he refers the fires to the burning villages of the Ræti through which Tiberius forced his way, and points out with excellent judgment the absurdity of taking it metaphorically. We have only space to refer lastly to his treatment of the well-known difficulty of construction at I. 6. 2 :— Scriberis Vario fortis et hostium Victor Maeonii carminis alite. It is worth noticing how much more true insight into the pathology of language he shows than Orelli does. Each calls the ablative absolute; but Mr. Wickham sees (what Orelli is nobly unconscious of) that if the ablative be absolute it is at least a peculiar Horatian extension of that construction, and for this he adduces examples of his own, rightly rejecting the Orellian, Ep. I. 1. 94, "curatus inaequali tonsore" ("id est, cum inaequalis esset tonsor meus," Orelli !), on the ground that in this and similar instances the substantive is barely personal, and the ablative becomes rather instrumental or modal. Grammarians make very insufficient allowance for this flexibility in Latin and (much more) in Greek they comment as though their authors were consciously breaking grammatical rules which, at least in the most vigorous period of Greek literature, had no real existence; when the creative power of language broke out in a tentative way, causing change of construction in the very middle of a sentence, so that the connexion of the words is natural rather than in any proper sense grammatical. This inventive power will be denied by no one to Thucydides and Sophocles; and, if it is to be looked for anywhere in Latin, it should be in the work of the "Romanae fidicen lyrae." On this principle we might adopt Ritter's explanation of the present passage-that "Vario" is dative, and the construction is changed after the intervening words. Returning to Mr. Wickham, we are not sure whether his examples (II. 1. 12, 16; II. 7. 15; III. 5. 5) are quite sufficient to support his theory: all might be explained as proper instrumental or modal ablatives without much violence. Might he not better have adduced the difficult ablatives in "non uoltus instantis tyranni mente quatit solida" (III. 3. 4), or "spatio brevi spem longam reseces (I. 11. 6) Neither of these seems to us to be satisfactorily explained by him the first he calls an ablative of the part affected, an explanation of that case with which we are not familiar; and he construes "spatio brevi" as "by thinking on the shortness of life," which is surely an evasion of the difficulty. But it does seem to us that each of these might be accounted for by Mr. Wickham's hypothesis of a half-conscious extension by Horace of the ablative absolute. : NOVELS OF THE WEEK. Merrie England. By W. Harrison Ainsworth. Marian's Trust. By the Author of 'Ursula's LIKE Fenimore Cooper among his brethren and kiteflying, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth rather ter could embezzle large sums entrusted to In spite of plenty of stirring incident, and general excellence of purpose, Mrs. Forrest Grant's work is hardly up to the average of fiction. Her reading and writing have been too unreservedly trusted to nature for their development, and before she can reap high laurels as a novelist, she must deserve the humbler praise of the grammarian. What, for instance, can be made of such sentences as these :"Mrs. Hamilton and my acquaintance dates far before hers with your sylvan nymph." "The apartments were abundantly, even handsomely furnished. The latter Rowcliffe purchased with the house." Add to such puzzles in parsing the occasional substitution of a nominative for an accusative, the habitual misuse of words like "which" and "such," such oddities of spelling, due, perhaps, to the printer, as "to indict a letter," a "spritely" style of beauty, queer adverbs like "uncompunctiously," and uncompunctiously," and conversational vulgarisms ad libitum, and the result is a farrago exceedingly difficult to read. Nor does our author display more familiarity with the world than with books. No barris 'After Long Years' is a readable little story, though the plot, which turns upon a father forging a letter to secure his daughter's marriage with a man of his own selection, is rather far-fetched. Still more improbable is the hasty manner in which, without explanation on either side, the engagement between Dynevor and Joan Lloyd is broken off. The latter, in all respects save this, acts like a woman of sense and spirit; and a dangerous ride she takes by night to save her lover's life from the Monmouth Chartists, during the sedition of 1839, enlivens the tale with one stirring incident at least. The event which is led up to "after long years" is, of course, the marriage of Mr. Jarvis's victims, whose financial position is much improved by the delay. Miss Halifax is, at any rate, open-handed to the creatures of her imagination. 'Marian's Trust' is rather a long book in short sentences, which are intended to contain a great deal, and, therefore, are a little fatiguing. But in spite of this drawback, it is possible to read the story with a good deal of pleasure. There is skill shown in the delineation of Marian's character, and the combination of prudence with romance which is the result of her training in the school of adversity. It is obvious that in nine cases out of ten a girl in her position would have accepted the hand of her first lover, in spite of his temporary neglect, and in spite of the intellectual sympathy she might feel for a second suitor; and that in ninety-nine out of a hundred, if she became engaged to the second, she would not have retreated from her engagement on the ground of a difference of opinion with regard to the character of the first. But Marian is the exceptional product of exceptional circumstances, and