was passed in a series of intrigues, the success of which would have resulted in the restoration of the political power of the Papacy in Britain, and that the mere fact of her living was a standing menace to the existence of the reformed religion, to the stability of the established government, and to the safety of the Queen of England.

M. Petit concludes his work with three dissertations on Rizzio; the relations of Mary with Darnley and Bothwell; and on the Babington Conspiracy; in the second of which he enters into an able critical examination of the authenticity of the celebrated casket letters.

The strong bias in favour of spiritual and temporal absolutism evinced throughout this work cannot fail to offend a great number of readers, and to weaken in their minds the effect of the arguments of the author. Those who have already made the innocence of Mary an article of faith will find here all the existing arguments in support of their views carefully arranged for their convenience. Those, however, who take sufficient interest in the question to desire to form an independent opinion for themselves will still be obliged to search for it in the original sources of information, and in doing so they will have to wade through a sea of iniquity on which as yet the light has not been fully thrown. It is possible that, if they persevere, they may arrive at conclusions similar on many points to the author's, but it will be by an entirely different chain of reasoning.

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

(Samuel

Palmitos. By the Viscount de Figanière.
3 vols. (Newby.).
Tower Hallowdeane. 2 vols.
Tinsley.)
Not to be Broken. By W. A. Chandler.
(Same publisher.)
Colonel Dacre. By the Author of 'Caste.'
3 vols. (Hurst & Blackett.)
Kate Savage. By D. M. Ford. 3 vols.
(Charing Cross Publishing Company.)
That Little Frenchman. By the Author of
'Ship Ahoy.' 3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)
'PALMITOS' is interesting, if only as intro-
ducing us to what we suspect English people
know very little about, country life in the
empire of Brazil. The author appears from
his name to be a Frenchman by origin, and
one or two little peculiarities in his English
(especially the use of "effectively" in the
sense of the French effectivement, which
sometimes has a ludicrous result) would point
to the same conclusion. But in reality, it
would seem he is one of those cosmopolitan
people who see the cities of many men, and
know their minds, and who now and again
give others the benefit of their experiences.
In the present instance, the author certainly
introduces us to a new and curious state
of things. We do not mean with regard to
the scenery, for with that, of course, we have
had a general acquaintance since the days when
we read Westward Ho!' to say nothing of
what we have got from books of travel, from
Hakluyt to Humboldt; but the state of
society must be something startling to
a European. Not only does slavery of the
most patriarchal kind appear to flourish, but
there is a caste practically below the level even

tyles at large in the forests of South America? If it be really so, and the Viscount de Figanière will tell us where to find them, we should be more than consoled for our disappointment about the Dodo.

"Tower Hallowdeane,' as we gather from an apologetic Preface, partly from the intrinsic evidence of the book, is the production of an illiterate person, who combines with a remarkable want of moral perspective a fatal gift of fluent verbiage. This is how he delivers himself :—

"I have heard you say that the Devil tempts us often in our sleep, and ever untiringly in the hours of day,-now with some trifling charm, as spectral thin as a dew-rack; now with a charm of might and violence, like a shouting wave, as it were; and now with a pleasant, calm, deceitful charm, like a soft, silver-oozing tide; now with a loved, and now with a dreaded sin. I have heard you say that the keenest-glanced good man, who sentinels his spirit, cannot mete aright its weakstained with human frailty, even as a column-crest, ness and poor worth; that the loftiest soul is sphered in heaven, will have dust of the earth upon it. I have heard you say how marvellous is the speed of sin's encroachments; that fierce flames are limping laggards in comparison; that earth has no refuge-place from it; that companionship disjoints our self-reviewings, and that solitude is the reverse of shallow pride; that it lodges within the wealthy man's spiked wall, as well as within the penitentiary, and rides with the smiling countess caravan marked "Crime," which plies the slope Despair; that it gives to gold a more magical, sad influence, than ever child attached to midnight ghost; that it gives to sparkle-coated pleasure a serpent's tragic power; that it turns feverous drink to a fiend of Hell, love to lust, philosophy to wild, base thoughts, thick and active as spraydrops round a rapid-cutting frigate's prow; that it dips a Judas finger with us into the simplest homely dish.' Hoarscote faced her suddenly. Enough, Kate,' he said."

