Frederick the Great. By Col. C. B. Bracken-
bury. (Chapman & Hall.)

the head of the Düsseldorf Lycée, Rector be to prove that Heine was a very religious | gence, but strength of rule and character ”— Schallmeyer, a Roman Catholic priest. But man, and to and to assert the superiority of we quote Napoleon's emphatic language; and when we learn that Rector Schallmeyer Leland's translation of Heine's poems to no commander has surpassed Frederick in could suggest to Mdme. Heine that she all others. The translation in general pre- decision, firmness, and tenacious constancy. should send her son to Rome to be educated sents fairly the meaning of the original, but Occasionally, no doubt, his resolute energy for the Church, and that Mdme. Heine pro- the English is not good enough to fairly degenerated into obstinate rashness; he owed posed-or, at least, did not oppose the represent Heine. Certain passages which to this his defeat at Künersdorf, and his sending of that son to a German university might offend the modesty of an English or narrow escape from disaster at Ingau; nor to study law at a time when the practice of American reader are omitted, but en revanche was his judgment always sound and well law was prohibited to Jews, thereby giving Dr. Evans has inserted twice over a piece of balanced, like Marlborough's and, in a less an implicit consent to his forsaking the faith coarseness for which Heine is not to blame. degree, Wellington's. But Frederick's greatof his fathers-when we read of these things R. M'LINTOCK. ness lay in his firm daring, and in perwe feel strongly that the atmosphere which severance that nothing could subdue; and his surrounded young Heine was not favourable extraordinary success is, in a large degree, to the cultivation of a fine perception in to be ascribed to these mental faculties. It things appertaining to morality and religion. is a mistake, indeed, to assert that the King In fact, Heine was as much of a Jew after was victorious over a united continent; Maria his public acceptance of Christianity as Theresa was his only deadly enemy; and before it. Even in the days when he was neither Russia nor France put forth her weak enough to desire that his Jewish origin whole strength against him in the Seven should be unknown or forgotten, he was Years' War. Yet the fact remains that, continually harping on Jewish subjects in a almost unaided, this great warrior, with the manner impossible to any but a Jew. resources only of a military State of the third order, confronted, through a protracted struggle, an armed league of three of the chief Powers of Europe, and came triumphant out of the unequal conflict; and this wonderful achievement was mainly caused by his invincible will and heroic steadfastness. In the conduct of war these priceless qualities of Frederick are seen in two main particulars. No general, not Napoleon himself, assumed the offensive more boldly against divided and distant enemies, and no general ever encountered disaster with more unbending firmness so often plucked success from defeat. This last, indeed, is perhaps the feature of Frederick's career that is most distinctive. After the rout of Kölin, he triumphs at Rosbach; half ruined at Künersdorf, he still defies Daun; defeated at Hoch-Kirch, he pounces on Neisse; hemmed in at Bungelwitte, and in the extreme of peril, he escapes and retains his hold on Silesia.

The portrait of Mdme. Heine is not so fully worked out as that of her good-natured ne'er-do-well of a husband, Samson Heine, although the latter apparently stands for next to nothing in his son's life. His less purposeful but more sociable nature serves as a peg whereon to hang a number of stories and anecdotes which combine to present him to us in a very vivid fashion, and at the same time they show us something of the sort of life which went on around the future poet. He, with his dreamy, sentimental, and unpractical temperament, must have seemed a strange creature if anyone had cared at that time to observe him. He tells us how he lived for something like a year possessed by the idea that he was a sort of avatar, or resurrection, of his great-uncle, Simon van Geldern-known in the family legends as "the Oriental."

These Memoirs do not enable us to trace the successive stages of mental development through which he passed-the circumstances under which they were written made that well-nigh an impossibility; but they give us brilliant sketches of persons and scenes as they appeared to the memory of the dying man across the gap of nearly half a century. The golden glamour of distance may be over them, but the impression on reading them is one of truth. Heine seems to have resolved to nothing extenuate nor aught set down in malice, and we can only regret that he did not live to make the book a more important

one.

His hand, when the pen-or pencil, rather-fell from it, had lost none of its cunning.

Dr. Engel, the German editor, has made a volume of the Memoirs by adding an introductory essay on the burnt MS., and the circumstances under which the present work was written, discovered, and published; a few poems, letters, and scraps not published before; and the Heligoland letters from Heine's book on Börne. These last are really fine and important, and originally formed part of the burnt memoirs.

