On the reverse of the last leaf of the New Testament are verses by Alcuine. In reference to the volume he observes: "Is Carolus qui jam scribere jussit eum." Also,

"Pro me quisque legas versus orare me

mento,

Alchuine dicor ego, tu sine fine vale."

Lothaire I. the grandson of Charlemagne) after having lost the throne of France, entered the Monastery of Prum in Lorraine, as a monk. Here he deposited the Bible of Charlemagne. In 1576 the Convent was dissolved, and the Benedictine Monks preserved the Bible with religious veneration, and carried it with them to Grandis Vallis near Basle. It remained there till the occupation of the Episcopal Territory of Basle by the French troops in 1793, when all the property of the Abbey was sequestrated. In that year it became the property of Mr. Bennot, Vice-President of the tribunal of Delémont, from whom in 1822 it was purchased by Mr. Speyr-Passavant the present proprietor.

An album accompanies it, containing the opinions of nearly all the European literati acquainted with ancient MSS.It was put up at 7001. and finally bought in at 15001.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

March 9. Read, On the remains of Mammalia found in a range of mountains at the southern foot of the Himalayas, between the Sutlej and the Burbampoota, by Captain Cantley, F. G.S.

March 23. Read, A description of various fossil remains of three distinct Saurian animals, discovered in the magnesian conglomerate on Durdham Down near Bristol, in the autumn of 1834; by Dr. Riley and Mr. Stuchbury; also a memoir, On the Ossiferous Cavern of Yealm Bridge, about six miles south-east of Plymouth, by Captain Mudge, F.G.S. April 13. The reading was commenced of a paper on Colebrook Dale, by Prestwich, esq. F. G.S.

STATISTICAL SOCIETY.

Feb. 15. Read, an analysis, by Woronzow Greig, Esq. of a work lately published, entitled, "Sphecchio Geografico e Statistico dell' Imperio di Marocco," by Count Jacopo Gräberg di Hemso; and a return of the number of communicants, non-communicants, and recusants, in part of the county of Lancaster, A. D. 1613, founded on the MS. Lansdowne 153, art. 55.

March 15. Henry Hallam, Esq. Treasurer, in the chair.-This being the Anniversary Meeting, a report was made

by the Council as to the present state and prospects of the Society. It at present consists of 392 Members, and the sum invested in stock amounts to 10677. It was further stated that a Committee had been appointed to consider what papers should be published as the first part of the Society's Transactions.

The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:-Sir Charles Lemon, Bart. M. P. President; Henry Hallam, Esq. Treasurer; Woronzow Grieg, esq. C. H. Maclean, esq. and R. W. Rawson, esq. Secretaries; and the following gentlemen to be of the Council:-C. Babbage, esq. W. J. Blake, esq. W. Burge, esq. J. E. Drinkwater, esq. Earl Fitzwilliam, J. H. Green, esq. B. Hawkins, M.D. A. Hayward, esq. Rev. R. Jones, Earl of Kerry, M. P. Sir F. C. Knowles, Bart. Marquis of Lansdowne, N. Lister, esq. M.D., S. J. Loyd, esq. Rt. Hon. H. Mackenzie, M. Philips, M.P., G. R. Porter, esq. J. T. Pratt, esq. C. W. Puller, esq. Viscount Sandon, M.P., N. W. Senior, esq. Edw. Strutt, esq. M. P. Lt. Col. Sykes, T. Tooke, esq. T. Vardon, esq. Rev. W. Whewell.

esq.

March 21. Read, Some remarks on the Bills of Mortality for the Kingdom of Denmark in 1834, by G. R. Porter, esq.

April 15. Read, a paper by Mr. Preston on the Statistics of the Kingdom of Saxony; and another by Mr. Rawson, on Monts de Piété.

LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.

The Annual Report of the London Institution notices the issue of the first volume of the new Classed Catalogue, a work highly creditable to the Institution, and the usefulness of which is universally acknowledged. The amount of copies issued to Proprietors is 603, and the number presented to public libraries and societies is 57. The impression consisted of 1000 copies, and a portion of the remaining stock is offered for sale, at the price of £1. 18.

The second volume, containing the Catalogue of the Pamphlets, is delayed for re-arrangement. The Librarians will thus be enabled to insert, under their proper heads, a large collection of Tracts, presented to the Institution by their standing Counsel, Mr. Sergeant Merewether; it consists of sixty-four volumes, and upwards of eight hundred tracts, and is extremely valuable, illustrating the History of the Oxford Controversies at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Mr. Simmons, one of the Auditors, and other friends of the Institution, have presented, during the past year, 130 volumes and pamphlets. The additions made to

At the Russell Institution the following lectures have been lately delivered: three on Steam Engines, and their application to the purposes of transport by land and sea, by the Rev. Dr. Lardner. Two on the French Language, &c. by M. Marcel. On Gas Light, &c. by John Hemming, esq. On Vocal Music, with Illustrations, by Thomas Philipps, esq. assisted by the Misses Brendon; and on the French Drama, by M. Lambert, with readings.

At the Lambeth Literary Institution some of the most eminent lecturers of the day have been engaged. Dr. Lardner has been delivering a course of lectures on the principles, properties, and powers of the steam engine; and Mr. Higgins, a course on Electricity. The following are to succeed: Basil Montagu, esq. on Philosophy; Mr. Hemming, on Chemistry; Mr. Innes, on the Drama; Mr. Dendy, on the Eye and Spectral Illusion; and many other gentlemen connected with literature and science.

