HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND TRAVELS.

_History of England, from the Earliest to the Present Time._ In Five

Volumes. By Sir EDWARD S. CREASY, M.A., Emeritus Professor of History in

University College, London; late Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

Vol. II. Completing the History during the Early and Middle Ages.

Walton. 1870.

Sir Edward Creasy's second volume embraces nine reigns, from Edward II.

to Richard III., both inclusive. We consider the strong point of it, and

that which has had most of the writer's heart, to be the constitutional

and social history. The narrative of public and military transactions

has not the same merit; and especially that towards the latter end,

including the Wars of the Roses, which is too compressed--we had almost

said too perfunctory--to be even interesting. In the earlier portions,

where the author takes all the room that he wants, he lets us see that

he does not lack the power of placing the events of war in an

instructive light. Coming to Edward III.'s reign, he corrects the

impression that is probably entertained by many, that the great contest

with France arose from a wanton and ambitious claim upon the crown of

that kingdom; and shows, by a very careful statement of facts and dates,

that it was Philip of Valois' war, not Edward's.

Few of our historians have attempted thoroughly to penetrate Edward's

plan in that famous expedition of 1346-7, in which he traversed the

North of France, landing at La Hogue, and embarking at Calais, just as

though it had been a piratical expedition needing no further

explanation. Sir Edward makes a good suggestion as to the commencement

and early stage of the invasion; namely, that one great object of it was

to deliver a blow at the nourishing woollen manufactures of Normandy,

and thereby relieve English trading towns from their powerful

competitors in that quarter. But we think he fails to account

satisfactorily for Edward's movements after the taking of Caen, when he

assigns it as a sufficient reason for his advance on Paris (after being

obliged to turn away from Rouen, be it remembered), that he wished to

divert French troops from the South of France, where a small English

army was being hard pressed. But could not the king of England have

effected such a purpose by establishing himself in Normandy, where he

rested on his fleet? To dismiss his ships, as he did at Caen, and to

take a moderate force of some 40,000 men into the interior without a

base of operations, in the hope of relieving a distant province, would

not have been worthy of the genius of Edward III. We have little doubt

that after achieving his success as far as Caen, if not before, Calais

itself (not Paris, nor yet Guienne) was in his eye. In fact, the speech

of Sir Geoffrey Harcourt to Edward, at Caen, reported by Froissart,

distinctly recognises Calais as the ultimate goal of the expedition. His

having found the North of France so defenceless (to say nothing of his

having taken prisoner at Caen the Count of Guisnes, on the border of

whose territory Calais lay), probably suggested the feasibility of

capturing Calais on the land side. Hence the immediate attempt to cross

the Seine at Rouen; and hence, when this failed, the march up the

Seine--not to relieve Guienne, but to effect a passage of the river. The

famous fortress fell to Edward as the result of a bold calculation, not

as a piece of good luck after a desperate escapade. To judge how

tempting it must have seemed to him, even so far off as Caen, we have

only to reflect on the immediate use he made of it as soon as it was his

own; to say nothing of his resolution in maintaining a longer winter

siege. He immediately converted what had before been a piratical

stronghold against him into an English colony; besides which he made it

the Continental staple for the English wool trade, by which means he

delivered himself from certain Flemish towns, which hitherto had

converted his necessities into their own gains. Those who understand

something of English State finance in this reign, and the peculiar

importance of the woollen trade to Edward as a financier, will be able

to comprehend his views when he resolved on obtaining hold of this

important position upon the Straits of Dover.

In a fresh history of Edward III.'s reign, various episodes, of minor

importance, indeed, but ineradicable from the English mind, will always

be turned to, to see how far the new lights will permit the old

favourites of the popular imagination to stand their ground. Let us

turn, then, to the Ostrich Feathers. Mr. Longman, in his recent 'Life of

Edward III.,' simply remarks that the current story is a very doubtful

one; while Sir Edward Creasy's remark is, that there is no reason at all

to doubt it. But passing observations like these, on the one side or on

the other, entirely fail to do justice to a very interesting series of

papers (not referred to by either of these authors), that may and ought

to be read in the 'Archæologia,' mentioning the curious discovery of a

contemporary statement of the popular story (Camden having been hitherto

the earliest authority for it), which, nevertheless, cannot overcome the

strong evidence marshalled by the learned antiquaries, that the feathers

really came from Hainault, and through Queen Philippa, not from Bohemia

at all, or its gallant old king. The story of the six haltered citizens

of Calais Sir Edward accepts likewise, and finds himself able to

support it by fresh evidence. In fact, there was never any sufficient

reason to doubt it, and our historic scepticism is apt sometimes to be

over-scrupulous. For the anecdote, singular as it is, is by no means

unique: the incident mentioned in 1 Kings, xx. 31, if not strictly

parallel, was quite sufficient to have originated the custom in the

picturesque days of the Middle Ages, with the genius of which, too, it

entirely harmonises. Monstrelet records a similar instance in the

campaigns of the Duke of Bedford, in the following century; and another

in Papal history, belonging to 1540, may be read in Ranke.

A narrative work ought not to be dismissed without an examination of its

dates. And here we are obliged to admit that our narrator has not shown

sufficient vigilance. The death of Roger Mortimer, Queen Isabella's

favourite, is undated, although we are carefully told that Edward III.'s

real reign only began from that event. One-half of the narrative of his

overthrow is on a page headed 1328, and the other half under 1330. The

death of the Black Prince is described and its importance to public

affairs is acknowledged, but it is undated. The page on which it is

narrated is headed 1376; but the next page, dealing with the events of

the moment, is dated 1377. The battle of Cressy is dated August 25th, a

day too soon. Henry V.'s setting sail for the Agincourt campaign is

twice on one page dated Sunday, August 12th, instead of Sunday, August

11th. The Duke of Bedford engages the enemy at the mouth of the Seine on

August 18th (it should be 13th), returning home August 16th. The famous

coronation of Charles VII. at Rheims, when the Maid of Orleans assisted,

is dated July 18th, instead of Sunday, July 17th. Lord Talbot fell in

the battle of Castillon, and this is dated July 23rd, a date of that

hero's death quite new to us, although we have seen four others

recorded. But we do not at all feel confident that our author gives this

figure as the result of any special inquiry. We are sure that our

writers will never be induced to guard wakefully against the crime of

circulating false dates until their eyes are thoroughly open to the

dreadful state in which our popular chronology stands, making it unsafe

for us to adopt any figures whatever without every means of verification

in our power.

We have expressed ourselves freely as to where this volume might, in our

opinion, have been stronger. We therefore gladly invite attention to

what we have felt Sir Edward Creasy's chief success to be, and to what

we consider our chief gains in possessing this record of his studies.

The constitutional and social history of the period comprised in this

volume will soon attract the reader's warm interest; for he will

perceive that it is not merely inserted for the sake of filling up a

department, but written _con amore_, and out of full stores of

knowledge. The author has made diligent and zealous use of the numerous

and valuable works published under the Master of the Rolls, and has not

lost sight of the researches of our local antiquarian societies, and

other good authorities. Matters which in most current histories are

simply referred to as known, and which therefore remain long unknown,

such as obsolete mediæval taxes, the nature of impeachment, the council,

and the like, are here carefully explained, which makes the history

popular in the best sense, as well as a thorough student's book. What he

calls the Thirty Years' War between capital and labour, from the Black

Death to Wat Tyler, is a most lucid and interesting piece of social

history, fully worked out, and by no means useless in view of

present-day questions. As the result, Tyler's insurrection, as well as

Cade's, will wear a new complexion, we suspect, in the minds of many

general readers.

One feature of Sir Edward's pages will certainly gratify not a few; we

mean the conspicuous absence of partisanship and all unfairness of

statement. While forming his judgments on the past, he succeeds in

throwing himself into the times he is describing, and consequently

preserves a calm and reasonable tone, without being querulous and hasty.

A striking instance of this judicial temper occurs in his account of

persecuting Arundel and the frightful statute _De heretico Comburendo_,

the tenor of his observations on which we hope no one will be so

uncandid as to misunderstand or misrepresent. The danger of such a habit

of mind is, of course, a liability to that amiable weakness which wants

to whitewash everybody and palliate everything; but this danger we think

Sir Edward succeeds in avoiding. He has a moral firmness of his own, and

an independence of mind which would not permit him to be simply an

allowance-maker. If we wanted a proof that he has his strong

partialities, unfalteringly expressed in the right direction, we should

point to his chapter on Wycliffe, which also is the weightier, from its

being, as usual, discriminating. Here, facing the great religious

movement of the Reformation, our historian expresses himself as a

Christian believer, and one who venerates the Holy Bible, and as though

he considered himself writing for those who ought to be both.

