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India.

It is also stated that the question of newspaper Copyright in copyright is at present occupying the attention of the Indian Government: "It is complained that great hardship has occasionally been inflicted on the proprietors of newspapers by the fact that telegrams procured by them at much expense from Europe have been transmitted to distant parts of the country, and published there before the journals in which they originally appeared could arrive."

Mr. Andrew

Wilson.

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The death of Mr. Andrew Wilson, the author of The Abode of Snow,' is recorded on the 18th of June. He was the son of Dr. Wilson, of Bombay, and for some years a journalist on the Indian press. "Afterwards he became editor of the China Mail, and his residence in China led to his compiling the excellent account of Col. Gordon's Ever Victorious Army,' which was published in 1868. After writing this book Mr. Wilson returned to India, and produced the volume of travels which made his reputation." He was a voluminous contributor to Blackwood.

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On July 2nd it is stated that "Dr. Schlicmann, who is now in Berlin superintending his collections, has received the very unusual honour Honorary of Honorary Citizenship.' Prince Bismarck citizenship and General von Moltke are the only other living personages on whom it has been conferred."

of Berlin.

Club.

'The Fifty Years' Work of the Royal Geographical Society,' by Clements R. Markham, C.B., F.R.S., is reviewed on the 16th of July. The immediate forerunner of the Royal Geographical Society was an institution of a social, if not a convivial tendency. "Capt. Sir Arthur de Capell Broke, the author of some works of travel, conceived the idea of forming an agreeable dining society, composed solely of travellers, to which the name of the Raleigh Club The Raleigh was given......On the 24th of May, 1830, there was a numerously attended meeting of the Raleigh Travellers' Club, with Sir John (then Mr.) Barrow in the chair. The expediency of founding an organized scientific society for the spread of geographical knowledge was cordially recognized, and resolutions approving of the publication of geographical works, the foundation of a library of maps and charts, a collection of the best instruments for purposes of travel, and the grant of assistance to travellers and students of the science were passed. A provisional committee of six well-known members of the Raleigh Club was chosen, these being Mr. Barrow, Mr. Robert Brown, Mr. Roderick I. Murchison, Mr. John Cam Hobhouse (afterwards Lord Broughton), Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, and Mr. Bartle Frere. It was on the 16th of July, 1830, that the Society was

VOL. II.

2 I

Founding of formally constituted on the recommendation of the Royal Geographical the provisional committee, and a council, vice

Society.

rewards.

presidents, and secretaries were appointed, the whole being under the presidency of Viscount Goderich. The original list of Fellows comprised 460, of whom fourteen are still alive. Two kindred bodies soon started into being and lent their aid to the diffusion of geographical knowledge. The Hakluyt Society was founded in 1847, for the purpose of printing rare and unpublished travels, and in 1850 Sir Roderick Murchison obtained the addition of a Geographical Section (E) to the British Association...... Medals and Twenty-eight medals and rewards have been given for work in Asia, twenty-two in Africa, twenty-three in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and sixteen in Australasia. Civilians have carried off the large proportion of fifty-one out of a hundred and nine rewards, soldiers twentythree, sailors twenty-one, and women (Lady Franklin and Mrs. Somerville) two. It is natural that we should find Englishmen credited with nearly three-quarters of the total number of the awards, but the balance of thirty-seven shows that other countries are not forgotten......In the list of foreigners who have carried off medals and minor awards from us, Germans muster strongly (sixteen), while natives of India figure twice, and one negro (Bishop

Crowther) testifies to the impartiality of the awards."

The death of "that veteran diplomatist the Hon. Peter Campbell Scarlett, C.B.," at the age of seventy-seven, is noticed on the 30th of July. "Besides a work of 'Travels in the Brazils,' published more than forty years ago, Mr. Scarlett wrote in 1876 a memoir of his father, the first Lord Abinger, a work of considerable interest and value as containing, besides a curious autobiographical fragment, the only notice extant of the great advocate."

A communication from Mr. Thoms appears on the 13th of August, 'Longevity in a New Light,' in which he disposes of two cases of alleged ultra-centenarianism. Miss Mary Billinge "was reported and believed to have died at her residence, Edge Lane, Liverpool, aged 112 years and six months.' She died December 20th, 1863, and her age was so exceptional that her medical attendant felt justified in calling special attention to it in the columns of the Times." Upon investigation Mr. (now Sir) J. A. Picton found that the old lady was in her 91st, and not in her 112th year when she died, it being a case of mistaken identity. The other instance. was that of the Rev. W. Davis, formerly rector of Staunton-on-Wye, who died in 1790, and whose age is entered in the register as 105.

The Hon.
Campbell

Peter

Scarlett.

Longevity Light,' by W. J. Thoms.

in a New

Izaak

Walton's house.

John Francis publisher of the

Upon search being made by the Rev. H. W.
Phillott, the rector, it was proved that Mr.
Davis had died at the age of 95.

The destruction of the houses between the south end of Chancery Lane and Bell Yard, Temple Bar, removed a part of the famous Cock Tavern and Izaak Walton's house, or, as the Athenæum states on the 17th of September, "at least the building which, if not the author's tenement itself, occupies the site of the house of the Complete Angler."

On the 4th of October Mr. John Francis had been publisher of the Athenæum for fifty years, Atheneum and on the 15th the following reference to the for fifty years. event is made: "Our last number was the two thousand six hundred and tenth issued by Mr. John Francis, he having become the publisher of this journal on the 4th of October, 1831. The fact is, we believe, unprecedented in journalism; no other London publisher, at any rate, has been connected with the same paper for a period of fifty years."

Ben Jonson's 'Workes.'

"A large-paper copy of Ben Jonson's 'Workes,'" it is noted on the 12th of November, "two volumes, 1616-40, with the following dedication, 'To his most Learned and Honor'd Friend Mr. Edward Heyward, Ben Jonsons Guift and Testimony of Observance,' sold on Thursday at Messrs. Hodgson's for 120/."

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