persecution, as well as the persistence characteristic of Highlanders, maintained these doctrines for centuries in their primitive purity. Indeed, all the generalizations which Mr. Smiles unfolds at the beginning of his work on the Vaudois seem to us superficial or erroneous. Thus, is it just or historically correct to represent the great and important development of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages as a simple corruption of Christianity and a return to Ancient Paganism? The first part of Mr. Smiles's volume is, as we have already remarked, much the better. It is a picturesque and sympathetic narrative of the vicissitudes experienced by the French Huguenots from the time when Louis the Fourteenth ordered, under the most severe penalties, their return to Catholicism, down to the time at which liberty of conscience was again allowed them and they were admitted to the enjoyment of all civil and political rights. It is a sad but heroic story. First the persecution, the dragonnades, the punishment of all the pastors who were sufficiently courageous to continue their ministry, the massacres of the faithful who dared to be present at religious assemblies, the long martyrdom of those who were crowded together in the king's galleys; then the revolt of the peasants of the Cevennes, the Camisards, and their desperate defiance during four years of all the efforts of the generals of Louis the Fourteenth. Mr. Smiles next relates by what miraculous perseverance and courage Antoine Court succeeded in reconstituting the Protestant congregations, shattered by persecution, and in organizing not only regular preaching in the Desert, but even periodical synods, and a complete administration of the Church. We need not follow the history of the struggle further. Suffice it to say, that Mr. Smiles has told the tale with real ability and an enthusiasm which will prove contagious. The best chapters in the book are, we think, that on Claude Brousson, the hero of the apostolate of the Desert, and that on the Camisards. His knowledge of the country which was the scene of the events he recounts has enabled our author to give to his narrative a strong air of reality, and he never indulges in declamation or exaggeration. If he says somewhere that Louis the Fourteenth employed 500,000 men in the dragonnades, it is, doubtless, a slip of the pen. Besides, Mr. Smiles has followed excellent guides: Élie Benoît and Jean Cavalier among contemporary authorities; MM. Charles and Athanase Coquerel, Peyrat and E. Hughes among recent writers. He has been the first to give a full picture of the whole of this period of the history of French Protestantism, and his picture is living and true. It is scarcely necessary to touch upon errors in matters of detail, such as "Viverais” (passim) for Vivarais, "Daniel de Cosmac" (pp. 37 and 39) for Cosnac, "Oberon" (p. 70) for Oloron, " Mendesse" (p. 125) for Merdanson, "Levaur" (p. 245) for Lavaur. These are, probably, printer's blunders. But it is incorrect to say that Fénelon was a Jansenist, for he was a Quietist, or that the town of Aigues Mortes was founded in the thirteenth century by Philippe le Hardi, for the town existed before the days of St. Louis, who embarked there for Africa. But these are trifles. We are more disposed to blame Mr. Smiles for the superficial and silly remarks on the eighteenth century, which fill his thirteenth chapter. It

would seem that while he has studied with care the special subject on which he writes he has but an indifferent acquaintance with the French history as a whole. For instance, he calls the reign of Louis the Fifteenth the epoch of Voltaire, Rousseau and Condorcet, although Condorcet was only born in 1743, and was just over thirty years of age when Louis the Fifteenth died. Further, he tells us that Alsace was united with France only in 1715 (p. 325). Even allowing that Mr. Smiles is here making an allusion to the treaty of Rastadt, he ought to have said 1714 and not 1715. The massacre of Toulouse, in 1562, did not take place on St. Bartholomew's Day, the 24th of August, but in the spring. The Dukes of Savoy were never styled Grand Dukes, although Mr. Smiles gives them the title (p. 380).

