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Displayed Advertisements. Per Inch, Single Column $1.00 [48. 2d.]. Double Column $2.00 [88. 4d.]. Per Page, $12.00 [2£. 10s.].

In remitting do not send Personal Check unless adding the 25cts. to collect it; nor 5 & 10 cent stamps. Amounts under $1 can be sent in lc. and ze. postage stamps. English stamps accepted for Subscriptions. Foreign Postal Orders to J. J. Bender, Pittsburg, Pa. Literary communications and Books for Review, Address Halkett Lord, Editor, Jersey City, N. J. All Business and Financial matters, ADDRESS, BOOKMART PUBLISHING Co.. Pittsburg, Pa., U. S.A.

ANN ARBOR, MICH., Feb. 5th, 1887.

To the Editor of The Bookmart.

In the January number of THE BOOKMART, at page 310, Mr. "Harold Klett" (which seems to be an anagram from your own name) says that recently Mr. James Payn "has publicly acknowledged the authorship of 'Stories from Boccaccio,' a book which has been ascribed to half a dozen different authors from Leigh Hunt upwards and downwards." He quotes Miss Mitford as using the same title. In Men of our Time,' 11th edition, 1884, I find the same title in the list of James Payn's works. Can this title be meant for a book published by Bentley, London, 1846, entitled 'Tales from Boccaccio, with Modern Illustrations: and Other Poems' pp. XLIV. 204, 57)? This book was published anonymously, and the authorship has, so far as 1 can learn, never been determined by the bibliographers. The work has been generally attributed to Leigh Hunt by the booksellers; but Mr. Alexander Ireland, who is an authority on the subject, says, in a private letter to me, that Hunt was not the author. James Payn was born in 1830, and would thus be only sixteen at the time this book was published. I possess a copy of the work and cannot believe that any boy of sixteen could have written it.

Very truly yours,

ISAAC N. DEMMON.

SPECIAL NOTES.

ELSEWHERE will be found the advertisement of C. Chiniquy of St. Anne, Ill., Fifty years in the Church of Rome' and 'The Priest, the Women and the Confessional."

'SABIN'S DICTIONARY OF BOOKS RELATING TO AMERICA. This valuable Bibliography is steadily advancing towards completion. Ninety-six parts, forming 16 vols., 8vo, have already been issued. As there is no work to be compared to it in usefulness, and yet its issue entails pecuniary loss, subscriptions

are earnestly solicited from librariaus, privote collectors, or those who are interested in furthering the knowledge of American History. Complets sets can be obtained from the publisher only. Portions of the work obtained elsewhere will not be "made up."

"THE GROTON MURDER CASE. Argument for Defence, by F, T. Greenhalge, Esq., in the case of the Commonwealth vs. George F. Baker and Mary A. J. Baker, is published by Frank P. Hill, 2 Court Avenue, Boston, in a handsome 12mo pamphlet of 76 pages. Price, 50 cents.

GIFTS TO THE BOOKMART BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LI

BRARY.

The BOOKMART Publishing Co. have received from the librarian of Harvard College, catalogue of library, published 1830-34, five volumes, and the University Bulletins of Accessions to the library from June, 1878, to the present time. From the librarian of the Massachusetts State Library, catalogue of their library, published in 1880, with the 7th Annual Supplement, 1887, containing Accessions; for which they will please accept our grateful acknowledgement.

BOOK NOTICES.

THE article on "The Stability of the Earth," by Prof. N. S. Shaler, of Harvard, which is to appear in the March number of Scribner's Magazine, treats in a most thorough and comprensive manner the whole subject of earthquakes and kindred phenomena, their causes, distribution, nature and effects, and also discusses the probability of severe shocks occurring in the different portions of our country, and the best methods of preparing to meet their dangers. The article will be very fully illustrated.