_Lectures and Essays_. By Professor SEELEY. Macmillan & Co.

To those who are acquainted with 'Ecce Homo,' we need not say that this

is an interesting volume. There is something so fresh and bold, so frank

and vigorous in all that Professor Seeley writes, that we must enjoy

reading him, whether we agree with him or not, and whatsoever topic he

discusses.

He writes on the 'Revolution at Rome,' and on the 'Decline and Fall of

the Empire,' with a masterly grasp on an obscure and complex subject. We

entirely agree with him in his estimate of Julius Cæsar's motives and

character; and while we acquit Brutus himself of any mean and sordid

impulse, we cannot think that he served Rome or humanity in the 'taking

off' of the Dictator. If we can trust Sallust at all, the nobles for

whom Pompey fought were quite unfit to govern Rome. Our author's

explanation of the final fall of the Empire has more than probability.

The facts justify it to a large extent. Wherever population is at a

standstill, we may be sure 'there is something rotten in the State,' and

may confidently anticipate its dissolution. Is not the prostrate

condition of France at the time we write another illustration of the

truth? Have not similar causes there produced like effects?

Our author's analysis of Milton's opinions and his critique on Milton's

poetry, deserve perusal. He appreciates the solitary grandeur of the

gentle and cultivated Puritan,--Titanic, yet not coarse. It is not easy

to reconcile the utter disappointment, the deep heart-sorrow, of

Milton's old age with his uniform hopefulness. All the more honour to

him! There is nothing more paralyzing than despair. We doubt whether it

should ever find utterance in a Christian's writing. We at once

recognise the parallelism of Carlyle's position with Milton's in some

aspects of it. We were taken aback to hear of Ruskin in a similar

aspect, but our author makes out a good case for him too.

Nothing can be juster in our view than the 'Essay on Art.' These

'elementary principles' must be recognised, one is apt to say, by all

thoughtful men, and we are greatly indebted to the Professor for setting

them forth so clearly. We cannot too soon adopt the principle that 'art

is not always independent, but in some cases parasitic; and accordingly,

in judging particular performances, in architecture and oratory, it is

necessary to apply two standards in succession--the practical and the

artistic ... the decisive test of merit "here" being art in

subordination.'

Surely no one has more right than he to speak with authority on

'University Education.' And his strictures upon the course at Cambridge,

and the effects of it upon both teachers and taught, are well worthy of

attention. Somehow or other it is true that life-long study is not

secured by present methods, and it is a topic deserving of careful

discussion. 'Why is it so, and how can it be mended?' With a great deal

advanced in this searching essay we heartily agree, and we are glad to

see that some suggestions in it are already being acted upon. Many more

we hope and expect will become the usage of the future. We were pleased,

not surprised, to find him frankly acknowledging, that in one important

particular the method at Oxford is to be preferred to that at Cambridge.

It is not a little humbling to us as a nation to have him say

parenthetically (not as 'thesis' to be maintained--observe--but as an

axiom--an unquestioned truth) that 'most good books are in German.'

Again, in regard to the study of 'English in Schools.' Who so competent

as he to speak? With all that he says about the duty of teaching more

fully in our schools, both the language and literature of our country,

we heartily agree, though we are not prepared to go with him quite so

far as to say, 'No Latin at all till a boy is fourteen.' The 'accidence'

of any language are more easily learnt by young minds--it is a mere

effort of memory, and strengthens it--while in later life such matters

cannot be learnt as accurately, in our conviction. We hold with him,

however, respecting the English, and are inclined therefore, in this

matter, to the rule, 'Then ought ye to do, and not to leave the other

undone.'

The strictures on preaching, again, are excellent. How well it will be

if all our young preachers ponder them well! The world needs, and more

than that, it likes practical preaching, if it be intelligent,

sympathetic, and sincere. Every word he says about 'political preaching'

we would gladly endorse. Surely it is as much within a Christian

teacher's sphere as the domestic relations, and we believe that greater

fidelity in the pulpit on the subject of political morality, will be

followed by a great advance at the poll. Men are willing to be told

where they are wrong and ought to amend, if only it be a true man who

tells them so. Wherever one who is 'bone of their bone' speaks 'to them

on vital topics, men will come and hear. They will not then leave the

Church to the women and the children.'

With the inaugural address at Cambridge the volume closes. His subject,

'History, a Teacher of Politics,' promises much, and we are inclined to

envy those who are in the way of hearing the discourses to which this

one is preamble and preface. May they profit by them as much as we think

we should, and our children reap the fruits in the wiser legislation of

the coming generation of statesmen! Somewhere lately, we have seen the

doctrine put forth, with marvellous confidence, that 'the history of the

past cannot give wisdom for the future, inasmuch as Society is ever

progressing, and no past state therefore can ever be exactly

reproduced.' It would be as sensible to say that a legal education is of

no good, because laws are ever being altered (ought we to say mended?);

or a medical training, because no two human constitutions are exactly

alike. 'Men are of like passions' with their forefathers, and masses of

men are moved by impulses similar to those which stirred the men of old.

So we believe in 'History as the Teacher of Politics,' and are glad

indeed that our young politicians at Cambridge have so learned, and

faithful, and courageous a guide. May they have the graces to profit by

their privileges, and give their countrymen the benefit hereafter, and

so disappoint the somewhat disheartening forebodings of the exordium of

this discourse!

_The Mutineers of the 'Bounty' and their Descendants in Pitcairn and

Norfolk Islands._ By Lady BELCHER. John Murray.

Lady Belcher, having obtained possession of a variety of private

documents, and having from private sources gathered a variety of

details, has, in this volume, told over again the romantic story of the

Pitcairn Islanders. Lady Belcher herself is the step-daughter of Captain

Heywood, a midshipman of the 'Bounty' at the time of the mutiny--she

naturally, therefore, feels a personal interest in the subject. She is

not very skilled in book-making; her narrative is desultory and overlaid

with documents; but she has told the story with a fulness of detail to

which the volume of Sir John Barrow, written for 'The Family Library'

thirty years ago, makes no pretension. The diary of Morrison, a petty

officer of the ship, gives for the first time the details of the

voyage, and of the tyrannous conduct of the commander of the 'Bounty,'

Lieutenant Bligh, prior to the mutiny. Clearly, Fletcher Christian was

maddened by insults and overbearing tyranny. Bligh's conduct indeed

seems to have been that of a madman rather than of a sane person. After

the mutiny the narrative divides itself into three independent branches.

First, a history of Bligh and his companions, who were sent adrift in

the boat; next, of Christian and those who remained in the 'Bounty,'

some involuntarily, having taken no part in the mutiny, simply because

the boat in which Bligh was sent off could contain no more--among these

was Peter Heywood, the midshipman. This section of the crew of the

'Bounty' landed at Tahiti, and there gave themselves up to the captain

of the 'Pandora,' by whom they were treated with great and unnecessary

harshness. They were put in irons, and sent to England for trial. The

'Pandora,' however, was wrecked upon a reef, and after a hazardous boat

voyage, they reached Batavia, and were thence sent to England. Heywood

and Morrison were adjudged guilty, on the formal ground of insufficient

resistance to Christian, but were instantly and honourably pardoned;

others were executed.

Christian and eight Englishmen, who remained in the 'Bounty,' went to

Pitcairn Island, taking with them some Tahitian women, and founded a

colony there. After some dissensions and violence, in which Christian,

Edward Young, and others, lost their lives, the colony, under the rule

and teaching of John Adams, became singularly peaceful and virtuous.

They were not discovered for many years; and were permitted to remain

unmolested; one or two adventurers joined them, and the colony remains

to this day. It outgrew the small island, however, and a few years since

the entire population was transferred, under the auspices of Sir William

Dennison, to Norfolk Island; a few of them returned, and were last

visited by Sir W. Dilke, who gives an account of them in his 'Greater

Britain.'

No wonder that so romantic a narrative, and so picturesque a community,

fascinated the muse of Byron, and elicited 'The Island' from his pen.

Lady Belcher has told a plain unvarnished tale, but it is one hardly to

be paralleled in the romance of the seas.

_European History, narrated in a Series of Historical Selections from

the best Authorities._ By E. M. SEWELL and S. M. YONGE. Macmillan and

Co.

This is the second volume of an attempt to render history attractive and

popular with young readers, and there is much to be said in its favour.

The era of which it treats is from 1088 to 1228. The characters foremost

on the scene are Henry II., Frederick Barbarossa, Richard I., Philip

Augustus, John, St. Bernard and Abelard, Becket, Longchamp, and Langton.

