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APRIL 24, 1885.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 265 Queen’s most trusted private attendants; and admir ably are the duties performed. The portraits of the Prince and Princess of Wales alone reach a total of over 600, and now that her Majesty’s grandchildren are marrying, the Royal circle is extending at a most rapid rate. It may become necessary, in fact, seeing how photography is still developing, to appoint a special Court official to act as “ Comptroller of the Royal Photographs,” " Keeper of the Cartes,” or something of the kind. The primrose is a very pretty Hower, and we have nothing to object in the setting apart a day for wearing it. But does not the St. Stephen's Review, in its perfervid adora tion of Primrose Day and Lord Beaconsfield, go perilously near the ridiculous when it extols some card photographs because “ they have the merit of being cheap, and all taken from actual Hughenden primroses? ” We always thought one primrose very like another, but evidently, according to the St. Stephen's Review, the Hughenden primroses are "distinctly precious.” The lady’s Pictorial cites the “ military photo frame” as an instance of the tendency just now to assimilate ornament to affairs of public importance. It is interesting to learn that “ it has become de grand genre for officers to relieve their sombre photographs by the addition of a soldier painted in full uniform on one side of the leather frame, on the lower margin is often put a gun, two crossed swords, a casque or helmet with gauntlets.” This description is rather vague, but one can see what is meant, and if the fashion spreads we should not be surprised if frames suit able for the portraits of bishops were made ornamented with mitres and croziers ; frames for members of Parlia ment decorated with the mace and a copy of the oath for an inscription ; and frames for lawyers in the shape of a woolsack, and emblazoned at each corner with a representa tion of the Lord Chancellor’s seal! A monument to the memory of the Rev. F. F. Statham will probably be erected in St. Peter’s Church, Walworth. He was essentially the friend and helper of the poor in his parish, and the humbler classes of the parishioners are taking the initiative in the movement. In the South London Press we notice a long list of subscriptions ; and if any reader should desire to make the list longer, the best way will be to send a cheque to the Editor of the paper in question. A phototype reproduction of one of theTironian Psalters will be published shortly by the Royal Stenographic Insti tute of Dresden, and notes by Dr. O. Lehmann will accom pany the reproduction. “Landscape,” written by Mr. P. G. Hamerton, and just published by Seeley, would be valuable to the photo grapher, even if without the illustrations ; but considering that the four hundred folio pages of text are supplemented with plates in the proportion of one to each ten pages, and that each plate teaches a definite lesson, the work is one that every out-door worker with the camera may reason ably desire to possess. But for the system of photographing criminals, the perpetrator of the recent ghastly murder in Paris might not have been discovered. Marchandon, the butler of Madame Cornet, the murdered woman, had undergone a term of imprisonment in 1881, and the police, suspecting he might be the murderer, had his photograph shown to the keepers of ready-made clothes shops, as it appeared Marcbandon had systematically obtained situations as butler, and had absconded with stolen goods. One of the clothes-dealers recognized the photograph as that of a regular customer who had once mentioned that he lived at Compiegne. The photograph was also recognized at Compiegne railway station, and the man himself was at once arrested. An effort is being made to secure the publication of Gordon’s journals in facsimile by one of the photo-zinco- graphic processes which so admirably reproduce an origina MS., or whatever it may be. The difficulty at the Home for Lost Dogs at Battersea is to dispose speedily of the good dogs that from time to time find their way there. It has been suggested to the committee that the photographic camera might with ad vantage be brought to their aid, and that the circulation of (say) a weekly circular containing photographs of alll the more eligible of the canine refugees, in London and the Provinces, would probably bring about the desiderated sales. Herr Wilde, of Gorlitz, tells a queer story. A request that he would act as a juror in the photographic depart ment of the Technical Exhibition at Liegnitz was delivered by mistake to a cousin having the same name, and this gentleman, who had no idea of any mistake being made, accepted. As the other photographic juror (Herr Siebe) did not put in an appearance, there was but one acting juror, and this one a gentleman knowing nothing of photo graphic matters. Herr Quidde comments on the worthlessness of medals given under such circumstances—indeed, he evidently thinks that medals should be done away with altogether ; and he speaks approvingly of the exhibitors at the recent Technical Exhibition in Berlin, they having agreed to take no medals. As a rule, Herr Quidde remarks, medal seeking exhibitors do not care whence the medals come, so long as they are medals. This view is perhaps an extreme one, but, as regards the medals of the Photographic Society of Great Britain, it is a question whether it would not be more satisfactory to have them done away with altogether than for the suburban tram-cars to be decorated with portraits, each portrait being accompanied by a notice to the effect that the firm producing it has received the highest possible honour in connection with photography—the medal of the Photo graphic Society.