of Mieroslawski's short campaign, and closes his active career with the defence of Rastadt. On the surrender of the place to the Prussians, it naturally goes hard with the defenders; and Corvin, a Prussian and a nobleman, was not likely to be leniently treated. He is sentenced to death, and when that sentence is commuted to imprisonment in a Baden prison, he has six years' experience of a system which we commend to the study of Fenians and other British agitators. On the whole, this part of his story is instructively told; his own personality is necessarily prominent in the tale, and it is satisfactory that, as he is both beautiful and brave, the central figure is attractive to contemplate; and though we are inclined to think many incidents (notably, for instance, the students "Putsch" at Frankfort) are softened and relieved of their really treacherous character by the natural sympathies of the writer, a fair estimate may be drawn of the actors and events recorded. Whether we consider the blundering oppressiveness of the old provincial governments, or the worthless character of the revolutionary democrats who would have imported liberty after the French model, we may congratulate the Germany of the future on her probable emancipation from the miseries of either system. 'A Life's Assize' is a philosophical novel, and tinged throughout with the gloom of nineteenth-century philosophy. Our novelists and poets, various in character as they are on minor points, seem all to be agreed in this, that if they aim at anything at all higher than the most commonplace reproduction of ordinary life, they must either, "the idle singers of an empty day," abandon their age and country for purely imaginary regions, and so emancipate themselves from the influences of the time, or else occupy themselves with a subtle analysis of characters of extreme complexity, which rarely contain any element of sufficient strength to render the process remunerative. Here we have three volumes of considerable length, written throughout with some skill, and in some places with more than average ability, all devoted to laying bare the minutest ramifications of the motives and reflections of a morbidly self-conscious gentleman, whose selfrespect, however, to say nothing of consideration for others, fails to preserve him from a life of voluntary deceit, unnecessary from first to last, and fatal to the happiness of himself and all around him. Driven by a most disastrous complication of circumstances to strike a fatal blow in self-defence, he shrinks alike from a bold avowal of the truth, which must have saved him, and from taking the consequences of a chain of circumstantial evidence which appears to connect him with the homicide. The immediate result of his course of action is his escape from the extreme penalty of the law by the middle verdict of Not Proven, so much admired of Scottish jurists; on which, by the way, as well as on the specific differences between northern and southern jurymen, Mrs. Riddell discourses learnedly and well. the ultimate consequence of his cowardly falling from the truth is to be read in the sad-we But had almost written weary-story of a wasted life, which has its new commencement in the assumption by Andrew Hardell of the personality and status of his cousin and evil genius Anthony, who, for good reasons, is also anxious to obliterate his own identity; and ends in an early death-bed, where the victim of his own and others' want of principle is tended by two generous women, whose lives he has embittered by his folly. At the same time, we are bound to admit that, if so sombre a tale be worth relating, Mrs. Riddell has told it well. We are often disgusted with Andrew, but never quite despise him: he has, in fact, like many deficient characters, a flash of enthusiasm that is quite consistent with his weakness, and, like many who can sway the emotions of others by power of expression, his habit of dramatizing re-acts on him disastrously. It is one of the most curious pieces of Nature's law of compensation, that those who can put of compensation, that those who can put thoughts most tangibly into words for others, are very liable unconsciously to indulge in special pleading with themselves, and are living examples of the collegian's thesis, the power of language in corrupting thought. In this instance, as in many, Mrs. Riddell has been true to Nature; and for its sake we will forgive a good many "vain repetitions," and certain abstract and general propositions, more bold than true. She has a theory about Christmas, for example, which we trust she has seen fit to recant. Of this description, particular, yet we dare well say typical, let us have neither recantation nor improvement. "If you have ever known a girl whose first thought was for others; who, let her be ever so tired, was always ready to start off and procure whatever a parent or sister or brother desired; who had no need to crucify self simply because self for her was a creature without existence; whose feet were swift to bear her on errands of kindness and charity; whose hands were soft and cool and tender in illness; whose voice seemed to bring cheerfulness and hope into the house; who was like a sunbeam, a bright thing in a dark place; who was loved by high and low, by rich and poor; who could not bear to hear gossip; to whom the very tone of slander was a pain; who was always ready to stand up for the absent; to whom the children came confidingly, and on whose head the aged laid their hands in blessing, then you have known the girl who, like many another as gracious and good as she, was passed by and forgotten for a rival with not half her qualities. NEW POEMS. Loveland, and other Poems chiefly concerning Love. A Wreath of Roses. By Ingeborg Bröchner. Sad Tones for Sick Times. By Vox et Præterea Nihil. (Pickering.) MR. ROBINSON writes tolerable verse as far as rhyme and rhythm are concerned; but his work is disfigured by eccentricities and by a straining after effect which is so prominent as to become offensive to the reader. If he would content himself with writing simple lyrics, like that entitled 'The Rain' and two or three such short poems, he would produce greater effect and be more duly appreciated. Mr. Robinson, however, is ambitious, and in his long pieces has made a desperate attempt to secure for himself the honours due to a poet. His theme is love, and in explanation of the term he gives us, in place of a preface, a series of quotations from Wordsworth, Frederick W. Robertson and Poe. 