THE latest craze in the old-book world is for literature relating to the abolitionist movement, and high prices have recently been paid for mere pamphlets which a few months ago were thought little of. A demand is growing for anything relating to slavery as it existed in the United States from the time of Wilberforce to the War of Secession, the period thus covered being about the years 1789-1860. Proclamations announcing rewards for the recovery of runaway slaves, statutory enactments, books, and pamphlets issued or published between the dates in question have increased enormously in value of late, and will soon be difficult to procure. Strangely enough, these old-time curiosities are being sought for principally in England, and some notable discoveries have recently been made.

THE publication of Professor D. S. Margoliouth's pamphlet, entitled "The Origin of the Original Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus," has had a startling effect on Biblical scholars, for the author of it aims at nothing less than the absolute overthrow of the almost universally received opinion that the Hebrew text found at Cairo represents the actual Hebrew composition of about 200 B.C. The controversy may possibly become very acute, but it is to be hoped that it will not assume the form of personal acrimony. We have authority for stating that the editors of the Cambridge and British Museum fragments, respectively, have as yet seen no cause whatever for a change of opinion. On the critical questions involved we will not touch here, but Mr. Israel Abraham's statement (in the Jewish Chronicle of June 16) that a great writer who died in 942 quotes the present text verbatim, would dispose of the theory that the Hebrew is a version made about 1000 a.d. This may lead Professor Margoliouth to place the supposed translation a century earlier. But in any case the problem is a difficult one and demands the fairest consideration by each party of the arguments advanced on the other side.

THE University of Cambridge showed its respect for American scholarship by conferring the honorary degree of Doctor in Letters on Mr. Horace Howard Furness. This is a useful reminder, and acknowledgment of, the fact that America has done pretty nearly as much Shakespearian work as England. "Variorum" Shakespeares were published in 1803, 1813, and 1821. Then, after an interval of fifty years, appeared Mr. Furness's first volume, "Romeo and Juliet," the beginning of a modern "Variorum" entailing immense research, in which eleven plays have now appeared. But, as Dr. Sandys, the Cambridge public orator, said, Mr. Furness is not only "poetæ nostri summi interpres indigenus," but is to Englishmen "e fratribus nostris transmarinis rerum divinarum interpretis humanissimi Afrorum libertatis per vitam longam vindicis acervimi filius "-which, being interpreted, means that his father, who only died three years ago, was a man of high intellectual attainments, a well-known Unitarian minister in Philadelphia, and a keen champion of freedom for the slave.

THE interest of the hour in literary circles in Scandinavia is centred in the animated controversy arising out of the suppression of Dr. Edward Brandes's novel, "Det Unge Blod" (Young Blood), on the score of impropriety. As is usual in Scandinavia, where it is difficult, at any time, to discuss any issue apart from the personalities connected with it, the controversy has become somewhat a party question, and all sorts of irrelevant issues have been dragged in. Some

of the Norwegian critics had the bad taste to draw the name of Dr. George Brandes, who has always been on the side of what is admirable and best in letters, into the discussion. Each school has its champion. The followers of the older and staider school, who hold that certain subjects are unfitted for artistic treatment in the novel pure and simple, are met by the propagandist school with a problem on the end of their spear on the one side, and the free lances who have “Art for art's sake" emblazoned on their banner-and now the question has reached the pamphlet stage.

THE works of two other Danish writers were involved in the original attack-"Studenter" (Students), the first book of a writer calling himself Sören Jyde, and "Troskabspröven" (The Test of Faithfulness), of the well-known Peter Nansen. Dr. Brandes, as the leading critic of the paper Politiken, was first attacked for giving both books an undeservedly favorable notice, merely because they were "Tendensromaner," running on the same lines as his own book; in fact, of holding a brief for books of this nature and misleading readers who looked to him for guidance. The last addition to the dispute is a brochure by Dr. Alfred Ipsen, containing a violent attack on Dr. Brandes and his following, called "Dr. Edward Brandes and Politiken-an open letter to the readers of Politiken." It is honest and well meant, and no doubt expresses the opinion of the bulk of the reading public, but it leaves the question of what is legitimate matter for artistic treatment exactly where it was before.

