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NOTES OF RARE BOOKS

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last month has called especial attention to the eighteenth century writers. It was particularly rich in original editions of Pope, Swift, Goldsmith, Gray, Prior, Burney, Boswell, and a few others. Colonel Grant was one the highest authorities in England on these authors, and was always ready to loan his books for serious editorial work. His collection was rich in presentation copies, and the prices realized at the sale is a fresh illustration of the value put upon "association books" by the collector. A few examples will suffice to indicate this upward tendency. Pope's "Dunciad," 1728, with MS. additions, £75; Boswell's "Corsica," 1768, presentation copy to David Garrick, fetched £17, while his "Tour to the Hebrides," 1785, a presentation copy, uncut, £9.15. Miss Burney's 'Evelina,” 1778, with an autograph letter inserted, realized £10. Of other notable prices realized, the following were most conspicuous: De Foe's "Fortunate Mistress," 1724, £12.15; Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," 1770, 8vo, £21; Dryden's "Oliver Cromwell," 1659, £21. The new edition of Swift's works being issued by Messrs. George Bell & Sons, and edited by Mr. Temple Scott has added much to our bibliographical knowledge of the learned and witty dean. It has settled definitely through the researches of Mr. Scott the variations and peculiarities of the early editions of "Gulliver's Travels," which has long been a puzzle to collectors. We give in brief a summary of this information that the buyer who has not yet acquired a copy of the editio princeps of this famous book may be aware, and that the owner who has already bought the wrong one may groan and lament his misfortune in placing too much confidence in his own judgment when buying his. The summary of the facts is as follows: There are three issues dated 1726; they may be designated as I, II and III. In the genuine first issue the portrait has the inscription "Captain Lemuel Gulliver, of Redriff Etat. suæ 58," in two lines under the oval, and each of the four parts have separate pagination, viz.:

Vol. I.-Portrait, general title, contents, "Publisher to the Reader." 3 leaves (A 3—A 5). Title and contents to Part I. 2 leaves (A 7 and 8), map, voyage to Lilliput, pp. 1-148 (text begins B 1 and Part I, ends on verso of L 2. Title and Contents to Part II (2 leaves), map, voyage to Brobdingnag, pp. 1-164.

Vol. II. Title to Parts III and IV, contents of Part III (2 leaves), map, voyage to Laputa, etc., etc., pp. 1-155. Title and contents to Part IV, (3 leaves), map, voyage to the Houyhnhnms, pp. 1-199. This was also issued on large paper, the number of copies being unknown.

No. II. The parts are paged separately as in No. I, but the inscription is round the oval of the portrait, thus: "Captain Lemuel Gulliver, of Redriff, Etat. suæ LVIII," and beneath are two lines in Latin from Persius. Several small differences in collation occur, viz.: "The Publisher to the Reader" begins on verso of A 2 and ends on verso of A 4. The Contents of Part I begins on verso of A 5 and ends on verso of A 6. Signature B begins at page 5 and Part I ends on verso of K 8. In the second volume Part II ends on page 154.

No. III has each volume paged continuously throughout, instead of having a separate pagination for each of the four parts. The portrait is as in No. II. The "Publisher to the Reader" begins on verso of A 2, and the contents of Part I are printed in small type on one leaf (A 6). B begins at p. 5, and Part I ends on verso of K 8. The contents of Part II are set in large type and occupy 4'pp. Part II begins at (M) p. 149 and ends at p. 310 (verso of Y 1). The first issue to have Volume II on the title is this one. Part III ends at p. 154, and Volume II ends at p. 353 (Aa 8).

A volume entitled "Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World," by Captain Lemuel Gulliver, Volume III, was issued in 1727; but it is needless to say it is a rank forgery, and should not deceive the collector. It was chiefly a translation of a book entitled "Histoire des Sevanambes," published originally in 1677-1679.

All

The publication of a new monograph by William Loring Andrews is an event in the collector's world of no mean importance. This time the book is not on an entirely new subject, although one that is creating more and more interest. the excellent printing, careful reproductions of engravings, model typography which have marked the former issues by Mr. Andrews characterize this also, although the volume is practically nothing more than a supplementary chapter to a book issued in 1893, entitled "The Bradford Map."

Mr. Andrews has made an effort in this volume to nail a mistake before it is too generally circulated, and in the process he has pinned no less an

authority than John Fiske, the noted historian. The object of this monograph is to call attention to the fact that there are only two genuine, simonpure original Bradford maps in existence (one owned by Mr. Andrews himself, and the other by the New York Historical Society), and that all the facsimile reproductions are taken from a spurious one. It is to warn the collector of this error, and to open his eyes to the fact, that this volume is published. Three facsimile maps are shown-one to show the original and the other the spurious facsimile. Of this supplementary chapter only 170 are printed on hand-made paper and 32 on Japan paper.