of the negro slaves, namely, the Colomos or
Portuguese immigrants, who, though nominally
free, are yet so bound to their masters by
necessary debts, which more than cover their
nominal wages, that they are as completely
held, body and soul, as any negro, and who
seem to be regarded by native Brazilians as
the meanest of "mean whites"; so much so,
that a patriotic Brazilian would rather marry
his daughter to a pardo or quadroon, provided
he were a Brazilian born, than to an immi-
grant from the mother country. Then there
is yet another class, the Capangas, or half-
breeds between Indian and negro, who, from
our author's description, would appear to com-
bine all the worst qualities of both races. The
estates appear to be immense, and the wealth
of the wealthy people enormous in proportion.
The ordinary unit of calculation, in this book
at least, is the conto, about 1107., which gam-
blers seem to stake as freely as a betting-man
in this country lays his "fiver," and the
grandfather of the heroine dies worth more
than two millions. Again, Senhor Serpa, the
good rich man of the story, a kind of benevo-
lent Monte Cristo, builds a castle and church
on the model of similar buildings in Portugal,
having had all the stones hewn there, and
transported across the Atlantic; and mention
is made of a gentleman in Rio who is build-in her fur-rugged chariot, as well as in the awful
ing a marble palace in the same fashion.
Even allowing for a large percentage of
romance in the descriptions, we get an idea of
a wealth of which we had no conception. The
story generally is something of the Mayne Reid
kind. There are hair-breadth escapes, adven-
tures with snakes and Indians, and after many
slips between cup and lip, all ends right,—the
hero's elder brother dies, and he is transformed
from a book-keeper to a grandee of Portugal
(if there is such a thing), finds a diamond
which he had lost, marries the heroine, and
lives happily, &c. Virtue is rewarded and vice
punished in the most thoroughly satisfactory
way. We think the author is a little too fond
of the horrible the account of the men who
are eaten alive by the Indians may be called
sensations of a man who is being smothered to
disgusting; and the graphic description of the
death, though rather powerful, is not much less
unpleasant. Then he makes little slips in his
natural history, as when he calls the Capibaras
a kind of swine-a mistake which a visit to
the Zoological Gardens and one sight of their
rabbit mouths might correct; or, again, when
he confounds the Magellanic clouds with the
so-called "coal-sacks" of the southern hemi-
sphere. We do not know either whether any-
thing is gained by making Portuguese-speaking
negroes talk broken English of the Moore-and-
Burgess style. As to the author's own errors
in his adopted language, of which we have
already spoken, we will only say that "yeld"
(for "eld"), and "pick-nic," are odd words,
and "dar'sn't," the oddest formation we have
dar'sn't," the oddest formation we have
seen for a long time. Still, after its fashion,
the book is decidedly entertaining, and may be
found worth reading as an alternative by any
one who, having grown tired of feelings and
emotions and elaborate analysis of them, wishes
for an exciting tale of adventure, and a good
plain love-story of the old-fashioned sort. We
would add, before we end, that we should like
very much to know what the mysterious crea-
ture was which appears at the end of the second
volume. Surely there cannot still be Pterodac-

Mr. Hoarscote Hallowdeane was certainly justified in interrupting so remarkable a flow of talk, but scarcely in knocking the lady on the head and burning down the house to prevent its repetition. When we add that this energetic gentleman combines with murder "a smutch of indecency," that the first volume of the novel seems originally to have been written in blank verse, and that the last chapter removes the three leading characters by poison, we have sufficiently indicated the leading features of the tale. The author is not without glimpses of talent, but the study of good models is necessary before he ventures to produce.

Mr. Chandler is chiefly remarkable for being an ardent disciple of Darwinism. With a great deal of family pride, he claims kindred with the ape, and is chiefly unfortunate in having been born several thousand centuries too late. The lesson to be drawn from a dull and worthless story, apparently, is that, as in the remote past, so in the actual present, no moral distinction separates the man from the brute. His book is a commonplace record of a passage in the lives of vulgar-minded people, whose inexpressive entities need to be denoted by fearful and abnormal names. The Chimpainters and Dumlins may possibly exist in various walks of society, but what amusement or advantage can be derived from an account of the grossness of their manners, or the crudeness of their speculations, would be a problem for the most realistic of the unromantic school. Not a glimpse of humour, not a grace of style, enlivens the narrative of male and female worthlessness. The heroine

almost offers to become the mistress of the hero. The hero deserts the heroine on the barest suspicion of ante-nuptial impropriety. Of course, his doubts are unfounded. Of course, he does not receive the due punishment of his selfish pride. We find both parties too much for our patience, and resent the intrusion into imaginative literature of authors without imagination.

