ose who are curious in woodcuts, and wish archase some blocks of the olden time, may the prices of some very ancient ones by ing a stamp to Mr. W. Chapman, York, copy of his illustrated catalogue.

HE AUTHOR OF "JUNIUS."-The late Mr. ph Parkes, whose literary tastes were as known to those who were intimate with as his political and public labours were to contemporaries in general, devoted a very ge portion of his time during the later years his life to an inquiry into the life of Sir Philip

cis, and his alleged connection with the etters of Junius. In the pursuit of his investition of these subjects, he became possessed of large mass of original papers and correpondence of Sir Philip and members of his mily; of the manuscript reminiscences and ther memorials of him left by Lady Francis, Sir Philip's second wife; of a number of misellaneous papers which had been in possession of Henry Sampson Woodfall, the publisher of the Public Advertiser; together with a quantity of other MS. materials, lent or given him by persons, members of whose families had been connected in various ways with Francis during his Jong career. The arrangement of these materials, and the completion of a life founded on them, became an engrossing occupation with Mr. Parkes But he commenced his operations on them upon a scale which the present Editor found it impossible to maintain. Mr. Parkes left behind him eight chapters completed, condacting his hero only down to the year 1768, in which the first Letter of Junius appeared. At that point his labours were terminated by death. Had he lived to complete them, the work must have been extended through several volumes, and would have contained a storehouse of information, not respecting its immediate subject alone, but concerning much of the intimate history of English public men through the whole ragn of George the Third. Mr. Parkes left a very large quantity of materials as yet unused, but not in such order as to enable a successor to take up the thread of the narrative, and continue iten anything like the scale on which he had commenced it. The Editor, Mr. Herman Merivale, has therefore contented himself with completing the Life on a reduced plan, and leaving Sir Philip Francis to speak chiefly for himself, and the Junian" portion of the subject to unravel itself, by extracts, as far as space would admit, from the great body of manuscripts entrusted to hm for the purpose by the family of Mr. Parkes. The work, which will make two volumes, will be published by Messrs. Longman.

A FINE ART CATALOGUE.-South Kensington, well known, is desirous of rivalling, or, if possible, outshining the British Museum. One of the greatest glories of the latter is its unrivalled library. Like all large collections, the Museum library is very deficient in books of particular classes; but perhaps its greatest weak

is in works connected with the Fine Arts. Here there was a splendid opportunity for the authorities of the Museum of Science and Art. Acordingly, it was determined to get up a comFrehensive catalogue, not only of the books at Brompton, but of all that are to be found in the

rld. In this, all books, however remotely bearing upon Art, were to be included; all books with illustrations, all books that should or could

illustrated; all books relating to artists, their Fathers, mothers, wives, or mistresses; all ooks relating to the countries or towns of Artists; all books relating to all subjects but the

exact sciences, sermons, and controversial theology were to be included. A Mr. J. H. Pollen, who was at one time, if we mistake not, a Tractarian clergyman at Leeds, and since then a Roman Catholic layman, was employed to edit this precious work. A grant of £500 was first obtained, then another of £1,000; and lastly, it was determined to spend £5,000 in advertising it piecemeal in the columns of the Times. Having proceeded so far, and having shown how deficient all our public libraries are in such works, the next move would have been a vote of £20,000 or £25,000 a year for the purchase of the books, the appointment of a librarian at a salary of £1,000 a year, and perhaps of a travelling agent to report and purchase books abroad. The concocters of the scheme made one unfortunate mistake, a mistake fatal to all such schemes-they made it public. Now, publicity is fatal to cleverness. Very clever people and South Kensington swarms with them-should have been aware of this, and, like birds of wisdom, have shunned the light of day. For the present, the scheme is in abeyance, but only for a time; the originators have spent too much pains in its conception to let it rest. Learning a lesson from their failure, they will not reveal their plan; but having secured" Lords," and being well screened by a Treasury "my Minute, they will say nothing about it until they think proper to tell us that they have been enabled to purchase a most extensive and exhaustive library of Art Books, and only require the moderate sum of a hundred thousand pounds to pay for them, with a quarter of a million sterling for a building to hold them, and twelve or fifteen thousand pounds a year for a curator and staff of attendants.

THE CAMDEN SOCIETY.-The report for 1867 has just been issued, from which we learn that the following three volumes, viz. :—

I. Notes on Pope Alexander the Seventh and the College of Cardinals. By the Rev. Dr. John Bargrave. Edited by the Rev. J. Craigie Robertson, M.A., Canon of Canterbury;

II. Accounts and Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots. Edited by Allan J. Crosby, Esq., and John Bruce, Esq.;

III. History from Marble. Being Ancient and Moderne Funeral Monuments in England and Wales, by Thomas Dineley, Gent. Fac-simile in Photo-Lithography, by Vincent Brooks. With an Introduction by J. G. Nichols, F.S.A. Part I.

will be issued to subscribers for 1865. The lastnamed work is not yet ready. One of our contemporaries suggests that the Camden Society might give more to present subscribers, and leave posterity to provide for itself.