The Club of Odd Volumes in Boston was founded in 1887, the year after the formation of the Grolier Club in New York. Its financial success has not been as great, nor its real estate transactions so profitable; but it has always kept up a high standard in its publications, and the latest is no exception to the rule. "Early Boston Booksellers, 1642-1711," is a handsome octavo, printed on excellent paper by John Wilson & Son, of Cambridge. The author, George Emery Littlefield, is the well-known bookseller of Cornhill, a graduate of Harvard, and, if we mistake not,

one of the founders of the club. He discourses most pleasantly in the first three chapters-on "Boston in Colonial Times," "Introduction of Printing into the English Colonies," " Early American Booksellers," etc., etc.

There is much valuable information included in this volume, and in perusing it one has only a single desire, viz., that a second volume may soon follow, bringing the history at least one hundred years later. Numerous illustrations adorn the pages, as well as many facsimiles. The arrangement is chronological, beginning with Captain William Pierce and ending with John Phillips. An excellent index adds to the completeness of the book. The fact that only 150 copies were printed for members of the club, and that the book has already risen in price will be sufficient to make the collector want the volume instanter. There is much curious and interesting information tucked into these brief biographies of Boston booksellers, and the whole forms an interesting and important contribution to our knowledge of this early period of our country. The year 1711 was chosen as a limit, because in that year a fire occurred, burning out all the booksellers in the city.

Ernest Dressel North.

FIELD FLOWERS

THE simple, little wayside rose

To me is sweeter far,

And more begirt with grace, than those

From sheltered gardens are ;

And vagrant shreds of homeless song

May keener pleasures hold

Than to the grander bards belong,

Though bound in silk and gold.

-From "A Book of Verses” by Nixon Waterman. By courtesy of Messrs. Forbes & Company.

CURRENT LITERATURE

arguments of morals, of constitutional au

THE PROBLEMS OF EXPANSION thority and of expediency against this

IT

T is a striking proof of both the novelty and the complexity of the questions growing out of the war with Spain, that there is no single term under which they can be grouped clearly and fully. Mr. Whitelaw Reid's papers and addresses dealing with them have the above title. It is as good as any, but it implies that the problems have arisen from some fairly definite and conscious process of expansion in our nation. In fact they arose in the course of a practically defensive war, undertaken to suppress a dangerous nuisance at our doors, and prefaced by a solemn and sincere disclaimer of any intention to extend our sovereignty or control over the territory to which all supposed that the war should be confined.

It is Mr. Reid's view, however, that the actual expansion, though not intended or expected, or, as far as he is concerned, at first desired, has been inevitable. Holding that view, he was originally the prophet of the policy since adopted; he has had important and responsible share in shaping it, and he is now its consistent and very influential advocate. In the first of the papers included in this volume, written for The Century Magazine in the summer of 1898, before the signing of the peace protocol he wrote: "As a necessity of the position in which we find ourselves, and as a matter of national duty, we must hold Cuba, at least for a time, and till a permanent government is well established, for which we can afford to be responsible; we must hold Porto Rico; and we may have to hold the Philippines." He examined with much acuteness the

PROBLEMS OF EXPANSION. By Whitelaw Reid. The Century Co., 12mo, $1.50.

course, and it is simple justice to him to say that little has since been added very to the substance of the discussion. When he was appointed one of the Peace Commissioners at Paris, it was with full knowledge on the part of the Government that his views were those explained in this article, which was published a few days later.

Just at this time, when the course of the Administration has been proclaimed by the opposition party to be the "dominant issue" in the pending political canvass, Mr. McKinley and his associates may well be grateful for such support as they receive from Mr. Reid. But his writing is singularly free from the spirit of partizan advocacy, is especially free from the senseless abuse of opponents which partizans are often silly enough to think effective with the public, and is honestly and candidly addressed to the writer's fellow citizens, and based on what he believes to be common duties, rights and interests. In this regard Mr. Reid is entitled to much credit, and all the more because he is himself a convinced and loyal Republican, has for thirty years been the editor of a party organ, and has shared largely in the party counsels.

Mr. Reid's book should be carefully read by all who wish to understand the nature and the history of the problems of expansion, but it may be useful here to state briefly the line of his argument: We were justified in destroying the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay; we were then obliged to assume responsibility for the future of the islands as to which we had rendered Spain practically helpless; when Spain sued for peace, we could not honorably restore to her misrule the region in which

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the future and of the military and naval MRS. ISABELLA BIRD BISHOP,

establishment that might be required; having taken it, it is our duty, while utterly rejecting the notion of incorporating it in the Union in the form and with the powers of States, to govern it firmly, justly, honestly, so as to secure all the civil rights of its people and as complete political rights as they shall be found fitted to exercise. "If this be imperialism," says Mr. Reid, "make the most of it."

