Among the series of papers which will appear in Scribuer's on the position of the great European cities is one by Mr. Walter Besant, dealing with the East London riverside. The parish chosen is that of St. James, Ratcliff.

Prize stories, with the notable exception of Mr. Goodman's " Only Witness," do not, it seems, catch on. It is reported that the Leadenhall Press have not made a success of their venture "Guess the Title." 10,000 copies were issued, and the Publisher's Circular reports that 9,000 still remain on hand. We are sorry that Mr. Tuer has not made a hit with this venture, but it is, perhaps, fortunate on the whole for the future of fiction that the dodge has not succeeded. We have the advertising fiend quite enough with us as it is, and the self-advertising story is an excrescence which we can very well afford to do without.

Ben Brierley has a great popularity, both as a writer and as an entertainer, all over Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire, and has managed to maintain himself in a frugal way up till within the last year or two. He was then attacked by illness which kept him confined to his bed for twelve months, and has left him partially paralysed, so that it is impossible for him to go on with his entertainments, upon which he mainly depended for a livelihood. A few Lancashire merchants proposed a tribute to him, and up to the present a sum of £250 has been collected in small sums. Among the subscribers were Lord Derby, Viscount Cranbourne, Sir W. H. Houldsworth, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Sir Ughtred Kay Shuttleworth, and other leading Lancashire men. It has now been arranged that the mayors of all Lancashire towns shall receive subscriptions for the fund, and it is hoped that it will attain sufficient proportions to enable Ben Brierley to be secure from want to the end of his life.

If Mr. Gladstone attains to the somewhat doubtful honour of being "collected," his fondness for appearance in pamphlet form will lend an added interest to the hunt for complete sets of his works. The last addition to his brochures is a letter on Female Suffrage, addressed to Mr. Samuel Smith, the well-known Liverpool philanthropist, which has just been published by Mr. John Murray.

Mr. C. F. Dowsett, F.S.I., has published (The Land Record Office) his promised work on "Land, its attractions and riches," by 57 writers. Principal Bond-deals with "Fruit Growing"; Mr. C. W. Heckethorn with "Investments "; Professor G. Henslow writes on "The Value of Botany to Country Residents"; the Rev. A. Styleman

Herring on "Fresh Air for Poor London Children"; Professor Long on "Dairy Farming"; and the Rev. Compton Reade on "The Pleasures of a Country." Dr. B. W. Richardson deals with "Health in Relation to Land"; Professor A. H. Sayce with "Ancient Laws"; and Professor R. Wallace with "Egyptian Lands."

The death of John Hyslop at Kilmarnock, N.B., removes another of the true poets of the people. Almost wholly self-educated, he left the machineroom to become a rural messenger something more than thirty years ago, and in the year of Burns' centenary became generally recognised by his tribute to the Ploughman Bard. We extract from the Pall Mall Gazette the concluding lines of his last poem, which was written on his death-bed for the Kilmarnock Standard

I hear the music in the upper rooms,
My soul like pent bird panteth to be free;
When that has passed beyond life's prisoning bars,
Then burn or bury, do what pleaseth thee
With the worn cage that is no longer Me,
For I shall neither know, nor hear, nor see.

words,

"He coined his soul's best thoughts in

And sent them rushing through his ready pen
In songs of hope to cheer his fellow men.'
If any songs of all the songs I've sung
Make any music where life's discord mars
God's harmonies, and through the souls of men
Goes echoing on to heal some hidden scars,
Then I shall hear it from beyond the stars!

The fifth and sixth volumes of Mr. C. G. Leland's translation of the works of Heinrich Heine, which have just been published by Mr. Wm. Heinemann, contain the "Germany," the "Comments on Faust," the "Gods in Exile," and the "Goddess Diana." Mr. Leland claims that this is the first complete edition of Heine's "Germany," which, as be very justly contends, is a work of which no one can be ignorant who seeks sound or even superficial reading of modern literature.

Mr. Hume Nisbet's new story, "The Bushranger's Sweetheart," has just been issued by Mr. F. V. White.