Colonel Dacre is a gallant and chivalric gentleman, who first makes the mistake of bringing up a young lady to marry him, and then, from an excess of scrupulousness, of throwing her, against her will, into dangerous contact with a romantic youth of her own tender age. There is much that is attractive, both in the Colonel and the simple-hearted girl whom he honours with his love; but except the persistent and wanton eulogies of the former, there is nothing to recommend the fortunate Julian, who is fairly forced into an entanglement with the gentle Alice. As far as his own personality is concerned, he seems far too limp and liquorish a youth to win the affections of so stately and so pure a maiden. We are told, indeed, much that redounds to the credit of his manhood, but cannot get rid of the idea that "young Julian" is effeminate, and probably wears long hair. Perhaps it is the perpetual repetition of the epithet that affects us with nausea, as it does the straightforward, if somewhat hoydenish Miss Grace, who acts as foil to the languors and sentimentalism of her kinsfolk. There is a certain touch of genius in the conception of this story, and if it could have been worked out consistently with our respect for some of the characters, we should have been inclined to praise it; but as it is, its sentiment verges on the morbid, and its characters on the frivolous. A touch of manly openness would have saved all these cruelly hazardous experiments on the affections of a child, who is exposed at once to the whims of an old man and the fanciful passion of a young one. Some highly sensational machinery relieves these idle people, in the end, of their self-made perplexities; and while Julian gets more than his deserts in the hand of Alice, the old Colonel is meetly taken into the custody of an affectionate wife, who, after long years of waiting, doubtless gave him the benefit of her accumulated stores of

common sense.

The principal feature which distinguishes Mr. Ford's book from the general run of tolerably good novels is the curious grammar and orthography in which he occasionally indulges. We are introduced to such words as "to scroop," "to compact," in the intransitive sense of "to agree,' ," "to be sang," &c.; while throughout the book he robs " color," "favor," and such words of their proper complement of letters. (This reminds us that he spells complement with an i.) As he also alludes to a gentleman's" pantaloons," it is possible he may not be an Englishman. We trust, however, that in writing for English readers he will consider their old-fashioned prejudices in favour of their mother tongue. In other respects, the book is not very different from the mass of such productions. The heroine is a nice girl, though a little slangy, and more cowardly in the matter of cows and caterpillars than English girls are wont to be; and there is another young lady of much gentleness and merit, whose only defect, to our thinking,

666

the plan we have so often recommended, of giving the original extracts from Holinshed on which Shakspeare founded his play. Boys can the poet made of it; but Mr. Morris should not thus see side by side the raw material and what have modernized the old spelling. The editor's notes are generally careful, though why or how the Early English "thurrucke," which means a sink, or the bottom of the hold of a ship where the bilge-water runs (see the 'Promptorium and the 'Myroure' of 1530), can be forced to mean 66 door," and then be made the direct source of "thorough," Early English "borgh, porw," A.S. "purh," passes our comprehension. Mr. Morris's remarks on the play and its characters are just.

