lation to the Papal States is impolitic and unjust." It was carried in the affirmative by a majority of 4. The second was held on Jan. 15, 1868, on the subject, "That the mode of Observing the Sabbath, as enforced in this country, is antiChristian." The debate was adjourned, and on its resumption on the 22nd, the negative was carried by a majority of 13. The third public debate was held on April 22, on the question "That Female Suffrage is a Fallacy." A majority of 3 were in favour of the negative.

The number of members this session was 213. Ten subjects were discussed-6 being political, 1 theological, 1 philosophical, 1 social, and 1 politico-economical. The annual meeting was held Oct. 8. The retiring president delivered an address on "Home Aspects," and Mr. R. F. Martineau was elected president.

The public debates for the session 1868-9 were, first, on Dec. 8, "That a National System of Com. pulsory Education will be productive of greater good if secular than if denominational." The affirmative was carried by a majority of 40. Secondly, on Jan. 20, 1869, when the question was, "That England will not long retain her Present Position among nations." The negative was carried by a majority of 21.

The number of members this session was 240. Nine subjects were discussed-4 political, 2 politico-economic, 2 social, and 1 on education. The annual meeting was held on Oct. 20, 1869, and the retiring president delivered an address on "A Secular View of the Sunday Question." Mr. Alfred Caddick was elected president.

There was one public debate in the session of 1869-70, on the subject, "That Variation of Species is due to Development rather than

The society has kept up the good custom of having every year a summer meeting in the country; nor are these the least pleasant and enjoyable gatherings of its members. A large number of "pleasant spots and famous places" in the neighbourhood of Birmingham have thus been visited during the existence of the society, adding to their historical and topographical knowledge, as well as supplying the members with joyous remembrances which cannot fail to be registered among the highest and purest of their lives.

Since the amalgamation of the two societies sixteen years have elapsed-years of great importance in the history of the world, as well as in the history of Birmingham. During that period the society has held 170 meetings, and debated 138 questions. It has witnessed the growth and development of the Midland Institute, the establishment of the free libraries and reading-rooms, the extension of popular education, and the enormous advance of political freedom; nor can there be the slightest doubt that the free discussion of all the questions which affect human progress and interests, which is the princi ple of this society, has enabled its members to take a prominent and useful part in bringing about that change in popular opinion which is necessary for the establishment of

public life of this town, its members are bearing an honourable and active part.

May the Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating Society long continue to be what it now is one of the most flourishing literary societies of the town!

QUESTIONS REQUIRING ANSWERS.

959. It is said that the Hebrew word translated "Harlot" in Joshua vi. 17, likewise signifies one who keeps a place where refreshment is provided. Does the Greek word translated "harlot," in Hebrews xi. 31 and James ii. 25, also bear the same signification ?-SAMUEL.

960. Who is the author of the lines :

"We live in deede, not years; in thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial"? S. L.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.

949. A notice in the book list of new works issued by Messrs. Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh, may interest T. F. It runs thus :-"Thomas Erskine, of Linlathan's, 'Posthumous Papers :''The Spiritual Order,' 5s. The Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel,'3s. 6d. 'The Purpose of God in the Creation of Man,' 6d." I have heard it stated that he projected the issue, and edited the first volume of the works of Prof. A. J. Scott, of Manchester, but this I only give as hearsay.O. P.

957. I would suggest the following as the best method of proceeding

with such a volume as described. After carefully reading the series of essays through, form some calculation as to the length of the essay which is to be written upon them. I would then proceed a second time through the book, noting down those passages which it might be well to quote, those parts of each essay which require particular treatment, and those also which might be summarized in brief. then, determined as to how much space in the critique should be given to each essay, the writer can give his views, taking the essays in their published order, or in another, if that appears more natural to him. But if his critical essay is to be fully analytical, he must, in writing, produce first of all an epitome of each essay, and fill up and expand the outline thereafter.-J. R. S. C.

Having,

958. Beeton's 66 Dictionary of Geography" supplies the pronunciation of all the names of places, ancient, biblical, and modern, mentioned in it. It costs 7s. 6d. London : Ward, Lock, and Tyler.-C. H. S.

959. The word in both places is porné, and signifies a female hireling; and as the most frequent instances of hiring were for lewd purposes the word became rapidly deteriorated to its worst association. It is probable

that the earlier use of the word was
the purer one, and contained none of
the polluting and polluted signifi-
cancy it afterwards attained. The
English term has been similarly de-
moralized.-R. M. A.