'Loveland' commences thus Longtime my heart was faint with love of Love, "I know not what" is a delightfully indefinite way of expressing, or rather of not expressing, an idea. This easy method of ridding himself of the by the author, and he utilizes the happy thought. trouble of making himself intelligible is a discovery I know not what" might stand for some abstruse psychical idea which defied his power of expression; and it is possible that what he elsewhere calls "a thought beyond a thought" is to be placed in the same category O, she was fairer than he had conceived! His thought beyond his thought?-before her feet But since the lover, Uldramon, found speech adequate to the occasion, we do not see why Mr. Robinson also should not be able to get over the difficulty, and say what he means. He is invariably indefinite where he should be clear. He evades description of inanimate nature; or, when he describes, he is so vague that nothing is presented to our imagination. And frequent in the wood a certain tree, &c. does duty for the epithet that should inform us what tree is meant. A "certain" something is always doing a certain" thing. In a poem called 'Dying Days,' there is a "certain" young man who adopts a queer method of procedure. He sinks upwards through his Angelina's eyes Bend above me, Angelina, when the life within me dies; eyes. To sink upward would tax the abilities of most men. But Angelina's young man promises to undergo self-torture not to be endured by all. He addresses his Angelina in continuation And be sure that I shall wait, if my spirit ever waits, If there be a joy in Heaven, I shall leave it all untried; The qualifying sentences "if my spirit ever waits," and "if there be a joy in Heaven"-show the caution of the dying hero. We wonder he was not consistent, and used the same mood and tense in each case. Mr. Robinson, however, possibly wanted "waits" to rhyme with "gates," and consequently "wait" would not suit. Any interest possessed by "The Dutt Family Album' will arise from the fact that it is the joint product of an Asiatic family-" natives of India, of different ages, and of different walks of life." The work is creditable to foreigners educated out of England, and will probably be widely read as a curious literary production; but it has little merit as poetry. The versification is smooth and polished, and the sentiments are for the most part just. The poems, however, are deficient in individuality. From the circumstances of its production, we might expect to meet with distinct characteristics, some gleam of foreign light, some robustness of native thought or expression. Instead, we have imitative and artificial verse; but the poems are readable, a merit that cannot be ascribed to most books of poetry. Besides original poems, we are presented with translations from the French, German and Persian, all very fairly done, and several curious but not clever charades. So little variety is there in matter and manner, that the writers appear to have been all educated into one type of style and thought. As a curiosity, we quote one of the "original" sonnets:— The nameless mystic rite will soon begin, Who wilful thus their Maker dare deny, their education has made them ashamed of their former faith. "Catalina' is a kind of 'Ingoldsby Legend' badly told. The time and place and persons are clearly defined- In the sixteenth century's wane, in the town St. Sebastian, Oh, give me your hand, dearest mother, sweet mother, Once more on my cheek let me feel your lips pressing, Take my head on your bosom, dear mother, sweet mother, I'm going, dear mother, I know. We do not wish to speak harshly about any well-meaning attempts to raise money for such a laudable purpose as the assistance of the sick and wounded, which Mrs. Bröchner assigns as her reason for giving her daughter's juvenile verses (some written, as she tells us, at ten years old) to the world; but we would rather, we must admit, pay the price without having to read the verses. They are just what any cleverish little girl, with some poetical instinct, and a defective knowledge of the laws of grammar, rhyme and metre, might write for the amusement of herself and the admiration of her friends; but to publish them for the criticism of the public-for criticized they must be when once published, in spite of the Editor's deprecations-is hardly fair either to author or readers. In the little German poem with which the others are prefaced, "shnell" and "shmerz" have an odd look, which, we assume, is due to the printer. From the memoir of George Heath, which precedes his poems, we learn that he was born at Gratton, "a hamlet in the moorlands," and, as far as we can gather, in Staffordshire; that he was by trade a carpenter, and that he died last year, at the age of twenty-five, from consumption. His poems, in spite of many marks of immaturity, and faults of form and language, owing, doubtless, to a necessarily imperfect, though wonderfully advanced, education-faults which, had he lived, he would probably have corrected-contain manifest evidences of real and great poetic talent, and deserve more notice than our space allows us to give them. The faults lie chiefly in the direction of too much verbiage, a luxuriance of imagery which is apt at times to run wild, and which, we suspect, is the result of a choice of models faulty in this respect. Nevertheless, we can assure our readers that they will find much of real merit in this volume, independently of the interest which always attaches to the work of a "self-educated" man. After the somewhat sad strains of the "Moorland of a Young Naturalist, by Lucien Biart (Low & Co.) The translation of The Countess Gisela (Macmil- Stephen Scudamore the Younger, by Arthur Locker (Routledge & Sons), is what all the boys on whom it is bestowed will call a "jolly book." It is full of most exciting adventures and scenes of bush-life in Australia and at the diggings. They are extremely well told, and have the air of freshness and reality which studies from nature generally possess. There is an amount of " go" in the narrative which makes it attractive to readers whose "fifteen years" lie far behind them. Handsomely and strongly bound, 'Stephen Scudamore the Younger' will be a "welcome guest" wherever he may appear. Changes have come over life at sea