M. Chedomil Mijatovich, formerly Servian Minister at the Court of St. James's, has issued an interesting book on the conquest of Constantinople by the Greeks, which embodies the result of great personal research. Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. are the publishers. Hitherto, no single monograph on the conquest of Constantinople has existed in English, though as early as 1675 a tragedy entitled the "Siege of Constantinople" was published in London.

Dr. S. P. Driver, the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford, has concluded a volume of sermons, entitled "Old Testament Criticisms." Messrs. Methuen are the publishers.

Mr. Rudyard Kipling's "Barrack Room Ballads" -Japanese paper edition-was published on April 30th by Messrs. Methuen.

Mr. Arthur Symon's new volume of verse, which is to bear the title of "Silhouettes," will be published immediately by Messrs. Elkin Mathews and John Lane.

There is to be yet another Metropolitan literary society, the Irish Literary Society, which is to be inaugurated next month under the presidency of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, K.C.M.G. The Rev. Stopford Brooke is to deliver the inaugural address.

Mr. E. F. Knight, the author of the "Cruise of the Falcon," promises a book relating his adventures during the recent campaign in Hunza, in which he acted not only as special correspondent of the Times, but as a combatant.

The Rev. Chas. Voysey has prepared, and Messrs. Williams and Norgate have published, a third edition of a Theistic Prayer Book, greatly enlarged, and containing new services and many new hymns.

Mrs. Frank St. Clair Grimwood's story, "The Power of an Eye," is running in Winter's Weekly, and will be published shortly by Mr. F. V. White.

Mr. Mackenzie Bell contributes a poem on a religious theme to the Christian Leader.

The May number of the Library Review contains a further contribution by Stanley Little on "Current Fiction," in which he will deal with woman as a creator in fiction; an article entitled "Tennyson as Dramatist" by Cuming Walters; another by Graham Aylward on "Mr. Meredith and his Critics"; and one by Percy White on "Daudet and his Literary Methods."

We learn from the New York Critic, that shortly after the appearance of "Vain Fortune," Charles Scribner's Sons made Mr. George Moore an offer for the right of reprinting it in America. The author accepted, stipulating only that he should be allowed to re-write his novel. This he has done with such thoroughness that the first half of the narrative has been entirely changed, and the main interest transferred from the hero to the heroine.

Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co. are to publish this month a book by Mr. Hamilton Aïdé, entitled "A Voyage of Discovery," a novel illustrative of American Society as Mr. Aïdé found it last year when travelling here with Mr. Stanley.

Those readers whose attention has been attracted by the life story of Travers Madge, as told by the Rev. Dr. Brooke Herford in "A Protestant Poor Friar," will be interested to know that from this strangely pathetic life Mrs. Humphry Ward drew the idea of her Ancrum, the crippled minister in "David Grieve."

In "The Gentleman Digger"-Sampson Low and Co.-the Comtesse de Brémont sets forth with a good deal of spirit and actuality pictures of Johannesburg life in 1889, that is to say, at about. the period of the famine, the crisis, and the collapse of the feverish "boom" of 1888-89. The varied types of mankind-ill enough for the most partthe hideous scenes enacted daily and nightly at the great gold and diamond mining camps of South Africa; the unutterable squalor, glitter, drunkenness, chicanery, and crime; all these things are displayed in a very realistic manner. As depicting true phases of life, as a very real warning, this book undoubtedly has a value. And it is to the author's credit that she has raised her voice against that vilest of all systems of murder, the poisoning of native races, body and soul, by the horrible drink traffic.

DE

FROM THE PAPERS.

I.

THE LOWELL MEMORIAL.

EAN Bradley's refusal to find room for a memorial to Lowell in Westminster Abbey is an act of which no explanation is yet forthcoming. Want of space is no explanation, any more than when the bust of Matthew Arnold was hid away in an obscure corner where not one visitor in a thousand will ever see it. Lowell, of course, has no claim. No American has a claim, nor any Englishman either. It rests with the Dean of Westminster, for the time being, to grant or refuse admission to the Abbey. There is no appeal from his discretion, or indiscretion, except to public opinion, or to Parliament, where public opinion is sometimes crystallized into a concrete reform. It was Parliament which intervened to save the Abbey from the intrusion of Prince Louis Napoleon, whom Dean Stanley was resolved to admit. The present is no cause for invoking that supreme court of appeal.

