rian clergyman had signed the Covenant, his position was no more deserving of sympathy than that of some soldier of fortune who might have taken an oath of fidelity to a freebooting captain in violation of his sworn allegiance to his rightful sovereign. This theory was defended by the Nonjurors as the keystone of political faith, and it is only just that in deciding on its "reasonableness they should be heard in their own defence. The "Defence" which Lake, Bishop of Chichester, drew up on his deathbed, and on which Macaulay lays most stress, is really for this purpose of little value, being rather a declaration than a vindication of the author's sentiments. A far better illustration will be found in a series of letters on the subject between Ambrose Bonwicke, who was ejected as a Nonjuror from the mastership of Merchant Taylors' School, and his friend Blechynden, a Fellow of St. John's, Oxford, who had taken the oaths. The position of the Nonjuror, as there maintained by Bonwicke, gives us an exact parallel to that in which the loyal Catholic stood to the Head of the Church. The Pope, the latter held, might be a bad man; his private life might be a scandal to Christendom, and his State policy of a kind calculated to bring discredit on the faith and scatter discord among the nations; but he was still God's vicegerent on earth, and facts like these could in no way justify the sin of schism. Precisely similar was the theory of the Nonjuror with respect to the temporal power. No resist ance," says Bonwicke, in his final reply to his antagonist, "no resistance upon any pretence whatever, is a plain rule that exposes us only to the inconveniences of tyranny; but if every man must be the judge of the actions of his prince, and quit his allegi

ance whenever he thinks the coronation oath broken, there can be no such thing as peace." The duty involved was of a primary order, and one with which no ulterior considerations could possibly do away; the Nonjuror could no more consent to transfer his allegiance than the primitive Christians could comply with the command to throw incense upon pagan altars. "If," says Lake, "the oath had been tendered at the peril of my life, I could only have obeyed by suffering.' In his fourth chapter Dr. Stoughton gives a detailed account of the scheme of Comprehension and of the so-called Toleration Act which occupied the Parliament of 1689, and his research and criticism render this chapter the most valuable portion of his work. The student will be glad to find in the Appendix the original Bill of Comprehension from the Lords' Journal, together with the alterations made in committee. Dr. Stoughton's investigations have brought to light the fact, overlooked by Macaulay and other writers, that the Commons initiated a Comprehension Bill of their own, independently of that passed by the Lords, during the time that the latter was in progress in the Upper House. In this they definitely rescinded the penal statutes against Dissenters, which the Lords simply sus pended. The Bill, as is well known, was shelved by a counter device of petitioning His Majesty to summon Convocation. It is difficult to say whether this was owing, as Macaulay suggests, solely to the machinations

of the High Church party. "The whole atmosphere," says Dr. Stoughton, seems to have been laden with duplicity. . . . and there is reason to believe that if not the parents, yet the nurses and sponsors of the Bill had no objection to have the child perish in its cradle." That the Dissenters themselves were not of one mind he readily admits, but he thinks the instances were extremely rare wherein, as Macaulay has conjectured, the scheme was opposed by Nonconformist divines as likely to result in a diminution of their incomes. He, however, fully agrees with the same authority in regarding the attempt as "too late." Dissent had acquired an organisation and institutions of its own, and preferred the freedom conferred by the Toleration Act to the opportunity of reabsorption and loss of its dis

tinctive character.

