We have received The British Almanac and Companion for 1891.
(Stationers' Company.)—Its contents include the usual eccle- siastical and civil information, a Parliamentary guide, statistics of commerce and taxation, chronicle of games and athletics, synopsis of Acts of Parliament passed in the Session, information about British Colonies and foreign countries, obituary of the year, &a. Essays on the Architecture, Drama, Music, and Science of the year follow, and Mr. W. J. Lynn contributes "A Few Words on Observatories,"—The sixth annual issue of Hazen Annual, edited by E. D. Price (Hazel, Watson, and Vinoy), contains, as we learn from the title-page, " above 3,500 concise and explanatory articles on every topic of current political, social, biographical, and general interest." These, it will be understood, are arranged in alphabetical order. Thus, we begin with "Abbreviations," and go on to " Abdul Hamid II.," the Sultan being followed by Abdurrahman Khan and Sir Frederick Abel. Glancing through the pages, we she, under the head of "Army," an account of the estimates, strength, distribution, pay, &c., the information being compressed into three pages ; an account of the law of Arrest, a description of Austrian Political Parties, Bulgarian Political Parties, and the Sobranj6, House of Commons (occu- pying about sixty pages), County Councils for London and the Home Counties, &c. To show how the Annual has been kept to date, we may mention that Mr. Parnell's condemna- tion in the suit of " O'Shea v. O'Shea and Parnell" (dated November 17th), is recorded.—Barker's Pacts and Figures for 1891, edited by ThoMas P. Whittaker (Frederick Warne and Co.), is a handy manual of statistics of every kind. Wo notice, under the head of " Largo Personal Estates," that the year 1889-90 was not very productive of largo windfalls to the Exchequer. There were eight between half-a-million and a million, giving an aggre- gate of £4,808,000 ; and two above a million, with an aggregate of £2,224,000. This makes a total of about seven millions, In 1887-88 there was a total of more than seventeen millions four fortunes averaging nearly 42,500,000 each,
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