cause at the present time every one is considered fit for nothing unless he is able, by fraud or deceit, to injure and oppress his fellow-man.

(c) The words of French or Latin origin are―variable, dissension, collusion, oppression, causeth.

(d) What-inter. pron. neut. sing. nom, to makes. bul-prep. gov. obj. case lust.

(e)

that simple relative, neut. sing. 3rd pers. obj.gov.by have. if-conj. gov. subordinate sent.

he pers. pron. 3rd pers. sing. masc. nom. to can. can-defect. verb, subj mood, pres. indef. tense, 3rd pers. agr. with he.

do-trans. verb, strong conj. (do, did, done), infinitive mood, pres. indef. tense, gov. by can.

what interrog. pron. neut. sing. nom. to causeth. causeth-trans. verb, weak conj. indic. mood. pres. indef. tense, 3rd pers. sing. agree. with what.

this demonstr. pron. neut. sing. obj. by causeth. that final conj. gov. subord. sent.

for-prep. gov. obj. case lack.

lack abstr. noun. neut. sing. obj. by for.

1. Starting from New York, the first city in the States for population, wealth, and commerce, we proceed by rail through New Jersey, past Trenton, to Philadelphia, and traversing Penn. sylvania, we continue west past Harrisburgh, and Pittsburgh, a great iron-manufacturing city. Through Ohio and Indiana we remark no important town until we reach Chicago, on L. Michigan. This is called the 'Garden City,' and has the greatest exports of grain in the world. We now enter the prairie-land of Illinois, and cross the Mississippi, by a bridge a mile long, into Iowa. We continue west past Des Moines to Council Bluffs, and beyond the Missouri we arrive at Omaha, the midway station of the Pacific Railway between New York and San Francisco. We proceed west through Nebraska, along the line of the Platte, and halt at Cheyenne, in Wyoming, across the hills and mountains of which we continue our route, and enter the Mormon territory of Utah, and at its chief town, Great Salt L. City, we find the Mormon head-quarters. Skirting the whole length of the Gt. Salt Lake, we soon reach the Desert of Nevada, and on the slopes of the Sierra, bordering on the State of California, we enjoy some splendid scenery. After briefly noticing the commercial town of Sacramento, we soon reach our destination, San Francisco, the most commercial town on the Pacific. Our journey has a length of over 3,300 miles.

Chili.-A country of South America, a long narrow strip between the Andes and the ocean. Chief town, Santiago. Chimborazo. The highest summit of the Quito Andes. Juan Fernandez.-An island off the coast of Chili, the resi. dence for four years of Alexander Selkirk, Robinson Crusoe.' Magellan. The straits between Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, so named from their discoverer.

Monte Video.-A city on the northern shore of the Rio de la Plata, capital of Uruguay.

Quito. A city on a plateau of the Andes, capital of Ecuador. Rio de Janeiro.-A city on the S. E. coast of S. America, capital of Brazil-has a very fine harbour.

Tierra del Fuego ('Land of Fire.'-An archipelago, at the southern point of S. America. It has many active volcanoes. Valparaiso (Vale of Paradise').-The most commercial city of Chili.

History.

1. The invasion of the Romans introduced government and civilized manners. Great cities grew up, connected by excellent roads. Agriculture throve so much that Britain became one of the chief corn-exporting countries of the Roman Empire. The Romans left their mark on the land more than on the people.

1377,, 1399

1422,, 1461 1483

1483,, 1485 1625 1649

The character of Richard III. is generally represented as very bad. He is made not merely unscrupulous, as he most certainly was, but selfish, malicious, and very cruel. He was undoubtedly an able sovereign, and he certainly was at first very popular with the majority of his subjects. Á terrible blot on his name is his behaviour to his nephews. It was believed at the time, that fearing the nation might consider their claim on the throne stronger than his, he sent murderers who smothered them in the Tower.

3. The first Act of Supremacy was passed in the reign of Henry VIII. in 1534, declaring the King to be supreme head of the English Church. The great Sir Thomas More, Chancellor after Wolsey, and Fisher, Bishop of Winchester, were the most distinguished of those who were executed for refusing to take the oath of supremacy.

The first Act of Uniformity of service was made in 1552, forbidding the use of any other religious rites than those set forth in the Prayer Book. The Princess Mary, afterwards Queen, declared that she would rather lay her head on a block and suffer death, than use the new service.

Another Act of Uniformity caused the secession of the Puritans, and a third Act, in the reign of Charles II., forced two thousand nonconforming ministers to withdraw from the Church. The most notable Dissenter at that time was John Bunyan.

