The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-01 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.

BLACKWOOD.—" Miss Marjoribanks" is continued
at some length, and this instalment is a very event-
ful one, for the heroine takes her stand in society, at
Carlingford, and assumes the position she so ardently
longed for. The description of her " evenings" is
very entertaining, and the manner in which Barbara
Lake puts herself forward, and turns from the demure out-
cast to the self-possessed flirt, is cleverly depicted. The
author has not lost the powers of detail and description
whtch rendered the preceding Chronicles of Carlingford so
interesting, and it is a change to have a lady appear on
the scene after the long list of heroes whose merits and
demerits rendered them conspicuous in the little town.
Cornelius O'Dowd again appears with his array of criti-
cism, in which we find good, bad, and indifferent things
put pell-mell before us. " Changing House" refers to
Florence, now undergoing a strange metamorphosis.
" The Rope Trick" takes off some remarkable individuals
very smartly. An amusing episode is that on " Immoral
Considerations," referring to a man leaving his money on
condition that the heir never read a newspaper. On this
topic the writer becomes eloquent, and declares:that such a
study is necessary to the present age, that " a whole corps
of college professors would be less effective in dispelling
error or asserting truth than people trained in all the
dialectics of the daily press." " Dress" is a very good
article, that deserves perusal, and presents that hackneyed
theme before us in a manner at once effective and enter-
taining. It is well defined by the writer of this essay that
the love of dress may be regarded as a taste or a passion ;
in the former case it is a " moral guide," but in the latter
it leads to mischief, and conduces to wrong-doing and
folly. The importance and interest of the subject will not
be over-estimated by those who rightly comprehend its in-
fluence on society. " The Iliad," translated by Lord
Derby, is the title of a brilliant article, and the writer evi-
dently enters into the spirit of his subject, and pursues his
labour con amore. The classical reader will delight in this
sketch, and the more superficial will also derive advantage
from a paper that puts the subject before them in its might
and magnificence, and shows the chief points of interest.
It is said in conclusion that Lord Derby has rendered a
service to the English public by presenting them with a
work the like of which they have never had before. "An
English Iliad, alike satisfactory to the scholar by its ac-
curacy, to the tasteful lover of ancient literature by its
wonderful reproduction of Homer's characteristic epithets
and picturesque expressions, and to all readers by its vigour
and transparent clearness of style, and by the easy flow of
its grand and harmonious verse." " The Laws of Short
Whist" is a lively little sketch of that favourite game, and
it is aptly remarked that whist closely resembles real life in
the element of chance. "John Leech" is a subject that
will possess a mournful interest for all readers, and the
brief sketch here given is a very appropriate one. It is
stated with considerable accuracy that John Leech's works
might be selected as the fittest objects to display to a
foreigner a correct idea of English scenery. Some remarks
are made on the assiduous toil which this great artist un-
derwent, which was increased by his want of professional
education. " The fertility of the soil was apparent to every
one, but the laborious husbandry which enabled it to yield
so rich a crop was known to but few." " Etoniana—
Ancient and Modern"—brings the account of this time-
honoured institution to a conclusion. This description is
a very good one, and will recall to many the memoirs of
the long past days they spent by the distant spires and
antique towers. " Piccadilly " is the continuation of a
very curious sketch, but it is smartly written. " Earl
Russell" is an article that considers the Introduction lately
written by the noble lord to his re-published work on the
"History of the English Government and Constitution."
It is distinguished for its clever strictures and sharp
criticism ; but there is considerable truth in the manner
in which the writer directs attention to Earl Russell's pe-
culiarity of ascribing all the benefits of the ago to the
blessings of "Whig " influence, a fact which many will
coincide with the writer of these "pages in disputing as to
its validity.
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY.—" Who is the Heir ?"
is a brilliant serial story that must prove very
attractive and agreeable to the readers of this
periodical by its lively caricatures and animated
sketches of society. Guy Luttrell is a finished por-
traiture of a man of the world and an accomplished gentle-
man, and other articles are also sketched in their way with
equal accuracy. The dangerous widow in the background
of the tale is becoming an inconvenient adjunct, and her
plots are overstealing all the party. " Guy Deverell" con-
tinues his mysterious adventures, and in this number we
meet with some significant events. It is one good point
in the tale the manner in which Mr. Varbarriere betrays
himself by his face while he is making great professions by
his conversation. "A Shamrock from the Irish Shore" is
the title of some charming verses by D. Florence Mac-
Carthy, whose name is well known to the readers of this
magazine. They are full of spirit and pathos, and are sure
to be generally attractive from their flowing style. "David
Garrick in Paris"' is the subject of an interesting article.
It is always desirable to possess an intimate knowledge of
the peculiarities of the departed ones of fame, and the series
of instructive sketches that have appeared concerning this
histrionic star must have familiarised the readers of this
periodical to a degree that they would not otherwise have
attained to. Garrick's career in the sunny capital of
France was a decided success, and its chronicles here pre-
sented to notice record a perfect ovation rendered to this
gifted man ; and it is said of his French visit that Garrick
might well look lack to his stay abroad, to the love of
friendship he had formed, to the brilliant impressions he
had left of himself, as a delightful memory and as hon-
ourable to his character as to the profession of which he
was the ornament. "China Two Hundred Years Ago" is
an interesting shetch of the oldest empire ever in existence.
It is truly said that the improvement is not so great as
might be between the China of 1656 and 1865, but there are
still some remarkable changes. " Slides of Fancy's Lan-
tern" reproduces some celestial characters of antiquity be-
fore us in appropriate style, and with eloquent descriptions.
" Early Vestiges of the Gael" will be a suitable subject for
antiquarian readers to comment upon and digest at their
leisure. This number is very classical, for we find an
essay on the " Myth of Prometheus Solved," which con-
tains interesting subject for contemplation for a particular
class of students. For the general reader there is a lengthy
article on the " Irish Question in 1865," which is a sugges-
tive style of paper. The writer is more indulgent than
some of his contemporaneous countrymen, for he admits
that "it should not be matter for surprise that the Eng-
lish public are found unwilling to fix their minds upon
what is called the Irish difficulty." It is here stated that
the training of the middle classes in Ireland is very defi-
cient, and it is truly added that from these bustling ranks
" enterprise should obtain its recruits." The reform herein
suggested seems an admirable one, and it is to be hoped
that the time will come when we shall witness the inaugu-
ration of "a system of sound English commercial school-
ing with just a spice of classical instruction to elevate it if
required." _ _

