Mrs. Janet
Hamilton.

The Royal Society: first

House.

The death of Mrs. Janet Hamilton, "the wellknown Scotch poetess," is recorded on the same date. She was of very humble origin, and was married at the early age of thirteen. She could not write, and had to dictate her compositions to her husband, who was a shoemaker, and he reduced them to writing. Her works consist of 'Poems and Essays,' 'Poems and Sketches,' &c., a new edition of them, it is said, being now in the press. Mrs. Hamilton was born in 1795."

The anniversary meeting of the Royal Society anniversary on Monday, the 1st of December, was held in the meeting in Burlington new domicile allotted to the Society in Burlington House. The Athenæum of December 6th states: "The retiring President, Sir George Airy, commenced his address by congratulating the Society on the 'scientific, literary, and social accommodation they now enjoy' in their new 'localization,' and expressed his hope that they were there 'established with a degree of permanency at least comparable to that which the Society experienced in Crane Court and in Somerset House.""

Obituary,

1873.

The obituary for 1873 includes Dr. Lushington; Mr. Charles Longman, F.G.S.; Prof. Sedgwick; Mr. J. S. Le Fanu, the novelist; Sir Frederic Madden, for many years head of the Manuscript Department in the British Museum; Lord de la Zouche; Sir Henry Holland; Mr. J.

Gough Nichols; Mr. John Yonge Akerman, many years secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, and author of many valuable works and papers relating to numismatics or archæology (he was also "the first railway journalist, being editor and one of the founders of the Railway Magazine, now called Herapath's Railway Journal, and bearing 1835 on its title as the date of its establishment"); Mr. William James Adams, the publisher of Bradshaw's Guides from the first number, which was issued in 1839, and "consisted of only about 38 pages"; Mr. John Arrowsmith, the last of the well known family of geographers; Mr. Emanuel Oscar Deutsch; Mr. M. J. Whitty, the proprietor of the Liverpool Daily Post and the Liverpool Journal; Mr. John Camden Hotten, the publisher, of Piccadilly; and Mr. Thornton Leigh Hunt.

1874.

Evans.

Mr. David Morier Evans, who had been connected with the London press from the time David Morier he was sixteen, died on the 1st of January, 1874, at the age of fifty-four. The Athenæum of the 10th states: "He served under Mr. Alsager, City editor of the Times, for some years. At his death, Mr. Evans became assistant City editor to Mr. Sampson, of the Times, and in that capacity acquired a reputation in the best financial circles accorded to few men. In 1857

The Hawarden

estate.

Mr. Evans associated himself with the present proprietor of the Standard, as manager and City editor; and his ability and industry, as well as his high character in the City, contributed greatly to the success of that journal. In 1872 he withdrew from the Standard, and last year founded the Hour newspaper. Unhappily, a malady from which he had long been suffering rapidly developed itself under the responsibilities of his new enterprise, and mind and body alike gave way under the trial...... He had always a kind heart and an open purse for all comers." Mr. Evans was the author of "The Commercial Crisis of 1847-1848,' 'City Men and City Manners,' 'Facts, Failures, and Frauds,' &c. He was also the editor and part proprietor of the Bankers' Magazine, the Bankers' Almanac, and the Bullionist."

A review of Lancashire Worthies,' by Francis Espinasse, appeared on January 17th, in which the following reference is made to Hawarden: "Some of the wealth of the Stanleys, confiscated in the Commonwealth days, has gone in strange directions. Thus, the Hawarden estate in Flintshire fell into the hands of rascal Glyn,' who had no more principle than the Stanleys of the Bosworth days. The estate is still in the hands of a descendant of the famous, or infamous, Serjeant Glyn, namely Sir Stephen

Glynne, Bart. The sister of Sir Stephen married Mr. Gladstone, and the old possession of the Earls of Derby is now the country-seat of the Prime Minister of England."

Dr.

On the 31st of January the following announcement is made in reference to Dr. Livingstone: "We are able to state that the telegram Livingstone. from the acting Consul General at Zanzibar, which appeared in the daily papers on Wednesday, has convinced Dr. Kirk that the tidings of Dr. Livingstone's death are true. The tele- His death. gram tells us that he had 'attempted to cross Lake Bemba from the north, and, failing in this, had doubled back and rounded the lake, crossing the Chambize and the other rivers flowing from it; had then crossed the Luapula, and died in Lobisa, after having crossed a marshy country, with the water for three hours at a time above the waist; ten of his men had died, and the remainder, consisting of seventy-nine men, were marching to Unyanyembe.' These details are but scanty, and we have heard little regarding the great traveller's movements since Mr. Stanley left him. At that time he was, our readers will remember, fully convinced of the identity of his triple Lualaba with the Nile. His theory was contested by most geographers; but we propose deferring further discussion of the subject of Livingstone's later explorations

till further details shall reach this country...... While we are disposed to think that Livingstone

was greater as a traveller than a geographer, no The greatest one will deny that he stands at the head of of English explorers. English explorers, that he dared more and achieved more than any of his predecessors, and that it is not likely that his feats will ever be thrown into the shade."

Mr. Adam
Black.

On the same date, the death, on the 24th, of Mr. Adam Black, "the last of those who were publishers in Edinburgh in the days when it was really a literary centre, and could boast of an independent literary activity," is recorded. He was born at Edinburgh on the 20th of February, 1784. He commenced his business career in London, but in 1807 returned to his native place, "and opened a shop on the South Bridge, close to that of Mr. William Blackwood, who was only eight years his senior, and who had not then commenced the publication of the magazine that was destined to make his name so famous. Constable's was, of course, the chief publishing house in the city; but when that firm failed, in 1827, both his younger rivals profited by the catastrophe......Messrs. A. & C. Black, to give the firm its now well-known name, became the Scotch agents for the Edinburgh Review, which had, on the downfall of the Princes Street