Composition.

The Census is a term applied to the collecting of information regarding the population and employment of the people and the nationality of the subjects of the empire. The Census in our country is taken every ten years, and a sum is granted by Parliament for the purpose of defraying all expenses for paper, printing, and all enumeration accounts. The Home Secretary in London sends through the various official channels to the sheriffs of counties the various papers connected with emumeration work. Then to every registrar, or other recognized responsible public servant, a number of books and schedules, reckoned sufficient for his district, is transmitted. Having divided the parish or town into enumeration districts, the registrar, with the approval of the authorities, appoints enumerators, who distribute schedules to every householder the week before the day appointed for collecting the information. Having noted the name of the householder, the number or name of the house, and the number of windowed rooms, he leaves the schedule to be filled up by the head of the family. The responsible person of every house fills up the various divisions on the paper with the information required, and hands it to the enumerator on his return visit. Very complete arrangements are always made so as to include every one in the kingdom on a certain night, not even a tramp being omitted.

The value of such information to the Government is great, as it shows the number of men at their disposal, if necessary, for fighting purposes, the denseness of population in certain districts, the number of children of school age, the loss or increase of the population of towns and cities, the wealth of the nation, and other interesting and useful statistics.

3.

the angle BAR is equal to the angle FBM, and the angles at M and R are right angles, and the side BF is equal to BA. Therefore (I. 26) the triangles FBM, ABR are equal in every respect, and MB is equal to AR. In a similar manner it may be shown that AR is equal to CN, and thus MB, CN, being equal to the same line, AR, are therefore equal to one another, and MB is equal to CN-Q. E. D.

2 Prop. 7, Bk. II.

Algebra.

Farran.

(3) Stoker and Hooper's Solutions to Examination Papers in Chemistry. Stewart & Co.

School Reward Books-Fiction

(1) Claudine; or, Humility the Basis of all the Virtues. Griffith & Farran.

(2) Distant Homes; or, the Graham Family in New Zealand. Griffith & Farran.

(3) Fickle Flora and her Seaside Friends. Griffith & Farran. (4) Good in Everything; or, the Early History of Gilber Harland. Griffith & Farran.

(5) Pictures of Social Life. Griffith & Farran.
(6) William Tell: the Patriot of Switzerland.

Farran.

Writing

Griffith &

(1) Murby's Imperial Copy-Books. Thomas Murby.

R

Publications Reviewed.

Science and Art Department. Chemistry, Organic and Inorganic, worked out in full as Models. By G. N. Stoker, F.I.C., F.R.M.S., and E. G. Hooper. London: W. Stewart & Co.

When the great French Academic Dictionary was being compiled, it is said that Baron Cuvier asked what definition of a crab they intended to give. 'A little red fish that walks backwards,' was the prompt answer. The baron mused a few minutes, stroked his beard, and then replied, 'Well, I have three objections only to take to this definition. In the first place the crab is not red, in the second place it is not a fish, and in the third place it does not walk backwards.' Almost the same remark might with safety be made in one or two places here. On page 35 we find a diagram, by courtesy so called, supposed to represent the manufacture of hydrochloric acid. Even admitting that it does represent this--and in denying this we should act with justice and follow Cuvier-we still have to complain that it is not a diagram, but only a half-confused smudge; and if we were to pass this by as a minor defect, we have simply nothing left. In fact, the figures are in general simply wretched, forlorn misrepresentations. Once, by way of variety, reference is made to a diagram by letters, and the letters are omitted in the diagram itself.

But it is not fair to lay at the door of the authors things for which publisher and engraver are jointly responsible. Let us pass on accordingly to the subject-matter itself. As before, we have some little complaint, but it is comparatively insignificant. We are told that Nickel, for instance, is a white metal resembling silver. To this we object that Nickel is not white, and that it does not in the slightest resemble silver. True, our authors' remarks apply perfectly to Electrolytic Nickel to which a high polish has been given; but it is no more fair to use this as a general description of the metal than it is fair to take gascoke as a specimen of carbon, and thence describe the appearance of charcoal. On page 44, in the Inorganic part, we are asked for several methods of separating Manganese and Iron. We read through four methods, all more or less practicable, but fail to meet with the only one which the manufacturer finds it profitable to employ, obtaining the mixed sulphates, and then strongly igniting, so as to reduce the Fe SO, to Fe, O1, leaving this insoluble residue after treating with H, O and dissolving the Mn SO. Or, again, we have a mixture of Ba CO, Na, SO4, Cu Cl2, Zn Cl, and Mg Cl, given, and are required to separate and distinguish the constituents. We might, at any rate, have hoped to separate the Ba CO, at once, by dissolving all the rest in water. As it is, H Cl is poured in, and the acutest chemist in the world would, we think, be unable to say whether it was Ba CO, and Mg Cl, or Mg CO, and Ba Cl. Throughout this and similar questions, in fact, we are accurately shown that various acids and various bases exist in our mixture, but no hint, not the shadowiest or most imperfect, is given as to how these bases and acids combine. Even when all the substances are soluble, in nine cases out of ten such hints might have been given without taking more than a few lines.