Scribner's Magazine for March will contain a noteworthy article by Mr. Edward J. Lowell, on the 'Bayeux Tapestry,' the Leek reproduction of which has lately been exhibited in New York. The article gives a very full history and description of this famous work, and will be accompanied by numerous illustrations of striking and interesting scenes from the tapestry.

MESSRS. RAND, MCNALLY & Co. have republished (price one dollar) Home Rule; or, the Irish Land Question' Facts and Arguments by Charles Higgins. This is an ill-digested mass of Statistics, and a farrago of crude opinions which might well have been permitted to remain in obscurity. Every relief that real necessity demanded, and much that a fair scrutiny would not have justified was being secured to the Irish peasantry, by peaceful methods, as the London Times points out, and the screeching-in capital letters-of such writers as Mr. Higgins, does more harm than good to the cause they profess to have at heart.

To his contemporaries Byron was a portent in the intellectual firmament, and a sore perplexity to critics who love the specious methods of analogy. The disposition to regard him as beyond their measuring-rule, as a genius unclassed among poets because defiant of classification, has not ceased to strengthen in these days. Isolation becomes the Titan, and is indeed his legitimate inheritance. Something of this conviction seems to have posses

sed Mr. William Gerard in the inception of his essay, Byron re-studied in his Dramas (White & Co., London). This book is not without a definite theoretic basis that merits consideration, though in execution it is unequal. The essay would be better without its final section of confused analogical summary, and would have gained in cogency if the arbitrary division of Byron's dramatic work into three groups had been abandoned for one more simple. The rationale of this division is by no means clearly indicated, nor is it convincing as imperfectly set forth. To distinguish between the dramatic poems, as Cain and Manfred, and the veritable stage-plays, as Werner and Sardanapalus, is an obligation that scarcely needs to be urged. But Mr. Gerard has preferred another and more recondite course that does not tend to illuminate his thesis.

'JOHN WYCLYFF,' Par Victor Vattier, Paris, Leruox. There was a burst of Wyclif literature in England over the " quincentenary," a year or two ago; and some interest was also felt in Germany. In France they do not trouble themselves much about other people's Reformers-indeed they trouble themselves so little about their own that no one has yet produced a decent edition of Du Bartas, who is with D'Aubigné the literary glory of the French Reformation. However, M. Vattier has turned his attention to Wyclif. His preface is rather amusing. Fle thinks it impossible for "un clergyman" to speak impartially, whereas (Oh sublime Gallic self-satisfaction!) "I'auteur par son amour exclusif de la vérité"! will do wondrous things. This little foppery over, however, Professor Vattier proceeds to handle the results of his predecessors (his indebtedness to whom he acknowledges quite honestly) in a workman-like and thorough manner, discussing his points in an orderly and logical fashion, and giving, on the whole, an account more comprehensive than most English writers and more succinct than Lechler. His general criticism, however, is a little summary and jejune.-Saturday Review.

...

'KARMA:' by A. P. Sinnett (Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago). Esotina matters are becoming prominent objects of popular contemplation; or, to put it more accurately, a more or less idle minority has been aroused in relation to occult science. Many persons have heard of occult science; a few think they know what it is; and a select circle maintain that they practice it; but the latter circle has not as yet been induced to explain exactly how they do it;-a reticence which seems selfish and whimsical to their would-be disciples; but which they ascribe to a benevolent fear lest the desired knowledge shall injure more than advantage those who should acquire it. Manifestly, there are but two ways out of this dispute; one is, for the occultists to run the risk which they deprecate, and see what comes of it; the other, for the public to accept on trustthe occultist's excuses, and in that faith to proceed to live the sort of life which is reputed to promote the growth of occult faculties in themselves.