960. James Philip Bailey, born at
Nottingham, April 22nd, 1816;
studied at Glasgow 1831-4; after-
wards studied law. The lines occur
in "Festus," third edition, page 12.
-R. M. A.

The autobiography of Thomas
Cooper, the Chartist, with steel en-
graving of the writer, is in the press,
and is nearly ready. Mr. Cooper is
proceeding with his "Paradise of
Martyrs."

Derwent Coleridge is engaged on
a "Literary Biography of Samuel
Taylor Coleridge."

Dr. Drysdale has prepared an able
paper on "Life, and the Equivalence
of Force."

The prize of £100, offered for the
best essay on "The Nature and Con-
tents of Scripture Revelation, as
compared with other forms of
Truth," and open to the competi-
tion of students in the Scottish Uni-
versities, and Trinity College, Glen-
almond, has been awarded to Mr.
William Horne, M.A., Dunfermline.
Mr. Horne has been a student at the
United College, and at St. Mary's
College, St. Andrew's, and obtained
the Rector's prize (value £25), given
by Mr. John Stuart Mill in 1869,
for the best essay on "The Principle
of Inseparable Association."

Mr.

Horne has also studied at the Inde-
pendent Theological Hall in Edin-
burgh, in which he holds a Baxter
Scholarship.

Tyerman's "Life and Times of
John Wesley" is to be reissued in
twelve parts, price half-a-crown.

The Philadelphian Ledger says
that: "The Princess Alice of

66

Hesse-Darmstadt, Queen Victoria's
daughter, has written a novel, called
Ways of Life," which depicts social
life among the higher classes of
Southern Germany.

"A Book of Parliamentary Anec-
dote," compiled from authentic
sources, by Messrs. G. H. Jennings
and W. S. Johnstone, is about to
appear. The work is designed to
illustrate, in an anecdotal form, the
parliamentary history of the country
and of distinguished statesmen.

Dr. Margoliouth has undertaken
to translate and edit Aaron Pesaro's
"Concordance to the Babylonian
Talmud," ""Jacob Sasportas," "In-
dex to the Passages of Scripture
mentioned or commented on in the
Jerusalem Talmud," &c., so as to
form a guide to the study of the
theology of the Talmud.

The Wesleyan Conference Office
has begun the issue of "The Lives
of Early Wesleyan Preachers," which
will form a valuable repertory of mat-
ters relating to the Religionof Dissent.

A posthumous story, by the late
Nathaniel Hawthorne, is promised.

Miss Sarah S. Hennel has just
issued the second part of her singu
larly able, interesting, and original
work, "Comparative Metaphysics,”
-on menta!" Sex."

"The Uncollected Writings, Es-
says, and Lectures " of R. W. Emer-
son are in the press.

Hensleigh Wedgewood's "Dictionary of English Etymology" is to be reissued, revised, in five crown parts.

Dr. J. H. Newman, as a protective measure, has published his Critical and Historical Essays (1829-46) in a collected form, with annotations.

Rev. Alex. Balloch Grosart, of St. George's, Blackburn, has just distributed among his subscribers "The Poems of John Norris," of Bemerton, the famous philosophic Norris, disciple of Plato, and Malebranche, antagonist of Locke, and precursor of Berkeley, with a critical introduction, showing strange coincidences of thought between, if not appropriation of, his verses and those of subsequent writers; "The Licia' and other Love poems, and "Rising to the Crowne of Richard the Third,' by Giles Fletcher, LL.D., with Memoir, and "New Facts" in the biographies of the poetical brotherhood of the Fletchers; and the "Poems of Lucius Carey, Viscount Falkland," highly interesting in their additions to the amenities of literature. He expects to be able next year to supply a complete edition of the works of Richard Crashaw, the complete poems of Andrew Marvell, and the complete poems of Robert Southwell, besides some interesting Miscellanies.

The fifth and sixth parts of the Supplement to the "Conversations Lexicon," published by Brockhaus, of Leipsic, bring the eleventh edi tion down to our own times. In the fifth part are articles on the Vatican Council, the "Commune of Paris," and "Darwinism;" while the sixth contains articles on the "German Empire," the "FrancoGerman War," and full accounts of the German army, navy, people, and literature. Why should we not have annual supplements to our Encyclopædias, bringing certified knowledge within attainable reach,

at the earliest period, in trustworthy

and accessible forms?

