Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/355

 9th S. IV. Nov. 11, '99.] 409 NOTES AND QUERIES. Crown ' volume is founded upon the Purves Papers, now in the University Library, Edinburgh, as well as upon papers in the Advocates' Library, where a contemporary copy of the king's letter may be seen among records of the royal household. D. M. It. Authors of Quotations Wanted (9th S. iv. 230).— ' An Order for a Picture' is a poem bv Alice Carey, an American writer. M. N. G. I 3Jlisjc.eilaiu.au8. NOTES ON BOOKS, &a The. Economic Writing* of Sir William Petty. Kdited by Charles Henry Hull, Ph.D. 2 vols. (Cambridge, University Press.) Though issued by the Cambridge University Press, this collection of the economic writings of Sir William Petty reaches us from America, and is due to the labours of Dr. Hull, of Cornell University. That Lord Edniond Fitzmaurice, the author of the admirable memoir of Petty in the ' Dictionary of National Biography' and of the more ambitious life issued four years ago by Mr. Murray, intended to follow up the latter work by a collection of Petty's writings on economic subjects has been known. That purpose was, however, abandoned by Lord Edmond upon hearing that Dr. Hull's scheme had made some progress. To the section of students to whom the economical and statistical writings of Petty appeal it is, so long as they appear, a matter of unimportance by whom they are given to the world. Though some slight differ- ence might have been made by Lord Edmond, it is probable that the present publication is practically the same that he would have carried out. It includes all Petty's writings which bear upon economical or statistical subjects ; his ' Treatise of Taxes and Contributions,' ending with its exasperat- ing catchword " The," to which nothing in any known copy corresponds; his ' Political Anatomy of Ireland'; his 'Propositions concerning the Government of Ireland'; his various essays in ' Political Arithmetick,' as he calls economics and statistics ; and other writings. The second volume contains a ' Treatise of Ireland,' 1687, left unfinished at Petty's death, and now first given from the Southwell or Nelligan MS., Brit. Mus. Additional MS. No. 21,128, together with the ' Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality' of Cant. John Graunt, F.R.S., which, though pre- sumably not by Petty, is closely connected with his avowed work. The study of Petty's writings has been hitherto accomplished under great difficulty, since his works are of rather inexplicable rarity. Our own researches over the last twelve years reveal the sale of three tracts only, and those at n-ices beyond the reach of the average student. It has been only in the British Museum or the Bodleian, which contains some Petty MSS., that the study could lie conveniently pursued. Some few tracts have been reprinted by the Irish Archaeo- logical Society, in the Harleian Miscellany and else- where, and one may be found in the admirable 'English tiarner' of Prof. Arber, a man to whom the student of English literature is under obliga- 1' tions which in almost any country but England would win national recognition. We have not in these pages to deal with the romantic life of Petty, a man with whom, as with the students of mediaeval days, erudition was a passion ; a man, too, closely associated with Hobbes, Pepys, Evelyn, and Wren, and, through Samuel Hartlib, stretching out a hand to Milton, in whose works it is possible for imagination to see a reference to Petty. Still less necessary is it to deal with the writings, to the merits of which students of economy have never been insensible. Petty's views upon Irish affairs as they existed in the time of Cromwell and Charles II. have not yet lost their significance. One can readily accept the statement of Pepys that he found Petty " the most rational man that ever he heard speak with tongue." That Petty's appearance was hand- some we know from Aubrey's description. His share in founding the Royal Society is recognized, and those who have not read Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's excellent book know, at least, the lives by Wood and by the aforesaid Aubrey. A valuable feature in a valuable work is the bibliography of Petty's printed writings, which is admirable. Dr. Hull's book, indeed, deserves, and will receive, full recog- nition. Its appearance will lead to a further study. The question of the authorship of the ' Observations upon the Bills of Mortality' is discussed, and, we think, finally set at rest. It needs only be added that, crabbed as seem to certain classes of readers the general subjects, the separate treatises may be read with the prospect of amusement as well as instruction. We are disposed to class some of tho writings of Petty with those of a brother knight and medico, Sir Thomas Browne. Eaylehawlc and Crow: a Study of the Australian Aborigines. By John Mathew, M. A., B.D. (Nutt.) An important contribution to our knowledge of tho Australian aborigines is made by Dr. Mathew, whose interesting volume is dedicated, by permis- sion, to the Royal Society of New South Wales. A previous essay on the same subject was awarded by the Society a medal and a prize. Originally engaged in station life in the Burnett District, Queensland, Dr. Mathew was for seven years in intimate touch with the Kabi tribe. As a result of such oppor- tunities he contributed to E. M. Curr's ' Australian Race: its Origin, Language, Customs, &c.,' 4 vols. (Trubner, 1888), an account of the tribe, which included a grammatical sketch and vocabulary. During ten years' further study of the aboriginal tribes as a whole he has found reason to depart in many respects from the views he accepted on trust from previous writers, and especially from those of Mr. Curr. The theory ho advocates is that the Tasmanians, now extinct, were the first occupants of Australia, and that their language is the substratum of the Australian languages. The amalgamation of two races is offered as " a probable explanation of the existence of two primary exo- gamous classes throughout the greater part of Australia, and presumably throughout the whole." Australia was, he holds, first occupied by a branch of the Papuan family—using Papuan as equivalent to Melanesian—closely related to the negroes. Then followed hostile invasions, Dravidian and Malay, the Dravidian being the earlier. The main stream of population " entered Australia on the north-east and crossed in a south-westerly direction." His views he supports from physiology, from mythology and tradition, from implements, from customs, and