According to the design, we have a set of pictures by hands of very

unequal power. Gibbon and Capefigue are side by side with Milman and

James, while from Mr. Stubbs's masterly analysis of Henry II.'s

character we pass to a portrait of Longchamp by Lord Campbell, and one

of Langton by Dean Hook. The result is rather like a mosaic, but of

course it could not well be otherwise. The editorial introductions are

admirably done; the first, which describes the position and character of

our Angevin kings, is a sketch both brilliant and accurate. The chief

objection to this method of teaching history is, that writers of

historical monographs are too apt to become amorous of their theme, and

to indulge in much fine writing in consequence; and this objection

specially applies to Mr. Morrison's account of St. Bernard, which is

painfully verbose and magniloquent. Undoubtedly the best chapter in the

book, and the one that will most severely tax the young student's mental

energy, is that which contains Mr. Stubbs's account of Henry II.

_On the Trail of the War._ By ALEXANDER JAMES SHAND, Occasional

Correspondent of _The Times_. Smith, Elder and Co.

This little volume purports to be nothing more than a full and true

account of the ordinary incidents in an extraordinary state of things

which occur on the trail of the war. To this position the author

strictly confines himself, leaving the more stirring events of the front

to be described by others. Some of the papers are reprints from _The

Times_, but the greater portion of them are original, and may be

supposed to be a veracious account of the progress of the armies as

beheld from the rear. The author's departure from London is told with a

picturesque dash, which predisposes the reader for the hacking, hewing,

and slashing he has subsequently to go through; while the last chapter

resumes the situation, as the French say, in a warm outburst of dread,

and admiration of the strength of new-born Germany. Mr. Shand evidently

sees amid all this ponderous power, the stumbling-block over which she

must one day totter and fall. To the paramount passion of nationality

from which this gigantic Germany has been created, will likewise be

owing her quick decay and sudden dissolution. This feeling makes the

wisest of Germans lose his head when speaking of united Germany, and

proclaim himself proud to belong to God's chosen people. To this we can

only answer from our own personal experience, that if the impatience

created by the restless variety and overweening self-laudation of the

French, are to be exchanged for the cold pedantry and haughty arrogance

of the Prussians, Europe will have made but a sorry bargain. We cannot

agree with Mr. Carlyle in his opinion that we may be greatly benefited

by this sudden transfer of moral power from light satirical France to

heavy overbearing Prussia. We can only pray to be preserved from both.

_The Revolt of the Protestants of the Cevennes; with some Account of the

Huguenots in the Seventeenth Century._ By Mrs. BRAY, Author of 'The Good

St. Louis and his Times,' 'The White Hoods,' &c. John Murray.

Of all the stirring romances hitherto published by Mrs. Bray, the _true_

history before us is assuredly the most stirring and the most romantic.

The single story of Jean Cavalier, the baker's boy of Anduze, contains

the elements of a dozen romances. From his first appearance on the stage

of history to do his allotted work, to his final sinking into honourable

obscurity when his work was done, Jean Cavalier shines out as the true

and gallant soldier of the cross, the faithful defender of the right,

the constant avenger of the wrong. He was a youth of seventeen, the

eldest of three sons of a shepherd of Anduze. 'Altogether,' says Mrs.

Bray, 'he was such as we may fancy him to have been, who, armed with the

shepherd's sling in the cause of the Lord, overcame the giant

Philistine.' None could have thought that such a one could have been

chosen to avenge the iniquitous Edict of Nantes, issued by the greatest

monarch of Europe, at the instigation of the wisest woman of her day.

The boy had been apprenticed to a baker at Anduze, and this circumstance

was in itself a fund of amusement at the court of Versailles, where the

'_Petit Maître_' and the '_Garçon Boulanger_' served as whetstones to

the wit of the courtiers at the _petit lever_ and _grand coucher_ of the

king. But the baker's boy had been endowed by heaven with the strangest

and most mysterious of gifts--a military genius untaught, and frank as

nature's self--which ere long caused the boldest of the Great Monarch's

generals to tremble and turn pale at even the mention of his name. No

other account of this extraordinary talent has been given than that

during his shepherd life he would love to spend whole hours on the

Garden watching the manoeuvres of the soldiers, who at that time were

stationed in the country in order to force the Protestants into adoption

of the Catholic faith. No other lesson in military science had he ever

taken, and yet he defeated the boldest troops and ablest generals of the

proudest army in the world! The mysterious nature of his mission,

reminds one strongly of Joan of Arc. At nineteen years of age he quitted

France for ever, leaving behind him the memory of his glory and the

grateful affection of the Protestants of the Cevennes, by whom his name

is revered and cherished to this very day.

Mrs. Bray has performed her task of biographer of Jean Cavalier in the

most satisfactory and conscientious manner, with all the stedfastness of

the historian and the enthusiasm of the romance writer. 'The Revolt in

the Cevennes' is a charming book, and should be placed in the hands of

every Protestant boy and girl throughout the world.

_The Correspondence of the Right Honourable William Wickham, from the

year_ 1794. Edited, with Notes, by his Grandson, WILLIAM WICKHAM, M.A.

Two vols. 8vo. London. 1870.

These volumes are another contribution to the still increasing store of

material for the history of the great French Revolution; the first act

of that great drama of which another is now being played amid sympathies

and antipathies, hopes and fears, perhaps as intense, certainly more

widely felt, than those which accompanied the first lifting of the

curtain. Now, however, the Revolution and the _ancien régime_ have

become accustomed to each other, and know that though it be but as cat

and dog, they must awhile lead some sort of life together; and they have

modified their reciprocal attitude accordingly. Then each startled by

the first apparition of the other, glared at it with the hate, not of

prolonged antagonism, but of instant death-grapple. Free England, guided

by great and noble-minded men--Pitt, Lord Grenville, and Burke--not only

joined in, but led the resistance of the Continental sovereigns, and we

have no need to blush for the conduct of our grandsires. Whether,

looking from our present coign of vantage, we may judge England's course

then wise or imprudent, the evidence afforded by these volumes is enough

to show--admitting the hostile prejudice which an established and

aristocratic government must needs have against a mushroom

democracy--that our statesmen descended to the fray with an honesty of

purpose, and an elevated sense of national duty on which we may reflect

with grateful and patriotic pride.

Mr. Wickham was twice sent by Lord Grenville as minister to Switzerland;

to the comparatively slight duties of which office was added the onerous

task of concerting, in correspondence with the Royalists in France, with

the Prince of Condé, the Court of Vienna, Marshal Suwarrow, General

Pichegru, and many others, the measures to be taken against their common

foe--the Directory in Paris. At the time of Mr. Wickham's earlier

mission, Bonaparte had not yet risen to power, and if Mr. Wickham could

have inspired with his own zeal and prudence the selfish and blind

potentates whom he was aiding with English counsel and treasure, the

glittering series of Napoleonic phenomena might never have appeared. Mr.

Wickham was regarded with the most perfect confidence by his own

Government. How dangerous he proved to their foes may be judged from the

fact that when at a later period he was named to represent his country

at the courts, first of Berlin and then of Vienna, his appointment was

objected to because it would be displeasing to the French Government.

By those who are either well acquainted with, or are studying the

history of the French Revolution, these volumes will be highly prized,

while general readers will find much of great interest in a

correspondence which comprises letters from George III., Louis XVIII.,

the Prince de Condé, and the Duc d'Enghien, the Archduke Charles,

Marshal Suwarrow, and many others, besides the despatches and other

communications which passed between Mr. Wickham and his chief, Lord

Grenville. The present Mr. Wickham has added succinct biographical notes

concerning the several correspondents and persons named, some

introductory remarks to the several groups of despatches, and a slight

sketch of his grandfather's career, written with grace and modest pride.

The first volume is embellished with a portrait of the diplomatist; and

the second with a very interesting one of the most eccentric of great

men--Suwarrow.

Nearly all the letters now published relate to Mr. Wickham's foreign

missions. He afterwards served as Secretary for Ireland, and while he

held that office Emmet's rebellion occurred. He was also a member of the

ministry of 'All the Talents.' If he has left as interesting memorials

of his later services as of his earlier ones, we hope that his grandson

may at a future time let his present good work be followed by a

publication of Mr. Wickham's later correspondence.

_Cicero_. Select Letters. With English Introductions, Notes, and

Appendices. By ALBERT WATSON, M. A. Macmillan and Co. Clarendon Press

Series.

