The number of “beasts” varied from four to seven.  Two young lions are specially mentioned; and a “lion lately sent by the Lord the Prince from Gascony to England to the Lord the King.”

[Greek:  Phi]

[Our correspondent’s NOTE is an addition to what Bayley has given us on this subject; who tells us, however, that as early as 1252, Henry III. sent to the Tower a white bear, which had been brought to him as a present from Norway, when the Sheriffs of London were commanded to pay four pence every day for its maintenance.]

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NOTES ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. 1.

THE “BIBLIOGRAPHIE BIOGRAPHIQUE.”

A lover of literature, and aspiring to promote its extension and improvement, I sometimes form projects for the adoption of others—­sensible, be it also said, of the extent of my own engagements with certain learned societies.

One of these projects has been a tabular view of the literary biography of the British Islands.  In the midst of my reflections on the plans of Blair, Priestly, Playfair, Oberlin, Tytler, Jarry de Mancy, &c.  I received a specimen of a Bibliographie biographique, by Edouard-Marie Oettinger, now in the press at Leipzic.

As books multiply, the inexpediency of attempting general bibliography becomes more {43} and more apparent.  Meritorious as are the works of Brunet and Ebert, and useful as they may be to collectors, they are inadequate to the wants of men of letters.  Henceforth, the bibliographer who aims at completeness and accuracy must restrict himself to one class of books.

M. Oettinger appears to have acted on this principle, and has been happy in the choice of his subject—­

  “The proper study of mankind is man.”

The work is comprehensive in its object, judicious in its plan, accurate in its details, as far as the specimen proceeds, and an unquestionable desideratum in literature.

Ainsi, vive M. Edouard-Marie Oettinger!  Vive la Bibliographie biographique!

BOLTON CORNEY.

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FORM OF PETITION.

When a Petition ends with “Your Petitioner shall ever pray, &c.” what form of words does the “&c.” represent?

B.

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QUERY AS TO NOTES—­GREENE OF GREEN’S NORTON.

Mr. Editor,—­I congratulate you on your happy motto, but will you give your readers the results of your own experience and practice, and tell them the simplest mode of making Notes, and when made, how to arrange them so as to find them when required?

I have been in the habit of using slips of paper—­the blank turn-overs of old-fashioned letters before note paper came into fashion—­and arranging in subjects as well as I could; but many a note so made has often caused me a long hour’s looking after:  this ought not so to be; pigeon-holes or portfolios, numbered or lettered, seem to be indispensable.