rious to observe how differently
this word is applied by different nations. The English apply it to white
children born in the West Indies; the French, I believe, exclusively to the
mixed races; and the Spanish and Portuguese to the blacks born in their
colonies, never to whites. The latter, I think, is the true and original
meaning, as its primary signification is a _home-bred_ slave (from "criar,"
to bring up, to nurse), as distinguished from an imported or purchased one.

J. S. WARDEN.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

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-Engl