The letters of Cicero, on account of the materials they supply for the

history of the Roman constitution during its last struggles, the light

they throw upon the motives and movements of the partisan leaders, and

the insight they afford into the character of Cicero himself, are justly

regarded as the most important and instructive of his literary

productions. Cicero's correspondence extends over the space of

twenty-six years; and of the letters written during this eventful period

to a wide circle of literary and political friends and connexions, there

are extant upwards of 850, which are undoubtedly genuine. Up to the

present time, this portion of Cicero's writings has received but little

attention at the hands of English editors. In Germany, excellent

editions have been published by Billerbeck, Boot, Frey, Hofman, and

Süple; while in England we have only an inferior edition of the letters

to Atticus by a Master of Arts, and a selection of 111 letters by E. St.

John Parry, intended to illustrate the public life of Cicero, accompanied

with notes which are purely historical. The volume before us is also a

selection of 148 letters, taken almost exclusively out of the two chief

divisions of Cicero's correspondence--the _Epistolæ ad Familiares, those

ad Diversos_, and the _Epistolæ ad Atticum_--containing together 822

letters. The first letter in this volume is dated July 65 B.C., and the

last July 43 B.C. The collection, therefore, covers one of the most

momentous periods in Roman history. Mr. Watson, in making the present

selection of letters, has been principally guided by considerations of

their historical importance, or of their value as illustrating Cicero's

character. The collection is divided into parts or groups, each of which

is preceded by a lengthy and valuable introduction, furnishing the

reader with a digest of the leading public events, and a review of the

state of political parties during each period. In this portion of the

work, the editor has borrowed largely from the well-known 'History of

Rome,' by Professor Mommsen, and from Brückner's 'Life of Cicero.' The

works of Zumpt, Drumann, Abeken, and Reen, have also been laid under

heavy contributions. In the appendices to those sections, the reader

will find discussed with clearness and ability many legal and historical

questions, highly important for the right understanding of allusions in

the letters--_e.g._, the legal question at issue between Cæsar and the

Senate, the Calendar, the meaning of the terms 'colonia,' 'municipium,'

and 'præfectura,' &c. These introductions and appendices add greatly to

the value of the volume. The notes are far more numerous, but not so

learned and valuable as those of the German editions. Indeed, many are

so brief and unimportant that it is difficult to account for their

insertion, and seem quite out of place in a work which is evidently not

intended for tyros. The only persons qualified to read the letters of

Cicero are the highest classes in schools, and students at the

Universities, neither of which stand in need of a translation of

passages and of words that involve no particular difficulty. The

following are taken _ad apertram libri_:--[Greek: hysteron proteron], 'I

will answer your last question first;' [Greek: Homêrikôs] 'after the

manner of Homer;' contiones, 'addresses to the populace;' manum, 'crew;'

in eo ... erant omnia, 'on that everything depended;' inopiam, 'the

neediness;' judicium, 'the trial.' Most of the notes are, in our

opinion, too elementary for qualified readers of the correspondence of

Cicero. The abundant references to Madvig's Grammar will be found

exceedingly useful. On the whole, it is an excellent edition, and cannot

be perused without greatly enlarging one's knowledge and deepening one's

interest in these unique epistolary writings.

_The Life of Richard Deane, Major-General, and General at Sea, in the

service of the Commonwealth, and one of the Commissioners of the High

Court of Justice appointed for the Trial of King Charles the First._ BY

JOHN BATHURST DEANE, M.A., F.S.A., of Pembroke College, Cambridge;

Corresponding Member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society;

Rector of St. Martin Outwich. Longmans, 1870. 8vo.

Another successful attempt to rescue a great historical reputation from

the slanders of the scurrilous pamphleteers of the Restoration, and one

of which it is no mean praise to say, that it is not unworthy of a place

beside Mr. Markham's recently published noble vindications of Fairfax.

The 'Goodman Button (a hoyman of Ipswich), his boy' of the 'Mystery of

the Good Old Cause,' which would seem to have been the source from

whence Bates, Winstanley, Heath, and the author of the 'Lives of the

King-killers,' as well as Clarendon, drew their inspiration, turns out

to have been the son of a Gloucestershire gentleman, who was connected

both by birth and by marriage with such families as the Wickhams, the

Hampdens, and the Mildmays; and the 'Hoyman of Ipswich' to have been a

captain in the King's service, who was attached to the Royal Dockyard,

at Harwich, and was a kinsman of Sir Thomas Button's, a near relative of

the St. Johns and the Cromwells. Mr. Deane having been fortunate enough

to discover a copy of the elaborate and elegant Latin inscription which

was composed for the tablet erected to the memory of his illustrious

ancestor in Westminster Abbey, among the additional MSS. in the British

Museum, has been directed by it to the entry of his baptism in the

register of the parish of Lower Guyting, near Winchcombe. It is as

follows: 'Anno Dni. 1610, ye viii daie of Julie, was baptized Richard

Deane, ye sonne of Edward Deane.' His mother was a Warre, and his

grandmother a Wickham, through whom he was connected with the Hampdens

and the Cromwells; and his aunt Joan seems to have married Robert

Mildmay, of Terling, the grandson of Sir Thomas Mildmay, one of the

auditors of the Court of Augmentation in the reign of Henry VIII., and

grand-nephew of Sir Walter Mildmay, the founder of Emmanuel College,

Cambridge. We have no knowledge of Deane's career up to the year 1642,

beyond the fact of his having served under Captain Button, of Harwich,

during some part of that period; nor have we any of his private life at

all, except that he married Mary Grimsditch, and that at his death he

left two daughters by her, Mary and Hannah, the former of whom died

unmarried, and the latter married Goodwin Swift, attorney-general of

Tipperary, and uncle to the well-known Dean of St. Patrick's, Jonathan

Swift. From the year 1642 to that of his death, however, few names are

more frequently mentioned in the annals of his day than that of Richard

Deane. He early and heartily espoused the cause of the Parliament in the

great civil war, under a conviction that in no other way could the

religion and the liberties of the country be saved; and soon proved

himself to be 'one of those extraordinary men, produced by revolutionary

times, who by the innate force of an energetic character, surmount the

difficulties of birth and station, and, rising to authority, seem as if

they had been born and educated for it; no one wondering either at their

elevation, or at the ease with which they discharge the duties of the

highest offices.' His biographer has related his great services to the

cause which he espoused with singular impartiality, which renders his

work a valuable contribution to the general history of his times. After

the trial and execution of the King, in which, as is well known, Deane

took a very prominent part, he was appointed, 'in connection with

Colonels Edward Popham and Robert Blake, as one of the three generals at

sea,' with 'co-ordinate powers.' In 1651, he assumed the chief command

in Scotland, where he was the principal means of bringing about the

'eight years' tranquillity' which Bishop Barnet 'so commends and

attributes to the (happy) usurpation.' War now breaking out with the

Dutch, Deane was hastily summoned to rejoin the fleet. It was in action

with the Dutch that he met with his death, June 2, 1653. 'He fell at the

moment of victory, sword in hand, in the bow of his ship, as he was

waving his sword and encouraging his men to follow him in boarding 'the

Dutch Admiral,' Van Tromp. Deane was buried with all honour in the

chapel of Henry VII., at Westminster Abbey, on the 24th of February

following. 'The corpse,' the authors of the 'Parliamentary History of

England' inform us, 'was brought from Greenwich to Westminster Bridge by

water, attended by thirty barges in mourning. The procession was saluted

in their passage by all the ships in the river, and the Tower guns. In

the evening, the body was interred in the Abbey with great pomp; the

lord-general and his council, with all the officers of the navy and army

then in town, attending the funeral.' After the Restoration, his body,

together with those of twenty others of his contemporaries, was removed

and re-interred in the adjoining churchyard. The sympathies of his

biographer may be inferred from the following comments on this act of

Charles II. and his advisers. 'If their bodies had been decently removed

from the church to the churchyard, no blame can justly attach to the

King for the removal, for he naturally desired to clear his own family

vaults of those whom he might undoubtedly regard as intruders. But it is

not quite so certain that the removal and re-interment were so

decorously conducted as tradition says they were. The present Dean of

Westminster, with the laudable desire of ascertaining not only the

place, but also the manner of re-burial, caused, in November, 1869, the

ground to be opened on the spot supposed to be the grave of the removed,

but found no evidence of a decent and careful interment, such as

fragments of coffins, and skeletons lying side by side in the order of

deposit, but only a confused mass of bones, so mixed together as to

suggest an irreverent emptying of coffins into a large common pit. The

Dean, and other members of the Chapter who accompanied him, went away,

and still remain in the charitable hope that they have failed in

discovering the deposit which they sought, but have fallen in with some

other not unusual spectacle in crowded churchyards, where the callous

sexton of one generation shovels away the coffinless bones of the

preceding, to make room for the bodies of his own contemporaries who may

have occasion for his services. It is earnestly to be hoped that such

was the case here, and that the only indignity to which Richard Deane

and Robert Blake were exposed, was the removal of their remains from the

burial place of kings to that of ordinary Christians, with no other

memorial of their names than that of their deathless renown. Be the case

as it may, these facts are certain, they fought on the same deck, died

in the same cause, and were buried in the same pit. They had been loving

and pleasant in their lives, and in their graves they were not divided.'