MR. ALFRED AUSTIN, who spoke recently at the Publishers' Congress in London, was, no doubt, right in the main in contending that poets are generally level-headed, practical men. Exceptions to the rule can, of course, easily be cited; one thinks, at once, of Cowper, Shelley, and Leigh Hunt. Still, not only have the majority of poets been sufficiently sane for all practical purposes, but their fellow-citizens, far from expecting them to be lunatics, have constantly thrust them into responsible positions, in which sobriety of judgment was eminently needed. Mr. Austin mentioned that the poet Chaucer was an ambassador. So was "Owen Meredith"; so were several English poets of the age of Anne; so were, and are, various American poets of the present century. Poets, moreover, have been bankers, like Samuel Rogers, and solicitors and stock-brokers, like the authors of "Rejected Addresses"; and their clients have not deserted them on that account. Dante himself played an important part in the government of Florence, and acted more than once as ambassador. He was intrusted at one time with the superintendence of the works on one of the streets of Florence with a view to facilitating the passage of troops. "Dante as a business man," therefore, is not such an inappropriate title for an address as might at first sight appear.

SERIES

A RECENT article in the Manchester Quarterly, recording the conversations of James Northcote, R.A., and James Ward, artist, is reprinted in pamphlet form. The most interesting passage is that in which the Academician expresses his contempt for authority in matters of art, and his opinion that artists (including literary artists) would do better if they had no traditions to follow, but were obliged to go as they pleased:

"Being with Northcote one day when the allied armies were approaching Paris, I expressed to him my apprehensions for the safety of the Louvre Gallery. He rejoined that if all the fine paintings existing were destroyed, and if there were a demand for pictures, much finer pictures would rise up than we should otherwise have. The old pictures kept us in trammels, whereas if they were done away with, every painter would follow the bent of his feelings, and we should then have more novelty and variety than we have at present. The Ancients, for instance, were held up to us as unquestionable authorities, because, he supposed, they were the first in point of time. Had Shakespeare been bound down by the laws of the ancient drama, he would have done nothing."

Here is an even better reason for burning books than was given by the Mohammedan in the library of Alexandria.

IN connection with the Universal Exhibition of 1900 arrangements are being made for an international congress dealing with the history of religions. It will consist of eight sections, and almost all the religious beliefs of the known races of men past and present will be brought under review. Among the most interesting subjects are totemism, the function of sacrifice in the religion of savages, the historical evolution of Buddhism in China, funeral rites in ancient Egypt, the deities of the early Semites, the myths contained in the Homeric poems, and the origin of the principal Germanic deities. The eighth section deals with the history of Christianity, but discussions on dogma and the confessional are excluded. Circulars have been sent out early, so as to secure the thorough preparation of papers by scholars and religious thinkers. Besides French, the following languages may be used: Latin, German, English, and Italian.

AN édition de luxe of his letter "J'accuse," specially printed at the celebrated house of Christophe Plautin, and specially bound by M. Jacques Moisely, is to be presented to M. Zola by the journalists of Antwerp.

THE most interesting feature of the "Library Association Year Book" is a collection of examination papers lately set to candidates for the association's certificates. The librarian is asked, for example, to "give some account of the Chanson de Roland," to "distinguish between Dynamics, Statics, Kinematics," and to "state and discuss the estimates of Boswell's character and capacity given, respectively, by Macaulay and Carlyle." It is well, of course, that he should be able to do these things, if called upon; but in the practical course of his duties we imagine that he is generally enough of a diplomatist to evade the obligation. Among the questions which we should not ourselves feel confident of answering correctly is this: "In a library having a staff composed of both sexes, what ordinary routine work would you apportion to the female members?" They might allure the young men of the community within reach of the civilising influences of the one hundred best books; but, perhaps, such a reply would be too flippant to deserve high marks. Another poser is: "What steps would you take to prevent a public readingroom from being abused by a dirty loafer?" The answer might depend upon the dirty loafer's fighting weight. Prob

