yield their full harvest of result, is some large

elastic organisation-efficient but inexpensive too-which shall spread itself like a network over the whole land, adapting itself to the conditions and requirements of all, and bringing with it guidance and encouragement to all, rich or poor, who desire to turn to the best account the powers they already possess. Such an organisation the Home Reading Circles Union, the details of which are in process of arrangement, is pre-eminently fitted to supply. It is satisfactory to note that this fresh step

towards the nationalisation of our older universities has already received so large a share of public approval-nearly a thousand students having assembled at the ten days' inaugural meeting held last month in Oxford. May I add that the scheme especially commends itself to women of all classes, who until quite recently have been practically excluded from access to university teaching in any form.

Continental Notes

On the 19th ult. died Freiherr Carl von Cotta, head of the famous publishing house, J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung in Stuttgart.

The Buchhandlung first came into the hands of the Cotta family in 1659, by the marriage of John George Cotta to the widow of Philibert Brunn, of Tübingen, the management of whose business Cotta undertook. At his death in 1692, his only son John George inherited the concern, which on his death in 1712, fell to his son, also named John George.

Frederick the Noble, though dead, yet speaks in his Diary, some portion of which has been given to the world in the pages of the Deutsche Rundschau. Whatever may be the result of the prosecution commenced against this periodical, it is nevertheless only too true that the misfortunes of the Emperor Frederick did not end with his death; but that the sad fate which accompanied his last days disturbs the rest of the grave. As the French journal Le Temps observes: 'Scarcely Already so far back as the life-time of his had the Emperor breathed his last than the great-uncle Christopher Frederick, who had German doctors began a most painful contro- founded a Court Book Printing Office in Stuttversy about his illness and the mode of gart, John Frederick, the youngest son of treatment adopted with his full consent, and we await the publication next month of the defence of the specialist, who, although he possessed the confidence of the Emperor and Empress, had the inexpiable fault of not having been born (to use the words of the poet) There, where the harmonious German language is heard' (Wo die deutsche Zunge klingt').

The Berlin correspondent of Le Temps telegraphed on the 28th ult. that he had been informed that the person who handed over the Diary to the Deutsche Rundschau for publication had been discovered, that he was a very great personage and not a foreigner, but that his name was for the present kept secret.

In this connection we note the appearance of Fürst Bismarck unter drei Kaisern, 18841888,' amongst the contents of which we find Prince Bismarck and John Bull," "An English Physician and Diplomatist," "The Queen of England at Charlottenburg."

66

'Le Rêve,' the new romance by Émile Zola,

John George, having dissolved partnership with his father and other relatives, transferred the business to Stuttgart. After his death the management of the business fell to his only son John George, while that of the firm of G. J. Göschen in Leipzig (G. J. Goschen was grandfather of the present Chancellor of the Exchequer) and two other firms was amalgamated with it. John George Cotta (the fourth of this name) died on February 1, 1863. He was succeeded by his youngest son Carl, and a son of his only sister and co-heiress of the family estate, Hermann Albert Reischach, under whose management the three businesses which had been amalgamated with that in Stuttgart were once more separated from it. Since 1876, when Hermann Albert Reischach died, Freiherr Carl von Cotta had only conducted the business, and under his management its enterprise and activity were maintained and developed. The name of Cotta is a household word to all students of German literature, for most of the German classical authors of the present and last centhe Cotta imprint. We need but mention tury were first made known to the public under such names as Auerbach, Fouqué, Richter, the two Schlegels, Tieck, Uhland, Goethe, and

a

Schiller. With the last-named writer correspondence was carried on by John Frederick Cotta, which has been published.

will be issued by the same publishers on the American News and Notes

15th ult.

The prospects of the coming publishing season are equal to those of former years. Many important works are in press at the leading houses in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Every branch of literature will be well represented; even that of fiction showing but little diminution. From the various lists that have already reached us we append the following:

Messrs. Belford, Clarke & Co., Chicago, will soon issue 'Divided Lives,' a new novel by Edgar Fawcett, author of A Gentleman of Leisure' &c.

Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, announce for early publication Mosby's War Reminiscences,' by John S. Mosby, late Colonel C.S.A., with illustrations by W. C. Jackson; 'Blue Jackets of 1776,' for young people, by

Willis J. Abbot, with full-page illustrations; tions which ended in the Treaty of Utrecht, 'A Frozen Dragon and other Tales,' by Chas. in 1713. F. Holder, author of 'The Ivory King,' &c., illustrated by J. C. and D. C. Beard and others; and in fiction there will be 'A Gallant Fight,' by Marion Harland and ‘John Winter,' by Edward Garrett.

Messrs. Fords, Howard, and Hulbert, New York, will publish Sermons from Plymouth Pulpit,' by the late Henry Ward Beecher, in four volumes, three of which have not before appeared in book form; also 'Spirit and Life,' a volume of sermons by the Rev. Amory H. Bradford.

Among the books which Messrs. Harper Bros., of New York, will publish during the next few weeks are Shoshone and Other Western Wonders,' by Edwards Roberts; Peninsular California,' by Charles Nordhoff; and 'The Household of Glen Holly,' a story for young people, by Mrs. Lucy C. Lillie. All of these

books will be illustrated.

Messrs. Lee and Shepard, Boston, announce 'Mexico, Picturesque, Political, Progressive, the joint work of Mrs. Mary Blake, of Boston, and Mrs. Margaret Sullivan, of Chicago. Chips from Educational Workshops in Europe,' by Professor L. R. Klemm; Zoology Teaching for Beginners,' by Dr. W. P. Manton; Methods and Aids in Teaching Geography,' by Charles F. King, A.M. ; A Modern Adam and Eve in a Garden,' a novel by Amanda B. Douglas; and 'Chapters from Jane Austen,' edited for school use by Oscar Fay Adams. The same firm have in press Travellers and Outlaws: Episodes in American History,' which is a volume of various historical papers of Col. T. W. Higginson's, contributed to the magazines with some additions, and a new edition of the same author's Short Studies of American Authors,' to which have been added papers on the late Miss Louisa M. Alcott and E. P. Whipple.

Messrs. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, have in pressHalf-Hours with the Best Foreign Authors,' translations selected and arranged by Charles Morris, in 4 vols. uniform with Half-Hours with the Best American Authors;'A Popular History of Music, from St. Ambrose to Mozart,' by James E. Mathew, with illustrations; Embroidery and Lace,' from the French of Ernest Lefebvre, illustrated; The Owl's Nest,' translated from the German of E. Marlitt, by Mrs. A. L. Wister; Tenure and Toil, or Rights and Wrongs of Property and Labour,' by John Gibbons, LL.D., of the Chicago Bar; 'An Elementary Treatise on Human Anatomy,' by Professor Joseph Leidy; and 'A Cyclopædia of Diseases of Children and their Treatment, Medical and Surgical,' edited by J. M. Keating, M.D.

Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., of Boston, will issue an edition of John G. Whittier's poetic and prose works in seven volumes, from entirely new plates, with notes by the poet himself. The books will contain two etched and three engraved portraits. There will be a large-paper edition also, with uncut pages, bound in labelled cloth, and limited to 400 copies. Among further announcements of this firm are The Life of Delia Bacon,' author of the Baconian theory of Shakspeare, by her nephew, Theodore Bacon, with portrait; The Critical Period of American History, 17831789,' by John Fiske; A History of the Old South Church, Boston,' by Hamilton A. Hill, with illustrations; Colonial Times on Buzzard's Bay,' by W. R. Bliss; 'The Soul of the Far East, by Percival Lowell, author of • Choson ; 'On Horseback, and Mexican Notes,' by Charles Dudley Warner; Björnson's Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, drama, Sigurd Slembe,' translated by Wm. have a number of books in hand for publicaM. Payne; Dante's Divina Commedia,' tion, including 'Omitted Chapters of History metrically translated by John Augustine Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Wilstach, in two volumes; Realistic Idealism Randolph, Governor of Virginia, First Attorin Philosophy Itself,' in two vols., by Nathaniel ney-General United States, Secretary of Holmes, author of The Authorship of Shak- State,' &c., by Moncure D. Conway, with speare;' 'Poetry, Comedy, and Duty,' by Prof. portrait and other illustrations; the concludC. C. Everett, D.D.; two volumes in the ing volume of Professor C. F. Richardson's American Commonwealth series, Indiana: a 'American Literature' (Poetry and Fiction); Redemption from Slavery,' by J. P. Dunn, the tenth and concluding volume of the Hon. jun., author of The Massacres of the Moun- John Bigelow's edition of Benjamin Franklin's tains,' and 'Ohio: Historical Sketches of the works;Proverbs and Phrases from All First Fruits of the Ordinance of 1787,' by Nations' (2 vols.), compiled by Robert Rufus King. Each volume will contain a Christie; three volumes of 'British Letters map. The same firm will also issue the follow-illustrative of Character and Social Life,' edited ing works of fiction, viz. :-The McVeys,' by E. T. Mason; Sketches from Horseback,' by Joseph Kirkland; The Despot of Brooms- by John Codman; Christian Doctrine Haredge Cove,' by Charles Egbert Craddock; Our monised and its Absolute Rationality VindiPhil, and other Stories,' by Katharine Floyd cated,' by Professor J. S. Kedney; Essays Dana, with illustrations; and The Peckster on Practical Politics,' by Theodore Roosevelt ; Professorship,' by J. P. Quincy. and the first six books of the 'Eneid,' translated into rhyme by Henry Hamilton.

6

The second volume of Kingsford's 'History of Canada' will be published this month. The history is continued in this volume to the close of the Government of the first M. de Vaudreuil, 1725, and contains an account of the negotia

Among the works to be brought out by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, are Hugh McCulloch's 'Men and Measures of Half a Century;''Dogmatic Theology,'

:

in two volumes, by Prof. W. G. T. Shedd; ing a Library in every Presbytry, or at least the sixth volume of Dr. Philip Schaff's 'History County in the Highlands,' published at of the Christian Church,' forming volume i. Edinburgh, by George Mosman, in the year of the History of the Reformation' in Ger- 1702. The whole tract is very curious and many between 1517 and 1530; 'Amos Kil- interesting, and forms a valuable piece in the bright his Adscititious Experiences, with history of libraries in Scotland. The anonyOther Stories,' by Frank R. Stockton; Mr. G. mous writer in one place in speaking of the I P. Lathrop's Gettysburg: a Battle-Ode,' in (now) vexed question as to the sort of books to be admitted says: 'I thought fit to mention the kinds of books which we intend to purchase; that they who give books and not money may know what sort of treatises we aim at, and may not put us off with trash. As for Popish books, and perhaps some others likewayes, though they be not fit for the weaker sort of people, yet for the library of a Divine, they are convenient and neccessary.'

pamphlet form; a select edition of J. T. Headley's historical works in six volumes; and the following juvenile publications- Children's Stories of the Great Scientists,' by Miss Henrietta C. Wright; 'Little People and their Homes in Meadows, Woods, and Waters,' by Stella Louise Hook, illustrated by Dan and Harry Beard.

Messrs. Ticknor & Co.'s (Boston) announceAmong the reasons for setting on foot this ments include Four Years with the Army of design are set forth the great scarcity of books the Potomac,' by Gen. Regis de Trobriand; amongst the ministers in these parts, some of 'The Other Side of War,' being letters from them hardly having so many as are worth the headquarters of the U. S. Sanitary Com- twenty shillings; also the 'great industry of mission with the Army of the Potomac cam- the Romish Missionaries' with the 'gross paign of 1862, by Miss Kate P. Wormeley; ignorance' of the inhabitants.

