Unlikely as it may seem, my own name has twice, to my knowledge, been given to characters in fiction, once by Theodore Hook and once by a novelist who still survives. Theodore Hook had been dead a long time when I was born, but I no more derive my surname from his pages than I imagine that the surviving novelist in question derived the name of his character from me.

Even if he did, I forgive him, but without prejudice to my rights to sue him for libel if it ever happened that my reputation is no longer robust enough to take care of itself. '

We give an extract from the Report of the Departmental Committee on the supply of the books to the inmates of Prisons in England. << The Committee state that the facilities for reading in prisons are, generally speaking, good, and are taken advantage of by the majority of prisoners. The ordinary demand which has to be met by the library of a large prison is about as varied as that which is catered for by the circulating library of a provincial town, and at one or two prisons would compare favourably with it in point of quality. What is somewhat surprising is the extent to which the works of the best English novelists are either spontaneously asked for by prisoners, or accepted and read with pleasure when recommended by the chaplain. There is always a considerable number of prisoners who read Scott, Dickens, and other standard writers, and even prefer them to other books. This « educated demand » is chiefly to be found among convicts. Among local prisoners it is the exception to find persons of any substantial degree of education. At Dartmoor, besides Dumas, Rider Haggard, and Mrs. Henry Wood, Dickens, Thackeray, Scott, and Shakespeare are in regular demand; while Pope, Southey, and Chaucer have also their adherents.

A still larger class of prisoners take pleasure in such authors as Charles Reade (whose << Never Too Late to Mend » is a great favourite in prisons), Marion Crawford, Seton Merriman, Besant and Rice. Clark Russell, Mrs. Henry Wood (whose clientèle among prisoners is perhaps larger than that of any other author). Charlotte Yonge, Miss Braddon, Marie Corelli, Wilkie Collins, Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, and other popular authors, all of whom are well represented in prison libraries. Among the women at Holloway, Mrs. Henry Wood is an especial favourite. At Borstal her pre-eminence was just maintained against the competition of Dickens, Clark Russell, Henty, Fenimore Cooper, Charles Reade, Conan Doyle, and Marryat »>.

With reference to the exclusion of « The New Machiavelli » from the Municipal Libraries of Manchester, the following letters will give a correct idea of the controversy. Audi alteram partem, is a motto which should never be lost sight of.

«To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian,

It is quite possible that any particular library may be right in excluding a sincere book like The New Machiavelli » for particular reasons. But in order to justify themselves the library authorities ought to be able to say that they have already excluded twothirds of the modern novels written by women and one-third of those written by men-all the works which treat of sex questions at all, beginning with the lightest and most frivolous. Hear what Ruskin says: << Whether novels, or poetry, or history be read, they should be chosen not for their freedom from evil, but for their possession of good. The chance and scattered evil that may here and there haunt, or hide itself in, a powerful book never does any harm to a noble girl; but the emptiness of an author oppresses her, and his amiable folly degrades her. »— Yours, &c.,

HAROLD GRAHAM »>.

<< In the hero of « The New Machiavelli » (as in Mr. Wells in his « First and Last Things ») one seems to observe the union of the Hellenic spirit of beauty with the modern social spirit. And this rare spirit expresses with poignant clearness its experiences in the attempt at self fulfilment. The hero discovers that our knowledge of the nature of morality is as elementary as the knowledge of physiology was amongst Spanish doctors in the days of Gil Blas, that the policy of repression and ostracism is childshly inadequate. His failure is laid to the charge of the universal burking of the sex problem, and there is the practical evidence that society will never obtain the fullest from its units until a more delicate, more finely scientific knowledge of the problem has been elucidated than is generally accepted as satisfactory.

That such an intimate appeal to society on this most vital and most complex question, put forward with almost Biblical clarity, should win condemnation in a county where « the thinking for England » is supposed to be done: points to a comedy worthy the pen of Aristophanes, at least in the quiet opinion of

A SOUTHERN Rustic ».

<< I have read carefully « The New Machiavelli », and greatly admire its brilliancy and suggestiveness, and especially in relation to sociology and current thought. I must say, however, that I consider its teaching on sexual ethics highly pernicious and alien to Christianity. Had Mr. Wells portrayed life as a spectator, as Mr. Arnold Bennett does, the case would not have been so serious. But Mr. Wells, to say the least, nowhere dissociates himself from the attitude of his « hero » to sexual matters.

That attitude, to me, is utterly abhorrent and immoral. What is more to the point of this controversy, it is entirely anti-social. If unfaithfulness to a good wife, preceded before marriage by many sexual sins gloried in, is to be condoned and made inevitable, what kind of social chaos are we to be landed in? I should like to know what the women readers of this book think of the prospects of their sex under such an ethie of sex relationship. To me it seems to be a brief for uttermost sexual self-indulgence, regardless of personal purity or of the well-being either of others or of society in general. Should such a book be placed in a public library? Yours, &c.,

SAMUEL E. KEEBLE »>.

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The following resolution is very significant : At its half-yearly meeting the Moral Education Society passed a resolution expressing appreciation of the « wise discrimination » exercised by the Libraries Committee of the Manchester City Council in the selection of books for « unrestricted circulation »>. The resolution also states that the Society, « whose object is to promote pure ideals of thought and living amongst young people », is convinced that the action of the Committee is approved by the majority of responsible citizens.

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We end our Compilation with the following interesting piece of news:—

The Times Book Club announces that by special arrangement with Professor Joseph Wright (who succeeded the celebrated Max Müller in the Chair of comparative philology at Oxford University) it has secured the sole right of issuing his famous Dictionary of the English Dialects.

The completion of the work is a distinct feather in the cap of British philology. In spite of the vast labours that have been bestowed by foreign scholars upon the dialects of their own countries, no other nation can yet show a dictionary comparable in any respect to this. The comparative Grammars of all the dialects, treated historically which is contained in

the last Volume (they are six in all) is also absolutely unrivalled for no other country possesses any grammar of the kind at all. We are told that the collection of the books and mss. belonging to the late Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte was placed at the editor's disposal by the Princess, and proved a mine of valuable information.

In the next Number, La Bibliofilia will give a synopsis of an article which has appeared in the London Antiquary with reference to a MS. formerly belonging to the noble family of Roccabianca di Ripatransone, giving an account of the coronation of Charles II, written by an Italian eye-witness (Josefo Castello), sometime Governor of the Abruzzi, a man of great valour, who was in the suite of Prince Alessandro Farnese.

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