— 
Reviews. A57 
story fespecting the murder may be unfounded is the fact 
that Dr: R. B. Gilland, of the Essex County Asylum, Brent- 
ford, received a letter from Zanzibar, dated Jan. 7, 1867, in 
which allusion is casually made to Dr. Livingstone, but 
there is no mention of his death. . 
In the year 1866, 48,441 cwts. of books—more than 
5,000,000lb.—were exported from the United Kingdom. 
Their value, as registered at the Custom House, was 
4602,177,a little over 26d, per pound. 
REVIEWS. 
Lyra Elegantiarum. A Collection of some of the best 
Specimens of Vers de Soctété and Vers ad’ Occasion in the 
English Language, by deceased Authors. Edited by 
FREDERICK LoCKER. London: Edward Moxon and Co, 
THE domain of English poetry is very extensive, and none 
but an enthusiast would impose on himself the severe 
labour of traversing every nook and corner in the search 
of every specimen of a certain class worthy of reproduc- 
tion and of preservation. Even an enthusiast might pause 
before undertaking such an eclectic task, after the warning- 
note sounded by no less able a critic than Burke :—“ If the 
grain were separated from the chaff which fills the works 
of our national poets, what is truly valuable would be to 
what is useless as the proportion of a mole-hill to a moun: 
tain.” 
Whoever takes up the admirably executed volume of 
Mr. Locker, will be of opinion that the verdict pronounced 
by Burke is not final, and that an appeal from it to the 
tribunal of the public may not be without avail. The 
author has in no way shirked the drudgery consequent on 
the work he proposed to undertake. Judging by what he 
has reproduced out of long forgotten verse, and by what 
he has suffered to remain undisturbed in the tomb to which 
hoary time has consigned it, his object has been to sift the 
wheat from the chaff, and to awaken the mind of this utili- 
tarian and unpoetic age to a species of composition which, 
although it for the most part seldom lives, or is intended to 
live, beyond the event that called it forth, does neverthe= 
