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a skilful touch, and the pictures of contemporaneous English society are excellent. Altogether it is an English novel of the better class and a clever though by no means a great book. It fills one of the necessary conditions of a good modern novel. The characters seem to be drawn naturally and truthfully from life; and the impression is that of a genuine picture, without being hampered with the unnecessary details of the so-called realistic fiction.

A GOOD BOY'S BOOK.

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FOUR AND FIVE. A Story of a Lend-a-Hand Club. By Edward E. Hale, author of "Ten Times One is Ten, Mrs. Merriam's Scholars," "How to Do It," "In His Name," and other stories. Boston: Roberts Brothers. Mr. Hale's new story is a charming contribution to the pleasures of boys, and is of a piece with those which have already made him so well known to the young people of America. The lessons taught are of the most bracing and stimulating sort-lessons of courage, helpfulness, self-reliance, and self forgetfulness, but all set in a narrative of much interest, told with great raciness. A club of four boys, who Lad spent a summer camping in the Catskills, are joined by four others the next summer, and they elect a quaint and delightful old Indian half-breed woman, living in the mountains, the ninth member. Gradually, as the lads return year after year to the camp for their summer vacation, they bring others, till at last the club numbers forty. It is the doings and sayings of these lads, ranging from those almost men to little boys, which, treated in Dr. Hale's delightful manner, constitute the interest of the book. They hunt, fish, build bridges, reservoirs, and irrigating canals, tell stories, and do all sorts of things dear to the hearts of healthy and hearty youngsters. It is thoroughly a boy's book, charmingly written, and stimulating to all that is best in boy's

nature. Such books as these make a refreshing contrast to the goody-goody artificialities which were the current pabulum of lads a quarter of a century since. Dr. Hale's genius shines not less brightly in books of this kind than in the more pretentious works bearing

his name.

FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES.

THE unexpected death of Mr. Raikes lends a melancholy interest to the account of the celebration of the jubilee of uniform inland penny postage, which has just been published

by the Jubilee Celebration Committee, in whose proceedings the late Postmaster-General took so active and kindly an interest. Amid much that is merely formal and ephem. eral, the volume contains not a little matter of permanent interest in connection with the recent history of the Post-Office and its present organization, and these sources of interest are enhanced by the portraits and sketches with which it is illustrated.

DR. FURNIVALL is spending his holidays at Norwich and copying the earliest English wills, those of the Consistory Court, for a volume in the Early English Text Society. He hoped to find many instances of dialect and local trade and custom, but very few occur. As against the earliest English will at Somerset House, 1397, Norwich can show only a short English proviso, in a Latin will of 1427, shifting the testator's estate from one

nephew to another, in case the first is not "of good gouernaunce and lycly persone to the word, and marie hym self bi the avys of the feoffees, the executors the forn seyd.” The first complete English will was made in 1429, that of Sir Andrew Botiller, knight, and after this others came slowly till 1464. The first two registers have no English wills.

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Surflete," the third register (1427-35), has the proviso mentioned above, and five English wills; "Doke," the fourth register (1436-42), thirteen such wills; Wylbey," the fifth register (1444-48), only one English will ; Aleyn," the sixth register (1448-55), only four, though a Latin will of Robert Martham recites word for word a marriage settlement of 22 Henry VI., made by the testator on the wedding of one of his two daughters. The seventh register, "Brosiard" (1454-64), contains eight English wills, some of Norwich citizens, and

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among them one of John Goos, no doubt the ancestor of A. Goose, the publisher lately retired who issued Mr. Walter Rye's "Book of Nonsense." A pretty qwethe-word" for "devise or bequest" occurs in 1457; be ingate and outegate into ye gardine" in 1458. In 1452 John Bulston bequeathed to the Church of Hempstede "j pyxte, to pulte owre lord god in ;" and there are several gifts of altarcloths, vestments, etc. For "shall" or should," "xal” and “xulde” occasionally occur; qwceh' is sometimes found for "which," and wh for qu: "ye whech xul be seld to a-whytt (acquit, pay) my dettis" (1437). A few words seem special to the Eastern counties: "iij cadys of heryng, and xx orgeys"