Dr. Evans, the possessor of "the right of translation for the English language," has made up his volume by the addition of three of the scraps mentioned above (these fill thirty pages), and an introductory essay on Heine's life and works filling 130 pages. The main purpose of this essay seems to

THE publishers of this work deserve credit
for endeavouring to supply the popular
demand for military literature of a high
order which the memorable wars of the
present age has certainly caused to grow up
among us. It was a happy thought, too, to
impart this knowledge in the attractive form
of short biographies of the great commanders
of different times, scientific enough to show
distinctly the rank they held as masters of
their art, and yet written in a style calculated
to please the general and unprofessional
reader.

We cannot say, however, that this
volume-the first of the projected series-
carries out adequately this good idea, or
realises what we had expected from it. Col.
Brackenbury, no doubt, is a well-read soldier,
and what he has published as a war corre-
spondent is, we believe, of no little value;
but, somehow or other, this brief sketch of
Frederick the Great is very unlike what, in
our opinion, it ought to have been, and, as a
military work, is a weak performance. Whole
chapters might have been well omitted; and
the space occupied by disquisitions on the
rise and growth of the Prussian Monarchy,
on the causes that led to the two great wars
of the Austrian Succession and the Seven
Years, on the characteristics of the Prussian
government, and on the squabbles between
the King and Voltaire would have been
better filled by really thoughtful criticism
of the author's special and exclusive subject.
In truth, nothing like a sufficient estimate
of Frederick as a military chief is to be
found in any part of the work; and able
comments on his various campaigns, with
good summings up, are equally absent. The
narrative, too, though fairly good, is dull,
and greatly overloaded with details; and the
account given by Col. Brackenbury of
Frederick's strategy and tactics in the field,
if tolerably accurate, in part, at least, is
deficient in clearness and real insight. The
book, in a word, is wanting in breadth, in
complete knowledge, in mature reflection;
and its artistic merit is very small, though
this, perhaps, is of little importance. The
maps, we must add, ought to have been
much better. They do not give the student a
clear notion of the theatres of the operations
of the King; they do not mark out, as they
ought to have done, the main lines only and
the main strategic points; and they puzzle
the eye by their crowded fullness.

It is in his moral rather than in his mental qualities that we chiefly find the distinctive excellence of Frederick as a leader in war. "The first merit of a general is not intelli

or

We have dwelt on this side of Frederick's nature, for, though it is noticed in the volume before us, it has not been placed in sufficient relief. The intellectual gifts of the King were very inferior, in our judgment, to the high and commanding moral qualities which form his chief title to military fame. He can hardly be said to have displayed genius, at least in the large operations of war; his combinations were not profound, original, or, in any sense, brilliant; he was deficient in fine strategic skill; and he committed most serious strategic mistakes. Col. Brackenbury is, we think, right in saying that Frederick's strategy was not remarkable; we only wish he had endeavoured to give an intelligent and thorough account of it. As a tactician, the King ranks very high; he had probably studied the subject carefully; he had certainly witnessed a continual round of military exercises at the reviews of Potsdam; and in this part of the science of war a marked improvement is to be ascribed to him. Col. Brackenbury has dwelt on Frederick's tactics; but his description of them is not sufficient, and in some points is, we believe, misleading. The peculiar merits of the King in tactics were that he employed the then arms with more skill and effect than had been seen previously; and, possessing, as he did, a much better army than any of those opposed to him, he repeatedly succeeded, by rapid manoeuvres,

remains first to indicate," and (pp. 40, 41) "to commemorate that companionship and to interpret the involvements of that undiminished love "-"there's a stewed phrase indeed," enough to rouse the wrath of the servant of Pandarus. But these are given, not as characteristic of the style of the book, but as exceptional and worth erasing. It is a book written with loving care, but with no discrimination between thoughts worth having and thoughts worth recording.

in outflanking and so defeating an enemy.place, but riddles should have none.' ." book is, on the whole, commendable. There Undoubtedly, however, even as a tactician, Nothing can be truer; and Mr. Genung's are one or two crudities, such as (p. 58) "it Frederick sometimes fell into grave errors; attempt to unfold the mysteries of "In and mere tactical skill, though of the highest Memoriam comes of forgetting that such order, is not one of the decisive excellences mysteries explain themselves to the student, which make a commander of the first rank. but cannot be explained to him. The riddles, We have no space to discuss the problem of on the other hand, can and should be exFrederick's attack "in oblique order," the plained as soon as possible; till that is done, subject of much very stupid writing; we they are simply deterrent. shall only say that we do not concur in all that this volume lays down about it. Notwithstanding some very marked defects, and though he did not possess supreme genius, still Frederick, in virtue of many high qualities, is certainly entitled to rank among the leading warriors of modern Europe.

66 WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS.

Tennyson's "In Memoriam," its Purpose and its Structure: a Study. By John F. Genung. (Macmillan.)

