the hammer by Maximilian's relatives," and yet at the same time be sold for the "benefit of two bookselling firms," who actually bought it as a speculation, passes our comprehension.

The disposal of the books after their purchase by the two "bookselling firms" seems to have been under no other restriction than the will of the owners. As a proof of this, one of the two firms sold out its interest to a third speculator.

After this it became a matter of interest to bring the two portions of the library together and sell the whole at auction. This was done, and the profit resulting from the sale went into the pockets of the speculators and not into those of the "imperial relatives," who, according to Mr. Trubner, "put it under the hammer."

Perhaps the "little more" would point to Andrade as the person who sold the books to the two firms, thus leaving the agency of Maximilian's relatives entirely out of the question-unless, possibly, Mr. Trubner supposes Andrade to be a very distant relative.

With regard to the other point cavilled at by Mr. Sabin," we content ourselves by a reference to the article in question, with the remark, which might have been added, that many of the rarest books were bought for American collectors. If the library had been sold here, we can confidently assert that the very rarest volumes would never have left the country, and Europeans might have. been compelled to satisfy themselves with much less than Americans secured at the late sale. European collectors had the advantage of seeing the books, but American collectors 'could only send conjectural bids.

The insinuation of plagiarism at the end of Mr. Trubner's article may pass for what it is worth.

VALDARFER BOCCACCIO.

In correcting a mistake in the last BIBLIOPOLIST -Valdarfer was printed "Valdefar," and the price, instead of £2,250, should have been £2,260-we take the opportunity of reprinting the account of its sale given in the BOOK HUNTER, by J. Hill Burton, who, as will be seen, quotes largely from the lengthy but spirited account by Dibdin :

"Conspicuous beyond all others stands. forth the sale of the Roxburghe library, perhaps the most eminent contest of that kind on record. There were of it some ten thousand separate 'lots,' as auctioneers call

them, and almost every one of them was a book of rank and mark in the eyes of the collecting community, and had been, with special pains and care and anxious exertion, drawn into the vortex of that collection. Although it was created by a Duke, yet it has been rumored that most of the books were bargains, and that the noble collector drew largely on a spirit of patient_perseverance and enlightened sagacity. The great passion and pursuit of his life having been of so peculiar a character-he was almost as zealous a hunter of deer and wild swans, by the way, as of books, but this was not considered in the least peculiar.

"Scott attributed to an incidental occurrence at his father's table the direction given to the great pursuit of his life. 'Lord Oxford and Lord Sunderland, both famous collectors of the time, dined one day with the second Duke of Roxburghe, when their conversation happened to turn upon the editio princeps of Boccaccio, printed in Venice in 1471, and so rare that its very existence was doubted of.' It so happened that the Duke remembered this volume having been offered to him for £100, and he believed he could still trace and secure it: he did so, and laid it before his admiring friends at a subsequent sitting. His son, then Marquess of Beaumont, never forgot the little scene upon this occasion, and used to ascribe to it the strong passion which he ever afterwards felt for rare books and editions, and which rendered him one of the most assiduous and judicious collectors that ever formed a sumptuous library." And this same Boccaccio was the point of attack which formed the climax in the great contest of the Roxburghe roup, as the Duke's fellow-countrymen called it.

"But the dignity and power of the historian's narrative cannot be fully appreciated until we find him in the midst of the climax of the contest-the battle, which gradually merged into a single combat, for the posses sion of the Venetian Boccaccio. According to the established historical practice, we have in the first place a statement of the position taken up by the respective forces."

"At length the moment of sale arrived. Evans prefaced the putting-up of the article by an appropriate oration, in which he expatiated on its extreme rarity, and concluding by informing the company of the regret,

Article on Pitcairn's Criminal Trials in the 21t vol. of Miscellaneous Prose Works.

and even anguish of heart, expressed by Mr. Van Praet that such a treasure was not to be found in the Imperial collection at Paris. Silence followed the address of Mr. Evans. On his right hand, leaning against the wall, stood Earl Spencer; a little lower down, and standing at right angles with his Lordship, appeared the Marquess of Blandford. Lord Althorp stood a little backward, to the right of his father, Earl Spencer.'