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(1437), "fyve Rasers barly" (1434). Gifts of a combe of barly, etc., to the "plowlot" (1435) were probably to the "plowlight." A farindell of elys" (1435), “xij last of trufys, ij Sahures and a dydale" (1438) are puzzles at present. When enough material is got together for a volume, it will be edited by Mr. Walter Rye and Dr. Furnivall.

MISS AMELIA B. EDWARDS has, we are glad to learn, so far recovered her health as to be enabled to return to England after her length. ened sojourn in Italy. Her new volume, entitled " 'Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers,' will be published in this country by Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., and in America by Messrs. Harper Brothers early in November.

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THE expected edition of a 'Patrologia Syriaca," under the direction of the Abbé R. Graffin, of the Catholic Institute, Paris, seems likely to become a reality. The first and second volumes of Aphrates's works will soon leave the press. They will contain the homilies, according to the lamented Dr. W. Wright's edition, but collated with all the known мss, which furnish good variations. A Latin translation will be added by Dom J. Parisot, of Solesmes. The size of the Syriac collection will be the same as that of Migne's "Patrology," and each volume will contain a Vocabulary of special words used by the different authors.

A FESTIVE gathering has been held at Melbourne of the Melbourne Booksellers and Stationers' Association, at which the trades were largely represented, the chair being occupied by Mr. L. Hutchinson, the president of the association. Among the toasts given "Success to Literature" and

were

tralian Authors."

"Aus

THE museum of postage-stamps which has recently been opened at Vienna comprises more than 100,000 examples, arranged in three large rooms, and includes among its greatest rarities the stamps made for and used in the balloon and pigeon despatches of the Franco-German war of 1870-71.

WE learn from German sources that the publication of a new Latin dictionary, at the expense of the Prussian state, is in contemplation. The work, which is designed to surpass in magnitude and completeness all Latin lexicons hitherto published, is to be carried out under the direction of that distinguished classical scholar Professor Martin Hertz, of Breslau, with the assistance of a host of philologists, and will comprise not only classical, but also low and late Latin. The Academy of Sciences of Berlin is said to have approved of the plan, the execution of which will occupy full eighteen years and cost between 500,000 and 1,000,000 marks.

THE death is announced of M. J. Nerudo, the Czech journalist and poet, at the age of fifty-three.

WITH regard to the investigations contemplated by the India Office authorities among the archives at Lisbon for documents and records throwing light on the period of the Portuguese ascendancy in India, "A Portuguese" points out in a letter to The Times that a very complete and interesting collection of official documents has been published for some years at Lisbon, which embraces from the period of the conquest of India by the Portuguese in 1498 until the end of the eighteenth century, under the title 'Collecçao de Tratados e Concertos de pazes que o Estado da India Portugueza fez com os Reis e Senhores com quem teve relações nas partes da Asia e Africa Oriental," por J. F. Judice Biker, Lisbon.

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MESSRS, HENRY & Co. have in preparation a new series, entitled "The Victoria Library for Gentlewomen," which will be written and illustrated exclusively by gentlewomen. The Queen has ordered two copies of each volume for the royal library, and the Princess of Wales is also a subscriber. The first volume of the series, which will be ready in September, will be by Lady Violet Greville on "The Gentlewoman in Society," and she will be followed by Dr. Kate Mitchell, who will write on Hygiene for Gentlewomen." The claims of fiction will not be disregarded, arrangements having been made for new novels by, among others, Mrs. E. Lynn-Linton, Mrs. Alexander, Miss M. Betham-Edwards, Miss Iza Duffus-Hardy, and the author of the" Anglo-Maniacs." Besides writing the first volume, Lady Greville will also edit two volumes devoted to "Gentlewomen's Sports," the contributors to which will comprise, among

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others, the Marchioness of Bredalbane, Lady Colin Campbell, and Miss Leale. Other volumes include "The Home," by Mrs. Talbot Coke, "Culture for Gentlewomen," by Miss Emily Faithfull, also works on painting, music, gardening, etc.