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com

With regard to the Act "for exempting their Majesties' Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the penalties of certain laws," Dr. Stoughton notes as "a curious fact" that the word "toleration was not used in the Bill from beginning to end. Of the measure itself he speaks with unwonted enthusiasm, and characterises it as "one among a number of instances in which a change comes over the legislative enactments of a nation through a change wrought in the minds of rulers, wrought also in the minds of a people, the Zeit-Geist or spirit of the age,-produced by the discipline of circumstances and by sympathetic impulses." It is very rarely that Dr. Stoughton favours his readers with a generalisation like this, and indeed, in one of his prefaces, he speaks somewhat disparagingly of such disquisitions as paratively easy" when contrasted with the labours of a careful and painstaking investigation of facts. Perhaps no work deserves to take rank as history which is not the result of a combination of patient enquiry and sound induction; but one thing is certain, that it is much easier to put forth crude and incorrect generalisations than right ones, and in the foregoing instance it is at least questionable whether the comments are not a total misapprehension. At any rate, we think that in thus completely ignoring and setting aside the criticism of his illustrious predecessor in this portion of English history, Dr. Stoughton has exposed himself to the charge of a slight defect of courtesy. Readers of Macaulay's brilliant narrative will not require to be reminded that it is in connexion with the Toleration Act that he has left us one of the most interesting generalisations that ever proceeded from his pen, in a few masterly observations (for which Guizot had already furnished hints, and which Mr. Freeman has so emphatically echoed), on the characteristic spirit of English legislation. In the eleventh chapter of his History he points out that, though the Toleration Act "did what a law framed by the utmost skill of the greatest masters of political philosophy might have failed to do," and "approaches very nearly to the idea of a great English law," it notwithstanding does not only not recognise the principle of toleration but " positively disclaims it." "The English," he says, "in 1689, were by no means disposed to admit the doctrine

that religious error ought to be left unpunished. That doctrine was just then more unpopular than it had ever been." In short, the Toleration Act was a partial and inequitable removal of grievances for the purpose of conciliating those whose sympathy and support it was just then very inconvenient for the Government to lose. Now if this criticism be correct, and it certainly seems to be quite in harmony with all the facts, it is evident that Dr. Stoughton's view is, to say the least, far too enthusiastic in its conception. At any rate, the Zeit-Geist did nothing for the Roman Catholics, against whom the laws with which James had dispensed were re-enforced with new vigour.

The latter part of the volume is principally devoted to short sketches of eminent ecclesiastics, Nonjurors, and Nonconformists of the time, and there is also a brief account, compiled chiefly from Woodward, of the religious societies which trace back their origin to this period.

Throughout the whole work Dr. Stoughton exhibits great impartiality and candour, and his criticisms are distinguished by their freedom from the bias of party; but, notwithstanding, it is sufficiently apparent that, beyond the mere investigation of facts, he aims at the illustration of a principle. Conscientiously opposed to the connexion between Church and State, he selects for special prominence whatever would seem to show the disadvantages and evils resulting from such a connexion; his use of such opportunities is, however, quite legitimate, and the volume well deserves the attention of many who do not share his views.

J. BASS MULLINGER.

Our Autumn Holiday on French Rivers. By J. L. Molloy. (London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1875.)

EVERYONE who has taken a share in a boating voyage for boating's sake, and who has the instinct du canotage by nature, knows from experience that during such an expedition the mind gets into a state so far elevated above the condition of ordinary mortals who travel in coaches and railway-trains that it laughs at all evil and inconvenience, whilst every good and pleasant thing that comes in the way by accident is appreciated with infinitely more enjoyment than it would be in the exacting temper of every-day civilised existence. If the canotier could but preserve the same feelings after the voyage was over, he would not only be one of the happiest of mortals, but he would certainly be a brilliant example of the very wisest kind of practical philosophy. That art of contending against the evils of existence and of enjoying to the utmost the good things which it offers, that art of being happy which has been said, and truly, to be worth more than riches to its enviable possessor, the true canotier has mastered. The danger is that by neglecting to practise the art of happiness on dry land during those months of the year in which boating yields its place to more serious pursuits, he may gradually forget it, gradually become less and less genial, goodtempered, patient, charitable, merry, and more and more peevish, irritable, exacting, difficult to please. Mr. Molloy has seized, I imagine, the proper time for writing an