"The first movement of the forces gives the historian an opportunity of dropping a withering sneer at an unfortunate man, so provincial in his notions as to suppose that a hundred pounds or two would be of any avail in such a contest.

""The honor of firing the first shot was due to a gentleman of Shropshire, unused to this species of warfare, and who seemed to recoil from the reverberation of the report himself had made. 'One hundred guineas,' he exclaimed. Again a pause ensued; but anon the biddings rose rapidly to five hundred guineas. Hitherto, however, it was evident that the firing was but masked and desultory. At length all random shots ceased, and the champions before named stood gallantly up to each other, resolving not to flinch from a trial of their respective strengths. A thousand guineas were bid by Earl Spencer-to which the Marquess added ten. You might have heard a pin drop. All eyes were turned-all breathing well nigh stopped-every sword was put

home within its scabbard-and not a piece of steel was seen to move or to glitter except that which each of these champions brandished in his valorous hand.'

"But even this exciting sort of narrative will tire one when it goes on page after page, so that we must take a leap to the conclusion. 'Two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds,' said Lord Spencer. The spectators were now absolutely electrified. The Marquess quietly adds his usual ten,' and so there an end. 'Mr. Evans, ere his hammer fell, made a short pause-and indeed, as if by something preternatural, the ebony instrument itself seemed to be charmed or suspended in the mid air. However, at last down dropped the hammer.'

"Such a result naturally created excitement beyond the book-collectors' circle, for here was an actual stroke of trade in which a profit of more than two thousand per cent. had been netted. It is easy to believe in Dibdin's statement of the crowds of people who imagined they were possessors of the identical Venetian Boccaccio, and the still larger number who wanted to do a stroke of business with some old volume, endowed with the same rarity and the same or greater intrinsic value. The general excitement created by the dispersal of the Roxburghe collection proved an epoch in literary history, by the establishment of the Roxburghe Club, followed by a series of others, the history of which has to be told farther on.

than historical. But when we consider the comparatively recent growth of the science. of physical geography, the limited literature of the subject becomes the less surprising.

xvi., 443.

The country included in what is properly called the Msssissippi Valley is so vast and so singular, that it is, perhaps, not remarkable that its literature is not equally extensive. The contributions to its physical history and geography may be comprised under the names of Abbot, Ellet, Humphrey,

In the present work, the author seems to have availed himself of the researches made by most of his predecessors in the same field of inquiry. These advantages, combined with the result of numerous explorations and many years' study, have given us a "series of graphic sketches of the great phenomena of the region under consideration, in a form which should interest and instruct the general reader, and, at the same time, explain

those natural laws to whose operation these phenomena are due." In this respect the author has succeeded, for we ourselves—one of the "general readers"-have derived much satisfaction from a careful perusal.

The chapters on the Origin of Prairies. are especially interesting, as treating of a question as yet undecided. The theory presented seems, to our unscientific minds, a very probable one, as well in its application to the great western plains as to like physical formations all over the world.

We think the author falls into an error in claiming for the generalizations of Blodget a priority as compared with those of Volney. Volney's work was published in 1804, translated in 1805, and reprinted in 1822, while Blodget's Climatology was not published till 1857. This is a small matter, but we believe Mr. Russell has very properly credited Volney with these early generalizations.

In the chapter on Trees, the author exhibits a thorough knowledge of their uses, and a love for them which is truly delightful to see. Their wholesale and indiscriminate destruction is very justly censured, and when we consider that, as the author says, "forests exert, in the interior of continents, an influence like that of the sea on the climate of

islands-both water the soil, and thereby insure its fertility," their preservation cannot be too strongly urged.