6

It was re

Ancient and Modern Lighthouses,' fully illus- quested that money or books which were trated by Major D. P. Heap; Pen and given should be put into the hands of Mr. Powder,' by Franc B. Wilkie of the Chicago Taylor, a bookseller at the Ship' (presumably Times; Songs and Ballads of the Old Planta- on the site of Longmans' house), or 'Mr. tion,' by Joel Chandler Harris and Eli Shep- Robinson at the Golden Lion in S. Paul's herd; Letters of Felix Mendelssohn to Ignaz Churchyard.' and Charlotte Moscheles,' translated and The principal rules of this interesting and edited by Felix Moscheles; a new volume enlightened scheme were that the books were of Essays by the late Edwin P. Whipple; to be under the care of the minister and 'Stories and Sketches,' by John Boyle O'Reilly; schoolmaster of the place. Again, the books to 'A Man Story,' a new novel by E. W. Howe; be kept under lock and key in good and strong and 'Steadfast,' a romance by Rose Terry presses, in a pure and dry air free from dampness. No one but a preacher, schoolmaster, or student was to have access to the books.

Cooke.

Colonel George E. Waring, jun., has prepared for publication by D. van Nostrand, New York, a general treatise on city, town, and village sewerage and drainage, and land drainage. It will include descriptions of both English and American sewerage, and especially of the important drainage works of Holland. It will be copiously illustrated with maps and plates, based largely upon the author's own professional works.

FREE LIBRARIES IN SCOTLAND.

The latter term, however, being a wide one, could be made to include almost any respectable or responsible person.

To prevent people keeping books, a strong temptation where they were so rare, they had to deposit a fourth part above the value until returned. At the same time the borrower had to enter his name and address in a book kept for the purpose, also the time at which it was to be returned.

Rule 9 is worth quoting in its entirety: 'That they who live at places fifteen or twenty miles distant be obliged to restore the book they borrow within a fourtnight, if an 8vo. within three weeks, if a 4to. within a month, or six weeks if a folio. They who live a great way further may be allowed a week or fourtnight more, but a long time ought not to be granted, that so others who need the help of such books may have the benefit of them.'

A committee of the Synod or the Presbytry of the bounds in which the libraries were placed was formed to look after them, and once in two or three years send some of the number to inspect the publich library or libraries in the bounds, and to report in what case they are.'

In an article of our last number reference was made to an interesting tract produced at the meeting of the Library Association at Glasgow. This tract, entitled 'An Overture for founding and maintaining a Bibliothecks in every Paroch throughout this kingdom' (1699), was said by Mr. Blades to have been 'discovered' by the Librarian of the Wigan Free Library in that institution. This perhaps is paying rather an undeserved compliment to the industry of the Librarian at Wigan, as the tract in question, we are informed, was sold to him by a London bookseller only a few days before the Congress. However, our object is not to Further, it is provided the librarians must open up a profitless controversy as to how and be responsible men, and of blameless repu by whom the Overture' was discovered, but tation.' On each book too must be marked to draw attention to another tract published to what library and county it belongs. The a few years after the 1699 one. It is entitled postscript at the end contains a clue to the A copy of a Letter anent a project for erect-author of this tract and scheme. It runs as

1154

follows: The author of this letter is a and poems by Rossetti, Browning, and Swinperson who hath a great zeal for propagating burne, and first editions by many of the the knowledge of God in the Highlands, and is the same who did promote contributions for the printing of Bibles in the Irish language, and sent so many of them down to Scotland.' By 'Irish language' of course it is easy to see what is meant.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.

Messrs. J. and J. LEIGHTON, London.-A catalogue of rare and interesting books, many in fine old bindings. A very rich collection, which might be rendered more conspicuous under subject headings. Many first editions are noted. (56 pp.)

Mr. JAMES WILSON, Manchester.-In this catalogue will be found an extraordinary collection of reprints of extremely curious and rare old books with original editions of the best authors. It also contains some of the best works on theology and history. (20 pp.)

