Isaac N. Ford, for many years the Foreign Editor of the New York Tribune, has written a book called "Tropical America," in which, as the result of nine months' sojourn in South America, he presents an extended study of the social, political and commercial conditions of the people. This survey derives its interest and importance from the fact that Mr. Ford is a careful and experienced observer, and brings trained faculties and a ripe judgment to the discussion of the present condition and prospects of the South American peoples. The book will be illustrated, and will be published by the Scribners.

Colonel W. L. Trenholm, Comptroller of the Currency under President Cleveland and a wellknown authority on all matters of finance, is the author of "The People's Money," which the Scribners will publish. Colonel Trenholm's book is an exposition, in a popular, non-technical style, of the principles which ought to control in financial legislation, and of the natural laws which govern the operations of trade and exchange. Its aim is the enlightenment of those who, well informed otherwise, are ignorant of financial matters; and in view of the present silver discussion it is of immediate in

terest.

Under the title "Calvinism: Pure and Mixed; A Defence," Dr. William G. T. Shedd, a recognized leader among the conservative theologians of the Presbyterian Church, has written a book, which the Scribners have in press, the purpose of which is to define and defend the tenets of Calvinism in their original purity and selfconsistence, as distinguished from proposed modifications of them for the purpose of an alleged improvement" The book opposes the proposal to revise the Westminster Standards and discusses the subjects that have recently been controverted in the New York Presbytery and elsewhere.

T

ENGLISH NOTES.

LONDON, January 5, 1893.

HE last of the original members of the Garrick Club, and one of its most constant attendants since its foundation, has passed away by the death of Francis Fludgate, which recently occurred. He was in his ninetyfourth year, bu. he retained to the last his fine memory, his geniality, and the courtly manner of the old school. He had been intimate with most of the notable men of his time, and if he kept a diary-which I do not suppose he did —it would indeed prove a valuable addition to the literary, artistic and dramatic history of the last seventy years. He was called the Father of the Garrick, and he probably knew more about the history of the club than any man living. It has been of late years the custom to write the history of celebrated clubs, and he who would essay to write the history of the Garrick has missed a rare chance if he did not know Francis Fludgate, and had not drawn largely on his extraordinary stock of information on the subject. When the club was first established in King Street, and was much smaller than it is now, it was probably at its best, and numbered most of the celebrities in literature, art, the drama-besides a goodly sprinkling of the best of society representatives -among its members. But in 1832 tobacco was by no means popular, and the members who indulged in it had to smoke in a shed in the garden. It was Papa Fludgate, as he was affectionately called, who vanquished the anti-tobacco notions, who established the first smoking-room, and who persuaded David Roberts, Clarkson Stanfield and others to undertake to paint pictures for its walls.

This remarkable old gentleman, with his wonderful memory, his fund of anecdote, and his kindly spirit, had lived through the best part and certainly the most enjoyable portion --of the nineteenth century. He had been at Nelson's funeral when he was a very small boy, and had seen Lord Byron. In latter years he had been an intimate friend of Thackeray, and he had many amusing anecdotes to relate

concerning him. The author of Vanity Fair" had something to say of his old friend in one of his Christmas books. In "Our Street" Francis Fludgate is described as Tom Fairfax," and his portrait is also cleverly sketched in the illustration entitled "The Happy Family." In the gentleman in the dressing gown, surrounded by a bevy of little girls, may be traced a considerable resemblance to the Father of the Garrick, who at a ripe old age has only recently quietly passed away.

The greatest event in the book-sale room recently has been the sale at Sotheby's of the autograph manuscript of Poems by Two

Brothers," in the handwriting of Alfred and Charles Tennyson, but the principal part by the Laureate. Included in this were some interesting autograph letters, the original receipt for £20 to Messrs. Jackson of Louth, and the publishers' reserved copy of the volume, quite clean and on the original boards. Many people expected this prize would go to Americaindeed, at one time I had but little doubt that it would, for Mr. B. F. Stevens was bidding vigorously. However, Messrs. Macmillan & Bowes, of Cambridge, secured the precious book for £480. It is understood they had an almost unlimited commission to purchase it for Cambridge University. As rarities sell in the present day it does not seem to be a very extravagant price, for it must be borne in mind the thing is absolutely unique, and its owners exercised a very wise discretion not only in keeping it all these years, but selling it at exactly the right moment.

Many authors are very careless indeed as to what becomes of their manuscripts, and never think of having them returned; but possibly this recent sale will put them on their guard. It will also have the effect of inducing publishers to inspect their papers and see what valuable manuscripts they may have put away. And then, doubtless, the question will arise whether, when an author parts with his copyright, he also sells the manuscript. This we shall probably find will prove to be a very nice point of law. An artist sells his canvas, covered with pigment, to one person, but he sells the copyright of his picture to another. seems to me that exactly the same reasoning