No doubt most people are reckless enough or their desire to experience a new sensation is strong enough, to lead them to prefer the former alternative. When the baron, in Mr. Sinnett's ingeneous story, smashes a window-pane by merely pointing his finger at it, he unquestionably exhibits a power which, if directed at a human being, might result in

bodily harm to the latter, and were the baron a villain, instead of the most amiable and benevolent of men, of course he could, and probably he would, do a lot of mischief. Still, if everybody had the same power, they might hope to counteract one another's mischievous propensities; and at all events, life would (until the novelty wore off) become highly piquant and amusing. But the baron, like all other good occultists, will tell his secre;t only, if we live on fruit and water, and otherwise conduct ourselves with propriety, he holds out hopes that we may in time arrive at a condition where we can smash windows occultly ourselves.

As regards Karma' itself, it is a theory which many, perhaps, would like to believe in. It presupposes the doctrine of reincarnation; and proceeds to assert that a man pays in one incarnation the debt he contracted in a previons one. So far, the principle is substantially the same as that of the future rewards. and punishments of the Christain dogma, with the difference that there are inflicted not upon the subject's soul in puris naturalibus, but upon his soul reclothed in flesh and bones. But the theory further maintains that each person passes through not one only, but millions of reincarnations, separated by vast intermediate periods of psychic rest and reminis cence, called Devachau; and culminating either in Nirvana, if the life finally turns to good, or in something unnecessary to particularise, if to evil.

Accepting all this, one would naturally like to gain enlightenment as to his present comparative moral and intellectual condition, by contrasting it with that of his previous incarnation. I may be a vicious fool now: but whether this fact is to be regarded as encouraging or otherwise, will depend entirely upon whether or not I was a still more vicious fool when I last wore a body. How is this useful information to be obtained? Mr. Sinnett has a capital solution. He introduces a charming lady, a clairvoyant, who not only has the facultly of reading the minds of her friends, and seeing places which her physical eyes never saw: but of transferring her vision to a non-material region, and contemplating scenes and persons who ceased to exist a thousand or a million years ago. Such being the case, nothing is more easy than for this lady to perceive clairvoyantly the previous incarnation of the little party who constitute Mr. Sinnett's dramatis persona: who thereupon have the satisfaction of knowing exactly where they stand, and whether they are on the upward or the downward road.

Whoever intends to read Mr. Sinnett's book will not thank us for any more explicit introduction to it: and so of those contrary-minded. We will only say, therefore, that the setting and method of his story are realistic and common-place, and that the style is chatty and unpretentious. There is only one criticism to make upon it (ass uning it to have been worth writing at all, which we are very far from denying) and that is that its readers, as soon as they get the clew to the joke (so to speak), will read only those passages of the book that directly bear upon it, and will skip all the rest. This is a difficulty which Mr. Sinnett would scarcely have avoided, if he were to make a story: for the plums have to be connected by a certain amount of pudding: and not half a dozen books in a generation are read straight through,—possibly not the bound volumes of THE BOOKMART itself. At all events,

‘Karma' may safely be recommended as perfectly harmless and (if you believe the theory) delightfully strange.

AMERICAN NOTES.

THE third volume of Scribner's Cyclopædia of Painters and Painting' is nearly ready. The price of the set has been advanced to one hundred and fifty dollars.

PROFESSOR T. W. HUNT will issue through A. C. Armstrong and Son a treatise on English and English Prose-Writers.'

ROBERTS BROTHERS announce a volume of stories 'A Week away from Time,' written by some Cape Cod amateurs; and 'Sonnets in Shadow' by Arlo Bates.

SIDNEY LUSKA has sold to a newspaper syndicate a new story The Yoke of Thorah.'

MR. JOHN T. WHEELWRIGHT's forthcoming book A Child of the Century' now in the press of Charles Scribner's Sons will be a story of political and social life at Washington.

THE shams and foibles of New York society are about to be again shown to the world by Mr. Edgar Fawcett in a novel, the title of which is not yet decided upon, although the story is nearly completed. It will be published in the Brooklyn Magazine.

A NEW and cheap edition of Mme. Campan's 'Memoirs of Marie Antoinette' is to be brought out by Scribner & Welford, in conjunction with the London publishers. The edition for this country will have a number of steel portraits, while the London edition has but one; and it is to be printed from new and clear type.

