Boors of REFERENCE.—We have received the sixty-fifth annual issue of
Burke's Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage, 4c., edited by Ashworth P. Burke (Harrison and Sons, 42s.) The Dictionary, it will be remembered, is " Genealogical and Heraldic." Whether all the genealogies are absolutely authentic and without flaw it is needless to inquire. What is more to the point is that the names of persons belonging or related to the titled families (titles both personal and hereditary being reckoned in) have been collected and arranged with a vast amount of labour. How large the number of such names is it would not be easy to calcu- late, though it could be made out from the Table of Prece- dence, where not less than thirty thousand would seem to be enumerated.—On a smaller scale, as giving only the actually titled persons, without genealogical or personal particulars, is Doll's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., 10s. 6d.) A second part gives the names of persons who bear courtesy titles. The number of these is stated at "upwards of four thousand." Dod's is in its sixty-third year. —The Clergy Directory (J. S. Phillips, 4s. 6d.) gives in a com- pact form all available information about Cathedral and other ecclesiastical establishments, the clergy, value and population of benefices, &e.—The Schoolmaster's Year-Book and Directory (Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 5s. uet) appears for the first time. It may be taken as a popular form of the Official Register of Teachers that is to be. It must be understood, however, that it is with secondary education only that it is concerned. But it is at the same time much more than a register. So much will be seen from a brief summary of its contents. First there is a list of " Societies and Organisations," chartered or other ; then follow "Official Bodies "—i.e., Boards of Education and County Connell Committees—" Universities, Colleges, &c.," "Diplomas and Certifi- cates," "Examinations," an account of the Education Bill (of course the volume had to go to press before the Bill assumed its final shape and became an Act) and other Parliamentary pro- ceedings re education, " Events of the Year," and " Other In- formation." These are in Part I. Part II. contains the "Direc- tory." Altogether this is a carefully compiled and complete volume, and should be very useful. We must not forget to mention an excellent preface ; if the Year-Book lives as long as we hope, its prefaces should rival those which for many years have adorned " Crockford."
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