Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/106

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. x. A, i, 1914.

THE July Edinburgh Review is certainly not to be ranked with the less successful of the 44 numbers to which it forms the next accession Dr. Horace Micheli's study of the working of the Referendum in Switzerland should command careful attention. It has an obvious bearing on present political controversy ; but, more than that, it opens up consideration of a possible line of development which may carry the modern State on past the present plan of representative government. It may also rightly cause us to reflect on the effects produced by giving a sound education to the people as a whole ; it seems clear that our own popular education being less sound than that of Switzerland forms one reason for anticipating that the Referendum would not .at the present moment work so well with us as it does with the Swiss. Mr. Horace Bleackley A name familiar to all readers of ' N. & Q.' contributes a lively and well-considered article on Casanova, which, one is tempted to think, might suffice in the way of information about "that worthy for all except professed students of the eighteenth century. The appearance of Mr. J. A. R. Marriott's able discussion of English diplomacy from 1853 to 1871 may prove to be well- timed beyond the expectations of its author. Mr. P. Amaury Talbot s paper on ' West African Religions ' carries the weight belonging to first- Land observation extended, sympathetic, and of scientific quality. It should not be missed by those interested in this study. Miss March Phillipps in ' The Pirates of Algiers ' has one of the most fascinating subjects in the history of the Mediterranean, and she does it justice. The pirates' reign is apt to seem matter of the remote past, but not only is the tablet at Sidi-Feneh, commemcrating the French conquest of Algiers, dated 1830, but the writer tells us that her own grandfather used to relate the story of how he, as a young officer, helped the young wife of the English Consul at Tunis to escape from the pirates, by whom, if captured, she would have -been sold into slavery. Signer Luigi Villari whites of the Roman Campagna in a way that vi ill make the more romantic of its lovers sigh. Modern improvements are creeping over its immemorial loveliness, which will hardly be annihilated, but -will certainly be changed. Mr. F. A. Wright's article on * Greek Music ' is delightful reading, -and instructive too. But it is surely quaint to put Sophocles and Mendelssohn side by side ; in fact, both musicians and classical scholars will find several points to quarrel over in the com- parison Mr. Wright institutes between five -selected Greek poets and five modern musicians. Mr. J. E. G. de Montmorency is wholesomely ad- vmonitory in his paper on ' English Universities and National Life ' : he makes good suggestions too, but there are many obstacles to the carrying out of these which he does not tackle. Mr. Walter de la Mare contributes several pages of bright, sometimes far-fetched, comment on eight items of current literature. Of a French writer on the " English soul " he says : "As Drake shepherded the Armada, she shepherds 'th English soul." Such brilliancy as this is just as cryptic as dark icss.

THE new number of The Quarterly Review sets out with Dr. C. H. Turner's ' Study of Christian Origins in France and England a weighty piece of work concerned, naturally, to a great

extent, with the work of Duchesne. Mr. Rolles- ton's paper on ' Modern Forces in German Litera- ture ' contains an indictment of English men of letters and English publishers for carelessness in not providing thoroughgoing introductions to the study of the poets and novelists of this country and generation. We are ourselves of opinion that much may be said for letting this alone ; however that may be, it is not a matter let alone in Germany, and from German judg- ments and interpretations, as well as from the original works themselves, Mr. Rolleston draws a highly interesting, though not entirely hopeful picture of the interplay of forces in German literature at the present moment. Mr. H. Stuart Jones's article on ' The Mysteries of Mithras ' is one of the most interesting of this number in particular, in the pages dealing with the part played by Stoic philosophy as a guide for thought no less than for conduct. Prof. George Forbes gives us a delightful biography of the late Sir David Gill. Mr. H. Dodwell treats the rather well-worn subject of the East India Company from the point of view made possible by the publication of new material, offering the present account as a continuation of the summary of the history of the Company before the Battle of Plassey given in the number of this Review for October last. Mr. Robert Steele's paper on ' Roger Bacon ' ought to find many interested readers, especially in view of the fact that not many tolerably adequate accounts of him have till quite recently been available. Not least worthy of consideration among these articles {is ' The Logic of Thought and the Logic of Science,' a study of the modern position of this department of philosophy by Mr. H. S. Shelton. ^

GRIFFIN RECORDS. Mr. H. Griffin (care of Stokes & Cox, 75, Chancery Lane) writes that he has 100 MS. volumes relating to Griffin and Griffith families in which are also references to 500 other names in England and Wales. He would be glad to exchange notes with other genealogists.

to <K0msp0ntonts.

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VERA desires to thank correspondent for reply re ' Rose Gwyn.'

DR. KRUEGER. Probably an incorrect version of "crimine ab uno Disce omnes" (Virg., '^En.,'ii.65).

H. N. E. ("'Twas whispered in heaven"). For this riddle see 6 S. ix. 260 ; 7 S. ii. 253. 390 ; iii. 33, 73, 158 ; 9 S. vi. 85, 177.

DR. MAGRATH ("Troy weight for bread "). The latest reference for this in ' N. & Q.' is at 9 S. vii. 90 an article by COL. NICHOLSON. It has also been discussed at 8 S. x. 255, 278, 305, 338, 383, and at 4 S. ix. 447, 514.