THE ninth and concluding volume of the handsome edition (G. P. Putnam's Sons) of the works of Alexander Hamilton has been issued. It is devoted entirely to the Federalist, an introduction to which is furnished, together with a bibliography. In the appendix to this volume appear the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States and the Amendments thereto, a table of errata for the entire work, and a list of omitted letters and papers.

THE Critic understands that Charles L. Webster & Co. have just signed an agreement with the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, to publish his 'Life of Christ.' The first volume is finished, and the second is to be completed by a certain tine, when the publishers will pay the author $10,000 cash and after that a royalty on the sale of the book. The same firm, we believe, are also negotiating with Mr. Beecher for the publication of his Autobiography.

'TEN YEARS OF SONG' a volume of poems by the Rev. Horatio Nelson Powers, will be published early in April by D. Lothrop & Co.

BRET HARTE's new book, which Houghton, Mifflin & Co. publish contains two stories, A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready' and 'Devi!'s Ford.' A volume of reminiscences of Salem life, by Mrs. Nathaniel Silsbee, Boston, is to be published shortly by the same firm. It is called 'A Half-Century in Salem.'

LIVRE d'AMOUR' is the title of a selection of poems, made from the French by Mrs. Blanche Butterworth Haggin, of San Francisco, which Scrib

ner & Welford have nearly ready. In making this selection Mrs. Haggin has had the great advantageoffered by her husband's library, which is extraordinarily rich in French literature, particularly in the department of poetry. The book is being printed and bound in San Francisco.

NOT long since Professor Charles F. Richardson published a primer of American literature, of which nearly 50,000 copies have been sold. This successhas tempted him to take in hand a more important work, dealing with American Literature 1607-1885.' The volume traces the progress of American prose literature from its humblest beginnings to the present time in its various departments of history, politics, theology, philosophy, the essay, criticism, science, and humour; passing under review, in a comparative sense, the whole of the literary period of the New World, down to the days of living writers. Messrs. Putnam's Sons are to be the publishers; English and American editions of the book appearing at the same time.

IN their "Handy Series" Harper Brothers have published Charles Kingsley's 'Yeast.' The same firm has recently issued, with over 400 illustrations a translation by Joseph Thacher Clarke of Dr. Franz von Reher's 'History of Mediæval Ar.'

FROM Henry Norman's cable letter to the New York Evening Post we learn that Prof. Thorold. Rogers, in working at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, has discovered some extremely interesting papers bearing upon early American political history. They are dated 1705-25, and consist chiefly of what, in Parliamentary language, would now be called the 'case' against the abortive bill introduced into the Commons for altering the Constitution. He thinks there is enough material to fill a Johns Hopkins. historical pamphlet.

MR. EUGENE SCHUYLER's translation of Tolstoi's'Cossacks' is to be brought out by W. S. Gottsberger, the edition being printed from the plates made by the Scribners for the edition prepared some years. ago.

MR. GEORGE F. DAWSON's 'Life of John A.. Logan' will shortly be published by Belford, Clarke & Co. as a subscription book. It will be illustrated by sixteen full-page engravings, and will have an introduction by Mrs. Logan.

'PRINCIPLES OF ART,' by J. C. Van Dyke, at onetime editor of The Studio, will shortly be issued by Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, New York. The work. is divided into two parts; the first treating of 'Art in History,' its causes, nature, development, and different stages of progression; the second treating of (modern) Art in Theory,' its aims, motives, and manner of expression. The book may be described as a philosophy of art, but the treatment is popular in nature and avoids scientific terminology.