THIS book is one of an increasing class of writings in which the authors seem to have put to themselves every question in relation to their subject except one: Is my disquisition on this subject necessary, or likely to be useful to any appreciable number of readers? It is impossible not to respect a labour of love like the present volume-accurate, careful, enthusiastic; yet, at the end, it is equally impossible not to ask, Are there really any readers to whom "In Memoriam" appeals at all who require, or who will welcome, such assurances as the following (pp. 25, 26)?

"I have intimated in what way alone the poem before us is to be profitably studied, in the same way by which the devoutest minds of the age have found it fruitful of thought and com

once.

fort-namely, through the spirit of it. In
Memoriam' does not yield its whole secret at
Nor does it reveal itself willingly to an
uncongenial or impatient reader. Catch-words
and mechanical devices count for little in its
structure. We need to lay, as it were, our
hearts by the side of the poet's heart," &c.
Now, if there were any real danger of "In
Memoriam" being read as vers de société this
plea might be necessary; as it is, the remarks
seem perfectly obvious-trite and barren,
though exceedingly true. Mr. Genung can-
not bear that the object of his adoration
should be scanned lightly or merely skimmed
through; he forgets that "In Memoriam"
has a fine, almost unequalled, power of self-
defence. A Transatlantic critic, I believe,
once summed up his judgment of "In
Memoriam" by asking, "What on airth
is the good of screaming against the calm
facts of Creation ?" Mr. Genung seems
haunted and pestered by such estimates; he
would like to convert such a critic. Hence
the laborious and platitudinous assurances in
which he deals-not from want of thought,
still less from want of zeal or of literary
expression, but from a misconception of what
readers of "In Memoriam" really need. If
I might venture on an opinion as to their
requirements, it would be that not a study
but an edition of "In Memoriam "—an
edition with severely reticent notes ex-
planatory of the harder verbal puzzles will
one day be required. Mr. Swinburne has, I
think, somewhere laid it down that, in works
of imagination, "mysteries should have

Memoriam.' ""

"In

Putting aside the introductory matter,
which seems, as has been already said, to be
mainly occupied in discerning the sun at
noonday, Mr. Genung's book divides itself
into two treatises- one on the purpose of "In
Memoriam," the other on its structure. The
first includes a comparison of it, as an elegy, to
"Lycidas" and "Adonais," and, as a memorial
of friendship, to Shakspere's Sonnets. This
distinction, though treated in an interesting
manner,
seems to have a vitiating flaw.
Whatever else "Lycidas" and "Adonais " may
be, they are assuredly memorials of friend-
ship, as most elegies are; nor is it possible to
compare "In Memoriam" with them, except
in relation to this common quality, which
quality, accordingly, cannot be reserved for
the comparison between the Sonnets and "In
To me, indeed, it appears that
be compared, as possessing, amid all their
"Lycidas " and "Adonais" may profitably
differences, the same sort of unity.
Memoriam," on the other hand, would be
to the Psalms. Here, too, there is unity, but
more profitably compared to the Sonnets or
of a wholly different kind. But, in any case,
it should have been possible to institute
these comparisons without the supererogatory
tedium (p. 32) of assuring us that "Lycidas
commemorates under pastoral forms the death
of Edward King, and that "Adonais was
written on occasion of the death of John
Keats. It is the obtrusion of remarks of this
kind, very fit for a primer of English litera-
ture as they are, that makes the book tire-
some. The best part of this chapter, how-
ever, is the conclusion (pp. 70-76), where
what Mr. Genung aptly calls the "chorus-
poems" of "In Memoriam " are discriminated,
and their office described, with much skill.
The distinction between these poems and the
others is, of course, vital, and not in itself
difficult to grasp; yet Mr. Genung is prob-
ably right in thinking that it eludes many
readers.

The final and longest treatise, that on the
structure of the poem, is well worth reading,
though somewhat unduly prolix, and not free
from the fault of obviousness. The discovery,
for instance (pp. 88, 89, &c.), of the
airth for instance (pp. 88, 89, &c.), of the "cycles"
of the poem is one which has hardly ever,
one would think, eluded an intelligent reader;
yet, if I mistake not, Mr. Genung regards it
as a new light. The short prose analyses of
the poems are gracefully expressed, and very
much fuller than those published in F. W.
Robertson's Remains; and, little as one may
think that the poem gains by such explana-
tions, there is no doubt that explanation
should be thorough, if it be given at all.
The most interesting thing by far in the
whole book is the connexion, worked out,
I think, for the first time, between the
thoughts of "In Memoriam" and passages
from Arthur Hallam's own Remains (see
e.g., pp. 151, 167, &c.).