No doubt our author attaches little importance to these minutia. His main wish has been to enforce a lesson of heroism and virtue, and we have no doubt of the success of his efforts. Still we cannot agree with him when he represents French Protestantism as emerging victorious from its struggle against its oppressors. Mr. Smiles thinks it evident that Faith vanquishes all obstacles, that persecutors are mistaken in the work they undertake, that the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church. The history of the Huguenots appears to us to teach the contrary. It shows, no doubt, that Faith can work miracles, and that the persecuted in part disappointed the hopes of their butcher. But let us remember that the Protestants in France, in the six teenth century, could boast of five or six millions of adherents; that at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, after twenty years of oppression, they counted not more than three or four millions: that to-day, they do not exceed a million and a half. Let us remember that the heresy of the Albigenses and the Vandois once pervaded the whole of the South of France; that in the sixteenth century, it still reached to the junction of the Rhone and the Durance'; and that to-day, it is confined to a small corner of the Alps. It is then historically false that persecutions are useless, and turn to the profit of the persecuted. This is, to be sure, no reason for despair or feebleness. On the contrary, there is even a higher virtue in a sacrifice for a belief or an idea, when one can imagine that the sacrifice may remain fruitless and ineffectual.

RECENT VERSE.

The Disciples. By Harriet E. H. King.
Rome or Death! By Alfred Austin.
King & Co.)
wood & Son.)

A

Bassi, one of the most remarkable persons and noblest characters of this or perhaps any age, and one of whom far too little is known. story in verse, though it may take hold of the memory more than prose, is always open to the suspicion that the facts may have been a little modified to suit the exigencies of poetry; prose, too, gives greater facilities for reference to authorities. Nor, in truth, is Mrs. King's versification her strong point. More than once in reading her book we have been reminded of a remark we once heard touching a poem of Mr. Browning's. The subject was started "whether "Bishop Blougram's Apology' ought to have been written in verse -a question which one of the party present answered in the negative, adding "that it was very well as it was.' We will not be so rude as to apply a similar remark to 'The Disciples' as a whole; but when we meet scores of passages such as this,General Gorzhowski was Certainly not beloved in any part

Of the Romagna, over which he ruled; Least of all in Bologna, which had long Held out against him, and in which his name Was spoken but with curses. Yet he was, Though far from handsome, a distinguished man, -we are inclined to think that the same

criticism would not be wholly out of place. It is a dangerous experiment to try to put special correspondent's reports, interesting as they may be, and full of valuable information, into verse. Can it be that Mrs. King prepared herself for her task by a study of 'The Ring and the Book'? There is a ring about Cardinal Oppizzoni's allocution to the Bolognese, which is, to say the least, suspicious:

Such men as that are very few, thank God!
But all the more audacious in their acts
Of evil,-only too conspicuous by
Ecclesiastical habiliments.

Exciting general disparagement

Of all dominion, and, as says Saint Jude,
Blaspheming every majesty (the text,-
"Despise dominion, and speak evil of
Dignities").

The Scriptural quotation is unmistakable. It is a pity that Mrs. King has adopted this style, which is rather repellent at second-hand. She can write good verses, too, when she likes. The description of the capture of the Croats at Mestre is extremely spirited: there is a pretty picture of the road to Rome from the Abruzzi, and another of Palermo ; but these would have done as well by themselves, and a good account of Ugo Bassi and the work which he helped to do might have been written at no greater cost of time and trouble than Mrs. King must have spent on the poem.

HERE are three volumes of poetry, all good in their various degrees and ways, and illustrating very fairly the different objects with which people appear to set themselves to write verse. Mrs. King may be said practically to adopt the narrative style, and that only, seeing that out of the 315 pages of her book 267 are devoted to what is, in fact, a life of Ugo Bassi, Garibaldi's clerical aide-de-camp and warlike chaplain and one of Mazzini's most devoted "disciples." We are somewhat disposed to regret that Mrs. King has not given us a bona fide memoir of

of small faults we have no other to find.

Mr. Austin's subject is closely akin to Mrs. King's, for it is a subsequent episode in the progress of the cause for which Mazzini and his " disciples" strove, and for which some, like Bassi, laid down their lives. But there is this great difference: that whereas with Mrs. King the verse is merely the vehicle (and, as we have said, sometimes a halting vehicle) for what she has to tell, out of the fullness of her heart, about personages who all really lived, and some of whom live still, Mr. Austin, on the other hand, gives us an

