Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

The Geological Society has resolved that the annual contribution to be paid by both resident and non-resident Fellows elected after the 1 st instant shall ie £ 2 2 s . per annum ; the composition for future annual contributions being £ 21 . An Industrial collection , on the plan of the South Kensington Museum , has been formed at Lausanne , in Switzerland . In

the list of donors are some English names , among others that of Mr . Layard , who has contributed a Babylonian brick with cuneiform inscription . A second part of the Liber Symnorum—the Book of Ancient Irish Hymns—edited by the Rev . Dr . Todd , will be published shortly by the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society .

Among the promised contributions to the Exhibition from Australia is an obelisk , which is intended to represent the total amount of gold exported from that country to England during the past ten years . The obelisk will be ten feet square at the base , and forty-two feet high . These dimensions in solid gold are equivalent to 800 tons , or one hundred and four millions of

pounds sterling , which is the amount reeceived from Australia since 1851 . About £ 500 has been collected in Paisley for the erection of a monument to Alexander Wilson , tbe ornithologist . Wilson was born in Paisley in 1766 , worked there as a weaver , then tramped round the countryside as a pedlar , and in 1794

emigrated to America , where he made his fame as a naturalist , and died in Philadelphia in 1 S 13 . The authorities of the South Kensington Museum are moving j with great energy to establish an additional attraction to their department during the extra coucourse in London for the International Exhibition . A large and recently-constructed court in their new building will be devoted to the display of various objects of art , to be lent for the occasion from some of the

richest and most celebrated private collections m this country . Efforts are being made to get up an Art-Exhibition of an interesting character at Bristol , the displays in that city having been of late hardly equal to the ancient fame , wealth and population of the place . We trust- ample success will accrue to the public-spirited attempt . An Account of the Sandwich Islands by Mr . Manley Hopkins ,

the British Consul-General therein , is in preparation entitled Hawaii , its Past , Present , and Future . This small and distant Archipelago of the North Pacific Ocean is interesting in many aspects . To the ethnologist , as the extreme north-western limit of the great Turanian division of mankind ; to the naturalist , as exhibiting the most active volcanic agencies in the world ; to

the historical student , as developing the entire biography of a people in a period of eighty years , in which it his emerged from complete savagery to civilization ; to the mercantile community , as being the centre and stepping-stone of the increasing commerce which crosses the waste of waters between the eastern nnd western worlds—the " pivot islands" of the Pacific , as the

Americans say ; to the young , as the scene of their hero Cook ' s final discoveries ancl of his death ; ancl to the Churchman , as being the scene of the latest mission undertaken to promulgate his faith . A volume of travels , by Mr . R . Clements Markham , among the Andes of Peru , in search of the cinchona bark , and among the

Neilgherrie Hills of Southern India , whilst superintending its planting there will he published shortly . The cinchona tree produces the Peruvian or Jesuit bark , from which quinine is distilled . A few years ago all cinchona was derived from Peru , hut the Dutch have introduced tbe tree to Java , and have more than 100 , 000 growing . It has rooted with great success in Neilgherrie Hills , and it is now proposed to form plantations in Ceylon .

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

Messrs . AVertheim , Mackintosh , and Hunt , have in the press a People ' s Common Prayer-booTc , containing the Morning and Evening Services , Litany , Communion , Canticles pointed , & c , arranged as they are gone straight through in public worship . This prayer-book will be sold for 2 d ., and will be of great use to children and simple people who cannot find their way among the leaves of the complete hook .

We are sorry to hear that the quarterly Index to Current Literature , started some two years since for indexing newspapers and magazine articles , as well as titles of new books , has come to a standstill . It was a most useful publication , and like that remarkable index volume to Notes and Queries , containing some 50 , 000 references upon every conceivable subject , could

never be consulted without contributing at least some portion of knowledge upon the subject under inquiry . The new weekly journal , Public Opinion , we note , has just commenced an " Index to the London Press" giving the titles or subjects of all the leading articles in the London daily and weekly journals . Messrs . Tinsley Brothers will start , in April , a two -penny monthly , called The Library Circular of New and Second-hand Books . It will give a list of all books expected in the course of the new month , a summary of the contents of the leading books

published in the past month , and a list of new and second-hand books suited for circulating libraries of every description . Curiously enough , Mr . Mudie and Messrs . Tinsley each advertises new periodicals with the same purpose ancl the same title —The Library Circular . One or other must make a change Sir George Grey , Governor of the Cape Colony , has made a present of his valuable collection of books and manuscripts to

the South African Library , Cape Town . Every admirer of old carving will hear with regret that the beautiful works filling up the spandrels over the wall-arcade that runs round the east end and its transepts of AVorcester Cathedral have been re-touched with so ruthless a chisel that all their former beauty of execution had been destroyed . These

carvings were amongst the most admirable in the country , being remarkable for- fine and graceful treatment of drapery , which throughout had that peculiar flow and elegance which , distinguish the best ages of Gothic sculpture and mark the intense love of his work which the carver had . They displayed finish without toilsomeness , conventionality without stiffness , natural ease ancl mastery of beautiful form . Now their place is taken by the poor and forced feeling for form in which some mechanical carver has re-cut them .

Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

The Editor is not responsible for the opinions expressed by Correspondents . SCOTCH FREEMASONRY . TO TUB EDITOE OP THE rREESIASOlTS' MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIBEOK . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —Seeing that your excellent MAGAZINE is often referred to as an authority in Masonic

matters under dispute , it is right that every opportunity should be afforded you of amending any statements , editorial or contributed , which might , however far from the intention of the writer , be calculated in any measure to convey erroneous impressions or partial information in regard to the subjects treated in your pages . With the view , then of humbly aiding in the endeavour to

make the FREEMASNS' MAGAZINE what it ought to be , viz : —the instructor and pride of British Craftsmen , I beg to draw your attention to one or two items for correction , unimportant and trifling in themselves ,, no