In minor matters of style and taste the

E. D. A. MORSHEAD.

Norman Britain. By W. Hunt. "Early
Britain Series. (S. P. C. K.)
THE period which Mr. Hunt here treats
is one that has, of late years, peculiarly
engaged the attention of historians. He
thus enjoys the singular good fortune of
having to his hand such an abundance of
first-class material as is afforded, it may
fairly be said, by no other period in our his-
tory. But this very plethora of material
constitutes a grave difficulty when it has to
be compressed into so small a space, and
present us with "a series of short essays,
Mr. Hunt therefore judiciously decided to
invested with any independent importance."
treating facts rather as illustrations than as
a very complete and successful aperçu of the
He has thus been enabled to give his readers
important results obtained by the labours of
many students. It is satisfactory to find that
among his sources of information is so recent
and valuable a work as the Corpus Poeticum
Boreale.

Mr. Hunt is, necessarily, chiefly indebted
to the elaborate works of Mr. Freeman, whose
Norman Conquest and William Rufus exactly
cover his period. Permitted by Mr. Freeman
"to make use of all that he had written,"
and enjoying "the benefit of his criticism and
counsel," it is not to be expected that Mr.
Hunt should deviate from his teacher's track.
Yet there are evidences that he has not hesi-
tated to form, in some cases, his own con-
clusions. We may instance his views on the
election of Harold, where he contends that
"it was a strange event, for it was wholly
contrary to Teutonic ideas that

anyone

should be made a king who was not of a kingly line" -a contention which he illustrates from the Corpus Poeticum. This, surely, savours rather of Mr. Green's view, that it was constitutional revolution of the gravest kind, the setting aside a great national tradition," and of Dr. Stubbs' sound canon that "royalty, though elective, belongs to one house, one family" (Const. Hist. i. 141, ef. i. 135), than of Mr. Freeman's somewhat illogical conclusion on this, "the central point of this history," that, because one member of the royal house might be selected in preference to another, it was quite constitutional, as a consequence, to select an outsider, who was not of the royal house at all. matter of chivalry, on which Mr. Freeman, as is well known, holds strong views, Mr. Hunt ventures, in the case of Rufus, "to differ to some extent from his conclusions."

Again, in the

But, on the whole, Mr. Hunt follows Mr. Freeman closely. Thus his description of the

Castles sprung up everywhere. New mounds were raised, or ancient earthworks were used again, and on these were built the square and massive donjon towers which mark the Norman fortress,"

reproduces that of Mr. Freeman :—
"The land soon bristled with castles.

The

mound crowned with the square donjon rose as the defence or the terror of every lordship." Here Mr. Freeman's words should have been checked by the well-known conclusions of Mr. Clark, the recognised authority on this subject, who holds that of the rectangular keeps in Normandy "very few, if any, can be

shown" to have been constructed before the

English conquest. Moreover, even if any of

these fortresses had been built so early as 1035,
the mound would have been "crowned," not
"with the square donjon," but with the
shell-keep, it being only, as Mr. Clark has
shown, the greater durability of the rec-
tangular form that has caused it to be described
(erroneously) as the type, instead of as but
one of the two types, of a Norman keep."
So, too, in the matter of Harold, Mr. Hunt,
with unquestioning enthusiasm, embraces Mr.
Freeman's view:

"Patient, just, and affable to all men, strenuous
in action, valiant in fight. . . . Like his father,
he was wise and politic; unlike him, he was
also generous and self-denying."
We are given no hint that there is another
side to the question, that expressed by Mr.
Green in the words-

"His civil administration during his first ten
years of rule is the mere continuation of his
father's. There is the same scheme of family
aggrandisement, carried out in even a less
scrupulous way.'

Mr. Hunt, of course, also takes the favourable view of his relation to the mysterious Northumbrian rising.

Of the Constitutional History Mr. Hunt has made good use, and his sketch of Domesday is excellent. But it might be wished that, in finance, Danegeld had been touched upon, and the firma burgi more carefully explained. It is stated that, even before the Conquest, the English towns had advanced so far as "to pay their own dues to the Crown" (p. 58); and yet we are told in a parallel passage (p. 195) that "at the date of the Conquest" their dues were still "included by the sheriff in the ferm of the shire."

We read, in the chapter on "The Norman Nobles," of old Roger de Beaumont, that he "gained by marriage the county of Meulan, in the French Vexin, and thus became a French as well as a Norman noble. . . . When William invaded England he was left to help Matilda in the government of the Duchy. He refused to take any share in the spoils of England," &c., &c.