impression (possibly unjust) that with him the main object was to write a poem, in neatly-turned" Whistlecraft" stanzas, and that his Italian sympathies and knowledge of the country suggested to him the campaign of Mentana as a good setting for his imaginary characters, and its events as a good foil to the love-story of the poem. There happens to be between the two books a small point of contact which serves well enough to show the cssential difference in the spirit with which the authors have respectively approached the subject. Both represent their characters as taking a text from the vine; but with Mrs. King, or rather with Ugo Bassi, the vine is the type of the self-sacrifice which "measures its life by loss instead of gain," while to Mr. Austin's hero, Godfrid (whom our readers may remember in 'Madonna's Child'), it only suggests how "softly swelling vows, Love's crowning gift, fed by its life-blood, peep through each green rift." Mr. Austin's verse, no doubt, flows more smoothly than Mrs. King's, and he, too, has his fine passages; but the metre which he has chosen is not suited for the description of deep passion and deeds of arms; that unlucky rhyme at the end of the stanza always has a kind of burlesque suggestion about it, which not even the genius of an Ariosto or a Byron can thoroughly get rid of.

We must, however, in fairness, defer any detailed criticism of Mr. Austin until the work, of which he has chosen to publish detached fragments, is complete.

Mr. Gosse takes us into a very different world. "Non hæc jocosa conveniunt lyræ," and instead of the stern realities of the struggle for Italian unity, we have poems inspired by the spirit of the Italian renaissance, as interpreted by its latest prophets in this country. We are careful to add the last clause, for we doubt how far the sturdy pagans of that epoch would recognize, would appreciate, the "fruitless blossoms epicene," and other sweetmeats (as the old sign has it) upon which their modern disciples love to muse. However, Mr. Gosse's verses are extremely pretty, though he should not write about "citoles" and "bizzare desires," or head poems with "Illicet," unless, indeed, the last word be Norwegian, in which case we apologize; but it has a suspicious resemblance to the title of one of Mr. Swinburne's poems. Mr. Swinburne, however, spells it rightly. Mr. Gosse is known to be a lover of Norway, and one of his best poems is that called 'Sunshine before Sunrise'; though even in the robust air of the north, he cannot get rid of "clinging hands." The poem immediately before this, ending "I wooed her with a marigold," rather suggests the Marchese Gumpelino and his tulip.

The Early History of Woodstock Manor and its Environs, in Bladon, Hensington, New Woodstock, Blenheim. With later Notices. By Edward Marshall, M.A. (Parker.) MANY, and almost all glorious, are the memories which cluster around sunny Woodstock. Centuries before the old Manor-House existed, the Roman villa which previously occupied the site was, no doubt, a centre of active life. Saxon kings held council there. The curfew, still rung, sounds like the echo of the voices of the Normans. The King, who loved |

the deer better than the people, took delight in the forest, and the park was the first in England which was surrounded by a stone wall. Probably the first Zoological Gardens in England were established by the royal Norman at Woodstock, although there was no admission for the common people, nor anything like the cheap Mondays at the "Zoo." It was in this park that Blovet, Bishop of Lincoln, riding with King Henry (1123), fell from his horse, as the Bishop of Winchester did the other day, and straightway died of the accident. Then sweep by Queen Eleanor and that "fair Rosamond" about whom legend has been so busy.

Memories of a sterner kind belong to Woodstock. It was there that Henry and Becket had their first quarrel, when the priest told the King, "for land of mine, no payment shall be made of the Church's right, not one penny!" It was from the door of the chace at Woodstock that Becket was turned away when he subsequently sought an interview when he subsequently sought an interview with the King. One of the gayest of seasons there was in 1256, when Alexander the Third of Scotland brought his wife, Margaret, to visit her father, Henry the Third. The royal visitors had something more in view than dancing and banquetting. They came, it was said, to consider the manners and customs of the English, their churches, castles, and cities, rivers and meadows, woods and fields, "which among the delights of the kingdom are most to be admired." There is no such record of the sojourn of this King and Queen at Woodstock as there is of Queen Philippa's residence, which is still notified in "the Queen's Pool." But queens residing, and little princes and princesses being born at Woodstock, are of less interest than other facts, such as that Thomas Chaucer, in 1411, had a grant of the farm of the Manor of Woodstock; but as to its being "very commonly supposed" that Chaucer was "by most probability born at Woodstock," we protest against such an hypothesis on behalf of London. Mr. Marshall might have spared himself the trouble of going through the evidence, as Chaucer himself has said that London was dear to him, "as every kindly creature hath full appetite to that place of his kindly engendrure and to wilne rest and peace in that stede to abyde."