"Just in time," page 30, is one of these. Two of the party have been buying provisions in the town of Havre. They arrive at the quay "just in time" to catch the steamer, on board of which the Mariee is already safe and snug, and they have to get down a perpendicular ladder encumbered as they are with bottles, a loaf more than a yard long, and the little dog. The doggie is let down by a rope, and his canine sense of peril is rendered to the life. Indeed, the dog is always thoroughly well done, whatever his attitude, and however minute he may be. There is much character, too, in the landscape sketches, some of which, like those of Blois and Amboise, quite convey the feeling of being actually on the Loire. The sketch of Samois is like a clever bit of etching. But now comes a piece of criticism which must be expressed, though it seems ungracious to close a notice of so pleasant a book with anything disagreeable. The plain truth is that a great many of the illustrations are utterly ruined by a frightful mannerism. They are coarse imitations of very coarse pencil drawings, in which broad ragged lines, parallel to to each other, or nearly so, are made to do duty for shading, to the destruction of all natural texture, and very often of natural detail too. Let us take the sketch of Poissy as an example. The trees and bushes are shaded with big coarse lines, diagonal or horizontal, which resemble nothing in nature, certainly not the mysterious shade of foliage. The crossed vertical and horizontal shading on the barge and house resembles a portcullis or the bars of a prison-cell. The shading on costume is often so coarse that it might stand for a representation of broad stripes were it not that the same stripes cover trees and boats and river-bank and sky. In some of the illustrations there is even a laborious reproduction of rotten lines, that is, lines like those in a badly-bitten etching. All this is simply deplorable, and the more so that it is the only evidence of bad taste in the whole book, for even the binding is a beautiful piece of true grotesque invention, in which the river, the boat and crew, and many other things are introduced with great skill and quite in the right manner for work of that kind. Having closed the book, we are still glad to see on the outside of it the merry companions who have been companions of our own as we read it. Let us wish them another such voyage, with plenty of peaches to eat and pretty girls to admire (in all honour and innocence), these being apparently their chief delights in the sunny

land of France.

P. G. HAMERTON.

Indian Famines; their Historical, Financial,

and other Aspects. By Charles Blair, Executive Engineer, Indian Public Works Department. (London and Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1874.) By the partial but far-spreading visitation of the past year, the Bengal Famine of 1769-70 has been repeated in something closely resembling a centenary form: but how different are the circumstances in the two cases! The first calamity, watched by human eye, but barely met by disinterested

human effort, did its fearful and fatal work unchecked till it had carried off ten millions of human beings, or nearly one-sixth of the population of existing Bengal. The deaths we have now to deplore are so few that it is almost a question whether they can be called extraordinary. Of the achieved disaster the progress was noiseless, and hushed the report. In direct antagonism to the prevented evil, statesmen, administrators, theorists, executives, men of divers grades and callings, threw themselves eagerly forward; while the press assiduously and devotedly chronicled results. It is true that in the time of Verelst and Cartier there were neither steamers nor telegraphs, and that all news from India, whether of Haidar Ali, the Marhattas, Oudh or Nepal politics, or local famine or disease, was received but in tardy instalments, few and far between; but the modicum of attention given by the British public to India in those early days of Oriental dominion was perhaps mostly taken up with the matter of new relations then established between His Majesty's Government and the East India Company, regulating the money demand of the former, and limiting the dividends and independent action of the latter. That the famine of 1770, especially severe as it was in India, was not wholly confined to that region, may however be gathered from the testimony of the periodical press to the state of things in Germany and Bohemia:

"A course of inclement or irregular seasons in some countries, and the miseries of war in others, had occasioned, we are told, a general scarcity of corn, which was more or less felt in every part of Europe. Indeed, the first of these causes, as well the remotest parts of the globe, of which Bengal as the effect, was unhappily extended to some of and several countries in the southern hemisphere afforded melancholy examples." *

There has been no lack of official enquiry into the causes of the recent Indian famine; nor are strictly official papers the only records to which future administrators may refer for elucidation of this all-important subject. It is to be lamented that agencies like those put in operation for arresting the progress of the visitation, agencies which moreover ensure the registration of data calculated to forefend renewed destruction of life, were not similarly in vogue for the famines of

Persia and Asia Minor-the first of which has

just passed away from the land, while the second still continues to exercise its deadly

influence.