as well as over life ashore. Sailors no longer dance those wonderful hornpipes such as may be remembered by all who ever saw T. P. Cooke, that last representative of the true "British tar"! Sailors now affect quadrilles and waltzes, the stately menof-war have been transformed into ironclads and monitors, and midshipmen have become competitive young gentlemen, and no doubt behave accordingly. This is all as it should be; but the days of Nelson and Rodney and Lord Howe have a charm of romance, the more delightful because they were not so long ago as to be forgotten; and yet they are as much passed away as the days before the Flood. Mr. Kingston has the gift of telling amusing, rambling stories, and Marmaduke Merry the Midshipman (Bemrose & Son) will keep up his character. The "veracious narratives" of Mr. Jonathan Johnson, the boatswain, are entertaining from their extravagance, whilst the real man himself is pleasant for his good qualities rally feels for Pantomime. The book is beautifully and real bravery. There are some words of grave good counsel at the end of the story, which we commend to all the boys for whom the book is Poet," comes appropriately the farce. Sad Tones' are sad only in name. We open at a poem called 'Donec Templa Refeceris,' and, with an allusion which we fail to understand, Ja-el,' inveighing against the completion of St. Paul's, on the ground that some of the unnecessary City churches have been pulled down. It opens thus: Well done, good Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's; Well done, thou weasely beasely Mister Mayor. This is the style of an author who dedicates his book to Mr. Purchas, of Brighton, "in admiration Farce, we suppose, natuof the noble stand," &c. got up, both in type and paper. CHILDREN'S BOOKS. written. Old Barnaby's Treasure, by Mrs. J. M. Tandy (Seeley, Jackson & Halliday), is a tolerably pretty story, which would have been more original if the Trap to Catch a Sunbeam' and 'Little Nell' had 66 never existed. It is nicely got up, and will be a gift-book which young people will find attractive. Hetty's Resolve, by the Author of 'Under the Lime Trees' (Seeley, Jackson & Halliday), is a story for girls, and an excellent one it is. It may be given safely alike to girls going to school staying at home. Hetty is not one of the preternaturally good heroines who are a model and a reproof to the rest of the community; she suffers under the faults and temptations most likely to beset young people, and her improvement is gradual and natural. The author has, we think, been too severe in the punishment of Florence Benson, the naughty heroine: she might have been allowed to catch cold at the grand ball, but there was no reason why she should have been sent off in a galloping consumption. The characters of the different schoolgirls are well discriminated: the self-asserting, clever and managing Evelyn Dunmow, who, from being the eldest daughter and the chief authority in het own family circle, finds her level in the little republic of school life, is extremely clever, and has a touch of humour in it. Although not so brilliantly got-up as many other Christmas books, 'Hetty's Resolve' will be a welcome gift any day in the year. Pictures of Cottage Life in the West of England, by Margaret E. Poole (Macmillan & Co.), make a very pleasant book, which will be suitable for reading aloud, both in the family circle in an evening and in those somewhat formidable gatherings called 'Sewing Meetings," when the soothing influence of an interesting book may sometimes turn the course of the current of small talk, which too often glides into gossip and scandal, to which a little touch of spite seems a necessary ingredient to give it a piquant flavour. It is often difficult to find books suitable for reading aloud; they should be profitable certainly, but not too didactic. Pleasantness is almost, if not quite, a virtue, both in books and in people. The story called 'For Better for Worse' is above the average of stories. 'Without a Character' is also a touching tale, but it is more commonplace. The author has the skill of indicating a character in a few touches. The sudden edict which detained all the English who were in France when the Peace of Amiens was broken, is now almost forgotten; and it is difficult to realize all the consternation and misery it caused. Innocent tourists, peaceable men, women and children detained for eleven years, and sent back with their lives and fortunes equally ruined and crushed! It is difficult to picture the dreary, listless existence of those prisoners who were left at large on parole, or the sufferings and misery inflicted on those less fortunate who were put in confinement at the caprice of their jailers. It is no wonder that our fathers hated Bonaparte. The subject certainly is a most promising one on which to build a tale; but the execution of Detained by Agnes Giberne (Seeley, Jackson & Halliday), is in France: a Story of the First French Empire, feeble, and there is little interest excited for any of the characters. The dialogue is heavy, and there is they are told, not acted out before the reader; too much of it; the incidents are very scanty, and sensation of dreariness. the effect produced by the story is a general Lottie's White Frock, and other Stories, with Illustrations (Cassell, Petter & Galpin), contains cate some quality, most desirable for children twelve stories, all of them intended to inculto acquire, in order that they may have it firmly engrafted into their character before they grow up to be men and women. It is not gaily got up as regards the exterior, but the stories are all pleasant reading. First Century (Nelson & Sons), the author of In The Victory of the Vanquished: a Tale of the Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family' gives Germanicus, and brought to Rome to grace his us the history of a German family made captive by had betrayed them, remembering that only a short triumph. Looking back upon the treachery which time before their great warrior, Herman, had been victorious over the Roman legions, the noble German mother and her high-spirited son, who are the chief characters of the story, are not easily to be reconciled to a life of slavery. But when a noble Roman family wishes to adopt the boy, he refuses indignantly, and hard though his lot may be, yet after being once enfranchised, he voluntarily returns to slavery, in order to