There was a way of converting Jews in the olden time which, happily, does not now prevail. It is illustrated by the case of a father and two sons, who, coming over to Christianity, took the names of Henry, Martin, and Peter Woodstock. The King (Henry the Fourth) took them all for his adopted sons or godsons, and allotted them three halfpence a day each, "to be received at the Hospital of the Converts." A decent income to be acquired by conversion does not, however, seem to have influenced the Jews in England generally.

Woodstock had fallen from its old state when Elizabeth was detained there. She had only "fower chambers, hanged with the queen's stuff and hir grace's own"; and there were only three doors that could be locked and barred, "to the greate disquiet and troble off mynde off the persons commanded to attende upon hir grace in so large an house and unacqueynted countraye." It was here that Elizabeth, hearing a milkmaid gaily singing, wished herself to be a milkmaid,

saying that "hir case was better and life more merrier than was hirs in that state as she was." she was." Queen Elizabeth's Island, in the lake, is a fanciful memorial of that lady's residence here. "It is, in fact, part of the ancient causeway leading to the Manor House." This house can never have been a healthy place of residence: it was damp, from being built over springs; and when James the First and his Queen were there, Cecil angrily described the place as "unsavoury, for there is no savour but of cows and pigs." It was "uneaseful" too, for only the royal comfort was cared for. One of the incidents of the royal residence was the acting of the comedy of "Technogamia,' by the wits of Oxford, before the Court, one Sunday in August. James had had more than enough of it at the end of the second act. It was too grave for him, it was too learned for the auditory; and the gravity and learning were not improved by the actors having, 66 as some have said taken too much wine before they began."

Woodstock ceased to be a royal manor when it was conferred on the Duke of Marlborough. In 1715 the new palace, named after Blenheim, was completed; and eight years later the old Manor-House was pulled down, and the site levelled. The secret history of the building of Blenheim is as good as a play, of which the most comical scene is that of Vanbrugh's arrival at Woodstock, "when he was expressly prevented from entering Blenheim by order of the Duchess of Marlborough, and remained for two nights at the inn." Mr. Marshall chronicles the principal events which have occurred at Blenheim from the above period down to the present time, from royal visits to duly-licensed cock-fighting, not omitting the polished steel and the gloves for which Woodstock was once distinguished, nor the coaches between that place and London. There was not a better bit of road, nor better built coaches, nor more thorough-bred horses, nor more accomplished whips, in any part of the kingdom. The portrait of "Charles Holmes, driver of the Blenheim," engraved and framed, used to be looked at by aspiring stable-boys with a sigh of apprehension that, do what they might, such greatness would never be their lot! Mr. Marshall has not failed to record the visit of Louis the Eighteenth (with a group of French noblemen) to Blenheim in 1809. "The Duke of Marlborough appears to have been absent, and the guide to have behaved with so little courtesy to the exiled King as to have been rebuked by a casual visitor." This reminds us of another visit which Mr. Marshall has not recorded, and which shows that the Blenheim "guides" had high example for their lack of courtesy. The incident will serve Mr. Marshall for his second edition. After Nelson had been made a D.C.L. at Oxford, he, with the Hamiltons and a party of relatives, visited Blenheim. The Duke was at home, but, not having been ever introduced to the hero, he declined to receive him and his party, but he sent them out something to eat! Nelson touched no food and paid no fee; but he turned away with calm contempt from the only house in England where he could be treated in a churlish spirit.

We have said enough, perhaps, to show that the history of Woodstock is full of interest. It only remains for us to add that it is told in

an interesting way by Mr. Marshall. His book is a composite book, but it is well put together. His materials have been gathered from sources wide apart, and he has so arranged them as to make an attractive story of Woodstock Manor and its Environs.

