40 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 272. 



MiittUKntani. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, BTC. 



King's Pamphkts. —The frequenters of the reading 

 rooms of the British Museum were gratified, at the re- 

 opening of the library this week, by the appearance of 

 nine huge folio volumes labelled "King's Pamphlets." 

 This is not a catalogue, however, of the splendid collection 

 of pamphlets, about 40,000 in number, which generally 

 pass under this name — " the most valuable set of docu- 

 ments," says Thomas Carlyle, " connected with English 

 history." The new catalogue we speak of represents some 

 20,000 pamphlets belonging to the royal library, which 

 were presented to the nation more than thirty years ago, 

 but whose existence was made known to the public only 

 on Tuesday last. They were disinterred by Mr. Panizzi, 

 and, we understand, a catalogue was made of them fifteen 

 years ago, but chiefly for the use of the librarians. This 

 catalogue has been revised and recopied, and is now ac- 

 cessible to the public. The collection contains all the 

 most important pamphlets written during the reign of 

 George III. on trade, commerce, finance, administration, 

 and politics generally. It embraces also an immense 

 number of tracts, placards, statutes, &c., in Dutch and 

 French, having reference to Spanish rule in the Nether- 

 lands. To Mr. Panizzi's energy the public is indebted 

 for the banquet thus set before it. The old collection of 

 King's Pamphlets, known to bibliographers as the Tho- 

 mason Collection, was made during the reign of Charles I. 

 and the Commonwealth. After experiencing a variety of 

 vicissitudes, it was purchased by George III., who pre- 

 sented it to the British Museum library. It is catalogued, 

 in manuscript, in twelve small volumes folio. On the 

 fly-leaf of the first volume is written, — " Actions that 

 may be presidents to posteritie ought to have their re- 

 cords : and doe merit a most usefull preservation." The 

 tracts are entered according to their sizes. A distinct 

 catalogue, alphabetically arranged, is much required for 

 this most invaluable historical collection. 



Mr. Peter Cunningham, by the publication of the third 

 volume of his edition of Johnson's Lives of the Poets, has 

 brought to a close his many years' labours on these cele- 

 brated biographies. The present volume, like its prede- 

 cessors, contains not only evidence of the great pains 

 which the editor has taken to do justice to the labours of 

 Johnson, but also'much curious illustration of the accu- 

 racy of Johnson in cases where his accuracy has been 

 doubted, and also some curious instances of the shrewd- 

 ness of his conjectures in the absence of positive know- 

 ledge. Thus when Johnson says, " To read Eustathius, 

 of whose work there was then no Latin version, I suspect 

 Pope, if he had been willing, not to have been able," 

 Mr. Cunningham shows how well founded is the suppo- 

 sition by the following note : « * All the crime that I have 

 committed is saying that he is no master of Greek ; and I 

 am so confident of this, that if he can translate ten lines 

 of Eustathius, I'll own myself unjust and unworthy.' — 

 Brome to Fenton, 15th June, 1727 (unpublished Letter in 

 Mr. Croker's possession)." It is by such apposite notes as 

 this, and by the free use of unpublished materials, ori- 

 ginal letters, &c., of which he has been fortunate enough 

 to procure many well suited to his purpose, that Mr. Cun- 

 ningham has succeeded in making his book, what we 

 believe it will long continue to be, the standard edition of 

 Johnson's Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. 



Mr. Bentley, encouraged we presume by the success 

 which has attended his cheap editions of Prescott's his- 

 torical writings, has determined to make a monthly issue, 

 in a cheap yet beautifully printed form, of many of the 

 valuable copyright works of which he is the proprietor. 



The first of these Monthly Volumes of Standard and Po- 

 pular Modern Literature (for so the series is to be entitled) 

 is the first of that amusing and popular bit of gossiping 

 history, Jesse's Court of England under the Reign of the 

 Stuarts, a work undertaken to supply — in some measure, 

 and so far as the period to which it refers — the want of 

 those anecdotical memoirs in which the French are so 

 rich. And although the book may want somewhat of the 

 freshness, quaintness, and, so to speak, the unity of any 

 one of these, it of course has on the other hand the ad- 

 vantages which ought to attend all selections, of consist- 

 ing of good things only ; so that for a wet day in the 

 country, a long evening" at home, or a long ride by rail, 

 Jesse's Court of England under the Stuarts, in its new 

 and cheap form, will be found an admirable companion. 



Books Received. — Knowledge is Power; a View of 

 the Productive Forces of Modern Society, and the Besults 

 of Labour, Capital, and Skill, by Charles Knight, — an 

 expansion and adaptation to the more advanced views of 

 the present day of Mr. Knight's popular and most useful 

 volumes. The' Results of Machinery, and Capital and 

 Labour. 



Gibbon's Rome, with Variorum Notes. Volume Sixth — 

 Bohn's British Classics. In announcing the extension of 

 this edition to seven volumes, Mr. Bohn promises that the 

 seventh shall contain " an Index more circumstantial and 

 complete than any heretofore published." 



The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, and the Ecclesi- 

 astical History of Philostorgius, translated from the Greek, 

 by Edward Walford, is the new issue of Mr. Bohn's Ec- 

 clesiastical Library, and is another of his claims to the 

 support of those who wish to see knowledge made accessible 

 to all. 



James' Life of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, in Two Volumes, 

 which forms the issue of Bohn's Standard Library for the 

 present month, is one of the most popular of Mr. James' 

 historical biographies. 



Fly Leaves. The Second Series fully justifies what we 

 said of its predecessors, viz., that it is a fitting companion 

 for Davis's Olio, and other works of that kind, prized by, 

 because useful to all bibliographers. 



BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES 



WANTED TO FURCHASK. 

 Memoir or JoHW B^tbdke, thb Scotch Po«t. By his brother, Alex- 



Iif^oD'ucTORy'EssAT ON ENGLISH HisioKT, prefixed to " Lives of the 

 Statesmen of the Commonwealth," by John Forster.Esq. Longman 



& Co. „ , . 



Cawood's Sermons. 2 Vols. 8vo. 



Theophilacteri Opera Omnia. _. , 



Miss Strickland's LiT»a or th» Qcsini o» Ewoland. Vol. JJ- oi 



12 Vol. Edition. „ , ^ „ , ^..^. 

 Inooldsbt L.OENDS. Vol. I. First Ed^ion. « ., ^ ^k 



SocTETT OF Arts' Jodrnai,. No. 39. Vol. I., and No«. 52. 54. & 56. 



Vol. n. 

 Th« Etert Man's Maoahne for 1770 and 1771. 



*»• Letters, statine particulars and lowest price. ca";*W« /'Jf^ *» 1>S 

 sent to Mr. Beix, Publisher ot "NOri-S AND C;tll£>UlJ!<8, 

 186. Fleet Street. 



Particulars of Price, &c. of the following Books to be sent direct to 

 the gentlemen by whom they are required, and whose names and ad- 

 dresses are given for that purpose : 



Gmelin's Handbook of Chemistry. 

 Cavendish Societt. All the Vols, published. 



Wanted by Jtev. Frederick Smithe, Churchdown, Cheltenham. 



Annalicm ecclesiasticorom post Baroniom, auctore Abr. Bzovio. 

 TomusXV. Colon. Agr. About 1620. 



"Wanted by Bev. Dr. Todd, Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin. 



