It must have escaped the memory of your correspondent E. J. K., in speaking of the supposed error of calling the "great fish" which swallowed Jonah a "whale," that our Lord, in giving this sign to the Jews, calls it in our English version a "whale" (τοῦ κήτους, St. Matt. xii. 40., this being the word used in the Septuagint version, from which the Evangelists quoted the SS. of the Old Testament). Surely then there is not any _popular_ error in the term "whale" as expressing the "great fish" of the prophet Jonah, for your correspondent does not go beyond the English version, nor can I say what the word used in the original Hebrew would strictly signify. Κῆτος, it is true, may not, and probably does not, mean anything more definite than the "great fish" of the Hebrew; but certainly our translators, by adopting the term "whale" in the Gospels, have so sanctioned the interpretation, that the error, if such, must be referred to them, and not to any later period, and therefore can hardly be reckoned amongst those of the _popular_ class. OXONIENSIS. Walthamstow, June 30. 1851 Great disputes have been raised what the fish was. As it is called a whale in the Septuagint, and in St. Matthew, xii. 40., one can hardly call it a vulgar error to speak of it commonly as a whale. C. B. _Book Plates_ (Vol. iii., p. 495.).--Your correspondent inquiring about book plates mentions, that 1698 is the earliest date he has heard of. In a sale at Sotheby's, commencing on the 21st inst., there is a copy of Evelyn's _Silva_, presented by him to Sir Robert Clayton, Lord Mayor of London, with his book plate in it, date 1679. E. N. W. Southwark, July, 1851. Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. _The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, with a Supplement, containing the Condemnations of the Early Reformers, and other matters relating to the Council. Literally translated into English by_ Theodore Alois Buckley, B.A., of _Christ Church, Oxford_, is the title of a volume which has just been issued; and which many of our readers will probably consider a very well-timed volume. It is not, however, because we admit with Mr. Buckley that "to try Rome fairly we must hear her plead her own cause" (for with polemics we have nothing to do), that we direct their attention to it; but because we agree with him that the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent are documents as valuable in a legal and historical, as in a religious point of view, and because there must be many who would gladly learn what these Canons and Decrees were, yet are not acquainted with the language in which they were originally recorded. By such persons Mr. Buckley's name on the title-page may be received as a sufficient guarantee of the accuracy of the present translation.