Masonic Notes And Queries.

-a . BOOKWORM . —[ We have handed your query to Bro . Matthew Cooke , and subjoin his reply . " Dear Sir and Bro . Thank you and your correspondent for calling my attention to the paragraph enclosed , and permit me to say , Bro . Morris knows nothing about the book in question . The plain facts are these . It is a little treatise on the origin and laws , of Masonry , and the substance of it has appeared in various

forms for the last hundred years , so that there is no novelty about it . But when Bro . Morris says he translated it in 1853 , I beg to state that such an assertion is wholly devoid of any foundation in truth . In the first place as it is in English , it does not require translation ; and secondly , the British Museum only acquired it , by purchase , ten months since . Inside tho ¦ cover , Sir Frederic Madden , the keeper of the MSS . in that

Institution , has inscribed these words : — 'Purchd . of Mrs . Caroline Baker , 14 th Oct . 1859 . ' The reason it has been delayed is owing to the necessity of some portions of the type having to be engraved specially , but that is now fast approaching completion . If Bro . Morris will look with interest for its appearance , he will perhaps be somewhat disappointed , for the agent of one of the largest New York publishing houses has agreed with me for the revised sheets , so that it will be ready in America as soon as here , and what is still move to the purpose , he will pay liberally for them . —MATTHEW COOKE . ]

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

A posthumous work of the late Mr . Albert Smith , Mr . dough's epitome of Greek history , and a new pamphlet on the Shakespeare-Collier question , are among the publications that save the past week from being considered a perfect blank , in a literary point of view .

Messrs . Atcbley and Co . are publishing an important work , entitled " British Agriculture , " by Mr . John Donaldson , the Government Land Drainage Surveyor and eminent agricultural writer , whose works , from the Treatise on Manures and Grasses , issued in 18-1-2 , to his Agricultural Biography in 1851 , have placed him in the first rank of authors on agriculture . Mr . Donaldson ' s new work will contain -. The cultivation , of land , management of crops ,

and the economy of animals , tables for purchasing es tates , delapiclatious , valuations , rents and tillage , farm agreements , & e ., & c , a number of illustrations of cattle , implem ents , buildings , grasses , & c , giving all the improvements in the cultivation of the soil to the present time . The Forth British Review has very recently changed bands ' ; the

new prospectus says : — "The North British Review will be , in the main , a literary journal . In every department of literature and science it will seek the contributions of the writers most conversant with the several subjects , and best qualified to guide public opinion upon them . On social and political questions it will be devoted to the maintenance of liberal principles , and endeavour to advance the cause of progress in harmony with the permanent

order and benefit of society . Though not a theological journal , it will occasionally address itself to theological subjects , maintaining the cause of evangelical Christianity in opposition to the various phases of infidelity aud error . It will be the aim . of its conductors to view all the subjects treated of in their highest relations . " Messrs . Longman have in preparation a work to be entitled "Facts and Figures relating to Vancouver ' s Island and British

Columbia , showing what to expect and how to get there . " The author is no less a person than the acting Surveyor-general of Vancouver ' s Island and British Columbia , Mr . J . Despard Pemberton , so that the public may reckon on an accurate , authentic , and authoritative statement . Mr . "W . Pordyce ' s exhaustive history of Coal and Iron , and the

processes connected with their elaboration in Great Britain , Prance , Belgium , & e ., is promised for iinmmediate publication . Mr . Murray is preparing for publication a new work by Pi-Maine , to be entitled "Ancient law , its connection with the Early History of Society , and its relation to Modern Ideas . " Dr . Maine , we need scarcel y say , is now Reader in Jurisprudence and Civil Law at the University of Cambridge .

Messrs . Longman will publish in October "A Second Series of Observations in Surgery , " by Mr . Travers , formerly resident assistant-surgeon at St . Thomas ' s Hospital , & c . The volume will comprise remarks on . obscure forms of hip injuries , on the treatment of boil and carbuncle , on hernia , on diseases and amputation of the female breast , & o . Messrs . Blackwood have in preparation a new issue of the

library edition of Sir Archibald Alison ' s "History of Europe from the Prencb Revolution to the Battle of "Waterloo , " in fourteen volumes . Messrs . Longman will publish , in August tlte second of their " Graduated Series of Five Reading-Lesson Books , for all classes in English schools . " Book the second will contain tales of

adventure , imaginative and real , and anecdotes in natural liistory . Messrs . Edmondstone and Douglass have in preparation a careful contribution to Scottish genealogical literature— "The Law and Practice of Heraldry in Scotland . " The author is Mr . George Seton , advocate , already known by his " History of the Parochial Records of Scotland . "

Mr . Charles Darwin ' s theories on the origin of species are about to be submitted to another and searching dissection . " Species not Transvmitable" is the title of a new work from the pen of Dr . C . R . Bree , F . L . S ., & c , preparing for publication . Mr . Murray is preparing for publication a volume of discourses delivered by Dr . Thomson , Chaplain in ordinary to the Queen , and

Provost of Queen ' s College , Oxford , in his capacity of Preacliet- to the Society of Lincoln ' s Inn . It will be entitied " Lincoln's Inn Sermons . " An historical memoir of " The Greatest of the Plantagenets , "

award I ., is promised . The author is Mr . Edmund Cbftord . A " History of England , " by the Rev . J . White , ' so well known by his popular historical manuals , is one of the most welcome of new announcements . The Rov . P . D . Maurice's contributions to the " Encyclopaedia Metropolitana" on Modern Philosophy are to be published in a collected form .

A new edition of Dean Dawes' ( of Hereford ) excellent and successful " Suggestive Hints towards Improved Secular Instruction " is in preparation . A work with an attractive title , " Shakespeare and his Birthplace , " by Mr . John R . Wise , is among the forthcoming publications .

The poem in praise of the late Prince Jerome , which was given as a task of rhetoric in the Paris schools , has produced a sort of strike among the pupils , many of whom refused to recite it . The Crowninshield Collection of Books and MSS ., the major part of which was consigned from Boston , U . S ., for sale in this country , has been dispersed by auction by Messrs . Puttiek and Simpson .

The Royal Library at Berlin has published in the Government papers , a list of the acquisitions it made and presents it received in the course of last year . Among them the Seharnhorst and Pischhof Collections take the first place . Tho Schariihorst collection of maps , which the late General , during his stay in almost all countries of Europe had amassed with love and care , consists of 36 , 000 numbers , it was always Scharnhorst ' s lively wish to see them placed in

the Royal Library . They were purchased by order of the King ; completed by the Kloden Collection , which contained 10 , 108 numbers j and after having been kept for a time in the Castle of Bellevue , they were at last removed , and united with the Royal collection of maps in the northern wing of the building . The yearly amount of 500 thalers has been fixed for the increase of this

important branch of the Library . The second valuable acquisition is the musical collection of the late Professor at the Conservatory at Vienna , Joseph Fischhof ; it consists of 3 , 978 numbers , mostly pieces which the Royal Library did not possess before , and which complete the Royal Collections in the most desirable manner . Mr . Elwyn states , that of the sixteen additional foundation scholarships which the governors of Charterhouse School have