The great matter now to be conshould be of a nature to entail neither exsidered is prevention. And prevention traordinary effort nor extraordinary expenditure. Such results, however much to be relied on by precedent, are inadmissible, as surely recurring remedies, by the laws of common

the best safeguards against scarcity in time to come; and has instanced the Deccan surveys and assessments in support of the theory that systematic regard to the condi tion of the people, and acquaintance, void of undue interference, with their wants and ways, as individuals and in communities, may bring about a healthy relation to Government which would fairly protect the settled Indian district from the ravages of famine (pp. 33, 67). Since the publication, however, of his instructive and interesting contribution to what may be designated the literature of the particular crisis under review, a work has issued from the press which its mere title shows to be of a yet more comprehensive character. Mr. Charles Blair, of the Indian Public Works Department, has produced a small compact volume, well written and well printed enough to invite general perusal; and this gentleman is of opinion, after a fair amount of practical experience, that famines will recur in India for ever, unless some vast climatologi. cal change occurs," a prospect on which he naturally declines to speculate. He adds: "There are various possible methods of mitigating and alleviating such disasters, but to prevent them in toto, is, I think, altogether beyond our control." We have italicised the last four words as they are weighty and very pertinent.

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The book consists of seven chapters, of which the last only professes to deal directly with preventive and mitigative measures, though the preceding matter is perhaps equally suggestive of true remedial action. Migration to favoured districts is approved; irrigation is discussed, and the increase of wells especially recommended; and the importance of opening out the country by road, rail, and canals, as well as all other means

of

communication, is acknowledged; but it is considered rather Utopian "to suppose that irrigation will ever be able to complement a failure of the rainfall." Arguments are cited in favour of the importation of grain,

and useful hints thrown out for fostering any staple article of commerce peculiar to a suffering district, and avoiding the excessive cultivation of certain lucrative crops to the detriment of the more essential cereals. But the natural apathy and caste prejudices of the people are alluded to as opposing a heavy bar to wholesome reforms; and we after all the greatest desideratum in securing involuntarily ask whether education is not that intelligent self-help on the part of the "raiyats" which can alone set the Government mind at ease in respect of its Indian millions? At present Mr. Blair truly tells us (pp. 202, 203) :

ence.

"The idea of a liberal relief by Government is fostered in every one's heart, which is not an encouraging sign it engenders a feeling of dependGovernment has and should exact its unqualified right to demand that each one will act prudently; that he will exercise thrift in the expenditure of food, and so tend to economise, or in other words to increase, the food supplies. And this is all the more important in India. There it is the custom of the population to subsist for the greater part of the year on their own private stores; they depend to a very small extent on the markets for the provision of food. It is on account of this principle of economising food supplies that Government acts judiciously in

withholding information from the general public as to the amount of relief that it is prepared to give."

many more matters than Indian famines, and, in these days of rapid communication, obtains illustration from Asia and the East in almost weekly instalments. F. J. GOLDSMID.

wins his love by sheer strength of purpose, and in spite of every personal disadvantage; Jack is a clever and high-minded young farmer, who overcomes a giant squire, and carries off his harp in the shape of his daughter; and "The White Cat" is a pretty young girl in the white dress of a novice, life which she dreads.

opposed to the inculcation of this principle of economy. A precedent has been established which is interpreted that there will be relief, if required; and this precedent is not one to be disregarded. Those who have I lived in India cannot fail to have observed, even in their own private households, how sharply a chance practice once introduced is I caught up by the native retainers, and, unless authoritatively checked, converted into inveterate habit.

