NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
Every lover of Goldsmith—and who ever read one page of his delightful writings without admiring the author, and loving the man—
"... for shortness call Noll,
Who wrote like an angel, but talk'd like poor Poll?"—
must be grateful to Mr. Murray for commencing his New Series of the British Classics with the Works of
Oliver Goldsmith, edited by Peter Cunningham, F.S.A. The Series is intended to be distinguished by skilful editorship, beautiful and legible type, fine paper, compactness of bulk, and economy of price. Accordingly, these handsome library volumes will be published at 7s. 6d. each. If Mr. Murray has shown good tact in choosing Goldsmith for his first author, he has shown equal judgment in selecting Mr. Cunningham for his editor. Our valued correspondent, it is well known, and will be proved to the world when he gives us his new edition of Johnson's Lives of the Poets (which by the bye is to be included in this Series of Murray's British Classics), has long devoted himself to the history of the lives and writings of the poets of the past century. But in the present instance Mr. Cunningham has had peculiar advantages. Besides his own collections for an edition of Goldsmith, he has had the free and unrestricted use of the collections formed for the same purpose by Mr. Forster and Mr. Corney: a liberality on the part of those gentlemen which deserves the recognition of all true lovers of literature. With such aid as this, and his own industry and ability to boot, it is little wonder that Mr. Cunningham has been able to produce under Mr. Murray's auspices the best, handsomest, and cheapest edition of Goldsmith which has ever issued from the press.
Of all the critics of Mr. Dod's Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, Mr. Dod is himself at once the most judicious and unsparing; and the consequence is, that every year he reproduces his admirable compendium with some additional feature of value and interest. For instance, in the volume for 1854, which has just been issued, we find, among many other improvements, that, at a very considerable cost, the attempt made in 1852 to ascertain and record the birthplace of every person who is the possessor, or the next heir, of any title of honour, has been renewed and extended with such success, that many hundred additional birthplaces are now recorded; and the unknown remnant has become unimportant. These statements are perfectly new and original, acquired from the highest sources in each individual case, and wholly unprecedented in the production of peerage-books.