purchase his father's freedom. Before that event takes place a sojourn in the East has made both mother and son acquainted with the new Christian doctrines, and they prepare the way for the final victory. The author of the books known as 'The SchönbergCotta Series' keeps up in the present story the characteristics which have marked its predecessors, and the care shown in reproducing the manners of the first century does not render the persons either stiff or unnatural. Laon, the old Greek slave, is especially dramatic. We should like The Spanish Brothers, by the Author of 'The Dark Year of Dundee' (Nelson & Sons), better, and we should be better able to recommend it to young readers, if the choice of its subject had been as happy as its treatment. Persecution in Spain, with its Inquisition, its torture, and its autos de fé, is too painful a theme to excite any feeling but the most violent indignation; and we regret that the horrors of a time which is past and gone for ever should be recalled without some motive. In other respects the story is a good one. The scenes which pass at the old castle in the Sierra Morena are marked by much spirit and feeling, and indeed every part of the book which is not directly taken up with religious cruelty will be read with much pleasure. But instances of brutal bigotry are incessantly recurring, and our pleasure is always liable to be marred by the appearance of some stern Prior or bloated Inquisitor. Sylvia and Janet; or, Too Quickly Judged, by A. C. D. (Warne & Co.), has many of the materials that go to the making of a good story, but is not well put together. The earlier part of the book is too much spun out, and we do not reach the incident which provides the second title till we have several times acted on that principle. What with the multitude of characters brought in, and with the tedious minuteness employed by some of them in order to acquaint us with their least amiable traits, there are times when we are considerably irritated with the story; but we are wrong to give way to such a feeling, as we have only to get over a few faults to be sincerely gratified. A little more care, some condensation, and a way of softening down the disagreeable sides of characters which are made almost too lifelike in their pettiness, would answer all our objections, and enable us to speak more cordially of a book which has many merits. Another boys' book from Mr. Kingston! The supply seems inexhaustible; yet perhaps we may detect in this book, which is called In the Wilds of Africa (Nelson & Sons), such a resemblance to the work we noticed the other day, as suggests too rapid a drain on the invention. The skeleton of the African story is somewhat the same as that of the Indian story; and we have many adventures in both which betray a kindred origin. However, the animals are different, and that will be enough for Mr. Kingston's readers. The profusion of lions, crocodiles, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, elephants, and buffaloes given in the text and in the illustrations will make the story popular with boys. We have only to turn to the plates, in which a lion is resting its fore-paws on a mounted hunter, or a wild elephant is in hot pursuit of him with uplifted trunk, and tusks that seem terribly near, or a rhinoceros is fording a stream, in order to discover his hiding-place, while at the same moment a bullet from his gun brings down a lion on the further bank, in order to know what class of young people should be chosen as recipients of Mr. Kingston's story. The author of 'John Halifax' has made a fresh collection of the best-known fairy tales, under the title of The Fairy Book, with coloured illustrations, by J. E. Rogers (Macmillan). The quaintness of the illustrations, many of which depart from the old types in a manner at once daring and suggestive, will be the first thing to catch the eye of OUR LIBRARY TABLE. Iona. By the Duke of Argyll. (Strahan.) THESE chapters have appeared, if we mistake not, in Good Words; reprinted, they form a neat little volume, pleasant in its style and full of information. The glimpses of scenery given us by the Duke of Argyll make a picturesque framework for his details of the Life of St. Columba, while throughout the book we meet with traces of the thought which marks the more sustained works of the author. No doubt his birth and hereditary connexion with Scotland make the Duke of Argyll better able to appreciate the scenery of the Hebrides than a stranger would be, and we are not surprised at the warmth with which he defends Iona from the unfavourable criticisms of M. de Montalembert. We must say that the Duke seems to hold his own ground against the eloquent Frenchman. Selections from the Correspondence of Robert Bloomfield, the Suffolk Poet. Edited by W. H. Hart, F.S.A. MR. HART is to be commended for the care with which he has edited these selections. He might have printed 200 letters; he has been wise enough to print only a few from the mass written by Robert, his brother George, Rogers, the Duke of Grafton and Capel Lofft. The last gentleman was of that simple quality that Lamb used to say, "Capel Lofft must be his own moon." Lofft wished it to be thought that he discovered Bloomfield, and he as strongly desired to be allowed to instruct the poet in riding his rustic Pegasus. Bloomfield, however, was an independent poet, though poor, and 'a shoemaker by trade." We hope he may never go out of fashion, but fashion is hardly a word to use with one who dealt not in artificial flowers, but in fragrant eglantine, pansies, sweet-williams, and all of that unsophistical quality. | 'daughter" was a cow-milker; and thus we get back to primitive names and manners. Originally, too, a fine was not a mulct; it was a fee paid to get a finis, or end, put to law proceedings, or for immunity from molestation. We have on our table Druidism Exhumed, by the Rev. J. Rust, M.A. (Hamilton & Co.), -Constitution and Organization of Land Forces Reformed (Stanford),-Bacon's Railway Guide Map of London and Suburbs (Bacon),- The Class and Standard Series of Reading Books, by C. Bilton, B.A., Book IV., Standard IV. (Longmans),-Poultry and Pigeons, by J. M. Moffatt and J. Rogers (Dean),— All Round the World, by P. Gillmore (Chapman & Hall), The Heroes of Asgard, by A. and E. Keary (Macmillan), ---Tales in Short Words, by Miss Crompton (Routledge),-Tweedie's Temperance Year-Book of Facts and History, 1870 (Tweedie), The Parish Magazine, Vol. for 1870, edited by J. E. Clarke, M.A. (Gardner),-The Field Quarterly Magazine, Vol. I. (Cox),-The Voice of God, by B. M. Cowie (Gardner),-Sermons, by C. Wadsworth (Dickinson), - and Die Gotteslehre des Thomas von Aquino Kritisch Dargestellt, von Dr. J. Delitzsch (Nutt). Also the following Pamphlets: The Children's Picture Pastime, Series 1 to 6 (Low),—The Sugar Question (Unwin),-Art, Past and Present (Ridgway),-Siege-Life in Paris, by E. B. Michell (Michell),-Leaves from the Majestic, by H. Gorton (Printed for the Author),-Eigenwillig; or, the Self-willed: a Fairy Extravaganza (Masters),-Gardner's Sixpenny Elementary Atlas (Gardner), Biology versus Theology, No. 9, by Julian,--Penny Monthly Sermons, 1. 