hibits its great superiority over its rivals. The materials, which prior writers had not been able to avail themselves of, because the immense labour of research involved in extracting and editing them had not been undertaken, viz., the vast mass of documents which Professor Stubbs has edited in his Select Charters, are here used to good purpose, and the Professor of Modern History at Oxford may well pride himself on a scholar who has so appreciative a sense of his invaluable labours. The full importance of the first epoch of parliamentary development-that which terminates with the death of Edward I.—is here duly set forth, and all matters of difficulty explained by the light afforded by the painstaking criticism of both the older and modern school of historians. The growth of the power of the Commons is detailed at adequate length and though without any manifestation of partisanship, not without a strong smack of liberalism; which perhaps will be acceptable to most readers, but which in some of the subtler questions which are discussed betrays the bias of the writer's mind.

The last chapter is devoted to "the progress of the constitution since the revolution," and is composed under the marked influence of the writings of Dr. Freeman and Sir Erskine May, popular but hardly impartial contributors to political history. Nevertheless, the same scrupulous care to write with completeness and accuracy, and the same desire to maintain a temperate tone of judgment of men and measures, is still shown, and this notably in the discussion of the troublesome case of Stockdale v. Hansard. There are a few slips which in another edition it would be well to correct. The personal property of felons is no longer forfeited: see 33 & 34 Vict. cap. 23, sec. 1 (p. 111). The Mirror was certainly composed after the reign of Edward I., and probably towards the close of the next reign (p. 117), and "the spiritual primacy of the Pope and his authority in matters of faith were (not) fully admitted" by the English Church from its first institution (p. 369), the relation of the Church in England to the Church of Rome was rather that of mother and daughter, as is explained by Matthew of Paris, in accordance with the general opinion of his day, than of superior and inferior; and the early Penitential of Theodore shows in a marked degree the independence of the Church's position even from its foundation anew by the emissaries of the Papacy.

ALFRED CUTBILL.

Waterside Sketches. A Book for Wanderers and Anglers. By W. Senior ("Red Spinner"). (London: Grant & Co., 1875.) IF proof were needed that Johnson's description of angling as 66 a worm at one end" of a rod and line, "and a fool at the other," was a gratuitous ebullition of rudeness unworthy to be had in remembrance, it lies to hand in the many volumes anent the gentle craft which bewray that their writers have a relish for other arts and pursuits in point of fact collateral. The book before us is one such witness, affording in every page the most satisfactory evidence that the angler can scarcely help being in some

as

degree a poet (even if he has never penned his inspiration), or at all events a critic of poetry; and that at the same time his pastime is compatible with the calling of the landscape painter, so that in truth the "brother of the rod" is oftentimes also the brother of the brush." Add to this that, "Red Spinner" shows in each of his chapters, an angler of experience is pretty certain to have made to a certain extent a study of mankind as well as of fish-capture; and we have dissociated the connexion between fishing and folly which tickled the churlish taste of the burly dogmatist. This is no less than due to one who has writ so lively a volume as these Waterside Sketches, wherein the reader is taken in succession to the chosen haunts of perch, tench, pike, barbel, bream, salmon, trout and grayling, and shown with what bait and manner of tackle he is to cast his line beside the many and diverse waters of English, Irish, and Cambrian rivers. Starting apparently from Cockneyland, and well acquainted with the club-prize systems which are in vogue there, and lead to the unsportsmanlike desire to bag fish-honestly or anyhow-and to catching pale lean pike in June, a month at least too early; familiar, too, with the professional Thames fisherman, whom he knows how to keep in his proper place, as well as with the punting triumvirate, whom at a holiday season "a lusty barbel or a wriggling roach concerns more than all their dividends, discounts, or exchanges,"-Mr. Senior does not limit his piscatory experience to suburban watersides, or exhaust himself in speculations (though he has a cosmopolitan interest in all such topics) as to the possibility of making the Thames a salmon-stream, and of getting grayling to adapt themselves to it. The pike and perch, he justly remarks, demur to the latter contingency; the realisation by a "Severn and Thames Salmon Company, Limited" of a plan for stocking the Thames with salmon via the Severn (since they decline to survive the Pool and its multitudinous shipping) is the only feasible prospect of the other. But, if it be not a bull to put it so, our author is as much at home when further afield. He is eloquent on the fishing further afield. He is eloquent on the fishing of the Dart from Totnes to Dartmouth, and has as keen an eye for the scenery of the "Rhine of the West" as an appetite for the Dartmoor troutlets, which are to be "scrunched body, bones, and head," the tale of tails remaining like damson-stones of a tart as sole record of one's table prowess. Anon we are transported to the Midlands, and taught to appreciate the truthfulness of Cowper's Muse when he sings of the "molten glass of the "slow-winding Ouse," and of Kirke racterises the bright, dashing, and impulsive White's poetic photography when he chaTrent as "rippling." In both you catch plenty of pike in the former the ugly "bream," which even Chaucer's authority will not raise to the rank of a decent edible; and in the latter the large coarse barbel, whose merit is not, any more than his cousin bream's, any special esculence when caught, but rather the pastime and patience which he gives scope for in catching. In Wharfedale, and in the vicinity of romantic Bolton Abbey, we make the acquaintance of the "grayling," introduced to "the swift Werfe"