We congratulate Mr. Deane on the ability, the fairness, and the

diligence which he has brought to his praiseworthy undertaking. He has

rendered the historical student admirable service.

_John Wesley and the Evangelical Reaction of the Eighteenth Century._ By

JULIA WEDGEWOOD. Macmillan and Co.

_The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., Founder of the

Methodists._ By Rev. L. TYERMAN. Vols. I. and II. Hodder and Stoughton.

Our literary and ecclesiastical authorities are much occupied at present

with the life-work and surroundings of John Wesley, with his relation to

the Church of England, and with the probable position that would have

been assigned to an ecclesiastical reformer, or revivalist, occupying in

the Church of Rome a position analogous to that of John Wesley in the

English Church. We do not endorse the big words with which Mr. Tyerman

opens up his subject. 'Is it not a truth (he asks) that Methodism is the

greatest fact in the history of the Church of Christ? Methodism has now

existed one hundred and thirty years. Is there any other system that has

spread itself as widely in an equal period? We doubt it.' Whether the

victories of Methodism over other ecclesiastical organizations, or over

religious indifferentism, or over the stubborn resistance to God's truth

of the barbarian or the idolater, can be paralleled with the past

successes of the Apostolic Church or not, and whether numbers or area

can now be used as measures of greatness, may be considered open

questions, but no ecclesiastical writer pretending to honour truth or

candour can hide his eye to the fact of Methodism, or to the vitality it

displays at the present moment. We are thankful for this instalment of

Mr. Tyerman's valuable work. There is a mine of wealth, a store-house of

treasure, in the unimpeachable diary and authentic correspondence

contained in this first volume, which will amply repay most careful

attention.

Miss Julia Wedgewood, in our opinion, has done very excellent service.

She has not attempted to write a memoir of John Wesley or his brother,

or a history of Methodism, nor has she kept up a chronological

continuity in her fascinating pages, but she has shown us the remarkable

figure of Wesley upon a great variety of backgrounds. Methodism at

Oxford, with its first obstacles in the painfully exacting conscience

and scrupulosity of Wesley himself, becomes a vivid sketch of Oxford

life at the commencement of the eighteenth century. Methodism in

Virginia becomes an impressive representation of the relation of England

to her colonies. The conflict of Methodism with Bristol and Cornwallese

colliers; its hand to hand fight with the devils of hysteria and fear,

and with those of bigotry and exclusiveness; with Moravian theology, and

with Calvinism and its old problem of the universe, are all well told in

a succession of bright and thoughtfully conceived pictures. There is

very remarkable candour, much good sense, and wise use of material in

her work; and the volume will bring the high enthusiasm and glorious

earnestness of Wesley into contact with classes that would remain

strangers to the more elaborate biographical details of Mr. Tyerman. The

subject is so large--so important in all its bearings--that we cannot

dismiss these works with a cursory notice; we shall hope, at an early

date, to return to the literature and ecclesiastical position of the

Wesleys.

_Memorials of the late Rev. William M. Bunting; being Selections from

his Sermons, Letters, and Poems._ Edited by the Rev. G. STRINGER ROWE.

With a Biographical Introduction by THOMAS PERCIVAL BUNTING. Wesleyan

Conference Office.

The characteristic of William Bunting which all who knew him would

assuredly mention first was an unbounded power of loving; and as the

effect of this as near an embodiment of the 'charity' of the Epistle to

the Corinthians as is perhaps possible to men who love truth and the God

of truth. 'Grace to all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in

sincerity,' was not only a sentiment upon his lips, it was an

instinctive, irrepressible feeling of his heart. Few men were more

attached to his own Church; few men had more large-hearted and loving

appreciation of the good men and good things of all other Churches.

Charity was the 'bond of his perfectness.' Wherever Christ was to be

served, the souls of men benefited, faithful preachers to be heard,

fervent worship to be joined in, there, according to his opportunity,

William Bunting was to be found. Our cathedrals were familiar with his

tall, attenuated, intellectual figure. In any Nonconformist congregation

in London, where worship and preaching were edifying, he was at any time

as likely to be found as in a Wesleyan Chapel. Few of the principal

Nonconformist pulpits were unfamiliar with his ministrations. His

friends were the best ministers of every evangelical church. He was a

lover of all good men, and all good men loved him. He was a kind of

_tertium quid_, around which the best men and feelings of the different

sects crystallized into beautiful forms of charity. No one thought of

him as belonging to any one section of the Church; the feeling towards

him was that he belonged to all. This volume of memorials will be valued

by his friends. The brief biographical sketch by his brother is

sufficient for the record of his uneventful life; it is racy and piquant

in its style, yet fervent and tender in its love and devout sympathy.

As a preacher, Mr. Bunting was diffuse and therefore lengthy, and

sometimes tedious, although his brother testifies to his great

efficiency.

As a letter-writer he was wonderfully loquacious; some of his letters,

as he says, 'as long as a life,' even as abbreviated here, filling eight

or ten pages of print. Rarely could he have said with Paul, 'I have

written a letter unto you in few words:' but they are wonderfully

loving, enthusiastic and brilliant, full of delicate sympathy and

beautiful piety and charity.

Chiefly, however, Mr. Bunting excelled as a writer of hymns. Two or

three of his compositions have found their way into popular hymnals, and

are not likely to be forgotten. The tender pathos of the 'Song in the

Night Season,'

'Thou doest all things well,'

has not often been surpassed.

_The Life of Arthur Tappan._ With Preface by the Rev. NEWMAN HALL,

LL.D. Sampson Low and Co.

Mr. Tappan was a New York merchant, of a type which the _laudator

temporis acti_ would tell us was once not uncommon, but is now rarely to

be met with either in America or England. This we are loth to believe.

There are still, thank God, not a few upright, God-fearing,

noble-hearted men, who will do and dare whatever righteousness and

religion may demand. Mr. Tappan was eminently one who 'feared God and

eschewed evil,' whose business was as much a religion to him as

church-worship. His one simple maxim was to do right at any cost. He is

said to have been the first man in America 'to make use of money in

large sums for benevolent objects.' Certainly he was generous, to the

verge of prudence; and when reverses came upon him he did not begin

retrenchment with the things of God. His high-toned morality did not

always square with the morals of Wall-street, and often involved him in

perplexing and ludicrous entanglements; but nothing could shake his

determination to do right. Several business friends wished to help him

in his pecuniary difficulties, but urged upon him as a tacit condition

the desirableness of lessening his anti-slavery denunciations. His short

and decisive answer was, 'I will be hung first.' He was the prime mover

and leader of many things, greatest and best, in the religious life of

America. He was president of the Anti-Slavery Society, and one of the

founders of the Bible Society, the Tract Society, Oberlin College, and

the American Education Society--to all of which he gave large pecuniary

and laborious personal assistance. He was a kind of American John

Thornton in his religious philanthropy. He fought many a fierce and

fearless battle, especially in the anti-slavery cause--when to be its

advocate was to imperil life. He was mobbed, and had a price set upon

his head. A more beautiful, single-hearted, noble life of integrity,

industry, fearlessness, and generosity has rarely been lived. His

closing days at Newhaven have an interesting setting of New England

Puritanism, and were quiet, devout, and beautiful. In a higher sense

than mere amassing of money he was a 'successful merchant.' Our

merchants will do well to read this interesting memoir, and to learn

anew from it the old lesson that 'the fear of the Lord is, indeed, the

beginning of wisdom.'

_Journeys in North China, Manchuria, and Eastern Mongolia; with some

Account of Corea._ By the Rev. ALEXANDER WILLIAMSON, B.A., Agent of the

National Bible Society of Scotland. With Illustrations and 2 Maps. Two

vols. Smith, Elder and Co.

Mr. Williamson has contributed to the literature of travel and of

science another of those thorough, sober, and instructive books which

have been one of the incidental results of Christian Missions. To the

ordinary advantages over casual visitors, which long residence and

familiar intimacy gives to a missionary, and to the conscientiousness

which his religious position and character impose upon him, Mr.