FRASER.—Fraser is this month scarcely so enter-
tcrtaining as usual, although there is always some-
thing worth reading to be found under the sober
drab cover. An article headed " A Visit to General
Butler and the Army of the James," will probably
attract a good many readers. We have only the
first part of it here, but that gives an animated account of
the writer's impressions. He repays General Butler's
courtesy to his guest by an amiable but not altogether suc-
cessful endeavour to prove that the hero has been cruelly
misrepresented, and that we English folks have all along
done him injustice in our estimate of him. It is probable
enough that Butler appeared a very different man in his
own tent, dispensing hospitalities, from his portrait as
sketched in print by some Southern correspondent, but
when the darker sides of his character were called out the
likeness might have been more accurate. It is not easy to
believe that bad the Federal General been guilty of no ex-
ceptional and unnecessary harshness at New Orleans, he
would have been regarded throughout the South with such
bitter and personal hatred. The writer was fortunate
enough to have a glimpse of General Grant, of whom,
however, he does not give a very flattering description.
In point of appearance General Grant sadly disappoints
expectation. He probably does not exceed five feet six
inches in height; nor does his figure or demeanour
compensate for this defect. It may have been
that the repulse of Meade and Warren before
Petersburg had made him especially gloomy on this
occasion, but whatever the reason, no sign of animation
was visible upon his face. Though I watched him
covertly but intently for more than an hour,l could not dis-
cern the least change in the expression of his countenace ;
but he maintained a dogged and stolid look of abstraction,
which accorded with the characteristic features of his face.
His eyes are of a chilling blue grey, his lips thin and com-
pressed and drawn tightly over the teeth. His head is
small, his ears large and projecting." Of Butler he speaks
more favou- ably, though he is forced to admit some serious
defects in his outward appearance. The English reader
will perhaps be surprised to learn that our traveller con-
siders that " In manner he is courteous and refined; hi
address easy, but dignified." Another military paper,
though of a different style, being theoretical rather than
descriptive. It is entitled "Regulars and Volunteers,"
and examines into the extent and probable efficiency of
our military force. After considering the groat advantages
of a volunteer reserve in a country like our own, whose
scattered possessions may at any moment call away a large
proportion of our regular army, the writer notices three
strong objections which were made to the volunteer
movement in its earlier days. Some complained that
it was exclusively insular in its spirit, and would increase
the separation between England and her children, a re-
proach strikingly contradicted by the heartiness with
which the colonies have themselves adopted the movement.
Others feared that it indicated a tendency towards an ag-
gressive and warlike temper—a prophecy also signally
unfulfilled. A third section belonged to the regular army,
and regarded the new force as hostile to the regular service
—a prejudice which has happily proved altogether un-
founded. The story of " Gilbert Rugge" proceeds with
interest. The storm bursts at last, and the revelation of
Gilbert's parentage is made—made with all the most pain-
ful accidents of time and place for the ambitious and suc-