any

(never doubt it) by the "monks of old" from the continent, and perhaps from Germany. Mr. Senior lingers on the autumnal tints of the woodlands, and on the singular stream-bed Wharfe (on one side gently shelving to the centre, on the other running deep under a steep curving shore) in the neighbourhood of Bolton Bridge, and would tempt his readers to linger over the traditions of the locale to the neglect of rod and fly, which latter may be "brown owl,” "fog-black," "black gnat," or some other cunning device of Otley tackle and fly-makers. But we owe it to the pleasantest of towns in the West of England, Ludlow, to bid them press on to Ludlow and the Teme-bank if they wish to enjoy good grayling fishing from one of the most picturesque and delightsome of all centres. Mr. Senior is in doubt whether Lugg or Teme be the best "grayling" river; and it may be the doubt is reasonable, though we imagine that the "Leintwardine Fishing Club" is a more privileged and enviable fraternity than any one which hails from Leominster "of the five Ws." But there is no question between the two towns, from which the angler sallies forth, the only wonder being that whom a fishing tour has led to acquaintance with memory-haunted Ludlow, can resist the temptation of settling down there and enjoying its charming scenery, as well as feasting on its "cucumbery" (not "thymy") grayling in perpetuity. Mr. Senior gives us one good chapter on Angling in Ireland, and in it pronounces the Shannon the best river in the world for all-round angling. In general, he says, you may trust the very accurate data of Murray's Handbook in its Irish angling chapter; but he has a special word for the pike in Lough Gill, and the salmon and trout in Lough Neagh; though he warns the angler to eschew the river Main in the month of July, when the flax crop blackens and befouls the stream, sickoning the fish and making wrath their would-be captors. In Welsh fishing Mr. Senior's experiences are neither large nor lucky. It is not fair to judge of the "Usk" (which gives the name of the "Three Salmons" Salmons" to an hostelry in its metropolis) by the bad sport of a frosty February morn ing; and Llyn Ogwen might have yielded a better day's fishing on other than a hailstormy Whit Monday. At least he learnt that the Llyn Idwal trout have two eyes, despite the legend. We should like to have heard what "Red Spinner" thinks of the " trouty" Montgomeryshire streams, and hope that his "second series " may report on these. His reading Llangorst for Lan gorse, and one or two other misprints of ance with Wales superficial. But we could Welsh names, make us deem his acquaintnot wish a pleasanter or more intelligent companion, whether in person, or bookwise and by deputy; and his fishing anecdotes have generally a wonderful vraisemblance, though when he tells the story of the rats at the Dartmoor Inn which ate the hearts out of two dozen snipes in a cupboard, or of the bottom of the river at Galway Bridge seeming paved with salmon, we suspect he has been supping with Baron Munchausen.

JAMES DAVIES.

St. Helena; a Physical, Historical, and Topographical Description of the Island, including its Geology, Fauna, Flora, and Meteorology. By John Charles Melliss, A.I.C.E., F.G.S., &c. (London: L. Reeve & Co., 1875.)

nents; this latter fact excluding the idea of its ever having been connected with them during at least the lifetime of existing species of plants and animals. The length of the island, from east to west, is ten and a quarter miles, and the width eight and a quarter. Mr. Melliss, who has added very greatly to our geological knowledge of the island, fully confirms the statement of Darwin that, like other islands of its class such as Palma, St. Paul's, and others, it is entirely of volcanic origin. He found no trace whatever of granite or any other primitive or plutonic rocks, or, indeed, any formation to encourage the slightest suspicion of a continental land having ever occupied the site. The present configuration of its surface is roughly that of a much abraded volcanic cone, the broken crater forming a semicircular basin on the south side of the island, and the products of the ancient eruptions constituting the slope to the northward, where they were deposited in accordance with the direction of the strong prevailing winds from the south-east. The seaward or windward rim of the crater is broken down, but the inland wall remains tolerably entire and forms the culminating ridge of the island, varying in altitude from 2,000 to nearly 3,000 feet, the lava beds sloping from the ridge at angles of from 8° to 10° to the northern shores, where their edges have been worn away by the secular action of the waves, and left perpendicular cliffs varying in height from 450 to 2,000 feet.