Williamson, as a highly-educated medical man, adds a higher degree of

scientific knowledge than many of his brethren possess, which qualifies

him to speak of the configuration, products, and possibilities of the

country in a way that will impart valuable knowledge. Mr. Williamson

first visited China as a missionary in connection with the London

Missionary Society. His health failed after two or three years'

residence, and he returned to England. On the re-establishment of his

health he returned to China, about seven years ago, as an agent of the

National Bible Society of Scotland. These volumes are, virtually, the

journal-records of eight extensive journeys through various parts of

North China, which he has made in the prosecution of his evangelistic

labours. It need scarcely be remarked that a man so occupied, the very

business of whose life is to travel from place to place, and to

cultivate familiar intercourse with the people, has opportunities for

the acquisition of knowledge, to which no mere casual traveller, or

resident merchant, or professional man can pretend. Accordingly, Mr.

Williamson's volumes are full of minute, thorough, and novel information

of all kinds concerning the country and the people; they are utilitarian

enough for a blue book, while they have the general interest of a book

of travels in countries of which we are almost entirely ignorant. We do

not, in fact, remember two volumes the information of which is so

valuable, and the interest of which is so great, at this particular

juncture especially, when our peaceful relations with China are again in

peril. Our Government, as well as the general public, may gather from

them more accurate and extensive information respecting the sources and

character of Chinese feeling towards us, than from any other source

whatever--not excepting even the valuable and intelligent information

furnished by our diplomatic agents. Mr. Williamson has been among the

people as distinguished from officials, and he speaks confidently

concerning the peacefulness and friendliness of their disposition

towards Protestant missionaries. He travelled unarmed, and encountered

no violence or rudeness, nothing more than the occasional attempts at

extortion with which travellers are not unfamiliar in London and New

York. They are grossly ignorant, and in some places look upon Europeans

as a different species of beings. 'In some places they calls us

"devils," not in impertinence, but in genuine ignorance of our origin

and character; so much so, that they often use this term with

complimentary prefixes, as _e.g._, their practice of calling a friend of

ours Kwhe tze ta jen, "His Excellency the Devil." Moreover, they often

use this term in our courts of justice. In other places they look upon

us as a race of fierce men not quite up to the mark in mental powers.

Many a time have foreigners been provoked by Chinamen coming up to them,

patting them on the shoulder, and caressing them just as we would a huge

Newfoundland dog, or a semi-tamed lion. Nor is this all. They appear in

many districts to look upon us as a species of fools. Often have I

observed Chinamen address myself and others just as mendacious

nursery-maids address children, as if we were incapable of seeing

through their barefaced lies and shallow deceit.' The Imperial claim is

as preposterous as ever--as shown by the refusal to receive Prince

Alfred--and is a serious obstacle in national intercourse. Lord Elgin

attempted effectually to destroy this by a march on Peking, which was

baffled by the flight of the Emperor to Tartary. The Chinese people

sadly lack truth, uprightness, and honour, the fear of God. The opium

trade, which has been our great disgrace, and which has, it is feared,

extended beyond all legislative or diplomatic control, is the deadly

curse of the country. 'There are literally millions,' says Mr.

Williamson, 'to whom opium is more valuable than life. The only hope is

the creation of a public opinion against it among those who abstain from

the poison, and among the young; so that the generation of opium smokers

may, in due course, die out. The reformation has already commenced, and

only needs to be fostered and systematized.'

The Roman Catholics are much disliked by the Chinese, chiefly because of

the outrages committed by the French soldiers during the late war--the

fatal blunder into which our neighbours always fall in their dealings

with weaker nations, or in their attempts to colonize: wherever they go,

they invariably succeed in getting themselves well hated. Another cause

of dislike to the Roman Catholics is the assumptions of the priests, and

their arbitrary claims to property. 'There is no hostility on the part

of the people towards Protestant missionaries.' And Mr. Williamson

thinks that 'were the matter of inland residence made a provision in

treaty engagements, there would be little or no difficulty in carrying

it out.' The hostility of the mandarins during the last year or two, the

Tien-tsin massacres, and other indications of dislike in the governing

classes, are attributed by Mr. Williamson to 'the ultra-liberal policy

of our Government, and especially to that outburst of hostile criticism

in the spring of 1869, on the part of our officials and leading

politicians and writers at home, all of which was duly communicated to

the Chinese authorities, leading them to believe either that we were

sure of our strength, or had lost all interest in our countrymen in

China.' Mr. Williamson lays great stress on a demand being made for

'inland residence under proper sanction;' and he argues this from the

perfect success of the experiment, so far as it has been made.

'Protestant missionaries, British, German, and American, have been

labouring unmolested for some years, in many of their inland cities.'

The Chinese opponents of missionaries are not the people, but corrupt

officials, who oppose everything foreign and everything calculated to

enlighten or improve the moral tone of the people. Mr. Williamson's

reply to such diplomats and writers as denounce the missionaries in

China, or sneer at them, is not only conclusive, it is perfectly

crushing. Five powerful foreign legations have for several years

resided in Pekin, viz., the British, American, French, Russian, and

Prussian. They had very able men and very great facilities. Not long

ago, the head of the British Legation thought fit to taunt the

missionaries, by urging them to begin by converting the higher classes,

adding that 'China would be raised through them, not in spite of them.'

Mr. Williamson pertinently asks, what with all their ability and

opportunities they have done, and unhesitatingly answers, nothing! All

the European books, lesson books, and books of science especially, which

it is no part of the missionary's function to produce, have been

compiled or translated by them. 'Dr. Hobson has given them works on

Physiology; on the Principles and Practice of Surgery; on the Practice

of Medicine and Materia Medica; on the Diseases of Children; on the

Elements of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. Mr. Wylie has given them

the whole of _Euclid_; De Morgan's _Algebra_, in thirteen books; Loomis'

_Analytical Geometry and Differential and Integral Calculus_, in

eighteen books, and also the first part of Newton's _Principia_ which is

now in process of completion. Mr. Edkins has translated Whewell's

_Mechanics_, and given them many other contributions on science and

Western literature. Mr. Muirhead has produced a work on English history,

and another on universal geography. Dr. Bridgman has published a finely

illustrated work on the United States of America. Dr. W. P. Martin has

translated Wheaton's _International Law_, and just published an

elaborately illustrated work in three large volumes, on Chemistry and

Natural Philosophy. Other missionaries have given them works on

Electro-telegraphy, Botany, and elementary treatises on almost every

subject of Western science.' Would it not be as well for some of these

diplomatic gentlemen to employ their abundant leisure in emulating,

rather than in sneering at the earnest philanthropy of these

hard-working missionaries. Until they can show something like such a

list of contributions to Chinese enlightenment, shame should keep them

silent, even if they are incapable of generous appreciation.

These matters, however, are only touched in the introductory part of Mr.

Williamson's book, which is an intelligent traveller's account of China

and the Chinese. It is full of matter for quotation; but for this we

have no space. At one of the temples in Manchuria, Mr. Williamson saw an

instrument, which was the famous praying machine. 'Prayers are pasted

both on the inside and outside of the barrels, which being turned round,

their prayers are presented, as they suppose, to their god.' Some

curious church music was aided by 'two trumpets, each of which was about

twelve feet long, with a mouth two feet in diameter; they were mounted

on small wheel-carriages, like guns, and the players reclined upon the

ground when playing.' This was in the famous Temple of Do-la-nor. At one

place the landlord, having no clock, fastened a huge fat cock under Mr.

Williamson's bed, lest he should oversleep himself. We will add only,

that the book is written in a plain, business-like style, that it is

full of valuable facts, that, in appendices, Mr. Edkins and others have

contributed valuable papers, and that, in our judgment, it is one of the

most sterling and instructive, as it is one of the most modest books of

travels that has appeared for years.

_Westward by Rail: the New Route to the East._ By W. F. RAE. Longmans,

Green and Co.

The temptations to fulsome eulogy or to exaggerated caricature are, to a

writer of a book of American travels, so great and are so rarely

resisted, that Mr. Rae, as a signal exception, deserves the very highest

praise. His feeling to America and Americans is evidently of the

kindest, and yet he has had such a wholesome fear of fulsome praise,

that he has put himself under almost undue restraint--the greys

predominate in his colouring. He has everywhere manifestly endeavoured

to see things as they are and to describe them as he saw them; the

result is a sober, judicious, intelligent book, that vouches for its own

trustworthiness. Mr. Rae describes only the route across the American

continent from New York to San Francisco by the Great Pacific Railway.

He tells us that the basis of his book is two series of letters which

appeared in the _Daily News_, revised and recast. He writes in an easy,

accustomed style, as men write whose pen is the weapon with which they

fight the battle of life. He has imagination enough and descriptive

power enough to redeem his narrative from the dryness of a log, and he

has sufficiently large and varied knowledge of the world to qualify him

to form wise, practical, and genial estimates of things. Much in

American life is novel and experimental, and demands in its judge no

small power of constructive imagination. Much in American feeling is

provincial, wayward, and almost morbidly sensitive, and needs great

candour for the appreciation of its fresh, generous, and noble elements.