But, as we said, our grounds for complaint are fewer than our grounds for congratulation. South Kensing

ton theories seem grooved into the whole science. Graphic formulæ are managed with wonderful skill. Complex compounds, such as Meerschaum (Mg, H, Si, O), Aluminic Pyrophosphate ((Al, O.), 3P2O;}, Apatite (Ca, O, P, F), yield as readily as the simplest. Even in smaller points, such as writing P, instead of 4P, our authors are careful to adhere to rule.

Finally, if it be on the whole deemed advisable that a Key to the Science and Art Papers in Chemistry should be furnished, for the purpose, we presume, of model answers, we do not think that, taking into account the great difficulty of writing such a book so as to please everybody, the work could be much more ably done.

For facility of reference an index is added, with the result of making the book available to those who use the ordinary text-books.

Grammar, History, and Derivation of the English Language. By Rev. Evan Daniel, M.A. In Two Volumes. I. Accidence, Parsing, Analysis, and Syntax. II. History and Derivation. 135 PP. London National Society's Depository, Westminster, 1881.

We should not think it out duty to give anything but praise to this work, but that the author himself invites suggestions and corrections, so that he will not misunderstand our following remarks. The book is mainly intended for 'students in Training Colleges, the upper forms in Secondary and High Schools, and candidates for the University Local Examinations, and for the Matriculation Examination of the London University.' We read it carefully through with a view to its adaptability to the last object, and rise from the perusal with very considerable satisfaction. Nevertheless we noted one or two points for remark. Dr. Donaldson used to say to his pupils,' we are told in the Preface, 'whenever you come across an ingenious derivation, distrust it.' We do not intend to quarrel with the doctor, but we do think that if this rule is quoted it should be adhered to more rigidly than it is. Hundred, we read, is made up of hun, a contraction of the Gothic taihun (= ten), and raed, an old Swedish word meaning 'a reckoning up to ten.' The ingenuity of this is marvellous, but perfect credence is notwithstanding claimed for the result. What the real derivation of hundred is is not much to the point, even if it be a worthy cause for spending time. Latham puts it down to old Latin hundredum, leaving us precisely where he found us, for what on earth does hundredum claim kinship with? Besides which, Dr. Donaldson might well have added a second canon, Most words put down to Low Latin are shams and deceivers,' for the general rule with some philologists is to seize this language, as the one most passive under mutilation and injury, and father upon it any miserable little orphans who can find shelter nowhere else.

6

In the case of disputed derivations, again, both claimants might surely have been allowed standing ground. We confess that we have been always brought up to regard a king as the cunning, the wise man. Now, however, he assumes a fresh garb, as the cyn-ing, the son of his tribe. Bachelors and cowherds, and ladies and bread-kneaders, are identified in a manner which, if it does nothing else, shocks ancient prejudices.

We will name one other thing only, and that is the theory of the formation of the past tense. 'I loved,'

Mr. Daniel thinks, was once I lovedede' = 'I lovedid.' We confess that there are great names in support of this view, but there are more and greater now against it. Dr. Weymouth makes the amusing remark, that if de did, dy-de = do + dy-de do + do +dy-de, and so on ad infinitum.' And he goes on pertinently, and to our mind conclusively, 'There scarcely seems room to doubt that the d of the past indicative is the same as the d or t, and therefore n also, found in so many languages in the past-participle and several quasi-participial forms; and for these we find the meaning of did unsuitable. Just as the hissing s appended to the Greek ev or pó conveyed the idea of motion, is or is indicating a motion that results in the position ev, and рos indicating a motion that results in the position po; so when an effort has been made and the work is achieved, a sense of relief is expressed by the explosive d or t or more prolonged dental n.' Not only in this, but in many other questionable points, such as the derivation of shall, our author has followed Dr. Morris, while he might at least have mentioned the views of such a weighty opponent, who now and then differs prominently from him.