The estimates for Education, Science, and Art, for 1867-8, amount to £1,487,554, and contain the following items :

Public Education, Great Britain
Public Education, Ireland
Science and Art Department
Paris Exhibition (2 years)
British Museum

£705,865

344,700

206,387

115,799

99,621

BRITISH MUSEUM.—A parliamentary paper, just issued, gives a large amount of information respecting the British Museum. The number of visitors, exclusive of readers, in 1866, was 408,279; an increase of 40,000 upou the previous year, but less than half the number of 1862. In the reading-room the whole number of books selected by readers was 4,034 per day, for the 292 days during which the room was open. average daily number of readers was 342; therefore they must each have consulted nearly twelve books per day. In the course of the year there were added to the library 34,160 volumes;

The

31,917 separate numbers, periodicals, newspapers, &c.; 286 manuscripts, and 704 charters; while large additions have been made, by purchase and gift, to the series of portraits, prints, caricatures, &c., of the English masters. creased facilities are afforded to real students for the examination of books and manuscripts, while effort is made to rid the reading-room of mere novel-readers and idlers.

:

In

The Hall of Arts and Sciences at Kensington (says the London Review) was opened on the 20th inst. by the Queen, the Prince of Wales and his brother having arrived express from Paris to take part in the ceremony. A piece of music by the late Prince Consort was performed, and the usual meaningless trowel business gone through. We wish every success to the Hall of Arts and Sciences, but we do not clearly understand what it is intended for. "Arts" and "sciences" may include anything from the Polytechnic to the more candid Mechanics' Institute, and we have already more halls than our taste for either art or science can fill. One of the most sensible reports of the proceedings appears in a new comic paper, the Tomahawk, which makes the Prince of Wales to say "I don't know what this place is to be; I believe a sort of West-end music-hall. I've been obliged to take a private box. I wish some one would take it off my hands. I shall ask Lucca to come and sing here, and Arthur Lloyd too-that will be rather jolly. I hope my box is on the pit tier. I suppose I must say something about this stupid place. It has been got up by puffing and gentle pressure. Lots of fellows have taken boxes because they were afraid of offending my mother. They wish they had not done it. I suppose Cole will give lectures here, and charge a guinea for tickets. I hope I shan't have to come and hear him. There will be a nice staff of curators, superintendents, boxkeepers, check-takers, &c.—all well paid. If we say it's all in memory of my father, Parliament will be obliged to vote the money. I shall try and get some of my friends places. I always have to say in my speeches that I want to walk in my father's footsteps; but I don't. I think you may praise a man too much, even when he's dead. It makes people tired of him. 73 There is truth as well as satire in this.

PARIS EXHIBITION.-Mr. Dillwyn has moved for a return, the production of which will, perhaps, excite some consternation amongst the persons so employed. The address moved for a "return of the names of all persons employed or engaged by this country in connection with the Paris Exhibition and the Exhibition Catalogue, the part they have taken in the work, the nature of their previous employments or professions, and the amount of remuneration paid or to be paid them; and a separate account of all moneys paid or to be paid for travelling, rent, lodgings, and all other expenses."

JURORS AT PARIS.-According to the estimates, there have been appointed 85 jurors, 52 assistantjurors, 18 delegates, and 85 reporters, at an average cost of £50 each. Some of these will appear to have had an easy time of it-in Class 90, for instance, there is but one English exhibitor, and he shows but one volume; yet, in order to judge of its merits, there are a juror and an assistant-juror, with a "reporter" to describe its merits. Who are the jurors in Classes 6 and 7, books and bindings, we scarcely know, but believe that they are-Mr. George Clowes, of Stamford Street, for printing, and Mr. Warren De La Rue, of Bunhill Row, for binding. Mr. Rivers Wilson, a clerk in the

of Class 6." In the catalogue, we obse names of Lord Houghton as vice-preside that of Mr. Baillie Cochrane, M.P., as a juror. A long list of committee men a tioned by name; these, we understan taken no part in the matter, but sever sponsible persons, whose names are not i were very actively engaged in supplyin mation and advice to the jury.