THE monument to Christopher Marlowe, the first of the great dramatic line of English poets in priority of time, and only second in genius to Shakespeare, which was executed by Mr. E. Onslow Ford, A.R.A., was unveiled

at Canterbury, on September 16th, by Mr. Henry Irving.

By arrangement with the American pub. lishers, Messrs. Macmillan & Co. will issue in the course of the autumn an edition of Mr. Lowell's poems complete in one volume, uniform with their one volume editions of Tennyson, Wordsworth and Shelley. Mr. Thomas Hughes will contribute an introduction to the volume, which should be welcome to many admirers of the poet who have not cared to provide themselves with the recently completed library edition of his works.

sonnet in a note-book of S. T. Coleridge kindly lent to me by its present possessor, his grandson, Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge. The verses are in the poet's handwriting, and the composition is certainly his, for the Ms. has many corrections; indeed, I have had no little difficulty in piecing out the text as finally settled. The style, however, is so unlike that of any original composition known to be Coleridge's that I am much disposed to believe this sonnet to be a translation, probably from the Italian or Spanish. If you will be good enough to print it, some reader of the Athenæum may recognize the original,"

same!

J. D. C.

Lady, to Death we're doom'd, our crime the
Thou, that in me thou kindled'st such fierce
Heat;

I, that my Heart did of a Sun so sweet
The Rays concentre to so hot a flame.
I, fascinated by an Adder's Eye-
Deaf as an Adder thou to all my Pain;
Thou obstinate in Scorn, in passion I-

I lov'd too much, too much didst thou dis-
dain.

Hear then our doom in Hell as just as stern,
Our sentence equal as our crimes conspire-
Who living bask'd at Beauty's earthly Fire,
In living flames eternal there must burn-
Hell for us both fit places too supplies-
In my Heart Thou wilt burn, I roast before
thine eyes.

MISCELLANY.

ONE of our English contemporaries, remarking upon the growing difficulty in finding new subjects of interest for the exhibitions that are becoming an annual institution among us-now that fishermen, inventors, health conservators and restorers, Colonials, Americans, Spaniards, French, Italians, Daues, and Germans, together with our own army and navy, have all had their innings-urges the MODERN WAR.-If, in their general charclaims of literature to have an exhibition in its acter, the nature of battles and the circumturn. It is pointed out, no doubt with constances under which battles have to be fought siderable truth, that the vast stores of the change very materially, that in itself involves British Museum are practically closed to the a further change in the combinations which casual sight seer, "Nor," it is naïvely added, are open for manoeuvres in the field of which "would our national storehouses stand any the ultimate object is to lead up to battle. chance of rivalry with a vastly inferior show The size of the armies which will enter into that was accompanied by the more sensuous the next great campaign in Europe will be so delights of the exhibition à la mode." Of vastly different from those which fought out course such a scheme would include graphic the great wars of the past, that their mancuillustrations of the entire process of book and vring in campaigns must necessarily be very newspaper production, the details of typog- different from anything that Napoleon underraphy, the entire processes of printing and took. Now, even during the later wars of binding, the manufacture of paper, with other Napoleon, Jomini was obliged to admit that kindred and subsidiary industries. The many of the experiences of the past must be writer of the article will, no doubt, have the materially modified as armies increased in publisher and printer on his side; if he can size. One of the most familiar forms in which show any benefit likely to result to the author, he may perhaps secure Mr. Walter Besant, and other literary champions, for his scheme.