Creditably and accurately done as is the first volume, the second is even more so. Now and then,

perhaps, the derivations are far-fetched; now and then the arrangement is confused; but as a whole the book is successful, and this is all the more creditable, inasmuch as it is the first of its sort in the field. At times, too, we come upon things so obvious as to be almost truisms, certainly to need no special mention. No one could ever doubt that Jesuit and Jesus, Jeremiad and Jeremiah are closely akin, though it may fairly be doubted whether Jeremiad is any more naturalized English word than several curious specimens originated by Carlyle of less obvious origin.

a

In conclusion, we will express our unfeigned satisfaction. We have no hesitation in saying that the book contains enough amply to enable the student to pass the Matriculation well, and we doubt whether this can fairly be said of Mason or Morris.

French, Practice and Theory; or, A New

Practical and Natural Method of Learn-
ing to Read, Speak, and Write the
French Language. By G. C. Mast. Third
Edition. London: Joseph Boulton.

Of all the many French books which it has been our fortune, or misfortune, to notice during the last six months, this is pre-eminently the worst. The title contains six advantages of Mr. Mast's scheme; we have, therefore, six indictments against the said title. The idea is not new: Ollendorff tried it some time ago, and now languishes in second-hand book-stallsnowhere else. The idea is not practical; it is not natural. Can it be for an instant imagined that to learn to translate babyish nonsense, fit only for consignment either to the waste-paper basket or the_nursery, can ultimately lead to any good results? Take a specimen of what, if we may trust the Preface, 'young children, equally well as (sic) elder ones, should constantly repeat, as repetition is the only means of acquiring fluency:'-'Here is a box. you please, what is in the box? Sugar plums. Eat it. Shut the box.' It is to be hoped the child has the sense to shut the book as well.

If

Again, the title informs us that Mr. Mast is competent to teach us how to read French. Even this we doubt; while we are certain that his book, at all events, is utterly incompetent for the task. Fancy a Racine or Molière made up of little sentences such as we quoted; and we really scarcely ever rise higher than an acquaintance with this nonsense.

In our opinion, again, it is equally unfitted to teach how to write French, inasmuch as even a Frenchman would count the most sensible model sentences in this book a compound of nonsense and wholly unnecessary sense. Sixthly and finally, it is an utter failure in pronunciation. Again and again through these columns have we expressed our abhorrence of any attempt to teach pronunciation on paper. It cannot

and never will be successfully done. Any approximation thereto, moreover, is simply horrifying. Take the following choice morsels from the pronunciationtable given on p. 46:—

boîte becomes bo-ah-tt.

fils

oreille

excuse

fiss, which is certainly utterly wrong.
o-ra-ye, which conveys no notion at all of
the real difficulty.

eks-keese, with the additional information
in a foot-note that this last business
must be done with a 'rounded mouth'
so as to hit the mark exactly.

We have accused this book in a very comprehensive fashion, but we are sure that no competent judge will consider that our accusations are far-fetched or unnecessary. Indeed, we have only to open the book at random to double the number. Surely, an author should try to speak the truth on his first page, whatever becomes of the fiftieth. Yet we find a list of sixty words spelt alike in English and French, though by no means in all cases of precisely the same significance. This list is headed by the remarkable statement that all in it are 'names of male beings, or considered as males.' Here are a few examples of what Mr. Mast considers as male beings; or thinks, at all events, that the French have been deluded into thinking of as male beings: arsenic, canal, fruit, vase, vice, village. Has our author never heard of a neuter gender? If he has, then it is simple barefaced nonsense to talk of the French as if they had no discrimination. If he has not, we leave our readers to judge of his capabilities to lead others.

The title does give us an idea that we may get a formal sort of introduction to grammar. This is a notion, however, which we soon have to discard. There is absolutely no vestige of any systematic or orderly treatment-nothing but a few detached notes on verbs here and there. It is probable, of course, that Mr. Mast himself is not unacquainted with the subject. It is certain that he is utterly unable to prove his knowledge by his work, if, by a stretch of imagination, these hundred pages may be so called.

But we must have done. The book was not worth half the space. If any one desires to become acquainted with the method in which we advise him not to write a French book, if, indeed, any infatuation should finally persuade him that the Fates mean him to write at all; if any one desires to sound a depth of stupidity of which, in print, at all events, we should have doubted the existence, let him devote all his spare energies to the perusal of this book. If he desires to know French, let him keep his distance from Mr. Mast.