Of the Geology, which occupies three chapters, it is needless to speak but as adding another to the works Mr. Foster has so ably performed in this department of science. The description of Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior is particularly worthy of attention.

Observations on the Influence of Climate on Man, Origin of Civilization, and Progress of Development, occupy the remaining chapters, and afford new light and information on these interesting topics.

Remarks concerning the "Mound Builders," we think, controvert successfully Mr. Bancroft's statement (History of the U.S., vol. iii., chap. 22), that "the Mississippi Valley has no monuments," by pointing out the location of many, and demonstrating that their builders must have been of a race far superior to the present in the arts of civilization.

It only remains to add that the work is a credit alike to its author and his publishers. The type is the old style, printed on good paper, and not crowded. Besides the illustrations, the volume has a very complete Index.

["The etymology of the word Buccaneer (says the Edinburgh Encyclopedia) has been traced by Oxmelin, to a custom which prevailed among the original inhabitants of the Caribee Islands, of roasting their prisoners of war upon frames of clay placed over very strong fires. These clay frames were called barbacoa; the place where they were erected BOUCAN, and the operation boucaner, to roast and smoke. What these savages did to their unfortunate prisoners, the hunters practiced on the animals slain in the chase, and from the practice they derived their name."

Another authority (Richardson) quotes as follows: "Boucan, a wooden gridiron, whereon cannibals broyle pieces of men and other flesh." (Cotgrave.) "Menage considers the words Boucan, Boucuner

to be Caribee Indian; and that hence Boucnier, or Buccanier, applied to pirates or freebooters, living like wild Indian cannibals, is derived."]

Cannibals. Your correspondent W. (Vol. i., p. 186) will find the origin of this word in Stillingfleet's Origines Sacra, Part II., Book i. c. i., where there are traced the gradations observed by travellers in the savagery of the several natives of America. Has it been recorded of any people in Europe, Asia, or Africa, that they were addicted to the practice of scalping? T. J.

Practice of Scalping.-Your correspondent T. J. will find in Mr. Layard's Nineveh and its Remains (vol. ii. p. 374), the following note:

"The Scythians scalped and flayed their enemies, and used their skins as horse trappings."-Herod iv. 64. G. R.

Greenock.

Scalping.-Perhaps your correspondent T. J. (vol. ii. p. 12) may recollect the allusion to "scalping" in Psalm lxviii. 21, upon which verse an argument has been based in favour of the supposition, that the aborigines of America are derived from the ten tribes of Israel. J. SANSOM.

Allusion in Peter Martyr.-Mr. Prescott, in his History of the Conquest of Mexico, vol. i., p. 389 (ed. 8vo 1843), quotes from Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 1. c. 1, the words, "Una illis fuit spes salutis, desperasse de salute," applied to the Spanish invaders of Mexico; and he remarks that "it is said with the classic energy of Tacitus." The expression is classical, but is not derived from Tacitus. The allusion is to the verse of Virgil::

"Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem."

En. ii. 354.

L.

Stars and Stripes of the American Arms. -What is the origin of the American arms, viz., stars and stripes? JARLTZBERG.

"Speak the Tongue that Shakspeare spoke."-Can you inform me of the author's name who says:

"They speak the tongue that Shakspeare spoke,

The faith and morals hold that Milton held," &c.? and was it applied to the early settlers of New England? X.

Practice of Scalping amongst the Scythians -Scandinavian Mythology.—In Vol. i.,

p. 12, I desired to be informed whether this practice has prevailed amongst any people besides the American Indians. As you have established no rule against an inquirer's replying to his own Query, (though, unfortun-. ately for other inquirers, self-imposed by some of your correspondents) I shall avail myself of your permission, and refer those who are interested in the subject to Herodotus, Melpomene 64, where they will find that the practice of scalping prevailed amongst the Scythians. This coincidence of hypothesis that America was peopled originmanners serves greatly to corroborate the ally from the northern parts of the old con

tinent. He has recorded also their horrid custom of drinking the blood of their enemies, and making drinking vessels of their skulls, reminding us of the war-song of the savage of Louisiana :

