fession. We cannot at our practice in rowing. studies to the winds."

any time make our studies subservient to When the rowing season comes you throw No one who thoroughly understands the situation can find fault with such a decision.

It is a great pity that there has not been found material in our own University of Pennsylvania within the past few years wherefrom to build a crew for Saratoga. People in general have no idea how materially excellence in athletics, as shown in games and races, helps a college in other directions. Boys have a voice in deciding to what college their fathers shall send them, and they have a great eye for the strong and victorious. When they hear that Yale beat Harvard in rowing, or that Cornell's representatives have been successful in the intercollegiate literary contests, of course they must enter either Yale or Cornell, and none other. The prospects, however, are that a crew of Philadelphia oarsmen will take part in the next regatta. All steps made in that direction will enlarge the number of students of the University, and increase its usefulness.

This is probably the last time that the regatta will be rowed over the Saratoga course. The lake has its disadvantages as a boating field, in its distance from town and its exposure to sudden squalls; and Saratoga itself has ceased to be the great center of attraction it once was. Next year will probably see the colleges divided off into territorial groups, each with its own regatta. There are too many colleges in this country to render a great national intercollegiate boat race possible. In this connection it is suggested that the colleges group themselves according to their rowing facilities, in which case Cornell would have to get up a regatta of her

Own.

It remains to be seen what new dress this but yesterday most fascinating and attractive amusement will assume to itself in future. SAMUEL M. MILLER,

NEW BOOKS.

WORDS: THEIR USE AND ABUSE. By William Matthews, LL. D. 384 PP. Price $2.00. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 1876.

In this book, Dr. Matthews has left his former field of authorship, and attempts (though very modestly, to be sure,) the dangerous

ground of words. Like Grant White, Dean Alford, the latter's reviewer, Mr. Moon, the author of "Vulgarisms, and Other Errors of Speech," et id omne genus, he has essayed mortal combat with the linguistic parabantes—that large class of persons who are too lazy or too ignorant to distinguish between lay and lie, who will use "cant or talk in superlatives, and who defend such barbarisms as "you was." Unlike these writers, however, he has done much more than indulge in mere negative criticism. His volume originated in a lecture which was written "some twenty years ago," and which is now enlarged by the addition from time to time of "notes of his thoughts and readings upon it." Accordingly, it covers a ground far wider than that included by either of the writers named above. The chapters bear such titles as "The Significance of Words," ," "The Morality in Words," "Saxon Words or Romanic?" "The Secret of Apt Words," "The Fallacies in Words," et cetera. The work is really an encyclopedia of valuable truths about language and its relations to both thought and actual use.

Writing for the people, the author does not attempt to be scholarly-perhaps we should say scholastic-and, for the same reason, does not try to be original. His motto is Non nova, sed novè, and he makes no concealment of his indebtedness to others. The preface affirms it, the pages overflow with other men's names, and a list of "Principal Books Consulted" is appended. Indeed, one is inclined to believe that the reader owes but little to the editor, as Dr. Matthews must surely be called, in all fairness. The "twenty years" have not been wasted, but they have been spent in "busy bee" fashion only, gathering honey from other men's gardens. Readers of Angus, De Vere, Earle, Latham, Marsh, Müller, Tooke, Trench and Whitney will recognize many a favorite passage, many a remarkable example or illustration. Indeed, the book is a sort of "omnium gatherum," very much "padded" with quotations more or less trite, from poets, philosophers, historians- everybody, in fact, of whom one ever heard. And yet, both those readers who have never known the originals, and even those who have studied the greater writers, will find it most entertaining the former, because they will be both interested and instructed; the latter, because they will here enjoy again the best thoughts and most clever illustrations of their favorite writers.

The paper, printing and binding are in the usual style of the books -issued by the Messrs. Griggs & Co.-that is, faultless. We have heard one criticism of the book, which will doubtless sell many a copy of it: "It is so pretty, it must be a nice book."

RULES FOR A PRINTED DICTIONARY CATALOGUE. By Charles A. Cutter. Being Part II. of Public Libraries in the United States

of America. Special Report of the Bureau of Education. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1876.

Within the compass of ninety pages, the learned Librarian of the Boston Athenæum has here formulated an all but exhaustive series of rules for the methodical cataloguing of books. The main purpose which animates Mr. Cutter, namely, the elaboration of such a scheme as shall place before the student or general reader, at a glance, the literature on a given subject, or the writings of a given author, is admirably well fulfilled, as any one will be prepared to avouch who has had occasion frequently to consult the varying catalogues of the great London libraries-those of the British Museum, the South Kensington Museum, the Rolls and the Patent Offices, the Inns of Court, the Guildhall, Lambeth Palace, Dr. Williams and Sion College.

It is not, however, with any notion of being viewed as a final settlement of mooted questions, that the second part of the valuable report on libraries is limitedly circulated in advance of the first. Mr. Cutter modestly observes that it is to be expected that a first attempt to investigate the fundamental principles of cataloguing will be incomplete. He invites criticisms, objections, new problems (with or without solutions). With such assistance from librarians, he thinks, "perhaps a second edition of these hints would deserve the title-Rules."

Yet a vast proportion of the suggestions put forth are eminently practical, and reconsideration diminishes greatly the force of objections arising out of a first perusal. The criticisms which follow are offered in the spirit in which criticisms are invited; not, certainly, as indicative of faults in the scheme Mr. Cutter has with wonderful care and clearness presented.