cessful young man, the fortunate lover of the proud ltss
Harlixstowe. The evil-minded Captain Hunswood is the
primary agent in the betrayal, but happily not without his
treachery and malevolence becoming in some degree ap-
parent. The young man, so suddenly transported from
the heights of success and fortune to the depths of disap-
pointment, comforts himself bravely under the shock,
though how he will endure its subsequent consequences
remains to be seen. The "Embankment of the Thames"
is the subject of a sensible paper, and there is a pleasant
discursive chapter by our friend the "Old Campaigner," as
well as a discourse about fish, fisheries, and fishermen, and
an essay on preaching.
THE WATCH TOWER.—Number One of this new
first-class shilling monthly magazine promises quite
as well as Scrooge's first laugh on the memorable
Christmas morning. " A Splendid Laugh,"
Scrooge's historian says of it while recording the
notable fact of its having been indulged in—" the father of
a long, long line of laughs," and so forth. And it is pre-
cisely thus with the first number of The Watch Tower! It
is in many ways a really splendid inauguration,
we may reasonably anticipate, of a protracted and
brilliant career for this new venturer among the
already numerous and fast multiplying throng of our
monthly periodicals. Not but what we regard the selec-
tion of the very first paper as a mistake—its selection we
mean as a first paper in a first number ! It is for all
the world like putting the ballast—at the very moment of
launching the now vessel—a-top! Towards the end of
the number—in the middle of it—anywhere, in fact, but
exactly where it is—the contribution referred to might
have been suitable. But most certainly it appears
to us out of place at the commencement. Be-
sides which, in itself, it is a sermon, and a sermon
of a most serious, even, be it said, of an awful character—
this impressive treatise, homily disquisition, or whatever
else we ought to call it, entitled " Gethsemane," by the
Rev. Capel Molyneux ! In other ways the number, it is
true, is a little—only just a trifle—overweighted, as in the
essays respectively headed " Bread upon the Waters"
and "Things not Worthy." But, having said this, we
have said pretty well all that can be said in the way of
taking exceptions! For otherwise—at any rate, for the
most part— the contents are singularly good. Especially,
pre-eminently good they are in what may be desCribed as
the piece de resistance—the charming, fresh, radiant com-
mencement of the serial story, entitled "Through the
Furnace." So fresh, so charming, so radiant is it that the
touch of a master hand is apparent throughout. Two
illustrations adorn this number of the Watch lower, after •
the fashion of the Cornhill these embellishments
moreover, being not only gracefully drawn, but
delicately tinted in the printing of them. One
the sweetest sketch it is—illustrates some very
beautiful and affecting, but also very painful, lines,
entitled Charlie. From an excellent paper, descriptive of
" The Influence of Gaol Chaplains," penned by one who
has had experience in the matter, namely, the Rev. Charles
Gibson, we extract the following:—
"A great deal of infidelity prevails respecting convict
reformation. An able writer in Blackwood's Magazine
speaks of the reclamation of a regular thief as quite a hope-
less affair. We should say to this writer, as St. Paul
said to Agrippa, "Why should it be thought a thing incre-
dible that God should raise the dead ?" We can point to
one penitent thief, he who cried, "Lord, remember me
when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." Thieves have
heartS and consciences as well as other men. We regret
the prevalence of an unbelief which is calculated to pai-alyse
our moral and religious efforts for the reformation of this
unhappy class. We cannot think so badly of even a thief's
nature, as to believe its cure surpasses the power of
Christianity."
" Heaven our Home," another metrical contribution to the
number„is chiefly noticeable for the fact that the writer
has the oddest notion well imaginable;seemingly, in regard
to rhyme—fancying, to all appearance that the resemblance
is alone desirable in the vowels and not the least in the
world in the consonants ! Hence, out of twelve stanzas,
one of them alone has a rhyme to the opening verso of
each—

