"ANNALS" CRITICISM.
From the TIMES.
We should not do justice to our author or his work if we did not add, that in compiling it he has largely consulted the Parliamentary Votes and Blue-books, diplomatic correspondence, the proceedings of learned societies, the law reports, registers, almanacs, contemporary Memoirs and diaries. The result is, that we have before us a trusty and ready guide to the events of the past thirty years, available equally for the statesman, the politician, the public writer, and the general reader. If Mr. Irving’s object has been to bring before the reader all the most noteworthy occurrences which have happened since the beginning of Her Majesty's reign, he may justly claim the credit of having done so most briefly, succinctly, and simply ; and in such a manner, too, as to furnish him with the details necessary in each case to comprehend the event of which he is in search in an intelligent manner. In his treatment of these various events he has shown much good sense and discrimination; for, while he is brief in his description of shipwrecks, floods, fires, explosions, and other accidents, where the physical details are for the most part uniform, he has measured other events by a different scale, and has not spared either pains or space in describing matters of social and political interest. A brief, but tolerably complete. Obituary adds much to the intrinsic usefulness of the work. It 1s obvious to remark that the events of the last few years are always those about which it is most difficult to gain accurate information. Men know all about Trafalgar and Waterloo; but as to the Crimean campaign, the Indian Mutiny. and the progress of the Reform question, they find themselves continually at a loss when they are suddenly called on to put their information to the test. This reflection will serve to show the great value of such a work as this to the journalist and statesman, and indeed to every one who fee's an interest in the progress of the age. And we may add that its value is considerably increased by the addition of that most important of all appendices, an accurate and exhaustive Index.
PALL MALL GAZETTE.
In this closely printed volume of nearly 730 pages we find a chronological record of events answering to the description in the title. It is impossible to estimate the labour involved in such a work; but, whatever it may have been, Mr. Irving will be rewarded by the gratitude of all persons concerned in the study or discussion of public affairs. His book might be described as the contents of the memory of the best informed persons of fifty years old and upwards, clarified, amplified, and completed. As we read the earlier pages we measure with astonishment the changes in the relations of classes and in the public sentiment which thirty years have produced; while we cannot avoid the reflection how imperfectly, in comparison with their real importance, these changes have beer either caused by or reflected in our legislation. The only way to give a notion of the interest of his work is by selecting a few details which strike the eye here and there as we turn over its pages. . . . From 1837, when the history begins, down to the middle of 1848, Chartism occupies a prominent place in our annals; and speaking generally, the state of the country during that period was dangerous and explosive. Thus the riots in Kent, under John Thom, alias Sir William Courtenay. otherwise the Messiah (in 1838), exhibit a degree of ignorance and obscure disaffection which we should hardly find now in any part of the country. Most of the controversies of 1844 are still unsettled. Puseyism has become Ritutlism, and battles no longer need the countenance of a German prince, but the Church and the game laws are still an occasion of offence. On the endowment of Maynooth there was much lively debate, from which Mr. Irving has extracted this once famous sentence of the late Lord Macaulay:—
"The Orangeman raises his war-whoop; Exeter Hall sets up its bray; Mr. Macneile shudders to see more costly cheer than ever provided for the priests of Baal at the table of the Queen; and the Protestant operatives of Dublin call for impeachment in exceedingly bad English." In 1845, the potato disease in the autumn made the final success of the corn-law repealers certain, and Mr. Irving's pages reflect the intense feelings of various kinds exci?ed by Sir Robert Peel’s change of policy. . . . We take leave of Mr. Irving's book with a cordial recommenda- tion. What we have gathered 1s the merest gleaning from a rich harvest.
ATHENÆUM.
From newspapers, official reports, biographies, histories, dictionaries of dates, and other sources of information, Mr. Joseph Irving has gathered into a bulky volume of close type, with two columns of text to each page, a service- able collection of the more memorable of those countless facts which have made up the sum and substance of our national interests during the one and-thirty years from 1839 to the close of 1868, . . . Though capable of amend- ment in many particulars, the compilation is a sound and careful book, to which the man of letters or public affairs may advantageously turn for information on a vast number of recent events when he wants an answer to the con- tinually recurring question, "In what year did that occur?" Mr. Irving's pages will also afford considerable amuse- ment to idle readers who search its columns for forgotten or dimly remembered particulars about eminent persons. . . . From these extracts it may be seen thut Mr. Irving’s compilation furnishes entertainment for lovers of old gossip, as well as facts for the inquirers whom it is e-seciaily designed to enlighten.