He

Nor do I know that Lowell's American friends need care much about the matter. It is Lowell's English friends who made the request to the Dean, which he somewhat churlishly, they think, has rejected. Lowell, says one of them, is not thought good enough for the Abbey. Perhaps not. was merely the foremost American man of letters of his time, long resident in England and beloved here; a representative who did invaluable service to his own country and to this; admittedly the first-it is the English who admit it-scholar of English literature." What has he to do with Westminster Abbey ? That mausoleum of nonentities is dignified, no doubt, by the tombs and memorials of some great men, but the majority are no company for Lowell. To say that Lowell shall not find a place there is to say that no American shall in the future, and that the few now there had better come away; Longfellow first of all, who will hardly care to remain now that his friend is excluded. If any Dean of Westminster of the future regrets the exclusion, he may chisel into some vacant stone the line in which the French Academy does penance for the absence of Molière: "Nothing was wanting to his glory. He is wanting to ours.' -New York Tribune.

April 10, 1892.

II.

THE GLORIOUS TRADITIONS OF THE BOOK AGENT. Napoleon Bonaparte, when a poor lieutenant, took the for agency a work entitled "L'Histoire de la Révolution." In the foyer of the great palace of the Louvre can be seen to-day the great Emperor's canvassing outfit, with the long list of subscribers he secured.

George Washington, when young, canvassed around Alexandria, Va., and sold over 200 copies of a work entitled "Bydell's American Savage." Mark Twain was a book agent.

Longfellow sold books by subscription.

Jay Gould, when starting in life, was a canvasser. Daniel Webster paid his second term's tuition at Dartmouth by handling "De Tocqueville's America," in Merrimac County, New Hampshire. General U. S. Grant canvassed for "Irving's Columbus."

Rutherford B. Hayes canvassed for "Baxter's Saints' Rest."

James G. Blaine began life as a canvasser for a "Life of Henry Clay."

Bismarck, when at Heidelberg, spent a vacation canvassing for one of Blumenbach's handbooks.NEW YORK Critic.

III.

THE CHIEF USE OF THE SOCIETY.

I conceive the Society's most important function to be the establishment of that solidarity amongst literary folk, notoriously a race of units, which has hitherto been non-existent. It is a great thing that young authors should be able to get advice and help from those who know better than themselves; but it is much more that the whole profession of literature should have a focus, a rallying point, a central representative body-call it what you will. And it seems to me that it is the plain duty of every author, of whatever position, to further the consolidation of the Society by joining it. Many of its members, of course, do not need help themselves; they should, therefore, add their own strength to the weakness of their less fortunate brethren. And of its power of immediate usefulness, the best testimony is to be found in the list of the more important cases in which the Society has interfered during the past year. It is very interesting reading, and will certainly convince all sceptics of the real usefulness of the Society and the justness of the ideal relations between author and publisher which it holds up.-Winter's Weekly.

IV.

AMERICAN FICTION.

American fiction has distinctly forsaken the expansive and the illimitable to run after the contracted and the limited. Instead of a national novel we now have a rapidly accumulating series of regional novels, or rather-so far as the subdividing and minimising process goes-of local tales, neighbourhood sketches, short stories confined to the author's back yard.-The New York Nation.

V.

NEWSPAPER COPYRIGHT.

In the interesting discussion on newspaper copyright now proceeding in the Times, no one has yet called attention to the very definite agreement on the subject embodied in the Berne Convention. Article VII. of that instrument runs as follows:

"Articles from newspapers or periodicals published in any of the countries of the Union may be reproduced in original or in translation in the other countries of the Union, unless the authors or publishers have expressly forbidden it. For periodicals it is sufficient if the prohibition is made in a general manner at the beginning of each number of the periodical. This prohibition cannot in any case apply to articles of political discussion, or to the reproduction of news of the day or current topics."