A NOTABLE feature of a charity bazaar, which was held last week in London, was the "souvenir," edited by Mr. Beerbohm Tree, with contributions from a great many men and women of letters, artists, and composers-all of distinction in their art. "Art for Love" was the legend which the cover bore, which meant that all Mr. Tree's collaborators had made the charity a present of their contributions. Mr. Tree's enterprise was rewarded with remarkable success. To get original poems from the Poet Laureate, Mr. Swinburne, Mr. Henley, Mr. Davidson, Mr. Watson, Sir Lewis Morris, Mr. WattsDunton, and Mr. Stephen Phillips; essayettes from Mr. Birrell and Mr. Andrew Lang; stories and sketches from Dr. Conan Doyle, Mr. Anthony Hope, Mr. Frankfort Moore, Mrs. Humphry Ward, and Mr. Zangwill; short plays by Mr. Henry A. Jones and Mr. Haddon Chambers-this was enough to make up a 66 souvenir of great and lasting interest. Mr. Swinburne's poem, 66 At a Dog's Grave." seems to be a fervent plea for the recognition of animal-souls

"Shall friends born lower in life, though pure of sin,
Though clothed with love and faith to usward plight,
Perish and pass unbidden of us, their kin,
Good-night?"

Mr. Henley's fragment of verse has that distinction, that sense of a large and vivid outlook upon life, which animates all his best work. It is so short that we may quote all its eight lines:

"A sigh sent wrong,

A kiss that goes astray,

A sorrow the years endlongSo they say.

"So let it be!

Come the sorrow, the kiss, the sigh!
They are life, dear life, all three-
And we die."

After this the Poet Laureate's eulogy of the Stella stewardess (in the manner of Mr. George R. Sims) sounds rhetorical rather than poetical.

"Tell me the tale again, mother,

Tell me the tale again,

Of the cheery start and the joyous trip
And the folds of the fog and then-
How men may be heroes in their death
And women as brave as men."

Still, it is good enough rhetoric, and the subject is a fine one.
Sir Walter Besant discourses pleasantly of Charing Cross.
His article and Mr. Birrell's seem to be the only two which
have any direct reference to the object of the bazaar, though
Dean Hole pleads eloquently for "flowers for the sick":

"I pray you to whom God gives gardens, lend
This happy solace which the flowers bestow,
Where pain oppresses, and where few befriend

To cheer the suffering and to soothe their woe." Mr. Pett-Ridge, too, sketches the waiting crowd of visitors at a hospital's door on Sunday afternoon. But, whether the contributors refer directly to the charity they are to benefit or not, they are all attractive, and they make up a volume that is much more than the usual ephemeral souvenir.

Portraiture in Recumbent Effigies and Ancient Schools of Monumental Sculpture in England. By ALBERT HARTSHORNE. 91⁄2 x 6% in., 36 pp. Exeter, 1899.

Pollard. 2s. 6d.

BIOGRAPHY. Oliver Cromwell. By SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER, D.C.L., LL.D. 13 x 10 in., 216 pp. London, 1899. Goupil. 8 n. and £3 35. n. Wordsworth and the Coleridges, and Other Memoirs, Literary and Political. By ELLIS YARNALL. 9x6 in., 331 pp. London, 1899.

Macmillan. 108. n. Reminiscences of the King of Roumania. Ed. from the Original Manuscript. With Introduction by SIDNEY WHITMAN. 9x6 in., xxxi. +367 pp. London, 1899.

Harper. 10s. 6d. The Brave Sons of Skye. By LIEUT.COL. J. MACINNES, V.D. 10% x 81⁄2 in., xxv. +230 pp. London, 1899. Eyre and Spottiswoode. The Life of William Ewart Gladstone. 2 vols. Ed. by SIR WEMYSS REID. 9 x 6% in., xv. +752 pp. London, 1899. Cassell. 9s. Extracts from the Diary and Autobiography of the Rev. James Clegg. Ed. by HENRY KIRKE, M.A., B.C.L. 9 x 6 in., 103 pp. London, 1899. Sampson Low. 6s.