" Heaven our Home 1"
namely, tho fourth, ending—
" A Temple with a shining dome."

Tho eleven others rhyming (!) horribly to Home with such
words as—grown, moan, throne, stone, alone, &c. ! With a
little more fastidious care in the selection and arrangement
of the materials sent in, the building up of The Watch
Tower will enable that same Watch Tower to take its stand
securely and conspicuously among the throng of our
periodicals.

THE DAY OF REST, a kind of weekly penny corn-
panion. to The Watch Tower—a sort of attendant
page or esquire to that knight in full panoply—is
issued from the same press (so far as a weekly and
monthly can be) simultaneously. The fast and second
numbers, now come to hand, are each of them a right good
pennyworth—each number being illustrated with a wood-
cut, fitted, by its excellence, for a much costlier publica-
tion.

TEMPLE BAR.—" Sir Jasper's Tenant" is another
of those exciting productions for which this writer
has been so deservedly famous. The " Florid
Widow" is the chief personage in this instalment,
and she upsets the whole serenity of the Grange in
a remarkable manner. George Pauncefort is also
mixed up with her in some mysterious manner, so that
Marian and her father, like many hermits who run away
from the world, find the world come to them in its vanities
and vexations. Mr. Sala again appears before us with his
graphic sketches of the World's Streets. " New York,
Clinton Place, into Broadway," is the theme here chosen
for dissertation. America is just now so much the theme of
thought and the topic of discussion that doubtless this
sketch will be an attractive one. " Convicts at Swan
River" is a very appropriate sketch at the present time, for
it contains an account of the unsuccessful attempt made by
an American convict to escape. To those who have been
declaming so vehemently as to the danger of sending con-
victs to Western Australia because they can escapo across
the country, it is remarked that when experienced settlers
never think of .going into the interior without being ex-
tensively supplied with provisions, it is " sheer nonsense,
to say that a poor wretch of a convict would ever at-
tempt to cross the pathless desert of the Australian conti-
nent, where the savages themselves often lie down and die
before they reach water." "Land at Last" is the title of a
new tale by the author of "Broken to Harness." "A Love-
less Story" is a curious sketch, in which some crafty cha-
racters overreach themselves and are deprived of their ill-
gotten booty, " Muscular Gents "is a satirical account of
a certain class of heroes. "David Chantrey" is continued
in its stirring style. "Ancient Dances" is a lively and enter-
taining account of terpsichorean performances.

