V. MARCH 10, 1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES
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of enduring importance. This record of his long
and laborious life is interesting and stimulating.
Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, 1731-1734.
Prepared by William A. Shaw, M.A. (Eyre &
Spottiswoode.)
THIS is the second volume of what is commonly known as " The Treasury Series." Like almost every volume of these official calendars the work has been exceedingly well done, and the index, which we need not say is a most important part of the work, leaves nothing to be desired. To the student of manners, the antiquary, arid the genea- logist these Treasury documents cannot have the same interest as has the greater part of the other volumes ; but to those who are interested in finance, and in a somewhat less degree in the growth of trade, it would be difficult to exaggerate their importance. The picturesque seventeenth century has passed ; there was no Samuel Pepys, who had the art of making stupid things amusing; but we may gather, rather from omission than anything directly re- corded, that life, if duller, was far safer. Highway- men were still, however, a power in the land, as, indeed, they continued to be until late in the reign of George III. In 1734 we come upon a petition to the Treasury of the half-brother of Samuel Lee, late of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, for a grant of his estate, the poor fellow having been shot by a highwayman and dying intestate. We wonder if the newspapers of the time mention this crime and tell what was the fate of the murderer. In the same year an order was made for the Exchequer to be written to " for an account of what sums have been paid there for marriage portions to Maids of Honour since the reign of Charles the Second." Is this return extant? If so, it must be worth printing for pedigree purposes.
The Archko Volume. (Kegan Paul & Co.) THE author of this whimsical production, appa- rently an American, Mr. W. D. Mahan, though he has not had the courage to put his name on the title-page, has either been hoaxed or is desirous of hoaxing the public into accepting certain new and hitherto unheard-of documents in the Vatican, which deal in the most minute and gossiping fashion with events in the life of the Saviour. Tl book is not deserving of serious consideration.
The Antiquary. Vol. XXXV. (Stock.) A GOOD deal of curious and interesting matter is bound up in this latest yearly volume of the Anti- quary. We meet with many names already favour- ably known to readers of our own columns, arid there is a great variety of subjects. It would be an improvement if the notes and news could be made more at first hand. We are glad to see the Rev. W. C. Green, after many years, returning to a Homeric subject. His article on birds is good, though it does not seem to take count of much modern research. Roman antiquities are well represented, a branch of study which still needs fresh adherents in England to clear it up. Here Mr. Haverfield's notes may be considered autho- ritative. London museums and London Quakers, a bibliography of early educational books, some famous old trees, and an article on St. George and the Dragon (with which we cannot agree entirely) are some of the many subjects which have attracted our attention. It is, probably, futile to expect every writer to make a personal scrutiny of the
sources of information he quotes. Still, much loose
statement and consequent error might be saved if
writers would be more careful about their autho-
rities, for it is good references which inspire con-
fidence. A cloud of inferior witnesses only suggests
suspicion.
THE extent and the gravity of Imperial respon- sibilities are shown in the fact that literary and artistic, and even social subjects are practically banished from our reviews, which are almost wholly taken up with war and possibilities of war. In the Fortnightly there are but three papers if, indeed, there are so many that are not occupied with military or controversial topics. ' The Truth about Ruskin,' by Mr. Heathcote Statham, is one of these. This is very appreciative, and may be read as a corrective by those who have perused the grudging and churlish comments of Blackwood, with which, however, we are not concerned. Mr. Statham deplores the narrowness of view that could see nothing worthy of admiration in the great engineer- ing works of the present century, extols Ruskin's incontestable gifts as an artist, and holds that as an architectural draughtsman he was, when at his best, " perhaps unequalled." He also points to the paradoxical state of things that, while Tluskin held that a man can scarcely draw anything without benefiting himself and others, and can hardly write without doing mischief, he "neglected his artistic capabilities in order to become one of the most voluminous writers of his age." Mr. F. G. Aflalo has some sensible remarks on ' The Ethics of Per- forming Animals,' and utters a much needed protest against performances with lions, tigers, bears, and other dangerous wild beasts. An article by the Hon. Stephen Coleridge sounds as if it were not controversial, but proves to be eminently so. ' Our Game Books,' by C. Stein, puts in a plea we are glad to echo for mercy to the jay. Dr. St. George Mivart, in his ' Scripture and Roman Catholicism,' contributed to the Nineteenth Century, seems finally to break with the Church of his adoption, if the Church of his adoption has not antecedently broken with him. No subject can, however, easily be more polemical than this. Mrs. Hugh Bell depicts ' Some Difficulties incidental to Middle Age.' She has much that is sensible to say. We should like her definition of middle age. We fancy it is something like the North, according to Pope : Ask where 's the North ? at York 'tis on the Tweed ; In Scotland at the Orcades ; and there At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. Writing on * Cromwell's Constitutional Experi- ments,' Mr. J. P. Wallis points to innumerable unconstitutional actions on the part of the Protector, such as committing his leading oppo- nents to prison by his own warrant, without assigning any cause, moving them about from prison to prison, and even sending them to Jersey, to be out of the reach of the writ of habeas corpus. The subject has great interest. Mr. Wallis tells us that his attention was drawn to it while occupied from 1892 to 1897 as Reader at the Inns of Court, ' Women Workers,' by Miss Emily Hobhouse, deals with the difficult question how women leading pro- fessional and independent lives are to be housed and fed. The Rev. G. Sale Reaney dwells on ' The Civil and Moral Benefits of Drill.' The frontispiece to the Pall Mall consists of a reproduction of Sir Joshua's beautiful portrait of Kitty Fisher. ' The Rulers of South Africa ' gives portraits and accounts
