The Book of Scotsmen Eminent for Achievements in Arms and
Arts, 'Church and State, Law, Legislation, and Literature, Commerce, Science, and Philanthropy. Compiled and arranged by Joseph Irving. (A. Gardner, Paisley.)—We regret to begin a notice of any work by so experienced and painstaking a compiler as Mr. Joseph Irving with considerable fault-finding. In his profutory note, Mr. Irving depro- ho was "not highly distinguished as a student, but popular with the professors, as well as the studouts ?" Is it not, to say the least, strange that we should have a biography of the assistant-editor of " Chambers's Encyclopedia," and not a word about the editor, Dr. Findlater ? Mr. Irving is kind enough to supply us with a short notice of his own life, but it would not be difficult to toll with what Scotch counties be is naturally most familiar, from the abundance and rhetorical offusiveuess of certain of his biographies. Still, the book is capable of being made an excellent work of reference ; and as it stands, it gives an account of rearly 8,000 Scotsmen. Like most productions of this enterprising provincial press, it is well got up, the most accurate statement made by Mr. Irving being that "the pub- lisher, Mr. Gardner, has taken much pains to finish the work with taste.."
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