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

Phineas Redux. By Anthony Trollope. 2 vols.
(Chapman & Hall.)
The Gilded Age. By Mark Twain and Charles
Warner. 3 vols. (Routledge & Sons.)
Lord Harry Bellair. By the Author of 'Mary
Powell.' 2 vols. (Bentley & Sons.)
Lady Moretoun's Daughter By Mrs. Eiloart.
3 vols. (H. S. King & Co.)

It is not easy to say anything new of Mr. Anthony Trollope. He has been so long before the world, his success in his degree is so thoroughly acknowledged, his list of characters so thoroughly well known, that when we have said 'Phineas Redux' is a good specimen of his manner, all novel-readers will know what they have to expect. If there is little to stimulate the imagination, or suggest topics for reflection in the book, there is abundance of the light kind of intellectual gratification which may be drawn from seeing life-like portraits of common-place people. All accurate work is satisfactory to some extent, and this kind of ingenuity commands appreciation, which is totally distinct from sympathy with the objects illustrated. Phineas Finn, for instance, if we judge him by these volumes alone, is eminently natural, and singularly unlike a hero. He has a certain amount of good feeling about him, and enough principle to keep him from any thing obviously base, but not enough to prevent political vacillation, or to hinder him from shilly-shallying with the affections of the wretched Laura Kennedy. Apart from the fictitious halo thrown around him by being unjustly suspected of murder, and such interest as may attach to him as a poor man striving to live by his politics, there is nothing whatever to prepossess any one in his favour, or to account for the adoration with which he is regarded by the soft-hearted, though roughspoken, coterie of fine ladies which surrounds him. Nor are these friendly dames more ideal in their proportions. Lady Glencora, now Duchess of Omnium, is a hearty, bustling woman, who had she not been a social magnate, would have made an admirable innkeeper; of Madame Max we see really but little, though the little we see is to her credit. The only woman capable of passion is the ill-requited Lady Laura, whose double wrong inflicted on her husband is punished almost too severely by the man she loves. The absence of romance is less fatal to a man than to a woman, and, as usual, we are better pleased with the men in Mr. Trollope's tale. Lord Chiltern, as a M.F.H., is distinctly good; and his impatience of Gerard Maule, and enthusiastic support of Phineas in his time of trouble, are traits of uncivilized manliness which are highly refreshing. Our old friend Chaffanbrass, too, who, in the murder case before adverted to, has ample play for the exercise of his well-known powers, shows in his old age that behind the stains and callosities of his professional panoply there are concealed springs of human kindness which we did not hitherto suspect. The rest of the troupe, pe

dants, dandies, and statesmen, are as life-like and as depressing as usual. Lord Fawn, who is put through the mill by Mr. Chaffanbrass at the trial, receives an amount of buffeting and humiliation which we should think would at last prove fatal, in spite of the known vitality of political men. Mr. Kennedy, the insane laird of "Lough" Linter, as our author persists in spelling it, is a more tragic conception than Mr. Trollope generally affects. He has hit in the character the dull persistency of the madman; and by those who can see nothing in Scotch nature but a compound of pride and meanness, it will be probably regarded as a national type. Perhaps the strongest part of the book is the political satire which describes Mr. Daubeny as announcing the disestablishment of the Church of England, and the confusion which the measured utterance produces among friends and foes. All this is extremely amusing; and though Mr. Trollope, to our thinking, exaggerates the appetite of our public men for place, he hardly caricatures the limp fatalism of most party politicians, or the degree to which in political matters persistent assertion takes the place of argument.