A Russian version of Mr. Charles Darwin's "Descent of Man" has been published at St. Petersburg, by Mr. E. Blagacvietlof.

The novel, "A Visit to my Discontented Cousin," is said to be written by the Right Hon. J. Moncreiff (b. 1811), formerly M.P. for Edinburgh, Lord Advocate for Scotland, for some time editor of the North British Review, and now Lord Justice Clerk.

Dr. C. Rogers has in preparation a new annotated edition of Sir John Scott, of Scotstarvet's "Staggering State of Scottish Statesmen," which is founded on a comparison of the best and oldest MSS.

Mrs. Oliphant is engaged upon a "Life of the Comte de Montalembert," of whom and of whose works she wrote numerous notes in Blackwood's Magazine.

A library edition of R. H. Horne's excellent modern epic Orion," originally issued in "sarcasm at the low estimation into which poetry had fallen" in 1843, at one farthing, is announced by Messrs. Ellis and Green.

Mr. T. P. Barkas, F.G.S., the learned bookseller of Newcastle-onTyne, is preparing "A Popular Manual of Coal Measure Palæontology; being a popular illustrated guide to the fish, reptile, and (supposed) mammalian remains of the Northumberland carboniferous strata, with 233 excellent illustrations, and with reference to the chief fish and reptile-bearing carboniferous formations in various parts of the world."

Wm. Paterson, Edinburgh, is about to issue, in two vols., crown 4to., containing 600 pp. of letterpress and 112 wood engravings from the cuts in the Basle edition, in Latin, Alexander Barclay's translation of Sebastian Brandt's "Shyp

of Fools ;" an extremely interesting, curious, and once widely-popular satire, which, under the allegory of a ship freighted with fools of all kinds, held the mirror up to the prevailing follies and vices of the period immediately preceding the Reformation. Barclay largely increased the matter of the original. The work is to be edited by T. J. Jamieson, Keeper of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, who is to provide a glossary, a biography, and

annotations.

Mr. John Pearson, of York Street, is to follow up his excellent reprint of the scarce old historical ballads by a less praiseworthy, though, as possessed of a literary value, requisite reproduction of the now very scarce plays, histories, and novels of Mrs. Aphra Behn, with life and memoir.

Edward Bond, the Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum, will edit next year for the Chaucer Society the fragments of the manuscript household book of Elizabeth, wife of Prince Lionel, which contain the earliest known mention of the name of Geoffrey Chaucer, and possibly of the Phillippa whom he afterwards married.

Gerald Massey is about to issue his romantic but able book on "The Shakspere Sonnets " in a second and considerably enlarged edition, to consist of 100 copies, and to be sold to subscribers only.

The memoirs of Prince Talleyrand, often regarded as the genius of unscrupulosity, are at last to be given to the world. They were long withheld, from fear lest the revelations they contain damaging to the First Empire might lead to their seizure by the Second.

"A Life of Sir Henry Lawrence" is in preparation.

The versatile J. S. Blackie has

just issued "The Four Phases of Morals-Socrates, Aristotle, Christianity, and Utilitarianism."

The life and miscellaneous essays of Henry T. Colebrooke, one of the great lights of the Royal Asiatic Society, are to be published; the essays edited by Professor Cowell, and the biography by the author's

son.

Mr. Weston James Hatfield, proprietor and editor of the Cambridge Independent Press, died Nov. 14, at the age of 41.

The Philosophical Society of Berlin has elected Dr. J. Hutchison, Stirling, a foreign member. This distinction has been conferred in consideration of Dr. Stirling's work, "The Secret of Hegel," and his exertions in this country in connection with the Hegel monument, in which the readers of the British Controversialist took some interest.

The Preston Herald announces that Mr. Hermon, M.P., has offered to give £200 to the authors of the two best essays on the prevention of colliery disasters.

Kinglake's "History of the Crimean War" is finished, but its publication is deferred for a time.

The earliest catalogue of the books of the New Testament, "the Muratorian Fragment," has been edited by Dr. S. P. Tregelles.

A biography of Robert Raikes, of Gloucester, with notices of the early progress of Sunday schools, is in preparation.

"A Manual of Anthropology," by Charles Bray, is published.

The English of Shakspere has formed the subject of six lectures, delivered to ladies, at Cambridge, by W. G. Clark, editor of "The Cambridge Shakspere."

Paul de Kock, French novelist, died 30th August.