The inexpediency of Government importing food from a distance while the same measure is open to private speculation, a dictum quoted from Mill, is aptly questioned on the strength of an argument derived from the Indian famine of 1874. Mr. Blair thinks that the action taken by Government on this occasion "will act as a strong stimulus to the trading population in the matter of importation, and that it will be of untold benefit in future dearths." He sees in it, already, good results, "because the private importations being made are very large, much beyond all expectation." And he adds a second instance to a similar effect, showing that at Tonk, in Rajputána, the merchants accepted the import of grain by the State as a guarantee that the step was unlikely to be attended with loss, and exerted themselves so heartily in following suit, that their rulers withdrew altogether, leaving them sole possessors of the field.

Rather than quote further from the volume under notice, we commend it to careful perusal. If it be not written in a very hopeful or sanguine strain, or if it do not supply tangible or palpable remedies for recurrence of the disaster which is its groundwork, it is at least readable, practical and suggestive. To those who have Indian experience of their own to guide them, it will prove more valuable than to simply English readers; for they will be able to supply many lacunae in the data given, as well as to test the value of conclusions which, though the legitimate product of personal observation, are often insensibly coloured by personal idiosyncracies acted upon by circumstance.

In conclusion, we would express acquiescence in much of the purport of Mr. Blair's views on the criticisms of the home press. At the same time we believe that the - exercise of the power to which he refers acts, upon the whole, beneficially in the prevention as in the detection of administrative errors; and we had rather, therefore, find its range widened than restricted. To us, the failure of the press in these cases, is in being led, or often misled, by the opinions of authorities with whom their correspondents come in contact, not always the most reliable, sound or independent. By this means much is censured that really deserves applause; much is praised that is open to censure; and much good honest work is wholly lost sight of, that should be made public. The reasoning here applies to

Thackeray. (London: Smith, Elder &
Co., 1874.)

THERE is a subtle charm in Miss Thackeray's writing which is not easily defined in words. It is like the scent of an old-fashioned garden on a dewy evening, and we are as grateful for the memories and associations it brings back to us, as for its own sweetness and worth.

Her stories are a series of exquisite little sketches full of tender light and shadow and soft harmonious colouring; she

"adds the gleam,

The light that never was on land or sea,” to commonplace things, so that when we have finished reading one of her books, we instinctively begin to put the circumstances of our own lives into the most picturesque attitude possible. She gives us also a pleasant sense of being at peace with ourselves; she is so genial, so sympathetic, so manysided, that we seem to have a friend near us who is putting into smooth and pleasant words undefined thoughts of our own, who brings from remote corners of our brain long forgotten gleams of sunshine, sweet dim faces, sights and sounds of long ago, until we are surprised at the amount of our own

resources.

And it is not only the picturesque side of the commonplace which Miss Thackeray puts before us, for she has inherited much of the power, which her father had above all other writers, of feeling in their due proportions the humour and the pathos of every-day life.

Wordsworth has said of the poet, that "he is one endowed with more sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul than are supposed to be common among mankind . . . one who rejoices more than others in the spirit of life that is in him." This "spirit of life is pre-eminent in all Miss Thackeray's writings: in Elizabeth breaking through the formalities of the French pastor's home, and asserting her own true self through all her pathetic little love story: in the breezy Village on the Cliff, with its naïve little Katharine, its ugly fascinating Frenchmen, its large-hearted Reine: in the pretty stories which have modernised so gracefully our old fairy tales, the last volume of which, Bluebeard's Keys and Other Stories (Smith, Elder & Co.) lies before us. And none of the sketches are more charming than these last four. The Roman life in the first story of "Bluebeard's Keys," the Swiss pictures in "Riquet à la Houppe," the quiet English scenery of "Jack and the Beanstalk," and the pretty bit of Normandy in the "White Cat," are as faithfully described as the fairy Cat," are as faithfully described as the fairy tales are successfully represented. Bluebeard is an Italian marquis, who nearly scares away the wits of his little Irish betrothed, and finally becomes a monk. Riquet à la Houppe is a certain Tom Rickets, who

