318 - SHORT NOTICES April In Les Marquis FranQais (Paris : Champion, 1919) Baron Henry de Woelmont makes an attempt, and a careful one, to give the history and origin of the families in France having the right to the title of marquis. This right came in a good many ways, foiir of which were (1) by possession of lands erected into a marquisate before 1789, or confirmed thereafter, (2) by collation without a fief by letters patent, or (3) recog- nition by such, (4) from foreign titles authorized and permitted by letters patent. There were also those titles recognized at court, and those assumed by eldest sons of French ducal families. Besides these are the foreign titles assumed but never authorized, and the * Titres de pure fantaisie '. It is a book that has a certain historic interest and is obviously a labour of love. A. F. S. Mr. Grenville A. J. Cole, F.K.S., in an admirable pamphlet entitled Ireland the Outpost (Oxford : University Press, 1919) shows how the history of Ireland as a whole, and of its various parts, has been largely conditioned by the geographical position of the island in relation to Great Britain and its diversified geological formation. He sketches the life-history of the island crust with the hand of a master, and he shows himself fairly abreast of the latest speculations concerning the ethnic relations of its successive invaders. The reader will find many features of Irish history illumined by ' the inexorable facts of Nature ', but Mr. Cole does not press the modern political inference. He is content to say : * The gate of Ireland is at DubUn, and the gate stands open to the dawn. Westward stretch the gulfs of the Atlantic ; eastward lie the friendly and the narrow seas.' G. H. 0. In Collections for a History of Staffordshire (London : Harrison, 1919), the William Salt Archaeological Society atones for the belated issue of its volume for 1917 by the substantial value of its contents. This large volume, which is the work of the energetic secretary of the society, Colonel Josiah Wedgwood, forms the beginning of a really considerable undertaking which is to set out, parliament by parliament and man by man, all that is on record as to the lives and doings of Staffordshire members of parlia- ment. It is called Staffordshire Parliamentary History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, and the present instalment ranges ' from 1213 to 1603 '. In a breezy preface the author lays down what to some may seem rather ancient doctrine, namely that the history of England is the history of parliament. He is inspired by ]Ir. J. H. Round to make it his business to link up the records of Staffordshire, so far as may be, with the general history of the nation. He is fortunate in having to his hand the great store of material which the Salt Society has collected and pub- lished. He is also lucky in having had substantial help from Mr. W. D. Pink and the Rev. A. B. Beaven, two of our best experts in all the niinutiae, personal and local, of parliamentary history. The result, a work of which the society and its editor may well be proud, ought to command a far wider publicity than the scanty roll of barely more than two hundred members seems to suggest. Colonel Wedgwood's point of view is frankly modern, but he seldom goes wrong even in dealing with the medieval
