Examiner. merits of this book, so far as they are exhibited in the first volume, which is the only portion yet published, we have but very lately spoken. ......In taking account of Mr. Forster's hard work, it must not be forgotten that, in addition. to his duties as editor of the Examiner, a post Editor of the which he held for ten years, and his one year's editorship of the Daily News, he had been connected with the Commission of Lunacy for twenty years, first as Secretary and afterwards as one of the Commissioners. Mr. Forster's life had indeed been one of constant labour r; though it was not without a dash of romance in his early attachment to Miss Letitia Landon, the L. E. L. of the Bijous and Keepsakes of L. E. L. forty years since. That, however, was not among the marriages predestined in accordance with the proverb. The lovers, in fact, parted on some misunderstanding, and Miss Landon became the wife of Governor Maclean, and met with a tragic end at Cape Coast Castle. Mr. Forster subsequently married Mrs. Colburn, the widow of the late publisher of that name." The Temple of Belus, the "Basis of heaven The Temple of and earth," the "Glory of the city of Babylon," is on the 12th of February the subject of an article by Mr. George Smith. He had discovered a Babylonian text giving a remarkable account of the temple. "Additional interest. His marriage to Mrs. Colburn. Belus. Mr. George attaches to this inscription from the fact that it is the first time any detailed description of a temple has been found in the cuneiform texts, it thus supplies the first information as to the dimensions of the great temples, and it is fortunate that the one described was the most famous in the valley of the Euphrates." Mr. Smith died at Aleppo, on his third mission to the East, on the 19th of August. The Athenæum of September 9th rendered this tribute to him: "The students of the Assyrian language and literature have lost their ruler, the Trustees of the British Museum have lost one of the most promising of their employés, the officials one of their most laborious and successful colleagues, in the unexpected decease of Mr. George Smith, the well-known Assyriologist and explorer. Mr. Smith began his life's work as a bank-note copper and steel plate engraver, Employed by in the employment of the firm of Bradbury Bradbury & Evans. & Evans, and during his connexion with that house was an object of remark for the careful and systematic manner in which he performed the difficult work committed to his hands. In 1866, he contributed to the Athenæum his notice of the 'Tribute of Jehu,' which may be taken as his earliest work on Assyrian philology. ......In the year 1871, Mr. Smith made a discovery of equal or even greater importance, inscriptions. account of the in our opinion, than all his Assyrian interpretations. It was that the Cypriote inscriptions The Cypriote were written in a syllabic character. Later on, with the aid of Dr. Birch, he identified this language with the Greek, and these discoveries soon led to rapid progress in the study of the language by the late Dr. Brandis and other foreign linguists. In 1871, he published the Annals of Assurbanipal; the Early History of Babylonia; and on the 3rd December, 1872, the celebrated Chaldean Account of the Deluge The Chaldean was detailed to the public at a meeting of the Deluge. Society of Biblical Archæology, of which he was one of the most prominent members. Shortly afterwards the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph organized an expedition to Mesopo- expedition. tamia to be conducted by Mr. Smith, who left England for the prosecution of Assyrian exploration on the 20th January, 1873, and reached Kouyunjik on the 2nd of March, paying a flying visit to Babylonia. The antiquities, cuneiform tablets, inscriptions, and miscellaneous proceeds of this journey were presented to the British Museum, and are are exhibited at present in the galleries of the department to which they belong......Mr. Smith's principal contributions to literature during 1875 were the discovery of the Creation Legends, 4th of The Creation legends. March, and the History of Assyria,' in the The Daily series of 'Ancient History from the Monuments," " The sudden death, at the age of seventy-one, Mr. James of Mr. James Thomas Hackett, is recorded on Hackett. the 15th of April. "Latterly he was railway Thomas The last Astrological Society. correspondent to the Times, and had been Herapath's for nearly forty years sub-editor of Herapath's Journal. Journal. To it he contributed some valuable statistical tables, and John Herapath, the mathematician, left him a legacy......Mr. Hackett was a man of sober mind and much esteemed, and few knew that he was the last survivor of the survivor of the Astrological Society......In this body several earnest students were brought together, with the tacit approval of greater men. It was considered that the ancient science might have been liable to error from want of knowledge of Uranus and the four asteroids, and it was the object of the Society to ascertain the nature of such perturbations. The dissensions which affected Sidrophel also afflicted the Society at the moment, as it was considered, of success. Zadkiel was most hopeful. The survivors were, however, doomed to discomfiture by the discovery of Neptune and of scores of asteroids.” 'Le Vathek de Beckford.' 'Le Vathek de Beckford,' reprinted from the original French edition, with a preface by Stéphane Mallarmé, is reviewed on June 3rd: "Beckford's own statement, that the first edition in this country was entirely unauthorized by him, is, of course, a strong point with the present French editor. Still it must not be forgotten that he afterwards sanctioned the version, which he considered to be well done, though he never knew who was the translator. Gossip pointed to Dr. Samuel Henley, Principal of Hertford College, who has been accused of having undertaken it for the purpose of showing his erudition in the copious notes which he added to the story. The edition which should undeniably have been the original, is that published at Paris and Lausanne in 1787, under the title of 'Vathek, Conte Arabe,' and this it is that M. Stéphane Mallarmé now endeavours to reinstate on the shelves of French bibliophiles." The presentation of a Free Library to Maccles- Macclesfield Free Library. field by Mr. David Chadwick, M.P. for that town, was celebrated on Saturday, the 27th of May. The Athenæum of the following week states that "the cost of the building, including the ground, somewhat exceeds 5,000l., and 10,000 volumes are deposited on the shelves." The death of Dr. Joseph Bosworth, the Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford, is also noticed on the 3rd of June. He was born in 1789, and educated first at Repton Grammar School, whence he was sent to the University of Aberdeen. "His greatest Prof. Bosworth. 1 |