It is unfortunate that Miss Thackeray's gift of language has led her into a certain indistinctness of utterance that may become, if not corrected, a serious blemish on her writing. Old Kensington suffered from it, and there are some notable examples of it in the book before us. Miss Thackeray feels herself so entirely en rapport with her readers, that she believes, and probably believes rightly, that they will gather her meaning from such a passage as the following, which occurs in "Jack and the Beanstalk":"Foxslip Wood in summer-time is a delightful place, green to the soul. yond the coppice here and there, where the branches break asunder, sweet tumults of delicate shadowy hills are flowing to gleams of light cloud.' "With some people every

Be

thing means everything," Miss Thackeray tells us, and, therefore, we need not ask the meaning of "Miss Gorges' curious pale blue sympathetic glances;" but, with every wish to understand it, we find ourselves baffled by this next quotation :—

"Some years are profitless when we look back to them; others seem to be treasuries to which we turn again and again when our store is spent out-treasuries of sunny mornings, green things, birds piping, friends greeting, voices of children at play. How happy and busy they are, as they heap up their stores. Golden chaff, crimson tints, chestnuts, silver lights, it is all put away for future use; and years hence they will" (who will ?) "look back to it, and the lights of their past" (whose past ?) "will reach them as starlight reaches us-clear, sweet, vivid, and entire, travelling through time and space."

This indistinctness is only to be found in Miss Thackeray's later writings; there is no trace of it in The Story of Elizabeth; and it seems a pity, when her thoughts are so well worth having, that they should be kept from us by any obscurity or hurried and careless expression.

But these blemishes are few in number when compared with all the passages that are as beautiful as the following from "Bluebeard's Keys: "

"It was a great dazzling Italian day. Italian days seem longer and more vivid than any others. Every minute is marked; something is happening and passing away, reflections lighting the red cypress trees, flowers blooming, pigeons flying across the blue, or rubbing their breasts upon the yellow marble of a window lintel, waters foam, and figures fill their earthen pitchers. You look shrined; outside are stone galleries with blue, up at the great palaces with their treasures enhigh vaults, and statues and pictures glittering and alive. A grand conception of a saint in flying drapery comes down the steps of the Pincio. Little Beppo and his sister, the little models, come dancing to the carriage-steps with soft monkey-hands. coin, and the boy and girl dance back, laughing, Some one flings them a silver and pointing their ribboned feet. Beppo flings his little high-crowned hat into the air; Stella tumbles over with a winsome little caper, as she gives her coin to her beautiful Albanian mother, who sits watching the children with her chin upon

Here, out of my window, is a sketch ready made- -a grey, sloping roof, with wooden beams, and moss-grown stones upon the tiles. There is a wooden balcony, where a woman sits at work all day. There is a garden down below, full of lupins and sunflowers and scarlet runners against a trellis; the hotel cook is walking there between his courses all dressed in white. My sketch is too big for the paper, as many sketches are. It scarcely takes in the plums, or the apple-tree all studded with crimson fruit. There is a chime in the air, torrents foam, birds fly from height to height, the goats tinkle home at night, each cow rings its bell as it browses the turf and the wild thyme, the people are at work upon the hills reaping their saffron crops. If I look out I see a mountain with a grey dome of clouds and shadows," &c.

This sort of writing is nearly as good as change of air. We must give one more short extract, which is worthy of Miss Thackeray's father :

"There are some people who, all their lives long, have to be content with half-brewed ale, the dregs of the cup, envelopes, cheeseparings, fingers of friendship. To take the lowest place at the feast of life is not always so easily done as people imagine. There are times and hours when everybody is equal, when even the humblest nature conceives the best, and longs for it, and cannot feel quite content with a part. You may be courageous enough to accept disappointment, or generous enough not to grudge any other more fortunate; but to be content demands something more tangible besides courage or generosity." F. M. OWEN.

NOTES AND NEWS.

WE are informed that Mr. F. York Powell, of Christ Church, Oxford, has completed the translation of the Færeyinga Saga upon which he has been for some time engaged, and that the work will probably appear this autumn.