The Americans are rapidly outgrowing some of the follies of their youth;

there are still in the practical administration of politics and social

economies many things--worse than follies--that belie the noble

principles of their constitution, and that the warmest friends of

America cannot but look upon with anxiety. The extent of administrative

corruption, the unscrupulousness of party politics, not only as towards

each other but as towards other nations--such passionate, undignified,

and manifestly venal messages as the one just sent to Congress by

President Grant for instance, with the political interpretations of

which it is susceptible--render it a question of great solicitude

whether these are the moral weaknesses of childhood, which experience

and discipline will cure, so as to develope a nation high and courteous

in political as in social and personal honour, or whether its political

maturity will manifest the faithlessness and unscrupulousness which so

sadly stain the escutcheons of some European nations, and which

necessitate a constant and suspicious vigilance; we strongly hope in the

higher developement, but the centenary of the nation's birth is near at

hand, and we are longing to see a high-minded government and policy

such as we do not see yet.

Mr. Rae describes with smartness, the railways and cars and travelling

ways of America as they have often been described. He especially

commends to our own greater railway companies the luxury of Pullman's

sleeping cars, and we heartily endorse the recommendation. It is no

small luxury to be able to go to bed while traveling at the rate of

thirty miles an hour in America--of from forty to fifty here--those who

cannot sleep may at any rate enjoy a sprawl with disencumbered limbs. We

would also add a recommendation of the check system with luggage; what

should prevent our companies giving passengers a check, to which a

corresponding number is affixed to the piece of luggage, so that the

latter might be delivered to the porter or a servant presenting the

check? The comfort of being delivered from all anxiety about luggage is

a great luxury of American travel. Mr. Rae describes Chicago 'the Garden

City,' 'the Queen of the West,' 'the Queen of the Lakes,' as it is

proudly called. Forty years ago it was a log fort, to-day 300,000

well-to-do people, many of them as wealthy merchants as any in the

States, occupy in palatial residences one of their most imposing cities.

Mr. Rae's account of the Mormons is not very eulogistic, and is we

suspect much nearer the truth than most of the superficial accounts, the

result of an hour's conversation, note-book in hand, that have reached

us. Brigham Young's peculiar institution does not commend itself even on

utilitarian grounds: the intolerance, jealousy and violence of the

Mormon city, restrained only by the adjacent United States' camp, must

make it an unenviable residence: while even the vaunted industry of the

residents is seriously qualified in Mr. Rae's estimate of what has been

done in relation to the condition of the place. We commend Mr. Rae's

careful study of Mormondom to all who have been fascinated by the

glamour of writers like Mr. Dixon. Mr. Rae has much to say concerning

California, the enterprise of the people and their great future; but he

gives special emphasis to their ultra-provincialism, and what surprises

us more, implies a slighting estimate of their hospitality. Of their

literature he speaks in glowing terms--indeed he seems to think the

provincial press of the States superior to the New York press. Mr. Rae's

book is restricted to the route which he travelled, and to matters

connected with it; it is therefore limited in its range. He has also a

slight tendency to preach, but, as a whole, his book may be very highly

commended as an honest and successful attempt to represent Brother

Jonathan as he really is.

_A Voyage round the World._ By the Marquis de BEAUVOIR. In Two vols.

John Murray, Albemarle-street. 1870.

These charming volumes come before us with every claim to interest. The

author is a Frenchman without national prejudice--a mere boy in years

without either self-sufficiency or vain-glory--a nobleman of high degree

without _morgue_ or arrogance, to whom fortune has allotted an

inestimable opportunity of improving the gifts of nature by sending him

as companion to the young Duc de Penthièvre, on this easy, pleasant

'Voyage round the World.' All these conditions unite to predispose the

reader to a series of novel emotions in traversing an already beaten

track. The Duc de Penthièvre is introduced to us as a young man of high

intelligence and sterling character, who, in spite of his youth, had

already seen six years of service in the United States' navy, and gained

promotion therein by merit alone--not as homage to his position as scion

of a royal house. The princes of the House of Orleans have been apt

scholars in the great school of adversity. It would be well for France

if the lessons they have been learning could be turned to account in the

government of their own country. We learn from M. de Beauvoir's preface

that, during the space of three months, three princes of Orleans left

Europe to see if in some distant land they might not utilize their

talents and energy, as at present they were unable to devote them to the

service of their own. The Duc d'Alençon entered the Spanish service, and

took command of the artillery during the glorious expedition to the

Philippine Islands; the Prince de Condé went to India and Australia,

where death cut him off at the commencement of his career; and the Duc

de Penthièvre, the Prince de Joinville's son, started on a voyage round

the world. No greater proof of the great change which has come over the

social world of France could be found than this announcement made so

simply by our author.

The two volumes under review are devoted to Australia, Java, Siam, and

Canton. The novel judgments of men and things, attributable to the

extreme youth and exceptional position of the writer, gives an entirely

original insight into the manners and customs of the higher classes of

these different countries. Naturally enough, we turn at once to

Australia. Throughout the whole of the volume which treats of Australia,

the national pride of the English reader is gratified to its fullest

extent, not by empty praise of material wealth and rich produce, but by

solid admiration of the perseverance, tenacity of purpose, and high

intelligence with which the mother country has resisted all temptation

to impose a yoke upon her distant children; and has thereby caused their

hearts to cling closer to her own, than those of her nearer and dearer

progeny. We can readily sympathise with the pleased astonishment which

seizes upon the Marquis de Beauvoir, when he contrasts the wise

abstention from all interference in the local government of the colony,

with the petty and vexatious pressure of French authority in Algeria.

One instance of the equity of the law as practised in the colony,

contrasted with the following of its mere letter, peculiar to the

tribunals of Europe, we cannot pass over.

'In going through the workshops we remarked two native blacks, mere

children, and utterly hideous, but with a perfectly gentle expression.

Their extremely white teeth exposed to view by a mouth split from ear to

ear, formed a strong contrast with their black skins, as their jolly and

perpetual laugh did with the dress which is worn by those condemned to

hard labour for life. Their appearance was so cheerful, that we were

naturally much interested in them. Besides, there was a great deal in

their novelty as aborigines.' All interest in these merry culprits was,

however, at an end, when the visitors were informed that one of them had

murdered three sailors, and the other had waylaid and hacked to pieces

two white women. They had not been condemned to death, because 'they

were natives--and none of the aborigines had as yet been hung--their

instincts and belief being so different, that with them murder is no

crime; they are tamed more by gentleness than cruelty.'

The Marquis expatiates, with true youthful ardour, upon this generous

forbearance, and declares that a government professing such principles

after invading, in the name of civilization, a country occupied by a

barbarian race, deserves the admiration of all Europe. The records of

Sydney law confirm the distinction made between barbarous native and

civilized colonist; for a little while after, seven white men, having

murdered a family of natives, were hung without mercy, to give a good

example to the rising generation of the young colony, who are taught to

pity the blind, ferocious instincts of the native race, and to feel

contempt and horror of the civilized white men guilty of the same

cold-blooded atrocities.

Life in the bush has charms for our youthful author as great as those of

the handsome drawing-rooms of Melbourne and Sydney. After much visiting

amongst the highest circles of Sydney--banqueting at the Government

House, and dancing in the spacious halls of the great officials of the

colony--the buoyant spirits of the young Marquis lead him to throw

himself, _a corps perdu_, into the delights of savage life. His

enthusiastic description of the visit to Mr. Capel--the arrival of the

party at the hut inhabited by the triple millionaire, on the banks of

the Murray river--the glee with which he recounts the danger of fording

the stream, while the horses were left to swim to the bank as best they

could, and the subsequent scramble up the muddy side to Mr. Capel's

dwelling, will make many an English boy's eyes sparkle with delight and

envy as he reads.

We can only mention the journey through Java, Siam, and Canton. Much of

the interest lies in the description of the court of the King of Siam,

rendered familiar to the English public by the recent account of the

'English Governess.' At Hong Kong, the author's admiration of English

rule again breaks forth. And we take our leave of the distinguished

party, of which he appears to have been the very life and soul, with

hearty thanks for the boldness with which the young Marquis has dared to

assert his conviction that the English alone are fitted to found a

colony, and that no other nation is possessed of the patience, the

calmness, and true sense of justice which are needed to render the

natives submissive to civilization and the yoke of the foreigner.

_Fair France._ By the Author of 'John Halifax, Gentleman.' Hurst and

Blackett.