MR. GOTTSBERGER has the following works in press: The Martyr of Golgotha,' by Enrique Perez. Escrich, from the Spanish by Adèle Josephine Godoy; 'The Bride of the Nile,' by Georg Ebers, from the German by Clara Bell, 'Leon Roch,* by B. Perez Galdos, from the Spanish by Clara Bell; 'La Baigneuse de Brousse, by Leila-Hanoum, translated by Gen. R. E. Colston; Henry Hager; 'Tales of Hellas,' by P. Mariager, from the

Danish by Mary J. Safford; 'The Invalid's Own Book,' a collection of recipes from various books and various countries, by Lady Cust; 'The Cossacks,' by Léon Tolstoï, from the Russian by Eugene Schuyler; The Story of Jewad,' by Ali Aziz Effendi, translated from the Turkish by L. J. W. Gibb; and a new and revised edition of 'Poems' by Rose Terry Cooke.

LUCY C. LILLIE contributes the complete novel, which has become a leading feature of Lippincott's Magazine, to the March number of that periodical. The title is 'Kenyon's Wife.' Robert J. Burdette gives a humorous sketch of his own career, under the title 'Confessions of a Reformed Humorist.' A still more important contribution is "Gen. John A. Logan, by one who knew him," written under the personal supervision of Mrs. Logan, and with the advice and assistance of Generals Sherman, Fremont, Clark, and others of Logan's comrades-in-arms.

THE Council of the Gorges Society announce that Vol. III., of their series of Publications, edited by Henry S. Burrage, D. D., is now in press. It is entitled A Trve Relation of the most prosperous voyage made this present yeere 1605, by Captaine George Waymouth, in the Discouery of the land of Virginia. Where he discouered 60 miles vp a most -excellent Riuer; together with a most fertile land. Written by James Rosier, a Gentleman employed in the voyage. London Impensis Geor. Bishop, 1605." It will comprise an exact reprint of a copy of the Relation" recently purchased in London for the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, R. I., accompanied by an introductory chapter containing a notice of earlier voyages to this coast, and a sketch of Way mouth, including interesting facts concerning several Waymouth manuscripts discovered in London by James P. Baxter, Esq. This will be followed by a chapter presenting the literature of the subject, showing the varying views which have been held with reference to Waymouth's discovery, from the earliest records down to the present time. The text will be accompanied by explanatory notes. The work will be printed on heavy cream laid paper, in quarto form, corresponding in size with the previous volumes. It will contain two maps executed at the Coast and Geodetic Survey office at Washington, one comprising the section of the coast from White Head to Pemaquid Point, and the other that from Pemaquid Point to Seguin Island. There will also be a portrait of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, fac simile autographs, etc.

FOREIGN NOTES.

SIGNOR G. MANZONI is about to publish the first volume of his 'Annali Tipografici Aldini,' which will contain all the accessible documents illustrating the history of that famous family of printers.

Mr. REDWAY will very shortly publish an English version (the first that has appeared) of the 'Kabbala Denudata,' edited by Mr. S. Liddell Mathers. Mr. Redway is also going to issue a work by Miss Louisa S. Cook, sister of the late Dr. Keningale Cook, entitled Geometrical Psychology.'

A REPRINT of the cheap edition of Mr. Coventry Patmore's collected poems will be published in a few days by Messrs. Bell & Sons.

A SELECTION of D. G. Rossitti's letters is being prepared for publication. They will be edited, like

the poet's 'collected works,' by his brother, but an introduction will be supplied by Mr. Theodore Watts.

THE title of the Queen of Roumania's (Carmen Sylva) new novel is Es Klopft'-'A Knock at the Door.' It is published by W. Wunderling, of Regensburg.

HERR HERDER, of Freiburg, has published a second edition of Kaufmann's 'Albrecht Dürer,' with fifteen illustrations, among which are portraits of Dürer, Erasmus, and of Dürer's friend Prickheimer.

LAST month M. Calmann Levy published volumes V. and VI. of the Correspondance de M. Rémusat.' These complete the work."

M. ERNEST REMAN'S 'L' Abbesse de Jouarre' has already reached its twenty-fifth edition. Of Ludovic Halevy's 'Princesse,' thirty-six editions have been issued.

