Mr. Alfred
Smee.

'And may I say of myself that I hope there is nobody in the world with a stronger will and aspiration to escape from sectarianism in any sort or sense, when I have eyes to discern it; and that the sectarianism of the National Churches, to which I do not belong, and of the Dissenting bodies, to which I do, stand together before me on a pretty just level of detestation? Truth (as far as each thinker can apprehend) apprehended, and love comprehending,-make my idea-my hope of a Church. But the Christianity of the world is apt to wander from Christ and the hope of Him.""

The death of Mr. Alfred Smee is noticed on the 20th of January. Mr. Smee was the surgeon of the Bank of England, his father having held the situation before him. "Mr. Alfred Smee introduced the method of printing Bank of England notes from electrotype plates, thus preserving the original steel plate unworn."

The The St. Petersburg Deutsche Zeitung comSt. Petersburg Deutsche pleted this year a century and a half of existence. Zeitung. The Athenæum of February. 17th states: "In commemoration of this event, with the new year's number it gave a facsimile of the first number of its second year's issue-that of the first year was not obtainable. In connexion with this anniversary, the paper furnishes some interesting remarks of its first editor, Friedrich

Müller, on the establishment of Russian journals, among other items stating: 'Peter the Great was not only founder of the first Russian newspaper, but also the first editor ever known in Russia,' and it then refers to Pjatkowsky's 'History of our Literature,' as authority for the statement that Peter was his own foreign correspondent, translating from the foreign journals, and correcting and preparing the news for the edification of his subjects."

Peter the Great the first Russian editor.

Harriet Martineau's Autobiography.'

་

'Harriet Martineau's Autobiography: with Memorials by Maria Weston Chapman,' is reviewed on the 17th of March. "Harriet Martineau was born in Norwich, in 1802. Her father was a manufacturer, of Huguenot extraction, not rich, and a sturdy Unitarian. The description of her early life is one of the most Wonderful description of wonderful parts of this strange book. The in- her early life. trospection, which explores causes and motives

of conduct, could hardly go more deeply or see more clearly. Each trifling incident, which created a habit or helped in the formation of character, is here given at length, and nothing seems wearisome, for everything has a psychological bearing of its own......Her first appearance in print was when she was nineteen, and she sent an article on Female Writers on Practical Divinity' to the Monthly Repository, the Unitarian periodical of the day......It was

in 1855 that she believed herself to be dying, and wrote this Autobiography and the notice for the Daily News. But the heart complaint took time to do its certain work, and she had twenty years still before her. Here Mrs. Chapman's book becomes of some service, though the main interest of her friend's life was over. All serious questions, if only they tended to make men happier and brighter, were eagerly taken up by her. However ill she was, she was Always ready always well enough to labour for others, and strong enough to wait patiently the inevitable end......It was on the 27th of June last that the death, so long expected, came, and this distinguished woman passed away."

to labour for

others.

Mr. Cowden
Clarke.

Mr. Cowden Clarke] died on March 13th in the Villa Novello, at Genoa. He was born at Enfield in 1787, and the Athenæum of March 24th, 1877, says: "His intercourse with Elia and his companions helped to confirm him in his natural leaning towards literature. Yet the very earliest publication of his in book-form with which we are acquainted is a little duodecimo tale, called 'Adam the Gardener,' printed in 1824, its writer having then attained the mature age of thirtyseven. The year afterwards he issued, in 1825, with notes and a memoir, a new edition of Chaucer. For twenty years together he enjoyed a wide popularity as a lecturer upon English

poets and writers of poetic prose." In 1828 he married Mary, the eldest daughter of Vincent Novello. "For nearly half a century the names of Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke have been as intimately associated in the literary world as have been those of William and Mary Howitt." Mrs. Cowden Clarke "contrived between 1829 and 1845, when the now famous Concordance Mrs. Clarke's was published, to perfect her wonderfully minute analysis of the works of Shakspeare."

'Concordance

to

Shakespeare.'

Walter

Bagehot.

Economist.

On the 31st of March it is stated that "English journalism has suffered a heavy loss by the death of Mr. Walter Bagehot last Saturday." He was born at Langport, in Somersetshire, on the 3rd of February, 1826. About 1848 "he began to write for the Economist, which Mr. Writes for the James Wilson had founded in 1843; and, after his marriage with a daughter of Mr. Wilson's, he took a more important share in the management of the journal, his father-in-law being more and more occupied with Parliamentary and official work. When Mr. Wilson died, in 1860, being at that time Finance Minister in India, Mr. Bagehot became sole editor and chief proprietor of the Economist, with which his connexion was maintained up to the last." young man he frequently contributed to the National Review, and afterwards to the Fortnightly, "from the pages of which his two most

As a

Becomes editor.

important books were reproduced, with additions" The English Constitution,' issued in 1867, and in a much enlarged edition in 1872, and 'Physics and Politics; or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of Natural Selection and Inheritance to Political Society.' "His last and most popular book, 'Lombard Street, a Description of the Money Market,' is of a different sort. It ran through four large editions in 1873, and is still the best practical treatise on commercial finance that has been prepared for the use of the general public. Less ambitious in design than the other two volumes, it will probably live longer than either of them." Auto'Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall). An biography of Bryan Waller Autobiographical Fragment and Biographical Procter. Notes. With Personal Sketches of Contemporaries, Unpublished Lyrics, and Letters of Literary Friends,' is reviewed on the 21st of April. "Bryan Waller Procter was born November 21st, 1787, just three months earlier than Byron. His parents had come up from the country to settle in London, but whether the poet was born there, like so many of his great kindred, seems not to be distinctly stated...... At four years old he was sent to a day-school, led by the servant's hand, and already at five years, according to his own belief, he was trusted to the tender mercies of a boarding-school at