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generally true opinion, that writers value most highly their least efficient work. Mr. Mill thought the 'Essay on Liberty' his greatest book; his article on the duties of the State respecting Corporation property (standing first among those collected in 'Dissertations and Discussions') his greatest paper; and his speech upon the Reform Bill his greatest speech. these views we should be disposed to concur. The speech he calls 'a success' in two passages ; on the other hand, he calls his articles in the Examiner lumbering in style' and 'ill-timed,' and he speaks of them as having 'missed fire' altogether. It is not every one who can judge himself so well."

In

Mr. James Holmes, for many years the printer and part proprietor of the Athenæum,* died on Friday, the 4th of July, in his eighty-fourth

* The deed of assignment by which the Athenæum came into the hands of Mr. Holmes is dated the 7th of January, 1830. By this deed the entire copyright became his property for the sum of 2001. The document bears the signatures of Chas. C. Atkinson, John Sterling, J. S. Buckingham, Henry Hurry Goodeve, and others. In the same year Mr. Dilke became part proprietor with Mr. Holmes, Mr. J. Hamilton Reynolds, Mr. J. Martin, and Mr. Andrews; but on the 20th of September, 1831 (not 1832, as stated on.p. 49, vol. i.), Mr. Dilke and Mr. Holmes became sole proprietors, Mr. Dilke's share being three-fourths and Mr. Holmes's one-fourth.

Mr. James
Holmes.

year. He was apprenticed to Mr. Thomas Besley, of Exeter, on the 16th of September, 1806. The Athenæum of the 12th of July states: "He commenced business on his own account in March, 1825, at 4, Took's Court, Chancery Lane. He was the printer of the Law Journal and Law Advertiser, and the Literary Magnet. During 1827-8 he printed the London Weekly Review, of which Col. D. L. Richardson was the proprietor, and Mr. St. John the editor: this publication was discontinued early in 1829. The Court Journal was also originated at Mr. Holmes's office in 1829. In the same year, Mr. Silk Buckingham sold the Athenæum to Mr. John Sterling, and shortly afterwards the printing of the journal was transferred to Took's Court." In the year 1869 Mr. Holmes sold his share in the Athenæum and retired from business.

On July 19th, 1873, a letter from Mr. Lewtas says: "Mr. Cook, of St. Paul's Churchyard, who is known in Portugal as the Viscount de Monserrate, and who owns the beautiful villa formerly possessed by Beckford, has purThe convent chased of Count Penamacor the old Capuchin Convent on the Serra of Cintra. The English know the building as Cork Convent; the corridors and rooms having been lined by the monks with that material in

at Cintra.

order to counteract the damp of the misty mountain."

The death of Mrs. Archer Clive, the author of 'Paul Ferroll' and 'Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife,' is announced on the same date. "A week ago she was in her boudoir, surrounded by books, and having immediately about her mass of manuscript, when an atom of live coal, flying from the grate to her dress, ignited not only the latter, but the manuscripts littered at her feet, enveloping the unfortunate lady in flames almost instantaneously." Her first work was published in 1840, 'IX. Poems by V.'; and in 1842, still as V., she brought out a new poem entitled 'I Watched the Heavens.' "Nine years afterwards, in 1851, she published yet another, called 'The Valley of the Rea'; and, yet later, in 1853, another, the name of which was 'The Morlas.'

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The death of Mr. Thomas Chisholm Anstey, at Bombay on the 13th of August, is noted on the 23rd. He was one of the earlier contributors to the Dublin Review shortly after it was started, in 1836, under the triple guidance of Daniel O'Connell, Cardinal (then Dr.) Wiseman, and the late Mr. Henry Bagshawe."

An obituary notice of Mrs. Alfred Gatty appears on the 11th of October. She was the younger daughter of the Rev. Dr. Scott, Lord

Mrs. Archer Clive, author of

'Paul Ferroll.'

Thomas Chisholm Anstey.

Mrs. Alfred
Gatty.

Nelson's chaplain on board the Victory at Trafalgar, and was born at Burnham, Essex, in 1809. In 1842, in association with her husband, the Rev. Alfred Gatty, D.D., she brought out 'The Life of Dr. Scott,' her father. Her first independent work appeared in 1851, “being a graceful mélange of fanciful stories, entitled 'The Fairy Godmothers, and other Tales.'...... In 1855, she followed up this first success with the earliest of the five volumes of her 'Parables from Nature.'” In 1856 Mrs. Gatty published her Worlds not Realized,' and a year afterwards her 'Proverbs Illustrated'; in 1858 'The Poor Incumbent' and 'Legendary Tales,' the latter embellished by Phiz. In May, 1866, she began her monthly organ for children, Aunt Judy's Magazine. "The news of Mrs. Gatty's death will be something like a home-grief in many a nursery."

"One of those men of iron will and steadfast determination, whose deeds form landmarks in the history of English adventure and discovery," Sir Robert Sir Robert M'Clure, died on the 17th of October.

M'Clure.

The Athenæum of the 1st of November says: "It was on the morning of October 26th, 1850, that Robert M'Clure, standing on a lofty hill on Bank's Land, sighted Barrow Strait and the coast of Melville Island beyond, and thus became the discoverer of the North-West Passage.

Mount

Observation.

All doubt as to the existence of a water communication between the two great oceans was removed. The hill was called 'Mount Observation.' In the following year, M'Clure performed, probably, the most wonderful feat of ice navigation on record, passing round the south and west sides of Bank's Land, between the shore and the stupendous ice-fields of that inland sea, until he reached the bay of God's Mercy, on the northern coast. The two winters passed in this cheerless spot well-nigh exhausted the provisions, and M'Clure had made all his preparations for abandoning the ship, when, on the 6th of April, 1852, a party from the Resolute came to his relief. The comparatively short march from the Bay of Mercy to the Resolute's position off Melville Island completed the North-West Discovers Passage; and M'Clure and his 'Investigators' are West Passage. the only men who have ever passed from ocean to ocean round the northern side of North America."

the North

Society.

The fourteenth publication of the Spenser The Spenser Society, consisting of a second collection of the works of John Taylor, the Water-Poet, not included in the folio of 1630, is announced on the 8th of November, 1873. It is also mentioned that the Early English Text Society will complete the tenth year of its life on December 31st.

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