M. ERNEST THORIN, of Paris, has published in ten volumes 'La Librariée des Papes d' Avignon, Sa Formation, Sa Composition, Ses Catalogues, (1316-1420) by Maurice Faucon.

M. M. LECENE & OUDIN, of Paris, publish 'Mollière A Poitiers en 1648, et les Comédians dans Cette Ville de 1646 à 1658,' by M. E. Bricauld de Vernenil.

AFTER the long war in Peru, Lima is coming to lite. Two works have attracted attention. One is a history of Colombia by Señor Carlos Benedetti, which seems to be of a partisan character. The other is by a lady, Señora Clorinda Matta de Turner, married to an Englishman named Turner. Her book is entitled 'Tradiciones Cuzqueñas,' and is said to be the best romance the Lima public have had on native topics.

MR. T. FISHER UNWIN will publish immediately a work entitled Modern Hinduism,' which will deal in a popular manner with the every-day aspects of life among the Hindus in Northern India. It contains chapters on "Caste," "Hindu Worship and Sects," "The Hindu Woman," and "Hindu Morals." The writer is Mr. W. J. Wilkins, author of Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puraic.'

M. SAVINE, of Paris, has published the second volume of M. Rabbe's translation of Shelley. It contains the 'Cenci,' 'Prometheus Unbound,' 'Hellas,' 'Epipsychidion,' 'Adonais,' and 'The Witch of Atlas.'

MESSRS. BENTLEY will shortly publish the remeniscences of Mr. Thomas Adolphus Trollope.

THE February number of Macmillan's Magazine contains a long paper by the Dean of St. Paul's on Mr. Browning's 'Sordello.'

MESSRS. LONGMANS have in hand a Sanskrit distionary for junior students prepared by Dr. Macdonnell of Oxford.

M. FORNERON's last work Louise de Kéronalle, Duchess de Portsmouth' is to be translated by Mrs. Crawford of Paris.

SAMPSON, Low & Co. are about to issue a twentyfive cent edition of Oliver Wendell Holmes's 'A Mortal Antipathy.'

For the Colben Club Messrs. Cassell & Co. publish Mr. Augustus Montgredien's book on The Displacement of Capital and Labour' a neglected chapter in Political Economy.

M. PERRIN of Paris has published Polikouchka' a new romance by Count Tolstoi; and Le Temps Passè' by M. et Mme. Guizot.

M. DUPRET has issued a second edition of M. Léon Sichler's 'Histoire de la L. Hérature Russe.'

GERHARD LOEBER & Co. of Amsterdam will send, gratis and post free, to publishers and printers their price current and specimens of papiers vergés de hollande.

M. A. ROUSSEAU of Paris has published M. Gustave Vallat's Etude sur la Vie et les Euvres de Thomas Moore' with a complete bibliography of the poet's works.

MESSRS. WARNE & Co., have published 'HalfHours with the Best American Authors,' in four handsome volumes.

THE English Browning Society has lately issued to its members a handsome reprint of Mr. Browning's very scarce first poem, 'Pauline,' with an introductory note by Mr. Thomas J. Wise: and also Mr. Arthur Symond's Introduction to the Works of Robert Browning,' which has recently received the poet's approval.

THE REV. C. King's Remains of the Gnostics,' originally published in 1864, has been entirely rewritten, and will be re-issued, supplemented by an English translation of the Pistis Sophiæ' - the Gnostic Bible.

GUY DE MAUPASSANT's new novel Mont Oriol,' has been published by M. Victor-Havard, of Paris. L. SAUVAITRE, of Paris, has published a 'Cookery for the Sick and Convalescents, for Children and the Aged,' by Gustave Belle.

M. ANT. LAPORTE has issued the first part of the third volume of his 'Histoire Littéraire du DixNeurième Siècle.' This is a critical and analytical manual of rare, curious, and singular books, etc., from 1800 to date, with prices.

