LITERARY NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 152, 21 March 1908, Page 12

LITERARY NOTES.

The most interesting -boob of the English Spring puDlisning season, promises to bo tlio 'colTeispiiiKleuce of John Ijiadeuis Oeiarie, tho faiubus "Ximes" editor, ' which Murray is 'bringing out. Th© correspondence of Ueiurio, ,wno euited "'Tne Times ', for nearly lorty •years covers alike tho'political life of the . country and tne social lite of the Upper Ten Thousand (if the -phrase bo'hot out or datdj duriiig tho p'enou between his leaving Ox-to.rd,.ac.tw€nt,y-threo, to become edve-or of "The Tiriibs" a year, later,, and his death in I IS/i),. at tho. ago of sixty-two, .or stated in, I term's, 'of political history, between Sir Robert Peer's return to oince and i)isra«li's 1 last.. Administration. Solano's private, diaries arid correspondonco, which havo been edited by his,, iiepuew; Arthur Irwin Dasent, describe, at first, haiid, tho repeal- of tho Com Laws, the Crimean War and the fall of tho;'Coalition" Cabinet, the ascondoncy of Palmerst-on, the Indian Mutiny, , tho dcatli of the Priric'o Consort and the seclusioii ,of tlio Court after 1861, Delarib's conti'bversy with Cobden and Bright,' the Schleswig-llolstein dispute;; tho Reform Bills of 1866 and 1867, tho, Fenian 'conspiracy; tlio, Disestablishhierit of tha Irish ' Church, '.thoFrarico-Prussian )Var, .and the: recrudescence of tlio Eastern Question. Theicbrrcspbii'dericb iiiclu'des riot billy numerous, boiiiidbntial letter's frorii Palmorston, Disraeli, Lord Clarendon, and other states'm'eii of tho Victorian ago, but others, bf hardly irifdrior int'eresti froin riibii and Women ,pronjiiieiit-fn literary; political, artistic, and social life. ■ ,

'. It is' liar'dly worth whilo (says the "Manchester Guardian") to smugglo books iiito this country, but tho officers of His Majesty's. Customs do lieVortheless .seize' a certain number as being contraband of British dopy-i-iglits. 'A',writer- in; "The Book Monthly" has taken the trouble to find out about those, and it appears that the number seized in tho course- of the'last' Customs ' year was. 206, though. what" proportion j'this number beai's to those that get,through- we cannot even surmise. 7 Most of those impounded wore hovels,of course, for it is a rare type of mind that can tackle a hard bood 011 shipboard, : wher6;'th6!strenuous shbro.lifo fayes into a dreain. ;. 'novels, 'aro not all of' the softest, for. Mrs. Humphrey Wjird is among the appropriated, as'veil as Mr. ICipjing and Mr. ■'Wells, and it seems that many:efforts ;have been made to introduce a contraband "Thelma" jnto England. . Before■■ 1905 all th' 6 books seized v^re' burntj Jnij) now a.much better, disposal'has beeii ■ devised. Qlearly these reprehensible books should not jiefpijrmitted ah'_ effectivj fobtihg'iii'this country, and perhaps America or Germany-; wbulc^:Hot l*ivo lririch for them.: A per|cct masterpiece iii happy ideas has' sent, tlieji'to ihfe-light-; houses and''lightships. ; Even ; : for this—so pedantic, are wo—Consent must' bo obtaihed from publishers and juthors, but that is easily gained, and thnii thg books set off on their adventures. ;' Thoy pass frorii ohe,lighthouse to another as part s of"the Trinity House circulating library, expiating the irregularities of their youth, arid wo may imagine them ■ . : , - '

. the viewless winds, Arid blown with restless violence round about Tho world."

lighthouse men, we .are'told,- likb sea stoi'ies such as Clark Russell's 7or books by -Honty, and it is strange to think of therii poi'ing over these sinnilated adventures whilo tlioy are themselves the centre of real ones and find therii pretty dull.

. The "Academy" refers to the Custbiri in booksellers' shops of reebmmending particular bboks to those who have. > not clearly, inado up their minds what they want to buy, and of course this is a useful and even necessary part of tho tradesman; s work. It may be abused, however (cbmmerit-s an English exchange), and a particular case is quoted in which a lady was strongly advised to substitute another work'for tho 0110 that she had asked for. It happened that this lady was the, author's aunt/ and it is notorious that tho good typo of aunt will stand no nonsense in;such a case as this. "Furthor developments" aro suggested, though it is not easy to framo a suriniSe as to their character. Wo know that ■-many of our booksellers and their assistants arb, men of sound tasto arid judgriieiit, and evidently it : is vory desirable that thoy should all bo so. Wo shall not propose that bookselling, be made into one of the professions, with a stiff examination .to precede its practice; but it may ,bo useful, Or at least interesting, to realiso tho bookseller's power. He may hesitate whether .to take twenty copies of. a book or two hundred, for as a tradesman ho must have "loading lilies." Like the sixpenny doctor who has half-a-dozen kinds of medicine mado up and ready, ho rapidly diagnoses tho case ana with a decisive air produces the book that,.should meet it. It is curious, certainly, that so many of us should drift helplessly into tlio shop wanting "a book," but whilo it is so the bookseller must treat us without prolonged consideration unless he chaTges for his time.- When wo are bothered to understand, why 1 a popular writer has obtained a clear advantage ;over competitors who seem to bo of equal virtue wo may remomber that a nioro or less accidental decision, in his favour by half-a-dozen booksellers may havo turned tho balance.' Of courso: booksellers lravo sometimes 'the ferences of tho genuine connoisseur; but if ono should lay in a -largci stock of, say; a novel by Mr. Henry Janies and fob off casual customers with it, his creditors might havo reason for uneasiness.