THE suggestion made by Professor Huxley in these columns that an English translation of Haeckel's Anthropogenie should be published, has been anticipated by Messrs. King & Co., who have already put the work in hand. The translation of the same author's Schöpfungsgeschichte, or History of Creation, reviewed by Professor Huxley in the first two numbers of the ACADEMY (October and November 1869), is in

the press.

MR. KEGAN PAUL'S book on "William Godwin, his Friends and Contemporaries," will go to press immediately, we hear, and will appear in the spring. It will contain portions of an autobiography of Godwin, and large selections from his correspondence, as well as from letters hitherto unpublished of Mary Wollstonecraft, Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Horne Tooke, the Wedgwoods, Curran, Wolcot (Peter Pindar), Mackintosh, J. Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Inchbald and others. MR. WM. MACMATH, of Edinburgh, has been fortunate enough to find the Glenriddell Ballad MS. which Professor Child has been so long in

search of.

MR. FLAVELL EDMUNDS, for many years editor of the Hereford Times, died on Christmas Day. He was author of an ingenious philological work, entitled Traces of History in the Names of Places (Longmans, 1869), and by his knowledge of botany and archaeology did good service to the Woolhope Field Club, of which he was a zealous member.

MR. THOMAS STEPHENS, well-known in connexion with the history of the language and literaTydvil. His Literature of the Kymry, which ture of Wales, died on the 4th inst., at Merthyr appeared in 1849, and which created a revolution in the literary history of the Principality, was some years ago translated into German." This was his principal work, and almost the only one which he published in a separate form; but many essays by him, most of which are very valuable, are published in the Archaeologia Cambrensis and other periodical publications. Among these essays, his papers on the Triads, contributed to a Welsh quarterly journal, and his dissertation on the supposed discovery of America by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd about the year 1170, printed in a Welsh monthly magazine, might be mentioned as possessing peculiar value to the historical student.

In the last number of the Revista de España, the Vizconde de San Javier narrates a terrible episode in Spanish history, strongly reminding us in some particulars of "the man in the iron mask." When Maria Luisa died at Rome in 1819, she left, among other legacies, one to her last confessor Fray Juan de Almaráz, who, finding himself unable to obtain its payment from her son Fernando VII., at last took the imprudent step of writing to him to the effect that the queen had authorised him to reveal after her death that none of her sons were the sons of Carlos IV. Greatly disquieted, the king determined to silence him, and the unlucky priest was kidnapped, placed on board ship, and conveyed to Peñiscola, where he was secluded from all human intercourse, his very name being unknown to his gaolers. When he had been in prison three years, the king sent the Archbishop of Mexico to him with a promise that if he confessed his offence and signed a formal retractation, he should be pardoned. Fray Almaráz signed this document, but remained in his old prison. The archbishop ventured upon a remonstrance, but was told that the king wished to forget the matter entirely, that he had fulfilled his mission, and that he must think no more about it, if he did not wish to receive a terrible proof of his Majesty's displeasure. After the death of Fernando, the unfortunate confessor was released. One month after leaving Peñiscola he died mad. This has the air of a novelette, but the Vizconde assures us that the documents re

lating to the affair, or at least a great part of them, are preserved in the archives of the Ministerio de Gracia y Justicia.

THE Camden Society have authorised Mr. W. D. Hamilton to print, as an appendix to Lord Henry Percy's Chronicle of Henry VIII., the original documents relating to the trial of Anne Boleyn from the Baga de Secretis. They have hitherto been known merely from the abstract given in one of the Deputy Keeper's reports, in which some points of importance did not receive sufficient notice.

