1921 SHORT NOTICES 471 a map of the Turkish political divisions of the island. It is dedicated to Mr. Pirie-Gordon, whose heraldic and topographical knowledge would fit him to complete the history of Cyprus under the Lusignans. W. M. The need of a complete edition of the news-letters of John Chamberlain has long been felt. The letters written during Elizabeth's reign were edited by Sarah Williams for the Camden Society in 1861 : the later letters have to be sought for in various works, as Nichols's Progresses of James I, The Court and Times of James I, The Court and Times of Charles I, or in the abstracts given in the Calendars of State Papers, Domestic. Un- fortunately, the latest volume on Chamberlain, A Jacobean Letter-Writer (London : Kegan Paul, 1920), contributes little which is fresh or valuable. The editor, Commander E. P. Statham, has been content to print a series of extracts, and to use them as opportunities for the introduction of short witticisms or rambling notes on the events or persons mentioned in the text. Thus the statement that James I had amused himself by catching larks brings forth the comment : ' Truly a royal sport ! Did his Majesty have a courtier in attendance to sprinkle salt on their tails ? ' The remark that the organs played their loudest is followed by : ' Who was the organist ? He would scarcely feel flattered ', and by a wholly irrelevant anecdote about another organist ' a great many years later '. The more serious annotations contain a fair number of errors, of which only a few can be here noticed. The infamous countess of Essex was not three years older, but a year younger, than her first husband. The Thomas Wentworth who spoke boldly against impositions in parliament in 1614 was the member for the city of Oxford, and not Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards earl of Strafford. There is no evidence to support the suggestion and no inherent probability that ' one mistress Clare ' may have been a mistress of James I. Ostend was not a cautionary town in 1616. Sir Giles Mompesson was not captured after his flight in 1621. The long stadtholdership of Maurice of Nassau is inadequately and incorrectly summed up by the note that he ' reigned from 1618 to 1625 '. It is curious that Commander Statham should imagine that The Court and Times of James I, which appeared in 1848, was printed by Thomas Birch, the date of whose death is correctly given as 1766. Also a critic who says that Birch was by no means a careful or accurate transcriber should not expose himself to a similar charge. Slips such as ' Instauratis Magna ' and ' parturiunt moutes ' are unworthy of so severe a judge. Finally, it may be added that there is little in this work to diminish regret that the edition of Chamberlain designed by Dr. Paul Reyher, author of Les Masques Anglais, 1909, has never appeared. G. D. Continuing his work of amplifying and preparing for publication Robert Fruin's unfinished edition of the correspondence, Dr. Japikse has edited the first volume of the Brieven aan Johan de Witt (Amsterdam : Miiller, 1919). Like the letters written by John de Witt, to which they form the complement, they are included in the series of the Historisch Genootschap of Utrecht. Although the years 1648-60, which are covered by this instalment, are full of interest, it was scarcely to be expected that