In his suggestive lecture on Insular Floras, delivered in the Nottingham Theatre in 1866, before the British Association, Dr. Hooker treated St. Helena as a type of the class of Oceanic Islands, and roused the interest of his hearers by his sketch of the intricate biological problems which the peculiar indigenous products of such islands offer for solution. Biological science was not then, and is not now, sufficiently advanced to solve these problems, but the interest of the question is not diminished by the circumstance, and there are few subjects regarding which naturalists receive new facts with heartier welcome than the indigenous living products of these specks of land in the ocean. On this ground alone Mr. Melliss may be considered fortunate in the subject of his geographical monograph, and he has shown his appreciation of this main feature of interest by devoting by far the greater part of his volume to a review of the Fauna and Flora of the island. During the later years of a long official residence he appears also to have employed his leisure hours with good effect in collecting and observing, thus enabling him to add many new facts to the store accumulated by preceding investigators. His work is, however, by no means confined to the biology of the island. St. Helena has a history, not devoid of striking incidents which have given it a world-wide reputation, and to this division of his subJect Mr. Melliss devotes forty-five out of the 400 pages which his volume contains. The Geology and Mineralogy are very fully treated of, in a section comprising thirtythree pages, and the Climate and Meteorology Occupy twenty-two pages. There is little that is not readable in the entire volume, and some portions of it-especially those relating to the early discovery of the island, the gradual extinction of its strange flora, and the theory of the origination of the land as a volcano isolated in mid-ocean-rise to a high degree of interest.

One of the conditions of an oceanic island is its remoteness from the nearest tract of extensive land, and its separation from it by a sea of great depth-implying long isolation as measured by the scale of geological time. This condition is perfectly fulfilled by St. Helena, and Mr. Melliss combats with

lis

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1,

success the views of Edward

considerations of "its isolated position, its peculiar fauna and its very remarkable insular flora, together with its geological character." We confess ourselves unable to see how proof of such extreme antiquity can be furnished by isolation of position or by geological character in the case of formations purely volcanic; but the fauna and flora seem at first sight to warrant the conclusion he draws. The state of the facts is this:— The island when first its indigenous productions began to be collected and studiedwhich was not until after the forests that originally clothed it had been almost wholly destroyed-was found to be stocked, though scantily, with genera and species having

wear

no

near affinity with those of any other part of the world; their nearest relatives being the productions of extra-tropical Southern Africa. The number of these extraordinary endemic forms was not great, some eighty species of plants, 100 species of insects, and a few of other classes; but many of the genera were highly peculiar, as well as the species, and the conclusion was a fair one that many others equally singular tenanted the island before the destruction of its primitive vegetation by the flocks of domestic animals introduced by the early settlers. Be this as it may, a sufficient number of indigenous forms have remained to establish the special character of its fauna and flora, and their non-existence in other lands being nearly equally well established, the question arises, whence did they come ? As we said at the commencement of this

author, "which, on approaching the island from "This great wall of rock," in the words of the all but a southerly direction seems to defy an entrance, is intersected by a number of deep and narrow gorges running at right angles from the coast line towards the central ridge, where they lessen considerably in depth and width, and the only town is situated in one of these gorges." Nearly all these deep ravines have a stream of water flowing through them, and they are naturally the results of the ing action of the drainage of the land. The lesson taught by this simple surface structure of the island has appeared so plain that, aided by a study of numerous vertical sections, which all showed successive layers of volcanic products, it is no wonder that Mr. Melliss has ventured boldly to sketch out its geological history, commencing with the time when the first bubblings of a submarine eruption disturbed the surface of the solitary ocean, and resulted in the emergence of a volcanic cone gradually enlarged by accretions of ejected matter. He has extended his explanation even to the minuter details of the physical geography of the island, supporting his views by sections and diagrams, and careful descriptions of the observed phenomena. Towards the end of his Geological chapter he enters also into a discussion of the probable

article, biological science is not sufficiently advanced to enable a satisfactory answer to be given. The interest of the problem in the case of St. Helena is heightened by the definiteness of the issue which it presents, if Mr. Melliss's conclusions with regard to its perfect isolation from its very origin be taken as well founded. We doubt much, however, whether he is correct in arguing that because the fauna and flora are peculiar, the island must be of very great antiquity. We know too little of the processes of migration, dissemination, modification and extinction of species generally, to warrant us in drawing any such conclusion. Some classes of facts seem to indicate that these processes are immensely more rapid on continents than on islands: so that an island which had received its forms by accidental dissemination might retain them nearly unchanged long after they had become either greatly modified or extinct, through the severer competition, on the continent whence they had been derived. This is shown by the significant way in which islands of perfect isolation, however large-like, for instance, Madagascar-seem in their grades of organic forms to lag behind the neighbouring continents. If there is any truth in this supposition, degrees of affinity, or amount of modification, of organic forms, offer no absolute measure of lapse of time; lands may be of the same antiquity, although their living products may belong to ancient types in one case, and recent types in another.

a

the

denudation of certain observed areas regarding which he adduces facts of great interest and importance to geologists.

