Our readers will probably remember that the result of several
communications which appeared in our columns on the subject of the
celebrated _Treatise of Equivocation_, found in the chambers of Tresham,
and produced at the trial of the persons engaged in the Gunpowder Plot, was
a letter from a correspondent (J. B., Vol. ii., p. 168.) announcing that
the identical MS. copy of the work referred to by Sir Edward Coke on the
occasion in question, was safely preserved in the Bodleian Library. It was
not to be supposed that a document of such great historical interest, which
had been long sought after, should, when discovered, be suffered to remain
unprinted; and Mr. Jardine, the accomplished editor of the _Criminal
Trials_ (the second volume of which, it will be remembered, is entirely
devoted to a very masterly narrative of the Gunpowder Plot), has
accordingly produced a very carefully prepared edition of the Tract in
question; introduced by a preface, in which its historical importance is
alone discussed, the object of the publication being not controversial but
historical. "To obviate," says Mr. Jardine, "any misapprehension of the
design in publishing it at a time when events of a peculiar character have
drawn much animadversion upon the principles of the Roman Catholics, it
should be stated that the _Treatise_ would have been published ten years
ago, had the inquiries then made led to its discovery; and that it is now
published within a few weeks after the manuscript has been brought to light
in the Bodleian Library." The work is one of the most important
contributions to English history which has recently been put forth, and Mr.
Jardine deserves the highest credit for the manner in which he was
discharged his editorial duties.
_Horae Egyptiacae, or the Chronology of Ancient Egypt discovered from
Astronomical and Hieroglyphical Records, including many dates found in
coeval inscriptions from the period of the building of the great Pyramid to
the times of the Persians, and illustrative of the History of the first
Nineteen Dynasties, &c._, by Reginald Stuart Poole, is the ample title of a
work dedicated to the Duke of Northumberland, under whose auspices it has
been produced. The work, which is intended to explain the Chronology and
History of Ancient Egypt from its monuments, originally appeared in a
series of {399} papers in the _Literary Gazette_. These have been improved,
the calculations contained in them subjected to the most rigid scrutiny;
and when we say that in the preparation of this volume Mr. Poole has had
assistance from Mr. Lane, Mr. and Mrs. Lieber of Cairo, Dr. Abbot of Cairo,
Mr. Birch of the British Museum, Professor Airy, and, lastly, of Sir
Gardener Wilkinson, who, in his _Architecture of Ancient Egypt_, avows that
"he fully agrees with Mr. Poole in the contemporaneousness of certain
kings, and in the order of succession he gives to the early Pharaohs," we
do quite enough to recommend it to the attention of all students of the
History and Monuments of Ancient Egypt.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_Plato Translated by G. Burges_, vol. 4. The new volume of
Bohn's Classical Library is in the fourth volume of the Translation of
Plato, which, strange as it may sound to those of our readers who know
anything of what is essential to a popular book in these days, has, we
believe, been one of the most popular of the many cheap books issued by Mr.
Bohn. How much the impression made on the public mind by the well-worn
quotation, "Plato, thou reasonest well," may have contributed to this
result, we leave others to decide.--_What is the working of the Church of
Spain? What is implied in submitting to Rome? What is it that presses
hardest upon the Church of England? A Tract by the Rev. F. Meyrick, M.A._
London: J. H. Parker. These are three very important _Queries_, but
obviously not of a nature for discussion in NOTES AND QUERIES.--_The Penny
Post_, I. to IV., _February to May_. The words "_thirtieth thousand_" on
the title-page, show the success which has already attended this Church
Penny Magazine.
CATALOGUES RECEIVED.--T. Kerslake's (3. Park Street, Bristol) Catalogue of
Books lately bought; Cole's (15. Great Turnstile) List No. XXXV. of very
Cheap Books; C. Hamilton's (22. Anderson's Buildings, City Road) Catalogue
No. XLII. of a remarkably Cheap Miscellaneous Collection of Old Books,
Tracts, &c.; G. Johnston's (11. Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road) Book
Circular.
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