is in her eyes, which are fashionably green.
The hero is not particularly attractive, and is
chiefly remarkable for having been unjustly con-
demned to a term of penal servitude. Two of
the characters are brought to an exemplary
death-bed in the course of the story, and Kate
herself, who deserves a better fate, dies of
consumption soon after her marriage with the
hero. The best points in the book are the
boyish love of Dick Oldfield, and some
passages between Miss Savage and a certain
heavy Mr. Milbourne, who, though a very
unworthy specimen of the navy, serves as an
excellent foil to the rather piquant little
MR. FREDERICK A. LAING has hit on a good
heroine. 'Suppose you were married,' the idea in writing his simple History of English Lite-
young man questions (sic). I can't suppose rature for Junior Classes (Collins & Co.), so as to
it,' answers Kate, getting red in the face. give even young boys a notion of our chief authors,
And-and if I were not married a day or
and specially of living ones, to whom a fourth
two after I said I would be, I should be of the book is devoted. But we cannot think that
certain to change my mind."" We think this any good can be done by such weak sayings as this
in the account of Prof. Huxley, "Many of his
good, and do not wonder that the young man views are at variance with the truths of Scripture";
looks "solemn." But in spite of several such or by such wholesale draughts on invention as are
indications of better things, the book, on the found in Mr. Laing's account of Chaucer. The
whole, wants spirit. The printing might be poet's birth in 1328, his "receiving an excellent
better.
education at Oxford and Cambridge," his being
The great defect of the author of 'Shipkept in prison for several months" in France, the
Ahoy' seems to be his incapacity for imagin- getting into trouble and being "imprisoned in the
Duke of Lancaster marrying his sister-in-law, his
ing a possible plot; his strength lies in the Tower"; such statements are partly mere guesses,
catching of superficial traits of character. The and partly nonsense. So in the account of Shak-
"little Frenchman" is 'very French and very speare, conjectures are told as facts. With care-
small; his enthusiasm, his vanity, his amour ful revision, Mr. Laing's may be made a useful
propre, his demonstrativeness, are altogether little book for junior classes.
French: his relations to the English people
with whom his fortunes are bound up are a
tissue of absurdities. The English gentleman
whose gloomy and jealous nature is represented
as being goaded out of its ordinary balance by
what he considers the impertinences of the
Frenchman, is more like the Englishman of
French caricatures than any self-respecting
Englishman could possibly be. The intimacy
to which he admits the man whom he dis
trusts, the mixture of pity and contempt with
which he receives him, his readiness to suspect
evil of his petulant, flighty, brain-sick wife,
herself as far from a probable Englishwoman
as possible, are all the merest farcical travesties
of certain points in national character which
foreigners are apt to misinterpret. A living
Englishman, we think, would have been more
frank in his acceptance of the obligation under
which Rivière originally placed him, and more
chary of lending the slightest inclination to
suspicions which touched his honour. To
continue in a state of half sulky tolerance of a
condition of affairs in his family circle of
which he disapproved, is the last thing we
fancy that would be possible for such a man.
Below stairs our author is more successful.
Nothing can be more life-like and natural than
the glimpse of the servants'-hall to which we
are admitted. The abduction of the heir is
somewhat unduly sensational, and the reasons
which induce the carpenter and his wife to
keep him concealed seem totally inadequate;
but the dialogue and by-play which surround
the transaction are very clearly rendered.
These transactions are contrasted ably with
some thrilling scenes in a revolutionary coterie
in Soho, regarding the approximation of which
to nature we have no means of judging.

SCHOOL-BOOKS.

In his edition of Shakespeare's Tragedy of King
Richard II., published by Messrs. Collins & Co.,
Mr. D. Morris has, we are glad to see, followed

MR. T. L. KINGTON OLIPHANT has produced a most useful and opportune book in his Sources of Co. He is a member of the Early English Text Standard English, published by Messrs. Macmillan & Society, who has read, thought over, and made notes from, the Society's Texts and other earlier and later books, and has traced, in an interesting and popular way, the changes of letters, inflexions, forms and words, during the whole course of our language, bringing out very clearly the enormous share that the Midland dialect had in the forthat, at last, Mr. Oliphant does justice to the immation of standard English. We are glad to see portant part Robert of Brunne took in beginning the change from the stiffer Anglo-Saxon school to the easier Early English one, of which Chaucer was the most brilliant example. We also earnestly echo the author's wish that English people may noble language, and purify their own speech study more generally the early stages of their from the monstrosities of popular penny-a-lining. Mr. Oliphant's little book is an excellent incentive to that study, and a good introduction to it. Revised, as it has been, by Dr. Richard Morris, its statements are trustworthy, while its sketch of the changes in our grammar and vocabulary is neither too technical nor too long to prevent the general reader understanding and enjoying the book, while he gets sound information from it.

The Useful Knowledge Reading-Books.—Boys' Fifth and Sixth Standards, Girls' Fifth and Sixth Standards. By Rev. E. T. Stevens, B.A., and Rev. C. Hale. (Longmans & Co.)-The object of this series is to supply pupils with information likely to be useful to them in their future callings. Hence it comprises two sets of books, one for boys and another for girls. Part of the instruction on domestic matters, in the girls' series, is of such a kind as can be far better acquired practically than from books. Because some of the girls may have to sweep carpets in after life it has been thought desirable to describe the manufacture of the different kinds of carpets, and to tell the girls that Turkey carpets come from Turkey, and Scotch carpets from Scotland. There is, however, no lack of far more valuable information than this. The

series cannot be said to contain attractive reading. Chambers's National Reading-Books, Book III. (W. & R. Chambers), is useful and good.

together so as exactly to cover, on the one hand, the two smaller squares, and, on the other hand, the largest square. The pieces are so cut that they can be fitted together and show ocularly the truth of each step in the well-known demonstration.