ROME. We hear that we may shortly to receive an account of the catacombs inscriptions therein found, such as implicitly trusted. Mr. John Henry after some difficulty, obtained permission Pope, and after much more difficulty that Cardinals, to take photographs of the inscri By means of the magnesian light he was e to do this, and thus, for the first time, g world an actual facsimile of what has lon supposed to be the work of the early Chri in the time of the first persecution. We that the result is somewhat disappointing, of the remains being evidently of Pagan or and others the work of the 8th or 9th cent and but little that is traceable to the persee Christians who were compelled to worship t PARIS. The Marquise de Boissy (Co Guiècioli) is preparing a work which M. A will shortly publish: it consists of her recolle of Lord Byron, with a number of unpubl documents. The first volume is already pri the title-page is simply "BYRON." The and concluding volume is now at press.

The Round Table, published at New Ye in many respects the most creditable lit paper that has been issued in Americ many years. The editor is evidently Ame to the back-bone; but, at the same time, b large literary sympathies. No English be condemned on account of its birth, nor i American author unduly praised because b not "raised on this side of the Atlantic reviews, too, are, on the whole, written scholarly and conscientious manner. Thei Table occasionally handles subjects upon Americans are exceedingly sensitive; the treated with a remarkable degree of boldnes independence, and, as the paper is read large number of the soundest thinkers i States, its influence must be great. Or subject, we think, the editor's usually sound ment has failed him; and that is, in the admi of too much personality, especially in his En correspondent's letters. No doubt there a America, as there are here also, many pe who like to know that Mr. Tennyson we wide-a-wake hat, that Mr. Thackeray's nose not remarkable for its prominence, and that legs of Mr. Dickens's chairs are not strai but considerably bowed. Good taste keeps private matters out of English papers; a somewhat notorious writer of gossip in country dwells very much at Coventry, in' sequence of his known habit of catering morbid appetites. We do not wish to see Round Table carried on on precisely the Ea system, but we think it open to improvet and, with all good wishes, point out what we sider a weakness. With the trifling excer

we have referred to, we think the editor do better than follow the line of managemen bas marked out for himself.

inted as leve, Mr. Ene; but in 1 Complm signs as

catalogue, v ton as

se, we -matter,

W. J. Linton, of New York, is preparing story of wood-engraving from the earliest in England, Germany, France, America, elsewhere. The volume, which is to be ed abroad, and of which three hundred es will be printed for subscribers only, is to profusely illustrated with proofs on India chrane, MP. er of the best works of the best masters, f comm, when possible, from the original blocks, in other cases by photography from early is There will also be samples of faulty style, cuts of original subjects designed to show manifold capabilities of wood-engraving. be subjects treated in the book include a comlete history of the art, ancient and modern, esigned to supply the deficiencies of previous works on the subject, none of which can claim completeness; criticisms of the merits of different schools; instructions for artists; with accounts of eminent engravers.-Round Table.

ose name S

raged a

he jury. at we of the t Hound, Ir. Joe btained

more dif

graphs xian light or the le of what k of the t persen what dis idently of the S aceable

CHINA-The example of Japan appears to have awakened the members of the Tsong-li-yamea, or Council of the School of Languages, to a sense of the lamentable deficiency existing in their own intellectual resources; and the estabishment of a college for European languages and science in Pekin is now at length un fait accompli. By dint of repeated admonitions and the influence of foreign intercourse, the Chinese Government has been made to understand that npelled Europeans can furnish it with knowledge which it does not possess. The acknowledgment of this latter fact is a great step towards the emancipation of the Chinese mind, hitherto so selfsufficient and exclusive.

se de B
work

Onsists

number olumeis

BYB is now lished st most cre issued in ris evide at the sate

No E

of its hira
praised

of the

e whole RS manner

es subjects ly sensitive: degree of he paper

indest thi st be gre For's usually hat is, int

In a long memorial or petition, according to celestial usage, the Emperor has been reasoned with, and so convinced, that he has endorsed the document with the words, "THE PRECEDING IS APPROVED." "RESPECT THIS."

The memorial enters fully and clearly into the advantages to be derived from the study of the mathematical sciences, as they are cultivated in Europe, and applied in the construction of ma chinery, &c.; also the desirability of the attention of the literary graduates being turned to the study of European languages as a means of learning much respecting the outer world, with which the Chinese are at present unacquainted. Some of the particular reasons given in the petition are so remarkable, that we give them at length:

