francs, 420, which is exactly the price of such a violin as the
Conservatory awards as a prize to its most distinguished pupils.

All this may be play to Paganini, but destruction to less fortunate
musicians, for he swallows up all that would otherwise be distributed among
many. An English violinist must work many long laborious days and nights
before he can _scrape_ together six hundred and eighty-seven pounds
sterling--the sum, it seems, which the lucky Italian gets by a single
concert!--_Ibid._

* * * * *



THE SELECTOR AND LITERARY NOTICES OF _NEW WORKS_.




FREEMASONRY.


In a neat volume, called _The Freemasons' Pocket Companion_, of size to fit
the waistcoat pocket, we find the following brief sketch of the History of
Freemasonry in England. This little Manual is "By a Brother of the Apollo
Lodge, 711, Oxford," who acknowledges his obligation to Oliver and Preston,
an article on Masonry, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, &c.:--

In Britain, we are informed that St. Alban, the first martyr for
Christianity in this country, was a great patron of the masons, and