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by the sale en bloc of the Huth collection to Mr. A. S. Cochrane for the Elizabethan Club library at Yale University. The value of this collection cannot be much short of 40,000l., and it may be doubted if it cost Mr. Huth more than one-tenth that sum. The Hoe series, spread over three sales (he had four copies of the Third Folio), cannot be compared with that of the Huth, but it may be mentioned that the entirely uncut copy of the Venus and Adonis (1627) is one of the only two known, and was picked up for a trifle by a local bookseller less than forty years ago. The Beaufoy set of the first four Folios, one of the finest in existence, included the First Folio (with six leaves from a smaller copy) bound by Roger Payne, which cost only 1411. 10s. in 1851. Bishop Gott's set, for which 70001. had been asked, brought only 29361. when sold piecemeal in July 1910.

A few of the more important of what may be described as miscellaneous rarities which occurred in various sales are grouped together in the following table:

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In Americana the sales of the last season or two have been unusually rich, forming a very important feature in Mr. Hoe's library and a not inconsiderable one in Mr. Huth's. To English readers the subject is naturally less interesting than to those on the other side of the Atlantic. A few of the rarer or more noteworthy books are included in the following table:

Mr. Hoe had fourteen issues of The Dunciad, 1728-1735.

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Unfortunately, it is only possible to deal here but very briefly with two of the most important features of the Huth and Hoe dispersals-the bindings and the illuminated manuscripts, which were remarkable for their beauty and advance in commercial value. Each finely bound book and MS. is unique—and 'uniquity' is an undeniably precious quality in the eyes of the true collector. Mr. Hoe's bindings had a world-wide fame, and comprised not only examples of every great binder, but volumes executed specially for Royal and other eminent collectors, men and women. Grolier's copy of the Heliodorus of 1552, with his name and motto, sold for 11001.; the Thomas à Kempis Imitation de Jesu Christ, 1690, sumptuously bound by Monnier, realised 3561. in the Beckford sale in 1882, changed hands again a year or two later, Mr. Hoe giving about 7201. for it: it realised 11507. at his sale. King Charles the First's copy of Fanshawe's transla

• The first book on an historical subject printed in English America, and of the greatest rarity, being one of only four copies known, two of which are in public institutions. The Brinley copy sold in New York in 1879 for 431.

tion of Il Pastor Fido, in black morocco, with the King's arms stamped in gold and with his motto and signature, 'Dum spiro spero.-C.R.,' brought 1601., as compared with the fifty guineas paid for it in 1895.

Pretty much the same story concerns the manuscripts. One of the most beautiful of these was the Pembroke Book of Hours, executed in England in the fifteenth century, with over three hundred miniatures. This cost Mr. Hoe 1180l. in 1891, and now returned 6600l.; the Hours of Anne de Beaujeu cost 1000l. in 1878 and sold for 48001. ; another beautiful MS., believed to have been executed for Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry the Sixth of England, sold for 2311. 10s. at the Addington sale in 1886, and now brought 650l. In 1867 Mr. Huth paid 1001. for a sixteenthcentury MS., Historie Naturelle des Indes, with two hundred water-colour drawings-it returned 10201. ; and a fifteenth-century MS. of the Apocalypse, with many fine miniatures, cost him 1741. and realised 35501. These instances-and equally striking examples could be quoted by the score-go to show that as a hobby book-collecting has its substantial compensations-at all events for the fortunate legatees.

W. ROBERTS.

THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN CHINA

EUROPEANS usually consider that the position of women in China is greatly inferior to that assigned to their sisters in Western countries. We are apt to confuse similarity and equality, but the two are different. There is undoubtedly considerable difference in many ways between the life led by a Chinese lady and that of her European sister of the same class; but it does not follow that therefore the position of Chinese women is consequently inferior. In some respects, indeed, the Chinese lady has the advantage. Her power over her children is greater; in the event of her husband dying she becomes the acknowledged head of the family. A Chinese son would be shocked at the idea of turning his mother out of her house and relegating her to an insignificant dowerhouse,' while he and his wife took possession of what had been his mother's home probably for years: an experience that falls to the usual lot of widows in Europe. Such a proceeding would in the Celestial Empire be regarded as unfilial,' and to be called 'unfilial' is there dreaded as a term of infamy. Again, the wife of an official has a right to assume all the insignia of her husband's rank; her jacket is embroidered with the same token of distinction ; she wears a necklace denoting like dignity, and at the great annual holiday of the New Year the official seal is confided to her keeping.

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The power of Chinese parents over their children is supreme, and has the force of the law behind it. Should a son or daughter be even guilty of using abusive language to parents or paternal grandparents, and should the parents make complaint to a magistrate that they themselves heard such language, the delinquent is liable to death by strangulation; in all probability, however, Chinese relations would be as loath to put such a law in force as would be those of other countries.

In the matter of marriage, it is true, girls are given much choice in the selection of the future husband, but neither has the man the choice of his bride. As is often the case in Ireland, marriages are made by match-makers, not by Heaven. Mercenary motives, however, are not the only considerations that determine the selection of a bridegroom on the part of the lady's parents. His surname, it is essential, should be different from hers, even though no blood-relationship exists

between them. Over four thousand six hundred surnames have been recorded in China, and all of the same name are regarded in some measure as of one family. A 'Li' would acknowledge a claim made on him for assistance if an unknown Li' from a distant province were to ask it; a 'Kong' or a 'Ma' would not be justified in refusing a helping hand to those of the same name of whom he might never previously have heard in the event of their applying to him. Marriages between those of the same surname are not merely contrary to etiquette, but as the law of the land decrees that whenever any persons who have the same surname or family name intermarry, the parties and the contractor of the marriage shall each receive sixty blows and, the marriage being null and void, the man and the woman shall be separated, and the marriage presents forfeited to the Government'; the regulation is rarely infringed.

The whole responsibility of the marriage rests with the parents and the professional match-makers. The match-makers are women, and, oddly enough, are reckoned among the nine classes of professional women of evil renown with the people; the other eight are the three kinds of nuns (Buddhists, Taoists, and Sorceresses), mediums for ghosts, go-betweens, actresses, female doctors, and midwives.'

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It is true that so long as her parents-in-law live the son's wife is subordinate to them; even in England a mother-in-law is not always regarded with favour, and as Chinese women are as human in their feelings and tempers as are those of other races, even the rigidity of celestial etiquette does not invariably suffice to ensure agreeable relations between a mother-in-law and her son's wife. Habit, however, we all acknowledge is second nature; what would be impossible with us, custom has rendered possible in China, and in probably the majority of cases mother-in-law and daughter-in-law live on friendly, often on affectionate, terms. In this relationship, as in all others, it is the strongest character and will that carries the day. A sour or violent-tempered woman must prove undesirable as a mother-in-law, a selfish, sullen girl will on her side often cause her parents-in-law 'to eat bitterness.' The usually extreme youth of the bride in itself renders a residence with more experienced relatives expedient; in the middle classes the wife has often been brought up by the bridegroom's mother with the view to becoming her daughter-in-law, so must be accustomed to her position in the house. In some respects Chinese women of the working classes have a better time of it than English women of a similar social status. To strike or kick a woman would be regarded as a proceeding of the utmost impropriety by any self-respecting Chinaman. The costermonger who would jump upon his mother,' in England regarded as a comical character, would excite too great horror in China for such a per

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