THE New Shakspere Society last week sent out its final issue of books for 1874 to its subscribers. 1. Romeo and Juliet, parallel-texts of the first two quartos Q1, 1597; Q2, 1599, edited, with an Introduction, by Mr. P. A. Daniel, and "presented to the members of the New Shakspere Society by H.R.H. Prince Leopold, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society; 2. Romeo and Juliet, reprint of Q1, 1597; 3. Romeo and Juliet, Q2, 1599, both edited by Mr. P. A. Daniel; 4. The Still Lion, an Essay towards the Restoration of Shakespeare's Text, by C. M. Ingleby, M.A., LL.D., Trin. Coll. Camb., is presented to each member of the New Shakspere Society," by the author; 5. The Succession of Shakspere's Works, and the Use of Metrical Tests in settling it, being the Introduction to Gervinus's Commentaries on Shakspere (Smith, Elder and Co., 1874), by Fredk. J. Furnivall, M.A. (hints for beginners, presented by the writer).

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a copy

WE hear that Messrs. Macmillan have in an advanced state of preparation a series of Literature and History Primers, modelled after their Science

Primers, and edited by Mr. J. R. Green, M.A., author of the recently published History of the English People. The first of these, English

Grammar, Dr. Morris, will appear very shortly,

and will be followed in quick succession by English Literature, Rev. Stopford Brooke; Latin Literature, Rev. Dr. Farrar; Philology, J. Peile, M.A.; Europe, E. A. Freeman, D.C.L.; England, J. R. Green, M.A.; Rome, Rev. M. Creighton, M.A.; Greece, C. A. Fyffe, M.A.; and France, Miss C. M. Yonge.

PROFESSOR KIELHORN, the Principal of the Deccan College, Poona, has just published a Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. existing in the Central Provinces, prepared by order of E. Wilmot, InspectorGeneral of Education, (Nagpur, 1874). The catalogue is classified, and the books arranged alphabetically in each class. Useful as these catalogues are, it seems high time to make a change. The mere repetition of a well-known title is useless. What is really wanted is scholarlike descriptions of rare and really important works.

THE new number of the Deutsche Rundschau contains some valuable articles, though it is not so perfect as the last. The story, "Ricordo," by Putlitz, is written simply in order to write a story. Not one of the characters is properly modelled, not one excites any deeper interest. The only excuse for so inarticulate a story is to suppose that it was not invented, but true. Dr. Böhr's account of the "Tidschi Islands," and his interview with the ex-King Thakombau, will interest readers in England who take a pride in this last jewel added to the British crown. Lasker's second article on "Education" is full of good intentions, and written in a fluent, sometimes too fluent, a style. We should have liked more facts and statistics, and far more warmth and determination in discussing a question on which the whole future of Germany depends. For the coming war of education Germany will want a Bismarck and a Moltke rolled into one. We are surprised at the extracts from Brandt's Diary. General von Brandt was attached to Prince Napoleon, when he visited the late King of Prussia in 1857. Whatever the feelings of the Court may have been, Prince Napoleon was the guest of the King, and such things as are here related should not be published during the lifetime of the person whom they concern, if ever. The duties of hospitality are sacred, even during war, and crowned heads will have to be careful when staying at the Castle at Berlin if the officers in waiting are of the stamp of General von Brandt. Geibel's poem is strong in descriptive power, but surely such a Seeräubergeschichte might be left to smaller poets.

A NEW edition of the Yajurveda is advertised at Calcutta. It will contain the text; the commentary, and a translation. Dr. Weber, of Berlin, who published the text and commentary of the Yajurveda in 1849, is likewise preparing a translation of that work, which, though belonging to a much later period than the Rig-Veda, is of great interest as illustrating the sacrificial system of the Brahmans.

M. GEORGES PERROT, who has been elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in the place of Guizot, is best known by his archaeological exploration of Galatia and Bithynia, undertaken at the expense of the French Government. It was he who discovered the Index Rerum Gestarum D. Augusti. He is also the translator of Max Müller's Lectures on the Science of Language, and of two volumes of his Chips from a German Workshop, published under the title of Essais sur la Mythologie Comparée, and Essais sur l'Histoire des Religions.

IN the Revue des Deux Mondes for December 15, there is an interesting article on the loves of Mdme. de Sabran and the notorious Chevalier de Boufflers. In the number for January 1, M. Othenin d'Haussonville has a first article on