The volcanic forces of the island have of course long been extinct. Mr. Melliss goes so far as to state that it may be placed among the oldest land now existing on the face of the globe, founding his belief on

That St. Helena originally received its now peculiar forms by migration or accidental emigration from other lands, and especially from extra-tropical southern Africa, cannot well be doubted. The prevailing

winds and ocean-currents set from that

direction towards it, and the island is at present largely peopled by modern species introduced from that quarter. There is the evidence also supplied by the nearest relatives of the strange forms being now inhabitants of South Africa; some much more

closely allied to them than others, indicating a difference in the dates of migration. To those considerations must be added the important fact that the whole of the native genera and species are not peculiar, but, on the contrary, a considerable proportion are undoubtedly waifs and strays of other lands, which have found their way thither by natural means of dissemination, leaving out of the question the unusually large number that have certainly been introduced by the agency of man. A large number of the plants registered by Mr. Melliss belong to this category; in fact it seems to be doubtful in many cases whether a species is an original native or introduced since the discovery of the island. In the excellent summary of the Coleopterous portion of the fauna, which Mr. T. V. Wollaston contributes to the volume, out of a total of ninety-five species, forty-two are considered unmistakeably indigenous (and not found elsewhere), seventeen as doubtful natives (being natives of other countries), and thirtysix as undoubtedly introduced accidentally by man; but of the forty-two indigenous species there is every gradation of affinity with others known in other lands, from the extraordinary forms, "living fossils," the real oldest inhabitants, totally unlike anything known elsewhere, down to the slightly modified species which may have found their way to the island in recent times.

We think the usefulness of Mr. Melliss' work in reference to the questions we have here discussed would have been much enhanced if he had kept the lists of the indigenous genera and species of plants and animals quite separate from those of the introduced kinds. He has too faithfully recorded the occurrence of every living thing in the island, even including cage-birds and garden flowers, mixing them up in the same lists with the few extraordinary endemic forms, which thus appear swamped by hundreds of entries having little or no interest. A great interest certainly does attach to those acclimatised species, which have usurped the places of the fast expiring natives, and all details with regard to their encroachments ought to be faithfully recorded; but the cage-birds, &c., might have been very well left out altogether. The volume is copiously illustrated, and the full-page coloured drawings of all the endemic flowering plants, by Mrs. Melliss, are especially interesting.

H. W. BATES.

MR. F. A. DE ROEPSTORFF has compiled a Vocabulary of Dialects spoken in the Nicobar and Andaman Isles, with short account of the natives,

their customs and habits, and of previous attempts at colonisation. This acquires a special value from the fact that some of the dialects here recorded are dying out, and some of the customs and beliefs becoming obsolete. The work has been printed at Calcutta, at the office of the Superintendent of Government Printing.

Henry Brinklow's Complaynt of Roderyck Mors, somtyme a gray fryre, unto the parliament house of Ingland his natural cuntry; for the redresse of certen wicked lawes, eucl customs, a[n]d cruel decreys. (About A.D. 1542.)

The Lamentacyon of a Christen Ayaynst the Cytye of London made by Roderigo Mors. (A.D. 1545.)

66

Edited from the Black-letter Originals by J. Meadows Cowper, F.R.H.S., Editor of "The Times' Whistle,' England in Henry VIII.'s Time,' "The Select Works of Archdeacon Crowley," &c, &c. (London: Published for the Early English Text Society by N. Trübner & Co., 57 and 59 Ludgate Hill, MDCCCLXXIV.) THE author of these two works was an apostate Grey Friar, who married-as nearly every apostate monk we have ever heard of did-and who became a mercer and citizen of London, and died in the last year of the reign of Henry VIII. Little is, or need be, known of him beyond the fact that Bale states that he was "fide magis quam eruditione clarus" a fact which is amply testified by the two tracts which Mr. Meadows Cowper has brought to light. In the latter he twice speaks of an intended publication, which in all probability was the third work of his which Bale says he had seen in print, and was entitled An Expostu lation to the Clergy. Among the signatures of the Grey Friars who resigned on November 12, an. 30 Henry VIII. occurs the name of Rodericns Boto. It seems probable, from the very unusual Christian name, that this is the same individual, and perhaps the spelling of the name Boto may be at fault.