But it was not till long after Roger's marriage-indeed, long after the invasion itselfthat his brother-in-law, the Count of Meulan, died, and, even then, Meulan passed, not to himself, but to his son. Moreover, though it is stated by Mr. Freeman himself that he "refused to share in the spoils of England" (W. Ruf. i. 184), we can here check William of Malmesbury by what Mr. Freeman loves to term "the simple process of turning to

Domesday," and learn that his conscience
allowed him, as a fact, to "share in the
spoils" in more than one county. Nor can
it be stated with certainty that his son "was
made earl of the shire and town" of Leicester
(though it is so held by Mr. Freeman, and
even by Dr. Stubbs), for on this point Orderic's
solitary assertion, however positive, is surely
outweighed by accumulated record evidence.
It is, however, right to add that Mr. Hunt,
as a rule, is most accurate. But there is
a strange slip in the passage quoted from
the Fitzwalter decision, where the words
were not fit to be received," but "fit to be
revived" (Collins on Baronies, p. 287).

66

his praiseworthy determination to give us
We owe Mr. Hunt a debt of gratitude for
proper names, both English and Norman, in a
rational form. It is to be hoped that such
monstrosities as "Aluric" and "Mellent"
We wish,
may now soon be swept away.
however, that, on the same principle, the
story of "Liveger" (p. 224) had been told as
of Leofgar.

The absence of a date from the title-page,
hitherto a flaw in this series, is now remedied;
but the Index continues poor, and the absence
of a table of contents is, in a book of this
character, inexcusable.

NEW NOVELS.

J. H. ROUND.

Princess Napraxine. By Ouida.

(Chatto & Windus.)

In 3 vols.

The Unclassed. By George Gissing. In 3 vols.
(Chapman & Hall.)

Lucia, Hugh, and Another. By Mrs. J. H.
Needell. In 3 vols. (Blackwood.)
The Ironmaster. From the French of Georges
Ohnet, by Lady G. O. In 3 vols. (Wyman.)
Mumu, and The Diary of a Superfluous Man.
By Turgeneff. Translated by Henry Ger-
soni. (New York: Funk & Wagnall.)
Dorothea Kirke; or, Free to Serve. By Annie
S. Swan. (Edinburgh: Oliphant.)
WE are disappointed in Ouida's last work.
Although Princess Napraxine contains some
original views of life, expressed with great
vigour, as a whole it falls far short of the
author's best work. The mannerisms to
which we have grown accustomed in her
later books are more conspicuous and glaring
than ever, while the general construction of
plot and moulding of character are altogether
artificial, and lack the breath of life. The
background is laid chiefly in the Riviera and
in Paris; and, when we say that the author
has placed her personages in the fashionable
world, it is as much as to say that bright colours
have not been spared in the scenery. Princess
Napraxine, who, for want of a better word,
may be called the heroine of the story, is a
very carefully finished study, and forms one
of the most repulsive figures in literature.
Her character is dissected and examined with
the minute care characteristic of modern
fiction. The reader is called upon to pity
the sorrows of a woman, bad indeed, but
young, beautiful, and wedded to an uncon-
genial husband. The Princess had, at the age
of sixteen or so, married Prince Napraxine's
great wealth to escape the chilling poverty to
which her father's improvidence would have

doomed her. The Prince is a good-hearted man with little brains, and only succeeds in disgusting his wife with mankind in general, and with himself in particular. Princess Napraxine feels the marriage "a profanation"; and, after bearing two sons to her husband, thinks she has fairly done all that may be required of a wife and mother. She henceforth utterly neglects her husband, and, aided by a pair of "languid, voluptuous eyes,' makes a series of conquests, which end for the most part in the removal of her adorers by duel or suicide. The heroine's flirtations are purely platonic, as she is a strictly chaste woman, not from principle, as the author is careful to explain, but from a peculiar coldness of temperament. Her way of dealing with her many lovers is to smile on each man who approaches her until he begins to tire her, or his attentions become a subject of remark, when he is dismissed with as little

ceremony as a clumsy page-boy. When the
scene opens, one of the many adorers of the
Princess is a certain Count Othmar, a financier
of fabulous wealth. Othmar, be it remarked,
is not a Jew, but the descendant of a line
of Croatian money-lenders, who rose from
obscurity during the last century. Othmar
is madly in love with the Russian Princess;
and, failing to persuade her to elope with him.
to Central Asia, or some other secluded por-
tion of the world's crust, he goes and marries
out of spite. His bride, Yseulte de Valogne,