ST JAMES'S.—Miss Braddon's story of " Only
a Clod" is the first thing to greet the reader.
The story progresses rapidly in this part.
Frank Fredethlyn discovers his long-lost cousin Susan,
and the reader also makes a discovery by identifying her
treacherous bridegroom with Harcourt Lowther's elder
brother. It remains to be seen whether or no the marriage
at the_ Registry-office was genuine, but the course of
Mephistopheles does not run quite so smooth as it did
Julia Desmond is as usual detestable, and Maude has not
yet discovered her own imprudence, though Stuccoville
has carefully registered all its details long since. An essay
on Sir E. B. Lytton's recent volume of poetry newly revised
if not newly written. The critic expresses some surprise
that any one should have regarded it as the effort of its
author in a fresh and untried walk of his art. Sir E. B.
Lytton has already gathered bay-leaves from Mount
Parnassus, if he has not climbed to its summit, and the
writer of "King Arthur," " The New Timon," and " The
Lady of Lyons," to say nothing of the charming lyrics
scattered through his works, can scarcely be regarded as
an inexperienced or presumptuous aspirant to poetical
fame. "The Death Penalty" is the title of an article re-
commending the abolition of capital punishment. The
author cites, in support of his views, the in-
stance of Tuscany, where the penalty was suspended
or abolished for a long period. During the years of its
suspension no increase whatever was perceptible in the
number of assassinations. This is certainly a striking fact,
and it is possible that a lengthened imprisonment under
severe and painful restrictions might be equally deterrent
eventually, still the change would be a risk which our
legislators may well pause before they incur. We must
remember, too, that there are others besides desperate and
hardened ruffians who may be tempted to the commission
of this great crime. A man who is wicked enough in in-
tention to be a murderer may fear to carry out his own evil
wishes. We know the number of murders committed, but
we do not know the number of murders prevented by the
thought of the terrible gallows. While there is life there
is hope, and even a severe and perpetual imprisonment
leaves room for the angel Hope. No one can foresee what
chance may turn up, what possibility of -escape may occur,
what alteration of the laws may benefit the prisoner. There
is no question that the uncertainty with which our present
law is enforced has greatly diminished its terrors, and that
consequently whatever deterrent effect it may have is pro-
portionately lessened. -" The Tom Glove" is an ingenious
story, and we have articles on " The Language of Art,"
" Heraldry Past and Present," and other subjects.
MACMILL AN.—Professor Goldwin Smith enters
very carefully into our relations with America, and
into the possibilities or probabilities of a war. He
arrives at the conclusion, which we must hope will
prove the true one, that the Americans have no wish
or intention to provoke a contest with this country.
The arguments upon which ho bases this theory are not,
however, indisputable, and it must be ownedthat the Ame-
ricans have not always shown that their political sagacity
could rise superior to the passions of the multitude or the
exigencies of the moment. "Scenes in African Slave
Preserve" show us slavery in its cradle, and in all its
horrors. "Essays at Odd Times" aro worth reading, and
Thomas Wright, F.S.A., contributes an amusing paper on
the strong drinks of past generations, which they prettily
disguised under the titles of ratafia, rosa solis, aqua mira-
bilis, and so on. The two fictions that have so long occu-
pied a prominent place in this magazine have both
completed their courses together. " The Hillyars
and the Burtons," a vigorous and effective, though

disjointed and even extravagant story, terminat 0
somewhat abruptly, though the reader has been gradually
prepared for the final catastrophe through the last two or
throe numbers. The characters, though many of them
are merely sketched in outline, are boldly and powerfully
drawn, and certainly, whatever faults may be found with
the work, those of insipidity and want of talent cannot be
urged. "A Son of the Soil" presents a total contrast to
Mr. Henry Kingsley's story. It deals with thought as much
as the other with action, and endeavours to portray in
some degree the turbulent and perplexed mental life of a
talented and ambitious youth who scarcely knows his own
wants or wishes. Those who have followed the hero
through all his career will be somewhat disappointed to
find that the woman in the clouds never reveals herself,
but Colin is forced to content himself with gentle, matex-
of-fact little Alice in the place of his youthful ideal.