It will thus be seen that countries in the Copyright Union have agreed, in so far as their relations with each other are concerned, to recognise no copyright under any circumstances in (1) articles of political discussion; (2) news of the day; or (3) current topics-a somewhat vague clause this last one.--Pall Mall Gazette.

VI.

FROM AMERICA.

In New York City alone are nearly a dozen publishing houses of great wealth, and a score more in a highly prosperous condition. One rarely hears of a publisher failing, from the Cheap Johns and publishers of penny dreadfuls to those of a higher order. On the other hand, there can scarcely be pointed out an American author who is able to make even a decent living by his books.

However, the vital question is: How can this state of things be remedied? A partial remedy. could be found, no doubt, in the formation of an American Society of Authors similar to the Incorporated Society of Authors of Great Britain, or the Société des Gens de Lettres of France. The British Society is organised for the protection of literary property. It has been already of incalculable benefit to the British author. The organisation of a similar society has been long mooted among American authors, and signs point to the present time as being ripe for it. The writer, in his inquiries among literary men, has found everyone in favour of it, and none opposed to it. Such a society should be organised on the most liberal basis.

It should be open to everyone, young or old, male or female, who has written a book, whether published or not, and to recognised writers for the

press.

It should retain the best legal counsel; it

should provide from its concentrated wisdom and experience a form of contract in which the author's right should be protected-such contracts having been hitherto drawn by the publisher for the protection of his interests. It should have at least one executive officer, who should be an author of experience, and who should give information to all members applying for it, and take cognizance of all complaints, and who should have for counsel and assistance an advisory board composed of three of the ablest and most experienced members of the society. Finally, it should assume, and carry to the courts if need be, all clear cases of extortion and oppression of authors on the part of publishers. Such a society would save American authors thousands of dollars yearly, and chiefly to the young and inexperienced, who need help most.CHARLES B. TODD in the Forum.

VII.

THE EDUCATION OF OPINION.

Many publishers, especially the younger men, are gentlemen who have their clubs and their social positions. Social position is like marriage; the man who has it gives hostages to fortune. He cannot afford to have it said that in business transactions he systematically cheats. Cold looks greet him, club acquaintances avoid him; he finds the atmosphere of the club chilling. This has already happened in one or two instances; it is the first expression of public opinion in its infancy.

What else can the Society attempt; I wish I could publish in these pages, in order to show its work, the letters of a single day. Agreements are sent up for examination, questions of difficulty about copyright in articles or books, questions as to cost, questions as to the trustworthiness of publishers, questions of every kind. Our secretaries are supposed to know everything; hard by our offices are those of our solicitors, to whom are referred almost every day some points of difficulty. We keep authors out of the hands of dishonest publishers-this is a tremendous weapon. There are certain houses from which we have kept many thousands of pounds; we prevent authors from signing unfair agreements; we have readers to examine the manuscripts of young writers and to advise them. The new American Copyright Law has introduced a whole sheaf of difficulties. In a word, we are the only body which has ever existed for the maintenance and defence of literary property for its creators and producers.

WHAT IT HAS STILL TO DO.

There remains before us one more service to literature. We desire above all things to formulate the broad principles upon which publishing should

be conducted, so as to give the author the full share that belongs to him, and to recognise to their utmost the services of the publishers.

I do not think that the problem will prove insoluable, once fairly tackled. I have myself a solution to offer, if I can only persuade other people to accept it.

Whatever method is adopted must depend entirely upon the success of a book, and therefore must be some form of royalty. Publisher and author must be interested in its success, each in his own fair proportion. In this place I can only point out the thing as one which must be attempted.

For my own part I have seen, every day since the formation of the Society, fresh evidence of the necessity of such a corporation as our own.~WALTER BESANT in the Forum.

VIII.

AN OUTSIDE OPINION ON THE SOCIETY. Old and business-like authors gratefully acknowledge their gratitude to this wonderful undertaking; but to the young and untried writers it is even more invaluable. It has saved many youthful aspirants from ruin, by persuading them not to produce trash at their own risk, and has helped the more promising by kindly advice and suggestions in a way that has enabled authors to remodel a faulty MS. until it presented a readable and saleable book. The Society has a monthly paper of its own, conducted by Mr. Besant, helped by many our best writers, in which all means of publication, new methods, pitfalls to be avoided, &c., are fully discussed.