is a portionless girl of good family, who has
been left an orphan, and is dependent upon
Othmar
the kindness of distant relatives.
marries her primarily to punish the Princess
for her coldness, and a little because he is
touched by her youth (she is but sixteen),
beauty, and forlorn condition. The maiden
purity of the young bride is not, how-
ever, sufficient to charm away the hero's
passion, and he is once more at the Princess's
feet. Presently Prince Napraxine is killed.
in a duel, and Othmar proposes once again to
run off with the heroine. At last, however,
the conscience of the Princess is touched, and
she refuses in a letter to wrong Othmar's
wife. The letter falls into the hands of
Yseulte, who is heartbroken by this confirma-
tion of her worst fears, and who promptly
puts an end to her life, leaving her husband
free to try the doubtful experiment of wedded
life with the Princess. This conclusion is
somewhat lame; but the reader is consoled
by the thought that the wrongs of poor
Yseulte will be avenged by the second wife.
Nadia Napraxine is, in truth, as vile a woman
as can be imagined; and it is difficult to see
why the author should have tried so des-
perately to win sympathy for such a character.
Othmar cannot be called a success; but some
of the more lightly sketched figures com-
mand our attention and sympathy. Yseulte
is a charming creation; and Friedrich Othmar,
the hero's uncle, is one of the few genial
characters that the author has drawn. For
the rest, the book is, as already said,
marked by Ouida's most characteristic man-
nerisms and outrageous extravagances. Phy-
sical passion is obtruded with unnecessary
vehemence, and the author is continually
airing matters which, in this country, are not
usually discussed in general literature, and
least of all in novels. She has apparently
some consciousness of this fact, as she veils

many allusions in French sentences which look fresh clipped from La Vie parisienne. By-the-way, the English of Princess Napraxine, while often vigorous and picturesque, is not the English of a native; the book, as a whole, reading like an unidiomatic translation from French.

BOOKS OF TRAVEL.

Diary of an Idle Woman in Spain. By Frances
Elliot. In 2 vols. (White.) This is an irri-
tating book to review; and, if our remarks seem
too harsh, the author must lay the blame either
on her own carelessness, or on that of the
corrector of the press. She is a practised writer,
and cannot now claim the indulgence due to a
beginner. Nearly every Spanish or historical
or geographical term used in these volumes, if
repeated, is spelt once or twice rightly, and
many times wrongly. We can give only an
example or two of what occurs frequently. The
favourite wine of Central and Southern Spain,
Valde-peñas, appears as Valid Peñas on p. 65;
la casa de las Siesa Churimeas for Siete Chime-
Alcyade for Alcalde (pp. 50, 51); though all are
neas (p. 63); Dos de Marjo for Dos de Mayo;
rightly spelt elsewhere.
which the book is crammed is a compound of
The history with
Murray's Guide-book, Schiller's Don Carlos, and
Washington Irving; and the changes are rung
on the same theme with most wearying iteration.
The apocryphal story of Count Julian and his
dova, the Guadalete, Malaga, and other places;

are about to exchange shots in a duel. The daughter is told in connexion with Toledo, Cor- stalment of a larger work which will give an wife receives in her hand the charge that was meant for her husband, and the barrier which that of Boabdil occurs still more frequently; and observations in the Chinese empire.

while, as the author truly remarks,
Philip II. everywhere." And all this is told in
the old fashion, as if neither Dozy, Gachard,
Stirling, nor even Prescott had ever written.
Yet the author has no need of all this farrago;
she has some power of true description, and
she brings a scene before us well, whether it be
when she throws aside her ill-digested learning
of art or of nature. The description of Seville
cathedral, and that of the procession at Granada,
are excellently done. A declared lover of cities,
and, above all, of Madrid (the healthiness of
which she extols at the moment when its inhabit

ants are aghast at its ever-intrusio she visits only great toma må eg acquaintance with "untrodden a feel at each new locality that the wi discomfort of the hotel will h with the appreciation of it than the r architectural beauty. Our author cquaintance with H.B.M. o Spain, and pays them a wel-dera iment. She saw, too, a little tle, of Spanish society at Seria i ths of the history were ent out, th ght be useful to tourists like berg -hing can be more tedious to the v previous acquaintance with be nish history, und the World. By Andrew pson Low.) Though Mr. C ge round the world happened an than his famous drive tár his description of the voyage e ort of continuation of his de ive. Unfortunately, Japan a nd Egypt, have become fa general reader, while much a'z Es still strange. And it d that Mr. Carnegie's expe Ewere not out of the com , we have been most interesa of India, though it would b for a traveller to see nd the people. While bei the efficienc testimony

the British administratio deeply impressed with the a men holding down a subgr he same time, they are ent.