LONDON SOCIETY.—This pleasant serial is as light
and amusing as ever, and as graphically illustrated.
It opens with a story bearing the impressive title of
" The Ingenuous Wobbler," which conveys a
useful moral to bachelors, on the continent
especially. The artist in the Law Courts is as
clever as usual and gives us sketches of " Tho
deaf witness, the confident witness, the dull witness, the
interesting witness, and others of the same category.
" Cavendish," en authority on such matters, contributes a
paper on cardplaying and its morality ; and the entertain-
ing series of papers on Politeness, Insular and Continental,
is continued. Concerning the uniformity of English bills
of fare the following laughable anecdote is told. " A
German traveller well received in London went a round of
dinner parties. For about the twentieth time he sat down
to joints at top and ham at bottom. Mein Gott !' he
exclaimed, ' cock and bacon again ! There is nothing to
be had but cock and bacon,' and he forthwith entered in
his note-book---' The English live principally on cock and
bacon.' " Old Love-letters furnish matter for an interesting
paper, and an account of the Queens of Comedy is adorned
with a portrait of Madame Dorian. "The Lady in Muslin"
proceeds with undiminished eccentricity.

THE VICTORIA MAGAZINE.—" Mutability," by
Cecil Blake, is a well written paper on a not very
original theme, and the " Common Sense of Mar-
riage Settlements" is the title of a paper which
addresses itself to apractical matter. Miss Edgar completes
her interesting account of a training school for servants,
founded by some benevolent ladies, and suggests the means
of obviating the great domestic dilemma of our times.

THE ECLECTIC REVIEW.—A very interesting
paper on one of the most shining names in the
world of art opens this number. It is remarked that
in our own country the name of Michael Angelo
is less familiar than the names of Dante or Raphael,
but only because his mighty works require to be
visited to be even faintly known. "Dante will come to
us at any moment, and overawe our spirits with his shapes
and works of terror ; nor is it very difficult to obtain a
knowledge of Raphael's most charming forms, colours, and
inimitable lines, but ho who has not seen the Sistine
Chapel has not known Michael Angelo; he who has not
seen what he himself spoke of as the 'Pantheon hung in
the air '—St. Peter's, at Rome—has not known Michael
Angelo ; and he who has not seen those last marvels in
stone, the Moses, the Dawn and the Night, has not known
Michael Angelo." There are other papers, partly sectarian
and partly general in interest, one of the best being on
" Haunted London."

THE ALEXANDRA MAGAZINE.—An article on "Mil-
liners and Dressmakers " finds an appropriate place
in this magazine, and it will, we hope, prove useful.
The revelations are very painful. Another on
"Employers and Servants" suggests some improvements
in housekeeping. An account of " Wood Engraving'
tells an interesting tale respecting its origin ; and there are
other papers well worth reading.

MACAULAY'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS, Part IV.
(Longman and Co.).—This very thin instalment
completes here the People's Edition of the Miscel-
laneous Writings of our Essayist and Historian, the
greatest of all our essayists, the most elo-
quent and picturesque, though, it must , also
be said, the most partial and perverse and pre-
judiced of all our historians. Brief though
this the last instalment of the serial is, it is remarkable as
containing within it, besides title-page and index, the
whole of the miscellaneous poems, the preface signed
T. F. E., and the conclusion of the noble paper upon
William Pitt. The publishers have now, indeed, completed
their very admirable and most successful endeavour to popu-
larise the genius of Thomas, Lord Macaulay.
LE FOLLET is this month unusually gay. The
coloured plates, illustrating the fashions for the present
season, are finely executed, and altogether the April num-
ber is an exceedingly good one.

BEETON'S YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN, " Domestic
Magazine," and " Boy's Monthly Magazine," each maintain
their high reputation for entertaining and instructive
articles.

CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED DON QUIXOTE progresses
most satisfactorily. The engravings by Gustave Dore are
worthy the highest praise. " The Illustrated Shakspere,
"Bunyan," Gulliver," and " Natural History" are each as
attractive as the preceding numbers.

