We have before us a little volume by Mr. Willich, the able Actuary of the
University Life Assurance Society, entitled _Popular Tables arranged in a
new Form, giving Information at Sight for ascertaining, according to the
Carlisle Table of Mortality, the Value of Lifehold, Leasehold, and Church
Property, Renewal Fines, &c., the Public Funds, Annual Average Price and
Interest on Consols from 1731 to 1851; also various interesting and useful
Tables, equally adapted to the Office and the Library Table_. Ample as is
this title-page, it really gives but an imperfect notion of the varied
contents of this useful library and writing-desk companion. For instance,
Table VIII. of the Miscellaneous Tables gives the average price of Consols,
with the average rate of interest, from 1731 to 1851; but this not only
shows when Consols were highest and when lowest, but also what
Administration was then in power, and the chief events of each year. We
give this as one instance of the vast amount of curious information here
combined; and we would point out to historical and geographical students
the notices of Chinese Chronology in the preface, and the Tables of Ancient
and Modern Itinerary Measures, as parts of the work especially deserving of
their attention. In short, Mr. Willich's _Popular Tables_ form one of those
useful volumes in which masses of scattered information are concentrated in
such a way as to render the book indispensable to all who have once tested
its utility.
_Mormonism, its History, Doctrines, and Practices_, by the Rev. W. Sparrow
Simpson, is a small pamphlet containing the substance of two lectures on
this pestilent heresy, delivered by the author before the Kennington Branch
of the Church of England Young Men's Society, and is worth the attention of
those who wish to know something of this now wide-spread mania.
_On the Custom of Borough-English in the County of Sussex_, by George R.
Corner, Esq. This well-considered paper on a very curious custom owes its
origin, we believe, to a Query in our columns. We wish all questions
agitated in "N. & Q." were as well illustrated as this has been by the
learning and ingenuity of Mr. Corner.
_A Narrative of Practical Experiments proving to Demonstration the
Discovery of Water, Coals, and Minerals in the Earth by means of the
Dowsing Fork or Divining Rod, &c., collected, reported, and edited_ by
Francis Phippen. A curious little pamphlet on a _fact_ in Natural
Philosophy, which we believe no philosopher can either understand or
account for.
SERIALS RECEIVED.--_Murray's Railway Reading: History as a Condition of
Social Progress_, by Samuel Lucas. An able lecture on an interesting
subject.--_The Traveller's Library_, No. 46.: _Twenty Years in the
Philippines_, by De la Gironière. One of the best numbers of this valuable
series.--_Cyclopædia Bibliographica_, Part XI., August. This eleventh Part
of Mr. Darling's useful Catalogue extends from James Ibbetson to Bernard
Lamy.--_Archæologia Cambrensis, New Series, No. XV._: containing, among
other papers of interest to the inhabitants of the principality, one on the
arms of Owen Glendwr, by the accomplished antiquary to whom our readers
were indebted for a paper on the same subject in our own columns.
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