6 OCTOBER 1894, Page 3

The reading world will hear with deep regret and sympathy

of the sorrow which has fallen on Mrs. Oliphant in the death of Francis, her only surviving son. He had been to her daughter as well as son, and his departure will throw an in- curable gloom over her declining years. Chronic ill-health had prevented his ability from becoming generally visible, and deprived him of an appointment in the British Museum, which he had won, and which would have suited both his capacities and his tastes. Ile was, however, sub-librarian at Windsor Castle, a post for which he was fitted by his wide antiquarian knowledge and endless industry ; he was his mother's eollaborateur in preparing her book on Palestine, and he was a frequent and valued contributor to our own and, we believe, other literary journals. It is, however, of his mother that we think with regret, and even alarm. Such strokes in the evening of life often seem to dry up the sources of literary power.