THE Athenæum prints the following communication: "I have found the following

Napoleon exercised his strategic skill lay in defeating with his own entire army a fraction of the forces opposed to him, before it could be reinforced by the remainder of the enemy. Thus the element of time essentially entered into the question. Even during the great

campaign of 1813, when Napoleon, holding a central position on the Elbe, endeavored to strike from thence against the masses of allies formed in a great circle around him at Berlin, in Silesia, and in Bohemia, experience showed that it was by no means easy to crush with sufficient rapidity armies of 120,000 men so as to prevent them from being supported in time by others. As the allies gradually closed in on him, and the distances between their different forces diminished, this became continually more and more apparent. In fact, it became clear, if it had been doubtful beforehand, that the question was altogether a matter of proportion between time, distance, and the resisting-power of the several armies concerned. On the other hand, in 1814, when the nature of the country invaded caused a reduction in the size of the armies moving forward separately, Napoleon was able as of old to strike his blows right and left with telling effect. Now, if it were possible for an army of our day, supplied with all the implements with which modern science has provided it, to meet any army of equal numbers equipped as Napoleon's armies were equipped, the difference in power of the modern army would be such that it would almost be able to deal with its enemy as civilized armies provided with fire-arms were at first able to deal with savages possessed only of bows and arrows. The artillery of the days of Napoleon would not be able to act at all, for our modern infantry can fire with effect at a distance greater than could Napoleon's big guns. Our artillery would be able to destroy Napoleon's army before either his artillery or infantry could act against us. Thus an army of 50,000 men of our own time must be reckoned as possessing, at least, the resisting power of 100,000 of the days of Napoleon. It is obvious, therefore, that the relationship between time, distance, and the resisting power of armies has been greatly affected by the change in the character of weapons, and that calculations as to what a superior army can do in a given time to break up the force of an army opposing it, and to be free to deal with another army, are greatly modified.

In modern war the effort of the general is directed to maintaining in its full efficiency "the vast and complicated machine" which he handles, and to breaking up and destroying the efficiency of that to which he is opposed. This is the central fact to be kept in mind.

Generals and soldiers, long accustomed to look at war from this point of view,

frequently embody their whole conception of strategy in a phrase which to a reader, taking it in its simple form, is apt to seem like a mere truism-that the great principle of strategy is to concentrate the largest possible force at the right moment at the decisive point. So stated, strategy may seem to have nothing exceptional in its nature, and to involve no study of the nature of the great organizations of men with which it is concerned. But, in fact, this study and this knowledge are presupposed by those who thus explain their art. It is because armies are not mere gatherings of armed men, but have a vitality of their own, that some very heavy blows may be struck against them without affecting a vital point, while a more skilfully directed stroke may destroy their whole future power of action. An army then, as it stands in the field, is of this character, that while the fighting force directly opposed to the enemy is an organism which depends for its vitality upon the trained spirit of order, discipline, and enthusiasm or devotion which holds it together, and on the trained capacity for mutual and effective fighting co-operation which makes it act like one man, it has also, reaching far behind it, a long and weak tail, on the safety of which its very existence depends.From War," by Colonel Maurice.