"In proposing the study of the mathematical sciences,
the Thong-li-ya-men is not impelled by a sentiment of
Mind imiration for knowledge of this kind possessed by
the Europeans, nor by an extravagant love for novelty.
reason is that the construction of machines for war-
like and industrial purposes, so important in our days,
bad entirely upon the sciences. China wishes to con-
stract her steamboats for herself; but, to enable her to do
No don't Earopean masters must initiate her in the principles
of the mathematical sciences, and point out the course to
prese. It would be a mistake, and a fruitless expenditure
of and money, to hope that the Chinese could attain such

specially n

ere also, Mr. Tenny Thacke minence, and hairs are n Good taste b English pape iter of at Coventry habit of cate

do not wish

precisely the

open to

by their imagination alone. We have seriously refetal upon the subject before presenting to your Majesty this present memorial. We know that persons more accus

ed to debate than to reflect will say that we are coning ourselves with matters of only moderate utility; that we wish to set aside the ancient Chinese modes to follow foreign practices; and that it is contrary to Chinese ity to allow ourselves to be instructed by European ters. Those who speak thus show that they know little of what is passing in the world. Up to the present time China has tried to be powerful by her own resources. But is clear now that Chinese genius has produced all it is able to produce, and that intelligent persons do not conceal from themselves that, in order to walkalone in future,

point out it must first resolve to receive from Europeans those sciences

the trilling

think the ed

line of

and arts in which it is deficient. Clearly therefore, it is
argent that we should instruct ourselves in all these
Riences; and this opinion is not confined to the under-
signed. It would be a serious mistake to imagine that
China abandons her ancient knowledge to adopt that of

foreigners. The Europeans admit that they have borrowed from China-or at any rate from the East-the notions upon which their sciences are now-a-days based. With their spirit of research and constant application, they have increased these notions, drawn from them all the profit possible, and have finally discarded antiquated theories in favour of those more modern and exact. The root is Chinese, but the tree that has been developed is European. This is the case with arithmetic and astronomy, and perhaps also with other sciences. If China had continued to cultivate the sciences, she would not now be reduced to have recourse to the experience of other nations. Clearly this would be far preferable. But is the idea of having recourse to the science of the Europeans, and of requesting lessons from them, new? Did not the Emperor Kang-hi, with his vast intelligence, recognise this necessity by admitting many among them to the mathematical tribunal, and treating them like Chinese functionaries? Recent generations ought not to set aside, as they have done, the science of numbers, since our philosophers themselves have placed it at the head of human knowledge. To those who may say that China humiliates herself in seeking instruction from foreigners, we shall reply that, if one thing in particular can make a nation blush, it is to be ignorant of that which others know. What immense progress have not Europeans made during the last fifty years in the construction of steam-ships-to cite only a single fact-incessantly seeking after better combinations, and vieing with each other in labour and efforts. Even Japan has sent to Europe officers intended to seek instruction in the various sciences there taught. Thus, without speaking of European nations, each of which seeks to raise itself above the others by knowledge and civilization, Japan has not wished to remain in the rear. That country also desires to take its place among the strong, while China alone, continuing obstinate in her indifference and her ancient customs, would condemn herself to stand aloof from the general activity. This is a true reason of disgrace. We foresee also that it will be said: The construction of machines is the task of labourers; why teach these things to literate persons? We shall reply, that in the ancient book Tcheou-li,' there is a chapter upon carpentry, which literate persons have read with interest during many ages, and for which they have a great esteem. Why is this? Because, if the workman must execute the manual labour in any construction, it is the literate person who ought to know the natural law, the principle upon which that construction is based. It is by this knowledge that he may render the labour of the workman useful by directing and applying it with discernment. It is these natural laws that we are desirous should be known, and it is by them that the literate person will point out to the artizan the full benefit he may extract from any given process. We therefore submit for your Majesty's approval the following code of regulations, trusting it may meet with your high approbation. Lastly, we beg to suggest that as the hau-lin (academicians) of the three classes possessing a high degree of literary education, and accustomed to grave and arduous studies, are now but little employed in the administration, it would be well to invite them to study the mathematical sciences, in which they would make rapid progress. We respectfully await the time when your Majesty and her Majesty the Empress shall deign to acquaint us with what is thought of our proposals."

The Rev. W. C. Burns, missionary at Pekin, has published in the Mandarin colloquial dialect the first part of the Pilgrim's Progress, and expects to publish the remainder during the year. He has also completed the translation of the Psalms into Chinese.

SHANGHAI-The Tantai, or Governor, has bought type and presses for a printing office in the European style. Coal gas is now manufactured here, not only for public offices, but also for private houses; and natives are now competing with Europeans in the art of photography.

SIAM. The King of Siam has established a printing office under the management of an Englishman.

JAPAN. From the Allgmeine Zeitung, we learn that at Yeddo there is a newspaper published in Japanese, especially intended to coach up the natives in foreign news. The size is 4to, and the title is, the Ban-Kok-Shin-Bun-Shi. In a recent number, there appeared a conversation in Hyde Park, London, on the subject of the Panama route to San Francisco.

A special government school has been established at Yeddo, for the cultivation of the English, French, and Dutch languages.