M. THOMASSY has translated into French, and M. Leroux has published Moore's Lalla Rookb.

THE Cercle de la Librairie, of Paris, has issued the first part of an 'Inventaire des Marques d' 'Inpremieurs et de Libraires.' This work when completed will contain descriptions of 425 marks of Parisian printers, booksellers, etc.

GENERAL NOTES.

IN the January number of the American Bookmaker is a characteristic portrait of Ludvig Sandöe Ipsen; the illustrated articles on Bookbinding' and 'Initials of Mediæval MSS.' are continued and the first part is given of an article on ‘Incunabula.'

IT is announced in Le Livre that a new monthly has appeared in London with the following strange title:the Dynamiter, a record of literary bombshells, books old and new, flung into the camp of the orthodox.'

A BOSTON literary journal is responsible for the statement that two young Persians, students in this country, recently exhibited in Boston a copy of the

Peshito version of the New Testament, a MS.on parchment dated A. D. 1207. The MS. is stated to be the handiwork of a Syrian priest named Baknab who lived at Mosul.

THE new governing council of the New York Author's Club is constituted as follows:-J. H. Morse, W. Hamilton Gibson, T. W. Knox, Geo. Cary Eggleston, Bronson Howard, A. B. Starey, Ripley Hitchcock. E. Munson Sith, and Noah Brooks.

THE January number of Le Live contains a delightful little essay, by R. Dupontarice de Henssey, entitled, 'Les Tribulations d'un Chef d'Euvre,' an account of the trials and tribulations attending the production of Goldsmith's immortal 'She Stoops to Conquer.' It is illustrated with an amusing caricature sketch of a London Club in Goldsmith's time.

MR. T. B. ALDRICH has recently been in New York collecting material for the extra illustrating of Mr. E. C. Stedman's Poets of America.'

MR. WILLIAM BLACK, the novelist, having avowed in court, through his counsel, that he never occupied the position of clerk in a Mincing-lane counting-house: that he did not marry for money, inasmuch as his first wife was portionless, and his second would only have about £3,000 settled on their children on the death of her father; and that he had not refused to contribute the sum of half-a-crown a week toward the maintenance of an aunt, for the simple reason that he had no such relative, has been awarded £100 damages against Mr. John Dicks, the proprietor of Bow Bells, in respect of a paragraph in that journal asserting the contrary of these statements.

THE Athenæum states that there is no truth in the rumour that Mr. Gladstone was paid $1250 for his article in the Janu ry Contemporary on Lord Tennyson's last poem. Twelve cents a word is a remuneration rarely paid to prose writers and seldom to poets. Indeed Lord Tennyson himself is probably the only living poet who has been so royally paid.

THE Christmas number of the Studio contains an e cellent etching by Sidney Smith of a Silver Coffee Pot set with rough pearls, of Persian design; and a thoroughly sound criticism of that nonument of scene-painting Munckacsy's Christ before Pilate a tawdry vulgar picture worthy of Gustave Doré at his worst.

RAND, MCNALLY & CO.send us their indexed county and township and shipper's guide of Rhode Island, another of their excellent and trustworthy series of maps.

THE late Humphrey Moore the well known secondhand bookseller of Baltimore left nearly $100,000, his entire fortune, for benevolent purposes.

THE number of new books and new editions of books published in Great Britain during the year 1886 was five thousand two hundred and ten. Novels and Theology top the list with 969 and 752 respectively; of Educational works 572 were published; of "Juveniles," 445; of Belles Lettres, 479; of History and Biography 350; Law Books bring up the rear with the small total of 33.

THE December number of the Bibliographie de la France contains a biographical sketch of the late Ambroise Firmin-Didot from the pen of M. Wallon, member of the Institute.

THE Pall Mall Gazette laments the fact that the Life of the late Lord Houghton is to be written by his son and declares that the present Lord has no special qualifications for the work. Well, well, he is a peer and he is immensely rich and if these be not the very best qualifications for successful authorship, where shall we find them?