Personally I agree with the general reasoning of Mr. Reid, though he does not make it as clear as I should like that the good government of the Philippines and the safety of all foreign interests there could not have been provided for without our assuming complete responsibility for them, nor is it plain that any other way out was sought. Nor can I persuade myself that the argument from the constitution and the decisions of the Supreme Court for the authority to administer these new possessions is conclusive. But whether there is explicit authority or not there is the actual power such as has already repeatedly been exercised and will prove adequate for the future. Compared with the means, moral and material, that we possess for their solution, the problems of expansion now confronting us are not near so formidable or so obscure and difficult as those the nation has mastered in the past. If they were far more so than they are, no one who dreads them has yet pointed out how they may be evaded or

that veteran traveler and fund of interesting gossip concerning things in the far East, gives us in two handsome volumes the record of a trip, undertaken in 1897, extending two thousand miles up the valley of the Yangtze, the great river upon which floats down to the sea a large part of China's contribution to the commerce of the world. All of this country has been gone over before. Nevertheless, Mrs. Bishop finds much to tell that is worth telling of the present condition of this vast and wonderfully rich valley, teeming with human life, with its hundreds of cities whose very existence and names are unknown to most readers, and where the life of the " foreign devil" is even to-day not quite safe, and traveling a task to daunt all but the most determined spirits.

The length of the Yangtze is supposed to be about three thousand miles. The area of its basin already explored by white men and fairly well known, is estimated at about 650,000 square miles, with a population of no less than 180,000,000. For the first six hundred miles, from Shanghai to Hankow, it is a calm, majestic waterway; further on the rapids begin, the stream is confined between high mountains and precipices, until finally, about fifteen hundred miles from the sea,

THE YANGTZE VALLEY AND BEYOND. By Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop. With map and illustrations. G. P. Putnam's Sons, two volumes, 8vo, $6.

it becomes unnavigable, especially in the dry season. Notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers of navigation upon the upper Yangtze, beyond Hankow it is traversed annually by thousands of junks carrying valuable cargoes and employing half a million men whose work is of the hardest and miserably paid. From Hankow Mrs. Bishop made the trip practically alone, and, after reading an account of her adventures, it is safe to say that few men and no women will care to repeat it so long as the Chinese of the far interior persist in looking upon all foreigners as in league with the devil, and bent upon killing children for the purpose of using their eyes for medicinal purposes. At a thousand miles from the sea even the mandarins, supposed to be men of culture, had never heard of any countries but China, Japan and Russia. The common people believed that all the nations upon earth paid tribute to China. The vague rumors of war with Japan became tales of triumph, and all the picture shops sold representations of the final annihilation of the Japanese army and navy.

It is probable that Mrs. Bishop rather underestimates the hardships of her trip She speaks of appalling discomforts as adding merely to the interest of her story. Thus in almost every city of the real interior, beyond the influence of foreign consuls, it was only with difficulty that she could obtain lodging at the inns or even food for herself and the seven native servants she employed to carry her open sedan chair and act as guards. The hatred of the foreigner seems to be as inbred as it is inexplicable among these peaceable, industrious and highly worthy people. The missionaries have done wonders in the way of establishing schools and hospitals, always at personal risk and discomforts of which we can form but a faint conception, and yet right within the sphere of their benevolent activity the

native distrust and dislike of all foreigners remains smouldering, to break out every few years with horrible results. Even when a Chinaman accepts medical or surgical aid that he sorely needs he does it under protest. Mrs. Bishop tells the story of a blind beggar, whose cataract had been successfully removed, insisting upon a large compensation because his means of livelihood-begginghad been taken away from him!

Among the discomforts of the trip, the overcrowding at the inns, the awful stenches, the impossible food, dwindle in significance as compared with the vermin, the impossibility of keeping warm, and the constant discourtesy, if not abuse. Mrs. Bishop admits that much of this illwill arose from the fact that she was a woman. According to Chinese ideas no respectable woman ever travels. The fact that she was a lone, strange woman far from home indicated viciousness or worse; moreover she could write, for they saw her taking notes, and no respectable woman knew how to write; furthermore she used a diabolical instrument for making magic pictures, and nothing was more certain than that every person whose picture was thus obtained would die within a year. Perhaps we might not make it pleasant for a person who so outraged all our ideas of propriety. Certainly the Chinese of the upper Yangtze really did not make it pleasant for Mrs. Bishop. In every inn her private room was the centre of attraction. If the partitions. were of wood, every crack had a long row of eyes glued to it; if the walls were of plaster, scores of holes were quickly made. As fast as a curtain was hung over one set of holes another set appeared, perhaps on the other side of the room. This was particularly annoying when the traveler wished to have complete darkness in order to develop her negatives, and Mrs. Bishop attributes the "fogged" condition of some

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