New Enrricers.—We welcome the appearance in anew edition of a
standard work which has been for some time out of the reach of readers. This is The History of the Alphabet, by Isaac Taylor, Litt.D. (E. Arnold, 218.) Dr. Taylor published this book, the z esult. of much study and labour, about fifteen years ago. He spared no pains in making it complete, the amount of thought and trouble bestowed on what most authors are not in the least concerned with, the typography, being very considerable. The mere figuring of the numerous alphabets—hundreds are discussed, and not a few are actually reproduced—would suffice to give the work no little value. But there is much more than this; there is the outcome of a very wide and intelligent reading, and a story which may be said without any figure of speech frequently to possess the interest of a romance. —In the new edition of" Francis Parkman's Works" (Macmillan and Co., 8s. 6d. net, per vol.) we have The Jesuits in. North America (we may refer our readers to the unabridged reprint of the "Jesuit Relations," reviewed some months ago in the Spectator), and La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West.— Another new edition is Earthwork out of Tuscany, Impressions and Translations of Maurice Hewlett (T. H. Dent and Co., 4s. 6d.) —An Anecdotal History of the British Parliament, compiled by George Henry Jennings (Horace Cox), is a treasury of good stories, which has now reached a fourth edition. It goes back to early times, though its records do not become frequent till we get to the Parliaments of the Stuarts. Even then considerably more than half the space is occupied by the present century. The payment of Members seems to have been a trouble in early times. Boroughs not unfrequently petitioned to be relieved from the charge of representation. Perhaps this was in the mind of the well-known citizen of Newbury, who, when bidden by Henry VIII. to ask a favour, requested that the town might not return a Member to Parliament.—In "The Works of Henry Fielding" (A. Constable, 7s. 6d. per vol.), the tenth volume, containing The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild.—We have received "The Temple Edition" of Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens, 3 vols. (J. H. Dent and Co., 42. 6d. net), and in "The New English Series," edited by E. E. Speight, B.A., Charles Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses (Horace Marshall and Son, 10d. net).—Another reprint, about the twentieth, is Cometh Up as a Flower, by Rhoda Broughton, the first of a projected series of "Macmillan's Two Shilling Library" (Macmillan and Co.)
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