Mr. CHARLES HIGHAM, London.-This wellknown catalogue of theological literature maintains its old reputation. It contains numerous works which are indispensable in a library of any pretensions to value in theology. (48 pp.)

Mr. BERTRAM DOBELL, London.-This catalogue is exceedingly well arranged; it would be a pity were it otherwise, for the valuable works should have that prominence which Mr. Dobell so well knows how to give. There is a goodly collection of the Camden Society's publications, also a list of some of the Shelley Society's. (27 pp.)

Messrs. WILLIAM GEORGE'S SONS, Bristol.This is the 21st issue of the collection of old and curious literature, consisting of books and manuscripts. To those forming libraries this catalogue is invaluable as indicating works which are needed. Some rare old chap-books are included, besides an immense variety in other subjects. (26 pp.)

Mr. JAMES ROCHE, London. A catalogue of general literature, but containing a great number of widely sought books by the best standard authors in history, biography, travel, and fiction. (44 pp.)

Mr. W. P. COLLINS, London. This issue, headed 'Darwiniana,' contains not only Darwin's works, but the cognate literature that preceded and followed it. It is briefly called a catalogue of scientific and philosophical works selected and arranged to illustrate the evolution of research to the theories in course of solution at the present time, especially in reference to biology and anthropology.' It is a model of arrangement. (17 pp.) Mr. Collins issues his catalogues of books on microscopy, micro-natural history, and the allied sciences; many very rare. (32 pp.)

Messrs. MATHEWS & BROOKE, Bradford and Leeds. This is a catalogue of rare, standard, and valuable books, including scarce pamphlets

foremost writers of the century, including Dickens, Thackeray, Cruikshank, Leigh Hunt, and many more whose old editions are daily growing in value. There is also a useful collection of Alpine, Sporting, and Topographical works. (64 pp.)

Messrs. ROBSON & KERSLAKE, London.— We have here the forty-fifth catalogue of rare books in fine condition.' It contains many of Cruikshank's best works, also some of Doyle's. (44 pp.)

Mr. C. HERBERT, London. The ninetyseventh issue, containing standard works in all branches of literature, English and foreign. Also scarce sets of important works, and important remainders, now in cloth. (44 pp.)

don. No. 476 issue is before us, containing a Messrs. HENRY SOTHERAN & Co., Lonlist of ancient and modern second-hand books in all classes of literature, including the best library editions of standard authors in all languages. This is probably the finest collection of second-hand books in England. (32 pp.) We have also No. 64, New Series, Catalogue of books of the same class of the Manchester branch. (16 pp.)

Messrs. B. & J. F. MEEHAN, Bath.-A catalogue of rare, valuable, and useful books in all classes of literature, ancient and modern. There are first editions of standard and popular authors, and a large assortment of second-hand school books. (28 pp.)

Mr. J. R. EVANS, Oxford.-A catalogue of books, theological, architectural, heraldic and miscellaneous, comprising purchases from the Aylesford collection. Also a few choice autographs and holographs. (19 pp.)

Mr. WILLIAM POTTER, Liverpool.-The September catalogue of second-hand books, with sundry new books offered for the first time. The list includes a wide variety of subject, and the prices named are very low. (32 pp.)

Mr. J. E. CORNISH, Manchester.-In this and curious works. It may fairly be suggested, catalogue are found vast quantities of old though, that such a collection deserves a better style of indexing. It shows a curious old way of alphabetically arranging everything that falls under a subject. This is embarrassing to many people: e.g., A practical. &c., without indent, comes awkwardly under 'M.' (86 pp.)

Mr. THOMAS SIMMONS, Leamington. This short catalogue contains a number of books which bookworms would delight in. A welldeserved compliment may be paid to the compilers for the clever manner in which it is given. (12 pp.)

Mr. H. W. BALL, Barton-on-Humber.-A catalogue of books, pamphlets, engravings, manuscripts, relating to Lincolnshire. (18 pp.)