It is very uncertain where these tracts were printed. The place assigned by the colophon of one of the copies of the latter work is fictitious, and perhaps no reliance can be placed on the statement of the colophon of the first tract that it was printed at Savoy, or on that of the other which assigns it to Nuremberg without mentioning a printer's name. The editor has paid more attention to the contents of the publications than to their bibliographical curiosity. And we must say that we do not think the introduction to such a volume is at all a fitting place for an editor to ventilate his opinions on religious or ecclesiastical matters. Brinklow's opinions may be, and really are, of some importance as indicating the line of thought adopted by himself and, no doubt, by others of his class at the time when the Act of the Six Articles was in force; and the tracts are valuable as throwing light upon the condition and conduct of the clergy of the day, however much or little credit the reader may be disposed to give to the testimony of one whose business it was to magnify the faults of those from whom he had apostatized.

One of the principal points of interest in the work consists in its contributing towards

the proof of what has only lately begun to direct influence Lutheranism ever has had in dawn upon people's minds-viz., how little this country. Even as early as 1542-if that is the date to be assigned to Brinklow's first publication-opinions had widely spread in England which Luther would have dis

claimed with as violent an impetuosity as ever he exerted against Roman doctrine. Indeed, this author goes beyond almost every other writer, of the men who belonged to the new learning, in his hatred of bishops; he inveighs against the observance of Sunday instead of the Sabbath, violently condemns auricular confession, calls the Mass the greatest of idols, and explains his doctrine of the Lord's Supper to be that, as we have tasted, eaten, and seen this Holy Supper or Sacrament of thanksgiving, even so we verily believe that Christ died for our sins."

66

His prejudice against clerical celibacy leads him into several tirades against the supposed chastity of priests and bishops, and he says in one place that he could name the priests and the places also (p. 111). Of his mode of writing the following may be taken as a fair specimen :

"What an abhomynacyon is it that I shoulde go poure out my vyces in the eare of an unlearned buzarde, and specyally for a woman whereby Syr Johan knoweth where to be sped. Yea if she will not graunt unto hym, he will not shame to threaten her to open her vice, and so for feare she must agree to his abhomynable desire." (p. 116.)

How much of truth may be looked for in such statements, or how far they represent the conduct of the writer himself during the time when he was a Grey Friar, must be judged by each reader according as his prejudice or his knowledge of history, or both, may guide him.

Assuredly the accusation he brings against Stephen Gardiner now appears for the first be given in his own

time. It shall words:

Three Feathers. By William Black. (London: Sampson Low & Co., 1875.) Alice Lorraine. By R. D. Blackmore. (London: Sampson Low & Co., 1875.) The Story of a Soul. By Mrs. A. Craven. (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1875.) Cremation; or, Sir Harry Forrester's Ring. By Miss Barrington. (Newport, Isle of Love Me, or Love Me Not. By Mrs. F. G. Wight J. Gubbins, 1875.)

Faithfull.

(London: Henry S. King &

Co., 1875.) Open, Sesame! By Florence Marryatt. (London: Chatto & Windus, 1875.) Russian Romance. Translated from A. S. Poushkin by Mrs. J. Buchan Telfer. (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1875.) Most people, we suppose, whether they have followed the fortunes of Miss Wenna Rosewarne month by month, or have more wisely reserved them for continuous reading, will agree with us in thinking that Mr. Black has made a

new experiment in Thre Feathers. In all his former novels the characters have been, to use a vague but convenient term, interesting; and their interest has been delightfully enshrined in an

aspic of description. In Three Feathers there is very little description, and the characters are, to our taste, curiously devoid of interest in themselves. We always devote particular attention (probably from the innate blackness of the critical character) to the villain of a story; and we are bound to say that Mr. Roscorla, the villain of this book, does not come up to our mark. No doubt his crimes are sufficiently atrocious. To begin with, he is fifty years old, and he appears once to have played unlimited loo. Being engaged to a girl, and receiving a letter from her to the effect that she has fallen in love with a younger man (a friend of his, by the way, and cognisant of the engagement), he is so lost to all decency as to fly into a rage. And we are sorry to say that, the young lady having voluntarily re-engaged herself to him, and then without any notice eloping with the said young man, he is abandoned enough to lose his temper again. All this is very very wrong, but somehow it does not seem to us to justify the peculiar acrimony with which he is treated by the author and all the other characters. Then the young man just mentioned is a doubtful hero. He is not only an ill-mannered, unlettered, and ill-conditioned cub-this is nothing-but he appears to us every now and then to exhibit traces of a far worse fault, namely, positive vulgarity. And the heroine-though perfectly natural as any girl drawn by Mr. Black must infallibly be is so inexcusably vacillating that she altogether fails to secure our sympathies. The minor characters are better, but they are not good-for Mr. Black. On impunément derrière soi such novels as pas he has already written. As to the setting of the story, the author has apparently determined to revenge himself on certain critics by curtailing his descriptions. But he has not been able to resist the spirit always, otherwise we might have been defrauded of the following wonderful eye-andear picture :

n'a

gorse;

