The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-08
LITERARY NOTES.

tony Of unmlxed praise, and to raise perhaps
aouDt IN the readers mind as to who is right il
lhe matter. l think our eccentric novels
Charles Reade began this custom, which ha
lately been much followed. 1t is common {,
see publisher quoting from some paper tn
remark "A thoroughly original, genial and en-
tertaiDing book side by side with anotherlouo
tation stiRmatizing the work as Hackneyed IL
design and unwholesome in sentiment Pub
hshere, announcements are now coming upoI
us thick and fast; but as most of them are re
produced on your side, do not notice them
Among the latest novelties in the way OF cheap
ness we have two publishers issuing the
price of sixpence each, but really sold retail
tor hVe, and ut many shops for fourpence
halfDenny. They are both well printed, on good
paper, and perfectly legible. This mas arisen
from the copyright of the original authors edi.
ton having expired. One of these houses, who
have long been the sole publishers of the Wa
Verley novels, lay claim to a corrected text and
notes which cannot be given in the other edi-
tion, which is, however, the original sixnennV.
and is out while the other DELAYS This is ali
fair enough; but there Is no real ground of COM
plant against publisher who, when the term
which the Legislature has thought fit TO give the
author or his heirs or assienees has expired
gives work 10 the public almost at the mere
cost OF print and paper. have heard good
deal of nonsense talked on subjects like these.
When Messrs. Black q Co, of Edinburgh, bought
OF ballantyne's assignees the Waverley novels,
they simply bought the unexpired term of
f0rty'two years, which is the limit fixed by
"gentlemanly feeling" not to invade their deld
is absurd. The fact is that, but for the dit
ferent view of the matter taken by the rival
publishers, the public would still be paying
Messrs. Black shilling for what it appears can
be sold for siXpence. Apropos of cheapness, we
had some time ago Messrs. Macmillan's Globe
Shakespeare published at three shillings and
ssixpence, which we thought cheap; but now we
have announced shilling Shakespeare com
Plete Except the poems), and to be edited by
Hr. Halliwell The problem was how to sell
seven hundred and odd pages of paper and
ype 10 tne trade f0r nlnepence, or less if a
quantity be taken. This could only be done by
manufacturing paper which should be at once
hight, thin. and Opaque; ands this has been ac.
eomphshed: Your publishers ought to see a
specimen. The type of the shilling Shakespeare
even Tor not very strong eyes.
Mr.. Anthony Trollope, after reading a paper
at the Social Science meeting, and listening to
other peoples papers at that gathering for a
day or two has found it necessary for his health
to go to Italy, in which country he is now
s6i6nrniig for awhile"
Mr.. Frank H. Norton, of the Mercantile
Library, Brooklyn, has lately come into the
possession OF manuscript volume which he
proposes 10 reprint as q curious and valuable
contribution to American history. 1t is jour
nal kept by Hugh Finlay, who was a surveyor
OF post roads on the continent Of North America,
and whose business it was to survey the differ
ent Post Offices of the Colonies and report
thereon, which he seems to have done, his
journey, as set down in the journal, extending
from Falmouth and Casco Bay in the Province
of Massachusetts to Savannah, in Georgia:
which journey was begun on the 18th OF Sep
tember, 1878, and ended on the 26th OF June
l774-a momentous epoch in American history,
fOreshadowing as IL did the revolutionary
spirit of our foretaJhers, which was even then
making itself IAN awful rose OF dawn" The
record OF this toilsOme journey of the old
British and, undoubtedly, loyal surveyor of
postroads, who travelled chiefly on horseback,
Mr.. Norton proposes to put in type, in the shape
OF one hundred and fifty copies, in small quarto,
at the rate OF ten dollars per copy, and twenty
five copies on large paper at the rate of thirty
dollars per copy both large and small paper
copies to be illustrated by photographic copies
OF three maps-the work of the long-since de-
funct Finlay, the only record of whose existence
is probably contained in his manuscript Journal
which consists OF eighty-four pages, written in
remarkably neat hand, as artistic in its wav
abbreviations excepted, as that of the late
Edgar A. Poe.
"A paragraph in late number of the Atbe-
aGune concerning the sale catalogues of the
libraries OF Wordsworth and Southey betrays
an unaCcOuntable degree of ignorance on the
part OF its writer as to the meaning OF the word
uncut" ''Southey, somebody has said. could
tear the heart out of book while he ran over
1t on the sofa; he must, one would think have
been able to 40 1t by the help of the parts which
are accessible without paper-knife." He men,
tions number of works in Southey's catalopne
Presentation Copies, uncut +" and, after stating
that the list contains volumes by Coleridge Sir
Humphrey Davy, Dibdin, Risraeli, Lamb, Lam
dor, Clifford, Robert Montgomery. Sharon Tar.
ner, and Others, naively remarks that among
them "are to be found some which we should
not expects" which is true enough, but rather
ridiculous 10 one who knows, what the writer
did not that the word uncut" in sale cata.
logues does not mean that the leaves have never
been cut, bat that the top and edges have not
3een trimmed or shaved down by the binder.
we should like to know what this writer under
STANDS by the word "boards;n ii he draws from
MS resources, IN other words from his head we
can easily imagine.
The manuscript volume from which Bisbon
Yercy drew SO largely in his "Reliques OF Ancient
BnEush Poetry" to which we owe in a large
degree the revival Of English poetry from the
lethargy which oyercame it towards the mid
die OF the last century, the benumbng effect of
the school of Fope and Dryden-that lannon's
manuscript volume, we say, so rich in early
poetry, and so long lost to the scholars of Enc
land, has been discovered by Professor Child.
OF Cambridge. true Antiquarian, who, tracing
lts probable way among the descendants of
blshop Percy, lighted upon II al last ia remote
corner OF The right tight little island" They
consented, for reasonable sum, to its publica-
non, which Professor Child has undertakes for
the Society of Original Texts. amone wbaea
publications 1t will soon appear and reHect
we trust honor on American scholarshin az
the head OF which, in early English literature,
eGly stands.
Science and literature in this countrv will
owe much 10 MIR. George Peabody, who in his
Denefacuons, in addition to using his own good
sense, does not refuse good advice. Besides the
noraIles ana institutes at Danvers and Balti-
more, the latter endowed with over a million of
dollars, ne has given handsome sums to Various
minor colleges and schools. His latest gifts
were were one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
for museum of natural historv and tho+ 70