both cause and effect are studies of much merit. It is an instance of the author's power, that we feel she has not quite fathomed the character she so vividly describes. So real is Marian, that we feel sure that the supposed assault on Alfred by Charley Grandison had the effect upon her, without her knowledge, of reviving her estimate of the force and value of his love; and that it was this renewal of her affection for Charley, rather than her dread of mental alienation from Alfred, which dictated her conduct to the latter. It will be seen that the author possesses the most valuable quality of a novelist, that of strongly interesting her readers in the minds and fortunes of her characters. Her women, without exception, are clever sketches, even where they are incomplete, and one or two are very perfect types. Lizzie, for instance, whose wisdom at the crisis of her fate is so great a relief to us, just as we were beginning to fear she might prove unequal to temptation,-Lady Florence, with her matured lovingkindness, and the inconsequently shrewd Mrs. Clayford,—are all admirable. The men are less distinct, soldiers of a good type, most of them. On the whole, this is an interesting book, and marred by no vulgarity. If the writer of this notice had not been a conscientious critic he would not have read further than to the middle of the first volume of 'Uncle John,' which is a dull and commonplace book, turning on the old story of unconscious bigamy. Mr. Whyte-Melville is able to do a great deal better if he pleases. TOPOGRAPHICAL POETRY. A Garland of Poetry; by Yorkshire Authors, POEMS composed or selected according to Cynthia frowns whene'er I woo her, Yet she's vexed if I give over, &c. George Sandys, son of Archbishop Sandys of York, and the well-known translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses,' supplies paraphrases of four of the Psalms. Fairfax sends us 'Rinaldo at Mount Olivet and the En- Had we but world enough, and time, Thomas and Joseph Wharton, among the Lake Country' is a work of different character, Twelve sunken ships in Selker's Bay They sailed right out to Bethlehem ; And soon they reached the shore. The second bore the myrrh; Meet for an infant's hands; Whose tongues good tidings poured. But through the brushwood low and clear The joyous life up-flow'd, A City far beneath my feet So to the ground I bent an ear, Those sounds flow up by thee. At tidings of the Saviour's birth In Bethlehem long ago. The notes will be felt a sad incumbrance to the work by those who do not intend to use them as a guide to the neighbourhood described. We should have preferred the Lays and Legends without the notes. If, however, we must have the prose accounts with the poems, by all means let us have them. itself. book ought to be classic in the Lake Country Mr. O'Reilly is the poet of a land far different from the Lake Country of England. He sings of Western Australia, that poorest and loneliest of all the Australias, which has received from the mother country only her shame and her crime. Mr. O'Reilly, in a short poem, speaks of the land as "discovered ere the fitting time," endowed with a "peerless clime," but having birds that do not sing, flowers that give no scent, and trees that do not fructify. Scenes and incidents, however, known to the author in this perfumeless and mute land, have been reproduced by him in a series of poems of much beauty. Some, as he admits, are crude and faulty; but a good proportion of them have poetic merits. The King of the Vasse,' a legend of the bush, is a weird and deeply pathetic poem, admirable alike for its conception and execution. In a sort of dedication to the captain of a whaling bark, we learn that in February, 1869, the poet left the coast of Western Australia in a small boat, without sail, and that "peculiar circumstances" rendered it impossible he should return there. His only path lay across the Indian Ocean, where he was picked up by the whaler. If the "peculiar circumstances indicate that Mr. O'Reilly's sojourn in the convict settlement was enforced, we congratulate him on his escape. OUR LIBRARY TABLE. WE are glad to find from the dedication of The Honeymoon that this book was written before the author, Count de Medina Pomar, was nineteen : we are sorry that his friends should have allowed him to publish it. Nothing but extreme youth, coupled, perhaps, with a pardonable pride in his mastery of a foreign language, could excuse the Count de Medina Pomar for having, under the outward guise of a novel, given to the world his very crude ideas on religious difficulties, intermingled with a rechauffé of popular science lectures, and ending with half-a-volume of what (with all respect for the lady to whom it appears to be due) we must call some of the wildest rigmarole we have ever read; and which, as far as we make anything of it, appears to be an attempt to solve those religious difficulties by the aid of Spiritualism. Such being the composition of "The Honeymoon,' it can hardly be said to come under the head of a novel, though it would be equally difficult to class it among any of the other kinds of literature on which we undertake to enlighten our readers, and, therefore, we may take this opportunity of giving the Count de Medina Pomar one or two hints, in case he should again honour the English language, as he would appear to propose to do, by using it as a medium to instruct mankind. "Expulse" and "verosimil" are not English words, nor is "these kind of receptions" a form of expression employed by the best authors. "Par parenthesis," "animalculæ," "Thomas of Aquinus" are not, as far as we know, forms referable to any known language; and when he, or his correspondent, says "There is not a single discovery made which.... enables us