'Stumblingblocks,' by the Rev. W. W. How, M.A. (Gardner), -The Sabbath and Sunday, and Excommunication and Penance, by the Rev. R. C. Gibson (Lancaster, Edmondson), The Doctrine of the Trinity Examined (Day),—The Lord's Supper, by the Rev. G. Cole, B.A. (Mackintosh), and Bunsen's Bibelwerk nach seiner Bedentung für die Gegenwart, von B. Baehring (Leipzig). LIST OF NEW BOOKS. Theology. Gospeller, Vol. 2, 1870, folio, 1/6 swd. Natural Science, Religious Creeds & Scripture Truth, Part 1, 3/6 Philosophy. Spencer's Principles of Psychology, 2nd edit. Vol. 1, 8vo. 18/ cl. Baskerville's Poetry of Germany, German and English, 12mo. 6/ Box's Chronicles of the Castle of Amelroy, Photos. 4to. 42/ cl. Ancient Classics for English Readers, Vol. 7, Eschylus, 2/6 cl Homer's Iliad, Book 9, by Rev. Dr. Giles, 18mo. 1/6 swd. Science. Beales's (L. S.) Disease Germs, their Real Nature, cr. 8vo. 8/6 cl. Blandford's Lectures on Insanity and its Treatment, cr. 8vo. 8/6 Lyell's Student's Elements of Geology, cr. 8vo. 9/ cl. Nicholson's Manual of Zoology for Students, Vol. 2, cr. 8vo. 6/6 Parker's Modern Treatment of Syphilitic Diseases, 5th edit. 10/6 Ranking's Half-Yearly Abstract of Medical Sciences, Vol. 52,6/6 Ward's (J. C.) Elementary Natural Philosophy, 12mo. 3/6 cl. General Literature. Select Charters and other Illustrations of English Constitutional History, from the Earliest Period to the Reign of Edward I. Arranged and Edited by William Stubbs, M.A. (Oxford, at the Clarendon Press; London, Macmillan & Co.) WITH a handbook for teachers and scholars like the above, there is some hope that at last English boys and (we may add) English men may learn something of the groundwork of English history. Mr. Abbot, the head master of the City of London School, distinguished himself by his zeal and success in making our ingenuous youth understand their mother-tongue, of which they knew little before, except parrot-fashion. After this admirable step has been made, nothing could be more valuable than instruction in our laws and constitution, a knowledge of which is of the utmost importance, if the true bearings of history are to be recognized. We may add, that although these illustrations of an old way of life-a way leading to that which we now tread-be serious, the book, especially for those who know a little Latin, is not a dry book. There is a capital Glossary, in which alone may be found a vast amount of instruction, and indeed of amusement. As an instance, we may point to the real signification of the word "bachelor." The "baccalarius," or bachelor, was originally the owner of a baccalaria, or grazing-Young Englishwoman, Vol. 2, new series, 1870, roy. 8vo. 7/6 cl. farm, from bacca : vacca, a cow. Of course, a Appleton's Tables of Simple Interest, 2 to 7 per cent., 7/6 cl. a OUR OXFORD LETTER. Oxford, Dec. 22, 1870. circumstances some colleges are dangerous to the that is nothing to the point. What we are con- dans le mur méridional du Haram). Ilar au jour en démolissant une vieille bâtisse; m heureusement, il est incomplet. On y lit: LEG X FR C'est une dédicace faite par un centurio pri de la dixième légion fretensis, nommé (Ju Sabinus, de..., à un autre officier, probable supérieur en grade, appartenant à la même le mais dont le nom manque. L'intérêt de ce ter consiste principalement en ce que la dixième legy: faisait précisement partie du corps d'armée assiégea et pris Jérusalem sous les ordres de T Nous savons, par Josèphe, que cette même laz avait été laissée à la garde de la ville conque probablement qu'elle continua à y tenir garis des lettres on pourrait fixer l'âge de cette ins sous Hadrien et ses successeurs. D'après la for tion vers le règne de Caracalla. The only possible means for avoiding this is, the establishment of a number of Denominational colleges, in which the student will mix with men of his own creed, and will be trained by teachers whose opinions, religious and political, are generally III. Fragment de vase avec caractères herm identical with his own. The two questions which | phéniciens:-Ce fragment ramassé, dans l'une de arise with regard to such a scheme are, firstly, whether vallées qui entourent Jérusalem par un voyage it is possible, and secondly, whether it is desirable. français, M. Maurice Vernes, est en pierre calcai The latter of these is an open and debatable point, assez tendre. On y distingue sur la face conver and as such we will leave it. The former is exposed to a practical difficulty which is generally possible, d'après le thême de l'ornementation et à des moulures et cannelures élégantes; il est mine passed over or forgotten. If Oxford contained a courbure, de restituer le vase dans ses dimensions series of Denominational colleges, it would be et sa forme primitives; il devait tout-à-fait ressem necessary that the professors and other teachers of bler aux vases figurés sur les monnaies Hasmothe University should in their teaching eliminate néennes. Sur la face concave sont tracés plusieurs everything to which any religious or non-religious signes qui me paraissent avoir une valeur ne body could fairly take exception; they must satisfy mérique, et un khet parfaitement net, de forme in this respect Roman Catholics, Jews and Secu- phénicienne. Je pense que c'est l'initiale du me larists, Anglicans, Unitarians and Mohammedans. hébreu khomer, nomme d'une mesure; les signes No historical theory must be asserted which allows numériques indiquent vraisemblablement à quel of any advantages resulting from the introduction fraction du khomer nous avons affaire. Ce rase of Christianity, nor any philosophical hypothesis portant ainsi à l'intérieur la marque officielle de which