EDUCATIONAL. Social Phases of Education in the School and the Home. By SAMUEL T. DUTTON. 7 x 5 in., 237 pp. London, 1899. Macmillan. 58.

FICTION. Silence Farm. By WILLIAM SHARP. 8 x 5 in., 253 pp. London, 1899. Grant Richards. 38 6d. Thibaw's Queen. By H. FIELDING. 7 x 5 in., 294 PP. London, 1899. Harper. 6s. Richard Carvel. By WINSTON CHURCHILL. 8 x 51⁄2 in., xiii. + 538 pp London, 1899. Macmillan. 68. Jason, and Other Stories. By B. M. CROKER. 7 x 5 in., 256 pp. London, 1899. Chatto. 38. 6d.

Jennie Baxter, Journalist. By ROBERT BARR. (The Novelist, No. 2.) 8% x 5 in., 128 pp. London, 1899.

Willow the King.

Cricket Match.
8 x 5 in., 313 pp.

Methuen. 6d. The Story of a By J. C. SNAITH. London, 1899. Ward Lock. 6s. The Wings of Silence. An Australian Tale. By GEORGE COSSINS. 7 x 5% in., 293 pp. London, 1899. Gay and Bird. 6s. The Greater Inclination. By EDITH WHARTON. 7% x 5 in., 254 PP. London, 1899. Lane. 6s. War to the Knife; or, Tangata Maori. By ROLF BOLDREWOOD. 7 x 5 in., 420 pp. London, 1899. Macmillan. 6s.

A Faulty Courtship. By Edith G. HOARE. 7 x 5 in., 318 pp. London, 1899. Warne. 3s. 6d. An Obstinate Parish. By M. L. LORD (Sydney Christian"). 8 x 5% in., 284 pp. London, 1899.

Unwin. 6s. Darab's Wine-Cup, and Other Tales. By BART KENNEDY. 71⁄2 x 5 in., 280 pp. London, 1899. Greening. 2s. 6d. Shadows; or, Glimpses of Society. By ERNEST MARTIN. 7% x 5 in., 133 Pp. London, 1899.

Greening. 28. Where the Ways Part. By BERTHA M. M. MINIKEN. 7 x 5 in., 560 pp. London, 1899. Digby Long. 6s. The Fortress of Yadasara. By CHRISTIAN LYS. 7 x 5 in., 432 PP. London, 1899. Warne. 6s.

GEOGRAPHY. The Heart of Asia. By FRANCIS H. SKRINE and EDWARD D. Ross, Ph.D. 8 x 5 in., 444 pp. London, 1899. Methuen. Ios. 6d. n. Enchanted India. By PRINCE BOJEDAR KARAGEORGEVITCH. 73⁄4 X 5 in., 305 pp. London, 1899. Harper. 5s.

LITERARY. Henrik Ibsen, Björnstjerne Björnson. Critical Studies. By GEORG BRANDES. 9 x 6 in., xvi. + 171 pp. London, 1899. Heinemann. 10s. n.

The History of Yiddish Literature in the 19th Century. By LEO WIENER. 8%1⁄2 x 5 in., xv. +402 pp. London, 1899. Nimmo. gs. n. Studies in Dante. Second Series. Miscellaneous. By EDWARD MOORE, D.D. 9 x 5% in, xvi. + 386 pp. Oxford, 1899. Clarendon Press.

ios. 6d. n.

MISCELLANEOUS. The Merchant's Handbook of Money, Weights, and Measures. By W.A. BROWNE, LL.D. 7 x 4%1⁄2 in., xlvii. +652 pp. London, 1899. Stanford. 58.