still nearer to approach the comprehension of all," though we do not profess, thoroughly, to understand what is meant, it strikes us that he (or she) ays exactly the opposite of what was meant. We may add that, before quoting the English version of the Bible, he had better verify his references, as his memory is evidently treacherous. This is not the place for entering into the question which is really the subject of this book, but we must say that it has always puzzled us to comprehend why certain people, when they begin to find that the religion of their fathers contains difficulties of which their reason can give no account, should think that they can make matters any better by explaining obscurum per obscurius, and leaving the mysteries of the Christian religion, which on any showing are full of dignity, should attempt to satisfy the cravings of their emotional part by the equally mysterious, and anything but dignified, jargon of Spiritualism. Messrs. Trübner are the publishers. MESSRS. ISBISTER have sent us My Mother and I, by the Author of 'John Halifax.' Mrs. Craik's smaller stories do not offer much opportunity for criticism, in the way of either praise or blame. She continues to be a little untidy in her English, having, for instance, a habit of using words like ran and "drank" as participles, and a little inaccurate in quotations; but the tone of her stories, if not vigorous, is healthy, and the moral good. That of the story now before us is chiefly this,-"There are such things as broken hearts and blighted lives, but these are generally feeble hearts and selfish lives." This is good sense, and the story which serves as a vehicle to carry it into the minds of Mrs. Craik's readers is one which we can quite recommend to girls. Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands, is another excellent work from the pen of Mr. Nordhoff, whose former book on 'California' was readable and useful. It is published by Messrs. Sampson Low & Co. LORD NEAVES's volume on the Greek Anthology, which forms the last of the series of "Ancient Classics for English Readers," published by Messrs. Blackwood, is, despite the author's tendency to indulge in commonplaces, pleasant reading, and gives a good idea of a branch of Greek literature of which many even who aspire to the title of scholars know but little. To the general reader the work can hardly fail to prove attractive. One thing that the book makes plain, is the incompetence of the English versifiers who have laid hands on the Anthology. THE Guide-book to Switzerland, by Messrs. Berlepsch & Kohl, of which an English translation has appeared, and of which Mr. Nutt is the London publisher, is not for a moment to be classed along with the trashy production which Mr. Cook lately sent us. The new-comer contains a great deal of useful information, and is superior to many of its rivals. But we must say it seems far inferior to Baedeker, to which well-known guide book it has a good deal of resemblance. We have not, it is true, travelled with it, the best way of testing a guide, and we know Berlepsch has many adherents. The section about Mont Blanc is, to our mind, the worst in the volume. The writers seem not aware that the diligence runs the whole way from Geneva to Chamounix, as the road has been improved; they do not know that the Tête Noire is now passable to vehicles, which they might have learned even from Mr. Cook; and they ignore the new route to Vernayaz from Chamounix. Besides, they give no hints about the Tour du Mont Blanc. Indeed, they throughout ignore the higher passes. But the greatest fault of the book is, that hardly any attempt has been made to adapt the volume to the wants of English tourists. At the very outset we have many pages devoted to the Suabian and Bavarian railroads, by which not one Englishman in twenty thousand reaches Switzerland, and not a word about the railways to Geneva and Pontarlier, which are the lines by which, and by Bâle, most of our countrymen enter Switzerland. Then again, while the English versions of Baedeker are excellent, the translator of this guide is obviously a German. Few foreigners write English with such audacity as Germans display; and this volume is full of gross solecisms. We would advise the Zurich publisher of the book to have it re-translated, to adapt it to English use, to eliminate his Suabian and Bavarian railways, to add a satisfactory account of Savoy, cut out his illustrations, and give some more maps instead. Even then we do not fancy the work will be as useful as the Coblenz Guide. MR. LEWTAS, of Lisbon, has just brought out a guide-book to the Portuguese capital, by Mr. J. de Macedo. It is sold in London by Messrs. Simpkin & Marshall. LIST OF NEW BOOKS. Theology. Aid to Devotion, 2nd edit. 12mo. 2/6 cl Gurney's (Rev. A. T.) Words of Faith and Cheer, cr. 8vo. 6/cl. Smith's (G. V.) Spirit and the Word of Christ, cr. 8vo. 4/6 cl. Tylor's (T.) Ecclesiastes, a Contribution to its Interpretation, &c., 8vo. 7/6 cl. Law. Bowyer's (Sir G.) Introduction to Study and Use of the Civil Law, royal 8vo. 5/ cl. Elton's (C) Treatise on the Law of Copyholds, cr. 8vo. 20/ cl. Halliday's (R) Digest of Questions Asked at Final Examination of Articled Clerks, 8th edit. 8vo. 18/ cl. Fine Art. Pugin's (A.) Specimens of the Architecture of Normandy, new edit. 4to. 42/ cl. Poetry and the Drama. Alford's (D. P.) The Retreat, and other Poems, 12mo. 5/ cl. History. Corrie's (G. E.) Concise History of the Church and State of England, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Darton's School Library, Johns's Outlines of Roman History, new edit. 18mo. 1/ cl. swd. Harvey and his Times, Harveian Orations, 1874, by C. West, 2/6 Lives of S. Veronica Giuliani, and of the Blessed Battista Varani, cr. 8vo. 