On the 31st of August it is announced that A. Bond. Mr. Edward A. Bond has been appointed Mr. Edward Dr. Waddington's tional History,' A review on September 7th of Dr. John Waddington's 'Congregational History, Con- 'Congrega tinuation to 1850, with Special Reference to the Rise, Growth, and Influence of Institutions, Representative Men, and the Inner Life of the Churches,' says: "With this fourth volume on Congregational History' Dr. Waddington has brought his long labour to a close, a history commencing nominally at least as far back as the year 1200, and after centuries of persecution landing us in our own peaceful times......We conclude by directing attention to the author's interesting account of Congregationalism as developed in the British colonies, especially Canada and Australia, during the half-century passed under review." The Rev. Francis Hodgson. The memoir of Byron's "best and oldest friend," the Rev. Francis Hodgson, B.D., by his son, is reviewed on the 30th of November. "On the 2nd of January, 1815, Byron was Lord Byron's married, and a series of letters, hitherto un- marriage. published, from Augusta Leigh to Francis Hodgson, give a progressive account of the VOL. II. 2 D first year of that luckless marriage step by step. Unfortunately, Mrs. Leigh habitually neglected to state the year in which she wrote, though she was careful to give the month and day, and this has led the editor into a confusion which will stultify the effect these letters ought to produce, unless the reader perceives the error. The first letter he prints (ii. 7) ought to be the fifth of the series, and to follow that of the 4th of September, 1815 (ii. 18). Thus rearranged, the correspondence is of the highest importance......Hodgson survived Byron for more than twenty-eight years, and rose to no less distinguished a post than that of Provost of Eton. But we must leave him here at the moment when he was ready to perform the last services of literature to his great dead friend. It could be wished that his own memoir had given a more distinct idea of him as a writer, and especially as a poet, for it is not to be supposed that his six or seven volumes of verse will be reprinted; but we cannot part in ill humour from a book that has added so much of a healthy nature to our knowledge of Byron, and that contains so rich a store of delightful correspondence." George Henry George Henry Lewes died on the last day of November. The Athenæum on the 7th Lewes. of December states that he "was born in London, on the 18th April, 1817......Enlisting in the worthy band of Mr. Charles Knight, he began contributing numerous articles to the 'Penny Cyclopædia,' writing at the same time a great deal for the Morning Chronicle, and assisting in the editorship of an admirable publication, the Classical Museum, now little remembered. Gradually he extended the circle of his literary labours, and the Edinburgh, the Westminster, the Foreign Quarterly, the British and Foreign, the British Quarterly, Blackwood, Fraser, and this journal received contributions from his pen." In 1846, through the medium of Knight's "Weekly Volumes," he issued "a series of essays, partly before published, entitled 'A Biographical History of Philosophy." In 1857 he greatly altered the work, and brought out a "library edition," and in 1871, with still more alteration, an edition History of Philosophy under the new title of His early writings. Novels. 'Life of Goethe.' Messrs. Smith & Elder, another novel, this time in three volumes, entitled 'Rose, Blanche, and Violet.' It also was unsuccessful, as was likewise a small volume called 'Spanish Drama: Lope de Vega and Calderon,' published at the same time. It was followed, in 1850, by The Noble Heart: a Tragedy.' It is doubtful whether it found readers, it is certain it did not find actors. The year before, in 1849, he had brought out a volume of biography, 'The Life of Maximilian Robespierre; with Extracts from his Unpublished Correspondence,' which to the publishers was also a tragedy."" His next publication, the 'Life and Works of Goethe,' "travelled from one commercial patron of literature to another, until finally Mr. David Nutt, of the Strand, took pity on it, and gave it to the reading world. The success was not immediate, but it proved solid. A second edition was brought out in 1864 by Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., and since then the reputation of the work has been steadily increasing......In 1853 he issued a volume entitled 'Philosophy of the Sciences'; in 1858, 'Seaside Studies at Ilfracombe, Tenby, Scilly Isles, and Jersey'; and in 1859-60 two volumes of Physiology of Common Life.' A different course of inquiry and literary action became visible in the next published works, A Chapter from Aristotle,' issued in 1864, and 'Problems of Life and Mind First Series: the Foundation of a - and the Creed,' two volumes brought out in 1875." He was "one of the founders of that very clever but most unsuccessful weekly the Leader, The Leader of which he was the literary editor from its Fortnightly. commencement, in 1849, till July, 1854. Eleven years later he helped to usher into the world the Fortnightly Review, assuming the editorship and retaining it till he was succeeded by Mr. John Morley. However, he always remained a contributor, and it was for the Fortnightly that he wrote the last paper which appeared publicly under his name. It is the first article in the June number of the present year, entitled 'The Dread and Dislike of Science.'......Mr. Lewes often told his friends His death. that the most desirable end of a well-spent life was a painless death. The end came to him after a very short illness at his house, the Priory, North Bank, Regent's Park, where he had spent many years-years, he declared himself, of great happiness." Melville. On the 14th of December Mr. Hawley Smart renders tribute to Major Whyte Melville, the Major Whyte "Laureate of fox-hunting," who was killed by a fall from his horse in the hunting field on the 5th. He was born in 1831, entered the |