Pons Asinorum. A Bridge for Beginners. By A. G. HULME-BEAMAN. 6 x 4 in., 103 pp. London, 1899. Methuen. 28. The Bye-Ways of Crime, etc. By R. J. POWER-BERKEY. 7 x 5 in., 232 pp. London, 1899.

Greening. 2s. 6d.

PHILOSOPHY. The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy. By the RT. HON. F. MAX MÜLLER, K.M. 9 x 5 in., xxxi. + 618 pp. London, 1899.

Longmans. 18s. Free-Will and Determinism in Relation to Progress. By C. J. MELROSE. 71⁄2 x 5 in., 53 pp. London, 1899. New Century Press. Is. 6d. Naturalism and Agnosticism. The Gifford Lectures, 1896-1898. By JAMES WARD, Sc.D. 2 vols. 9% x 5 in., xviii. +302 +291 pp. London, 1899. Black. 18s. n.

POLITICAL.

Reminiscences of a Professional Politician. By J. C. H. 71⁄2 x 5 in.. 102 pp. London, 1899.

The New Century Press. 25. The Political Struwwelpeter. By HAROLD BEGRIE. Illustrated by F. C. Gould. 10% x 8%1⁄2 in., 24 PP. London, 1899.

Grant Richards. 3s. 6d.
REPRINTS.

Dante: The Divina Commedia and
Canzoniere. Vols. III., IV., and
V. Translated by E. H. PLUMPTRE,
D.D. 61⁄2 x 4 in., 256 +237 +248
pp. London, 1899.

Isbister. 25. each vol. Anne of Geirestein. (Border Ed.) By SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bt. 7 x 5% in., xxx. + 713 PP. London, 1899. Nimmo. 3s. 6d. The Highland Widow, and other Tales. (Temple Ed.) By SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bt. 6 x 4 in., Ix. + 343 pp. London, 1899. Dent. Is. 6d. n. St. Valentine's Day; or, The Fair Maid of Perth. (Temple Ed.) By SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bt. 2 vols. 6 x 4 in., xiv. + 344 +361 pp. London, 1899. Dent. 38. n. Ballads. By DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. (The Siddal Ed.) 6 x 4 in., 157 pp. London, 1899.

Ellis and Elvey. 2s. 6d. n. Rosine and Sister Louise. By G. WHYTE-MELVILLE. 8 x 5%1⁄2 in., 439 pp. London, 1899.

Ward, Lock. 3s. 6d. Mrs. Romney and But Men Must Work. By ROSA N. CAREY. 7% x 5 in., 368 pp. London, 1899. Macmillan. 3s. 6d.

SCIENCE. Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of Great Britain and Ireland. 16th Annual Issue. 8 x 51⁄2 in., 287 pp. London, 1899. Griffin. 7s. 6d. Living Pictures: Their History, Photo-Production, and Practical Working. By HENRY V.HOPWOOD. 8 x 5 in., xii.+257 pp. London, 1899. Optician and Photographic Trades Review. 28. 6d. n.

The Sonnets of Mary Queen of Scots, for instance, which

Mr. S. R. Gardiner has just been editing, hold quite a leading place among royal poetry of the past three centuries. It is true that they labor under the double disadvantage of not being sonnets and not being the handiwork of Queen Mary. We have no desire here to enter upon the highly debatable ground of the authenticity of the Casket Letters, among which these sonnets were found, though we may remark that Mr. Gardiner would not be likely to have taken the trouble to edit these verses if he were notin common with all students to whom evidence and probability outweigh chivalry and sentiment-satisfied that they were, in a sense, Mary's work. But, if that is morally certain, it is still more demonstrable that the original "Frenche sonnettis writtin be the Queen of Scottis to Bothwel befoir hir mariage with him" have totally perished, and the copies of them which we now possess are translations from the Scottish version which George Buchanan exposed to the scorn of his hard-headed fellowcountrymen in the "Detectio." Nobody knows what became of Queen Mary's precious autographs, but there is a shrewd suspicion that her son, who set up for a good judge of poetry, did away with them from literary and other motives.