"From time to time, as they turned, they caught a glimpse of hills all ablaze with and near the horizon a long line of pale azure with a single white ship visible in the haze. On the other side of the valley a man was harrowing: they could hear him calling to the horses, and the jingling of the chains. Then there was the murmur of the stream far below, where the sunlight just caught the light green of the larches." There is only one novelist in England who can write like that.

Alice Lorraine is an altogether satisfactory book. It does not require very great critical powers to formulate Mr. Blackmore's differences as a writer. Strong local colouring, with a most determined quaintness of thought and speech, made the fortune (and very deservedly) of Lorna Doone. But one is a little afraid of abuse in the management of such means, and certainly the monotonously elaborate oddity of The Maid of Sher was wearisome enough. We must congratulate Mr. Blackmore on a thorough recovery in Alice Lorraine. His mannerism has quite regained the crispness which we feared it had lost, and his powers as an actual story-teller have never been shown to better advantage. The book is a book which you

read straight through, not because as a reviewer it is your nature to, but because you can't leave off. And not only is the story interesting and the style attractive, with its odd rhyparography, but in the course of the book we come across passages and episodes of remarkable beauty. These are not quotable because, according to Mr. Blackmore's manner, they are diffused and not concentrated. But the pastoral of the first volume, describing Hilary Lorraine's Kentish visit, the siege of Badajos in the second, and the final scene at the Woeburn in the third, are things not to be easily forgotten by a reader of contemporary, or indeed of any, novels. And not the least merit of these episodes is that they are not really episodes at all, but climaxes of interest legitimately arrived at and departed from. The characters are all good, that is to say, they are as good as they need be for their purpose. Mr. Blackmore has never gone into the analytic business, but he knows quite well how to construct characters which shall be externally consistent, and up to their work. It is really very difficult to find any fault with the book; an ultra-captious critic might perhaps object to the profusion of Dutch painting, and to the unnecessary minuteness and repetition with which such personages as the boy Bonny and his donkey are (somewhat in Mr. Henry Kingsley's earlier manner) dwelt upon. But for our own part we have never been able to admit in matters artistic that you can ever have too much of a good thing, if it be good. And Alice Lorraine is most undoubtedly good.

We are not sure that if our advice had been asked, we should have given assent to the project of translating Mrs. Craven's Histoire d'une Ame. For we do not think that many of the large class of novel readers who do not willingly read anything out of their mother-tongue will care much for the service rendered them. And, on the other hand, Miss Bowles (who by the way has translated the book admirably) has been exceedingly cruel to the agonised mothers who write to the Queen and similar papers, imploring some one to mention French novels which will not raise a blush on the cheeks of the young person. In such cases Mrs. Craven's books are an infallible specific, and if they are to lose their virtue by being translated we really don't know what is to become of the young person. But now that the thing has been done and done well, the young person must take her chance. The Story of a Soul has for subject an old enough theme, the unbelieving husband sanctified by the wife. That this theme is treated with great skill and taste, and in a very interesting manner, all who know Mrs. Craven's books will be prepared to hear; as also that it is dealt with in a key which prevents detailed criticism in this place. Any such criticism could only bring out the curious but obvious differences which arise from taking points of view which are not so much opposed to as remote from one another. For instance, Mrs. Craven speaks of "the facile gift of beauty!" But did not the late Mr. Mill talk about "the accident of sex?"

The subject of Miss Barrington's funny little pamphlet makes one expect something like the well-known "Blackwood article" of

ancient days.

How a bereaved husband boiled his wife down and wore her in a ring, and what a painful effect she had on her successor till she providentially made a hole in the ring (which must have been bad gold) and ran out, seems at first sight rather appalling. But Miss Barrington has not followed the immortal directions given to Miss Psyche Zenobia, and there is nothing in the tale about the Supernal Oneness or the Infernal Twoness either. On the contrary, it is a pleasantly and sensibly written little story. But an advocate of cremation might justly urge that the title is unfair, for Mrs. Forrester number one is not cremated in an open and orthodox manner, but subjected to secret and unholy practices.

