Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/47

 9B. XL JAN. 10, 1903,] NOTES AND QUERIES,

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if Australia be taken as a continent, much informa- tion i furnished, though many features have not yet been leriously studied. Passing over various entries under ' New,' we come to ' Newspapers,' on which no fewer than eight workers have been employed. Among these are Mr. Alfred C. Harms worth, Mr. Clement K. Shorter, the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, and M. Paul Villars. Messrs. G. F. Barwick and Dorset Eccles are responsible for the introductory portion. That leading articles have lost their importance is said to be "only a half-truth." Among successive editors of the Fortnightly Review, the first, G. H. Lewes, is omitted. Numerous details as to contri- butors to various periodicals are supplied, and the observance of newspaper anonymity now seems superfluous. Some curious particulars concerning Nihilism are given by Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace. From these it appears that the duel with authority is pretty evenly maintained, fifty-eight anarchists having been executed up to 1902, and thirty-nine persons assassinated. Mr. Gosse writes on * Norse Literature since 1885.' Few of the authors dealt with, except Ibsen, Bjornson, and Lie, are much known in this country. ' Numismatics ' has numer- ous illustrations. We welcome a good paper on Thomas Occleve, concerning whom little is gener- ally known, but whose writings have merit as well as interest. A reproduction of Mr. Orchardson's ' Voltaire ' follows. ' Ordnance ' occupies a good many freely illustrated pages, and may be read as a comment on Mr. Greenwood's prefatory essay. Under ' Arthur W. E. 0]Shaughnessy ' Mr. Arthur Waugh hints at information he hesitates to supply. ' Paleeobotany ' employs three competent writers. It opens out and treats thoroughly a subject the knowledge of which is almost confined to experts. Sir E. Maunde Thompson describes recent advances in 'Palaeography.' 'Parliament' is discussed by the late Sir Archibald Milman and Mr. F. C. Holland. Mr. Thurston is well qualified for dealing with the biography of Parnell. Sir Henry Roscoe gives a warmly appreciative account of Pasteur. ' Pathology ' employs many pens, and may be re- garded as the most important of the contents of the volume. It is profusely illustrated in colours. Coventry Patmore is assigned a good deal of im- portance by Mr. Waugh. Two fairy illustrations are given from Sir Noel Paton, and one design. 'The Vigil,' from John Pettie. 'Philology' and ' Phonography ' are both to be commended, and the recent advance in ' Photography ' is carefully de- scribed. Many of the illustrations to this are of really remarkable beauty. ' Physiology ' is another article of extreme importance which employs many pens. Sir Clements Markham is among those who write on 'Polar Regions.' Mr. William Burton deals with ' Pottery and Porcelain,' Sir George Reid with ' Protection,' and Mr. Henry Higgs with the ' Post Office.' A good reproduction is given of Sir E. J. Poynter's ' Idle Tears.' The steady advance which is maintained by this important work is a subject for warm congratulation.

The Treasury of Translations. By Wm. E. A. Axon. Selected by Albert Broadbent. (Man- chester, Broadbent.)

OUR friend Mr. Axon has been for many years in the habit of translating foreign lyrics sentimental, meditative, general. A selection from them has been published by Mr. Broadbent as one of his "Treasury Series. They are from the German, French, Spanish, Italian, Hindu, Hebrew, Persian,

&c., and include some gipsy and folk songs. The execution is excellent, and the volume is to be prized.

Pierre D' Urte and the Bask Language. By E. S.

Dodgson. (Privately printed.) IN a brochure thus entitled Mr. Dodgson has reprinted an article which he contributed to the American Journal of Philology. It is a critique on the earliest translation of the Old Testament into the Basque tongue, made by D'Urte about 1700. Outside that somewhat recondite language, in which we do not profess to be at home, the author does not appear to be strong in his philology.

Fry's Royal Guide to the London Charities. (Chatto

& Windus.)

THIS useful little guide, virtually unique in its way, the establishment of which by Herbert Fry we recall, has now reached its thirty-ninth annual issue, and is edited by Mr. John Lane. The infor- mation is given in the most concise and available form. We wonder if any one has been moved to reckon up the immense amount of money annually collected for the charities named.

IN the Fortnightly appears a rather belated, but interesting article by Hon. Lieut. H. G. Parsons, entitled ' De Wet's Last Success.' With this, although it casts a new light upon some phases of history, we shall not concern ourselves, any more than with political articles which follow. Mr. C. G. Compton writes on Alfred de Vigny, a refined and delicate poet and historian, whose theories are chi- merical and fantastic, but who has received during late years less attention than he merits. Mr. Comp- ton's estimate is acceptable, but we do not like some of his epithets, as when, for instance, he speaks of " the bourgeois romanticist Scott," a phrase which has a certain measure of truth, but is not true. Mr. Ernest Newman has an article on ' Richard Strauss and the Music of the Future.' Mr. New- man's own estimate of Strauss is high. Strauss is, he declares, well assured of artistic immortality, but he is " not a great melodist, taking that word with the meaning it has acquired in the music of the past." He is, however, an epoch-making man, and he is "the first artist in music." We are not quite sure that we understand what is meant, but we quote Mr. Newman's phrases. Mr. Bryden's paper on ' The Decline and Fall of the South African Elephant' is very sad, showing as it does that the creature will before long be as extinct as the bison. What terribly blind, unimaginative crea- tures we are ! The very steps that are taken to preserve a few herds on the littoral of Cape Colony do not fully commend themselves to the colonials, and no attempt is made to subjugate and domes- ticate the animal, as is done in India. Mr. William Archer has discovered a new subject in ' The Rise of Theatrical Subventions.' In the Nineteenth Cen- tury the most interesting literary article is that of Miss Annie Gladstone entitled ' Another View of Jane Austen's Novels.' It consists of an answer to the impertinences to use the word in its correct sense of the Newcastle journalist who undertook the defence of the Censor in the case of ' Monna Vanna,' and also wrote flippantly against Jane Austen. His lucubrations might with advantage have been passed over in silence. Miss Gladstone has, however, few qualifications for the task she essays. When she says that Shakespeare, so far