Wid necther the gods might begrudge us the drainin'. publication of De Luynes's book they remained

Newton's (B W.) Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms of the experiment begun in February, 1869. In Michael-
Roman Empire, 2nd edit. cr. 8vo. 7/ cl.

Fresh smuggled from Spain underneath a matrass,+ 315 class tickets for the Michaelmas term of the boys?

approaches Arcadian is in the use of es with the
dative case for from, instead of eg with the
genitive. But one
more peculiarity need be
mentioned, that the aspirate, much-enduring in so
many languages, is in Cypriote completely thrown
into the background. There is no rough breath-
ing, and x and к, 7 and 0, seem usually to have
been represented by exactly the same character.
The writing is usually from right to left, but
occasionally from left to right.

But, undoubtedly, the most singular thing about the Cypriote is the alphabet. It is clear that the original intention in it was to represent by a separate symbol every primitive syllable. Thus da, di, du, la, li, lu, have each a sign appropriate (sometimes more than one sign), just as in the Assyrian system of writing. But as time went on, certain of these signs came to represent, as well as the syllable, sometimes merely the consonant in it, and a vowel was often separately added. We thus have a singular mixture, most of the signs of which the writing is composed having to represent syllables, but a few letters merely. This, although not a unique phenomenon, is a highly interesting one, but adds very greatly to the difficulties of deciphering. And certainly admirable as is the character of Dr. Brandis's work, there are doubtless many particulars in which he is mistaken. His theory, for example, of the rule in using the several symbols which represent indiscriminately one syllable, namely, that they were often varied when that syllable occurred more than once in the same word, for the mere sake of variety, is very fanciful, and seems almost untenable in the face of the repetition of the same symbol twice in the name of Evelthon. These, however, are minor points, which we must leave to those who seriously take up the study of the dialect.

for the present. Quite recently, a second bilingual
tablet has been found, and we may hope that Dr.
Brandis's discoveries will give such an impetus to
research that all the difficult questions raised will
finally be cleared up.

WHO INVENTED BRADSHAW?

Albert Square, Manchester, Jan. 13, 1874.

ALLOW me to draw your special attention to the short biographical sketch of the late Mr. W. J. Adams, in the Athenæum of December 27, 1873. It is highly calculated not only to mislead the public, but also to damage existing interests. Mr. Adams never was in any way connected with the "projection" of the Railway Bradshaw, nor, indeed, was he even connected with the firm until the requirements of the "Guide" as an advertising medium called his services into action, which was a very considerable time after the "Guide" had been established. The first number of Bradshaw contained nothing more than one page, showing the Liverpool and Manchester trains, and a small map of England and Wales. The number you refer to was one of the earlier copies of a new series, brought out in a cheaper form, rendered imperatively necessary in consequence of the vast increasing demand for the work-a demand which could not possibly be met by the old method of pasting the leaves together, a plan which up to this time had been in operation. It was about this period when Mr. Adams commenced his operations in canvassing for advertisements; and there can be no doubt, without any disparagement of the efforts put forth by him in this respect, that the success of his achievements was a natural result of the increasing value of a work which was every day becoming more and more indispensable to the travelling public.

The project was really the result of accident, the success or otherwise of which did not at the time enter the mind either of Mr. Bradshaw, who suggested the idea, or myself, with whom the idea was entirely left to carry out.

but also attended with great success, and highly
calculated to win for him an imperishable esteem
from all who knew him.

ROBT. D. KAY, Editor of Bradshaw.
*** In spite of this letter, we believe our state-
ments were correct

With regard to the age of the writing which has come down to us, coins are the chief authority, and here we cannot quite agree with Dr. Brandis. He considers many of the Cypriote coins which bear native inscriptions to be anterior to the reign There can be no question that Mr. Adams's of Darius of Persia. We contend that there is no exertions in the publishing and advertising deevidence whatever for this assertion. In semi-partments were not only very creditable indeed, Greek countries like Cyprus Greek art was later in developing than in Hellas; and the earliest Cypriote coins, both as respects their style and types, seem to be contemporary with the Phoenician coins of the kings of Citium. And in the Dali find, early Greek and Phoenician coins were found together in such fair proportions as to prove them to have been current together. But M. de Vogué has conclusively proved that the earliest coins of the Kings of Citium are not anterior to B.C. 450. Hence, it is at least probable that no coins bearing Cypriote inscriptions are anterior to the expedition of Cimon in B.C. 449. Nor among the inscribed tablets and fragments which we have had the good fortune to see is there one which can be proved to be earlier than the middle of the fifth century; And by the end of the same century, the usual Greek alphabet had begun to replace the Cypriote, which was finally extinct in the beginning of the third century. From first to last, we have thus a total range of but 160 years, a fact which adds another to the many puzzles laid before us by the present investigation. Of course, no one can assert that the letters were only in use for that period; but it is quite safe to say that the monuments as yet discovered do not cover a much longer period.