5/ cl. Long's (G.) Decline of the Roman Republic, Vol. 5, 8vo. 14/ cl. Records of the Past, Vol. 2, Egyptian Texts, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Robertson's (F. W.) Life and Letters, edited by S. A. Brooke, Library Edition, 8vo. 12/ cl.; and new ed. 2 vols. cr. 8vo. 7/6 Geography. Com Baedeker's Handbook for Paris, 4th edit. 18mo. 5/ cl. Busk's (Miss R. H.) Valleys of Tirol, cr. 8vo 12 6 cl. Geography and History of the Counties of England, panion Volume to Philips's County Atlas, 12mo. 5/ Roney's (Sir C. P.) How to Spend a Month in Ireland, 1/6 cl. Philology. Black's (R. H.) Student's Manual, Part 1, Greek, new edit. 18mo. 1/6 cl; Part 2, Latin, new edit. 18mo. 2/6 cl.; in 1 vol new edit. 18mo. 3/6 cl. Darton's School Library, Lebahn's Little Scholar's First Steps in German Reading and German Language, new edit. 1/ Chrystal's (R. S.) Health and Long Life, 12mo. 1/ cl. Dawnay's (A. D) Treatise upon Railway Signals and Accidents, 2/ Foster's (B.) Clinical Medicine, 8vo. 10/6 cl Garrod's (A B.) Essentials of Materia Medica, 4th edit. 12/6 cl. Grove's (Hon. Sir W. R.) Correlation of Physical Forces, 6th edit. 8vo. 15/ cl. Grover's (J. W.) Iron and Timber Railway Superstructures, 42/ Macmillan's (Rev. H.) First Forms of Vegetation, 2nd edit. 6 Parrish's (E.) Treatise on Pharmacy, 4th edit. 8vo. 25/ Pereira's (Dr.) Elements of Materia Medica, new edit. 8vo. 25/ Reid's (D.) Natural Science, Part 2, 8vo. 4/ cl. General Literature. Aguilar's Woman's Friendship, 14th edit. cr. 8vo. 5/ cl. Newman's (J. H) Loss and Gain, 6th edit. cr. 8vo. 5/6 cl. Prize Pictorial Readings in Prose and Verse, by Various Reuben's Temptation, 18mo. 1/cl. Riego's Crochet-Book of Emblem Antimacassars, 1/ swd. Verne's (J.) Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, 5th edit. cr. 8vo. 10/6 cl. Village Lily (The), translated from the French, 12mo. 1/ cl. Vincent's (C. E. H.) Russia's Advance Eastward, 12mo. 6/ cl. Wife's (The) Domain, by Philothalos, 2nd edit. cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Young Brown, or the Law of Inheritance, by Author of 'Member for Paris,' 3 vols. cr. 8vo. 31,6 cl. STRAFFORD AND THE IRISH MASSACRE OF 1641. upon THE tendency to view former times through modern spectacles is too natural a failing not to appear occasionally in our treatment of the past. For instance, a contemporary lately found fault with an article in this journal, headed 'The Armada of 1639,' and found fault with that heading as "somewhat sensational." If that be the case, blame lies not upon a writer of to-day, but the men who actually saw the Spanish armament in the Downs, and who gave the name to that occurrence. And we are accused of ignorance, because we did not state that Charles the First never invited hither that fleet, and did not really seek to turn those Spaniards against his subjects, as they too generally believed. But the truth of that belief was a subject into which we did not enter. We rigidly confined ourselves to the aspect which the Armada of 1639 assumed to those who witnessed it and that it perplexed the irresolute King, our sole statement about him, and that his perplexity troubled his subjects, are proved by his conduct and by their suspicion. Our critic, also, considers that Charles should not be credited with the intention of bringing into England, during 1628, "German horses to enforce men by fear to all arbitrary taxations," and that, if he did, still those soldiers certainly were not Papists, because Dalbier, their supposed commander, was a Protestant. Englishmen who lived then were not so well informed in their own history. They fully believed in that project; they certainly thought that Dalbier was a Papist, and that his commission originated with that party. (Vicars, p. 6; Rushworth, I. 616.) A more important illustration of the tendency to estimate past actions by present feelings is afforded by a recent article in the Quarterly Review. The drift of that article is to show that, as Strafford never joined the party of which Pym and Eliot were leaders, he cannot be deemed "an apostate," because he entered the King's service; and the writer, with his wonted skill, successfully proves, that, though Strafford once appeared as the champion of English liberty, yet that his policy, during the Session of 1628, was wholly distinct from the policy of Pym and Eliot. But how does this fact clear Strafford from the charge of moral apostacy, which his indignant fellow subjects brought against him? Their universal hate which he attracted in 1640, was enhanced by remembrance of those "first right principles," which he followed in 1628. They republished the speeches which Strafford uttered that year, and they called him "the grand apostate," ," because the same man who had denounced in Parliament the brutality of forcing soldiers into English farm-houses, had plotted to subdue England by the help of an Irish army. But we would ask, does Strafford's character deserve the ingenious advocacy which that able and learned writer attempts? What is such a slight weakness as party desertion, when compared to the offences against the State of which Strafford was guilty? And turning from the well-worn theme of his intentions towards England, we propose to show how he intended to treat Ireland. This subject has remained in a singular obscurity; the more singular as the evidence of that intention does not rest on public rumour, or disjointed fragments of a conversation, but on a well-drawn document which has been in print some sixty years. Strafford, when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, during October, 1640, proposed the attempt which was made during the next year, and which is known as the Irish Massacre of 1641. The scenes that then took place we would not for a moment bring before our readers; it is enough to remind them, that the method of that massacre was the sudden expulsion of the Protestant settlers in the north of Ireland from their holdings; stripped of all shelter, even of their clothes, those unhappy creatures were driven, during the winter, to die of starvation and cold in the highway and upon the moor. Strafford, in effect, suggested the same horrible project. During that interval of suspense, in the autumn of 1640, which preceded the call of the Long Parliament, he forwarded from Yorkshire to Sir George Radcliffe, a proposal that the Irish Parliament should "humbly request" the king, to banish by royal proclamation all "the under Scots in Ulster." Radcliffe was Strafford's cousin, intimate friend, and associate in the government of Ireland: he endorsed the paper, "8. 