In spite of the authors' assurance that they "do not expect that the critic will read the book before writing a review of it," we beg to inform them that we have read 'The Gilded Age' through with a fair amount of attention. Nor do we see any reason for their further remark, that they "do not expect the reviewer of the book will say that he has not read it." For we are by no means sure that such an avowal would in any way detract from the value of the criticism, or that a friend of ours is not right, who says that, looking to the advantages in criticism of a perfectly unbiassed mind, he has long ago given up the practice of reading a book before reviewing it, as detrimental to that impartiality which he wishes to preserve. So it is not without a sense of being weak-minded that we confess to having read The Gilded Age.' The first point which strikes us with regard to it is that the authors have made the mistake of introducing far too many characters. From the opening scene, where all the male population of Obedstown, East Tennessee, meet and discuss things in general, and spit at a dead bumble-bee, to the third volume, with its "lobbying," and speculation, and trial for murder, we seem to be always in a crowd of shifting figures, out of which we can with difficulty extricate the chief personages of the story. There are, in fact, materials in this one book for several novels. It may be that the intention of the authors was to give us some idea of the breathless bustle of "the Gilded Age," but they have done it in a somewhat inartistic way. Nor do we quite like the spirit which brings to light all the "linge sale" of American speculation for the benefit of foreign readers. It is true that the book appears to have been already published in America; but it might as well have been left to find its way to England, if its literary merits were sufficient to bear it across the Atlantic. As might be expected in a book in which "Mark Twain" had a share, there are plenty of funny things in The Gilded Age,' though, as might, perhaps, also be expected, the fun is now and again a little overdone. The negro's prayer at the sight of a steamboat verges on

the profane, and the spitting joke is made rather too much of. What, too, is the meaning of the extraordinary fancy of heading the chapters with mottoes drawn from almost every language under the sun? Unless the authors are very Mezzofanti, they must have taken most of them on trust, which is more than we, judging from the wildness with which Greek, on the few occasions when it occurs, is accentuated, should be inclined for our part to do. Indeed, we cannot consider them thorough masters of their own language as long as they continue to use such words as "illy" for "ill," or “ something was transpiring at his feet."

There are one or

two odd little points of American etiquette mentioned in the course of the story, as, for example, that it is considered the mark of a parvenue and a sign of low-breeding for a lady to say that she is "not at home" ; also that P.P.C. is understood to stand for "Pay Parting Call." The illustrations are very poor, and the artist does not even attend to the text. Else why, in p. 212 of vol. i., do we read, "He grasped the handle with his right hand," and see a picture of a bearded ruffian drinking out of a jug which he holds in his left? We think it just possible that the authors, one or both, may have it in them to produce a story which we may read without fatigue, and without constant jars to our taste, while it shall have no lack of humour; but we cannot say that in 'The Gilded Age' they have reached this desirable consummation.

"More matter, with less art," would be the suggestion we should make to the author of 'Lord Harry Bellair.' It purports to be a tale of the last century, and something of the manner of speaking and writing at that time has been successfully caught; but there is so little incident, and the characters are so simple, that one wonders what was the motive of its production. Lord Harry Bellair is an aged fine gentleman, who solaces his last days by indulging in a sentimental intimacy with two young ladies, who reside with their father in the solitary old bachelor's neighbourhood, and find their principal amusement in his hospitality and conversation. The latter, we are informed, is extremely witty and refined; and the former is dispensed with the ceremonious courtesy of the day. The only check this innocent attachment meets with arises from the fact that when the two young ladies go abroad, the elder of them falls in love with one Col. Dalmayne, who soon proposes for her hand. On their return to England this gentleman objects to Mary's intimacy with her old friend Bellair, who falls at this time into his last sickness. She conceives that she is bound in common gratitude to visit him. Dalmayne takes umbrage, and embarks on foreign service. It seems at one time doubtful whether he will renew his suit; but on his return his aged rival is no more, and the gentle creatures are happily united. Two other love stories, little more exciting, are included in the tale. One records the marriage of an excellent clergyman with a lady of rank, another the disappointment of a merchant of high character, who finds a successful rival in a gentleman of none. Also an old lady, Miss Flambeau, is described, whose occupation is tapping with her thimble on the windowpane, to remind truant errand-boys of their

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A CONCEIT.

O TOUCH that rosebud ! it will bloomMy lady fair!

A passionate red in dim green gloom, A joy, a splendour, a perfume

That sleeps in air.

You touched my heart: it gave a thrill
Just like a rose

That opens at a lady's will:
Its bloom is always yours, until

You bid it close.

MORTIMER COLLINS.

THE FOOD JOURNAL.

I WISH to bring before your notice a singular journalistic arrangement. A few days ago I ordered the Food Journal from its commencement to the present date, and, preparatory to more careful perusal, I skimmed over the titles of the contents of each month's issue.