Oddly enough, bek t the misrule of the cipate for India a criar ics. Misprints are singlar emind him that Lord o do with Abyssini, a not McNeil who de Se type and paper of a upon the Amen

Junk: a Ten DST Kegan Paul. Treat of this book corrects. was not a junk ber which two brotis mind, chartered i coast of India Ne countered wa and if the author's description him nothing he has art flict upon w

- and rand se ipwrecking # are observe i re purtinis Low have Chg by G

CADENT S

at this is

Bishop Selwyn, at once set to work among the
natives. She is very modest as to her own
share of work, but no one who reads her book
can doubt how valuable her help must have
been. Lady Martin writes gracefully and
naturally, and gives us many pretty and touch-
ing stories of the early converts to Christianity
with all the simple faith and earnestness of
primitive times. We quote one of a woman
who

every Sunday helped her daughter to paddle across [from an island to the mainland] to attend church. She always brought a little basket of potatoes or other food to cook between the services. The missionary's wife said to her: Why do you trouble yourself to do this? I will give you dinner.' 'No,' the old woman would reply; I do not come to get earthly food, but heavenly.' Though this old lady lived to over ninety, the majority of the Maoris with whom Lady Martin came in contact seem to have had poor constitutions, and were the victims of horrible sores, mesenteric disease, and consumption. Lady Martin attributes this unhealthiness to the change of habits induced by civilisation, but she is not of opinion that the race will die out. During a great and very fatal epidemic of measles the natives who were rationally treated did as well as English patients. We are indebted to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for this little book, which we heartily recommend to our readers.

South Australia: its History, Productions, and Natural Resources. By J. P. Stow. (Adelaide Spiller.) Mr. Stow's thick pamphlet was written at the request of the Government of South Australia, for the use of visitors to the Calcutta Exhibition of last year. The connexion is not very obvious; but whether it was much read at Calcutta or not the author has produced a very comprehensive account of his colony, its foundation, progress, institutions, climate, natural history, and productions, which would certainly be of great use to anyone intending to settle there. It is a pity Mr. Stow did not put his work into a cloth cover; it is sure to come to pieces if much handled. It is a creditable specimen of colonial printing, though we cannot say much in praise of the forty-nine illustrations.

the borders of Hertford, the River Lea, and
Epping Forest afford him just the material |
that his gossiping pen knows how to treat.
Every village has supplied some traditions to
his industrious research; while his chapters on
the greater centres-Twickenham, Hampton,
Harrow, Barnet, Enfield, Waltham, Epping,
Ilford-give us no small portion of English
history in epitome. Nothing can be more sad
than the fate that has befallen nearly all the
great houses near London. Where are Rich-
mond and Nonsuch, Theobalds and Canons,
Wimbledon and Wanstead? The abundant
wood-cuts add much to the value of the work;
but they do not make up for the absence of a
map. The Index is doubtless reserved for the
second volume.

For

South Devon and South Cornwall. By C. S.
Ward and M. J. B. Baddeley. Maps and Plans
by Bartholomew. (Dulau.) Those who already
know the "Thorough Guide" series will need
no recommendation to the new volume.
them it will be sufficient to say that the walks
along the coast and the natural and anti-
quarian interests of Dartmoor are here described
with even more than the usual accuracy and
fullness of the joint authors. Murray, of
course, will always be invaluable to those who
wish to acquaint themselves with historical
traditions, with architectural styles, and with
the contents of country mansions. Messrs.
Baddeley and Ward have followed the example
of Baedeker in addressing themselves to the
ordinary tourist, and they have bettered their
example. In reading their guide-books-and
still more in using them-one feels that their
work has all been done at first hand, and with
intelligence. By nothing is this more shown
than by the relative importance they attach to
different places. In the present volume there
are two maps of Dartmoor, and also two plans,
which will in the future be indispensable to
anyone visiting that region. That the book
can be sold at 3s. 6d. is a marvel. On only
two points have we any criticism to offer. One
is that some space is occasionally wasted in
repetitions; the other is that Mr. Baddeley
has not yet worked himself entirely free from
the guide-writer's besetting sin of facetious-
ness. We are glad to observe that North
Devon and Cornwall, due solely to Mr. Ward,
has already reached a second edition.

Cassell's Illustrated Guide to Paris is cheap at
it has a single clear map; but we would gladly
a shilling. Besides being profusely illustrated,

455

WE have also received:-Fair Italy: The Riviera and Monte Carlo, by W. Cope Devereux (Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.); Business_and Pleasure in Brazil, by U. R. Burke and R. Staples (Field & Tuer); A Visit to the Isle of Wight by Two Wights, by John Bridge (Wyman); Through Auvergne on Foot, by Edward Barker (Griffith & Farran); and the following New Editions :-A Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan, by Ernest Mason Satow and Lieut. A. G. S. Hawes (John Murray); Walks in Florence and its Environs, by Susan and Joanna Horner, in two volumes, with Illustrations (Smith, Elder, & Co.); Across the Ferry: First Impressions of America and its People, by James Macaulay (Hodder & Stoughton); Gujarat aud the Gujaratis, by Behramji M. Malabári (Bombay: Education Society's Press); The J. E. M." Guide to Davos-Platz (Wyman); &c., &c.