8. 40. Proposition Scots; rejected by me and crossed," showing that he regarded the document as an official document; and though it does not bear Strafford's signature, still it could have emanated from no one else, the style and language prove the author beyond question, and Dr. Whitaker, who published the paper in the Radcliffe correspondence (Ed. 1810), regrets that Strafford's vigorous project was over-ruled. All the probable results that would spring from that design are enumerated in the "proposition" with characteristic ability. As the principal motive, Strafford states that the Earl of Argyle "may with an army of Covenanters into the North of Ireland, and reckons on the adherence of the Scotch settlers. "God forbid," he writes, "that we should wait for Argyle," and not anticipate his arrival by the expulsion of his expected allies. Strafford admits that this may seem " hard case," that the settlers have abjured the Covenant by oath, and have not exhibited any rebellious symptoms; he admits, also, that "the major part of the north of Ireland will thereby be untenanted." But he urges, in reply, that the Scots in Ulster are Covenanters at heart, and therefore deserve no mercy, and that the very horror which the eviction of a whole province must excite, will gain "His Majesty reputation in foreign parts," and give disproof to the " rumours come of our discontent." a Nor does Strafford attempt to conceal the full atrocity of his scheme. He allows that " 40,000 able-bodied Scotchmen" in Ulster "carry swords and pistols," and are "unsafe to be provoked"; but he confidently relies on his standing army of about 12,000 men "to send them forthwith packing, without danger or difficulty." Even if the 40,000 men, who, with their families, must have mustered a body of settlers amounting to nearly 100,000 in number, had been as docile as a flock of sheep, their expulsion by 12,000 soldiers would have involved, of necessity, much brutality and outrage. Strafford, however, foresees that his soldiers will be provoked by resistance, and foresees, almost with exultation, the result of that provocation. The sole palliative to the "proposition" that he permits to himself, is advice that Radcliffe should consider "what number of boats will serve for the transportation of so many," and how the boats can "be suddenly, and without noise, provided." Strafford, it will be remembered, was accused in Westminster Hall, during April, 1641, "that he maliciously had endeavoured to stir up hostility between England and Scotland," and to provoke "a national and irreconciliable quarrel" between those kingdoms. The truth of that charge in the spirit, at least, he himself proves by his own words in this "proposition "; for he reckons among the advantages of the measure, that from it "infallibly will follow perpetual distrust and hatred, and a lasting national quarrel" between Ireland and Scotland. That this document should have been passed over unnoticed by Strafford's biographers, is to us a fact almost as remarkable as the document itself. This has arisen, we fancy, from the richness and variety of Strafford's character, and the dramatic interest of his death: the temptation to trick him out either as hero or devil has been overpowering. If that temptation had been resisted, and if those writers had been content to apply to their subject the verdict which Andrew Fairservice passed upon Rob Roy-"ower bad for blessing, ower gude for banning,"-our literature might have boasted of a true and complete picture of the great Earl of Strafford. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. THE question of international copyright raised by Mr. J. G. Holland, the American author, in the Athenæum, leads me to offer a suggestion which, I venture to think, might lead to a partial remedy for the existing state of things. It did not need the evidence of Mr. Holland's literary mishap to show that both British and American authors are freely plundered, both in pocket and in reputation, by publishers on either side of the ocean. It would truly be a nice question to decide whether an author suffers most from seeing the child of his brain kidnapped by foreign banditti,-stripped, as in Mr. Holland's case, of the garments with which, in all a parent's fondness and pride, he had robed it, and beholding it bedizened in such tawdry rags as the barbarous fancy of the plunderer selects as likely to captivate the public taste; or whether a writer's distress would be more acute on discovering that the paternity of some spurious brat had been put upon him-some foundling octavo in a pictured wrapper, with his name stamped in crimson characters on the title-page, going forth to the world to garner for him a harvest of discredit-such an accident, in a word, as that which befel Mark Twain when he discovered that a lately deceased publisher had not only published his books without his consent, but had even written