is a
folio copy of Plautus, printed at Venice in 1518, and illustrated with
woodcuts."

The author thus coming upon a Roman writer of plays, named Plautus,
favours us with an account of him, which it is unnecessary to pursue,
since it by no means possesses the interest attached to his still-life
sketches. Let us pass on and take a peep at the collection of Chancellor
Kent, known in this country as the author of Kent's Commentary:--

"To a lawyer, the Chancellor's written remarks on his books are,
perhaps, their most interesting feature. He studied pen in hand, and all
of his books contain his annotations, and some are literary curiosities.
His edition of Blackstone's Commentaries is the first American edition,
printed in Philadelphia in 1771. It is creditable to the press of that
time, and is overlaid with annotations, showing how diligently the
future American commentator studied the elegant work of his English
predecessor. The general reader will find still more interest in the
earlier judicial reports of the State of New York, printed while he was
on the bench. He will find not merely legal notes, but biographical
memoranda of many of the distinguished judges and lawyers who lived at
the commencement of the century, and built up the present system of
laws.

"In proceeding from the legal to the miscellaneous part of the library,
the visitor's attention will, perhaps, be attracted by an extensive and
curious collection of the records of criminal law. Not merely the
English state trials and the French _causes celebres_ are there, but the
criminal trials of Scotland and of America, and detached publications of
remarkable cases, Newgate Calendars, Malefactors' Register, Chronicles
of Crime, with ghastly prints of Newgate and Old Bailey, with their
executions. The Chancellor is not responsible for this part of the
library, which owes its completeness to the morbid taste of his
successor, who defends the collection as best illustrating the popular
morals and manners of every period, and contends that fiction yields in
interest to the gloomy dramas of real life."

The practice attributed to the Chancellor of annotating his books is
looked on by collectors as in the general case a crime which should be
denied benefit of clergy. What is often said, however, of other crimes
may be said of this, that if the perpetrator be sufficiently
illustrious, it becomes a virtue. If Milton, for instance, had thought
fit to leave his au