Under "Authors" some difficulties may be experienced in giving effect to particular suggestions. Thus: "1. Make the author entry under the name of the author, whether personal or corporate, or some substitute for it. Anonymous books are to be entered under the name of the author whenever it is known," renders it doubtful whether the famous Observations on the Bills of Mortality in London would ever be traced. They are everywhere described as the work of John Graunt, and the editors of the British Museum catalogue learned, so recently as March last, that John Graunt was a pseudonym for Sir William Petty, F. R. S., instead of the name of some citizen saddler with a propensity for literature and statistics. The authority for this statement is that of no less a person than John Evelyn. But change the entry. from Graunt to Petty, and who will identify the book in a catalogue? Pseudonyms must evidently play a larger part than Mr. Cutter provides for them. To cite another instance: who, that does not know by information from himself, would identify Didymus White, citizen plasterer, as John T.

Dexter, even among those who are most familiar with English economic and governmental literature.

"4. Consider the respondent or defendant of a thesis as its author," seems to conflict with "12. Reporters are usually treated as authors of reports of trials," etc; and this, again, contradicts " 48. Trials may be entered only under the name of the defendant in a criminal suit, and the plaintiff in a civil suit ;" while the second part of "12. Translators and editors are not to be considered as authors," would exclude from recognition the discoverer of the cypher employed by Pepys, whose work was most certainly less mechanical than that of any reporter, since it necessitated the exercise of a high order of brain power.

"62. The designer or painter copied is the author of engravings," though good, is not wide enough to cover such a case as Lippincott's recent volume illustrating Contemporary Art, whose authors must number at the least a score.

"54. Periodicals are to be treated as anonymous, and entered under the first word," would yield no clue to inquiry for the Journal of Discourses, issued by the First Presidency of the Latter-Day Saints: a periodical without which no one can truthfully claim to have mastered the peculiar doctrines of the Mormons.

"57. When a title begins with a word expressive of the number which the work holds in a series, the first word, entry, or reference is to be made under the next word. Evening, Morning,

Daily and Weekly should be disregarded in titles of newspapers," would lead to inextricable confusion and perplexity. There have been in existence, at one time, in the English metropolis, journals properly bearing the names of The News, the Daily News, the Morning News, the London News, the Illustrated London News, the Illustrated News, the Illustrated Weekly News, and Lloyd's Weekly News. They were and are wholly distinct journals. In what way would Mr. Cutter's rule enable any one to distinguish them one from another? London has had a Chronicle and a Morning Chronicle, and has a Daily Chronicle; it has a Morning Post, a Penny Post, and a Post Magazine; it has a Times, a Weekly Times, and a Sunday Times, and had, also, at a former period, a London Times and a New Times; and not many years ago it boasted of a Quarterly Review, a London Review, and a London Quarterly Review. It may safely be asserted that no living American knows how to refer to English periodicals. The American rule is to speak of the London Quarterly when The Quarterly is meant; The News, when the Daily News is intended.. The truth is that Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Morning and Evening are as fully parts of proper names as any day of the week in the titles of the Saturday Review, the Sunday Magazine, and the Monday Review; and the Standard and Evening Standard, having different sets of leading articles, would not be confounded, one with the other, anywhere outside the United States of America.

134. To distinguish editions simply by the number, name of editor, etc., means a large economy of time now wasted by readers at the British Museum. "154. Let the form represent the fold of the sheet," is a revelation to many authors of the fact that folio, quarto, octavo, etc., do not necessarily convey measurement in inches. "155. Give (under the author) a list of the contents of books containing several works," will, wherever it shall be adopted, immensely aid students who now find it necessary to hunt through the pages of bound volumes in search of some important tract not described by any formal title.

Mr. Cutter's labors in the preparation of these Rules may be estimated when it is mentioned that his principles, suggestions, subordinate headings, and illustrative cases, number in all probability from one to two thousand.

KING AND COMMONWEALTH; a History of Charles I. and the Great Rebellion. By B. Meriton Corderey and J. Surtees Philpotts. Pp. viii., 399. Crown 8vo. Philadelphia: Jos. H. Coates & Co. It gives a large faith in the ultimate triumph of historic truth to see how the history of the period 1641-60 is now written, in contrast to the pre-Carlylian, or rather the pre-Fosterian treatment of those memorable decades. Clarendon's brilliant misrepresentations laid the bad foundation, and in spite of the efforts of Bp. Warburton, Godwin and others to correct his misstatements, his version of the story, as reproduced by Hume, Disraeli, and Southey, long retained its place as the authentic picture of the struggle by which English liberty was secured. Men whom Laud and Charles would have brought under the executioner's shears for utterance of their every-day opinions on politics or religion, looked back on Laud and Charles as martyrs for something or other very worthy of great sacrifices.

The authors of the work before us have produced a very clear and careful account of the Puritan period, which fully merits the claim to impartiality on the title-page. And their impartiality is not of the mechanical sort that scatters praise or blame with both hands; it is that of the judge who sums up both sides and pronounces without fear or favor, for one of the contestants. The net result of the whole story is laudatory of the great popular party and of its great leader Cromwell. "Those," they say, "who have interested themselves deeply in the cause of the people, must perforce judge public men by what they have done for the nation. their roll of martyrs will come not Charles, who died from reluctance to abandon boldly a prerogative which had been proved to be untenable and pernicious, but Eliot, who died [in the Tower, 1632,] in defence of the necessary rights of the Commons house, and the ransacking of whose most secret papers, has only proved more

In