postulates the existence of a God, or of an intuitive moral sense, or implies the modern theo-merciaux ou religieux; l'ornementation du vase et sa jauge, ne pouvait servir qu'à des usages con ries of abstraction and substance. possible in such questions to be perfectly neutral, pour cette dernière hypothèse; nous savons d'ailleurs And if it were l'emploi du caractère archaïque me feraient penchet the professor would, by his very neutrality, give que le rituel juif exigeait pour certains sacrifices offence to those religious bodies which consider it an essential part of all education worth the name des quantités d'offrandes (sèches ou liquides exactement mesurées. that it should be from first to last founded on a dogmatic creed. Thus, on either side there would be a difficulty almost insuperable. Keble College is to be admitted as a corporation into the University has naturally given rise to a wider discussion; for the essential characteristic of the new College is that it is always to be Denominational, in spite of all changes which may come over Oxford, in spite of any Act of Parliament introducing into the old foundations the adherents of every creed. Its teaching is always to be distinctively that of the Church of England, and its charter is carefully drawn up in such a way as effectually to exclude from it the member of any other religious body whatever. It was impossible for the University, in the present state of public feeling, to recognize a college of this character without extending the same privilege to similar colleges connected with other creeds; and thus the general question of Denominational Education was introduced, and in the last debate in Congregation, in which the principle of Keble College was practically accepted, the University decided to throw open its doors to a greater extent than it has ever done before to any educational institution belonging to any religious body whatsoever which can obtain a charter from the Government, and desires to establish itself at Oxford. Hitherto there has been a practical difficulty in the way of all such colleges, because the head of every college or public hall must necessarily be a member of the House of Convocation, and therefore a member of the Church of England. This qualification it is now proposed to abrogate, so that a Bachelor of Civil Law, or even a Bachelor of Arts, who has to subscribe no test whatever, will hereafter be able to take his place among the Venerable Heads of Colleges in Oxford, possessing most of the privileges which so distinguished a position in the University confers. This "graceful concession," as it was termed by one of the speakers in the debate, received the full and free consent of the Conservative party, and was passed unanimously. Its acceptance is a step worthy of notice in the gradual downfall of the Church of England monopoly. It is an attempt, on the part of men who at last see that it is impossible any longer to maintain the existing state of things, to escape the deluge of unbelief which they fear will come in if colleges are altogether open. It is very unlikely that the action of Parliament will be in any way influenced by the very minute and almost valueless privilege which has been conceded. It is extremely improbable that any non-Anglican bodies will take advantage of the offer; in fact, it has already been declined by one important section of Nonconformists. At the Wesleyan Conference in 1868 a letter was read from Dr. Pusey, in which he proposed a scheme almost identical in principle with that now introduced, though more liberal as regards pecuniary Endowments; but after a careful discussion it was decided that the Wesleyans should yield no kind of assent to any such compromise, but should insist on the complete abolition of tests in the University. One of the speakers on that occasion distinctly disowned the Denominational system, expressing his firm confidence in the foundations on which the Wesleyan system was based, and his willingness to see his co-religionists mixing freely with men of other opinions, and called upon to defend their own belief against all comers. But if the Denominational system should be gradually developed in Oxford (and such an alternative is perfectly possible), what will be its results on the University? In some respects it will be measure of justice, because there is, without doubt, a large proportion of English gentlemen who would be very reluctant to send their sons to a college where they would be exposed to the influence of some hostile creed, or to the negative influence of men who professed no religion whatever. This consideration is certainly an important one, and is one which many liberals in the University are rather unfairly inclined to overlook. Living as they do in Oxford, they are not aware that there exists a strong conviction on the part of many parents, that even under existing The result would probably be, that the functions of the University would gradually be limited to mere examinations, at least in some of the most important branches of education, and the very object which is aimed at by the enforcing of residence as a qualification for the degree would necessarily disappear when the University ceased to fulfil its mission of a teaching body, C. NOUVELLES DÉCOUVERTES FAITES À JÉRUSALEM. MONSIEUR, Permettez-moi de recourir à la publicité de votre journal pour signaler aux personnes qui pourraient s'y intéresser, quelques faits nouveaux relatifs à l'archéologie, à la topographie, et à l'épigraphie de Jérusalem. En attendant que je puisse publier in extenso le détail de mes recherches et découvertes sur ce terrain, je crois opportun d'exposer brièvement, dès aujourd'hui, quelquesuns des résultats les plus importants que j'ai obtenu. I. Inscription hébraïque archaïque (en caractères II. Inscription romaine antique.