or five other photogravure illustrations from drawings by Miss Nelly Erichsen and Miss Adelaide Marchi.

the

Among some Ibsen letters recently published in Germany is one which was written to the King in 1866 soon after the publication of "Brand." The letter is a frank appeal for aid. The author tells the King that "Brand" has aroused great interest outside borders of his fatherland, but, he adds, "I cannot live on the expressions of thanks I have received," and he pleads for a special grant of four hundred thalers in order "to afford me the possibility of living my life as a poet." He continues in this wise: "I am not fighting for a future free from care, but for my life's work, which, I firmly believe and know, God has provided for me, a work which seems to me the most important and needful for Norway to awaken the people and to teach them to think largely. It rests with your majesty if I must quit the battlefield, where, as I know, the weapons have been granted to me for the conflict, and this would be the hardest of all for me, for until this day I have never left the field."

The publication of the Oxford University Press collotype facsimile of the autograph manuscript of Keats's "Hyperion" was postponed until January, in order to allow other manuscripts which have only recently come to light to be included in the volume. The chief new discovery contains the altered version of the same poem which the poet composed in the autumn of 1819, under the title of "The Fall of Hyperion: A Vision," a copy of which came into the possession of the late Lord Houghton, who appears to have recopied it for the printer when he

first published the poem in the "Philobiblon" in 1856. No autograph of "The Fall of Hyperion" is known to exist, and the present manuscript was lost for many years, but was lately found by the Earl of Crewe, who has given permission for its publication. It contains twenty-one hitherto unpublished lines, and supplies many important corrections of the printed text. It is now printed in full, with an introduction by Mr. de Sélincourt, throwing light on the relation of the two poems, "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion."

man.

The Nobel prize for Literature has again been carried off by a FrenchOn the first occasion, M. SullyPrudhomme was the winner. In the recent award, it goes to M. Mistral. M. Mistral is a native of Maillane (Bouches-du-Rhône), where he was born in September, 1830. He has decided to devote the sum he receives to the purchase of the old Palais d'Arles, which is to receive the Provençal Museum he himself founded there. Another Nobel laureate is Don José Echegaray, the eminent Spanish mathematician and dramatic author. Don Echegaray, who was born in Madrid in 1835, is generally regarded as the greatest living dramatist in Spain. Three of his plays were translated into English about ten years ago; two-"the Great Galeoto" and "Folly or Saintliness"- -were rendered in prose by the late Hannah Lynch and published together (1895), while in the same year was published Mr. James Graham's translation of Echegaray's three-act drama, "The Son of Don Juan." The latter book, which included a very useful biographical sketch of the poet, formed one of the well-known Cameo Series.

The greatest excitement has prevailed in Russia for the last few weeks since it became known that representatives of the Zemstvos of thirty-four provinces of the Empire were going to meet at St. Petersburg in order to discuss the necessary reforms in the general political organization of the country. The very fact that such an authorization had been granted was equivalent to an invitation to discuss a scheme of a Constitution; and so it was understood everywhere. When the Zemstvo delegates were leaving their respective provincial towns they were sent off by groups of enthusiastic friends, whose parting words were: "Return with a Constitution!"

Their original intention was to make of their conference a solemn official gathering which would speak to the Government in its official capacity, but at the last moment the Minister of the Interior refused to grant the necessary authorization; and as the Zemstvo delegates declared that they were

IN RUSSIA.

were informed that they could do sơ only in private, and that their conference would be treated as a private gathering, but that their resolutions could be handed by a few delegates to the Minister of the Interior, and through his intermediacy to the Emperor. This is how this Conference, which surely will become an important historical date, took place on the 19th 20th, and 21st of November at St. Petersburg.

The decisions of the Conference were expressed in eleven resolutions, which, as will be seen presently, are now becoming the programme of an agitation which is gradually spreading all over Russia. Moreover, in contrast with all the petitions addressed to the Tsar on previous occasions by certain Zemstvos, the present memorandum is couched in far more dignified language and in definite terms. It begins by mentioning "the abnormal character of State government which has developed since the beginning of the eighties

The greatest excitement has prevailed in Russia for the last few weeks since it became known that representatives of the Zemstvos of thirty-four provinces of the Empire were going to meet at St. Petersburg in order to discuss the necessary reforms in the general political organization of the country. The very fact that such an authorization had been granted was equivalent to an invitation to discuss a scheme of a Constitution; and so it was understood everywhere. When the Zemstvo delegates were leaving their respective provincial towns they were sent off by groups of enthusiastic friends, whose parting words were: "Return with a Constitution!"

Their original intention was to make of their conference a solemn official gathering which would speak to the Government in its official capacity, but at the last moment the Minister of the Interior refused to grant the necessary authorization; and as the Zemstvo delegates declared that they were decided to meet nevertheless, they

were informed that they could do so only in private, and that their conference would be treated as a private gathering, but that their resolutions could be handed by a few delegates to the Minister of the Interior, and through his intermediacy to the Emperor. This is how this Conference, which surely will become an important historical date, took place on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of November at St. Petersburg.

The decisions of the Conference were expressed in eleven resolutions, which, as will be seen presently, are now becoming the programme of an agitation which is gradually spreading all over Russia. Moreover, in contrast with all the petitions addressed to the Tsar on previous occasions by certain Zemstvos, the present memorandum is couched in far more dignified language and in definite terms. It begins by mentioning "the abnormal character of State government which has developed since the beginning of the eighties [1881], and consists in a complete es