Whence came this singularly elaborate alphabet which appears so suddenly, and so suddenly disappears? Was it derived from the cuneiform, or from the Egyptian or the Phoenician? The Lycian and Pamphylian alphabets, with which it is usually classed, are certainly varieties of the Phoenico-Greek. But this is of quite a different character. Dr. Brandis asserts that it must be derived from a picturewriting of some kind; but if so, where are the links to connect the two? These, of course, may be reserved for future discoverers, but it is strange that Gen. Cesnola and Mr. Lang should have missed them. But these questions are best left

Literary Gossip.
CAPT. HERSCHEL, R.E., has addressed a
corre-
spondents, expressing the desire of the family
to collect the letters of the late Sir John
Herschel, not so much with any direct view
to printing them, as to provide against the too
probable destruction which takes place with
time. Although Capt. Herschel cautiously
guards himself against being understood to be
collecting those letters for present publication,
it is to be hoped that, having with their help
formed a true conception of his father's life
and works, he will give the public the advan-
tages of his labours in the production of a
work which shall worthily represent so great a
philosopher and so excellent a man.

letter to his father's friends and

A SERIAL story, by the author of 'Patty,' will shortly begin in the pages of a new series of the magazine called Evening Hours, which is to start under the editorship of Lady Barker, author of 'Station Life,' &c. Mrs. Linton's new novel, of which we spoke last week, is to appear in Temple Bar.

UNDER the title of 'Reminiscences of a Soldier,' Messrs. Hurst & Blackett have in the press a work from the pen of Col. W. R. Stuart, C.B., in two volumes, which will comprise an account of the author's services in various parts of the world, interspersed with many amusing anecdotes and recollections. A new book of travels, entitled Through Russia, from St. Petersburg to Astrakan and the Crimea,' by Mrs. Guthrie, in two volumes, with illustrations, will shortly be issued by the same firm.

UNDER the designation of 'Local Notes and Queries,' the Manchester Guardian has commenced, in its Monday's issue, devoting considerable space to contributions on the Folk-Lore of Lancashire.

THE article on the late Mr. Mill, in the current number of the Westminster Review, is from the pen of Mr. Hare.

A VERY brief list, comprising ten Reports and Papers, and three Papers by Command, is issued of the Parliamentary Papers published in December, concluding the series for 1873. Among these is one that is significant of the course which legislation will be, sooner or later, compelled to follow, till it makes as careful provision for the safety of railway passengers from accidents arising from collision, as has always been made for that of common road passengers from the very first passing of railway acts. It is headed, "Returns by Railway Companies in the United Kingdom with respect to Connexions or Crossings on the Lines of Railway under their Control." There is a further Return of the Survey of Unseaworthy Ships. A copy of the General Digest of Endowed Charities for the County of Somerset ; and a Return of the Population of the United Kingdom for the Years 1867-8-9, 1870-71, with the gross number of deaths from all causes during these years, also merit notice.

OUR attention has been called to one of the many passages in Lord Lytton's novel of 'The Parisians' which must have betrayed the authorship, had his death not caused it to be avowed. It is rather a singular one. In SIR HENRY MAINE's new book, of which the second volume the following speech is we spoke lately, will, we believe, not be pub-put into the mouth of Lemercier :lished this winter, as was at first intended.

The special correspondent, sent by the Times to St. Petersburg to describe the festivities connected with the Duke of Edinburgh's wedding, is Mr. Napier Broome. Mr. Senior will represent the Daily News.

THE publication is contemplated of a Comprehensive Catalogue of Current Literature on a novel plan. It is intended for the use of

66 'Love levels all ranks. I don't blame Ruy Blas for accepting the love of a queen, but I do blame him for passing himself off as a noble-a plagiarism, by-the-by, from an English play." No one except Lord Lytton was likely to accuse the author of 'Ruy Blas of borrowing from the 'Lady of Lyons!' Both pieces, it may be observed, were produced in the same year, 1838.