The reputation which Mr. Foss acquired as a diligent investigator of
legal antiquities, and an impartial biographer of those who have won for
themselves seats on the woolsack or the bench, by the publication of the
first two volumes of his _Judges of England, with Sketches of their
Lives, and Miscellaneous Notices connected with the Courts at
Westminster from the time of the Conquest_, will be more than confirmed
by the third and fourth volumes, which have just been issued. In these,
which are devoted to the Judges who flourished between the years 1272
and 1485--that is to say, from the reign of Edward I. to that of Richard
III. inclusive, Mr. Foss has added 473 to his former list of 580 Judges;
and when we say, that every biography shows with what diligence, and we
may add with what intelligence, Mr. Foss has waded through all available
sources of information, including particularly the voluminous
publications of the late Record Commission, we have done more than
sufficient to justify our opening statement, and to recommend his work
to the favourable notice of all lovers of historical truth. To the
general reader the surveys of the reigns, in which Mr. Foss points out
not only everything remarkable connected with the law, but the gradual
development of our legal system, will be by no means the least
attractive portion of his book; while his endeavours to trace the
successive institution of the several Inns of Court and Chancery, and
also of the three different Inns occupied by the Judges and Serjeants,
will be found of great interest to the topographical antiquary.
Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell, on Friday and Saturday next, a
very rare, valuable, and interesting Series of Papal Coins, from Pope
Gregory II., anno 715, to Pius IX., anno 1846, the property of an
eminent amateur residing at Rome.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_Shall we keep the Crystal Palace, and have Riding and
Walking in all Weathers among Flowers, Fountains, and Sculpture? by
Denarius._ As we believe most of the readers of this pamphlet will
answer in the affirmative, we would, with the writer, remind them to
"instruct their representatives to say '_Aye_,' when Mr. Speaker puts
the question in the Commons."--_Archæologia Cambrensis._ New Series. No.
VII. A very excellent number of this valuable Record of the Antiquities
of Wales and its Marshes.--_Notæ Ferales; a few Words on the Modern
System of Interment; its Evils and their Remedy, by Charon._ An
endeavour to bring the world to "discontinue the system of interment as
now practised, and restore that of _Urn Burial_."
CATALOGUES RECEIVED.--Joseph Lilly's (7. Pall Mall) Catalogue No. 3. of
very Cheap, Valuable, and Useful Books; W. S. Lincoln's (Cheltenham
House, Westminster Road) Catalogue No. 70. of English and Foreign
Second-hand Books; J. Petheram's (94. High Holborn) Catalogue Part
CXXIV., No. 5. for 1851 of Old and New Books; B. Quaritch's (16. Castle
Street, Leicester Square) Catalogue No. 31. of Books in European and
Oriental Languages and Dialects; W. Heath's (29 ½. Lincoln's Inn Fields)
Catalogue No. 4 for 1851 of Valuable Second-hand Books; S. Alexander's
(207. Hoxton Old Town) Catalogue of Cheap Miscellaneous Books; C. J.
Stewart's (11. King William Street) Catalogue of Books in Ecclesiastical
and Monastic History and Biography, Antiquities, Councils, &c., with a
Classified Index.