TOBACCO FERMENTATION.-A very essential process is brought about by firmly packing ripe tobacco in large quantities. It had been generally supposed that the fermentation is of purely chemical nature, but Herr Suchsland, of the German Botanical Society, finds that a fungus is concerned in it. In all the tobaccos he examined, he found large quantities of fungi, though of only two or three species. Bacteriacea were predominant, but Coccaceæ also occurred. When they were taken and increased by pure cultivation, and added to other kinds of tobacco, they produced changes of taste and smell which recalled those of their original nutritive base. In cultivation of tobacco in Germany it has been sought to get a good quality, chiefly by ground cultivation, and introduction of the best kinds of tobacco. But it is pointed out that failure of the best success may be due to the fact that the more active fermenting fungi of the original country are not brought with the seeds, and the ferments here cannot give such good results. Experiments made with a view to improvement on the lines suggested have apparently proved successful.-Nature.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS IN 1890. -The general report to the Board of Trade upon the accidents that have occurred on the railways of the United Kingdom during the year 1890, drawn up by Mr. Courtenay Boyle, of the Railway Department, was recently published. It shows that the number of persons returned to the Board as having been killed in the working of the railways during the year was 1076, and the number of injured 4721. Of these 118 persons killed and 1361 injured were passengers, but of this number only 18 were killed and 496 injured in consequence of accidents to or collisions between trains. Of the remainder, 499 killed and 3122 injured were officers or servants of the railway companies or of contractors, and these figures imply a further increase. Of suicides there were 77; of trespassers 252 were killed and 123 injured; of persons passing over the rail. way at level crossings 83 were killed and 35 injured; and from miscellaneous causes 47 persons were killed and 80 injured. The total number of passenger journeys, exclusive of journeys by season ticket-holders, was 817,744,046 for the year 1890, or 42,560,973 more than in the previous year. Calculated on these figures the proportions of passengers killed and injured during the year 1890 from all causes were one in 6,930,034 killed and one in 600,840 injured. In 1889 the proportions were one in 4,236,000 killed and one in 423,280 injured. But the comparative safety of railway travel is indicated still more clearly by the proportion of passengers killed and injured from causes beyond their own control. The total under this head for the year is 18 killed and 496 injured, and the proportion to the number of journeys is one in 45,430,224 killed and one in 1,648,677 injured. This result shows an improvement on every year since 1874. The total number of accidents inquired into was 53, the lowest previous record from the year 1875 being 58 in 1887. Of these, as in previous years, the most common cause was collisions within fixed signals at stations or sidings, 24, or nearly half the total, falling under this single classification. The report proceeds to deal with the accidents seriatim, showing how each occurred and where the blame lay. Among the various companies the London and South-Western with six accidents, the North British with five, and the Great Eastern with four head the list. The work of interlocking signals and points and of extending the absolute block telegraph sys.

tem is progressing, and in England at least little more remains to be done in this direction; but when the orders made upon the railway companies under the Regulation of Railways Act, 1889, come into full force the absolute block and interlocking systems will have to be generally adopted. Generally speaking, the year 1890, favorable as it is, would have shown a still better record, and that in spite of abnormal fogs, but for the serious collision at Norton Fitzwarren station, on the Great Western Railway on November 11th, by which ten passengers were killed and nine others severely injured.

MEASURING STRAINS IN BRIDGES.-A new method for accurately measuring the strains in iron and steel bridges has been invented by a prominent French engineer, and is described as follows: Two brackets are attached to the beam to be tested at some distance apart, on one of which is placed a water chamber, closing by a flexible diaphragm, and connected with an open tube, which serves to register by the height of the tube any pressure that may be made on this diaphragm. One erd of a pointed rod is connected with this metal covering to the water chamber, while the other is joined to the other bracket. The most important item of the invention is that any motion of the beam, it will be readily seen, will set the diaphragm in motion, and cause the water in the fine tube to fall. This is a first-rate apparatus, as we are all familiar with the great numbers of railroad accidents that are constantly occurring, and in many cases originate from an unsafe, shaky bridge. -English Mechanic.

NATURAL GLASS.-A mineral discovery of unusual value is reported from Kamouraska, in Lower Canada. It is stated that an entire mountain, composed of silicates, otherwise known as vitrifiable stone, of a purity certified by the provincial engineer to average 98 per cent, has been found. This material is used for the manufacture of the finest glass, and it is believed to exist nowhere else on the American continent in such purity. The provincial Government has been asked by a deputation to guarantee 4 per cent interest for ten years on £20,000, if a local company subscribes that amount, to develop the new industry, and has promised to consider the request if the principal municipality concerned is prepared to take a fair share of the risk.Iron.

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