"

"I shall devour their (my enemies') hearts, dry their flesh, drink their blood; I shall tear off their scalps, and make cups of their skulls." (Bossu s Travels.) "Those, says this traveller through Louisiana, "who think the Tartars have chiefly furnished America with inhabitants, seem to have hit the true opinion; you cannot believe how great the resemblance of the Indian manners is to those of the ancient Scythians; it is found in their religious ceremonies, their customs, and in their food. Hornius is full of characteristics that may satisfy your curiosity

in this respect, and I desire you to read him. '—Vol.

i., p. 400.

:

But the subject of the "Origines Americana" is not what I now beg to propose for consideration it is the tradition-falsifying assertion of Mr. Grenville Pigott, in his Manual of Scandinavian Mythology (as quoted by D'Israeli in the Amenities of English Literature, vol. i., pp. 51, 52), that the custom with which the Scandinavians were long reproached, of drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, has no other foundation than a blunder of Olaus Wormius, who, translating a passage in the death-song of Regner Lodbrog,—

"Soon shall we drink out of the curved trees of the head,"

turned the trees of the head into a skull, and the skull into a hollow cup; whilst the Scald merely alluded to the branching horns, growing as trees from the heads of animals, that is, the curved horns which formed their drinking cups. T. J.

Mrs. Partington.-Where may I find the original Mrs. Partington, whose maltreatment of the Queen's English maketh the newspapers so witty and merry in these dull days? IGNORANS.

Mrs. Partington (Vol. ii., p. 377).—IGNORANS no doubt refers to the oft-repeated allusion to "Dame Partington and her mop;" and taking it for granted that he does so, I will enlighten him a little on the subject. The "original Mrs. Partington" was a respectable old lady, living at Sidmouth in Devonshire: her cottage was on the beach, and during an awful storm (that, I think, of Nov. 1824, when some fifty or sixty ships were wrecked at Plymouth) the sea rose to such a height as every now and then to invade the old lady's place of domicile: in fact, almost every wave dashed in at the door. Mrs. Partington, with such help as she could command, with mops and brooms, as fast as the water entered the house, mopped it out again, until at length the waves had the mastery, and the dame was compelled to retire to an upper story of the house. I well recollect reading in the Devonshire newspapers of the time an account

similar to the above: but the first allusion to the circumstance was, I think, made by Lord Brougham in his celebrated speech in the House of Commons on the Reform Bill, in which he compared the Conservative opposition to the bill to be like the opposition of "Dame Partington and her mop, who endeavoured to mop out the waves of the Atlantic." ROBERT COLE.

Mrs. Partington. Mr. Greene, the witty editor of the Boston (N. E.) Post, is believed to be the original of Mrs. Partington: at least he fathers all her sayings. He began to print them about twelve or fifteen years ago. G. M. B.

[G. M. B. has also kindly forwarded to us some of "Mrs. Partington's Queries," from a recent number of the Boston Post, from which we select a couple of specimens, viz. :

"Whether the Emperor of China is a porcelain statue or a mere fiction?''

"Is the Great Seal alive, or only stuffed?'']

Mrs. Partington (Vol. ii., pp. 377, 411). -In the Rev. Sydney Smith's speech at Taunton, on the Lords' rejection of the Reform Bill, October, 1831, is this passage:

"The attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of reform, reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that town-the tide rose to an incredible height-the waves rushed in upon the houses, and everything was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Partington's spirit was up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest.'

This speech is reprinted in the collected editions of Sydney Smith's Works. Unless an allusion to Mrs. Partington of a prior date to October, 1831, is produced, we may fairly consider that the celebrity of that lady is owing to Sydney Smith.

I doubt if Lord Brougham ever alluded to Mrs. Partington. Certain it is he never made any speech in the House of Commons on the Reform Bill, as he was raised to the peerage some months before that bill was brought forward. C. H. COOPER.