Love Me, or Love Me Not (the appropriateness of which title we confess that we discern but dimly) is one of a very numerous class of novels. When we have read a few pages we know, without the exercise of any black art, exactly what to expect. We know that we shall have to follow and sympathise with the perfectly gratuitous misfortunes of a young woman endowed with that peculiar transcendental sense of duty which shows itself in making herself, and most people with whom she has to do, exceedingly uncomfortable. We also know (at least so it happens, and it seems to us as if we knew it) that she will jilt an uncommonly good sort of fellow (on whom the whole blame will be laid), and eventually take her chance of happiness (concerning the value of which chance we have our opinion) with a foolish and cross-grained young man, of high moral principles and no manners. The name of the young woman in this case is Winifred Chace, and she would be rather nice if she were a little less dutiful and a little more aware of her own mind. The name of the young man is Mark Cameron, and his folly is, even among his class, remarkable. There is really nothing more to say about the book.

Mrs. Ross Church has chosen the ma

chinery of Spiritualism as the main working power of her new story, nor is there anything to wonder at in the choice; indeed, it is rather surprising that so few novelists have as yet availed themselves of the pleasant excitement of dark séances and complaisant Katies as seasoning for their compounds. But we do not think that, in the present instance, the machinery has been very skilfully worked. Lord Valence's delusion, notwithstanding the pains taken (by the insertion of an inordinately voluminous diary), to make us believe in it, somehow does not impress us at all properly. Instead of sympathising with him, we only feel that he is a weak-minded young man who wants a good shaking. The wicked feminine conspirator-the Cat, as Mrs. Ross Church calls her, observing the capital letter religiously-could hardly have failed to be found out by him, and by the heroine also if either had a grain of common sense. The morals of the book are two-both something musty--first, that there is nothing like beginning with a little aversion, and secondly that you should not attempt to keep house with your sister-in-law. The heroine, with her healthy vigorous idea of curing her husband's delusions by the very drastic

remedy of eloping with another man, has some merits and so indeed has the book, though it is sometimes oppressively lively, and sometimes oppressively slow.

The principal and very obvious drawback to the enjoyment of Russian Romance is the multitude of dark allusions-dark that is to say to us, and probably to other English readers. The translator does her best, indeed she informs us in foot-notes that vodka

glass of spirits, and the like, till we grow slightly weary of the information and begin to wonder why she does not save herself the trouble by translating the word in the text. But we are, no doubt most unreasonably, irritated by such a sentence as this: "He wiped his tears picturesquely with his coat-tails, like zealous Terentitch in Dmitrieff's beautiful ballad." Who is zealous Terentitch? Who is Dmitrieff? Why do we not know that beautiful ballad of coattails? However, as we have said, this is no doubt most unreasonable, and we ought to be thankful for what is given us. Moreover, these tales are really attractive enough, especially by reason of the odd simplicity which seems characteristic of Russian story. Except in manner, there is nothing very original about them; indeed, the last scene of the first and longest story, " The Captain's Daughter," is, to use a very mild word, borrowed from Jeanie Deans' interview with Queen Caroline. Except when Dumas thought fit in Les Louves de Machecoul to translate several chapters of Rob Roy, we hardly know a parallel instance of adaptation. Still the stories are pleasant enough reading. GEORGE SAINTSBURY.

THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.

König Sigismund und Heinrich der Fünfte von England. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Zeit des Constanzer Concils. Von

Dr. Max Lenz. (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1874.)

IN this little treatise of 215 pages we have an important contribution to European, and especially to English history. The relations between Sigismund, King of the Romans, and our own Henry V. are a subject which has hitherto been treated in a very superficial manner, while the political bearings of the Council of Constance have been almost entirely overlooked. Dr. Lenz has concentrated his attention upon these two subjects, and has examined closely and critically all the authorities relating to them-German, French, and English. In his analysis of the English sources of information, he corrects some hitherto unchallenged mistakes of Hearne and other editors as to the authorship of the works printed by them. The chronicle attributed to Thomas of Elmbam is shown not to be really his. On the other hand, the anonymous chaplain's narrative, published by Williams with the title Gesta Henrici Quinti, is clearly proved to have been written by Elmham. The Liber Metricus, edited by Mr. Charles Cole in the Rolls Series, which is undoubtedly the work of Elmham, is declared by the author himself to be a mere epitome of a book written by him in prose; and this book can be clearly identified with the chaplain's narrative. These are points

which it will concern future historians of England to take note of.