At the Islington Institution the Lectures have been of an instructive, sound and entertaining character. We would particularize one by the President on Electricity.-Among those to come, is a series on the Genius and Writings of Moliere, to be delivered in French, by Monsieur Lambert, a man of good taste and skilful judgment, whose readings are full of life and animation. The society's library is increasing, and has become a real and important advantage to the neighbourhood.

ANNULAR ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.

In the afternoon of the 15th inst. there will be an unusually large and visible annular Eclipse of the Sun, which will be central in the North of England, Ireland, and in the South of Scotland. It will begin at Greenwich at 50 min. 59 sec. past one o'clock, and will end at 39 min. 8 sec. past four. Over England and the adjacent parts the light and heat of the annular obscuration will be little more than onetenth of the full sun; and should the atmosphere prove to be clear at the time of the greatest magnitude, it may be expected that several of the largest stars will be visible. The breadth of the annulus for England will be about 142 miles. The whole body of the moon will appear on the disc of the sun, leaving a small ring or circle of light on the external edge of the sun. The annexed is a representation of its appearance in London and its neighbourhood, the letter B denoting where the eclipse begins, and E where it ends.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.

April 14. Henry Hallam, esq. V.P. Mr. Burgess exhibited a fragment of Roman pavement found in digging the foundation of a house in Crosby Square, Bishopsgate, thirteen feet below the present level. The colours were red, yellow, white, and black; the two former of brick, the latter of stone. The surface was not at all decayed, but the bed of mortar on which it had been laid had yielded to the damp, and rendered it very difficult to take up a piece of any size.

Sir Francis Palgrave made another communication relative to his recent researches in the Chapter-house records. He observed that, amongst the documents relating to Scotland, of the reign of Edward I., Rymer has printed one (new edit on, vol. I. p. 994) to which he gives the following title: "Instrumentum continens nomina plurimorum Nobilium Scotiæ fautorum Roberti de Brus qui missi sunt ad diversa castra in Angliam," including, amongst the mandates for the custody of other prisoners, the well known order directing the confinement of the Countess of Buchan in a cage at Berwick. Instead, however, of any one such instrument, there are three distinct documents, apparently orders made by the King in Council, and in which the several directions for the modes of disposing of these captives were, from time to time, varied and altered, and in a manner highly deserving of attention. The document given by Rymer is, in fact, an instrument framed by him by a consolidation of these orders, not distinguishing where one begins and another ends; and in this process he has concealed the most remarkable features, namely, the modifications which the orders sustained in their different stages.

"Alain, who was Earl of Menteith," was first committed to the custody of Sir Johan de Hastings, who was to put him in safe keeping in England. This direction was subsequently varied, by giving Sir John the power to confine the "late Earl" at Bergavenny or elsewhere.

The Earl of Strathern, "when he shall have surrendered to the King," is to be placed in custody in the keep of Rochester Castle, but he does not appear to have surrendered.

The name of John Earl of Athol was

first entered upon the order as a memorandum, without any directions; he was conducted to London by Sir Hugh le Despencer. David, his son and heir, was to be kept in safe custody by the Earl of Gloucester.

The orders respecting "Donald the son of the Earl of Mar," sustained several modifications before the plan of his captivity was finally settled.

With respect to Margaret, the daughter of Robert Bruce, the first order directed her to be treated with great severity. She was to be sent to the Tower of London, and there kept in close confinement in a cage; but this extreme rigour excited some compunction, and, the order being cancelled, another order was made, that she should be kept in England under the safe custody of Sir Henry Percy. It is, in some respects, satisfactory to observe, that all the alterations which the orders sustained, are in diminution of the rigour attending the incarceration of these illustrious captives.

Sir Francis further noticed a singular error in Rymer's transcript of the document dated 9 July, 1297, by which Robert Bruce, &c. submitted to Edward, which as printed (new edit. vol. i. p. 808) ends with the clause, "escrit a Sire Williame," which Lord Hailes and others have interpreted "addressed to Sir William Wallace!" whereas the original is "escrit a Irewin,"-dated at Irvine.

April 23. This being St. George's day, the Anniversary meeting was held, when the President and all the officers were re-elected, with the following Council (the new members' names are in Italics): Earl of Aberdeen, Pres.; H. R. H. the Duke of Sussex, Thomas Amyot, esq. Treas.; Nich. Carlisle, esq. Sec.; Edw. Blore, esq.; C. P. Burney, D.D.; Rev. J. B. Deane; Sir H. Ellis, Sec.; John Gage, esq. Director; Hudson Gurney, esq. V.P.; H. Hallam, esq. V.P.; W. R. Hamilton, esq. V.P.; Sir R. H. Inglis, Bart.; the Bishop of Landaff; J. H. Markland, esq.; T. L. Parker, esq.; W. H. Rosser, esq.; Geo. Saunders, esq.; Sydney Smirke, esq.; T. Stapleton, jun. esq. and the Rt. Hon. C. W. WilliamsWynne, V.P.

A party of the Society, about fortyfive in number, afterwards dined at the Freemasons' Tavern.