Being very much struck with the similarity of titles and subjects, I was induced to compare notes a little more closely, and the result of my examination was that I found, in July, August, September, October, and November of the present year, the articles which I have tabulated, and which appeared, word for word, in previous months:

Number for
July, 1873. 'Platter versus Tan-
kard.'
July, 1878. Misuse of Meat.'

Aug. 1873. Vegetables Better

than Nothing.' A. D. S. Sept., 1873. Food Supplies and Irrigation.' F. C. D.

Sept. 1873. How to Eat and
Digest.' E. A. S.
Ang., 1873. 'Ice.' E. W.
Oct., 1873. Household Eco-
nomy.' H. C.

Number for
April, 1870. Platter v. Tan-
kard.' T. W. N.
Mar., 1870. Misuse of Meat.'
E. Carton Booth.
May, 1870. 'Vegetables Better

Now here are twelve articles, for all of which I, as a reader, have been obliged to pay twice. I very much question whether the writers of the articles have been paid in the same ratio; but I do protest, particularly in the name of those who are seeking information on special subjects, against being served up with stale réchauffés. So many people are strongly interested in getting the latest and most precise information on the food question, that a journal which professes to supply this and does not is a public nuisance instead of a benefit. G. P. B.

PARLIAMENTARY CUSTOMS.

IN the last number of the Athenæum, there is a review of Walpole's 'Life of Spencer Perceval.' The reviewer, in his remarks upon Whitbread's vote of censure upon Lord Melville, has made a slight mistake, which I shall be glad if you will allow me to correct. Mr. Walpole, too, I see has blundered in his criticism of the Speaker's conduct, and ought to be set right. Let me shortly tell the story of the vote of censure. On the 5th of April, 1805, Mr. Whitbread, in a long preamble, charged Lord Melville with malversation when he was Treasurer of the Navy, and then formally moved a severe vote of censure. Mr. Pitt met his motion with the previous question, i. e., he moved that the question be not put. "We have not information enough," &c. On this question, put in this form by the Speaker, "That the question be now put," there was a tie; whereupon Mr. Speaker gave his casting vote against Mr. Pitt, i. e., he voted that the motion proposed by Mr. Whitbread be now put, and, after the manner of Speakers in such cases, gave a reason for his vote. "I think," he said, after some little preambling, the original question is now fit to be submitted to the judgment of the House." Mr. Pitt alleged that the question was not fit, &c. Mr. Speaker thought it was, and voted accordingly.

Now for Mr. Walpole's criticism. "No historian," he says, as far as I am aware, has ever criticized this vote of the Speaker; but it seems clear that it was wrong. It is the Speaker's duty, in case of a tie, to give a vote which shall allow the question to be raised again. The Speaker, therefore, on this ground, should have voted for the previous question," i. e., should have voted that the question be not put. But if he had done this, how could the question have been raised again? If Pitt's motion had been carried there would have been an end of the whole business.

Now for your reviewer. He says that Mr. Speaker gave his casting vote against the Government and for Mr. Whitbread's motion. Mr. Speaker did not do this. He voted that Mr. Whitbread's motion be now put. On the main question, to wit, Mr. Whitbread's vote of censure, there was no voting. It was carried without a division. I am not surprised that your reviewer made the mistake. In two biographical dictionaries which I have consulted there is the same error; and more curious than this, Manning, in his 'Lives of the Speakers,' blunders in the same way. Again, your reviewer says, in reply to Walpole's criticism, "The Speaker's duty can be only described by saying that he should give the vote which he thinks right"; and further, "we know not where Mr. Walpole has found authority for his than Nothing. Adolphe exposition of the Speaker's duty." To this I answer, there is no order of the House upon the subject, but there is custom strong as law. But on this question, hear what May says, in his 'Practice of Parliament,' page 343, sixth edition: "In the performance of his duty (giving a casting vote) he (Mr. Speaker) is at liberty to vote according to his conscience, like any other Member, without assigning a reason; but in order to avoid the least imputation on his impartiality, it is usual" [it is the invariable practice, I should say] "for him, when practicable, to vote in such a manner as not to make the decision of the House final." Here is a case in point. On the third reading of "The Test Abolition (Oxford) Bill," 1st of July, 1864, the numbers were equal. Mr. Speaker gave his casting vote for the Bill, on the ground that the House, on

Smith.

and

Nov., 1871. 'Irrigation
Food Supplies.' F. C.
Danvers.
July, 1870. 'How to Eat and

Digest.' E. A. Shuldham. July, 1870. 'Ice.' E. Wade. Mar., 1872. 'Schooling in its Bearing on Household Work.' Hyde Clarke. Oct., 1873. 'Farinaceous Food.' June, 1870. Our Farinaceous Food Supplies.' J. Montgomery.

