NOTES ON NEWSPAPERS: "THE TIMES," DAILY PRESS, ETC. A newspaper, rightly conducted, is a potent power in promoting the well-being of universal man. It is also a highly moral power—for it quickens mind everywhere, and puts in force those principles which tend to lessen human woe, and to exalt and dignify our common humanity. The daily press, for the most part, aims to correct error—whether... more...

Notes on Midland County Minstrelsy. It has often occurred to me that the old country folk-songs are as worthy of a niche in your mausoleum as the more prosy lore to which you allot a separate division. Why does not some one write a Minstrelsy of the Midland Counties? There is ample material to work upon, and not yet spoiled by dry-as-dust-ism. It would be vain, perhaps, to emulate the achievements of... more...

CURIOUS OLD PAMPHLET. Grubbing among old pamphlets, the following has turned up: "A Fragment of an Essay towards the most ancient Histories of the Old and New Worlds, connected. Intended to be carried on in four Parts or Æras. That is, from the Creation of all Things to the Time of the Deluge: thence to the Birth of Abraham: from that Period to the Descent of Jacob and his Family into Egypt: and,... more...

A PROPHET. What a curious book would be "Our Prophets and Enthusiasts!" The literary and biographical records of the vaticinators, and the heated spirits who, after working upon the fears of the timid, and exciting the imaginations of the weak, have flitted into oblivion! As a specimen of the odd characters such a work would embrace, allow me to introduce to your readers Thomas Newans, a... more...

THE RELIGION OF THE RUSSIANS. Public attention being very particularly directed towards the Russian nation at the present time, a few remarks regarding some peculiarities in their manner of worship, &c., which probably are not generally known, may be interesting. I have been for some time past endeavouring to determine the exact nature of the homage the Russians pay to the "gods"—whether... more...

THE "AGAPEMONE" OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. As it is not generally known that the "Agapemone" had a prototype in the celebrated Family of Love, some account of this "wicked sect" may not at this moment be without interest to your readers:— "Henry Nicholas, a Westphalian, born at Munster, but who had lived a great while at Amsterdam, and some time likewise at Embden, was the... more...

ENGLISH BOOKS OF EMBLEMS. It is a remarkable circumstance that whilst the emblems of Alciatus Vent through almost innumerable editions, and were translated into most of the continental languages, no version of these Emblems should ever have been printed in this country, although we believe that MS. translations of them are in existence. It is remarkable also that more than half century should have... more...

THE TOPOGRAPHER & GENEALOGIST, EDITED BY JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS, F.S.A. The XIIIth Part of this Work is now published, price 3s. 6d., containing: Some Account of the Manor of Apuldrefield, in the Parish of Cudham, Kent, by G. Steinman Steinman, Esq., F.S.A. Petition to Parliament from the Borough of Wotton Basset, in the reign of Charles I., relative to the right of the Burgesses to Free Common of... more...

JACK. I wish to note, and to suggest to students in ethnology, the Query, how it comes to pass that John Bull has a peculiar propensity to call things by his own name, his familiar appellative of Jack? Of all the long list of abbreviations and familiar names with which times past and present have supplied us, that which honest Falstaff found most pleasing to his ears, "Jack with my familiars!"... more...

Minor Notes. Tippet.—The origin of words signifying articles of dress would be a curious subject for investigation. Tippet is derived by Barclay from the Saxon tæppet; but I find the following passage in Captain Erskine's Journal of his recent Cruise in the Western Pacific, p. 36. He is writing of the dress of the women at the village of Feleasan, in the Samoan Islands: "And occasionally a... more...