The remaining features of interest in this volume are connected with the private details of the Company’s financial ventures, and these reveal a state of affairs most melancholy to contemplate. To such a depth of poverty had the once flourishing Company sunk, that in 1629, with a debt of £300,000 already incurred, the Governor was compelled to confess their inability to advance £10,000 to the Crown towards the expenses of the French War. At the same time, too, every investment in the Far East turned out disastrously. The Dutch not only pillaged English factories with impunity, but openly thwarted any chance of carrying on a lucrative trade, by forcing their own spices upon English factors at ruinous prices. Moreover, the constitutions of our countrymen too often succumbed to the pestilential swamps and jungles of New Holland. Then the natives, as usual an unreliable element, both broke their contracts and ill-treated the Company’s factors, in spite of their “accursed oaths to the contrary.” Yet in the end British constancy and enterprise prevailed. Fresh subscriptions poured in, new ships were fitted out, and returned laden with ample wealth. The English merchantmen stoutly held their own against the Dutch pirates, and beat them off--one ship (the _Lion_) against ten--in an action that recalled the glories of Grenville and his _Revenge_. Therefore it will be seen that this volume closes with a happier augury of renewed peace and prosperity. _Doctor Johnson: His Life, Works and Table Talk._ (Centenary edition.) T. Fisher Unwin. 1884. IT was inevitable that the Centenary of Dr. Johnson’s death should recall into existence some at least of his contributions to English literature, and Mr. Unwin has done well in publishing at this moment a choice selection from the “burly Doctor’s” works, under the above title. The little _brochure_ on our table by no means exhausts that mine of wealth which is to be found in the writings of Dr. Johnson; but, so far as it goes, it is carefully and conscientiously selected, and ought to be most welcome to his many admirers. _Johnsoniana._ Arranged by R. W. Montagu. Boot & Son. 1884. A MOST appropriate and well-timed collection of the best of Dr. Johnson’s sayings and opinions, gleaned not only from Boswell but from other sources. These are arranged in chapters under separate headings. Is it by accident, or by set purpose, we wonder, that one chapter is devoted to “Love, Friendship, and Affection,” and another to “Marriage”? The life of Johnson prefixed to this little volume is a happy model of condensation. Published at a shilling, it ought to command just now a very large sale. _Pottery and Porcelaìn._ By F. LITCHFIELD. Bickers. 1884.