It

will apply to the copyright of a literary work and its manuscript. All this, of course, arises from the fact of a manuscript becoming valuable. According to our law a letter is always the property of the writer, and if the same holds good with regard to manuscript, it would appear, unless any arrangement had been made to the contrary, though the copyright of the poems above described had been sold to the Messrs. Jackson, the manuscript was still the property of the brothers Tennyson. Possibly

custom of the trade" would be pleaded against this, but I should like this matter to be definitely decided, as I have miles of manuscript that have at one time and another been delivered at the offices of various magazines and newspapers, and should it ever become valuable, I should like to know to whom it belongs. At many offices, after articles have appeared in print the manuscript is destroyed. What becomes of all the letters of notable specials, I wonder? How interesting would be all the original letters of Dr. William Howard Russell, Mr. George Augustus Sala, and Mr. Archibald Forbes, choicely bound in volumes! A notable institution of London has recently come to an end. That was the famous fish ordinary, which has existed for many years at the "Three Tuns," Billingsgate. It was at one time a very favorite place with litterateurs. The late E. L. Blanchard was continually making up select parties to patronize this excellent dinner, and I have often been privileged to accompany him. It was the cheapest and best dinner in London. You had every fish in season and as much of it as you liked, two joints and cheese, and the price was two shillings. They had two dinners, the first at one and the second at half-past four. The second was the most popular with occasional attendants, and it was usual to have cold punch during and after dinner. Not infrequently the guests lingered over punch-bowls and long clay pipes till nine or ten o'clock in the evening, and then people departed homeward in fourwheel cabs, not infrequently singing a merry song. A good many years ago there was an admirable account in Temple Bar of a jovial dinner at the Three Tuns," but I cannot recall the author's name. J. Ashby-Sterry.

THE book-plate, as it is understood nowadays-that is, the label, printed or engraved, heraldic or other wise, intended to proclaim the ownership of a book when affixed to its board or fly-leaf-made its first appearance, according to Egerton Castle,* in Germany. The oldest known ex-libris dates

from about 1450, and is that of Johannes Knabensperg, the design, in a rough wood-cut, showing a hedgehog disporting itself with a flower in its mouth among strewn leaves. The oldest ex-libris actually connected with a printed book dates from about 1480, the design, an angel bearing a shield, having the same motive as Thackeray's drawing for the book-plate of his friend the poet and the translator of the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khaiyam," Edward Fitzgerald. Dürer designed at least twenty bookplates, and exerted a lasting influence in the art. The use of the ex-libris was general among

German book-collectors before the custom was adopted in other countries.

The first French book label that has been discovered, a modest printed ticket bearing, with a personal sentiment, the name of Charles d'Alboise d'Autun, is dated 1574. The same date marks the gift-plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon, the father of Francis Bacon, which appears on the books which he presented to his Alma Mater, the University of Cambridge. This is the earliest authentic English book-plate, as the term is now understood, known to exist, only one other dating from the end of the sixteenth century. an elaborate heraldic device made for Sir Thomas Treshame in 1585.

ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES: An Illustrated Hand-Book for Students of Ex-Libris. By Egerton Castle. Imperial 16mo. Macmillan & Co.. $2.75 net.

BOOK-PLATE OF SAMUEL PEPYS. (1668.)

20

Mr.

From these beginnings Mr. Castle traces the historical development of the English bookplate, with reference especially to the relation of the various styles with each other and to their various classes of composition. The volume contains reproductions of scores of bookplates. Of these we give half a dozen or so which are of more than ordinary interest by reason of the eminence of their owners. Castle ventures the supposition that in the angel of the Fitzgerald book-plate Thackeray intended to portray Mrs. Brookfield, who is well known to the readers of "A Collection of the Letters of Thackeray." Edmund Gosse, in a note to Mr. Castle, quotes from a letter of Fitzgerald's, written in 1878, this reference to the book-plate: "Done by Thackeray one day in Coram (Joram) Street in 1842. All wrong on her feet, so he said-I can see him now."

Samuel Pepys had at least four book-plates, two of which bore his portrait. The one given herewith having his initials, S. P., combined with the Admiralty crossed anchors-Pepys, it will be remembered, was Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II.—is referred to as follows in his Diary under date of July 21st, 1668: Went to my plate

Alfred Tennyson

maker's, and there spent an hour about contriving my little plates, for my books of the King's four Yards."

It is somewhat disappointing to find that Mr. Castle has only this to say in regard to the book-plates of three eminent writers in their separate fields of the last generation-Tennyson, Carlyle and Dickens :

Other modern engravers have produced good work even on the most conventional purely armorial lines. But it must be admitted that, as a rule, the only interest of ex-libris of this kind depends on the personality of their owners. The coat-of-arms appertaining to our late Laureate, for instance, is not in itself a thing of beauty, yet what value must be attached to it by the most casual collector, even in the absence of the autograph motto, Prospiciens, respiciens, and the signature, Alfred Tennyson! A mere crest resting on a simple torce, but with a well-known name under it, assumes at once a startling importance. How sharply would even such jejune designs as those of Thomas Carlyle and of Charles Dickens's ex-libris elicit attention, when discovered on the cover of a book!"

Mr. Castle places Queen Victoria's bookplate for the Windsor Library, designed by West and engraved by Mary Byfield, in the Printer's Mark class, the earliest examples of

which antedated Sir Nicholas Bacon's bookplate.

The "library interior" book-plate of Walter Besant pictures, as is apparent at a glance, the life of a laborious student, who is surrounded by the instruments of his trade, and who regards every moment of time, as typified by the hour-glass, as precious. The design is by R. Crane. Austin Dobson's book-plate was designed by Alfred Parsons, and is easily interterpreted as At the Sign of the Lyre." It was originally used as a tail-piece in the volume of verse with that title.

For the benefit of any readers of THE BOOK BUYER who may look forward to the possession of a book-plate, we will in conclusion quote Mr. Castle's suggestions:

About the choice of a personal ex-libris, general advice or general rules are really of little