them without his knowledge. To remedy a state of things which is as little for the benefit of the reading public as for the profession of authorship, and pending the removal of the grievence by the clean sweep of an international arrangement, which, as yet, appears to be a dream of the future, I would suggest that it is in of our Legislature to apply a partial power relief, as far, at least, as the interests of British authors are concerned, and so, perhaps, pave the way for an adequate, an equitable adjustment of the general rights of authorship. the As, under the existing system, an English author sacrifices his native copyright if he publishes in the first instance in America, I would propose, to prevent that, he should lose his English rights by such anterior publication, and to carry it out in the following manner, by Act of Parliament. Let it become law that, if an English publisher advertises or announces a book by an author, a British subject, say for a month before the day of publication (giving title and other particulars so as to establish a proper identification of the book), that meanwhile, if, during the intervening month, the author chooses to publish his book in America, so as to obtain by a prior publication the copyright there, the English copyright shall, nevertheless, remain intact, having been already legally secured by the antecedent announcement of the English publisher. Suppose, for illustration, that Messrs. Chapman & Hall should on the 1st of next August announce that a novel, entitled by Mr. Anthony Trollope, will be published by them in London on the 1st of September, yet if, on some day between the 1st of August and the 1st of September, the book in question should appear in New York through an American publisher (thereby securing the copyright in America to the author), nevertheless, no English firm except Messrs. Chapman & Hall shall be entitled to reproduce it in England, their right having been already obtained by the act of previous announcement-an act which of itself necessarily presupposes a perfected contract between themselves and the author. It appears to me that an Act of Parliament constructed on the basis of this suggestion must be a blow at the existing system of piracy in both countries; and it will, I presume, be conceded, that authors as a class are as much entitled to the protection of the Legislature as are the tradesmen who, under the sanction of law, now pilfer with impunity and profit. Moreover, such an initiatory step must necessarily lead to correlative action on the part of the Washington Assembly, in order to confer on American authors advantages similar to those which English ones would then enjoy, and so might accelerate thorough and harmonious legislation on both shores of the ocean, which would finally shape itself into the beneficent form of an International Contract. Inviting the attention of all who are interested, to consider this scheme, which I have but sketched in outline, and anxious that it should evoke discussion with a view to testing its practicability or M. F. MAHONY. its merits, I am, &c., DON QUIXOTE Savile Club. "SEEST thou that cloud of dust which rises yonder, Sancho? Well, it is the coil of an im mense army of divers and innumerable nations which come marching there. . . . This which comes on our front is commanded and led by the mighty Emperor Alfanfaron, lord of the great island of Trapobana; this other, which is marching behind us, is the army of his foe, the King of the Garamantas, Pentapolin of the sleeveless arm. . . That knight whom thou seest yonder in the yellow armour, who bears upon his shield a lion crowned, couching at the feet of a damsel, is the valorous Laurealco, lord of the Silver Bridge; the other, in the armour with flowers of gold, who bears on his shield three crowns argent in an azure field, is the dreaded Micocolembo, Grand Duke of Quirocia. He with the giant limbs, who stands at his right hand, is the ever fearless Brandabarbaran of Boliche, lord of the three Arabias, who comes clothed in that serpent's skin, and has for escutcheon a gate, which fame reports to be one of those of the temple which Samson demolished, when with his death he avenged himself of his enemies. But turn thine eyes to that other side, and thou shalt behold in the front of that army the ever-conquering and never conquered Timonel de Carcajona, Prince of New Biscay, who comes armed in an armour quartered azure, vert, white, and yellow, and has on his shield a cat of gold or, in a field tawny, and with a motto which says MIAU, which is the beginning of his lady's name, who, according to the report, is the peerless Miaulina, daughter of the Duke of Alfenique of Algarve." Having read Mr. Rawdon Brown's letter, which appeared in No. 2425 of the Athenaeum, I could not, in sending you the following bit of news, do less than make him some acknowledgment, and I declare that there is more meaning and coherency, as there is no small amount of humour, in that magnificent nonsense of Don Quixote which I have just written, than there is in all that Mr. Brown has hitherto published on 'El Ingenioso Hidalgo.' The scrap of news referred to is at least intelligible and interesting. It appears, from the New York papers, that the library of Harvard University has recently been enriched by a gift of such peculiar value as to call forth special notice. The Nation calls attention to it in the following terms: "Mr. Charles F. Bradford, of Roxbury, known as a lover of Spanish literature, and long an admiring student of Cervantes, has presented to the college his manuscript work, in three thick volumes, entitled 'Index to the Notes of D. Diego | Clemencin in his edition of Don Quijote, Madrid, 1833-39, 6 tom. 4to., with numerous references to obscure and difficult passages in the text; also with references in the margin to Mr. Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature, 3 vols., edition of 1863.' This Index' represents a labour of love of more than fifteen years. It is presented, beautifully bound, in Mr. Bradford's own handwriting, so neat and firm and even, that for convenience of reference it leaves nothing to be desired. It is as clear to the eye as print. In 1865, Mr. Bradford had presented to the library a copy of the best edition of Clemencin's 'Don Quijote,' a rare and priceless work, which, as Brunet truly says, is rather un tableau exact des mœurs de l'Espagne à l'époque où écrivait Cervantes, qu'un simple travail philologique.' This Mr. Bradford gave, accompanied by a seventh manuscript volume, containing his index to the principal notes. Now he has presented the same increased more than threefold, carefully noting every point explained by the Spanish commentator, even going further to explain obscure words and expressions in the text of Cervantes which Clemencin had passed by, and adding numerous references upon literary matters to Mr. Ticknor's 'History of Spanish Literature.' The accurate key thus presented to Clemencin's valuable notes will serve a higher use than many may think. The number of books, and of good books, is such, that the most constant reader can hope to become acquainted with only a small fractional part even of those treating of subjects which interest him most. We are constantly forced to choose, and put aside, postponing to a future day, which may never come, the reading of works which we think contain much that we wish to know. But the very information we most need for our special study lies buried among other matter to us of little import, and is inaccessible to us from want of time. Much of this information may be found in works which are themselves fragmentary or explanatory of others, and so disconnected, that no human patience can be proof against the monotony of a search which in the end may be fruitless. Such are the numerous elaborate commentaries that have appeared from time to time on the writings of the great authors of the world. A good index to any such production is a means of making its utility tenfold what it was; and the index-maker, however ungrateful the task may have seemed, has done the next best thing to lengthening human existence he has enabled those who profit by his labours to save time and to concentrate their energies when otherwise they might have wasted them. Mr. Bradford is very modest in calling his gift merely an 'Index to Clemencin.' It has in many points the merits of an original work. It contains notes which are not in Clemencin, some of which, perhaps, would not have been made by a Spanish commentator, but which are all very useful to a foreign student. Within the space of a few pages, such notes will be found upon convidar, cotufa, cuerno de la luna, cuerpos, and many others. Many of the words are explained once by Clemencin with the remark that they occur again, but the reader who may not have read the first passage, or who may have forgotten it, is at a loss when he meets the word unexplained. Mr. Bradford's 'Index' is precious in such cases, as under each word that presents any difficulty he refers to every passage in which it occurs in 'Don Quijote.' Nor is the Index' wholly Spanish. There are numerous cross-references in English which enable us to look up the subjects treated in the notes or in the original work, as, on the very first pages, 'Absurdities of style, see Silva-Actors in Spain-Arabic, the language Arabic origin of the Quijote Arabic words in Spanish,' &c. A special feature of the 'Index' is the frequent translation of difficult Spanish idioms. These will be very valuable to the student. Often a single English expression throws more light upon an obscure Spanish passage than the long and, we should like to say, somewhat tedious note of Clemencin, did we not fear Mr. Bradford would seriously object to the latter epithet. It is only to be regretted that Mr. Bradford's modesty prevented him from developing into many pages his too short article headed Mistakes of Clemencin and apparently over-nice Criticisms.' Whatever may be the authority of the Spanish commentator, it would not 'seem to be great presumption' in Mr. Bradford to question it now and then. No one would be better qualified than he for the task. If long years of patient study and an enlightened appreciation of the author do not give him the right to speak authoritatively on many points connected with 'Don Quijote,' what can? Let us add that this manuscript is really a special dictionary, both for the language and for the subject-matter, of the greatest work the Spaniards have produced. While, in French, Corneille, Madame de Sévigné, Racine, Molière, and others have full and valuable lexicons, Cervantes, in Spanish, has none. Mr. Bradford deserves the thanks of all for having so generously contributed to supply this deficiency." The Nation is in error in supposing that Cervantes has no lexicon in Spanish. The 'Vocabulario y Anotaciones' of Bowle is well known to all students of the 'Quixote,' of which Ticknor says that "there are few books of so much real learning, and at the same time of so little pretension." It is, in fact, the basis of Clemencin's work, which bas called forth the above exaggerated praise. We should have been glad to know that Mr. Bradford had included in his 'Index' the rare and important work of Calderon, called 'Cervantes defended against his Commentators.' In this valuable little work, which unhappily its author did not live to finish, are to be found more than a hundred topics from the 'Quixote,' criticized in bad taste and worse judgment