-Ce texte est IV. Inscriptions grecques dans le Tombeau dit des Prophètes. J'ai découvert dans cette curieuse crypte, sur l'enduit de stuc qui en revêt les parois, une douzaine d'inscriptions grecques chrétiennes, de véritables graffiti. La plupart sont des noms propres, souvent avec le patronymique; deux fois la formule ENOAAE KITE (sic)=ci-git, et OAPCI immortel. OYAEIC AOANATOC=aie courage! personne n'est Les inscriptions sont, presque sans exception, chacune au-dessus d'un four à cercueil, et indiquent évidemment le nom de celui qui y était enseveli. Les croix qui les accompagnent presque toutes ne laissent aucun doute sur la religion professée par les à l'époque à laquelle ces épitaphes ont été gravées, personnes enterrées dans ce monument. Quant la présence du chrisme permettent de les faire premières années du et la forme des lettres remonter jusqu'aux christianisme officiel, servait probablement de cimetière à quelqu'un de ces -c'est-à-dire, non loin de Constantin. Cette crypte nombreux monastères fondés de très-bonne heure sur le Mont des Oliviers. Il est à noter que nos épitaphes contiennent des noms d'hommes et de femmes. Il faut donc conclure que ce que l'on est convenu d'appeler le Tombeau des Prophètes, a été, vers le 4me ou le 5me siècle après J.C., une crypte chrétienne. Si l'on veut continuer à placer là le Péristéréon de Josèphe, il faut au moins admettre que le monument a subi une transformation ulté rieure. V. Sarcophage Juif antique. J'avais toujours été frappé de l'apparence singulière d'une ange servant de réservoir à la jolie fontaine moresque située dans la rue de la Vallée (Har't el-Wad) près de Bab el Kattanin. Cette ange monolithe en pierre dure, rougeâtre, présentait à sa face antérieure, la seule visible, trois disques en relief, rappellant tout-à-fait ceux du sarcophage découvert au Tombeau dit des Rois, par M. de Sauley, Grace à l'autorisation de Kiamil Pacha, je fis desceller cette ange et puis ainsi m'assurer que c'était bien un sarcophage. La présence du dormitoire ne pouvait laisser aucun doute à ce sujet. La face postérieure, adhérente au mur, était beaucoup mieux conservée que la face antérieure. J'y vis également trois disques saillants, mais j'y cherchai vainement l'inscription que j'espérais y trouver. Deux autres disques étaient sculptés en relief aux deux extrémités; celui du côté de la tête était légèrement concave et avait au centre un petit bouton. Ce sarcophage, malheureusement anonyme, est certainement contemporain de celui qui contenait les restes de la reine Sadan. Peut-être que l'inscription que j'espérais y découvrir se trouvait sur le couvercle, qui a disparu. VI. Tombeau d'Absalon déblayé.-Des fouilles entreprises par moi à la face occidentale de ce curieux monument, sur lequel les avis sont tant partagés, m'ont permis de découvrir la base et le piédestal des colonnes, qui sont, par le détail des moulures, purement grecs; les bases reposent ellesmêmes sur un stylobate de 0-80m de hauteur, supporté à son tour par une espèce de socle de plus d'un mètre de haut. J'ai, de plus, complètement fait vider l'intérieur de la chambre centrale, qui était presqu' entièrement remplie par les pierres qu'on y jetait de temps immémorial. J'ai fait ainsi mettre à nu les deux arcades funéraires, surmontant les banquettes où devaient être posés des sarcophages. Trois hautes marches taillées dans le rocher et se rattachant à trois autres degrés supérieurs, per■mettaient d'atteindre la porte primitive du monument située au-dessus de la corniche. J'ai découvert une autre porte, plus moderne, consistant en un couloir horizontal de plain-pied avec le niveau inférieur de la chambre, et venant déboucher à :l'extérieur à peu près à mi-hauteur du monument. Cette chambre a été évidemment transformée à une certaine époque en lieu d'habitation, ce que prouvent les perforations non symétriques des parois pratiquées pour y faire pénétrer l'air et la lumière, ainsi que la création d'une nouvelle issue. Ces fouilles m'ont permis d'arriver à la constatation de trois faits importants: 1°, la hauteur, les proportions et l'aspect réels du monument; 2°, la preuve que l'ornementation extérieure est de style grec; 3°, la présomption que la chambre est antérieure à l'époque de l'ornementation (il est probable qu'à l'origine on avait creusé dans le lit de rocher un caveau souterrain dans lequel on descendait par six marches); plus tard on isola ce caveau du banc de rocher par trois larges et profondes tranchées, de sorte que le caveau fut transformé en édicule saillant, et que la porte primitive, débouchant dans le vide, se trouva en l'air, et fut généralement, mais bien à tort, considérée comme une fenêtre. VII. Pierre de Bohan. Je pense avoir retrouvé, topographiquement et étymologiquement, l'emplacement exact de ce point capital pour la direction de la ligne frontière de Benjamin et de Juda. La pierre de Bohan, ou Bohen, pierre du pouce, n'est autre chose que le hajar el-asbah des Bedouins -pierre du doigt (non loin de l'endroit où débouche le Wadi Daber dans la plaine étroite qui le sépare de la Mer morte). La qualification de Bohan, fils de Ruben, repose sur une erreur de copiste très ancienne, dont je crois avoir trouvé et prouvé la véritable cause dans un mémoire adressé à l'Institut, et que les évènements politiques n'ont pas encore permis de publier. ouvert à une profondeur moyenne de quatre ou cinq mètres. J'ai pu m'assurer, de visu et de tactu, de l'existence du rocher taillé verticalement sur presque tout le périmètre continu du parallélogramme. A une époque postérieure on a recouvert cette piscine par les deux longs tunnels actuellement existants, afin d'empêcher l'évaporation de l'eau en transformant en réservoir clos ou citerne ce vaste bassin à ciel ouvert. Le mur intermédiaire, sur lequel s'appuie la double voûte, est percé de six grandes arches en plein cintre, faisant communiquer entre eux les deux tunnels. VIII. Piscine de Strouthion.-Il y a environ deux ans nous explorâmes pour la première fois, le Capitaine Warren et moi, le nouveau tunnel parallèle à celui qui avait été découvert sous l'établissement des Dames de Sion plusieurs années auparavant. La présence du roc constatée en divers endroits nous avait déjà paru indiquer que nous avions affaire à une vaste citerne mi-partie creusée dans le roc, mi-partie recouverte par deux longues voûtes. De nombreux travaux exécutés ultérieurement dans cette curieuse construction, ont entièrement confirmé cette manière de voir. Ils m'ont prouvé qu'à cette place se trouvait une ancienne piscine, ou birket, formant un parallélogramme allongé, creusée dans le rocher à ciel Cette piscine orientée du N.O. au S.E. mesurait environ cinquante-trois mètres de long sur quinze de large. Elle vient à son extrémité S.E. butter contre le gros rocher sur lequel s'élévait la forteresse Antonia (la caserne actuelle). C'est évidemment là, la piscine de Strouthion, que l'on voulait toujours placer au Birket Israil, ou dans son prolongement hypothétique, malgré