But the main object of the present treatise is an examination of the policy of Sigismund King of the Romans, especially in his relations with England and France. His conduct, even at the first blush, has a suspicious look of double-dealing, which we may at once say is not by any means removed on closer examination. Dr. Lenz is no hero worshipper, and he certainly does not attempt to make King Sigismund greater than he actually was. He merely traces out for us in a very interesting manner the particular influences by which he was governed in each successive stage of his career during the life of Henry V. of England. Indeed, we are almost inclined to think that in one or two matters he depreciates Sigismund unduly, pointing in the end to the failure of his policy as if it was due to weakness in the man, and not, mainly at least, to the complications by which he was surrounded. Perhaps, even in our moral judgment of his character, these complications deserve to be considered; for it is needless blaming any one for not taking a direct route if the streets are all winding and crooked. At all events, Sigismund was a king who had a very distinct object in view, which he pursued through thick and thin as far as his power would serve. And it is hard to say that that object was a purely selfish one, merely because his own interests were in a remarkable degree bound up with it.

The point which strikes us as most remarkable in his career is the manner in which, from the most unpromising beginnings, he not only rose to be the secular head of Christendom, but certainly succeeded in reviving for a time the old predominance of the Holy Roman Empire. He had already reached middle age when he was elected King of the Romans in 1410. He was forty-six when he was crowned at Aix in 1414. Before that time

he had been King of Hungary, where he ruled uncomfortably over a factious nobility at home, and when he went forth to resist the Turk, he lost a magnificent army at Nicopolis. For years he was an exile and a wanderer, and when he returned to his kingdom he was imprisoned by his own subjects. Nevertheless, on the death of the Emperor Rupert a small portion of the German electors gave him their votes. The rest supported his cousin Jobst or Jodocus, while his elder brother Wenzel, or Wenceslaus, who had been deposed, still maintained his pretensions. But in a short time Jobst died, and Wenzel resigned his claims, so that Sigismund, who certainly was supported only by a minority of the electors—a popular German rhyme said that a child and a fool had elected a king at Frankfort behind the choir-remained without a rival.

Yet, even as undisputed head of the Empire he had still to vindicate the importance of his position. That which undoubtedly gave him an influence in Europe not due even to the Imperial dignity, was the wonderful diplomacy and tact with which he succeeded in terminating the long-standing schism in the Papacy. There were at this time no less than three Popes claiming the allegiance of the Christian world. Two of them had been deposed by the Council

of Pisa, but refused to acknowledge its authority; the third was the worthless John XXIII., who had been driven out of Rome by the King of Naples. A Pope in this situation was not in a condition to resist the overtures of Sigismund for a general Council. The project had already been so far entertained before the Pope was driven from Rome, that the Council had been actually summoned to meet in the Imperial city itself. But Sigismund wrung from the legates of the exiled Pontiff the concession that it should meet in the German city of Constance; and, before the Pope himself had ratified the agree ment, he issued a universal edict, as King of the Romans, for the holding of a Council there on November 1, 1414.

This was a crushing blow to Pope John, who saw that his ruin was now almost inevitable. Yet it was a bold step in one who was not yet Emperor, nor had even been crowned King of the Romans, seeing that the pre-eminent authority even of an Emperor would not have been acknowledged throughout Europe. Dr. Lenz, however, shows us clearly how Sigismund framed his course so as to avoid wounding national susceptibilities. To France he addressed him. self, not as the head of Christendom, but merely as a member of the friendly House of Luxemburg, while England also courted his alliance. With the goodwill of both Powers he was crowned at Aix, and immediately afterwards opened the Council of Constance. In the professed interests of peace he afterwards visited both France and England, but having ascertained for himself that the victors of Agincourt were likely to maintain their ascendency, he kept the peace nego tiations at a standstill till he could lay his plans with Henry for throwing off the mask at a convenient season and declaring war against France himself.

From a merely political point of view it may seem that this double dealing ended in nothing at all. Neither Sigismund nor Henry gained any material advantage from the league formed between them at Canterbury. The Bohemians gave Sigismund so much trouble that he made no attempt to recover from France any territory that had once belonged to the Empire; and Henry for the same reason called in vain upon his ally to assist him in the war. But the understanding between England and the Empire had most important effects upon the proceedings at Constance, which were con tinued all the time of his absence. It effectually prevented the election of another French Pope, and perhaps averted another schism. The success of the Council of Constance in freeing Christendom from these evils certainly redeemed for a time the Holy Roman Empire from the contempt into which it had even then begun to fall.

On this part of the subject, however, we shall not attempt to follow Dr. Lenz minutely. The proceedings of the Council of Constance have, it is true, a special interest at this time from the reference made to them in Mr. Gladstone's recent pamphlet, and to understand them perfectly the student must henceforth make use of Dr. Lenz's labours, But for a detailed account of the facts, accompanied by a very thorough examination