by Clemencin, and the simple meaning of which he is clearly proved to have mistaken altogether. Clemencin has never achieved a second edition, and it ought not to be called either a "rare "" or "priceless" book. One example out of five hundred will suffice to show the value of Clemencin's comments. In the novel of the 'Impertinent Curiosity,' the wretched Anselmo returns to his home, after discovering that he had done his best to destroy it, and "does not find in it even one of the numerous men-servants and maid-servants who belonged to it, but only the house, solitary and desolate," and Clemencin finds it in his heart to exclaim, "One does not see the motive of making all the servants abandon the house, seeing that not one of them had any share in the crime of Camilla, for the only one who knew of it was Leonella, and she had gone away long before"! The following is the ending which this commentator gives to his six octavo volumes :-"In concluding this commentary, the observation naturally arises, which has already been indicated several times, that although the defects of the Quixote which we have already noted are so many (besides the innumerable ones of which we have taken no notice, being of lesser importance), the work nevertheless charms, attracts, and enchants the reader, who does not perceive, or who scarcely perceives them. What abundance of merit there must, therefore, be in the invention, in the substance, and in the form of this admirable fable"! To which Don Juan Calderon replies, in a tone not to be mistaken, that "if the work of Cervantes was so imperfect, and so full of defects as Clemencin makes it out to be, it would neither charm, nor attract, nor enchant" anybody; that he, Don Juan, has already pointed out, "in one hundred and fifty instances," how Clemencin "did not know what he was talking about when correcting, now the great story-teller's grammar, now his taste, and at other times his common-sense, and that of all the six hundred faults which have been discovered, by far the greater number may be said to have their origin in the ignorance or stupidity of those who discovered' them," and that for his part he "has no doubt that the more closely the Quixote is examined, the more merit will it be found to possess." According to this testimony, it would seem that Clemencin has been very much overrated, and that Mr. Bradford has had his labour for his pains. A. J. DUFFIELD. AN AMERICAN VIEW OF AMERICAN ART. New York, June, 1874. ART in America is almost as short as life, but though short, there are encouraging symptoms to inspire us with the hope that the feeble infant may grow to stalwart manhood. The recent Exhibition of the National Academy of Design,-an institution quite mature in years, having been born nearly fifty years ago, has actually led the sanguine to believe that, if the art millennium does not take place twelve months hence, it must in a hundred years. Looking at the Exhibition with the impartial eye of a critic, or had I not better say the eyes of an impartial critic?-I am bound to confess that, bad as were most of the pictures, at least twenty were admirable, and. seventy were good or bad enough to be noticed. Twenty good works of art out of a sum total of 393 is a higher standard than the Academy has attained for some time; and this improvement is greatly due to Mr. J. Q. A. Ward, the best and most original sculptor this country has yet produced. Elected President of the Academy for the year just ended, Mr. Ward worked indefatigably to infuse some of his own Western vitality into academic fossils. He succeeded, and it is a pity that rotation in office, the curse of this country in more ways than one, should be the cause of Mr. Ward's relinquishing a position he is so well calculated to fill. His own department of art, however, was represented by twenty-five feeble busts and feebler statuettes, Mr. Ward and Mr. L. Thompson contributing the only works worthy of mention. This, however, was no fault of Mr. Ward's, for if America's best sculptors persist in living in Rome and Florence, the Academy of Design must necessarily put up with what it can get. Then, too, the Academy is not the most generous of institutions. What Academy ever was? Does not France tell tales out of school regarding her own temple of the gods, and does not many a British artist tear his hair as he recounts the slights put upon him by the powers labelled "R.A."? Born of uncultivated parents, our Academy of Design fails to recognize the best talent until bullied into civility by the few Radicals who know enough to appreciate originality. Hence, even in this year's election of Associates and National Academicians, the best men were ignored, and the Hanging Committee covered themselves with anything but glory by refusing several paintings by John La Farge, one of our few fine colourists and scholarly artists. They hung his one accepted portrait so high as to completely kill it. Need I add that the Hanging Committee are themselves " on the line"? Everything in this world is comparative. To the citizen of Arkansas our Academy Exhibition is wondrous fine; to the average New Yorker your Royal Academy is a revelation of beauty; to the cultivated Britisher the Paris Exhibition is the best exponent of modern art, yet Paris itself finds fault. With the memory of Paris in my mind's eye there is little to excite enthusiasm in our Academy of Design, but, as I have before intimated, there is a little. First, it is cheering to know that the best work is done by the youngest men, and that the influence of the finest living school is having its effect upon them. Elihu Vedder, John La Farge, Charles C. Coleman, Louis C. Tiffany, James Whistler, Winslow Homer, B. C. Porter, James C. Thom, G. H. Boughton, |