Literature.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2224, 9 October 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Literature.

— Mr Grant Allan's nfonograpb on Charlea Darwin, the first volume of the series of " English Worthies," has been translated into French. —The Rev. George El mnndson, author of " Milton and Vonilel,"' has been elected an honoiary member of the .Society of Dutch Literature. — Lord Tennyson, according to The A.th"i). # uitm, has in hand a number ot new poems. The most memorable of theae is a piece whiHi may he described as a postscript to " Locksley Hall." The heioof the poem reappears as a broken-down m;<n of eighty, whose modified views about life and libeity may bo taken to reflect the Lunoatc's own. — For writing an article in a leceut number of The C >ntemporary Review, cntiei*int> the action of the D.ini^h Government, Herr Ahksu's Pete) *on Stud nitz baa been suspended fro-n his post as instructor at the Military Academy of Copenhagen. Hnr Studnitz is a wellknown man in Denmark, the Editor of The Nat;onal Economical Journal. —The position ot editor of The Fortnightly Review has, The Mall Mall Ga/.ette is informed, b°en offered to r md accepted by Mr Frank Harris, who has been for some time the editor of The Evening News. Mr Escott's long illness has destroyed the hope which was entertained'that he might resume the conduct of the review. — The rapidity with which, during the past year or two, process- work has supplanted wood engraving iv the pictorial department of magazines and newspapers and also in the case of books, is remarkable. Anyoue who will compare the crude attemps to obtain a passahlo reproduction in black and white, by process without the aid of the graving tool, with the highly finished and artistic pictures sent out by the Meisenbaoh Comp.iuy of 31, Farringdoastroet, London, will be amazed at thesuecess attained in spite of the mo>t unprominin:g beginning. If they are not equal to the best engr :vings on stoel and wood, they are superior to all but the best, and the accuracy of the reproduction is simply unquestion.ible, us tho sun it* the agent employed in the actual drawing". When, however, the item of cost U considered, the vdlue of process-work is best seen, tho expense beintr a mere fraction of that involved in tho old method?. — The E i«t and West Junction Rail way Co. have caused to be published a novel guide, illustrated, by photographs, to the distiict served by their line, under the title of " Shakespeare V Country and the Ancestral Home of the Washing-tons." We read th.it " Sulgrave, the ancestral home of the Washington family, from whom spranar the great and renowned George Washington, first president of the United States, and from whose coat of arms, still to be seen in the village, the American banner — the famous 'Stars and Stripes,' took its origin . . . lies about three miles to tho f-outh-west of Morton Pinkney. in a pccludid volley On the left hand side of the road leading to Bmbury . . . Just outside the village, standing about two fields b ick from the road, is the ancient raanor-houso erected by Laurence Washington about the year 1560, still bearing on the"*>pandrils of the outer porch his co.it of arms, tho 'Stais and Stripes,' inscribed en a shield, with his crest, a raven, above it." The biochure will be uspful to the touiist.

David A. Wells says that the present loss to the Mexican Government from smuggling along the northern frontier is estimated at l,.")00,000ilol. a year. A Home of Rest for horses, mules and donkeys, to which the poorer classes can send their over-woiked animals, is being provided in London. Washington is threatened with a professional bouity cnzii during tlio coming winter. While the United Stites have furnished profession il beauties both for London and P.uisun society to rave about, the idea of showing oIF the piize beauties in competition with each other seems never, nntil now, to have taken root in Washington. The boauly and general attractiveness of the President's, wife seems to haveghen birth to the the idea. Several of the senators' wives are sure to know a young lady or two possessing chatms of the face and figure quite equal to tho=;e of Mis Cleveland, and they propose to bi ing out then beauties during the season and show them ofT. While some of the grain crop* are looking well ('•ays the ChrKtohuich Press) the majority in the northern did tnets on the heavy lands hive bpou so much damaged by the Aucrn^t weitbrr as to require re-sowing Taking advantage of the pa^t week's fine weather, m.my of th? f irmers have Hent all baud-* and all hor-es out to plough and re-sow the wheat, crops. Some difficulty lus been expp'iencd in the second breaking up, as the land in a few day b< q m to b ike a« hard as brick, and the hairnvs would n )t produc 1 nnv pflvct on thr 1 furrow^. Hk ofChev-^ev.— St. S ephen's says: It was late, close on midnight, when the result of t!ie Chelsea vote was handed to her Majesty, and I had it on the best authority that no single election caused so much interest in the Roj'al bosom. It should not be forgotten that the defeated of Chelsea was, when a little child, an immense favourite with the Sovereign. The baby boy, Charlie, was often dandled in the Royal lap, and when he had grown to man's estate, and developed such terrible revolutionary tendencies, there was no one within the four seas of Britain more thoroughly upset than the Queen. Later on, when he adopted Court dres3, and became, to a certain extent, reclaimed, the Queen overlooked his little eccentricities, attributing them to the hot-headed ardour of youth, which inreading years might dissipate. Then came the crowning infamy, one that our gracious monarch, as a woman and the Sovereign of her people, could not possibly overlook, nor, for the matter of that could Chelsea, and the once promising statesman must henceforward hide his head in the oblivion which, to an ambitious man. must be gall and wormwood of the most bitter kind. Conviction ok a Noblemvx for Swindling.— The London papers report the conviction of William Viscount Hinton, who has been sentenced to 12 months' hard labour for conspiring with two accomplices to obtain by false pretences articles of property from various tradesmen ; and although he was acquitted of the false pretenee9, he was eonvieted, and rightly so, on the charge of conspiracy. The career of Lord Hintou will form an unpleasantly romantic page in the history of the British peerage. His mother married the present Earl Poulott, and six months afterwards gave birth to a son, the now imprisoned Viscount, whose youthful husband repudiated the paternity of the child, which, however, Butish law may yet hold to be legally his, and he did everything in his power to give effect to his contention that he was not the father of the son to whom his wife gave biith. The Earl's piedecessor cut off the entail, so that the estates might descend to the issue of the third wife, for the present Lord Poulett, who is not yet an old man, his been tin ice married. The wietched \outh, who although apparently legitimate in the eye of the law, was yet tieated as having no claim upon his nominal father, followed for some time the vocation of a clown at the Sutrey Theatre. He married, and has several children, and he ultimately I yielded to the temptation ot laising money by unlawful means. There was no doubt of the main ficts. of the case, but the jury were anxious to know whether on Lord Ponlott's death the prisoner would have any claim to tt«e the estate. The Common Sergeant, who presided over the trial, replied that the House of Lords could only deal with t! c title, they hiving nothing to do with the question of the property When Lord Poulett manied Lord Hinton'-, rnotlrr sacral lives stood between him md t! • earldom, and there seemed to be little ! prcspcot of lay ever succcediug to it j