J. M.

Oct., 1873. Hints respecting
Diet.' E. Y. N.

Nov., 1873. Useful Properties
of Sunflowers.' G. F. P.
Nov., 1873. Citron Fruits.' J.
R. J.
Nov., 1873. 'How Fish is
Wasted.' W. M.

E.

Y.

Jan., 1872. 'Some Errors respecting Diet.' Naylor. Dec., 1871. A Word for Sunflowers.' G. F. P. April, 1872. Oranges and Lemons. J. R. Jackson. May, 1870. Waste of Fish Food.' Wm. Moore.

the final question that "the Bill do pass," "would have another opportunity of deciding upon the merits of the Bill." After some debating upon the last stage, the question was put and negatived by a majority of two. W. W.

MR. MORIER EVANS.

MR. DAVID MORIER EVANS, whose death took place on the 1st of January, at the age of fifty-four, was the son of Joshua Lloyd Evans, formerly of Haniddon, Montgomeryshire, and born in London in 1819. Mr. Evans became connected with the London press at sixteen years of age, and served under Mr. Alsager, City editor of the Times, for some years. At his death, Mr. Evans became assistant City editor to Mr. Sampson, of the Times, and in that capacity acquired a reputation in the best financial circles accorded to few men. In 1857 Mr. Evans associated himself with the present proprietor of the Standard, as manager and City editor; and his ability and industry, as well as his high character in the City, contributed greatly to the success of that journal. In 1872 he withdrew from the Standard, and last year founded the Hour newspaper. Unhappily, a malady from which he had long been suffering rapidly developed itself under the responsibilities of his new enterprise, and mind and body alike gave way under the trial. Mr. Evans was followed to the grave by a large number of friends and associates, and his loss has been severely felt. For many years in a position of authority on the Press, he had always a kind heart and an open purse for all comers. Mr. Evans was the author of several works of interest-'The Commercial Crisis of 1847-1848,' 'City Men and City Manners, Facts, Failures, and Frauds,' &c. He was also the editor and part proprietor of the Bankers' Magazine, the Bankers' Almanac, and the Bullionist.

COPYRIGHT IN TITLES.

6, Old Jewry, London.

THE letter of "A Novelist," in your impression of the 20th ult., suggests (incidentally) a matter upon which considerable misunderstanding exists, and perhaps an explanation on the point may be useful to some of your readers.

I refer to that part of your Correspondent's letter in which he speaks of going to Stationers' Hall "to register the title of a new novel."

There appears to be a very general impression that by so registering a title protection is afforded against its use by other persons.

This is not so. The title would be as usefully registered at the Bill of Sale Office, or at the Patent Office, or at Doctors' Commons, and the registration has absolutely no effect whatever. Why the authorities at Stationers' Hall allow it might be a matter of surprise, if it were not remembered that a fee has to be paid for the privilege of making the entry.

Reference to the Copyright Act will at once show why registering the title before publication of the book itself can be of no effect, for the Act deals exclusively with the registration of books at or after publication. The registration form contains a column for the date of first publication, which must be filled up so exactly that the Courts have held that the omission of the day of the month (where the month and year are stated) renders the registration invalid.

But it may be asked, on what principle then have the many cases been decided in which the use of an existing title has been prohibited ?

Not on that of copyright at all, but of "trade mark," on the same principle as that on which the Court of Chancery proceeds when it forbids the "Bull's head" on mustard not made use of, say, a by the persons who originated and used that mark to distinguish their own productions, that principle being that no one shall be allowed to mark his goods with marks similar to those already in use by other producers, and by which their productions are known, so that purchasers are misled into buying goods of one make when they intended to buy those of another.