Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/50

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL JAN. 9, wis.

Mr. Walter Sichel has a sympathetic and plea- santly composed review of the recently issued vol. iii. of Disraeli's Life. Mr. Barker's ' Chances of Peace and the Problem of Poland, and the papers on the war from the American point of view, by Mr. Sydney Brooks and Mr. Oscar Parker

to w ind up with the one great subject should

^Iso be noted. Taken as a whole, the number is good even beyond the average of this review.

THE January Fortnightly Review is a somewhat unequal number. It begins with ' Eastern Battle Deeds: a Letter from Russia, by Mr. Robert Crozier Long, which, so far as any one at a distance from the field of operations may fairly judge, is one of the best papers on the progress and characteristic features of the war that have yet appeared anywhere. It should furnish a desirable corrective to some of the utterances of the daily press; while its depiction of the situa- tion and of the Russian troops and their action is excellent and it is full at once of information and of fine anecdote. Mr. Archibald Hurd contri- butes a first instalment of a discussion, Will the War end Militarism? ' So far as he goes he certainly takes us with him. We do not believe that a pacificism grounded in a persuasion of the commercial disadvantages of war as compared with peace will have any better prospects after this war than it had before it rather the contrary. Mr. E. C. Bentley discusses with liveliness and with truth or so we opine, the ' German State of Mind, about which it strikes us that pretty well all has now been said that for the present can be said. Mr W. S. Lilly on ' The Morality of War makes, however, a point which would bear further examination, viz., the responsibility of Herbert Spencer, in some degree, for the new mind of Germany. Alice and Claude Askew give us a description of Dunkirk which is not badly done, "but is not more enlightening than the articles one may read in the daily papers. A contribution which is certain to find eager readers, whom it will indeed, partially satisfy, is the unsigned Prince ' It is pure gossip, but gossip of a signifi- cant sort, and about people who have proved themselves to matter. In the way of papers more in our own line there is a pleasant study of Walt Whitman by Mr. H. Scheffauer, and an extraordinarily naif set of propositions about
 * What I Found Out in the House of a German
 * Shakespeare's Warriors,' by Mr. Arthur Waugh.

MESSRS J. & J. LEIGHTON have sent us English Royal Bindings, published at one shilling, and containing a selection from their stock of choice books, mostly Royal bindings. Among those of Henry VIIL is a copy of probably the first edition of Erasmus's Epistles of the year 1521, 4 parts in 1 vol., bound by Reynes, 101. One of the panels on the side of the original stamped calf cover has an escutcheon bearing quarterly Prance and England, supported by the dragon and Jaell (not a hound), ensigned with the Royal crown, the sun and moon, and the arms of the City of London, the lower half with the Tudor rose and pomegranate. The borders on wood and metal are by Holbein. Considerable interest is added by the inscription at the foot of the title. "Ad usum fratris Richardi Risby, without doubt the Warden of the Friars Observant at

Canterbury, who achieved notoriety as the accomplice of Elizabeth Barton, known as " The Holy Maid or Nun of Kent."

There are many other items of equal interest, but we have not space to describe them. Under Catherine of Aragon we find an ' Horse ad Usum Sarum,' an English fifteenth-century MS., the Queen's copy, with her arms, 851. Under Ed- ward VI. is Erasmus's ' Enchiridion,' 1544, 321. There is a copy of the ' Arcadia ' with Elizabeth's badge, 5QI. From the library of Princess Eliza- beth, daughter of George III., is a copy of Thom- son's ' Seasons,' large paper. On the fore-edge is a fine painting of a river view, and as the Princess was an artist it is likely to be her work (70Z.). There are choice copies of Dante one Venice, 1477, in fine original condition, 110Z. Under Virgil, Strassburgh, 1502, is an excellent specimen of early mosaic binding. The work, which is folio, is printed in roman letter, with upwards of 200 woodcuts. The binding of citron morocco is inlaid with an outer border of brown morocco. There is also an inlay in olive morocco, and the shield contains the arms of the original owner. The volume, which is enclosed in a case, is priced 205Z.

Coming to more recent times, we note the first edition of ' The Vicar of Wakefield,' 2 vols., 1766, calf extra by Bedford, 951.; and the first edition of Swinburne's ' The Queen Mother ' and ' Rosa- mond,' 1860, 50Z. We advise book-collectors to possess themselves of this interesting list, which has over a hundred illustrations.

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BARON BOURGEOIS would be glad if any reader could tell him the present address of Prof. Bang who published many volumes of " Matenalien.