THE CHURCH IN WALES. Full report of the debate on Mr. Samuel Smith's Resolution in the House of Commens on February 23, 1892. Paper covers (6d.). Also Speeches by Mr. Balfour and Sir E. Clarke on that occasion (1d. each). Church Defence Institution, Bridge Street, S.W.

CORBETT, REV. F. ST. JOHN. Echoes of the Sanctuary.
Skeffington and Son.
CORNFORD, REV. JAMES.
with historical notes.
woode.

The Book of Common Prayer,
Edited by. Eyre and Spottis-

GRIFFITH, RALPH T. H. The Hymns of the Rigveda. Translated, with a popular commentary by. Vol. IV. (The previous volumes were published in 1889, 1890, and 1891.) E. J. Lazarus and Co., Benares.

GRIMTHORPE, LORD. A Review of Prebendary Sadler's Church Doctrine-Bible Truth" and of Mr. Gore's Theory of Our Lord's Ignorance. 6d. Protestant Churchmen's Alliance.

HILL, ROWLAND, and SPURGEON, C. H. Remarkable Sermons Preached from the same Text-" Christ Crucified." Passmore and Alabaster. Paper covers, 3d.

MAURICE, F. D. Sermons Preached in Lincoln's Inn Chapel. Sixth and last volume. New edition. Macmillan. 3s. 6d.

RAWSON, SIR RAWSON W, K.C.M.G. The Gospel Narrative, or Life of Jesus Christ, collated from the Authorized Text of the Four Gospels, with Notes of all material changes in the Revised Version, and Epitome and Harmony of the Gospels. 5s. net.

The Authors' Club is an off-shoot of the Society, and bids fair to rival the Savile. Unfortunately there are no lady members, so that the feminine part of the world of letters have to be content with the Albemarle or the Writers'. Nevertheless, the Society itself does not close its doors to women, who muster strongly among its members. There is an erroneous idea current that the Society acts as publishers. This is not so. It is practically an agent. It is also a lawyer, and above all it is an able and willing adviser.-The Queen.

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

Theology.

BAXTER, REV. M. Forty Coming Wonders from 1892 to 1901. Eightieth thousand. Christian Herald Office, Tudor Street, Salisbury Square, E.C.

BELL, CAPTAIN HENRY. Selections from the Table Talk of Martin Luther. Translated by. Cassell's National Library. Cloth, 6d.

CALTHROP, REV. GORDON. St. Paul: a Study. Addresses given in St. Paul's Cathedral. Paper covers, 1s. 6d,

WILLIAMS, ROWLAND, D.D. Psalms and Litanies: Counsels and Collects for Devout Persons. Edited by his widow. New edition. Fisher Unwin. 78. 6d. WORDSWORTH, CHARLES, D.D., D.C.L. Primary Witness to the Truth of the Gospel, a series of discourses; also a charge on modern teaching on the canon of the Old Testament. Longmans. 7s. 6d.

History and Biography.

ABBOTT, EDWIN A. The Anglican Career of Cardinal
Newman. 2 vols. Macmillan. 258. net.
BENHAM, CHARLES E. Colchester Worthies: a biographical
index of Colchester. Simpkin, Marshall.

BOASE, FREDERIC. Modern English Biography, containing concise memoirs of persons who have died since 1850. Vol. I., A to H. Truro: Netherton and Worth, for the author (250 copies only printed). 3os. net. BRIGHTON, J. G., M.D. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Provo Wallis. A Memoir. With illustrations, charts, &c. Hutchinson.

BUTLER, ARTHUR JOHN. The Memoirs of Baron de Marbot, late Lieutenant General in the French Army. Translated from the French. 2 vols., with portrait and maps. Longmans. 32s.

CHETWYND-STAPYLTON, H. E. The Chetwynds of Ingestre : being a history of that family from a very early date. With illustrations by the author. Longmans. 148.