and German arranged under countries and provided with a full index, besides suggestions under each country. Charles Gross's Sources and Literature of English History from the earliest times to about 1485 (London, 1900) is a critical and analytical guide to British history arranged in four main divisions of which the first is a classified list of general authorities for the period embraced in the volume. Each division is sub-divided into twelve chapters and again into seventy-two sections, the whole comprising 3,234 references with index and appendices. A comparison of the chief works and authorities in general annotation precedes each section. Manuel de bibliographe historique by C. V. Langlois (Paris, 1901), originally published in 1896, gives a careful, systematic and critical account of the chief bibliographical works of authority. An exhaustive and annotated work on American history representing an enormous amount of condensed knowledge and criticism is The Literature of American History edited by J. N. Larned (Boston, 1902).

PERIODICALS,

The contents of the more important periodicals from the year 1802 to 1881, with five-yearly supplements up to 1907, have been indexed by W. F. Poole and W. I. Fletcher. The Review of Reviews issued an annual index to periodicals from the year 1890 to 1902. As distinguished from the indexes to articles contained in periodicals we have a guide to the periodicals themselves in J. D. Brown's Classified List of Current Periodicals:

a

Guide to the Selection of Magazine Literature. (London, 1904), which is designed to assist in the selection of periodicals in general, while technical periodicals from 1665 to 1882 have been collected

together by H. C. Bolton in his Catalogue of Technical Periodicals (Washington, 1887).

WORKS OF REFERENCE.

As to reference books the best handbook is perhaps Alice B. Kroeger's classified and annotated Guide to the Study and Use of Reference Books. Though rather American in its selection, it contains a good number of British publications. A second edition, including more reference books and an index of twentyseven pages in triple columns, was published in 1908. The Library Association has been publishing annually a Class List of Best Books. Older works may be traced in the British Museum List of Books of Reference in the Reading-Room (London, 1889. Fourth edition, 2 vols., 1910). Pitman's Where to Look is a convenient guide to the contents of annuals and similar periodical publications.

TRADE BIBLIOGRAPHIES.

Nor should mention of some of the trade bibliographies be neglected. For English books we have almost a continuous record from the year 1595 when a Catalogue of English Printed Books was published by A. Maunsell. This was followed by Jaggard's Catalogue of English Bookes (1618-19) which again was supplemented by a Catalogue of Certaine Books (162631). Then appeared a Catalogue of the most Vendible Books in England by W. London (1658-60). Robert Clavell published his Term Catalogues yearly from 1666 to 1709. There were also a General Catalogue of Books printed in England, 1666-95, and a General Catalogue of Books in all Languages, 1700-86 (Bent : London, 1786). These again have been supplemented by various issues down to 1839 as the London Catalogue

and continued by Hodgson from 1814-55. From 1837 to 1852 was published the British Catalogue by Low, and the same publisher has issued the present English Catalogue of Books with its various cumulative and other indexes from 1835 to date. These, as may easily be inferred, do not afford any hint as to the relative values of books, but show what books have been published in England by the larger firms, the publications of the less known publishers being constantly omitted. A note on the past and present of the English Catalogue will be found in the issue for 1907. It should, however, be remembered that the published prices of old books are now comparatively useless. For really reliable standards of prices one must look to those annually given in such compilations as the Book Prices Current which is a record of the prices at which books have been sold at auction from 1888 to date. An index to the work is

issued every ten years. The Reference Catalogue of Current Literature has been issued by Whitaker every few- about six-years since 1874. It is a collection of the catalogues of the principal publishers bound together with an author, title and subject-index in one alphabet. Consisting as it does only of books which are still in print, it is useful in shewing what literature on a subject is in the current market. The corresponding American publication is the Publishers' TradeList Annual which, however, has no index, while for France and Germany we have Lorenz's Catalogue de la libraire française from 1840 and Hinrich's Bucher Katalog from 1856, respectively.

LIBRARY CATALOGUES.

The catalogues of some of the more important libraries also render help to a large extent. Fortescue's

five volumes of Subject-Index of the Modern Works added to the Library of the British Museum (1881-1910) and Wright's Subject-Index of the London Library (1909) are excellent guides to modern literature. It is to be hoped that all the large libraries will, at no distant date, furnish their catalogues with adequate annotations like the Classified Catalogue of the Carnegie Library at Pittsburgh (5 vols., 1907-8)-which is an excellent descriptive guide to American literature-and the Descriptive Catalogue of the Bishopsgate Institute by C. W. F. Goss (1901).

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARIES.

Works like the Dictionary of National Biography, Green's History of the English People and Brewer's Handbook contain valuable bibliographies. Of the various national bibliographies Courtenay's work has been described as complete and exact. Among bibliographical dictionaries we have, of course, Adam Clarke's and Robert Watt's. A word as to the latter compiler. Robert Watt was a poor surgeon of Paisley, who sacrificed twenty years of arduous labour in compiling the Bibliotheca Britannica. It is an elaborate catalogue, in no way critical, mainly of British literature, though a few foreign works are included, arranged in two indexes--one of authors' names and the other of titles of books. The index of authors is really little more than a magnified bookseller's catalogue, and the author's predilection for science led him, not always wisely, to supply separately the titles of all papers contributed to transactions of scientific society. The history of the work is full of a series of disasters. The author died when the printing of the MS. had just begun. His two sons undertook to see the work

through the press and one of them died while most of the sheets were yet in proof. A portion of the MS. was then burnt by burglars, but the surviving son managed to repair the damage, saw the whole in type and sold the copies and all his rights in them to Archibald Constable and Co., the Edinburgh publishers, and Sir Walter Scott's partners. He received in payment bills of the nominal value of £2,000, but when the bills fell due they were dishonoured. Neither the author nor his family thus received a single penny in exchange for their self-denying industry and Watt's last surviving daughter died in a Glasgow workhouse! It is nearly ninety years since the last part of Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica was published, but the fact that it now fetches from £6 to £8 when it figures in public sales, is proof that it has at length achieved public estimation.

JUVENILE WORKS.

It only remains to be added that children and women will find good guides in John F. Sargent's Reading for the Young (Boston, Young (Boston, 1890, supplement, 1896), C. M. Hewin's Books for Boys and Girls (1897) and A. H Leypoldt and G. Iles's List of Books for Girls and Women and their Clubs (Boston, 1895). The ast contains 2,100 entries, embracing the principal departments of literature and science and dealing at considerable length with fiction. The notes are businesslike characterisations of the books from the standpoint of a kind and intelligent teacher, and are at once descriptive and critical and accompanied by tactful hints as to methods of study with warnings against pitfalls.

E. W. MADGE and K. N. DHAR, M.A.