At a time when France is torn and tortured by the most terrible war the

world has ever known, it seems strange to open a volume of peaceful

travel in the beautiful country which most of us know so well, and which

has undergone such an unparalleled transformation. The authoress (_pace_

Thackeray) of this charming volume is well known to the public as a

novelist, and however critical judgments may vary as to her artistic

power, of her purity of tone and freedom from the vicious tendencies of

modern fictitious literature, there can be no question. For our own

part, we find her even more agreeable as a tourist than as a novelist.

She looks at the world with unprejudiced eyes; she finds that even

French _curés_ are human beings, and not the frightful demons that they

appear to the excited imagination of the honourable member for

Peterborough. We have, in these days, been accustomed to travellers of

many kinds: there is the sensational tourist, who bursts into mysterious

eloquence on the slightest provocation; and there is the cynical

tourist, who with upturned nose regards all the world as a gigantic

imposture--looking up into the dome of St. Peter's, or down into the

crater of Etna, and contemptuously remarking that 'there is nothing in

it.' But the truly pleasant traveller is the man or woman who starts

with intent to enjoy the trip, who looks at the bright side of

everything, and who, writing a book, writes cheerily and gaily. This is

precisely what we find in 'Fair France.' The dedication deserves to be

quoted: 'I inscribe "Fair France"--France of yesterday--to those heroic

and suffering souls in the France of to-day, who yet suffer in hope,

seeing light through the darkness, and believing in a new and nobler

"France of to-morrow."' That new and nobler France is no dream of the

ivory gate. This siege of Paris, to which the siege of Troy seems

trivial, will purge the French people of many evil qualities, and leave

them greater than before. This is the belief of all who know them

well--who know how their higher life has been eclipsed by noxious

influences. However this war may terminate, and whatever may be the fate

of the country of Lothair, it is pretty certain that the fatal follies

which have misguided the French people are now exploded for ever.

_The Land of the Sun._ By Lieutenant C. R. LOW. Hodder and Stoughton.

1870.

This book makes no pretensions to be regarded as a regular diary of

connected travel, but is a series of vivid sketches of such places in

the East as the author frequently visited. In a succession of

interesting chapters he carries us from place to place, describing each

locality with many of its historical associations, and his own personal

impressions and incidents of adventure. He tells us something of Aden,

Massowah, and the Red Sea, the Andaman Islands, and many other places

of interest, some of growing importance; leaving us finally at that city

of romance, Bagdad. Those who have commercial relations with 'the Land

of the Sun' will find valuable information in this volume, especially in

the chapters on Aden and Persia. As Mr. Low says, 'The Suez Canal has

opened a new era for Aden and Persia, and indeed for all the ports of

the Red Sea, and it is impossible to exaggerate the mighty future in

store for them.' It did not require that the title-page should inform us

that the writer belonged to the navy, for almost every paragraph

contains expressions which are possible from only a joyous, enthusiastic

sailor-nature. He makes the reader feel as though he were listening to

some clever Jack-tar, who can describe the places and people he has

visited, and can spin a yarn with startling effect. The lieutenant

revels in adventure, and any skirmish excites his vigorous sympathy.

Like a true British sailor, he has an infinite contempt for all his

enemies, and a supreme belief in English seamanship and courage. Our

readers may get considerable instruction and many a hearty laugh out of

this capital book.

_Two Months in Palestine; or, a Guide to a Rapid Journey to the Chief

Places of Interest in the Holy Land._ By the Author of 'Two Months in

Spain.' Nisbet and Co.

This little volume is what its title indicates. It gives useful

information, and records the _impressions du voyage_ of an intelligent

traveller. While it does not wholly refrain from historical reminiscence

and archæological speculation, it touches them lightly, and without

dogmatism. It is a pleasant record of experiences in sacred scenes,

whose interest no number of travellers' books can exhaust. Readers of

'The Leisure Hour' will be familiar with the papers here collected into

a volume.

_Daybreak in Spain: a Tour of Two Months._ By the Rev. J. A. WYLIE,

LL.D. Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1870.

Whatever other distinguishing traits Dr. Wylie may possess, he is at

least a famous hater of the Papacy. In several former volumes he appears

as the earnest champion of Protestantism, and in his vigorous

declamatory rhetoric gives the enemy no quarter. It is no matter of

surprise, therefore, that the remarkable movement in Spain which

preceded and followed the expulsion of Isabella II. should have awakened

his most energetic sympathy. With a _naïveté_ perfectly charming he

informs the reader that he entered Spain on the anniversary of the

Queen's summary dismissal. The coincidence of the two events may be an

important historical incident, but as yet we fail to see it. However, he

presents to us the results of two months' tour in a light sketchy

manner, though in a very readable book. His descriptions of the scenes

and people are sometimes vivid, but they leave the impression of haste

and effort to be striking. The author also compiles a number of

noteworthy facts concerning the progress of the Gospel in that long

unhappy land, which enable us to share his prophetic hopes for its

brighter future. The book would be immensely improved by the omission of

many of those eulogistic paragraphs on the Bible, which mar the

continuity of the narrative, and read like the perorations of

innumerable speeches. The illustrations by Gustave Doré, which he says

(page 12) accompany the first chapter, are wanting in our copy.

_History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the

Spanish Armada._ By JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, M.A., late Fellow of Exeter

College, Oxford. Vols. VIII.-XII. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1870.

This most admirable and faultless reprint of the classic history of a

great period of our annals is now completed. Never have publishers

considered more carefully the convenience and comfort of the general

reader. The volumes are portable, and the type is suited to the most

defective sight. The pleasure of consulting Mr. Froude's works is

moreover enhanced by a copious and well-arranged index, which occupies

no fewer than one hundred pages. The dates are given on every page, from

first to last; and this great work, on which we have so often commented,

is now placed within the reach of thousands who have for their perusal

of it hitherto had to depend on library copies. Whatever difference of

opinion may be entertained as to the justness of certain conclusions,

and the good taste of some revelations, the extraordinary merit of this

history of the most eventful epoch in the development of the English

church, nationality, and constitution, can hardly be exaggerated.

_Sketches from America._ By JOHN WHITE, Fellow of Queen's College,

Oxford. Sampson Low and Co.

Mr. White's book has but very little of the character of a tourist's

book of travels, although it is, he tells us, 'founded upon a tour that

was undertaken without any design of collecting materials for a book.'

Personal experiences are but little obtruded. We get the most of them in

the second section, 'A Pic-nic to the Rocky Mountains.' The party

consisted of newspaper editors and Mr. G. F. Train; who probably is an

editor, and a dozen things besides. This personal part of Mr. White's

book indicates a keen observer and a graphic pen. We would gladly, had

we space, extract some of the amusing incidents of his journey. The

first and third parts of the book--on Canada, and on the Irish in

America--are disquisitions founded in part upon personal observation,

but chiefly upon facts and opinions collected from diversified sources

with care and discrimination. They constitute, therefore, a series of

judgments by Mr. White, and are to be taken simply as such, _quantum

valeat_. We are bound to say, however, that they are marked by great

moderation, scholarly intelligence, and plausible credibility. But

clearly, other observers equally well-informed and judicial, might come

to very different conclusions. We can only indicate some of Mr. White's

opinions. He points out acutely the distinctive characteristics of the

Canadians; their many points of difference from the citizen of the

States, both in manners, feeling, and political interest. Canadians are

strong in a theoretic loyalty, and are proud of their English

belongings, while they have very little of patriotic passion. The Irish

in Canada are not, Mr. White thinks, so loyal as is often boasted,

although they are less hostile than the Irish in America. They feel no

affection for the English, and, as a class, desire annexation. The

French Canadians are contented without being patriotic. They are not

annexationists, and see nothing better for themselves than English rule.

The best classes in Canada, like those in the States, studiously eschew

politics, and affect indifference, even while the streets of Montreal

are crowded at an exciting election. Mr. White conveys no very exalted

idea of the dignity of Canadian legislation, by the account he quotes of

the behaviour of the members of the Ottawa Parliament singing choruses

and indulging in other forms of obstructive boisterousness all night.

'Men, not measures,' is the Canadian political motto, although to a less

extent than in the United States. Mr. White gives a good account of the

Church legislation of the last few years, and of its beneficial results,

which we commend to our Church and State partisans. While admitting that

the feeling of Canada is adverse to annexation with the States, Mr.

White seems to think that commercial interests and necessities will make

it inevitable--a forecast from which there is both room and reason for

differing.

Mr. White's book is, throughout, written with an amount of information,

a scholarly intelligence and care, and a studied moderation of feeling,

which place it above most books of its class, and entitle it to a

permanent place in the library. It will have value when the interest of

ephemeral books of mere travel has passed away.