CURRENT LITERATURE.

The Art of Fiction.

By Walter Besant (Chatto & Windus.) Mr. Besant has printed his Royal Institution lecture in pamphlet form. and thereby definitely submitted it to the critical judgment of impartial outsiders. On the whole, it must be confessed that, like most other artists, Mr. Besant makes too high a claim on behalf of his own special art. Nor are we sure that the rules which he lays down for its production are by any means always sound or practicable. declares, first and foremost, that " For example, he dogmatically in fiction which is invented and is not the result everything of personal experience and observation is worthless." We should be loth to judge so harshly of the Abbey of Thelema and the Palace of Delight, which are surely not the result of any personal experience of Mr. Besant's in this prosaic, proper nineteenth century of ours. Then, again, to the obvious objection that this rule cuts too severely against historical novels, Mr. Besant answers airily that when the historical novelist must describe he must borrow. Why not do the same thing with contemporary life? Because, says our theorist, if you do, you will most assuredly be found out. That is by no means certain; indeed, we could quote more than one case to the contrary, where a writer has been universally credited with an intimate knowledge of places where he has does it matter? The small minority who have never been, and societies in which he has never mingled; but, even if it were certain, what

have been wiser had he not attempted to exchange the cuts that have to do with English been in China may catch out Mr. Payn in

Early Experiences of Life in South Australia. By John Wrathall Bull. (Adelaide Wigg; London: Sampson Low.) Mr. Bull's volume is an enlarged edition of a work privately printed in South Australia, which was, doubt less, acceptable there. We think he would circulate it in England. But, as he has done so, we must say that his book appears to us ill put together, and indigested. He himself settled in the colony in 1838, and his own experiences are worth recording; but these, and what else is interesting in his work, must be sought for through a mass of dry extracts, poor old jokes, and details which, to us, appear ridiculously trivial, however valuable they may be to his fellow-colonists.

places on the several routes for some more
plans of Paris itself.

MR. CHARLES B. BLACK has issued an eighth
edition, carefully revised, of his Touraine with
Normandy and Brittany, which, in these days
of cheap Guide-books, is one of the best
specimens of its class, if regard be had to
the variety and freshness of its information,
and the abundance and clearness of its maps
and plans. The book is happily free from two
Greater London: a Narrative of its History, lent Guides-ill-timed high falutin' and worse-
of the worst faults of many otherwise excel-
its People, and its Places. By Edward Wal-timed jocularity. Fireside travellers will find
ford. Illustrated with numerous Engravings.
Vol. I. (Cassells.) All those who possess Old

and New London will be glad to have this con-
tinuation, written by one of the two authors in
the same interesting manner. The area covered
is that of the metropolitan police jurisdiction,
which extends some fifteen miles from Charing
Cross in every direction; and the present
volume is limited to the north of the Thames,
from Chiswick to Poplar. Though the south
is probably more familiar to most of us, and
certainly better served by railways-we do not
say, served by better railways-we think Mr.
Walford was well advised to begin with the
north. For the still rural parts of Middlesex,

many curious details regarding local customs,
like the "pardon" of St. Herbot at the village
of his name.
well to give a few facts respecting the great
In the ninth edition it might be
zoological station at Roscoff.

MESSRS. GEORGE PHILIP & SON have pub-
lished a Cyclists' Map of the Country Round
London, on the scale of half-an-inch to the
mile, and extending from twenty to thirty
miles in every direction. Its merit is the clear-
ness with which it marks not only the roads,
both large and small, but also the chief places
of interest. We have used it, and found it
trustworthy.

By Proxy; the small minority who know all about the private life of English bishops or exiled princes may catch out. Trollope or Daudet; but who else on earth cares twopence about it? If you choose to make a lot of Western miners ride from Pike's Peak to Cheyenne Gap in a single evening, as somebody once did, and the fraud (a perfectly deliberate one, obviously) is detected by the handful of readers who know the Rocky Mountain passes personally, does it good story? We have reckoned up mentally a in the least interfere with their enjoyment of a few of the fine novels or fine episodes we should have missed if all previous writers had stood by this hard saying, and the list is far too long sketches are none the worse, even for those who to inflict upon our readers. Kingsley's tropical know the West Indies and the Spanish Main, because he had never been there when he wrote them; and it isn't every novelist who has had the luck to go to Mauritius.

MR. T. FISHER UNWIN has published an English translation, by Miss E. J. Irving, of that striking novel by M. Carl Vosmaer, The Amazon, the Dutch original of which was reviewed in the ACADEMY of April 9, 1881. This edition has a Preface by Prof. Georg