CROWN DEBTORS.—A return has been made of
the number of Crown debts and obligations registered
within the last five years in the office established in the
Court of Common Pleas for the registration of liens upon
landed property. The numbers registered in a year have
varied from 1,050 in 1860 to 374 in 1862 ; the total of the
five years is 3,206. As many as 853 were for more than
£5,000 ; but it is not said whether the sums stated are the
amounts due. It is probable that in most cases two or
three entries relate to the same obligation.
SELWOOD FOREST.—This tract of land skirted the

boundaries of Wiltshire and Somersetshire, occu-
pying the declivity of the high land, and descending into
the vale. In the olden time it must have been very pic-
turesque, for even now it is a pretty bit of landscape, de-
spite modern improvements and high farming. The
original extent of the forest was about twelve miles in
length and five in breadth, but lands bordering on the old
limits were afforested after the coronation of Henry
However, we learn that in the twenty-sixth of Edward 1.,
in 1298, there was a perambulation to reduce the
forest to its ancient and lawful bounds, made in 1225
and ratified by the great seal of England. Under
Edward 1., then, the limits of the forest were once
more arranged, commissioners being appointed by the king
to meet those sent by the landowners. Malcolm de Harleigh
and John do Wroteslighe on the part of his majesty me t
Galfred do Wrokeshall and Hugh de Popham, knights of
the county of Somerset, and in the presence of the ver-
derers they made oaths as to the bounds of the said forest.
" All the bailiwick of Selewode was afforested of vert and
venison." As time went on it appears that the neigh-
bouring landowners and cottagers obtained a prescriptive
right to depasture their cows or geese on the outlying
parts of the forest lands; and now we find the position
of matters so far changed that the commonalty aro
interested in the preservation of the royal forests and
commons. Towards the close of the reign of Henry the
Eighth the nobles began to slice off pieces of the
outlying wastes and commons, enclosing them for their
own pastures or parks. A belief in the rights of the soil is
so inherent in human nature that it is not surprising that
the people rose and resisted to the vary death this en-
croachment on their privileges. They were first despoiled
of their lands by the king, and now that the forest laws
had fallen into desuetude, they were robbed of their pas-
turage by the nobles. The (Nil had attained to such a
height that in 1549, third of Edward the Sixth, a procla-
mation was issued to restrain certain nobles and gentry
from enclosing the commons and converting them into
their own pastures and parks, and commanded that all
ground that had been thus enclosed should be thrown open
by a certain day under heavy penalties. Once a Week. 1,

DR. PRITCHARD'S CASE.-011 Thursday the
body of Mrs. Taylor, the mother-in-law of Dr.
Pritchard, who died suddenly at his house on the 25th of
February last, and who was buried in Grange Cemetery,
Edinburgh, was disinterred by the authorities. The me-
lancholy task of exhuming the body took place in presence
of Mr. Tayler, the husband, and Dr. Taylor, of Penrith,
the son of the deceased, who were called upon to identify
the body. On its being removed to one of the vaults of
the cemetery the stomach and other organs were taken out
for chymical examination, it being suspected that Mrs.
Taylor died of poisoning by antimony, like her unfortu-
nate daughter, Mrs. Pritchard. The deceased Mrs. Tay-
lor was 71 years of ago, and the inscription on the coffin
showed that she had been buried on the 2d of March. The
body, which showed very little trace of decomposition,
was re-interred, the organs being carried away for the
analysis, the result of which will probably not be known
for some days. It will, as in the former, case, be intrusted
to Professor Maclagan.
THE QUEEN AND THE PROPOSED BRAEMAR RAIL-
WAY.—Some reports are afloat that if the railway
extension to Braemar is finally decided on her Majesty the
Queen and the other branches of the royal family will bid
farewell to Deeside as a summer residence. These reports
are said to have emanated from a quarter considered likely
to know, but the people on Deeside (who are nearly all in
favour of the scheme) are loth to believe that there is any
truth in the rumours. When it is taken into considera-
tion that the railway would be of great benefit to the in-
habitants of the district through which it is intended to
pass, the people in Ballater, Cratbie, and Braemar confi-
dently think that her Majesty is not one who would wish
to keep back any benefit from her people. We may state
however, that last week Mr. Milne, factor, Abone Castle,
along with a photographic artist, was busily engaged
taking views of the proposed route about Newon and
Lochanalair to Balmoral Castle, and from the castle
across the river where it is intended the line shall pass.
These views have been taken for the purpose of showing
her Majesty how much of the proposed line would be seen
from the windows and grounds of Balmoral Castle.—
Dundee Advertiser.