bat," the shrine of the holy footprint of Buddha in Siam. Mr. E. B. Michell urges the claims of the almost forgotten sport of "falconry" to be again revived as a pastime. Mr. Egmont Hake writes an appreciative sketch of the strange life and eccentric character of "George Borrow." Prof. Masson contributes another to the wearisome number of Carlyle reminiscences, "Carlyle's Edinburgh Life." Prof. Seeley's address delivered before the Birmingham Historical Society is printed in full. It contains the pleas with which Prof. Seeley has already made us familiar for a scientific study of modern history; he suggests that historical societies, by becoming more political and less archaeological, might supply a public to which the scientific historian might address himself. Mr. Henry James's powerful story, "The Portrait of a Lady," comes to an end in this number. It is perhaps the best work, richest in character and in interest, that he has yet done; but it suffers from over-analysis; and we do not like Mr. James's trick of giving a long one-sided conversation, in which a number of scrappy remarks are crowded together to show us the nature of the speaker's mind. Moreover, there is no dénouement to the story; as Mr. James becomes more interested in his characters, he seems to care less what becomes of them. work of great labour, and will be of much By far the most generally interesting paper in the Antiquary for November (Elliot Stock) is the first, by Mr. S. R. Bird, on "Some Early Breach of Promise Cases." He has produced from the Chancery Records some proceedings in matrimonial causes which have a certain likeness to the actions at law which are now brought. Before the time of the Council of Trent a religious service was not necessary for the validity of a marriage in any country of the Roman obedience. If a man had married, not in the face of the Church, a woman and then deserted her, he would have been proceeded against in the ecclesiastical courts. cases Mr. Bird has produced relate to contracts only, not to clandestine marriages, we believe, though one of the cases which he quotes looks very suspiciously like it. The Rev. H. N. Ellacombe continues his notes on "Shakspere as an Angler." They will delight two widely different classes anglers and Shakspere students. We hope some day to see them enlarged, and published separately. Sir J. H. Ramsay contributes an elaborate and most thoughtful paper on the "Accounts of the Reign of Richard II." It must have been a The 4. Maiden moder makeles, 20 of milche ful ibunden! bid for us im bat be ches, At wam bu grace funde, bat be forgiue hus senne and wrake! (Arundel MS. 248, leaf 154.) The Latin original, from the same MS., follows : 1. Angelus ad uirginem, subintrans in conclaue, 2. 3. Auf der Höhe is the somewhat enigmatical title of a new monthly magazine, edited by Herr Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and published at Leipzig, of which the first number has just appeared. The enigma of the title is explained in the editor's introductory remarks-his magazine is to stand on the heights of Olympian impartiality-above all parties and cliques. Herr von Sacher-Masoch feels that German criticism is being ruined by a clique of Berlin mediocrities, against whom he sets up a new organ "of all the best and most culti-Ad hec, uirgo nobilis, respondens, inquit ei; vated minds of all nations and faiths, from "Ancilla sum humilis, omnipotentis dei; New York to Moscow, from Stockholm to tibi, celesti nuncio, tanti secreti conscio." Athens." After this preface, we are a little disappointed to find the contents of Auf der Höhe to be as respectable and dull as any Berlin clique could wish. The editor begins a novel in his wonted style, and the articles generally are such as might be expected. Two only deserve notice, one by the late Prof. Bluntschli on "Prisenrecht und Prisenrechtspflege," explaining the various proposals for the establishment of an international jurisdiction to decide on disputed questions of international law between naval belligerents. The other noteworthy article is by Herr Vogt, of Geneva, and deals with the limits of the testimony which can be given by the geological record upon the question of the origin of organic life. ment. THE most interesting article in the _Revista SCHILLER'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE October number of the Deutshe Rundschau The same archives have lately yielded some more treasures; and the two letters of which we publish translations are particularly interesting, the one as showing that Schiller had really promised to become a Danish citizen, the other as exhibiting the enlightened views of government which at that time were entertained by German princes. Prince Friedrich Christian of Schleswig-Holstein to to express to you my joy at your answer, and at Wishing with all my heart that your health may be soon fully restored, "I remain your truly devoted "FRIEDRICH CHRISTIAN, "PRINCE OF SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, "1 Jan. 1792." Prince Friedrich Christian to Schiller. "DEAREST HOFRATH,-Since I sent you my last letter, of which I do not know whether it has reached you, certain changes have been brought 15 about in the state of affairs in this country by an |