l'impossibilité de rendre compte dans cette théorie du plan d'attaque de Titus contre Antonia, tel qu'il est expliqué par Josèphe. De cette façon, au contraire, tout devient admirablement clair et conforme aux règles de la stratégie. Titus attaqua évidemment l'angle N.O. d'Antonia; pour cela il établit un agger (batterie) à gauche de la piscine Strouthion et contre le milieu de l'un de ses longs côtés; puis, à quelques coudées de distance (la largeur de la piscine environ), un second agger, battant le côté O. de l'angle N.O. de la forteresse. Un coup-d'oeil jeté sur le diagramme suivant fera tout comprendre. L'exiguïté relative de cette piscine, réservée probablement aux seuls besoins de la forteresse (Baris-Antonia), pourrait même expliquer jusqu'à un certain point l'origine du nom de Strouthion, dont le sens le plus simple, et par conséquent le piscine du moineau, c'est-à-dire, la petite piscine plus probable, est celui de moineau, pierrot; la soit de sobriquet populaire. lettre pour lettre à Bahurim, moins la terminaison du pluriel. CHARLES CLERMONT-GANNEAU, Drogman Chancelier du Consulat de France à Jérusalem. **We have also received a letter from Dr. Chaplin, the publication of which we must defer till next week. THE MAURITIUS PATOIS. Thatched House Club, St. James's. ALLUSION has been made in the Athenæum to the Creole Patois of Mauritius. I have before me a copy of the book referred to by your Correspondent. It is not a collection of Æsop's Fables, but contains some seven and twenty lively little poems in Creole, of which some half-dozen are fables, cleverly imitated from old friends. They are not, of course, written by a negro, but by a French colonist. They have therefore only a philological value, being useful just so far as they illustrate the tendencies of debasement of a language in the mouths of an illiterate race. The work before me is not the only one in Creole. A collection, in some respects superior to this, was issued by a M. Chrétien many years ago. One of his songs, supposed to represent the rural joys of the negro, was quoted in a novel called 'George, or the Planter of the Isle of France,' to which M. Dumas put his name. I believe it was written by a Mauritian mulatto, with a design to prove the vast superiority of the coloured over the white race. From time to time, too, various jeux d'esprit in Creole have appeared in the colonial newspapers. I have some of these, but they are too local in their interest to bear quotation here. There is a pure Creole and a debased Creole. Your Correspondent confuses the two when he asserts that an argot of Creole exists, "a relic of the old slave days." The colonists of Mauritius have always cultivated the speaking of pure French. It would be as absurd to address one of them in Creole as a gentleman of Jamaica in nigger-English. Creole is the language which grew up among the slaves themselves. Coming from all sorts of African and Madagascar tribes, they found it necessary to adopt some sort of language common to all, a kind of lingua Romana. Naturally enough, they picked up a rude imitation of their masters' tongue, which, having grown up through some two hundred years, has made for itself certain simple laws of collocation, rather than of syntax, and is, so far as it goes, a complete language, with an exceedingly limited anything by periphrases. What is spoken by coolies vocabulary. It is not difficult, however, to express and Indian house-servants is a mere corruption of the negro tongue, and not the pure Creole; for the Indians on landing begin to learn the simplest words to express their wants, and never forget or Les considérations archéologiques et historiques paraissent démontrer que la transformation de la piscine Strouthion en réservoir clos appartient à l'époque d'Elia Capitolina; le magnifique dallage abandon their own language. Thus, besoin signifyqui passe au-dessus de la double voûte et s'étending need, and douriz, rice in the Creole, of course jusque sous l'are romain, appelé Arc de l'Ecce besoin douriz means I want food. Or, beaucoup, Homo, doit être contemporain; l'arc lui-même est meaning much or very, and misère, being Creole très probablement un arc de triomphe élevé en for poor, beaucoup misère obviously means I am commémoration de la victoire définitive du Romains very poor. But this is not Creole. The Chinese, sur les Juifs (Bar Cochebas), et consacrant la ré- again, who keep the village shops, use a worse duction de Jérusalem en colonie romaine; c'est jargon still, and one which very few Englishmen peut-être là le trikameron (triple arcade) figurant can comprehend. dans le Chronicon pascal au nombre des constructions entreprises à Ælia Capitolina par l'ordre de Hadrien. Il n'est même pas impossible que l'exécution du double tunnel et le dallage de la place publique qui s'étendait au-dessus soient individuellement mentionnés dans l'énumération en général si obscure du Chronicon pascal. Just as the French, in emerging from Latin, first discarded all the cases except the two most used, the nominative and the accusative, and then got rid of the former altogether; so the Creole negroes, ignoring the distinction between masculine and feminine, singular and plural, have adopted one invariable form for all their nouns. If the word is IX. Bahurim.-Cette localité, célèbre par le more frequently used in the plural than the singular, passage de David fuyant devant l'insurrection it remains a plural form; and if the definite article victorieuse de son fils Absalon, devait être située appears to their ears to be a necessary or graceful non loin du Mont des Oliviers. Les identifications adjunct to a word, it is affixed inseparably. Thus, diverses proposées jusqu'ici ne reposent que sur li-cien is chien. On the other hand, one definite des hypothèses purement gratuites; il est un point article, li, does duty for both numbers and genders. découvert par moi, qui topographiquement et In pronunciation the finer shades are, of course, étymologiquement pourrait beaucoup mieux être lost sight of. Thus, in the extract below, appears considéré comme le Bahurim biblique. C'est une lin' for la lune, the moon. Ch becomes f, as, see localité (inhabitée) située entre le Mont des Oliviers, below, coisi for choisi, çaque for chaque, bouge for Siloan, Béthanie, et Abou Dis, et appelée par les bouche. fellahîn dheil't fakhoury. Fakhoury correspond The pronouns are few. Je, il, elle, tu, have, of |