All these objections will no doubt be competently handled by Mr. Gardiner; yet it remains true that Mary's verses are remarkable, even among sonnet-sequences, for "the sheer fervency of their passionateness." That quality gives them a prominent place among the productions of royal pens, which, as a rule, have more of the literary trifle than of the lyrical cry in their nature. To find a royal author who could, like Mary Stuart, hear the Muse say, “Look in they heart and write," we have to go back to "the ould ancient times of all," and refer to David, the weary King Ecclesiast, and Marcus Aurelius. But every schoolboy knows that the authorship of David and Solomon is open to grave suspicion nowadays, and one is left with the Emperor who taught how even in a palace books might be written well, as the only rival of Queen Mary in the genuine fervor of his literary inspiration. It is an odd conjunction; but such are the unexpected fellowships to be met in the by-paths of literature.

Gibbon hints that the literary toil of Marcus Aurelius was not entirely consistent with "the dignity of an emperor." George Buchanan certainly felt justified in holding Queen Mary, the sonnetteer, up to the ridicule of her subjects; and it seems to be the case that he felt that sonnets were still more unworthy of the dignity of a Queen than a long poem, which adds a pleasing touch to his literary character. A certain eminent critic of James I. was of opinion that, "since writing of books has grown into a trade, it is as discreditable for a King to become an author as it would be for him to be a practitioner in a profession." It was in Queen Elizabeth, of all rulers, that this OldWorld feeling that literature was beneath the dignity of a Sovereign-especially of one who could spell that word in seven different ways-reached its highest development. One of the few copies of verses that Elizabeth is known to have

composed was nearly the means of placing an indiscreet. Lady of the Bedchamber in the Tower. The poem in question, which Puttenham describes as "most sweet and harmonicall," contains one line that has passed into a familiar quotation. Elizabeth says of the Queen of Scots: "The daughter of debate,

That discord ay doth sowe,

Shall reape no gaine where former rule
Hath taught stil peace to grow."

Elizabeth, it seems, had no intention of publishing this sonnet," but somehow it got out; these things will do so. "My Lady Willoughby," says Sir John Harrington, "did covertly get it on her Majestie's tablet, and had much hazzard in so doing; for the Queen did find out the thief, and chid her for her spreading evil bruit of her writing such toyes, when other matters did so occupy her employment at this time."

It was the advent of the Stuarts, always a literary family, that gave English royalty a recognised place among English authors. In France Louis XI. and Margaret of Navarre had given a high respectability to the art of literature some generations before; in Germany Frederick the Great set the fashion of royal authorship a century later. Nowadays one is happy to think that literature is sufficiently fashionable for any monarch to dabble in it, either personally or by deputy, without feeling the least need to apologise. When the small number of sovereigns and of masterpieces is considered, it is perhaps not surprising that we moderns have still to wait for a conjunction of the two.

Legalised Robbery.

Casual Comment.

WHILE the ultimate disposition of collections of rare or otherwise valuable books has very little to do with literature, the book-lover is so considerable a personage in the eyes of the makers of books that perhaps a word or two in his interest may properly be said in this place. No man knows how quickly misfortune may come upon him, and it is for the good of all people, literary or not, that the laws of our land should not be allowed to visit injustice upon any one. There has come recently to public notice the case of a wellknown collector who has met with reverses. Whether these were due to his own carelessness or not is apart from the question. The salient fact is that its owner having fallen into debt, a rich and costly collection of books was seized upon by the officers of the law and sold at public auction. for the benefit of the debtor's creditors. This proceeding per se was a perfectly proper one. A man who owes $6000 which he cannot pay has no right to indulge in the joys and "pride of ownership " of a library worth $10,000. That it should be levied on to satisfy outstanding judgments is eminently proper from any point of view, but even as against a creditor backed by a sheriff a delinquent debtor has some rights in the matter. It is his due that such property as he may be possessed of shall be disposed of intelligently and not sacrificed through ignorance. The particular collection to which we refer was singularly rich in