60
portunity of profiting by any regular instructions."
There are some good lines in the poem, but not enough to rescue it from that fate which poetical mediocrity is irreversibly doomed to.
JAS. CROSSLEY.
* * * * *
Miscellaneous.
NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
The reputation which Mr. Finlay has acquired by his History of Greece, and his Greece under the Romans, will unquestionably be increased by his newly published History of the Byzantine Empire from DCCXVI. to MLVII. The subject is one of great interest to the scholar; and the manner in which Mr. Finlay has traced the progress of the eastern Roman empire through an eventful period of three centuries and a half, and while doing so enriched his pages with constant reference to the original historians, has certainly enabled him to accomplish the object which he has avowedly had in view, namely, that of making his work serve not only as a popular history, but also as an index for scholars who may be more familiar with classic literature than with the Byzantine writers.
We understand that Her Majesty and Prince Albert, with that appreciation of the beautiful and the useful for which they are distinguished, have shown their opinion of the value of photography by becoming the Patrons of the Photographic Society.
The Camden Society is about to put to press a work which will be of great value to our topographical writers, as well as to historians generally, namely, The Extent of the Estates of the Hospitalers in England, taken under the direction of Prior Philip de Thame, A.D. 1338. The original MS. is at Malta; and though the transcript of it was made by a most competent hand, we have reason to believe that our correspondent at La Valetta (W. W.) would be doing good service both to the Society and to the world of letters, and one which would be most acceptable to the Transcriber, if he could find it convenient to revise the proof sheets with the original document.